Shaggy grimaced as young Cog’s face grinned out at him from his screen. The technopath looked a little annoyed, but also slightly shocked to see Shaggy.

“I see you survived the destruction of my old lab. I would ask you how, but judging by the color of your eyes, I’d say you had some help. How is the old so-called God of Blood and Bone?”

Shaggy sucked in a breath through his teeth. But when Xang didn’t respond to being called, he relaxed. The old God had a habit of God-smacking Shaggy whenever he blasphemed or his name was said in Shaggy presence. Apparently, epitaphs didn’t count.

“He misses you.” Shaggy said simply as Vlad and Dave converged back toward the group.

“Pfft. You mean he MISSED me. If the fucking thing was any type of real God. I wouldn’t have escaped. Instead, it stood there idly as my spell was completed and I was restored.”

It was Shaggy’s turn to snort. “YOUR spell? I hear that was all Korrigan’s doing? What did you do? Sit there quietly like a good man, as the woman cast a spell on you to save your life?”

Cog’s screen seemed to shake as the old man screeched in anger. “THAT FUCKING BITCH DID AS HER BETTERS TOLD HER!”

Cog coughed a bit and turned away from the screen. Meanwhile, Shaggy glanced at the others. Rena and Vlad gave him shrugs, Dave gave him a thumbs up and Slink was ignoring the whole thing. The kid was over by the cobbled together conveyor belts, studying them. Shaggy noticed that the belts fed into and through Cog’s pillar. Cog collected himself before Shaggy could ask what Slink was doing.

“Even then, the so-called Mistress of Sorcery fucked up. Stupid bitch.”

“Awww. What’s a matter, Cog? Is your new youth not permanent? You gotta siphon the life energy from more homeless people?”

Cog’s eyes brightened. “OH! There’s an idea I hadn’t considered. I wonder if that could work…”

Cog rambled as Shaggy slapped himself in the face. That’s not how he expected that conversation to go. Ren smacked him on the back as Vlad gave him an incredulous look. Shaggy shrugged and waved for them to do the talking. But they both shook their heads. He was about to get Cog’s attention when Dave spoke up.

“So where are you, Old Dude? Like, so many people seem to be looking for ya. But no one’s found you yet.”

Cog stopped muttering to himself and quirked an eyebrow at Dave. Dave’s armored form gave the screen a wave. Shaggy could just picture the guy grinning like a madman under that weird bug-looking helmet.

“Who is this specimen? Blue Bio-armor exoskeleton with two... antennae. Do they serve a function?” Cog almost started rambling again, but he caught himself. “Ahem. To answer your question, I am somewhere no one will find me. Not until I wish them to, that is. Which will be soon, very soon. My newly minted, mechanically marvels shall sweep across this state and then the country…”

“And then the world.” Shaggy interrupted. “Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard the spiel. How about you just tell us where you are and I’ll make your death quick? Your fucking robots didn’t do shit to Under-Town and Downtown spanked your new shit too. You’ve got nothing Cog.”

“I HAVE EVERYTHING! SOON THE WORLD WILL SEE! The only way for us all to truly be equal is for everyone to submit to Mechanization. We will all be part of the whole. One race, one creed, ONE RULER!”

Shaggy winced at both the rhetoric and the screaming as Cog’s screen flickered. “You’ve fucking lost it. You are going to unleash a new horde of bots and they are going to get destroyed.”

“Hehehehehe! Ahhhh! But you see, these aren’t normal AUTOMATONS! This new batch is special, and far more capable than you can imagine. That whore of a witch may have fucked up. But I have, again, turned mediocrity into excellence. I have found the next true step in evolution. Not one designed by the randomness of nature. But one curated by a righteous and loving hand. MINE!”

Shaggy gave another weary sigh. Ren spoke from beside him. Not hiding his tone.

“This guy is fucking nuts.”

“I told you, delusions of grandeur.” Shaggy nodded.

“More like a fucking god complex.”

“But, Like, dudes. Do we have any idea where he could be? I mean, he has to be broadcasting from somewhere, right? To fit his face into that screen?”

“Stop ignoring me!” Cog screeched from said screen. “You insignificant plebeians do not know what I’ve sacrificed to get here. How much blood has paved the road! Xang himself would choke on the amount…”

Shaggy barely had enough time to brace himself before his entire world shook. Vlad dashed randomly about the room as everything shook and metal screeched. Ren put a hand on Dave and Shaggy’s shoulder and braced them as they all almost stumbled. Slink went face first into the dirt, but otherwise seemed fine. The really interesting part was Cog.

Shaggy was watching the screen when Cog invoked the God’s name. The old man’s indignation quickly became fear as the world inside the screen twisted and warped. Cog screeched and raised both his arms. Shaggy saw Cog’s black-onyx arm glow with magic as he closed his eyes. The twisting and warping of the world beyond the screen stopped and Cog looked around. Shaggy grinned. Wherever Cog was, he had control of it. Enough control to stop a God from messing with him.

Shaggy stared into Cog’s eyes and the old Villain glared back. Eventually, the old man snorted and turned away.

“Take your win today, you damn mutt. Soon my armies will march and there won’t be a damn thing anyone can do about it!”

Cog’s screen winked out, and the pillar stood quiet for the first time since they entered the room. Shaggy smiled and then laughed before whooping into the air. He was pretty sure they had him now. He turned to Dave, smiling.

“Please tell me you were still recording?”

Dave pointed an armored finger above his right shoulder. A tiny camera-drone floated there, barely visible. “Of course, dude. I forgot to turn it off. Why?”

“You think there’s a clue in the video?” Ren asked.

Shaggy nodded. “Actually, I just want to confirm what I saw. Xa-I mean the Blood God tried to assault wherever Cog was. But Cog fought back, he focused his magic arm-thing and undid what a fucking God tried to do!”

“None of that sounds promising.” Vlad grumbled.

Shaggy groaned. “Argh! Don’t you see? Whatever Cog says, he is not THAT powerful. But there is a place where powerful magic users have absolute control. Maybe enough control to defy a god.”

“Pocket dimension.” Ren stated, finally getting it.

“Pocket fucking dimensions.” Shaggy whooped.

“But, like, how does this help us? I mean, wasn’t it already a rumor that Cog was in one of those pocket things?”

Shaggy nodded. “Yes, it was a rumor. But now we have proof. If we get that video onto the forums or something, we can get people working on tracking the bastard down. Now we know where to look. Also, I can get Levy to tell Korrigan what we know.”

“Do you think she’ll help? I mean, I know the two had a falling out, but…” Vlad trailed off as he shrugged.

“This is the Mad Witch you are talking about, Shaggy. She could just as equally fuck us over.” Ren added.

Shaggy shrugged. “It’s worth a try. Besides, she probably has a better way to zero in on Cog’s location.”

“Then why hasn’t she done it?”

Shaggy threw up his hands. “Your all right. Never mind! Let’s just leave Cog alone until he marches his new bots into Under-Town and fucks us all!”

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“Not what we are saying.” Ren waved a hand. “But I just don’t think this is as big as you think it is.”

“Actually, it might be.” Slink’s voice said from near the square pillar.

Shaggy at Slink and grinned at the others. “From the mouth of Babes! Go on Slink, tell them why I’m right.”

Slink blinked at Shaggy for a few seconds before he turned to the others. “What’s he talking about?”

Shaggy deflated as Vlad cackled. Ren walked closer to Slink and looked down. “What were YOU talking about?”

Slink tapped the ten-foot square pillar in the room. “This looks like an automated factory. I think it’s what was building all the robots down here. Maybe even the big fucker.”

“How does that work?”

Slink shrugged. “I don’t know. But look at all the conveyors and the metal. Everything was being fed into this thing and then spat out over there. Maybe the robots that were down here were helping things along. But whatever it was, this big ass pillar is the center. We need to take it.”

“Whoa!”

“Hell no!”

“Dude!”

Shaggy glared at everyone. “We can not take this thing. It’s got Cog’s fingerprints all over it. For all we know, he could pop in on us at anytime. Not to mention, are you really going to trust anything that comes out of that? Cog could have a backdoor into anything it creates.”

Slink nodded along with Shaggy. “I get that. But we can take precautions. I mean, we can hand it off to Roald and have him sweep the damn thing. We can bring Levy and the other magic users in. They can sweep it too. This is too good an opportunity to pass up.”

“Opportunity?” Ren asked, looking between the large pillar and Slink.

“We can have an automated workforce! Something to clean up all the dirt and debris surrounding the bar. Robots can build Vlad’s dungeon or Shaggy’s little love nest.”

“You just want them to be builders? What about troops?”

Slink grimaced. “We just trounced our way through a shit-ton of robots. I don’t think the efficacy of them as troops is as high as Cog believes. Besides, we got the Lackeys. This will free them up to do other things.”

“I vote yes,” Vlad said, raising a hand.

“I would also like Worker-bots, dudes.” Dave raised his hand.

“Agreed.” Ren said, looking toward Shaggy.

Shaggy crossed his arms and sighed. “I want my objections noted.”

“Objections noted, filed and summarily ignored.” Vlad grinned.

“Also recorded!” Dave said, pointing again at the floating camera.

“Fine. Do what you want.” Shaggy sighed.

Slink gave Ren a nod, and the big guy grabbed the large pillar by its sides and heaved. A loud screech of metal and sparking of wires filled the cave they were in and Shaggy turned to leave. It had been a fairly productive evening, all things considered. Killed a bunch of robots, talked to Cog, stole a bot-maker. It was a fairly good day.

Behind him, Vlad and Dave tried to help Ren steady the large pillar. But Ren waved them off as they began their journey back to the surface. It was a quiet trip, mostly. Dave would exclaim loudly now and then as he edited the video of their fight against the robots. Slink meanwhile studied the pillar in Ren’s arms. It was the only piece of machinery down in that cave that hadn’t been cobbled together. Which made Shaggy think that whatever that pillar was, it was the starting point for the Cog robots in the area. Something or someone had planted it during the Cog invasion and it started churning out robots.

The thought made Shaggy freeze in his tracks. Vlad bumped into his back and sputtered as Shaggy’s mine whirled.

“What the hell, Shags? We got incoming.”

Shaggy heard the others tense up, but he quickly waved them off. “Do we think this is the only robot-maker down here?”

“What?” Ren asked, confused.

Slink started rapidly tapping his chin in thought, and Vlad looked annoyed.

“Probably not.” Vlad grumbled. “But so what? Those can be someone else's problems.”

“Not if there are more on our turf,” Slink said.

“Also, the other question is, do we get rid of them?” Shaggy added.

Ren’s confused look deepened. “Of course we do. Why wouldn’t we?”

“Cause fighting bots is how most of our crew gathers experience. If we hit all the bot-makers, who are they going to fight? Gangs? We are the biggest gang in this part of Under-Town. So we can’t go marching into Rak or Phreak turf. We need the bots to grow our own Lackeys.” Shaggy explained.

“What if another giant robot appears?”

“Then we’ll know where the next bot-maker is and we can take it out then.” Slink said, nodding.

“So we wait until they became a bigger problem and then wipe them out?” Ren asked, clearly weighing the options.

“If this bot-maker already had enough material for a giant bot. How close are the others?” Shaggy asked.

“I guess it depends on how much material the spider-bots can get their hands on.”

“Whoa, like, why are we stopped?” Dave asked, dropping his editing screen. “What happened?”

Shaggy grinned and shook his head as Ren quickly explained. Dave nodded along before he shrugged. “Let’s just leave them for now, dudes. Sounds like we need them and there’s no guarantee that the other bot-makers are even in our territory.”

Shaggy and the others shared looks before they all shrugged and continued walking. Dave went back to editing and Slink continued, looking over the pillar. Shaggy sighed as the exit appeared in the distance. Vlad was next to him and waving a hand at his sweaty face. Shaggy didn’t know vampires could sweat. He raised an eyebrow at his friend.

“I’m just hot as hell. It’s been a rough couple of hours.”

Shaggy raised an eyebrow, not convinced. Something was up with the vampire. Vlad played it up a little more, blowing out a breath.

“I mean, I am just so tired. I don’t look forward to the long walk back to the bar.”

Shaggy grimaced as he guessed what Vlad was about to say. “No.”

“Oh, come on! You literally have four-legs!”

“You are already faster than me! Run your ass back home!”

“I still run out of stamina.”

“So do I! Just cause I become a big-ass wolf doesn’t mean I’m giving out rides!”

“It would help with this damn pillar.” Ren said, shifting the large thing in his arms.

Shaggy growled in his throat. “Don’t you start too. You’re carrying that thing fine.”

They continued to argue out into the light of Under-Town and up the big ramp. Shaggy argued that they had nothing to strap the pillar to him with. Meanwhile, Ren and Vlad argued they could ride Shaggy and hold on to the pillar. Shaggy was unsure about carrying the pillar, even without the two other players riding along as well. Slink simple said that it would speed up their travel time.

Shaggy groaned as he griped his forehead. “You people are giving me a headache. I’m not giving out rides. Carrying the pillar makes sense, but there is no way for me to do that without taking one of you with me.”

“Or you can carry all of us.”

“Y’all would snap my damn back in two. Also, YOU ARE FASTER THAN ME!”

Vlad sniffed, but didn’t disagree. Ren put the pillar down and wrung out his hands. Shaggy glared at the big man, but Ren shrugged.

“What? It IS heavy and cumbersome. I would prefer if there was an easier way. But you don’t think you can carry both me and the pillar. That’s fair.”

“Thank you. Besides, there is no reason we have to rush home. The pack was there and everyone was fine when we left. What could've happened in the short time we’ve been gone?”

Ren and Vlad slapped themselves in the face before glaring daggers at Shaggy. He shrugged them off and turned toward the street. Unwilling to listen to their superstitious rambling. Then he turned down the street toward the bar and blue lightning streak across the sky. Shaggy groaned again as he saw it coming from the direction of the bar. It was joined by a beam of energy firing off as well.

Vlad slapped shaggy on the shoulder, shaking his head. “You had to say it.”

“Oh, this is not my fault!”

Ren set the pillar down. “No. But now we need to hurry.”

Vlad, Ren and Slink all grinned at him, But Shaggy pointed a finger in Vlad’s face.

“Not you. You can get there quicker. Especially if I’m carrying this lot.”

Vlad scowled but said nothing as his body started to become black mist. He shot Shaggy the finger as his body disappeared. Off in the distance, laser fire, lightning, and energy beams fired from the bar. Shaggy grumbled but shifted, quickly becoming his large demon wolf form. Dave shut down his screen again and looked around. Seeing the others climb up on Shaggy, he whooped in joy.

“Sweet! We get to ride the demon wolf!? This is awesome!”