“So I did what you told me and envisioned everyone at school who had made fun of me.” Slink was saying as the others looked around the bar. “Which made me so mad that I went with my gut and attacked.”

“Yeah. I guess that can happen. But the plan was to release your snakes quietly and find an appropriate time to ambush him.” Ren was saying as he collected bits of wood from the broken tables.

Shaggy chuckled as he righted a chair. “Well, he kinda did that.”

“Except for the ‘quietly’ part.” Vlad laughed along.

Slink went a little red, but seemed too happy with his recent victory to be bothered by them. The boy also had the far off look players got from looking through their menus. But whatever he was doing didn’t seem too strenuous, as he held a conversation just fine. Shaggy righted another chair when a loud cough caught everyone’s attention.

Glancing up, Shaggy spotted the weary-looking bartender. The pale blue alien glanced around at all of them before addressing Slink. He sounded bored with everything that had happened.

“So I take it your crew will be taking ownership of this establishment?”

Shaggy shook his head. “Yeah, no. I don’t think we are going to need a bar.”

Vlad and Ren stared at him for a second before Ren coughed. “Uh, yeah we will. We can’t keep operating out of the hideout. At least while it’s underground.”

The cheerful expression that had bloomed on the bartender’s face quickly died. Shaggy thought it over for a few seconds before glancing at Vlad to get the vampire’s thoughts. Vlad nodded quietly as he lifted a metal and wood table back up. Shaggy glanced back at the bartender with a grin on his face and apologized.

“Well, sorry, my guy, but it looks like we’ll be taking ownership after all.”

The bartender’s face was back to looking bored. “Oh, it’s fine. I’m used to it. Will you be killing and replacing me, then?”

Vlad chuckled darkly. “That happens a lot, does it?”

“No, we aren’t doing that.” Ren said. “We are going to need you to run this place for us. Mister…?”

The bartender nodded understandingly. “Ah, you’re one of those, is it? Well, you can call me Mr. Blue.”

“Cause that’s your name or because you don’t want to give your name to a bunch of ne’er-do-wells like us.”

Mr. Blue just grinned and then flinched like he was afraid someone was going to hit him for the expression. From behind Shaggy, Slink spoke up.

“Well, I got my own damn crew now.”

As the young man moved toward the bar, several of the old Black Razor gang members joined him. Shaggy was briefly worried about the loyalty of each of them, but he could ask Slink about it later. As they stood around the bar, Ren joked.

“So you going to leave us and try to run off on your own?”

Slink just flipped off the large grey alien.

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“We can probably use them to fix up and guard the bar.” Vlad said as he took a seat on a rickety old bar stool.

Mr. Blue rushed around behind the bar, trying to get drinks ready. But Shaggy saw that the shelves behind the bar were practically empty. Not to mention the mugs and glasses Mr. Blue had seemed to be limited as well. He passed out a brown liquid that looked like water-downed beer, and then went back to glancing between them all, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Shaggy sniffed at the liquid before he took a tentative sip and then he immediately spat it back out. It was beer alright. Stale, water-downed, and possibly out-of-date beer. Shaggy saw the others do the same as him, except for Slink’s new Lackeys. He also saw Mr. Blue sigh and then brace himself as if he was ready for one of them to attack him.

Shaggy wiped his mouth. “Okay, if we are going to run a bar, then we need to get a better class of alcohol and chairs… and tables.”

“And mugs.” Ren added as his wooden mug fell apart in his hand.

“Great. So we are already spending more money that we don’t have.” Vlad grumbled.

Slink glanced back at his lackeys and said. “I’m sure my guys have some credits we can use.”

All the former Razors winced almost simultaneously. Finally, one stepped forward and muttered.

“Uh, sorry, boss. Muscle-Lord took all of our money and used it on beer for himself.”

“He also paid me to bring in some more of his ‘Ale’ as he called it. But it won’t be here for a week if it even gets here at all.” Mr. Blue added.

Ren sighed. “And why wouldn’t it get here?”

“Because of the gangs, of course.”

Shaggy watched Ren rub the bridge of his nose on either side of his rhino horn. They were burning imaginary cash at an astounding rate. Looking over at Vlad, showed that the vampire must have had similar thoughts. Shaggy dug his hands through his pant pockets as he thought about all the small timer they had killed just walking here. He found a little over 300 credits if their little credit reader was to be believed.

Putting an array of credit sticks that totaled around 200 on the bar, he said. “For some tables.”

Ren nodded before he added his own stack to the pile. “Mugs.”

Slink was busy putting his cred sticks in the reader, but Vlad seemed hesitant. “Maybe some of us should keep some in reserve so we can buy equipment. Our abilities have taken us this far, but we could at least use some armor or something.”

Shaggy just shrugged. “Sure, but we also are going to have to spend some money if we are going to take over the bar. Plus, any excess money we make here can go to the Hideout.”

“Sure, but that’s going to take a lot of work as well, not just money. Mr. Blue can’t just run it all and I don’t want to spend managing a bar.”

Slink perked up. “We can get my Lackeys to do it. It’s what they were essentially doing, anyway. Plus, I don’t want to manage nine other NPCs. So we set them up here and check in on them occasionally to remind them whose boss.”

Shaggy rubbed his chin in thought. “Are you sure about that? Are their loyalty ratings high enough to trust them with that?”

“Eh, they are in the fifties and sixties. But the Terrified Bonus adds a plus twenty to that for the next two days.”

Ren raised an eyebrow. “Terrified Bonus?”

“Well, you saw what he did to Muscle-lord.” Vlad said, shaking his head.

“Well, that will work for two days, I guess.”

Slink pumped his arm in triumph. “Don’t worry about it, Shags. I’ll put the most loyal one in charge and she can work with Mr. Blue. Hey, Petra!”

A lithe woman with green scales interspersed on her skin stepped forward tentatively and asked. “Yeah, boss?”

“You and Mr. Blue here are going to work on this bar. You run the security and the make sure this place and its shipments are safe. If you need cash, let one of us know.”

“Same thing if there’s some other gang poking around. Send a runner for us. We’ll be in the neighborhood.” Ren added.

Both Mr. Blue and Petra nodded, with the former looking mildly hopeful. Slink, seemingly on a roll, then turned to Mr. Blue.

“Same to you Mr. Blue. Hire some wait staff and get some construction done on this building. We’ll front the cost, but we expect a return on our investment and our cut comes off the top, you hear?”

Mr. Blue nodded, surprised, as Slink turned away from the bar to see Shaggy and the others staring at him.

“What?”

Shaggy chuckled. “Nothing, boss. So, where are we going next?”

“Yeah, chief. Got any orders for us?”

“Leave the kid alone. He is running high, and he isn’t actually wrong.” Ren said, patting a red faced Slink on the shoulder.

“Yeah, but we also still need marching orders. So if the kid has any ideas now that he has popped his PVP cherry. I am more than willing to listen.” Shaggy said, shaking his head and still laughing.

“I think we need to continue our march around the neighborhood. We are going to need the money and it’ll will help consolidate our power.”

Slink nodded hurriedly. “Yeah, what Vlad said. Let’s do that.”

“Sure thing, boss.”

The four of them made their way toward the door. The left over gang members started moving around the room and cleaning. Petra and Mr. Blue fell into quiet conversation and Shaggy thought the two of them would do well together if they didn’t stab him and his friends in the back. They had just made it to the door when Mr. Blue spoke up again, sounding more normal than he had originally.

“Uh, boss? Are you going to change the name of the bar? Every time this happens, the new group changes the name.”

Shaggy and the others looked at Slink, who took in their faces before turning to answer with a wide smile.

“Call it The Viper’s Den.”