Here is my hero story, which is explained in the previous post (it is somewhat long):
The Owl
I was running; running for the sake of it, running away. I was running with tears streaming down my face, running from everything that I knew and held dear. I was running… for I had just killed someone...
I awoke with a start, my heart pounding, my mouth breathing short, raspy breaths, and my face sweaty. After a few moments I realized that it was only a dream, and calmed down. “Why do I keep having that atrocious dream?” I asked myself, as it was the third time in a week that I had had it.
I tried hard to stop remembering it, but the shocked, surprised, and scared face of the person I had murdered kept coming back to me. I just wanted to forget about the life that I used to live; parentless, bullied, and working for Black Terror, a crime syndicate that struck, well, terror, in even the bravest of policemen.
When I was five, they broke into my house and tried to take some important papers, but when my parents defied them and burnt the papers, they were killed, right in front of me.
I was allowed to stay alive, as long as I worked for them, which I did as I was terrified and grief-stricken. They gave me tasks to do, and in return for completing them, I was given money and a place to live. I kept up with my education in my spare time (which wasn’t much), and used the money they gave me to buy books.
However, this didn’t make me popular with the other kids there. They used to bully and tease me because I alone studied, and because unlike everyone else, I lacked physical skill and wasn’t fearless.
Long-story-short, I had a miserable 11 years. On the other hand, though, it was the only life I really ever knew, so I became used to it. When I first joined the syndicate, and carried out their tasks, I felt that what I was doing was wrong, but over time it became easier and easier to stop thinking about it, and so for a while I did.
My first few missions were simple, steal this from person A, deliver that to person B, etc., but over time they became more difficult and well, more malicious. It reached a breaking point when I was 16. I was told to infiltrate a museum, and steal a new and prized artifact. I was also handed an automatic.
At first, I had no intention of using it. Yet during my infiltration, after stealing the artifact and making a getaway, I tripped a security laser. I darted out of the museum, to safety, and was somehow successful. In spite of that, a policeman tracked, and cornered me in an alleyway. He started to raise his gun, but before he could, I pulled mine out and shot him in the leg. His gun fell a few feet away, and he fell to the ground, moaning in pain. He looked at me with a terrified face, and begged for mercy, but without hesitation, I killed him. A second after pressing the trigger, I realized what I had done, and was horrified. I dropped the museum artifact and with a loud crack it shattered, but I didn’t care. I started to run away, with only one thought in mind, to get away and to never, never go back to Black Terror.
A few days later, after living on the street, I was found by a police officer, who luckily didn’t know what I had done. He sent me to an orphanage, and here I have been for the past year.
Just as I was trying to fall back asleep and get the horrid thoughts out of my mind, a loud gong sounded and a voice shouted, “Wake Up! Breakfast in 15 minutes. Anyone who’s late won’t get any!”
I sighed. That was Ms. Smith, the owner of the orphanage. She disliked all of us orphans immensely and honestly didn’t care about us at all.
As the other kids and I struggled to get up and get ready, another familiar voice blurted out. “Hey look who it is. It’s Ez… um… Ez…, oh yeah, it’s Ez the Orphan! Want to know how he came to have that name, anyone? It’s because his parents were stupid enough to get killed and now he’s all alone. HA HA HA,” and with a laugh, Ignes Polly, the orphanage’s bully, slapped me on the back.
“I’m not the only one who doesn’t have a family. You don’t have one either,” I retorted quickly, but I remembered only too late what the bully’s reply was to that sad, dismal statement.
“Trying to get even are you, you little… ? Well remember this, if you can. Your parents died in a pitiful way, trying to save a few useless pieces of paper. MY parents on the other hand, were brave and noble firefighters who died trying to save other people’s lives! Try to beat that,” snarled Ignes with a smirk, as he started walking towards the cafeteria.
Everyone then stared at me, but I pretended not to notice. After a few minutes, I finished getting ready and headed downstairs for breakfast.
“Hugh. Soggy pancakes, with what is probably fake maple syrup again for breakfast,” I exclaimed, “when will they serve something that actually tastes good?”
“When you start paying for your own breakfast,” growled Ms. Smith as she leaned over my shoulder.
I was startled by Ms. Smith’s sudden appearance, and nearly fell out of my chair, as Ignes and his comrades just watched on and laughed.
After breakfast, we were given an hour of free time to go outside and do whatever we wanted. I didn’t want to return late, so I decided to take a walk, but as I approached the Central Park, a voice rang out.
“HANDS UP!” a loud voice bellowed, and as I turned to see who it was, I saw a person dressed in black with his face covered, holding a golden colored gun and pointing it at a group of people. He looked like a Crow. I froze with terror, thinking back to that lonely day, 12 years ago, when my parents died.
But, before the group of people could react, he fired his gun at them and laughed. After they all fell to the ground, blood streaming out of them, he quickly took their phones, wallets, and other things of value, and made a run for it, as a police car drew up.
After the criminal ran away, I realized that while he was looting the poor people, I could have tackled him, and maybe even have stopped him from getting away. But in my mind, I thought back to my 11 years in the syndicate, and decided that I didn’t want to live life dangerously again. Black Terror had taken so much away from me, my parents, my vanity, 11 years of my life; but during the past year, all I wanted was to live a normal life, free from adventure, peril, and death. Accordingly, I decided to refuse this call of adventure, and hoped that the rest of the day would be more normal.
After being questioned by the police, I hurried back to the orphanage, fearing that I might be late. Along the way, while I was on a sidewalk, I saw an owl in a tree. Owls are my favorite animal, and I knew much about them, so I found it strange that it was outside during the day.
As I looked at the owl, it seemed to stare at me, which was even more odd. It seemed to be waiting for me. As I looked at its face, it seemed to say “Your parents and countless other innocent people were killed by evil. You know what you must do.” Then the owl spread its wings, and flew away.
I was dumbfounded for a second, then realized that it was probably my imagination. “Owls can’t talk,” I told myself, “much less know what has happened to me over my lifetime.” But as I was contemplating this strange occurrence, a man ran passed me, with two policemen chasing behind him. I recognised the man as the criminal that I had seen earlier.
After he passed me, he turned back, and pointed his gun at me. He ran forward, and before I could struggle, he put his arm around me and put his gun to my back.
“Don’t take a step further otherwise this boy dies,” he shouted to the policemen, “also, DROP YOUR WEAPONS!” but before they could react, again, he took his gun and shot both of them. He let me go and laughing loud, evil laughs, ran away.
A crowd had gathered around the scene, as more police officers and an ambulance arrived. They told me that the thug who had killed the police officers was The Crow, a wanted gangster for multiple murders and robberies. They also examined and questioned me (again), but I was finally allowed to go back to the orphanage.
It was becoming dusk. “Now I’m definitely late,” I conceived to myself, “I wonder what Mrs. Smith will do to me.”
But as I was wondering about this, I saw another owl, which bore a strange resemblance to the one that I had seen earlier. It made me start thinking.
“You know what,” I reasoned to myself, “danger will eventually find me, no matter what I do, whether I do something dangerous or not. Black Terror must be stopped. Someone needs to stop them, to protect those who can’t protect themselves. They marked me, the day that they killed my parents. The danger doesn’t matter, I haven’t realized it up until now, but my whole life has been full of terror; I reckon that I can handle a little more.” And so I vowed to myself, “I would make a change. I would fight Black Terror. I would track down the Crow. I would become a superhero. I would become, The Owl.”
With this train of thoughts in mind, I marched home, not thinking of being late, not thinking about being afraid of Ms. Smith, but instead of what my suit would be, how I would find The Crow’s hideout, and how soon, criminals everywhere would fear me.
“Ezra Oakwood! For being late by eight hours, you will receive the punishment of not getting any free time for the next month, and being grounded in your room for the next week!” Mrs. Smith yelled at me at the top of her lungs, the second I opened the orphanage’s door.
Maybe I should have been afraid of her. But on the other hand, this gave me a wonderful opportunity to make my suit and devise my plan of attack, without anyone noticing.
~
One week later, I finished my suit, and had also decided on a method to secretly sneak out of the orphanage (it would have to be at night, of course).
My suit was a dark brown, and looked like an owl. Special adhesives and hooks on the gloves and shoes allowed me to latch onto and climb objects. Night Vision goggles were built into the mask. I had a pair of handcuffs and other gear secured to my belt. I added everything that I could think of, but in my mind I felt as though I had forgotten something...
Finally, I had a plan. I needed to find the Crow’s secret base. I didn’t know where it was, as he only became a major criminal after I had left Black Terror, but I did know where the main Black Terror base was, and someone there probably did know. My plan was to go there, ambush someone, and make them tell me where the Crow’s base was.
The clock then struck 10 PM. It was time. I slipped on my suit, popped open the window of my room, and jumped out.
“This is easy,” I thought to myself, but I suddenly slipped on a roof tile. I slid down the roof, and fell, but I luckily landed in a bush, so not much noise was made.
I breathed a sigh of relief, dusted off my costume, and continued on. To avoid being seen by anyone, I decided to journey on the abandoned dirt trail behind the orphanage. Coincidentally, it led quite near to my goal.
After about half an hour, I reached the base, which was in a forest. To avoid being spotted, I hid in a tree, and waited for someone to come out.
“My past experience with Black Terror unquestionably has come in useful,” I reflected, “due to the fact that I worked for them, I now know where their base is, how it’s protected, and how they operate (at night).”
I had scarcely considered this to myself when a person dressed in black suddenly exited the base’s secret door.
“He looks like he knows where The Crow works,” I scrutinized, as his uniform resembled that of a person who had a high position.
As he walked out of the base and started traveling to his destination, I carefully tailed him from the trees and bushes. This was one of the skills that I had learned from working for BT.
When I felt certain that I was at a good distance away from the base and was in a remote-enough location, I made my move. I snuck up behind him, and pounced on him unexpectedly, hitting him in the head. He fell to the ground in a bewildered and unconscious state.
When I roused him, he found himself gagged and bound to a tree. I must admit myself, that the rope that secured him was quite ingeniously knotted.
Immediately upon seeing me he tried to speak, but quickly realized that he was gagged. He then resorted to making sounds of protest; or at least I think that he was.
Finally, when he realized that his efforts were hopeless, he gave up. I then untied the gag, and informed him, in an emotionless yet serious voice, “Tell me where The Crow’s base is.”
“Why should I?” he replied with a smile, “It’s not as if you’re going to kill me.”
“You’re right,” I admitted, “I am not going to kill you. I will do something even worse; if you don’t cooperate with me, I will turn you over to the police. You know what that means.”
One of the unwritten rules of Black Terror was that if you were captured by the police, you would be assassinated painfully by Black Terror, no matter how secure the prison you were in was. This made it so that operatives didn’t give away secret information, and it encouraged them to succeed. I actually wondered at times why they hadn’t tried to assassinate me; after all, I knew where their base was and could easily tell the police at any time.
The other person gave a quick look of horror, then quickly tried to conceal it. But after looking at my serious face, he started to sweat, and muttered, “Fine. You win. There’s a map of where The Crow’s base is in my pocket.”
“Thanks,” I replied as I took the map out of his pocket, “but I’m afraid that in order for you to not warn The Crow about me, I will have to knock you out again. I will free your bonds though.”
Before he had a chance to respond, I carried out both of those actions. I then took a glance at the map, and saw where The Crow’s base was.
Subsequently, I glanced at my watch. It was 12 AM. I had plenty of time to go and invade The Crow’s Nest.
I journeyed to where the map said that the base was. The map took me to the abandoned part of Metropolis City, and when I arrived, I found myself at the foot of a tall, tall abandoned skyscraper.
“I’ve got you now,” I mused to myself, thinking that I would catch The Crow by surprise, as I proceeded to climb the skyscraper, since it made sense that The Crow’s base was at the top.
When I reached the third highest floor, I broke open the window, and entered what may be my grave. I discreetly hid and was lucky, as there was no one on my floor. Next, I snuck upstairs, and finally to the highest floor. While there was no one on the third highest floor, there were a few on the second. I then knew that this was the place that I was looking for.
When I reached the highest floor, and locked the entrance, I looked around. The room consisted of a large, rectangular table, with chairs all around it, just like in a business office. But, the chair at the opposite end as me, the chair, which I presumed The Crow sat in, wasn’t facing me; but then, it started to turn around…
In it, in full costume, I saw, The Crow.
“I’ve been expecting you,” he said with a malicious laughter as I stared at him, frozen, “oh, don’t think that it was that poor person whom you knocked out twice. It wasn’t. It was my spy, whose identity shall sadly remain a secret. But that doesn’t matter. Not anymore. What does matter is that you're here now, and that you will never leave...”
He then pressed a button on his chair and suddenly, a hole opened up beneath my feet. As I fell down, I realized that the hole led to a very slippery slide. It took me to the edge of the building that I was in, however, I was going so fast that I broke through the glass windows, and found myself flying towards another building. Luckily, the window in the building that I would have crashed into was broken, so I tumbled into one of the rooms, instead of being knocked out by the impact of my crash.
Just as I was getting up, the Crow suddenly appeared from the upper floor. “I’ll get you now,” he roared at me, as he ran towards me, in an attempt to push me off the building. But I was ready for him, and moved aside a second before he reached me.
Yet he must have anticipated my move, as instead of continuing to blindly charge forward, he grabbed me and before I could react, threw me off the building.
The hooks and adhesives on my suit came in handy, as I was able to secure myself to the building, and avoid falling to my death. I climbed up the building, and snuck into the room in which the Crow was in, without him noticing. My plan was to give him a taste of his own medicine when he was close to the edge, but nevertheless, he must have been ready for me again, as when I did so, he seemed to be expecting it, but allowed himself to fall.
He extended his arms, and flaps in his suit came out to let him glide, sort of like a Crow. He must have pressed another button, on a remote, for at that moment, a bunch of rubble fell on top of me.
The rubble must have been meant to kill me, but in spite of that I was fortunate, as I was saved by a tall block, which fell next to me and shielded me from the rest of the debris.
It took me about 15 minutes to remove the rubble and get out. By that time, I guessed, The Crow was long gone and his henchmen in his base were probably ready for me, in case I had miraculously survived. The one thing that I did have going for me was that they thought me dead, and not attacking would further confirm that theory. With that in mind, I decided to return home, and plan what to do next.
When I arrived home, it was still dark, so I was able to sneak into my room. I took off and hid my suit, and being exhausted, went straight to bed.
The next morning, I woke up, and groaned. My week of grounding was over; I needed to follow the normal orphanage routine, instead of being able to do whatever I wanted inside my room. On top of that, I also didn’t have any free time for the next 3 weeks.
“Sigh,” I thought, “Why must the grass always be greener on the other side?” But then I told myself that I was The Owl, a superhero. “Superheroes don’t complain about not receiving free time, and so neither shall I,” I declared to myself.
I had one important task to do though. If I had learned anything from my fight with The Crow, it’s that I needed wings on my suit like his. So throughout the day, whenever I had a few minutes here or there, I secretly worked on the addition to my suit. I couldn’t wait, as The Crow would move out of his base as soon as possible, since I discovered it. Because of this, I was compelled to go there as soon as possible, which meant, today.
Throughout the day, I was laughed at by everyone, especially by Ignes Polly, for having to be Ms. Smith’s “servant” during their free time. Nonetheless, I was able to survive having to clean up the two heavily stuffed storage rooms, with a time limit of two hours, and was excited for bedtime, as I was itching for revenge against The Crow.
“It’s odd,” I wondered to myself while returning to my room, “at first I was scared to become a superhero, but now I’m actually looking forward to it. It feels as though, strangely enough as this might sound, that I was meant to fight crime.”
After returning to my room, I made sure that my gear was ready, and pretended to fall asleep. Well, actually, I did fall asleep, as I hadn’t slept the previous night, and one can’t just fall asleep on my job.
I was awoken by my nearly silent alarm at 10 PM. I had always been a light sleeper. With a gust of excitement, I quietly threw off my covers, suited up, and snuck out through the window.
This time, I was careful to not fall down from the roof, and climbed down it gracefully. I rushed to The Crow’s hideout, hoping that I would be in time.
It turns out that I was in luck. When I reached the abandoned part of the city, I saw the Crow’s henchmen quickly guarding and scavenging the base, and taking only the important items and objects of use.
I was about to climb up the buildings to get to The Crow’s office, when it occurred to me for the second time, that I was approaching the innermost cave, and that this time, I might not exit it.
Yet, I was compelled to go on by the memory of my parents and everyone else that Black Terror and The Crow had murdered without a second thought.
I scrambled up the nearest tower and leapt from it to The Crow’s Tower, while avoiding being caught. But this time, instead of approaching the top floor from the inside, where the Crow could surprise me, I decided to approach from the outside, where I could surprise him.
When I reached the roof, I used the listening gear from my belt to listen to the conversation on the floor beneath me.
“Are the documents packed, no, fool, not all of them, just the important ones?” … “Good, burn the rest. Is that everything?” … “Oh yes, I nearly forgot. I think that it’s time to check up on our friend ‘The Owl’ in the south tower. Alex, John, go at once.”
“Yes sir!” …
I knew that it was now or never. It was time to face my ordeal. The Crow was alone; I had to attack, before he realized that I was alive. After a deep breath, I opened the roof door, and dived in.
As soon as I opened the door, I saw a staircase, and ran down it. It led me to the top floor. I immediately saw the Crow. He saw me too, and even though he had a mask on, I could see the sudden surprise and bewilderment in his face. He quickly regained his composure though, and with a cruel smile, he hissed, “So you didn’t die after all, did you. No matter. This time you will actually die, but this time it will be infinitely more painful…”
I was in the wrong spot for him to press his button, so he charged at me, but this time I was ready. I dodged to the side, and put myself out of his arm’s reach.
He didn’t seem to anticipate my move, as he surged to the side to grab me, and temporarily lost his balance. I used this opportunity to my advantage. I punched him and then tried to knock him off the edge of the tower, but he quickly recovered.
We had a fistfight for a few minutes, but he was quickly gaining the upper edge. I knew that my only chance was to do something unexpected, something that no one would ever think of doing. Accordingly, I did.
I dived to the edge of the room and broke the glass. It was now or never. I extended my untested wings, closed my eyes, and jumped.
I started to fall, but then, I took flight. I opened my eyes. I was flying, something that I had secretly wanted to do my entire life, but never had the opportunity. It was great, it was wonderful!
I then remembered that I was in the middle of a battle, and landed on a nearby building. I turned to see the Crow, and saw him angrily glaring at me. He then also spread his wings, and took flight. “You’ll never escape ME!” he screamed.
He landed with a thud on the platform I was on. We circled each other for a minute, then, as I predicted, because of his impatience, he made the first move. In his “signature” move, he charged at me, but quite suddenly stopped, as if he had remembered something important. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out his golden gun…
This time, I charged at him. He had the gun, and I had to make a move before he used it, but he was ready. I nimbly escaped his fire, and quickly tried to formulate a plan. Then, one dawned.
While running, I took out a coil of strong rope from my utility belt. I dropped one edge and holding the other, jumped off the edge of the roof and spread out my wings. As I foresaw, The Crow picked up the edge of the rope that I left behind and pulled it while laughing, thinking that I had made a mistake. But indeed, the opposite had happened, for he was now attached to the rope.
While being pulled in, I circled around The Crow, faster and faster, tying him up with the rope. He was yelling and cursing at me, but there was nothing that he could do about it. The great Crow had finally fallen.
I landed back down, tied the end of the rope to him, and took his gun. He stared at me, with a blank face, without any mercy. “Kill me now,” he said simply, “don’t make me suffer the embarrassment and pain of being caught.”
I’ll admit that for a second I was tempted to. His gun which I was holding at my side rose a centimeter. I wanted to make him pay, pay for the crimes which he had committed. But then my reason took over, and I realised that nothing would be gained from killing him, while much would be lost.
“No,” I said defiantly, with an air of boldness, “no, I will not kill you. I will take you to the police station and you will stand trial for what you have done. As for what Black Terror will do to you, that’s up to you. On the other hand, I will let you keep your dignity, and until you get to the police station, you will not be required to take off your mask.”
I proceeded to knock him out, handcuffed him, snuck him out of the abandoned city, and took him to the police station. It was more than convenient that the police station was on the edge of the city, as I wonder what kind of a sensation I would have caused, walking through the city in an owl suit, dragging a knocked-out person.
When I reached it, the officer on duty was given a shock. I personally believe that it was his first look at me that surprised him, rather than me holding The Crow, but who knows.
After I explained myself, the Crow regained consciousness, and I turned him over, the police officer in charge thanked me.
“You’ve done this city a favor, young chap. You should consider working with us more often, or even just continue to work on your own. That’s a fine piece of work that you did. By the way, if you caught The Crow, then you must know where his nest is, right?”
I told him where it was, and that he’d better send people there fast, before the henchmen realised that something had happened to their leader, and scrambled. He quickly ordered a squad of policemen to go to the base, with orders to arrest as many henchmen as possible, as well as confiscate everything they were trying to remove.
I joined him and the policemen, and when we arrived at the base, as another conqueror said so long ago, “We came, we saw, we conquered.”
The remaining henchmen, when they saw the police, gave up without a fight. They also weren’t able to transport much, and the police seized hundreds of important items, stolen treasures, money, and documents, not to mention the location of a dozen of Black Terror’s bases, including their main one. Future dashes led by police and I led to the end of the dreadful organization.
While I was going through The Crow’s office, I saw something that nearly made me faint; I saw a picture of my parents and I, when I was little. I immediately seized it, and found that it was attached to a letter. On the back of both was written, in sloppy red ink, “TAKEN FROM OAKWOOD’S HOME”. Also on the back of the letter was an address, “To Ezra Oakwood”. After reading this, I nearly fainted again. “A letter, for me, taken from my parent’s house the day they died? But I never saw them write anything that day?”, as well as other thoughts similar to this quickly went through my head, and I was anxious to read the letter. However, I wanted to read it in private, and the skyscraper I was in was full of policemen, so I decided to read it when I arrived back at the orphanage.
After helping the police to continue searching the former base, I started walking home. When I found myself alone, I quickly hid and took my suit off. “This is the road back,” I realised, thinking through everything which I had been through. But one question kept nagging me in my head. Was I done? Black Terror would be destroyed, once and for all. Should I stop being a superhero?
I eventually decided that I would continue to be The Owl. Black Terror would end once and for all, with all of the documents that the police took. But other crime organizations would rise up to take its place. There would also be successful, ordinary criminals. Someone needed to be there to stop all of them. That someone, I determined, would be me. While thinking about this, I realized that there was another thing bothering me, the letter from my parents.
As soon as I reached the orphanage and snuck into my room, I tore open the letter, and read it:
Dear Ezra,
if you are reading this, then it means that what was long-coming to us finally happened. We wanted to tell you so badly, but we couldn’t bear to tell you about our former secret lives. You were just too young and innocent. But that doesn’t matter; our one and only regret is that we never were able to see you grow up, and that you grew up alone, always in constant fear, never with anyone to help you. But let us explain, we are being a bit vague. There’s no easy to tell you this, but we, your father and I, were superheroes. We had no powers, of course, but that didn’t stop us. Together we took down countless criminals and syndicates of our day, and actually met each other for the first time while on duty. However, everything changed when you were born. Before, what we did was exciting, but then missions started to become more and more dangerous. It wasn’t for our own safety that we feared, but for yours. So we went into hiding and became ordinary people. We tried to evade crime for as long as we could. But since you are reading this letter, they must have found us. We are proud of you though, of what you have accomplished. Proud of you for staying strong, for never giving up, and for following in our footsteps. Most of all, we are proud of you for doing what we were never able to do, getting rid of Black Terror. You will always be our little owl.
Best wishes,
Alice and Benjamin Oakwood
Tears suddenly fell from my eyes. Yes, I was 17, but that didn’t matter. My parents were superheroes, and now I was following in their footsteps. I continued to weep for a few minutes. I then wiped off my eyes.
I finally felt at peace, that what I was doing was right, that it was what I was meant to do, it was who I was, and that I finally understood that. I felt as if a huge burden had been taken off my shoulders, one that had been there since my parents died.
I went to my window, and said in my head, “I will continue to fight crime, to be the Owl. I will make you proud of me, mom and dad.”
Then, the morning gong sounded as Mrs. Smith yelled for everyone to wake up. “Some things never change,” I reflected as I smiled to myself.
Just as I was walking towards my bedroom door, an old book that I had never noticed before on a shelf caught my eye. It was titled, The Hero With A Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell. “Interesting,” I contemplated, “I’ll read it in my spare time, when I’m not, The Owl.”
The End
(note: In the original version of the story, the signature on the letter, "Alice and Benjamin Oakwood", was in a cursive font, but Blogger doesn't support it)
Thanks for reading my story, and if you have any questions about it, please comment below.
What an amazing story. Well done Rohan! I look forward to the Hollywood version of this.
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