Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
July 10, 2017
Afternoon

"AW-UGH!" Connor slams his head against the countertop with his hands grasped to his head. "MY HEAD."

Auston has his head dipped down as he rubs his hands through his hair. "My mind…is like…needles…"

Next to him, Carter silently has his hands on the sides of his head with his elbows on the countertop’s surface. His eyes are wide and filled with agony. The left side of his jaw is beginning to swell and grow red.

Connor lifts his head up, taking in a deep breath. "Curse companion allegiance users," he mutters bitterly. He automatically conjures a soothing surge of power around his head. "Psionic Inundation. Now I definitely know it’s not a pretty power to be a target of."

"I hope my mind will be alright…," Auston states worriedly, his eyes on the surface as he continues massaging his head.

Connor’s eyes instantly light up at the feeling of relief. "My mind’s fine—" He runs his fingers through his hair. "I somehow healed it."

Auston slowly turns to him with hopeful eyes. "Can you heal me?"

He purses his lips at the suffering man. "Hmmm…" He then reaches out at him and gently places a hand on his head. He mentally guides his surge of power to his palms, giving off a warm glow from his hand.

Auston’s face relaxes slowly as he feels the palliative flow wash out the stinging, numbing pain. "Ahhh…" He straightens up, having Connor remove his hand from him. "Much better. Thank you."

Connor gives a small fist pump of victory as he pulls away from him. "Yes. I can heal!"

From the other side of Auston, Carter quietly raises up his hand with large eyes.

Connor spots him with concern. "This isn’t school, Carter. You can just shout it out."

Carter promptly jabs a finger toward his swelling jaw.

A grimace overcomes Connor’s face with bared teeth and knitted eyebrows. "Ohhh…wow, what happened there?"

Auston turns around to look at the goalie with an inquiring expression. His eyes go wide at the injury.

Carter begins flying his hands in front of him, attempting to tell Connor the story of how he attained the jaw injury.

Connor waves his hands in front of him, signally him to stop. "Okay, okay, never mind I said that." He drops his hands. "I’ll just heal you up and then you can tell me."

Carter halts his movements and looks up with a relieved expression.

Connor leans over the countertop, stretching in front of Auston, and presses his palm against Carter’s head.

Carter closes his eyes as a placid expression appears on his face. He gives him a thumbs-up.

"Good." Connor pulls his hand away and observes the massive left jaw of the goalie. "Okay, now for your jaw…" He begins to extend his hand toward it.

Carter immediately flinches away, holding his hands out at him in fear.

Connor smacks his hands on the countertop. "What?"

Carter shakes his head vehemently with wide eyes.

"I gotta touch your jaw to heal you!" he continues to explain loudly.

Carter shakes his head in short movements as he makes a wince of pain with his fists by his lips.

Connor gawks at him like as if he’s a madman. "What are you doing?"

"I think he’s trying to say that it hurts to touch his jaw," Auston guesses, eyeing the goalie’s movements.

Connor groans with a roll of his eyes. "It’s either I touch it and heal it or I don’t touch it and it heals on its own."

Carter halts his moving, slamming his arms on the table’s surface. He gives him a glare.

Connor holds his hand out toward him. "I’m gonna do it."

The goalie continues glowering at him.

Connor then reaches out at him and lightly places his hand on his warmed, bubble jaw.

Instantly, a pummel of pain shoots up Carter’s face. The goalie’s eyes widen and his hand flies across Connor’s face.

Connor swiftly throws himself back into his seat, his hands up in the air. "Dude! Carter! Chill! I didn’t even touch you that hard!"

Carter sharply turns his back on him with crossed arms and a scowl.

Connor lets out a huff. "Fine. Wallow in your pain." He mumbles with his eyes downcast, "I tried to help."

Auston whirls back to Connor. "So now what?"

Connor straightens up and peers at him. "Well…" He drums his fingers on the countertop. "Let’s go over all the ways we failed against the GHP."

Auston throws an index finger in the air. "They have much more people than we anticipated."

Carter whirls to face them, his eyes fixed on his smartphone as he furiously types on it. He then holds it out for the others to see.

Auston takes it and scans at its text. "'Jake Oettinger.'"

Carter stabs his finger at his bloated jaw in fury.

Connor throws his pointer finger at the goalie. "Ah, yeah, that’s right! I saw that punch he gave you!"

Carter harshly takes the phone from Auston’s grasp, turns it off, and slips it into his jeans’ pockets.

"But ultimately," Auston continues on, his hands interlaced on the countertop, "we failed because of the companion allegiance between those two men. And with their mental powers, we were…" He shakes his head. "…done for."

Connor angrily drums his fingers on the surface. "And that’s why I want Clague and Duke," he growls.

Auston raises his eyebrows at him. "I had them. But then the 'Psionic Inundation' came in."

With a heavy sigh, Connor leans back while running his fingers through his hair. "It seems like each user of companion allegiance has different powers: first with Knight and Pfalzer and now with Hackett and Faragher." He straightens up, dropping his hands on his lap. "Who knows which powers Clague and Duke can achieve together?

"But besides the fact, Knight and Pfalzer won’t be merging anytime soon, therefore we don’t need to worry about them. But Hackett and Faragher" —he nods his head— "we need to be prepared for them next time we meet."

Auston narrows his eyes at him. "And they have what type of powers?"

"Mental powers." Connor pauses with his eyes upward as he mentally recollects the information picked up by his powers. "Psychic Energy and Psychic Wave Manipulation, to be exact." He reverts his gaze back at the skater. "Nevertheless, they’re still mental powers. None of us have mental powers, except for me, of course."

"Can’t you achieve psychic energy and wave manipulation with your abilities?" Auston asks with a raised eyebrow.

Connor slams his hands on the surface as he leans over to him with a menacing stare. "I can, but at the moment, I’m trying to manipulate reality. One at a time, please."

Before the two can move, Carter’s hand slips in between them with his smartphone.

Auston plucks it from his grasp and reads its screen again. "'Get a power player with mind powers.'"

Connor slowly leans back into his chair with a curious expression. "Hmmm…" He rubs his chin. "We do need an extra man." He flicks his eyes at the goalie.

Carter shrugs as he takes his smartphone from the other skater.

Auston peers at Carter then at Connor. "Are there any power players with mental abilities that would like to join us?" He turns back to Carter. "Any mental power players in the CHL?"

Carter shakes his head.

He turns back to Connor. "Can you find any power players with mental abilities?"

Connor now his eyes upward as he senses his powers course through his mind, pulling up more information. "Well…actually…" His eyes immediately light up with raises eyebrows as information of a particular power player comes to mind. "Yes."

"Oh!" Auston rubs his hands eagerly. "Who is it?" Behind him, Carter has a look of curiosity at him.

Connor turns back to the two. "Michael Mersch. Master of the EAHP until he got locked up in Hackett and Faragher’s mindscape. He’s the power player of the Ontario Reign with superhuman strength, telepathy, motor-skill manipulation."

Auston nods his head with glee. "Yes, that sounds like a great addition, especially with those powers and that he’s a minor professional player, just like Hackett and Faragher." He halts his movements. "But can you get them out of the mindscape?"

Connor narrows his eyes, which are aimed upward. "One moment." He then instantly disappears in a blast of yellow energy fading into white light.

Now it is just Auston and Carter sitting at the countertop in Connor’s house.

Auston turns to Carter, spotting him typing on his smartphone furiously. "I can get an ice pack for you."

Carter flicks his eyes up at him. He then resumes his typing before handing his phone to him.

Auston takes it and reads its screen. "'If it didn’t melt in the kitchen’s explosion.'" He peers back at him with an austere expression. "Ha, ha, very funny, Hart." He hands back his smartphone.

Carter grabs his device and begins typing on it again.

Auston silently steps off from his countertop stool and strolls away from the goalie. A few moments later, he returns, this time with an ice pack wrapped in a kitchen towel.

He settles back onto his seat and holds out the ice pack at the goalie. "Here."

Carter halts his typing and peers at the swaddled ice pack. He quietly takes it and presses it against his jaw. His face immediately contorts with severe agony. He slowly lowers the ice pack back onto the surface.

Auston raises his eyebrows at the goalie’s actions. "That bad?"

Carter slowly nods his head. He gingerly picks up the ice pack and rests it against the swelling jaw. Swiftly, he pulls it away and thrusts it back onto the countertop.

Auston lets out a short sigh with a slight frown. "Well, it was worth a try."

Suddenly, a flash of white light beams out from behind Auston, immediately fading out. Auston rapidly whirls around as Carter peers ahead to see the source of the light.

Standing by Connor’s stool at the end of the countertop is Connor himself. Next to him is a brunette man with small, green eyes and stubble around his mainly on his chin.

"Men—" Connor happily claps his hands together. "—I present to you—" He swings his hands out toward the man. "—Michael Mersch."

Michael lets out a chuckle. "Heh, heh, hello!" he calls out in a full, deep voice.

"Greetings," Auston tells him cooly.

Carter waves at him from behind.

Connor flicks his hand out at the goalie. "Don’t worry about him, he’s suffering from a broken jaw."

Michael nods his head in understanding with a grimace. "Oh, yikes, those are never fun." He steps up to Carter and gives him a hearty pat on the shoulder. "Hope you get better, kid."

Carter aimlessly bobbles his head.

"So,” Connor starts off, settling back in his chair, "I already told Michael about our goal of annihilating the women’s leagues and taking over the NHL, CHL and NCAA, and now—" He holds his hand out at Michael, who is halting next to him. "—the AHL and ECHL."

"Oh, this is gonna be a ball!" Michael exclaims with a flawless smile. "I thought taking over the NHL affiliates was a great goal. But taking over and annihilating more important leagues all together?" He makes a hearty chortle. "Now you’re talking!"

Auston nods his head at him with half of the emotion. "It’s good you’re onboard with us here."

"Yes, and with your mental powers—" Connor whirls to him with his two index fingers at him. "—we can definitely beat the GHP and get what we want."

Michael rubs his hands together in excitement. "Oh-hoh, yes! I’ll do anything to get those leagues!" He then drops his hands and lowers his enthusiasm. "So, you’re the Master here, M’David?"

Connor nods his head. "Yes, I am. I should be, being the NHL ruler."

"Alright then—" He places his hands on his hips. "—what’s the plan, Master?"

Conor presses his fists to his mouth as his mind dives into deep thought. "Well, we gotta rest up since we just fought. So, I say…" He straightens up, removing his hand from his mouth. "…we continue mastering our powers while I continue mastering reality manipulation and tomorrow we can try again." He peers at each of the three men. "The sooner, the better chance we have for taking over the leagues, eh?"

Auston nods his head. "That’s right."

Carter points to his ballooned jaw with hectic eyes.

Connor gazes at him. "I told you I can heal it."

Carter drops his hand and narrows his eyes at him with a frown.

Michael flicks his eyes down at the Master. "He doesn’t want you to touch it since it hurts like crazy for him."

Connor peers up at him. "Then he’ll have to deal it on his own."

Carter stares at Connor with concern.

"He’s wondering if he can still fight with it tomorrow," Michael tells Connor.

He turns to the goalie with sympathy. "If you’re up to it. But it’d be nice if you can. You know the custom of hockey: play through the pain."

Notes