Later that day, a small, old, beat-up blue car is rolling down a lonely one-way road in the middle of a vast, flat land. Inside the car is a man with short, brown hair, a beard, and huge, gray eyes. He does not seem to mind the loneliness though, since he is rocking out to electronic music. Bobbing his head to the music while making intense facial expressions, he is singing to the song with a high-pitched, ear-covering worthy voice:

“I wanna run away!!!

I wanna run away, eh!

Anywhere out this place, eh, ACE!

I wanna run away, eh!

Just youuuuuuu and I! I! I-I! I-I!

Youuuuuu and I! I! I-I! I-I!

Youuuuuu and I! I! I-I! I-I!

Youuuuuu and I! I! I-I! I-I!

Just you and I!" His eyes travel down to the screen of his radio, which is showing an incoming call.

“Phone!” He presses the “accept” button. “Ello!” he calls out as he lowers down the music.

“Hey, Carter!” a lady’s voice calls from the other end. “How’s Detroit?”

“Detroit?” The man, Carter, pauses for a moment, staring ahead at the vast nothingness. “Man, Detroit is surely bustling!”

“Really? Is it more packed than Nashville?”

“Oh yeah, definitely!” he says with a hint of sarcasm. “I mean, look at that--” He raises his hand out toward the windshield. In front of him, cows are crossing the street, so he brakes. “--even the cows are here!” He leans toward the radio. “Stacey babe, you should’ve really been here--”

“Cows? I didn’t know there were cows in Detroit!” the lady’s, Stacey, voice cries through the speakers.

Carter chuckles. “Nether did I! I should get some milk from them, having some nice milk--”

“Do you even know how to milk a cow?”

He sit there in silence. “Uhhh...no, but I can try--”

Stacey giggles. “Oh, Carter, you’re too funny! I hope you’ll do well against the Red Wings in your next game!”

“Haha, say that to Pekka--” Carter continues driving along since the cows are done crossing.
“He’s the one who’s gonna be playin’, not me…” His voice fades off. “It’s strange though, he got off of practice early today…”

“Really?”

Carter makes a wide curve, following the road. “Really. I don’t know why, though, he seemed fine. Hm.” He shrugs.

“Did he tell you anything of why he left?”

“Nope. Just left. He’s been secretive like that for years now.”

“Wonder why he’s like that?”

“Yeah… It’d be interesting to know why, to be honest.” Carter pauses, looking straight ahead. “Do you know why?” His eyes land on a building to his left; he immediately gains interest in it.

“Hoh, no!” Stacey starts off. “If someone was to know why Pekka has been secretive, it would be you…”

Stacey’s voice fades off as Carter slowly brakes on the right side of the road. His eyes are glued to the dreary, dark building that matched the gloomy, gray weather.

“...maybe you can just ask him, but ask him nicely, not like--”

“Hey, Stacey…,” Carter says slowly, cutting his girlfriend off.

Stacey redirects her speech. “Huh, yeah?”

“I’m gonna go. Okay?”

“Oh, uh, sure. Talk to you later!” Stacey exclaims.

“Bye.” Carter turns to his radio to end the call. He then snaps his head to face the building again. “That building…”

Carter turns to the passenger's seat, which has a duffel bag plopped on it. He reaches for it and unzips it, pulling the top open; inside is darkness. He stuffs his hand in it and pulls out the top of a black shinobi shozoko. “Time to spy,” he mutters with a smirk and narrowed eyes.

---

The tip of a ninja tabi boot is stuffed between the bricks that is part of the exterior of the building. A hand grasps a higher brick and pulls up Carter. He is now dressed in all black, in a ninja outfit: all that is seen of him are his huge eyes with the skin around his eyes and bare hands.

He scales the side of the building, crawling up toward a dark window high up. During his climb, he hears whispers from within the building.

“Somebody’s inside--!” Carter mutters as he pulls himself up with his hands. He pauses for a moment, breathing quite hard. “I must be quiet.” He grunts as he lifts his hands above him, against the wall; he pushes himself higher.

Finally, two hands appear on the ledge of the window. Carter’s head pops up front behind the hands from the outside. He hooks his arms around the ledge, gaining support while he gazes around the mostly moonlight-lit room. Once he sees that the room is empty in the moonlight’s path, Carter swings his legs over the ledge and jumps inside the room.

He gradually begins to make his way across the room in the moonlight. His steps are soft and quiet, like a ninja’s, since he does not want to attract attention--

“Howzit goin’..., dude?” a familiar voice croaks out from the darkness to the left off the moonlight’s path.

Carter straightens up and halts in his moving; he holds his breath.

“You know, man…,” the voice continues saying in the same tone, “...I can see you...even when you’re not moving…”

Carter furrows his eyebrows. “Okay then, who am I?”

“The Preds’ backup goalie, man…”

“Name…?”

There is a pause. Then: “Hutton, dude.”

Carter snaps his fingers. “Dang it!” He pulls down the cloth that is covering the lower half of his face, then turns to the left, staring into the darkness. His eyes then make out a figure, a familiar, faint figure sitting against the wall. “You’re Kane, aren’t ya?”

“Everyone knows who I am..., man,” Patrick tells him wearily.

Carter crosses his arms. “What are you doing here…, rival?"

“If I tell you..., dude, you might not think me as...radical.”

He narrows his eyes. “How? Tell me; I can believe anything.”

“Alright… If you says so, man.” Patrick sighs. “Galchenyuk and Zadorov kidnapped me. Then Jimmy Howard man beat me up. Ugh, that was terrible… They also have Tazer dude: he’s hooked up to all these machines and stuff; it doesn’t look good, man, not gnarly at all…”
Carter makes an odd look. “Why did they kidnap you? Can’t they get like arrested or
something?”

“It happens to me all the time, dude-- I always get kidnapped and held hostage by the EHP. But this is the first they actually beat me up during it.”

“EHP?”

“Evil Hockey Players’ Society. They want the NHL and use their powers to try to achieve that, man.”

“Powers?”

“Yeah, there’s powers...power players have ‘em…”

“So why did they kidnap you?”

“Because I’m part of the GHP, man: Good Hockey Players’ society. We try to stop the EHP from getting the NHL.”

“Whoa.” Carter looks out into space. “You’re talking about supernatural powers?”

“Yeah, man. Like invisibility…, fast reflexes…, enhanced skills…” He then pauses. “Oh no, I’m not suppose to be talking to you about this-- You’re not a power player.” Patrick groans. “This is not radical, man-- Forget what I said--”

“No worries, I’ll keep it a secret.” Carter does the motion of zipping his lips, locking them, and throws in the key out. “Now, do you wanna get outta here?”

“With Tazer man,” Patrick replies flatly.

Carter narrows his eyes. “Jonathan Toews, right?”

“Yeah, dude.”

Carter snaps his head in all normal directions, searching for Toews. He lands his eyes back on Patrick. “Where is he?”

“He’s downstairs. You can get ‘im… And then get me… And bust outta here.”

Carter nods his head gradually. “Gotcha. I’ll get him! I wanna work for the good, not for the evil-- Even if that means going with my rivals!” And with that, Carter sprints away from Patrick.

Patrick lazily follows Carter with eyes. “Thanks…, man…”

---

Jimmy is having a standing-up discussion with Alex and Nikita on the lower level of the main room, in front of Toews. From above on the second story, Carter creeps up and leans over the railings, taking in the scenery. He then spots Toews hooked up to the large machine.

Carter takes in a deep breath. “Alright,” he mutters under his breath, “Like what Kane says: ‘It’s showtime.’” He pulls the cloth over the lower half of his face and slips to the staircase to his right.

Meanwhile at the bottom, Jimmy is now typing on the massive computer with Alex and Nikita by his side.

“Maybe we should get Crosby next,” Alex suggests to Jimmy.

“Nah, nah, I’d rather get Niemi-- He’s the master,” Jimmy tells his sidekick, not pulling his eyes away from the screen.

From behind them, Carter is tip-toeing up to Toews. He then finally sidles over to him.

Carter wraps his arm on the top of the chair Toews is in and holds down the cloth that is over his mouth to talk with his other hand. “Psst!”

Toews jumps then snaps his head up at him. “What the--?!” He regains himself. “What the heck are you doing here, Hut--!”

“Shhh!” Carter slaps his hand over Toews’s mouth, letting the cloth slide down to his neck. “I’m saving you.”

Toews muffles something against his mouth with wide, furious eyes.

“SHHHH!” Carter snaps his eyes at the three bad guys, who seem to not know what is going on.

“MMM!” Toews rips his head away from Carter’s hand, then turns back to face him. “You can’t save me!” he hisses. “You don’t have powers!”

“But I’m a ninja!” Carter whispers to him, leaning toward him.

“Some ninja,” Jimmy’s voice is heard from the other side the room.

The two look to where the voice came from.

Jimmy and the two Slavs are now fully facing them. The Master turns to Alex, then to Nikita. “Boys,” he starts off, “you know what to do.”

Alex and Nikita step in front of Jimmy in unison, standing side-by-side. They stretch their arms out toward each other, creating navy blue energy with streaks of gold, white, and red between their hands.

The energy grows and intensifies, engulfing them together as they seem to slide closer to each other.

Suddenly, a flash of light fills the whole room, blinding Toews, Carter, and Jimmy for a moment.

Once the light fades out, all that is left is Nikita; Nikita with glowing white eyes and hands filled with navy blue energy.

Carter gawks at Nikita. “What the heck--?”

Nikita blasts a stream of blue energy straight at Carter.

“WHOA!” Carter throws himself out of the energy’s way. He tumbles against the hard, cold ground

Nikita emits another beam of energy down at Carter.

“No!” Carter rolls himself out of harm’s way and quickly gets back up on his feet. “Get this!” He whips out four ninja stars, two in each hand, and thrusts them at Nikita.

Nikita holds out his hand in front of him; the stars halt in their flight in midair. Then with a flick of his hand, the stars start racing back toward Carter.

“Oh shoot!” Carter dives out of the way as the stars pierce the wall that was behind him.

Carter scrambles to his feet, in front of the staircase. He quickly turns around and yanks out a nunchuk. “Hah!” He thrusts it out at Nikita as a distraction, then quickly turns around and speeds up the stairs.

Nikita quickly explodes the nunchuk in midair into flames, letting the ashes and pieces drift down. He then turns to Carter, spotting him with his back facing him now at the top of the stairs.
He conjures a ball of water and sprays it up at toward him.

Carter hears the rushing of water behind him; he sharply looks behind his shoulder, spotting the now thick ribbon of water. “Oh my--!” He ducks down, letting the water whizz over him and smash against the wall in front of him.

Carter straightens up and faces Nikita. “Take this!” He pulls up a dull, silver, sphere-shaped object into the air with one hand and throws it down into the main room.

The object plummets downward then hits the ground, blasting into pieces and emitting colourful smoke.

The smoke rises upward and morphs into a translucent scenery of the beach that sweeps throughout the whole main room. Sound of the soothing waves, cawing of the seagulls, fill the room along with the sharp smell of the salty sea.

Jimmy and Nikita stare around the unexpected scenery in shock and awe.

“What the heck…?” Jimmy mutters while gawking.

Toews is staring at the pure, blue “sky” with confusion.

Carter stares down at the now two bad guys through the imaginary screen, making sure they are completely distracted. Once they are standing around and talking among themselves for a few moments, Carter zips away from their sight.

---

Patrick perks up to the sound of Carter panting and shuffling back into his room.

“Did you get Tazer man?” he asks him with a hint of hope.

“No,” Carter groans, halting in front of Patrick; he places his hands on his knees, leaning over.
“But I can get you.” He slips into the dark and kneels next to him. He spots something odd with Patrick’s wrist. “Are those chains?”

“Yeah, dude.”

“I got it.” Carter pulls out a quite sharpen knife and saws the chains off from his wrists and ankles.

Carter snaps off the last chain on Patrick’s ankle. ”Come one, let’s get outta here before the imaginary bomb’s effect fades off.” He lifts Patrick to his feet and lets go of him to run off.

“Whoa…!” Patrick wavers in his footing and ends up toppling against Carter.

“Hoh!” Carter grabs his upper arms with both hands, preventing him from falling further. “Can you walk?”

“Uh--” Patrick shifts his weight, trying to not slip in his grasp. “--I don’t think so--”

“No worries, I got you!” In one swooping motion, Carter scoops Patrick up into his arms. “Now let’s get outta here!” Then with Patrick, he races to the window, swings his legs over the ledge, and disappears into the dusky day.

Notes