AUTHOR'S NOTES: And now we enter full-on AU territory as the Quarter Quell goes off without a hitch, and the arena remains intact. Hopefully people will enjoy these parts of the games as much as they enjoyed my semi-canonical earlier chapters. Some of these victors appear in my various other works, including the victor of this year's games that shows up in one of my other current WIPs. I try to keep the continuity between my stories intact, y'know. Either way, here comes chapter 76 out of 99.
Happy Reading!

The 76th Annual Hunger Games

After the notorious Quarter Quell, which had Capitol fans whispering even a year after the fact about how it had made history with Katniss Everdeen's incredible kill record, the Gamemakers were not sure if they would be able to top it. Sometimes there would simply be games that did not hold a candle up to previous ones. As much as their egotistical minds hated to admit it, the games did not always improve after each progressive year.

The 76th Annual Hunger Games was one of these examples. Far from being a boring game, per se; it was simply not as fast-paced as the 7-day Quarter Quell, and the arena was not as intense. It was definitely going to keep tributes on their toes, and the tributes from the urban districts such as '3, '5, '6, and '8 would definitely have an advantage in these city-like ruins that were spread out in front of them as they rose from their pedestals.

The careers were standard stock, scoring 9s and 10s while arming themselves with large swords and equally large egos, but they would face competition. There were not really any other alliances, but the urban ruins meant that tributes like District 5's Celeste Kalas and Johnny Stallings, who scored a 7 and an 8, would be a larger threat than before, as would District 3's Zafar and Laksha, who scored 9s.

Sure enough, once the bloodbath was over, 10 tributes lay dead before they could even explore the derelict ruins, but perhaps this was for the best. The careers took control of the cornucopia for its weapon and supplies, where the abundance indicated that there was plenty of weaponry and food to go around.

One of the first observations was that rodents roamed the arena, and they tended to be aggressive unless they had food. Johnny and Celeste used this to their advantage to wander close to the arena. There, they dug up the mines, while the careers stayed holed in the golden horn out of view in the darkness. The scurrying of the rats that kept them occupied was enough to keep them from hearing Johnny digging up the mines and tossing them to his partner. As engineers back home, the two of them would worry about reactivating them after they were safe.

They got about a dozen of them before the careers noticed them. They gave chase, but the maze-like ruins of the city helped Celeste and Johnny escape. After the noise of the pursuing tributes had died down (since none of the careers this year were exactly apt at stealth), they got to work rigging things up and preparing to build traps.

However, similar to the design of the Capitol, there were traps and mutts in the ruins of this city as well. A tribute lost his life on day 3 from falling through the ground into what appeared to be an old sewer system. The fall didn't kill him, but the giant lizard mutts that roamed the underground tunnels did. His partner was a lot warier after that, and somehow, word spread.

These games went much slower, with even the careers beginning to resort to traps to protect what supplies they still had at the cornucopia. They didn't dig up any of the mines (although the remaining dozen or so did disappear on day 6), but they rigged up the golden horn in such a way to make it nearly impenetrable. After all, in ruins of a city, there were building materials everywhere, from planks to stones to cinder blocks to crates and anything else in between.

Another entire week passed, leaving 10 tributes alive by day 13. No one assumed that it would all end in one fell swoop, but the Gamemakers were hard at work to get a bit more action. Deciding to force the careers out of their comfort zone rather than the other tributes that had spent their days fighting mutts and avoiding hazards, they sent a slew of red-eyed humanoids to attack them. The pair from District 2 recognized them as the affectionately-nicknamed "Night Witches": humanoid muttations that the Capitol pulled out every now and again, especially in urban or urbanesque environments.

Even though these creatures were also armed, they were no match for the careers, although they did manage to chase them out from their camp (surprisingly without triggering any of the careers' traps) and out into the urban wilderness. Zafar and Laksha noticed them passing, but laid low to avoid being seen by them or by the pursuing Night Witches. The reason the careers were on the defensive this time was because while both parties were armed, these mutts were more than willing to slash and bite at their quarries with their razor-sharp claws and teeth—features that most tributes lacked.

While Zafar and Laksha did not take advantage of their fleeing foes, Johnny and Celeste did. they calculated the position of the fleeing careers, before timing their own path so that it looked like they were fleeing from something to the right as well. It led the careers left, away from District 5's camp, and towards some of their more nefarious traps.
Right as they were about to come into range of the explosives, Celeste and Johnny doubled back, racing right through the Night Witches as they continued to give chase. Right as they realized what happened, the District 5 pair were far enough away that as the leader misstepped and triggered one of the mines, he and his comrades were blown into oblivion, as well as the Night Witches that pursued them. Two of these creatures survived, critically injured, although Celeste all but waltzed up to them and put them out of their misery.

"Nice job," she and Johnny bumped fists as four cannons went off. That just left the pair from District 3 and a couple other wanderers that, if their memory served them right, were from District 6 and District 8. With the careers gone, however, they headed to the cornucopia to see if anything could be salvaged.

It took them 2½ days to actually find the cornucopia since they had not really kept track of their position all this time, but by morning 16 when they actually reached the golden horn, two more cannons had gone off: one for the District 8 boy, and one for Zafar from District 3.

They had been lucky to not trigger the careers' traps the first time they reached the cornucopia, but on day 17 as Celeste was returning from exploring the arena, she triggered one, and her body was peppered with darts almost immediately. A cannon fired, and Johnny treaded much more carefully after that. Deciding not to take a risk, he took what supplies he needed and ventured out into the wilderness to try and find the last two tributes.

The games did seem to be dragging a bit, because Johnny found himself getting chased in a very particular direction, where he ran into an also fleeing Laksha. The mutts that were pursuing them seemed to vanish after the two tributes met, and they began duking it out. Johnny avoided Laksha's projectiles and went in with his club to take her down, succeeding in this endeavor. That just left the boy from District 6.

Johnny discovered him living the high life, surrounded by crates and supplies, and so he launched an ambush. Throwing his club right at the boy's face, he missed by inches, instead striking his arm. Johnny raced in, grabbed one of the crates as the boy reached for his weapon. Essentially, what happened next involved Johnny basically bludgeoning him to death with a crate, before standing triumphantly over his opponent. After 19 days of slow-paced urban warfare, Johnny Stallings became the 9th victor from District 5, and the 76th victor of the Hunger Games overall.

Johnny's success was his network of knowing the arena before his confrontations, and even back home, he knew so much of the layout of District 5 that he was often times the person people came to if they needed to know who or what went where. Like most victors from District 5, he remained fairly silent and gave off that mysterious aura, but mysterious or not, no one would really argue the success the district enjoyed in winning the games. Sometimes they suffered droughts, but at this point, even if they went 20 years without a victor, they'd still be the 3rd most successful district. Johnny aimed to keep it that way…

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)
61HG: Kara Petersen (#5, District 7)
62HG: Enobaria Taos (#11, District 2)
63HG: Gloss Zianja (#11, District 1)
64HG: Cashmere Zianja (#12, District 1)
65HG: Finnick Odair (#5, District 4)
66HG: Elroy Trujillo (#12, District 2)
67HG: Varric Svenja (#6, District 11)
68HG: Carver Tabris (#2, District 9)
69HG: Bethany Shanza (#8, District 5)
70HG: Annie Cresta (#6, District 4)
71HG: Johanna Mason (#6, District 7)
72HG: Immanuel Cox (#3, District 10)
73HG: Paige DeSiete (#5, District 8)
74HG: Clove Kazera (#13, District 2)
75HG: Katniss Everdeen (#3, District 12)
76HG: Johnny Stallings (#9, District 5)