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~\({O})/~

24.

All Together Now

~\({O})/~

The Ancient Barrow

~Espurr~

The light of the way out, warm and illuminating, soon faded into cold, slimy darkness. The dark of the distance met Espurr as she ran back into the halls covered with viscous black sludge. Looking for any sign of the hallway she had seen before.

Behind her, Riolu tried his best to catch up. He made noisy splashes in the water behind them as he ran.

"Hey!" he called from behind her. "Wait up! I'm gonna lose you!"

As much as she wanted to speed up, Espurr slowed down. It wouldn't do any good to lose the only pokemon currently with her, no matter how panicked she was. She took a deep breath, and tried to calm herself down.

It didn't work. She was still breathing fast.

"What are we even looking for?" Riolu panted out as he caught up with her. Espurr sped up again, forcing him to abandon catching his breath to keep pace with her.

"A way up," Espurr answered between breaths. "If the anchorstone is in the middle of the dungeon, and the stairs at the entrance went down while the ones we've been climbing went up, we can probably assume this dungeon doesn't work like all the other ones. And that means there's stairs leading up somewhere on this floor. It's an easy way to get to them. All we have to do is find the stairs."

She had ad-libbed all of that. More hopefully than anything, but Espurr was willing to accept any hope she could grasp at. Even if she had to make it up for herself. Alongside her, Riolu nodded along, looking like he didn't understand any of it.

Up ahead in the corridor, Espurr caught sight of a small hallway to their left. She pointed at it, making sure that Riolu could see. "We're headed that way first."

"But shouldn't we scout the floor and come back to this late—"

"We might not find it again later." Espurr cut him off, taking him by the paw and almost forcefully dragging him into the hallway.

This theory was their lucky break. It had to be. Or Espurr didn't know what she would do.

~\({O})/~

~"Goomy"~

Goomy saw wrong. More accurately, he felt wrong. The antennae constantly twitching atop his head were wrong, and so was the gooey snail shell on his back. He couldn't see colors anymore. He saw, but in vibrations. Everything around him was illuminated in black and white, a fading image renewed with each twitch of his antennae. He didn't even know where he had pulled that attack from—something he couldn't have imagined doing just a few seconds before. Goomy stayed still in shock for a bit.

"Goomy!"

Deerling galloped through the muck towards him, then threw herself into him the best she could. Goomy did his best to not collapse into formless goo upon impact, but now that he tried it, he couldn't do that as well now either.

"Aw, berry crackers. He's the first to evolve? He's the youngest out of all of us!" Pancham walked forward, his arms stuck out in annoyance. Goomy could hear the relief he was trying to push out of his voice.

"Oh, stick a wooper in it, Pancham," Deerling hissed at him. "You nearly died! We. All. Nearly. Died. He saved our lives! The least you could do is thank him instead of treating him like muk!"

"Sooo cool!"

That was Tricky. She bounded around him, checking his new body out from all angles. "What does it feel like? Can you see? Ooh—Ooh—Watchog said that sliggoos dissolve everything with killer slime. Can you dissolve a dungeon 'mon?"

"T-that's a myth," Goomy stuttered out, still trying to figure out how to speak with his new mouth. He knew that much. Although he guessed he was Sliggoo now.

"Hey," Deerling said, trying to stabilize the wobbling Sliggoo. "You feeling alright? Do you need to rest for a moment?"

"This is great and all," Shelmet interjected loudly, "but I propose we get a move and get out of here before, y'know, the scary monster thing comes back to get us?"

"I- I'm f-fine," Goo—Sliggoo stuttered, stabilizing himself without Deerling's help. "I just want to get out of here."

"True that," Pancham muttered. "How many floors is this place, anyway. It's gotta have been at least fifteen."

"Try five." Deerling clopped past him, leading the group onwards. "It can't be that many now. The only 'mon we're missing is Espurr."

No-mon saw it in the darkness, but Tricky's ears flopped back as they continued on.

"You don't think we left her behind, right?" she asked. Deerling didn't answer. No-mon did. No-mon knew. There was only hope to guide them.

~\({O})/~

~Nyarlathotep~

This was less than optimal. They were in two groups now, instead of seven defenseless targets. If It allowed them to progress unhindered, soon there would be only one group.

They knew. They weren't like the beings that had ended up in the Voidlands. pathetic beings filled with hate and worry and discord for It and Its brethren to leech off of and grow stronger from. They were a measly seven, but together they had hurt It. And now It slunk off to lick its wounds, and hunt the smaller group of two lower in the dungeon.

It had never liked children. They were too hopeful, too filled with positive emotions that burned It like the fire it hated. Too small to make a good meal, for all the trouble. And yet they posed the largest threat to It.

Now It lay in hiding, conserving Its strength and plotting Its next move. Maybe this was more optimal than It had originally thought. In one group, they were a dangerous but easy target. And now that It had fought them a few times, It knew which ones to eat first. It would devour the psychic cat and the goo snail, depriving them of their largest weapons. Then it would eat the fennekin, wielder of terrible fire, the first to defy Its nightmares. The riolu would be consumed next, for daring to escape from Its home. And then It would feast upon the rest, eating their screams as Its teeth ripped into their flesh. Oh yes it would make them suffer. It would devour them one by one, bite by bite. Their final moments would be of delicious fear and horror, just waiting to be sucked out of their bones.

All along the Anchorstone floor, the slime covering the walls rapidly shifted and squelched in preparation. It was time to set the stage.

~\({O})/~

~Espurr~

There was nothing at the end of the hallway. Espurr hadn't wasted time making it back to the main corridor, pulling Riolu along with her. Riolu had made a few efforts to slow down, but Espurr wasn't having it. They found another corridor, and she checked that one too. It was only after a few more hurried searches of hallways that Riolu finally sat down in the muck, all puffed out.

"I need a minute," he panted. "To… catch my breath…"

Espurr reluctantly stopped. She folded her arms, marched back over to him, and sat down opposite him silently. Finally, now that she'd stopped running, her rapidly beating heart began to slow. And she could notice just how tuckered out Riolu was.

"Sorry for dragging you around so fast," she said. It sounded lame, dragged out of her mouth. "I just need to find—"

"You're looking for your friends," Riolu said. He sat huddled up, staring down at the water with eyes wide open. "I get it."

At least you aren't running the other way.

Nothing was said between them; they sat together in silence.

"What do you do if they're dead?" Riolu suddenly broke the silence.

"What?"

"What if you go back, and you don't see…"

He trailed off.

It was the question Espurr would do anything not to answer. Because the truth was, she didn't know. She didn't want to know. The dilemma grew in her mind like a cloud of haze, the corners of her mind flashed blue-green, and she could feel her ears up top begin to stir with flickers of power. She shut her eyes tightly and tried to ward it off with logic. The monster was busy with them. There wasn't enough time for it to go back for everymon else.

That made it feel better. All that grief and haze… a flicker of it was too much for her. How much had Tricky gone through?

For the first time since being separated from her friends, Espurr's shoulder felt lighter than it should have—missing the strap of the tattered old exploration bag she'd brought in. She gladly seized the distraction. That bag had everything in it! There were so many things she'd have to replace if she couldn't retrieve it… but since they were backtracking, perhaps she'd find it along the way.

"Ready yet?" she asked Riolu, dodging the question. Riolu noticed. But he nodded anyway.

"Almost," he said, still sounding tuckered out. "I can get up no—"

Something changed. Both Espurr and Riolu noticed. He stopped mid-sentence, and they both silently looked in the direction of the distant rumbling that came from deeper within the dungeon. It was getting closer.

"Move."

Both Espurr and Riolu got to their feet, but it was all they could do to jump clear of the wall before it suddenly became fluid. Goo shifted along the walls at high speeds, and soon the walls themselves began to change. The dungeon began to growl, leading up into a roar that blew through the halls—something was rearranging it without its consent, and it was not happy. The sound vibrated through the air around Espurr and Riolu, and a sudden gust of rancid wind buffeted them both backwards. And the walls weren't solidifying.

Espurr got back to her feet, helping Riolu up as quickly as she could. A sudden pillar of black muck shot out of the wall, and they both ducked just in time to avoid it. The area closed up into a full wall, and Espurr and Riolu scrambled away from it. More and more pillars of goo shot out from all directions, while walls around them collapsed.

"What do we do?" Riolu yelled over the noise of the shifting dungeon. He and Espurr were pressed as close together as they could possibly be. The muck around them churned, and they parted just in time to avoid another wall of slime shooting straight up out of the ground. And then Espurr saw it: Behind a collapsing wall, the stairs stood. They glowed brighter than anything else, and most importantly: they led upwards.

She called out to Riolu just before the wall sealed up and separated them. "Head that way! I see the stairs!"

As walls formed all around them, Espurr didn't waste any time running forward. A corridor was forming, leading right to the stairs, and she ran directly for it. Nearly too late—another pillar of goo, soon to become a wall, shot out of the ground. It began to form a barrier between her and the stairs, turning it into a dead end. She wasn't going to make it in time

The dungeon roared again. Espurr knew that the dungeon winds would follow. She sped up as fast as she could, but then she began to feel a draft. As she ran, she noticed her fur blew in the direction of the sealing up wall, and that gave her an idea. Just as the gust intensified, she jumped—

—The gust of wind blew through the nearly completed hallway, and its power thrust Espurr off her feet and sent her flying through the gap just before the wall closed up. She hit the muck on the other side of the hallway and got a mouthful of swamp water. At this point, she was beginning to get used to its bitter taste.

"You okay?"

Espurr looked up to see Riolu standing over her. He held a paw out, and she took it, bringing herself to her feet. Ahead of them, the stairs lit the hallway with a luminous glow. Behind them, the dungeon slowly settled into an uneasy peace. The rumbling ceased.

"We shouldn't wait around for something else to happen," Espurr said, winded as she was. "Let's go."

~\({O})/~

~Tricky~

Tricky worried about it the whole way there. She worried about what had happened to Espurr, who was her friend when no-mon else would have been. Espurr, who was the only 'mon still separated from the group. Espurr, who Tricky worried had been left behind in the dungeon. She knew there were no answers for her right now, but the worry hung over her like a cloud of haze as they walked.

'Espurr can take care of herself,' Tricky's brain said. She used that like a shield, hiding behind it, hiding from the worry. But that didn't stop her from knowing it was there.

"Hey," Deerling spoke after what felt like hours of silence. "I found something."

She sped up, and all the others did their best to follow.

Sitting against the goo-covered wall was the tattered old exploration bag that belonged to Espurr. Deerling stopped right in front of it, and looked down at the bag. It floated in the muck, its strap stuck to the walls and holding it in place. If it weren't waterproof it would have been ruined long ago.

Tricky quickly pushed past Pancham and Shelmet to look at the bag. She was the first one to point out the obvious.

"That's Espurr's!"

Everymon else exchanged looks in worry. Tricky's fear nearly overcame her—Espurr wouldn't just leave the team bag behind like that. What if something had… what if… good thoughts…

Tricky stared down at the muck for a moment, breathing hard, trying to think of something positive to make of the situation.

"Well…" she began after a moment. "If the bag is here, then Espurr has to be further down in the dungeon. So we didn't leave her behind."

More silence. Uneasy nods, but the unspoken words hung in the air over all of them: She's dead, isn't she.

"We should collect it," Deerling said. Her voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper. "It's got her things in it. We don't want to leave those behind."

Pancham—the only one with hands—stooped over and picked it up. He slung it over his back, and they began to continue on again in silence.

Tricky wouldn't believe it. Not until she saw it with her own eyes. That perked her up just a little as they trudged further into the dungeon.

~\({O})/~

~Espurr~

The stairs deposited Espurr and Riolu onto the next floor up with an unceremonious splash. Their wits were too shot for either of them to be phased. They just picked themselves up, shook off the water, and began to trek through the dungeon's hallways once again with little complaint. Their fur was matted with swamp grime and bits of the wall's black sludge. Their eyes stung from the dirt that had gotten in them, and their limbs were weary. Espurr didn't think she could ever clean the filth out of the scarf Tricky had given her. It hung around her neck, soggy with swamp water and almost brown from the dirt that had collected on it.

Tricky…

Espurr closed her eyes, and reached out with her sixth sense once more. If they were on this floor, and she tried hard enough…

"Hey, do you hear voices?"

Riolu's comment snapped Espurr back to reality. She glanced at him.

"I wasn't paying attention. Where?"

"Voices. That way." Riolu pointed towards the end of the corridor that they'd been travelling down. When Espurr strained her ears, she could hear it too.

"I think the stairs are this way," said a voice in the distance. "It's the only hallway we haven't checked."

That sounded like… Deerling! Espurr immediately broke out into a run, dashing down the hallway and making splashes in the muck behind her. She just stopped herself from calling out to them, in case it was an enemy she hadn't been aware of.

She slowed to a stop just outside the entrance to the main hall, glancing in the direction she'd heard the noises from. Her eyes widened. She saw all five of the other village children, in a group led by Deerling.

"Espurr!"

The cry was loud enough to pierce the ears of everymon in the dungeon. Tricky pushed past everymon else and quickly slammed herself into Espurr. "Where were you all this time?" she asked. "We found your bag, and I thought you… were…" Tricky couldn't go on.

Espurr just shut her eyes and hugged her back. Tightly. After all the stuff they'd been through, after all the things that had happened tonight, Tricky's infectious hyperactivity was getting to her.

"Here's your bag." Espurr's bag went sailing through the air and landed in the muck with a splash in front of her. It soaked both her and Tricky in the dungeon's much. Pancham folded his arms as Tricky parted the hug and shuffled away from the bag, shaking some of the water it had kicked up out of her tail. Ignoring Pancham's brashness, Espurr bent over and picked it up.

Deerling clopped forward. Espurr thought she was about to say something, but suddenly Deerling lowered her head and headbutted Espurr right in the chest. Espurr yelped and landed in the muck with a splash, too surprised to make her landing graceful. She looked up at Deerling in shock.

"That's for getting us into this mess." Deerling flicked an ear indignantly. "Now get up. We…" she looked down. "We need somemon who can get us out of it."

Still a bit shaken from the fall, Espurr pulled herself into a standing position, watching Deerling clop backwards. She saddled her waterlogged, twice-as-heavy bag back onto her shoulder. It felt good, having that there again.

Riolu finally made his way to the end of the corridor, stumbling to a stop awkwardly and catching his breath. The rest of the children looked at him in alarm.

"This is Riolu," Espurr said to the rest of them. "He got lost in the dungeon, just like us. We found the way out. It's only a floor down. The bad news is…"

"There's a monster after us," Deerling said. "We know."

"We still didn't find Watchog," Shelmet pointed out.

"I say let Watchog rot," Pancham said dismissively. "We'll be lucky to get out of this with our own fur, forget his. Besides, we would have found him already if he was here."

That was met with uneasy agreement from everymon else.

"So now what?" Tricky asked, much more chipper than before.

"Now…" Espurr turned back towards the hallway ahead of them. "We look for the way down, and then the way out."

~\({O})/~

The halls of the Anchorstone were completely different when Espurr and her friends stepped onto its grounds. It looked like a whole new floor. Around them, the dungeon settled silently, with only a short rumble, pop, or shlick as the new hallways finished slotting into place. Espurr slowly led the seven of them down the corridor, being as silent as possible.

The sludge covering the wall popped once as they continued on, startling Espurr. In the absence of a bubble, there was a head-sized hole in the center of the wall that led into blackness. But nothing came out of it, so they all decided to very quickly move on before something could. None of them noticed the eyeless face that silently emerged from the hole to spy on them after they'd passed it. Craning in their direction, it took a large sniff of the air. Smelling prey. Satisfied, it retreated back in, black goo swarming over to cover it up.

Espurr unzipped the bag, and reached into it. The outside was wet, but thankfully the contents inside were dry. She pulled out the tube of bluk berry toothpaste that was in the bag, then uncorked the cap. She grabbed a few oran berries from inside the bag—the emergency reserves they'd brought—then crushed them above the bottle. The juices fell into the tube, mixing with the toothpaste below. Espurr jammed the mushed pulp of the berries down the narrow chute seconds afterwards, then recorked the toothpaste.

"What are you doing?" Tricky asked. Espurr noticed she'd been watching her for a bit, a perplexed expression on her face.

"Making a weapon," Espurr said calmly, holding the cap tight and shaking the tube as hard as she could to mix the ingredients. "Teddiursa told me this stings if you get it in the wrong places. When it's souped up on oran berry, it'll hurt even more."

The hallways were darker than they'd ever been, and Espurr had trouble seeing the way ahead properly. Several times she almost walked straight into a wall, tipped off only by how the coating of slime caught the sparse light. Eventually, she led them into a large room where the paths to several hallways led.

Leading in, or leading out? Espurr stopped, unsure of where to go next. Everymon looked around, taking in the sheer number of hallway entrances all around them.

"Now where do we go?" Tricky asked. The walls shifted silently all around them. Still settling into place.

Or were they? If Espurr didn't know better, she would have said the doorways were getting narrower…

…They were! The doorways had definitely been narrower than they were before, and if she looked carefully she could see them closing up a little. And that was all the clueing in she needed. Espurr took a fighting position.

"Get ready to fight!" she said, brandishing her paws and channeling psychic energy into them. "We aren't alone in here." And with that, she fired a mental blast at the wall.

Nyarlathotep abandoned the element of surprise immediately. Goo exploded out from where Espurr blasted the wall, absorbing the blast. It began to collect in the middle of the room, assembling itself into Nyarlathotep's body—

An ember from Tricky sent the lower half of the body reeling back before it could finish building itself.

"Get it!"

All seven of them rushed forward, ganging up on the Shadow before it could assemble itself completely. Riolu pushed one of its legs out from under it, causing it to stumble forward. Pancham climbed on top of it, beating it over the top with his fists and tugging off small, developing spines. Shelmet charged forward and stabbed the pointy edge of his shell into the leg it was kneeling on. Tricky brandished fiery jaws, charging forward and chomping down on its torso. Espurr ran forward and used her mind to pull the Shadow's other leg out from under it. It collapsed completely, falling to its side. Sliggoo unleashed a dragon breath, cleaving the body in two. Deerling spun around and gave the Shadow's remaining half a powerful kick with her hind legs, sending it skidding back.

The mangled mess of its body, barely half-formed, fell back against one of the walls, and was silent. Everymon held their breath, watching it lie still for a moment.

"Did… Did we beat it?" Tricky asked hesitantly after a minute. Espurr looked over the shadowy body, studying it intently. She looked at how the goo flowed off the walls and down into its body. And then she realized.

"No," she said quickly. "It's just recovering. Let's finish it off before it has a chance to." She began to charge another mental blast, aiming it directly at the recovering Nyarlathotep.

But it was too late—Nyarlathotep was up faster than Espurr could blink, and the last of the goo had assembled into the Void Shadow's monstrous body. Its quills stood alert, and before Espurr could unleash her mind attack it had already charged forward and grabbed her by the throat. Espurr wasn't having it. She directed her attack directly at its claws instead. The raw power was enough to blow the Shadow's hand temporarily apart, and she slipped back to the ground.

One by one, everymon launched an attack against the Shadow. But this time, it was ready for them.

Its arms shot out and whacked Tricky aside. She slammed against the wall, the flames in her mouth extinguished. It dodged Riolu, then kicked him into a wall. He tumbled into the muck. It took the brunt of Sliggoo's dragon breaths, enduring the blasts and slowly walking towards him. Pancham and Shelmet both charged at the monster—they were grabbed and thrown aside. Deerling stepped in to defend Sliggoo, and the Shadow began to charge straight for them. A shockwave from Espurr sent it careening backwards, then falling on its spines.

Espurr looked at her fallen friends, then straight at Nyarlathotep. She began to charge up an attack, but suddenly a sharp headache struck her. She groaned, clutching her head. It felt external, like something was prying into her head from the outside. An alien presence; it wasn't a part of her and she could feel it. All the same, it sent her to her hands and knees with a whine of pain.

Nyarlathotep used the opening. It shot up and grabbed Espurr into the air, and this time there was no hope of escape. She struggled the best she could, but she wasn't strong enough to pry herself from Nyarlathotep's claws. The headache still pounded at her forehead, rendering her psychic powers inept. Was being too close to the Shadow doing this?

"Help!" she looked back at all her classmates desperately. But none of them could reach her in time. They were all still recovering from what the Shadow had done to all of them. Deerling just looked up with a frozen expression of horror, shivering, then looked back at a still recovering Sliggoo. What could she do?

Espurr felt Nyarlathotep's breath on her face. It ruffled her fur, and it smelled of dungeon wind. Nyarlathotep's maw opened up, and a voice emerged from its hollow depths that only Espurr could hear:

You are at the brink of death. My Shadow shall devour your mortal frame, and you will be doomed to know only blackness as a part of me forevermore. Unless…

Espurr didn't want to hear whatever the monster had to say to her. Frantically, she began to search for a potential way out, but the headache was pounding into her head with too much force. The rest of her body ached so much, tired out and injured from this terrible night. She could fight off all the pain, the attack on her head, but it was taking a lot out of her just to fight.

Once again, I present my offer to you: Leave this body. Return to your old life. Regain your memories. Escape death. Do this, and you have my word that you shall not be harmed by my Shadow's hand. I ask once more: do we have a bargain?

It took everything Espurr had left not to accept the offer. She wanted to get out of this so badly. She was scared, she was hurting. Everything hurt so much. And she was tired. Tired of all the mysteries. Tired of the mystery dungeons. Tired of everything. A way out would be everything she'd ever wanted, and it came with the added bonus of not being eaten. But it felt guilty and horrible too: Was she really considering it?

Then a cough sounded from behind her. Tricky. The Shadow's head snapped towards it, but Espurr quickly faked a cough herself to draw its attention back. She noticed it was eyeless. It must have been relying on sound smell touch to sense things. And then she remembered: her bag! The weapon she had made! Now was the perfect time to use it. She only had to wait for the right moment…

She turned her head towards the rest of the children, who were silently rising from the muck. They assembled in the middle of the room wordlessly, taking attack stances. Espurr took the cue, and found that her headache had waned enough for her to begin charging her own attack.

I require an ANSWER.

Nyarlathotep leaned in closer, its breath ruffling her fur. Espurr stared its eyeless face down.

"I'm sorry. We don't have a deal," she said, her face quickly returning to her former smugness. "And you should know by now: threats don't work on me."

In one lightning motion, Espurr pulled the toothpaste bottle out of her bag, shut her eyes tight, and squeezed as hard as she could. The bottle exploded. Toothpaste flew everywhere. The Shadow squealed and dropped her, the toothpaste sizzling against Its surface. Espurr tumbled to the muck and rolled away from the Shadow just in time. Some of the toothpaste landed on her fur, but it didn't eat through her skin like it did the Shadow's.

"Getting to her feet as quickly as possible and stumbling her way over to the rest of the children, Espurr fished in her bag for the last weapon they had. She pulled it out-a stick with green, dimly-glowing engravings on it. The last of the three wands in Gabite's old, tattered bag.

"Tricky!" she called out, holding it high. "Light this!"

Immediately, Tricky understood. She wasted no time spitting some fire into the air, setting the stick on fire like a torch.

Behind them, Nyarlathotep rose out of the muck, looming over the seven of them like an imposing shadow. This time, it didn't stop growing. It only got larger and larger, continuing to grow in size until it eclipsed the way out and half the cavern. A large, gooey hand came down upon Espurr, squashing her under several tons of black goop. She threw the stick towards the others in the air, and a powerful kick from Deerling's hind legs punted the stick directly into Nyarlathotep's chest, where it exploded.

It left a hole clean through Nyarlathotep. One that didn't fill itself in.

Nyarlathotep took a step towards the village children, and all of them balked in fear. But then it stopped. It twitched, then began to tremble. And then it burst into tiny flakes of black goo and ash, that dispersed in the air until no-mon could see them. And then there was only silence.

Unseen, a single flake of blackness flew behind everymon's backs, and deeper into the dungeon.

Espurr slowly raised herself from the muck, picking her bag up with her. Ragged and limping, she rejoined the rest of her classmates. There wasn't any fanfare, no celebratory hugs, no whoops and cheers for defeating the monster. They all just gathered together, and silently continued towards what was now the only hallway left out of the clearing. Just around the corner, there was daylight.

Like the dungeon was throwing them a bone for their troubles, they came across a figure lay slumped down against the wall, fast asleep. Their body was half covered in black goo. Vice-Principal Watchog was slowly roused from his sleep by the sounds of seven children tromping through the muck towards him.

"… Huh?" he muttered, raising his head from the ground groggily. "What are you troublemakers doing… here… blurgh… more mago berries… the good shtuff…"

His head fell back into the muck, and he was asleep once again.

All seven of them exchanged looks.

"We'll just have to carry him out," Espurr said. No-mon objected.

Daylight was just around the corner.

~\({O})/~

Music of the week!

Possession - Nicholas Hooper