[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Coryelle Wilde + wearing

Eventually, Alice picked up the phone. She'd been staring at it for nearly an hour, wondering whether what she was about to do was the right decision. For every argument for it there was one against. It could risk her career, her position as a Hero. It could risk her reputation, change the way people looked at her, how they looked up to her. But it was the right thing to do. Finally she picked up the phone, snatching it as if it were about to escape, knowing if she took too long then she would be paralysed by indecision for another hour. There was a number saved there, no name attached to it, just saved under a blank contact. She selected it and began tapping at the virtual keys. We need to put things aside for a minute. The response was surprisingly swift, New phone, who dis? Alice rolled her eyes and typed out a response. You gave me this number a couple of years ago, after I helped you save someone. Need a name, or I'm blocking. Tapping her phone on the table, Alice wondered how she should continue, after all, the woman on the other end of the phone didn't know her real name. But then how could she know if it was still the same person? She took the risk. Paladin This response was slower, slow enough to allow the doubts to creep in, to make Alice wonder if she'd just made a huge mistake, or if it was too late to go back now. The phone buzzed again, and what followed was a relatively fast conversation. Surprised you saved it. What do you want. You were down by Shaw & Pearce weren't you? Maybe. A lot of people were. You're not really going to try and pin that on me are you? A lot of people got hurt, and I think we know who did it Of course we do, so why are we having this conversation? They've told me where they are. And I'm willing to bet your friends got hurt too. What makes you think I don't know where they are? Do you? No. But I'm not about to believe you scoured for an old number to find me and give it to me for free, Miss Lawful. I'm not sure what I can say to convince you. Just meet me here. If you don't I guess I'm going in alone. I promise I won't try to take you in. She enclosed a location with the last message. If Punk believed her then she'd show up, maybe. If she didn't then things might just be a lot more dangerous. It wasn't much later that Paladin found herself on the outskirts of the city. It was mostly empty out here, industrial, with several abandoned warehouses, one of which she was lurking behind. Fully suited up, she stood awkwardly, not quite sure what to do while she waited for Punk to show up. She probably shouldn't be doing this. Heroes were given some degree of autonomy, but ultimately they were expected to answer to the Program, and they certainly wouldn't approve of her being here. She wasn't sure if she approved of her being here…

© seadra of gs

[Deleted]

my name is human

Wearing/Mask

780w

It was a total fluke that she had the old burner phone still; even more of a fluke that it was charged. It sat in one of the slots of the power strip plugged into the only outlet that worked in the small, makeshift bedroom at the top of the old factory. At first the buzzing had her entirely confused. Cory pulled her phone from the floor beside her mattress and swiped through a few menus to try and find out what notification had it going off. But then the reminding-buzz happened again and she felt no vibration from the device in her hands. After a moment of thought and then a curious realization, she rolled over to the other side of her mattress towards the wall and saw a tiny, blinking light at the top of the old flip phone that had two years ago been used as her Dealer's Choice of communication.

She'd never thrown it away and had plugged it in habitually after finding this place from getting evicted. She'd been saving up since and had been finally talking back and forth to a few apartment complexes about possible vacancies. Some of her newer 'interests' were a little pricey, but she was still making enough fighting for the greater good to pocket a decent bit away if she was disciplined enough with the rest of her budgeting. This phone brought back a lot of old memories... It seemed so much simpler back then. But had it been? Or had it just been empty? With lips pressed into a straight line, she flipped the phone open and scoffed at the text's vague and almost Hollywood-esque opening. Demanding a name as an ultimatum did one of two things: got you the answer or rid you of an annoyance. Except this one gave her an answer and some annoyance.

Paladin.

"Huh," she huffed airily, rolling her eyes and standing up from the mattress. She closed the phone and tossed it down to the bed, pacing back and forth in thought. It was a trap. Definitely a trap. It couldn't have been more of a trap. But it wasn't like they could track some kind of GPS on the brick-of-a-phone... so maybe she'd play along. Cory bit the inside of her cheek and eyed the device for a handful of seconds before scooping it back up and continuing the conversation. Needless to say it didn't go as planned. After the address and time popped up as the final piece to their messaging, it left Cory standing and staring in silence until a very needy ferret began squeaking and clawing up her pant leg. After he was comfortably lifted to drape over one of her shoulders, she looked over to the corner of the room at a black-glazed prototype helmet staring blankly back at her. This was either incredibly stupid and going to get her caught, or incredibly stupid and going to get her into some deep trouble with the wrong people.

She'd shown up two hours early and scouted a mile radius from the rooftops for anything out of the ordinary, but nothing actually showed interesting or even remotely alive other than the occasional homeless group chatting with one another or a pack of stray cats in the garbage. She doubted the cops were disguised as one-legged eighty-year-old men or bony, feral felines. Conveniently enough, she hadn't informed Jack of her decision until ten minutes before Paladin's designated time, sending him a message and flipping her visor on to record anything and everything. "Think of it as a beta test." The new suit had at least gotten some practice wear. It was light, mobile, stretchy, but incredibly durable. It had yet to tear or scuff from all of the falls or trips it'd been through on the construction site playgrounds.

Punk was busy making sure the lock on the helmet was in place tight enough when the unmistakably bright 'costume' came walking around the corner of the street below. With a short hop, she jumped down from the building's height and landed mostly silent on a stuck-out ledge halfway down, still comfortably at least fifteen feet above the blue-haired hero. She preferred having the advantage up here just in case... "This place is a bit dark for you, isn't it?" the small speaker just below the visor kept her voice unmuffled at a normal volume. A hand lazily motioned towards the hero before dangling back down at her side. "Let's see ears and collar first. Want to make sure no one's listening in to this wonderful meeting you convinced me to have."

Alice Morrow
Tense at best.

[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Coryelle Wilde + wearing

Paladin looked up sharply as she heard the voice from above. Punk was wearing a helmet, or perhaps it was more accurate to call it a mask. Somehow her voice was clear though, not muffled or distorted. She wasn't far away, perhaps fifteen feet, and Paladin could have been up there in a split second. To do so would probably scare off the other woman though, and she had not been lying, she did want Punk's help. Rolling her eyes, she pushed her unruly mop of blue hair back from her ears, then tilted her head back and around to show that there was nothing at her neck but her gorget. "Rich coming from the woman in the high-tech helmet." She sighed. "So are you going to come down, or am I going to have to come up there? There's not much point in you coming to meet me if I need to phone you to actually talk." She wandered over to the side of the alley then jumped up onto the dumpster there, sitting and staring up at the woman above. She began to swing her legs in an almost childlike manner. Most people would have been surprised, but then most people didn't realise just how young Paladin was. Nineteen was very young to be the biggest Hero in America. It was also young to be sneaking around behind the government's back and dealing with a known vigilante and criminal, but it wasn't as if she'd predicted this is what she'd be doing a year ago. "I'm not sharing unless you trust me a little."

© seadra of gs

[Deleted]

my name is human

Wearing/Mask

436w

"Rich coming from the woman in the high-tech helmet."

"I'm not the one inviting outlaws to super-secret nighttime witch hunts," Punk's arms went out at her sides loosely in an 'obvious-showing' physical explanation. At least the younger woman seemed compliant. A fun little gadget zoomed a lens closer down to Paladin, clearly seeing the bare neck (save for the uniform) and empty ears. Okay, that was a pretty neat toy. She made a mental note not to inflate Jack's ego too much later. "But since you were so kind to notice, thank you, I think it's killer too," the wink wasn't visible behind the black glass, but it was almost audible in the tone she used along with the lazily theatrical half-bow.

"So are you going to come down, or am I going to have to come up there? There's not much point in you coming to meet me if I need to phone you to actually talk." 'Haven't decided yet,' she mulled over mentally, attempting to pick at the surface of a decently believable situation. Dishonesty had very clearly never been something Paladin probably excelled at. Actually, she seemed the "honest-to-a-fault" type; and probably a marginable fault at that. The way the girl sat and dangled her feet like a thoughtful kid made Cory realize that... well, that's probably what she was. A kid. The reminder of Paladin's age couldn't have come at a more convenient time for the hero. It made trusting her easier and, just maybe, might've prodded a bit of empathy from the vigilante. 

The lights at the side of the mask dimmed to a soft glow rather than a searching flash before she put a hand to the thin, iron railing of the fire escape and hopped over. Her feet landed easily to the pavement and she took a few steps closer to the girl. "Yeah yeah, 'trust goes both ways' and all that," she rolled a shoulder and eventually leaned against the same dumpster Paladin sat on top of just beside her, crossing her arms comfortably and staring at the blank, brick wall across from them. She wanted to berate her, laugh at her, point out all the hilarious ironies and hypocritical morals she was breaking right now, but for some reason it just tasted bad in her mouth... Man, she was getting soft. "Had a friend get hurt, huh?" even through the clear speaker, the softer demeanor in her voice was easy to notice. "Are they still-," she cleared her throat to think of the words, "Y'know... Was it fatal?"

Alice Morrow
Easing up.

[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Coryelle Wilde + wearing

Eventually, the harsh spotlights on the sides of Punk's helmet dimmed to a more comfortable glow. Paladin could now look straight at the vigilante without having to squint, which was something of a relief, and perhaps suggested that what she was saying was getting through to the older woman. Paladin had long since ceased being surprised when people like Punk dropped fifteen feet like it was five. Enhanced physiology seemed to be a fairly common ability, at least amongst most of the people who decided to try their hand against her in the early days. She examined the woman more closely now that she had dropped to her level. She'd had an upgrade, let alone the helmet, everything she was wearing looked new, and it looked pretty advanced. Where had someone like Punk found kit like that? She shook her head thoughtfully at the question. "No, nothing fatal, at least not for anyone I knew. A friend got hurt pretty bad though." She cleared her throat. "Not that it matters, loads of people were killed, and it looks like the assholes didn't even care about that. It wasn't even some kind of terrorist attack, no one has claimed responsibility, nothing." It was frustrating, and that frustration was clear in her voice, she might have been on a track to finding the people responsible, but the weeks that had gone by without a hint of anything happening had frayed her temper. It was difficult to be so powerful and yet to be utterly powerless. That and she had come eerily close to mortality in a way that she hadn't felt since the accident. She wanted to hurt someone, and now, finally it looked like there was someone to hurt. Punk might be a vigilante, but San Francisco was her city too. That and the Hero had no idea what might be waiting for them. Clearly these people had resources, and worse, they had metahumans in plentiful supply, Paladin knew going up against them with as little information as she had was foolish. Taking Punk was insurance. "They let slip where they think one of their hideouts might be. I don't think they wanted Heroes to know yet, but we can't risk waiting. What's to stop them just disappearing like they did after the attacks? She glanced down at the vigilante. "You in?"

© seadra of gs

[Deleted]

my name is human

Wearing/Mask

400w

She felt a bit of tension and a breath she held in release when Paladin thankfully had no personal casualties to report; nothing but a badly injured friend. "Yeah, mine too..." the vigilante admitted, chewing on the inside of her cheek and looking elsewhere through the mask for any kind of street sign or graffiti to distract her from the small sparks of anger starting to build at the thought of Ashley and her multitude of casts and bandages.

"Not terrorism? Just because someone didn't take public credit doesn't make it any less terrorism. They killed people, innocent people, on a large scale and scared the hell out of everyone. That's enough of a terrorist for me," she scoffed, pushing herself off of the ledge that the back of her hips had leaned against to roll her shoulders and stretch her neck side to side. "Just because they're not slapping their label on it doesn't mean they're not sending the exact message they want." In fact, in this new world of super-powered law enforced contingencies like Paladin, it was probably the safest way to ensure your mission got seen through.

Punk's arms folded, thinning her eyes at nothing in particular towards the ground at the thought of those she'd met on the street the day of the attack. The man with the sun beams, the gaseous woman. "I don't think they wanted Heroes to know yet, but we can't risk waiting. What's to stop them just disappearing like they did after the attacks?" She was right. "Not a damn thing." Relaxing her posture a bit, she let her arms fall back down with one hand resting on her hip. The helmet's glossy front tilted to look back and up at the rule-breaking Hero. 

"You in?" "Well I'm sure as hell not going to let you have all the fun." she gave a mock salute of approval and took a few steps backwards towards the building she'd only just jumped from, hopefully waiting for Paladin to lead. "They're meta. If not all of them, then most of them. Hope you're warmed up." They'd given her a damn run for her money last time... It hurt her pride to know that had she been alone, the outcome would've been very different. But this time, she'd be the one with the element of surprise.

Alice Morrow
Easing up.

[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Coryelle Wilde + wearing

"Yeah, I didn’t think you would." Paladin jumped down from the dumpster. It wasn't particularly high, but she didn't flex her knees or make even the faintest sound as she landed. Somehow she had a feeling that she'd need all the energy she could get tonight. Punk had taken a few steps away, not because Paladin had dropped from her perch, but because she seemed eager to be away. That was a good thing right? Paladin still wasn't entirely comfortable with this. After all, Punk was a criminal. She might fight crime, but as far as the law was concerned Punk was on the wrong side. That certainly didn't leave Paladin in a comfortable position regarding working with her. She should be arresting her, that's what her common sense was saying. Her conscience disagreed, and her emotions. They all thought she should cut the other meta some slack and kick the asses of the people who had attacked San Francisco. In this case, she didn't listen to her common sense. She would get into trouble for this, a lot of trouble, but right now she was too popular for that to entail anything but a slap on the wrist. Or at least she hoped. A niggling feeling said that they might throw something bigger her way, but she was too eager to get into action tonight to care about that. It was ironic that she was motivated by a similar image to Punk, an image of Ashley wrapped in bandages thanks to her injuries. Not only that though, but the broken bodies that had been recovered from the rubble. The people who had nothing to do with metahumans, nothing to do with any of this, but had been punished regardless. And in her city. She wouldn't have admitted this, but it also felt almost like a personal insult. San Francisco was her city, under her protection. And it had been wounded under her watch. She deserved from payback. Feeling a spark ignite in her chest, she glanced at the costumed vigilante. "Try and keep up." A couple of minutes later they were perched on a roof side by side, looking down at the old office block that seemed to be the base used by the people that had attacked San Francisco. Paladin hadn't gone too fast. Punk could cover ground quickly, and she was definitely more manoeuvrable, but A to B Paladin could outpace her easily. The building looked empty, then, for a brief second, a flash of light was shown as someone opened a door. They walked a few feet from the building before showing another flare of light as the lit a cigarette. Paladin's fists tightened. "This looks like the place."

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[Deleted]

my name is human

Wearing/Mask

368w

"Try and keep up." Now that was what she liked to hear! Coryelle kept to the rooftops, clearing space between them and preferring the lack of interference and obstacles. When necessary, she swung around something or leapt over objects while keeping the shining sneaking-out-hero in sight to follow her. They'd covered a few miles in minutes. Soon enough, she skid to a smooth stop at Paladin's side and crouched with either knee bent off to the side, arms propped on her thighs, and hands dangling between her legs casually.

The building wasn't all that special. In fact, it was pretty much the opposite. It was older, maybe 1950's, and clearly hadn't gotten the tender love and care of good maintenance through each passing decade. It wasn't too high. There were four stories above ground, a single door on the roof, the front doors... the back probably wasn't interesting either. The entrance lit briefly as a figure stepped out of it, cupping a hand halfway over a lighter to ignite his cigarette.

"This looks like the place." Had she rolled her eyes any harder, they might've sunk back into her skull. "You sure it's not some other vacant office building with a sketchy guy smoking in front of it and another giant metaphorical sign that says 'we're the bad guys'?" The chastising was playful and hushed as Punk leaned herself forward to look down at what she could use to scale the wall with. Jumping would be fine if it wasn't louder than she felt comfortable with. Good news: old cast iron drainage pipe.

"Alright... if you take care of Mr. Discount Bouncer, I'll find us a way in. Keep him out of sight, wait at the door, and if it doesn't sound like the building is being destroyed from the inside by a Tasmanian devil you can probably expect I'll have it open for you in a few minutes." The primary lights on the side of her mask had already shut off, but now the dimmed blues of a few inner-workings did as well. The vigilante extended a fist between them, knuckles facing Paladin. "Sound like a plan?".

Alice Morrow
I DID A THING!

[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Coryelle Wilde + wearing

Punk was fast, but Paladin was faster. Obstacles barely even factored in when you could leap hundreds of feet in one go. Not that the vigilante had fallen that far behind anyway, she slid smoothly to a stop beside the blue haired Hero, definitely unnecessarily dramatically. Not that Paladin could talk, a lot of the reasons for her success were linked to unnecessarily dramatic moments. She had always wanted to be like the heroes in comic books. She could almost feel the eye roll, but didn't rise to the bait. Despite the fact that they were ostensibly working together right now Punk still seemed determined to needle her. She was half surprised that she hadn't been accused of selling out yet. The older woman talked quietly, her voice no longer amplified by the hi-tech looking mask she was wearing. Paladin really would have liked to know just where she had got it. She wondered what else it could do. Punk going in first made sense, she was dressed in a darker costume, and had experience with moving stealthily. Paladin might be able to move quite literally silently, but that didn't make her costume any less visible. Besides, she really didn't want to get in an argument with the woman right now, it could only make things more complicated than they already were. Reluctantly she tapped her knuckles against Punk's, then flung herself forward off the roof. She didn't want to hurt the guy if he turned out to be innocent, but she couldn't take the risk that he might raise the alarm, or be packing some sort of horrific ability. Her enhanced leap had carried her easily over the street, and she hit the wall of the building in total silence, her ability absorbing all of the kinetic energy of the impact. Her fingers found the edge of the windowsill and she hung for a fraction of a second before dropping, landing without a whisper behind the smoking man. A quick hooked foot and a hand following his head to the ground made sure that the thug would be unconscious at least for a while. She dragged him around the corner and secured his hands behind his back with one of the zip ties she'd brought with her just for this purpose. Carrying handcuffs took up too much space. She didn't bother waving at the rooftop opposite. No doubt Punk had already set about finding an alternative way into the building that didn't involve Paladin knocking a wall through.

© seadra of gs

[santa]

It was eerily quiet on this brisk winter evening. Perhaps a little too hushed for a neighborhood known for its high crime rate and random bouts of senseless violence. In fact the only sign of life on the block was the faint roar of an Electra Glide as it sped down the street. Seated atop the motorcycle was a pot bellied older man of an indiscernable age with flowing snow white hair secured by a striped red and white bandana. A pair of dark ray ban sunglasses concealed the rider's twinkling cobalt eyes as the unrelenting wind whipped viciously at his face prompting his plump cheeks to redden.



Clad in a fitted white t-shirt with the words 'Merry Christmas, you filthy animal' scrawled in black font across the front and a pair of faded jeans with large, gaping holes in both knees, the biker eased his Electra Glide up to a run down old building. Beneath his sunglasses the man's bushy eyebrow quirked as he warily eyed the ramshackle structure. Killing the engine of the bike, the crotchety old man dug his cellphone out of his jeans pocket and peered down intensely at the screen that displayed a grid with a flashing red dot.



For a moment, a befuddled expression crossed the biker's face as he studied the positioning of the dot before realization suddenly dawned on him. The dot wasn't in the building it was...ON the building. Son of a... the ill tempered man swore inwardly. Shoving the phone back into his pocket, the rider slid off the motorcycle turning his attention to an oversized jacket nestled behind the seat, he removed the jacket exposing a neatly wrapped box. Grabbing the box, the biker pressed it against his torso while using the sleeves of the jacket to secure it in place.

Sighing, he advanced towards the building her bright eyes scanning the area before coming to rest on a fire escape. Shaking his head he murmured "I'm getting way too old for this sh*t." Irked, he started up the fire escape pausing every other flight of stairs to catch his breath. "No one uses sleds anymore, they said" the biker grumbled. "You have to blend in, they said" the man griped as he continued up the final flight to the rooftop. As he reached the roof, the old man leaned over his hands resting on his knees at he took several deep breaths.



Once his heart rate returned to normal the man glanced up and spotted a figure near the edge surveying the ground below. "Hey kid, I got something for ya," he called out. Advancing towards the masked figure, the biker began untying his shirt allowing the parcel to slid free into hand. Placing it on the ground next to the vigilante, he abruptly turned and headed back towards the fire escape. Pausing just before descending the stair case, he turned back towards the vigilante and said "Oh yeah, Merry Christmas."



With that he was gone back down the fire escape and out of sight. The only evidence of his presence being the sound of the Electra Glide's engine as it peeled away from the curb.

Coryelle Wilde

[NoSuchThing]

Coryelle Wilde

[Coryelle Wilde]

my name is human

Wearing/Mask

w/ Alice Morrow

"Hell, Nobo, clear as daylight in this thing," she spoke quietly to the ghost in her mask, making it down the rooftop with both haste and extreme ease thanks to the crystal clear image the vision through the visor gave her even in the low-lit, nighttime streets. "Know I've said it before, but damn can you cook." After reaching ground level, she walked with an outrageously casual and open pace across the street as she saw the last bits of Paladin round-housing the poor grunt into next week. "Tck!" she clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth, probably inaudible, and pointed a congratulatory finger gun the hero's way.

Once his body was safely dragged away and tucked beyond the corner, she jogged the rest of the way across the street and bit off to the side to stay more in-line with the edge of shadow rather than risking her visor catching the dim, old lights of the great-depression-era building. Thanks to the perfect picture Jack's creation offered, getting to the building and on top of it was a piece of cake. Getting in was a whole different story... She climbed up the corner along the cast iron pipe she'd seen before; offering plenty of stability and never even budging an inch which kept her incredibly silent as she set foot on the concrete lip of the roof made of old, large panes of glass.

"Shit..." she sighed the curse under her breath, making sure to look from the furthest side she could to the other in order for her ghost to get a good look. At least half a dozen men were wide awake and sitting on a pair of scattered sofas or discarded oil drums. There were a few newer looking stacked crates in the corner by a dock door, but the rest of the building was terribly wide open and completely gutted from whatever original purpose it served. No door was going to do... "Option one: shatter the glass and take down one or two before they turn me into bullet hole swiss cheese. Option two? The fan," she glanced over to a wall with an incredibly old, rusted, large fan that probably hadn't rotated in decades. There was a grate facing the outside, but none on the inside. "Could risk the noise of that thing and probably tetanus, try and squeeze between the blades. Neither's good. I'm open to one of your genius suggestions," the last sentence she spoke with a minor grunt as she pressed up on her knee to stand and tight-rope-walk about the lipped edge of the roof until she could see a teal head beneath her.

Rather than calling down, Punk lifted a hand to the side of her visor and gave it one tap, two taps, three taps - a little flash of light beaming down to try and get her attention. Her hands extended out and showed a measurement, about a ten inch width, and pointed to where she stood. Hopefully that wasn't too hard to catch on... The vigilante showed the measurement again, pointed down to her feet again, and then beckoned the hero.

Break in buddies!

[Jack Fontaine]

Nobody Don't you know who I think I am? + Coryelle Wilde

"I'm going to address option two first. You think that suit isn't stab-proof? I'm insulted. Also, you're a vigilante and you haven't had a tetanus vaccine?" Jack's sarcastic voice sounds like they are in the helmet with Punk, far outstripping the meagre efforts of even the world's best audio companies. There is the sound of a keyboard clicking, though it is clear from Jack's following words that they aren't actually paying all that much attention to what Punk is doing, the keyboard continues regardless. "As to option one... Pretty sure you've got a bulletproof woman landing on the roof next to you right... About... Now..." Punk might not be able to see Jack's face, but she almost definitely could see the smirk plastered across it.

© seadra of gs

[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Coryelle Wilde + wearing

The flash of light does it's job, and Paladin looks up to see Punk looking down from above. She's holding her hands apart and then pointing at her feet, but it takes a few goes for the Hero to divine just what it is she's trying to say. The vigilante ceases her gesturing, at least for a moment, before one final gesture, beckoning her to join her. Paladin lands toe first on the edge of the roof top, only her ability and her sense of balance keeping her from plummeting immediately off the edge. It's close though. She immediately see's why Punk wanted her to stay at the edge of the roof though. Almost the entire top of the structure is composed of glass, save for a walkway and a small building that looks like it might contain a definitely broken air conditioning unit. The glass is grimy, but intact, and through it Paladin can make out the forms of several individuals. It's too murky to make out faces, but they have to be the people they are looking for. There is also a good chance that they are all metahumans, everyone else involved in the attacks has been thus far. "Well? Found us a way in yet?"

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