They got to the outskirts of the town at dawn.

Few people were out and the shopkeepers were opening their shops to start selling their stock. Raven looked at Prachi. She was all dirty and beaten up. Raven brushed the dirt off her face and out of her hair so it wouldn't look suspicious.

He walked into a gun shop and walked up to the counter.

"Raven?" a man asked from behind the counter.

Raven nodded.

He came around from the counter, shook his hand, gave him a hug and slapped him on the back.

"My man Raven! Whatz up nigger? Whatz you doin' here?

"Hey Zack, I'm just in town so I thought I'll come in and see ya," Raven answered.

"Who'z your bitch?" asked Zack looking at Prachi.

"Just a hostage," Raven shrugged.

"It'z about time you got a girl man. Anywayz watch you'se need?"

"Stuff"

"Yo dude, I'm not a mind reader, you know," asked Zack.

"Ammo."

"Alright man, hand over you guns then. How many does chu' need??"

Raven pulled out his handgun, a knife and a medium sized box and put them on the counter.

"I want a round in the gun, the box filled with ammo and the knife sharpened."

"Only one gun?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

Raven picked up the gun. He pushed a button and a second part jumped out the side. He pushed another button and a second hole appeared next to the hole where the bullets come out from and a little stick appeared next to the button. He pushed the stick forward then pulled it up and then pushed it back into another hole and a second gun jumped out the top.

"Only one gun?" Raven repeated.

Zack laughed.

"Your always full of tricks man," shaking his head.

"But I need something else," Raven hurried.

"Like what?"

"A Zoid."

"What?"

"A Zoid. Something fast, something that my organoid can fuse with. You know?"

"Err… yeah okay. I got one up back but…your not planning to bring her in there, are you?" Zack said looking at Prachi.

"No, not if you don't want me too."

"What about this? I'll take you out back and Spencer can stay here and mind your hostage," He said jerking his head at the young guy assembling new guns and listening to music through headphones.

"Alright then," Raven said as he pulled the handcuffs out of his pocket and banged them on behind her back.

"Lock the door Zack," Raven said.

"Fine," He answered, walking over to the door. He locked it with a "click" and flicked the "open" sign to "closed".

Zack picked up an empty bullet case and tossed it at Spencer. It hit him on the head and bounced into a box.

He looked up and pulled off his headphones to see two men and a girl staring at him.

"What?" he asked as if he was in trouble.

Spencer looked young, around about late teens/early twenties and he had long shiny brown hair tied back into a loose ponytail. He was wearing a grey t-shirt that had a picture of Al Pacino holding a gun (from Scarface) and a pair of dirty baggy jeans.

"Watch her until we get back," Raven said shoved her forward hard so that she lost her balance and fell flat on her face.

He watched her fall and stared at her for a minute then looked back up at Raven and Zack.

"Out the back if you have any troubles," said Zack and they walked off together through a door.

Prachi got to get feet and watched them leave. She turned around to look at Spencer. When she did he wasn't there. She felt something trailing down her shoulder and over her arm. She instantly looked at what was touching her. It was Spencer.

"What are you doing?" she asked as she backed away from him.

"Are you his fuck-buddy?" He said moving towards her.

"What?" she said, glaring at him.

"I'm much better, you know?" he reached for her shoulder.

That sent shivers up her spine that made her move back again causing her to hit the wall.

"Stay away from me!" she screamed at him.

He took the opportunity to move in on her so he pushed his body hard into Prachi's. He put his hand on her hip and his other hand on her neck. He put his mouth next to Prachi's ear.

"Well, well your jumpy aren't you? And you're a spicy little thing too," he whispered in her ear.

Prachi's heart was racing.

He pressed his lips on the spot under her ear and moved down. Prachi had had enough; she leant forward a little way and bit him hard on the shoulder. He cried out in astonishment and jumped out. He stared at her for a moment but before he could move back in, she thrusted herself into him and pushed him backwards. As she was doing this she got her feet under his and tripped him over. She walked around him and put a foot on his stomach so he couldn't get up. She glanced over at the door Raven and Zack had gone through and saw them standing there. She squeaked in shock and jumped back into a wall.

Zack walked over to Spencer that was still lying on the ground and he kicked him.

"Get up," he snarled and he bent down, grabbed his arm and yanked him to his feet. "What the hell do you think you where doing?" he yelled in anger, and threw him at a wall. Spencer smacked into it, bounced off and hit the ground.

"Get out!" he yelled pointing to the door they had just come from.

He scrambled to his feet and left. Zack turned around to look at Raven. Raven just simply shrugged and walked over and grabbed Prachi. She was shaking and she felt cold all over.

"I'll be back in an hour to pick up the Zoid and my things," he said to Zack

"Yeah, okay, whatever, but just don't get caught… now I need to go sort out a little boy," he said winking at Prachi.

Raven put on a pair of blue Oakley's and black baseball cap that had the red New York symbol on it. It covered most of his face and covered his identity (his marking; a dot and a seven) and walked out. Zack walked over to the door and watched them walk down the town's street.

Raven stopped at a corner and took off the handcuffs Prachi was still wearing. Then he turned to her and gave her a hat and some sunnies.

"You gotta put these on and if we run into anyone that recognizes you when we're here and don't do anything to earn yourself a bullet in your brain. And we gotta' act normal or else someone will know what's going on. All I know is that some high officials from the Imperial side are in town and this whole town knows who I am and what I look like okay?" Raven explained.

"But what happens if we do run into them and he does know that I'm me?" Prachi asked.

"Well, we will get to that later. C'mon put the hat and sunnies on before someone sees us."

"Well where are we going then?" she asked as she put on the hat.

"To get a couple of Zoids parts," Raven answered.

Of what happened with Spencer and Prachi, Raven felt a little sympathy towards her. She must have got pretty shaken up he thought.

Raven grabbed her hand so nothing would look suspicious and walked into an open factory. They walked straight through a door and up to the counter. On one end a couple of Shubaltz' soldiers were ordering some Zoids parts and on the end there was a black "boom-boom" women writing down something on the other side of the counter. Raven walked up to her.

Prachi thought he was acting really business-like and he seemed Snoop Dogg material.

"I need two shoulder guns for a…" he reached into his pocket pulled out a piece of paper and read it. "A XR200 Liger."

The women looked him suspiciously with her eyes narrowed.

"How in hell did you get your hands on one of those? They are Imperial property and I don't see any uniform. The only way for you get on of those is to steal it. And come to think of it one of those had been stolen a couple of weeks ago…" she said.

She stood up and pulled off Raven and Prachi's hat at the same time.

She jumped back and gasped with her eyes opened wide.

"It's you!" She shrieked. "Its Raven! Get him! Get him!"

Bang! Bang! Bang! Raven drove three bullets into the women's head. She fell back off her chair and hit the ground with blood oozing onto the floor. Prachi jumped.

The two soldiers at the end turned at the sound of the shots. Raven tore off his Oakley's and threw them on the ground. He grabbed Prachi around the shoulders and held his gun to her head.

"Shove off or I'll shoot her!" Raven yelled at them. "Karl wouldn't be too happy that you were involved in his only daughters death, would he?"

The soldiers growled, backed down and lowered their weapons.

Raven started firing his gun again. He used the rest of his round on them. As he fired, blood splatter on screen they got pushed into the wall from the force of the bullets and when he had finished with they slid down the wall leaving blood trails. There was blood on the counter, on the wall and on the equipment. On the now-mangled soldiers, where the bullets had entered there was still smoke rising from the holes. Raven walked over to them and picked up a gun and walked to the door they came in through. He blasted the door handle apart and kicked the door open.

In the streets everyone had stopped doing whatever they were doing and froze on the spot when they heard gun shots then a crazy man with a gun and a girl run away from the mangled door then the army run after them.

Raven ran into the gun shop and he dropped his gun to pull Zack into the back.

"Why are you back so early? Where are the Zoid parts? And why is the army chasing after you…again? You just can't keep yourself contained can you?" said Zack.

"Have you done my things?"

"Yes."

"Well go get them then!" Raven yelled at him.

Zack came back in a couple of minutes with Raven's gun, box and knife and shoved it into his hand.

"I guess you want the Zoid too? Don't cha?"

"Well it wouldn't be much use to me here would it?" Raven growled.

"Well don't get your knickers in a knot," Zack replied but didn't move.

"Well c'mon then! Are you just gonna stand there?"

"Ain't you capable enough to go get it by your little onesys?"

"Fuck you," Raven said and shouldered Zack as he walked past him.

"Bye then," he laughed at Raven's attitude.

Raven glanced at Prachi, she acted like didn't mind an adventure running all over a strange town with a mass murderer. Raven was still holding her hand, although he didn't know why. He didn't need to act anymore so he could grab her wrist again but he didn't. Was he beginning to like his hostage? He couldn't possibly…could he? She was the bait, nothing more.

They walked over to Raven's new Zoid. Prachi looked at it in admiration. It looked like a flexible Black Blade Liger with extra parts.

"Get in," Raven said as the top opened up.

Prachi carefully climbed in and sat in the seat behind the pilot's. Raven jumped in after her and buckled up his harness. The top closed and all went dark for a second and then the controls, buttons and screens lit up.

He needed to get out of there before someone tries to stop him. He ran the Liger until they came to a forest.