The SAP Center erupts in cheers as Kendall Coyne Schofield glides down the ice, fresh from her turn in the Fastest Skater Competition. With a massive smile, she receives fistbumps from the All-Stars sitting on the bench. Once she passes by the Western Conference’s bench, Miro Heiskanen exits the bench and peers to his left.

Sitting in the Eastern Conference’s bench is Sebastian Aho. The older player peers up and makes eye contact with him. He gives him an assuring smile and a nod.

Miro then glides to the front of the reporter’s booth, where the starting line is located. He dips his head and peers down, shuffling his skates. His mind swirls, focusing on directing his nervousness into speed. He then gazes across the ice, taking one last comforting look at his Finnish friend, before leaning over with his stick toward the end of the ice and taking off at the whistle’s blow.

He charges down the rest of the straightaway, his stick swinging in front of him, before pulling his stick to his left to crossover at the first turn.

From the benches, Sebastian watches his Finnish friend with a pleased smile, just like a proud father beaming down on his succeeding son. Then, a light breeze brushes past him, fluttering his slightly long hair.

Sebastian furrows his eyebrows with a frown and darts his eyes to the right, where the gust blew from. Next to him sits Mat Barzal, who gazes out at the ice with a calm look.

On the ice, Miro crosses-over toward the second turn, only to sense a force push his right skate against his left skate. Instantly, he drops onto his left side, taking out a cone with his stick, and flies into the boards. With the momentum from his fall, he bounces back out on the ice, sliding on the ice on his side.

The whole arena erupts into groans and gasps of shock: “AWWW!!!”

Sebastian gapes at the scene in horror. Next to him, Mat bursts into laughter.

Miro climbs back onto his skates’ blade and pushes himself down the breakaway. While gliding, he gazes down at his skates. He leans over and feels the outer side of his right skate.

“Hah!” Mat exclaims. “Look at how he fell! What a kid! He couldn’t even finish a lap a girl could do!”

Sebastian shoots him a disgusted look as his divisional teammate continues laughing. He flicks his eyes down, catching sight of Mat’s gloved hand over the Islanders’ logo on his jersey.

His eye snap wide open. He whirls his head out to the ice, spotting Miro approaching the starting line again. He then turns back to Mat attempting to compose himself. With resolve flooding his face, he narrows his eyes at him and turns away.

---

Later that night…

Mat, in his suit, ambles down the players’ parking lot under the dim, buzzing parking lot lights. He whistles to himself with a content look as he gazes around his inky surroundings.

He then halts at the sensation of a drop of water plopping on his head. With puzzlement, he scratches his hair, feeling the wetness on his fingertips.

He peers up at the clouding skies. “What?”

BOOM!!!

Thunder shakes the ground.

Lightning flashes through the sky.

Wind blows against him.

Rain pours down on him.

Mat shields his face as the wind flaps his soaked blazer and hair.

He manages to pull his wet hands away and stare at them in a panic. “Wh-what is happening? I didn’t even use my powers! I’m not even mad!”

“That’s because I’m using my powers!” Sebastian’s voice roars over the wind’s howls from behind him. “And I’m mad!”

Mat whirls around with wide eyes.

Stalking up to him from the building is Sebastian with a deadly stare and fists at his sides. The wind and rain swirls around him at a distance, keeping his appearance well-kept. Thunder claps and lightning strikes from above him.

Mat narrows his eyes at him. His clothes become dry as the wind settles around him. “Oh, and, uh, am I supposed to care?”

Sebastian shoots his hand out at him, whipping a lasso of wind around his neck, and yanks him up to his face.

“Yes, you are, because not only did you make fun of a rookie, you were the one who tripped him over and embarrassed him!”

Thunder crashes again before a bolt of lightning zips down straight at Mat. Keeping his eyes on his opponent, Mat snaps his hand over his head and grabs the glowing, popping bolt in place.

A smirk forms on his face. “Go away or else I’ll do the same to you.” He then thrusts the bolt at him.

Sebastian lets go of his aerokinetic restraint and lunges out of the bolt’s path. The bolt crashes into the dumpster against the building, shooting veins of electricity all around it as it shakes and jumps.

The dumpster then settles back down as smoke arises from it. The lid flips open and Patrik Laine drags himself out and plops onto the asphalt in a smoldering, smoking mess. He army-crawls away from the scene, huffing and coughing.

Mat raises both hands into the sky, sucking all of the rain into his palms and directing it at his target. The torrent of water blasts against Sebastian, shoving him onto the wet asphalt. He scrambles up to his feet and faces Mat, only to be thrown against the dumpster by Mat hurling the thunder’s soundwaves at him.

Sebastian lays on the soaked, rough ground. With a groan, he mustered up his strength and pushes himself up to his feet once again. He gazes ahead with heavy breathing and brushes and scratches covering his arms and face.

Mat stalks up to him, chuckling and a growing grin. With the parking lots’ lights shining behind him, a harsh, ominous shadow covers the upper half of his face.

Mat holds his opened hands and bent fingers at his sides. “You’re lucky there’s no cameras or audience to witness me crushing you!”

He then thrusts his arms to his left side and flings them out at his target, throwing the wind straight at him.

With a grunt, Sebastian tosses himself out of the wind’s path and drops onto the ground, exposing the dumpster. The wind whips around the dumpster, lifting it off the ground, and swings it straight at Mat.

Mat’s eyes flies open as he screams, “AHCK!”

The dumpster plows into Mat, sending him and itself onto the ground. The dumpster rocks and settles on top of him.

By the building, Sebastian climbs onto his feet and turns to his work. The dumpster stands under one of the lights of the parking lot with Mat’s feet sticking out from underneath it.

He dusts his hands with a calm expression on his work. “Now that’s pretty embarrassing.”

He steps up to the dumpster and halt next to it. He tilts his head to get a glimpse of underneath the dumpster. “You’re lucky there’s no cameras or audience to witness me crushing you.”

A groan shudders from underneath the dumpster.

With that, Sebastian struts past him and continues down the puddle-littered parking lot, leaving behind his work.


The End of “Avenge The Fallen.”

Notes

Episode 8/15