Yo yo yo everybody! Chase here with a new chapter. Not much to say here, just that this one may be a bit shorter than the others, but it's more of a lighthearted, fun chapter. Not much to say here, so I'll just post the regular stuff. As always, I'll be posting stuff like this to keep this story where people will find it (around the first two pages) and I'll be updating this fairly often, considering I've hit a bit of a wall with my other two stories. Also, be sure to tell me how you like my idea of the Forbidden Zones (explained in Chapter One—the arena is divided into sectors. Twice a day, a different zone will be selected; if a tribute steps into it, they will be blown up. The idea comes from one of my favourite novels of all time—Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. Great read if you ever feel like it… The Hunger Games is a lot like it—I'm saying it this way because Battle Royale was released in 1999, long before THG). Again, I'm taking reserves, but they must be requested through PM, and you have exactly one week after you make the request to come up with the sheet; lastly, I'm starting to let people make more than one tribute—but there's a higher chance one will be a Bloodbath tribute; also, there's a better chance they'll be accepted over someone else vying for that spot if your tribute is extremely well-written ;) . As always, this chapter will have quite a bit of hilarity in it—usually caused by Ivre, no doubt. Also there's a bit of a sing-along later in the chapter, courtesy of Ivre, Ian and one of Ivre's friends. The song is Guren no Yumiya by Linked Horizon-better known as the Attack on Titan Theme song. Anyway, just read on!
Disclaimer: I don't know why I have to keep putting this. I don't, nor will I ever, own The Hunger Games. It all belongs to Suzanne Collins; I'm merely treating this story as if the other two books in the series never existed (aside from the Quell in Catching Fire).
August 23rd, 21:00 – The Capitol
"See, Zero, I told you that if you just trust in me, I'd see us through this!"
"I hardly consider this seeing us through!"
"Don't take that tone with me, Zero! We should be back at the hotel within minutes!"
"We're at least fifteen miles away!"
…Yep. Ivre and Ian broke out of jail. Again. Oh, and they kept the paintings they stole… not to mention the ten squads of Peacekeepers chasing after them to retake the paintings and send Zero—er, Ian, sorry about that—to jail and put Ivre back in his mansion.
Although, seeing as how the last two times Ivre simply broke Ian out, one would wonder why they're even wasting their time. It's almost as if Ivre has crazy powers when he's drunk like this… or perhaps he's just very, very crafty and resourceful.
Either way, Ian is not happy about this. In fact, he's talking to himself while running—"'You should work for the president's secretary, Ian, it'll be fun, Ian! This would be a great internship on your record, Ian! Look after the president, Ian! He shouldn't give you any trouble!' I'm going to kick all their asses when I'm done with this…" he grumbles.
"Look out Zero." says Ivre, jogging along rather leisurely; he grabs Ian's arm and yanks him out of the way of a dumpster he nearly ran into.
"NO! Put me down, you big beast!" screams Ariana of District Twelve, kicking and pounding at the gigantic hand that has just snatched her up. Her frantic strikes make only resounding noises against the gauntleted hand of the creature; she refuses to look into its fearsome red eyes, for fear that she will fall prey to it. She had woken this morning, the sixth day of these Games, to no deaths—there had been absolutely zero deaths over the days—and still not one person had seen hide nor hair of Colress, male tribute of District Three. Seconds after she had awoken, the giant hand smashed through the front of the building she had hidden in and snatched her up, bringing her face to face with the creature she had been fearing since the beginning.
It utters a horrid grunt, as if it is trying to speak, but nothing comes out; when she looks at it weirdly, it snorts in rage—rather like a pig, actually (if you want a better image, {and you don't know this reference, look it up on Google images} think of Oolong's robot disguise in the original Dragon Ball) and throws her headfirst into the ground, snapping her neck on impact, and her cannon fires almost instantly; but it doesn't stop there. It raises its heavy battleax and allows it to loom over her twisted neck like a grim moon, then drops it and cuts her head clean off. Blood has spattered the sunbaked walls of the clean area… and just as it appeared, the creature is gone.
Meanwhile, Colress has actually been hiding out in the citadel where they started this entire time. He had found some wiring and other supplies from rummaging around in the top ring, and he has begun to set his trap; he laughs quietly to himself. "Hell yeah… this Games is gonna go out with a bang." And this would be true…
…Had Leanne, female tribute of District 9 not have been sabotaging his trap this entire time. Whenever he would lay down a wire or place an explosive or other sort of device, she would tamper with it ever so slightly—to the point where it wasn't even noticeable; and then, she would steal his food. But she isn't ready to kill Colress—not yet; she's rather enjoying this little game she's playing: hide-and-go-sabotage-the-little-bastard. During the Pregame, she had grown to hate Colress for his naturally haughty nature, and she had personally sworn to kill him if she had the chance.
But instead, she's going to play with him, just a little bit longer. Then she will kill him in his sleep, and in the final few, the others will come to the citadel, and she'll trigger an explosion to make the ceiling collapse in on them—if any even survive the explosion, that is. There's so much she can do.
She feels a sharp pain in the back of her neck—moving her hand to that spot, she discovers a small knife, more of a kunai actually, sticking into her. It's not life-threatening, not at that spot; then another pierces the side of her neck, and then another into her back. "H-how…?" she mutters, looking around weakly; blood is beginning to dribble from the side of her mouth. She can barely move; her heart rate is slowing down. She read (*cough* stole *cough) her mother's medical book back home—this shouldn't have that effect on a person; she couldn't have bled out this quickly… unless… "Poison." She says with a bitter laugh; of course!
Leanne of District 9 dies with her face frozen in that same vitriolic laugh; Colress kicks her body over and retrieves his daggers. "They say never to mess with a genius. They are right approximately 99.75196 percent of the time. And of course, this is one of those times," he says coldly, returning to his invention. This truly will become the greatest Games in the 70's. Or so he believes.
Unbeknownst to him, however, the others are coming sooner than he had hoped. The Careers are nearly upon him right now—well, Helios and Sapphire are. Marlene got lost and stumbled onto Paisley, who she is currently fighting, trident to axe, fisherwoman to girl with a crazy-ass dad.
Marlene thrusts her trident at Paisley, who merely sidesteps and swings her axe—which is blocked by Marlene with relative ease. Marlene stabs once more at Paisley, though this time she attempts to trip her; this tactic works, and Paisley is on her back on the ground. As Marlene raises her trident to deliver the final blow, Paisley rolls over to the side slightly—just out of the way of the weapon. She grabs her axe and swings it upward, cutting into Marlene's side. She uses the axe to fling her down and get on top of her, slashing down with the axe several more times, even after the cannon fires.
Should Helios and Sapphire have been watching this, they would have realized not to mess with Paisley.
"Mr. President, can we go home now?" asks Ian quietly.
"Zero my boy… this is home now." Ivre replies, leaning back. The rocking of the boxcar serves as a bit of a rhythmic lullaby to the drunken man, whose eyes are finally beginning to shut. He leans his head to the side and begins to drift off to sleep, until…
"Mr. President?"
"Yes, Zero?"
"Who is driving this train?"
"Ah, that my boy… would be Dane Eclater. Head Gamemaker and total psychopath. Well, not so sure about that last part. But he's definitely a crazy drunk." Ivre says with a fond grin.
Meanwhile, up at the front of the train, a man with long, waist-length brown hair that is crazy and wild, with tanned skin and violet eyes is driving the locomotive, a bottle of sake in the hand that is not controlling the steering. "WOO~ WOO~" he mimicks the sound of a train whistle. "ALRIGHT~ LET'S DO THIS~ LEEROOOOOOOOYYYY~ JEENNKIINNNNSSS!" he says happily, giggling. Downing the bottle of sake, he tosses it out the open window (which is providing quite a bit of cold air for him) and begins to sing.
In Japanese. "Fumareta hana no, namae moshirazu ni~ chi ni ochita tori wa, kaze wo machiwabiru~" and from the back, Ivre joins in; "Inotta tokoro de, nani mo kawaranai~ ima o kaeru no wa, tatakau kaku go da~"
Ian, taking a long swig from a Jack Daniels bottle, continues: "Shikabane fumikoete, susumu ishi wo warau buta yo~ kachiku no annei, kyogi no han'ei~ shiseru garou JIYUU~ wo~"
Then in a single harmony, the drunken cabal sings out loudly, "Torawareta kutsujoku wa~ hangeki no koushi da~ jouheki no sono kanata~ emono wo hofuru~ JÄGER~" they all laugh and drink at this part, "Hotobashiru~ shoudou ni~ sono mi wo yakinagara~ tasogare ni, hi wo ugatsu~ GUREN NO YUMIYA~~"
"…President Ivre?" asks Ian quietly.
"Yes my boy?"
"…What was that we just sang."
"That would be the theme song for Attack on Titan. I recently rediscovered some old texts about it while surfing the internet while drunk and we were able to recreate it. Greatest thing I've ever seen."
"After The Grand Budapest Hotel?"
"What do you mean, Zero? We can't go back to the hotel now."
Ian sighs. Good enough. "My mom is gonna kill me…"
The days have droned on—Helios and Sapphire have been watching Colress, to see what he has been doing; Paisley has been doing the same. Crazy part: Paisley is a floor above the Career duo—same house and everything. Basically, she's going to kill them when they go to sleep.
Then they all hear Colress taunting: "Come out, come out little tributes. I'm unarmed, just sweet little Colress-chan."
Finally, to stop this annoying, incessant teasing, Paisley decides to jump from her window and rush the citadel. This certainly takes Colress by surprise when she tackles him; he smirks at her, knowing he can't beat her, when she raises the axe over her head; he pulls a remote from his pocket and presses the button…
…
…
"What the hell?" Colress exclaims, pressing the button several more times. Nothing. "Damn it! That damned Leanne must have messed everything up…!" He gurgles a bit—her axe is lodged in his throat. His cannon fires quickly… but then there's a huge explosion that lights up the dimming, evening sky. The citadel rocks under the force, and several chunks of stone crumble down—including one that crushes Paisley to death.
"…What the hell just happened?" says Helios.
"…I don't know. I really don't know," says Sapphire, "but can you believe it, Helios?! We did it!"
"I could kiss you right now," says Helios happily.
"Then why don't you?" Sapphire says, leaning in and kissing him softly; then she groans out. She pulls away, looking down: a sickle sword is piercing through her stomach and out her back. What's worse is that Helios is holding the sword, a smirk gracing his fair features. "W-what…?"
"You may not believe this, Sapphy, but I've been playing you all since the very beginning. I had every intention of this—I'll admit, all this kissing has been fun and stuff. But let's get real—I would never have let you win. And thanks to this, you never will." Helios says, his usually pleasant voice now twisted by his true ferocity. "Sorry Sapphire." He smirks a bit more, thrusting the sword in deeper and twisting a bit. "Sorry I'm not sorry."
And thus Helios Marullus, son of Brutus Marullus, won the Seventy-eighth Hunger Games. Were he still alive (having died in the Seventy-fifth Games), his father would have been quite proud of him—he had pulled a similar tactic in his own Games.
"ATTENTION: PULL THE TRAIN OVER NOW. I REPEAT: PULL THE TRAIN OVER NOW."
"Shit, we've been found!" Ivre says. He runs up to the front of the boxcar, leans out the door and yells to the locomotive, "THE FUZZ IS ON US, DANE! GET YOUR ASS IN GEAR!"
Several Peacekeeper hovercraft are trailing the train, all with paratrooper squads bent on retrieving the president, Head Gamemaker, and jailing the intern whose name nobody knows nor cares about. Should be easy, right?
Well, we'll have to wait until next time!
You heard the narrator, folks! Of course, that would be me. But… you know. Also, we got our first look at Mr. Explosive himself, Dane Eclater (his last name actually roughly translates to "explode" or "explosion" in French, just like Ivre translates roughly to "drunk" in French) As usual, there are several references to The Grand Budapest Hotel, one of my favourite movies of the year. Anyway, we're starting to get down to business with tributes, only a few spots left (hell yeah!) so I'm planning to start writing the Reapings soon. Would you guys want me to alternate between Reapings and these chapters after I do, so I have more time to write the Reapings? Because honestly, the Reapings would take a bit longer to write than this since these are my own characters—I want it to be as perfect as I can get it when I write yours. Anyway, thanks for reading everyone. Take care, have a nice day and all that!
~Chase
Tribute list – So far
District 1 – Luxury Goods
Male: Obsidian Gold – Danny Takuto
Female: Elizabeth Grace Morgan "Belle" – Rosemarie Benson
District 2 – Masonry
Male: Nero Valentine – Nightlock Stained Lips
Female: Valariea Heroin – HarryPotterNut1
District 3 – Technology
Male: Oliver Mullins – JaceWillcutt
Female: Lattice Kerr – GreenApple312
District 4 – Seafood and the like
Male: Reserved – LokiThisIsMadness
Female: Marina Caspian - o Sweet Disposition o
District 5 – Electricity
Male: Reserved – David Noklevername
Female: Celia Crossan – AlisonBlock
District 6 – Transportation
Male: Vince Chanel - BubbaKeith
Female: Reserved – ThatMusician
District 7 – Lumber
Male: Justin Myer – Danny Takuto
Female: Capri Dusk – ThatMusician
District 8 – Textiles
Male: Kestrel Cross - rdfalcon560
Female: Lacey Spool – Kittens In The Closet
District 9 – Grain
Male: Holden Stross – hollowman96
Female: Luna Marissa Moonlight Starbright (Joke tribute/Bloodbath) – Hi
District 10 – Livestock
Male: Axel Adamik – The Koala of Doom
Female: Lauren Lancaster – Hi
District 11 – Agriculture
Male: Akakios Hibbert – The Koala of Doom
Female: Rebecca Thorne – Comettail76
District 12 – Coal
Male: Aspen Northill – LincsStef
Female: Jasmine Polk – Danny Takuto
WOO! Look at that, folks! Soon as we get the two reserved characters submitted, we'll be good to go! I know I've asked this already, but I didn't get much response-do you guys mind if I alternate between these chapters and the Reapings once they start? It would probably take a little longer to write the Reapings than these, considering these are just alternating between the crazy antics of the president and his intern whose name nobody knows nor cares about and then past Games which I can just make up as I go (not that I would, of course).
P.S.
Jace-san and Danny-san:
You're both in for some tough competition. I think you'd be afraid if you saw how ruthless my girlfriend is ;) she told me to warn you before she steals my computer and writes a slow, painful death for each of your tributes. I don't want to say exactly what she said, but all I can say is... beware her ginger fury. You two are awesome and I would hate to see her destroying you both with the replica of Sting I got her for her birthday. Or any of the weapons we've bought for each other over the years.
I really don't know what I'm talking about anymore, to be perfectly honest XD
So, eh... I guess check yo'selves before you wreck yo'selves~ Chase~