New York City, New York, USA
July 11, 2017
Afternoon

The pair of wide towers made out of windows, lined with steel, is looming over the GHP members. Yet hanging over the windows and plastered on the walls are different banners of the Edmonton Oilers celebrating with their captain. The banners bear the phrase HUNDRED-TIME STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS in different styles.

All of the members are staring at the new decoration of the NHL headquarters in different degrees of shock.

“‘Hundred-time Stanley Cup champs’?” Sidney reads from a banner, dumbfounded.

“I thought your Penguins winning back-to-back was bad,” Jonathan exclaims, slack-jawed. “But this is just ridiculous!”

Sidney whirls to him with fury. “Hey! That was a great run we had! You won two Stanley Cups as well!”

“The Golden Knights won none…,” Reid tells the two warily, slowly raising up a hand.

Kale eyes him with a toothy grin. “That’s because they hadn’t played a single game yet.”

Reid drops his hand with a slight frown. “Right.”

John has inquiring eyes at the banner while rubbing his chin. “They are the victor in supplementary Stanley Cup Finals than the Canadiens of Montreal.”

Kailer eyebrows shoot up. “Not substandard. I do take delight in the Oilers triumphing this multitudinous times, since I was drafted by them.” He adjusts the collar of his shirt in pride.

“So, Connor made the Oilers win too many times,” Dru states with crossed arms. “What next?”

Brett has worried eyes at her. “Does this mean he took over the NHL?”

“Most likely, seeing what he did to the headquarters,” Jonathan answers dryly, eyeing the orange and blue-covered building.

“So if M’David took over the NHL, then does that mean Hartsy got the CHL?” Brett continues on, panic rising in his facial expression.

“And NCAA?!” Jake adds in a yelp.

“Oh no!” Emily clutches onto his face with her two hands. “Not the NWHL and CWHL!”

“And AHL and ECHL!” Matt continues on with his hands out from his sides.

Ryan has a hint of anxiety despite the fact he is listening to his rock music through his earplugs.

Sidney purses his lips at the building before turning to his group. “I guess it’s best to ask someone. But assume the worst and with that, nothing can get any worse!”

Reid then jabs his finger toward his right down the sidewalk. “Hey, is that Patrick Kane?!”

Everyone instantly whirls to his finger’s direction.

Sauntering down the sidewalk toward their direction with his usual relaxed expression is Patrick himself.

Sidney gasps with hope. “Patrick!” He rushes up to him, halting beside him. “Patrick, you’re out! We need your help!”

Patrick peers down at him with confusion, stopping his movements. “What, man? What do you mean ‘I’m out’?”

“Well, Connor took you away as a hostage with Nathan and Pekka,” he explains with large eyes at him.

The blond man holds his perplexed stare. “Connor taking hostages, dude? Man, he would never do that. He’s the best dude ever.” He nods up at the Oilers-decorated buildings. “He won his hundredth Stanley Cup, which is so rad. I want him to win another!”

Sidney is now gawking. “Since when did you turn into an Oilers fan?”

Patrick reverts his gaze back down at him. “I was always one, man. All the dudes and dudettes are Oilers fans. We are so stoked about Connor and his gnarly team.”

“Even when you play against each other?”

He nods his head. “Yeah, dude! We let them win, it’s so rad! They’re even undefeated in their whole history, man!”

All Sidney can do now is blink. “What? He’s undefeated? You let him win?” He pauses, loosening himself. “Is he the owner of the NHL too?”

“Yeah, dude!” Patrick nods his head with a smirk. “He can run the league like no one’s business. It’s so gnarly, he leads our favorite team: the Oilers!” He pumps his fists in the air.

“But you’re in the Blackhawks.”

He lowers his hands and nods at him. “I know, man. But I still root for the gnarly Oilers!” He then lightly punches Sidney’s shoulder. “Aren’t you stoked with them winning their hundredth Stanley Cup?”

Sidney shakes his head slowly. “No. I want the Penguins. We actually won this year.”

“Sorry, man.” He scuffs his thick, wavy hair. “But Oilers win it all!” He then lets out a howling “cowabunga!” with a pump of his fists before resuming his stroll toward the NHL buildings.

With a weary expression, Sidney turns around and trudges back to the group.

“Sooo…?” Jonathan asks, eyeing the small, temporal Master.

“Oilers did win a hundred times,” Sidney states emotionlessly with his back hunched forward and arms dangling downward. “And everybody LIKES IT!” He throws his hands in the air with frustration. “Connor’s the owner of the NHL—” He drops his hands to look at the others. “—and everybody likes it!”

Everyone else stares back at him with shock.

“This is a nightmare,” Kale states, grimacing.

Brett has knitted eyebrows with his arms out from his sides. “What about the other leagues?”

Sidney gives him a shrug. “I dunno. Patrick walked away before I could ask— He’s gung-ho on the Oilers.” He pauses. “Probably like everyone else.” He straightens up. “He also didn’t recall Connor holding him hostage.”

“Like enough for that not ever betide in this physical existence, if Connor’s the titular irreproachable fellow hereabouts,” John explains with his hands clasped behind his back.

Jake sniffs the air, attempting to find a familiar scent in the air. His eyes immediately narrow as he begins to growl in his throat.

Brett gradually turns to him with concerned eyes. “Hey, what’s up, Jake Dog?” He rubs his back in an attempt to calm him.

“I smell Hart,” he snarls, darting his eyes from side-to-side.

Reid peers behind his shoulder to spot the two besties. “Goodness, are we on the road that hockey players take or are we just lucky with coincidences?”

“We’re in Connor’s reality,” Kale states bluntly.

Sure enough, Carter appears in sight to their left, approaching them with a cool expression. Next to him is the last person that would be next to him: Nolan. They both look flawlessly striking with clear, soft skin, sparkling, stunning eyes, and smooth, well-kept hair.

“Pat!” Kale dashes up to his former teammate.

Brett has to hold Jake back with his two arms, blocking him from lunging out at the goalie. “Easy, Jake Dog, easy.”

“What’s up, Doctor Pat!” Reid holds his palm out at his former teammate. “I didn’t know you would hang out with Carter!”

“Yeah, didn’t you not like him after our last encounter with him?” Kale asks with suspicious eyes.

Carter and Nolan halt their walking, making Kale and Reid also stop walking. Reid sadly lowers his hand intended for a high-five.

Nolan peers at the two with narrowed eyes. “What last encounter?”

“We never had a bad encounter,” Carter pipes in smoothly. He flicks his eyes at Kale. “You said it like as if it’s bad.”

“Well, yeah, because it WAS bad,” Kale tells them between gritted teeth.

Nolan clearly has an uninterested expression at the two. “Is this some way of getting me to hang out with you two?” He wags his index finger at the two skaters with raised eyebrows. “Because I don’t know if you can see it, but I don’t care.”

“But-but-but,” Reid stutters with despair in his face, “we-we always hang out with each other! I thought you cared for us…” He stares at him with massive eyes and fists by his chest.

Nolan continues holding his unamused gaze at him. “We never hang out with each other. You might have a loose screw up there.” He slaps Reid’s head in a taunting manner, disheveling his hair a bit.

Reid shudders at the hit, backing up toward Kale in fright.

Kale has a look of disgust at Nolan as he pulls Reid toward him. “Hey, not cool, Pat!”

Carter nods at his friend with a cool expression. “Let’s get away from them—”

“—after you two reply to three inquiries,” Kailer’s voice is heard from in front of the two.

Nolan and Carter peer down as Kale and Reid turn to their left. Kailer is facing the goalie and the skater with raised eyebrows and hands on his hips.

“Don’t fret, it won’t be prolonged or be nettlesome,” the small skater finishes off.

Nolan crosses his arms with a roll of his eyes. “What, Yamamoto?”

Kailer promptly throws his index finger in the air. “Number one, who’s the owner of the CHL?”

“Me, of course.” Carter shrugs carelessly. “Who’d you think it’d be?”

“You’re the owner of the NCAA as well, eh?” Kale guesses bitterly with narrowed eyes at the goalie.

Carter turns to him. “You got that right.”

“It’s nothing new, you guys should know this,” Nolan tells them as a look of annoyance. “Why are you wasting our time with these questions?”

“Number two,” Kailer continues on sternly, adding another finger in the air, “what is the status of professional women’s hockey?”

Nolan stares at the small skater as if he just spoke Japanese while Carter holds a smirk toward him.

“‘Professional women’s hockey’?” Nolan is gawking at him. “Since when did women play hockey? There’s no such thing as women’s hockey. Only guys play it.”

Kale gazes at him in shock. “There’s no women’s leagues? Not even collegiate or amateurs?”

Nolan shakes his head. “No… No girls play hockey at all.”

“Question three.” Kailer now holds up three fingers. “Who’s the owner of the AHL and ECHL?”

Carter tilts his head from side to side in cockiness. “The one and only Michael Mersch.” He turns to his friend. “Right, Pat?”

Nolan nods his head. “That’s right. He’s an amazing man.” He runs his fingers through his flawless hair. “The Reign win every year and it’s fabulous.”

“Just like the Silvertips,” the goalie adds in with a smirk at him.

“Every single year.” Nolan then turns back to the three skaters, shifting his enlightened expression to a more solemn tone. “That’s three questions.”

Kailer slightly dips his head at the two with his eyes on them. “Thank you for your time.” He then turns to the two friends. “We obtained what we necessitated from them—let’s go, boys.”

Kale holds a menacing glare at Nolan as he leads Reid and himself past them.

Nolan and Carter proceed to turn toward the NHL headquarters, maneuvering away from the GHP’s direction.

Sidney’s eyes light up as he spots the three approaching them. “So, what happened?”

Kailer halts next to him and begins listing off the answers: “Hart is the owner of the CHL and NCAA, Mersch is the owner of the AHL and ECHL, women’s hockey—no matter which variety of women’s hockey—does not exist, and the Reign and Silvertips triumph every single year, precisely like the Oilers.”

The others respond with gaping and gawking.

“Where is HE?!” Jake attempts to rip himself from Brett’s arms by pushing at them.

Brett holds him back, tightening his grasp. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, let’s not go after him yet, Jake Dog—”

Jake whirls to him with a furious expression. “He took our leagues!”

“I know, I really wanna fight him too, but not yet.” He has a grimace up at him, steadying his tone. “We have to stick together to fight together.”

Jake lets out a deep whimper, calming himself down. “I just want our leagues back…!” He then drops his head on Brett’s shoulder and sobs.

“This. Is. TERRIBLE!” Emily shoots her hands to her cheeks. “OUR SPORT IS GONE!!!” She stuffs her face into Dru’s torso and begins to bawl.

Dru has an aggravated expression as she slowly shakes her head with pursed lips. She rubs Emily’s back to soothe her.

“The Reign winning every year?” Matt repeats with a blank stare. “That’s not fair!”

Ryan scratches his head with a confused expression. “Do the Reign win the Kelly Cup too? That should be the Manchester Monarchs.”

Katie turns to John with a shocked expression. “This is abhorrent. How do we reinstate the veritable actuality?”

Kale has his head dipped while being in deep thought. “If only any of us has reality manipulation...” Then his eyes widen as an idea comes into his mind. “We do! Duker, I think we do!”

Reid peers at him with knitted eyebrows. “What? Who?”

“We! Us!” He whirls to him with building excitement. “You and Me!” He swishes his pointer finger from his friend to himself. “We have reality manipulation! We can make a portal to the actual reality!”

Reid stares at his friend with an inquiring expression. “But isn’t the alternate reality in the real reality? Like it’s covering it? Is it in another dimension or is it in the same dimension?”

Kale gives him a blank expression and a gape, completely perplexed. “What?”

Reid leans over to catch sight of Kailer, who is behind Kale. “Yamma-Mamma! We have a scientific question!”

Kailer promptly saunters over to the two. “What is it?”

“Um…” Reid points to the ground. “...is this alternate reality IN the actual reality, or are we in another dimension?”

“Can’t we just make a portal to get out of here?” Kale asks swiftly, simplifying the question.

Kailer rubs his chin with his eyes narrowed in deep thought. “I cannot distinguish whether we are in a warped or alternate reality.” He drops his hands and peers up at them. “But McDavid did state he achieved the power to manipulate reality, therefore we can hypothesize that we are in the same dimension, yet completely warped.”

“No, no, no, no.” Kale shakes his head while waving his hands at the small skater. “Can we make a portal to the actual reality. Like as if we can make a portal going back in time— Not necessarily going to a totally different place, but going to an alternate state of this place, which is the actual reality.” He pauses, catching his breath. “Can we do that?”

Kailer stares at him with growing astonishment. “I’ll be darned…” He slowly nods his head. “That is achievable.”

Kale pumps his fist downward. “Hah! I knew it!” He twirls to Reid with exhilaration. “We can merge and get outta here!”

Reid does not seem as half as excited as his friend as he shows a concerned expression. “We just started this out though…” He scratches the back of his neck. “You really think we can create a portal to such a complex destination in a short amount of time?”

“Yeah!” Kale throws his hands from his sides. “Anything to get outta here.”

“You must inform Crosby about this,” Kailer tells the two with a smirk.

Kale quickly turns to Sidney. “Sid! Sid!” He jogs up to him.

Sidney reverts from Jonathan and peers up at him. “Yes, Kale?”

Kale wags his index finger next to his other upper arm. “Duker and I can merge to get outta here. The Doc said so.”

He eyes him with delight. “Ooo! That’s great!”

“Tazer boy!” John immediately rushes up to Sidney and grabs his shoulders, quickly grabbing his attention. “Sidney, we ought to betake ourselves to Smalls! He possesses the tantamount extramundane potentiality as McDavid!”

Sidney gasps with delight. “That’s right! He does have the potential of manipulating reality!”

“If he has his powers in this reality,” Jonathan pipes in dryly.

John lets go of the temporal Master and turns to the goalie. “Let us anticipate he does. We profoundly necessitate those potentialities.”

Kale reverts his index finger to his chest, attempting to get eye contact with Sidney. “But we can merge!”

Sidney turns to him his palms out at him. “First, we’ll go with Tazer. And then if he doesn’t work out, we’ll go with you guys.”

Kale dips his head with a sigh. “Okay.” He then turns around and steps back to Reid and Kailer.

Jake suddenly points to space between the NHL headquarters’ buildings from across the sidewalk. “Kaner’s back!”

The others turn to face the direction of Jake’s index finger.

Sure enough, Patrick is happily appearing from between the two buildings.

“I’m gonna ask him!” Sidney then speeds across the sidewalk. “Patrick! Patrick!”

Patrick brakes in his sauntering to avoid bumping into Sidney, who is now standing in front of him. “Howzit going again, dude?”

“I need to know where Jonathan Toews is!” Sidney waves his arms up and down from his sides.

Patrick knits his eyebrows at him. “Jonathan Toews, the Blackhawks’ captain, man? He’s at his house as the usual.”

“In Chicago, right?” he asks with intriguing eyes.

Patrick shakes his head. “No, dude, in Winnipeg.”

His face drops. “Oh. Right.” He then lifts his mouth up to a grin once again. “Thanks, Patrick!” He then dashes off back to his group.

He halts sharply in between Jonathan and John, staring out at his sobbing and despairing team with a heroic mien. “Alright, boys and girls!” he shouts to them.

They all revert their weary expressions to their temporal Master.

Sidney has a growing, proud smile on his face. “We have a way to fix this place! But it takes a trip to Winnipeg.”

Dru holds up her hand with knitted eyebrows at the temporal Master. “Why do we have to go to Winnipeg?”

Sidney turns to her with his hands clasped behind his back. “To pay good ol’ Jonathan Toews a visit. He also has the powers of the NHL ruler.”

Notes