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Post by jenova on Dec 21, 2006 20:07:53 GMT -5
Rin stuck to the shadows, his back flat against the wall. He slowly edged his way down the hall, following a guard on graveyard-shift patrol duty. This job had been easy so far, and it paid well. Just eliminate the boss who ran this place and get the money, no questions asked -- fine by Rin. There was a light up ahead, pushing back the shadows. Rin couldn’t wait any longer.
Slowly and silently, Rin drew out Aikuchi, the blade he had owned since he was five years old, and gripped the hilt with both hands. Without a sound, he stepped out of the shadows and plunged his sword into the guard’s lower back. The guard tried to cry out, but Rin reached out a hand to muffle his noise. With the other hand Rin pushed the blade further into the body, to ensure the kill. He pulled the blade out and concealed it upon his person, then dragged the corpse into shadow. The dead guard wouldn’t be discovered for a while, and when he was, Rin would be long gone.
Back on the job, he snuck down the next corridor, and the next, but encountered nothing. Strange, Rin thought. There should be more guards -- why would this guy keep himself open? At the next door, he took hold of the handle and carefully turned it. He wanted to ensure that no noise escaped, in case the handle was rusty or broken. Luckily, it turned easily and silently. Rin peered through the crack.
He could see two guards with their backs to him, making coffee or some other hot beverage. Their body language didn't seem to indicate that there was anyone else in the room. Rin pushed the door open slightly more and slipped in. He was about to draw his sword again when he tripped: shoddy carpet. It had been bunched up, and Rin hadn’t seen it. Stupid idiot, Rin scolded himself as he slammed hard into the ground. The guards spun round at the noise and whipped out their guns.
Rin rolled, flashed out his sword and deflected a slug. Their guns were silenced. Which was great for Rin, but not so great for them. To dodge the next shot, he jumped straight at a wall, kicked off it and whirled around to the nearest guard. His foot connected with the guard's face and sent him sprawling.
Rin spun again and slashed his sword around to cut the other guard’s gun barrel, making the gun useless. He followed with a jab to the stomach, then impaled the guard on his sword, and pulled the sword back out to cut the guard in half.
The other guard got up. Instinctively Rin jumped to the side, in case the guard got off another shot. Then he swung his sword down and right, and it connected with the guard's neck, beheading him.
There was blood everywhere, across the walls, staining the floor. Everywhere. Rin certainly hoped no one was about to stumble into the room. Not only would that person sound the alarm, but they would probably also be in a mental home in the next week.
He left by the door opposite the one through which he'd entered. Expecting to come out at a unused corridor again, he didn’t go through silently. Therefore he walked straight into the office where his target sat.
“Hi,” Rin said, feeling stupid.
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Post by prime on Dec 21, 2006 20:14:45 GMT -5
"Yo," Cloud said, taking his feet down off the desk. "I suppose you're the one are you? I should've known better than to arrange a peaceful meeting with a man like that. Well, diplomacy loses again."
He stood up, drawing his buster sword: the six-foot-long, foot-and-a-half-wide blade of supreme death. "Well, c'mon then shrimp, let's see if there's anything to you," Cloud said conversationally. He kicked up the desk and booted it across the room toward the assassin.
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Post by jenova on Dec 21, 2006 20:19:09 GMT -5
Almost casually, Rin jumped high into the air, barely managing not to smash into the ceiling. He kicked off the desk flying toward him, and sent it smashing into the floor. Rin now soared at Cloud, his sword held above his head. He slashed down across Cloud’s face, then landed and delivered a flurry of jabs and slashes, as fast as he possibly could.
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Post by prime on Dec 21, 2006 20:26:49 GMT -5
"Mmmmmm, flurry," Cloud said, and minimally shifted his extremely wide blade to intercept the attacks. He flicked the last one aside, reached out and grabbed Rin's shirt. "My turn!" he said, with a wicked gleam in his eye.
He reverse kicked Rin in the stomach, sending him barreling across the room against the far wall. "I wonder, do you know why you've been hired to kill me?" Cloud asked, slowly walking forward. "Or are you just another mindless idiot who fails to research the repercussions of your kills?" He brought his sword down on Rin with earthshattering force.
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Post by jenova on Dec 21, 2006 20:32:21 GMT -5
“I was given a file on you when asked to kill you,” Rin replied. He always researched a kill, although if information was provided he wouldn't decline it; he hated looking for it himself. “You really should learn how to kick though -- five-year-olds pack more punch than that.”
Rin laughed, and again launched himself off the now grounded table, then threw a spinning kick straight to Cloud’s face. The impact threw Cloud back into the opposite wall. “Like that, ya see?” Rin teased.
He brought his blade up into defensive position before running at Cloud, who was holding out his blade to block it like last time. Rin dived, slid under the blade, and slashed at Cloud’s legs, trying to cut them off.
POHATU EDIT: Using the phrase "pack more punch" when describing someone's kicking technique? Looks like someone has their metaphors firmly mixed. It stays, though, for it is amusing.
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Post by prime on Dec 21, 2006 20:39:14 GMT -5
"Moron," he said.
He stretched his jaw and jumped over the outstretched blades. He then brought both of his feet back down on Rin's stomach, with a great deal more force than his last kick. "I meant the reasons behind it, not information on the target himself."
He jumped off Rin, and did a neat tuck and roll over to the desk, which now lay upside down. "Like my reasons for not using this giant sword of mine," he said. He picked up the desk and swung the whole goddamn thing around, smashing Rin into the wall, which shattered under the impact.
He took the moment while Rin was somewhat disoriented to drive home his point. "The man who paid you to kill me, Tanis, has the earth mother Gaia imprisoned," Cloud said. "I bet you don't know that that means." Cloud swung his blade at Rin, who automatically brought his up to defend, but was merely crushed against the wall again.
Maintaining the lock, Cloud looked Rin in the eyes. "Every second she's locked away, the planet dies a little more. And that will mean us too, my friend." Cloud broke the lock and pushed himself across the room against the far wall.
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Post by jenova on Dec 22, 2006 16:08:15 GMT -5
“And just why am I meant to believe you?” Rin asked. “I’m just going to take your word for it am I?”
Rin pushed Cloud’s sword back and hopped out of the way from the wall. He turned, glared at his enemy and ran at him, throwing a few slashes. His anger was building, and the air around the room started to crackle. The walls began to splinter, and the windows shattered, and then a small explosion ripped the middle of the room in half.
“What the fuck was that?” Rin shouted, confused.
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Post by prime on Dec 22, 2006 16:25:02 GMT -5
Cloud tripped and pinned the assassin to the floor. "Don't be so terrified, that was you. Just like I can do this." Mist-like energies of vivid blues and greens began to flow around Cloud. "Gaiblade!" he screamed.
The blade of his sword glowed briefly purple, before he swung the sword at the wall. From a five-foot distance, a windstorm of purple impacted on the wall. A second later there were hundreds of gashes in the stone.
"See?" he said simply. "Now get up. We have more important things to do. And if you have any more objections, let me assure you that killing your employer will grant you a great deal more... material gain."
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Post by jenova on Dec 22, 2006 16:32:07 GMT -5
“That… that was me?” Rin asked, stumbling over his words. He had never seen anything like that before. Cloud's blade trick amazed him as well. “How can I control it?” he asked, before he could stop himself. There were millions of questions running through his mind.
“If we go anywhere, I need to prepare. I need to change, it won’t be easy for me…” Rin trailed off.
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Post by prime on Dec 22, 2006 16:59:17 GMT -5
"Well no shit!" Cloud boomed, laughing. "Weapons, eh? Sure, why not. But you're not riding on my motorcycle. I don't want that little dagger thing in my back. Come on, I'll take you back to my place."
He walked up the stairs and outside. "Stupid depressing-ass graveyards," he muttered. The assassin was right behind him, but keeping his distance a bit. Cloud silently thanked all the gods, known and unknown, that Rin didn't want to continue fighting. Cloud disliked killing needlessly.
He walked out to the parking lot and swung onto his motorcycle -- a monster of a machine, neither Japanese nor American, but a custom job he himself had built. He started up the bike and watched the assassin cross the street to pull out his own machine. Cloud didn't think it was the kind of bike an assassin should be using, a custom style Harley like that. He shrugged, revved up his engines and took off down the street, with assassin boy right behind him.
They quickly arrived at Cloud's place, deep in the forest with nary a house nor person to be seen. He silently lamented: he'd have to move after this. He swung off his bike, and walked over to a hidden hatch in the ground. After pulling it open, he motioned the assassin over. "Take your pick," he said, presenting him the enormous weapon's storage. "I do actually have a place down there -- this is just for quick access."
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Post by jenova on Dec 22, 2006 17:15:38 GMT -5
Rin was impressed, looking around the vast amounts of weapons. He picked one with each hand, grabbed the silk black assassin's gear he was wearing and pulled. It easily ripped off to reveal his proper clothes underneath: he had black skintight jeans on and a black hoody, with a black t-shirt just visible underneath. His feet bore some kind of black shoes, which looked like the shoes skateboarders wore sometimes.
After looking around again, he laid eyes on a one-handed long sword, perfect for him. He picked it up and swung it a few times, getting a feel for it, then picked the sheath that came with it and strapped it to his back. He placed the sword in it, revealed his Aikuchi, and placed it where the long sword had been.
“So, your name's Cloud, eh?” Rin asked, knowing the answer already. “Well, most people call me Rin, but the name’s David. Nice too meet you, I guess. Where do we go from here? And how do I control these powers?”
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Post by prime on Dec 22, 2006 17:23:55 GMT -5
"Well, most likely you were feeling an emotion at the time. You have to learn how to perfectly control that emotion. By that I mean, summon up the emotion without letting it affect your thought process, and then just focus.
"Your attack was extremely unfocused. Thus the crackling stuff. Most likely you're a telekinetic, but I'm hardly one to judge. I only have Limit Breaks, or Trance, or Overdrive, whatever you want to call it. In any case, unlike you, I am merely human. Limit break occurs when I push myself, or someone else pushes me beyond my limits -- and the hidden overmind, that power that you can freely access, becomes available to me. At that point I can unleash the power all at once, as you saw. It's much more power than you can generate. Or, more power than you can generate without passing out afterwards. I don't feel any backlash because I can't access that part of my mind without a nudge."
After his lecture, he jumped down into the room and put his black-and-white buster sword away. He walked to the end of the row, where a long, wide sword was chained to the wall, wrapped in cloth. He unchained it, and it fell to the ground with a rattling boom. He picked it up with some difficulty, and unwrapped the cloth from it, revealing a massive sword which seemed to have various nodes indented in it here and there.
Noting David's curious look, he flipped one of the nodes, and pulled out another buster-size sword, which had been making up the double edge. Doing so now left a flat back and only one edge. "The ultimate multi-tool," Cloud joked, strapping it to his back. "And now, I think it's about time we released Gaia, before we all suffocate. You know the way, so I suggest you lead."
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Post by jenova on Dec 22, 2006 17:37:54 GMT -5
David nodded, and beckoned Cloud to follow. His house was below ground, so they both trekked up to the top, and emerged into the sun. David blinked a little before pointing to the nearby city. Tied onto the tallest skyscraper was a blimp.
“There,” David explained. “That’s where I was told to meet my boss when I had finished the job.”
David ran over to his motorbike and swung his leg over it, then kicked the stand away and started the engine. “We meet there, yeah?” David smiled, and he sped off full-throttle.
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Post by prime on Dec 22, 2006 17:41:31 GMT -5
Cloud pulled off his helmet while David met him at the bottom of the skyscraper. "What the hell took you so long?" he asked, grinning. He pulled the blade off his back, and walked into the reception lounge. "Stop you two!" one of the guards yelled. "Ah, just grunts. Put away your sword, there's no reason to kill them."
One of the guards ran right up to Cloud, and grabbed him. "You gonna ha-" He was cut off as Cloud twisted his arms off, then kicked him roundhouse in the stomach. Cloud let the man go, and he fell to the floor. "Ouch, that'll leave a mark tomorrow." He looked around the room. "Who else is stupid?"
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Post by jenova on Dec 22, 2006 17:47:40 GMT -5
David smiled as the other guard ran up toward him. “Use my emotions, he said,” David murmured to himself; he was exactly sure what to do. He pointed his hand at the guard running at him, and concentrated. He remembered when his master had been killed, how the murderer had laughed in his own face when David had tried to fight him, how that man infuriated him.
It happened quickly == a white beam of pure energy shot out of his hand to fire straight through the guard’s stomach, leaving a massive hole behind. David fell to his knees, with the wind knocked out of him. It didn't help that he was drained from that effort, either. “Wow,” was all he could say as he stared at the now falling guard, and the hole through his stomach.
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Post by prime on Dec 22, 2006 17:56:06 GMT -5
"Ouch! That HAS to fucking hurt!" Cloud shook his head. "Well, try to tone it down a little next time, huh? We don't want to kill them, they're poor ordinary people..." Cloud said, then quickly changed his mind. One of the guards walked out in an exoskeletal suit with big guns. "Oh shit, never mind."
Cloud pulled out his sword as the guard opened fire. "Fuck!" He used his sword to deflect the bullets shot at him, then dodged to the side, though he was highly doubtful the sofa would serve as an appropriate shield. He kicked the sofa off the ground, and then hammered it towards the suited guard. The machine smashed it, but let its defenses down too long. Cloud was already there, bringing his sword down on the screaming guard.
He cleaved the skeleton in two, both of them. A large dent appeared in the steel floor, the weight of the massive blade now more more obvious. "God I'm slow with this thing," he said, detatching one of the blades held within so that he held a blade in each hand.
He slashed a guard, spun and slashed another. As his sword hit the ground, he used it to vault over another guard, and stabbed the guard from behind with his free blade. "Jesus, where are they coming from?" he said, looking around. Suddenly, they seemed to be nowhere at all. Cloud looked around, uncomprehending. "Well, we might as well get going then."
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Post by jenova on Dec 22, 2006 18:15:45 GMT -5
“Probably a virtual simulator,” David explained, as he searched the walls, looking for signs of anything that could project images. He couldn’t see anything, but he wasn’t exactly experienced in that kind of field, so he carried on and followed Cloud. The lift lobby where they had arrived was deserted, so he ran and pressed the button for up. Unexpectedly, the lift wasn’t working.
“Looks like we’ll have to take the stairs,” David exclaimed, as he kicked down the service door to the stairs. The guards were waiting, all with semiautomatic machine guns.
Time seemed to slow as David ran forward. The slugs dragged through the air. He could actually see them, and the trail they left, and it was unreal. He dodged through the bullets and reached behind him to grab his long sword. When he had ripped it out pf its sheath, he slashed at the first guard. A gash appeared on the guard's face on contact, spraying out blood; he was dead in seconds. The next fell dead too, seconds afterward: David had kicked off the stairs behind the next and used his sword to behead him. He spun around and impaled the next one’s chest. David pulled his sword out with a sickening crunch as the guard's rib cage was ripped apart.
Time started to speed back up, and he caught some of the guard’s words as they ran up the stairs to find cover, or a better place to entrench themselves.
“How’s he so fast?” was all he heard as he chased them higher into the building.
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Post by prime on Dec 22, 2006 18:23:32 GMT -5
Cloud grinned, and compressed the oxygen in his legs via a complex flexing of the muscles. He shot forward, with his legs working like hydraulic pistons, off the walls and around the stairwell. He hit the fifth floor and shoved one of the guards off the edge, letting David know where he was.
He spun his sword and turned upon the guards from behind, slashing, cutting, and hacking a bloody path down a floor before they could even understand what was happening. He detached one of the longsword-like weapons on his sword, and dropped it down the stairs to David; the longer blade might serve him a bit better, but it was also thinner than David's sword.
"Hey Dave! Hide behind something really substantial!" he yelled, as soon as Dave caught the sword. Cloud jumped into the air between the stairwells, as blue and green mist gathered around him again. His blades both glowed purple as he put them back together.
"GAIBLADE!" he screamed.
A storm of multicolored blades rained down the stairwell and decimated the guards.
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Post by jenova on Dec 22, 2006 18:47:41 GMT -5
David strapped his old sword to his back, and wielding the one Cloud had just thrown him, he pushed himself into a concave in the wall, just protecting him from the attack. He vaulted over bodies and pools of blood to the top of the stairs. They’d have to fight their way across another floor to get to the next set.
“How d’ya wanna do this?” David asked.
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Post by prime on Dec 22, 2006 18:52:49 GMT -5
"Gradually?" Cloud said. "How do you want to do this -- kinda question is that? They've already stated the terms, what am I gonna do, fly up the side of the building? Bushwhack the assholes."
He pushed open the door to the next floor. He turned back to Dave and yelled, practically in his face, "RPG!" before hitting the deck. The RPG sped over Cloud and Dave, impacting in the stairwell. The shockwave sent them both tumbling halfway across the floor's open office space.
"Oh, ouch," Cloud said, getting to his feet. "That fucking HURT!" He cracked his neck.
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Post by jenova on Dec 22, 2006 19:07:24 GMT -5
David rolled at impact. He was good at avoiding that kind of damage. He got to his feet and threw his sword, right at the guy who had fired the RPG. The sword impaled his face, and the blood exploded out of the back of his skull, showering the other troops behind him.
David ran as fast as he could and wrenched the sword out of the guy’s face, and slashed at the nearest guard, cutting his chest into pieces. David turned to the next guard, and this time pointed his sword at the enemy and concentrated on emotional memories again. A smaller beam erupted from his sword and smashed into the guard, propelling him backwards into the wall. His back broke at impact. David wasn’t nearly as tired out this time; it seemed that if he had something through which to concentrate his power, he could go on fighting.
He ran at the next guard, jumped the last few meters and kicked the man in the chest, knocking him to the floor. David dropped after him, turned his sword and plunged it into the guard's stomach.
“Let’s go,” David shouted as he pulled the sword out of the corpse beneath him.
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Post by prime on Dec 22, 2006 19:22:28 GMT -5
Cloud finished shaking it off and walked over to the next staircase. "Whats the odds this'll be easier?" he asked rhetorically. With a shruf, he stepped on the bottom stair. Immediately, about a hundred guns popped out of the walls and opened up on the two of them. Cloud ducked out of the way. "Well, fuck this."
He walked to the elevator doors, shoved his blade in, and twisted it until the doors opened. "Looks like it's climb time. Hope you enjoyed the rope activity in gym." He spoke grimly, as he'd hated it with every fiber of his being, like most kids. He jumped the gap to the elevator's lift cables, and started climbing.
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Post by jenova on Dec 22, 2006 19:38:54 GMT -5
David didn’t answer -- he just jumped across, grabbed onto the lift cable and pulled himself high. He climbed higher, reaching the next lift door; he couldn’t open it with ease. He couldn’t reach it with his sword, like Cloud had done,
David sighed as he concentrated once more. These memories weren’t exactly putting him in the best of moods. He felt like shit after having relived them in his mind. The door to the lift suddenly glowed white, then exploded. The fragments connected with a few guards, threw them forward and squashed them. David jumped through the door and rolled as he landed, dodging a few slugs that had been fired his way. He crouched behind a small desk for cover while he waited for Cloud to appear.
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Post by prime on Dec 22, 2006 19:46:16 GMT -5
A green and blue blur flashed past Dave. "DIE!" Cloud yelled, starting to get severely aggravated. He swung his blade, and an energy disk spread out around him on all sides, blue and green like his aura. It cut through everything at waist level, yet left David whole.
Cloud dropped to the ground, and growled. He lifted up his blade and it reflected letters to him. "Onigod," it said, naming itself as it had when he'd learned Gaiblade.
"Add another to the list, I didn't think that would even happen." He disconnected a buster sword from his buster sword again and walked to the center of the floor with two blades. "Well, I think I'll go for a more direct approach." He swung his blades, cutting a hole in the ceiling, then quickly moved out of the way as the large chunk of concrete fell to the floor with a bang. He quickly jumped up and pulled himself through the hole, looking around.
It was a completely empty space, nothing but floor and windows. Which were mildly disconcerting considering the current floor level. "Whats the deal?" Cloud said, watching David jump up, then pull himself one-handed over the threshhold of the hole.
POHATU EDIT: Starting to get severely aggravated, eh? Join the club, buddy.
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Post by jenova on Dec 22, 2006 20:04:51 GMT -5
David shrugged. The room was empty, and the stairs were at one end. He was about to make his way to them, when a metal fan came flying at his neck. David dropped and rolled, dodging by millimeters.
“I’m impressed; no one’s dodged an attack of mine before.” A silky voice came from the stairs. A woman wearing a black kimono walked toward them, two metal fans in her hands.
David sneered. “Get used to it,” he spat as he charged at her, tearing down with his sword. Their weapons met, their faces inches from each other, each fighting for the upper edge. David kicked out and connected with her stomach, throwing her back a little and giving him a chance to attack again. He slashed at her neck, but she spun out of the way elegantly. Frustrated, Dave attacked again; his sword was now glowing with white energy. His enemy’s fans met his sword. A small explosion erupted as they did, throwing both warriors back.
“Cloud, you go.” David murmured, out of breath.
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Post by prime on Dec 22, 2006 20:14:53 GMT -5
Cloud had already taken advantage of the distraction and gotten behind his opponent. The woman whipped around as he charged in, dodging his sword's swing. He kept up the attack, flowing through forms with the ease and grace of long practice. The woman kept dodging, unable to stop his attacks with her fans. Until, that is, she started blocking using a pair of hidden vambraces, blocking his blades at her shoulders and forearms.
She slashed at his stomach. Cloud barely pulled out of the way, and responded by dropping to the ground and kicking up toward her chip. She dodged by a hair's breadth and cartwheeled backwards. Cloud unlatched another sword from his blade, and flung it off the base blade at her. She bent backwards and it flew over her head, leaving Cloud with a large guard and a double-sided blade in one hand, and a one-sided, somewhat smaller blade in the other. The other part of his sword, which was a fairly large buster sword, was a few meters behind her, stuck slanted into the ground.
Cloud cursed, and advanced. The woman kicked at him ineffectually, being too far away. That is, until he noticed the knives that had been hidden in her leg sheaths. He dropped to the floor, skidding on his chest, then smacked the ground with his palm as they passed overhead, bringing himself spinning back to his feet. He aimed a slash at the woman's neck, who blocked with a vambrace, and forced him to continue swinging.
His other sword met her fan a second later, and Cloud took the opportunity to kick her square in the stomach. She slid back, still on her feet, leaving a trail of dust behind. "Shit," she said roughly.
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