October 20, 2016/October 21, 2016

After a disappointing loss to the Colorado Avalanche with a final score of 4-0, the Tampa Bay Lightning head back to their locker room, their heads held high, except for a select few of them like TJ, Nikita and Vladdy. They know that it is still the beginning of the season, and it is their first loss.

"I blame Cally, cause he ate all my cheese!" Vladdy snaps, shoving his equipment off and into his stall with frustrated anger. Then he looks at his hockey stick. "What are you looking at, Yzerchuk? Why didn't you work?"

"I blame Cally too, eated all cookies!" Nikita Kucherov adds on, folding his arms and sitting down in his stall, right on top of a pie.

Ryan Callahan smirks and rubs his hands together as Nikita wails. Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat rush to him and hug him.

"Well, I blame Jo, for all the moments on the bench," Brian Boyle remarks, pinching his nose.

"I blame your mom!" Jonathan Drouin snaps back at him.

"I MISSED CATCHING A DANG ELECTROBUZZ...and a wold Snorlax! That's why we... lost... you know..." JT Brown growls, slowly softening and quieting his voice over time into an awkward smile.

"It was Kade, because he and I got into an argument on the bench! He distracted Vladdy during the play for the first goal!" Brayden Point states, folding his arms across his chest and pouting.

"No, no, no. It was everyone here not playing well," Steven Stamkos remarks. "So tonight was a tough loss, but honestly there's nothing to be ashamed of. We just need to move on from this loss, learn from it, and come back next game and win."

The team grumbles, but agrees with him; they are all exhausted from the horrible night. The Avs played a tough game, and there was nothing they could do about that. So, the best thing for them is to go home, and go to sleep.

Vladdy yawns as he walks out of Amalie Arena, because out of all of the players, the loss hurt him even more. Not even Yzerchuk could help them out tonight, and he wondered why that happened.

A few short minutes later, he makes it back to his home safe and sound. As he gets all of his gear out of his car, he notices that there is a storm brewing in the distance. He mumbles to himself, "Wonder why that's happening."

He doesn't have much energy to wonder that question aloud because of the brutal game. So, he walks inside, and just goes to bed almost right away. Almost, because since Cally was a big meanie and had ate all his pre-game cheese, he just had to have some cheese before going to bed.

As he drifts off to sleep, he hears faint rumbles of thunder off in the distance, slowly coming closer to him, before there is a loud crack that causes Vladdy to jump in fright. He then notices that he isn't in his bedroom anymore and looks around him, finding himself in the middle of Thunder Alley. "Hello? Anyone there?"

A voice replies, "Vladislav Namestnikov, behind you."

Vladdy turns around and sees the Ruler of the Hockey Gods, Wayne Gretzky, looking almost ghost-like and quite pale. "Wayne Gretzky, what are doing here...in my dream? What's going to happen to Yzerchuk - to us? Or are you here to explain why Yzerchuk didn't work tonight against the Avs?"

Wayne smiles ever so slightly at him, "It's good to see you again, but you don't have much time."

"With what?"

Suddenly, a large bolt of lightning strikes right next to the poor young Russian-American. He jumps back and says to Gretzky, "What's going on here?"

Wayne points to an object on the ground, "That."

Vladdy runs over to the object, to inspect it even more. He reaches it and sees that it is broken up into tiny fragments of wood. He realizes that the pieces of wood used to be his prized Nexus One hockey stick: Yzerchuk. "What happened to Yzerchuk, Wayne? I thought this couldn't happen?" He picks up some of the pieces of the broken stick.

The ghostly man shrugs. "It was destroyed somehow, and we still don't have much time."

"How was it destroyed?" Vladdy questions. "You told me that Yzerchuk was unbreakable! Only you and the Hockey Gods could destroy him!" 

"I have no idea!" Gretzky responds to him, slightly agitated. "Well, okay, I do, but the readers are not allowed to know yet."

Vladdy cocks his head. "I thought you were all-knowing though?"

Gretzky shakes his head. "Even I don't know some things (even though I really do)."

Vladdy marches up to him and demands, "What is happening?"

"Yzerchuk's power is being released in the form of a powerful storm." As soon as Gretzky says these words, all chaos breaks loose; thunder and lightning flash all around the two people, yet, nothing ever quite strikes them and then rain pelts Vladdy, while it just passes through Gretzky.

Vladdy looks around and sees the chaos going on around him. He shouts to Gretzky through the storm, "What has Tampa done to deserve this?"

The Ruler of the Hockey Gods sighs. "Even I don't know. Goodbye Vladdy. There is nothing even I, the mighty Wayne Gretzky, can do." Wayne Gretzky then leaves as quickly as he had appeared, leaving Vladdy to face the storm by himself.

Vladdy looks around and sees the storm light up the sky. He wonders, What have I done to deserve this? Is that why Yzerchuk didn't work today against the Avs? But I wasn't cheating! And neither were any of my teammates. What is going on?

A bright flash of lightning followed by an ear-piercing crack of thunder hits right behind Vladdy and he falls to the cold, hard, tiled ground, trying to protect himself from the raging storm. He chances a glance up and sees a bolt of electricity hit the iconic Bolt Trio, sparking a fierce fire to the tips.

Vladdy gasps and looks back down, unable to do anything, his heart pounding in his chest.

There's a storm coming to Tampa, Vladdy. I fear it will not be a good one and I may not be able to help save the Lightning this time... Wayne's voice echoes around Vladdy.

After a few traumatizing moments, with echos of the storm in his head, Vladdy tries to get up from his position on the ground, but something - some unknown force - is keeping him down in place.

He blinks awake and looks around, and realizes that he is actually in Thunder Alley, just before dawn. He slowly starts to sit up, and sees that Yzerchuk was in fact not destroyed, but it has laying right next to him the whole time, surprisingly untouched.

"Thank goodness that was only a dream," Vladdy says to himself as he goes to grab Yzerchuk. But, as he attempted to grab it, his hand goes right through Yzerchuk. Then, Yzerchuk disappears overall.

Again Wayne's voice comes into his head, There's a storm coming, Vladdy.

Vladdy realizes he has two problems on his hand, one being that he somehow ended up in Thunder Alley, and the other one: Yzerchuk is missing. Was that dream...reality? But if so, where was Yzerchuk?