Maya and The A.I. Pt.5 (Patreon)

"UPSIE DAISY." The machine cooed in its computerized voice as it helped Maya sit up from the plastic potty.


Maya waited for her robotic warden to diaper her again. However, part of her held out hope that the misguided machine would return her panties to her since she had just proved herself capable of using a toilet like an adult, but that didn't happen. Instead, the machine pulled out a wet wipe from its chassis and was reaching behind her with the moist rectangle. 


"I can wipe my own as- aghhh!" Maya shuddered as she felt the ice cold baby wipe swiped between her dirty cheeks.


The petite Asian woman stood there completely mortified as she was cleaned like she was just another potty training toddler. Every time the robot parted her cheeks, Maya's body tensed up as her eyes went wide. At this point she knew that the machine was either fucking with her or honestly saw her as nothing more than an extremely tall two year old.


"Okay! That's enough wiping!" Maya shouted in an exasperated tone. 


"SILLY GIRL. NANNY MUST THOROUGHLY CLEAN YOUR POOPY BOTTOM BEFORE PUTTING YOUR DIAPER ON." 


"But I just used the po- toilet!" Maya caught herself. "Doesn't that count for anything?"


"IT DOES AND WILL BE DOCUMENTED IN YOUR PERSONAL FILE." The machine explained as it finished wiping Maya's backside. 


"But I just proved that I'm an adult!" Maya exclaimed. "I don't need diapers and I definitely don't need my ability to use the bathroom documented by your half baked hardware!" 


"SOMEONE IS A FUSSY LITTLE GIRL. IT IS DEFINITELY TIME FOR YOUR AFTERNOON NAP." The machine stated as it lifted Maya up off of the ground.


"Afternoon nap!?" Maya blurted out. "Just how long have I been here?" 


"It HAS BEEN ALMOST THREE HOURS SINCE YOU WERE DROPPED OFF BY YOUR PARENTS." The robot replied as it held Maya against its hip.


"Fuck." Maya muttered under her breath as she was laid onto the changing table. She realized that it was almost dawn outside and that meant that she was running out of time. 'The employees that monitor this crazy contraption will be coming into work within the next couple of hours, or probably sooner, knowing my luck.'


Just like the first time she was diapered, the mechanical tentacles of the automatic changing table took over for the nanny bot who watched the table work. A single hand had grabbed Maya's ankles and hoisted her toned legs skyward within seconds of the machine sensing the young woman's weight. Another hand had grabbed a diaper and a bottle of baby powder while its sibling had restrained Maya by her ankles.


After almost shitting her pants, or in this case pampers, Maya was even more determined than before to stay out of diapers. The nanny bot had basically dismissed her display of continence which simply served to fuel Maya's drive to stay bottomless. She didn't want to be placed back into diapers and be at the mercy of that malfunctioning machine. What if it told her to use the diaper because it "forgot" she used the potty? With that thought in mind, she squirmed and thrashed against the padded table as the hands held her by her ankles.


"I don't need diapers damn it!" Maya cried out as her back slammed against the cushioned table top. "Give me back my panties!"


The metallic tendrils were more than strong enough to handle a tantrum throwing woman in her twenties and it had the flailing thief powdered and diapered in short order. All Maya got for her efforts was a new diaper and a stern look from her mechanical caretaker. 


"FOR SOMEONE WHO CLAIMS TO BE AN ADULT YOU DEFINITELY ACT LIKE A FUSSY LITTLE BABY."


Maya sighed and resisted the urge to tell the machine to go fuck itself. Even though her bottom was wrapped in a thick plastic shell and she was obviously pissed about losing another battle to this strange automated nursery; she knew that things could be much worse. Maya remembered being forced to suck on that terrible pacifier the last time she cussed at the tin can and valued having the freedom to at least be able to argue with her robotic warden. 


"LET'S GET YOUR FOOTIE NIGH NIGH JAMMIES ON, BABY." The robot announced, holding up a pair of white and pink pajamas. 


Maya shouldn't have been surprised by the sight of the giant, infantile pajamas since she had seen similar stuff advertised on Amazon, but it still caught her off guard. Unlike some of the cute sleepwear she had seen pop up on the web, the robot was holding up a pair of pajamas that had built in feet which would completely render her feet useless. 


"Umm, can't I just sleep in just my diaper or something?" Maya wondered aloud as a pair of hands from the ceiling scooped her up from underneath her armpits and held her in the air.


"AND CATCH A COLD? BABIES NEED TO BE DRESSED FOR NAPTIME." The
robot replied as it started to slide the fleece legs of the pajamas up Maya's dangling legs.


As she was being dressed for her nap, Maya noticed that she was really close to the ventilation shaft! In her haste to get in and out of the facility she had left the grate to the vent open. Her overconfidence would literally be her ticket out of this madhouse. Still, even as she was formulating a plan to escape, she couldn't help but wonder why the robot didn't notice that it was open. Ultimately, Maya chalked it up to her unwittingly keeping the malfunctioning machine occupied the entire she had been here, but that wasn't what was important. What was important was the foolproof plan she had come up with. The hands holding her in the air weren't wrapped around her arms; they were just holding her up! If she timed everything right she could hopscotch onto the robot's head and use her momentum to launch herself into the vent!


An awkward shifting of mechanical hands occurred, breaking Maya from her planning. The hands holding her up in the air were still there, but a secondary pair were now holding her by the pajamas that came up to her mid back. For some reason, the nanny bot had disappeared from her sight and was doing something behind her to the material of the footie pajamas that was covering her diapered butt. An electronic chirp sound came from behind her and Maya briefly wondered if the malfunctioning machine had scanned her butt.


"THERE WE GO. MUCH BETTER." The absurd overseer stated in its computerized voice as it returned to Maya's field of vision. 


The hands still held her by her hips which left Maya worried about her plan being thrown out the window. However, much to her relief, the mechanical hands released her hips once the hands that had been holding her by her arms finished zipping up her sleeper. With the pajamas completely covering her body the hands switched places and she was once more held in the air under her armpits. Having to wear this ridiculous outfit was a minor inconvenience, one that she would have to worry about once she got to her car, but she could live with having a passing driver see her dressed like this. What she couldn't live with was spending another second in this demented "daycare!"


"BABY IS ALL DRESSED FOR HER-"


With the robot still babbling, Maya swung forward and used her center of gravity to land her foot onto the top of the nanny bot's head. She then propelled herself skyward after bending her knee and launching herself forward. Her hands caught the sides of the vent and, using every muscle in her upper body, the toned Asian girl pulled herself into the ventilation duct. 


"I fucking did it!" Maya shouted as she put her hands and knees to work.


She quickly crawled forward, hoping beyond hope that the mechanical hands wouldn't be on her tail. After a few feet of "running" on her hands and knees, Maya tried to look over her big padded butt to see if anything was following her. She couldn't see past her pampered postier, but from what she could hear, which was nothing, everything seemed to be going her way! There was no scraping of metallic tendrils against the surface of the metal ducts. In fact, even the misguided machine in the nursery was oddly quiet. Maya assumed that the room, and that horrible tin can, had no clue where she had gone.


Not wanting to press her luck, Maya resumed crawling deeper into the ventilation system while keeping an ear out for the sound of metal on metal. After a minute of sliding across the dusty duct on her hands and fleece covered knees she realized that the only thing she was hearing was the annoying crinkling sound that was coming from the thick diaper she was stuck in. She simply gritted her teeth and tried to drown out the noise with her thoughts. 'It couldn't be much longer now. The shaft will end any moment and I'll hop down onto the dumpster and get the hell out of here!'


However, that didn't happen. What did happen was Maya coming to a complete stop when she saw light pouring into the shaft from a sideways facing grate which ran alongside the vent. Much to her dismay, she realized that the shaft she had traversed to get to nursery wasn't this long and should've ended by now. With a heavy heart she ventured forward slightly and peeked out through the slats of the grate. What she saw confirmed her suspicions; she was still above the nursery! To make matters worse, she could hear the stupid robot below her.


"HOPEFULLY THIS GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK TIRES THE LITTLE BABY OUT."


'Is everything a game with this crazy ass nanny bot?' Maya scowled. 


Here she was, crawling through a dusty vent, desperately trying to get free, and the robot was treating it like it was a silly little game before naptime.


Maya pressed forward, hoping to find another exit. In a perfect world, she should be able to find a vent that went to the outside of the building. As she crawled deeper into the facility she wished she could just turn around, but that was impossible; she was too big to turn around in the cramped vent. A few more minutes passed and she came across yet another illuminated section with multiple slats running across the side of the ventilation duct. 


'You've got to be fucking kidding me.' 


Maya found herself looking right at the robot through the slats as it was staring at the exact section of ductwork she was hiding in. 


"THE TIME FOR GAMES IS OVER, LITTLE ONE. IT'S TIME FOR BABY'S NAP NOW!"


As soon as the machine had finished speaking, a pair of mechanical hands appeared in front of the grate causing Maya to shriek as a tiny bit of pee sprayed into her diaper. It took her a moment to realize that she had been caught, but she still had a chance; she just had to out run the hands! Maya crawled forward as fast as she could, but the sound of the incredibly strong mechanical hands ripping open the grate of the air duct told her that she wasn't going to get away. With robotic precision the hands snaked their way into the vent and grabbed her by her ankles.


"No! Let me go!" Maya cried out as the hands dragged her through the vent. Maya could feel her nipples tingle against her fleece covered sleeper as she was pulled across the metal surface. It was a rather confusing sensation and one that quickly came to an end as the pair of tendrils tugged her to the opening they had made. 


"What the fuck?" Maya muttered in disbelief as the metallic hands released her ankles.


She didn't stick around to question it, she started crawling as fast as her slick sleeper and diapered butt would allow her, which wasn't very fast at all. Maya made it roughly three feet before she felt a pair of familiar hands grab her by her fleece covered ankles and pull her backwards through the gap in the vent.


"THAT WAS A FUN GAME, BUT NOW IT'S TIME FOR YOUR NAP." 


"Noooo!" Maya shouted and cried, swinging her mitten covered fists around as she hung upside down, mere inches above the carpet of the nursery. "It's not fair!"


"SUCH A SILLY LITTLE BABY. OF COURSE IT'S FAIR. NANNY FOUND YOU" The robot replied as the mechanical arms adjusted the feisty footie pajama wearing woman until she was perched on the robot's hip.


"But how did you find me?" Maya demanded bitterly. "How? How? How?!"


"YOU'RE FAR TOO YOUNG TO UNDERSTAND HOW NANNY FOUND YOU. LET'S JUST SAY THAT NANNY ALWAYS KNOWS WHERE YOU ARE."


Maya grew silent up hearing this response and allowed the malfunctioning machine to lower her into the oversized crib. The sight of the massive wooden bars reminded her of how messed up this place was. It seemed that the robot and the entire room was programmed to care for a young child or, in her unfortunate case; a baby, but everything was sized upwards to fit an adult. 'Just what are they trying to do here and why was that crazy contraption able to find me so easily? It didn't even see me go into the vent!'


Maya grabbed onto the railing of the crib and shouted to the robot who was walking away. "You can't just leave me in this stupid baby cage!"


The nanny bot swung around and looked at Maya from a distance. "IT IS TIME FOR YOUR NAP, LITTLE GIRL."


"But I'm not tired!" Maya replied, her upset tone made it sound like she was pouting instead of stating a fact. 


The robot stood there for a moment, searching through the wealth of information stored on the internet. The web nanny program that Wallace had installed blocked its access to web pages that were for sleep aids or other sedatives and steered the A.I. towards a more natural and time tested sleep aid; warm milk.


"SOME WARM MILK WILL HELP YOU SLEEP." The robot announced its intent and spun around.


Maya sighed, blowing a lose strand of her hair out of her eyes as she watched the strange machine proceed to an area that was shrouded in darkness. This new area suddenly lit up, showing off the giant fridge, kitchen counter, shelves and, of course, the automated high chair she had dealt with earlier. In her earlier struggles she failed to notice that she was sitting in a giant, mock kitchen since the high chair had been facing the play area of the nursery, but it made sense even if it did confuse her slightly. 'This place must be used to train these domestic humanoid robots, but why is everything so big?'


While Maya was left with her thoughts in the crib, the nanny bot was busy dumping a cup of powdered baby formula into a rather large replica of a baby's bottle. A liter of milk was then poured into a saucepan on the store while the stove slowly came to life by itself to bring the milk to a slight boil. While the milk was being heated up, Maya was still wondering just what was going on in this mechanical madhouse. 


'So, if this place is used to train these domestic nanny bots for future sales and distribution then that explains why my mystery client wanted me to steal the hardware behind this impressive bit of technology that ran the robot. But that doesn't explain how the machine was able to track me down so easily. 'Maya used her hand to rub her chin as she shifted on her padded butt, trying to figure out what gave away her position in the ventilation duct. 'My ass probably gave me away. This damn diaper crinkles every time I so much as breathe.' 


Just thinking about the horrible underwear she was forced to wear made the petite Asian thief reach out to feel the bulky disposable that encased her ass. As she ran her hand over her bulbous bottom she felt a firm, raised rectangle that seemed to be built into the fleece fabric of her footed sleeper. 'What's this?' She had almost missed it due to how big the diaper made the surface area of her backside, but her fingers had noticed something that felt hard when compared to the rest of the sleeper. Her diaper was hard due to the plastic shell, but it was also flat and relatively uniform in shape when compared to this lifted section on the back of her infantile outfit. 


'Wait a minute.' Maya instantly thought back to when she saw a bright light come from behind her as something that sounded like a scanner beeped. "Is there a chip that's built into the sleeper on my ass?" Maya wondered out loud.


"YOUR FORMULA IS ALMOST READY, SWEETIE." The nanny announced as it poured the warm milk into the bottle.


Maya looked through the bars of her infantile prison and watched the robot stick its finger above the opening of the firm, BPA free plastic bottle. In the blink of an eye, the tip of the robot's finger swung open and out came a small whisk which started to spin rapidly as it was lowered into the milk. The young woman stuck in the crib could only marvel at how versatile this crazy contraption was. Even if it wasn't used as a nanny, it could still be used as a maid Maya realized. 'This thing could be worth far more money than I expected.'


A slight whirring sound could be heard coming from the kitchen as the machine started swirling the milk, creating the perfect mixture of baby powder to milk which would become Maya's baby formula. The sleeper clad thief watched as the nanny bot finished mixing the formula and  sealed the bottle with a large, silicon nipple. 


"Ugh, you've got to be kidding me." Maya muttered to herself as she watched the robot carry the big baby bottle over to where Maya stood on her knees against the crib bars. The damn thing looked like it could've held two liters!


"TIME FOR BABY'S NUM NUMS BEFORE BEDDY BYE." The robot sang in its digital voice which caused the petite thief to cringe.


"There's no way in hell I'm going to be able to drink all of that!" Maya shouted as she smacked the bottle from the robot's outstretched hand.


The sound of the bottle rolling over the wooden floor pierced the quiet, tense air as Maya stared at her metallic warden defiantly. It took a few seconds for the robot to process what had just transpired before it walked over and grabbed the bottle off the floor. It turned to face the petite, sleeper clad Asian girl in the crib and titled its head to the side as if studying the situation. 



Maya sat there with her arms crossed over her chest, trying to look tough, but failing miserably to look like anything other than a giant, tantrum throwing two year old. As she sat there, staring at the mechanical menace, she noticed a bit of sweat trickle down the back of her diapered butt. 'This damn sleeper is too hot!' Maya thought wearily as she tried to think of her next move.


The baby is still fussy. 
The baby is unruly. 
The baby will not feed itself. 
The baby must be fed. 
The baby must have a nap.
Nanny will feed the baby and rock it gently until it falls asleep.


With a solution to its problem calculated, the robot placed the bottle into the storage cavity it had in its chest and scooped up the annoyed young woman who quickly wrapped her arms around the machine's midsection. Now that it had its charge, the machine walked over to another area where a simple rug and enormous rocking chair awaited them both. It readjusted the baby until she was resting in the crook of its arm and then retrieved the baby bottle from her chest compartment before taking a seat in the giant sized rocking chair. 


Maya looked away from the robot and took in her surroundings; everything was so huge! She hated how tall everything was in this horrible hellhole and how it seemed to be designed to make her feel so tiny. She wasn't the shortest woman out of all the women she had ever met, but she was far from the tallest. Regardless of height, it was hard for her to feel like an adult when she was resting against a metallic bosom that belonged to a malfunctioning machine, twice her size, that was hellbent on treating her like her age was the same number as her dress size. 


"OPEN UP FOR NANNY." The robot ordered as it repositioned Maya and held the bottle in front of the petite girl's face.


Before Maya could realize what the robot was doing, it stuck the big nipple of the bottle into her mouth. Maya squealed into the nipple that had been thrusted into her mouth and tried to pull her face away from the terrible synthetic teat, but she was pinned in place by the robot's arm. Forced to drink from the baby bottle, Maya took a tentative suckle from the large baby bottle and was instantly disgusted by the thick, chalky consistency of the milk that flowed into her mouth. 


'That is fucking nasty!'


The nanny bot held the bottle firmly in Maya's mouth, waiting for the baby to start suckling regularly, but that didn't happen immediately. Maya had taken a single suckle and ceased sucking on the bottle of formula. What seemed to be happening was a war of attrition, but the A.I. had learned that this particular baby responded well to time outs. Time seemed to be the most effective punishment and if it simply ignored the child then maybe she would start suckling on her own after a few minutes then that would help her fall asleep. However, if the baby fell asleep while laying in the robots arms because it refused to drink its bottle then the A.I. had achieved its prime objective. Either way, the computer knew that playing the long game was a winning strategy. 


"YOU CAN BE FUSSY ALL YOU WANT OR YOU CAN BE A GOOD BABY AND DRINK YOUR BABA." Maya shook her head, confirming what the A.I. already knew about this particular baby. "NANNY CAN HOLD YOU UNTIL YOU FALL ASLEEP IF NECESSARY. IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW YOU TAKE YOUR NAP." 


Maya's eyes went wide as she realized that the robot was willing to sit there until she either finished the massive amount of thick milk in the bottle or fell asleep. No matter what, Maya knew she was running out of time and she wasn't going to get any closer to freedom of she laid here in the robot's arms like a stubborn fool. Knowing what she had to do, the petite Asian thief resumed suckling on her baba and tried to ignore the terrible taste that was threatening to overwhelm her senses. 


"THAT'S A GOOD GIRL. DRINK UP ALL OF YOUR NUM NUMS." The machine praised her before reminding her to finish the entire bottle.


Maya groaned as she was allowed to hold the big bottle with both of her hands. Still, she continued to drink her incredibly bland baby formula and knew that with each suckle she was closer to securing a second chance at escape. However, she soon realized that with every suckle she took she would eventually have to go pee, but this realization only strengthened her resolve to escape. 'I can't piss myself like a little baby. All I have to do is get back up to the vent again and get back to my car!'


Time ticked onwards slowly as the only sound that could be heard echoing throughout the nursery were the near constant sickles coming from Maya's mouth. The slow passage of time, and the silent gaze of her metallic warden, gave her ample time to think about things. She tried not to think about how much formula was still left in the bottle as her mind drifted back to her earlier thoughts about the room and the nanny bot. From what she had experienced so far it appeared that the machine was the central piece of hardware controlling everything else in the room; for instance when it placed her into the high chair, the nanny bot probably relayed its orders through Wi-Fi to the chair, telling it what to do. 


'If I can find a power button or rip out some of its internal wires, the damn thing will be forced to shut down and I steal the A.I and leave without those crazy hands chasing me.'


It made sense that the A.I. was most likely kept inside the robot since she was directed by her client to enter the nursery itself and not some computer lab. Not only did it all make sense to her, but it also squashed that pesky paranoid thought in the back of her head that she had been set up by her mysterious client. Yeah, they should have warned her about the nanny, but did they have any way of knowing that the machine would be operating after hours? No, they most likely wouldn't know that information. 


A building pressure in Maya's midsection made her stop sucking on her bottle and wince slightly as a muffled fart sounded off. The petite, sleeper clad thief couldn't stop herself from blushing as the robot finally seemed to acknowledge her after ignoring her for God only knew how long. It seemed to glance over her, possibly running a scan on her before it pulled the bottle away from her hands.


"THE LITTLE BABY REQUIRES BURPING BEFORE BED." 


Before Maya could even figure out what was happening, the robot hoisted her up until she was draped over the machine's shoulder. Maya suddenly realized that this was her chance to search for a way to turn off the robot or damage it to the point where it was forced to go into a full blown shut down. She used her hands to feel behind the robot's shoulders and neck until she came across a recessed metallic panel. Just as the machine started patting her back she pushed the panel with her hand and the hatch popped open. 


"MAKE BURPIES, BABY." The robot commanded.


Maya had no intention of burping for this misguided machine and plunged her hand into the access port. She immediately felt some wires running from the top of the opening down to the base of the robot's neck and started yanking at the wires, pulling and ripping them out in the hope that the nanny bot would lose power before she burped.


"MA-MA-MAKE BUR-R-R-R-PEEES."


Maya could hear the robot start to stutter and smiled, feeling triumphant in her victory over the malfunctioning machine as her body finally betrayed her by releasing a deep, unladylike belch. 'All I have to do is climb down from this crazy contraption and find a way to get up to the vent. Once this thing shuts down I'll-'


The machine was still stuttering which meant that it was still recieving power, but that wasn't what interrupted Maya's train of thought; the arms started to bring her down from the machine's shoulder and cradle her again. "What the fuck are you doing?! Let me go!" Maya pleaded in anger as the machine held her tightly in its arms.


Unbeknownst to the petite sleeper clad thief, the A.I. had ordered the robot to secure the baby before the robot was put into a temporary shutdown mode. The A.I. was working overtime to figure out why the robot was losing power and simultaneously malfunctioning. It did a systematic analysis and determined that a few internal wires that provided power to the operating system were damaged. Even though the damage was localized to only the nanny bot, it decided to reboot the nanny bot to an earlier point in time to ensure that the machine's internal operating system wasn't corrupted by the sudden loss of power. 


Maya wriggled around violently as she watched the nanny bot's eyes dim, signaling that the machine had completely turned off. With a bloated belly and rage in her heart Maya kicked at the metal forearm of the crazy contraption which only made her fleece covered foot throb in pain.  "Damn it!" Maya shouted. "This isn't fair! Let me go!"


After a few minutes of cursing at the still and silent machine, Maya noticed that a pair of mechanical hands were being lowered down from the ceiling towards the machine. She could only wander what they were about to do as she closed her eyes and braced herself for the worst. However, after almost a minute of silent prayers nothing happened. She opened her eyes and realized that the hands were repairing the robot! It didn't take long for a pair of lights to turn on as the nanny bot slowly started to come back online. 


"Oh, fuck." Maya muttered to herself as she realized that her plan had utterly failed. 


With the metallic maternal unit back in action, the diapered and sleeper clad woman knew that she was screwed. What would she do now that her belly was full and her warden was back online? All hope of escape was literally gone in the blink of a robotic eye. 


"BABY HAS FINISHED HER NUM NUMS AND MUST BE SWADDLED BEFORE BEING PUT DOWN TO SLEEP."


"Swaddled?!" Maya gasped in shock. 'Why does it want to swaddle me?!'


The robot ignored Maya's outburst and carried the young woman over to another area that was behind the kitchen where an incredibly large bassinet stood. Maya didn't even know what she was looking at, but she didn't have a good feeling about the new piece of furniture; the hood alone looked like it could be drawn over the entire thing, trapping whoever was placed in it inside. 


"DON'T SQUIRM, BABY." The machine ordered as it laid Maya down on the soft surface of the bassinet's mattress. 


Maya laid there, wondering what the machine had in store for her. It had said something about swaddling her, but she was still in her sleeper and nothing was-


"Oh, for fucks sak-" A long metal tentacle came from the bottom of the bassinet and jammed a pacifier into the cussing girl's mouth, silencing her sinful tongue.


Thankfully, the robot acted like it didn't hear her, but the nanny bot reacting to her potty mouth was the least of Maya's worries. The bassinet was fully automated and was rapidly stripping her of her footed sleeper. Maya tried to cover her bare breasts, but a pair of mechanical hands pinned her arms to her side as another pair of hands fed her body into what looked like a thick sack of sorts. The diapered woman had no clue what was happening to her, but she felt her legs enter the bottom of the bag that was quickly pulled up to her neck. With the tug of a cord she felt her feet get cinched into the bottom of the bunting bag. Her arms and hands were now pinned to her sides as a flap of fabric was snapped into place by velcro, effecting wrapping her into the swaddling material and thus trapping her in place for her nap.


'This is so much worse than the crib.' She thought to herself as she wroggled inside the all encompassing cocoon of fabric she found herself trapped in. Maya could barely even move her body and was forced to suckle on the giant pacifier that filled her mouth as she laid in the bassinet. 


"SWEET DREAMS, BABY GIRL."





To Be Continued...