“I’m telling you, he had a head like a piece of granite.” Shaggy said as he walked down the dirt street with his friends.
He shook out the fingers on his right hand and felt the bones pop as his index finger shifted back into place. He grit his teeth against the pain and glanced at the others. They had spent the past hour walking around their neighborhood on the lookout for any gangs or opportunities. It didn’t take long for them to find them. The block around the entrance to their Hideout was rife with various thugs and punks. Some of which even tried to accost them.
Shaggy thought that Ren would at least serve as an idiot deterrent, but it seemed the lesser gangs of Under-Town weren’t known for their intelligence. Over the past hour, they had to scrap with at least twenty idiots who thought they were some helpless civilians. The last group had included a Mutant whose head had the unfortunate luck to meet Shaggy’s fist multiple times.
“Let it go. At least you could do something. Moe couldn’t even pierce his damn skin.” Slink complained.
The young Alien had logged in just as they were ready to leave their Hideout. He had looked a little nonplussed and mentioned that his day at school was, at the very least, unpleasant. But he seemed to quickly shake it off, and Ren did his part to take the young man’s thoughts off of it. Slink was now helping them explore their neighborhood with the help of his three snakes.
Vlad wiped the blood from his hands with a handkerchief he had found somewhere. “At least you have stopped hiding every time a fight breaks out.”
“Yeah, turning down the pain settings seems to have made you braver.” Ren chuckled.
“Still hurts though an… and I smacked that last guy pretty good, right?” Slink asked, looking an odd mix of pained and proud.
Shaggy shook his head as the pain in his hand died down. “Sure. Ya did great. Now, do you think you can use your other snakes to scout around a bit? I am tired of getting ambushed by a bunch of wannabes.”
Vlad and Ren nodded their heads in agreement. Slink agreed and then stepped to the side of the road to focus his attention on the mental link he had with his three Alien serpents. Shaggy and the others ignored the odd moan Slink made when the snakes exited his body and took up positions around the boy to guard him.
Shaggy glance up and down the dirt road absently counting the number of metal and wooden shacks. He also noticed that most of the houses in their area were only a single story. The squat roughshod buildings didn’t really look like they could withstand a second story, though. Glancing upward, he squinted his eyes against the artificial light of Under-Town.
“Hey do we know how the lights up there work?” Shaggy asked.
He could feel both Ren and Vlad glance upward after he asked the question. Ren gave a contemplative grunt as Vlad said.
“No idea. Do we even know what kind of lights they are? Magical? Technological? I can’t really see them. They just look like a collection of light bulbs.”
“They wouldn’t be powerful enough with the ceiling of Under-Town so high, would they?”
Vlad shrugged. “Again. I do not know, Ren. For all we know, it’s just game logic.”
Both Shaggy and Ren shrugged before again lapsing into silence as they watched the street. Shaggy was about to ask another inane question when Slink gasped.
“Uh, guys. We have more incoming, and these guys look different.”
Shaggy was instantly alert, glancing up and down the street. He heard Ren ask for more information as he noted that since they had come back up from the Hideout; the streets had been pretty sparse.
“They all have matching colors and they are moving with a purpose. Right to our location. They’ll be here in a few seconds.”
Shaggy felt the twinge of pain in his hands as he grew his claws. “Well, let’s get ready to meet them.”
He, Ren and Vlad moved to the center of the street as Slink took position a little further back. The kid had thrown a few punches, but he was still pretty skittish. Shaggy turned in the street before he raised a questioning eyebrow at the kid. Slink blushed before he pointed westward to show where the gang was coming from.
Although the help was hardly needed as a group dressed in black leather with white accents turned the corner onto their street. Shaggy flexed his hands as he tried to spot the leader in the odd mix of Aliens and Mutants. Doing a quick headcount, he clocked eleven gang members all glaring at them with various looks of disdain. Although he saw a few widening eyes as they saw Ren.
Soon a pale woman with dark black hair stepped from the mass of thugs and sneered at them. She seemed to be taking her time taking them all in, but Shaggy wasn’t about to let them set the pacing of their engagement. He flexed his claws and raised a finger at the woman.
“What do you want?” He shouted, trying to throw as much swagger into the question as possible.
The sneer on the woman’s face didn’t leave as she cracked her knuckles and answered. “We want you fucks out of our territory! The Black Razors run this neighborhood. Once we get rid of them giant lizards in that old Faceless’ mansion, we are gonna be the next member of the Big 5.”
“Lofty ambitions.” Vlad shouted back. “How about this? You all surrender now and we’ll let you join our crew. We are the ones who will change the landscape of Under-Town.”
His words drew a couple of jeers from the various gang members and the woman’s sneer seemed to deepen into a dark scowl. Shaggy was sure a shouting match was about to kick off when he heard Slink gasp from behind him. He saw the woman’s scowl turn into a look of triumph as he turned to check on his young friend.
Turning, he saw a large purple Alien holding Slink by the head with a large black knife pressed to his throat. Ren roared in anger as Shaggy sighed and Vlad swore. Slink, for his part, looked more annoyed than terrified. The sound of movement made Shaggy turn back to the Black Razor group. They had moved in close and surrounded Shaggy and the others.
“Now you people are going to leave our turf. But before that, me and the boys are going to tune you up a bit. And if you try anything funny, my friend there is going to perforate that little bastard.”
Slink struggled ineffectually against the larger man’s grip as Shaggy stared into the faces of a bunch of sneering gang members. Shaggy took a deep breath and glanced up at the ceiling of Under-Town again. This was going to suck.
“Kill him.” Shaggy said. Making everyone turn to look at him.
“What?” the woman asked, incredulous.
Shaggy shrugged. “I said kill him. Seriously, go ahead.” Turning to Slink, he shook his head, adding. “Sorry kid, looks like you just got a raw deal.”
He spun in place, addressing the other gang members as Vlad stared at him questioningly, and Ren glared daggers at him. “But know this, you bunch of wannabe fucks! You hurt one of mine and I am going to make you pay for it in blood. I’m not just talking little beatings. I am going to peel the fucking skin from your body, rip your nails out of your hands and feet, and torture you so bad, that the next person to look cross-eyed at one of my crew is going to piss himself. So make your decision. Kill my friend and spend days in agony or let him go, and we can all walk away from this.”
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Shaggy saw a few pale faces amongst the crowded of thugs and even the woman seemed to question her next move. He spun his back to them and looked at his friends, all of whom seemed wide-eyed at his speech. Grinning like a madman, he mouthed the words.
“Too much?”
Ren slowly nodded as Vlad just grinned and waved his hand back and forth in a so-so gesture. Slink just stared at him, like he was crazy, but the big Alien shook the shocked look off his face and seemed ready to jam the knife into Slink’s neck. Shaggy shot a look at Vlad and shouted.
“Vlad! Go!”
The vampire took a fraction of a second, but he must have understood what Shaggy meant. Because the next second the vampire had disappeared and reappeared next to the purple Alien. His slim pale hand on the bigger alien’s wrist. Shaggy let out a breath and shouted a roar as he turned and dove into the pack of thugs. He felt the ground shake as Ren charged with him.
Shaggy felt an odd sense of satisfaction at the surprised look on the smug woman’s face as he drove his claws into her abdomen. He jerked his fingers as he heard Ren slam his fist into someone nearby and tore his claws out of the woman’s sides. She went down screaming as he turned to his next victim and quickly sliced through their chest.
He was oddly calmed as he systematically tore into the various gang members. He thought he could hear Ren shouting in rage as the Perinadon swung his massive fists into anyone stupid enough to get close. Shaggy spun around and sliced into the thigh of a charging gangster as he looked back at Vlad and Slink.
Slink had gotten away and his big orange snake, Moe, was attached to the purple alien’s arm who was swinging wild haymakers at Vlad. The vampire was flitting around the bigger man, raking his claws across his skin. Shaggy could see small trails of blood as Vlad slowly took the bigger man apart. Shaggy sighed.
“Hey! Quit playing with him! There’s more over here!”
Vlad’s tired voice shouted back. “I’m not playing, damn it! This guy is a pain in the ass.”
Shaggy growled and moved to help Vlad when a tug on his left arm caught his attention. Looking down saw a yellow hand grabbing onto him. But the arm attached to the hand was stretched back down toward the other side of the street. He swore and tried to plant his feet, but the rubber like arm retracted and drug him across the road toward its owner.
Shaggy swatted at the hand and arm as he was dragged through the dirt street, but it was like trying to cut hard rubber. He was making little nicks and cuts, but nothing substantial. As he decided to try something new, he finally got a look at his assailant. It was a squat, bald, yellow Alien that was grinning at him, showing a row of sharp teeth. As he came into view, the Alien stretched his other arm out to Shaggy.
Shaggy let his claws retract as he punched wildly at the incoming stretchy arm. He felt his fists connect with the Alien’s fingers and he heard several pops. The Alien gave a shriek of pain and pulled back his other arm while swinging the arm attached to Shaggy like a whip. Shaggy went tumbling through the air and he caught the brief view of a metal house right before he collided with it.
Shaggy felt his left arm pop out of place and gave a howl of rage. He landed in a pile on the dirt floor of what appeared to be an abandoned shack. The hand was still attached to his left arm, and he felt it going taut again. So he reached across with his right and grasped the wrist and squeezed as hard as he could.
The tough rubbery skin of the rubber Alien made it pretty tough to squeeze, but Shaggy soon felt bone beneath the flesh. The arm dragged him again, so he started wrenching the hand left and right, trying to dislodge or break it. Eventually he heard a loud snap, which coincided with another pop coming from his arm healing itself.
The hand on his arm went limp as he heard another howl of pain coming from the alien in the street. Shaggy grit his teeth and rushed out, taking a quick second to glance around before continuing to charge his attacker. Ren was mopping up the various gang members. He was bleeding in a few spots, but seemed okay overall. Vlad had hoisted the larger purple Alien above his head and looked to be about to throw him. Moe was still attached to the big Alien. Slink was nowhere to be seen.
Shaggy tackled the screaming yellow alien to the ground. With both a broken wrist and broken fingers, the Alien didn’t put up that much of a fight as Shaggy sat astride him and started punching down. Shaggy heard the Alien’s nose crunch as he continued to pound the damn rubber Alien’s face into the dirt. Once his opponent went limp, Shaggy stood and stomped his foot on the guy’s face before he turned to see how the fight was going.
It was mostly calming down now as Ren mopped up the remaining bad guys. Shaggy saw Vlad attached to the purple alien’s neck, fangs fully extended. Slink’s snake, Moe, was wrapping up the legs of the people trying to attack Ren. Shaggy summoned his claws and dove back into the melee. Between them, they managed to clean things up pretty quick. Although Ren was pretty bloody.
“We have to get you some armor, dude.” Shaggy said, breathing hard and dragging his claws across the throat of a knocked out thug.
Slink walked out of a nearby house where he was hiding just in time to watch the gruesome scene. “Whoa! Shags, what are you doing?”
Shaggy shrugged his shoulders. “Making sure they won’t be a future problem. I mean, I get it. It’s gruesome work. But in modern games, these AIs can hold a grudge for a long time. Besides, what did you think I meant when I said we were going to take control of the neighborhood?”
Ren sighed loudly as he stomped his enormous foot down on a gang member. “I hate to say it, but he is right. A certain amount of ruthlessness is required if this is going to be our in-game job.”
Vlad swayed over, mouth and jaw covered in yellowish blood. At least Shaggy assumed it was blood. The vampire was still in his post-feeding blood haze as he stumbled up to them. Slink moved to help as Shaggy just sighed.
“I thought you fixed this?”
Vlad grinned and slurred. “I put pointsh in it. But that guys was… tasty.”
Shaggy sighed again as he looted the dead gang members. “Well, let’s get this all cleaned up and then we can—”
He paused as he heard something. Turning, he saw a man crawling his way across the dirt road, one of his legs clearly broken. He moved to take care of it when Ren spoke up behind him.
“Wait a minute. He might be useful.”
Shaggy thought about for a few seconds as the thug seemed to hear them and tried to speed up his efforts to crawl away. He could see the logic in what Ren was saying and also they still needed information. Like if this was all the members in their little group or if they should prepare for reprisals. He sighed as he got up. Slink looked like he was going to say something, but Shaggy waved him off.
The fleeing gang member redoubled his efforts as Shaggy approached. But with a broken leg, the guy wasn’t getting far. Shaggy grunted as he reached down and grabbed the thug’s good leg and dragged him back toward the others. The man was screaming bloody murder as Shaggy deposited him at Ren’s feet. Shaggy kicked the man over and peered down at his face.
The gang member was clearly an Alien as some kind of black bone plates were growing out of his cheeks and neck. Once he was turned over and staring at all of them, he started gibbering and pleading for his life incoherently. Slink shot a sad look at Ren and Shaggy. Shaggy shook his head and nodded toward their vampire friend who was still drunkenly going through gang member pockets nearby.
“Why don’t you help Vlad out, Slink. Ren and I got this.”
Ren nodded his head as Shaggy knelt down to get closer to the Alien. Their prisoner clumsily aimed a punch at Shaggy’s face, but he dodged out of the way and then slapped the injured man on his broken leg. The man gave a hiss of pain as Shaggy chuckled.
“Whoa, there. None of that now. I’m going to let that one slide, but try again and I’m going to start breaking things. But if you answer all our questions, we might let you go. Do really well and we’ll take you in.”
Shaggy saw Ren’s head jerk up to look at him, but he ignored it as he studied the Alien’s face. The man didn’t seem to believe him and even shook his head. But Ren stepped forward to whisper to Shaggy, his foot coming dangerously close to the prone man’s head.
“You can’t be serious.” Ren whispered.
Shaggy shook his head as imperceptibly as possible and then went back to looking at their captive. The gang member didn’t seem to see their interaction, as he had turned to stare at Ren’s big boot. Shaggy waved his friend back before he got the Alien man’s attention again.
“So, first question: How many members are in your gang? Is this all of them?”
The alien shook his head, seemingly without thinking, as he glanced between Ren and Shaggy. Shaggy grinned, showing his teeth.
“Okay. Second question: Where are the other members of your gang and how many are there?”
Ren sighed overhead. “Technically, that’s two questions.”
Shaggy glanced up at the standing Perinadon. “Really? I asked two questions the first time, and you didn’t have a problem with that.”
“That’s cause they were the essentially same question.” Ren said as he knelt down over their captive. “This time you asked two separate questions.”
Shaggy gave a weary sigh as he looked down at the Alien. “You see what I am working with here?”
Ren gave an affronted grunt, as Shaggy put up a hand in a placating gesture before returning to their captive.
“If you could please take both of my questions as questions two and three, I would be grateful and apparently you would save my pedantic friend here a headache.”
“Uh, I… I mean, to the second question. We hang out at a large shack some locals refurbished into a bar. It’s just a few blocks west of here.”
“Okay. Very good and my THIRD question?” Shaggy asked, shooting a look at Ren, who scoffed.
“Well… umm… I mean, that’s a tricky question.” The alien stammered.
Shaggy sighed again and grew his werewolf claws as he reached down to grab the man’s throat. “No, it’s really not. it’s simple numbers. How many people do you have in that bar of yours?”
The Alien man gulped loudly as Shaggy choked him. He began to sputter a response, so Shaggy let him go and hovered his claws in the man’s face.
“Eight... or nine guys, including the boss!” He shouted.
Shaggy nodded. “Very good, now for the third quest-”
“Fourth.” Ren interrupted.
“FOURTH question,” Shaggy shouted. Giving Ren an annoyed look, which the Rhino-man ignored. “What’s your boss like?”
The Alien grimaced as he pondered about the question. “Boss is one of them Mutants. He can reshape the size of his muscles and he’s already a big guy. He came into town a few days ago and took over everything. Boss is a bit of an asshole, to be honest.”
Shaggy nodded as he smiled. “Bosses, right?”
Their captive grinned back, nodding along. Shaggy sighed and retracted his claws. He heard the gang member give an audible sigh.
“Well, thank you very much. You have been very helpful.” Shaggy said as he reached down and patted the injured man’s head.
Shaggy snapped his other hand to the man’s jaw and grabbed a handful of hair. With a sudden jerk, he twisted the man’s neck as hard as he could. A loud snap was heard as the man jerked for a second and then went completely limp. Ren gave a loud sigh.
“That was cold.”
Shaggy shrugged and stood along with his friend. “Hey, man. Villain for Life, baby.”
Ren snorted a laugh. “Please never say that again.”
“Too much?”
“It was just incongruous with the neck snapping and all. One second you were a cold alpha werewolf and the next you were a cheesy holovid star.”
Shaggy waved a hand as they looted the remaining gang members. Vlad and Slink were nearby, with the Vampire leaning against a building, coming down from his drunkenness.
“Bah! I am always an alpha werewolf. As soon as we get to this bar, I’ll show you.”
Ren stopped what he was doing for a beat before he glanced over at Slink. “Actually, about that. If this plays out like I think it will. I might have an idea.”
Shaggy raised an eyebrow as he glanced between their young friend and Ren.