A Different Kind of Rat Race (Patreon)

Hey folks!

Man it's gotten warm around here lately! Not quite a heatwave (well, there was one, but it broke pretty quickly), still pretty heated. I'm not sure I'm built for this kind of weather!

Ah well. Getting close to being able to show off that big project, though it's not here yet. So in the meantime, enjoy a return to the world of Blue Blazer and Mimic Gimmick, the supereheroic spectaculars, as they enjoy an evening of relaxation and merriment at Crystal Light labs. Surely nothing can go wrong here!

Well, I suppose that's a matter of perspective, really...

“We’re going to be late.”

Blue Blazer gave her sidekick a comforting smile, the blue-skinned alien reaching over to pat the shorter woman on the back whenever she jumped close enough for the flier to reach her. “It’s fine. No one minds. Everyone at Dr. Levin’s place is a Hero or Hero Ally. They know how this goes.”

Mimic Gimmick, the shapeshifting spectacular heroine, just raised her arms in annoyance. “Still late!”

The pair of them were making their way across the city, having just left the scene of an armed gas-station robbery. Where the criminals had gotten such hi-tech weaponry for such a small scale crime, they’d left to the police to decipher. The important thing was that the two had an invitation to the anniversary celebration of Crystal Light Labs, and that they’d been delayed far longer than they’d hoped.

“We can’t stop fighting crime just because we have other plans this evening, old chum,” BB assured Mimic, flying through the air at a steady speed. The alien amazon’s powers were very useful in situations like this.

“Uuugh, the other sidekicks are going to make fun of me…” The shapeshifters weren’t quite as handy, since flying for her meant folding herself up into a paper airplane and then throwing herself off a tall building, which wasn’t a very speedy way to travel. Fortunately, turning her legs into giant springs and bouncing over buildings was a much faster alternative.

“I’m sure they won’t.”

“They will!” Mimic dropped down out of sight, and then bounced back up again. “Everyone who’s everyone is going to be there. MiniFist is definitely going to be there, and she’s never liked me…”

“Hmm.” BB frowned as her sidekick bounced off another rooftop. “I really should talk to Lady MightFist about her. This kind of attitude is unbecoming in a superhero…”

“Ugh, don’t you dare Boss!” The brunette waved an accusatory finger in the alien’s direction. “I’m not a kid, I can fight my own battles!”

The alien amazon giggled. “Of course you can. But still, Mighty should know how her protégé is behaving when she’s not looking. I mean, there’s a reason her nickname is ‘High And’.”

Mimic snorted. “Well, when you put it like that…”

Alas, their sinister scheming would have to be put on hold; they’d arrived. The pair landed at the upper entrance to Crystal Light Labs, the one for fliers and personal aircraft, with practiced grace, BB descending easily, while Mimic turned her knees into shock absorbers. They’d been here more than enough times for it to all be automatic for both of them.

Crystal Light Labs was, after all, the premier science institution for supporting superheroes, one that every super worth their salt visited at least once or twice a year. That was just the job – sometimes you might be trying to deal with a crystal that infected everything it touched with the harmony of the cosmos, and you’d need a counter song, or perhaps just the chemical compound that would dissolve the crystal on the spot. Or other times, perhaps you would need to know how the villain’s sun laser worked in order to shut it off before they actually used it to laser the sun. For a superhero, high quality science was always in demand.

Even an alien from a super advanced space empire needed to run things by the odd genius every now and then, which was why Blue Blazer was proud to have such a good relationship with Dr. Roger Levin, the head of the entire institute. If there was a problem she couldn’t solve, it was a sure bet that he could. An invaluable connection to have in the saving the world business!

Yes, they were great friends. Why, she remembered… all the times that they had… Um… Or how about the… Mm…

Okay, she couldn’t remember spending much time with the man at all, but she knew she had, and nothing about those two facts bothered her at all! Why should they? All perfectly normal! Yes, the good Doctor was such a great man, she was so happy they were friends.

“So, who do you think will be here?” Mimic asked, pulling the maiden of might out of her monotone-sounding thoughts.

“Hm? Aside from the Fisters, you mean?”

The shapeshifter missed a step, head shooting around to look at her mentor. “Uh. Yeah. Though… Please don’t call them that.”

BB tilted her head in confusion, but Mimic didn’t seem inclined to explain, so she just had to let it go. “Well, I imagine Madame Majika is going to attend. She might even be the entertainment. Oh, and the Splendour Twins, they never miss an event like this. And we can’t forget Purple Phantom either, she’ll be lurking around somewhere…”

Mimic whistled. “Woe betide any villains who try to make a name for themselves by doing a little gatecrashing, huh?”

“Oh, there’s no worry of that, my dear!” A familiar voice called out as they stepped through the doors into the building proper. “I assure you, the labs security measures are more than capable of handling any trespassers. No no, in fact, I insist that you put all thought of fighting from your mind; you’re here to enjoy the evening with the rest of us!”

Roger Levin was waiting to greet them, waving them into the grand hall that had been turned into the centre of festivities for the evening. The lighting was dimmer than usual, turned down to allow the coloured spotlights to have more shine, a veritable rainbow illuminating a wooden dance floor and countless tables of party food and party drink. They certainly hadn’t skimped out on the preparations!

And the dark-haired Doctor himself was looking to be in fine health, his trademark lab coat worn over a blue t-shirt and jeans, ready to party. Or, you know, as ready to party as a scientist ever was. He’d even changed his glasses for shades.

Blue Blazer beamed to see him. “Doctor! I’m glad to see you well. I hope we’re not too late – crime in the city was a nightmare to get away from.”

The bearded man laughed, and drew her into a hug – making for an amusing spectacle, given that she towered over him and had twice his number of arms. “Not at all, not at all. In fact, you’re one of the first pairs to arrive!”

“Oh, really?” BB squeezed back gently, before stepping back with a small smiling blush. “Now I can’t believe that.”

“I’m afraid it’s true!” He gestured around to the hall. There was, in fact, quite a big crowd of party attendees, but now that the dynamic duo looked around, they did notice that there was a certain dearth of superheroes. Actually, most of the people present, standing around chatting or dancing on the dance floor were…

“Huh. Are those rats?” Mimic asked outright, giving voice to the thought in BB’s head as well, though perhaps not wording as delicately as her mentor might have. But it was true, there did seem to be dozens and dozens of anthropomorphic rat women at this party, acting as normal as one can be. Long tails, large ears, a variety of shades of full body fur, even bare pink feet, wrapped up tightly in white lab coats. And they had to be wrapped tightly, because the curves on those women put even Blue Blazer to shame. Those breasts were bigger than basketballs – and all of these rat ladies were already rather short. They were half Mimic’s size, and practically a third of BB’s.

“Lab rats, in fact!” The good Doctor cheerfully explained. “My latest batch of helpful assistants in my experiments. So much to do, you know, and so few hands. We can’t all have four of them, after all.” He winked at Blue Blazer, who blushed again. “So I spun these girls up, and they’ve been a magnificent improvement!”

Oh. Well, when the good Doctor said it, it all sounded so normal all of a sudden! Both heroines nodded, slightly vapid smiles on their faces.

“They’re helping me run a little experiment even now, in fact. But yes, I thought they deserved to enjoy the party too.” He continued with a chuckle. “Anyway, I’m sure the others will be along. They’re probably foiling crime syndicates or dealing with Atlantean invasions delaying them. By hero standards, my dears, you’re practically fashionably early!”

All three shared a laugh over that, though the two heroes weren’t entirely sure how they felt about that. Glad they weren’t late, but kind of put out that their adventures weren’t as major as everyone else’s? Hm. Best not to think about it.

“Is your wife here?” BB asked, the blonde alien looking around. She’d been casually trying to meet the woman for some time now – she had to be impressive if she had won the good Doctor’s hand, after all.

But alas, Levin shook his head. “I’m afraid she couldn’t make it this time. You know how it is, always one more experiment to supervise.”

BB sighed, nodding. “Such a shame, we always seem to miss each other”

At her side, Mimic just rolled her eyes quietly. She was much less enamoured with the good Doctor’s wife. Every time she’d met her, the other woman had put her on edge in a way she couldn’t quite define. She just seemed weirdly sinister – and oddly invested in Mimic, for some reason or another. As far as she concerned, never meeting the woman was a blessing that her mentor should be more grateful for.

The Doctor himself just chuckled. “I’m sure you’ll find her in good time. But head on in, don’t let me keep you. I’m keeping an eye on things up here, welcoming guests as they come in, you girls go and enjoy the party.”

The pair nodded and moved on, descending the stairs to the main floor together. Around them, small crowds of lab coat wearing shortstack rat girls were mostly talking amongst themselves, giggling over who knew what. Neither heroine spotted a single familiar face amongst them – though they did note that each lab rat had their own number and barcode displayed prominently on their prominent chests. That was one way to tell them apart, certainly…

“Well, this is lovely,” BB was full of her usual upbeat cheer as the two wandered across the floor. “It’s nice to have a night off from fighting crime, don’t you think?”

“It’s lame,” her sidekick grumbled, ever willing to bring down the mood with her youthful critique. “But at least there’s food.”

Indeed, the shapeshifter had steered them right towards the nearest food table, and was already grabbing a plate to load up with goodies. It was mostly small cheese and cracker type stuff, but she wasn’t going to be picky – free food was free food, and a superheroic metabolism always needed feeding!

Her mentor sighed. “Mimic, do take care to leave some for everyone else this ti-Oh!” She laughed nervously as she found a wine glass shoved into her face. “Ah, do you think I should?”

“Relax,” the brunette smirked, rolling her eyes again. “It’s not like human wine is going to affect you, anyway. But it might help this evening pass a little faster.”

“True, but you know…” The blue babe rubbed the back of her neck, her antennae twitching. “A good heroine should always strive to set a good examp-”

“Oh my god. Here.” Mimic practically dumped the glass of wine into her hands. “Drink! It’s a party, have fun.”

… Yeah, she was probably right. BB shook her head ruefully, but accepted the drink and took a swig. It was surprisingly sweet stuff. Not nearly as bad as she’d been expecting. She took another, longer drink, and finally let the tension out of her shoulders. The other heroes might not be here yet – and seriously, all of them were late? Was there a Crisis that they hadn’t been invited to or something? – but that didn’t mean she couldn’t relax and enjoy herself.

Besides, maybe they could make some new friends while they were here. Anyone Dr. Levin worked with was worth getting to know, weren’t they? The alien amazon certainly thought so – and when one of the many lab rats approached her, she gave her a polite smile and nod, welcoming the company.

“Hi there!”  The woman in question was a lab rat with long blue hair and pink rimmed glasses. The number on her chest -  which both heroines tried to make sure their gazes didn’t focus on – was 117. And aside from that, she looked just the same as all of the others. “Are you enjoying the party?”

“We just arrived,” BB said, giving Mimic a nudge to be social as well. The shapeshifter just grunted, her mouth full of cheese. “I hope we haven’t missed too much of the fun!”

The rat woman giggled at her rather weak attempt at humour. “Oh no no no, not at all! The party’s only just getting started! I’m One-Seventeen, nice to meet you!”

“Blue Blazer. Nice to meet you as well.” She shook the offered pink hand. Glancing to her side, she saw that sidekick had just shoved another helping of cheese into her mouth. “And this is Mimic Gimmick. Say hello, Mimic.”

“Hwmph.” The brunette waved, before swallowing cartoonishly. “Hey, wow, this stuff is really good! Where did you get this?”

BB tried not to despair over her mentee’s social skills. Honestly, sometimes it was hard to tell which one of them was the alien.

Fortunately, it seemed she’d picked exactly the right thing to say. One-Seventeen’s eyes lit up, and the shortstack clapped her hands excitedly. “Oh isn’t it the best? I can’t get enough of it! Doctor Levin always knows how to look after his girls~”

All three of them shared an empty headed giggle, the two heroes expressions turning blank for a second, before life seemed to return to them.

“Anyway…” One-Seventeen leaned in close – an exercise somewhat complicated both by her short stature, and by her incredible bust getting in the way. “If you want, I can hook you up with some of the real good stuff. The stuff Doc saves for his big experiments.”

BB put a hand to her mouth, trying not to laugh. The way the lab rat spoke, it was like she was trying to sell actual narcotics. Was cheese really such a big deal to-?

“Hell yeah, where do I sign?”

… Right. Of course. The blue woman tried not to wince. Food would always be the way to Mimic’s heart, no matter what shape she took. Why would she have assumed otherwise?

“Come with me,” One-Seventeen said, turning and beckoning. “I know a place.” And she scampered off across the floor.

The sidekick immediately went to follow, but paused when she noticed she was alone. She glanced back to BB with a questioning look on her face. “Aren’t you coming?”

The mighty maiden shook her head, taking another sip of wine. “I’m fine here for the moment, dear. You go right on ahead. What was it you said? It’s a party, have fun.”

Mimic snorted, but shrugged and hurried on after her new friend. “If you insist!”

Ahh, the energy of youth. BB shook her head, smiling, and took another drink. Hm. Was Mimic moving a little oddly? It almost looked like she was scampering over the dance floor herself… Mm, nah, she must have been seeing things. And more importantly, her glass was looking rather empty. Better get another while she waited for everyone else to show up…

-

“Seriously?” Mimic stared at the structure in front of her. From where she stood, it was a set of long white stairs that led down into a set of likewise white corridors, all branching off in different directions. The floors were all blue tiled, each the same as all of the others, while the ceiling was transparent glass, revealing the observation room above. “A maze? That’s where ‘the good stuff’ is?”

“Oh yeah,” One-Seventeen nodded, not seeing any problems here at all. “The Doctor loves having us run these. There’s, like, five whole cheese pods in this one! It’s the hardest one, but I’ll bet you won’t have any trouble.”

The brunette blinked. “You want me to run it? Really?”

“Well of course!” The rat woman blinked back at her, just as confused. “Can’t get the cheese if you don’t run the maze, y’know? And besides, it’s fun!”

Well it made sense that this was what a lab rat thought of as entertainment. And she was right – for an experienced sidekick like her (let alone a superhero in her own right) a silly maze like this wasn’t going to give her any trouble. She’d defeated the Maze Mistress and the Twisted Tangler plenty of times.

It was stupid… But for some reason, she felt really peckish for cheese, and screw it – it wasn’t like anyone else was here to see her. This party was a snore, this at least sounded entertaining.

“Okay. Why not?” she smirked, cracking her knuckles. “Let me show you how it’s done.”

With that, she shot forward, her costume becoming a blur of orange and green. Mimic was no speedster, but she knew how to go fast, and her shapeshifting gave her a lot of versatility that surprised people on occasion. The door in sealed behind her as she descended the stairs – one ‘lab rat’ at a time, apparently. That just meant she didn’t need to share though.

As predicted, the maze proved to be no challenge to her. The sidekick flowed through the place like water, sliding around corners and stretching down different junctions to check what led where. Soon enough- There! A picture of a slice of cheese, next to a pillar with a slot in it, and a turnable crank. Mimic tried not to smirk at how obvious it all was.

Still, who was she to complain? Obvious just made it that much easier. With a snap, she drew her hand back to her from where it had been poking about five corners away, and spun the crank. Immediately, a clear plastic pod popped out of the slot, containing a delightful looking mini-wheel of cheese. Score!

… Of course, she tried to keep the crank spinning, but a robotic voice quickly announced she’d have no luck.

[One Pod Per Run.]

Hmph. Fine then.

With a shrug, the sidekick pulled open her pod and bit into-Oh holy crap! This really was the good stuff! Rich, smooth golden flavour filled her mouth, and in moments the sidekick found herself scarfing down the entire wheel, even licking the insides of the pod to get all the taste out. Mmm, that was good stuff!

No wonder the girls liked running this place~ Now where was the next cheese pod machine…?

She stretched out again, searching deeper into the maze, exploring as far and as fast as she could go, totally focused on her goal. And of course, with her mind so understandably focused on cheese, it was inevitable that she’d miss a few other, less important things.

Things like the wave of fur starting to spread over her skin, little brown hairs growing up around her wrists and ankles, the flesh beneath them turning bright pink…

Yep, that was hardly important. It was barely even a thing! Much, much better to focus on finding the next pod machine. And hey, would you look at that, there was one now!

Another crank, another pod, and soon, another chomp. The cheese was just as delicious as before, and somehow that only seemed to make her feel hungrier. Better find pod number three…

Mimic’s hunt was becoming a bit of a mania, so it might have been surprising to note that she was actually starting to use her powers less. Instead of stretching her limbs about and speeding around, she was running in a pretty normal fashion, searching like a normal woman instead of a shapeshifter. If she noticed the difference, though, it didn’t seem to matter to her.

Nor did the spread of fur around her body, to be fair. That had slowed at first, mostly covering her lower arms and legs, but the boost of a new cheese wheel was all her body needed to finish her change in complexion. Fur spread up her limbs, a fine wave rushing all over her body, sliding up under her uniform without any mind from Mimic. Even when a hole opened up in the back of said uniform, and a long pink tail gently unfurled through it, reaching out so far that it slid along the floor behind her, she just kept hunting.

Honestly, the new limb just made it easier to balance. And as if the prove how helpful it was, she’d soon found her third cheese dispenser.

Chomp!

The sidekick’s face pushed out into a snout as she chewed, her nose turning pink and hard at the end of her furred face. Her ears pushed up to the top of her head, growing almost as large as the rest of her head, sharp to even the faintest of sounds. Though, the sound of the claws growing on her now bare toes against the tiles… That just didn’t really register.

Nope nope nope. Gotta get more cheese! Two more to find!

By now, she was feeling good. She was feeling great! Despite how much running she’d done, she was feeling more energetic than ever! Energetic enough to go even faster! She dropped down onto all fours, pink paws pattering on the ground as she charged through the maze. She didn’t need to search through dead ends any more – her nose would show her the way!

Soon, she was munching down on the contents of her fourth pod – and by this point, Mimic looked almost exactly like the lab rat girls scurrying around her, save for the fact she was double their size, and lacked their enhanced curves. She was still dressed in her costume as a superhero, but very few people would have assumed she was one, just from how she looked.

Who cared about that, though? She had other stuff to worry about. Only one more pod to collect…

-

Back in the main hall, Blue Blazer was on her third, or possibly fifth, glass of wine. It was a little hard to keep track, though not because she was drunk! No, perish the thought. Human alcohol had almost no effect on her metabolism, which meant she’d spent far more nights than she was happy with playing the role of ‘pretty much designated driver’ for these kinds of get togethers.

These drinks were just rather more-ish, you know? Heehee~ They tasted sweet, and there were always more to drink, though she was starting to have a little trouble reaching them.

Was that strange? It didn’t feel strange to her, but not too long ago, the blue babe had been able to reach over the table and pick up a new glass or two easily. Now she found that she really had to stretch. Hoo, probably just a little bit more tipsy than she thought. That’d be super easy, since she thought that she really shouldn’t be tipsy at all!

That thought made her giggle, which in turn made her forget what she’d just been thinking about. But my, when had the Crystal Light building gotten so big? The ceiling was truly towering. She wasn’t used to feeling small on this planet – most human structures weren’t really built to contain a woman of her stature – but this place really did do it. It had seemed so small when she’d walked in, too. She must have not been paying attention.

A small crowd of lab rat ladies walked past her, in discussion about some experiment or other. The alien amazon stood aside to let them pass, musing about how cute they looked, at just over half of her size. Of course, those curves of theirs weren’t really ‘cute’, were they? So much bigger than hers, too, which was amazing. Her chest was always drawing so much attention, her breasts practically the size of her head, and her ass almost of equal measure. These rat women put her to shame though.

She wondered absently about how those might have happened. Hadn’t Doctor Levin made these girls? Why would he make them so curvy? Must have been some unavoidable part of the process…

Ah well. The blonde alien took another drink, finishing off her sixth glass, and as she stretched to get her seventh and eighth, she remained blissfully oblivious to the way the distance between her and her goal grew greater and greater. Her amazing amazonian height was steadily bleeding out of her, her stature shortening with every sip of her new favourite treat. Mass steadily slipping away to other, curvier pursuits.

And when she found herself reaching for glasses nine and ten a few minutes later, the fact that she now had to walk around the entire table to reach the glasses on the other side didn’t strike her as even a little bit weird. Of course she had to walk around – a woman as short as her couldn’t just lean over the food display, that’d be silly and rude. If Mimic were here, maybe she could have asked her – it was so useful having a taller sidekick!

Though then she’d probably get a couple of jokes about her bust getting in the way, wouldn’t she? Her sidekick was always throwing out jabs and snide remarks about how she had to be careful not to knock anyone over with these things on her chest.

It was definitely jealousy. Poor Mimic had always been envious of her mentor’s cleavage. But that was just how it was! Not everyone could have boobs bigger than their heads like she did!

She took another sip, and cooed absently as her red leotard stretched out another inch trying to keep her blue boobs in. BB paid the creaking sound no mind at all. Oh, and speaking of Mimic, wasn’t that her coming over now?

It was. The orange-suited rat girl was navigating her way across the dance floor around packs of other, shorter, bustier rats, clearly looking for her mentor. BB lifted her arm and waved over the table, managing to attract her attention as she passed.

The two stared at each other for a moment, the shortstack and the rat woman, both of them wondering, for just a fleeting moment, if something was different about their crime fighting compatriot. It did feel like something was just a little bit off…

But no. Both shrugged. Must have been nothing.

“There you are!” Mimic grinned as she scampered over. “Man, it took ages to pick you out of this crowd.”

“I could say the same about you dear,” BB chuckled back, smiling at the light jab. “Not often I see so many familiar features in one place.”

The two grinned over familiar jokes that wouldn’t have made sense to either of them an hour ago.

“Ha, yeah, it’s kind of weird, right? But whatever. Anyway, here, boss.” The rat woman reached into a pocket and pulled out a clear plastic pod. “I figured I’d save you some.”

“Oh! My, thank you.” She too the mini-cheese wheel gratefully - she hadn’t actually tried any yet tonight! But how to open it. It’d need at least two hands, and her other three were occupied holding wine glasses… Ah, solution!

“Here, you should try the wine too,” the space-faring superheroine said, handing over a glass to her sidekick and pretending that was always the plan. “It’s good! Just don’t drink too much.”

“I won’t.” Mimic rolled her eyes, before raising her glass. “Cheers!”

“Cheers.” BB popped open her pod and chomped down on the prize within, just as her sidekick began to drink.

Captivated by the serenade of taste and sensation that filled their mouths, neither of the two noticed as they both began to change. Bodies already primed by their first transformation provided no resistance to the second. It all happened at once, in a rush, as one heroine began to shrink, while the other began to shift.

Golden furred ears sprouted from one woman’s head, merging with her antennae as they grew upwards, twitching lightly in the still party air.

Brown furred tits swelled out as the other woman’s spine shrank, mass starting the swift journey from the y axis to the x.

A golden wave spread down two pairs of arms, which slid together, quickly merging into a single pair of dainty golden limbs, capped by pink paws.

An orange wrapped ass inflated like a water balloon, plumping cheeks filling the latex material to breaking point, the costume even starting to rip around the tail.

And speaking of tails, a new one was growing out to curl daintily around the golden rat’s legs.

While the brown rat was blinking, wondering for a moment when all of the other rat women had gotten so tall – before that thought vanished, just like all of the rest…

And just like their costumes, which melted into a pair of casual lab coats and tight miniskirts. On their chests, black bar codes printed themselves, visible through the fur. One was labelled 147, and the other 148.

Just like all the other lab rats around them.

“Wow, thanks One-Four-Eight! It was, like, super duper nice of you to share with me!”

“Of course, One-Four-Seven! I mean, you’re, like, my mentor and everything! I wouldn’t even know how to find cheese if not for you~!”

The pair giggled and jiggled as they wandered away from the table, moving off to join other crowds of their fellow lab rat girls at the party. And why shouldn’t they? After all, as far as they were concerned, they were just another pair of lab rats – the names of Blue Blazer and Mimic Gimmick had completely vanished from their heads.

“Man, I can’t believe the Doc let us join the fun,” one said as they vanished into the swarm. “I can’t wait until some actual heroes show up~!”

-

Near the door, an amused Doctor Levin was speaking into a Dictaphone. “It appears that neither alien biology nor shapeshifting powers caused any complications for either transformative reagent. Both subjects seem completely taken by their new identities, with only trace elements of their former selves remaining.” He cast his eyes around the room. “Just like all of the others. Testing the reversal agent will have to wait for tomorrow morning, of course. There are, after all, a few more tests left to do…”

He clicked the recording device off, just in time to hear the door open behind him. He turned with a smile on his face.

“My lady MightyFist, so good to see you!”

“Doctor.” The blonde heroine in blue leaned down to accept a pair of kisses on her cheeks with a smile. Behind her, a slightly smaller blonde in a pink costume tried not to retch. “So sorry we’re late. Bridge collapsed on the way into town. You know how it is.”

“Do I ever. Not to worry, not to worry at all. In fact, by hero standards, my dears, you’re practically fashionably early…”