AAOOOSC! Future!

It is now the middle of the afternoon as Sidney strolls up to John’s house. He halts in the middle of the brick pathway; he feels that something is off. “Hm.” He shrugs it off and continues marching toward the porch.

Once he is on the porch, he goes onto his tippy-toes and knocks on the door. He gazes up at the looming door, waiting for the familiar clanking sounds of locks unlatching. But it never came.

“Huh…” Sidney knocks on the door again, this time harder.

Nothing.

“This is odd…” He narrows his eyes and scratches his head, becoming discombobulate. “Why isn’t John answering? He never goes out...and should be home…” He looks out to the right, seeing John’s old car in the driveway. Then reasons for this incident begin popping up in his mind. “Maybe he’s busy. May he’s listening to music. Maybe he didn’t hear my knocking…”

Sidney faces the door again and slams his fist against it three, hard times.

No response.

“John!” Sidney calls out. “John, are you there?”

Silence.

“TAVARES, OPEN UP!” he booms out from his tiny body.

Same result.

“Hm.” Sidney storms over to the left and climbs on top of the bench that is next to the door.

Above the bench is a window, which leads to the kitchen. He opens it up and slides himself into the house. He drops down to the floor on his feet and straightens up to see what is in front of him.

The kitchen and living room is empty; no sign of anyone around except for Sidney, of course.

“John…?” Sidney calls out in a concerned tone, looking around his surroundings.

A clattering sounds from the right echoes, following with a yelp.

Sidney’s eyes fly open. “John!”

He zooms down the hallway, where the sound came from. He jumps over a small step at the end of the hallway, landing in front of the open doorway of John’s laboratory. He skids into the room, facing the left and halts as he sees what is unfolding in front of his eyes.

There is Connor up in the air, blasting yellow energy straight at John. John in the other hand has created a force field out of wind around him, dissolving the energy on contact. Laboratory supplies from papers to flasks to mini electronic devices fly around John due to the high winds. Behind the retired Islander is a massive, metallic box. From the looks of it, it seems like John is defending the item.

“OH MY BUBBYS!” Sidney yells in pure shock, placing his hands on his cheeks.

Connor ceases in his striking and sharply turns around to face the Penguin; the tail of his robe is flapping in the wind. “Sidney!” he barks. “What are you doing here?” He has his eyebrows furrowed.

“What are you doing here?!” Sidney cries back. “Why are you fighting against John?!”

“You are not suppose to be here-- Leave!” the Oiler snaps at him, pointing toward the doorway.

“No.” He stomps his foot on the ground. “I am not going to leave.” He places his hands on his hips with the fiercest expression he could make, which is not quite fierce.

“Fine.” Connor solemnly gazes down at his hands with a haughty look. “As you wish.”

Suddenly, Sidney is thrusted against a metal shelf that is behind him, becoming about three feet above the ground. Ice then forms around his wrist and ankles, locking him up in place.

“Hey!” Sidney shouts. He tries to manipulate the ice, but it is like as if his connection is cut. “Get me out!” He wiggles forcibly from side to side, attempting to be free, but his movements failed to get him anywhere.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk…” Connor hovers over to him with a fake, pity look. “This is what happens when you go against the Master...of the EHP.” He then sharply turns to face John and emits more yellow energy at him.

John, who was taking the time to work on the machine, did not see the energy coming and gets blasted up against the wall. He peels onto the ground with a groan.

“You…,” Sidney starts shakily, “...you’re...the master...of the E...H...P?” He grimaces at him.
Connor turns around and nods his head with a leer. “You got that right.”

“But how?” he cries out in a squeaky voice. “You’re evil! I thought...you were good...” His voice fades away in brittleness.

“Looks do deceive, friend.” The Master of the EHP mockingly presses his fists against Sidney’s cheek. He chuckles a bit before facing the whole lab. “This is perfect: I got the time machine, I got the scientist--” He snaps his eyes up at John.

John immediately is thrown against the wall with white lightning locking him in place, just like how Sidney is imprisoned.

“--and I got the prize.” He swiftly faces Sidney. “You see, the GHP thrived with you, Crosby. Without you, the GHP wouldn’t really be the way it was back in the days of your NHL career.

"Once you disappeared and I came into power, my…” He shakes his head. “...did the GHP do a number on the EHP or what? It took a while for the EHP to restart, take over the NHL, but I did it. But that’s not enough. It would be better if the EHP had the NHL from the beginning…!” He stares at the wall above the shelf Sidney is hanging from with evil determination. “What if I can change...history?

“So when you came along from the past, I immediately thought, ‘Oh, what a perfect thing! Just keep you here, not go into the past, and the GHP would crumble in the past and the EHP would last...longer…!’” He smirks at the Penguin, his eye glistening in wickedness. “And that’s what I’m doing: I am going to keep you here, Crosby, in the future, and all of what you had in the past with the GHP would diminish!” He throws his hands into the air with power; his hands glow brightly, but not enough to release energy.

“No!” is all Sidney could say at the moment. “No! How? How could you? I thought you were good! I thought you were my friend! I thought...you cared for me…”

“Yeah,” Connor begins saying sarcastically, “I totally care for the former captain Canada who hogged that spot longer than he should’ve and beat my Oilers in every game and made the GHP reign over the supernatural side of the NHL for a long, long time!”

He sticks his face toward Sidney’s face. “I don’t care. I don’t care about you--” He pulls away from him. “I don’t care about the old man--” He redirects his pointer finger at John. “--I don’t care about the stupid time-space whatever whatever, I don’t care! I just care about me.” He places his hands on his chest. “Me and the EHP.”

“You’re mean!” Sidney snaps at him. “I hope you will see that the GHP is the best! I hope you’ll see your doom!”

“Well, that’ll come way after your doom.” He chuckles with a sly smile. “Now,” he says calmly, “you’re gonna be a good boy and not try to go against me when I take these off. Because I need for you to come with me.”

Suddenly, the ice holding Sidney in place disappears. The Penguin is dropped onto the ground; he lands on his feet. “I’m not a good boy--I’m Sidney Crosby!” He then unleashes a round of ice chunks straight at Connor.

With a slice of his hand in the air, the chunks of ice drop transform into pieces of chicken nuggets and plop onto the floor.

“It's not like I didn't know that,” Connor mutters to himself, staring at the chicken nuggets.

Sidney uses the opportunity of Connor looking at the chicken nuggets to free John: He blasts a wind of ice at the retired Islander, freezing the lightning cuffs. With ease, John yanks his limbs free and lands on top of the machine, then slides down to the ground on his feet.

Connor’s eyes widen in shock as he sees John in liberation. “No!”

Sidney then strikes the Master of the EHP with a shard of ice, distracting him from manipulating John’s powers to lock him up again.

Connor skids onto the ground, but immediately gets back up. “That did not hurt one bit.” He blasts energy at Sidney.

Sidney creates a shield out of ice and deflects the beam out of his way. He then throws the shield at him, knocking him onto the ground.

Before the Penguin can do anything to make sure he stays down, Connor immediately springs up to his feet and gives him another round of energy. Sidney slides onto his knees to dodge the energy and freezes Connor’s feet into place.

Meanwhile, John is hastily putting the finishing touches of the time machine by connecting wires inside the top of it. He mumbles Japanese underneath his breath as he connects wires together in a complex system of wires.

He then closes the lid of the hole, screws it on, and kneels down to the bottom side of the machine. There, many buttons and flips are installed.

“オーケー…” John flips and presses the series of buttons and flips accordingly. (Okay…)

The machine then starts to hum as the mini red and green light bulbs around the flips and buttons light up. “大丈夫.” He then slides on the balls of his feet, still low, facing Sidney. (Good.)

“Crosby!” John shouts.

Sidney stops fighting and turns to face him. “What?”

“Poise anterior of the apparatus!”

Connor lands his eyes on the machine with a crazy expression. “NO!” He stretches his hands toward it.

The Penguin runs over to stand in the machine’s range, which isn’t too far away, as vivid, yellow energy is released from Connor’s hand.

With wide eyes, John slams his hand on the red button that is on the side of the machine. A ribbon of teal, sparkling energy streaks out from the bottom of the machine, straight toward Sidney.

The tangled energy of Connor is streaking toward the machine, intending to destroy it.

Closer to it, closer to it.

Closer to him, closer to him.

Waiting, waiting...

The teal ribbon makes contact with Sidney, zapping him out of the room in a flash of teal and white energy. Right after that, the yellow energy makes contact with the time machine, blasting it into a million pieces.

Due to the force of the blast, John is thrusted out from his position and is slammed onto the other side of the room on his stomach.

“Ugh…” he groans, looking up at Connor with a twitching eye.

Connor is staring out at the scene in complete horror.

“Well,” John starts out, “take a wild guess at who obtained victory.”

Notes