Chapter 5: A.I.M.
The jump onto the deck of the boat was only slightly jarring for Coulson. To be fair though, he was the only one that could actually see that the boat was here, and as such the only one that knew when to brace. Yo-Yo and Clint repelled down from the back of the jet, for lack of a better option. Bucky just jumped down next to Coulson, groaning as the floor came up on him faster than he expected. Sam set himself down with his jetpack in a smooth motion, as he always did. And following each landing was an unmistakable exhale of a breath they all knew they had been holding. "See?" Coulson said once they were all on the ship. His pupils faded back to their normal black. "I told you it was here."
"Well, forgive me if I was a little skeptical about landing on something that I couldn't see," Sam replied.
"That's what you have me for," He shot back.
"You get used to trusting him. Have faith. I've been working with him for around seven years now, and I'm not dead yet," Yo-Yo said supportively.
"For the record, I've known him longer. Just not this him," Clint defended himself. He looked down at his wrist panel to enter a series of commands, and the Quinjet ramp closed above them. "I'm still getting used to the idea of Coulson with superpowers."
"I imagine you'll get used to it quickly," Coulson replied, then he recited the plan he had come up with. "Alright. Now that we know that the Norco has cloaking capabilities, our strategy has to change. The only possible reason that a vessel like this can even have that capability is if it has a retractable shell that can extend out over the main deck, so most of the doors will be inaccessible. Mr. Wilson can fly around the hull and find us a way in, staying below the radar. Once he has an entry point, Yo-Yo- ah, Commander Rodriguez, you will go in and scout the ship stem to stern. I want to know exactly what we're getting into before we're in the thick of it."
"Then what?" Bucky asked. Coulson looked at him with a small smile.
"Then, the rest of us go in quietly to take the ship, and ask any questions we'd like," He responded. "From what I can tell, you want answers more than any of the rest of us, Mr. Barnes."
"Damn right," The soldier replied.
"Well? Sam?" Clint asked, looking at the star-spangled captain. Sam looked around, realizing they were waiting for his approval.
He let out a long sigh. "Alright," He said, putting on his goggles and opening the cargo ramp. "Commander, the longer I'm out there, the more likely it is that the ship will become aware of our presence. When I find an entry point, you need to be there, as fast as possible."
She stifled a snicker at this statement. "Don't worry, I'll be there."
Sam gave a solemn nod as he leaped over the rail of the now not-so-invisible ship, spreading his wings and taking to the air. Coulson followed the bright blue streak as it dove around the side, chuckling to himself about the irony of the situation. "You're enjoying this way too much, Yo-Yo," He said to the commander.
Yo-Yo smirked. "Coulson, you can't blame me for finding it funny. You're enjoying it yourself."
"Am I?"
"I'm sorry, is there something we should know about?" Bucky asked.
Coulson looked at Bucky, and smiled. "Nothing you won't see here in the next few seconds."
"I'm not liking the fact that you're not giving us the whole picture. This is exactly how Hydra operated in S.H.I.E.L.D.," Bucky muttered.
"So you've said. Repeatedly, actually," Coulson responded quickly. A blank expression came over the Winter Soldier's face. Coulson took that as his queue to find something to say that didn't add to the vibranium-armed man's ire. Instead, he began checking to make sure his I.C.E.R. was loaded as he finished his response. "Mr. Barnes, if it was something that was need-to-know, I'd be the first to let you know. But for now, let Yo-Yo have her fun."
"What fun-?" He began to ask, stopping short as the comms came online.
"Guys, I think I have something," Sam said through static. Clint's hand instantly went to his ear.
"We read you, Cap. What d'you see?"
"If what Red Wing is telling me is correct, there's a bulkhead on each side of the aft hull that goes into the barracks area. I think that might be our way in."
"Roger that, Captain. We'll meet you there," Coulson said. Straightening his tie, he turned to proceed down a staircase with Clint close behind.
"Better run, Commander," Bucky said as he made to follow. Coulson looked to where Yo-Yo had been standing only moments previous, to find it empty. "We might beat you- there?"
His sentence ended in question as he, too, realized that Yo-Yo was gone. He looked at Coulson with confusion. "It told you, you'd find out in a few seconds," He said.
Bucky jogged up beside him as they landed on the next deck down. "So she can teleport? Is that her thing?"
"Not exactly, though it certainly does appear that way at first," Coulson responded, searching for another stairwell. Once his eyes landed on it, he waved the others over to him and continued speaking. "You catch on pretty fast though."
Clint suddenly stopped for a moment, falling to the back of the group before sighing, shaking his head, and continuing down the stairs. "Oh. This again."
"What about it, Clint?" Coulson asked. May as well, for conversation's sake, he figured.
"I'm being reminded of Pietro Maximoff," The archer said.
"Maximoff?" Bucky repeated. "Like Wanda Maximoff?"
Coulson nodded. "Her brother. He died in Sokovia saving Clint and a kid from Ultron. He was the first Fallen Avenger. I wish we could have saved him."
"Yet Fury saved you," Clint jabbed. "You had the technology to bring him back. Why didn't you use it?"
"We couldn't. The stuff Fury used on me was highly unethical, not to mention that it involved alien biology and was destroyed in an explosion," He explained. "Trust me, if we could have brought him back, we would have."
"So he was like the Commander?" Bucky asked. He had been hiding out in Europe when all this went down, as Coulson recalled, so he probably missed quite a bit.
"Yes, and no. Pietro's powers were given to him by Hydra in their experiments with the Mind stone, as were Wanda's. They were the only two that survived the procedure, which was always somewhat of an anomaly that we never figured out. There was something special about them that allowed them to survive," Coulson explained, calling the details from memory. One of the advantages of an artificial brain.
"So Commander Rodriguez is another Hydra experiment?"
"Nope," Coulson said firmly. He led them around a final corner, coming into view of the bulkhead that Sam had indicated. He stopped in front of it, looking out at the water and finding the glowing blue light that was Sam heading this way. "She's an Inhuman. Her powers are genetic, a part of who she is, encoded into her ancestor's DNA millennia ago." And with that, he set his hand on the door, pulling it back gently, and it swung wide open.
Yo-Yo appeared only a moment later, emerging from a blur of motion into a casual standing position. "Well?" Coulson asked.
"This definitely isn't some super-secret oil carrier anymore, that's for certain," She confirmed. I knew it, Coulson thought. "I'd be shocked if you found combustion fuel anywhere but the engine, really."
"So she's fast," Bucky said, unamused.
"Wait, who's fast?" Sam said over the radio. This earned another disappointed sigh from Bucky. The others laughed.
"Rodriguez. She's really fast," Bucky explained.
"How fast?"
Bucky looked from Coulson to Yo-Yo. Yo-Yo shrugged. Coulson put his hands up by his sides. "We've never really tested it," He said factually. Though now that Sam mentioned it, he kind of did want to know.
"So what about the nickname? Yo-Yo?" Sam asked as he landed. His vibranium wings made a smooth sheathing sound as they folded into his jetpack.
"Well, I used to snap back to where I started every time I ran somewhere," She explained. "Turns out that a lot can change when you change your mentality."
"Got it. Yo-Yo. Cool," Sam responded. He looked down the yellow-lit hall of the ship, shrugging his shield down onto his arm. "Centipede soldiers?"
"I was all over the ship. If there are any, I didn't see them."
"Alright. Coulson, Rodri- er, Yo-Yo, on me. We're going to secure the bridge," Sam ordered. "Clint, find somewhere you can keep an eye on the situation. If something's up, I want to know about it."
"Copy that," Clint replied, then began climbing up the outside of the ship.
"Good. And Bucky-," Sam turned to his friend, finding his sentence finished for him.
"I'm going to take another look around the ship. If there's something that the Commander missed, I'd like to be able to stop the problem before it becomes one," The Winter Soldier said. Coulson raised an eyebrow, to which Bucky responded by patting the I.C.E.R. at his side. He nodded in approval, and then the ex-Hydra agent disappeared into the hallways of the Norco.
"Alright," Coulson agreed. He charged his I.C.E.R., hearing the electronic whir of the power source, then holding it in a firm two handed grip, pointed down at the deck. "Who wants to go capture an invisible boat?"
"Okay, you ready?" Coulson asked. He and Sam stood on either side of the bulkhead leading to the bridge.
Yo-Yo took a running stance, facing the door from a couple feet back. "How many are there again?" She said skeptically.
Coulson's eyes turned red, letting him turn to scan the bridge once more. "Ten-ish?" He replied.
Yo-Yo nodded in acknowledgement. "Alright. Open the door, whoosh-whoosh, I take their guns, then you go in and make sure they don't try anything funny. Did I get that right?"
"Sounds right to me," Sam said. His shield was at the ready in front of him.
"Alright then," She responded, locking her eyes on the door. "Ready when you are."
Sam held up his fist, outstretching his thumb, index, and middle finger. 3...Yo-Yo thought. The world started to slow, like suddenly it had been plunged into transparent molasses. Through every cell in her body energy suddenly surged, a feeling that she had originally mistaken for a massive adrenaline rush it was so hard to distinguish. The energy coursed through her like an electric current, going from her legs to her chest, her head, her shoulders. A comfortable tightening sensation rose just above her elbows, where her prosthetic arms met what was left of her organic ones.
2… From the conjoined site, the energy current was converted into a real electrical current rushed into the artificial limbs, distributing that same energy of her powers all the way down to the mimic-nerve endings in her fingertips. Then it rushed back into her core, doubling back on itself and flooding out again. The way FitzSimmons had described it to her once was that her power was like a perpetual acceleration machine. Her body, through a process that couldn't really be explained, created a surge of kinetic energy that bounced between a metaphorical set of moving mirrors that made the energy build at an incredible rate. It did reach a point where it leveled off, but that was the other thing that they had told her. Each time she used her powers, that buildup was a little bit stronger. With no previous cases of abilities like hers that had lasted this long, Fitz had suggested she could go up to just a hair short the speed of light. How fast she was was almost of no consequence to those around her though, especially as the only one of her kind.
1… Her atoms began to vibrate as the energy tried to escape, a side effect of the immense energy buildup inside her body. The world around her had slowed to a near standstill, the faces of Sam and Coulson unblinking in her direction. She could feel the energy in the world around her crackling to life from the abnormal presence of hyper-accelerated matter, static-like in nature, electric-fence-like in strength. Had she felt this before? Yes, though it was much more unusual. Another amazing thing her powers did, as FitzSimmons had explained, was once she had reached the maximum amount of energy that could be built up within her, she started drawing on the energy in the particles around her, like a negative charge to a positive magnet. Her skin tingled from the enlarging difference in energetic level around her, standing loose strands of her hair on end. A small feeling of excitement came over her. She had never felt her powers this strong before.
Sam closed his fist.
Yo-Yo grinned.
It was time to run.
Before Sam's hand had even reached the door, she shot forward, right through the door as if it weren't even there. She felt the sudden shift from yellow light to dark red hit her, rendering her sight hapless momentarily. What was that? She asked herself, blinking rapidly. The door wasn't even open yet. She could still feel the tingle of her power under her skin, and it didn't feel like anything had really changed. Curious, she turned around, looking at the door again. It was just barely cracked now. She experimentally pressed her hand against the bulkhead frame, meeting what she expected. A solid wall. Okay, weird. That's new, she thought, running her hand along the frame. Then she remembered why she was still going fast. Later.
Yo-Yo turned on the spot, zipping up to the side of the captain. His hand rested on his pistol, his eyes fixed on the reflection in the dark window that looked out to the retro-reflective hull. Huh. He knew we were here, she realized. Then she plucked his pistol from his grasp, poked him lightly in the cheek, then raced back to where the door was just now beginning to open. She turned the safety on the gun and pulled the magazine out of the handle. She let go of the now disarmed weapon, running back to the rest of the crew. When she passed by the captain again, she noticed a large crater of loose skin in the captain's face, spreading out in all directions as the impact of the high-velocity poke started to take effect. Even though she had just barely poked him, it was one of what she thought were the coolest things about her power. The laws of physics still applied, so for her what felt like a mere touch had the impact force of all of her momentum too. It was one of the only things in physics she had deemed learning: Force equals mass times acceleration. Even minimal mass had a big impact with enough speed.
Even with time appearing to have halted, she was still moving faster than any normal person possible could. It felt like mere seconds to her by the time she had taken care of every one of the bridge crew. It had to have been less than that, the first pistol she had grabbed was still floating in the air, just barely below where she had left it. She checked her watch speedometer, something that FitzSimmons had insisted on adding into her suit. When she did, her eyes widened. Wow, I wish that happened more often. She looked around at the bridge, making sure she had taken care of everything. Assured she was finished, she leaned up against the left side of the bulkhead, through which she could just see the silver of the star on Sam's shield. With a single sigh, all the energy simply stopped, returning back to normal levels, at least for her.
Everything happened at once. Sam yanked the bulkhead open, with Coulson close behind. The cluster of guns she had assembled clattered to the floor, knocking rounds of ammunition out of the mags and sending them spraying across the deck. And each member of the crew appeared to get punched in the head by an invisible super-sonic fist. They all went down cold.
Coulson looked around carefully, pointing his I.C.E.R. around the room and scanning for anything that had been missed. As he noticed the pile of disassembled firearms at his feet, he looked to her. "You couldn't have saved one for us?" He complained, a small teasing smile on his face.
"Sorry. I'll make sure to remember that next time," She responded in the same tone.
"Spare me the banter, guys. Damn. That's impressive," Sam lamented, stowing his shield . Yo-Yo and Coulson exchanged a glance. Not only had they taken the bridge without lifting a finger, they had scored a few points with Sam too.
"Guys, you saw that right?" Clint asked over the radio. "It was like everyone in the bridge just got spontaneously knocked out."
"Yeah, that was Rodriguez," Sam relayed. Clint made a baffled noise.
"Well, thank you, commander," He said.
"No problem," She said thankfully. "Now, let's see what we can get from this thing. Coulson?"
"Deactivate the cloaking system and retract the cargo deck cover. Clint, send an encrypted message to Mack on the Theta. Tell him we've found out ghost ship," Coulson instructed, then Yo-Yo saw his eyes catch on the captain's outfit. "And that my theory has proved correct."
Yo-Yo followed Coulson's gaze to the man's left shoulder, where a hollow yellow hexagon symbol was embroidered. On three of the six sides there were words. Advanced Idea Mechanics. There was no mistaking what that meant. A.I.M.
"Should we wake him up?" Sam suggested, tapping the captain's face. The unconscious man just slumped over further. "Jeez. Yo-Yo, how hard did you hit him?"
"I barely poked him," She defended herself, prying open one of his lifeless eyes to wave. Nothing. "He might be out for a while though."
"That's not a pressing issue right now," Coulson interrupted, going through one of the terminals on the bridge. "Right now, we need to download this shipping manifest so we can find the location of A.I.M.'s primary facility. We can start asking the questions we can't answer on our own once we get back to the helicarrier."
"So what questions can we answer on our own?" Yo-Yo wondered, walking up behind Coulson and looking at his screen over his shoulder. "How much ketchup they like on their hot dogs?"
"As entertaining as that would be, I don't think they have ketchup or hot dogs on this boat." He finished clicking in a few commands, making a list of items aboard appear. "But if it's our super-soldier insectoid hot sauce that we're looking for, they have a surplus of raw ingredients." The display seemed to keep scrolling forever with a list of items that were somewhere in the cargo. They had Chitari metals, extremis serum, advanced electronic components, weapons, and everything in between. But Yo-Yo frowned as a few strange ones went by.
"'Bio samples'?" She read, confused. She couldn't process it quick enough, apparently, as Bucky interrupted her string of thoughts.
"Uh, guys? We've got a situation," He said through the comm.
"Talk to us," Sam replied, hand on his ear.
"A single Centipede soldier just dropped onto the deck," The Winter Soldier explained. "He looks a lot stronger than the one we fought in Madripoor. Nothing I can't handle though."
"Have you been spotted?" Coulson asked.
"No, not yet," Bucky said. If an A.I.M. centipede soldier was after us, he would have stormed the bridge by now… Yo-Yo thought.
"Wait, how does he look stronger?" Clint said. You could hear the breeze in his microphone.
"Heavy cybernetic enhancement..." Bucky replied. Deathlok, Yo-Yo realized. There was a sudden crashing sound over the radio. "Shit!" Bucky yelled. "Guys, he found me!"
"Bucky, engage. I'm on my way," Sam instantly responded, sliding his shield onto his arm and firing his jetpack.
"Sam, wait!" Coulson shouted. Too late.
He shot through the window of the bridge and down towards the deck.
"Dammit," Coulson swore. "Yo-Yo, you need to stop that fight before someone gets hurt. I'll go get Bartan and make sure he doesn't shoot."
She instantly nodded. "On it," She replied. The wave of energy she had felt before with her powers surged back into existence. The world slowed once again, and she sped up, looping twice around the walls of the room before leaping out the shattered window herself. Her momentum carried her to the top of a red crate on the deck, on which she took a brief moment to regain her balance before racing forward again. She leapt from box to box, nearly weightless from the inertia that had built up. In only a few seconds(for her, anyway), she reached the large parting of crates she had watched Sam dive into and jumped down, taking in the scene in a hair of a second.
Sam's shield spun with no uncertain direction towards a tall man, his body gleaming with metal in the tricky lighting. One of his eyes glowed red, and he had his fist leveled at Sam with a missile peeking out of his robotic forearm. Bucky had his left arm drawn back in a windup for an uppercut, aiming for the man's chest. The man appeared to be unaware of this, but Yo-Yo knew him. He knew it was there. Which meant it wouldn't end well for any parties involved.
Gaining as much speed as she could in the short distance she had, she leapt into the air and kicked the edge of the shield sideways, away from its target and out of a stable flight. She had just barely made contact with the ground before she was upon Bucky, grabbing the vibranium arm and wrapping it around to his right side so the momentum of the punch would carry him off balance. Then she zipped up in front of the cyborg soldier, grabbing the armed micro-missile from the launcher and racing to the side of the boat to dispose of it, putting as much power into her throw as she could. And without a seconds delay she was back at the man's side, letting her power's energy depart.
Sam's shield spun haphazardly into the side of a crate before crashing to the ground, and a temporary confused look came over his face. Bucky spun onto the deck miraculously, rolling over and groaning in disorientation. Neither the man or Yo-Yo moved a muscle, everything benign suddenly quiet until an explosion off the starboard side of the boat rumbled to them. That was enough to break it.
"So, you too?" Sam said accusingly. "I should have known you were too good to be true."
"I don't want to fight, Sam. You don't understand what's going on here," Yo-Yo responded.
"We understand plenty!" Bucky shouted. Yo-Yo turned in his direction in time to see a metal fist streaking towards her face, so close she couldn't have gotten out of the way even if she tried. She braced herself for the impact.
Then there was a sudden thud. She opened her eyes to find the metal arm stopped dead in its tracks, another metal arm holding it in place. "Try that again, pal," The man warned Bucky.
Sam yelled from behind them, giving Yo-Yo just enough heads-up to throw her arms up to shield her face from the impact of a large red, silver, and blue wing. She went flying back into a red crate, as did the cyborg warrior, both of them having lost their balance. Sam drew twin uzis from his sides and leveled them at her, but she was already moving. She sped over to the discarded shield lying on the deck, picking it up and throwing it as hard as she could for Bucky's left arm, which had a 9mm pointed at the man's head. The speed went away as the shield Collided, sending the gun flying, and the two Avengers quickly turned in her direction. She hesitated for a single moment to see what they were going to do, but this proved to be a mistake.
Out of nowhere, she was blindsided by a hard metal kick that laid her out on the deck behind Sam and Bucky. She tried to recover, but was stopped by a voice warning her. "Another move and you will have five different weapons systems firing at you all at once."
She stopped trying to rise, instead rolling over to find herself staring up and a gunmetal silver and gray armored warrior, with glowing red slits for eyes and a mouth. War Machine, she thought dazedly. "There are over ten different targeting systems predicting where you'll run to. Stay down."
Yo-Yo needed no further warning. She was fast, not stupid.
"Everybody stop!" Coulson's voice suddenly shouted from atop a crate stack. All eyes turned to the source of his voice, finding Clint to be standing next to him. Yo-Yo used the sudden distraction to dart out from the many different military guns pointed at her and off to a corner a good distance away from danger.
"Somebody better start explaining what the hell is going on!" Sam shouted back. Coulson jumped off the edge of the stack and landed in a splash of water on the deck. Clint remained in his elevated spot.
"Captain America, Colonel Rhodes, Sergeant Barnes, Clint," Coulson addressed them all. Then he gestured to the cyborg. "This is Michael Peterson, codenamed 'Deathlok'. He's a Centipede soldier, but he's a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent."
"The hell he is! What's he doing here?!" Bucky demanded.
"I asked him here, the same time I asked Colonel Rhodes," Coulson explained. "I didn't know if he'd be here when the jets arrived or if he had already managed to find this boat. So I didn't say anything because I didn't know if I'd have to. Hence, why I was asking you to wait before diving out the window. Thanks for waiting, by the way."
"The Centipede soldier you first encountered," Clint realized, and began explaining as much to himself as he was to the others. "This is him, isn't it?"
"Yes. Mike is the result of a Hydra experiment, but now he fights for S.H.I.E.L.D.," Coulson said.
"I don't buy it," Bucky said flatly.
"Really, Barnes? That's ironic. You're just like him," Coulson shot back. Bucky's argument died in his throat, and Yo-Yo knew Coulson had scored a point. "You know better than anyone that your past doesn't matter, and you can be something good if you truly want to be."
An invisible wave of relaxation ran through them all, and one by one, everyone lowered their weapons. Bucky helped Mike to his feet. "Sorry about… that," Bucky apologized awkwardly. Mike nodded in thanks.
"Eh. I don't blame you. I probably would have done the same in your shoes," Mike responded.
Sam retrieved his shield and returned it to his back. "Any more surprises, Coulson?"
"Not that I can think of," Coulson responded.
No sooner had he uttered the words when the crate Clint had been standing on suddenly erupted in explosion. Sam's wings spread protectively over everyone nearby. "You were saying?!" He yelled. Coulson got a calculating look on his face for a second, then seemed to return to the moment.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. backup is still five minutes out!" He relayed frantically. "Whoever that was, it wasn't one of ours!"
Rhodes spun his gaze quickly from the explosion back to the roof of the bridge. He pointed. "Clint! Do you copy? I have a visual! Over!"
"Yeah, I see her!" Clint shouted as he leapt out of the flames and to the next stack over. Another explosion shook in his wake. "Can you get an ID?"
"Negative. Target isn't matching any of my facial recognition scans. She's a blonde, white female in a black and white tactical suit. From her looks? I'd say Russian," The Colonel informed, taking to the air. "Should I engage?"
"No! Wait! Like, actually this time!" Coulson ordered. "Why would a Russian agent be targeting us with explosives?"
Another blast came from above. Yo-Yo ran out from a falling crate to Coulson's side. "Not you! Me!" Clint exclaimed as he found purchase on a lower stack. "She's shooting at me!"
"Okay, well, what makes you so special?" Yo-Yo asked as she brushed herself off, trying to see the distant figure through a gap in Sam's wings.
Silence for a moment. Then, Clint breathed a single word, so quiet the comms barely picked it up. "Romanoff."
"'Romanoff'?" Coulson repeated, confused. Another blast threw Clint over the edge of the stacks and out of their line of sight.
"Romanoff!" Clint said again, much louder. "It's all about Romanoff!"
"We get that, but why?!" Bucky said impatiently.
"Nevermind that! She's after me not you. If I leave, she'll leave you alone!" Clint barked.
"You're sure?" Sam asked skeptically.
"Trust me! I've dealt with these types before!" Clint yelled. Then, he came into sight for just a moment as he climbed to the top of a stack by the port edge. "Sam, I'm taking the Avengers One!"
"It's all yours!" He replied. "We'll take the S.H.I.E.L.D. jets!"
"Thanks! Coulson, guys, it was a good run!" The Archer shouted comically, then leapt off the side of the boat presumably to land on the invisible jet flying next to it.
A second passed. Then two. No explosions.
"Guys, I lost her," Rhodes reported, dropping back onto the deck.
"Is she still on the ship?" Yo-Yo asked, preparing to speed-search.
"Clint's right. If her fight's with him and not us, we have to trust him to deal with it. We don't need to be picking more than one fight at a time," Coulson intervened.
"For once, I agree," Sam seconded.
"As do I," Mike said. "You said Mack's jets were on their way?"
Coulson nodded. "Should be overhead any moment now."
"Good."
Yo-Yo looked around the group, and after no one said anything, she decided to adjourn the cluster. "I'm going to go to secure our prisoners. Any particular place you'd like them?" She asked the others.
"Just out on the deck where we can get them in the jets," Sam responded.
"Sounds good. I'll be back in a sec," She said, then with the familiar swell of energy through her, she ran back towards the bridge, seeing no sign that the woman in white had ever been there in the first place.