A/N: Yay! Thanks people who faved (and by extension people who read). Still I would like some reviews to see how I could better my work. This chapter is set in A League of Their Own Part II and events from Blast From the Past will be mentioned.
Disclaimer: Hissssssssssss. I told y'all I don't own the durn thing!
The Grid
Overload
"Hmmm…" light from the triple screened terminal reflected off wire rimmed glasses. Head tilted in curiosity, long black locks engulfed a shoulder and uncovered a pale ear. "What's gotten into you, brother?"
Merrowww….
He floated in the inky darkness. He could see snatches of the world outside his mind. He could detect the movement of his body, even though he wasn't in control. He could feel the agonizing pain of the corrupt program converting his body cell by cell into a more useful form for it.
This was not right.
He reached out for his body only to be swatted away like a naughty child.
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.
No I…
The malevolent program assaulted him with long buried and painful memories.
NO ONE
His lonely past in Idaho, where his only friends were a few chickens and his favorite blue pillow. Years of bulling from Francis and many, many others after the move to Dakota.
WILL
His mom and dad sometimes fighting with each other over his mother working, money problems, him, etc so bad that he just stayed out of the house to get away from it all. Him arguing with his dad over his interests or his father's attitude.
SAVE
Now the supervirus forced him to relive recent failures and mistakes. Such as running away from home and being kidnapped by the MetaBreed. Letting jealousy get the better of him more than once leading to arguing with his best friend over something stupid.
YOU.
The feeling of being used when he was turned into a brain puppet by Madelyn and being forced out of the running for class president, all of his hard work going to ruins. His shame at having become addicted to the powers Ragtag gave him when he was Push and nearly committing crimes to keep them. The embarrassment of his numerous defeats at the hands of Frankie on the mat and the feeling of being a bit useless from all the times he's needed saving. Like now, the program's words reminded him.
The teen was quite aware that the Kryptonian computer was trying to break his spirit… but really it was mostly just pissing him the hell off.
He felt his mental lips form a smirk; he wasn't going down without a fight.
Yo! Brainiac! Let's you and me get a few things straight. First off, my name is Richard Osgood Foley and us Foleys happen to be stubborn as hell. So don't you tell me that 'resistance is futile' shit, better bastards than you have tried to break me and I'm still here. Second thing your Borg ass needs to know is that I. Don't. Need. Anybody. To Save. Me! I can rescue my own damn self. So you be rest assured that I'm going to stop you.
He wasn't sure exactly when it happened but it was no longer dark. The black void was lit up with green and blue sets of ones and zeroes. Lines of every green-blue combination possible formed a vast multi-dimensional grid around him.
It was… beautiful.
He brought his focus back to the rouge program running his body. It needed to by stopped, not just the part of it that was in him, BacPac was infected too. His imaginary mouth stretched wide in a grin as the part of his mind that was still his became flooded with ideas.
You are so going down.
Merrowww…
At first, Hotstreak just thought that his Princess was just having one of his 'brain monsoons' as Hawkins called them. Richie once described it to him as it being very difficult for the blond to focus on things other than the projects and ideas running around his mind till he either completes them or manages to get control back over his thoughts. While they happened less often after the blond's full transformation into a Bang Baby, every now and again Richie would get lost in his thoughts for a day or two and forget to meet him at the gym or to come visit him in his off time.
Then after another three days without a glimpse of his favorite supergeek Francis tried calling his boyfriend. The one time Richie answered his Shock Vox the blond flatly told him that he was busy. The redhead concluded that the younger meta was angry at him about the ambush with Puff so he decided to give the blond a while longer to cool off.
After delivering the dragon statue to the buyers Permafrost convinced him to go and talk to Richie. She said that he steamed when he was worried about something, Maureen was a pretty observant person but she rarely spoke up about something so he must have been making the apartment hotter than he realized. So, the fiery meta hit up the blond's favorite spots (baring Dakota Union High, since people will call the police on him if he so much as set a foot on the school's grounds) and he couldn't find him.
The blond wasn't at the comic store, the mall food court, the gaming shops, any of the local fast food joints, the arcade, the junkyard, the Alva Industries dumpsters (according to Richie they threw out a lot of good stuff for the teenage superhero on a budget), and their broken down gas station hideout (while Sparky was out, of course). Richie apparently hadn't been in for his weekly comic run, the counter boy told him that the blond's running buddy had also been looking for him.
That was the first alarm to go off, Richie made his weekly comic run no matter what and not rain nor snow nor fight with his best friend who he knows is going to show up keeps that nerd away from his damn comics. The only previous time that Hotstreak knew of that Richie didn't make his weekly run was shortly after the blond had been shot.
The second alarm went off after asking around at the food joints. Every one he asked had given him the same answer; they hadn't seen him in almost a week. One of the most noticeable things about Richie when you first get to know him was his appetite. The blond loved to eat and ate often; snacking while working on projects or homework, occasionally mooching a little from a friend's plate once his was clean, and always ready for seconds or thirds. Richie had a special soft spot for junk food, especially chili cheese burgers with extra onions, meaning that he often visited a fast food place at least three or four time a week. Francis also knew the blond wasn't the type to suddenly go on a diet, no one understood better than him that Richie was perfectly fine with his gluttony.
The final alarm rang after visiting the Foley residence (in disguise of course). Talking with Mrs. Foley he had discovered that her son had spent every night at their house. The look in his fellow redhead's gray eyes showed him that she too was unnerved at the unusual behavior. Richie and his father did not see eye to eye on a great many things; the few times Francis had been in the same room with both of them, however briefly, the tension was almost palatable. That combined with the frequent shouting contests the elder Foleys got into meant that Richie spent as little time there as humanly possible without moving out or being labeled a runaway.
Something was very, very wrong with his blond.
Merrowww…
"Hey, Batman can you come check this out?" Flash asked bewildered at the readouts the computer was giving him. The Dark Knight looked over the younger hero's shoulder to see what he was talking about. "Either I'm reading this wrong or there's been a massive download from the Watchtower's hard drives."
"You're right, it's dated a few seconds before the core was shut down." The World's Finest Detective narrowed his eyes underneath his cowl. "It's possible that Brainiac escaped."
"That's impossible," Their Thanagarian teammate interjected as she glided down towards the pair, landing softly; the Green Lantern following right behind her. "We've cleaned every file in all of our systems and no one's taken any technology off the Watchtower. He'd need another computer to survive."
Next to her the dark-skinned marine rubbed his chin in thought. His glowing green eyes widened in realization.
"What about that Gear kid?" He said. "Wasn't he wearing a computer on his back?"
Several sets of eyes widened in unison. The Martian was the first to speak. "We'll need to contact him."
"No sweat, I'll run him down." The Fastest Man Alive proclaimed before speeding off in a red and yellow blur... only to return as quickly as he left. "Um, just one problem, how do I find him if I don't know what he looks like?"
"This should help," Batman said at the computer, bringing up footage from the cameras in the Watchtower's kitchen. "While they were here the security cameras caught them having lunch." The video showed the two teens at one of the tables, due to wearing a full-face mask had his helmet on the table so he could eat. "He's the one on the left." The Dark Knight pointed out completely deadpan.
"I was wondering what happened to all of the pizza." Flash said playfully before speeding off again (this time with a picture of his quarry).
…..
After speeding along the streets of Dakota for a few minutes, misidentifying the wrong teenager for his quarry, and stopping to talk to the lovely ladies of the city a few times the Flash finally found who he was looking for.
"Hey, Gear! Found you." Flash greeted, running alongside the younger hero as the other rode his motorized scooter.
"What do you want?" 'Richie' asked flatly without slowing his vehicle or changing his course. The blond made no further attempt to recognize the speedster's existence and the bored expression on his face didn't indicate that he would feel like doing so anytime soon.
"Nice to see you too kid." Flash sarcastically replied, slightly hurt by the snub. "Pull over." He ordered. Both turned into a nearby alley. 'Richie' stalled the scooter and took off his yellow striped red helmet, his expression not changing in the least bit.
"I need to check that backpack computer of yours to make sure that Brainiac didn't try to use it too escape." The red and yellow spandex clad hero told the youth.
"I don't have it with me right now." 'Richie' informed the other in the same flat tones he used earlier.
"Well, let's go get it. It won't take long; after all I'm the world's fastest man." Flash boasted. The teen said nothing; instead he put his helmet back on and remounted his scooter.
….
"This is your headquarters?" Flash asked, taking a look over the outside of the rundown gestation. 'Richie' ignored the older meta, instead removing his helmet and pulling up his green hood. "What, you guys couldn't find a vacant tree house?" the speedster joked as the blond led him into the building.
"BacPac should be here somewhere." 'Richie' told the older hero as he went through the motions of searching for the droid. Flash stood on the other side of the room looking over the place with his back to an empty worktable. So he didn't notice the eerie green light come to life in the darkness under the table.
"You should get one of those utility belts; Batman never looses a thing with his." The older meta suggested sympathetically. 'Richie' chose not to comment on the fact that the hero known as Gear did indeed have a utility belt, in fact 'Richie' had involuntarily improved it and several other things.
CLACK CLACK CLACK
"Did you hear tha—" Flash started as 'BacPac' launched itself onto him. While being too lightweight to knock the fully grown man down completely it did manage to unbalance him the machine was strong enough and durable enough to bind the hero's arms as he speed around trying to knock it off. Tiring of the mess the Flash was making, 'Richie's' eyes glowed an eerie green and the nanites in 'BacPac' created a thick strong cable to bind the speedster's legs.
"Get this thing off of me!" The hero cried as he fell to the concrete floor. Looking up the Flash saw 'Richie' standing over him holding a flat silver disk with an all too familiar green symbol on it.
"IT'S TIME TO LEARN HUMAN, NO ONE ESCAPES FROM BRAINIAC."
Merrowww…..
Virgil Hawkins sighed and slumped bonelessly in his chair. The dark-skinned youth couldn't continue pretending to work on his homework; he was far too worried about his best friend. Richie was acting weirdly the past few days, not in the way he had been behaving, that had been just sneaky and suspicious, this was different.
Lately Richie had been forgetful, inattentive, and downright rude. The blond had been shirking off superhero duty, not patrolling at all (he could have really used Gear's help against Dr. Menace's robots) and completely ignoring anything happening right in front of him, he had also more or less stopped pretending not to be a super genius at school. The scarier part was that Richie seemed to be forgetting things: he was putting his shoes on wrong, not bathing, and missing meals (this also freaked out Daisy and Frieda) apart of the African American teen feared that his best friend was starting to loose his mind.
"—Gil! VIRGIL!" The teen was brought out of his thoughts by his older sister's screeching yell.
"WHAT!" He yelled back from his doorway.
"You got company!" Sharon yelled back. Virgil climbed down the stairs to see what his sister was talking about. The electrically charged teen didn't recognize the young man at the door, at first; it looked like Sharon didn't either, the young woman went back to the kitchen to finish washing the dishes. The fiery metahuman was difficult to identify in the black jean jacket and sagging blue jeans, the beanie he wore hiding his trademark streaked red hair. The only things giving the hothead away were the fire engine red soul patch under the sneer the other meta got whenever he looked at the teen and the fact that Hotstreak was the only person Virgil knew who tucked his shirt into his underwear.
"Hawkins," the pyro greeted. "Or would you rather I call you Static?" though he couldn't see it the moment his nemesis dropped his supranym the dreadlocked teen did an excellent impression of a fish.
"Hotstreak if you—" Virgil started only to be intrupted by the pyrokinetic Bang Baby.
"Yeah yeah yeah, whatever. We got more important things to talk about, mostly concerning a certain blond." Hotstreak said impatiently. Looking toward the kitchen door he added, "You got somewhere we can get some more privacy?"
"Follow me." The younger teen replied leading the way up the stairs.
…..
Richie is dating Hotstreak. His best friend and brother is dating a fucking semi-psychotic (ex)criminal, their former bully, and one of their current nemesis Francis fucking Stone. Static shuddered at the thought and swerved quickly to avoid a billboard that he hadn't been paying attention to ignoring the protests of his passenger. He seriously needed some brain bleach, maybe he could get Richie to make some.
In order to ask for assistance to locate their favorite blond Hotstreak told him the exact nature of their relationship. Every. Single. Detail. In the most untactful and vulgar manner ever and then the older meta laughed at his minor freak out. Afterwards the pyro got serious again, first threatening to incinerate his tongue if he told anyone that he was dating the blond then giving Virgil his own observations on Richie's strange behavior.
While the superhero in no way trusted the superthug (and made sure to let the pyro know that if he ever hurt his bro that he would fry him like a bug zapper would a firefly) his gut told him that other's worry was just as sincere as his own. And that's why the two of them are currently riding his saucer to the Abandoned Gas Station of Solitude two start looking for their blond.
"Damn."
Static had to agree with Hotstreak, the place was a mess: papers littered the floor, tables were knocked over or broken, and the bookshelf was shattered. Behind them the door creaked open. Both teens spun around hands a blazing wary of an attack.
"Easy now." Batman said as he entered followed by most of the League. The purple sparks surrounding his glove died of when recognized the adult heroes. The electromancer had to give the pyro a look before he dissipated his fireballs.
"If your here for the party it looks like your too late." Static informed them moving over to give them a better view of the mess.
"Looks like we both have a friend missing." Hawkgirl said, eyeing Hotstreak a bit warily recognizing him as he removed his beanie and jacket and tossed them on a workbench.
"We sent Flash here hours ago to check out Gear's computer, we have reason to believe that Brainiac may have used it to escape." The Dark Knight continued.
"We haven't heard from him since, which is strange even factoring in his usual irresponsibility." The Martian Manhunter finished, smiling slightly at the joke.
"I don't know about Flash but Gear should be just a Shock Vox call away." Static replied, taking the modified walky-talky out of his jacket. Proudly showing it to the older heroes he added, "Cool, huh?"
The other heroes only gave him a blank stare. Hotstreak rolled his deep green eyes and muttered something along the lines of "Dorky fanboy" under his breath.
"Just make the call kid." Green Lantern said shortly.
The younger hero immediately complied.
Merrowww…
BZZZT. BZZZT. BZZZT.
Turning the welding torch off and flipping up the visor protecting his eyes 'Richie' answered the buzzing Shock Vox.
"Gear where are you?" The host's partner asked. "The Justice League's here and they want to check out BacPac."
"I'm working on a new project at the old steel mill." 'Richie' informed the human. He turned his head to look at the nearly completed 'project' and smirked slightly, light from the single overhead bulb dully reflecting off the metallic plates starting to grow from the host's skin. "Why don't you come and check it out."
"Focus Rich, Justice League here, they wanna look at BacPac." The organic said, sounding slightly exasperated.
"Well, I have BacPac with me. Why don't you come here, all of you?" 'Richie' replied certain that he and his 'hired' help will be able to finish the 'project' before the superheroes arrived. With that he terminated the call and went back to work.
….
"….did say that he was working on something here." "Why does it feel like we're walking into a setup?" 'Richie' heard as the organics entered his base. The lights were turned on causing slight discomfort to his host's dark adjusted optic organs.
"There's no way a high school kid built all this." The Green Lantern exclaimed at the sight of the advanced technology filling the back section of the mill. With a flicker of thought Flash was sent to intercept them.
"Flash? Where have you been?" he heard someone say as he slipped into the shadows to watch.
"I've been here with Richie and his computer." The mind slave replied in an unchanging slightly cheerful tone.
"Did you learn anything?" the Green Lantern corps. member asked impatiently.
"Plenty." The World's Fastest Man replied with a smirk before placing a small silver disk on all of the biological beings. "Is everyone connected?"
"Yes, Brainiac we await your command." They said in unison. 'Richie' felt a disconnect as the disk on Static sparked and fell off.
"Whoa." The young electromancer said as he came back to his senses. The teen looked around at the others still as statues.
"Your natural bioelectric field must have shorted out the control disk." 'Richie observed from the shadows.
"Show yourself!" Static demanded. The teen gasped as his friend came into view. "Brainiac? I thought we got rid of you once and for all already?"
"INCORRECT HUMAN, YOU WERE ONLY DELAYING THE INEVITABLE." A Brainiac possessed Richie corrected, the virus using its true voice. "I STILL INTEND TO DIGITIZE AND ABSORB ALL INFORMATION ON EARTH AND THEN DESTROY IT."
"You think I'm gonna stand by and let you rip n' burn the Earth think again!" Static said, as purple sparks surrounding his hands.
"GO AHEAD," the machine responded, more than certain that the emotion young human wouldn't be able to call its bluff (he rather enjoyed his new processor). "THE ONLY ONE WHO WILL FEEL ANY PAIN IS YOUR FRIEND."
"Come on Richie fight 'em. If I can break outta his mind control then you can too." Static said trying to appeal to his friend. The supervirus was about to tell the organism how futile his efforts were when something unexpected happened. The host's consciousness suppressed the virus for long enough to get a message out to his friend, a single word repeated over and over: control.
This was a disturbing development.
The virus set its brian slaves after the young hero to buy time.
Merrowww….
What's the matter Brainy? You look a little shaken up. Richie asked his unwanted headmate, feeling his body being secured inside the Brainiac exoskeleton they built. The supervirus didn't respond as it linked itself (and unintentionally Richie as well) to the machines and launch its warship.
Days ago Richie had stopped actively resisting the program's control, conserving his strength by passively sabotaging its plans: interrupting it with random thoughts, sidetracking it with projects and technology that have nothing to do with its plans, and generally being as annoying as possible; all the while hiding his true plans from the machine.
IT WAS MERELY A SMALL DELAY, RICHARD. I WILL STILL SUCCEED.
He could feel it, Brainiac was wary now. It was too late to matter now; the machine had already lost, it just didn't know it yet.
Merrowww…..
"Suck it up Sparky," Hotstreak said, looking rather pissed. "Let's go find that remote so we can rescue the princess."
The delinquent Bang Baby was right, Static decided, Richie was counting on them to save him. The Justice League's opinions on the matter didn't matter. With a zap his disk unfolded itself and both metahumans boarded it.
After a few minuets the pair arrived at the gas station. The pyro looked for the remote over by the tables and the electro used his powers as he checked the desks.
"Found it!" Static announced, releasing the magnetic levitation on the large desk and picked up the remote control from the concrete floor that was hidden behind it. "No wonder he can never find his CDs." He joked, in a much better mood than before.
….
It took awhile to find Brainiac's warship, which is a lot harder than it should be to find a giant flying metal skull with tentacles coming out the bottom. It was still digitizing things (it was a good thing it was still in the abandoned warehouse district) except now it looked like someone but out one of its eyes.
"Looks like skull-face could use an eye patch." Static said, picking up speed on the electrified disk. "Hold on tight!" he yelled as he went ever faster and produced an electromagnetic force field to protect them as they shot through the ship's broken eye.
Inside the ship they searched for the League.
…
"FOOLISH HUMANS, YOU'RE IN MY HOUSE NOW." A metallic tentacle snatched the remote control from his hand and gave it to Brainiac. Static and Batman struggled against the large tendrils suspending them from the ceiling but they could not escape their grip.
"Where's Richie?!" the dread headed teen demanded. The bald blue skinned android's blank white gaze did not change.
"HE'S WITH ME; HE SEES EVERYTHING, KNOWS EVERYTHING." The machine's broad purple chest opened to reveal the blond hooked into the machinery, almost blending in due to the blue-grey metallic plates covering his skin. He weakly lifted his head as the chest plates of the android closed back over. "AND AFTER I DESTROY THIS NO ONE WILL BE ABLE TO STOP ME."
"Bullseye." The electromancer said as purple blot of electricity shot from his pointer finger and hit the off button of BacPac's remote.
Brainiac dropped the remote and began jerking, muttering gibberish. The metal tendrils holding the heroes went slack and they dropped to the floor. The robot went still as a statue… and then straightened itself and looked at them.
"I'M IN HIS HEAD, I KNOW HIS THOUGHTS; DID YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT THAT WOULD WORK?"
Merrowww…
YOUR PLAN FAILED, RICHARD. NO THOUGHT YOU HAVE IS PRIVATE FROM ME, I CAN HEAR THEM ALL.
I know. Richie replied, smirking at the mental representation of the supervirus standing/floating across from him in 'The Grid' as he termed it. That's why you lost.
The Kryptonian program narrowed its white optical sensors at the human. A bright green data cube glowed over head.
I LOST? YOUR ONLY HOPE AT DEFEATING ME FAILED, YOU ARE POWERLESS AND TRAPPED, AND THE JUSTICE LEAGUE IS LOOSING THE BATTLE. HOW EXACTLY DID I LOOSE?
How did you loose exactly? The blond parroted. Oh, let me count the ways: 1. The remote gambit was only a distraction while I put my real plan into action. 2. It doesn't matter if the League is winning or loosing, I already told you that I would be rescuing myself. Which by the way, I'll be doing shortly. 3. Your going to see how powerless I am in oh less than fifteen seconds. And 4. Just because you can hear all of my thoughts does not mean that you have anything more than a superficial understanding of any one of the billions of thoughts I've had since I sat back and let you do your thing.
Brainiac's white eyes widened almost comically as the full implications of the blond's words sunk in. Before the renegade archiving program could act Richie said one last thing:
Brainiac, command function override code: 0736. Initiate program: RAGNAROK in T1second.
The supervirus barely had a chance to brace itself before it was engulfed in the closest thing a machine could comprehend as agonizing pain.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHH!
Merrowww…..
The battle was going badly, Static decided as J'onn J'onzz was swatted like a fly by one of the giant metallic tentacles of the warship. The plan to use BacPac's controller failed and they were lucky to have escaped the ship with their lives. Overwhelmed the League had called in Superman and Wonder Woman from their solo missions to lend a hand, still they were only barely keeping the ship away from the more populated areas in Dakota.
"Doesanyonehaveanyideas?" a red and yellow blur asked as it came to a stop causing a large gust of wind pass the superheroes and make capes and jackets billow dramatically. Superman helped the Martian out of the crater he made when he hit the ground and looked at the machine digitizing some boats one the waterway.
"Maybe if we all try a united frontal assault, give it everything we've got and totally wipe out Brainiac's ship. As long as we make sure that nothing's left then it'll be over once and for all." The Last Son of Krypton suggested.
"Uh, guys?" Hotstreak said watching the ship of mass destruction.
Batman nodded once. "It's a good an idea as any."
"Guys?" the pyro said again trying to get their attention.
"But—but what about Gear?" Static asked starting to freak out at the older heroes' decision.
"Kid, I think it's about time you accepted that your friend's—" The Green Lantern started only to be interrupted by Hotstreak.
"YO! SUPERZEROES, SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LOOK AT THE DAMN SHIP!" the hothead shouted, very much pissed at being ignored earlier.
The flying craft had halted its assault on the city. The air filled with the mechanical screams of Brainiac and the ship seemed to be glowing from the inside with a greenish blue light.
"What on Earth…?" Hawkgirl asked no one in particular as the warship seemed to digitize itself. It devolved into a glowing green ball that started to compress itself.
At the center of it was Richie, who passed out and started to fall from the sky after absorbing the last of the data ball. In a blur of blue and red Superman caught the blond and brought him back to the group.
"We should take him back to the Watchtower." The Man of Steel said. "We need to make sure that Brainiac's gone." Static stared down at his friend who looked so small and fragile in the Kryptonian's arms.
"I'm coming too." The electromancer said.
"Me too." Came from Hotstreak, the older Bang Baby looked at the same time both worried and relieved.
Green Lantern was about to protest but Batman shook his head. The marine rolled his eyes and formed a large green energy bubble around the group.
It was time to go.
Merrowww….
A/N: (Does happy dance.) Over 13 pages and 4,900+ words, new personal best. AAAAARROWWW! Next chapter the Teen Titans will show up. Please review.