“So… Branka is the animal girl?” Shaggy scratched his head as he looked around at the different teens.

Campfires were lit in the empty plot of land in front of his log cabin. Grills stolen from the supermarket were lit and cooking whatever meat and vegetables they could find. Stews were being brought to boil in pots hung over fires. Shaggy almost chuckled at the rustic feeling everything gave him. Most of the teens seemed to shake off the battle and were now celebrating in small groups around the clearing. Shaggy and his pack were cooking and eating their own portion of food, along with Vance.

It was only after they returned to the cave that Shaggy realized the old man hadn’t gone up with them. When questioned, the old Werewolf shrugged and muttered something about it not being his job to fight Shaggy’s battles. Shaggy glared, but chalked it up to some weird game-balance thing. Besides, the old bastard more than made up for it by having some food ready and waiting.

“No.” Rita corrected. “That’s Isabel. Branka can climb on walls… or any surface, really. She’s not really a fan of the power, though. But she makes do with what she has.”

Shaggy nodded as he filed the image of the tall, muscular brunette away in his mind. Then he started looking for Isabel again. She was only a little smaller and clearly an alien of some form or another. But she certainly didn’t look like a young lady that could shapeshift parts of her body. He tried to memorize the features of the two ladies as he listened to Stanley point out a few of the other kids.

“Then that’s Heru. He can… well, he can blow wind?”

“Blow wind?” Vick asked as he stirred a pile of beans around on his paper plate. “Like exhaling really hard?”

Stanley shook his hand back and forth in a ‘kind of’ gesture. “He can actually blow people off of their feet. But he runs out of breath real quick. He claims to have tipped over a car once. Although none of us were there to see it.”

Sybil shared a look of disbelief with Tom. But the pair said nothing as Stanley pivoted in his seat. Once he found who he was looking for, he waved his Spork at a nearby fire. Three boys were seated around the campfire, looking smug and drinking. Shaggy recognized them from the melee with the Quinica.

“That’s Dragan, Seth, and Ulf. They claim to be brothers, but no one is sure if that’s true. Dragan can shoot this glue-stuff from his hands. Ulf creates weapons and Seth is a speedster. Although he doesn’t really have that much stamina.”

Shaggy nodded. “I caught them during the fight. Seth seemed to have a hard time, but Dragan and Ulf were doing pretty well.”

Shaggy took the three in again. Dragan was tall, but muscular with olive-tone skin and looked fairly human. Meanwhile, blonde-haired Seth was on the shorter side. Also, Shaggy was sure he saw flashes of sharp teeth as the kid spoke with his brothers. Then there was the red-haired Ulf. He was somewhere in the middle, but just as muscled as Dragan. Shaggy could see why no one would guess the three were brothers.

Stanley's voice brought Shaggy back around to see his newest pack member pointing toward where Mari was laughing with her friends.

“Those two are Rue and Dee. She can emit electricity and he has some low-tiered Super-strength.”

Shaggy was already familiar with the mousey brunette and the dude with bright red hair. But he had told Stanley to go over all the powered teens that were in their group. It was nine so far, eleven if you counted Louis and Mari. Which wasn’t bad with nineteen teens all together. But that meant that eight of them were currently unawakened. Shaggy was also shocked to learn that the youngest of them was fifteen. He was sure he had seen a few younger brats running around. But apparently not.

“That’s it for the powered, sir… uh, boss.” Stanley said, still tripping on how to call Shaggy.

Shaggy ignored him and nodded as he bit into his food. He waved for Stanley to go on as he chewed. The lanky boy nodded as he pointed out the rest.

“The others are Gabe, Petri, Otto, Nate, Yelena, Camilla, Nisha, and Akie. Although Akie’s powers just came in. As we saw upstairs. Some kind of bubble defense thing.”

“Forcefield projection.” Rita said as she turned to regard the short young woman.

She was happily sitting around a fire, creating little blue bubbles that stuck in the air. The surrounding people all smiled and tried to break the bubbles. Shaggy was surprised that the little things could hold up to a surprising amount of force. But he also noted that Akie’s friend from up top was sitting at a different campfire, looking sullen. Shaggy raised an eyebrow as Rita turned back around and caught his eye.

“Yeah, there’s some complicated feelings going around.”

“Anything that’s going to be a pain in the ass?”

“Not if we can get the rest of the kids to awaken. It creates a weird divide between our forces. Those without powers feel like they are useless compared to those that do.”

Shaggy grunted as Vick asked. “I don’t suppose it’ll help to tell the kids that they are all useful in their own ways?”

“But they ain’t.” Tom said gruffly, earning him a smack from Sybil. “What?! The ones with powers can fight better and are tougher. Everyone knows once you get a mutant power, it strengthens your whole body. So even if you have a shit power like that Branka chick, you’ll still be more useful than a Mundane.”

Shaggy rubbed his forehead and pointed his plastic Spork at Tom while looking around at his pack. “He doesn’t interact with any of the kids.”

His pack all nodded at him as Tom huffed. Shaggy took in the clearing and noticed that there were some clear groups formed around powers. It was going to be something he had to manage. He didn’t need his forces splitting because of some damn social nonsense. But first, he would have to raise his loyalty to a lot of them. It took him a while to find all the kids on his Lackey tab in his menu and once he did; he had to filter out a bunch of nonsense. But now he had a clear picture of what names went with which kid. But it also didn’t look good when their Loyalty percentages were laid out in front of him.

Lackeys

* Rue – 34%

* Dee – 32%

* Stanley – 55%

* Dragan – 28%

* Seth – 35%

* Ulf – 26%

* Gabe – 39%

* Petri – 34%

* Heru – 28%

* Otto – 36%

* Nate – 30%

* Yelena – 37%

* Camilla – 30%

* Nisha – 39%

* Isabel – 38%

* Akie – 45%

* Branka – 32%

* Louis – 56%

* Mariposa – 60%

Shaggy grimaced. Barely any of them cracked fifty. Shaggy was surprised that any of the kids had even stayed. But he surmised that most were staying out of sheer need. They literally had nowhere else to go. A few probably stayed because of Mari and Louis, too. It was really only those two and Stanley that were at least fifty percent loyal. Which made a kind of sense. They were the ones he had interacted with. Hell, he had elevated Stanley from Mundane to a powerhouse in the span of an hour. That was probably worth a couple percent here and there.

But he needed to meet the troops. Go out and do some glad-handing. Maybe see about trying to awaken a few of them. But they also needed to take it to the Bunch. That bunch of animals had sent the Quinica right at them. They needed to respond in kind, if not harsher.

“Do both.” Cekrass rumbled behind his steaming coffee cup.

Shaggy raised an eyebrow at the big guy. Cekrass swallowed his drink and gestured around with his cup.

“Take the foundlings on a few patrols with you. Train and build camaraderie. We can defend our home.”

Vick nodded. “We can also keep training the ones that stay behind. Maybe find some work to make everyone feel useful. Not everyone can fight. But wars aren’t won by just the soldiers.”

The others, besides Tom, nodded in agreement. Even Vance. Shaggy looked at the older man and cocked his head to the side. He was wondering how long the guy was going to stick around, but didn’t want to ask. But his fears were confirmed as the old Werewolf nodded.

“Yeah, it’s past time I get out of here. I have other charges to visit and other matters to attend to.”

“Like what?”

“Never you mind, that’s what. Just know that I’m going to be keeping my ears open for any news about you bunch of pups. So try to keep your noses clean.”

Shaggy chuckled. “Hehe, we’re about to go to war with a gang not that far from downtown Austin. I think we are going to be making some waves.”

“We’ll probably have worse than dirty noses, too.” Rita grinned.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Bah! If you lot knew what was happening with Austin as a whole, you’d realize how little all this gang stuff matters. But don’t let that stop you. Go do what needs doing. I’ll be watching.”

Vance dusted his jeans off and stood. Grabbing a plate full of meat, as he did. Shaggy shook his head and tried not to imagine what the old Were was talking about. He had enough on his plate as it is. Instead, he just waved the old man off and finished his own food. Cekrass had made a good argument to take the kids out and after what Shaggy had seen topside. He was sure the kids were ready for it. But for now, they needed to rest and recuperate. Also he wanted to at least walk around and talk to everyone. He knew just where to start, too.

He gave his pack the mental order to mingle as well. They all stood, although Stanley looked a little lost as to what to do. But Sybil grabbed him and led him toward another fire pit. Rita headed for Akie and her crowd, while Cekrass and Vick found their own groups. Tom had done his vanishing thing and Shaggy was sure the slippery man was ignoring his order to the best of his ability. Shaggy aimed for Dragan’s group and walked as casually as possible. But he still drew a few looks. Most were curious, but a few seemed oddly fearful. Not Dragan, apparently.

“Look who’s decided to grace us with his presence. It’s his majesty come down from on high to speak to the peasantry. To what do we owe the honor?”

Ulf chuckled as Seth looked a little worried. Shaggy grinned back at the taller teen. He could appreciate a good ribbing, but his inner wolf seemed a little annoyed. Dragan and Ulf were two of the lowest in Loyalty and apparently that equated to some snark. So it made sense to speak with these two first. Seth would be a bonus. But he also didn’t want to appear weak. So he sat next to Dragan and gave him two firm slaps on his back. Dragan bent forward from the force of the hits and almost folded in half. Seth’s face went pale as Ulf conjured a red mace in his hand.

“Just wanted to see what the common ramble was up to after our battle.” Shaggy chuckled as Dragan sat back up, sucking in lungfuls of air.

Shaggy glared at Ulf until the red mace went away. The red-haired teen glared back but didn’t make another move as his brother caught his breath. Shaggy took in the trio as Dragan continued to get his breath back.

Seth was clearly the youngest and seemed the most afraid of him. He was also wearing pants and a shirt that hung loosely on his slight frame. Shaggy guessed that they were hand-me-downs or stolen. Meanwhile Ulf, the clear middle child, had clothes which seemed too tight, although with the stocky boy’s frame that might have been intentional. Something to show-off his large arms and torso. Dragan, on the other hand, was the closest approximation to a wanna-be biker. Black leather jacket, blue jeans and some heavy duty boots. Shaggy chuckled as he noted it was the same thing Vance wore.

“What are you laughing at?” Dragan coughed out as soon as he had the breath.

Shaggy shook his head. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing. How are you boys doing? I saw Seth got himself into some trouble there for a bit.”

Seth’s cheeks went red as Ulf chuckled. “Yeah. Mister ‘Who needs to exercise?’ bit off more than he could chew during the fight. But we handled it. D is a pretty good speedster deterrent and I can whomp with the best of them.”

Shaggy quirked an eyebrow. “You tried Rita yet?”

Ulf sputtered. “I...I.. mean… Uh… no. No, I haven’t. But that wouldn’t be fair. She’s an amped up Werewolf and I’m just a standard Mutie.”

“Don’t say that word,” Dragan growled.

Ulf waved him off as Shaggy watched the exchange. Most players had caught on that Mutie was a derogatory in some circles. He made a mental note of Dragan’s distaste for the word before he responded to Ulf.

“That hardly matters. We’re going after the Wild Bunch. Do you think any of them are going to be an easy mark?”

Ulf shifted in his seat before he shook his head. “Probably not.”

“But that’s hardly the point.” Dragan cut in. “You lot haven’t exactly been around much, have you? All you do is order us around and then disappearing for hours on end.”

Shaggy shrugged. “We got shit to do. We are trying to make a foothold for our people back in Under-Town.”

“Pfft. Looks more like you’re making a love nest for you and your bitch.”

Shaggy’s backhand sent the teen tumbling end over end. Dragan’s body rolled for almost five feet before the back of his head slammed into the ground. Shaggy gave Ulf and Seth a withering look as he stood and walked back toward Dragan. He placed a foot on either side of the kid’s chest and looked down. Shaggy had made sure that the blow caught the kid in the chest and tried to regulate his strength. He wasn’t trying to kill the kid, but he also wasn’t about to let some punk badmouth his wife. If anything, he had been far kinder than Levy would’ve been. Shaggy slapped Dragan a few times, trying to rouse him.

A rush of footsteps brought Shaggy’s head around in time to meet a large red claymore. The construct hit him full in the cheek and stuck there. Shaggy raised an eyebrow as he felt the bite of air hit the cut on his face. Ulf’s constructs were pretty tough, apparently. Shaggy caught the stocky teen’s eyes and grinned. Ulf gulped as he removed his sword from Shaggy’s cheek. Shaggy continued to stare at the boy until he heard Dragan coughing beneath him. He turned to regard the boy.

“So… What did you learn?”

It took a few more seconds as Dragan slowly came back to his senses. When he did, he glared at Shaggy. “That you're the king of cheap shots?”

Shaggy grimaced. “Okay then. I am going to hit you again. Are you ready?”

Before Dragan could respond, Shaggy slammed a fist into his chest. He concentrated on keeping the strike as low-powered as possible. He wanted an example, not a corpse. Shaggy heard Ulf shift his feet again and glanced up. The red-haired teen was glaring at him, still holding his claymore. All around, Shaggy saw the other teens looking on in shock. Shaggy sighed.

“I’m not letting you kill him.” Ulf growled.

“HA! I have no intention of killing anybody. However, if you insult my wife, I’m going to punch you. That’s just nature. Although you should know that if Levy had heard what he had said, he WOULD be dead. And there would be nothing you could do to stop her.”

Ulf sighed, but seemed to nod. Movement at Shaggy’s feet brought his fact back down to Dragan. The boy was waiting with both of his hands outstretched, and Shaggy had just enough time to back up before two streams of clear liquid shot into the air. They crisscrossed right where Shaggy’s face had been and then fell to the dirt, clumping in long lines of goop. Shaggy wrinkled his nose.

“Is that super-glue?”

“Hack… yeah. Or at least a stronger variant. It can hold someone in place for hours. It’s the best I got right now.” Dragan coughed.

“Right now?”

The leather-clad teen pulled himself into a sitting position. A blur of motion went by Shaggy’s face and suddenly Seth was next to his older brother with a water bottle. Dragan thanked him and took a long pull from the bottle. When he was done, he looked back at Shaggy.

“Yeah. When I first awakened, all I could do was white glue. Not the good kind either. The sticky stuff people used to buy for craft projects. It was useless.”

Shaggy nodded. “But you stuck with it and now you're up to super-glue. What’s next? Industrial adhesive?”

“No idea. But I can feel like I’m close to a breakthrough.”

Shaggy nodded and looked over at Ulf. The teen was watching the byplay between Shaggy and Dragan. But when he caught Shaggy’s eye, he dismissed his sword. Shaggy nodded and walked back toward the brother’s fire pit. Ulf helped Seth and between the two of them, they got the older brother back to the fire.

“What about you, Ulf? All you got are melee weapons?”

Ulf grumbled before he answered. “I can do shields, too. But so far none of the ranged weapons I make stick. The bullets fade or the arrows disappear mid-flight. It’s annoying.”

“Better than being the world’s slowest speedster.” Seth said, speaking up for the first time.

Ulf gave his younger brother a side hug as Dragan glared at Shaggy. Shaggy thought for a moment the teen was still sore about getting smacked. But Dragan proved him wrong.

“Why do you care? What’s with the questions about our powers?”

Shaggy shrugged. “You are part of the crew. Which means I want to know what you are capable of and how I can help you improve. The stronger you are, the stronger my gang is.”

“YOUR gang?”

“Yeah,” Shaggy grinned at Dragan. “You didn’t still think you were working for Louis, did you?”

“Nah, but this bunch hasn’t seemed like much of a gang. More like a holding space for your meat-shields.”

Shaggy tapped the spot on his cheek Ulf’s sword had cut into. The nick and scar were long gone. “Does it seem like I need meat-shields?”

All three brothers looked at each other before shaking their heads. Shaggy chuckled.

“Hehehehehe. Don’t get me wrong, I had no intention of starting a topside crew when I came up here. In fact, I was trying to work an in with the local police department. But that went sideways and now we’re down here.”

Dragan laughed. “HAHA! So now what’s the plan?”

“Cement our power-base, get some cash flow going, and then link up with our Under-Town counterparts. Hopefully, when my wife gets back, she and her witches will get us a portal to Under-Town and we can triple our manpower.”

“Bet the Bunch ain’t going to like that,” Ulf said.

“Don’t give a shit what they like.” Shaggy growled. “In fact, we are going to take it to them here real soon.”

Dragan cocked an eyebrow. “We?”

“Yes. We. My pack and I are going to grab a few of you kids and begin taking to the streets. Y’all are familiar with the area and you know the people. Those who don’t go will stay here and train or be sent on scouting missions. Maybe even a couple of you can look at our weapons and see if we can make them better.”

Ulf snorted. “Pfft. Those are K-Tech weapons. They’re the best in the biz. Especially with weapons.”

“Not really.” Seth whispered. “K-Tech is notorious for having shoddy power efficiency. Not to mention their wiring erodes almost twice as fast. It’s like they are designed to fail.”

“That would make sense. Why buy another gun from K-Tech if the first one last forever?” Said Dragan.

Shaggy, though, was staring at Seth with stars in his eyes. Could this be the kid that would help with outfitting their entire crew? They still needed an armorer or weapon smith for the crew. Seth saw Shaggy’s stare and shrunk in on himself. Shaggy smiled at the boy.

“So you know weapons?”

Seth shook his head. “Not really. Just some stuff I’ve read on the net. Most of which isn’t in favor of K-Tech lately.”

“But would you like to learn about weapons?” Shaggy asked, undeterred.

“I guess?” Seth shrugged. “Why?”

“Cause we need someone good with weapons and armor. What happens if something breaks down and we can’t fix it? We need someone to make armor, too. Powers can only get you so far.”

Dragan glanced around until he spotted Rita over by Akie. “What about Mama Wolf’s armor? Who made that?”

“Another snot-nosed brat with no loyalty.” Shaggy grumbled. “But he’s back in Under-Town. We need this base to be as self-sufficient as possible.”

Ulf chortled as he looked around. “Hardly a base. More of an underground forest.”

Shaggy shrugged. “Levy’s choice.” He returned to addressing Seth. “So you want the job.”

The small speedster looked equal parts excited and terrified. “But would that really be helping? I mean, isn’t a speedster more useful outside scouting?”

Shaggy shrugged. “You can do both if ya want.”

Ulf put a large arm around his skinnier brother. “Naw. You’d be great at it, Seth. Besides, imagine taking apart and rebuilding weapons with your speed. You could have us all outfitted at Super speed.”

“You have always picked stuff up quickly.” Dragan added.

Shaggy grinned and stood. “Okay, well, you guys talk that out. I have to make the rounds with the others.”

Shaggy sent a mental ping to the other packs members to rotate. They were going to chat with as many of the teens as they could before everyone went to sleep. Cekrass and the others moved as Shaggy looked around for his next target. Dragan put a hand out as Shaggy walked by.

“Listen… um… I’m sorry about everything. If you need someone for the patrol, let us know. Alright?”

Shaggy gripped the teen’s hand and nodded. He released and Shaggy immediately felt a sheen of sticky residue on his palm. Looking down, he saw Ulf and Dragan trying to hold in laughter. Even Seth seemed to choke back some noise. Shaggy looked down and grimaced at the palmful of glue he now had stuck to his hand. He took a deep breath and wiped as much as he could on the back of a now guffawing Dragan’s jacket. Ulf was also now laughing and rolling in the dirt. Shaggy sighed and walked away. The kid had gotten him good and in the grand scheme of things, it hardly mattered. They had bigger fish to fry tomorrow and Shaggy had a lot more kids to talk to. Not to mention he could make the little shit pay while out patrolling. Let him try that glue shit with a Bunch Patrol. Smiling to himself, Shaggy walked to the next campfire and ignored the mental giggling happening over his pack link.