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Author's Note: Here's Ch. 18, things are winding down now. There isn't much story left to tell after this. I must warn you that it has my typical cliffhanger at the end so no one tar and feather me please. I'd like to thank djkauf for the editing and DC Comics for the characters.

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Chapter Eighteen:

“Are you sure?” I asked, sitting in Bab’s apartment.

She was at her computer desk, typing away furiously at the console. When she called and told me she found Dr. Fright, I couldn’t get out of the school fast enough. In fact, I almost got a speeding ticket while trying to get here. I might have thought this before but it was about damn time. I was so sick and tired of following this damn woman all over the city. I knew I couldn’t raise my hopes too high, though. After all, we almost had her before and she led us into a trap. What’s to say this wasn’t another one of her tricks? This woman had already tried to rub me out, twice now. If this was another one of her little games…I didn’t finish the thought.

Instead, I sat there. I took my time looking around Babs’ place. I’d been here once before, back when she was moving in. She was able to rope her cousin “Steven” into helping her move boxes. It was one of the only times that Dad actually gave me permission to be with her. I might have mentioned this before but Dad didn’t like Uncle Jim or Barbara. I think he thought they were going to take me from him. I’m not sure why that mattered so much to him anyway because it was clear he didn’t want me in the first place. But he once told me I was “his” and no one could take me without his permission. Talk about a selfish, evil bastard. I sighed, trying to remember the last time I even thought about him. Uncle Jim updated me on him the other day, they were moving him to Blackgate---no that’s not its real name but it’s what the locals called it. It was a high security prison, apparently, Dad turned in some crucial piece of info to them and they were trying to protect him.

I shook my head, drawing my attention back to the room.

The apartment was small. It had one bedroom, a small living area and an even smaller kitchen. Babs always told me it was good enough for her. But I couldn’t see how she moved around in this place with her wheelchair. She didn’t have a lot of furniture, just the chair I was sitting in. She didn’t even have a TV. What she did have was computers, yes as in more than one. There were three in fact; they took up most of the room in the place. When not in school, she ran a lucrative computer technician business or something. It was all a bit technical to me. I just know that it required her to have all these fancy computers. At least that’s what I used to think. Now I knew that these computers were there for other reasons too.

“Earth to Barbara” I said, getting a bit annoyed that she was still ignoring me.

“Sorry” she said a few seconds later, “I was just making sure.”

I dragged my chair over so I was sitting next to her. “So are you certain this time?”

She nodded. “After our first attempt, I knew there was something wrong. I just couldn’t figure out what. So I asked a friend to do some digging and found something shocking.” She paused for dramatic effect, I rolled my eyes. “They bugged our Bluetooth.”

“Wait, what?”

She smiled. “Not really bugged it, more like hacked it. Don’t ask me how they even know where to look. But my friend was able to find a small spike in the network; someone was definitely listening in on our conversations.”

I groaned. We weren’t exactly discreet. “So they know who we are?”

"We only ever used first names and I garbled out voices so there’s no way they can track us”

"That’s good because I definitely don’t want to open the door and see some crazed nut with a gun standing there” I winced when I realized what I said. “Sorry, I didn’t…”

She shook it off. “Don’t worry about it” She was quiet for a second then continued. “My friend used it against them though. We were able to follow the hack back to its source, reversing the bug; we got a location out of it”

“And what if it’s another trap?”

“They didn’t know we were there.” Babs groaned, running her fingers through her long red hair. “I can’t believe I was stupid enough to use those for communication”

I squeezed her arm. “You’re only human, we make mistakes. We’ll be better next time.”

She smiled. “Well there isn’t going to be a next time until I get something worked out. Until then you’re going to be on your own out there, do you think you can handle that.”

I smiled. “I think I can handle that”

She filled me in on the location. I suppose it made sense. If someone really wanted to hide that was definitely the last place I would have looked. But we also had a small window. Dr. Fright was apparently planning to leave the country tonight. She was in a bit of a rush too, according to our secret friend. Babs refused to give a name but she did let slip it was a woman. That intrigued me more than anything. I tried to press her for more info but she wouldn’t budge. So instead, I grudgingly donned my suit and left.

______________________________________

I stood in the gloom and the dark. Spread out in front of me was a sprawl of gray warehouses, their roofs covered in a thin blanket of snow. Everything about the day seemed dark and gray, including my mood. As soon as I left Babs, I cursed. It had snowed quite a bit, so much so that I couldn’t get my car out. So I tried the next best thing, I called Tim. But of course, he didn’t answer. It wouldn’t be the first time since our fight. I tried calling multiple times for him in the last day or so. But each time I got either his Voice Mail or nothing at all. If he was deliberately avoiding me, he was being more childish than I thought. He was being ridiculous as far as I was concerned. We had a fight, people fight all the time. OK, so not many girls throw their potential boyfriends over their shoulder in those fights but he caught me off guard. Potential boyfriend? Well I did an awful lot of crying over him so I guess that’s what he was. Though it was still hard to imagine me being a girlfriend to him.

Then again, a few months ago I never would have imagined myself sitting here now---on the edge of a building---overlooking the docks.
I sighed and reached for my belt, pulling out my phone. Without the Bluetooth, Babs and I had to communicate the old fashioned way. But this time she was prepared, fitting my phone with a scrambler so no one could trace it or hack into it. I dialed her number, waiting a few seconds for it to be rerouted all over the place before she finally picked up.

“Oracle” she said.

I smiled. That was another new rule: no more referring to each other by our real names. She was now Oracle and somehow she dubbed me “Batgirl”. I guess it was better than nothing.

“Batgirl here” I said with a groan.

“Don’t knock it,” she said. I could almost see her smirk.

I let it slide for now. “I’m at the location we talked about. Which building is our target in?”

I could hear her tapping away at the keys. “According to the piggybacked signal, it should be the one on the far left. I can’t give you any more specifics than that though so you’re going in blind.”

I nodded even though I know she couldn’t see it. “I am a bat after all.”

Oracle laughed. “Be careful, you don’t know what’s waiting for you there.”

“Will do, BG out.”

I clicked off the phone and slipped it back into my belt pouch. After it was secure, I took a deep breath. Then I leaned forward and dropped off the building. It was a vertical fall, three stories to the bottom. My body was straight the whole way until I hit the ground where I bent my knees slightly. I didn’t feel a thing. It took me only a few seconds to fall. After that I ran across the open space between my building and the next, pulling my night vision goggles into place. The dock warehouses were not like the ones in the warehouse districts. These had curved roofs and no access from the top. They were about five or six stories high and so jam packed with large metal cargo containers that one could barely move in them. There were three of these large buildings; the rest of the area was filled with the containers, creating a large metal maze.

When I approached the building, I pressed my back against the wall and waited. When I first got here, I spent twenty minutes getting the lay of the land. Besides the maze of towering cargo containers and warehouse buildings, there were three guards who walked the ground. Each wearing a different animal mask and each carrying a submachine gun. I studied their patterns just so I knew where and when to move. Every five minutes one of them would walk around the warehouse buildings and the other two wove their way through the container maze. In order for me to proceed with caution, they’d all have to go.

The first guard came into view about five minutes after I pressed against the wall, just like clockwork. I waited until he was walking in front of me before I struck. I lashed out, grabbed the side of his head and slammed him into the wall next to me. He crumbled to the ground as soon as I let him go. I grabbed his gun, pulled out the magazine and disposed of them both in a nearby garbage can. If the bastard did wake up in the next hour or so, he’d have to scramble to look for his weapon. With him out of the way, I could move freely around the buildings. I crept slowly along, making sure to keep in the shadows. The side of the building I moved along came right alongside the first row of giant metal containers; it also brought me in line with the second guard.

I smirked. He was just coming into view now. I reached into a pouch and pulled out my new toy. It was a gift from Onyx, something she thought might aid me a great deal. Whereas Bruce used bat shaped throwing stars, she thought I might like to use something a little less lethal. So she had a foldable boomerang designed specifically for me, shaped just like a bat. I had to wonder if Onyx and Jen were trying to tell me something. I just knew as soon as the latter saw it she would try to name it a “batarang” or something. So I unfolded my new toy, aimed for the bastard’s Hippo masked head and let it rip. It soared in an arch and hit him just below the collar, dropping him like a sack of potatoes.

The boomerang then raced around and came back to me. I caught it and ran over to the thug. He was groaned on the ground. I dropped on him, delivering a silencing blow to his Hippo face. As soon as I did so, the final guard came into view. I slipped into the shadows. He saw his friend and came running. I stood there and watched as he bent over the man and checked his pulse. He sighed and raised his Gorilla mask to wipe his brow. He did so setting his gun aside. I smirked and waited as he stood up. As soon as he did so, I drove my elbow into the space between his shoulder blades. He dropped onto his fallen friend. He groaned and tried to get up, reaching for his gun. I dropped on him, driving my knees into his back as I did so. Doing so knocked the wind out of him and allowed me to slam his head on the nearby pavement, taking him out of the picture too.
Three guards, three unconscious fools.

I stood up and made my way back to the buildings. I wove through them cautiously as I made my way to the one on the left just in case there was a guard I missed. Thankfully there wasn’t. I reached the left building, finding an unlocked side door. I pulled it open and slipped inside. The room was shrouded in darkness or would have been if I didn’t have my goggles. For me everything was bathed in green. There were a lot of metal containers and wooden boxes. I slipped along them. I looked above, seeing a metal framework, solid metal beams that held the ceiling in place. I sighed when I judged the height, realizing there was no way I could jump that high. I needed a rope or something. Maybe a grappling hook.

No, climbing would have to do. I turned to the nearest container and scaled it quickly. When I got to the top---three containers stacked on one another---I looked around. There was several more containers like this one and a small office on a second floor, a light on inside. I smiled, that had to be where the doctor was hiding. I jumped up, grabbing one of the metal beams. Now that I was on the containers, I was high enough to do so. Thank God for rigorous training. I pulled myself up easily then crouched on the beam, gauging the distance to the office. I jumped to the next beam and the next. My Meta power left me graceful like a cat and thanks to Onyx’s training, I didn’t make a single sound. After a few more jumps, I reached the office.

It was a boxed in structure that looked a little sturdier than it should. When I jumped from the metal beam above it onto its roof, I did so without making a sound. The structure was metal too, except for a small section that was glass. It was like a little skylight. I pulled off my goggles because the light was on inside. I bent over it, peering down inside. The woman below was on the phone, passing back and forth. It was clear from her body language that something was frustrating her. It was also clear that this was in fact Dr. Linda Friitawa. Even though I couldn’t see her face, I knew her enough to be certain. The doctor had some distinguishing characteristics; chief among them was the fact that she was an albino. Her shock of white hair and pale skin were hard not to ignore.

I pressed closer to the glass but couldn’t hear a thing. I didn’t really need to hear because it was clear that she was pissed. She raised her voice more than once but the glass and the metal walls muffled her sound. I looked around me, realizing that if I wanted to hear a thing I needed to be inside. I left the glass and crept along the roof, dropping down on the opposite side. The office was mainly glass windows but each of them had the blinds down. I moved silently along the outside wall, stopping only to come across a thick cable leading inside. The power to the office. I smiled and removed a pair of wire cutters from a pouch. Time to use those scare tactics I learned so well.

I snipped the wire, plunging the office in darkness.

I waited for a few moments then heard the door open. A beam of light cut through the darkness as the doctor stepped outside. I caught sight of her as I peered around the corner. She started walking in the opposite direction, away from me. I slipped around and went into the office, pulling my goggles back on. It was a rather spacious place considering the size. There was a small couch, a potted fern, a desk and some file cabinets. I went to the cabinets first, pulling open the top drawer. Sloppy doctor, not locking your stuff up. I rifled through the files. I pulled one that said V-10 and laid it on the table, pulling out my little spy camera and quickly taking a shot of each page. I replaced the folder quickly then started looking again. I’m not sure exactly what it was that I was trying to find but I knew I had to try.

Rifling through the files again I came across another one that looked interesting. The tab said “Project Alice”. I pulled the folder out and flipped it open. I only got a second to take a look before I heard Fright coming back. I cursed, shoving the folder back into the cabinet and closing it before slipping into the dark. I was only able to pull two words out of it, one of which was a name: Mind and Wilson. What the hell did that mean? I made a mental note and filed them away.

Dr. Fright came back into the office, talking angrily into a walkie-talkie. “Gorilla, Hippo, Fox, report in?”

Clearly, she was trying to raise her guards. She tried a few more times as she walked over to the desk then she angrily slammed the radio onto it.

I took a step forward, pulling off my goggles. All I needed was for her to blind me with that flashlight. I watched as she sat at the desk, sighing heavily. Then I spoke in that dark voice I learned to use so well: “I’m afraid you and I are alone, Doctor.”

The look on her face when I stepped forward even farther was priceless. Her flashlight dropped to her desk and she went for the drawer. I knew exactly what she was going after but I was faster. I made it across the room in seconds. I caught her arm and slammed the drawer on her wrist, causing her to scream and drop her gun. I held the drawer shut while she wiggled in pain. I’d say the color drained from her face but seeing as she didn’t have much pigment to begin with, well, you get the picture. Between her wailing and sobbing, she cursed me several times in a language I didn’t know. I assume it was her Native one.

I finally opened the drawer, allowing her to pull her hand out. There was no gun in it. She clasped her hand to her chest panting. “You broke my wrist.”

“Physician heal thyself.”

I reached into one of the pouches, took out a roll of gauze and threw it at her. It hit her in the chest but she didn’t bother to retrieve it. Instead, she stared daggers at me, which looked absolutely diabolical with those red eyes of hers. I reached toward the flashlight and turned the beam on her. She flinched from the light. Just enough to sweat her a bit.

“What do you want with me?” she stammered, the pain in her wrist most likely unbearable.

“You know what I want.”

She shook her head. “He’ll kill me if I tell you.”

I took a step forward, moving close. She flinched. “The way I see it doctor, you have two options. Deal with him later or deal with me now. What’s it going to be?”

She didn’t say anything for the longest time. Finally, a tear rolled down her cheek. “I…I…I…”

“Start with a name.”

“Black…”

“His real one” I interrupted, annoyed.

She shook her head. “I don’t know it.”

I narrowed my eyes. I leaned closer to her, my face inches from hers. “Start with what you do know then?”

Unbeknownst to her I pulled a small recorder from one of my pouches and hit the button.

She nodded. “We were partners. I created the drugs and he got them out to the populace. We were supposed to split the profits, fifty fifty but he’s been holding back lately. Thrill is a lot bigger than either of us could have imagined. We were making a fortune off of it. Then you and that Roving Ravager character came along. You busted things wide open. First, I was able to produce more to keep up but the demand got too high and I wasn’t able to supply it fast enough. He got me loose a few days, after our second attempt to stop you failed.”

“How much is left?”

She shook her head. “There’s a warehouse. Everything I produced---the last of it---is stored there.”

“And the Black Mask?”

She sighed. “He won’t be far from it. He’s been very paranoid lately. He doesn’t want to let his cash cow out of his sight.”

“The address.”

She shook her head. “He’s practically got an army. You’ll never get to him.”

“Do I look like someone who scares easily?”

She didn’t say anything to that. Instead, she reached down and grabbed a pen with a good hand. She quickly scribbled an address down on a piece of paper, leaving it for me. I grabbed it and folded it into one of my pouches. The doctor eyed me suspiciously. It was the split second she needed. She pulled open the drawer with her good hand and retrieved the gun. She thought she was fast. I snapped my leg up, then back down, bringing my heel down on her other hand, the one holding the gun. The force of the blow caused the gun to go off which drowned out her scream and the snapping of her forearm. I snatched the gun away, tossing it into the corner. While she cried in agony at another one of her useless, broken limbs, I slipped away.

I didn’t take out my cell until I was clear of the warehouse. I didn’t call in until I was on the building from before, overlooking the scene. Several police cars were already on the scene. I called Babs. “Did you call in the black and whites?”

“I thought you might need some backup.”

I smiled. “There were only four this time, including the doctor.”

“Did she give you what you wanted?”

“I’ve got an address. Let’s end this thing.”

_____________________________________

Déjá  vu. I’d been to this place before. Well not exactly to this particular one but the same area. It was the same warehouse block that I followed my Dad to, the same place where all of this started. Of course, back then I was Steven Brown and I had no idea what I was doing. Now I was The Bat or rather the Batgirl. I wasn’t a scared “girl” in her favorite purple hoodie and a black mask. I couldn’t help but smile as I thought back on it. That was only a few months ago and I’d already come so far. My father was in jail, I was living with Jim, I worked for Bruce, started my career as a vigilante and now have a semi-boyfriend. If I went back in time and told my September self about what might happen in November, I don’t think I would have believed it.

But here I was, living proof of all those things and more.

I took a deep breath. I was about to step out of the shadow I was hiding in when my phone vibrated. I cursed and pulled it out; knowing who it was without even thinking. “BG” I said when I answered.

“I’ve been able to hack the outside cameras and it doesn’t look good,” said Oracle with a sigh. “Fright was right, this place is surrounded. There’s no way you can take all of them at once.”

“What about you know who?”

She let out another heavy sigh. “I’ve been trying but he won’t answer.”

I cursed. “Of all the times to be a stubborn jackass.”

“Where are you now?”

“Across from the place where I nearly burned to death” I said, looking at the burnt out remains of the place that might have been my burial tomb.

Oracle didn’t say anything for a second. Then I heard her typing away. Finally, she said. “I thought that address sounded familiar.”

“Do you know anything about this area?”

There was more typing. “When I was still free lancing, Bruce asked me to look into his competitors’ businesses, just to get a leg up. Nothing illegal I swear. In fact, if anything he was the only legit one working in this city.”

I remember reading about Ballard. He got himself involved in illegal gambling and a plot to assassinate the President. Booster Gold busted all that up.

Oracle continued, still typing. “This particular warehouse block belongs to Sionis Industries; they were Bruce’s chief competition for a while. But after both Warren Sionis and his wife were tragically murdered, the whole company passed to their son, Roman. He drove it into the ground within a year. Bruce only had me check up on it to see if he could buy off any of the property still owned by Sionis. This warehouse block was one such place he thought about buying. But he could never complete the deal because Roman fell off the face of the planet.”

That name sounded familiar. Why did that name sound familiar. I shook my head. Then I got an idea. “Maybe he didn’t fall off the planet; maybe he just switched his business.”

Oracle caught on. “You mean to drugs?”

I nodded even though I she couldn’t see me. “This Sionis, maybe he’s the Black Mask.”

Oracle. “You really shouldn’t go in there alone.”

“Keep trying Red Robin, don’t stop until he answers.”

“Ok but what about you?”

I smirked. “I’m going to unmask a drug dealer.”

Oracle tried to say something but I clicked. Sorry Babs but I’m too close to stop now. I took a deep breath, returned the cell to the pouch and stepped out of the shadows. I slipped on my goggles and searched the area. The first thing I saw were the goons, there were a lot of them. At least three standing around doing nothing, two more patrolling. All of them were wearing Monkey masks. I pulled out my batarang and let it fly. I know it wasn’t very stealthy of me but tonight I couldn’t rely fully on stealth. As soon as the batarang hit the first goon in the face, I was on the other two. I jumped on one of them, putting my hands on his shoulders while kicking the other in the face. I dropped to the ground, still holding the guy by the shoulders, which allowed me to throw him over my back and into the wall. The batarang came back to me, which gave me a second throw.

I went right at the patrolling guards. The batarang hit one in the back of the head. He went down and his partner turned around. There was only a split second for him to react before I leapt the distance between us. He didn’t even get his gun up when I slammed into him, pinning his shoulders while I brought him to the ground. I punched him the face then rolled off him, onto my feet. The batarang came around to me and I caught it.

Less than a minute and five goons down for the count.

I stepped over the one at my feet and made my way for the warehouse. I opened the door and slipped inside. It was set up just like the one in September but shrouded in darkness. I crept along the wall of wooden boxes, trying to stay as quiet as I could. Somewhere in this place was the man I’d been searching for. As soon as I got my hands on him, I could finally end all of this. My heart was pumping a mile a minute my chest and I was sweating like crazy. I took deep reassuring breaths to try to calm myself. It was just as Onyx taught me. I needed to control my breathing and concentrate. It took everything I had to do so now. I was so close I could taste. I was slinking along, my back to the boxes and somewhere he was hiding. I’m sure he was waiting too. On my way over, Dr. Fright’s arrest was already on the radio. The Black Mask knew she was out of the picture and probably also figured he was next on the menu. I’d be an idiot if I didn’t expect some kind of ambush.

I moved slowly along the crates until there was no more in this row to hide behind. I peered around the corner. There was a large open space. I frowned, scanning the green haze. There was nothing. I took a deep breath and stepped out from behind the boxes. I hadn’t gotten it wrong, this was the address. Oracle double checked it. Things fit too perfectly. The names, the locations, the fact that my Dad came here in September. I looked at one of the nearest boxes. Then I walked over to one and pulled off the lid. Inside was straw, which I knew also packed the V-10 vials? Everything was exactly where it should be except Black Mask.

Realization dawned on me. It was another set up. Dr. Fright played me for a fiddle. I cursed. Son of a bitch; I walked into it again. Some great detective I turned out to be. I stepped away from the crate and started back the way I came. This was ridiculous. How many times was this guy going to screw me like this. How many times was I going to fall for this crap?

I was half way to the door when I heard something. It was a faint buzzing sound. I turned around. It was coming from behind me. I turned and walked back in the other direction, back toward the center of the room. I knew it was stupid but the sound seemed to be calling me. I pulled out my batarang and cautiously took a few steps forward. The buzzing got louder and louder. Had it always been there? I walked further and further into the room until I saw something. It was small and flat, lying in the center of the room. I walked over to it and saw a cell phone, vibrating on the cement. It was the source of the buzzing. I took a deep breath and bent to pick it up. When I saw the display, my heart skipped a beat: ORACLE.

I pushed the button. “We have a problem,” I said, realizing who’s phone I was holding.

“Damn it” said Oracle “get the hell out of there now!”

I clicked off the phone and dropped it. She didn’t have to tell me twice. I started to move back the way I came when the lights in the room snapped on. The brightness overwhelmed my goggles and I screamed, dropping to my knees. I pulled them off, tossing them away. It was so blinding. I crawled about, my eyes shut, watering from the pain. There was laughing, lots of laughing from all around me. It was men, lots of them. When I got close, someone stepped on my hand. I didn’t feel it of course. Then someone kicked me in the face. I stumbled away from the blow. Arms grabbed me underneath my shoulders and lifted me up. Someone held me while someone else took a couple of hard shots at my stomach.

“It’s a girl,” said a voice. “The Bat is a little girl”

There was more laughing.

The last blow forced my eyes opened and everything started to come back, all be it a bit hazy.

A Wolf was punching me in the chest. No not a real wolf, someone wearing a wolf mask. I gasped as blow after blow hit me, one of them in the face. Finally, after several blows, I was dropped to the floor. I coughed and gagged, blinking back tears. My vision slowly started to right itself. I didn’t feel any pain from the punches, well not any real pain. I staggered to my feet and got a good look at my surroundings. Dr. Fright was right, he did have an army. There had to be at least twenty masked monsters all around me. I scanned all the animal faces, trying to find the one I was looking for. But he wasn’t there. I didn’t see him until I made a complete 360 of the room.

When I got to look behind me, I gasped. Someone was pulling a chair out of the darkness. In the chair, tied and barely conscious was Tim. I say Tim because his mask was missing and someone had done a number on him. I bit my lip, forcing back the urge to run to him. The chair was left in the middle of the room. The man dragging it was a giant, dressed in black leather. His mask was different, it looked like a dominatrix one except there were spikes all over it. Real freaky. He took one look at me then stepped aside, allowing the real freak to take center stage. That’s when I saw him finally, face-to-face. The man wearing the black pinstripe suit and the strange black skull mask. The man I’d been looking for, the man who at this very moment I wanted to pound to a pulp.

`”I believe we found something you’ve lost, Miss Bat,” he said, his voice a dark sneer.

“Black Mask” I said, then added a second later. “Or is it Roman Sionis?”

If he was shocked, he didn’t show it. Instead, he waved his hand as if I was some kind of annoyance. “Take her quickly but make the beating last as long as possible”

He turned and walked back into the shadows, disappearing.

There was a low roar of chuckles then as one the goons charged me. I gulped and held up my fists, it’s going to be one of those nights. The goons came as one. I prepared for the worst but right when they were about to get me, there was loud pop, followed by another. There were two big lights overhead and suddenly both of them exploded in a shower of glass, leaving the room in complete darkness.

Now the real fun starts.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF