A Werewolf In Under-Town

Shaggy tensed his arms on the War Table and looked around at the others. Slink was staring at him with a no nonsense look. Ren and Vlad were looking slightly past him at Dave and Levy. He could hear the shuffling of their feet as the pair of them danced along the metal flooring of the War Room.

He and Levy barely had enough time to get the magical doodad in place before a Lackey came to tell them that Slink needed them. Hurrying back through the portal, he and Levy arrived in time for the other bosses to finish counting up their spoils. Slink was seated near a terminal, his head in his hands. Which Shaggy initially took as good news. Come to find out, however, that it was the worst news imaginable.

"How long does this usually go on for?" Ren asked, still staring at the dancing pair.

"Until she calms down, normally," Shaggy answered, rubbing his forehead. Looking back to Slink, he asked. "You can't have miscounted or something?"

The pale teen scowled at him as he waved an arm at the terminal. "HOW?! She brought in one item! It's hard to miscount one."

Vlad got a disgusted look on his face as Levy added, cackling to her victory dance. Apparently, the magical doodad sitting in the woman's tower was worth a metric ass-ton of credits. It's worth would be comparable to a Guild Item in other games. Something that bestowed a Guild-wide bonus and was the cause of inter-guild wars. Unfortunately, Shaggy hadn't checked what the damn thing did before they rushed back to Under-Town.

"Still though," Vlad said. "her item was worth more than all the credits someone else brought in? Seriously?!"

"Yes! Seriously! According to the valuation program on the terminal, Levy's Artifact is worth the most money. Our bet was based on the value of the stolen items, not just the credit count. So Levy wins the bet."

"But how does that work with the rest of the bet?" Ren asked. "The part about not paying guild taxes on the stolen goods."

"We don't have any provisions in the Guild about such powerful items."

"In other games, Guild-Level items would be stored and protected with the guild itself. The bonuses the give are automatic." Vlad explained.

"Do we even know what the bonuses are?" Slink asked.

Shaggy rubbed the back of his head as Dave and Levy still danced behind him. "We had the Artifact… blessed by Xang. So I'm guessing the bonuses are blood related."

Vlad's eyes grew wide at that before the vampire smiled. Slink and Ren both scowled, though.

"How did you bless the damn thing so fast?"

Shaggy raised his hand, palm out. "I touched it. Apparently, as a Champion of Xang, he has a vested interest in such things. Icons, he called them."

Slink rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger as he asked. "Where is the item now?"

"Stored in Levy's tower. She said she can use it as a focus or something," Shaggy answered.

Ren nodded. "That actually might be the best place for it."

Vlad snapped his head around to glare at the big Rhino-Alien. "Explain."

"Shaggy and Levy's cavern is different from the bar. It's more well hidden, it's harder to access, and it has Newbie Protection right now."

"Newbie Protection?" Asked Slink.

"A set period designed to protect a player from getting trounced by a stronger player."

"Yeah, our neighborhood above is only being attacked by weak gangs right now because of Newbie Protection. If we didn't have that, the Raks or the Phreaks would probably be running at us daily." Shaggy added.

"Players are supposed to use the Newbie Protection period to grow in strength so they can withstand some of the more aggressive players and enemies in the game."

Slink rubbed his chin in thought. "So it keeps other players out?"

"I guess so. We haven't dealt with any since the protection went into effect."

"And when was that?"

"Sometime after defeating Mr. White, I think."

"When… we… set up… our… first… crime ring." Levy panted as she continued to dance.

Shaggy shook his head at his wife's antics, but then nodded to confirm her words. "That's right. We were given a month of real-time to get our shit in order."

Slink nodded as he ran a finger across his lips. "I remember that. Levy sent me an update detailing when it happened. I tried to create a Crime Ring from the business we had down here, but the only one I could select was your damn arcade."

"Maybe it has to be a business not within the Guild House?" Ren guessed, looking around.

"That was my assumption."

"So then why haven't you been building more businesses?!" Vlad demanded.

Slink's pale face went red at the vampire's tone, but Dave cut in before an argument could start. "The Little Dude asked me to do it, Vlad-lad. I got my people creating all kinds of stores and snack shops all around the square. Haha!"

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They all turned to look at the muscular mutant as he danced around next to Levy. With his open Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts, he looked like an odd hula dancer as he happily joined in with Levy's reveling. Ren and Vlad had looks of confusion on their faces as Slink explained.

"We've had a little resistance from the surrounding businesses. So I had Dave see about starting some of our own. We've got plenty of people more interested in doing business than fighting."

"That's why the shipment sizes have been increasing." Ren said, smacking his forehand with his massive hand.

"Why wasn't I made aware of this?" Vlad asked.

"Because I don't report to you, Vlad. You guys let me handle all the logistics of this organization, so I made the call. Meanwhile, your and Ren's people have been protecting our borders and bringing in our supplies. Shaggy's been out there bringing in the money and Dave is pushing our agenda with the people. Shit's going fine. So you didn't need to know," Slink snapped back.

Shaggy waggled his head. "Eh, I can kinda see Vlad's point here. We need to kinda be kept in the loop. So we can help, at the very least."

Slink puffed his cheeks up like an angry squirrel for a few seconds before he blew out a breath and nodded. "I'll try to keep a chat-chain going about this. But it's up to y'all to check in on it."

Shaggy winced and turned back to his still dancing wife. Seeing his face, Levy cackled again. "Don't worry, love. I'll stay on top of it."

"But I want the rest of you to check in then as well. Ren and Levy are pretty good about filing reports. But I want the rest of you to contact the guild when heavy shits going down too."

"Aww, homework?" Dave whined and finally stopped dancing.

"Just when something big happens, ya whiner." Slink groused. "Now, we need to go to the Cave and figure out what this Artifact is doing."

"Sweet!" Levy shouted before she ran out of the War Room.

Dave was quickly on her heels as Vlad, Ren, and Slink stared at Shaggy. Who could only shrug his shoulders as he stood to his full height and turned toward the door.

"Yeah… she's a force unto herself."

Ren snorted as Vlad shook his head. Slink ignored them all and hastened toward the door as well. The four of them poured out of the room and were immediately accosted by some of Slink's office workers. They all had data pads and personal computers in hand as they pushed toward the War Room. Slink sighed and waved the others off as he fielded questions from his people.

Shaggy, Ren, and Vlad shared a bemused look before starting to walk to the portal again. But this time, one of Vlad's vampires stopped them. The woman looked nervous as she whispered something in the Vampire's ear. Shaggy caught the tail end of the conversation as Vlad pulled his head away from the woman's lips.

"…promised to make us full vampires." The woman said as Vlad rolled his eyes and growled angrily.

Shaggy raised an eyebrow as Ren crossed his arms and looked pointedly at the woman's disheveled clothes. She looked like she had just been in a fight. But all Shaggy smelt on her were other vampires. Vlad's group was apparently pretty medieval when deciding on who should ask their boss about stuff.

"It appears I need to handle something as well. I'll catch up." Vlad said, grabbing the woman by her elbow and leading her off.

A flash of memory sparked across Shaggy's mind at the way Vlad was dragging the woman off, but he buried it. Ren, however, made his displeasure known by scowling at the back of the pair. Shaggy thought if Ren was a wolf, the big guy would be growling about now. Ren saw Shaggy watching him and tried to calm himself.

"I just don't like the way he treats them all. The dude's a tyrant, or at least he thinks he has to be. I still can't get a handle on what's play and what's real with him."

"Don't let him hear that." Shaggy quipped. "He'll become even more insufferable."

Ren chuckled quietly, but said no more as the two pushed on to the portal room. Once inside, Shaggy bowed slightly and waved for Ren to go first. The big man smirked and bowed in appreciation before thudding toward the swirling pink gate at a jog. Shaggy waited until the giant's back was fully gone before entering the gate next. The bottom fell out of his stomach and then quickly rose back up as his feet hit the dirt floor of the cave.

Shaggy took a single step forward, before running nose-first into Ren's back. He and Ren smacked apart from each other and the big Rhino-Alien caught himself. Shaggy steadied himself as well and started to complain when his senses finally picked up on something. The room smelled like blood and immediately Shaggy's hands shifted into claws. But Ren's voice snapped him out of his blood angry haze.

"What the fuck is that?"

The rhino-alien pointed a massive finger at the ceiling. Following it, Shaggy saw a red sheen covering the dirt ceiling. It dripped all along the sides of the walls and down onto the floor. The scent of blood wafted through the large cave coming from that red sheen, and Shaggy grimaced as he realized what it was.

"It's a blood dome!" Levy's voice said excitedly.

She and Dave were just behind Shaggy and Levy's log cabin, looking at the surrounding dome. Dave had a wide smile on his face as Levy looked ready to burst with excitement. Shaggy glanced around at the NPCs and saw them mostly ignoring the new phenomenon. As he spun around to find someone freaking out about the blood dome, Shaggy finally spotted Levy's Tower. The once grey stone tower was now blood red. It was still completely made of bricks, but they were bright red and seemed to be practically dripping with blood.

Levy saw him look at her tower and she nodded happily. "I know! The tower changed too! Let's go see what else is different!"

With that, she and Dave took off like a pair of excited kids. Ren grunted in amusement as Shaggy shook his head again. The both of them hurried to follow as various NPCs greeted them warmly.

"This is so freaking weird." Ren rumbled.

Shaggy only nodded as they arrived at the foot of Levy's tower only to find a huge group of Mages waiting out front. Levy was surrounded as the Mages continually requested access to her tower. Dave was already pulling at the tower's door, trying to enter, but the red wooden door stayed stubbornly shut. After failing to silence the crowd with her words, Levy summoned her staff and slammed it into the ground. A shockwave spread out from the point of impact and sent the mages sprawling to the floor.

"Y'all will have your chance to request access to my tower. But first I need to get inside and handle a few things. So PISS OFF!"

Levy sent another shockwave at the mages that had them scattering back again. Once she was sure they were a fair distance away, Levy turned and opened the red door. As her foot cross the threshold, Shaggy caught the scent of a forest coming from within the tower. Dave and then Ren were the next in with Shaggy bringing up the rear. He caught a few angry looks from the mages, but he grew his claws out and flipped them the bird as he stepped inside.

Smiling to himself, Shaggy was unprepared as he ran into Ren's back again. This time Ren caught himself, but Shaggy bounced off the wooden door and fell to the ground.

"Damn it, Ren! Could you stop that?! Clear the damn door when you enter a room."

Ren said nothing, which made Shaggy look around as he picked himself off the floor. A vast forest stretched before all of them, and Ren raised a shaky finger at the scene.

"Forest." Ren said dumbly.

"A Fae Forest." levy smiled as she rushed over to Shaggy's side and grabbed his hand. "Come on, Love. We haven't even seen the best part yet, I bet."

"This place is wicked." Dave muttered as Ren shook himself out of his stupor.

"I miss the star ships and gremlins." Ren muttered as he pushed past a few branches of the bigger trees.

Shaggy tried to ask Levy a few questions as she pulled them toward a red wall buried behind a curtain of leaves. Near the wall was a dark doorway leading further into the tower. But one look at his wife's smiling face, and Shaggy knew that the question could come later. First, she wanted to show off.