A knock comes from the door located in the hospital wing. Patrick, who is laying on the hospital bed on the same side of the door, slowly cranes his head to look at the where the knocking is coming from.

“Come in,” he croaks out.

The door opens slowly and Sidney comes tumbling in backwards. In his hands are numerous stuffed animals in his hands. “Kaner!” he shouts from behind the animals.

“Sid?” Patrick makes a concerned look.

“I brought you presents!” Sidney makes his way toward Patrick’s bed, swaying from side to side. Once at the edge of the bed, he dumps all the plush toys on top of Patrick’s blanket-covered legs.

Sidney straights up with a huge smile. “There we goes! More for you!”

Patrick gazes down at the plush toys, then around his room: There are hundreds of stuffed animals surrounding the rectangular room and him. He turns back to Sidney. “Well, this is radical. Thanks, man, for the thousandth time.”

“No problem! I just want you to get comfy.”

Patrick slowly pulls out Bubby Jr. from under his blanket. “I am already.”

Sidney smiles hugely with a closed mouth, and skips out of the room.

Patrick gradually lays his head back against the pillow. He sighs and stares up the ceiling.

Then another knock is heard from his left.

“Come in,” he says gruffly again.

The door opens and a huge teddy bear, about six feet tall, enters the room.

Patrick’s eyes grow wide. “What in the waves is that?”

“It’s a giant teddy bear!” Sidney’s voice booms from behind the massive plush toy.

When it gets to the edge of the bed, the giant plush toy leans over and lands across the bed with its head and legs hanging off from the edge.

Sidney reappears by the teddy bear’s feet; he dusts his hands. “Hah, there.”

Patrick stares down at the teddy bear’s back. “Wow, that’s one gnarly teddy bear, man.”

“I knew you’ll like it! Here.” With all of his might, Sidney readjusts the teddy bear so that it is laying right next to Patrick.

“Thanks man...again,” Patrick tells him.

“You are veeeerrrryy welcome! Do you want any dinner? It’s being served right now!”

“Ugh, no thanks, dude.” Patrick shakes his head. “I’m not hungry. I wanna go to sleep.”

“Alright, go beddy-beddy bye-bye!” Sidney waves at him as he is exiting the stuffed animal-filled room. “Good night!”

“‘Night, Sid.” Patrick smiles lazily at him.

With one final smile, Sidney exits the room.

In the hallway, he bounces down the main room, where the rest of the GHP and their newly recruited member, Carter the ninja, are having dinner.

“Corn! Chicken! Rice!” Carter exclaims as he gazes down at the pots of food from his head. “Oh, I love this!” He grabs the plate that is in front of him begins serving himself.

Sidney sits down next to Bubby and Jonathan with a smile.

Antti looks at him from the end of the table. “How is Patrick?”

Sidney turns to him. “He’s doing quite well-- But no worries, he’s comfy with all the stuffed animals he has!”

“Which is like ten thousand,” Jonathan mutters with a roll of his eyes as he eats a chicken leg.

Sidney snappily turns to Jonathan. “Hey, I even gave him Bubby Jr.! He’ll have a good sleep!”

“Thanks great to hear,” Antti tells Sidney. “Now--”

“Oh!” Carter shouts, grabbing everyone’s attention and cutting into the Master’s sentence. He is talking with his mouth full while holding a chicken leg in mid air. “I remember when I was little, I had a stuffed teddy with me I would carry around all the time. His name was Mr. McGooberson.”

Pekka, who is next to him, is giving Carter the facial expression that is saying, “No one cares, please shut up.”

But of course Carter doesn't notice; he continues on: “He was like my ninja sidekick when I was little: We would battle evil forces with nunchucks, swords, even my goalie equipment.” He sighs and looks up. “Oh, those good ol’ days.”

“You mean you don’t carry him around anymore?” Sidney gapes at Carter.

“No, my mom gave him away.” Carter takes another bite of his chicken and continues talking: “But if I still had him, I wouldn’t carry him around, but I’d still keep him.”

Sidney slowly eyes Bubby. Then slowly eyes Carter again.

Antti clears his throat. “Now after--”

“Oh, wait, look at this.” Carter grabs a cob of corn from the pot. He then stuffs the whole thing vertically in his mouth.

The rest of the hockey players are now gaping at him.

Carter then pulls out the cob. The cob is kernel-free. “Mmm! Good corn!” He thrusts the bare cob on the plate and smirks at the others with raised eyebrows. “How about that?”

“That’s weird!” Nathan exclaims, crazy-eyed.

“So weird!” Sidney adds on with his hands on his cheeks.

Pekka just eyes Carter with disgust.

“It’s easier eating corn this way,” Jonas says, munching on chips.

“Thanks-- Little trick of mine.” Carter eats more chicken.

Antti nods his head. “That’s nice to know. Now I would like to--”

“Oh, and one time I was at this restaurant and there was a mini cart which held condiments!”
Carter exclaims, interrupting Antti’s sentence. “It was a mini cart, like Carter, cart, Carter, like my name. It was pretty funny, got a picture of it!”

Pekka is giving Carter the death stare.

Carter turns to Pekka. “You remember, I showed it to you, right?”

“He’s trying to talk--” Pekka points to Antti, who has been waiting with much patience for Carter. “Listen.”

“Oh, sorry… Didn’t hear.” Carter finishes eating his chicken leg.

“Alright,” Antti starts, “like what I was saying…” He eyes Carter, who is oblivious to his glare. “...after dinner, we shall train with our powers. This is important, especially for our new member.”

“Awesome!” Carter has a huge grin, gazing at everyone. “Get to go straight to the action!”

“We shall start in twenty minutes,” Antti finishes off.

---

Twenty minutes later…


Antti leads Carter and Pekka into a massive, empty, stone-built room with a row bullseye targets on the other side.

“Whoa-oh!” Carter exclaims, gazing up at the high-up ceiling. “This is huge!”

“It’s a training room-- It’s suppose to be huge,” Pekka tells him flatly.

Antti slides in front of them with his hands clasped behind his back. “Now, Pekka, I want you to help train Carter to fight with and against power players. Incorporate his skills into the fighting and give him tactics on how to defend himself against supernatural forces. Alright?”

Pekka nods his head. “Okay.”

“Good. I’ll be with the others.” Antti frisks away, exiting the room.

Now it is just the two Predators’ goalies.

“So…” Carter slyly eyes Pekka with a smirk. “Whatcha wanna teach me today, Teacher Pekka?”

With crossed arms, Pekka scans Carter from head to toe. “Well, show me what you can do.”

Carter whips out a pair of nunchucks from his belt and spins them around. “I got these.” He then thrusts them across the room.

The nunchucks spin in the air, make a huge U-turn inches from the wall on the other side around the targets, then fly back into Carter’s hand.

“Ta-da!” Carter throws his hands up in the air.

Pekka shoots him a flat look. “That’s not how you use nunchucks.”

“Well, it’s how I use nunchucks.” Carter spins them a bit more then puts them back away in his belt. “What else do you want me to show you: ninja stars, some roundhouse kicks, flips, imaginary bomb…?”

“Well--” Pekka slips in front of Carter, facing him. “What if you have to get to one of those targets…” He looks over his shoulder, spotting the targets; he begins to turn back to face him. “...but you don’t have this.”

In one snappy motion, Pekka snatches Carter’s belt filled with his weapons off from him and flings it behind himself.

Carter stares at him with wide eyes. “What, but--”

Pekka shrugs at him with pursed lips.

“Hm,” Carter growls, his eyes narrowing at his lonely belt. He then rushes up toward Pekka and jumps over him, doing a small flip in the air. He lands on his two feet and one hand perfectly behind the him, then sprints over to his belt.

Suddenly, a massive hand slams into Carter’s pathway between him and his belt.

“Whoa!” Carter halts sharply. He then follows the hand with his eyes, finding out that it is in fact Pekka’s hand, yet Pekka is still behind him.

“Not so fast,” Pekka taunts him.

Without saying a word, Carter springs up into the air, leans over toward Pekka’s hand, pushes his hands against the top side of his hand, and flips two time in the air, landing on the other side of the hand on both feet. He continues on running with his eyes on the belt as his vision bounces to the movement of his running: Five meters, three meters, one meter, so close--!

Carter lunges at the belt, giving him more speed to get to it. But as he is airborne, two large hands grasp around him from both sides, holding him tight in place.

“Ugh!” He jerks back to the suddenly halt. He then swishes his head in all directions possibly, seeing what stopped him. “What the heck--?”

“Gotcha,” Pekka calls out from behind him.

Carter cranes his head toward Pekka’s voice, but the hands he is in are blocking his view. “Really?” He sighs, hanging his upper body down from the fingers. “I need practice.”

“You do. I teach you...if you behave,” he hears Pekka tell him.

Carter nods his head. “Fair enough.” He gazes down at the row of fingers below him. “Now please let go of me, this feels pretty awkward.”

Notes