A Werewolf In Under-Town

Shaggy put a foot on the edge of the rooftop and looked across at the four story building. A myriad of scents danced on the night wind. But chief among them was the smell of the farms they had passed on their way into town. Farm animals and manure carried across the night sky and Shaggy did his best to separate each sent out so he could ignore them later. It was just another challenge on top of an already tough job.

"Mmmhmhmmm!"

Shaggy sighed and looked behind him. The roof was full of his team for this job. Each of them waiting for his word to move out. Chromia and Leslie were there, along with their team. Tom and his band of shady-looking thugs, along with Seth and Milo. Of course, the current cause of Shaggy's headache was at his feet, bound and gagged.

"I'd remove the gags if I thought for a second none of you would try to fry me again." Shaggy said wistfully.

Three mages sat back to back, glaring up at him and trying to shout through their bound mouths. Tom's people had used whatever was handy to shut the mages up. One had a crumpled up t-shirt held in place by a belt over his face. The second mage was wearing some kind of face cage that Shaggy didn't want to know about. While the third was silenced with good ole tape. It was the tape asshole that had tried to breathe a mouthful of fire at Shaggy. The mage was now sporting a pretty big knot on the side of his head.

Shaggy played a little game in his head to pick the next mage to question. The night was wearing on. But they had time to play.

"… if he hollers, let him go. My mom said to pick the very best one and you… are… it!"

Shaggy reached down and grabbed the one with a t-shirt in his mouth. Having learned his lesson, Shaggy held the mage out over the roof of their building. A four-story drop was bound to do some damage to the mage. But if he managed to get a spell off, one of the others would cap him. Unless the mage could fly.

With that thought, Shaggy removed the belt and shirt. The mage sputtered and coughed as Shaggy gave him his best smile.

"HI! Wonderful night, huh? I was wondering if you could help-"

"Duratus!" the mage shouted as soon as he had control of his voice.

Shaggy didn't even wait to see if the spell hit him, he just dropped the idiot. A diminishing scream came from the mage as he dropped over forty feet. Shaggy could even hear the mage trying to cast more spells all the way down. But nothing seemed to work for the poor guy. He hit the pavement with a wet splat and the scent of blood started to mask the manure in the air.

"Haaaaaa." Shaggy sighed loudly and dramatically as he turned back to the other two mages. He crouched low next to the one with a mouth cage as the duct taped one glared at him.

"I really don't want to kill people. It's such a messy thing. The cops come running, the Supes get involved, it's a whole fucking thing. All I want is the key to that bank over there. My friends, tell me you three… sorry, you two have the keys to the kingdom. So to speak. A way to bypass the magical locks on the building and give us unfettered access to the goodies inside."

Shaggy glanced between both mages. Duct Tape still looked defiant, but Muzzle was cracking. Shaggy could smell it. Moving quickly, Shaggy gripped Muzzle by his ankle and held him upside down over the edge of the building. Duct Tape thrashed angrily, but Shaggy left him to Tom. Muzzle was wriggling for his life now.

"MPHMMM! MPHM!"

Glancing down, Shaggy could see Muzzle's eyes brimming with tears. He grinned wolfishly. With a grunt, he threw the man back onto the roof and went to remove the mouth cage. As he did, Duct Tape managed to get his mouth free slightly. He must've licked the tape off.

"Don't tell them anything, Conner! You hear me! Don't fucking say a-grk!"

Tom's knife slashed through Duct Tapes throat with surprising ease and the scent of blood on the air grew stronger. Muzzle, or Conner as his name apparently was, stared in shock as his mage buddy choked on his own blood. Shaggy put himself between Conner and his friend, giving Tom the mental command to end the mage's suffering. A meaty thwack filled the air as Shaggy got Conner's mouth cage off.

"Kyle!"

Shaggy snapped his fingers. "We both know what happened to Kyle, Conner. It was an unfortunate thing. It didn't need to happen. But he made his choice, and we made ours. What you have to decide now is, will you go out the same way? Or are you going to help us?"

Conner's eyes flitted about the rooftop, possibly looking for an escape. Clearly not liking his options, Conner began to pant heavily. Shaggy rolled his eyes as the mage clearly had a panic attack. But what the mage said next surprised him.

"You… You can't kill me! I'm your only chance now. You… you need me!"

Shaggy ran a hand down his face. "Conner, please don't make me the asshole here. Please! I don't want to hurt you to get what I want. But I will and if it has to be slow, well…"

Shaggy trailed off as he turned his index finger into a long claw. He traced the long black claw down the front of Conner's shirt, ripping it as he went. He hoped his message was clear. Conner watched the whole thing with ever-widening eyes. When Shaggy's claw approached his waist, Conner tried to scoot back on the rooftop. Shaggy quickly grabbed the man's belt with his other hand and held him in place.

"Conner? Are you going to help me and my friends?"

The stench of fear around Conner grew ever more palpable. His eyes darted around one last time before he finally locked eyes with Shaggy and gave a weak nod. Shaggy clapped his hands and picked up the beaten mage.

"Good! Milo, you're up!"

Shaggy tossed Conner over to his magical support for this mission and Seth caught the guy before he ran into Milo. Conner began to hastily explain the building's magical security as Shaggy tuned out. All that magic shit was above him, really, and he had another member of his team to check up on.

Leslie was seated cross-legged on the rooftop. A laptop supported on her knees. Branka, Chromia and the other members of her team were standing vigil over the tall woman as she typed away. Shaggy gave the ladies a lopsided grin as he approached and called out to Leslie.

"How we doing Leslie? Good news I hope."

The blue-haired woman glanced up and shook her head. "Sorry, Shaggy. There's no wireless access into that building. I need to be on-sight."

"Which won't be happening if the damn place has a barrier." Chromia said grumpily.

"Milo's checking that now, Chromia. Leslie, how fast do you think you can get things shut down once we are in?"

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Leslie went back to typing on her laptop as she spoke. "That's just what I was checking. According to public records, SafNet did the security for the building. Which makes sense since they are big into acquiring and displaying alien cultural artifacts."

Shaggy raised an eyebrow at that until Branka explained. "Leslie says that the third floor of that building is full of alien stuff."

"Yeah," Shaggy nodded. "Tom called it the Alien Resources floor."

"That's not technically wrong." Leslie smirked. "But really, what it is, is a temporary museum that houses various alien artifacts. Nothing magical or anything like that, but items of cultural significance."

"Worth a lot of credits?"

"To the right buyer, sure."

"Why would a bank have a damn museum on its third floor?"

"It was part of the contract with SafNet. The bank gets an influx of credits and a new set of digital encryption, and SafNet gets another place to flaunt their crap."

Shaggy scratched his jaw as he thought of the two vans they brought. With two floors of credit vaults and a third full of valuable artifacts, they might need another car. As soon as the thought entered his head, Shaggy felt a pull on his mental connection with Tom. The svelte scout was grinning like a madman as he passed a message over the link.

"My boys have cars, boss. They ain't vans like you brought, but we can stuff them full."

"Good. Get your people to move them into position."

Tom and his people started moving, and Shaggy turned back toward Milo and Seth. He nearly knocked over the mage as he did, as Milo was standing right behind him. Again, Seth ran interference for Milo, pulling the mage out of Shaggy's way. Conner was standing next to Milo. Looking beaten and sad.

"Um, Shaggy, sir. I think I've got everything from Mr. Conner."

"Does he?" Shaggy asked Conner, his voice turning into a growl.

Conner tried to back away, but Seth quickly moved to hold the guy in place. Not able to get away, Conner nodded frantically, a quick sob escaping his lips. Shaggy tried to tell if the mage was lying, but he wasn't getting anything. So he gave Seth the nod and the youngest member of his pack flicked his hand into the back of Conner's skull. There was an electric snap and Shaggy smelt ozone as Conner's body fell to the rooftop, unconscious.

"Okay, people! It sounds like we are ready to start things off. Bring the vans around as soon as Milo gives you the signal."

Shaggy started shouting orders as Milo stared at Conner's prone body. Chromia sidled up next to Shaggy, a tone of derision in her voice.

"You're seriously not going to kill him?"

Shaggy turned to regard the one-eyed metal woman. "No. I meant what I said. I'm not trying to be the asshole here. Just a criminal. I want what isn't mine and will do what I have to in order to get it. Conner was helpful, so he gets to live."

"He can identify us."

"As what? A short angry man and his cadre of surly soldiers?"

"What about his magic?" Chromia pressed.

Shaggy sighed and started to argue, but Milo's soft voice spoke up again. "I can wipe his memory!"

Chromia and Shaggy turned to glare at the young mage. To his credit, Milo didn't balk. In fact, their gaze seemed to galvanize him even more.

"I mean, if he is truly knocked out and we only need him to forget the last hour."

Seth snorted. "Pfft! Oh, he's knocked out alright. This baby of mine can knock out a Perinadon for eight hours straight."

The young werewolf snapped his fingers, and a spark jumped between his forefinger and thumb. Shaggy could barely make out a clear plastic glove over Seth's hand. Unlike the rest of his pack, Seth had brought a lot of gadgets and weapons. Rita had her sword, while Sybil and Vick had their guns. But the kid was decked out like a futuristic soldier. Black-metal armor, two pistols, a stun baton, the glove, and a set of red-tinted glasses that Shaggy didn't know the purpose of. Not to mention what was in the kid's pockets.

Mile reached down and started muttering a spell as behind Shaggy Leslie's team got up. Chromia glared at Conner's prone form before she joined her team and hurried off the roof. Shaggy stayed with the two boys as Milo did his work. Once he was done, Milo grinned at them and gave them both the okay. With that out of the way, they all made their way to the fire escape and down into the alley.

The rest of the team was already moving. It wasn't a long jog to the bank, but the size of their group was bound to raise suspicion. As they got closer, Milo closed his eyes and started to chant again. But his feet kept moving. Shaggy and Seth flanked the mage as he worked, his words creating an odd hum in the air.

"Is there a barrier?" Shaggy asked worriedly.

"Not that I can tell." Milo said around his chanting.

Shaggy nodded like he understood and waited for the boy to do his magic. Literally. While he waited, he directed all of their cars toward the bank's parking lot. If they were lucky, they could sneak in a side door and be in and out. Two vans and three sedans quietly crossed the road and found spots alongside the bank. All of Shaggy's team did their best to keep to the shadows as they moved.

Once Milo was right next to the building, he stopped chanting and placed a hand on the gleaming metal wall of the bank. Shaggy heard what sounded like the snap of a rubber band as Milo nearly collapsed on the spot. Seth grabbed the mage as Shaggy looked around for any sign of guards or alarms, but nothing happened.

"Magic's down." Milo wheezed. "Just need to get the doors open now."

"Leslie! Your turn!" Shaggy said as loudly as he dared. The solemnity of the night was getting to him and he didn't want to risk yelling.

Thankfully, the tall woman heard him and made a beeline for the side-door. Chromia and the rest of her team were right behind her. Shaggy signaled for Tom to follow while leaving a pair of lookouts. Seth dragged Milo along as Shaggy reached the door at the same time as Leslie. Unceremoniously, Leslie reached out a hand and sent a bolt of electricity into the card reader by the door. Shaggy almost swore as he suspected the bank's alarm to go haywire. But nothing happened as the tall woman rushed inside and pulled out her laptop.

Shaggy followed close behind and entered a long grey hallway seconds after Leslie. He spotted the woman's black leather jacket disappearing around a corner and gave chase. Following around a corner, Shaggy found himself in an open break room area. Leslie scanned the room and then tsked in annoyance before hurrying further down the hall. The woman took the first door she spotted and kicked the door open. The loud sound made Shaggy wince and order Tom and his team to sweep the first floor of the building for guards.

When he joined Leslie in the room she violently opened, Shaggy found her crouched next to a computer terminal, her laptop plugged into its tower. The blue-haired woman was typing frantically as Chromia, Branka, and Seth all came crashing into the room.

"What the hell, Les?! I thought we were coming in silently!" Shaggy whispered.

"Hey! Don't tell her how to do her job!" Chromia whispered back angrily.

"I'm not! But a heads up would've been nice. Now we are on a clock."

"No! We aren't." Leslie said with a sigh. "I jolted the system long enough to stall the alarm. Now I'm in and have control of everything."

"Everything?" Shaggy asked excitedly.

Leslie's grin faltered a bit. "Well, floors 1 through 3."

Shaggy almost cackled. "That's fine. That's all we need, anyway. Chromia, one of y'all stay with Leslie. Meanwhile, the rest of us will clear out the vaults."

"Vault." Leslie corrected. "There's only one vault on this floor. Three are on the second floor, and two are on the third. I can try to crack them from here. But it'll take time."

"Leslie. I'm a fucking werewolf. I can handle the vaults. Just make sure the alarms stay off."

"Can do, chief."

Shaggy grinned as he started to leave the room. Seth was waiting in the hallway with a punch-drunk Milo. The young mage looked a little worse for wear.

"You alright kid?"

"Yeah." Milo nearly shouted. Shaking his head at the sound, he added. "Just a little drained, sir. I'll come out of it."

"Well, take a break, kid. You did good."

Milo nodded before sinking to the floor with his back against the wall. Seth tried to stand the poor mage back up, but Shaggy grabbed the boy's arm.

"Anything in your bag of tricks to open a vault?" Shaggy asked his youngest Pack member.

Seth looked worried. "Maybe? I mean, I think. I'm willing to try."

"We gotta work on your confidence, kid, but good enough, let's go."

The pair of them ran through the dark halls of the closed bank. Meanwhile, Shaggy could feel Tom prowling the halls as well. He doubted they were alone in here. They just needed to get to the guards before any of them called in the break in to the police. Shaggy suppressed a howl as he followed the signs in the hallway to the bank's lobby. From there, it should be easy to find the vaults. At least, he hoped so.