8-2: …Goes a long way.

"Stay on him!" Adrain shouted. Rich responded with a: "Got it!" as he followed his quarry across the casino floor.

Hal followed up the rear as everyone raced after skull-card dude. The lunatic practically face planted against one of those big metal bars on one of the doors that lead outside. The door swung open grudgingly, and the man lurched out in a stumbling run.

Rich was out the door in a shot; clearing the closing metal door without even touching it. That was impressive considering they were a good 50 feet away. Hal suspected foul play. Looking around, it didn't seem that anyone noticed though.

Adrian was right behind him, slamming the door back open almost the exact second that it clicked back into place again. Collin and Hal made there way towards the door at a jog.

Two large men in suits with ear pieces stepped smoothly in front of them, halting their way.

Briefly, Hal considered merely shifting his weight into a hockey check instead of stopping. Instead he decided to avoid any more of a ruckus than what they already had, and slowed down. He could take one of them, but not two. And Collin wouldn't be of any help. He raised a finger to point it at the two goons.

"Outta the way. We're leaving."

"Halt!" One of the goons said, placing a palm up in between them with haughty melodrama.

Hal gritted his teeth and considered. This was retarded. If he bowled over the one on the right, it was a straight shot to the door. He glanced over his shoulder; everyone in the casino was staring at them.

Damnit, he thought. He edged to one side. Maybe he could run around him.

"Whoa whoa whoa. Gentlemen." Collin said putting both hands up in peace, a goofy grin slapped on his features. He slowly lifted one hand up to his ear and stuck a finger into the lobe, clearing it out in an exaggerated gesture.

"Did I hear you right?" He held up a stiff arm with the palm forward in imitation. "Halt!" He mimicked.

"You're not helping." Hal growled at him.

"That's right wise guy. Now come with us and you can explain to the manager why you caused a scene in his casino."

Collin made a show of considering for a moment. Then he tapped a finger on his nose.

"That's one way of looking at it yeah. But consider this. My friend over here is getting pretty mad. If this turns into a fight, ask yourself this: Do you really think anyone would believe it was a good idea to manhandle us with your…tools, when we were going to leave your casino of our own accord? If this comes down to a law suit, I wonder who's salaries it will come out of?" He made a grand show of looking around like a detective going Hmmmm a lot. He held up his hand and closed one eye, using the other to peer at various people on the floor as if out of an imaginary magnifying glass. Eventually his gaze rested back on the goons.

"Cuz I got a pretty good idea if you fellows don't."
The two glanced at eachother and frowned.

"So I ask you once again, 'Halt!' ?" He feigned the dude's voice again, and then held up his hands in a shrugging gesture, raising his eyebrows and sticking out his bottom look as if to say 'You sure about this?'.

One of the goons grunted.

"Fine. Get the hell out of here. We have your pictures on tape. Neither you nor any of your…associates are welcome here anymore. You understand."

"Fabulous!" Collin said and led Hal quickly out of the casino.

"Collin.." Hal began after the anger had subsided a bit as they ran around the corner looking for their friends.. "That was…surprisingly well thought out. Not like you at all".

Collin feigned being offended. He reached down and snagged something on the ground as they ran by it.

"When it comes to logistical…ness, I'm the… "King". He put what he had grabbed on his head. It was one of those crowns from Burger King. How did he always find this crap?

He put his thumbs up and pointed to the crown. Hal knocked it off his head.

"No, you're an idiot. Where did they go?"

A car screeched in from of them. Adrian shouted at them from the driver's side, wheeling the window down. The car looked suspiciously familiar.

"Come on get in! That crazy running fool Rich is keeping an eye on the skull guy but he can't keep it up."

Hal swung open the front door and Collin grabbed the back. They climbed in and shut the doors at almost the same exact time, in tandem.

"Adrian, something you wanna tell me?."

Adrian grinned.

"Oh, right. Uh, you dropped your keys."

Hal put his hand on the back of the driver's side seat.

"Yo, get out. My car: I drive."

Adrian made a pleading gesture.

"Aw, come on. Do we really have time for that? We have to catch up." He pointed to a trail of smoke a block away that could only be Rich.

"Alright, let's catch up." Hal growled, gripping his seat. He wanted to have a word with that skull guy, anyway. Up close and personal.

Adrian gunned it, screeching out of the casino parking lot at a decent clip. He rolled over the parking lot divider into the street beyond at a decent clip too.

The bump hit Hal hard, causing him to whack his head on the ceiling.

"Yo, watch it! This is my car, jerk! Besides, the last thing we need now is cops."

"Yeah yeah." Adrian said, rolling the wheel gleefully as he took a turn hard. "No cops around right now, so I guess we're ok, right?"

Hal made a noncommittal noise.

After a minute or two of…unconventional driving-they caught up with Rich. Somehow he was lagging behind

Adrian slowed so to pull even with Rich. Fortunately there didn't appear to be anyone on the street in this area so Rich's slight tweaking of Newtonian physics were going largely unnoticed.

That didn't mean that he was paradox free though. Hal opened down a window.

"Dude! I thought you were supposed to be fast? How is that joker outrunning you?"

Somehow Rich managed to Sigh even while he was huffing and puffing wit the exertion of running.

"Well, as I'm sure you're aware-" Rich began.

Hal cut him off.

"Ok great whatever, just get in before dox makes your head explode. Obviously you're not gonna catch him like that."

Rich nodded in grim agreement and managed to open the back door and climb in without Adrian having to slow down.

Collin scooted over in the back seat, and was just buckling himself in, when he sniffed at the air for a moment. Then he turned and peered at Rich.

"Hey! Uh, Rich, buddy-what's with that gray crap you got all over you?"

At that Hal turned around. Sure enough, Rich was covered in what looked like a smattering of strong-smelling, grey chunks.

Rich was about to open his mouth to respond when Collin gave one of his 'Eureka!' expressions.

"Kitty litter! It's kitty litter isn't it?"

Rich narrowed his eyes with everyone staring at him, including Adrian in the rear view mirror.

"It's of no consequence. Look, Adrian, our quarry just turned into that alleyway up ahead If I'm not mistaken, this vehicle is small enough to fit inside. We could trap him!"

Adrian nodded slowly, still peering at Rich's mirror reflection out of the corner of his eye. But, he cut the wheel as they reached the aley, and slowly creeped in.

The man was waiting for them there. He just stood there, mid-way down the alley. He was close enough that Hal could see his greasy hair, his day old stubble, and the single playing card that he held up high in one hand before them.

It had a grinning skull on the face of it. He seemed to be concentrating rather hard.

"It looks like he's trying to take a dump." Collin chimed in helpfully.

Adrian tapped the gas and the car jerked forward.

"Just get me close enough." Hal said quietly to Adrian. He jabbed at a button on the dashboard and the sunroof started opening with a mechanical whir.

"Something's not right." Rich said from behind.

"Yeah I see what you mean." Collin mused. "Look behind that guy, this alleyway is open on the other side. Why is he just standing there? He could keep running."

"Not just that.' Rich began again. "Something…wait. Do you see that?" Rich pointed toward the man's shoulder.

Hal was about to tell Rich that he had no clue what he was yammering about, when he saw it. A little speck of something. It looked like-

Rubble.

"Back up! Back up now!" Rich shouted.

Adrian had enough sense to not question it. He shifted the car into reverse and peeled backwards out of the alley.

Hal looked up.

The walls over their heads were crumbling, pieces of brick and mortar raining down. The skull man gestured sharply with the playing card, and then rolled backwards out of the alley. There was a loud CRACK, and a huge section of the wall broke away and tumbled towards their heads.

Tires spun on asphalt, the odor of sublimated rubber filled the air. Hal's car shot backwards while that big section of brick wall fell toward them. Hal could make out the mortar and brick clearly; he even saw chewed gum in between two of the bricks. Everything slowed down to a crawl, and all Hal could think was: It can't end like this.

Then the wall piece slammed into the ground right in front of them; Hal could watched it spiral right in front, inches away from the windshield, then inches away from the hood as Adrian gunned the car backwards, right out from under calamity.

A cloud of dust shot up all around them. Some of it made it through the air filters as Hal's car squealed backwards and out of the alley in a crazy, dust-obscured arc. Adrian slammed on the breaks, and the car rocked and sputtered to a halt.

There they sat, for a few long moments, as the dust settled. They were half up on the curb. Across the street, the alley they had just been in was covered in the remains of brick and mortar wall chunks.

The four of them looked at each other for a long moment, relief and awe on each other's faces.

"Are we.. that is- AM I alive?"

"No. Shut up." Hal said, opening the his door and swinging his bulk onto the street. He glanced up and down the street, and then jogged over to the rubble.

The alley was completely blocked now, and there was no sign of skull-man anywhere.

Damnit.

Collin and Rich fell into place behind Hal, surveying the scene in silence.

It was Collin who broke it. Hal glanced over his shoulder at him when he heard him speak.

"Wow" Collin began, grinning, "That was uh, well-".

Hal clenched his fists.

"Collin, I swear to GOD. If you say that… that this CRAP right here was LUCKY, I'll bury you in that rubble." He snapped, gesturing at the ruins in front of him.

Collin's mouth clapped shut. He frowned.

He raised a finger and opened his mouth to speak again.

Fortunately Hal's phone rang right then. He flipped it open and accepted the call.

"Yeah?" He answered a bit gruffly.

"Oh, hey. This is Dan. How's it going?"

Hal grimaced. Great timing.

"Oh, Hey Dan. We got some crap news."

"Oh? Well save it for later. I have some news for you too. There's some sort of inter-dimensional disturbance near your location. A BIG one. I'm guessing it's related to the tag you guys are on? Either way, can you check it out? Try not to get in too deep if you don't need to. We're working on getting a portal open, but it could take a minute. I'm uploading the location to your phone. It's outside of the city."

"Really? That's great! Do you think that skull punk is there?"

"Who?"

"Alright Dan, we'll get right on it" Hal slapped his cell shut, cutting off the confused sounds Dan had been making.

He turned towards Rich and Collin who were both looking at him in anticipation.

"Are we traveling somewhere?" Rich inquired.

Hal nodded, a grin slipping out.

"Yup."

Adrian had been a little shaken by their close encounter with the alley wall, but when they told him they needed to get out in the boonies, stat, he perked right up. There was nothing like a zooming out of the city and over hilly embankments at 90 MPH to cheer up a guy.

When they got to the location, they saw that it was a large cave, jutting out of the side of a cliff. The four of them slipped inside cautiously. Hal held up a flashlight he kept in the glove as they stepped down into the cave.

Immediately, they gazed upon quite an impressive scene. A huge circle had been drawn on the floor in blood, with intricate geometric designs patterned on the inside of it. Candles on the ground had been laid at various points along where lines and circle edges intersected. But in the middle of it, on top of all those patterns-

It was the largest beast Hal had ever scene. It looked like a giant armadillo, only instead of plates made of bone, they were made of huge, intersecting metal plates. It was fading in and out of, as if it wasn't wholly on this side of reality yet.

And behind it, there was a man. It wasn't skull boy. This guy was older looking, with his blonde hair pulled back into a tight pony tail. His hands were raised in front of him, and he was chanting in a loud voice that echoed here and there throughout the cavernous area. He seemed pretty exciting about something, jumping around and gesturing as if in time with his own voice.

At Hal's side, Adrian looked from the chanting man, to their group.

"What the heck do we do?" H e whispered to them.

But Collin had already stepped forward.

"Hey, uh… cut it out!" Collin shouted, cupping hands to his mouth.

The man didn't even miss a beat.

The four of them continued walking toward the man until they got close. It looked like he noticed they were there, but he didn't stop his little dance number.

Hal looked from the giant armadillo that was slowly manifesting, back to dancing man.

"Dude, you can't possibly want to bring that here." Hal shouted at him, pointing to the monster as if the man had just not noticed it before.

There was still no response. The dancing and chanting continued.

"OK. Enough of that. I'll handle this." Rich spoke up.

He pulled out a tazer.