AAOOOSC! Future!

Streaks of light flash past Sidney’s sight as he is tumbling through a tunnel of blackness. He is now wide awake due to the harsh motions; it is like as if he is in a tube and is being sucked into a vacuum.

He is flying to the direction of the force that is pushing him down, down, down. Spinning, flailing, spiralling, twirling, his eyesight is getting jumbled around. He couldn’t feel anything since all that is around him is different sorts of energy, intangible energy. He couldn’t do anything to stop the rough movements or go against it due to the extraordinarily strong force. Anyways, he is still trying to recover from the blow he took from that robot.

With that to say, he is in pain. And the situation he is in does not make his situation any better. But he is after all, Sidney Crosby is Sidney Crosby and can go through anything and be all right.

The force is pressing down on him, causing him to plummet downward with him seeing the path he took, which was made up of light blended with darkness. It reminded him of being in outer space, except he could breathe and the forces in outer space shouldn’t do such actions such as thrusting a person downward violently. He is waving his arms in the air, a natural movement one does when they’re falling down.

Sidney’s eyes are wide, his mind is a mess, wondering where on earth he is, when is all the commotion going to cease, if he is going to be okay.

He has a feeling he will be fine.

Suddenly, he senses the force disappear, being replaced by gravity. The force drops him into the gravity’s arms: He is falling.

Falling...

Falling...

Falling…

Yet, he is gravitating toward a hole in the dark space, one filled with light. The hole is showing a bird’s eye view of a grand, modern city by a body of water.

“WHOA!!!”

A sharp breeze whizzes by Sidney as he plunges into the hole. He spots the perfect blue skies engulfing the hole until it becomes nonexistent.

Once the hole is gone, he peeks behind his shoulder while falling, noticing that there is a body of glittering water right below him.

With a gasp, Sidney extends his hands out in front of him and releases sprays of ice, creating an aerial ice path. He then forms a haphazard circle made out of ice below his feet, pulls himself over to the path in a standing position, and begins taking control of his motions.

He emits more ice in front of him, building more of the path as a way of directing where he wants to go. He dips downward like a roller coaster ride, speeding over the body of water and into the harbour area. He turns into the cluster of building, which he assumes is the downtown area of the city he is in. He slides sideways left to right and right to left, weaving through the skyscrapers while being a good fifty feet above the streets.

While sliding through this “scenic” view, Sidney notices some odd features to the buildings next to him and cars and pedestrians below him: The pedestrians seem to be floating as a way of moving while looking down at neon-coloured phone-sized devices; the cars looked much more aerodynamic with flat hoods, rounded corners, futuristic colours, and lit-up, neon line designs.
The buildings look the same with rounded corners, futuristic colours, and lit-up neon line designs around the rows of windows.

“Huh…,” Sidney mutters under his breath with a confused expression.

He shakes off the odd feeling that something is not right with where is it at and continues gliding through the city.

The buildings and throngs dwindle away as he approaches the outskirts of the city, which is filled with rolling, green hills. He stops creating ice, letting himself land on the ruffling grass, since there is a breeze in the air. The ice under his feet retracts on his command; finally, he is on the ground.

“Ah, my back…” Sidney groans out as he reaches over and massages his back. “Stupid robot.” With the grumpiest face he could make, which is not that grumpy, he storms off from his landing spot and into the vast openness of grass, still leaning over a bit and rubbing his back.

“Where am I, though?” he continues talking to himself. “I think I’m in New York, but I’m not sure with what I saw back there… I hope there’s someone out here whom I can talk to. If not, I’ll just go back to the city…” He halts in his tracks as he spots a lonely willow tree a few yards away from him. Sitting underneath that tree is a person, who seems like he’s eating.

Sidney gasps in delight. “Someone’s here!” He pulls his arms back to his sides and begins running happily toward the person. “Hah-hah-hello!” He cries out as he stops running once he is in front of the person.

The person gazes up from his sandwich to see who on earth is talking to him. The person has round, dark grayish-blueish eyes and brown hair with golden streaks swiped back away from his forehead; he also has quite thick eyebrows and some stubble on his chin and jawline. His eyes immediately widen with shock and awe; he slowly stands up, taking in a deep breath slowly and holding it. “Sidney...Crosby…?!”

“Uhhh...yeah…?” Sidney tilts his head in bewilderment.

“You look so young!” the person exclaims, holding out his hands, which one of them is occupied by a sandwich, toward him. “How?”

“I...always looked like this…” The Penguin furrows his eyebrows with a frown. “Except when I was younger in school, I looked younger, of course. But where am I?”

The man shoots him an odd look. “You don’t know where you’re at? You’re in New York!” He extends his arms out from his sides. “You should know you’re in New York!”

“Ohhh!!!” Sidney nods his head and rubs his chin. “That’s what I thought!” He wags his finger at him.

“Well, it’s about time you talk to me!” the man exclaims, looking relieved.

“Finally?” He narrows his eyes with pursed lips. “I never even met you before. Who are you?”

“I’m Connor, Connor McDavid.” He places his both hands on his chest, but then quickly takes them off, realizing that one of them is holding his sandwich. He looks at his shirt, seeing that there is now a blotch of mustard on it. “Argh.”

“‘Connor McDavid,’” Sidney repeats. “That sounds familiar, but I don’t know where I heard that name from…”

“I’m the captain of the Oilers! Everyone should know who I am, especially you!” He points to him with his free hand.

“‘Captain of the Oilers?’ I don’t remember the captain of the Oilers being named ‘McDavid!’”
Then a question crosses his mind. “Wait a minute. Which year am I in?” He crosses his arms.

“2029. We’re halfway through the year now,” Connor replies matter-of-factly.

Sidney’s eyes widen and his jaw drops. “2029?!” he yells. “Oh my Bubbys!” He throws his hands into the air. “I’m fifteen years into the future!” He grabs fistfuls of his thick, wavy brown hair and begins pacing around the Oiler with large motions.

“Hold up!” Connor extends his arm that has his sandwich in front of Sidney’s path, stopping him from walking. “You came from the past?”

The Penguin drops his hands. “Yup--2014,” he response with a shrug.

“Whoa!” His eyes widen with surprise as he drops his arm back to his side. “That’s before I was even drafted into the NHL!”

“When did you get drafted?”

“2015.”

“That’s in a year!” Sidney extends his arms out. “Oh, well, in my time, that’s almost a year. Now in the time I'm in at the moment, that’s history.”

“Well, that explains why you look so young!” He points to him with his free hand.

“Yeah--!” He gasps when something else crosses his mind. “How am I like now? In 2029?”

“I dunno.” Connor shrugs. "You actually went missing back in 2014 and never returned." He holds his hands out toward him. "But finally you made your way back!"

Sidney appears stumped. "Oh wow..." He reverts his large eyes back at him. "Anything else I missed between the fifteen years? Who’s still playing? What’s up with other hockey players if they’re not playing?”

“Well…” Connor begins listing off the events Sidney missed with his fingers. “I’m the captain of the Oilers, of course, everyone drafted before 2010 are now retired, except for Jagr, who is 57 years old and has played on every single NHL team except for the Oilers, the Sharks won their first Stanley Cup against the Flyers, who lost the Stanley Cup four times in a row, Evgeni Malkin owns the Penguins, Brandon Montour is the captain for the Ducks, Nugent-Hopkins has his own restaurant, Beau Bennett finally finishes his first season without getting hurt and got the Art Ross and promoted alternative captain, there are four new NHL teams in Houston, Seattle, Quebec City, and Las Vegas, and the LA Kings moved to Montana and are now called the Montana Cows.” He gazes down at the Penguin. “And that’s what you missed in fifteen years!”

Sidney looks flabbergasted at what he just heard. “Oh my Bubbys, so much information!” He places his hands on his head. “I think I should go…” He turns around and begins hobbling back to where he came from. “...back to the past...where I belong…and see those events unfold for myself…”

Connor grabs his shoulder, causing him to halt in place. He then turns him around so he could face him. “Why? I mean, you’re already in the future, why go back and wait for this time to come around?”

“I don’t think it’s right though for me to stay here: my friends have retired, everything is so different...I might even meet up with myself!” He shudders at the thought. “Can you get me back to 2014?”

The Oiler steps back and shrugs. “I’m sorry, I don’t know how.” He gives him a pitiful look.
Sidney gazes down at the grass with wide, hopeless eyes. Then an idea crosses his mind. He looks back up at him. “Hey, how’s Tavares doing?”

“Oh, him?” Connor sneers at the Islanders’ name with a smirk. “He’s retired of course, but I bet he hasn’t seen the light of days in years. He’s just stuck in his house like a hermit, not communicating to the outside world.”

“Is he still here in New York?”

“Yeah, of course, the old man would never move from his team’s city.” He rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. “His house is still over there.” He points ahead of Sidney.

The Penguin looks over his shoulder at the direction Connor is pointing toward. Just following that direction and finding familiar territory should lead to him to John. He gazes back at him.

Sidney gazes back at him. “Thank you! Hope to see you soon! Bye!” He then turns around on his heels and begins to speed over toward that direction.

John should know how to get Sidney back to 2014.

Notes