Garurumon's Howling Blaster
- One last chapter before Christmas. Oy this has got to be the longest chapter so far. It is pretty much given away who digivolves in this chapter, and I added a few more characters. They are police officers in NYC. haha. Well anyway, please read, review and have a merry Christmas.
The entire group was getting tired, having traveled all morning and into the afternoon after the close call with Meramon earlier. They all realized they needed food to give the digimon for nourishment so they could fight without fatigue.
Gabumon and Kyle were in the front of the group, seeing as Gabumon knew where the nearest lake was, and yet they had not seen a lake all day.
They continued their trek through the forest, which seemed to be getting thicker and packed more with vegetation then it had been earlier.
"Gabumon, I'm getting tired are we almost there?" Kyle asked in-between breaths; Gabumon looked at Kyle and nodded.
"Yes we are, I am sure of it." He said confidently.
"My feet hurt." Megan complained.
"Oh c'mon Megan it isn't so bad." Palmon said, walking alongside her.
"Easy for you to say, you have tough roots for feet." Megan laughed, and Palmon laughed as well. "No wonder your feet are alright"
"We are nearly there everybody, just hang in there." Gabumon said re-assuringly.
"You have been saying that for the past two hours." TJ complained, as he and Patamon looked like the walking dead, breathing heavily and looking extremely fatigued.
"Stop complaining, he knows what he is doing." Kyle said to his brother, though he, too, was unsure if Gabumon knew where he was leading them.
"Dude, TJ has a point, I mean…it has been 4 freaking hours." Jake said in a calm manner, but he knew that saying it was a mistake as soon as he said it. Kyle turned around to face Jake angrily, making everybody else stop dead in their tracks.
"Look, he's trying to lead us to a lake, just give him some more time!" and with that, Kyle turned back around, beet red, and continued walking off angrily.
Everybody looked at Jake, who began blushing in embarrassment. He then realized everybody was staring at him, and proceeded to walk off quickly.
Everybody else began following as well,
"Gabumon buddy, are you sure we are nearby?" Agumon asked, after he got close enough to ask him.
"Yes, I know it." He said confidently.
"Yeah right." Patamon whispered to TJ.
Just then they approached a very large bush, directly in their path.
"My God Gabumon, a dead end? Are you serious?" Gomamon asked, very annoyed.
Gabumon approached it, as everybody else stopped, and went through the bush. He was gone for about ten seconds before he came back through, smile drawn on his face.
"The lake is back here!" He said enthusiastically, "C'mon!"
Everybody followed him through the bush and found that they were looking at a lake, with crystal-clear water and surrounded by a few trees and lush, green grass. A few bubbles and ripples could be seen at the water's surface, presumably from fishes getting food from the surface. The afternoon sun shone on the lake, reflecting off of the surface, illuminating the water and making it look even more like heaven than it seemed prior.
"Wow." All of the kids said in shock.
Gabumon chuckled, "I guess I knew where I was going after all."
Over Land, Helicopter
The sun was now completely down, leaving the only light coming from the two helicopters that carried the survivors of the Kirtland attack. Oliver had just called an airport near Grand Junction, Colorado to tell them to direct the two helicopters there.
Timothy was still silent, thinking about TJ and Kyle, still missing and location unknown. Will and the others were asleep, relaxed by the rhythmic sound of the propellers. Timothy clutched the only picture he had of Kyle and TJ to his chest, it was the picture they used as the previous year's Christmas card. He let out a sigh and rested his head against the window, listening to Oliver talk to the radio to those at Grand Junction.
Oliver finally ceased talking, picked up a bottle of water he had, took a huge gulp, and placed it down before setting his attention on the air ahead.
Manhattan, New York City
It was nearing morning and the sun began to rise in New York City, as it approached 6 in the morning. There was congested traffic going off to work, including many taxis, some individual cars such as Buicks and Fords, and in the center of the traffic was a police cruiser Ford Crown Victoria with three officers inside. One was the chief of police, at the wheel, who was a tall man with pre-maturely grey hair and a stern face.
Another was a blonde man, who had a beard and was in his early thirties. This officer also was a former member of the British Metropolitan police Service in London.
The last person was a short man with black hair and a black beard. He was in his forties but was the toughest due to his insecurities over his size.
"Mitch, man, can you shut the window I can't breathe." The chief said to the small man.
"Sorry, I didn't realize the smog would be this bad today." Mitch said, shutting the car's window.
"You think this is bad? You should try out London and then tell me what bad smog is." The British blonde- cop said.
"Yes, because Brits are so smart and tough, we get it Simon." The chief, said to the British cop, Simon.
"Well, John, I am sorry that we British are so much tougher than you lazy Americans." Simon said.
"Alright, first of all you still call me Chief." John said sternly, "And secondly, it is just a stereotype that all Americans are lazy."
Simon nodded, "Hey Simon, man, can you run over to the Starbuck over there and get me a mocha latté?" Mitch said.
"Why do I have to?" Simon asked.
"Because I don't feel like getting it…and John is driving, besides the traffic is so slow we will have barely moved when you get back."
Simon glared at him, and then at John, "The laziness of Americans," he then pointed at Mitch; "exhibit A. "
John just looked at him, sighed and said; "please just get him the coffee, or else he is going to complain all the way to the station."
Simon realized he was outnumbered, sighed and unfastened his seatbelt.
"Fine Mitch I will get you a coffee since you are too bloody lazy to get one yourself."
With that, Simon opened the car door, stepped out and slammed it shut in raging fury before storming over to the Starbucks.
"Hey man, you can put it on my tab!" Mitch shouted, trying to calm down Simon as he was swearing like a sailor on his way to the coffee shop. "So, what do you make out of the whole sailor situation Mitch?" John asked.
"I think it is pretty unbelievable, I mean what are the odds of something like that actually happening." Mitch said.
John simply nodded, "Yeah, the government officer that came to the station though it was all a hoax, so we still are not believed by anybody.
Mitch nodded and kept staring out of the window at the smoggy, traffic filled street.
Meanwhile, across the street, Simon was buying Mitch his mocha latte in the Starbucks, putting it on his tab; "Anything else sir?" the woman behind the counter asked. Simon was about to say no, but then realized he could buy some more things and put it on Mitch's tab as revenge.
He smiled evilly, "Actually, I will take a coffee mug, a peanut-butter cookie, and some milk…all on Mitch's tab."
She nodded, "Mitch comes in here so much."
Simon nodded, "Well, In would bloody hope so, otherwise it would be strange for a person to have a tab at a freaking Starbucks." He said, grabbing the coffee, cookie and milk while he waited for the woman to wrap up the blue mug with "Good Morning" written on it in gold letters.
Just then he heard a person swear behind him. He turned and saw a man angrily hitting his black Macintosh laptop.
"What's up mate?" Simon asked, the man looked at him angrily; "My computer just froze and won't do anything…and it is plugged in!"
He took another swipe at the laptop, "Are you connected to out system?" the woman asked. He looked up, "I was…is your computer system working here?" he asked.
She held up her finger to tell him, "Hold on, let me check." And she went behind the main coffee machine and came back out in about a minute, face expressionless.
"Our computer is frozen as well, you should try somewhere else…sorry."
The man got up angrily, dropped the f-bomb, and slammed the chair into the table he was sitting at.
"Thanks anyway." And with that he stormed out of the store.
Simon took the now-wrapped mug, thanked the woman and exited the store. However, he stopped at the door, watching as everybody got out of their cars and looked up.
Simon, confused, opened the Starbucks door, walked out and looked in the same direction everybody else was looking in; up in the sky.
His jaw nearly dropped out of his mouth as he saw a white, glowing, rip-like thing in the sky. He then saw Mitch and John get out of the cruiser, looking into the sky as everybody was currently doing.
People were running out of the buildings screaming in anger, "Our computers are frozen!" Prior to looking up at the sky towards the white thing,
Their angry faces turned into ones of shock and admiration at the sheer beauty and horror of the mysterious thing in the sky.
"That can't be good." Simon whispered to himself.
Digital World
Kyle and Gabumon were sitting by the fire that the group made for cooking the fish Gomamon had caught earlier. The sun was now almost down, and a sense of peace and relaxation spread through the group as they settled down for the night.
"God I hate fish." Zak grunted. Gomamon looked at him,
"How could you not like fish?" he asked, seeming as though he thought fish was impossible not to like.
Zak gave him a know-it-all smile, "How can you like eating something you befriend and talk to?"
Gomamon shrugged,"I eat fish that I don't personally know."
Zak simply laughed at his remark.
The group all sat down near a group of trees located a bit off from the land bank near the lake.
Kyle had earlier decided to keep watch for the first part of the night cycle, he turned to Gabumon, "Gabumon, keep an eye on TJ and make sure he sleeps alright." He said sternly.
Gabumon nodded, "Of course, but shouldn't I keep watch with you?"
Kyle shook his head, "No, just watch TJ and I will call you if anything goes down."
Gabumon understood and went over to where TJ and Patamon were sleeping, thinking, "Wow, Kyle really cares about his brother. I feel honored that he is my partner."
Gabumon then sat down next to TJ and Patamon, who had fallen asleep already, before he; too fell asleep.
Soon, everybody but Kyle was asleep. He was tired, but kept telling himself he was only keeping watch for a few hours before Jake took over, then Zak, and finally Alex.
He let out a yawn, left the fire, and walked over to the water's edge, kneeling at the bank. He looked at his reflection in the water, seeing his own face, but it looked different somehow, as if it had aged in the few days they were in the digital world.
He sighed and plunged his face in the water, feeling the cool refreshment against his face. Quickly, he resurfaced, and let out another yawn. However, he felt more awake after plunging his face in the lake. He sat back, picked up a flat stone and skipped it across the water's surface.
He sighed, and just then heard a noise from behind him, in a bush. He turned and saw nothing, but knew something had to be there.
"Who's there?" he asked in a demanding voice.
He saw a familiar figure step out from behind the shadows. He then realized it was Jake, sighing irritated he stood up and walked over to him.
"You don't trust me to stay awake, do you?" he asked.
"What, no, no, I just was restless and thought you could use some assistance out here." Jake said with defense in his voice.
Kyle frowned and turned back to facing the lake, "Well, I am fine…so you should go back there to lay down."
Jake crossed his arms in an angry manner, "Why do I have to? What if I want to help?" Jake then smiled cockily, "Or are you intimidated that I will own you in staying up, and can keep watch better than you?"
Kyle swiveled back around and faced Jake, eye-to-eye. "Look here, I am perfectly capable of doing this myself, so why don't you go back and sleep with the others." Kyle ordered in a harsh, straight-to-the-point kind of way.
Jake's expression of anger turned to an even larger expression of fury, "Jeez, why can't you take a joke. I am just here because I could not sleep Jeez."
With that, Jake turned around, picked up a small, and slightly heavy rock and threw it in anger into the lake. It hit the lake with a loud "Plop!" sound. Ripples went across the water, eerily moving further from the epicenter of where the rock fell.
Just then, Jake and Kyle both felt the ground move for a split second, before it stopped, leaving the two bewildered and looking at each other in confusion.
"What was that" Kyle asked Jake, but Jake didn't answer, for he was too freaked out.
The ground movement woke everybody else up from their sleep. "Kyle, what's going on?" TJ asked.
"Kyle, are you alright?" Gabumon asked, getting up from where he was laying to walk over to Kyle.
Kyle shrugged, "I don't think it was anything too serious."
"Yeah, I think Kyle's right," Megan sighed, "C'mon, let's get beck too sl…"
Just at that moment, a large manta ray-like creature breached from the water with a great screech and landed back onto the surface of the lake, causing a huge splash of water,
"Hello!" the digimon growled in a very threatening tone, once it re-surfaced, "You puny humans must be the digidestined…this job will be a very easy one."
"What is that thing?" Alex asked in blind panic. Jake took out his digivice,
"Mantaraymon, champion level aquatic digimon…main attack is..." Jake was interrupted by Mantaraymon, and as if on cue, Mantaraymon shouted,
"TORPEDO RAY!" and shot a blast of energy from it's tail, knocking over a nearby tree and causing it to land on the still-burning fire, which separated Jake, Kyle and Gabumon from the others.
Jake screamed out what he couldn't before he was interrupted, "HIS ATTACK IS THAT!"
The fire then proceeded to set the tree on fire and that created an impossible-to-cross barrier of fire between the groups, and the fire spread along the grass as well.
"Jake!" Alex shouted
"Kyle!" TJ shouted in panic for his brother;
"Jake!" Agumon also shouted, unable to reach his friend, separated by the flames.
"This can get ugly." Jake said to Kyle, watching as the fire continued and
At that, another beam of energy was shot from the digimon's tail at Jake, Kyle, and Gabumon. It missed them, but hit the tree, that was still on fire, and caused it to explode, knocking Kyle into the air about fifteen feet back and landing him into the water.
"Kyle!" Gabumon shouted, watching his friend fall into the water, where Mantaraymon was waiting.
Kyle tried to get back to shore, but Mantaraymon used this opportunity to grab Kyle's ankle and drag him further out to the lake.
"Kyle, I'm coming!" Gabumon shouted before jumping into the lake and swimming after him.
Kyle was being thrashed around in the lake, with only one thought going through his mind, "I'm going to die."
He was losing his strength, and was about to give up when he heard Gabumon calling him.
Mantaraymon immediately stopped messing with Kyle and went over to get Gabumon.
Kyle was released and he went flying in the air before landing back in the water about 20 feet from where he was.
He re-surfaced and saw Mantaraymon going for Gabumon.
"Gabumon! Look out!" Kyle shouted, but it was too late and Mantaraymon got to Gabumon and wrapped its tail around Gabumon's torso. The digimon was suffocating, and Kyle realized he had to do something.
"Take this you puny fiend." Mantaraymon growled to Gabumon.
"This…is…unpleasant." Gabumon gasped in-between breaths.
"Gabumon!" Kyle shouted, swimming as fast as he could over to his partner.
"Hey! Leave him alone, this is between you and me!" Kyle shouted, "Gabumon didn't do anything."
Mantaraymon wasn't paying any attention. Kyle had almost reached the digimon.
"Kyle are you crazy?!" Jake shouted in shock and panic.
Kyle didn't listen, and he finally reached Mantaraymon and began to punch him with the last of his strength.
"Let go of him you son of a bitch!" Kyle shouted, and he finally got Gabumon loose by hitting Mantaraymon in the eye with his fist.
Mantaraymon screeched in pain and turned to face Kyle.
"YOU LITTLE PUNK!" the angry digimon shouted, and with that he swung his tail around, Gabumon still wrapped up in it, and smashed it into Kyle, knocking him backwards.
Gabumon was freed, though. Due to the force of the collision, and immediately began looking for Kyle,
"Kyle!" he shouted, searching the water for him, to no avail.
"Dumb digimon, siding with the humans," Mantaraymon taunted. "Now you can bid your friend goodbye!"
Gabumon was getting sick of Mantaraymon and turned to face him, "BLUE BLASTER!"
The familiar sight of a blast of icy-blue water hit Mantaraymon with little effect. It did, however, succeed in distracting the evil digimon so Gabumon could keep looking for Kyle.
"Kyle! Where are you?" Gabumon shouted into the night.
Finally, he saw Kyle very weakly hanging onto a piece of wood that was floating in the lake.
He quickly swam over to find Kyle, barely conscious, and gagging up lake water.
Meanwhile, on the land, Jake was trying to put out the flames by chucking water on them. Earlier, he thought about entering the water and wading around the flames by reaching where the flames stopped.
However, the flames had now spread far along the lake and even began to surround Jake.
"Jake! Hang in there!" he heard Agumon shout from the other side of the flames.
"Yeah, I mean what do I have to get antsy about…besides the FREAKING FIRE THAT IS SURROUNDING ME!" Jake shouted in a fright. He continued to heave as mush water as he possible could onto the flames to make them die down, but to no avail.
Finally, the fire was completely around him…and closing in on him,
"Well…this sucks." Jake thought, realizing he was basically done for.
On the other side of the fire, the others were also panicking
"What do we do?" Alex asked the group, " Jake is trapped and Kyle and Gabumon are in trouble."
"We have to put the fire out somehow." Biyomon responded, leading Alex to look at her partner cock-eyed.
"Oh really," Alex began sarcastically, "YOU REALLY THINK SO?"
Biyomon blushed and shrugged.
"Jake, what's going on with Kyle?" Zak asked through the flames.
"I can't tell; the flames are blocking my view." Jake shouted.
Little did they realize the intensity of danger Kyle was really in, and it showed by Gabumon and Kyle floating on the piece of wood, resting and trying to paddle back to shore unnoticed by Mantaraymon.
Unfortunately that was near impossible and Mantaraymon began swimming to the duo,
"I found you! Here I come!" Mantaraymon shouted, laughing as he caught up to them.
Kyle realized he needed to distract Mantaraymon in order to be sure Gabumon made it to shore,
"Gabumon," Kyle said, turning to his partner, "Go to shore, I'll distract him."
"What?" the digimon asked in shock, "Kyle you can't."
Kyle simply smiled slightly at Gabumon before leaving the wood and swimming to meet Mantaraymon,
"I must." Were his last words before he went under to get the digimon's attention.
"Wow," Gabumon thought, as Kyle went under water, "Kyle's such a great friend."
Kyle was about to get to Mantaraymon, surfacing to swim the rest of the way on the water's surface, when his digivice caught his attention. He looked at it and saw it glowing the familiar white color that the others' had before their digimon digivolved.
"No way." He thought, just then Mantaraymon, who was almost caught up to him, angrily laughing and almost at him; had taken him out of his transfixion with his digivice;
"Now you will pay." And with that he wrapped his tail around Kyle, like he had with Gabumon, and proceeded to crush him. Not noticing Gabumon glowing white and changing shape and size back where Kyle had come.
"Gabumon digivolve to…Garurumon!"
In Gabumon's place was a large, blue wolf-like creature with stripes of a darker blue color. Garurumon let out a loud howl that seemed to be angry and intimidating at the same time.
Mantaraymon looked at the giant wolf-like creature that was once Gabumon, "WHAT!?" Mantaraymon let out a shocked scream, the new digimon turned towards Mantaraymon, sneering evilly
"HOWLING BLASTER!" and with that he shot a blast of icy cold water at Mantaraymon, who drew back in pain, and even dropped Kyle back into the water.
The digimon used the opportunity to get to Kyle, who re-surfaced to come face-to-face with his partner; digivolved. They looked at each other silently for a moment, then Kyle smiled.
"Wow, you look badass." He said with a slight laugh. The wolf digimon gave Kyle a little smile (or as much of a smile as he could). The digimon lowered it's head and Kyle climbed up it to get on the digimon's back.
It was then Kyle realized that the digimon could use his howling blaster attack to get Jake free of the flames.
"Ummmm…what name do you go by now?" Kyle asked, still unsure about what to call the new digimon.
"Garurumon." The digimon growled, or said in a very gravely voice.
"Alright…Garurumon," Kyle said, making sure he pronounced the syllables correctly, "Can you put that fire out so Jake can get out?"
Garurumon looked at the fire, now raging beyond belief, and nodded. He turned to face the fire, reared back and shouted;
"HOWING BLAST!" and with that, the same blast of icy water shot out from his mouth and sprayed on the fire until it shank and eventually, died away completely.
The sight after the fire was out was shocking. Jake was unhurt, but all but a few feel of grass around him was burned, showing how close he came to becoming nothing more than a human marshmallow on a camping trip.
Jake was shaking, coughed once, and fell facedown into the charred Earth. Agumon ran over to see if he was all right.
"Yay! You saved your friend!" Mantaraymon cried sarcastically, after he got back to his hundred percent self,
"Too bad he will be watching you perish." He said, and he reared back to attack.
"TORPEDO RAY!" at that, Mantaraymon sent another blast f energy Kyle and Garurumon's way.
Fortunately, Garurumon jumped to safety, Kyle on his back.
"Get off Kyle," he ordered, and Kyle obliged, "Let me take it from here."
With that, Garurumon turned around and faced Mantaraymon.
At the same time, Megan got her digivice out and got the reading on the new digimon;
"Garurumon, champion form of Gabumon, special attack is howling blaster." She said before putting down the device and running over to Kyle to make sure he was all right.
"Kyle, are you OK?" Megan asked, obvious concern in her voice.
Kyle nodded and got up before turning to face the battle that seemed eminent between Garurumon and Mantaraymon.
"Take him down!" Kyle shouted.
Garurumon was staring at Mantaraymon, who looked at him evilly;
"You honestly think you can take me by yourself?" he asked, laughing.
"He doesn't have to." Jake said, getting to his feet, with Agumon's assistance.
"Agumon, are you up for it?"
Agumon nodded to Jake and turned to face Mantaraymon,
"Right…LET'S DO THIS!" Jake shouted, holding out his digivice as it began to glow.
"Agumon digivolve too…Greymon!" And in Agumon's former place, stood the familiar sight of the orange T-rex that was Greymon.
"Alright, two of you big…" Mantaraymon started, but was silenced by another cry;
"Palmon digivolve too…Togemon!" and Megan and Togemon walked over to the others;
"No, we expect to help out too." Megan said, smile drawn across her face.
"Yeah, because you mess with one of us…you mess with the rest of us." Zak shouted, "Gomamon, ya know what time it is."
Gomamon nodded, and the same thing happened;
"Gomamon digivolve too…Ikkakumon!" and a fourth digimon, the white walrus, was joining the others.
"Well now I am heavily outnu…" Mantaraymon started, but was silenced again;
"Biyomon digivolve too…Birdramon!"
And Alex, Birdramon, and TJ with Patamon came forward.
Mantaraymon looked like a deer in the headlights.
"Awwww, c'mon!" Mantaraymon shouted in frustration.
"Sorry buddy boy," Togemon said,
"Yeah, like what Zak had said; you mess with one of us…you get the rest of us." Greymon growled.
"Yeah, even me!" Patamon said, trying his best to look intimidating, though he couldn't digivolve.
"Well, what's it going to be?" Ikkakumon said,
"Yeah, surrender…or are you going to take us all on?" Garurumon said, growling at the digimon,
"I have no choice, TORPEDO RAY!" and he shot another blast of energy at the group. Who simply ducked, and now were sorely pissed off.
"Alright, you had your chance. NOVA BLAST!" Greymon shouted, followed by a big fireball that hit Mantaraymon…hard.
"NEEDLE SPRAY!"
"METEOR WING!"
"HOWLING BLASTER!"
"HARPOON TORPEDO!"
"BOOM BUBBLE!"
All attacks hit right on the money, causing Mantaraymon to skid across the pond, and quickly swim below the surface…gone from sight.
The kids all jumped up in jubilance as their digimon de-digivolved to their former selves.
"Yeah! Nice job guys!" Kyle said in exuberance, but they all stopped celebrating and looked at Kyle.
Kyle stopped as well, noticing this;
"Um…hehe…why are you all staring at me?" Kyle asked, a bit nervously and confused.
"Because, you were why we are still alive," Jake said, before looking at the ground, "Why I am still alive."
"Yeah without you we would all most likely be dead." Palmon said, looking especially at Gabumon.
Gabumon blushed deeply at her comment, "Thanks Palmon, but it would not have happened without Kyle."
Kyle looked down,
"What do you mean?" he asked, and Gabumon simply smiled,
"You risked your life to try and help me escape," Gabumon said, "Without that sacrifice…the sacrifice for friendship…I would not have digivolved."
Kyle smiled kindly; on of the first times he smiled in a while,
"Thanks man."
"Um…I don't mean to put a dagger in this emotional moment, but what if Mantaraymon comes back?" TJ asked, nervousness in his voice.
Jake smiled and turned to Kyle, "We will keep watch again, if that slimy dirt bag has any sense, he won't show up again."
"And if he does?" Alex asked,
Jake kept looking at Kyle, "Kyle and Gabumon will alert us and we will drive him back underwater." He then paused, for dramatic effect and then continued; "because I completely believe in him watching over us."
Elsewhere in the Digital World, a few hours later
"What do you mean you let them digivolve!" Myotismon asked Mantaraymon angrily. Mantaraymon and Meramon were standing before their boss, awaiting punishment.
"Boss, with all do respect…" Meramon began, but Myotismon cut him off.
"You dare speak? YOU DARE SPEAK?" he shouted. Meramon began shaking in fear.
"Boss, what are you going to do with them?" asked a familiar floating figure, DemiDevimon.
Myotismon though for a second and then looked at his minions who failed him,
"I give them one last chance." He said.
The two digimon began laughing in relief
"Oh, thank you boss, you won't regret it!" Mantaraymon shouted in joyful exuberance.
"I better not." Myotismon said angrily, "Because if I regret it…you definitely will regret it." And with that he jumped into the air to re-take flight, saying one last thing before he left;
"Because I am forgiving…do not take this warning lightly…be gone with you."
-now you see what I mean when I said it was a long chapter, HA!. Well, anyway, i hope you enjoyed this little gift prior to Christmas and I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks and Merry Christmas, and Happy Hanukkah for those celebrating it this week.