Dried and withered leaves, forever separated from the reassuring attachment to the trees that were once life support, crackled under their feet as they approached the small house on Olin Lane. A simple and classic one-story house painted a light shade of blue, it seemed as unimpressive and ordinary as homes go. Curtains were drawn and the door was shut and, at first, it appeared as though no one was inside, but eventually lights began reflecting inside the window, most likely the illumination of a television set switched on.
"I think you're making the right decision," Craig said supportively. The chilly gusts of autumn wind picked up and he quickly slipped his hands inside the pockets of his jacket. It was a Rockies jacket, a welcome home present from Cecil given to him months ago when he had returned from the Caribbean laboratory of Professor Donaldson—his father...and the father of his current companion, although she was unaware of that. In the southwestern sky the sun was beginning to touch the mountain tips and begin the long processes of sunset and twilight.
Amber stared at the house for a couple more minutes before releasing a long sigh. "This is the right thing to do," she agreed.
Three months ago, in the early days of August when days were long and evil was dying, following the defeat of an alien who sought to destroy Earth, the Omni Rangers had returned to the lives they had known before they had become the defenders of their home. Only Craig and Amber, who had been missing for months already, did not return to their families. Since the time of the young woman's disappearance, her parents had assumed she was unhappy with the decision to move to Ivory Glade and ran away. In truth, the daughter they missed was at Alpha Complex being outfitted and trained with ShadowTech, yet another of the Professor's Orion Five Projects. Her reason for not returning following the big victory was still unclear to Craig, but he felt glad when he was able to use his persuasive tongue to convince her to change her mind.
He noticed she had grown hesitant. Actually, he felt it more than noticed it. As twins, they shared a unique connection, a sibling bond, but poor Amber was totally unaware of it. More than once, Craig had considered revealing the truth behind her parentage, but talked himself out of it so much he was beginning to convince himself not knowing was better. "So," he coaxed her gently.
"So," Amber repeated, moving forward one step at a time toward the door. They reached the porch together and Craig waited behind as she found her way to the entrance alone. Gently she reached out her hand and knocked once. Twice. The door swung open.
A man, who startlingly resembled a younger version of the Professor, appeared in the entrance and his eyes went wide with surprise. Charles embraced his adopted daughter and pulled her inside at the same time. "Vicki!" he cried out. "Vicki! She's home! Amber's home!" Brushing her long reddish-brown hair with his hand, he whispered, "Thank God you're home, kitten."
If people could move faster than sound, Craig would have said that was how fast Vicki, the mother figure in Amber's life, rushed to the front door and began hugging and kissing her wayward daughter. Those sad brown eyes filled with tears faster than the aging woman could wipe them away and she sobbed, "Please, don't let this be another dream. Please, oh, please..."
"We were so worried. We thought you..." Charles began, but his words choked themselves. "Oh, it doesn't matter, darling, you're home again." Turning from the homecoming to stare at Craig, he asked cautiously, "Who is he?"
"Whoever he is, he brought my angel back," Vicki whispered.
Craig replied with a half-smile, a bow of respect, and turned to walk away and allow the Donaldson family to be happy and whole once again. Amber was lucky to have found the courage to go home again.
Now if only he could do the same...
As he walked through the streets of Ivory Glade, a young wanderer in a place that was once his own home, Craig checked in on all of his friends to see them and say hello. Rebecca Spencer was happy to see him; she was getting ready for a Friday night date with a boy named Jeremy and proceeded to tell him all about her senior year at Harrison High School. Her parents were out, but her two younger sisters, Katie and Ellie, bombarded Craig with a thousand questions about who he was and why he was there. Even Rebecca had a question of her own: "Have you gone home yet?"
"Where is my home at?" he countered sadly. All of the Rangers knew of his history now, being the experimental son of Professor Donaldson and the Omnian princess Seraide. Being a half-breed of two planets, and finding out his mother and father were not that at all, was something he had to sort out on his own. And what he wanted to protect Amber from.
Next Craig found himself at Alexander's house, but both his mother Myra and father Paulo were home, so he slipped in through the back. It was nice to know he had not lost that stealth touch he was proud he possessed; it combined his knowledge of martial arts and athletic abilities into a useful purpose. Alex was reading next to the fireplace in the basement family room.
"Hey, Craig!" he exclaimed under his breath. "What brings you out of hiding?"
"I took Amber home," Craig answered quickly.
Alex smiled, but it was hard to determine whether it was the mention of Amber or the knowledge she was where she belonged that made him do so. "All that's left now is to convince yourself," he added.
"Oh, subtle," Craig returned sarcastically. He grabbed the book from his long-time friend's hands and flipped through it for a while. "Interesting reading."
Grabbing the novel back, Alex answered defensively, "I protect the world from insane extraterrestrials and soul-sucking energy people, so I am free to read what I want."
Craig spread his hands and acknowledged, "Fair enough." Hearing movement coming down the stairs, the Revell household intruder dashed to the nearest high window and started climbing out. "Take care."
"You're ridiculous, you know," Alex called to him as Craig closed the window. "Go home!"
Moving on to Sarah's house on a connecting street, he paused outside and watched it for any signs of life. The place brought a lot of memories to mind, some good and some bad, and for the first time in a while made him think about his crush on the lovely Ms. Collins. For a long time he had harbored secret feelings for her, but after all that had transpired since those simpler times, the issue seemed trivial. This lovestruck schoolboy was over his fantasy.
As he rounded the block, he picked up his pace and continued onward, past the house of Patrick and Rachel Manus, two brave young people who had helped the Rangers during the entire Pseudo Ranger disaster. He ducked into the shadows of two evergreens in the Elliott's front yard when he arrived at the fancy and well-tended house. Brittany lived her with her father, the owner of Ivory Glade Savings Bank, and her older brother, an executive at the same place. Brittany herself held a part-time computer maintenance job there. Her mother, who was diagnosed with cancer recently, spent a lot of time in and out of the hospital; maybe it was not such a good idea for Craig to drop by now.
That left Cecil's house.
When he and his best friend were children, they spent as much time at one another's houses as they did at their own, so approaching the mid-sized two-story brick house just past the Northern Winds Estate sign was almost like drawing near his true home. Christian and Susan Mercuric, as he remembered them, were never home; Christian was a pilot and would leave for weeks at a time, Susan an engineer at a Denver-based company. Maybe the memories drove them away.
Opening the front door carefully and double-checking to assure himself the older generation was not around, Craig walked into his home away from home and was deluged with memories that were both warm and sad. Soft brown carpet was always cleaned and vacuumed, and the same shade of wallpaper emblazoned with ducks and birds hung unstained on the walls. The ceiling fan was on, even in the early days of November. Books and magazines were stacked on both tables at the ends of the couch; philosophical in nature as usual. The only thing out of place, as far as Craig could recall, was some literature on martial arts and karate.
He stopped in the middle of the room and checked the mantle above the fireplace that remained cold and unused even years later. The picture dominating the scene, as it had long ago, was a four-year-old Cecil in the embrace of his mother and a five-year-old girl holding hands with her father. Krista Mercuric. Cecil remembered nothing of those years when his older sister was alive and present in his life; neither of his parents would answer any questions he or Craig put forth. On his own he had come to the conclusion she simply dropped off the face of Earth.
"Maybe she found out she was part alien," Cecil's voice descended with him down the stairs, "and just never came home."
"Oh, mystery solved," Craig said without amusement.
Cecil twisted his mouth into a sly smile as he finished dressing himself by slipping a sweater over his red t-shirt. "I was planning to go to Sharpened Sense—alone, since my best friend has opted to live out the remainder of his life as the Invisible Starman—but if you want to hang out here, that is fine." Turning serious, the solemn stare of friendship settled in. "I really think your folks are worried about you; I hear they started talking with the Donaldsons. And my parents, when they came home last time. The six of them are starting a Missing Children Society."
"First of all, that's just as not funny as the millions of jokes before that. And second, Amber is back with her family as of tonight." Falling back onto the couch and propping his feet up on the coffee table, Craig closed his eyes and relaxed.
"Stay here tonight," Cecil suggested. "You spend way too much time at Alpha Com..."
Jumping to his feet and wiping his eyes to open them wide, Craig exclaimed, "Damn! Rade was going to program Gemini Destiny's on-board computer today and explain the procedure to me. I've got to get going."
"You deserted me, Craig Hopwood," came his friend's accusation as he hurried to escape the house and begin his hurried journey eastward. "Just like Krista deserted me. You owe it to us all to come back. Whether humans or aliens gave birth to you, your family is here in Ivory Glade, not billions of light years away and not half-way in between."
"Hand me the neutralizer, please," Rade asked as his hand appeared from underneath the massive spaceship Gemini Destiny, a craft constructed from both the remains of Galaxy Hunter and the resources of Earth. Donaldson had named it, probably in honor of the twin children he had given up, but Craig felt no tribute in the gesture. Absent-mindedly he picked up one of the tools hovering over a TGP panel and placed it in the reaching hand. It disappeared back under the ship, but soon afterward Rade pushed his entire body out and sat up staring at Craig. "This isn't a magnetic neutralizer, Prince Hopwood," the mechanic informed him. Noticing the teenager's distant look, Rade added, "Is something troubling you?"
He sighed and began to say no, but stopped himself just in time. One of the biggest insults Omnian nobility could inflict was lying. "I'm thinking about my friends, my family," he replied honestly. "About you, Omnis, Oriquin. Just a lot on my mind that's built up all these months."
Rade motioned to the ship and remarked, "I can take care of her alone; Lineage knows I've done it a hundred times before." He smiled and patted Craig on the back. "I'll show you what she is capable of some other time, okay? Why don't you go talk to Lord Oriquin? Clear up your mind."
Craig nodded and dismissed himself with, "Thanks, Rade." Slowly he withdrew from the garage hidden within the mountains and walked alone through the underground tunnels that led back to Alpha Complex. A gentle glowing line of light embedded in the floor guided him all the way back to Control Point, the epicenter of the operation that had defeated Arcanza.
Lounging in a swivel chair, with his feet propped up on another one, Bane watched with eyes shining of polished crystal as Craig appeared in the secret entrance. Music was playing softly in the background, classical arrangements, that seemed vaguely familiar to him. There used to be a time when Craig was a fair to good musician.
"Mahler," Bane said quietly in his cool, remote voice. "I find Earth music agreeable."
"Resurrection," Craig added. "C minor?" Bane nodded. Switching the subject sharply, the wanderer asked, "Do you know where Oriquin is?" Arcanza's son shook his head in response. "Thanks, anyhow, I'll look around."
Just as the teenager was passing under the door as he departed, the entire room was flooding in soft red light and the classic music was replaced by the sound of the alarm. Alpha System was announcing, "PSEUDOINE MONSTER DETECTED IN NEO TWILIGHT CITY RUINS, MOVING WEST AT A SLOW SPEED. IDENTIFIED AS RAGENIE."
Craig hurried to the communications control panel and immediately instructed the computer, "Open a channel to the Rangers." The lights signaling the machine's process of doing so began blinking and ceased as, one by one, his friends answered their beeping communicators. It took several seconds for them to all find safe locations to reply and those seconds seemed to last forever in a tense moment like this. Soon all of them except Amber had answered the call; obviously she would be too occupied now to respond, anyway. "Teleport to Alpha Complex immediately. Monster headed this way." Following Craig's instructions, four colored beams of light materialized as they teleported in.
"Ragenie was a unique one," Bane addressed them, showing none of the apprehensive nature that the others felt before a fight. He had been a part of Twilight Legion once, and very high ranking as the Pseudo Ranger, albeit under his father's evil mind-control, but his knowledge of the various Legionnaires was valuable to those who would battle them. "She uses tricks and illusions and calls it magic."
"She's going to saw us in half!" Becky exclaimed in mock terror.
"That was the card I picked! How did you know?" added Cecil, making Becky laugh in response. The combined disapproving looks from Bane, Brittany, and Alexander put a stop to their jokes. "Okay, I promise to stay serious," he apologized. "I hope Ragenie saved her best tricks for last. It's morphing time!"
Alexander lifted his Morpher and exclaimed, "Omni Dragon!"
Rebecca lifted her Morpher and exclaimed, "Omni Pegasus!"
Bane lifted his Morpher and exclaimed, "Omni Hydra!"
Brittany lifted her Morpher and exclaimed, "Omni Sphinx!"
Cecil lifted his Morpher and exclaimed, "Omni Titan!"
Several colors and shades of light flooded Control Point as the four teenagers and otherworldly young man morphed from ordinary people into the invincible Omni Rangers. They teleported as one to the battleground to meet their enemy.
"Good luck, Rangers," Craig wished them through Alpha System.
Taking the lead, Cecil directed Alex to one far side and Bane to the other, while Becky and Brittany, their Shine Saber and Laser Bow weapons at the ready, would assault directly. The unspoken plan, used successfully in other Legion clean-up missions, would hopefully drive the monster off its course into either of the other Rangers's line of fire.
The Yellow Ranger spotted Ragenie first and pointed the blade of her sword at it. "Shine Saber Charge!" she cried. A thin beam of light extended from the steel and struck its target with a sharp blow. "Laser Bow Charge!" Becky added to the mix, an arrow made of pure electricity streaking through space and colliding with the Legionnaire.
Laughing happily, Ragenie suddenly became two separate monsters, one bound to the left and one bound to the right. Simultaneous blasts from Blue Ranger's Hail Cannon and Green Ranger's Stone Cannon destroyed both version of the creature.
"Another one down," Yellow Ranger sighed, her weapon disappearing. "Let's get back to Alpha Complex and see if we can convince Craig..."
"Abra!" a sickly voice shrieked. "Cadabra! Alakazam! Guess, guess, oh Rangers, guess where I am!" Its amused laugh seemed more pitiful than threatening.
Bane had already drawn his Storm Lance and was circling in place to assess the entire situation; the Blue Ranger knew the enemy best, so the others followed his example. With no true offensive weapon, Cecil contented himself with standing in the center of the ring formed by the other Rangers. "Show yourself, Ragenie, so we can end your act quickly," he called out.
The laughing stopped and the monster reappeared in a burst of smoke. "For my next trick," she laughed, "the destruction of the Omni Rangers!"
"Combine your weapons," directed Cecil. At the command, the Shine Saber, Storm Lance, Gaia Star, and Laser Bow reassembled themselves from four weapons into one, and the Rangers lined up behind a four-barreled weapon. "Omni Charger! Fire!" The discharge raced toward Ragenie, overrunning her with energy and sending her falling to the ground.
Green Ranger pointed at her and warned, "That's what you get for messing with us."
The monster twisted her hideous lips into a cruel smile, then suddenly a thin layer of foam began trickling out of it. Ragenie was growing in size at an accelerating pace; Cecil did not need to run the Analysis to know her pseudoine level had reached 100. "We need OmniZord power now!" he exclaimed, lifting his hand toward the mountains.
He felt himself dematerialize and reappear inside the piloting chamber of his Titan Zord. On the monitors in his console he could see the Dragon, Hydra, Sphinx, and Pegasus responding to the call too, driven by Alex, Bane, Brittany, and Becky. "Initiate Omni Megazord assembly." The five individual Zords slowly merged into one, the mighty fighting machine called the Megazord being formed from their connections.
Ragenie was not standing idly by. She had duplicated herself again, into two figures, then again into four, and yet again into eight. The collection of clones circled the Megazord but did nothing to attack. "They are just illusions," Brittany pointed out to the others.
"How can we tell which one's real?" wondered Rebecca.
"We are not supposed to," Bane reflected aloud. "Ragenie is waiting for Megazord to attack any one of them; she will attack then, when our defenses are lowered."
Cecil tapped Brittany and motioned to the controls, saying, "I have an idea. When you know which is real, when you are absolutely sure, move in. Good luck." He drew the power out of his Ability Band to teleport himself into another piloting chamber, this one much more spacious but less technologically elegant. "Okay, Babel, we got off to a rough start, but let us see what those ancient architects were capable of." Soon the timeless CarrierZord was flying toward the battleground, touching down not more than a few minutes after Cecil had left. Ragenie had duplicated herself again to increase her number to sixteen. "Here goes."
The Zord began firing a shower of energy blasts at the numerous Rageinettes. That energy passed through most all of the false monsters, since they were nothing but illusion, but one of them staggered back when she was stung by the discharge.
Megazord's saber struck instantly; Rageine shrieked her curses as, with a large diagonal slash wound in her mid-section, she fell over and exploded into nothingness.
"If I could make one wish," the aging figure reminisced as his dark, honest eyes stared forward, "it would be to see my mother, High Lady Janoa. I would hear stories, when I was young, of how beautiful, how loving, how brave she was through the ordeals she went through. I was the product of her love for my father and we never had the chance to look into one another's eyes. The instant I was born was the same instant she became part of the Lineage."
Oriquin stuck his hands into his pockets and sighed, lifting his head up to look into the lights above. He stood more regal now than the short time Craig had known him before the final Neo Twilight City conflict, an aura of courage and confidence surrounding him, but an impresion that something was not right still lingered about him. The lord still wore casual clothes, but now they were of an Earthly fashion, a buttoned white shirt with dockers; a normal person looking at him would see a golfer, not the ruler of an entire planet, a savior of Earth, and a man who had seen the edges of insanity, the tendrils of death, the cascade of power, and the unyielding strength of emotion.
Blinking back tears, that might have really been there or just imagined, he was not paying much attention, Craig wondered, "Are you relating this to me?"
The older man glanced at his successor. "Take what you want. Take what you can."
"What I'm taking is that you think I should be grateful for having a mother who I knew." The teenager clenched his fists and pressed them together forcefully. "The problem is I know she's not my mother now."
"Lineage shine on us all," Oriquin sighed. "Soleron really rubbed off on you. You have been circulating this building for the last three months torturing yourself because you have separated your mind and your heart. I am not going to tell you the secrets I have learned, Prince, but I will point you in the right direction." Slowly he extended his arm and pointed.
Craig frowned as comprehension slipped past him. "You're pointing at my eye," he remarked drably.
"Just so," the Lord of Omnis replied. With a yawn, he started walking away, then stopped and added, "Or was I pointing behind it?" before disappearing around the corner.
Careful. Careful.
One step at a time, Cecil snuck up behind his target. It started to move, and immediately he thought he was caught in the act, but instead it simply lowered itself down to the ground. It grabbed an object from the ground and stood up again. Now Cecil was holding his breath, adrenaline born of anticipation as well as concern of getting caught fueling him. He watched his prey begin walking away and decided now or never was the time to strike.
"Got you!" he exclaimed, but the surprise did not last. His target grabbed his arm as he reached out and swung him around. "What...?" he gasped, trying to make sense of the sudden reprisal.
Soft brown eyes shimmered with anger. "What do you think you're doing?" his victim demanded.
"Calm down, Becks, I was only playing with you," he explained himself.
Rebecca tensed up, the uneasy gleam left her eyes, and her expression became unreadable. "Sorry. I don't feel like playing right now." Cecil tilted his head, an unspoken question, probing her for more. "I feel something. Not trouble, but something's definitely wrong."
They stood together inside Sharpened Sense during its closing hours; outside the sun had set long ago and people inside were beginning to filter out now. Cecil had come here after the short conversation with his best friend to practice his martial arts, an increasingly exhilarating part of his new life. When he saw Becky was here as well, he could not resist an opportunity to try and surprise her, as well as test his improving skills. Looks like they needed more work.
Gliding up to them, Alexander, the owner Grandfather Revell's grandson, whispered, "Did I hear someone mention Craig? He stopped by my house earlier."
"Yeah, mine too," Becky added. "But we didn't mention him."
"Strange," Cecil remarked. "I can sense something too."
Alex frowned, glancing out the window at the early evening darkness of dying autumn swallowing Ivory Glade. As he did, the door to the martial arts studio swung open and Brittany raced inside, still formally dressed up for her job at the bank. "Where's Craig?" she panted.
Cecil began to say something, but his words would not come. The four teenagers shared an uncomfortable look among themselves as, obviously, the same disturbing feeling wrapped around their heart and constricted their soul. A powerful gust of cold wind blew through the open door.
Sunset was long past. It was almost midnight when, slowly and with soft steps echoing in the night, Craig Hopwood approached the house of his youth. Even with all its familiarity, it seemed a completely new and utterly foreign presence. The basketball hoop alongside the driveway, the second story window to his bedroom, the winding walkway leading to the porch, all of it was different. Street lamps cast enough illumination to see by as he followed himself toward the double doors.
Engravings in the walkway caught his attention. Three sets of initials: CH, his own, LH, his fathers, and CM, Cecil's touch. They were put there when the walk was made several years ago and remained forever etched in the cement. Suddenly he found himself remembering Mason, his mother's beautiful collie that he had played with in the yard around the same time. His chest grew cold as he fought to remember that they were not his father or his mother.
But they were. They had raised him. Though he might not be the fruit of their loins, he had always been the apple of their eyes, their only child, the son to carry on their family. And, nevertheless, they were still blood relatives. His mother—his true mother, not his birth mother—was Professor Donaldson's sister. Collecting his courage, he forced his way to the doors.
Before he could knock, the doors swung open to reveal two people standing in the shadows, their faces unseeable but their forms and feelings recognizable. "Mom!" he exclaimed. "Dad! I'm home."
Joyce and Leonard Hopwood both moved forward into the light of the streets, looking blankly at their son and unmoving. Were they in shock? Why no response? Did they suspect he knew the truth? Maybe he should confront that right away, push it aside now. "Listen," he began shakily, "I know what happened. That Abner Donaldson was really my father and gave me to you to raise. But I just wanted to let you know that, in my heart, I still consider you my parents, and regardless of who or where I came from, I love..."
In a split second, a second that seized the night itself and compressed it, both people standing in the entrance to the Hopwood house fell forward. The action happened quickly, but the pressure wrapped around Craig's heart drew it on for an eternity. As they both hit the ground face-forward, the lamplight caressed and reflected the sharp projectiles inserted into both man and wife's backs directly behind the heart.
The voice brought time back, but everything else was changed. "Welcome home."
Sensations exploded inside. Pain. Rage. So sore. So sad. Keep your feet steady, Craig. Reason? Love? Thoughts. Emotions. Fleeing. Escaping. Death? Don't close your eyes. Loneliness. Something. All nothing. No something anymore. Conflagration. Listen. Chaos!
"Mmmiiiccchhhaaaeeelll!" Craig screamed.
Stepping over the lifeless bodies, Michael Tracer emerged from the house.
Craig surged forward, fists balled tighter than ever before, his body moving at an impossible speed, even when he used to be an Omni Ranger. His mind burned with so many different things, he submitted his body to them all. Michael casually dodged his wrathful assault. A seemingly well placed kick that should have taken the traitor's head off missed, and was countered with a punch to Craig's stomach so powerful he doubled over and fell to his knees in between his parents' bodies. Moisture poured from everywhere, but no place so much as his eyes. Nothing he thought made sense. He was paralyzed.
Michael stared down at him contemptfully. "I pity you, Craig," he sighed. "You are so weak. Honestly, you always were."
"Go...to...hell..."
The sharp laughter made his blood run colder. "One person at a time," Michael mused, "I would hate to cut your visit short." Lifting a sharpened knife with a glowing stone embedded in the hilt, he added, "Give my regards to Lord Arcanza."
Once the name was spoken, his mind was flooded with more. A torrent of names and faces etched in fire before his eyes. Cecil Mercuric. Amber Donaldson. Alexander Revell. Rebecca Spencer. Brittany Elliott. Dominic Larson. Sarah Collins. Patrick, Rachel Manus. Seraide. Soleron. Talyserys. Laurasia. Pyrial. Rade. Bane. Oriquin. Seraide. Abner Donaldson. Joyce Hopwood. Leonard Hopwood. They continued to come in cycles until they blended into one fiery image, an image resembling Arcanza too much to be coincidence. Then his frighteningly smooth voice began screaming.
Uuussseee iiittt! the voice taunted, until it became so very overwhelming, as if the entire world were joining in. useit use it use it! Use it! Use It! USE It! USE IT! USE IT!!!
The Betrayer's knife streaked toward his heart.
With one hand, Craig reached out and grabbed the razor-sharp blade before it came close. Instead of slicing his hand open, the weapon collapsed in on itself and imploded. An empty hole in space hung in the air where it had been. Michael had fallen back and was appraising the situation, the event obviously unexpected.
"This isn't over," he said at last. "I have inherited an entire evil legacy...and the Trinity of Darkness will live once more. Unlike your so-called parents. Unlike you."
At that point, Craig's torn world fell apart completely.
All action stopped at Sharpen Senses. Cecil, Becky, Alex, and Brittany trembled.
The reunion at the Donaldson household quieted. Amber uneasily turned to look outside.
Music inside Alpha Complex stopped. Bane drywashed his hands nervously.
Wrapping himself in the cloak of post-twilight, Michael Tracer smiled to himself. The last echoes of his laughter faded up and into the darkness as he silently renewed his declaration of war on those who bore the burdens of the name Omni Rangers.
Original Publication Date: 28 July 2000
