AUTHOR'S NOTE
I do not own The Hunger Games.
And we're into the arena!
Ares Gilmore, 15
Ares felt like he'd stepped into a firestorm. Every part of him was screaming with pain, the sensation burning through him, sharp and piercing.
This wasn't part of The Game! It wasn't meant to actually hurt!
"Game Error!" he screamed, slamming his hands against the interior of his tube. "Game Error, Game Error!"
"Please don't resist the modifications," said the computerised guide.
"What modifications?" He kicked the tube. "I didn't consent to any fucking modifications!"
The pain cut out suddenly, as though it had never been there, but now he felt different. He could feel the material of the jumpsuit, slick against his skin, and taste sweet, fresh air. His heart was pounding in his chest, the beat echoing in his ears.
What was this?
The platform continued to rise, emerging into violent, blinding sunlight. Around him stood a circle of similar tubes, not the platforms the players usually stood on. Inside them, he could see the other players looked somewhat stunned, some groaning and rubbing their heads, others apparently worse off than him and sat on their plates. Some had managed to get their arena jumpsuits on, but others were half-dressed and struggling to hide their modesty and fasten up their suits. Two tubes to his left, Iridescence Sterling was on one knee, her head in her hands, her silver hair still in that braided twist she had used for the interview.
"Sterling!" Ares shouted. "Hey! Hey! Sterling!"
She startled and raised her head. Pain swam in her eyes.
"You good?" asked Ares.
"Nauseous," she replied, pressing her hands to her tube and struggling to her feet. "This isn't… isn't part of The Game."
"No shit," muttered one of the players between them.
"You know what's going on?" Ares asked.
"No idea." She pressed her hands to her eyes. "Truce til we know?"
"Agreed."
Etheria Arquette, 17
Etheria fumbled with the zipper of her jumpsuit, fighting to bring it the rest of the way up to her neck. Odd that she'd had to put this one on manually. All the other outfit changes she'd done in this game had allowed her to just hold the clothes against her and request a change.
At last she managed to bring the zipper to the top, where it could be hidden away in a covered slot. The nodes on her shoulders, which had been so bright in training, remained dark. Glancing at the players nearest her, she confirmed that their nodes were shining blue. Etheria tapped hers. "Um. Turn on?"
The nodes flashed dazzlingly bright before settling into a more tolerable colour. She nodded and looked about herself. Was Radiance here? Could he tell her what was happening here?
The other players closest to her were groaning and rocking on their plates, their shoulders knocking against the glass tubes that still held them. Was that meant to happen? Etheria had never seen anything like this on any of the playthroughs. Oh! Maybe it was a new addition! Or something different they were trying since they were playing the Fiftieth and a special.
She took a better look at the players nearest her. To her right was a smaller boy with vivid red hair tumbling loose around his shoulders, just finishing zipping up his own jumpsuit. To her left was a girl with a green mohawk, clashing with the vivid red of her face as she struggled to get her arms into the sleeves of her jumpsuit. Two tubes to her left, however, was Luminescence. His hair was still loose, as it had been for the interview, and his face was flushed red, but he was standing, which was better than some of the other players.
"Luminescence!" she called, banging on the tube.
He turned to face her, his eyes brightening with recognition. "Etheria! Are you alright? Did it hurt?"
"Yeah, like I was on fire." She rubbed her arms. "What was that? A punishment?"
Luminescence's expression twisted with confusion. "A punishment?"
She sighed. "I've done something wrong, haven't I?"
Was it because she hadn't got her jumpsuit on in time?"
That had to be it! It looked like Luminescence had got his on, but the boy next to her hadn't, and he looked dazed as well. No wonder Luminescence was barely tolerating her for Radiance's sake.
"No!" Luminescence flung his hands up, hanging them against the tube. "No, that's not– It shouldn't have hurt at all! Something's gone wrong!"
Etheria glanced around the meadow the circle of players stood in. "Oh."
Did that mean this Game was going to be stopped? It had to be, right? Just her luck.
A glowing numberpad appeared on the tube in front of her. She frowned and tapped it. "Um?"
"This is new," said the boy to her other side.
Radiance Sterling, 17
The world finally stopped spinning as he focused on the numberpad. The numbers zero to nine glowed red against the glass of the tube. Was this meant to be a gimmick? But those didn't come in until the Seventy Sixth, well after the Fiftieth. Radiance raised a hand and tapped the screen of the pad. It rippled. It had to be a gimmick. Maybe it was a oneoff for the special.
"Attention tributes!" boomed a new voice. Not the programmed voice of The Game's usual announcer. No, this was a woman, sharp and crisp, but not a Capitol accent. What was that? Phoenix would know. Radiance glanced about the meadow around him. This was meant to be the Fiftieth, one of the most beautiful arenas ever, but the grass beneath his feet looked dead and black, scattered with twigs and stones. Fingers of pale white mist crept across it.
"You might have noticed a few differences when you entered The Game," continued the woman. Radiance turned round in his tube to get a better look at the arena he was in. What year was this? None that he immediately recognised, none that he'd played, not the Fiftieth either. The black grass stretched out behind him, vanishing into a thicker white fog that swallowed everything beyond it. Radiance squinted, raising a hand to shield his hand from the bright light pouring from above the meadow, but he still couldn't make out anything. An old one? But the old arenas were normally simpler, with all the mist, this one looked recent.
"My name is Lexa Goodwoman, and I will be your new announcer during this this game."
"What happened to the normal announcer?" called the nervous looking young girl to Radiance's right.
He groaned. "The normal one is a recording, idiot."
She turned red. "Oh."
"The changes you are experiencing are because we've decided to make a few alterations to the system."
Radiance frowned and turned back to face the centre of the circle, looking up at the too real looking sky. "What alterations?"
"Yeah, what's that meant to mean?" shouted a girl.
"Congratulations, lucky players!" called their new, far too cheerily. As of now, you can consider yourself true tributes of the Hunger Games!"
"What is that meant to mean?" shouted a girl.
"But first, let me explain the changes."
Radiance frowned. Was this one recorded too, or was it live? That would be… difficult, during a Game. They were run faster than real life. But perhaps it was one of the altercations this woman had made.
"The first difference you will notice is the tubes you are currently stood in. Those require a specific code, different for each player."
The gimmick from the Ninety Second. That was another of the few arenas that hadn't been used yet, probably because of the gimmick – but that arena had been a mountain, not a misty mass.
Alterations to the system indeed.
Sorcha Summerfield, 17
This was… insane. This crazy woman couldn't do this. Who was she anyway? They couldn't have just let some no one come sauntering in here and start messing things up. To her right, a boy with red hair was banging against his tube, striking it with his fists and feet. "Let me out! Get rid of this thing! Game Error! Emergency! Immediate Retrieval! Let me out!"
The tube didn't even shudder, let alone crack. A sudden jolt of fear struck at Sorcha's heart. What happened if they didn't hear the code? What if she couldn't get out? Would it take her back into the ground and let her suffocate in that doorless underground room?
Past the boy was Artemis, who was staring at the cornucopia and shaking with laughter, her pink hair fluttering about her face. This really wasn't funny, so maybe she'd just lost her mind.
"Let me out!" yelled the boy again. "You can't do this!"
"The second difference you'll be aware of are the improvements we have made to make The Game more realistic. For this Game, you won't be relying on metres. You'll feel everything that happens to you in Game, just like in reality."
"But that's not fair!" shouted the boy to her left. He was much further from her than the one to her right; there was what looked like a train track running between them and disappearing between the green field she stood on and his strange, dead looking one.
"Yeah!" called a girl from somewhere. "This is just a game!"
"Our final change is perhaps the most important. If you die during this Game, a fatal electric current will be run through your Game pod, killing you in real life."
Sorcha froze.
The boy next to her stopped banging against his tube.
The players around her stared at the cornucopia in some strange mix of shock, horror, and confusion.
"After all," said the announcer. "You make those from the Districts do it, year after year after year."
"But– That's a punishment," stammered Sorcha, tripping over and slurring her words. Tears burned her eyes. "You can't do this; you can't actually do this!"
"It's about time those in the Capitol received a taste of their own medicine."
"You're insane!" shouted a boy somewhere over the train tracks. "You're fucking insane! You can't do this to us!"
"Now, your tubes will automatically open sixty seconds after the countdown reaches zero. However, if you want to open them yourself, the code is your age, followed by your player number and your private sessions score."
Sorcha's heart skipped in her chest. That was… seventeen, and her score had been an eight, but the number pad needed six numbers. And what was her player number?
What happened if she got it wrong?
"You can begin entering your code when the countdown reaches ten."
A tube down from her, Artemis Gilmore threw her head back and began to laugh.
Aaaalll right, it's time to go!
Submitter Check-in question time! Who's hyped? (Someone here better be hyped)