A sad smile, and a touch of her hand to Angelo's burned face. "You already know what I'm going to say.  I already left Utopia. I knew then that the future was going to be dangerous, and Utopia wasn't going to build the world we need in order to survive it.  I was searching for something, something that I could do to make a better future... and now I know.  We're going to start a movement of our own, one that will try to balance the chaos and madness.  You're welcome to join us, everyone is...  but somehow I don't think you'll be joining us just yet."  Her plans were already racing far ahead of what Comstock had implied.  The task was monumental, and undertaking it was complete hubris... But they were beyond mortal limits.  Gods shaped worlds, and they were the spitting image of the gods of ancient myth. She wasn't a simple school girl with a girl's dreams; she was Athena, Neith, Morrigan, deciding the fate of the world.  If such a course was hubris, so be it; to do less, to deny the responsibility her power demanded, that was far worse.

A sigh.  "Everything we've done, everything leading up to this... We were so blind.  But, what's the quote? 'When we were children, we thought as children.  But now we must put away childish things.' Play out the larger roles that wait for us.  This is a new beginning, for whoever is brave enough to abandon the past and move forward." With her final statement she spoke to everyone, not just Angelo, offering a precarious path into the future.

His gaze was fixed on the ground at his feet, but he nodded sadly in acknowledgement of her words.  The muscles of his jaw worked as he struggled to make something of the cards he was holding.

"Ever since I was a kid," he said with a sigh, "what I wanted to be, more than anything, was an Airborn Ranger."  He turned his  gaze toward the horizon.  "I was so proud when I earned the right to wear that Ranger tab.  Whenever a tough job needed to be done, we got the call...because we were the ones who were going to get it done.

"After I erupted, though, things changed.  I didn't see it...didn't want to see it.  I became a trophy for the Army.  Because my eruption was so high profile, they didn't want to risk losing their "golden boy" so I wasn't sent out on operations.  So, really," he said with a bitter laugh, "I haven't been a Ranger since the day I became El Dragón.  When I came to Utopia, I began to think maybe I could be making a difference again.  Well, we can see how that's turned out.  Unlike some others, however, I think there's still a need for Utopia in this world.  They not be able to build the world we're aiming for, but in the long haul, I don't think that we can build it without them."

He turned back to look into Phantasm's eyes.  "If I were entirely free to choose, right here, right now, I'd follow you.  But I took an oath to the U.S. Army and I can't turn my back on that.  Provided they don't drum me out of the service after this, I've got a few months left on my enlistment.  After that..."  He stopped, unable to go on for a moment.  "After that...I'm through with them.  I wanted to be a Ranger so I could make a difference.  What I'm finally figuring out is that what I really want...what I really want is to be able to make a difference."

He took her face in his hands.  "I love you, Bonita," he said, bending to kiss her softly.  "If...for whatever reason...we lose contact with each other, you can leave messages with my family in California.  Tell them you're my Tea Bonita, I'll make sure they pass it along.  I wish you the best of luck.  Take good care of yourself and try to stay in contact.  As soon as my hitch is up, I'll join you...as long as you still want me."  He bent to kiss her again, looked into her eyes for another moment, then he turned to walk away.

Pulling out his phone, he called Johnny Afterburner's number.  "Johnny, this is The Dragon, I understand they've got you trying to ride herd on this cluster****.  I'm here to help.  Give me your position or tell me where you need me and we can try to sort these amateurs out."

Gale nodded in response to Comstock's orders.  She was of the same mind as Solitaire, and while she was angry, the destruction here had not been merited.  These were not her opponents.  She paused at the mention of T2M.  Thorn...    She hadn't considered that complication yet.  "I'd rather not be seen, if it can be helped.  It might be hard to explain.  I won't be able to go underground like the rest of you.  My wings make me easily identifiable, no matter where I hide."

"I think we'll all need to have a long talk," she added, glancing at Imp and Solitaire.  Maybe it was finally time to give this Teras thing a good listen.  Utopia was obviously wrong, what else might she have been wrong about.

She was silent when he said the words she already knew were coming.  She was silent as he professed his love, and promised to join her some day.  It was only when he had turned to walk away that she whispered "I love you, too."

She watched him walk for a moment before turning back to Comstock, Gale, and the mysterious Elite that joined them on their whirlwind mission.  "Okay, people to save then I get us the hell out of here.  Lets finish this.  We've all been seen, half a dozen satelites and double that in drones are guaranteed to be watching, so lets give them a show."

Imp toggled his earpiece for broad transmission, "Greetings Team Tomorrow, this is Impetus.  Anybody that was at the party in New York and may be feeling under the weather, I'm relaying my position, a recently rediscovered friend of mine can cure you." He once again put a friendly hand on Buendia's shoulder,"That's something I admire about you, always willing to help your fellow novas.  I bet you that trait must really help you get laid."
He turned his earpiece to receive only, "So what if we've been seen?  The only entity that can or will try to press charges in a formal way is Utopia, and Justin is not going to do that, he's in a bad place and needs allies.  That means us.  Proteus might come for us, but not when we're this obvious, this out in the open. They'll wait until the heat dies down and we're not the center of public attention, then they'll come for us, if we give them the chance.  What we need to do right now is to gain public support, and that means being four colored heroes on camera.  That and it's the right thing to do, as this devastation is a direct result of our actions, righteous though they may have been."
He turned to P, "I totally get what you're doing.  100%.  It's the right thing to do, and you're the right person to do it.  You have to understand that I can't formally join but that I'll do whatever I can to help you. I have to visibly remain part of Utopia, yet still be seen as a bridge to the sane terats out there. Like it or not, Utopia is still a major power player, and has a well earned reputation for building a better world, and I need to be a part of that for many reasons. I'll explain more when we've got some privacy, real privacy, but this is something that must be done or the consequences will be dire."

It took Flare a few moments to collect her senses, and to remember that she could heal.  A few more were spent arranging herself and Slider into a more comfortable position.  She didn't have her powers back fully yet, so this might wipe her out.

"Sorry for the slow response people. I've got this." She took a moment to stare at Slider. "I've got you, so don't give in.  Just remember, live.  Live, to save your friends. Live to spite your enemies." A bit of Flare's normal manic grin comes to her face as she releases her power in a flash of white light.  "Live because Geryon is a giant douche-weasel, and it will probably annoy him."

It takes a minute for the light to die down, and Flare slumps over Slider as she assesses her work.

"Whew, out of practice.  That should do it though.  You okay slider?" She started checking Slider for any residual injury.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Healed 10 bashing or 5 lethal

---

Buendia smiled, endorphins flooding his brain at the sound of Impetus's voice, but there was already something different about him.  He didn't respond with the slight elevation of pulse or the subtle cues that were appropriate to the words.  The time he spent drugged had changed him, and with his powers back under his control, Buendia was changing in strange new ways.

Slider, on the edge of death, relaxed as the pain eased, her coughing subsided, and she could breathe again.  She still wasn't whole, and the damage resisted Flare's healing light, but the healing was enough to save her life.

The efforts to restore order to T2M were somewhat hampered by the fact that many of the strongest of Utopia's novas were still in the rubble of the destroyed base.  The less experienced and powerful members of T2M were powerless to step in to rescue their comrades as long as the terats were in control of the area; Utopia's efforts were focused on containment for the few hours after the attack.  Now that at least half of the terats were under the sway of Impetus, and the rest fractured and in retreat with Shrapnel and a weak teleporter leading the route, T2M was free to move in.

Comstock put a hand on Flare's shoulder, a tacit thank you hanging in the air.  Sol would put Slider in hiding, and get her medical care.  Flare would have to pick a direction - T2M, Teras, or the new conspiracy - but he wasn't going to ask his partner in crime to follow him into whatever he was starting.  "We'll catch up later, Flare.  It's been a rough year."

With the others willing, Comstock began a swift effort to clear the debris and extract survivors from the ruined Bahrain facility.  He could lift rubble and reinforce structures.  Operator could locate and identify wounded survivors and trapped people in the rubble.  Gale could move fast and get people out.  Phantasm would know what they could use later, as blackmail, as intelligence, as evidence of wrongdoing.  He couldn't leave without at least making an effort to save lives, and they couldn't pass up on the opportunity to have first pick of the rubble.

Before they left for wherever Phantasm thought it safe to regroup, Comstock had one more thing to do.  He took some of the metal debris and erected a giant metal spire over the ruins.  A memorial to the dead innocents.  Memorial to the dead novas.  Pledge to the God his family taught him to worship.  He couldn't even say why he needed to do it.  But he felt he needed to do it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:22, Fri 30 Aug 2013.

Gravitas watched the Terats in retreat with some regret. He knew he had probably irreparably damaged the Teragen movement with his actions. This certainly wouldn't be the last he'd see of Shrapnel or any of her allies. Despite himself, he found that he wondered what Divis Mal would think of his actions. Someday he might get the chance to ask Earth's most powerful nova in person, but likely not this day.

Though he'd expended a good deal of energy in his brief fight against Geryon, Gravitas felt compelled to assist in disaster recovery - it would probably be hypocritical of him not to. Like Comstock, he started at the Bahrain facility. Some of the people within he thought could still be allies. All of the long-term workers at the facility were, at best, complicit in what he'd seen at Europa, though. He had no particular desire to help them. He did want the chance to try to salvage whatever technology and data might be at the facility before Utopia or Proteus agents arrived though. He made sure to keep enough energy in reserve to warp himself and whatever allies remained behind out of Bahrain in the event of any follow-up attack.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:46, Fri 30 Aug 2013.

Suzukaze showed very little emotion as Solitaire brought the dying Slider through the portal. She simply stared at her former teammate lying there. When Greyon and the rest of the Teregen approached and he began slinging insults around she reached for one of her swords. Her hand dropped as she remembered her powers were back, yet for once she also had no will to fight. Then the others began to hunt trough the ruins looking for survivors. Suzukaze stared for a moment watching...

"I'm sorry Annette. It looks like our adventure is on hold for a bit."

She then took off racing through the ruins helping out survivors and clearing out rubble. When all was done she looked around at the survivors. She looked at her friends and whoever else had showed up to help. She slowly approached her group of friends.

"I guess this is goodbye." She lets out a breath. "I've decided I'm not going to run away anymore. I'm going to face my fears, and meet my fate." She looks around at everyone. "I'm sorry for everything. That I couldn't have been a better..." She stops and looks downward then looks up at Impetus. "I  hope that you get to hold your daughter soon..."

"Dragon?  How the hell are you big hoss?  We're south of the airport and there's a nova going nuts on some empty buildings.  Binary forced him out into the open, but Montoya is doing the strong man thing and Virtue can't calm him down.  Want to put the moves on him while I keep his attention?"  A shot of static over Afterburner's signal coincided with a great plume of dust and a loud boom north of Dragon, toward the airport.  "By the way: glad you made it.  We were starting to get a bit worried when half the roster was off the radar."

"Looks like whatever you were doing in there has them on the run, though.  Okay, give me a minute and I'll have your signal patched in with the others."  It looked like duty called, and El Dragón had people waiting for him.

Suzukaze had cell phone signal.  As she contemplated her next move, a series of messages arrived one after another.  They had been sent over the past few hours while she was in the facility, or on Europa.  The timestamps were useless, only showing the moment the messages arrived.

Logan
xx:xx Get your ass to one of the safehouses and call me.  There's trouble, and we need all hands on deck for this one.
xx:xx This is Priority: Black.  One of our facilities has come under attack, with possible infiltration.  All violence authorized. I've got Annette, the god and the giant here, so where the fuck are you?  You've got ten minutes, then we're portal-ing to the mission without you.
xx:xx Looks like you're resigning then?  I wouldn't advise it.  The way you run, you could have been anywhere in the US by now.

The Director
xx:xx An incident has occurred.  We are compromised.  Disperse, disappear, and wait for the all clear signal.  Do not respond to general Project Utopia requests for aid.  You no longer exist until the cover has been lifted.

???? (Messages written entirely in Japanese)
xx:xx Since you never showed, it looks like we're playing against each other now.  I have something of a fascination for you; so pretty, so tragic! ;)  It makes me happy.  Shame about the Freak, but since she's probably out of the picture and we haven't heard from the scarecrow, it looks like we have ourselves a game!
xx:xx I took the liberty of moving your relations off the gameboard.  We have a long road to walk, and I don't want you losing focus.  If you find me, I'll tell you where I've put them.  It's a professional courtesy: according to policy, they should be chunks of meat now, being nibbled by fish.  I think I might have enjoyed that, but I value my work more.
xx:xx The Queen just paved the yellow brick road for us.  She thinks Oz is revealed and the curtain can't go back, which means I can do what I want now.
xx:xx Okay, last message.  Make this a good game, okay?  Try your best!  <3 Chiraben
[Attached is an image of Suzukaze, her throat torn out by nova claws, and headlines of her body being found hours ago in Las Vegas, suspected to be the result of nova organized crime.]


Proteus worked fast.  They had little choice.  But she was burned now, publicly dead, and now had one of the more mysterious psychopaths from the Project paying her special attention.

I may regret this, but we need all the resources we can get, and she's been a friend to me even if she hasn't been to all the others...  Reaching out a hand as Suzukaze walked away, Phantasm lightly held her shoulder.  "You don't have to run, you can be a part of what we're starting.  No guarantees we'll succeed, but it's something to belong to.  But it's up to you." Phantasm whispered a bit of contact information to the assassin, then returned to her work.

Suzukaze looked at Phantasm as she spoke to her nodding slightly. She went to reply to her, but felt her phone vibrating from the messages. A puzzled look came across her face as she reached and pulled it out. She smirked and let out a little chuckle at Logan getting furious with her. Then she got to the Japanese messages.... A worried look came across her face, and she started to shake her head back and forth...

"No. No no no.... Not them. Not them.... She scrolled through not even caring when she saw the picture of herself. "Not them.... Please not them." She thrusts the phone into Phantasm's chest, and begins pacing back and forth still muttering to herself.

She stops and closes her eyes... "Annette please if you know him please show him to me...." She fights her mind trying to bring up Annette's memories...

Chiraben's face emerged from the borrowed memory.  A meticulous Japanese man, his huge, aberrant eyes glowed with green quantum fire.  He wore sunglasses to conceal the deformity.  But Annette knew he could wear many faces, changing between them at will to disappear into baseline society or creep nearer to his prey.

Phantasm was quite adept at reading people, and it didn't take much to figure out the source of Suzukaze's distress.  "They're our enemy too.  You don't have to fight them alone."

Dragón scanned across the rubble-strewn islet the airport was located on.  He'd encountered destruction for the sake of a profit in South America, and destruction for the sake of religion in Afghanistan, but the devastation he saw here was...pointless.  It was like a bunch of adolescent vandals had been let loose with heavy artillery and air strikes.  People had died...defenseless people.  But he dared not give in to the anger and outrage that threatened to boil up inside him.  He was afraid all the other darkness inside him would be turned loose as well.  There would be a time to sort through those things later.  For now, they were too fresh and sharp.  Instead, he put on his "game face" and got ready to move out.

"Roger that, Johnny," Dragón said cheerfully, "one five-finger chill-pill comin' up."

He dealt with the rampaging "Terats" with tranquil efficiency.  He dealt bone-breaking strikes and slammed them down with enough force to crack the runway tarmac, deflecting counter-attacks with precision and zero wasted effort, only holding back just enough to avoid killing any of them.

Operator found his built up tension and readiness to do battle dispersing with little ceremony. He had anticipated an ambush, but not an emotional one. Bahrain was...gone.

Numbed by the carnage and awed by the cosmic forces pitted against one another, Jonas Black stood idly by as fundamental forces opposed one another before him.

With Geryon's dismissal, Operator snapped out of his trance. The moment of tension had passed. Time to clean up.

"There, that building. I've got six people in the basement."

Remain calm. Help is on the way.

It was so easy to lean on his ability to dish out unending streams of quantum lead to solve problems. The real problem facing the group of them was not one that direct damage could solve. Operator threw his weight into the efforts to recover injured and buried innocents. With Comstock there to casually toss aside mountains of debris, and with Operator's ability to detect minds and communicate with them, merely the two of them could make every casualty recovery operation in the last twenty years, from chinese mine cave-ins to 9-11, look like child's play. Those that Comstock could not safely lift out, perhaps Gravitas could portal out. Flare standing by to heal the wounded. Jonas felt...good about this. The destruction was awful, but being able to help, that was nice. It had been a while since he had felt like he was doing something other than continuing the cycle.

While scanning a series of collapsed buildings for survivors, Operator took the opportunity to offer his services to...whatever new idea was forming. He was impressed with the god-like novas of course, but he had seen their humanity, even if they couldn't see it, and wanted to be a part of what they were building.

"I know we've been seen, but that might not matter as much as you think. I could try to separate the facts from one another. I'm not the type to spin a story on TV, that's something I guess Impetus could do, but I can interact with...information. It's hard to explain but, I like what you guys are trying to do, and I think I can help. I didn't demonstrate much but the ability to get mown down by lightning back on Europa, but I think I can help now more than then."

Perceiving confusion at his statement, Operator half-mindedly tried to explain, at least what he understood, about his abilities, his seemingly mechanical and poly-harmonic voice quiet but firm, his mind both scanning the nearby rubble for living beings and trying to make sense of something that was fundamentally...odd.

"I have never tried to do something on this scale before, and it could have unforeseen consequences, but I could attempt to sever the connection between your identities and these events. Contained within you and your form and the public's knowledge of who you are are connections, think of them like tiny strings tying everything together. Gravitas can interact with fundamental forces of physics, but I can interact with fundamental forces of consciousness. It is in some ways similar. When I handed you those note-cards with my mark on them, the mark contained information that I had liberated from the security guard and tied to the mark, transferring it to you. Later I updated it, and because the string was in place, it transferred to you again."

Operator paused, trying to find a way to continue. This was a difficult subject to talk about, he didn't like discussing these abilities, or any of his abilities, he preferred to use them when he needed them and remain silent about them the rest of the time.

"Just like I created that string, I might be able to cut the one that links you to the events that transpired today. Imagine a news broadcast tomorrow discussing 'who are those novas helping out here. We thought that they were Gale and Phantasm and Comstock, at first, but as you can clearly see, they are not.' People might even point out how it couldn't have been you, and they might get angry at the news for misrepresenting the facts. People might even go looking for that Comstock-like nova from Bahrain. This kind of thing can be confusing and can cause unexpected consequences. It was on a much smaller scale, but I did this once for myself after a near-miss doing some bodyguard work and in the end, I didn't get paid, because it couldn't have been me that was there, it was someone else."

Help is here. Don't struggle. We're going to get you out.

"Information surrounds us, it guides us, it is part of us and it comes from us. That is my real profession, trying to control information when necessary, uncovering information when hidden, and destroying information that is harmful. Impetus can sway throngs of people to move mountains, Grav can suck mountains into wormholes, Comstock can physically lift mountains, I can try to make people forget what mountains are. Or at least I can try. It seems like in the coming days, controlling and obtaining information is going to be a major concern for you. I'd like to help with that, if you'd have me."

Comstock shook his head.  "They need to know I was here."  He frowned.  "You'd be updating a lot of information.  A lot.  Can you even ... work on that level?"  He tried not to trouble himself with the logic of it.  He'd seen strange things.  If Operator had an explanation for it, than it was only a matter of time before he'd be able to work at that level.

He shuddered.  The power to alter not just perceptions, but ideas and information?  On a global scale?  Just who the hell was this guy?  "You're an Elite, right?  DeVries?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:29, Mon 02 Sept 2013.

Phantasm listened to their new elite friend talk, excitement and trepidation warring inside her racing mind.  Opportunity always came at the cost of safety, a system's optimal point sits at the edge of chaos.  She was there to make sure it never slipped over the edge.

"Hey, I for one would love to have someone with your talents spinning things for us.  We need to talk when all this is over.  But it isn't "here" that they need to forget, it's Europa and the inside of the base everyone needs to forget.  Like 'Stock said, they need to know we were here, doing good."

Suzukaze focused on memorizing Chiraben's face to keep it in her own memories. "Thank you Annette. Change of plans. We deal with him first." She turns and walks back towards Phantasm. "His name is Chiraben. Annette showed me his face. At least his main one. I sure he has my family, but I want to check their homes to make sure. I was prepared to face the assassins alone. I can't do this alone though. I need to get my family back. Please. I need your help."

"You trust me 'Kaze?  You know I know things, that I can see the moves people make before they make them.  So trust me when I tell you that these people are going to come up again before this is all done, that they are enemies to all of us, and that we will help you take them down.  And I liked your family, they were kind to me when my own... Well, when I didn't have a family.  So, yes 'Kaze, I'll help you, and before this is all over you'll have other support too."

"Yeah, I'm an elite. I guess that's what I am for now, or what I was when I was hired to come find you and help you out. It's the same kind of work I did before I erupted. I'm like El Dragon's other half, not to put too fine a point on it. He's the poster boy for nova's in service. I was a flat whose unit was left behind enemy lines in a country we weren't supposed to be in. If I wasn't the last one to be faced with getting chopped up and sold as organs on the black market, I wouldn't have erupted and saved my own skin. The skins of my comrades? Cast aside. So yeah, I guess you could say my services are for sale. I don't do the whole tin soldier gig anymore though. I work with information and that means I don't follow orders blindly anymore. I make my own decisions based on the information provided. For DeVries, I did for a fee. For you, Ideology."

Operator scratched his chin in contemplation.

"Just he Europan encounter? Like I said, I can try. It's not really on a global scale, if you think about it. Information doesn't propagate that way. It's a few dozen reporters and investigators, something as big as Bahrain probably has a few hundred reporters and investigators, but figure no more than a dozen news networks in the US, maybe the same in Russia and a couple others, and then it's a few per country at best, some regional. Everyone will likely be getting their information from the AP or Al Jazeera. It's the talking heads that define 'truth' for the public. So a few hundred people for Bahrain. For Europa, we're looking at about the same number, since in that case it's all secret, it's security feed viewers and intelligence analysts and a few big wigs. Like I said, I can try, but there can be...unexpected consequences. Pushing myself that hard, taint could come into play. It's anyone's guess what happens then. If you think it's worth the risk, then once we get clear of here we can try it. I'd need to, you know, pump in everything I've got left to give it a try though."

Imp helped
"Operator, I would certainly like to work with you in the future, our abilities seem quite complimentary, and unless we're wrong, we'll need all the support we can get in the not so distant future.  You are however, wrong about the number of people that are going to define this event for the world."
He sailed over to the rubble of the Utopia facility and extended a hand, the other resting on the hovering cocoon and a huge slab of concrete lifted free, along with everything that had been on top of it and settled in what had once been a parking lot. "The world needs to see this.  We do not need some organization to police our own, nor do we need their direction or say so to help people in times of need.  Speaking of, P, can you open some portals to help get Guggie and the rest out of there?  It'll be faster than if we have to excavate down to them, and they can certainly help with the rescue and clean up."

The rescue effort continued for hours as more wounded were rescued and casualties recovered.  After the Teragen were cleared from the area, other T2M regrouped under the leadership of its younger members, while its alumni did the hard work of clearing out the rubble at ground zero.  When enough debris was cleared sufficiently, the exhausted teleporters managed to wring enough energy out of their drained nodes to pull Guggie and the rest out of the demolished base.

As time crawled by and the area proved secure, nova volunteers from multiple organizations began showing up.  Impetus coordinated them with ease and efficiency, ensuring their talents were put to good use.  The world saw novas working together to repair the damage their kind had caused.  It wasn't enough, but it was a start.

Operator helped along with the rest, but when the press grew more bold and his fellow elites began arriving, he took the opportunity to remove himself from the spotlight and start on his other job.  Through the magic only he and a few others in the world even understood, Operator disconnected IDENTITY from INFORMATION, ensuring that no one would be able to make full sense out of what happened on Europa or pin the actions on any of the novas who were there.  Or so he thought at least.

---

By the end of the day, the civilian emergency crews had mostly replaced worn and drained novas in recovery efforts, the heavy and dangerous work mostly accomplished.  Elites and superstars, finished with their tax deductible advertisement charity work, left for plush homes.  Any remaining terats retreated or were rounded up by Utopia.  And the alumni of T2M:A... They had come full circle by the time evening fell.

A year spent nearly powerless, reconnecting with a humanity many of them had forgotten and would have preferred never to revisit.  A desperate battle to understand their condition, culminating on a raid against their own former organization and the renewal of their quantum gifts.  Like another eruption, the renewed flow of power was exhilarating and full of limitless possibilities, but also like their first eruptions years ago, there was little time to bask in the moment.  They were forced to act to save the world from novas too full of their own power to see the irrevocable harm they were doing, again mirroring their early days as a team.

Now, mission complete, new threats looming just beyond the horizon of tomorrow, the group was faced with a new set of challenges.  The group, allies new and old alike, realized nothing was going to be the same after this.  Just like the EqW, just like Columbia.  It was a time for new beginnings.