The spider-bots were easy to dismantle. Shaggy barely had to use his claws. But the suckers were fast. When Shaggy and his friends assaulted the small parade of spiders, they scattered in various directions. Shaggy and the others dove for their targets and quickly decimated their numbers. Although Ren seemed pissed that he couldn’t catch any of the little buggers. However, the fight also brought up another interesting tidbit.

“So you’re sticking with the energy rifle, then?” Shaggy asked, slink as he tossed a spider-bot onto the pile of junk.

Slink slung his rifle back over his shoulder and nodded. “Yeah. I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t be up close and personal with enemies. But I have a dagger, and Dave’s been teaching me things here and there.”

“Little dude needs to work on his stamina. But other than that, he is a most excellent pupil.” Dave added happily.

Shaggy shrugged and continued shifting sheets of metal and robot bodies out of their way. The tunnel entrance was large. But getting to it was proving tricky. The debris from the collapsed shacks was cluttering up the ramp. Ren and the others were helping, but it was slow work. Eventually, Ren gave an audible growl of anger and charged through the debris. The big alien crumbled and crushed anything in his way and soon they had a perfect walking path to the tunnel.

“Shit, Ren. Why didn’t you start with that?” Vlad complained.

Ren glanced down at his arm and Shaggy spotted a pair of deep cuts. Ren had used his body to slam aside the metal. But apparently he had gotten cut up in the rush. Shaggy winced as the red blood trailed down Ren’s arm. His friend ignored it and shook out his arm.

“Bah! It’s nothing. I just didn’t want to wait for the cooldown. But fuck it.”

Slink nodded. “Yeah. We’ll have plenty of time when we get into the tunnel.”

“Where are we on getting healing potions? I know we have the Needle Sisters. But have they said what they need to provide us with some?” Shaggy asked.

“She’s told us what she needs and we have standing orders for the equipment. But finding such specialized machines is proving difficult. It’s on the list, though.” Slink explained as they walked into the tunnel.

Shaggy had expected a notification or some fanfare when they entered. But all that met them was silence and darkness. He snorted through his nose, angrily. So it wasn’t a dungeon. Vlad and Ren seemed to pick up on his mood. The Perinadon moved over and put a large hand on his shoulder, while Vlad and the others walked by.

“Don’t sweat it, Shags. Maybe this game handles dungeons differently than other games.”

“Like, maybe it’s not a dungeon at all, dudes. It could be something them robot guys dug out, right?”

Slink glanced at the fifteen foot high walls and the smooth ground. “I don’t think so, Dave. This is too well made.”

Shaggy spun as they walked down the dark tunnel. Ren and Slink were wearing small flashlights that gave Shaggy’s vision some color. But mostly he was staring into a gray world of dirt. He agreed with Slink, though; the tunnel looked like it had been slowly built out. Not hurriedly rushed together by fleeing robots.

“What about the diggers or whatever?” Shaggy snapped his fingers, trying to remember.

Ren placed a hand on Shaggy’s snapping fingers. “That’s rude and you’re thinking of the Con Crew. The old construction gang that used to do jobs down here.”

“That’s plausible. But how did the Cog Bots find it?”

“Probably when they were running scared from under-Town. Dug their way down and then hid out here. Then Rita and her pack of Teens stumbled upon them.”

“That doesn’t explain the big robot, dude, dude. I mean, like, where did that thing come from? Did they build it?”

Slink snorted. “Where did they get the resources?”

“Same place we did.” Ren answered. “Under-Town is full of abandoned shacks and other junk.”

Vlad nodded. “Not to mention the robot corpses NPC gangs leave everywhere.”

“Did you see that the giant robot was built from the bodies of Bladelings and Omegas?” Shaggy spoke over his shoulder.

Somehow, it had transpired that he and Ren were in the lead. Vlad and Dave were next and Slink brought up the rear. They hadn’t discussed the marching order. But they had fallen into the best configuration Shaggy could think of. He grinned, but quickly hid it. This was a good group.

“Yeah. It even had gnarly hands and arms sticking out of it.”

“I’m surprised you saw anything while you were doing all that spinning. What the hell was that? Your ultimate move? Drill Kick?”

Dave chuckled as he shook his head. “Naw, little dude. It was my patented Koan Kick! Kills robots dead.”

“Almost knocked me and Shaggy off the robot is what you did,” Vlad groused good-naturedly.

“Hey, I had my teeth in. I would’ve been fine. It’s your skinny ass that almost went flying.”

“How did you do it, though?” Ren asked, ignoring Shaggy and Vlad’s bickering.

“What do you mean, big dude?”

“I mean, you spun in mid-air, but then you also traveled forward. It was like you were a blue top flying sideways until you hit the giant bot. How the hell did you do that?”

Dave looked confused until what Ren was asking dawned on him. The guy was happy to explain.

“So like, you know how your abilities and skills are hard-wired in. Like, I can punch or I can tick an ability that makes me punch, right?”

“Yeah. But you all have told me never to use those auto-abilities cause they are junk.”

“They also feel fucking weird. It’s like someone takes control of your body and moves it.”

“Exactly! So all I did is jump and start spinning while activating my jump kick ability. I did the spinning, and the system did the attacking.”

“That can’t work.”

Shaggy snorted as they followed a slight bend in the tunnel. “Ren. We just watched it work.”

“But what about the distance limit on a jump kick?”

“That’s calculated using your character’s strength and other factors.” Vlad sighed. “Dave is super strong and super fast. Add in the fact that he was mid-air and kicking downward, and he probably could have kicked twice as far.”

Shaggy could see Slink’s eyes widen further as the boy turned to Dave.

“Whoa! You thought of all of that?”

Dave guffawed. “HAHAHAHAHAHA! Hell no. I just thought it would look cool and tried it. I mean, I knew the spinning kick would work. But I wasn’t aware of any distance limits.”

They all fell silent. The only sound coming from their shifting feet in the dirt. Shaggy could tell that Vlad, Slink, and Ren were all glaring at Dave with various looks. He sighed. He understood. Dave was an enigma, wrapped in charisma, and dunked in a vat of what the fuck.

“I-I don’t know if you're a genius or an idiot.” Vlad said, sounding tired.

“Hehehe, he contains multitudes.” Shaggy chuckled as they continued downward.

The tunnel wasn’t steep, but Shaggy could feel them twisting and turning as they went further down. He wasn’t sure how far down they could go, but he was sure this was the deepest they’d been. That the tunnel smelled of nothing but dirt and sweat was a little alarming. How had the bots gotten the damn robot to the surface? Where were the bots? Why hadn’t his group been attacked yet?

These questions plagued Shaggy as they continued down. They enjoyed a few quiet chats and murmurs as they followed the path. But mostly they stayed quiet. Senses poised for anything. Shaggy and Vlad kept everyone up to date on what they were smelling and hearing. But it was a load of nothing. The tunnel was maddeningly empty. Shaggy was beginning to think they had been tricked when their group had to come to a very sudden stop.

“There’s no way.”

“What the fuck?”

“It’s a dead end!?”

“How is it a dead end?!” Shaggy cried as he glared up at the large dirt wall.

“We didn’t miss any side tunnels, did we?” Ren asked.

“No. We were all looking for some.” Slink answered.

“Dudes, maybe it’s fake.” Dave ran straight at the wall, arms outstretched.

Shaggy held his breath. Hoping for another win from the idiot genius. But it was not to be. Dave slammed face first into the wall and careened off its obviously solid form. Shaggy didn’t even have in him to laugh as Dave slumped to the floor. They had been traveling so long and gone so deep. They had to have missed something.

“I thought we were going too deep. We have to be miles under Under-Town at this point. How would the bots drag that giant monster all the way to the surface?”

“Maybe it really was just a one and done?” Slink said. “I mean just a final fuck you from Cog.”

“But what about this tunnel, then? Did we just accidentally run across a group of spider bots outside a large tunnel? What were the spider bots doing then?”

“They were clearly grabbing junk and metal.” Shaggy stated.

“But then, where were they taking it?” Dave asked.

The four of them looked at each other, and that’s when Shaggy realized Vlad was missing. Ren and the others did as well, as they all began to spin and look around. They found the vampire hugging the far wall and moving back up the way they came. Shaggy quirked an eyebrow.

“The Vampire’s lost it, Ren. Time to put him down.”

Ren smacked Shaggy’s shoulder and asked. “What are you doing, Vlad?”

“When me and my friends were playing a fantasy game a long time ago. We all rolled assassin or rogue type characters. None of us took a healing or magic class at all. It was a disaster. But a fun one.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Shaggy felt his eyebrow crank even higher on his face as he started to ask another question. But Vlad cut him off as he continued hugging the wall.

“We were in this hidden dungeon in some weird enchanted forest once, and we kept getting lost. We went round in circles, trying to find the exit or even the entrance. Come to find out some blasted fairy-folk had enchanted the walls. We couldn’t see them or the exit, which was standing right in front of us.”

Shaggy nodded slowly as he saw the others start to understand, too. “You are looking for hidden doors. Cog used them in the sewers in his old base.”

Shaggy ran to the opposite wall and started feeling around. He pushed his fingers into the dirt and confirmed it was real as he walked along. Vlad and the others all spread out, and they made the long trek back up the tunnel. The trip seemed to take longer as they stopped to inspect every suspicious clump of dirt they came across. It was slow work, even with the four of them moving down the walls.

Shaggy eventually grew his claws out on his left hand and stuck them into the wall. From there, all he had to do was walk. They made their way back up the twisting tunnel almost until they saw the light of the entrance. Shaggy bit back a snarl at the sight. Beginning to think they really had been jumping at shadows, then a loud klaxon came from the opposite side of the cavern.

Slink was backing away from a section of wall, hands on ears, as Dave and Vlad joined him. The kid was pointing to a section of wall and shouting. But Shaggy couldn’t hear him over the sound of the klaxon. Shaggy and Ren ran over to help when a large section of wall shimmered and disappeared. A horrible robotic voice squawked in their faces.

“INTRUDERS DETECTED! INTRUDERS DETECTED!”

Shaggy groaned at the voice and the noise. His eyes almost watering from the pain of it all. He spotted Dave pointing upward inside the new tunnel that had appeared. Shaggy and the others looked at Dave was pointing at and found a large speaker directed straight at them. Slink hurriedly got his rifle from around his shoulder and fired. It took the boy several shots before hitting his target, and when he did, the sound merely lessened.

It wasn’t as deafening as before. But Shaggy could tell that other speakers were further down the new tunnel. He gave the others a shrug, which they all returned. Slink picked himself up and moved forward, rifle at the ready. Shaggy shifted both his hands to claws and followed. Dave armored up, and Vlad and Ren flanked Slink as they made their way forward. The kid shot two more speakers before Shaggy felt the ground rumble slightly.

“Guys…” Shaggy said slowly.

“Yeah, we felt it. I think we have incoming.” Ren said.

Slink fell back slightly as Shaggy and Dave moved closer. The sound of the Klaxon was less deafening now. But it had been replaced with the sounds of clanking and hissing. Shaggy was pretty sure he smelling oil or lubricant on the air. They inched forward as ahead of them came a sharp turn in the tunnel. Shaggy grimaced and flexed his claws anxiously. He glanced at the others, nodded. Whatever was coming, it was going to hit them as soon as they turned the corner. The others returned his nod, signaling they were ready.

Shaggy grinned as he rushed around the corner, Ren close at his side. He heard the others move with him. But Shaggy had to stop as a veritable wall of metal met his eyes. Blinking, Shaggy realized it wasn’t a wall of metal, it was a mass of robots. All trudging their way closer. Shaggy spotted Omegas, Bladelings, small spider-bots, the weird child-sized humanoid ones Cog had in his base. He even spotted the cat and bunny robots as well. There were dozens of them, or perhaps even hundreds, as Shaggy could only see so far beyond the approaching robots. He heard Ren suck in a breath.

“That’s a shit ton of robots.” Vlad muttered.

“Dudes, dudes, dudes, dudes!” Dave was shuffling his feet from side to side like a happy puppy.

“What are you doing?” Slink asked as he held his rifle up.

“We get to slaughter and robot army! DUDES! That’s so epic. I’m gonna start recording!”

Shaggy sighed as the approaching mob seemed to spot them. The smaller spiders and bunny broke away from the mass, charging at them. Shaggy looked at the others and shrugged before he rushed forward. He wasn’t too worried. The robots had been fairly simple fodder before. He didn’t see a reason for that to change now. Thundering footsteps beside him told Shaggy that at least Ren had joined his charge.

But Shaggy didn’t have any time to coordinate or talk to his friend as multiple bunny bots leapt for him. Shaggy flashed his claws sideways and caught several rabbits as they jumped. But three hit him in the chest. Their sharp ears aimed down like daggers. Shaggy felt his shirt shred as the bunnies glanced off his dermal armor. Beside him, Ren was stomping on anything that got close. Shaggy snatched a spider up off the ground as it tried to bite his ankle and tossed it into the oncoming robots. He kept swiping as more bunnies and spiders jumped at him. He missed a few, but his armor held. Even if his shirt didn’t.

Slink rifle shots whizzed by as the boy opened fire. Shaggy spotted Vlad’s black mist form rushing past. Leaving broken corpses in its wake. Dave was also there punting and punching the smaller robots. But soon the larger mass of robots would be on them and they’d have a rougher time.

“Why don’t you just shift into a wolf and stomp these guys?!” Slink shouted.

“I’m not invincible! If I shift in here, I become the biggest target and they’ll mob me.”

“I don’t see the problem!” Vlad shouted as he whizzed back and forth through the robots.

“Last resort?!” Ren asked as he threw a handful of broken robots to the side.

Shaggy nodded as he cut the head off a leaping bunny. “Last resort!”

Slink gave an annoyed growl but didn’t argue as the larger robots finally hit them. Shaggy was pulling the limbs off a spider-bot as his senses screamed at him. Quickly, he activated his slide move and dashed to the side and back. Keeping his claws at his sides. A Bladeling sailed past his left side, long blade-arm extended to stab him. Shaggy grinned as he felt his claws rip through the robot’s slim torso. But he had no time to celebrate as another hopping Bladeling thrust their sword at him. Shaggy backpedaled as best he could. But more and more Bladelings threw themselves at him. Groaning, Shaggy leapt forward, claws forward.

He felt the punches of the robot’s triangular swords as they attempted to pierce his skin. Luckily, nothing got through as Shaggy fell upon his attackers. His claws slicing easily through the brown metal of their skin. Shaggy watched them fall to pieces, and he dodged around more thrusts. At his feet, more spiders and bunnies were trying to cut up his legs. Shaggy slid away again as he dislodged the bots at his feet. But he didn’t look where he was going and he slid right into a Bladelings sword. The combined force of his slide and the thing’s jump made for his first actual injury of the fight. The thing’s weirdly shaped sword barely got under his skin, but it was enough for it to draw blood.

Shaggy growled angrily and gripped the robot’s sword-like appendage. Lifting and turning with all his strength, Shaggy spun the damn robot into its compatriots. He felt the robot crush itself and everything it hit as he spun until the thing’s arm ripped free. Shaggy pulled the sword from his stomach and used it as a bat to bludgeon anyone who got close. The shitty weapon didn’t last long and Shaggy eventually went back to using his claws. He watched his slide moves as he continued battling the Bladelings. So far, he hadn’t seen any Omegas. But to be fair, he couldn’t see much past the walls of brown metal around him.

He could hear Slink and Ren shouting as Dave whooped and hollered. Shaggy even thought he spotted the man’s blue armor appearing above the battle. Vlad was both silent and invisible to Shaggy, but he was sure that if the vampire was in trouble. They would all hear about it. Shaggy sliced through another Bladeling and turned to stab another when a heavy blow hit him in the side. He growled as felt himself lift off the ground and go tumbling back into more metal bodies. The blow wasn’t that bad, but it had thrown completely out of the melee.

Shaggy skidded to a stop, his back full of pieces of metal robots. He stayed upright throughout his entire flight. But now he was standing outside the tumult looking in. Beside him, Slink was staring at him wide-eyed. Sparking and hissing sound at Shaggy’s feet and he looked down to see Slink’s snakes battling it out with more spiders and bunnies. Slink seemed to come back to himself as he started firing into the mass of robot bodies again.

Shaggy glared at the roiling mass. Most of the robots were focused on Ren’s enormous frame as the alien tossed robots around like rag dolls. Dave, meanwhile, was dashing in and out of the melee, punching, kicking, and jumping everywhere. Shaggy finally spotted Vlad, too. The vampire had zipped to the back side of the army of robot and was harrying them there. Shaggy sighed as he saw what had punted him out of combat. The Omegas had pushed their way to the front and were now using the wrecking-ball hands to punch at Dave and Ren.

“Last resort time?” Slink asked idly as he fired.

Shaggy waggled his head before decided. “Fine. LAST RESORT!”

Shaggy didn’t spend any time seeing if the others had heard him. Instead, he focused inward and let the shift take. After the change, he shook his massive head, careful not to hit the ceiling. Once fully into his wolf form, Shaggy dove into the mass of robots, biting and batting with his claws. The sounds of tearing metal and hissing steam filled Shaggy’s ears as he rolled through the bots. He felt several stabs and bat his side, but he ignored it all as he literally rolled through everything.

A muffled shout was the only thing that stopped Shaggy’s rampage through the robots.

“Shaggy! Quit rolling. You’re on top of Vlad!” Ren shouted from behind Shaggy.

Shaggy huffed and stood up. Dave and Ren were to his right, standing midst a pile of broken robots. Just beyond was Slink, letting his snakes back under his clothes. A black mist rushed away from Shaggy and reformed itself into the panting form of Vlad. The vampire stared daggers at Shaggy. Shaggy merely shook out his fur and laid down.

The tunnel was finally quiet. No klaxon, no clanking robots, and now robotic voice talking about intruders. Shaggy yawned as he glanced down the tunnel where the robots had come from. Meanwhile, he heard the others push their way through the pile of robot parts.

“Do we want to take any of this stuff?” Dave asked.

“I don’t think so,” Ren responded. “We have little use for robot parts. I mean the materials would be helpful. But we get the same from knocking down shacks.”

A thudding on Shaggy’s side made him turn and look down. Vlad was at his side, pointedly waiting for something. Shaggy twisted his head, confused. Vlad sighed audibly before waving a hand around.

“Shrink down, you great big mutt. How are we supposed to walk down the tunnel with your smelly ass taking up most of the room?”

Shaggy chuffed and let the shift go. He felt himself shrinking down and his face and body changing shape. What remained of his clothes shifted with him and Shaggy stretched as his bones finished popping into place. Vlad glared at him, but Shaggy just sighed.

“I called out. Not my fault you didn’t hear me.”

“I heard you! I just didn’t think you were going to roll down the damn tunnel like a heavy-ass dog at the beach.”

“What was I going to do? Bite them all to death. Metal taste disgusting and I don’t want to think about the corpses in the damn Omega bodies.”

“Ew. Yeah, dude, you just ate a bunch of corpses. Didn’t you? Gross.”

“Thanks, Dave. You’ve encapsulated my emotions perfectly.” Shaggy said dryly.

“Next time, maybe we should lead with the wolf?” Slink asked.

But Shaggy shook his head. “I doubt everyone would be cool with that. Sure, I just cratered my way through these robots. But I also took away a bunch of experience you guys could have gotten.”

“Pfft. Please, Wolfy. These damn things were more of a nuisance than anything. Hardly worth the skill points.”

“Every bit helps.” Ren argued. Shaggy nodding along.

“Do you even get anything from fighting these guys?” Slink asked Vlad.

Their group started down the tunnel again as Vlad explained.

“Yes. I still get skill growth for my combat-related skills. But no Evolution points. My powers only grow with blood. So these damn things are no better than training bots.”

“I agree with Ren. Every little bit helps with experience. Even these bots. I don’t think we should start farming them or anything. But hey, if you see a bot, kill a bot,” Shaggy said.

“That would be a weird... wait, I smell blood.”

Vlad took a longer sniff of the air, then recoiled as the scent seemed to physically hit him. Shaggy took a shorter sniff and winced. Vlad was right. Blood was in the air and it was stale. Visions of Shaggy’s last visit to Cog’s underground base flashed through his brain, and he sighed. He did not want to see more piles of mutilated bodies.

“Y’all are going to want to be prepared. It will not be pretty.” Shaggy said as he dashed forward toward the smell.

The others hurried along behind him. Asking questions and shouting at him. But Shaggy didn’t want to give the old bastard time to build more robots. As he got closer, Shaggy heard the old man’s voice. It was echoing and indistinct. But Shaggy would recognize that tone anywhere. He grew his claws and doubled his speed. The voice grew more clear as Shaggy got closer. Something was off about it, though. Shaggy realized what it was as soon as he got to the end of the tunnel. The voice was OLD Cog, not the younger version.

Shaggy stared at the small factory inside the dark cave. It was hobbled together by bits and pieces of metal. Arms and legs from various other bots stuck out from the machinery. Either a part of the machines or something the factory was building, Shaggy didn’t know. He’s attention was on the square metal pillar at the center of everything. Wires and plugs crisscrossed on the ground in front of the pillar, a blue screen glowed hauntingly from its center. Cog’s face was plastered on the screen. Barking orders like a general.

“Recycle! Restore! Revive!”

The orders were shouted over and over into the empty room. Shaggy shuddered as the screen flickered and the old man’s face restarted his shouting. Beside him, Ren and the others arrived and started looking about the room. Slink panted as he pointed a finger at Cog’s image.

“What’s he doing?”

Shaggy shook his head. “Don’t know. Probably shouting orders at whatever bots were in here.”

“Recycle! Restore! Revive!”

“So why’s he still shouting?” Ren asked, look around the room.

Vlad was moving through the room, audibly sniffing as he answered. “Probably some weird mechanism that’s just set on repeat.”

“Recycle! Restore! Revive!”

“Yeah, whatever that pillar is, it has the face of Old Cog. He’s young now and has magic. This feels like a something else.”

“Maybe a back-up system meant to build robots and fuck with Under-Town.”

Dave snorted as he worked his way across the room, too. “Well, that seems petty.”

“Recycle! Restore! Revive!”

“This is Cog.” Shaggy grumbled. “He’s a racist, sexist, old bastard with delusions of ruling the world.”

“Recycle! Restore! They are not delusions!”

Shaggy froze, along with his friends. They all turned back to look at the square pillar. Its screen was still flickering with a pale blue. Cog’s face glared at them from his square prison. Except now it was the younger Cog. His skin was smoother, his hair was more full, and the manic gleam in his eyes made Shaggy’s skin crawl. Cog’s glare turned into a smile as Shaggy moved closer.

“Good to see you again, Shaggy.”