The GDA's medical facilities were nothing short of something out of a science fiction novel. Covered in panels, readouts, and all sorts of sensory equipment whose purpose I could only scarcely divine at a glance. It wasn't the first time I'd felt a little out of my depth, like a peasant who'd wandered into some kind of arcane sanctum, unable to comprehend the items around them.
However, with the workshops, at least I could intuit what was meant to do what. Here and now, it was a lot harder. I wouldn't say I lacked medical knowledge, but it was from an entirely divergent technological base. Even with my efforts to mold medicinal chakra to heal my body, the real limiting factor was how my chakra reserves had plummeted so low.
It was like robbing Peter to pay Paul, going through the entire process. Frustrating, but to a degree I was fairly sure that I really was going to have to heal the long way. Though perhaps worse was the level of interest that the GDA medical operatives were displaying in my body.
"So your species doesn't generate any kind of fatigue toxins?" Someone asked, typing away at a touchscreen pad with furious interest.
"Not that I'm aware of, no."
"Fascinating…" The researcher trailed off, continuing to type but also thinking aloud. "Ōtsutsuki and other derived organisms do not seem to rely on anaerobic processes to function, note, what other functions in their biology could be wholly supplanted by merely burning chakra…"
Another voice came from my side as I glanced over at a balding, gray-haired man. "Considering your condition, how long would you say it would take you to heal up naturally if you didn't engage any of your so-called medicinal jutsu?"
"Weeks, maybe. Less. I'm not sure," I fully admitted, shaky on the topic at hand. "Most of my kind would have either healed from various means or been killed in any fight that would go that hard."
Left unsaid was the usage of Kāma, which would probably ensure that anyone who you thought was dead didn't stay that way. It was…something that I hadn't much reason to think about until now. Not that there was even a hint of maliciousness in it. Thokk, in the throes of his rage, just was excited for a fight like that.
I felt a little bad about betraying his trust like that. And my instincts screamed at me to leave the fight unfinished, my dominance unproven. However, the human side of me was painfully aware that throwing my life away fruitlessly at an unwinnable fight was stupid. Beyond stupid, considering how strong he was.
Life was full of vague anxieties that would hopefully never be brought to a meaningful conclusion. Hopefully this would be one of them, because I was pretty sure any actual conclusion would end in my death. At least as I was now.
"Hmm," the man hummed, turning to one of his colleagues. "Do you think this is a sign of some sort of planned obsolescence?"
"Well-"
Before they could pry any deeper into the biological mysteries of my species, I was saved by a familiar voice. "Alright, alright, you vultures can get your scans later. Let's let this guy get some rest."
Cecil walked into the room, as unphased as ever. The various medical staff that had been in the room were looking somewhat chagrined, briefly, but in the end allowed themselves to be ushered out with the reams of information they'd managed to get thus far. Hopefully it'd be enough to satiate their voracious need for more.
When the room was clear, Cecil turned to face me, raising his chin up at me. "How are you hanging in there, kid?"
"Not a kid," I corrected again, making him roll his eyes. "And I've been better," I freely admitted. "They ran me through an x-ray and more besides when I first came in and did their best to stitch me up."
The stitching, admittedly, did not work in the slightest. So the various doctors just settled for bandaging my wounds and hoping for the best. As for the butcher's bill for the rest of my wounds…well, they were shocked by the level of internal injury I'd suffered and still managed to walk around with.
It went without saying that I didn't think there was a singular bone in my body that wasn't suffering from at least hairline fractures. Maybe the ear bones, since I didn't believe that Thokk had managed to clobber me there. A close enough thing, though, with a few swings of his mace. Elsewhere were more substantial breaks that had at least set themselves once I'd had a moment to rest.
Small blessings for being from a race of weird, space alien parasites, I guess.
Most of the bruising, internal and external, was just par for the course. My body was covered in a nasty mottling of tender bruising, the lightest of which had already begun to fade.
"They're xenobiologists with a willing, patient subject, Genji," Cecil smirked. "You can't fault them for being that enthusiastic."
"I can, and I will," I grumbled, squirming in my hospital bed. "They're making me feel like a research specimen."
"You are beyond being a patient. Not just for medical purposes, but because we need to know how you function, if you ever get hurt, even worse than this."
Though, I was sure that getting samples of my blood and skin cells didn't hurt either. Not that I was going to begrudge the GDA for doing so, as long as I didn't have to fight any clones in my future. They were a shadowy government agency; taking every opportunity to study me or create a countermeasure was the only smart move they could take. Nor could I really stop them, given how much of myself I'd left all over the place.
That didn't mean I liked being trapped in the hospital. Weak and otherwise recuperating, when everything in my body told me I needed to be gaining strength. Hell, if any clones I made weren't going to be as screwed up as I was, I'd have sent some off to start training already.
"Given that you're here to begin with, I imagine the rest of the operation went smoothly?" If there were more fires to put out, Cecil would be there. The fact that he wasn't meant that the rest of the team was likely fine.
I was tempted to try and search for the team with my Byakugan, but the expenditure of chakra would put me even further behind in my healing. For now, my vision would be relegated to how everyone else saw it, albeit at crystal-clear clarity. Like some sort of mortal scrub.
"They are," he confirmed. "Not without their own scrapes and breaks, but they came through. We managed to take down Machine Head and cut off the head of his syndicate."
"... Thokk got hired by a guy named Machine Head?" I breathed, feeling like some fundamental part of my worldview was being broken.
"Thokk?" Cecil squinted. "That's the guy you put on ice?"
"Yeah," I confirmed. "He's… well, I dunno if I'd call him a good guy. But he's more than some sort of hired muscle. More in it for the love of the game, or something like that."
A scoff escaped Cecil. "Some game."
I gestured down at my bandaged form, arching a brow his way. "I'm painfully aware. How did Machine Head even have connections to get ahold of someone like that?"
"It's something we'll have plenty of time to ask him. We've been wanting to get this sonuvabitch for ages now, and we'll be putting him in a maximum security location with other prisoners like him."
That was a small relief. I didn't know everything that was hiding around on Earth these days, but the fight with Battle Beast had been a wake-up call that I hadn't even known I'd needed. This was still terra incognita, no matter how much the world might have resembled other settings that I might have heard of or read about.
Presuming there were no other notable threats lurking about was a good way to end up dead. That said, as we trailed off, my mind began to drift toward other things. A part of the conversation that I'd been dreading, if it wasn't something I needed to ask.
Frankly, I didn't want to know, didn't want to consider it, but I had to know one thing that had been on the tip of my tongue for most of this conversation. When I looked back at the find in my mind, I could see a dozen different ways I could have handled things better or tried to end things sooner. Ways I could have been more economical with my taijutsu or forced Thokk to a more rural environment sooner.
It was an experience that was humbling, to be sure, to see how much of my knowledge was good for fighting and how much I still had to learn. Now it was time to see what it cost.
"... How many people died when the fight between us left the penthouse, Cecil?" My voice felt small, and it was small, as I had to give it consideration. Giving these people their due was the least that they deserved.
For a long moment, Cecil watched my face, eyes scanning my features gaugingly. "Do you really want to know?"
"No," I fully admitted. "But tell me anyway."
"Eight. That's the number of people who died when it spilled out to the rest of the city."
Honestly, eight people wasn't even that big of a number. When taking into account how strong both Thokk and I were, it wasn't that much at all. So why did the number still feel like a lead weight on my chest when I thought about it? Eight men and women who wouldn't be going home to their families because I couldn't resolve the situation better.
A low sigh escaped me as I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. If nothing else, the director allowed me a few moments to gather my thoughts, to push down the hot haze of anger and self-recrimination, and to collect myself. "I suppose it could have been worse."
"We had a small amount of panicking when you started to create a goddamn supercell, but outside of that, things were relatively contained," the director continued, hands shoved into his pockets. "All things considered, you did good, kid."
"It doesn't feel that way."
"People die, every day, and sometimes you can do everything right and they'll still die," Cecil continued, not dispassionately, but with the weathered experience of a man who had seen more death than I could have imagined. "That's life. You separated the threat early and ensured that this 'Thokk' couldn't catch anyone else up in his spree."
"At the cost of eight lives."
"And you saved thousands, if not more, by taking him down," the old man shot back, a bit of heat in his voice. "This sort of self-deprecation is warranted in some cases, but not now. You showed the public that, for better or worse, the Guardians of the Globe are back and capable of protecting them. As far as the GDA and me are concerned? Those deaths were tragedies, but the intervention as a whole was a complete success."
It was such a callous way of looking at the situation. It was also fundamentally correct. The Guardians of the Globe, the new edition of the team anyway, had been an unproven force. I was sure he faced detractors for bringing it entirely under GDA oversight, rather than allowing them the freedom that the original team had possessed.
Now, Cecil had his win to point to. That there were threats that no other team on the planet could face, criminals that only they could bring to justice. Eight people were dead, and however many more were injured, the public could feel safer than ever.
"... Alright."
"Alright?"
"I'm making my peace with it," I murmured, unclenching my sore muscles as I leaned back against my raised bed, shifting to get comfortable. "But I'm going to try to avoid letting it happen again. I…"
How did you even start a conversation like this? At the beginning, I guess.
"Are there resources I can reach out for, at least, when it comes to getting assistance with training? There's not a whole lot out there for people on my scale of speed and strength."
A calculating glint entered his eyes, and honestly, I didn't know if it was good or bad. All I knew was that Cecil gave me a slow nod. "Yeah. I think we can work something out, Genji. I'll keep you posted on what the eggheads in the lab think up."
Cecil was many things, but I didn't get the feeling he'd lie for the hell of it. So when he said that, I believed that he meant it. To an extent, anyway.
"That works for me."
"Get some rest, kid. The world's gonna keep turning, and the public wants to see their hero before long. I've got quite a few interviews lined up for you…"
He turned to leave as I blinked at the news, somewhat alarmed. "Interviews? What interviews? Wait, no, Cecil, get your ass back here! What interviews are you talking about?!"
The man left me alone, raging impotently in my bed as I was forced to have a new dread filling my stomach. Public relations.
Over the next few days of my hospital stay, the rest of the Guardians filtered in to visit in various states.
Rudy was first among them, not yet in his enfleshed body, but I felt like I could almost read a bit of nervousness in the robotic frame. Then again, that might have just been the human instinct to personify and read behavior to nonhuman objects.
"Taijitu," the frame spoke. "Good to see you in good health."
"I feel like a train's run me over, but I guess I'm still good, for relative values of the word."
"That's good. Combat effectiveness of the team is demonstrably proven to be less effective when you're not around."
I laughed. "You've got a funny way of saying you miss me, Ru-Robot," I corrected, keeping myself from spilling his secret everywhere. "Never change, bud."
A longer pause came from the drone before the artificial voice came through once again. "In the spirit of clarity, I would like to state that I do, genuinely, appreciate your presence. If I made it seem like I only wished for what you could bring to the team, I apologize."
"No, no, it's all good, Robot. I was just joking." I shot him a broad, beaming smile. "Besides, when that project of yours wraps up, I'll be happy to share the love. Taijutsu training might make you change your tune about enjoying my presence."
It wasn't like I was going to torture him or anything. But the fact of the matter was that this situation would have been immensely more solvable if there'd been more combatants on my level in the fray. I wouldn't even have called it a win directly, because I didn't win through the force of arms.
Only truly titanic amounts of chakra and a powerful jutsu I'd basically cobbled together on the fly stopped and won the day. At no point did I actually beat Thokk. It was more like I forestalled the confrontation for another day.
For now, that was enough.
"I'll look forward to that day. There'll be time enough to continue our other projects too, when you're better."
"Honestly, I could do with something to occupy my time while I'm here," I admitted, glancing around the hospital room. As novel as it was to lazily watch television, I was already going a bit stir-crazy. "Any chance you could bring a laptop or tablet around so I could continue some work?"
Even if I was going to be curtailing my general designing and creation in the future, that didn't mean I couldn't do it on the side. Especially here and now, when I wasn't doing anything else productive to fill the hours. Not needing to sleep was a blessing, right up until you needed to figure out what to do with all of that time.
"I can send a parcel containing something like that," Rudy confirmed for me, nodding his metallic head.
However, I did have my curiosity piqued about something. "How did the whole situation as a whole go?"
"Well, Invincible was admitted, though I suspect he'll be out soon," he confirmed. "His healing seems faster than yours."
"My biggest problem is how much chakra I spent in that fight. If I could have flooded my body with medicinal chakra…"
Well, the usual problem with that was that you'd burst your body's cells. It was why medic-nin needed to have such fine control when handling their chakra. However, beyond the fact that I had functionally perfect chakra control, I also was significantly hardier than your average ninja.
Doing things messy would have been wasteful, but I'd had the chakra to spare.
"Hmm. Perhaps chakra batteries might be something to look into?"
"For the next iteration of my costume, definitely. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure my robes are a bust."
Another pause, and I'd be damned if I didn't wonder what Rudy was thinking while the machine stood still. "... It could be said that this is a good thing."
"Hmm?"
"In the aesthetic values of modern superheroes, your robes were…" He seemed to be searching for the right word, which was really a first for him. It was an attempt at tact that I appreciated, even if I knew I wasn't going to like what he said. "Antiquated would be a polite way to put it."
A laugh escaped me. "Don't sugarcoat it, Robot. I know how I looked," I freely admitted, wincing as something in my chest tugged with the motion. "But it was all I had of home, for relative values of the word. No matter how much I don't miss it, the outfit was…"
"Comforting?" He offered.
"Familiar, I think, would be a better way of describing it. The outfit was familiar, and it was built to take damage on the scale that I could put out." Then, a frown creased my lips. "It could take it for a time, anyway. I'm hoping that the outfits here are no less capable."
Maybe it was time to actually invest in some kind of armor? Or perhaps I'd design something that could go overtop my existing future costume, only to be taken out when I really needed it. Outright power armor would be a bit of a militant look, and I didn't quite know if that'd pass muster with the people of Earth.
For all that I was powerful enough not to need to worry about their opinions, I still did. After all, I used to be human, and to a certain point I was beholden to the public's view of me if I wanted to be a respectable superhero. Despite how humanity in this world still made a lot of the same stumbles as the version I was more familiar with, they still deserved to chart their own path through the universe, with all that entailed.
No matter how much it might frustrate me at times. Which meant that I had to at least be respectful and mindful with my presence in this world.
"Did you have someone in mind to design the next iteration of your costume?" Robot asked, seemingly curious.
"Art Rosenbaum," I admitted, having looked into the man after Invincible had referred him to me. He'd done some pretty good work, all things considered, and it was evident that he probably had the right skill set for the job.
There was a slight incline of the robotic shell's head at that news. "He's highly recommended. Well, as always, I will be present if you'd like to make further modifications to it in the future."
Sensible enough. Though while he was here, it did make me remember something else.
"And the progress on your other, uh, extracurriculars? The one you needed a sample from me for?"
He paused before he responded carefully. "It is still ongoing, but current evidence is very promising. The fellows involved in it are…less than ideal, yet extremely highly regarded in their narrow field of expertise with superhuman sciences."
Honestly? Seemed fair enough. This was already a field that I had so little expertise in, and he was coming at the problem almost entirely from the lens of superscience, rather than anything rooted in chakra. I'd have to trust that Robot knew what he was doing. At least a little bit.
"Then that's it from me. Again, thanks for checking up on me."
"It's no trouble to do the basics for a friend."
With that, Robot left the hospital room. True to his word, before even the day was out, I received a package from the GDA nurses. A fresh laptop, and not anything that you would have found on the open market.
Hell, it was even logged in to all of my accounts. Which was kind of sweet, even if it did feel a little odd to know that Robot could access my profiles that easily. A reminder to, perhaps, not actively use my devices for looking up porn or cat videos anymore.
It was a good way to spend the rest of the day and a chunk of the next. At least until my next round of visitors came in to see how I was doing. My chakra reserves, if nothing else, had certainly recovered by no small amount. I was mostly just being more careful than I likely needed to be, too.
Rex had pretty obviously seen better days, but that was to be expected. He was pretty much someone that had a fairly human-level level of physical parameters and just seemed unlucky across the board. It wasn't unsurprising to me that, on some level, he'd eaten shit during the fight and taken a hit to the face.
Rae, meanwhile, was walking with a bit of a limp but otherwise fine. And Kate was otherwise untouched, walking in last. Then again, I hadn't expected Kate to show off any damage in the first place. Chances were if there were any clones of hers, they'd probably gotten pulped or brutally killed instantly.
Not for the first time, I was thankful for my initial, instinctual urge to move the Battle Beast fight away from them. None of them would have been a help in that conflict.
"Yo," Rex greeted, throwing up a hand my way. "Heard you got the stuffing beaten out of you."
"Rex!" Kate hissed, slapping him in the abdomen and making the teen hiss as she did so.
"Ow! Okay, sorry, sorry, a little inconsiderate."
It still made me smile, though, knowing that Rex was very much still himself. "It's fine," I assured him, waving a hand at their antics. "Honestly, I was worried about you guys when I left. Did everything go okay?"
"We're still walking around, so it went more or less alright," Rae shrugged, looking pleased with it. "It was a little touch and go for a moment there, but we pulled through."
"Some of those assholes can hit hard," Rex grumbled. "Then again, we kind of got off light, didn't we?"
Kate was about to smack him again for the insensitivity, though she stopped when I forestalled it.
"No, no, he's right. Thokk, Battle Beast, the lion guy—he was strong enough to genuinely kill me. I didn't even win; I just emptied my chakra reserves on a hail mary to put him into hibernation."
And even that wasn't enough to kill him. For most living creatures on this planet it would have been. This guy, though, was just a real freak of nature. I didn't know if this was something endemic to his species or if Thokk was just an outlier when it came to how strong he was.
Maybe I wouldn't know. It depended if Cecil could keep him on ice and secure. Knowing the actual realities of most superhero worlds, though, I wasn't counting on people I put in jail actually staying there.
Cynical, but no less true. Perhaps I could offer some assistance there later, when I was less bedbound.
"Still, I saw the footage of your fight. It was…" Kate trailed off, obviously searching for the words and finding herself continually failing. "It was more than I could have expected."
"That's just what happens when you get into a scrap at that level of power." It was blunt, yet honest all the same. "There was a reason why I teleported the two of us to about as rural of an area as I could think of."
Really, the change of scenery helping out my ice release was just a fringe benefit compared to how critically important it was to get the hell out of dodge.
Otherwise, I might have left a little ice age in downtown Chicago.
Whatever I was about to say was interrupted by another familiar face popping into the room, though, huffing and puffing.
"Sorry… I'm late… short fucking legs…" Amanda panted, looking a little sweaty as she glanced around. "Did I miss anything?"
That made more people come to see me than I would have imagined. It did warm the cockles of my heart to have so many people coming to see me, though.
"You're right on time. We were just talking about how cool and badass I am."
"Ah, so nothing important then."
I clutched my chest in fake pain, gasping as the rest of the heroes in the rough chuckled. From there, we fell into a fairly fun conversation, as we got filled in on what had happened after I left. Thokk was seemingly by far the most dangerous of the hired thugs that Machine Head had brought to the equation, though the others were certainly challenging.
A guy literally made of lava was, to be frank, the kind of situation I could have solved incredibly quickly. As to whether or not he would have survived the experience, well, that was a much different question. Either way, though, they took down the rest of the bad guys and ensured that Invincible wasn't too battered senseless.
From what I'd seen, the kid would live, especially as my eyes had already seen him beginning to heal before I left. Very, very slowly, mind you, but healing all the same. Altogether, I felt as if the team was beginning to mesh. All it took was a brutal fight for everyone to really start falling into their roles.
At least I wasn't worried about there being another rendition of the Guardians of the Globe so soon after the first. Well, worried as much.
The last person who visited me was someone I hadn't been counting on.
Black Samson's visit came after everyone else's and seemed more perfunctory than anything else. We weren't close, or particularly good friends, so I couldn't imagine it was out of some kind of closeness between us. Yet if nothing else, I'd say that the man was loyal to his teammates. Even if he'd chosen to visit after everyone else.
"Hey there, kid. How ya' holdin' up?" Samson said as he entered the room.
"I'm over a century old!"
"Oh. You look…" He trailed off, trying to find a way to say that for my apparent age, I still looked like I was in my twenties. The perks of being a celestial parasite.
Rolling my eyes at his awkwardness, I waved him in. "I'm just messing with you, hearing people get my age wrong is just something I'm used to at this point."
He chuckled, perching in one of the seats next to the hospital room. I'd long since changed out of just the gown at this point and was wearing plaid pajama pants, just to be the most comfortable. Frankly, while I could have left the hospital at this point, I was mostly just there to give the various staff some basic understanding of my biology.
After all, if this was a lesson in anything, there was a very real chance I'd have to rely on Earth's medical professionals at some point in the future. Best to give them as much of a fighting chance to figure out what the hell was wrong with my body as humanly possible.
"Immortal had the same problem, especially when he shaved down his beard," Samson admitted, smirking softly. "The guy hated losing his facial hair. Anytime he did, we always teased him for how young he looked."
That was news to me. "Huh. How was he, the Immortal? All of the rest of the former Guardians? I never got a chance to meet them."
He paused, a flash of pain going across his features as he gave the question some obvious thought.
"They were family before I lost my powers. Still were, but when you're not in the life and just on the outside lookin' in, things are different. You can't relate the same, y'know? Now I'm back in, and these kids nowadays are just different."
"I'm sure it's probably the same; you're just older now."
Samson acknowledged the point with a nod. "True. I'm the old man of the team now, instead of War Woman or Immortal. Older, anyway," he admitted, shooting me a knowing look. "The culture I grew up in, the struggles we faced coming together as the Guardians—it's not the same. Hell, even being under GDA administration…"
I frowned. "Was that something you guys were that leery of?"
"Me and the Martian didn't mind it as much, and neither did Green Ghost," he freely admitted. "But Darkwing, Immortal, War Woman, and Aquarus were reticent about it. In Aquarus's case, well, it made sense, he was the head of a sovereign nation. Didn't exactly want GDA oversight over him."
Sensible. Black Panther had been part of the Avengers before, but at no point did I ever believe he'd actually let them or the government agencies attached to them dictate Wakandan policies. Or even invite the fiction of it, just because he was in the Avengers at times.
"And the rest?"
"Darkwing was suspicious of the GDA, and sure, they've always got some sort of sketchy black project. Likely always will have them. That's just government spooks for ya'," Black Samson admitted, shrugging at the stark admission. "Immortal and War Woman were too distrustful of any real temporal institution to stand the test of time. They were thousands of years old between them, so I could only imagine the things they'd seen rise and fall that people at the time took for granted. And Red Rush was Russian, so he didn't think too highly of government work to begin with."
"So I guess making the shift for you wasn't that bad."
"Well, the world does need the Guardians," the black man agreed, shooting me a very scrutinizing look. "Your fight with that lion-headed bastard proved there are threats that no conventional military force is capable of dealing with. The GDA was the only real faction with the clout and resources to even back a new version of the team."
"A matter of just sensible options, then."
"Yeah."
"Then I suppose we should be thankful that you're around to bestow the wisdom of the ancients," I smirked. "All of the superhero stuff is new to me, and you're the most seasoned member of the team by far. I'm sure Robot is thankful for your presence, even if you can make it hard for him to lead the team sometimes."
His lips twisted at the mention of Robot. "I think he's not assertive enough, personally, but he's smart."
"I think you'd be surprised at what Robot's capable of when it comes to the drive for certain things." Oh, how people were going to be shocked when he came out in a clone of me. I hoped I was around when it happened.
"Maybe," the older man noncommittally shrugged. "I'll believe it when I see it."
The rest of the conversation drifted into lighter topics, as Samson went into stories about the original Guardians. How they were, their habits, what they fought for. It went a long way in humanizing people I'd only ever seen in photographs and videos. Though eventually, his trip came to a close, and he headed out back to the base.
My own hospital stay was coming to a close. Most of the healing that could have been done on me had been done, leaving just minor aches and pains that'd likely solve themselves in due time. Now, it was just a matter of getting out and actually putting some of my plans into motion. Training, engineering, inventing, superheroing…
It was a full slate ahead of me, a docket of projects that needed to get completed or started on in the first place. That wasn't even mentioning my public relations debut.
Taijitu had been a mysterious enough figure for the public for long enough. Now, it was time to turn on the lights and show the world their newest, friendly alien neighbor.
Author's Notes
It's been a long time since I've written a chapter as divisive as the last one. Or at least one where it was so mixed in response on other sites. While we're basically ten chapters ahead already, I'm trying my best to take criticism into account in chapters beyond that and ensuring that future ones can try and move accordingly.
This is a learning experience for me, and I'll try to keep it in mind for the future.
Additionally, if you would like to read ahead, you can find up to ten chapters ahead via the linktree in my profile. For the time being, all adult content like future smut in anything I write, will be on , though in due time I'll likely try to get the processing and authentication through on to be able to post it there as well. So be mindful of where you're supporting me.