A Werewolf In Under-Town

The road stretched on and on as Shaggy drove northward. The desert seemed to repeat monotonously over and over outside his window. Thankfully, the narrow strip of road they were on held very little traffic as they made good time toward their destination. Well… it normally held little traffic. Now, it had several vehicles and a massive truck rolling down it.

Shaggy glanced out of his rear-view window at the convoy following him and shook his head. They looked suspicious as hell to him. A veritable fleet of cars all headed in the same direction. Each being driven by a criminal? All it would take was one passing drone and they would be screwed. They could break up their formation on the highway. But along these side roads? They were to obvious. As Shaggy watched the horizon for drones a small, black device beeped from his car's cup holder.

"This is Fangs to Rubber Duck, how are you doing out there?"

Shaggy rolled his eyes at Vlad's callsigns before he heard Ren answer over the Two-Way.

"Fangs, this is Rubber Duck, the vehicle's doing fine. This heat can go fuck itself, though. Why did we pick a hauler with such bad A/C?"

Shaggy picked up his own radio to defend Sybil's choice of truck. "Ren, it's the best we could do right now. You can't expect maximum comfort from something stolen from an outlet mall."

"Big Bad, this is Fangs, please use the assigned callsigns." Vlad said, sounding annoyed.

Shaggy was about to snap back when Levy grabbed the radio from his hand. "Fangs, this is Sexy Witch, sorry about that. I'll make sure to council him on proper operational security."

"Witch, please don't add to your assigned callsign."

The three passengers in Shaggy and Levy's car shook with suppressed laughter. Shaggy could feel their mirth over the pack link, though, as Cekrass, Rita, and Stanley all did their best not to laugh. He could even feel Tom and Seth trying not to laugh from another car nearby. Of course, that's when Dave had to get in the act.

"Yeah, this is Hyper, can we, like, change our sign though?"

"No! Hyper, we've already discussed this. Slither carefully chose each of our callsigns and we should use them."

Shaggy glanced back several car to the one Vlad and Slink were in. He could almost make out the Vlad's surly visage as the heat-haze from the sun warped around their car. The four Lackeys in their backseat were grinning though. Plucking the radio from his wife's hand, Shaggy asked.

"Yeah, about that. Who the hell do you think is listening to our communications? These damn things use the fucking D-Net. No one uses that anymore! We should be more concerned about having five cars and a truck hauling ass down a side-road."

"Technically it would be up a side-road," Levy said. "Cause we're heading northward."

Shaggy stuck his tongue out at his wife as Ren's voice echoed out of the tiny radio. "Proper communication discipline is important, but I have to agree with Big Bad. Maybe not right now, but once we get closer to Abilene we'll need to stagger ourselves a bit."

"Oh! Oh! Should I speed up then?!"

"NO!"

The tiny radio in Shaggy's hand nearly shook free at the collective scream from everyone else. Somehow, Dave had found himself in charge of a large truck. It couldn't fit a lot of people in its cab, but the bed of the truck would be useful for hauling more books. But Dave was more excited about stepping on the gas and seeing what the big thing could really do. Shaggy and Levy were shaking their heads at Dave's words when Slink's said something.

"We could activate the hover modes on some of the sedans. They'd auto-navigate to the nearest skylane. But once there they could make their way to our destination."

"These are stolen cars, Slink. The Skylanes would shut them down and raise a flag with every nearby police station."

"BIG BAD! I thought you said these cars were clean!" Vlad asked harshly.

"They are, FANGS! But they are still, technically, stolen. Do you want to risk the skylanes automated system finding something? Cause I don't. Sybil does good work, but I can't be sure that she's completely wiped the car's systems clean. So it's better not to risk it on a run like this."

"Steering the conversation in that direction," Ren started. "Can Witch explain what we should keep an out for? Just on the job and with our target in general?"

Shaggy passed the Two-Way over to his grinning wife as she explained. "The target is a massive Semi-truck. Our recon indicates that it is a standard eighteen wheeler with a long trailer. The cab color is blue and it should be arriving in Abilene two hours after we arrive."

"Just one?" Ren asked.

"Yeah. Our spies say that the trailer has arcane symbols written along its top and underside. They couldn't identify the symbols. But if I had to take a guess, I would think they're protection and enlargement spells."

"Like the ones you put on mine?"

Levy scoffed. "Please! My spells are much more powerful than the garden-variety that would be placed on a damn library truck."

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"Witch, isn't this an Arcane Library from a military base? Shouldn't we presuppose that the best protection has been provided?"

Levy huffed at Slink's words, but she didn't refute them outright. The kid was right, the truck they were hitting was going to be a doozy. That was before you considered the added protection as well. Shaggy was about to mention that, when Vlad asked about it specifically.

"What about secondary protection, Witch?"

"Reports indicate that the truck left Fort Worth with a three car escort along with air support. The cars are massive black sedans our spy assume are armored to the nines. They hold three Mentor/Mentee HLO teams. While the air support is in the form of two alien Supers. We have people on identifying who the Supers are but there is a chance that they are military-affiliated Supes."

"Doesn't that make this shit too heavy for us to hit? I mean if we...neutralize two Supers from the military they are going to come at us hard."

"Which is why were are going to wait until their convoy stops in Abilene. Again, our reports indicate that the air escort will end sometime during the Abilene stopover. At which time we can confirm the other guards and further assess the situation."

Shaggy leaned over to say something as Levy held the button down on the Two-Way. "Preferably, we can also get a better look at the truck during this time, as well."

"What's wrong with the truck?" Slink asked.

"Nothing," Levy answered for Shaggy. "But we can use the stopover to get a lot of information. Not just about the people guarding the truck, but also what protections are on the truck."

There was a pause over the radio as everyone took in the plan. It wasn't the best plan, all things considered. But it was half-decent in Shaggy's opinion. Especially as it was being built on the fly with information passed to them by Ephemara and her team. Ephe was back at home, managing the territory while also directing her spies in Phreak turf. She had assigned a few of them to Abilene, though. They were going to met up with Shaggy's team and ride back home after everything was done.

"So if I'm understanding things, the truck will come into Abilene, shed its military escort, and then move on? Why?"

"As we understand things right now? We don't know. I suspect that the Military Supes can't be away from their actual stations for long. At the end of the day, these are books. Magical and powerful books, for sure, but still books." Levy answered.

"It could also be a guard changeover. LA could be sending someone to watch the shipment." Slink said.

"Or Abilene could have their own Supes take the shipment out of the city." Vlad added.

"Either way, something is happening in Abilene. So we need to stay on our toes and keep watch of everything. Our goal is to hit the truck when its the most vulnerable. I would prefer to do it while the shipment is still in Texas, though."

Shaggy nodded even though none of the others could see him. "Yeah, we don't need to be following these books all they way to California."

"What info do we have on the HLO teams?"

"That, Rubber Duck, is the easiest part. The HLO is being extremely candid with the protection they are providing this trade. We've got three teams. Each with a Hero with five years experience as the leaders. Then we have the rookies. These are Supes with barely six months on the streets. They total ten people altogether. Two three-person teams and one four-person. Ephe's people should have more information for us when we get there. But we suspect the standard HLO team layout. A Tank and then a Healer/DPS mix."

"What about that four-person team?"

"Probably an Off-Tank or maybe another DPS. Ephemara says that the HLO is hyping the teams over the news and she'll send a comprehensive report later."

"Roger, Big Bad. Keep us posted on that." Slink said. "So the plan is to recon the stopover and then follow them out of town. Once they are on the road to Sweetwater, we hit them hard and fast. We'll hit the HLO teams, while Witch and the Lackeys try to gain entrance into the truck. Once they are inside, Rubber Duck, you switch to helping them load things up."

They all digested the plan as Shaggy flexed his fingers against the steering wheel. He could feel his blood beginning to pump. His pack were also excited about the upcoming job. It wasn't anything trickier than they had done before. But it was an another challenge. Something for their wolves to sink their teeth into. They were all ready for it.

"What about when the HLO dudes are handled, though? What do the rest of us do? Load books?"

"Hyper, you and Fangs will be on drone watch while Big Bad and his team handle stragglers. We don't want anyone getting away. We need to hit them hard and fast and leave no survivors."

Shaggy's wolf liked the sound of that as Levy pressed the button on the Two-Way.

"There's the blood-thirsty Slither we all know." She giggled. "I just want to reiterate that no one should go near the truck until my team has a chance to investigate the magic placed on it. We don't need anyone getting cursed."

"Confirmed, Witch."

There was another long silence and Shaggy was sure the conversation was over. They all knew the plan now. Reaching Abilene was only the halfway point. Once there, they all had recon to do and they had to find Ephe's spies. He was sure Ephe would help, but he wasn't overly familiar with Abilene. Shaking off future problems, he reached down to turn up the radio, when Dave spoke up again.

"So does, like, anyone want to play any games? I spy with my little eye…"

"Please, Hyper, no." Vlad complained.

"We could do something." Ren added. "This heat is still killing me. Anyone got any spare water bottles?"

"Dude, did you go through your stash already?! How hot is that truck?"

Levy pointed out their window at a sign along the road. "There's a rest area ahead, we can spare some water or maybe by a soda there."

"Witch, do we have the time to stop?"

"For a damn drink I do." Ren said. "I'm pulling in."

"Oh! Oh! Then can we trade riding partners? Like mix things up a bit? No one in this car wants to play with me anymore."

Shaggy suppressed a chuckle as Slink asked. "Is there anyway for us to change his name to Hyper permanently? Like some system reward or something?"

"Nope. But we better do something before he gets bored again. I really don't want to play I Spy."

"Oh yeah, dudes! I spy with my little eye something that starts with the letter D."

Shaggy rolled his eyes and grabbed the Two-Way. "Is it the desert?"

"Yeah! Your turn now, Big Bad!"

There was a collective groan over the small communicator as Shaggy looked around for something to pick. It was a long drive still. They might as well have a little fun before the killing started.