Chapter 3: Rogue Eight
"That is where we are going." Inker said.
The kettle he had pointed out was the one drawing most suspicion as it was apparently omitted from the new map of Octo Canyon.
Whether or not it was omitted on purpose had yet to be revealed.
Though this did make the theory the Ophelia actually was still working for the Octarian army more plausible.
They had to get moving right away.
"What do you know about that lair?" Inker asked Victoria, the only active Octarian soldier present.
"Not sure, but if we have it on record then there should be something about it lying around."
"Go do some digging then, Bough and I will get going immediately, hit us up over the Hero headset once you find something!" Inker declared
"Hey! You are leaving me behind again!?" came a loud voice.
"Neon, this is serious you know."
"I know! But serious can also be fun! Aren't you going exploring in Octo Canyon?! You better not leave me behind again!"
"Again?"
"You went to the Deepsea metro and fought those zombie things right!? That was my idea! I wanted to do that!"
"It's not that simple! Besides I almost died!"
"Meh, that's never turned me away from anything."
"It's a miracle you're still here."
"What do you mean!? It's no miracle! it's skill! SKILL! Apologize for assuming I'm all luck!"
Inker finally relented after once again being pounced on by Neon.
"Alright! Alright! I get it, you can come with us! Let go of me!"
"Yay!" Neon let Inker go and happily skipped off to the side.
"I think I should go too." Victoria added
"If you're going, I will too." Kal volunteered as well.
"Now hold on, this was supposed to be up to Bough and I." Inker explained.
"You say that, but Eight is an Octoling. As one myself I feel like I could understand her a bit better than you." Victoria pointed out.
"If that's the case, shouldn't Marina be joining us too?"
"No thank you, I'm done with fighting, but I will be helping out from here as best as I can." Marina said.
"Yeah! Leave it to 'rina and me!" Pearl added.
"I'll be staying here as well." Sky said "I can read Octarian so I think I'll do some research on that lair."
In the end, Inker and Bough were now joined by Victoria and Neon.
Kal wanted to join them once he heard Victoria was going, but Victoria convinced him to stay and help as a mission control, alongside Cuttlefish, Off the Hook and Sky.
And so, a rescue team of four set off to hopefully find their missing Agent 8.
Project E.E.L lab, Octo Canyon
Eight rapidly grew accustomed to this place.
Although she could not recall ever working on project E.E.L working alongside Ophelia felt nostalgic, as if she had done so before.
Well it had only been a day, but it felt much longer and Eight felt relaxed here despite not seeing it for who knows how long.
She took it as a sign that this was indeed her place.
Though she should check in with everyone else sometime, as much as she felt at home here, she also missed her new home in Inkopolis.
As well as Off the Hook, the New Squidbeak Splatoon, Agent 3's friends…
Maybe they could get her a Hero headset of her own and they could remain in touch even when Eight was all the way down here.
The only thing somewhat bothering her was her name.
The name 'Alicia' grew quickly on her, but now that she had retaken that name she was feeling something else relating to Ophelia.
She could remember Ophelia being a good friend, being trustworthy, smart, caring…
But now that Eight was calling herself 'Alicia' she suddenly felt a slight bit of unease.
What was that?
Perhaps it was simply because Eight knew that the New Squidbeak Splatoon was most likely worried about her well being and are probably searching for her now.
'Yes that had to be it.' Eight decided.
But her instincts were not in agreement.
Though she assumed it was because of how bad her memory loss was.
Eight continued to help Ophelia in any way she could.
"All these subjects appear to be stable." Eight said, taking notes from the consoles of various test tubes containing what were quickly becoming Octoling bodies.
Ophelia looked over what Eight had written and nodded in agreement.
"Hmm… Did you make any adjustments to one of them?" she asked.
"Oh right, the one you used as a demonstration, I just changed the colour of her eyes a bit."
"Oh, well that should be no problem."
Eight was only doing minor tasks such as monitoring the development of bodies and feeding the crazed Octarians.
They were a bit creepy at first, but Eight wasn't bothered by it that much, not after Ophelia explained how they were before being put into those failed deformed bodies.
It made them more sympathetic, unlike the sanitized Octarians who were strung together from various blended Octarians.
Eight could understand why Ophelia would not get rid of them.
Ophelia even singled out two deformed octolings, who sped around moving on their backs using their tentacle hair instead of their legs.
"These two were part of my research team once. Their names were Ava and Ana, two twins who, despite being in the same field, were pretty different." she explained. "Ava was always stern and always firmly stood her ground when she had a point, while Ana didn't have her twin's self confidence and was much quieter."
"They were our friends too?" Eight asked
"Yes, though Ava always got on your nerves." Ophelia laughed
Since all the Octarians previously used for testing project E.E.L were those killed in accidents, these two probably met a similar fate.
Though Eight would not question how they died, she didn't want to stir up unpleasant memories.
When they had time, Ophelia asked for details about Eight's adventure through the deepsea.
"How do you know about the Deepsea metro?"
"Everyone knows about that place, a forbidden area where all who enter never return. When I heard that you had taken shelter inside the Deepsea Metro whilst trying to escape Agent 3, I thought you were gone for good."
"Well I had a few close calls."
Eight explained everything she could remember.
Waking up to an old squid staring her in the face, riding the subway and taking tests, meeting Off the Hook, finally the crazed A.I developed by some extinct race.
And when Eight explained the Sanitized Octarians to Ophelia, her brow furrowed.
"Ten thousand and seven test subjects before you failed… All Octarian." She muttered
"I can only hope that without Tartar, they can finally rest in peace."
The unethical experiments of the telephone really seemed to bother Ophelia.
Almost as if someone had opened a door to something they should never have seen.
"Thank goodness you made it back. Without you this project would have died already."
"Gee… I'm not doing much…"
"But it's thanks to you that those two Agents didn't splat me already."
"About that… I don't think they would have actually done it."
"Well it doesn't matter, i'm thankful for your return, it's really helping me and this project."
Ophelia had a genuine smile on her face.
She was not lying after all, too her, Eight was a big help.
Eight however wasn't sure why.
She assumed Ophelia was just lonely and was glad to find company again.
When she finished this project, Eight planned on bringing her back to Inkopolis and searching for all the other Octarians they once knew.
'Yes, a new goal for me!'
Eight finally had more to do. She could already imagine the sweet reunions ahead when Ophelia finally finished with project E.E.L.
What a great future to look forward to.
Just outside the lair, Inker, Bough, Victoria and Neon approached.
"Why are you bringing two E-liters?" Inker asked Neon, who had brought two whole sets of gear with her.
"Why not?"
"Isn't it heavy carrying all that?"
"Not really, I normally wear weighted clothes anyways."
"Why would you do that?"
"Well it's fun! When you get used to being heavier than you actually are, then suddenly go back to wearing normal clothes you feel like you can fly! Wheee!"
Neon had an E-Liter 4k custom in her hands, while her previous E-Liter 3k custom was slung across her back.
She was the only one among the group carrying two weapon sets.
That also meant she had both the old Kraken special and the Bubble Blower too.
Meanwhile, Inker and Bough's hero shots had no special, but had a larger variety of bombs available for use.
Victoria used a blaster after getting the chance to try one during the recent Octarian civil war.
Though she didn't use an Inkopolis manufactured one so she had no special weapon either.
And unlike Inker and Bough, who wore hero suits, Victoria and Neon's equipment didn't give them the ability to respawn should they be splatted too far away from any respawn points.
This wasn't too much of a concern, Neon was one of the best ranked players in Inkopolis despite her personality and Victoria was a trained Octoling.
If he was honest, Inker would say that Bough was most likely to be splatted out of the four.
Before long, the group came across a kettle hidden in a cliff face.
Unlike the other kettles they passed earlier, this was powered up.
That meant there was a zapfish inside.
"Alright! Finally! I've been bored outta my mind with all that walking! Let's go!"
Inker quickly grabbed Neon by the hair and held her back.
"Ow!"
"Hold on, before we go in, let's check if the guys back at base as found anything about this place." Inker said.
"Okay, but make it quick!"
"Hello? Mission control, you find anything about this kettle yet?" Inker asked, knowing that the Hero suits he and Bough wore would allow them to communicate with their friends back in Nautilus base.
'Yo! Pearl here! 'Rina and the others are still searching. How bout you take a look inide and we'll get back to ya?"
"Okay."
Inker readied his Hero shot and checked to make sure all his bombs were accessible.
"Let's go guys."
"Right."
Hopping inside the lair one by one, the group found themselves staring at a brightly lit lab.
Exchanging glances Inker, Bough and Victoria advanced carefully….
…. Until Neon ran ahead and they all had to chase her…
The first thing they saw was the large glass vats of green liquid.
Despite the liquid begin more more translucent and a darker shade of green compared to Tartar's goo. The Sanitized Octarians were the first thing that popped into Inker's mind.
"What is this place…" Bough wondered
"Ooooo, first a kettle hidden in a cliff face, then a huge row of suspicious looking tubes! How exciting!" Neon exclaimed.
Inker and Victoria both shot her a glance.
"Is she always like that?" Bough asked
Both Victoria and Inker nodded simultaneously.
The group advanced, before long they spotted what seemed to be an Octoling floating inside a vat.
"What is this?!" Victoria exclaimed, not expecting to see one of her own kind stuffed in a tube.
"I knew something was off about that Ophelia!" Bough scowled.
"Is she alive?" Inker asked.
In response Neon tapped on the glass a few times, then she shouted "Hiya!" trying to get the Octoling's attention.
When none of that worked, she tried to climb the tube, only to find that it was covered.
"What are you trying to do Neon?" Inker asked
"What do ya think? I'm gonna break this Octoling free!... Somehow."
Unsure how to operate the console on the vat, Neon resolved to hitting it really hard with one of her E-Liters.
"Whoa ok, let's not break anything just yet. Remember we are here to find Eight." Bough reminded
Neon, looked up as if suddenly recalling why she was here to begin with and went "oh right!"
Then she glanced around.
"Hey hey hey! I hear something over there! Let's go!" Neon said, pointing at a fork in the long row of vats.
She led them down the rightward path and through a door.
And right into the area where Ophelia had been keeping the deformed Octarians.
Neon had been hearing the random grunts and noises they made now that they were not exactly intelligent creatures anymore.
The deformed Octarians, stared over at the uninvited guests.
At first, they did not move, but then a moment later they pounced.
The legless Twintacle Octotrooper used it's tentacles to propel itself forward.
The bloated four winged Octobomber spat dangerous amounts of ink out of it's mouth.
The crawling Octolings moved like spiders on their tentacles crawling up walls and onto the roof as well.
It looked like a scene straight out of a horror film.
Bough stared in horror, Inker stood shocked wishing that Eight was not one of these… 'things' and Victoria looked in disgust.
"Those things… Can we even call them Octarians anymore?"
As for Neon she stared at Inker with anticipation.
She was probably waiting for him to say 'go ahead' so he did.
"Yay!" As if unbothered by the grotesque forms before them, Neon cheerfully splatted the Octobomber.
Victoria started blasting the Octolings crawling on the walls, Bough was rapidly dodging the Octotrooper and Inker took on a second Octobomber.
They did not know for sure what was being made at this strange lair, but now they had a pretty good guess.
'I have to hurry up and find Eight!' Inker thought, quickly hopping between patches of his own ink, dodging enemy ink while popping up now and then to fire back at any of the mutated creatures.
Neon was having a blast, her usual style consisting of using Squid Beakons to keep her opponents at great range which only the E-Liter was capable of attacking from.
She squealed with delight as she hopped away from an approaching Octoling before picking it off.
Bough was well, not doing too good.
The Octotrooperlike creature trying to throw itself on him was far creepier than a normal Octotrooper.
And from what he had seen so far, these things didn't seem very friendly.
He ran around trying not to get hit, while firing his Hero Shot with one hand, eventually splatting a few creatures.
Victoria, being trained, didn't get affected much by the sight of the deformed looking Octarians, though she still felt disgust when she remembered that someone had to be behind all this.
She had it easier as none of the creatures seemed to target her, so she blasted away at them, taking care not to accidentally hit any of her friends.
All this made quite a racket.
Down the leftward path, Ophelia heard the noise.
She quickly hit a few buttons on some of the occupied vats, they were then safely secured and covered by a layer of metal.
Seeing her friend in a panic, Eight asked "What's wrong?"
"I don't know." Ophelia said, "give me a moment."
She and Eight hurried over to the security room, ignoring the living quarters Ophelia hopped on a terminal and quickly pulled up live footage from the room Inker and the others were in.
She gasped at the sight of Inker, Bough, Neon and Victoria splatting the deformed looking Octarians.
Eight saw this too.
"N-now hold on, I'm sure there is some misunderstanding!."
"I told you! I knew they would come for me!"
"Where are you going? Wait!"
Ophelia hurried back to the previous room, she double checked that all the vats were secure, then she moved on.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm locking the place down! I'm not going to die here!"
"Calm down! Please just let me talk with Agent 3 first!"
Ophelia ignored Eight and soon the lair found itself in darkness.
Octo Valley
"I think I've found something."
"Let me see."
"This is the kettle, Agent 3 and Victoria went to. Right?"
"Yes it looks like it, thank you Lynn."
Kal, with the help of Sky, Marina and some other familiar Octolings, had found some old documents in the Octarian army's former base of operations concerning the Ophelia's kettle.
Bringing it back to the mission control room, they saw Pearl laid back scrolling through her phone.
"Yo! Find anything?"
"Yes we did, how is Inker and the others doing?" Kal asked
"Lets find out. Hey old tim-"
"AGENT 3! AGENT 3 RESPOND!" Shouted Cap'n Cuttlefish, cutting Pearl off.
In response, the others all hurried over to him.
"What's wrong?" Kal asked
"I dunno, I bet somethin' is meddling with communications cause we just lost Agent 3 and 4's Hero suit cams."
"Can they still hear us?"
"Probably not."
"Let me have a look." Marina said, quickly checking all the machines and also using her own laptop to try and reach any of the two Agents.
"Everything is fine on our end, something must have happened to them." Marina concluded.
"This is bad… Do you think they got…"
"If they were splatted they'd just be returned to Inkopolis, well at least Inker and Bough would."
"No way! There's no way Neon would be splatted so easily!" Sky insisted, he had a low sense of presence as always, in fact Kal almost forgot he was here.
"Could the kettle itself be a dead zone?" Marina wondered.
"Dead zone? I dunno about that but everything was working fine just a few minutes ago." Cuttlefish said.
"So everything was working even after they entered the kettle?"
"Yes everything was fine, I saw them strollin' through rows of glass tubes."
"Then the other explanation would be that they were spotted and someone began deliberately jamming communications to trap them inside."
"Oh, maybe something in here could explain it!" Kal quickly started flipping through the folder on Ophelia's lair.
Hopefully they could somehow contact them again, if not who else could they send?
Hidden lair, Octo Canyon
Inker, Neon, Victoria and Bough had just finished off the failed experiments, when Ophelia put the lair on a supposed lockdown.
Of course, they didn't know that.
In fact, they had no idea anything was wrong, until Inker tried to call Kal for help in figuring out what was being created here.
"Kal? Sky? Anyone?"
No answer.
"Bough I think something's wrong with my Hero suit, can you call back to the Cap'n?"
"I'll try… Cap'n! Cap'n Cuttlefish!?"
No reply.
That's odd, I just heard you through my headset, but it sounds like they can't." Inker said. "Maybe something is preventing us from reaching anyone outside the lair, but it doesn't affect us who are already inside…"
"Hey whacha shouting about?!" Neon asked.
"Something is wrong, we can't hear anything from mission control anymore."
"Oh… does this mean we have to go back?"
"Yes, if we can't contact anyone, it's best that we leave first and figure out what happened." Victoria said.
"Aww…."
"Quit complaining, we'll be back shortly. Lets just leave quickly and tell the others what happened."
Inker, Neon, VIctoria and Bough backtracked to the start of the lair.
Only to find that they could no longer exit the kettle.
"Hey what gives?!"
The kettle was now dead, as if the power was cut off, yet the rest of the lair was perfectly powered.
Not even the lights flickered.
"Is someone trying to trap us inside?" Bough wondered. "Could they be watching at this very moment?"
"I don't know… Well the only way now is back the way we came from." Inker said.
"What about the leftward path?"
"I don't know… should we split up and cover more ground?"
"Split up? We aren't in a rush here, there is no need to compromise safety for speed." Victoria explained
"Let's go right again and see what else we can find."
The room full of strange creatures had been completely cleared.
Or so it seemed.
Inker began to wonder what was happening here.
The lair was still powered, yet the kettle wasn't so they could not exit.
It could easily be blamed on a mechanical or electrical problem, but that wouldn't explain why they could no longer communicate with the outside world.
As Inker was thinking his pace slowed down a bit.
Bough, Victoria and Neon entered the seemingly empty room.
As Inker was about to enter as well, the door slammed shut.
"What the?!"
Inker pulled on the door as hard as he could but it was locked tight.
Hearing the door slam shut behind them, Bough and Victoria started trying to push it open from their side, to no avail.
Then, the back wall fell down, revealing one more deformed creature.
Bough and Victoria, still trying to open the door and let Inker in, immediately changed their minds.
The new creature was huge, it held an equally oversized roller and had skin which resembled the texture of bread. On it's head, it wore a flat machine vaguely resembling a showerhead, said machine also had four parts branching off from the main structure, connecting it to four rotors giving it the appearance of being able to fly.
"T-thats!" Bough was speechless. It reminded him of the Octo Oven, the Octo Shower and the Octo Samurai.
Victoria however remained more calm.
"It's almost as if someone took bit of different Octoweapons and smooshed them together. Just what was being made in this lab?"
Inker could see through a small vertical window, he began pounding on the door, but it still wouldn't move.
"Come on… come on! Open!"
He wasn't going to sit here and watch that… thing attack his friends.
And then, as if completely oblivious to the panic envelopping everyone else, came a loud hearty laugh from Neon.
"Ohohoho! That thing is huge! Awesome! This looks like alot of fun! Alright then I'm going in! HHHHYAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Switching to the old E-Liter 3k Custom, Neon ran towards the giant creature and switched to Kraken form, before throwing herself at the creature, headbutting it.
Inker and the others gave up on the door.
"This isn't right, someone must be behind all this, go back the other way, maybe theres a way to open these doors." Victoria said.
"Yeah, go look! And please hurry!" Bough added.
"What about you guys?" Inker asked
"We'll be fine… At least I hope so."
"A-alright! Don't go anywhere!"
"Not the time for sarcasm don't you think?!"
Inker ran back and this time went leftward.
Dashing past the giant tubes, Inker noticed that now they were all covered.
He could no longer see what they contained.
He didn't have time to worry about that, he had to find who was running hte show here.
It was probably that Octoling who led Eight away, yeah it had to be her.
Reaching the end of the left path, Inker found a room labeled security and slammed through it.
"Eep!" Came a squeal as Ophelia spotted Inker busting into the room.
"You! Let Bough and the others go right now!" Inker aimed his Hero shot towards Ophelia.
In panic, Ophelia cowered behind a second Octoling.
'Oh no…' Inker thought, realizing that Eight was in the room too.
Seeing Inker's immediate threat, Eight glared at him.
In response Inker quickly lowered his weapon.
"I… I didn't mean…"
"I told you! I knew they were coming for me! The lockdown couldn't even keep them out!" Ophelia shouted from behind Eight.
Seeing her friend in such a panic, Eight took a defensive stance in front of her and fired at Inker.
"Don't worry, I promise you will be safe." Eight assured her
"T-thank you Alicia."
"Alicia? Is that really your name?" Inker asked, rolling to the side and avoiding Eight's first burst.
"Yes." Eight replied "Before the metro, I was Alicia, an Octarian soldier and Ophelia's best friend." She continued to attack Inker with her Octoshot but she didn't stray far from Ophelia.
"Well I'm glad you found yourself, but there are more important things at hand! Get Ophelia to unlock the rest of the lair now!" Inker said, still avoiding Eight's shots.
He could tell that Eight wasn't actually trying to splat him, but rather she was trying to drive him away from Ophelia.
"Why? Why are you even here? I know I haven't called back, but I just didn't have the chance. Did you come looking for me?" Eight asked
"Yes, yes I did."
"That's a lie."
"It isn't!"
"If it is, then why are you threatening Ophelia again?!"
"I didn't… Well I did, but I have a reason."
"Not only that, but we both saw you and the others splatting those poor Octarians who were deformed."
"What? No wait, hold on, they attacked us!"
"That's unlikely, considering that they are just unfortunate victims of Octo Valley's accidents."
"They really did! They jumped on us shortly after we saw them!"
"Doesn't Neon also do that whenever she greets us in Inkopolis?"
"T-that's different!"
"Different how? Different because they don't look like normal Octarians?"
"No, well I uhh, I guess I'm sorry."
"Sorry won't cut it, if you really are here for me then thank you, but I don't need it."
"You're staying here? But why?"
"Well, I guess after living carefreely in Inkopolis for so long, I've been missing a sense of purpose, but I've found that here."
"Are you sure?"
"Sure i'm sure! Now take Bough, Neon and Victoria and leave already!"
"Can you please calm down first, I'm not trying to hurt anyone!"
Eight looked at Inker, he looked sincere like he always did.
Then she glanced at Ophelia who looked like she was petrified with fear.
Although the two fired at each other, neither were trying to splat the other.
Both of them knew that.
"I can understand if you all came looking for me, but like I said I'm doing fine so please leave." Eight demanded
"Even if I wanted to, I can't." Inker replied
"Why not?"
"Someone's locked Bough and the others with some giant mutant and the kettle is also unpowered."
"What are you talking about?"
"You didn't see the giant Octo Oven Shower Samurai hybrid thing?"
"No. I don't recall such a thing." Eight looked at Ophelia for confirmation.
Ophelia shook her head 'That's a lie, we were never making such a thing."
"I think you're the liar, unless there is someone else here besides you and Eight."
Eight tensed up, ready to fire at Inker again as Inker began accusing Ophelia of lying.
"It's just me here, and if I don't know what you're talking about, then I just don't. This is a place for synthesizing surrogate bodies, not creating crazy monsters!" Ophelia retorted
"What about the blocked kettle and the locked door?"
"You violently barged into my lab! Of course I'm putting it on lockdown!"
"Lockdown? Then how come only the kettle and that specific door were locked? I may have barged in here, but the doors weren't locked."
"Hmm? Probably a malfunction then."
"You know, it's awfully convenient that you show up exactly when Eight was looking for you…"
Eight had enough. "How much more are you going to say? Ophelia is my friend okay! I remember that name, I remember this place, that's proof enough!"
Inker took note of Eight, standing side to side with Ophelia.
She didn't look like she was going to back down, she must really believe Ophelia was her missing friend.
'Well she did guess part of Ophelia's name when they first saw her face…
Wait, standing side by side?'
Inker realized that in response to his accusations, Ophelia's supposed fear of him had vanished and she was no longer hiding behind Eight.
"Strange, Weren't you supposed to be scared?" Inker remarked.
Eight looked over at Ophelia and noticed the same thing.
When did Ophelia suddenly become brave? She appeared to be fearful just moments ago.
"Well, I know you won't splat me with Eight here, that's why." Ophelia said
Inker could believe that, but at this point he didn't trust Ophelia like Eight did.
No, there had to be something else… The more he thought about it the less trustworthy Ophelia appeared.
"You don't actually want me to leave do you?" he asked
"Huh?" Eight glanced at Ophelia, then back at Inker.
Inker wasn't talking to Eight, rather he was talking to Ophelia.
"So far Eight has been telling me to take the others and leave as if she didn't know I was trapped here, but you haven't said anything."
"What do you expect? You're done nothing but threaten me both the times we've met!" Ophelia retorted
"True but you said that the lockdown was supposed to protect you, yet the door to this room was left completely open."
"A glitch then."
"If that's the case, why didn't the other doors lock at the same time as the kettle?"
"..."
Eight noticed something was off too.
"Wait, if you can lock the doors from here, why didn't you just lock Inker and the others in that room with the failed subjects the moment we saw them?" Eight asked
"Huh? You were watching the whole time? In that case, if you wanted us gone, why didn't you let us go when we backtracked to the kettle then lock us out?" Inker asked
Ophelia found herself cornered.
She stood silently, trying hard to think of an excuse but…
Inker and Eight were no longer fighting, both turned to face Ophelia.
Ophelia was now the center of suspicion.
Ophelia glanced back at the console which she had used to shut down the lair.
It displayed all the information on the bodies within the vats, how long it had been since their creation, what their vital signs were and what kind of modifications were available.
Perhaps not willing to lose her work, Ophelia relented.
"Okay… You got me, I'll admit it, I lied a bit."
"Huh? O-Ophelia… What's going on?" Eight asked in a worried tone.
Not worried for Ophelia, but for what the truth may actually be.
Depending on what she said, Eight might be left without purpose yet again.
"Just stay with me… I'll tell you the truth."