Battle For the Ice: The Great NHL War

Valeri Nichushkin (Val), Nikita Zadorov (Zady), Nikita Nesterov (Nesty) and Vladislav Namestnikov (Vlad) all sat together at the Russian table. They were deep in conversation with one another, speaking in the native tongue of course. Attached to them were Gabriel Landeskog and Niklas Hjalmarsson, two Swedes and Antti Niemi, a Finnish goalie. The Swedes were trying to engage the Finn in a conversation, but everything was awkward, so they just shot glances up at the Russians.

To the side of them sat the Americans and Canadians, grouped together but split down the middle. Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews marked the split. In the Canadian group, Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, Patrice Bergeron, Reilly Smith, John Tavares, Jordie Benn, Brent Seabrook and Nathan MacKinnon sat. And in the American group, Brandon Saad, Ben Smith, and Torey Krug sat. Corey Crawford sat at the end of the Canadian side of the table.

Patrick was busy talking to Jonathan, happy to be near him and to be seeing him.

Suddenly, Ryan Kesler, an American traitor walked by with his friend Patrick Kaleta. Val got up from his table and made to get something, when Kesler and Kaleta both bumped into him purposefully and sent him sprawling to the floor. He landed on the ground with a sickened thud and snapped his head up to look at what he’d ran into.

“Watch where you’re going Russian asshole!” Kesler barked.

“I no hit you, you hit me.”

“Speak better English, Communist!” Kaleta spat back.

Val scrambled to his feet. “I still learning and I no Communist.”

“Well, you’re in America! That goes for all of you “baby Russians”, learn English or maybe we will make you!” Kaleta snickered.

“Yeah!” Kesler added on, ruffling Val’s hair.

They walked on, laughing like a couple of popular kids who’d just bullied a nerd. Val looked behind him, flattening his hair and then sat back down. He hung his head and frowned, pouting his lip.

“That no nice,” Zady said, concerned.

“I know. I just get up and mind my own business and they pick on me...I no do a thing...” Val looked down at his feet.

“It okay, Val. We here for you. We Russians and we stick together,” Vlad exclaimed, winking.

“Exactly,” Nesty tacked on, with a clueless grin.

The three Russians put hands on Val’s shoulder and comforted him, sending his positive vibes of reassurance.

Val looked back up and nodded, cracking a sweet smile. “Thanks guys.”

At the Canadian table, Jonathan turned to Patrick, “Did you see that?”

“What? Kesler and Kaleta being bullies?” Patrick inquired with a roll of his eyes.

“Yeah.”

“I never liked the two of them. Kesler’s a traitor to the Americans and gives us a bad rep. I never did like him...or Kessel.”

“I’ll say,” Brandon Saad said. “He’s essentially that kid that was stubborn and wicked in school.”

“Except we’re not in school. We’re grown men in the NHL...well in the Olympics. We’re just hanging out together. We all respect one another, no matter what our country origin is,” Jonathan stated. “Even if we are teammates from the same team.”

“We can still be friends with others. Like I can be friends with Jamie and Patrick,” Tyler remarked, leaning over. “Right Jonny?”

“Right Tyler. That is all fine.” Jonathan patted the Canadian-born Dallas Star on the back.

“You know what Jonny, we should teach them a lesson!” Patrick exclaimed, jumping to his feet.

“What do you have in mind Kaner?”

Before he could respond to his Chicago teammate, a group of four men led by Sean Avery walked over. Patrick instantly sat back down, his eyes going wide with fear. He ducked behind Jonathan, cussing to himself.

“PATRICK KANE, DON’T YOU HIDE FROM ME!! Show your pretty white-boy face to me!”

Patrick remained hidden.

“I SAID SHOW YOUR FACE TO ME!!” Avery repeated, harsher.

Patrick finally poked his head up and looked at Avery with big scared blue eyes. “Hey Avery, what’s--what’s up?”

“Cut the crap Kanerboo, you want to beat up my boy Kes? I heard you!” Avery growled, cracking his knuckles menacingly.

“Well, no...uh…” Patrick gulped.

Jonathan put a hand on Patrick’s shoulder and spun to Avery. His chocolate eyes were fierce with anger. “Now listen here Avery, Kesler’s got no right coming over and picking on Val like that!”

“You want to do something about it, Jonathan Toews? Bring it on then!”

“I’m not fighting you Avery.”

“Why? Are you scared I’ll kick your pathetic butt!?”

Jonathan’s eyebrows knit together. “No.”

“I’ll fight him!” John Tavares offered.

“Stay out of this Islander!” Avery snapped. “Why don’t you come and make me, or maybe I’ll just continue to pick on your little blond lover there.”

Jonathan wrapped his arm around Patrick’s shoulder and pulled him closer to him. “You won’t lay a finger on Kaner!”

“Awe, look at that boys, the Canadian is being protective of the American!! How adorable is that?” Avery cackled, mocking them.

Jonathan stood up from the table and faced Avery, clenching his fist. “If you want to fight, Avery, then let’s do it!”

“Oh good, Toes is going to fight after all. It’s because I pissed you off about Patrick, eh? Am I making you utterly irate, so you have to stand up for the blondie? You care for sweet Kanerboo so much don’t you?” Avery sneered.

He made to reach out for Patrick, who backed away. Jonathan swatted his arm and shoved him back. Avery roared and threw his arms down literally glowing with a fiery outline. It was like he was a human torch and he was bright red in the face. He was angry. He lifted his hands up and shot red balls out toward Jonathan.

“JONATHAN!!” everyone yelled.

The Swedes, Americans, Canadians, Russians and the Finn all turned to see what was going on. Jonathan held his hands up and created a blue shield in front of him that deflected the balls. Then he waved his hands in front of him, drawing up a ball of blue energy and threw it at Avery. Avery caught it though and smashed it between his hands. He in turn sent black lightning at Jonathan, who wasn’t ready for it.

“What the--when did--?” Jonathan began, before the lightning hit him and sent him stumbling backward.

Patrick panicked and with Tyler Seguin’s help, the two of them drew up pink balls of energy and directed them at the wicked man. But Avery deflected it and kept zapping Jonathan with the black electricity. John Tavares dove for his backpack and whipped out a massive machine gun-looking device. He pulled the trigger and shot at Avery.

The zapping stopped and Avery and his henchman walked off, leaving the players stunned. Patrick and Tyler raced to Jonathan, who was still convulsing on the ground in agony. The two men put their hands on him, palm down. Then they glowed a lavender color and slowly Jonathan calmed down. He sat up, rubbing his head.

“Thank goodness you’re okay Jonny!” Patrick exclaimed.

“Yeah man, Canada needs you,” Jamie Benn stated.

“I’m fine guys, thanks. But if Avery wants a war, he’s gonna get one!” Jonathan growled, as he was helped to his feet by Tyler and Patrick. “Who’s with me? Who wants to take down Avery?”

Everyone at the tables around them cheered their approval.

Jonathan turned to look at Val and the Russians. “Val Nichushkin, are you okay?”

Val nodded his head and looked at Jonathan with shimmering blue eyes. “I fine. I glad you fine too.”

“Nice shooting Tavy!” Tyler complimented, as he left Jonathan to sit back down beside the Islander and his Dallas captain, Jamie. He high-fived John, who high-fived him back. Then the Islander stuffed his gun back into his bag.

“No one zaps Jonathan Toews and gets away with it!”

“Alright, so here’s what’s going to happen boys, we’re going to go to war with Sean Avery and his group of goons and we’re going to win!” Jonathan instructed. “I’ll by the captain of this team, flanked by Jamie Benn and Patrice Bergeron. Any oppositions?”

There was a chorus of “no” and Jonathan nodded his head. He found Patrick’s hand and gripped it tightly.

“We fight as a team. We play as a team. We win as a team! We have each other’s backs and we take down Avery and his goons! This means, Americans plays with Russians and Dallas Stars play with Colorado Avalanche players and Chicago Blackhawks. We are all one! Now, let’s get ready for one hell of a battle boys!”

“Yeah!” everyone cried out, pumping their fists into the air. They all jumped up and followed Jonathan, who held onto Patrick’s hand tightly. He was on a mission.

“How are we going to fight Avery? Jonny, you just got defeated by him. He could have killed you!” Patrick asked.

“I’ll be fine Patrick, we’ve got to do this. Avery and his men…his friends have terrorized the NHL for long enough. It is time we stop cowering in fear and stand up. We’ve got to do this, Kaner. We’ve got to.”

“But you could get hurt and that wouldn’t be good for Canada or for the Blackhawks.”

“Kaner, I’ll be fine and besides, Avery doesn’t have what we have.”

“What’s that?”

“Skill, luck and two healers!”

“Oh Jonny.”

“And he’ll never have you or Tyler, because he doesn’t know. And besides I’ll keep you safe. That’s my job, Patrick. Can you promise to keep me safe as well?”

Patrick smiled. “I can do that, Jonny.”

“Sick! This is no all-star game, Peeks, it’s war!”

They launched into the practice arena, followed by the others.

Notes

So, I have been wanting to explore the superhero/adventure/action stuff more...so I have created this. I'm honestly not sure where this is really going to go and I'm still tossing some ideas around in my head, but I figured I'd start it. I'm sort of leaning towards the idea of having the next chapters be about individual battles with the characters to develop them and then bring them all together for a big finale, but I'm not quite sure.
If I do that, I'm going to say this, I'm going to let you all, the readers - or just A Shruinger - pick the battle pairings. Avery and Jonathan have to battle of course, but feel free to comment on who should fight who. The first person to fight is John Tavares. So who should he fight?


Next up: Tavy's Battle