DISCLAIMER THE FIRST: "Has he lost his mind? - Can he write or is he blind? - Is it conceit or is it gall; That Marvel and Paramount owns it all? - Or if he's sued that will he fall? - Is he alive or is he dead? - Has he trademarked thoughts in his head? - We'll just leave this here: No money was made; So he's in the clear!"

PITHY STATEMENT RELATING TO THIS CHAPTER: "Be bold; Venus herself aids the stout-hearted." Albius Tibullus – Latin poet and writer of elegies – 55 BCE – 19 BCE

LAST UPDATED ON: 03-22-2020

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CHAPTER TWO – STOUT HEART

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LOCATION UNKNOWN, AFGANISTAN, DATE UNKNOWN, 2010 – EVENING

Riri itched pretty much everywhere. Worse was the area where Dr. Fazli's widget married up with her skin. That itched and hurt. Luckily for now it remained uninfected which was amazing given the condition of the cave she was imprisoned in. Oh, their captors had people who would clean it, probably hostages to ensure local officials did as they were ordered too, but their idea of a clean room and what she was used to working in with were light years apart.

She reached up and pushed her protective goggles up and rubbed her left eye with the back of her wrist as she didn't want to take off her gloves. As much as even having her eyes itch due to the dust and smoke from the heating stove, at least she didn't have to constantly clean glasses as Fahim seemed to do every 10 minutes. As a doctor, Riri figured the poor quality of sanitation in their prison drove him quietly crazy.

Of course, everyone in the cave seemed crazy in their own way. Professor Yinsen had this façade of the Zen Asian master but Riri quickly saw that it was a persona he was playing, like a mask he put on to help keep him sane. For all his sometimes-nasty quips regarding Riri and Tony, Dr. Fazli acted like he was a simple village doctor who wasn't fazed by anything. Yet by his own words, Riri knew that behind those soft words and kind smile, lurked a lot of pain.

Then there was Tony.

Riri honestly hadn't thought Stark could ever surprise her. From almost the second they met, Stark seemed to epitomize white privilege, old money and every genius trope rolled into a ball of manic energy. Yet the man who shared the cave with her wasn't that man. In his place was a dark, brooding and driven man. For the most part, Stark did two things, work on the various malfunctioning weapons brought to him or feverously working on scribbling designs which even she had trouble interpreting.

Riri looked back to the missile she was busy soldering. It was a basic surface-to-air missile from the Soviet age. While many lay people might not realize it but things like missiles did have an expiration date and Afghanistan was filled with old supply caches filled with such weapons. In the week after Riri had regained consciousness, she had worked on everything from mines to missiles and rifles to rockets.

Of course, the Ten Rings didn't want their captives to just fix these aging weapons. Oh no, their leader, Raza Hamidmi Al-Wazar, wanted them to upgrade them. So, she spent her days working on how to take a missile made back when Tony was partying at MIT and make it into a modern killing machine.

Riri bit back a curse that not only had Raza managed to acquire Stark tech supposedly found nowhere else but at various Stark testing facilities, but he was making them resurrect weapons which had safely 'died' before ever killing anyone. Of course, at least Riri had worked on weapons before. What the madman Raza had Dr. Fazli doing was much worse.

She looked over to where Fahim was talking quietly to a Ten Rings fighter. The doctor was fitting him with a prosthetic arm. Riri could see (even if she couldn't understand a thing the two men were saying back and forth) that the fighter didn't have a clue he was being set up. All the man saw was a new arm. Riri knew, however, that the arm held a dark secret: a 2 kilo of C4 secret. One which could be remotely detonated. The fighter, for all his enthusiasm for the cause, was going to be sent to a martyr's death without him ever having a clue.

Riri knew that this ate at the doctor. Worse was how happy the men and women he had fitted with such devices had acted. All were so happy to have a semblance of mobility returned or the ability to go through life without only one arm. The brutal horror of what he had done, even under duress, had to weigh heavily on the doctor. It showed in how much he acted more and more like a family doctor just doing a house call with friends and neighbors.

Maybe Dr. Fazli just wanted those poor souls to savor the little joy they had while they were alive to have it.

Riri turned back to her soldering and once again tried to ignore what was going around her. While the epiphany she had about her workaholic nature still made her feel guilty for not asking harsher questions about what her work was doing to the world, it did help her tune out what was going on around her, so she could at least function.

Even though the youngest and therefore the one supposedly having the most to live for, it felt to Riri she was coping the best even though she was one that was on the verge of death if the car battery hooked to her chest widget failed.

She stopped soldering and looked over to where Tony was again working on notes and schematics. Riri had asked him the other day what he was working on and he said loudly it was an upgraded power plant. Yet sotto voice, he had said it was something which would keep her Jericho dagger problem at bay.

Suddenly there was loud banging on their cell door accompanied by shouting. She could tell it was Abu Bakar, one of Raza's main lieutenants and the one she was pretty sure was in charge of their lives. Riri looked at the old clock with the broken glass face near Professor Yinsen's desk. He was a bit early for a change.

Riri turned off her soldering gun and took off her glasses and gloves. Bakar had made it clear he didn't like not seeing their eyes or having anything covering their hands. He didn't like protective aprons either but Riri had found that picking up her car battery and holding it to her stomach worked not only so she didn't have to shed the unwieldy garment but tended to keep Bakar and his men from getting to close to her.

Tossing her gloves and goggles on the rickety table next to her work bench, Riri grabbed her battery off the box which at one time had carried bags of rice from some U.N. charity and went and stood with the rest of her fellow captives. Unlike her, they had their hands behind their heads as was required.

Bakar yelled out more things that only Dr. Fazli could understand. While Professor Yinsen was a Beijing native, his grandmother was a Uyghur and he spoke quite a fair bit of his grandmother's tongue. While the Ten Rings recruited from all around Central and Southern Asia, there were few Uyghurs among them thus it fell to Fahim to translate. Or at least try. He had complained how many various languages were used around the camp. In fact, he was convinced that they kept the Dari and Pashto speakers away from them given how Fahim spoke both languages fluently.

At least Bakar spoke Pashto so at the very least the really important orders were never in doubt which was good because his English seemed to have come from watching bad action films.

The door opened and Riri was quick to hide her surprise to see Raza behind his men. This was easy since most of the Ten Ring fighters might be broad, but few were that tall. Raza, however, was lean and stood a good head above most of his men. He also had this unflappable calm about him that Riri felt would make him a great Hollywood villain.

That is if he wasn't already a real, honest to goodness villain in his own right.

That he was here was not a good sign. It almost always came with new orders, often mostly impossible ones. As Abu and his men checked the chamber, Raza just looked at the four like a cat might look at a cornered mouse.

It was times like this that for all her spunk she had been known for all her life, she was glad she had a battery in front of her. It wasn't much of a security blanket, but it was at least something between her and a very bad man.

Bakar finally gave Raza a thumbs up signal. Raza nodded and turned back to his captives. Unlike Abu, Raza's English sounded like he was an Indian born BBC announcer. "Well it seems things are going smoothly. But are you working as diligently as you can?"

He turned to Stark and his eyes went from seemingly like a cat on the prowl to those of a cobra about to strike. "You, for example, Mr. Stark seem to equate work with scribbling endless notes."

Riri may not have like the 'Partyman Stark' but over the last week she had found that there was steel beneath the frat boy veneer.

With a shrug Stark replied, "You know about the old saw about breaking eggs to make omelets? Well even I can't just 'whip something up' when it comes to taking weapons decades after their use date and turn them into some Dr. Evil tech. Now as I told you last time, chemicals are so 20th Century and if you want the modern mayhem then you need power. And I'll tell you again, that I'm working on it. Frankly, beyond the fear of having you just taking me out and having me shot behind the chemical sheds, right now I'm more irritated that I'm about to make scientific history, again I might add, and nobody but the people you yahoos shoot at will ever know it."

Riri was aghast. Raza seemed rather tolerant of Stark's rants, but she was sure this time he'd gone too far.

However, Raza merely raised an eyebrow. "That may be, Mister Stark but only Allah has infinite patience. Besides, as I mentioned before, you will be moved to a different location at some point. Right now, I cannot say whether your lab will get better or worse."

Stark openly rolled his eyes, "Well I'm sure you'll manage but I'm thinking it'll be a stretch to get worse than this. But hey, I get what you're saying. I'm betting you've got your boss man riding you just like Obi and his stockholder posse like to ride mine. Well I'm fairly confident that I'm going to begin prototyping in the next day or so."

Raza smiled. This smile got nowhere near his eyes, "I do hope so for Miss William's sake."

Stark merely shrugged, "No need to get all Grand Moff Tarkin on me; she's going to be the prototype so if I screw up, well she won't be around for you to torture for my failure."

"What?" Riri couldn't help but blurt out.

"Shush, Riri; the big boys are talking," Stark quipped. He turned back to the resident Ten Rings leader. "So, give me a week and I'm about 87.23% positive that I'll either have a working prototype or one dead intern and more data for me to get it right the next time. You okay with that or do you need to do more evil posturing with threats and maniacal laughter?"

Raza chuckled, "Oh no Mister Stark. This is where you get beaten for your impertinence. Be sure to work hard for I'll hold you to your promised timetable." With a gesture, four of Bakar's men leapt towards Stark and soon had him on the ground, kicking and occasionally hitting him with the buttstocks of their rifles.

Raza turned to Riri who was pointedly trying to ignore what was happening to her boss. "I do hope, for your sake Miss William, that you do your best to ensure your employer does not drop a decimal or something like that. Remember, even if Stark creates his successful prototype in you…well prototypes are not very useful after they prove their concept, yes?"

The evil man turned to where Yinsen and Fazli stood, 'I hope both of you remember this." With a bark in a language Riri didn't recognize, Bakar followed his master out the door with the rest of the guards quickly following though one did tarry long enough to give Stark another kick.

After the door clanged shut, Riri quickly made her way to Tony's side. While obviously banged up, the idiot was actually chuckling. "Tony, you idiot! Why do mouth off to him? Do you want to die? You're not invincible and you're definitely not made of iron!"

Stark continue to chuckle until it turned into a rasping cough of pain. "Well I can't die as I'm sure Pepper would never allow it. But you got it wrong; dying is easy but I'm not going to make me living any easier for that bastard."

Fazli sighed and motioned to Yinsen to help him get Stark onto the same cot Riri had woken up on. "Yes, but you and Miss William have the best chance of getting out of here. No need to shorten the already small odds."

Stark laughed again, spitting up some blood in the process, "Never tell me the odds!"

Despite herself, Riri couldn't help but groan. Even in the face of death, nothing apparently stopped Stark's love of inappropriate humor and movie quotes.

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LOCATION UNKNOWN, AFGANISTAN, FIVE DAYS LATER, 2010 – EVENING

"Got a minute?"

Riri looked up from her calculations. "Well you are my employer, Mister Stark; it wouldn't be in my best interest to tell you to buzz off." Riri tried to smile but the few days had been hard and she wasn't sure her attempt at humor would come off as such and not her just being bitchy.

Stark grinned, "I doubt any complaint I made would get to HR so I'm sure you're safe. No, I'm ready to start the procedure tomorrow. I'm fairly confident on my work and Fahim is just as fairly confident that he can keep you alive if something goes wrong and we need to switch you back to your widget."

"And Yinsen?" Riri asked as she glanced over to where the old man was already curled up in sleep. As the oldest, Yinsen tired out the quickest.

Stark followed her gaze, "Yinsen is just excited. While you've picked up the slack on the weapons work, he and I have had some time to come up with some pretty interesting things. So, thanks for that. I know having that thing in your chest hasn't made it any easier for you in this already craptastic place we've found ourselves in."

"Yes, well in honor of your love of bad Seventies quotes, 'I will survive.' So what have you and Professor Yinsen been up too?" Riri asked.

"Like our ticket out of here," Stark said quietly. It was no accident that Stark's back faced the security camera in the room. None of the prisoners felt it was being too paranoid to believe Raza having someone who could read lips watching the security feed.

"What have you got?" Riri asked while trying to keep the excitement off her face and out of her voice.

"Well let's take a look, shall we? Of course, the power source for it may end up killing you tomorrow so that might be a bit of a drag on the plan," Stark said with a smile. Like Raza's, it didn't reach his eyes.

Riri snorted at that, "Tony, I already have Stark tech trying to kill me. I'm 'fairly confident' I'm in good hands."

Stark chuckled at having his words toss back at him as he spread out various pieces of the yellowish paper they were forced to work on. Yet none of the schematics made any sense. "Tony?"

Stark merely smiled, "Lay them atop each other in ascending order; I'm sure you'll go from fairly confident to mostly confident."

Riri snorted, "Well I guess that beats being mostly dead."

Stark mocked scowled, "Miss Williams, I'm the purveyor of movie quotes here, thank you very much."

Riri snorted again, "Excuse me, but nerd girl here; we stop geeking for no man. Wait…what?"

Suddenly as she placed the six numbered sheets in the proper order a pattern started to form. Pressing down, it became clear what Tony and Yinsen had done. She turned to look at his face, "Tony?"

This time Stark's smile not only reached his eyes, but they seemed to twinkle, "As I said, our ticket out of here. Oh and don't worry, you're not being left out of the loop on this. If my miniature ARC reactor doesn't kill you tomorrow, we both are going to need your help to get this working. As I said earlier, Miss Williams; I've had my eye on you for a long time. Now is definitely the time for you to shine for all of our sakes."

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LOCATION UNKNOWN, AFGANISTAN, ONE WEEK AFTER THE OPERATION, 2010 – MORNING

"Bleargh," Riri said as she struggled to get up out of her cot. The lack of coffee was hitting her more each day. That and she'd kill for a bacon breakfast sandwich.

"I'm sure that is not a real word, Miss Williams," Dr. Fazli quipped from where he was cleaning some of his tools.

"Oh please…I'm sure it means something somewhere but anyway, it's how I feel," Riri snarked back.

"And how do you feel?" the doctor asked.

Riri resisted the urge to rub the glowing device on her chest, "Better. It doesn't seem to itch like the last widget did. Also, I've looked at the numbers, so I think my stress levels have dropped."

"Yes, if you lived for another 100 years you might have to worry about those daggers reaching your heart, "Fahim agreed.

"I'll settle for living past next month," Riri said with a frown.

"Nonsense! Never give up hope you will return to your family. I live for the day when I will be reunited with my family," the doctor said with a genuine smile.

"You miss them, don't you?" Riri asked.

"Of course, every day. Sometimes every minute of every hour. Being separated from them brings me a pain I'm happy to think you could never understand at your age. But, don't you miss your own family?" Fahim asked back.

Riri didn't say anything for a moment. There was something off about the good doctor. It was like he was wearing a cloak of misery around him. Of course, his question literally hit close to home. In the face of his obvious devotion to his family, Riri felt her own feelings so inadequate.

Finally, she shrugged, "Not really. My father is a good man for all his drinking and lack of a decent education. Mom quite frankly doesn't know what to do with me and my younger brother and sister can't relate to me. They both think I'm a freak."

Dr. Fazli sighed, "Ah yes, the burden of genius. It is something I've noticed too often in my time amongst some of the world's brightest people. People fear what they cannot understand and even blood ties rarely trumps that irrational urge. No matter, I'm sure you at least have colleagues which may have been jealous but surely miss you deeply."

Riri laughed at Fahim's knowing smile, "Yeah well you got me there. I had quite a few projects I'm sure have gone down in flames with me not there to supervise them. I'm sure Mister Stane is quite frantic."

"Oh, I'm sure Obi's having the time of his life trying to deal with panicky shareholders," came Stark's voice from where he was head down in some intricate electrical work. Riri almost snorted at the sarcasm which filled Tony's statement.

Yinsen woke with a yelp from his bed as their cell door clanged with a rifle butt striking it followed by shouting.

Riri looked at the clock, 'Whoa is Bakar's early. You know, he knows enough English to tell us to get ready. Why he screams at us in a language only you understand is beyond me."

Fahim shrugged as he hurriedly put away his tools and moved to the center of the room as Yinsen scrambled to get presentable. Only Stark seemed to be unruffled as he finished up what he was working on.

Riri felt a little naked as she stood between Stark and Yinsen. This would be the first time she didn't have the small comfort of having a car battery between her and Bakar and his men. She prayed that this was their normal rousting and Raza was not present.

As the door opened, it was apparent that luck was not with them as not only Raza standing behind his men, but his normally impassive face was wearing a frown. Riri could almost feel the anger wafting off him.

Worse was Raza quickly stormed into the room with his men fanning out around him. None of them moved to do the normal search of the room.

"Trouble at the mill?" Tony asked into the tense silence.

Normally Raza seemed amused by Tony's attempt to lighten what was a literal life-and-death situation. Today obviously was not a normal day as Raza slapped Stark hard across the face with the back of his hand, "I do not have time for your insolence, Mister Stark. You promised me power. Miss Williams survived so you have your prototype. Yet where are my weapons? You've done little in the last few days to get me what I want! I'm tired of warning you of the consequences!"

Amazingly it was Dr. Fazli who spoke up instead of Stark, "You ask the impossible you madman! You barely feed us and if it wasn't for the forges, we probably all would be done in with pneumonia. You spy on us, threaten us, treat us like animals and on top of it want us to pervert our work for you evil schemes! And you have the gall to be surprised we are not eagerly doing your bidding?"

Raza turned towards the doctor with only a hint of surprise that everyone in the room seemed to be feeling. The Afghan doctor never raised his voice! "Doctor, I do not think you understand the consequences of…"

"Allah take your consequences! I'm fully aware of what you can do! Where do you think I grew up? Disneyland? Your accent and demeanor betray you! I know where you're from; cushy and quiet Punjab! Phah! Where you bullied for your Pashtu roots by those mean Punjabis? I hope so because unless you vacationed in Kashmir, you've seen NOTHING compared to what I grew up with," Fahim sneered.

"Doctor don't make me…" Raza said in a cold voice.

"Don't make me what? Kill me? We all know that's the end product anyway. You're just lucky none of us have the heart to tell you to go to hell and be done with it! A lot less people would die if we were of stout heart." Fahim spat back.

Raza's eyes narrowed before in one swift movement he grabbed the pistol from the holster attached to the bandolier on his chest and shot Dr. Fazli in the face. Even some of Bakar's men shouted in alarm while the Afghan doctor fell back as Yinsen was splattered with his blood.

Riri hadn't screamed. She was too shocked at the callous way Raza has snuffed out the life of a truly kind man. One who had struggled with the hate she felt was due to her and Tony for their actions. Struggled with that hate and conquered it. Regardless of what he had said, Fahim had truly been stout-hearted. It hurt to see his body crumpled up like a broken toy on the floor. Now he'd never get to see his family again.

Raza turned back to look at his prisoners, Stark especially. "Weapons, soon or else. I hope this demonstration removes the need for any further verbal repartee, yes?"

Stark practically growled, "Oh you've made your point quite clear. Everything has consequences which you've made quite apparent. Maybe someday you'll get taught the same lesson and I'm hoping a lot of pain is involved along with it."

Raza simply raised an eyebrow as if to say, "Oh really?" but then turned and left with an imperious gesture for his men to follow. The door closed with a loud clang leaving the cave quite literally deathly silent.

While Yinsen began to towel off Dr. Fazli's blood, Riri knelt by the dead man. She reached out and took off the dead doctor's glasses and closed his eyes. She turned to Stark who what a thunderous look on his face, "I can't believe they just left him here!"

Yinsen sighed, "That is part of the punishment. They won't dispose of his body till sometime tomorrow. Sadly, the stench will be terrible."

Riri got up and grabbed the woolen hat the doctor had often worn. Riri had teased him that it made him look like he was about to jump on a bicycle and bike down to get the local Sunday paper. Now she placed it one his head to hide the bullet hole in his forehead.

Stark grabbed the body's legs while Riri and Yinsen took up the arms to place the once kind doctor into his bunk. Riri move his arms so they were made a cross over his chest. She noticed that Stark had returned to his work, a look of total concentration already on his face. A flare of anger swelled up into her until she remembered what Stark had told Raza. Revenge for the evil man's crimes wasn't going to just happen. Tony obviously was working to make it happen.

She looked over to Yinsen, "I'm sorry to be an insular American but is there anything we need to do for him? Prayers? Last rites?"

Yinsen shook his head with a wan smile, "No Miss Williams, our friend is hopefully with his God now in Heaven. Although the Buddhist in me hopes his spirit will be reborn into this world. Sad to think such a man is forever lost to this imperfect world."

Riri felt tears begin to fall; she angrily wiped them away, "True but now he will never see his family again."

Yinsen shook his head again, "Ah but that is where you are wrong, child. Fahim has been reunited with his family at last. Mourn the loss of the man but know that he is where he so desperately wanted to be."

Riri looked at the serene Professor, "What? I don't understand. Fahim was telling me not 10 minutes ago about how much he looked forward to seeing his family again."

Yinsen looked sad, "I know, child. I'm sure you felt his righteous anger towards you that he attempted to control was because of the death Stark weapons you helped design have wrought upon this land. Sadly, his own family was some of the first casualties of those same weapons. Frankly I am surprised he didn't provoke Raza earlier."

Riri shook her head, "No!"

Yinsen shrugged, "To you in the West, suicide is seen so poorly. Yet here in the East, well it is less of an end and more of just another step on the journey. I believe poor Fahim realized that Raza was especially angry today. We both had sadly seen it before. There was a good chance someone was going to die today, and he felt it had to be him."

Riri looked down at the man who now, except for the blood stains, looked as if he was merely sleeping, "But why?"

"Because he knew if there is any chance of an escape, the three of us were still needed," Stark said coldly from his work bench. "Your ARC reactor is stable and we all are going to be needed to make our project work. Don't think he just goaded Raza into killing him; he made a very sound tactical decision."

Yinsen chuckled humorlessly, "You are thinking like a warrior, Stark. Fahim acted as a doctor in triage. He knew who had to be saved and who had to be denied care. In this case, that person was him. That and I believe he may have felt I would have stepped up even though my help is still needed."

Riri frowned as she got up and went to their wash basin to clean off the dead man's blood off her hands, "Why would you do such a thing, Professor?"

Yinsen looked at Stark who nodded, "It is simple, my dear. I will never leave this cave. I'm dying of prostate cancer. I was stage three when I was captured and I've been denied any treatment. Well denied is not correct as I never told them of my condition. I figured my cancer would kill me before I did too much damage for the Ten Rings. Right now, I'm trying to hang on till we get the project completed."

Riri looked at Stark, "You knew about this?"

Stark nodded, "It's why I've been working so much with Yinsen instead of doing more weapon work. The clock is ticking against us and sadly I had to risk a beating or an incident like today to get what we need before Yinsen runs out of time. Bad enough for our project to work, you need to now step up with Fazli's prosthetic works. Otherwise parts of the project are going to be too obvious. I doubt even Bakar could fail to wonder why we're working on arms and leg parts."

Riri to Yinsen, "I'm sorry Professor."

Yinsen laughed, "Oh my dear child, don't be! I've lived a full life and I leave behind a wonderful family. Now I wish to help the two of you get home. I think both of you have much to think about and to meditate on where your life has been going and where you may wish it to go now, yes?"

Riri looked at Stark, "You got that right. Grandpa Howard and my Dad are going to be rolling in their graves when I get back. Obi's probably going to have a stroke too," the inventor said with a cold calmness.

Riri thought about what her life would be like if they did make it out of this cave. She knew she couldn't just walk back into her labs at Stark Industries and even the halls of MIT felt like they would be a step backwards. What would she do? What could she do?

Riri looked back down at the body of Dr. Fazli. Whatever she did, she knew she'd take the advice of the dead doctor. She would strive to be stout-hearted and do the right thing even is that meant opening herself up to pain and suffering. She had thought she was helping world peace but she had added to the sum total of the world's suffering. Riri knew she'd have to atone for that.

Riri looked over to the mirror over Fahim's workplace. A tired, dirty and young black woman looked back at her. Her expression was that of unease.

She had a lot of blood on her hands; what would it take for her to wash it off and make things right?

The young woman's face changed from unease to determination. Stout-heart, Riri thought. She will do what needed to be done and woe to anyone who stood in her way!

XxXxX

A/N: As with my Harry Potter fan-fiction, I think a lot of writers want to patch up plot holes. Marvel obviously expected us to believe the Ten Rings guys were so inept that they couldn't tell the difference between the beginnings of powered armor and a missile. This chapter helps show how the armor could be built by being covered by the late Dr. Fazli's prosthetic works.

Fanfic Net Help: Sadly, Riri Williams is not a character you can pick as the main character and I couldn't find a good way to properly categorize this fic. So, if you like it and know of different forums this might get more traction on, either pass it on or PM me so I can try to get this a larger audience. Thanks!