A Werewolf In Under-Town

Shaggy immediately started calculating how to get his pack out of the bank. The cops clearly said the building was surrounded. But how complete was that coverage? Tom and Ephemara could probably make it out. But for the rest, it was going to be a slug-fest. A sharp blow smacked Shaggy in the back of the head.

“Boss, would you please stop discounting our abilities.” Rita growled angrily.

“I’m not. But we are tired, unable to shift, and surrounded. I don’t see us fighting our way out and succeeding. So the next step is getting as many of you out as I can. That’s my job. Now, Ephe, can you scout… Where is she?”

Shaggy stopped mid-sentence when he realized that the pale woman was gone. Checking his pack link, he found her already fulfilling the orders he was about to give. She was moving unseen around the building, looking for a weak point. The amplified voice threatened them again, but Shaggy ignored it as they waited. A plan slowly forming in his mind.

Rita shot him another dirty look, but he merely shrugged, as it was the only way he could think to get his people to safety. The others watched the exchange. But by the looks on their faces, they clearly agreed with Rita.

Shaggy sighed. “Look, you lot need to escape so you can free me later. I’ll be fine in lockup for a few hours. What do they have on me? Trespassing?”

“What about escaping arrest? We broke you out of a prison transport, remember?” Sybil said pointedly.

“Then you can do it again, if I need it. But I want y’all safe. You hear me?”

His entire pack glared at him with an odd mix of happiness and annoyance. It was clear that every one of them would happily follow him straight to prison. But Shaggy didn’t know how this confrontation with the game’s police was going to go. One of them might catch an unlucky bullet and, in their weakened state, be unable to heal it. Shaggy had already decided that he was not losing any of his pack.

Ephemara phased back into the large main hall of the bank. “Boss, the southern side is the weakest. Just three rookies looking shaky. In fact, most of the cops outside look a little wet behind the ears. I think we can take them!”

“Yeah, but we don’t have to.” Shaggy grinned. “Y’all just need to punch your way through as quietly as possible. So you and Tom deal with the rookies and I’ll go do what needs to be done.”

“Boss…”

“Fine, but let me do it.” Rita sighed as she began looking around.

Shaggy blew out a breath and prepared himself as Rita picked up something from the floor. The scattered detritus and junk on the floor was an eclectic pile. But Shaggy was still surprised when the woman turned to reveal a sharp-looking bit of metal. She spun on Shaggy as it glinted in the little light they had.

“What the hell is that?” Shaggy wondered.

Rita twisted the chunky bit of metal in her hand. “I think it was a name placard or something. It’ll do, right?”

“Yeah, just get it over with.” Shaggy braced himself again as he looked at his pack. “Ephe and Tom, do your thing. I’m going to distract them as long as I -URK!”

“Damn, Rita! You didn’t have to cut him that deep!” Vick shouted.

“It has to look real,” Rita argued.

“Well, he is certainly bleeding a lot,” Stanley added.

Shaggy grimaced as the jagged bit of metal had left a long scar down his bare chest. Looking into Rita’s eyes, he could see a bit of resentment in them. But he also could feel her disgust at having cut him. Although that did nothing to make it hurt less. He stumbled backwards a few steps, letting the placard finally leave his body. With a final grimace at his wolves, Shaggy spun.

“Get out of here. I’ve got some acting to do.”

He felt his Pack slowly pull away as he stumbled toward the front door. Practicing what he wanted to say in his head, Shaggy made it to the front door as the voice outside was giving its fourth or fifth warning. His Regeneration was gone, spent with his man-beast form. Now he was a bleeding man, about to have a pleasant conversation with the police.

Police that had somehow found them in a deserted part of the city, in a defunct bank, where the cops were known for not showing up. The whole thing smelled to high heaven to Shaggy. So he was ready to go get some answers. But first he needed to engage in a little theater. A show for the cameras and drones that he could hear buzzing beyond the door. He winced as he bloodied up his hands with his blood.

With a ragged breath, Shaggy pushed open the bank door and ran out screaming.

“ARGHHHHHHHHH!” Shaggy held his bloody hands up as he stumbled forward into the bright lights.

He couldn’t see the police behind the bright flood lamps. But red and blue colors mixed with the white light. That, combined with the sudden and alarmed-sounding chatter filling the air, told Shaggy that he had successfully gotten their attention.

“Target sighted!”

“A wounded man has exited the building!”

“Restrain him!”

“Are there others?!”

“Take him!”

Shaggy blinked away the spots in his eyes as two sharp cracks filled the air. A long line of fully armored police standing behind a barricade filled his vision. As his screaming petered out, Shaggy felt two painful points hit him in the chest. The buzzing in the air grew muffled, and the cops seemed to slow down as they jumped the barriers and rushed him. Shaggy felt his entire world tilt as his legs folded beneath him. He spotted several armored cops throwing themselves at him as everything went dark.

Shaggy sat in the darkness for a while, wondering if he was going to get another death screen. But instead he awoke suddenly and roughly, to a light being shone in his eye. Instinctively, he brought his hand up. The sound of metal clinking came from his wrist as he did.

“Oh shit! He’s loose!”

Shaggy blinked as he brushed away the pen light being shone into his face. “Wha-”

zap

A sharp electric shock singed Shaggy’s chest hair as the guy in a white coat moved away. Shaggy tried to look around as his muscles seized up. He was in a clean white room, a heavy wooden door sitting against the far wall stood open as uniformed men rushed into the room. He was on a cushioned bed and he had a slim metal ring around his wrist. It took another few seconds for him to realize it was a piece of a handcuff. All the while, he was getting shocked by a screaming guard.

Shaggy couldn't even scream as the guard forcibly jabbed him with a shock baton. The snap hiss sound filled the air along with the stench of Shaggy’s skin burning. But apparently, none of the additional guards entering the room saw fit to stop the whole fiasco. Instead, they all stood at the edges of the room, looking like they were waiting their turn to shock Shaggy. The doctor or scientist or whatever was removed from the room quickly as more guards rushed inside.

Shaggy sat back as best he could and tried to focus on something else. Even as his muscles and skin howled in pain. He even briefly thought about memorizing the face of every cop in the room. But he didn’t have the clout to start killing cops willy-nilly. At least not yet. But someone was going to get smacked for this. Shaggy would make sure of it.

“OFFICER! I think ya got him!” A voice shouted from the door.

Shaggy jerkily glanced over, even as the baton was jammed into his stomach again. Shaggy growled against the pain. Which, surprisingly, made the young officer tasing him stop. Shaggy wanted to slap himself. If he had known it was that easy, he’d have done it earlier. The scared officer seemed to recognize that he had been scared and immediately rushed Shaggy again. But the voice from the door boomed again.

“STOP!”

The entire room shuddered and the bed Shaggy was on, slid across the floor. All the various cops in the room were shoved into the walls or onto the floor. The young officer trying to shock Shaggy caught the worst of it. He was picked up by the noise and slammed into the far wall, embedding into it fully.

As his bed hit the far wall, Shaggy finally got a look at the cop at the door. The man was older, hair graying in places, and he held himself a little straighter than the thugs in blue on the floor. He appeared human, but Shaggy wasn’t going to guess at that. Not with the sonic shockwave the man just sent through the room. Multiple cops glared at the older man as he stepped further into the room. He returned their glare with one of his own. The stare-down lasted a few seconds, with the older man the clear victor.

“What the fuck happened?” The old man growled.

“Sir, the prisoner was escaping.” A cop said.

“Don’t bullshit me, Clancy. I was watching the cameras. He broke the cuffs and Gomez near shocked him to death! What I want to know is why none of you stopped him?!”

The older man glared around the room. Shaggy took the time to check his hands and body. He had a large black bit of skin near his mid-section where the cop, Gomez, had tried to fry him. But otherwise, the large cut on his chest had been stitched back up. A quick mental check showed that he had not regained his healing powers yet.

He carefully checked his other hand and found it handcuffed to the side of his bed, just like his other one had been. But someone had fucked up and cuffed him with normal handcuffs. Or it was a deliberate choice. Shaggy didn’t think for a second that the cops had failed to look him up. He was a B-Tier Threat. He was supposed to be strapped down with the best they had.

“Lieutenant. You know who they say this guy is?! What they say he has done?” Another cop yelled.

“Yeah, yeah. I know what the Liaison has been spouting. However, this man is classified as a C-Tier Supe! Why was he restrained with simple handcuffs?! Why were six of you out in the hall fucking waiting!? And again WHY DID NONE OF YOU STOP GOMEZ?!”

The lieutenant’s shout shook the room again. But not as hard as before. The cops in the room stood around like a bunch of kids caught shoplifting. None of them met the Lieutenant’s gaze as he scanned the room for an answer. Seeing that no one was forthcoming with answers, the old man sighed.

“Every one of you will receive a formal reprimand, and I’ll be requesting an investigation into what the fuck just happened. You are all dismissed for the day.”

“Oh, I don’t believe we need to do all of that, Lieutenant,” said a silky smooth voice from the door.

Shaggy grimaced as he looked up and spotted a slim alien woman leaning against the door frame. Her green hair was in a tight bun and her gray business suit contrasted harshly with her brown complexion. Shaggy almost thought she had some kind of skin condition. But then he realized her skin was literally wood. She was a tree-lady or maybe a dryad of some kind.

“Missus Leblanc, our department thanks the HLO for its input on this matter. But I, personally, feel that your services are no longer required here. The suspect has been apprehended. Your oversight is no longer required.”

Ms. Leblanc tittered, and the sound turned Shaggy’s spine to glass. It was a chilling sound with no joy in it at all. Combined with the dead-eyed stare she was giving the lieutenant, Shaggy was surprised the man could remain stone-faced. Tree-lady brushed a strand of her green hair out of her face and walked into the room.

“Thankfully, I don’t answer to you, Lieutenant Anders. Otherwise these fine, upstanding officers would not know how dangerous or evil this particular Supe is. Captain Jacques, however, seems more willing to let me do my job.”

“Your job is to inform my men about Supe criminals the HLO knows about. Not fill their heads with your biased rhetoric. The courts will determine if this man is guilty, not the HLO. But until then, I want him restrained and looked after in accordance with the law. Which you are not qualified or permitted to do. Therefore, you have no reason to be in this room. I suggest you return to your office and continue your… liaison duties. Whatever they may be.”

Shaggy didn’t know a tree could grow red with anger. But Ms. Leblanc looked ready to explode before she spun on her heel and marched from the room. A fair few of the cops in the room hurried after her. Shaggy blew out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. The sound brought the Lieutenant around to stare at him. Shaggy met the older man’s eyes and tried his best not to wince from the pain in his body.

The room was slowly emptying as another voice spoke up from the door.

“Umm, is it safe to reenter?”

The lieutenant maintained his glare on Shaggy as he swiveled his head. “Yes, Doctor. The situation has been resolved. Please attend to your patient.”

A skinny man in a doctor’s coat crept through the room slowly. Eyes trained on Shaggy. But Shaggy ignored the man as he kept his eyes on the older man. His competitive streak had been ignited as they stared at each other and Shaggy told himself he wasn’t going to blink first. His and the Lieutenant’s staring contest made the doctor freeze.

“Are you sure he is properly restrained?”

Lieutenant Anders blinked and glanced down at Shaggy’s arms. Shaggy celebrated in his head at having won their little game. But with nothing to distract him, he was back to thinking about how his everything hurt. He groaned and leaned back on his bed, even as his nerve endings screamed at him. The doctor took a large step back and ran into the lieutenant, clearly afraid.

Anders sighed and called through the still-open door. “Get us some proper cuffs in here. C-Tier, with auto-fit and magical protections!”

“Aww, there goes my epic escape plan.” Shaggy wheezed as the doctor examined him. “I had this whole song and dance number planned out. But it doesn’t work if my hands are tied.”

Lieutenant Anders simply glared at him as a trio of cops came in and carefully replaced Shaggy’s handcuffs. He didn’t move or try to break away. Mostly because he was still injured and not because Anders was watching him unblinkingly. Waiting for any sudden movements. Once the cuffs were on, everyone in the room relaxed, and the doctor continued his prodding.

“Shouldn’t you be shooting me up with some healing potions or something, Doc? I mean, I’m half-dead here.”

Anders snorted as the doctor shook his head. “No. I’ve been given strict instructions not to heal or feed you. Apparently, you have extraordinary healing capabilities which are tied to food. We don’t want you making an actual escape attempt.”

Shaggy blinked. “Then what the fuck am I in this bed for?”

“Oh, we are scraping your genetics and cross-checking them with the information the HLO provided us with. If the two match, then you are our guy and court proceedings can begin. It will also give us a good gauge of your abilities so we can have the proper responses in place if you go on a rampage.”

“So I’m going to court, huh? That’s a forgone conclusion?” Shaggy smiled at Lieutenant Anders.

Anders sighed. “I don’t know who you pissed off, but the HLO have fast tracked your processing. They want you ready and waiting to stand trial as soon as possible.”

Shaggy was about to ask ‘on what charges’ but he thought better of it and kept his mouth shut. Instead, he turned contemplative as the doctor poked and prodded him. Anders seemed to study him as well. Probably trying to figure out what the HLO wanted with him. Shaggy could guess. They probably wanted to make an example of him or parade him through the neighborhood as a criminal.

“Don’t trust the big bad wolf in your midst, people.”

Anders suddenly spun on his heel and marched from the room. He got to the door before he called over his shoulder.

“I’ll see you get a fair trial. But if half of what the HLO is claiming about you is true, then I hope they put you away for a long time.”

Shaggy chuckled, but it hurt his chest too much, so he ended up coughing through his response. “Ack! Who? Me? I’m a... cough… saint.”

Anders didn’t respond as he left the room and closed the door. Shaggy could see the man take up a post in front of the door and he sighed in relief. He sat back as the doctor pinched him on the arm with something. Shaggy felt an icy feeling run up his arm as the doctor chuckled.

“I wouldn’t get too comfortable. Mr. Robertson. The company is going to make an example of you very soon.”

Shaggy blinked at the cold tone in the doctor’s voice. Looking down, he noticed the doctor removing a vial of his blood from the syringe. The doctor glanced up at him and Shaggy twisted his head in confusion. Had the doctor’s eyes always been slit like that? He looked like a snake. The doctor pulled the vial away and pocketed it as he smiled at Shaggy. Pulling a blue vial from the same pocket, the doctor said.

“Don’t worry. We will put your blood to good use while you are in jail.”

Shaggy tried to thrash against the bed, but the new cuffs actually did their job very well. He did little more than rattle the bed as the doctor placed the blue vial into an injector and stuck Shaggy in the arm.

“This will keep you compliant as we prepare the show. We don’t want to ruin the surprise, though. So you just go to sleep and we’ll get everything ready for you. Thaaaaat’s it, go to sleep now.”

Shaggy fought against the drowsiness that hit him. The blue liquid seemed to rush through his veins and he felt his body going completely numb. Shaggy could do little more than glare at the snake-like doctor as he continued his pantomime. Thoughts and ideas rushed through Shaggy’s brain all at once until he finally succumbed to the drugs and fell asleep. Blissfully unaware of the show that awaited him.