A Werewolf In Under-Town

Shaggy looked up at the bright blue sky and sighed. It was a nice day out, really. There were a few clouds in the sky, but nothing major. The birds were singing, Vlad was off making ‘contacts,’ and he and Levy had a lovely spot on the grass near their truck. It was a very picturesque afternoon… except…

“So then this bloody nonce goes and blows the whole casino up. It’s the honest truth. This mangy doggo comes running in, wrecks the place, kills my employer, and then kidnaps me!” Bartle cackled in his bad Australian accent.

Shaggy rolled his eyes and tried not to engage. The green-haired bastard had found Dave fairly quickly and then followed him back to Shaggy. Now his regaling anyone that would listen with stories of Shaggy’s misdeeds.

“How can he kidnap you? I thought the game had rules on that?” the red-haired Xiv asked.

She turned a quick smile at Shaggy’s annoyed face before she turned back to the wanna-be Australian. Mell, SenSor and Cutie were with the pheromone secreting villain. Bartle’s loud yapping had brought them all running. Even now, he was drawing a crowd with his boisterous personality.

“Naw, love. The game has strict limits on it. But he held me for the full time and questioned me about my bosses. Him and that blue guy over there.”

Dave gave everyone a wave from his spot at the truck. He and Ren were listening in, but neither did a damn thing to extricate Shaggy from the small group that surrounded him. Levy squeezed his arm good-naturedly.

“Did ya talk?” SenSor asked.

“He sang like a canary.” Shaggy grumbled.

“You tricked me, ya daft doggo! I’d never have given up me mates! But I get out of Deathville and find that all the Bunch in that part of town are gone! The git’s done it! He went and started a blooming war with the Wild Bunch.”

Shaggy quirked an eyebrow. “Oh yeah, and what are they going to do about it, Bartle?”

“Oh, they ain’t doing nothing yet. They waiting to see iffen Cog off’s ya. That’s why they sent me here to keep watch.”

Shaggy grinned as Xiv and the others stared at Bartle in shock. The green-haired teleporter looked confused for a few seconds until he seemed to catch on.

“Hey! Ya did it again!”

Shaggy tried valiantly to keep a smile from his face. But he couldn’t help himself. Bartle was just too easy. The sputtering player kept cursing Shaggy out as Levy turned to Xiv.

“How about you? How have you been? I haven’t seen you since I broke my husband out of that armored convoy. Is your dumbass friend still with you?”

Xiv grimaced at the mention of Pin-head and shook her head. “Nope. Idiot is still in prison.”

“He was with us during the riot where the rest of us all broke out. But then he went to challenge the warden.” Mell explained.

SenSor shook his head. “Apparently another player told him the Warden of the jail would drop decent loot. Also, you could become the owner of the prison if you killed him.”

“Dumbass.” Cutie said, butterfly wings vibrating in agitation.

“You know what’s really dumb?” Shaggy asked facetiously. “Going to fight an army of robots with pheromone and sensory powers! I mean, I get Mell. She shoots electricity. But what the hell are you and SenSor thinking, Xiv? You’re going to get glassed as soon as the raid starts.”

Xiv glared daggers at Shaggy before she drew a large, black pistol from her waist. “This little number is from Under-Town. Cost me a shit-ton of credits, but it’ll do the job.”

“Besides, her pheromones don’t just make people go dumb anymore.” Mell said proudly. “Now she can essentially buff us while we fight.”

Shaggy nodded. That was a good use of pheromones, and the pistol looked like it could do some damage. Even if it looked like a munitions-based weapon. He would’ve gone with an energy-type gun. Like the one SenSor was holding. The big bearded man was wielding a long silver energy rifle that pulsed green and had a scope on it.

“With my sight and this baby, I should be able to deal with most of Cog’s little robots.” SenSor said proudly.

“Sure, the older ones. But who knows what he’s cooking up in their.” Shaggy muttered.

All five other players looked at him, including Bartle, who was idly spinning a boomerang. They seemed to look confused, and Shaggy tried to remember if he said anything weird. When nothing came to mind, he turned to Levy. But she seemed just as confused.

“You think well see different variants of Cog bots?” Xiv asked, confused.

“Of course! I mean, what do you think Cog’s been doing in there? Hell, he attacked the city with giant silver robots and a bunch of other random shit. But now he has his own realm and the time to come up with more crazy shit.”

“Not to mention the crown of an in-game god,” Levy muttered quietly.

SenSor snapped his head up at her words, But Shaggy glared him down. They didn’t need that little tidbit getting out. If the players learned that some god-tier level item was in play, then all bets were off. They’d eat each other alive. SenSor seemed to realize that as he nodded and let the matter drop.

Their little group fell into quiet conversation and were soon joined by Slink and Vlad. The vampire was smiling from ear to ear, but Slink looked paler than usual. The boy had pulled up his hood and was shifting from foot to foot. Shaggy quirked an eyebrow at Vlad, but the pale player simply shrugged.

“He has been like that since I met up with him. It’s like he turtle-d up suddenly.”

“Shit!” Ren said loudly from the truck.

He drew several eyes, but the big rhino alien simply marched over to Slink and lowered his head. He kept his voice low, but Shaggy was sure their little group could hear.

“They are here?” Ren asked.

Slink stayed quiet, but nodded. Vlad and Dave shared confused looks, but Shaggy groaned mentally as he remembered how Slink started this little game. Levy seemed to catch on too and Shaggy wondered where she had heard the story. He was sure he hadn’t spoken of it. Their little group pulled closer inward as Ren continued talking to Slink.

“You don’t have to deal with them if you don’t want to. But it’s healthier to deal with these things, y’know.”

“Fuck that!” Shaggy hissed. “Let those fucks see our boy out on the field. The best revenge is kicking ass.”

“They were heroes, right?” Vlad asked, catching on and spinning around as if he could find Slink’s old tormentors.

Slink grabbed Vlad’s arm and stopped him from looking around. They all leaned in as Slink almost whispered.

“I- I think I’ll go with Shaggy’s advice. If it’s all the same. Once shit kicks off, it will be easier to ignore them.”

“Yeah, dude. Besides, I hear the Heroes, and Villains are going to separate, right? So no sense worrying about people you’ll never run into, right?” Dave said, wrapping an arm around Slink and shaking the boy.

To the other players’ confused looks, Shaggy leaned into Xiv and whispered simply. “Bullies.”

Xiv nodded and looked at Slink understandingly. She turned to tell the others about it and Shaggy was surprised to see Bartle almost become fully livid. The normally jokey wanna-be Australian had to be held back as he almost made a bee-line right for Slink. Probably to find out who was bullying the poor kid. Shaggy felt his estimation of the Teleporter go up slightly. Sure, shit happens in online games, but that’s no reason to be an asshole.

Shaggy shook off the thought and questioned Vlad. “So your little jaunt into the world of players was fruitful?”

Vlad snapped back to himself at Shaggy’s question. “Yeah, there are a few people here from Under-Town. They don’t seem to want to compete with us, but they were interested in seeing what we are about.”

“Wait, was this a recruiting mission, or were you scoping out the competition?”

“Yes.” Vlad said aggravatingly.

Shaggy wanted to smack the smug-looking vampire. But the ground suddenly shifted beneath their feet. Players all around them screamed in surprise as a few lost their feet and tumbled into the grass. The hill itself seemed to glow with a cascade of different colors. Levy gripped Shaggy’s arm and the others all gathered their weapons or used abilities.

“It’s about to start.” Levy said, sounding breathless. “The magic is surging.”

“Yeah, it is.” Bartle said suggestively.

Shaggy smacked the player in the arm and ignored the loud cracking noise. Bartle went down in a pile as Shaggy’s opinion of the player dropped again. The green-haired fool was rolling on the grass in pain as the glowing grew brighter and brighter. Shaggy felt like the pressure was growing around them and he popped his ears. But it didn’t help. The feeling of pressure built and built as the light grew even more bright. Soon Shaggy couldn’t see or hear. His only solace was Levy’s hand still gripping his arms.

Then Shaggy blinked, and it was all back to normal. His hearing was back, his eyes could see, and the mansion on the hill… was completely gone. Shaggy quickly looked around, noticing several players doing the same. They were all standing on a red dirt landscape. Their cars and other vehicles were gone. A dark red sky was overhead, dark black clouds drifting lazily. Shouts of confusion rose from everywhere and Shaggy counted his friends before he calmed down.

“What the hell is that?!” Xiv yelled, pointing to their north.

Off in the distance, across the flat dirt plane, was a large city. It was belching smoke and dust into the air and Shaggy could just make out flying objects hovering over it. The cranking and clanging of gears was low in the air. Shaggy could feel it in his bones as he stared at what he could only describe as a factory city.

“There are thousands of them.” SenSor said, eyes fixated on the far-off city.

“Thousands of what, Sense? Robots?” Mell asked.

SenSor waggled his head, unsure. “Maybe? They don’t look like robots, though.”

Shaggy jerked, confused. “What do you mean? What do they look like?”

Nearby Speedster scouts were coming back to their large group and Shaggy could hear the news. But they all waited as Sensor collected himself and uttered.

“Us. The robots or whatever, they look like us.”

“Okay, thanks, new guy. Can you be anymore vague?” Vlad snarked before shifting into a black mist.

“Vlad! Don’t!” Shaggy said as other players shouted.

“Speedsters down!”

“The robots have fucking powers!”

“We got incoming!”

The large body of players became a mess as the large guilds got their people together. All the while, multi-colored streaks of speedsters swirled through all the players. Shouts of alarm went up as Mages and Player Tanks activated abilities. Dave and Vlad turned into black and blue blurs and vanished. Although Dave was now nowhere near as fast as Vlad. Levy moved her arms in a complicated gesture before a large purple dome surrounded them all.

“Sense? What’s going on?” Xiv asked.

“I don’t know! I can barely make shit out!”

A red body slammed into Levy’s dome and bounced off. A faceless six-foot humanoid picked itself up and rushed off again at Super-speed. Shaggy spun and took in the rest of the battlefield. The players were rallying, but the fight was happening too quickly for most of them. The speedsters were doing well, though. Every now and again, a burst of metal and electricity would phase into real time and crash out of a blur. Then a speedster player would appear. They’d celebrate before rushing off again.

“What do we do?” Slink asked.

“We can’t do shit. So we have to leave it to the speedsters. But for now, let’s make a break for it.” Shaggy said, pointing out of the mass of players.

The others all looked at him like he was crazy and he snorted. “Levy can’t keep this up forever, folks. We need to regroup. So let’s move.”

Shaggy tapped Levy on the shoulder and the purple dome dropped. Without another word, they both ran. Heading for the edge of the crowd. Ren and Slink were right behind them, followed by Xiv and the others. Bartle’s boomerang zoomed over everyone’s head and the teleporter was suddenly in the lead, grinning back at them.

Then a green blur slammed into his side, and the player went flying. Swearing the whole way. The green humanoid robot blurred into existence and was about to follow Bartle’s body when it exploded. Vlad appeared in a puff of black smoke and smiled happily.

“There’s twelve of the fuckers left!” Vlad shouted with a weird amount of joy.

The vampire turned into smoke again, and the shifting blurs of speedsters around the players picked up speed. Shaggy grimaced as swathes of color zoomed in and out of groups of players. Some were still crouched behind protective abilities while others were scattering like them. When they finally made it to the edge of the crowd, Shaggy jogged a short distance away and spun. The large horde of players was slowly spreading itself out along the outer edge of Cog’s territory.

No more streaks of color were coming from Cog’s city. But it didn’t instill Shaggy with confidence. The smoking towers and sounds of metal factories still churning told him Cog was far from done.

“SenSor, what’s going on with the city?” Shaggy asked.

The player turned his eyes to the factory city and focused. After a few seconds, his eyes grew wide. “There are a bunch of the damn bots. Replicas of us, same as before. But now they are spreading out to encircle the city.”

“They are created a defensive perimeter.” Ren said. “We’ll have to break in and stop the factories.”

“Do you think those factories are creating fully grown robots as we speak?” Mell asked.

Shaggy, Ren, and Slink all shared a look before Slink answered.

“We’ve seen it before. Cog has the technology to create massive armies of bots really quickly.”

“What’s with the copy-bots, though?” Levy asked.

“Cog’s given his bots Super Powers. Don’t know why he went the extra mile to have them look like us, though.”

Ren sniffed as he hefted his sledgehammer. “It’s probably automatic. You know? Like, they would take the image of whoever intruded on his realm.”

“That would explain why some of them are faceless.”

“Where the hell is the Mad Witch in all of this?!” Xiv shouted.

The fight within the group of players was slowing down. Their speedsters were popping in and out of existence, carrying robot bits. Cheers were going up from a few players that hadn’t recognized what was going on in Cog’s city. Shaggy spotted Bartle was still with them, sporting a decent shiner on his left eye. A shout from Mell got them all turning her way.

“There! She’s on the eastern side of the city.”

As one, they glanced in that direction. A black and purple army was stepping from a glowing gold portal. Shaggy spotted multiple variants of demons and dozens of mages. Some of whom were floating in the sky. He snorted as he realized Korrigan had summoned the players first to deal with any surprises Cog had in store. When they had dealt with the speedsters, she showed up, far away from them.

Shaggy grunted. “Smart witch.”

“She’s a super villain for a reason, hun.”

“Maybe, but we need to shift out that way.”

“Why? It looks like the Raid is about invading this factory-city thing. So, shouldn’t we get all the players to circle it and then charge?” Xiv asked.

“You ever tried to get a bunch of players to do anything?” Ren asked.

Shaggy could already hear fights and arguments breaking out in the mass of players nearby. A few robot speedsters were rushing about. But they were being handled. Meanwhile, the guild players and independents were yelling at each other about proper Raid etiquette. He waved an arm at the crowd, hoping Vlad and Dave would see him.

Soon enough, they were joined by the pair. Dave panting heavily while Vlad looked extremely pleased with himself. Shaggy pointed at the city in the distance and snarked.

“Don’t be too happy with yourself, Vlad. We are nowhere near done.”

The pale vampire gave him the finger but said nothing. Dave, on the other hand, whooped softly and stared happily at the amassing robots. He sat down in the red dirt and collected himself as they all discussed what they wanted to do. However, a short while into their conversation, a blue witch appeared above them. She was riding a broom and staring daggers down at their group.

Shaggy hissed as they were suddenly getting attention from the other players. But Lady didn’t seem to give a shit. Instead, she enhanced her voice with magic and shouted down at them.

“Dave! You are my personal guard! What are you doing over here? I- We need you over with Korrigan’s forces.”

Dave smiled up at the witch from his seated position. He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted.

“Sorry, Lady. We got jumped by a bunch of fast robots. We’ll be right over.”

“Hmph!” Lady crossed her arms and floated down lower. “I guess it’s alright. Seeing as you have a decent excuse.”

Dave stood up and Shaggy started herding his friends toward the east. It wasn’t that long of a walk. But the other players were staring at them at this point. He really didn’t want to share whatever bonuses they got for being close to Korrigan’s people. Dave’s voice carried on the wind, though, and Shaggy wanted to slap his own forehead.

“So did you want to tell your dark mistress that we’re coming or did ya want to walk with us?” Dave smiled up at the witch.

She floated lower and lower. Seemingly thinking things over. When she was just above them, she drop to the dirt and hurried over to Dave. Shaggy could see that the woman was blushing as she stood beside Dave and nodded imperiously.

“I- I guess since you are my guard, I can deign to walk with you. But you must protect me!” She gave Dave a stern warning and wagged her finger up at him.

Dave laughed it off, and they all started walking again. Shaggy could see a few people following them at a distance. They didn’t have any guild emblems or colors, so he assumed they were dragging a bunch of unaffiliated players with them now. SenSor stared in shock at Dave and Lady as they walked. Eventually, the big man couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“What the fuck is that all about?”

Shaggy snorted. “Dave’s an enigma. But he got us an in with Korrigan.”

“Besides the one you got us,” Ren scoffed.

“I didn’t get shit. I just met with the b- uh, witch.” Shaggy cast a nervous glance at Lady, but she was still talking to Dave, who was happily nodding along.

The big bearded player turned to Xiv and nodded slowly. “I see what you meant.”

Xiv nodded back and smiled. “I know, right? These guys are a blast.”

Shaggy groaned and looked toward Korrigan’s still growing forcing. The portal was still open, and more demons and mages were pouring through. But at the center of the realm, slowly being surrounded by players, was Cog’s city. It was still building and churning out more robots. Shaggy could feel his heart beating wildly at the upcoming fight. There were thousands of players and hundreds of Korrigan’s forces. With more and more bots being made to stop them, what was coming next was going to be a hell of a fight.