A Werewolf In Under-Town

Shaggy mentally watched Tom over their link. He was still outside on a nearby roof, but he was seated with his back to the edge. In case any Super decided to fly over. It wasn't one hundred percent safe. But he wanted to be able to mobilize fast if Tom needed help.

So far, the Pack's scout was doing fine. He was moving luggage to rooms and cleaning up the mess leftover from the exiting patrons. No one was feeling talkative, though, as Tom went about his work. His natural ability to go unnoticed was helpful, but useless if no one said anything. More than once, Tom had tried to get close to a member of the convoy, but he was called away before he could hear anything. It was like the rest of the hotel staff didn't want to engage with the convoy team.

Shaggy and the rest of the pack got a good idea of what they were dealing with, though. Along with the general feeling between the military and the HLO teams. Things were tense, to say the least. Looking through Tom's eyes, Shaggy could see how the military personnel who had been driving the various cars seemed nervous. Meanwhile, the HLO teams were almost bored as they waited for their rooms. The two groups maintained a professional distance that Shaggy noted as odd. The military personnel seemed to give the HLO a wide berth while also giving them the stink eye.

Tom noticed the flying Supe from before making a call from the lobby, but he wasn't close enough to hear. Even with his enhanced senses. After the call, though, the military Supe walked over to one of the HLO teams and had a heated exchange. Afterward, the military teams went to their rooms. The HLO rooms were still being cleaned, so that meant all ten of them were waiting in the lobby.

Shaggy immediately discounted the two three-person teams. They were obviously NPCs. They were the standard HLO spandex and had a clear disdain for those around them. The four-person team, though, was much more interesting. The three rookies of the team were obviously Players while the big guy giving them orders, who was clearly their mentor, was the NPC. They were the easiest to spot, as they didn't adhere to the HLO's obvious spandex mandate.

One was in jeans and a t-shirt, twin swords strapped to her back. The other was in a baggy hoodie and a set of cargo pants. Shaggy couldn't see a weapon on the guy, so he assumed he was a magic user of some kind. The third member was also in 'street clothes.' But they were also more alert to their surroundings. The glow of their twin pistols cast an eerie glow up into their face. The person's androgynous pointed face was pulled back in a scowl as they watched the lobby with a weird intensity.

"That one is going to pop at any moment," Rita said as the entire pack watched the room.

Tom was standing near the lobby desk. Watching the room while pretending to help move luggage. That meant they all got to watch the goings on. Shaggy agreed with Rita's assessment, though. The androgynous gunslinger was glaring at the mentors as they held a quick meeting off to the side. Still, though, Tom couldn't hear anything. Which was starting to get awkward for Shaggy.

"Dude, what is wrong with your ears, Tom? They're barely twenty feet from you."

"It's not my fault, boss. There's some kind of spell or something masking the sound in here. Everything is muted."

"It must be the wizard on the couch." Stanley said, pulling everyone's attention to a wizened man in spandex.

The man was clearly in great shape and had his enormous arms across his chest. He was seated on a brunt-orange couch in the lobby. His head was bowed and his eyes were closed. He looked like he was either casting a spell or asleep. Shaggy felt his pack's various feelings about the older man. Chief among them was a weird kind of shock.

"Jeez! What are they feeding the mages up here? That guy looks like he could bench a truck." Rita asked in awe.

"Are we sure he's a mage?" Shaggy tried to confirm.

"He's not holding a weapon, and I saw him muttering something earlier. It was after his mentor spoked to him, too. So I just assumed he cast some kind of spell." Stanley explained.

"Yeah, how about that? I thought all these people were rookies. Why is there an old guy here?"

"Boss, just cause he's old doesn't mean he's not a new Super. Maybe he was in seclusion for a couple of years. Honing his craft. All we know about the rookies is that they have less than six months in the field."

Shaggy, suitably chastened, refocused on the old man. But movement pulled Tom's point-of-view back toward the gunslinger. They had pulled away from the pillar they were leaning against and were marching toward the mentors. Hoodie guy on the couch lurched to the side and grabbed the gunslinger's arm. Shaggy could see the man's lips moving and there was a small muted sound. But he couldn't hear anything.

The gunslinger listened to the hoodie guy for all of two seconds before pulling their arm free. They gave a clear snort and continued marching toward the group of mentors. The gunslingers' march drew more eyes as they approached the mentors, their mouth already shouting something. The volume with which they were speaking made the air shake around them and Shaggy could see the spell trying to contain things.

Tom took a step back as more people started to notice what was going on. A shimmer in the air was growing larger as the conversation continued. It looked like the room was cracking as the shouting match grew more heated.

"Wizard guy doesn't look good."

Stanley's words focused Tom's view toward the couch. He was right. The old man was visibly sweating now as he tried to maintain the spell. Clearly, the shouting match between the gunslinger and the three mentors was taking a toll. More people entered the lobby as the air seemed to shake. Muted voices hit Tom's ears and Shaggy strained to listen.

"I've got an idea," said tom as Shaggy watched their shared point-of-view spin slightly.

Tom was backing away even as more people came to watch. With an exaggerated grunt, Tom let his shoulder get hit by one of the NPCs coming into the room. He spun away from the blow and hit a mop bucket that was nearby. The bucket of dirty water slammed into the wall before bouncing off and tipping over. A mop in the bucket smacked the ground with a loud crack. The sound was muted for a few seconds before another crack sounded throughout the lobby and voices rushed back into the world.

"MAYA! We've talked about this! That was not our mandate!"

"Fuck the mandate, Ogre! People died! People we could have helped!"

Tom turned in time to see one of the mentors towering over the gunslinger. The spandex-wearing humanoid was glowering down at the Player. Shaggy could immediately tell that this was an old argument. One the Player's mentor didn't seem eager to rehash. Thankfully for him, there were two other HLO Mentors.

"That town was an unregistered, illegal settlement! It is not our purview to defend criminals!"

The gunslinger snorted in derision. "Those criminals were being attacked! If the military hadn't stepped in, they would've all died!"

"And look what that got us!" said an alien Mentor with glowing eyes. "Our convoy got attacked! This should've been a simple PR job. Now Captain Merrick is going to alert his superiors, and we're going to get a bad rating."

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The gunslinger sucked in a breath as they stared past the two mentors at her own. The big gray man in spandex looked tired. He clearly didn't want to deal with this right now.

"There were children in that settlement, Ogre. We could hear them screaming for help."

The big gray alien, Ogre, rubbed a hand down his face and sighed. "Maya, we were ordered not to intervene…"

Maya the gunslinger growled under her breath before spinning on a heel. She glared over at the other Players before she walked out of the hotel. The mage barely spared her a glance. But the other swordswoman with a ponytail watched her go with a look of sadness. Tom watched everything as he was helped to his feet by his fellow employees. They got him up and then immediately went back to watching the show. The mentors clearly hadn't noticed the slumped over wizard on the couch. The old man had held the spell together as long as he could.

"Good riddance," said Glowing Eyes. "If the bitch can't tow the company line…"

He trailed off as he noticed the people in the room all staring. The two other mentors also noticed that they had drawn a crowd. Now all three were looking equal parts annoyed and apologetic. The towering humanoid mentor spun on the wizard, only to finally see that the man was out cold.

"Damn it, Mordecai!"

The mentor's words were a starting gun as everyone in the room began to move. Tom was pushed around for a bit before he managed to get behind the front desk. He watched the room as the mentors split toward their teams. A general hubbub grew as people went back to their jobs.

"Focus on Ogre and his team." Shaggy suggested.

The link's point-of-view zoomed over to the seated Players as Ogre tried to placate things.

"Maya will be back," he said calmly.

"Not likely." snorted Hoodie.

"This was going to happen sooner or later." Nodded the swordswoman. "What's going to happen to her now?"

"That'll depend on her. If she tries to go vigilante, a bounty will be placed on her and she'll be treated like a criminal. But if she goes back to HLO headquarters, they'll probably put her on another team. After an official reprimand."

"A reprimand for what?!"

"Insubordination. The HLO doesn't need people who won't tow the corporate line. We had direct orders not to interfere with that town. I don't like it either, but we must follow orders."

"Even when kids are dying?" Swordswoman asked.

"Digital kids." Quipped Hoodie. "Fuck'em. Who the hell cares if a bunch of code gets deleted?"

"They may be code. But those screams sounded real enough."

"Then you need to unplug. This game isn't any different from any other. We do what we're told and get power in return. That's all that matters."

"Where the hell's the fun in that?"

Before he could hear the answer, Tom was spun away from the conversation and the Link's view was filled with a set of angry eyes. A sea of them, in fact. An alien with a head full of eyeballs was glaring up at Tom and pointing a slim finger at the front desk.

"You're not supposed to be here, Bell Boy! Go manage the luggage!"

"Yes, sir! Sorry, sir!" Tom said hurriedly, falling over himself to move.

He went back over to the luggage rack and scanned the room again. The place was a hive of movement as the hotel staff went about their work. Tom was about to return to the Player's conversation when he noticed the multi-eyed guy was still watching him.

"Well, that's annoying. I think I have to make like the middle-class and get to work, guys."

"Middle-class? Ha! You're a bell boy. You probably live in a shared condo with a bunch of other twenty-somethings all 'trying to make it.'" Rita joked.

"Living on noodles. Trying to make use of your art degree." Cekrass joined in.

The linked devolved into bickering as Shaggy did his best to tune them out. Tom went about his work, sorting luggage and moving things from people's room. Shaggy stretched his back against the rough brick ledge and looked around. It was still early in the evening. The sun was beating down on him on its way across the sky. Supers still zoomed past hovering cars as they patrolled the neighborhood, but no one had seen him yet.

He was going to sink back down into the Link when he noticed something. The cascade of voices over the Link were still going. But one was missing.

"Guys… where's Stanley?"

All talking ceased as everyone realized the teen wasn't where he was supposed to be. Over their shared connection, Shaggy could feel the boy had abandoned his post. He was no longer in a building near the hotel. He was up the street, moving fast. Shaggy focused on the connection and slipped into the boy's mind.

For a moment, he was disoriented as his field of view shifted to someone running. Then he stabilized himself as Stanley leapt across the rooftops. Shaggy thought the teen was running from something. But instead, he noticed Stanley was watching someone on the street. It was Maya from the hotel. Stanley slid to a stop as Maya turned toward a building. A sign out front identified the place as the Gauntlet Bar. The gunslinger descended the recessed stairs leading into the bar as Stanley watched. Shaggy nudged the kid's mind with his own.

"What you doing, Stanley?"

"Boss?"

"Who else would it be, Stanley?" Shaggy asked as the others picked up on his conversation.

All the members of the pack were quickly caught up with Stanley's movement, except for Tom. But they let Shaggy take the lead in the conversation. The teen kneeled on the rooftop as he kept an eye on the bar's entrance.

"Sorry, boss. I just thought it would be a good idea to see what this one was doing."

"Next time tell someone, Stanley. What did you find?"

"Nothing. She wandered around for a bit before she stopped here. She still smells pretty pissed off, though."

"Angry people can be highly suggestible, boss."

"And she would be an excellent source of info."

"I don't know." Shaggy said, thinking of Maya's Player status.

That made things trickier. But not completely a bad idea. If she was fed up with the HLO, they might be able to pull some information out of her. Although he wasn't one for delicate small talk. A tug on his mind brought him back to Stanley as the kid watched the bar over the ledge of the roof.

"I could give it a try, boss."

"Kid, she'd eat you alive," Rita said.

"He may enjoy it." Cekrass added.

"Hey! I can handle an angry woman, alright. Remember, I used to hang out with Mariposa?"

Shaggy tried not to snort as he remembered the angry seventeen-year-old girl. "This is a whole other ballgame, Stanley. Let me handle this. I'll be over soon."

"Uh… boss? Maybe you should swing around and grab Levy."

"What?"

"Just to be safe."

"The Mistress does have a better way with people." Cekrass nodded.

Shaggy tried to reach for some indignation, but found that he couldn't. So instead he simply pulled out of the Link and hurried toward the door. He could've jumped off the roof. But he didn't want to draw attention to himself. He needed to find Levy and then they could both go to the bar. His pack was right. She was way better at the people-thing than he was. Then if shit got shifty, he could do what he was better at. With a feral grin, Shaggy jumped down the stairs all the way to the street.