|
FV |
| Back with a Vengeance | |
|---|---|
| General Information | |
| Release Date | 11/22/23 |
| Series | Rewri-10 |
| Details | |
| Season | 2 |
| Episode Number | 12 |
| Overall Episode Number | 25 |
| Credits | |
| Written by | AnOddEncounter |
| Episode Guide | |
| Previous episode | Animorphed |
| Next episode | Clock Strikes Midnight |
Back with a Vengeance is the twelfth and final episode of the second season of Rewri-10, and the twenty fifth episode overall.
Plot[]
The Megacruiser flies through space, no longer piloted by Slix Vigma (Kevin made sure to destroy everything left of him once Ben was gone), but by Kevin Levin, former runaway street rat turned anti-hero and now ship captain. What happened to him this summer?
Then came an alarm, someone had gotten in, these strange robotic spiders crawled everywhere they could, shooting down anyone they found, whoever was attacking, they were going to make this ship theirs.
"You wanna go!? I've had weeks with nothing but these punks to fight, I'm raring to get a kill count goin'!" Kevin sped through the halls, ripping through the robots with his clawed Ectonurite arm, sensing one behind him pulling away a prisoner, he extends his burning Mechamorph arm, and grabs it, pulling it over to put on his back as it assimilated, continuing to feed it with more and more parts.
Then came the footsteps, giant, giant footsteps, the main arena, Kevin quickly phased through the ship, flying right down past an elevator shaft to have a front row seat to see all his robots joined together to make some massive... spider piloted thing beating Technorg within an inch of his life and was about to bring down one of its many arms to deal the finishing blow only to be nailed in the head by a fireball.
Kevin opened up his chest to release some red tentacles that grabbed the blade out of the robot's hand and swung it to the floor. Kevin then leaps onto the ground to meet the giant robot, "Get lost, Technorg, this is my fight. They messed with my ship!"
And with that, he began speeding around the robot, creating a fire tornado around the robot, tying it down with a plasma rope, it was about to fall apart when Kevin stopped, ready to use some of that new sweet stole tech he got, and so he knelt down, a few turrets slowly growing out of his back, firing suppression rounds that pierced through before letting the robot blow to smithereens.
"Excellent, excellent..." A voice said in the dark, "Well done."
"Who was that?" Kevin's voice boomed, someone was moving through the shadows, they probably sent those stupid spiders too.
"I ask that same question to you, boy. This is nothing but a façade, you've lived putting up façades your whole life. Nothing you have gained was ever truly your own. I can teach you truth, true power. You must conquer your fear, you must be patient. Only then can you truly go from a man, to a god."
The voice cackled, it was hard to determine what was a laugh from someone gasping for air, but that was a laugh.
"What's a god to a non-believer?" Kevin spat when suddenly he was trapped in a strange red net-like cage, nothing he did could get rid of it, he tried to punch, it would just morph to fit his fist.
"Now do you believe?" The voice finally made itself clear, Psyphon projecting an image of himself to Kevin, and projecting another image of Ben's aliens, "Do you recognize these?"
"So what if I do?"
"You wouldn't like to have your revenge? He took someone very important from me, and judging by your current... predicament, you seem to have had experience with his aliens as well."
"Fine. But I better not have to take any more orders from you."
"Good, because you won't have to... Not after you fulfil your first task."
Psyphon then teleported Kevin off the ship to another one that was connected, it wasn't the Chimeran Hammer, but it was Psyphon's "home". The two stood in front of an unconscious Vilgax, strange liquids oozing out of him, probably some kind of alien blood if you asked Kevin.
"Now, I want you to find some sort of way to bring him back to life, you got your power from the Omnitrix, and he was brought to his full power through the Omnitrix, there must be a connection. I will navigate us towards earth in the meantime." Psyphon used his freakish bladed spider legs to walk out of the room.
"Hmm, 'full power' couldn't beat a stupid kid. That's right Tennyson, you're nothin' but a stupid kid! And I'm comin' for you!" Kevin yelled, punching the ground next to Vilgax, leaving a scorch mark.
The mutant continued yelling, hurling insults and laser blasts, turning to fire one right at Vilgax when he noticed something. There was a strange small purple glob crawling over him, he made that but he wasn't moving it.
"What's going on!" Kevin extended his arm to try and pick it up, but stuck himself to Vilgax's chest, the Mechamorph nanites oozing into his armor which brought Vilgax awake.
"It seems your methods were successful, Psyphon."
"Huh, I heard legends of some squidface through the ship, seems like you're the real deal." Kevin definitely felt small, he was confused, why were his powers acting on their own, how did he just bring a dead man to life.
A hologram of Psyphon appeared between the two.
"I'd like for you to thank, what was your name, boy?"
"Kevin 11."
"Thank Kevin 11, for your revival, my lord. He may be crude, but with some help and tutoring, he will prove most effective in taking down Tennyson."
"If if either one of you are gonna come to me about some philosophical crap, I don't wanna hear it. I'm getting us to Earth, now. You managed to find me that many galaxies away, there's gonna be a way back." Kevin then phased through the wall and covered the control panel with the gooiness of his regenerated arm, sure enough, they moved way faster, in fact Earth was right in sight.
If only the Tennysons knew what was coming to them...
"So, explain to me why you've been Ball Weevil for four hours again?" Gwen looked over the table at Ben, who was on his back and blowing up several plasma... rafts
"Okay, so we're on a boat at the Niagara Falls, right? And I'm screwing around with the Omnitrix."
"Something Grandpa and I told you explicitly not to do so you wouldn't get caught or break it again?"
"You said that last time I explained this. Anyways, you tell me that there's probably a million combinations on it, so I get the idea to start fiddling around with the actual core. I go up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, then pressed down but then it seemed like nothing happened and then..."
"You became able to do this?" Grandpa chimed in.
"Now I can be any alien I want so I'm using aliens to make bank from tourists! Ball Weevil can make rafts on the water, Jetray, Ripjaws and XLR8 can give rides, Chromastone and Heatblast can make lightshows, Wildvine's perfect for bungee jumping, Upgrade can work with any tech, Wildmutt helps me find stuff people lose and Cannonbolt... I don't know what I'll do with him." Ben finishes blowing up the last globule and gets up to take it away.
"Ben, I never thought I'd say this, but I'd rather see your normal ugly face for a change."
"Gwen's right, you don't know what that 'master control' could do if you overuse it."
"Hmm, I'll give this one last thing to the tourists and I'll take it easy." Ball Weevil turned to XLR8 and ran off.
"Really glad we had this chat..." Gwen sighed, she knew Ben was stubborn but this was almost a new low.
"This could be good for training your powers, Gwen. Just as long as we keep him under supervision."
Ben came back, in human form like he promised, cash stuffing his pockets and plates of food in his hand.
"Once you finish a plate Grandpa wants us training." Gwen pointed to her charmed bracelet and went to the RV to don her Lucky Girl outfit for their eventual training spar.
And after a very quick meal thanks to XLR8, it was time, the two stood on a bridge, Lucky Girl vs Ben 10, magic and aliens were at it once more.
XLR8 quickly went behind Gwen, spinning her round and round before sending her rolling forward.
Gwen got up, hand on the floor, sending a wave of magic that caught Ben off guard and into the air. To adapt, Ben turned into Jetray and fired neuroshocks and dodged some dics that Gwen fired, adding in some extra tricks for fun.
The young sorceress began summoning platforms that she ran up, coating her fist in a magical energy as she leapt at Ben who wasn't paying attention and knocked him out of the air, sending the two hurtling down Niagara Falls.
"Mom! I see Jetray!" A young boy pointed to his mother while his sister pointed too, the family was on a lift allowing them to look at the falls on the way up and down.
"There's Lucky Girl! Mommy, why are they falling?"
"I don't know, but we should probably get out of here." The mother said, not everyone was okay with the whole "alien" thing after Kevin messed that up for Ben.
"Okay! You got a lucky hit, but..." Ben then changed to Wildvine who grabbed onto a lift and pull himself up, grabbing Gwen with his fingers to drag her too while they launched.
In the air, Ben changed to Ball Weevil to restrain Gwen in a ball and landed on top of her.
"Hah! Beat that, dweeb! Who cares about magic, I have the Omnitrix so I win!" Ball Weevil triumphantly posed while Gwen rolled her eyes before kicking Ben off of her and breaking free.
The two were at a stalemate once more, Ben turned into Cannobolt when suddenly, there is a great rumbling, knocking Ben off his feet and onto his back.
"I don't think there's supposed to be an earthquake..." held onto a railing.
"Look out!" Max yelled, pointing to the sky where Psyphon's ship came, firing lasers down below.
"Let's call it a tie!" Cannonbolt conceded, turning into Chromastone who flew towards the ship, absorbing any lasers he could. Gwen tried her best to make her platform follow all while making shields to protect people below.
Chromastone fired a beam, taking a bit of time to reach the target, but it was only blocked by someone, and not just anyone.
"Is that..." Gwen looked over, leading people out of the lifts to safety.
"Kevin?!" Chromastone stared in awe as Kevin body slammed him into the bridge with his Ectonurite arm.
"Long time no see, you little-!" Kevin gloated as he was about to bring down his Mechamorph arm but Chromastone quickly changed to Heatblast, propelling himself off the floor with an explosion.
"Now now, watch your mouth, there are children present." Ben then turned to Ball Weevil and fired globs which Kevin retaliated with red globs of his own, the two exploding in the air.
Through the smoke, Ball Weevil came down as Chromastone once more.
"You ready for a multicolor beatdown, Kevin?"
"It's not me you should be afraid of..."
"Afraid, hah! Why would I-?"
"Ben, look out!" Max and Gwen yelled, having finished with their preoccupations, Vilgax was coming right for Ben and Psyphon was close behind, the conqueror knocking Chromastone off the bridge.
"Come on, we just did the bridge thing already!" Chromastone flashbanged Vilgax before turning into XLR8 to kick him off, turning into Jetray, flying up towards Kevin and Psyphon as Vilgax falls onto a barge, Psyphon, seeing what Ben did to his master and lunged at him, twirling those spider legs as helicopter blades both offensively and for flight.
"Well if it isn't Vilgax's second most threatening lackey! How's it been!" Jetray flew around Psyphon who blocked any advances so Ben went up higher, turning into Humungousaur to grab Psyphon and toss him at Kevin who was menacing the other Tennysons, Ben landed onto the bridge as Ripjaws, pointing at Kevin.
"You stay away from my family, creep!"
"Creep? Look in the mirror lately, fish fry?" Kevin shot a fireball at Ripjaws who turned into Upgrade as it blew him apart.
"Gonna have to try harder than that!" Upgrade quipped as he jumped off the bridge after blowing a mock kiss at Kevin who dragged Psyphon with him to give chase.
Kevin fell into the roaring falls with a loud thud while Upgrade just floated down, turning into a parachute, watching the villains fall down even further.
Upgrade sent himself along the lift to get back up to the bridge so he could zoom over as XLR8 to Gwen and Max.
"You two okay? They didn't hurt you, right?" XLR8 quickly looked over the two for any injuries.
"He kept shooting past us, and I was able to block any really dangerous ones." Gwen nodded, and so did Max.
"Good, 'cause I'm gonna make sure they wish they never came back." XLR8 put his visor back on and turned around.
"Ben, you had trouble beating either of them before, now they're combining their forces, they're too powerful!" Max protested.
"Stay outta this, I don't want you hurt!" XLR8 ran, finding a vantage point to see the trio of villains on a bundle of rocks.
"He should be close, Kevin, use your Vulpimancer sense to sniff him out." Psyphon ordered while he looked over his master, attempting to see if anything was out of the ordinary, taking special emphasis on the new purple glow Vilgax emitted thanks to Kevin's Mechamorph transformation, Virus.
"He's getting closer, he's there, no, there-!" Kevin knew Ben was XLR8 so he tried his best to slow everything down in his head when he's knocked over by Wildmutt who turned to dodge a hit from Psyphon but is knocked into the water by Vilgax.
"Underestimating me was a grave mistake, one which you will spend your very short life regretting, child!" Vilgax's arm pins recede as his arms bulk up to a much larger size than they did the last time before Vilgax jumps to slam right into Ben who turned into Cannonbolt to block, getting knocked back in ball form, bouncing off a rock to come right back, only to be punched again upwards only to be caught in some sort of a pink bubble, "You have clearly made new advancements in your use of the Omnitrix, however this does not matter in the slightest! You are but a stepping stone to galactic domination!"
Suddenly, a portal formed above the combatants, slowly sucking them up towards it.
"Ben! Get outta there, that goes to the Null Void!" Max yelled down at him, Gwen was on a platform while Max used a jetpack.
"I've got 'em Grandpa! Don't worry about me!" Cannonbolt changed to Wildvine who chopped his way out, slinging himself down to the villains level, "Have a safe trip, jerks!"
Wildvine shot some of his eggplant bombs at the trio but Vilgax used a new ability, extending out his arms, he grabbed the boy and pulled them just as they were all launched into the portal.
"BEN!" Gwen and Max yelled.
The fighters found themselves in a hazy world of red and black, sticky purple things were everywhere in columns and rocks floated around.
"Okay, not my brightest idea..." Wildvine said.
"Where are we?"
"The Null Void, where the galaxy's worst-of-the-worst are banished." Vilgax explained while still holding Wildvine in his tight grip.
"Sounds like my kind of place." Kevin licked his lips, or whatever he had that could be called lips.
"I wonder if he agrees." Wildvine points his eye over at a Wigzelian Org Beast who awoke from its slumber and directed its anger at the group.
Psyphon and Vilgax expertly dodged while still gripping Ben while Kevin took the brunt of the punch, grabbing onto the Beast's fist and slowly picking it up.
"Okay, this has been really fun, but I gotta see my family now so..." Another seed fell off Wildvine's back, creating a smokebomb that let him slither out, jumping and swinging away.
Psyphon gets his tracker out as he flies after Wildvine while Vilgax intimidates a Null Guardian into letting him on, Kevin throws the Org Beast to the floor as he flies after Ben as well.
Outside the Null Void, Gwen and Max figure out what to do.
"I have to go in there, Gwen." Max outfits himself in Plumber Gear.
"Grandpa, with the Keystone of Bezel I have the power needed to be able to get around down there!"
"You're not skilled enough with your powers-!"
"Neither is Ben!"
"Go, just remember that this headset is our communication, and you only have so much time until you can't come back." Max fires a portal and Gwen goes in, donning her Lucky Girl mask and Max's headset, taking a laser blaster with her as well, just in case, "You have ten minutes, understand?"
"And don't forget to shoot everything not named Ben Tennyson? Yeah I understand." Gwen goes in one end, and comes out the other walking on the ceiling.
"Keep your eyes open, even I don't know everything that's in there."
"Like these creatures that are following me?" Gwen looked around at several snarling blue critters who jump at her.
"What are they!" Max yells as Gwen pushes them back with walls.
"I don't know, but they're small, fast and really annoying!"
"Havoc Beasts, they can't get to your rocket pack or they'll chew it to bits."
Gwen pulled out a grenade and shook it to catch their attention, "Fetch!" She tossed it away, luckily it went the way she wanted and the Beasts all descended.
Somewhere else, Ben lands on a rock formation. He sees Guardians coming and climbs around to the underside of the rock structure as Wildmutt. Kevin and Vilgax's mount land on the same rock. Psyphon searches with his tracking device, while Kevin detects something else, Ben.
Kevin phases to find himself on the other side, looking right at Wildmutt who jumps off to another rock formation, jumping between them as Kevin and the others chase him. Psyphon fires an incendiary round that blows up one of the rocks before Wildmutt can grab it, sending him into freefall and not even Jetray can save Ben as he's caught by Vilgax's Null Guardian.
Jetray hangs inside the jaws of Vilgax's Null Guardian, as the group flies back to their starting area. Quickly thinking, he turns into Heatblast to light a fireball, blowing it up to shoot him out and send Vilgax off, while he flies, Heatblast turns into Cannonbolt.
"Let's roll outta here!" He bounces against rock formations, breaking through swarms and beginning the chase anew, running along the rocks as XLR8 as Psyphon and Kevin gain on him, each firing at the Kineceleran before Ben turns into Chromastone to redirect the energy through at the assailants like a prism.
He then turns into Humungousaur who grabs Psyphon's legs and swings him around to knock right into Kevin and sends them both flying before he turns to defend himself from a beefed up Vilgax.
"You can grow, I can too!" Humungousaur increased his size and strength before making a stomp so strong it sent Vilgax skidding back.
"You are nothing, child! I will conquer you and your pathetic planet!" Vilgax cried out as he fired a purple beam from his chest which launched Humungousaur into the air.
"Ben, where are you..." Gwen wondered out loud when she suddenly gets a sighting, Humungousaur flying into a formation.
"Gwen, you have to get out of there, something's gone screwy with the projector! You have less time, do you copy!"
"Not without Ben!" Gwen flies down to meet Humungousaur who looks over, elated to see his cousin.
"Gwen!" Humungousaur turns back to human and hugs Gwen, "I'm so happy to see you!"
"We don't have much time! There can be anything in here, and those bad guys are relentless."
"Yeah, I tend to be when I find something I want..." Kevin came phasing through the ground, smirking as Vilgax landed along with Psyphon.
Kevin extended out his arm to pull Gwen away, she pulled her pistol on him however he summoned the turret from his back to show just how outclassed she was, and just to prove his point, he literally ate the gun out of her palm, upgrading the turret even further.
"So, Vilgy. Could you always do that purple laser thingy or did one of them teach it to you?" Ben sheepishly quipped with his arms behind his back, shorting out the Omnitrix's master control.
"None of your concern!" Vilgax's voice boomed through the Null Void.
"Alright, let's be serious. Any of you freaks hurt my cousin and I'll-."
"You'll what, you wanna take all of us on when we have a hostage?" Kevin laughed.
"Your family has created a soft spot for you, harming them makes you dangerous, but it also makes you rash. A rash mistake will be the end of your life, and the end of your cousin's."
Ben sits there, frozen in horror, they were serious and he knew it. Someone might die, and it would be his fault.
"I'm giving up." Ben knelt down, his arms out, "We have a deal, my cousin for this stupid watch!"
"Ben, no, this isn't worth-!" Gwen was silenced by Kevin zapping her.
"Take it!" Ben yelled in fury as Vilgax grabbed one arm while Kevin grabbed the other, Psyphon applying a device to the watch, the Omnitrix immediately starts unleashing a feedback blast. It pushes Psyphon away, but he pushes down harder, the device's four prongs affixing into the ground around the watch, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Green electricity cracks in every direction. The watch's faceplate quickly cycles through every transformation, then a cylinder shoots forward from the containment device and grabs onto the faceplate. Ben continues to shout in pain, as Vilgax and Psyphon stand calm and Kevin has a wide smile across his face. The cylinder starts lifting. Ben watches with tears in his eyes as the Omnitrix's band slowly peels off his wrist, forcefully pulling on his skin like it was dried glue. The band finally gives and the Omnitrix gets sucked into the machine. Ben falls unconscious as Kevin tosses Gwen down to him.
Psyphon holds the orb container in his hand, laughing in scratchy glee.
"WE HAVE DONE IT, LORD VILGAX, WE HAVE SUCCEEDED! WE HAVE CONQUERED OUR PASTS MISTAKES! WE ARE GODS, YOU ARE A GOD, VILGAX!" Psyphon yelled into the sky, only to be sucker punched into the mouth of a flying Null Guardian by Kevin who takes the orb from him.
"But who said you'll live to use it!" Kevin charged up a Ball Weevil glob with Crystalsapien and Mechamorph lasers before throwing it at Psyphon, the explosion knocking him out of the fight entirely, Vilgax grabbed onto Kevin but the boy just smirked, "I've got the hostage dummy, you try and ice me, I break your precious trophy."
"And you think I'd let you?"
"Which is why I'm doing this!" Kevin pulled his Mechamorph arm back and suddenly Vilgax's chest, and every bit of tech in him began to glow purple before he began to expand, "I figured out that my powers were activating on their own so I phased some of Bug Bomb's goo in there while you weren't looking. Say 'bye bye' Vilg-!"
The mutant punk was then given a sucker punch of his own from Vilgax as the glow slowly faded and the orb solidly laid on the ground.
"With or without the Omnitrix, I will tear the both of you worthless, wretched, insignificant creatures apart, morsel by morsel." Vilgax approached as Gwen's eyes began to glow, her body taking the same glow. She hadn't used her full magical potential until now, but this anger, this... hatred she had for Vilgax. That was what broke her.
"Ben, you implied that if they laid a finger on me that you were going to 'kill them' correct?"
"Not exactly... no." Ben woke up, looking around, still in the Null Void, so he went from a nightmare in his sleep to the waking nightmare called life that was still going on and was very much real, he then saw what was up with Gwen, "Oh..."
"We'll call it lost in translation." Gwen looked back at Vilgax who examined the girl.
"What's going on there! I came on when I heard screaming then-!" Max's voice was staticy, all the magic was shorting everything out.
"Uh, Grandpa, Gwen's acting weird! I think this is some kind of a red flag!"
"Crimson. The Keystone is too strong, she can't control all that magic she's amplifying! Chromastone will have to-"
"I can't transform, I- I don't have the watch!"
"Well, you'll just have to ride out the storm."
And with that, Gwen sent a pink tornado at Vilgax who was launched into the air, before she whipped him through several rocks which a magic rope.
Magical electricity fried each and every alien that tried to get close to her as Gwen's screams of rage and agony grew louder and louder.
Ben runs for the orb the Omnitrix is contained in, finding out how to open it, clamping it back on. He rushes towards Gwen, transforming into Chromastone as he's hit by a blast, absorbing it as much as he could, trudging towards Gwen and grabbing onto her as his body warped and warped.
Then she stopped.
Chromastone... his body was completely gray. Was he dead?
Then it dawned on her.
Did she do this? Did Vilgax do this?
Why couldn't she remember?
"I'm getting us home." That was the least she could do. She used the last bit of "super magic" she knew she had to send them flying in the direction of the portal, using her platforms for the rest of it.
With the last bit of time she had, she came out the other end, hauling the stiff body of Chromastone over her shoulder as she collapsed into Max's arms.
"We... did it." Gwen sobbed before losing consciousness.
"No, you did it." Max brought her in tighter.
The sun's light began to shine some light into Chromastone, the glow and magenta returning to his crystals.
He was alive. He didn't know why, but he was.
If Vilgax or his lackeys were around, they had hell to pay.
But they weren't. He was just with family.
Warm, loving family.
"So, you think Gwen's gonna be ready to finish our fight?"
"I don't think so, give her some time Ben."
"Fine..."
Noteworthy Events[]
Major Events[]
- Ben unlocks the Omnitrix's Master Control but resets it in the end in an attempt to protect it from Vilgax, Psyphon and Kevin.
- Vilgax, Psyphon and Kevin team up to take Ben down.
- Kevin upgrades Vilgax
- Vilgax, Psyphon and Kevin are trapped in the Null Void.
- The Omnitrix is removed from Ben's wrist for the first time, revealing that its removal is indeed possible.
- Gwen begins to display some of her full magical potential
Minor Events[]
- The Null Void's interior is first shown
Characters[]
Villains[]
Aliens Used[]
- Ball Weevil (3x)
- XLR8 (6x; second was offscreen)
- Jetray (3x)
- Wildvine (2x)
- Cannonbolt (3x)
- Chromastone (4x)
- Heatblast (2x)
- Humungousaur (2x)
- Ripjaws
- Upgrade
- Wildmutt (2x)
Continuity[]
- When Gwen says that Ben might break the Omnitrix again, she references Animorphed.
- As shown in Grudge Match, Kevin is stuck on the Megacruiser. He eventually took control of the ship and used it for his own purposes.
- The narration references Kevin's journey from street urchin, to attempting to be an anti-hero, to ship captain (this episode)
- People are still wary of Ben's aliens after Kevin used their likenesses to terrorize the US
- Kevin uses one of the combination tricks Ben taught him
Allusions[]
- Kevin and Psyphon reference TeamFourStar's DragonBall Z Abridged Movie: BROLY with the "What's a god to a nonbeliever" and "Do you believe now" exchange (This is also Psyphon's second DBZA quote)
- Ben's "now now, there are children present" references the line in the Spectacular Spider-Man episode "Reinforcement"
Trivia[]
- This is the first episode of Rewri-10 that uses the new episode template thingy, I'd like to give an applause to the people who work on this wiki and for the changes they made to it.
- The aliens Ben transforms into during his fight with Vilgax, Kevin and Psyphon at Niagara Falls are in the order that he first transforms into all of them chronologically.
- This episode has several parallels with Secrets
- Ben has to try and escape from both Vilgax and Psyphon
- The aforementioned villains take Ben and tamper with the Omnitrix
- Ben switches from alien to alien, allowing him to use every single alien available to him at that point
- The first alien we see on screen is Ball Weevil (this was completely unintentional)