AAOOOSC!: Gulls' Adventures!

Back with Stu, Ryan, Matt, and Joseph, the situation is not looking any better: The three of them, since Joseph is clinging onto Matt’s shoulder with his hand over his eyes in agony, are wandering around the endless black room in an attempt to find an exit. All they find is the room expanding and extending and going on and on and on.

“Oh my goodness, this is like a nightmare…!” Stu exclaims, gazing around his surroundings in mild fright.

Ryan continues stepping aimlessly in the room with him. “Well, Icemare WAS just here.”

With a hand over his eyes and his head dipped, Joseph grumbles, “Where the heck are we?”

Matt peers down to his right, spotting Joseph using him a guide with a hand on his shoulder.
“Do your eyes still hurt?” He halts in his tracks, causing the skater to stop walking as well. “Can you see?”

Joseph gradually straightens up and removes his hands from over his eyes, revealing his shut eyes. He then flutters them open, his eyes cast down on the ground. Yet instead of his usual mint green-coloured irises, his irises are now jet-black.

“Are we in a pitch black room?” he asks, his eyes still glued to the ground.

Stu, who has also stopped ahead, faces him and peers around the room. “Kinda.” He looks down, catching sight of the cement floor shown by the spotlight-like light. “What colour is the floor?”

“Black,” Joseph replies sternly, not moving his eyes.

Stu sucks in a deep breath with an anxious expression.

From next to him, Ryan stares at him with the same expression.

Matt then pipes in, “It’s—”

“—not black,” Ryan cuts in. “It’s like tan.” He taps his foot against the ground.

Joseph begins to bare his teeth as fury takes over his expression. “I’m blind…,” he growls. “Tokarski made me BLIND!!!” He launches out ahead of him like as if Dustin is right in front of him.

Before he could go too far, Matt grabs his torso and pulls him back against his chest. Joseph writhes in his grasp, making Matt wrap him in his two arms to restrain him.

“Crammer! Crammer!” Matt cries out. “Calm down, please!”

“How would you even know where Dustin is anyway?” Ryan asks him with his hands out from his sides.

With that, Joseph ceases his fidgeting, relaxing with heavy breathing and his black-coloured eyes on the ground.

“Whoa!” Stu shouts, gaining the three’s attention. They turn to face him, except for Joseph, spotting him stiffened with a familiar glowing green-yellow circle around his feet.

“Guys,” Stu starts worriedly, “I can’t move.”

Then the other three thrust backward by an invisible force, forcing them to form a large circle. “Whoa!”

Radiant yellow-green circles form around their feet and the same force holds them in place, giving them no liberty to move.

“This is just like Icemare’s thing…,” Ryan mutters with trepidation crossing his face.

“Yes, and I’m using it again,” Dustin’s familiar voice is heard from the darkness. Then Dustin himself strolls into view in Icemare’s outfit, minus the helmet. He halts in the middle of the circle. “It’s the best way to hold you guys hostage.” He clasps his hands behind his back.

“You’re really holding us as hostages now?” Joseph growls, his eyes staring beyond Dustin.
Dustin whirls to him, his cape majestically swishing behind him. “No, this is how I usually talk to people,” he remarks in a sickening, fake voice. He then quickly roars in his normal tone while stepping up to him: “No duh, you guys are hostages!”

“Don’t TALK to me like that!” Joseph barks back.

Dustin narrows his eyes at him. “Isn’t that how you talk to others?”

Joseph purses his lips and takes in a deep breath. He stays quiet.

Dustin spins around to face the other three. “Like what I was saying, welcome to my holding chamber, the Chamber of Icemare.” He begins stepping back toward the centre.

“And what are you gonna do with us here?” Stu asks with skeptical eyes.

Dustin sharply halts in front of him. “Trade you. I don’t want to keep you guys here for long.”
“What do you mean by ‘trade us’?” Ryan asks from behind him.

Dustin twirls around, facing him. “I mean ‘trading you.’” He turns back around and begins walking backward to get a good view of all four of them. “You guys are gonna be traded to new teams. I hope you all have said your final goodbyes to your teammates and friends you made here in America’s Finest City because you just might never see them ever again.”

“You can’t trade us!” Stu exclaims incredulously, leaning forward to the best of his ability, which isn’t too far. “That’s the GM’s job!”

Dustin gives him a leer. “What if I have close ties to the GM, eh?”

From the other side of the captor, Matt has his eyes on the ground with a panic-stricken expression. “I-I don’t wanna be traded again…”

Dustin swaggers up to him with a morbid smirk. “I’m sorry, Baby Matty--” He halts in front of him. “--but you are going to be traded far far away.”

Matt lifts his eyes up at him with lowered eyebrows. “Don’t call me that,” he mutters threatening. The circle around his feet flicker for a split moment.

Dustin shrugs with a slight frown and a shrug. “Can’t help it if you act like that.”

Matt yanks at his invisible restraints, jerking forward. “I’ll make you turn those words on yourself when I get out of this!” he grunts.

“Which would never happen because you would be long gone in St. Louis,” Dustin answers matter-of-factly.

“St. Louis?!” Ryan cries from Dustin’s right.

Dustin turns to face the other goalie. “Don’t be so frightened, you’ll be a skip and a hop from him when you’re in Mississippi!”

From behind Dustin, Stu asks, “What the heck is in Mississippi?”

Dustin twirls to him. “The RiverKings,” he replies professionally. “Southern Professional Hockey League, if you don’t know.”

Ryan shakes his head with wide eyes. “I am NOT going lower than what I am already—”

“You can’t do this!” Stu shouts at the captor.

Dustin begins stepping up to him, sticking his face into his. “Yes I am, because at the moment, I have a trade ready to be proposed of you joining the Los Angeles Kings.”

Stu cranes his head back with a frown and lowered eyebrows. “No way.”

“You won’t get away with this, Tokarski,” Joseph growls from Dustin’s left.

Dustin turns to him and makes his way up to him. “Try saying that when you’re in the Greek Ice Hockey Championship.”

Joseph holds his stare ahead as he processes what the goalie said. “Ah, better than Mississippi.” He shrugs.

“You’re gonna be going all the way to Greece?!” Matt gawks at skater across from him.

“I don’t mind that,” Joseph states with chill. “Better food over there than over here.”

“No, Dustin, no,” Ryan proclaims shakily, shaking his head. “This is not going to happen.”

Dustin whirls to him. “I would like to see how you guys are going to prevent these inevitable events from happening when you’re stuck like gulls in traps!” He lets out a sadistic chuckle while slowly shaking his head. “Oh, this is gonna be a ball.” He then begins amble past Stu and Joseph to exit the circle.

“Wait!” Stu barks with his eyes on the exiting man.

Dustin halts in his tracks and turns to him. “Yes?”

“Where’s Bryan, Brandon, and Joe?”

“They’re in good hands.” A cruel smile curls on his face.

“I didn’t ask that,” Stu spits out harshly. “WHERE are they?”

“Not here.”

Across from Stu, Ryan has his eyes on the two. “They must’ve already gotten traded…”

Dustin turns to him with a big, closed smile. “Oh, look at that! Someone has a head on their shoulders!” He then spins around and struts into the darkness.

The four are now left in the pressurizing silence as they process all that has been disclosed to them about themselves, friends, and teammates.

“Mooresy…,” Stu mutters sadly. “...traded…?

“Oh no, not Joe!” Matt cries out. “He was always lively and happy!”

“I can live without Joe,” Joseph snarkily comments. He then immediately pauses as the reality of the truth sets in. “No, no, as much as he annoyed me, I…” He then pauses again as a tougher realization pops in. “Monty…” he breathes out. “No…”

Ryan peers at him with a bewildered expression. “You’re not happy you’re getting away from him? I thought you would be celebrating.”

Joseph lets out a sigh with his eyes aimlessly staring ahead. “As much as I picked on him, I really enjoy his presence. And now…” He exhales in depressed spirits. “I have no one else to pick on. I just loved his reaction. No one else is like him.” He blinks as tears begin to form in his eyes.

On the other end of the circle, Matt is already bawling with tears pouring down his reddening cheeks.

“Guys,” Stu starts, peering at his three crestfallen teammates, “we need to focus here. We’ve GOT to get out of here. We’re like sitting ducks, waiting to be fired in our own, unwilling ways.”

“We’re not even ON the Ducks!” Matt wails before letting out more sobs.

Stu rolls his eyes. “Ah, you get what I mean.” He lands them on his team. “Just get it together, breath, focus, find a way to get out here…”

His voice trails out as he and Ryan dart their eyes around the darkened surroundings.

“There’s no way out,” Ryan tells the tallest skater. “You know, Stu, we wondered around this place for ages.”

Joseph bares his teeth as he growls, “I just wanna get Tokarski and punch his nose in half and then grab his head and squish it until it—”

“That’s it!” Stu cries out, cutting into Joseph’s wish.

Ryan gawks at him. “Uh, you mean we kill the guy?”

“NO!” Stu shakes his head vigorously. “No way! I mean, we don’t try to escape— We fight! We fight against the source of the problem, in this case, Dustin!”

“And how are we gonna do that when we can’t move our shoulders down?” Ryan narrows his eyes at him.

“We…” Stu peers down at himself, catching sight of his forties attire on his frozen body. “Oh geez…”

“Can’t you guys use your powers?” Joseph snarls with his eyes ahead of him. “We got two power players here, right?”

“I tried,” Matt starts off, now over his sobbing session, with tearstained cheeks. “The restraints has a power negation mechanism— It cancels out our powers so we’re unable to use them as long as we’re in the restraints.”

Ryan turns to Joseph, “In other words, we can’t use them as long as we’re stuck here.”
Joseph rolls his eyes. “Oh great.”

Down at his feet, his yellow-green luminous circle flickers for a moment.

Stu catches the odd sight. “Joey, why is your circle flickering?”

“Because Tokarski is a bad architect,” he grumbles.

Stu peers at the goalies’ circle and his own. “The rest of ours aren’t.”

“Probably because you’re blind,” Ryan suggests with narrowed eyes on Joseph.

“What does that got to do with it?” Joseph asks with his eyes lifelessly gazing ahead.

“Just a suggestion,” Ryan tilts his head as a substitute for a shrug. “The ice stuff, y’know.”

“I saw mine flicker too,” Matt pipes in happily.

Stu turns to him. “When?” He takes a glance at the still circle. “It’s not now.”

“When Dustin called me a baby.” He then says in a stern voice, “I got really mad.”

“Wow, so you brought down the mechanism,” Joseph points out apathetically. “Wooo.”

Ryan frowns at him with narrowed eyes. “You’re mad, aren’t you, Crammer?”

Joseph tilts his head with a smile and his eyes locked ahead. “No, I’m the happiest man alive, being stuck here captive and blind! Why on earth would I be mad?” Fury immediately sweeps across his face. “OF COURSE I’M MAD, I’M MORE THAN MAD” --he rips his fist up in the air-- “I JUST WANT TO—!!!”

“Whoa!” Stu yells. “Stop!”

Joseph halts his movements with his fist in the air.

“You just lifted your fist,” Stu points out in awe.

“Hey, look at that.” A smirk grows on his face. “Something’s going right for me this time.” He tugs at his arm, yet it does not budge. “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” he mutters.

“No, no, no,” Stu starts with hope. “I think if you get mad, the restraints will disappear.”

“Yes!” Joseph shouts passionately. “I want them to disappear! I want to beat Tokarski’s face to the ground!” He yanks at his arm some more.

“No offence, but with his powers, he’ll freeze YOUR face to the ground,” Ryan points out with a grimace.

“We need someone who can get mad and has powers to be set free first when Dustin is here,” Stu starts seriously. “With that, Dustin can go down and we can have the upper advantage of getting free and stopping this madness.”

“Oh, so I’m not fit enough for the job?” Joseph snarls with a scowl.

Ryan slightly frowns at him. “If only you had powers and sight.”

Joseph lets out a huff.

Ryan’s eyes then light up with an idea. He turns to face his goalie buddy. “Matt?”

Matt perks up at him. “Huh?”

“Would you like to do the honours?” A smirk appears on his face.

Matt’s eyes light up in delight.

Notes

E.18 "The Ones Behind It All"
Part 3/8
Episode 18/20