AAOOOSC! #10

While our heroes were suiting out, they decided that before they teleport over to San Jose, they would stop at the famous ice cream parlour shop in Pittsburgh!

So an hour later, Sidney, Nathan, Jonathan, Patrick, Toews, Pekka, Jonas, and John are now at the ice cream parlour. They are huddled around three tables next to each other, munching on ice cream and slurping on milkshakes.

Sidney is feeding Bubby and Bubby Jr. banana ice cream. He then notices Pekka sitting at the end of the table, not having any ice cream in front of him.

“Pekka!” Sidney cries out.

Pekka perks up at him with raised eyebrows.

“Why didn’t you get any ice cream?”

“Oh, um--” Pekka adjusts himself. “--I think it would spoil our appetite for Antti’s dinner.”

“Ice cream never spoils anything-- It makes all things better!” Nathan pipes in, shoving a spoonful of white ice cream into his mouth.

“Um, I’d rather not have any-- It’s not good for you, anyways…” Pekka eyes Sidney’s blue ice cream.

“Ice cream’s always good for you!” Sidney shouts joyfully. “Because it makes you happy and happy and happy and happy and happy and happy and happy and happy and happy and happy and happy and happy and happy and ha--”

“Shut up and eat your ice cream.” Jonathan shoves a spoonful of blue ice cream into Sidney’s mouth, causing him to stop his rant.

A smile appears on Sidney’s face. “Mmmm!” He pulls the spoon out from his mouth. “Yummy!”

“I’m always curious, dude,” Patrick starts from the other side of the table, “what’s that ice cream flavour of yours?”

“It’s--”


“Jonathan, let the stripling utter!” John cuts in, darting his eyes at Toews.

“Heh, sorry…” Toews slumps on his seat and bites into his chocolate ice cream cone.

“It’s a secret!” Sidney tells him, hugging the bowl against him. “Can you keep a secret?”

“Sure can, man!” Patrick nods his head at him.

“Okay…” Sidney leans forward toward the table.

All the others lean toward him.

He whispers airily: “It’s...called...Blue Moon ice cream. Now shhhhh!” He places his pointer finger against his lips and leans back against his chair.

Everyone leans back to their chairs and nods their heads, ensuring Sidney that they won’t tell anyone his secret ice cream flavour.

Suddenly, the bell on the door dings, notifying everyone inside that someone has entered the parlour. They all look to the door to see who entered.

It is the leader of the League Leaders, Harry. He gazes out at the parlour, seeming like he is searching for someone. Once he spotted who he is looking for, his eyes light up. With a small smile, he marches over to him.

“Tavares?” Harry says, looming over John’s seat from behind him.

John cautiously turns his head around to look at Harry from behind his shoulder. “Oh, Harry,” he says. “How may I help you?”

“May I have a word with you? There is something I need to discuss with you…” Harry lifts his aging eyes at the powers players; the power players are gaping at him, frozen.

“Will that be permissible, gentlemen?” John asks the others.

With nods and “yeah”s, John gets up and and exits the the parlour with Harry.

Sitting on the patio seats outside of the parlour are the other two members of the League Leaders: Larry and Gary. Larry is sitting on a metal patio chair with his cane giving him support. Gary is on his own portable bed, as usual, dozing off.

“Please, take a seat.” Harry extends his hand toward an empty chair that is across from Larry.

With a nod, John takes the seat and sits properly with his hands on his lap.

Harry slowly takes the chair next to Larry. He interlaces his fingers on the table’s hole-filled surface leans forward toward John, staring seriously at him.

“I had a dream last night...a dream that spoke to me like no other dream ever has,” Harry starts off with his tone of voice matching his expression.

John gazes at him with an intent look.

“I had a dream last night that the power players of the NHL threatened that they would take over our place as the League Leaders. And they did...with their powers. Thankfully, I woke up just as we began to be overthrown.”

“And why are you informing me of this?” John questions him softly.

“It is something that can happen. Something that can actually happen in the near future. And there’s nothing we as League Leaders can do to stop it. We don’t have powers. We are just old men with high authority, the highest in professional sports. But our authority cannot save us from an attack by power players.”

“Which power players are you saying would attack your group?” John eyes him susipioulsy

“All power players from all leagues and societies!” Harry clears his throat. “Good, evil, neutral; NHL, NFL, MLB… But the power players that I saw the most in my dream were the NHLers.”
John holds his breath, wondering where Harry is taking this conversation to.

“We as League Leaders need the protection to keep our rightful state in tact when a power player attack comes. And the only way to have that secured protection is to...erase all powers of all leagues.”

John’s eyes widen. “You aspire to erase of all the power players’ powers?”

“Yes…” A wicked smile grows on Harry’s face. “That is exactly what I am looking for. Besides, if we get rid of all power players’ powers, that something less for us League Leaders to worry about.”

John shifts uncomfortable in his seat.

“I heard that you had a project a while back ago, last year to be exact, where you were attempting to erase the powers of the power players of the NHL… Are you still with that plan?”

“No.” John shakes his head. “I discarded it after I became a member of the GHP.”

“Well..are you willing to complete your plan?” Harry tilts his head with raised eyebrows at him in a tempting way. “Or are you going to let it be incomplete and rot? All that work...all that time...all that energy...down, down in the drain,” he concludes in a hypnotizing-like tone.

John is staring out into outer space in deep thought.

“You should listen to Harry,” Larry says, pointing his cane at Harry. Then he begins to slip down, since his cane is no longer supporting him.

Harry grabs Larry by his back collar of his shirt to stop him from falling. “So, Tavares, what do you think?” He chuckles at bit at the situation he is in.

John slowly gazes back at the old men. “All the work...the time...the energy…,” John mutters under his breath. “...all for naught.” He shakes his head. “I can’t do that. I can’t let other individuals enjoin me what to do. They enjoined me to terminate the scheme, so I did...for them. If it weren’t for them, I would’ve persisted with it…”

“And now you have support from the highest authority, so there’s nothing that can go wrong,” Harry adds in.

“That’s precise.” John nods his head, his facial expression becoming more serious. “I acquire assistance. Assistance I necessitate to follow through with my scheme.” He places his fist on the table. “I can’t abandon it like how I did. I ought to stick up for myself, I ought to make decisions of my own.”

“That is right, Tavares! Truly right!” Harry then lowers his voice. “So, are you with us?”

John sits there, gazing beyond Harry in deep thought. He then reverts his eyes at him. “Yes.” He nods his head. “I’m in.”

There is a period of silence.

“That means he’s no longer in the GHP then, right?” Gary murmurs in his sleep.

“No…” Harry narrows his eyes at John with a smirk. “He can still be in the GHP...but that doesn’t mean he’s for the GHP. He can be the spy, inside access of the GHP. It’s a huge advantage for us we must take! Are you willing to do that, Tavares?”

John nods his head.

“Good… Better not tell the GHP anything about this, okay?”

“Trust me, I yearn for this to operate correctly: I will not disclose this information to anyone, not even to Jonathan.” He narrows his eyes with graveness.

“Very well, then. Meet us for dinner at ten-thirty eastern time at our headquarters. You know where they are, right?”

“Yes.” John nods his head.

“Good.” Harry slowly stands up. “Pleasure doing business with you, Tavares.” He holds out his hand; John stands up and shakes it. “We’ll see you tonight.” He then turns to the other two members. “Let’s go, boys-- Our job is finish here.” They then hobble off, or glide off in Gary’s case, into the parking lot.

John just stands there in deep thought, all alone. After reassuring himself that what he just agreed to doing is right, he simply strolls back into the parlour shop.

“What did they say?” Toews asks, following him with his eyes as he sits himself back down with the others.

“Nothing,” John states nonchalantly with a shrug. “Just hankered after how I was doing.”

Toews nods his head. “Okay…” He then proceeds to licking his chocolate ice cream cone.

He senses with his powers that there is something more that happened outside, but he does not know what exactly. So he shoves the nudging out of the way by eating more of his ice cream.

All is fine.

Notes