AAOOOSC! Exposed!

The following day, the NHL basement is lively with a festival gathering. All of the power players of the NHL and others are standing or sitting around the drab room, conversing with one another with cups of refreshments in their hands. Sitting on the orange-patched sofa is Kale, Brett, and Jake, who is sitting on Brett’s lap. Across from them is Nolan is Carter, who is sitting on a bench of their own.

Jake peers down at Brett with curiosity. “Where did you go, Brett?”

Brett’s face grows red with embarrassment. “Haha, funny story, you know—” He faces the others. “—John Tavares actually shot me in our matchup and turned me into—”

“—a dog?” Jake cuts in excitedly.

Brett perks up at him. “No, but you are close—”

Kale gawks at him from Brett’s right. “Wait, I took care of you this whole time?”

Brett turns to him. “Well, thinking about it—”

“GUYS!” Nolan is heard shrieking.

All his friends whirl to him with shock.

Nolan is sitting there, fuming. “What did Brett turn into?”

Carter’s eyes light up. “A bear…!”

His friend gazes at him with utter disgust. He slaps his upper arm.

Brett grimaces at the goalie; he flops his hands from side-to-side. “That went from warm to cold.” He then drops his hands and confesses: “A cat. I turned into a cat.”

“It was more like a kitten,” Kale remarks.

Brett whirls his head to him with lowered eyebrows. “Cat. I’m not a baby.”

With a growing smile, Kale pulls out his smartphone from his pants’ pockets and taps on it a few times. “Oh really?” He then turns his phone around to show the screen to the others.

Jake, Carter, and Nolan lean toward the screen. Displaying on it is a photo of the adorable kitten with its large, emerald-coloured eyes peering up at the camera.

Jake’s eyes grow large as they glimmer and he shrugs with cuteness. “Awwwwwwww, it’s so cute!!!”

Nolan swings his pointer finger toward the picture. “That’s a kitten. If not, I don’t know what that is.”

Carter reaches his hand toward the phone and pets its screen. “So fluffy!” he breathes out.

Meanwhile, Brett is glaring at the photo from the corner of his eyes with crossed arms and a frown.

Kale pulls his phone back to himself and puts it away. “So John turned you into a kitten and you travelled to the other side of the country for me?” He turns to Brett.

Brett slightly softens his facial expression at him. “I actually teleported there with the shot. It was a weird type of energy he struck me with.” He moves his head away with narrowed eyes while shaking his head.

“I don’t know what’s worse,” Nolan speaks up, “having malfunctioning powers or turning into a kitten.”

Carter turns to his friend. “Malfunctioning powers. I’m used to turning into an animal.”

Nolan holds his palms upward in the air like a shrug. “But you can’t change back…!”

With inquisitiveness, Kale narrows his eyes at Brett. “How did you change back? Did you know how to change back all this time?”

“Um…” Brett shifts against the sofa, causing Jake to slip onto the sofa cushions. His eyes dart around. “At first, no, but then while you were gone, yeah…” He reverts his eyes to the defenceman. “I figured out I was able to do it by will.”

Kale knits his eyebrows. “So why didn’t you change back as soon as you realized you could?”

Brett crosses his arms and peers down. “Because I was hearing about all the things Stamkos was doing and I decided I could be your guardian—” He lifts his eyes up at him. “—y’know? If bad comes to worse, then I’ll come back, which happened to be the case.” He straightens up and rolls his shoulders back. “Since sooner or later, you’d have to go against him.”

Jake beams brightly at his bestie. “Awwwww, you’re learning from me!”

Brett turns to him with a dipped head, slightly embarrassed. “Yup, your loyalty is contagious.”

With a content squeak, Jake lays his head on his shoulder.

“So you can turn into a kitten right now?” Carter asks Brett with growing anticipation.

Brett stares at him with subtle shock. “Uhhh…”

The goalie shakes his fists up and down and chants quietly, “Do it, do it, do it, do it…!”

Nolan shoves him playfully, halting his chanting. “Don’t listen to him.”

Carter straightens up and blurts out, “I’d turn into a bear, but those aren’t my powers anymore; I can turn into a phantom!”

“I can’t turn into a dog,” Jake murmurs sadly.

Kale eyes him. “Isn’t that because you’re on the Stars?”

Jake’s eyes light up. “Oh yeah, that’s right!” He then traces out a star with his finger in front of him, leaving a glimmering drawing of a star in the air.

Brett throws his hands in the air and exclaims reluctantly, “Okay, so I can turn into a kitten at will now, thanks to JT!” He drops his hands, including his facial expression. “But I won’t do it.”

“And don’t forget, we can turn into mermen too!” Nolan points out.

“Gaaahhhhh…!” Brett drops his face into his hands.

Kale turns to him. “Hey, you were an amazing kitten, Brett.” He pats his back. “I enjoyed taking care of you. I’m glad I did.”

Brett cranes his head up from his palms to peer up at him. “Thank you for taking me in…”

“Of course, King.” Kale holds out his fist toward him.

Brett straightens up and bumps his own fist against his.

Nolan stares at the two with a scrunched nose and knitted eyebrows. “‘King’?”

Brett drops his fist and faces him. “That’s what he called me as a kitten.”

“What was I supposed to name him: ‘Brett’?” Kale stifles a laugh.

Nolan flicks his wrist at him. “You were ignorant, so I’ll go easy on you with that one.”

“Are you gonna do anything with John?” Carter asks the centre across from him.

“Yeah—” Brett punches into his open palm with lowered eyebrows. “I’m going to bring him revenge on our next matchup. Oh—” He straightens up, throwing an index finger in the air. “—and since his gun is not one of the Leafs’ team powers, I’m going to make Gorman tell John that using any extra aid is illegal.”

Nolan’s eyes widen with surprise. “Oh, so you are a victim of cheating!”

He shrugs. “Yeah, you can say that.”

Kale runs his fingers through his hair wearily. “Man, this league is messed up.”

“Hello, gentlemen!” Tommy is heard saying from behind the sofa.

The three on the sofa peer behind their shoulders as the other two gazes ahead.

Tommy is standing behind the sofa with a smile. “Great news, men: I have officially redefined the Lightning powers to just cyberkinesis and bestowed them on Ryan McDonagh.”

“Great choice!” Kale remarks.

Nolan raises his eyebrows with skepticism. “So no more cheating in the matchups?”

Tommy shakes his head. “Not from what I know of. This whole episode should be a lesson for all power players to not cheat.”

Brett twirls his pointer finger at the founder with narrowed eyes. “You may want to talk to Tavares. He used a gun on me during our matchup and turned me into a kitten. That’s why I was gone for like half of the season.”

Tommy freezes with wide eyes and raised eyebrows, being hit by the unexpected news. “Uh. Okay.” He slowly nods his head. “I shall talk to Mr. Tavares about that. Thank you.”

With that, Tommy turns around and ambles back into the crowd of power players.

Yet sometimes else emerges from the crowd and hops over the group.

“Hiya, boys!” Sidney hops up and plops himself on the armrest of the sofa next to Kale.

Kale gazes at him with a smile. “Hey, Sid!”

The captain gazes at the five young hockey players. “I’m glad to see that everyone is back to themselves with their working team powers! Since there is no threat anymore toward the leagues, we as the GHP have decided to welcome all power players to the society!” He throws his hands out from his sides.

Kale’s eyes light up. “Really?”

Patrick moseys up to them with a glass in his hand. Jonathan follows behind him.

“That’s right, dudes!” Patrick remarks with his chill mein. “All NHLers are welcomed!”

“Yipee!” Jake spins around on the sofa and sits back down. “We’re good!”

“Aw, man…” Carter hangs his head. “...I’m in the AHL…!”

“There is the GAHP,” Jonathan tells him.

Carter straightens up and looks at him. “Yeah, that’s true. I think I’ll join it; I’ve been asked to a couple times already.” He shrugs.

Brett eyes the three older power players with suspicion. “So what does this mean, exactly, with everyone being welcomed to the GHP?”

Sidney holds his hand out to him. “You guys can come to our headquarters anytime and practice or just hang out with us. You are now one of us.” He pulls his hand to his chest. “There’s no more good, bad, or neutral. It’s just one big society of all NHL power players.”

Kale’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “So there can be no more threats?”

“Not if everyone is working together!”

Although Nolan does not appear impressed, he remarks, “Okay, I’ll admit, that’s pretty clever.”

Patrick holds his arms out from his sides. “Welcome to the GHP: Gnarly Hockey Players’ Society!”

Sidney gives a grimace to him with his shoulders up to his ears. “Ohhhh yeah, we gotta work on that title.”

“That can be discussed on a meeting of ours that of course any power player is welcomed to,” Jonathan adds on.

“And after that, we gotta discuss the do’s and don'ts of the matchups,” Brett tells them with resent, “like not using any extra aid, such as guns!”

Carter tells the three calmly, “He turned into a kitten after Tavares shot him with his gun during a matchup, hence his bitterness.”

Sidney shakes his head. “Oh, John.” He turns to Brett. “We’ll talk to him.”

John approaches Sidney and halts beside him with an interested expression. “Confer to me apropos of what?”

Brett snaps his sharp eyes up at him. A growl rolls in his throat.

Right when John makes contact with the rookie, his face breaks into a sweat as he musters up a faulty smile. “Oh—” He slips out a nervous chuckle. “—hello there, Howden.”

“We’re talking now.” Brett rises to his feet, rounds the sofa, and grabs John’s wrist. He pulls John away from the group and into the crowd of hockey players.

Jonathan, along with the others, has his eyes on the two rivals as they disappeared into the crowd. “Okay, that’s good that’s getting dealt with.”

“Actually…” Kale reverts his head to Sidney. “...there’s is another threat…”

Sidney gives him a bewildered look. “Uh, what’s the threat…?”

Kale looks behind him once again.

Huddling next to the elevator, Anže, Jeff, and Drew are in their black capes and outfits, belting out their own victory song:

We saved rookie!

We saved our key!

We saved the one that we all need!

To get the Stanley Cup,

Every other year!

“If you think they’re a threat,” Kale hears Nolan stating sardonically, “then Dumb and Dumber are menaces.”

“Huh, okay…” Kale turns back around to face the others. “...well, yeah, they want the Cup every other year and want me to help them supernaturally.” He shrugs. “But I refused to.”

Sidney has a large grin toward the clique. “I like their songs!” He then bursts out in his laughter: “Uh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh! “

“Radical tunes them dudes are singing!” Patrick shouts toward them.

On the other hand, Jonathan has a worried grimace toward them with a finger in each of his squared ears. “I beg to differ.”

Meanwhile, deeper in the room, Tommy is sitting at his computer, gazing up at its luminous screen. Standing next to him is his league ruler, Toews. Both of them have a glass in their hands.

Displaying on the screen are windows of video calls with the other founders and league rulers.

“Congratulations for the rescue of the supernatural system in your league,” President Roosevelt starts off. “We are all delighted for having you stay with us.”

Tommy bows his head to him with reverence. “Same here, President Roosevelt. It is such a relief to have the Lightning’s team powers controllable and all the team powers restored.”

“Have you taken any precautions to avoid making the same mistakes?” Dani asks him.
The NHL founder gazes at her. “Indeed I have: I redefined the Lightning’s team powers.”

“Great choice!” Maurice exclaims.

“Anyway—” Tommy faces the league rulers. “—how are your societies and matchups coming along?”

“They’re going really well,” Stuart tells him cooly. “They’re really fun to watch!”

“Have you guys opened up your societies for all power players to join?” Toews asks the others. “The GHP did just that and now all power players are on a common level to avoid any strife.”

Maddie appears unsure. “That’s a hard thing to do with the Sun Devils and their evil embodiment.” She chuckles nervously, pushing her hair from her face.

“One step ahead of ya!” Hannah answers with a proud smile. “We already got the GWHP and all power players are in it from both leagues with the master being from the Whitecaps!”

“Same here, there’s only the GJHP,” Stuart pipes in.

“Nothing evil with the juniors!” Ed confirms.

On the other hand, Dylan shrugs. “Eh, we need work on that: There’s the GAHP and EAHP. Podoloff and I will work it out together, right?”

“Yes.” Maurice nods. “The EAHP is not occupied, so it can be easily diminished.”

Toews flashes a grin at them. “Great!”

“Well, with that great news—” Tommy darts his eye to each window. “—we shall make a toast!”

He holds his glass toward the screen along with Toews. The other founders and league rulers hold their own individual glasses in the air and toward the screen.

“Cheers to a great future in the world of hockey, the supernatural, and both combined,” Tommy exclaims. “Cheers!”

“Cheers!” the others shout jubilantly.

They then pump their glasses toward in front of themselves and toward each other.


The End.

Notes

Here's a game of jeopardy to quiz yourself about this story! ;)