A Werewolf In Under-Town

Shaggy's transformation into his hybrid form wasn't even half down when he rushed forward. The oncoming swarm of six-foot tall metal robots was just too enticing. His inner wolf wanted to rip and shred through them all. As his senses sharpened and his muscles bulged, Shaggy noted that Merrick was flying by his side. The soldier was perfectly horizontal, his right fist outstretched in front of him. It only took Shaggy three long strides of his powerful arms and back legs before he hit the front ranks of the robots. He found it idly weird that some robots were faster than other. But then he was in the thick of it.

Green laser flashes were going off all around him as he ripped the joints out of the closest automaton. His skin flared up in pain and his fur burned, but Shaggy kept ripping the robots apart as they swarmed him. Soon, the flashes of the energy weapons were replaced with a deluge of fists smacking into his meaty hybrid form. The blows bruised his flesh but didn't quite reach down to the bone and the cover the robots surrounded provided was extremely helpful.

Then Merrick flew down and bowled over an entire row of the things right in front of Shaggy. Once their compatriots were out of the way, the back ranks of robots raised their laser rifle arms and opened fire. Shaggy growled in annoyance as his skin was once again lit up with pain. He dashed back into the melee, ripping arms and legs off as he went. The sounds of mechanical joints whirring and breaking echoed in his ears, and for a moment, Shaggy got lost in the fight. His wolf raged at the pain and flung itself fully into the fight. Shaggy felt his instincts go into overdrive. This wasn't a hunt or a worthy fight between equals. This was pest control. The destruction of something that wasn't even good enough to be prey.

Shaggy's mind snapped back to attention just as his teeth bit into a robot's arm joints. It wasn't the sounds of crunching metal or the way his mouth was bleeding that drew his attention, though. It was the sound of heavy wheels rolling across the dirt ground. Shaggy had just enough time to feel the fur on his body stand up on end before he threw himself out of the cluster of robots and back toward its edge.

The black SUV he and his friends had stolen cannonballed into the swarm of robots. A purple shield covering it. The robots scattered, and for a split second, the fighting stopped. Then the robots surged toward this new enemy as one. The back doors of the SUV were kicked open and several people rushed out. Stanley and Cekrass caught the blunt of the robots and started ripping into them with hands and claws. Vlad's blurry mist dashed toward a nearby robot and ripped its arm off. The vampire pointed the energy weapon embedded in the robot's arm at the swarm of robots and started firing. Maya flipped herself on top of the SUV and started firing her twin revolvers in all directions.

Shaggy growled to himself as Merrick flew over to him. A small smile marked the soldier's face and, for some reason, Shaggy wanted to hit the man.

"I see you are not the only heroic member of your group. It's a good thing I didn't dispose of you all when I first met you."

Shaggy response was to flex his massive claws in the alien man's face before he dashed toward the car. Cekrass and Stanley were a good job running defense. But if Shaggy was right, Levy was inside the vehicle, low on mana. He and his wolf didn't like that at all. With a mighty Pounce, Shaggy cleared the distance and slammed into a stack of robots. His claws slashed through every joint he could before he rolled back up to his feet and kept moving. The swarm of robots was still pretty dense, but Shaggy was sure they could see things through to the end if they all teamed up.

His back muscles spasmed as another green bolt of energy hit him and Shaggy angrily ripped a nearby robot's legs off. He tossed both halves of the robot in the general direction of his shooter. But kept his eyes train on the open back doors of the SUV. So far, none of the robots had gotten close. But that was surely only a matter of time. He sent orders to Stanley and Cekrass to keep an eye on the vehicle as he loped through the swarm of robots. His back legs kicked out at them as his front claws slashed through them. He circled the car two times before he had created a decent enough buffer between the SUV and the bots. Thankfully, Vlad noticed what he was doing and helped things along.

Unfortunately, that meant that now he was stuck in a no-robot zone all by himself. The flashes of energy weapons nearly blinded him as pain roared through his body once more. The robots had slowed their march toward the car to deal with him. Shaggy's wolf pounced them toward the bots as more of his skin was burned away. He hit a robot in the hips and kicked out its knee joint when the ground shook. Shaggy lost his footing and hit the dirt with a loud thwack.

As he pulled himself to his feet, Shaggy saw several purple discs appear on the ground. He spun his wolfish head to look at the SUV. But Levy was still somewhere inside. The ground shook again, and Shaggy rolled away from the bots as he looked around. The purple circles were glowing brightly as the robots froze to take in this unknown phenomenon. There were twenty circles spread out around the SUV and they were starting to bulge upward as Levy pour more power into them. The circles became cones as the bulges peaked and the purple magic flashed. A bright purple light blinded Shaggy, but he blinked away the spots as twenty massive zombies appeared on the field.

The K-Tech robots twisted their flat heads in confusion at the sudden appearance of zombies. But the zombies weren't so slow for once. They rushed into the robot's battering them with their massive arms and fists. The brute force of the zombies was surprisingly effective as Shaggy saw them cave in several robot chests. The zombies' punches and flashed purple as they hit him and the robots turned their considerable might toward this new threat.

Shaggy blinked at the sight of zombies fighting robots. But then he realized he was wasting an opportunity, so he used the moment to take stock. Vlad and Maya were firing at the robots from around the car as Stanley and Cekrass still raged on. A quick Pack Link check showed that both werewolves were in decent condition. But they couldn't hold out forever. As for himself, Shaggy's healing had taken a pounding. Hunger gnawed at his insides and his inner wolf was panting like an exhausted horse. Whatever the K-Tech robots were shooting took a lot of energy to heal.

Making a quick executive decision, Shaggy rushed toward the SUV and shifted back to his human form. He grabbed another candy bar out of his pants pocket and chewed it quickly as he peeked inside the car. Levy was inside, sitting in the lotus position. Her staff laid across her lap, its top glowing.

"Smart." Shaggy mumbled around a mouthful of food.

Levy cracked an eye to look at him but said nothing. Her meditative state was probably all that was maintaining her MP while she powered the zombies. He didn't know the exact math, but she was probably gaining it as fast as she was losing it. Which meant they needed to end things quickly.

"Shaggy!" Maya screamed from the top of the car.

Shaggy stood up on his tiptoes and then lifted himself up slightly to get a look at the gunslinger. The other Player was kneeling on the roof, using her power to strip the metal from the car and put it in her guns. When she caught his eye, she practically glowered at him.

"Get me some metal from one of the robots!" She shouted over the fighting. "This car is almost worthless against them."

Shaggy rolled his eyes but sent the order to Cekrass and Stanley. The teenager was the first one to rip an arm off and throw it to Shaggy. He caught the arm and passed it up onto the roof. The gunslinger quickly switched her power to the arm and gave him a nod of thanks. More arms and limbs came his way as Shaggy finished eating and tried to fighting Merrick again. The Super Soldier was still dive-bombing large swathes of the enemy. Ripping through them with each dive. Each time the back ranks of the robots became visible and Shaggy could see, they still had a long way to go.

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Sticking his head around the car, Shaggy spotted Vlad firing away with his purloined robotic arm and shouted.

"VLAD! We need to step it up! There's still a shitload of them!"

The vampire whirled on Shaggy for a second before a green blast of energy whizzed by his head. Turning to return fire, Vlad responded.

"Fine. But I'm keeping some of this stuff. What's the plan?"

"I don't know about you. But me and mine are going to wolf out."

"That is so cliché by this point, isn't it?"

"Hey! You don't mess with a classic."

Shaggy had to cut the conversation off as some of the robots had finally spotted him. Green bolts of energy rushed his way as he let the beast loose again. He sent the order to his two pack mates as well. But they were already shifting. With a momentary twinge of discomfort, Shaggy shifted into his massive four-legged form and looked around. His bigger form made him a bigger target, but thankfully the green and silver wolfs were also drawing fire. So he wasn't alone there.

"Rip and tear boys!" Shaggy sent over the link as he rushed back into the swarm of robots.

His massive paws slammed down on robots two at a time and crushed their housings under his weight. His jaws bit the things in half and his back legs punted robots into the distance. Concentrated streams of laser weapon's fire hit him, but Shaggy knew they were going to win this. His pack was destroying the things with the same level of ease and the end was in sight.

Shaggy tanked the energy bolts as he rolled his massive form across the battlefield. The zombies were now the least of the robot's problems and Shaggy's wolf practically preened at being the most dangerous thing on the field. Then the ground around Shaggy went dark as an enormous shadow was cast upon the ground. Whirling around, Shaggy batted away every robot as he looked for the source of the shadow. When he found it, Shaggy wanted to roll his eyes in contempt. But he had to admit, it was kind of cool.

Vlad was in the air above the SUV, his arms spread wide and his fangs out. Massive, blood-red wings undulated on either side of the vampire as he surveyed the battlefield. They flapped once, sending the vampire higher into the air. Once he reached the apex of his first flap, Vlad spun, and his blood wings seemed to expand. A twinge of something made Shaggy flinch as he felt that something stupid was about to happen. The next thing he knew, Vlad's blood-red wings exploded and rained down spikes of blood across everyone. Shaggy had just enough time to note that Maya was inside the SUV before the first spike hit him.

It was like getting hit with a blunt spear as Shaggy yelped in alarm. The force of the explosion sent hundreds of the spears into the ranks of the robots. Shaggy jumped back and told his pack to do the same as the K-Tech robots were battered into the ground. Vlad's little trick had hit a lot of the things. But it wasn't quite enough to end them. Once the red shower ended, the robots looked up as one to where the pale man had been. Thankfully, Vlad was gone, his wings clipped and his power most likely spent.

Shaggy gave his pack the order, and the swept through the remaining robots on the field. A small number of the robots were so damaged that all it took was a single paw swipe to finish them. With three werewolves and Merrick working together, they eventually swept the field clean. The brown and green grass was stained red and black now. Thanks to the oil from the robots and Vlad's ability.

Shaggy sent Cekrass and Stanley into the car to rest as he shifted back into his human form and took in the battlefield. Black robot parts littered the field and a few of the robots were still trying to move. It was going to take a while to clean everything up. Luckily, that wasn't his job.

A burst of air signaled Merrick landed at Shaggy's side. The soldier's fists were covered in oil and red scratches from punching robots. Shaggy looked down at his own wound-free hands and his inner wolf grinned.

"You and your friends need to leave." Merrick said, flatly.

Shaggy cocked an eyebrow at the man and opened his mouth to ask why. But then he heard it. The sound of vehicles in the distance. Their little tango hadn't gone unnoticed. The soldier was offering to take the brunt of the questions. Which was perfectly fine with Shaggy.

"I'm taking a bot," Shaggy stated.

Merrick looked across the field at the pieces of destroyed robots and snorted. Few were still in one piece. But Shaggy figured he could find enough of one to give to the boys in the lab. Their people in Under-Town would love a look at a K-Tech bot. The soldier gave Shaggy a brief nod before he floated up into the air. Stopping when his booted feet were above Shaggy's head, Merrick looked down.

"I shall find you in time. Maybe then we can have a proper chat."

"I completely look forward to that," Shaggy answered, at least attempting to mean it.

Merrick didn't seem to buy it, though, as he floated away. Ignoring the alien, Shaggy dove into the destroyed bots and grabbed what he could. Rushing back to the SUV, he had them open the trunk, and he threw in their prize. Vlad eyed him in an almost drunken stupor as Maya twirled her pistols. Their silver finish was completely different now. Now she was holding a twin set of black metal revolvers. She caught Shaggy looking at simply smiled at him.

Letting the gunslinger have her prize, Shaggy gathered the remaining pieces they needed for a complete robot and then tried to get in the driver's seat. Stanley was already there though and Cekrass had taken the passenger seat. Shaggy got in the back as Vlad and Maya jumped in. He looked over at Levy, but found that his wife was passed out yet again. Her staff wasn't glowing anymore, her head was lolled forward.

Shaggy scooted in close next to his wife and put her head on his shoulder. She murmured softly into his ear and cuddled closer. He yawned and his stomach gurgled loudly, drawing everyone's attention as Stanley pointed their car southward.

"We'll hit a drive-through, boss." Stanley said, looking into the rear-view mirror.

"I could eat." Maya said from the other side of Levy.

"We should all get something," Vlad slurred, sleepily. "Replenish."

"Big move take a lot out of you?" Shaggy smirked.

Vlad's eyes became more focused, and he glared over at Shaggy. "Hey! Some of us take pride in creating new abilities. We can't all just turn into a massive wolf and hit things."

"You're both crazy." Maya grunted. "No. Strike that. All three of you are fucking crazy. Levy went from no MP to summoning a score of amped up zombies. Wolf-boy was constantly being shot by weapons that could melt bone and the vampire created a shower of blood spears."

"Wolf-boy?"

"The Vampire?"

Shaggy and Vlad asked together, drawing a chuckle from the front seat.

"I'd watch that." Stanley said.

"Wolf-boy and the Vampire." Cekrass chuckled throatily. "Saturdays at noon."

Maya looked at the two NPCs with confusion, but Shaggy waved her off as he yawned again. Hunger and exhaustion were waging a war within him. Exhaustion was winning. Nestling closer to Levy, Shaggy almost closed his eyes. But a nudge from Maya kept him awake.

"Seriously. What the fuck have y'all been up to in order to level up that much?"

Shaggy opened his mouth to tell her to ask later. But Vlad interjected. His own tiredness apparently gone.

"Allow me to regale you with a Tale Of Villains, my dear Maya. It is not a short one and contains things you may not believe. But trust me. Everything happened just as I am about to explain."

Shaggy clinched his eyes shut hard. Willing himself to sleep faster as Vlad started with their meeting in prison. Shaggy, the lost and lonely outsider, and Vlad, the benevolent elder that took him under his cape. Darkness took Shaggy just as Vlad was explaining how he single-handedly dragged Ren to safety during their prison escape. Sweet, blessed, darkness.