Chapter 31
“Hang on! Here he comes again!”
Hunter dropped his center of balance as The Hummingbird went into an abrupt turn, tilting sharply to port, engines roaring as Sky Bolt kept them out of reach of whatever attack Sombra was making.
“He’s persistent, isn’t he?” Dawn asked as the turn leveled out.
“After all those hours we spent hounding him?” Nova asked. “I’d say I’m surprised, but to be fair, I think we did annoy him pretty well.” His horn was glowing again, his magic gripped and at the ready in case things went horribly wrong.
They’d already taken a single hit along the back of the ship, a blow that had left a trail of crystals poking out of the framework. Nothing vital had been hit, but Sky Bolt had sworn that it had impacted their handling somewhat. Short of chipping the crystals off, something the storm outside wasn’t exactly conducive to, there was nothing they could do about it.
Hunter winced as a sudden spike of anxiety washed through him, gritting his teeth until it passed. Again with the emotion magic. The wave slowly faded, and he took a quick look around at the rest of the the team.
The team. It felt good to have everypony in the same place again, even if they were a bit battered and worse for wear. Steel’s armor bore enough cracks to look as though it would come apart if it took a hit in just the wrong place. Sabra’s undersuit was bearing stitches, and he’d caught something from Dawn about a blade wound in his side. The medic herself seemed to have faired better at first glance, but there was a clear hole in her chest plate, and he could see a stiffness to her movements from time to time.
Granted, he and Nova weren’t in much better shape. Nova had hit the hallway wall after his teleport stunt hard enough to bruise bone, and his armor had already been marred by Sombra. That damage had left its mark on the airship as well, the sharp, jagged crystals having made tracks across the wall where he’d hit. Thankfully, Sky Bolt had agreed that Sombra had been the cause, not Nova, but her displeasure at seeing her ship harmed was tangible.
Out of all of them, Sky Bolt was the only one who hadn’t ended up as battered as the rest of them, unless you counted the lack of sleep she’d been going through keeping The Hummingbird in the sky.
We’re all stuffed in one way or another, he thought, glancing down at his own armor and noting once more the ridge of crystal growths where his wing would normally rest. Twice already he’d scraped his wing against it, one of those times hard enough to draw blood. And magic? It did nothing against them. Not even Dawn could figure out how they worked. Only that they seemed to absorb magic and use that to resist further magic.
“We’re clear again guys.”
The deck beneath his hooves leveled out, the engines going back to their more subdued purr, and he looked out across the dimmed cabin at everypony else. Battered or not, we’re all together again. And all they had to do was last another … He paused and glanced up at the clock.
Eight hours. Or close to it anyway. Sometime around then, the train transporting the Element Bearers would arrive, and Captain Armor would escort them to the city as quietly and quickly as possible. Won’t be too hard. Not with the weather being as crook as it is. We can hardly see a thing through it.
At least that was likely why Sombra was having a hard time dealing with them as well. You can hunt, but we’ll be quicker. Vanish into the snow, like …
Well, like an ice hare or something. It was hard to think, tired as he felt. But they couldn’t stop. Not now. We’re so close.
With stability back on their side, the team went back to work. The bombs had been, surprisingly, Dawn’s idea. A dangerous mixture of chemicals in glass flasks pilfered from her medical bay, assembled in spare boxes and held together with tape, designed to mix and go off in bright, attention-getting fashion when they hit something hard enough. Or, if the fall from The Hummingbird wasn’t enough to do it, a blast from Nova or Dawn did the trick.
Provided they could find the things through the thick snows. They’d had to resort to flying low, both to find Sombra and make sure they could make the most of their limited supply of makeshift explosives. Which in turn meant that even if Sombra couldn’t see them coming—And who could say how much he could or couldn’t see being a cloud of magic smoke?—he could clearly hear them coming, and after two aborted attempts to drop an explosive on him, they’d adopted their current method: rise to a high altitude, drop as quickly as possible, toss, and power away.
Wonky even in ideal conditions, Hunter thought, passing another small vial to Dawn, who took it in her magic. The explosives they were making weren’t exactly powerful, but they were loud and bright. As near as they could tell, both annoyed Sombra enough that he wasn’t ignoring them.
The real question is how long we can keep it up, he thought, watching as Dawn carefully laid the glass vial down amidst the paper-stuffed box. The worst kind of paper, too, if only because of what would happen when they ran out. There aren’t exactly many alternatives to stock the head with.
A second vial was passed to Dawn by Sabra, who was working on the other side of the table, just so that the two sets of chemicals were kept as far apart as possible. All his tools and ingredients, like Hunter’s had been taped down to prevent any turbulence from causing spills or other disasters. Or at least, lower the chance. There were already a few stained towels on the table from where a sudden jerk had caused a slight spill.
Which was why the third part of the bomb, the one that reacted to the other two, was being assembled by Dawn herself, using magic, in the medical bay while en route to the rear door, and only added to the package before it was dropped. While, as Dawn and Bolt had both pointed out, the bombs were in effect weak compared to what either could create with proper materials and time, the concussion would still be more than enough to shatter eardrums and even perhaps blow out one of the thick cabin windows. In such a confined space, more than enough to stun, or worse, kill somepony.
“All right,” Dawn said, placing the second vial into the box and securing it with a piece of tape. “Only the third bit is required. We can throw it again as soon as we circle back.”
That had been the other part of their strategy. Goad Sombra into chasing them, and once he gave up, turn and circle back to goad him once more.
It could only work so long. Once already he’d ignored their proddings, and they’d been forced to dart ahead and drop several bombs, leading the shade on a several-mile chase, the very same that had seen the back of The Hummingbird marred with crystals.
We just have to delay him long enough. Weather the fear, the weather, the attacks … and then let the Element Bearers take care of him.
With the makeshift bomb ready and the deck tilting slightly to one side underhoof, it was time to move to the next stage of the operation: Finding Sombra. Hunter double-checked his side of the table, making sure his chemicals were secured before turning toward the bunks and the port window. Sky Bolt would maneuver them back around toward their initial course, bring them down enough to make out the ground through the snow and dark, and all of them would start looking for signs of their quarry. Luckily, for one reason or another, wherever Sombra seemed to go he left a trail of black crystals behind, like breadcrumbs in the old foal’s tale. So as long as one of them spotted one, they could catch up to him and pull him off course once more.
And we’ll do that again, and again, and again, Hunter thought as he pressed his visor to the glass, letting out a yawn beneath his helmet as he stared out at the falling snow. Well, not falling, not really. Not with the heavy winds outside. It was more flying sideways and around them. Whether or not that made spotting the ground easier or harder …
He let out another yawn, a familiar lightness settling over him as The Hummingbird began to descend through the snow-filled sky. I could use a nap, he thought, taking a quick glance around at the rest of the team. I feel stuffed. Running from Sombra for almost an entire day, from sun-up to near sun-down, hadn’t been easy.
Just a few more hours, he told himself. Then you can sleep. He narrowed his eyes, peering through the thick swirls of snow and searching for any sign of the ground below them. Sky Bolt was flying mostly off instruments now, had been since the storm hit in full force. Compass readings, airspeed indicators, and every other reading her instruments gave her as she plotted their position, doing her best to make sure she didn’t fly them right into a mountainside.
“Ground on the starboard side!” Sabra called. A moment later Hunter got his own brief glimpse, a tree poking out of the storm for a bare moment before the airship’s lights moved and he lost it.
He called it out anyway, his voice mixing with Dawn’s. “Tree, port side!” A moment later a second appeared, then a third, and a whole mountainside after that, spread out beneath them. Their descent slowed, The Hummingbird leveling out.
“All right,” Steel called from the cockpit, where he was acting as a second set of eyes for Sky Bolt. “You know the drill: let’s find those crystals! Everypony keep your heads sharp. We’ve done this a couple of times, and he’s bound to be getting used to it by now.”
The Hummingbird flew over the snowy mountainside, retracing their path, and it wasn’t long before Steel’s voice echoed from the cockpit once more. “Crystal sighted! Straight ahead!”
Soon enough it came into view for the rest of them, sliding out of the falling snow like a mast on a ship breaking through the fog. Even with the night around it, the black crystal somehow looked darker, like it was sucking the very color of the world out of its surroundings. Sky Bolt put The Hummingbird into a slow, gradual turn west, heading toward the city and—they hoped—Sombra.
Once already he’d broken southward rather than moving in a straight line, forcing them to backtrack and go into a wider search. They’d found him before long, however, and as Hunter had pointed out, Sombra breaking in any direction save west stalled him just as well as if the team had been hounding him. Provided they found him once more. But for them to do that, he’d have to break west, thus giving their team the edge.
Probably helps that he doesn’t know what we’re trying to do, Hunter thought as the crystal monolith slipped out of sight behind them. If he knew we were stalling for time, he’d probably be a lot less inclined to chase us.
A minute passed in silence. Then another. Then Dawn let out a call from his side. “Crystal! Port side!”
Hunter blinked as his eyes caught it, slightly surprised that she’d seen it before him. It was clearly visible to his pegasus eyesight, and he could recall peering at it moments before she’d spoken. He’d just … not noticed.
You’re tired, he thought, bringing a hoof up to rub at the side of his head before recalling that he was wearing his helmet. Wrung out. He gave his head a quick shake instead as The Hummingbird adjusted course to slide over the crystal. In another few minutes, if they didn’t see another one, they’d swing to the side and start looking.
Weird spot for a crystal, he thought as they moved closer. His eyes strayed over to a clump of nearby trees, huddled around one another against the storm. Right out in the open like that when there’s cover nearby. It’s not like—
His eyes caught a glint in the trees, and he let out a shout. “Danger left!”
The world upended as Bolt threw the airship into a hard right turn, sweeping the small clump of trees and the narby crystal out of view … but not before he caught sight of something dark exploding out from the cover of the trees, streaking toward them.
The airship jerked as something hit it, a loud bang echoing through the hull even as the propellers roared to full volume. The impact was enough to throw him from his hooves, and he rolled down the tilted floor until he collided with the central table.
Then he felt it. Like a cold front moving across his mind, a slow and steadily creeping sense of hurt and loss pressed down against him. He shook his head, pushing himself up on his hooves. Don’t let it sink in!
Then he heard it. A voice that seemed to roll over everything before it, a hiss that was at once both in his head and without it.
“Clever dogs, baying at my heels …”
Another loud bang echoed through the cabin, not as loud as the one before it, but still loud, and the ship jerked again. Again the voice echoed through his skull.
“Clever toys … clever tricks …” Another bang echoed from outside as The Hummingbird’s engines roared. “And you use my medium, my crystals to fight me.” Nova let out a shout, light exploding out of his horn and blooming outward like a small sun.
Every time Hunter blinked, he wanted to keep his eyes shut. Except that whenever he did, he could see Swift looking up at him, the light leaving her eyes. Or Thistle.
Push back. Another bang. He pushed himself up, head twisting in all directions but seeing little.
Mod! He pushed back against the feelings breaking against him, pushing them away and reaching for the spell on his back. A pulse burst forth out of him as the mod activated, the world suffusing itself with light.
But not golden light. It was grey and dim, with strands of purple rushing through it. As he watched, several rushed toward Nova only to wither before the bright glow coming from his horn.
“Nova! Whatever you’re doing, keep it up!” The words felt rough as he spoke, like they were tearing at his throat, but he pushed them out anyway. “He doesn’t like it!”
Nova nodded, and the surge of light grew brighter, enough that he could feel it in his head. Then Dawn’s own horn began to glow as she added her magic to Nova’s, and Sombra’s magic began to fall back.
Then with a sudden rush it was gone, pulling away with a suddenness that was shocking. Nova fell to the deck as it leveled out, his horn winking out, panting.
But it wasn’t quite gone yet. There was still something pressing faintly against the back of his mind, like a slick of sweat on his coat after a long workout. Either he’d been infected, or …
He turned. There, glowing beneath the deck, was a dark, shadowed chunk of dark magic, poking toward the inside of the airship like … Like a projectile, he realized. We were hit.
“Nova, Dawn!” he called, pointing with one hoof. “There’s something in the ship. A puncture in the hull, maybe. And it’s got magic!”
A beam of light lanced out from Dawn’s horn, only to shake and fade away as it neared the floor where the mass of magic was. Crystal. Sombra’s crystal.
But if it stayed in The Hummingbird’s side, there was no telling what it could do. Grow outward and drag them down? Infect them all and turn them against one another?
And Bolt had to fly the ship. That left only one pony who could do anything about it. Him.
“Steel!” he shouted. “Slow us down! I’m going out!” He turned and ran for the back, a voice in the back of his head shouting at him. Or maybe it was Steel. It was hard to tell.
This is starkers, the voice was saying. His then. Steel didn’t talk like that. You’ve cracked a fruity. Lost it.
There’s no other alternative! he shouted back as he found the right cabinet and pulled a crowbar out of it. We can’t let that thing stay in the side of the ship. Even if it was inert, simply messing with magic that close to the cabin could be costly. And from what he’d seen, it wasn’t inert.
He shoved the hatch open, ignoring the stinging wind that bit at the crevices in his armor, and dove over the side. Wind tore at him, and he pressed hard with his innate magic, shaping a small bubble around him that he could cut through without too much trouble.
Even so, he let out a yell as a sudden draft threatened to suck him into one of the props, and he tucked his wings close, dropping under one of the rear rotors and powering up around the wash, sticking close to The Hummingbird’s envelope and arcing over the top.
Come on … come on … He could feel his muscles trying to push back against his demands, almost joining forces with the wind. Come on!
He cleared the top of the airship, the broad stretch of its envelope beneath him, and began to curve over the side, aiming for roughly where he’d seen whatever was stuck in their hull. Flying down, at least, was easier.
Until suddenly it became too easy, his magic winking out as a massive piece of shadowed black crystal came into view, stuck partway through the wooden hull of The Hummingbird. He dropped, wind tearing him back as he beat his wings frantically, and then, just as quickly as it had left, his magic came back.
Well, not quite back. More like whatever had been pulling it away from him had suddenly stopped. Well, that’s new, he thought, quickly ascending to get ahead of the propellers. Guess unicorn magic isn’t the only thing those crystals are sucking up anymore.
His mission had just gotten a little more difficult. I’ll have to drop down on it from above, and hope there’s still nothing bad about touching one of these. If there was, well … I should have grabbed one of my ice axes. I could have driven that into the wood to hang from, but …
It was too late now. He flew forward, both forelegs extended to help his magic cut against the wind as much as possible. The wind will push me back too, so I’ll need to drop a little further ahead … Right about … here!
He tucked his wings as close to his body as he dared while still giving himself a little lift, rolling down over the side of the airship. Come on … He shut his eyes for a brief moment, trusting his wings. Gotta time this just right. If he was too far forward or back he’d simply drop past the crystal when his magic stopped. Or worse, slam into it at a wrong angle and then drop. Come on …
He opened his eyes just as his magic cut out, and he snapped one wing in, the force of the wind sending him into a quick spin. Ahead of him the crystal loomed, jutting out of the side of The Hummingbird like a knife. Though hopefully not as sharp.
He slammed into it, his hooves scrambling for grip and slipping off of the slick surface. This crook weather is not helping! He pulled his rear legs up, contorting himself in a sort of C-shape around the side of the crystal, locking his limbs enough that he wasn’t falling.
Okay. Good so far. Now you just need to get up. He swallowed as the jet-black surface of the crystal seemed to pulse. Had it just been a trick of the light, or was it actually reacting to his presence?
“Come on …” He flapped his wings, trying to get a little extra leverage, but only succeeding when a gust of wind caught them from behind, pushing up and mostly atop the crystal. This is a lot harder without magic. He couldn’t even use his wings to hold the crowbar; he had to keep it tucked against his foreleg or risk dropping it.
“Okay,” he said aloud, sitting and balancing atop the crystal. “One step closer.” The crystal was wide enough that he could straddle it with his legs, narrowing near the exposed end, and probably near the end inside the ship too. Which is probably at least half its length if it’s still stuck. He held a hoof against the surface of the crystal, feeling it for a moment. There it is. It was vibrating in time with the rest of the airship. So it’s really stuck.
Quit chinwagging, start moving. He pulled himself forward with his forehooves, sliding over the crystalline surface and trying not to focus too much on it. You’re fine. You’ve not gone starkers yet. Just keep moving forward, keep moving forward, keep—
The crowbar thumped against the darkened hull, and he stopped. Okay. Now just … pull this thing out somehow.
Light. He needed more light. He brought the headlamps on his helmet to life, exposing cracked and splintered wood. From the look of things, the crystal had driven itself in like a wedge, bending and breaking the planks that made up the side and shoving them apart.
Oookay … Well, this shouldn’t be too difficult. Just trying to unwedge the very thing I’m sitting on hundreds of feet above the ground in the middle of a huge snowstorm. Oh, and that thing happens to be some sort of dark magic creation or something like that. Until that though, it doesn’t sound that bad. He brought the crowbar up and then jammed it down hard, the metal claw at the end bouncing off of the crystal without so much as a blemish but biting into the wood. Progress. He pulled the crowbar back and did it again and again until it bit deeply enough that it didn’t want to easily come out. Then he pressed down, pulling the plank back and loosening the ship’s grip on the crystal.
So far, so good, he thought as the wood snapped, breaking free and revealing a small space beyond it. Keep steady, do that a few more times and—
A shimmer of purple light ran down the length of the crystal, and he froze, bracing himself for an incoming wave of fear. But after a few seconds, none came.
Another purple shimmer rolled down the crystal instead, this one glowing slightly. Okay, that probably isn’t good, he thought, slamming the crowbar into another gap and peeling the wood back. Once there was a wide enough hole the crystal would be loose enough he could brace the crowbar against the hull and try to push the thing out, but—
Another pulse. This one a little faster, and with less of a break from the last. Uh-oh. The nervous pit already where his gut was widened. Another pulse, and there was no doubt about it: It was speeding up. And for that to be happening …
I don’t know what it means, he thought, slamming the crowbar down as hard as he could and breaking another chunk of splintered wood free. But anything that’s some sort of countdown can’t be good!
Especially coming from some starkers madpony dark wizard shade thing. Another board broke free, dropping back and letting out a loud clack as it slammed into a propeller. The magically-hardened blades ground it apart.
Come on! The pulses were coming with shorter intervals with each passing moment, and unless he missed his mark, they were growing brighter too. Come on! One board refused to come loose, and he settled for battering it with the crowbar until it broke. Come on!
The crystal lurched beneath him as another bit of wood came free, and he almost fell. The pulses were definitely brighter now, and leaving small, bright jagged purple lines all across the surface of the crystal, giving in a spiderwebbed appearance.
There! A large piece of the hull that had bent inward around the crystal gave way, the wood splintering with a cascade of jagged cracks. The crystal lurched beneath him, dropping several inches as it tilted.
Going to have to be good enough. The pulses were coming almost every second now, the glow from them and the remaining lights almost bright enough to see by. He slammed the tip of the crowbar as deep into the hull as he dared, then braced himself against it and climbed to his hooves atop the slick, crystalline surface.
Now push! He threw himself forward against the crowbar, levering the end in his hooves up and toward the hull, rear hooves scraping across the top of the crystal, which was now keeping most of its glow between pulses, not that there was much time between those either, and they were getting brighter and brighter, and—
The crowbar slipped free, pitching him headfirst into the side of The Hummingbird. For a moment the toll slid from his hooves, and he snapped one wing down, pinning it in place against the side of the crystal and ignoring the shock of pain it sent up his limb.
The pulse had been joined by something new now. A low, deep hum that seemed to resonate in his very bones. He grabbed the crowbar with one hoof and jammed it into the gap in the wood once more.
Come on come on come on come on come on! He threw himself against the crowbar as the hum built, the pulsing now so rapid it didn’t even dim, like a strobe light at a club. Come on! “Come! On!”
He threw himself forward, wings beating … and with a sudden, loud squeak of shifting wood, the crystal broke free, sliding back and then dropping out of the hole it had made in the side of The Hummingbird.
Taking him with it.
No no no no no— He still couldn’t fly, not falling so close to the crystal. Its hum was audible over the howl of the storm now, the glow so bright his visor was trying to tint. He extended his wings, orienting himself so that his rear hooves were facing the crystal, and kicked out as hard as he could, shoving himself away from the glowing, humming shard.
YES! His magic came back to him, and he beat his wings as hard as he could, flipping his fall into an ascent, climbing as quickly as he could toward the lights of the airship, burning every bit of magic he could, green lines pulsing against the black of his undersuit as he pushed himself as hard as he could. He could still hear the hum of the crystal even as it fell through the storm; see it too, a faint glowing purple beacon amid the swirling snow. He was nearing The Hummingbird now, climbing up and over it—
A crack not unlike a thunderbolt roared out of the storm alongside a bright flash, and to his horror he saw dozens of small, ball-sized shards of crystal fly past overhead and below, leaving glowing purple trails in their wake.
He watched, jaw dropping as the glowing trails slowly began to arc out through the storm, slowly fading. It exploded. If I hadn’t pulled it out of the side …
At close range, it would have torn The Hummingbird apart. Blasted it into dozens if not hundreds of pieces.
It still might have. He flipped himself in a quick loop, darting back over the top of the airship and playing the light from his helmet over the side.
We got lucky, he realized after a moment. Really lucky. He could only see one chunk of crystal stuck in the wood, and he kicked it free with his hooves. The port side of The Hummingbird was battered severely, with many divots in the wooden hull and even a jagged spiderweb across the port-side main cabin window, but the damage didn’t appear to be too much worse than superficial. A check of the envelope didn’t show any sudden changes in the snow swirling over it, though he did see a few bright slashes of color where an impact had torn the outer covering but failed to puncture the layers beneath it. They weren’t going to run out of liftgas anytime soon.
He flew back around the airship to the starboard hatch. It was open, an armored figure waiting for him. More than one, actually. He flew in an almost collapsed on the deck, a wave of fatigue hitting him like a runaway carriage.
“Welcome back, lieutenant,” Steel said, looking down at him even as Dawn pulled his helmet off and began scanning his head. “You look like Tartarus.”
“Hey, I look how I feel. Imagine that.” There was a clatter as the crowbar he’d been holding dropped to the deck. He hadn’t even realized he was still holding it. “Maybe I’ll have to keep wearing that helmet.”
“What?” Dawn pulled back, confusion in her eyes. “Of course you will. You’re clear now, but—”
“No, I meant after the mission,” he said. “If I look that bad, I’ll scare all the foals out there.”
“And he’s fine,” Dawn said, rolling her eyes but still giving him a thankful look. “Fortunately enough.”
“No kidding,” Nova said from the T. “We saw that boom. Good call on ripping that thing out.”
“Well,” Hunter said, rising and feeling his legs wobble. “I figured it was bad news, and Bolt has to fly the ship, so …”
“It was reckless,” Steel said, his voice firm. “But then again, that’s supposed to be our job sometimes, and it was the best call to make. Good job, Hunter.” He clapped him on the shoulder, the impact almost sending him reeling. “We’re going to ease off for a while. If you want to catch a nap for a bit. You too, Nova,” he said, his visor turning in the unicorn’s direction.
“A nap sounds great right now, thanks,” Hunter said, looking at Steel. “Did we … take any damage?”
“The window on the port side is spiderwebbed, as is one of the windows in the cockpit,” Steel said as they moved down the hall. “Bolt is furious about it. We took a hit somewhere in the rudders too; she says one of them is twisting like it’s stripped a few gears. Lowers maneuverability a little bit, but she said we can still turn well enough.”
He could see his bunk ahead of him, its cushion almost calling to him. “Right. So we’re okay.”
Steel nodded. “Yeah, Hunter, we’re okay. Thanks to you. Get some rest.” He gave him a push, shoving him into his bunk. When had he started leaning against Steel’s side. “I can’t promise much, but you’ll get some at least.”
“Thanks, boss.” It felt so good to close his eyes for just a moment. “Wake me … when …”
He didn’t finish his sentence before sleep took him.
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You need em?
*cringe* Bone bruises are painful. And they take a while to heal.
*That* is a sacrifice.
Good thing he listened to his instincts or things would've been really bad for them. Looks like they need to change their tactics.
Flak bursts, and draining ones at that. Ouch and nasty things.
I guess at this point they can only slow him down when he finaly get the location of the City.
They did a lot more than i read possible so far.
Training and high end equicment mixed with there skills and talents.
Glorious reading experience
Lets the Elements adventure pale. Than again... There basicly Civilians winging it every singel time.
Why would Sombra shoot a bomb that blows up after five minutes when he could have just blown the ship up on impact?
...
...Oh. Right. For a dramatic scene. Whatever was I thinking?
10673845
Because the thing needed to absorb enough magic to do so first. It didn't come primed. That's what it was doing with the absorbing and the gathering energy bit it was doing. That was all but spelled out ... But it's an intense enough scene it's excusable to have missed it.
New plan... how fast can the Guard build an exact replica of the Crystal Empire to distract Sombra with for a bit? Just, put it right over there.
Also.... we almost had us a Maxim 3 moment.... you never want to have a Maxim 3 moment....