Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
July 9, 2017
Early Afternoon

“A blind man walked into a bar…,” Reid states.

Nolan and Kale Clague turn to him with inquisitive expressions. The three former Wheat Kings teammates are strolling down the empty, cobblestone sidewalks of Brandon under the trees lined down, blocking most of the radiant sun from their path.

“...and a stool...and a table...and a waiter...and the wall,” he finishes off, cracking a grin.

Nolan’s face morphs into a gawk. Then he scoffs and rolls his eyes while turning his head away from him.

“Oh, I get it!” Kale exclaims in his soft, Canadian-accented voice. He has thick, voluminous brown hair brushed back, rounded, slightly heavy-lidded hazel-coloured eyes, stubble lining his jawline, chin, and above his lips.

He points at the jokester with a toothy smile. “He walks into everything because he can’t see! That’s a good one!”

Reid adjusts the collar of his shirt with proudness. “Thank you! One of my finest! Wanna hear another one?”

“No, shmooker, I think that’s enough,” Nolan sputters out, eyeing him with uncertainty.

Reid gazes at him with hurt. “Aw, come on, I have plenty more to share!”

Nolan halts by the side of the curb at the order of a red hand signal. The other two stop as well.

“You made like three thousand jokes going to the restaurant”—he points behind him— “in the restaurant—” He points downward. “—and now.” He swings his hand across him.

“I don’t mind hearing another one,” Kale says with a shrug.

“Ka-ale!” Nolan yammers, gazing with wide eyes at him.

The signal switches to a person crossing.

“Okay, okay—” Reid rubs his hands together as he begins to walk with the three. “I’m gonna give a curveball here.” He swishes his head to each teenager on both sides. “I have a great knock-knock joke, but one of you guys has to start me off.”

Kale cooly nods over to Nolan with a smirk as him and the others step back onto the sidewalk. “You do it, Pat.”

Nolan lets out a huff while rolling his eyes. “Fine.” He turns to Reid with a flat expression. “Knock, knock.”

Reid gives him a crumbled smile. “Who’s there?”

Nolan darts his eyes from side-to-side in pure confusion, not knowing where the joke is heading.

Reid snickers, cupping his mouth with his hands. To his right, Kale is eyeing the tallest teenager with excited anticipation.

Irritation flashes through Nolan’s face. “You TRICKED me!” He shoves Reid’s shoulder hard.

Reid throws his head back in laughter, being joined by Kale. “OH-HOOOH, that was GOOD!”

Nolan crosses his arms in frustration. “I should’ve known not to trust a guy who dresses his horse in a three-piece suit!” He turns away from him with a fuming expression.

Reid points at him and squeaks out, “I fooled you badly! And hey—” He wags his index finger at him. “—you can still trust me, just not with jokes!”

“Hold it,” Kale cuts in with surprise at Reid. “You actually dressed Crusty up in a three-piece suit?”

Reid turns to him with a solemn expression. “Well, of course. It said it was formal dress.”

“He even included the newsboy cap,” Nolan adds in sharply.

“And Crusty looked dazzlin’!” Reid finishes off, throwing his hands high up in a fashionable pose.

Kale nudges his shoulder with an amused smile. “You gotta send me a photo of him!”

“Of course, I will!” Reid exclaims to him. “I’ll do that later on after Crusty and I become life and hand out lemons!”

Nolan stares at Reid as if he is a mad man. “What?”

As a response, Reid unzips his jacket, revealing his bare chest with the word ƎℲI˥ painted on it. He reaches up to his ears and pulls out a lemon from each one and holds it out to Nolan.

He gives him a kooky stare with wide eyes and gawking grin. “Welp, when life gives you lemons!”

Nolan rolls his eyes while Kale chortles behind “life.” “Oh my gosh.”

“...you should take ‘em because, hey, free lemons,” an unfamiliar voice states mischievously from behind them.

The three friends halt in their tracks, expressions of trepidation coming across their faces. They slowly turn around different ways, spotting who last spoke. Reid zips his jacket back up.

Standing feet away from them is Connor and Auston, both wearing street clothes like the others. In silence, the two groups stare at each other with shock.

Reid lobs a lemon at Connor. It hits Connor on the forehead. Yet Connor is not fazed by it as he continues to stare down the others.

The three friends do the same, eyeing them with bewilderment and surprise.

Reid then proceeds to hurl his last lemon. The fruit strikes Connor’s cheeks this time, causing him to make a frown.

“Sorry, it was getting awkward,” he states in a goofy tone.

With a swift sweep motion of his hands, Auston rolls the lemons in between two trees to his left and morphs them together, creating a beautiful lemon tree.

Reid slightly gawks at the new tree with sadness. “Aw, dang it. If only had I had another lemon to nail Connor McCrazy—”

Connor instantly flashes up to Reid, jutting a solidified beam of yellow energy at his throat. “It’s McDAVID,” he snaps with bared teeth.

“Off of him!” Kale automatically grabs Connor’s shoulders and shoves him away from his friend.

Connor stumbles back a few steps, quickly maintaining his balance. Auston walks to his side with a somber expression.

Nolan swiftly steps up in front of his friends, staring at the two men with narrowed eyes and lowered eyebrows. “You guys better leave or else I will make you,” he states sharply.

Connor shakes his head with crossed arms. “We’re not leaving without a fight.”

Kale, who has a hand on Reid’s shoulder, eyes him as if he is crazy. “What are you talking about? What do you want from us?”

“We want you two,” Auston answers firmly, darting his eyes to Kale then Reid. “So you guys can come with us—” He then flicks his eyes to Nolan with a sly smirk and says in his same tone, “‘—or we’ll make you.’”

Nolan shoots him a glare filled with vexation. “Are you mocking me?”

Auston’s smirk grows larger. “Wow. You’re so terrifying,” he states in a fake, whiny tone. “I’m really trembling.”

Fury is immediately written all over Nolan’s face. “THAT’S IT!” Instantly, he instantly chargers at him with great speed.

A pair of throwing stars flicks out from Nolan’s both hands before he thrusts them out at the two.

The four throwing stars glint in the sunlight as they glide toward their targets.

Connor swiftly throws his hands out in front of him, emitting a clear energy.

The energy ripples away from him, flying through the stars. The stars instantly fly backward to the force of the energy.

Nolan is thrown backward as well, crashing against the ground awkwardly on his leg and rolling to the momentum with his weaponry. “OOF!” He slows to a halt on his back, lying on his side in agony.

With a look of their injured friend, Kale and Reid gaze back up at the two skaters. They both wield out their own weapons with mastery: Reid materializes his white and golden sword into view, holding it by his hip. Kale whips out a long, hardened golden stalk of wheat, whirling it by his torso.

“You’re on,” Kale announces to the two. He then hurls his stalk out at them, immediately transforming it into an array of sharp stalks.

Auston throws his arms into the air, lifting thick stalks of plants from the ground.

The stones crack and separate as the plants rise up and create a thick barrier between the two sides. The wheat attack harmlessly bounces off from the barrier and onto the ground.

On the ground, Nolan pulls himself up slowly to a sitting position while groaning with his hands on his leg. He gazes up at the towering blockade with horror, his usually-perfected hair disheveled with his delicate face scraped up.

Reid spins his sword in the air, building up energy in its blade as he eyes the obstacle. “Don’t worry, I got this.”

He instantly flings his sword with both hands on its hilt in the air, rising himself off the ground, as a concentrated aura of golden energy sparks at the tip of the blade.

“YAAAHHH!!!” He sharply swings his sword downward, emitting the thick blast of energy straight at the plant barrier.

A flash of white and gold streaks through the energy as the harsh energy makes contact with the greenery.

Once the white fades out, Reid is back on the ground with his sword lowered, letting off flickers of energy. The three friends stare ahead of them with shock.

In front of them is a thick, seared mark of where the plant stems once were. On the other side, Connor has his hands in front of him, holding up a yellow-tinted force field around Auston and himself.

“Epic,” Kale murmurs with awe.

Nolan gazes up at the two with wide eyes. “I think I broke my leg…”

Kale turns to Reid. “Go talk to them or something— I gotta check on Pat.”

Reid nods his head. “You got it.” He nods to Nolan. “Get better, Doctor Pat.”

Then with confidence, he swaggers toward the two, swinging his sword by his side.

He halts in front of them, putting his sword still. “Wanna play some more?” He wiggles his eyebrows in mockery.

Connor reverts the force field back into his palms, scowling at him. “You haven’t even seen half of what I can do.”

“Same here!” Reid resumes twirling his sword. “I haven’t even brought Crusty yet!”

“Arugh!” Unexpectedly, Auston emits a streak of maple syrup.

The syrup clings onto Reid’s torso, arm, hand, and sword, holding it in place.

“Hey!” Reid attempts to move his arm upward, but it is clearly stuck in place. “I can’t use Felix like this!”

Connor instantly conjures a rope of yellow energy and snaps it at Reid, having it wrap itself around his arms.

“Ah!” His eyes fly open at the sight of the restraint. “No! You can’t do this!”

Connor pulls his hostage close to him.

“Ugh! You can’t!” He wiggles in his restraints. “KALE!!!”

From the other side of the scorch mark, Kale snaps his head from tending Nolan to his friend in a sticky situation.

“Reid, no!” He instantly straightens up and throws a sharp, metallic wheat stalk into the air.

The stalk twirls like a boomerang in its path, gleaming in the sun’s rays as it flies toward the restraints while making wind-like sounds: Wu, wu, wu, wu, wu, wu, wu— CLA-ANK!

The wheat stalk is swat to the ground, being held down by a large, tense hand. The hand then relaxes, curling its fingers around the smooth stem of the stalk. The hand then lifts the stalk from the ground as its owner slowly straightens up as well.

The person rises to his full height with the sun shining upon him, which casts a shadow over his facial features.

The five skaters freeze in place, eyeing him with bewilderment and fear, attempting to figure out the mystery of his purpose and physical features.

The person halts rising, revealing his full height. His head is dipped down, only letting the others see his medium-length, tousled reddish-brown hair hanging over his face. He then slowly raises his head, revealing his facial features: he has narrowed, sea green-coloured eyes under thin, full, straight eyebrows, freckles sprinkled across his nose, and vivid, red lips.

“Carter?” Kale spits out in horrid shock. What’s he doing here? He’s going to ruin our powers again!

Reid’s eyes fly wide open at him. “Oh no, he’s gonna turn me into a milker again!”

Carter Hart stares at him with a look of disgust. “You’re lucky I’m not using my magic,” he snarks in a soft, yet sharp voice.

The goalie then balls the metallic wheat stalk effortlessly into a crumpled ball and hurls it straight at Reid’s head.

“NO!” Kale whips out a long stalk of wheat and bats the wad of metal away from Reid.

The wad rolls onto the ground, harmless.

Carter snatches onto the metallic surface of the wheat’s large stem. He stares at Kale with a dark expression. Razor-edged, silver claws protrude from Carter’s fingertips, piercing through the surface for extra strength.

Kale attempts to retract the stalk back into his possession, yet it is lodged in Carter’s grasp.

From behind Kale, Nolan is staring at the goalie in alarm. “Carter!” he shrieks. “Step away from him! Let him go!”

Carter flicks his eyes to his Canadian teammate. “Wanna fight against me, princess?”

Fury fills Nolan’s eyes at the mocking nickname. Yet once he lurches himself to attempt standing up, he quickly plops back on his bottom and shoots straight for his leg. “Aurgh!”

From behind the goalie, Connor and Auston are observing him while keeping Reid in his restraints.

“Interesting…,” Connor mutters, his mind focusing on Carter’s thought waves. “He’s a junior player...yet he’s against these guys.”

“Yeah, he’s done a number on us three.” Reid turns to the two. “Last Halloween, he turned me into a milker and Claguer ‘n Doctor Pat into a cat!”

Auston slides his eyes over to him, ignoring his hostage’s remark. “Who’s he for then?”

Connor turns to him with raised eyebrows. “The plunder of taking over the league.”

Kale focuses his energy on his stalk, tensing as he gathers his strength to pull it back. “AHHH!!!” His arms then fly behind him along with the torn stalk.

Kale retracts the massive stalk back into his hand before it titters behind him and whirls to Carter. “Why do you keep doing this to us? What do you want?”

Carter glares at him. “I don’t need to tell you. You don’t need to know.” Instantly, he rushes past Kale with great speed, making him twirl out of the way.

He then scoops Nolan up with his two arms in his hurrying and dashes down the sidewalk with him slung over his shoulder.

“PAT!” Kale conjures an array of fluttering wheat stalks around his hands and feet, propelling himself into the air. He launches himself above the buildings to his left with observant eyes to spot his kidnapped friend.

“KALE!” he hears Reid yelling from down below him.

Kale whirls around and peers down at Reid.

Reid is craning his head away from Connor’s free outstretched arm, which is building yellow, popping energy in its palm. Auston is conjuring more syrup around his hands, eyeing his hostage with amusement.

“HOLD STILL!” Kale picks a batch wheat stalks from the fluttering bunch in each hand, instantly morphing them to metal. He then hurls them toward Reid’s direction in a scenery-blurring speed.

The metallic stalks cut off each side of the ergokinetic rope restraint, making it dissolve to sparks.

Reid stumbles away from the two skaters due to the force he caused from his wriggling and whirls around.

The energy from Connor’s hand then engulfs its producer and Auston, flashing in a brilliant light of whiteness. The light then fades off, showing the empty spot the two were standing in a moment ago.

Reid stares at the sight with wide eyes, breathing in and out heavily. Behind him, Kale lowers himself onto the ground and retracts his flitting wheat stalks from sight.

Kale then steps up to him and places a hand on his shoulder. “You okay?”

Reid turns around, staring at him with the same expression. “I guess, yeah.” He nods his head. He then peers ahead, sadness filling his eyes as he spots another empty spot.

Kale notices his mien and peers behind his shoulder to look at what is grabbing his attention. He lets out a heavy sigh. “Pat.”

“We’ll get him soon.” He attempts to swing his sword around, yet senses his arm immobile. He peers down at it, quickly noticing the sticky, translucent brown syrup coated on his side. “After I wash this off.”

Kale wraps a hand around his shoulder on the other side of the maple syrup-stained side. “Come on.” He then leads him down the cracked sidewalk with the heaviness of a missing friend weigh on them both.

Reid has his head dipped down in defeat. “So now what? How can we save Doctor Pat?”

Kale casts his eyes down to his left, spotting his black Wrist-Moto clasp around his wrist. “I think we should report it. Once we get home, I’ll tell Gorman and Chynoweth about this.”

Reid nods his head, still gazing downward. “Okay…” He then flicks his eyes at Kale with suspicion. “But Carter,” he brings up. “I guess we know why he attacked us: he must’ve wanted Pat.

Kale flicks his eyes up to him. “That actually kinda makes sense after that swapping powers incident with him and Pat. But the question is: ‘why?’”

Notes