Chapter Nine
By Sarcastro

Gaal ducked as a chair flew over his head by the rush of the crowd to the door. The bar had turned into complete chaos after Frank had opened that rift next to their table. He rolled under a nearby pinball machine and reached into the dimensional pocket in his cloak. Feeling around he found his old reliable Wilk's laser pistol. "It's party time Tin Man...," Gaal said under his breath upon seeing the Repo Bot hauling itself off the floor after being trampled by numerous bar patrons. Chanting words from a long forgotten language Gaal summoned upon the powers of Kronos and made the physical world slow down...

The Repo Bot immediately armed all weapon systems and scanned the interior of the bar for the human target. He saw him knocked against the opposite wall clutching the stolen gem in his hand. The Bot casually started flinging aside the chairs and tables that stood between him and his human target. A rather portly orc who attempted to push him aside was rather surprised when the dark cyborg slammed his vibro sword up through the orc's chin and into his brain. He removed it with a sickening sound and kicked the body aside. He gave the dimensional portal a wide berth and kept an eye on it as he came closer and closer to Frank.

Frank looked through bleary eyes and saw the nine foot tall cyborg approach him like a specter of death. Just when it looked the worst, a dark gray blur came seemingly out of nowhere and started to whirlwind around the Repo Bot while flashes of laser fire pelted it from all sides. "Gaal, you sneaky bastard..." Frank said as he lost consciousness from his body's reaction to the massive amount of energy he had expended.

Corinna ran over to Frank and picked him with her free hand and flung him over her shoulder. "This is not good, this is definitely not good magic man..." She spied the bluish glow of the portal and leaped into it figuring her chances were better with anything on the other side than with the insanity of that flea ridden bar.

********************
Meanwhile over in El Paso Police HQ #4, district chief Mike Clancy had just received an emergency call from an irate merchant over the public radio band. Apparently some ruckus had broken out over at one of the local watering holes.

"Okay force let's suit up! Bar fight over at "The Hangar" again! Jones, Smith and Lucas you guys are with me! Probably just the K9's and the Wildcats again but from the sound of it we got some heavy weaponry being thrown around down there! Let's move people! Lucas you go get one of the Police Jeeps we'll meet you out front."

Mike ran over to his police locker and grabbed his tan colored suit of Bushman personal body armor. He couldn't help but feel a certain bit of exhilaration upon the prospect of a 'major' crime going down. The worst thing El Paso cops had to deal with most of the time was the ever present gang violence, and even that was mild. Oh sure there was the occasional vampire sighting, like that undead farmer who had been hiding on the brink of the city attacking travelers, but that was nearly 2 years ago. As he secured his helmet over his head he felt a smile grow on his lips. He joined Jones and Smith at the weapons locker as they grabbed their rifles. "Well boys let's get over there!" Mike said enthusiastically as he ran out the door and into the waiting jeep.

********************
Five miles outside of El Paso a thing stirred in the sparse forest. It sniffed the dry, dusty air and sensed the flux of power across the magic net. Gangly limbs and yellow eyes started to move about for the first time in 6 months since it's hibernation...it stretched out and instinctively started running towards the city like a bee to a flower.