From: Karnivax <karnivax@my-deja.com> Subject: [PW!] Top of the Heap Date: Monday, September 20, 1999 11:34 AM Kent Brockman: "This just in. A Pokémon fight is in progress in downtown Indigo Plateau. Early reports indicate - and this is *very* preliminary - that one of the fighters is a giant dinosaur/preying mantis hybrid. [to off-camera aide] Do we have a source on this? ...Uh-huh...a bunch of drunken frat boys... All right, I could use some names. ...'I.P. Freeley'..." --TOP OF THE HEAP-- Part 1 by Karnivax Jessica Sullivan sat in relaxation next to the locked entrance to the Pokémon League Headquarters, while her zealously protective Scyther, Atropos, vigilantly stood guard next to her and watched like a hawk for any possible threats while holding Torrasque's pet Pikachu, Cathode, close to her body. Though her Scyther instincts had been mostly overwritten by Bill's "consciousness-dubbing" technology, Atropos had managed to retain a sort of hive mentality. Jessica was close enough to being a fellow Scyther that Atropos viewed her as a Scyther matriarch of sorts, and therefore Atropos dedicated her life to preserving Jessica's. Oddly, such hive mentality was not exclusive to hive-building Pokémon. As Jessica watched Atropos's diligent patrolling, she considered getting up and scanning the vicinity with Ermac the Porygon to see if there were any Pokémon around that were worth catching. She was in need of a rock or ground Pokémon for her team. But at the same time she started to wonder if she was missing anything back home in Cerulean. She took out her pocket calendar and checked to see if she had made note of any important events that month. She had checked off one date that month, and she had not done so for any particularly exciting reason. It was just her way of knowing exactly what day that that little event that happened like clockwork every month of her life was going to happen. She looked at the date that the event was supposed to occur on. Jessica was surprised to find that it was supposed to have happened already that month. Two days ago, in fact. But it had not. There was an uneasy silence for just a few moments as the significance of that fact dawned on Jessica. She made the unsettling connection between the minor event's failure to happen and the single bacchanalian night she had spent in Viridian City more than a month ago. _Holy mother of Goddish...I...I can't believe it..._ she mentally gasped. _If this means what I think it means, then...I'm..._ Her calendar slipped out of her hand. She did not know whether to be joyous or frightened. Meanwhile, Kyle was busy exploring the lair of the Elite Four's leader. The room was almost sickeningly clean, with shiny marble floors and a designated Pokémon arena that was clearly marked in bright white tape. At each of the room's four corners was an ornately- sculpted stone pillar. The room had various Pokémon paintings and tapestries hung on the wall. Short pillars on which ancient pottery and ceramicware stood were placed along the floor outside the battleground. All of the works of art were well-protected by futuristic forcefields, which not only prevented larceny but also protected the works from damage by errant Pokémon attacks. The ceiling had what looked like a small rotunda in the center; the rotunda was decorated with stained-glass windows that splashed the arena below with several different colors of light. Suspended from the rotunda was the complete skeleton of a prehistoric Aerodactyl. As Kyle took his place on the battlefield, a blast of smoke appeared on the opposite side of the room, and started billowing outward until it had filled up the arena. Kyle gagged as a little bit of the smoke entered his lungs. Staring into the ephemeral cloud, Kyle could see the silhouette of a man about his size now at the other side of the designated battleground. When the smoke cleared, the man that could only have been the leader of the Elite Four shot Kyle a dubious glance. The man looked to be in his thirties. He had deep brown eyes and spiky black hair which stood straight up like some Akira Toriyama character. He had a long black cape draped over his whole body. "I watched your performance on the security cameras," the man pointed out to Kyle. "You won against Lorelei only because the gods seemed to be smiling on you. Your triumph against Bruno was merely the result of an Elite Four member who has evidently lost his way. Your defeat of Agatha came only because she let her intense frustration from seeing that legendary Gengar on someone else's side get the better of her." "Did I sense a tone of jealousy there? If I didn't know better, I'd say you're intimidated by my skill," Kyle shot back. He liked to rile enemy trainers up every once in a while by bruising their egos. He found that the typical trainer was much easier to defeat when their judgment was obfuscated by rage. "Intimidated? By you?!" the man laughed. "At first you were just a lucky kid...and that was only two strikes against you. But now you've shown me that you're an arrogant lucky kid. You've struck yourself out." With that, the man threw off his cape. His clothing consisted of what looked like a tan bulletproof vest with a green long- sleeved shirt underneath, a belt with six Pokéballs, jeans that appeared brand-new, and black boots. "If you can't fight a trainer battle using training prowess alone, you'll never make it past me," the man noted. "For I am Lance...leader of the Elite Four, master of dragon Pokémon, man who has no need whatsoever of fortuity." "Yeah, yeah. Are you going to fight me, or were you just planning to squash me with that giant ego of yours?" Kyle caustically queried. "The battle will be four against four," Lance snarled. "I suggest you take notes during the match...by watching me in action, you will at last learn what skill truly is!" Lance readied a Pokéball in his right hand. "Seadra! Assume battle mode!" Lance shouted, as he tossed the Pokéball into the battlefield. The Pokéball opened to release a blue Pokémon which closely resembled the species of seahorse known as the 'sea dragon.'" "Cloyster, ice this little blue bottom-feeder!" Kyle called out, as he unleashed Seaclamp. Before Seaclamp opened his shell, he asked nervously, "Cloyssster?" "Sea! Dra sea!" came the angry-sounding reply from the enemy Pokémon. Seaclamp opened his shell all the way, and saw the diminuitive Seadra bouncing up and down in front of him. "Cloys - s - s - ster..." he snickered, as he had no fear of water Pokémon that were smaller than him. "Seadra, Smoke Screen," Lance commanded right away. Seadra took a deep breath and exhaled a dense black cloud of smoke from its hose-like snout. While Seaclamp struggled to find his opponent, Lance told Seadra to use Bubble. Seadra blew a large bubble from its mouth which lazily floated toward Seaclamp and exploded violently upon contact with his core. Seaclamp spun his core around. The Bubble had not done much damage at all, but it had made Seaclamp slightly dizzy. "Spike Cannon!" Kyle shouted. Without even trying to lock on to his target, Seaclamp rifled off a series of exploding Spike Cannon shots. Seadra was able to dodge most of them; as they were poorly- aimed. But eventually one blast struck Seadra, and he fell over. "Agility," Lance quickly ordered. Seadra briefly started glowing, then it got up and darted around the arena at amazing speed, easily avoiding Seaclamp's subsequent Spike Cannon blasts. Seadra got in close enough that he was able to poke one of Seaclamp's eyes with his spiny fins, partially blinding Seaclamp. "Cloysss!!!" Seaclamp wailed, as the eye that had received the poking started to swell up a bit. Kyle was not sure what attack to call for next. "Seadra, Hydro Pump," Lance barked. Seadra stood in one place in front of Seaclamp, then gathered energy and shouted out its name. A huge waterspout appeared on the floor and blasted Seaclamp straight up into the air. The scared Cloyster crashed back down with a deafening THUD. "Quick, Seaclamp, use Aurora Beam!" Kyle said. Seaclamp rapidly charged up and fired an Aurora Beam at Seadra, but Seadra jumped out of the way. Seaclamp tried again and missed, then again, and again. Seadra was simply too fast. "Your Cloyster is no doubt beginning to tire," Lance scoffed. "Seadra, Bubble." As the swift Seadra leaped from side to side dodging Aurora Beams, he tagged Seaclamp with exploding Bubble after exploding Bubble. Seaclamp took the punishment quite well, but after a while he ran out of Aurora Beam power and had to stop firing. "Now Hydro Pump again," said Lance, taking the opportunity. Seadra paused in front of Seaclamp and started to gather energy a second time. "Hit it with Ice Beam while it's standing still!" Kyle yelled. Seaclamp frenetically pointed the barrel of his Spike Cannon at Seadra and before Lance could call for Agility, Seaclamp hit Seadra with an Ice Beam and froze the sea dragon to the floor. "Seadra's helpless! Use your Spike Cannon again!" "Counter with Smoke Screen!" Lance cried. But it was too late. The Smoke Screen did nothing to prevent Seaclamp from pummeling the immobilized Seadra with a barrage of explosive Spike Cannon missiles. When the blasts cleared, Seadra was flat on the floor and was coughing up puffs of black smoke. "Dra..." he wheezed, before passing out. Lance withdrew Seadra. "Don't congratulate yourself yet, kid...that was my weakest Pokémon. Aerodactyl, crush this miserable bivalve!" Lance wound up and threw a Pokéball into the battlefield, and out came the prehistoric avian that Kyle knew all too well. "Aeeerooo!" the flyer screeched, as it waddled toward Seaclamp. This Aerodactyl had a voice that was slightly higher than Grendel's. "You said you were skilled!" Kyle laughed at Lance. "And yet you're using a rock and flying-type Pokémon against a water and ice- type!" "Type is no substitute for combat experience! You would do well to write that down!" Lance snapped. "That would be like writing down 'two plus two equals seven,'" Kyle responded. Even though he secretly agreed with Lance, Kyle kept up the role of devil's advocate to try and make Lance lose his cool. "Seaclamp, Ice Beam!" Seaclamp then launched an Ice Beam at Aerodactyl. However, Aerodactyl got out of the way of the blast so quickly and easily that it looked like he had teleported. Seaclamp sweatdropped. The confidence he had gained from defeating Seadra was fading fast. "Wing Attack," Lance commanded. Aerodactyl took to the air and then slashed at Seaclamp with both of his wings at the same time. Seaclamp was starting to look a little punch-drunk. "Keep trying the Ice Beam!" Kyle shouted. Seaclamp desperately tried to score even a glancing blow upon Aerodactyl with the slow- moving Ice Beam, but it was hopeless. Aerodactyl continued diving down on Seaclamp and chipping away at him with Wing Attacks. After Seaclamp ran out of Ice Beam energy, Kyle told the Cloyster to try Clamp. Seaclamp lunged over and over at the fast-flying Aerodactyl, trying to crush the avian by pinching it in his shell. The attack was even more useless against the agile Aerodactyl than Ice Beam had been. "Aerodactyl, Bite." With that, Aerodactyl opened his massive maw wide and bit hard into Seaclamp's now-closed shell. The winged beast's teeth punched right through Seaclamp's external armor. Then, showing an amazing feat of strength, Aerodactyl lifted Seaclamp into the air, holding the Cloyster with his teeth only. He then proceeded to slam Seaclamp against the floor repeatedly. By the time Aerodactyl let go of Seaclamp, the Cloyster had fainted. "You should have listened to me," Lance grunted. Kyle recalled Seaclamp. _Wonderful...only two Pokémon left. But as long as I've got my trump card, I think I'll be okay._ Wanting to save his so-called trump card for last, Kyle sent out Thanatos. Thanatos was not even given enough time to play a sound bite on his guitar. Right off the bat, Lance called for Wing Attack. Aerodactyl rushed at the black Gengar and gave him a backhand slap with one wing, knocking the scourge of Lavender Town dangerously close to the arena boundary. "Go straight to Hypnosis, then use Psychic and push him out of bounds!" Kyle ordered. It was a cheap way to win, but Kyle had to get the most out of Thanatos's dangerously low level of health so his best Pokémon, Torrasque, would be in perfect shape for when Lance sent out his ultimate Pokémon. Thanatos pulled out his guitar, then jumped to one side as Aerodactyl tried to hit him with another Wing Attack. Thanatos played "Enter Sandman" so fast that his guitar nearly caught on fire. Aerodactyl started to slow down the second he heard the awful sound, and then he collapsed to the floor. His eyes closed gently. Lance frowned, as it seemed evident that Aerodactyl had become a lost cause. Thanatos mustered up all of his remaining psychic strength while Aerodactyl slept, then gave the prehistoric beast a mighty telekinetic shove, pushing him clear out of the arena. "Aerodactyl is disqualified!" Kyle noted with relish. "Very well, if that's how you want to play it..." Lance growled. He beamed Aerodactyl back into his Pokéball, then immediately tossed out another Pokéball. "Gyarados, let us see what this legendary Gengar is made of!" Thanatos gasped audibly as the Pokémon that now stood before him was a towering, twenty-five foot-long fish that looked like an Oriental dragon. Thanatos's awe at the sight of the massive Gyarados prevented him from getting the first strike. Lance commanded, "Gyarados, use a diagonal Hydro Pump and blast that cloud of swamp gas out of the arena!" Gyarados let out an earsplitting roar of "GYAAAAARRRRR!!!" just to scare Thanatos into remaining still. Then a gigantic diagonal waterspout sprung up right next to Thanatos. The blast did not send Thanatos straight up; rather, it launched him off to the side, sending him out of bounds. But even if Thanatos had somehow managed to stay within the boundaries, it would not have mattered. Thanatos's health was so low that the Hydro Pump attack knocked him out before he even hit the ground. Lance grinned diabolically. "You can pull that disqualification trick on me once, kid. But never, ever twice." He spun Gyarados's Pokéball on one index finger. "Now, if I'm not mistaken, you only have one Pokémon left that hasn't fainted already. And that's unfortunate for you, because you still have to defeat two of my Pokémon. You really should have brought some Max Revives with you..." "Point duly noted...and ignored," Kyle retorted. "Scyther, I choose you!" From Kyle's final Pokéball came the Pokémon that many an enemy trainer had referred to as "more dinosaur than bug" - the mighty Torrasque. --TOP OF THE HEAP-- Part 2 by Karnivax The battle-scarred Scyther took a quick look up at the gigantic serpent he was now facing. He did not seem the least bit intimidated. "Look, Torrasque," Kyle went on, "I know I said I wouldn't make you fight any more, but, as you can see -" "Say no more," Torrasque interrupted, as he took a fighting stance. "I'll take care of it, Kyle. But I expect a little gift in return after this is all over." Lance watched with interest, having never before seen a Pokémon that was able to speak English without use of a translator. "Name it, Torrasque." "Kyle, you know how, a while ago, you promised me that one day you'd pay for that operation to replace my boring old organic scythes with stainless steel ones?" "Consider it done," Kyle replied. "I think you're getting a little ahead of yourself," Lance snorted at Torrasque. "Even if Gyarados doesn't, my last Pokémon will crush you like the miserable little bug you are." "If this battle were under normal circumstances, you might be right," Torrasque very calmly replied. "But hey, this time I'm properly motivated to win. And that means that unless your Pokémon are packing a few nuclear warheads, I'm about to tear them each a new cloaca." Lance was not really listening to Torrasque's trash-talk. Lance was more interested in the fact that Torrasque looked decidedly like a miniature dragon. "Note to self," Lance said quietly. "Go to Safari Zone and catch Scyther." Then he said out loud, "Gyarados, Hyper Beam!" Gyarados closed its eyes and started to take in a considerable amount of hydrogen. So Kyle quickly commanded, "Torrasque, counter with Hyper Beam!" Torrasque jammed his talons into the floor to brace himself, then started taking in hydrogen as well, at a rate that was nearly twice as fast as Gyarados's. His left scythe started glowing with a multicolored light as he pointed it in Gyarados's direction. He kept his left scythe steady with his right. Then Gyarados opened its giant jaws, and unleashed an earthshaking beam comparable to a fusion cannon blast from its mouth. Mere milliseconds later, from Torrasque's left scythe came an even larger Hyper Beam. The two blasts met, and for a few seconds each beam would not let the other get past. But Torrasque had an advantage of more than forty experience levels over the Gyarados. His Hyper Beam easily overpowered that of the gigantic piscine. Both Hyper Beams detonated inside Gyarados's mouth. Stunned, the serpent coughed up a massive fireball and slammed to the ground. Dense smoke was rising from its nostrils. Torrasque pulled his feet free from the floor, charged, then attacked Gyarados's giant head furiously with a series of weak Slashes, making sure that the helpless sea serpent would not get seriously wounded. Eventually Gyarados blacked out from Torrasque's assault, and a frustrated Lance had to recall the very same leviathan that had once bitten off the right arm of infamous bounty hunter Trent Retwin. "I have no idea how one such as you managed to acquire such a powerful Pokémon," Lance said to Kyle, "but it's of little consequence. With the money I've spent and the T.M.s I've used, a whole *army* of Scyther could not defeat my last Pokémon!" Lance grinned as tossed out his fourth Pokéball and summoned the beast inside it: "Dragonite, exterminate this pest! This time, anything goes!!!" _Dragonite?!_ Kyle mentally gasped. _Damn it, where's Leviathan when I need him?_ Lance's Pokéball opened, and a rather angry-looking, winged, orange, ten foot-tall reptilian beast emerged. Torrasque subtly backed away from the massive Dragonite. Torrasque had spent a few years of his life fighting alongside Leviathan, but even when Leviathan was standing on tiptalons he was hardly five feet tall (Kyle surmised that Leviathan's miniscule size was the result of a birth defect that had happened during the course of events that brought Leviathan's egg to the shore of Cinnabar Island). Lance's Dragonite did not even wait for an official command. The legendary monster rushed at Torrasque and gave him a knee-bash in the chest, taking the wind out of him and causing him to double over. Then Dragonite hammer-punched Torrasque on top of the head, lifted him up, then gave him a mighty backhand which sent him on a short airborne trip toward one edge of the arena. When Torrasque crashed back to the ground, his head and one of his scythes were crossing a boundary. "I...I lost?!" Kyle cried, thunderstruck at the thought that he would have to fight the Elite Four all over again. "No...as usual, you got lucky," Lance scoffed. "Disqualification comes only if your Pokémon's entire body is out of bounds." "In that case...Torrasque, give Puff over there a taste of the People's Slash!" Dazed, Torrasque got up and shook his head a bit before approaching Dragonite. Before Torrasque could even start the People's Slash, however, the Dragonite hit Torrasque in the muzzle with a right jab and then a left uppercut that launched the Scyther relatively straight into the air. Dragonite gave Torrasque a powerful tailwhip before he could even hit the ground, and Torrasque would have sailed clear out of bounds had he not jabbed his scythes into the floor in mid-flight. "Dragonite, Bubblebeam," Lance commanded. "Drrraaa..." The Dragonite raised one hand skyward, and a large glowing bubble started to appear just above his hand. When the bubble reached its maximum diameter, Dragonite launched the projectile at Torrasque, and the one bubble turned into a chain of four as it flew. The chain traveled in a predictably horizontal wave pattern, and Torrasque was able to somersault out of its way. The glowing Bubblebeam burst against the floor with a resounding POP and a flash of blue water energy. "Nnnite," Dragonite hissed, scowling at Torrasque. Torrasque charged Dragonite at full speed this time, but Dragonite was ready. The giant orange beast went for a left jab to Torrasque's face...but this time Torrasque tilted his head to one side and dodged the punch. He crossed his scythes tightly around Dragonite's outstretched left arm, then, in a display of herculean strength, Torrasque leaned back and threw Dragonite over his shoulder. The surprised Dragonite landed flat on his stomach. Kyle called for the People's Slash as Dragonite was getting up, but Torrasque did not have time to do the Swords Dance that always preceded the move. So as Dragonite rose, Torrasque gave him a simple backhand Slash to the face. The attack did not bring the giant Dragonite down, but it did leave a bloody gash in his muzzle. Dragonite winced in agony and pushed Torrasque away with a weak tailwhip. "Fire Blast, now!" Lance shouted. Torrasque heard the dreaded F word, and got as far away from Dragonite as he could without leaving the arena. "Gooonnnite!" Dragonite thundered. He put his hands together, then interlocked his pinkies and lined up his thumbs and index claws, forming the shape of a pistol with his hands. As Dragonite concentrated intensely and shouted something in his own language (which translated roughly to "Fire Blast...IGNITE!!!"), his index claws lit on fire. Then, very suddenly, Dragonite pointed his index claws at Torrasque and unleashed a giant, swirling cloud of flame which took on a vaguely star-like shape as it roared toward Torrasque. The blast was much too big to avoid completely, so Torrasque held his wings against his back, ducked into one of the gaps between the fire-star's lower points, and prayed to Goddish that he would not get incinerated. The Fire Blast passed over Torrasque and then detonated like an incendiary when it ran into one of the room's walls. Torrasque's green scales had been burnt black, but he had not caught on fire. He silently rejoiced and got up from the floor. "Ice Beam, then," Lance ordered, while Dragonite still had a range advantage. Dragonite inhaled deeply, collecting energy. Then he exhaled with all his might, and a thin blue beam of energy rocketed from Dragonite's mouth and headed straight at Torrasque. The Ice Beam was much faster than the lumbering Fire Blast, and Torrasque again did not get away from the attack unscathed...the beam grazed his left scythe, and his entire left arm froze. Supporting his frozen arm with his unfrozen arm, Torrasque sprinted past a tailwhip from Dragonite and stood in front of Kyle. "This frozen arm's dead weight," Torrasque said to Kyle. "I have to ditch it temporarily. Catch!" Then Torrasque slashed off his own left arm. Kyle caught the frozen Scyther arm as it fell, preventing it from hitting the ground and shattering. "Are you out of your mind, Torrasque?!" Kyle cried. "It'll hurt a lot when my shoulder thaws," Torrasque said. "But as long as the nerves there are numbed by the ice, I'm keepin' on keepin' on!" Torrasque jumped out of the way of another tailwhip and started rattling off what sounded like a segment from an infomercial: "The Scyther, from Cinnabar Island Laboratories! Made from space-age preying mantis and dinosaur genes! It slices, dices, Cuts, Slashes, and even makes Julienne fries! But wait, there's more! It has removable limbs for eeeeeasy cleaning!" It was then that Kyle concluded that Torrasque was more than a little delirious. "Finish that pest off with a Thunderbolt!" Lance yelled. Dragonite took flight and hovered just above the arena. He raised his left arm, and the arm sparked and surged with bolts of brillant yellow energy as a giant pulsating orb of electricity formed in Dragonite's open left hand. Dragonite wound up, then pitched the electric sphere like a baseball at Torrasque. Torrasque brought one blade back as soon as he saw the Thunderbolt approaching. Then, timing his move with laser-like precision, Torrasque swung his remaining scythe at the oncoming projectile faster than the human eye could see...and deflected the bulk of the Thunderbolt right back at Dragonite. Dragonite was so surprised to see the Thunderbolt coming back that it never even occured to him to move out of the way. Torrasque took a more painful shock from the Thunderbolt than Dragonite did, but in the long run Dragonite was worse off. He clutched his head in pain and landed on his knees in the center of the arena, frozen in one place. He had been paralyzed by his own blast. "Now would be a good time for the People's Slash!" Kyle shouted. Torrasque, nearly paralyzed himself, hobbled over to where the helpless Dragonite knelt. The People's Slash normally involved both scythes, but this time things had to be a little different. Torrasque did a lethargic, halfhearted Swords Dance and brought his blade back. Kyle did not watch Torrasque pull off the People's Slash. Kyle had released the unconscious Espio and was using Espio's tail-flame to thaw out Torrasque's severed arm. While Kyle was doing that, he heard behind him the sound of Torrasque's scythe hitting flesh coupled with a cry of pain from Dragonite, then the same thing again, then a brief pause. After that came a loud CRACK, then an even louder cry of pain from Dragonite, then the whole room shook with an deafening THUD. After that, there was a vaguely metallic clang from something much smaller hitting the floor. Finally, Kyle heard Torrasque mutter, "Goddish damn it...I broke my scythe." When Kyle turned around, Torrasque was standing with his remaining blade broken in half, and Dragonite, covered in bleeding slash marks, lay roughly eight feet away from Torrasque. Dragonite raised his head slightly, moaned, "Drrraaagonnn..." then blacked out. His head once again hit the floor. Lance also looked paralyzed as he withdrew Dragonite. He hung his head in shame. "I believe I grievously underestimated your skill as a trainer, Kyle," he admitted. "And I've paid thusly. You've won." Kyle looked shocked as Lance's words sunk in. Then he started jumping around and backflipping in midair in a fit of utter jubilation. "You hear that, Torrasque?! I've won!!! I've WON!!! I'm...POKÉMON LEAGUE CHAMPION!!! YESSS!!! WAHOOOOO!!!" "Errr...I hate to precipitate on your mobile congregation, but you're not the champion just yet," Lance interrupted. "You see, you still have to defeat the reigning Pokémon League Champion...either Ash Ketchum or Gary Oak, depending on which one's here today." Kyle facefaulted, landing flat on his stomach. "All that...and I still have to defeat *one* *more* trainer?!!!" He got up from the floor. His face darkened. And then, very calmly, he recalled the fainted Espio, pulled a tube of glue out of his backpack, glued Torrasque's broken scythe back together, then popped Torrasque's now- thawed left arm back into its socket. "You know what? Screw being Pokémon League Champion!" a frustrated Kyle roared. "I've still beaten the Elite Four...and really, how many other trainers can brag about doing that?" He then grabbed Torrasque by one arm and headed for the door back to Agatha's lair. "Come on, Torrasque. We're out of here." Yes, folks, he went all that way for nothin'. But some really important stories are coming reeeeeal soon. I swear it. ^_^;;; --K * A * R * N * I * V * A * X-- "Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the former." --Albert Einstein Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Share what you know. Learn what you don't.