Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 8

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

'So, these dualhorns…look tough…', Kairi hummed, looking at the bounty paper in hand, lips pursed in thought.

With Sora, the two keyblade wielders were walking just east of where Hammerhead was stationed to where their prey was prowling the area. While Kairi was rather anxious about fighting living animals, seeing as she had mostly been fighting heartless, a part of her steeled her resolve. If Sora can do it, she could surely.

'I think Donald met them when we first landed, said they're pretty tough to magic', Sora commented, hands behind his head. 'Guess we'll just have to stick with a good clonking to the head!'.

Kairi nodded in agreement, putting the notice in her pocket and kept up with him. Wiping a bit of sweat off her brow though, now noticing the sheer heat of the wasteland and even feeling parched. At the recommendation from Ignis that everyone carry something to rehydrate themselves, Kairi opened her water flask and took a swig of ice-cold water.

The heat here was a massive increase compared to the cool summer heat from the islands in comparison. Back home all she ever had to worry about was one heatwave in a million chance, but here it felt like the hottest day on Destiny Islands was this every day. Looking at Sora, who was in far more layers of clothing in comparison to her own, he looked perfectly fine. Lucky him she thought, putting her flask back in her pocket.

In time they came to several large boulders scattered around them, dry bushes with patches of grass in sand and ahead, were the dualhorns. A total of five so a small herd, and once they got close, they both ducked down by the boulder and peered at them. They summoned their keyblades, the redhead peeking at them and trying to conjure up a plan of attack. Based on the size and what Donald said, she was convinced their armor-like would be too thick, and maybe a straight-up strike wouldn't be enough, even with Sora's strength.

'Ok, what's the plan?', Sora asked, giving her a look that gave her a sense of confidence like he trusted her judgment.

Kairi hummed and rubbed her chin, before snapping her fingers. 'That hammer of yours, the one Noctis told us about?', she asked. Nodding, Sora changed key-chains and shifted the blade into the required weapon. Once he laid it beside them to keep it out of sight, he looked at her with curiosity. 'Cutting won't do, but maybe smashing them as hard as you could may break their hides and hard shells', she explained.

'You sure?', Sora asked, doubtful.

'Absolutely. Then once their armors removed', she continued, lifting her keyblade, 'I'll go in for the kill'.

Although she sees him with doubt, Sora ultimately nodded and got up, hammer in hand and jumped on the rock. Once he looked back to confirm, she nodded, and he sprinted off at the beasts.

The hero swung his hammer at the closest one with one wild mid-swing, smacking right into the full body of the beast. The sounds of breaking and cracking rang throughout the desert land, along with the beast being knocked on its side with the vulnerable flesh exposed.

Kairi immediately burst into a dash, leaped into the air and plunged her keyblade right into the exposed side of the animal. Her blade pierced through easily like sticking a knife in butter, killing the beast, mercifully, in quick fashion.

Yanking her keyblade out, she turned to see the other dualhorns stomping their feet in fury at the sight of their fallen member of their herd, roaring with rage. The two heroes used the tactic repeatedly, Sora smashes, Kairi stabs, and so on so forth, until finally, they bring down the final dualhorn.

Not the more exertion task Kairi had undertaken but she felt a surge of accomplishment when she sees the result of her planning and her team work with Sora was, too her delight, just as great as she believed it be.

Clapping her hands to rid them of dust, Sora dismissed his key-hammer, grinning happily at the princess. Kairi smiled at him, but then frowned when his smile faded and, in its place, worry with them looking upwards. She followed his gaze to see a large ship blocking out the sun, a loud humming noise of an engine with the wind blowing the dust and her hair like crazy.

Above, the large hanger door opened and left a small ramp exposed, and then several mechanical humanoids jumped off the ramp and landed a few feet before the two. A platoon of magitek soldiers, a total of twelve consisting ax units and sword units.

Kairi stepped back with worry, summoning her keyblade as Sora immediately jumped in front of her. 'Those guys again!', he growled. 'Didn't we fight them before?', she asked, eyeing them. 'Yeah, Gladiolus said they were the empire? Bad guys', he surmised. Kairi nodded, all she needed to hear to bring out the key.

One sword unit ran at them, but it merely quickened its demise when Sora dashed forward and with both hands on the blade, cleaved both the sword and unit in half. Once the halved unit's remains hit the ground, the rest charged forward to the boy. Kairi rushed in to help, her keyblade shining brightly. She aimed it at the group and fired a pearl at them, the beautiful sphere glided through three soldiers leaving gaping holes in their chests.

Two of the axemen ran at her with incredible speed, reaching her in seconds and causing her to quickly lift her blade to block clumsily. The first axe that reached her weapon was blocked and then the second had enough strength and momentum to bring down her weapon to the ground. Kairi rolled away from them once her weapon touched the ground.

Once she created a space between her and them, she re-summoned her keyblade and aimed her weapon at them and fired a powerful torrent of water at them. The magical aquatic spell dosed them in water and quickly shortened their circuits she presumed, based on how they shook and twitched with sounds of electricity going wild within their robotic bodies. Several small explosives danced around their bodies before they collapsed.

With Sora, not only did he managed to hack away at least three of them easily but using his air-sliding abilities and superior mobility he can cut and run his enemies. He leaped over one swinging axe unit and decapitated it mid-leap, and as soon as he landed back on his feet, he stabbed another unit in the torso. The key piercing it and with it, he fired a spread shot of ice at the ones behind the unit.

The shot-gun spread shot attack froze two units behind the stabbed unit and managed to hit a few though not defeating them. He pulled back his weapon and while spinning his keyblade, he slashed another unit and brought it down with another strike.

The combined might of the two keyblade wielders was more than the imperials' forces could have anticipated, for in less than ten minutes the only units remaining were down to three. Kairi slid on the ground near one and while sliding she cut the thighs of the machine and brought it down. Stopping her slide, she turned quickly, aimed her keyblade up to the sky and yelled: 'THUNDARA!'.

A large golden bolt of lightning struck down from above, bathing the mechanical being in light that destroyed all the circuits and rendered it to dust.

Sora cleanly severed the head off the remaining soldier, letting the body fall and the head to roll away. With a grunt, he smugly brushed against his nose and turned to Kairi, dusting off the dirt from her clothes, giving him a shrug with a smile.

'Think I'm getting the hang of this', she remarked, cockily grinning.

Sora smiled in response before his expression turned sour when they heard the whirring noises of an engine from above. They looked to see two more drop ships arriving and deploying more soldiers, a platoon of twenty this time, but that was from one ship only.

From the other ship dropped an MA-X Patria, a mechanical beast with long bent shaped arms with a plethora of weapons with hydraulic equipped legs. It landed before the two, making the ground shake slightly as it stood up proper.

'You've got be kidding…', Kairi grunted, getting to her fighting stance.

'Watch yourself!', Sora said.

The soldiers consisted of the same unit from earlier, so at least they had an understanding how to fend them off, but then the MA-X fired a barrage of rockets from the back of the cockpit, firing them at the two. Kairi quickly jumped in front and aimed her hand, erecting a barrier around them. The rockets crashed into her magical dome but aside from causing her to flinch or grunt with effort, they were unharmed. After the smoke cleared from the explosions, Kairi lowered the barrier to allow Sora to rush in.

Sora hacked his way through the platoon of machines in his way, bringing them down with one strike after the other before he leaped and used an axe wielder's head as a steppingstone. He leaped off and flew towards the machine, the machine lifted its right arm and unleashed a curtain of flames at Sora.

With a yell, Sora twisted his body to quickly evade the attack and found himself back on the ground. The MA-X turned to stare down at the boy, now becoming its sole target. With its left hand raised, it slammed it down and fired red electrical sparks into the ground. Sora, unfortunately, didn't have enough time to react and was then bathed in red lighting, causing him to yell out in agony.

Parrying an attack and then chopping down another soldier, Kairi turned to her boyfriend's yells and widened with terror. Gritting her teeth in fury, Kairi dashed the boy, running around the platoon as opposed to vainly cut her way through. Luckily their movements were slower than them and when she ran around, they seemed to be slow to catch on to her plans. But not all.

Several of axe men chased after her at a faster pace, just two feet behind her. The princess aimed her keyblade and blindly fired spells at them in a "spray and pray" tactical move, firing ice, fire, and lighting at them. Some flew over them, some missed entirely or by some divine luck, she managed to hit one square in the chest with enough magic to create a hole in their torso. They stumbled and tumbled on the ground but luckily their limbs caught another's legs and together went down.

Once Kairi got closer to Sora, she jumped and turned to face her chaser with her keyblade aimed at it and fired a single beam of light that pierced the forehead of the machine. It twitched for a moment before falling to the ground in defeat. Sora was still being shocked by the electricity of the MA-X, so when Kairi got close enough, she ran her hand along her blade to coat it in lightning and then she tossed her keyblade at the limb dispensing the electricity. The flowery blade spun and sliced through the limb, severing it and falling to the ground with dust flying.

The princess re-summoned her key as Sora fell on one knee in pain, shaking. Kairi aimed her keyblade and cast "Cura" on him, restoring him. Though on one knee still, he gave her a shaky thumbs up in gratitude, as the platoon started to press them into a corner. Kairi clenched her grip on the key tightly, eyes darting left and right to the swarm of mechanical adversaries that were slowly putting their backs against the wall.

Sora got back to his feet and readied himself, yet as they were about to attack, plunking before them were what appeared to be rockets landing in the dirt. They looked to see the machine was covered with sparks and electricity of its own, staggering and looking ready to fall over and die. Rockets were flying out of its back and stabbing in the ground all around the battlefield without any thought to where they were going to land.

One of the rockets even crushed another solider into the ground. At long last, the machine fell to the ground, and as the sparks grew wilder and more sporadic, it exploded in a fiery cloud. Dust flew and both teens had to cover their eyes to protect their sight. Sora though saw the rockets open and started to blink red rapidly. His eyes widened when he heard from a distance alone rocket explode, taking some of the magiteks with it.

As more began to explode from all around them, he paled when he saw the single post of a rocket near them was blinking and beeping faster. Panic surged within him as for what felt like time was slowing down to a crawl, Sora leaped and wrapped Kairi into a hug, turning his back at the rocket. The explosion happened and next thing he near, his back felt the searing heat and the shrapnel cutting into his back.

Before he could even yell out in pain, he and Kairi were propelled into a large rock. They both slammed into it, his world went black…

Team 2

Leaping over the sabertusk while swiping at it's back, Aqua landed on her feet and turned on another predator. Only for it to take a bullet to its head and then fell over, dead. Aqua turned to her partner with a nod as Prompto picked off the sneaky predators from ambushing the blue head.

The master swiped her keyblade to the right and cut down another beast, turned her free hand to another and blasted it with a gust of wind that shredded it's hide and left several lacerations upon its now-deceased form.

Aqua looked for more, but Prompto just finished off the final one with one more gunshot from his revolver and brought the hunt to a close. Dismissing her keyblade, Aqua shook her hands with sighed with relief.

'BA BA BABA BA BABA!', cheered Prompto, doing a little dance while humming a tune.

Aqua giggled softly at him, folding her arms with a blue brow raised. 'You're in a good mood today', she commented with a smile. He stopped dancing but there was still a spring in his step, clapping his hands together. 'Course I am, we never worked together before!', he explained with a grin. Aqua hummed in response, realizing she never had worked with him solo before, so she partially saw why he was so excited.

Then she noticed him shifting slightly, scratching his head shyly. 'S-So, how'd I do?', he asked. She blinked, but then recalled Ignis informing her he was the less experienced and trained among the guard. Truthfully she wasn't sure what she could evaluate with his style of fighting, as firearms weren't something she nor her friends had ever really practiced with, and even then she could only imagine the look of horror her master would have had if he saw Ventus with a gun.

Still, she wouldn't leave the poor boy in suspense, and presented her "master" form and folded her arms, chin cupped by her thumb and finger and making loud obvious "hums" and "hmm" alike. It seemed to have affected him as he suddenly stood up. Holding back her smirk, she musters her professional tone. 'Your aims are near perfect most of the time, and your versatility of weapons is useful…but you're too easy of a target when we're outnumbered', she said.

'If you're rushed, you're exposed and will be taken down…you should probably carry some form of a dagger or even a backup pistol'.

Truly she was mostly talking from what she'd try and do should she ever invest in his style of weaponry, but then again she quickly learned that she had a disdain for firearms. Maybe it was the noise…

Prompto nodded with a hue of red across his cheeks, meekly smiling. 'R-Right, thanks boss-lady!', he said with a chuckle. Aqua raised a brow at the boy with a smirk. 'Excuse me?', she stated. He flinched and then, like a soldier, stood up and with chest puffed out, said: 'I-I-I mean! Yes, Master Aqua!'.

'That's better~', she hummed, folding her arms. Aqua then giggled, her master façade replaced and her poise relaxed. 'Ok, so what do we have to do now?', she asked. Prompto beamed at her, his stiff stance relaxed and he pulled out his phone. 'Well we just gotta head back to Hammerhead and tell the owner what the deal was and then we get paid!', he explained. 'Two thousand Gil in the bank!'.

'Oh? That's a lot for just all this', Aqua said, looking at their fallen enemies.

True there were more than a handful for an average hunter, but compared to some of the hunts she had seen on the posters, these were minimal at best. With her and Prompto, she was sure even he could have taken them down on his own. 'You be surprised, once we just had to take down a dualhorn for nearly three thousand Gil'.

'…maybe I should take up bounty hunting for finances…', Aqua mumbled.

Just as Aqua was considering a new career, Prompto's phone went off, and he answered once he saw Ignis' number. He switched to video call for Aqua to join in. 'Prompto, we've just arrived back to Hammerhead', the driver said, 'Have you and Aqua taken down your targets yet?'. 'Done and done Igster!', boasted the blonde. The dirty sand haired man sighed in response to the name. Aqua joined the blonde to see Ignis sitting in the Regalia while in the background she could see Gladiolus taking a swig of water in the passenger seat.

'What about Noctis and Sora? Any word from them?', Prompto asked.

'Royal pain in the backside hasn't checked in yet, but his target is still a fair ways from Hammerhead, I'm sure he'll ring soon', Gladiolus said. 'But…Sora hasn't responded yet…'. Aqua gave the blonde a concerned look as the blonde's own shifted to worry. 'Really? I thought among all of us they'd be the first ones done! Uh, no offense big guy!', he said, adding that last part hastily.

'Yeah…heh, think maybe he and Kairi are just goofing off?', Gladiolus teased, a smirk on his face.

'In the middle of a desert? I dare say, teens or not, they wouldn't be that reckless to stay outside in such heat', Ignis chastised.

Before they could continue this line of dialogue, Aqua looked to the skies ahead of them and sees several of the imperial drop ships flying. 'Prompto? Aren't those the imperials?', she asked, her memory vague on the enemies of the Lucians. The blonde followed her gaze and then frowned, turning back to Ignis. 'Iggy, there's some imperial dropships nearby!', the blonde said. He lifted his phone to show the man, and he could hear a growl from Gladiolus along with a swear.

'Hmm…they don't seem to be heading towards you two, nor Noctis…wait…Prompto…', Ignis said before his voice turned gravely serious. 'Prompto, your hunt was close to the Insomnia block, correct?', he asked. 'Yeah? Why?', he asked, but then his face fell. 'Oh no…'.

'Sora and Kairi's were closer to the blockade, the imperials must have spotted them and assumed they were with us', Ignis said. 'This means they'll send everything they've got until they either wear them down…or worse'.

Aqua's eyes widened with horror before they narrowed with anger. 'Not if I have anything to say about it!', she declared. Without waiting, Aqua sprinted off to the direction of her two friends, while behind her Prompto quickly chased after her.

The distance wasn't as great from here to where they would be located granted, but with the amount of ships that were starting to pile up and descend on the two. Aqua's mind raced with worry at the thoughts of heartless suddenly ambushing the two, and with the imperials and their versatility of minions, she dreaded what sort of combination of a monster the beings of the dark could create with them.

Prompto miraculously managed to keep up with the woman despite her possessing the superior physic between the two. Yet when he could see her eyes, the young man could see the sheer determination in her eyes that resembled an unbreakable will, and a desperation within them. Despite the number of imperials, the young photographer was having some doubts about Kairi and Sora being overwhelmed, they all had seen what he was capable of, and Kairi was no slouch either.

Except when he keeps looking at Aqua's eyes, even he was starting to worry about the two. On the side of the road, the blonde looked behind him to see speeding down the road was the beautiful Regalia. He caught her and ceased their running, just as Ignis pulled up beside them.

'Hop in!', he ordered.

They jumped in and once everyone was buckled up, he slammed on the pedal and sped off down the road, faster than he had ever pushed the Regalia.

Keycatrich

Noctis let out a huff of annoyance when once his phone was unable to dial another number, dropping his arm by his side. 'Well, no signal, no way to contact Iggy', he lamented.

He turned to Donald and Goofy, the latter was looking around while standing on top of a lone rock. Earlier the duck had spotted one of the imperial drop ships that was looming a bit too close for comfort for the trio, but by the luck of the Astrals or some other deity, they were ignored or most likely went unnoticed. Which was a blessing seeing as their hunt turned out to be more of a pain in the backside than they were thinking?

Hindsight the prince probably should've read the paper properly before deciding that he and the two would go after it. A coerul of all the things he had to decide to take on, and given his first experience with those monster he was more than ready to lay down and cry. However, Donald and Goofy's help made the hunt far less than excruciating. With Donald hitting the wild animal with barrages of ice and flames, to Goofy throwing his shield at it and disturbing its mental chanting of magic and finally Noctis landing the killing blow.

Another huge bounty to his party and he could already see the others piling their bounties on the table with glee. Who knows, maybe they'll be able to eat at the Galdin Quay for celebrations? He was already salivating at the thought of fishing there, maybe Kairi and Sora would join him.

'That wasn't so bad now', Goofy commented, 'Sure was a tricky kitty though'.

Noctis chuckled at him, nodding in agreement. 'Trust me, the first time we took on those things, Gladio was stuck in bed for three days', he said. 'Got his full force by that blaster attacked of it'.

'Yeesh…just glad it missed me with its claws!', Donald said. 'And I didn't like how it was looking at me like I was going to be on its dinner plate!'.

Noctis didn't comment on that one.

He looked up to the clear skies, wondering if there were any more of the imperial ships patrolling around the area for him and the others. Bar the one Donald had spotted earlier, no more ships were looming over them. 'Any luck with your phone, Noctis?', Goofy asked, jumping off the rock. 'Nothing Goof…signals no good here', he responded, about to put the phone in his pocket but then he stopped for a moment. Looking at the two and his phone, he nodded. 'Actually, can you guys give me Kairi's and Sora's phone numbers? Just in case'.

Nodding, they approached him and started telling him the numbers. 'Well, Sora's is 2932002…and Kairi's is 2932002, just add the space between the nine and the three', Goofy explained. 'He showed me that before we headed out for the hunts'.

Nodding, the prince added the two new numbers to his list of contacts, making a mental note to get those two a phone as well. 'Right, well transport is a no go, so guess we're walking', he said. 'Well a little exercise won't hurt', Goofy said cheerily.

Walking onwards, Noctis started to chat away with the two.

'So how long have you two known Sora?', he asked.

'Oh, wow, gawrsh its been so long since we first met him', the captain hummed. 'Well, we met Sora about two years ago when we were looking for our king and the keyblade'.

'Yeah, hard to believe it's only been two…', Donald agreed with a pondering look.

'Huh, could've fooled me. You guys act like you've been buddies since he was a kid', the prince remarked.

'Well, we've kinda known him since he was just starting as a keyblade wielder', Goofy said. 'Gee, it's so wonderful to see how far he came, huh Donald?'.

'Uh-huh…but he's kinda hopeless when it comes to becoming a master!', the duck joked.

Noctis stopped walking, giving them both a look of bewilderment. 'Wait, he's NOT a master!?', he said, incredulously. After everything he's seen Sora do, the idea he wasn't a master was like saying despite Ignis' cooking skills he was still a first-year student in cooking!

Then their faces fell, both giving each a look of worry and guilt. 'No sadly, but he would have been', Donald grumbled. 'If that jerk didn't try and possess him!'. Noctis raised a brow. 'Huh? What jerk?'.

Strangely, neither of them responded to the question. Now Noctis was sure that was another "do not ask" question, based on how many questions he did ask them that were either shot down by Donald or Aqua, or they'd vaguely explain something to them. Despite his efforts and even some help from Ignis, most of their answers were vague or very poorly spoken.

Now though, it was like they were frozen.

'Donald? Goofy?', he said. Noctis even waved in their faces but got no response, yet not only that but the prince felt something had changed. Looking around the area felt like something drastically was wrong, and unless it was him, but nothing was moving.

The clouds above had ceased movement, the wind was still, the sounds of wildlife were dead and even when he looked behind them, he saw a tumbleweed halted in mid-air, even dust that was blown in the air was still like a photo.

'What the hell?', Noctis said, stepping back from the two. His blue eyes looked around for anything, he even slapped his cheek, maybe the heat was getting to him. 'Guys?', he tried again. He even placed his hands on their shoulders, but even as he shook them, they didn't move. He didn't even feel like he pushed them at all. It was like he was pressing on statues, and the fact they weren't petrified nor made of stone, just increased his worries.

Was someone doing this? He thought back to his memories, but he was positive that even Aqua wasn't capable of stopping everything at once.

'No need to worry yourself Noct, they're fine!'.

Quickly, Noctis turned around, but he only sees the pathway that leads out of the area and back to the hunter's HQ. 'Who's there?', he asked, summoning his engine blade.

'Hey now, you won't need that! …well…. not yet anyway…', the voice said, amused yet somehow indecisive. 'Where are you?', he growled.

'If you look to your left, you will see…well, me'.

The prince looked to see a man sitting on a rock, very casually with one knee over his lap and hands closed resting on his lap. He was wearing a black coat that completely obstructs his face, but he sounded older than him. Despite the laid-back attitude, he displayed, Noctis could feel himself gripping his sword even tighter. The prince could feel a worrisome essence from him, almost like the keyblade wielders but on a level that felt…inhuman.

'Ya know something? This is the first time I've ever met royalty, like, legit royalty! Have to say though…you're not what I expected', he said, playfully. 'Sorry to disappoint', the prince said.

'Oh no, don't get me wrong kiddo! You're far from a disappointment! Just uh…well…unpolished?'. He got off his rock seat, dusting off himself and waltzing up to him. 'But I guess you're still a little bit, what's the term? "Wet behind the ears"? Yeah, yeah let's go with that!', he said, snapping his fingers.

'The hell are you talking about?', Noctis growled before he looked at the two frozen members of the party and then narrowed his eyes at the stranger. 'Did you do this?'. The man gave him a shrug. 'Well believe or not, I'm very shy. And I wanted to speak with you alone', he said. 'Don't worry your pretty little head, they'll be fine!'.

'Then talk, who are you?', the prince demanded.

The mysterious man placed a hand on his hip. 'Call me Master, for now anyway', he introduced. 'Gee, a little humble aren't ya?', replied the snarky prince. 'Coming from you? Heh, I think I've at the very least earned my title, you little man? Your ego stems from your heritage'.

Noctis wasn't liking the fact this man had a worrisome good grasp on the prince, and he felt like Master knew a lot more about the prince then he was letting on. 'What do you want?', Noctis demanded.

'Oh, nothing really, your majesty~ Just…well let's say I need you to do me a teenie tiny favor for me', he said, wistfully and his tone was playful. Noctis' grip didn't loosen, and he was eyeing the Master darkly, waiting for an opening or a chance to strike. Though despite his confidence in his talents, Noctis couldn't help but feel a sense of underprepared or worse, a dreaded feeling this would be a very one-sided fight.

It frightened him, never did he ever encounter anyone or anything that made him feel so doubtful about a fight. This Master almost reminded him of Sora and Aqua, but were with them he felt a friendly light and even then, he felt like he'd have a chance to win in a fight against them, but with this man, it was like he was staring down Bahamut.

'And…what's that?', he asked slowly.

'…prove you're worthy of the title, Chosen King of Light'.

Suddenly, the Master appeared right in front of Noctis, so quick he didn't even register he had even taken a step forward to him. Noctis didn't even have a chance to comprehend the fact the man had his hand right on his heart, and the next thing he knew, his body felt heavy. His senses dulled; his limbs stricken by a fatigued he never knew. His strength disappeared; weapon dropped.

'Let us see, if you truly are the one, I seek', Master said.

As his vision went blurry and slowly darken, Noctis' final view was the Master and a glow within the void of the cowl…

A/N: So just in case you didn't go back to the previous chapter, there has been a change, so please check back to get the full story.

Anyways the Master of Masters! …what a card! This is the first time I've written him, so please let me know what you thought of him.

Question: If you would give Kairi or Aqua a summon, what would they be?

As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!