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Oh really? We aren’t just copies of our parents? James doesn’t wear stars or have a shield because of his Dad? Azari isn’t the Black Panther, or becoming the King of Wakanda because of his lineage? Torunn doesn’t wander around trying to be as Asgardian as possible because she’s an Alien? Francis, you use a bow and arrow for what reason? There’s only one, and it’s because your Dad used one. We are what our parents leave us. This was their legacy that we all adopted and now I’m learning that my family isn’t what I thought it was.
- -- Pym
Appearing in "The Astonishing X-Men"Edit
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
Supporting Characters:
Other Characters:
- Avengers
- Jocasta
- Friday
- Hank Pym (Mentioned)
- Janet Van Dyne (Mentioned)
- Steve Rogers (Mentioned)
- T'Challa (Mentioned)
- Clint Barton (Mentioned)
- X-Men
- Beast (Mentioned)
- Emma Frost (Mentioned)
- X-23 (Mentioned)
- Katherine Pryde (Mentioned)
- Marcus Johnson (First Appearance)
- Valerie Cooper (Mentioned)
- Peter Parker (Mentioned)
Locations:
- Earth-3116
Items:
Synopsis for "The Astonishing X-Men"Edit
The story starts off in Genosha with the X-Men Blue Team who are getting ready to take off. It's 4 in the morning and the team are sneaking around the school trying to set their plan in action to get to America and help out the Avengers. The team admire themselves in the mirror for a little bit and collectively tell Michael not to talk out loud and instead use their telepathic link.
Jimmy gets them to focus on this things that are important and tell them that they all know the plan, and that now was the time to execute. The all agree and gave each other one last nod before taking off in different directions. Jimmy and Sofia were leading the pack they had the team's things. Duffle bags filled with gear and whatever else they thought they might need.
Jimmy and Sofia also had the task of pushing the Blackbird out of the hangar quickly and quietly which the two heroes were managing fairly well. Jane, Jessica, and Michael had the hardest job of sneaking into the X-Men's private meeting room and stealing the Cerebro helmet. As it stood, Michael had used his copycat powers to switch enough of his DNA to Beast’s to unlock the door code, and currently Jessica and Jane were using their combined telepathic power to unlock the helmet from it’s locker.
Once they all got into the jet Jimmy rushed them in and began flicking switches getting the Blackbird to take off. Jimmy tells Jessica to help Jane get Cerebro on her head and do their thing. He then tells Michael and Sofia, to keep watch as he was about to take off.
The group is in sync and Jimmy gets to the skies, and out of Genoshan Airspace with little trouble causing Sofia to cheer. Michael is the one to shut it down, which was very unlike him, but he claimed the telepaths needed to pull through before they could celebrate. He asks Jane how's she's holding up and she says she's fine, but this wasn't an easy feat for the young telepath.
She was currently in the process of Using Cerebro, and it was safe to say that this wasn’t something she really wanted to do again anytime soon. The pressure it was putting on her was immense, she didn’t want to crack under pressure, as the illusion she was throwing up was a big reason they were able to leave so easily.
Jessica tells Jane not to worry and that she can shoulder some of the telepathic weight, and that they could do it. The two telepaths give each other the confidence and strength needed to use Cerebro and eventually find the location of Azari who they pinpoint in the Arctic Circle.
Jimmy is a little skeptical that they got the right place as they want him to fly to the middle of nowhere, but Jane assures Jimmy that she's never been more sure of something in her entire life. Jimmy sets course for the Arctic, and Michael tells the team that after this life will never ever be the same again.
The next scene is in the Biodome where James and Azari are having an intense sparring session. James seems to have a bit of an edge, which irks Azari a little bit because personally he feels better than ever, which makes it kind of annoying that James is still able to evade him attacks.
Despite this Torunn pushes Azari on, coaching him up in the fight. It continued like that for a while until a loud alarm began to blare throughout the entire Biodome. It was an alarm recognized as one for intruders surprising the Avengers as it would be incredibly stupid to attempt the team here. The Biodome was a fortress, so it was hard to believe the Masters of Evil might be that stupid.
Regardless of this James still rallies the team to get ready for anything. As they got to the meeting room. Pym and Riri were already there. Riri immediately shows them the footage of the intruders and James and Azari immediately recognize the plane as the Blackbird.
Francis asks if they think it's the kids they talked to and James says he likes to think so, but he's not sure. He thinks the best option is for Torunn to head out and make contact with the Blackbird before bringing them out to the Biodome.
Torunn asks Tony for permission and he gives, more than a little worried and shocked about what was happening. If it was the older X-Men the chances they would hate him were high, and if it was the younger ones...How could he let them around without telling the X-Men. It would be so unethical. He couldn’t imagine how annoyed and angry he’d be if the X-Men knew where the Avengers were and didn't tell him.
Francis notes that Pym doesn't look all that excited and he simply shrunk and flew off, and Francis rationalizes this by saying Pym isn't a morning person, but Amadeus and Riri were still confused as they had never seen Pym like that before.
For Azari however he couldn’t keep the frown off his face. These past few weeks with Pym had probably been the most annoyed he had ever been with him in years, and he was sure the feelings were vice-versa. The difference was Azari still had no clue why he was mad, and he felt like he and maybe James were the only ones who saw that.
The first assumption had been Torunn. He usually needed her to talk to every once in a while, but this wasn’t that. He had been acting weird before Torunn actually left for Asgard. Besides she had been back for 3 whole days, this should have been solved by now.
Things were going pretty decent for the heroes so it was just really confusing for Azari to see Pym so...distraught. What could possibly be making him like this?
Pym was closing in on 14 so Azari assumed it might just be puberty, but to be honest, he was just 15 and going through that himself. He doubted it could have been that. His mind raced around for a while attempting to figure out why exactly Pym was so angry, when he didn’t have to be anymore.
His thoughts were cut short when Torunn radioed in telling the group that she had arrived with the visitors. James told them to head to the main floor and couldn't contain his excitement. X-Men? Here? In 2010? It felt insane, truly a new era.
They all waited near the compound doors, as the X-Men began to come out of their jet once in a while responding to whatever it seemed Torunn was asking them. It was cool, but for James and Azari as they watched them come near they both were shocked as these were not the mutants they talked to.
Francis notes that mutants really are really different, as he looks at Jessica who's chalk white skin and black tattoo, really make her stand out from the rest it was interesting. He asks James and Azari if these were the mutants they talked to, and they tell them no, they actually never say them. But that didn't necessarily matter in the long run.
Torunn introduces the X-Men with a dramatic bow, and the heroes notice that it almost looks like the five were posing, as they looked picture perfect.
After the posing seemed to end James shock Jimmy's hands first and began to introduce himself and the team to the X-Men. As he introduced himself he was interrupted by Jane who told James she loved his work, and was subsequently teased by her team for it.
James then ran through the introductions of the entire team including Amadeus and Riri, and in turn the X-Men introduced themselves to the Avengers, telling their names and their powersets. Pym took interest in Michael as he explained his Copycat like powers.
Azari asked the Blue Team what made them want to come over and Jimmy explains that while the Avengers never saw them, the Blue Team heard everything. They believe they have the abilities to help, and even if the Older X-Men don't want to do anything they've come to take their place.
James tells them that's great and that they are happy to have them and will get them briefed on the current situation. Everything is going well but Tony interrupts telling the teens that appreciates the lengths they've gone to lend a helping hand, but as a guardian he can't knowingly have them at the Biodome and not let the X-Men know about it.
Michael begs Tony not to tell the X-Men, but Tony doesn't budge insisting he simply can't do that to them. He tells them that he will do his best to make sure everything goes well. And that it will be fine but the Blue Team have trouble believing that.
James insists it will be fine, as things were too late to backfire at the moment. Them being here gives the X-Men no choice but to come over and work things out which is what they've wanted from the beginning. Despite this Francis can tell that they are a little worried so Francis offers to take them on a tour of the Biodome to ease there mind on everything.
The rest of the Avengers joined Francis and everyone left the room save for Tony, and the smallest Avenger Pym who stayed behind. The Pixie was not happy in the slightest After finally having the heart to pick up his parents journals again things simply went from bad to worse but...he was dealing with it. Getting over it even. But the delve deeper into his father’s work allowed him to find some very concerning things. Things of the Ultron kind that just blew his mind. He was going to be waiting for Tony, and whether the inventor wanted to talk or not he was going to.
The next takes place in Colorado at the Vault. The Supermax prison was up and ready. The Vault was really looking great. Well as great as a prison could look. But still for Daisy it was impressive the way her Scavengers were handling things, and it was nice being outside the Biodome even if it was to do checkups on the Prison.
Her and Eli had been put in charge of a lot of the operations for the Vault. The cleaning up and restoration, and the moving of the villains from the Biodome to the prison. They had already moved Radioactive Man, and Crossfire first as they were the ones to watch out for, the chances they could have been plotting were small but significant enough that getting them into cells was the top priority.
And now the two agents of the Masters of Evil found themselves behind bars in maybe the toughest supermax facility in the world. Daisy liked to believe that even 15 years ago it would still be one of the best.
After those two however they took their time with the last one. Omega Red. The first villain caught since Ultron’s demise. In a way he kind of kick started everything. After that Savage Land mission for the Avengers. Things weren’t really the same. From finding the X-Men, to going to California, to this entire mess with the Masters of Evil. It was pretty wild. She had freaking powers now!
Daisy was pulled out of her mind as her comm was ringing. She picked it up and it was Eli telling her that Omega Red's transport had landed and that they were ready for her orders. Daisy told them to bring him in and couldn't help but note how perfect everything was turning out to be.
Everything was right on time. Daisy corralled a couple of the other Scavengers and they met up with Eli and two of the other Scavengers who were wheeling Omega Red into the facility. He was in a huge containment cell that Tony and Bruce had designed. The life stealing mutant was probably going to be locked up for the rest of his natural life.
It was interesting to Daisy because for a lot of these villains returning from “the grave” they might have been accepted back into society with open arms had they simply stopped being jerks. But apparently even after what was nearly the end of the world they couldn’t help but also be a**holes.
The group of Scavengers all helped get Omega Red into his cell, it was a fairly easy task, and it was cool to be considered the big gun in this situation if a fight broke out. Everything went smoothly however, and so there was no longer anything to do. So with a couple of hours left on Daisy’s shift, she headed for her office.
When Daisy finally got to her rather large office, she hadn’t expected to see anyone there. No less a man sitting in her chair. And so immediately she was on edge. She entered her office quickly, shutting the door fast hoping no one noticed, she thrust her hands up in the air, and was ready to blast the man if he made any sudden movements. “Get up quietly don’t make any moves, and maybe I’ll go easy on you.”
Despite her threats the man didn't do anything but put his hands up slowly telling her that this was not what she thought it was. Now that things had slowed down a bit she had time to really analyze the person in front of her. He was a dark skinned man, similar in complexion to Eli. He was bald, clean shaven, probably around the ages of 25-35, and he wore all black military like clothes with a trench coat. But the most interesting thing was the eyepatch over his left eye. And Daisy was pretty sure it wasn’t for show.
She questioned who he was and in return he told her to relax and that he was going to explain everything, and in a somewhat joking manner told her to put the hands down. Regardless Daisy did as she was told and the once again asked who he was. The man hesitated briefly but quickly told her that his name was Marcus Johnson and then asked her she felt about the state of the world.
It wasn’t what she expected but the question did make her feel at ease about putting her guard down “It’s not....bad. I’d say we might actually be in a good place, better than we’ve ever been.”
“Even with the current...international distractions? This Masters of Evil?”
“No one’s called them that.” Daisy pointed out.
“No but I’m sure you, the other Scavengers, and the Avengers call them that fairly regularly. That’s who we're dealing with right?”
“What do you know?”
“There’s a timeline for our world. Right now is going to be the most influential time in our entire history. No moment in the world’s history matters more than this one. And that’s because we can actually change things. But I’m sure you know that already.”
“Of course and I think we are doing a pretty good job. The Avengers have done a great job of getting things done.”
“The Avengers are a problem.” Marcus told her plainly.
“Wha?” Was all she could manage.
“The Avengers do great work. Amazing work even. They are the world’s leading force in World’s Security. Without them Ultron would most definitely still be ruling over the planet. But they are a problem because this isn’t an effective way to run the world.”
“What makes you say that? You just admitted they are effective.”
“And they probably always will be.” Marcus didn’t back down. “But when the entire world is consistently dependent on 5 teenagers to be the protectors of the planet 24/7, 365 you're simply setting yourself up for failure.”
And she could see the logic in his thinking. Even at the moment restoration efforts had to be slowed because of the Masters of Evil. It was only recently they had started it up again. If somebody else popped up and was a problem, was something like this going to happen again? It was a question rightly asked, and needed an honest answer.
“And I’m guessing you have a plan?” Daisy assumed.
“Yes you…And well me.”
“Explain.”
“You are perfect for the job. I and many others think so. I’ve watched you from afar and your skills are nearly unmatched by anyone who isn’t an Avenger. Your previous experience would obviously be a big help.”
“Wha-what job?”
“Like I said in due time. You and the other Avengers just make sure you keep Valerie safe. When she’s safe and she’s won. I’ll explain everything.” Marcus told her, and he began to get up seemingly ready to leave.
“And so I’m just supposed to wait until then?”
"Don’t worry I’ll keep in touch.” And with a nod before he exited he was gone. She was in shock for a few seconds but she quickly ran for the door and looked outside only to see that he was nowhere to be found.
“What the heck...” Daisy whispered to herself. She was somewhat amazed by the tricks of Marcus Johnson and found herself entirely intrigued with everything that was going on. Somehow Daisy was sure that life had just gotten weirder.
In the next scene the comic throws us right into the middle of an argument Pym and Tony are having. With Tony telling Pym to just calm down. But Pym simply refuses stating that this was his parents they were talking about, his legacy.
What he had learned about his Mom and his Dad over the past couple of weeks had been draining, and just an all around horrifying experience. And couple that with the fact that it seemed like Pym was learning about something new that Tony had hid from them every week was making him so angry.
His father was basically a crazy person, who hit his mom and tried to attack the Avengers multiple times, and despite that Tony never said a thing. And of course the worst offence of all. The fact that his father created Ultron and Tony hadn’t ever thought to tell him. No one thought to tell him. Not Bruce, or Jocasta, or Vision. He couldn’t even blame the team as they probably believed that Tony created the AI like he told them.
Instead it was his father who had nearly doomed the world and had gotten hundreds of millions of people killed. And for some reason Tony didn’t think this was information he deserved to know? How could he? Didn’t he understand how much Pym adored the man? How he took his word as gospel? So why were there so many lies?
Pym is shaken out of his thoughts once Tony tells him to calm down once more, and Pym retorts by asking why Tony never told him about how his parents lived, and why he never told him that his father created Ultron. Tony answers by saying it's not an easy thing to tell, and that these things happened decades ago and were no longer relevant.
This causes Pym to explode and tell Tony that it was clearly relevant enough if he lied about it, and Tony shoots back by saying it wasn't a lie. At this moment, The Avengers have returned with the Blue Team. Each and every newcomer is shocked and more worried than ever as fights between these two were very rare. James asks what's going on and Pym just unloads on everyone about Tony.
“TONY'S AN A**HOLE AND DIDN”T TELL ME THAT MY PARENTS WERE CRAZY AND THAT MY DAD CREATED ULTRON!”
This puts the Avengers in varying degrees of shock, with Torunn the most shocked about Pym's colorful language and Francis demanding to her that one more time. After Pym explains it again, Azari asks the old superhero if it's true, and Tony responds by saying it's not as simple as Pym is making it seem.
This causes Pym to continue going off and James tells him to calm down, and he flat out tells him no. James warns Pym just with his eyes, letting Pym understand things weren't going to work that way taking a bit of the wind out of his sails, but he still tells them all they wouldn't be relaxed if this was them.
Eventually Francis gets the conversation back to the main thing, and that was about How Ultron was created and Bruce was the first one to speak up.
“I was never told by Tony that he didn’t create Ultron.” Bruce started “I figured it out on my own. When I was...soul searching. I had a lot of time to think about Ultron and what he did to the world. And while I wouldn’t have been surprised if Stark had managed to do something that stupid. I was also hesitant to believe it was all him after remembering what Ultron told the Hulk.”
“What did he say?” Francis asked quickly
“He had told the Hulk that the Avengers had always thought of me as an outcast. An even bigger outcast than his creator. And while Tony could be annoying. There was no doubt that he was a huge piece of our team. He was never an outcast. Pym’s father however-
“He became one. After all that Yellowjacket stuff right.” Pym finished for him, with a knowing glare.
"Yes...exactly.” Bruce admitted, just a bit shocked at Pym’s knowledge “Now at the time the Hulk was in and out of the Avengers but still you hear things, and it became quite the story in the Superhero community. Regardless after hearing Ultron’s words. I knew that there was more to it than Tony was admitting, I just never really saw a need to address it.”
Azari is the next to talk wondering how Pym acquired this knowledge in the first place, and he explains that the journals Azari gave them had quite the wealth of knowledge in it. And that he knows Tony didn't make Ultron, so why did he lie. But once again Tony disagrees with this.
“It wasn’t a lie. Not exactly” Tony told them, sighing. When did things suddenly get so crazy? “I did contribute in creating Ultron. I put the ideas in Hank’s head. Ideas about World Security, and World Peace, an almost all knowing sentient robot that was a force for good. A peacekeeping force. Ultron we named it.”
“Hank and I were hellbent on getting this to work but if you know me, at times a more interesting project can be capable of swaying my attention. The Ultron idea seemed like a good one but a flawed one. And for me I never made it past the blueprints. I never added AI or coding. Ultron was just words...I told Hank I was scrapping the project. He didn’t like it. For once it seemed like we were getting along again and I was killing it off. It was 1993 Francis had just been born, the Avengers had been planning out retirement for months now and the world was safe. Because the world was safe I reasoned we didn’t need to go any further with Ultron. The Avengers could retire and even if another threat appeared there would still be heroes like Spider-Man ready to stop it. We were fine.”
“This never stopped Hank who had his own copy of schematics. And his own personal drive to do something...Something to redeem himself in the eyes of the Avengers, the eyes of his peers, The eyes of his friends, and most importantly Janet. A couple of months later. Ultron is born, a few weeks after that he defects from his programming. A couple of months later he created Vision and Jocasta who both almost instantly defect from their programming. And weeks after that the Avengers scramble together one last time to fight one last baddie and officially retire. Defeating Ultron ‘for good.’ So yes I did help create Ultron. Without me there is no Ultron. I didn’t lie.”
Everyone in the room was tense as Tony finished retelling the story. It really was something they should have already known. For Azari, James, and Francis they were all thinking similar things. This was information that could have benefitted them in so many ways, but it wasn’t really the end of the world, and they weren’t so sure Pym should have been going crazy about it.
Torunn spoke up first telling Tony that a lie of omission is still a lie. She was cut off by Pym who demanded how he could know what information he needed to know. And he now believes his entire life is a lie, which Francis disagrees with.
“I mean call me crazy but...I think your being a little dramatic Pym.” Francis admitted “So what Tony didn’t create Ultron who cares, It just makes the fact he let us all think he did more...meaningful. He shouldered the blame for the end of the world. It’s going to be hard for me to be mad at him for that.”
“Of course you’d say that, you can’t ever understand.”
“But what is your problem Pym?” Azari asked the young genius “It sounds like you're mad at Tony for lying to you about things and I get that but...I thought we all recognized there was always going to be things that Tony hid from us and it was just for the good of the team.”
“How is me not knowing this for the good of the team!?!?! Huh? How does this benefit anybody?”
“It stops freakouts like this.” Francis muttered just loud enough for everyone to hear. But before Pym could retort James was already jumping in.
“Tony probably shouldn’t have kept this from us, as the information is kind of vital.” James tried to take Pym’s side a bit “I'm pretty sure the government and others believe that Tony had a major role in creating Ultron but no one can blame you for making blueprints. Our movement has been restricted because of this so maybe you should have told us. But also I can understand why you wouldn’t say anything.”
“How could you understand something like that?”
“Well because you're already freaking out.” Francis interjected “I get why you're mad at Tony, and your Mom and your Dad, and blah blah blah, but it’s not that big of a deal. Who cares if your Dad created Ultron.”
“Who cares, that's my Legacy. Of course I care!”
“Really so I’m guessing that the entire time we thought Tony created Ultron it made us all think differently of him right?” Francis questioned.
“I get what Francis is saying.” Azari added on, “You seem to think your life is over now or you have to be a certain way because of something your father did. Life isn’t like that. We aren’t just what our parents are, and whatever you’ve learned about your family shouldn’t make you think differently of them.”
“Oh really? We aren’t just copies of our parents? James doesn’t wear stars or have a shield because of his Dad? Azari isn’t the Black Panther, or the coming King of Wakanda because of his lineage? Torunn doesn’t wander around trying to be as Asgardian as possible because she’s an Alien? Francis, you use a bow and arrow for what reason? There’s only one, and it’s because your Dad used one. We are what our parents leave us. This was their legacy that we all adopted and now I’m learning that my family isn’t what I thought it was.”
“If I may...interject.” Vision spoke up for the first time “Pym you are clearly the most angry at Tony’s deception, and that I don’t think I can help with. But the idea that you have to be something because of your parents...Ultron was my creator. And I’d like to think I’ve done a good job at distancing myself from his...legacy. You don’t have to be anything you don’t want to be.”
“It’s not the same.”
“But isn’t it?” James insisted “Pym you're justified in your anger but you're being unreasonable. Just because your parents made a mistake doesn’t mean you have to. That’s not how life works. You don’t have to emulate everything they do.”
“Yeah well-
“Sorry to interrupt.” Amadeus told them suddenly “But, I have an incoming transmission, and it’s not even encrypted. Supposedly...it’s from Taskmaster. Do I pick it up?”
This new and random knowledge quickly changed the situation. One moment, everyone was focused on Pym and his issue, the next moment. It was like no one could care any less.
“Head to the meeting room, there’s better protection from over there.” Tony told Amadeus quickly. “Team suit up just in case.” James got back into leader mode “Blue Team...head to the meeting room, you probably won’t be able to do anything, but you can watch.”
The five heroes wasted no time scampering out of there, and the rest began to make themselves scarce also. Vision phased through the ground, and Banner simply left without a word following Amadeus and Riri.
“So that’s it huh? No one cares anymore?” Pym questioned angrily as the OGs got ready to leave the room.
“It’s not like that Pym.” Azari tried, but he wasn’t having it.
“No, I get it. You have time for everything else, but not me. Or any of my problems…Tony can just lie about everything and no one cares. That's just great. And you know what that just shows-
“Pym, please just shut up!” James told the boy angrily, “We are dealing with the Masters of Evil and Taskmaster just called our freaking base of operations. We don’t have time to deal with all of this. There are quite frankly more important things at stake here so if you can’t be mature at the moment. Just go to your room.”
The young hero took one look at each of the heroes with tears seemingly brimming in his eyes before shrinking and flying off, clearly not planning to join the others in the meeting room.
"Really James? You couldn’t have been nicer?” Torunn asked frustrated with the other’s behaviour “You know if this was any of you three you would be this upset too.”
They didn’t have time to retort as she flew off in search of their small friend. And with everything happening so fast Francis couldn’t help but laugh.
“You know I’ll always find it funny to see you get humbled but, Pym is being way too soft. It shouldn’t matter if his father created Ultron. We thought Tony had and it never ever made us think of him differently. He’s being a baby.”
“Yes, but maybe you were harsh.” Azari admitted “You aren’t wrong Francis he is being immature but he’s only 13. He’s never met his real parents before and only knows what we’ve told him, which is that they are good people, but clearly they had some problems we never knew about. I think it’s fair for him to be acting the way he is, even if it is pretty immature.”
James sighed, getting mad at himself for exploding at his young teammate as Azari was right “I’ll apologize to him when we have time, right now we have a collect call from one of the most dangerous men in the world. Let’s deal with that first.” The three heroes left for the meeting room, and that left Tony all alone to process this whole mess. It already felt like the heroes were growing up too fast for his liking this past year. But for Torunn, James, Francis, and Azari he could stomach a bit better.
But with Pym. No ifs, ands or buts, he had raised him since he was just a baby. He had taken the blame as he genuinely did believe things were his fault at the time, and to save Pym the knowledge of his father being responsible for the deaths of millions. But he never expected Amadeus could find books that proved his words false, and that in the end Pym would end up hating him, and his real parents. As Tony shook himself out of it, and headed for the meeting room, he could only hope that things would work out. He couldn’t deal with the group splintering. Especially not now. It was far too early for these problems. For now it was on to the next.
NotesEdit
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TriviaEdit
- No trivia.
See AlsoEdit
Recommended ReadingEdit
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Links and ReferencesEdit
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