Log:Steel Bandits

2010/01/06 	 Bullet Dragon Guardian Imaginary Girl Lightray Lorelei Tank Xing-Liu 1

''The heroes respond to reports of a burglary in progress at the Airtight Storage Company, with an officer down at the scene.''

Located not far from the Industrial Park. On the outside, this is a five-story tall windowless building, painted white. A large sign on the front of the building declares "Secure, Climate-Controlled Private Storage." In the front of the building there's an entrance that allows a look into the front lobby of the build. Also, there are loading docks at the rear of the building. It's after-hours and the lobby is dark.

Lorelei happens to be driving back from a do when the call comes in. She promptly changes direction to the park.

Flying high overhead, Dragon Guardian is headed for the scene of said robbery, talking on the Safeguard frequency as he goes. While he's been out of town on "business" lately, he's still just got back. And now a robbery. Good old Colonial Bay. Dropping out of the sky, he keeps an eye out as he looks for the trouble.

 Dragon Guardian says, "Safeguard, this is Dragon Guardian. Responding to the robbery in progress. I'm not sure what's going on yet, but I'll do an air recon to check."

Tank is bounding over the tops of roofs. suddenly a gun shot he jumps down bounding quickly to the location in question. He fumbles to put his hood back up as to not shock too many people as he walks out of an alley way. He stuffs his hands into the pockets his glowing red eyes look around for the source of the disturbance.

 Lorelei says, "This is Lorelei - I'm on the way by car."

Since it was asked, and she heard the words 'officer down', Xing-Liu heads for the warehouse in question, not really taking the time to change into her costume first, which would take up precious time. She takes rooftop routes, leaping to cross gaps between running surfaces.

Paper is flying in the sky on a sweep of the city in a huge paper airplane. She sits in the grove of it all relax as she looks down on the city below. As she looks she spots dragon and follows him right to the robbery.

 Dragon Guardian says, "Good to hear you again, Lorelei. I'd offer a lift, but I'm not that far away... that, and I'm not sure what my sonic wings would do far as getting there and back."

 Lorelei says, "Ok, I won't get too close till you've scouted - I'll probably be a bit obvious."

Located not far from the Industrial Park. On the outside, this is a five-story tall windowless building, painted white. A large sign on the front of the building declares "Secure, Climate-Controlled Private Storage." In the front of the building there's an entrance that allows a look into the front lobby of the build. Also, there are loading docks at the rear of the building. It's after-hours and the lobby is dark.

 Dragon Guardian says, "Obvious in this case could be a good thing. I can't tell who all is here yet."

Lightray hears the call about the robbery over his comm as he flies over the city. He makes his way to the INdustrial Park and streaks down towards the structure as sunlight girds his form.

Okay. It does help when Daddy's a beat cop and you're at home with one of his handheld radios next door. Sure, he's out on duty, but he had a spare and as she was doing homework, Eden overheard... ... shots fired.. blargh? She's up and on her feet in a moment, ear pressed against the wall seperating her room from Daddy's room. ...'robbery...Airtight... address given.'... so her body starts buzzing with a bit of the blur that's associated with her superspeed burst. A second or so later, she's in costume since changing clothes is so much easier in superspeed mode. Then she's out the window and running down the street.

(Finally! A chance to show that I can be a real hero!) And she's accelerating down the street but being careful to stay at subsonic cruising speeds. . o o O O (Okay, so that's half a mile this way, and then left for two miles. That oughta get me there... now) and she skids to a halt, the gold and white costume drawing attention even as the breeze of her passage catches up with her. "Okay, shots fired, robbery, anything else I need to know?" Yeah, she just came out of warp speed effectively, next to the police lines.

In front of the building, there's a police car, idling with siren lights flashing. A cop huddles by the side of the car, taking cover from anyone who might be at the storage warehouse, though no one is immediately in sight. He's on the radio talking frantically with his dispatcher, he's got his gun drawn, and he casts frequently glances towards the Airtight building.

The police officer is young, barely in his twenties. His hat is lifted from his head as Bullet shows up. He turns to face the arriving heroes. "Man, am I glad to see you guys.."

Lorelei pulls up near the police car, on the far side of it from the building, and gets out, leaving the headlights on. She goes over to the officer, also keeping to cover. "What's happening?"

Tank jumps behind bullet stair at the officer. "You hurt?" he says in a voice that's like a whisper on the wind. He looks at Lorelei as she appears and nods.

Lorelei isn't really in the best outfit for creeping - her slinky sequined dress isn't really the most practical.

Dropping from the air, Dragon Guardian pauses as he stays in the air upon seeing other heroes at the officer. Quickly, he starts to fly over towards the roof of the building, peeking over the edge to see if he sees any shadows in windows as he checks around.

 Dragon Guardian says, "Lorelei, scouting now. And get the girl in white and gold to duck down before she gets shot at, please."

 Dragon Guardian says, "Oh, and nice dress."

Lightray remains up in the air about the level of the third floor. He waves to the heroes gathered below as he scans the building's exterior. Over the SafeGuard comm, he murmurs, "Does anyone know who or what is inside?"

[To Bullet] Lorelei says, "You might want to keep your head down,."

The police officer begins to explain. And loses his train of thought for a moment as he sees Lorelei. "I.. It... " After a deep breath and a beat he says, "It happened kinda fast.."

Paper lands the plane and step off it. The plane breaks down and fly o her making her cape and hood. She is not in a outfit that will make people over look her the bright white of her outfit a contrast to her dark skin and the cut of the outfit shows as much skin as it hides. She moves her hands up to move some hair out of her eyes and smiles

Lorelei says, "Just take deep breaths and stay calm - what happened?"

"Fast?" asks Bullet. "Trust me, I think I can handle fast." She's taken a moment to recover here anyway, speed mode cut off. "But.." and then she's told she oughta keep her head down, "I could say the same thing to you there Miss Sequens.." Then she smiles to the cop and nods, "Best thing to do would be to just tell us what's going on so we know what we're dealing with. Not that I object to just running in there and finding out what's up. I'd just rather know before I kick in the door and get shot."

Xing-Liu is sneaking by the time she gets in view of the building she is pretty sure of as being the right one, nearing the police officer to listen to the results of heroes gathering in one place.

Lorelei does her best to calm the officer down.

"We were checking the place out. We ran into some burgulars..." The officer says, "All of a sudden they changed -- turned into.. into steel. Bullets bounced right offa them. They got Jorsted -- my partner. They're holding him inside. I got away."

Tank just crouches like a ferryl cat ready to pounce staring at the officer with glowing red eyes.

Tank says, "Sounds like we should talk about a trade..." He looks at the other heroes... "Volunteers?"

Lorelei says, "Steel - like robots? Or metal people? Or what?"

At that, Bullet starts buzzing, and is gone. Just... gone. Little cartoon smoke puff cloud in her wake, but other than that, she's aiming for the first way to get inside that she can find. Tactics are gone to the wind...

Tank blinks. "Please tell me she didn't just run in there..."

Lorelei says, "Darn! She wasn't at the lecture on hostage situations - I hope the heck she knows what she's doing!"

After Bullet departs, the officer continues: "... Like normal guys, just made of steel. I think they drank all drank something."

Lorelei smiles. "That's something. Normal guys I can handle, no matter what they're made out of."

Hearing this, Xing-Liu begins to head in, keeping herself unseen as best she can. Fortunately Bullet has made a nice opening for her to slip in through!

Paper listens and frown, "so there a hostage." She sighs trying to think what to do then blinks as the gold and white clad hero runs off, "damn she going get her self killed.

Lorelei pauses, giving Bullet a chance to get the hostage out. It's possible the speedster knows what she's up to.

Tank gives chase to Bullet. He needs to do something before something happens. Pretty young girls shouldn't be doing this thing. Ugly men who can take bullets, maybe, but not pretty young girls. He bounds towards a near by roof to see if he can do a more tactical entry.

Lightray looks down from where he hovers, his wings rippling slightly. His attention is caught by the blur of motion and the door smashing open.

as super fast! She blasts through the doors and is a golden blur inside as she whips her head about to try to locate any sign of where people are at. Her goal at this point, find hostages, grab-... run them back outside before engaging any hostiles.
 * Crash!* The glass doors are nothing. After all Bullet is super strong as well

 Lightray says, "What is the situation? And why did the speedster just smash in the door?"

 Lorelei says, "Trying to get the hostage out. I assume she thinks she's fast enoguh to pull it off."

 Lorelei says, "If I'm going to be any use I'll need light. If anyone can help with that, it'd be good."

 Lightray mutters something intelligle. Probably a curse.

Paper sighs and shakes her head, "no plan at all." she then runs forward to back up the others and hopes this ends well.

Lightray flies down next to Lorelei. "I can help Lorelei. Just stay close."

Lorelei says, "Ok, thanks - otherwise I was relying on the headlights, but that's no good if I go inside."

 Dragon Guardian says, "... Lorelei, tell 'em ignore the noise from the back. I'm about to block the back door. With a truck. Literally."

Elevator on level 5. Okay no waiting around for that. Bullet is in motion again, streaking towards the stairs and then around and around and around as she climbs to the second, third, fourth, and to the fifth floor. Leaning into the door's press-bar, she lets herself out into the hallway beyond. She'd be far more careful and tactical if there weren't a certain cop in there... not with the -shots fired- call out. At least nobody said 'officer down'...

Lorelei says, "Dragon Guardian's about to block the back door with a truck, if you hear a noise there."

Lightray begins to head towards the entrance.

Tank goes in after them.

Lorelei stays with Lightray.

Tank's gargoyle esque face is revealed by light ray's light.

On the fifth floor of the building, there are a group of five men. Instead of being made of flesh and blood they look to be made of steel. However, they move normally. They are wearing dark clothing and carry flashlight, and seem to be generally equipped for a burglary. Two of them carry boxes that seem much to heavy for a normal person to carry. Another one has a police officer tucked under his arm. The fourth pushes a dolly, with a few crates stacked on top. One of the men is bigger than the others nearly 7 feet tall, with a football player's build.

Lightray glances over at Tank's revealed visage, does a double take, grimaces, then takes a closer look at Tank's features. AS he turns his attention back to the task at hand, he murmurs, "If you do not mind me saying so, sir: Was your father Chernobog?"

Tank mutters back to Lightray. "F*** you too"

The bandits stop what they were doing and all turn to face Bullet.

Xing-Liu moves herself carefully, staying in blind spots of the men with calculated practice that seems perfected. She even passes right beside one, bringing herself to the perfect point to land a solid blow, or to run interference. Whichever might come up as the best option.

Paper moves up the stairs trying not to make to much noise as she goes along

Bullet narrows her eyes and never really -stops- moving. She's surging forward and ignoring the metal dudes, objects in hand, or anything they're -doing-. She races towards the dudes, winding around them and aiming for one specific guy. She's hoping that at her speeds, she might catch them a little off guard as she tries to grab the cop out of their hands and race towards the window to basically jump out (hopefully with said cop in hand) and end up on the ground approaching the cop car again.

The bandit's grip is like a vise; he manages to hold onto the police man.

The policeman coughs while squeezed tightly in the bandits grip. "Better give it up now guys, before it's too -- urgh!" His warning is cut off by the bandit compressing his ribs.

Lightray floats up the stairs, his wings passing harmlessly through the walls as he moves. He makes certain to stay in front of Lorelei, but not to block her line of sight.

Grunting a bit as he lifts up the truck around back, Dragon Guardian proceeds to set the truck on it's side to put it in the back doorway. Literally. Afterwards, he heads for the upper floor as his wings extend. The literal golden look to them is probably interesting, if nothing else, as he flies up to look in the windows where there should be light coming from hopefully.

Lorelei dashes up the stairs till she sees the baddies. "I'm going to regret this," she thinks as she poses for the one holding the cop and says in her best seductive voice, "Why don't you put that guy down? I'm sure you'd much rather be holding me!"

The bandit smirks at Lorelei, perhaps thinking he should trade up his class of hostage.

Lorelei prays he goes for it. She makes quite a good hostage....

Down out of the sky comes Imaginary Girl, responding to the sirens she saw and heard from a distance. Coming down to hover near one of the police cruisers on the street, she asks the nearest officer, "Where do you need me?" as she looks over the building in front of her, trying to spot for herself where the action's at.

There's just a lone police officer outside by his police car. He looks to the front doors of the warehouse that have been smashed in. "They all just rushed inside there. Be careful -- they have my partner!"

Tank sees Lorelei leap up the distance and gets infront of Lorelei, taking his hood off. Stepping into the door way and using his great strength to damage the wall to help intimidate them. "By my lord and master if you don't drop that hostage I will rip you limb from limb until there is nothing left but ashes."

The wall gives into Tank's great strentgh crumbling into dust. He grins like this was nothing and makes it seem likes their skulls are next.

Inside the building, the five steely burglars freeze for a moment, cowed by Tank's sudden appearance. After a few moments, the big burgular shouts, "Get them!", and they charge into action...

One of the bandits closes the distance with Bullet, two others with Lightray and Tank. The man who was holding the policeman...

..drops him and approaches Lorelei. The big bandit locks his eyes on Tank. "You're mine!" he says lowering his shoulder as he tries to tackle Tank.

"BRING IT!" Tank roars.

Lorelei thinks as the guy looms over her, "Ok... that worked well. Now to avoid being hugged and squeezed and called George..."

Xing-Liu moves in on the one bearing down on Tank. While she figures he is probably manly enough to take it, the advantage of one less person moving around and being annoying is undeniable. She catches him by the arm mid-stride, sending him to the ground in short order.

The rushing Bandit is caught by the arm as Xing-Liu moves past, redirecting his energy and momentum to be more directed downward.

The floor shakes and cracks under the impact of the iron plated brute. It holds, but is clearly weakened.

Meanwhile, at the back of the warehouse, Dragon Guardian has overturned a truck. The contents shift audibly inside the rear of the vehicle.

Xing-Liu moves then toward the cop-holding bandit, situating herself behind him for ease of contributing toward freeing him from the current problem.

One of the bandits says, "I don't know man... there are a lot of heroes here..." The big guy, still flat on his back, replies, "I barely even felt it. With that magic stuff -- I feel unstoppable. We can take them!"

Lightray says in a calm tone, "And did any of you bother to ask what side effects your 'brews' will have? Or when they wear off?" He doesn't seem to be looking for an answer.

One burglar smacks his fist in to his palm. "Yeah. 'May cause dizzyness and fainting in your asses.'"

The policeman is down on his hands and knees, slowly shaking his head as he tries to recover from the crushing grip he received from one of the armored thugs.

Bullet recovers from her whole... how the heck did they hold onto him? moment... and when the guy drops Daddy, she smirks, "Hey there." she says to the guy who moved closer to her before she's off like a shot once more. She even waggles her fingers at the guy in her face as she circles around past him to pick up the cop and -now- she heads for the window to crash out through it and drop to the ground. She'll absorb the impact of the fall with her legs since she's a lot stronger than she looks, and just keep moving to deposit the officer at his car before turning to head back inside.

And as she approaches the police car, Bullet unblurs somewhat and says, "Scuffleonfive!" before she turns and starts moving again.

Once more ready, Xing-Liu simply waits for a good time to play interference with the brutes. They may be strong, but they also seem a bit less than level-headed.

Outside, the rookie police officer rushes to help his injured partner. "Lief? Take it easy man, medics are on the way."

Dropping to the roof as his golden wings flare, Dragon Guardian reaches down to grab the hatch. Straining, he finally just rips it up and drops it beside the roof.

The veteran cop coughs, "It's ok Fredericks... I've... had worse. Don't worry kid, you're doing ok..."

Imaginary Girl looks down at the officer who's just been brought out, then turn to zip into the building... though her 'zip' isn't quite as zippy as Bullet's, of course! Flying right in through the doorway... or whatever hole the other heroes left in their wake... she eventually bursts out of a stairwell. Hovering there, she glances about and frowns, putting her hands on her hips. "Okay, who do I gotta beat up /this/ time?", she wonders aloud.

Lorelei shifts to her even less subtle 'stunning pose', hoping now to stop this guy in his tracks before she becomes the new hostage. Not that she expects that would be much of a problem.

One of the burglars complains: "Great -- now we're outnumbered." Other responds: "Heh. Not really -- Lorelei don't cooouuuun -- *" He looks over at the starlet, swoons and falls flat on his face.

Tank jumps overtop of the prone baddy and raises a claw like hand curled into a fist. He tries slamming it against the steely foe.

Thunk! Tank's fist connects with the downed bad guy with a metallic sound. He grunts.

The floor continues to hold, but the repeats bashing is not helping it much at all.

Lightray steps further into the room and looks at one of the as yet untouched thieves. "I wonder..." A burst of sunlight then leaps from the glowing figure to the steel man as the gemstone on Lightray's chest pulses.

But the burst of light goes far wide for some reason.

Bullet grins to IG and gives her a thumbs-up before turning and rushing back inside. As the flying heroine whips through the stairwell, the speedster is running right alongside and she doesn't stop. She heads out into the 5th floor hallway and zeroes in on the guy who was holding the officer. If he is down, then she'll target a different one. Even as she flashes past'im she mutters, "Think you're faster than a speeding bullet? Let's fine out!" and she thrusts out a fist to try to connect with the guy's face as she turns and heads back away from the crowd down the hall a ways. Damned superspeedy types.

The bandit is struck, and Bullet already well beyond him by the time he's spun around by the punch and knocked to the ground.

Dropping through the hatch, Dragon Guardian flies forward and around a corner as he looks for the fight. "Hi. Anything weird going on, or is it just me?" He cracks his knuckles as his wings fold. "Oh... nice. Robots, mutation, or just some sort of steel wearing idiots?"

The big guy climbs up to his feet and throws a punch at Tank. "Get offa me!" he shouts.

Lightray calls out to DG, "Idiots using magic they do not understand."

Another bandit says, "This is too much!" He grabs a crate and he tries to jump out of the building -- straight through the wall.

Tank is thwacked on the chest and grins. "That tickled." He cracks his knuckles and his red eyes flash at his foe. this was going to be fun.

Xing-Liu moves to assist the desperleaping Imaginary Girl, not intending to permit escape of the big crate-carrying guy. He wants to go through a wall, but Xing-Liu wants him to meet Tank instead. So in that direction is he redirected.

Imaginary Girl suddenly moves, interposing herself between teh wall and the badguy with the crate! Raising her arms in front of herself, hands balled in fists, she makes ready to get hit!

Imaginary Girl flies backwards and into the wall... which cracks/dents behind her... though she looks unfazed by the slam into the wall, even if she does end up dropping off the wall and down to one knee. Looking up, she grins. "Nice hit...", she says.

"Whoa -- whaa!" the bandit yelps in surprise as his trip out of the building is suddenly reversed. He curls up and tumbles across the floor, scraping to a halt. He's unhurt, but on the ground.

Xing-Liu looks unhappy with the attempted escapee, and every other thug really. But she is determined to keep him here.

One of the thugs grabs the dolly full of crates and shoves it across the floor towards Xing-Liu.

Tank sees Xing-liu in trouble. He jumps infront of the crates hurtling towards the small ninja who seems to be helping out a lot. the crates smash agaisnt him knocking him backwards and doing a lot more damage than the punch did. He tries to do a flip to keep on his feet.

The wooden crates splinter to bits and release a flow of treasure onto the floor of the hallway. Bearer bonds, gold bullion and coin, paintings all spill out.

The last bandit turns and begins to head down the hallway away from the heroes, and finds himself almost face to face with Dragon Guardian.

The bandit that Bullet hit stands up again.

Lightray smiles slightly at the spilled treasure. He murmurs, "Hmm, curiouser and curiouser..."

Xing-Liu follows the one who is trying to get away, not taking long to realize that he is going to meet with interference, and thus, she veers back toward the one who sent the dolly full of crates at her, sending an open palm into his sternum. While this is not physically very effective, it does have a somewhat insidious effect on his strength...

"No!" the bandit shouts, "I'm getting weaker!"

Imaginary Girl doesn't even really stand up from being down on a knee... she more just launches herself forward, flying towards the guy that tossed the crates at Xing-Liu, tackling into him and wrapping her arms around him. "Hi!", she says to him, mockingly cheerful, before she squeezes her arms around him as hard as she can!

"Arrgh!" The man groans. Apparently, Imaginary Girl is stronger than steel.

Lightray says, "just shrugs slightly and gathers sunlight into his hands as it flows from the gemstone. HE then throws it at the nearest steel man, be he prone or standing."

"Yeaargh!" The man bellows in pain as the mystic sunlight washes over him. His entire body glows with the light until he crumples to the ground unconscious. When he hits the ground, he's no longer made of steel -- he's back to normal again. Tendrils of smoke rise up from his clothing.

Lightray seems surprised for a moment, then a look crosses his face. "Ah, I imagine that would hurt more is one i9s using black magic. Good to know." He tuirns his gaze to the other conscious men. "WHose's next?"

Xing-Liu moves on to the leader, the largest of them, and sends another palm into him, looking amused that Lightray seems to have happened upon a very simple solution.

"Every man for himself!" one of the bandits says.

Bullet rolls her neck, and then grins a bit down that hallway. "Cha-chink." she mutters before she rolls her neck quicklike, and adds the word, "BANG!" just before she's off like a proverbial shot. She flashes by the guy she hit who just got up, muttering, "Don't get up on my account." just as she aims one strike at the guy and keeps going past'eim. Then she turns around and heads back to where she started, passing him by again and muttering, "I mean stay down idiot!" ... and when she ends up right back where she started, she shakes her head and remarks, "It's like a firing range... yeesh."

So, what happens when a high caliber round hits a soft target? Much ickiness. Bullet slams her fist into the guy once, twice, and down he goes just as intended.

Dragon Guardian looks at the steel... guy. And shrugs. "Magic, huh? Well, in the words of a cartoon... magic must defeat magic!" With that, he flies straight up to said big guy... and proceeds to punch said guy in front of him flat out hard. DG must've been drinking or something, perhaps? Who knows? Regardless, he just quipped a joke while trying to clobber a bad guy.

The Big Guy it slammed backwards mightly, his lumbering metal frame gouging long trough out of one of the walls. He spins several times as he scrapes backwards, before falling over unconscious.

Lorelei turns and smiles at the remaining guy, once again striking her trademark stunning pose - since it worked so well last time she hopes they have a weakness to it!

The struggling bandit goes limp in maginary Girl's arms.

Dragon Guardian drops down to his feet on the floor, wings disappearing into the odd 'vents' they looked to be coming from on his shoulders. Turning, he looks at Lorelei. "... so, I miss much while I was running around China and most of Asia?"

Xing-Liu heads back outside, to see if the nice police man is okay. Just in case, she does a little repair on his body.

Lorelei stretches as she returns to a more normal posture. "So... what was going on here?"

The injured police, Officer Jorsted, suffers from a few cracked ribs. After some healing, he breathes easier.

Lightray kneels down next to one of the men and rifles through his pockets. He mutters to himself as he does, "SO, wa tit a potion? If so, where are the bottles or vials? Hmm..."

Setting poor, unconscious George down on the floor (gently, yes), Imaginary Girl pats him on the head. "I think they were trying to steal all these shinies", she says to Lorelei.

Lorelei says, "Well, yes. But why was all this here, who are these people, and what's the source of their power?"

Dragon Guardian considers. "It looks similiar to iron body techniques I've heard of, but... much more potent. That one doesn't turn your body into steel. The only other guess is mutation or magic... but mutation's ruled out 'cause there's... how many of these guys? All doing the same thing it looks like?"

Lorelei says, "Yeah, magic's more likely. Or tech...."

Lorelei says, "Hm, I wonder where all this money is from... The answer had better not be 'my bank'."

Lightray holds up a slip of paper. "Locker numbers. They know which ones to hit for the most loot." He glances at the unconscious men. "Its black magic that changed them." He holds up a bottle. "Alchemy. NO signs that they are DEMON though."

Imaginary Girl leaves TransMat RRP1 and enters Universal TransMat.

Lorelei says, "That's something."

Lightray grimaces. "I wonder if these gentlemen are more 'victims' of that mail order magician?"

Located not far from the Industrial Park. On the outside, this is a five-story tall windowless building, painted white. A large sign on the front of the building declares "Secure, Climate-Controlled Private Storage." In the front of the building there's an entrance that allows a look into the front lobby of the build. Also, there are loading docks at the rear of the building. It's after-hours and the lobby is dark.

Lorelei says, "Good thought. Could well be."

"Mail order... oh. That guy." Dragon Guardian comments, shrugging as he sighs. "We can question them after we figure out how turn them back."

Lorelei says, "Though more ambitious than most if so. Most of those seem to be kids messing about. These guys were up to serious robbery, or so it seems."

Lightray hmms and goes over to one of the unconscious men. "I wonder if I can..." He doesn't finish speaking, but lets sunlight pool in his hands then tips the golden liquid light into the man. "Let us see if I can heal you, sir."

The man in unconscious, but his body jerks as though jolted with electricity. Soon he lies still again, and he's back to normal.