AAOOOSC! Junior Powers!

Huffing of breaths.

Thumping of footsteps.

Cracking and tumbling of burning objects from afar.

The thickness and warmth of the atmosphere increasing.

Heat waves rippling against the tiled floor of the Keystone Centre, the home rink of the Brandon Wheat Kings.

Rushing through the concourse in their super suits are Matteo and Brett with determined expressions.

"Are you sure there’s someone in here?" Matteo shouts over to Brett.

Brett nods his head vehemently, sweat dripping down his face. "Yes! Jake Dog said so! It’s the first!"

"Okay, let’s go into the rink!" The Master makes a sharp turn to his right, darting through an opened archway.

Brett dashes behind him in his hefty suit. He immediately feels the shift of atmosphere: the air is much more open and warmer; the sounds of crumbling and crackling are more clearer, including its source.

Lining the ice rink and rushing up the audience seats is a sweep of black-coloured fire. It is expanding in its width, reducing everything in its path to rubble in a matter of seconds.

Brett’s eyes are wide open at the supernatural sight. "What on—?" He catches his sentence in his throat as he spots something much more surprising.

Standing by the boards in front of the first row with his attention on the fire is a masked man.

He has a glass visor covering most of his face, only showing his mouth downward. Although his visor is made out of glass, his eyes are unable to be seen due to a permanent glare. Above the black band that holds his visor is his mound of light brown, voluminous hair. His attire consists of a black, leather jacket with matching gloves, belt, pants, and boots; tucked under his jacket is a dark gold-coloured scarf.

"I think we found him," Brett hears Matteo state.

A smile spreads across his face as he turns to the Master. "Let’s get him before he escapes."

Right away, Matteo snaps his hands by his ear, conjuring a ball of deep blue water. He then releases straight down at the roaring dark fire, extinguishing a massive part of its edge.

The masked man immediately snaps his head up at the two, notifying them they have caught his attention.

"Stop!" Brett bellows.

Instantly, two heavy-duty barrels lift from his shoulders into view and emit speedy rounds of red energy bullets the man.

Brett continues firing at him with sharp, locked eyes at him as he begins stepping up to him.

The energy bullets rush at the man, yet before striking him, they disintegrate into sparks. Therefore, an array of sparks flutter in front of him.

Suddenly, the man flicks his hands, materializing a hefty machine gun in each hand. He aims the guns at Brett and begins firing back at him.

The bullets instantly strike Brett’s thick armour, creating cacophony: CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

"Whoa!" Brett immediately halts his attacks and himself in the middle of the aisle and holds his wide arm over his head. A shield forms in front of his arm, protecting his face from the raining bullets.

"You okay?" he hears Matteo bellowing at him.

"Do something!" Brett hollers, scrunching his face as he tenses at the impact of the bullets.

He then sticks his free hand out from underneath his shield and launches a concentrated beam of energy at the man.

The beam immediately explodes into sparks inches from the masked man.

The man continues shooting at Brett effortlessly as if the guns are loaded with a never-ending supply of bullets.

Matteo rushes up to Brett’s side, wielding his majestic Viking sword into view. He then swings the sword at the bullets, knocking one by one out with precision.

CLINK! CLINK! CLINK!

The man quickly stops his shooting. He then transforms one of his guns into black smoke to have a free hand. He then uses his free hand by holding it out toward Matteo’s sword.

Suddenly, the sword’s blade droops, dripping its silver self onto the ground. It wastes away as if it is melting wax.

Matteo’s eyes widen at the saddening sight of his sword. "What?"

Then the man throws his free hand vertically in the air.

Instantly, Matteo is thrown off his feet and is hurled in the air backward, away from the rink and through one of the opened archways of the second level.

"AAAHHH!!!" the Master is heard screaming farther and farther.

Brett follows the flying Master with his eyes as the Master disappears from sight. "What?!" he spits out.

He immediately faces the man again and blasts a mass of energy bullets from his hefty guns over both of his hands.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

Sparks flash all over the man as the bullets explode inches near him.

The man has his eyes locked on the teenager in the suit.

Suddenly, the energy emission ceases, being replaced by empty noises: CLUNK! CLUNK! CLUNK!

"Uh oh." Brett holds the muzzles of his guns to his eye level, peering at their sides. "No, no, no, no, nooo!"

The man immediately swipes his hand across in front of him, like as if he is slapping an invisible person.

Instantly, Brett’s arm swings at its owner’s face, whacking him.

"OW!!!" Brett yells, feeling the throbbing pain from the impact arising in his cheek and temple.

The man swipes his hand forcefully again and again and again.

Following his motions, Brett’s arm smacks him again and again and again.

"OW! OW! OW!" An intense scowl then grows over Brett’s face. "ARRRUUUGH!!!"

He uses his other arm to push his possessed arm downward, halting it from cuffing him. He then retracts his gun on his usable arm, revealing his metallic gloved hand with fingers, and uses his pointer finger to presses on a red button located on the top of his other arm’s wrist.

Immediately, his suit hisses and relaxes, clunking onto the ground one piece at a time. Once his suit is disassembled and scattered on the ground, Brett raises his head up with ire and a heavy chest, now wearing his black under armour.

"You wanna play?" he growls at the man. "I’ll make you play!" He then snatches a thick, metallic slate from his dissimulated suit and thrusts it at him like a flying disc.

The slate strikes an invisible shield inches from the man, deflecting off of it and flying off away at an angle due to its impact.

In anger, Brett grabs another large piece of his suit and hurls at him again.

In a snap, the man promptly catches the piece in midair with one hand. He then swings the piece behind his shoulder and flings it back at its user.

With subtle surprise at his movements, Brett snaps his arm in front of him and clutches onto the piece as it was about to strike his head.

"Hah." The teenager pulls the piece back behind him. "Think that I would get taken away by it, eh?" He then twirls himself in the air, throwing his legs out in a semi-split, and launches the piece with all of his strength.

The piece dangerously whizzes at the man with all the force it holds. Yet it slams into the man’s unseen protection, hurtling out into the crumbling rink.

The man then extends his hands out at Brett and unleashes a torrent of dark fire.

The fire blasts around Brett with its wispy, white and blue-coloured edges flapping.

Brett stands strong through the flames, his outline glowing in white as his body fights off the negative attributes of the dark fire. He then rushes through it with a determined expression, white sparks floating off behind him to the rhythm of the blaze.

Brett lunges into the air, flying out of the stream of fire. "AUUURRRGH!!!" He grabs the man with both arms and tackles him to the ground.

The surge of fire immediately disappears in a puff; the fire around the rink is still roaring strong.

Brett quickly rises to his knees, the masked man underneath him, and slams his fist into his visor.

The visor cracks under his fist as his knuckles sting due to the impact.

He holds down the writhing man with his free hand and pummels the visor again with his fist.

The visor cracks more, displaying jagged marks across it.

Brett punches at it again and again and again, attempting to shatter it to see the man’s face.

The fracture runs down to the edge of the visor by the mouth, on the verge of breaking.

Brett throws his fist behind him, ready to throw it down against the weakened visor.

Suddenly, he feels a pummel of force blow at him, causing him to be thrust off of the man and fly across the room.

"GAAAHHHH!!!" Brett whizzes through the air, flashing through the second level of the arena before zooming perpendicularly across the concourse and through the wall as if he had intangibility, streaking into the open air of the arena’s outside.

The air rushes against his back and through his thick hair as the force leaves him, causing him--and his heart-- to plunge through the air. "AAAHHH!!!"

"Brett!" he hears Jake hollering from below.

Instantly, he feels himself dropping onto a pair of strong arms, quickly putting him in an instant halt. He turns to his right, spotting Jake’s elated face near his.

"You’re okay!" Jake exclaims. He then nuzzles his cheek against his temple in relief.

Brett braces himself for a few moments until his friend pulls away, then hooks his arms around the back of his shoulders for support. "Yeah…" He then peers down at himself, spotting bruises and scratches scattered all over his hands and arms. "I-I think I’m okay."

Jeremy steps up to him with concern. "Dang, you got beat up." He takes in Brett’s bruised and reddened face.

"I got in a fight," Brett explains breathlessly. "My suit got trashed, as you can see." He peers down at his under armour attire now exposed.

Matteo has his eyebrows raised. "That bad, eh?"

Suddenly, the whole arena behind them trembles before pouring itself outward, crumbling into ash, rubble, and smoke in the middle of the parking lot.

The four members turn to the smouldering pile of debris with shock.

"That was some odd fire I was seeing," Jake points out, looking at them.

"Yeah, it was some type of supernatural fire." Matteo crosses his arms. "Must be dark fire."

Jeremy eyes the Master and Brett to his right. "I can’t believe you guys went in there."

"That’s because someone was in there this time! I sensed it!" Jake adjusts his recuperating bestie in his arms.

"So, what did you guys find in there?" The goalie turns his head from Matteo to Brett and back.

Jake peers at Brett with knitted eyebrows. "Yeah, how did you end up like this, Brett?" He eyes him from top to bottom.

"The Rink Destroyer," Brett tells them with his thick eyebrows raised. "Maîtriser saw him as well."

"I did, but I couldn’t figure out who he was," the Master adds in, scratching his head with a disappointed look.

"So it’s one guy!" Jake points out with a nod.

Matteo nod his head. "Yeah, for sure."

"But who is he?" Jeremy asks with his hands out from his sides.

"I have no idea." Brett shakes his head. "He had some weird glass mask on where, but I couldn’t see his eyes.”

"Yeah, I saw that too." The Master scrunches his nose with a frown.

"Huh…" Jeremy gazes around the desolated surroundings before turning back to his group. "Well, is he around here?"

Jake perks his head up with observant eyes and an active nose. After a moment, he faces the others. "I don’t sense anyone else around here."

"I’ll take that as a no," Brett concludes.

"Alright then—" Matteo nods away from the pile of rubble. "—let’s go, boys."

Notes