A Werewolf In Under-Town

Shaggy dodged under a claw swipe and jammed his own forward. The robot he was fighting blocked his thrust with the metal claws of its other hand. He growled as they jammed their claws together. That the lanky silver robot was just as strong as him annoyed Shaggy to no end. He broke the clash and kicked the humanoid robot in the mid-section.

“Anyone else think these bots are getting cheeky?” Shaggy asked as he dropped his claws and went in for a leg grab.

Ren slammed his long hammer through two red and yellow bots. “What do you mean?”

“No, he’s right.” Vlad said, appeared next to Ren in a puff of black smoke.

Vlad disappeared again and then reappeared, fighting a blurry purple robot. The pair wrestled for a bit, then vanished. The two fast moving combatants appeared next to Levy and Vlad continued his thoughts.

“We’ve started to meet more and more robots that are geared toward fighting us specifically.”

Levy slammed her staff into the ground as the Vampire robot pair moved again. A pulse of purple lightning cascaded through the area. It fried several robots, but two blue ones absorbed the lightning and charged Levy. But before they reached her, they fell to the ground. Green snakes wrapped around their ankles. Slink ran over to the fallen robots and used his energy pistol to deliver multiple shots to the back of their heads. Both robots seemed to absorb some of the energy until it got to be too much and both heads exploded.

Shaggy slid around the robot and grabbed it around the waist. Its claws pierced his arms, but he ignored it as he suplex the robot into the dirt as hard as he could. The robot’s head got stuck in the dirt and Shaggy shifted his hands back to claws and ripped into the thing as it tried to extricate its head. As he did, he spotted Dave nearby.

The armored mutant was easily punching his way through several armored robots. Their armor didn’t quite match Dave’s. But it was a close approximation. Shaggy grimaced as his claws finally dug into the bot’s metal and he could freely rend the thing. Tearing metal and sparking electricity filled his ears as he tore the robot in two.

“Not all of us.” Shaggy grimaced as he wiped oil from his face. “Dave, what the hell? How are you doing so well against your doppel-droids?”

The armored mutant turned and shrugged, his voice coming from his faceless helmet. “No idea, dude. I mean, I know they are supposed to be tough. I just punch harder and they fall apart.”

Vlad and pieces of the purple droid appeared next to Shaggy. They shot into existence out of super-speed. The pieces of the purple robot went everywhere as Vlad panted heavily. Shaggy could see that his vampire friend had used his teeth to rip the metal robot apart. Vlad spat out bits of the metal robot and hissed angrily.

“You just punch harder? How does that work?!”

“It just work, dudes.”

Shaggy and Vlad shared an aggrieved look. The vampire dug into his back pocket and pulled a flask of blood and took a long drag. Shaggy surveyed the area before he, too, dug into his pockets. He had stuffed them full of snacks and thankfully, nothing had happened to them. At least not yet. But Levy had a few backups in her back of holding.

They all finished up their fight and Slink recalled his snakes before they began moving again. They had started out jogging toward the center of the metal city. But other players and random robots were constantly getting in their way. They hadn’t come to blows with any other players yet. But Shaggy knew it was only a matter of time. The streets were slowly filling with more and more players and he was sure people were going to section off their own little zones to farm.

But for his group, that didn’t matter. They needed to get to Cog and kill the fucker before anyone else could. The white stone city hall was visible in the distance. But the sounds of fighting echoed from street to street. Beams of differently colored light shot into the air and flyers zoomed across the rooftops. Although Shaggy spotted more than one hapless player fly right into a robot’s energy beam. The skies above Cog’s City were a mess.

“We have to be close, right? We only had a few blocks to go last I checked.” Slink panted.

“We did. But that was before we had to curve outward.” Ren said. “We probably have the same amount to go.”

“We need to stop avoiding players and bots and just punch through.”

“You know why we can’t do that, Shaggy. We’d exhaust ourselves before we even got to the fight.”

“But, like, isn’t that what we are already doing?” Dave asked.

Levy nodded. “Dave and Shaggy have a point. We keep avoiding player groups and robot patrols. But that just leads us into other robot patrols. We fight, we win, and then we get a little more tired.”

“So straight shot?” Ren asked.

Everyone but Vlad nodded. The vampire groaned, but he didn’t argue as Shaggy bolted down the middle of the street. He kept the top of the city hall building in his view as he spotted several groups of players and robots fighting. The streets weren’t full enough to be a problem. But Shaggy ducked around the fights. He monitored the fighting players as they moved, though.

“GO! Goblin!” A young-looking boy shouted as he rolled some dice.

The dice opened up like a box and a green goblin with a club sprang out of it. Shaggy blinked confusedly as he watched the goblin bash a few robots. The boy was shouting encouragement for a spot nearby. But he was quickly found and ghosted by several bots. As the boy disappeared, so did the goblin he had summoned. Shaggy winced as he watched the summoner get cubed.

His attention was grabbed by the next small melee that was occurring further down the street. It was another teen boy. But at least this one had a few friends to watch his back. But they were all backing away from the approaching robots. Shaggy thought they were all screwed if a robot with ranged abilities appeared.

“LET IT RIP!” shouted the lead boy with spiky hair.

As one, the boy and his friends raised their arms and pulled on some weird cord. Spinning weapons flew from their hands and charged toward the robots. Shaggy nearly laughed when he realized the kids’ chosen weapons were tops. He expected the plastic toys to bounce off the bots harmless, but the blurry little devils crashed right through the robots. Fire, water, and electricity were flung off the whirling dervishes as they seemed to bounce from robot to robot.

Shaggy tried to share an incredulous look with his teammates as they ran. But they were all glancing around at other battles that were happening in the street. Then their group was randomly targeted. An enormous boulder made of metal was tossed into Shaggy path and he dived to get around it.

With a quick roll and the summoning of his claws, he was back up. Levy and the others glanced at him as they ran, but he waved them onward. City hall was getting closer and closer. A brown robot was melting upward from the ground and Shaggy was sure it was the one that had thrown the metal scrap at him. It proved him right by absorbing the metal boulder and growing in size.

The twenty-foot robot glared down at Shaggy and lumbered forward. Shaggy pounced, aiming for the thing’s ankle. With the added push from his ability, Shaggy was able to hit his target first and used his claws to try to cut through the robot’s leg. Shouts from players went up as Shaggy held on for dear life and kept swiping with his claws. The robot rocked his foot aggressively. Trying to dislodge Shaggy.

“It’s a mid-boss!” Someone shouted.

“Get it!”

“That’s kill-stealing.”

“It’s a raid, dumbass. All bets are off.”

“I think the little dude has this, though.”

Shaggy growled as he listened to the nearby players. “I’m a perfectly average heigh~~~~t”

The end of Shaggy’s sentence was elongated as his claws slipped and he was kicked off the leg of the giant robot. He went tumbling down the street and felt his body slam into the dirt road. After rolling to a stop, Shaggy stood and took in his surrounding. He felt some of his bones snap back into place and he winced as he rolled his shoulders. His approaching friend’s confused faces made him grin.

“How the hell did you beat us?” Slink asked.

“Took the asshole express.” Shaggy shrugged as he turned to find the city hall building again.

Off in the distance, the brown robot was punching and kicking players in the street. Shaggy quietly lamented not being able to take the large fucker down. But they had more important stuff to do. They let Shaggy gather himself before they took off again.

Suddenly, as they ran, a comet fell from the sky and struck a nearby building. It was joined shortly thereafter by another. Then a giant iceball, and then a fireball of massive proportions. Shaggy grimaced as the skies were suddenly being filled with magical artillery.

“Korrigan’s forces have started.” Levy panted as she ran.

“Well, that’s fucking annoying.” Vlad snarked.

“Hey, they are technically helping us,” Ren argued.

A bright orange ball of fire slammed into a building alongside the road and Shaggy gave the big rhino-alien a look. Ren sighed and nodded understandingly. The magical shitstorm that was falling on their heads now was a pain they didn’t need. The air rapidly heated and cooled, making taking a breath an uncomfortable affair. But Slink pointed a finger down the street and panted loudly.

“We’re… almost… there…”

Shaggy nodded and kept the white steps of the government building in his sights. Flecks of ash and snow fell from the sky and Shaggy groaned. Lightning struck right near Dave and sent the blue armored mutant tumbling. Vlad sped around and picked up their friend as another bolt slammed near Levy.

A purple shield appeared as debris and electricity tried to smack into her. Shaggy did his best to keep his eyes skyward. But the white building ahead was getting closer and soon he slid to a stop right at its staircase. He took a second to do a quick headcount. All of his friends were there, looking exhausted, and a little singed. But still pretty good. He shouted to be heard over the onslaught of magical artillery.

“THIS IS IT! WE READY?!”

He got back nods of approval and climbed the stairs. Thundering noises filled his ears and Shaggy did his best to focus on the two wooden doors leading into the building. He cleared the stairs and passed the white columns just before the doors. He placed a hand on the doorknob and twisted it hard. But the thing didn’t turn. Instead, he slammed face-first into something that was clearly not a door.

“What the fuck!” Shaggy screamed as his nose reset itself.

“What is it?” Vlad asked.

“Dudes, what’s that noise?”

“The door won’t open. It doesn’t feel like a door.” Shaggy answered Vlad.

“What do you mean, it doesn’t feel like a door!?” Vlad shouted.

Ren moved to the door as Levy’s hands glowed. Slink pulled his rifle and knelt down near a column as a lookout.

“It sounds like a whirring noise.”

“He’s right. This door is solid. There’s nothing on the other side,” Ren said, pulling his hand away.

“So it’s a fake door. We just have to find the real one.” Vlad said, starting to turn into mist.

“There’s, like, a rumbling too.”

“Dave! There’s magic and shit going off everywhere! Of course, there’s going to be some noise.” Shaggy said, but Levy stuck her glowing hand out.

“He’s not wrong. This place doesn’t feel like a building. It’s more like…”

Levy didn’t finish her sentence as the ground they were standing on shifted. The building rumbled, and they all grabbed onto whatever they could. Slink gripped the white column with his bare hands as Shaggy dug his claws into a wall. He spotted Levy helping Ren and Dave get some kind of magical hold. Vlad was nowhere to be seen.

Cog’s voice popped into existence around Shaggy’s head and it seemed to come from everywhere at once as the man cackled.

“HAHAHAHAHA! You fools! I wonder where the mad genius could be? Is it the obvious white stone building in the center of town?! Of course not, you fucking simpletons! But thank you, I now know that pest saturation has reached critical mass within my city. Time to activate the pest controllers.”

“I fucking hate that guy!” Shaggy shouted over the rising wind and rumbling that was still happening.

“What’s happening?!” Levy shouted back.

“I don’t know. But everyone, hang on until it’s over!” Ren shouted back.

It was as good a plan as any. So Shaggy dug his claws in and waited for the rumbling to stop. But it was taking way too long. The sounds of magical artillery continued, but the player's shouts and voices died down considerably. It wasn’t until minutes later that Shaggy looked around again and saw his friends still clutching onto the building for their lives. But the view around the building had changed considerably.

“Hol~y shit!” Shaggy shouted.

“Where are we?” Ren shouted as they all stood again.

The rumbling was still constant. But with some effort, they could walk around. Slink, who was still wrapped around the column, gulped loudly as he looked out around the building. The dark sky of Cog’s realm was visible all around. Along with the purple sparks of magic in the air.

“We’re in the air!” Slink shouted in alarm and moved toward the building.

Shaggy nodded and moved toward the edge of the building. Looking down, he hissed. Below was Cog’s city. He could make out the magical bombardment from Korrigan’s forces and he could even see the robot factories. Energy beams and magic filled the streets below. Dave gave a whistle as he took it all in. Then the platform they were standing on rumbled a giant arm came into view. They all watched as a metallic arm slammed down into the city and crushed several players. When the arm retracted, Shaggy got a sinking feeling in his stomach.

“Dude, we’re, like, a hundred feet in the air, aren’t we?” Dave said excitedly.

“That’s not the only thing, Dave.” Shaggy gulped as their world shook again. “We’re on a giant fucking robot.”

They all stared at him blankly before they rushed to the side. Levy and the others took in the view before a large leg moved from beneath them. Everything rumbled again as the robot they were on moved. It’s fist crashed into the city again and more players were ghosted. The players had started to rally and Shaggy could see multiple players trying to beat against the thing’s legs and arm.

“Well, at least Cog only had time to build one.” Ren said.

But before anyone else could answer. The entire world shook again. Shaggy gulped as he watched multiple giant robots pull themselves from the ground. All around the city, houses yanked themselves from the ground and became the heads and faces of hundred-foot tall robots. The players scattered, and Korrigan’s bombardment switched targets. Five robots made of silver and bronze metal pulled themselves from the ground and started to pummel the players in the city.

“That’s your fault, Ren,” Shaggy muttered as he pointed at the mayhem below.

“What the fuck are we going to do?!” Slink asked.

Shaggy looked at the others before he shook his head and sighed. “I’ve got no idea, kid.”