AUTHOR'S NOTES: And here we reach the final games before officially entering the "2nd Golden Age". It's a little of a breather from the last two crazy games, but not boring by any means. That said, I'll spare the rant.
Happy Reading!

The 90th Annual Hunger Games

After so many years of wild games, some people wondered how many more ideas the Capitol could come up with before they started to get repetitive. There had actually been two different sets of years where they had used the exact same arena design two years in a row (although it was proven that they were in fact, two separate arenas designed to be identical, rather than literally reusing an arena), but that was part of the gimmick, considering that tributes reacted very differently in these years. Those that were part of the former year of the pair thought nothing of it, but those involved in the latter were somewhat weirded out by the similarities they had seen on television the year before.

Fortunately for the Capitol, the 90th Annual Hunger Games was nothing like any of those. Even the layout of volunteers and alliances was different. James Midgley and Mara Nieves from District 1 still volunteered and joined up with Rick Carufel and Taylor Julie from District 2, but the alliance didn't grow any larger than that. District 3's Sterling Dashner and Luna Sekemoto were also volunteers, but they remained in their own alliance, rather than allying with fellow volunteers Flora Larson and Gill Wainright from District 4. All of them scored high, although the odds of who would win or not win were questionable considering that they were divided into three alliances that may or may not have seen each other as the most viable threats that the games had to offer this year. All of them scored in the 10, 11, and 12 range, which for careers and most volunteers, was generally seen as standard fare these days. The idea of a tribute scoring a perfect 12 was less extraordinary than it had once been, but in truth, the bar that the Gamemakers held tributes to was much higher than it was earlier in Hunger Games history, and as such, many of the tributes were much stronger than they were in times past.

The arena this year was a confusing sight to behold. On every side, they were surrounded by large floating islands that seemed just out of reach. Even the arena itself seemed to be a big floating island (as the tributes would later discover), but naturally, no one wanted to jump off the edge to see if it was really an illusion, or if they really were miles in the sky in a floating sphere.

9 tributes never got to see the incredible views and vistas of the arena, after being slaughtered in the bloodbath, but none of the careers were among them, nor were the alliances from District 3 or District 4 caught among the dead.

The first thing Flora and Gill did after seizing weapons and supplies was explore the arena, and they were the ones to first discover the edge of the arena after following a small river to the fringes, where it ended in a waterfall that tumbled down into the abyss.

"Hopefully this doesn't crumble," Gill turned to his partner.

"If the Capitol really wants to dispose of two of their best tributes this early, I guess they can, but it won't really accomplish anything." Flora shrugged.

Fortunately for them it did not seem like they were about to do anything of the sort. Instead they got to explore the arena some more, and get the hang of where things were. It was essentially almost like a little floating piece of paradise, with lush fields and crystal clear water. Steep, erratic mountains dotted the place, but they were jagged and rocky enough to climb, while being sturdy enough to not crumble under a tribute's weight.

Gill and Flora took to one of these mountains, utilizing the resources at the top, and otherwise making camp there as they held onto their vantage point. There was no sign of the career pack, but they weren't in any rush.

The days flew by, and by day 8, Flora and Gill had remained all but undisturbed atop their little mountain peak. Luna and Sterling had done a spectacular job at taking out some of the other tributes, and after spending nearly 48 hours on an elaborate trap system that was set to go off around their entire camp, they waited, setting up tents in plain sight, and even lightning a fire and cooking food. They were baiting the careers.

Evening 9 was when they finally received the fruits of their labor. The career pack set off the trap, which electrocuted and impaled all four of them, killing James, Mara, Rick, and Taylor all but simultaneously. Four cannons went off, and out in the distance, the pair from District 4 knew that the time was nigh at hand for them to make their move. There were now only 5 tributes left.

However, the Capitol was not about to let them off so easily. Perhaps in earlier games, a tribute could get away with hiding out for a majority of the games, but after nearly a century of careful planning and scheming on the Gamemakers' part, that just wouldn't do in a time when the bar was set much higher.

As a result, the two of them found themselves fighting off giant bird-mutts of some sort, with fiery-red plumage and razor sharp beaks and talons. They put up an impressive fight, with Gill nearly losing an arm (and plenty of blood), and Flora eventually losing her life from blood loss after one of them gouged her chest. She refused to die just yet though, and helped her partner slay the last half a dozen or so before finally bringing that fiasco to an end. Armed with nothing but a broken whiskey bottle (from a sponsor with a particular sense of humor; it had been good whiskey too) and a trident, the injured Gill trekked across the arena to try and find the last three tributes.

The straggler, a boy from District 7, was caught off guard by Gill's sudden presence the next morning, and received a trident through the chest. The only ones standing between him and victory now were Luna and Sterling. He decided to bait them, knowing that the only way to draw them out was for them to realize that he was not about to fall into their traps. He sabotaged one of them with a rock, injuring the District 3 pair but not actually killing them, and that was enough to put them into hot pursuit. Gill led them across the island all the way to the cliffs before turning on them like a cornered beast. He plunged his trident through Sterling's neck, before wrenching it back out and impaling Luna with it only seconds later. The Capitol had almost expected some kind of trick with the boundaries of the arena, but instead, Gill won cleanly, becoming the 8th victor from District 4, and the 90th victor of the games.

Gill never did learn the mystery of the arena he was in. He never learned if it was actually a floating island, or if it was just a very cleverly-crafted illusion by the Capitol, and neither did anyone else. After a while he stopped wondering or caring much about it, but the wild style of the arena did influence the victor to walk on the wilder side of life similar to his predecessor. Not all victors went crazy after escaping the arena. For some of them, crazy was their therapy…

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)
77HG: Ikki Ortolani (#7, District 3)
78HG: Ryuka Satoru (#6, District 6)
79HG: Nailah Zoraki (#13, District 1)
80HG: Zenzi Tallarico (#7, District 11)
81HG: Kaede Raiden (#14, District 2)
82HG: Katsuo Raiden (#15, District 2)
83HG: Mandy Ikezhen (#7, District 4)
84HG: Vigo Zakatau (#4, District 12)
85HG: Resin Balthezar (#7, District 7)
86HG: Marian Greene (#3, District 9)
87HG: Connor McIrish (#6, District 8)
88HG: Ian Nelson (#8, District 3)
89HG: Kozue Sowa (#8, District 11)
90HG: Gill Wainright (#8, District 4)