AUTHOR'S NOTES: There will obviously be a lot of career victories down the road and whatnot, as well as new twists on old tricks. while this year's games don't feature a canon character, fear not-there are several of them on their way within a few games or so. Just something to think about.
Happy Reading!

The 27th Annual Hunger Games

With the hype of the recent Quarter Quell beginning to die down, the Hunger Games resumed their normal routine just as they had for the last two and a half decades. The 27th Annual Hunger Games was among these, bringing the basics of the games back to their roots.

District 1 was not too satisfied with being bested by District 2, however, and so even though they would still end up forming the usual career alliance, Everlee Tiverto and Cobalt Evans had something of a competitive rivalry between their District 2 counterparts, Carter Woodman and Chelsea Stone, but they formed the usual career pack just as they had most other years.

An odd alliance between Districts 6 and 7 also formed during the training sessions, where Drake Tucson and Rosalina Mahariel formed a type of allegiance with each other and their partners that mixed the craftiness of the District 6 tributes with the survival skills of the District 7 pair. The fact that these four tributes scored 8s and 9s (compared against the 9s and 10s of the career pack) meant that they might actually be a force to be reckoned with.

The arena seemed fairly ordinary, almost as if the Capitol was really going back to their old meadow and woods combination of arena styles that they had used many times in the last three decades. The cornucopia seemed fairly stocked with food, but to the surprise of the careers, the pairs from '6 and '7 were able to hold them off completely and take control of it themselves, fending off the kids from Districts 11 and 3 just as well.

It was not enough to shake D1F and the rest of her pack though. They would get their revenge on the others for stealing the cornucopia—or so they thought. There were still 16 tributes that had survived the 8-casualty bloodbath, after all.

Two days into the games, and it seemed that the craftiness of the District 6 and District 7 pairs was unmatched as they secured the cornucopia for themselves, leaving the career pack wandering through the woods. Three more tributes had been killed at this point, but they had gotten the easy way out, for it was later that night where the real trouble began.

While Drake and Rosalina were out scouting the surrounding area, their partners were attacked by mutts that could only be described as "flaming monkeys" and "lightning lions". Before they could react, the lions had zapped their way through the defenses, and with the help of the monkeys, had set fire to the whole place, leaving two dead tributes and a blackened grass patch around the cornucopia and the ruined supplies. The careers experienced a similar attack later on the 4th afternoon, but they were armed and much more prepared. While Drake and Rosalina's traps would have kept even an armed tribute out for a few moments, the sheer power of the fire and electricity ruined their day right quickly. By contrast, the careers found themselves facing black, bipedal cat-like creatures with claws so frigid that it nearly caused frostbite when Carter was slashed by one. Worse than those, however, were the spiky rabbit/porcupine creatures that spat acid or shot their toxic needles at the tributes. These took a lot more skill to fend off, but apart from a few injuries that were able to be resolved with some basic first aid thanks to Cobalt's knowledge, were enough to keep the career pack from dying so early.

Despite their dangerous habits, the cats were actually rather tasty (if not a bit cold) and even the rabbits were edible once the poison was boiled out. The last tribute from District 10 was cut down by the wandering marauders during the 5th morning, and it was around this time that they tried to make their way back to the cornucopia.

To their surprise, Drake and Rosalina had abandoned it, but after a quick look around, it was clear why—the scorched grass and burnt, empty supply crates were enough to indicate that they had been attacked by something fiery. Given their recent encounter with the cats and rabbits, they figured at once that it was probably some other kind of mutts.

Carter's injury worked against him later that evening when it slowed him down after the group got pursued by vicious purple fox mutts which, much like the rabbits, spat poisonous acid which ended up being the boy's undoing. Day 7 saw Everlee meet her end by the electric lions, and Day 8 was the end of Chelsea by Rosalina's traps. She did not live to see the night once Cobalt was done with her.

If anything, these games were going by too fast with the inclusion of so many mutts. Perhaps it would be a lesson to the Capitol for next time, given how many tributes were unable to outsmart these deadly creatures. Other times they were simply overwhelmed by the number of these monsters at once. The games this year wound up being 9½ days in length—Cobalt drove his spear through Drake's chest shortly after he had eaten one of those cat mutts for breakfast, thus ending the games. As a result, he became the 5th victor from District 1, and the 27th victor of the games overall.

Naturally, Cobalt was not a big animal fan after his games, but he remained fairly mentally stable apart from his slight phobia of quadrupeds, and remained fairly proud like so many career tributes were. The victor disparity between District 1 and District 2 had been evened for the time, but only time would tell how long that would last…

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)
27HG: Cobalt Evans (#5, District 1)