A Werewolf In Under-Town

With Levy’s help, Shaggy pulled himself back inside. The crawl up the robot’s chin was rough but doable. The second he was standing on firm ground, he looked around at his friends. Ren was in rough shape, cut up and bleeding in places. Vlad looked exhausted, and even Dave was panting slightly as they all stood around. Nearby, Slink was tapping away at the terminal’s keyboard. Now that it was the right-side up, Shaggy could see that the terminal was actually much larger than he first thought.

Ren’s chuckling broke Shaggy’s thoughts away from the robot’s control systems. The big alien was shaking from laughter until it seemed to catch on. Vlad joined in next with an almost nervous, manic laugh that Dave then took up. Followed by Levy and then Shaggy.

“We just glassed the leaders of the RiffRaff.” Ren huffed.

Vlad nodded. “We are so fucked.”

Shaggy wiped a tear from his eye. “Hey, I’m the one that KO’d both of them.”

“Good.” Levy chuckled. “Maybe that means they’ll just declare war on you.”

“Either way, that shit was epic dudes!” Dave said as he finished laughing.

They all shared a smile and tried not to think about the third largest villain guild being after them. Players could be a vindictive and petty lot. Shaggy wasn’t sure how petty Tolliver was, but he would bet the man was going to at least gank Shaggy back. If not wage war on all of Under-Town.

“Hey, Assholes! How about some help over here?” Slink’s voice said from the terminal.

Shaggy shared a worried glance with Levy before rushing to help the young teen. He wasn’t sure of what any of them could do, though. As they got closer to the terminal, Shaggy saw multiple readouts of various systems within the robot. He recognized a few of them, but a dozen more were practically alien. For all he knew, they probably were.

“What’s up, little dude?” Dave asked as they crowded around the display.

Slink’s fingers rapidly typed away at the terminal’s interface as he brought up various readouts.

“Our bot’s fuel efficacy is super low. We’ve got leaks throughout our operator housing, and we’ve got a robot closing in on us.”

Shaggy grimaced as he noticed the fuel efficiency readout was displaying problems in the chest and neck. His little wreck-fest down there was now costing them fuel. Then he remembered what the damn robot used as fuel and he didn’t feel so bad. Levy pushed past his shoulder as she tapped something else on Slink’s terminal.

“Also, the bot’s spellwork is deteriorating. Fast. I need to rework it fast or this thing is going to collapse under its own weight and take us with it.”

“I’ll plug the leaks.” Vlad said, turning into mist and zipping about the room.

“What can we do?” Ren asked Slink as Levy started weaving spells.

Slink scrolled through the readouts for a few seconds before he responded. “Dave and Shaggy, get to the neck and start fixing things as best you can. I don’t have control of the repair bots, so they are going to attack you. We need better more fuel going into the heart or we’re going to be on the back foot.”

Dave nodded and gave a fist pump as Shaggy groaned. At everyone’s stares, he growled. “Fixing shit is what I do IRL. Why would I want to do that here?”

“Because this is a giant robot and if you didn’t, you’d get sent to respawn.” Slink said flatly.

“How much you wanna bet the RiffRaff have some people camping respawn?” Ren added.

Shaggy bit his lip in annoyance, but nodded. He turned to leave, but then he heard what Ren would be doing.

“Ren, you're on the manual controls.”

Shaggy noticed he wasn’t the only one that stopped. Everyone was now glaring at the young teen with looks of betrayal.

“There are manual controls?!”

“Why does he get to be on them!?”

“It should be me!”

Slink looked around at all of them in shock before his face became hard. “Listen! Ren is the biggest of us and is used to throwing around that weight in a fight. This robot is a beast, we need someone used to fighting a heavier weight-class! Get to your damn stations and start helping or we are all fucked!”

Chastened, the others broke off toward their own areas to try to keep the robot together. Behind him, Shaggy heard Ren grumbling.

“I feel you overemphasized my weight.”

Shaggy had just enough time to hear Slink sigh as he and Dave dove back into the darkness of the robot’s inner halls.

Outside The Robot

The party’s robot staggered for a few steps as Ren got used to the controls. It swung its large metal arms awkwardly until it started to take on a more natural gait. The legs moved stiffly as they kicked through the various buildings below. Player’s everywhere scattered around and they took more and more magic blasts from Korrigan’s mages.

Nearby, another Cog robot was slowly trudging closer. Its own arms hung loosely at its side as it moved forward. The party’s robot’s head scanned left and right, but finding no other targets, closing it pushed forward roughly. Its stuttering steps became more fluid and its body bent forward as it charged the other Cog bot.

Flying players and those fighting in the streets scattered as Ren Bot hit the Cog bot hard in the chest with its shoulder. The clash created a shock wave that sent players everywhere flying and even snuffed out a few fireballs aimed at Ren Bot’s legs. Ren Bot’s building-head jammed itself upward roughly in an upward headbutt. The resulting crash knocked the Cog bot backward and stumbling. With a jump-step and a windup, Ren Bot cocked back a punch and let it fly as the other bot righted itself.

“The robots are fighting!”

“What the fuck!?”

“Did we gain control of one of the bots?”

“Who has tech powers here!?”

Shouts erupted from the players down in the city as the two robots clashed over and over. Metal sheets went flying, and bolts and cogs rained from the skies. Korrigan still kept up their random carpet-bombing. But the players shifted their own attacks toward the Cog Bot. A few had put together that the one with the city-hall building for a head was the same one that had crashed earlier.

Ren Bot tanked a hit to its metal chest and returned its own haymaker. The Cog Bot’s shack-like head crumpled slightly as Ren Bot’s metal fist crashed into its ‘jaw.’ The two robots stumbled as they pulled back their punches, but Ren turned the stumble into a jumping spear that took the Cog bot at the waist. With a metal-creaking, ground-shaking noise, the Cog Bot tipped over, the Ren Bot landing on its waist.

As the two struggled to right themselves again, more and more players flooded the top of the Cog Bot’s body. Ren Bot pushed itself off the ground and threw a punch upward at the Cog Bot’s face again. Multiple players turned into white cubes as the metal fist slammed through several of them before it crashed into the Cog Bot. As shouts of alarm went up from the players, the Ren Bot pulled itself into a mounted position and rained down punches on the Cog Bot’s head.

Bits of metal, wires, and corpse fluid went flying as the Cog Bot’s head pummeled into mush. Nearby Xiv, Mell and SenSor stared on in wonder as they watched the fight come to an end. But as they watched, something sparked to life in the factory they had taken.

Inside The Robot

“Stop!” Slink cried as Shaggy and Dave pulled themselves back into their robot’s brain.

Shaggy froze even as a tiny needle-bot tried to pierce his cheek with its spear-like arms. The little bastards were still everywhere below. But their arms made for great nails as Dave and Shaggy made multiple shoddy patch jobs. Between the two of them, they had patched several pipes and even covered up Shaggy’s gash in the hallway.

Of course, they couldn’t get to all of it. Not with the damn bot shaking and jostling everywhere. Several times, the surrounding walls caved in slightly and they had to find alternate routes or just stop going that way. After the last enormous crash, Dave and Shaggy had decided to return to the brain and see how things were going. As Shaggy took in the scene, he felt his eyes grow wide and idly slapped the needle-bot away from his cheek.

Ren was standing on a raised platform that looked like a treadmill. On his massive arms and hands were two old-school Immersion Gloves. He even had an old-fashioned headset on. The big rhino-man was crouched down on the treadmill, left fist raised, ready to punch. But everyone had frozen at Slink’s command. Everyone except Levy who was awash with magical power.

Her hands were raised and Shaggy could see her body shaking as purple streams of magic left her body. The magic raced through the robot’s brain and seemed to lash itself to the walls and ceiling. When Levy turned to regard Slink, Shaggy could see his wife was sweating and looked pained. Her eyes widened as she saw Shaggy and she smiled.

“Shaggy! Get over here now!” She shouted excitedly.

Shaggy quickly nodded and rushed over. As he got close, he realized his wife was running hot. Real hot. Steam was practically rolling off of her in waves. With each pulse of magical energy from her body, she seemed to grow hotter. Shaggy worried about what was going on, but his wife’s next words caught him flat-footed.

“Cut yourself.”

“Wha-?”

“Love, please. Shut up and trust me.”

Shaggy grunted, but the pleading look in his wife’s eyes made him raise a clawed hand as he created three long gashes in his arm. With a sigh, Levy pointed a hand full of purple magic at his arm. Tendrils of purple seeped into his rapidly closing wound and seemed to siphon away his blood. Shaggy watched as the magic carried his blood off into the robot’s head. Levy sighed roughly before she nodded at his arm as the wound closed.

“Again.”

Shaggy sighed, but cut both of his arms this time. Again, Levy siphoned his blood away and carried it toward the walls and ceiling. He even spotted some of it transferring to the ground. She was drawing weird runes in the metal with her magic and Shaggy had a sinking feeling as to what was happening. But Levy was sweating less now and her body was no longer shaking.

“T, are you farming my blood as a magical catalyst?” Shaggy growled exasperatedly.

“Umm… little bit.”

“Damn it, T!”

“It was the only thing I could think to do, Shaggy. Cog was pulling his magic back from this bot and I was doing everything I could to hold it in place. But you have Demonic Blood, love. It’s the perfect reagent for this sort of thing. Open another one.”

She nodded as his now closed wounds and Shaggy sighed as he did slashed himself again.

“So what are you doing then, rewriting his runes or something?”

Levy chuckled as she waved her hands around. His blood swirled around as she literally painted the walls with it.

“I’m overriding a lot. Old bastard clearly didn’t know what he was doing with magical formulas.”

“And you do?”

“Hey, I studied it… a bit. Either way, I know more than him. This damn robot is going to be light as a feather and twice as fast.” She grinned as she painted the walls.

Shaggy grimaced as he felt his wounds close and turned to see Slink and the others crowded around the terminal. Slink had seen something on there, which is why Ren was still not moving on his treadmill.

“What’s going on!” He shouted toward Slink and the others.

Dave and Vlad looked his direction. But Slink was rapidly tapping away at his terminal.

“We’re taking a capture point, dude!” Dave shouted excitedly.

“What?!”

Vlad grinned evilly. “The factories are capture points. The second we got close, Slink noticed a countdown start. Nearby robots are trying to take the place. But the players are holding them back.”

“Holy shit! What does the capture point get us? What does it do?”

“No fucking idea, but it’s bound to help, right?” Dave asked.

Before Shaggy could answer, Slink slammed a finger down and laughed. “Ha! Done. Ren, you have the external speakers. Tell the players what’s going on and help defend the factory! We are at a seventy-three percent capture rate and raising.”

Ren laughed as he took several stomping steps forward. The treadmill whirring beneath his feet. “My follow players, we are Legion! We have commandeered this bot from Cog’s forces and are capturing this factory point. We have incoming from multiple bots. Prepare to help us defend this point until we own it! Gather here if you agree, if not, then stay the fuck out of the Legion’s way!”

“Was that the tone we wanted to use?” Vlad asked.

“Sounded diplomatic to me.” Shaggy grinned.

Outside The Robot

Xiv couldn’t keep the grin off her face as she heard Ren’s voice crackle from the giant robot. The speakers were down near the things ankles and the metal everywhere helped the sound echo around. Everywhere, players were excitedly staring up at the robot. Players were piloting the damn thing. The very idea was exciting.

“How the fuck did they manage that!?” Mell shouted.

“No idea, but they weren’t lying. We got incoming.” SenSor said as he raised his rifle to his shoulder.

Xiv started exuding Battle Pheromones from her body as she looked around. Several players had run off when the giant robots started fighting. But she still had a sizable force to work with. Red and blue pheromones only she could see spread out from her body and were absorbed by the other players. Supposedly, the stuff was supposed to make them more alert and faster, but she hadn’t tested it that much and never at this scale.

She drew her heavy pistol and pointed it at the oncoming robots. They had already been held up in the factory fighting. So what was another wave or two? At least now they knew they were fighting for a capture point. Mell’s hands sparked with electricity and SenSor was already firing away at the oncoming rush of bots. Overhead, Cutie came in for a landing, a large silver energy weapon strapped to her back.

“Where the fuck did you get that?” Mell asked as she unleashed her lightning at the mass of robots.

A boomerang sailed overhead, but was quickly replaced with the green-haired Bartle. The player was weighed down with even more shiny white weapons.

“This place is going nuts! All sorts of wild tech is springing up everywhere. We got into one of the armories. What do ya suppose this little beauty does?” Bartle asked as he tossed a green-metal egg into the air.

“Toss it and find out.” Xiv ordered as she fired her own pistol.

Bartle cackled and tossed the oblong grenade. It crashed into a silver robot and burst into a green liquid cloud. Xiv stared in wonder as the robot and those around it quickly melted under a wave of green acid.

“Yooooo! Acid bombs. Sweet.” SenSor chuckled.

“Hohohohoho! What do you suppose the rest of these colorful devils do then?” Bartle chuckled as he showed off a handful of more colorful grenades.

“You’ll get to test them all.” Cutie said as she put the large energy weapon on her shoulder.

Xiv nodded and looked upon the wave of silver headed their way. She could feel her blood boil and a tingle of excitement rushed through her.

“You heard the Legion, folks! Let’s take this damn point and then move on to the next! Right!?”

Shouts of excitement and happiness went up from the other players. Xiv noticed that defensive weaponry had sprung up around the factory and was being manned by more players. Above them all, the Legion’s giant robot stood. Like a monument to player defiance. In the distance, the other giant robots shifted in their direction. All eyes were on their factory now. Even Korrigan’s bombing had stopped as the entire battlefield readied for the next stage of the raid.