Chapter 31: Dominatrix vs. Career Tribute
Author's note: This is a short chapter but more is on the way. Enjoy.
Day 16 of the Games, 9:20 am arena time, The Gamemakers Control Room:
Plutarch Heavensbee watched on the television as while Beetee attempted to undo what Tray Wilson had done on the computer, Amanda Snow was being attacked brutally by killer humanoid-Mutts of Hunger Games Victors. She was panting, covered in scars, and had little strength left.
She then came face to face with a duplicate of her own mentor. A humanoid-Mutt of Katniss Everdeen wielding a bow and arrow.
Plutarch saw Amanda hesitated as she looked at the Mutt, but only for a moment. The mutt of the Mockingjay shot an arrow at Amanda but had poor aim. That was a problem that they had with the mutts that they had never quite solved and perfected; they could program the mutt to perform fairly simple tasks but they couldn't make them very smart. A Gamemaker at his terminal could control a mutt more precisely but no one was controlling these ones, these ones were just running on autopilot. Amanda was still alive because both the mutts were not very smart, and she was just darn good.
The mutt of Katniss was dodging and evading while still shooting arrows. Some of the arrows came close to hitting Amanda but she was still fast. The real Katniss Everdeen was strong with a bow and arrow, but the Gamemakers carbon copy was useless with it and no better a fighter then any other unarmed mutts and Amanda quickly cut her down.
"Sorry Katniss!" Amanda called out to the camera.
"Is it over?" said Plutarch to Beetee.
"Not quite." said Beetee. "We've managed to lock all remaining Mutts in the underground holding-pens, except for one."
"Which one?" asked Plutarch.
Beetee tapped a panel twice and a million tiny little holographic pixels appeared and came together to form a hologram of the giant monster that was heading in the direction of the pink haired granddaughter of President Snow.
"This will be bad!" said Plutarch matter-of-factly with a worried expression.
He then saw the blips on the giant holographic map that David Crane and Beverly O'Malley were on the same island and heading in each other's direction. Moments later they reached each other and the fight ensued.
The Head Gamemaker watched on the television, Beverly threw several of Clove's throwing-knives and one cut David in the shoulder but the wound was small. David ran at Beverly but before he could get close he was lashed in the face by the whip and he fell to the ground, dropping Blaze Trenton's long-handled spiked-hammer. The Goth then gave the Gamemaker's son a few more lashes intermixed with what she felt were amusing anecdotes.
"You seem to be in a definite need of a spanking." she said in her deep mystical voice.
'THOWAPP!' went the whip against a weakened David.
"And I don't mean the good kind of spanking."
'THOWAPP!'
"I mean the bad kind."
'THOWAPP!'
"Which can be good if you like that sort of thing."
'THOWAPP!'
"But I can assure you that this bad spanking is going to be good."
'THOWAPP!'
"In a bad way."
But before the next lash, Plutarch saw on the television David muster up a reserve of strength and he grabbed the line of the whip as it lashed at him and he dodged the side. He then pulled himself towards the Goth by hanging onto the line of the whip like climbing a rope horizontally. Beverly let go of the whip. David pulled Cato's sword from his belt. Beverly threw some knives, but David dodged. David lunged at Beverly and slashed. Beverly avoided the slash and grabbed his sword-hand and then grabbed his other hand with her other hand. They wrestled hard on their feet, locked hand to hand, for about a minute. Beverly was crafty, but was physically weaker than David. David pulled her in close and headbutted her hard again and again. While she was disoriented from her spinning head David let go of her and kicked her in the ribcage. With extreme force of will she got back her senses in less than a second and pulled a knife and slashed, but miss. David wasted no time in stabbing her through the stomach with Cato's sword.
Plutarch saw on the television David pull the sword out of the stab wound and then kicked her hard in the head with the heel of his boot. And a few moments later the tracker in the Goth's arm showed that after all her efforts to stay alive, her month's worth of training in the Training Center, all her hiding and evading, fighting multiple opponents, all the gifts that sponsors invested in her, all her clever tricks, her brains, her strength, making it into the top three... it was all in vain. And the tracker in her arm showed that all the life signs, of Beverly O'Malley, finally ceased.
'BOOM!' went the cannon.
"Beetee?" said Plutarch. "You decrypted Tray Wilson's reprogramming yet?"
"Not yet." said the District 3 Victor, his fingers moving quickly back and forth over the panels, trying to stay one step ahead of Tray Wilson's firewall and virus. "I can do it. This I am sure of. It will just take little time."
"Hopefully in time for Amanda to die in a fair fight with David." muttered the Head Gamemaker to himself under his breath. "These whole Games will be a complete waste if David wins by default now."
Katniss Everdeen was in the mentors private control room. She was pacing back and forth. She had been informed of the Gamemaker that was deliberately trying to sabotage her tribute. She was informed of the muttations that were set to kill at the maximum difficulty level. She had gotten on the phone with the Head Gamemaker Plutarch
Heavensbee.
"Amanda has defeated every Mutt and opponent that she has gone up against. Does she have any chance of winning against that thing?" asked Katniss referring to the giant monster that was approaching Amanda.
"If it was set for easy and just to scare, no problem. But set kill on the maximum difficulty level, this mutt is pretty much unbeatable, at least with a sword and throwing knives." explained Plutarch.
"Come on Plutarch!" said Katniss in desperation. "There's got to be some way? Don't the mutts like... have some kind of weakness?"
"If Amanda can damage the mutt's brain implant then it will trigger the mutt's failsafe and it will die in the spot." said Plutarch.
To Katniss that scenario seemed highly unlikely. Katniss cast around the room in thought trying to come up with some idea. She then thought of the deliberate behavioral movements of the humanoid wolflike creatures in the 74th Games, and the carnivorous monkeys and Jabberjays in the Third Quarter Quell, as well as the monsters in the sewers of the Capitol that smelled like blood and perfumed roses.
"Hey Plutarch?" started Katniss as she had an epiphany. "I've been thinking about the behavior of most of the mutts that I've seen, the mutts are usually controlled by a Gamemaker at their console, is that correct?"
"Yes that is correct." said Plutarch.
"But this one that is going to attack Amanda, obviously no Gamemaker is controlling it, so it's acting independently right?"
"Yes that is correct." said Plutarch. "When no Gamemaker at their console is controlling it then it's basically on autopilot following its basic programming, in this case, to kill Amanda Snow."
"Is the mutt intelligent?" asked Katniss. "What I'm asking is, how will it recognize her, exactly?"
"It is programed to recognize everything about her. When it's on autopilot its independent programing makes its mind basically a conscious entity, and will rely on its five senses."
"So if the mutt was to be blinded?" asked Katniss, not finishing her sentence.
Plutarch seemed excited at the idea.
"Then it wouldn't be able to find her." said Plutarch finishing her sentence.
Katniss then looked at the accumulated pool of donated funds from sponsors.
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