Chapter 7: What's Wrong With Cramorant?

Owen slept throughout the day. Eli got up well before him, and decided to go for a walk. He first let Oranguru and Toucannon know about Owen's nightmare last night. After the duo had left, Eli headed outside for a walk around town. Pawmo and Charcadet were outside waiting for him.

(Pawmo) "Eli? You're by yourself today?"

(Charcadet) "I thought Owen would be with you."

(Eli) "I don't think he got much sleep last night after having that nightmare. I usually wake up after he does. But he was dead asleep when I woke up. I didn't want to wake him, so I decided to go for a bit of a walk."

(Pawmo) "But aren't you worried about running into Team Strength again?"

(Eli) "A little. But like I told Owen last night. I can't spend my life thinking negatively anymore. If I run into Barnaby again...I'll just have to face him."

(Pawmo) "I guess that's a good way of seeing things. So what's the agenda today?"

(Eli) "I don't know. Me and Owen don't have any jobs to do today. I don't know what to do today."

(Charcadet) "Maybe we can discuss what happened last night. Owen's dream and that light temple."

(Eli) "What's there to discuss? We don't know anything about this darkness, or how to stop it, or anything. We just have to wait to see what information Oranguru and Toucannon bring home."

(Pawmo) "But there has to be something we can do. I feel bad for Owen. He's so worried that we will be corrupted by darkness. I just want to find something to help him feel better."

(Eli) "All we know so far is that there's some darkness that has corrupted the Crimson Canyon and Koriadon. We don't know if that's where it originated from, if it's anywhere else, or if it's even going to spread to here. I can't see what we can do to help figure out what's going on."

(Barnaby) "Of course you can't. You're too weak to do anything remotely helpful."

Eli froze. Barnaby, Grimsnarl, Hakamo-o, and Salazzle had arrived.

(Barnaby) "Well well well. If it isn't Eli again! I haven't seen you in a week. Are you hiding from me or something?"

(Pawmo) "Wait a minute. Is this Barnaby?"

(Barnaby) "It is! I see you've made even more friends. Speaking of friends, where's the little nose punching Fuecoco friend of yours?"

(Charcadet) "Leave Eli alone."

(Salazzle) "Hey now. We're just a couple of old friends here to say hi."

(Pawmo) "We know who you are. Eli told us all about you!"

(Grimsnarl) "Well then you should know that we're strong enough to make you regret messing with us."

(Charcadet) "You guys are just bullies! Leave Eli alone!"

(Barnaby) "Oh I don't think that'll be happening. See, his little Fuecoco friend punched me in the nose a week ago. I'm not too happy about that. So I'd just like to have a little talk with him."

(Pawmo) "We said..."

Hakamo-o smacked Pawmo and Charcadet with his tail. The duo went flying back against a wall.

(Hakamo-o) "And we said not to mess with us!"

(Barnaby) "Now...back to it. Where's your pal Eli?"

(Eli) "I'm...I'm not letting you hurt Owen."

(Barnaby) "Oh! So you can talk after all. I thought you'd gone mute after all these years. I didn't ask for you to tell me where Owen is. You're going to tell me, now!"

Suddenly, Bewear came running over.

(Bewear) "Eli! Pawmo! Charcadet!"

Bewear was confused.

(Bewear) "What's going on here?"

(Grimsnarl) "Another friend of Eli's? How many friends does this guy have?"

(Pawmo) "These guys are picking on Eli. They're a couple of jerks called Team Strength. They hurt Eli 3 years ago."

(Bewear) "You jerks are picking on a member of Oranguru's Guild?"

(Salazzle) "Yeah. And what are you going to do about it? We're Team Strength. We're known for our, ahem, strength."

(Bewear) "Can your strength stand up against everyone in the Guild? Me, Oranguru, Toucannon, Cramorant, Dachsbun, Owen, and these 3 against the 4 of you. I don't think any strength will help you out here. So why don't you leave Eli here alone. Or else you'll have the rest of the Guild to deal with. I'm not afraid of you."

Barnaby walked over to Bewear.

(Barnaby) "Oh yeah? You're not afraid of us? How about this?"

Barnaby attempted to use Brick Break. Bewear grabbed his arm and dangled him off the ground.

(Bewear) "No. I'm not scared of that. So what's it going to be?"

(Grimsnarl) "Just forget it Barnaby. Let's go."

Bewear let go of Barnaby. Barnaby growled.

(Barnaby) "Grr! You haven't seen the last of us!"

Team Strength left.

(Eli) "Wow. You stood up to those guys."

(Bewear) "I've had to deal with my fair share of bullies in my life. I'm not going to let some jerks like those 4 pick on someone like you. You okay?"

(Eli) "I'm fine. I don't know about Pawmo and Charcadet. They were attacked."

(Pawmo) "We're fine."

(Charcadet) "Don't worry about us."

(Eli) "Why'd you show up?"

(Bewear) "That's right. Something's going on with Cramorant. You have to come see."

(Pawmo) "Cramorant? Is everything okay?"

(Bewear) "It's hard to explain. You need to see it for yourself. Come on."

Bewear headed back to the Guild building. Eli, Pawmo, and Charcadet followed.

Bewear, Pawmo, Charcadet, and Eli hid behind a table in the cafeteria. Cramorant was sitting down eating some of Dachsbun's macaroons.

(Charcadet) "What's wrong? Everything seems alright. Just Cramorant chowing down on some macaroons."

(Bewear) "Just watch."

Dachsbun left the kitchen with a plate of more macaroons.

(Dachsbun) "H-here you go Cramorant. Some more macaroons."

(Cramorant) "Finally! How long does it take to make some dumb macaroons? They're not even that good anyway."

That comment felt like a dagger to Dachsbun's heart.

(Cramorant) "Next time you need to hurry up with these. There's no reason to take all day to cook some stupid cookies."

Cramorant knocked the tray of food out of Dachsbun's grasp, and onto the ground. He walked away. Eli noticed a black scar across his back as he walked out of the room.

(Eli) "What the?"

Bewear, Eli, Pawmo, and Charcadet came out of hiding. They walked over to Dachsbun. Her eyes started to tear up.

(Charcadet) "You okay?"

(Dachsbun) "I don't understand why he was like that. He's never been so rude to me before. And he loves my cooking."

(Pawmo) "Who wouldn't? You're an excellent chef."

(Bewear) "See what I told you guys? He's been acting like this all day. I don't know what's going on."

(Eli) "Hold up one second. Did you guys see Cramorant's scratch from yesterday?"

(Dachsbun) "What're you talking about?"

(Eli) "After he got attacked by Koriadon he got a huge scratch make on his back. I remember seeing it when Bewear picked him up when we were escaping."

(Pawmo) "Okay. What does this have to do with anything?"

(Eli) "The feathers around the scratch. They were black. I saw it when he left."

(Charcadet) "Black? How does that even happen?"

(Eli) "The black feathers, the jerky attitude, this only happened today. Conveniently after we came home from the Crimson Canyon. Cramorant was the only one of us who got attacked by Koriadon."

(Pawmo) "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

(Eli) "That darkness can spread to Pokémon. What if Koriadon scratching Cramorant was one of the ways the darkness can spread?"

(Bewear) "Cramorant is infected by the darkness?"

(Eli) "That's the only thing I can think it could be. Cramorant is going to have all the color and light drained from him and end up just like Koriadon. And if he attacks anyone else, this darkness can spread even further."

(Dachsbun) "So he doesn't suddenly hate my cooking! That's great...except this is actually worse."

(Eli) "We need to contain Cramorant to prevent him from hurting anyone else."

(Bewear) " I can set up his room to lock him inside."

(Eli) "You should go do that. We don't know how fast this darkness can drain a Pokémon. We need to get him locked up in his room until Oranguru and Toucannon can return with a cure."

(Bewear) "I'm on it!"

Bewear left the cafeteria.

(Dachsbun) "What can I do to help?"

(Eli) "Just stay calm. Oranguru and Toucannon will be back soon with a cure, and we can get Cramorant back to normal."

(Pawmo) "Hey wait a minute. The darkness is here in Citrine Town. Owen's nightmare is coming true."

(Charcadet) "He's going to flip when he sees what happened to Cramorant."

(Eli) "We...we won't tell him."

(Pawmo) "What?!"

(Eli) "He's going to get upset if he finds out Cramorant has the darkness. I don't want to see him like that again. Until we can cure Cramorant, we need to keep this a secret from Owen. We all just need to act like everything's normal, alright?"

(Charcadet) "I don't feel right about lying, but I don't want to see Owen upset either. We'll be quiet."

(Eli) "Good. Now let's go catch ourselves a Cramorant before he infects anyone else."

Cramorant angrily stormed into his room later that day.

(Cramorant) "Ugh! Everyone in this town can be so unbearable!"

Cramorant looked at the lone window in his room. It was completely boarded up.

(Cramorant) "What in the world?"

Cramorant walked over to the window. Suddenly, the door to his room slammed shut. He ran to the door and desperately tried to break it open.

(Cramorant) "What the heck is going on?!"

From outside the room, Bewear boarded up Cramorant's door with a few planks of wood. Eli, Pawmo, Charcadet, and Dachsbun watched.

(Cramorant) "What's going on?!"

(Eli) "We're sorry Cramorant. We've boarded you up in your room for a while."

(Cramorant) "What the?! What's wrong with you guys?"

(Bewear) "You were attacked by Koriadon yesterday and now you have a scratch on your back. The feathers around that scratch have turned black, and you're being a jerk lately. You have the darkness just like Koriadon does."

(Dachsbun) "We can't let you leave until Oranguru and Toucannon return with a cure."

(Cramorant) "You're just going to keep me locked in here? You can't do that!"

(Charcadet) "You'll be fine. We left you with food and water."

(Pawmo) "Oranguru and Toucannon should return from Calyrex with a cure. Until then, you have to stay in this room."

Cramorant started banging on the door.

(Cramorant) "Let me out of here!"

(Eli) "We're sorry Cramorant. This is for the good of everyone. See you when you're cured."

The 4 headed down the hallway away from Cramorant's room.

(Dachsbun) "You really think it's a good idea to keep him locked in his room like that?"

(Eli) "We don't have a choice. The more Pokémon he infects, the more we and everyone else in Citrine Town is in danger. We've just got to hope Oranguru and Toucannon can find a cure for this darkness."

Cramorant continued to bang on his door as the 5 left. The darkness slowly started to spread even further along his back, and Cramorant was becoming uncontrollably enraged.

End Of Chapter 7