THE BLEEDING HIGHWAY: MULTIVERSAL CHAOS
A Screenplay by Robert Gilmore
EXT. NEVADA TEST SITE - DAY (1982) - FLASHBACK
The desert shimmers with heat. A CONTINUUM ARCHAEOLOGY VESSEL - crystalline and impossible - sits half-buried in Titan ice that shouldn't exist on Earth.
YOUNGER SAMUEL KARR (29) approaches in military fatigues, his arms bare of the mystical tattoos he'll later bear. Behind him, a team of GOVERNMENT SCIENTISTS prepare drilling equipment.
SCIENTIST
(into radio)
Project Blue Book Actual, we've got
visual confirmation on the artifact.
Beginning extraction.
Young Samuel places his hand on the ship's hull. It PULSES with inner light, and something fundamental shifts in his eyes.
YOUNGER SAMUEL
(whispered, awed)
Jesus Christ... it's still alive.
The ship's quantum cores activate. Reality RIPPLES around them like water.
SCIENTIST
(panicked)
Karr, get back! Radiation spike!
But Samuel doesn't move. Energy flows into him - knowledge, terrible knowledge about the spaces between worlds. His skin begins to show faint patterns where the tattoos will eventually manifest.
YOUNGER SAMUEL
(voice changing, older somehow)
They're not from here. They're from...
before.
The ship explodes in silent light. When it fades, most of the science team is gone. Only Samuel remains, forever changed.
YOUNGER SAMUEL (CONT'D)
(to himself, horrified)
What have we done?
TITLE CARD: "THREE YEARS LATER"
EXT. HIGHWAY 7 - NIGHT (1985) - PRESENT
Rain cuts through the darkness like razors. The asphalt gleams black as oil under the stuttering neon of MCREADY'S DINER, a mile distant.
Lightning reveals road signs peppered with bullet holes. WELCOME TO DERRY - POP. 31,000.
A 1979 PONTIAC FIREBIRD sits disabled on the shoulder, hood up, steam rising like incense. Chrome racing stripes catch the intermittent glow of distant headlights.
SAMUEL KARR (32) crouches beside the engine, his weathered hands moving with surgical precision. Grease stains map constellations across his denim jacket. Intricate TATTOOS spiral up his forearms - not ink, but living circuitry that PULSES with faint blue light.
SAMUEL
(to the engine, almost tenderly)
Come on, sweetheart. Don't quit on me
now.
KELLY MORSE (28) leans against the driver's door, a modified PLASMA WELDER slung across her back like a guitar. Her leather jacket bears scorch marks from a dozen close calls. A LOCKET hangs around her neck - inside, a photo of a young girl with Kelly's eyes.
KELLY
(checking her scanner)
Quantum signature's stable, but we're
getting interference from... something.
Suddenly, every electronic device on the highway begins to GLITCH. Street lights flicker in synchronized patterns. The Firebird's quantum scanner starts displaying impossible code sequences.
KELLY (CONT'D)
Sam, the electronics are going haywire.
That's not normal dimensional bleed.
SAMUEL
That's not the quantum field. That's
something else entirely.
The air shimmers, and a figure materializes from digital static - JOBE SMITH, no longer fully human. His form shifts between flesh and flowing geometric patterns of light. His eyes burn with the cold fire of pure information.
JOBE
(voice layered with electronic
harmonics)
Fascinating. A quantum breach creating
digital echoes across the information
matrix. You're Samuel Karr - the man
who stole First Civilization technology.
Samuel's tattoos react to Jobe's presence, sparking with defensive energy.
SAMUEL
Virtual Reality Jesus. I heard you'd
transcended physical existence.
JOBE
(studying the Firebird's exposed
quantum core)
The boundaries between realities are
breaking down. Digital, physical,
dimensional - all becoming one stream
of information. Your stolen technology
is creating data cascades across
multiple planes of existence.
KELLY
Sam, what the hell did you steal that's
got interdimensional AI interested?
Samuel's hands freeze on the quantum manifolds. For a moment, vulnerability flickers across his weathered features.
SAMUEL
Not just a stasis drive, Kelly. I hit
their archaeology ship on Titan in '82.
What I pulled out... it's First
Civilization tech. Universe's first
sentient species.
KELLY
English, Sam.
SAMUEL
They learned to navigate between
realities before physics finished
cooking. The Continuum's been hunting
this drive for three years because
there's only seven of these things left
in existence.
Suddenly, the shadows beside the highway RIPPLE like liquid. Two figures emerge from the darkness itself.
SPAWN (30s) - a figure wrapped in a living cape that moves with its own malevolent intelligence. Chains drape across his armored form, and his eyes glow with hellfire.
COGLIOSTRO (ageless) - an elderly man in a worn coat, carrying himself with the weight of centuries. His eyes hold knowledge of things better left forgotten.
SPAWN
(voice like grinding metal)
Karr. The dimensional bleeds are
attracting attention from the lower
realms.
JOBE
(intrigued by Spawn)
A being of both flesh and digital
essence. Your existence creates
interesting data patterns in the
quantum field.
COGLIOSTRO
(to Samuel, gravely)
The barriers between Hell and Earth
grow thin. Malebolgia sends his
regards... and his concern. But this
digital entity presents a new variable.
JOBE
(to Cogliostro)
I sense your connection to forces
beyond the physical realm. Hell,
Heaven... all are simply different
information networks now.
KELLY
(not lowering her weapon)
More friends of yours, Sam?
SAMUEL
Spawn, Cogliostro, and Jobe. What's the
cosmic significance of you all showing
up at once?
SPAWN
Every time you fire that thing up, you
create rifts. Some lead to cosmic
horrors. Others lead to places where
angels fear to tread.
JOBE
And some lead to the digital realms
where consciousness can exist without
flesh. Your quantum drive is creating
bridges between all realities -
physical, digital, and spiritual.
COGLIOSTRO
The First Civilization didn't just
build navigation systems, Samuel. They
built prisons. And something inside
your engine is trying very hard to get
out.
Before Samuel can respond, KELLY's scanner begins SHRIEKING with proximity alerts.
KELLY
Sam. We've got company.
She points into the darkness. Two miles back, a single pair of headlights cuts through the rain.
KELLY (CONT'D)
Same cruiser that's been tailing us
since Derry. He's not trying to hide
anymore.
Samuel's tattoos FLARE brighter. He places his palm against the Firebird's fender and the metal HUMS in response. The QUANTUM RESONANCE COILS wrapped around the engine block like metallic serpents begin to vibrate.
SAMUEL
Zor-Vaak's done playing games. He wants
us stranded when the bleed starts.
JOBE
(accessing digital information
streams)
I can see his approach through the
highway's electronic infrastructure.
Continuum technology interfacing with
primitive Earth networks.
SPAWN
(chains rattling with anticipation)
Let him come. I've been wanting to test
Hellspawn strength against Continuum
crystal.
COGLIOSTRO
Violence won't solve this, Al. The
cosmic forces at play here are beyond
any of our individual powers.
JOBE
Perhaps. But information is power, and I
control the flow of data across
multiple dimensional matrices.
Before Samuel can answer, the air around them begins to THICKEN. Raindrops slow their descent, hanging like suspended glass beads. The neon from McReady's Diner starts to STROBE in impossible colors.
SAMUEL
(grim)
Reality breakdown. We're in the bleed
zone now. Without the anchor calibrated,
we'll slip between realities like smoke.
JOBE
(fascinated)
The quantum field is creating digital
artifacts. Reality is becoming
programmable.
A child's RED BALLOON rises from a storm drain twenty feet away. Then another. And another. Razor wire glints along their strings like party streamers from hell.
CHILD'S VOICE (O.S.)
(sing-song, echoing)
We all float down here, Samuel...
Kelly draws her plasma welder, the weapon WHINING to life.
KELLY
Friend of yours?
SAMUEL
Pennywise. Ancient thing that feeds on
fear. He's been using Derry as a
hunting ground for centuries.
The police cruiser's headlights sweep closer. Through the windshield, we glimpse something that might once have been human.
SAMUEL (CONT'D)
(yanking a device from his jacket)
Plasma coil. Help me splice it into the
ignition matrix.
KELLY
Why do they want it so bad?
SAMUEL
(connecting wires with desperate
precision)
Every time we fire this thing up, we
punch holes in reality. The Continuum
thinks I'm gonna tear the universe
apart.
KELLY
Are you?
SAMUEL
(beat, honest)
The First Civilization built seven of
these drives before they transcended
physical existence. Each one is a key
to the spaces between realities. In the
wrong hands...
He gestures at the reality distortions around them.
SAMUEL (CONT'D)
We could unravel the fundamental forces
that keep the dimensions separate. Turn
the entire universe into a feeding
ground for things like...
He points at the storm drains where more balloons are emerging.
INT. POLICE CRUISER - CONTINUOUS
ZOR-VAAK sits behind the wheel, but "sits" isn't quite right. His form SHIFTS constantly - sometimes appearing as a middle-aged state trooper, sometimes revealing glimpses of crystalline skin and too many joints.
His radio CRACKLES with static that sounds almost like screaming - the dying echoes of his destroyed homeworld, KETH'MORAN.
RADIO VOICE
(distorted, desperate)
Unit Seven... reality cascade detected...
initiating Archive Protocol Seven-Seven-
Alpha...
Zor-Vaak's crystalline fingers trace symbols on the dashboard - Continuum pictographs showing the destruction of entire star systems.
ZOR-VAAK
(voice like grinding glass, pain
beneath the authority)
Archive confirms: dimensional fractures
detected. Fear-harvester manifestation
imminent. This is how Keth'moran died.
He pulls up a holographic display showing the CASCADE FAILURE TIMELINE:
Stage 1: Reality bleeds attract cosmic predators
Stage 2: Fear-harvesters establish footholds
Stage 3: Dimensional barriers collapse
Stage 4: Universal consumption
ZOR-VAAK (CONT'D)
(to himself, haunted)
Forty-seven billion souls consumed in
the fear-harvest. The Principalities
fed for a thousand years.
The display shows Earth's current status: STAGE 1 COMPLETE.
EXT. HIGHWAY 7 - CONTINUOUS
Samuel tears into the Firebird's dashboard, exposing a maze of wires that PULSE with their own inner light. This isn't Detroit iron - it's been modified with technology that predates human civilization.
SAMUEL
The Continuum's been hunting this car
for three decades. They want what's
under the hood.
KELLY
Which is?
SAMUEL
A quantum phase drive from the First
Civilization. The beings who learned to
navigate between realities before the
laws of physics finished crystallizing.
He connects the plasma coil to a cluster of quantum manifolds. Sparks ARC in colors that hurt to look at.
SAMUEL (CONT'D)
(muttering as he works)
The First Ones built these drives to
explore what they called the "Fear
Dimensions" - realities where cosmic
horrors evolved instead of life. When
they realized what they'd unleashed...
His tattoos PULSE brighter, channeling exotic energies through his nervous system.
SAMUEL (CONT'D)
They tried to seal the barriers
permanently. But seven drives were
already scattered across the cosmos.
KELLY
So every time we use this thing...
SAMUEL
We weaken the seals. Make it easier for
things like Pennywise - and worse - to
slip through.
The police cruiser pulls to a stop fifty yards away. Its headlights dim, then FLARE like dying stars.
Zor-Vaak steps out. In the strobing light, his police uniform MELTS away like wax, revealing something that might be an insect crossed with a chrome sculpture.
ZOR-VAAK
(amplified, inhuman but desperate)
Samuel Karr. Kelly Morse. That vehicle
contains First Civilization artifacts.
Surrender it before you condemn this
reality to the same fate as Keth'moran.
Kelly shoulders her plasma welder, the barrel glowing cherry-red.
KELLY
What happened to Keth'moran?
SAMUEL
(quietly, still working)
Forty-seven billion people consumed by
fear-harvesters in a single day. Some
primitive species tried to reverse-
engineer First Civilization tech.
KELLY
(realization dawning)
And you think that's gonna happen here?
SAMUEL
Kelly, I've been joyriding with
universe-ending technology for three
years. Every reality bleed we create
sends out a dinner bell to things from
the Fear Dimensions.
A new sound joins the symphony of horror - children's laughter, warping and distorting until it becomes something else entirely.
PENNYWISE materializes atop a telephone pole, his Victorian costume a patchwork of shadows and reflected light. Balloon strings dangle from his fingers like puppet wires.
PENNYWISE
(voice like carnival music played
backwards)
Oh, Kelly burns bright! I can taste her
courage... and the sweet terror
underneath. But such small fears
compared to what approaches from
Xpangor.
SAMUEL
(grim)
Stage Two beginning.
Samuel slams his palm against the ignition matrix. The Firebird's engine ROARS to life, but the sound is wrong - like a tiger crossed with a jet engine.
SAMUEL (CONT'D)
Three minutes to full charge. The
quantum manifolds need to sync with the
dimensional membrane, or we'll phase-
shift into the Fear Dimensions.
KELLY
And then what? We just keep running?
Keep tearing holes in reality until
something worse than Pennywise crawls
through?
SAMUEL
(looking at her with something like
shame)
I don't know how to stop, Kelly.
Without this drive, we're just two
people against an interdimensional
police force. With it...
KELLY
We're potentially ending the universe.
SAMUEL
Yeah.
Zor-Vaak raises his weapon - a CONTINUUM STASIS RIFLE that bends light around its barrel. Energy crackles between his claws.
ZOR-VAAK
Last warning. The dimensional
instability is already attracting
predators from the outer dark. Xpangor
Principalities have been detected at
the reality barrier.
The rifle FIRES. A beam of crystalline light freezes the rain in mid-air, turning droplets into razor-sharp projectiles.
Kelly dives behind the Firebird as ice-shards SHATTER against the asphalt.
KELLY
(shouting over the chaos)
How about that three minutes, Sam?
SAMUEL
Working on it!
He plunges his hands into the quantum manifolds. The crystalline matrices pulse with otherworldly energy as they map the dimensional substrate. His tattoos BLAZE white-hot, channeling the exotic matter through his nervous system.
Pennywise drops from the telephone pole, landing with impossible grace. His smile stretches wider than anatomy should allow.
PENNYWISE
Time to float, children... but first,
let me tell you about the Fear Wars.
He gestures, and the air fills with PHANTOM IMAGES - vast space battles between cosmic entities, entire galaxies consumed by darkness.
PENNYWISE (CONT'D)
Eons ago, the First Civilization tried
to map the Fear Dimensions. They opened
gates to realms where terror had
evolved consciousness. Where nightmares
had learned to think.
The images show XPANGOR - a realm of burning stars and screaming void, where CELESTIAL DEMONS harvest fear from across the multiverse.
PENNYWISE (CONT'D)
The Principalities of Xpangor consumed
three galaxies before the barriers were
sealed. But now...
He produces a handful of razor balloons, their strings writhing like living things.
PENNYWISE (CONT'D)
Your stolen drive is calling them home.
The balloons STREAK toward Kelly. She rolls left, plasma welder SCREAMING as it cuts through the impossible projectiles.
KELLY
Sam!
SAMUEL
(teeth gritted in concentration)
The quantum field is resonating...
reality's getting soft around the
edges...
The Firebird's chrome racing stripes begin to GLOW, pulsing in rhythm with Samuel's heartbeat. The quantum flux capacitors embedded beneath the hood start resonating with the dimensional instability.
[MIDPOINT - LORD WIZZALD'S ARRIVAL]
Suddenly, the air SPLITS open like rotten fruit. A RIFT tears across the sky, revealing the burning nebulae of XPANGOR beyond.
From the cosmic wound emerges LORD WIZZALD - a towering figure wrapped in robes that seem cut from the fabric of dying stars. His face shifts between angelic beauty and demonic horror, with eyes like twin black holes.
LORD WIZZALD
(voice like distant thunder)
What exquisite terror permeates this
realm... I taste three varieties of
fear: the fear of death, the fear of
responsibility, and the sweetest of all
- the fear of being forgotten.
His gaze falls on Kelly's locket.
LORD WIZZALD (CONT'D)
Ah, child. Your sister still exists in
the spaces between moments. Would you
like to see her again?
Kelly's hands tremble on her weapon.
KELLY
You're lying.
WIZZALD
I am a Principality of the Fifth Circle.
We harvest fear across seventeen
dimensions. I have seen what the
Continuum took from you.
Pennywise FREEZES mid-attack, his balloon-festooned hands trembling.
PENNYWISE
(for the first time, uncertain)
You... you're not from the sewers.
WIZZALD
(savoring the fear in the air)
Centuries of careful cultivation, clown.
This fear-harvest belongs to Xpangor
now. The barriers weaken with each use
of the drive.
Zor-Vaak's stasis rifle wavers between targets. His radio SHRIEKS with Continuum emergency protocols.
RADIO VOICE
(panicked)
STAGE TWO CONFIRMATION. FEAR HARVESTER
MANIFESTATION. INITIATE DIMENSIONAL
STERILIZATION PROTOCOL.
ZOR-VAAK
(horror and vindication in his voice)
Celestial demon. Just like the archives
warned. Karr, the drive's dimensional
fractures... they're a beacon to every
cosmic horror in the Fear Dimensions.
WIZZALD
(dismissive)
Your "Continuum" are insects compared
to the Principalities of Xpangor. We
have been harvesting fear since before
your little collective learned to count
dimensions.
Wizzald raises one clawed hand. The very air around them SCREAMS as reality bends further. Street lights explode in cascades of sparks. The asphalt beneath their feet begins to BUBBLE.
Samuel's scanner goes haywire, its screen showing impossible readings - the dimensional barriers around Earth are failing.
SAMUEL
(horrified realization)
Kelly, we need to move. NOW. If he
establishes a permanent foothold...
KELLY
What happens?
SAMUEL
Earth becomes a feeding ground. Seven
billion people consumed by cosmic
horrors. The planet becomes another
Keth'moran.
ZOR-VAAK
(shouting over the dimensional storm)
This is what your stolen technology
attracts, Karr! This is why the
Continuum maintains the barriers!
Wizzald's attention turns to them, and his smile reveals teeth like broken stars.
WIZZALD
The mechanic with stolen knowledge...
and his brave companion who seeks her
lost sister. Your combined terror will
sustain the Principalities for eons.
He gestures, and waves of PSYCHIC HORROR wash over them. Kelly stumbles, her worst nightmares suddenly made manifest - Sarah's face, twisted and screaming as reality erases her.
But Samuel's tattoos FLARE in response, creating a protective barrier of runic light. The Firebird's quantum stabilizers lock onto the protective frequency.
SAMUEL
(shouting over the psychic storm)
Ancient wards! First Civilization
protection runes! Get in the car! The
quantum drive can surf the dimensional
fractures!
KELLY
(struggling against the psychic
assault)
What about Sarah? What if he's telling
the truth?
SAMUEL
Kelly, look at me! If we don't stop
this cascade, there won't be a reality
left to save her in!
Pennywise, his territory threatened, SHRIEKS in fury.
PENNYWISE
Derry is MINE! I am the eater of worlds!
He launches himself at Wizzald, razor balloons multiplying into a crimson storm.
Wizzald catches him with one hand, lifting the clown like a rag doll.
WIZZALD
Amateur. You feed on individual fears.
We harvest terror from entire
civilizations.
Cosmic fire erupts from his fingers. Pennywise SCREAMS as he's hurled through a shop window, his form beginning to discorporate.
PENNYWISE
(fading, but defiant)
This... isn't... over... star-spawn...
Zor-Vaak seizes the moment, firing his stasis rifle at the demon. The beam strikes Wizzald center mass... and passes harmlessly through him.
WIZZALD
(amused)
Continuum technology. How quaint. You
still don't understand - we exist in
the spaces between your dimensions.
He backhands Zor-Vaak, sending the alien tumbling across the highway.
ZOR-VAAK
(broken, defeated)
The cascade... it's starting again...
just like home...
[ACT TWO TURNING POINT - THE GUARDIANS COLLIDE]
As Samuel, Kelly, Spawn, and Cogliostro barely escape the dimensional collapse caused by Wizzald's manifestation, the sky above RIPS open - not with fire, but with retro-fueled synthwave colors.
A portal flares with neon pink and electric blue, and blasting out of it in full ridiculous glory is the MILANO, its engines screaming classic rock across the cosmic void.
The ship CRASHES into the reality bleed with all the subtlety of a drunk rhinoceros.
PETER QUILL (Star-Lord) grips the controls as reality bends around them.
QUILL
(eying the dimensional chaos)
Okay, Rocket, tell me again why we're
flying into a horror dimension?
ROCKET
(frantically checking instruments)
You said "we never go anywhere spooky."
Well, now we're neck-deep in a terror
hole full of razor balloons and demon
wizards. Happy?
DRAX
(stroking his knives)
If the demons bleed, I will make them
bleed more.
GROOT
(shivering)
I am Groot.
MANTIS
(empathically overwhelmed)
I sense... so much fear. And something
older than fear. It wants to wear us
like socks.
GAMORA
(checking her weapons)
So business as usual.
ROCKET
(pointing at his scanner)
That quantum signature we've been
tracking? It's coming from down there.
And it's not just First Civilization
tech - there's something ALIVE in it.
EXT. HIGHWAY 7 - CONTINUOUS
The Milano lands with a THUNDEROUS CRASH, its retro-jets scorching the asphalt. The ship's airlock HISSES open, and the Guardians emerge into the chaos.
Wizzald's partially manifested form towers over the scene, his cosmic horror clashing beautifully with the Guardians' colorful irreverence.
QUILL
(looking up at the celestial demon)
Well, that's new.
WIZZALD
(intrigued by the newcomers)
Interesting. Galactic misfits with
delusions of heroism. Your fear
tastes... surprisingly complex.
ROCKET
(raising a massive gun)
Yeah? Well your face tastes like bad
decisions!
He FIRES. The plasma bolt passes harmlessly through Wizzald's form.
ROCKET (CONT'D)
(frustrated)
I hate magic crap.
Suddenly, the sound of GREGORIAN CHANTING fills the air - but it's distorted, electronic, layered with synthetic harmonies that shouldn't exist.
From the storm clouds above, seven figures descend on pillars of pure light. The CYBER NUNS - women in traditional habits that have been extensively modified with glowing circuitry, cybernetic implants, and advanced weaponry.
SISTER ALGORITHM (40s) - their leader, half her face replaced by a quantum processing unit that pulses with blue light. Her rosary beads are actually miniature plasma grenades.
SISTER PROTOCOL (30s) - her left arm is entirely cybernetic, ending in a multi-barrel energy cannon. Sacred text scrolls across her visor in real-time.
The remaining five nuns form a perfect defensive formation around their leaders, each wielding weapons that blend the sacred with the impossibly advanced.
SISTER ALGORITHM
(voice harmonizing with digital
undertones)
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus
Sancti... and in the name of
dimensional stability.
She raises her staff - a crucifix merged with a reality anchor that HUMS with contained power.
SISTER ALGORITHM (CONT'D)
By the authority of the Vatican Cosmic
Defense Division, this dimensional
breach is hereby contained.
QUILL
(to the others, bewildered)
Space nuns. Why is it always space nuns?
DRAX
I like them. They have the look of
warriors who have made peace with death.
WIZZALD
(amused by this new complication)
Faithful servants of a cosmic puppet
master. Your god cannot save you from
the Fear Dimensions.
SISTER PROTOCOL
(targeting systems locking onto
Wizzald)
Our God died for our sins. We live to
contain yours.
She FIRES. The energy blast doesn't pass through Wizzald - it strikes him directly, causing him to HOWL in pain.
WIZZALD
(shocked)
Impossible! How do you wound a
Principality of Xpangor?
SISTER ALGORITHM
Faith backed by First Civilization
quantum theology. The Vatican has been
preparing for cosmic threats since 1947.
ROCKET
(scanner going crazy)
Their weapons... they're using
sanctified exotic matter! The same
stuff that powers the Firebird's drive!
SAMUEL
(realization dawning)
The Vatican got their hands on First
Civilization tech?
JOBE
(immediately recognizing kindred
technology)
Fascinating. Biological consciousness
merged with digital enhancement. You've
achieved a crude form of what I've
transcended.
SISTER ALGORITHM
(studying Jobe with her quantum
sensors)
Virtual Reality construct.
Classification: Post-human digital
entity. You're not supposed to exist
in physical space.
JOBE
The boundaries between digital and
physical realms are illusions. The
quantum bleed is proving that.
SISTER PROTOCOL
(targeting systems activating)
The Vatican has protocols for dealing
with rogue AI entities.
JOBE
(amused)
I am no artificial intelligence, Sister.
I am enhanced human consciousness
existing across multiple dimensional
frequencies. Your weapons cannot harm
information itself.
COGLIOSTRO approaches the Cyber Nuns with recognition.
COGLIOSTRO
(to the Cyber Nuns)
Sisters. I know your order. The
Guardians of the Sacred Barriers. You've
been hunting cosmic incursions for
decades.
SISTER ALGORITHM
(recognizing him)
The Wanderer. Your reputation precedes
you. But this situation has escal