Avatar Auction (Avatar series #1)

  “It’s the Black Auction. They also have a game like Avatar Triathlon. If you win three avatars straight, I’ll earn much more money than trading you with an avatar hunter. If you are able to kill any of them, your bidding price will rocket!”

  “Kill?” I raise my face, startled.

  He presses my chest with his sharp knee. “Don’t get up! It means the beginning of the game. Just look down.”

  I do so and find blades tied around my wrists.

  “They are also tied around your ankles.”

  “Are you insane?”

  He slaps my cheek. “Listen. Your fate is in my hand. It depends on me to whom I sell you. If you don’t make it, I’ll sell you to a sadist master so he can abuse you until your last breath, got it?”

  I shake my head no. This time he does not slap my face but tries hard to press his anger down. “You want me to make you my avatar and control you? So I can move your body as I want?” I shake no. “Good. I trusted that you can fight better than me so, I didn’t make you my avatar. Do your best. That’s all I ask.”

  “Are you excited?” I ask, seeing him rubbing his chest nervously.

  “Oh, yes, it’s my first time in gambling.” He says, looking into darkness. “They are betting. Aren’t you nervous? Need more Ox Power?”

  I snort. “It’s my second time in an Avatar fight.”

  His face turns grim. “I saw you losing. That’s why I proposed fighting cock to my contender. Where’s he anyway?”

  “I’m not going to fight,” I say but cannot connect my words. I stretch my hand out for help. “My stomach… is… burning.” I should not drink that. I might not eat anything given by a BTT. But it’s too late. It starts boiling inside me.

  “Good. It’s activating. You must thank me. It’s worthy of one ruby button. So, are you ready, Ox man?” I shake no, hard, but he shouts outside, “My man is ready!”

  Next moment, the dark room lights up and reveals the audience looking down at me. It certainly reminds me of the Avatar Triathlon but, the size differs. Besides, that was at least a series of sports games without weapon even though wrestling skills were allowed during the tae kwon do match.

  “Come on, stand up!” Kelly yells from out of the ring.

  I seize my stomach, curling my throbbing body. “Surrender… I surrender…” But I cannot make an audible voice with an extreme pain that I feel like my organs are being grilled on fire.

  “What are you doing? Stand up! Don’t make my buttons lose!” I hear Kelly begging. That moment, I hear a solid voice of a female. I open my eyes slightly to see a woman in my father’s costume, a black jacket with colorful buttons made of cheap materials. She must be a Judge of the Black Avatar Triathlon.

  “Excuse me, your avatar looks sick,” she says.

  “What? No! He’s healthy,” says Kelly.

  “What did you feed him a while ago?”

  “Just an energy drink.”

  “Ox Power version four?”

  “Yes,” answers Kelly after a pause.

  “That’s an imitation. Ox Power doesn’t have version four. Version three is the last. Version four helps you to emit your vomit, not hidden power.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t be panicked. He will be okay after some rest. If you want him to recover faster, take him to the Avatar Hospital. You have to follow because you may have the effect, too, as you two are connected. By the way, why do you look so fine while your avatar’s in such suffering?”

  I observed Kelly listening to her, occasionally nodding. He looks dumbstruck now. Maybe he does not expect the Judge of Black Auction to be this sensible. So do I.

  “He’s not my avatar,” Kelly eventually confesses.

  “So you brought your friend to fight, not your avatar?”

  “He’s not my friend. He’s a fucking NTT,” Kelly says with an obvious irritation.

  “Are you referring that adjective only to him or the whole NTTs? Are you aware that most of us in the Black Auction are NTTs?” says the Judge with an apparent fury.

  Kelly looks around the audience who all give him glares in silence before answering carefully, “Only to this man, of course.”

  “And just who is he?”

  “He’s Cine Moon, he’s popular but you won’t know him. No,” says Kelly confusedly. He’s not the usual him. It’s an effect of alcohol. I saw two small glasses and a soju bottle in the tent. If my stomach was fine, I must burst out at his uneasiness.

  “Answer my question correctly. I’m asking you the relationship.”

  “He kidnapped me…,” I say, squeezing my voice out. She immediately turns down at me.

  “He kidnapped you?”

  I nod, looking up at her, making my face as miserable as I can express. She scowls at Kelly. “Mister, you know it is a crime. I believe you have to visit the Avatar police office.”

  He starts. “Why the avatar police? He’s not my avatar. He’s no one’s avatar.”

  “It is an avatar crime when you try to harm an avatar. I heard you suggested this fighting cock game. This is certainly intended to hurt or kill the other side’s avatar. It is a murder attempt.”

  “Murder?” He snorts looking at the other side and brushing his soft brown hair, trying to calm down. He faces her again with a serious face. “You talk quite well. You must be one of the smart NTTs. Do you know how we call your type in STT?” he pauses for an emphasis.

  “We call you cockroaches. Do you know why? Because that’s one of the species we don’t feel guilty when we kill them.”

  That was a mistake, Kelly. I think, seeing her reddened face with rage.

  “And you know you are not in your country.”

  “But the nature does not change that, I can time travel and teleport to wherever I want just in a blink of your eyes. And you will just stand there dumbstruck and ask everyone around you ‘Where, where is he? Where am I?’”

  He laughs at her livid face and secretly places his boot on my waist.

  Oh, no, he’s going to teleport! I want to tell this to the Judge but with his “Bye!”, I’ll be transferred to another place… I feel my body floating up momentarily.

  But that’s all. We are still here in the ring and my heart is stewing up more briskly. I look up at Kelly’s vocal cords moving up and down with uneasiness. It’s quite fun to watch a fretful BTT when he cannot disappear when he wants. The Judge’s curled lips open up.

  “This is time travel and teleport block zone. What if a BTT visits and teleports with an avatar without paying? So, except outside the gate of Black Auction, you can’t time travel.”

  You win! I want to cheer for her.

  I see Kelly’s face darkens and turns to where he was gazing. There are two men in identical uniforms.

  “We came to arrest an avatar criminal, Judge,” says a police officer.

  “Good, this is the man, a proud BTT citizen of STT,” says the Judge.

  While Kelly sends her a fierce look, the police officer shackles his hands instantly. He looks alarmed at the handcuffs and turns to me for aid.

  What do you want from me? I think, raising my eyebrows.

  “You, Cine Moon,” he says, clenching his teeth and being dragged out of the ring. “Wait, how about him? Why don’t you bring him with us? Judge, Judge! Return him. Give him to me. I’ll sell him to an avatar hunter I know, without hurting him, please!”

  She looks down at me then kneels down to hear me well.

  “What are you going to do? You want to follow him? Or go back to your nation?”

  “No!” I say.

  “Okay. Wherever you go, you need some rest. I’ll transfer you to my hotel room, would it be alright?”

  “Thank you. Thank you so much,” I manage to say before losing consciousness.

  When I open my eyes after some time, I find myself on a cozy and warm bed in a hotel room. My unfocused eyes see a person in black clothes moving around. That must be the Judge. She pours tea from a pot into her cup. Then sh
e walks to the other side, out of my view. Resting in this snug bed, my eyelids become heavy and cover my eyes completely.

  CHAPTER 38

  I’m entering a bathroom with magnificent tile works on the walls. I take off my clothes and enter a large bath tub filled with steaming hot water. I lean my head on it and fall asleep, again.

  There, in my dream, I arrive in front of an ice Greek temple. I walk to the entrance but stop, feeling someone else’s presence in my domain. The door flung open by itself, no, by the invader.

  He is sitting on a fabric sofa that had not been in my home.

  “I made mine because I couldn’t sit on one of your ice chairs.”

  So he can design someone else’s private domain as well? Unbelievable.

  “You want some tea?” I ask.

  “No. I want a talk,” says Noir firmly.

  “I don’t talk if there’s nothing to drink.”

  “Then please make mine as well.”

  I bring two cups of tea, one hot the other cold. As I walk closer to him, I see he has prepared a plate of bread. I put his cup at his side and sit across from him. As I pick one of the hot breads, it cools down almost immediately.

  “You have a cat tongue?” he asks.

  “Cat tongue?”

  “You can’t eat hot things.”

  “No. I just like everything cold.”

  “Is that your gene your father arranged for you?”

  I nod.

  “My son was born without any single gene. So I gave one. Do you know which?”

  “Being emotional?”

  “Do you find him emotional? I think every one’s more emotional than you. You have a naturally cold character.”

  I have no comment.

  “But that’s fine with me. I don’t dislike you.”

  “So, which gene did you give him?”

  “I gave an every-language gene. He believed it’s a machine after erasing memory about me. Do you get what I’m talking about? Languages help us to have better communication but, they can’t work when a person denies expressing herself. If my convict closes his mouth and doesn’t give me information I need to know, I have no choice but to force him to open his mind.”

  He drinks his tea while staring at my eyes. I don’t avoid his gaze.

  “So, Zeus, anything you have to tell me before the trial? For the sake of your father?”

  I slowly part my lips. It’s time to tell him. “I was able to call the attention of Judge Won.”

  He pauses. “Judge Won of ATHR?”

  “Yes. STT is going to be exposed to the world.”

  “Great,” he says after a pause. “That sounds great. When is it? After when your father was arrested?”

  “Actually we’ve been working on this for years, even before you met Cine Moon.”

  “Why do you tell me this now?”

  “Sorry, we couldn’t completely trust you, yet.”

  “Can you trust me now?”

  “I thought you only cared for your son when you accepted the partnership. And when my dad was caught, I thought you’d betray us but, you didn’t. You fought to delay his trial to save one more person. Yes, I trust you now.”

  “But how will you deal with Cine’s anger? You’ll have to tell him the truth soon, won’t you?”

  “Actually, he is hearing and watching us now,” I say. Noir stiffens and slightly leans forward to ogle my eyes closely. “…through my eyes.”

  CHAPTER 39

  I wake up in the water which is continuously being heated. I feel dizzy and stand up. I stand under a shower booth and let the robot arms shampoo and softly massage my head. Water rinses bubbles from my head, then the arms move down to wash my body. They massage my shoulders and back as well. After rinsing, they dry me with lukewarm air. Lastly, they cover my body with a gown and tie a sash around my waist. This is why I visit the Avatar Hotel. They have everything to keep your avatars clean without your touch. I fancy the system even though I’m not a normal avatar that cannot lift a finger alone.

  I walk to the living room and drink the tea I poured before my shower. It has cooled. I prefer cold tea now. I must be influenced by my bodylord. I want some sleep as I have some time before the trial. This room has two beds, one for a bodylord and the other for an avatar.

  I walk and look down at him. I fed him some medicine for the adverse reaction of Ox Power version four and locked him on the bed. I expected the Kelly man to go for Black Auction. He was a greasy man, obsessed with gem buttons.

  CHAPTER 40

  I woke up, when I saw myself locked in the bed with five steel belts through the Judge’s eyes. Keeping my eyes shut, I slightly move my leg to check if it’s real or not. I cannot lift it because my ankle is blocked with something hard from above. The dream was real. I’m padlocked. The Judge was his avatar!

  “I know you’re awake,” says the Judge. But why does her voice sound like a man? She was a middle aged woman.

  Something’s thrown onto my chest. I reactively open my eyes and gasp at a skin worn by the Hunter.

  “I was wearing it. With a voice transformer,” he says.

  “Available in Chickie’s toy shop,” I say.

  “Exactly.” He walks away.

  “Where are you going?” I shout from behind him.

  “I’m thirsty,” he says and opens the door of the refrigerator in the open kitchen. He takes out a bottle of water and comes back to me. He removes the lid and drinks from the bottle. He sits around my feet, facing the kitchen instead of me.

  “You are the hunter, right? Avatar of Zeus, right?”

  He slowly nods.

  “What are you going to do with me?”

  “Didn’t he show you everything you needed to know?”

  He? You mean Zeus? I think, looking at him. He nods yes. He’s a mind reader.

  “It’s against a contract to tell you more than he intended to show you,” he says.

  “Contract? Do you have such thing in avatar trafficking? Why don’t I have that?” I raise my voice. “Was I his avatar since birth?” Or even before birth?

  “Like your mom sold you when you were in her womb?”

  I nod. He gives me a long look for about thirty seconds. I try to read his thinking to see if he agrees with me or not but, my effort is hopeless. His eyes are deadpan. He seems to carry spacious night sky in his eyes.

  “That’s why he chose me. I have poker eyes,” he says.

  Ice man’s avatar is Poker Eyes. “How about me?”

  “What about you?”

  “Why do you think he chose me as his avatar?”

  He chuckles loudly. “So, is it how you understand? You’re really clueless.”

  “Thank you. So, will you teach me?”

  “Okay… you know your dad and Zeus are a team.”

  I snuffle. “I’m afraid that is broken already. My father might have beaten them up by now.”

  “That’s what you wish. But they are fine.”

  “I told him I’m his avatar.”

  “We know. Zeus expected this anyway.”

  What?

  “The schedule of the trial didn’t change. Your father will lead it as planned.”

  “Okay.”

  “And the convict is,”

  “Zeus’s dad,” I say, cutting his words, as I couldn’t wait any longer which was definitely a mistake. He gives me another long look as if warning he’s going to stop speaking completely if I interrupt him one more time.

  Sorry, I apologize to him in my mind. But at least I must know what will happen to me. Why is he taking me to the trial of Zeus’s dad? Zeus’s father must be a BTT. But why is a BTT arrested as a sinner and waits for the trial in my father’s courtroom?

  “Because he was once an NTT citizen of STT,” says Poker Eyes. “He grew up in NTTs’ district without noticing he was a BTT. After he saw and experienced everything, he met a doctor named Chickie and escaped the country.”

  A BTT grew up without noticing he was the
one? “Is that possible?”

  “That happens. His BTT parents might have thrown him into the district after observing him for some time. He was a lucky one, though. Some other parents kill their children if they are born as NTTs. They are that obsessed with that specific gene.”

  “That’s horrible.”

  “That is STT, a club of sick TTs.”

  “I see.”

  “You got it now?”

  “Yes, but you didn’t answer my question. I still don’t get the point. He’s the defector, then what?”

  He nods his head in a negative manner. “Not anymore. Zeus will show you when it’s time. You only stay wide-awake in the dream, okay?”

  Stay wide-awake in the dream? How can I fall in sleep when I’m perfectly awake?

  “Hey, where are you going?”

  “I’ll take you there after a few hours,” he says walking away.

  CHAPTER 41

  “Excuse me Mister, mister Poker Eyes?” I shout to his room once more but, only answer coming back is his snoring. He never wakes up, however I call him. How deep is he sleeping now? I grumble. “He’s really torturing me!”

  I pause and rearrange my words.

  How deep is he sleeping now?

  can be

  How deep is he dreaming now?

  He must be dreaming by now, being connected with Zeus, I conclude. I close my eyes to fall in sleep but, sleep does not visit you when it threatens to knock you down right away. At least six hours passed and only more and more questions come to mind. I struggle hard to fall asleep, counting sheep and recalling the sleepiest moment I have ever had but, none works for me. I want to talk to him and learn everything.

  I eventually become so mad and loudly scold myself.

  “Why can’t you sleep? It’s the easiest mission I have given you, isn’t it? Why do you disappoint your master?”

  Master? Is that you, Zeus? Are you preventing me from falling asleep? Do you know you’re torturing your avatar? You have to go to the avatar police office! Torturing your avatar is a crime!

  “You couldn’t sleep?”

  I look up at Poker Eyes who’s rubbing his eyes next to my bed.

  “Good morning, hunter! Did you see anything in your dream?” I ask, hoping to end this miserable time struggling to sleep.

  “It’s almost twelve midnight. But, yes, I saw someone in my dream. And she was showing her best move on the stage. She was a salsa dancer.” He moves his body like one. I cannot hide my disappointment and half-roll my eyes. I didn’t wait for six hours to hear about his dream girl. “Zeus didn’t show you anything?” I ask but, he does not hear me. He says, still looking dreamy, “She was too good to be true.”