Chapter 10

Thank you for 2,000 reads! Sorry for taking forever to update the book. Hopefully, the next chapter will be faster.

***

Appearing from nowhere the trio beamed into existence. Landing themselves in front of the stone monument that honoured the late and great Sir Aaron with his iconic blue hat perched on top. Below the words 'never give up till the end' were engraved into stone. The three Pokemon stood there in awe of the monument. Paying respects to their fallen hero. Only silence could be heard ringing between the trio.

Even if Mew and Typholsion didn't know the knight personally, in fact, they never saw him, they still can feel his almighty presence on their world just by looking at this monument and stories enthusiastically told by Arecues and Lucario.

While Lucario looked down at the dirt ground unable to stare at his former master's possession. Whenever he tried to look the aura Pokémon felt tears whirling around his eyes so he looked down to hide and cleanse his emotions. Lucario never got to see Sir Aaron ever since Pokemon disappeared. He never spoke to him again. His master. His best friend ripped away from each other after spending so much time with each other. Lucario knew that he had to go. But deep down, the lingering feeling of regret always reared its ugly head to disturb Lucario's peace. It always bugged him that he was never able to say one last goodbye this his friend. He wasn't able to confront his friend through his final minutes on Earth. Even after Sir Aaron's passing, the aura Pokemon still held out hope that he was still alive. Clinging onto the last straws of memories he had of him. But eventually letting go, when accepting that he wasn't coming back. Leaving an empty hole in his soul that cannot  be filled.

Bringing him out of his trance Mew called out, "Shall we get going?"

Looking back up, the pondering Pokemon took a moment to stare at his partners. After a couple of seconds, he finally answered, "You two go ahead... I have to visit an old friend." Understandably, Typohlsion and Mew turned on their heel and walked towards to where Ash and Pikachu may end up. Leaving Lucario alone, in blissful silence, in front of his former master.

Suddenly, Lucario dropped onto his knees and closed his eyes, embracing the peaceful nature around him. He then says out loud, "Hello again master. Its been a while since I talked to you. A lot has changed since we last spoke. I've met a young boy. He reminds me of you. Excited, energetic and most of all, selfless. He brings back all the memories I made with you all those centuries ago. Perhaps I make new memories with him." Lucario then sighs after saying this. "But he isn't going to replace the hole you left. No one can and no one ever will. I wish you were here to see him. You would love him like he was your little brother. The kid is going to become something special. But I don't know if I can be the teacher that he needs. Other students, I have overlooked crumbled other my watch. My latest was another failure of my teaching because that blasted Giovanni decided to swoop." Lucario hands formed into a fist and his aura violently flared at the thought of the devious man. To recover from this spike in anger, Lucario took a moment to compose himself.

After a couple of deep breaths, his balled fist relented. He quietly said, "What if the same thing happens to Ash? He may be our last hope to complete the quest you started. And if I fail him. Then I fail you. And it would kill me if that happened. If you were here you would easily teach the boy correctly. But I'm not you. There is a reason why I was your apprentice."

Lucario then knelled there for minutes looking down onto the dirt ground. Engulfed in the blissful silence of nature. No reply to his batch of questions and wishes. But Lucario wasn't fazed by this. It always ended like this. In silence with no answers to give him closure. Nevertheless, the Pokemon just felt more relaxed and free after venting all his anger and frustrations. Perhaps Sir Aaron was listening to his rant Lucario pondered. Lucario then locked eyes onto Sir Aaron's hat and exclaimed, "Thank you for listening master..."

As Lucario was standing up he heard a familiar male voice echo, "I have taught you everything I know. You are ready. You are not my apprentice. You do not need me anymore. But others need you. Accept past failures and move on. To look into the future, one must accept the past and look ahead, not behind. If you are worried about what is behind you, then you will smack into the incoming wall in front of you."

Lucario- confused as a Psyduck- spun his head around to find the source of the sound. What made that sound. Was it Sir Aaron? No. That's impossible. He would have done it before. Perhaps my mind is thinking of what Sir Aaron would say in this situation. Perhaps it is creating a dream-like conversation in my head. Whatever this was, it at least gave Lucario some sort of closure to him. It's what Sir Aaron would say in this situation. So whatever it was, a forgotten memory of Sir Aaron's teaching, or some greater force, Lucario happily exclaimed, "Thank you, master. Thank you for listening to me."

After he said this the pokemon then let out a deep bow, directed towards the monument. He stayed in this bent position for a couple of seconds. As he was straightening he saw a silhouette of a man in a blue tunic, a black cape, with messy black hair also bowing towards him. Sir Aaron? Lucario thought. The silhouette then smiled at the aura pokemon and turned towards the blue hat. The ghostly figure of Sir Aaron then placed his right hand onto the hat and nodded at Lucario. Suddenly, as if wasn't meant to exist, the figure vanished on the spot. Leaving no evidence of its existence. After snapping out of the trance he was in, a smile formed on his face. It must be my mind creating his image, Lucario thinks. I'm going a bit crazy.

Smiling, Lucario finished, "Ok master. I will see you next time." Suddenly a loud high pitched yelp along with electrical currents could be heard echoing into Lucario's eardrums. That must be them, Lucario thought. Back to the real world.

***

A loud gasp, came from Ash's mouth while placing his hands on his knees. Looking down at the dust kicked up by his maniac like dash towards the island. Sucking in the precious air he lost due to his dogged efforts. The boy then looked behind him to see the land bridge being covered in the disburse dust created. Suddenly from the dust cloud, he sees his yellow mouse companion come sprinting through and soon after collapsing beside him due to exhaustion. Also puffing like a fish out of water. The pair had been running for a couple of minutes. Or to them, an eternity. "I made it. Suck that Pikachu. I beat you." Ash puffed, forcing himself to sound as strong as a seasoned warrior. But instead, ended up sounding as defeated as youngster Joey and his 'top percentage Rattata.'

Replying, Pikachu shot, "O shut up. You only just beat me. I'm surprised that you ran that fast for that amount of time. But, of course, you only won because I let you win. If I tried I would have easily destroyed you. No contest. Now that we are here, its time for your shocking punishment." Immediately after, the mouse pokemon got onto all fours and sparks started to course from the mouse's red sacks of electricity. Making Ash take a couple of paces away from Pikachu, with his hands sticking out in surrender. Suddenly, Pikachu let out in intimidating yelp and leapt up into the air. Ash then starts to turn into a ball to try to brace himself for the shocking pain he is about to face... Except it never came.

Confused, Ash opened his eyes and saw the yellow creature collapsed onto the ground, too weak to send even a tiny prick of electricity. Chuckling, the boy walked over to the extremely exhausted Pokemon. Slightly rubbing in the lose, Ash cheekily replied, "To be honest. I'm surprised by myself with my running ability today. I always feel dead after the first lap of running when I'm in school," 

Ignoring Ash's comment, Pikachu weakly shot, "You are lucky I'm too tired to generate enough electricity." The mouse then looked back to the land bridge they ran across. The dust soon settling "But it seems like the others haven't arrived yet. Meaning I didn't come last." 

"Actually... You did," A high pitched voice suddenly injected. Immediately turning, the pair then saw the other part of the group standing in front of them with a small smirk on their faces.

"WHAT. How did you guys be there so fast?" Pikachu yelped, shooting up onto his feet.

"We used something called teleport. You know the thing you used multiple times before! Because of that, we have been waiting here for you two slowpokes to finally arrive," Mew answered in an annoyed tone.

Brushing off the comment, Ash bellows in Pikachu's face, "Whatever. This means that you are a LOSER," while making an L sign with his fingers and holding it centimetres away from Pikachu's face. Rubbing in the loss.

Before Pikachu could retaliate a rough voice boomed, "Gosh, you two can be worst then baby Pokemon sometimes. I can hear you two yapping from the other side of the world." The group the turn to see the aura Pokemon standing behind them with his thin arms crossed over his chest. "But I must say, it doesn't surprise me that you won a race against Pikachu Ash."

"Huh? Why is that? Pikachu is very fast." Ash asked.

"It is an aura trait. Aura can give you increased physical stats. So you can run faster, longer, jump higher, etc. This trait has probably been unleashed due to the aura training we have done today. So this ability may get even more effective as we continue your aura training."

"Here that Pikachu? You are only going to get slower to Ash," Mew cheekily injected. The boy then shot a cheeky smiled at Pikachu with the mouse pokemon letting out an intimidating growl and mumbled, "Next time I'll just use quick attack or agility." Lucario dramatically rolls his eyes at the childlike behaviour. Slightly amused, he suggested, "We should go. They are waiting for us." After everyone illustrated their approval they hastily follow Lucario.

***

After about a minute of following Lucario on the rocky pathway, the group is then suddenly greeted by a large complex of concrete buildings. These buildings like a normal building Ash saw in his world but ever so distorted. It was like one building was flipped onto its roof and glued onto the top of another. "Through here," Lucario lead, pushing away the wooden door. Navigating what felt like a maze of corridors the group finally escaped the claustrophobic hallways and into a humongous grassy courtyard, surrounded by the towering concrete jungle.

Ash immediately saw a large berry piled in the centre of the yard with all kinds of Pokemon have gathered for the feast. For such a gloomy and dark environment Pokemon can brighten up any scenery with their ability in an instant. He saw Pokemon like Amphrasous and Rotom creating the brightest lights Ash has ever seen. The boy even saw a Lanturn being carried around in a bubble of water due to Psychic Pokemon moving the water to where it needed to be. The grass Pokemon turned the desolate dirt into a beaming and cultivated grassland. Water pokemon, with the help of ground pokemon, creating little pounds so that the environment felt alive and prospering. And Flying Pokemon sat on cracks and ledges of the building, looking down at the festivities bellow them. Ocansicationally flying down to add more fresh raw berries to the already gigantic pile. Typohlsion then ran off towards the berries, where other fire type pokemon have gathered. Which were around the berry pile.

"Wow. That's a lot of berries," Ash curiously exclaimed, examining the pile, which was as big as a Snorlax.

"Yep. We have the sweet blue Oran berries to the ultra spicy red Figy berries," Mew happily chirped.

Suddenly, all the fire Pokemon around the pile let out a roar and soon after, the fire pokemon lightly used flameflower to cook the pile of berries. From the powerful types like an intimidating Charaziard all the way to the cute fox-like Vulpix, several fiery beams danced up, down and around the pile. After a minute of this dancing, the beams ceased. Making all the pokemon roar out in joy as the feast will begin shortly. Soon after, Psychic Pokemon, like the calm minded Alakazam ushered their way to the front of the pack. By using Psychic, the many types of berries begin to float up into the air and into the hands and mouths of every pokemon who have gathered to the feast. Then the noise of berries being squished and juices released enveloped the yard, with pokemon yelling out the enjoyment for their type of berries. With fire, types adopting more spicy berries while other pokemon who are not used to the heat adopt more sweet or sour types of berries.

Suddenly, a smooth round look-alike blueberry with a white nub on the top floated down into the palm of Ash's hands. Cautious, Ash sceptically twirled the berry around his fingertips, examining the smooth skin of the berry, accidentally releasing some of its natural juices onto his fingertips.

"That's an Oran berry, they are very sweet," Mew explained.

"Yeah, I know. I have used it in the games. I'm just looking at it. It's not every day that you get to eat something from another dimension."

"Well, If you are not going to eat it I'll happily take it you know," Pikachu cheekily says, with his mouth full as he finished his Oran berry in a flash. 

Ash then cautiously brought up the berry to his mouth, allowing it to take a little chuck out of the berry. Suddenly, rich, angelic and vivid flavours and the sweetness like an apple start to envelop his sweet tooth. It was as if a sweet stress food was as healthy as any fruit. Amazed, Ash quickly began to destroy his berry, dismantling it into nothingness with Juices running down his arms and into this blue jacket. Not caring if those marks will be hard to wash off.

"O my God, that was just as good as the anime makes it out to be! I don't think I can eat normal fruit again," Ash gleefully exclaimed. The others chuckle at the boy's reaction, while Pikachu was slightly annoyed that he didn't get the chance to eat his berry. Ash then looks towards the berry pile. Seeing that the rest of the berries were already eaten, a feeling of dejection and sadness swamped around him, "I wish there was more thoe..." Ash says with Pikachu muttering in agreement.

Suddenly a large shadow starts to form over the festivities, bringing a curtain of silence over the Pokemon. When landing the generator of the shadow belonged to a large white horse-like creature with a golden ring around. "Can't have a real Pokemon feast without me," An authoritative voice boomed. Around the God Pokemon, an abundance of berries started to float down, creating another large pile of berries. Although this time, it was as big as two Snorlax. Thunderous applause then rang out around the yard. All the pokemon were ecstatic to be graced with Arceus' presence, but most were more delighted to see the hundreds if not thousands of berries in front of them. Some baby Pokemon ran up to Arceus to thank him for the berries. Ash humbly accepted the thanks and shooed them, away from the berry pile, so that the fire pokemon can get to work.

Arceus quietly sighed, "They thank me for being their delivery boy but not for being the God of Pokemon." The majestic Pokemon then turned his large body around to Ash and boomed, "Ahhh. Ash, How has your day been? Enjoying the training?"

"Yes, it's been very... interesting," Ash hesitantly replies. "Lucario has ... a different way of teaching then what I'm used to. But, at the end of the day, it helped me learn."

Arceus chuckled at the boy retailing the events. Envisioning it in its mind as it has seen Lucario training in person. "Ahh yes. Lucario also has his way of teaching. He likes to stick with tradition."

Ash's eyes go wide, his pupils slightly dilate. The God Pokemon, laughing? Isn't the God Pokemon usually void of emotion?

"What? I haven't grown another head have I?" Arceus joked.

"No no. I just thought that you would have very little emotion." Ash cleared.

"I mean, I'm not a rock. I am still a Pokemon. Just I am a bit more powerful than your average one." Still processing what just happened Lucario impulsively nods his head. "Now. I want to ask you this. Your world... How is Pokemon viewed there? Good? Evil? Scary?"

All of Ash's group ear's peaked, intrigued by what Ash is about to say. Ash took a moment to think about this. After the pondering Ash finally answered, "Well. In my World, Pokemon is very popular. Almost everyone knows what it is. There is games about you, Tv shows, movies, toys, cards and a whole lot more. Even our transport can have pokemon drawn all over it. So I would say that Pokemon is viewed positively in my World. But. If you are planning to come back onto my World, I'm not sure if that would be very successful." Intrigued Arceus prompted Ash to continue. "Well, my world is full of greedy people. So if you do reveal yourselves, it may be all fine and dandy on the outside. But, there will be very greedy people out there who will try to harness your power to conquer the world. I mean, my stepfather only cares about how much paper money has in his bank account. Doesn't even care about his 'son.'"

Arceus eyes bulge at the words, Giovanni and stepfather. Staggered by this information the God Pokemon thinks I have to ask Pikachu about this. Ash noticed Arceus eyes bulging which made him confused. But in the end, decided to not ponder over this and move on from it.

With the words rolling around its head, Arceus replied, "Interesting... Thank you for the information Ash.  I have to tell this to the council of legendaries."

Caught up in the imagination of all-powerful legendaries being gathered in such a small area, the boy was brought out of his trance by an oran berry falling into his hands. "Sweet more FOOD," Ash screamed, forgetting about what just happened as he destroyed his berry.

Again, a loud chuckle could be heard coming from the large white house like Pokemon. "Just like Pikachu."

***

The echo of the leather shoes tapping on the metallic floor rang around the metallic layered room, bouncing off the grey dim walls.  The pale man's suit rustled loudly when he changed thinking postures. From placing both his hands on the table in front of him to bring his arm to the chin Giovanni was caught up in his world, not taking his eyes off the red line pinboard in front of him.

Suddenly a beeping sound rudely brought him out of his trance. Annoyed, Giovanni growled and pressed the glowing red button on his desk. Bringing down a projector screen and emitting the video onto it. Revealing,  a green-haired male and a yellow hair female with two ponytails, dressed in black, nervously standing, fidgeting on the spot. While staring daggers into their soul, Giovanni huffed, "Speak."

A nervous voice could be heard from the male, "Er... S-s-sir. The editing of the photo is complete."

"Can I distinguish the items on the photo? Not like the draft you handed me before," Giovanni quietly shot.

Sending shivers down, the female tentatively spoke "Um. I'm afraid we cannot fully fix the photo due to the state it was in. It was too blurry in some areas to predict what was on the photo... But it is better than our previous design. It is less blurry than before. Sending it to you now."

Hearing a beep from behind him, Giovanni calmly turned his back on the duo and activated a hologram on his phone, revealing the photo in question. The same photo that triggered the man's intrigued for these mythical beasts. He can still recall those moments to a tee.

Bang, a gunshot echoed throughout Vidiran forest, forcing birds, squirrels, and other wildlife in the area to scatter in fear. When seeing his raven-haired target fall onto his stomach a devious grin formed on his face as he hoists the smoked tipped pistol and walked up to his victim. Seeing how the blood is changing his Red and white jacket to a darker shade, the deranged man lifts the red jacket to reveal a large wound with blood vigorously pumping out the man's toned chest. The wounded man looked like a fish out of water. Wheezing loudly, fighting for any small breath he can somehow use. While heavily gasping for air the raven-haired man sputtered, "Fuck you, Giovanni... How could you do this?

Giovanni then looked up into Red's eyes. His eye's full of pain and anger. Clearing his throat Giovanni calmly exclaimed, "To succeed in this world, one must stop at nothing to achieve greatness. I'm just doing everything I can to be the best in the world. I thought you would be proud of me. You taught me that after all," 

Boiling with anger, Red angrily replied, "Proud of you... Why in God's name... would I be... proud of you?"  While weakly coughing in pain between his words.

"Isn't that the moral you hold so dearly in your family? Never give up? I'm not giving up. I'm going above and beyond any human has ever dreamed of before. This world needs a leader and I will be that leader."

"Don't you dare use my families saying in that way. You don't have the right to say that."

"Ahhh the Ketchums... Too strong to swallow their pride. They will never admit defeat, even when they should. You should have joined me when you had the chance. We would have made a formidable duo. We could have taken over the world.

"I was your partner. I thought we were going to bring peace and prosperity to the world. Shows how blinded I was," Red spat will trying to put pressure on his wound.

"We both wanted the same thing. It's amazing how similar we are, yet so different."

"We... are not... similar."

"We both want the same thing, don't we? We want to make the world a better place," Giovanni gloated.

"No, you are a greedy asshole who only lust for money and power."

"No, money and power are only commodities. This only shows how dogmatic and narrow-minded you and your family are. Everything has to happen in your view. Look at the bigger picture. The big world always had conflict over our lust for power. Your way of peaceful negotiations won't work. Maybe temporarily but not permanently. We have tried this many times before. And yet there is still horrible wars and actions where innocent people are slain. The only way to get peace permanently is to destroy this lust for power. The only way to do this is to create an organisation so powerful, that no one can stand up to it. Therefore destroying all conflict by bringing the world to under one ruler... me."

"But. Your ways of going about it are pure evil."

"Yes, they are. I'm not going to hide from that. But it is the lesser evil. My way will bring peace to the world. You are just too blind to see it... Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. You could have joined me in that. But your naive child-like views stop that from happening. I'll just get another to help me. Perhaps... I could persuade your son. He may be more easily swayed. He is only a child and easily corruptible..."

"Don't you dare even dare lay a finger on my family"

"With you gone. Who is going to stop me?" He questions while forcing Red's hand off the wound.

Breaking out from his grip he puts pressure back onto the wound saying, "You haven't stopped this Giovanni. They will be others. Stronger than me who will rise and destroy your delusional thoughts."

"Then I will destroy them. Like I did to you... Wherever you go after you die, you will see my empire rule with an iron fist. And you will regret leaving me."

Suddenly, Giovanni starts to see Red's pressure on his wound start to lighten and his head drop down onto the ground, signalling that his time is almost up. Before he could reply with a snarky comment, he heard rustling in a bush in front of him. Soon after, blue energy ball was shot out of the cove of the bush at high speed. Giovanni could only process the ball before it smacked right into his chest, releasing a powerful burst of energy that violently smashed into a tree. Pain coursed from his head and his stomach with screaming in pain. With one last groan, his vision began to fade, but not before seeing a blurry vision of a blue creature standing out, its head looking like a fox and his body more human-like. This was the last image he processed before his eyes fluttered closed and the curtain of the night washed over him like a tsunami.

With a groan, Giovanni finally regained his senses, his vision blinded by the brights rays of the sun. With pain shooting up from his stomach Giovanni gingerly stood up, relying heavily on the tree. With his vision still spinning, like a lightning bolt, he was struck awe and wonder of the powerful creature he just witnessed in action. It looks so effortless for the creature. He quickly checked his secret camera that is built into his suit. Only to discover that the file was critically damaged energy ball rendering all videos photos as corrupted and unusable. All except for one blurry photo of the ball energy ball and the blue and black creature standing ominously in the background. Its figure too blurry to deduce what it is. The photo looked like a translucent glass window, you can see the colours of the photo but can't detect what is on the photo. Like water in a kettle, anger started to slowly to boil underneath his skin. His hands turning into a powerful fist.

Suddenly, a loud beeping sound emitted from his suit pocket. Reaching into his suit, he pulled out his red holo caster. Projecting the call, an image of a pale man with hair that looked like a small orange lion's mane appeared.

"Sir, you're alive," Lysander announced.

"Of course. It takes a little bit more to kill a man like me... Lysander. I think I have found a new way to achieve global domination," He announces while groaning mid-sentence.

"How?" Lysander replied, fascinated by the proposition.

"Mythical creatures with amazing powers, We must have it. If we attain this raw power then no one will be able to stop us," Giovanni nefariously answered

"And red?"

"He has been dealt with," Giovanni immediately answered, noticing the blood-stained grass from where Red's body was, and his Red and white cap rolling around on its nub. "I will see you soon. Giovanni out," ending the call and putting back the holo caster into his suit. Walking up the to the blood-stained grass, he picked up what was Red's hat. Imprinting his blood marks onto the cap, Giovanni thinks, no way red could survive this long without medical treatment. "Thank you for your services Red. But your time has expired," Giovanni calmly exclaimed, while storing the stained hat away. Suddenly, a thunder crack echoed around the Kanto region as dark clouds rolled overhead. Soon after, the rain started to thunder down on the pale man. Washing away the blood left behind Red, Giovanni let out a loud grin and walked away from the scene of the incident, as the last pieces of evidence were washed away from the surface of the Earth.


"Sir? Sir? You still with us?" Two voices screeched in Giovanni's ears, bringing him out of his trance. After remembering where he was, he looked at the photo one more time, realising it was still as blurry as a distorted reflect from the ocean. You can see the blue colours of the mysterious creature, the Red clothing from Red and the green bushes and trees, but one could never decipher what this powerful creature looked like. The little amount of faith Giovanni had in the duo soon left his system, being replaced with anger and resentment to them. Suddenly, Giovanni's fist drove down onto the sturdy metal table, creating a loud bang which resulted in other photos and objects to be thrown violently off the table.

With chills of fear dropping down their spine, the two looked at each other with fear cowering in their eyes. The green-haired male hesitantly replied, "S-s-sir?"

With a sigh as long as a Wailord, Giovanni replied, "Butch. Cassidy... You know. When I die. I want you two to let down my coffin."

Thinking that his previous actions were just a ploy to spook them, they relaxed and let out a sigh as if the weight of the world has just been lifted off their shoulders. The female happily replied, "Thank you sir... it will be our honour-"

"So you can let me down one last time," Giovanni angrily announced, interrupting Cassidy. Making the fear do a 180 and return to the poor souls.

"You are lucky you aren't here. Or else I'll make your sight as blurry as this photo."

"Thank you for your generosity sir," Butch blurted, making Cassidy smack the man in the back of his head, shutting him up.

Annoyed, Giovanni let out a ravenous groan, sending, even more, chills into the incompetent duo. "Idiots. Now get out of my sight before I come to where you two are and destroy you," Giovanni growled.

"Right away sir," they both say in unison, rapidly smashing the end call button to avoid Giovanni's, bull-like rampage.

Giovanni then collapsed onto the chair behind him. With his right hand on his face. "When you want something done. Do it yourself.

"I shall rule over this world with an iron fist. Nothing is going to stop me and team rocket with world domination. With team rocket controlling, there will be no conflict. Only peace. This world has tried negotiating hundreds of times. Look where that has gotten us. It's time for a new approach. And Team Rocket will be there to lead the world into a new era."

"I'll be there as well you know," A mysterious voice injected, from a hologram.

Looking up to see the same orange bearded man, he replies, "Of course Lysander. You and I are the only component ones here. We will rule the world together."

"Actually. I may have another that can help us with our endeavours."

"Good," Giovanni replies with a grin growing on his face.

***

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it! If you did, don't forget to vote and do not be afraid to comment.

I hope to see you in the next chapter.

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