A/N: Remember when I said I would simulate this in my Alpha Sapphire to see how fast they would level up? I've decided it would be more entertaining if I skipped a lot of the leveling and implied that it happened between chapters so they'll always be at the level I need them to be at.

Also, it may have been a bad idea to post the first chapter when I did. That was during a break, but once I got back in school, I felt more overworked than ever. This isn't helped by the fact that instead of adding extra days to the end of the school year to make up for snow days like usual, the district decided to lengthen our days by an hour for three weeks. That's over now, so I will be able to actually write.

GLaDOS added "dreaming" to the long list of things that she hated. For a moment, she actually believed she was back home, despite the bleary vagueness of it. Waking up did not make her feel any better. At least the lunatic was still asleep so she could have time to herself to figure this body out fully.

Chell blinked awake when a small rock bounced off her nose. She stood up, and saw to her irritation that she was surrounded by similar rocks. She flashed a glare at the golden-eyed Beldum watching her from the other side of the cave.

"Oh good, I'm getting better at this," GLaDOS said cheerfully, "Watch." She looked down at the small pile of rocks and pebbles next to her, and after a moment or so one of them slowly lifted off the ground. After hovering for a moment, it flew straight at the little blue dragon, who dodged it this time. "See?" the former AI inquired, "ESP and psychokinesis have been completely disproven in our universe, but it exists here, so I don't have to use my face as a weapon anymore. Although, throwing rocks is just as crude… I wonder if a creature can maintain that power if it moves from this world to ours? Think of the science we could do!"

Chell did not think of the science. Instead, she padded over to the Beldum and puffed a small stream of fire at her.

Chell used Ember!

GLaDOS avoided the attack!

"Hey," she scolded, "I was only providing you with a scientific demonstration. I hope you learned from it." Chell responded by ramming her head into her. "You really do like using that as a weapon, don't you? I suppose it's due to the species you've turned into now. Its head appears to be rather large, but that may be just you." GLaDOS earned another burst of fire from Chell. "Now, that was just unnecessary."

At the sound of a loud thunk outside the cave entrance, the duo headed outside, emerging just in time to see two large birds (Pelipper, as they would later learn) fly off after dropping a large box they had been holding by a pair of ropes. On the side was a tag labelled "Rescue Team Starter Set / To: Team Aperture / From: Pokémon Rescue Organization."

"So those two birds really weren't kidding," GLaDOS said, sounding annoyed, "Let's hope taking this job actually proves to be useful. See if you can open it without setting it on fire."

Chell sliced the ropes binding it shut with her fangs and opened the box.

There was a Rescue Team Badge inside!

There were two Backpacks inside!

There was a copy of Pokédex – A Pokémon's Guide to Pokémon inside!

There was also a copy of The Rescue Team Dungeon Survival Guide inside!

"I guess this wasn't a total waste," GLaDOS said, using her newly discovered psychic power to pull the Pokédex – A Pokémon's Guide to Pokémon out. She set the book down and opened it. "This says it has information on every species of Pokémon here… we just have to find our own species… Is there a table of contents in this thing? Is there any particular reason all of the species are numbered in this way?" She flipped rapidly though the pages. "Oh, I found you; number 371, Bagon, the 'Rock Head Pokémon,' which already makes complete sense. Oh, look, here I am: Beldum, number 374, the 'Iron Ball Pokémon'… It's powered by magnetic force instead of blood? Interesting…"

While the former AI poured over the book, undoubtedly memorizing everything within it, Chell wandered off toward the town.

As she walked around the edge of town, watching as the Pokémon wandered around, stopping to look at the various shops, she noticed a small commotion in front of the forest bordering the town. A large creature, resembling a bat and yet clearly reptilian, stood in front of the two young bird Pokémon from before. Alongside him stood the two Pokémon, the cat-weasel and the fox (or rather the Sneasel and the Jolteon, as GLaDOS informed her later), who attacked her yesterday. Oddly enough, they didn't seem hostile. Instead, they looked somewhat embarrassed.

As she cautiously approached, the large bat noticed her and spoke in deep, rumbling voice, "Is this the one you attacked?"

The Jolteon looked at her and nodded, her ears drooping. The bat stalked up to her and loomed over her. Chell took a step back.

"I would like to thank you," he said. Chell blinked in reply. He went on, "you see, these two are the youngest and most recent addition to my team, Team Quickstep, and are still very young and immature. They do not quite understand what it means to be on a rescue team. You taught them a valuable lesson." Chell blinked again in surprise. He looked over his shoulder at the two young Pokémon following him. "I believe you each have something you would like to say."

"Sorry," the Sneasel muttered under her breath, looking away.

"No, really, we are," the Jolteon said sincerely.

"I've heard you and your friend formed a rescue team as well," the bat said with what appeared to be a fanged smile, "I look forward to seeing you in the field." With that, he scooped up the two youngsters and took off.

"Wow," Star breathed, starry-eyed, "When that Noivern flew to our tree and demanded to see us, I thought we were dead meat! But he actually made those two apologize for attacking us."

"It turns out that Kalang is actually a pretty cool g- I mean, Pokémon, despite his ruthless reputation," Lee added, "So, uh, did you guys get the Rescue Team Starter Set?" Chell nodded. "Really? What was in it?" Chell stared at him awkwardly, wondering how to respond.

"You… don't talk much, do you?" Star asked. Chell shook her head.

"She's mute, in fact."

Chell whirled around, startled. GLaDOS calmly hovered behind her.

"She may also be brain damaged," the former AI went on, "which may be why she is so keen on using her head as a weapon."

"I thought that was a Bagon thing…" Lee muttered.

"Either way, she's still likely to be brain-damaged," GLaDOS insisted. "Anyway, I only came to find out where my tes- er, friend had wandered off to. We should probably get going. We have… jobs to do."

The Beldum turned and levitated off with the Bagon quietly following.

"While you were away, I took the liberty of going to the post office and finding a few jobs for us to do, just to see if this 'rescue team' thing would be worth our while," GLaDOS said, "Luckily that survival guide has a list of known Dungeons and what sort of Pokémon can be found there. It turns out that despite Thorn Woods being a smaller, easier Dungeon filled with weak Pokémon, Pokémon still get lost in it and require a rescue team to extract them. So we'll start there."

They spent the next week going on missions, only in Thorn Woods at first before they had leveled up enough to try larger, stronger Dungeons.

Chell did most of the fighting. As she leveled up, she learned several new moves, and by the time she was level 19, she knew Headbutt, Dragon Breath, Bite, and Ember. She used to know Rage and Leer, but as she learned new moves, she seemed to forget old ones, as she only consistently used four at a time. GLaDOS, meanwhile, still only knew Take Down, despite also being level 19. She decided that since the recoil damage from that attack added up over time, and throwing rocks was below her, it was best that she stepped back and let the murderous lunatic do her thing. GLaDOS, meanwhile, was the one who knew what moves to use against what Pokémon, and who knew what berries to use to cure Chell whenever she was poisoned or paralyzed. As the more intelligent one, she figured she ought to be making the decisions and strategizing rather than doing the dirty work.

Shortly after they each hit level 19, they received a letter in the mail advising them to investigate strange activity at the top of the Dragon Gate Falls, at the end of the Thunderous Forest Dungeon.

"A group of Pokémon seems to think they can catch a Legendary Pokémon at the Dragon Gate and are setting something up there. We need the Gate to evolve, but they're keeping us out! Please clear them out!

Client: Gyarados

Objective: Defeat the criminal team.

Place: Thunderous Forest 10F

Reward: Key Stone"

The Thunderous Forest, GLaDOS knew from the Survival Guide, was a Dungeon just below their level that was named such due to the constant roaring noise heard within the forest caused by the Thunderous River which neatly divided it in half. The noise was caused by the many waterfalls and cataracts along the river's path, as the land it flowed through sloped downward, sometimes with sudden drops, all the way to the sea. The end of the Thunderous Forest Dungeon was marked by a cliff, over which flowed the river's tallest waterfall, Dragon Gate Falls.

According to the Survival Guide, the Dungeon was populated by Grass, Bug, and Poison-type Pokémon that loved to inflict outsiders with poison, sleep, and paralysis. GLaDOS felt a little excited as she filled their backpacks with the berries needed to cure such ailments. This would probably be the mission on which she evolved. Once she hit level 20, she knew she would evolve into Metang and finally be able to learn new moves. Chell, meanwhile, would have to stay in that small, juvenile form until she reached level 30. She didn't know what evolution would entail, but was eager to find out. For science, of course. Wheatley, ironically, would also evolve at level 20, but she doubted he was still alive after being left on his own, let alone past level 10.

Meanwhile…

Wheatley had followed the Lapras's advice. He didn't get too far. Not at first, at least.

He found the mouth of a large river, just as the Lapras had told him. His first problem was getting into it. The current of the water as it gushed into the ocean was far stronger than he expected, and it took a whole day of fighting it, getting swept out to sea, fighting it again, getting swept out again, resting, and repeating before he had even made it into the river. After resting for the night, he found that the next day he was again able to make it into the river and was even able to push a short ways in before getting swept out.

Wheatley grew to Lv. 7!

Soon he was able to swim up the river and past the town…

Wheatley grew to Lv. 8!

…Until he came to the first waterfall at the edge of a forest. He tried to jump over it, missed, slammed into the rocks and was subsequently swept out to sea, bumping into more rocks along the way. He was too afraid to go deeper into the ocean, for fear of getting eaten, and so persisted up the river, imagining that, against the odds, there would be a nice safe pond on the other end, and so eventually made it over the first waterfall.

Wheatley grew to Lv. 9!

As luck would have it, the next waterfall was higher than the first, and so it again took him a few tries to get over it, but he eventually did.

Wheatley grew to Lv. 10!

And so on and so forth. Eventually he even learned an actual attack and used it to scare off any Pokémon that came too close to the river and laughed at his failed attempts to jump up waterfalls.

He was able to make a decent amount of progress every day until he came to the tallest waterfall he had ever seen. Granted, the only waterfalls he had ever seen were the short, little ones along the river, but this one towered above the trees in the forest. Some of those small waterfalls were tall enough for him to learn to swim up them rather than jump, but it could take ages to swim up this thing. He considered giving up and turning back before he remembered that the only other thing he could be do was go back out to sea and scrounge for food until he ended up becoming food.

Up the waterfall it is, then, he thought glumly, Look at the bright side, though. By getting up this waterfall, I can show Her that not only am I not a moron, I am not weak!

After making it a couple feet up the waterfall, he was again swept out to sea.

Meanwhile…

GLaDOS was moving ahead more than usual. Normally she would hang back and let Chell deal with any enemy Pokémon, but on this mission she seemed eager for a fight. Considering the number of Poison-type Pokémon they were facing, and the fact that GLaDOS was immune to Poison-type moves, Chell didn't really mind. It was nice not having to do all the work for once.

The Thunderous Forest was probably one of the prettier Dungeons they had seen. The foliage forming the corridor walls were lush green and rich with flowers. Berries of all sorts were abundant, making the number of berries they brought with them seem foolish. The only problem was the continuous roar of the river.

There were several wooden bridges spanning the river, and they were often forced to cross back and forth from one side to the other to progress. The planks on each one were slick and it was impossible to cross without being sprayed. Chell paused in the middle of one bridge and looked down over the edge. Below, the river rushed past as a white foam, hissing around boulders without losing pace. Here, the roar was deafening, and the name Thunderous River seemed well deserved.

A rock bounced off the side of her head, and she turned. GLaDOS glared at her from the other side of the bridge. The river, it seemed, had drowned out her calls, and she was impatient to move forward. After Chell crossed the bridge, they continued on.

Unbeknownst to them, they were being watched. Their hunter surveyed them from a nearby bush. As they moved away, he began to step forward. He stepped on a stone and cursed, hopping around and causing a ruckus that was, lucky for him, drowned out by the drone of the river. As he dodged loudly from one hiding spot to the next, he began humming made-up action music under his breath. When he felt he was sufficiently close to his target, he sprang from his hiding spot, charging as fast as his stubby legs could carry his round body, now loudly singing his action theme.

"DUH-NAH-NAH-NAH-NAAAAH!" he bellowed out his war cry, though no one could hear him.

Chell and GLaDOS didn't notice him until he tripped over a stone, flung himself a short ways into the air, landed on his head, bounced, landed on his buttocks, bounced again, and finally landed unceremoniously on his face, digging a small trench in the dirt as he slid toward them.

The pair stared at him as his stubby legs flailed for a moment before he could finally right himself. He looked like a mushroom of sorts, with the upper portion of his body a pale pink with green spots. This section ended with a frill that encircled his body, like he was wearing a skirt. Beneath this skirt he was green with round little legs.

A Shroomish? GLaDOS thought. She hadn't looked too much into this Pokémon; she only took note of the fact that it could spread toxic spores and that it was probably a resident of this Dungeon.

The Shroomish said something, but of course with the river it was impossible to hear what. The pair only stared at him. After a moment he realized the problem and began marching away from the river bank. He lacked arms, but made some sort of gesture with his body that seemed to indicate that he wanted them to follow him.

They moved as far away from the river bank as the Dungeon walls would let them. They ended up in a room where they could almost comfortably speak to each other without shouting.

"That's better!" the Shroomish proclaimed, his voice oddly familiar, "A man can't taunt his foes if his foes can't hear 'im!" He turned to face them. "Name's Rick! Prepare to die!"

There was a moment of silence.

"Wait. You're one of those corrupted cores," GLaDOS pointed out.

"Corrupted? Ha! More like under appre- Wait, how'd you know that?!" Rick yelled in alarm, "Oh, wait, you're that potato! And the little lady!" He winked at Chell, who rolled her eyes. "After you gave that blue core a what-for, I knew you'd become somethin' fierce! Just like me!" He attempted to strike a pose, but that didn't work out well. Due to his lack of limbs, he mostly opened his mouth and tipped his round body forward. "So. What've you ladies been up to?"

"We formed a rescue team in order to-"

"A rescue team!?" Rick exclaimed, "That's perfect! Going into a world filled with danger, rescuing damsels in distress! It's the perfect job for an Adventure Core! Count me in!"

"Wait. We've already had one core try to join us and he turned out to be completely useless. I'm not going to carry around dead weight," GLaDOS insisted.

"Dead weight? Pfft! I'll show you what I can do! En garde!" The Shroomish puffed himself up, ready for a fight.

"He's a Grass-type, Chell," GLaDOS reminded her as she stepped forward.

Chell used Ember!

Rick avoided the attack!

"Take this!" Rick shouted, jumping into the air.

Rick used Spore!

Spores spewed from the opening at the top of his head, hitting the surprised Bagon in the face. Her eyes drooped and she tipped forward.

Chell fell asleep!

"Wish I coulda done that while she was a human," Rick said with a snicker before he was knocked to the side.

GLaDOS used Take Down! GLaDOS is damaged by recoil!

"Putting your opponents to sleep is not very manly or heroic, just so you know," GLaDOS said.

"Okay, fine! One-on-one, you and me, no sleeping!" Rick agreed.

"Oh, I'll probably do more damage to myself than you will to me…" GLaDOS muttered in annoyance.

GLaDOS used Take Down! GLaDOS is damaged by recoil!

"Ouch, that smarts…" Rick murmured, shaking himself, "Oh, I know what to do!"

Rick used Mega Drain! It's not very effective…

GLaDOS had her energy drained!

"Hey! That didn't give me nothin'!" Rick complained.

"That's because it didn't do much damage, you idiot," GLaDOS replied.

GLaDOS used Take Down! GLaDOS is damaged by recoil!

"You hit hard, girl…" Rick groaned as he slowly stood back up, wincing. He tried to stand, but fell over again.

Rick was defeated!

GLaDOS grew to Lv. 20!

Wait, didn't I just…? GLaDOS thought, I feel strange…

What? GLaDOS is evolving!

Chell started to wake up as GLaDOS started to glow, turning into a pure white silhouette that grew and changed shape. Then, as soon as it came, the white light disappeared.

Congratulations! Your GLaDOS evolved into a Metang!

GLaDOS learned Metal Claw!

GLaDOS learned Confusion!

"W-What the-? What just happened?" Rick managed to stand up again after recovering a little.

"I read that when a Pokémon meets certain requirements, it evolves into a stronger, more mature Pokémon. For me, that requirement was to reach level 20, which I did by beating you," GLaDOS explained, "To be honest, it wasn't pleasant. I feel… dizzy."

Her levitating form dropped closer to the ground as she placed one of her new hands on her head. Chell reached into her backpack and pulled out an Oran Berry, offering it to her.

"No, I don't think that would help," the new Metang told her. Chell gave it to Rick instead.

"Whoa, I feel loads better! Who knew a little berry could do that?" he exclaimed after eating it, "So, uh, are you impressed enough with my prowess to let me join your team?" Rick asked.

"No, I'm not impressed at all. …But I suppose that Spore attack would be useful."

"So I'm in?"

"Unfortunately."

"Yes!" He somehow managed to jump with his tiny feet. "I mean, of course. I knew you'd need me," he corrected himself in an attempt to be suave about it.

Rick joined Team Aperture to go on adventures!

"Alright! Let's take this forest down!" Rick marched off into the Dungeon.

"Don't make me regret my decision," GLaDOS called after him.

"So! What damsel are we saving in this adventure?" Rick asked as they continued through the Dungeon.

"We're not rescuing anyone. A group of Pokémon is causing trouble at the top of the waterfall," GLaDOS explained.

"A team of baddies, eh? Well, leave it to ol' Rick to teach them a lesson while you have yourselves a little lady break!"

They fought their way through the Dungeon until finally they had reached the top of the cliff. The path lead straight to a large, flat wooden bridge that stretched over the river just a few feet before it plummeted over the edge as a large waterfall, Dragon Gate Falls. In front of the bridge, closer to the Falls, was what GLaDOS assumed was the Dragon Gate, a gateway that oddly looked Japanese. In front of the Gate were two golden statues of a fearsome sea serpent facing each other on either side of the top of the waterfall. The statues reared, snarling at each other with large, gaping mouths like they were about to fight. The bridge was covered with Pokémon, mostly fully-evolved, high-level Dragon and Fairy-types, that stood facing the Gate, which was covered with a large net.

"Hey! What d'ya think you're doing?" Rick demanded, marching right up to the bridge.

The Pokémon turned and scoffed at him.

"Get out of here, Shroomish," a Dragonite ordered him, "I know Fire Blast and I wouldn't think twice about using it."

"I'm not afraid of you!" Rick replied.

"Back down, Adventure Core," GLaDOS added, "These Pokémon are well above you." They're above all of us… Normally Pokémon who mail us rescue requests have heard of us and know what sort of level we are, so why would anyone send us to do this? …Wait, I know what happened.

"All three of you need to clear out before we toss you over the falls," a Mawile sneered, turning around to snap her massive jaws at them.

"…We should leave," GLaDOS told her team reluctantly.

"What?! Why? I can take 'em!" Rick insisted.

"No, you can't. I think our client sent that letter to several rescue teams without heeding their relative strength. This mission was meant for a more experienced rescue team," she explained, "We shouldn't have come. Let's go and let someone else handle this."

Muttering broke out among the Pokémon gathered on the bridge. "Rescue teams? Coming here?" they seemed to be asking themselves.

"Calm down. We're more than strong enough," the Dragonite assured them, "We'll have that Palkia in no time!"

"Palkia?" GLaDOS inquired.

"Hm? Didn't we just tell you to leave?" the Dragonite huffed.

"Yes, we're going, but it wouldn't hurt to tell us a little bit," GLaDOS pressured him.

"Well, Palkia is this Legendary Water-Dragon-type Pokémon. They say it passes through this gate when it travels from this dimension to another," the Mawile explained.

"They didn't need to know that!" the Dragonite growled.

"So? It wouldn't hurt!" she protested.

"They'll run to a stronger rescue team and tell them what we're doing! That's it, we're silencing them!" the Dragonite roared. He and two other Pokémon, a Garchomp and a Kingdra, stepped closer to them.

"Wait, don't jump to conclusions," GLaDOS tried to reason with them as they came closer. A few other Pokémon flew over their heads and landed behind them.

As they closed in, a small flash of red burst over the waterfall. Wheatley passed between the two statues, flew through a hole in the net, which was rather large as if the net was designed to catch a large Pokémon, and landed on the bridge with a wet slap. He lay on his side, exhausted.

Wheatley grew to Lv. 20!

What? Wheatley is evolving!

The Pokémon on the bridge began to back away as he started to glow white. He rapidly began to grow, becoming increasingly serpent-like as he did so.

"He-He's evolving into a Gyarados!" one of the Pokémon cried.

"He'll rampage and destroy everything!" came another.

"Calm down! If he's just now evolving, then he's only level 20!" the Dragonite shouted at them. They seemed to calm down until Wheatley finished evolving.

Congratulations! Your Wheatley evolved into Gyarados!

Wheatley learned Bite!

Wheatley blinked in confusion. He looked down at his new body, then back at the Pokémon staring at him. "Whoa, I'm bloody massive again!" he exclaimed before roaring as loudly as he could.

Wheatley's Intimidate lowered everyone's Attack!

"Ayiiiee!"

"Let's get out of here!"

The Pokémon on the bridge promptly fled.

"Where are you going? He's only level- oh, never mind," the Dragonite looked down at the rescue team trio, "You little ones are lucky," he sneered before taking off.

Rick ran up to the Gyarados. "Sweet! Good job, big guy, you had 'em peeing their pants!"

"None of them were wearing pants," GLaDOS pointed out.

"Oh, it's you guys!" Wheatley said, "So," he lowered his big head down to GLaDOS, "Am I still too weak and useless to join your team? Huh, huh?"

"Do you even want to join?" GLaDOS retorted, unintimidated (Literally. Her Clear Body ability prevented his Intimidate ability from working on her.).

"I don't know, you may not be good enough for me," he scoffed, raising his head and turning away from them.

"Fine," she replied, turning to go.

When Wheatley saw her go with Chell and Rick following, he quickly slithered after them. "Wait, wait, I do want to join, really!" Even though he was much bigger and stronger, he didn't like the idea of being alone again, especially since he still worried about the fact that there might be something even bigger than him in the sea.

"Very well, I suppose I can't refuse you now," GLaDOS sighed, "Now, to deal with the net over the gate."

Wheatley joined Team Aperture to go on adventures!

"I'll take care of it!" Wheatley insisted.

Wheatley used Tackle!

He got hopelessly tangled in the net.

"Hmm. It's too wet to burn," GLaDOS observed, levitating around the Dragon Gate, "I might be able to cut it, actually."

GLaDOS used Metal Claw!

Her claws sliced through the rope, leaving part of it dangling.

"That works," she said.

She continued around the edge of the net, slicing it free despite Wheatley's protests. Finally, she cut it free and it, along with Wheatley, plummeted down the waterfall and into the river below.

"Let's head back now," she said.

"What about the big guy?" Rick asked.

"He'll be fine," GLaDOS insisted.

As they were about to head down the path to the forest floor, a rescue team consisting of an Alakazam, a Charizard, and a Tyranitar came up the path. Needless to say, they were shocked.

"The criminals here were reported to be quite powerful; how did you defeat them?" the Alakazam inquired.

"We… didn't," GLaDOS answered.

"Oh, yes we did! We-" Rick began before GLaDOS silenced him with a glare.

"A Gyarados came and scared them off," she explained.

"You got lucky," the Charizard said, "They would've killed you."

"Hmm…" The Alakazam studied them for a moment. "I suppose that since you cleaned up their mess, you may as well get the reward," he decided.

"What? But the Key Stone… They aren't strong enough to use it!" the Tyranitar protested.

"Not yet, but they have the potential to make good use of it. Besides, we did nothing to help," Alakazam replied, "Now, let's head back to the Pelipper Post Office."

A/N: I wanted to use each character's Pokémon on its personality and skills, but with many of the cores, there isn't much personality there. One is obsessed about space, another is curious, another babbles random, and often incorrect, facts. There isn't really a Pokémon that matches any of these things. So for the cores, I decided to use the color of each core's optic to determine what type of Pokémon it would be and go from there. That would not only narrow down the search, it would help me make sure the team has a variety of types.

Rick's optic is green, so he ought to be a Grass type. However, his personality actually has more substance than most of the other cores'. Going off of his personality, he is clearly a Fighting-type. Thankfully, we can compromise, since there are two Grass-Fighting-types – Breloom and Chesnaught. The reason I chose Breloom is that Breloom is far more offensive while Chesnaught is more defensive. Rick, obviously, would probably rather be offensive than defensive.

As for why he could use Spore, no, he is not level 40. I thought it'd be fun to recreate this team for competitive use in Alpha Sapphire, and of course a Breloom needs to know Spore. Rather than leveling him up to 40 and then evolving him and spending Heart Scales to make him learn moves he missed, I decided to have his parents learn Spore and pass it down so he can evolve as normal (I also passed down the move Bullet Seed). Reflecting that in the fanfiction also makes him more useful to the team as a Shroomish before he can become an awesome Breloom.