Convergence - The Last Science #2.1 - In Plain Sight

B2: Chapter 5 - Rules of the Game - IV

  "How does he lose?" she asked.

  "There's three ways. If his general is dead for more than three turns, he loses."

  "They can come back to life?"

  "Yeah, there's a few different ways. Generals are special immortal hero types. You don't usually lose that way, but it can happen." Steven pointed at the spot behind Quinn's cards. "If you get to the end of the line, you can attack the other guy. Every time you do they have to drop cards from their deck, and if they run out of cards they lose."

  "And the last way?"

  "If they run out of cards another way." Steven shrugged. "I guess it's really only two ways, but it's important since there are spells and stuff to make you lose cards. You still gotta worry about it even if you don't get attacked."

  Quinn stopped playing with the card underneath his catapults. He picked up his general and set her on his center pile, one behind the front. He put out two dark robed ninjas on either side of her. "I move Linnethea to my fort and activate its guards." He then flipped over the card underneath the catapults. "Siege attack on your wizard tower. You randomly lose a guy."

  Tyler sighed and picked up the three cards on his tower, holding them up in front of him. Quinn grabbed one out at random and tossed it aside.

  "Shit," Tyler groaned.

  "Tyler just lost his best wizard to that," Steven explained. "He's still doing way better than Quinn, but that slows him down a bit. He's still got this though. Quinn's screwed."

  Quinn paused, then held up the six cards in his hand. "I discard everything and make three more catapult attacks."

  Tyler stared at him for a moment, slack-jawed. "Uhh, where?"

  "All three on your castle," Quinn said, pointing at the stack of cards at the side of Tyler's back line—which included his general.

  "What's he doing?" Natalie whispered.

  "Quinn's crazy. He's going all in on a stupid catapult play to try and take out Tyler's general."

  "Why?"

  "Tyler's general makes it easy for him to pump tons of soldiers as long as he sits back in the castle. They're cheap but he can just keep throwing them at the front until Quinn's got nothing left. Quinn didn't draft any good removal stuff in his kingdom so he can't take care of that many guys at once." Steven scratched his head. "This is like a fifty-fifty shot though and Quinn doesn't have any other cards left. It's a dumb play."

  Quinn smiled. "Hold 'em up, Tyler."

  Tyler held up the seven cards that had been clustered around the castle. Three of them had been face-down. Natalie leaned over slightly so she could see what he'd been keeping secret. Two of them looked like wizards, and the other card was a strange fairy girl with a wide, mischievous grin who seemed to be holding an exploding bag. Quinn reached forward and plucked out the first card, which was a plain-looking knight.

  He looked disappointed, while Tyler let out a faint sigh of relief. Quinn waited a moment before he grabbed another one—the fairy girl with the bomb.

  Steven whistled. "Oh man, that would have wrecked you. Nice."

  Quinn grinned. "Now for Sir Sits-a-lot."

  "Sir Tennenbauer the Indomitable," Tyler corrected with an annoyed look.

  "Not for long," Quinn added, reaching forward for his last card. Natalie waited with baited breath as he reached right for the general—but he switched at the last second, grabbing up another knight instead.

  Quinn looked at it, disappointed. Steven sat back against the wall, equally dejected.

  "Is that your turn?" Tyler asked smugly.

  "Nah," Quinn said. "Linnethea attacks with everyone using her double move special." He picked up his general and set her straight onto the wizard tower along with her two ninjas.

  "Uhh..." Tyler started.

  "Quinn, she loses that fight," Steven pointed out. "What are you doing?"

  "I'm attacking," he replied calmly. Natalie noticed his hand touching the corner of a card underneath his other back-line territory, another wizard tower like the one he was assaulting. She hid her grin. She knew he had a real plan, even if it looked crazy to the other guys.

  "I..." Tyler started coughing again, pulling out his inhaler. "I cast mystic retreat," he said, tossing out a card from underneath his castle. He picked up the remaining cards at the wizard tower and put them in his hand.

  Quinn smiled and moved his cards onto the tower in Tyler's territory. "Your turn."

  They didn't end up finishing the game, as the lunch bell rang before Quinn's force made it to the opposite end. Natalie walked out with him while Tyler and Steven went off to their own classes.

  "What's that game called?" she asked.

  "Did you like it?" Quinn asked, surprised.

  "Maybe. I think it could be fun." She shrugged. "I liked watching you guys play it."

  "Way more fun to play than to watch. If you want, I could teach you sometime."

  "Sure."

  "Is it cool if I come over to your place with the decks?"

  Natalie hesitated. "I... I dunno."

  "Oh! Sorry," Quinn apologized. "I just... My parents kinda get annoyed when we just play games all day. They're usually pretty cool, and Dad even plays it sometimes, but they think I have to focus on school." He grinned. "They don't know that I can do all my homework in study hall before I even get home. Anyway, we usually trade off between Tyler's house or Mitch's apartment, but I thought maybe you'd want to learn with just us?"

  "I do, but it can't be my place. I can't have anyone over. Sorry."

  "Oh."

  Natalie felt her face heating up again and cursed herself. Why can't I stop being embarrassed around him? "Can we go to the library or something? Or maybe just here after school?"

  "Library sounds good. They don't let kids stick around here unless they're in a club."

  "Like the Glasses Club?" she joked.

  "It's not a real club." He laughed. "Guess we have to get you glasses now. Want to meet up tomorrow? I have a family thing tonight but nothing at all tomorrow."

  Natalie felt a burst of joy at the invitation. Someone actually wanted her to hang out. She finally wasn't alone anymore. She had to stop herself from grinning like a crazy person and dancing the whole way home. She tried to answer as calm and casually as he'd asked.

  "Yeah. Tomorrow sounds great."