Scott frowned and glanced around at the other nineteen clear, seemingly
glass cages around the room. He sighed to himself. If the cages were
glass then every single one of the captured mutants would be free one-way
or another. Except the cages weren't glass, they were made of something
that was neutralizing their powers whenever they tried to either use them
against the cage or use them to get out. He noted with another sigh that
Kitty and Kurt were both still unconscious after trying to use their powers
to get out.
"This is great, just great. Twenty mutants and we still get our asses whooped." Kyran grumbled.
"Don't blame us, we've been getting our asses kicked for a long time yo." Todd commented.
"Maximoff stop pacing you're making me dizzy." Evan snapped.
Pietro flipped him off and continued his pacing. "Mind your own business Daniels."
"Just ignore him Evan. We don't need to be fighting right now." Scott ordered. "We need to figure out how to get out of here, if we can get out of here."
"Well, I can answer that for you quite simply actually." An unfamiliar voice spoke up. "You can't get out of here unless I choose to release you."
All eyes went to the newcomer in the room. It was a young looking man who had long black hair tied back in a ponytail and cold dark eyes. He had a blood red cape, steel tipped boots, and a silver chest plate that looked right out of the middle ages.
"Excuse me sir, the convention for Lord of the Rings is in another hidden base." Adam sneered.
The man smirked and slowly turned to look at the arrogant boy. "You're the illusionist, Tartarus, correct?"
"What's it to ya?" Adam snarled.
"I think you need an attitude adjustment." The man replied calmly.
The two stared at each other as silence choked the room. It was black eyes against black eyes and equally hateful looks. And then something flickered in Adam's eyes, the hateful expression turned to one of agony and fear. His teammates watched in shock as they had never seen either of those emotions exhibited by the arrogant illusionist. Then, as if a switch had been flipped the mutant's eyes rolled up in the back of his head and he slumped against the side of the cage.
"Hey! What the hell did you do?" Kyran roared. "Who the hell are you anyway?"
The still smirking man shifted his gaze toward the shadow controller. "I simply showed him a past he would like to forget and a future he didn't want to see."
"Answer the other question."
"Forgive my rudeness, my name is Prince Desor. Welcome to my base. I hope your stay will be agonizing and terrible." The man replied as calmly as ever.
"Prince, huh? Of what? This mountain?" Pietro taunted.
"Quicksilver, shut up." Kyran hissed. He didn't want to watch his boyfriend go through anything like what Adam had.
Luckily for Pietro, Desor seemed to just ignore the question. Instead the man walked the isle between the two rows of ten cages. As he went he scrutinized each mutant with a smirk firmly on his face the whole way.
"I'm going to get straight to the point of my visit into this room." He finally said. "As you can guess those mutants that attacked you are working for me. I approached them all with the same deal I'm going to offer you. Join me and be free from the coming strife, or don't join me and suffer."
"What are you talking about? Coming strife?" Scott demanded.
"I can't tell you much, but I will tell you that war is coming between humans and mutants. You have your chance to join me, sit back and wait for it to end. Or don't join me and be forced to fight for your lives." Desor explained with as little detail as he could.
"How do you know war is coming?" Jean asked.
Desor grinned nastily. "Because I'm provoking it."
There was a moment of stunned silence. They all had the same question in mind, which Erik voiced for them.
"Why?"
"Oh, that part you don't need to know yet." Was the calm reply. "You have an hour to decide. In the mean time some guests wish to speak to you and I have plans to finalize."
With that the man swept out of the room leaving silence behind. It was all a lot to take in all at once. No one got a chance to say anything before Mick and Jordan strutted into the room with smirks that matched Desor's.
"Traitors." Erik hissed at them.
"Oh please, like you really thought we would stick with you losers once we got out." Jordan sneered.
"Not that! How can you betray mutant kind like this?"
Mick laughed. "Oh that's easy. See, we weren't going to take the deal at first, since war would give us plenty of chances to use our powers."
"But then Desor said that when the war was over he would give countries to anyone who joined him." Jordan continued.
"What power hungry egomaniac wouldn't agree to those terms?"
"Well, I don't consider myself power hungry, but I'm certainly an egomaniac and even I wouldn't agree to that." Pietro spoke up.
"Then you're a fool." Jordan sneered.
"Put not your trust in princes." Luke spoke up.
Mick rolled his eyes. "Please, don't give us any of your quote crap. It doesn't mean shit."
"Fools think they need no advice, but the wise listen to others." Luke said.
"The wise should also learn when to shut up."
"You traitors will get what's coming to you in the end." Chailyn spoke up.
"Let me guess we're going to suffer for eternity in Hell?" Mick laughed.
Chailyn shook her head and grinned viciously. "No, I'm going to suck every drop of water from your bodies if I ever get the chance. It's a promise."
"Oh, you scare us." Jordan sneered.
"Yeah, we're so afraid." Mick taunted.
"You should be, she keeps her promises." Taylon spoke up for the first time.
Jordan rolled his eyes. "Shut up little bull boy."
"Hey bull boy, you remember what I said about your horns?" Mick asked with an evil glint in his eyes.
The color drained from Taylon's face as Mick produced a chainsaw made of energy. The young boy gulped and stumbled to the back of his cage. He didn't put it past Mick to carry out that threat.
"Hey, leave the kid alone!" Kyran shouted.
Jordan left his brother's side and walked to stand in front of Kyran's cage. "Ah, fearless leader, I see you're still sticking up for all the other little pansies. Man, it would really kill you to have to stay in there while your buddy get the shit beat out of him."
"Don't you dare. Jordan, I swear to god I'll kill you if you touch any of them." Kyran snarled. "You know I will."
"Oh don't threaten me Kyran. I know your armor's weakness."
"We know." Mick piped up.
Kyran paled a little at that. "There's no way you could know."
"Desor told us, told all of us." Jordan explained. "You're no longer invincible. So sit down and shut up little boy."
To everyone's surprise Kyran did shut up, and looked quite a little shaken up too. He couldn't believe that some stranger knew his most closely guarded secret. No one was ever supposed to know the weakness to his armor. It made him feel vulnerable and he didn't like that one bit.
"Marauder, Carnage, time's up. Leave them to brood." Desor ordered from the doorway.
Mick smirked one last time at Taylon before turning and stalking about. Jordan stared at Kyran for a moment before he followed his brother. Desor shut the door and silence reigned. No one said anything for a long time as they all tried to recover from what had happened.
Kyran was trying to recover from the shock of having his weakness known. Shadow was trying desperately to cheer him up, but nothing was working. He couldn't figure out how a stranger knew something he had only once ever admitted. He was sure it had probably been on file at the Facility, but that place had been caved in and destroyed. The only files of the mutants were the ones Professor Xavier had Wolverine download.
"Ky, are you okay?" Brody's voice finally broke the oppressive silence.
Kyran looked over at his younger teammate. "Yeah, I'll be okay as soon as I get my hands around Jordan's neck."
"Let's concentrate on getting out of here first." Scott said.
"If you have any suggestions I'm all ears, Goggles." Kyran replied.
Scott tensed and growled. "Don't call me that."
"Whatever." Kyran said dismissively. "Anyone have any ideas?"
"There's no way to get out of these cages and no way to call for help." Scott replied.
Help. That's what they needed. But their com links had been taken and weren't made to contact the Institute. The only chance they had of calling for back up was to get to the stashed Velocity or Blackbird.
Kyran was at a loss for what to do. He was just glad the younger members of the team were still back at the Institute and safe for the moment.
Wait! The rest of the Hellraisers! Trenton. There was no force on Earth that could block the kid's ability to enter someone's dreams. The whole team had a link with Trenton.
"Anyone tired?"
"What?" A myriad of voices questioned.
"Who is the one mutant not captured here that can find us and his powers can't be blocked." Kyran asked in reply.
For half a second there was silence before Taylon figured out what the older boy was talking about. "Trenton! If there's any chance he's sleeping we can contact him."
"And do what? Have the New Mutants come rescue us? They'll be captured quicker than we were." Scott argued. "They have way less training."
"Yeah, well I think you can think of one mutant who could bust in here and probably take every one of those mutants out." Lance spoke up.
"ExceptpossiblythatLockdowncharacterthattookyouguysout." Pietro said.
Everyone looked toward the speedster to see he was still pacing back and forth and his pace had picked up considerably. He also looked like he was sweating a lot and even though he was a slight blur it also looked like there was a panicked look on his face.
"'Tro? Calm down."
"Ican't.Iwantout.Ineedout.Outoutoutout!" Pietro rambled quickly.
"Is he Claustrophobic or something?" Todd asked. "Cause I've never seen him act like this."
"Well, maybe not necessarily Claustrophobic, but think about it. He's used to running around free. He can usually escape all his problems in a flash." Kyran explained. "But now he's trapped. He can't get away and it's killing him."
"StoptalkingaboutmelikeI'mnothere." Pietro snapped.
"Calm down Pietro, we'll get out of here." Kyran said soothingly.
"Guys, I hate to bring this up, but are we even going to discuss the creep's offer?" Jean asked.
"No." Several voices responded.
Silence returned until Adam, Kurt, and Kitty woke up. Everyone took turns explaining what was going on. And then there was silence again. For a while everyone continued standing until one by one they sat down until Pietro was the last one still standing as he paced back and forth. He was still pacing when Desor returned.
"You look like a caged tiger young Quicksilver." Desor said with a hint of taunting in his voice. "Want out?"
"Morethananything." Pietro replied in a rush. In a flash he was pressed against the cage, staring longingly at Desor. "Letmeout."
"Will you join me?"
To Pietro he seemed to pause for an eternity, to everyone else his response was immediate. "Yesyes! Letmeout."
"Pietro!" Many voices shouted in surprise.
Desor smirked and with a wave of his hand Pietro's cage disappeared. The speedster avoided eye contact, which made Desor suspicious.
"Pietro, how could you?" Kyran demanded, his voice sounding somewhere between angry and hurt.
Pietro turned to look at his boyfriend. "I said I wasn't power hungry enough. But come on what good would I do in a war? Messenger? Spy? My power is good for nothing but running. I'm sitting this one out."
"I always knew you were a coward Maximoff." Evan snarled. "But this takes the cake."
"Oh shut up Daniels." Pietro snapped. "You can't possibly understand."
"That's enough Quicksilver." Desor said. He smirked and stepped toward the boy. "Now, seeing as how you so readily betrayed your friends I won't put it past you to betray me."
"Wha-."
Before Pietro could finish his question Desor snapped his fingers and a collar appeared around the boy's neck. "Don't worry Quicksilver, you won't find out what it does, unless you decide to betray me." He smirked. "Welcome to the team."
Desor's back was turned so that he missed Pietro flipping him off. Instead he began walking forward, looking back and forth between his captives. As he moved between Scott and Kyran the shadow wielding mutant was suddenly in his armor and threw himself at the front of the cage.
"You hurt him pal and I'll put you in a world of hurt." Kyran snarled.
Desor smirked. "Oh, is that a fact?"
"That's a promise."
"I think you need an attitude adjustment, like your friend Tartarus." Desor said with a smirk on his face.
"You let me out of this cage and you'll get the attitude adjustment." Kyran snarled.
Desor laughed mockingly. With a wave of his hand the cage around Kyran disappeared and almost instantly the shadow armor grew blades. The boy launched himself at Desor only to be stopped mid air and held there. All eyes turned to Jean, who frantically shook her head that she wasn't doing it.
"How pathetic you are young Shadow Knight to assume that you could possibly give me an attitude adjustment." Desor taunted. "You forget that I know the weakness of your armor and now so will everyone else."
Kyran struggled in the air as Desor pulled a dagger from his belt. Everyone cringed in unison as Desor then swung the weapon at Kyran's neck. There was an almost metallic clang as the blade connected with Kyran's armor.
"Fast moving objects get blocked. Anything that actually hits the armor doesn't affect you, be it weapons or energy blasts." Desor said, as if he really had to explain anything to the young mutant. "However, what no one else has figured out is..."
Desor calmly placed the blade against Kyran's chest and began to slowly pull it diagonally. There was a sharp intake of breath from Kyran and seconds later blood began to flow from the gash both in Kyran's flesh and armor. Desor dragged the blade down to the young man's hip and then pulled the bloodied weapon away with a triumphant smirk.
"...A slow moving blade can pierce your armor like a hot knife through butter. A slow moving anything for that matter. I could choke you to death with ease. Or slowly push a knife into your heart." Desor flashed a nasty smile. "So, be a good boy or you'll be a dead boy, got it?"
With that Kyran was thrown backwards and the cage materialized around him. He slumped against the side and his shadow armor melted away. Without a word to anyone he turned his head to stare emotionlessly at Pietro.
Desor smiled darkly and then turned so that he was facing down the line to the rest of the cages. "Now, anyone else plan on joining me?"
"I will."
"This is great, just great. Twenty mutants and we still get our asses whooped." Kyran grumbled.
"Don't blame us, we've been getting our asses kicked for a long time yo." Todd commented.
"Maximoff stop pacing you're making me dizzy." Evan snapped.
Pietro flipped him off and continued his pacing. "Mind your own business Daniels."
"Just ignore him Evan. We don't need to be fighting right now." Scott ordered. "We need to figure out how to get out of here, if we can get out of here."
"Well, I can answer that for you quite simply actually." An unfamiliar voice spoke up. "You can't get out of here unless I choose to release you."
All eyes went to the newcomer in the room. It was a young looking man who had long black hair tied back in a ponytail and cold dark eyes. He had a blood red cape, steel tipped boots, and a silver chest plate that looked right out of the middle ages.
"Excuse me sir, the convention for Lord of the Rings is in another hidden base." Adam sneered.
The man smirked and slowly turned to look at the arrogant boy. "You're the illusionist, Tartarus, correct?"
"What's it to ya?" Adam snarled.
"I think you need an attitude adjustment." The man replied calmly.
The two stared at each other as silence choked the room. It was black eyes against black eyes and equally hateful looks. And then something flickered in Adam's eyes, the hateful expression turned to one of agony and fear. His teammates watched in shock as they had never seen either of those emotions exhibited by the arrogant illusionist. Then, as if a switch had been flipped the mutant's eyes rolled up in the back of his head and he slumped against the side of the cage.
"Hey! What the hell did you do?" Kyran roared. "Who the hell are you anyway?"
The still smirking man shifted his gaze toward the shadow controller. "I simply showed him a past he would like to forget and a future he didn't want to see."
"Answer the other question."
"Forgive my rudeness, my name is Prince Desor. Welcome to my base. I hope your stay will be agonizing and terrible." The man replied as calmly as ever.
"Prince, huh? Of what? This mountain?" Pietro taunted.
"Quicksilver, shut up." Kyran hissed. He didn't want to watch his boyfriend go through anything like what Adam had.
Luckily for Pietro, Desor seemed to just ignore the question. Instead the man walked the isle between the two rows of ten cages. As he went he scrutinized each mutant with a smirk firmly on his face the whole way.
"I'm going to get straight to the point of my visit into this room." He finally said. "As you can guess those mutants that attacked you are working for me. I approached them all with the same deal I'm going to offer you. Join me and be free from the coming strife, or don't join me and suffer."
"What are you talking about? Coming strife?" Scott demanded.
"I can't tell you much, but I will tell you that war is coming between humans and mutants. You have your chance to join me, sit back and wait for it to end. Or don't join me and be forced to fight for your lives." Desor explained with as little detail as he could.
"How do you know war is coming?" Jean asked.
Desor grinned nastily. "Because I'm provoking it."
There was a moment of stunned silence. They all had the same question in mind, which Erik voiced for them.
"Why?"
"Oh, that part you don't need to know yet." Was the calm reply. "You have an hour to decide. In the mean time some guests wish to speak to you and I have plans to finalize."
With that the man swept out of the room leaving silence behind. It was all a lot to take in all at once. No one got a chance to say anything before Mick and Jordan strutted into the room with smirks that matched Desor's.
"Traitors." Erik hissed at them.
"Oh please, like you really thought we would stick with you losers once we got out." Jordan sneered.
"Not that! How can you betray mutant kind like this?"
Mick laughed. "Oh that's easy. See, we weren't going to take the deal at first, since war would give us plenty of chances to use our powers."
"But then Desor said that when the war was over he would give countries to anyone who joined him." Jordan continued.
"What power hungry egomaniac wouldn't agree to those terms?"
"Well, I don't consider myself power hungry, but I'm certainly an egomaniac and even I wouldn't agree to that." Pietro spoke up.
"Then you're a fool." Jordan sneered.
"Put not your trust in princes." Luke spoke up.
Mick rolled his eyes. "Please, don't give us any of your quote crap. It doesn't mean shit."
"Fools think they need no advice, but the wise listen to others." Luke said.
"The wise should also learn when to shut up."
"You traitors will get what's coming to you in the end." Chailyn spoke up.
"Let me guess we're going to suffer for eternity in Hell?" Mick laughed.
Chailyn shook her head and grinned viciously. "No, I'm going to suck every drop of water from your bodies if I ever get the chance. It's a promise."
"Oh, you scare us." Jordan sneered.
"Yeah, we're so afraid." Mick taunted.
"You should be, she keeps her promises." Taylon spoke up for the first time.
Jordan rolled his eyes. "Shut up little bull boy."
"Hey bull boy, you remember what I said about your horns?" Mick asked with an evil glint in his eyes.
The color drained from Taylon's face as Mick produced a chainsaw made of energy. The young boy gulped and stumbled to the back of his cage. He didn't put it past Mick to carry out that threat.
"Hey, leave the kid alone!" Kyran shouted.
Jordan left his brother's side and walked to stand in front of Kyran's cage. "Ah, fearless leader, I see you're still sticking up for all the other little pansies. Man, it would really kill you to have to stay in there while your buddy get the shit beat out of him."
"Don't you dare. Jordan, I swear to god I'll kill you if you touch any of them." Kyran snarled. "You know I will."
"Oh don't threaten me Kyran. I know your armor's weakness."
"We know." Mick piped up.
Kyran paled a little at that. "There's no way you could know."
"Desor told us, told all of us." Jordan explained. "You're no longer invincible. So sit down and shut up little boy."
To everyone's surprise Kyran did shut up, and looked quite a little shaken up too. He couldn't believe that some stranger knew his most closely guarded secret. No one was ever supposed to know the weakness to his armor. It made him feel vulnerable and he didn't like that one bit.
"Marauder, Carnage, time's up. Leave them to brood." Desor ordered from the doorway.
Mick smirked one last time at Taylon before turning and stalking about. Jordan stared at Kyran for a moment before he followed his brother. Desor shut the door and silence reigned. No one said anything for a long time as they all tried to recover from what had happened.
Kyran was trying to recover from the shock of having his weakness known. Shadow was trying desperately to cheer him up, but nothing was working. He couldn't figure out how a stranger knew something he had only once ever admitted. He was sure it had probably been on file at the Facility, but that place had been caved in and destroyed. The only files of the mutants were the ones Professor Xavier had Wolverine download.
"Ky, are you okay?" Brody's voice finally broke the oppressive silence.
Kyran looked over at his younger teammate. "Yeah, I'll be okay as soon as I get my hands around Jordan's neck."
"Let's concentrate on getting out of here first." Scott said.
"If you have any suggestions I'm all ears, Goggles." Kyran replied.
Scott tensed and growled. "Don't call me that."
"Whatever." Kyran said dismissively. "Anyone have any ideas?"
"There's no way to get out of these cages and no way to call for help." Scott replied.
Help. That's what they needed. But their com links had been taken and weren't made to contact the Institute. The only chance they had of calling for back up was to get to the stashed Velocity or Blackbird.
Kyran was at a loss for what to do. He was just glad the younger members of the team were still back at the Institute and safe for the moment.
Wait! The rest of the Hellraisers! Trenton. There was no force on Earth that could block the kid's ability to enter someone's dreams. The whole team had a link with Trenton.
"Anyone tired?"
"What?" A myriad of voices questioned.
"Who is the one mutant not captured here that can find us and his powers can't be blocked." Kyran asked in reply.
For half a second there was silence before Taylon figured out what the older boy was talking about. "Trenton! If there's any chance he's sleeping we can contact him."
"And do what? Have the New Mutants come rescue us? They'll be captured quicker than we were." Scott argued. "They have way less training."
"Yeah, well I think you can think of one mutant who could bust in here and probably take every one of those mutants out." Lance spoke up.
"ExceptpossiblythatLockdowncharacterthattookyouguysout." Pietro said.
Everyone looked toward the speedster to see he was still pacing back and forth and his pace had picked up considerably. He also looked like he was sweating a lot and even though he was a slight blur it also looked like there was a panicked look on his face.
"'Tro? Calm down."
"Ican't.Iwantout.Ineedout.Outoutoutout!" Pietro rambled quickly.
"Is he Claustrophobic or something?" Todd asked. "Cause I've never seen him act like this."
"Well, maybe not necessarily Claustrophobic, but think about it. He's used to running around free. He can usually escape all his problems in a flash." Kyran explained. "But now he's trapped. He can't get away and it's killing him."
"StoptalkingaboutmelikeI'mnothere." Pietro snapped.
"Calm down Pietro, we'll get out of here." Kyran said soothingly.
"Guys, I hate to bring this up, but are we even going to discuss the creep's offer?" Jean asked.
"No." Several voices responded.
Silence returned until Adam, Kurt, and Kitty woke up. Everyone took turns explaining what was going on. And then there was silence again. For a while everyone continued standing until one by one they sat down until Pietro was the last one still standing as he paced back and forth. He was still pacing when Desor returned.
"You look like a caged tiger young Quicksilver." Desor said with a hint of taunting in his voice. "Want out?"
"Morethananything." Pietro replied in a rush. In a flash he was pressed against the cage, staring longingly at Desor. "Letmeout."
"Will you join me?"
To Pietro he seemed to pause for an eternity, to everyone else his response was immediate. "Yesyes! Letmeout."
"Pietro!" Many voices shouted in surprise.
Desor smirked and with a wave of his hand Pietro's cage disappeared. The speedster avoided eye contact, which made Desor suspicious.
"Pietro, how could you?" Kyran demanded, his voice sounding somewhere between angry and hurt.
Pietro turned to look at his boyfriend. "I said I wasn't power hungry enough. But come on what good would I do in a war? Messenger? Spy? My power is good for nothing but running. I'm sitting this one out."
"I always knew you were a coward Maximoff." Evan snarled. "But this takes the cake."
"Oh shut up Daniels." Pietro snapped. "You can't possibly understand."
"That's enough Quicksilver." Desor said. He smirked and stepped toward the boy. "Now, seeing as how you so readily betrayed your friends I won't put it past you to betray me."
"Wha-."
Before Pietro could finish his question Desor snapped his fingers and a collar appeared around the boy's neck. "Don't worry Quicksilver, you won't find out what it does, unless you decide to betray me." He smirked. "Welcome to the team."
Desor's back was turned so that he missed Pietro flipping him off. Instead he began walking forward, looking back and forth between his captives. As he moved between Scott and Kyran the shadow wielding mutant was suddenly in his armor and threw himself at the front of the cage.
"You hurt him pal and I'll put you in a world of hurt." Kyran snarled.
Desor smirked. "Oh, is that a fact?"
"That's a promise."
"I think you need an attitude adjustment, like your friend Tartarus." Desor said with a smirk on his face.
"You let me out of this cage and you'll get the attitude adjustment." Kyran snarled.
Desor laughed mockingly. With a wave of his hand the cage around Kyran disappeared and almost instantly the shadow armor grew blades. The boy launched himself at Desor only to be stopped mid air and held there. All eyes turned to Jean, who frantically shook her head that she wasn't doing it.
"How pathetic you are young Shadow Knight to assume that you could possibly give me an attitude adjustment." Desor taunted. "You forget that I know the weakness of your armor and now so will everyone else."
Kyran struggled in the air as Desor pulled a dagger from his belt. Everyone cringed in unison as Desor then swung the weapon at Kyran's neck. There was an almost metallic clang as the blade connected with Kyran's armor.
"Fast moving objects get blocked. Anything that actually hits the armor doesn't affect you, be it weapons or energy blasts." Desor said, as if he really had to explain anything to the young mutant. "However, what no one else has figured out is..."
Desor calmly placed the blade against Kyran's chest and began to slowly pull it diagonally. There was a sharp intake of breath from Kyran and seconds later blood began to flow from the gash both in Kyran's flesh and armor. Desor dragged the blade down to the young man's hip and then pulled the bloodied weapon away with a triumphant smirk.
"...A slow moving blade can pierce your armor like a hot knife through butter. A slow moving anything for that matter. I could choke you to death with ease. Or slowly push a knife into your heart." Desor flashed a nasty smile. "So, be a good boy or you'll be a dead boy, got it?"
With that Kyran was thrown backwards and the cage materialized around him. He slumped against the side and his shadow armor melted away. Without a word to anyone he turned his head to stare emotionlessly at Pietro.
Desor smiled darkly and then turned so that he was facing down the line to the rest of the cages. "Now, anyone else plan on joining me?"
"I will."