Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
July 12, 2017
Afternoon

Footsteps echo through the tunnel leading to the main room of the GHP headquarters. Sidney and all the others are following him with expressions of excitement and anticipation.

Sidney peers behind his shoulders to spot the others. “I just wanna see if the headquarters are fine.” With that, he strolls through the opening.

In the main room, three familiar people are sitting around the main table: Patrick, Nathan, and Pekka. Floating on each side of Pekka is Ari and Tatu.

The three hockey players turn to the sound of the footsteps, spotting their other group members and unfamiliar people approaching them.

“Oh, there you dudes are!” Patrick exclaims with a lopsided grin. “We’ve been waiting for hours, man!”

Sidney suddenly halts with his eyes widen at the three hockey players. The others stop behind him in confusion.

“You guys are here!” Sidney speeds up to them with glee, halting in between Nathan and Pekka on the other side of the table. “Oh, I’m so glad to see you!”

He then gasps and excitedly pulls Bubby Jr. from his pants’ pockets. “Oh, I’m so glad to see you, too, Bubby Jr!” He gives the stuffed animal a rub on its head before placing it back in his pocket.

Nathan happily pats Sidney’s back. “Glad to see you as well! What took you so long?”

“We went on a detour to another reality,” Jonathan answers flatly, scratching the back of his neck as he approaches Patrick.

Pekka pets Tatu, causing him to let out an exhausted “whew!” before propelling its tiny wings and flying off across the room. Ari takes off after the drifting orb in a mad dash.

The Finnish goalie then turns to the other goalie and knits his eyebrows at him. “Another reality? Why weren’t we notified about this?”

Toews instantly appears behind Pekka in a streak of yellow energy. “It’s nothing to worry about, it’s all taken care of!” He grasps onto the back of Pekka’s chair with a nervous grin. “It’s like as if it never happened!”

“Except the fact that Tazer boy can now manipulate reality.” John halts next to Toews with a haughty expression.

The three stare at the NHL ruler with massive eyes and dropped jaws.

“That’s like manipulating anything!” Patrick exclaims in awe. “That’s tots gnarly, dude!”

“Awesome!” Nathan pumps his fists in the air. “Now you can finally get the Avs to win the Cup again!”

Pekka chuckles with a toothy smile while shaking his head at the skater. “Nuh-huh—” He peers behind his shoulder to Toews. “—give US, the Preds, the Cup.”

“Hey!” Sidney crosses his arms with a fuming expression. “The Pens won the Cup already! Try again next year!”

Toews shakes his head with an anxious chortle. “No, no, I’m done manipulating reality.” He throws his hands in the air in exhaustion. “It’s best to not touch it. It’s so complex and delicate.”

John nods his head with a proud look at him. “You assimilate deftly, smalls.” He pats his shoulder.

Patrick then turns to his right, spotting the other power players gazing at them with bewilderment. He whirls back to the other original GHP members. “Who are these dudes and dudettes?” He jabs his thumb over his shoulder at them.

“Oh! Uh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh!” Sidney smacks his forehead. “Where are my manners?” He bounds to the group and halts next to them. “Patrick, Pekka, Nathan—” He throws his hands out toward the other power players. “—meet the extended GHP!”

“Hi, guys!” Emily exclaims, waving her hands in the air ebulliently.

The others say softer greetings with small waves.

“Howzit goin’, dudes and dudettes?” Patrick asks with a smirk and a nod at them.

“Hey!” Nathan waves his hand at them with a small grin.

Pekka furrows his eyebrows at Sidney. “What did you need them for?”

Sidney gives him an uneasy expression. “It had to do with the reality manipulation.” He then brings back his upbeat attitude. “But they are great to have when we need some extra help!”

Patrick peers at the other NHL power players surrounding the team. He then turns back to Sidney. “Yeah, our society did shrink a bunch, man.”

Nathan holds his hand out at them. “Where are they from, though?”

Sidney steps up to the ladies: “Emily and Katie are from the NWHL while Dru is from the CWHL.”

He then slides over to the two goalie buddies. “Matt is from the AHL while Ryan is from the ECHL.”

He hops over to the junior players. “Kale, Brett, and Kailer are from the WHL, or CHL, whichever you like.”

He then leans over to Jake, who is towering over him well. “And Jake is from the NCAA!”

“Ruff!” Jake exclaims in agreement.

Brett places a hand on the goalie’s shoulder. “He has canine physiology. Pardon the bark.”

Sidney ambles back to the table of NHLers with his hands clasped behind his back. “They’re all from different professional, major, or affiliate hockey leagues.” He halts in between Pekka and Nathan once again. “They have their own societies but if we need them, they’ll be there for us.”

“That’s correct,” Kailer assures them with a nod.

Nathan has an elated expression at the other power players. “Wow, that’s great you were able to round up so many various power players.” He turns back to the NHLers. “The GHP totally got an upgrade!”

“That’s right!” Sidney beams proudly at them. “And hopefully, the GHP will have a calm schedule with no one taking over the leagues.”

Pekka begins tapping on the table according to the beat of his speaking. “We got rid of Jimmy, we got rid of Kari, and we hope that’s the last of them.”

Toews cracks a big grin. “Oh, it is gonna be the last!”

Patrick stretches his arms up in the air as he extends himself back against his chair. “Hey, is anyone hungry, man? I can go for some rad California burritos, dude.”

“Actually,” Kale speaks up, grabbing everyone’s attention. He holds up his lit-up smartphone. “Duker just texted me if we want some pizza and I asked if you guys can come and he said, ‘Yeah’.” A small smile appears on his face. “You guys wanna go?”

“Pizza sounds even radder!” Patrick shouts, pumping his fists in the air.

“It’s at Papa Crosby’s, right?” Sidney asks the defencemen with hands on his hips.

Kale nods his head. “Yeah! That’s our pizza spot.”

Sidney begins marching down the side of the table, heading for the exit. “Alright, boys and girls—” He spins around to face everyone. “—let’s celebrate with pizza!”

“YAY!!!” Everyone claps and pumps their fists at the name of the glorious dish.

“Pizza is the best!” Brett exclaims, thrusting his index finger across his body.

Jake is jumping up and down happily. “Especially five boxes of it.”

He immediately grimaces. “Okay, that’s a bit too much.”

The two turn around as the group wanders back into the mouth of the tunnel with the NHLers.

In the dim tunnel, Sidney, who is leading the group, smiles up at Jonathan, who is next to him.

“Well, we did it, Jonny,” he starts off. He turns to peer at the light of the tunnel approaching them. “We formed the GHP and we did our job. The NHL—and many other leagues—are safe and sound forever!”

“I knew what I signed up for, but I never knew it’d end up like this,” Jonathan comments with raised eyebrows. “But I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

Patrick lines up next to Sidney. “We will stick together like the feathers on the Hawks’ logo as the GHP, right, dudes?”

Sidney nods his head with a chuckle. “Uh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh, that’s right! Not necessarily because evil is around, but because we have a deep bond” —he places his arms on each of their backs, since that is as far as he can reach— “that runs years deep.” He beams at each of them. “Thanks for coming all the way from your cities to help the society, the league, and beyond.”

With that, they exit through the bright opening to the outside, being engulfed in the luminous sunlight. Everyone else follows after them contently, vanishing from the dusky tunnel and out of sight.


The End.

Notes

Here is the jeopardy template of AAOOOSC! United!