Avon and Marcus - Chapter 9

Avon and Marcus - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Avon, Marcus, Sarah and the lot of Bug Worshippers

After Avon had finished bandaging up from a Mega Punch to the face, the two boys- him and Marcus- continued their journey along Route 9 to Cerulean Cave. However, their journey was about to take an unexpected turn, as something was going down on Route 9.

"Geez, man..." Avon groaned, his left check bandaged up. "Why ya hadta do that?"

"Well, you know what they say," Marcus replied, "Some people you can talk to and others you have to beat the crap out of to prove your point."

"Be glad you're physically tougher than me..." Avon muttered, "I feel fortunate, for a punch from you would probably break my whole jaw in two..."

Marcus was about to reply, but something had caught his earshot. They didn't stop, for Marcus felt he could've just imagined it. It was when he heard it twice that he realized he wasn't hearing things, and looked around to see what it was. However, at first, he saw nothing.

"What was that?" Marcus asked.

"What was what?" Avon replied with a question of his own.

"That voice... Didn't you hear... grunting?"

"Mind me; I don't have supersonic hearing..." Avon scowled, still grumbling over his nearly broken jaw. The sound was heard for a third time, now catching Avon's ear. "Wait I heard it; A grunt of distress, right?"

"Right!" Marcus replied. He took a few steps forward and focused, to figure out which way it came from. He heard the grunt again, though he had a good feeling where it was coming from, "Over there."

Marcus pointed in direction and the two were off to figure out who was in trouble. Cutting through the brush and trees, they found out that someone was in trouble. That someone was Sarah bound to a wooden post and gagged with a bandana, grunting as she tried to pull her way out of her bindings- failing miserably. She looked up to see the boys; to which Avon was smiling smugly.

"So, all dressed up and nowhere to go, huh?" Avon said, smugly. Sarah gave Avon an aggravated growl, being she couldn't do anything else with the bandana over her mouth. Marcus pulled the bandana off of the way of Sarah's mouth, and she spat out a cloth to her side. The cloth that was lodged in her mouth also helped muffling any sound that managed to slip through the bandana.

"Get me out of here! Quickly!" she replied, as she finally had the gag out of her mouth and struggling even more.

"Why? No doubt that some guy you cheated out of in a battle did this to you," Avon said.

"I'm serious! Quickly, before they come back!"

"Right," Avon said, with a prolong "i", "And I'll really help you, after you nearly kicked our asses in Viridian Forest. I say we go, Marcus. Sarah's wasting our time."

"What?!" Sarah felt as though she took a stab wound. She struggled even more, though it was no use trying to get out on her own. She heard distant rustling from behind her, and a smirk of betrayal was brought up as the two boys walked away. "Oh boys?" she asked in a sing-song voice, almost airily ready for her revenge.

"What now?" Avon asked, annoyed, "I thought I told y-"

Avon's statement lost all power, even if he meant to simply leave Sarah there for her captors. A small group of odd men, in capes, glasses and straw hats appeared behind the post of the bound but traitorous Sarah. Two more of the guys appeared behind the two, blocking any way of escape. In the trees, nearby, were bugs of spiders, caterpillars and all different sorts. The sight had only one word for all of the figures within the area; creepy.

"Oh s***..." Marcus said, as he turned to look, as well.

"Turns out these freaks actually think I'm some sort of goddess. So, they'll do whatever I tell them to."

"We will protect the idol of our Tree Goddess!" said one of the men in capes.

"Oh come on. We'll roast your little bugs," Marcus said, taking out Charmander's Pokéball. Though, as he prepared to call him out, the Pokéball is snagged by a web and yanked back, into one of the Bug Pokémon's clutches. "Wha-?"

"Careful, they have Pokémon that can exploit your Pokémon's weaknesses," Sarah added, "Also, the green haired one's a fighter. Take him down first!"

Avon quickly grabbed for one of his Pokéballs, "Oh, no ya don't! Co-"

As he made a shot for trying to call out his Pokémon, he had similar results of Marcus. Though as the bugs made their webbing to pull the ball out of Avon's hands, Avon, instead pulled back, not giving up easily to lose his Pokéball to the bug Pokémon. However, despite putting up more of a fight, the Bug Pokémon pulled shot more webbing at the ball and, all together yanked at their webbings, both taking Avon's Pokémon and overbalancing Avon.

Meanwhile, Marcus attempted to charge in and attack the group of men with his fists, being that his Pokémon wouldn't have made it out of their Pokéballs in time. However, to his dismay, the spider-like Pokémon formed a quick weaving of a web net; sticking Marcus to it before his fists was in range. The boys' offense was gone, and it was too late to run.

"Oh sh-" Avon managed to utter, before taking a blunt blow to the head from one of the men behind him. He blacked out, after that. Marcus took a similar blow, also falling unconscious. Sarah was unbound but now acting as though she was the men's superior officer.

"Might want to take their other Pokémon away from them too," Sarah suggested, "And do you have a way to sap their strength, so they won't be running off anytime soon?"

"Yes we do, milady," one of the men replied.

"Good. Use it. Now, where are we going?"

"To our hidden village, within Mt. Moon," another man replied, "Tonight, we will all worship your Excellency, O great one..." he, as well as several others bowed before Sarah.

"Tree Goddess... Tree Goddess..." they chanted, as they rose up and bowed before the girl; both having flattered her and creped her out a little.

**********

A moment of travel passed as Avon and Marcus came to. What Avon and Marcus happened to have been in was in a jail of some sort. The cell walls were made up of either leaves or hardened webbing. Behind the leaves, there were signs of cracked concrete. The walls that were made of hardened webbing could be seen through, as Marcus was in a cell next to Avon.

"Ugh..." Avon groaned, still lying on the ground. "Where the hell are we? And why do I feel like my bones are made of my mom's delicious jello?"

"Last I remember those hooded bug guys in green capes jumped us..." Marcus muttered, in a cell next to Avon. He tried to raise his arms but failed in doing so as it collapsed over his chest. "And Sarah, the little b****... she ratted us out."

Avon examined the ceiling of the cell, being the only other direction he could look at the time. Two green spider-like Pokémon, from before, were watching him from above, making sure they wouldn't pull a fast one on the clan of bug worshippers. Avon recognized the Pokémon as Spinarak, for he remembered a small show where their back segments made a whole array of faces. Either way, the boys weren't going to be pulling any escape attempts, if they could; they felt extremely weak.

Minutes after awakening, and getting little feeling back in their muscles again, two of the men in green capes approached both of the boys' cells. One was in front of Avon's cell, while the other, Marcus'.

"Announcing the arrival of the Tree Goddess," the man at Avon's cell said.

"Prisoners prepare yourselves for bowing to her in submission." The other said. The two men stood aside and turned to the door, then getting on their knees and bowed slowly, to the approaching Sarah.

Sarah had come in, wearing a different set of clothes. Her clothes were of inspiration of her own Beautifly, being a bug type Pokémon herself. The tank top she wore had on the design of it's patterned wings, and the mini-skirt she wore was of the colors gray and white. She still kept her same pair of shoes, however, to get around. At her side, her Beautifly fluttered above her shoulder in glee, while behind her two more bug worshipper guards. She stopped in-between the two cells, then turned to each of them.

"How's it going, boys?" Sarah asked, smirking devilishly. "Enjoying your cells?"

"SARAH, YOU BI-" Avon started to shout, though was painfully interrupted, by a jab on the forehead from one of the nearby guards' staves. The strike knocked Avon over and even left a nice bruise from the mark.

"Mind your manners, scum!" he said, defensively. "Know who you're talking to! This is your Goddess you're speaking to, so bow to her you worthless street scum!"

"So what, Goddess Sarah?" Marcus asked, "You got your laugh, now let us go."

"Can't do that, Marcus," Sarah said, with a wink. "There's a party, tonight, and you guys are invited."

Avon recovered, "Count me out... I'd rather be carving out the initials on my own grave than go to a party where you run it."

"Such a shame..." Sarah giggled, "Because if you don't go to the party, you'll miss out on eating for the day."

"As I said, I'd rather starve than go to a party where you're even in the same existence than I..."

"Silence, you knave!" the guard scolded again, once again jabbing Avon in the forehead with the staff. "Where are your manners?!"

"Enough, Bison," Sarah said, lowering the staff with her hand. "His ignorance will be atoned for later in his workload."

"Workload?" Marcus muttered, raising an eyebrow.

"Are both of these allowed to still come?" the guard, Bison, asked.

Sarah nodded. "Of course," Sarah turned in her heels toward the only exit of the cells, "Everyone, let's go on with our preparations for the party."

Sarah and most of the guards had left. However, two guards, carrying carving knives and wood blocks arrived to the front of their cells. They tossed each of their items toward Avon and Marcus and kept their stern faces as they gave the items confused looks.

"You two are to make carvings of worship to the Bug Pokémon or the tree Goddess, "the man said," No slacking off for you, boy..." He was referring to Avon, who looked endearingly at the knife. Avon raised the knife and pointed it to his heart.

"Urge... to kill self... rising..." Avon muttered, as he pointed the knife toward him, shaking it constantly as if he was going to skewer himself.

Marcus did nothing to stop Avon, being that he was both out of reach and that a similar event such as this had happened before. The guards looked as though they were about to panic but Avon dropped the knife with a gasp and a round of huffing. Marcus merely nodded.

"Some day, but not today..." Avon sighed.

"Well, what are you waiting for?! To work!" the other man shouted.

Marcus grabbed his tools and the two boys began cutting aimlessly at the wooden block; most probably due to the fact that they didn't want to carve anything of Sarah or of the bug Pokémon around them.

***************

Night fell quickly, as the two boys' were still carving away at their blocks that were given to them. However, since that was the only thing that the boys had to do while they were locked up, they found new skills with carving out things in wood. However, they were scolded, for not doing their job and lollygagging by carving other things than what they were supposed to.

It was then, shortly after the boys were scolded for the ??th time, that the boys were summoned to the party; even though at first Avon was reluctant to go. However, after Marcus reminded them of having "real food" at the party, and Avon having not eaten anything all day, he rose up, seemingly full of energy and raring to go to the party.

The party, once arriving, was strangely... quiet. It seemed like a rich man's party, how everyone was quietly holding conversations to each other at the start but it was far from classy, being that Bug Pokémon were swarming the ceiling; mainly around a post along a square-shaped scaffolding on the right corner of the room. On the other side of the room from where the entrance was, Sarah was sitting down on a throne of some sort, gleefully awaiting the two boys; her Beautifly fluttering with as much glee as she was. However, whenever she took her glance at the post, from the look on her face, she was feeling uneasy.

Once Avon saw the food table, his eyes lit up as he hadn't eaten anything in hours. He stared at the luscious food, almost greedily and with a touch of envy. However, despite his empty stomach, he knew he couldn't finish it all by himself, and only knew he was going to hoard as much as he could in his stomach and be satisfied.

"And now, for that buffet table!" Avon shouted, as he made a jump for the table. However, he was briefly yanked back, by several shots of webbing, preventing him from even getting close, and landed with a thud on his dairy-air. "Ow!"

Sarah's attention shifted back to the two boys, having once again glanced at the scaffolding post, slightly queasy. "Ah, right!" Sarah cleared her throat. "Before you two eat you must bow to me, before you do."

"... That's it?" Avon scoffed, "Shoulda said that in the first place!"

"Hold!" Sarah had outburst, mid-way of Avon's bow. "You, street rat, need to show me some respect!"

"What?!"

"With the bow you must also say "Sarah is the greatest and best trainer in every way possible, over me. And doesn't cheat, either." Once you do that, then you can eat."

"What?!" Avon shouted, prolonging the "a," "No way am I saying something like that! One, it's a total, oblivious lie; and t-" Avon received another jab of a staff, this time to the temple. "Ow! F***!! Stop doing that!"

"Fine. Don't say it... I guess you won't eat, then..."

Avon grumbled, as everyone moved to the buffet table, Avon bound to one place by a tough line of webbing. As Sarah moved past him, most likely to grab a plate and then tauntingly eat it in front of Avon just to add insult to injury, Avon outstretched his arm to stop her.

"Wait..." Avon grumbled, submissively. He then muttered something even lower than what anyone could hear.

"What?" Sarah asked cooingly almost ready to hear him squirm and admit it.

"Sarahisthegreatestandbesttrainerineverywaypossibleovermeanddoesntcheat..." Avon muttered quickly.

"I'm sorry in English, not in speed dimension."

Avon swallowed his pride. "Sarah... is the greatest and best trainer in every way possible, over me..." Avon swallowed hard, "And doesn't cheat... either..."

Sarah jumped for joy finally hearing the words she wanted to hear come from Avon's mouth. She clapped a bit and squealed in delight. "Say it again!"

Avon gave Sarah a harsh glare. "I said it once; how many times do you want me to say it?!"

"Until I'm satisfied," Sarah waited to hear it again, but Avon fell silent, still glaring harshly at Sarah. However, Sarah stared back, ever so cooingly. "What? If you want to eat t-"

"Sarah, I will not say it again."

"Then I guess you'll go hun-"

"Dammit, Sarah, get me the f*** outta here!!" Avon bellowed in Sarah's ear and flailing his arms about as if he was about to attack her. Her guards immediately rushed to her aid by shoving the back end of their staffs onto Avon's forehead and back, subduing him easily due to his condition. It only lasted for a second or two, but even so, Avon learned his lesson.

"On second thought, cut him loose. One time is enough." Sarah said, nonchalantly, trying to clear out the ringing in her ear with her pinkie finger.

The bug worshippers cut Avon loose and pulled the slightly dazed Avon up. Marcus was already getting to know some of the guys as if they were at a party of some sort. In a sense they were but not upon their will. After the party ended, things were getting a tad out of control.

"And now, it is time for the Goddess ceremony!" said one of the head bug worshippers. Out of all the bug worshippers in the room, he was the most tribal-inspired, with his green and white robes, "We will now relinquish our celebration of finding the tree goddess and begin the ritual for our Tree Goddess' gifts upon us!"

Sarah, suddenly, felt a shock. The men never told her anything about that. "Wh-what?! What's this about?!"

"Why, you're the reincarnation of our Tree Goddess. Currently, you show your exterior image, as the Pokémon you're dressed up as. Now, you must open your layers and provide for us, O great one..."

Sarah suddenly felt sheepish and ready to flee. She suddenly jumped from her seat, backing away from the men in green capes. "W-well, that's nice and all but I just remembered that I'm late for that... that thing! Yeah! So, if you nice gents would be so kind as to let me outta here, I'll be sure to come back and visit sometime! Yeah! Right!" Sarah turned and waved, "G'bye, everyone!"

Sarah hurried to the nearest exit, as fast as she could. However, a few of the bug worshippers stepped in front of the exit, then outstretching their arms to block the way. Sarah skidded on her shoes a bit to avoid colliding with the men, now starting to panic. A few more men in capes blocked her way back, so they could close in on her, marching to close her in. Sarah looked toward her Beautifly and was about to call out a command, however, found that it was taken down by the worshippers' Pokémon.

Avon, while Sarah was running around to avoid being caught, looked to one of the men with a broad smirk. "Say, can I go get my camera? It's in my bag."

"Sure," he said, then walking to the entrance that they came in and pointing to the room where their stuff was in. "It's in that room, right of this one, just before coming in. All of your stuff is in there. Just hurry back before the ritual begins."

"Will do." Avon gave the guy a thumbs up and then hurried to get his camera from his bag. By the time he had gotten back and turned it on, the other bug worshippers had captured Sarah and brought her to the head of the clan. "This is gold." Avon said, snapping pictures. "You sure this is allowed? I'm gonna post these on the internet after this is done."

"Yes, yes! Show others the beauty of Bug Man Religion!" the man said, enthralled by the thought of how others would agree with the religion.

Sarah was stripped down to her undergarments and then tied down to the post on the scaffold in the middle of the large room. She was also gagged, due to her constant screaming of hopes that the bug Pokémon wouldn't fall on her, but the worshippers already had a good idea what was going on.

The next thing that happened was not for the faint hearted or new guys in the room- Mainly Avon and Marcus. Sarah then had tree sap dumped over her shoulders in slow but large gooey amounts. To avoid suffocating her, they rubbed more of it onto her face, evenly layering it around her eyes, nose and around the gag. The men backed away and watched from afar.

The bug Pokémon, who were once crawling on the ceiling, dropped or fluttered down toward Sarah, and once landed, whether on or near her, they began sucking on the sapping that was drenched upon Sarah. Avon and Marcus watched in horror, the bug worshippers watched much to their enjoyment, and Sarah was screaming, to the best of her ability under her gag; horrified of the entire swarm of bug Pokémon upon her.

To Avon and Marcus, this wasn't humane. No. It was far from any sense of the word.