AN: Phew! I said that I'd upload in July, and here it is. I'm sorry that I didn't put it up sooner - it just seemed to take so long to write this chapter and be happy with it. This one's longer than the last one, so hopefully that will make up for it in some way :) I hope you like it!
DISCLAIMER: I still don't own Sonic the Hedgehog or anything affiliated. The only thing I own is this story.
Mind over Matter
Chapter Six: If You Were Me...
The Mobius Jungle was generally regarded to be an inhospitable place, filled as it was with all manner of wild flora and fauna that most folk would rather avoid. Tall trees with thick trunks and numerous green leaves blocked out most of the sunlight, assisting in creating a sweltering heat that many mobians found to be unbearable and the naturally formed ground difficult to traverse across because of the harsh dust.
It was considered odd then in most peoples' minds that a genius of Professor Von Schlemmer's calibre should choose such a location to be his home. Often these suggestions were swiftly silenced when it was pointed out that the professor himself was rather odd to begin with, and such a decision wasn't to be unexpected. The choice made far more sense when considered logically, however. Von Schlemmer enjoyed experimenting with new, untested machinery and often the results of this meddling would be explosive, in a quite literal sense. Therefore, moving to a more remote part of the globe so as to lessen any potentially dangerous accidents had been a smart move.
Plus, the tax collectors tended to visit far less frequently when the path to their destination was littered with Venus fly traps bigger than a house.
The building was a bizarre structure in of itself, no great surprise considering that Von Schlemmer had designed and built it. Large blocks hewn from concrete made up the majority of the brickwork with heavy layers of mortar holding them together. Patches of the masonry were shaded different colours; evidence of repair work that had been carried out following a failed microwave oven rewire earlier in the month. The house was in possession of two floors, both tiers connected rather haphazardly by what appeared to be yet more concrete and a sizable portion of goodwill.
A genius Professor Von Schlemmer may have been, but clearly his architecture left a lot to be desired. Like an escape route.
The interior of the house could hardly have been considered a vast improvement. Nearly every room contained a selection of half-finished or burnt out contraptions that had been abandoned when the latest spark of inspiration had taken hold. Long feeds of electrical cable snaked through the building like a central nervous system, their source of energy long since diverted to other interfaces, and scraps of metal, loose screws and other paraphernalia lay carelessly strewn upon an array of workbenches.
One particular invention appeared to be most prominent within the main living area of the house: a tall rectangular shaped box that rested upon four spindly legs, each metallic limb clamped to the stained carpeted floor via foot-like support panels. The device stood very much incomplete even by the professor's standards; loose wiring sprouted from between gaps in the alloy casing and a strange tapping noise seemed to be emanating from within a central compartment located in its 'chest'.
The sound occurred at a frequent volume, metal on metal banging every few seconds. The taps stopped momentarily after a different tone of knocking rang throughout the house.
"Oh, man, what's taking him so long?" Sonic complained once more as he beat his fist against the wooden door to Von Schlemmer's residence. He tapped the sole of his right sneaker against the stone step rapidly, an obvious sign of irritation to anyone who knew the former hedgehog well.
Tails shrugged. "Maybe no one's home?" he suggested, repositioning the burlap sack upon his back into a more comfortable position.
The Hero of Mobius frowned. Cupping his hands around his muzzle, he leaned forward until his nose was inches from the door and yelled at the top of his lungs. "Yoo-hoo! Professor Von Schlemmer! It's Sonic and Tails, and we're waaaaiiitiiiing!"
"Yeah, are you home?" Tails pitched in, approaching the door also.
"I think so!" a muffled voice responded, glazed in a thick Northern Mobius accent (the closest approximation by Earth standards being German).
"Well, are ya or ain't ya?" Sonic replied, his patience wearing a little thin. "We've got a mondo serious problem on our hands!"
"Oh, then I am most definitely here!" said voice called back. "Please, come in!"
"Finally," the non-blue blur muttered, turning the brass handle and throwing the door open.
The two heroes stepped over the threshold and gawked at the sight before them.
"Whoa, look at this place!" Tails exclaimed. "Even Robotnik could get lost among all this junk!"
Sonic smirked at the thought and began to pick his way through the mass of debris. "C'mon, kiddo; the professor's gotta be around here somewhere, and we're gonna have to find him."
The former fox deposited the heavy bag that he had been carrying onto the floor, rubbing the fine fur near his neck where the rough straps had been digging into his shoulder blades. He watched as his closest friend approached a large apparatus that had been erected in the middle of the room. To his eyes, it looked as though someone had bolted a refrigerator to a quartet of thin pipes.
"What do you think that thing's for, Sonic?" he asked, running his eyes over the metallic shell.
"Beats me," the hero replied, giving the body an experimental knock upon the side with his open palm. He was mildly surprised to hear a soft yelp returned from within the device. With a raised eyebrow he leaned forward and pressed his ear against the surface. "Professor, is that you in there?"
"Yes, mother, how can I help you?" the inventor replied, his figurative bell having been rung from Sonic's slap against the invention.
The hero rolled his eyes and turned to beckon his companion to come closer. "Well, I found the professor," he stated flatly. "See if you can't find a way to let him out, Tails."
The younger of the two by over ten years nodded and cast a critical eye over the construction. Some time ago the kit had developed a talent for mechanics and inventing, even assisting Von Schlemmer in developing a mechanism designed to catch Dr. Robotnik. Regretfully, the device had been promptly manipulated by the megalomaniac for more nefarious purposes, such as attempting to destroy his blue nemesis. The event had left Tails less willing to create his own machines but he was still more than happy to repair and fix them (though Sonic reckoned that it would only be a matter of time before he rediscovered his passion). Either way, when it came to figuring out anything mechanical he was the fox for the job.
Tails ran his fingertips across the bulk of the structure, searching for any hidden access panels that he could pry loose. He smiled when his digits ghosted over a movable sheet of plastic which he quickly removed to reveal a large button marked "Emergency Release". The former fox pushed it with his thumb and stood back. A loud hissing noise filled the room as a small cavity in the rectangular block snapped open, allowing the form of Professor Von Schlemmer to tumble out and land in a heap on the floor.
"Ooh," he groaned, poking his tongue out of the side of his wide mouth. "I don't feel so good."
Sonic grabbed a hold of his hand and pulled him to his feet. Von Schlemmer wobbled slightly as he stood on his thin legs, his ocean-green shade of skin looking perhaps a little more pale than usual. He straightened the small spectacles that rested on his long nose and patted some grime from his white lab coat.
"Are you feeling okay?" the teen freedom fighter asked him.
He straightened the wavy orange hair that towered from the top of his head and nodded. "I think so. Thank you for letting me out; it was getting a little cramped in there!"
"How long were you in there, professor?" Tails wondered.
"Oh, most of the day," the eccentric inventor replied with a tone of nonchalance. Such things were a regular occurrence to him. "To tell you the truth, I was beginning to get a little bit hungry.
"But!" he stated, turning to regard the machine properly and with a smile that accentuated his large overbite. "I think it was worth it. This is most definitely one of the best constructamajigs that I have ever built!"
Tails nodded, impressed by such a declaration. "Wow, really? What does it do?" he asked.
The professor paused for a moment and scratched his head. "You know, I have no idea. I think it was going to be a hot plate when I started..."
Sonic rolled his eyes. Only Von Schlemmer could build something without any clue as to what its purpose should be. "Never mind that," he said, hoping to get back on track with the reason for their visit. "We've got a big emergency and we need your help."
"Of course, Sonic, I'm all ears," he said. "Not literally of course; that would be disgusting. But I am listening."
"...Right," Sonic uttered mildly perplexed. "Anyway, me and my little buddy got hit by some bogus brain ray of Buttnik's which swapped our minds over, and now we need to find a way to swap 'em back."
The professor nodded. "Did you bring it with you?"
"As much as we could pick up: the thing got totalled and went supernova. We gathered what we could find and put it all in this bag." Sonic gestured to the sack that Tails had placed on the ground near the front door.
Von Schlemmer cupped a hand around his near non-existent chin. "Hmm. Could I take a look at it?"
Tails dragged the burlap sack over to the both of them and swept a pile of junk clear from one of the inventor's workbenches. He upended the bag and tipped out the contents, the three of them staring as the destroyed Mind Scrambler spilled across the surface. Once the deluge of scrap had stopped the professor walked forward, taking a piece of circuitry between his thumb and forefinger.
"Well, what do you think?" Sonic asked, always waiting for the fast response.
"Hmm..." Von Schlemmer pondered out loud. "It's definitely broken."
"Tell me something I don't know," the teen replied dryly. "Can you fix it or not?"
Von Schlemmer placed the circuit piece back upon his workbench and retrieved another, a cable this time. "It shouldn't be too hard. I could maybe have this finished in about ten years."
"We don't have ten years!" Tails exclaimed. "If we don't do something soon, Robotnik will find out about us and we'll be goners!"
"I wouldn't go that far, Tails, but it would be way past un-cool," Sonic agreed. "Not to mention it'll make our job of stopping him that much harder."
Von Schlemmer paused for a moment, running through the possibilities in his mind. "There may be another way. If you had the original design plans, I might be able to do it quicker..."
"Then that's what we'll do," the former fastest thing alive stated. "We'll sneak into Robotnik's fortress and steal those plans!"
"But how are we going to do that, Sonic?" Tails questioned not unreasonably. "I can't even do half the moves you can do with your speed, and you're only just able to fly!"
Sonic flashed his famous smirk. "Simple. What we need to do is-"
His words trailed off as an altogether familiar low-pitched rumbling sound pierced his eardrums. Leaving his two friends' side for the moment he walked across the room to a window, peering out through the glass to discover the source of the interruption. What he saw made him groan with exasperation.
"Great," he said to himself. "This is just what we don't need."
/
Dr. Robotnik sneered with disdain as he cast his beady eye upon the rundown house of Professor von Schlemmer, hovering before the building in his Egg-O-Matic craft. He took in the sight of the crooked brickwork and the display of discarded technology that surrounded the place like a moat made of scrap metal, shaking his head in disbelief.
And people call this man a genius? He scoffed.
Robotnik had never gotten over how the people of Mobius could respect – in his eyes – such an inferior scientist. He didn't understand how his own "brilliance" could go unappreciated whilst somebody like Professor Von Schlemmer was lauded as the "thinking mobian's mobian" in Mobius' 'Scientific Exploits: a General Appreciation' magazine. He had tried to cancel the magazine by kidnapping the publisher but Sonic had managed to rescue him, and contribute to a derogatory article as he was doing so. The bad-tempered tyrant had to replace much of his lab equipment as he struggled to figure out how that blue rat had not only managed to evade all of his traps within his personal prison complex, but take part in an interview with the publisher at the same time.
The oval-like oppressor reached under his seat and retrieved a megaphone, which he placed to his bulbous lips. He flipped the switch and leaned forward in order to direct his voice toward the front door.
"Sonic the hedgehog, Tails the fox and Professor Von Schlemmer the...whatever you are!" he roared. The window panes rattled from the reverberations of his amplified voice. "I, the great Doctor Ivo Robotnik, demand that you return to me my 'Egg-O-Matic Brain Scrambler and Mind Swapper' immediately!"
He pulled a gold-plated watch (replete with his own mug on the face, of course) from within his breast pocket and glared at it. "You have ten seconds!" he decided, slipping the timepiece back into its pouch.
Tails swallowed the bundle of nerves that had formulated in the back of his throat and slipped away from the window to avoid being seen. "This isn't good, Sonic. He looks really mad this time."
"Let that fat egg boil for as long as he wants," Sonic snorted. "We got more important things to worry about."
Walking back across the room to the professor, the Hero of Mobius regarded the disassembled weapon with an analytical glance. To think that it had been a problem when it was in one piece, let alone a DIY kit. "Any luck, professor?"
"I think I'm making good progress," Von Schlemmer replied brightly, connecting a blue length of wire with a red one. "It's sort of a like a jigsaw puzzle when you get the hang of it." He disconnected the two cables and repeated the process, swapping the red for a green.
"Okay," Sonic nodded. "You keep doing that. Me and Tails are gonna lead omelette-breath on a wild-goose chase to give you more time."
The professor nodded and Sonic to returned to Tails, allowing him to continue with his work. "What's he doing now, bro?" the 'fox' asked
"He's just sitting there," the younger of the two answered, a contemplative expression glued to his face. "While you were gone, he called you all kinds of nasty things, like-"
"That's good, Tails," Sonic interrupted, not at all eager to hear the insults from Robotnik's mouth coming from that of his little brothers'. "That's nothing out of the ordinary, so what's got ya scratching your head?"
Tails chanced a momentary look through the window, watching as Robotnik idly tapped his fingers upon the husk of his hovercraft before responding. "When he was calling you names, he started a couple of them off with 'you blue' so-and-so. Sonic, I don't think he knows what's happened to us!"
"He doesn't, huh?" The ex-hedgehog grinned as he too watched the sulking autocrat. "Then I think we should keep it that way; we don't want him spoiling our fun, right?"
"Right," Tails agreed. "But how will we stop him from finding out?"
Sonic thought for a moment before snapping his fingers. He had the perfect plan. "Say, Tails?" he posed. "How well do ya think you know me?"
/
Doctor Robotnik was not a patient man. When he ordered a task to be completed he wanted it finished yesterday, no matter how trivial. In fact, he had once had an entire quintet of service-bots crushed into cheap lapels for failing to have his bathrobe ready for him upon exiting the tub.
One of the admittedly few quirks of the hedgehog's personality that he didn't hate entirely had to be his punctuality; whether he wanted him to be or not, Sonic at least was always on time. Therefore, he couldn't help but find it odd how neither he nor his furry sidekick had opted to respond to his demands on this occasion. Normally one or both of them would be stood before him by now, attempting to match wits with his own superior intellect.
"Where the blazes are they?" he muttered, perturbed by the events (or rather, 'lack of') that had transpired.
His fingers rapped against the hull of his craft in an inarticulate rhythm, betraying his annoyance. He growled heatedly and fumbled beneath his seat for the megaphone once again.
"Sonic, are you in there or not?" he spat into the speech receptor. "I'm getting tired of waiting for you, and I am a very busy man! Come on, show yourself!"
Lowering the megaphone he turned his gaze back to the front door, his fingertips creating a steeple as he put his hands together. He didn't want to consider the improbability that he had been wrong.
His waiting paid off finally as the brass door handle turned slowly. Robotnik's exceedingly white teeth were visible beneath his moustache, contrasting with the orange facial hair as he grinned. "So, finally decided to appear, eh?"
Sonic walked out through the doorway onto the step, his shoulders slumped ever so slightly. His fox companion appeared a second later standing with confidence.
"Shoulders," the vulpine whispered loud enough only for his friend to hear. The hedgehog quickly straightened his posture, rearranging his stance into one similar to the other.
"Here we are, Ro-butt-nik!" he challenged. "What do you want?"
The wannabe conqueror raised his eyebrow ever so slightly. "Straight to the point, eh?" he enquired, more to himself than either of the mobians below him. "Very well; if that's the way you want to play it. You two stole something that belongs to me and I want it back!"
"We don't know what you're talking about, egg-man!" Tails countered, folding his arms. He gave a quick flick of his tails upon the back of the hedgehog's legs, causing him to copy the action. "So why don't you beat feet back to your fortress?"
"Don't lie to me, you ignorant little hairball; I know you have it!" Robotnik jeered. "And you had better return it to me, or else!"
"'Or else' what; you're gonna bore us into giving it to you?" the hedgehog said with a snort.
The doctor snarled with rage, gripping tightly upon the brim of his Egg-o-Matic. "Why don't you step closer and I'll show you just how boring I can be!" he threatened.
"Thanks for the offer, doc, but I'm not sure we wanna subject ourselves to your bad breath," the small fox quipped, pinching his nose.
"I'd rather take a walk in a sewer!" the blue mobian concurred.
"That's enough!" Robotnik shouted, his temper flaring. He breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly before leaning over the edge of his vehicle to look the heroic duo in their collective eye. "I am going to offer you an ultimatum, but only for this one time," he said in a comparatively calm quality of voice to the one he usually employed.
Sonic turned to look at his little fox friend, who nodded just enough for him to see but not the doctor above them. "Okay, we're listening," he sighed.
"Hand over the Mind Scrambler, and I won't destroy you today," Robotnik offered. "Give me back what is mine, and I will continue my evil elsewhere. I promise..."
Both Sonic and Tails looked to each other, a slight shake of the head from the vulpine this time. "Sorry, slow-mo; no dice," the blue hedgehog responded. "We all know that you're only capable of breaking promises!"
The despot shrugged his shoulders. "What can I say? You know me so well." He pressed a button on the dashboard of his vessel. A compartment opened on the black spherical bottom to the Egg-O-Matic as a putrid green coloured gun barrel slid forth to point in both of the mobians' faces. "At least I'm honest about being dishonest!" he cackled.
Tails pushed Sonic away from him with great force and dived in the opposite direction as a pulse of pure energy fired from the cannon and dispersed upon the stone steps, reducing them to powder. The fox glowered at Robotnik as he picked himself up. "Hey! You could have hurt someone with that!"
"That's the idea!" the mad genius sniggered. "Prepare to meet your maker!"
Another energy blast ploughed through the airways directly for the kit's forehead, only just missing its target when he was forced to the ground by his cyan companion. The pulse pounded against the masonry, splintering the brickwork with a soft hiss which left behind a smoking crater. The vulpine felt himself being dragged from his prone position and into the air as the blue hedgehog exploded into a ferocious running speed, watching as the trees of the Mobius Jungle melted into a smeared cavalcade of green.
"Thanks, Tails!" the fox appraised. "That was a pretty slick move. There's no way he'll be able to resist following us now!"
The blue blur barely turned his head in acknowledgement, worry visible in his eyes. "Sonic, things are getting out of hand! He really almost got you back there!"
"Don't sweat it, keed. I'd never go down that easily!" Sonic the no-longer-hedgehog declared with pride in his voice. "Now what we've gotta do is make sure that Butt-nik is definitely on our tails."
A loud crack echoed from their right, giving the swift footed mobian mere nanoseconds to strafe sideways as a large Red Bush tree groaned under the weight that it could no longer support, and fell onto the dust path with a thunderous 'BOOM'. Tails and Sonic both cast their attention to the view behind them, watching as Robotnik hurtled after them in his Egg-O-Matic, his face creasing like a paper bag into an ugly snarl.
"...I don't think that's going to be a problem," Tails said, turning back to the path in front.
"You won't escape from me this time, you expeditious spike-ball!" Robotnik bellowed, almost tipping the craft as he leaned forward to shake his fist at them. "I have you right where I want you!"
"Then I say we tip the balance in our favour," Sonic muttered audible only to his companion. "Put on the brakes, buddy!"
Tails dug his heels into the ground, spraying earth into the air and creating a thick dust cloud. Robotnik whooshed forward like a bullet, unable to match their sudden halt much as the former hedgehog predicted, and charged headlong into the fine veil. The stout doctor seemed not to notice that neither Sonic nor Tails were in front of him as he piloted his Egg-O-Matic with fervour ever onward to catch his quarry.
Sonic sniggered as he watched Robotnik bring the acceleration of his vehicle down to a crawl, scanning the horizon for the missing twosome. "Okay, Tails. Let's go take Robo-butt for a little spin. Charge up those sneaks!" he said with a grin.
The ex-fox nodded and revved his feet until they appeared as little more than a red ring, carving a furrow into the ground. Sonic trained his eye upon Robotnik, waiting for the perfect opening to spring their strategy upon the unsuspecting doctor.
"Keep 'em going, pal. Just a little bit faster," he murmured to his best friend.
Tails squinted and ground his teeth together, the powerful legs of Sonic grinding into the ground. The soles of his feet pounded against the earth like a couple of jackhammers as he sought to heighten their increase in velocity, doing his best to keep from running forward. His sneakers began to grow hot and the faint odour of smoke invaded his nostrils, making him wince.
"I can't do this forever, Sonic!" he grunted. "I'm not used to it!"
Sonic patted him on the back to reassure him. "Don't stop, Tails; you're doing great!"
The ex-hedgehog stared impatiently ahead of him, watching as Robotnik scrutinized the trail before him. Come on, wide-load, he thought anxiously. Turn around already!
His request was granted when Robotnik jerked the steering wheel to his Egg-O-Matic, rotating the vehicle all the while with a surly pout upon his lips.
"Okay, bud. Here we...go!" Sonic yelled, pointing his finger toward their target.
Tails finally released the pent up energy that his limbs had been generating, blasting across the ground faster than he had ever thought possible. Sonic's head was thrown back from the accumulated g-forces as the blue hedgehog body propelled forward like a cyan laser, dragging the tops from some of the trees along with them in their slipstream.
The obnoxiously overweight oppressor could barely blink as he witnessed only a blue missile screaming toward his location, trails of fire scorching along behind it.
"What in Mobius?" he wondered briefly, failing to notice until far too late that his craft sat in direct conflict with the approaching object.
As Sonic and Tails neared the vehicle, the ex-hedgehog lifted both of his feet and held them steady before him. He ran the particulars of the next part of his strategy through his mind, judging the possible upcoming consequences of his actions in proportion to their current speed. Yep, this is gonna hurt, he thought with an inward sigh.
As Tails blasted past the Egg-O-Matic, Sonic kicked out at the wing to the ship with both of his sneakers. He yelped as his feet made contact with the stiff metal, but saw that his plan had indeed been successful. The combined momentum of the running strike unbalanced the hovercraft, spinning it like a top. Robotnik cried out in alarm as his vessel revolved a full 360 degrees, twisting full-circle a hundred times in less than fifteen seconds. The thriving jungle environment mixed collectively into a blotchy swirl of greenery that battered his visual senses into submission, making him feel sick all the way to the stomach that had become nestled within his oesophagus.
"Hah! That showed him, huh?" Tails cheered as he forced himself into a standstill.
Sonic put his weight back upon his feet, wincing ever so slightly from the pain in his limbs. "It sure – ouch – did, buddy!"
"Are you okay?" the younger of the two asked with concern evident in his voice.
"Yep – ouch – I'm swell," he replied not altogether convinced himself. The dynamic duo watched in awe as Robotnik continued to rotate with rapidity.
"So, think he's going to stop?" Tails wondered, the sight of the swirling red and grey in front of them giving him a mild headache.
"Probably," Sonic answered with a shrug. "I wouldn't bet on it being a comfy landing, though." The physically former teenager raised his hands to his mouth and cupped them for added volume, turning his attention to Robotnik. "Hey, doc – how are you liking my new spin on things?"
"You pair of rotten reprobates!" Robotnik bawled at the top of his lungs. "When I get my hands on you...!"
"Yeah, yeah; been there, done that and bought the t-shirt," Sonic mocked. "Come on, Tails, let's bail."
"Okay, Sonic."
The (quite-literally) twisted genius could only watch fleetingly as the fox and the hedgehog made a quick getaway. "Hey! Get back here and stop this! I'm getting dizzy!" he screeched to the fleeing mobians. He cursed ferociously. "As soon as I stop, I'll get you, Sonic the..."
He paused for moment. There had been a number of discrepancies in their last exchange that he had only now begun to think about. Tails certainly had come across as a lot more...bold than in previous encounters, and had even beaten Sonic to the punch in countering his own threats. Conversely, the hedgehog himself had appeared a lot more subdued than usual; nowhere near as belligerent as in other battles.
The solution to this riddle slowly began to form in his mind, striking him like a bucket of cold water to the face. The answer had been right in front of him the entire time. The more he thought about it, the more obvious it became that he was indeed correct in his assumptions. How could he not have noticed before?
So, Robotnik chuckled softly to himself. It seems as though Sonic and Tails have had a little mishap with the Mind Scrambler. Most interesting...
Further analysis of the situation became halted when his Egg-O-Matic finally stopped spinning and dumped him face first onto the ground below with a thump, the vessel tumbling onto its side next to him. He waited a long second for his head to stop spinning before grabbing the communications device from the dashboard.
"Scratch and Grounder, your orders have changed. Bring the 'Egg-O-Matic Eggs-Traction' device to the house of Professor Von Schlemmer immediately!" He snickered as visions of the inventor cast in chains touched his imagination. "I want to teach him a lesson for playing with somebody else's toys..."
"...You've been playing with toys, your playfulness?" Scratch inquired.
Robotnik slapped his palm against his forehead. "Just shut up and get over here now, you clapped-out capon! There isn't a moment to waste!"
END CHAPTER.
AN: Ah...it feels almost cathartic to finally upload this chapter! :D Plus; line breaks! Fancy stuff, huh? ;)
I would like to thank Gryffindor-Sword, Epsilon Team Captain Hande, Kindra Mckleen, LUCiD KNiGHTS, Scyphi, Imaginator11, Moley Fox, The Walls Of Jericho for reviewing and adding to faves or subcriptions! I also want to thank everyone who has been following the story already, and would like to apologise again for its lateness.
I don't know exactly when the next chapter will be up, so I'm not going to be able to suggest a date this time.
Thanks, everyone. Seeyall next time!