AAOOOSC! Exposed!

The white door of an inpatient room swings open, revealing Brett, Nolan, and Jake on the other side. The peer inside the room.

The room is small and immaculate with minimal furniture: a hospital bed, a nightstand with a lamp, and a chair. And on the hospital bed is Kale with a blanket draped over his shoulders down. His eyes are closed, his face is relaxed, but his skin and hair bears the scorch marks from the strike.

Different degrees of horror overtake each of the power players’ faces: Nolan covers his mouth with his hands, Brett gapes, and Jake faces crumbles.

“Kale!” The goalie bursts into the room and halts next to the hospital bed. “Oh, Kale!” He darts around the different sides of the bed, getting all the angles he could of the injured man as he observes him. “Oh, Kale, are you okay?!” He returns to his place by the bedside. “Are you awake?” He pats his shoulder in a panic.

“Jake Dog!” Brett hisses as he comes up behind the goalie. He yanks him away from Kale’s reach, halting his patting. “He’s healing— Shhh!”

Jake whirls around to face his bestie. His eyes are wide and watering. “Awww-hawww!” He then throws himself at him, swinging his arms around him as he digs his face into the crook of Brett’s neck.

Brett draws in a deep breath as he accepts Jake’s hug. He embraces him back.

Nolan halts next to Brett as he lowers his hands. He gazes down at his friend with his mouth slightly hanging open.

“Oh my goodness, poor Kale,” he hears Carter mentally murmuring.

“I thought Stamkos did a number on me,” Nolan remarks back lowly. “He gave the worst to Claguer.”

Brett pulls away from Jake before turning to Nolan. “That’s most likely because he realized that Kale knew his trick of going before the buzzer. He must’ve wanted to stamp out Kale to keep his trick a secret.”

Nolan furrows his eyebrows at him with confusion. “How do you know all about this? It’s like you were there at the game.”

“I was.”

“But how?” He crosses his arms. “The Rangers had a game tonight.”

“Why were you there?” Brett raises his thick eyebrows in a mocking way.

“Because the Flyers didn’t have a game tonight,” Nolan snaps back with narrowed eyes.

“But the Phantoms did,” Carter pipes in.

Nolan cranes his head back and cries out in annoyance, “Carter, for the hundredth time, I refuse to go to Allentown and be a goalie!” He rolls his eyes as he hears Carter groan.

Brett has a bewildered look and his pointer finger at him as he tries to grasp the reason of Nolan’s unexpected outburst. “Oh yeah, Claguer did tell me you merged with Hartsy!” He nods. “Right…!”

“What?” Nolan whirls to him with large eyes. “Claguer TALKED to you? You were missing since the beginning of the season!”

Brett makes an uneasy expression while scratching the back of his neck. “Well, actually, I—”

BOOF!!!

The three spin around to the direction of the noise. Their eyes widen at the sight.

Filling up the doorway of the room are Anže, Jeff, and Drew, each wearing their black capes. In their hands is an abundance of gifts from flowers to plush animals to balloons.

“HOPE YOU GET WELL SOON, ROOKIE!!” they all exclaim in unison.

The three just gawk at them. Kale continues laying in bed behind them.

Jake then blubbers into the silence: “He’s gonna die…!” He drops his face into his palms and sobs.

Drew’s face drops into sadness. “Really?” He gazes down at the cream-coloured teddy bear in his hands. “This is too much sadness for Teddy to handle.”

“Well, we’re dressed for the occasion,” Jeff remarks, swooshing his eyes at the black capes they are wearing under their black outfits.

With as much poise he can exhibit with the adorable gifts in his arms, Anže steps into the room and halts in front of the young power players. “Who are you, men?”

Nolan crosses his arms. “We’re his friends and we’re visiting to see how he’s doing.”

Drew’s eyes light up as he takes in a long gasp. He rushes into the room and halts next to the captain. “We’re his teammates and-and we actually came here to visit too to see how he’s doing!” He gives them a large grin with his missing tooth.

Brett pinches his nose with raised eyebrows. “Yeah, I think that’s the reason why anyone—minus the doctor or nurses—would come here.”

Nolan watches as the three Kings teammates place their gifts on the night table. He gives their matching outfits a scowl.

Jeff notices his facial expression and shoots him the same look. “What, pretty boy?”

His eyes pierce through his cape. “What’s up with the capes?”

Drew slides next to Jeff. “It’s secret…!” He presses his pointer finger against his lips. “Shhh...!”

Nolan snorts and rolls his eyes. “Whatever floats your boat.” He lands his eyes on them. “It’s like you’re in some type of clique.”

Drew takes in another long, surprised gasp. “How do you know?”

Nolan places his hands on his hips. “Been there, done that.”

Jeff and Drew look at each other and exchange looks of subtle uncertainty.

Anže faces Brett. “Is there any report on rookie’s progress?”

Brett gapes at him. “Uh, no.” He shakes his head. “The doctor just said before we came in that he’s out.” He’s fried.” He slowly nods. “Yeah...”

“No, no, no!!!” Drew shakes his head vigorously with his nails in his mouth and wide eyes. “This can’t happen!” He throws his hands out from his sides. “We need him!”

Jeff throws his index finger in the air heroically. “We must make him feel better!”

Nolan scoffs. “Pfft, how?”

“We sing a song,” Anže replies matter-of-factly.

Nolan turns to him with utter confusion. “A what—?”

“A song.” Anže picks up a guitar from the pile of gifts and slips the strap over himself.

The captain strums the guitar, calling a spotlight to shine over him as the room’s lights fade out. He sings gently and sweetly:

A song about Kale…

A vintage microphone is then lowered from above to hang by Anže’s mouth. Another spotlight shines into view behind Anže, revealing Jeff and Drew next to each other. They have their own vintage microphone hanging in between them.

They vocalize smoothly and gingerly:

Ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo.

Anže picks at the guitar’s strings as he stabilizes the melody:

And how he can’t fail,

Drew and Jeff vocalize:

Ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo.

Anže continues on, his voice growing thicker with each line:

As we need him so much,
To bring back the Cup,
For-or the Kings...

Drew and Jeff finish off, climbing up the notes in a silvery tone:

Ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo!

The spotlight on Anže snaps off, immediately being followed by Jeff’s spotlight intensifying and closing in on him. Jeff pulls the microphone in front of him and takes the lead of the song:

Oh, Kale,

Anže has joined Drew in their own spotlight and microphone:

Ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo.

Jeff continues on with his rough, fruity voice:

Oh, how we need him,

Drew and Anže vocalize after him with Anže strumming along:

Ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo…

Jeff finishes off, raising his voice with each line as it goes up the notes to raise the intensity:

How long do we wait,
And raise up the stakes,
To fail...?!

The beat gradually picks up as more instruments such as the drums and trumpets join in. Anže takes off the strap from himself and hands the guitar over to Drew.

Drew excitedly slips it over him and begins strumming it to the upbeat tune. He bounces away from his teammates, his own spotlight following him.

When we think we were about to lose it all-all!

Drew halts in his tracks and strumming to swing his pointer fingers to the right. Right on cue, a spotlight flicks on, revealing Kale lying motionless on his hospital bed.

He came along!

Anže and Jeff vocalize from their places:

Oh, whoa, oh, oh.

Drew skips up to the three standing power players and prances around them like a satisfied bunny. Brett has an awfully confused look; Nolan has an expression of displeasure as his sparkles glimmer brightly; Jake is happily entertained with bright eyes and a smile.

He used his super, duper powers to let us...

Drew strums hard two times before belting out:

...get the Cup…!

He returns his strumming to the melody of the beginning of the song with an upbeat texture. He slides backward to join his two teammates in one large spotlight.

Anže leads:

Oh, Kale…

Drew and Jeff vocalize:

Ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo.

Anže continues on smoothly:

How he cannot fail,

Drew and Jeff sing as backup singers:

Ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo.

Anže sings:

As we need him so much,

Jeff cuts in:

To bring back the Cup,

Drew finishes off:

For the Kings!

Drew picks at the strings of the guitar, bringing the beat back to its calmness.

Anže sings in a much softer tone:

As we need him so much,

Jeff follows after him:

To bring back the Cup,

Drew finishes off sweetly and delicately:

For the Kings…!

The three then vocalize all together to wrap up the song:

Ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo…!

With the erupt sputter of the song’s trumpet, Toews bursts in, instantly the room’s lights back on and removing the spotlights.

Toews, in his royal robe, has a confused look at the occupants of the room. “Okay, why is there a musical going on in here?”

Anže gasps, his eyes widening in alarm. “What? Jonathan Toews??!”

“Our song didn’t work!” Drew cries out, throwing his hands at their conference rival. “It did the reverse effect!!!”

Jeff has a stern look and finger pointed at the newcomer. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to fix the malfunctioning powers of the power players,” Toews replies calmly with his palms held out in front of him as he steps into the room. “It wasn’t that hard to find the room with your singing.”

Drew frowns at the other captain as he passes by him. “Shucks.” He snaps his fingers.

Nolan gazes at Toews with surprise. “You’ll restore Claguer’s powers too?”

Toews drops his hands and halts in front of him. “Definitely. Now hold still.”

To prepare to have his powers restored, Nolan closes his eyes and takes in a deep breath, straightening his posture.

Toews places the palm of his hand on his chest.

His entire hand begins to glow his usual magnificent yellow. The sparkles around Nolan drift into his hand as if it is a vacuum.

Then Toews slowly retracts his hand, pulling it into a fist, leaving Nolan sparkle-less. Within his fist are all the glittering sparkles vibrating with energy. Toews then throws his fingers out, releasing the sparkles.

Instantly, Carter materializes in between Toews and Nolan as the sparkles fade away around him.

The goalie appears stunned. “Whoa. Wait.” He holds his hands up to his eyes. “Haha!” He rotates them. “These are my own!” He then whirls around, landing his eyes on his friend. “ And I see you! YEAH-HAH!” He pulls him into a large hug.

“No!” Nolan instantly shrieks in his usual tone.

The two freeze for a moment with surprise.

Nolan relaxes. “I got my voice back. You can hug me.” He pulls Carter into a hug.

From a small distance, Jake spots the hugging. “Awww, hugs!!!”

Before he could join, Toews slides in front of him with his hands out. “Wait, wait, wait, wait, I need to fix ya up first!”

“Okay, okay!” The goalie hops up and down excitedly.

Toews lowers his hands with an annoyed look. “I can only do it if you stop hopping.”

He brings his jumping to a gradual halt.

Toews puts his hand on his chest. His hand glows the bright yellow once again for a few moments. Jake peers down at the spectacle in awe.

The ruler then pulls it away; the glow recedes. “Okay, your powers weren’t majorly affected, so it was a much easier fix. Try out your powers.”

Jake swings his hand over his head in an arch. A trail of glittering, bright, pale yellow light follows its trail.

Jake peers up as he watches the arch dissolve. “Yay! I got them back!” He throws his hands in the air, releasing more sparkles of light.

Nolan and Carter have broken their embrace. They are now watching Jake prancing around Brett with light drifting from him.

Nolan throws a flat look at the sparkles. “Great, now I’m gonna be haunted by my powers.”

Carter watches the sparkles drifting in the air. “They were actually pretty cool—”

Without looking at him, Nolan snaps his hand up at Carter’s face with his orange-tinted throwing star in its grasp. “No.”

Carter backs his head away with large eyes on the glinting points. “Okay, okay.”

Toews spins to face Kale, the tail of his robe following his sweeping motion.

Kale continues to lay still on the bed.

Toews steps up to him and halts by his bedside. He observes his position, scanning his eyes from the top of his frizzled hair to the tips of his feet protruding from underneath the blanket. Then with a deep breath, Toews closes his eyes and places his palms on Kale’s blanket-covered chest.

Instantly, the same yellow-coloured energy shines from between Toews’s palms and Kale’s chest. It grows in its luminance, stretching out its rays in its circular radius.

The others in the room halt their interaction with one another and stand still with awe at the sight of the energy.

The rays vibrate in flickers of yellow and white energy as they reach toward the walls, filling the air with static. The energy spreads out over Kale, enclosing him in an illuminable outline. The outline intensifies in colour as the rays brush the wall, casting the room in a golden hue. All the spectators’ eyes are wide with harsh shadows thrown on their golden-tinted bodies.

Instantly, the energy recedes into Toews’s hands and the outline disperses. The room returns to its usual cool-coloured tone and stale air.

The bystanders soften their facial expressions then peer down at Kale.

Toews removes his hands from Kale’s chest and opens his eyes. He takes a step back to join the others.

Kale lies motionless. His eyebrows then scrunch. His shoulders shift. His mouth moves. His eyes flutter open. His head rotates to his right.

“Guys?” Kale croaks out.

Everyone gasps in excitement with lit up eyes as they throw their hands in the air. “KALE—! CLAGUER—! ROOKIE—!” they all exclaim, overlapping the various nicknames for Kale.

Jake, Brett, Carter, and even Nolan pull Kale into a hug on his right. The Kings Clique rounds the bed to get a better view of their rookie.

Toews stays in his place, enjoying the heartwarming site. He lets out a chuckle through his small smile.

The group then pull away from Kale, leaving him with his signature toothy grin.

“Wow, I didn’t know all you guys would come here!” Kale remarks, swishing his head from one side to another.

“Yeah, if we didn’t come, then we wouldn’t be able to sing and Toews wouldn’t be able to find you so that he can heal you!” Drew points out with his hands out from his sides.

Kale turns to his right and peers up, spotting the ruler behind his friends. “Thanks, Tazer.”

“No prob.” Toews shrugs. “I’ll get going now— Gotta heal up twenty-six more power players!” Then with a wave, Toews whirls around and ambles out of the room.

Kale turns back to his friends. His eyes fly open at the sight of his rescuer. “Brett! I didn’t know you—”

“Trust me—” Brett holds his palms out in front of him. “—I got a LOT of explaining to do!” He drops his hands. “I’ll do it later when everyone’s around!”

Nolan flicks his hand at Brett with his attention on Kale. “Forget Brett, how are YOU doing?”

“I’m doing fine.” Kale pauses with growing realization: the fizzing pain is gone, his mind is sharp and fresh, his body is relaxed. “Actually, I feel better, way better than before.”

“That’s good. You did great though in the matchup.” Brett gives him a smirk.

Kale drops his facial expression into a disappointed one. “But I lost.” He turns to glance at his teammates before facing to his friends again. “Stamkos won.”

Jake shakes his head with anticipating eyes. “Nuh-uh-uh, he did not…!”

Kale has knitted eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“We finished the task for you.” Nolan crosses his arms with a haughty mein.

Kale holds his breath with hopeful anticipation.

“Gorman now has Stamkos,” Brett clarifies cooly. “That’s how you guys got your powers back.”

Yet Kale lets out an upset groan. “Ugh.” He dips his head. “I feel so bad not being able to live up to my word.”

“You actually gave us hope that Stamkos can be defeated,” he hears Nolan speak up, “because...no one else had the courage to do such thing.”

Kale perks his eyes up with raised eyebrows.

Carter turns to his friend with surprise. “Even you?”

Nolan shakes his head playfully with a roll of his eyes. “What do you think, smart guy?”

Brett gazes down at Kale. “Even though you didn’t physically defeat Stamkos, you set that to happen.” He holds his fist out at him. “We couldn’t have done it without you.”

With a small smile, Kale bumps his fist against his. “Thank you so much.”

Nolan shrugs apathetically. “It was nothing.”

Jake throws his hands out from his sides. “Group hug!”

Brett gives his friend a grin with a chortle. “Ah, you just want another hug, don’tcha!?”

“Yes, I do!”

With that, they resume their large hug with their saved friend.

On the other side of the bed, the Kings Clique is watching their large embrace. They have crumbled smiles and watery eyes, filled with emotion.

Drew sniffs and blinks rapidly. “This is...so heartwarming…” He squeaks out, “It’s touching me…”

Jeff raises a pointer finger in the air and forces out. “We should implement group hugs after every meeting.”

Anže whirls to face the other two. “Group hug for having rookie be saved!”

The three then pull each other into one, big hug.

Notes