Nazem Kadri searches the shadow realm intently. His powers allow him to look out into the world from any shadow anywhere. The sheer scope of this aspect of his abilities is astounding, which makes his failure all the more alarming. Pulling his self out of the shadow realm Naz shakes his head.

“Nothing.” The Toronto Maple Leaf makes the word a curse.

The other Toronto Maple Leaf in the room, Morgan Rielly, walks over to a window.

“It doesn’t make any sense.” Morgan says quietly. “How can they hide from us both?”

Morgan is a technopath, his ability to communicate telepathically with digital systems makes eluding him in our modern world essentially impossible. Yet for weeks now the Toronto Maple Leafs have been searching for the demon worshipping cultists who have been stealing from the Toronto Maple Leafs and terrorizing the population of the Toronto Maple Leafs city.

“It has to be some kind of magic.” Morgan says. “That’s the only way they could hide.”

“Or they aren’t on Earth.” Nazem counters.

“No, they’re here.” Morgan insists.

The door whips open and James Van Riemsdyk bursts into the room. 

“We gotta go.” The Leaf says.

“What’s the matter?” Morgan asks.

“Visitors.” James says.

With a sigh Morgan and Nazem follow James to the Toronto Maple Leaf motor-pool. Visiting teams superstars will often run amok around the city looking for trouble. The Minnesota Wild are in town And obviously someone has gotten a little worked up. James does not offer any details, not that Morgan or Naz need any. The opposition is loose in the city. James found the first Leafs he could and soon there would be a showdown.

Naz insists on taking a Toronto Maple Leaf hover-bike, and after a brief zoom across Toronto, the Leafs find Devan Dubnyk and Eric Staal battling a large tentacle demon that has sprouted from a sewer grate.

With an enthusiastic “whooop” Naz veers sharply toward a nearby building, disappearing into the shadow realm. Immediately bullets tear into the demon from all sides. 

This serves to anger the beast even more, which doubles its assault against the Wild.

Morgan and James approach with a little more caution, both wanting to observe the two visiting players.  

Eric Staal has always been an astounding swordsman, and his move to Minnesota hasn’t changed this at all. He deftly sidesteps the flailing black tentacles and each time the tentacle falls to the ground, cut cleanly by the swift blade of the eldest Staal. But the tentacles grow back.

Devan Dubnyk is a different kind of warrior. He’s more of a sponge really, than any sort of combatant. He stands, legs wide absorbing blow after blow from the monster. From experience, Morgan knows that those tentacles can knock down a building. The demon seems entirely focused on Devan, enraged that anything would have the audacity to stand in front of it.

Naz’s hover-bike zooms out of the shadows directly behind the demon. The Leaf crams a grenade into the maw of the tentacle demon as he tears into the sky laughing.

Morgan talks into the comm links that the Wild are wearing.

“Take a step back, boys, we got this.”

Eric and Devan both look around startled. The grenade explodes blowing Eric off his feet. Devan runs over to his teammate. Morgan talks into their ears again.

“Come for a ride boys, we’ve dealt with these things before.”

Across the city Minnesota Wild assistant coach Scott Stevens bellows into his own comm link.

“Who the hell is that? How did you hack this channel? You are so f…”

“Relax big fella.” Morgan says as he mutes Scott’s mic. “We will get your boys home safe. Get some rest, keep your elbows down. Go Leafs.”

James and Nazem ride their hover-bikes down low allowing Eric and Devan to hop on as the tentacle demon shakes off the grenade blast.

Hovering high above the Demon, Eric looks over at Morgan. 

“So what’s the trick to beating that thing?” He asks.

Morgan smiles and pulls his Toronto Maple Leaf RPG from its holster on his hover-bike. Unlike traditional rocket powered grenade launchers, the Toronto Maple Leaf RPG is semi-automatic with a 16 round clip. Also the grenades pack the punch of a crate of C4. 

Eric Stall knows none of this. All he sees is Morgan obliterate the tentacle demon with three quick shots. 

“I want one.” Says Eric.

“I want one of these bikes.” Devan says.

Ignoring Devan, on the back of his bike, Nazem looks over to Eric.

“You gotta join the club if you want the good stuff bud. Spotlight’s got its perks.”

As the Leafs fly off into the night, Morgan takes one last look at the devastation behind him. The cultists have been stepping up their assaults. He would get back to his search as soon as they dropped off the Wild.