#game30

The two teenagers made their way to the platform, brushing past an emotionally distraught Penelope. Neither were too fond of her open display of emotions, but they had more important things to worry about-their opponent of the hour. Reboot took the left side of the platform, thinking about his letter, it was from a girl who he only knew by her gamertag; Liliprincessmama42. She was his only friend, although he had never met her. He smiled fondly and stared across the length of the platform at Fuu, who was preparing herself. Fuu’s letter was from one of her sisters-Joice. It gave her the confidence she needed to take this freak down. Fuu stood confidently on her side of the platform, looking unarmed to the outside perspective.

Both tributes kept their desired weapons from their adversary, not wanting to give the other the advantage of seeing each other’s arsenals.  Unlike the previous match-which was driven by emotion- this one was charged with the feeling of strategy and intelligence. Each tribute studied the other as they bided their time. “Reboot Wattkins of District Six, Fuu Kabutomushi of District Seven, may you match commence! GO!”

All hell broke loose. Reboot popped a few tiny red pills as Fuu whipped out some bo shuriken she had hidden up her sleeve, rocketing them towards Reboot. Reboot, used to quick-reflex games, grabbed his umbrella, propped it open and began spinning it in quick succesion.  The shuriken bounced off the steel frame, tossing them into the nearby field. Fuu flared her nostrils and anticipated Reboot’s move. Reboot with a gloved hand, grabbed a pair of throwing knives. He flung them at Fuu, who deflected them with her final two shuriken. Reboot smiled, accomplishing his mission of ridding of her weapon supply. Fuu, smiled as she grasped a firm hand on her weapon that she’d gotten from the Earth Scroll. Reboot did the same.

Fuu whipped out her weapon-a crimson scroll- and rolled it open. Before she had the chance to use its special effect, Reboot had already wrapped one end of his water meteor around her foot and was pulling her off her feet. Fuu landed with a thud on her ass and nearly dropped her scroll. It was a special kind she’d seen the Capitol advertise in their city while she was there. With use of state-of-the-art portal technology, this scrolled allowed her summon weapons to her aid, albeit it had a limit of ten. She decided to use her first as Reboot began to drag her towards him. To use it, all she had to do was trace the name of the weapon in her scroll with her fingers. The first word she wrote was “Kusarigama”.

A sickle with a chain attached to the end of the handle popped up from the scroll with a tiny puff of smoke. Fuu grabbed it and drove the sickle end into the chain of the water meteor attached to her foot. The end of the sickle slipped through the hole in one of the chain link and into the ground, preventing Reboot from dragging her or the meteor forward. She quickly untied the meteor from her foot and jumped to her feet. She distanced herself a bit from Reboot, who had just removed her kusarigama from his meteor. He tossed it aside, not wanting her to even have access to it. 9 weapons left, reminded herself. That was plenty.

She wrote the words “smoke bomb” into her scroll and a baseball sized orb popped up out of her scroll. She chucked it at Reboot who opened his umbrella and started spinning. The smoke from the bomb spun around with Reboot, providing a perfect cover. Fuu cursed under her breath as she tried to anticipate his next move. Within seconds, one of the heavy ball ends of the water meteor struck her hand, breaking every bone in it and causing her to drop her scroll. It rolled nearby, but far out of her reach. She cried out in pain as Reboot made his move.

Reboot got out of the smoke cloud and raced towards Fuu, his water meteor gyrating high above him. He brought it down on Fuu, who barely managed to roll out of the way. She didn’t have any time to recover as this time, he swung it from the ground up, bringing it into her cheek. Fuu tasted her own blood in her mouth as well as the porcelain feel of her teeth. She rolled over near to where had scroll had ventured, but she ached too much to move. She spat out teeth and blood all over the stone platform. She made a grab for her scroll with her foot, unbeknownst to Reboot, who was swinging his water meteor once, more, preparing to send it crashing into her skull. Another boss level easily overcome, he decided.

Fuu kicked off her shoes and began writing with her toes. Reboot was getting closer to her, he was nearly there. The item manifested through her scroll and she grabbed it with her feet, the spikes on the item puncturing the bottoms of her feet. 8 weapons left. She tossed it with her feet straight into an oblivious Reboot’s chest.

Reboot didn’t know if it was the drowsiness caused by the painkillers he took or what, but he hadn’t processed what had happened in time to let go of the spiked ball. It detonated in his hands, ripping open his chest, stomach, neck, and arms, like a fresh pumpkin. He flew backwards and landed on his back, quickly loosing blood and health points. He saw the form of Fuu standing above him through his cracked glasses. He reached out to her.

She smiled at him, not one of malice, but that of pity. His internal organs were perfectly displayed to her, although she didn’t feel nauseous by their sight. She spoke, “Game over, Reboot.” His cannon fired, signaling the loss of his life.

“What an explosive way to end a match. Congrats, Fuu!” Matt’s voice said above her.

Fuu grabbed up all of Reboot’s items as well as her fallen kusarigama and took her place back on the platform. She watched as the claw dipped down and grabbed the fallen player. His glasses slid off his face and plummeted back down to the Earth. Fuu bit the inside of her lip, feeling a twang of guilt, but not much more. What had to be done had been done. Penelope quickly took her place opposite Fuu. It appeared whatever emotional crisis she had went through was now over. She was ready to fight-as was Fuu.

The two seventeen year olds took one last look at their letters knowing it may be the last ones they ever read.  Ares’ was from Jasmine, his district partner. She’d apparently had one written up and hadn’t given it to him. As he read it, a tear rolled down his cheek and he made his way up the stairs on the left side of the platform. Penelope’s was from her mother but she decided not to open it. She took it as an acceptance of her death and she didn’t plan on dying that day. She laid it on the grass for her to return to later and made her way to her designated portion of the platform opposite Ares.

The two stared into the other’s eyes, assessing each other’s requested weapons-Ares desired a bladed whip and Penelope asked for a sword with a little extra something. They remained like that until HGM Matt’s voice boomed above them, “Ares Scarlet of District Two, Penelope Goodwin of District Th-Eleven, may your match commence. GO!”

Penelope, the flighty girl who practically swayed across the Bloodbath, was the first to act. She dove at Ares with her club. Ares, having anticipated the girl’s attack wrapped his whip around her club, causing the blades to dig in and catch in. He jerked his arm, pulling her towards him. Penelope’s eyes opened wide as he slammed his elbow into her face. Penelope cried out in pain and staggered back, letting go of her club. Ares removed the club from his whip and broke it over his knee, throwing the two separate halves into the nearby field.  Penelope regained her focus as it was now Ares’ turn to make the first move.

He took a couple of throwing knives out of the holders on his vest and began running towards Penelope. As Ares approached he threw a couple of his knives at Penelope, who, with her quick thinking skills managed to use her sword to block them before they pierced her skin. He swung at her with his sword once he was in a close enough distance to her. She blocked it with her sword, but her food-deprived arms were no match for his trained ones. He overpowered her and knocked the sword from her hand. Penelope cursed under her breath as cracked his whips against her arms, causing ribbon like lesions all over her. He twisted his wrist and wrapped the whip around her neck. Thankfully, she had the sense to block its path with one of her arms, preventing it from cutting into her windpipe.

Ares began to drag her across the platform, the bladed whip digging in to her arm, saturating her already red jacket with her own shade of red that pulsed from forearm. Penelope frantically grabbed for her sword’s hilt with shaky fingers. She managed to grab it before she was drug away. Ares tugged hard, sliding her across the stones, nearly severing her arm.  Penelope cried out in pain, which pained Ares to hear. He took his own sword and waved it above her face. They maintained eye contact for a few moments. Fuu and Reboot watched from the sidelines, their breaths held in anticipation.

“Any last words, Pen?” Ares asked, he didn’t say it in that cliché, arrogant way, but in a sincere almost morose way.

“Stay beautiful,” Pen said sincerely, as she thrust her sword-barely even the tip-into Are’s ripped stomach.

Ares smiled, her final move wasn’t even a full-fledged attack. He pulled the base of the whip back, ready to rip through her arm and into thin throat. He had wo-no, there was something wrong! Fuu and Reboot let out gasps as Ares began frothing from the mouth, the froth mixing with his blood. He dropped the whip and fell to his knees, his hand shooting to his mouth. His stomach began heaving, but he held it back. His face- whether from inflammation or broken capillaries- began to display dark-red and black spots. Finally, he removed his hands and a mess of dark-red foam oozed out of his mouth along with a large pool of blood. He fell onto his stomach, which bled slightly form where Penelope had pierced it.

“J-J-Jas-Jas-m,” he struggled to form his District partner’s name as he lay dying. Penelope’s heart sank as he realized he was trying to say his district partner’s name. That’s probably who he got the letter from, she decided. Was he in love with her?

His cannon fired, leaving Penelope the only living person on the platform.

“And we have a winner! Congrats, Penelope,” HGM Matts aid cheerfully above them all. “Now, get off the platform so Reboot and Fuu can battle it out. You may take any of Ares’ items before you leave.”

Penelope removed his whip from around her neck and rolled it up. She grabbed both swords as well as Ares’ letter from Jasmine and hobbled off the platform, not looking at either of the other tributes. She heard the mechanical claw dip down and take Ares back home. Back to his home- to a disappointed District who had put all that pressure on him. Back to his family where his mother would be crying over her son’s corpse. All because of her.

“Always knew you were trouble, Eleven” Reboot said emotionlessly as he passed her, while Fuu just shot her a nasty look, but Penelope could tell she was somewhat impressed.

Penelope gazed at the boys from 2 and 10 through the thick shrubbery of the forest. The boy from 10 had just killed his partner. Tears welled up in her eyes. She thought of Piper, she found him for one day and then he was gone hours later. Logan had been with Skyler presumably the entire game. How unfair, she thought. While she was sulking, she noticed he was holding a blue bound Earth scroll in his hand. A mischievous smile formed across her lips.

As Logan and Ares were talking, Penelope darted for the Earth scroll in Logan’s hand. Thankfully, she was pretty light so moving swiftly was no issue. As she grabbed the scroll from his hand, she slammed her club into his temple, knocking him to the ground. Before she could escape, Ares grabbed her by her ponytail and slammed her to the ground. She scrambled away, but Ares kicked her as she fled, backing her into a tree, his sword gripped fiercely in his hand. A cannon fired.

While the arena was bone dry once again, Reboot’s raft was filled to the brim with water.  He found himself near the cornucopia, but with half of the tributes needing to perish before the scrolls could be used, he decided to move on and get an achievement by killing more players.  More had to die and Reboot was sure to be the cause of some of them.

Nearby, he found Chase wandering about the forest, no doubt looking for his little friend, Mange. After the two cannons he heard fire, one of them could surely be her, signaling her loss of health points. No it was her partner’s turn. He smiled as he devised a plan.

After he was done, he called out to Chase, “Hey, Nine, guess what? Your friend’s dead! Wanna know who killed her? Take one guess.”

Angrily, the tribute looked up and ran at Reboot, who turned and ran back from where he came from.  He leapt over the tiny wire he set up in the woods and struck it with his umbrella, looking up to see what the trap had triggered.  To his surprise, squirming leeches fell from the leaves above, hungry for blood as they fell to the ground.  Reboot shrugged and opened his umbrella, feeling the thumps of the mutts falling over his device.  The same couldn’t be said for the other tribute though. 

Reboot ran over to Chase, who still recovering from the leech attack and angrily stared him down.  He swung his sword but Reboot closed his umbrella, and swung back, knocking it back with the reinforced steel frame.  Reboot jabbed the umbrella between his legs and opened it, pulling backwards to knock Chase off his feet.  Chase fell on the ground, still soaked from the floods as Reboot shoved the umbrella onto his chest.  With the flick of a switch, Reboot fired up the taser and sent electricity through the umbrella, electrocuting Chase.  With water amplifying the voltage, it didn’t take long for Chase to fall to the ground dead.