AAOOOSC! Junior Powers!

All five heads turn to the end of the table. Sitting there is the new man, who is darting his eyes at each member with confusion.

Matteo, who is closest to him, starts off: "What’s your name?"

"Michael Cramarossa." Michael leans back with crossed arms as his typical cool mien comes over his face. "But you can call me ‘Mikey’ or ‘Wild Mike—’"

"Michael," Kailer cuts in from the other side of the table, his attention on the tablet.

"Okay, where are you from?" Matteo asks Michael.

"I’m from Markham, which is close to Toronto, home of the Maple Leafs and the Raptors and Blue Jays." He gives him a smirk.

The Master interlaces his fingers on the table’s surface. "So what do you do for a living?"

"I play for the Hamilton Bulldogs."

His eyebrows shoot up. He turns to the others. "That’s the last third of the CHL!"

"What about you guys?" Michael nods toward the members.

Matteo turns back to him. "We’re CHL and USHL."

"And Hockey East! NCAA!" Jake pipes in with a sweet smile.

"Oh, so you guys are major junior leaguers too!" He nods his head. "That’s good I’m not alone on this."

"Yeah." Matteo taps on the table as he faces his group again. "Well, I guess that’s it…"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait." Michael waves his hands in the air, reverting everyone’s attention on him. "I was told that I could be given powers."

Matteo eyes him with concern. "Um, no. You can’t get powers."

Michael knits his eyebrows at him. "Why?"

"Do you have powers?"

He snorts with a shrug. "No, or else I wouldn’t be asking for some."

"Is there a power player for the Bulldogs?" Matteo drums his fingers on the table.

Michael rubs his stubble-lined chin. "That sounds like an awfully familiar term…"

Kailer raises his thin eyebrows at him. "So there is one…?"

Michael’s eyes immediately light up. "Oh yeah! I was told that I was the power player!"

The Master shoots him a bewildered expression, halting his drumming. "But you said you have no powers…"

"Do you consider running two miles faster and snapping a bone in half with your teeth powers?" Michael asks unamused.


On the other end of the table, Jake snaps a dog bone with his bare teeth. "Yeah!" He raises the two bone pieces in the air.

The scientist points to Michael. "So you ARE a power player!"

"I am," he starts off, "but I don’t necessarily have powers."

"But you do…" Matteo eyes Jake, being the power player with the most similar powers to the new man.

"Not cool ones though." He extends his hand ahead of him. "Those guys said that I could get cool powers!"

Matteo follows the direction of Michael’s hand, his eyes landing on Brett and Jake. He shoots them a flat expression. "Really, boys?"

The two besties pull each other close with big, innocent smiles.

"Yeah, they said that some guy named 'The Doc' can give me the powers!" Michael continues on.

Matteo turns back to him. "Doc can’t give you other powers. He doesn’t know how to make powers—"

"Yes, I can bestow powers on power players!" Kailer shouts in an offended tone, slamming the tablet’s back against the edge of the table to have sharp eyes on the Master.

"Kailer…!" Matteo hisses at him.

"Hah, see!" Michael excitedly points to the small teenager. "You can give me better powers!"

Matteo lets out a surrendered sigh. "Okay, so we can. But we won’t."

He drops his hand with a small frown. "Why?"

"Because, um, it takes a lot more of responsibility. And we don’t know how you’ll react to it—" Matteo stops himself before rambling on. "There’s a lot to cover."

"Come on, it shouldn’t be too bad," Michael points out with raised eyebrows.

"No, it’s complicated." He warily turns to the scientist. "Right, Kailer…?"

"Indeed," Kailer replies calmly, his attention on tapping his tablet.

Matteo then turns back to Michael. "Yeah, so nice to meet you, Mike. Sorry about the inconvenience, it’s an error on our part."

Michael carelessly waves his hand. "Ah, no worries." He then pulls out his smartphone. "Can I take a selfie with you guys?"

Matteo gives him a suspicious look. "Why?"

"Because I wanna tell everyone what an awesome experience this was! I wanna write about it on my Instagram and Twitter and tell everyone about all this!"

Everyone gawks at Michael.

"Uhhh, no." Matteo gives him a firm shake of his head.

Michael’s face drops. "Why?"

"Look—" Matteo holds his palms out toward him. "—all that we’re doing has to be done in secret. Because if this gets into public, they’ll take us away and use us as experiments and artifacts to see how the supernatural works within humans."

Understanding comes across Michael’s face. "Ohhh…"

"You understand?"

"Yeah, I do…" Michael slowly puts his smartphone away. "But telling me to keep all this a secret is like telling a dog not to bark." He puts his hand on the table. "I’m gonna spill it sooner or later, I swear."

"He is the power player of the Bulldogs!" Jake points out.

Matteo faces his group, receiving eye contact with each other. He then faces the new man. "Okay, let’s propose something here: We’ll let you stay here, since you ARE a power player…, but you gotta give us your phone. How’s that?"

"Mmmm…" Michael rubs his stubble-filled chin with his eyes lifted up. He then peers back at the Master. "Fair enough. I get to be part of the superhero squad." He pulls out his phone once again and holds it out toward him.

"Alright." Matteo takes his phone. "Welcome to the club, Mike."

"Oh yeeaaahhh!!!" Michael proudly pumps his fists in the air. "Superhero career, here I come!"

Notes