The Androids Perspective
Copyright- Dragonabll Z and its characters in no way at all belong to me in any sence of the word. My character ????? is mine though and can only be used in others works if I am asked first.
Android 17
I had become so annoyed with the fight with the hologram that I had forgotten about 18. It all came back to me in a rush. I had to get to where she had been. I would show this girl why I was the most powerful fighter on the planet. She had played around with me too much, but I would get my revenge now. She wouldn't know what would hit her. At this point she was still speaking in her weird voice that seemed to work independently from her lips. I shot forward, my knee doubling her up. My elbow crashed into her head knocking her down into an apartment block. That was quick, I had half expected her to block or something but she obviously wasn't that powerful. I turned to see where 16 was when I heard a crash from behind me. I turned in time to see the child fly up out of the ruins of the apartment block. She was brushing the dust off her as she drew level with me again. "That wasn't very fair was it? I hadn't even started yet." "You should always expect an attack. That is why children shouldn't fight." "I have more battle experience than you do. I was giving you a chance." She was giving me a chance, was she! She was worse than Vegeta. How could she even think that she could stand a chance against me? As I was thinking along these lines she powered up. A large white aura appeared around her in seconds. She must have powered up recently. Her muscled bulged up slightly but she still didn't look like much of a fight. I felt insulted that I would have to fight something as insignificant. "If you think you are so powerful try and hit me." The seconds these words left my lips she faded and appeared in front of me. Her paw struck me in the side of the head, knocking me off guard. I looked up in time to see her stick out both of her paws and blast me. Cupping both hands together I swung them at her blast. I managed to hit it away but it made my arms feel numb. I took my arms from my head in time to see her leg kicking me in the stomach. This time I was the one the go head first into a building. But I managed to turn and flex my legs in time to bounce of a wall. I flew back up to where she was waiting. It seemed that she was more powerful than I had thought. In spite of myself, I began to enjoy myself. So far none of my battles had been in anyway challenging. This might turn out to be interesting. I might try some of my new techniques and combos on her. But I didn't think that she could last too long against them. She looked too weak. "Well, excuse me but I think I hit you. Didn't I?" "You got lucky." She raised her paw in front of her face and her claws clicked out. "Time to get serious." This time I was ready for her when she flew straight towards me. I faded and appeared above her, but she was already gone. I raised my arm blocking her face jab. I rolled back missing her nest attack and then I flipped above raining down a volley of small attacks. She simply raised her paw in front of her and the blasts exploded. I stopped, that's a weird move. As I watched her, she lowered both arms and then began to raise them slowly. A cloud of stones and rubble from the ground floated up till they were at a level with her. What was she doing? Suddenly throwing both paws outward, the rocks shot toward me. Moving quickly from side to side I started to dodge them. This was a bit like the police shooting at me but much quicker. As I was dodging I noticed she was no longer in front of me. I heard a call above me and I looked up to receive a blast head on. I fell back before turning quickly off the attack letting it slide off me into the ground. I began to look over the area in my eyes trying to find her before she attacked me. Her punch found my back first and I was hit forward. Whipping round I just managed to catch her kick. "Pretty good." She commented while we were stuck in motion before launching another assault on me. At first I just tried to dodge her blows but with her tail acting as another limb I was forced to use my arms as well to keep her attacks from hitting me. Stopping her attacking quickly she bounced her legs off my arms and as she flew backwards and started to fire attacks at me. A copy of my move I thought. I managed to dodge these by flying down towards the ground. As I accelerated towards the ground I could tell that she was following behind me. I touched one foot on the ground and threw the other round in a spinning roundhouse kick. It was her turn to catch my attack. How had she known I was going to attack that way? She was better than I had given her credit for. But though she was a smart fighter she didn't seem to have the power to back it up. She dived forward again but I was in the air and then behind her. I booted her in the back and started to follow to attack again but her tail slashed too near for comfort and I was forced to let her turn before I attacked. Amazingly she managed to catch my punch and she tried to throw me over her head but I ripped my hand from her hold and jumped back. We began to stare at each other sizing up the chance of another attack. So far I was enjoying myself. I was having quite an interesting battle without getting much pain for my effort. And I still wasn't using all of my power yet.
??????
17 seemed to be as powerful as I had predicted. He was stronger and quicker than me at the moment and if what he had just thought was true he had more power still not being used. Well it was his mistake to underestimate me and I would try and kill him before he started to use all of his power. Tapping into his thoughts had been hard as first as his brain signals were different as he was an Android but I had finally cracked it before we started to fight. It wasn't that useful as I had only been able to predict a few of his moves. It was better if he was standing still rather than in the heat of battle. It took seconds to read what he was going to do. That was enough time for some enemies to unleash the attack. I had leant this from painful experience. But at this moment I was thinking of another physic power. It might work; it involved setting a trap on the Android. I wasn't sure how guidable he would be. Well I would just have to be cunning then. I extended one paw straight and then I gripped the wrist with my other paw. I had few moves that could concentrate power like Gohan's but I could gather energy very quickly. Energy started to gather in seconds making my hand shake as it grew. I was struck backwards, my feet losing traction on the ground for a moment, by the amount of energy gathering. The only disadvantage with this move would be that it would eat into my power. But it was necessary, 17 was just too quick for me to land any real moves on him and he wasn't even at his full power. I was starting to take out my big guns but I just hoped they were big enough. My forced change when fighting Gohan was still having effects now. So far I had only been able to change once a day, it took a lot out of me. Though I had only changed for a few seconds it didn't matter the time I spent in the other form. It was the actual change that mattered. And this had only been a two-hour break between these battles. I smiled to myself as I was thinking this. All I had to do was take it easy for a day, but no I had to run off and take on one of the most powerful fighters on the planet. I would end up killing myself. 17 was looking prepared in front of me. This was not a good sign. I had been counting on the fact that he would try to dodge the attack for my trap to work. Could I deliberately miss the attack? I didn't think he was that dumb to believe I could miss a stationary target. Well lets hope if he does take it might be powerful enough to seriously hurt him. I would have to power it up for longer to stand a chance of hurting him. Then I could start to fight with him on a par then. I removed my left paw from my wrist. Time for a dramatic change of plan. I couldn't use the trick I had been thinking of so I would have to hit him with my most powerful attack. I started to charge energy with the other paw and feed this energy into the other energy ball. I couldn't put all my power into it, as I still needed some to fight him with. But I would put in enough to seriously hurt him. I had put enough Ki into it now so I was going to charge the remainder with some of my raw Physic energy. In its pure form it was much more powerful than Ki but I had much less of it. But I seemed to be the only one on this planet so far who had any. The attack was beginning to grow very large. It was about the size of ten human elephants. Now I had on last surprise to add the ball. To make it more potent and much more deadly I would start to decrease its size. In its smaller form the attack would have much more force, as it would be more concentrated. This was a trick I learnt from a Sargalian, Kontach wizard fourth degree. He had been the most powerful fighter in the 16th galaxy. He was dead now. The ball decreased concentrating inside itself until it was my size. Preparing myself I gathered the invisible strings I had around the attack together and let them loose. The blast surged forward, then seemed to pause for a moment before crashing into the Android. I held it as long as I could pushing all I had gathered into the front. He was obviously fighting it and he seemed to be winning so far. To my shock I saw the edge of the beam left upwards. He had got it under control! He was going to throw it away, I had to stop him! As he bent his knees and flexed his arms. I had let go of the attack vital seconds ago. To make it implode I needed more time. Gathering a bunch of physic energy I let it flow into my hands before directing it though the link I had created between us when I started to read his mind. This would seriously disrupt the link but it was necessary if I was going to live out of this battle. He jerked slightly as it hit him and I saw a look of surprise enter his features. Reaching my paws outward I caught the remaining strands of my attack. He was just getting his body under his control again when I crushed the strands between my paws. The explosion threw me back wards through a wall before I managed to fly into the air. The explosion was just dying out in front of my eyes. It had destroyed a wide area in the city. There happened to be a school on the edge of the explosions path but it had been empty. Other buildings were not so lucky. As the dusts clouds started to rise I heard women start to scream. This would be interesting, spectators to watch our fight. But I hoped it wouldn't be much of a fight. That attack should have injured him at least a bit. He suddenly rose out of the dust cloud and hovered opposite me. "Frankly I had hoped you could have hit me with something a little more powerful." He wasn't even scratched! His clothes had been ragged slightly but that was his only change. But I still had a chance to destroy him. As long as I had strength in my body I would fight. I would give it everything I had.
Android 17
She didn't seem to be too pleased about my lack of injuries but what did she except. That a puny attack like that could harm someone like me. I hoped that she was starting to understand what she had undertaken when she had attacked something as powerful as me. I hadn't even started to fight properly yet. But I would very soon. "You are running out of time and you know it. For your sake I hope that wasn't your best attack." "You will know when I hit you with my best attack. Trust me" Was she bluffing or not? I couldn't tell, her face didn't give anything away. I couldn't find the least bit of fear in her eyes. This time I would lead the attack. Flying forward I raised my fist only to fade behind her with a kick to the head. She just managed to catch this but I could see that if I increased my speed just a bit she couldn't have been able to block. Her tail made an attempt for my throat but a kick to the stomach dissuaded her from attacking me with it. I lifted my fist to hit her back but I had given her too much time. Her fists began to pound my unprotected stomach. This actually hurt quite a bit. I managed to knee her out of the way but she was back on me again attacking not giving me much time to block. Still smarting from my stomach I wasn't quick enough and she got one blow to my face. But as her paw moved back I saw blood on her claws. I responded with a face on punch, which sent her flying back. I reached a tentative hand to my face. She had cut a long slash along my cheek. She had drawn blood! This was no longer a game. I started to power up to my full power. As I was an Android this took seconds. But she had not been idle in this time either. She seemed to be surrounded with a strange purple glow. What was she doing now? Her hands thrust out suddenly and I had that feeling a paralysis again. She flew straight for me doubling me up with a single blow. She then kneed my chin and punched my stomach with another punch. Unable to protect myself she was managing to hurt me. She then grabbed my hair and threw my face into her knee. It was at this moment I regained control. I was falling backwards from the face blow and she was coming straight for me. Gathering my senses quickly I kicked out at her. This stopped her only a short while but it was enough for me to ready myself. Turning I head butted her in the chest. She replied with a punch to my face. Concentrating, though my face stung, I moved my head back into position. She had only managed to move my head. Grinning I replied with my own punch to her face. Unable to stop herself she fell back. I lanced forward above her and cupping my hands I brought them down on her belly striking her downwards. I was after her in a flash and managed to reach the ground before she did. I leaped up towards her and punched her belly with all the strength I could gather. Her body was bent in a half circle shape and a large blob and red flesh flew from her mouth. I let her fall to the ground and I turned away. After all that it had only taken one combo to take her out. I was right at the start, she wasn't that powerful. Females were never good fighters. This thought reminded me of 18. This sobered me up very quickly. I was wrong; some woman could fight but only Android women. Well I would put her out of her misery now and kill her. I turned but to my surprise she wasn't there. Suddenly I felt her touch on my side. Pain suddenly started to reverberate about my body. I turned to hit her but suddenly I was paralysed again. She backed away slightly. "Time to die 17." "What… are you…going…to do?" I managed to breath out. "You seem to have an increased defence to ki attacks. Your master must have designed you with that in mind. Anyway I don't have any beam attacks capable of destroying you and we've already seen I'm not physically strong enough to hurt you. So I'm going to try another method. Hold still" The purple light appeared around her again. Closing her eyes she stepped forward and placed her paws on my forehead. Though I tried to struggle her physic bonds held me. She started to speak in another language, a strange chant it sounded like. As I watched the purple power seemed to intensify into a ball around her head. It was then swept down through her hands into my head. There was an explosion of pain in my head. It was like noting else I had ever felt. It was like she was trying to rip me apart from inside. I tried to scream a release of the pain but I couldn't. I suddenly lost all vision in my eyes. But it wasn't all black. I started to see large purple and red dots. All the colours of the rainbow flashed before me. I had descended into my own private hell. Nothing Dr Gero had programmed into me prepared me for this. The pure pain was unbearable. It seemed to be coming from every bone and joint in my body. This was torture. Death couldn't be all that bad could it? At least it would be a release. This was too much for anything to bear. No one could survive this. I had every right to give up or did I?
Any comments send to snakeplisskenkiller@hotmail.com. Well another outing into the mind of my character. That "change" she keeps talking about, does anyone have any ideas of what it might be? Will this be two Androids down? Could the auther be looking for a hasty exit to the story? You will just have to find out. (By the way the next isn't the last chapter. Trust me, this story isn't over yet, not by a long shot.)
Copyright- Dragonabll Z and its characters in no way at all belong to me in any sence of the word. My character ????? is mine though and can only be used in others works if I am asked first.
Android 17
I had become so annoyed with the fight with the hologram that I had forgotten about 18. It all came back to me in a rush. I had to get to where she had been. I would show this girl why I was the most powerful fighter on the planet. She had played around with me too much, but I would get my revenge now. She wouldn't know what would hit her. At this point she was still speaking in her weird voice that seemed to work independently from her lips. I shot forward, my knee doubling her up. My elbow crashed into her head knocking her down into an apartment block. That was quick, I had half expected her to block or something but she obviously wasn't that powerful. I turned to see where 16 was when I heard a crash from behind me. I turned in time to see the child fly up out of the ruins of the apartment block. She was brushing the dust off her as she drew level with me again. "That wasn't very fair was it? I hadn't even started yet." "You should always expect an attack. That is why children shouldn't fight." "I have more battle experience than you do. I was giving you a chance." She was giving me a chance, was she! She was worse than Vegeta. How could she even think that she could stand a chance against me? As I was thinking along these lines she powered up. A large white aura appeared around her in seconds. She must have powered up recently. Her muscled bulged up slightly but she still didn't look like much of a fight. I felt insulted that I would have to fight something as insignificant. "If you think you are so powerful try and hit me." The seconds these words left my lips she faded and appeared in front of me. Her paw struck me in the side of the head, knocking me off guard. I looked up in time to see her stick out both of her paws and blast me. Cupping both hands together I swung them at her blast. I managed to hit it away but it made my arms feel numb. I took my arms from my head in time to see her leg kicking me in the stomach. This time I was the one the go head first into a building. But I managed to turn and flex my legs in time to bounce of a wall. I flew back up to where she was waiting. It seemed that she was more powerful than I had thought. In spite of myself, I began to enjoy myself. So far none of my battles had been in anyway challenging. This might turn out to be interesting. I might try some of my new techniques and combos on her. But I didn't think that she could last too long against them. She looked too weak. "Well, excuse me but I think I hit you. Didn't I?" "You got lucky." She raised her paw in front of her face and her claws clicked out. "Time to get serious." This time I was ready for her when she flew straight towards me. I faded and appeared above her, but she was already gone. I raised my arm blocking her face jab. I rolled back missing her nest attack and then I flipped above raining down a volley of small attacks. She simply raised her paw in front of her and the blasts exploded. I stopped, that's a weird move. As I watched her, she lowered both arms and then began to raise them slowly. A cloud of stones and rubble from the ground floated up till they were at a level with her. What was she doing? Suddenly throwing both paws outward, the rocks shot toward me. Moving quickly from side to side I started to dodge them. This was a bit like the police shooting at me but much quicker. As I was dodging I noticed she was no longer in front of me. I heard a call above me and I looked up to receive a blast head on. I fell back before turning quickly off the attack letting it slide off me into the ground. I began to look over the area in my eyes trying to find her before she attacked me. Her punch found my back first and I was hit forward. Whipping round I just managed to catch her kick. "Pretty good." She commented while we were stuck in motion before launching another assault on me. At first I just tried to dodge her blows but with her tail acting as another limb I was forced to use my arms as well to keep her attacks from hitting me. Stopping her attacking quickly she bounced her legs off my arms and as she flew backwards and started to fire attacks at me. A copy of my move I thought. I managed to dodge these by flying down towards the ground. As I accelerated towards the ground I could tell that she was following behind me. I touched one foot on the ground and threw the other round in a spinning roundhouse kick. It was her turn to catch my attack. How had she known I was going to attack that way? She was better than I had given her credit for. But though she was a smart fighter she didn't seem to have the power to back it up. She dived forward again but I was in the air and then behind her. I booted her in the back and started to follow to attack again but her tail slashed too near for comfort and I was forced to let her turn before I attacked. Amazingly she managed to catch my punch and she tried to throw me over her head but I ripped my hand from her hold and jumped back. We began to stare at each other sizing up the chance of another attack. So far I was enjoying myself. I was having quite an interesting battle without getting much pain for my effort. And I still wasn't using all of my power yet.
??????
17 seemed to be as powerful as I had predicted. He was stronger and quicker than me at the moment and if what he had just thought was true he had more power still not being used. Well it was his mistake to underestimate me and I would try and kill him before he started to use all of his power. Tapping into his thoughts had been hard as first as his brain signals were different as he was an Android but I had finally cracked it before we started to fight. It wasn't that useful as I had only been able to predict a few of his moves. It was better if he was standing still rather than in the heat of battle. It took seconds to read what he was going to do. That was enough time for some enemies to unleash the attack. I had leant this from painful experience. But at this moment I was thinking of another physic power. It might work; it involved setting a trap on the Android. I wasn't sure how guidable he would be. Well I would just have to be cunning then. I extended one paw straight and then I gripped the wrist with my other paw. I had few moves that could concentrate power like Gohan's but I could gather energy very quickly. Energy started to gather in seconds making my hand shake as it grew. I was struck backwards, my feet losing traction on the ground for a moment, by the amount of energy gathering. The only disadvantage with this move would be that it would eat into my power. But it was necessary, 17 was just too quick for me to land any real moves on him and he wasn't even at his full power. I was starting to take out my big guns but I just hoped they were big enough. My forced change when fighting Gohan was still having effects now. So far I had only been able to change once a day, it took a lot out of me. Though I had only changed for a few seconds it didn't matter the time I spent in the other form. It was the actual change that mattered. And this had only been a two-hour break between these battles. I smiled to myself as I was thinking this. All I had to do was take it easy for a day, but no I had to run off and take on one of the most powerful fighters on the planet. I would end up killing myself. 17 was looking prepared in front of me. This was not a good sign. I had been counting on the fact that he would try to dodge the attack for my trap to work. Could I deliberately miss the attack? I didn't think he was that dumb to believe I could miss a stationary target. Well lets hope if he does take it might be powerful enough to seriously hurt him. I would have to power it up for longer to stand a chance of hurting him. Then I could start to fight with him on a par then. I removed my left paw from my wrist. Time for a dramatic change of plan. I couldn't use the trick I had been thinking of so I would have to hit him with my most powerful attack. I started to charge energy with the other paw and feed this energy into the other energy ball. I couldn't put all my power into it, as I still needed some to fight him with. But I would put in enough to seriously hurt him. I had put enough Ki into it now so I was going to charge the remainder with some of my raw Physic energy. In its pure form it was much more powerful than Ki but I had much less of it. But I seemed to be the only one on this planet so far who had any. The attack was beginning to grow very large. It was about the size of ten human elephants. Now I had on last surprise to add the ball. To make it more potent and much more deadly I would start to decrease its size. In its smaller form the attack would have much more force, as it would be more concentrated. This was a trick I learnt from a Sargalian, Kontach wizard fourth degree. He had been the most powerful fighter in the 16th galaxy. He was dead now. The ball decreased concentrating inside itself until it was my size. Preparing myself I gathered the invisible strings I had around the attack together and let them loose. The blast surged forward, then seemed to pause for a moment before crashing into the Android. I held it as long as I could pushing all I had gathered into the front. He was obviously fighting it and he seemed to be winning so far. To my shock I saw the edge of the beam left upwards. He had got it under control! He was going to throw it away, I had to stop him! As he bent his knees and flexed his arms. I had let go of the attack vital seconds ago. To make it implode I needed more time. Gathering a bunch of physic energy I let it flow into my hands before directing it though the link I had created between us when I started to read his mind. This would seriously disrupt the link but it was necessary if I was going to live out of this battle. He jerked slightly as it hit him and I saw a look of surprise enter his features. Reaching my paws outward I caught the remaining strands of my attack. He was just getting his body under his control again when I crushed the strands between my paws. The explosion threw me back wards through a wall before I managed to fly into the air. The explosion was just dying out in front of my eyes. It had destroyed a wide area in the city. There happened to be a school on the edge of the explosions path but it had been empty. Other buildings were not so lucky. As the dusts clouds started to rise I heard women start to scream. This would be interesting, spectators to watch our fight. But I hoped it wouldn't be much of a fight. That attack should have injured him at least a bit. He suddenly rose out of the dust cloud and hovered opposite me. "Frankly I had hoped you could have hit me with something a little more powerful." He wasn't even scratched! His clothes had been ragged slightly but that was his only change. But I still had a chance to destroy him. As long as I had strength in my body I would fight. I would give it everything I had.
Android 17
She didn't seem to be too pleased about my lack of injuries but what did she except. That a puny attack like that could harm someone like me. I hoped that she was starting to understand what she had undertaken when she had attacked something as powerful as me. I hadn't even started to fight properly yet. But I would very soon. "You are running out of time and you know it. For your sake I hope that wasn't your best attack." "You will know when I hit you with my best attack. Trust me" Was she bluffing or not? I couldn't tell, her face didn't give anything away. I couldn't find the least bit of fear in her eyes. This time I would lead the attack. Flying forward I raised my fist only to fade behind her with a kick to the head. She just managed to catch this but I could see that if I increased my speed just a bit she couldn't have been able to block. Her tail made an attempt for my throat but a kick to the stomach dissuaded her from attacking me with it. I lifted my fist to hit her back but I had given her too much time. Her fists began to pound my unprotected stomach. This actually hurt quite a bit. I managed to knee her out of the way but she was back on me again attacking not giving me much time to block. Still smarting from my stomach I wasn't quick enough and she got one blow to my face. But as her paw moved back I saw blood on her claws. I responded with a face on punch, which sent her flying back. I reached a tentative hand to my face. She had cut a long slash along my cheek. She had drawn blood! This was no longer a game. I started to power up to my full power. As I was an Android this took seconds. But she had not been idle in this time either. She seemed to be surrounded with a strange purple glow. What was she doing now? Her hands thrust out suddenly and I had that feeling a paralysis again. She flew straight for me doubling me up with a single blow. She then kneed my chin and punched my stomach with another punch. Unable to protect myself she was managing to hurt me. She then grabbed my hair and threw my face into her knee. It was at this moment I regained control. I was falling backwards from the face blow and she was coming straight for me. Gathering my senses quickly I kicked out at her. This stopped her only a short while but it was enough for me to ready myself. Turning I head butted her in the chest. She replied with a punch to my face. Concentrating, though my face stung, I moved my head back into position. She had only managed to move my head. Grinning I replied with my own punch to her face. Unable to stop herself she fell back. I lanced forward above her and cupping my hands I brought them down on her belly striking her downwards. I was after her in a flash and managed to reach the ground before she did. I leaped up towards her and punched her belly with all the strength I could gather. Her body was bent in a half circle shape and a large blob and red flesh flew from her mouth. I let her fall to the ground and I turned away. After all that it had only taken one combo to take her out. I was right at the start, she wasn't that powerful. Females were never good fighters. This thought reminded me of 18. This sobered me up very quickly. I was wrong; some woman could fight but only Android women. Well I would put her out of her misery now and kill her. I turned but to my surprise she wasn't there. Suddenly I felt her touch on my side. Pain suddenly started to reverberate about my body. I turned to hit her but suddenly I was paralysed again. She backed away slightly. "Time to die 17." "What… are you…going…to do?" I managed to breath out. "You seem to have an increased defence to ki attacks. Your master must have designed you with that in mind. Anyway I don't have any beam attacks capable of destroying you and we've already seen I'm not physically strong enough to hurt you. So I'm going to try another method. Hold still" The purple light appeared around her again. Closing her eyes she stepped forward and placed her paws on my forehead. Though I tried to struggle her physic bonds held me. She started to speak in another language, a strange chant it sounded like. As I watched the purple power seemed to intensify into a ball around her head. It was then swept down through her hands into my head. There was an explosion of pain in my head. It was like noting else I had ever felt. It was like she was trying to rip me apart from inside. I tried to scream a release of the pain but I couldn't. I suddenly lost all vision in my eyes. But it wasn't all black. I started to see large purple and red dots. All the colours of the rainbow flashed before me. I had descended into my own private hell. Nothing Dr Gero had programmed into me prepared me for this. The pure pain was unbearable. It seemed to be coming from every bone and joint in my body. This was torture. Death couldn't be all that bad could it? At least it would be a release. This was too much for anything to bear. No one could survive this. I had every right to give up or did I?
Any comments send to snakeplisskenkiller@hotmail.com. Well another outing into the mind of my character. That "change" she keeps talking about, does anyone have any ideas of what it might be? Will this be two Androids down? Could the auther be looking for a hasty exit to the story? You will just have to find out. (By the way the next isn't the last chapter. Trust me, this story isn't over yet, not by a long shot.)