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#2
JAN 06 |
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“The X-Factor”
Director Bones sat in a special room at the Slab, the super human penitentiary. When the door opened Bones moved in his seat slightly, since his skin was totally transparent no facial expression was evident. The prisoner walked in, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, her red hair was cut shorter than normal, only going as low as her shoulders. Bones nodded to the guard to leave and then he stood before the prisoner and looked into her green eyes. “Penny, you look beautiful.”
Penny Dreadful nearly started crying as she hugged Bones. “It’s been so long since you came to visit that I thought you forgot about me and the others.”
“Never,” he said. “I’ve been busy working on a way for you to legally leave the Slab. And I think I may have finally come up with the perfect scenario.”
“Really Bones?” she was crying now. Penny, along with Arak, Tao Jones, Baby Boom, Kritter and then Mr. Bones had been a super group known as Helix. After an unsuccessful battle with the team known as Infinity Inc. they had been captured and forced into prison for attempted kidnapping.
Bones was given freedom because of the aid he had given Infinity Inc. and had been on the outside for several years. In that time he had worked for the U.S. Government in various roles, his current one was that of Department of Extranormal Affairs Director. “It’s perfect Penny, everyone gets out except Kritter and Baby Boom. They won’t allow them to participate in the program; they feel that after the last mission we need to make certain juveniles are kept away. I tried to convince them that Baby Boom just looks like she’s five, but they wouldn’t listen. And they still want Kritter observed cause they still aren’t sure what he is.”
“So what is it exactly that the rest of us need to do, Bones?” Penny asked.
“Just a little suicide mission, Penny, that’s all.”
Amanda Waller longed for the days that she was the Head of Task Force X, back then she could have anyone she wanted killed with a phone call. But now she served as President Lex Luthor’s advisor on metahuman affairs. It was a good job, but the high profile wasn’t to her liking, and right now she was wishing she could order a hit on this guy.
“Listen lady, I don’t care if you’re the President hisself! Nobody gets in to see Director Bones without written authorization, and you don’t have it!” yelled the Marine guard outside of Director Bones’ Pentagon office. “Now why don’t you just move along and maybe you can find a higher ranking official to give you his permission to let you in.”
Amanda, who stood at 5’ 3” and weighed all of 225lbs, looked the 6’2” Marine up and down. She raised her right foot back and slammed it right into his crotch.
“AAHHHHHH!” he screamed and fell to the ground in pain.
“Son, the day I have to give someone like you written authorization to anything is the day I move to Afghanistan! Now move your sorry ass out of my way!” Amanda stepped over the Marine and walked into Bones' office.
Bones was sitting in his high back leather chair behind his desk. “Amanda, I thought I told the guard I wasn’t seeing any visitors today?”
“You did,” she replied and plopped down in a chair. “I convinced him that he heard you wrong.”
“So what can I do for you Amanda? Or are you here to comment on my interior decorating?” he asked as he lit a cigar and then passed Amanda one.
“Why don’t we start this little conversation with you telling me why your former running mates in Helix suddenly found themselves sitting in mission control for Task Force X?” Amanda lit the cigar and sat back. This ought to be good, she thought to herself.
“Well, Amanda, it is the recommendation of the DEO that the former members of Helix have been rehabilitated enough that they deserve the chance to work for their country and perhaps earn their freedom in the process,” he said. She’s not gonna buy any of this, he thought.
“Right,” Amanda had a large smile on her face. “Well, if that’s the entire story I guess you will be pleased to know that Helix gets their chance. I’m sending them after the Vanguard in two days.”
Bones’ skin and muscle tissue was transparent, so if there were any change in facial expression from the DEO Director’s words she would never know it. However, the way his cigar nearly slipped from his mouth gave her the idea that Bones had indeed heard of the Vanguard and knew that the chances of all the members of Helix surviving an encounter with the communist group would be unlikely.
Ben Turner paced back and forth outside Amanda Waller’s office; he disliked being kept waiting this long. When the door finally opened he saw that the esteemed Dr. Springer from Arkham Asylum joined Amanda. “Morning everyone,” he said as he walked in and took a seat.
“Ben,” Amanda began, “this is Dr. Springer. He is an expert on your newest recruit into the Suicide Squad, Mr. Freeze.”
“You have to kidding me!” yelled Ben. “Freeze is a genius! He’ll have his wrist detonator dissected and on the floor within moments of the mission debriefing. How am I supposed to keep him in line when he can circumvent all our safe guards?”
Dr. Springer smiled. “Mr. Turner, I believe I have the answer to your dilemma.” He reached inside his briefcase and produced a small crystal attached to a chain; the crystal was in the shape of a heart. “Freeze has been in my care since being brought to Arkham Asylum, and during that time I have been able to implement a small degree of hypnosis in Freeze as part of our daily sessions. Freeze will remain calm and follow most general requests from you as long as you have his ‘focus object’ on you and in visible site. This locket was the item that immediately caught Freeze’s eye on my secretary; therefore we used it to our advantage. I assure you, wear this locket and Freeze will be your best friend on this mission.”
Ben took the locket and placed it around his neck. “So what happens if I lose the locket or somebody manages to get it from me?”
“Run away, Mr. Turner…run away very quickly and don’t look back.”
Ben walked in the door to the briefing room; there he saw his team seated in the back. On one side of the room sat Penny Dreadful, Arak and Tao Jones; all of them giving a wide berth to the killer known as Mr. Freeze on the other side of the room by himself. Steam floated off of Freeze’s suit as he sat on a wooden chair that had icicles forming on it due to the sub zero nature his suit provided him for existence.
Ben started the briefing immediately. “I have met with you all individually, but just to recap, my name is Bronze Tiger. I will be your field leader on this mission. You follow my orders to the letter, you live, and your sentence is reduced to time served. You go against my orders or make a nuisance of yourself in general and those pretty bracelets you are wearing will blow and you’ll be shopping at the Leftorium for the rest of your life.”
“Arak, apparently you control something called the Panther wind and can use it to create focused hurricanes and tornadoes.” Arak nodded to the Tiger; as an American Indian his style of outfit included Indian style pants, boots, vest and he wore red and yellow war paint on his face.
“Tao Jones, your mind enables you to levitate as well as return any energy hurled at you back to its source.” A remarkably beautiful woman of Asian descent wore a tight fitting sleeveless green body suit and long gloves. A red dragon was prominent on the front of her outfit and she wore huge golden bracelets. She smiled at Tiger and he could tell she was definitely interested.
“Penny Dreadful, you can absorb any small amount of electricity and return it a thousand fold.” Penny’s red hair was cut to look a bit more modern, her white bodysuit featured two yellow stripes on the front. Her gloves and knee-high boots were a light green, just like her lipstick and eyes.
“And finally Mr. Freeze, your suit provides you a sub zero environment to live in and your cold gun can freeze anything in solid blocks.” Freeze stared hard at Bronze Tiger and a gleam in his eye was apparent when he finally saw the heart shaped locket.
Tiger had the lights to the room turned off and a small film began to show on the wall. “Now that we all know one another, have a look at your opposition. This group is known as the Vanguard, they are based out of Quarc and until recently they had been keeping a low profile. Just last November the Vanguard sold twenty Rocket Red suits to the SOA, a group that tried to take over all of Germany and declare war on the United States. Before they try something like this again we are going to take out their leaders.”
“This lovely specimen is known as the Manticore. I have faced his predecessors before. Each time a new one shows up, they are tougher than the last. The Manticore is a beast that looks part man, part lion and has a scorpion like tail that shoots energy blasts. This orange skinned animal kills without mercy and is the resident hell hound for the Vanguard.” The video on the wall showed footage of the Manticore wiping out an entire score of French Foreign Legion. His tail shooting energy blasts that ripped bodies in half, and his teeth and claws tearing men to pieces.
The video changed to a being sheathed in an unearthly yellow glow. “This is Heat. He is a Russian that was involved in the Chernobyl accident in the 80's. His existence has been kept hidden and the KGB tested his body until the fall of communism in Russia. His body is alight with Nuclear power, and he can cast nuclear blasts with deadly accuracy. His power is somewhat uncontrollable though, as he can throw blasts, but has to wait about ten seconds between blasts to wait for his body to build the power back up. During those ten seconds we speculate that he will be vulnerable to normal attacks like all humans.”
“This is Sergei Vetov, also known as Rocket Red 8. He was a Rocket Red pilot who fled the country in his suit during the fall of Communism. He hooked up with Vanguard leaders and is one of their staunchest warriors. His Rocket Red suit has undergone many changes and has added firearms and is smaller and more maneuverable in combat. The weakness of the suit was the jet pack fuel needed, but this has been corrected; the suit now runs on a small atomic engine located somewhere in the suit. The suit is now able to be put on in pieces making it lightweight and easy to conceal in something as small as a briefcase.” The video showed the Rocket Red 8 suit in action, the predominantly red colored outfit soared through jet planes, exploding them on contact.
“Finally, this is Col. Ness, a former commander in the Quarci military, who joined the Vanguard and has quickly risen to the top of their echelon. He is responsible for the Rocket Red suits being sold to Red Panzer and the Sons of Adolf. He will assist any group causing terror or war against the West. He is known to have developed meta powers after voluntary surgery was done to his central nervous system; what exactly that power is, at this time, is in dispute.” Ness was shown on the video as a man in his late forties, wearing a long black trenchcoat and a black cap. The wear and tear that showed on his face marked him as a man who had seen much action in personal combat.
“This lovely building is Asgard. It is a former Quarci military station in Egypt. Asgard is a lead lined facility that contains it’s own power source that we believe to be hydro electric somehow. The building is made from inside the mountain of Al-Hajir. It is accessible only through the helipad or front gates. There seems to be at least forty Vanguard troops stationed at Asgard at all times, and they will be armed with everything from Anti-Tank weaponry to Anti-Aircraft STA missiles. It will be your job to access Asgard and eliminate the Vanguard members I have profiled for you. You specific assignments will be given to you once we arrive in Egypt. Now let’s head to the hangar, our ride is waiting.”
Tao slipped into the chair next to Tiger on the airplane ride to Egypt. “Mr. Turner, I was wondering what we should do if your mission plan goes awry. I would hate to be stuck in the Middle East without a ride home.”
“If something goes wrong Tao, you’ll be dead and a ride home will be the least of your worries.”
Tiger used the binoculars to check on the front gates of Asgard one last time. “Okay folks, here it goes. Tao Jones your objective is Manticore. His room is near the aircraft hanger on the West side of the base. Look for the least touched section of the hanger and that’s the most likely spot for him.”
Tao frowned; she had hoped that Manticore would fall to one of the others, as he was a bit scary looking in the films.
“Arak, you take out Heat. Batter him with a freakin tornado, or whatever else your Panther wind can do, but make sure he never walks out of Asgard again.” Arak nodded his understanding and smiled.
“Freeze, take out the rest of the men in the base, leave them as icicles if you have to.”
“I will do what is necessary Tiger, count on it,” Freeze said. His gaze once again fell to the charm around Tiger’s neck. “I will not fail you.”
“Penny, you and I will head for Col. Ness and Rocket Red 8. Everyone make certain your objective is completely neutralized before retreating from the base. If all goes as planned we should leave without any pursuit whatsoever.”
Tao scowled at Tiger. “And how exactly are we supposed to get inside that base undetected?”
Suddenly the sound of a jet fighter overhead made Tiger smile at Tao. “We have friends in high places.”
The unidentified aircraft shot three missiles into the heart of Asgard, explosions resounded across the Egyptian desert and alarms blared into the night sky. Another jet came across the desert and fired its payload into the side of the mountain, causing mass destruction in the compound. Anti Aircraft weaponry fired after the jets’ wake, pointlessly wasting ammunition as the jets were long gone by the time Asgard could respond.
As the troops of Asgard started hurrying to their positions, Freeze and his arsenal of icy death met them head on. “Welcome to Hell!” yelled Freeze as his gun unloaded upon the soldiers, freezing them solid and ending their lives.
Tao made her way through the battlefield by keeping to the shadows. She spied the hangars, with smoking planes left over from the F-16’s attack. She entered an isolated hangar, hoping she wouldn’t find Manticore; after all he could already be inside the compound trying to repel the assault. No such luck, she thought to herself as she saw Manticore walking out of a long-ago burnt out aircraft. The beast was easily 7’ tall and Tao felt her self start to shake. Taking on super heroes was on thing, but this guy is a killer.
“Here we go,” she said in a low voice to herself. The Manticore’s head snapped around as he stared at Tao. “How did he hear me?” she said to herself.
The Manticore raced at Tao with his claws out; the beast was covering ten feet with each step and would be upon Tao within moments. Tao held her ground and levitated about three feet into the air, placing her nearly eye to eye with the monster. She waited for the energy blast from Manticore’s tail, which she would direct back at him and be finished with this mess.
The beast was very close now and still there was no energy blast. “Come on, ugly, show me what you got,” she said. The tail on Manticore started to burn a bright orange. “Here it comes.”
Heat ran through the compound intent on using his nuclear power blasts to knock down the attacking planes, what he saw instead was a half dozen members of the Vanguard frozen in blocks of ice. “Ploho,” he said aloud in his native Russian..
“Welcome,” a voice to his right said. As Heat turned he saw Mr. Freeze walking between two frozen Vanguard soldiers. Freeze stopped and knocked the heads off of the frozen bodies. “I am here to kill you.”
Heat didn’t understand the words, but he did understand the intruder’s intent. He called upon the power inside of him and fired a nuclear blast to wipe the Westerner from the planet. Freeze used his cold gun on Heat just as the Russian was prepared to fire, the combination of Nuclear energies and Cryogenic science created an unearthly blast that shook the compound. A large cloud of gas seemed to settle over the compound making it difficult to see, therefore there was no one to watch Freeze as he stood over Heat and began kicking his face off.
Arak stayed to the shadows, easily evading detection from the scurrying Vanguard warriors. He still had not found Heat, and was in a hurry to complete his job and go back to America, a cell would be preferable to this Hell that Bone’s and Penny had gotten him into.
As he entered the heart of Asgard, he used his power to summon the Panther Wind and used it to batter around troopers until they were like pieces of straw in the wind. Leaving bodies and destruction behind him in every hallway, Arak continued on until he found Rocket Red 8.
Rocket Red 8 had been stationed inside the operations room of Asgard, video from outside had show him that there were several intruders in the compound and he knew they would be going for the heart of the citadel. He saw Arak enter the room, showing no fear as he did so. “Kak vas zovut?’ he said to Arak.
Arak furrowed his brow as he spoke no Russian, but it surprised him that maybe Rocket Red 8 would rather talk this out than fight. “I am here with others to stop the Vanguard from funding others in their attempts to bring the Western world to their knees. I do not wish to kill you, leave now and no one will know.” Arak was flowing with confidence in his voice, his tone was clear that if Rocket Red 8 chose to stay, then he would die.
“Bolshoe spasibo,” RR8 said. “Kak eto skazat po russky? No,” and just as he finished talking, RR8 let loose a barrage from his hand blasters. Arak never knew what hit him as blast after blast ripped through his torso. As the light faded from Arak’s eyes he could see the Panther Wind coming to him and hoisting him aloft to take him to his ancestors.
Penny stayed close to Tiger as he led them through the underbelly of Asgard. Her thoughts of the others was interrupted every so often as she watched Tiger dispatch guard after guard; she had never seen someone fight with such skill and speed.
“Penny, when we finally reach Ness or Rocket Red 8 I want you to hang to the back. We still don’t know what Ness is capable of and unless Rocket Red 8 shoots you full of electricity he’ll blow you away quick.”
“Not a problem,” she said. “I don’t think that I can do much against that giant droid anyway.”
“I think you would be surprised what you can do, Penny. I read the file on your powers and think you aren’t giving yourself enough credit,” Tiger said. According to what he was briefed on, Penny was able to absorb a lot more than just small amounts of electricity. Nearly all forms of energy seemed possible, and the more you pumped into her, the more devastating the return. The only thing that was unknown was what amount would it take to kill her before she released it.
As Tiger led them through the complex he heard water and machinery humming along. Water in the desert? He thought to himself. Eventually they found the source: Asgard was built into the side of a mountain that contained an underground well. The people who designed the citadel harnessed the well into Hydroelectricity that powered the entire complex. The generators were currently humming along at full capacity. Impressive, thought Tiger.
“Dobry den,” said a voice behind Tiger and Penny. They spun around to see Ness in the doorway.
“Vy govorite poangliysky?” Tiger replied.
Ness’ eyes stayed tight on Tiger. “Da, I speak English. I am impressed that an American has taken the time to learn a language they would see extinct.”
“It’s not the language America had a problem with,” Tiger said. “It was the Communist regime, and people like you and the Vanguard. You terrorize innocent men, women and children, and then claim you do so for a righteous cause. That line of thinking is becoming too prevalent lately, and it makes me sick. My people and I are here tonight to see to it that you are stopped permanently.”
“I am afraid that will not be possible my friend,” Ness said. As Tiger moved forward and into a fighting stance, Penny moved between the generators out of the way. The look in Ness’ eyes made it quite clear that he would have no problem killing her when he got the chance.
Tiger leapt out of his stance and shot his left leg out in an attempt to kick Ness in the face. Ness sidestepped the move and, as Tiger came back down, Ness pulled him to the floor by his hair, causing the back of his head to smash concrete. Ness kicked Tiger in the face and drew first blood. He reached down for Tiger’s throat and was met by a kick to the side that sent him sprawling to the floor.
Tiger scrambled to his feet and punched the rising Ness with a right cross. Ness fell backwards but as he did so he swept out the legs of Tiger and once again sent him to the ground. Both men hurried to their feet and squared off again.
“You are good,” said Tiger.
“I get better,” said Ness. Suddenly his eyes started to glow with a light blue, and his hands began to form blue crackling energy between them. Before Tiger could move the energy shot forth from Ness’ hands and enveloped him in an electrical sheath. Tiger screamed in pain and thrashed to and fro, the electricity arcing out of his mouth and out his toes and fingers. He looked like a man being struck by a thousand lightning bolts all at once.
And Penny looked on, more afraid than ever.
The Manticore leapt straight at Tao, who at the last second ceased to levitate and dropped under the animal’s attack. She turned to see him crash into a small toolbox and a pile of tires. Once again she readied herself for the energy blast that was sure to come from the beast’s tail, but again the beast relied upon its animal fury and claws for its assault. Tao tried to maneuver out of the way but the Manticore was faster than she anticipated, the beast ripped his claws across her arm and neck, blood flowed down the front of her dress.
“Come on you bastard, fire that tail!” she cried. In response the Manticore roared and fired his energy blast. Tao used her mind to shunt the energy back at the Manticore. The energy crashed into Manticore and caused him to howl in pain and confusion. He fired again, and once more his own energy was used against him, bringing him down to his knees. “Had enough?” Tao asked with a small smirk on her face.
“Nyet!” said a voice behind her. She whirled around to see Rocket Red 8 raise his gauntlet and smacked her across the face. The cold metal hand broke Tao’s jaw, and her eye felt like it had exploded out of its socket.
Tao struggled to stand up, blood coming from her nose stained the ground in front of her. She looked into the mask of Rocket Red 8 and saw her reflection; she was missing her left eye and there was a huge gash opened across her cheek. She screamed in rage and pain, and that was when Manticore jumped on her from behind.
With Bronze Tiger unmoving on the floor, Ness turned his attention to Penny. “Please my dear, come out from there and I will make certain your death is quick,” he said as he offered his hand.
“You think I’m hiding in here?” Penny asked. “Tiger brought me here for a reason, I’m here to take your freaking world down!” she cried. Standing between the generators, Penny was absorbing a tremendous amount of energy, energy that she finally released at Ness. He screamed in pain as his body was torn away by the energy, ripping holes through him like he was tissue paper. “Fry you bastard!” yelled Penny.
Finally, with her energy nearly spent, Penny slowly moved past the smoking carcass of Ness to the fallen Bronze Tiger. He was so still, Penny was certain he had perished during the fight. Then, slowly, his eyes fluttered open.
Before he could even speak, Penny was dragging Tiger out of the compound. She was determined to make the rendezvous point alive. They made their way out of the building and into the compound, passing frozen soldiers as they went. We’re going to make it, she thought, I just hope the others are ok. Suddenly, the howl of the Manticore made all of Penny’s hopes dash.
Rocket Red 8 stood near the front of the Asgard compound along with the Manticore. He had surveyed much of the base’s destruction and was determined to see the last of these Americans die for their attack. The Manticore wiped the slobber from his mouth; the beast was hungry again after making quick work of Tao Jones. RR8 let the Manticore loose on the two intruders, hoping that the end would be slow for them, when suddenly the Manticore was hit by a blast of ice.
“Bad dog,” said Mr. Freeze. He strode towards Rocket Red 8 with his cold gun in hand. The battle in the compound had left Freeze none the worse for wear and, after defeating Heat, he was truly looking for an opponent that he might test his mettle against.
RR8 watched as Freeze slammed a fist through the block of ice that was Manticore, killing the beast. He saw that the woman and the black man would wait; this man of ice was his true opponent. He fired twin blasts at Freeze, but they were countered by the cold gun blast. RR8 decided that he would fare better with an aerial assault. Freeze watched as RR8 flew high into the night sky, all lights on his armor blinked out of sight, and his suit was making no noise at all.
Penny, still holding up Tiger, looked in the air afraid to make any noise at all. She looked over at Freeze and saw the heat of the desert even at night made steam rise off of his suit.
Freeze held his breath as he scanned the sky in search of his opponent. “Coward,” he said. “Bring the Tiger,” he said to Penny, “we are leaving this Godforsaken place.” Penny dragged Tiger to Freeze who unburdened her at last. Together the two villains carried Tiger through the front gate and into the Egyptian desert. Suddenly RR8 dove from the sky like a missile, slamming hard into Freeze’s back. Screaming in pain, Freeze reached his arm around RR8’s helmet and locked his hands together in a sort of headlock. RR8 took off once again to the skies, this time Freeze held on to him, intent on making certain he would not get away.
Penny and the weakened Tiger watched helplessly as RR8 and Freeze disappeared into the night sky, then a brilliant flash of white – blue light made them temporarily see stars. As their vision returned, they saw Mr. Freeze walking towards them out of the darkened desert, a red and white helmet frozen in a small ice block was in his hands. “Let’s go,” he said.
Four days later
Tiger held the small crystal heart in his fingers, outside the office door he saw Victor Freeze sitting and talking to Dr. Springer. They were about to let go of one of the most powerful and evil men walking the planet. Tiger looked at the crystal; he would make certain that Freeze didn’t go far, he would command him to stay by his side until they could figure a means to either cure him or lock him away forever.
Freeze stood and walked out of Springer’s office. The doctor’s face remained unchanged, as if he had just heard some disturbing news. Freeze walked towards Tiger. “Good bye Mr. Turner; it has been a pleasure serving the United States of America with you,”he said.
“I think you should probably stay around here with me, Victor.” Tiger made certain that the crystal was prominently displayed on his chest as he spoke. “Stay around here and we could work together again.”
Freeze’s eyes lingered on the crystal and a smile crossed his blue face. “I have to let you in on a little secret, Mr. Turner: Dr. Springer’s prowess at hypnotism is not nearly as good as my acting.” He reached over and yanked the chain from Ben Turner’s neck and crushed the crystal in his hand. “I hope for your sake we do meet each other again.”
Turner watched as Freeze left the building, wondering how in the world he managed to live after being around that man the last week. He walked into Dr. Springer’s office, who was still sitting at his desk with the look of shock on his face. “Doctor,” said Turner, “we need to have a serious talk about your methods and treatments. If you have treated any other patients at Arkham as carelessly as Freeze, then it’s only a matter of time before you are responsible for..” Turner stopped and his jaw dropped.
He finally noticed that Dr. Springer was frozen in ice from the waist down.
Penny Dreadful sat in Director Bones’ office alone, waiting for his arrival. As the door opened and he entered she stood to greet him, her dark green lace dress was tight, leaving little to the imagination, she also wore small black boots and gloves.
“Penny,” Bones said as he made his way to her, “I am so glad you are finally out. Now we can start a real life together, no more of this super hero and super villain nonsense, just you and me, a family.” As Bones finished speaking he went to hug Penny who in turn slapped him across his translucent face.
“You bastard! Do you even care that two of OUR family members died on that insane mission you forced on us?” As Penny spoke, tears streaked down her face. “You sent us out there to die, all to make you feel better about being let out from the start and becoming some sort of top secret government agent. The Hell with you Bones! You wanted Penny Dreadful out of prison, well she’s out, but I swear you will regret it every day of your miserable life.”
As Penny left, unseen by anyone, an invisible tear ran down a translucent cheek. “I’m sorry, Penny.”
The End...
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