THE FORTY SECOND ANNUAL HUNGER GAMES
"Jupiter"


INTRODUCTION

President Coriolanus Snow was not your average president of Panem by any stretch of the imagination. With the horrible and dastardly things that Snow was doing on an almost hourly basis, he would grow notorious as one of Panem's most abusive presidents. Despite this, however, there are things that all humans have in common; things that even those as heartless and inhumane as Snow are not free from. While Snow had never been interested in girls, it was now that the entire nation was in control that he didn't have much to do and began feeling the pangs of love and lust. President Snow had never been ashamed of his singularity, but now that the admiration from the adoring Capitol was growing, he saw the perfect opportunity to land himself a match. His final choice was a woman named Magnolia Asher. They'd been dating for several months, and they tied the knot the week before the games were set to begin. Magnolia's first act in her new position of power was to establish the Hunger Games Betting Organization, or HGBO. From then on forth, all legal betting was to be done through the HGBO. Before, there were hundreds of different betting companies throughout the Capitol and it was impossible to tell which ones were legitimate for sure. However, with the HGBO as the Capitol's sole way to bet for their favorite tributes, it became possible to know exactly what percent of bets went toward each tribute, which tributes received the most total amount of money, and other statistics that were impossible to know before. From now on, at the end of the introduction section of each chapter of this compendium will be a list of what percent of bets were on each tribute. Wisp Glasgow returned as head gamemaker for the second consecutive year. Wisp was actually the perfect candidate for head gamemaker; he was the son of an electrician father, and since this year's arena would represent District 5 he was perfect for the job. The nation couldn't wait to see the ideas he had in store.

The career pack this year was a rather strong batch of kids. District 1 produced a pair that were as beautiful as always. The male, Glowing, was the twin brother of Radiance Clinton, the victor of last year's Hunger Games. He, along with his twin Radiance, were the sons of Victor Gold Carson, and this Glowing boy was confident that he could be the third boy from the family to take home the victor's crown. The female was weaker from a lack of training compared to the others; she was less of a warrior and more of a Barbie doll: pretty and ditzy and a little naïve. District 2 produced a pair that was impeccably skilled. The male was a natural with the machete, whereas the female chose throwing knives. The guy also wowed the audience with his ability to recite two-thousand digits of the mathematical constant pi. This wouldn't help him in the arena but proved his intelligence to the audience. The girl was an individual who was rather graceful and elegant in form and in the way that she moved. District 4 offered up a strong pair. The male was a popular model in his district and got lots of sponsors for his looks, whereas the female wasn't attractive per se but was dangerously sharp and vicious in personality and even in appearance, in a way. The careers' training scores were high this year, with four tens, one nine, and one eight among their ranks.

Outside of the careers the training scores were slightly higher than average. The highest score outside of the career districts was earned by a certain Miss Isaku Suzuki from District 5. Isaku was a martial arts master that had earned a third-degree black belt in her art, and her fluidity and grace made her name a household one. Elastane from 8 earned an eight, the only non-career to do so. She was a natural with crossbows. Five sevens were scored. They were earned by Mercedes from 6, Rowan from 7, Bagel from 9, Ivy from 11, and Diamond from 12. There was a single volunteer outside of the careers: thirteen year-old Sequoia O'Rourke from District 7. Sequoia had been bullied for her entire life because of her pansexuality and her facial deformity. When the time for the reaping came, her "friends" bullied her into volunteering. There was another standout: the boy from 10. He was a fantastic comedian who often put on shows in his district and even in the Capitol. At his birth, he was given the name Buck Sousa, but at age sixteen he changed his name to Xzayvian Xanthopoulos for publicity. Here are the tributes:

District 1: Glowing Clinton, 18, (10) 3-1 and Polish Schultz, 16, (8) 6-1

District 2: Arbiter Asesino, 18, (10) 4-1 and Aquila Curvanith, 17, (10) 5-1

District 3: Technik Hartline, 16, (6) 20-1 and Socket Rhodes, 16, (5) 22-1

District 4: Swell Mckenzie, 17, (10) 6-1 and Whelk Swanson, 16, (9) 6-1

District 5: Vincent Srinivasan, 13, (2) 60-1 and Isaku Suzuki, 18, (9) 5-1

District 6: Johnson Metallurgist, 14, (6) 23-1 and Mercedes Rodanthe, 12, (7) 30-1

District 7: Rowan Anderson, 15, (7) 17-1 and Sequoia O'Rourke, 13, (3) 80-1

District 8: Boucle Avenell, 18, (4) 31-1 and Elastane Kazera, 16, (8) 10-1

District 9: Teff Rumor, 13, (4) 40-1 and Bagel Vinson, 18, (7) 15-1

District 10: Xzayvian Xanthopoulos, 17, (6) 19-1 and Terenzia Sample, 16, (5) 21-1

District 11: Ivy Baum, 18, (7) 14-1 and Demeter Zane, 12, (3) 75-1

District 12: Ron Wentworth, 16, (6) 18-1 and Diamond Alix, 16, (7) 16-1

HGBO Bets: 8% on Glowing, 7% on Arbiter, Aquila, Swell, and Isaku, 6% on Polish, Whelk, and Elastane, 4% on Technik, Mercedes, Rowan, Bagel, Xzayvian, Ivy, Diamond, and Socket, 3% on Ron and Terenzia, 2% on Johnson, Boucle, and Teff, 1% or less on Vincent, Sequoia, and Demeter.


THE GAMES

Wisp's arena was clearly inspired by the Halloween arena of the thirty-third. Spanning the arena was a forest, although the term is used loosely. The trees were completely bare, and they stuck out of the ground like the hands of skeletons. The ground was not the grass of a forest but a rough black stone that gave off strange films of mist in which strange visions could be seen. To the north, east, and west, the forest was rather hilly. To the south, the forest flattened out and became a flat land with only trees every once and a while. What sold the District 5 look, however, was the lightning. A thunderstorm perpetually ravaged the arena. Great arms of lightning shot from the sky. The tips of the tree branches conducted electricity, and so the lightning was attracted to them and the trees acted as lightning rods. Whenever a bolt of lightning struck a tree, the lightning would jump between the branches and between the trees and for several moments the entire arena would appear to be ablaze with light and the air would be filled with the crackle of electricity, and heaven help any tribute that was near one of the trees when that happened. The deep black sky held not stars nor clouds nor the moon nor any sort of feature identifying it as the sky. It was as if somebody had laid out a black sheet and one was staring into it, their eyes struggling to find someplace to rest. The sky wasn't just your usual everyday darkness. It was advanced darkness. The black seemed to have layers and layers of darkness that wound away and spiraled into oblivion. The only times that the sky was illuminated, the angry growl of thunder was sure to follow.

As the tributes rose up into the arena, all was calm except for the ghostly howl of the wind. Suddenly, the world was illuminating by a shot of lightning, closely followed by a roar of thunder. Frigid rain began shooting toward the earth in sheets, making the tributes shiver. Another bolt shook the earth. The spookiest part of the arena, though, was the cornucopia. Shrouded in darkness, it was if the horn was a mouth that was waiting to devour its prey. Because of this, five tributes turned tail and fled at the sound of the gong. They were Socket from 3, Johnson and Mercedes from 6, and Teff and Bagel from 9. This, coupled with the fact that the supplies this year were placed closer to the tributes and further away from the cornucopia, would make for a rather small bloodbath, with only eight deaths.

The gong's note echoed eerily around the arena, but it was soon blocked out by the noise of crashing feet thundering over the stone ground. Those feet were Glowing's. Glowing surged ahead of all of the others at an unfathomable speed, and he reached the dark mouth of the cornucopia before any of the other tributes. When Glowing spotted the willowy comedian from District 10 darting toward him holding a mace, he picked up a machete off of a countertop behind him and got to fighting. Glowing surged toward his challenger; his blade nicked the boy's shoulder. He hissed with pain as warm blood drizzled forth, and by the time he got back to his senses Glowing had already sawed his machete into his forehead. He was knocked unconscious almost instantaneously, and Glowing savored the sound of his body smacking into the ground with a thud. Glowing had spilled the first blood in the games, an honor that could not compare to the honor of being victor but pleased him nonetheless.

Xzayvian Xanthopoulos, District 10 Male: 24th, Killed by Glowing, Bloodbath

Swell, another fast runner, scooped up a black metal trident that lay on the ground twenty yards from his pedestal. Swell's sense of vision was keen, and he charged sideways when he spotted a blurry shape running parallel to him. Swell dove toward the movement and crashed into a body. Swell wrestled the tribute to the ground, and his cries of fear stopped abruptly when Swell flung his trident into his neck.

Ron Wentworth, District 12 Male: 23rd, Killed by Swell, Bloodbath

Polish and Aquila had developed a sort of friendship during training. The two career girls decided to stay close to each other and kill as a duo during the bloodbath. Aquila grabbed a belt of throwing knives; Polish a sword. Formidable Aquila heard a thud beside her and looked to the right. She saw a girl that had tripped and had fallen to the ground. Aquila called for her ally Polish, who was at her side within two seconds. The two careers made easy work of the disoriented girl.

Sequoia O'Rourke, District 7 Female: 22nd, Killed by Aquila and Polish, Bloodbath

The instant that Arbiter closed his eager fingers around a bow that leaned against a crate amidst the cornucopia's scattered supplies was the same instant that he leapt to his feet and began firing like mad every which way. His first few arrows missed, but his fourth struck home, burying itself into the head of the nearest girl. She let out a short mewl of pain before tumbling to the ground in a heap. Arbiter ran to her side to tear his arrow out of her head as he celebrated his first kill.

Demeter Zane, District 11 Female: 21st, Killed by Arbiter, Bloodbath

Little Vincent from 5, who was young and foolish and naïve, picked up a sword and ran toward Glowing, thinking that he could somehow take town the boy that was twice his size. He, of course, could not. Glowing picked him up and then threw his thrashing form to the ground. His head smacked onto the ground, and he became concussed. Perhaps this was a good thing for Vincent; his lack of comprehension of the situation made it less painful for him as Glowing hacked mercilessly at his head and neck with his machete.

Vincent Srinivasan, District 5 Male: 20th, Killed by Vincent, Bloodbath

Now that five tributes had died, things were starting to organize in the career pack. Glowing, Arbiter, and Swell were running around the clearing and trying to catch any tributes off guard. Glowing with his machete, Arbiter his bow, and Swell his trident, they covered lots of ground efficiently. Comrades Polish and Aquila stayed in front of the cornucopia behind the ranks of the three boys to cut down any charging outliers. Frail Boucle from 8 didn't see Polish and Aquila at the yawning mouth of the horn, and by the time that he noticed them it was too late. Polish grabbed him and held him to the ground. He was paralyzed from fear and was easy work for Aquila, who threw one of her throwing knives fluidly into his forehead. This sedated him, and so Polish could lift herself off of him. Boucle faced a swift death as Polish finished him off by skewering her sword through his torso.

Boucle Avenell, District 8 Male: 19th, Killed by Aquila and Polish, Bloodbath

Isaku was in business when she spotted fellow nine-scorer, Whelk from District 4, milling around the clearing nearby. Whelk was the only career that hadn't made a kill yet, and the others had abandoned her thinking that she was useless. Isaku ran toward her and kicked her in the side of the torso. She reeled but quickly returned to her senses. Whelk had a spear that she had picked up a few minutes prior, but her skills could not compare to Isaku's karate skills. Isaku shot her foot into the air and slammed Whelk in the side of the face. When she collapsed to the ground, Isaku lifted up her own spear and thrust it into Whelk's torso. Isaku couldn't watch as her eyes rolled back into her head, and she looked away.

Whelk Swanson, District 4 Female: 18th, Killed by Isaku, Bloodbath

Arbiter made the final kill. He had been holding his bow in grasp and running back and forth across the clearing. However, now that the chaos was beginning to thin out, Arbiter began circling the cornucopia hoping to catch a tribute or two that was running away from the bloodbath. Arbiter saw a rather muscular girl running toward him. He launched an arrow and watched with satisfaction as it arced along its path. It disappeared into the darkness, but the yelp that followed as it crashed into the girl's head was evidence enough to Arbiter that his aim had struck home. The girl promptly died. The eight cannon shots that followed were eerily similar to the thunder that regularly rolled around the arena.

Diamond Alix, District 12 Female: 17th, Killed by Arbiter, Bloodbath

With the bloodbath at its conclusion, the tributes were already going crazy. It wasn't just the fact that sixteen of them remained that was terrifying. It was that the arena was just so creepy. Every step made the hair on the back of one's neck stand up and made one feel like they were being watched, observed. The careers went hunting immediately. The careers, minus Polish, who was guarding the horn, ventured through the forest. Still, they stayed close together and never ventured far apart. Even the mighty careers couldn't helped but be spooked by the dark arena.

Technik from 3 had his bag of wire and mechanical parts, and he spent much of the day travelling away from the horn, reciting mathematical formulas to himself to keep alive the memory of home. He sat down underneath a wide-based tree and began forming an electrical wire trap reminiscent of Beetee's trap from the fortieth games. Isaku alternated between walking and jogging and spent the night at the base of a huge boulder that was covered with a strange black slime. Nimble Mercedes just ran and ran away from the horn. She didn't stop when she was exhausted. She didn't stop when every ounce of her being screamed for her to rest. She eventually collapsed beside a small black pool. Mercedes peeked over the edge of the black pool. She recoiled after feeling the acidic mist stinging her face. Mercedes backed away and slept a few feet away from the pool, feeling a little unnerved by the strange visions and sounds that were emanating from its mysterious waters. Terenzia had escaped the bloodbath with a blanket. As she ran, she wrapped the blanket around her like a poncho. She fell beside a thick area of the dead trees and was tempted to eat the bark, which looked edible enough to her. Terenzia was mere seconds from breaking off a piece when a little squirrel, fur black as the night, came along and began licking at the tree's coagulated sap. The rat eeked with pain and died. Terenzia now knew to stay away from the trees. Elastane leapt between the trees, always paranoid that there was somebody watching her that was going to attack her. Elastane figured out immediately after the bloodbath that the trees became electrically charged whenever lightning struck, so she tried to stay away from them. However, around eight o'clock at night, Elastane was beginning to grow crazy. She walked in circles, completely overwhelmed and unable to handle the circumstances of the dark forest. Everywhere looked the same. When lightning lit up the world, Elastane fell forward in shock. She fell right onto one of the trees. Her hair stood on end as the electric current coursed through her body. It was hours before she regained consciousness, and when she did she was a nervous wreck, mumbling about how the trees were metal angels from mars and how the cat was coming to kill her. This was nonsense, and at this point it was hard to argue that Elastane wasn't playing with a full deck of cards.

For Socket, water was the main concern. Socket found a tree that looked as if it had died rather recently and tore off a piece of bark. She had a knife with which she tried to whittle away at the wood and form a spile. All was going well until she sliced into the wood a little too far and it cracked in half. This exposed the acidic sap inside. Socket screamed as the sap burned away at her skin. The sight of her hands literally dissolving into the acid before her eyes made her scream louder. She dropped the log and ran in circles. The poison had crawled down her entire hand, and now she had but a stump for her right hand. Her screams attracted the attention of the career pack, who reasoned that she must be injured already. The four tributes surged toward her, but even at the sight of them her screams were not silenced. The pain incinerated all reason, all feeling but itself. Socket was almost glad when Swell did the honors, throwing his trident and letting it sail gracefully into her neck. Socket's screams were silenced as she fell forward onto the ground. At the sound of her cannon shot, the careers fled. They thought that Socket's previous injury must have been from another tribute, and they inferred that the killer couldn't be far.

Socket Rhodes, District 3 Female: 16th, Killed by Swell, Day 1

Johnson had run away from the bloodbath and darted toward the outer edges of the arena. At one point, Johnson reached a cliff face where the arena dropped off. This was the edge of the arena, and a couple of feet beyond the edge of the cliff sat the force field. Johnson reached out a hand and pulled away as the forcefield sizzled his fingertips. Johnson's hand flew to his mouth instinctively, and he asked for some burn cream from sponsors that he knew didn't even exist anyways. Nothing was delivered, so he was forced to build something himself. Making a splint out of wood, especially dead wood, especially crumbly dead wood, is quite a feat, but Johnson was finally able to support his burned finger with the splint. Teff ventured away from the horn and began foraging the woods for supplies. Although the arena offered little at face value, Teff was able to use his limited resources to his advantage. Teff created a fire out of wood. He made glue by crushing up the caterpillars that roamed the place and using the resulting paste to attatch things together. His natural survival skills perked the attention of many a sponsor, and soon he promptly received a Swiss army knife in a parachute. Bagel, Teff's district partner, took a similar strategy. The two District 9 tributes met around ten. Teff was about to kill Bagel with his knife before realizing that she was his district partner. Teff said "just this once", turned around, and walked away. Ivy stuck to the trees as he moved. After the bloodbath cannons, Ivy shinnied up the nearest tree like a squirrel. He found a sturdy branch and crawled down it. He leapt off of that branch onto a nearby tree, and the pattern continued, leaping between trees like some kind of lemur or jumping spider.

Rowan had managed to grab a knife from the horn. While Rowan might not have been the fastest runner in the world, he sure was a trouper. He ran for twenty minutes at a time without brakes, and he soon reached the force field. Rowan had hoped to find something spectacular at the edge of the arena, but he was disappointed when he found that the land dropped off into oblivion. Rowan set down his knife beside him and crouched down, investigating the curving pattern of the edge. When Rowan got to his feet, his foot knocked into his knife. The knife was bumped over the edge of the cliff. Rowan cried out as he watched the blade disappear down the cliff face. Rowan began walking away with disappointment when the knife that he had kicked over the cliff just moments before hit the force field, bounced off, and came shooting back. Rowan heard a whistling behind him, and when he turned around the knife buried itself perfectly into his head. Rowan slid to the ground, dead. His cannon shot was the second post-bloodbath of the day.

Rowan Anderson, District 7 Male: 15th, Killed by Himself, Day 1

Day 2 saw very little of conflict among the fourteen remaining tributes. The careers returned to the horn in the morning. After a brief breakfast, they left Swell to guard the horn and ventured away into the wild. Ivy continued on his monkey-like expedition around the arena, leaping between the trees like some kind of wild animal. Around noon, he fell out of a tree. He was relatively low to the ground, and he landed in a copse of bushes. This made his damage minimal, but it still hurt like the devil and he couldn't move for about half an hour after the fall. Terenzia couldn't really find anything to eat, but she got a cheese stick from a sponsor a few hours into the day and she savagely munched it down. Johnson's burn was coming along well. He got a cup of water from a sympathetic sponsor, which he used about half of to clean his burn before fashioning a new splint for himself. He discarded the old one, which was now beginning to fall apart. The coming about of Day 2 just made Elastane even crazier. Elastane prowled the arena, trying to "kill" sticks and twigs and dead bugs that she found. Elastane had scored high in training, and Wisp wasn't about to kill off her best chance at a successful underdog story. If she got too crazy to be let be victor, Wisp reassured himself, he could always kill her off later. Isaku began hunting. A sponsor that liked her talent had delivered her a sharp piece of metal, which she used to cut through the air with natural talent. Isaku practiced her martial arts skills throughout the day as well, but her efforts to find the other tributes and rat them out were fruitless. She actually lost the piece of metal within a few hours. Technik continued working on his electric wire trap. Head Gamemaker Wisp Glasgow knew that he didn't want a games that ended like the fortieth games did, and so Wisp planned to destroy Technik's trap before it could do any real damage to the others. Wisp let Technik have one more day of hands flying over his pieces and assembling his machines as if by magic. Mercedes spent the day exploring the edge of the dark cliff that surrounded the arena. At one point she tried to step down it, but her first footstep down the steep slope slid as if a film of water covered the side of the slope, so she pulled her foot away. Teff and Bagel didn't really do much. They just milled around the arena. Ever since their encounter the day prior, both tributes seemed rather paranoid, constantly looking behind them as if expecting to see somebody there.

Day 3 saw a single death. Technik finished his electrical wire trap. It followed exactly the same format as his mentor Beetee's from his games, complete with the spinning magnet, the electric core, the input and output wires; even the silvery spiderweb of wires was woven around the region in the same patterns as Beetee's trap. Teff spent the majority of the day milling aimlessly around the arena. He was starting to get a little kooky from dehydration. When Technik heard Teff's footsteps from nearby, he ducked into a shadowy ditch and waited for his plan to fall into place. Teff walked straight into the maze of silvery wires. The sizzling sound coming from around the corner was evidence enough to Technik that his contraption had worked. Technik walked toward the trap once the sizzling stopped and was presented with the bruised, battered, fried-up corpse of Teff. The District 3 boy turned off the trap, grabbed Teff, and dragged him into a dark area where nobody would be turned off from travelling toward him at the sight of Teff's dead body

Teff Rumor, District 9 Male: 14th, Killed by Technik, Day 3

The careers stayed away from the horn for the day. On their return the day prior, they had gathered enough resources to sustain themselves for two or three whole days. Glowing hunted ahead of the others, while the others stayed a bit behind him. This was to be expected, as Glowing was the strongest. Eventually, the three tributes in back broke away. Polish and Aquila went off in their little group to hunt, and Arbiter was left trailing behind his stronger counterpart, firing his bow at sights of movement. Mercedes continued to investigate the cliff face. In fact, she spent most of the day running her fingers across the jagged, rocky edge. Perhaps this reminded her of home somehow. Or perhaps the rough sensation just calmed her for whatever reason. Although a slow method of hydration, she got her liquid by licking the condensation off of the side of the cliff. Ivy had fully recovered from his fall, and he was back at jumping through the canopies of the trees. Eventually, he dropped to the ground and set up camp in a ditch that seemed dark enough to conceal him from sight. Elastane continued on being cuckoo crazy. Dehydration wasn't helping, and the phrases she was cackling gleefully were becoming more and more cryptic. Terenzia was obsessed with finding water, and she searched for it for the entire day. Finally, she gave into temptation and gulped down the water from one of the dark pools. She instantly screamed as the poisonous water ate away at her throat and scalded the inside of her mouth. She hadn't drunk enough to die, but she was in intense pain nonetheless. She dragged herself into a copse of bushes and tried to quiet her labored breathing amidst her throes of pain. Bagel's body was beginning to grow weak from dehydration. Since learning the hard way that the rainwater was poisonous, her only option was to lick condensation off of whatever flat surfaces she could find. The energy it took to do this was greater than the energy replenished whenever she drank the water, and she would quickly die from dehydration.

The morning of Day 4 came in the form of a cannon shot. Poor Bagel had gone loopy, walking in circles. She was so off-kilter from dehydration that she couldn't get to an area of the arena that had a water supply, and her death was the first of three that the fourth day would hold. Now, only half of the tributes remained.

Bagel Vinson, District 9 Female: 13th, Killed by Dehydration, Day 4

Little Mercedes had spent so long investigating the cliff that she had been forgotten by basically the entire crowd and by the master of ceremonies, Caligula Flickerman. The gamemakers needed to get rid of her to crescendo the games into a bang, but they didn't want to just kill her off. They wanted to make her death thrilling. She had been a Capitol favorite before the start of the games, and the gamemakers didn't want her to have an average death. Mercedes was peering over the cliff side when a deep rumbling began sounding from the bottom of the cliff. The roaring continued. A shape began to come into view, zooming up the side of the cliff and toward the girl. Mercedes was both entranced and terrified, but she eventually got to her feet and scrambled away. She had made it about fifty feet from the cliff when a massive red beast shot up from behind the cliff and began racing toward Mercedes.

"Dragon!" Mercedes screamed with panic. The dragon's first breath of fire was mere yards from her face. Mercedes felt a burning sensation in the tender skin that had been worn away by the intense heat, but she kept running. The next plume of fire and smoke caught one of her locks of hair on fire. Mercedes fumbled for her knife, reached up, and chopped off the tress of hair that was on fire. Mercedes kept on running, but eventually she just got too tired to keep going. She had to slow down, and when she did the dragon caught up to her. It reached out one of its feet, sporting five sharp talons, and raked it across Mercedes' chest. She fell, sobbing, as the dragon let out a breath of fire. The inferno scorched Mercedes to a crisp, and as the dragon prowled away back to its home at the bottom of the cliff. The pile of remains that once was the twelve year-old girl and her supplies began slowly cooling.

Mercedes Rodanthe, District 6 Female: 12th, Killed by Dragon Muttation, Day 4

The formidable duo of Glowing and Arbiter was doing a great job in hunting for prey. They covered ground quickly and efficiently, but soon after noon they trespassed onto another tribute's land. Isaku had been practicing a difficult karate move when she heard the footsteps of the two boys. She ducked behind a thick-based tree and watched the careers. Suddenly, Isaku burst out from behind the tree and darted toward the shocked careers. Arbiter fired an arrow, but it only grazed Isaku's shoulder before burying itself into the tree. When Glowing darted toward her, Isaku kicked him in the head. He reeled, and Isaku spun around to face diving Arbiter. Isaku grabbed Arbiter by the neck and threw him to the ground. There, Isaku picked up Arbiter's bow and nocked an arrow, swiftly shooting it into his heart. His cannon shot was instantaneous, and the second it sounded Isaku turned tail to flee.

Arbiter Asesino, District 2 Male: 11th, Killed by Isaku, Day 4

Isaku ran. Glowing was so disoriented from his punch to the face that he couldn't figure out which direction she was going. Glowing roared at the realization that he had lost his prey, and he stormed angrily in the direction of the cornucopia to restock on the supplies that the clever District 5 girl stole from him. Ivy started trying to start a fire, and he was in the process of creating the first spark when he realized the stupidity of lighting a fire in a place as dry as the arena. He quickly stopped and instead huddled in a tight ball to maintain warmth. Johnson was so terrified from the three cannon shots within the span of two hours that he beelined for his hiding place and stayed there, not moving an inch. Terenzia continued to suffer from the poisonous water that she had ingested, and she tried to not scream too loudly as she willed the poison to work its way out of her body.

While crazy Elastane was sleeping during the wee morning hours of Day 5, a branch fell from the tree that she was sleeping under and landed on her stomach. Elastane woke up immediately and vomited. In her sleep-addled state, she didn't really know what was going on, and when she took an inhale she sucked in a lot of bile. Elastane panicked, but as she continued to choke on her own bile there was progressively less and less that she could do. She ended up reaching into her mouth as if she could pull out the vomit that was lodged in her throat and choking her, but this failed, of course. Elastane moaned with fear as she stumbled around, trying to dislodge the vomit. She promptly choked to death. Wisp was relieved. That insane girl didn't have a chance of being Victor anymore.

Elastane Kazera, District 8 Female: 10th, Killed by Choking on her own Bile, Day 5

The rest of Day 5 passed without any deaths. There was only one more death to go until the final eight, and Wisp was hoping to postpone the next death a little. Reaching the final eight before the sixth or seventh day was largely considered a figment of the swift and uneventful games, and Wisp did not want to be seen as either of those things so he made sure that peace reigned supreme for the entire day.

Days 5 and 6 passed, deathless. The careers returned to the cornucopia to restock on supplies. They left Swell behind to guard the horn and then walked in circles around the arena, creating a sort of spiral shape. It was Glowing that suggested this, and Polish and Aquila agreed that it was a good idea. Ivy tried to find food in the desolate wasteland but couldn't. He got back to his tree-leaping maneuver to remind the sponsors of his grace, and he quickly got a little package of mashed potatoes. The poison finally worked its way out of Terenzia's body, and she could get to creating a shelter. Johnson's burn had healed rather well, and a sponsor that liked his tenacity sent him a bit of burn cream and a bandage to help his singed finger. Isaku was rather paranoid after killing one of the careers, and she took a break from hunting to nurse the wounds that had been dealt to her during her fight. She had the wrath of the others, now, she knew that. The star moment of this span occurred on Day 5. Wisp finally got around to destroying Technik's wire trap. Wisp sent a huge swarm of strange, metal, locust-like insects after the boy. Technik ran, but the locusts weren't interest in him. They were interested in his contraption. The insects munched away at the trap, and no matter how much Technik tried to swat them away they kept on feasting. Soon, the entire trap was gone, and Technik was left with his bare hands and his knife to do his killing.

On Day 7, Wisp hoped to thin the crowd of four careers. When the careers all returned to the cornucopia to restock on supplies, they heard an eeking sound from the darkness beyond. They grabbed their weapons and waited in anticipation for whatever creature should come to them. Racing toward them out of the darkness was a massive, black scorpion. Its barbed stinger hung above it, and as it hissed with fury and bloodlust the careers charged forth. Glowing was at the head of the onrush. He made a slash for the scorpion's body, but his weapon just bounced off with a clang. "It has armor!" Glowing shouted to his allies. Swell raced forward with his trident and went for the scorpion's face. It roared as Swell buried his trident into its face. "Go for its face!" Swell instructed his allies. The scorpion struggled around from its wound, and in its pain it dove toward the career pack with unprecedented speed. Swell and Glowing, who were in front, dove out of the way. The two tributes that were in the back, Polish and Aquila, didn't see the scorpion coming until it was too late. The scorpion mutt shot out its stinger and buried the sharp point into the space between Aquila's eyes. Aquila's vision went blurry as she began waving back and forth. She was dead from the poison within ten seconds of the stinger puncturing her skin.

Aquila Curvanith, District 2 Female: 9th, Killed by Scorpion Muttation, Day 7

That left the final eight: Glowing Clinton and Polish Schultz from District 1, Technik Hartline from District 3, Swell Mckenzie from District 4, Isaku Suzuki from District 5, Johnson Metallurgist from District 6, Terenzia Sample from District 10, and Ivy Baum from District 11.

At the sound of Aquila's cannon shot, the scorpion mutt whipped its head around and set its beady eyes upon Polish, who was shaking and paralyzed with fear in its wake. The monster shot out its stinger and set it into Polish's torso. The poison reached her heart within a few seconds, and she was dead within five as her bodily functions were shut down by the venom. After Polish's death, the scorpion scuttled away, content.

Polish Schultz, District 1 Female: 8th, Killed by Scorpion Muttation, Day 7

One more death occurred that day. Isaku, having expanded her shelter, started hunting again. She had no weapon but her karate skills, but Isaku was confident she could take down the toughest of opponents with these skills. Ivy tried to purify some water, so he took a single water purification tablet, scooped up some of the black water into his cup, and dropped the tablet in. Ivy imagined that the tablet would somehow dissolve the evil in the water and make it safe, but that was not what happened. The water dissolved the small tablet instantly. Ivy, hoping that the pill had done its job, drank down the entire cup of water. The water began burning away at his stomach and scalding his throat, and as Ivy's world began to fade away he started uttering choked goodbyes to his loved ones. The poisoned water killed him in due time, leaving only six tributes remaining.

Ivy Baum, District 11 Male: 7th, Killed by Poisonous Water, Day 7

After Ivy's cannon shot, the remaining tributes were spooked back into their hiding places. Johnson was so startled by the cannon shot that he nearly fainted, but he crawled back into his hiding place wedged between two trees and stayed there, motionless. The careers were rather shocked from the attack of the huge scorpion, but they still went hunting. Glowing and Swell, the two remaining careers, still went hunting, as they hadn't received any life-threatening or –altering injuries. Terenzia seemed to be doing well until she tumbled into a ditch and skidded down its steep slope. She came to a stop, battered, at the bottom of the hill, and she was in so much pain and shock that she couldn't move for a few seconds. She eventually got up and wiped the crumbly dirt off of her clothes in chunks. Johnson was so terrified by the cannon shots that he scuttled into a dark area under a tree branch and hugged himself tightly, refusing to move for any reason. Technik was quite frightened, but when a sponsor delivered him a yard-long metal rod, he stuck it into the ground like a pole. Technik ripped pieces of bark off of the trees and splayed them out around the metal pole to make a teepee-like shelter.

Days 8 and 9 passed by without any deaths. They were the most slow and lifeless days that the forty-second Hunger Games had seen yet. Glowing and Swell hunted for only short periods of time throughout the period of two days, paranoid that some mutt like the scorpion would attack them off-guard. Johnson stayed huddled up under his tree, only moving to take little sips of water from a little canteen that he had filled with a thin layer of condensation from off of the various rocks sporadically placed throughout the arena. Technik quickly realized that his shelter wouldn't work. The metal pole was sturdy and hardy enough, but the bark surrounding it blew away whenever a strong gust of wind came along. He eventually resorted to finding a ditch and laying the bark over top, trapping him inside. The wind blew over the rough bark, making it so that the bark wouldn't blow away. Technik held his metal rod firmly, reasoning that it could be used as a weapon if need-be. Isaku practiced her karate skills.

On Day 10, Terenzia had gotten out of her dark hiding place and was finally wandering around the arena, looking for some form of food. Terenzia was walking down a hill, hoping to find life at the bottom of it, when she heard a rumbling sound behind her. She whipped her head around and saw a boulder nearly ten feet in diameter racing down toward her. Terenzia was so stupefied and dumbfounded that she couldn't sidestep fast enough before the boulder knocked her over and rolled over her like a rolling pin. Terenzia was crushed to death by the boulder. Her remains were unsightly; Wisp cleaned them up quickly.

Terenzia Sample, District 10 Female: 6th, Killed by Rolling Boulder, Day 10

Terenzia's boulder wasn't the only boulder of the day. Glowing and Swell had split up in their hunting. Glowing was trekking down a steep hill when he heard rustling behind him and saw a huge boulder racing down toward him. Nimble Glowing was able to dive to the left fast enough that the boulder only crushed his foot. Glowing swore in pain and grabbed his foot. It had been crushed flat by the weight of the boulder, and you had better believe that it hurt like hell. Over the next few hours, Glowing was unable to stop the wound from getting infected. The arena was filled with disease. The broken and mashed up skin was the perfect entry point for who-knows-what to enter his body. Within twelve hours, Glowing's ankle was severely infected. Glowing howled with pain nearly perpetually. Red and pink streaks spread out from his crushed foot, and the wound dripped pus whenever he moved too suddenly. Finally, after nearly twenty hours, the infection became too severe for his body to keep fighting. Gold Carson's son gave into the infection, and as his eyes rolled back into his head only four tributes remained.

Glowing Clinton, District 1 Male: 5th, Killed by Infection, Day 10

Little else of note happened on Day 10, or on Days 11 and 12 for that matter. Technik received a hatchet from a sponsor, which he used to topple three trees around a small ditch. Inside of his fort with wooden walls, Technik felt safe and secure. Swell, the sole remaining career, gave up on hunting and instead decided to just stay at the horn. It would only be a matter of time before the other tributes were driven toward him, Swell reasoned, and he might as well be prepared when that happened. On Day 11, Isaku got a pocketknife from a sponsor. She went hunting on Day 12 but found nothing. She actually got lost and couldn't find her base camp, but this could have been a blessing in disguise because she had exhausted her living space of its natural resources anyways and needed a fresh start. Johnson was as paranoid as ever. He refused to leave his hiding spot, and when food was short he resorted to catching the rats and spiders that scuttled into his hiding place and eating them.

The constant sound of the rain was shattered when a cannon shot boomed on Day 13's morning. Johnson had been hiding underneath the strong tree forever, and his supplies of water from the horn and sparse sponsor gifts just couldn't keep up with his raging thirst. Johnson's death was the second of dehydration in these games. In the older generation of games, it was common for four or five dehydration deaths to occur in one games. In more recent games, however, it was notably rare to have one or two dehydration deaths. The games continued onward, and Johnson's emaciated corpse was left to rot away on the stony floor of the prison that he was finally free from.

Johnson Metallurgist, District 6 Male: 4th, Killed by Dehydration, Day 13

That was really all for Day 13. The final three milled about without much to do. Swell was the exception, of course. With so few tributes left, he hunted feverishly, seemingly having changed his mind from his previous attitude of waiting for prey to come to him on a silver platter. Isaku practiced her karate, knowing that it would be more important than ever in the final fight. Technik paced around nervously. His hatchet was a weapon that he could use with substantial accuracy, but he didn't know if he could beat out Isaku or Swell in the final battle. Like the second half of Day 13, Day 14 was deathless. Isaku continued practicing her art. Swell continued hunting. Technik started practicing with his hatchet and began throwing together some skills and tactics for the final battle.

Day 15 saw a single death. The gamemakers had noticed for a few hours that Isaku and Swell were headed toward each other, but they weren't sure when they would meet, or if they would meet at all. Isaku began to stray from the course, but the two tributes rendezvoused in a clearing around eleven in the morning on Day 15. As the blob that each tribute saw formed into a person, the tributes both charged. Swell tackled Isaku, but she managed to jump out of the way and smack him in the neck. He stumbled, taken aback, as Isaku whirled in a circle. She kicked out a foot, and disoriented Swell tripped over it and landed face-first onto the ground like an idiot. Isaku reached down with her pocketknife and drew a heavy line down Swell's wrist. Swell stumbled to his feet just as Isaku slashed the knife across his other wrist. Blood poured from the gashes, and the speed and accuracy with which Swell swung his trident depleted in due time. Swell was growing weak from blood loss, and soon his body just wasn't replenishing the stuff fast enough. Swell's death didn't happen all at once. He collapsed. Everything but the absence of his cannon shot suggested that he was dead, but Isaku still saw him breathing painfully. He slowly looked more and more dead. It is often suggested that dead people look asleep. But, to Isaku, Swell just looked… dead. Like a candle with its flame blown out. Isaku marched off with the slightest spring in her step. She had only one opponent remaining, and she was confident that she could take down Technik.

Swell Mckenzie, District 4 Male: 3rd, Killed by Isaku, Day 15

On Day 16, Wisp lit the world ablaze. The fire started on the perimeter of the arena, forcing the two remaining tributes toward the horn as it spread. Isaku heard the fire before she saw it. She felt pulsating warmth and a rushing sound behind her. Isaku whipped around and yelped when she saw the fire that was spreading through the forest, burning the black trees like paper. The rain didn't put the fire out, and no matter how hard Isaku tried she couldn't make herself move. She was frozen in place as if paralyzed. When a burning branch fell mere feet from her and a shower of hot sparks sprayed her leg, she was shocked back to her senses. Isaku picked up her pocketknife and she ran. Meanwhile, Technik was camping out in a tree when he saw that the tree was on fire beneath him. Technik dropped out of the tree and bent his knees in landing. He had lots of things on him and decided to only take his hatchet. He was about to leave when his eyes landed on the metal pole he had gotten a few days ago. For reasons nobody is really sure of, he took the pole with him to his last showdown with Isaku.

The two tributes met up at the cornucopia, and the instant that they did Isaku charged toward the District 3 boy. She reached out a hand to punch Technik, but he sidestepped and slammed his hatchet into her shoulder. He hadn't slammed down without enough force to deal her any severe injuries, but Isaku hissed and threw her hand onto her shoulder as if she could absorb the pain.

Technik saw a flash of lightning, and inspiration hit. He ran toward the nearest shogei and then ran on top of the metal cornucopia. Isaku followed him. Technik tied the end of the shogei's chain onto his metal bar. Then, he waited. This was a high-risk, high-reward situation, and Technik wasn't sure if it would even work out.

A flash of lightning lit up the sky, and the rest is history, one of the greatest ever kills in the great story of the Hunger Games. Technik hurled the shogei into the air. In the clearing, it acted as a lightning rod. Technik dove off of the horn just as Isaku threw herself on top of it. The bolt of electricity travelled through the knife, down the chain, into the metal bar, and throughout the metal cornucopia. Technik landed on the ground with a thud as the electric current shot through Isaku's body and scorched black every part of her that was touching the horn, which was live with energy. The jolt of electricity killed her instantaneously.

Isaku Suzuki, District 5 Female: 2nd, Killed by Technik, Day 16

"Technik Hartline of District 3, you are the victor of the forty-second annual Hunger Games!" Wisp applauded.

Technik got to his feet and wiped the grime off of his clothes, waiting for the hovercraft to come down and whisk him away from the arena and back to the technological district that he loved.

Technik Hartline, District 3 Male: Victor of the Forty-Second Hunger Games, Day 16


AFTERMATH

District 3 was elated to receive their seventh victor. This placed them ahead of District 1 in terms of number of victors, and District 1 was infuriated, even throwing rotten fruit at Technik during his victory tour and tossing rude comments his way. District 5 was cold at the loss of Isaku, for it had been many years since a tribute as powerful had made it as far as she had in the games. District 6 also was mad at her, as their Johnson hadn't returned home. The Capitol adored Technik for his ingenuity and talent, and he quickly became a Capitol favorite.

Technik moved into the Victor's Village of District 3, the seventh victor to do so.

His victory tour was quite a mess, as Districts 1, 5, and 6 hated him. In each of those districts, he was degraded and showered with ill will for the entirety of his stay.

Technik would not turn to any sort of intoxicant to quiet the rampant memories of his time during the games, but he would turn to sex to quiet his demons. He would spend the rest of his life frequenting strip clubs and brothels to keep the memories of his games from flooding back to him. He would turn out as a rather poor example of a victor, and he was so involved with his sex life that he didn't pay much attention to anything else. He wouldn't marry but would adopt a son. However, the son was neglected and ignored by Technik because he was so engrossed in other things, so he would be forced to give him up. Technik would live to the age of seventy-four, dying from an STD around the time of the one-hundredth Hunger Games. Technik was one of the few victors to not be prostituted by Snow, as he wasn't attractive my most means and nobody liked him enough to pay the heavy victor's cost that Snow imposed.


NEWS

Technik moves into the Victor's Village of District 3, the seventh victor to do so.

Dayta Albrand has her second child with her spouse, a boy named Router.

Diamond Griego, the victor of the twenty-fifth annual Hunger Games, the first Quarter Quell, dies from liver cancer.


LIST OF VICTORS

1HG: Cordin Frey (#1, District 3)
2HG: Sapphire Waber (#1, District 1)
3HG: Molly Toliday (#1, District 4)
4HG: Amelia Spangler (#1, District 2)
5HG: Misty Sablone (#1, District 12)
6HG: Olivia Seager (#2, District 2)
7HG: Flux Stafford (#2, District 3)
8HG: Brandi Coyne (#2, District 1)
9HG: Isaac Crandall (#1, District 5)
10HG: Velvet Farrow (#3, District 1)
11HG: Mags Flanagan (#2, District 4)
12HG: Slate Ogston (#3, District 2)
13HG: Woof Dozier (#1, District 8)
14HG: Blaze Skalnik (#4, District 2)
15HG: Dina Wilmarth (#2, District 5)
16HG: Beatrice Toland (#1, District 6)
17HG: Amelia Bankston (#5, District 2)
18HG: Markus Gardd (#2, District 6)
19HG: Odius Ruttler (#6, District 2)
20HG: Seeder Kaiser (#1, District 11)
21HG: Freya Digard (#7, District 2)
22HG: Gold Carson (#4, District 1)
23HG: Ashlyn Breston (#3, District 6)
24HG: Dayta Albrand (#3, District 3)
25HG: Diamond Griego (#5, District 1)
26HG: Thor Rosner (#8, District 2)
27HG: Magnet Lisagor (#4, District 3)
28HG: Maria Dutra (#3, District 4)
29HG: Discordia Komine (#9, District 2)
30HG: Barley Chisolm (#1, District 9)
31HG: Marlin Coppi (#4, District 4)
32HG: Wyatt Kerdler (#5, District 3)
33HG: Molly Soltan (#5, District 4)
34HG: Grover Handa (#1, District 7)
35HG: Troy Stiles (#6, District 4)
36HG: Lana Voltaire (#10, District 2)
37HG: Lucy Said (#7, District 4)
38HG: Porter Tripp (#3, District 5)
39HG: Penelope Turek (#8, District 4)
40HG: Beetee Latier (#6, District 3)
41HG: Radiance Clinton (#6, District 1)
42HG: Technik Hartline (#7, District 3)