A Werewolf In Under-Town

Shaggy and Levy spent the rest of the night patrol running down and dealing with the various gangs drawn to their turf. Between the two of them, they managed things just fine. His pack also wrangled a few Lackeys and Henchmen and patrolled the region until they were relieved. Then he and Levy logged off for a few hours to get some food, stretch, and have a quick shower.

Now he was back in the game, doing what was becoming an annoyingly frequent part of his day: going through paperwork. Shaggy munched angrily on a bit of toast as he looked over the notes his people had taken from last night. Several gangs had marched in from the east, west, and north. Most came from the west. Which made sense, seeing as the Phreaks were out that way and probably encouraging smaller gangs to come out their way. Also, after he took down John, the gangs from the east slowed down. Almost like he'd defeated an over-world boss or something. He shared the theory with Levy, who was across from him.

"Maybe." She said. She was sitting cross-legged on the sofa across from him. Her eyes were closed and a purple band of magic waved in the air around her. The band twisted through several sheets of paper as Levy focused. She had said she was 'absorbing' the information.

"It's the only thing that makes sense. We beat a tough enemy and the spawn rate of the gangs died down. It's how some of the other games we've played worked."

"Yes. I'm just not sure it's how THIS game works. Everything happens for a reason here, love. So if our eastern border saw less action last night, that might mean something is going on with the Raks."

"Maybe." Shaggy grumped as he went back to looking at the scouting reports.

His people weren't the greatest at including minor details. But he didn't mind it. Things could get pretty blurry during a fight. At the very least, he had solid numbers on how many gangsters they've blocked as well as the direction they were coming from. However, he also got reports that the cops were doing random drives through near their turf. It wasn't frequent, and no one had done anything, but it was a trend last night.

"Just wait for Ephemara's spying report. Then we'll know for sure. She's got her people splitting up between the west and the east."

Shaggy nodded. "Okay. So who's on the north?"

"Vick. He's recruiting sniper teams to set up shop on some buildings out that way."

"Pfft! Do we even have that many shooters? Most of the thugs I've met just break things."

"We've got a few. With the supplies from Under-Town, we have enough arms and armor to kit out everybody. It's just that laser fire summons the drones like flies. But Vick has requested a firing range be built to the west of the dorms."

"Get the work order in with the builder teams, then."

"Already sent, love."

"That just leaves the south. Any word from Tom?"

"Nothing yet. What's your Link tell you?"

Shaggy submerged himself into his Pack's connection. He could feel how his pack mates were doing and where they were. Vick was upstairs at the deli, eating. Rita was back in Under-Town, talking to some people. Cekrass was at the dorms along with Stanley, training and studying, respectively. Sybil was at her shop, and all three pups were resting. Tom was the only one farther out than Rita.

The skinny, pale man had headed out early to scout out the area to their south. Not as a spy or anything, but as a civilian. He'd even taken the more average-looking thugs to help him out. Shaggy got the familiar sense of smugness from the man and snorted again.

"He seems okay. I think he's at a car show or something… maybe a dealership."

"He better not be buying a car. Sybil will be pissed."

"Only if he doesn't let her work on it."

Levy's eyes fluttered open as she smiled. The purple band of magic faded away and the sheets of paper floated into her hands. "I'm done. You ready to go?"

Shaggy shuffled the papers in his hands and placed them on his coffee table. "Yeah. Most of this stuff is what I already knew. The heaviest attacks are coming from the east and west. The north and south are more calm, but we are also seeing a few small gangs from those directions. We'll need to place our Henchmen along the west and east borders. Smaller teams can handle the others."

"Do we have the people for that?"

"Not really. But I'm just future-proofing."

Levy nodded as she stretched her arms and legs and then stood. She hurried to the kitchen and grabbed a soda before coming back. Shaggy stretched his own back as he collected all the papers and moved to the door. Levy called after him as he opened it.

"Remember to summon Cekrass."

Shaggy froze with one foot on his porch. "Why? I thought it was just going to be you and me for this meeting."

Levy smiled at him. "It was. But Cekrass has already assembled an honor guard for us."

"In one night?!"

"The big guy has been reviewing recruits for a while now. So he was ready. I bet he's already got them waiting for your call."

Shaggy checked back in with his alien lizard pack mate. As he did, he remembered that the guy was training. But if Stanley was studying for college, who was Cekrass training with? He pinged the big guy to meet him and Levy at Bodecker's office. He got back an excited acknowledgment and drug himself out of the Link again. Levy was grinning at him.

"Is he with them?"

"I think so? I don't know. But he'll meet us at Bodecker's. Let's get these papers back to him and filed away. Then we can go meet the Swillium people."

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"Sqwilliup." Levy corrected.

"Yeah them."

Shaggy could feel his wife's eye-roll as he left their small cabin and hurried around its side. She was on his heels before her longer stride caught up to him and she hugged his arm with a giggle. He had to adjust his walking speed a little as Levy snuggled into his side, but Shaggy merely smiled as he looked around the cave.

It was all coming together. Fairly quickly too. With the bots, magic, and grunt work, things were being built at a good pace. They still needed actual building supplies. But the mages were making do with what they had. Combined with the tireless robots and the Lackeys who wanted better houses, they were a well rounded, motivated workforce.

Levy's tower caught his eye and Shaggy stopped suddenly as he watched several mages work. They were transforming sections of the dirt and wood tower into grey stone. It was a slow process, but the work they had done looked pretty good. A pink stream of light swished across the tower over and over until it came to a stop in the air. Levy's tiny Pixie familiar was apparently overseeing the construction of the tower. Her tiny head turned his way and Shaggy could see the sneer on her little face from where he was.

"I see your little pet still doesn't like me."

"Of course not. I told you, you feel wrong to her. That's why she's overseeing the tower construction. Once that's set up, she and I will have a place all our own."

"Meaning it's a no husbands allowed type of thing?"

Levy smirked. "Just until she gets used to you, dear."

"Is it annoying being away from your familiar?" Shaggy asked as they continued walking.

"Naw, the connection is already set. I just have to check in with her once in a while. She has her own goals and agenda. Set down from the Fae Court."

Shaggy raised an eyebrow, but Levy shook her head. She was still not allowed to say what went on when she went to the Land of Faerie. Levy had been supposed to go there and drop the angry little pixie off. Instead, some super-secret nonsense occurred. Shaggy was fine with his wife having her own side-adventures, but he would've liked to know what went down. But the courts of Faerie had sworn her to secrecy. She wouldn't even tell him out of the game. No matter what he tried.

"Oh, don't sulk love."

"I'm not!" Shaggy whined. Even to his own ears, he knew he was lying.

Thankfully, the sight of Cekrass interrupted their conversation. The big muscular lizard was waiting at parade rest with a line of other aliens. There were six of them and each one was either Cekrass' height or taller. The seven-foot lizard normally toward over Shaggy, anyway. But now he looked downright tiny compared to the largest member of his squad.

It looked like a troll with gray skin. They had lanky arms and short legs. Most of their body was straight torso. The alien's head was thin, with a long nose and two large eyes. The giant alien had to be over nine-foot high. But they weren't looking at Shaggy. Instead, they were standing at the end of the line of six, staring straight ahead like a group of soldiers.

Shaggy noticed more massive aliens that he had seen before. A Perinadon like Ren, two rock aliens with skin like gravel, and a short stocky woman with massive arms. At the end of the line, closest to Shaggy and Levy, was an alien with skin the color of copper and a long pipe in his mouth. He watched Shaggy approach with unblinking eyes before he took a long drag from his pipe. For a few seconds, Shaggy thought they were going to have problems, but the copper alien merely nodded at him.

Cekrass barreled forward like a happy puppy as he felt Shaggy's assessment of his chosen team.

"Team's only half filled, boss. But they'll do good work. I've been working with them all morning."

Shaggy smirked at the excited tone in the lizard's voice. "So I take it this is your strike team, Cekrass?"

"And Honor Guard, boss. When we aren't hitting our enemies, we'll look after you two. Not that you need it! Of course. But a good guard is essential for the master and mistress."

Shaggy looked back down the line of massive Lackeys again. "I get it, Cekrass, but maybe you should hand out laser rifles to some of them. You can't punch a sniper that's taking pot-shots at you."

Cekrass grinned as he turned back to his team. "Ko!"

At his guttural cry, the short stocky woman stepped out of the line and punched a fist in front of her. A blue-green ephemeral fist appeared in the air before shooting forward toward a nearby tree. The fist slammed into the wood at the tree trunk and exploded into a shower of splinters and rushing wind. Show and tell over, Ko stepped back in line. Shaggy turned to the side to see Levy smiling happily at the display. He handed his wife the papers in his hands and chuckled.

"Why don't you hand those off to Bodecker, and I'll meet the team?"

Levy smirked and shrugged as she took the papers off him and then skipped toward the office building. Once she was gone, Shaggy sent a cursory glance along Cekrass' new team. If he had to guess, the copper-skinned man was probably the Henchman, and the rest were Lackeys. Perinadon Lackeys were a dime a dozen in Under-Town, and the rock aliens were familiar too. So much so that Shaggy was aware of the changes both sets of aliens went through when they upgraded to Henchmen.

"This is Cooper, boss. He's going to be my second and he'll run the team when I'm not there."

Cooper, the copper-skinned alien, waved nonchalantly as Cekrass pushed Shaggy further down the line, introducing everyone. Bauble, Sedi, and Orphic were the Perinadon and the two rock aliens, though. Ko made a punching motion at Shaggy, trying to get him to flinch. But when he didn't, the stocky woman blushed before bowing sheepishly. Shaggy let it slide as Cekrass had just introduced the troll.

"Wait. Seriously!?"

The troll and Cekrass nodded together as Shaggy glared up at the big alien. He was sure they were messing with him.

"Your name is Tiny? Really?"

The troll nodded and shrugged their massive shoulder. Cekrass also looked at a loss for words. But Cooper spoke up from the end of the line.

"It's probably a human simplification. It's either spelled different or means a different thing in their culture."

"Well, if that's what he wants to be called." Shaggy said, scratching the back of his head. "Do they know what we're doing yet, Cekrass?"

"Guarding you and the mistress." Cekrass nodded happily.

Shaggy sighed before addressing Cekrass' team. "We are going to meet with a construction company. This company is going to help us start building companies up on the surface. If this meeting goes well."

"What makes you think it won't?" Cooper asked around the pipe in his mouth.

"The Sqwilliup family is an old criminal family that was pushed out by the Rakgu. They probably see us as a way to wage a proxy war against their enemies. But we won't be doing that and I will make sure that they know that. Now Levy and I will go into the meeting and handle the deal. Your task is to watch the area and come busting in if shit goes sideways."

Captain Mission Generated

The words flashed in the corner of Shaggy's vision and he blinked. He didn't know he could do that. Quickly, he opened the Captain's Menu and navigated to the missions. It took some filtering, but when he found Cekrass' mission, he discovered it was a mission to scout the meeting location. Without thinking, Shaggy tapped on the mission and was immediately shocked out of his menus by the sound of Cekrass' rumbling voice.

"Cooper, get those extras you were talking about. Ko, Sedi, and Orphic, you're with me. I'll contact Sybil to get us some wheels. Tiny and Bauble, you two wait upstairs for them."

Shaggy felt a buzzing in his head as Cekrass communicated using the pack link. Once that was done, the big lizard turned back toward Shaggy.

"I'll get it done, boss. My team will meet you out there."

Shaggy wanted to ask how Cekrass knew the location of the meeting, but the big lizard werewolf rushed away. He was followed by his team and Shaggy was left alone in front of Bodecker's office, trying to figure out what had happened.