"Booooooooo!!"
I fell back in shock alarmed by this extremely large strange man I saw in front of me in avatara form, with wild eyes and a dribbling mouth. He must have been over seven feet tall. How could a new avatara be standing in front of me? I hadn't given anyone else the program.
"You?! What are you?" I had never been so scared in my whole life. This man looked unreal, like a freak of human nature.
"I saw how you looked at Walker, I knew you'd come if we said we were him."
And at that moment I understood what had happened. He sounded like Byron Grimm but slightly different, as if two people were speaking. At that moment my fears doubled. The man looked unreal because he was unreal. He was an avatara. I recognised two voices speaking as one, both of them horrifying, but one more dominant than the other.
"Oh God!!" I said. "Knightmare, did you let Grimm into your avatara?"
"Yes," said the man. "I promised Knightmare immortality and Knightmare wants to create chaos forever. We are now one. He has my power and I have his intellectual abilities. I can manipulate code!"
The people around the local area lost interest in the break dancers and watched me facing off with this large man made out of weird material. None of them would have seen an avatara close up. Some of them hurried away, sensing something bad is going to happen.
"Knightmare, don't listen to Grimm. He is a liar. He just wants to control you and everyone else. All he wants is total power." But my pleas fell on deaf ears, clearly Grimm dominated their combined avatara.
"Haha, your efforts at reasoning are commendable but pointless. We are one, two sides of the same coin. From now on call me Knightmare-Grimm."
I ran. That's what any sensible person would do. I could hear him roaring behind me and people screaming.
"Resistance is futile," he said.
I could see ahead of me to the station so I ran towards the stairs but then I found him blocking the entrance. The avatara form gives you so many abilities and he just flew over the top of me and blocked my route. People escaped the scene and a police car arrived.
This avatara called itself Knightmare-Grimm and I came to two conclusions. After Grimm captured Knightmare in an avatara form, he must have made a deal with Knightmare.
Immortality sounds like a bogus offer but Knightmare is just a kid, he must have believed that the offer was possible, after seeing the amazing technology of Sheldrake. I saw the avatara close-up of Knightmare before he was captured. It was bound to particles of sand, so it was not of a high quality. It probably would only last six hours even if Grimm tried to cryo-freeze him using the gamma weapon. So, Knightmare and Grimm's bodies must be connected somehow as it is more than 12 hours ago we were meeting above the Thames. The second thing I concluded is that Grimm's voice is the dominant one in the avatara, so Knightmare has been taken over.
As he approached me I wanted to run but I froze. My feet felt like they were stuck to the ground.
"The boy belongs to me now and we're directly hooked to Sheldrake building's servers!" he said. "The fool thought he could resist me." Then the avatara head shook violently for a moment. "The fool could not resist me. The boy is becoming me."
I really needed help. The police were shocked like everyone else and did not know what to do. They could see the person shimmering ahead of them was not a real human and after a whimpering plea from one of the officers, they hid behind their car.
"Put your hands in the air," an officer shouted at Knightmare-Grimm.
"Haha," said Grimm. "An insect but I will not be distracted. I have my prize right here."
I knew I should not have come here. And that was it, I gave up. I thought I would have to surrender to Knightmare-Grimm, I was no match for him in human form. He stood over me, his mouth wide with wild delight.
"Now you're coming with me! You're going to finish what we've started."
But then another avatara appeared in the sky above me.
"It's Walker!" I didn't say it out loud. For a second my heart leapt for joy.
How did he know I was here? That thought must have gone through my mind. But there was no time to think, just act.
"Run Grace! I'll hold him back." Walker shouted. I did not hesitate and ran away from Grimm as Walker flew in towards him.
"It's two of them," I replied. "That avatara is Knightmare and Grimm merged together as one person."
And in that moment Walker made the mistake of looking back at me in shock rather than focusing on his target.
Whaaam! Knightmare-Grimm hit Walker straight in the chest. Walker flew back several metres and hit the road with a loud thud. I stopped running and looked back to see Knightmare-Grimm flexing his right arm his neck turned towards me. That expression of evil glee never left his face.
"Think you can stop me?! Mwahaha!!!" said Knightmare-Grimm. He sounded like a dragon and I could hear him loudly even though I had run several yards.
"I am not the same as before. I AM KNIGHTMARE-GRIMM!!!"
I had to make a decision. I was not sure if Walker was okay but I could not face Knightmare-Grimm in human form. I had to become an avatara. But where could I leave my real body?
Thank you for reading Avatara. There will be a chapter every Monday and Thursday, with more riveting plot twists of how Grace tries to save the world from the evils of Byron Grimm!!
This is a debut novel by Domnic Obi based on a manga comic script originally created by David Thomas.
Manga Big Bang website: www.mangabigbang.com