You'd think with a pandemic raging over the world that I would have more time to write, but no, I am a key worker which means while most 'normal' people were at home all day, decorating their houses to stave off the boredom, pore bastards like me were hard at work all day nearly every day to make sure the economy as well as other things didn't crash. I also learned more about the darkside of the British during the lock-downs that I would rather wish I had been kept in the dark about. Rudeness is not acceptable when your local shop is out of the item you desire, especially if half the country wants the same item, that poor, tired worker is not responsible for making sure something is in stock for a late comer when several thousand people flock to a shop that is only open because they sell batteries, fuses, lightbulbs and other necessities only to have people buy paint, compost, sand, cement, gravel and garden furniture, completely ignoring social distancing and shouting at staff when things don't go their way. I applaud any key worker all over the world who has had to deal with this kind of abuse and kept on going, either from government, bosses, colleagues lucky enough to be able to work from home or be off on leave, customers, patients or just the simple passer by. True heroes.
As you can tell it's been a while since I've updated that some people must have been wondering I had been part of the huge death toll over these last two years. Thankfully I'm not, nor has my extended family had more than mild cases to deal with (though I thought I had it bad when I was given the jabs, my body did not react well to them.) I have also made an edit to the last chapter as one decision made no sense to another connected decision, so that and everything branching off from that have been changed. There's a bit of a cameo for the last scene so please tell me how it was. I have the rest of their adventure written up and it should answer a few questions you may have.
I actually had to read my entire story over to remember what happened, I still laugh at Li's disbelief that three girls beat up a gang of guys.
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"Speech"
Thoughts
'Exclamation'
Julian thinking
Yue thinking
(Author's note)
Hidden Lives, Hidden Destiny Chapter 10
-/-
The mall had only been around for three years and took the place of the old buildings that had been stores before a huge fire had burned them down. It was 2 floors and had loads of different stores, even twin bells had moved there. It was a great place to meet up in after school and was very popular. The group sat at a large table and ordered drinks, there was music in the background and was playing a song.
(1=Female Guitarist, 2=Immortal Fire-backing, B=Both)
1. Well I couldn't tell you why she felt that way, she felt it everyday.
And I couldn't help her, I just watched her make the same mistakes again.
1. What's wrong, what's wrong now?
2. Too many, too many problems.
1. Don't know where she belongs, where she belongs.
B. She wants to go home, but nobody's home.
It's where she lies, broken inside.
With no place to go, no place to go to dry her eyes.
Broken inside.
1. Open your eyes and look outside, find the reasons why.
You've been rejected, and now you can't find what you left behind.
1. Be strong, be strong now.
2. Too many, too many problems.
1. Don't know where she belongs, where she belongs.
B. She wants to go home, but nobody's home
It's where she lies, broken inside
With no place to go, no place to go to dry her eyes
Broken inside
1. Her feelings she hides
2. Her dreams she can't find
1. She's losing her mind
2. She's fallen behind
1. She can't find her place
2. She's losing her faith
1. She's fallen from grace
B. She's all over the place, Yeah, oh
B. She wants to go home, but nobody's home
It's where she lies, broken inside
With no place to go, no place to go to dry her eyes
Broken inside
1. She's lost inside, lost inside... oh oh
2. She's lost inside, lost inside... oh oh yeah
"That's strange, it's Immortal Fire but she's only singing the backing, what's going on?" Madison asked. Everyone nodded except Eli and was rather confused about the change.
"The one singing the main parts is the new guitarist Angel, she's got a good voice, although this song is more like a duet than anything else" Eli stated, to get everyone at an understanding. "I think it was a great move considering the song lyrics".
"To think that Julian has been listening to her since Sayuri started acting weird" Sakura commented.
"Sayuri's always been weird" Li mentioned.
"Maybe she's just heartbroken" Madison said, her words being more of a statement than a question.
Everyone except Eli and Ruby looked at Madison as if she had just announced that she was an alien. Eli and Ruby were wondering how Madison knew. "What makes you say that?" Meiling asked confused.
"Well" Madison continued "Sakura here told me that Julian had told her that Sayuri had mentioned something about losing a loved one, so I think she is still grieving" Madison acted as if that was an everyday thing to say. Eli looked thoughtful, I'm going to have to talk to Julian about that.
"Hey look who's here!" Sakura stood up and shouted, pointing somewhere, alerting everyone within earshot. Sakura sweat-dropped and sat back down quietly, everyone else looked towards where Sakura had been pointing and saw Julian, only he was accompanied by Tsukiko, Haku, Chihiro, Meiran and Sayuri.
"Hey guys, look who I found on their way here"
Sayuri walked towards the younger Sakura and bent at the waist to talk to her better, "little one, are you always embarrassing yourself in public?" and with that the young card mistress turned tomato with embarrassment.
"Sayuri stop embarrassing the girl" Chihiro scolded, "ain't you supposed to be the mother of our group? I remember you telling off Solo because he was teasing Ryo. Besides you should know better, you know how it feels, especially with all the bullying you've been through".
The Cardcaptor gang looked at Sayuri who turned to explain after giving Chihiro a death glare, "It's hard to hide from discrimination when you're not the same ethnicity as the people around you"
"I don't get any discrimination," Meiling said.
"That's because you're Chinese in Japan, while I was Japanese/Chinese in Russia"
"Oh" Meiling wondered, "how come you're both Chinese and Japanese?" she asked. Li snorted.
"Because my mother was Japanese and my father was Chinese".
"Oh".
"Why are you guys here?" Tsukiko asked, changing the subject.
"Basically, just for a day out" Li moaned, not liking that thought.
"What about you?" Ruby asked, adding her voice to the throng.
"Well, Sayuri has been too tired for cooking lately, especially with the competition, and neither me nor Chihiro can cook" Haku said getting a glare from Chihiro. "And Lily has a habit of destroying things" he continued, getting another glare from Tsukiko.
Meiran decided to put her reason in herself as she didn't want Haku to exaggerate too much, "And I didn't want to cook as looking after Sayuri has made it too difficult to concentrate properly on anything else. So we decided to eat out for lunch then have sandwiches for dinner or something". Finally some colour came back to Sayuri's pale face as she flushed, bringing up her hands to hide her cheeks, however ended up yawning as well, having enough decency to cover her mouth.
"Why does Sayuri need looking after?" Eli asked, very confused as to why a bit-beast would need caring for.
Tsukiko put on a worried look, she knew her mother didn't like people talking about her when she was around. "Hey Sayuri there's the restaurant, why don't we go and get seats, any of you others coming?"
Everyone looked at Tsukiko weirdly, "we'll come too, won't we Haku" Chihiro warned with a tone that said 'say yes or die'.
"Ok" Haku said not understanding why.
"Great, we won't order without you Mei" Tsukiko called as she half dragged a grateful Sayuri away.
Meiran and the Cardcaptor group looked at the 4 retreating backs, confused as to why they were acting in such a way. "What's going on Mei?" Julian asked, worried about Sayuri's well-being.
Meiran turned to look at the curious group "Well" she started, "Sayuri hasn't been sleeping well lately due to childhood nightmares, which has been keeping us up and Sayuri has been having a lot of headaches as well as not being as strong as she used to be, so we have to keep an eye on her." Meiran continued, "and then there was her fall yesterday and the doctor said that she needs rest, constant supervision and to drink a lot of water as he thinks she isn't getting enough". Meiran looked towards the restaurant as she couldn't stand their shocked expressions, even Eli was shocked.
Sakura who seemed the most upset, spoke up first, "Is she going to be ok?"
Meiran didn't nod as she turned back to them "I don't know"
"You said something about her having nightmares" Julian asked.
Meiran paled at the thought "Yeh, her nightmares seem to be about her childhood, it's enough to make her scream and sometimes we can't wake her up from them"
"Seems bad" Ruby mumbled.
"Well I better go, Lily eats as much as Julian and Sayuri do so she'll be very hungry, even if Sayuri isn't" Meiran tried to look happy as she said goodbye to the gang and then left to the restaurant.
The table was quiet as everyone tried to process this new information, "I guess" Julian spoke up finally "there are some demons even she can't fight" everyone nodded in agreement.
Eli looked worried so even demons have demons.
Meiran returned to Sayuri and the others, distracted by the thoughts of the fight yesterday. One of JD's goons had somehow managed to get the drop on her friend and knocked her to the ground, though a jab to the head took him out. Being light, Sayuri was easy to pick up and the three girls legged it before the police turned up to avoid questions, though Kirana was rather difficult to shake off after they were safe as she had some rather difficult to answer questions from the attack that Meiran eventually gave some cock and bull story to make her go home. As for Sayuri, luckily there was a resident doctor living in the flats who was also into alternative medicine as she had a Miko for a sister and was well qualified to take care of non-humans, though the woman was more worried about her new patient's general wellbeing than a small bump on the head. Not only that but some time during the night a scout demon had been found wandering Tomoeda in search for the Card Mistress but had been dealt with by Light's crossbow and any evidence disappeared along with him. The danger on the human girl was real.
After entering the restaurant the others gad gone into Meiran looked around to find them and was surprised to not only find her friends sat at a table, but with a familiar figure sat with them, waving their arms about in a dramatic fashion and loudly explaining how they decided to open up shop here. It wasn't until she was barely a metre away when the uninvited guest turned round called out in good humour "MEI, GOOD TO SEE YOU" and she suddenly recognised him. Meiran was astonished to find, not only that this person was Walter Igumi, an old Shugo-Juu who was known for travelling all over the world doing all sorts of jobs that they had met and conversed with many times over the centuries, but that she had been wrapped up in a hug faster than she could blink, that or she was reminiscing deeper than she thought. "how've you been you little devil?" He was tall and obese, but was strong as an ox with thick defined arms hidden under a dark grey long-sleeved shirt and his smart black jeans hid trunk like legs, long and thick but hard as a brick wall. The only feature of this giant of a man that suggested he didn't work out was the beer belly, a constant over their many meetings.
"fine, until you crushed me" she retorted with difficulty, knowing that Walter wouldn't be offended. He usually did give bone crushing hugs.
Walter released her only to grip her shoulders so he could take a good look at her. "Knew you'd be here somewhere" he fawned over her appraisingly and nodded in her friends direction, "Recognised Chi as soon as she walked in and Suzie" the girls all winced at the old nickname but didn't comment as there was no changing it "where that girl is you're not far away, two peas in a pod you two are, never known such mischievous imps in my life". Haku raised an eyebrow at Chihiro as if to ask 'mischievous?' but only got a snort in response.
"We're never gonna get to live that down are we?" Meiran questioned only to get a bark of a laugh and another bone crushing hug in response, then shrugged when she was finally able to sit down.
"Kami it's good to see you kids again, even if it does mean that someone's in danger again" Walter sat back in his seat and smoothed his no longer white apron over his bulging belly and took a good look at Lily and Haku who were new to him. "got new friends have you? Gotta say I don't see your kind much these days, keep to themselves mostly" he said to Haku, who blushed and mumbled something about nowhere to go since his river was filled in, before staring at Lily as if to see behind the mask of her false form, raising both eyebrows when she quirked one of her own in response to the attention. He then gave a more closer look to the tired visage of her mother and noticed more than the first greeting had revealed. He grinned almost menacingly. "Well well well, little Suzie's all grown up" Sayuri gave another flinch at the childish nickname, "never thought I'd see the day when little miss man hater FINALLY let a guy close enough to settled down with".
Sayuri blushed at the memory that sprang to mind when Walter mentioned hating men and reminded him that it wasn't men in general she hated, just the ones that thought with their second head, which earned her a laugh and hair ruffle for the correction. Lily giggled at the mental pictures the conversation had conjured up and Chihiro rolled her eyes at Haku's confusion but didn't think it was a good time or place to catch him up on modern slang. Meiran leaned back with a wistful smile and murmured "that brings back memories" before asking a passing waitress for a jug of water.
"Must be another of those service types and long distance if you're looking that ragged" Walter wondered before his expression darkened as a thought flashed by, "he does take care of you, don't he?" the worry was clear in his voice as he stared her down, as if daring her to say no.
"He was a perfect gentleman" Sayuri defended, sitting up straight in her seat and glaring right back. "it was his family who had a problem with us being together, not that that stopped us, but they had more power than we expected and it's not like we could just run from our duties and expect to get away with it. I'm sure that man's magic would scare even you" she held firm in her defence and resisted growling as an intimidation technique.
"Walter, you didn't see what she looked like when she was brought back from that place, we thought she wouldn't survive the night let alone pull through and carry a child to full term. We were surprised Lily even lived through what happened and with no deformities as well." Chihiro tried to mediate before it escalated to an argument
"Yeah Walt" Meiran added, hoping to diffuse the darkness that had descended on the table, "remember what that perv got when he grabbed Middie too many times and she and Lina decided to cut him up to teach him a lesson, even HE was in better shape than Su-chan was, and we thought his punishment had been too harsh at the time".
Walter conceded to the girls who knew more about the situation than he did and rose as the waitress, who looked like she could play an elf in the 'lord of the rings' movie without make-up despite trying to hide her ears with her hair, came back with their water "well they better hope to not meet me as I'll give them what for" they all, even Haku who was lost far behind, rolled their eyes at his announcement. "Chiyo, give these kids whatever they want, it's on the house" the waitress Chiyo nodded and handed out 'special' menus to the five as the younger three thanked him for his generosity. Walter brushed them off before eyeing Meiran suspiciously. "Just don't drink too much and start another brawl, I still gotta make money you hear" he wagged a finger at her while Haku and Lily looked astounded at the thought of Meiran getting drunk and fighting, though Lily thought that she may have been unfortunate enough to have been drunk on duty, as when the elementals were grouped together they were never considered off duty till the bad guy was stopped. Unfortunately it also coincided with the death of several members of the group so get togethers were usually ruined, or at least that's what Gen-ji had said when they were still living in America.
Meiran's eye twitched, "that was one time" she argued half-hartedly.
"And I've got a good memory" Walter returned, triumphant he would win, that fight had cost his pub a fortune. He gave the Chinese girl's hair a ruffle before returning to the kitchen to prepare for his guests orders. While looking like a normal restaurant to humans it was owned, run, and catered to those who were not, though they did serve the human population as well.
After they had their fill Walter came back out to say goodbye and wished the two older girls luck in the tournament. The five left the mall in high spirits, Sayuri was confident that the other Elementals would be here soon as she had contacted as many as she could for backup. The question was if they would arrive before the demons did.
(Three years ago in an unknown location.)
A dark inky cloud permeated from the ground of the cave floor, filling the stale air and distorting the darkness available. Suddenly there was a flash of light and nine beings appeared in the dark fog.
"What was that?"
"Where are we?"
"Ouch, that was my foot!"
"Sorry Sally"
"Maxwell watch where you're standing"
"Don't get all angry at me Wuffers, if you haven't noticed, none of us can see a damn thing."
"STOP CALLING ME WUFFERS, IT'S WUFEI BAKA"
"Stop it you two, this isn't the time or place, we need to get our bearings."
"And how do you suppose we do that?"
"Simple Trowa, we find an exit outta this uh... cave."
"Great plan Noin."
"Thanks Sally"
"Except for the flaw"
"What flaw is that Heero?"
"The flaw is, commander Une, that the air is stale and therefore there is no opening for us to escape from."
"Damn"
"My thoughts exactly."
Can't we just burrow ourselves out?"
"No Duo, for one we don't know how far underground we are, and second, even if we did we don't have anything other than our hands to dig with."
"So we're stuck then?"
"Yeah" huffs were heard all around.
"Well can we at least get some light?" as if in response to the question, the nine souls began emitting a soft glow from their bodies, most faces showed they had been creeped out by that. "Well that's new" said an awed Duo, "at least we can see ourselves." his response was met with dry looks, "What?"
Milliardo noticed Heero shiver, "cold Yuy?" everyone looked at the more fearless of their group.
"No" he said, "just a sense of foreboding" and he pondered on it while the others worried about what that could mean, one being that they would never get out of here.
Suddenly two ghosts appeared out from the wall behind Quatre, startling him. They had a whitish tinge and were slightly see-through, they turned and walked along the cave, ignoring the ex-soldiers as they passed through them and continued their conversation. Everyone paled at the sight of the ghosts and some even shivered as they were walked through, but were determined not to let the others see their weakness beyond that. Heero was surprised to be looking at the ghostly form of his other self.
"How long do you think you can hold off Kurayami Nami from entering the cavern Dark Fire-kun?" the elder of the two ghosts asked the younger. He had haunched shoulders and a walking cane in his left hand, his shot hair was peppered grey and he had a short neat round beard. He was wearing a dark brown hakama, a forest green kosode, a not so dark brown happi jacket with light green trailing branches, brown tabi and geta sandals. Despite his frown, the old man had kind dark eyes.
The younger male ghost 'Dark Fire' was wearing a plain red kosode and a Charcoal hakama, black tabi and waraji sandals. He had long black hair tied at the nape of the neck and went just passed his shoulder blades, his fringe was long but didn't go into his deep blue eyes. The most noticeable part of this younger ghost was his weapon, a shashka on his left hip. He also had a lantern in his right hand. "All together?" Dark Fire answered sighing, and stopped walking "indefinitely, however with a lot of the girls aiding Okaa-san our numbers drop, and therefore our chances." there was a mournful tone to the conversation.
Wufei was indignant. "GIRLS, this guy expects the enemy to be defeated by a bunch of onna?" his angry frown and crossed arms displayed his displeasure. Everyone just rolled their eyes and ignored him.
"It doesn't usually take this long does it?" the elder ghost asked, looking back at the wall from where they had appeared. "you don't think they're going to die do you?" his wrinkled face looked worried. Everyone could see that whatever it was that was happening, it was taking its toll on him. In her head, Sally was coming up with fatal medical conditions that these people could be experiencing to get that kind of reaction. "3 days is a long time." well screw that she thought.
"Actually some women can be in labour for up to a week, so 3 days is nothing, Dark is doing all she can to speed up the process". Duo, Trowa, Quatre, Wufei and Milliardo had their eyes bulging outta their sockets, while the girls shocked looks were combined with winces, no doc nowadays would even think of letting a woman be in labour for more than 30 hours, let alone a week, the girls all shared a look and felt sorry for the mother who was going through this. "However, with Okaa-san's failing health, there may be some negative affects on the baby." Heero's eyes had filled with sadness. "Okaa-san wont die, her immortality curse stops that, but the baby may go though a lot of stress, and with such... mixed blood, may not survive." Now everyone looked sad, the living souls may have been ex-soldiers, but even they cherished innocent life and mourned when death took them.
Dark Fire was the first to hear the new arrivals and gazed down the cave, where six lights were beginning to appear the elder ghost followed his gaze. As everyone tuned to see what the ghosts were looking at, the six lights turned into four ghosts and two lanterns. The four new ghosts wore the same style clothes as Dark Fire and each had their own weapons, but each one looked worse for wear. The first to arrive was a short, young woman holding one of the two lanterns. She was wearing the same as Dark Fire but wore a blue kosode instead of a red one. She had long brown hair in a mid ponytail and brown eyes, she also had two sai tucked into her hakama obi. "Ryers-tono, Dark Fire" she called, catching her breath "we spotted Kurayami Nami about a Li and a half from here"
The now dubbed 'Ryers' became rather agitated, "that's too close".
Many of their 'invisible' audience was wondering what the hell a 'Li' was. Heero sighed at the confused faces. "A li is about a third of a mile" instead of the expected looks of understanding, he was met with stares of suspicion, especially from Milliardo, who had an eyebrow raised. "I had to use the old Shakkan-hō system instead of the common metric and imperial systems as code so that OZ wouldn't know where I was" Heero lied. Most were appeased by that reason but Milliardo was still slightly suspicious.
"Yeah, we know" said the second ghost to approach, the figure was of a teenage boy with short blond hair and grey eyes, he had a lanky build and wore a grey kosode with the rest of his attire. On his back were two crossed kama blades, with the blades at the bottom curved towards each other, he was also carrying a lantern. "We were coming back from the supply run when we saw him," he gave a big grin and clapped the blue one on the back, "Then Dark Water here decided to confuse him by getting us to run around the surrounding mountains with him following us, we separated early on to confuse him even more, that cocky magician was so lost he was dizzy". Everyone, both alive and dead alike, laughed at either the memory, or at their own imagination.
"Dark Air was the one who decided to split up" the blue one chuckled as she tried to give her grey companion a noogie.
The third ghost decided to speak up at this point, "it's a good thing we got Dark to transport the supplies or the plan wouldn't have worked". This was another young, but slightly older woman in her early 20's with long wavy black hair that was loose, had hard brown eyes and an average stature. She had the same clothes as Dark Air, but with a light hakama, a sort of natural colour. She also had a bow and a quiver of arrows slung round her back. "We could have been slowed by the supplies or we could have hid them and risked them getting found by Kurayami Nami." she did not like the sound of that.
The group from the future stared at ghosts of the past, wondering who these people were. They were obviously part of a team, well all except the old man, and from their weapons they were soldiers, but what was their purpose. What was the reason for the code names.
"THAT'S IT!" shouted Quatre, making everyone else who could hear him jump in fright, they had completely forgotten he was there. As they recovered and turned to him he explained his outburst, "I thought I recognised their names, one of the guys back home is a fan and studies their history." he looked pleased with himself for remembering that fact. The others were staring at him with varying emotions, some were confused, some were intrigued and in the case of Wufei, had came to the same conclusion as him. Only Trowa had noticed that while the past was playing out in front of them, Heero was sporting a wistful smile, the same smile that the silent spy had seen on Quatre when everyone got together for a reunion. Trowa decided to ask Heero about it later.
"So, who are they?" asked Noin next to commander Une, who was also wondering the same thing.
"They're the Elementals" at some raised eyebrows he continued, "they're a team of ten beings who protect the earth from destruction" now HE was on the receiving end of incredulous looks.
"What, you mean they're superheroes?" Duo asked sarcastically, "this isn't Bandai Entertainment Quatre."
"It's not as simple as that Duo" Heero interjected, "they're soldiers from different backgrounds, of neutral standing that fight against the many evils of this world, even if that evil is human. Like OZ and White Fang."
"I don't remember anyone dressed like that during the war!" the commander puzzled, pointing to the ghosts.
"That's because they fought without their supernatural forms"
"By the way, how do you know this?" Milliardo's suspicion was really annoying. In response, Heero only pointed to the last ghost who had yet to reveal themselves.
"And then that bastard would know that we were hiding Okaa-sama here, then we would all be in trouble" the last ghost called out from the shadows at the back, their appearance a mystery, besides the fact that voice showed that they were female. "We made sure to confuse him back to the nearest village, just in case."
"Will we have more meetings with him soon, Earth" Dark Fire was worried about Kurayami Nami finding the location of their hideout.
"No, but Water decided to stay at the mouth of the cave, so we'll know if we get any unexpected visitors." When she finished speaking, she stepped forward and came into the view of the light. Earth had a thin stature and looked the same age as the grey girl, she had light brown/almost blond hair that went just past her shoulders and blue eyes. She wore the same uniform as Air, but had a dirt brown kosode and on her back was a bo staff that looked like it had seen regular use. The live souls gasped as they realised Earth had the same face as Milliardo's sister, Relena. Earth made a move towards the old man and bowed, "Ryers-tono, it would be best if we had Dark take you home, it's getting late and Kurayami Nami may have you targeted"
The old man nodded humbly "that may be best, I might as well say goodbye to Dranzer-denka at the same time" he then turned back the way he came, the others following his lead, going back through the wall which had no door, leaving the living behind.
Pretty much everyone had their mouths hanging open while Heero was secretly smirking. "Well!" Duo recovered first, "blow me down with a feather, that I was NOT expecting." the others could only nod as they came out of their shock.
Milliardo suddenly jumped as if shocked with electricity and ran to the wall where the door should have been and started digging, everyone else raising an eyebrow at his actions. "Zechs, what are you doing" asked Noin, slipping in the name he used in the war.
Milliardo continued digging with his bare hands, "Relena's in there, this wall can't be too thick, it used to be an entryway, besides maybe we can get more answers." Despite his reasons, there wasn't anything else to do so they all joined in, trying to get to a room that had been sealed for three hundred years.
-/-
Did anyone like Walter Igumi? I based his personality off of Dex from Star Wars:Episode 2 but I'm not sure I got it right, I considered giving him an accent but it didn't look right so I took it out
Like most scenes this last one ended being more 'long-winded' than I originally intended so will be in four parts one per chapter there will also be the arrival of the others and the demons who finally made an appearance in this chapter will become more common. I have a rather raunchy scene ready to add but I'm not sure if it's considered M or MA though I'm thinking M as I have seen more descriptive on this site. I'm not sure where to add it and another that doesn't go so far which will be in the next one I think.
Please review as it lets me know that someone is reading this story still, even if the review is 'I'm here' it means more to me than data and lets me know how you guys think and inspires me to right faster.
Hope you all are well and I'm sending my wishes to everyone on this site come through on the other side of this pandemic in one peace. Good luck and god speed.