Looping background question, and how to stop a loop i dont want

again fixed, now all i need to know is how to pause the background, and then have it continue playing when the “aim” animation is finished.

heres the AS2.0 of the actions: // set counter
counter = 0;

fire_button.onRelease = function(){
counter ++;
alien.gotoAndStop(2);
zippywalk.gotoAndStop(“growl”);
}

also, ive uploaded the flash to rapidshare for anyone who wants to look at it to see if im going wrong in regards to the second character looping his second animation
http://rapidshare.com/files/272682507/interface.fla.html