A Werewolf In Under-Town

Shaggy followed the old cyborg spy to the second floor of the garage. The second parking area was devoid of any cars and instead filled with a table and a few chairs. To the side of the table were a few large holo-screens floating over emitters. They were displaying images and documents Shaggy didn’t take the time to read. Instead, he focused on the view beyond the parking spaces to the south.

They had a decent view of the Colorado river off the second story of the parking garage. Just across the river, Shaggy could see the residential district of southern Austin. It was lit up in the dark. All the little houses and their street lights making the entire area glow. Which was a stark contrast to the dark of the parking garage.

Shaggy spun around as Obadiah noisily let Slick drop to the pavement. He raised an eyebrow at the robot spook. But the old man ignored him as Agent One ran to the unconscious Slick’s side and looked him over. Shaggy watched the agent for a few seconds before he joined Obadiah at the table. The old man was moving a chair over and taking a seat as Shaggy stood and rapped his knuckles against the wooden tabletop.

“Okay. I’m here. What’s up, Nova? If you still know as much about me as you did last time, then you know I’m a busy man.”

“Well, that’s the thing, ain’t it?” Obadiah said as his chair creaked under his weight. “I don’t know shit about what you’ve been up to. Most of my resources have been pulled to deal with the fallout from the Fae Debacle.”

Shaggy raised an eyebrow, but the old man waved him off.

“That’s unimportant. My point is whatever back-end resources I had are gone. I have had to go to ground in Austin. I pulled the kids from a local training program and cultivated some other assets in the area. But my mission remains the same: I am supposed to sniff out anything problematic about the HLO. Something you’ve been doing too, if the news is to be believed.”

“You mean Mr. White?”

Obadiah kicked a chair out for Shaggy to sit. “Tell me about it.”

Shaggy cast an eye over Agents One and Two. But One had Two up against a far wall and seemed to be rousing him. Sighing to himself, Shaggy started broadly explaining how he’d met the HLO’s security expert. He avoided anything too incriminating. But he gave his impressions of the alien and what he thought Mr. White and the HLO were up to. He also explained about the erstwhile reporter Ruby Shroud. Obadiah stopped him at that point.

“You’ve got a reporter in this?”

“She offered.”

“She knows how dangerous it is?”

Shaggy smirked. “Believe me, she knows, and she just threw herself back out there. She was trying to find a link between the HLO and Mr. White’s goons. But finding links was proving difficult. So she went out of town to hunt down a lead.”

“You need to call her back. With the HLO burning Ignatius’ background, they are going to come at the rest of his operation hard. Especially now that he’s disappeared.”

Shaggy grinned to himself, but he caught himself. Evidently, it wasn’t quick enough though, as the old cyborg caught the facial expression.

“You have him?”

Shaggy scoffed. “Ha! Not quite.”

“So he’s dead.”

“I really couldn’t say, Nova.”

The old man’s eyes squinted at Shaggy for a few seconds before he blew out a breath and shook his head. “Forget it. It doesn’t matter. What does, is getting your reporter friend away from any of the fallout.”

“I’ll contact her after our little chat. So, tell me, what’s going on?”

Obadiah pulled a pack of cigarettes from his front pocket and took one out. Lighting one, the old man sighed and Shaggy could smell a wave of worry come off the old man. It was scented with the standard metal and oil scents Shaggy usually got around the man. Taking a long drag on his cigarette, Obadiah sighed.

“I was hoping to use the HLO’s academy as a way into their network. I was going to get One or Two enrolled and see what they could dig up. But now it seems the academy has been put on hold. So now I need to pivot to Plan O.”

“What the hell happened to the other plans?”

“What do you think? I’m flying by the seat of my pants here. I’ve got limited back-up and if I play the government card, the HLO is going to clock me.”

“Fair enough. So what’s Plan O? And how am I involved?”

Obadiah took another long drag before speaking. “Plan O is him.”

The old man waved a hand at one of the large holo-screens off to the side. One of them was displaying long streams of information that Shaggy didn’t even attempt to read. But the other screen held an image of an absolutely massive human being. The man looked about eight-feet tall and was rippling with muscles that didn’t even fit on his frame. Shaggy winced as he looked at the overly muscled man.

“What in the hell is that?”

“That’s not a what, he’s a who. And he is a suspected mutant with advanced Super-Strength, A-Tier, Uncontrolled.”

“Uncontrolled? So he has no control over his mutation? And what do you mean, suspected Mutant? Shouldn’t you be sure about something like that? Don’t you government types file all us Supers away in your little computer system?”

“First, yes, an Uncontrolled tag on a Supe’s Power Profile indicates that they themselves cannot regulate that power. So Mr. Duke has no control of his strength. As for the ‘suspected’ part, that’s because the government has no record of Abraham Duke having any powers prior to being caught by the police. Even when we they took him in, his powers defied classification. He shows no sign of magical powers or any alien genomes. So it is suspected he is a mutant. But three weeks ago, Abraham was a schoolteacher. Then he went missing.”

“A schoolteacher?! Teaching what? Physical Education?”

“Music actually.” Obadiah said, waving a hand at the screen.

Duke’s massive form disappeared. It was replaced by a man that was three feet shorter and a lot more portly around the middle. Shaggy could see the similarities, though. Both men had the same jaw-line and overall facial structure. But the first image was such a vast difference that a casual glance would fool the average onlooker.

“What’s he been doing for three weeks?”

“Unknown. He took a leave of absence from the public school where he worked and disappeared. A week later, he showed up in South Austin and trounced a bunch of alien gangsters. Then he was spotted wrecking stores in South Congress. When the HLO and cops finally put a stop to him, he was running a gang of fifty goons. It took a whole Supe team to bring him down and he sent three of them to the hospital.”

“If he is already in custody, what do you want me to do? And how does this relate to the HLO?”

“Less than five hours after Mr. Duke was arrested, an HLO lawyer was arguing for his release. They wanted him to be the sole custody of the HLO. The lawyer was denied, and Mr. Duke was sent to the Austin penitentiary. An institution I believe you are familiar with?”

“Yeah, and if that’s the case, Duke ain’t going to stay in prison long.”

“Agreed. Which is why his stay is only temporary. They are getting a room ready for him at super-max. But this entire time, a team of lawyers has been petitioning for HLO scientists to get a look at the man. One of them let slip that the HLO may have had a hand in what happened to Abraham. Of course, the rest of the lawyers denied that. But it’s been itching my brain.”

Shaggy nodded. “Okay, so you sent the mind-reader in and she confirmed things?”

Agent one scoffed as Obadiah shook his head. “No visitors are being allowed near Mr. Duke. He is being held in isolation and will stay that way till his cell at Super-Max is ready.”

“Besides,” Agent One said quietly from her spot near Slick. “He’s like you. He can shield his mind from me. Someone taught him to hide his thoughts from Mind Readers because he is way too good at it.”

Shaggy sighed as he glanced at the tiny woman and then back to Obadiah. “Which means you want me to go to prison.”

“You are a criminal.” Obadiah smirked.

“I’m a legitimate businessman.” Shaggy sniffed.

“Right. A businessman with multiple bodies under his belt and open warrant for his arrest.”

“I wouldn’t be the first.”

“Fair. But we are both aware of your true endeavors, Shaggy. So let’s not pretend.”

“What even am I supposed to do? The guy is in isolation, right? I can’t even get close to him to ask him anything.”

“You won’t need to. If I am right in thinking that Mr. Duke is an HLO asset, they won’t allow him to go to Super-Max. Something will happen that will enable Mr. Duke to go back to his employers. All I need you to do is follow him.”

“I can do that just as well from outside the prison.”

“Yes, but if the HLO’s plan happens while Mr. Duke is en route to the Super-Max, that would be trickier. Unless we had someone on that transport that got taken as well.”

“Wait, so you want me to go to Super-Max? I don’t rate quite that high. And if you are wrong, then I’m absolutely fucked. No way!”

Obadiah scowled. “You won’t go to Super-Max. If you do, I’ll pull some strings and get you back out. But I won’t have to. The HLO will move to free their asset and it will happen soon. I want you with Mr. Duke when it happens. Go undercover, join his crew, find out his connection to the HLO, and then report back to me.”

Shaggy stood up from his chair, shaking his head. “Fuck no! Do you even have the pull to get me out of prison? You said yourself that you’re on your own here! What the fuck are you going to do? Come get me yourself?”

“If it comes to that, I will,” Obadiah stated plainly. “But it won’t come to that, I tell you.”

“Yeah, no thanks. Unsubscribe. This is a suicide mission in prison against the HLO. This shit is something I just went through. I don’t need to do it again. I have a neighborhood to rebuild and a business to set-up. So I’ll be leaving now. Maybe get the Lizard to go to prison for you.”

“Yes, about your neighborhood,” Obadiah said, a tightness coming to his voice.

Shaggy spun on his heel and glared at the old man. But the cyborg spook was staring at the second Holo-Screen. Shaggy followed his gaze and groaned as he saw an aerial view of his deli. The feed was live as the drone casting the footage moved around Shaggy’s neighborhood. He clenched his fist and popped his knuckles as he tried to think of a way to attack the old man. Obadiah was tough, though. He’d seen the old man fight a few times, and the NPC never broke a sweat. Or the robotic equivalent.

“You’re right. I don’t have a lot of pull left with the government. But as Henshaw showed you, I know people. A career as a Super in Texas has led to a great many friends in high places. I can direct those friends toward people or Legions that I deem a threat. Or I can ask them to stay away.”

Shaggy perked up a bit at that last part. He heard Agent One inhale worriedly, but he ignored her and glared at Obadiah. The old man turned slowly and caught his gaze. The two stared at each other for a few long seconds until Shaggy blew out a breath and sat back down.

“Let me get this straight. I go to prison for you and you make the cops back off?”

Obadiah laughed harshly. “HA! Hahahaha! No, not at all. The local police, you’ll have to deal with. But I can make certain bigger parties focus elsewhere. So long as you stay on the down low. Blow up a building or kill a cop and I won’t be able to do a damn thing. But if you do this for me, I can ensure that your little neighborhood thrives.”

“You’re saying this to a known criminal, y’know.”

“You are the lesser evil, Shaggy. Especially in Austin. You barely rate higher than a street gang. You have one block and an underground bar. My agency doesn’t have exact numbers, but the UGB or the Raks would crush you. If they thought you were worthy enough.”

Shaggy bit his lip about the shadow war going on in Under-Town right now. Obadiah’s people were clearly slightly behind in their information. Either that or he was seriously underestimating the Raks and UGB. But Obadiah throwing up a smokescreen for his above ground plans would be a tremendous boon. If the old man did what he said.

“How do I know I can trust you?”

“Ha! I’m not the criminal here, Shaggy! I have more to fear from you throwing a wrench into my plans.”

“No, you don’t. I want to stick it to the HLO as much as the next guy. Also, getting stuck in a fucking prison is not my idea of a good time.”

“You won’t be.”

“Seriously, if my pack or my wife have to break me out, I’ll never hear the end of it.”

“It won’t come to that.”

“Haaaa,” Shaggy sighed loudly. “So, when do we start?”