[WP] You are thrown into a hunger games like situation, only this time everyone has superpowers. Your power however? The power to cook minute noodles in under a minute.

“Wait wait wait wait wait!”

My voice sounded shrill to my own ears, which to me meant it sounded worse to my competitor. His eyes still spit fire as he scorched the earth beside me, but he stopped.

“Why should I wait?”

I breathed a sigh of relief. At this point I knew I was saved. I had always had a knack of getting out of dangerous situations with my unique power. My thoughts went back to the days of school bullies, tormenting me until I showed them-

“WELL?”

I felt a scorching heat by my right cheek, and the grass beside me curled up and withered in the fire. I closed my eyes for a moment, pretending this was a bad dream and he would be gone by the time my eyes opened. A scorching heat by my left cheek brought me back to the reality of the situation.

“Okay, okay,” I said, almost on autopilot, “I can help you.”

“Help me? I can shoot fire from my eyes. How could you possibly help me?”

I paused for a half-second to figure out the right words. “Because you need to eat too,” I found myself saying, “and food is not easy to cook in this shitty jungle. You’ll waste precious minutes trying to heat up the food you’ve been given. And I could help you shave that time down to mere seconds.” I closed my eyes in fear of what would come next. My fears were unfounded.

For the first time in this conversation, I felt no heat.

“Seconds?” I could hear in his voice that he didn’t want to believe me. But from the simple fact that I was alive I knew he did. I spent an eternity on the ground wondering which side would win. Would it be the side that said to trust no one? That everybody was a threat? Or was it the side that said alliances, no matter how unlikely, would give you precious seconds in these games?

He finally reached out his hand to help me up. I grasped it and pulled myself up out of the grass. I returned his smile as he shook my hand, creating a de-facto declaration of truce. I helped him prepare his dinner in seconds that night, giving him the precious few moments awarded to moments of humanity in these brutal games.

And I grinned as I drove his own blade into his back while he slept unaware that first night.

Ramen wasn’t the only thing I could prepare in less than a minute.