A Werewolf In Under-Town

Shaggy pulled into the parking space behind the deli. One of the Lackeys could return the car to Sybil's after he was back underground. He was still technically in hiding after breaking out of prison. Despite his gallivanting around in broad daylight. Levy sleepily followed him through the shop and back down through the tunnels and finally back to the cave.

The place was still abuzz with commotion and people working. The daytime patrols were out, and the workers were performing their own duties. Mostly, they chopped down the magical forest and sent the wood back to Under-Town. But a few were helping with construction. Multiple buildings were still planned for their little cave. It would just take time.

Shaggy was trying to decide how he could help when Bodecker and several people in tattered suits ran up to them. Levy stifled a yawned but stood to her full height as the big alien started talking.

"Boss! So glad you're back. We have a slight issue with our finances."

Shaggy blinked and tried to think if he had loaded his latest batch of credits into the terminal. He was checking his pockets as Levy asked.

"What kind of issue and how? We have several businesses, don't we? Multiple people paying protection, and the daily cuts from the patrols, right? So how can we have issues?"

Shaggy could hear the irritation in his wife's voice and he looked up at her, confused. But the throbbing vein in her temple told him she was still dealing with the Mana-drain headache. He had hoped that the nap in the car would've helped. But apparently using that much magic all at once left a mark. Bodecker gulped nervously at Levy's tone before diving in with both feet.

"Yes, we have multiple revenue streams and we are operating in the black fully. What I mean is that we have an issue paying for construction work."

"Did Sqwilliup already check in?"

"As soon as you left the negotiation, sir. They gave us a fairly good deal. But still, we are talking about the renovation of several buildings. So with the building permits, license fees, occupancy permits, and property taxes.... We are going to need an infusion of cash. Quickly."

Levy chuckled as Shaggy let a grin form on his face. Bodecker, to his credit, didn't blanch in horror this time. The stocky alien seemed to understand what he was saying. They were ostensibly criminals, and they had to get creative when securing finances.

Shaggy rubbed his hands together eagerly and almost called his pack. But Levy put a stop to that with a wave of her hand.

"Not yet. Bodecker, how much are we looking at?"

"80 credits per square foot. For each location. Which honestly isn't bad."

Shaggy nodded, slightly surprised. He had assumed the Sqwilliup Family was going to screw them somehow. Not that they weren't later. But apparently not on pricing.

"That's pretty decent."

"But they are asking for half up front and we don't have it."

"You will by tomorrow." Levy said with a cheeky grin on her face.

Shaggy rubbed his hands together again as Bodecker nodded understandingly. He hovered around for a few more seconds. Making Shaggy think the big man wanted to say something. But he didn't. Instead, he just hovered around as they all stared awkwardly at each other.

"Spit it out, man!" Shaggy finally sighed.

"Uhhh, yes. I mean no. I-I mean, we are all wondering when the new houses were going to be built!" Bodecker eventually stammered out. Getting some nods from his fellow office workers.

Shaggy glanced up at Levy, who merely shrugged her shoulders. "We were planning to build some recreation areas after my tower was up. But we can add personal housing for the people staying here."

"What's wrong with the buildings we made at the other end of the cave?" Shaggy asked.

"Were those for us, boss?"

"For anyone from Under-Town that wanted to move over, if I remember right. I mean, we were talking about doing better housing for productive members and special individuals. But we have general housing set up. It's just not the greatest."

Bodecker looked over his small cadre of followers before turning back to Shaggy and Levy. "Yes, that'll work. We were under the impression that those houses WERE the special housing area."

Shaggy shrugged. "Not really. We're going to continue building this place out, anyway. So if you need a place, just grab one of those."

"Oh! Also, if you want any alterations or additions, talk to the mages. They can improve the space for a price."

Bodecker and the others happily rushed off as Shaggy stared at his wife. "Will the mages do that?"

"I don't know. But it's not a bad idea. We need our people paying us their credits. So keeping things self-sufficient is always a good idea. That's what the Viper Den does. Lackey's mug some people, shoot the Legion their percentage, and then spend the rest at a Legion-owned establishment. I'll talk to the mages later about it. They'll agree."

"Meanwhile, I get to plan a bank heist." Shaggy nearly skipped as he thought about how it was going to go down.

"WE plan a heist, dear. And not until tonight. You're still on a lot of shit-lists. We need to be careful."

"Please. I'm the king of careful. Besides, how hard can it be? We go in, break into the vault, steal some credits, and rush out before the drones come."

Levy sighed loudly and rolled her eyes. She grabbed his arm and slowly dragged him toward their cabin. Shaggy sputtered and stammered the whole way. Not understanding her problem. Once she had him inside, Levy pushed him onto the couch and then sat next to him while opening an in-game window. She shared her window with him and started playing a video.

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It was obviously a streamer or content creator posting videos about Modern Age Online. They were a villain player with some kind of construct materialization ability. The man in the green spandex and large green top hat had a few Lackeys with him but nothing to write home about. The entire video seemed to be the green guy just yapping away at the camera. Shaggy glanced at his wife again.

"What's with the celery stick?"

"Shh!"

Shaggy rolled his eyes and turned back to the screen. Greenie was now in a van, yapping about how things were going to go. Judging by the conversation the guy was having with his Lackeys, Shaggy guessed the player was about to rob a bank. Immediately, Levy's point became obvious and Shaggy tried to get ahead of it.

"Love, this guy's a goofball. You can't compare our group with him."

"TrollishDelight is an extremely talented and resourceful player. He has millions of followers and is rated a B- on the in-game government's tier system."

Shaggy blinked. "This guy?! The one dressed like a leprechaun."

Levy shuddered. "Oh! Don't mention those horrid little things. They were a nightmare in Fae."

Shaggy had no response to that, so he turned back to the still playing video. Delight was now inside the bank. From the bank's windows, Shaggy could see it was dark out and the bank was clearly empty. The player and his Lackeys quickly subdued the bank's guards and started for the back of the bank where the vault was. That's when something red and white smashed through the skylight.

It was clearly a hero, and she was floating in the air above Delight's camera. Shortly after her dramatic entrance, three other Supes fell in through the busted skylight.

"Halt, Foul Villain! You shan't purloin any goods this day!"

"Purloin?" Shaggy and Delight said at the same time.

One of the red and white Supe's friends waved a hand as he picked himself up from the tiled floor of the bank.

"Ignore the NPC bro. She enjoys talking like that. Something about being misplaced in time or from another dimension. To be honest, I wasn't paying attention during her little spiel."

TrollishDelight perked up as he realized the woman's entourage was made up of more players. "Dude! Seriously? Why would you ignore that? Isn't it going to be important?"

"Why would it be?"

"Yes!"

"I don't know."

All three of the NPC Super's sidekicks gave different answers as TrollishDelight angled his body toward the door. The other players were falling into an argument about whether the games lore had any bearing on their personal actions. The streamer used that distraction to hightail it to the front door. Only for the door to burst open in a shower of splinters. This time the Hero was a bull of a man, complete with horns and a nose ring.

Shaggy groaned as the now shattered bank door revealed a street full of Supers waiting for Mr. Delight. Levy paused the video and stared at him hard for a few seconds. Shaggy unpaused the video and proceeded to watch TrollishDelight get stomped by over a dozen differently themed super heroes. Some were clearly Players while others seemed to be NPCs. But Levy's point was made.

"Bank heists are some of the toughest events in the game," Levy said. "Not only do they spawn a super, and any Sidekicks they might have. But they also ping any nearby registered Supes. Villains that tried have gotten dog piled."

"Security?"

"Both technical and magical. Combined with the city's own surveillance network and the drones. But some Villains claimed to have better luck outside Austin. The trick is to find the signal that calls in the NPC Supes. But that doesn't stop some random Player from blundering in on you."

Shaggy rubbed a hand down his face as he sat back on his sofa. "So you're saying we'll need to be careful?"

Levy flicked his ear with a finger. "I'm saying we need to plan this out. Do some recon, check the defenses. Find out if the bank is guarded by an HLO sponsored Hero."

"Don't they guard most of the banks in Texas?"

"Not all of them. But either way, we are going to have to do this job outside of Austin."

"Didn't you tell Bodecker we'll have the money by tomorrow? How are we supposed to do that when we have to plan a fucking military incursion?"

"We use the Lackeys, Hun. Send in Tom and Ephe during the day, along with some of the grunts. Not all at once, though."

"They're off scouting and spying on our neighbors. Get one of your mages to scry something."

"That's not a bad idea, really. I'll do that. But you should still grab your pack. Maybe check if this falls under the purview of a Captain's Mission."

Shaggy gave a start. He'd forgotten about the Captain's menu again. He brought it up and winced when he realized most of his pack were ready for missions. They need at least a partial team to get started, but everyone had at least some Lackeys under them by now. Ephemara had the least amount, but she also had the most spots to fill, anyway. What surprised him was that Tom had a full team already and his mission board was lit up like a damn Christmas tree.

Shaggy looked down at the scout's mission board and found that true to form, Tom's jobs were a little suspect. Most were about finding specialized locations for the Legion. Banks, stores, farms, office buildings. Anything the guild could make use of or that could house the guild's enemies. But some of the missions were just outright abductions and home invasions.

He set Tom's team to find them a bank outside of Austin and switched to another member of his pack. He felt irritation come from Tom as he received the order over the Pack Link and hurried off to fulfill it. Shaggy ignored the man as he moved over to Vick and Sybil. Vick was currently training his new team in long range combat while Sybil was back in her shop. None of their missions related to a bank job yet. But Shaggy still selected one for each of them. Vick's mission was to guard the border of the territory with his team. They'd be rewarded depending on how well they did and how many patrols they took out. Sybil's was to gather another three cars from the neighborhood before tomorrow night.

Cekrass' mission board was currently on cool-down, so Shaggy turned to Rita. Through the Link he could tell the matronly woman was dealing with some of the younger members of the Legion. From the feel of it, the woman was putting the kids through their paces and trying to instill good survival instincts in them. Not surprisingly, most of her missions centered around training and recruiting. Shaggy left her alone as he dropped his menu and looked around to find himself alone in his in-game home.

He got up and stretched a bit before following Levy out of the house and toward her tower. She was in a conversation with a blue-robed mage as he approached and turned to smile at him. He flashed her the ok sign as he waited for her to finish her conversation. When she did, Levy happily skipped to his side and laughed.

"Boom! One of my people is a Ward-Breaker. If we take him tonight, he can deal with any magical locks on the place."

Shaggy nodded. "Great. I've got Tom out looking for a suitable target. He has orders to scope the place out as well."

"Good, so we just need someone who can deal with any non-magical locks or traps we might find."

"I can handle a lock. But alarms and such are someone else's purview."

They both racked their brains for a bit, trying to remember the Lackeys in their cave. When nothing came to him, Shaggy resorted to opening the Lackey menu and filtering people out till he found what he was looking for. A snort of air escaped his nose as he spotted someone that could help on the list.

"Ha! You have got to be kidding me."

Levy must of have been doing the same thing because his own words were quickly followed by laughter as she also spotted the name. "Well, you just have to find her and her friends now."

"We just need one of them for the job tonight." Shaggy argued.

"You know both of them are going to want to come."

"Both? With my luck, it'll be their whole damn team."

"OH! That's a great idea! You should contact Ephemara too. That way, it'll just be me and you and your weird anime harem."

Shaggy rolled his eyes and started walking away. "Shudup! I have to see if anyone knows where Leslie is."