AUTHOR'S NOTES: And here's year 60! We get to meet an old friend from some of my other fanfics, and I'm sure that the style of this tribute's speech will make them quite the memorable figure. Don't worry-not all victors are girls. I'm currently out of town as I post this and so updates might be a little sporadic, but I will do my best to post at least one more chapter on Monday and another on Wednesday, but no promises.
Till then, Happy Reading!
The 60th Annual Hunger Games
A brief suspicion rose among the Capitol after the events of the previous games, and also from looking at the victor records. While the distribution was fairly equal, there was a slight edge among the female tributes, or so said the rumor, mostly founded on the notion that there were more female victors than male ones. While it was true that the Capitol generally looked towards the female tributes for their purposes, there were still plenty of male victors that were subjected to the same treatment.
While it was true that every now and again the Capitol Gamemakers nudged the odds in a tribute's favor or disfavor, most of the time they just let the cleverest tributes go at it. The boys tended to be slightly more reckless while the girls were usually more calculating, but in the grand scheme of the Hunger Games, the gender divide was still fairly equal when all was said and done.
As such these theories were dismissed by the time the 60th Annual Hunger Games rolled around, and the Gamemakers hoped that the tributes this year would help send the 6th decade of the games out with a bang. It was certainly not comparable to the legendary 5th decade, still referred to as "the Golden Age". Still, some of the tributes were certainly characters in their own rights, and Panem realized this the moment they saw the recaps starting at District 1.
A bubbly girl named Kuki Balthezar reached the stage as the female representative of District 1, and she was joined less than a minute later by a rather gigantic boy who had quirky written all over him. Even today his words were remembered because of the odd way he referred to himself and because of his slightly broken sentences. This Lucas Drazen would be memorable, if nothing else.
Of course, after District 1 people almost always watched to see what District 2 would produce from its seemingly endless pools of volunteers. Minutes later, Katara Clovis emerged from the throngs of brawling girls, and was then joined by Inigo Numex. Despite their goofy-looking partners, the pair from '2 still planned to align themselves with them unless their performance in the training center was lackluster enough to convince them to change their minds.
However, this seemed to not be the case at all. Kuki was a lighting-swift swordmaster, and Lucas was deceptively strong despite his goofy manner of speech and his hulkish physique that usually indicated a strong but stupid individual.
Sure enough, these career tributes all proved to be formidable individuals, with the pair from District 2 both scoring 11s. Kuki's performance earned her a 10, and whatever Lucas did in that room had earned him a perfect 12. He laughed and playfully reminded his District 2 comrades about their warning before the training week had started, and they stuck to their word and formed the alliance.
Lucas was also particularly memorable in his interview. That playful and friendly personality of his was no ruse it seemed, which made some people, tributes and Capitolites alike, wonder if he had it in him to be a ruthless killer.
"Do not be worrying…" he had announced during his interview, "Lucas will get 23 kills if he has to if it means win Hunger Games. Then we can make with the going to the home for celebration!" Luckily his sentences were not too broken to understand, and even Caesar Flickerman found them to be rather amusing. Lucas received a standing ovation after his interview. He would almost certainly be showered with sponsor gifts once they were in the arena.
The arena looked like something that would favor a District 6 victor as the tributes rose to the surface. The environment seemed fairly barren, except outside of the cornucopia clearing were dozens of old vehicles, as well as a few old railways with derelict trains and engines on them. None of them looked functional, but it also caused a lot of tributes to decide to seek shelter and see if there was anything salvageable to be taken from these old machines.
Because of this mindset that a lot of the tributes adopted, only 7 tributes died in the bloodbath, most of whom were slain by the careers. Despite his friendly personality, Lucas has no trouble proving that he was a dangerous killer, seizing a large battleaxe and using it to cleave anyone who stood in his way. There weren't very many supplies at the cornucopia that weren't weapons, and so it was clear that the Capitol wanted the tributes to explore the arena to find food or water.
Lucas volunteered to scout out the arena, not necessarily holding an alliance to his comrades, but still hoping to bring them to the final four so they could do what careers often did and fight it out amongst themselves. There was a reason they had that reputation after all.
Much to his excitement, Lucas found a handcar among a deserted set of tracks. Jumping on, he used his immense strength and stamina to let himself glide rather swiftly across the rails. While the automatic or fuelled machinery was long since out of commission, all it took to power a handcar was the one(s) riding it, and thus Lucas earned himself a ride through much of the arena.
There was not much to report, although a few boxcars caused Lucas to slow down and take a look. A boy from District 10 who had survived the bloodbath tried to ambush him, but one swing from Lucas' battleaxe almost literally cut the would-be ambusher in two. He made camp in one of the boxcars for the evening, finding a slew of food and water that was basically untouched. That at least explained why the boy had been hiding out here. He would remember this location to tell his allies the following day.
The tributes were not the only ones that roamed this arena, however, nor was Lucas the only one who found and operated a handcar. While the next four days were devoid of any deaths apart from a single girl who died from tainted food, the Gamemakers spiced it up with some rarely used monsters that they saved for arenas like this.
These creatures were red-eyed, grey-skinned creatures that had first formally debuted about 15 years prior, but were even cleverer now than they were back then. These humanoid mutts roamed the arena like feral creatures, and came after tributes with weapons drawn. To make matters worse, some of them located handcars and knew how to operate them.
With these "Night Witches" on the prowl, the careers had to step up their game. In some cases, (such as the three that cornered Katara) these creatures were almost like additional tributes with how well they fought. Katara resorted to savagery just to keep herself from being eviscerated by these creatures' razor-sharp claws. Blood from these monsters stained the ground in multiple places, and while these attacks spurred tributes into action, they only claimed two other lives. While they were not able to actually control them, a pair from District 11 managed to get some of the creatures to follow them (albeit aggressively), leading them right through a camp of District 3 and District 4 tributes one evening and the creatures caught the tributes off guard, killing all four in their sleep. With a fistbump, the two of them disappeared into the trains, scaling a boxcar and moving by jumping from car to motionless car.
Despite this rather intriguing little trick (which would actually inspire a few District 11 tributes down the road), the pair wound up falling on Day 14 to Lucas and Inigo after Katara ambushed them. With them out of the way, only a few Night Witches remained apart from the four careers, and since the Night Witches did not need to be slain for the games to end, the careers worried about each other instead, deciding to resolve this final conflict on the 15th morning.
"Hmm," Lucas was the one to speak up, "It is just careers now, yes? Now we make with the battling until one of us is dead, yes? Then we have victor!"
"That sounds good enough to me," Kuki licked her lips. "To the death we fight!"
"…" Neither Inigo nor Katara had anything to say to this apart from a nod in agreement. The three of them suddenly turned towards Lucas, drawing their weapons.
"Oy! Three on one is not very good odds for Lucas! Luckily Lucas not afraid." He brandished his battleaxe. "LUCAS SMASH!"
And smash was exactly what Lucas did. Instead of using the sharp end of the axe, he swung it sideways, bludgeoning Inigo first, striking the boy so hard that he did not get back up. A cannon fired, and the two girls suddenly became more aggressive against Lucas, realizing that he was by far the biggest threat. Unfortunately for Kuki, she was the next victim of Lucas' might, receiving the sharp end of Lucas' axe rather than the blunt sides. This did not faze Katara, but she knew that she had to step up her game.
She landed a few hits on him, but the boy was so strong that he was able to shrug off most of her hits even as Katara began stringing attacks together. He swung his axe with one hand, and kept his other hand free. Katara dodged the axe and rolled forward, getting right up in right up in Lucas' face. He responded by swinging his free arm so powerfully that when it collided with Katara's jaw. The bone shattered, and the girl staggered back, spitting blood. She threw herself at Lucas, plunging her daggers deeply into his chest. Lucas bellowed out in pain before throwing his axe down, seizing the girl who was crawling over him and twisting her daggers, before wrenching her off of him. Gripping her by her sides just above her hips, he put all of his force into slamming the girl down so fiercely on her back that when she struck the railroad tie that Lucas aimed for her back shattered, severing one of her central nerves. Naturally Katara's body could not survive such a powerful impact, and she died immediately. As her cannon rang out, Lucas became the 10th victor from District 1, and the 60th victor of the Hunger Games.
The hovercrafts raced for the boy after his victory considering that Katara's daggers were still embedded in his chest and he was bleeding out, but he eventually made a full recovery.
Despite his brutal violence in the games, Lucas remained a very friendly and approachable man who even his tributes got along very well with. He even had the pleasure of bringing home a pair of victors back-to-back not more than 3 years after his own victory, solidifying his reputation as a strong and friendly man, but also as a cunning and competent mentor. Even outside of District 1, Lucas Drazen's goofy but approachable personality coupled with his simplistic view on life made him a very popular individual in Panem—and he was quite okay with that.
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)
28HG: Lyme Golding (#6, District 2)
29HG: Ash LosDias (#3, District 7)
30HG: Challis Worth (#2, District 8)
31HG: Beetee Latier (#3, District 3)
32HG: Fletch Crossley (#4, District 5)
33HG: Seeder Howell (#3, District 11)
34HG: Price Emerson (#6, District 1)
35HG: Leto Irizari (#7, District 2)
36HG: Jackson Kjelle (#5, District 5)
37HG: Zerviah Hawke (#3, District 6)
38HG: Wiress Plummer (#4, District 3)
39HG: Nephi Lott (#3, District 4)
40HG: Miriam Luxio (#7, District 1)
41HG: Marcelina Kovac (#6, District 5)
42HG: Niles Lincoln (#8, District 2)
43HG: Blight McKay (#4, District 7)
44HG: Sagittaria Svenja (#4, District 11)
45HG: Dezna Meraxa (#4, District 6)
46HG: Alice DeSiete (#3, District 8)
47HG: Aurum Zianja (#8, District 1)
48HG: Layla Aranai (#9, District 2)
49HG: Chip Sangster (#5, District 3)
50HG: Haymitch Abernathy (#2, District 12)
51HG: Derrick James (#7, District 5)
52HG: Chaff Mitchell (#5, District 11)
53HG: Brutus Gunn (#10, District 2)
54HG: Tiffany Waxler (#2, District 10)
55HG: Zak Dreggite (#4, District 4)
56HG: Zoroka Chandaki (#9, District 1)
57HG: Cecelia Sanchez (#4, District 8)
58HG: Meili Meisha (#5, District 6)
59HG: Zhin Lyautey (#6, District 3)
60HG: Lucas Drazen (#10, District 1)