SuperFight
The next day, Pun, first one to arrive for breakfast, put in his earbuds as he waited for the others.
“What are you listening to?” Zol asked, startling him enough that his spoon dropped into his porridge. “I love using song titles as my chapter titles”
“No ‘good morning’ for Pun?” Pao remarked as he slid next to Pun, his plate holding toast with three different jams. Once he had settled in, he started taking pictures.
“Good morning Pun. What are you listening to?” Zol asked again, sticking her tongue out at Pao.
“A song in English” Pun said.
“Called…”
“Fade Away”
“Never heard of it, who’s it by?” Zol asked curiously.
“A Canadian singer-songwriter” Pun said shortly. He showed her the screen of his phone, just as it changed to something else.
“That doesn’t look like English to me”
Pun glanced at the phone, where Chinese characters were now scrolling through.
“Oh, that’s…’Photosynthesis’” he said as he clicked past it.
“Pun, what is that? Spanish??” Zol looked confused.
“French” he replied. “Spanish doesn’t use that many ‘u’s”
“What the heck is your music taste?” Zol demanded.
“I like it, I listen to it?” Pun was slightly confused why this was a big deal.
Pao snorted.
“Zol, are you harassing Pun on his music taste? I’m a musician, it’s better to be well rounded” Win said, having caught the tail end of the conversation.
“He’s listening to music in three different languages!” Zol exclaimed.
“And…” Win said, sounding bored.
“I actually have...wait let me check” Pun went through his music, keeping track on his fingers. “Eighteen. Eighteen different languages”
The clattering of silverware made Pun look up.
“Is that...weird?”
“A little, yeah” Win looked sheepish as he picked up his utensils. “I wasn’t expecting eighteen. I have about four different languages in my playlists”
Pun opened his mouth to say something, but Pao elbowed him, shooting him a look. Pun kept the fact that he could understand all the lyrics to all the songs in the eighteen different languages to himself.
The day went by quickly for all ten interns, going smoothly to everyone’s relief. Despite it being a Tuesday, all of them decided to hang out, which they hadn’t done as a full group since the first month. Since it was extremely hot and muggy, they decided to grab dinner at the street vendors, then hang out in Pharm, Tutor, and Zen’s room, since they had the biggest one.
“Hey, cooks, how does this food compare to your own food?” teased Tutor, who was eating his noodles as he sat at the table with Pharm and Zen.
“It’s pretty good” Tops said from the floor, where he was leaning on Win, concentrating on not spilling his soup.
“Street food is best when it isn’t trying too hard” Pao said as he ate his shish kebabs on the couch, squished in between Pun and Manaow. “The hipster stuff sucks”
“I would have thought you liked that kind of stuff” Zol said thoughtfully from Pharm’s bed, where she was sitting with Del, as they had finished their food.
“Cause of the social media thing?” Pao asked.
“Yeah”
Pao shrugged. “Zol, you know everyone’s points right? What are they? If that’s okay with everyone”
Win looked a little apprehensive but nodded at Zol to let her know she could say the point amount.
“I’m going to go low to high, okay?”
Everyone nodded.
“Win has 79 points, I have 84, Tutor has 87, Manaow has 88, Pao has 89, Pun has 90, Tops has 91, Pharm has 93, Del has 93, and Zen has 95. Pretty high scores, everyone!”
Everyone cheered and toasted with their various drinks from the street vendors.
As they finished their food, there was a slight lull in conversation.
“Does anyone know any good group games? And don’t say ‘Never Have I Ever’, we aren’t in high school” Zol said.
“Hey, Win, didn’t you bring that game you love here?” Tops asked.
“SuperFight? Yeah, I did! Explain the rules to them as I go get it. I’ll be right back, someone let me in” Win jumped up and left the room.
“SuperFight? What’s that?” Manaow asked.
“It’s a party game where you get a white card that says who you are and two black cards that have your powers, or what you’re armed with, or what your defenses are. You have to argue on how you’d win with the cards you have. It’s pretty fun” Tops explained.
A knock at the door meant that Win was back, so Del let him in.
“Tops, you explained?” Win asked, as he went through the box of cards.
“Yup, do you want to do the regular game or melee it?”
“What’s the difference?” Pharm asked.
“Regular is one vs one and the winner goes up, bracket style. Melee is everyone for themselves against everyone” Win said as he sat down on Zen’s bed.
“I think melee sounds a lot more fun” Pao remarked. “Otherwise it might take a while”
Everyone agreed, and after they threw all the food away, everyone got settled on either Zen or Pharm’s bed, or on the floor in between the two beds. Win passed around the cards and everyone got ready. There was giggling and a few questions about what some words were and who people were before they prepared to fight.
“Well, since I control a tween army, I’m gonna send the tween army in first and let them die for me” Zol announced, who had a hockey player that healed a hundred times faster than normal and controlled a tween army.
“I’m just gonna breathe fire on them, that should make them nice and crispy” Win replied, who had a morbidly obese bull that could breathe fire.
“If I throw burritos at you, will that blind you? Otherwise I really can’t see a thing” Zen joked, as he was Rambo throwing burritos who relied on heat vision to see.
“Hey, at least you aren’t as bad as me, I think I’m doomed no matter what, tunnels aren’t very helpful if I can’t stop dancing” Tops said, since he was Willy Wonka that couldn’t stop dancing but who could dig and run through tunnels with super speed.
“I don’t think being a super genius boy band is very helpful if you’re breathing fire and we can only fly two feet above the ground” Pun said, making a face.
“Well I’m going to say my robot exoskeleton saves me from the fire cause I can” Manaow said, showing the group her “super model that thinks the floor is actually lava and wearing a robot exoskeleton” cards.
“If you think the floor is lava, then I’m going to teleport to you and bite you, I’ll make sure to do it correctly so I can do it as I’m blind, you’re gonna die” Del told her girlfriend solemnly, as she had “rabid hippo that could teleport but goes blind for ten seconds after each time” cards.
“Well, I’m a pirate that can control all animals, so I’m just going to let Win the Bull and Del the Hippo fight to the death” Pao said. “And my neurotoxins that I spray are gonna melt your brains, Zen and Zol, if you guys are even alive, and your super genius boy band members are now super brain dead, sorry Pun”
“Well, I’m an angel, so my brain is holy and therefore can’t be melted” Pharm, who was an angel that had hands instead of feet and could shoot glitter, informed Pao.
“Your neurotoxins also have no effect on me” Tutor told Pao. “I’m the Statue of Liberty and despite me carrying too many grocery bags, I can control the weather so I think I’ll send you through a tornado”
“Oooh, an angel vs The Statue of Liberty….that’s a tough one” Pun said thoughtfully.
“Neither can be killed” Win called out.
“The Amber Spyglass begs to differ” Zol said. “Angels die in that book”
“The Statue of Liberty could be flattened though” Del said thoughtfully.
“It controls the weather though” Zen reminded everyone.
“I shoot glitter, that corrodes it” Pharm said confidently.
“If you say so” Tutor teased. “I could have the weather corrode the angel’s atoms into ten billion pieces”
“I could bring myself back together, I’m an angel!” Pharm insisted, giggling.
“Here, we’ll bring it to a vote” Pao said, playing peacemaker. “If you think an angel with hands instead of feet and shoots glitter could bring the Statue of Liberty who controls the weather and is carrying too many grocery bags, raise your hand”
Win, Manaow and Zen put their hands up.
“3-5, sorry Pharm, Tutor wins this one”
Pharm shrugged with a smile. “This was really fun, Win!”
“Another round, then?” Win asked.
The other nine interns nodded enthusiastically, picking their cards and having a fight between: the Illuminati riding depressed centaurs inside giant hamster balls; a reggae band that had invisibility cloaks and rocket-powered roller skates; a college a cappella group that wore cement shoes but had a time machine phone booth; The U.N., who was wearing both tin foil hats and literal beer goggles; a senior citizen bowling team that was driving the Popemobile and armed with dynamite; the Kardashians, who couldn’t see yet could see three seconds into the future; a high school marching band that was made up of Beliebers and figuratively “on fire”; everyone at Burning Man, who had crowbars and voodoo dolls of opponents; conjoined twins that literally had their hearts on their sleeves and armed with an infinite sausage lasso; and the Men in Black wearing meat bikinis and sharpened stilettos. There were a lot of arguments and laughter, and everyone agreed that the game was a lot of fun.
At ten, though, Tutor kicked everyone out, reminding them that they did have work the next day and that they couldn’t be noisy late at night. He was met with groans, but everyone dutifully left.
“That was a lot of fun, wasn’t it?” Zol asked the other two girls, all of them showered and in pajamas.
“Yeah, it was” Del answered from underneath the towel Manaow was drying her hair with. “I’m sorry I killed you with my rabid hippo, Manaow”
“I got you back in the other round, no worries” Manaow said cheerfully, discarding the towel and grabbing a brush.
Zol watched the two of them, something sticking in her throat as she watched them be cute and domestic and clearly in love.