Hyperion Corvinus,18, District 2 male
I gaze out the window as the sun is beginning to rise, but that's not stopping a young couple and their child from strolling for a morning walk, happily holding hands and laughing amongst each other. That kid, they can't be any older than 5 and they have no clue how good they got it, it makes me a bit envious honestly. I wish I could've had parents like that, I wish they could've been happy together but no, He used the money in his pockets to get what he wanted from her and that's what resulted in my birth.
I've wasted so many years trying to impress this man, this piece of filth and it was all for naught, maybe not completely because he inadvertently brung me and my biological mother closer together but as for him, he can burn in the darkest depths of hell, no longer am I fighting for him, no longer am I trying to impress him. There's only one person I'm fighting for and it's you Azalea…
Today is the big day, the last day of training and more importantly the private sessions, where a good chunk of the sponsors are likely going to come from. We still haven't decided on a leader yet but that's fine, because I got the perfect plan to weed out the absolute strongest career in this alliance and its them who will lead this alliance. I'll be sharing this plan with the rest of my team once I meet them downstairs, but it's about time I start getting ready to head downstairs. I can already hear Blyana's loud ass mouth outside my room at the dining table.
"The little boy from 7 is staring at my ass, the creepy bitch from 3 wants to bite my boob, like I know I got a banging body but god damn!" I hear her conversing with the mentors and I can smell the pleasant aroma of breakfast, but I can't bear to be around her, let alone be in an alliance with her, so after getting ready I just head out my room and head out the door towards the elevator without saying anything to anyone.
As I'm waiting for the elevator to arrive, the door opens again and I see it's Blyana strutting out but I pay her no mind as I continue waiting for the elevator.
"So dirt bomb, you nervous about today?" She grins.
"Nothing to be nervous about." I grumble.
"Oh you sure about that? I don't think you'll be able to cheat your way to a good score this time around." She taunts me.
"Even in the scenario that is true, you seem awfully concerned about me, something you feel like sharing?" I curiously and she lets out a snicker.
"Oh fucking please, the only concern I have is if I'll be the one to put a knife in your skull before someone else beats me to the punch." She hisses at me.
"Feel free to do your best, but you have other problems to deal with before that." I'm obviously referencing to her rather one sided rivalry with that girl from 7.
The elevator door finally opens and it's the two tributes from 9, Harlan and Elsie if I'm remembering correctly. I offered him a spot in our alliance and I'm still giving him time to decide.
"Good morning." I greet Harlan.
"Oh…hey." He seems a little tense.
"So you been thinking about the invitation?" I ask.
"Invitation, what?" Elsie raises an eyebrow and I look over at the tiny kid before looking back at Harlan.
"I assume that means you haven't her told yet." I narrow my eyes at him.
"I've…I've decided, i won't be joining your alliance." He blurts out and I give him a stern look.
"W-what? Harlan you were invited to the careers? You didn't tell me that…" Elsie gives him a puzzled look but he seems to be at a loss of words.
"If it makes you feel any better, he refused to join without you, I respect his loyalty but it might just come back to haunt the both of you." I warn them.
"Are you trying to threaten me?" he suddenly gains some confidence and looks me in the eye and I only grunt.
"You can take it any way you want to take it, you gave me your answer so that's the end of that." I sternly say and that's when I hear Blyana chucking.
"You better watch who you're talking to Hyperion. This guy over here looks like he can fuck you up!" She mocks me and I ignore her.
"Good luck out there you two, you'll both need it." I give an ominous warning to the two once again.
"We're not afraid of you!" Elsie confronts me.
"That's good, at least I won't have to chase the two of you down then." I respond.
"Elsie let's go." Harlan motions her out of the elevator but she continues glaring me, this kid has a lot of guts, i'll give her that much.
"Oh I bet you feel real tough now huh? That little girl can probably put you on your ass too, you ain't shit!" Blyana opens her big ass mouth again and I'm really almost out of patience with this bitch but once again, I ignore her.
Once we exit the elevator, I see the twins standing near the weapons station conversing with each other and Nyx seems to in better shape today, not exactly sure what her deal was yesterday, but whatever, I start heading towards them and the two from four will follow soon afterwards.
"Good morning." I greet the twins.
"Hey…how's it going?" Nox gives me a nod of approval, well he certainly seems more at ease after our rough start.
"Fine, you feeling better?" I look over at Nyx who's drinking some water.
"I'm fine, just over ate a little." She tries to assure me but I'm not fully convinced, as I expected the two from four start making their way over here and we're all together now.
"Hey guys!" Caspian smiles and extends his fist so we can bump it and all of us except Blyana does so.
"I don't know what you were doing with that hand!" She does a disgusted face.
"Do you always have to be such an arrogant bitch?" Ryena suddenly speaks up and we're all quite caught off guard by that, even Blyana who only gives her a surprised look for a moment.
"Excuse me?" Blyana starts to march towards Ryena who seems ready to throw down but Caspian steps in between them.
"Cmon ladies, I know I'm an awesome guy, but I'm not worth fighting over!" Caspian tries to lighten the mood and Ryena rolls her eyes while Blyana sucks her teeth.
"Anyways, let's get to the point. We still don't have a leader." I state.
"And?" Nox questions.
"So today a leader will be crowned, my suggestion is that the two who gets the highest scores, squares off in a first blood battle." I suggest.
"First blood? The hell you mean by that?" Nyx butts in.
"It's pretty self explanatory, is it not? We'll all meet down in the training facility tonight and the one who draws blood will be the leader, the weapons aren't strong enough to cause any fatal injuries but can still Penetrate the skin to cause bleeding, now is that something we can all agree on?" I look at each of them.
"Surely there must be way that doesn't involve two of us fighting each other." Ryena speaks up.
"Are you only saying that cause you're worried about not be able to become the leader with your mediocre skills?" Blyana teases her and Ryena gives her an irritated look but ignores her.
"Any other objections?" I ask with less patience.
"I also believe there's other ways to figure this out but can't really do much if it's what the rest of you want." Caspian shrugs.
"Not a problem with me, I already know Nox is going to win this." Nyx confidently states but I look over at Nox and he doesn't look as confident as her, yeah, well see about that Nyx.
"If there's no other objections then that'll be what we're going to do, also everyone here should atleast be able to score a 7 right? Anything lower than that will be an embarrassment and shouldn't be allowed to remain in this alliance." I start.
"So you're essentially kicking yourself out of the alliance!" Blyana chuckles and I ignore her yet again.
"No objections here." Nox grunts and no one else says anything afterwards, so it's decided.
"Aright then, let's wrap up our training then." I walk off and grab a sword from the station, I do intend on doing whatever I need to do in order to become leader, anything. Failure won't be an option…
Hayden Topper, 17, District 6 male
Paisley manages to land an arrow into the chest area of a target and she seems satisfied.
"That's impressive, you learn so fast." I sign to her.
"Its all thanks to you!" She signs back.
"You're giving me too much credit." I sign but she only shakes her head. As I said earlier, my father trained me incase I ever had to defend myself against an unruly customer or rival, nothing special, just some hand to hand training and how to properly use a knife. I never used something like a bow before but I've been practicing with it a little and showed Paisley the basics and it's at the point where she's even better than me now.
We've just been keeping a low key profile in general here, the two tributes from 9 are also here and Elsie also seems pretty good with a bow while Harlan and Annabeth are marveling her craft.
"I thought about using a slingshot but I think this is better, here why don't you try Annabeth, I'll show you." She hands Annabeth the bow and begins showing her the ropes. Me and Paisley just preferred to keep to ourselves, that'll probably be for the better honestly. I've really come to appreciate Paisley, other than my best friend, she's probably the only other person that'll accept me even after telling her about my life back at home...
Harlan looks over at us several times like he wants to say something, but I avoid enough eye contact with him to make him reconsider, I don't mean to be unfriendly, but like I said before I just prefer not to have to interact with anyone else here. We already had an "encounter" with that guy from 5 and that just further convinced me to stay away from everyone else, but sometimes trouble just finds a way to you…
"So what have we got here!?" I hear the district 5 guy chuckling, speak of the devil…
He confidently struts his way towards me and Paisley, and I swear this guy just has such a punchable face.
"Looks like you two are training hard, I'm pretty impressed!" Dio commends us and I see Paisley is starting to look uncomfortable, but she doesn't need to worry, I won't let him hurt her…
"Is there something you want?" I defensively ask him and he grins as he looks over at Paisley.
"Relax man, why so tense? Just trying to have a friendly conversation!" Dio sarcastically says.
"Well we're not interested, but thanks anyways." I dismiss him.
"You know, being a good boy will go a long way at times, I see you wanna try and be a tough guy around your cute girl though and that's fine, you just might get your skull caved in though." He taunts me.
"Yeah? By who exactly?" I walk towards him but he grins as he raises his hands in protest.
Whoa easy there tough guy, never said it'll be me!" he cackles.
"Yeah well I'll just say this once, you're working on my last nerve right now, so I advise you just walk away and leave us be." I try to ask as calmly as possible but it's pretty clear I'm losing my patience with him.
"So now you're kicking me out of here, c'mon you don't want to make me cry now do you?" he does some puppy eyes and leans his head against the chest of Paisley and she jumps in fright before backing away.
"Hey!" I prepare to rush at him.
"So these are the two maggots you were talking about?" I hear Hunter's voice and stop in my tracks turning around to see this giant walking towards us, dammit and what does he mean 'talking about'?
"That'll be them, pretty pathetic huh?" he snickers at me and Paisley.
"Which raises the question on why you want me dealing with these wastes of air, is it cause you can't take them on your own?" he glares Dio.
"What? Oh please." Dio rolls his eyes.
What the hell is going on here? He asked Hunter to 'deal with us'?
I'm confident I can take Dio, this Hunter guy though…
"Heh heh heh, you two really truly are pathetic!" Hunter looks over at me and Paisley and I see where this is going so I gently grab Paisley's hand and begin leaving but Hunter quickly blocks my path and my heart skips a beat.
"Did I say you can leave you little wimp!?" he glares me.
"L-look, I don't want any trouble. We're just leaving…" I try to explain to Hunter.
"Hahaha ha, look at you little punk bitch, your whole attitude just took a 360, where's all that confidence at now!?" Dio taunts me but I ignore him.
"Don't want any trouble huh?" Hunter grins.
"No…" I mumble.
"I'll give you a chance to live then, all you gotta do is punch your girlfriend in the face right now and I won't kill either of you." He suggests.
"W-what?" I ask hoping I was hearing things.
"I said all you have to do is punch her in the face! Want to me to demonstrate on her so you have a better understanding?" he clenches his fist and turns to face her and I can see the absolutely terrified look on her face, I'm pretty sure she can read his lips right now.
"No-no, I can't do that…" I admit.
"But you want to live don't you, you want your little girlfriend to live right cause I'm telling you right now, I will make sure you two wimps are the first ones I go after if you don't do what I say!" he demands and I'm at a loss of words right now while Dio is just enjoying every second of this.
"Look we just want to leave…" I try to change the subject.
"If you can't bring yourself to do it, then allow me to, her brains might get scrambled a bit, but I'll let the both of you survive past the bloodbath." He continues grinning and I only hold my head down as I don't know what to do.
"What's going on here?" I hear a deep voice and I turn around to see it's Nox, one of the careers and he has a very serious look on his face as he's eyeing Hunter, never thought I'd be happy to see a career.
"Oh we were just all talking about the train we we're going to run on your sister tonight! From the looks of it though, someone got to her before us!" Dio chuckles and Nox glares him.
"What you just said?" Nox looks like he's ready to rush him and I see Nyx rushing over here as well.
"You heard him you little bitch, now get the fuck out of here cause before I embarrass you Infront of your clubhouse buddies!" Hunter threatens him and Nox steps up to Hunter as they're now face to face.
"Oh yeah? I'd like to see you try!" Nox glares him through gritted teeth.
"Nox!" Nyx rushes beside him and he looks over at her.
"These lovers really aren't worth the energy, let's go!" she tries to de-escalate the situation but Nox only continues glaring him.
"Even you know how this'll end huh? Good job saving your brother, for now at least!" Dio chuckles and Nyx gives him an irritated look and several peacekeepers are now making their way over here.
"You two are so fucking screwed, just you wait…" Nox sternly tells them before the twins walk off.
"Geez, that was intense…" I hear Elsie.
"Well it's better for us if the four of them kill each other so let em rip each other apart if they have to." I hear Harlan comment and I look over at Paisley who still looks shaken up understandably.
"Are you ok?" I quickly sign to her and she does a hesitant nod.
"I just want to get away from here." She signs.
"ok, let's go get a drink of water for now." I sign and does another worried nod before I clutch her hand and begin guiding her to the snack bar. No matter what happens Paisley, I won't allow anything to happen to you.
Genevieve Altruzara,16, District 8 female
I watch as the peacekeepers once again have to separate the hulking giant from 12 away from the careers and all I can do is just roll my eyes at his stupidity, I don't think he realizes how essentially fucked he is constantly poking at the careers, but I guess he'll learn the hard way. I'll admit though that after that shit he pulled on me yesterday, I'd be happy to get a few stabs at him before he bites the dust!
I'm happy with my two allies Chris and Acer and I think together we'll make for the total package Acer is the medic, Chris is the brains and me…what am I anyways? Doesn't matter but I've already learned so much from Acer and now I feel confident I'll be able to 'stich' myself back up, but I learned that yeah, it's really not that much different from knitting up some clothes.
"I-I'll probably never get the hang of this." Acer sets his needle sword down in frustration.
"Cmon Ace, you can't just give up that easily!" I pick up the sword and pretend I'm some kind of sword fighter before beheading a dummy in one swift strike.
"You make that look so easy…" he hangs his head down.
"You make medical science look so easy, just like you helped me and Chris though, I'm going to help you so c'mon and pick up the sword." I sternly say to him and he sighs before picking the needle sword back up, hope I'm not being too hard on him, but I just want him to be able to defend himself, me and Chris won't always be there to save the day…
I fix his stance and he swings the sword again in a much better way than last time.
"Look at you, already getting the hang of it!" I commend him.
"It wasn't that good…" he mumbles.
"It was though, you probably even got better technique than me now!" Chris tries to cheer him up, Chris really is such a giant teddy bear! This seems to make Acer even more nervous however.
"Really though boys, we're going to keep at this until we all know how to heal and fight!"
"Look at you! See you got these boys working!" Verbena the girl from 11 gives me a thumbs up as she passes by, did we speak before?
"Uhh, thanks I guess?" I give her an awkward look.
"Show them how strong we women are girl!" she continues commending mem
"I'll try…" I can barley hear myself and she walks away.
"You made that a little more awkward than it had to be…" Chris whispers to me.
"Oh shut it!" I joke around with him.
It's still a bit surreal this is already the final day of training, that the private sessions are today, I know we're all capable of getting a decent score but I personally fucking hate the idea of getting a high score just to impress people, so I might just be a half ass out there for the sake of it, but it'll also make us a bigger target for the careers, and I prefer we continue to maintain a low key profile. I know we got into it with that muscle headed pick, but besides that, no one bothered us and hopefully it remained that way. We continue training and Acer seems more comfortable with the sword, nothing special but he can defend himself now if he needs to.
The bell suddenly rings however and its time for lunch, ugggh why did this feel so quick? Feels like I got barley anything done today but no point in complaining. Everyone here stops what they're doing and begins walking towards the cafeteria and I yawn.
"Looks like you been working hard today." Chris notices my yawning.
"Nah, just feeling lazy all of a sudden, don't even feel like walking over there." I complain and he does a shy smile.
"I can give you a piggyback ride there if you'd like." He offers and my eyes light up, that sounds fucking amazing.
"Really? You're shitting me right?" I cross my arms but he kneels down.
"Oh hell yeah!" I jump on his back and has no trouble at all carrying me on his back, he's a pretty big guy so it's not too surprising I guess.
"W-what about me? Do I get a ride too?" Acer does a sad face but I can tell he's joking.
"Chris here will be sure to give you a ride back from the cafeteria, right Chris!?" I pat his shoulder.
"Y-yeah sure!" Chris laughs along with me and he charges towards the cafeteria with poor Acer struggling to keep up.
Once we reach the cafeteria, we all go our separate ways for now as I start putting anything chocolate related on top of my plate and pour myself a large glass of chocolate milk before heading back to the table and start digging in
"I got a plan, just you watch!" I hear Azazel snicker as him as Beauregard walk past me.
"Yeah whatever, looking forward to it." She sarcastically states as they sit over at a table with Cortez, not sure what that's about but he surely looks like he's up to no good. All I know is he better not try anything on me!
Acer returns first followed by Chris shortly afterwards and my team is here!
"So any particular plans for the private sessions guys?" Chris suddenly asks.
"I'm not doing shit guys, that's all I'm saying." I state.
"Hmm, why is that?" Acer readjusted his glasses that's been falling down his face constantly.
"Cause I'm not gonna go out there and look like a badass so rich people can start betting their money on me, ill be half assed for sure, but I'll be confident while I'm at it!" I proceed to chug down all of my chocolate milk right after.
"Well that's not a terrible idea I guess…but I'll still do my best none the less." Chris comments.
"Hey you guys knock yourselves out, not stopping you from going out there and putting on a show!" I swallow a whole donut barley chewing it and I hear a large rumble like something just exploded and I can feel the entire cafeteria rattle.
"The fuck was…" I look around the cafeteria and see everyone is looking at the giant muscle headed prick sprawled across the floor and I can see a slippery substance on the floor near him which leads me to assume he must've slipped on it.
"What just happened?" Chris seems just as lost as everyone else, well mostly everyone else, The Azazel kid is covering his mouth trying his damnest not to laugh but it seems pretty obvious he had something to do with this…
Hunter seems pretty shocked at first but his face gradually fills with anger until he lets out an angry growl and jumps back up to his feet.
"Who did that!? Who the fuck did that!?" He hollers and he only receives silence in response as everyone is still only looking at him and Azazel tries to turn his head away so he won't be seen trying to contain his laughter but that only gets Hunter's attention.
"I see you're laughing you little runt, was it you!?" Hunter begins storming over to him but Beauregard and Cortez quickly stand up from their tables.
"Cool it big guy, not anyone's fault here you busted your behind just now." Beauregard give him a fiery look.
"You good for nothing man looking bitch, get out of my face!" He shoves her and she flies back into the table losing her balance and falling to the floor.
"Hey!" Cortez shoves Hunter and this seemingly immovable object actually stumbles back a little but he quickly fires a punch at Cortez and he manages to block it just in time before a bunch of Peacekeepers start separating these two behemoths, I was actually looking forward to seeing these two giants go at it but oh well.
Once the two are escorted out of the cafeteria, everything slowly returns to normal.
"Geez can't say that jerk didn't have it coming to him, really hope someone kicks his ass…" I grumble.
"Agreed…" Acer sighs.
"Hehehehehehehe, guess we're allies now!" I hear Azazel chucking over at the next table as Beauregard rolls her eyes.
"You're really such a moron, but whatever, guess I have to hold up my end of the 'deal'. Beau rolls her eyes and seems rather disappointed, did she agree to ally with him if he did something like this? Not Any of my business so I don't really care, just want to get these private sessions overwith…
Augustus Swiston,36, Head Gamemaker
I twirl the ice around the energy drink in my fancy glass as I wait for these private sessions to get under way, of course my two colleagues are here but unlike last year where they were being completely inappropriate, they are now divorced and I enjoy the silence now but still, it must be pretty awkward for the both of them, not that it matters to me, I'm just curious to see the scores these tributes earn, this cast seems even more interesting than the bunch from last year.
"So you two got anything planned after these sessions?" I taunt the divorced duo but they both only glare me and I chuckle to myself being taking a sip of my energy drink.
"Send in the first tribute please." I announce over the loud speaker and only moments later does the female twin from District 1 Nyx comes through the door and she seems pretty pale, like she's sick or something but still pretends to look strong none the less.
"Nyx Nyctores, District 1." She tries to stand tall but I see tight through her, she's nowhere near her best but let's see how this plays out. I give her a nod of approval and she takes a deep breath before walking over to a set of throwing knives and activates the hologram targets on the highest difficulty setting and within moments, armed holograms begins rushing at her and she circles around them as she starts picking them off with her knives. Her accuracy is pretty impressive at first but she gradually starts missing targets and one reaches her and tries to strike but she weaves their strike but is knocked to the ground by another target that snuck up behind her. She gets back up to her feet and tries creating distance as she lunges a knife into the skull of the target that dropped her and she completely misses another target that ducks under her knife and stabs her with their hologram spear, it can't hurt her, but there is a small electric shock if they manage to touch you and she gasps in anger as she continues backing up and starts using her hand to hand combat skills to take out the remaining targets as her knife throwing isn't cutting it anymore. She throws a barrage of hard punches and some kicks and manages to take the rest of them out, but she is completely gassed out and literally falls to her knees from exhaustion afterwards, never have I seen a career with such poor conditioning, this will effect her score tremendously.
The buzzer thankfully rings afterwards and she's so tired that an instructor has to help her out of the room, she should really get checked out, even the weakest tribute in the arena will.have a chance of beating her in the state she's in. I jot a number down and my colleagues quietly agree with me.
Her much more capable looking brother Nox shows up afterwards and hopefully he doesn't disappoint.
"Nox Nyctores, District 1." He confidently states and I give him a nod of approval.
"I'd like to request three sparring partners." He then adds, hmm a confident one, let's see if he can back it up now! I wave in 3 instructors and they all arm themselves with swords while he grabs a baton and he gives them a confident grin for them to come at him and they do.
The first instructor tries to slash him with their sword but Nox casually smacks it away with his baton and whacks him in the face with it, dropping him.
Another trainer tries to get the drop on him from behind but Nox ducks under and kicks the trainer behind his knee dropping him as well. The third trainer casually circles around him while Nox has his baton in a defensive stance and after the trainer hesitates, Nox makes the first move and rushes at him. He easily weaves the slash from the trainer and counters with a heavy strike from his baton but the trainer blocks it with their sword, but they stumble back due to Nox's sheer strength and Nox uses this opportunity to strike him again. The trainer once again blocks it but Nox overpowers and him breaks through his guard and kicks him in the body before finishing him off with a well timed strike to the head.
The two other trainers aren't quite done yet and rush at Nox from both sides with their swords and Nox deflects a blow with his baton and dodges a blow from the other trainer before elbowing him in the side of his head knocking him down.
The last trainer desperately tries stabbing Nox but Nox sidesteps him and punches him in the jaw dropping him to his knees. He then tries to lift his sword to stab Nox but Nox steps on his sword and knees the trainer in the jaw knocking him out cold. I can tell he went easy on them, yet he still completely destroyed them, he certainly made up for that lackluster performance by his sister and I jot down a number that we all agree with and I await the next tribute and it's the daughter of Ezekial wellish, one of my most trusted partners but that doesn't mean I'm going to hold back on her, infact I want to push her, see how tough she really is.
"Blyana Wellish, but you'll be addressing me as the Victor soon enough!" she cockily states and grabs a set of knives wasting no time taking down her targets with near perfect accuracy putting Nyx to complete shame. She abruptly stops throwing knives however and proceeds to use her various kicking techniques to take down the rest of the targets , using her athleticism she does a cartwheel to maneuver out of the way of danger. Once that's out of the way she begins making some traps and intentionally lures another group of targets there where they all explode on impact upon reaching her shrapnel bombs that i was able to put together.
"If that wasn't worthy of a 12 then I don't know what is, see you guys when I return as victor!" she blows a kiss to us and struts herself away. Hmm her performance was near flawless but I'll probably take away a point or two just to spite her for being such an arrogant bitch so I jot down a number and both my colleagues don't seem to agree with me but they have no choice but to, I'm the head game maker after all!
Her district partner enters afterwards and I wonder what skills this mysterious guy has in his arsenal, guess we'll be finding out soon though.
"Hyperion B- Corvinus." He quickly corrects himself and I give him a nod.
"I'd like to request a sparring partner, the most skilled one you have!" he confidently requests and I do a slight grin, I don't think this guy knows what's he's getting himself into but if he wants to embarrass himself then I'll oblige.
I send one the most skilled instructors here and his nickname is Raven due to his uncanny sense of reading someone's movements before they even execute them and Raven arms himself with a very slim sword holding it front of his face in a royal and elegant stance. Hyperion doesn't seem fazed at all and he grabs a sword of his own holding it in a brutish stance, I can already tell this is going to be hard to watch.
Hyperion quickly closes in on him and tries slashing Raven but Raven casually blocks all five of Hyperion's attacks and counters Hyperion's last strike before slashing him across the cheek and Hyperion grunts in anger. Crow remains in his elegant stance as Hyperion wipes the small streak of blood off of his face and tries to asses Raven for a moment but he seems so lost.
Hyperion recklessly rushes him again and tries stabbing Raven but he easily parries Hyperion's attack and quickly counters but Hyperion ducks under it and fires a counter of his own but Raven backs up and blocks Hyperion's counter and blocks Hyperion's two other strikes and spins out of the way of Hyperion's other attack and trips Hyperion with his sword causing him to crash to the floor. Raven returns back to his elegant stance and Hyperion seems even more pissed but he jumps back to his feet and I can see in his eyes that he's regretting this. He's completely outmatched here. Hyperion carefully closes in on Raven but Raven parries his strike, backs up dodging his other strike and counters slashing Hyperion across his cheek again, but Hyperion does the unexpected and spits in the face of Raven stunning him momentarily. This gives Hyperion the opening he needs though and he kicks Raven in the groin causing him to holler out in pain, Hyperion doesn't stop here though. He quickly grabs Raven's arm and twists it hard as I can hear it snap even over Raven's pained cries, he then throws
Raven to the floor and stomps on his face twice in anger before Raven goes completely limp, what In the…
Hyperion looks up at us in a rage and I can hear him growling like the rabid animal he truly is, so this is the real Hyperion huh? This can be interesting! He storms out before his buzzer even sounds but we're able to come up with a fitting score for him.
Next is Emmerane from district 3 but she walks in and only stares at us while doing a weird smile, what a creepy looking girl.
"…Do you intend on showcasing any skills?" I eventually ask as she continues smiling.
"You pooped before you got here!" she suddenly giggles and I give her an odd look, how did she… ahem anyways if she doesn't show something I'll have her escorted out of here!
She eventually makes her way over to some scythes and begins juggling them like this is some kind of circus, it's cool and all, but that won't win her any points, This absolutely isn't some regular girl though, I can tell she's skilled with those weapons…
She suddenly stops her juggling and holds her duel scythes as she proceeds to behead 8 of them in and honestly…I'm amazed, what is this girl?*
"Now before you poop again, send in two sparring partners and they may want to wear some armor too!" she juggles her scythes some more and I send in two sparring partners for her, a bald man and blonde woman.
The bald one wastes no time rushing at her but she quickly spins out of the way of his telegraphed attack and she sees the blonde woman charging at her from behind, but Emmerane does a back bend to avoid her attack and while she's still bending back, lifts her foot to kick the blonde woman in the face and quickly grabs her arm tossing her to the ground.
Emmerane flips back onto her feet and creates some distance as the blonde woman gets back up to her feet and Emmerane suddenly starts rushing at the bald one as he prepares to defend himself but with blinding speed, she launches her scythe directly into the chest of the blonde woman knocking her down. it it wasn't for the armor, it probably would've pierced through chest even though the weapons are more rubber than steel.
The bald man tries to punch her but she slides right between his legs and quickly rises back to her feet like some kind of phantom before grabbing his neck and applying a tight headlock as he struggles to breath. The blonde woman makes her way back to her feet and tries coming to the aid of her partner but Emmerane's head turns to her in an almost inhumane and mechanical way and she grins again stopping the blonde woman in her tracks.
"No no no honey…the finale has almost come!" She practically mumbles but I still hear it clearly and the blonde woman freezes as Emmerane puts her mouth closer to the ears of the bald man she still has in the chokehold and let's out of the most ear piercing screech I've ever heard, I literally go deaf for a moment and the blonde woman faints from the screech while my colleagues are on the floor screaming in pain, even with the glass providing some sound resistance, I have to cover my ears until the screeches subside. Blood literally starts pouring out of the ear from the bald trainer and she lets his lifeless body collapse on the floor, but she isn't done yet..
She walks over to the unconscious blonde woman and drags her next to the bald trainer and twists her arms at their joints and proceeds to grab both her scythes as she aims both of them as the unconscious trainers but she's going too far!
"Enough! Or I'll have you forcefully removed!" I warn her but it doesn't stop her from from simultaneously plunging both the trainers in their torso with her scythes and she continues giggling, their armor didn't appear to get pierced so that's a good thing but still…
She continues giggling and even wipes some of the blood from the floor onto her forehead before hopping out and I'm just in complete shock over what just unfolded, even for a career, this kind of performance is unheard of…
Me and my colleagues look at each other in pure shock.
"What in the hell did we just witness…" Barbara mumbles.
"i…I think I want to get married again…" Remus looks over at Barbara and they both look at each other awkwardly before enveloping in a disgusting kiss that I cringe at, well this 'divorce' was certainly short lived, I know exactly what kind of score this Emmerane is getting though…
Once the trainers are wheeled out and the mess is cleaned up, we allow her district partner to enter.
"A-Acer D-Deluca…d-district 3." He nervously stutters and I give him a nod before he walks over to the survival station and begins identifying plants and herbs as well as sorting them into different groups. He clearly knows his stuff about these herbs but he suddenly walks over to the weapon's station and grabs a knife and stabs himself in the arm which surprises us but at the sight of his own blood, he seems pretty amazed as he looks at the red substance slowly oozing out of his new wound but he walks back over to his herbs, scoops some over his wound and bandages it up before giving us a nervous look and leaves. Hmm interesting.
Ryena arrives next and I see nothing but intensity and confidence from her, let's hope she doesn't disappoint.
"Ryena Shore, District 4." She states and grabs some throwing knives before she starts launching them at target, she not quite on the level of Blyana but she still possess some skill with them. She eventually switches to a trident which she is much more skilled with and doesn't seem to have any trouble striking down targets from long or close range with her tridents, and overall she does just as well as I'd expect a career to. She leaves shortly after and her district partner Caspian walks in with a wide smile on his face.
"Caspian Delamar, pleasure to meet you guys! May I request a skilled sparring partner?" he politely requests and I nod before summoning a skilled trainer to spar against Caspian. I would've sent Raven and obviously that cant happen but there's still someone around his ranking.
When his sparring partners arrives , Caspian seems delighted and goes off to grab a trident and holds it a defensive stance as the instructor grabs a spear and they only look at each other for a moment as Caspian continues smiling.
"You two know you're allowed to spar right?" I impatiently ask as they continue gazing at each other but the instructor uses this as his cue to close in on Caspian and Caspian spins out of the way of his attack but doesn't counter for some reason. Caspian continues smiling as the trainer tries once again to attack him but Caspian only takes a step back to dodge the attack and the instructor tries to slash his face but Capsian effortlessly parries the attack sending the instructor down to the floor.
"You ok there buddy?" Caspian asks with some legit concern but the instructor gets back up and tries slashing Caspian's face again but he weaves it.
"So I've tried this new dish here called crab Rangoon and it's pretty tasty, ever tried it?" Caspian casually asks while ducking under another strike and blocking his other attack with his trident before taking another step back.
"OK, guess not, well I tries this other thing called bread pudding, you ever tried that?" Caspian asks and the instructor let's out an irritated growl as Caspian swiftly dodges yet another attack.
"Well maybe you just don't like the food here and I mean that's fine, but you should try to expand your horizons a bit!" Caspian suggests as he blocks the instructor attacks with his trident but the instructor angrily retracts his spear and tries to break through Caspian's guard but Caspian times the attack perfectly and parries the attack knocking the instructor to the ground again
"So I take that as a yes? You will expand your horizon?" Caspian grins.
"I'm out of here! I can't touch this guy!" the instructor storms away in frustration.
"Hey you could've at least left your number!" Caspian calls back as the instructor slams the door and leaves.
Hmm, so that's partially why he's called the smiling ghost, I have some data about each and every tribute here including him and after seeing some of his skills with my own eyes, I can already say he lives up to the name, that name however carries some darkness to it, and I can tell he wouldn't like to be associated with it for that reason..
"Well he's having a bad day apparently…" Caspian scratches his head and proceeds to start throwing tridents at targets and his accuracy is nigh perfect hitting 7 targets in a row in vital areas but his accuracy suddenly falls hard as he completely misses his next 5 targets and I look at him as he's doing a wide grin.
"I did that on purpose, don't want you guys getting too excited!" Caspian waves to us before walking away and I can't help but smirk a little, it was done on purpose obviously, but this will still hurt his score somewhat.
"He's skilled and has a massive ass, my type of man!" Barbara drools.
"You already dumping me again?" Remus laments and I only roll my eyes as I signal the next tribute to come in and it's the girl from 5 Alyona Smirnov. She's a mysterious girl even for us, all I know about her was that she was an orphan, that's literally it…
"Alyona Smirnov, District 5." She Introduces herself and I nod before she hesitantly walks over to the survival station and tries identifying plants but fails miserably, like wow.
She's already looking pretty stressed out and walks over to the weapons station to try using a sword, her technique however is horrendous, she misses her target multiple times and even drops her weapon on multiple occasions. She eventually drops her weapon in frustration and storms off, geez it's almost like she wasn't training at all, this'll be easy. I scribble a number down which my colleagues agree on and it's now time time for the male who cockily strolls in.
"Dio Hughes, District 5 and you up there Missy, I'd like to have a chat with you after I'm done impressing you!" he winks at Barbara.
"That little squirt is talking to me?" Barbara asks us.
"I won't have any issue making you do that." Dio fires back at her and she gives him a shocked look.
"Hey you watch your mouth little boy unless you want a 0, that's my wife!" Remus threatens him.
"Shut the fuck up, bet I'll give your wife a better time in 10 minutes than you gave her all your pitiful life!" Dio fires back and grabs a sword before he starts striking dummies maliciously. He lacks technique, but he has a lot of power for a guy his size and it certainly doesn't look like he's afraid to kill, hmm.
"You know where to find me when you're done fucking that loser next to you!" Dio winks at Barbara again and Barbara let's out an exaggerated gag.
"I'm gonna fuck this kid up!" Remus jumps to his feet but Dio is already gone.
"Give him a 1, or a two!" Remus looks at me.
"Nope, this is the score I'm scoring him." I jot down a number and they both have no choice but to agree to it.
District 6 is up next and the girl Paisley walks in. She does some signs and I assume she's trying to introduce herself as she's deaf and I nod before she nervously walks over to the camouflage station and spends her entire time there trying different paints, blending into her surroundings and it's so boring that I think I doze off for a bit and wake up when the buzzer sounds. She gives us a nervous look, leaves and her district partner Hayden shows up shortly after.
"Hayden Topper, District 6." He speaks in a low tone and I nod before he walks over to the camouflage station, not this again! Thankfully he doesn't spend a lot of time there and walks over to the weapons station afterwards where he shows decent skills with a knife at both close and long range, that's actually not too bad. Once he leaves district 7 is up next.
The tough fiery looking girl shows up and she looks pretty intense.
"Beau…" is all she says before showing off her skills with an axe as she hacks down dummies with ease showing off her massive strength and speed and if that's not enough, she begins throwing axes at targets in the distance, hitting them all in vital areas and she gives us another fiery look before storming off, not half bad. Her district partner arrives next and he seems to be in much better spirits.
"Azazel Pinestone, the next game maker!" he declares and I scoff, yeah good luck with that kid, how about you try surviving this first?
He grabs some throwing knives and manages to hit some targets but he does as well as I expect an outlier tribute like him to do so it's another easy score to determine.
District 8 is up next and the blue haired girl who seems to have quite an attitude storms in and glares us.
"Genevieve Altruzara, I request a sparring partner." She states and I summon a trainer to spar against her, I doubt she gets past him.
She grabs a needle dagger while he grabs a sword and she recklessly tries to strike him but he easily disarms her but she doesn't seem surprised for some reason. She picks up her dagger and manages to dodge one of the trainer's attack but she "loses" her balance and falls to the floor. She gets back up and seems to get a little more serious as she actually manages to get in a few licks on the trainer but while she's in control, she suddenly falls to the floor again from blocking an attack from the trainer.
OK it's pretty obvious she's being half assed on purpose, if she wanted a crap score, all she had to do was ask. Once her painful session ends with her doing some lazy strikes on a dummy, her district partner Christmas enters afterwards.
"Christmas Maloney…" the gentle looking big guy introduces himself and proceeds to chop down dummies with a large axe, he's pretty slow but still, he's obviously strong and has been practicing so that'll win him some points.
Once he leaves the tiny little girl from district 9 walks in, I imagine she'd be shy or nervous but I can see in her eyes that she means business.
"Elsie Pengrove, District 9!" she introduces herself and immediately walks over to the survival station where she begins identifying plants. She gets some wrong but no big deal, she then grabs a bow and begins firing at targets and I'm rather impressed by her shooting, her aim isn't perfect by any means, but she still manages to hit quite a few targets and even scores a head shot on two of them. She returns back to the survival station, starts a fire and tries building a hammock but runs out of time much to her displeasure as she sucks her teeth, not bad little one.
Her district partner enters afterwards and he has a confident smile on his face but I can see he's slightly nervous.
"Harlan Ryeson, from the ever so lovely district 9!" He introduces himself and grabs a sickle where he starts hacking at dummies with exceptional skill. It almost looks like he's gliding around the facility slashing targets after target and even does a couple of spins, he's having way too much fun and keeps a smile on his face the entire time. He seems pretty disappointed when the buzzer sounds though but he should be getting a decent score.
District 10 is up and the pale wirey girl with a disgruntled look on her face enters.
"Thea, District 10." She mumbles and proceeds to pick up a mace where she shows better than expected skills at bashing in the skulls of the dummies around her. She seems a bit winded after a while and spends the rest of her time identifying plants.
Once her buzzer sound, she leaves and her giant district partner enters.
"Cortez Baker, District 10." He introduces himself and I nod before he starts lifting some weights, showing off his strength, he does this for several minutes then uses a large hatchet to hack up some dummies, definitely looks like he has experience and not surprising, he is apparently a renowned butcher in his district. Once he's done Kade from district 11 enters, well more like does a backflip into the facility.
"The name's Kade Jackson, but you can just call me Kade Jackson!" he grins as we all awkwardly look at him, so much cringe.
"Now for the performance you've guys have all been waiting for, long and behold!" he dashes to the wepaon station and grabs a handful of throwing stars. He then lazily throws the stats up in the air and they drop to the floor next to him.
"Welp, that's all I got for you guys!" Kade does a bow and dashes out of the room.
"That kid is a total moron…" Barbara comments.
"Agreed…" Remus sighs and I jot down a number that he deserves. His district partner enters afterwards and she looks like she's going to actually put in some effort.
"Verbena Grayzer, District 11. I'd like to request a sparring partner please." She politely introduces herself. The daughter of Anise Grazyer, let's hope she raised her child well. I summon a sparring partner for her though and she immediately grabs a pair of tonfas while he does the same and he closes in on her where she blocks several of his attacks before disarming him and he quickly picks his weapons back up and tries striking her again but she ducks under his attacks and quickly sweeps his leg with hers, dropping him to the floor. He jumps back to his feet and the embarrassment only continues as she swiftly dodges all of his attacks and continues disarming him repeatedly and occasionally does a flip to avoid an attack, fine job overall though, just what I'd expect from a Grazyer.
Once she leaves, the small girl from 12 enters. Seems like she was a close friend to Emmet from last year and strangely things seem to be playing out for her the same way as they were for him, if this continues, I sense a painful demise coming her way.
"Annabeth Gordon…" she shyly introduces herself and I nod before she heads over to the slingshot station her aim is not bad, a notch below Elsie's for sure but she does appear to have better survival skills, seemingly having no trouble identifying plants and creating a fire, nothing special, but decent. She begins to leave but Hunter suddenly bursts through the doors, shoves her out of it and I can hear her squeak as her body hits the floor much to his pleasure. He then cackles to him and stands in the middle of the room cracking his knuckles. This Hunter fellow is an interesting one and yes he is a horrible person but that's what makes things fun. He can be horrible, yet almost no one is strong enough to stop him.
"Send five of your guys out there, and make it quick before I use you tools as punching bags instead!" Hunter demands as he looks up at us. 5 might be too much for even someone his size, that's what he wants, so he'll get it. I summon 5 sparring partners to the facility and he immediately wastes no time charging at them and wraps his large hands around two of their skulls and bash them together, instantly knocking them out. The third trainer panics and tries throwing a punch to Hunter's face but Hunter easily catches his hand and yanks his arm popping it out of place causing the trainer to fall to the floor crying in agony. Hunter pulls up the trainer with one hand and shows his monstrous strength throwing him across the room where he slams into a wall and is knocked unconscious. The two remaining trainers attempt to flee but Hunter easily catches up then and delivers a hard punch to one of their faces causing them to lifelessly fall to the floor and the last remaining trainer knows he's cornered and has no choice but to try and fight back. He tries to throw a punch but Hunter catches his hand and twists it as I can hear a brutal snap and he yells in pain. Hunter wants to shut him up for good though, so he delivers a powerful head butt putting the last trtraineout of commission.
"what a pathetic lot of little bitches you got here." Hunter dusts off his hands and exits the facility.
"What a monster…feel bad for those other tributes that have to share the arena with him." Barbara comments.
"Ha, he'll have his hands full, lot of capable looking tributes this time around." Remus reminds her as I jot down a number, there will be no disagreeing my decision. This concludes the private sessions however, if only i can see the look on these tributes' faces when they see the scores, there will be quite some surprises…
Blyana Wellish,17, District 2 female
"Blyana…are you coming to watch the scores with us?" I hear Iris knocking on my door.
"I'll come when I'm ready to! I already know I'm getting a 12 anyways!" I hiss through the door.
"ok…fine." I hear her mumble as she walks away and I take a deep breath as I look at a picture of me when I was a baby, being held by my father. I think about how much different the picture would be if my mother was in this picture but, I know why she left. It's cause I was weak...
I just hope I'd get a high enough training score to prove her wrong, that she was completely wrong about me because I'm not weak…I'm strong dammit!
I put away the picture and try to straighten myself up and wash my eyes before I go out there, I don't want to show any of them vulnerabilities.
I make my way out into the living room area and thankfully there's a nice empty sofa that I plop myself down on. Iris and Titus are sitting on the middle sofa together while Hyperion is on the opposite end. Bet they intentionally sat in the middle so they'd be able to separate us two of I decided to kick his ass, but they can't stop me.
"Nice of you to join-" Titus begins.
"Well what the hell you waiting for? Turn the television on already!" I snap at him.
OK then...goodness." He flicks the television on.
"Seem extra edgy tonight, nervous?" Hyperion looks over at me.
"Nothing to be nervous about, I guarantee you I'll get a higher score than you, it's you that needs to be nervous cause you probably didn't even get a 7!" I bark at him and he only scoffs.
"Yeah…well see about that." He dismisses me.
The scores are about to start and obviously district 1 is first. They start with a picture of Nyx and a number 7 appears below her name, Nox shows up next a the number 11 appears below his portrait which surprises me a bit, I mean if some weakling like him got an eleven, then surely that means I got a 12 right?
Our district is up next and a picture of me appears on the screen followed by a 9…a 9
"What kind of bullshit is this? I easily did enough to get a 12!" I protest the scores.
" A 9 I is still good…." Iris states.
"Did I ask for your fucking opinion, I deserved to get a much higher score than that! Fuck these numbers anyways, I'll just go out there and fuck everyone up then what!?" I yell at Iris but she only shakes her head.
Hyperion gets an 8 which surprises me, thought his dumbass would get like a 4 at most.
"What did I say you scummy piece of shit!?" I tease him but he pretends he doesn't hear me and continues looking at the screen.
The creepy bitch from 3 appears on the portrait and I'm betting she got like a 1 or a 2 but I'm speechless when I see the number 12 under her name, a 12…a fucking 12!? What?! I saw her train and she wasn't even that good! Was...was she hiding her true skills!?
"How in the!?" I blurt out.
" Yeah, I knew something wasn't right about that girl, you guys need to be careful…" Titus tries to 'warns us.
"Oh shut the hell up you ass kisser, I'll break that idiot In half!" I assure him.
Her district partner Acer Deluca scores a 5 which is about the score I expected from some bloodbath like him.
District 4 is up, Ryena scores a 9 while Caspian gets a 10. It's official I guess, Caspian and Nox are going to battle to determine who the 'leader' will be, but we all know I'm the real leader!
Alyona gets a 1 which I expected, just a useless, talentless bloodbath waiting to happen and her district partner Dio scores a 6, That little weakling actually got a 6!?
Paisley, the dumb looking girl from 6 gets a 3 while Hayden Topper scores a 6. Another relatively high score for an outlier, what gives?
That stank hoe from 7 scores an 8, she must've gave a blowjob to someone in the back cause her weakness ass does not deserve an 8, her district partner Azazel scores a 4.
Genevieve scores a 2, while Christmas gets a 7. I honestly haven't paid much attention to them, they just faded in obscurity.
Elise the tiny little girl from 9 scores a 6, what? That little midget got a 6!!?
Her district partner Harlan scores an 8 and I saw his skills with a sickle, he's nowhere near as skilled as me but for an outlier, he's not half bad.
Thea the girl from 10 scores a 5 while her useless giant of a district partner scores an 8, guess they like his muscles or something cause he seems completely harlmless.
Verbena the girl from 11 scores a 10 and I scoff, knew that bitch was hiding something but she still ain't any match for me! Kade, her irrelevant district partner scores a 1 which I expected, how can someone as weak as him be good at anything?
Finally for district 12, the bloodbath girl Annabeth scores a 5 while Hunter who is almost guaranteed to die in the bloodbath scores an 11, yeah enjoy your 5 minutes of fame while you still can big guy. This concludes the score reveals and like we all agreed to earlier, it's time to rendezvous downstairs at the facility to see these two morons square off, hope they both kill each other!
Finally guys here we are with training day 3, Private sessions and the score reveals which is essentially like 3 chapters in one, hence the extra long wait time. Think i put like over 11k words in this chapter and as far as I can remember, that's easily a record breaker for me but please correct me if I'm wrong haha!I wanted to put the 'fight' between Nox and Caspian in this chapter as well but I'll save that for next chapter as we'll be picking up where we left off and transition into the interview preps! we're so close to the arena guys and I cannot wait! thanks for staying with me everyone but things are getting back on track now and I should be able to update more frequently now, see you all soon and till next time!
Scores
D1M-Nox Nyctores- 11
D1F-Nyx Nyctores- 7
D2M-Hyperion Corvinus- 8
D2F-Blyana Wellish- 9
D3M- Acer Deluca- 5
D3F-Emmerane Vestrat- 12
D4M- Caspian Delamar- 10
D4F- Ryena Shore- 9
D5M- Dio Hughes- 6
D5F- Alyona Smirnov- 1
D6M- Hayden Topper- 6
D6F- Paisley Stitchell- 3
D7M- Azazel Pinestone- 4
D7F- Beauregard Faran- 8
D8M- Christmas Maloney- 7
D8F- Genevieve Altruzara- 2
D9M- Harlan Ryeson- 8
D9F- Elsie Pengrove- 6
D10M- Cortez Baker- 9
D10F- Thea Brodecka- 5
D11M- Kade Jackson- 1
D11F- Verbena Grayzer- 10
D12M- Hunter Skype- 11
D12F- Annabeth Gordon- 5
Alliances
The Careers- Nox Nyctores, Nyx Nyctores, Hyperion Corvinus, Blyana Wellish, Reyena Shore, Caspian Delamar
Tragic Masterpiece- Paisley Stitchell, Hayden Topper
Big Girl's Club ft. Intruder!- Elsie Pengrove, Annabeth Gordon, Harlan Ryeson
Secured 24/7- Kade Jackson, Verbena Grazer
Darkest Temptations- Hunter Skype, Dio Hughes
Anatomy of Friendship- Genevieve Altruzara, Christmas Maloney, Acer Deluca
The BeauBeau Squad!- Beauregard Faran, Azazel Pinestone