A Werewolf In Under-Town

“Slink, move us away from the factory. Quick!”

“I can’t! We are literally the catalyst for the capture event. If we leave, the players can’t capture the factory.” Slink shouted. Fingers flying across the terminal.

Shaggy bit the inside of his cheek and peered back out of the hole. The damn robot had no windows or view-port to look out at the battle raging below. But he wasn’t really worried about the small robots charging the line of players. It was the giant fuck-off robots stomping their way that concerned him. If they got into a fight next to the factory, they were probably going to step on the damn thing, and this whole thing would be for naught.

Ren stood ready at his weird Robot-VR station. Gloved hands clenching and unclenching as he looked through the robot’s eyes, sensor, or whatever the robot used to see. Levy was nearby, sitting and taking a break after finishing up whatever magic she had been doing. The entire head seemed to hum with magical energy, but Shaggy was at a complete loss as to what it all meant. He, Dave, and Vlad were all crowded around the punched-out hole in the robot’s chin, staring down at the ongoing fight. Dave was shuffling back and forth excitedly and Shaggy couldn’t blame him. The fight was raging below and they were stuck up here.

“What the hell can we do?!” Vlad shouted at Slink, annoyed.

Slink kept typing as more and more green text flashed before his eyes. Vlad huffed at being ignored, but soon the teen’s voice spoke up.

“I’m getting the repair-bots under control. As soon as we stepped onto the capture point, we started a reboot of the entire system. We have full control of this bot now. I’m just ordering the bots to make repairs, then we are on standby.”

Shaggy growled as Vlad and Dave made equal noises of displeasure. Slink looked unapologetic as he shrugged his slim shoulders and waved a hand around the head.

“This machine wasn’t meant to run like this. We were fucking lucky the thing had a manual override.”

“And this thing sucks.” Ren shouted from his treadmill. VR helmet turning toward their voices. “It’s all vector graphics, and it’s in one color! I have a damn headache.”

“Hey! You’re piloting a hundred-foot robot. I don’t want to hear any bitching!” Shaggy snorted.

“You get in this damn thing and see how you like it then, Shaggy.”

“Gladly.”

“Stop. The machine is not going to like us swapping pilots at this point. Trust me. Ren is the best option for the pilot. I’ll try to get you some upgrades once the repairs are done and we are on standby.”

Every head in the room snapped at once as everyone turned to look at Slink with hungry eyes. The pale boy seemed to realize he said something he shouldn’t as he immediately clammed up and turned back to his computer. But they weren’t going to let the kid get away without explaining.

“Did he just say what I think he did?”

“Dude, like, what did you mean?”

“Yeah, Slink. What the fuck?”

“Fess up, Slink.”

“Yeah! Get him!” Levy shouted from her spot on the floor.

The pale teen’s shoulders bunched up and then fell as he slowly turned away from the terminal. On the screen was a text-based interface with multiple trees branching in various directions. Slink was currently in the repair-bot tree and a small bar was slowly crawling across the screen. Probably the repair-bots doing their thing.

Vlad chuckled as he took in the screen. But Shaggy and Dave both looked at each other, confused. Off to the side, Ren was struggling with the straps of his VR helmet as he tried to move toward them.

“What’s going on? Someone talk to me.”

“Slink has an old-school desktop open and is showing off his computer skills.”

Slink sighed. “I am not! Look! Once we stepped onto the capture point, we woke up the factory and we are allotted a certain number of upgrades. I used one to restore the systems.”

“Dude!”

“Not cool!”

“You should’ve asked us!”

“Shut up!” Slink shouted as he waved a hand at the screen again. “We only have three upgrades and we needed repairs. Ren was doing great against the one bot, but we were losing fuel like crazy. We weren’t going to be able to go against the others. I suggest we use the second to give us some ranged weapons or something and then the third to enhance this thing’s… cockpit.”

Vlad hissed, but nodded at the logic. Shaggy felt that it was a sound plan, but it was going to leave them open for a long time. Not to mention when they chose a ranged upgrade, how long was that going to take? They all shut up for a bit as they digested the wait that was against them. Almost in defiance of their silence, the terminal beeped loudly and Slink turned to examine.

“What’s that now!?” Ren shouted, having given up removing the helmet.

“It’s just the repair bot’s. We have a few minor fractures in places, but we are back on track. Weapon options are melee, ranged, or defense. What do we want?”

“Be quick. The nearest robot is tanking its way through artillery fire.” Ren said.

“The witches are back at it?” Levy asked.

“Nope. The players have their own defensive positions. Complete with large cannons, it looks like.”

Shaggy snorted. “Damn it. Why do they get cannons? Hey, Slink, is that an option for us?”

Slink tapped away for a few seconds. “Yep. Shoulder-mounter arm cannon. It looks like a beast.”

“Wait. That’s going to take forever. Why don’t we just get an energy rifle or something?” Said Vlad.

“How is building a giant energy rifle quicker than a shoulder mounted cannon?” Shaggy asked.

The vampire shrugged and waved a hand toward the front of the robot. “We don’t have time, Shaggy. We have to be quick about this.”

“The cannon is quicker.” Slink butted in.

Shaggy raised his arms triumphantly as Vlad hissed at Slink. The boy gave the vampire a deadpan look as he waved tiredly at the screen again.

“The cannon uses our own fuel. While the energy rifle would take a secondary power source. The factory could create one, but that would eat up time. The cannon is the best choice if speed is what we want.”

Vlad threw up his hands and Shaggy high-five’d Dave. Slink started tapping away again as Ren took a fighting stance. The robot shook slightly as it mirrored Ren’s moves.

“Ren, try not to move. It’ll slow everything down.”

A thunderous metal crashing noise resounded through the metal head. Shaggy struggled to keep his feet and looked at Ren. The big rhino-man was holding his arms up like he was grabbing something.

“That’s not going to be possible, Slink. The robots are here!”

Outside The Robot

Bartle caught his feet as he came out of his teleport. He stumbled a few steps as the ground shook. Above, the Legion’s robot had another robot by the arm and was using it to block the other large robots. A blast of blue energy went by Bartle’s head and he ducked. His powers were growing like mad in the fight. But he hadn’t had a moment to assign points. He pulled a blue grenade from his waist and tossed it toward the robot blaster.

He waited out the timer and then covered his ears. He watched as blue sparks arced through the air and robots’ bits went flying. They were holding on, but it was a losing battle. The robots just kept coming. He was contemplating making a break for it when Cutie dumped more grenade on in from above.

“Resupply.” The butterfly-winged woman said as she darted away.

Bartle grumbled and picked up the sack. At least the factory was still churning out weapons. A few of the more mechanically inclined players were even trying to get the thing to spit out bots. But so far, they hadn’t had any luck. Bartle looked around at the mess of pipes and walls that made up the factory and found his perch. Pulling a trusty boomerang from his hip, he tossed it and focused on his power. With a tugging sensation, he blinked and then he was atop a nearby roof overlooking the oncoming robots. A few took pot-shots at him as he ducked.

“Whoa! Where did you come from?” A voice asked as Bartle dropped.

Bartle glanced up to see several players looking at him. Some had rifles, but most weren’t armed with anything. Bartle threw on his best grin as he gripped his bag of grenades.

“Oi, sorry mates. Imma Teleporter. Just wanted a nice spot to toss them bots some nice presents.”

A few of the players winced at his accent, but Bartle ignored it as he reached into his bag. He pulled a green oblong and tossed it over his shoulder off the roof. Clanking metal and hissing pistons wound to a stop as Bartle smiled up at the other players.

“Where did you get those?” One player asked, a red demon-like alien.

Bartle waved a hand toward the factory’s main complex. “Back at the main factory. Damn thing is churning them out. Me and mah mates are supplying the lines with them. Ya want a couple?”

Some players nodded, and Bartle started handing things out. But the red alien growled.

“Don’t just take shit offered to you by random players. Are you all children?!”

“Hiya mate. We are all in the same war here, right? Why don’t I let you lot take a load of these beauties and I’ll skedaddle?”

“Is ‘skedaddle’ Australian?” A player asked.

“It is when I speak it!” Bartle shouted before he coughed awkwardly.

He was about to resume handing out grenades when a commotion overhead made them all look up. It took Bartle a second to look past all the flying robots and players zooming about the place. But soon he found what was causing such a stir.

“Is something being built on the Legion’s robot?” A player asked.

“It looks like.”

Even as the Legion bot was fighting off the other robots, a skeleton of a frame was slowly appearing on the robot’s shoulder. It was filling in before their eyes, but slowly.

“What are them crazy drongos doing now?” Bartle muttered as he watched.

“I don’t know. But I want a piece of it.” Said the red alien.

Bartle scoffed. “Pfft! Alright. If ya know where a spare robot is… then…”

Bartle almost slapped himself with a grenade as he hurriedly grabbed for his boomerang. He cut his finger on the sharp edge of the damn thing, but he ignored it as he aimed himself. The other players were looking at him oddly, but he ignored it as he tried to remember where Xiv was.

“Fuck it!” Bartle said as he threw the boomerang as hard as he could toward the main factory.

“Hey! Wait a… and he’s gone.”

“That was weird. What do you think he was doing?”

The red alien player slapped his forehead. Growling, he turned to explain to his teammates what was surely going through plenty of other player’s minds.

Inside The Robot

“I’m getting my ass kicked!” Ren shouted as he threw his arms in wide punches.

“Well, don’t let them kick your ass, dude!” Dave shouted helpfully.

Shaggy snorted as he watched the large rhino-alien shadow-boxing on a treadmill. Every block and swing was accompanied by a loud clanging of metal as the two robots clashed. Shaggy was wondered if his ears were bleeding from all the noise. Ren kicked a robot back and then got his arms up in a defensive position. The big guy wasn’t just fighting the other bots, he was doing his best to keep the damn things away from the factory. All of them seemed intent on either getting to the building below, and Shaggy didn’t want to know why.

“Weapon’s ready. Get to the shoulder and I’ll see about…” Slink started to say.

But the sounds of Shaggy swearing and Dave and Vlad speeding away filled the head. Both Speedsters rushed off to the left shoulder, so Shaggy took his chances with the right side. He blew Levy a kiss as he ran into the dark hallway. He swayed and zigged through the narrow spaces until it opened up and Shaggy smiled. A new-looking hallway of silver metal branched off from the narrow hall of pipes and cogs and Shaggy immediately followed it.

His elation was short-lived, however, as blue and black blurs were rushing his way. Pushing himself, Shaggy threw open the first door he saw and rushed in. He smiled at the sound of Vlad hitting the door and swearing before he took in the room.

It was a large, round room. The same silver as the hall and at its center was a recessed seat with a targeting screen in front of it. Shaggy howled in delight and jumped for the seat as the door open. Surprisingly, Vlad’s ass was half on the seat as Shaggy took the controls.

“Back off, Lugosi. You didn’t even want the thing!” Shaggy snarked.

“Fuck you, fur-face. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to fire a giant cannon.”

“Well, wait your damn turn. I’m firing this thing first.” Shaggy wrenched the twin-joystick controls toward him as Vlad’s pale hands reached for it.

The two wrestled over the controls for a few seconds until a sharp knock on Shaggy’s head made him see stars. Vlad looked just as punch drunk as they both rubbed the tops of their heads and glared at Dave. The laid-back surfer dude was doing his best to glare at them, but the twitching of his lips revealing a smile. Kind of ruined it.

“Both you dudes need a timeout. I think I am the one most ready to give this giant weapon a shot. Haha!”

“Can it, hippy! I’m firing this cannon.”

“Actually, let him have it.” Shaggy said.

Both Vlad and Dave twisted their heads in confusion. But Shaggy shrugged. “Hey, I don’t want vamps here to get the first shot. He doesn’t want me to have it. So why don’t you get it and then decide who goes second?”

Shaggy got out of the seat and stood aside as Vlad glared daggers at him. Dave chuckled to himself and sat down as Vlad moved away.

“I know what you’re doing.” Vlad mouthed at him over Dave’s head.

Shaggy merely shrugged as Dave got familiar with the cannon controls. He was really fine with letting Dave have the first shot. And if, once he was done, he wanted to hand off the controls to Shaggy. Why that would just be the kindest thing to do, wouldn’t it? Dave was nothing if not kind.

Outside The Robot

BOOM

“Holy shit, is that loud!” Xiv said as she covered her ears and looked up.

Sensor went down like a pile of jelly as the noise from the robot’s new cannon echoed everywhere. She saw multiple flyers go spinning off into the smokestacks as the shockwave from the cannon caught them off guard. She really hoped Cutie wasn’t up there.

She hunkered down behind a bit of metal scaffolding that had fallen off the factory wall and reloaded her large pistol. Sure, the energy variety was quicker to reload. But Xiv had always preferred the tactile sensation of loading actual bullets into a gun. All around her, players were firing their powers or throwing their skills at the oncoming hoard of robots. These new silver bots weren’t color-coded like the ones outside the city. So figuring out their powers was a pain in the dick.

A sudden burst of dirt was kicked up as an orange and red speedster tore around the area. Xiv seethed as she watched the kick up a damn sandstorm on their position.

“Who’s the dumbass?!” she shouted to no one in particular. “Someone get a handle on the fucking idiot before he blinds us all!”

“I think he’s charmed, Xiv.” Mell shouted from next to her.

Her friend’s eyes were glowing blue as electricity sparked in her hands. Mell still looked ready to zap the speedster on Xiv’s orders. But Xiv raised a hand as the speedster was tackled to the ground by a few other players. Mell sighed and threw her collected ball of lightning at the oncoming robots. Xiv finished reloading and glanced over the scaffolding for a target. It was pointless. She could fire into the sky and probably hit three robots at once. The damn things were everywhere. Getting into a firing stance, she blasted off a few rounds into the approaching horde until she had to take cover.

“How long do we have to do this?!” Mell asked as a fireball flew over their heads.

Xiv winced as it barely missed Sensor’s prone body. He hadn’t cubed yet, so he wasn’t dead. Just knocked out. Xiv waved at the healers that were standing further back and then pointed at Sense. A few gave her the okay sign, but didn’t move, as the robots were still throwing their powers around.

Xiv was about to answer Mell’s question when another shout came from above.

“Oncoming debris!” A flyer shouted down at them and then dashed off.

Xiv looked up in time to see a large sheet of metal falling from the sky.

“Shit!”

She and Mell bolted for the back line near the mages as bits of metal were falling everywhere. Scream and shouts of annoyance were everywhere as players were pelted with debris of all sizes. Xiv even saw a large, muscular alien get flattened by a silver plate. Glancing up, Xiv noticed that the Legion’s robot had blasted a sizable hole in one of Cog’s robots.

Once the debris seemed to slow, Xiv and Mell walked back to their original position. As they did, they passed the tech players that were all huddled around the factory terminal. They were still trying to figure the thing out. But other than displaying a capture rate readout, it did little else. Mell threw a bolt of lightning again as they retook their positions and Xiv fired off a few more shots.

“We can’t keep this up.” Xiv sighed as she looked around.

Players were still smiling and having a good time. But it was a waiting game right now, and that didn’t sit well with Xiv. She wanted to be doing something. Blasting bots was fun and all, but they needed something more.

“Ladies.” Bartle said as he appeared suddenly next to Mell.

The blue-haired mutant almost fried the fake Aussie. But she held back. Bartle grinned as Mell’s electricity lit up his face. The contrast between the blue glow and his green hair creeped Xiv out.

“What do you want, Bartle?”

“I think I have an idea. Not sure if it’ll work. But I thought I’d ask you two lovely sheilas if you wanted to join me.”

Xiv and Mell shared a dubious look. “Depends what it is.”

Bartle chuckled as he duck-walked a little closer to Xiv. “I was wondering. What would happen if someone got into that other robot?”

“What other robot?” Mell asked. “The broken one? Probably nothing. I’m sure someone has already tried and gotten nowhere. Otherwise, we’d have two of the damn things up there, blowing out our eardrums.”

The rapport of the Legion’s cannon went off again. Underscoring Mell’s point. But Xiv’s mind whirled. Bartle seemed to think along the same lines as her, because the player wasn’t deterred.

“Sure, a few wankers have probably tried. But how many actually have an in with the mad lads upstairs?”

“Do you think we can reach them?” Xiv asked.

“Send the butterfly?”

“She can’t fly that high. Something about air pressure and cold or something.”

“Personally, I just think she fears getting torn to pieces by those flying robots.” Mell grinned.

“Not exactly a stupid fear.” Bartle said defensively.

Xiv rolled it over in her mind. If they could get inside the broken robot and then contact the Legion. Then what? Could they really do anything? Was it worth the risk? She looked around at the various players defending each entrance that led to the main factory. There were hundreds of them. Even if they went to check it out, they wouldn’t be missed. She smiled.

“Mell, grab us an egghead and meet by the downed robot.”

Mell nodded slowly before she rushed off. Bartle howled in triumph, but a stern look from Xiv made him shut up. Xiv shifted her pheromones to a weird concoction that supposedly made people forget about them. She stuck close to Bartle and hurried along toward where the downed bot lay. As they passed a restored SenSor, Xiv patted him on the shoulder and waved for him to follow.

“Huh? What? Wait, where are we going?” SenSor asked as they shuffled off through the crowds of players.

Inside The Robot

Shaggy tried not to meet his wife's eyes as she glared down at him and Vlad. They might have gotten a little rough with the controls after Dave’s initial shot had gone off. But why did the shitty metal have to snap so easily, anyway? Vlad sniffed audibly as he looked out at the new vidscreen on the far wall.

Apparently, the cockpit upgrade went by faster and even came with an upgraded pilot seat. Now instead of being the world largest gray hamster, Ren was ensconced in a large section of wall and piloting via brainwaves. Through the new vidscreen they could watch as Ren carefully tore into the other robots. He still had to play defense, just to be safe. But with Dave on the cannon, they were now a force to be reckoned with. Ren would hold them and Dave would blast holes in the large robots.

“You two are idiots.” Levy said finally as she walked away.

Shaggy said nothing, but scratched the back of his head awkwardly. Nearby, Vlad spun to glare at the tall drow woman. He started to say something, but he quickly bit it back. He and Shaggy shared a look and then went back to watching the fight. Shaggy’s blood boiled as he watched Ren slowly decimate the Cog robots. The second phase of the raids was clearly winding down, but the old bastard still had not stuck his head up.

Regular gaming convention stated that the raid was probably going to come in three parts. But Shaggy was unclear what constituted ‘winning’ in this phase. He was about to bring it up when Slink jerked near his console. The boy had been diving into the file system of the robot, looking for anything of note. Vlad and Levy also noticed the boy’s sudden move.

“What’s up?” Shaggy called.

Slink’s eyes scanned the screen and then he tapped a few keys. Looking up at nothing, the pale teen asked.

“Hello?”

A voice crackled to life out of the air and seemed to echo in their robot’s head. “Yo yo! Got you loud and clear. This is the SS Shit-kicker coming at you live from the ground floor of the war… ack!”

They all heard a brief scuffle before a familiar voice spoke up. “This is Xiv. We are in the defeated robot. The head is trashed to shit, but we were wondering if you could offer assistance.”

They all crowded around the terminal as Slink rapidly started typing again. Slink was digging down through the file system again. But apparently couldn’t find what he was looking for.

“What systems do you have up?”

“I got ya! Lookie here. We got the basics of basics over here. I’m trying to talk to this thing with my powers. But it’s yakking in a different language. Capisce?”

“Gee, wonder what that’s like.” Vlad snarked, but he was quickly shushed by Levy and Shaggy.

Slink typed a few more commands into the terminal before he turned to Ren. “Ren, grab the broken bot and drag it toward the factory!”

“Kind of busy here!” Ren shouted from his position in the wall.

“Be quick about it. We might be able to bring in some backup.”

Ren growled, but they all watched as he dodged a punch and back-stepped. Dave’s cannon went off, taking a sizeable chunk off another the robot they were fighting. Bits of metal and debris fell away and Shaggy could see the Cog Bot’s repair bots quickly working to repair the damage the cannon did. Little fuckers were fast as they seemed to spin up metal and replace parts like Shaggy healed.

“Hello, hello? What’s the dealio? What we working with?”

“Yeah, can I speak to Xiv, please?” Slink said, rubbing his eyes.

There was some anger muttering coming from the communications. But Soon Xiv was back.

“Yeah, hello? Can you help?”

“I think so. We’re going to move your robot toward the factory. When we got close, all our systems rebooted, and we regained control. You should see several commands come to life as soon as we get you close.”

“Roger.” Xiv said.

The following few minutes were slow going as Ren tried his best to dance over to where the broken bot lay. It wasn’t really far. But with the other giant robots getting in his way, the big guy had to dance around a bit. Dave back him up as best he could, but the cannon was slow to fire. Once Ren grabbed the other bot’s legs, Xiv and her team shouted in alarm.

“Whoa!”

“Holy shit!”

“Warn a guy!”

Shaggy recognized several voices on the other end of the line. But before he could strike up any conversation. A holler came from the second bot.

“Systems are rebooting! I can talk to this thing…. Oh jeez, it’s racist. Who the fuck makes a racist robot!? Yeah, we’re purging your intolerant ass. Bye-bye!”

There was a weird cascade of dueling keyboards as both Slink and his counterpart in Xiv’s robot typed away. Ren went back to fighting the robots and defending the factory as Slink explained things. Shaggy sat back and watched the fight through the robot’s screen. The raid so far had been excited, but this was surely the slowest part.

“We’ve got incoming!” a male voice said from the other robot. Shaggy thought it was SenSor.

“Bots?” Xiv asked.

“Nope. Players and they don’t look friendly.” SenSor answered.

“Tell’em being in this bot is boring as shit!” Shaggy couldn’t help but shout. “All I’m doing is watching a giant robot fight other giant robots. It’s great, but I could watch anime for that.”

Levy sighed loudly. “Don’t you get it, love? That’s the point of these robots. It’s a way to give players some downtime while also keeping the raid going. We can all rest and get ready for the final round. Sure, the pilots are going to be a little strained, but the rest of the players will be ready.”

Shaggy stroked his chin as Vlad stared at Levy. Jaw flapping uselessly. “When did you figure that out?”

“When we were upgrading the robot. After I got the magic in here fixed, I…”

“Oh shit, that’s right!” Slink shouted up at nothing. “Second robot? You need a mage to redo the spellwork throughout your robot. Cog has a magical… thing. That helps the robots somehow. We reworked ours, so you’ll probably have to do something similar.”

“Huh? Oh that shit? I wiped it all out.” Said Xiv’s tech guy. “My power allows me to hold this thing together pretty well. But I’ll inform the next guy.”

Levy and Slink shared a look before they both shrugged. Shaggy wondered if Xiv’s team would be crushed by the sheer weight of their robot before they could even stand. Shaggy shuddered at the image. But he didn’t dwell on it. If Xiv and her team wanted to take the risk. They were free to do so.

A bright flash of white light suddenly filled the cockpit. Shaggy groaned as he blinked away the spots. Levy, Slink, and Vlad were in the same position, but Ren was still fighting away.

“What was that?” Ren called. “The realm just went white.”

“The capture point is done!” Slink cheered. “We have full control. Those on the ground can start making bots and start fighting back!”

“Sweet!” Shaggy smiled before he looked at the vidscreen again.

Ren was now loose to take it to the remaining robots. But there were other defeated bots lying where Ren and Dave had dropped them. However, there were also other factories. Sure, they were run by the guilds, but who was going to say no to a giant robot being dropped on their doorstep? Ren scanned the entire realm. His view being passed on to the vidscreen Shaggy and the others could see.

Xiv’s robot was lying next to the main factory. It’s broken and twisted head slowly rebuilding itself. Multiple players were swarming the head, and Shaggy was a little worried about Xiv and her team. But there was little he could do. Instead, he waited and watched as slowly the second player-controlled robot pulled itself to its full height and started to move around.

“This is cool.” Xiv sang as their bot moved.

“Xiv?” Shaggy called.

“Yeah?”

“There are more giant robots broken on the field.” Shaggy grinned.

His friends all smiled at him as Ren quickly rushed off to grab another broken robot. Xiv’s robot was still gathering its feet. But the players below were spreading out like a swarm of ants. Everyone was making their way toward a robot now. The factory was churning out silver robots that followed the players.

Shaggy glanced at the other four factories around the map of Cog’s city. If the bastard would not come out and play. Then they were just going to keep stealing his shit until he did. They were villains, after all. He just hoped the old man would sow up soon. Sitting in a giant robot doing nothing, while cool, was quickly getting old.