Shaggy, again, thanked the game developers in his mind as he glanced around the small, round tunnel. Even without Ren and Tinsel’s makeshift torches, he could see fairly well. Although it was only in black and white. It was no worse than any other VRMMO. In fact, he thought he could see more. He could make out the shape and size of the new tunnel even before the others had joined him.
He had fallen a respectful distance before he landed in the rather enormous shaft. It was well over nine feet high and big enough across for both Ren and Tinsel to walk side-by-side. He gave a low whistle as the others joined him and he could see their agreement with his sentiment written on their collective faces. The tunnel seemed to extend both east and west, and after a quick debate, their group headed east.
As they walked, Shaggy monitored the tunnel’s walls. Just in case the dirt shifted and they would have to make a quick exit. But the walls seemed unnaturally sturdy, with little to no dirt shifting as they walked by. Even when one of the others brushed up against a wall, the compacted earth seemed to be as solid as concrete. Shaggy was about to put it down to the skill level of the infamous Con Crew when he felt the dirt shift slightly beneath his feet.
He glanced around at the others to see if they had felt it as well. But Tinsel was still leading Ren and Slink at the front of their group, telling tales of his career as a low-level Henchman for the other gangs. Ephemara and Blobby were in the middle of their group, following along quietly while adding the occasional quip to Tinsel’s stories. It was just Vlad and himself at the back of their little group, but even the vampire seemed to be distracted in his menus.
Shaggy glanced at his friends before he shrugged it off and continued to follow the group further down the tunnel. The ground had only shifted for a few seconds and the overall integrity of the walls seemed to be intact. But just in case, he calmed his breath and shifted his hands into his claws. The change was becoming easier, and he had almost mastered the zen-like state he needed to put his mind into in order to summon them.
He was never one to fly off the handle in real life, but the almost meditative state required to shift was new to him. He suspected the game was giving him a lot of leeway with activating his powers. Especially because of AGE Incorporated’s mix-up with his powers. There was no telling how much the glitch had set back his progress. Although he was doing fairly well for himself.
He really hoped whatever Sensei/Teacher that was supposed to come along and teach him about his powers would hurry. Whoever they were, they were supposed to contact the various Therianthrope players right after the Tutorial event. But because of the glitch, none of the Mutant Therianthropes got their ‘teacher.’
They had barely walked another fifteen feet before Shaggy felt the low rumble again. This time, he saw Vlad’s head pop up just as part of the wall near the vampire gave way. Shaggy dashed forward and, for the first time, he moved faster than the vampire player. A large grey slug-like creature emerged from the wall, circular mouth opened wide. Displaying multiple rows of teeth.
Shaggy quickly slashed downward with his claws. He felt a slight twinge in his hand as he contacted the creature’s teeth, but the rest of the large grub was sliced in two. The others turned around as Shaggy and Vlad glanced around at the dirt walls. Shaggy noticed that the hole the thing had leapt out of was now closed. A wall of dirt back where it had been.
“What the Hell was that?” Shaggy asked as he felt his hand heal the minor cut he had gotten.
Ren and Vlad both shook their heads, while Tinsel and Ephemara looked speculative. Blobby was their usual nondescript self. Slink was frantically looking at the tunnel walls as if they were about to come alive and eat him. Ephemara eventually snapped her fingers and raised a hand.
“Maybe it was one of those Cendentian Worms? There was a rumor that a crate of the things went missing from a UGB warehouse, right?”
Tinsel wagged his massive head noncommittally before he agreed. “That sounds right. But this thing looks too small. Maybe it’s a baby?”
Shaggy glanced down at the two foot long grey slug. He raised an eyebrow at Tinsel but said nothing. But the message was clear: If this was the baby, they really didn’t want to see the mama. Shaggy sighed as he shook green blood off of his claws.
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“So, do we have a destination? I really don’t want to be wandering around down here with those things.”
Shaggy saw Vlad and Ren nod in agreement. He was surprised that Slink hadn’t been more vocal, but a quick glance around showed that the teenage Alien was missing again. He was about to angrily shout at the boy, but he was interrupted.
“HEY! I think I found something!”
Everyone twisted around in the tunnel, looking everywhere. However, they couldn’t find Slink. They had to follow his constant shouting, which lead to a dirt wall further along the tunnel. Shaggy and the rest of his group started feeling along the wall until Vlad eventually found it.
Part of the wall was a type of hologram, or maybe magically enchanted. Shaggy didn’t know, but their group eagerly piled through the fake opening. On the other side, they found a grinning Slink in a large rectangular room. Shaggy guessed it was at least thirty feet across and went at least fifty feet back.
But the biggest jackpot, in Shaggy’s opinion, was the pile of crates stacked up in the back right corner of the room. Shaggy barked a small chuckle as he rubbed his hands together and started marching toward that side of the room. He felt the others turn with him, but he was stopped as someone grabbed his arm.
“Hold up.” Slink whispered.
Shaggy shot a questioning look at Slink. But the young Alien just raised a finger to his lips and then pointed down at the crates. Their group stopped and watched the crates for a short while. Shaggy was just about to ask what they were waiting for when several of those grey slug creatures crawled across the top of a crate. Shaggy wasn’t sure, but he thought he could see something in one of the thing’s mouth.
Ephemara gave a quiet groan. “Oh man. All the good stuff is probably gone.”
“Sure,” whispered Ren, “but we can still use the room. We just gotta evict the slugs.”
“Shouldn’t be too hard.” Shaggy said, transforming his claws and marching forward.
He felt Vlad flit up to his side, and he glanced at his pale Mutant friend. The vampire just gave him a wink and whispered.
“As co-leader, I can’t have you showing me up now, can I?”
Shaggy just snorted as the pair of them fell upon the grey slug monsters. Between the both of them, it was relatively quick work to dispatch the creature. Whatever they had gorged themselves on from the crate made them sluggish and easy to pin down. Although both Vlad and Shaggy were grossed out by the slimy residue the things left on their nails and claws, respectively.
Soon, the seven of them were standing in the center of the square room, taking in its four brown dirt walls.
“It’s not much.” Shaggy said.
“But it has potential.”
“Really Ren? What? You want to redecorate? A couple of throw pillows, maybe a TV news reporter?” Vlad chuckled to himself.
Shaggy and the others stared at the vampire, who coughed and shook his head. Shaggy thought he heard Vlad mutter something about ‘uncultured swine’ but he ignored it as he glanced around. The NPCs were going through the remains of the crates, trying to salvage what was left of them. He agreed that the place needed some work, but he didn’t think it was that bad either.
“But is this place even a hideout? What’s the criteria for an in-game ‘lair’ anyway?”
Ren chuckled. “Oh, there’s no way this will count as a lair. We would need a way bigger team and a way more space. But it might qualify as a hideout.”
“But how do we know if this is one?” Slink asked.
“Well, ahem, we have to get at least four players in the room and wait for a bit, and if the room meets the criteria, a hideout console will appear.” Ren said after a slight cough.
Shaggy thought the large Alien player sounded like he was reading for a forum post. But he and the others scanned the room a few times. He was about to think Ren was talking nonsense when Slink shouted out.
“Whoa! Is that it?”
They all turned to look just as a ghostly metal stand was phasing into existence. The small metal thing looked like a metal standing desk some people used at Shaggy’s old job. Behind him, he heard Vlad snort.
“Well, that sort of breaks the immersion, doesn’t it?”
“Oh leave it alone, Vamp.” Shaggy muttered as he walked over to the console.
Behind him, he heard Ren say. “Well, with that, this should be a logout spot for us now.” The large Perinadon went back into his menus before he smiled. “Yep. We can set this as a Home-point now. Which I will do right now. Also, I have to log, I have the night shift so I got to go. But I’ll see you all later.”
Shaggy glanced back just in time to see the large grey alien disappear. Vlad also looked like he was going through his menus, same with Slink.
“Oh, come on, you three are gonna leave me with all the base-building stuff?”
Slink just smiled as he muttered. “School.”
Vlad, meanwhile, shrugged. “Hey, if you want to wait for us, be my guest. But I have other commitments. I’ll be back in the morning, though.”
Shaggy sighed as he watched both of them disappear into motes of light. He was now alone, underground, with three NPCs rummaging around in random junk nearby. He scratched the back of his head as he glanced down at the holographic interface for their new hideout.
“Well, this can’t be too bad. How difficult can it be?” He said out loud as he poured through the various selections.