New Trainees
KATNISS
She had noticed the one in Maroon staring at her intently the whole 15 minutes back to their base. She was relieved when the sergeant sent him and this other yellow guy to get something.
"OK, recruits," he said, "Before you can get into the base, we need to test your abilities. For this we're going to use Grif as a target, also known as the orange one." The maroon soldier dragged Grif out, who now had a blue target sprayed on both his face plate and chest plate. Marvel, the tribute from district 1, lunched forward with a spear and this orange one, Grif tried to block and swing his rifle, but Marvel ducked and jabbed him in the ribs. His holographic form flickered and dissipated. As it did he shouted, "It was worth it." Marvel grinned smugly as Sarge nodded in approval. "Next!" he barked in his Southern accent. Clove stepped up and another Holo-Grif appeared.
"I am literally the worst program ever made!" it exclaimed. He brought out a pistol and tried to block a strike made by Clove, but he crushed his own hand as Clove threw a knife straight through his face plate. That made him disappear.
"Very nice, girly," Sarge commented. "Next!"
This went on down the line and nothing interesting happened until they reached Thresh. This time, the Holo-Grif actually connected with Thresh, and Thresh obviously didn't like that. As the Grif swung at him he slid through his open legs, causing the Grif to hit himself in his area. Thresh then cut his clavicle artery. The Grif fell down and died. As Katniss's Grif appeared, he said "Let's get this over with." Katniss backed up and drew back her bow. She let an arrow fly. It struck the Grif in the middle of his visor. It kept going and struck the real Grif, in the hand.
"OW!CRAP!" he screamed.
The maroon one sighed. "Time to put in a call to the evil medic." He ran off into the base. Katniss heard him yell "Donut! Put down the frickin' phone! Don't you realize you rack up the phone bill."
"It's not my fault Sarge orders soldier poison every day!" Katniss was then snapped out of her trance by Sarge appraising her.
"Now, get in line. We're going to assign you rooms. Everybody out now!" Grif, the maroon one, and the pink one, who must be Donut, filed out. "Now, you can be in my room, Grif and Simmons's room, or Donut's room. Pick your poison." explained Sarge. Marvel when first; he chose to go with Sarge. Clove picked Sarge as well. Winch(District 3 boy), Tridentt(District 4 girl), and Soo(District 8 girl) all went with Donut, leaving Thresh and Katniss to room with Grif and Simmons. She walked into the base and followed Simmons into their room. She noticed immediately that it was messy. To give you a mental image, imagine a room that has had a charity clothing truck and garbage truck dumped into a room, then multiply that by 10, and then that is a humble exaggeration. That's oly on half the room. The other side was clean enough to eat a 5 star dinner off the floor. The was covered in motor oil stains, screws, bolts, and papers. In the closet, there were sweats, jeans, shirts, armor plates, and, interestingly enough, robotic arms. There was some extra space on the floor for her and Thresh.
"It's got charm," said Katniss. "What do you think of it, Thresh?"
"Yes," he grunted simply. Then Simmons's phone started ringing.
"Hello? Yes? Oh, you again. Yes. Of course it's Grif. Get here, now! Bye." Simmons turned to Grif, and said "O'malley said they would be hear in five minutes." Then he turned to us and said "Lopez will be up here with some sleeping bags for you."
"Si." A robotic voice said from behind them. "Yo estoy aqui. Hola, idiotas mas."
"You see, he only speaks Spanish." said Simmons. Lopez set down the bags. "Adios, idoitas."
"Dinner! I made beef stew. Simmons, you need to bring your own." Donut called from the kitchen. All the reds and the other tributes filed towards the kitchen. There was a long dining table and a small bar. All the armored soldiers sat at the bar and the tributes sat at the table. A purple armored soldier already sat at the head of the table. He took off his helmet, and smiled at them. He had tan skin and a brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. He sat his helmet down next to him.
"Hi. I'm Doc, and I'm the-"he was interrupted by a voice from his helmet.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't introduced. I'm O'malley." Then he laughed in an evil voice.
"Why did your helmet just talk?" said Clove.
"Infection by AI." explained Doc.
"Everybody dig in!" chortled Donut. He served the stew to everybody but Simmons. Simmons popped the top of a can and started drinking some thick, black sludge. Katniss looked closer as O'malley laughed. "You should start drinking 30 weight. That 7 weight crap is bad for your motherboard."
"It's motor oil!" shrieked Katniss.
"What? Never seen a cyborg before?" Simmons said. He unscrewed his shoulder socket and brandished his arm like a sword.
She and the others stopped eating and abruptly went back to their rooms. Sarge yelled after them "You're going to rise early."
Katniss opened the door to her room and shut off the lights. After awhile she fell asleep. Soon after, somebody walked in and kissed her forehead. The person said "Goodnight, Katniss."
CATO
"You have a choice: you room with me, Tucker, Caboose, Sister, or Tex. Your choice." said the man with greasy black hair, who identified himself as Church. "Only one can be with Sister, and you have to be a girl. Tucker, you can have 2, Caboose can have 1, Tex can have 1, and I can take 1." Glimmer went with Sister, Shepard(Boy from district 10) came with Caboose, Rue and Foxface went to Tucker's room, Peeta went with Tex, and Cato was left with Church. Cato dragged his sword and his pack to Church's room. Church was wearing sweats and a light blue T-shirt. "Took you long enough." he commented.
"Hey, you move faster than me!"
"You're new. I had to taunt you." Church shrugged.
"Dinner." screamed Tex.
"Don't eat it. She probably poisoned it," Church whispered Cato. He snickered and walked out. The kitchen was filled with lovely smells; the roasting of some type of bird, the spice of cinnamon buns, the smell of rice. Tex, now with her helmet off, was revealed to have emerald green eyes and fiery red hair. She Served everybodys' plate and then sat down. Glimmer took one bite, chewed it and smiled.
"This is gooooooooooooo…" she trailed off and her face fell into the food. Everybody laughed, Tex being the hardest.
"Ok, Ok…..," Tex said, laughs still echoing in her tone. "That was necessary. She deserved it, from what Peeta has told me. Don't worry. She'll wake up with a HUGE headache
"Told you she poisoned it," whispered Church. Cato laughed. Unfortunately, Tex noticed.
"What's so funny?" she raised her eyebrows. Church just winked and said "Did I ever mention that Tex and I used to date?"
"You WHAT?" Peeta spluttered as food exploded from his mouth onto Foxface's shirt. She silently stalked back to her room. Everybody was looking for Tex's expression. But instead of blushing, she just slowly nodded her head.
"It's true," she said quietly. "But that's over now. That means I DON'T like him any more." She mainly directed this comment towards Peeta, who was still gaping at her, cutting her eyes between her and Church.
"Yeah. Hey, let me tell you about the time she stole money out of my wallet and used it to by copies of 'The National Enquirer'. It was a long time ago…." He started relating what had happened. Tex had excused herself by the time he got to when he passed her at her locker saying "Really? No way!"
By this time, it was time to go to bed. Everybody trudged back to their rooms, tired after the day's work. Cato easily fell asleep.
