Flight

…a gaping hole.

There was a neverending pit of darkness and the sheets of stray ice from the rink holding Jonathan, Patrick and Val captive was like a small island in a black sea. The JumboTron lowered from it’s place and came to hover an inch over the frozen heads of the offensive-minded players.

“Unfreeze ‘em, Vanek!” Kaleta snapped from the bench, where he was standing up now. Brawler and Strum stood with them.

Vanek flicked his hands out and gestured in a way that took the ice away and unfroze the hostages. They blinked and looked around started, then began to panic. Kaleta snorted with amusement.

“Silly, silly Blackhawks and Dallas Star, don’t panic too much, you’ll only make things worse for yourself!”

Jonathan managed to toss his head back-and-forth enough to have his cloth gag fall out and dangle around his neck. “Kaleta stop this madness!”

“Strum, do you mind? I’d rather not hear Captain Serious egg me on!”

“Not at all, Kaleta!” Strum replied and leapt into the air, like his counterpart, Black Hawk. The only difference was that the villain had Flight inside of him, where Evelyn had the Flight in her wings, hence the reason why she needed her wings to fly.

“No!! Don’t touch me!! BLACK HAWK!!” Jonathan screamed, as Strum flew toward him.

Kaleta seemed to raise his hand and halt his friend, who froze in the air. “Hang on, Strum, don’t actually gag him yet. This could be fun.”

Jonathan slowly relaxed, eyeing Strum and then Kaleta. He worked the ropes around him in the process, thinking he could stall.

“Jonathan Toews, you realize your heroine is trapped like a butterfly in the penalty box, right?” Kaleta sneered. “She cannot help you. She was never truly strong enough to be a hero - to be your hero.”

Jonathan jerked his head to the side. His brown eyes softened and watered, as he gazed at the helpless heroine trapped in the box like some kind of fairy tale creature or flying animal. She was just standing, with her hand pressed against the glass door, her wings drooped in the defeat and sorrow behind her. She looked almost broken. Her head hung down and she wasn’t bothering to look at him.

“Black Hawk is a failure.”

Jonathan snapped his head back to face Kaleta, who was glowering at him. He blinked back the tears. He loved Evelyn O’Reilly with all his heart and it stung him that she wasn’t able to do her job...saving him...saving them. Saving Patrick, Val and himself. He had nothing to say. He simply lifted his head up and looked at Strum, who was still frozen in the air a few feet away.

The Blackhawk Captain sighed and took a deep breath and said, “Just gag me again.”

Kaleta frowned. “Strum, come back to the bench and leave him be. Let Jonny Boy cry. Because he knows he has been defeated!” He began to cackle, as his helper flew back to the bench, finally able to move.

The four laughed, enjoying Jonathan’s sorrow and then suddenly a loud crash sounded. It echoed around the rink, stopping the villains’ joyment. Everyone looked to the right side of the rink, where a cloud of smoke billowed around an entrance.

“He hasn’t been defeated you jerks!” a female voice snapped.

The smoke cleared and Kelly MacKinnon stood with her wand up in front of her, like she were leading a team into battle and had just shouted, “Charge!” Behind her, Brooke Johnson emerged. She was wearing some kind of armored suit on like a Knight might wear in medieval times. She joined Kelly, folding her arms and standing back-to-back with her.

“Yeah!” Brooke exclaimed. She raised up some kind of machine gun and pointed it at the penalty box, where Evelyn was trapped. She pulled the trigger and a small black disk zoomed out of the barrel and flew at the box.

Instantly more smoke came from an explosion and then Evelyn sprang up into the air from the mist. Her wings fluttered behind her, expressing her fury and rage. “What were you saying Kaleta, you enormous gash?!” Evelyn snapped, raising her talon-armored gloved hands up and lifting her head to release a deafening hawk cry into the air.

Kaleta was shocked, but he threw his hands out and narrowed his eyes, making them glow once more. Suddenly, Jonathan screamed in pain. The villain was syncing them up to the JumboTron and draining their lives, going through with his plan. “Enough clowning around then, eh? I’m going to drain their lives, until there is no Valeri Nichushkin, Jonathan Toews or Patrick Kane. They are all just figments to the imagination. Failures of the new age of hockey and nothing more than speed bumps in my plan to destroy the NHL, KHL, and hockey in general!”

Evelyn started to fly to the rescue of the trio, who were in distress, but Strum launched into the air and zoomed at her. They met and she began battling him in the air. She swiped at him with her sharp talons, while he dodged her efforts masterfully.

These villains were not like Red Wing or Canuck. They were smarter, stronger, more powerful.

Brawler and Vanek snuck up the rows of the arena’s seats and headed for Brooke and Kelly. Kelly activated her wand, exclaiming the spell for her fire streamer. She then flicked her hand and wand back and made like a whip, as she lashed it at Vanek, when he came at her. Brawler charged at Brooke, who had tossed the gun to the side and had whipped out a glistening sword similar to Excalibur.

The fighting continued on, as Kaleta was free to drain his subjects lives into the JumboTron overhead. Val was the weakest of the group. (Sorry Valeri. I know your name means “strong”, but let’s face it, next to Patrick and Jonathan you are the weakest, but you’re stronger than Tyler, so that’s something.) He was the first one to grow pale and fall unconscious. Brooke saw it and screamed.

“EVELYN, VAL IS IN TROUBLE!!” the brunette shrieked, before Brawler knocked the sword from her hands and slammed her against the wall.

Evelyn made contact with Strum’s face and managed to get the diamond-shaped scar or whatever on his forehead. It glowed brightly and suddenly Strum didn’t look so powerful. He plummeted downward, disappearing into the hole below, screaming. She paused for a second and then looked to the trio, spotting Val and Patrick slumped unconsciously in their chairs.

“You can’t win, Kaleta!” Jonathan insisted, fighting as best he could.

Evelyn slammed into Kaleta, who barely budged from his spot. Apparently Vanek had frozen him in place. Ice encompassed his feet and ankles, rendering him still and in place. He smirked as she realized what was going on.

“You’re so smart, Kaleta, I hate you!” she spat.

Then Evelyn lifted into the air and tried to figure out what she could do. She flew over to the JumboTron and slashed the wires and metal bars that held it from falling. Then she flapped her wings hard and managed to send the large screen tumbling down into the abyss where Strum was.

Instantly the process halted. Kaleta’s eyes remained glowing, but he no longer had control over his subjects. His arms lowered, but he was still smirking. He looked seriously creepy-scary. She spun to him, as he began cackling in distorted insanity.

“Oh, my dear, you’re too late!” he finally managed in a demented tone.

Evelyn looked at Jonathan, who was slumped unconscious in his chair now. “NO!! JONNY!!” She darted to him and grabbed his face in her hands, being careful not to jab him with her taloned fingers. He was limp and lifeless. Tears filled her eyes, as she refused to accept he was dead. Then she hugged him, sobbing into his barely clad chest. “I’ve failed! I’ve failed you! I’ve failed the Blackhawks, Chicago, Patrick, Val, everyone!”

Kaleta continued to snicker in the bench. He produced a ball of fire energy and shot it forward. The energy hit Jonathan, narrowly missing her. It was absorbed into his chest. She jerked back and spun to the villain.

“What did you do? What did you just do to him?”

“Nothing of your concern, dear. I’m just “burning his heart”...just so his love for you goes up in flames!”

Evelyn shot toward Kaleta and rammed her fist into his face. He laughed, as he melted the ice somehow and shot his hand out to the side of her. The sound of snapping ropes sounded and Jonathan was lifted from the chair and his bonds and moved over the pit.

“Kaleta, don’t!” Evelyn pleaded. “I’m begging you, please don’t do this. He’s innocent. Strum has turned you into this wicked villain and--!”

“Silence!” the villain snapped sending Evelyn into a seat on the bench.

She screamed, as she hit the bench. Kaleta yanked his hand toward him in a quick motion and then threw it back out, as Jonathan flew at him and then was grabbed by the neck. The limp Blackhawk forward dangled over the darkness below his feet.

“Kaleta, please,” Evelyn wailed. “Jonny’s my everything!” She gripped the bench with her hands. “Please, I’m begging you Kaleta!”

In the background, she could see Brooke having difficulty holding her own against the super-strong Brawler and then Kelly was actually keeping Vanek at bay, like a lion-tamer, as she whipped her wand and fire streamer energy at him. She turned back to look at Kaleta and focus on him.

The villain turned to her, dragging Jonathan with him and put him on the bench beside him. Then he made it so that Evelyn couldn’t come to him, blocking the two of them off from her. He withdrew another set of ropes he had with him and bound Jonathan’s wrists together. And then he bound the centre’s ankles together.

“So here’s what’s gonna happen, I was going to kill Jonathan at first, have him just go bye-bye and get him done and out of the way, but then I consider it much more joyous if I bring him back to life, have him and you watch me kill Patrick and then kill him. Sounds much better, don’t you think, Black Hawk?!”

“No, Kaleta, don’t!”

“Tough luck, kid! Oh plus, he needs to be alive for his heart to burn up inside of him anyway!” Kaleta used his mind to focus on Jonathan and he was somehow magically able to bring him back to life with his telepathic thoughts.

Jonathan gasped for air, his eyes shooting open at once. He found his hands bound before him and his feet useless. He took in the set-up and then finally Kaleta, who grabbed him by the hair, holding his head in place. “Kaleta? What’s going on? What are you doing?”

“Patrick Kane,” Kaleta spoke, as he used his telekinesis powers to tear Patrick free from the ropes and then guide him over to the side, so he hovered in the air, controlled by the villain, “your best friend in the whole world. Your partner-in-crime, old roommate, whatever...basically your brother, is he not?”

Jonathan stared in horror. “Kaleta, let him go!” He struggled in the restraint of the ropes around him.

“Poor choice of words, ain’t it, Captain?” the villain sneered.

“Kaleta, please!” Evelyn continued. “Don’t hurt Patrick!”

Jonathan turned to see Evelyn on the bench, but somehow restricted from reaching him. He lifted his hands up and attempted to figure out why she couldn’t, feeling an invisible energy touch his skin, almost like an invisible barrier or glass. He spun back to Kaleta and looked out to poor Patrick, who was precariously dangling over sure death.

“Don’t hurt Kaner!” Jonathan thought. “Don’t hurt--he mustn’t hurt him! He can’t--you can’t let him hurt Kaner! YOU can’t let him hurt Kaner! Save him!”

The Blackhawk Captain narrowed his eyes and felt himself overcome with strong feelings and emotions of hate.

Notes

Uh, okay...I'm sure A Shruinger, you'll find something wrong in here....my guess is how I used Kaleta's telepathy to bring Jonny back. I tried to research about that, but I wasn't entirely sold on what I found, however, it hinted at or I assumed that from what I read, someone could actually telepathically bring someone back to life. But I don't know...
Oh and the next chapter's gonna really throw you off!!!! I'm so excited for it! But that won't come until Wednesday!! :P MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! BE IN SUSPENSE!!
Okay, I've gotta stop looking at pictures of Kessel and Jonny during the awards show. Haha XP
Oh come on, NHL, Kess, Kazer, you all set this up and bring it upon yourselves!


Next up: What's happening to Jonny????