In the main room of the headquarters, there is a serious meeting going on. At the end of the table is Sidney; to the left side are Carter, Pekka, Jonas, and Jonathan; to the right are Matt, Ryan, and Nathan. Antti is standing behind Sidney with a sorrowful, yet proud expression; his hand is planted on top of the oversized swivel chair (compared to Sidney’s size) Sidney is in.

“I knew this day will come sooner or later,” Antti starts. “I knew of course that I’d have to step down from being the Master of the GHP. My mistakes in my young age found a way to bite me back. And here I am now, giving my final speech to my formal society.

I am proud by how much this society has grown. I remember when it was just Brian, Patrick, and me. Now it’s all of you guys. All you guys, protectors of the NHL. I’m so proud of each of you for sticking to the mission and giving all you got to accomplish it.

Unfortunately due to circumstances all of you are aware of, I won’t be able to complete this current mission. Instead, I must pass down my position to someone who is able to hold it with stability and courage. My chosen next-in-line for Master is in injury reserved in the moment, so for now, I must choose one who is physically healthy to carry on the task.

Antti peers down at Sidney. “And it is naturally given to Sidney Crosby.”

Everyone begins to applaud as Sidney beams with happiness.

“Once Patrick gets better, you can hand over the Master position to him. But as long as he is on the sidelines, you are the Master.”

Sidney peers up at Antti. “Thank you, Antti.” He then hops off from his chair and hugs him tightly. “You were a wonderful Master.”

“Thank you, Sidney,” Antti tells him back quietly. “You’re going to be a great Master.”

Happily, Sidney pulls apart from him and sits back down.

Antti turns to the rest of the members. “I left all of my equipment tied with the GHP in my room.”
He turns to Pekka. “Pekka, you are now officially in charge of Ari. Okay?”

Pekka nods his head. “You got it.”

He then reverts his gaze at Carter. “And Carter, I truly forgive you. You’ll do great in this society just like before.”

All Carter could do is smile sweetly.

Antti gazes at the rest. “And that is it. Wish you guys the best in the mission, save the NHL. And I’ll be seeing you on the ice as a regular, everyday goalie of the NHL.” He takes in a heavy breath. “Good-bye.”

He then whisks around the table, going across the room, and disappears into the hallway.

Everyone gazes in the darkness of the hallway, like as if Antti would reappear saying his departure was a joke this whole time. But the hallway remains still, showing an obvious sign that this is the end of Antti’s career in the Good Hockey Players’ Society.

Sidney clears his throat, gaining everyone’s attention back on track. “Alright, men, time for the next step of our ultimate mission of saving the NHL: saving Jonathan Toews.”

Matt stares at him with awe. “You mean the captain of the Blackhawks?”

“Yeah, him,” Pekka remarks flatly.

“The ruler of the NHL!” Jonas pipes in.

Ryan gasps. “I’ve heard about the ruler of the NHL, but I never knew who he was! Toews is the ruler of the NHL then?”

“Yup-a-doo-da!” Jonas exclaims.

“What does he do though?” Matt asks. “Like as the ruler.”

“He’s suppose to be like our last resort for saving the NHL.” Jonathan snorts. “Oh well for that.”

Matt tilts his head with inquisitiveness. “What happened to him?”

Jonathan turns to Matt with raised eyebrows. “He got kidnapped by the EHP himself.”

“Oh, like those merged guys we fought against?” Matt points out.

“Yeah, they’re part of the EHP.”

“Were part,” Nathan corrects Jonathan With his index finger in the air.

“Yeah, were.”

“So who else is in the EHP?” Matt gazes at the others for an answer.

Everyone averts their eyes to Carter.

Carter shifts in his chair, straightening up. “Just Jimmy apart from Galchenyuk-in-Zadorov from what I saw.”

“He doesn’t even have powers anymore!” Jonas cries out.

“So this will be easy as pie then with all of us.” Jonathan leans back with his arms crossed.

“I don’t think all of us should go,” Sidney cuts in authoritively. “We need guards for the headquarters.” He points to Pekka. “Pekka, you stay to keep track of Tatu and Ari.” He then reverts his index finger to Jonas. “Jonas, you stay to help out Patrick and Pekka, if he needs it.”
He turns to the two Gulls’ goalies. “Matt and Ryan, your other buddies will stay here too.”

“I hope so,” Ryan replies with a suppressing smile and shifting eyes.

Sidney turns to Carter. “Carter, what else do you remember about Jonathan’s state?”

“Ummm…” Carter rubs his hair-covered chin with his eyes on the ceiling. “Oh yeah!” He snaps his eyes at the new Master. “He was hooked to some menacing machine. And-and he didn’t use his powers.”

“And John supplied that machine!” Nathan cries out.

“That’s an assumption, but most likely a fact too,” Sidney tells him with a wagging finger.

“Wait, Toews doesn’t have any powers...?” Ryan makes a concerned look.

Sidney turns to him. “He has nigh-omnipotence.”

“'Nigh-omnipotence'…?”

“Practically all of the powers in the world!” Nathan bellows, arching his back up as he outstretches his hands.

“And he couldn’t use that to escape himself?” Matt does not seem sold on the idea.

Carter shrugs. “That’s what I saw.”

Sidney makes a determined expression, eyeing everyone at the table. “Well, there’s only one way to find out why.”

---

In the country below Canada, Jimmy is enjoying himself in the dim, main room of the EHP headquarters. Still, the only light is from the massive computer screen.

In front of the computer, Jimmy is resting on his swivel chair with a tennis ball in his hand.
He whistles. “Fetch, Nacnud!” He then chucks a tennis ball across the room.

A few seconds later, a sleepy, saggy basset hound shuffles himself past his owner and across the room drag by drag.

On the other side of the room is Toews, who does not seem pleased by the entertainment. He is still cuffed to the power-sucking machine, or what Jimmy calls the “Lean-Green-Bean-Seen-Keen-Clean-Mean Machine.” Behind him, the machine looms over with its lights blinking and its wires connecting it to the cuffs.

The tennis ball bounces a few feet away from his feet, gradually decreasing its height until it comes to a roll and hits his feet. The ball rolls backward as Nacnud lumbers to it.

Yet the ball is too fast for the dog, rolling past it and back toward Jimmy. With a whining huff, the basset hound drags itself while making a U-turn and begins to trek back in the ball’s new direction.

Jimmy eyes his slow dog with a small frown. He lets the tennis ball roll by him and hit the foot of the control panel of the massive computer.

He then reverts his gaze back at his hostage. “Don’t worry, Nacnud will get it soon.”

“For the second time in five hours?” Toews replies in a flat tone.

Jimmy raises his eyebrows at him. “Record time.”

With a sigh, Toews reverts his eyes up to the right corner, eyeing the door Patrick was held in for the fiftieth time this day.

“I hope you’re okay, Kaner,” Toews murmurs under his breath.

Jimmy chuckles with a villainous tone as Nacnud pulls himself past his owner. ”Hope, not know. What a pity.”

Toews turns back to face the one holding him in hostage and rendering him useless. He narrows his eyes at him. But before he could say a word, the scenery suddenly begins to ripple.

It shifts into a more livelier scene: the floor turning into a bright green grassy texture dotted with purple flowers, the walls adorning mountains with snowcaps from far away, the sky with a pure, blue colour and round, wispy clouds. The atmosphere settles from moist, damp, and thick to thin, crisp, light with a soft breeze.

They are in the middle of a field with a mountain range surrounding it from mileS away. The only remaining items from the room is the swivel chair Jimmy is sitting on and the chair Toews is cuffed to along with the machine.

Jimmy grows in anger from his chair. “Not this again!” He abruptly stands up, gazing around the peaceful surroundings with snappy motions. “Why does this keep happening?”

He suddenly hears ruffling from behind him. He looks behind his shoulder to find Nacnud enjoying the tall grass, laying on his back with closing eyes.

Jimmy growls, facing Toews again. But only this time, he sees that Toews has company.

“Hi, Jimmy!” Sidney pipes up. To his right are Jonathan, Nathan, and Carter; to his left are Matt and Ryan.

“WHA--!”

“You know what we’re doing here!” Sidney exclaims.

“No!” Jimmy barks. “What happened to my sidekicks?” He begins to march up to them. “I sent them to get you and you’re here!” He halts next to Toews’s right, facing Sidney. “Where are they?”

“Where they’re suppose to be: re-evaluating with Tommy Gorman!” Sidney smiles at him with his mouth closed.

“Nooo!” Jimmy rapidly snatches a pair of black gloves from the top of the machine, yanks them on, and spews fire out at his opponents.

Jonathan quickly steps in front and creates a forcefield around the six.

“He has powers?” Nathan gapes at him.

“Yes, I do,” Jimmy replies from the other side of the purple, translucent surface. “Thanks to your friend Toews here.”

“Let me go…!” Toews’s voice is heard from the backrest of the chair.

Sidney looks at his team. “Split in three, two, one, go!”

Then Jonathan retracts the forcefield.

Sidney, Nathan, and Matt rush over to Jimmy, ready to battle him. Jonathan, Carter, and Ryan crowd over to Toews.

Carter knees next to him with his arm around the chair. “I’m here to save you,” he whispers to him.

“And leave me behind like last time, ninja?” Toews asks with a sarcastic tone.

“No, I got buddies to help out!”

“How the heck do you work this thing?” Ryan is heard asking. He is behind the chair, holding the taut wires that run from the cuffs to the machine.

Toews turns to him with a crazy look. “Who cares? You’ll never understand it since John made it! Disable it! Destroy it! Make it stop working!”

Jonathan, who is on the other side of Toews, gawks at him. “Wait, John made this?”

Toews turns to him. “Yes. That’s what Galchenyuk claimed. And I don’t doubt it-- It’s his style,” he replies in a sour tone.

Ryan gazes down at the wires with bewilderment. “A little help here?”

Jonathan rushes to his aid. “What is it?”

“How do I disable this? I don’t wanna break it; it’s a nice piece of tech.”

“Who cares, it’d only work against us.” Then with a one tug, Jonathan yanks a wire from the machine; its sparking end is revealed.

Suddenly, fire explodes from the palm of Toews’s right hand. Toews gazes down at it with glee. “Guys! It’s working! More, more!”

Ryan activates his ergoknetic glove and swipes the claws attached to it across the other wire.

Then fire bursts from Toews’s left hand. “Yes! Haha!” He then gazes up ahead at the fight of Jimmy between Sidney, Nathan, and Matt. Jimmy is still conjuring fire among the three.

“What?” Toews’s eyes then trail to the machine, where the wires between the gloves and it are still intact. “Guys! Other wires!”

In a snappy motion, Ryan slices them in half with his energy-made claws.

Suddenly, the fire from Jimmy gets sucked into thin air and disappears. Jimmy stands in shock as he attempts to reactivate his gloves. The two other GHP members with their guest stand back as they watch him struggle.

“Wait, my powers, my-my--” He flicks his hands in the air, smacks his hands against each other, and shakes them harshly, but he is as powerless as any other non-power player in the NHL.

Sidney looks behind his shoulder to see the sliced wires which are causing the problem for Jimmy. He then picks up the dead wire and faces the Master of the EHP With the wire in the air.

“Maybe this is why you can’t use your powers,” he points out sophisticatedly.

Jimmy halts his panicking and perks up to see his nightmare come true. His jaw drops. “My-my-my beauty…! No….!”

Meanwhile, Ryan slashes the the cuffs that are holding Toews back, finally freeing Toews from hostage.

Toews rubs his wrists with joy. “Ah, yes!”

“Can you get up?” Ryan asks him gently.

He eyes him. “Um--”

“I got you!” Carter suddenly grabs Toews with both hands by his waist.

“Whoa!” Toews cries out as Carter swings him over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry.

Carter then turns to Jonathan and Ryan. “Finally--” His voice trails off as he spots the scenery begin to darken and mold into the texture of the main room; the atmosphere begins to gain thickness. “Oh no, the effects of the imaginary bomb is wearing off…!” He turns to the others with haste. “Let’s get out of here!”

Jonathan faces the other three. “Guys! The effect’s wearing off! Let’s go!”

The others, including Jimmy, perk up to witness the scene fading back to the dreary room.

Sidney first sees Toews draped over Carter’s shoulder, then faces Nathan and Matt. “We got Toews and Jimmy’s powerless,” he whispers to them for Jimmy to not hear. “Let’s go!”

They then rush over to Carter with Toews, Ryan, and Jonathan and tag along with them as they exit the shifting room, leaving Jimmy behind, powerless.

Notes