Echo sat, bored, at her desk while she waited for the bell to ring. There was no point in dragging it out, she had finished her aptitude test in 20 minutes and was now just recalling their last mission: Rescuing the Prime Minister's poodle, Kettle. The way he was talking when Kettle was handed back to him made it sound as if he had to be talked down from having us knighted. The bell rang and the gang made their way to the hallway where Dan's locker was.
"Aptitude test," He snorted and slammed the locker shut. Frank popped up behind it holding multiple live entertainment tickets.
Keri immediately recognized what act they were, "Tickets to see Derren Beige? Wicked"
"You should not have gotten these for her," Echo groaned, "She believes in every branch of precognition there is. Katie even calls her horoscope-junkie."
"These are like gold dust. How'd you get them?" Aniesha exclaimed.
Frank only smirked, "I have my sources."
Dan, thankfully had no clue, "Am I supposed to know who Derren Beige is?"
"It's a lame act," Tom assured him, "He pretends he can see the future."
"And K here will take his words as gospel." Echo sighed.
"Is this a thank you for rescuing the Prime Minister's poodle?" Neesh asked, really pleased at the idea. Echo knew that they would never get passed that.
Frank looked at them all knowingly, "It's your new assignment."
That afternoon come evening, the six of them were all sat around a table watching Beige perform trick after trick, each one more impressive than the last. He had just finished talking about Skittles the cat and his Eggs Benedict when Frank started to get their full attention on the mission.
"That can't be good for the cat." Aniesha said as they all focused.
Frank and the others ignored her, dan noticed Keri on her phone, "We're working."
Echo plucked her phone out of the gossip ers hands and pocketed it, Keri didn't even complain, she just whined a little, "Just telling my mates where I am. They'll be so jealous."
"This was Beige a month ago." frank said, showing them a clip on his spy pod of Beige getting pelted with chips at a failed trick, "Now look at him." he pointed to the stage where he the man had drawn a vase of flowers that was relatively similar to the audience participants.
Aniesha ran her gathered statistics by the team, "In the past four weeks, Derren Beige has published winning lottery numbers, and the results of horse races and football matches."
"Awesome!" Keri the believer exclaimed.
Tom was not so faithful, "Oh, come on he's just a clever showman."
Dan and Echo both went to say the same thing, "I'm not so sure"
"I wouldn't be so sure" they looked at each other and had a little laugh, Echo let Dan talk,
"The CIA gave investigated phsycic abilities."
Echo kept going where Dan paused, "I know I was sceptical earlier but what if he's really cracked precognition?"
Tom wasn't biting, "There's no way- it's some kind of trick."
"Then why are M.I.9 so interested?" Dan asked.
"More and more people are following his predictions," Frank explained.
"That's brill!" Keri said, "If everyone wins the lottery, that means that no-one will have to work again."
Echo pointed out the obvious, "And the economy collapses faster than the 99p could ever dream." The others looked confused.
"Uh, who?" Aniesha asked.
Echo sighed, "Tell me you did some research on who you'd be fighting when you accepted this job? It's not all Korps, most of it is but there are other terror organisations."
"This is causing chaos," Frank interjected himself back I to the conversation, "Your mission is to find out how the scam works and put a stop to it, before things get out of hand."
The intermission and the field agents proceeded to go running away just as Beige told them not to. They made their way to Beige's dressing room,
"Mr Beige, we're from you fan club. Thank you so much for agreeing to see us," Aniesha gushed and it was all Echo could do to keep a straight face.
"Of course, the interview." The clairvoyant pronounced.
"I bet you know the questions already." Dan joked childishly and this time Echo really did laugh but she attempted to cover it. Derren looked over with a laugh,
"It doesn't work like that," he noticed the redheads, "I'm sorry, are you two sisters?"
"Kind of identical twins," Echo jokes and Beige laughed again. Keri didn't pay attention to the joke,
"How does it work?" she asked, only to get ignored. Keri scanned the room as the interview extended and Dan placed a covert camera on the wall, echo covertly snooped around the desk and had just found what she thought may be important but got interrupted by her sister asking,
"What's with all the drawings of teddies?"
Beige looked over at them and faltered, "Oh that, um. . . when I come off stage, it's how I like to unwind." Soon after that they were kicked out and they had begun to make their way back to the entertainment hall when Echo slapped her forehead,
"Fuck! I dropped my communicator by his room." they turned around and walked back only to see Beige getting kidnapped as they came close. Echo picked up her pencil as she ran and Dan got a call from Frank,
"Team! Beige has been-"
"Kidnapped we know we're chasing them out back!" He shouted and cut the call. They turned a corner and were met with a cow costume. Undeterred, Echo vaulted over the two person cow and kept running while her friends all tried to push the cow to the side to get past.
Echo got outside to see the doors on a van slam and the kidnappers get in the car. As they peeled away, her friends ran out and she stopped running. She kicked off of the wall in her frustration and didn't stick the landing. Her back burst into pain as it collided with the ground.
"Ow! Fucking hell I almost had them."
When they got back to base Stella was there and waiting for them. She almost began yelling until she saw Echo doubled over and leaning heavily on Dan.
"Are you alright? What happened?" She said quickly, helping her sit on the table.
"I wasn't fast enough to get the scumbags who took Beige. I got angry and tried to let out my frustration but I didn't stick the landing." Stella refrained from getting angry again,
"Next time just throw something or wait until you get back here to have a go at the punching bag that I will apparently be installing." She grabbed a first aid kit, "Tom, Dan turn around. Echo undo the jumpsuit so I can check your injuries." She tried her best to do as she was told but ended up almost falling off the table in pain.
"Okay, Keri, Aniesha help her, don't worry about damaging the jacket, it can be replaced." The girls cut the jacket off their friend who was spasming in pain. They unzipped the back of her jumpsuit and tried not to gasp. Even through the clothes it looked as if someone had rubbed a micro plane over her lower back. To her credit, Echo only swore once as Stella put the antiseptic over her back and wrapped bandages around it.
"The moment I get upstairs that corset is going in the bin, there's no way I can wear it like this." Upon her request, her friends didn't do her jumpsuit back up and Stella got on with what she had originally been here to do.
"Why weren't the rest of you as quick as her?"
"There was this cow." Frank tried to explain,
"It got in our way too, Echo simply vaulted it but we couldn't." Dan supplied.
"Parkour is part of you skillset Dan and you're telling me you couldn't do it." She snapped, "This is not a joke. I am already taking a lot of heat from my superiors. How could you let this happen?"
"It was a surveillance mission! Our superior told us to investigate him, not protect him." Frank shot back.
"I don't see what the big deal is. Beige is obviously a fraud" Tom interjected.
Frank looked like he had just won the argument, "Tom's right, whoever's took Beige will release him just as soon as they realise the whole thing's a scam."
"I thought scientists were meant to keep an open mind," bit Stella, "What if Beige really can see the future?"
"It would make him a huge asset to M.I.9." Dan realised,
"Or a threat." Echo warned.
"Precisely," Stella announced, "I'll tell you what the facts are, Frank. One of your agents is injured, albeit by herself, worse than anyone on this team has been. And Beige was kidnapped and we have no idea who took him."
Tom and Dan tried to tell her their progress but were interrupted,
"Stop! All of you, stop what you're doing. You're suspended. You too, Frank."
"No way!" Keri shrieked,
"You can't be serious." Frank said.
"Derren Beige was snatched from right under your noses, and this isn't the first time you've let a target get away."
Dan put two and two together, "You mean the Mastermind and the Crime Minister."
"HQ are asking a lot of difficult questions about the team."
''Thanks for the vote of confidence." Aniesha sniped,
''Oh,I've got your backs, believe me. You're lucky it's only a suspension, if Echo hadn't injured herself then she would be the only one not in danger of worse. Other agents will take it from here, don't get into any more trouble. Now, go back to school." Stella finished.
Dan helped Echo out of the chair and slowly they made their way to the elevator.
Up at the careers fair, Echo was chatting with Aniesha about Beige's drawings when a woman walked up to them and snatched the corset in Echo's hand away to examine it,
"Brilliantly done for a decorative rather than functional piece. Did you make this?" The woman said to Echo,
"Er- Yes Ma'am, though I can't wear it right now." she said awkwardly.
"Oh, is it too small?" She asked,
"No, I've got a lower back injury and the skin's too sensitive to put pressure on." she corrected. The woman looked very awkward at the realisation that she had just insinuated that an injured girl was fat.
"Oh, I'm sorry. A-anyway, this is lovely, for your age you have a brilliant hand and eye when it comes to fashion. Would you consider a career in this industry?" She said to cover from her mistakes.
"It's okay. And I'm sorry to say that this was just for fun with my school uniform; I'm trying for a career in law."
The woman smiled and handed back the corset, "That's a shame, but good luck."
As the woman walked away Aniesha turned to her with a raised eyebrow, "A career in Law, huh?"
Echo shrugged her shoulders and immediately regretted it, "Ah, fuck! You know, judge duty, espionage. What's the difference really?" Aniesha gushed her and forced her to sit down next to Frank at his careers stand. Keri noted the massive careers fair bag that Aniesha was carrying,
"Wow, is that full of careers' leaflets? You must be really worried about getting your job back."
She took out one of the top drawings, "We found some of Derren's pictures." she held it out,
Tom looked at it, "is that meant to be Beige being kidnapped?"
"The point is he drew it before he was snatched." Aniesha said.
Echo joined in, "We think his pictures- OoOoh," she hissed in pain, "We think his pictures are how he makes his predictions."
Dan went to sit by her and Frank put a gentle hand on her shoulder. Keri kept talking,
"A kind of phsycic Pictionary."
"Exactly!"
"Interesting." said Dan.
Tom and Frank weren't convinced, "Get real." Tom droned.
"Beige and people like him just pander to superstition and ignorance." Frank muttered,
"Hey, guys! This one looks like us." Keri said, holding up a picture of five shadowy figures standing a little ways away from a factory type building. That got Frank unnerved even though he tried to hide it. He grabbed the picture,
"You'll see, there'll be a perfectly rational explanation." Then Mr Flatley turned up quoting Hamlet, breaking out of character and proceeding to quote a different play entirely,
"I hope he doesn't think all Shakespeare is Hamlet, because there are a lot of tragedies to get mixed up. That was definitely the Scottish play." Echo said weakly, holding the picture that Frank had anxiously showed into her hands when Flatley turned up.
"Maybe Shakespeare's right," Aniesha said, "Maybe there's things we can't explain."
Echo, Tom and Aniesha stood in front of the medicine booth watching Roly do 'surgery' on a doll when Mrs King turned up,
The three of them heard a semi-distant, "Oh! Aniesha."
"Help." Aniesha pleaded, Tom unhelpfully made his expert and Echo adopted an absolutely feral grin,
"Oh you are gonna owe me bigtime for this." Aniesha turned just in time to catch a glimpse of her grin and panicked,
"No, I don't like the sound of that I'd much rather take my aunti-"
Echo collapsed and let out a very realistic, and only semi-true, gasp and groan of pain. Dan, Frank and Keri were instantly by her side and Tom and Mrs King were soon there too.
"Echo, are you alright?" Dan asked, kneeling down next to her,
"My goodness! What on earth?" Mrs King exclaimed shocked. Echo ignored her and spoke to Dan as he seemed most panicked,
"The bandages shifted, I felt the pain spike and fell over in shock. The impact just made it worse but it's ok. I'm-"
"You are not fine, don't you dare say you are." He sounded so distressed. It touched her that he was so worried, then Mrs King spoke up.
"What is this about pain and bandages? Are you hurt Echo?"
She grimaced, she did not think it through when she came up with her half-arsed plan,
"I tripped over while running to school, scraped up my back pretty badly but Dan patched me up." she lifted the edge of her untucked shirt and the people surrounding her, even those who saw the injury get dressed, gasped. Echo then realised that the bandage had completely soaked though and the scabbing that had formed had torn. So that was why the pain was worsening.
"Why don't we take her to get this treated auntie, Dan, Keri, Tom and I?" Aniesha suggested,
"Yes, yes, that would be best." Mrs King agreed and before Echo could protest, Dan had carefully swept her up and carried her out of the hall with her sister and friends, right behind them. She chuckled,
"Wow, I did not think pretending to fall would hurt that much. You know what? I don't even want you to owe me for that, neesh, just never ask me to bail you out unless it's while we're working again." Dan got the hump with Aniesha after learning that Echo technically got hurt helping her, but Echo set him straight.
Once they were in the Medical room and her wound was redressed, Frank caught up with them. He looked relieved at her relaxed form, "That was incredibly reckless," he chided her, she looked down, "But loyal and I'm glad you're okay." she smiled up at him.
"Now, Korps have commited a series of robberies. They seem to have inside time and place of a diamond shipment, the combination to a bank vault. It's like they've suddenly become. . ."
"What, Frank?" Keri asked,
"Clairvoyant." Echo muttered quietly, though everyone heard her. Dan came up with the conclusion, "Korps have Derren Beige."
"They'll be able to anticipate our every move." Aniesha gasped.
"They could figure out our secret identities, know where our base is." Dan said grimly,
Tom rolled his eyes, "Come on, Beige must be using some kind of mathematical algorithm to do this."
"Yes," Frank agreed, "That would require huge amounts of data. We might be able to track that volume of traffic on the net. Tom, let's go crunch some numbers."
"Take me with you." Echo implorred, "This room reminds me of the sternum lab way to much. Even if I'm not doing anything, the base is better that here."
Frank hesitated for a moment before nodding, "Make your excuses, I'll see you down there in ten. You three," He pointed to Aniesha, Dan and Keri, "Get back to the fair. We have to work on the assumption that Korps could find St Hearts at any moment. Stay alert, everyone here is in danger."
"Stella won't be happy." Keri called after him and Tom.
He turned back around, "Leave Stella to me." He walked off.
"Honestly," Keri turned to her sister, "He acts more like your dad than our adoptive dad does."
"All right, keep your eyes out for anything unusual." Dan said as the others walked off. He turned back to Echo, "D'you want a hand getting to the elavator?" She gave him a slightly pained smile,
"Usually I'd say no. You know that, but I have a feeling that this god forsaken nurse won't let me out of here without a chaperone."
"And for good reason too, no one wants to see you passed out in hallway, bleeding to death."
"I'll hardly die from my wounds," she said as she got up, only to have her foot buckle under her weight ten seconds later, "I think I landed funny when I vaulted that cow. I might need more of a hand than I anticipated." Dan wrapped his arm around her chest and they walked over to the nurse.
"Miss, I feel a lot less faint now, I recon I'm okay to go." The nurse looked at her shrewdly and then looked at Daniel,
"That young man is holding you upright, are you sure you'll be alright?" Echo then moved his arm from around her and held his hand while tilting her head towards him.
"I think I'll be good." She and Dan stayed there for a few moments until the nurse nodded and let them leave. Dan put his arm back around her as soon as they were out of the nurses view and they laughed a little as they mocked her tone.
"'I think I'll be good.' Ha! You sounded like Luna Lovegood you were so dreamy." The blonde boy laughed as they maded their way down the elavator. The doors opened and Echo went to step out, only to be swept off her feet and sat gently on the table.
Frank turned around at her small cry of surprise while Tom, ever the multitasker, continued to look at his screen, "Dan, why aren't you at the fair?"
"Ec also hurt her ankle chasing those stupid Korps agents. I wasn't about to let her ruin her body just to get down here." Echo huffled and rolled her eyes playfully. In trurth, despite being in considerable pain a lot of the day, she'd had a lot of fun messing about with Dan.
Tom chose to make a very silly comment, "Besides, anyone would think you're just off making out. Everyone can see how much you fancy each other."
Dan almost started towards his introverted friend but just then the doors opened again and Aniesha and Keri stepped out,
"We have to keep digging," Aniesha said as the two girls walked in.
"Keep digging what?" Frank said, confused. Aniesha spread some drawings out on the part of the table the Echo wasn't sat on, she stretched around as best she could without damaging something further,
"One of Derren's drawings anticipated his own kidnapping. So maybe one of his other drawings anticipated where Korps have him." The spies who weren't sceptics began looking at the drawings,
"So Derren Beige is going to help us find Derren Beige - love it." Dan said, still in a relatively good mood.
"What's his deal with teddy bears?" Keri asked the room at large only to be ignored. Echo considered it but her thoughts were interrupted by a thoroughly put out Tom,
"You're wasting your time."
"How'd that mathematical algorithm thing work out?" Dan asked, catching Tom where it stung.
"If you're done dueling with your egos," Echo silenced the boys, "This might be what we're looking for." She spread out a picture which looked like chaos on paper. After a few minutes of decifering the clues, they moved onto the next point of argument: weather Echo should go into the field. Almost everyone except Echo herself was against it so she let herself release the pressure she felt,
"I don't care if I have a couple of injuries. I was being very excessive around Mrs King and the nurse. And I was only being heavy footed because I was rather tired earlier. I didn't even realise my ankle was damaged until I got up not 10 minutes ago and I can barely feel it if I walk how I normally do."
"You mean as if your floating?" Keri asked impishly and got glared at by the injured girl,
"I fight like I walk and I'll be fine. I'm going out there even if you force me to take crutches. And even if you do, I'll have an extra weapon." Echo said firmly as her friends sighed. Frank looked pained but handed her something as small as a portable charger.
"Take this, it's an extendable crutch with sound muffling software and it's made of reinforced Titanium. Near indestructible, flies under the radar and packs a punch." She grinned at him,
"Thanks Frank."
"It doesn't make any sense." Keri moaned, "The clues in the drawing brought us here, so why send us to the station? It's on the other side of the city."
"We're missing something." Dan said. They stopped at Aniesha's instruction and they called Tom,
"Tom, tell me exactly what Beige drew."
"It's like an old-fashioned train, like the one you see in the westerns, with the steam coming out of the funnel." Aniesha nodded and pointed to a smog filled vent. They ran (or in Echo's case limped) over to the vent and the sign next to it.
"We found our train." Dan exhaled,
"S-CORP? Try KORPS." Echo deadpanned
"Great, is there a gate?" Tom asked,
"Take one guess." She gestured unnecessarily at the gate.
"How does Beige do it?" Tom sounded stumped,
"We might make a believer out of you yet." Echo smiled into her comunicator.
Frank came onto the call, "The gate, it's electrified - be careful." Dan charged forward and had his spypod take care of the issue. He went to decode the pin pad and Echo noticed her sister's desparation to prank him. She caught Keri's eye and nodded.
3... 2... 1
Keri landed on the other side of the gate and buzzed the three of her comrades in. Dan stood there, choking mildly in shock and slowly smiled as his friends passed him,
"She's starting to get the hang of it!"
"Tom we're in." Aniesha confirmed,
"Okay, head for the red zone."
After about five minutes they reached the red zone and watched as multiple Korps members, including the Crime Minister, ran out of a room and away from where the spies were hidden. They walked through the door and checked with Tom,
"What are we looking for?" Dan asked as they walked into the main hallway,
"Uh- A tomato. I. . ." He faltered,
They paused outside the door that all of the Korps agents had exited and Aniesha said, "Well, it's a shade of tomato." Keri kicked the door down and they all walked in. Beige looked around,
"The kids from my fan club?" he realised,
"Well, actually we're M.I.9." Aniesha corrected,
"Oh, it was you in my drawing." he said. They all wondered if the drawing he was referring to was the one they had seen, or another one.
"Paper clip." Dan said holding his hand up, before Keri could grab one, Echo placed a hair pin in his hand,
"This'll be sturdier and easier to grab." He took it without question.
"Why d'you have that?" Aniesha asked, "Your hair doesn't need one in that style."
"Habit, Korps used to try to handcuff me to my bed to do tests, until I learned to pick locks. Then they had to chain me." Everyone shuddered.
Derren spoke to cover the silence, "I've sent the Crime Minister on a wild goose chase to completely the wrong end of the base. She's going to be furious when she finds out. And what happened to your leg?"
"Then let's get out of here before she does." Dan urged, handing Echo's clip back once Beige was freed from the handcuffs.
As they left the building, Echo answered Beige's ignored question, "Scraped up my back and damaged my ankle while trying to diffuse my temper at not catching your kidnappers."
"Which part of being suspended did you not understand?" was the first thing out of Stella's mouth as she arrived downstairs. She was about to continue yelling until the young spies moved away from the table to reveal a mildly guilty looking, Derren Beige sat next to a relaxed Echo, "Oh. . . I'm glad to see you safe and well, Mr Beige. Now, M.I.9 would like to know how you make your predictions?"
Echo zoned out and played a small game of silent conversations (using eye contact, facial expression and limited hand gestures to have as interesting a chat you could without speaking) with Keri, until they passed the mushy stuff. They refocused as Tom scanned Derren's amulet with his spy pod,
"The crystal in Derren's amulet is from a TED." Frank announced.
"TED. Ted. Teddy bear, Shit!"Echo shouted,
"Language!" multiple people in the room chided,
"English, French, German, Spanish, Boldovian. I can go on but we're wasting time." She stuck her tongue out, very aware of how similar she and Keri could be and were being,
"That must be what all these pictures mean," Keri said, "What is a TED anyway?"
"A Temporal Energy Device," Stella wrote out the acronym as she spoke,
"Sorry," Beige interrupted, "What did you say I've been drawing?"
Frank began to get worked up, "It's an experimental technology that harnesses the kenetic energy of time."
"Yeah, this thing's covered in temporal energy particles." Tom confirmed.
"Did you say. . .?"
"The danger with a TED is, it can be used to manipulate time itself, even re-write history." Stella stressed.
"At Korps there were loads of drawings of teddy bears. . ." Keri trailed off.
"If the Crime Minister figures out they really mean. . ." Dan didn't say what they all knew,
"Like I said: Shit."
"We have to secure this TED now." Stella said, flattening out the drawing of the five spies outside the factory type building.
"We don't even know where it is." Tom moaned.
Beige stood up and Echo carefully hopped down from the table and into Beige's now unoccupied seat. He placed the amulet back around his neck, "Pencil," Stella handed him the one in her hand, "Paper,P Aniesha flipped one of the teddy pages over in front of him,
"It's showtime."
The team arrived at the TED and approached somewhat warily,
"What are you waiting for? Destroy it" Dan, the hothead of the group, said. Tom shook his head,
"This things hooked into the timeline. If I get something wrong. . ."
"Boom goes the past present and future." Echo said in a high-strung voice.
"Be careful." Aniesha reeled,
"Yeah," Keri agreed, shaken at the thought, "I'd hate for this to be the last syllable of recorded time." As her voice increased in pitch, it became very clear that the girls (despite the difference in appearance running down to their hair and eyes) were more like twins than their friends had thought.
"Thanks Keri." Tom said, sounding as though part of him wanted to be confused but the rest of him was over it. Alarms began to blare around them,
"Korps," Dan declared,
"Whatever happens, you can't let them get a hold of the TED." Aniesha stressed heavily.
"Yeah, tell me something I don't know." Tom muttered as everyone sprang into action. Echo checked the odds, 4 Korps brutes, 5 spie. One too busy to fight, all of them very tired and one of them extremely sensitive. Well, they'd faced worse.
She charged one of the Korps team and swung the lightweight crutch like a sword. She hit the man once and winded him temporarily, she wasn't as lucky the second time, the man caught it. She changed tactic. Korps brutes were strong but slow, easily strong enough to carry a person, but to slow for them to get over a surprise quickly. She used the momentum she still had from holding the crutch and landed on the brute's shoulders. She was subconsciously aware of a painful ripping sensation around her lower back but ignorerd it. She jabbed at the soldier's neck and he overbalanced, face down. She heard a crack as she tumbledoff him and saw blood spouting from the unconscious man's now broken nose. She became very dizzy as she drifted into unconsciousness too, noticing a warm, trickling sensation pouring down her back, a male voice- maybe Dan's, her friends getting taken down in their and shock and a massive blue shockwave.
Echo woke up in the base, "I need to be less reckless than I was this mission in the future." everyone looked up from the table and over to the cot that had been set up for her to rest on.
"Echo!", "Sis!", "Thank god!" and similar utterances were cried as she was surrounded by her friends. Dan got there first, he pulled her into a hug that was fierce but not painful.
"Don't ever scare me like than again Leto." He whispered in her ear as she hugged him back.
When they separated he let her lean back, she giggled, "Well, it looks like Mr High Tech didn't destroy time as we know it."
"Thankfully," Frank sighed, "But you nearly destroyed yourself doing that trick from what I heard. If you'd been thrown any farther or landed at another angle you could have permanently injured yourself. I'm just glad you're safe," He grew sterner, "But you're on strategy and support from base until your fully healed. The others can go in the field without you for a few weeks."
She simply nodded, "I'm useful in both situations,"
Frank began to speak, "You tore at least three muscles in your lower back and that ankle has only worsened, an M.I.9 medical worker had to come and stitch up part of your back, so."
"No corset, no parkour, no fieldwork, no fighting. Yes to rest, computers, biscuits, and throwing verbal shade at Preston."
Her friends laughed. As much as things changed, there were always going to be consistencies with Echo.