Shaggy was unsure how to use the white little cards. They didn’t seem to do anything at the main entrance, which pulled open easily enough. Once they were inside the bar-like front room of the brewery, he paused. He half expected a scanner or something to wash over them. But nothing. The dark room was quiet and still. Ephemara gave a quick grunt before she pushed her way past. She lead the way toward the entrance of the gambling room. Shaggy, Stanley, Vick and Cekrass followed along. Ready for anything.

Dee and Ulf were standing guard inside by the front door. White card in Ulf’s pocket just in case. Watching for more guests. They were to turn away everyone and if they didn’t want to turn back; the boys had free rein. However the two interpreted that was up to them. Shaggy just hoped the two could handle whatever tried to get into the building. The boys had orders to fall back if the Bunch showed up.

A bright light hit Shaggy’s eyes as Ephemara turned them down a staircase. He and his entire pack froze at the sight. Shaggy blinked away the spots from his eyes as he tried to look around. The staircase lead down to a dark wood door. It was lit on either side by dim orange light bulbs that cast the stairwell in very low-light. Shaggy raised an eyebrow at Ephemara, but she only shrugged. He sighed as they continued their walk down. Whatever had just happened must’ve been a part of the entry process. Either that or a picture was just taken of all of them.

They arrived at the bottom of the door, and Ephemara slammed a slim arm against the wood door. The thud resounded in the dark and Shaggy was sure she had hit the door too hard. But before he could reprimand her, a slim metal peephole slid open and a pair of brown eyes looked at them.

“All weapons should be discarded before being given access to this establishment. Your associate will turn over all of his weapons and they will be forfeited for not following the rules.”

“Yeah... No.” Vick grumbled as he looked around casually.

“Will you be coming out to get them or do we just leave them in this dinghy stairwell?” Shaggy asked.

The pair of eyes regarded Vick before answering Shaggy’s question. “All items will be dropped on the floor and then your party will retreat up the stairs. Once the items are secured, you can come back down.”

Vick shook his head. “Not happening, boss.”

Shaggy sighed and grew his claws. Looked like they were starting this party early. He threw himself at the wood door and braced himself for splinters. But his claws hit the door and skidded upward, drawing lines of shaved wood in the door’s finish. Shaggy’s face and body slammed into the door. It looked like he had tripped into the door and failed to catch himself. But Shaggy and his pack knew the truth. The door had put a full stop to his attack.

The pair of eyes squinted in glee as a deep chuckle came from behind the door. Shaggy growled and studied the door. It was obviously made of or braced with something that stopped his claws. He gave a mental order to Cekrass and Stanley, and the two stepped forward. The Quinica’s silver armor flowed over Stanley’s form as the slim boy and large lizard slammed their fists into the door. Two large divots formed in the door’s wood as it caved inward, but the door still stood. Shaggy sighed as Stanley and Cekrass readied themselves to punch again.

But a whirring from above brought all their attention to a downward-facing turret falling out of the ceiling. Shaggy growled a swear and threw himself at it as Vick opened fire. A loud thud sounded in the dark as Stanley and Cekrass hit the door and Shaggy hit the turret claws first. He sighed as his nails bit into the metal of the turret. But now he was hanging from his claws on the low ceiling of the stairwell, with a long-barreled weapon looking right at him.

WHIRRRR

The thing whirred to life as energy from Vick’s rifle bounced off it. Shaggy gave another mental order for Vick to focus on backing up Stanley and Cekrass. He would handle the turret. Shaggy pulled a claw free and started slashing at the metal of the turret, taking chips of metal off the thing. Unfortunately, he wasn’t fast enough. The laser turret came to life in several flashes of blue that Shaggy’s dermal plates seemed to absorb. That didn’t mean Shaggy didn’t feel any pain though. He grunted as he continued to slice into the turret, trying to cut something vital. The thudding of his two pack mates hitting the wooden door was broken by the sounds of a loud cracking.

“Through!” Cekrass shouted.

Shaggy grinned at the turret and jammed a clawed hand into its barrel as it fired. There was a flash of blue and Shaggy felt his entire front heat. A loud explosion filled his ears and Shaggy felt his entire body be thrown downward. He collided with the stairs and rolled over as he blinked and shook his head. Ephemara was patting his body as Vick opened fire through the door. Sounds of shouts and fighting came from in front of Shaggy, but his eyes were still filled with spots of white.

He reached into his pocket and grabbed a granola bar. Ephemara chuckled as the fighting grew louder.

“Well, we’re finally through the door. One turret is down, and you’ve already lost your shirt. Great start, boss.”

Shaggy chuckled, the act making him choke on his food. “Funny. Go kill some shit woman!”

“Thought you’d never ask, boss.”

He felt more than saw Ephemara leave his side as his vision slowly returned. Cekrass and Stanley were throwing down with a pair of gorilla-armed men in black suits as Vick gave them covering fire. Beyond the melee was a large red room full of tables and people, and Shaggy was sure he saw more guards approaching his friends. Ephemara was off doing her invisible thing, so Shaggy tossed himself forward as hard as he could.

He launched like a rocket as he felt his Pounce skill kick in. Shaggy aimed for the closest gorilla-guard and readied his claws mid-flight. He slammed into the man’s side with a surprising amount of force, sending both of them careening deeper into the gambling hall. Shaggy’s nails ripped through the man’s side and the guard went limp as they fell. Shaggy quickly kicked off the now-dead guard and altered his course to aim for another guard. He took the next guard in the side of his head and slammed his long claws through that one’s neck.

Shouts and gunfire were filling the casino now. But Shaggy ignored them as he spotted and threw himself at the next target. Like some kind of deranged koala, Shaggy leapt from guard to guard. Slicing at their faces and leaping on to the next one. He did it to five guards before a large tan blob of something gripped ripped him from the air. Shaggy felt the air leave his body as he was slammed down onto something. Shouts and cries rose, but a deep rumbling noise filled the air and it took Shaggy a few seconds to realize it was someone speaking.

“ExCuSE uS PatROns! WE HaVe SOME InSEcts tO SWaT!”

Shaggy stopped his head from spinning and realized he was pinned to a red felt table by a bubbling mass of something. His left arm and torso were covered in the stuff, but his legs were free. He looked around to see several guards and patrons staring at him. No, not at him, at the entity that was holding him. It was a flesh covered mass that roiled and shifted even as Shaggy looked at it. A face formed in the skin, teeth clicked into place where the mouth should’ve been, and random bits of hair appeared around the head and eyebrows. Shaggy gulped at the grotesque sight as an uneven and unsettling looking face grinned down at him.

“WeLCoMe To mY ParLOr, LiTtlE FLY!”

The dissonant pulsing of the creature’s words was punctuated with spittle and bits of flesh bubbling along the creature’s body. Shaggy reflexively lashed out with his free claw but the creature’s skin morphed and moved away from Shaggy’s hands even as it kept him pinned to the table. The thing gave an unhinged cackle as it formed a large, fleshed-colored hammer with the rest of its skin and raised it high above Shaggy’s body.

Everything in the room froze and Shaggy was thrust out of his body as the fleshy sledgehammer started downward. He took in the room, looking for anything that would help him. The room was a three story monstrosity that Shaggy was sure didn’t fit in the brewery’s basement. As he looked around, he realized it was a pagoda-style building. A large circular room with an empty center that climbed all the way to the roof. It was extremely wide and filled with gaudy red and gold tables that spanned from end to end. He was in the center of the room, pinned to a red-felt poker table, looking up past the second and third-floor mezzanines to the large red roof.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

All around him and his monstrous captor, people were fleeing in slow motion. By the door Vick was covering Stanley and Cekrass, who were still in an all-out brawl with dozens of guards. The pair were winning handily, but the sheer numbers would take them a while. He tried searching for Ephemara, but she was probably still intangible. All he found was a smoky outline of where his senses said she was. Near a caged room on the far right side. Shaggy tried to look in the room, but his senses didn’t know what was in there. So all he saw was a blank white room.

He went back to his own predicament and tried to find a way out. The fleshy monster was still bringing his sledgehammer-shaped appendage down on Shaggy’s prone body. His right arm was free and his legs were in the middle of kicking madly, but he was stuck. When he had attacked the creature, it shifted and twisted away from his hands. Shaggy was sure his enhanced claws would burn the soul out of the thing, but he needed to hit it first. The hammer inched closer to Shaggy’s face, and he still didn’t have an out. The best he could think of was to break the table he was lying on.

That being all he had, Shaggy focused on returning to his body and let it carry out his orders. He jammed his claws into the table and bits of wood cracked as he hit it. But the fleshy hammer finished the job as it smacked into Shaggy and snapped the table in half. Shaggy grunted as his body slammed to the floor of the gambling hall. But he noticed that the monstrosity had released him. Ignoring the pain, he rolled through the large wooden splinters and away the amorphous blob that was rolling away from him.

“StiLl AliVe?” The creature’s voice cackled through the room from an unseen face.

Shaggy slid back, putting some distance between himself and the creature. “Yeah, well, you’re pretty soft.”

“HahAHaHAhAhAHaHAha! Let ME SeE aBoUT MaKInG It HARD For YoU!”

As the creature stopped talking, a fleshy spear emerged from its body and shot right at Shaggy’s stomach. He stood his ground and let his plates take the spear head on. It battered into his bare stomach and Shaggy smiled before he heard a creaking in his midsection. His dermal plating was cracking. Swearing, Shaggy chopped at the flesh protrusion with his right hand. The feeling of slicing through rubber pulled at his hands even as a meaty bit of flesh fell to the floor.

“Yes!” Shaggy cried, unable to contain himself.

“YoW! Ow! ThAT HUrT!? HoW?”

Shaggy raised his claws and smiled as a green glow appeared on the creature’s flesh. But as the cut bit of flesh pulled back into the thing’s blob-like body, Shaggy saw it growing back. As the thing’s body roiled and moved, the cut was covered and then gone as waves of flesh appeared and disappeared.

“Oh, fuck.” Shaggy groaned as he realized the thing had healing abilities.

“YoU’lL pAY FoR ThAT!” the beast cried as it torpedoed itself right at Shaggy.

Shaggy used his Slide Move to dash quickly to the right and let the wave of flesh pass him by. As he did, he tried to rake his claws through the amorphous mass. He caught more flesh, and the thing screamed again, but it also wrapped its body around his arm and drug him into its formless body. Shaggy clawed and scratched at everything around him and the thing screamed and roiled even as it tried to squeeze his body.

Shaggy’s entire world went dark, and he was in a sweltering hot mess that smelled of sweat and blood. The light green glow from his claws grew as he tore and ripped at the bits of flesh around him. Each bit fell off the creature, and the thing screamed to high heaven even as it pushed inward on Shaggy. He felt his bones creak, and the air left his body as the thing kept pressing down on him. Air was getting low and he could feel his attacks getting weaker as his body was deprived of oxygen.

Hot air filled his lungs as he kept struggling. The creature was still screaming and healing from his attacks. Shaggy slowed, and he felt his claws recede back into his body. His breathing became shallow and haggard. He tried to kick and push against his fleshy cage, but it was no use.

Shaggy’s entire world went black and all he heard now was the sound of his own breathing.

“You’re a WEREWOLF, dumbass!” Shaggy’s brain screamed at him.

With a last burst of strength, Shaggy triggered his transformation and tried to remain conscious. He felt his skin shift and his body enlarge. His own body pushed back against the creature’s flesh as his feet and hands enlarged into giant paws. He felt his horns poke into the soft walls of his prison. The creature was screaming again, and that made Shaggy’s wolf grin. His snout enlarged, and his fangs grew long. He immediately started biting and clawing, his oxygen deprivation forgotten, as his new body did its best against their prison. Screams and heat surrounded them as they dug and dug.

Soon Shaggy and his wolf felt a burst of cool air and they clawed for it. The screams of the creature grew louder and louder until finally something popped. Shaggy blinked and found himself on the floor. His wolf was back in its cage and he was lying on the casino floor in his torn pants. He sucked in lungfuls of air as the sounds of fighting still echoed around him. He tried to focus on something, but his brain wasn’t having it. Shaggy barely recognized the sounds of his formless captor’s screams. But nothing else.

He tried to shift his claws, but even that wasn’t working. It felt like his wolf wasn’t responding and Shaggy felt that the damn thing was unconscious. He blinked and rubbed his eyes even as he moved away from the screaming blob monster. Shaggy tripped on a carpeted step as he tried to get out of the sunken floor. He barely had time to catch himself before a scream roared through his ears.

“WhAT HavE YOU DoNe TO ME!?”

Shaggy spun on his ass and looked at the creature. It was bleeding from various spots on it’s tan colored body. A sickly green glow covered various spots and Shaggy grinned as he noticed the thing wasn’t healing. In fact, it looked like the monster had gotten smaller. Bits of greenish flesh littered the red carpet, and the blob was trying to stick itself back together.

“Looks like you’ve fallen to pieces.” Shaggy slurred, still woozy.

“FUCK YOU!” the faceless blob screeched.

It’s smaller body lurched, and it launched itself at Shaggy. He tried to move, but his legs didn’t respond. Shaggy growled as the thing flew toward his face and readied himself for a respawn. But suddenly, a pale woman appeared carrying a large smoking canister. Ephemara threw her silver payload, then dove at Shaggy. The slim woman grabbed him and spun him around so his back was to the creature, using him as a shield. A loud POP came from behind him and Shaggy tried to turn, but before he could, some kind of liquid splashed onto his back and face. A burning pain screeched from his back up to the side of his face.

An unearthly howl of pain came from behind him and it echoed all throughout the casino. But Shaggy was in way too much pain himself to pay attention. He felt his healing go into overdrive as the burning liquid on his back seemed to slough off. Even the feeling on his face seemed to ease away. He glanced down to see a wide-eyed Ephemara staring up at him. She was crouched in front of him, using his whole body to shield herself. Shaggy raised an eyebrow as the pain slowly receded.

“What the fuck was that?”

Ephemara grinned as she looked herself over. “Liquid nitrogen from the kitchen. Dumb bastard practically ate it.”

Shaggy groaned as he realized his face and back were probably a mess. He glanced back down at Ephe. “How do I look?”

“Boss, I just saw part of your face fall off. I’m not looking at you again. Maybe ever.”

“You fucking did it! At least tell me if it’s healing.”

The woman gave a grunt before she cautiously looked at his face. She did a double take and Shaggy feared the worse. But Ephemara’s eyes softened, and she leaned forward. Shaggy tried to lean back, but his body was still not listening to him. Ephemara wrapped her arms around Shaggy’s waist and he thought she was going for an ill-timed hug. But then he felt her hands in his pockets. Her pale hands grabbed at his collection of granola and candy bars, and she jammed them into his chest.

“Eat these. Your skin is healing, but you still look like shit.”

“Ha! Fuck you, Ephemara.”

Shaggy grabbed the food and fumbled with the wrapper as Ephemara got up. But the voice made them both stop.

“If you’re both done flirting, there’s still a fight going on!” Stanley yelled angrily as he socked a black-suited guard in the face.

“Leave them alone, kid. The boss misses his wife, so he’s got to get some action from one of his side-pieces.” Vick called out over the sound of his rifle.

“WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU CALLING A SIDE-PIECE!?” Ephemara shrieked as she threw herself to her feet.

Shaggy ignored the argument as he got his granola bar open. He laid down on his front and started chewing. His back was still hurting. He was sure it looked fucking disgusting. He did his best to ignore the shouting argument going on from his pack as they tore into the casino guards. But Cekrass’ deep rumbling voice echoed around the hall as he stated.

“Mistress will return unhappy.”

“As long as she returns soon!” Shaggy cried back as he chewed on his granola. He couldn’t take raising these damn kids by himself.