AUTHOR'S NOTES: and thus ends the 79th Annual Hunger Games in an extra-length chapter. From here on out, there is much more crossing over.

CHAPTER 10

Katara had waited for Ursa to jump back into the mecha because her mobility was much more limited in there, which meant she would have a better shot at blasting Ursa's brains out the other side of her head. In fact, this was exactly what happened.

Or rather, that was exactly what would have happened if Katara were in charge. She shot towards Ursa, but Ursa had reacted fast enough that a giant missile had gotten between Ursa's face and Katara's sniper rifle as it screamed towards the latter. It triggered a rather large explosion in the air, which clouded Katara's vision. Ursa shot another missile, which Katara blindly shot at as well. It only made yet another explosion, which in all truths just added to the effect of the growing awesomeness that was ensuing around the Water Turret. The stakes were high, and millions of yuans had been placed as bets on the two tributes.

To add to the effect, the Gamemakers triggered a lightning storm in the area around them, rain pouring down, but not before setting some areas around them in flames. Surprisingly, the Water Turret itself was not ablaze, but it was clear what else was going on and what the Gamemakers were aiming for. They wanted a duel between water and fire.

However, before that could happen, Katara would need to lose her sniper rifle, and Ursa would need to lose her mech suit. They continued to fight, Katara's swiftness on her feet being too much for the career tribute's mech suit, and Ursa's mech suit being too strong and moving too swiftly (which said something, given its slowness) for the District 8 girl to get a good shot at a weak point in. Katara was from a district that specialized in textiles, not weaponry, and only the Peacekeepers ever used firearms, and so she had no real skill when she had a moving target and had to stay on the move herself. However, she was not completely dumb in her know-how. She knew how to use the weapon, as she had demonstrated earlier.

Eventually, she decided to go back to old-fashioned bending, though she slung the sniper rifle over her back so she wouldn't lose it to the darkness or worse, to Ursa. She slung water over the top of the mech suit in attempt to drop it down some of the exhaust vents, but Ursa reacted too quickly, spring out, and using a powerful blast of firebending to turn it to steam.

The battle of the two benders proved to be a more interesting watch, and the citizenry of the Capitol were more on edge about it. It was making a more interesting show.

Ursa grabbed flames from the burning areas as Katara whipped up some of the rain and groundwater to counterattack. Both added fire and water of their own into the mix, and it became clear that while Katara was not a Career Tribute, that her skills in waterbending were difficult to top. However, Ursa's firebending was nothing to sneeze at either, and even with the rain, she proved to be a deadly threat that was gaining an advantage on Katara. Ursa was swift on her feet and launching massive fireballs towards Katara. She fought very much like Ozai had, except that Ozai's attacks were much more powerful and much less well-placed. Ursa had a healthier balance between power and precision, both of which were high. Katara's own reflexes and the natural fact that water put out fire was what was saving her hide at the moment.

The bending battle that took place between the two tributes lasted for what seemed like hours, with neither one able to overtake the other. Ursa threw lightning into the mix every now and again, but Katara brought up walls of ice which shattered. The moment they did, Katara blocked a few incoming projectiles with the armored bands that were over her gloves, and used her powerful feet to shoot the remaining shards back at Ursa. Grey and black Water Tribe warrior outfits with the tribute's district number emblazoned on the shoulders, had been the outfit theme of the 79th Annual Hunger Games, and Katara exploited her familiarity with them, by knowing how much the steel platings on her gloves and boots could handle, and knowing when to block with them and when to block with bending.

There was a moment when Ursa took control of Katara by effectively 'juggling' her with firebending, hitting her with consecutive strikes, and keeping her from ever hitting the ground. After a particularly violent strike, Katara was launched high into the air for long enough that she whipped out her sniper rifle, spund around, and took aim. She shot, but in the blackness, all she could see were the dying flames on the ground, and Ursa's next fireball streaking towards her. She shot blindly into it, hoping she'd hit Ursa. A second later, she heard a scream. The good news for her meant that Ursa had been hit; the bad news was that if she could scream, she was still alive. Either way, she was falling at the moment, and it was going to hurt—a lot.

Ursa watched as Katara landed on the ground with a painful-sounding crunch. Using fire to boost her speed, Ursa blazed her way over to where Katara lay in agony, and prepared to finish her off. She wasn't sure what Katara had broken, but the deed had to be done. She lunged forward and was not surprised to find that Katara was on her feet ready to counterattack. So perhaps she was a little surprised, but given the way fate twisted and turned things, it shouldn't have been that surprising.

"Come now," Kuruk commented, "fate totally plays cards like that. The fact that the District 1 girl didn't overheat in the mech suit was no coincidence either."

"So effectively, you're just evening the field." Yangchen nodded. "It's a clever tactic. I approve."

Ursa launched herself backwards and hopped back into her mecha. Katara seemed to disappear back into the shadows, and so Ursa began firing missiles in the general direction she saw Katara in. she heard light screaming from outside, drowned out by her missiles exploding and by the interior of the metal marvel she was in. she patted her chest, which was also covered by a thick, bulletproof vest given to her by a sponsor, and continued her charge. She shot another missile and in the explosion, the window of her mecha splattered with water and blood. In the moment that she paused to listen for the cannon that was supposed to go off, however, there was a loud "POW!" as something hit the machine in the chest with a well-aimed bullet.

For a moment, Ursa thought it had ricocheted, but a moment later, she heard a crackling noise, and knew that it was bad. She slammed the eject button, but the controls were jammed enough that it slowed down the ejection process. Smaller explosions were heard which grew in size, until the whole thing suddenly exploded, blasting Ursa cleanly out of it, where she was launched into the air, and fell with a crunch. The sniper from the shadows, who was obviously Katara, stepped up to see if Ursa was truly dead or not. Her weapon was loaded, and she was ready to shoot if she saw any signs of movement. In fact, she was ready to shoot the motionless tribute's body.

The storms receded, the rain slowing to a drizzle. As it got brighter, Katara realized just how much damage they had done. Remarkably, the Water Turret was still standing, as if a beacon to the waterbender who seemingly had won the match. The skies, however were still a dark grey, and the rain had not stopped, nor had Ursa moved. So where was the cannon?

Katara peered down into Ursa's glazed eyes. Suddenly, something moved and she shrieked so loudly that she staggered backwards and dropped her gun. A second later when she regained herself, Ursa was still lying motionless, and a mockingjay was seen flying overhead. Had that really been what had scared her? She pulled herself to her feet, looking around, and wiping some blood out of her eyes.

Then she heard it. The cannon boomed, and a fiery image of Ursa's profile as well as "Ursa, District 1" appeared in the dark grey skies above her. A moment later, it vanished.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," the announcer boomed, "May I present to you… the winner… of the 79th Annual Hunger Games!"

The grey skies were soon populated with another fiery image, this one of Katara, and reading "Katara, District 8" underneath it. Seconds later, the word "VICTOR" fizzled into view beneath it.

"Well-played joke, 3," Roku nodded at a young airbender who had brought the bird out to scare Katara as a last-shot piece of show. "they were right about you being a good Gamemaker."

"It's part of the business." She shrugged in return. "I do what I have to in order to make a great game. Great games become great, memorable shows."

"Your design of the arena was spectacular as well." Kyoshi smirked, "I loved the design."

Katara was unaware of all of this conversation between Gamemakers though. All she knew—and cared about—for the moment, was that the 79th Annual Hunger Games were finally over, and that she was the victor.

VICTOR:
Katara, District 8