- - - Walking into the room, she felt the cool, smooth floor under her paws. All she could see were two grey walls on either side of her and the bright yellow lights that hung from the ceiling. She looked back with a sly smile at the Gamemaker as they closed the door behind her with an echoing thud. The eerie silence of the room, broken only by the sound of her breathing, left a pit in her stomach. Nonetheless, she felt the confidence she had always had. She began walking. "Good evening," she said. "Now I'm going to ask you all to trust me when I say you won't want to miss the act I have in store for you." The path ahead split into two directions, and they realised it was a maze. They licked their teeth out of habit. Alright then. They loved mazes. They set off at a bolt down the path at the left, intending to set a good time to impress the Gamemakers. Almost immediately their shoulder slammed against something - someone. She snapped her head up to look and who it was and saw only the lifeless eyes of a hologram. The green projection was half-transparent, but apparently could still be touched. Her eyes widened as the hologram pulled its paw back to punch her, and immediately ducked and swept her leg under it, causing it to fall backwards. She plunged her paw at its neck without second thought, choking it. It struggled soundlessly, but she held it down. She released a breath inaudibly as the hologram fizzled and disappeared. She was surprised at how easy it had been to kill it. How much stronger had she grown since arriving at the Capitol? She felt no guilt. Was that ok? /Of course it is. It's just a hologram/ she told herself. She needed to focus. No doubt there would be more enemies scattered around the maze, and she needed to make good time. She quickly continued down the corridor where the path turned right, and realised that it was a dead end. Not wasting any time, she bolted back, passing the entrance and continuing forward, taking the other path. It immediately split between left and ahead. She turned left and was surprised to find a bow, though with no arrows, hanging from the wall of her second dead end. She gladly took it anyway, turned around, and hastily backtracked, turning left to continue down the path. She turned left and, after a stretch, left again, following the only available path. She spotted a ghostly blue figure at the end of the very long corridor ahead of her. She squinted. Was it aware of her? She couldn't tell. Suddenly, something was flying towards her. It had shot an arrow. Her heart jumped as she flattened herself against the ground, dodging it just in time. They immediately shot back up, gripping the arrow that had lodged itself in the wall behind her. It was the same as the hologram - not quite opaque, and glowing blue. She pulled hard, dislodging it, and immediately set it to her bow. She pulled back, straining her muscles, closed one eye to aim, and fired. Could she hit a target from so far? Her question was answered as the blue light vanished. She grinned to herself. "I'm so good," she muttered, almost laughing. They set off down the now empty corridor, spotted a path that turned left (so many lefts, she noticed), and stopped briefly to look into it. Immediately, it was a wall, so they continued. Approaching a choice of left or right, they turned left, deciding it was best to stay consistent. The path consisted of a small stretch forward and immediately two lefts so that they had turned 180 degrees. Hanging from the wall ahead of her were three throwing knives, which she snatched. "So many fun toys," she said aloud, twirling one between her fingers She continued left, then right - the only path - and, seeing a long stretch with no apparent danger, took off down it, feeling the air zoom past her. A choice of left or right again. And again they chose left. The path turned right, then right again, and they froze when they found three bright pink holograms waiting for them. Without wasting time, the holograms simultaneously charged forward. One was armed with a mace, which it swung at her head. She dodged backwards. While it was trying to control the weight of its weapon, she flung at knife at its chest. The hologram clutched at the knife and staggered. Just before it died, it threw the mace at her. She jumped over it as it hit the floor, and disappeared with its wielder a second later. Upon landing, she immediately launched another knife with a deft flick of her wrist, and it found its mark in the second hologram's neck, finishing it before it could use the dagger it held. She smiled. The third hologram had throwing knives of their own. "Let's play with you," she said. It threw a knife at her, and instead of dodging she deflected it with her own knife just before it could stab her throat. Again, and again, she blocked the attacks swiftly, highly focused. (+)
(+) She suddenly lurched forwards, slicing the hologram's throat with her blade. It clutched at her, almost catching her arm, but she twisted out of the way. The hologram fell backwards, and she left her knife embedded in its neck. She turned away and heard the metal clink, having fallen to the floor as the body disappeared. They backtracked - left, left, then straight ahead - to take the path they had not used. They felt amazed at how focused they were, being able to keep an image of the maze in their head despite distractions. Keeping their pace down the track, they were soon met with the options of left, ahead, and right. They went left, where they were immediately faced with the decision of turning right or going ahead. Randomly, she continued ahead, and after a forced left, then right, she almost jumped when she came face-to-face with a bright green hologram with two blades for arms, resembling a mantis. Just behind it was a door, which she knew must have been the exit. There was no way she could take on the hologram, who seemed twice her size in in the narrow corridor. She ran back, hoping it wouldn't follow, trying to find a weapon. They turned left at the first split, and followed the path to an end. The hologram hadn't followed them. They quickly returned, turned left, and left again into another offshoot. She held in her mind her map of the maze, needing to focus now more than ever. The path turned right and she was beyond joyful to see two sickles on the wall. "These will do nicely," she said truthfully. Hopefully the Gamemakers would recognise her skill in close combat. Taking the weapons, she traced back her path, scraping the blades along the ground as she ran, not only because she felt it would intimidate an enemy (if it weren't a hologram) but because the noise would attract the Gamemakers' attention, should they have been looking away. She turned the last corner and once again faced the door-keeper. It lifted its blades and started running towards her. Not missing a beat, she brought her sickles up in a cross to meet the hologram's as they came down. They pushed their weapons against each other, as the hologram exerted more pressure, Cookie took her chance to slide between its legs. She emerged behind it and swung both sickles at its exposed back, but was shocked when they bounced off. It had an armour-like shell. She needed another way to kill it. The hologram swung its blades at her, and she jumped back just before they hit her. She realised how cramped the corridors were. Faced with such a massive opponent, she had limited movement. She had a thought. Maybe she could use these walls to her advantage. She deflected one blow, then two, each hit shaking her. She dropped one sickle and held the other in her mouth. The third time the hologram swiped its blade, she jumped over it onto its arm, which was rather wide given the hologram's size, and jumped off onto the wall just as its other blade was making its way towards her neck. She didn't have a second to linger. As soon as her feet had touched the wall, she pushed off back towards her enemy. She landed on its shoulder and quickly took her sickle to slice its exposed neck. Finally, she let out a breath. The hologram glitched and disappeared, and she landed on the ground. She heard the door creaking open, and was pierced by the bright light from outside. She was panting heavily, but she smiled. Before stepping out, she turned back to look at the corridors she had been in. Then she bowed deeply, as an actor would after a performance, and then she smiled, with triumph and confidence painted on her face. "Thank you for your time," she said. "I hope you've enjoyed the show. Remember me." And she walked out. - - - This wasn't really going to work unless the holograms were physical, so that's how I decided to write it. How it works? Idk. Big thank you to the THGRP mod team! I've had so much fun participating in this RP :D Sorry it's a bit long D: thank you for marking it Wall jump :o
