All-Stars: Non-Careers

Chapter 12

Here's Pandora, finally part of the parade. Sorry for the delay.

Polyphemus Ignotus

"It's finally starting! Here comes One on- not horses! It's elephants! I see what they're going for, but it's still funny to see Pandora standing all alone between those two huge animals. She looks a little self-conscious, but there's no need to be. She looks resplendent in her flowing dress covered in hundreds of jewels. Its flowing train takes up all that room she has left on the platform. But Pandora's more interested in the elephants. She's leaning over the platform and petting them. They return the favor with their wiggly trunks."

Jay Dallas

Pepper, Orchard and Mars were a little overloaded, so we took matters into our own hands. Obviously I was going to ally with Austin and my buddy Zach. After a little courting, I added Cooper and Leo to the mix. DeMarcus wanted in and brought Blaise with him. I brought the whole trio up to the first Career I saw.

"Hey, you're Makarios, right? The first Career?" I asked. Makarios was enviously watching the other mentors try to corral their half-dozen kids.

"Yeah, what's it to ya?" he said.

"Our mentors are a little busy. Can we train with you?" I asked.

"Now you're talking," Makarios said. He looked the group over. "You should go the survival station," he said to Blaise. "The rest of you all come with me. Let's see if you can take on one rusty old Career."

Logan Quinn

The training room was a madhouse. There were so many Tributes crowding in that any trainer that was able to move their station, like the guy with the plants projector, moved out into the hall. I saw a bunch of boys surrounding Makarios and made my way over. They knew what they were doing.

"Hey, you guys an alliance?" I asked.

"Yeah," one of the boys said.

"You the leader?" I asked.

"Yeah, that's me. I'm Jay," he said.

"You want another member?" I asked.

"You got what it takes?" Jay asked.

"I've pulled bits on another boys' bones out of my fist," I said. Jay's brother- at least he looked like it- winced.

"Sounds like it to me," Makarios interjected. Jay concurred.

"All right, come on in. Maybe now you won't be so cocky," he said, switching his attention back to Makarios.

Jake Diaz

A fight? Oh I want in!

I didn't ask for an invitation before jumping into the brawl. Some Career mentor was throwing around eight other boys. It obviously wasn't a serious fight, since the boys went in turn and didn't just dogpile the Career, but it still looked fun.

"Hey! You're not with those guys," Makarios objected as he tossed me.

"Quit whining and fight," I said. I quickly regretted it. Makarios didn't win for nothing.

Before long everyone was out of breath and exhausted. The only one not panting was Makarios. The other boys gathered around to get feedback on the fight. I started to take my leave.

"Hey, why don't you stay around? You're good," one of the boys said.

"What, is this a club or something?" I asked.

"It's an alliance," the boy said.

"Are there going to be more fights?" I asked.

"All the time," the boy said.

"In that case, I'm in."

Austin Dallas

"The old coot was right," Makarios said with a strange smile.

"What old coot?" Jay asked.

"That Mann nutcase. He's some batty old socialite who kept talking about how he calculated this bunch of Tributes were 'compatible'. He dropped obscene amounts of money campaigning to have them all resurrected. But sure enough, you're already halfway there," he said.

"Wait, you mean us?" I asked.

"Yeah, all you kids. You're still missing one, though. Give batty old Jaye a break and see if Leo wants to join. Honestly I'll be a little spooked if he does," Makarios said.

"It's not that unreasonable. Of course me, Jay and Zach would ally. DeMarcus is a lot like Jay, and so is Jake. Blaise came with DeMarcus," I said.

"Yeah, it's still a little weird though," Makarios said. And it was.

Blaise Wesley

Drat. All the other boys got to fight the cool Career and I was on homemaker duty. Maybe I was the youngest, but I was only three months younger than DeMarcus. I could fight. I wasn't a baby.

"Hey bro, mind if I squeeze in?" another boy said. He was from Eleven too, but there were a lot of us.

"I'm Leo," he said.

"I'm Blaise," I said. I angrily braided a rope.

"I didn't think many people would be at this station. Most people want to fight," Leo said.

"Fighting's overrated," I said bitterly.

"I'm more of a lover," Leo said. We both made horrified expressions at the same time. "That didn't come out right. I'm not really a killer."

"Guess I'm not either," I said.

"You got any allies? You seem cool," Leo said.

"I know a few kids. You can come meet them if you want," I said.

"That sounds cool," Leo said.

Leo Serrocold

"Who, me? I don't know. You all seem pretty tough. I'm more a runner than a fighter," I said.

"You can't win the Games just by fighting," Jay said. "We need to spread out. You could learn something like cooking or first aid."

"That's more my style," I admitted. It would be nice to see more of Blaise. He seemed like a nice kid. There were so many killers around here. It made me sick for all the little kids mixed up with them.

"So you'll join?" Jay asked.

"Yeah, why not?" I said. I didn't know how long it would last, though. Jay and his buddies seemed pretty close. I didn't fit in as much.

Austin gave Makarios a smirk as we came over, and Makarios shook his head in disbelief. They must have had a bet or something.

Cooper Woodson

Well give Jaye Mann my regards. Darned if he wasn't right. But it was funny how we left to find a new mentor because ours was overloaded, and now our alliance was big enough that Makarios was just as swamped.

"All right, line up. Jay and Austin, you two work on swords. I've seen you fight, and you always end up working together. You anticipate each other. Work on that. Blaise and Leo, you can do anything related to infrastructure. You can't fight without food. DeMarcus and Logan, you two know street fighting. Find the martial arts instructors and work on refining your style. Jake, you play baseball, right? Get used to holding a mace instead. Cooper... what do you do?" he said.

"I guess we need an archer," I said. We didn't have any long range fighters.

"Good idea. Try to learn something like that- maybe a spear or a crossbow. Regroup here in an hour," Makarios said. Everyone fell out to their assigned tasks.

I liked being the only one on long-range. I could attack from far away and cover my buddies. They wouldn't even have to fight if I really got good.

DeMarcus King

I could tell a brother right away.

"I didn't know you had gangs in Five. I thought it was just Three," I said to Logan.

"I guess it's all the urban Districts," Logan said. "Probably Six too."

We called ourselves the Viruses," I said. I held one hand in front of the other in our double split-finger sign.

"We were the Blazers," Logan said. He curled his fingers into a B on one hand and wiggled the fingers on his other hand like flames.

"That's pretty cool," I said.

"Yours too," he said. Back home, we probably would have killed each other by now, but here, we were allies. It didn't feel like I was betraying my gang. It was more like I just added Logan to it.

"Wish we'd had you in the Viruses," I said. He only nodded, but I got the meaning.

"Guess we're in another gang now. Maybe we need a new sign," I said.

"We don't even have a name," Logan said. I looked at my hands.

"Let's see. Jay's the leader, so let's start there." I stuck out my pointer finger and curled my thumb to make a J. "There's eight of us." I touched my ring finger on my other hand to my thumb in the standard sign for 8. "How's that?"

"Looks pretty sweet. Let's show the others," Logan said. Before, we were allies. Now we were brothers.