The UNION Team

Luke now thought that using his Flamethrower attack wasn’t such a good idea. It seemed to have no effect on the metal bird, but only seemed to make it angrier. At least it let go of the Sandslash, but its eyes were now so full of hate, like this wasn’t the first time it had been hit by a flamethrower. The Skarmory lunged at him, but he couldn’t get out of its way fast enough and it grabbed his back and started to fly awkwardly into the air.

The Skarmory kept climbing ever higher, and he started to think about his trainer, how he had been lifted into the air like this by a Fearow, and that started to make the blood in his body burn even hotter with rage. He started to thrash about trying to loosen the grip of the Skarmory, but it only seemed to tighten. Then he saw the Teddiursa lunge at the bird with his paws flailing as it used a fury swipes attack. It seemed to have to effect on the Skarmory metal armour. As rusted as it was.

Then the bird seemed to stop mid flight. It had spotted the Riolu waving its blooded paw in the air like it was trying to get its attention. The Skarmory started to fly downward, his grip on Luke kept tightening that now his sides were started to bleed. He started to move around more until he could see its legs. “Let me go you over sized Turkey!” Luke yelled, and without thinking bit down on the bird leg as hard as he could. He could feel the infected blood seep into his mouth, but he made sure not so swallow any of it.

The Kirlia growled ineffectively as it watched Skarmory rise, perfectly aware of how its own attack was utterly useless...

A spark of inspiration shone in its eyes momentarily and it stopped, copies of it appearing everywhere... including all over the Infected.

Suddenly, a small smirk crept over Seruru's otherwise focused expression, realization dawning on him as he suddenly remembered, although this attacking creature was a flying type, it was also a Steel Type.
And he, was a Fighting type.
Quickly, Seruru used his Quick Attack, dashing beneath the Skarmory to evade it's impending attack, and hitting the deck, sliding beneath the Houndoom in the process.

A pack of Houndoom had come through his forest once, he remembered them bartering Berries with an Elderly Ariados in his youth. He also remembered one of their Pups telling him that they were both a Hybrid of Fire... And Dark.
And Dark Types were substantially weaker than most other types, to fighting type Moves. If his plan was to work, he'd need to be careful not to hit it.

The Kirlia, the one in a flamboyant Pink Scarf, had suddenly multiplied, and taken over the Skarmory's attention.
Now was Seruru's chance.
As he passed beneath the Skarmory, he drew his hand back, and threw a Forcepalm into the Skarmory's Talons, followed sharply by another, "Release it!"

His eyes suddenly darted behind him, a dark aura creeping into his vision as a Sandslash fell through the air.
He wasn't fast enough, and closed his eyes, preying the Teddiursa might be able to do something as he slid out beneath the back end of the Skarmory, and got to his feet, shaking slightly.
What he'd done had taken some of the fight right out of him.
After regaining himself partially though, he turned, hoping to see the Houndoom freed.

Wedge screeched as the rest of the Pokemon proceeded in assaulting his talons that held the Houndoom. Fury Swipes rained down upon his left talon, continuous Force Palms came towards the other. And when multiple Kirlias flashed around him as he crashed on the ground, the Skarmory had no choice but to release the Houndoom- the prey he wished he could have had. He felt angry with himself for being beaten so easily. Wedge had not even been given the time to savor the blood resting on him.

The burn left from the Flamethrower started to kick in, and Wedge stood up abruptly. Retreat... In his mind, reason echoed, but the Skarmory glared at the Pokemon attacking him. "Death was what consumed...." His voice croaked as he started flapping his wing in a frenzy, slightly flying upward once more. "And death shall come again... beware!" With that, Wedge blundered towards the nearby forest. Their gaining up on him was successful- but it would not be the next time around.

The Skarmory hissed as he landed, his claws starting to ache with pain. Wedge starting yowling into the night, piercing the eerie quietness and sending a nearby flock of Pidgeys flying. The Armor Bird Pokemon continued to let out his voice, the pent-up frustration of his recent loss and no blood to account for pushed into the noise coming from him. I need blood! He pleaded with this self-diving into the red liquid. The Skarmory felt this utter need to engulf himself in the blood- it was like water to humans, but intensified until it was unbearable.

Blood! His long-held howl continued. A far-off memory reached to him, and he remembered howling as his second wing was purposely ripped from none other than himself. No one had come for him. And no one would come now.

Typical, he had risked his life to try to save a fellow pokemon by jumping in the air to attack his captor, and Theo’s attack did absolutely no effect. He can see with each Furry Swipe that his attack was useless; it barely even left a scratch on the metal plated talons. He quickly looked around; he didn’t have much time before gravity sent him plummeting down to the ground. He had seen the brown one with the fresh wound on its side become dropped as Theo jumped to the houndoom’s rescue, he could now see him a little more than half-way to the ground. The fall could inflict serious damage with it's wound, and he could not let it get even more hurt because of him. He had to act quickly.

He prayed the dark pokemon in the enemy’s grasp would forgive him afterwards; he used it as a platform and kicked off it hard, though considering he was small and weak it was bound to be not that hard, towards the brown one’s direction. Even given the situation, he found it funny that the pokemon was still fixated on his berry. He didn’t really have a plan for them both, he hoped that best case scenario would be if he was able to push the brown one towards one of the cushions from the broken down furniture, but since they were broken, chances were, that the wood would pierce him instead. Instead when he caught up to him with his added momentum from black one's unrequested help, it was only a few moments before they both crashed to the floor, Theo grabbed him midair and rotated them both so that Theo was on bottom. He had more of a chance of surviving that crash than the wounded one. He did however forget about the other’s spikes, as his body made contact with the floor he felt pain shoot from his back and from his stomach where the spikes pushed down. The world was getting dark, his head was pounding, he could hear a loud screech and then a crash nearby, but he could not for the life of him distinguish what direction it came from, all he could think about was what the berries in that bag would have tasted like. Maybe he would find out later, but for now, he was tired, he could not keep his eyes open any longer.

The bloodied beast snarled in the shadows, watching the attack play out.
Blood is spilled…
The Tyranitar dropped the corpse he had been feeding on as the small ones crashed into the shattered building.
Blood…
The corpse of what remained of an eevee dropped from his claws with a splatter.
He loosed a deep roar as he crashed through one of the walls of the pokemon center.
Fear…smell…fear…
Blood dripped from the monsters jowls as he drew nearer to his prey.
He knew there was others around, but he had already chosen.
His one glowing red eye focused on the quivering Sandslash that had fallen out of the sky.
The Sandslash was paralyzed with fear as it stared up into the gore that was once the monsters' face. The Tyranitars’ glistening teeth still held remains of his last meal. The smell of death and rot was unbearable.
Blood…mine…
He snarled, as he stared into the face of his prey.
The monster dug his rotting claws into the paralyzed Sandslash, as it let loose a bloodcurdling screech.
It began to squirm and toss itself, desparately trying to escape…but it was too late.
Blood sprayed against the walls and counter as the beast buried his teeth in the small creature again and again…bones crunching in the mighty beasts’ jaws, entrails dripping down his chest, the other half of his face unable to chew…until all that was left was some frayed, bloody spikes, falling to the floor.

The Tyranitar was still hungry. The others had frozen in fear and terror. An unconscious Teddiursa lay in front of him, ready to be eaten. The beast could hear the blood pumping through its’ veins and its’ chest slowly rising and falling.
Blood…more…
He knew that this meal was too good to pass up.
More…more blood…his mind screamed as he reached out to impale the helpless creature…

Suddenly, something drew his attention away. His gore-drenched claw froze in mid-air as he heard a silent summoning. With a heavy choking sound, he rose up to his full height and stared off to the North, as if something was calling him. He growled as he looked back at his helpless prey, desiring the blood flowing inside of it…After what seemed like hours, he turned his back on the baby pokemon and disappeared through the rubble.

Luke was finally released from the grip of the Skarmory as it crashed to the ground. Seeing as it was outnumbered it retreated to the nearby forest. Luke stood up, his sides were aching from were the Skarmorys claws has dug into him, but he managed to shake it off, though it would still hurt for the rest of the day.

Luke looked around for the Sandslash and Tebbiursa that had last been seen in the pokemon center, but he froze at what he saw next. In the center holding the body of the Sandslash was the most horrid infected he had ever seen. It had been such a long time since Luke had felt this much fear. The huge infected dropped the broken and now unrecognizable body of the Sandslash, and was about to go for the Teddiursa that was also frozen in fear. But it seemed to stop and leave, just as fast as it had come.

Luke managed to walk forward to were the Teddiursa was now passed out. He sniffed the little bear to make sure it wasn’t badly hurt, knowing that, he walked over to the now scattered berries and started to pick them up and put them back into the bag, avoiding the ones covered in the blood of the Sandslash. He looked over his shoulder to the Kirlia and Riolu who were now standing at the centers doorway. He sighed and walked over to them, giving them each three berries, which left six in the bag. Three for him, and three for the Teddiursa once it had woken up.


(Ooc: I don’t think it should still be morning by the time this all ends, it would have most likely become early afternoon when it came to an end.)

Kirlia froze as it heard the approach of the Harbinger... and as the massive Infected lashed out at the wounded Sandslash, it fled.

Running like it never had before, blindly trying to get as far from this great devil of a pokemon... fleeing straight into the darkness of the Union Cave.

Seruru watched in frozen horror, as the beast before them tore into their possible Comrade, heartless, cold, hungry.
His paws were sweating, the beads sliding into his wounds, burning. But... it didn't matter. The horror was so distracting.

And then it looked at the Teddiursa... And Seruru was too frightened to move. The creature, just turned and walked away...
And Seruru fell to his knees, paws splayed against the ground as he panted to himself.
He gathered himself, and turned to face the Houndoom in their presence "You... are you alright...? That other creature looks like it did a number on you..." he spoke in an almost quivering whisper, as thought trying not to alert anything else.

Wedge wanted revenge. He wanted their blood on his rusted wings. As he watched the undead brethren tear up the Sandslash, he only felt satisfaction. The Tyranitar had even left the corpse for him to take. The blood would soon be overflowing... the red turning to a dark liquid, soothing his desires and numbing his senses. Blood...

Wedge slashed a tree with his talons, pretending the sap to be blood as its sticky substance stuck to his feet. It was not enough. Grunting, the Skarmory glared at the red, setting sun, wishing it were the blood he could have. His blood lust was in full throttle. And killing the four would be enough to satiate it.

Following them was his only option. Killing them was his main objective.

It was strange, even with all the commotion and sound from everything around him happening, none of it seemed to wake him from his dream. He could tell it was a dream because his massive headache was mysteriously gone, that, and the fact that his sister and mother where there, both clearly alive and undead. It was extremely peaceful; their mother was teaching them about what kind of berries are best for eating, and what others should be saved for specific ailments. The lesson didn’t last long, for partway through his mother just seemed to disappear, like she had never been there in the first place. He turned in confusion to his sister for an answer, but she had started running off into the woods, he didn’t want to be alone anymore, so he quickly followed.

The pursuit lasted until they made it to the lake of rage, for some reason the water seemed eerily calm, it was usually alive with movement and noise from random pokemon seeking a peaceful rest in an otherwise hot day. She didn’t wait for him to further investigate the setting for she motioned for him to go into the water with her. He slowly waded into the shore, eyes always on the ground, taking extra precautions to not step on any baby magicarp. When he finally looked up his sister was gone. He began to panic, he did not wish to lose her again, the water around him turned warmer for some reason, and when he looked down to see why, it was no longer water, it had turned thicker and redder, the whole lake was filled with blood. He immediately panicked; he never liked the sight of blood, even before the infection started. He hastily made his way back to land, but before he could make it there, something had wrapped itself around his foot preventing him from going any further. There below the surface of the blood, the dead, lifeless, grey eyes of his sister looked back at him as she tried to drag him below the surface. He woke up gasping for breath.

At first he figured he was still asleep, because the blood that was soaked into his fur in his dream was still apparently covering him still. But the overwhelming headache was a constant reminder of his consciousness. It took a moment to realize that he could actually sit up, the weight that was on top of him before his nap was now gone, judging from the quills on the floor that looked exactly like the ones the brown one had, and that he was not near, Theo figured that the brown one ran off to a corner to nurse his wounds in private. It hurt too much to fully stand up, so he stayed sitting up instead, he didn’t hurt as much as he would have figured with this much blood around him, but he knew better than to move too much so soon. He had no clue how long he’d been out, but the center looked a lot worse, there was a huge hole in the ceiling, and a bigger hole in one of the walls, he figured it must have been an attack from one of his new acquaintances, but what confused him the most was the decrease in people. The black one was still here, and also the hurt blue one, but the white and green one was nowhere to be found, neither was the ground type. Theo figured he should get the information from those that where awake to see it. “What happened?”

“Wait!” Luke called after the Kirlia as it ran into the unknown darkness that was the Union Cave. If it had heard him, then it paid no attention as it vanished into the darkness. Luke would have run after it, but he looked back at the others and he knew he couldn’t just leave them alone.

The Riolu was on its knees, and then it looked up at him and asked if he was all right. “I’ll live. It wouldn’t be the first time I was hurt like this.” Luke said, as he looked the Riolu in the eyes before looking bad to the cave. “And it wont be the last…”

He walked over to the now awake Teddiura as it looked around all confused. “What happened?” It said as it looked in his direction, though it seemed it was asking both him, and the Riolu.

“The Skarmory is gone, it was chased off thanks to everyone here.” He looked at the scattered blood. “But the Sandslash is dead, as you can tell from all the blood. It was killed by an infected Tyranitar.” Luke looked back at the Teddiura and saw it was looking at the huge hole in the wall with a look of fear on its face as if the huge infected would return to take its life. “As for the Kirlia…” He looked back at the cave. “It ran off like a cowered.”

Luke hated hanging around kids, cause they were never much help when it came to a fight, but if it weren’t for them, he would probably be bird chow about now. And he remembered something that his mother told him when he was young and still a wild pokemon, that there was safety in numbers. Luke never understood what she meant, but after he was caught by his trainer and trained with its other pokemon, he soon understood what she meant.

He looked at the Teddiura, then to the Riolu. “So what are your names? Or am I going to have to call you by what you are?”

Deep within the Union Cave, a Kirlia collapsed.

At the lake of Lapras, by the water's edge, the Emotion pokemon pulled itself into a sitting position, knees pulled to chest, panting heavily. It shook its head, trying to remind itself that the horror had passed.

No soul... no mind... only... hate... hate, and...

It buried its face in its knees, sighing shakily...

...

A scream rang out from within the cave.

Seruru straightened up, licking his paw clean- and clenching his teeth shortly after to de-wire the pain- before lowering his head in Respect, "My name is Seruru, but you can call me Riolu is you want..." he raised his head, looking the Houndoom in the eye, "And yourself?" he tilted his head.

His Master had told him never to speak to Pokémon bigger than him, regardless of the situation. But, Seruru had helped save this Pokémon's life, surely it wouldn't devour him? No, no of course not.

He hesitantly extended his good Paw, as though expecting a Hand Shake. He'd seen Humans do it once, it was a sign of trust, his Master told him.

He could not believe what he had heard, the ground type, apparently a “Sandslash”, had been killed by an infected while he was unconscious. Apparently the blood coating the floor and his fur was truly not his own. Theo could not help but believe that it was his fault. If he had not used that attract, the sandslash might not have been compelled to jump in front of the attacking steel type, and it would have not been hurt, in effect, Theo would not have lost conscious. If that didn’t’ happen, they could have at least gotten away from the giant infected Tyranitar. He never even learned the pokemon’s name, he felt like curling up into a ball and crying his eyes out. He would have done that if it wasn’t for the fact that in this new world, crying left you defenseless, and that in turn would get you killed, though that did not stop his eyes from watering and slightly blurring up his vision.

He slowly got up, the headache not gone yet, but was manageable. He knew he would not be able to run at full speed for a while, but he could manage almost everything else. This was technically his first true battle, and the experience left him not looking forward to the next one. He slowly made his way to the other two allowing him to better hear the blue one state his name, apparently Seruru. He kept his head down all the time, not wanting the others to see his watering eyes and think even less of him, the dark one looked strong, Theo thought he looked like the type that might abandon someone if they were too weak, that was how it usually happened for him. “My name is Theo.”

“Well Seruru, Theo, I have come to be known as Lost Call. So that is what you can call me. If you ever manage to urn my respect, I will tell you my real name. But for now, you can call me that.” Luke said to the two pokemon. Theo was looking down like he was hiding something, but he decided not to bother with it. “You may also call me Houndoom if you want to as well. Makes no difference to me.” Luke turned in the direction of the cave then looked over his shoulder. “If you want you’re free to come with me. I’m heading to Azalea Town that’s just through this cave.” Luke had a much bigger destination, but he decided not to tell them just yet.

Luke waited to see if they would follow him. But then the pain in his side returned and he tensed. Looks like my sides not has good as I thought. He thought to himself. Though he tried to hide his pain from the other two. “Lets wait till this evening though. I think we should save our strength for the Union Cave.” Luke said. He need to rest, and let his side heal a bit before he attempted to walk through the cave, also, Serurus eye looked like it was still bleeding, and Theo needed time to recover from some emotional wounds. “After that we need to try and find the Kirlia… if its still alive that is.” Even if the Kirlia was a cowered he couldn’t just leave one of the living to fend for itself. Not in this new world were infected hide behind every corner. Plus, Luke had the feeling they were being watched…

The earth rumbled as Aidan ran.

Rocks fell from the ceiling of the cave, often narrowly dodged by the little pokemon as it fled from the terrors inside.

Behind it was the loud screech of metal on stone, followed by a horrifically loud roar, more akin to dragging a plate of rough, heavy iron over a blackboard than any sort of creature's voice, echoed out from the cave.

Not a moment later, Kirlia darted out and dashed for the Pokemon Center, where it collapsed outside the door.
The rumbling from the cave seemed to slow and stop.

Seruru nodded, "Theo, LostCall. It looks like we're going to be working together, if we all plan on surviving," Seruru could see the depression pulsating off of Theo's Aura, and, as he'd done to comfort young Pokémon in his forest, he placed a reassuring hand on the little Teddiursa's back.

Just then, he heard a harsh sound from the Cave the Kirlia had fled through, one that momentarily shook him to his very core, as he saw the Kirlia dashing to the Pokémon Center, and collapsing at the door.
Seruru was still in pain himself, but the Adrenaline from the fight kept him up and running. He debated approaching the Kirlia, but decided not to. Instead, he kept his paw on the Teddirusa's back.

Wedge had eaten off of a few measly Rattatas, but he knew that their blood would now taste stale. Revenge had never been more sweeter... A voice echoed through his numb mind, and the Skarmory roared in agreement. The four Pokemon that remained in that group would have blood more gracious that any he had ever tasted before.

...

The Armor Bird Pokemon stood on his feet, tearing up tree roots in agitation. The Sandslash's blood would have to do, although he was not the one to finish him off. Wedge scrabbled up a tree, knowing he was making a lot of noise, and peered through its branches. His planned meal was waiting there, along with the bear (whom he detested for escaping him first), the Houndoom (fire... must kill...), and the Riolu (the first of them to have blood spilled). The Skarmory hissed from his vantage point, cawing loudly. The Kirlia had disappeared from the scene, but it was only a matter of time before he found her- and finished her off too.

[ooc: I'm back from a really short and fast homework session!]

Almost invisible against the little surviving foliage along Route 32, the serperior had spent the majority of the night simply waiting for prey to come to him. His thick, freshly blood-stained body was coiled around the remains of the night’s victims – several rattatta and a pidgey. All that remained from the pokémon now was a concoction of raw flesh and feathers. Their deaths had been particularly drawn-out by their capture though. Dorian had suffocated the first rattatta slowly; relishing in the strangled cries and feeling the occasional burst of blood on his body as the creature’s blood vessels collapsed under the extreme pressure. He’d then sunk his fangs into the creature’s eyes – a spiteful enactment of how Dorian himself had become such a monster. When the next pokémon came along, they suffered a similar death – yet their fear was heightened as they were pressed against Dorian’s previous victims, still occupying his coils. He could only imagine their expressions of sheer horror.

Admittedly, Dorian struggled without his eyesight. He had never entered this part of the Johto region and made his way around through a combination of his hearing, scent and uncontrollable blood lust. Yet, he wasn’t completely brain-dead, and had enough intelligence to know that surprise attacks were his greatest strength.

Lifting his slender head and looking out with empty sockets, the faint sound of speaking came to his attention. Remaining totally motionless, he loosened the grip of the night’s prey, allowing them to silently fall limp onto the ground below as his attention was stolen by the unusual sounds. However, as he made out a few words that he presumed were names, a far more intrusive sound destroyed his senses. The earth vibrated ever so slightly and the movement of rocks became deafening to Dorian’s sensitive hearing. Hissing, stressed, the sounds slowly died away and the faint scent of a kirlia momentarily entered his nostrils. Torn tongue flickering out of his bloodied mouth, he slowly begun to slither in the direction that the kirlia’s scent had vanished to, always remaining in the grass where his green body would be harder to distinguish.

He didn’t catch everything the two said, his mind kept thinking back to the sandshrew whose blood now covered him, though Theo was able to catch the gist of the conversation. Seruru a riolu and Lostcall a houndoom, that was the names of the two he would be with for the time being, he was at least glad he knew their names in case something happened, he didn’t want to continue remembering them by their colors. He had no clue where he should go, so he figured he would tag along with the houndoom’s destination of Azalea town, it was better than being lost and alone like he was earlier. He really wanted to leave right away, both because he feared the infected might come back, and also because the travel might help him cheer up, or at least give him something to do. Apparently he wasn’t as good at hiding his emotions as he thought he was, because Seruru was trying to silently comfort him. He didn’t know if should be grateful for the first real tenderness since the infected, or embarrassed because he was weak enough to need comforting, it was even worse seeing as the other was the one with the real injury.

When he was confident his eyes where dry he mustered up the courage to look up, it seemed like the riolu did not have much experience doing this, he looked like he didn’t know what else to do, and the houndoom was walking a little more tense, maybe because his injuries where more severe than he let on. He was going to thank the riolu and go search the center for possible healing items but a loud noise stopped him. It seemed to be coming from the cave he saw earlier, where the kirlia supposedly ran to. He tensed and stayed still, if there was an infected over there he did not want to unknowingly get its attention, it wasn’t long till a closer lesser crash pierced the silence. The same kirlia had collapsed in front of the center, the Riolu appeared to have considered not going to its help, maybe they were both mad that the pokemon had run off earlier. Theo ran off to the entrance to help the kirlia, his headache sending a strong enough pulse to make him flinch but not stop, it was dangerous to stay outside in plain sight so he picked it up with some effort and dragged it inside. “You okay?”

When Luke heard a laud crash, he looked up and saw the Kirlia running from the cave and collapsing in front of the center. Luke looked in the direction of the cave as the sound started to move away from the entrance. I don’t like the sound of that. Luke thought. He looked back over in the direction of the Kirlia, who was now being pulled into the center by Theo. At lest now we don’t have to get side tracked on searching for the Kirlia anymore. We can just head right to Azalea Town.

Not having the strength to move, Luke lay down were he was. Keeping his senses on high alert in case the Skarmory came back, or any other infected they don’t know about. He didn’t need sleep; he just needed to rest his body. He used his tail to pick up a petcha berry that was on the floor close to him, a snack to help get his strength back, even if it was mainly used to repel poison.

After he finished eating he could smell something getting closer. It smelt of rotting meat, which didn’t surprise him. But this thing seemed to be getting closer. He hoped it was nothing, but that would be to good to be true.

He managed to stand back up and headed to the entrance of the pokemon center. He looked around, hoping his suspicion was wrong, and from the looks of everything, it seemed to be clear. But the feeling they were being watched just wouldn’t leave him. It just made his fur stand on end. He sat down at the entrance to the pokemon center and looked out at the abandoned route.

The Kirlia began to panic as it felt something dragging it, and thrashed wildly for a moment, before it felt the cool, shady interior of the ruined Pokemon Center. It forced its eyes open wide enough to see, and caught a glimpse of the Teddiursa's feet.

"You okay?"

Aidan shook its head no, gesturing towards its aching legs and head, before struggling to its feet, stumbling towards the wall. "Fear. Exhaustion." The Emotion pokemon looked shaken, but did not seem to be hurt or injured. It closed its eyes once more, holding the ends of its scarf in its hands, and mouthed a few words, before gesturing to the cave.

"Steelix. Big. Caution."

Seruru paused, his paw suspended in the air where the Teddiursa had been. He'd... run to the deserting Pokémon. The Pokémon that'd abandoned them in a time of necessity...
He didn't understand it. He just stood, motionless, and stared out into the surrounding forest.

He closed his eyes, the stuttered words of the Kirlia coming into the air, Steelix. Big. Caution.
"A Steelix...?" he asked himself, quietly, before swallowing his pride, and turning to follow Theo to the Kirlia, "Did you say there was a Steelix? Is it infected?"

(skip turn for now. Wedge has nothing to say.)