Shaggy took in the rickety-looking metal building. It had obviously started out looking like the other shacks that had surrounded it. But with the application of more metal sheets and what looked like duct tape, the building had grown. It was still a twelve or thirteen foot building built out of metal sheets, but it had been expanded on all sides. By the looks of its neighboring houses, whoever had built it had taken the metal from nearby buildings to make one slightly slanted bar.

A hand-written sign above the door read ‘Razor Bar.’ But judging by the other names that had been crossed out or written over, this bar used to have a few owners. It had a metal door that had obviously been ripped off a different building and then installed here. Shaggy shook his head as he turned back to look at Ren, who was having a whispered conversation with Slink.

Nearby, Vlad was leaning against another metal building, keeping an eye on the dirt road. Shaggy wasn’t too sure about the new plan, but he didn’t doubt that it would be entertaining. For the past twenty minutes that he had been watching the door, he hadn’t seen anyone go in or out. So he expected that the remaining members of the Black Razors were already in the bar. Although the intense whispering of Ren and Slink had drawn his attention a few times.

The young man had seemed resistant to Ren’s plan. Shaggy couldn’t blame the kid, it was asking a lot of the poor noob. Especially because, if they had guessed right, the leader of the Black Razors was a player. Which could be both a bad and a good thing. But the boy also needed this. Sure, they were throwing him in the deep end, but apparently Ren had a fool-proof idea.

A loud sigh brought Shaggy’s attention back around to his Alien friends. Slink looked both terrified and excited about what was going to happen. Ren seemed pleased with himself as they both walked over to Shaggy. Shaggy gave Vlad a wave, and they all put their heads together, keeping a wary eye on the road and the bar.

“So we doing this?” Vlad asked.

Ren nodded eagerly as Slink visibly gulped. Shaggy chuckled as he rubbed his hands together.

“Well, okay then. Let’s get to it Boss.”

He grinned at Slink as the young boy took the lead and started marching for the bar’s front door. Ren followed along as Vlad and Shaggy shared bemused looks. They both figured that if the plan went sideways, they could jump in, but for now, they followed along. Slink had made it to the metal door and seemed to psyche himself up.

Shaggy saw Ren lean over the kid’s shoulder and whisper words of encouragement. Slink nodded a few times before he launched a sudden kick at the metal door. Shaggy didn’t even have time to stop the kid before a loud thunk resounded from the door. Slink bounced off the door and smacked into Ren’s stomach. Shaggy heard Vlad snort as Ren got Slink back on his feet.

“Fewer theatrics, kiddo.” Vlad said.

Shaggy twisted his head to look at the ham of an RPer. “Really?! You are telling him that?!”

Vlad looked affronted. “When I am in character, I behave like a normal vampire.”

“You behave like an old-world vampire from one of those DVD things. Or maybe even the old books about vampires. Just more hammy.” Shaggy countered.

“I am not a ham!”

Shaggy snorted. “Dude, even the NPCs can smell bacon when you start in with your ‘blah, blah-blah’ nonsense.”

Vlad shook a finger in Shaggy’s face as he said. “I have never once gone-”

“We are here to kick your asses. So bring out your boss and let’s get this started!” Slink’s voice sounded from inside the bar.

Turning, Shaggy realized they had missed the kid’s grand entrance. Even worse, the kid was throwing around his weight without them there to back him up. He started through the door, as Vlad promised they were not done with their conversation. They both charged through the open metal door and into the wide open room of the bar.

It was full of misshapen chairs and makeshift tables. A long bar ran down the left-hand side of the room, with a pale blue Alien man standing behind it, looking exasperated and sad. In the center, at the largest table, sat a bunch of men and women. Who were all staring at Slink with looks of amusement and annoyance. Ren cast a glance at Shaggy and Vlad as they lined up on either side of Slink.

The largest male at the table snorted as he took a drink from his large mug. He stared daggers at Slink before casting a weary eye over the others. Shaggy locked eyes with the man before he grinned. After another long pull from his mug, the man waved his hand at a nearby thug.

“You handle them.”

The lanky thug grinned maliciously and stood up. Shaggy could see he was some kind of Alien with elongated arms. The hands at the ends of those arms had long black nails that seemed to drip with something. With only a few steps back, the lanky Alien threw himself at Slink. To the kid’s credit, he barely flinched as Ren stepped in front of him and batted an enormous fist at the oncoming human projectile.

Shaggy saw the Alien’s clawed nails bounce off of Ren’s tough hide. Ren’s fist collided with the man and sent him reeling end over end into several tables. After he finished, Ren gave the rest of the table his best mean look, which wasn’t too bad in Shaggy’s opinion, and went back to his spot next to Slink. The kid maintained his cool as the four of them stared at the table full of gang members. The large leader of the group snorted in derision.

“Damn useless NPCs. I have to do everything around here, don’t I?” the man said before his left arm turned massive, muscles bulging obscenely.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

With his newly enhanced arm, the villain player flung his mug like a missile straight at Slink. Shaggy couldn’t even see it, let alone stop it. Luckily, Vlad was quick enough as the Vampire flitted in front of Slink this time and grabbed the mug out of the air. There was a loud fleshy smack as Vlad palmed the mug and gave a theatrical wink at the gang leader. Vlad threw the mug on the floor and returned to his spot.

“Ow.” He whispered to Shaggy as he got back in line.

Shaggy glanced down at the Vampire’s hand, seeing a large red bruise on his palm. He winced slightly as the redness faded. The player was evidently the strong-man type they had assumed he was. The plan wasn’t going off without a hitch, but it was still proceeding nicely. Shaggy was still waiting for the bottom to fall off the plan when the large gang leader groaned and rose from his seat.

“You fucks are really gonna make me work for this, aren’t you? This is my bar, these are my NPCs and I ain’t gonna let a bunch of nobodies come in and--”

Slink interrupted him with a loud yawn. “Haaaaaaaa. Yeah, yeah, Giganto. How about you stop with the monologue and let’s get to this?”

Giganto blinked owlishly. “Giganto? That old kid’s show? Wait a minute. You guys are players?!”

Shaggy gave a toothy grin and a wave as he saw and heard the others grunt and nod, respectively. Giganto seemed to deflate a bit as he realized he wasn’t facing NPCs.

“Oh come man, that’s not fair. Four against one? Even with my NPCs, this isn’t a fair fight!”

Shaggy barked a laugh. “Were villains, mate. Who said anything about being fair?”

“Mate?” Vlad asked, shooting Shaggy a look.

“What? I thought I’d try something. You think you're the only one of us who can ham it up?”

“I am not a HAM!” Vlad shouted.

“We aren’t all going to fight you.” Slink said. Drawing everyone’s attention back to Giganto.

“What?” said the big man, staring down at Slink. Apparently, while Shaggy was winding up Vlad, the gang leader had approached.

However, Ren’s presence over Slink’s shoulder seemed to give the kid a little spine. Slink stared up at the larger man and grinned.

“Nope. It’s going to be just you and me. You win, we work for you. I win, your Lackeys are mine.”

Giganto laughed. Hard. “HAHAHAHA! You guys can’t be serious. If you wanted to work for me, you could’ve just asked. You didn’t need to sacrifice the kid here.”

“We’re serious.” Ren said, putting a hand on Slink’s shoulder.

Giganto’s enormous frame still shook from mirth as he walked back to the middle of the room and shook his head. “Whatever. It’s the kid’s funeral, I guess.”

He started clearing a space as Shaggy and the others surrounded Slink.

“All according to plan.” Ren whispered happily.

Shaggy snorted as he traced his eyes from the broken mug on the floor to the dead lanky alien crumpled atop a broken table. Ren followed his gaze and waved a large grey hand.

“Momentary hiccups. But we got where we wanted and now Slink can get some experience fighting another player. Which is way better than fighting NPCs.”

“True,” Vlad said. “But losing to an NPC doesn’t make the rest of us part of this guy’s crew.”

“Not going to happen. Slink’s got this.” Ren said, patting the kid’s shoulder.

Slink nearly collapsed from the blow and Shaggy could see the kid’s face had gone kind of pale. His stare brought the other’s eyes to Slink’s face and Ren hurriedly turned Slink to face him.

“Look, Slink, you got this you just got to do like we planned, okay?”

Slink nodded as he visibly gulped. “Yeah, yeah sure. It’s before all that which has me worried.”

“You got your pain settings set like we told ya?” Shaggy asked, receiving a nod in return. “Then you're golden. It’s going to hurt, but nowhere near as much as it could.”

“I just don’t see why it has to hurt at all.”

Vlad shook his head. “No pain can lead to you to getting cocky and not noticing when you have hit your limit. Once I saw a noob set the pain setting to zero and he bleed out internally cause he couldn’t feel the pain of his broken ribs. Pain in a fight is good. It’s an indicator of when you should push it or pull back.”

“Just do like we planned and you’ll do fine.” Ren reiterated.

“I’m waiting, kiddo.” Giganto said, having finished clearing out a space in the middle of the bar. His goons were watching from the back wall.

Slink took a stumbling step forward before a slap from Ren sent him speed walking toward his opponent. Giganto grinned down at Slink and said.

“Don’t worry, boy. This will all be over soon. I won’t even use my power.”

Shaggy saw the tips of Slinks ears go red. Either from anger or embarrassment, he couldn’t tell. But Giganto seemed to think he had embarrassed the kid.

“Ha! What don’t think you need a handicap? Listen, squirt, I can change the shape and size of my muscles at will. I don’t care what kind of power you have. If I wanted, this fight would be over in a second.”

“You really think so?” Slink seemed to whisper and Shaggy could tell the kid was angry.

But Giganto just kept talking. “Oh I know so, squirt. So how about you just lay down on the floor and I’ll make it--”

His words were interrupted as Slink’s skinny fist collided with the larger man’s nose. Giganto staggered back, more from shock than anything. But Slink was quickly upon him, throwing clumsy punches at the larger man’s face and neck. Shaggy and his friends started cheering along with Giganto’s goons as Slink peppered the big man with ineffectual punches.

Giganto finally grabbed onto one of Slink’s wrist and lifted the shorter boy off the floor. “Ohhh, looks like he has some fight in him.”

He laughed as he threw Slink against a nearby table. Shaggy saw Slink wince as his hip hit the edge of the makeshift wooden table. A piece of wood broke off and fell to the floor as Slink righted himself and charged back in with his clumsy punches. But this time, Giganto was ready and easily dodged around while playfully batting the kid’s wrists aside.

“Just give it up, junior. This is pathetic.” He dodged another wild punch from Slink, doing nothing to keep the mirth from his face.

Slink roared incoherently as he stomped a foot down on Giganto’s knee, again taking the larger man by surprise. As Giganto went down to one knee, Slink brought his own up into the big guy’s jaw, forcing him back against another table. The table broke under the weight of the larger man, sending a larger chunk of wood onto the floor. Slink quickly grabbed at the piece of wood and started using it as a club on the bigger man’s head.

Shaggy saw blood as Slink rapid hits started to show results. But Giganto quickly regained his footing and stood up. He grabbed Slink as he stood to his full height, laughter completely gone from his eyes. Giganto shook Slink slightly, like one would a naughty puppy.

“Okay, kid. Fun’s over. I’m going to break your neck now.”

Slink seemed to shiver slightly as the big man’s arm started to reshape itself into its ultra muscular form. But before Giganto could make good on his promise, Slink moaned loudly and lewdly.

“Ohhh, fuck yeah…”

Giganto got a disgusted look on his face. But before he could say anything, the largest of Slink’s snake, Moe, slithered his way out of Slink’s sleeve and crawled down Giganto’s arm and onto his face. Two more loud moans, and Larry and Curly joined the bigger snake on Giganto’s face. Quick as they appeared, the three snakes disappeared. The orange snake, Moe, struggled his way down Giganto’s shocked mouth as the blue-green Larry and Curly curled around the man’s head and into his ears.

Slink was quickly dropped as his opponent tried to cough up the snake that was crawling its way down his throat. But before he could get a hold of Moe, the large snake’s tail had waved back and forth and was gone. Larry and Curly and clearly punctured the man’s eardrums as they were now bleeding and Giganto was on his knees trying to cough and scream.

Slink panted loudly as he watched the bigger man slowly choke to death. The veins on his face and neck even had a purple tint to them. Slink’s snakes had probably poisoned the big player. Eventually, the big man’s body went pale and then shattered into motes of light. Slink wearily raised both his arms and gave a shout, looking at the line of mortified Lackeys.

“Oh fuck yeah, bitches! Y'all are mine now!”

Shaggy sighed. “There will be no living with him after this.”

“Bah! He earned it,” Vlad said, smiling.

Noticing a lack of a reaction from Ren, Shaggy turned to look at the rhino-man. Ren had a pensive look on his face and he was staring at Slink with an odd look. Shaggy raised an eyebrow as he gained his friend’s attention. Ren shook off his pensive look and replaced it with a bemused one.

“Yeah. That wasn’t what we planned.”