2015.02.19 - Super Adapt-what?

One and a half hours ago, there were reports of AIM getting into a fight with a 'big green guy in purple' in another part of the city. There were sightings of the supervillain Mentallo as well and witnesses say AIM actually won. They loaded that big green guy in a van and took off from what the witnesses said. Searching that van out would have lead to the Bronx.

Specifically a fairly non-desript warehouse it was seen driving into. A warehouse for the last ten minutes have been shaking...and some rather worrying noises kind of like explosions coming from it. Some people have called the cops but most have cleared away. That turns out to be a good thing...since rather suddnly there's an explosion that blows out several windows and launches something through one of the ones on the second floor. A something that crashes down onto a parked car looking rather singed and burnt. That something? That'd be Mustang. "This could not be a worse day," he groans, actually bleeding some decidedly green blood from a few wounds.

Of course the universe punishes such a statement. There's a roar with a tinny edge before another figure comes crashing through a wall. A humanoid figure, roughly half human and half metallic but with green skin. It's holding a bow and wearing a quiver of arrows looking much like Mustang's as well. Glowing yellow eyes look around and the creature roars again before kicking a fire hydrant right off the street and into a nearby building as water gushes into the air. Yeah...not good.

Rampart's parents junkyard, and his base of operations happens to be /in/ the Bronx, and with Tweedle feeding news feeds from several social media sights about various sightings, Augustus had suited up and activated his drones, the 5 suits of armor flying in a wide formation it didn't take long for his feed to pick up people talking about the weird explosions coming from the warehouse district, so when the explosion happens, he's already in the vicinity. At first the teenager doesn't know who to attack, but when what comes to be a synthetic being lets out a roar and indiscriminately destroys some public property Rampart goes into a dive his drones forming up on either side. Bringing up their arms each drone fires a single hockey puck sized device that starts to glow aimed to hit and try to adhere to the monster. "You Alright?" the armor says through all five drones at the same time in an odd sort of harmony, their medical sensors scanning Mustang'

Kilroy had been using a ritual to track disruptions and criminal activity. Most don't know who he is, but since the dark spell last November and the massive raids against them, some have been getting wise enough to get at least dime store bargain basement spell casters which makes his inquiries...harder. Kilroy is still new at ritual himself, and while very powerful in his own sphere, he is still learning metamagic, so when he tries a sideways approach trying for damage, rather than assets, he gets an interesting 'loss' from AIM ....and discovers that said loss is moving around. Mobile property? Smells like a robot....

He checks that out, and flies toward the area in Rai Stone armor. He spots the massive explosion and then the fight below, but he's assessing the situation first. This 'robot' is worth a rediculous amount of money and anythign worth that much makes Kilroy cautious. More importantly...

Is it a sentinel? He's really trying not to make his whole life about Genosha at this point, and kind of wants to move on but he knows the universe doesn't always cooperate.

Clint Barton was at a SHIELD installation helping with a securoty systems upgrade, when he hears the reports, green guy in purple? That could be CJ. Clint looks over at Hank Pym and telsl the other agent, "This can wait, I think my boy is in trouble. And Well Aim is one of our jobs anyway." He then headsout with the other agent towards the reports of trouble. Along the way he makes sure all his gear is ready for action.

Hank Pym is puttering around with the update, though when Hawkeye mentions AIM and his son, he nods his understanding and hurries off after him. "I know AIM.." he says quietly. "They attacked Janet's father once. Where to?"

Mustang curses as the half metal man appears and starts wrecking more stuff. He begins peeling himself free from the car wreckage as Rampart appears. "Oh, don't be more beekeeper guys. I dealt with enough of them," he groans. The scans would reveal one thing right off the bat. Gamma Radiation. The archer in purple's like the Hulk. And while he's pretty badly battered, bruised, and bleeding, he's still standing. And healing faster than a normal person would. "Just fine. Careful, that thing hits as hard as I do. Maybe more," he warns, pushing aside the metal lump formerly known as a sedan.

If Kilroy is paying attention, he'll discover the losses for AIM just keep coming. There's smoke and yelling coming from the warehouse and while in the warehouse itself things look normal...there's a pretty huge hole in the floor revealing a lab. One that's on fire and wreck, full of a bunch of AIM guys running around in a panic. Some are trying to put out fires but others are gathering data and any undestroyed science and heading for escape tunnels.

The creature meanwhile stumbles when struck by the pucks and seems confused for just an moment as forcefields surround it. It snarls angrily and pounds on the fields, overloading them and tearing the pucks off itself. Eyes fix on the drones and the creature's metal half starts rippling and changing like liquid. Even as it takes aim at one drone, that metal shifts and twists until the creature is half green, bald human...and half a copy of one of the drones. And then it fires an arrow at the nearest drone. One that will register as EXPLOSIVE to any sensors.

The drones act in tandem layers of forcefields going up infront of the arror to try and entrap it slowing it down but it's not slowed down enough, the blast taking off one leg at the kneecap Rampart and the armors all go on the defensive forcefields snapping into place they start to circle the creature "What is this thing?" the drones call out sparks showering down from the one damaged leg.

Kilroy realizes that the thing Dangerous, capital D. There's a part of him that wants to believe it can't mimic magic, but given that it's mimicked ARROWS he'd find that something foolish to count on. He can't afford to let it mimic the ability that might call Fate down like a Most Harsh Mistress...but maybe it only mimics abilities used directly against it, not environmental effects....

Kilroy considers....he speaks with Veolus. They'd discussed this in theory, but now is time to push the limits. Time to be...weird. Smashing it with a Rai stone isn't a good idea....and the fact that collateral damage here isn't as big a deal....

And then there were goats. At an upper level of 50 tons, with each goat weighing 100 pounts....20 goats a ton...and suddenly ONE THOUSAND GOATS begin wandering around the Aim facility. Veolos keeps them away from the fire (they could do that themselves) while using CONTROL magic to begin to herd anyone who gets money from AIM out by their wallets or any other money on their person, telekinetically getting them away from the warehouse but stuck in place for the authorities to find.

Clint Barton smiles to Hank as he sets down the transport, "Welcome to the Bronx." He leaps out of the vechile ready for action and he sees the goats and the Adaptiod, "This could be harder then I thought." He admits. Sicne the thing already has arrows Clint does not hesistate to fire some at it. These are of the explosive variety sicne the automaton is a large threat. Hank Pym was calling Janet on the phone, knowing she has no love for AIM.. "Okay, see you soon." nodding to Clint as he hangs up. "Too bad that guy doesn't seem to be being very welcoming to it back.." he observes with a worried frown, spotting the signs of smoke and wreckage even before he can take in the fight. Armor suits, a hulk-like teenager, and some sort of cyborg-like person that's.. a mix of the two? "Well, this is different." he observes, curious despite the fighting.

Almost immediately, Clint and Hank hear Janet over the radio, along with the sound of rapidly buzzing wings. "I'm on my way, ETA a minute or so. Thankfully I was in the area. I'm getting a visual of the vicinity n--... Are those *goats*?" The incredulity in her voice suggests that her expression would be worth taking a picture of right about now.

"No damn clue but its angry and likes destroying things," Mustang calls out, gritting his teeth as the explosion goes off. "Watch out, I don't think that thing ever runs out...and it changed, the hell?" he complains, taking aim with an arrow of his own and letting it fly. He curses and spits out a little blood when a forcefield blocks the simple broadhead arrow. He's already starting to draw more arrows when he sees Clint's fly and looks over quickly. "Dad?!" he pauses and kicks himself. "I mean Hawkeye!" yes, he's glad to see the archer.

The cyborg creature gives another tinny roar when explosive arrows crash against its forcefields and make it stumble more. Eyes turn to Hawkeye and narrow before the creature actually speaks. "REDUNDANT DATA," the creture intones, lifting off the ground now. It points its bow at Clint and launches an arrow his way. Another explosive one. This thing is fond of them.

The appearance of goats in the warehouse raises a whole new round of noise. Cursing, confusing, more panic, one guy even breaks down crying. But it hampers the AIM guys pretty badly, the majority of them hauled away from the crumbling and burning lab thanks to Kilroy. None of them are happy about it. A few that spot Kilroy even take pot shots at him with lasers.

Rampart blinks and pauses for a moment the teen surprised by their sudden and very real appearance, the teen though has lived in New York City his entire life, and well.. odder things have happened. "I'll try and distract it." he calls out in tandem, the four drones suddenly 'exploding' their individual hexagonal links seperating and flying towards his main armor reconnecting and building upon his suit till a twenty five foot suit of armor is standing in his place the teen charging the hulking robot to try and take it on in melee..

The immaculately runed and etched stone armor Kilroy wears magically repairs itself as soon as the lasers hit it. Honestly, that wouldn't have even pierced Veolous's godly auro, armor or no. But it's enough to annoy Kilroy who creates Quipu around the AIM employees once clear of the fire, likely immobilizing them en masse, or at least the majority.

Veolus, in the meantime, keeps up with the plan, hoping that the Goats, now created, count as environmental effects rather than a direct attack. Half of them are rams, and are gifted with flight by the God's magic so that they can RAM the Super adaptoid with their horns, and then fly away. Veolus carefully keeps them out of the way of incoming fire from the heroes. The female sheep do not have horns, but they are living creatures and are made to fly over the robot dropping...what frightened animals are known to drop when flying.

Clint Barton dives and rolls as he sees the incoming arorw and thankfulyl his uniform protects him from the worst of the blast as he ends up just singed nad banged around but not seriously injured. He then calls out, "C.. Mustang we are here to back you up." He then readys another arrown he sends towards the Adaptiod this one and electro shock.

Hank grabs onto Hawkeye's arm and shrinks, towed along with his roll when the arrow explodes. He's still clinging onto Hawkeye's shoulder, now properly looking like Ant-Man as he exclaims, "That seemed like one of your arrows!" he's also puzzled by the goats which..are now flying? "If it's copying people, and it rejected you for redundancy, I wonder what sort of parameters and transference method it uses..? Can in compound unlimited stolen traits, or a limited few?" he wonders. And also wonders what would happen if it was made to copy, say, the goats. Hypothetically speaking.

Janet van Dyne comes arrowing in from the distance, bright green bolts zipping through the air from her bracelets and splashing against some of the still-armed and non-neutralized AIM agents (and probably some of the goats as well; thankfully the Wasp's energy bolts only knock victims unconscious). She's surprisingly on-task considering her earlier incredulity. Not that it keeps her from expressing it over the radio. "And now they're flying. I'd ask if this fight could get any weirder, but I'm afraid of the answer."

"Why are there flying goats?" Mustang demands, letting an arrow fly as well. This one acid. It splashes against the cyborg, causing some smoke and bubbling. The electro shock arrow hits next, lightning arcing around it before it snaps the arrow off and casts it aside. Before it can let loose the arrow its about to launch...goats. Several smack into it before it roars in frustration and grabs one out of the air...only to send it flying at Mustang. The noise is probably funny but Mustang being knocked of his feet by a poor goat...probably not. And the cyborg is catching the next goat...only to fling this one at Clint and Hank. Things get worse though, the metal parts of the cyborg shifting more. This time the half of the creature's head that doesn't look like one of Rampart's drones looks like its wearing half of Hank's helmet. And the creature begins to grow. Tall enough to match Rampart's size even if it ends up knocked back into the warehouse by his charge. Brick and mortar crumble and crash, the ground shaking more and windows shattering as more things explode down below.

Trapped or not, those AIM guys are still unhappy. There's a bunch unconscious before Wasp adds to that number. Oddly enough, there's one pulled out in just his underwear and helmet. Apparently he kept his wallet in one of those. It is a weird day.

Rampart's armor enhances his strength many fold when enlarged, his hands arms arms straining as he starts to grapple with the cyborg trying to lock up it's arms to prevent more flying goat flinging... "can someone shut this thing down already? it's starting to strain my servos." he calls out..

"Not good." Kilroy decides that the time has come to take a more direct hand. The idea was to distract it, but the goats aren't penetrating the armor. Kilroy arrives himself and SLAMS into it in the giant stone armor, chips of it flying off as he begins unleashing as many blows as he can.

Veolus, meanwhile gently sets the goats down and then after a few moments begins making coins come from its mouth just like Kilroy did to Apocalpse almost a year ago. Humiliating, but likely to make it upset and distracted if it is capable of such.

Veolus is a nice guy but being dead for 2000 years made him....

Not as bright as he could be."

Clint Barton is ntot trained in dodging goats, still it is not the oddest thing hurled at him during his carrer. he is na animal lover thogh so he lets the goat hit him rolling iwth the impact to keep from braking anything but he head up in a heap on the ground with a goat nearby, the wind knocked out of both of them.

Hank Pym yelps as the goat flies into Hawkeye. He jumps to the side, turning to see if Clint is okay. Looks like he's awake and unbroken, thank goodness, and the goat too, no less! "Nice catch." he congratulates, though the audio is mostly audible over the SHIELD radio when he's so small.

Pym turns back to the fight, fretting in response to Rampart's shouted urging, "..I'm not sure we -could- disable it's systems quickly; whatever's making it shift like that smacks of nanotechnology. But it -does- seem like it's a biological base organism.. and it seems to be mimicking anything that seems like a threat to it. Anything dangerous, bigger, badder.." he trails off. "Got an idea." he starts growing too-- it's not instantaneous, and he's a block or so away, but he'll soon be very visible, just as tall as Rampart and his opponent.

Janet van Dyne is flitting to and fro now, taking potshots at any AIM agents she sees still moving around the vicinity. She's talking on the radio as well. "If it's nanotech, does that mean trying to fly into the working and mess things up is a -bad- idea? ...Ooh, someone hit the jackpot. Dibs on the coins."

"Pretty sure this is what internal bleeding feels like," Mustang groans as he pushes back to his feet. He's glad he's kept his grip on his bow at least. He wipes some blood from his nose and looks up at the towering fighters before sighing. "I really miss the others at times like this," he murmurs, carefully selecting a new arrow.

Servos will probably be the least of Rampart's worries soon enough. The cyborg pushes back harder, strength increased even more than it already had been. It starts squeezing at Rampart's armor where they meet too, leaving indentations that Rampart will have to hammer out later...provided he survives at least. There's more metal shifting as the bot catches sight of the flitting Wasp briefly enough for yellow eyes to flash. This time, extra-large copies of Jan's bracelets appears on the cyborg's wrists. Before it gets a chance to sting though...Cannonball Kilroy. The cyborg is knocked away from Rampart and knocks pieces off another nearby building. The creature's eyes flash again and the robotic half takes on designs similar to Kilroy's armor over the metal...but then there's something wrong. "ERROR. ILLOGICAL DATA. ERRORRRRAAAAAAGGGGGH!" the robotic voice booms before the creature swats at Kilroy...and then starts firing. Quarters, dimes, nickles, and pennies are launched like machine gun ammo, imbedding in the concrete and shattering windows all over. They're oddly resistant to doing what Kilroy wants them to as well and would feel decidedly wrong to him. Like they just shouldn't be. But they're still being shot at Hank, Kilroy, Rampart, and the Bartons.

One of the AIM guys by Wasp breathes a sigh of relief when Wasp's distracted away from blasting him. He perks up from where he's stuck though. "You can get inside?! What, no! That's a good thing!" he says, trying to get some heroic attention.

"The antenna on your helmet, are they purely decorative, or do they serve a function?" the teen asks of Hank as the teen moves to once more to grab the robot to try and grapple with it. When he hears the answer "lets try interfacing with it, use your systems to try and connect to it's copy, I'll try doing the same with the portion that's mimicing my armor, maybe we can give it a shut down command." he tells the scientist as his sensors reach out to try and communicate with the portion of the cyborg that's copying him..

Kilroy decides that another talk with Veolus is in order, and after a few thoughts between them, Veolus does something simple...he focuses on trying to destroy the coin based ammo, as much as he can, as the machine generates it. It's not a sophisticated task and it isn't his most used ability, but it can do some good.

Kilroy, in the meanwhile, finally brings out the Rai stones, but in this case pushing himself to the limit he brings out 25 trying to shield as many people and buildings as possible. He can't shield everything, and he wishes now he could make them invisible, but at the last he can minimize the damage....

Clint Barton dives behind a car to let it abosrb the incoming coins, "I always wanted to get showered with money but not like this." he then fires off anothe arrow at the thing. This one not intending ot damage it but a smake arow in hte attempts to blind it. After al lit might not be able to see i nthe dark.

Hank responds to Janet, "Well, it means that every time it shifts, the technology it's using is actually restructuring it's body to some degree. So if you got inside the part that looks mechanical, it could turn into anything the next time it shifts with you inside it." unaware there's an AIM guy saying just the opposite next to Janet he adds, "That would be bad."

As the coins start flying, Hank's big enough now that he has to take cover behind a whole building to shield himself; he's tougher like this, but a few still ping off him painfully. Ducking down now he hears Rampart's question, shouting back the answer. At the teen's suggestion he says, "I'll see what I can do!"

Pym takes his own helmet off, though leaves the SHIELD earbud to say, "Might want to cover your ears." and starts trying to tweak his helmet to send feedback to it's copy; his own helmet starts whining quietly, but if this works, the helmet welded onto the adaptoid is abruptly shrieking with ear-splitting volume right on it's head. If they're lucky, their opponent will soon be blind -and- deaf.

Janet van Dyne pauses in her mayhem when her attention is drawn by the lackey pinned under a pair of goats. She flits a little closer. "What's that? If it's nanotech, the inside is a swarm of nanites, not big clunky machinery and wires that can be easily jammed..." She narrows her eyes, and points a fist at him, though she secretly dials back the stinger to 'painful.' "What do you know? Talk quick."

There's a thud as CJ dives for cover and manages to get behind the car with Hawkeye. He's looking beat up but still grins. "Too bad Uncle Bruce isn't here, huh?" he tries to make a joke, pushing back onto his feet and staying crouched behind the car.

Luck is on the side of the heroes today. Or something else. Who knows. But either way, that smoke arrow manages to wedge itself right in the middle where copied drone and copied helmet meet...and then suddenly the cyborg's head is covered in smoke and it yells in frustration. The sound doesn't exactly deafen the beast but it does swipe blindly, smashing against Rai stones and destorying cars. About half the coins it fires are just obliterated in mid-air, cutting down on the danger in the air. Oddly enough, the coins that the cyborg created don't last very long. They seem to break apart into little piles of the raw materials used to make those coins.

Not everything is lucky though. Seconds after Hank makes the noise assault the cyborg a new one is coming back through his helmet pretty loudly. Its a like a mix of an old dial-up modem, the rubbing of a windbreaker against itself, howling cats, and a Taylor Swift single all melded together in one very loud sound. And its coming out of Hank's helmet and being projected into Rampart's armor when they try connecting to cyborg. Rampart will be getting plenty of ERROR messages from the cyborg too. Apparently copying Kilroy didn't work out well for the creature.

"Ohgodpleasedon'tshoot!" the AIM goon yelps. "I'm Bob, Agent of AIM. I've got a cousin in HYDRA...uh...that's Anders from medical research. He's not one hundred percent nanite, we were testing out a prototype Adaptoid system based off some stuff we stole from a guy named Ivo and had to install a control core. It's inside him creating and directing all the nanites, if you can do something to it, all that stuff should shut down," he babbles. "It's where his left Kidney should be. He donated it so we figured we'd use the empty space..."

Queue the power armor with medical sensors scanning the cyborgs body the sensors find the device right where he said it was. "Does anyone here have any medical training?" he asks listening to the group, when there isn't a doctor in the house Augustus grimaces "ok.. someone make sure we got a doctor in the house.. I can see the thing, and I can remove it.. I'm going to try and do as little damage as I can, but I'm no surgeon" he calls out his two arms grappling with the creature as his armor seems to unfold itself from around him a pair of drone arms appearing right near where that kidney would have been to project a forcefield inside the body of the cyborg shaping it around the device first and trying to collapse the field around it crushing the device..

Kilroy closes in the Rai Stones, trying to immobilize and contain the creature as much as possible. As it smashes or bats aside on Rai Stone, the one sent away is destroyed and replaced almost as quickly as it is removed. Containment and minimizaiton is the primary goal now.

Luck no shot of Hawkeye's is ever luck that is skill my freinds. Clint clutches his hears in pain as the feedback happens and is magnified by his hearing aids. he turns them off ot end the pain but funtionally deafening him as well. He looks at the adaptiod once more. A bit of anger flares up and he sohoot, this one is just a normal sharp pointy arrow but it is on a true course for the creature.

Hank Pym ...is glad he took the helmet off before he tried that.. he leaves it on the ground, causing it to shrink back to it's normal size when he lets go of it-- for himself he keeps growing taller, pressing the limits of what he's successfully managed. "Hey!" he shouts, steadying himself on the top of the building, "Can't keep up?" he challenges. It's probably not the best as taunts go, but Hank isn't terribly well versed in being confrontational. At the very least he's looming over the adpatoid now, though it may be a moot point with everyone suddenly focusing on that absent left kidney.

Janet van Dyne just counts her lucky stars taht she was able to relay the information -before- the adaptoid started blaring noise across the radio frequencies. With a wince, she turns down her own radio before she goes deaf. To the lackey, she says, "Thnak you for your cooperation, Bob. We'll take it into consideration during the legal proceedings. Now be a good minion and stay put." She takes to wing again and considers trying to attack the main target with the stingers, just to distract it... but her weapons are attuned specifically to disrupt neural activity. If it started using the same thing against them, it could get a distint advantage in the fight. Instead she just hovers close to Rampart and his drones, shouting instructions on just where exactly the kidney should be.

Mustang doesn't have the ability to turn off his hearing so he's stuck clamping hands over his ears and looking annoyed and in pain.

It can't really see or hear clearly but the cyborg does take notice of Kilroy and Giant Man. The whole time, Rampart's getting the sound in his ear...hopefully he enjoys the ringing that will be following him for the rest of the day. But at least the cyborg is distracted away from what he's doing. It's too busy swatting stones and growing larger as it tries to grab at Hank. A few oversized sting-blasts get launched at the massive scientist but that seems mostly to be by accident. An arrow pierces the robot's more metal-looking eye and brings a roar but that roar is cut short.

The device is thankfully not connected to anything inside the man other than to anchor it but when its finally crushed, there's a loud SCREEEEE over the radio and the sound suddenly stops. The liquid metal ripples around the cyborg and then bursts off like a bubble. Enjoy the goop. At least its shrinking. And speaking of shrinking, so is the now entirely human looking cyborg. The green is fading from his skin and he's coughing the whole time. occasionally he vomits out a mix of metal goop and all manner of horrible looking and smelling things. When all is said and done, he passes right out. What had been a terrifying cyborg before? Just a bald scientist in his thirties in a pair of metal boxer shorts. He's cut up and and bruised all over and will definitely need an ambulance but he's not rampaging anymore at least.

Rampart grunts thankfully his armor keeping the smell away, although he's either going to scrap the armor, or have to boil it when he's done here.. "vitals are solid, I'm keeping anything in the device from leaking out into his blood stream, but that's about the best I can do without risking tearing anything.." he says his armor 'melting' itself as the four drones just sort of fall off from his body and reform one of them holding the forcefield around the man's 'kidney'

Kilroy proceeds to delete ALL traces of money everywhere. He can't do anything about Cameras or eye witnesses, but he'll be @#$@#$ if he's leaving evidence. Except the goats. He'll heal any that are damaged, but now that the thing is taken care of, he makes an encrypted Tor'd 9/11 call in case the Giant Robot somehow hadn't already alerted them, but he includes a detailed account of how many AIM goons need pick up, how many goats need transport to farms, how many repair crews are needed, and how many police officers are needed to cordon off the area. And with that...he flies off.

Clint Barton steps out from behind the car and lets out a whooping cheer in victory he then looks over ot Hank and speaks Loudly, " think it is time to call in the clean up team."

Hank Pym was already getting dizzy from pushing his size limit, so when the adaptoid clips him with a wild sting bolt and then grabs him, it's probably for the best; it's about the only thing that allows him to catch his balance and keep from falling over himself, but he's not sure he can manage any more---and then he's unceremoniously splattered with various techno-organic matter. Well, that means there'll be plenty of it to study later! Hank staggers as the adaptoid lets go and shrinks, following suit himself if only to avoid passing out. He ends up normal sized, sitting in the street and holding his head. He laughs though when he registers Hawkeye's comment, shaking off his hands of the slime a bit. "Y-yeah..that..that sounds good. Everyone okay..?"

Janet van Dyne wasn't able to avoid all the mess when all the goop sloughed off, and is making loud protests. "If this stuff starts eating me and making more grey goo out of my skin, I'm going to be very upset! Rampart, we need an EMP, stat! ...Oh ick it's in my -hair-..."

"Clean up team and how about one that brings a massage? Or a hot tub?" Mustang whoops in victory as well, following after his fellow archer. He doesn't seem to mind the goo and it seems pretty inert. Just wet and slimy and thankfully not sticky. There's sounds of sirens coming already...lots of them. But it looks like the heroes have won the day even if they made a huge mess.