(Adam's POV)

I bit my lip and stared up at the billboard as symbols started appearing next to the names. Mostly they were swords, but one girl with blond hair had a dagger and more than a couple people had either fighting gloves or a bow. Nest to me, Jason rubbed Dillon as the sign next to Jerome morphed into an ax.

“Big surprise,” Seto said.

“A buck says that the ice ninja girl is first down,” Jason said.

“Please,” I told him. “It's definitely the one with the cookie monster hoodie.”

“Five dollars?” Jason asked me, eyebrows raised. I shrugged and took out a bill.

“Seto's the keeper,” I said, handing it to him. Jason did the same, then he blinked.

“Wait a second,” he said slowly. “We just gave the money for our bet to a wanted criminal.”

Seto grinned. “Learn to brain, Jason, learn to brain.” I groaned as he pocketed the money.

My eyes turned back to the screen, however, as the list of names and faces was pushed to one side. Some random dude with a lopsided pink wig, probably in the spirit of the most-hated character in the Hunger Games, was grinning at the camera. “Hey everybody, and welcome to the Hunger Games round thirty-five! Today, we have...” he rattled off a long list of the contestants. Finally he said, “And this weird fluffy guy by the name of Jerome. So, you can see them over there.” He pointed to his left. There was some whispering, probably from the camera man, and he quickly pointed his finger to the other side. “So, uh, yeah. That's all I really have to say... oh yeah! Everybody, are you ready?”

The crowd cheered, I had no idea what for. The guy laughed and adjusted his wig. “Okay... One... Two... Three!” In perfect unison, the entire audience shouted,

“May the odds be ever in your favor!” I laughed. This guy was pretty epic, that much was obvious.

“And let the games... begin!” he said. The picture of him faded to an overview of an arena with twenty-some people in it, each of them holding or wearing a weapon of some sort. Immediately, they started going after each other. One girl seemed to know what she was doing; she went straight for the girl in the cookie monster hoodie and quickly cut her necklace. The cookie monster girl turned beet red as a cannon went off and her name disappeared from the screen.

“Ha, pay up,” I told Jason.

He raised his eyebrows. “We gave our money to Seto, remember? We'll never get it back now.”

It wasn't as though I had an argument, so I turned back to the screen. The same girl who had destroyed the cookie monster was slowly inching her way behind some guy with thick blond hair. In one smooth motion, she cut his wire as well. He turned around and glared at her, and she smirked. She shook her head as he walked out of the arena so that I could see her brown hair had a purple streak in it.

On the other side of the arena, Jerome was in an intense battle with somebody wearing a 'butter' shirt and wielding a sword. The other guy was breathing heavily, beads of sweat rolling down his face. Jerome swung his ax in a feint towards the left before flicking his wrist to send it towards the wire, slicing it neatly in two. The other guy let down his sword as shook his head, stepping out of the arena as well. The girl with the purple streak was beating through people in an assassin's way, taking them down from behind. Mitch Hughes himself was nowhere to be seen, but his number of kills on the side was already at a three. Jerome wasn't too shabby, either; after the first guy, he still looked fresh and ready to go.

Before long, the number of people had gone from twenty-four to nine. Contestants started teaming up, hunting down others. One group seemed to be playing tag with another; they were all chasing each other around like crazy. It pretty much ended when the blond-and-dagger girl, who had been watching, jumped in and cut two people's wires. Of course, somebody cut her wire, as well, but not before she threw the dagger at a third person, this one a guy with messy black hair. It nicked him on the shoulder, as well, and he chased her out of the arena, laughing.

In the first thirty minutes, there were only five people left. That wasn't how I remembered the Hunger Games being. There was Jerome, of course-I grinned at the fact that he had survived this long-the purple streak girl, Mitch Hughes, some dude with a standard blue T-shirt and denim jeans, and another girl with a sweater that had a picture of a dragon on it. I looked at the billboard to get their names; Mariah, Steve, and Gina.

As things heated up, I heard myself cheering for Jerome. Everybody else was mostly cheering for Mitch, but Jason and Seto joined in as the fight progressed.

(Mitch's POV)

I smiled to myself as I headed through the arena. I had played this one countless times before, giving me a huge advantage over the other contestants. The bacca in particular was completely new; I was amazed that he was even in the game still. I shrugged. One of the others would probably end up killing him soon.

I narrowed my eyes and stopped walking. It took a fraction of a second for the echoes of my footsteps to die down; a fraction of a second longer than it should have. The echoes had been faint; it must've been somebody light. I knew who was following me; none other than Mariah. She liked to sneak up on her enemies and take them out by surprise, even though she had plenty of muscle for her small figure.

I turned around as quickly and quietly as I could, scanning the ground. I saw a flicker of movement as she disappeared behind a tree. I put my sword behind my back. “Come on out, already, Mariah,” I told her. “You beat me once. That's not going to happen again.”

“You failed your Hunger Games exam,” Mariah let me know as she jumped out from behind the tree, sword in hand. I quickly took mine out and held it defensively in front of me, waiting for her to make the first move. She did, fast as lightning, and I raised my sword to block what would have been an insta-cut to my wire. Immediately, I twisted my arm around and lurched forwards. I would have gotten her if she hadn't leapt backwards at the last moment. I brought my sword up again to deflect hers as she feinted left before trying to cut it from the right. I twisted out of the way at the last second and swiped at her wire before she could react.

A cannon fired as her wire fell to the ground. “Just you wait until next month, Mitch,” Mariah said, sounding tired. I gave her a lopsided grin and she shook her head as she left the arena.

I looked around to see if anybody had been watching. As far as I could tell, I was the only person around for at least a little ways, and I took a deep breath to relax my heart rate. Mariah had seemed completely unfazed despite our battle; as for me, I had adrenaline coursing through my body like crazy.

I jumped as another cannon sounded. Curious, I looked at the billboard. Steve was out. I blinked in surprise; the brand-new bacca has apparently beaten him. I saw his weapon; an ax. I had very little experience fighting people who used axes... I bit my lip. Gina was pretty good, but there was no way she could beat this guy, who had five 'kills'. I had to admit, I kinda admired the fact that he had managed to make it into the top three.

I made my way through the arena until I saw them fighting. I watched as Gina managed to deflect his ax with the spiked armor on her arms. The bacca swiveled his ax around to almost get her, but not quite. She tried to cut his wire but he jerked his head back just in time, so the wire was only frayed slightly. A few moves later and Gina was done for. She actually just gave up, her face covered in sweat, and ripped the wire off of her neck. She gave a half-smile to the bacca before leaving the arena.

The bacca himself wiped his forehead with one of his paws, breathing heavily. I grinned and stepped forward, making sure my footsteps were loud enough for him to hear. He whipped around and sighed, but I could tell that he was joking when he said, “Great, another one? Don't I ever get any peace and quiet?!”

“Sorry, dood, but no,” I told him. This guy gave me a good feeling; heck, I had known him for roughly five seconds and I already felt like we could be friends. I didn't really mind how fuzzy he was; he still seemed like a nice guy.

“Can I at least rest?” he whined. I laughed.

“Go right ahead,” I told him. “I'm going to beat you no matter what.”

“That's what you think,” he said. I rolled my eyes, barely suppressing a laugh. “Hey, are you laughing at me?”

“No...” I said slowly.

He thought about that for a minute. “Well, if you're sure.” The bacca stood up, fingering his ax. “Are you ready?”

“Ready to rumble,” I said, laughing. “This'll be a GG for me.”

“GG?”

“Great Game,” I told him, lunging.