A Werewolf In Under-Town

The next few in-game days went by in a haze of business talks and nightly patrols for Shaggy. The Sqwilliup crime family were making good time building their businesses. But like most thing, it was going to take some time. Meanwhile, the neighborhood was coming to life slowly. The NPC Civvies still weren't walking the streets at night. But they were more visible during the day.

Reports of the library's renovations spread like wildfire throughout their turf. Surprisingly, some of the Lackeys seemed especially eager to get the place up and running. The news seemed to invigorate the nearby civvies, and they came out in droves to see who was helping Willow's library. Aside from turning over a weekly stipend to Willow to get things fixed up, Shaggy also allotted a few Lackeys to the place.

People were getting used to Shaggy's people outside local businesses and roaming the streets. Ostensibly, Legion Holdings LLC was a private security and M&A Company. Bodecker had gotten the paperwork through in record time and now most of what Shaggy's crew did on the surface was all above board. It was their nighttime activities that occasionally drew some heat.

First from Derek, and his bad of Neighborhood Watchers. More than once, a nightly patrol had been stopped and questioned on their brutality against other gangs. Things hadn't come to a head yet, but Shaggy and Levy were keeping an eye out. Another area of contention was their western border. The Phreaks hadn't taken their small incursion lightly. Now, almost nightly, a small group of Phreaks would press in on them.

Thankfully, Ephemara and her team would let the rest of the Legion know and a team would be sent out to deal with them. But the Phreaks were getting bolder. Ephe was still looking for signs of infighting amongst the Phreaks and while tempers did flare, nothing like the graveyard incident had happened again. She managed to find Weldon's territory, though, and was in the process of getting some people in place.

Their northern and eastern sides were being taken up by Johnny Erethiz and The Strays. The Were-mammals had wasted no time in securing the new territory after the Phreaks to the north were dealt with. Vlad and Slink had suggested that Shaggy take it. But they really didn't have the force to manage two neighborhoods right now. They were arguing about getting another founding member to take it when the news that the Strays had moved in came down. Both Vlad and Slink weren't happy about that.

Dave and Ren, however, were more excited about the Ninja's to Shaggy's south. Ren because it marked their first brush up against another Player Guild and Dave because… they were ninjas. Ren had to practically sit on the excitable man to stop him from running off and fighting all of them. When Shaggy explained their momentary ceasefire, the rest of the founding members of the Legion put them out of their mind. They were a future problem and Shaggy had Tom's scouts on it. Although news was sparse on the Shadow League's turf. Tom did mention that Ao had made another appearance in the area, causing trouble with his own ninjas. But apparently the blue ninja had been violently run out of the area. Shaggy suspected that the Shadow League just created their own nemesis.

Otherwise, things were pretty good for Shaggy and Levy. They shared nightly patrols where they mopped up mobs. During the day, they walked around the busier areas of the neighborhood. Being seen and interacting with the braver civvies of their turf. Again, Derek's people were an ever-present thorn in their dealings. They didn't do anything, but their constant nearby presence and constant surveillance made other business owners reticent. Still, Shaggy's network of businesses was steadily growing. More NPCs were buying Shaggy's tiered-protection model as word-of-mouth spread. Some businesses just wanted a man at the door during the night. While others wanted the full-on Warriors and Wards package.

Aside from seeing the names of new businesses being added though, Shaggy mostly stayed out of that. Bodecker was proving his worth by carefully dividing the two sides of the Legion's business. The security contracts were all legitimate and carefully handed out to the least offensive members of the Legion. Which brought in a decent chunk of cash.

But their primary source of credits though was still dealing with nightly incursions and the criminal activities of their Lackeys. With the Strays taking the north, Shaggy's people were allowed passage past the northern neighborhood to easier hunting grounds. Robberies were going so well that Sybil was constantly out of trucks. Which meant that they needed more people out and 'acquiring new stock.' The short blonde werewolf was in a near-constant state of repairing and sending out trucks to move their ill-gotten goods. Of course, that made side-projects harder to get to.

"Please!"

"Levy! I'm sorry, but I have to get this Voltmobile to Quail Creek! Our people are going to hit the H-E-B and they need something reliable."

"Oh, come on! Make one of your minions do it."

Sybil dragged a hand down her face and glared at Shaggy. He put his hands up and waved at his wife. In his opinion, this was between the two of them. Sybil clearly didn't like that train of thought, cause she threw down the small towel she was wiping her hands with and pointed at him.

"No. This is your fault, boss. For letting her keep the damn thing in the first place. I told you, y'all should've driven the thing into a wall and walked away!"

"We are not crashing my baby!" Levy practically screamed. "You said we could steal the equipment needed to scrub her, right?"

Sybil turned back to Levy and sighed. "Yes. I even found a Terrirai dealership outside the city that we could hit. But that was before we got busy! Now I have to oversee every hand-off to make sure the Lackeys get the right vehicle for the job. Just yesterday, some dumbasses requested a sedan to rob a furniture store! When I delivered them a box truck, they got all huffy and needed a lesson."

"Is that why we had more injured than normal yesterday?" Shaggy asked, remembering the Lackey totals from this morning.

Sybil shrugged at him before returning her gaze to Levy. "Look, Levy, I get it. The Spyder is an epic piece of machinery. But I don't have the time to rob a dealership with you right now."

Shaggy coughed awkwardly as he thought about the seven other people in Sybil's auto shop. Sybil's team of workers had grown and shrank a lot since she became a Captain. Apparently, the woman was a difficult boss. Although the bug brothers were still happily tearing apart cars.

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Sybil felt Shaggy's thoughts again and whirled on him. "It's not my fault that a lot of the newbies are wimps! At least Rin and Vud know to shut up and work."

"I get that, Sybil. But can't you delegate some of this? I mean truck delivery? Isn't that beneath you?"

"When I let the others do it, they get it wrong and my two best people don't even fit into most cars."

"But they could deliver tonight's truck, couldn't they?"

Sybil looked like she wanted to argue, but there was a creaking of exoskeleton and suddenly Rin and Vud were there.

"Patriarch, the Voltmobile can comfortably sit one of our kind." Rin buzzed.

"We would be happy to deliver the requisite conveyance to its destination." Vud added.

Levy nearly hopped out of her skin with joy as Sybil sighed at the two giant ant aliens. Rin shrugged his massive shoulders.

"It is no problem for our pack-mate."

Sybil groaned, now stuck between a rock and Levy. Shaggy's wife was practically dancing now as she shook Sybil by the shoulders.

"Come on! This will be fun. We go out, steal the equipment you need, then come back. Piece of cake!"

"Pfft! Sure. We just need a massive truck to move everything and a team to help move it. Not to mention I have to clear space for it here. Somewhere hidden but accessible. I don't need the city asking why we have Terrirai's proprietary equipment in our body shop. "

"But we can do it?"

Sybil hung her head, but Shaggy could feel the excitement coming off the shorter woman. "Yes. But I need to get some things ready, and we're going to need some of your mages. In the meantime, Rin! Vud! I need to tell you about the delivery. It's pretty standard, but things get tricky in Wooten…"

Sybil trailed off as she dragged the two big aliens away by their shoulders. Levy spun on the spot before leaping into a hug with Shaggy. He squeezed her tight before letting go and looking up at her with a grin.

"There. Are you happy now? Your Uber-expensive car will be up and running before you know it."

Levy gave him a fake pout, playfully yanking at his arm. "No! I won't be happy until my baby is out dancing through the streets."

"Levy, you know this neighborhood. You're not going to be able to race a sports car up and down the streets."

"Boo!"

Shaggy shook his head and steered them toward the shop's exit. As he did, he enjoyed a spirited conversation with Levy about street racing. A conversation that was quickly interrupted by Ephemara speaking in his head. They had just made it to the end of the block when Ephemara's excited voice hit Shaggy's ears like a ton of bricks.

"Boss! Boss! Boss! We've got it!"

Shaggy's head involuntarily snapped to the side as he put a finger to his temple. "That's great, Ephe. Now calm down!"

"No kidding." Tom said over the pack link. "Nearly scared me off the toilet seat."

"Oh lord. Tom! What did we say about talking over the link while in the bathroom?!" Rita interrupted.

"What?! It's not like you can see anything. Bunch of prudes."

"It's a mental image no one needs, Tom. Besides, the connection may one day get that strong. Best to build good habits now." Stanley explained.

"That couldn't happen... Wait. Could it? Boss?"

Shaggy stood on the corner of the sidewalk with his nose pinched between his fingers. Levy, sensing his mood, rubbed his shoulders. A small smile on her face. Shaggy mouthed the word 'pack' at her and went back to the internal conversation.

"Really not important right now, people. Ephe! What do you got?"

"Levy's magic book truck! They're moving it soon and one of my people just got the route."

Shaggy placed a hand on Levy's shoulder and smiled. "Really?"

"It was tricky. There were multiple false trails and decoys being setup. But lonely drunk people will always talk too much. Apparently, as it stands right now, the shipment will be taking the Abilene route and be guarded by a team of mages and Supers."

"When?"

"They'll pass through Abilene around 3pm and then make their way out of Texas. My spies report that the truck will take the 20 all the way to Sweetwater and then head north toward Lubbock. At Lubbock, they'll send another decoy truck north to Amarillo and then cut west. I don't have the rest of the plan from there. But I say we hit them between Sweetwater and Lubbock."

"The back roads will make it hard for them to turn around or veer off course." Shaggy nodded. "Any info on the Supers guarding the shipment?"

"Three mentor and mentee teams from the HLO. Nothing on them specifically. But the shipment is seen as a joint effort from the Fort Worth Arcane Library and the HLO. So it's getting some good press. I don't think they'll send weaklings."

"Gotcha. Good work, Ephe! I'm going to tell Levy now. Let me know if you find out anything else."

"Just wiped and I am now washing my hands. None of you were the wiser?"

"Oh god!"

"Gross!"

"Fuck you, Tom!"

Shaggy blocked out the link quickly and blinked the mental image out of his mind. Levy's calming hand on his shoulder helped. So did staring up at her pretty face. They shared a silent moment, lost in each other's gazes, before Shaggy grinned.

"The shipment is moving. Tomorrow afternoon."

"YES!" Levy said, literally jumping for joy. But then a thought hit her. "Wait, what about my car?!"

"Love, it's going to have to wait. Unless you want to do back-to-back heists. One tonight and then another in the afternoon. But then you'll be tired and we are going to need people at their A-game for this. Ephe says it's going to be a doozy."

Levy looked torn as they stepped off the curb and hurried across the street. She bit her lip in thought for several seconds before coming back to herself.

"Fine. You tell Sybil that it's off and I'll contact the Legion. I think most of the guys should be on tomorrow."

"We're going to need them. Three HLO teams are guarding the truck along with mages." Shaggy added as he tapped back into the link.

His pack was still reading Tom the Riot Act. But Shaggy managed to pass on the news about tonight to Sybil. The woman seemed both annoyed and relieved at having a reprieve.

"Good to hear. I'll get your cars lined up for tomorrow instead, as well as trucks. Also, boss, I think it's time my place got an expansion. We don't have the room for the machines Levy wants to steal. We need space."

"We'll add it to our list. But where are your going to expand? You've got that junkyard next to you and the building at your back. So unless you want to go into the street, I don't see what you're going to do."

"I have an idea about that. But I'll tell you later. I gotta get your cars prepared."

Shaggy nodded and cut the connection as they passed another block. Levy tightened her arm around his and the two kept walking in amiable silence. Shaggy was already trying to work out the logistics of getting the books back to Austin from Sweetwater. They were going to have to lose the HLO and drones first and then take the long way home. Maybe even through San Antonio. He felt Levy vibrate with excitement as she waved her free hand through the menus, contacting Slink and the others.

"This is going to be so awesome." Levy giggled.

"Yes, love. It most certainly is."