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Hi! I'm not dead! But you would probably think that, what with me abandoning this series for a few months. However, it's just that I'm in college now, and the workload has been all over the place in difficulty, so stuff may have been harder before than it is now, or teachers pile on work all due the same week… I'm probably just boring you, so here's the bottom line:
I AM NOT ABANDONING THIS SERIES!
I plan to see it through to about 25-32 episodes/chapters, and then maybe move on to a new series. Now, I am not a professional writer, this is not my entire life. Chapters come out when they come out, but let's say tentatively at least once a month.
As always, thanks go to JTWAS1994 for his reviews, and even asking if I was OK when I didn't write for months.
Anyway, on with the story. Go Go Power Rangers!
Myth 11: Birds on the Brain
"Are we there yet?" Nate asked as he looked at the two other passengers he was squished in between: Mera and Victor.
"Hey, if you have a problem with the seating arrangement, I'm sure you could just walk to the zoo," Jay replied. "It's only a good 10 miles from the main town."
Nate grumbled and scrunched down in his seat.
"Hey, Victor," he said. "Can't you move over anymore? You're literally hogging half the back row."
"Oi! Give him a break!" Mera snapped on Nate's other side. "Can you not see that you complaining is making him most uncomfortable?"
"Ok, children, keep it down back there," Jay joked as he looked at the three through his rearview mirror before looking at Valerie. "Kids these days, am I right?"
"I have no problem with Victor." Valerie said as she shifted in the front passenger seat, "but Nate and Mera are just giving me a headache."
"Perhaps a game of 'I Spy'?" Victor suggested.
"Fine," Nate said. "I'll go first, I spy with my little eye something...stupid. Oh, wait, it's this game! Nobody wins, everybody goes home."
"We asked if you wanted to come to the zoo," Jay said as he pulled into the main zoo parking lot, "and you said yes. You can't blame us that you apparently changed your mind."
"I wanted to come," Nate sulked as he and everyone else got out of Jay's car, "but I didn't think you would invite them."
His barbed comment was to the teens walking towards them.
"I invited them because I think we need to be more friendly with them," Jay said. "I was actually going to invite them to our table at school."
"But then we can't talk about you-know-what," Valerie pointed out.
"I didn't say it was perfect," Jay said to her before addressing the teens in front of him. "Adrian and Diana, thanks for coming."
"Glad to come!" Adrian said. "Now, Diana, what do we say to them for inviting us?...Diana?"
He looked next to him to see Diana was gone.
"Where'd she go?" Jay asked.
"Diana may not seem like it, but she loves nature, and the zoo is a place full of nature. My guess is she's already inside," Adrian said, gesturing to the main entrance. "We might as well follow her in."
"Hey, big guy," Diana said as she put a hand on the glass. The tiger on the other side looked up at the hand before putting it's head back onto it's paws.
The guard looked up from his phone for a moment.
"Hey! No hands on the glass!" he barked before quickly returning to his phone.
"Whatever," Diana responded, removing her hand from the glass. "The tiger didn't seem to care."
She turned towards the door as the wind blew several green feathers inside. Diana glared at the feathers.
"Either the zoo has a new green bird," she said, "or the zoo has some unexpected guests."
She ran out the door to see several Harpies trashing the zoo, tipping over trash cans and causing general mayhem. She looked over to her left to see, against all of the people fleeing towards the exits, her brother and the other teens. The teens joined up in front of the Harpies.
"Sorry," Jay shouted, "but I think I need to see your tickets!"
The Harpies turned, leaped into the air and flew at the teens. All of the teens combat-rolled out of the way of the green-feathered monsters before standing up, now in fighting stances.
"Jay," Nate hissed next to Jay's ear, "we need to find somewhere to morph away from those two."
"Working on it," Jay responded before turning to the others."There's too many, we should run!"
The other Ranger-teens turned and looked at him with a strange look
"What?" all four of them said simultaneously.
"Just roll with it," Jay whispered. "We need to find somewhere to Ranger up."
All of the teens, including Adrian and Diana, ran away from the beasts and turned down a corner.
"Alright, Adrian," Jay said,"you and Diana go that way, and the rest of us go this way, it'll make it harder to catch us all."
Adrian nodded, thinking of how he and his sister needed to find a place to morph as well, away from the other teens. The teens turned and split up into their two groups. Each group only went about three houses in their given direction before ducking into the alley and pulling out their morphers.
"Ready?" Jay said as he moved to the front of the group.
"Ready!" the four other Rangers agreed.
"Pink Olympian Power!"
"Yellow Olympian Power!"
"Black Olympian Power!"
"Blue Olympian Power!"
"Red Olympian Power!"
In a flash of colored light, the Rangers stepped out of the alley and ran around the corner, towards the Harpies.
The Harpies looked up in surprise as the Rangers came in with leaping kicks, knocking the beasts back to earth. As more flew down to try and aid their fallen brethren, they were swiftly slammed into the stone pathways by the Ranger's strong strikes.
Jay flipped over some Harpies before spin back-kicking one into the nearest wall and roundhouse kicking the others away. Valerie slid between the legs of a Harpy before karate chopping it to the ground. Nate whirlwind-kicked some green feathered beasts in the face, causing them to crumple to the ground. Mera cartwheeled around a clawed strike and punched the Harpy to the ground. Victor raised his arm and hammer-fisted a Harpy into the bricks, cracking them with the force of his blow.
The Rangers heard a shout and looked around to see golden and silver arrows flying into the Harpie's flanks, causing them to fall to the ground. The Rangers looked up to see the Gold and Silver Rangers on the roof of one of the buildings, sniping out Harpies with their bows.
"The cavalry has arrived!" the Gold Ranger announced as he drew back his bowstring again before hitting another Harpy with an arrow of golden light.
"Just stay out of our way," the Silver Ranger said as she sniped a Harpy flying towards the two Rangers.
"We should summon our weapons too," Valerie said as the Rangers put their hands out, awaiting the weapons.
"Love Bow!"
"Battle Spear!"
"Blacksmith Hammer!"
"Ocean Trident!"
"Lightning Sword!"
The Rangers shifted into battle-ready stances and charged. Jay flipped over two Harpies before striking them down with his red-sparking sword. He whirled around to slash another one attempting a sneak attack on him before watching a pink glowing energy arrow strike the Harpy in the chest.
"Thanks, Val," he said to the Pink Ranger as he moved towards his next opponents.
Victor slammed his hammer into the side of a Harpy's head with a horizontal smash, before switching to a vertical smashing attack to plunge it into the ground. The crack that appeared swallowed up a few more Harpies, but the force of the attack also shattered the glass in a shockwave around him. Victor looked on in terror as a bunch of different types of birds flew out of the Bird House. He covered his ears through his helmet and cowered on the ground.
"Victor?" Valerie asked as she noticed her fearful teammate. "Hold on!"
Valerie leapt into the air, doing a flip before shooting an arrow at one of the Harpies trying to take advantage of Victor's fear. The Harpy shrieked as it attempted to pull the energy arrow out of its chest before collapsing to the ground in defeat.
Nate and Mera fought back-to-back, jabbing and spinning their respective weapons over the waves of foes. Mera leapt onto Nate's shoulders before coming down with a hard jab with her spear, striking a Harpy on its shoulder and causing it to fall down in pain, gripping its injured shoulder with its wing.
The Harpies then realized how much the odds were against them and quickly flew away.
"Yeah, you better run!" Nate shouted as he shook his fist at the fleeing minions.
"Hey, guys!" Valerie shouted, still kneeling down next to Victor. "I think something's wrong with him. There were some birds during the fight, and he ended up like this."
"He is in a catatonic state," Mera stated. "It is normally caused by traumatizing experiences, or when the patient is reminded of one."
"I've heard the term before," Valerie said. "I just don't know how to break someone out of it."
She turned to Victor and shook him by the shoulder.
"C'mon, Victor. Come back to us," she said to her catatonic teammate.
"Birds!" Victor suddenly jolted and looked around rapidly while panting. "Where are the birds?"
"They're gone," Jay reassured as he kneeled down in front of Victor. "I think we need to talk about this back in the Temple. Let's meet up with the twins and tell them we have to go somewhere."
The Rangers looked around and noticed that the Gold and Silver Rangers were gone. With no one around, the Rangers de-morphed in a flash of light and were now back in their civilian outfits.
They quickly ran back to the alley they had morphed in before and slowly walked out.
"I hope it's safe," Jay said as the teens walked towards the battlefield.
"You missed the Olympian Rangers," Adrian said as he walked up to the group with Diana right behind him. "They defeated the Harpies."
"With a little help from the Gold and Silver Rangers," Diana said.
"Yeah, well, I think that's enough excitement for one day," Jay said. "We have somewhere we have to go…"
"Could you be any more vague?" Diana questioned.
"No, not really," Victor deadpanned as the five teens walked away from the twins.
"We'll see you tomorrow, k?" Valerie said as she waved while still walking with the group.
"I'd say that the attack was a success," Echidna said as she looked down at the magic screen in the table."
"Forgive me, mother, but how was that successful?" Gryphon questioned. "I just see defeated Harpies."
"Once again, the Rangers show weakness," Echidna explained. "The Black Ranger is afraid of birds, now where can we find a bird-themed monster?"
"Uh...me?" the Onyx Eagle Knight said as he scratched his helmet with his claw on his hand.
"Yes you, you birdbrain!" the Golden Chimera Knight said as he forced the Eagle Knight to stand up.
"Now take this and some Harpies to the surface and defeat those do-gooders!" Echidna ordered as she forced a Golden Apple into the Caucasian Eagle's hand.
The Caucasian Eagle looked down at the Golden Apple in his hand.
"You want me to eat this now?" he asked as he cocked his head to the side, almost like a chicken.
"No, you idiot, save it for when the Rangers defeat you. You'll certainly give them a giant surprise!" Echidna cackled before noticing the Caucasian Eagle wasn't moving. "Go on! Get out there and don't disappoint me!"
"You're scared of birds?" Nate asked as the Rangers walked through the Doors of Janus into the Temple. "seriously?"
"Be polite!" Mera snapped as she gave Nate a swift punch to the arm.
"So you're scared of birds...but the Zords are fine?" Jay asked, frowning when Victor nodded. "that doesn't make things confusing at all…"
"Don't worry about it, Victor," Valerie said as she patted his shoulder reassuringly. "Everyone's scared of something."
"Not me!" Nate announced. "I'm not scared of nothin'!"
"That's not true," Jay said as he pulled out his phone. "I know you're scared of…"
"SHARKS!" Nate said as he ran behind Victor and far away from Jay's phone which was currently showing a video of sharks eating some chum.
"I'm scared of snakes," Jay admitted.
"Tight places are most uncomfortable for me," Mera said.
"And I do not do heights, like, at all," Valerie added.
"But the best thing we can do with fears is attempt to overcome them by facing them head-on," Jay said sagely.
"I'll admit that everyone has a fear, but I don't know if there's any fear worse than birds when it comes to the Dark Order," Hermes announced as he typed on the mosaic computer. "One of their members is the Caucasian Eagle, most famous for eating Prometheus' liver everyday until Hercules saved him."
Victor flinched away at the picture of the eagle doing exactly what Hermes described.
"Yuck," Valerie commented. "He won't be going for our livers, right?"
"Highly unlikely, especially when morphed," Mera responded, "but if we are to fight that creature, it will likely take all of us to defeat it."
"Which means helping Victor overcome his fear," Jay said. "That's easier said than done, however."
"That just means we have to get started right away," Valerie said as she reached into her bag for a notebook, "I've been waiting to practice what I've been learning in Psychology, and this should be the perfect test."
"Good luck," Nate said as he patted Victor on the arm before walking away.
"My lord, where are we going?" Persephone asked as she and Hades trudged up a mountain in the Underworld.
"We're going to the Spartoi growing grounds in the Fields of Mourning," Hades explained, "I need to make improvements to them if my plan is to succeed."
The two stopped at the top of the mountain and looked down. Persephone gasped at the sight. As fair as the eye could see were long fields with Spartoi planting dragon teeth in the ground. In a few seconds, a Spartoi would pop out of the ground where the tooth had been. The new Spartoi then walked to join a whole battalion of them just standing in front of the fields, waiting.
"The suffering of the mortals whose souls came to rest here, along with Sanzu water, cause the Spartoi to multiply very quickly," Hades explained. "Now come, there is much left to be done."
Persephone only gulped as she followed Hades down the trail towards the Spartoi.
"So, when did you first encounter birds?" Valerie asked. She was seated across from Victor in a chair, while he was lying on a couch.
As Victor answered, Nate leaned over to Jay
"Why does this look like some cliche psychiatrist set-up?" he whispered
"It's what Valerie asked for," Jay responded.
"That's enough from the peanut gallery," Valerie said as she glared over at the two boys leaning against two pillars, watching. "Now, continue, Victor."
"So, there I was surrounded by birds, and then they started cawing at me. Then one swooped down and started pecking me, and more joined in," Victor said. "Next thing I knew, I was crawling away from the forest covered in peck marks. I swore to avoid birds at all costs. Guess my brain took that a bit too literally."
"Now that we know where the trauma comes from," Valerie said. "We can try some exposure therapy."
"What does that mean?" Victor asked nervously.
"It means this," Mera said as she came around from behind the couch with a birdcage.
"Wait...I don't know if I'm ready for this…" Victor said as he slowly scooted away from the cage.
Mera looked at Valerie for a moment
"Just so you are aware, June said she wants the bird back by 5:00, and I would assume in one piece," she said.
Mera opened the cage and watched as the smallest yellow bird anyone had ever seen flew onto her finger.
"It is very well trained," she said. "Nothing to be terrified of."
Victor looked at the bird and continued his scooting down the couch.
"Get that thing away from me…" he said.
"Victor, it's just a cute little bird, it won't even peck you," Valerie said, "I want you to put out your finger and just let the bird land on it. I promise nothing will happen to you."
Victor trembled as he put his finger out. The bird flew off of Mera's finger and onto Victor's. As soon as the bird made contact, Victor let out a massive scream.
"Get it off! Get it off!" he shouted as he ran around trying to shake the bird off his finger, with Valerie and Mera chasing after him.
"This is the strangest therapy I've ever seen," Nate commented.
"You aren't helping," Valerie said as Mera put the very shaken-up bird back in the cage. "I'm just glad both Victor and the bird are ok."
"It's in one piece," Nate said. "Just one very shaken up piece."
All five teens looked up at the mosaic screen as the alarm went off.
"We've got trouble," Jay said. "Let's hope Victor picked up at least one coping strategy in there somewhere."
"Uh...run in humans, terror!" the Eagle Knight said as he and a group of Harpies marched up the street. "That doesn't sound right..."
The Harpies all looked at him and shook their heads, utterly confused how this idiot was their commander.
"Hold it!" Jay shouted as the teens ran up to confront the Knight.
Victor turned white as a sheet when he saw the Caucasian Eagle.
"Bird!" he shouted. "Big bird!"
"Think that name is copyrighted, buddy," Nate fake-whispered, "PBS is coming for our asses now."
"Ready?" Jay asked as he prepped his morphers.
"Ready!" Nate, Mera and Valerie agreed as they did the same.
"R-Ready," Victor said, somewhat slower than the others.
"It's Morphing Time!" Jay shouted.
"Pink Olympian Power!"
"Yellow Olympian Power!"
"Black Olympian Power!"
"Blue Olympian Power!"
"Red Olympian Power!"
The Rangers were surrounded in a burst of light as they charged before emerging in their Ranger forms.
"Victor, Valerie, you get the Harpies. Leave the Eagle to the three of us!" Jay ordered.
The Rangers summoned their weapons as they split up.
"Love Bow!"
"Battle Spear!"
"Blacksmith Hammer!"
"Ocean Trident!"
"Lightning Sword!"
The Rangers charged at their selected opponents. Jay struck first with a quick slash with his sword as he ran past the Eagle. Nate and Mera struck next by jabbing with their long weapons to stab at his wings. The weapons all just bounced off the hard Onyx armor.
"Just focus on the Harpies," Valerie shouted as she flipped over some Harpies before sniping them with her bow. "Pretend like the Eagle isn't even there."
If Victor was listening, he was showing no signs of it, as he just slammed his hammer into Harpy heads again and again, sending them face-first into the pavement.
"Look out below!" Valerie shouted as she flipped up to a higher firing height before launching an arrow into the sky. As the arrow completed its arc, it split into hundreds of little arrows that pierced the Harpies while bouncing off Victor's armor.
"Valerie, we could use some help over here!" Jay shouted as he slashed again and again at various points in the Caucasian Eagle's armor while still making no headway.
"Here I come!" Valerie shouted as she landed on the road before charging at the Knight. However, her arrows appeared as effective as any of the other attacks.
"Let's try a Trident Arrow!" Nate suggested as he handed off his weapon to Valerie.
"Trident Arrow! Launch!" the two shouted as the trident went flying towards the Eagle. The Eagle looked straight at the incoming weapon with a confused look.
"What's this?" he asked as the trident still bounced off his armor and landed on the ground. "If you want to play catch, here you go!"
With that, he threw the trident back at the two. Due to their proximity to each other, both were hit by the trident. They both fell down as their armor was blasted with sparks from the damage of the weapon.
"This guy is dumber than a bag of bricks, and he's still beating us!" Nate said as he slammed his fist into the ground in frustration as he attempted to rise. Valerie just groaned in agreement.
"Lightning Sword Blast!" Jay shouted as lightning struck his sword before he maneuvered the flat of the blade to direct the stream at the Eagle. The Eagle just looked at the lightning as it struck the two sai he was holding the entire fight. The two sai were now surrounded in crackling lightning.
"Forgot I had these," he admitted, "but I guess I may as well use it!" He swung his sai in a downward swiping motion and sent the gathered lightning back at Jay, hitting Mera in the process.
Victor looked on in horror as his two remaining allies went down, and he was all alone in facing the Caucasian Eagle.
As he turned and was about to run, Jay's words came back to him.
"'The best thing we can do with fears is attempt to overcome them by facing them head-on,'" Victor remembered as he stood his ground. "My friends need me, so I've got to at least try!"
He turned back and struck a pose.
"Hephestus, god of the forge! Black Olympian Ranger!"
He charged back at the Caucasian Eagle and did a flying kick into him before flipping over him and slamming his hammer into the Eagle's back.
"Huh? What's going on back there?" the Eagle asked as he turned around before turning right into the hammer.
"You take birdbrain to a whole new level!" Jay shouted as the five rangers grouped back up, "and it's time for you to fly far, far away! Olympian Crossbow!"
The Rangers formed the crossbow and Jay and Victor swapped places, with Jay now supporting it and Victor firing it. Victor then infused the Lightning Sword with his own power
"Olympic Anvil Rain! Fire!" he shouted as the Lightning Sword fired into the sky before hundreds of anvils fell down from the heavens and crushed the Knight.
"Looks like I should have flown the coop!" the Caucasian Eagle shouted as he exploded.
Just as the Rangers turned to leave, there was a golden light as the Caucasian Eagle grew to 50 times his original height.
"I've grown wings and I'm ready to take flight!" the Eagle shouted as he grew. He had indeed grown wings in decent proportion to his body.
"Uh, Hermes, send the Zords," Jay ordered into his morpher.
"On their way," Hermes said over the morpher as the Zords appeared in the distance.
The Rangers flipped into their Zords and inserted their Olympian Gems into the indentations before turning the dial to "WARRIOR MODE".
"Zords combine!" Jay ordered.
The Bull Zord was the first to change, as the head came off, the body split apart and the legs flipped around 180ᣞ and the front and back legs combined.
The Horse Zord was next, as its head went into a chest cavity while the front and back legs combined together and connected to the Bull Zord legs, forming a complete waist, legs and feet.
The Eagle Zord was next. As its wings clipped off together in one long arc-shaped piece and its legs slid into its body before it connected to the Horse Zord, it was now forming the entire body of the combination. The Eagle Zord head screeched and opened up its mouth to fit the other side of the Bull Zord's head into it, revealing a robotic face.
Next came the Owl Zord. As its head detached from the body and the body detached from the wings, the wings clipped onto the sides of the Eagle Zord and expanded, forming the arms.
Lastly was the Fish Zord. As the entire dorsal fin and tail came off, it popped open completely in half before coming onto the Eagle Zord's body as a chestplate and combining together again. The tail folded into a plume that went onto the Eagle Zord's head to complete the helmet look. The horns from the Bull Zord head attached together and became a straight point before combining with the dorsal fin to create a large spear that went into the left hand. The Owl Zord body lengthened itself a bit before the head slid into a hole in the center, finishing the shield, which went on the right arm.
"Olympian Megazord: Warrior Mode ready!" all five Rangers shouted as they all joined together in a single cockpit. Jay was in the front with Nate diagonally to his right, Victor diagonally on his left, Valerie diagonally behind Nate and Mera diagonally behind Victor.
The Megazord jabbed with its spear as the Caucasian Eagle tried to block it with its arms.
"Hey, knock it off!" the Eagle shouted as it swung its arm down to knock the spear out of the Megazord's hand. The Megazord bent down to pick up the spear and the Eagle slammed its foot into the Megazord's chest.
"Systems are failing!" Mera announced as the Megazord fell to the ground.
"We need some help!" Jay said before looking to Valerie. "Let's call in the Peacock Zord!". Valerie nodded as she replaced one of her gems with the aqua gem.
The Peacock Zord appeared in front of the Megazord, which had stood up. The left arm came off the Megazord and the Peacock Zord attached, it's feathers creating a fan weapon
"Olympian Megazord: Warrior Mode with Peacock power!" the Rangers shouted.
"Activating Peacock Fan," Valerie said as the blades began to spin, creating a blast of air. The Caucasian Eagle was blasted back by the wind and launched into the air, where it hovered.
"Hey, guess I can actually fly!" the Eagle shouted. He pointed one of his sai at the Peacock arm.
"I liked you the way you were," he commented as he blasted an orb of dark energy at the Peacock. The orb exploded when it made contact, blasting the Peacock Zord off the Megazord and away from the battle.
The aqua gem in Valerie's console stopped glowing. She removed it and replaced it with her second pink gem.
"Yeahhh, we need a new plan," she commented.
"We need a way to reach the Eagle up there!" Nate shouted as he pointed up into the sky.
"I may have just the thing," Hermes said through the Rangers morphers as he typed away furiously at the mosaic computer. "The burst of energy from Victor's Olympian Gem has allowed the Megazord to call upon a new power: the power of the Icarus Mode."
A new option appeared on the Rangers dials for "ICARUS MODE".
"Let's do it!" Jay said as the Rangers turned their dials to the new mode.
The Megazord launched into the air and the bow made up from the Red Eagle's wings detached from the back of the Megazord and split into its original wings before reattaching onto the back of the Megazord to form wings to carry it in the sky.
The Megazord flew to the same level as the Caucasian Eagle, who gulped as the machine glared at it with its glowing eyes.
"Time to take you down to Earth," Jay said as the Megazord prepared its final strike.
"Too-Close-to-the-Sun Strike!" the Rangers shouted as the Megazord grabbed the Caucasian Eagle with both hands and threw him into the air. The Megazord then grabbed it's spear and flew up above it. An outline of the sun appeared as the Megazord spun its spear in an arc to perfectly match the sun outline before coming in for a great big stab. The Eagle's armor cracked and shattered in places as the Knight fell to Earth and exploded with the Megazord landing and posing in front of it.
As the Rangers cheered in the cockpit, they didn't see the Gold and Silver Rangers standing up on a building, watching the Megazord's arms lower into rest position.
"They're learning," the Gold Ranger noted.
"But not yet," the Silver Ranger said as she turned away. "Let's go."
"Soon, Rangers," the Gold Ranger whispered. "You'll be ready for us to join you before you know it."
"Man, that Megazord has so many modes and combinations!" Nate exclaimed as the Rangers walked into the Temple.
"I know, it never seems to end," Jay agreed. "Our arsenal grows with every battle."
"Another battle well fought, rangers," Hermes said, "now Echidna is only down to just the Chimera Knight."
"Don't forget Gryphon," Valerie added. "He looks a lot like those Dark Order Knights."
"So let's say one, maybe two Knights left, then whatever Hades throws at us," Nate said. "Easy peasy."
"Except we almost lose every fight before we narrowly win, " Jay reminded. "These aren't easy battles, we need those Gold and Silver Rangers on our side."
"Agreed," Mera said. "They could lessen our burden."
"Maybe we need to prove ourselves," Victor spoke up.
Everyone turned to look at him.
"Think about it," he said. "For every weakness we show, there's a Knight to exploit it, maybe we're actually proving we're capable of defending the world to Echidna, Hades and the two other Rangers."
Everyone pondered that for a moment before Jay spoke up,
"If that's true," he said, "then I wonder how they'll challenge us next…"
No one could provide an answer.
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