Insomnia Wake #Wattys2016

Chapter 7 - There's Always That One Game You Shouldn't Play At Parties

"Alright, let's begin your training process. First, I'll ask you to demonstrate your powers."

"Ooo, ooo! Pick me! Pick me!" Without waiting for confirmation, Ariel rushed to take center stage in front of Masamba. She showed him that her bubbles were capable of being big or small, rubbery or easily popped, and reached her limit on how many she could create, which was enough to make a shell of bubbles probably ten feet around her.

Buddy was next, and he demonstrated both use of the hair on his body and the ability to disassemble his shirt into a weapon, making it take the shape of a staff, which disgusted Ariel and made her turn away.m

That's going to be an obstacle in our teamwork.

Last up was me, and after I explained that I had no powers, which didn't seem to surprise our instructor at all, I was instructed to go over to a cupboard and pick out a weapon from inside. I opened it up, and naturally went for the coolest thing there: a scythe. I couldn't pick it up though, so I gave up on it and chose a sword instead. I couldn't pick that up either. "What gives, I could've at least held this on Earth!"

"Remember, you have the strength of 0.3 people, it's only natural." Masamba flexed in a completely ironic display. "Your strength is determined by your soul, not your muscles." Another cheesy smile and thumbs up broke out.

Completely defeated, I ended up settling for a knife, which was tough for me to swing around.

"Well, I guess that's all the information I need," said Masamba as he wrote down a few things in a notepad. "So what I can gather, Ariel's power is better for defense and Buddy's is more offensive. I'd recommend coming up with strategies based on that."

What, am I completely useless?

"Without a power and at your current strength, I'm not sure what to do with you Neuman, so you'll just have to wait back and see what happens. For now, though, I'd read some strategy books."

I'm completely useless...

"Time to begin the training. Do you guys all know the rules to One?"

Buddy and I affirmed, but Ariel was completely clueless.

I guess that game wasn't around in her time.

"Allow me to explain," said Masamba. "The goal of the game is run out of cards. All players start with the same number of cards, and the rest are in the deck. A card is drawn from the deck and played. From there, you go around in a circle playing cards if you can. You can only play cards of the same number or the same color, and when you play a card it becomes the next card that can be played. If you can't play a card then you have to draw one. Also, in order to play your final card, you have to say 'one' on your turn that your hand becomes only one card. There are a few fun cards in there such as wildcards, draw twos, draw fours, and reverses."

Something was fishy, and my gut told me to fish it out quickly. "Ummm... Masamba? What does One have to do with training?"

"It is just a means Neuman. Now if you'll follow me..."

He lead us to an incredibly small room, told us to go inside, and gave us a deck of One cards. The room had but one light and hardly provided enough room for us all to sit comfortably. At least a small window imbedded in the door made it seem a little bit less enclosed.

"Better get comfortable, you'll be in here for the remainder of the training."

Our, even Ariel's, jaws dropped.

This time, Buddy was the sceptic. "W-what do you mean, 'for the remainder of the training'?! You expect us to get stronger by sitting in this room?!"