AUTHOR'S NOTES: Don't think that with the quell gone that there won't be any more interesting chapters till the next one or the next canon character shows up. I've got a few ideas up my sleeve that will keep this plenty entertaining, rest assured. Also, obviously the Cressida in this chapter is not the one from the books. It's just a girl that shares the same name.
Happy Reading!

The 26th Annual Hunger Games

After the thrilling events that were entailed in Panem's first "Quarter Quell", the Capitol began to wonder if they could top a show like that. Of course, they could continue to step up the traps and hazards, and make the arenas more breathtaking, but there was only so much they could do with the tributes from Districts 5-12 that almost never produced volunteers of any sort, thus leaving their pickings up to chance. More often than not, it seemed, they produced weaker children unsuited for fighting. It wasn't that aspect that the Capitol worried about, quite as much as the quality of the show that they could produce. The Gamemakers needed to dazzle the audiences again and again for these games to be worthwhile, although "luckily" for them, they were far from losing momentum.

Thus when the 26th Annual Hunger Games rolled around, the Capitol had upgraded a few things. The training center had been revamped with up-to-date and top-of-the-line facilities and technology, and the training time period was extended to 5 days up from 3. With a sort of 'drive to survive' motif going in in this building, many of the tributes were motivated to work harder to ensure their own survival.

Then of course, there were the careers, who took pride and pleasure in the games, and had no qualms with fighting off other children. Many of them had been training to be Peacekeepers, particularly in District 2, and so they were inching ahead of their District 1 counterparts very gradually in terms of performance. Daron Armstrong and his partner Cressida LaRoue were among these.

On the other hand, the Capitol did not want to remove the survival element from the games, knowing that if they made it solely based on combat that the games would be over in just a few hours as the strong kids mowed down the weaker kids. No, there was definitely a survival element necessary to keep the Hunger Games from being a repetitive ritual where District 2 kids killed everyone else year after year with the occasional District 1 victor thrown in.

After their recent victory, Vance and Sienna, the pair from District 12, were a bit more prepped than most of their predecessors had ever been. They did manage to scare a few of the other tributes in the training center by painting their faces red with what appeared to be blood. Obviously none of the tributes showed any physical injury, and while it was clear that these two had been over at the camouflage station, there were no signs of their red concoction.

Most of the others figured that they might end up being bloodbath fodder, although the arena changed that mindset fairly quickly. Surrounding all of them was a dense forest that appeared to be rife with game and other creatures. It seemed that there were going to be elements of both combat and survival embedded in these games.

While it was not as infamous as the games 16 years ago where there were only weird-shaped maces in the cornucopia, this year there was nothing there but weapons of all kinds. Any kind of weapon the tributes could imagine or think of could be found there, and a certain District 6 girl even found a crossbow, putting it to great use during the bloodbath.

12 tributes died on this first day, cutting the tribute pool in half by nightfall. The careers, who were not used to hunting and foraging for their own food, had a bit more trouble that year than usual, while those District 12 kids were right at home. They did manage to ambush the girl from District 1 later in the evening, where their faces and arms were already painted red with blood and their feet were bare. It was almost as if the arena had turned them feral, but their performance was hard to argue with. Vance and Sienna seemed to both be doing well.

The advance of the careers was hindered when the District 1 boy's partner triggered a trap set up by District 11, and then was finished off by the girl with the crossbow. Cressida managed to take it from her by lodging a knife into her skull and retrieving the weapon.

"What do you call it when you kill someone and take their stuff," Cressida quipped to her partner,

"Tuesday," Daron grunted, giving Cressida a decent chuckle. Daron was waiting quietly for his time to strike. He hoped not to have to turn on Cressida, but he would if it came down to it. That was what the careers did. Unfortunately, there was that District 12 pair to worry about, and the pair from District 7 had not been seen since the bloodbath.

Days passed, and whatever threat the District 7 pair was, soon dissipated with their deaths. However, Vance and Sienna were still at large, as were three others. Gradually, the pairs from Districts 2 and 12 eliminated the remainder of the competition, culminating in a 4-day game of hide-and-seek that ended on day 15 as the two groups confronted each other and did battle. As Daron fought, he also "accidentally" slashed at Cressida, who was strong enough to shrug it off with little more than a "watch it, jerk!" as the fight continued.

Vance was bested shortly after Sienna, and it was around this time that Cressida had realized what Daron had done.

"You sly bastard…" she wheezed, a bit winded herself, "but I ain't giving up without a fight."

"I'd expect nothing less from a woman so much my equal," Daron agreed, "come, let us finish it."
And a fight was exactly what she gave, her steel clashing against Daron's as the boy fought for dominance. He finally was able to succeed in this regard by nearly lopping off her arm, where he managed to stall her out as she bled out. As soon as Cressida's face hit the sky, the games had ended. Daron was now the 5th victor from District 2, and the 26th victor of the Hunger Games.

Despite 'backstabbing' his partner during the games, Daron had held no grudges against her, and later even admitted that he would have been fine if she had bested him. Really, the games came down to smarts, strength, and survival skills: three "S"s that he coined during his victor's interview. Even back at home though, Daron remained a fairly quiet young man, who always seemed to have a scheme or two up his sleeve. Now that they were two victors 'ahead' of District 1 though, he had helped establish a trend that District 2 would continue to dominate for years to come…

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)
25HG: Laurel Fox (#1, District 12)
26HG: Daron Armstrong (#5, District 2)