AAOOOSC! Junior Powers!

An hour later, the group from Sioux Falls have returned and chatted with Kailer regarding who could be responsible for the damage of Jake’s and Jeremy’s teams’ arenas. Yet, as usual, they couldn’t get an answer.

Now, Kailer is back in his laboratory, sitting at his countertop on his stool, with a holographic, topographical map of the flatten Denny Sanford Premier Center displayed above the surface.

Yet his focus is on the transfer of purple liquid from an Erlenmeyer flask to a test tube, which is being held over a Bunsen burner with the aid of a test tube holder. With that, he is wearing safety goggles, latex gloves, and his laboratory coat.

Suddenly, he feels someone approaching him with his footsteps swiping across the concrete floor.

"Heeey," Michael’s cool voice calls from behind him as it becomes gradually louder, "Doc, Kswizzy, Kailer, my man." The footsteps halt and a warm hand is felt grasping his shoulder. "How are you doing?"

"Get your hand off of me, Cramarossa," Kailer grumbles, steadying the flask over the warming test tube to avoid knocking it over.

He immediately feels Michael’s hand slip off from his shoulder. "Oh, come on, loosen up."

Kailer then straightens himself, away from the Bunsen burner, and places the flask on the counter top. He then spins around on his stool to face Michael, who is eyeing him with a chilled expression and crossed arms.

"I am," he tells him promptly, adjusting his patriotic bandana.

Michael nods to him, not wiping the smirk from his face. "That’s one sweet bandana you got there!"

"Why, thank you." He brushes his fingers against it with pride. "I am exhibiting my American patriotism."

The man lets out a chuckle. "Oh-hoh, Americans, eh? Sorry, but Canada’s the way to go."

Kailer then quotes from the "Star-Spangled Banner": "’Home of the brave, land of the free,’ that’s the place to be…" He turns back to his flask and picks it up.

"So, you gonna give me some better powers?" he hears Michael ask.

"Not planning to." With his free hand, Kailer adjusts the fire of the burner.

"Come on," he pleads. "What’s the harm?"

Kailer plunks the flask on the countertop and faces him. "You honestly want to read the list of harms?"

Michael peers around the dim surroundings of the laboratory, catching the yellow, red, and white-coloured terrifying labels. "Okay, okay, I get it."

He turns back to the scientist. "But I really want better powers. I want to be included with you guys." He holds his hand out toward him. "And I can’t if I don’t have good enough powers. Kinda like Wheat Eater, he’s just hanging out as well."

"You do have powers, you just have to find its potential," Kailer tells him meaningfully before turning back to his experiment.

"Look," Michael starts off, “my powers have NO" —he quickly crosses and uncrosses his arms— "potential. I’ve had them forever, nothing’s changed. I feel normal, I can’t do awesome, crazy stunts and emit a bunch of epic energy. I’m just me." He shrugs with a frown. "You guys do need help, right?" He holds his hands out at him. "So, give me some powers and I’ll help out."

Kailer halts his movements with his flask in the air. He then promptly places it back down and spins to face the man. "Fine, Cramarossa." He slaps his hands flat on his lap. "You got me. I’ll give you your powers." He gets up and steps to the right side of the room, where most of the clutter is located.

Michael follows him with his delighted eyes. "No way!"


"You weren’t kidding, right?" Kailer calls out from behind the island, rattling and shuffling behind being heard as he searches through the mess.

"No, no, no, no, no, I can’t believe it!" He lets out a thrilled laugh. "You’re actually going to—"

Kailer swiftly strides up to him back into the light, holding a small, blue-coloured gun in the air. "Yes."

Michael eyes the object with raised eyebrows. "Oh sweet!" He turns to its owner. "So what do I have to do—?"

"Just stay still." He then presses its muzzle against Michael’s sleeve-covered arm and presses the trigger.

Michael immediately senses a quick sting flick through his arm. "Ow!" He jolts. "That stung."

Kailer removes the gun from his arm and peers up at him with an unamused expression. "No pain, no gain." He swiftly turns around and hobbles back into the duskiness.

Michael then slowly peers down at his palms with anticipation. "Ah-ha…" A smirk curls on his face. "I think I can feel the surge…"

"One condition," he hears Kailer remark.

Michael perks up, spotting the scientist approaching him. "What?"

Kailer halts in front of him with his hands in his coat’s pockets. "Don’t tell a single soul about your new powers. If you do, I’ll take ‘em right back."

With a deep breath, Michael forcefully nods his head. "I will. Really will." He turns his hands into fists. "I really want these powers. You have my word."

"Good." A small smile appears on Kailer’s face. "Enjoy." He then twirls around with the tail of his coat swinging behind him and waltzes back to his counter.

With a smug smile, Michael turns around and swaggers out of the room, entering the main room. He immediately spots something strange crossing his path, causing himself to halt with large, surprised eyes.

Travelling across his way is the raccoon dog. Yet instead of its usual trotting, it is rolling itself around like a deflating beach ball. The animal stops his rolling for a moment, peering around his surroundings on his back, then continues his odd movements.

"What...the heck…?" Michael murmurs with a gawk at the raccoon dog.

From the table a few feet away from Michael, Jake peers up at him with a massive smile. "Zeke’s cleaning the floor for us! Isn’t he so nice…?"

Then Kale hops into the main room from the staircases, halting in front of it. He is covered in fur with a scowl across his face. "Suuure."

Next to Jake, Brett gets a good look at Kale’s appearance before bursting into laughter. He points to Kale as his face turns red with his other hand partially covering his mouth. "What happened to you!?"

Kale jabs a finger at the goalie. "His raccoon thing rolled all over my sofa, that’s what happened." He then swiftly turns around and storms up the stairs, grumbling to himself.

Michael hastily shuffles through his shorts’ pockets, then stops as realization crosses his face. "Ugh, that’s right, I don’t have my phone." He dips his head. "No video."

"Nope!" Jake replies shaking his head. "You get to watch him cleaning and put it in your memory!" He then turns to Zeke with a proud look. He watches him roll past the control booth, where Matteo and Jeremy are conversing with the hovering holographic screen.

The two stop and watch Zeke roll by gradually.

"Well, I guess you learn something new every day," Matteo points out with raised eyebrows at the animal.

"Raccoon dogs are weird." Jeremy then turns away from the animal.

Notes