9th Annual Hunger Games

The 9th Annual Hunger Games (Youtube/Tiktok) was held one year after the 8th Annual Hunger Games. A boy and one girl from each District, between the ages of 12 to 18, were reaped to be taken to the Capitol and fight to the death in an arena. As with all the Old Games, this event was held in the Capitol Arena. Onyx McLean from District 1 was this year's victor.

## Background

That year, the temperature was pleasant and the sky was clear, with no forecast for rain or storms. However, the number of people watching The Hunger Games had been steadily decreasing as years passed - after last years’ fiasco, this was the first year the Games were in danger to be terminated, as seeing tributes slowly die due to heat stroke was deemed as boring by the Capitol, and ending it with Barry ridiculing the games was a complete embarrassment, especially after the events of the year before, announcers almost wrongfully crowned a victor.

At this point, the Hunger Games were seen by most as a joke, and views in the Districts were even lower - not only most citizens did not own a television, but the few that did, would only watch in case someone they knew were involved.

## Trip to the Capitol

The tribute's transportation from their districts to the Capitol was smooth, without any complications. From the moment he was placed in the wagon, Onyx, the boy from District 1 and victor of the edition, began his own game. As he expected, following the pattern of previous years, tributes from District 2 were glued to each other, making it clear that they were working together again. District 2's tributes were Gwyneth, an 18-year-old girl - tall, strong and with a face of not many friends; and Noah, a 15-year-old boy, himself not very tall, not very strong, but with a much healthier appearance than most other tributes.

Onyx knew that these two tributes would be strong contenders in the arena, since his family was one of the few who still followed the Games every year. He had already noticed the pattern of alliances from District 2 in previous years and knew the damage that two tributes with their aim focused on winning could do. Onyx and Gwyneth exchanged glances - the boy used his charm to gradually approach the girl, until he managed to confirm an alliance with them, already within the enclosure.

## Capitol

Onyx also used his charisma to bring two other potential allies closer to him: Roz, the male tribute from District 9, and Pierce, the male tribute from District 7. Both were 18-year-old tributes, with the appearance of possibly strong contenders. Soon, a quintet was formed that would dominate most part of the Games that year.

However, other alliances were also formed, even if not as evident, between tributes of the same District: there was the powerful couple from District 10 - Josh and Whoopi; the slender but still deadly couple from District 4 - Finneah and Sandy; and also the couple from District 12, very visibly weakened - Carl and Stephina. The rest of the tributes were either so terrified by the situation that they didn't even interact with each other or they preferred to face the arena alone.

## Arena

In the arena, when the signal was given, chaos was instantly installed as tributes attempted to get to the weapons - most of them had advanced on the pile without hesitation. Eight tributes fell in the first minutes: the first was Rory, the boy from District 6, who didn't have the courage to hit Josh, the boy from District 10, with his axe and ended up being cut open by his opponent, who had a machete in his possession. Afterwards, Kimbra, the girl from District 3, and Kendall, the boy from District 5, were defeated by the couple from District 2, who finished them with their swords.

A few meters away, Ryerson, the boy from District 8, lost the fight against Finneah, the boy from District 4, who was using a trident. The suffering couple from District 12 advanced on the pile and each managed to get a weapon - however, while escaping, Dijon, the tall boy from District 11 (who stayed away from all the mess, just waiting for a victim), knocked down Carl and stole his weapon, using it to finish him off. Stephina, very scared, ran away with her knife in her hands without having the courage to do anything against Dijon. Meanwhile, Grace, the girl from District 9, begged her district partner to include her in the alliance. The panic was evident on the boy's face - he was paralyzed , not knowing what to do, until Gwyneth entered the scene. With a single blow, the girl from District 2 eliminated her competitor, leaving Roz even more shocked and paralyzed by the scene unfolding in front of him.

Onyx, with his sword in hand, was in the meantime being faced by a not so strong opponent - Sunshine, the girl from District 11. She tried to hit him with her scythe, but couldn't even close the distance between them that Onyx's blade was forcing. Tired of dancing around, Onyx quickly eliminated his opponent with a precise strike to her neck. Before even the initial conflicts ended, the last fallen was Stephina, the girl from District 12: as she had run away from the chaos in the middle of the arena, the girl ended up twisting her ankle, which hindered her a lot as attempted to escape. Finneah and Sandy, the couple from District 4, took the opportunity to steal her weapon and finish her off.

After that, hours passed before anyone decided to make any move. As they were in greater numbers, Onyx's alliance - which was positioned in the center of the arena guarding its weapons - came up with a plan. Analyzing the scene around them, they decided that it would be prudent to eliminate some of the strongest first, especially those who had some weapon with them. Following that plan, they separated into two groups: Onyx, Gwyneth from District 2 and Pierce from District 7 headed towards the balconies, while Noah from 2 and Roz from District 9 kept the weapon pile safe.

The trio had one target in mind: Dijon from District 11, who was alone and armed. The tributes slowly started to approach the opponent from different sides so that he would not be able to escape and just like that, the boy was surrounded. As a fight took place, the tribute from District 7 ended up hesitating before striking against his opponent, giving an opening for Dijon to almost hit Gwyneth. Onyx quickly took action and prevented the attack, giving Gwyneth the opportunity to eliminate the boy.At the moment they picked up the weapon from the fallen tribute that they heard a scream coming from the center of the arena: they saw the couple from District 4 collecting some weapons with Noah was lying on the ground. Roz from District 9 was watching the scene from afar, without doing anything.

The trio quickly ran back to the scene, and as they got there, Gwyneth was furious to see her district partner with a large wound on his abdomen. She divided her attention between comforting him and screaming at her other allies about how useless they were. Furious, the boy from 9 raised his weapon against the girl and attempted to strike her - however, he did not count on the agility and dexterity of Onyx, who used his sword to disarm him with ease. Now with his arm severely damaged, the boy from District 9 attempted to run away, but Gwyneth caught up with him and did not hesitate in eliminating the boy from the games.

At dawn, as the light became absent in the arena, screams started to be heard up in the balconies. The couple from District 4 had gone hunting, getting into a fight with any tribute that was on their way. With chaos starting to install, all the tributes began to move to try to flee from the hunters. By the time the sun showed itself again, the vast majority of the tributes had fallen - either due to the weapons of other tributes or by falling from the balconies when attempting to run away in panic. Only seven tributes were left able to see the sun again.

Onyx, Gwyneth and Pierce came up with another plan, this time targeting the couple from District 10. They left the middle of the arena, leaving the pile of weapons unprotected, and went to the stands, away from the other tributes. When they got there, they started moving towards the couple from District 10. Noticing their approach, their opponents moved as well, running away from the alliance but not realising immediately that they going directly towards the couple from District 4. Finally seeing that they would be caught on one side or the other, they tried to escape to the middle of the arena. The trio of allies were positioning themselves so that they would be surrounding the couple from 10, but the couple from District 4 also took advantage of the situation to do the same. This lead to everyone meeting in the middle of the arena, where the final clash took place.

Onyx and Gwyneth didn't have much trouble eliminating the couple from 10, but something unexpected happened just as their fight against the Livestock District ended. Pierce from District 7 - their own ally - had raised his axe, ready to hit Gwyneth while she was distracted, but were unable to finish the job as Onyx, realizing the possible betrayal and knowing that without Gwyneth he would never be able to defeat the couple from District 4 - attacked the boy with his sword, without thinking twice. Gwyneth thanked him, then turning ahead to face the couple from 4 together.

They stared at each other for a few seconds, until Finneah took the first step. His trident flew towards Gwyneth, who tried to dodge, but ended up being hit in the right leg. Onyx went against his opponent , taking advantage of the gap missing between them as he had just thrown his weapon. However, Finneah was skilled, and managed to pull his trident back from the ground with his foot just in time to protect himself from Onyx's attacks - showing that the specific industry of a District can indeed give some advantages in the Hunger Games.

Sandy, Finneah's District partner, ran towards Gwyneth determined to hit her with her spear, hoping that she would not be able to react due to the wound she had just suffered. However, on contrary to everything Sandy expected, Gwyneth was able to disarm the girl and used her sword to finish her off. Finding himself alone and with two strong allies against him, Finneah decided to retreat. Even though injured, Gwyneth seemed not to fear her opponent, insisting on keeping up the fight - however, when the allies thought they could take down their opponent together, the boy from 4 managed to stuck his weapon into Gwyneth's abdomen. The girl screamed, grabbing the handle of the boy's trident, without letting him pull it back towards him. Onyx, seeing an opening, used his weapon to slice Finneah, ending his life.

Onyx stepped away Gwyneth, apologizing to her for what happened, and then waited for her to pass from her injuries. Onyx McLean, from District 1, was announced as the victor for that year's edition after the last tribute took her last breath.

## Placings

* 1st - Onyx McLean (District 1) - victor.
* 2nd - Gwyneth Tibedeaux (District 2) - succumbed to wounds caused by Finneah Weston (District 4) with a trident.
* 3rd - Finneah Weston (District 4) - killed by Onyx McLean (District 1) with a sword.
* 4th - Sandy Smythe (District 4) - killed by Gwyneth Tibedeaux (District 2) with a sword.
* 5th - Pierce Coolidge (District 7) - killed by Onyx McLean (District 1) with a sword.
* 6th and 7th - Josh Corcoran and Whoopi Lynch (District 10) - killed by Onyx McLean (District 1) and Gwyneth Tibedeaux (District 2) with swords.
* 8th - 13th - Bree Gleam Guthrie (District 1); Campion Facinelli (District 3); Kristin Klempt (District 5); Dottie Pomadoor (District 6); Ashley Sylvester (District 7); Erina Lengies (District 8) - killed by couple from District 4 or died of injuries sustained in a fall.
* 14th - Roz Zizes (District 9) - disarmed by Onyx McLean (District 1) with a sword and killed by Gwyneth Tibedeaux (District 2) with a sword.
* 15th - Noah Rutherford (District 2) - succumbed to wounds caused by Finneah Weston (District 4) with a trident.
* 16th - Dijon Bruskotter (District 11) - killed by Gwyneth Tibedeaux (District 2) with a sword.
* 17th - Stephina Trocki (District 12) - impaled by Finneah Weston (District 4) trident.
* 18th - Sunshine Gershon (District 11) - killed by Onyx McLean (District 1) with a sword.
* 19th - Grace Soothosun (District 9) - killed by Gwyneth Tibedeaux (District 2) with a sword.
* 20th - Carl Schuester (District 12) - killed by Dijon Bruskotter (District 11) with a machete.
* 21st - Ryerson Menkins (District 8) - impaled by Finneah Weston (District 4) trident.
* 22nd - Kendall Cansalt (District 5) - killed by Noah Rutherford (District 2) with a sword.
* 23rd - Kimbra Kazatori (District 3) - killed by Gwyneth Tibedeaux (District 2) with a sword.
* 24th - Rory McGity (District 6) - killed by Josh Corcoran (District 10) with a machete.