Massive Movie Mash-up

9. I, Robot

Tension is building up in the dining hall. The Ellesmeres and the other tributes will have to demonstrate their skills in private sessions to the Gamemakers, dr. Marcus Geelong’s most trusted film villains. Waiting for their name to be called, the 24 youngsters sit nervously on the aluminium tables in the dining hall.

Since Rosemary and Nicolas will be the first to go in, as District One tributes, they use these last minutes to think of a personal game plan rather than to chitchat. Thomas and Victoria, on the other hand, talk animatedly with their district partner, which still unsettles Rosemary.

Even though she and her siblings agreed with Mr. Edwards to view the other tributes as allies, Rosemary can’t seem to shake the feeling that trusting the others too much might backfire on them. After all, these Games are meant as their public execution and if those 20 innocent kids don’t take them out, they will die themselves.

Still, Thomas seems to be friends with Penelope, who he had introduced them to during training, and Victoria keeps flirting with Jack. Rosemary is also hoping her younger sister will keep it at flirting and not actually fall in love with the lumberjack son. She has comforted her from heartbreak too many times before.

“District One: Rosemary Ellesmere,” a hollow woman’s voice sounds in the dining hall. All eyes turn anxiously to the Princess. Rosemary walks to the heavy metal doors that separate the training facility from the dining hall. They slide open and with all the courage she can muster, Rosemary enters the deserted training facility.

Her eyes immediately flash to the booth high up in the room where the Gamemakers stand idly. Their gazes still lack any sign of interest for Geelong’s Hunger Games. From left to right, Rosemary can see Darth Vader from Star Wars, The Joker from The Dark Knight, the Nazgul, the White Witch from The Chronicles of Narnia and Voldemort from Harry Potter.

The villains are surrounded by an impenetrable, high grade military force field. Nicolas and Penelope had assured Rosemary that anything that hit it would bounce right back. Nicolas would know since he studied it at New Grenada Tech University in his Military Defence class. Penelope, as the daughter of a professor at NGTU, recognised it from her dad’s research.

Rosemary walks up to a sparring robot, which she spotted during training, but stayed away from to keep it for this moment. She had trained with a similar model at the Grand Palace and knows its weaknesses very well.

It looks like a giant metal egg, but when she presses a button, the robot zooms to life. Six cylindrical arms slither out of the egg-shaped robot. The machine lifts off the ground using the same hovertechnology as the trains in the Pontiasin Underground. It hangs motionlessly in the air since it is programmed to only attack an armed opponent.

Rosemary grabs a long, yet light-weight battle axe from a rack of axes and stands in position in front of the robotic egg. It becomes aware of her weapon and immediately flies towards her. It stretches its long elastic arms and brings them down in a barrage of punches.

Rosemary uses the blades of her battle axe to fend off the blows and swings her weapon at one of the metal tentacles. The robot blocks her swing with the ends of two of its arms and flings her across the room with another arm.

She gets catapulted away without her axe, but lands safely on a training mattress. Safely, but not unharmed. The impact sends waves of pain through her back and for a moment, she grits her teeth in agony.

The robot drops her axe on the floor and hovers over to her. It stretches one of its elastic arms and needle-like talons grow out of the end of the arm. It then brings its talon-equipped arm down on her.