If you're seeing this, I managed to post during my vacation! Woo!

Edit: Some of you may have noticed my note to myself... oops. Guess I missed that.

Mitch's feet went into autopilot and dragged him to spawn. The boy had no idea what he was doing, but his limbs had some type of plan. He found himself opening a chest and grabbing the contents, not really bothering to check what it was. His eyes searched the crowds for the familiar brown fur but found nothing, so his legs moved him in the direction of the trees. All around him there was chaos, as he had earlier predicted. Cannons went off every second or so to announce the death of another tribute. Mitch felt bad for those out so early, but he knew there was no time to worry about that now. He had to survive.

Pain shot up his spine, but it wasn't normal pain. It was a dull ache: enough to let him know he was injured, but not enough to hurt. Sensing the danger, Mitch turned around to see a girl in a hoodie shooting arrows at him. "That's not nice," he muttered, dodging another hit. He didn't have a weapon to fight her with. Thankfully, another tribute used the distraction to attack her from behind and kill her. Mitch ran off before he would become the double kill.

After running for a few minutes and checking out the area, Mitch figured it was safe to stop and collect himself. He had been observing the arena as he ran and it appeared to be mostly trees. That was good for stalking, Mitch thought, but bad for being stalked.

He started looking at the items he had grabbed. Mitch knew there wasn't a weapon, but he desperately hoped for some food; all the running made him starving. To his delight he found three bread, a fishing rod, and iron boots. Not bad. He quickly put on the armor and ate some food, making sure to check his surroundings as he did so.

Mitch figured now was as good a time as ever to search for chests. He had been told to look for things that seemed out of place since that probably meant a mapmaker had been there and put a chest. His eyes couldn't seem to pick out any of these, though; that was another downside to being in a forest. Still, he scanned the trees whilst keeping his ears keen for tributes.

A tan color flashed before his eyes and Mitch stopped. Could he have found something? He rushed behind a tree, careful to avoid a small cliff, and gasped. It was a chest! Eagerly, he threw caution to the wind and opened it up. It contained a golden helmet, a boat, and a TNT. Mitch wondered if the TNT could automatically detonate. Sometimes arenas had that, but he wasn't sure if this one did. He didn't want to waste it testing, so he began to slide it back into his inventory.

Pain shot down Mitch's spine and he yelped. Turing around, he was met with a frog in a suit. His pulse immediately went up as he panicked for some solution. His hands seemed to work without his brain telling them to, and for some reason their first idea was to throw the likely unreliable TNT at the frog.

The explosion knocked Mitch backwards and caused a bit of pain, but it seemed to do more damage to the tribute. The frog winced in pain and stumbled back up, but this time Mitch was ready. He wildly flung his fishing rod at the tribute and hoped to aim him in the right direction. The frog seemed clueless as Mitch sent the final blow and he plummeted to his death.

The cannon went off and nearly scared Mitch to death. "I... Killed someone?" He muttered, looking at his fishing rod. "Oh." He chuckled nervously and climbed down to pick up the loot. He got a stone sword, leather chestplate, chain boots, a bow, two arrows, and a cooked fish. He began organizing his inventory when a frightening thought occurred to him. What if someone had heard the cannon and came after him? That last kill was dumb luck, he couldn't actually kill someone. Mitch began panicking. What if they were on their way? What should he do? What if-

A sound made him stop dead in his tracks. They were here.

"Don't be a wuss," he taunted, threateningly holding his stone sword in front of him though his voice wavered. His eyes scanned the area. "I know you're here. Reveal yourself."

Leaves rustled and Mitch's eyes shot up to the trees. He instinctively reached for his bow just as he was knocked to the ground.

"Biggums, I found you! Sniper Team Dango for life dood!"

"Jerome?" Mitch asked weakly, trying to sit up. He found it incredibly difficult to do so with a bacca on his chest, so he settled for propping himself up on his elbows. "Do you have a weird fetish for jumping onto people's chests or something?"

"Only yours, biggums." Jerome smirked and climbed off Mitch, offering a paw to pull the boy up. Mitch got on his feet and brushed himself off. "So what's the plan?"

Mitch stared at him in awe. "You act all ominous, scare me half to death, once again jump on my chest in a very uncomfortable position that could make all the fangirls go crazy if they saw, and yet you expect me to have a plan?"

Jerome nodded eagerly. "Obviously you're the smart one here. And there's only, what, ten fans watching?"

"Who can very easily spread that across the Internet. God, Jerome, must I remind you of the drunk bread kiss? Do you remember all the stories and art and photos that spawned from that?"

"Okay, I get it." Jerome said. "I have to hide our undeniable love in front of fans."

Mitch lightly smacked the bacca on his arm. "I give up. Let's go kill some people."

"Team STD, back in business."

'This is going to be a long hunger games,' Mitch thought to himself.

::::::::::::::::::::

The duo continued trooping through the forest, stopping to scavenge for chests along the way. That combined with killing tributes resulted in them being pretty stacked; both had an assortment of chain and iron armor, and both had iron swords (Jerome had wanted to make an iron axe. Mitch refused to let him and told him to suck it up). By nightfall they had taken over spawn, were feasting on any type of food imaginable, and Jerome had one diamond. It seemed apparent that they would win.

"Mage at 3 o'clock!" Jerome called across spawn. Mitch turned and saw a purple sorcerer with good gear and an iron sword. He knew this could be a close fight, and if anyone else showed up they could be in trouble. The tribute certainly didn't seem dumb, either. He appeared to have some type of strategy. Or maybe he was just the distraction, Mitch considered.

Sure enough, a boy in headphones soon emerged from the trees sporting the same weapon and armor. He seemed to go for Jerome as the mage headed for Mitch. Mitch readied himself, calmly recalled all he knew about PVP, and launched himself into the potentially fatal fight.

The mage was good, truly a great match for Mitch, but soon he exploded into a pile of items. Mitch breathed heavily, wondering how he got out alive. He was on a mere two hearts now. Jerome was still fighting the other boy, so Mitch grabbed the mage's items and landed the final blow.

"Thanks, biggums." Jerome breathed. "He was good." Mitch started sorting through items until he heard Jerome gasp. "Look, Mitch!"

Mitch glanced at his hand and gaped. He held another shining diamond. "We can almost make you a diamond axe!"

Jerome chuckled. "You're kidding, right? We're making you a diamond sword."

"Don't be ridiculous." Mitch scolded. "You've been going on and on about how you hate using swords this whole game. The least I could do is make you a diamond axe."

"Do you really want to lose after we've come so far? We're making a sword."

Mitch's eyes narrowed. "Jerome..."

"Mitch..."

"We aren't doing this right now,"

"Oh yes we are." The bacca crossed his arms. "Sword."

"Axe."

"Sword."

"Axe."

"Sword."

"Axe."

"Swor-"

Jerome fell forward on top of Mitch. "I told you to stop doing that!" Mitch yelled, but gasped as he looked up. Towering above them was an orange and blue astronaut wielding a diamond sword. Mitch gulped. This could very well be their end.

As the man stepped closer, Mitch squeezed Jerome's hand. "Sorry I got us into this." He whispered.

"No, I argued back. Maybe you were right." The bacca responded. The duo backed closer into the tree. There seemed to be a mutual understanding that they were trapped. No sudden plans came to mind, but Mitch still tried to rack his brain. Within seconds, the bacca made it seem like Mitch didn't have to.

"You roll left, distract him and hit when I cue you. I got this."

Mitch raised his eyebrows, but he had no time to respond. A sword separated the two, throwing Mitch to the left whether he liked the plan or not. He got to his feet and ran, hoping the astronaut chose to follow him. When he looked behind him Jerome was out of sight and the tribute was behind him. Mitch needed to stay on his toes if he wanted to survive, and his half hearts wouldn't help him much. He was regenerating slower than he would've liked, but within two laps around spawn he had a sizable amount of hearts. He could fight as soon as Jerome gave the word.

"Now!" Jerome yelled from somewhere. Mitch snapped around and swung his sword wildly, but he was quickly losing the fight. Still, he refused to die after all he had done in these games. Taking a risk, he backed away from the ugly and hoped Jerome took the hint.

A black thing plopped down from the sky. "Don't hurt my biggums!" A cannon went off and items exploded, but Mitch couldn't tell who had died. Had Jerome taken too much fall damage? He cautiously walked towards the pile, but a smile crept across his face. A brown and black lump sat face down on the ground. Mitch lightly kicked him.

"Get up."

"Did I win?" Jerome asked groggily.

"Yes, biggums, you killed him. Come on." Mitch urged.

"Ugh." Jerome groaned. A cannon went off in the distance.

"60 seconds until death match."

"Biggums." Mitch looked at the pile of items. "Look!" Jerome groaned and glanced where Mitch was pointing. Near his sneaker was one shining diamond. "Two plus one makes three, biggums."

"You mean... I can't believe..."

Mitch smiled. "Go ahead."

"But what about your sword?" Jerome looked a bit sad.

Mitch chuckled. "Don't you remember? The astronaut had one."

"30 seconds remaining."

Jerome smiled and ran to a crafting bench. "Wait. I only have one stick. I guess I could make a sword..."

Mitch looked through his inventory. "Wait! I have an idea." He ran to a small stream and placed his boat. After getting in, he ran it full speed into an edge. "Here's your sticks!"

Within seconds Jerome was swinging his new axe. "This is the best day ever!" He yelled gleefully.

Black lights flashed before Mitch's eyes and then he was on a spawn platform. "Deathmatch has begun. Last one standing wins."

Mitch looked around and only saw two others; Jerome and Adam. He figured they didn't have to go kill each other right away, so he calmly walked to the center. Adam had chain armor and an iron sword, so Mitch could easily control this match.

"Survived this long? I'd really like to invite you to our group." Adam walked toward the center as well. "And your friend, of course. Jerome, was it?"

"Yeah, that's my name." The bacca smiled.

"Well, I'd like to invite you both to join Team Crafted. I'd have to confer with the other members but I think you'd fit in."

"Thanks. Now how do you want to go about all this?" Mitch asked, motioning towards the deathmatch.

Adam chuckled. "As much as I'd love an honorable battle, this is your first hunger games, right?" Mitch and Jerome nodded. "In that case, you two battle it out. I'll meet you outside the arena." He walked over to a cliff and jumped off, the cannon firing soon after.

Mitch looked at Jerome. "I'm tired of fighting. You can win, biggums."

"No, you can win. You brought me here."

Mitch thought for a moment. "What if we could both win?" Jerome raised his eyebrows as Mitch whispered a plan in his ears. The bacca nodded in agreement and started working.

"You on half a heart, biggums?" Mitch asked. Jerome nodded. "Alright, let's do this. One,"

"Two,"

"Three!" They shouted, grabbing each other's hands and jumping off the cliff. The wind rushed into Mitch's face as he plunged to his death. The impact was harsh- and then nothing. A familiar blackness filled his vision as he swam through a vaccum. This wasn't normal; he should've respawned by now. Did his plan go wrong? Even worse- did people really die in these games?

Mitch was blinded by a sudden flash of white as his sight returned to him. Three figures materialized in front of him; he recognized these to be the owner of the arena and his workers. His hand was still filled with something warm, and as he looked over he realized it was Jerome. He let go and stood up straight. He was, after all, in the presence of a celebrity.

"You two are quite cheeky, no?" The owner walked forward. "What are your names?"

Mitch gulped, unable to speak. Were they in trouble?

"I'm Jerome, and this is my friend Mitch." Jerome spoke up.

"Well boys, you've certainly outsmarted me. Though I appreciate you acting out the novel and finding a glitch in my game, I can't just shell out 100 gold ingots. Then everyone will demand I give them prizes if they break the game. I can, however, give you a consolation prize to keep this between us. You two were certainly geared out that game. Is there anything I can retrieve for you from your inventories?"

Mitch and Jerome looked at each other. "Our weapons, please."

The man smiled. "I figured as much. Casey will go and get them." The woman behind him ran off somewhere. "Let me say, you two are welcome to play in my arenas anytime. Just please, try to limit it to one victor." Mitch and Jerome smiled as Casey reentered the room. She handed them their weapons. "Thank you for playing. You sure are the duo to beat." Mitch's vision went dark as he was teleported away.

Next chapter is nearly finished, maybe it'll be up before I go back home.

#MeromePlotTwist

~Scarlett