AAOOOSC! All-Stars!

The sun is shining, the skies are blue, the air is crisp in the bustling small area of Downtown San Jose. Cars roll up and down the streets, passing by large banners in puck-shaped frames spotted by the sidewalks. Light poles proudly hold teal-colored banners, each with an All-Star player. Strolling below them on the sidewalk are some of the All-Star players themselves. Joe Pavelski is in the front of the crowd, leading them down the sidewalk.

Joe turns around and walks backward as he asks, “Any questions so far on our tour here?”

“Yeah,” John Gibson pipes up from the crowd, “why couldn’t the All-Stars be held in Anaheim?”

He chuckles. “Hah, good one, Gibs.” He turns back around.

“I think San Jose is pretty,” Miro Heiskanen exclaims from the back end of the group.

Joe throws him a warm smile. “Thank you, Heiskanen.”

Sidney gazes ahead with confusion. “You guys can actually have ice outside?!” He holds his hand out in front, displaying a small outdoor rink. The boards are decorated with emojis of the top All-Star players; palm trees stick out from inside the rink, which people shuffle around.

With a suppressed smile, Joe leads the group up to it. “Ah, yup. We had to since it’s the winter time!” He cranes his head behind his shoulder with his hand by his mouth and whispers, “But let me tell you, it’s not the best ice.”

Nathan MacKinnon gawks at him. “Why? They gotta have the finest ice to enjoy skating!”

Sidney throws a hand in the air. “I got it!” He breaks from the group, approaching the small ice rink, and throws his hands at it.

Instantly, a fresh, sleek sleet of ice stretches across the entire surface of the rough, dry ice. The skaters let out yelps and hold onto the boards with the slick addition.

Sidney smiles at his work with hands on his hips. “There!”

Nathan snaps his fingers at the sky. A dark cloud forms over the ice rink and releases fluttering snow over it.

“Better!” He gives his friend a proud smile.

Clayton Keller has a flat look at their new additions. “Wow. I’m impressed.”

Next to him, Miro claps.

Elias Pettersson crosses his arms with a haughty look. “In Sweden, we have real snow.”

“Also in Finland,” Sebastian Aho states to him from his right.

Elias shoots him a glare. “Sweden has better snow.”

Sebastian flicks his head at him with a pompous aura. “No, Finland.”

“Sweden.”

“Finland.”

“Sweden.”

“Finland—”

“Oh hey, would you look at that,” Joe shouts with eyes on the two arguing Scandivans as he points across the street, “Mr. Gorman’s here!”

The whole group turns to their right and gaze at Joe’s pointing direction.

Across the street is an island which holds a small grassy area spotted with trees. The walkway that cuts in the middle is lined with the same large, puck-shaped banners. They all turn to look at what he’s pointing at.

At the far right end of the island is the glowing holographic man, Tommy Gorman. Next to him is Jonathan Toews. They stand in the grassy area, in front of one of the large banners.

“Perfect.” Auston Matthews crosses his arms with a scowl at the founder. “I gotta confront him about how I can gain my powers back with John having them as well.”

Next to him, John has a bewildered look. “What is Mr. Gorman accomplishing extramural of his basement?”

“Well, let’s check it out!” Joe strides down the sidewalk.

His group follows him to a crosswalk, which they cross to reach the island. They swarm their way across the grass and stop in front of the two authoritative men.
Gorman turns around and gazes at his hockey players in awe. “Ah! Hello everyone! Enjoying your time here in San Jose?”

“Not the Finest City in America, but I’ll take it,” Gibson remarks in a joking manner.

“Yes, they seem to be!” Joe glosses over with a bright, small grin.

“Great!” The founder holds his hand out toward the ruler. “Toews here is finishing up installing the portals in the banners!”

Patrick Kane raises his eyebrows with a smirk. “Portals? Sounds gnarly, dude!”

Braden Holtby furrows his eyebrows. “What portals, exactly?”

Toews turns around to face the crowd. “Portals to each of your team’s cities! Like here—” He pats the frame of Blake Wheeler’s banner. “—I’m putting in the portal to Winnipeg because this is Wheeler’s banner.”

“So now people are gonna be slipping into Winnipeg when they’re taking a picture with Wheeler’s oversized puck?” Jack Eichel asks with narrowed eyes of suspicion.

Toews chuckles and shakes his palms at him. “Oh, no, no, no, nooo!” He lowers his hands. “You see, I made it so that power player from any team or any teammate from that specific team can activate the portal. So in this case, any power players and only Jets teammates can activate this portal.”

“I like how we can get home quicker,” Pekka Rinne speaks up, “but why do we need these portals?”

“Just in case we need backup if there’s some sort of attack or whatnot.” He holds his hand to the blue-colored banner. “These portals help power players not apart of the All-Star to come here!”

“Since all NHL festivities are here for a couple of days, we are more vulnerable to any evils,” Gorman clears up with hands clasped in front of him. “Therefore, we must have all power players at standby, ready to come here on command.”

Auston throws a pointer finger in the air. “That’s why I should have powers, Gor—”

John slaps his hand over his mouth.

Gorman turns to Toews. “Would you like to demonstrate?”
“Oh, sure!” Toews flicks his fingers toward him with his eyes on the crowd. “Come here, Wheeler!”

Blake Wheeler emerges from the crowd and steps up to him.

Toews turns to him. “Since this is your puck and you are a Jets player, why don’t you summon the Jets power player by placing your hand on top of the puck?”

Blake places his palm on the hard surface of the banner’s frame.

Instantly, the outline of the banner itself glows a baby-powder blue; it swirls deeper into the center of the banner, covering it entirely. The energy churns with streaks of white and dark blue.

Then Patrik Laine, with his long platinum blond hair and beard, pops his head out from the center of the whirling energy.

“See? There he is—” Toews holds hands out to the Jets’ power player. “—Patrik Laine, power player of the Jets!”

Patrik peers around in confusion. He makes a small squeak.

Toews knits his eyebrows at him. “Um, Laine?”

Patrik darts his small blue eyes around.

Everyone stares at him in bewilderment.

Patrik’s eyes then stay still and light up. He springs out of the portal and dashes past the group. They all follow him with their eyes, watching him rush down the grassy area after a squirrel.

Toews cups his hands over his mouth. “Laine! Laine, come back—”

From far off, the squirrel zips up a tree. Patrik levitates and glides upward parallel to the tree. He releases zaps of red lasers from his eyes at the tree, creating light smoke.

Toews slumps over and groans. “Alright, I guess we’ll let him be; I don’t wanna exhaust my powers over him.” He turns back to the Jets All-Star player. “Thank you. Now you don’t have to activate your portal anymore.”

Blake ambles back to the crowd.

Nathan eyes Patrik, watching him resume chasing the squirrel. “I knew he was crazy!”

“Any other questions, comments, concerns, praises…?” Gorman asks his league’s players.

Leon Draisaitl raises a hand. “If we’re power players, do we need to activate?”

Toews grimaces at him. “Ermmm...no?” He softens his expression. “No, you don’t, since you’re already here.” He chuckles. “But you can! All of them!” He slips a hand in his hair and finishes off wearily, “But please use them wisely, I don’t wanna be stuffing things back into their place…!”

“So if we forgot something at home, we can go grab it with the portal?” Marc-André Fleury asks with hope.

Toews shoots him a concerned look. “Uh, yeah, I guess you can use it for that...sure…”

“Can you use it to prank your opponents?” Thomas Chabot asks, his eyes sparkling.

Toews gawks at him. “I’d discourage that.”

“Can we change the location of a portal? I’d rather go to the Bahamas than Brooklyn,” Mat Barazal remarks.

Toews frowns at him. “Uh no, the portals are not for travelling pleasures.”

“Can we use it to visit our friends?” Miro gives him a sweet smile.

Toews waves hands in front of him with eyes squeezed shut. “Just use them wisely and don’t create havoc from them.” He opens his eyes and drops his hands. “They’re there just in case we have a supernatural emergency and we need an extra pair of hands.”

Everyone blinks, silent.

“Yeah?”

Gorman leans over to the ruler and murmurs, “I think they understand.”

Toews nods. “Yeah, they understand.”

Joe then whirls around to face his group. “Okay, that concludes our tour! I’ll be around to take any questions! And do listen to our ruler! Thank you and enjoy San Jose!” He flashes a smile.

With that, everyone goes off on their own separate ways.

Before stepping off the grassy area, Steven Stamkos peers behind his shoulder and gives the occupied founder and ruler a mischievous grin.


The End of “Welcome to San Jose!”

Notes

Episode 1/15