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

Chapter 5: The Capitol

I hear a knock on the door to my compartment, and I turned the TV off to go answer it. The Capitol Lady called in that it was just her, Dessi Diamond (talk about snooty names), and announced that a lunch was being served in the dining car, and that I must come along. I did as I was told, following her through the train into a compartment with a single long table in the middle of it. It had lots of fancy glass and china and silver sitting atop the pure white tablecloth. I sat hesitantly at one of the longer sides, and Dessi Diamond took one of the ends. Within the minute, Flint appeared with Chet, who looked a lot more relaxed than he did during the Reaping. The blonde boy took the seat across from me, leaving Flint to sit on the end.

"Did you see the Sevii tributes get reaped, Bethany?" The professor asked me eagerly.

"It's Beth," I corrected him, "and I saw them on the stage. By the time I figured it how to turn the TV on, I had sorta missed the actual name-drawing." I admitted.

"Oh, that's fine," he assured me, "I just want you two to know who you're gonna be up against. The boy will be no problem, he barely had it in him to walk up the steps to get on the stage. The girl, however, is 18, and she seems smart."

"How do you know that?" Chet asked. "You only heard her name and saw her walk onto a stage."

"True, true, but you can tell a lot of things about a tribute when they first get Reaped. Are they sad, angry, shocked? Do they hide their emotions? Do they hesitate to come forward? How reluctantly do they walk up to the stage? It takes a lot of intelligence and self-control to act with grace when under that sort of pressure."

The chef, followed by at least ten servants, then came out with the first round of food. I found feel my mouth watering as my nose detected the rich smells of soup and fresh-baked bread. As soon as all the platters had been set before us, I hungrily started scooping the soup into my mouth, even though it burned my tongue a little bit. And then they came back out with another round. And then another. And then another. There was so much food, more than I had eaten in a year. We had all my favorites from back home, and so much more that I didn't even recognize.

I had never eaten food so rich and exotic and fancy and delicious before in my entire life. At home, we ate whatever we could afford, which was not much. Rice and tofu were staples. This meal consisted of so much more, so many ingredients that we could never even dream of buying at home. I ate so much that I felt like my stomach was going to explode.

After dessert, an amazing food called chocolate lava cake, which was now my favorite thing in the world, Flint invited Chet and I into another car to watch the next region's reaping. One entire wall of this compartment was a TV screen, and the other wall was a row of big, cushy chairs. I plopped down into one, hoping that my overly-full stomach would digest all that food quickly before I started feeling sick.

The Johto Reaping was just about to start when we tuned in. The girl whose name was called looked about my age, but she looked really skinny and weak. Another girl, this one older and stronger-looking, volunteered for her, with a note of despiration in her voice.

Aaron Castella, the girl who volunteered, must have known the girl who was Reaped, Flint explained, and she didn't plan to volunteer until the younger girl's name was called, which was why she sounded desperate.

The boy who was Reaped was named Anton Wright, and was tall and built, like he did hard physical work for a living. He also had distinctive white hair. Standing together, the two tributes looked like the most intimidating pair so far. They were both 18, and very athletic looking. I definitely didn't want to find myself in a conflict with either of them.

Just after the Johto tributes were led inside the building behind them to say their goodbyes, Dessi came into the TV car and announced that we would be arriving at the capitol soon. Flint led us into another car, which had windows lining the walls. I looked out at the rolling green hills around us. We passed in between two hills that looked tall enough to be mountains, and the city burst into view on the other side.