A Werewolf In Under-Town

Shaggy hated the fact that carrying three of his friends and a pillar was actually easy. Slink and Dave, he could understand. But Ren and the pillar? That seemed like it would’ve been too much. Instead, his werewolf body carried the weight well, and he was making great time back at the bar. He was slower, as was to be expected. But it was probably still the faster method of travel. He tried not to think about all the ride requests he was going to get in the future as he watched the skyline.

The random powers shooting into the sky had stopped soon after they had started. Whatever was happening at the bar had either calmed down or it was over. Shaggy grit his large teeth and tried to hurry. The road was still littered with the debris of the giant robot fight. Houses and bits of robot were everywhere. Shaggy had to dodge or jump around the large pieces. But Soon the bar came into view and Shaggy bit back a snarl.

There was a large group of people standing outside the door’s front entrance. He spotted Vlad’s mist form reforming itself outside the mob. Shaggy tried to find any other clues about what happened, but there was nothing. Aside from the smoking holes in the building. It wasn’t wrecked, but the holes did make Shaggy question the building’s integrity.

Shaggy slid to a halt just beyond the mob and gave a sharp bark. Some of the crowd scattered at his noise, while others simply turned to glare at him. Shaggy glowered as he felt the others slide off his back. He could also feel his pack in the bar. Everyone except for Ephemara was in there, although Sybil was hurt. She was healing, but feeling her pain made Shaggy angry.

He quickly shifted back to his human form and pushed his way forward. Vlad was nearby calming the crowd and asking question. The others were on his heels. Probably more aware of his mood. The NPCs Shaggy shoved aside seemed to get the picture too, as Shaggy batted them away none too gently.

Shaggy was surprised to see Stanley and Vick standing by the door to the bar. Then he saw Vick was looking inside the bar, rifle at the ready. Meanwhile, Stanley was glaring at the crowd. When he spotted Shaggy, the skinny boy gave a grim smile. Shaggy said nothing, but raised an eyebrow. Stanley shook his head and waved inside. Somehow, the young boy seemed tired and annoyed by what had happened. Behind him, Ren, Slink, and Dave crowded around the door.

“What the hell is going on?” Ren asked, still carrying the giant pillar.

Shaggy sighed. “I think all our answers are inside.”

“Well then, get in there. We got so much to do, so let’s handle whatever this is quickly...”

Shaggy didn’t turn around to glare at Slink. But something in his posture made the boy trail off. He gave Stanley and nod and passed by Vick, patting the cowboy on his shoulder. Shaggy grit his teeth at the damage to the first floor of the bar. The fight was long over, but their bar had been torn to shreds. He heard his friends gasp behind him as they all pushed into the bar.

On the dance floor. Which was now a pile of broken wood. Three of the six Needle Sisters sat on their knees. They were glaring at their other sisters and ignoring everyone else in the room. Cekrass and Rita were standing behind the kneeling sisters, looks of murder on their faces. Tom was checking over Sybil, who was trying to push his face away. Sybil was the first to spot him.

“Hey, boss! We... uh… had a minor issue.”

Shaggy glared down at Rashi, April and Vera as they knelt on the floor. Ren snorted loudly as he slammed down the pillar he was carrying. Slink winced.

“Careful…”

Ren ignored the boy and shouted. “What the fuck is going on?!”

Leslie, Chromia, and Flora all turned away from their sisters, looks of sadness and anger on their faces. Shaggy was surprised to see Chromia on the bar’s side. At least that’s how it looked. Apparently Rashi, April, and Vera had started some shit and the other three sisters and Shaggy pack had put it down.

Shaggy said nothing, but he glared at his pack until Rita slowly answered.

“I don’t know what started it, but the Needle Sisters went ape shit in the bar. Those three were fighting these three and wrecking the place. We got the civilians and our staff out and then came back to help settle things. Sybil took an energy beam from Vera, but I think she’s fine now.”

“Fucking Werewolf healing, boss. The shit is great.”

Shaggy kept the grin from his face. But he sent feelings of agreement to the tiny blonde woman. Vlad finally stomped into the bar behind Shaggy and the others, but he was ignored as all the attention in the room fell on the sisters. Leslie glared at Rashi and waited. When the oldest sister remained quiet, Leslie audibly growled. She spun toward Shaggy and tossed a black case his way. Shaggy recognized it before he had even caught it. It was the case with the seven vials from the UGB.

Shaggy opened the case to find only one vial left as Leslie spoke. “Rashi called us all back to help with something. When we got here, she asked us to sit down while she gave us a shot. None of us questioned it. She’s done it before and normally they are helpful.”

“So was this one.” Rashi said simply.

She didn’t sound mad or even upset. She was just stating a fact. Leslie glared at her sister as Chromia stomped forward. She got in Rashi’s face and yelled.

“If you had told us what we were taking, none of us would’ve taken it! Especially if we knew it belonged to the Legion!”

“We are not part of the Legion!” Vera shouted back. “No matter what you three think. We are an independent group! Why shouldn’t we use something they were stupid enough to leave in our possession?”

“Trust.” Flora whispered. “You burned all our trust with the Legion.”

“Fuck’em!” April spat back. “So they helped us. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t empower ourselves.”

Shaggy rubbed a hand down his face as he handed the almost empty case back to the others. Ren didn’t take it, content to watch the byplay between the sisters. But Slink, Vlad, and Dave all crowded around the box. Vlad gave a loud hiss and glared back at all the sisters, who were still arguing.

“Maybe we shouldn’t have done it so we can stop moving around and be a part of something! Did any of you even consider that?! No! You saw a shortcut to power and not only did you grab it, you fucking injected it into your sisters! Who knows what the shit is doing to us?!”

As Leslie screamed at Rashi and the others, her blue electricity arced across her body. The air hiss and snapped as the blue sparks flew off her. Everyone in the room, except Shaggy and Ren, took a step back. Shaggy momentarily questioned his survival instincts, but he let it go as Rashi spoke, sounding affronted.

“I would never have injected you with something dangerous. That booster concoction is one-hundred percent safe. There were rumors the UGB were working on a super-serum. By my reckoning, those vials were a completed version. We should all see an increase in our powers and our bodies.”

“Whoop-dee-fucking-doo! You still betrayed our allies!” Chromia shouted.

“The Needle sisters don’t have any allies.” Rashi said simply.

Chromia, Leslie and Flora stared at their older sister with looks of hurt and confusion. Eventually Leslie shook her head and walked toward Shaggy and the others. Shaggy tensed slightly as the lightning-wielder stepped closer. But she simply moved past him and whispered.

“Do what you want with them, boss. I-I’m sorry.”

Chromia maintained her glare at the three other needle sisters before she spat on the ground in front of Rashi. She turned and stomped over to the bar. Shaggy noticed Petra standing behind the wooden bar and he almost moved to intercept Chromia, but Petra waved him off. The bar manager started filling mugs for Chromia as Rashi looked at Flora.

“So will you abandon us also, Flora?” She asked, words sounding hollow.

Flora shook her pink hair. “We aren’t abandoning you. You threw us away. You wanted to be left alone. Just your sisters and you against the world. Well, now you can do that. Go find a deep, dark hole and stay there, Rashi. It’s all you’ve ever wanted.”

Before Rashi or anyone else could respond, Flora popped out of existence. Teleporting away. Shaggy sighed audibly as he watched the faces of the remaining Needle Sisters. Rashi was stone-faced. Vera looked shocked and sad, while April actually looked pissed. The sound of wood scrapping against the floor was the only signal Shaggy had before he had to duck. Tables, chairs and cutlery were suddenly thrown about the room. April’s hair swirled about her body and she began to stand up, but Cekrass quickly moved and punched the Telekinetic in the head.

Normally, Shaggy would’ve thought his pack-mate would’ve popped the woman’s head open. But instead, she simply collapsed to the floor and the random shit spinning in the room stopped. Rashi closed her eyes and sighed loudly.

“So you will be killing all of us?”

Shaggy ignored her as he turned back to his friends. He saw a mixture of emotions on all of their faces. Ren looked worried and hurt, Slink looked sad and pissed, Vlad was glaring between the case and Rashi. Even Dave seemed sad about the situation. The laid-back guy gave Shaggy a shrug. Showing he didn’t know what to do, either.

“Death or Exile?” Shaggy said simply.

Ren grunted and looked Shaggy in the eye. “It’s not that simple.”

Shaggy raised an eyebrow, but it was Vlad who hissed. “Yes! It is that simple. We trusted them and they fucked us! That calls for a response.”

“What about all the service Rashi has done for us? She’s healed a lot of our guys. Doesn’t that count for something?” Dave asked.

Shaggy shrugged. “Maybe. But that just means I’m leaning toward exile. They’ve proven we can’t trust them. So we don’t need them here anymore.”

“What about healing?”

“We’ll make do.”

“Fucking kill them!” Slink hissed angrily.

Shaggy and the others stopped talking at the venom in the boy’s voice. They all stared at the young man as he wiped a sleeve over his eyes. Shaggy thought the boy was shivering, but he couldn’t tell. Moe slithered his way out of Slink’s shirt and wrapped his long orange body around Slink’s neck. But the boy remained pissed.

“Just fucking kill them. They threw everything away for power. Even burned familial bridges. If their family doesn’t give a shit about them, why should we?”

Ren placed a large hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Because losing their family like this might be a worse punishment.”

Shaggy nodded. “Yeah, Rashi and the others just lost half of their family. How long after this do you think they’ll stay together? Before the self-loathing and doubt sets in?”

“We could spread the word.” Vlad added. “We keep it vague. But we spread a rumor around Under-Town that the Needle Sisters aren’t to be trusted.”

“That would force them out of town.”

“Good. We don’t want them anywhere near us anymore, and Rashi’s actions require consequences.”

“What about Vera and April? They didn’t know what was happening.”

“No, but they clearly agreed with and defended Rashi’s decision. Look at this place, Ren. They literally had a fight over what happened. Did you not see April? She was about to try to take on all of us.”

“She was upset. Her family is falling apart around her.” Ren argued.

Shaggy grunted. “And it’s their own fault. We had no control over anything that just happened. However, we can decide how we respond moving forward. So we either run them out of Under-Town or kill them now.”

“No second chances?” Ren asked pointedly.

Shaggy rubbed his face and groaned. “Maybe when shit calms down and they wander in many years later. But does it look like reconciliation is on anyone’s mind right now? I will bet that Chromia would squash Rashi’s head in right now if you let her. Shit like this takes time. Trust me.”

The others stopped to stare at him. But Shaggy didn’t elaborate. No way in hell he was picking at that old wound. Especially not when playing a video game. Instead, he turned back to Rashi and the others. April was slumped over in Rashi’s lap as Vera knelt, back straight, tears in her eyes. It was the tears that did it. Suddenly, Shaggy was back in his old family home. A young girl’s face, streaked with tears, stared at him. Pleading with him. Shaggy shook it off. Nope. None of that.

“Decisions?” Shaggy asked, voice a little rough.

“Exile.” Vlad said

“Exile.” Dave agreed, solemnly.

Slink glared over at the woman and growled. “Death!”

Ren shook his head sadly. “Exile.”

Shaggy nodded and walked over to Rashi. His vote was probably clear, but even if it wasn’t. Exile already had the majority. So instead, he walked over to Rashi and knelt down. He sighed as her impassive face never broke. Instead, she merely looked down at April’s head resting in her lap and then back up to Shaggy.

“Everything I did was to protect my family.”

Shaggy coughed as another memory tried to force its way forward in his mind. He covered it by looking at Vera and then over at Chromia. Who already had a pile of beer mugs stacked beside her. Turning back to Rashi, Shaggy asked.

“And how do you think your family feels about your decision now?”

Rashi drew in a breath. “It was for their own good.”

Shaggy raised an eyebrow. “Then you get to take your two remaining sisters and leave Under-Town. We won’t chase you. But don’t appear in our territory again. When you’re far enough away, you can ask your sisters how much good you did.”

Vera sobbed quietly next to them. That, more than anything, seemed to snap Rashi out of her stoicism. Her face fell and Shaggy saw her eyes mist up as the weight of her choices hit her. He quickly stood and nodded to his pack. They all moved as one, save Sybil, who was forced down into the chair by Tom. His pack picked up an unresponsive, sobbing Vera as Rashi lifted April onto her shoulder. They were walked out of the bar and into a chorus of cheers and jeers from the mob outside. Ren quickly moved to handle that situation as Shaggy closed his eyes.

Memories, long forgotten, kept pushing into his mind. He took a giant breath and let it out slowly as he opened his eyes. Pure destruction met his glance as he took in the bar. They were going to need to buy or build more tables. The cutlery could use a good washing, but it was fine. Other than electricity and energy blast damage, the second floor looked decent, too. Although it was going to take some credits to fix.

When he finished his assessment of the damage, he turned back to his friends. But they were gone. They had moved a short distance away to a table in the far corner. Ren was still conducting the masses outside. The pillar long forgotten by the door. Shaggy joined his friends at the table and fell into a chair that wobbled dangerously.

“We need to get Roald to look at that pillar.”

Slink nodded, but said nothing. Vlad seethed in his chair, occasionally glancing around the room. Dave sighed and nodded along with Slink.

“That was most unrighteous, Dudes. Not only did we lose some people, but our healer is gone.”

Slink slapped the table and growled. “Fuck them! They made their choice, and it was to take advantage of our goodwill. We could’ve used those Serums or whatever ourselves. Hell, we could have passed them out to the Lackeys as rewards. Now we have nothing, and Rashi’s healing is gone. At least we still have Chromia, Flora and Leslie. But I wager they are going to be out of it for a few days.”

They all glanced over at Chromia. The woman was still seated at the bar, slowly drinking them out of business. There was no telling where Flora and Leslie even were. The Teleporter could be anywhere and Leslie could either be killing something or wallowing in a hole somewhere. Shaggy rubbed his eyes and tried to get the conversation back on track. But Vlad grunted as he tossed the black case onto the table.

“We still got the one.”

He flipped the box open and revealed the last slim bottle. It glowed with a weird iridescent light and Shaggy almost didn’t want to touch it. Dave had no hangups, though. He reached in and plucked the glass vial from its velvet case and held it up to his face. He twisted the bottle in the air before shrugging and putting it back down.

“So, like, what do we do with it? Could it still be a reward or something?”

“Maybe we should sell it?” Vlad asked, but Slink shook his head.

“It’s UGB property. I don’t trust anyone in Under-Town to not go running to those bastards. Shit! That’s probably where Rashi and the girls went.”

Shaggy shook his head. “The Pack is still with them and they are headed to the north tunnel. They are going topside.”

“For now.” The boy grumbled.

Vlad ignored the conversation and glanced back at the vial. “So we either hand it to a lucky Lackey or one of us takes it.”

“Can we make more?” Dave asked.

Shaggy shook his head. “We don’t have the facilities or the skill set. Also, do you wanna trust someone else with this again?”

“Dude, I know we got super unlucky with Rashi. But she was only trying to do what was best for her sisters. Not to mention we’ve always been unclear about Rashi’s motives.”

Vlad snorted. “Yeah, now we know we come second to empowering her sisters.”

“If you put it that way, I get it,” Shaggy said softly. “But I don’t think there was anything any of us could have done to make Rashi feel like part of the team. She always wanted to be a separate organization from the Legion. She made that clear from the start.”

“So it’s our fault!” Slink roared.

Shaggy shook his head. “No. It’s hers. I’m just saying, I get it.”

Vlad picked up the vial and stared at it. Shaggy could hear the vampire’s mind turning. “What if we gave it to someone whose goals aligned with ours… if only slightly?”

Shaggy quirked an eyebrow as Dave and Slink both looked at Vlad questioningly. When none of them said anything, Vlad pushed forward.

“I mean, we want the serum to empower our Lackeys and maybe even ourselves. So what if we give it to a player who can help us? They get the serum formula, and we get more vials of the stuff.”

“Dude, any villain crafter we give it to is going to run off with it immediately. Also, I don’t know any hero players. Least around here.”

“We can’t give it to a Hero.” Slink said. “The second they have the formula, that means the HLO will have it and wonder where they got it from. We’d be fucked.”

Shaggy grunted as Vlad smiled at him. He reached over the table and grabbed the vial from Vlad. The vampire was thinking the same thing as him, and they both knew it. Shaggy rolled the vial in the palm of his hand as he thought about the last time they’d seen the guy. He held the vial up and said.

“So we need a hero who’s good at making things and who doesn’t work for the HLO.”

“Who’s also flexible about the rules and is a player.” Vlad added.

Slink’s eyes grew wide and Dave stared at them all, confused. Shaggy palmed the vial again as he sighed.

“We know a guy.”