A Werewolf In Under-Town

Shaggy had no illusions that his pounce was going to work. Cog was standing there, smug smile on his face. Even as Vlad and Dave disappeared and Slink pulled out his rifle. Even as Ren charged with his hammer high and Levy drew on her magic. But as Shaggy soared through the air, claws ready to slash the smug man’s young face, he at least hoped he’d distract the bastard. However, it was not to be.

Cog’s black robot arm glowed purple and blurred through the air. His hand came back holding Vlad by the neck. The super fast vampire was snatched from the air clean before Shaggy made it to his target. With a snort of derision, Cog blurred his arm again and Shaggy was smacked out of the air by a flying Vlad. The force of the blow cracked Shaggy’s sternum and punched the air from his lungs. But Vlad seemed to come away the worse as the vampire player was screaming in agony. They rocketed across the pyramid roof. Shaggy’s body creating a divot in the ground as his body slid.

Once they stopped, Shaggy tossed a groaning Vlad off of him and waited for his healing to finish. Most of the damage was healed in flight, but the heaviest stuff was going to take a few seconds. As he waited, he watched Dave try to slam a kick into Cog’s bald head. A purple shield rose up and Dave’s leg recoiled, purple sparks flying. The same happened when Ren slammed his sledgehammer into Cog’s chest.

“Shield!” Shaggy shouted.

“I see it!” Levy responded hands drawing purple runes in the air.

Her magic formed in the air before it dove toward Cog and attached to his layer of protection. The angry technopath sneered and tried to swipe away Levy’s magic. But his cybernetic and real hand passed through her purple tendrils harmlessly.

“Well that’s annoying.” Cog sneered as he raised a leg.

Shaggy got to his feet as Vlad was still collecting himself. He watched as Cog’s leg broke at the ankle and a green energy ball formed at the joint. Cog gripped his own thigh and aimed his leg like a cannon at Levy. Shaggy moved, but Cog got his shot off. A green sparking orb of energy tore across the rooftop. Ren and Dave were scooped up in the back-blast as the moved. Shaggy put himself in the path of the orb and braced himself. But a blue blast hit the green orb from the side and it explode in a shower of sparks.

Shaggy lowered his arms and looked at a smug looking Slink. The teen gave Shaggy a jaunty salute before he swung his a rifle back to Cog. The Raid Boss’s narrow face was absolutely livid as his foot reattached itself to his leg. He was glaring at Slink now, and Shaggy didn’t want to know what the old bastard had planned.

Shaggy threw himself forward again. Charging the Cog and slashing with his claws. He felt his claws bounce off Cog’s magical shield as swept past. Cog swung his metal arm in a wide arc in response. But Shaggy ducked and came up with his claws. Cog backstepped, but Slink’s energy blast caught Cog in the back sending him face-first into Shaggy’s claws. But the purple shield flared again. Stopping any real damage.

Both Shaggy and Cog growled in angry. Ren reached in with both arms and tried to grab the slim technopath. But Cog kicked out with a cybernetic leg and stiff-legged the Rhino-man in the stomach. The spry old man in a young man’s body dodged past Ren’s failed tackle and waved a hand toward Slink. Shaggy didn’t have a chance to see what Cog had done, cause Dave and Vlad were suddenly there, both moving as fast as they could.

Shaggy stood gob-smacked at the speed at which the fight was now occurring. Between Vlad and Dave they seemed to put the old man on his back foot. Vlad would get stopped by Cog and Dave’s kicks would ping off the old man’s shield. Shaggy was trying to time his window when Slink shouted in pain.

“ARGH!”

Shaggy spun and saw Slink wrestling with his own rifle. The white energy weapon hand grown little prongs and was actively trying to stab Slink in the face. At the teen’s waist, his two pistols had also come alive and were jabbing into him.

“Shit!” Shaggy swore and ran over to help.

Larry, Curly, and Moe were out when he arrived. Larry and Curly were snapping and hissing at Slink’s two pistols as Moe did his best to yank the rifle off of Slink’s chest and neck. Shaggy reached down and grabbed one of the pistols. It sparked and snapped at him with little needle-like arms. Light blue electricity danced along in and Shaggy quickly tossed it away. The tiny gun-bot scuttle to it’s spindly legs and charged Shaggy again. But Shaggy ignored it as he helped Slink pull the other guns off.

The second pistol was tossed aside as well as Shaggy snapped the rifle in half. The energy weapon whirred slightly as it died. Shaggy threw it to the ground and turned to deal with the other two gun-bots. But Slink snakes were tearing them apart. Shaggy spared a glance at Slink.

The boy was bleeding from multiple small pinpricks in his face. But otherwise seemed fine. He was pulling a small vial from his hip and taking a sip as Shaggy looked him over. Slink gave him a sorry look.

“There goes my usefulness.”

Shaggy just looked down at the three space-snakes ripping the tiny robots apart. Slink gave him a noncommittal shrug and said nothing.

“ADDS!” Ren shouted.

Shaggy groaned as he took in the scene again. Dave and Vlad were still trying to batter Cog to death unsuccessfully. Levy was still draining Cog’s shield and Ren was… fighting robots at the edge of the pyramid roof. Slink swore as Shaggy rushed to help, but Levy’s voice stopped him.

“Get the speedsters on the adds! Ren and Shaggy on Cog, Tank and Spank! Slink defend me!”

Shaggy waited for half a beat to see if anyone complained. When no one did they all moved to fulfill their roles. Dave and Vlad pulled off of Cog, making the technopath look very confused. But that look cleared up as Shaggy pounced at him. Behind Shaggy, he could hear the rush of Ren’s enormous feet charging.

When he inevitably bounced off of Cog’s shield, Shaggy rolled away quick. Ren was right behind him, hammer raised and he swung it hard into Cog. The slim man danced back but seem otherwise unharmed. Shaggy and Ren shared a disgruntled look before they dove back in. All around black and blue blurs fought silver robots as Ren and Shaggy tried to wear the old man out. But not only was Cog faster, his cybernetics were just as strong as Ren and Shaggy.

Shaggy used his left arm to block a haymaker aimed at Ren’s side and grunted. He had to continually throw himself in front of a few blows as Ren focused solely on swinging his hammer. His healing was keeping up, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. Cog roared in angry as Ren swung his hammer over Shaggy’s shoulder and down Cog’s head. The man’s bald head snapped downward harshly and Shaggy almost cackled.

Cog pulled his head up and glared at Shaggy, blood dripping from his head. Shaggy felt his eyes go wide as they had finally drawn first blood. But then Cog’s eye’s burned with a purple flame and Levy gave a shout of surprise. Shaggy punched forward with a claw, But Cog leapt backward and started flying through the air. His skinny body lifted above the center of the pyramid and a purple glow suffused his body.

“First phase is cleared. Heal up!” Ren ordered.

Shaggy immediately stuff a candy bar into his mouth. But when that didn’t seem to be working fast enough he grabbed another. He and Ren back away toward Levy and the others as they all watched and waited. A slew of silver and bronze robot parts littered the pyramid roof. But it didn’t look like anything else was moving to Shaggy. Slink was wearing Moe around his neck and Larry and Curly were curled around his hands like knuckle-wraps. Shaggy raised an eyebrow, but the boy said nothing as he chugged a health potion.

Levy chugged a blue potion, before she said. “His shield is gone and his magic is low. Next phase has to be something else.”

“Something mechanical?”

“More robot-dudes?”

“Shit!” Shaggy shouted as a piece of metal chopped into his leg as it flew by.

The others all huddled together as the broken robot parts on the roof all flew toward Cog. Between Dave and Vlad the two had managed to crush a bunch of robots. Those pieces were now flying up at Cog, each coming together one by one. Ren and Dave were smacked with flying metal before Levy managed to get a thin shield around all of them. They all watched as a swirling mass of broken robots plastered themselves against Cog.

“We can’t just stand here and watch!”

“Then you try something, Vlad! I’m not getting cut to bits by floating metal.”

Dave patted Vlad’s shoulder. “We’ll both go, dude. We can move the fastest, right?”

Vlad gave the armored Dave a nod and they both burst from Levy’s protective bubble. Blue and Black streaks zoomed around as the pair tried and failed to jump at the floating Cog. Shaggy took in the scene as more and more metal seemed to form a whirlwind that danced around the top of the pyramid. He didn’t know what Cog was planning, but he didn’t like it.

“Can we push the metal outside the dome?” Slink asked.

“With what? We’d have to grab it piece by piece.” Shaggy said.

“Or I could create a shockwave!” Levy said excitedly before hugging Slink. “Great idea.”

“Will that work?” Ren asked.

“I think so. But I have to drop the shield and focus on a shockwave. I’ll also have to be right in the center of the roof, right below Cog. So y’all will have to protect me.”

“Great.” Shaggy grunted as he gave Ren a nod.

He saw Slink gulp as the boys snakes found shelter within his body again. With a blink, Levy’s thin shield was gone and Shaggy and Ren used there bodies to protect Slink and Levy. They slowly moved across the roof. Bits of metal slashing at them with each step. Shaggy felt his skin tear away and regrow as more and more metal tore into him. He didn’t want to guess how Ren was doing through the tornado of metal.

In what seemed like hours, but was probably only minutes the arrived just below Cog. Dave and Vlad had stopped trying to get to the floating boss and were now batting bits of metal away. Surprisingly, the tornado calmed down the closer the got beneath Cog. Once they arrive Ren and Shaggy quickly began eating and healing up. Levy meanwhile had her hands held together, a purple ball ready and waiting.

With an almighty shout, Levy pushed the orb upward and let it expand. A rush of magic energy flew in every direction. Shaggy and the others were pushed back a few feet. But all of the rest of the flying metal went careening toward the dome surrounding the roof. Shaggy and the others grinned as the swirling tornado of metal stopped and sound came back to them all. Shaggy hadn’t realized how loud it had been while the metal was spinning. He looked to Levy who looked slightly winded, but happen as she spun around in the center of the roof… then a large metal foot fell on her.

Shaggy blinked as he watched Levy’s right shoulder and arm get ripped off her body. Levy screamed as her body suddenly became cubes of white light. Shaggy bit back cry as he mentally reminded himself it was game. He had lost Levy before in a game and vice-versa. Nothing to lose his head about. It was a raid boss, this shit happened.

“Now that the whore is out of the way. I think we gentlemen can have a fine upstanding battle as men.” A heavily synthesized voice said.

Shaggy looked up from where Levy disappeared and glared at a twelve-foot tall giant armor. Cog had completed his work and was now cocooned inside a giant, bulky-looking metal robot. What Cog had said penetrated Shaggy’s brain, and he felt his angry rise again. But he tamped it down. Cog was just trying to get him angry and stupid. There was no sense giving him what he wants.

Shaggy started walking toward Cog’s giant robot.

“No sense being mad at all, really.” Shaggy thought to himself. “It makes absolutely no sense to be mad at a fucking dead man!”

Shaggy heard his friends join him, but he didn’t look at them as he gazed up at his target. A unique sense of purpose filled him. It wasn’t any kind of typical emotion. It was more like fact. Like a simple, pure, and absolute fact. Cog was going to die. He was going to rip the amalgamation of data and subroutines into tiny little pieces and then send it to Xang to be tortured for eons.

“One eon in game was worth three out of game. So that’s a lot of Eons.” Shaggy thought, idly.

So deep was Shaggy in his thoughts, that he missed his legs growing. So crystal-clear was his intent that he missed his arms bulging and growing hairier. He even missed the worried questions coming from his friends and even their cheers as he finally arrived before Cog. Shaggy hadn’t even realized that he was staring directly at the heavily armored eye-slit where he was sure Cog was hiding. However the one thing he didn’t not miss, was how deep and gravely his voice was as he threatened the old Technopath.

“I’m am going to rip you out of there and send you straight to hell.” Shaggy’s new gravely voice said.

Not waiting for a reply, Shaggy listened to his instincts and opened his mouth and snapped his jaws shut around the silver and bronze alloy that made Cog’s armor. He felt the metal squeal under his jaws and Shaggy pushed the giant robot’s body with his large, lengthy arms. Shaggy wrenched his neck muscles around as he pulled the metal away like paper and grinned. He felt the metal cut up his mouth and lips before he spat it out. A wad of blood and metal landed on the floor and Shaggy grinned.

Cog was seated in the center of the robot, gob-smacked. His eyes were wide and in them Shaggy could see a beast almost as tall as Cog’s robot. Its legs were bent and its mouth was bloody. Its large, hairy chest was on full display as its long, bulky arms hung down by it’s knees. It had the head of a wolf with it’s long snout slightly bloody from biting Cog’s metal body. It was a beast ready and willing to kill. It was only a moment before Shaggy realized that the beast was him and when he did… He howled!