Shaggy put a hand to his neck and stretched his back. Leaning away from the War Table, he stared up at the metal ceiling. That was one of the first things he started changing. He got sick of looking at the brown dirt ceiling and floors of most of the basement. Now he was staring at the amalgamation of metals used to build Under-Town shack houses. It was quite an improvement. But it was workable.

They could eventually swap out the metal plating for a more uniform look. But that would take a Forge, which meant they needed a smelter. It also meant they would need a Lackey who could forge metal. Shaggy had been through the Lackey tab a few times already. The grunts, surprisingly, had an array of skills and classes. The trick was getting the right person for the job. A few dingbats had signed up for his arcade job, thinking it would be a cushy position. Shaggy disabused them of those thoughts… Aggressively.

Now Demetrius was off overseeing that aspect of the Legion. Shaggy had chosen a nice spot catty-corner from the bar at its southern edge. It was already a cleared space. All he needed were the cabinets and the power supply. The jobs were marked as underway, but Shaggy didn’t know what would come back. The Lackeys had proven a decent workforce, but assigning them jobs topside was a bit of a crapshoot. Sometimes they came back with useful stuff. Other times it was complete junk.

“SHAGGY!”

Shaggy grinned as he looked at the team of Lackeys he had helping him. “Uh-oh, kids. Mommy’s home.”

There was enough time for Shaggy to see smirks on some of the Lackeys faces before Slink stormed in.

“What have you done?!”

“To what are you referring exactly? I have done many things.”

“I was gone for a few hours and you remodeled the damn basement?!”

Shaggy felt his eyes go wide, and he checked the in-game clock. “Whoa! It’s been two hours?! That’s crazy. This damn table is dangerous.”

Slink nodded a few times in commiseration. But he soon caught himself. “Wait! That’s not important. Why did you redecorate our base in multicolored metal? This shit is an eyesore!”

“No, Slink. The dirt was an eyesore and I have the morale numbers to prove it. Sure, the boost is slight because the metal is so shitty. But we have more than enough of the stuff to cover the interior. Then once we get the forge up and running, we can see about converting everything. Then we’ll see an enormous boost.”

Slink rubbed his eyes. “Shaggy, the morale boost isn’t worth it. It does nothing but ensure we keep Lackeys. In addition, the forge is a complete waste of money when we have Roald. He can create plenty of equipment from scraps. He is the most cost-efficient worker we have. We give him junk and he outfits our crew.”

“Slink,” Shaggy started, grabbing a tablet from one of the Lackeys. “We have seen a marked increase in work speed because of the morale boost. Across everything. Even the bar.”

“What?!”

Slink grabbed the tablet and started scrolling through. Shaggy grinned. The morale boost’s effects weren’t mentioned in any of the in-game help menus. So Slink probably took them all at face value. Shaggy had been experimenting with shit and found that the morale increased work speed. It wasn’t huge, because the morale boost was so small, but it was helping everything.

“Why wasn’t this in the Help documents? If I had known this, we would have been moving in that direction all along.”

“It’s a game, Slink. They want to reward crazy combinations and exploration. Even with this weird 4X table.”

“4X?”

“Explore, Exploit, Exterminate and Ex… something…” Shaggy trailed off, scratching his chin in thought.

“Shaggy, those all begin with ‘E.’”

Shaggy shrugged. “Hey, I didn’t invent the term. But it’s a good place-holder for what this damn table is. You’re basically a commander, managing resources and assigning jobs for your troops.”

Slink grunted, but went back to the tablet. He scrolled through a few more things. But overall, he turned back to Shaggy with a nod.

“Okay, so what about the forge?”

“That’s even more straightforward, Slink. Roald is producing good weapons with shitty scrap. So what do you think he will produce with actual non-shitty materials? If we have a forge, all we have to do is melt the impurities out of the metals and Roald can take the ingots and make better equipment.”

“But we need a forge-master. Not to mention we have to get the smelters and everything down here. We don’t have the truck space for that.”

Shaggy rubbed his hands and smiled. “So, last thing first. We don’t have the trucks yet, but I put Ephe’s group on that while you were out. They are headed into Phreak territory. Remember the job we did for the lizard?”

Slink grimaced, but nodded. The kid hadn’t survived that brief trip. “So you’re going to steal garbage trucks from the Phreaks? We don’t need the heat, Shaggy.”

“No, we don’t. Which is why I assigned them the UGB armor we stole. They shouldn’t get caught, but if they do. The Phreaks will think the UGB are stepping on their toes. Not us.” Shaggy grinned, happy with his little plan. “Besides, working with the pickup trucks and vans we have now is ridiculous. We need bigger convoys.”

Slink nodded again. “What about the forge master? None of the ones down here wanted to work with us. They are too secure in their current jobs with other gangs.”

“Slink, we are criminals! Why are you bothering with the jokers down here? There’s an entire city above us. Don’t you remember how we got Fred?”

“Frank.” A Lackey said from behind him.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Jim, I’ve told you why it’s a bad idea to correct the boss, haven’t I?” Shaggy grumbled.

“Yes, but you’ve also shown that you prefer people that stand up to you.”

“Fair point. Have a cookie.” Shaggy said, grabbing one from the War Table’s surface.

“And you’ve got food on the War Table?!” Slink asked, aghast.

“I was peckish. Besides, show me a Gamer that doesn’t game and snack and I’ll show you a Gamer who ain’t living right!”

Shaggy tossed the cookie over to Jim, who caught it inexpertly and smiled. “Now, Slink, I’ve got a kidnapping job on the board and our people are already topside. I put my top alien on it, so we should see something soon.”

Slink sputtered for a few seconds. Shaggy thought the kid was going to say that they couldn’t kidnap people. But apparently, Slink caught the thought before it escaped his mouth. He moved closer to the table and grabbed a cookie as he fell into thought.

Shaggy, meanwhile, went back to assigning crews to various locations. They had an almost constant workforce knocking down buildings and relocating tenets. Dave was with them now, which gave the team a boost to speed and effectiveness. So Shaggy wanted to use them as much as possible. Sure, the basement construction suffered a bit, but it was worth it for the metal.

They would need a lot of it once the forge got up and running. He didn’t know how impure the shack metal was. But he was almost sure they were going to lose a lot in the smelting process. He was trying to decide what to do with the slag. He was thinking of handing that over to Roald as well, just to see what the boy could do with it. They had no actual use for it.

“What’s with the arcade?” Slink asked from his shoulder.

Shaggy grinned and moved the War Table’s holographic interface to his pet project. The walls were slowly going up and foundations were being built for the small building. A completion percentage was displayed, but it was barely above twenty percent. The construction would account for a lot of that, but then they would have to do the interior. Which would be the last bits of the job.

“Entertainment venue designed to pull in tourists. We have plenty of Lackeys, but we need people here spending money. The bar is going great, but we need multiple businesses. We can’t just rely on tithes. Which, by the way, ten percent? Really, Slink?”

“Ten percent still gives us a good chunk of credits and we garner goodwill with the local store owners. The loss of possible credits is worth the loyalty.”

Shaggy grunted, but didn’t disagree. When Slink saw he wasn’t going to argue, the young boy continued.

“But why an arcade? I mean, they are cute. In a novelty sort of way. But is anyone actually going to visit one?”

“The way I see it, these people are starved for entertainment. I mean, the Phreaks have their drug dens, and the Raks have their brothels and casinos. Why can’t we have our own thing?”

“What’s next, a theme park? Villain World? It just seems incongruous with the rest of Under-Town, Shaggy.”

“That’s the point, Slink. It sticks out! Do you know how much arcade cabinets go for in the real world? I don’t mean those weird VR cabinets, I mean the real old-fashioned stick and button cabinets. The pre-unionization war shit, Slink. They are worth millions. Millions!”

Slink took a step back and stared worriedly at Shaggy. “Oookay, you seem passionate about it, at least.”

“That’s cause little Shaggy never got to go to the arcade as a kid,” Levy’s voice said from behind them. “Nope. His father was all ‘If you have time to play games, then you have time to study. You must be smart if you are going to run the family business.’”

Shaggy grinned as Levy put on a deep voice and chopped her hand in the air. A move his dad was infamous for.

“Also,” Levy continued, still mimicking his dad. “Stay away from that girl. She will rot your brain and taint your seed.”

“And thank you. You have now officially over shared. What’s up, Levy?” Shaggy said, spinning and trying to give his wife his best annoyed look. I was difficult through the smile, but he hoped he pulled it off.

“I’m just bored. That tech is fucking annoying. Or I’m just not good enough yet. Any attempts at tracking are going to have to be done by Neuro. But he says he needs better equipment if he is going to repair the belt. But the defense emitters are underway and should be done here soon.”

“I take it, Neuro is Roald's new villain name?” Shaggy asked, rolling his eyes.

“For now. We’ll see if he gets bored and changes it. What has you discussing your favorite real world subject?”

“Shaggy built an arcade for the Legion.” Slink said, chewing on a cookie.

“It let’s you have old-fashioned arcade cabinets?!” Levy asked, surprised.

Shaggy coughed awkwardly. “Well… no. These would be the old standing VR things. But if we could find one, I bet it would draw a crowd.”

“So, where are you getting the cabinets?”

“I have a few feelers out topside. I’ve told them to check dumpsites around barcades. If that fails, they can break in and steal them. Unfortunately, we can only grab a few because of our limited truck space.”

Slink nodded as he scrolled through the reports of what Shaggy had been doing. But he stopped halfway through. “You sent your pack?!”

“Of course. It’s an important job, and I wanted it done quickly.” Shaggy grinned.

“Dude, that’s like using a professional hitman to win a prize at the county fair! Not a good allocation of resources, Shaggy!”

“We will have to agree to disagree on that one, Slink.”

Levy placed a hand on Slink’s shoulder as he huffed and puffed angrily. “Let it go, Slink. When it’s about arcades, my love goes a bit stupid.”

Shaggy harrumphed. “Hurtful.”

“You know it’s true. You’re like a kid who was denied chocolate and the first time you try it, you think it’s the greatest thing in the world.”

“Am not!”

“We have three arcade cabinets in our home, Shaggy! Three! The damn things take up too much space.”

“Oh! Now you want to come for my arcade cabinets!? You just try it, woman! But I promise you, your stuffed Cthulhu plushies will start to mysteriously disappear.”

Levy gasped and her eyes narrowed as she glared down at Shaggy. “You wouldn’t dare!”

“Try me.” Shaggy said simply.

Shaggy heard Slink munching on another cookie. Actively ignoring their shenanigans. Either the boy had gotten used to their nonsense or he really didn’t care. Shaggy changed his scowl to a grin as he rushed forward and hugged his wife. She returned the hug and shared a look before a blue ball rolled into the War Room.

“Hey! Blobby! How ya doing? You get what I asked for?” Shaggy asked, letting go of Levy and turning to face the amorphous alien.

The blue alien flowed out of its ball form before responding. “~Yeah, boss. I got him. It was a piece of cake~”

As Blobby spoke, its opaque form went clear, and Shaggy and the others could see a broad-shouldered humanoid inside Blobby’s body. Shaggy grinned and stepped back, giving the alien space to disgorge his captive. Blobby did just that and pushed the body out of its amorphous form, spitting it onto the metal floor.

The body was a large grey man. His skin was cracked and pitted, with an orange glow peeking from the cracks. The man sucked in large lungfuls of air before he glanced up. Upon seeing himself surrounded by Shaggy, Levy, Slink and the Lackeys, the man jumped to his feet. A short hammer appeared in his hand and the short man launched himself at Shaggy. Surprised by the sudden assault, Shaggy had enough time to get an arm up.

The silver metal hammer slammed into Shaggy’s forearm. But Shaggy ignored the blow and reached forward to wrench the weapon away. But when his hand came into contact with the hammer, it slid off. Like there was a shield or something protecting the weapon. The gray man jumped back and away from Shaggy. Blobby was guarding the door. Levy’s hands were glowing, and Slink had produced a pistol from… somewhere.

“What do ya bastards want? How can you steal a man from his home in the middle of the day?”

“This the Forge Master?” Slink asked, pistol still leveled at the man’s chest.

“The third best Forger in Austin. If I got the information right.” Shaggy nodded.

“Hey!” shouted the gray alien.

“Why the third best?” Levy asked.

“The first would’ve been missed by everyone in Austin. The second would’ve been missed by the first. But the third? He had no connections with anyone and was apparently thinking of leaving for greener pastures.”

“How the fuck do you know all that?!” the man shouted.

Shaggy grinned. “Mr. Hethor Angelopoulos? I come to you with an offer of riches, blood, and alien tech. What say you to a bargain?”

“Really, Shaggy. With the pompous tone?” Levy quipped.

“My love? Shaddup.”