A Werewolf In Under-Town

"Are we all ready to hear the plan?" Slink asked his assembled minions.

The game liked to call them Lackeys, but Slink always considered them minions in his mind. He liked the sound of the word better. Sure, it probably had worse connotations than the word lackey. But it sounded better in his mind. One of the minions raised a slim hand, her emerald green scales shimmering slightly.

"I still don't know what I'm here for." Petra exclaimed.

Slink could see the business manager was trying hard not to seem upset. Which was fair. He had pulled her from her work at the bar to be here. But he needed her organizational skills, and her rapport with the other minions was outstanding. Slink felt his internal snakes shiver as other reasons flitted through his mind. But he shook off those thoughts.

"Petra, I need you here to oversee the others as I maintain watch. I'm gonna have Larry and Curly monitoring the bank while the other team goes to work."

"Why does she get to be in charge?" One of Slink's HQ minions whined.

Slink rolled his eyes at the alien's tone. His office crew were mostly a bunch of spoiled whiners that preferred paperwork to fighting. In fact, a few of the Lackeys had even tried to sign up, thinking it would be a cushy gig. Slink stomped that out of them in a hurry. Working logistics wasn't the most glamours of jobs in the Legion, but the whole beast would stop running if Slink and his crew fucked something up. So he needed the best.

"Randall, we've been over this. Petra has seniority." Slink said, letting a little heat enter his voice.

As he did, he felt a stinging in his eyes. Randall's blue alien face went purple as looked into Slink's face. Nearby, Petra sighed as she watched the interaction.

"Boss, your eyes are doing it again."

Slink nodded and rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, I felt it that time."

His snake-like features were growing more and more each day. The pupils of his eyes would occasionally turn into slits. Which was another symptom of his new condition. And with his snakes surviving for this long, their connection was deep and pure. The implanted knowledge of his alien race told him that meant his metamorphosis was going to be lengthy but fruitful. Essentially, he was transitioning into adulthood and taking on the qualities of his three passengers.

"Look at me, dad. Becoming a man just like you wanted." Slink thought to himself as he finished rubbing his eyes.

He didn't know if they were still slitted, but at least the pain had stopped. Checking around the room, he saw his office crew still setting up the terminals. Thankfully, the building's power had been switched on already to help with construction. They were in a newly built building just northeast of downtown Austin. It was mostly done and just needed a few more touches. But a few thousand credits into the right hands, and Slink had his base of operations for the day.

"I still don't trust that foreman, boss. He looked like someone who wouldn't mind getting paid twice, if you know what I mean," Skanda said.

Demetrius Skanda's pale face was pinched as he looked out the window and down upon the streets. Slink could just see the corners of the horned alien's worried lips from where he was. His assistant had been skeptical about offering a mundane worker so much money. To be fair, so did Slink. He smiled as a heat-haze in the shape of a person appeared behind Skanda.

"That's why the boss had me follow him." Gossamer whispered into Skanda's ear.

A dark-skinned humanoid appeared out of the heat-haze like a mirage as Skanda jumped a foot in the air in surprise. His yelp attracted the attention of minions working on the command center, but they quickly collected themselves.

"I can't recall the number of times I've asked you not to do that, Goss." Skanda said petulantly.

The androgynous-looking alien grinned like an animal but said nothing. Forestalling the coming conversation, Slink spoke to the newest addition to his team.

"Gossamer?"

The tall bald alien turned to Slink and grinned maliciously. His only reply was to toss a credit chit at Slink. The boy caught the credit chit and nearly let it go because it was wet. But stopping his gut reaction, Slink looked down and grimaced. The chit was covered in blood. Which was all the answer he needed.

"He tried to call the cops?" Slink asked, just to be sure.

"Worse. He was about to phone the HLO." Gossamer said, still smiling. "He got three blocks before the idea occurred to him. Then it was another block until he worked up the nerve. He was dead before the phone reached his ear."

Slink hid a shiver. The invisible mind-reader made him nervous. Even though the game manuals and forums told him his mental strength was enough to keep the thin alien from his mind. It still unnerved him to think of Gossamer rooting around in his mind. But the stealth NPC was useful. Especially in situations like this. So instead, Slink turned a smile on Skanda.

"It appears you were right again, Skanda. Your bonus." Slink tossed the chit over to Skanda, who caught it with a bow.

Slink then turned to Gossamer and nodded in thanks. "You'll get your bonus when we complete our operation here."

The rail-thin alien looked around with a raised eyebrow. "You never said what we would be doing here, boss."

"That's because operational security is a thing. But we are close enough to go-time for any slip-ups to be minimal. Ladies and Gentlemen!"

Slink called out to the room as the Lackeys and Henchmen he assembled turned toward him. He had gotten oddly comfortable being the center of attention. A positive impact from his work in the Legion. Another aspect of his personality his dad had tried hard to alter. Slink almost laughed at the thought. All it took for him to gain some confidence was to play a damn game. His dad would love that.

"Today we are embarking on a competition with the other leaders of the Legion. Each one of us has chosen a target and will be hitting one all throughout today. Not only is this to instill fear into the city, but its also to test the mettle of our people. In a few brief minutes, we all will hit our target and cement our spot at the top of the Legion."

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"Little cocky there, kiddo." Petra muttered.

Slink shrugged as he turned toward the taller woman. "Maybe. But I think my plan is full-proof and will let us see the most gains."

"The most gains from what?" A Lackey asked from within the assembled crowd.

The floor of the building they were on wasn't huge. But the empty, half-renovated space made it feel like it was. And the twenty Lackeys he brought with him barely filled the space. Slink tried to find the voice's owner to address them directly, but gave up as the crowd kept shifting. Instead, he stared straight ahead as he waved toward the window behind Skanda.

The pale horned alien started in surprise before spinning and looking out the window. It took a full thirty seconds before Skanda spotted the target. He spun back to Slink with a horrified expression on his face before he turned back to glance out the window. He spun back and forth three times until Petra got fed up and shoved the man away from the window. She looked down through the window and immediately spotted the target.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Petra's laughed filled the room as the Lackeys started toward the windows. Not wanting a mob of people filling the supposedly closed building's fifth-floor window, Slink shouted.

"Hey! Are y'all trying to get us captured!? Get away from the damn window and listen to the rest of my speech!"

The mob turned around and sullenly walked away from the window. Skanda, Gossamer, and Petra were the last to pull away. Petra was still wiping tears from her eyes from laughing too hard. Gossamer and Skanda both looked at Slink like he was crazy. But the boy carried on, assured of his success.

"Yes, what some of you have seen is, in fact, our target. It's not the biggest in the city, but it has the most money."

"And the most security." Skanda said, sounding like a tired old man.

"The most physical security." Slink amended. "Which is why we won't be stepping foot on the premises."

"You really intend to hit a Centralized Exchange?" Petra asked, no longer finding humor in the situation.

Slink grinned as he felt his eyes sting again. They had changed back into slits, but this time, the pain had been a lot less. The changes were coming quicker now. Soon, they would last longer before becoming permanent. He just wished the scales on his face and body were quicker. It was like having the worse case of acne. Something he had paid top dollar to get rid in the real world.

Bringing himself back to the room, Slink scanned the eyes of everyone present. Finding who he was looking for, Slink stepped into the crowd and made a beeline for her. The mousy-haired, scared looking girl seized up as Slink approached. He nodded warmly at the young girl before reaching her side and presenting her to the room.

"I won't be doing anything. Jane here will hit the exchange for us while we all watch."

The room fell into deathly silence as everyone stared at Slink like he was a madman. He couldn't blame them. Jane was a slip of a girl. Barely sixteen years old and she didn't even have any weapons or armor. Normal NPC guildies would use their guild points to outfit themselves with the latest and greatest from the guild store. But Jane was still in the rags of an Under-Towner. At best, she was a recent Legion member and at worse, Slink had abducted some young girl.

Slink felt a force push against his forehead and froze. He mentally slapped the feeling away and turned to Gossamer, who looked unapologetic. The dark alien turned his attention to Jane and used his abilities there. The scared, mousy girl was stood frozen by everyone's stares. But Slink could see when her eyes went glassy before she also slapped Gossamer's mind-reading attempt away.

"Well, that's interesting." Gossamer said with a grin.

Slink chuckled to himself. Jane was his ace in the hole for this operation. She was one of the few Henchmen in the room. But she hadn't leveled up to get there. She had started there. Slink had found her file while looking over the personnel listings and hid her from everyone. She was a golden goose and after today she would be one of the NPC powerhouses of their Legion.

"Sir, we've got everything set up." A lackey called from the corner of the room.

The Lackeys working on setting up terminals were still deep in their work even as Slink was giving his speech. But he didn't fault them. Setting up what he wanted probably took a while. It had certainly cost a pretty penny from Randa and Roald. The money-gouging bastards. Slink smiled at the Lackey before gently placing a hand on Jane's shoulder.

"Very good. Everyone, if you follow us over there, I shall explain further."

"Boss, are you sure about this? I don't know if I'm up for it." Jane whispered as he lead her to the corner of the room.

"It will be fine. But if it isn't, don't worry. I have contingencies in place. I just need you to do your best, yeah?"

Jane gave him a crooked smile as they reached their destination. Two rows of computer terminals had been setup facing the window. His team had brought chairs, tables, and other amenities, but the piece Slink brought sat in the back behind the tables. It was a large supine chair. If it wasn't for the dome like sides and back, it would look like a dentist chair. Wires and large cables shot out the back of the chair like a nest of snakes, while a large see-through dome covered the front.

"What the hell is that?" Petra asked.

"That, my dear, is a digital immersion chair. Designed and perfected by Randa to make use of Miss Jane's full abilities."

The dragon-lady raised an eyebrow at Slink, insisting that he continue. Looking around the room, Slink could see he had everyone's attention again. He gave Jane a soft shove toward the chair while he explained.

"Miss Jane here is capable of Digital Astral Projection. Which means that she can enter the data stream with her consciousness alone. Firewalls? Guard programs? Encryption? All of it is nothing compared to her might in the digital space."

"I wouldn't go that far," Jane mumbled. "I mean, I haven't done much outside of playing on the networks of Under-Town. And those systems are a joke."

Slink winced as he didn't want his people to start doubting their ability to pull this off. "But that was just your ability, Jane. With this pod, your capabilities will increase tenfold. All you have to do is enter the digital space and grant us access to the Central Exchange's systems. From there, our hacker teams will start siphoning off the credits."

Slink saw Petra nod as the scaled woman finally seemed to come on board. "And you need me to manage the paperwork and shift all those credits around."

"With Skanda's help." Slink nodded.

"What about me?" Gossamer asked. "What is my role in this little endeavor?"

"Protection. We have a few combat minio- I mean combatants here that I need you to assemble and patrol the building. I don't expect any surprises, but you never know."

Gossamer nodded before he drifted off toward said Lackeys. Slink grinned to himself as the floor came alive again, with his minions rushing to carry out his orders. Petra and Skanda prepared the hacker teams at their terminals. Meanwhile Gossamer got the more combat oriented Lackeys into patrols. Jane, herself, was already in her new chair and looked a little scared. Slink moved to the edge of the pod and smiled down at the younger girl.

"Don't worry, Jane. You're going to do great."

The girl's large tangle of curls was spread out behind her like a web of brown as the covered dome came down around her. The chair whirred to life and blue energy seemed to suffuse the entire thing. Slink let out a breath as Jane activated her powers and fell limp. It was all in her hands now. All he had to do was wait for the credits to start rolling in.

"And we are off." Slink whispered to himself. Smiling at his room full of minions.