Tournament Stories part 11

After remembering which paths Sarah had led me to get to that windy pasture (I still couldn't believe it), I noticed two duelists, one of which obviously a rare hunter, heading towards the same field I had come from. I also found it pretty odd that this rare hunter was leading this duelist as well. But he looked pretty confident instead of kind of cautious, which is how I was feeling as Sarah took me down to the field. Feeling rather awkward, I asked them, "Would you mind if I watched your next duel?" I wanted to see if these rare hunters were as tough to beat as Sarah was, if not more.

The boy stopped and turned to face me. But the rare hunter kept walking.

The boy said, "Sure! You can watch! Just no cheering okay? I can win my duels without encouraging talk!" he said, kind of cocky if you ask me. But I was glad for the affirmative response to my request and followed behind the two, but not too closely.

The two duelists shuffled each other's decks and walked apart from each other, turning around at the same time. Those boring holographic emitters sped away again. I couldn't help but yawn a bit.

The rare hunter then said, "I always let the hunted go first. So let's get this over with so I can win your rarest card!" I was genuinely shocked to hear that this was another female rare hunter! Interrupting the duel on a hunch, I felt kind of stupid as I shouted to each of them, "What are your names?" My face turned red as soon as they both looked at me…

"You two can call me J, for now," and she glanced at me in an uncomfortable kind of way. Oh crap- it's HER! She's the J in J and S- her older sister! I thought as the other guy spoke.

"And I'm Andre Kaizer- the future victor of this duel! Are you ready to lose, J?" he asked as he smoothly drew the top six cards off of his deck and fanned them out in front of him without looking at or dropping any of them. He was quite flashy when he dueled, and this was before it even started! Andre… Kaizer? Why does that name kind of ring a bell? I thought as the duel began.

"You're so over-confident; this shouldn't take me so long. Let's duel!" she replied as she drew five cards. It was refreshing to hear two other people's life point meters beep instead of my own.

"You asked for it! For my first move, I'm going to summon Maha Vailo (1550/1400) in attack mode, as well as put this one card face down on the field- your move," he calmly said. I felt really antsy knowing that I'd have no idea what cards would be face down until they were revealed. Wow. He's got a Maha Vailo too! I thought as I felt a bit uneasy; let me tell you- watching a duel and being in a duel are two completely different things.

"Very well. I'm summoning Lord of Dragons (1200/1000) in attack mode and activating Flute of Summoning Dragon! With these two cards on the field, I can special summon TWO dragon type monsters directly from my hand- regardless of level!" J yelled. Whoa! Such an unlikely move on her first turn! I hope Andre has some good defenses laid out. If she can directly summon high-leveled or strong attack monsters, this duel may nearly be over before he can take his next turn! "And from my hand I will special summon Cave Dragon (2000/100) and Curse of Dragon (2000/1500) both in attack mode!" Now prepare yourself! Cave Dragon! Attack his Maha Vailo!" she yelled. And then, obedient to its master, the Cave Dragon traveled as fast as it could towards his Maha Vailo and took a massive swipe at her with his tail… after he activated his trap card lying in wait.

"Ha ha ha! This is great. I'm activating Metalmorph- my absolute favorite card in the whole game!! This trap card acts as an equip card which raises her attack and defense by 300 points! And BECAUSE this card is acting as an equip magic card, she gets an additional 500 attack point boost. That raises her total to 2350- enough to destroy your dragon card and damage your life points!" he proudly said as he shook the back of his hand of four cards at her. She could only watch as the spellcaster ducked beneath the dragon's spiked tail and rose up, with her eyes closed, exactly as before. Then she collected pure red power inside her fists and violently opened her eyes and fists, setting free the red energy to wreak havoc upon her monster, which was destroyed before it could return to her side of the field. And to make it all sweeter, her life points sunk to 3650. Unbelievable! He had the perfect defense for that card set up all along. And with Metalmorph equipped, her attack will rise every time she attacks. That was a good move! I thought to myself as J simply smiled and said, "For my main phase two, I'll lay this TRAP card face down on the field. Tough enough to take a gamble with your spellcaster, there?"

"Are you kidding? THIS isn't my only strategy… though it IS the first time I've used it. I got the idea after beating my last opponent not too long ago…" That made me laugh for some reason. Andre looked at me, kind of smiled, tilted his head to the right a little and scratched his forehead right above his right eyebrow. I could tell he was trying not to laugh.

"Anyway, it's my turn now," he said as he made his hand a total of five cards. Removing one card from his hand and setting it face down right next to his Maha Vailo, he put his hand across his mouth and thought a bit. His eyes darted back and forth between her face down magic/trap card, that she so forcefully declared was a TRAP card, and his face down defense monster. Then, making a reluctant nod, he spoke, "And now I'll have my Maha Vailo attack your Curse of Dragon!" We all watched as the spellcaster rose up again, and her attack factor went up to 3350, because of Metalmorph's effect. And just as before, a highly destructive force of red power hurled toward that yellow dragon. But J simply laughed and activated a trap card, "You fool! Didn't you hear me when I said that this card was a trap? Now I'm activating Mirror Force! It reflects that attack back at all your monsters and destroys them! That will teach you for acting too brashly!" I was shocked when a huge clear, and yet visible, bubble of defense wrapped around J's whole field. The massive attack was bounced back at both of Andre's monsters, destroying them- including the face down monster, unfortunately for J, "Heh, I kinda figured you'd attempt at something like this. So instead of suffering like this later in the duel, I got that trap out of the way NOW. And here comes more good news for me! The face down card you flipped over? That was my Penguin Soldier which returns two monsters to your hand. So it's "good bye for now" to your dragon and Lord of Dragons!" He happily said as he set one magic/trap card face down for his main phase two. It was turning out to be quite the tense duel so far!

"I do not fear your trap!" J said as if she knew exactly what card it was. She drew a card and immediately set a magic/trap face down. Next she summoned Armored Zombie (1500/0) and attacked his life points.

"It won't be so easy, cuz now I'm activating Waboku! Any damage done to me directly or to any of my monsters by one of your monsters is decreased to zero. So that attack was wasted," Andre said a bit uneasily. I could just plain tell he was a bit on edge having lost all monsters on the field. It appeared to me as if it seldom happened with him…

"Was it? I activate the counter trap card Seven Tools of the Bandit! As I pay 1000 life points, that trap is negated and destroyed! A HA HA HA!" J laughed as a Swiss army knife looking thing rose up from the back row of her field. It shuffled through its options all by itself until it came to a laser pistol object. It took careful aim and blasted right though Andre's vertical trap card- destroying it. He looked stunned, truly.

So the zombie continued with its attack. The ugly green-skinned zombie actually rather quickly trudged toward Andre and slashed at him once with his deadly blade. His life points went down to 2500. J's life points decreased to 2650. As of now, I had no basis on which to guess who would win. He seemed to have skill and strategy whereas J seemed to have powerful cards- a tactic that requires no strategy at all, might I add.

"Okay, fine. It's my turn now," Andre still kept as much cool as he could and drew a fourth card into his hand. I heard a faint sigh of relief.

"I'm setting two magic/trap cards face down. And I think I'll summon Harpie's Brother (1800/600) and have him destroy your Armored Zombie!" the wildly dressed winged beast burst into the air with a loud growl. And as he hovered in the air, his feathers stiffened and straightened out. Then he swiped forward with deadly speed and cut the zombie in half with its razor-sharp wings in a fraction of a second. It returned to Andre's side of the field and just stood there with fists clenched, ready to fight again. J just shrugged despite her loss of 300 life points.

"I think I should take this up just a bit," J said a bit annoyed. She drew to make her hand a total of three cards. We all knew that one of them was Curse of Dragon, and one was Lord of D. But the other was a mystery- but only for a few seconds. "I'm playing Pot of Greed which allows me to draw two more cards from my deck…" she pushed the magic card into one of the thin slots. As with all other magic or trap cards when they're activated, the turn from face down to face up position vertically facing the opponent. The huge pot laughed an uncontrollable laugh and launched two cards out of its opening on top of it. That signaled her to draw two cards, which she glared at.

"…Still not good…" J said as she activated another magic card out of her hand. "I'm playing Graceful Charity. This rare magic card lets me draw THREE cards from my deck and discard two," J said as Andre crossed his arms in impatience.

"Ha ha! MUCH better. I'm playing the magic card Polymerization. It lets me fuse special fusion material monsters from my hand, on the field, or both. So look! In my hand are both the Baby Dragon AND Time Wizard!" she shouted. "WHA-?!?? Impossible!" Andre yelled back. I even stumbled a step back at the nearly impossible combination she had, conveniently, in her hand. My surprise instantly turned into suspicion at that same moment. This was much like when she played her Lord of D. combined with the Flute of Summoning Dragon- on her FIRST TURN.

"So here comes…. THOUSAND DRAGON (2400/2000)!" But instead of the Polymerization card combining the two, the Time Wizard turned to face the dragon with its clock wand clutched in his hand. He pulled his wand back and whipped it forth towards the Baby Dragon and monotonously said, "time… magic." The two monsters instantly froze in whatever pose they were in. Suddenly, a vortex surrounded them, completely concealing them both. All that could be seen was their silhouettes fusing together to form the massively powerful Thousand Dragon which was now before Andre. He didn't look too scared, though. Those two cards he's got face down there must be really good if he's unafraid of this huge creature! I thought as he closed his eyes, crossed his arms again, smirked and tilted his head down, shaking it from side to side slowly. This made J a bit angry.

"YEAH?? Well there's nothing in the rules that say a fusion monster can't attack in the turn it's summoned. So, Thousand Dragon! Attack his Harpie's brother!" And as if signaled by a cruel master, the dragon fiercely reared its head back and let out a roar that scared all the nearby birds out of trees. And since we were in an empty field, that says a lot. The dragon took a mighty deep breath and let its power out through its nose, surrounding his winged beast with terrible smelling gas that was obviously poisonous, for before we could realize it, his monster was lying on the ground, just disappearing. And his life points went down to 1900. The score was now 2350 to 1900. It was still kind of close…

"Hey thanks! Since you've sent one of my monster cards to the graveyard, I can activate THIS: Michizure! It's a rare trap card that lets me destroy one monster card when one of MY monsters are sent from the field to the graveyard. So because of YOUR brashness, you lose your dragon!" Andre proudly revealed his face down card. I giggled at its art. It showed some guy hanging off a cliff with some ridiculous face. I just found it humorous. A circle of fire appeared below her dragon and violently opened up, swallowing the dragon in its entirety. Then the circle of fire sealed itself off, and the little flames that were outlining the circle flickered out.

"So now it's my turn, and your field is entirely blank!!" He taunted as he drew a card, proud with the results. "But I'll just set this one face down in defense mode," he said as he looked at her with a "come and get me" look on his face. His black hair hung over his eyes in such a way that he looked like he had a million tricks up his sleeve, each one of which would obliterate anything you set against him. Of course, this was his HAIR, not his mind. For all we knew, this would be his last reliable defense.

"Why didn't you attack my field? Afraid of what cards lie within the deepest reaches of my deck?" and she drew a card. "Like this one?" and she grinned as Andre looked at his hand of only one card. "I'm playing the magic card Painful Choice!" Painful Choice?!?? I own that card! It's so rare and has a great magic effect! I thought as my jaw dropped when I heard the card's name. I looked over at Andre, he seemed rather clueless as he waited for her to explain its effect. "This highly rare magic card lets me select five cards from my whole deck and show them to you. Then YOU choose the card that goes in my hand! Ha ha ha! So prepare to pick your own fate!" J said as she searched her WHOLE DECK for five cards to reveal to Andre. She finished, but didn't shuffle her deck! That card is a very useful card to have… She showed him the five cards she picked from her deck. Even though the two were standing pretty far apart, she fanned them out far enough for him to be able to make each of them out. I looked over to her and saw Monster Reborn, Waboku, Magician of Faith, Witch of the Black Forest, and Wall of Illusion. Andre's face flinched. No matter what card he chose, he would be putting himself at a minorly small disadvantage. Hmm… if she could have chosen ANY FIVE cards from her whole deck for Andre to choose from, then why did she not pick slightly more powerful cards? I wonder if this rare huntress is all she's cracked up to be… I skeptically thought as we both waited for Andre's decision.

"Uh… tough choice. The card that's going in your hand is… Wall of Illusion," he quickly finished as he looked at his face down monster, half smiling.

Fine, I'll send the other four cards to the graveyard, set this card in defense mode and end my turn.

Andre drew a card and was practically jumping for joy. "I just drew the duel-winning card! Watch this!" Andre happily announced.

"First, I'm sacrificing my face down card, Gravekeeper's Guard (1000/1900) for a tribute summon. But first, I must activate its effect!" J gasped. She knew what was coming, I could tell. "Once it's flipped, I return one monster on your side of the field to its owner's hand. So I send your own Wall of Illusion back to your hand… as ironic as that sounds. And now for my tribute summoned monster, Amphibian Beast (2400/2000)!" And at that moment, little raindrops were visible for the first time since the clouds covered the sun during my duel against Sarah. It had gotten significantly colder and windier, too. Emerging from the murky ground and shaking the dirt off of its back once totally visible, the Amphibian Beast looked at J- filled with animosity- and her totally exposed field.

"Well I must say, it's been an… interesting duel- to say the least, J. Amphibian Beast! Attack her life points directly!" Obediently, the monster just sat there, only opening its mouth. Suddenly, a massive tongue lashed out and slammed J twice on both sides of her, rocking her around violently. With only 2350 life points to take that 2400 hit, her life points sped down to 0, and the duel was over. J tried to keep her dignity about her as she gathered up her cards in her deck, and shut off her duel disc. Andre quickly organized his deck, and ran over to J.

"I can't believe I was beaten by a 12 year old," J murmured as she showed the contents of her deck to Andre.

"Hey! I'm not twelve! I'll be turning 14 soon!" he argued as he chose a card and slid it into his deck.

"…..Even worse….." J uttered as she quickly walked off, with her black wardrobe fluttering behind her, leaving us two behind.

After she was out of hearing range, I began a conversation with Andre, "Andre Kaizer! You've just defeated a rare huntress. How do you feel?" I asked in a friendly voice. ANDRE! I know I've heard that name before!!

"Indifferent. Come on, it's beginning to rain. Let's get back to the hotel," he somewhat commanded. I nodded in agreement and made sure my pack was zippered before we continued. I could tell that this storm would be bad.

Erupting into a slow jog after hearing the first rumble of thunder a few seconds later, Andre and I began to bounce questions off each other, "Do you still have to take part in a duel?" he asked me all of a sudden. "No. In fact, I had just got done beating J's sister before you two showed up! What card of yours was J after? Do you know?" I replied.

"Got no idea. In fact, I didn't even know I HAD a card that they wanted. But which card was J's sister dueling you for?" he innocently asked.

Realizing how much I wanted to keep my dragon a secret, I said the name of a different card in my deck that was just as rare, "Uh, she wanted my Last Turn. Yeah, it's one of the rarest trap cards in the game…" and I scrambled through my deck to show it to him just so he'd believe me. Going through one's deck while jogging isn't too easy. Holding it face up, two small drops of rain splattered on the face of it. I instinctively wiped it off with my sleeve, carefully put it back into my deck, and continued, "But I beat HER. So this is the card I chose," I said as he glanced at my newly won Offerings to the Doomed. "So what card did you just win from J, Andre?" I asked as he was already shifting through his deck in anticipation of my question. I put my deck in my pack and securely zippered it from the rain that was progressively getting harder as we jogged back to the hotel.

"Take a look," he replied.

"Hey, that's Nobleman of Crossout! I've got that card. And it's really rare, too!" I said as I turned my head to try and see the hotel below the endless stretch of black sky in front of me. I didn't.

"Yeah, I've got the Nobleman of Extermination and figured "why not?"" Andre said as we jogged along. I didn't know what the Nobleman of Extermination did, but I didn't feel like asking as my hair was getting matted down from all the rain.

About another 10 minutes later, we arrived at the hotel. I started to get angry at how huge this island was. But I looked around, trying not to let my soggy hair get in my eyes' way of seeing if anyone else I knew was here. But before I could really make out anybody's face, the weird short lady who was waiting at the entrance told us to stop and ran over with some weird gizmo in her hand. She stopped in front of us and told us to turn on our duel discs. We did and the life point counter went up after a faintly visible beam of led light shined in a special spot on our life point display. She scanned both of ours. After a few seconds, the little machine made a happy 2-toned, 5-note beeping sound. She smiled lightly and handed each of us a blank card. Mine said #1 on it. His said #32. We both looked at her in confusion.

"I know, I know. The weird numbers, right? Okay, you take them into that room and show them to the lady there," I noticed that the receptionist wasn't at her desk, and that the short lady was pointing at the room in which we had those practice duels. "The number signifies what number duelist you are as part of the final 32. For example, you," she paused as she looked at me, "will be dueling against duelist number two, got it?" she finished as be both nodded in somewhat agreement. "What! I handed them out at random, if that's what you're confused about! Anyway, I've got 5 more of these to hand out. If there are no more questions, go into that room, show her your numbered card, and wander the grounds if you like- there are no more elimination duels today," she informed us as she flicked something off her red sweater. All three of us watched it land on her pair of blue jeans. "Oh! Um, since we're both included in the final 32, shouldn't we be awarded $250 like that guy said?" Andre asked.

"Don't you worry about that, kid," the lady smiled. "All monetary prizes will be awarded whenever one is disqualified. The card prizes, however, given either of you make it that far," she purposely paused to look us both in the eyes, "will be awarded at each level in which they are stated to be awarded. Get it?" she said as she took a breath and looked to her left at a duelist just arriving. He looked more waterlogged than we did.

But having no more questions, we went into the room that had those pods in them before… but now they were gone. In their places were huge dueling arenas!

"What happened to the pods?" we both silently said at once. We looked at each other and remembered what we were in this room for.

"Unless you're two of the final 32, or custodians, please leave," the cranky receptionist said. We laughed a little and walked over to her desk. Seeing me, she hid her pencil jar within her top drawer.

"We are quite official!" Andre said as we showed her our numbered cards. I couldn't help but giggle a bit after hearing that.

"Alright. From this point forward, we will be using dueling arenas, not duel discs. Though you may keep them. But it will be just like duel discs, anyway. The graphics are hugely improved. And the attacks, either on attack mode monsters or direct, do hurt- but not as painfully. All the same rules apply: 4000 life points, fusion monsters are still able to attack in the turn that they are summoned, and the rest of the real rules," she said as she typed away on her computer.

"I thought you before said that you don't know anything about the tournament," I said after a flashback to the past.

She looked at me a bit angrily and replied, "Yeah, the short lady in front had to register duelists and hand out those number cards. I was just put here and given some PAPER to READ," she said while tapping the paper with all the things she just said to us on it. And then to truly rub it in our faces, she held it up in front of her and read in an unrehearsed voice, "Oh, and before you go! Please try to come here at around nine o'clock tonight so you all can get some more practice in before tomorrow's final five duels! O K?" and then we walked off as she started laughing to herself. The door loudly slammed behind us like it always did.

"(my name)!" Jack said as we were halfway into the lobby. I turned toward the door to see him and Doug in the middle of examining each other's decks. Doug was obviously confused about something, but looked up, happily waved and tilted his head back down as he turned one card over sarcastically looking for something.

Andre and I walked over as I prepared myself to introduce everybody.

"Hey Jack, Doug. This is Andre. Andre, that's Jack, and that's Doug with the confused look on his face," I said as the other two laughed. "If you lost one of your most important cards, you'd be confused too!" he snapped back. I backed off, only to see a smile slowly begin to appear on his face. "You're too gullible!" he said as I did nothing. I waited for him to calm down before talking again.

"Alright everybody. Who'd you duel, and what'd you win?" I asked.

"I dueled some weirdo named James. All he did was rely on defense mode and flip effects to win. I must say, it's an effective strategy to some extent. But when you've got an oncoming storm, it's not nice to only be defending and not letting your opponent attack you," Jack said. "How'd you win? Andre asked. "I'm not too sure. I think he messed up or something because I remember attacking one of his monsters and severely damaging his life points. It was something something Thunder," he said. "Immortal of Thunder?" I suggested. "Yeah! That's it!" he said.

"…WHY would anybody have an Immortal of Thunder in their deck? Its flip effect is so horrible. And its stats aren't that great as it is," Doug joined in.

"Beats me. But I'm the one that beat him! Look at the card I won! It's called Ultimate Offering. It's a trap card that let's me perform another normal summon or set at the cost of 500 life points per monster. And it's a permanent trap, too! So if the other guy plays Raigeki at his first main phase, I can activate this during his battle phase and at least have ONE monster on the field to defend me," Jack said as he dreamt about ways of using his newly won card.

"I've heard that you can have a full field of five monsters on your opponent's first battle phase with this card," Andre mentioned, not really sure of his information.

"I don't know. But why would you want to waste all those life points?" I responded as another duelist walked in the doors behind me. The tail end of a thunder blast swept through the room. We all jumped.

"Doug? Who'd you win against, and what card?" I asked.

"Some girl. I forget her name. But the card I won is fire related, of course. It's the Lady Assailant of Flames. Her effect allows me to inflict 800 points of direct damage to my opponent's life points by removing three cards from the top of my deck from play after she's flipped. Pretty neat," he finished as the short lady's little gadget made that happy little beeping sound again. She yelled, "Everybody listen up I'm not going to say this more than once!" and there were a few seconds before only spread out coughs and sniffles could be heard. She slightly lowered her voice, "All thirty two of you are finally here. You are all now guaranteed at least $250!" She was immediately interrupted with a wave of applause and wild cheers. It died down and she continued, "Okay, now for what's happening tonight. At 9 tonight, we'll be having a small practice duel session for those interested. Everyone who goes will be dueling twice. There are no prizes or eliminations, so feel free to attempt at new strategies. Now you may roam around the island as you please until nine o'clock. But, given the rainy situation outside, you'll most likely be in the hotel for a long while." So she walked into that side room, with the door loudly slamming behind her.

Chatter gradually returned to a normal, nonsensical manner as I turned back to my friends. They all suddenly made grimaces towards me, especially Andre. "What's with the ugly faces? Do I have something on my-" I stopped talking after hearing my name demanded out right behind me. It was Jonathan. I had a brief flashback to when he beat me in the school tournament for some reason. But I snapped out of it as he showed me his "last five" entry card. It had the number 16. I heard Doug behind me faintly say, "No!"

"What's YOUR number?" he rudely asked. "One," I simply replied. "Hmm… looks like we won't be dueling any time soon… but we WILL face each other once more- and for all time. I've made sure to take the rarest and strongest cards from each of my weak opponents' decks. Next time, you're mine!" and he stormed off up the stairs to the rooms. Turning once again toward the others, they were all looking at me with different expressions on their faces. Jack was a bit worried, but not for me. In fact, I doubt he was listening, or Doug. They were both scrambling through their decks still. I wondered if they had even registered for the final five's yet… But Andre looked me square in the eye, "Jonathan Greanor, huh? He's not so tough. He's just mad because the guys at Industrial Illusions turned down his ideas and designs for new monster cards. So he'll take out his anger and frustration on anybody he can," he said to me as if this were a daily thing.

"How do you know him?" I asked.

"Are you kidding? He goes to our school! Last year he beat you in that duel for first place," he stated as he glimpsed over Jack's shoulder trying to hold back a laugh.

"I KNEW your name sounded familiar! Yeah, Andre Kaizer! You're one of the youngest freshman in the whole high school, right?" I asked as I tried to remember as much as I could about him.

"Second youngest actually," he corrected me as I heard series of loud laughs coming from the staircase. I looked over to again see that guy who beat Steve way back. He was parading down to the lobby with only three of his friends this time. I guess one of them couldn't keep up! I proudly thought while I turned back to Andre.

"Are you going to be at the practice duels?" I asked him as an incredibly tall guy dressed entirely in black drifted past me, listening to some loud, disturbing music on his headphones. It was obviously another rare hunter. Seriously- buy Metal Raiders booster packs if you want a Black Skull Dragon that badly. Don't take someone else's; it's wrong! Just then, I remembered that I had asked Andre a question and looked at him again, only he had been looking at that guy, too. "I hate rare hunters," he told me. "I love to duel against and crush them just so they know not to mess with any random kid they see expecting an easy win. Someday I hope to take out their master, whoever he or she is," he seriously said.

"Hey, what time IS it, anyway?" Doug asked aloud. I noticed that he had put his deck away.

"It's ten to 7," Jack said as he nudged Doug and pointed to the clock on the top of the wall over the receptionist's desk. "Hey, let's get back to the room. I need to prepare my deck. I've weighed out new possibilities for making a stronger deck, and gotta test them out. You up for a practice duel, Doug?" Jack asked.

"Sure, why not? I'll incinerate you!" he taunted.

"I'm gonna go back to my room," Andre started as he walked ahead of us. "I'll need quiet if I'm to get ready for more duels tonight," he said as he looked at Jack and Doug.

"See ya later!" I said as we all went to where we needed to be.