(A/N: I started typing this at 2 in the morning, because my phone woke me up. It's *New email!* jingle might as well have been my alarm clock. I got eight new emails all within one hour of each other! And after waking up and reading the reviews I got, there was no way I was going back to sleep, so I just came down and started typing! n_n
Everyone's apologizing all of a sudden for not reviewing! xD I suppose last chapter really had an effect, didn't it? You're all forgiven! :D And it breaks my heart that I have to kill your characters, it really does! :( If I had a choice, I'd save all of them!
The person who was the first to have guessed correctly for this level of the arena has been notified already. If I haven't PMed you yet, you either did not guess correctly or you did not guess in time. The answer to the arena question was… Tetris! The answer to the bloodbath arena question is still up in the air, though! Guess quickly!
Onward!)
~Jinstance's POV~
"Gah!"
The sound of cannon causes me to wake up with a start, looking around quickly. The oddness of the arena takes my breath away… All the colorful glowing block things… I just want to touch everything!
"MARIE GOLD. GAME OVER." I hear in the air. Furling my eyebrows, I start to stand up, wondering how a Career who got a ten in training managed to die so quickly…
"Sleep well?" I hear Ebony's voice ask. I turn my head and see her crouching on top of one of the taller walls, which is still pretty short. Only three blocks high. She seems to be watching something.
"Yeah, what'd I miss?" I ask, standing and walking up to join her.
"There was just a block rain on the other side of the arena. The Gamemakers took blocks from this side and dropped them on people over there. I'm guessing Marie from One got smashed. It's too early for anyone to have found anyone in this forest of blocks."
"How'd you find me?" I ask.
"We were beside each other when I woke up. I guess we ended up in the same area since you held my hand when we jumped." she explains. "Do you have any knives left?"
"Ah…" I murmur, feeling my person. This thing doesn't have any pockets…
"How many knives did you have?" Ebony asks.
"Five. I only threw four." I say with a shrug. "I guess the other one got lost on the way down.
"Nah… Think about your last knife." she says.
My high brows furl a little, but I shrug and think about the fifth of my five knifes that I got with a power-up in the bloodbath. I feel my hand close around something, and when I look, lo and behold, my last knife is in my hand!
"Good." Ebony says, materializing her axe into her hand with the same method, I assume. "Let's go."
"Go? Where?" I ask as Ebony jumps from her spot on top of the wall. She points to the other side of the arena…
"Why are we going over there?" I inquire, following Ebbs as she starts walking.
"Look around, Jinstance. The blocks all around us are getting dimmer. Even the ones over there. There's a lot more cover over there, so we're in less danger when the blocks go out. Besides, I'd rather be in a place where the blocks are rising rather than where the blocks will be falling."
Can't argue with that… I hold the knife tightly in my hand as Ebony and I start to trek toward the intimidating other side… But I can't help but dwell on what she said. The blocks are losing their light… Is this what that D1 mentor meant by 'blacked out'? And if it is, how did she know anything about this arena?
~Aylau's POV~
C-Cold… This arena is so cold when the blocks aren't lit… I'm crouched in a small crevice that's two blocks high and just large enough to fit me, and I'm shivering. Whenever I breathe out, the fog is thick and nearly opaque… I'm sure the Gamemakers could… I don't know, make the game warmer, but slow torture seems to be their fetish, even though it's an unpopular method…
I want to leave. Maybe walking around will get my muscles warmed up again… But before I can, I hear something in the chilling quiet. Footsteps. I stop moving immediately and let the ice grip my body. They're getting closer, and my heart is pounding louder than it ever has. Under the prosthetic on my hand, my chilled knuckles are starting to blanch, and I think I might faint when I see a shadow approaching. I squeeze my eyes shut and wait for whoever's approaching to stab me, shoot me, or bash my skull in, but I'm taken aback suddenly by a familiar voice.
"Aylau?"
My eyes fly open as I look up at Franklin's surprised face as he stares at me.
"F-Franklin..? Franklin!" I cry, crawling out from my cubby and wrapping my arms around him, careful not to disturb my prosthetic. He stumbles backward and I almost cause him to fall, but I don't let go. Partially because I'm so glad to see one of my allies, but mostly because he's warm…
After a moment, he awkwardly starts to hug me, too. "You haven't seen Paisley or anyone else have you?" he asks.
"No…" I tell him, pulling away for a moment. Just as I do, I hear the Capitol's anthem start to play, and a web-like glowing mesh comes over the sky. In the mesh's center is the Capitol's national symbol… Death recaps.
The mean boy from Five appears first, followed by both from Six, the cute boy from Seven, and then Dawn and Ariana appear… It almost brings tears to my eyes…
Franklin sighs. "Paisley's the only bigger tribute left of our alliance… We have to find her; we won't survive out here with just the two of us."
Franklin holds out his hand, and a floating piece of break materializes. It looks virtual, though. Not bread you can eat.
"I found this while I was walking. It was floating on the floor of the arena. I thought it was a trap, but it hasn't blown up or turned into a mutt yet, though, so…"
"Do you… eat it?" I ask, furling my eyebrows.
"I think you have to crush power-ups in your hand in order to obtain what they hold. At least that's the case when it's food… Wanna crush it?"
I blink at the floating bread for a moment, then squeeze it with my good hand. It breaks apart into pixels, then reforms into a packet of crackers in Franklin's hand.
"Huh. I thought for sure it'd be bread… Not that I'm disappointed." I say with a shrug as Franklin opens the packet.
"Maybe the bread is just a general icon." he considers, handing me a couple of crackers. "No reason to go anywhere right now. Wanna just stay here and watch each other's backs?"
I smile as I chew the crunchy wafers. "Sure!"
~Trexler's POV~
"Ow!" I growl as something foamy bounces off of my head with a dripping sound, then lands on the ground in front of me. I rub my head and stare at it for a moment. It's a bubble-like golden packet wrapped up tightly in circuit-like strings. In the middle of the strings is a circular emblem with the letters 'XL' imprinted on them.
"XL..?" I read, confused. This must be some sort of sponsor gift… With a small swallow, I crush the thing in my hands and see what I get!
The packet exploded in a shower of golden pixels which swirl around me for several seconds before… flying up and away into the air. That's it? That's my gift? A little light show? Sigh…
I roll my eyes and raise my gun again, trying to make my way slowly through the nearly pitch-black arena. I do notice that there is a sort of light in the distance. Maybe the Gamemakers are keeping some of the blocks lit..? But why?
~Ellie's POV~
I gasp and duck underneath Kyrain's fist as the gauntlet smashes into the block wall behind me. I roll out of the way as his other fist tries to smash me into the floor. When I get up, my fists are raised now. Meaghen, though, is still cowering in her place at her entrance…
"C'mon!" I yell. "Pull your weight! We can beat him if we work toget-"
I'm interrupted by a jarring fist to the jaw which sparks my armor and sends me flying. I drop from ten to six off of one punch… I quickly get up, and Kyrain's gauntlets groan as he cracks his knuckles, but my eyes glimmer when I see Meaghen run forward and punch Kyrain in the back with all of her might. It manages to make him stumble forward and drop his armor to eight. In a rage, he quickly whirls around and brings the back of his hand across Meaghen's face, bringing her armor to six and well and sending her tumbling hard into the wall, which drops her to five.
Kyrain is now ignoring me, and all of his attention is now on Meaghen. I want to take this opportunity to clock him and bring him down lower, but that'd come back and bite me a lot harder than it'd be do me good…
"Meaghen, get up!" I yell instead. "You have to keep fighting!"
The disoriented girl tries to stand, but that backhand really knocked the wind out of her… She's not going to survive unless I help her! But I probably won't survive, either… As I'm racking my brain to make a decision, something strange happens. There's a sudden spark in the edifice that strikes me, Kyrain, and Meaghen! It drops all of our armors to zero instantly. There's also a pathway that leads out of the edifice and into the dark block forest outside…
This is definitely something that the Gamemakers have done for me… They're forcing me to make a critical choice. Stay and fight the armorless Kyrain and risk my own death and Meaghen's trying to kill him, or escape and save my own life, which will definitely be at Meaghen's expense…
Kyrain turns and stares at me, and he sees that the choice is mine to make as well… He laughs. "Go ahead. Come at me. You both will die!"
He might be right, but maybe we can overpower him… I take another look at Meaghen, who's struggling to catch her breath on the floor, and I know that won't happen. He's right. And I can't afford to die yet.
"I'm sorry, Meaghen." I sigh, turning and sprinting out of the edifice and into the darkness.
"Ellie!" she shrieks after me, and it echoes on the air as the door materializes in front of the pathway again…
~Kyrain's POV~
I watch as that tiny coward runs as fast as she can away from the block building, and after the door materializes in front of the exit again, I burst out laughing, turning to look down at Meaghen, who is staring up at me in horror.
She starts to get up, but a swift knee to the side of the head, sends her to the floor again and causes her to cry out in pain.
"Some big 'superhero' you are, hm?" I mockingly chuckle at her, watching as her eyes go downcast and tears fall from her eyes. I'm about to deliver the kill shot when there's a *ding!* in the air, and a power-up that looks like a shield with '+5' on it drops from the sky right on top of Meaghen, bringing her armor back up. She looks hopeful for a moment, and it enrages me. That must've been a last-ditch effort sponsor gift…
"That changes nothing!" I roar, reaching down and pressing her to the floor on her back before tightly clutching her armor generator and squeezing it.
"Ahh! No, stop!" she screams, to no avail, when the generator reaches zero, I crush it in my hand and rip it right off of her suit. Apparently, the generator generates the suit as well, because as soon as it's removed, the circuitry nodes on her suit go out, and the black outfit shrivels away to reveal her pale, bony, and pathetic nude form underneath, save for the gauntlets on her hands.
She's on her back, quaking in absolute terror now. She's too scared to even cover herself up. "N-No, stop! Please! I'll do anything you want, just please stop!" she screams at the top of her lungs.
"Anything?" I inquire with a raise of an eyebrow.
"Yes! Anything!" she yells, her voice getting hoarse and shrill.
A wicked grin slides across my face. "Alright, then, 'superhero'. Here's what I want you to do for me."
She starts to relax for a moment, and even smiles a little, but it quickly turns to horror again as I raise my foot into the air over her.
"Die." I say curtly before I bring my heavy foot down as hard as I can onto her stomach. There's a sickeningly satisfying *squish!* as her organs are pancaked under my heel, and the girl's eyes go wider than I've ever seen, right before an explosion of blood bursts out of her mouth. Some spatters on my chest, but the majority of it hits the wall.
Her upper body wrenched forward when I stepped on her, but as I take my foot off, she leans back to lay flat on the floor again. There's a heavy indentation in her gut where my foot smashed her, but as she takes in a slow, gurgling breath, it starts to fill again. Moments later, a giant blue bruise starts to form all across her stomach and chest, and as the seconds roll by, it shifts to a fatal-looking dark violet.
I back away a step and watch as she slowly rolls onto her stomach and rises to her hands and knees. Blood is trickling out of every orifice in her head: her tear ducts, her ear canals, her nose, and her mouth. I don't say anything and just watch as she crawls forward slowly, trying desperately to hold onto life, but before she can even crawl a step and a half, she starts to vomit more blood and just stays in place where she is, trembling violently. More seconds pass before her eyes finally roll back into her head and she collapses into her pool of blood, where she sighs out her last living breath.
Meaghen's cannon goes off, and a voice sounds above me.
"MEAGHEN CULP. GAME OVER."
I roar my victory to the sky, aware that everyone is watching me. I know I'm being featured right now. I have to be.
"Here's your entertainment, Centari!" I scream at the air. I know the President is watching, too.
The doors that are barring my exit disappear, but before I leave, I turn back to Meaghen's body, staring at her gauntlets. Something is drawing me to them…
I walk over and reach down to touch the metal fighting gloves, and when do, they suddenly explode into pixels and surround my own gauntlets. I feel a tingling on my hands and when the pixels explode outward again, my gauntlets have changed… Upgraded, it looks like. The gauntlets are a little bigger, and instead of just glowing energy knuckles, there are dire-looking glowing spikes protruding from each knuckle of my gloves.
"Oh, hell yes…" I murmur to myself. "Looks like you were good for something after all, 'superhero'…"
I turn and start to make my exit. As I do, the blocks all around me start rising and floating over to the other side of the arena. It looks like the block rain is going to strike again over there this time…
(A/N: There you have it, ladies and gents! The second real death of the Games, and it's not pretty!
Demigodgirl1000 was the first to correctly guess 'Tetris' as the answer to the arena question, and she chose Trexler to receive an extra special gift. It may look like nothing right now, but I promise you, when he has to use the gift, you're going to love what it is, Demi. ;3
For now, I will italicize Trexler's name to indicate that he does have the extra-special gift. I dare you guys to guess what it is. :D
I'll give you guys a little hint about the bloodbath inspiration. I will say that it's very loosely inspired and you'll have to be a big fan of the saga in order to really get it. The hint is: the saga that it's inspired by is getting its own animated show on Disney XD next month. That, however, is only the saga. There is a game within the saga that the arena was based off of. I hope that helped, as little as it most likely did. n_n;
Sorry to OpTcxXxProtocol for killing Meaghen. :'( May she rest in peace!
Review, review, review! It's starting to get heavier up in here! Tell me what you think! The next chapter will feature a little more of the Career tributes and how they're getting along alone. ;)
Till next time, bye bye!)