The PokéGames (A Pokémon/Hunger Games Crossover Fan Fiction)

Chapter 3: The Reaping

It was a short walk across the street to our house, but in that 50 foot walk, my mom and I managed to come to an agreement on two things: one, that we don't tell my siblings about the extra tickets, and secondly, I managed to convince my mom to let me go to the market to trade the berries that I had collected, since they were probably the last ones that we could ever get from the forest. Since there was still about three hours until the Reaping, she agreed.

I began walking south, then turned into the little marketplace that we had in Veridian city. It was like a city square, lined with little tents and booths. I began making my usual rounds: Chesto berries to the ever-sleepy daycare lady, Persim berries to the dairy farmer who took care of his crazy grandmother, Rawst berries to the soup chef who was always burning himself, Razz, Bluk, Nanab, and Weaper berries to the baker, Lum, Cheri, Pecha, Aspear, and any remaining Rawst and Persim berries to the apothecary. I kept the rest of the Oran and Leppa berries for my family and to give to Hayley's family.

A lot of the traders commented on the fact that Hayley wasn't with me. I just pursed my lips and asked how many berries they wanted. I didn't want their pity. They would find out what happened soon enough through the grapevine.

When I started walking back to my house, I had some nice portions of milk, soup, bread rolls, vitamins and medicines, and the assurance that my little sister, Lily, who was 11, would be taken care of every afternoon for the next week. The elementary schools got out an hour earlier than the middle and high schools, and a full three hours before our mom got off of work at the Berry Plantation. Her work in the fields was exhausting, but I was glad that she worked there, because she was therefore able to smuggle me a few seeds every now and then to plant in the forest. I guess that wouldn't be happening anymore, though.

I ended up taking a detour to Hayley's house before I went back to my own. The profits were still ours, even if she hasn't been with me when we were trading for them. Hayley usually took a third, due to her smaller family, but I gave Aunt Renee half of everything, as my own apology. She gave me a hug, and insisted that I at least take all of the milk and another few dinner rolls for my family. I thanked her, took what she offered, and started back to my house.

When I opened the door, Lily attacked me in a hug, and my little brother Kyle stared at me with a concerned look on his face. He just turned thirteen last month. I didn't worry about a lot, but I was worried about him, because he's always been super anxious about everything. That's actually kind of redundant now that I think about it. I worry about the kid who does nothing but worries. But I was concerned for him, because this is his first year of eligibility in the Reaping, and the kid was scared. Last year, which would've been his first year of eligibility, he had literally worried himself sick and could barely stand up he was so dehydrated from all the vomiting he had been doing. This year, he only had two tickets, of course. For all three years of Reapings, I took all five of the tesserae that our family needed. For the past two years, it was like we were practically living only off of the rice and jugs of water that we received from the government as a result.

My mom was currently trying to find an old dress shirt of Paul's that would fit Kyle. Paul was my older brother, aged 19, and the last of my siblings. He was currently boiling some water for rice. I set the food on the table, put my backpack back in its usual place next to the door, then began dividing some of the food onto five plates. None of us would be very hungry today. We ate in silence, and then we all got dressed in our nice clothes to go to the Reaping.

After we were all ready, we got on the subway to Saffron City. The ride was free today, to get everyone to the Reaping quickly. When we got off, we were ushered by police officers up to the surface and to the square. Kyle and I said a quick goodbye to our family, and then got in the line to have our blood drawn. Then we got herded into our roped-off sections, me with the sixteen-year-old girls, him with the thirteen-year-old boys. Families were around the sides.

When the big clock struck noon, the United Regions anthem started playing, and then the video about why the government holds the Games started playing. It was the same old story:

«»«»«»

Master Steele was just a regular old Pokémon trainer, traveling the regions, catching and training his Pokémon. Then, he challenged the Elite Four at the Indigo Plateau, and beat the old League Champion to become the New League Champion.

Then, there was a Great War, where we were attacked by our neighboring country for rights to the sea between us. Before this point, the regions were all separate nation-states, we had no single leader of all the regions. Master Steele rose to the position, winning the war with few casualties on our side, and uniting the regions into one country, the United Regions. He was then elected to be the permanent leader of the newly formed nation.

That's when things took a turn for the worse. The wild Pokémon began to travel into cities and attack people, and soon even some trainers' Pokémon began to attack people. Then, almost twelve years ago, Master Steele declared that all Pokémon were dangerous, and that all trainers must return their Pokémon to permanent storage, and that all Pokéballs were to be taken to a police station to be destroyed.

This caused an uprising, and all the trainers that didn't agree with the new law began to attack the government, stationed at the Nation's district capitol, the Indigo Plateau. This lead to the death of countless Pokémon and trainers alike, until the government extinguished all traces off the rebellion just a few months after it had begun.

Ten years later, Master Steele initiated the PokéGames, as a dual reminder to the people of the UR that Pokémon are uncontrollable and dangerous, and that the government had full control over all the regions.

The concept of the Games was that every child ages twelve to eighteen had tickets with their name on them in a pool. Twelve-year-olds had one, and older children gained one for each year, as well as any tesserae that they applied for. The tickets were collective, so they carried over from year to year. Then, each year at the Reapings, each region separated the tickets into two pools, boys and girls, and chose a name from each pool to represent the region in the Games. Then, the boy and girl were shipped off to the Indigo Plateau to be pampered and trained, and then thrown into an arena with the ten other kids from the other districts and sixty Pokéballs containing random Pokémon. Then they foght to the death. The last one standing was crowned the victor, and they and their region were then showered with gifts and food.

«»«»«»

To make sure that the Games are as humiliating and torturous as possible, everything is filmed, and we are required to not only watch the Games, but to treat them as a festivity. Like we are going to celebrate the deaths of eleven innocent kids.

Kanto was considered to be the first region of the UR, so our Reaping was first. There were cameras poised everywhere, getting the perfect shots to stream live to every television in every home in every region. In a half an hour, Johto will have their Reaping, and then Sinnoh, and all the rest.

When the video ended, the screen went blank, and all attention went to the stage below.

There was a microphone on a stand in the center, and on either side of it were two glass balls full of tiny pieces of paper, the ticket pools. A woman dressed in fancy capitol clothes, decked in jewellery, coated in makeup, and topped off with fluffy cotton-candy hair hobbled into the stage in her high heels and took her place at the microphone. She rambled for a bit off a teleprompter, talking about what an honor it was to be escorting the Kanto tributes and blah blah blah. Then she announced that it is time for the drawing, and then, she crossed over to the bowl on her left.

"Ladies first!" She giggled before very un-gracefully shoving her long, red-tipped claws into the bowl. She shuffled the papers around a bit, and I felt my heartbeat quicken. I just wanted to scream at her to get on with it already, so she could call some stranger's name and I could go home and be with my family for at least another year. Her hand reached the bottom, the papers stopped shuffling, and with a single swift motion, she whipped one single piece of paper out of the bowl.

She walked back to the microphone slowly, and my eyes were glued to that tiny price of paper. That single paper would shape one girl's destiny, and more than likely deliver her a death sentence.

The capitol lady slowly unfolded the ticket, and held it up to read the name written on it. The name of the girl who would have to go fight for her life in less than a week.

She opened her mouth, and uttered the two words that changed my life forever.

"Bethany Jennings."