A Werewolf In Under-Town

Shaggy used his clawed hands to grip the edge of the roof and used them to launch himself toward the next rooftop. He relaxed the mental finger he had on his Pounce ability when his feet hit the next roof and he rolled. Coming out of the roll, Shaggy kept running toward the edge of the new rooftop. Readying himself to do it again.

Beside and slightly above him was Levy. Speeding along on her floating staff like a witch on a broom. He wasn't sure when she had learned that. But there wasn't time to ask. They were both doing their best to keep a low profile as they moved. Which was more than Shaggy could say for their friends.

Dave was across the street on another set of rooftops, happily leaping over packs of buildings at a time. Below on the streets, Ren was charging like the Rhino-man he was with Slink on his shoulder. The very air seemed to vibrate as Ren's foots stomped the ground and Dave was practically cracking rooftops whenever he landed. Shaggy began to suspect that he WAS the stealthiest member of the Legion's founders after all.

"Vlad, dear." Levy said, reading his mind.

Shaggy grunted as he threw himself over to the next building. She was probably right. The vampire would be more stealth oriented. Which was going to be a big factor in keeping him alive. Shaggy's pack had reported that more of the black-suited soldiers had shown up all around the hotel. Rita reported seeing a slim, black VTOL aircraft zooming across the night sky. She hadn't seen another one since. But his pack was keeping their eyes peeled… from over four blocks away. Shaggy wasn't taking chances.

When they all realized Vlad was in trouble, they moved. But now, as they got closer to the large hotel in the distance, Shaggy wondered what the plan was. Thankfully, he wasn't the only one as the Two-Way on his hip beeped to life. Slink's shaky voice echoed out of the tiny speaker on the device, and Shaggy had to strain his ears a bit to listen.

"Dave, you and Ren are on distraction. I'm on scouting and Shaggy, you're on retrieval. Levy, if you could handle obfuscation, that would help us a lot."

"I know just the spell, Mr. Head of Logistics." Levy smiled as her staff pulled a little higher into the air.

Shaggy smirked as well. The kid had really become the brains of the group. A fact that would've shocked old Shaggy to his core. The boisterous idiot that had followed Shaggy and the others out of prison had come a long way. They even had a new boisterous idiot to compensate.

"So this distraction? Are we talking about a fire, an explosion, or maybe a fight?" Dave said as the sound of rushing wind nearly drowned out his voice.

"All three." Slink said. "I don't suspect the military will move to investigate. But so long as they look your way, we should be fine. I just need enough time to find Vlad. Then Shaggy can retrieve him."

"From now on, no one leaves without their radio." Shaggy grumbled.

"It wouldn't help him, anyway." Levy said. "These things are loud."

"It's past time we focused on a decent communication structure. Cell phones for everyone after this," said Slink.

"Hey, the out-of-game messaging system has been working fine so far."

"Unless someone ignores it, like Vlad is now, Dave!"

Shaggy growled as he flung himself toward the next roof. "Stupid moody vampire."

Surprisingly, Ren's deep voice defended their pale friend. "Leave him alone. He's had his dreams of a huge vampire cult smashed to bits. He's allowed to be a little moody."

"He should have been more selective with his choices then. Like I was."

"You chose the first group of NPCs you went on a patrol with." Slink cut in. "It was hardly a rigorous selection process."

"What about Stanley? Huh? Or Seth, or the bug brothers? All loyal, all quality choices."

"Technically, boss, I was an experiment." Stanley said over the pack link.

Shaggy sighed heavily as he chastised the boy and told him to maintain the perimeter. Shaggy's pack was getting antsy. They could smell a fight coming. But he wanted to make sure that didn't happen. They needed to stay hidden and keep an eye on what this new player was doing. Shaggy assumed they were military. But who knew?

Ren's stomping footsteps slow to a crawl and Shaggy slid to a stop on his roof. The blue torpedo that was Dave smashed down onto another roof. But didn't pop up again. Slink must have called a halt to things. Looking over the edge of the roof, Shaggy spotted the teen sliding off Ren's back. Up the street, Shaggy could see the bright lights of the hotel where the HLO and convoy drivers were staying. There was an oddly tense atmosphere around everything.

"Ren and Dave are heading east and then swinging north. Levy, are you going to be alright in the air?"

"Don't worry about me, kiddo."

Shaggy glanced up and watched his wife disappear into the night sky. The spell she was using was a good one, because none of his senses picked her up. Looking back down at Slink, Shaggy spotted the boy waving at him. He lifted the two-way to his lips and his voice echoed out of Shaggy's hip.

"Shaggy, swing around west and find a building to wait in. I'll get Curly to find you when I have him. Then all you'll have to do is follow the snake."

Shaggy unclipped the two-way from his hip and asked. "What about if we're spotted? Kill, Maim, or unconscious."

"Shaggy, please don't murder any military personnel? That's not a headache we need."

"Unconscious, got it," Shaggy said, snapping the two-way back onto his belt and jumping off the roof.

He landed with a loud thud in the alleyway. Then pointed himself westward and started running. His inner wolf wanted to lope and sprint across the shadows of the growing night. But Shaggy reigned him in. They didn't need that card just yet. He went four blocks over before turning southward and moving closer to the hotel's western side. Shaggy was within two blocks of the hotel when he stopped running and slid into a walk. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he scanned the buildings, looking for a good one.

Thankfully, he had a slew of choices to choose from. Closed bookstores, an all-night grocery, apartment complex, even a movie theater. Shaggy chose the bookstore and checked its emergency exit. A large alarm was connected to the door and Shaggy quickly clipped all the wires he could see before testing the door. When the door opened with the metallic snapping of its deadbolt and nothing else, Shaggy blew out a breath.

"First try!"

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Unless there's a silent alarm." Rita quipped.

Shaggy ignored the woman's negative energy and crouch-walked down the long hallway into the back of the closed bookstore. He quickly found the stairs leading up and followed them to the third floor. The third floor of the bookstore was surrounded by a floor-ceiling window that wrapped all the way around the building. Shaggy could see the hotel in the distance as he sat on the carpeted floor and waited.

No one had mentioned going radio silent. But Shaggy decided it was for the best. Slink's little snake would find him well enough. He didn't need to go announcing that he was ready or in place. Everyone probably already knew. So instead, Shaggy kept his eye on the eastern part of Abilene. He didn't know what Ren and Dave would cook up, but he reckoned it would be huge.

Shaggy didn't have to wait long, either. It was barely thirty minutes before an orange glow started to present itself over the eastern rooftops. The glow was accompanied by a plume of dark smoke that floated into the sky. As soon as Shaggy spotted the smoke, an eerie fog rolled in across the streets. Soon his view was obscured as grey fog crawled through the street, starting at the hotel.

"Mistress is powerful, as always." Cekrass rasped.

"If anyone gets eyes on her, make sure she makes it out of this mess."

"She doesn't need our help, Shaggy."

"I know that, Rita, but I'm allowed to be worried about my wife."

A general sense of resigned agreement came over the link, but Shaggy returned his attention to the view before him. He could still make out the black clouds of a fire as well as the muted colors of cops cars racing through the streets. Checking the carpeted floor for snakes, Shaggy was only slightly worried when he didn't spot any. So, sitting back on the floor, he waited.

It was another fifteen minutes before the hissing snake crawled up his hand. It took an enormous effort on Shaggy's part not to throw the sneaky fucking thing out the window. By the time he considered it, Curly was wrapped around his wrist and looking out the window. Cursing the creature in his mind, Shaggy ran down the stairs and back out the emergency door. When he hit the streets, the snake hissed again.

The emerald snake was hissing in the direction of the hotel. Shaggy moved his wrist back and forth across the street. But the snake's nose always pointed in the same direction.

"I get it," Shaggy said as he nodded to himself.

But Curly remained impassive as he hissed in the direction of Vlad. Shaggy took off at a jog through the fog. Unlike his other dealings with Levy's fog, he couldn't see through the grey stuff. Which meant that Levy probably just summoned actual fog to block the military. He made a mental reminder to congratulate his wife on a job well done.

Following the snake's quiet hissing, Shaggy bumbled through the foggy streets of Abilene. Thanks to his own senses, he could tell they were heading closer to the hotel. The various lights doing their best to beat back the fog. Being as quiet as he could, Shaggy kept one eye on the snake and the other on the way in front of him. Trying to keep a lookout for anything.

Which is why, when the sounds of fighting hit his ear, he dive-rolled behind a trashcan. Initially, he thought he was under attack. But when it turned out the sounds of energy weapons weren't being aimed at him, he popped back up. His little snake compass was pointing that direction, though.

"Vlad!" Shaggy hissed to himself.

Speed-walking toward the noise, Shaggy scented the air and got a plethora of scents on the wind. Smoke, fire, sweat, blood, ozone, even the fog had his wife's smell on it somehow. Zeroing in on the blood, Shaggy used to it find Vlad and the fight. Curly curled up even tighter on his wrist as Shaggy stumbled into a street fight happening in the fog. No one had seen him yet, but that was only because Vlad's mist-like smoke was adding to Levy's fog.

The vampire was rushing about the place, confusing and baiting the soldiers. Shaggy was sure they were soldiers now. They were armored in some swanky black armor that reminded Shaggy of the K-tech armor. Except this stuff was more heavily reinforced. He watched Vlad's claws bounce off the stuff twice. There were three soldiers standing back-to-back and rotating clockwise as they tried to draw a bead on the speeding Vlad.

"Delta-1, we need support! We've got a speedster!" shouted one.

"Deploying counter-measures!" shouted another.

Shaggy stepped further back into the fog as a green canister was tossed slightly ahead of Vlad. The canister exploded into pieces as a bright green goo splashed onto the street and sidewalk. Vlad dodged around the goo as best he could, but a tiny bit of it stuck to his misty form. Slowing it down noticeably. The soldiers took the chance to consolidate their fire on Vlad. But the vampire was still in his misty form.

Shaggy had seen enough and crouched low in the fog. Using Vlad as a distraction, Shaggy prowled around to the back of the soldiers before he pounced. He aimed for the one on the far left and planned to let his ability carry him all the way through the guy. What actually happened was he was stopped abruptly as his claws sank into the soldier's armor. The thick black metal seemed to grip Shaggy's claws, even as the soldier screamed in pain.

"Contact! Second contact!"

"Command, we have a secon-URK!"

Shaggy felt multiple fiery balls of energy slam into him and his skin burned hotter than anything he'd ever felt. He caught a brief glimpse of Vlad's smoky form dragging off another soldier. But the last one was unloading his rifle into Shaggy's back. Shaggy felt his skin burn away, and then his muscle as he tried to wrench his claws free. The soldier he attacked had gone quiet. But his armor had a death grip on Shaggy. So instead, Shaggy kicked out toward the last shooter, making him fall into the road.

With the reprieve, Shaggy's back began to heal, and he focused fully on getting his arms free.

"Shift them back, dumbass!" Vlad's voice echoed from within his smoke.

Shaggy growled as he turned his claws back into human hands and rolled back onto his feet. The armor briefly stuck to his fingers as he pulled away. The third soldier was getting his feet back under him. So Shaggy aimed a punch at the side of the man's head. The blow rocked the soldier back off his feet, but he rolled away from Shaggy and tried to bring his rifle up again. Shaggy dove at the soldier and avoided the wide blast of the rifle as it went off. Falling into the soldier, Shaggy pulled his head back and performed a falling headbutt that caught the soldier on his chin. There was a loud crack and a quick scream of pain before the soldier went quiet.

Shaggy snapped his own head back and shouted as the blow knocked him for a loop as well. These fucking soldiers were built tough. Reaching up to his forehead, Shaggy found a cut that was quickly healing shut. Normally when he head-butted things, they cracked, not him. He shook off the sudden wooziness from the blow and looked around. The one he had stabbed in the chest was laying motionless in the street and for a moment Shaggy panicked. Until he saw the green cross flashing on the man's chest. A readout on the soldier's chest armor was flashing with the guy's injuries. The same was for the second soldier Shaggy had knocked out.

The first soldier had multiple lacerations on his upper torso. Their armor's auto-injector was administering a sedative and healing accelerant. The knocked out soldier was receiving similar. Half of Shaggy was happy he hadn't killed the soldier. But the other half, the wolf half, was insulted that they were still alive. Shaggy placated the wolf as he looked around for Vlad. But all he heard was an odd sucking noise that was equal parts gross and disturbing.

"Wrap it up, romeo. We need to go and don't kill them!"

There was a suction sound and satisfied ahhh before Vlad hissed. "I'm not an idiot, Shaggy. I know these guys are soldiers. Besides, I'm not the one that skewered a guy."

"Well, excuse me for saving your ass. Also, this asshole is still alive."

"Jeez! These guys are fucking Tonka-tough!"

"I know, right?"

Vlad stepped out of the fog, tossing aside his human juice pack. The soldier hit the pavement with a meaty thud, and Shaggy glared at Vlad.

"He's alive!" Vlad stated again. "But he ain't going to be happy for a while."

Shaggy shook his head and waved for the vampire to follow him. But Vlad didn't move. Instead, he looked at his pale wrist to where another green armband sat. Larry poked his head up and scented the air. Shaggy brought curly up and found his snake doing the same. As one, both snakes pointed westward. Vlad shared a look with Shaggy until they both shrugged their shoulders. Trusting in Slink, the two of them followed the snake's directions off into the fog.