They had only passed another five blocks when they heard the thudding of a particular Mobile Suit's footfalls. The Gundam barreled out from behind a row of low buildings, skidding to a halt in a dramatic fashion.

"Guys! I'm going to need backup!" called Amuro, making the Gundam give a quick look back. Holly detected another set of footfalls, much louder than the Mobile Suit's.

"What did you just run away from?"

The steady beat began to reverberate in Team Mockingjay's chests.

"That kid from yesterday, Shinji- he's a pilot too. But that thing-"

The subject of the discussion sliced through the smoke only a few blocks away. The massive purple mech blotted out the sun. As it walked, its lanky arms and legs swayed back and forth unnaturally. It lowered its horned head and glared at them, its body heaving steadily as if it was breathing. It halted its steady gait.

"So, Amuro. This is your team," observed the young boy from the terrifying machine.

The Newtype turned and faced the mechanical beast.

"Yes. We've been doing well so far."

"That's good. Who have you fought so far?"

Date picked up on what was going on.

"It's a distraction," he whispered to his teammates. "While they're talking, we need to get to higher ground."

As Team Mockingjay scampered across the street to an apartment building, Amuro recounted their experiences.

"Well, mostly that fourth team. That big guy in the green armor saved us from the Predator."

"That's my team leader, John-117. The Chief."

The foot-mobile members of the team had now ascended to the roof of the apartment building. They were now just across from the larger of the two machines.

"What now?" questioned Katniss.

"We wait for an opportunity," Chuck explained.

"And then whatever that red thing I was fighting earlier was. You did a good job taking care of that." Amuro continued.

"Thanks. I really try," said Shinji sincerely.

The larger purple mech tightened its grip on the knife.

"As much as I like talking to you, we are going to have to fight," the boy sighed.

As the gargantuan machine shifted into a fighting stance, it lifted its right arm to stabilize its posture. The hand's shadow blotted out the sun for the rooftop members of Team Mockingjay. Holly gazed up at the massive manipulator.

"NOW!" she cried, and the team let loose a barrage of deadly firepower. Chuck emptied a magazine from his automatic pistol, Holly squeezed off a few fully-charged rounds from her Neutrino, and Katniss stuck a single arrow in the palm of the massive hand. The monstrous robot pulled its hand away quickly, dropping its knife to cradle its wounded extremity.

"That hurt," moaned Shinji. He turned to look at Amuro's Gundam, only to see the white Mobile Suit crashing into him at top speed. After colliding, the Newtype pilot forced the white robot back, allowing his foe to tumble to the ground. When the huge machine hit the ground, the empty streets split down the middle. The apartment building was one of the many nearby to begin to collapse with the force of the impact. Amuro swung the Gundam's arm over in time to collect its rooftop residents and pull them away from a concrete-y grave.

"Now, stay down!" Amuro grunted, lifting the rifle arm of the Mobile Suit. He fired shot after shot into the thick cloud of dust. He looked up and saw the burning high-rise nearby, aimed, and fired more at its bottom floors. The structure began to keel sideways, crumbling into the veil of debris that shrouded his opponent. A wall of air, crumbled concrete, and shattered glass blew past the team members clinging to the Gundam's arm.

Chuck wiped a thick layer of dust off of his eyes. "Let's call it a day."

The Gundam hung a right to avoid walking over the Evangelion, which he suspected was not quite disabled. They were now in the heart of the blazing downtown area. The thick smoke was mostly high above their heads, with only a few buildings at ground level on fire.

"What do you think caused all of this?" said Katniss, gazing upward in awe.

"Mobile weapons, like mine and the one we just fought," answered Amuro. "There was another one too- Shinji destroyed it earlier. It only takes a few Mobile Suits to cause a lot of damage."

***

The Gundam continued onward through the smoke darkened streets. Their foes had grown fewer in number, and now Team Mockingjay experienced that terrible anxiety you feel when you know that someone's in a dark room with you, but you don't know who or where. As they sat cradled in the palm of the Mobile suit, they found ways to keep their mind off of the creeping paranoia. Date examined the size and weight of Soul Edge. Holly fiddled with the settings on her helmet, and Katniss curled into a ball and whispered lullabies. The elf reached out with her leg and poked her.

"Can't you find something productive to do?"

"Like?"

"Count your arrows, or something."

The girl didn't move.

"Four arrows. Four lives wasted."

Holly realized that this was one of Katniss' moments, and she would have to tread more lightly. She was switching the settings on her helmet's heads-up display again when a lightbulb went off.

"Why don't you help me figure out what's wrong with my helmet?"

Katniss crawled steadily over the constantly jolting hand.

"What's the matter with it?"

"Well, it's got a motion tracker built in, and it keeps showing movement in the buildings parallel to us. It's a focus issue, I don't think it's adjusted to us being in the Gundam's hand."

Chuck looked down at the two smallest members of the team. "Wait, did you say move-"

He was cut off by a huge blur streaking across the hand. Even the level-headed Date Masamune managed to scream when he realized that something had jumped over and taken the girl.

Katniss found herself careening through the air towards the dark ground. She attempted to scream, but she couldn't. It felt as though a steel girder had wrapped its way around her, but she could look down and see the terrifying tail that was tightly wound over her helpless body. She followed its length to its end, where she noticed a curved, bladelike tip. She was being tossed about from side to side rapidly, and she heard a subtle scuttling noise as the creature's claws found what should have been physically impossible grips on the sides of buildings. It scurried over a bank and dove into an abandoned warehouse- filled with a too-perfect darkness. The tail loosened its grip and slid away, accompanied by an awful hiss. Katniss heard the faint scuttling again. It's leaving.

A spotlight at the far end of the warehouse came on, revealing the creature only inches from Katniss' face. The sleek, elongated head opened into a mess of too many teeth and mouths. Its thin arms and legs were strong enough to pin her to the floor with ease. It let out an awful shriek.

"That's enough, xenomorph," called a much more tolerable voice. The wretched creature slithered off the helpless girl and scuttled into the darkness again. The giant purple lizard from the first night sauntered into view. Its beady red eyes glared down at Katniss, but its fear factor was nearly outweighed by the hilarity of it speaking.

"Please forgive my colleague's… manners. He is not very personable, nooo."

"Y-You! The creature in the armor said your name… what is it…M-something…"

"That squeal Nightmare! What an idiot- well, I guess the cat's out of the bag."

Katniss pulled her knees up to her chin. Nowhere was safe with that scuttling mutt, and the way this thing spoke was completely out of place.

"I," stated the purple monster dramatically, "am Megatron."

She felt some courage well up inside her. What would Holly do at a time like this?

"That's a pretty silly name for a big lizard mutt."

The monster did not take insults well, and began to fume angrily.

"YOU INSOLENT LITTLE URCHIN! I AM A MASTERPIECE OF CYBERTRONIAN ENGINEERING! MY EVERY FACET IS DEDICATED TO PERFECTION!"

It caught itself for a moment, then stated clearly, "Terrorize."

As Katniss watched in terror as what appeared to be the skin of the creature lifted away to reveal chunks of metal. She needed to run away, but she was stuck in the spotlight's illumination- that far more awful thing could be anywhere in the dark. The speaking lizard seemed to have stopped changing. It now resembled a metal man with pieces of monster hanging off. It spoke again, but any sense of comedy was gone as the words now came out of a much more believable mouth.

"Now do you see? This is the most prevalent feature of Cybertronians," he gestured with a large metal hand to the rest of his body. "We are robots in disguise."

Katniss nodded, hoping that the lecture was over and that she could leave. It wasn't, as Megatron took a few strides to close in on the girl. He placed one of his large feet, which still retained the talons from his monstrous alternate mode, on her chest. Katniss struggled for breath.

"Now, what I brought you here for," he oiled, applying more weight to his foot.

"Our team has not fared so well over the last two days. Perhaps due to a LACK," he emphasized, forcing his foot down more with each word. "OF, PLANNING. And we need to GET, A, TOKEN, yesss."

"You…think…I…have…it?" wheezed the girl.

"SILENCE, YOU MISERABLE SCUM!" He erupted, then calmed again.

"Your team calls itself 'Mockingjay.' Little nickname of yours, yesss?"

"How… do… you… know… about… that?"

"I have sources with information."

Katniss remembered them being dismissed for the challenge. She remembered that awful phrase- may the odds be ever in your favor.

"The… Master… of… Games..!"

"He knows his stuff, doesn't he? Yesss. He also bade me deliver this message- no funny business. No tricks. He doesn't want you screwing this up, like you apparently did in your world," oozed Megatron, lowering an oversized blade made from the tail of his lizard mode. The tip rested just next to Katniss' jugular vein.

"I do wonder what you did, little girl. Had to be something pretty astounding, yesss. Now, where's that token of yours?"

He began to run his large and clumsy fingers through her backpack. He found nothing, and was moving on to the quiver when he heard her wheeze something.

"I'm sorry, dear. Were you just giving me a hint to the location of that token?"

"I… wouldn't… play…"

"You're going to have to speak up. I can't hear you clearly."

"I… wouldn't… play… their… GAME!" With what strength she had left, she shoved her knife, which she had removed during their discussion, deep into the robot's foot. He wheeled backwards in pain.

"Grrraaaaaar!" Megatron stumbled onto his back and attempted to pull the knife out, but found his fingers to be slightly too large. "NOOO! GET IT OUT!"

Katniss had just managed to stand up when she heard the terrible hissing of the scuttling creature. She turned to see the beast stalk out of the shadows, its tail poised to lash out and impale her. She was bracing for death when gunshots distracted her- Chuck had forced open a door on the near side of the warehouse, allowing Team Mockingjay to pour in. One of the bullets connected, and foul green liquid began to seep out of the creature's side. It shrieked and turned to face the new foes.

Katniss used its moment of distraction to remove her bow from the strap that had connected it to her pack- a wise decision she had made in the hand of the Gundam. Within seconds, she was pulling back an arrow. Chuck was reloading his gun and Date was drawing his sword, while Holly continued to fire her Neutrino, which had no effect on the beast. Now or never, thought Katniss.

The arrow lodged itself just underneath the back of the terrible creature's head, and travelled through its awful neck. It raised its wire-thin arms to the wound, as smoke began to rise from its green blood as it seared away the creature little by little. It collapsed in a puddle of the acid collecting on the floor and began to dissolve entirely.

The team rushed across the warehouse to where Megatron still rolled on the floor in agony. He occasionally reached down to attempt to pull the knife out in vain, but mostly thrashed his large arms about like a screaming child.

Holly adjusted her Neutrino's setting to Burnt to a Cinder and fired at the wailing robot. Sparks shot up from his joints, and he briefly thrashed only more violently. Then, quite suddenly, he fell silent. Katniss walked to the Cybertronian's foot and pulled out her knife.

"Are you okay?" asked the elf, rushing over to the girl.

"Yes. They just roughed me up a bit."

"We ought to move out of here," Date advised. "I don't want to stick around near these two."

The other team members complied, leaving the way they entered. Outside of the door, they found Amuro in the Gundam.

"Looks like you guys did alright."

"We sure did," confirmed Chuck. "That's two whole teams down. Only one left."

"You got that right," called a gravelly voice from behind Amuro. The team turned to find themselves face-to face with the final team. The man in the green armor was joined by a squat, plump man in overalls, a taller, more muscular man in a torn leather jacket, and a boy Katniss recognized as Harry from their first day in the Grand Combat.

Chuck raised his pistol and pointed it at the armored man, who discouraged him. "Don't bother, you're out of ammo."

Upon sliding out the magazine, the martial artist confirmed that it was true.

Masamune was as indignant as ever. "What do you want us to do, surrender?"

"Quite the opposite," said the jacketed man. "We've had our fair share of fighting."

"We knew you guys were a-fighting pretty good," squeaked the short, fat man in an incredibly irritating accent. "You deserve-a win!"

"Are you serious?" questioned Holly, who suspected a trap.

"Completely," said Harry. He reached into his wide sleeves and pulled out a red-and-white mushroom. He tossed it to Katniss. This has to be their token, she thought.

"I may be a soldier, but even I can get tired of fighting," confirmed the man Shinji had called Chief. "I figured you guys helped us out by taking out the Master's men."

"Yes. We would- we're tired, too. Thank you." Chuck gave a nod of approval and dropped his weapon.

Far above them, GLaDOS' sardonic voice echoed.

"Well done, you pathetic sacks of meat. You completed the challenge."

"Personally, I think their performance was exemplary," droned HAL.

"My greatest commendations to 'Team Mockingjay" for acquiring all tokens with minimal conflict!" continued Deep Thought. "They have won this competition!"

As the computers' address finished, Katniss felt the ground underneath her give way. She looked and saw the other contestants sinking, too. They dropped slowly into complete darkness. When she opened her eyes, she was in her cold, grey room. She was going to attempt to get some sleep when there was a knock on the door.

"Katniss?"

She rose and opened the door, and Holly Short slipped in.

"Listen. If we're going to stick together through this, I need to know your story-all of it."

Katniss turned her eyes downward.

"It's… not very fun to tell."

"Don't worry. I want to help you. I can't understand what you've been through," the elf put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Unless you tell me."

Katniss sat down on her bed. "Where do I begin? I lived in District 12, which we were told was the smallest of the lot. We provided coal…"

Holly nodded attentively and took Katniss' words to heart. I will get her through this. No matter what.