The Avatar Hunger Games

So, I was bored one night at 3-4AM, which is when all the best stuff gets written, as any respectable writer knows.
Anyhoo, those who know me know that I’ve never read nor seen The Hunger Games, and my surprisingly not-very-scant knowledge of said series rests in things I’ve gleaned from people talking about, internet research, and a parody book called The Hunger But Mainly Death Games (99c for Kindle on Amazon. I’d strongly recommend that book to anyone.)

And yet here I have the audacity to write an ATLA version of The Hunger Games. Yep, that's me alright.

The story obviously may include humor; and it will be posted in 1100 to 1200 word snippets, simply because that way I might be able to update this regularly. And no, there's nothing significant about the number of the games being 79.

Anyhoo, let's get to it.
TRIBUTES, DISTRICTS, & DANGER SCORES

Spoiler:

Chapters will be numbered X-Y, where X is the day number, and Y is the chapter number of that day.

CHAPTER 1-1
“Hello and welcome to the Avatar Incarnates show, with your favorite hosts and gamemakers: Roku, Kyoshi, Kuruk, & Yangchen! In honor of the 79th Annual Hunger Games (since 79 is totally a cool number), we’re bouncing up the rules. After all, it happened in the 74th games, and that was no Quarter Quell either. This year, the tributes have been chosen based on notoriety, in the anticipation that this will be one the longest, most exciting, sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat intense and bloodiest Hunger Games yet!”
“You know,” Kuruk raised an eyebrow once they were off national TV, “we should just make the full switchover to Death Games. That’s really what they are, considering that there hasn’t been much in the ways of hunger in any of the recent games.”
“It’s a matter of appealing to tradition, Kuruk dear,” Yangchen reminded him, “And saying Hunger but Mainly Death Games is much too long.”
“We talk about length and yet the arena is one clearly designed to make the games drag out.” Kyoshi noted, “Although that’s not necessarily a bad thing in this case.”

Nonetheless, Kyoshi had a point. It seemed that there had been extra effort put into the building of the arena this time around, which said something given the effort put into the arena each and every year. This year the Cornucopia was surrounded by four watchtowers that had explosive ballistae with accuracy reminiscent of the Yu Yan Archers inside, or so the rumors went. Each tower had an elemental insignia on each face, with Fire being in the northwest, Water being in the southeast, Air being in the northeast, and Earth being in the southwest.

Lakes, ruins, and forests dominated the rest of the arena, but also hidden in the wilderness were 8 different temple-like structures: to the far west, a Fire Temple; to the far east, an Earth Temple, and to the far north and south, 2 Water Temples. 4 Air Temples were also in those general directions, but were closer to the central field and the Cornucopia.

The tributes were roaring and ready to go, and moments later, a gong was sounded as Roku announced “Let the 79th Annual Hunger Games… begin!”
As the tributes swarmed onto the battlefield, a traditional chant was announced as well, as was traditional for each and every Annual Hunger Games.
“…and may the odds ever be in your favor…”

The nonbending Tributes scrambled for the Cornucopia the quickest, and their dexterity and reflexes not only kept them from being shot down by some of the benders who were shooting projectiles at them, but also enabled all of nonbenders to make it into the Cornucopia unhurt. Inside they found assortments of weapons, some supplies, and most notably, chi-blocker gear that was strongly reminiscent of the gadgets and tools the Equalists equipped themselves with. Many of the weapons were either dipped in oil or were electrified. Given the torches that were lining the area, it became clear what the oil had been for.

The first fight broke out between Joo Dee and Suki, when the former had picked up a fiery electrified rod that the latter had lunged for. Suki kicked her feet off one wall and clung to the ceiling, a pair of knives now in her hand. Joo Dee did not even move as Suki attacked—she used the rod in her hands to block each and every one of Suki’s moves.
“You do not want to attack Joo Dee,” she said in a sing-song voice, “you put at risk the fine culture and grandeur of Ba Sing Se.”
Suki would hear none of it, but Joo Dee’s surprising dexterity had them on edge for long enough.

“Look, Zuzu,” Azula chirped, “its father—don’t you want to defeat him and regain your honor?”
“His danger score was more than twice mine,” Zuko argued, and Azula interrupted.
“Everyone did better than you, little brother,” she taunted, “because you’re a failure. That’s why I’m here—to make sure that District 5 does not shamefully lose both of its tributes within the opening minutes. Come now, you’re not afraid of the big bad Career Tributes now, are you?”

All of the tributes were well-aware of the powerful Careers—the tributes from Districts 1, 2, and 4, who were generally much more dangerous than the remaining tributes, usually due to natural skill. The Tributes from District 2 in particular were the ones to watch out for this time—both of them were reckless powerhouses that attacked head-on, and asked questions later. Some of the warier tributes had noticed that both Ursa from District 1 and Toph from District 2 had vanished the moment the gong had sounded. Ozai was burninating his way south towards the Air Temple, which was still a ways off—or more accurately, he was chasing down the female tribute from District 8, who appeared to be a step ahead of him at every turn.

In fact, the District 8 Tribute, who was Katara, ran right past them without even noticing Azula. Her eyes met with Zuko for a split-second that seemed like eternity. The message in her lovely blue eyes was quite clear, and it touched Zuko’s heart. She had not said a single word to Zuko, but Zuko knew at once that she was the one, given the message she gave off.

“If you’re still alive when I’m done with Ozai, I’m going to killinate you next.”
Yep, she was definitely the one for him. Hopefully, she’d stave off Ozai long enough for him to challenge his father and regain his honor.

“And with that, ladies and gentlemen,” Yangchen announced, “we have our Zutara evidence for the day in the form of said tributes giving each other nonverbal death threats and making eye contact for a grand total of 1.2 seconds!”

Zuko decided to ignore it. After all, they were in a death tournament, and he had stalled long enough. Then again, so was Azula, and she hadn’t been hit yet either.
“I’m not going to stick around,” she giggled, “looks like one of the careers have taken the Fire Tower, and frankly, I do not wish to be shot.”
No sooner had she said that, than a ballista bolt hit right where she had been standing, engulfing them in a cloud of smoke. Zuko coughed and heard a cannon boom.

“So much for me dying first, Azula” he laughed triumphantly, but was tapped on the shoulder.
“Let me spell it out for you, Zuzu: I’d run if I were you,” said the voice. It was Azula, and she was unhurt. Without another word, she sped off in a trail of blue flames, towards the East Air Temple.

RESULTS OF CHAPTER 1-1: (spoilers)

Spoiler:

Updates will be whenever.

CHAPTER 1-2
The cannon had fired from a death in the Cornucopia. Joo Dee was still calmly blocking Suki’s attacks, but was also unable to land a hit on the younger girl. Their fight was only interrupted when Joo Dee’s eyes widened and blood splattered over her face. Someone had gotten behind Suki, ripped out her spine, tied it around her neck, and then stamped Suki’s feet so hard that her head shot into the air. It didn’t even make sense, but it was what happened. A bloodstained Toph appeared from behind what was left of Suki’s body as it crumbled to the ground in a bloody heap.
“AW YEAH!” She roared as a cannon boomed. This one was the one Zuko and Azula had heard. “THE TOPHSTER IS IN DA HOUSE!” She was suddenly flanked by Zhao, Jun, and Long Feng. Joo Dee froze, knowing that one of two things was about to happen—either the careers had found their next target, or they and her district counterpart, who was with them, would propose an alliance. Luckily, it was the latter. Jun gave Joo Dee an approving glance. “Well-played for stalling Mary Suki or whatever her bucket was,” she complimented, “tag along with us if you want to live another minute.”

District 6 was known for its conniving and downright weird tributes most of the time, and sometimes they were far enough out there that one or more of the Career District gangs would ally with them for a while. This was one of those times. Joo Dee did not hesitate to join what was unarguably the most powerful alliance on the battlefield at the moment.
“First blood comes from District 11, courtesy of District 2’s female tribute!”
The odds were about 3-to-1 on Toph winning the tournament, and a lot of yuans would unsurprisingly be changing hands after this death match was done and over with. It didn’t help that she had been so badass during her training session that the gamemakers had no choice but to give her a 13 out of 12. Her performance had frightened even them.

Zuko was still straggling and dodging ballista bolts being shot by Iroh from the Fire Turret as he sprinted away towards the Air Turret. However, a quick glance up there told him that it was occupied by a trigger-happy male tribute that Zuko recognized as Jet of District 10, especially with his paranoid shout of “A FIREBENDER!”
Zuko figured that between a skill-shot like Iroh and a trigger-happy maniac like Jet, he would choose Jet. As he flipped and dodged to avoid the explosive shots from the Air Turret’s ballista, he suddenly heard a woman shout “DIE JET DIE!”

Seconds later, the shots had stopped, and when Zuko looked up, he saw Jet’s body being thrown off the tower, missing both its head and its right arm. The tribute that had killed him was hooded and not easy to identify from the distance Zuko stood. However, it was clear that she was holding an arm and a head. She tossed the head into the air, and used the arm to whack it like a baseball out towards the forest, where she also chucked the arm as well.
Apparently this was against some rule somewhere , or more likely, the gamemakers wanted to have a bit of fun. As the cannon boomed for Jet’s death (which this time was definitely very clear), a fireball from the sky struck the side of the Air Turret, making it start to crumble. Zuko decided to put some northerly distance between it and him, as going back west would run him back into Iroh’s turret—and once you were in Papa Iroh’s territory, there was no turning back.

The mysterious tribute spread her feet to keep from falling over as the tower continued to fall. She remained on the roof, holding onto the pole that was holding up an Air Nation flag. She knew she had to jump before the tower hit, as all of the explosive bolts that Jet hadn’t fired would go off in a chain of explosions once the top of the tower hit the ground. She lunged right over Zuko, and her hood flew off, causing Zuko to recognize her immediately.
“Mother!?!” he exclaimed, but Ursa was already long gone. A few moments later, he noticed Katara race by, this time not even stopping to glance at him. She was paving a path of ice which she was sliding quite nimbly on, and it was putting some distance between her and her unseen foe… except that Zuko had a gut feeling he know who said “unseen foe” was.

Almost comically, he turned around to find himself face to face with Ozai.
“Father, you don’t have to end this yet!” he argued. “Are you really going to fight your own son?”
It was a stupid question, given their history, but it was worth a shot.
“I WILL END YOU!” he roared, beating his chest. Zuko kicked him in the groin and then in the chest, knocking him onto his back, his fist inches from Ozai’s face.

“I challenge you to an Agni Kai,” he yelled down at his father. Ozai simply laughed. Zuko did not put down his guard, but he did not need to. Ozai’s stunt was unexpected either way. He was able to maneuver himself back into a standing position so quickly that Zuko had no time to react, and he followed it with a powerful stream of sizzling flames that hit Zuko at point-blank range.
“BURNINATION!” he roared, and within seconds, all that was left of Zuko was a smoldering crater about 6 feet in diameter and about a foot deep. He glanced down at the crater, and then grabbed a discarded set of electric nunchucks and a few unexploded bolts from the remains of the Air Turret.
“I WILL BURNINATE MY BURNINATION!” he roared stupidly as another cannon boomed, “THE WORLD MUST BURN IN THE FIRES OF DISTRICT 1!”

He stacked the three bolts he had found into the crater, jammed the electric nunchucks into them and then set the rig on fire. It exploded, and Ozai redirected the flames and lightning towards Iroh’s Turret. Iroh was unfazed, and while it did set the Fire turret (ironically) on fire, Iroh was able to escape thanks to the help of some earthbending from Toph and her crew. The Career Alliance currently consisted of both tributes from Districts 6, 4, and 2, as well as Ursa from District 1. Right now, all of said tributes were standing in front of Ozai, glaring angrily at him.
Once Ozai remembered that District 2 and District 4 were also part of the careers, he took off. Zhao and Joo Dee almost took off after him.
“Let him go,” Iroh halted them, “If he wishes to be the sole career without an alliance… then so be it.”

DEATHS OF CHAPTER 1-2: (spoilers)

Spoiler:

I'm a tad bit confused, with the variables X and Y, since were still on day one: X = 1, what does Y stand for? Chapter Number of the day as in... each day has 24 chapters meaning 24 hours...or what?

the first number is the day number, the 2nd number is just the general chapter number. [so if day 1 ends after chapter 5, 5 will be 1-5, and 6 will be 2-6, since it will begin Day 2.]