CRASH!!!

Kale’s whole apartment shakes as the rattling fades.

The front door instantly opens, letting in the owner of the house. Kale marches into the living room and stares out at the source of the cacophony from his place. His eyes instantly widen with his mouth hanging open.

In place of his living room furniture are shattered pieces of wood and tossed cushions: splinters of wood is spewed all over the laminate flooring as stuffing sticks out from the seams of the cushions. Deeper in the room, the counter stools in the kitchen have fallen apart, releasing its metal components. It is like as if a wrecking ball dropped on each furniture.

And in the middle of the shambles is his small, innocent-appearing kitten. It lets out a squeaky meow, perched on the countertop.

Kale gapes at his pet. “King!” He rushes up to it, leaping over the debris, and scoops it up into his hands.

“Are you okay?” he asks it hastily. He then whirls to face the mess in his place. “What happened to my place?” He peers back down at it. “Did you do all this?” Then something catches his eye.

Kale slowly lowers his eyes down to the countertop. Staring back at him is a shattered portion of the granite surface bearing a hole.

He gasps. “My countertop! It’s…” His voice fades for a moment as he gazes at the shallow hole filled with bits of rock and dust. “...damaged.” He crumbles his face in annoyance to the pet. “Did you make that?”

The kitten merely peers up at him. Mew.

Kale can only gawk at it. Then revert his gawk to the mess. Then back at the small animal.

“No one else came to my house, right?”

Mew.

Kale transfers the kitten into the crook of his left arm and his chest. “You were right there.” He jabs his free pointer finger to the hole in the countertop. “And it’s fresh because of the dust.” He takes a swab of the rough dip with his finger, collecting some of the dust.

He eyes his pet. “Are you strong?” He rubs the pads of his pointer finger and thumb together, sprinkling the dust back onto the countertop. “Are you a super kitty?” He then pauses his interrogation and rubbing as a surprised look appears on his face as he peers ahead. “Okay, that sounds weird.”

Mew, the kitten replies.

Kale snaps his eyes back down to the pet. “You know what? I’m going to bring you to Gorman.” He scratches its neck teasingly. “It’s not normal to have a kitten capable of causing this much destruction.”

---

Meanwhile, in the NHL basement, Tommy is typing furiously on his large computer as usual. Lounging on the orange sofa is Nolan, who is lying parallel on the furniture. The sparkles continue glimmering around him in white and golden hues. Yet he has a flat look as he stares at the screen of his smartphone.

“Is there any good poke places nearby?” Nolan grumbles.

Tommy halts his typing and perks up with a bewildered look. “‘Poke’?” He peers at the forward to his right. “What is that?”

He snaps his sharp eyes up at him. “Never mind, I forgot you hadn’t seen the sunlight in like fifty years.” He turns back to face his phone. “Ugh, I don’t wanna go out like this. I’m gonna have to get it through delivery.” He proceeds to tap on the screen with his two thumbs.

Tommy eyes his actions. “Hart should be able to remove the sparkles from you.”

Nolan halts his tapping and stares ahead. “Carter, you hear that?”

“I can’t find any button that would do that,” Carter tells him mentally.

Nolan lies there for a few moments. Then: “Gorman says you can. Do it.”

“But how can I if I can’t find the button?” the goalie continues on in Nolan’s mind. “There’s generation, manipulate, flight, augmentation, immunity, projectiles…”

The forward’s face falls flat. “Stop boring me with the details and tell me when you find it.”

“I can’t!”

He slams his phone against his thighs. “Ugh!” He then cranes his head to get a good look at the holographic man. “Gorman, Carter here says he can’t find it…!”

Tommy raises his eyebrows in genuine surprise. “Really? That’s strange, he has full control over your supernatural abilities, including those sparkles.”

Nolan slowly turns his head away to face ahead of him again as he speaks to his mentor: “Carter, you’re doing a horrible job controlling my powers. This is why I should have control over my powers.”

“I didn’t mean to do this!” the goalie speaks up in his thoughts. “I wasn’t planning on merging with you!”

“And I didn’t either but look who’s in my head now…!”

“I wasn’t the one feeling off before we merged! I just came to you to help! It’s you who got me to merge!”

Offended, Nolan sits upright and shouts away from the founder, “I didn’t want to merge! I wasn’t even THINKING about merging! It just happened and I had no control over it…!”

“And yet you said you should have control over your powers.”

“Yeah, because I didn’t SPARKLE when I had control—”

“Boys, boys, that’s enough,” Tommy calls out firmly from behind Nolan.

“Ugh.” Nolan falls back into a lying position onto the sofa. “I hate this. I just want my poke bowl.” He scoops up his smartphone and resumes his tapping.

Ding!

The elevator doors slide open, letting a newcomer stumble into the room.

“Mr. Gorman!” Kale cries out as he makes his way into the drab room and toward the glowing founder. “I have a question—!” He instantly halts as he catches sight of his friend lying on the sofa by the founder. “Hey, so you did come here…”

His voice fades as he registers the new addition to his friend: an aura of twinkling sparkles glistening around him.

Kale’s face drops into a subtle shocked look. “Oh, you weren’t kidding when you said you were sparkling.”

Nolan flicks his cold eyes to him from beyond his phone. “Why would I joke about that? Besides, you couldn’t have told me you were coming? I would’ve come with you to avoid the pressure of everyone judging me as I flew with these sparkles…” He lowers his eyes back to his phone.

He makes an unsure look. “Um, I wasn’t planning on going...until I saw what my kitten did to my house.”

Nolan makes a disgusted look at the screen. “Kitten? What kitten?”

Tommy whirls around in his swivel chair to face the new visitor. “What seems to be the matter, Clague?”

“My kitten.” Kale holds up the small animal in his two hands toward the founder as he steps up to him. “It can destroy things.”

“Breaking news, Kale,” Nolan starts off in a guttural tone, “kittens are not all so innocent as the Internet depicts them to be.”

“No, no, not like that—” The defenceman leans over to place his pet on the concrete floor. “Like he” —he straightens back up— “SMASHES things. It’s like as if a wrecking ball fell on top of my furniture and crushed it. Including my countertop, which is granite. I can’t even make a scratch on that with my sharpest knife!”

Tommy has inquiring eyes on the kitten. “Well, that is a peculiar kitten you have there.” He gazes back up at him. “How did you retrieve it?”

“I found it on my doorstep in the middle of last night. It was meowing like crazy and didn’t stop until I took him in.” He makes a sheepish grin. “He’s a cutie, so I’m keeping him. I even named him ‘King.’”

Nolan lets out a groan of repulsion with a roll of his eyes. His eyes land on his hanging feet, where he spots the kitten now trotting by them. His eyes fly open in alarm and he pulls his legs up onto the sofa for safety.

“So, Mr. Gorman,” Kale continues on, “I’m wondering if you would figure out if King here has powers.”

The founder gives him a look of sorry. “I would not be able to figure that out. I only know how to work the powers of my power players in the NHL. I don’t know anyone who would bestow powers to animals, including Zach Parise.”

Kale’s face falls into a disappointed look. “Oh. So animals don’t have powers?”

“From my knowledge, they do not.”

“Uh. Okay…” He scratches his head in deep thought. “So what would explain King’s—”

SMASH!

The two instantly whirl to face the sofa’s direction, where the sound came from.

By the sofa, what was once the coffee table is now a snapped plank of wood with splinters. In the middle of the plank is the kitten itself, standing perfectly on its four tiny paws.

From the sofa, Nolan is staring down at the mess in utter shock.

Kale’s shocked face drops into a weary expression. He lets out a sigh. “He did it again.”

Nolan slowly turns to his other side to face his friend. “You’ve GOT to get a hold of your cat, Kale. It literally jumped on the coffee table and broke it.”

Tommy warily steps up to the litter of wood which was once his coffee table. “That is extremely strange…” He eyes it with keen observation. “I’ve never seen a kitten do this, let alone a cat…” He leans over and picks the kitten up in his glowing, blue hands.

“Give it to the pound,” Nolan states gruffly at the kitten.

Kale gawks at him. “What? No! I can’t do that to poor King!”

He darts his eyes to him. “It’s better than having your furniture destroyed.”

“I’ll-I’ll work with him.” He receives his pet from the founder and holds it gently against his chest. “I love him and I can’t let him go.” He scratches the back of its neck with his finger.

The kitten lets out a happy purr.

Nolan does not appear one bit amused. “Kale, you’re too nice. Way too nice.”

Kale raises an eyebrow at him. “Wouldn’t he break the pound anyway?”

The forward simply whirls his head away from him and returns to his phone.

“I’m sorry, Clague,” Tommy starts off from next to him, “that I couldn’t supply an answer to your kitten’s unusual ability. I would suggest monitoring what it eats and comes in contact with. And make sure it doesn’t jump on furniture to avoid more damage.”

Kale gives him a warm smile. “Okay. Thanks, Mr. Gorman.” He then ambles toward the elevator and calls out from behind his left shoulder, “Bye, Pat!”

Nolan peers up at him flatly from his phone. “Bye, Kale—” His eyes then widen as he lowers his phone. “Wait, wait…!”

Kale halts and spins around. “Yeah, what?”

“Do me a favour and buy me an ahi poke bowl.”

Kale scrunches his eyebrows at him with a slight frown. “Why can’t you do that yourself…?”

His voice fades off as he takes in Nolan’s growing irked expression and his glistening sparkles.

Kale’s expression softens into an understanding look. “Okay, one poke bowl coming right up.” He whirls around and continues his sauntering toward the elevator. “Let’s go, King. I’ll buy one for us too.”

Then after pressing the button for the elevator and the doors slide open, he steps into the open entryway and disappears behind the sliding doors.

Notes