(A/N: Welcome, one and all, to the first day of training! We're in for a heck of a lot of drama, today, I'll tell you that right now. ;)
To clear any confusion that may be rising about Thyst, his first name is Maximillion. But I feel like Marie and Agate would be better suited to calling him by his last name. Thyst is a whole lot cooler than 'Max', at least to me. n_n
If I'm not wrong, I believe this is how the days before the Games go: Day 1 is opening ceremonies. Day 2 and 3 are training days. Day 4 is training as well as private sessions, Day 5 is final preparations and training scores. Day 6 is interviews, and Day 7 is when the Tributes are launched into the arena. If I got anything wrong, let me know!
Today, there will be eight POVs. I'm not telling you who they are in the A/N. :3 Read and find out! There's also going to be a short surprise POV at the end! :D READ THE DRAMA!)
~Agate's POV~
With an invigorating stretch, I swing my legs over the side of the bed, running my fingers through my hair. It's kind of messy now, but it'll straighten in the shower. I stand and start for the door, but a familiar voice stops me short.
"Sleep well, handsome?"
I turn and see Ruby sitting on the windowsill on the other side of my bed. I'm not surprised I didn't notice her before…
"Ruby, you know I have a girlfriend, right? Besides, you're twice my age." I chuckle with a sniff. She stands from her place on the sill and moves to sit cross-legged on the bed. I note that she's wearing what she wore yesterday…
"Yes, you told me on the train." Ruby chuckled. "I'm messing with you, Agate. I have to. Your father would expect no less of me."
"You still answer to my dad?" I asked, raising a brow.
"I never said that." Ruby answered with a smile, standing and poking me on the forehead. "Your father and I are old news. You're my new priority now. But since you remind me so much of Marshal, I just have to mess with you. You understand."
"Ruby, how long were you sitting there?" I ask her, expecting her to say something reasonable like ten minutes, or maybe something slightly creepier, like a couple of hours.
"All night." she says with a smile.
"What? You're lying. You didn't sit there all night watching me." I say with a shake of my head. "You're messing with me again."
"Nope. Not this time. I came back to the room at about midnight, saw you were sleeping, thought you snored funny, then sat and listened to you."
"That's… weirder than I'd expect out of you, Ruby…" I murmur, turning back to the bathroom door and starting to walk.
"Well, if you really want to know, I was feeling kind of sick and didn't want to risk getting sicker by taking my anesthesia tablets." Ruby sighs. I stop immediately.
"Anesthesia tablets?" I repeat. "Why do you take anesthesia tablets?"
"Because I can't sleep unless I take something." Ruby laughs, as if the answer was obvious.
"Anesthesia tablets are heavy stuff, Ruby! Why don't you just take insomnia medication?" I say strongly. Ruby raises an eyebrow, and I realize why: I must sound like my dad. Whenever he doesn't agree with something, he always starts to sound somewhat confrontational…
"Because… anesthesia tablets are the only way I can sleep without dreaming." she says bitterly. I'm almost taken aback by the sudden shift in seriousness in her voice. "Go on and shower. It's 8:45. You and Marie should both be ready and down in the Training Center by 9:30."
Without another word, Ruby walks out of my room… I start to feel a little bad when I reflect on how I yelled at her, and even worse when I grasp the scary truth about her words. Nightmares about her Games must be all she sees when goes to sleep… Now I'm starting to realize just how badly I shot myself in the foot.
I start to think about how I'll apologize to her as I turn and walk into my bathroom.
~Choux's POV~
As I run my fingers through my hair for the fifth time, I scowl crossly as the shiny golden flakes start to flitter past my vision again.
"Ugh, I still have glitter in my hair from that stupid costume…" I growl, vigorously tussling my hair again to try and get it all out.
"So do I; quit complaining." Meaghen sighs beside me. "And those costumes were amazing. We caught a lot of attention out there."
"You mean I caught a lot of attention? I looked more like a superhero out there than you did. You still look like your tights are too far up your butt. Or did you always look like that?"
Meaghen gasps and glares at me, and she looks like she's about to try and punch me, but the elevator doors open before she can make a move. I can't help but give a short laugh. The gnome and the nerd from Three step into the elevator before it starts to descend again. They're wearing the same training jumpsuits that Meaghen and I have been stuffed into.
"D'aw, look, it's the tinker toys." I joke. The nerd's eyebrows furl, but he doesn't respond. The gnome, however, turns and glares crossly at me.
"What was that?" she growls.
"Oh, sorry, I forgot. It must be really hard for you to hear when your ears are so far away from everyone else's." I jab. Who needs my old band of cretins? I can mock the meek just as easily on my own!
"You wanna say that to my face, beanpole?" she snaps, turning and trying to look aggressive. The nerd is half-turned now, looking down worriedly at her.
"I would, but I left my microscope in District Five. Besides, what do you think you can do? Nibble on my ankles? Sure; that'll win you the Hunger Games for sure, Tiny!"
The girl's throat tightens and her eyes look hurt for a moment. Mission accomplished. Then her tiny little visage screws up in rage and she tries to jump at me.
"Tixxie, don't!" her District partner gasps, grabbing her by the waist and lifting her into the air, where she proceeds to squirm and whine like an upset kitten.
"Trexler, put me down right now so I can kill him!" Tixxie yells.
"No! You're going to get yourself in trouble!" Trexler protests, starting to have a harder time of keeping her in control.
"Choux, cut it out!" Meaghen huffs. "There's no need for this!"
I open my mouth to respond, but the elevator doors open up to the Training Center and I smile instead.
"Out of my way!" I yell, pushing past Meaghen and Trexler to step out of the elevator first.
The giant digital clock on the ceiling says that it's 9:58. We're two minutes early, but everyone else is here already except for me, Meaghen, and District Three. They look like they've been waiting for a while. Ugh… Do these sorry losers have nothing better to do but come early to training? They're just going to lose to me anyway… I shake my head sadly as I take my place atop the MD5 circle. To my right is the FD5, where Meaghen's going to stand if she can ever waddle her way up here… To my left is FD4. That bronze-y haired mermaid hussy who floozed it up in the arms of her partner, who I assume was trying to portray Oceanus with that gaudy deity getup, doesn't look half as sensual and confident now as she did last night. Pfft.
Right in front of us, in the center of the ring of twenty-four circles, is… wait for it… another circle. This one isn't marked, and it's a bit bigger than the other circles. By the time Meaghen, Trexler, and Tixxie have taken their positions, the clock above us strikes 10:00, and there is a single low and drawn-out beep noise. When the noise ceases, the large circle in the center of the ring reveals itself as a platform elevator by descending quickly and leaving an empty dark hole. A few seconds pass, then the circle rises back into place, only this time, it's carrying a woman on it. A woman with cold dark brown eyes and bright blonde straight hair. She looks around at her crop this year and looks frankly disappointed. I don't blame her at all.
"Alright, tributes, listen up and listen hard, because I don't repeat myself." she starts, looking briefly around at all of us. I can't believe how easy she made it! I open my mouth to crack the perfect joke, when…
"Sorry, what was that?" I hear the acerbic voice of the girl from District Two peal. She stole my joke! And worse yet, those beside here, that is, the other Careers, start to laugh! That could've been me! I decide immediately that I hate that dumb snide and cross my arms indignantly. The woman, who I realize is the head trainer, continues as if she had not been rudely interrupted.
"My name is Kelythia, and I've been assigned this year to oversee you sorry lot as you get yourselves into as good a shape as you allow yourselves before the Games. If you'll look around, you see several stations available for training that include both combat and survival. I know you all want to rush straight into combat training, but don't overlook survival training. It's just as important for you to know how to keep yourself alive as it is to know how to kill others."
Well, duh… I roll my eyes, and smile a little when some of the Careers roll their eyes as well. An idea starts to form in my head.
"Also, if it wasn't told to you before, I'm telling you now: At any point before the Games begin, there will be absolutely no fighting between tributes. If I, or anyone of authority, catch you, the odds will be considerably less in your favor. Have I made myself clear?" Kelythia says firmly, to which many of the tributes mumble their assent.
"Good. Go now to your desired stations. Happy Hunger Games." Kelythia finishes, stepping past Agate and Marie and walking off deeper into the Center.
The circle starts to break. All the weaker tributes start to herd to the survival stations immediately… I'm jostled to the side as that terrifying Ten kid, Kyrain, shoulders past me to get to a station that I was standing in front of. It looked like weight training. He looks twice as strong as Dil from home does… And judging from what I saw in his recap, he might be more sadistic than even Clattem… Do not want. I turn and start to walk away from wherever he's going, barely realizing that I'm headed toward the survival stations…
~Sorrel's POV~
Everyone who initially walks over to the combat section is herded over to a large rack of gloves near the center of this half of the Center. Kelythia is explaining to us why we're here…
"Alright, seeing as so many of you are so eager to start combat training, I might as well just tell you what you're in for before you kill yourselves trying to figure it out yourselves. See that?"
Kelythia points over to a blue full-body battle mannequin that looks completely human except for a disc-shaped device in its chest. The center of the device was glowing white…
"Now, watch." Kelythia says, taking a throwing knife out of her pocket and throwing it with great accuracy at the dummy before ducking. The knife struck the dummy, but instead of sticking into it, there was a brief and dull electric buzz before it recoiled harshly back to where it came from, flying right over Kelythia's head and landing on the floor. The hilt was shriveled and charred off, and the blade was bright orange. Some of it was melting. I just blink, completely stunned…
"That's the kind of armor that you're going to see in the virtual arena. Each tribute will get it when they're translocated into the arena. It's made out of the same stuff that powers our force fields." Kelythia said with a nod. "Right now, you're asking yourselves, 'Well, how do we fight armor like that, Kelythia?' To which I respond, 'Shut up, I'm about to tell you.'"
Kern shoulders me gently and rolls his eyes. I chuckle a little. This ought to be interesting.
"You won't have to worry about this in the arena, but for training purposes, you will have to wear these dampening grips in order to safely use the energy weapons that can damage the armor." Kelythia explains as she reaches behind her and takes a pair of gloves that look about her size off of the rack and puts them on. From a similar rack nearby, she grabs the hilt of a throwing knife. I'm unsure of what that's doing there until a glowing, electric blue blade materializes when the glove she's wearing touches it.
Kelythia winds up again and throws the energized knife at the dummy again, hitting it squarely on the temple. There's a much sharper and much more satisfying crackling sound, and the mannequin even shifts slightly. The hilt clatters onto the ground, its and seven of the ten lights on the device in the mannequin's chest go out.
"I just did seven points of damage to the dummy's armor. The number of armor points depleted, if any, will depend on the type and strength of the weapon used, the strength of the wielder, and the location that was struck. A good enough blow in the right place may completely destroy an opponent's armor, even if it's at full. As long as your opponent has at least one point of armor, no amount of trauma, no matter how dire, will kill him or her."
My eyes glimmer as I take the information in. All of this is very strange and new… I'm sure neither of Kern and I's mentors have ever dealt with the likes of this… Lucky me!
"What about-" Rhymer starts, but Kelythia interrupts her.
"Let me finish! Now, when your opponent's armor is completely depleted, they are completely vulnerable to regular trauma again and can be killed like a regular tribute. Armor can be restored be either finding it in the arena or having a sponsor deliver it to you."
"What do you mean, 'finding it'?" Jet asks on the other side of Kern.
"You'll see in the arena." Kelythia says simply with a nod. "Now, everyone come up and look for gloves that fit you, then grab a weapon and knock yourselves out."
I walk up with Kern and stat to look for gloves that fit me. This should be an interesting day of training…
~Aylau's POV~
I stand with my back against the wall, blinking as I flex the fingers on my right hand. Last night, I was taken to the infirmary shortly after the chariot rides ended. I remember them plunging a needle into my neck, and the next thing I remember, I'm waking up in my bed with a strange device on my hand… It looks like a highly advanced skeletal glove with miniature hydraulics and pistons that move when I move…
Vobien called it a M.E.E.P., a 'mechanized exo-external prosthetic. It's supposed to act as the bones in my hand while they set and heal. I can do anything I could do before, which is really cool, but it's really strange, too…
"Aylau?" I hear a voice call for me. I jump in fear, gasping and looking up at Paisley, one of The Siblings from Eight.
"Y-Yeah..?" I ask, disarmed by her friendly smile. She kneels down so we can talk eye to eye.
"I've been seeing you around occasionally. You look like you need a friend. That Kyrain seems like bad company." she says soothingly as she runs a sympathetic hand through my hair.
I shiver every time I hear Kyrain's name… I've never been more scared of any single human being in my entire life. President Centari is a close second, but that's only because I don't really know Panem's President… "Y-Yeah, I suppose…"
"My brother and I are starting to put together an alliance. We'd love it if you could join us, too. We've got the two tributes from Eleven on our side already, and Frankie is trying to talk to the two from Nine. If things go favorably, we could have the power to overcome even the Careers! What do you say?"
I open my mouth to say yes, but as I do, I see something out of the corner of my eye. Focusing harder on it, I see that it's the mermaid girl from Four… She meets my eyes for half a second before turning and walking away. I see her heading for the combat half of the Training Center… I-If I join this alliance, I-I could be in danger… But if I don't I'm in danger anyway…
"U-Um…" I stutter, looking down at my feet. What do I do..?
Paisley pats me on the head and stands. "I understand. Why don't you think about it for a little bit? I'll ask you again tomorrow, alright?"
I nod shyly and Paisley turns, walking back over to one of the survival stations. I think it's the knot-tying station. That one never made much sense to me.
I run my fingers over the cold metal of my prosthetic… What do I do..?
~Jet's POV~
With one powerful energy sword swing to the temple, the dummy's armor drops straight from 10 to… 2. Dammit! Still not strong enough. I stab it in the chest to drop its armor to 0 before twirling back around on my heel to run the blade across the dummy's throat. The 'lifelight' in its eyes dims quickly before going completely black.
I put the sword back on the rack and run a sweaty palm through my curled orange hair. I glance over to my right and see the girl from Four holding a glowing spear, eyeing a dummy 20 yards away very intently. As fast as a bolt of lightning, she cocks her hand back and hurls the spear, hitting it square in the chest. There's a splittingly harsh electric crackle, and the dummy's armor drops from 10 to 0 quicker than you could say 'Ow.' Bronwyn smiles. I smile.
"Nice throw, Ms. Mermaid." I call to her. She looks over at me and nods her thanks. "We could use someone like you in the Pack. You up for it?"
"Hm…" the girl murmurs. Her eyes drop to the floor first, then she looks over to her right. My eyes follow hers, and I'm guessing that she's looking at her fellow Four tribute as he brandishes a heavy-looking trident. "Thanks for the offer, but I'm going to have to decline."
My eyebrows rise a little. I didn't think she'd say 'no'… And I'm forced to wonder why.
"That's too bad. Any particular reason?"
"I guess I could say that I don't share your interests." she tells me, still keeping her eyes on that kid as she does. She turns back to me and gives me an apologetic smile. "Sorry again."
"That's cool, that's cool." I say, raising my hands to show her it's alright. "But just remember, if you don't stand with us, you stand against us, and those who stand against us typically don't stand for very long."
I can see the concern flash through her eyes as I turn and walk away. Rhymer sees me, puts the knife she's wielding back on the rack beside the dummies, then comes over to me.
"Mermaid's a no-go." I sigh. Rhymer looks over my shoulder at where I just left. I turn, too, and see the girl launch another spear into a dummy's chest, dropping the armor from 10 to 0 in one strike yet again.
"Yikes, too bad." Rhymer says with a shrug. "It's a shame. She's better with spears than I am. She'll have to die early. That kind of skill is threatening to the Pack."
I nod my agreement. "Won't be easy. I think she's in an alliance with her District partner."
"How won't that be easy? We'll just kill'em both." Rhymer said with a shrug. "We were going to kill Hunter anyway. What's one more death to add to our list?"
"It's not as easy as you make it sound, Rhymer." I sigh, turning and walking back over to the sword rack.
~Trexler's POV~
"Tixxie, look, I'm sorry! You would've gotten in trouble!" I try to explain as Tixxie angrily bites down into her cheeseburger, glowering harshly at me.
"I don't care! He made fun of my size! You know Trine and I don't tolerate that!" Tixxie shoots back.
"Tix, he would've snitched… I don't want you to have it any harder in the arena than you should have."
Tix stops mid-bite and looks up at me. "Wush thath shuposs t'meen?" she queried with a full mouth, squinting. "Are you calling me weak, too?"
"Tix, you could beat me up with one hand behind your back… You're not weak. I'm the weak one."
"Pft. No you aren't. You shot arrows like a boss today in training…" she scoffed.
"Yeah, after I had to figure out which way to hold it…" I sigh in response.
"Trex, you're a natural with a bow. What can I do, besides run really fast?" Tixxie sighs back. "Anything larger than a knife is too big for me to wield comfortably. I can't shoot, I'm not sneaky. What then?"
"You're smart." I answer. "Smart people win sometimes, too."
Tixxie stops mid-bite again, though she waits and swallows before speaking up. "You think I'm smart? Everyone always calls Trine the smart one. She's the one in advanced classes."
"You're just as smart as Trine is. Your smarts are just… geared differently. You're a strategist. No one can beat you in Pipes and Levers."
This gets Tixxie laughing a little. "Meh… Thanks, Trex, I guess you're right."
One of my eyebrows drop as I realize something… This is the first time I've seen Tixxie smile since the last time we played Pipes and Levers, the day before the both of us got Reaped. It gives me a good feeling. I usually make Tixxie groan in frustration or kick me in the shin. Making her smile feels… different.
"You gonna finish those fries?" she asks, pointing to my plate.
"Um…" is all I can say before she grabs my plate and starts eating my food… This feels different, too. Tixxie usually doesn't ask before she steals stuff out of my grasp… What's going on?
~Bronwyn's POV~
Hunter and I are the first to finish lunch and get in the elevator to go back to our floor. I've been feeling so… different about him since the chariot ride. Every time I close my eyes, I can see it all over again. Him taking me into his arms, running his wet hands through my hair… It gives me chills. Now as I stand beside him, his arm crossed in that signature badass indifference that I've grown to admire, those chills come right back again, because I know that deep down, he's thinking about me…
"H-Hey, Hunter?" I start, smiling up at him. His eyes turn to me and he raises an eyebrow, so I continue. "Y-You were really good with the trident today."
He nods, wiping sweat off of his forehead. "Thanks. Oh… Yeah, I forgot to thank you for what you did yesterday in the chariot."
"No, Hunter, I should be the one thanking you…" I say with a blush. "You were amazing, Hunter. Thank you for showing me how you really feel."
"Yeah, the crowd loved-" Hunter stops short. Both of our brows begin to furl. We both turn to each other and say the exact same thing at the exact same time: "What did you say?"
"You first." I demand, unable to fathom if he really was about to say what I think he was about to say. In my heart, I'm dying to hear him say, 'The crowd loves how close we've become.'"
"I was going to say that the crowd loved our stunt and that we were sure to get a lot of sponsors… What did you mean by 'how I really feel'?"
It's not what he says that shatters my heart as much as how casual his undertones are… He thought of our moment on the chariot as a… 'stunt'…
"I-I thought… I thought I… I just… Y-You mean you were just pretending when you were on the stage?" I blurt indignantly.
"You mean you weren't?" Hunter shoots back just as loud. His sharp cold gaze starts to soften as he realizes the depths of what he just implied. "Bronwyn…"
"Hunter, how could you do that?" I start to yell, tears starting to sting my eyes. My blood begins to grow cold, I can tell, because I start to tremble slightly. "How could you- You just… How could you just turn me onto you like that without warning? How did you think I was going to feel about that?"
"Bronwyn, you played along! I thought you knew it was a stunt!" Hunter starts to yell back. As the elevator doors open, I start to storm out. Hunter follows me. "Bronwyn, wait!"
"Hunter, how could I possibly have known?" I wail out in sorrow. "You did what you did without warning! Yeah, I played along, but I put my heart into that! It wasn't a stunt to me!"
I notice the passion and sorrow in my voice start to turn to iciness and anger, but I don't care! I have every right to be angry. Hunter opens his mouth, but I stop him.
"No! SHUT UP! You made a fool out of me, yesterday, Hunter! I didn't care about the sponsors! I didn't care about the crowd! In that moment, I cared about you *sniff!*, a-and you toyed with my emotions! What am I to you?"
The tears roll down my face now. Hunter looks absolutely stunned. I turn to continue storming off, and Hunter grabs me by the arm. "Bronwyn!"
"No, stop it! Let go of me! I hate you!" I scream out without thinking. Hunter freezes solid, and I see something faint in his eyes that I've never ever seen in him before: pain.
"What's with all the screaming? What's going on here?" I hear Thetis's voice question behind me. That pain in Hunter's eyes quickly melts into anger though. I yelp out, raising my hands to my face in fear of him hitting me. The blow never comes, though. Instead, heavy footsteps begin to storm away from me after he suddenly lets go of my arm. I drop my hands to see him slam a button on the elevator and walk inside. He doesn't even turn around when he walks in. His back is to me as the doors close behind him and he begins to rise.
I bawl out in anguish and begin to squall my eyes out as I push past Thetis and Nere and sprint off as quickly as I can to my room. In the blindness of my tears, I bump my legs against the glass coffee table and needles of pain shoot up my leg and hip. I don't even care, though. I continue to half-run, half-limp to my room, ignoring Thetis's cries for me to wait, and Nere's demands to know what happened. I burst into my room and lock the door behind me before collapsing onto my bed, burying my face into the pillow, and crying as loudly as I can. What have I done..? Why did he do it..? I try my best to dredge up some sense in all this, but all that I find inside me is cold emptiness…
~Hyperion's POV~
I stare out at the evening sun as it rests for a time, under the earth we can see… The sky above is turning a rich purple, and the lights of the city are starting to turn on to keep us lighted into the evening. It's this part of the evening, right before all the lights are turn on, that is perhaps the darkest Panem is during the 24-hour day...
I turn back around in my chair, pressing a button underneath my desk. A hologram appears, showing me Hunter's still-incomplete interview outfit. Before I have a chance to fully inspect the work and see what exactly still needs to be added, there's a thump outside. I quickly and casually, press the button again and the hologram disappears.
Usually, when the doors open, I expect it to be Nora with an update on the outfit work, or Bronwyn's stylist, Hetia, proposing an idea for a collaboration, to which I ultimately decline in the end, so imagine my surprise when Hunter bursts through the doors, walks up to me and sweeps everything on my desk loudly to the floor. I don't show my surprise, though. I simply raise my eyebrows slightly. This expression remains on my face as Hunter slams his palms onto my desk and screams right into my face:
"You LIED to me!"
(A/N: Yikes, getting heavy up in here! n_n; Share with me your thoughts on what's going on right now! I'm dying to hear what you have to say! Sorry I didn't expound on the cliffie I left you on last chapter. I promise, I'll get to it the next chapter. I think we can all agree that there's been enough drama for one chapter, hm?
Review, readers! Your opinions feeeeeeeeeed me! :D)