Chapter Sixteen
by Sarcastro

As Zacks ran blindly through the city streets he kept thinking how lucky he was to have escaped near death in that fire fight back there. Too many unknown elements were being thrown into the equation, that wacked out borg, the cops, and those two mages. He was only supposed to worry about the girl, not all these others! And that gun was right under his chin, that .45 magn... As Zacks slow mind put together the pieces a growl erupted from his throat. "An ancient weapon! It was all a ruse! RAUUURGHHH!" Zacks skidded to a stop stirring up considerable dust on the back dirt road he was on, and turned around. "I won't be tricked again...," he said quietly as he began sprinting back towards "The Hangar". More than likely the cops had taken down the borg or it had taken down them, maybe he could work out a deal with it! Split pay fifty/fifty for the capture of the girl. He could still salvage this bounty hunt yet. "I mean, what else could possibly go wrong?," he said smugly to himself.

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"Name's Alex Dugan, and what are your names again? In the midst of all the caterwauling I was pressed to follow the flow of conversation," Alex said with a wry smile on his face.

"I'm Frank, the she devil over there is Corinna," he said with a wave of his hand. At this Corinna glared with unabated hatred at the man she could break as easily as a stick....maybe.

"I take it you're a native of this Heaven forsaken planet, from the looks of your gear," Frank asked.

Alex stared down at his dirt ridden cape and pants and smiled. "Yes, most proudly in fact. Wormwood denizen born and bred I am. On a little jaunt to the city of..."

"Worldgate," Frank interrupted.

"Yes, how'd you know?" Alex asked curiously, even though he was afraid of the answer.

"I've been here before," Frank said sullenly, "A long, long time ago..."

"You're a shifter then? A gate opener? A dimensional walker?" he asked sarcastically hoping to suppress his natural inclinations of hatred towards the mages of that practice.

"Yep, as sure as the sky is...," Frank looked upwards, "red."

"Sorry to interrupt the small talk," Corinna spitted out, "But *where* in hell are we again?!"