AUTHOR'S NOTES: People have asked me before if I hate District 9 or District 4 or District whatever else. The answer is that no, there's no district I particularly hate. I do like some more than others, but that does not necessarily affect the number of victors a district produces. There are a lot of other things that go into it than that. On another note, I am actually fairly proud of this chapter. Not wanting to let it get eclipsed by the one afterwards that I'm sure many people are hotly anticipating, I put a lot of time and intrigue into it in preparation for what's to come.
Happy Reading!

The 24th Annual Hunger Games

Upsets were somewhat commonplace among the betting communities for the Hunger Games, and among the tributes themselves. Sometimes a mighty career tribute was offed by someone that none of the others might have suspected of being capable of such. Other times, the careers predictably won, and it came down to a 50-50 chance of whether or not District 2's boy would kill the girl, or the other way around. The 24th Annual Hunger Games was a surprise not for that, but for being the first of its kind.

Juniper Daniels and Dante Lockhearst seemed like promising tributes to come from District 4 that year, but they quickly got outshined by the career pack that they had refused to join—Spartan and Cynthia from District 1, and Brock and Severa from District 2. Juniper was more worried about them than Dante, but that might have been because the boy was a much better fighter. The training scores later proved just that, with Juniper only scoring a 6, while Dante scored a 9. By contrast, three of the careers scored 10s, while Severa scored an 11. The only other outlier was a girl from District 9 by the humble name of Olivia Thurman, who also scored a 9.

District 4 was definitely out of their elements in the arena though, feeling very much like fish out of water. The vast, blazing desert expanse that spread out all around them meant that water would be tough to come by this year. Sure enough, water was scarce, and the scant few watering holes that the arena provided were fought over rather viciously, especially as a couple tributes nearly went insane from thirst.

Juniper and Dante survived the bloodbath, as did the wily District 3 pair and the four careers. Like the year before, both tributes from District 9 also survived, although Severa offed the boy later that evening. His much more graceful counterpart managed to evade death, although did assassinate two tributes under the desert stars, adding two to her kill count. Overall, only 7 tributes had died in the bloodbath, although another three had died that evening.

The desert offered few places to hide, with the exception of the occasional rock or tree to take shelter from the sizzling sun above them during the day. At night the temperature dropped into a much more comfortable range, although Dante and Juniper found it slightly cooler than they would have liked, what with being from a much warmer locale.

After 5 days of not seeing the careers or the District 3 pair, District 4 feared that they had teamed up. On the other hand, the career pack had not seen District 3 or District 5 during this time, and so wondered if they had made a four-way alliance. An answer came to Dante on day 7 when they were met with the pair from District 5 and the pair from District 3, who were clearly advancing on them. Naturally, they decided that between fight or flight, they would choose flight. However, it turned out that they were 'pursuing' the pair for non-hostile reasons. They wanted Spartan, Cynthia, Brock, and Severa dead just as much as Dante and Juni did.

And thus the two-pronged hunt began, as Dante learned that their names were Sterling and Misha. The career pack cut down two more tributes, leaving all but two of the tributes from the six outer districts dead. The only other one that had somehow evaded capture was a tiny little girl from District 12, who had clearly either allied herself with someone, or was so savvy with rocks and mining (something that did not seem likely considering her size and age) that she was surviving solo.

Dante and Juni's alliance soon learned the hard way what had happened. On the 8th day, Olivia attacked them, with little Lark Velasco at her side. Her cute charm made her hard to attack, but also because she wasn't attacking. She was carrying a bag and tossing things from it to Olivia, which turned out to be grenades. Olivia was the one pushing the offensive with these explosive devices, some of which blew up almost like bombs, while others seemed to release smoke or shocks.

District 12 was still full of rebels, even nearly a quarter century after the Dark Days. A lot of the citizens from this district worked undercover and built these sort of sabotage devices, and similarly, taught their children the tricks of the trade. Lark was one of these children apparently, and it seemed that in return for protection, she was making these for Olivia. Besides, the demure but dangerous District 9 girl was proving to be quite the menace with these explosives. Misha and the District 5 pair did not survive the fight. Somehow Olivia had survived despite copious injuries—the girl was annoyingly difficult to kill. To make matters worse, as the survivors suddenly went into hot pursuit of Olivia (who had practically thrown Lark over her shoulders and ran while carrying her), they ran into the career pack, who saw easy pickings. The pursuit began afresh.

There was a three day game of hide-and-seek, in which Sterling, Cynthia, and Brock were slain. Spartan also met his demise on the 10th day at the hands of Olivia, who was somewhat devastated at the death of her little bomb-crafting partner Lark at the District 1 boy's hands.

Through all of this, however, Dante remained alive and well. He and his partner Juni were both still alive, and thus his abilities to defend her still stood. Unfortunately, Night 11 was where Juniper met her demise at the hands of Severa, whom Dante immediately locked into combat with, pursuing and combatting the girl late into the night until she had been bested, and Dante stood triumphantly over her as the sun rose on the 12th Morning. Realizing that he was in no condition to fight Olivia in his current state, he found a reclusive hiding spot near a good clean water source, and rested for a full day.

Luckily for him, Olivia either could not find him or did not hunt for him during this time. It was the 15th morning before the two tributes were rested enough to hunt for and fight each other, which they did. Unlike most of the other battles though, these two seemed to have a mutual understanding.

"You seem a decent person;" Dante noted, "I'd hate to kill you."
"You seem a decent person," Olivia replied. "I'd hate to die."
their blades clashed, since Olivia was devoid of the District 12 grenades that Lark had crafted. Slowly, Dante began to gain the upper hand, and eventually got Olivia to the ground.

"That was an amazing fight," she exclaimed.

"Amazing indeed," Dante nodded. "I'm sorry it had to be this way."
"As am I," Olivia sighed, clutching her chest, glancing forlornly at her sword, which had been knocked from her hand and was now out of reach. She had been so close to securing a victory for District 9—a victory that they sorely needed.

…and yet she did not consider it the end of the line just yet. As Dante raised his blade to give her a quick and painless execution, she grabbed a rock and threw it at his head, striking him and knocking him down. This was all the time she swift and graceful grail district girl needed.

"Nothing personal…" she whispered, and as she cut his throat, it was as if he was about to nod. It had been a good fight, but it had had to come to an end somewhere. With his death ringing out, Olivia Thurman had become the 1st victor from District 9, and the 24th victor of the games overall.

Like many from her district, Olivia turned to drinking some of the finest beers the district had to offer, and while it may have inhibited her mentor skills, she was smarter than she let on. Victors and mentors came and went, and yet she persisted, getting to know each and every one of them that came before her, and each one that came after her. She had proven many times in the arena that she flat-out refused to die, and thus she had emerged as the champion. This resilience may have helped her beer-consuming habits, and may have also played a part in her longevity. Whatever the case, a district "full of drunk farmers" had just proven that they could produce a victor—a victor from District 9 who had scored a 9 and had slain 9 tributes in the arena. It was a nifty coincidence, but it was the name of the game…

VICTORS BY YEAR:
1HG: Fukaya Kerezaki (#1, District 5)
2HG: Lucy Takamatzu (#1, District 11)
3HG: Naseru Litzak (#1, District 3)
4HG: Naisha Szasz (#1, District 2)
5HG: Jade Prima (#1, District 1)
6HG: Cedar Hardin (#1, District 7)
7HG: Susan Jackman (#2, District 5)
8HG: Malcolm Reed (#1, District 6)
9HG: Mags Cohen (#1, District 4)
10HG: Faren Dragmire (#2, District 1)
11HG: Maius Karuha (#2, District 2)
12HG: Iunius Karuha (#3, District 2)
13HG: Hilda White (#1, District 10)
14HG: Minali Otoyome (#2, District 3)
15HG: Willow James (#3, District 1)
16HG: Lark Chandnea (#2, District 11)
17HG: Woof Casino (#1, District 8)
18HG: Leah Holden (#2, District 7)
19HG: Zeruda Mezkiel (#2, District 6)
20HG: Muscida Lee (#2, District 4)
21HG: Kada Lahka (#4, District 2)
22HG: Gleam DiFronzo (#4, District 1)
23HG: Ivette Coronado (#3, District 5)
24HG: Olivia Thurman (#1, District 9)