A/N: Hey guys! It's the author here, with a brand new fanfic, inspired by the picture on deviantART of the same name! It is by Shy-Light, and it is of, guess what? Our favourite duo and their friend, Transformers: Animated Sideswipe, Sunstreaker and Bluestreak! Woohoo! Go look at it because it's a cool pic and it inspired this lengthy (by my standards ;A;) fanfic. Also, regarding my other fic, Mechmaker, I'm sorry for not updating it, I just got stuck because of the dreaded writer's block, and I realised I didn't like which direction I was gonna have the story going, and how it started. So, ASAP, I am going to revise it and re-post it, in glorius 3D!...If only. Also, this fanfic can be continued if you want it to, maybe entailing the three muskateer's crazy fun times on Earth? Possibly? If so, say it in the review and leave a prompt of what they could do! This is not a slashy fanfic guys, so keep that in mind. Now, on with the show!
4950 words (excluding Author's Notes)
"All right. Now, you may have already heard the small space bridge maintenance team that recently went missing. Their last known location; Space Bridge 854270. It has never been explored, and for good reason. No Cybertronian has ever ventured to the other side of that bridge, so we do not know what lies ahead. Their leader Optimus Prime and his crew went through the bridge, right before it exploded. Our specialists have repaired it, and we have decided to organise and send out a three mech search party. I have chosen you, our best sniper and our two top frontliners. Your mission; find them and bring them home."
"Hey, Sunstreaker! Rise and shine, up up up, let's go, debriefing for the new mission's in exactly fifteen cycles! Well, more or less anyway." Sideswipe practically yelled into the poor 'bot's face, shaking his brother out of recharge. He clapped twice and the lights flickered on, lighting up the once dark room. Sunstreaker groaned and extended his arm out, punching the red twin square in the gut.
"Shut the frag up, get out of my face and let me slagging recharge, there's plenty of time..." he grumbled, flipping around to face the wall and turning his back on the world. Sideswipe staggered back a few steps, clutching his abdominal plating and going down to his knees, albeit slightly dramatically.
"That hurt, Sunny, that really did." He sniffled. Sunstreaker didn't seem to notice or care, crossing his arms tightly over his chest and settling back in for a few more cycles of recharge.
As he nestled in his berth, he was about to doze off, but the doors slid open and admitted their resident silver sniper into the shared quarters.
"Hi Sideswipe, hi Sunstreaker! Are you guys ready for the meeting? What do you think the mission's about? They said it was pretty important, so why aren't you up Sunstreaker? Hey Sideswipe, are you okay? It's just that you're on the floor, well, kneeling on the floor, holding onto your stomach, and usually you'd only do that if you were hurt there, or sick, or some other third thing, but you're not bleeding, or maybe you are but I just can't see the energon, and..." He was cut short as Sunstreaker swung his legs over the bottom bunk, stood up and clamped a hand over the babbling Bluestreak's mouth. He then used his other servo to make a shushing gesture. Bluestreak nodded, replying with a 'Yes Sunstreaker', even though his voice was muffled and could barely be heard.
Sunstreaker climbed back into his berth, offlining his optics and shutting the covers tightly...Yet he still couldn't fall back into recharge. "Primus dammnit. Fine, I'm awake, are you two happy? I can't believe I share a room with the two loudest mechs on base." Bluestreak smiled and nodded once again, while Sideswipe looked up and gave a weak nod.
"Sure...Happy and in pain. But no time for writhing in pain right now!" he exclaimed, springing up to his pedes and marching out of their quarters as if nothing had happened. "Time's a-wastin', we gotta go to the debriefing."
Bluestreak waved a servo dismissively. "We have plenty of time." Still, he followed after the red twin, along with the golden bundle of sunshine who was griping about his paintjob.
Sideswipe jauntily strode into the meeting/debriefing room, plopping himself down into one of the vacant seats and putting his servos behind his helm in a relaxed pose. Sunstreaker himself sat down across from his jolly twin, the usual scowl plastered across his faceplates. And last but not least, Bluestreak seated himself at the end of the table, in between the twin frontliners.
One of the higher ups in the command chain soon entered the room, standing in front of the only three mechs present. "Soldiers," he began.
Sideswipe pretended to watch intently, although his mind wandered elsewhere. He wasn't a huge fan of mission debriefs. They were tedious, almost like the lectures he got for pranking various mechs and femmes on base. His style of doing things was 'do it now, talk about it later', so he tuned the monotone voice out.
Sunstreaker was more obvious. He looked at a spot on the wall the whole debriefing, his expression plain disinterested. Every now and then, he would check a spot on his flawless finish.
Bluestreak, however, paid attention to the blue and white mech, doorwings twitching every now and then. He fiddled with his digits, uncomfortable with how his doorwings had to be pressed up against the chair.
"...our best sniper and our top two frontliners. Your mission; find them and bring them home."
Bluestreak visibly perked up, doorwings fluttering at the compliment. "Thank you sir! It's an honour to be chosen for this mission."
Sunstreaker grunted, muttering under his breath. "Slag yeah, we're the best."
Sideswipe stood up and saluted, prompting Bluestreak and Sunstreaker to do the same. "You can count on us, sir! Just keep the channels open, in case the rescu-ers need some rescu-ing, ha-ha ha!"
The commander nodded to the other three mechs present, ignoring the insubordination from the yellow frontliner. "Dismissed, soldiers."
"I call shotgun!" Sideswipe proclaimed, running up the ramp into the ship. Sunstreaker shook his head, following much more calmly than his excitable brother. Bluestreak giggled, subspacing his rifle.
"But Sideswipe, you're the pilot." He chimed in, settling in one of the passenger seats.
Sideswipe seemed to contemplate this for a bit, making a small 'oh' noise. "Well, even better. Ooh baby, the Discovery's a pretty sweet ride if I do say so myself. Hello, this is Sideswipe speaking, I'll be your pilot for today. Can all passengers buckle in because we're in for a wild ride!" he whooped, strapping himself in and flicking a few of the switches on the dashboard.
"Not while I'm Co-Pilot, moron. You think I'm going to risk ruining my finish because you crashed our ship into something?" Sunstreaker glared, gesturing to his frame.
Bluestreak leaned back in his chair, specifically made for a Praxian model, so his doorwings hung comfortable from his back. He crossed his seatbelt over his chest, locking it into place. "Can you believe it guys? I can't. Ultra Magnus, THE Magnus, the Autobot Supreme Commander, picked us three out of loads of Autobots! Makes me feel special. And pressured. We're going to an uncharted planet in a space bridge no one's ever been into or maybe no one's ever come back from to tell the tale. Heck, we don't even know if there IS a planet there to be uncharted. Ooh, we're a lot like one of those exploration teams that go out and map the stars and the planets and things like that. Do you think that would be fun? I think it might be a tad bit boring, but then again it'd be really peaceful and tranquil and no one would be trying to shoot you down or something..." he babbled on, chattering away as the two twins configured the settings, preparing for lift-off. They let him keep talking without any interruption, knowing that this was his way of dealing with his nervousness. Eventually, he did take a break from his constant speech to give his vocaliser a rest.
Sideswipe held onto the steering wheel, pressing a button and igniting the space cruiser's engine. He turned his head to look out the window at a femme who held a datapad, thumb up. Sideswipe tilted his head to the side as he received a message via his communications link. "Red Rocket, Golden Rocket, Silver Shot, you are go for take-off. Good luck out there."
'Red Rocket' grinned and winked at the femme as the ship took off of the ground, hovering over the ground for a moment, before shooting off into the space bridge. A bright flash of light, and they were gone.
'Red Rocket' groaned and let his head rest on the controls, meaning banging it down. "I'm bored. We've been drifting through the vast reaches of space for how long now?"
Sunstreaker checked his chronometer and faced Sideswipe with a raised optic ridge. "We basically just got here."
Bluestreak, meanwhile, had his face pressed up against the glass, gazing out of a window into the starry sky. He had a look of awe etched on his faceplates.
Sideswipe huffed and took a quick glance at Bluestreak. "C'mon Blue, it's just a bunch of stars and nothing, we see that all the time."
Bluestreak didn't take his head away from the glass, optics glowing. "Yeah, but it's a lot better when you're actually looking at it. Sure, we live among the stars and nothing, and we're surrounded by it all the time, but we don't look at it, because we're too busy doing something else. I'm glad we got chosen for this mission. Gives us time to look at what we've been ignoring for so long. I think, for once, I like the quiet." He said, smiling. Sideswipe still didn't get it, but even Sunstreaker looked dazed as he too was staring out beyond through the windscreen. The yellow twin took out the sketchpad he always kept in his subspace, and a pencil. He began to sketch something, occasionally pausing to look back out of the ship. Sighing, Sideswipe looked out into the dark space that surrounded them, dotted with tiny lights, and he saw it.
A deep, purple, velvet blanket of despair, wrapped around them, betraying no signs of escape. It stretched out for light-years, infinite, always expanding, never stopping. Much like the war. Although all of the Decepticons had been said to be wiped out when the Great War ended, everyone knew it would not be the end, and they were right. There would always be survivors, rogue 'Cons to fight, traitors and defectors, the battle would rage on. But still, even through this, there was hope. Because in the sky, there were small beacons of hope, rays of light in the darkness. Billions of miles away, yet still there. A sign that it would come to an end. In the expanse of fighting and death, peace and life would come.
What could Sideswipe say in response?
"Thanks." He whispered.
Bluestreak wandered around the spacecraft, sipping his energon, while Sideswipe updated his Captain's Log.
"This is Captain-"
"You're not 'Captain'. You don't have the title 'Captain', you're just 'the pilot'."
"Sunny! Don't interrupt me when I'm recording what could be very important information."
"This is Co-Pilot Sunstreaker speaking, we've been out here for three orbital cycles and there is absolutely nothing of interest out here. Are you sure we went through the right space bridge? Oh, and Pilot Sideswipe is slowly driving me insane. If I do not reply back within one orbital cycle, assume the worst. Bring in reinforcements." Sunstreaker growled, turning the black box off with a harsh press of a button. Sideswipe pouted and rested his helm in his hands, taking a deep vent in.
"I'm bored. The Captain's Log is the only thing I got to do. We've seen no Decepticon activity, and we've seen no signs of that space bridge repair team's ship, or of them." He whined childishly, swinging his legs back and forth.
Bluestreak, who had been relatively silent, suddenly gasped and jumped up from his seat, dashing to the closet window and pointing out into space.
Both twins snapped their heads in the direction of the gunner, squinting their optics. They followed Bluestreak's gaze out into the open, seeing nothing of interest.
He grabbed Sideswipe and Sunstreaker head, pulling them closer and gestured madly at the horizon. This elicited a low, warning growl from Sunstreaker, yet Bluestreak was too distracted by the bit of nothing outside. "Can't you see it guys?"
Sideswipe wriggled his way out of Bluestreak's grip, settling back into his seat in front of the controls. He carefully steered the ship so that it would face where Bluestreak had been pointing, then ran a long range sweep scan to see if it could detect anything.
The Discovery's artificial intelligence emitted a small beep. "Scans: conclusive. Organic life forms detected. Trace of Cybertronian life detected. Trace of Cybertronian fuel detected. Zooming in on uncharted planet." A holo-screen came up, blocking the windscreen. It showed what was outside, until a target appeared and locked onto a small dot, which had been quite far away. It honed in on it, focusing and enhancing the picture, until a blue and green plant could be made out, swirly white...something, surrounding it.
"Woah. How did you see that, Bluestreak?" asked Sideswipe curiously.
Bluestreak grinned, doorwings high. "Well, Sniper's have to have really good sight, so we can aim well at our targets. Plus, I have an in-built targeting system that can zoom in on things even from far away!"
"Yeah, that's great, so we should probably go there and check it out. Unless that fuel trail leads to somewhere else. " Sunstreaker mentioned. "Discovery?"
"Fuel trail leads to uncharted planet. Setting course to uncharted planet X2-K. Preparing turbo boosters and landing gear, rolling down window covers."
"Yes! Now I can update the Captain's log!"
"I don't think Red Rocket knows base control is receiving everything he records into the 'Captain's Log'." One of the base control femmes chuckled. She played back entry 6 of the Captain log again, thoroughly amused by the two twin terrors, as they were known. The mech next to her swivelled around in his chair and looked at the screen.
"Heh, sounds like Sideswipe alright. Okay, we should check on them, send them a message."
The femme nodded and activated the communicator. "Red Rocket, this is base control, status report." The line was met with static hissing, causing a few murmurs. She tried again. "Red Rocket, this is base control, status report. Can you read me? Do you copy, Red Rocket? Respond! Golden Rocket? Silver Shot?"
Muffled noises, yelling in the background, the worrying sound of a klaxon blaring, and finally a voice laced with static sounded. "Red Rocket to b-A-aaaase control! We're going *BZZRT* do-..." The line cut off, met only with silence.
Sideswipe whistled along to a random tune that popped into his head, coming close to the planet's orbit. Sideswipe buckled his seatbelt, turning the Captain's Log on. "Red Rocket to base control, we're...Is this thing on?" he questioned when the Discovery's control panel lights switched off. AS well as this, he noticed now that the sensory net was also disabled. He pressed the button again and again, and then began to press it rapidly. Sunstreaker face palmed, exasperated.
"What did you do?
"I didn't do anything! I was just trying to do the Captain Log thing as well as the status report, and then the lights suddenly switched off aaaaaand Bluestreak's gone silent. Yo Blue, you all right?"
Bluestreak had pressed the only control that seemed it would work, a blue button which had been glowing. He sat in his seat with his mouth agape, pointing out of the exact same now open window again, in the exact same direction.
"M-Meteor incoming!" he yelped, jumping up and clinging to Sunstreaker.
"Why didn't our scanners pick it up?"
"Uh oh."
"'Uh oh', what? Slag 'uh oh'! All you have to say is 'uh oh'?!"
"I think the signals from a nearby satellite is scrambling our, well, our everything. None of the controls are working, and our engine isn't on anymore. That asteroid over there? It's going to crash right into our ship, and we're gonna be sent careening into the planet. Is that better, Sunny?! I could go into a full detailed analysis if you wanted, Sunny!" he shouted over the alarms, the whole cruiser filled with flashing red light.
Bluestreak covered his audio receptors, optics shut as tightly as he could.
"Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" He repeated over and over again, like a mantra, panic seeping into his processor.
Sunstreaker placed Bluestreak in the passenger seat and strapped him in, making sure he was secure. He quickly went to his own seat, attempting to get anything working. Sideswipe did the same, frantically pressing and flicking all the buttons and switches he could, to see if it would do anything.
"...You know, before that meteor asteroid thing DOES collide into the Discovery, we have quite a bit of time. I mean, it looks pretty far away, right? We didn't see it before Blue pointed it out, and he pointed it out. So, before we crash into the planet, anythi- Never mind it got real close real fast."
Sideswipe sighed, leaning over to the next seat and wrapping his arms around Sunstreaker. "Hold me close Sunny before we crash."
"Still bored?"
"Shut up. We're having a moment, don't ruin it."
"You know, there is still some time to do SOMETHING! So get off me and do it!" Sunstreaker snapped, shoving Sideswipe sideways into the controls. Sideswipe stared daggers at his golden twin, muttering under his breath. He gripped the steering wheel and twisted it, in a futile attempt to get out of the path of the satellite.
Then, a scattered voice came out of the speakers. The first part of the message was unintelligible, but the next part came out crystal clear.
"Respond!"
Sideswipe bashed the communication switch, holding it down as the meteor was about to impact.
"Red Rocket to base control!" he hollered as Bluestreak shrieked and covered his helm with his hands.
At the exact moment, the flaming, speeding meteoroid crashed violently into the space cruiser, rocking the whole ship and sending it spinning.
"We're going down!" Sideswipe quickly added, the force causing his head to thrash about. He banged his head on the controls, blacking out and going into involuntary stasis lock.
Sideswipe slowly shook his head, optics onlining painfully slow. He moaned, helm throbbing, still buckled in by his seatbelt. Feeling the top of his helm and his faceplates, he grimaced, dried energon and black paint flaking off onto his hands, as well as some leaking neon pink energon. Craning his head back to study the room, he swore under his breath when immense pain shot up his neck. Well, at least everything else was intact, including Sunstreaker and Bluestreak by the looks of it. On a different note, why couldn't he remember anything? What had happened? He searched his CPU for the answers, scrolling through his most recent memories as they loaded. Then, realization hit him like a piece of metal.
Literally.
A piece of scorched metal fell on top of him, aggravating his already injured helm. What the metal had been covering was now revealed, a group of wires which were sparking where they had snapped in half.
"Okay, that helps, now I know one of the things we'll need to repair. But, top priority..." he said, possibly to himself, as he looked over at his brother and his friend. "Those two sorry sparks. Then me. Urgh, my helm is killing me." He whimpered, undoing his seatbelt and carefully standing up. He wobbled at first, stabilising himself on the controls, but soon managed to stay steady.
Bluestreak was the next to online, and upon waking, he screamed loudly in agony. Sideswipe jumped up in shock, landing on his aft. Bluestreak turned his head to look at his right doorwing, which was hanging off of his back by a few wires, his left doorwing half-melted onto his back. Sideswipe got up and approached Bluestreak, examining the damage. He was no medic, but since he was sent to the medbay for repairs after a battle or a spar, he had picked up the basics. The red frontliner leaned in and switched off the pain receptors in the doorwing, then pinching some energon lines that were still leaking.
Sunstreaker was the last to awaken, seemingly the most unscathed, excluding the dozen or more scratches and scrapes that now adorned his frame. All present focused their attention on the ceiling, hearing banging noises. Bluestreak, acting on instinct, grabbed his rifle from his subspace and aimed it at the roof. Sunstreaker balled his hands into fists, preferring hand-to-hand combat than any other weapon. Sideswipe, meanwhile, had taken one of his illegal energy blades out, twirling it around his fingers. He balanced the sharp tip on one of his digits, then tossing it up in the air so that he caught the hilt cleanly in his palm. The whistle of the blade was the only thing that filled the ship now, all three mechs silent and waiting.
Suddenly, a large hole was blasted through the top of the ship. The sniper and the two frontliners didn't even flinch, ready to strike. A blue helm striped with yellow poked in, looked around and almost instantly pulled back out. On edge and paranoid, Sunstreaker had already tried to pounce on the newly presented target, Bluestreak was repeatedly shooting the same spot, and Sideswipe enthusiastically tossed the knife out of the hole with a flick of the wrist. A sharp howl of pain was heard, echoing inside the spacecraft. Sunstreaker paused and looked through the hole, ripping it open wider to allow him to climb out. He reached his hand through the entrance, hauling Bluestreak through. Sideswipe clambered out himself, tumbling off the ship and onto the ground.
In front of them, a rather bulky, blue and red mech, to whom the head had belonged to, was convulsing on the floor, in what could only be later accurately described as the 'kickin' chicken'. He jerked about in a fit of epileptic spasms, everyone around them watching in grim, morbid fascination.
"...Say, this is, weird. Looks a bit like the guy we were trying to rescue, heh heh, right?" Sideswipe laughed nervously, gulping.
"Sideswipe?"
"Yeah?"
"You just stabbed Optimus Prime in the back."
"Oh. Go figure."
Ratchet stood there, frozen with shock as he watched Optimus Prime flip out on the floor with a dagger stuck in the center of his back. His limbs flailed about, head thrashing to and fro. He shifted his gaze to the three mechs that had emerged from the spaceship, a scrutinizing look on his faceplates. One of them, a mech he had met and was quite fond of, even though he was easily annoyed by the constant flow of words from his vocaliser. And the other two… No. It couldn't be them. Those two couldn't be those Pit-spawned twins, the very bane of his existence. The little fraggers! They followed him all the way here?! The more he took in their features though, the more sure he was. Primary red, that one, always been a big target. And that yellow one too. He would never forget their designations. They had been drilled deep into his memory core.
"Ratchet! It's us! Sideswipe and Sunstreaker!" The red hellion grinned, opening his arms wide. "C'mon, give us a hug!" he said, approaching the dull red and white medic. Although his demeanor was cheerful and showing no signs of pain, he could see the damage already present in the trio, and the small limp Sideswipe had as he walked forward.
Ratchet back pedaled a few steps, shoving Sideswipe away from him (albeit very gently compared to his usual treatment of patients).
"Don't even try it. What are you doing here? Primus, never mind that right now, let's see what the damage is this time. Oh, sweet Primus, tell me you're jokin'."
"Heya, Ratchet! What are the odds that we ended up crashing on the same uncharted, organic planet? It's a convenient coincidence too since we were sent on a search party for you guys."
"Now we need someone to save us all, you idiot." Sunstreaker stated bluntly. "After we got lost and crashed, all of our communications equipment was destroyed and... What the frag is this on my armour?" he deadpanned as he narrowed his optics on a particular spot of...brown...something, that had clung to his armour. "..."
"Hey, if you don't care where you are, you ain't lost. Besides, I like this place. It has funny little insects."
"Insects... Sideswipe! Put the human down now!"
"I agree with Sideswipe. This place is different and kind of dirty, but it's kind of nice and the weather is good here, and all of the locals are-WAAAHG! Twelve O' clock there are Decepticons!" Bluestreak shrieked like a 'little girl' as it would later be described, and started shooting at a poor little blue jay who had been curious of the giant, metallic beings.
"Stop it Blue! That's just a bird! Quit shootin' at it!"
At that moment, Sideswipe nodded and let his arms hang limply by his sides, the human being dropped back onto the ground, clearly exhausted and relieved at the thought of medical care, as Bluestreak dropped to his knees, stabilizing servos already wobbly while he had been standing. He still clutched the gun tightly, making it seem as if it depended on his life. Sunstreaker fared better, but his helm drooped down and his fists unclenched.
"Uh, Ratchet?"
"What is it, Bumblebee?"
"Prime's still, erm, as Sari put it, 'kickin' that chicken'.
Sideswipe bounded out of the medbay, foil bandages wrapped around his black helm. Bluestreak hovered behind Sideswipe, left doorwing replaced and right doorwing mended by the miraculous medic. However, he did have bandages covering his midsection after damaging his spinal struts, as well as his new doorwing being covered in said bandages. Sunstreaker shook his head and walked alongside his brother, his hands up to his elbows wrapped around in the same type of bandage. Apparently, Sunstreaker did obtain a few injuries, including having coolant mix into his energon lines, paralysing his lower arms. It felt numb, which was why Sunstreaker seemed fine. Now he couldn't use them and had to drink energon or fuel out of a straw, and he was fragged off about not being able to punch the living scrap out of things, but all in all doing well.
The three trouble-makers stepped outside, the warm feeling of the sun's rays on their armour good after being confined inside. Luckily, none of them encountered the commander on Earth, which had been dubbed his jurisdiction, as decreed by Optimus Prime. It shouldn't have mattered to Bluestreak or Sunstreaker whether Sideswipe had placed himself in the slag, yet it did, mainly because Sunstreaker was his brother and Bluestreak had jammed 38 shotgun rounds into his aft with his proton rifle. They hadn't even been 'visited' by the fire truck, thanks to Ratchet. Maybe the reassurance that they would be under the medic's 'tender mercies' was enough to satisfy him. The ambulance's bedside manner was one of the worst, and more so when you deserved it (see: stabbing and/or shooting someone in your faction that the medic will have to fix) even if it was an accident, as they said while pleading their case.
Sideswipe strolled out, taking a walk and observing the strange city filled with weird organic creatures. "What were they called again?"
"Who?"
"The squishy things. You know, the insects." Sideswipe said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, all while offending many of these 'insects' who had shocked looks on their non-metal faceplates. He had to be cautious, otherwise he'd step on one of them and they'd go splat on the bottom of his pede, as Ratchet so eloquently put it. They were so tiny, and they were everywhere, it was getting annoying to constantly have to look out for them! Yet Ratchet's warning stuck to his CPU.
'You step on human, it go splat on your pede and me make you go bye bye.' Ratchet's voice echoed in his processor.
"Don't know, don't care." Sunstreaker responded firmly.
"Never mind, I remember, it's a human."
"So guys, we've had a crazy adventure of sorts so far, what with getting sent to outer space on a search and rescue mission, crashing into an organic planet, being seriously injured, finding who we were looking for and stabbing/shooting him in the back, literally, and now stuck on the planet like them, meaning in the end the search and rescue team was pointless because now the rescuers need some rescuing. Hey! That's how you put it, isn't it Sideswipe? Anyway, what do you think's gonna happen now? Do you think we'll get rescued? And what about the Decepticons?" Bluestreak inquired, inclining his head and pausing in their walk.
Sideswipe smiled. Sunstreaker shrugged. They both slung an arm around the gunner's shoulders.
"Well, whatever happens..."
"In the end..."
"No matter who..."
"Or what..."
"We encounter..."
"We..."
"Will all be..."
"Doing..."
"One thing..."
"KICKING AFT!" They both shouted at the sky, the exclamation mark practically visible.
