Peekaboo

Patrick felt Showtime's energy flowing up his arm and into his body, giving him the strength to get up and the confidence to fight. He felt alive and like he could conquer anything or anyone. He rose to his feet valiantly, narrowing his eyes at Nemo.

"No," Nemo gasped with wide eyes and teeth clenched.

Patrick smirked. "Oh, yes." He then threw his hand straight at the Sharks' goalie and emitted energy from Showtime at him.

Nemo deflected the blue energy though with his staff; it bounced off to aside.

"I know I can do this, I know I can do this," Patrick muttered to himself, staring at the sword at his hand. He snapped his eyes back up at the villain, who was scrutinizing him to see where he should strike.

The Blackhawk went at it again, blasting more energy out, stronger than the first round at the goalie.

Nemo got ahold of the energy with the tip of his staff, causing it to glow intensely. Patrick tightened his grip of the handle of Showtime, placing more force towards the energy to try to break through the staff. "Come on, come on," he groaned between gritted teeth.

Nemo had a firm grip on his glowing staff, trying to absorb all the energy coming to him with it; the staff was glowing so bright now with all of its extra energy, it seemed like it just came out from a blacksmith's fire.

"Give up, Nemo!" Patrick shouted. "You're gonna burn your hands off if you don't!" He pushed harder, wanting to overload the staff with energy.

Nemo didn't respond, he just stood with a hard grip and a furious look, pushing in towards Patrick to absorb all the energy he could.

"Any moment..." Then Patrick swung Showtime behind his shoulder and like a whip, threw it back out, emitting a wider, stronger, thicker blast of blue energy.

The energy was sucked into the staff, which was now as white as the sun. The stick then exploded into brilliant tiny pieces, throwing the villain off from his feet and sliding a bit on the wooden floor on his back.

Patrick dropped his hand with Showtime to his side with his arms widened. He couldn't believe that Nemo's staff just...shattered.

Nemo was beginning to slowly get up, ready to give the Blackhawk what he deserved for destroying his precious staff.

Patrick got frightened by just the thought of what Nemo would do to him, so in defence he struck the Shark, hoping to weaken him.

And the blow did, making Nemo tumble back down to the ground with a groan.

"Whew." Patrick wiped his forehead with his free hand, gazing at the fallen villain. "I did it..." He turned to face Tyler, who was still with the three Sharks. "I did it--!"

"Patrick?" Nemo's voice called out from behind him.

The Blackhawk made a confused look since Nemo now sounded a whole lot more...nicer. He whipped back around, facing the Shark.

Antti was standing where he was just laying at a moment ago with a bewildered look on his face. "Where am I?"

Patrick had a shocked look. "What?"

"Where am I? What's going on?" His bright, blue eyes were big.

"Wait, I'm confused-- Weren't you just...evil?"

"Evil?" Antti looked slack-jawed. "What? Who gave you that idea?"

"I was just fighting against you! Unless you're just bluffing then, I'm not buying it!" Patrick crossed his arms with a stern look.

"Wait..." The Shark made a thoughtful look, staring at the floor. "Where am I?"

"In...your lair..."

"Where?" He gazed back up at his former teammate.

"Near...Avondale." Patrick looked uncertain.

"That place..." His eyes lit up at the connection. "...no wonder you guys look the way you do! I've been to the place before, and then..." He groaned, placing his hands over his eyes while thinking hard. "...I don't know what happened, I was lost and then I met a lady...and..." He dropped his hand back to his side. "...I'm now here."

"And that lady would be me," a voice proclaimed from behind them.

Patrick turned around, facing the other entrance of the room while Antti looked straight ahead.Lauren was standing in the same place she was at when she had been chasing after Tyler. She’d stopped just inside the doorway to the massive room.

"Yes, it was you!" Antti pointed at her. "You told me that you'd give me a tour of the kingdom! Instead, I blanked out and now I'm here in this...this..." He shifted around the room, thinking of the right adjective to describe the room. "...dreary room."

"The reason why you blanked out was because I took over you."

Patrick, Antti, and Tyler made the same expression: shocked.

"What? How could you‽" Antti roared.

"You were so oblivious to what was going on here and you were perfect for my plan."

"And what's that?" Patrick spat.

"Nemo's same plan."

The Blackhawk and Star eyed the Shark awkwardly.

"You see, I've always wanted to rule the kingdom of Avondale all on my own. I am a princess, but I got other annoying princesses by my side, telling me to do this, to do that and I am unable to do things the way I like to do them." She placed her hands on her hips. "So I decided to take over the kingdom. But I did not want to get blamed, so I chose Nemo over there," She nodded towards Antti. "to cover up for me, which he did a splendid job on until you came in." She shot a deadly look at Patrick. "So all that Nemo did was actually my doing and I was acting like his assistant so that I wouldn't get all the blame. I just wanted to see that Nemo was doing what he was suppose to do."

"So you used Nemo to execute your plans? And kidnapped Jonathan and the others so that you could have it easy to steal the kingdom? But what about the other Sharks, like that Hertl and Stalock?" Patrick asked.

"They came in after Antti, looking for him. I couldn't give him back, of course, so I made them part of my plan as extras and they did well as well." She gave the Sharks that were holding Tyler back a small smile.

Tyler glared at her back.

Lauren scoffed and whipped her head back, making her black hair fling to the side. She looked back at the two guys. "So now you know the truth, you can fight against the actual opponent here."

Patrick fully turned around to face the evil princess. "You really want to?"

A smirk grew on her face. "You don't know who you're dealing with."

Pain immediately began to buzz around Patrick's head. He dropped Showtime, which clanged on the floor before him and sank down to his knees, while holding onto his blond locks, trying to fight off the pain.

"Haha, King Me. Or should I say 'Queen Me'?"

"Stop it!" Antti shouted, trying to be somewhat sympathetic to his former teammate.

"Do you want to join in with Peekaboo?" Lauren asked; the Shark just looked at her with trepidation. "Then zip it." She loomed over the Blackhawk and kicked Showtime to the side, farther out of Patrick’s way. "Having fun there, Peekaboo?"

"AHHHHHHhhhhhh..." Patrick wriggled on the ground, trying to fend off the agony he was going through.

"I think I should take over you and you can help me take over the kingdom? How does that sound?"

"NOOO-!" He snapped loudly.

"Too bad, I already got ahold of your mind and it'll be easy making it mine."

"NOOO!" Tyler elbowed both of the Sharks that were holding onto his arms by thrusting himself from side to side; he then did a roundhouse kick at the last Shark. He rushed over to Lauren and grabbed her arms, pulling her back towards him, since he was behind her. "Don't you dare pull that trick again!" he shouted at the lady.

Patrick let out a gasp of relief since Tyler broke Lauren's concentration. He got up and scooped Showtime off from the floor; he pointed it straight at her. "Give up, Lauren. It's no use trying."

"Oh yes it is." She then disappeared into black smoke.

"Dang it, she can teleport!" Tyler shouted in frustration.

"Not for long," Antti sang-singed while closing the last door opened to the room. "One thing she told me: She can't teleport in an enclosed room, just like a genie." He then locked the door.

And like as if on cue, Lauren teleported back into Tyler's grasp. "Ugh! Why did I tell you that?"

Antti shrugged with his lips pursed and walked off to the other side of the room.

"So?" Patrick made circles in the air with a thin line of energy that was drifting off from the tip of the sword. "Now do you give up?"

"Let go of me!" She shouted, wiggling around to try to break Tyler's grasp.

"Tyler," Patrick started, stopping the energy from escaping Showtime; Tyler looked up at Patrick. "Let go of her." He flashed him a smirk.

The Star shrugged with raised eyebrows. "If you say so." He then let go of her and let the Sharks take him back to their firm grip.

Before Lauren was able to pull off any of her magic attacks, Patrick stuck Showtime towards her and emitted the most energy he was able to make the sword produce in a matter of seconds.

The energy stuck her, throwing her off her feet and float in the air; she began glowing the same gray as the energy from Showtime. The glowing intensified until she was enveloped into blinding black light.

Everyone shielded their eyes as the light engulfed the room. Then a few seconds later, it died down and everyone straightened back up with their hands back to their sides.

And where Lauren was standing at a few moments ago was empty. She was gone.

Lauren, the greater evil, was gone.

Avondale was saved! (I actually said 'Yes!' at this part!)

Patrick had the most excited look that he hadn't made in days. He jammed Showtime in the holster on his belt. "Yes! We did it! Ah-ha!" He jumped up to Nemo and threw his arms around him, hugging him like how he celebrated with him at the end of the 2010 Stanley Cup Final championship when the Blackhawks had won.

Antti just stood there awkwardly, placing on arm around him so that he wouldn't fall.

Tyler looked around him, seeing that true identity of the Sharks that were holding him. "Oh um, hey there Burns...and Couture...and, um--" He gulped. "--Scott."

Logan Couture was rubbing his side. "Dang, what's up with me?"

"Oh heh-heh, I elbowed you." Tyler turned kind of red.

"Elbowed me? More like stabbed me! Get ready for revenge when we play against you guys next time."

Tyler gulped again and hung his head.

Patrick finally let go of his team's former goalie and faced him, wearing a stern, serious look. “Where’s Jonny? Where did you put him?”

“What are you talking about? Jonny? Jonathan Toews?”

“Yeah! You put him somewhere!”

“I...uh...let’s see here…” Antti started pacing about the room in thought. His mind was so cloudy and cluttered that he wasn’t sure. After the pacing didn’t help any, he began walking around the room randomly.

“Hey, Nemo, maybe we can just start searching around for him. He’s gotta be somewhere in here.”

“You’re right,” Antti said with a curt nod. He headed toward the archway that led to the hallway and the spiral staircase. “How about here? Uh…” Sticking his head inside, he looked around and then vanished down the hallway.

“Nemo, wait!” Patrick sighed and followed him inside. They both went down the dimly lit tunnel and came to the dungeon, where Nemo had first put Jonathan in, when Stalock the Dragon had brought him to the castle.

“Jonny!” Patrick exclaimed. “Good work, uh, Nemo...man this is still weird.”

Antti looked at him with an awkwardly stern glare and nodded. Jonathan sat on the ground inside of the small cell and had his head hung low on his chest. He was in chains and had some cloth wrapped around his head. Patrick looked to the Shark goalie with hope. Antti found his key ring and tried them in the door handle. He managed to get a key to work and he opened the door up.

Patrick instantly darted into the room. He dropped down, removed the cloth from its place and flung his arms around his best friend. “Jonny, I did it! I defeated Lauren and saved you!”

Jonathan looked up. “I knew you’d do it, Peeks. Now get me out of these chains, please.”

“Oh, right...ha-ha, I gotcha Jonny.” The blond turned back to the door, where Nemo was standing, watching them. “Think you can give me a hand here, Nemo?”

Jonathan trembled in Patrick’s hands. It made the blond turn to look at him with worry. Nemo came in and squatted down to Jonathan and flashed him a kind smile. Patrick moved to the side, unhooking his arms from his friend. “It’s okay Jonny, Nemo’s good now. He’s not going to hurt us anymore.”

Jonathan bit his lip and stared at Antti, but relaxed some. The two worked together to get the chains off of Jonathan’s wrists and ankles and then aided him to his feet. The poor guy was weak from being chained and tied up so much. And though he needed the help at first, he quickly got his strength back.

As they got to the archway, Jonathan was walking on his own. Patrick remained at his side, however, just in case. The three walked back into the main room, where Tyler was chatting with the Shark guards still. He was holding his side in pain and trying to fight through an agonized sensation that he was going through. John Scott was cracking his knuckles and looking rather pleased with himself.

“Scott!” Antti’s voice boomed suddenly. “Did you hurt Seguin?”

Scott’s pleased look vanished and he nodded at his goalie. “I did.”

“No! Save it for the ice, when we get back to America! Nobody hurts anyone from now on, you hear? I don’t care if he deserved it, because he elbowed Logan for something that happened. Let him be.”

Scott nodded again.

“Let’s get out of here!” Jonathan remarked. “We have to get back to Avondale and finish up saving the kingdom!”

“What? But I thought we did that?!” Patrick, Antti and the Shark guards gasped.

“Not exactly,” Tyler stated, whipping out a small bottle of purple and black liquid stuff. “We have to return everyone’s memories to themselves.”

Notes

Well, there we go, only two or three chapters left, including an epilogue. We're almost to the end of this little fairy tale adventure...
So it was all Lauren. The whole time, eh? That wicked princess. Haha. Told ya there'd be a diabolical princess. XD


Next up: Return to Avondale and Return of the Memories