Final Fantasy VIII: A New Generation

[Caije]

Footsteps and panting was heard outside the grounds. A figure ran and ran, his legs ached with pain but he still kept going on. He came to a halt outside the Gigantic gardens gates and rested his back against a pillar. He let out a large sigh and took a drink of water from a bottle which was in his bag. He drank it in one gulp and lay down.

"Resitch, your always running late, you got great speed but you seem to always miss class.." A woman said to him. She wore a skirt which hit off her knee's. Her hair was short and her face pale.

"Ms. Heartilly what do I owe for this pleasant lecture," Resitch smiled. He didn't stir as she approached him. He kept his back at the pillar he was slumped on.

"What are you running from today..." She asked him.

"The world," Resitch smiled. He took another sip off water from his bottle and wiped the sweat from his forehead before getting up.

"Get to Class, you already have bad attendance as it is...." She yelled.

"Somthing wrong?" Resitch asked her.

"Its none of your business, now get out of here...." She said again.

He didn't need to be told again so he took his backpack and ran inside. He ran past the old security guard who yelled furiously. He skidded on the slippery floor up some steps and into a elevator. As he came out of the elevator he ran into a classroom which was being thought by the most carefree teacher in Balamb. Selphie Timmett. She smiled as resitch threw himself in the door. He walked passed her and took his seat at the backrow. He daydreamed as he leered outside the window as the lesson continued.

[Magi of Worlds]

Somewhere along the dormitory hall a loud yawn could be heard deep within. It was stiffled very fast for the young man didn't even want anyone to know he was just getting up. He sat up in bed and yawned again. He looked around his gloomy room and sighed. He'd been in Balamb Garden for five years. A very long time for someone of his patience.

The young man stood up from his bed and paced the single dorm for a couple of minutes thinking of what he was going to do that day. He finally decided to go to the infamous Training Center and went to the bathroom. He showered and got on his trademark clothes. Next he got on his sword sheath and stiffled another yawn.

Dante Azrac looked over to his giant flamberghe in the corner by his bed and sighed. It was as big as him, seven feet in length. He was the only one in the Garden as of now who could weild it. Squall Leonheart, their Headmaster, was the only other one who stood a chance of even picking it up. Shadow was the flamberghe's name and it deserved that name. It was the color of a shadow. Very dark black and it glowed from magical use if Dante equipped any magic in it. But Dante hadn't done that in years.

"Better get going..." Dante said using the sign language he uses to speak when he doesn't feel like it. Which is quite often. For Dante is rare with words. He went out the door, flamberghe in hand, and walked out of the dormitories. It was an elegant morning. Everything was awash in sunlight. Glorious sunlight, to thoughs unlike Dante. He rather dislike sunlight and would keep his room a maze of shadows.

Dante looked up from his thoughts and found himself outside the Training Center doors. He pushed them open and was confronted with three juniors and a handful of Grats. The kids were running from them at top speed. Dante stopped them by holding his hand forward, the one free of the sword, and then caste protect on each one.

Then Dante caste scan on the Grats sizing up how strong they were. All together they were strong enough to take down a three-man squad of SeeD's. "Hmph" Dante said through sign language and walked forward holding Shadow out infront of him with one hand. The Grats became very angry with the man since he was blocking their food. But, before one could attack, Dante was upon them. With speed that would equal the fastest monster out there.

Before the juniors, or Grats for that matter, could react one of the Grats was laying on the ground dead. It's lifeblood oozing out of it in cascading drops of green and blue. The others ran over to the fallen one and began to eat it. It was disgusting. Dante calmly walked over and beheaded one of them. Then, equaly calm, he beheaded another. The other Grats ate those bodies too and faced Dante, daring him to make another move.

But, he just hung back and motioned the three juniors over and lifted his sword and demonstrated killing a Grat. They nodded with wicked smiles on their faces and rushed forward and killed one of the beasts. They were all carrying swords, Dante realized as they rounded on the other Grat. After that one was dead Dante walked on, further into the Center. The juniors waved at him and yelled thanks and left.

Dante didn't care though, he was there not to help kids, but to kill a T-Rexuar. Only four other people in the Garden could kill one by themselves like Dante. And two of them were gone. The other was in the Infirmary still from a vicious, and almost lethal, bite. But Dante didn't care, he just truged on looking for prey.

[Omega OwA]

The alarm sounded as Kitere slowly got out of bed. He switched it off and splashed his face. Getting on his uniform, he buckled up and went out of his dorm room. Kitere took a walk around the garden, just staring up at the empty sky. A long breeze blew by, refreshing his morning face as he sighed and got up.

He headed to class and took his seat. He had learned the lesson many times already, and didn't need a repeat of it by the teacher. He lowered his chin into his arms where he rested his head.

Suddenly as he was about to drift off, his a hand slapped down at his desk, startling him.

"Come on, you know I don't let my students day dream during class. Do I have to keep telling you that?"

Standing infront of him was a woman wearing her usual clothing and glasses.

"Sorry Ms Trepe..."

Quistis walked back up and returned to teaching the lesson, still keeping an eye on Kitere. Well if maybe we actually learned something new once in a while..

He tried listening in the class, but every word just went right through his other ear. He was releaved when the class was over. He was going to the Training Center next.

"Finally. I could use the exercise."

Heading off, he got his sword ready for some action.

[Fehrant]

An alarm clock resounded in a dark room. A voice grunted, followed by a hand that slammed the snooze off button.

A couple of hours later, she opened her eyes. She turned her head, and looked up at the alarm clock. 10:08 AM. She grunted again, realizing she had skipped the first class of the morning already, and was probably going to get yelled at later. If she hurried up, she could catch up the second class before it started. Not that she intended to hurry up, though.

The girl sat straight on the bed, and rubbed her head. Her face was covered by strands of her messy morning hair. She pulled them back, stood up, and stretched.

She walked slowly towards the window, and opened the curtains. Sunlight glared through, as her eyes squinted until they adjusted. The girl yawned, and decided to get some breakfast. Opening the fridge, however, proved to be a futile attempt at fulfilling it. There was a half-emptied soda, a carton of milk, and bread. She picked the milk, and emptied it.

"So much for breakfast," she thought.

After taking a quick shower, she dressed on the school's uniform. Basically, for girls, a weird-patterned brown skirt, with a matching t-shirt, a white shirt, long socks that matched with the color of the skirt and jacket, and boots or shoes.

She didn't even bother to tie her hair, still wet from the shower. She picked up her backpack, her two katanas, and opened the door to her room. When she did so, a piece of paper slowly fell to the ground. She picked up the paper. It was a drawing of her face with horns and an evil grin. "The evil grin is accurate," she joked. "I hope I don't grow horns though."

She threw the paper to ground, and closed the door. Many papers, some with drawings, and some with notes, were stickied on her door. It was a usual sight for her, although there were some new ones. They all basically said or depicted the same thing: "you grey-eyed demon," "class-skipper," "troublemaker", and the like. It was a waste of time to remove them, as they would eventually make their way to her door eventually.

Walking towards the next class, she spotted a wall clock, and realized the second class had already started. She made a stop at the cafeteria first, and bought herself a cereal bar so as to not starve until lunch. She ate it on the way, and by the time she had finished it, she was standing next to the door of her second class. She intended to go straight to her seat, but as soon as she opened the door, the teacher called out her name.

"Selenia!" The teacher reprimanded. "You are late!"

"...again," came a low voice from one of the students, which was followed by smirks, and chuckles. The teacher glared back, and everyone hushed.

"Please," she continued. "Take a seat."

A spot was free on the back. As she was about to seat, the teacher's reprimanding voice sounded again. "And do fix your uniform, please. It's a mess." Quiet chuckled from the students ensued.

Selenia looked naively down on her clothes, and realized her t-shirt was not properly buttoned, and her white shirt was not properly tucked in her skirt. The girl simply sat, and buttoned her t-shirt. "Pain in the ass," she thought.

The class proceeded normally until the bell rang. Now it was around 12:15, time for lunch. Selenia rushed towards the cafeteria. Few people were lined up. She bought a sandwich and a juice, and decided to eat her meal somewhere peacefully. Not too far away, there was a huge garden, where people often went for lunch. She picked a calm spot under a tree, and enjoyed her lunch there.

Half way through her lunch, two students appeared. One of them carried himself proudly, where as the other had probably been beaten up by the appearence of his face. They stood in front of Selenia. She raised her mismatching eyes, as she continued eating.

"You," said the proud student, "beat him up two days ago." He pointed at the other student.

"So...?" Selenia answered, her mouth full.

"He had yielded," the student explained.

The girl washed down the sandwich with some juice. "You can't yield whenever you feel it's convenient," she countered. "Well, not that I particularly care." Selenia knew better. Being this a school for training members to become SeeDs, many people pretended to be heroes. This one in front of her was just one example.

Selenia grabbed a hold of one of her katanas, and stood up. She finished her juice, and smirked. Just like the drawing on her door. "Want me to beat you too?" She challenged.

The proud student gritted his teeth in anger. "You might be able to get away with it because if was during melee training, but with no teachers around now, I'm going to make sure you don't, you grey-eyed freak." Without any delay, his thrust his hand to get a grip of her arm. Selenia's wicked grin became wider, and she slammed the juice carton on the student's face. The remnants of her juice splattered all over his face. He rushed once more this time trying to use both her arms to get a grip on her, but he was stopped dead on his tracks as Selenia rammed his stomach with her sheathed sword. The student fell to his knees trying to regain his breath.

"Without magic, let's see how you deal with this!" The beaten up student behind his partner yelled as he started to prepare a fireball. Selenia swung her sword hard in the air downwards, and the sheathed flew all the way to the student's face. She sprinted and gave him a flying, spinning kick.

Picking up the sheath, and the rest of her stuff, she left the pain-stricken students. As she left the cafeteria, he spotted a huge student carrying an equally big sword. She didn't know him, but by the looks of that sword, she estimated, he was able to defend himself. Her wicked grin spread across her face once more. "We'll have to see about that," she thought.

Selenia followed him until he reached the training grounds. He spotted his fight with the beasts, and how easily they were dispatched. "Time to..." The bell for the next class rang.

"Damn. Perhaps on another occasion," she thought. She headed towards her next class.

[Magi of Worlds]

There was a disturbance behind one of the grove's in the center several minutes after Dante paced back and forth. It was basic knowledge that T-Rexuar's only came out of hiding for the gifted and strong students at the Garden. And Dante was about to prove he was one of them. He would further prove the point by killing it single-handedly.

Sure enough, after a minute of waiting after the trees shifted the large dinosaur-like monster appeared. Dante smirked and held his sword out in front of him just like'd he'd done with the Grats. It was a challenge poited out by the fact that Dante snarled at the beast as he chanted. He cast scan on the beast and decided he could definetly take it. As long as it didn't bite him.

The T-Rexuar charged forward and was met with a vicious upper-cut by Shadow. Oddly enough, the sword left a slash on the monstrosities left arm. It was as if the brute didn't know how to defend itself. Well, all the better for me Dante thought to himself. As the dinosaur rushed past Dante did a backflip and landed infront of it. But the beast was ready, somehow for the one. It lashed out with its tail and caught Dante in the back.

Dante felt a bone or two break and was sent to his knees. In response though Dante caste frotect on himself. Then he got back up and made a swipe at the monsters head. But it parried it with its teeth. Dante snorted and with surprising speed cut through the monsters lower jaw. The T-Rexuar knew it was losing and lashed out with it's claws and racked Dante's injured back and stomach with them.

Dante's knees buckled under the pain and pressure and he almost went down to them. But he managed to stay upright and cut through the T-Rexuar's head. It went down forever. "Take that Squall! I can do it too!" Dante sign languaged and staggered back into the main Garden leaving the dead body of his prey.

Dante's lifeblood streamed out of him and got all over the dorm hallways floor and walls. But Dante just walked on. He eventually made it to his room where he locked the door and caste cura on himself. It just helped the pain go away a little bit but Dante figured he wasn't gonna die. Be in incredible pain for awhile, but not die. He layed on his bed, sword next to him and fell asleep. He was utterly exhausted and he'd be damned if he went to any of his classes today.

[Caije]

The Bell rang and Resitch was done with class's for the day. He walked down the corridor's in search of the never visited libary. One of his SeeD exams were coming up soon and he needed to know everything. He wanted to show up Squall, Squall never showed any faith in Resitch. He always let Resitch take the blame for every fight he got in, most of them were self-defence.

He sighed as he found the libary. He had hoped he would of got to hang out near the quad, where he would usually watch the girls, not speaking to them because he was scared.

He sat at the back, the libary was fairly empty. There was a few people searching for books. Resitch took out a few random books which included:The Sorceress war Part II, Guardian forces: Our One True Enemy, and Gunblades: How to use them.

He slumped over a desk and opened the first book. He read one line over and over, it wasnt going trough his head. He hit the desk at his own frustration. He read and re-read the first chapter of Guardian forces: Our One True Enemy

Guardian forces....cause nothing but damage to our own memories.....Jealousy of two Gf's could lead to a massive war, a war which could end all life......our final result was to seal them, beyond mans reach, only three Members of SeeD (Military foundation founded by Cid Kramer) actually know where they are......They bound never to use them again even trough the worst of wars.

That was basically it. He closed the book and thought to himself. "Why the hell are they making us learn stuff about the past, which we can't use..."

He got up after he was exhausted and rented the books out. The book girl smiled at him, he smiled back and took off outta the Libary. He went back to his dormitory and closed the door.

[Storm]

The libary was quiet as normal, the bookshelves made from the traditional hard oak that they had always been, with the slight smell of polish and the fine dust in the areas where the cleaners had forgotten. Beside one of the shelves sat a student. Lukas Meighan. He was often found here, it was often a release from battle classes, and the tourments of others in his class. Well-known in the libary, yet few knew him in person.

His mass of gingery brown was shrouded within a book, one of which he was told to study for his history lesson, a book titled The Sorceress War Part II. Already far ahead of the rest of the class, his mind wrapped beneath the pages.

"Luke..." A voice whispered above his shoulder.

"Luuuke... Luke? Luuuukas? LUKAS!!!!"

Startled, Lukas turned around. A familiar lock of blonde hair wavered in his face, looking up, he saw a woman with a pale complexion, yet beautiful golden hair and blue eyes. Quistis Trepe, one of his instructors.

"Instructor Trepe?" he said, surprised at her appearance.

"Don't act so surprised to see me! You're reminding me of one of my former students!" She laughed.

"Well, how am I not ment to be surprised at such a sudden loud voice," he replied in a sarcastic tone.

She sighed. "You're not easy to break out of one of your trance-like states. I came looking for you. I need help taking some juniour classmen out for a session on battle tactics. I've been trying to find some older students to help show them about different battle styles."

"Are you sure they'll listen to me? I don't exactly put on a show when I fight. I just do what comes naturally." Lukas replied.

"You know how kids are like... they think that throwing their fists and legs around manically will prepare them for battle, lacking common sense which is needed in combat. Having several skilled battlers, they be able to pick a style to suit them. Your style, it isn't with fancy big swords, but its spectacular in another sense."

"I never thought of it that way. Well... nonetheless, it'll give me some exercise."

Quistis nodded. "Thank you, i'll be looking for further students. You have 3 hours to get changed, have lunch and to have your own free recreational time."

[Caije]

Resitch lay on his bed awake after studying for his exams for about 30 minutes, he had the radio turned on. He listened to random channels troughout the old radio. He left it on his favourite channel, Balamb fm. He listened to random music as he stared at the roof in his room.

"This just in from Esthar," The radio announced it interrupted some old singer playing music."Laguna Loire has been murdered, The esthar president for the past 34 years was shot last night in his sleep. A Late eye witness saw a car speeding off with three figures. One carrying a gun.

Resitch turned off the radio. He never heard anything about Esthar other than what he read in books. He always dreamt of going there on his holidays but he was never allowed to leave Balamb as he was a wanted man in Galbadia.


He never knew the Esthar ruler, but he knew he was envolved with both sorceress wars. He scanned trough many books looking for his name. The most he found was his name mentioned with a female called Ellone, Resitch didn't know what to make from it.


Resitch didn't really care, many people were shot down each day in timber, but the media never cared about that. He sat up and noticed it was near sundown. He would end the day from how he started it. Training.

[Fehrant]

Classes were over for the day. However, there were a bunch of optional classes students were allowed to participate in. One of them was Specialized Fighting Training, which purpose was to focus on the particular fighting styles of each student, and improve it. Selenia had joined this class because she thought that someone strong who wanted to perfect his techniques was bound to join up. That, and optional classes did not enforce dress code, so using casual clothing was acceptable. Hence, Selenia was wearing her usual attire: her hair tied up in a pony tail, a black trenchcoat, a white tank top, black pants, and boots.

What a let-down, Selenia thought. The class had started, but she was the only person sitting on a corner doing nothing. Real weapons were not allowed, and everyone was using wooden replicas of their own. Selenia's right hand rested on two wooden swords, yet she appeared to have no intention of using them. Though her initial theory of finding someone strong in this class was something probable, she felt she had been cheated.

"Weak, weak, weak!!" She told herself in her mind as she watched the students spar with each other. "I think that I would win in a fight against everyone. How can they be so weak?" The student body in the class was composed of about 15 students, and the instructor himself, who had supervised since the first day each individual technique and gave advise on how to get the most out of it. In the case of Selenia, the instructor's motto had always been, "strong, but too reckless." Of course, Selenia never paid any attention to this, clinging to the hope of someone strong eventually showing up.

It was getting tiring. Any time soon she was going to quit this class. For now, however, Selenia decided to call it a day and go to her room. She got up, picking up her wooden swords as everyone was responsible for their own, and walked towards the door.

"Selenia, where are you going?" The instructor questioned. Selenia turned around. He was giving instructions to a student about how to get more power out of close combat swings. She shrugged. "Gonna call it a day."

The instructor stopped giving directions to the student, and went to Selenia's side. "Selenia, you are possibly the only student that has not bothered to change anything since the class started. I have perhaps not seen enough of your fighting style, however, from what I've seen, I can tell it's reckless and needs some improvement in a couple of areas. I have told you this almost every class, yet you still haven't show any effort."

Selinia looked at the teacher in the eyes, and smirked. "Wanna fight to instruct me better?"

The instructed sighed, and shook his head. "If that's what it takes to keep you in the class, I'll gladly show you what I mean through actual combat. The instructor walked towards a cabinet where many wooden weapons were stored. He picked up a long sword, by Selenia's estimation, a bit longer than her real katanas.

All the students stopped their practice. This was certainly going to be an educational fight. "I'll show you that through a counter attack you become extremely vulnerable;" the instructor explained. "Now, please attack me with all your might." He took a defensive stance poising his sword low, and holding the handle with two hands.

"He intends to block my successive attacks with my swords, and then perform a rapid counter," Selenia judged. "A strategy like that might certainly wound me, but it appears he has underestimated what being reckless is."

Selenia charged. She ran straight to the instructor, her wooden swords slightly trailed behind. She progressively gained more speed. When she got within range, the instructor slowly raised his katana to block any oncoming blow, but to his surprised, Selenia had jumped in the air and him hit hard in the forehead with her own. In fact, it had been so hard, even Selenia felt disoriented for a moment, although being mentally prepared for the impact, she recovered faster than her opponent. Not wasting any time, she closed in, and hit him hard three times: first in the leg, then between the shoulder and neck, and the last one was a nasty blow to the side of the face. "Even with a wooden sword," Selenia thought, "that's gotta hurt."

The room had went dead silent. She turned around, to face the crowd. A drop of blood ran down from her forehead, to the bridge of her nose. Her wicked smirk was painted in her face. "Let me show you a real fighting class," she declared. "I'll take all of you, at the same time."

There few on the class who hadn't been victim of Selenia's relentlessness when practicing. Some feared her, and some despised her. Given the choice now, however, they were more than eager to get back at her.

"Everyone against the grey-eyed demon!!" A student with a spear shouted. Three charged in. They circled her; the one with the spear at the front, and two with swords at the sides. The spear student thrust his spear to her torso. She span her body sideways and dodged. "Slow!" She yelled, and span one more time, using motion to hit the student once with each sword. He went down. The other two inched closer carefully. Selenia sprinted forward towards the one in the right, but changed her direction at the last moment and hit the one of the left on the hand that was holding the weapon. She raised her other sword in time to deflect the attack from the right student, and performed a counter attack. The rest of the students were standing still, as if frozen.

Selenia looked at them incredulously. "You aren't going to charge? Fine, I'll charge." In a few moments, she had easily neutralized five more students. The rest saw no choice but to attack. At the command of one, they tried to surround her, and close in at the same time. She jumped in the air, but a student that had not been part of the circle managed to use his weapon, a rope and a wooden hook, to trap her leg, and force her downwards. At the imminent fall, she decided to threw her katana at the student, which hit him in the middle of the face. She used her free hand to land, but before she could stand up, she received a punt that forced her backwards.

Once more they charged. She thwacked the arm of one, and gained another sword. The fight continued, but despite getting a hard blow on her arm, and leg, now everyone except her was either standing in pain, or on the floor. Moans and grunts were the only noises left.

"Hmph," she simply said, threw her wooden swords, and left the room. Once on the hallway, the instructor come out of the room. "Please, Selenia, I want you to improve your skills. You are strong, and I was taken by surprise, but they still need some polishing."

Selenia waved him off at the distance, and proceeded to her room. She took off her clothes, and showered. Her forehead burned, and when her muscles had cooled down, the pain from the blows stung worse than before.

She grunted, but stood beneath the cold shower anyway.

[Caije]

Resitch grabbed his sword and swung it for practice. It was light and easy to use, however his blase was blunt, it lacked strenght. He moved out of the dormitory and headed towards the training centre. He drew his blade as he stepped in. Immediatley he was attacked by four grats.

He charged forward and sliced at the one to his far right. He attacked again, and again. After the fourth strike his enemy had fell dead. Unaware the other three had made a move he felt heavy blows on his back. one hit his neck and he collapsed to the ground. His sword was flung to the other side of the room. The grats made a attempt to attack but Resitch threw up his palm.

"Fire" He yelled. A large missile of burning flames emerged from his palm. It smacked the grat in his face. He made a run for his blade but felt his leg being grabbed by a one of the Grats large vines. It threw him to the other side of the room where he was cornered. He raised his palm again and shot a fireball at another Grat. He charged forward with great speed and leapt past there attacks. He grabbed his blunted sword with speed and slashed at another of the grats causing it to fall.

There were only two more left. He thought he could take them. With all his might and speed he charged forward. Dodging one of there blows he countered. he jabbed his sword right into the Grat's torso. The blow had worked and the grat fell dead. One more remained. He lashed out with a jump and fell behind the grat catching it off-guard. He made a final slash which killed the grat. He withdrew his sword and walked off.

"Attention all staff, please report to the teacher's lounge immediatley."

Resitch sighed. "Must be about Loire's death...."

He waited silently for a monster to be caught off guard. He drifted off in a day dream. However he was snapped out of it. He heard a large crashing sound. A sound which came from a small bridge which held water which the Grats and T-rexaur would usually come over to. He approached the bridge and noticed a small boat coming into the training centre. he had never seen boats come in from this side so he just waited and watched. he was still hiding in bush's.

Five figure's walked out of the small trawler which had stopped at the bridge. Each armed with guns. They moved slowly around the Training grounds. When they had secured it one of the guards talked on his Transciever. Resitch couldn't hear what the inturder had said. Soon after another boat had arrived in. It stopped and more gunmen armed with heavy machine-guns had walked out of the boat. They we're lead by a guy in a black suit.

"Training centre, Secure boss" One of the intruders said.

"Great, tell the Outer team to proceed with order's, we are to Kill the Sorcress on the spot, do not fall for any of her tricks, got it?" The Boss had asked.

"Yes boss!" Many of the soldiers yelled back. They slowly crept trough the training centre and when Resitch realised he was alone he jumped out of the bush's. He had to warn a Instructor, even the Displinary comitee, there were men going to kill Rinoa, Squall wasn't around to protect her, he had been missing for a long while. Resitch had to take action. He ran over to the Fire alarm. He thought before acting. If he pressed it, it could save Rinoa, but leave many more students and SeeD dead. He didn't care though, Rinoa was the only one who had faith in him. He pressed the Fire alrm, knowing students would evacuate. The Fire alram rang and resitch drew his sword and Headed out of the training centre.

[Omega OwA]

After finishing off at the Training Center, Kitere headed back to his dorm. He set down his weapon and sat on his bed. He wanted to become SeeD, but how could he stand the classes? If only there was something going on at this place... After a while of just staring up at his blank ceiling, he could hear something outside.

Peeking through the blinds of his window, he could see a boat coming in. Whats a boat doing right here? He squinted and saw soldiers on the boat. Kitere took his sword and ran outside where he could see the boat trying to come in from the Training Center.

Slowly walking closer, the soldiers started speaking. He couldn't make out everything they said.

"Training Center..secure.."

"..reat....tell..team to proceed. We are....kill the Sorceress on..spot..