Priss's mind flooded with memories as Genom's artificial mountain of a
headquarters grew larger in her sight. Twice she had been there before, both
times for a confrontation with a single man. Mason. Largo. And the cycle
began anew.
Uncertainty tore at her heart as they raced toward destiny. With Sylia
out of the picture, the leadership had fallen to her. More memories...
lessons in command she had not wanted to learn but was now glad for.
Sylia had seen this day coming, and once again her foresight might save
them all...
***************************************************************
Stormwalker <stormwalker@airmail.net> proudly presents:
Bubblegum Collision
A work of Bubblegum Crisis fanfiction by Douglas A. Reeves
***************************************************************
Part Six - Dead Ends!
In her mind, Priss reviewed the mission objectives. As their identities
had been compromised, there were now several levels of threat with which
to contend. First and foremost, they had to know exactly what Genom knew
about them, and that meant accessing the Tower's central computer. After
that, they had to find Quincy... his very existence was now a threat to their
survival.
A chill passed through her at that thought. She had often wondered how
Sylia had felt when she came to the conclusion that Mason had to die; now
she knew. A cold knot formed in her stomach as she steeled herself to the
task at hand. Finding Quincy would not be easy... killing him might be
more difficult still. Nevertheless, it had to be done.
Trying to part from that line of thought, she looked up at their
destination. "Defensive strength?" she asked, almost mechanically.
"Heavy, but spread pretty thin," Nene responded. "We should be
able to punch through the front gates if we strike quickly."
"Let's do it, then. For Sylia! Knight Sabers, sanjo!"
"For Sylia!" came the unison response as they throttled up their
motoslaves and charged onward.
As the defenders came into visual range, Priss was surprised at just how
undefended their front gate was. "Didn't they learn from the first time?" she
thought to herself. "Guess not." Using her left hand to steer, she raised her
arm cannon and fired two shots. Armor piercing rounds slammed through
the front door, caving it inward, and a third shot blew it down.
"Seven rounds left," she reminded herself.
The two boomers on each side of the gate charged out to meet them.
Each pair consisted of one 34-CX and one 55-C, with the modular variants
equipped for artillery. Cannon fire blazed on all sides as the Sabers closed
in, getting frighteningly more accurate. "Enough of this," Priss growled and
transformed her motoslave. As the massive armor slowed, she raised her
gun and fired two shots. The 34-CX's exploded, leaving only the smaller
opponents, and their last shots bounced harmlessly off the Typhoon-IIB's
armor.
"I've got the left one," Linna called, leaping from her motoslave. Even
as she jumped, a beam of energy from the boomer she was targeting seared
the space she was departing. Before the boomer had even shut down the
weapon, she was upon it. The Knuckle Bomber flared, and one defender
remained.
Christine swerved left and right, taking the motoslave right up to the
target while still in cycle mode. Deploying her newest weapon at the last
second, she was rewarded with a shower of sparks as the micro-serrated
blade decapitated the cyberdroid. Sparks flew, and it fell in a heap. Not
stopping until she had reached ruined door, she called out, "Clear inside."
"Great," Priss answered, unable to shake the feeling that it had been
too easy. Still, she wasn't about to complain... the worst would not begin
for some time.
Nene and Linna quickly slipped into the building behind Christine and
Priss, and they set off down the entrance corridor.
"No pursuit," Nene noted, "but this whole building is full of boomers."
"Try to steer us around them as best as possible," Priss said, then
thought, "Did I just say that? It's the right decision, though..."
"Right. Primary computer core is fifteen floors up. There should be
stairs that way," Nene pointed.
"Let's go, then."
* * * * * * * * *
Alarm Klaxons rang throughout the Tower as the Knight Sabers easily
blasted through the outer defense. The security chief sat comfortably at his
desk and started giving orders.
"They're on the ground floor now, making for the main stairway. Groups
Alpha-Seven and Gamma-Six, move to intercept."
"Affirmative," a very synthetic-sounding voice answered.
* * * * * * * * *
"We've got two groups of boomers closing in on us... they're not going
to let us have the stairs," Nene warned.
"Like hell they're not," Priss answered. "Get ready for a fight."
They set up a defensive position in the corridor, with Nene giving
continuous updates on the boomers' locations. The wait seemed eternal to
Priss. Every decision she made, every order she gave, weighed heavily on
her heart. "Second-guessing is part of the business, I guess," she thought to
herself, but that still didn't make it any less nerve-wracking. Quickly she
was coming to understand why Sylia always seemed so dispassionate, when
she knew she wasn't really that way, and she found her respect for their
leader increasing.
"Here they come!" Nene called out the warning.
"How many, now?"
"Looks like two groups of four. The groups will arrive about a minute
apart."
"All right, work fast, then." As she said it, the boomers burst around
the corner. Raising the motoslave's mammoth gun again, she blew the first
cyberdroid to oblivion. Linna charged headlong at the second, dropping into
a roll at the last second to avoid being struck. Her razor-whips trailed out to
the sides, and with a flurry of sparks the boomer's legs were severed at the
knees. It fell, and she drove the Knuckle Bomber into its back to finish it.
Two remained.
"Fifteen seconds," Nene warned as she gave her suit a mental command.
"Time to see if this works." Suddenly, a piercing screech was torn from the
nearest boomer as it fell to its knees. Nene finished it off quickly with her
arm laser.
"What the hell was that?" Christine shouted as she dodged an attack
from the fourth boomer. Leaping backwards to get some clearance, she
fired three discs into the boomer. The first two only grazed, but the third
struck it cleanly in the head, and it fell.
"Something new Sylia cooked up," Nene answered, gesturing to the
second group of boomers as they rounded the corner ahead of them. "I'll
explain later!"
"Right," Christine agreed, selecting her energy web...
* * * * * * * * *
As the Knight Sabers cautiously ascended the stairs, Christine said,
"Now... what did you DO back there?"
"Well, we each got a new weapon, and that was mine. It scrambles the
artificial synapses of a boomer's neural net."
"Ouch. Effective," was Christine's comment.
"Very," Priss agreed. Looking up the stairs, she could see that they
narrowed as one ascended. "I'm going to have to leave the motoslave
behind," she said. The others had done this some time back, with each of
them given orders to try and distract the security forces wherever possible.
Climbing out of the massive armor, Priss slapped it on the "back" and said,
"Go raise some hell." With that, they resumed their ascent.
By the time they had reached the fifteenth floor, a reception had been
prepared for them.
"It would seem that they know where we're going," Priss scowled as she
fired her arm cannon with its usual devastating result.
"No kidding," Linna said with more edge than usual on her voice.
Ducking underneath a Bu-12's machine-gun barrel, she planted her left hand
on the ground and drove both feet toward the boomer in a savage kick.
Electrified blades extended from her heels, and with all the force she could
manage she rammed them into its knees. A loud crackling drowned out the
sounds of battle momentarily, and the boomer collapsed, its systems fried.
Even as she withdrew her feet and moved to stand, the blades retracted.
"Nice," Priss commented, picking off yet another Bu-12 with her
flechette cannon. "This is too easy,"
"You complaining?" Chris shot back.
"Yes!" she growled as she dodged an energy-blade swipe and responded
with a sharp strength-enhanced uppercut that crushed the offending 34-CX's
armor. "Something's not right about this!"
"Some of the defenses still haven't been mobilized, and I can't pin down
why," Nene observed.
* * * * * * * * *
"What do you mean, no response?" the security chief screamed.
"Boomer groups Eta, Lambda, and Mu are not responding, sir."
"Find out why!"
"Yes, sir," the comm specialist responded, having no way of knowing
that it was an impossible order. Triggered by the Knight Sabers' attack, a
long-dormant and nearly untraceable computer virus was running rampant in
Genom's systems and causing massive degeneration in their internal
commnet. Sylia's foresight worked in their favor again.
"Where are they now?" the chief asked himself as he stared at the
monitor. "Looks like they've split up. See if you can get ANY security
forces to respond."
"I'll try," was the response, accompanied by a sigh.
* * * * * * * * *
"They're diverting forces to stop the motoslaves," Nene informed. "They
STILL have not activated all of their defenses."
"Then let's move before they fix that," Priss prodded. Two empty
corridors later, they were confronted with a heavily-armored security door.
"This is going to take time," cautioned Nene as she set to work.
Priss nodded. "Set up a defensive position, in case we get company."
So far, so good, she thought. Things were going a little too well for her to
be entirely comfortable, but if Genom was setting up a trap they'd waited
too long to spring it. Any second now they'd be at the primary computer
core.
"I'm in!" Nene said triumphantly as the doors parted for her. Greeted by
a hail of laser fire, she barely managed to get under cover.
"Be careful!" Priss warned. "We need to access that computer before
we trash it." Once again, she was surprised by her own words. Perhaps
Sylia had taught her better than she believed.
"Right," Christine answered, a trace of sarcasm evident in her voice.
Priss almost repeated the order, not liking the sound of Christine's
response. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, however, she realized that
it was exactly what she would have said -- even if she intended to obey.
With that thought, she wondered what it was like for Sylia to deal with her.
Another burst of gunfire pushed such thoughts from her mind.
"Christine, can you web those bastards down?"
"I can try," she responded dryly as she prepared the weapon and waited
for enough of a lull to get off a shot. Eventually the break came; she
stepped into the doorway and fired the web. Leaping backwards to avoid
the retaliatory fire, she nodded to Priss. "Got most of them, anyway."
"It'll have to do. Let's go!" he yelled as she charged through the door.
Machine gun fire ricocheted off her armor as she dove for cover. Once she
was safe, she started picking off guards with the flechette cannon.
"Cover me," Christine called, then dove through the doorway herself.
Immediately three of the boomer guards turned to fire at her, but Priss was
faster. Three armor-piercing rounds took out the defenders, and Christine
set herself up on the opposite side of the door.
"All right, we've got them now," Priss couldn't help but grin as she and
Christine finished off the remaining guards. "Come on in."
Linna and Nene hurried into the room, and Nene immediately set to
work on the computer.
"Guard that door," Priss ordered vehemently. While Nene worked on
the computer, she would be vulnerable to shots coming in from outside.
"Accessing... I'm in," Nene informed. Quickly, she began to search
for certain keywords in the databanks. The amount of data she found was
frightening.
"Priss..." she breathed. "They know almost everything."
"Damn." Suddenly, all their plans had been shot to hell. "Destroy it."
Nene nodded, downloaded one last packet of files, and stepped away
from the databank. Firing several shots, she rendered the machine little
more than melted scrap. "Let's go."
* * * * * * * * *
"Sir, the primary is down!" the communications officer said in a panic.
"I'm getting nothing on the commnet, either."
"No point for us to hang around, then... let's get the hell out."
"I'm right with you, boss."
* * * * * * * * *
Priss's mind was reeling as she tried to salvage some form of a battle
plan. They had not counted on more than a few higher-ups having access to
their identities, but it turned out that the data had been keyed at only a
moderate security clearance. Hundreds of people might possibly know
everything.
Sylia would know what to do, she thought... damn. Any hope of a
quick solution was lost now; Genom had to be taken out of the picture
entirely, or they would never be safe... but how? "Think, Priss!" a voice in
her head cried out.
"All right. We still have to achieve our primary goals, then we can
worry about what's left," she sighed. "What kind of defense are they putting
together, Nene?"
"Not much. Their entire internal communications system is down for
some reason."
"Good... we can split up. Linna and I will hit the secondary computer
core, you two go after the tertiary. Destroy anything else you happen to
find on the way."
"Right," Christine nodded. "Let's go, Nene."
Nene hesitated. For a split second, bitterness flared up inside her, and
she almost asked Priss to change the groups... then she stopped. She was a
Knight Saber, and a Knight Saber she would be above all. This was not the
time for personal conflicts. "All right. This way," she indicated.
Priss sighed. She had seen Nene freeze up for a moment, and she had
feared that their unity was too fragile to hold. Fortunately, she had been
wrong. Crisis fuses a team, after all.
* * * * * * * * *
"Tertiary core is down," Nene called out.
"Good work," Priss's response cut through the static. Static... Nene
thought. Ever since they had dropped below the ground level, the
commlinks had not worked quite correctly. It was almost as if there was
some sort of shielding.
"Christine," she said coldly. "There's something important in these
sublevels."
"Besides this core?" Christine asked.
She nodded. "More important than that. They've got some serious
electromagnetic shielding down here."
Christine nodded. "In other words, this place was designed to take a
hit."
"Exactly."
"Well, let's check it out. Can you put a map on the screen in here?"
Nene smirked at that, even though it could not be seen through her
helmet. "Of course."
* * * * * * * * *
"All right! Main computer systems are destroyed," Priss reported.
"We're moving on to the research facilities."
"You do that," Christine responded. "Nene's found something down
here, we're going to check it out."
"Right. Be careful."
"Always. Starblade out."
Priss looked around the corner to see a small squad of boomers coming
down the hall. "Linna, we've got company."
"I see them. Four Bu-12's. Shouldn't be a problem."
Priss nodded. "Let's take them."
Like a carefully orchestrated and long-rehearsed ballet, the two sprang
into action. Not a word was spoken between the two, but each instincitively
knew where the other would strike. Linna went high as Priss fired low, the
last shells of her arm cannon taking out two of the four. Even as the rounds
impacted, Linna fell on the nearest enemy, and the Knuckle Bomber flared
as she rammed the emitters into its neck. Smoke and flame shot from the
gash made in its armor, and it fell.
Linna never touched the ground, using the hulk of the first cyberdroid as
a springboard. Flipping forward, she extended the blades from her heels and
used her weight to drive them downward into the second boomer's shoulders.
A flurry of sparks accompanied the sizzle of overloading circuitry, and the
fight was over.
"As good as ever," Priss said, her grin hidden by her helmet.
* * * * * * * * *
"Two major spots to check out," Nene commented, pointing out the
locations on the map. "I'll take this one... the electronic security is tighter."
"Right," Christine said. "You sure you're up to going it alone?"
Nene nodded. "I don't read any active boomers down here, and they'd
have a hard time activating any with the computer and commnet down."
"Good point," Christine conceded. "All right, let's go."
Nene nodded, and they headed back out into the corridors. Moving in
opposite directions, they began their search.
Nene smiled slightly, as a predator might. Slipping through the
corridors as stealthily as was possible in full body armor, she switched her
scanners to passive mode. The active mode read too many signals, and she
might miss something important.
Almost immediately, a small object on the wall in front of her was
overlayed in red. Analyzing the threat - an infrared-targeting laser, she
raised her arm cannon and vaporized it. This would be slow going, she
realized.
* * * * * * * * *
Christine was being far less cautious; in fact, she was preoccupied with
something else entirely. Her instincts were blaring a warning, telling her
that she was being deceived, but she couldn't tell why. The area she was
checking out didn't seem suspicious at all to her. There was minimal
security, and so far she had seen nothing but storage facilities. Still, Nene
had indicated that there was something of importance this way.
* * * * * * * * *
Nene's slight smile became a grin as she found what she was looking
for. The sensors in her suit displayed the outline of a hidden door in the
wall in front of her, and she began to scan for electronics. "There!" she
thought, isolating the security mechanism.
* * * * * * * * *
Priss whistled as she looked at the lab they had just cleared out.
Experimental technologies abounded, and most of them looked like military
advances. Nodding to Linna, she activated her flechette cannon and started
destroying equipment. By the time they were done, the whole lab was in
ruins.
"This floor is all labs. We need to trash them all," she said.
Linna nodded. "It's time to put Genom out of the boomer business."
* * * * * * * * *
After a few seconds, Nene managed to access the door's systems and
bring them on-line. Isolating the activation code from its own databank, she
began the security sequence.
"Welcome," a gentle female voice spoke. It was a prompt of some sort,
Nene realized, but for what? Guessing that she had little time, she
submerged herself in the computer.
Neural transceptors in her helmet sprang to life as her mind linked
directly into the machine, reading her thoughts and translating them to the
computer. Her vision blurred for a moment, then data began to overlay
itself on her sense of sight. Cryptography fell to pattern-recognition, and
finally she saw it. Voiceprint.
"Initiate search," she mentally commanded the suit, and in a matter of
nanoseconds it had isolated the correct pattern. "Playback." she commanded.
"It is I." Quincy's ominous voice came from the speaker of her comm
system, crystal clear as there was no transmission to be scrambled.
"Greetings, sir," the voice responded. "Welcome home." With those
words, the door slowly opened, revealing a surprisingly large entry chamber.
De-synchronizing with the suit's computers and beginning a lifesign scan,
Nene found that which she looked for and cautiously slipped through the
entryway.
* * * * * * * * *
"Damn!" Christine thought to herself as she rounded the final corridor
and found herself looking at a blank wall. "She tricked me... but why?"
Suddenly, she thought she knew, and she broke back down the hallways in a
dead sprint.
"Nene!" she called out, neither expecting nor receiving a response. "Dear
Lord, grant me the speed!" Triggering her jump unit for further
acceleration, she felt her feet lift off the ground, and she flew.
* * * * * * * * *
Quincy did not hear the door softly open; it had been designed to be
silent. He did not hear the sounds of hardsuited feet on the carpeted floor,
nor the soft whine of the armor's sensor systems. He certainly did not
expect to be so rudely jolted from his rest as he was.
"QUINCY!" Nene screamed, bringing her arm laser to bear. Her voice
hardened as ice as she warned, "Don't even move."
* * * * * * * * *
"Hell!" Christine cursed under her breath as she heard Nene's cry.
She was closing down on her position, but if she didn't get there fast, it
would be far too late.
"Damn it, Nene... why?" she questioned, knowing only that it was a race
against time, now.
* * * * * * * * *
"Who are you?" the old man asked, a slight crack in his voice barely
betraying the fear he felt. "What are you doing here?"
"I am a Knight Saber, and I am here to kill you," Nene breathed, taking
two short steps toward him.
"Many have tried that before... do you really think that I would allow
you to find me?" his voice echoed through the room, and his image
appeared on a screen behind him.
"Allow? You didn't have a choice. My scanners say that you are flesh
and blood, and no double. You hurt me, Quincy, and for that--"
* * * * * * * * *
Christine breathed a sigh of relief as she slipped through the closing
door. Why it had remained open so long was beyond her ability go guess,
but right now she was nothing but grateful. Another open door lay at the
end of the entry chamber, and through it she could see...
Nene. Cannon leveled at someone, preparing to fire. As Christine
closed in, she could hear her words.
"You hurt me, Quincy, and for that--"
"NO!" Christine cried, firing her last energy web at Nene. Caught off
guard, the young Knight Saber was thrown across the room into the wall,
where she was pinned.
"Chris... you..." her voice trailed off, the bitter taste of betrayal choking
off the words.
"I'm sorry, Nene... but I can't let you do that."
* * * * * * * * *
"That does it," Priss said, the satisfaction clear in her voice. "Let's go
meet up with Nene and Chris."
"Wait," Linna answered. "One more thing." Grabbing a pair of
ammunition crates, she drug them into the center of the room. "Find
anything that will burn," she told Priss.
"Ah... good idea." It took a couple of minutes, but they set up a large
stack of explosive materials. "Now, let's go," Linna suggested. On their way
out, she turned and fired a single shot with her laser.
The explosion was dramatic. "Go!" she yelled to Priss as flame shot
from the doorway she had just fired through. Fleeing the conflaglaration,
they headed for the stairs down.
* * * * * * * * *
At the abandoned security station, fire alarms wailed in protest as the
blaze swept through the laboratory area of the tower. Automated blast doors
slammed shut on three floors to contain the fires, but the fire would still
cause hundreds of millions in damages.
* * * * * * * * *
"I'm sorry, Nene, but I can't let you do that," Christine's voice took on
an apologetic tone. "Not you."
Quincy looked up, the expression on his face that of a man who had just
stared down death and walked away. Christine turned to face him, removing
her helmet.
"My name is Christine Starblade. Do you remember me?"
Quincy nodded, remembering no such thing but not wanting to offend
his savior.
"You once hired me," she continued.
Quincy nodded again. Slowly, the name started to come to his memory.
"And then you tried to kill me." she finished, her voice turning cold.
Quincy's eyes widened, his hope shattered like so much glass. "You've hurt
a lot of people," Christine added. "And now it's time you paid for it."
The old man retreated a little, stepping backwards, hoping to find a way
to escape. There was none.
"This," Christine narrated, firing a razor-disc into Quincy's wrist, "was
for Nene."
Shocked at actually having been hurt, he cried out in pain. Fear
gripped his heart, and he backed away farther.
Firing another, this time through his left shoulder, Christine
continued, "That was for me."
She paused a minute, checked the number of discs in the magazine, and
smiled slightly. Two. "This one," she carried on, "is for Sylia." The disc
shot through his body, nearly striking his spine, and tore through his back.
Then, she stopped. Quincy climbed back to his knees before her,
silently begging for life. She might yet spare him, he thought, but he soon
saw that any such hope was in vain.
Slowly, deliberately, she opened the magazine on her disc launcher.
Carefully, she removed the final remaining blade, slipping it between two of
her fingers as she walked toward Genom's cowering CEO. Standing over
him, she felt a tear roll down her cheek as a memory came back to her. "This..." her voice broke. "This is for James, you son of a bitch!"
Her whisper became a scream as she slashed across Quincy's throat. Blood
trailed from the blade as she pulled it away, and with his larynx sliced open,
Quincy began to choke.
"Just die, you bastard," Christine whispered as she turned away from
him, feeling her rage drain away in a torrent of sorrow. Stumbling over to
Nene, she releaed the web and pulled her close to herself. Knowing it was
over, she began to weep silently.
Behind her, Quincy fought in vain for breath. It was only a matter
of seconds before he died.
* * * * * * * * *
It was about ten minutes before a resounding explosion signaled the
destruction of Quincy's secret door. Triggering the motoslave's release, Priss
climbed out of the armor and ran into the room. What she saw stunned her.
Quincy lay dead on the floor in a pool of blood. Christine and Nene,
helmets off, stood in the corner of the room, hugging each other, Nene
comforting Christine. As for Christine, she looked as if all the grief she had
suppressed had broken through at once, and she cried like a wounded child.
Linna came in behind her, stopping short in the doorway at the sight.
"So... it really is over," she whispered.
"Maybe," Priss said cautiously. "The beast has lost its head... but time
will tell if it may grow a new one. For now, it is enough."
Linna nodded.
* * * * * * * * *
Fifteen minutes later, the Knight Sabers were gathered on the roof of
Genom Tower. The AD Police had just started to arrive, having not been
alerted until the security chief had personally reported the situation at
Headquarters.
"Did you leave all that data you downloaded?" Priss asked Nene.
Nene nodded. "Hard copy and locked into the terminals. It should give
them something to think about, anyway."
"Heads will roll," Christine added, speaking more quietly than usual.
"I hope so," Linna answered. "Maybe it really is over."
"Maybe so," Priss said, for once with no trace of cynicism in her voice.
"Maybe so."
Almost on cue, the sun broke the horizon, spreading beams and light
which seemed to banish the haze of Megatokyo's skies. The Knight Sabers,
victorious, were the heralds of a new day.
***************
END PART SIX
***************
Epilogue - A New Day
A week later --
It was one of the most beautiful days Megatokyo had ever seen.
The smog was almost non-existent, and the sky was clearer than it had been
in years. Sylia awoke that day, and smiled at the first thing she saw.
Clustered around her bead were the assembled Knight Sabers - Priss, Linna,
Nene, Mackie, and Christine. Even Priss was smiling, and they all looked
a little different, but the biggest change was Nene.
Sitting there in her AD Police uniform, she looked happy again; still,
she was not the same as she had been before. She looked a little older,
perhaps just more mature. The old light shone in her eyes again, but it
seemed tempered by something, as if her innocence had grown into
something more substantial.
Christine looked different, too. A sad smile graced her face, and
while it was apparent that she was not over all her pain (and probably
never would be), she had let go of her anger at last. Sylia felt a swell of
pride for both of them.
Seeing her gaze shift from one to the other, Christine smiled at
Nene, who returned the gesture. This, more than anything, lifted Sylia's
heart into the clouds.
For Sylia herself, the news was not all good. The falling debris had
damaged her spinal cord, and she would likely never walk again. Still, her
mood was pleasant, and even with her injury she seemed to be happier than
she ever had. Perhaps she was simply not afraid to show it now.
They spent several hours talking about the things that had been - the
destruction of Sylia's home and business had been a loss, but not an
insurmountable one. The revelation of their secret identities was worse, but
even that was less severe than it might have been. The final battle with
Genom, and the death of Quincy, weighed heavily in their thoughts.
For the first time, they had hope of a peaceful future. Genom would
never build boomers again; the news of corruption Nene had released spread
like wildfire in the media, and scores of government and Genom officials
went into forced retirement. The Knight Sabers were safe, even with their
identities known, for none remained to strike at them. Still, they all agreed
that they must be vigilant, lest another evil rise greater than the first. The
would have a new role--once the last spark of hope in Megatokyo, they
would now be the guardians of its flame.
End.
