Author's Note
Most the characters that I will be using come from the movie versions of both stories. However, for three of the Battle Royale characters I will be using the manga versions of said characters. I decided to do this for these characters because of their tragic backgrounds (only two of them) and their relations to each other (number 3 to number 2). I will reveal these characters over the course of the next few chapters.
-Ezekiel Zeta Stigma
Meta Mundo,
Mors Venatus Control Center
after the Initial Gambit
"Damn, now I see the simularities between Delta and Epsilon."
Three of the ten Stereos were in the central hub of Sanguis Sphaera. One of them was Postal NBS, wavy blonde hair and an angular face with black sunglasses with ovular lenses, a trench coat, grey shirt, camouflaged cargo pants, and hard-toe boots. The others were Anarch and Free. Anarch, two inches shorter than Postal, slouched in a chair with his feet propped on top of one of the computers. His hair cut into a severe fohawk, and dyed a vibrant purple. His ears had one gauge each and two piercings one his left eyebrow. He had on a white sleeveless shirt with the anarchy symbol smeared across the center in red paint, a studded belt, black skinny jeans with red lines apparently drawn on with a sharpie, and a pair of Converse All-Stars. The only girl, Free, was half-a-head shorter than Anarch with red hair, cut short so she looked like a boy from the neck-up. She wore a black leather jacket over a tank top promoting Green Day, a black-plaid skirt, knee high red and white socks, and black Demonia Boots. The sleeves of her jacket were intentionally longer than her actual arms and she hugged herself as she leaned against Anarch's chair, her heavily eye-lined eyes enhancing her vibrant green pupils. Postal continuously fiddled with a double-barrel shotgun in his hands.
"I told you we were all good didn't I? Me and Doom both did."
"Yeah, yeah, I know," said Anarch. "Still though, I didn't expect it."
"Hey, I actually prefer Delta over Epsilon. Epsilon was just downright serious, Delta is at the very least adaptive."
"Glad to know that you haven't forgotten my genealogy " Everyone jumped as Archtype entered the large control room. "How is everyone doing?" Anarch and Free rushed to the screens and skimmed through the random bits of data.
"All spreading out in multiple directions," Free announced. "It looks like they are all getting lost in the fog."
"Good thing too," Anarch added on. "We don't want to give viewers the same old shit. We promised them a four-way death match, so we better give them a four-way-fuck-for-all."
"Very good, keep an eye until it's your turn for patrol." Archtype then turned to Postal. "Something wasn't right about transported players from Edre. Look into that would you? I'm going to have to check on the contestants from Aylmez as well."
"Right away Delta."
Sanguis Sphaera
Katniss continued to run. She could barely see anything apart from her hands, feet, and the ground a full yard in any direction. She stumbled as her foot struck hard and she stopped to examine what she almost tripped over. It was the rotted out box. with strange markings on the side. She walked around the box and was then able to make out the outline of a building. She rushed toward it and found the structure to be made of wood. She entered to find the ruins of a storehouse of some kind. Wooden creats, most of them rotted, were strewn and stacked all over the place. The roof let in light through the many holes in the roof and the only other opening was the broken down door. And on the far wall...is that a map? Katniss took a few steps forward. Something snapped. Katniss spun around, grabbing a piece of rotten wood in the process.
"Anata ga doko ni taizai shite, anata no buki o doroppu!" It was one of the girls from that large group. She had long dark hair and a khaki colored uniform. In her hand she held a jack knife. The two of them remained almost as still as statues. Katniss with her bag slung over her shoulder and holding a rotten piece of wood, the other girl staring Katniss down with as much energy she could muster without moving. Then almost as quickly as she froze, the girl straightened up and lowered her knife.
"Oh, you're one of the Americans aren't you?"
"You speak two languages?" Katniss wondered aloud, setting the piece of wood aside.
"Of course, we learn American English as part of our education."
"You keep saying that word, those other boys too, Amerikhan. What exactly do you mean by that?"
"You're kidding me. You and your friends all came from the North American continent right." That last sentence actually jogged her memory a bit.
"Now that I think about it, yes we do." Geography was taught in school during 1st grade, but since it wasn't at all that important in relevance to living in a District that was centered on coal mining. "But that is only the continent?"
"So what? You're still American."
"I hate to disapoint you, but your information must be misplaced. There is no nation of America, there is only Panem."
"Panem? I've never heard of such a thing. Is Washington the capitol?"
"We have a capitol, but we don't make up a name for it." The girl looked at her with a strange look in her eyes. She then strode to the door and dragged a long sheet of fresh plywood over the hole. She turned back to Katniss.
"Looks like we got a lot to learn from each other." She then walked back to her and held out a hand. "My name is Takako Chigusa, I'm from Class B of Shiroiwa Junior High School of the Kagawa Prefecture." Katniss reached out and hesitantly shook her hand.
"Katniss Everdeen, female Hunger Game Tribute from District 12."
"There, can you stand?"
Noriko gingerly got to her feet and wobbled a little before Shuya placed his hands on her shoulders to hold her steady.
"I can stand a little," she said weakly. Shuya nodded, and helped her sit back down.
"Alright then, lets stay here until the fog clears."
Artur Vody, a volunteer contestant of the Bloody Sand Annual, slowly probed his way forward. The fog was sure thick. He had never witnessed any of this back on Aylmez. It was a little chilly as well, at least his clothing kept him warm. Ironic, considering that the clothing worn for Bloody Sand contestants were meant to keep you from burning up in the heat of the sun. Artur spotted a shape in the fog and quietly sprinted to it. The shape turned out to be a well made up of light grey stones. Artur looked down the hole. Not seeing anything but blackness, he picked a pebble from the rim of the well's opening and dropped it down the hole.
1...2...plink. So there was water, about 6 yards down this hole. In any case, he should probably stay here until the fog clears. He just hoped that no one would sneak up on him.
There was the light sound of a footstep. Artur whirled around, raising his rifle and lowering his stance as he aimed at...
...a girl. A dark-skinned girl who looked at least 5 years younger than him. And she was rather small too. She didn't appear to have a weapon either, just a bag of supplies. He lowered his rifle and straightened up.
"I may have volunteered for this," Artur said, "but you are just too young." The girl cocked her head to one side and said something that was probably along the lines of: I don't understand you. Artur sighed and turned his attention back to the well. He had water already, but he also had a spare canteen that he was given because he volunteered. When he and three others volunteered for this year's Bloody Sand Annual, they were allowed to bring one extra item with them. Two of them chose additional weapons (a tri-barrel pistol and a rope dart), and the third replaced his regular ammunition with tracer rounds (which would allow him to fight in the dark). But Artur himself felt bad enough about the contestants who were actually selected at random, so he decided to take an extra water canteen instead. "I should've taken some rope with me," he said to himself, staring down the well. He felt someone's glare and looked straight into the curious face of the girl, standing on the opposite end of the well. "Well...what do you want?" Artur asked irritably. The girl tilted her head again, curiosity obvious in her gaze. Artur decided to ignore her. He could probably climb down, but he needed a light. He had both a flint and a roll of burn-rags (basically square strips of cloth woven together with a mixture of camphor and naphthalene), but he wasn't going to use them for something like this. No, it would defiantly be better to save the burn-rags until nightfall. He took his satchel off his shoulders and placed it in front of him on the edge of the well. Removing the flap and withdrawing both canteens. He uncapped them both and took a quick swig from the first one. He recapped that canteen and held the empty one in his hands.
The little girl said something that. At this point Artur was starting to get annoyed.
"You know, I don't understand you either." The girl then quickly made a gesture that surprised Artur. She pointed at the canteen in his hands, then down the hole. "Yeah, so?" said Artur with a nod and a shrug. The girl then gestured to the canteen, to her, then down the well. Artur blinked a few times, was she serious? "Okay, but don't cry to me if you die down there." He handed her the canteen and she quickly climbed into the hole and slowly disappeared down the well. Artur straightened and looked around, still seeing nothing but fog. Just where the hell were they? Artur wondered. If he could remember correctly. The fog wasn't this thick when this "Mors Venatus" game begun. He could've sworn that he could see bronze-tinted sky and blood-red clouds. But when the siren sounded and that freak, Archtype, started shooting at them, the fog thickend to the point where he couldn't see the sky at all, let alone what was in front of him.
"Dun," the girl said, climbing out of the well with a full canteen of water.
"Well damn."
Cato was still running. That was something he had never seen before. A weapon that could fire projectiles at a very fast rate. Guns. He had heard about them at the home (specialized academy), but he had always shrugged them off as laughable. A bow and arrow could do the same amount of damage. But that...that Archtype person and his weapon were something else entirely. The projectiles it fired were more along the lines of lightning, a solid lightning that pierced instead of electrified. In addition, the sheer noise it made was like thunder and the furious beating of the wings of some monster. What was that bit of mythology called again? A dragoon? Dagon? Drag-non? It was just...just...
...it couldn't be real, and yet it was.
He then stopped running and knelt to the ground. He still needed to find a weapon. But how the hell was he going to do that?
beep...beep...beep...
The hell? He ran his hand through his supply bag and pulled out a small device with a video screen and a note attached by a piece of string. The note simply said: go to here, use the rhythm; but the screen on the little hand-held device appeared to be much more helpful. It showed a red arrow on a white background, like a compass. Cato smiled, he didn't know what this was about, but he would be a fool not to look into it.
Meta Mundo
"It has been fifteen minutes already," Archtype said to himself, pacing back and forth. "And there has been no more deaths since the initial gambit."
"A good number of them have never seen a gun before," Anarch pointed out, "cut them some slack."
"I probably should, but the people of Erde especially were not too fond of the idea in the first place. They will no doubt require some form of appeasement."
"So what do we do?" asked Free. "Do we let loose attack dogs on them?"
"No, nothing that drastic. I've got a better idea." Archtype crossed over to another computer and pressed a few buttons. "Leet."
"ri83%d^3f8wEY9278bVc #!fU*X" Archtype sighed and pressed some more buttons.
"Alright then...Phantom Phreak?"
"almosttherekeeptrying" Archtype repeated the process and tried a third time.
"King of Nynex! Final try!"
"Dude, you need to watch that movie again." Archtype growled as one of Leet's proxy-logos appeared on screen instead of Leet himself.
"Stick to the matter at hand Leet," said an irritated Archtype. "The fog has done its job. Remove the fog and set the sky to 14-ssm. And while you do that, I want you to broadcast a number by Verdi."
"Giuseppe? Classical music? That's not like you, I thought you hated that crap."
"Not this one; besides, do you know what day it is on Earth?"
"Umm...May 22nd?"
"Exactly; synchronize Requiem to the removal of the fog."
"Your the boss. Hacker-proxy-5 signing off." Leet signed off of his "proxy accounts" and Archtype returned his attention to a map showing the progress of the contestants in real-time.
"It is one of the advantages of this world that people can hate and be hated without knowing each other," he said to himself, remembering Manzoni.
Sanguis Sphaera
Katniss listened with eagerness to Takako's words. She pressed her for every possible detail of the world that existed long before the formation of Panem, the world where the United States of America was one of the great nations of the world.
"Wait, they had the people vote on decisions?"
"Yes," Takako answered, "I don't know everything about it, but the United States is not a democracy per-say. I think the correct term would be...renpo kyowakoku, a Federal Republic. Basically, the country is divided up into states. Each state has a vote in national matters, but the states also have authority over their respected territories."
Katniss had to think about this for a moment. If each of the 12 Districts could take care of themselves in addition to making decisions WITH the Capitol, then things would definitely be more efficient. Not a bad idea really.
"But what about war?"
"What about it?"
"Panem was founded not long after a terrifying war was started by the nation that came before it. Was America...hostile?"
"Are you kidding? Americans are frickin isolationists. They almost never get there hands dirty, unless they see their own interests threatened."
"Oh...then...what about-"
A loud and reverberating "gong" sounded. Katniss and Takako dashed to the "door" and looked through the cracks at the still apparent mist.
"Ahem! Testing, uno-2-san...good, I now have your undivided attention." The voice wasn't Archtype's, it was higher, with a mild accent. Katniss had a sudden image of a kid with freckles and glasses. "Due to the mildness of the situation, the Stereos have decided to remove the Fog of War until further notice. Oh, and bee-tee-dubya, you can call me Leet, every bit of technology you see and interact with here is under my jurisdiction. Personally I don't care if you all end up killing each other, I just want to do what I do best. Ee-oh-el. However, in light of most recent events, and of alliances pledged, it would be an honor of mine to welcome you all to the first ever Mors Venatus Death Game."
[Messa da Requiem "Dies Irae" (Giuseppe Verdi) - PLAY]
The "Fog of War" (as Leet called it) slowly vanished as music started up somewhere. The ground around the ruined house was obvious desert dirt. The sky was pure blue but appeared to have some sort of...grid...criss-crossing across the clouds. Straight ahead of them, some distance away, were desert mountains.
Shuya helped Noriko to the door and saw, apart from the desert wastes, a mountainous forest in the distance.
"So," said Shuya, "there is more to this place then meets the eye. Lets go Noriko." She nodded in response and they both started off toward something other than bland wastes.
Artur Vody took long look around, then took note of the great ruined city in the distance.
"Well...I guess a little change of scenery wouldn't hurt." He slung his pack over his shoulder and hefted his rifle. He glanced at the girl and nodded in a gesture of thanks. "Wish you luck little one." And he started off toward the silver city.
Cato looked ahead and saw some mountains not that far ahead of him. At a little higher elevation were visible swamps and marshes. Cato glanced down at the device in his hands. The pointing, beeping arrow continued to point straight ahead.
"Alright then...I suppose I should just go this way."
Leet continued talking. "As chief system's manager, it is my solemn duty to welcome you all to Sanguis Sphaera, the Blood Sphere. And all of us among the Stereos hope for the best from all of you in every possible way, shape, and form. May destiny be in your favor.
Now...go and fuckin GET SOME!"
Remaining Total
Hunger Games - 21 / Battle Royale - 40 / Stinger Arena - 34 / Bloody Sand Annual - 18