Greetings, serebii. This is my first fanfiction, and I'm excited to share it with you all. The title of my fanfiction is (if you weren't aware of what you clicked on) The Reality of Life.
This fanfic is mostly based off the anime, but what happened in the games has also occurred in the universe this story takes place in. This story takes place 14 years after the finale of Pokemon Advanced, which follows Max (that one kid who hung around Ash during the third season). Max left his family at Petalburg at 18 to go job searching. The reason I chose Max as the main character is because he's the "Scrappy" of the group, and I think he's an underrated character and deserves respect, possibly even more respect than Ash Ketchum himself. That's where this story comes in.
I rate this story PG-13 because there are some light sexual references, if any, and some mild gore appears in this story.
Without further ado, get strapped in, Ladies and Gentleman, because you're about to go on a wild ride.
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Max Birch, son of the well-known Norman, gym leader of Petalburg city, was typing away at his Devon Corps cubicle. It was a beautiful warm, spring day in Petalburg, to Max’s dismay, but he had to make a living somehow. Max felt a mixed sense of comfort yet isolation working at Devon Corps.; he got to sit in a nice comfy swivel chair, with the easy task of typing in statistics and field reports of Devon Corps. project. The office’s computers were excellent too; they almost never seemed to slow down, no matter how much programs were open and they were able to hold terabytes of data. However, there was certain emptiness to the office life Max had chosen. He moved away from his home in Petalburg three years ago, so he had no friends or family in town. Nobody knew him; he felt alone in this world, a drifter. He was a shy young man, and hadn’t made any acquaintances with his coworkers, and none have ever gone to speak to him. The closest Max could call an acquaintance was a well-known programmer in Devon’s technical support team, Jim Hendrickson. Jim often offered Max assistance if he was having trouble with his computers.
As Max typed away, entering a test results of a Devon beta product, he yawned, and began to contemplate how his life is. “Is this really it?” Max wondered. “Am I just some office drone? After all those life changing experiences I had as a young tyke, I thought I’d grow into something special.” Max was a typical child, saving being the son of a gym leader, but that all changed one day when he met a young man and his Pokémon, Pikachu-a boy named Ash Ketchum. Ash Ketchum brought Max and his older sister May on many thrilling and beautiful adventures. These adventures had many moments where he had been in danger, and created bonds with many Pokémon. As he grew older, he chose to not stick with his father in the way of Pokémon; as much as Max loved the creatures, Pokémon battling was not an activity meant for him.
After an hour or so of typing, Max wished his life could be like his childhood again, full of friendship, laughs, and adventure. Max printed out the report, and went to the office printer to gather the papers, and filed them in an archive. Max went over the water cooler and got some water to strike a conversation with Sarah Bliss, or as Devon’s office workers called her, “the beauty of Devon.” She had a long, skinny figure, with long, flowing black hair, a smooth, beautiful face that gave the same warmth as the sun when she smiled, with a sizable bust to top it all off. He tried breaking the ice by starting small. “So…nice day we’re having, huh? Shame we have to work on such a day.” Used to men trying to lure her in, she replied “It sure is! I’m sure if we got our work done, we could enjoy it!” And she returned back to her cubicle, trying to avoid more male attention. Max felt embarrassed and rejected from her response, and after finishing his cup of water, trudged back into his cubicle, and on his swivel chair. Max had finished most of his work, so he decided to check his emails for the heck of it. “I bet it’s just more ads.” Max thought, as checking his emails was a routine he had done whenever he had no work to do. He wondered why he even bothered, as even his family rarely contacts him anymore, because things have been plain and vanilla since the time he’s left.
Max monotonously checked his email list, and found just the same old Pokémart surveys, Leo’s Pizza ad, a message from his sister, a Unova tourism ad, a charity asking for research in Pokérus, and-wait a sec. Could it be?! A message from someone he knew? Thank Arceus! A surge of joy, which had lay dormant for years, flowed throughout Max’s body. He ecstatically read the email he had graciously received from his sister discovering why an email such as this randomly popped up out of nowhere-May was in trouble! According to her email, her place of residence, Fallarbor Town, was under attack by thugs and powerful, rabid Pokémon!
Knowing that, Max immediately shut his computer off, and hurried to the elevator, pressing the button to make it rise to the roof of Devon Corps, where he kept his acro bike and casual clothing, since he might get his pants stuck on the chain of the bike if he rode on it as he was. After finishing his change of outfits, Max got on his acro bike, closed his eyes as he lowered his head, and took some deep breathes. “It’s time…” he solemnly muttered, as he slowly opened his eyes and rose his head “To live up to my Father’s name, and face the reality of life!” as he turned his solemn mutter into a fierce statement. The clock on his sister’s life was ticking, so he stopped sitting there and had to leave.
With a burst of excitement, Max zipped off the Devon Corps roof, using its rooftop architecture as a ramp, performed a 1080 back flip, and landed on the road safely, with onlookers cheering at this mysterious, wild biker. He left Rustboro city and hit the road, onto the route. His studious side returned in the middle of his craze, so while he was riding he tried to make sure there weren’t any wild Pokémon or trainers around, because he didn’t carry any Pokémon or tools of self-defense.
After Max had finally left the city, there was little sign of civilization around him, and he was truly glad about that fact. The rural landscape was a breathtaking sight to take in, especially after being an urbanite after all these years. The Taillow were singing their beautiful mating songs, which not only stirred up the emotions of the Taillow, but Max as well. The Roselia danced across the wild grass meadow, helping to create a symphony of colors with their roses, and to top it all off, the Sun, in all her majesty, had brought a shining luminescence to landscape, making all the life that was already their even livelier. Truly, a fitting setting for Max to embark on a quest to save his sister in her time of need. Max looked around this magnificent landscape, feeling truly thrilled and at peace at the same time, and couldn’t help but say to himself out loud “It’s truly a wonderful day to save my sister, and then I’ll show those scoundrels a thing or two!”
Even though the world around him was so breathtaking, any more moments spent gawking could cost May her life, so he rode his bike even faster than he was already. Ignoring the world around him, Max passed a 15 mph speed limit sign, where an Officer Jenny was hidden, trying to catch mischievous speedsters. When Max zipped by her, she used her speed gun to measure his speed, and he was apparently traveling at a speed of 21. Max heard police sirens, so he had to stop, as not following the law could lead to even more dire consequences. Officer Jenny slowly walked over to Max, and said to him, “You were going 6 over the speed limit. Show me your license, please.” in a voice, that was so dull and monotonous, that he had never experienced, not even in his years of work at Devon. Max knew that he shouldn’t be pulled over; according to Hoenn law, if a biker or pedestrian actually happens to pass a speed limit, than there is no penalty at all, especially if the area is a straight path with wide open space, and there aren't any people within the vicinity. “There’s something weird going on here”, Max thought, and that’s when it hit him-this isn’t Officer Jenny at all! Well, at least not her mind-he looked deep into Officer Jenny’s eyes, and saw a Haunter, with a big, mischievous, smirk, glaring at Max. Max had realized that this was the first rabid Pokémon, on his journey, because Officer Jenny was possessed by a Haunter, and it was trying to stop him in his tracks.
After a bit of thinking to himself, Max finally replied to “Jenny”. “I can’t give you my license, officer.”
“Why not?” She questioned in a monotonous, zombie-like tone.
“Because you are Haunter’s puppet!” So, as fast as he could act, Max stealthily took her pistol out of her holster, and shot her in the head. Max ran back to his acro bike, and quickly rode off, thinking “My sister could be in great danger!”, and his love for his sister successfully persuaded him into riding even faster.
Max had never rode his bike this fast in his life, and he felt as if he was going to break the sound barrier if he sped up his peddling, which was necessary to him because he was truly worried for May’s safety. It didn’t take long, but Max found a sign on the roadside. He went up to the sign, which read Fallarbor Town, and interestingly enough, had a note with scribbles on it. With closer inspection, Max made out what that sticky note had written on it: dont come here! It appeared to have been written hastily, as if the writer was trying to deliver a message to outsiders as quickly as possible, without caring about trivial rules such as capitalization, or apostrophes. Max wanted to respectcfully heed this person’s request; “They wrote that for a good reason.” he thought. He went back to his bike and was about to turn around to return to Rustboro, but suddenly heard a familiar voice screaming, so he resumed his direction and returned to his high-speed biking.
Max quickly rode into Fallarbor Town, and saw a huge bump in the road. Instead of seeing it as an obstacle, he saw it as an opportunity. Max pedaled even faster to the high bump, used it as a ramp, and executed a perfect 720 front flip, jumped off his acro bike, and landed gracefully on his feet. Just as planned, the acro bike knocked out some rabid Mightyena in front of him. Knowing he had finally made it to his destination, Max smiled. Wishing he could run, but wary of the dangers that could lurk around any corner, he walked quickly. Max looked around him, and noticed someone had left a submachine gun on the ground, likely in panic, so he picked it up. He then saw Duskull in and around an abandoned house, so believing them to be rabid Pokémon May told him about, he opened fire on them. “Get outta there you foul ghost Pokémon!” Max yelled to the Duskull. Max then noticed something moving in the shadows of the Duskull-occupied house. As it emerged from the shadows, it revealed itself to be a Dusclops. It stared at Max, appearing as if it was the guardian of the Duskull, and Max began to hear a voice in his mind, which was the Dusclops was trying to communicate with Max. “Why are you trying to make us leave? We live here! This is our house…” It sadly pleaded. Max felt nothing but woe and sadness for these ghost Pokémon, and knew that they couldn’t stay in that house, because they weren’t human, so Max thought of the most humane solution possible. Max remembered learning how to use special stones and soil for improvised munitions, so after Max quickly gathered all of his materials, and all the ghost Pokémon were inside the house, Max was ready to proceed with his plan. Max had a short, silent prayer, and after he had finished, he threw the switch, which blew up the house, and brought an end to the misery of those ghost Pokémon. Max knew that he had done the right thing-wherever they were, it was a better place.
After a moment of silence in respect for the passed-away ghost Pokémon, Max heard another scream from his sister, so he walked quickly to get to her. Fallarbor Town was nothing like the routes Max had traveled; there were no Taillow singing, any flora or grass Pokémon remaining were rotting, empty shells, and the town’s streets were almost flooded with blood from Pokémon who passed away trying to defend their masters.
When Max got to the source of the screaming, he found his sister, May in a terrible condition; she was bandaged from a rope tied around her belly to a street sign, being attacked by the pack leader of the rabid Pokemon, a Tyranitar, which looked huge and menacing, even for its own species. However, hope was not lost, because her Blaziken was out trying to defend her, and she was able to command it. However, whenever Blaiziken tried attacking the Tryinatar, it manages to evade her Blaziken’s attacks. It appeared that the battle was a stalemate. May turned around, and saw Max, and yelled “Max! Over here!” so Max hurried up to where May was being attacked. Max tried firing at the Tyranitar’s eye-bullseye, a direct shot. With the Tyranitar half-blinded, it was then exposed to attacks from Blaziken. May then said “Alright! Blaze, it’s time to end this horror, once and for all!” So her Blaziken critically focus punched Tyranitar in the face, and Tryanitar fell. This was no faint; her Blaziken’s focus punched went right through the Tyranitar’s face, and ended further than the back of its skull, so its brain was destroyed, thus fittingly, ending this rabid beast’s life. Max happily said “I’m really glad I got to help out, sis!” and May playfully replied “You should get here a little earlier next time!” “Aw, sis!” And the two siblings, along with May’s Blaziken, jovially shared a laugh together, reminiscent of their time of yore.
Their tender reunion ended shortly, sadly, because Max looked around, then yelled “LOOK OUT SIS!” and he pointed to a white object, moving in the forest. May tried to see what he was pointing at, and became horrified as she found out what he was talking about. She looked towards the trees and yelled “OH NO!” She then looked deep into Max’s eyes, and urgently demanded “Max, Blaziken, run away as fast as you can!” Max and Blaziken heeded May’s order, and sprinted out of the area as fast as they could.
Max turned around to check on his sister, and saw her running as fast as she could to them, but then she accidentally tripped on a root, then scrapped and injured her knee on some rocks. May tried getting up with all her might, but sadly, it was to no avail. As soon as she stood up, she walked a few steps, she then tripped again, gazing at the colossus lumbering toward her. Max and Blaziken looked back in horror when Regigigas, the lumbering brute, stepped on his sister. The sight of this caused something to snap in Max. It infuriated him, and he vowed revenge out loud toward this murderous creature by psychotically saying “You’ll pay for this you murderous brute!!” at the top of his lungs.
This fanfic is mostly based off the anime, but what happened in the games has also occurred in the universe this story takes place in. This story takes place 14 years after the finale of Pokemon Advanced, which follows Max (that one kid who hung around Ash during the third season). Max left his family at Petalburg at 18 to go job searching. The reason I chose Max as the main character is because he's the "Scrappy" of the group, and I think he's an underrated character and deserves respect, possibly even more respect than Ash Ketchum himself. That's where this story comes in.
I rate this story PG-13 because there are some light sexual references, if any, and some mild gore appears in this story.
Without further ado, get strapped in, Ladies and Gentleman, because you're about to go on a wild ride.
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The Reality of Life
Max Birch, son of the well-known Norman, gym leader of Petalburg city, was typing away at his Devon Corps cubicle. It was a beautiful warm, spring day in Petalburg, to Max’s dismay, but he had to make a living somehow. Max felt a mixed sense of comfort yet isolation working at Devon Corps.; he got to sit in a nice comfy swivel chair, with the easy task of typing in statistics and field reports of Devon Corps. project. The office’s computers were excellent too; they almost never seemed to slow down, no matter how much programs were open and they were able to hold terabytes of data. However, there was certain emptiness to the office life Max had chosen. He moved away from his home in Petalburg three years ago, so he had no friends or family in town. Nobody knew him; he felt alone in this world, a drifter. He was a shy young man, and hadn’t made any acquaintances with his coworkers, and none have ever gone to speak to him. The closest Max could call an acquaintance was a well-known programmer in Devon’s technical support team, Jim Hendrickson. Jim often offered Max assistance if he was having trouble with his computers.
As Max typed away, entering a test results of a Devon beta product, he yawned, and began to contemplate how his life is. “Is this really it?” Max wondered. “Am I just some office drone? After all those life changing experiences I had as a young tyke, I thought I’d grow into something special.” Max was a typical child, saving being the son of a gym leader, but that all changed one day when he met a young man and his Pokémon, Pikachu-a boy named Ash Ketchum. Ash Ketchum brought Max and his older sister May on many thrilling and beautiful adventures. These adventures had many moments where he had been in danger, and created bonds with many Pokémon. As he grew older, he chose to not stick with his father in the way of Pokémon; as much as Max loved the creatures, Pokémon battling was not an activity meant for him.
After an hour or so of typing, Max wished his life could be like his childhood again, full of friendship, laughs, and adventure. Max printed out the report, and went to the office printer to gather the papers, and filed them in an archive. Max went over the water cooler and got some water to strike a conversation with Sarah Bliss, or as Devon’s office workers called her, “the beauty of Devon.” She had a long, skinny figure, with long, flowing black hair, a smooth, beautiful face that gave the same warmth as the sun when she smiled, with a sizable bust to top it all off. He tried breaking the ice by starting small. “So…nice day we’re having, huh? Shame we have to work on such a day.” Used to men trying to lure her in, she replied “It sure is! I’m sure if we got our work done, we could enjoy it!” And she returned back to her cubicle, trying to avoid more male attention. Max felt embarrassed and rejected from her response, and after finishing his cup of water, trudged back into his cubicle, and on his swivel chair. Max had finished most of his work, so he decided to check his emails for the heck of it. “I bet it’s just more ads.” Max thought, as checking his emails was a routine he had done whenever he had no work to do. He wondered why he even bothered, as even his family rarely contacts him anymore, because things have been plain and vanilla since the time he’s left.
Max monotonously checked his email list, and found just the same old Pokémart surveys, Leo’s Pizza ad, a message from his sister, a Unova tourism ad, a charity asking for research in Pokérus, and-wait a sec. Could it be?! A message from someone he knew? Thank Arceus! A surge of joy, which had lay dormant for years, flowed throughout Max’s body. He ecstatically read the email he had graciously received from his sister discovering why an email such as this randomly popped up out of nowhere-May was in trouble! According to her email, her place of residence, Fallarbor Town, was under attack by thugs and powerful, rabid Pokémon!
Knowing that, Max immediately shut his computer off, and hurried to the elevator, pressing the button to make it rise to the roof of Devon Corps, where he kept his acro bike and casual clothing, since he might get his pants stuck on the chain of the bike if he rode on it as he was. After finishing his change of outfits, Max got on his acro bike, closed his eyes as he lowered his head, and took some deep breathes. “It’s time…” he solemnly muttered, as he slowly opened his eyes and rose his head “To live up to my Father’s name, and face the reality of life!” as he turned his solemn mutter into a fierce statement. The clock on his sister’s life was ticking, so he stopped sitting there and had to leave.
With a burst of excitement, Max zipped off the Devon Corps roof, using its rooftop architecture as a ramp, performed a 1080 back flip, and landed on the road safely, with onlookers cheering at this mysterious, wild biker. He left Rustboro city and hit the road, onto the route. His studious side returned in the middle of his craze, so while he was riding he tried to make sure there weren’t any wild Pokémon or trainers around, because he didn’t carry any Pokémon or tools of self-defense.
After Max had finally left the city, there was little sign of civilization around him, and he was truly glad about that fact. The rural landscape was a breathtaking sight to take in, especially after being an urbanite after all these years. The Taillow were singing their beautiful mating songs, which not only stirred up the emotions of the Taillow, but Max as well. The Roselia danced across the wild grass meadow, helping to create a symphony of colors with their roses, and to top it all off, the Sun, in all her majesty, had brought a shining luminescence to landscape, making all the life that was already their even livelier. Truly, a fitting setting for Max to embark on a quest to save his sister in her time of need. Max looked around this magnificent landscape, feeling truly thrilled and at peace at the same time, and couldn’t help but say to himself out loud “It’s truly a wonderful day to save my sister, and then I’ll show those scoundrels a thing or two!”
Even though the world around him was so breathtaking, any more moments spent gawking could cost May her life, so he rode his bike even faster than he was already. Ignoring the world around him, Max passed a 15 mph speed limit sign, where an Officer Jenny was hidden, trying to catch mischievous speedsters. When Max zipped by her, she used her speed gun to measure his speed, and he was apparently traveling at a speed of 21. Max heard police sirens, so he had to stop, as not following the law could lead to even more dire consequences. Officer Jenny slowly walked over to Max, and said to him, “You were going 6 over the speed limit. Show me your license, please.” in a voice, that was so dull and monotonous, that he had never experienced, not even in his years of work at Devon. Max knew that he shouldn’t be pulled over; according to Hoenn law, if a biker or pedestrian actually happens to pass a speed limit, than there is no penalty at all, especially if the area is a straight path with wide open space, and there aren't any people within the vicinity. “There’s something weird going on here”, Max thought, and that’s when it hit him-this isn’t Officer Jenny at all! Well, at least not her mind-he looked deep into Officer Jenny’s eyes, and saw a Haunter, with a big, mischievous, smirk, glaring at Max. Max had realized that this was the first rabid Pokémon, on his journey, because Officer Jenny was possessed by a Haunter, and it was trying to stop him in his tracks.
After a bit of thinking to himself, Max finally replied to “Jenny”. “I can’t give you my license, officer.”
“Why not?” She questioned in a monotonous, zombie-like tone.
“Because you are Haunter’s puppet!” So, as fast as he could act, Max stealthily took her pistol out of her holster, and shot her in the head. Max ran back to his acro bike, and quickly rode off, thinking “My sister could be in great danger!”, and his love for his sister successfully persuaded him into riding even faster.
Max had never rode his bike this fast in his life, and he felt as if he was going to break the sound barrier if he sped up his peddling, which was necessary to him because he was truly worried for May’s safety. It didn’t take long, but Max found a sign on the roadside. He went up to the sign, which read Fallarbor Town, and interestingly enough, had a note with scribbles on it. With closer inspection, Max made out what that sticky note had written on it: dont come here! It appeared to have been written hastily, as if the writer was trying to deliver a message to outsiders as quickly as possible, without caring about trivial rules such as capitalization, or apostrophes. Max wanted to respectcfully heed this person’s request; “They wrote that for a good reason.” he thought. He went back to his bike and was about to turn around to return to Rustboro, but suddenly heard a familiar voice screaming, so he resumed his direction and returned to his high-speed biking.
Max quickly rode into Fallarbor Town, and saw a huge bump in the road. Instead of seeing it as an obstacle, he saw it as an opportunity. Max pedaled even faster to the high bump, used it as a ramp, and executed a perfect 720 front flip, jumped off his acro bike, and landed gracefully on his feet. Just as planned, the acro bike knocked out some rabid Mightyena in front of him. Knowing he had finally made it to his destination, Max smiled. Wishing he could run, but wary of the dangers that could lurk around any corner, he walked quickly. Max looked around him, and noticed someone had left a submachine gun on the ground, likely in panic, so he picked it up. He then saw Duskull in and around an abandoned house, so believing them to be rabid Pokémon May told him about, he opened fire on them. “Get outta there you foul ghost Pokémon!” Max yelled to the Duskull. Max then noticed something moving in the shadows of the Duskull-occupied house. As it emerged from the shadows, it revealed itself to be a Dusclops. It stared at Max, appearing as if it was the guardian of the Duskull, and Max began to hear a voice in his mind, which was the Dusclops was trying to communicate with Max. “Why are you trying to make us leave? We live here! This is our house…” It sadly pleaded. Max felt nothing but woe and sadness for these ghost Pokémon, and knew that they couldn’t stay in that house, because they weren’t human, so Max thought of the most humane solution possible. Max remembered learning how to use special stones and soil for improvised munitions, so after Max quickly gathered all of his materials, and all the ghost Pokémon were inside the house, Max was ready to proceed with his plan. Max had a short, silent prayer, and after he had finished, he threw the switch, which blew up the house, and brought an end to the misery of those ghost Pokémon. Max knew that he had done the right thing-wherever they were, it was a better place.
After a moment of silence in respect for the passed-away ghost Pokémon, Max heard another scream from his sister, so he walked quickly to get to her. Fallarbor Town was nothing like the routes Max had traveled; there were no Taillow singing, any flora or grass Pokémon remaining were rotting, empty shells, and the town’s streets were almost flooded with blood from Pokémon who passed away trying to defend their masters.
When Max got to the source of the screaming, he found his sister, May in a terrible condition; she was bandaged from a rope tied around her belly to a street sign, being attacked by the pack leader of the rabid Pokemon, a Tyranitar, which looked huge and menacing, even for its own species. However, hope was not lost, because her Blaziken was out trying to defend her, and she was able to command it. However, whenever Blaiziken tried attacking the Tryinatar, it manages to evade her Blaziken’s attacks. It appeared that the battle was a stalemate. May turned around, and saw Max, and yelled “Max! Over here!” so Max hurried up to where May was being attacked. Max tried firing at the Tyranitar’s eye-bullseye, a direct shot. With the Tyranitar half-blinded, it was then exposed to attacks from Blaziken. May then said “Alright! Blaze, it’s time to end this horror, once and for all!” So her Blaziken critically focus punched Tyranitar in the face, and Tryanitar fell. This was no faint; her Blaziken’s focus punched went right through the Tyranitar’s face, and ended further than the back of its skull, so its brain was destroyed, thus fittingly, ending this rabid beast’s life. Max happily said “I’m really glad I got to help out, sis!” and May playfully replied “You should get here a little earlier next time!” “Aw, sis!” And the two siblings, along with May’s Blaziken, jovially shared a laugh together, reminiscent of their time of yore.
Their tender reunion ended shortly, sadly, because Max looked around, then yelled “LOOK OUT SIS!” and he pointed to a white object, moving in the forest. May tried to see what he was pointing at, and became horrified as she found out what he was talking about. She looked towards the trees and yelled “OH NO!” She then looked deep into Max’s eyes, and urgently demanded “Max, Blaziken, run away as fast as you can!” Max and Blaziken heeded May’s order, and sprinted out of the area as fast as they could.
Max turned around to check on his sister, and saw her running as fast as she could to them, but then she accidentally tripped on a root, then scrapped and injured her knee on some rocks. May tried getting up with all her might, but sadly, it was to no avail. As soon as she stood up, she walked a few steps, she then tripped again, gazing at the colossus lumbering toward her. Max and Blaziken looked back in horror when Regigigas, the lumbering brute, stepped on his sister. The sight of this caused something to snap in Max. It infuriated him, and he vowed revenge out loud toward this murderous creature by psychotically saying “You’ll pay for this you murderous brute!!” at the top of his lungs.
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