Chapter 1: Creature of the Night
-Gotham City Labs, Genetics Division-
It was a dark and busy night in the city of Gotham, cars zooming from place to place, slowing down, stopping or performing the occasional left or right on red turn.
Up in one of these metropolitan structures, the lights were still on currently as a person was diligently at work in one of the many genetics labs.
Said person was a twenty-three year old man with black hair, caucasian skin with a bit of paleness and brown eyes. One could also see that he had hearing aids in both ears.
Attire wise, he was wearing a white shirt, black pants, brown loafers, a pair of round glasses, and a white lab coat that had several pins in a pocket and a name tag.
Dr. Kirk Langstrom PHD, it read.
The man sighed as he crossed his arms as he looked down at the centrifuge in front of him as it spun several test tubes around.
"I hope this works…" He muttered as he waited for the centrifuge to finish working.
As it finished, the scientist slowly took one tube out of the machine and proceeded to load it into an injector. With the device loaded, he then looked over at a cage where three bats were hanging from its top—wings closed as they watched him with curiosity and scrutiny.
One was a common fruit bat, the second a brown bat, and the third was an albino vampire bat.
"Well Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, this is it." Kirk said as he rolled up his sleeve to expose his arm. "The serums I made using all three of your DNAs is finally ready. With these I'll finally be able to provide a cure for so many diseases and conditions." He continued. "Diseases and conditions of the blood, the ability to create an immunity to rabies, blindness, tinnitus and deafness." He elaborated. "And it all starts with this first injection—there's no turning back now." He added as he finally injected himself with the first serum.
No adverse effects took hold.
Then he injected himself with the second one. He felt nothing major still.
Deciding to wait for the serums to kick in, he sat down in his chair and rolled over to a cabinet so he could feed his beloved pets.
However, as he started thumbing through the boxes, his vision slowly started to get blurry. Thinking that his glasses were possibly dirty, he decided to take them off to clean them—only to find that his vision was just fine without them—better even.
Catching on to what was likely happening, he then took out his hearing aids, and instead of hearing nothing but silence or the excruciating tinnitus, he could hear clearly—better still, he could practically hear everything!
Realizing that his serums were working, he swiftly took a small blood sample from himself and examined it, finding that his stage 4 leukemia was still ravaging him from the inside—the sight causing him to cough.
Deciding that it was now or never, Kirk injected himself with the last serum, and after a few minutes of waiting, he could feel himself feeling far less lightheaded—and his skin was finally starting to regain its color!
Taking another blood sample he compared the two, and saw that his cells were actively attacking the cancerous cells faster than they could multiply, and regenerating more at an equally rapid rate.
"Incredible!" He gasped as he watched as he saw old wounds heal just as quickly. "That's… Unexpected—Ack!" He said before gasping.
That's when things really began to get weird.
Kirk groaned as pain hit his body, forcing him to his hands and knees as his body started changing. His skin turned white, his eyes pink, his hair receding—being replaced with fur—and his face and ears became more bat-like as he started growing arm-mounted wings which tore up his shirt and lab coat. Fur sprung from the rest of his body while his feet became more bat-like as well, and his teeth became fangs.
The colony of three bats shivered as they watched the truly gruesome show before them as the creature absentmindedly slashed at the light box—spreading his wings and letting out a loud shriek as the lights flickered and sparked.
(Timeskip)
-The Daily Planet, Six Weeks Later-
In the halls of the Daily Planet reporting firm, a young woman with short cut brown hair and fair mocha skin ran through them to a side room before bursting in, slamming the door behind her.
"Guys guys guys guys guys!" The girl ranted as she ran over to a table in the center of the room where two men around her age were standing.
"Whoa there, Lois." One of them said, holding her shoulders. "Take a breath, calm down." He told her.
"No time for that, Clark!" Lois shot back as she held up a paper. "There's been sightings of a large bat at various points around Gotham and Metropolis!" She exclaimed.
"… Huh, that's something you don't see every day." The larger man said, examining the rather blurry but workable picture on the page. "What is it? A new species escaped from the zoo?" He questioned.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure bats don't get that big, Clark." A young African American man said as he crossed his arms.
"They said that about vultures too until the giant condor was discovered, Jimmy." The bespectacled lad retorted.
"Whatever." Jimmy sighed, rolling his eyes.
"Forget the condors!" Lois interjected, getting their attention again. "What I'm getting at is that this could be another major story for us. We gotta see what's up!" She continued.
"Okay, but do we even know where to start?" Clark questioned before Lois flipped the paper to the second page where another story was front and center. "Prodigy genetics scientist Dr. Kirk Langstrom—youngest man to get a PHD in the field—reported missing after colleagues found his lab ransacked four weeks ahead of the doctor's reveal of his developing cures for the Nobel Prize of Medicine." He read. "You think this is connected?" He asked.
"It's gotta be." Lois nodded. "Maybe someone kidnapped him, or killed him and took his equipment and notes for themselves. We gotta find out." She added.
"Okay, that I get—I mean helping a future Nobel Prize winner and being able to report on the story is definitely an awesome idea." Jimmy nodded. "But how's that gonna help us find a giant bat?" He questioned.
"Jimmy, Kirk Langstrom's specialty was experimentation with bat DNA. If anyone can help us find this thing, it's him." Lois told him. "Plus if we can find him and he can help us find this bat creature…" The woman smirked as she held up two fingers on one hand and one on the other. "That means we get two stories for the price of one." She grinned.
"Still doesn't help us find either of them." The boy deadpanned.
"We could have a look around the places in Metropolis this giant bat was sighted at." Clark offered. "I mean, there's bound to have been several people who saw it, right?" He added.
"He's not wrong." Lois shrugged.
"… Fine. But if we do this, you guys gotta let me post the proof of the Flamebird channel first." Jimmy stated.
"Why are you still on about that?!" Lois groaned in exasperation as the trio walked out the door to start their search.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile, a white blur flashed across the night sky in front of the moon as it reached a steeple not too far from Metropolis, before it landed on the ledge of the church's bell tower.
The place was a dismal heap of wood and chrome, long since abandoned and considered condemned, with the bronze bell in the tower being the only feature that showed any sign of being well preserved.
The giant bat that was originally Kirk Langstrom hissed as his vision was now fully photonegative and swapping between it and thermal imaging vision as he crawled into the church—clinging to the ceiling as he came upon a colony of fellow bats, before he slowly allowed himself to hang, stilling at an upside down position with his wings wrapped around himself as the sun began to rise…
(Later)
The following night, Kirk's eyes shot open as he could feel himself start to change again.
Groaning and shrieking, the Man-Bat started to slowly and gruesomely change his form again, but this time into a form that was far more humanoid in appearance—a form that was obscured by the opaqueness of the night.
A few minutes later, he woke up again from his brief slumber and got up, leaping into the air and gliding for a moment before he landed on his feet on the ledge of the bell tower.
He then stretched his muscles, letting out a satisfied groan as he did, before turning towards the miraculously immaculately preserved bronze bell—and gasped as he finally saw his reflection again, nearly falling over in the process.
He was humanoid again at the moment. But now his previously brown eyes had become an albino redish pink (almost vampiric), his nose had became almost arrow shaped and squashed like a bat's, his skin a bright white color, almost like that of the moon, and his brown hair had become jet black to the point of nearly seeming blue.
Additionally he also seemed to have gained fangs and long claws—that seemed retractable as he flexed and tested them—and his clothes had also somehow become a skintight black and red suit that showed off his muscles and was complete with a cape.
"What… What has happened to me?" He gasped, still staring at his reflection in the bronze object in front of him.
Looking down at his new fingers, he flexed them a few times to get a feel for them since the past few weeks had made him partially forget what normal fingers felt like.
'Curious…' Kirk thought with a hum.
Deciding to test a theory that came to him at that moment, the man grasped the top of the window frame of the bell tower with one hand, digging his claws into the wood, before swinging out and launching himself into a flip over the window and onto the roof in one go.
Scanning his surroundings, he was able to see everything from his vantage point, but as he concentrated—his vision seemed to take on an almost negative/blue effect as things became sharper and clearer, while people were lit as red, blue and yellow. He could also hear everything too, almost as if he were up close despite the distance.
However, it soon became clear that even this wondrous experience—was actually rather overwhelming.
"Too much noise…!" He groaned as he held his ears to try and block out all the noise. Though eventually, his eardrums did eventually settle down, allowing him time to finally think clearly. "Hmmm…" The man hummed as he decided to test a second theory.
Closing his eyes, he whistled once and sound waves bounced from his lips to a jackrabbit buck that had just come from his hiding spot in the bushes, sending the signal back to him where an image was conjured in his head—and then was marked yellow when Kirk opened his eyes again.
With his target locked, he blinked again and his vision became like a thermal image camera—allowing him to see the rabbit as leapt from his perch and glided down almost the length of half a football field and land right on top of it, the animal screaming in panic as he caught it in his claws—his ears hearing its heart.
Humming, he let the little furball go and heard every footfall it made in its mad dash for safety.
"Well, that's certainly interesting." Kirk mused as he looked in the direction the rabbit ran before turning and heading back into the church, plucking a pear from a nearby tree and eating it. "Seems that I'm capable of sustaining an omnivorous diet. Curious, if not also convenient." He added as he leapt back to the church. "But I should go back to my lab. I'm sure the others will wonder where I've been…" He mused, looking at himself in the bell. "But first, I need to do something about this." He concluded.
(Elsewhere)
Later that morning, a flash of red and blue zipped through the city as the hero known as Superman flew around in search for clues to tell him where the supposed giant bat was hiding.
"It's gotta be somewhere around here…" He muttered as he searched the area for anything to help him out.
He couldn't find anything around Metropolis, so he decided to start searching outside the city limits. After an hour or so of this, he then flew to Metropolis' sister city, Gotham—a sonic boom thumping the air as he broke the sound barrier.
Upon arrival, he started poking around the sighting area to see what he could find. He didn't find much, but the ransacked wreckage of Dr. Langstrom's lab did seem like a decent place to continue his investigation.
The flying man carefully slipped under the caution tape that was over the gaping hole in the wall window at the side of the building while slowly and steadily tip-toeing his way through the crime scene so as to not disturb it, and started looking around for any clues.
He did find his notes on the serums he was making, so Lois must've been exaggerating on that part. The same applied to the apparently still present science equipment, so there was obviously no indication of ransacking like he'd been told.
'What am I missing here…?' He wondered before he came across the destroyed light box—and took note of the massive claw marks that seemed to have torn the solid steel housing like it were wet tissue paper. "What the-?" He questioned as he continued looking around, finding more and more claw marks and puncture marks on floor, ceiling and walls, and a very very large pair of footprints a couple feet away from a nearby microscope and overturned chair.
This only added to his growing confusion as he looked at the footprints with a furrowed brow. What had happened here, and why were there such large footprints on the floor?
As he contemplated the clues, Superman started using his super speed to speed read through Langstrom's notes and various files.
A lot of it was way over his head, so he couldn't understand it completely. But he could understand a few things. Kirk had always dealt with a cacophony of medical problems as a child. Poor eyesight, equally poor hearing, later tinnitus and a below average immune system, so he decided to try to develop cures for each problem.
Using his love of bats as inspiration, he studied genetic engineering and gene splicing in order to give humans the adaptations of the creatures to cure themselves of the conditions he had to constantly endure.
The notes continued into the creation process of the serums in question as well as a list of the bats he used for the experiments, but Superman soon paused his reading and examining two blood samples labeled 'Before introduction of Nosferatu Serum' and 'After' when he saw a camera laying on the desk next to him.
Humming, he had a look at it and saw that there was a line of recording logs that was preserved.
'Hopefully I'll get some answers for this whole thing…' He thought as he played the recording.
"Science Log: Day 1, Dec. 3rd 2018." The voice of Kirk said as the log began. "My hand picked Microchirpetra specimens have just arrived." He continued as he turned around and pointed the camera at a box where three chittering baby bats lay swaddled in a blanket nest. "And since they'll be staying with me for the duration of this experiment, I've accordingly assigned them all proper names." The man continued as he pointed and zoomed in at the baby fruit bat. "This fine example of the Pteropodidae species is Socrates. So named due to his unique disposition of letting you know exactly what he thinks." He added as the camera changed focus.
The next bat was a Brown one.
"This little fellow of the Myotis lucifugus species is called Plato, since he's smarter than he looks—and like his namesake—is broader than the average brown bat." He continued, swapping the camera focus to the last bat, a baby albino Vampire Bat. "And lastly, this one of a kind specimen of the Desmodus rotundus species is Aristotle, who is by far the most observant of the three." He added as the infant creatures chirped away in their nests.
'He certainly sounded ready to adopt these three.' Superman/Clark remarked mentally.
Deciding to continue his investigation elsewhere by regrouping with the evidence he managed to gather, he took everything and put it in a box before flying out of the building—zooming past the church that Kirk was in as the sun slowly began to set.
(Later)
"And this is basically everything I managed to find." Clark explained as he showed Lois and Jimmy his evidence.
"Wow, this is a lo—wait, how'd you get all this?" Jimmy questioned.
"Oh, I was just asking around Gotham labs and they let me take a look around. They said that the quicker Dr. Langstrom's found, the better." The young man replied, lying through his teeth.
"Well, that's certainly true." Lois shrugged. "Let's have a look through this and see what we got." She added as she started looking through Kirk's notes. "… Okay I can barely make heads or tails of this stuff." The girl groaned.
"No kidding! All I'm seeing is a bunch of science jargon." Jimmy nodded.
"Ya know." Clark said as he picked up the camera and shook it. "We could try watching the rest of these logs, see if they're easier to follow than the notes." He continued. "Just a thought." He added with a shrug.
"... Well, I can't really make heads or tails of the notes, so I say we go for it." Jimmy shrugged.
The three then proceeded to crowd around the camera and looked at it. Clark blushing a bit as Lois got ever closer to him in particular as she got on his shoulders to see.
The three started watching from log one and continued on for about an hour as Langstrom spent several months raising his bats and taking DNA samples from them to use in his splicing experiments, testing various iterations of the serums on various animals and tissue samples and other such things.
But things took a dark turn when they got an hour and a half into this.
"Science Log: Day 385 January 20th, 2019." The scientist sighed heavily as he rubbed his face with his hands, his eyes baggy and seemingly bloodshot from either too little rest or because he'd cried. "I've just returned from the hospital as I record this. And… I have just been told I have stage three blood cancer. With a minimum of six months and a maximum of a year left to live." He continued, his voice shaky.
"Oh man…" Jimmy trailed off, feeling sorry for Kirk.
"Yikes." Lois nodded in agreement, a look of concern on her face.
Clark, meanwhile, could feel his fists clenching. This was one of the things he hated, something that—even with all his great power—he couldn't stop even if he tried.
It made him feel sick to his stomach.
"But even so, I shall not despair, nor give up. Lo, I intend to let this strengthen my resolve to finish my work. If not for myself, then for those who have to endure the same suffering that I am forced to endure." Kirk said as he slammed his fist on his desk. "God as my witness, that is what I intend to do." He added as the video went to static again—before it started playing something.
And this time, it wasn't another log.
"I'm not going to label this log. I'm skipping straight to the point." Kirk began, his tone serious. "I believe I've done it; I've successfully created three separate serums to cure blindness and poor vision, deafness and tinnitus and even rabies and blood cancers." He continued.
"Wait, what?" Jimmy questioned, getting closer.
"Hey! Watch your elbow, Jimmy!" Lois snapped as the young man nearly hit her in the face with his elbow.
"I'm right here, you know!" Clark snapped, not appreciating being between them while they tried to get a better angle.
"I'm going to test the serums on myself first. I already have problems stemming from blood cancer, bad eyesight and bad hearing, so I strongly believe that I may be affected by the properties of the serums in question." Kirk stated. "If I fail… Well, I think I'll know for sure if I did." He continued, showing no fear of what may happen if he fails.
The scene then played out before them, Kirk speaking to his bats as he readied the serums, the injections—and then all three of them nearly screamed in horror as they saw what came next.
It started with Kirk falling to his knees in agony, then his body started to warp and become more bat-like in appearance. When the transformation was done, the mutated man let out a shriek as he slashed at the power box, right as the recording ended.
This left three very horrified reporters as Clark quickly shut the camera, their eyes wide as saucers.
"Well…" Jimmy said lightly. "At least we finally know what happened to Langstrom." He offered, getting looks from the other two.
(Later)
It was that night and Clark, as Superman, decided to go a second time to Langstrom's lab.
His hope was to go there and possibly find the man as he came back and try to help him, or at the very least find his pet bats so he could make the good doctor come to him.
'Hopefully I can get him to listen when I meet him.' He thought as he arrived at the lab. Crawling into the place again, he began looking around and didn't find anything to indicate that Kirk was there, however…
Three small figures flew at him and soon started circling him, revealing that it was the doctor's three bats.
"Oh-! Hey little guys, didn't see you there." He chuckled as he held his arm up, which they took to hanging from.
It was actually rather adorable.
'Now, how do I get them to call Kirk to me…?' He wondered, trying to come up with a plan.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile, back in the steeple outside of Metropolis and Gotham, Kirk stretched his arms as he watched the sun set after waking up from his nocturnal slumber, and started scanning his surroundings again as the sky became dark.
As he looked around, he realized something: He was short three bats!
'I forgot about Socrates, Plato and Aristotle!' He exclaimed in his head, his eyes widening before he instinctively assumed his Man-Bat form and flew back to his lab. 'I do hope nothing's happened to them, I can't imagine what I'd do if something did.' He thought as he flew as quickly as he could.
(Elsewhere)
Back with Clark, he sat and waited for Kirk to make his appearance in the lab to retrieve his bats, that's when he'd corner the man so he could subdue and help him–if he was still in the monstrous form he saw in the last log.
As he waited while trying to keep the bat trio calm, he was unable to hear the flapping of large wings and the sound of something slipping into the lab via the hole in the wall and the ceiling. Though he did hear a soft thump as something dropped from the ceiling, causing him to look around.
"You know, it is exceedingly rude to come into a scientist's personal sanctuary unannounced." A voice said from a dark corner of the room, causing Clark to turn and see two red-pink eyes staring at him. "Especially without his knowledge and with the intent of toying with his personal property." The unseen figure added.
"Kirk Langstorm, I presume?" The Kryptonian inquired.
"That's Doctor Langstrom to you." The now identified but still obscured figure corrected the superhero.
"Right, sorry." The Kryptonian replied. "I was actually looking for you… And then your bats decided to hang from my arm." He added, gesturing to the trio of bats in question who were indeed still hanging from his outstretched arm.
"A common habit of theirs. Allow me to rectify that." Kirk responded as he whistled, causing the bats to fly away into their still intact cage. "Now." He continued as he stepped into the pale moonlight. "Who are you, and what is it that you want?" He questioned.
"Um… Like I said, I was looking for you. Word about your disappearance made it to Metropolis, so I decided to help out in the search." Superman explained. "I was also able to see the…. Footage of what happened to you." He added with a shiver, still unable to shake the thoughts he had when he saw that transformation.
"I see. Though you did not answer my first question." The man said as he approached Clark, claws slowly extending before he moved faster than he could react and pinned the alien to the wall. "Who. Are. You?" He hissed.
"S-Superman!" The conveniently human-looking alien gasped. "The people call me Superman, in this costume at least." He explained.
"And outside of it?" Kirk questioned.
"Clark Kent!" Superman/Clark replied.
"... I'll keep that secret to myself." The metahuman decided, which did bring the alien some relief. Letting Clark go, the man crossed his arms, making a gesture for Clark to continue explaining himself.
"I've just come here to try and help you, or if it turns out I can't, point you in the direction of those who can." He stated.
"Help me? In what way?" The scientist questioned.
"Undo this whole mutation you went through." The Kryptonian replied.
"Actually, I don't believe I'll need any of that." Kirk told him, causing him to blink in confusion. "It's only been six weeks, but that has been long enough for me to realize that the pros of this ordeal outweigh the negatives, especially since it means I don't have to worry about my pre-mutation problems anymore." He added.
"Uh, it's actually been close to twelve weeks." Clark corrected him, causing the man's eyes to widen–his memory had a large gap in it.
"Oh dear…" Kirk sighed shakily as he ran a hand through his hair. "I…. I hadn't realized it had been that long." He groaned. "Must be a side effect of the first transformation, I can't recall anything after it." He said.
The part time superhero didn't know what to say in this situation, especially since the man in front of him was fine with his current state."Regardless. Tell your friends to go to the old abandoned St. Helena Greek Orthodox Church between Gotham and Metropolis. You'll find me there." The man told him as he whistled, prompting his three bats to fly to him. "Oh, and Superman?" He added.
"Yeah?" Clark nodded.
"When I'm in this form, call me… Man-Bat." Kirk said as he transformed and began to spread his wings, before shrieking as he flew away with his friends in tow.
(Elsewhere)
There was a commotion some distance away from the labs and Metropolis as a whole at the maximum security prison—and inside two people were busting someone out.
One guard was suddenly pinned to the ground while a blue pixelated wave fluttered through the air as a young man with red hair and a face mask was revealed to have been invisible, and grabbed him by the collar.
"Alright, listen up—!" He started to say before someone else interrupted him.
"Hey, Kyle! Have you found her yet?" A heavyset African man called as he punched a guard down a corridor. He was decked out in a black and yellow outfit as well as a pair of white gauntlets.
The one identified as Kyle let out a groan as he turned around to face the man. "How many times do I have to tell you not to use our real names while doing crimes, Roughhouse?" He growled.
"Oh, sorry, Kyle!" The giant man said a little too loudly, much to his partner's chagrin.
"I just–!" Kyle groaned before turning his attention back to the guard. "I'll only ask you this once, which jail cell is Siobhan McDougal in?" He questioned. The guard pointed to the cell they were literally in front of and…
"Kyle." A woman's voice said, prompting him to turn and see a silverish-blue haired woman in her twenties in a prison jumpsuit.
The woman was rather short for her age, looking more like she was 16 or 18 rather than 22. Which oddly made her look non threatening and even cute.
"Sis!" Kyle snapped indignantly as the one he called Roughhouse approached them.
"Albert!" The woman, Siobhan, smiled at the sight of her friend.
"Oh, so she gets to use our names?" Rough-house/Albert grunted indignantly as he knocked out the guard Kyle was interrogating.
"What are you guys doing here?" Siobhan questioned with a smirk.
"Long story short: some crazy lady gave us these weapons and now we have some crazy new powers!" Kyle said as he demonstrated his cloaking tech.
"And we're busting you out—!" Albert nodded as he tore the door of the cell clean out at the wall itself. Then Kyle opened up a duffel bag he brought with him and took out a bone white mask.
"Here, for you. It amplifies sound." He told her, causing the convict to smile.
"Aw, you guys!" She laughed as she pulled the two men into a group hug, causing them to laugh.
"We missed you too, sis, but–." Kyle said as he smiled under his mask before…
"Prisoner 839 and associates, drop your weapons and stand down!" A woman leading a bunch of guards ordered, causing the three to stop hugging and look at them.
"Uh, no." Siobhan retorted as she put her new mask on.
"What was that?" The guard questioned.
"I said NO!" She repeated with a yell, her mask amplifying the sound and causing an explosion—a stack of smoke rising from the hole they just opened in the prison.
And out in the distance, hanging from a tree, was Man-Bat was watching the commotion with his enhanced vision as the three escapees were marked in yellow.
'Hm… An interesting bunch. Let's see what they're all about.' He thought before he took flight and followed the three criminals.
Dragon Emperor0: Hello, readers. This is my first time doing a Superman story and I thought of doing something a little different as you've probably guessed. This story is about a Batman villain and what he would possibly be like if he were put into the My Adventures with Superman series. Specifically—as you can see—we're following Dr. Kirk Langstrom, aka The Man-Bat.
ThermalsniperN7: The guy really drew the short straw when it came to debilitating conditions in life; Poor hearing, poor vision and even blood cancer. The dude was desperate to save himself from the disease that was killing him… He succeeded, and became a metahuman bat. Well, at least his old conditions are gone.
Dragon Emperor0: Though as you guys can see, he's also very altruistic and even quite affable as well. So if you guys think that we should possibly have him be more of an Anti-hero or even a full on hero, let us know. We're more than happy to take suggestions.
ThermalsniperN7: On a different note, apparently Kirk was in the area when our trio of likable antagonists had their prison related shenanigan go down. That's gonna be a hectic first meeting.
Dragon Emperor0: And expect for us to use it as an opportunity to show off a facet of Kirk's personality that we didn't get to show this chapter—his charming demeanor even in the midst of combat when he isn't angry, his tendency to intentionally make people feel dumb around him for his own amusement, his tendency to talk down to those who he sees as not as intelligent as himself, and fascination with anything and everything scientific. These traits I think will make him into the kind of smarmy little piece of crap you just love to see pester characters you don't like.
ThermalsniperN7: Lookin' at you, Waller! Anyway, see you guys next time.