“So is it stuck like that or what?” Stanley asked as he approached the frozen mass of flesh.
Shaggy stretched his back out and shrugged. He did not know. The dumbass thing had swallowed the large canister of liquid hydrogen and its body had frozen. Large patches of dead skin were now on it’s frozen body. Although Shaggy was still unsure if what they were looking at was a corpse.
“Don’t know. But maybe you shouldn’t try poking it, Stanley.”
The lanky teen drew back his outstretched hand and gave an awkward smile. The rest of Shaggy’s pack were running around collecting whatever credits the first floor guards had on them. Ephemara and Cekrass were breaking into the casino cages with limited luck. Vick had collected the other two kids and drawn them back to the casino entrance. Now Shaggy was just healing and waiting to see if the flesh blob came back to life.
It was laying flat on the floor unmoving and whatever healing it had displayed wasn’t working. Apparently, frost-bitten flesh wasn’t so easy to heal for the thing. Shaggy could still tell his back and face were raw from the liquid nitrogen. But with the help of his snacks, his healing was keeping up. A loud snap drew everyone’s eye toward the northern wall where Ephemara was trying to pry open the door to the cashier area. The lithe woman was holding a piece of door in her hand and Shaggy thought, for a moment, that had been the sound. But as he watched, he saw a green tendril of energy snap out from the reminder of the door.
Ephemara quickly dodge away from the door as Cekrass charged forward. The big lizard slammed both fists into the metal door before he, too, had to dodge away from the magical defenses. Shaggy sighed as he waved for Stanley to go help the two. He didn’t think they’d have enough room to carry all the money back. But they had to get as much as they could.
Shaggy gave the empty first floor a last look. Wondering if any patrons were hiding in, under, or behind various card tables and drink carts. He shot a mental command to his pack to sweep the place as he made a beeline for the stairs. He figured they were done with the goons. If anymore were in the place, they were either cowering in the above floors or planning an ambush. Shaggy got back feelings of concern from his pack. But he knew they had to hurry. He didn’t think for a second the Wild Bunch didn’t have some way of contacting reinforcements. He silently placated the others as he rushed up the carpeted staircase.
He was on the landing between the first and second floor when a wave of something passed over him. Suddenly, raucous noise filled his ears and the sounds of slot machines and drunken patrons echoed around him. Shaggy raised an eyebrow. Where the floors separated magically somehow? He could still feel his pack on the first floor, but the sounds of them fighting the snapping door were gone. Replaced by people enjoying the night, gambling.
Shaggy climbed the second set of stairs and came face to the navel with a giant bipedal elephant in a suit. He had to crane his neck backwards to see the giant pachyderm humanoid fully. The gray-skinned hybrid glared down at him, and Shaggy couldn’t help but smile.
“Invitation?” The guard sneered.
Shaggy looked down at his shirtless torso and torn pants. He jokingly padded his chest before he glanced back up.
“I seemed to have misplaced it. Say, you lot haven’t heard any noises coming from the first floor, have you?”
One of the giant elephant-man’s massive ears twitched. “Noises?”
“Yeah, y’know. Screaming, pleading, fighting?”
The enormous guard said nothing as he placed a massive hand into his suit. Shaggy wasn’t sure what kind of weapon the guy was going for. But he wasn’t about to let the elephant get it out. Shaggy slashed both hands upward, summoning his claws and feeling them tear into fabric and flesh. The giant gasped as he was cut from stomach to chest. Shaggy’s claws even sliced through the hybrid’s hand as they traveled upward. He ripped his claws out sideways for good measure as he stepped to the side. The big brute was tilting precariously and Shaggy didn’t want to get trapped under the man.
Shaggy heard several gasps as he walked up the stairs and saw he had caught the eye of several patrons. Most of whom were seated at a nearby card table on his left. To his right were the slot machines. Their users were blissfully unaware of the recent murder on the staircase. But more and more card players noticed the short, half-naked man at the top of the stairs.
Shaggy gave them a jaunty wave with a clawed hand before he shouted.
“EXCUSE ME! COULD ALL NON-AFFILIATED INDIVIDUALS PLEASE VACATE THE FLOOR?!”
Shaggy cleared his throat as he finished screaming. He was sure he was heard over the tumult of the crowd. Just by the way several more people glared at him. But the slot machine crowd, again, ignored him. Shaggy shrugged as he got ready to charge the nearest card dealer. But a voice shouted back. This one with an odd accent.
“An’ who might you be? To be askin’ our fine patrons to leave? You must be right loony, to think anyone was goin’ follow that little order, mate.”
Shaggy winced visibly as he heard the voice and now all the noise on the second floor had quieted down. Even the slot machines. Shaggy looked around for the voice’s owner but couldn’t see beyond the packed floor of well-dressed gamblers. He was about to shout back when a man with green hair stepped from the crowd. He was wearing a brown leather jacket and had on beige cargo pants. Shaggy could see various knives and daggers strewn across the man’s body on bandoleers. To Shaggy’s surprise, the odd-looking man did a double take as he spotted Shaggy.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Oh! Now wit eyes like that, I’d say you're a playa, mate. What’s the likes of you doing round here, huh? This ain’t the place for no wannabe Hero.”
Shaggy felt a headache coming on as he waved a hand back and forth. “No. Hold on. What the hell is that accent you’re going for? It sounds terrible.”
“Oi! Screw off, mate. This is a 100% accurate Australian accent. I practiced meself, I did.”
Shaggy widened his eyes and shook his head. Like he was trying to shake off an unpleasant sound. “Yeah. I need you to log out immediately and go apologize to Australia. Like, right now.”
“Hey, fuck you, man!” the green-haired man said. Accent slipping. “I practiced really hard on this persona, y’know? I don’t need some short fuck coming in here and giving me shit.”
“What you needed were friends that would stop you from attempting that nonsense.”
“Get bent! It works great with my power.”
“Oh lord, please don’t tell me you throw a boomerang.” Shaggy could not contain his eye-roll.
The green-haired man grinned, and his hand slipped to a dagger at his waist. “Not quite, mate.”
Shaggy snorted and crouched low, ready to pounce. Patrons cleared a path between them and Shaggy was sure he heard people exchanging money. These people had problems. Green-hair went for the dagger and Shaggy pounced. There was a flash of silver and Shaggy felt the knife clink off his dermal plates. Shaggy delighted in watching green-hair’s eye go wide as he sailed toward him. But then Shaggy blinked and the other player was gone. He slid to a stop and looked around, trying to find the man. A whistling made Shaggy spin around to find the green-haired bastard twirling a dagger and grinning.
“You know, you’re that doggy drongo. Aren’t ya mate? The one all over the forums. The one that messed wit that bald fella?”
“Cog?”
“That’s the guy. I thought you was a right proper criminal, man. What are you doing bustin’ up a gambling ring?”
Shaggy shrugged. “My crew has beef with the Bunch. So we thought we’d hit them.”
Green-hair stopped twirling the knife and tsked his teeth. “Thas a bad rap, mate. Ya couldn’t have chosen a worse target. Once the Blob gets a hold of ya, you’ll wish ya never picked this dust-up.”
“You mean that mass of flesh downstairs? Yeah, we met. He's... out cold right now.”
The man’s green eyebrows rose in surprise. “Strewth! Now that’s a surprise, y’know…”
Whatever the other player was going to say was cut off as a speaker crackled to life on a nearby wall. “Mr. Bartle, you are not paid to talk. Please eliminate the intruder at once. We still have other rats downstairs that need handling.”
Bartle grit his teeth as he waved his knife. “Right. Sorry Mr. Alan. I’ll handle this interloper at once.”
“Big boss?” Shaggy asked.
“For the casino.” Bartle answered, accent gone again. “But I’m pretty sure he answers to someone else. But like he said, I get paid to eliminate threats. So you got to go doggo.”
Bartle threw his knife again. But this time, Shaggy stayed where he was. The knife smacked into his chest and fell to the floor while Shaggy maintained eye contact with Bartle. The other player grinned as, before Shaggy’s eyes, the guy disappeared. A fist slammed into Shaggy’s chin and he was thrown off his feet and backwards slightly. Shaggy felt his jaw click back into place as he rolled back to his feet. He was happy to see Bartle clutching his right fist.
“Goddamn. Your head’s a cement block, dude.”
“Not quite. Teleporter?”
Bartle grinned, but said nothing as he grabbed another dagger from his vest. Shaggy rolled his eyes as he readied himself. The same thing was going to happen. The knife would hit and Shaggy would dodge the teleporting punch. Shaggy got his claws ready. But Bartle’s throw went wide, the knife sailing over Shaggy’s shoulder. Several patrons shouted in alarm as the knife sailed into them. But Shaggy just gave the other player a confused look.
“Ok, what the hell’s the plan here? Are you just going to…”
Bartle disappeared in the middle of Shaggy’s sentence. Shaggy looked around for another attack, but nothing was coming. A gasp from behind brought him around in time to see Bartle take the place of his still flying dagger. The dagger must have curved back around, because it had been heading right for Shaggy’s back. Now Bartle was there, both legs outstretched in a flying dropkick. Shaggy ate the kick in the chest and rocked back on his feet. Bartle hit the ground and rolled away, popping up near the slot machines.
“So you take the place of your flying daggers. Not a bad ability.”
Bartle grimaced. “And you’re tough as hell and have long ass claws. What the fuck?”
The green-haired player shook out both legs as Shaggy shrugged. “I’ve invested a lot of points. What can I say?”
“Yeah, well, some of us have only had to bounce a couple of drunk NPCs. We can’t all be out there risking prison to gather Evo Points.”
“I feel like you think that’s my fault.” Shaggy snickered. “But any gamer can tell you: you gotta risk it if you want that biscuit.”
Bartle scrunched up his nose. “That’s a weird-ass saying.”
Shaggy shrugged as the sound of thudding footsteps signaled the arrival of more hybrids. More black-suited elephant and gorilla men rushed down the stairs behind Bartle and the player grinned at Shaggy. Bartle extended his arms and cackled like a mastermind.
“Seems like my stalling tactic worked. You are now at the mercy of the Wild Bunch security team. You should’ve surrendered when you had the chance.”
“There’s no way that was your original plan. I call bullshit.” Shaggy said as more footsteps came from the staircase behind him.
“Fuck you! Of course, it was my plan. My power works best when I hit people from the side or behind. You just… FUCK!” Bartle screeched as Shaggy felt his pack slide to a stop.
“Jeez boss. You aren’t done yet?” Ephemara sighed dramatically. “This is going to take all night.”
“Shudup. The green-haired one is real squirrelly, okay? Besides, don’t act like you’re not having fun.”
Vick snorted. “Not to mention all the money we’ve gotten.”
Shaggy gave Bartle a feral smile as he grew his claws again. The green-haired player drew another knife as he nervously looked around. Shaggy thought he could smell the fear emanating from the room. The Bunch guards readied their fists as Vick’s rifle hummed with energy. Stanley and Cekrass cracked their knuckles as Ephemara disappeared. Shaggy almost howled as the two groups charged at each other. The patrons finally diving for cover. Their various winnings forgotten.