gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Dec 31, 2018 14:11:04 GMT
Issue 8 - "Special Report"
After a night's rest, the group continued to discuss how they could portray themselves more favourably to the wider world. A package arrived, which turned out to be a phone. It contained a message from Lau, repeating his offer to financially support the group in return for their help. He gave them a sweetener of £10,000 which was useful as Yukio's cards had all been stopped. Lau also informed them that, although this was not his doing, the police were aware of their location and were planning a raid.
The group packed the essentials and left separately. They spotted at least two people watching the house, and by various means they mostly managed to avoid being followed. This wasn't completely successful, however, as Josephine was tailed to the cafe where they all met up.
Tommy got the contact details for Cheryl Starr, the reporter he had spoken to previously, and arranged for her to meet them at the cafe. She interviewed them, and they gave her their version of events, emphasising that they wanted to help and were not the baddies. She promised to produce a TV report, and also get their story in the papers and on radio ASAP. She also informed them of the death of Kelly Swales, the telekinetic teenager. Apparently she had jumped to her death from a nearby block of flats.
Realising that the cafe was surrounded by police, Cheryl uploaded all her interview footage in case it was impounded. As they left, the police closed in and took Tommy and Cheryl in for questioning. The others escaped by turning into cats, dogs, birds or giraffes.
At the police station, the officer was confused that Tommy's age did not match his appearance, and assumed that he was the son of Tommy Atkins. He was eventually released without charge. As the group met up, there were reports on the web of unusual weather activity nearby. They went to investigate and discovered the remaining escapee from the other ward, a middle-aged woman, floating above the street and generating a circle of snow and ice that was causing chaos. As they went to intervene, several army trucks arrived and disgorged a troop of heavily armed soldiers...
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Jan 11, 2019 22:23:45 GMT
Issue 9 - "Fighting in a Winter Wonderland"
The floating woman caused snow and ice to fall upon some of the soldiers and the specials, freezing Josephine in place. Some of the army opened fire on the woman, but failed to hurt her as she appeared to have an icy shield.
Bill used his fire powers to defrost a stricken bus, and Yukio telekinetically moved it out of harm's way. William turned his hands to shovels and freed an old couple trapped in a car. Kurt turned into his favourite gorilla form, and leapt on a jeep with a mounted machine gun. Attempting to knock the soldier off, he inadvertently ripped his head off. This caused the surrounding troops to open fire, injuring the gorilla. Mr Dead used his super strength to hurl a lamppost at the frost-woman, but she deflected it with an icy blast. Seeing this, Tommy got Mr Dead to throw HIM at the woman, and he successfully grabbed her and forced her back down to earth.
Yukio conjured healing powers and managed to bring the mauled soldier back to life. She tried to rescue Kurt, but the soldiers thought she was a threat and shot her. William tried to talk to some of the other soldiers, but for some reason they didn't seem to trust the giant metal talking eagle. Meanwhile, Tommy had subdued the frosty woman and Mr Dead picked her up and ran off. A helicopter arrived, but William managed to keep this occupied. Tommy found the man in charge, and managed to convince him that they were trying to help, and that they could deal with the situation better than the army. This calmed the situation considerably, and the troops stood down, allowing Yukio and Kurt to recover from their injuries. Corporal Strickland exchanged contact details, and the specials left the scene. After a brief discussion, they decided to return the subdued weather-woman to the custody of the soldiers, who tasered her and took her away.
The group spent the night at Veal's flat. Next day they decided to follow up the offer from Mr Lau. They contacted him and arranged to meet his associate at a hotel. Suspecting Lau's motives, they changed the venue at the last minute and sent the contact to another hotel where Kurt, William and Yukio were all waiting in disguise. Tommy and Bill met with Mr Su, who explained that if they wanted to meet Lau face to face, they would need to travel to Japan (although he did say a private jet would take them). They declined, so Su asked if they could provide 'samples' to be sent to Lau. They presumed that Lau, who is very old, wanted to obtain Tommy's reverse ageing, and Yukio thought she might be able to replicate this power with a spell. They said that they would consider using their powers to help Lau, so Mr Su left and said that he would be in touch very soon when he had taken this news to Lau...
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Jan 23, 2019 13:34:06 GMT
Issue 10 - "Power trip"
After a night's rest, Tommy received a call from Colonel Strickland. Apparently there were some unusual incidents in London that required their attention. They were told to report to a nearby army base for further information. There, they met with Strickland, who asked them to travel to the capital and meet with Major Stoke. After a short helicopter ride, they arrived and were given a briefing by the major. Apparently there had been several recent raids on banks, electronics factories, and most recently the army base itself. Weapons, cash and materials had been stolen. The only evidence was a short piece of CCTV showing an armoured man firing something at a camera, and later a group of similarly armoured people leaving in a van that could turn invisible. The tech guys had rigged up a scanner to detect energy pulses signalling the next raid, and the major asked the Specials to help.
After relaxing for a while, and being fitted for some body armour, they were alerted by the scanner that the next raid was taking place at a nearby bank. The 'copter dropped them nearby, and they were let in to the (apparently deserted) building. Downstairs, outside the vault, they found two unconscious security guards. The vault door was open, and the armoured gang were using a ray gun to shrink gold and cash down to a tiny size, so they could carry it off. There were three in power armour, three more in special power suits, and a drone keeping watch.
Josephine used her sonic scream to stun one of the guards, and the drone was smashed against a wall, allowing Bill to melt it with a blast of fire. Yukio used telekinesis to slam the vault door, trapping half the raiders inside. Tommy entered a protracted fist fight with one of the thieves, his punches matching the power suit's strength and speed. William used his polymorphic powers to attack and dismantle another's armour.
One of the raiders walked through the wall of the vault and attacked Josephine and Bill. Another forced the door open with super strength and waded into combat with a chainsaw-like arm attachment. The other could grow and shrink, and attacked Will. The Specials' powers were finally tested, as the thieves were fearsome opponents, their armour protecting them and giving them enhanced strength, but the team worked together well to defeat them. Tommy won his fist fight and Bill melted another, but refrained from killing him. Yukio and Will combined their powers to slam the vault door and crush another raider to death, severely injuring the big one, who was taken out by a shot from Tommy's pistol. William trapped the size-changing thief in his metallic grip, but the intangible one, although injured, managed to escape.
In the aftermath, Yukio conjured healing magic and restored life to the crushed raider, and the one shot by Tommy. They stripped the power armour off the raiders and called for backup. As the army arrived to take the thieves away, the Specials debated whether they should steal any easily-concealable cash....
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Post by zaphodbeebledoc on Jan 23, 2019 19:22:44 GMT
I've gotta point out that it was Metalmorph (William) and I believe Yukio who slammed the door back shut. After Metalmorph had been concertinaed by the opening vault door...
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Jan 25, 2019 18:44:17 GMT
Issue 11 - "Steal Works"
The team wanted to prevent the super-suits from getting into the hands of the military, who were about to arrive. Tommy cleverly suggested using the shrink-ray function to reduce them all. The suits had a power core which was inactive, but the veteran dripped his own blood on to it, which turned it on, allowing the suits to be shrunk and hidden inside Williams metal body before the soldiers arrived. Tommy managed to convince them that the suits had been shrunk and/or removed by the escapee, without actually lying to the army. On the helicopter ride back to base, the suits returned to full size, but William managed to shrink them again quickly before anyone noticed. He later hid them on a roof, and eventually in a cheap rented room at a nearby motel.
The next day, Tommy managed to negotiate a contract with Major Stoke, who was pleased with the team's performance. They were employed in a 'consultancy' role, with new identities and passports, working with military authorisation. He tried to 'backdate' this to cover their misdeeds over the last week, but this was refused. Nevertheless, they were now a legitimate crime-fighting super-hero team. The rest of the day was spent being fitted for body armour.
That evening, Stoke informed them that, although the scanner had detected no energy pulse, there was suspicious activity at a steelworks on the outskirts of London, and he wanted them to investigate. They arrived in the helicopter, along with three soldiers for backup. The factory was in darkness, but there did seem to be activity inside. The soldiers, as well as Kurt (who had become Man-bat again) and Yukio (who was in a foul mood after someone had said something to her) patrolled the perimeter. William slipped inside in cat form, and discovered a group using the machinery to construct armour parts from steel plate. There were four drones, a power trooper, Intangible-girl, and a Russian in a half-body armour suit with a welding torch and telekinetic manipulator. Also, a massive robotic scorpion that was helping with the heavy lifting.
Atkins planned the attack, which paid off as a shot from his revolver and a blast of flame from Bill took out Intangible-girl before she could react. The group charged in, Tommy heading for the Russian and Will for the trooper, while Mr Dead took on the giant scorpion and Jo and Bill tackled the drones. The latter proved tricky, as they were very agile and easily dodged the blasts of fire and sonic pulses thrown at them. Josephine took a nasty burn from a drone's laser blast, and Bill suffered the same fate. William battled the power trooper, but his armour protected him from most of the attacks, and he stabbed the metalmorph with a laser dagger. Tommy had shot the Russian once, but his force shield protected him from any more bullets, and he lifted a huge steel plate to crush the veteran, who managed to do a commando-roll and avoid most of the damage. Mr Dead was struggling against robo-scorpion, as his punches couldn't penetrate it's armour, and he was grabbed in it's pincer.
Things were looking grim for our heroes, but they bravely fought on. Josephine used a sonic blast to smash two drones against the floor and Bill melted the others with accurate flame strikes. Will squeezed his arm inside the armour and stabbed the trooper repeatedly, eventually defeating him. Tommy went hand-to-hand with the Russian, and took a gash from his laser welder, but managed to push him into the steel press where his armour was crushed, and he surrendered. Mr Dead grabbed the scorpion by the tail and, using his super-strength, smashed it into the machines, deactivating it.
Yukio, still in a sulk, was persuaded to restore the injured baddies, so there were no casualties. The Specials removed the power cores that seemed to fuel the suits, and hid them inside William. Tommy threatened the Russian, and discovered that he was working for someone named Zarkhov. Atkins again displayed his expert negotiating skills, and persuaded the Russian, Vladimir, to switch sides and start working for the team. This seemed a better option than prison, or having his testicles shot off. They headed back to base after another successful mission...
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Post by brumguvnor on Jan 26, 2019 8:55:35 GMT
Zarkhov? - classic!
And: Yukio didn't get involved much because she was sulking over what someone had said? - genius!
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Post by zaphodbeebledoc on Jan 26, 2019 18:59:16 GMT
William realises that stabbing the trooper from underneath his armour is a bit of a low blow, but we were trying to take them out asap, and we do have a magical healer on the team.
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Feb 1, 2019 17:37:10 GMT
Issue 12 - "Source of Power"
After returning to base with the captured Vladimir, the group retired to bed. Next day, they spent some down time on various activities. William moved the suits to a different hotel room so they wouldn't be discovered. Yukio went to the army base hospital and miraculously cured several people of severe burns and shrapnel wounds. One of the injured soldiers even began to grow back his leg. Josephine spent some time going through Veal and Masood's notes. She discovered that the silicate sample had been sent by Forza to both Veal and Zarkhov. Veal had made the serum which had been given to the 12 patients in the hospital, and possibly others although Veal's notes were not complete (presumably he took most of his notes with him when he went into hiding). The remains of the original sample were also unaccounted for. Jo postulated that Zarkhov's sample had been used to make the suits and weaponry. Worried about their fatigue and loss of energy, the group resolved to go to Italy and find the source of the sample.
Tommy questioned Vlad, and discovered that there was an invisible van parked outside the steelworks. Kurt confirmed this as he had noticed an invisible object with echolocation in bat form. They retrieved the hidden suits and tried to operate them. Josephine successfully used the size-changing suit, which considerably increased her strength and protected her too. William used the larger suit, but although it protected him it didn't increase his strength too much. Similarly, the suit Tommy tried on was more of a hindrance to him.
Back at the steelworks, they used Vlad's key to reveal the invisible van, and used it's sat-nav to return to Zarkhov's base, which was at a power-plant. The van allowed them to open the gate automatically, and they entered a large warehouse with a freight lift in one corner. As they cautiously approached the lift, sentry guns hidden by illusions activated and fired upon them. Tommy was hit by a laser, Josephine managed to deflect many bullets with her sonic shield, and her new armour prevented her being killed by a rocket. Tommy ran at the laser turret and tried to smash it up, which he did after Josephine joined in with a sonic pulse. William attacked the machine gun, and disabled it by bending the barrel. The rocket turret was destroyed by Yukio ripping it apart with telekinesis. The others took out the grenade launcher, and the way was clear to press on into Zarkhov's lair...
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Feb 8, 2019 17:27:39 GMT
Issue 13 - "You're never more than six feet away from a rat"
William identified security cameras in the room, which he and Bill destroyed. He morphed into the lift and identified another camera in there. Kurt changed into a rat and rode the lift down to scout out the underground level. He found a disused chamber, and beyond that Zarkhov's workshop, which housed a huge complicated machine as well as the man himself, two sentry robots and four drones. He chewed through the wires leading to the lift security camera.
Josephine used her shrink ray to reduce everyone's size and they rode the lift down. Zarkhov guessed they were infiltrating his lair and released poison gas, but Jo easily repelled this with a sonic shield. At the bottom, Tommy was increased to giant size, and he charged at Zarkhov. The evil genius ran into his teleportation machine under cover of his drones, and disappeared.
Tommy grabbed one of the robots, lifted it above his head and smashed it to the ground. William crawled into the knee joint of the other robot and attacked it with his laser. Yukio and Kurt both turned into tiny birds and landed on the drones. Using their polymorphic abilities, they changed into giant gorillas and crushed the drones under them. The battle continues next issue...
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Feb 18, 2019 22:28:10 GMT
Issue 14 - "Another Fine Mech"
Josephine used a sonic pulse to slam the two remaining drones into the floor, splintering them into bits. Tommy battled one robot, while Mr Dead skewered the other with bone shards that had suddenly appeared from his wrists. Yukio turned into a giant gorilla and joined in. With Jo's help, a few seconds later both robots were destroyed.
The four decided to follow Zarkhov through his teleporter, leaving Kurt, William and Bill to secure the rest of the base. The evil genius had anticipated their arrival, however, and they appeared trapped inside a force cage in another part of the power station, with Zarkhov laughing at them. A purple light drained Jo of her powers temporarily, but the others resisted and began smashing the force field emitters. They eventually escaped, but this gave Zarkhov time to climb inside his huge mech suit and attack them.
Tommy pulled up a piece of the power plant and swung it at the giant mech and Jonus attacked one of its arms with his bone spikes. The thing had tough armour plating and shields, which deflected most of the damage, but they were making some impact. A deadly laser blast ripped through the heroes, but their reflexes and toughness saved them from much harm. Concentrated attacks from Tommy and Jonus opened up an opportunity, and Jo blasted the canopy apart with a sonic pulse allowing Yukio to use her telekinesis on Zarkhov's control panel and rip it apart, disabling the machine and knocking the mad scientist to the ground.
The specials interrogated him, and Yukio used a mind control spell to determine the truth. They discovered that he could not really be trusted, as an injection of raw silicate had made him insane. Previously an ignored inventor, after receiving the sample from Forza, he had created power crystals and bio-electric cores which fueled the suits and robots. After much discussion, they decided to keep him captive in the facility and adopt it as their own base...
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Post by brumguvnor on Feb 20, 2019 13:43:54 GMT
So Yukio is going to march up to the army bloke (whatever his name is) and ask if he has arranged a visit to a kids hospital ward for her yet, and if he hasn't tell him he's just lost his last chance for her to EVER heal any army personnel ever again, and then go off and try to do it herself.
Which reminds me - since all this has begun, we've not had a day off AND I've seen someone fly and not yet used that power.
Can you see where this is going?!
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Feb 22, 2019 23:01:41 GMT
Issue 15 - "Private Investigations"
Leaving Mr Dead and Mr Burns behind at the power plant to watch over the captive Zarkhov, the others returned to the army base and went to bed. In the morning, Major Stoke passed them a communication from Strickland in Birmingham, who had an incident to report and needed them to return. They were filled in on the helicopter ride back and in Strickland's briefing room. The woman who had caused the snowstorm, Helena Hale*, who was being held in a cell on the Birmingham army base had been found drowned in the swimming pool. The CCTV footage showed Colonel Strickland himself checking her out of the cell, taking her towards the pool, then leaving a short time later. As the Colonel had an alibi, the Specials concluded that the murderer was a shape-shifter who had copied his appearance. Analysing the footage, they noticed a mouse scampering into the locker room just before the fake Colonel appeared. Strickland noted that the only civilian he had met recently was the reporter Cheryl Starr, who had interviewed him about the Specials.
Yukio wanted to continue with her good works and arranged a visit to the children's hospital where she amazed the doctors by healing several critically ill kids. She also paid a visit to her family. Josephine went back to her old flat and also sorted her finances. Tommy bought himself a flat cap, and visited his wife's grave. Later, he was contacted by Cheryl, and they arranged to meet at the coffee shop the next morning. In an attempt to gather more information, William turned himself into a bloodhound and sniffed the Specials, along with some of the soldiers. He discovered that his senses could differentiate between the scents of Special individuals, that they smelt different to regular people, and stronger when using their powers. At the army base, his senses were overwhelmed when entering the cell where Hale had been held.
Next day, at the cafe, Tommy conformed the identity of Cherry Starr using a code phrase they had previously agreed. She said that she had not visited the army base (so presumably the murderer had taken on her appearance to enter the base and meet with Strickland to copy him). She had been looking into the 'suicide' of Kelly the telekinetic teenager and discovered that just before jumping she had been seen with a 'man dressed in black old-fashioned clothes'. They presumed this was Jacob Engels, the illusionist they had encountered at Veal's flat. She also reported that Richmond, the goth from the graveyard, had been found dead in his bath, having slit his wrists....
*I made a mistake and used the wrong name. Wendy Wiles was the ghost woman you encountered at Veal's mansion.
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Mar 2, 2019 17:09:13 GMT
Issue 16 - "The Italian Job"
The group continued their investigation into the death of Helena Hale. William used his bloodhound form to sniff out clues around the base. They inspected the body and asked for a full autopsy. The body showed signs that she had been held under the water. William could detect the lingering scent of powers, but little else.
Josephine and Yukio used their combined intelligence to sift through Veal's notes, and they analysed blood samples. They concluded that the serum was a symbiotic silicate that Veal had packaged into an injectable form. The silicate bound itself with all the cells of the body and formed a symbiotic relationship with the host. There were two versions of the serum: the one that the six original subjects had, which appeared to be degrading; and the version that Bill and the occupants of the other ward had, which appeared to bestow more unstable powers. Of the others, Ken, Helena, Kelly and Richmond were all known to be dead, leaving only Bill and Jacob Engels (the mind reading illusionist) alive.
Realising that to prevent further loss of their powers they should seek out the source, the group returned to London and told Major Stoke that they were leaving for Italy. Deciding to charter a private plane rather than risk commercial airlines, Josephine used her contacts to find a suitable airport and Yukio used her mind control powers to avoid paying. A few hours later, they landed in Catania, then took a car to the port of Milazzo. From there, a hydrofoil took them to the island of Stromboli.
At the offices of Victor Forza, they questioned the receptionist, and again Yukio read her mind. Apparently Forza had left a few days ago on an expedition to the volcano and not been seen since. The Specials decided that they must follow the trail to Stromboli and find the source of their powers...
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Mar 8, 2019 17:45:32 GMT
Issue 17 - "It's all lava now"
The Specials investigated the field station near the volcano and discovered seismic data and notes relating to the discovery of the original sample. Forza had found it in a small meteorite crater near the lava flow and collected about half of the sample. After sending portions to Veal and Zarkhov, he returned to investigate further.
At the sample site, the group found it had been completely covered with a new lava flow. In a nearby tent they found dynamite, and Forza's notebook detailing his experimental mixing of the sample with lava, and the loss of the rest of the material which had been absorbed into the lava.
Venturing into the volcano itself, they discovered a rock fall. After Tommy and Will had cleared the way, Kurt scouted out the tunnels in bat form. Beyond the rock fall they emerged into a chamber and were attacked by two amorphous lava creatures. Tommy attacked one with a large rock, while Kurt turned into his ape form. Jo used a massive sonic pulse to weaken the creatures, and eventually blasted one apart. The other, having been weakened by Tommy, was blown to bits when Kurt shoved the dynamite into it's body. On the ground, they discovered a dictaphone, on which they heard Forza describing been trapped in the tunnels by the lava creatures. The sample he was carrying engulfed his arm and appeared to protect him against the lava, but also dull his mind. His last entry explained he was going towards the central chamber. The group followed the trail onward, leaving Mr Dead and Mr Burns behind as they were unable to face the intense heat.
At the heart of the volcano was a lava pool, from which emerged a gigantic magma-monster which appeared to have absorbed poor Forza into itself. Hesitantly approaching the beast, which had several lava spheres circling around it, the group readied themselves for their toughest foe yet. Yukio used an ice spell to conjure a shield around everyone and Jo used a sonic barrier. The thing struck at the floor with tremendous force, blocking the exit and destroying both protective shields. Tommy hurled a huge rock, and managed to damage the creature's leg, despite it's rocky shield protecting it from much of the force. The others concentrated on this weakened spot, with Kurt hurling rocks, Yukio using her ice magic and Jo blasting it with sonic waves. The monster retaliated and grabbed the heroes in a giant lava fist, crushing them. Kurt and Jo momentarily passed out, and Yukio was only saved by the power suit she was wearing. Summoning the last of their strength, the heroes worked together: Yukio conjured a powerful icicle and fired it straight into the creature's head, allowing the others to smash the frozen beast apart. Forza's dying scream was heard as the monster crumbled to ash, leaving behind seven glowing purple crystals....
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Post by zaphodbeebledoc on Mar 8, 2019 21:32:47 GMT
Issue 17 - "It's all lava now" *groan* ...leaving behind seven glowing purple crystals.... What a coincidence...
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