February 4th, 2016

Vladislav Namestnikov arrives at Amalie Arena, finding his spot marked and decorated for his arrival. As he looks into the player lot from the road, he can see that there are balloons encompassing his spot and he can't help but smile and feel like it is his birthday. He pulls into the player lot, passing over the familiar trolley car tracks and waves to the security guard person, before he pulls into his spot and parks his black car. He gets out and looks at the balloons, before he feels three people mob him from all around.

"HAPPY VLADDY DAY!!" one of the people sing-songs, before a loud noise sounds behind him.

Vladdy finds Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson with him. It had been Ondrej to speak and Nikita has a party blower in his mouth. He blows it again and then gives an awkward smile as best as he can with the thing in his mouth.

TJ grabs Vladdy's hand and begins to pull him through the balloons, with Ondrej and Nikita skipping to the sides and Nikita continuing to blow the party trumpet in his mouth. "The others are inside waiting for you! Everyone's here, including Stralsy! It's shocking he's here before you!"

"Cause everyone told me to be last," Vladdy remarks. "I had a feeling there'd be a celebration for me like it was my birthday or something!" He chuckles to himself.

"Yeah, and no wreaking chaos, Vladdy," Ondrej remarks, before slapping the party blower from Nikita's mouth. "Would you stop? I don't need a headache, Kuch!" Nikita instantly halts and looks down at his feet, where his toy is and his lip begins to quiver and his eyes tear up. Ondrej sees him and sighs, rapidly throwing his arms around his friend. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be that mean to you." He bends over and picks it up and puts it into his teammate's hand. "There you go, sorry Kuch."

"Hey now, no tears on Vladdy Day!" TJ scolds, playfully. "Cheer up Kuch!"

Nikita wipes his eyes and attempts to put on a smile once more, failing miserably at it, and they continue, heading up a ramp, into the arena from the player entrance. As soon as they enter, Ryan Callahan jumps out from the side, scaring Vladdy, before he pies the forward in the face.

"Thanks Cally," Vladdy mumbles, wiping his face. "Was that necessary?"

"Yes," Cally remarks. "And there's a lot more coming!"

"Great...I don't like pies, Cally." Vladdy gets a cloth from Nikita, who's put the party favor back into his mouth. He begins to wipe the whip cream from his face and eyes, even finding himself unable to keep from licking it. "Eww, Cally! It's not whipcream!"

Ryan laughs at his teammate. "Of course not. That's the joke. Now come on to the locker room. We have a whole day planned out for you!"

"No more pies, Cally." Vladdy finishes wiping his face off and then drinking from a bottle of water brought to him by Ondrej. He takes a big gulp and discovers that it isn't water. "Pally, what--" He vision blurs momentarily. "Whoa, what is this?"

"Vodka." Ondrej smiles largely.

"Oh come on, really?" Vladdy shakes his head. "Vodka?"

"Yeah, all you Russians love it!" Ryan says.

"Okay, it's actually pretty good I guess," Vladdy remarks with a shrug. He takes more sips and follows Ryan and the Triplets through the hallway. By the time he reaches the locker room, he's hammered. "HEY STAMMER!"

Steven Stamkos spins from his stall in the room, watching as the tipsy Vladdy enters, laughing and stumbling and hiccuping. Ondrej and TJ hold onto him to keep him from falling on his face. Nikita blows his party favor a few times and Ryan quickly snatches the bottle of alcohol from Vladdy's hands.

"Hey-hey, I wasn't...Iwasn'tdone, Cally."

"Oh man, guys I told you to just get him. And now you've got him wasted already. Good work," Steven sighs, rubbing his forehead.

"It was Cally's fault!" Ondrej remarks.

"Yeah," TJ agrees.

Nikita blows the party favor again and smiles.

"Oh, way to throw me under the bus Triplets!" Ryan grumbles. "And FYI it was actually Pally who gave him the 'water', not me."

Ondrej shrugs. "Just livening the blondie up. Look, he's got a head start!"

Vladdy stumbles over to Steven and hugs him. "You're thebest captain ever! Iloveyou, Stammer!"

Steven pushes him back and looks at the four forwards, shaking his heads. "Get him some actual water and sober him up, please."

"Fine," Ondrej sighs and grabs Vladdy's arm. "Come on Vladdy, let's go get some water and maybe some food and a nice Bud Light or two..."

"Pally!" Steven scolds.

"Okay, okay, just water and food..." Ondrej corrects and leads the drunk blond Russian out of the room.

"Johnny, go with him and Kuch you too! And also stop acting like a little kid!" Steven orders.

Nikita takes the blower out of his mouth and frowns. "Stammer no fun." He folds his arms and walks off with TJ, who - when they are a safe distance away - leans over and whispers, "You can go ahead and act like a kid if you want. You're happy for Vladdy and you're a baby Russian." Nikita smiles once more and claps his hands together. "TJ is nice!"

Steven shakes his head and looks at Ryan, who holds the bottle of "water." The captain relaxes and says, "Did you pie him?"

"Yeah. He didn't like it though."

"Well, I'm glad Pally gave him the alcohol, gives me a bit more time. Come on, we need to get to the ice and help the others. I mean the surprise is almost complete, but we need a few extra minutes. And I recruited the help of two special fans. Do you remember Dani and Evelyna?"

"Yeah, they helped get Yzerchuk back from the Habs," Ryan remarks.

"They are part of the surprise for Vladdy." Steven walks forward and grabs Ryan by the arm and they head out of the room and head down the tunnel, toward the ice. "You'll be amazed at how fast everyone was able to pull this off."

They step out of the tunnel and into the bench, looking at the ice, which has been transformed into a carnival-like setting. It looks similar to the Bolt Family Carnival, but not as many people and less games. There is a podium set up and a station for video games, where Evelyna and JT Brown are hanging out, battling one another in Mario Kart.

"Ha!" Evelyna shouts out. "Got ya again JT!"

"Dammit! I'm done with this!" JT remarks, shoving the controller at Anton Stralman, who was standing, surveying them. "This girl is just too good!"

"Yeah, in your face! Say JT, how's it feel to lose to a girl at a game you beat all your teammates in?" Evelyna calls out, turning the game off and setting her controller down. "You played like poo, which is the color of your last name there."

"Okay, are you done?" JT says.

"You suck," Evelyna finishes. "Okay, now I'm done."

Suddenly a horse drawn carriage bounds into the arena with Nikita Nesterov and Jason Garrison at the reins. Jonathan Marchessault opens the door and steps down, mimicking a prince or royal figure.

Steven darts forward. "What happened? I leave you for 5 minutes and you are all goofing off? Vladdy's here and we got to have this whole parade and day of fun ready to go. Yzerman trusted me to handle things!"

Valtteri Filppula emerges from behind the carriage carrying a bunch of pies. One of them falls on the ground and Ryan notices. He bites his lip and as Steven makes to take a step forward, he sticks his leg out and causes the captain of the Lightning to fall face-first into the pie. Ryan snickers to himself.

"Callahan!" Steven grumbles, before he pushes himself up, his face covered with white shaving cream (not whipcream).

"Ha-ha, you look a little white Stammer?" Ryan jokes.

Steven wipes his face off with the help of JT and Victor Hedman. "Alright, everything seems fine, I guess, I'm just over-reacting."

Dani rushes forward and hugs Steven. "Everything's gonna be fine. Vladdy will love it all. I promise. You're just being hard on yourself. I think it's your inner captain, Stammer. Just have fun and don't think so hard, okay? Now, you said Vladdy's here...?"

"STAMMER! Vladdy coming!" Nikita's voice rings out from the tunnel as the young Russian bursts from it.

Steven freezes in place and then controls himself. "Alright, places everyone! Evelyna, go get the lights and start the video! It's game time people!" He finishes wiping his face and then walks to the podium with Dani at his side. The others hide, except Ryan, who grabs two pies from the startled and bewildered Filppula. Evelyna vanishes and as the voices of Ondrej and TJ sound in the tunnel, the lights face to pitch blackness in the arena.

"Guys, it's dark? Why did you bring me in here? Cally's not gonna pie me again is he?" Vladdy asks.

Suddenly the JumboTron overhead kicks on with a flash of blue light. Vladdy looks up, stunned as he sees himself on the screen. A video plays with highlights of his goals versus the Canadiens, his OT goals and his hat trick. At the end there is an image of him holding Yzerchuk up and saying, "This is my team, if anyone messes with them, they'll answer to me and Yzerchuk!"

Vladdy smiles.

The screen flashes to wallpaper which has an adorable picture of him, standing proudly with Yzerchuk and the words, "Happy Vladislav Namestnikov Day!" on it. As soon as it pops up, the lights slowly rise and come on.

Dave Andreychuk comes forward to him with Steve Yzerman at his side. They have Yzerchuk in their hands, holding it together. (Okay this image does look a little gay now...but they aren't gay.) They halt before Vladdy. Ondrej and TJ step to the sides, away from him. Yzerman takes the bolt and stares down the forward before him.

"Kneel, Vladislav," Yzerman booms out.

Vladdy drops to his knee like he is respectfully bowing to a King or Queen. Yzerman holds up the bolt to the sky and announces, "By the powers of the mighty Lightning Bolt Yzerchuk, we deem you..." He lowers the bolt and taps the tip to Vladdy's shoulders in a knighting way, managing not to electrocute him in the process. "Vladislav Namestnikov, the protector and defender of the Tampa Bay Lightning."

Vladdy looks up and nods as Yzerman steps back and passes the bolt to Andreychuk, who winks at him.

"I know you'll take good care of Yzerchuk."

They withdraw and a light comes up on Steven, who is at the podium with Dani. Vladdy looks toward them, blinking in shock. He mutters, "Dani?" to himself. Steven gives him a nice speech and then Dani comes down from the podium toward him. She is joined by Evelyna. They grab Vladdy's hands and pull him to his feet and toward the carriage. "Evelyna?" He questions, raising an eyebrow. "What are you two doing here?"

They shove him into the carriage and get inside, along with Steven, who comes to join them. Before he vanishes into the carriage, he spots Nesterov at the reins. The Russian defender looks at him and shouts out, "Hey Vladdy, luckily there no cones for you run over."

"Very funny Nesty!" Vladdy shouts back.

As he sits down inside between Dani and Evelyna, the arena ignites in music. "Try Everything" plays and Vladdy cocks his head. "Is this just like my theme song or what? That's the second time it has played behind me."

Evelyna and Dani laugh as the carriage starts off, rounding the rink once and then out the zamboni tunnel entrance and through the back hallway and back out the exit into the player's lot. The horses trot, carrying them around Amalie, to the front, where it halts by the lightning bolts.

Vladdy gets up and Steven signals him to sit back down. "What's going on Stammer?"

Steven smiles and gets out of the carriage. He closes the door behind him, leaving Vladdy inside with Dani and Evelyna. In the quiet, Vladdy nervously sits in the middle of them. "So, how've you two been, since helping out in getting Yzerchuk back?"

Before they can answer, Steven returns, throwing open the door and looking horrified at Vladdy. "Yzerchuk!! He's been stolen!"

Vladdy gets to his feet and exits the carriage. Overhead, clouds darken as though in anger. The young blond raises his head up, bravely and proudly and looks toward Thunder Alley, where a bunch of people are gathered. In the thick cluster of people, he spots a man wearing a Markov jersey. And sure enough he has Yzerchuk in his hands.

"Markov!" Vladdy growls. "Don't worry Stammer, I got this!" He sprints after the man, rushing through the crowd of people and roars before he leaps and tackles the man, swiftly halting Yzerchuk from hitting the ground. He tears the bolt free from the man and gets to his feet. Steven claps and applauds him.

Vladdy slowly gets to his feet and raises the bolt up. It shoots a streak of electricity into the air. The blond looks back down at the Canadien. "So Markov's your favorite player, huh? Did he tell you to steal this?"

The man shakes his head, scared for his life. "Uh, n-no!"

"He didn't, Vladislav, but maybe you should be more careful where you put that," a voice sneers. Vladdy looks toward the parking garage, where Matt Carle lurks in the shadows with Marty St. Louis and Jonathan Drouin at his sides. "After all, someone could get hurt!"

Vladdy lowers the bolt and points it at them. "Like you?"

"Not quite," Carle snarls and then vanishes with his friends into the garage as Vladdy commands Yzerchuk to zap them. The strike misses, hitting the concrete above and denting it, sending chunks crumbling to the ground, creating a dusty atmosphere.

Vladdy rushes forward and he is joined by Steven Stamkos, Nesterov, Nikita, TJ, Ondrej and the rest of the Bolts.

"Was that Carle, Drouin and Marty?" TJ questions.

"That wasn't in the script," Steven remarks.

Vladdy nods, handing Yzerchuk to Steven. "Whatever they want, it's not good. We need to get Yzerchuk to a safe location, fast! This was a bad idea, bring Yzerchuk out here." Steven nods, putting an arm around Vladdy. The young forward shrugs him off and shakes his head. "I need to find Andreychuk and talk to him. Where is he?"

Steven spins to the team. "Killer! Go get Andreychuk, please!"

Vladdy shakes his head as Alex Killorn turns around and starts to leave. "No, no, I want to speak with him in private. I'm sorry, but this is something that can only stay between the two of us, you know? Please understand this Stammer, I'd love to tell you, but there's just too much unknown."

Killorn turns back and looks at Erik Condra to his side. Steven nods in understanding, even smiles, and puts an arm around Vladdy's shoulder and they walk toward Amalie Arena. They enter through the McDonald's entrance, followed secretly by Condra and immediately find Andreychuk inside walking around.

"Dave!" Vladdy calls out and then turns to Steven and takes Yzerchuk from him. "Thanks Stammer, but I got it from here, go back to the others. I don't trust Pally, TJ and Kuch alone for that long."

Steven dips his head. "We're here for you Vladdy, Carle and Drouin and Marty won't get Yzerchuk! No one will ever hurt you or us!" With that he backs out, spotting Condra. "What are you doing Cons? Come on, Vladdy is to be alone!"

Condra frowns and reluctantly follows. Vladdy faces Andreychuk and when the two leave and the door closes, he says, "Carle just attempted to steal Yzerchuk! We need to get him disguised and to a safe location immediately!"

Andreychuk nods. "I heard all the commotion. I was just about to come out and check on you guys. Thankfully it seems that everything and everyone is okay."

"Yeah, but who's to say Carle and all won't go to Montreal. I wouldn't put it past them not to try again. I think it is best to disguise Yzerchuk and then hide him in a safe place, perhaps far from Amalie."

Andreychuk nods. "I guess you're right. Luckily I think I have found out just how to disguise the bolt. May I borrow one of your sticks for this?"

"Sure...but how are you going to...? Oh."

Andreychuk and Vladdy walk into the arena, heading through a secret entrance. They find their way through the back ice area and down the hallway, finding the rows of sticks lined up along the wall. Vladdy finds one of his, a normal Nexus One and hands it and the bolt to the older man.

Andreychuk places them together and Yzerchuk sparks, causing the stick to glow brightly. After a few seconds, the stick returns to normal color and the bolt pales in color and stops sparking. Andreychuk passes Vladdy the "dead" bolt and keeps the stick in his hands. Vladdy holds the bolt in his hands, eyeing it with curiosity.

"What happened to Yzerchuk?" Vladdy questions.

"Transference, Vladdy. Yzerchuk is now your hockey stick. Here," Andreychuk responds, taking the bolt from him and passing him the stick.

Vladdy takes it and holds the stick in the center, over a silver "N". Blue curved lines emanate from it. As soon as he grabs it, the lines glow blue, followed by the stick itself, glowing blue. The blond gasps and almost drops the stick but watches as it transforms into the magical Lightning Bolt, Yzerchuk. "Whoa! No way!"

Andreychuk chuckles. "Steve and I created it to have that one-way transference capability. And it has a ten minute power supply, all you have to do is touch it and shout out, 'In Yzerchuk we trust' and then it'll remain as a powerful lightning bolt for the ten minutes. Hopefully you won't need it longer than that. But because this is your stick, it only recognizes your voice and touch."

Vladdy holds the sparking bolt in his hands now and watches as the time passes and it slowly morphs back to a hockey stick. He smiles and looks at Andreychuk. "Thanks, now, it's probably best to hide the new 'Yzerchuk.' I think I know just who to give this to to hold onto and keep safe. Evelyna and her friend Dani."