Author Note: Hope you guys enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 186

Vixen

Hedy, Alex, and Afton stayed completely silent in the service hall, waiting for whatever "signal" Hedy seemed to know was coming. Hedy had the key in the lock ready to turn.

There was no way they could have missed the 'signal', even if they hadn't been listening. They jumped as Funtime Foxy suddenly gave a frustrated shout (the first time half the waiting party had ever heard something like a voice from these animatronics). Then there was the crash of furniture being overturned and Ruby's delighted laugh came through the door.

Alex and Afton shared a bewildered look while a small smile pulled at Hedy's lips.

At least someone was having fun.

"Go," Hedy said, pushing Afton after opening the door.

She tugged a slightly shaking Alex in behind her.

Ruby was having fun. She'd pushed the pain in her shoulder aside as she got the new fox in the face with a glitter bomb. Glitter stood out really nicely on her casing. Gave her a more sci-fi look.

The way she spluttered at the cloud of sparkles reminded Ruby more of Bonnie than either fox though. Even in the beginning, Foxy had usually just squinted through it. Mangle was prone to getting distracted by the glitter briefly, even in the middle of chase. Funtime Foxy flailed at the stuff like it was a swarm of bees.

It wasn't long before the fox was on her though.

Ruby would admit, Funtime Foxy was fast. She wasn't quite as fast as Foxy though, and also wasn't as agile as Mangle. The younger fox could be damn acrobatic when she wanted to (probably breaking her joints to cheat). Foxy was still the fastest in an outright sprint.

Funtime Foxy clearly had experience hunting people though and there was an edge of desperation to her movements that hadn't been there for any of the other bots.

Yes, the Originals had a hint of it, desperate to kill more "kindly" before the ghost kids had their turn. But even then, the thread of hopelessness slowed them into a little more distracted apathy than this.

Ruby didn't like it. She didn't know enough to make any judgments though. So she threw another glitter bomb and swiped the fox's legs out from under her while she recoiled from the sparkles again.

She wondered how the newbie would react to the chocolate bombs. And what face Hedy would pull when she saw the mess afterwards.

Hedy still hated when Ruby used chocolate, even when it was the cheapest stuff possible that hardly had any real chocolate in it to begin with.

Hedy pointed to the door that was their target as Ruby's light flashed on it in the contained chaos. The flashlight, even moving around wildly and being dimmer than her own, cast enough light that they could somewhat see where they were going while still being mostly shrouded in darkness. Ruby was doing a good job of keeping the resident bot distracted though.

Afton's movements were too slow, as if he kept stopping to catch a glimpse of Funtime Foxy across the room, and Alex was too hesitant. It was putting Hedy on edge. She was used to quick, purposeful movement between her and Ruby. Hesitation could be disastrous in the situations they'd been in.

Hedy couldn't risk forcing them too quickly so she just held her breath and mentally yelled at them to just freaking keep moving.

Ruby danced out of Funtime Foxy's way with a laugh which baffled the frazzled bot. "We need a nickname for you," she mused, dodging again. "Funtime Foxy is too long and impersonal."

She knew Hedy would agree with her. She renamed all the Toys after all. Now it was Ruby's turn!

She briefly wondered if Hedy would be annoyed, like it was her special thing to rename bots. Ruby shrugged off the thought. Annoying her big sister was a regular thing now. Plus, she doubted Hedy was that petty.

She sidestepped again and the bot slammed into the table. Ruby tsked.

"Keep an eye on your surroundings." she jumped on another table. "Or it'll be used against you."

The fox bots' best weapon was their speed. That did nothing when you got them running into things though.

Especially walls. Foxy was particularly annoyed by unexpected walls appearing when the building meddled in their games. Mangle was more baffled by the appearance and disappearance of pieces of furniture in her way. Ruby usually scolded the building for those moves, even if it was funny.

Funtime Foxy clearly could understand what she was saying. She had that same look of "aliveness" in her eyes that all the others had. She just refused to respond with words at the moment, settling for growling at the teen and glancing around as the fight went on much longer than she wanted. She also shouted a few times, wordless sounds of frustration and surprise. Her yelps were adorable. Almost as cute as Mangle's surprised yips.

It didn't seem like she saw the others, though there were a few moments of ear twitching that could either be her detecting the trio sneaking by, or just as likely Ruby's steps and laughter echoing off the walls and confusing her senses.

The teenager was all for using the echoing nature of the room to her advantage.

Alex got to the door first, sprinting the last few feet in a little bit of panic as a glitter bomb went off much closer to them than expected. She opened it before Hedy or Afton got there. The door was louder than any of them wanted and they all flinched at the noise.

Ruby jumped over the fox as she pounced for her on the table. "Feisty fox. I like you. How about Vixen?" she suggested. This time when the bot dived for her, she threw a confetti bomb in her face which clearly stunned her, since she froze in confusion as she watched the pieces float down to rest on her snout.

Had she never seen confetti before?

"Yeah. Vixen works I think," Ruby mused as she studied the glittery, colourful and shocked face.

Hedy liked the name too and might have said so if there weren't two other people she was trying to keep from getting attacked. She was tired as heck from saying Funtime Foxy all the time. More than once she had almost just said "Foxy" for simplicity's sake. She knew Ruby would have been annoyed if she did though.

She paused in the doorway to Parts and Services and checked back at Ruby, trying to make her out in the alternating darkness and flashes of light.

Meanwhile, the newly named Vixen hesitated for a second as she noticed the difference, even without looking.

She knew there were four humans in the room. Three adults. One child.

Four then three then two.

Then three again…

Hedy felt Afton tug at the back of her chair as he pulled her into Part and Services with a shaky breath then closed the door.

Then...one.

Hedy hissed. "Mr. Afton, please do not touch my chair."

"I apologize," Afton said quietly. "I panicked a little when you stopped." He looked at the door a little pale. "What on earth am I doing...?"

"W-what?" Alex asked, stressed. Was he talking to them?

"I shouldn't have agreed to this. Oh God…" Afton shook his head. "Why in my right mind did I agree to letting a child use herself as bait? Much less let her fight..."

"Ruby doesn't appreciate being called a child," Hedy said. "And I'm not very concerned for her..."

"That also highly concerns me. She was just injured."

"That doesn't happen all the time," Hedy said. "She was worried about getting Andre out and got distracted. But she's been hurt before. She knows how to handle it."

"Ms. Fitzgerald." Afton sounded agitated. "There is no sane world where it should be acceptable for a teenager to so readily risk her life for a grown man while her friend, who's a grown adult herself I might add, would lightly speak as if this is a regular evening for you."

"I guess the world isn't sane then," Alex muttered.

"This is highly unusual, and frankly I'm astounded how calm you two are. Three! Even you Ms. Isaacs. I would be impressed if not utterly perplexed and horrified.

"I'm not calm..." Alex said, looking like she thought the man looked a little crazy.

"Now isn't the time to be confronting me about this," Hedy pointed out.

Afton still looked frustrated but the Hand Unit's voice interrupted them.

"Great job reaching Parts and Service! It seems that Funtime Freddy is out of power, which should make your job much easier. The release switch for the chest cavity is located on the underside of the endoskeleton jaw. To reach it, we will first need to open the face-plates. You will need to press the face-plate release triggers in a specific order, and it's important to be as precise and as careful as possible. Locate the small button on Freddy's face, just under his right cheek, and press it."

Afton gave Hedy a look that clearly said 'this conversation isn't over' before turning to look at the supposedly shut down bot as he tried to wrangle his feelings.

Ruby immediately noticed when something changed.

Vixen's movements faltered for a moment and Ruby was sure that she saw a brief flash of panic on her face before it smoothed out into nothing. People didn't realize how expressive the bots actually were and seeing those small signs that gave away her frustration and fear just vanish? It was very off-putting. Her movements changed too. Suddenly she was moving in a more clinical, more robotic way. It was like Ruby was suddenly faced with an entirely different bot. Just one devoid of emotion.

One that wasn't alive.

"What the hell?" she muttered to herself as she dodged a grab. It was subtle but she could also tell that Vixen wasn't just trying to get any kind of blow in anymore. She was trying to catch Ruby.

Hedy shivered a bit and glanced around. She had a sinking feeling, and without the building to tell her if it was irrational or not, she felt exposed. She could still faintly hear the slapping of Ruby's shoes on the metal floor on the other side of the heavy door as the teen dodged with a grace only she could really pull off .

They were being watched. That feeling from when she was "paranoid" in the service hallway by herself was back. But even if that hadn't happened to put her on alert, she would have been able to tell now.

Hedy used to not be that good at telling things like that.

Almost as soon as she noticed it, the prickling on the back of her neck faded, like whatever was watching them turned its attention away for a minute. It was still there though.

Afton wasn't even listening to the Hand Unit anymore. He moved cautiously as if expecting Funtime Fredbear to sit up, but he stared at the bear with something like sadness and reached for the button he knew was there.

But the eyes were dark.

"Can you tell what's wrong with it…" Alex corrected herself apologetically. "Him?" Alex asked, staring at the older man.

Hedy closed her eyes for a second, ignoring her friend and current boss. She could hear Ruby speaking to the fox. Barely, but she wasn't imagining it.

How?

The door was heavy and the room they were in gave off a muffled sense as if closed off. She shouldn't hear anything at all.

Her eyes snapped open and she turned on her flashlight to scan the walls.

Sure enough, she found a vent, right above them. There was nothing there at the moment.

Afton and Alex didn't notice her realisation, too focused on the bot.

That vent was definitely not on the plans...

"For clarification, please note that I am referring to Freddy's right, not your right." Hand Unit managed to sound very condescending there.

Afton muttered something under his breath that was pretty rude, unaware he said it out loud at all.

Alex resisted the urge to chuckle in surprise and decided not to comment.

Ruby had a very bad feeling at the moment so she changed her tactics. Her instincts hadn't led her wrong yet. Instead of staying just within reach of Vixen, a tactic that usually drove the bots up the wall, she kept a greater distance between them. She also studied the bot closer when the light flashed on her, catching on the sparkles of glitter.

The newly renamed Vixen wasn't flinching away from the bright light anymore.

All the foxes flinched at sudden, bright light, even if it wasn't likely to trigger a reset.

Ruby had never even seen Mangle get a reset triggered by light but the fox still shut and covered her eyes if there was a flash.

But Vixen's eyes just looked...gone.

Afton muttered some other curse at the Hand Unit under his breath, already taking a pen out of his pocket to press the tiny nearly-hidden button. "The order's wrong," he muttered, but decided to slow down and follow the instructions. What he really wanted to do was ignore them and fix his bot the way he knew how. But given everything that's happened, he wasn't as inclined to be reckless if he didn't understand what could go wrong. He wasn't even sure what was wrong with Funtime Fredbear. The changed access order of the buttons was concerning, but not the biggest issue.

Hedy looked away from the vent to eye the bot suspiciously. Something was really bothering her, but she could think of what. And it wasn't just the way the bear's erratic behavior the previous night disturbed her.

Alex screamed a little, just a yelp but it set Afton and Hedy on edge as the former jerked his hands back and latter sharply surveyed the room with her light.

"What?" Hedy asked.

"I thought I saw something," the other woman said with a hiss, gesturing behind the bear at the darkened table he sat on. "A rat or something..." She sounded a little embarrassed for screaming but her tone was serious.

Hedy suddenly wanted Kitty. She hated rats…

For all the health violations of having a cat in a restaurant, she sure kept the rodent population non-existant.

That awful feeling that said Hedy was missing something obvious was worse now.

Afton shifted and Hedy realized what was wrong.

"Where's the rabbit?"

Afton paused in his movements and looked down at the stump where the hand puppet should be.

"She was made to be detachable but she never liked it," he murmured with a frown.

"Great! Now locate the button under his left cheek, and press it." The Hand Unit continued on.

Afton hesitated before following the instructions.

"Great! Now carefully locate and press the button next to Freddy's right eye."

"They've completely changed the order," Afton muttered again in annoyance.

"Why is it so complicated in the first place?" Alex asked, twitching as she looked around nervously. She didn't expect the focused Afton to answer, but he did so.

"Security," Afton said. "I didn't want to make it easy for just anyone to get to their more delicate parts, but I didn't want to use a key or such that could be lost. This way they could tell a mechanic who they trusted the order if needed."

Hedy thought of the long-lost special crank wrench that was originally made to fit into the odd shaped socket in Spring and Goldy's backs to wind back their spring locks.

Seemed Afton could learn from his mistakes.

"Great! Now carefully locate and press the button just above Freddy's nose."

This time the faceplate sprung open suddenly at the button press, making Alex scream again.

Ruby maintained her distance from Vixen while listening to Alex's random screams. They were more like yelps. There was more surprise than fear in her voice so Ruby assumed nothing was dangerously wrong yet. There was a big difference between a 'what the hell?!' scream and an 'I'm going to die!' scream.

She'd stopped trying to talk to the bot.

Vixen wasn't just ignoring her anymore, she didn't seem to even be registering her words at all now.

Honestly Ruby was itching to knock Vixen out and drag her out of the building for Hedy to check over every inch of her code. Something was just so wrong here.

Hedy stared at the bot in curiosity.

"So they aren't suits. The outside is as part of them as the inside," she mused, curiously.

Afton looked at her briefly, wondering if he had ever mentioned suits. Otherwise, he didn't know where she got the idea. He had suspicions, but he didn't work on suspicion.

"Why would you make the face open like that?" Alex shuddered.

"It's what made the most logical sense," Afton said, frowning as he inspected the mechanics.

Funtime Freddy was still completely unconscious and Bon Bon was nowhere to be found.

"Good job! The face-plates should now be open. Locate and press the small button on the underside of Freddy's endoskeleton jaw."

Afton frowned and followed the instruction, stepping back as the bear's chest sprang open.

Alex just barely muffled a third scream, a little pissed and self conscious for being so jumpy.

"Could you warn me next time?" she hissed, freaked out but still very focused while she paid attention to Afton's every move, memorizing the steps unlike Hedy who seemed more interested in the walls.

"Excellent. The chest cavity should now be open. Remove the power module from the chest cavity."

"I would rather not," Afton hissed.

"What happens..." Hedy asked.

Afton considered explaining. He hired them to help him, after all. It was best he tell the technicians how certain systems worked if he expected them to help him fix anyone. "They need it to be fully awake. It doesn't hurt them to remove it, but I don't see any replacements," he said, glancing around. "I don't want to just remove it and essentially have him shut down without the ability to wake himself up."

"Maybe...we uh don't want him to wake himself up?" Alex murmured in concern.

Afton glanced at her. "It's better to do any maintenance on them when they are powered. Otherwise you can't see if circuits are damaged or not. And…they can't inform you if they feel something is wrong." He eyed the two young women, mildly surprised to see them both nod in understanding rather than any negative or confused reaction to his choice of words describing the bots as feeling and helping in their own maintenance.

"Well, do we have much of a choice if we want to finish the night's task?" Alex asked, looking around the room uncomfortably. "Can we trick the Hand Unit?"

Afton didn't seem pleased about the current plan to follow all the instructions. That went so well the first night.

Hedy wasn't keen either. "Perhaps. How does it even know what we're doing or if we take it out?" She didn't really have any ideas.

"Remove the power module from the chest cavity," the Hand Unit repeated.

All three of them stayed in disturbed silence for a moment.

Hedy scowled, glancing up again. "I hate to say it, but we really might not have a choice…"

"What would it even do to us if we didn't?" Alex asked.

"I don't want to tempt it," Hedy said, which was half true. If it was just her and Ruby she was worried about, then she would have given the Hand Unit a big "fuck you" ages ago. She wouldn't be worried about the electronic locks trapping her somewhere.

And, technically, if they did get locked in she fully expected Ruby to get them out by likely dismantling the locks or blowing something up. If there was something she'd learned about the teen, it was that she couldn't be forced to stay in one place for very long.

Afton and Alex didn't know that about Ruby though. And as much fun as it would be to see how creative the teen could get, none of them knew if the bots would suffer as a result. So she didn't mention it as Afton sighed in frustration and started working on getting the power module out carefully.

Afton moved like a man expecting Funtime Fredbear to blink and say something any moment. Or maybe he expected the bear to suddenly jump up and bite him. It was hard to tell. The man kept checking the bear's eyes with a mix of cautiousness and hope.

Given what happened the previous day and how nervous the rabbit had been, Hedy remained suspicious. So she kept her eyes out for any movement.

Hand Unit only spoke again after Afton had eased the power module out.

"Great work. You will now be required to remove the secondary power module from the Bonnie hand-puppet. Press the large black button beneath Bonnie's bow-tie to release the power module."

They all looked down to Fredbear's hand.

"When the fuck did the rabbit get back?!" Alex's voice went up a few octaves.

Not even Hedy noticed when Bon Bon returned.

She waved a little at the rabbit who was staring at them with wide eyes.

"Hi..." Hedy said lamely, mildly impressed the animatronic could be so sneaky.

Afton didn't seem to want to do as told. Especially since Bon Bon was clearly still awake. He stood there, staring for a moment before something in him forced him to move. He slowly crouched in front of the rabbit. "Hello, dearest…" he said quietly, his voice cracking. "It's been a while. I'm so…sorry." He shut his eyes for a moment and looked away from the rabbit.

Bon Bon stared at Afton in horror, studying him. She quickly glanced at Hedy. Her eyes searched the room, looking at the ceiling for a moment. She then looked about to cry, trying her best to hide it before she gave up and sobbed behind her hands with no sound. She was shaking. Not just crying but frightened about showing her own reaction.

Hedy immediately backed up and scanned the ceilings with her flashlight on instinct.

She couldn't see anything inside the vent and she didn't hear anything except the occasional thud from Ruby and Vixen.

Afton was distracted by trying to soothe Bon Bon, looking like he was about to cry himself.

Alex's fear gave way to confusion and some bit of intrigue as she watched Afton.

"Bon Bon," the man soothed. "Sweetheart, it's okay. I-I know. It's me. I had no idea..." his soft-toned voice cut off in a crack.

Bon Bon cried harder but she still didn't make a sound.

"Can you talk?" he tried, desperately although he was pretty sure she couldn't for some reason. He reached to gently rub her ears, startling as she latched onto his hand and hugged him tightly as she sobbed. He let her.

"Shhh. Bon Bon…" he murmured. He gently extricated his hand and carefully held both of her tiny ones while rubbing her snout with a thumb. "What…happened…"

Bon Bon's eyes widened and she looked around in a panic. She shook her head frantically and tried her best to shove his hands away as she shook, frantically gesturing at the door.

"We can't leave. Not until I figure out what happened. Shh. It's going to be okay. It's…it's going to be okay."

Hedy listened to William Afton's words, a little shocked by the gentleness and familiarity in them.

The Hand Unit repeated its instructions and Bon Bon cringed. Her fear reminded Hedy sharply of Bonnie during his first maintenance with her.

Hedy came closer and placed her hand on Afton's arm.

"Hello Bon Bon. I'm Hedy," she said gently, "It's lovely to actually meet you." She came by the table until she was leaning on it with Afton beside her, her and Bon Bon's noses inches apart. She carefully reached her hand up, slowing when the rabbit flinched away.

Hedy hovered a finger close to an ear, hesitating as she waited for the rabbit to lean toward her to give permission. She lightly petted the outside edge of one of Bon Bon's ears when the bunny let her.

"We don't want to hurt you. I promise," Hedy spoke softly while Afton stared at her in shock. "You look like you remember Afton. You know he wouldn't hurt you right?"

She actually didn't know if that was an accurate statement but the little bot's fear didn't seem to be of Afton. There was something else about this situation that frightened her.

Bon Bon stared at Hedy with wide eyes that glinted in the low light.

"We're just trying to follow the instructions simply because we don't know if this place will hurt you if we don't. Or us. Will something happen if we don't take out your power module?" Hedy asked.

Alex couldn't believe how calm and sure of herself Hedy sounded, not to mention gentle.

Hedy was not the type to be kind to non-living machines she worked on, and she wasn't the sweetest to most people unless they were friends or children. Her tone was strange to Alex's ears.

Again the little bot's eyes flicked to the ceiling, to the vent above them. Whatever she was afraid of, she was worried about it watching her.

Hedy's eyes shifted upward to match, then back down again. "I'm going to take out your power module, but keep a close eye on it so we can put it back in as soon as possible." She looked at Afton. "Taking it out completely shuts them down right?"

She just wanted to clarify but immediately hated how he hesitated.

"...No," he eventually said, looking down at Funtime Freddy's module that he held carefully. "The computers and hard drives run separate from the rest of their body. This power module only assists with motor control."

Hedy looked at him, better understanding why he seemed so upset about this. "Are you telling me taking it out paralyzes them?" she said, dreading the answer.

Alex stared. "Wait, they can still be conscious without that?"

Afton nodded stiffly. "Conscious and unable to move. I only made these removable because with all their electronics I was worried about eating up all their energy. These modules are rechargeable. They can recharge themselves by 'sleeping' or they can take them out to plug into an outlet elsewhere if they need help. But they need to help each other with that."

"So if we leave with these power modules, something could happen and they'd be unable to do anything but watch, listen… and feel," Hedy said. Her voice had a dangerous edge now.

Ruby wasn't going to react well to the news either. If there was one thing she hated, it was when the bots felt helpless. Whether that was being helpless to the ghost kids or Michael, or just to the company as a whole.

Bon Bon drooped slightly, which told her how much the idea scared her.

Hedy was quiet for a minute.

"How do we get out of not doing this? What are the consequences?"

"I don't know," Afton said. "I don't know." The old man shut his eyes tight and pressed his nose between his palms as he took a shallow breath.

Bon Bon shook her head sharply, pointing toward her little bow tie shakily.

Alex whined. It was heartbreaking that the little bot wanted them to do it anyway despite clearly being terrified.

Hand Unit repeated his instructions again, making Bon Bon flinch.

Afton had managed to go through with it with Funtime Fredbear, maybe because the bear clearly wasn't awake, but now he was frozen.

Hedy sucked in a breath.

"We'll fix this," she said quietly to the little rabbit, gently touching her ear again. "Everything's going to be okay."

There wasn't much hope in the rabbit's eyes, but she gestured at her bowtie again.

Hedy frowned and pressed the button with her index finger, hiding a flinch as the bot froze in place and her chest popped out. There was still light in the rabbit's eyes and Hedy wasn't expecting just how much that disturbed her.

"We'll figure this out," she whispered to the small bot.

When she was done, Hand Unit spoke again.

"Great job. You've acquired both power modules. This completes your tasks for the night. Please exit the building through Funtime Auditorium, and we'll see you back here again tomorrow."

"Tsk," Hedy said as Afton put the power modules in her bag. She was about to suggest they explore the rest of the room before leaving but stilled at a sensation she didn't like. She looked back toward the door where Ruby was.

Ruby was "anxious" or something close.

Hedy wasn't quite sure how she knew.

Ruby was rarely afraid for herself and this was no exception. But she was letting a little emotion slip through while she was busy with Vixen, silently asking Hedy to hurry up. It probably wasn't even a conscious plea.

They weren't even in the building, so it really freaked Hedy out that she was able to sense anything, especially from Ruby.

The teen was normally locked up tighter than a bank vault when it came to her emotions. Especially since the ghost stuff happened.

This was more than she'd felt from Ruby in a while.

"So, do we just leave?" Alex asked nervously, glancing at the door.

Hedy just nodded sharply to the door with one last glance at the vent.

Afton didn't move with them. He stood in front of the two bots with his back to the women. He was silent.

"Mr. Afton," Hedy said, neutrally. "I understand if you're upset right now, but we should go." Her trust of him had shifted after what she just witnessed. She couldn't ignore the pain of the bots and his disappearance, but she also couldn't ignore the pain in his eyes and voice at seeing Bon Bon's obvious distress at the hands of this place.

It took him a moment before he nodded.

Vixen's movements faltered for the first time when the door opened again. Ruby narrowed her eyes as the bot stumbled and blinked rapidly.

Hedy noticed too, even just barely seeing the silhouette of the fox in the dark room, and frowned as she pushed the other two toward the exit.

The blank nothing that had been in Vixen's eyes before was gone. Now she seemed mostly surprised to see Ruby still there at all.

Alex froze for a second as the fox's head swung around to look at the other three for the briefest moment before turning back to Ruby. There was very little reaction to three other humans in the room and it messed with her mind.

The bot knew they were there the whole time.

Ruby gave them an impatient 'get moving' gesture before dodging Vixen's pounce again.

Hedy jabbed her current boss in the arm to get him moving, right as Afton looked like he might call out to the animatronic and try to talk her down.

Alex was already at the door anxiously waiting for them to hurry up.

As soon as they were out of the room, Ruby dodged around the fox and darted for the vent.

Vixen saw the sprint coming but even then, she didn't get close to snagging Ruby. She still seemed oddly unsteady.

The teen was breathing a little hard by the time she made it back to the control room.

"See ya later Vixen! Thanks for the game!" she called back through the tunnel. "It was fun!"

The foxes were always fun.