Chapter 7

"Wake up, sleepy-head. Rise and shine!" Opening her eyes almost felt like too much a task for the tiger master. The voice vaguely swam into her conciousness, as she waited for it to speak once more, "I know you're awake, lady. You were flinching in your sleep just before you woke up. Now, you're unnaturally still. Therefore, you're awake but you think I don't know. Let me tell you one thing sweetheart: I'm psycho, I'm not stupid. I'm evil, eeeevil!" It had the most haunting voice, that sent chills down Tigress' spine.

"Who are you?" She leapt up, and ran towards the edges of the cage she woke up to, smashing her face between the bars "TELL ME WHO YOU ARE!" She roared in frustration.

"Oh, all in good time dear. But I have the upper-hand now, so I say no." The cloak came out of the shadows to the utter 'delight' of Tigress - she wanted to tear it to pieces. "Don't you want to know about the games? Or your friends?"

"TELL ME WHERE THEY ARE!" She cried, almost in fear. She could not lose the only people she cared for.

"Hun', look around you." Tigress knew better than to disobey, and looked. She was able to make out the sleeping forms of her friends. They were all breathing. They were all fine.

She sighed with relief.

"Kitty, I need your attention. And not just because I'm attractive and you can't wait to rip of my cloak and admire my beautiful form. Oh honey, you should see me in a crown..."

"Why? Why should I listen?" Tigress growled at the, frankly, quite disturbing creature who lurked around her cage.

"Because, mwah darling, this is the only time you'll find out. About the games!" The figure (deicdedly male) squealed in glee at the prospect. She didn't look quite as pleased.

"The games?"

"Yes, lover-ly, the games! Wake up your friends, would you? Be. My. Dear." It was almost a threat, the way he said those last words. Tigress realised that if all of them heard exactly what he said about the 'games', maybe someone could find a loophole. Or an escape. Anything, really...

"PO! MANTIS! CRANE! VIPER! MONKEY! ATTENTION!" She yelled in her most booming, noisy voice. Everywhere seemed to shake with fear at the sound. Obviously, they all became wide-awake straight away. "Yes, you were drugged. Yes, so was I. Yes, we are stuck in prison. What will we do? You will listen carefully, very carefully, to what this guy has to say. The thing is about to tell us about the games. Listen." They just nodded silently. No-one dared to disagree with the fearless tiger. No-one who valued their life, anyway.

"The thing? No, the-very-attractive-mysterious-cloak-guy!"

"Shut up and talk. We're listening."

"Fine, puss in boots. The games? Ooh, the games!" He rubbed his cloak drapes in excitement "My master, who I can't name, has a massive army bigger than China positioned to invade any day. If he invades, basically, you're all screwed. You've no chance, and that's not my exxageration. Even your master agrees." They all looked at each other in worry: Master Shifu knows too? "So, what my master wants, you have to do, or *pow*, all of China dies. Deal?" They all slowly nodded, unsure of what they were letting themselves into...

"Now, my master had this fantastic dream one night. All of the Chinese Kung-Fu masters had this festival, and they were all brought to the highest of their glory and fame. Then, suddenly, they all fell down to this arena, where they were forced to kill each other until one remained. And all of China had to watch. He dreamt of all the villians who were in the arena too, trying to kill the warriors. The warriors even turned on each other; what a twist! Anyway, my Master woke up. And he thought 'what a fabulous idea!'. Don't you all agree? So, he began to turn his dream into a reality." The creature paused, letting the information sink in, "Welcome, my dears, to the Kung-Fu Games! Only one rule: Kill or be killed, and may the odds be EVER in your favour!" Suddenly, massive walls seemed to appear from the ground, seperating each of the team from each other, boxing them up. Tigress raced to a wall and smashed on it, hard. No use. Suddenly, the oh-so familiar voice of the creature seemed could be heard from all around the box... yet from no specific place. Almost as if it was coming from the walls themselves... "Oh, and dears? The interviews are in two evenings time, when you wake up be prepared to meet your stylists and mentors: we need you to be pretty and smart for China, don't we?" Suddenly, the air turned funny, and the world (yet again) turned to black.

A/N: REVIEW! I filmed my own Hunger Games trailer with my friend today: so fun! REVIEW PLEASE! GOODNIGHT!