Predator roared as a thundering punch grazed his side. It was just a graze, but it would have been a solid hit if Predator hadn't leaped forward to add more strength to his slash. Even that graze, however, was enough to cause some pain. The guy was strong, and he had a knife. His knife was pretty big, but Predator's claws were much, much bigger.

Predator whirled, hoping to knock the man who had shot the darts over with his hind legs as he whirled, slashing out with his right leg at the strong man, claws streaking through the air towards his legs. No time for pretty disembowlments this swipe, so Predator would just have to go for a crippling strike and finish him up later.

Predator and his group were pretty outnumbered, and if the girl made of water had the mutation he thought she did, none of them would be able to hurt her much. Still, Predator was confident that they would prevail, in no small part due to the fact that he could soak up a lot of hits and still open up a couple of cans of whupass.

Aura never made her target instead somone else enterd the fray, aura watched as the ice climber up her blade. She had seen this power before when she had first come but she was possative this was not the same frosty. Either way it had no bareing on what had to be done. Their was no time, she had to make her opponents fall quickly, one good combined strike could easily take her out. With a smile, her sword began to flow rapidly forming a drill like shape which began spinning quickly , which aura would thrust forward, she figured the cutting power of the drill would rip through the ice and hopefully her attack would wound him. They were already outnumberd to the point whare skill would cease to matter.. "Great my charge was stopped by somone who has no idea why he is even fighting, if you do not wish to hurt somone then i suggest you leave the fighting to those who have purpose" she said slightly annoyed at the guys admitted lack of direction.

Then another girl enterd the fray, she had not seen what this one could do, but she was trying to take into account each enimy that appeared, Her glowing blue eyes made Aura wonder further on what she could do but before she could wonider her further she saw a face from her past that made her smile. "Preacher Lady, your alive, but still the same, very brave as long as you have an atvantage but thats ok, some are just not meant to fly on their own" she said back to Arrielle, she was trying to make her angry again. Still it did seem correct both rimes she had found Arielle she had been with others. Still she was not sure how any of them could do any real damage to the Preacher Lady, the three of them were physsicle attackers, which she was to immune to. Pushing the worry from her thoughts she chose simply to enjoy the battile at hand. Forming an Axe on her other hand she came down upon the frosty copy. The Blow was timed with her drill, she was trying to get a fatel shot in, trying to thin her enimies numbers.

(OOC: To cut down on the confusion I created a thread for those that wish to head inside of the building
In order to form a more perfect future (Brawl) II )

((ooc: 2,000 posts. )

Calley had a taste of blood in his mouth, and the smell of it in his nose; street grit stuck uncomfortably against his paw as it mixed with the red liquid.

>> "Damn you Calley."

Luke Jacobs said, like the amount he was bleeding was only a surprise to him. The tiger’s yellow eyes watched it flow, and parts of him thought, Oh crap oh crap oh crap—

Other parts were less kind.

Heh. Makes sense—this ain’t a mouse. Bigger body, more blood.

So easy. It was so easy. It would be so easy to spring and claw and tear—

Just like any other hunt. Heh.

It would be so easy to stop this fight right now. It was even easier to keep it going. He went with his own momentum; after that slash, it was an easy thing to tense, to spring. He’d done it a thousand times. His prey had just never been so very human before.

He honestly wasn’t expecting the hit that followed. Mice weren’t usually mutants.

The tiger was caught in mid-leap; the force was enough to counter its own momentum, and then some. He hit the concrete going backwards. He was helped on his way by a few hands—hands that weren’t exactly on his side, judging by the way that they didn’t exactly try to set him down light. And they definitely didn’t pay any loving attention to his bruised and battered ribs.

Unknowingly, he and a bigger cat both picked the same strategy at the same time: as Predator wobbled to his possum pose, Calley allowed his body the wet cough it wanted. One of his paws twitched weakly at his side. After two of those hits, tigger wasn’t in very good shape any longer.

Three targets, now. Two interloping ghosts, and one Luke Jacobs. Tigger technically could still fight. But against three? And with Calley’s ability? Why, it would be a plain insult to Wraith to keep playing around like this. His mind became a tangle of fur, feathers, scales, and sharper things as he ruffled through forms. What to choose. Really, what not to choose. There were lions and tigers and whale gore (oh my). He couldn’t pick too many: his mind couldn’t handle the strain for very long. Too few was equally silly: while he was getting better at making independent splinters, he was only up to the ‘will walk around the room dumbly’ level with everything but Slate. He had to keep in physical contact with everything. For that, a clutter was best. His spar with Abyss a few weeks back had proved it.

As the Foo Dog was leaping back into action, something very strange was going on in tiger country. Namely, the tigger on the ground was gone. In its place was a sleek black panther. And a lion. And a large Rottweiler, which Luke might just recognize—he’d helped to steal it, after all. And hundreds upon hundreds of heartworms, but that was hardly something most people would notice. Far more prominent, after all, were the housecats. There were seventeen of them. A clutter was, you understand, the technical term for a large group of cats.

Twenty furred bodies with forty eyes stared at Luke. Silently. They blinked their eyes in horror movie unison, and climbed to their eighty paws as one.

Then a tidal surge of fur was roiling forwards: with claws and teeth, it tried to go straight over the ghosts. Its target, after all, was Luke Jacobs. The smaller cats twined between the three larger forms’ legs, keeping them all connected in a patchwork of fur. As long as they stayed in physical contact—the brushing of pelts, the touch of a whisker—then the issue of ‘which was Calley’ was moot. They were Calley. His consciousness moved freely between them, controlling all. Any that became separated from the main body would stop moving: their life existed only en masse. A drop of water wasn’t much to look at without the ocean.

The question, of course, was this: did Luke Jacobs know how to swim?

((ooc: Tell me if that’s overboard, Luke. *purr of no-pun-intended*))

(OOC: Looks fine to me Calley.)

Luke's sonic blast had accomplished exactly what he was hoping for but he could already feel his body tiring. He had trained for years to be in top physical shape so a hand to hand fight was relatively easy but he was still rather new to using his sonar as an offensive weapon. His head was starting to throb right in the temple but Luke did his best to ignore it. He had to keep Calley away from the X's that were making their way in the front door. With the splinter ability that Calley possessed, he could be a very dangerous opponent if he wanted.

Speaking of splinters, clones, and the like, Luke was very impressed with what Tarin was currently pulling off. The man had his spirit army hitting areas all over the battlefield and he'd even found time to send some help over to face down the kitty cat. Of course, on the downside, Luke was once again beginning to feel like his own mutation was pretty weak. Here was Tarin able to rule the battlefield and what did Luke have? Sonic blasts... whoopee.

"Ah, hell..." Luke muttered under his breath, his shoulders tensing as he watched Calley suddenly multiply and change. Any hope that the feline was down for the count could now be tossed out the window as the blind man shook his head. His sonar focused slightly, no longer paying attention to the rest of the fight but instead settling on the two ghosts and the 18... 19... 20 animals that were now facing him down. Why was it Calley had to keep using these big animals? A kitten would have been nice. Maybe they could toss around a ball of yarn and, well, never mind. That wasn't going to be happening anytime soon.

Charging didn't apply describe the movement as twenty animals suddenly began to move in Luke's direction. It was a surge of fur and muscle that no works could really give justice to. A word smith might do their best to convey some sort of description but nothing could inspire the same awe as what Luke was now facing. With his sonar he saw every twitch of the twenty tails, ever ripple of muscles flexing beneath furry coats, and every fang that peaked past lips and showed themselves proudly in open jaws.

His left arm was useless and there was no way he could ever out run animals like this. Panthers especially were known for their speed and no mere human could get away from that majestic hunter. Luke knew that Tarin's ghosts would try to stop or slow down the surge but there was no way they could stop them all.

"Tarin! Get the Dog & Lion!" Luke yelled before he brought his sonar into focus, trying to ignore the increased throbbing in his head. Back at the mansion Calley had shown he had to remain in touch with all of his splinters. If he could just do something, anything to separate them.

The pain was growing and it was a distraction that tried to hold him back from achieving the concentration he needed. Without realizing it the man dropped to his knees, his eyes closed and brow furrowed while both hands moved up to massage at his temples. This hurt... hurt far worse than any claw marks or broken bones he had experienced before. The cats were closing in and with desperation rising Luke finally felt something!

"GAAAAAH!" Luke yelled in pain as his beam tightened, focusing on the panther. He channeled all his frustration, anger, sadness, and feeling of betrayal into this one shot but because of his distraction he did something that had only happened to him once before. In Paris he had killed a man with what could only be described as a sound laser. He had never recreated but now, as the total desperation flowed through his body, the sonar focused down into a beam with a 8 inch circumference. It wasn't huge but it was more than enough to target the majestic black beast. It was a blast that could kill a man and go through 10 feet of concrete without the slightest difficulty. What sort of damage could it do to a living, breathing animal?

(OOC: I'm going on the assumption that the panther is the animal in the center. Basically Luke was out to stop the center animal because he remembers Calley's demonstration at the mansion. If he can break their physical connection for a moment, some of the animals will be left behind, even if the ghosts can't stop any.)

Mimic was surprised at how quickly people were joining in on their fight. Out of nowhere three more people joined the fight. One real ugly looking dog or lion or whatever that was and two women one seemed to manipulate metal and the other had a strange Water Form. Quite an array of power for him to mimic, however he did not wish to reveal his mutation just yet.

The girl he was fighting seemed pretty tough much tougher than he´d expect just by looking at her. She was very determined and almost bloodthirsty. He really did not understand the reason for the fighting but for some reason he felt that if the X-Men were fighting then it was a good cause but no cause was worth a young woman´s life.

A few seconds of distraction was enough for the girl to change her blade into a spiral drill-like shape that boared into his ice blade trying to reach his hand. The drill ripped trough the ice quicker than Mimic could regrow it and reached his hand stabbing through it. Mimic let out a scream almost like na howl as he pulled his hand out of the way to avoid any more damage.

The wound caused a distraction and Mimic barely noticed the axe that was coming down upon him untill it had nearly made contact. The axe hit him right in the torso and Mimic seemed like he had been chopped into two. However what seemed to be Mimic´s blood was in fact water as he had mimicked Arielle´s water form the moment he saw the axe heading towards him.

In his water form Mimic faced Aura head on. He had lost his previous concern for Aura has she had just tried to kill him and he wasn´t going to stand for that. He looked at his hands closing and opening them several times as he got used to this new texture.

‘’ I said I didn´t want to hurt you that doesn´t mean I woun´t.’’ He said looking back at Aura ready to fight her all out. He formed formed an Ice blade out of his left hand and dashed towards Aura. ‘’ If the X-Men are on this side then that means this is the right path to go down. I’m just sorry you have to be on the way.’’

As he was about to reach Aura he jumped up and used his blade as hammer of sorts as he came down from above at Aura threatning to cut her in half.

(OOC: I know my profile says I can only manipulate one element at a time but I´m considering Water and Ice different stages of the same element)

Meld was dimply aware of the battle around her as it continued to rage, chaos incarnate. She had some vague awareness of Aura and Predator fighting longside her, engaged in their various enemies, but her perceptions didn't extend much farther than that. Perfect concentration was what was needed in order to survive, especially given how outnumbered they appeared to be.

Meld tried to maneuver herself such that her back was up against a wall so she couldn't be surrounded by her enemeies. If she could protect her back then she knew her flesh melds, especially her most recent arm, would make it difficult to hurt her. Just as she found a place where she was comfortably protected something shot out at her from in front of her, ricocheting off of her metal arm. She looked around frantically for the source of the attack only to see a second, of what appeared to be some sort of dart, shoot out of nowhere and strike Predator. She came to the conclusion that it must have come from a mutant whose power was some sort of invisibilty. She knew of only one individual with that power and he might just be niave enough to be fighting against their side, but that didn't mean that it had to be him. After all, there were bound to be other mutants who could turn invisible.

Meld growled as another dart came flying in her direction, barely managing to block the second dart with her shield arm as well. She wished suddenly that she had some way in which to view the invisible threat. It wouldn't be easy to take on an enemy she couldn't see, but that didn't mean she was about to give up and allow him his victory. She took a defensive posture and awaited her unseen foe's next move. If she watched carefuly enough, she might just be able to pinpoint his location and do some damage against him, despite her inability to directly perceive him. His actions would give him away.

Letting out a small rumbling sound as he stretched and yawned Bacchus watched as Calley, Aura, Aura’s friend and a few other mutants fight in front of him. He then proceeded to watch for the most part the action that was unfolding like an epic Saturday morning cartoon. Ears ringing from sound waves produced by the blind combatant Bacchus frowned slightly as he retrieved his flask and took another swig. One on one was more of his thing, he wasn’t a big fan on fights that consisted of him and someone beating the crud out of a person, the only unfair fights he would willingly go into is when he was outnumbered.

Spotting the woman he had unintentionally thrown the first security guard at seeing as the guard ‘accidentally’ brushed Bacchus’s shoulder a he rushed pass to the front line. The shoulder brush just happened to knock some of the clear contents from his flask as he was trying to drink it. The other guards he had thrown had not repeated the same mistake but rather they were thrown merely on a whim and little else. Sure he could throw down with out much effort but seeing as the guards had got in his way he figured it would be easier to throw them down… which it was.

Watching the white haired lady from the mansion raid back when the doors of gold were stolen Bacchus grinned slightly and wondered what she was doing with all those other mutants by the wall. Shrugging slightly as they made a hole in the wall and entered Bacchus didn’t feel much of a need to peruse unless Isabel requested it or Slate gave him an order. But seeing as neither one made much of an attempt to show let alone contact him Bacchus continued to watch as mutant vs. mutant continued in the power struggle.

Letting out a small gasp as his eyes trailed over to a particular short man Bacchus noticed he was controlling some ghost like specters, one of which looked rather familiar, in fact Bacchus saw him hours before only alive… well alive until his face ran into Bacchus’s foot. Slightly intrigued for the moment Bacchus picked up another guard who was closest to him and threw the large round rent-a-cop at the man who was playing the ghost whisperer. “Ohi!” Bacchus yelled out to the man after launching the guard in his direction, he wanted to ask how he was doing that but the more he thought about it the more he figured that it was part of his mutation. One of the faces of the ghost was particularly familiar, after all he was the most recent kill.

((Posted in both Brawl threads, as it affects those outside))

Much to Isabel's displeasure the X-Nerds seemed to want to play by their own rules and make their own entrance into the building, rather than crashing through the front as she would have liked. Leave it to the Goodies to muck everything up. Heaving a sigh she simply cast a seemingly uninterested look toward the corridor she had just exited as the sound of crumbling cement echoed through the confined space, one of the Order members showing up soon after to confirm the fact that the X's had been able to break in. She paid little mind to the petite blond that stood and headed off in the direction the intruders had gone. So long as she planned to get a head start on the fools that had thought themselves strong enough to go up against those in the Order that were inside, Isabel would stay behind for a little longer and make things more difficult for those that were still outside the building. "I'll catch up," was the only reply she gave to the shadowy mutant before turning her attention back to the view of KP's grounds.

With a smug little grin she wiggled her toes against the ivory grains that had been spread across the floor, a playful little ripple shivering through them as she tested her control over the width of the area. She may not be able to prevent any more X's from gaining entry completely, but she could certainly make it much more difficult for them. One or two more testing ripples and she set to work melding the little pieces of bone together and pushing them closer to the windows and doors, stepping closer every few moments as she worked. With only momentary initial caution she soon forced the melding bone up the front section of the first floor wall and toward the ceiling, forming a wall to block off all possible entry points and proceeding to add several more layers to the large sheet of bone and hardening it as much as she possibly could, making sure that it could rival even condensed steel.

A moment to pause was taken as any nearby grains were reabsorbed into her body to help make up for any extra bone she'd used in forming her barrier. She'd made shields before, but nothing quite to this magnitude, so she wanted to be cautious and pace herself a bit to keep from winding herself too badly. When she was sure she wouldn't be having any seriously draining side-effect from her most recent trick, she resumed her work, quickly closing the distance between herself and the inches-thick wall. Placing her hands against the smooth surface, she set the next step of her plan into action, gradually adding more bone from her body to the wall so as not to compromise it's strength too much.

Grinning widely despite the danger she knew she could be putting her companions into as well as her intended targets, she shifted the wall. In rapid succession spines erupted across the surface of the barrier on both the interior as well as the exterior, remaining stiff only for a moment before snaking their way into the ceiling and floor of the lobby as well as smashing through the windows and door and burying themselves into the ground outside. Tiles and pipes inside were up-heaved and disturbed as the vine-like spines wormed their way through the upper and lower portions of the lobby in an attempt to further reinforce the erected wall. Those in the ground outside buried their way through the earth, churning dirt under the mutants' feet and sporadically forcing their way skyward in an attempt to skewer any enemy that was unlucky enough to be a little too close. Others were kept closer to the building, curling and twisting into a tangled mess against the front of the building in an effort to stop anyone else from breaking through the walls. Isabel only hoped her companions would be able to move quickly enough to avoid any serious damage.

With one last touch of barbing each of the spines that had emerged from her barrier, she allowed her assault to fizzle to a halt as she broke contact and once again gave herself a moment to regain her composure and reform any weakened spots in the armor she had created for herself. She would leave those outside to their own devices from then on as she turned back toward the corridor that Lori had disappeared down. She'd turn her attention back toward those that were already inside and she'd show them just how big of a mistake they had made in doing so. There was just the issue of locating them. There were numerous hallways and rooms throughout KP on just a single floor, nevermind those above and below the main level. And seeing as Lori had gone one way, she'd head in the opposite direction. It would make little sense to follow after the blond and risk getting in the way when she'd have a chance of cutting off the fools that had gotten inside.

(OOC: by a very extensive and coordinated stratigical plottage (names in a hat) i have pinpointed the first one to suffer my squirly wrath, hope that The rangerino finds it ok )

The fighting broke out and the whispers once again took hold of Cailyn's body and mind. She was now just a bystander of what her body wanted to do. Some of them fought like their life depended on them, some of them talked. Some won, some lost. It all didn't matter anything for her control was lost. No control ment chaos, chaos ment destruction. Destruction of minds and perhaps even some property.

Her hands began to twitch as her head leaned a bit backwards as if there was nothing that held her head straight. Her eyes turned into a glare as if nobody was home. She floated now and the soft song of her powers began to doom up out of nothing. But who would her grip go to first. Who would feel the wrath locked up inside of her first.

She looked at the largest group of combatants. They where really fighting it out. One of them reminded her of somebody, of a person not who didn't seem to friendly. He wielded firearms and knives as if he was military. To say the least she disliked the military. She started implanting thoughts into his head, making sugestions he probably could not resist. She started of with a simple suggestion.

"My allies aren't what they appear to be." She implanted in his head as just a start of her "little experiment".

Kasumi could not wate anymore she can not stand around and do nothing! No she will not do that she shakes her head as she narrows her eyes. Soon Kasumi turns her back as she takes off running her hands comes to her sai's as she gets ready to fight it will be better this way. She knows it she can feel it with in her heart. Soon she nods to herself as she looks at Aura she narrows her eyes as her hair falls over her eyes. She never knew Aura was part of this soon Kasumi felt some pain in her heart over this.

She shakes her head she can not let this stop her she could not! Kasumi nods her head as she runs at Aura as she speaks to her "How can you do this how can you fight for something that is so bad?" She does not know what to think of this. She keeps her teal green eyes on Aura her friend that she is going to be fighting soon she puts her sai's up as she gets into a fighting stance.

Kasumis heart is now racing her feeling calm is fading away form her. She did not want to fight Aura but she had to do this. Kasumi did not want Haywire to get out she did not want the world to be in fear of this. She is now doughng herself but she could not do it she is going to be an x-men some day and doing this will prove that she has what it takes to be one.

Shin ignored the incredulous laugh Lee gave him. Obviously, everyone’s tensions were high. His mouth closed to a thin slit as he replied coolly to her. “Sure thing, Lee. You do your thing, I’ll look out for you all. Never said I had to play babysitter, just keep non-X-men from dying (something we can all agree on, anyways). Now Dom!” Shin’s concentration jerked from Lee to the small group of kids he’d called up behind him. But where had Kasumi gone to? She was here a second ago, and… He caught her running towards the girl with the pink axe and sighed. If she really wanted to join the X-men like it seemed she did, she’d have to learn to wait for orders before acting on her own. Staving disappointment, his eyes fell on Dom. He jerked his thumb towards the battle. “You, do what you can to help her. If she gets hurt…” Shin shook his head and gave Dom a half-eyed serious stare. “Don’t let her.” He turned to look Fission’s way. The guy hadn’t acknowledged the call yet. He was still pummeling guards. Shin took a deep breath and bowed his head.

“Some people…”

Fierce shouting erupted in the background. Were there clowns here? Shin wondered. And why was the shouting getting nearerohsweetjesus!!

Two metal pipes swung down at his nose. Shin’s arms snapped up in a quick block, body shifting quicker than he could think. The pipes connected with the strong bone of his forearms as he turned into the strike, absorbing the force of the blow. His hands twisted up as he leaned into the follow-through, grasping the girl’s arms and wrenching the pipes from her grasp. They clattered to the ground as he jerked her around his side all in one flowing motion, and sent her tumbling past him to the pavement.

It was all instinct, all instant. Shin’s mind went blank for a second as he stood over her, shocked. Where had he learned that? And more importantly… “Who’re you callin’ a clown?”

((OOC: With permission from Ahorta))

Madness, Sheer and utter madness! Flynn was now thinking that getting in the middle of this wasn't one of his better ideas. Calling Ranger in for help in quieting this down had ironically escalated it quicker. It seemed he had a past with a few of the combatants, and rolling around in a suit and beret must be too military for a few of them as well. It was surprising how few rips he had in the suit so far though, at least there was a bright side.

Flynn's darts were probably not going to get thru on Meld, but it appeared that he had somehow knocked the big puppy lion thing out . He went visible and moved to tie it down. Then, in a blur, the razor teeth snapped at him from the unconscious thing. Luckily Predator was only able to get some cloth from his costume as he pulled back at the last possible instant. Having been bitten by a Pit Bull back in his youth though; it visibly shook Hyde to his core. He instantly popped back out of sight just like the bite had popped a soap bubble.

Taking a second or two to recover his wits and shake the fear off, Hyde scanned around. Bodies flying everywhere, the cops out on the perimeter, confused as to what to do. Flynn was sure that shortly there would be a new threat, mutant hunting technology wielding government types undoubtedly.

Flynn popped his thoughts back to the immediate threat and weighed his options. Looking back he saw two water wielding mutants. Plans went into his mind. He moved around to the back of Aura and went back visible. "You two water mutants, Switch with Ranger and I. Take out that big @#$ creature using your powers. We'll keep these others off of you."

Hyde figured that since Aura was currently engaged with a frontal assault/defense using her powers perhaps he could get her off balance with hitting her from behind. He did a quick roundhouse kick that would end in her jaw as he vanished from sight. He hoped he hadn't seen him preparing the kick before vanishing. Sometimes he cursed not being able to make any sound when he was invisible.

((any g-modding accepted by Shin))

One clown, Calm clown. Dead clown, Strong clown. There were so many ways to look at this clown, but he had a cackle that pierced her and deeply disturber her. Clown were supposed to be funny, right? Wrong, oh so very wrong. This one even managed to throw her backwards onto the pavement. Seeing the pavement approach her face with such speed and growling at how he so easily threw away her poles, she screamed before hitting the ground and rolling away. She felt some of her bones break and it only made her scream louder.

The sudden impact scared the hell out of her and she thought for sure her bones were completely smashed. She was immobile, she couldn't move, that was it, one of her biggest fears. Waiting for her bones to react, hopefully there would be divine intervention, a clown cannot win this fight, that was ridiculous and not at all funny. Hearing him approach her, she laid still, waiting for some kind of a sign. Please, let her live, don't have her not be able to move for the rest of her life, no wheelchairs, please!

When he was close enough, she felt the sudden urge to reach out and grab him and next thing she knew, she had a grip around his leg, trying to pull him down. IT WAS A MIRACLE! Some divine power wanted her to destroy the clown, she had the grace of the gods! Her bones could move again! Praising the strength of her bones, she tried to throw him on his ass and leapt to her feet, suddenly grabbing every bone in her body as if to make sure they were not broken and she was still mobile.

Fission had been busy for a while thrashing a lot of the guards. Most were easily put down but there was always the one or two that managed to sneak up to him and get some of good shots on him. He heard Shin call him. Chris quickly walked over to Shin. He'd been just a little busy so he wasn't able to get there rigt away. He was feeling highly charged after beating up the humans. No one got seriously hurt but none of them would want to come after him anytime soon.

That same crazy mutant that threw the shoe at them was now charging at the little group of mutants that weren't fighting. Some seemed to young to be there. Shin quickly dispatched of the crazy girl by the time Chris had gotten over to his side. "What do ya need man?" He asked. Chris had no real plan aside from beating up the Order people that were preventing them from having an easy time getting rid of the Haywire virus situation.