“… then he sped away in a blast of air.” Shaggy finished explaining as Levy nodded along.

He was back in the caves beneath the city. Along with Xiv and her friends, minus Mell. She wasn’t going to let the armor out of her sight anytime soon. Nuc was adamant that the armor be taken somewhere else, though. So, after a little back and forth, Shaggy and the crew sequestered Mell in an abandoned building nearby. At least until they could find out what protections were on the armor.

“And you have no idea who he worked for?”

Shaggy shrugged as Rita passed him a ham sandwich. “I have a couple of guesses. But nothing concrete. The guy pissed me off like only a corporate stooge could.”

Ephemara snorted. “Pissing you off ain’t a hard thing to do, boss.”

“Maybe. But I didn’t like the smell of Mr. White. He was too slimy and too sure of himself. Also, like far too many people recently, he knew who I was. But he didn’t seem concerned. So either he was severely underestimating me or…”

“Or he had no reason to be afraid of you.” Levy nodded as she stopped waving her magic hands around.

A nearby pile of dirt fell to the dirt floor of the cave with a thump. Nearby, several blank-faced robots about four-foot high started shoveling the dirt into a larger pile. The robots were part of the workforce from Under-Town. Apparently, Randa and Roald had gotten Cog’s old automator working. The Legion now had a cheap, expendable workforce. Even if they were stupid as hell.

Shaggy watched as three of the little robots pushed a fourth one into their gigantic pile of dirt. They weren’t the brightest of inventions. But Slink said that was on purpose. Ren’s little gremlin friend, Randa, hated robots with an undisguised passion. The little green alien refused to make them any smarter in case they went rogue and started an uprising.

“Well, that’s his mistake, right? I mean, we are all tough as shit. We could bulldoze this Mr. White asshole and his little storm-troopers.” Tom boasted.

Shaggy rubbed his chin as he waggled his head. “I’m not too sure. The trooper’s armor was some heavy duty stuff. My claws couldn’t get through it. Not to mention how well trained they were.”

His pack and the others fell silent as Shaggy ran his conversation with Mr. White over in his mind. They had three days to get out of the neighborhood or else terror would descend upon them. Shaggy did not know what Mr. White had meant by terror, but he would not let that scare him. Instead, he shook himself and turned to his pack.

“What did y’all find?”

Rita and Ephemara shared a look before they both shrugged. Cekrass, Stanley and Vick looked annoyed, but didn’t elaborate. Tom was too busy giggling at the slapstick robots to answer. Sybil, though, she was waiting for an excuse to divulge.

“This place is a shithole, boss. I mean, worse than before. Now people are actively leaving the neighborhood and the gangs are moving in by the dozens. Don’t get me wrong, I had some fun lighting the fuckers up. But the damn idiots are everywhere. All of them are trying to cut up their own slice of turf. But none of them are strong enough to hold a damn store, let alone a whole block.”

“Did they not get the ‘leave or else’ message?” Rita asked, but Sybil merely shrugged.

“Shit.” Shaggy grumbled as he finished his sandwich.

If people were moving out of the neighborhood, then it was becoming more worthless by the second. Smart money said they should just pack their shit and find a new neighborhood to call home. But that didn’t really sit right with Shaggy. He glanced up at Levy to see her idly moving dirt around for the robots.

She and a few other mages were clearing space for the new construction area. They were at the far end of the cave, ripping into the wall with magic. Lackeys and robots shuffled about the place, moving dirt and bringing in supplies. Levy’s eyes were knotted in concentration as she carefully extracted a large section of dirt from the wall. She grimaced as she floated it closer and said.

“Love, what are you thinking about? Some of us don’t have the advantage of being able to read your mind.”

Shaggy huffed again as he weighed the pros and cons of staying or going. “I’m trying to decide whether we should stay and see what ‘Terror’ looks like or leave.”

“Boss, you can’t be serious.”

“Yeah, we just got here!”

“Besides, we don’t even know who this jerkwad is! He could be a lying bastard for all we know.”

Shaggy nodded as his pack and Xiv’s crew all spoke up at once. Putting his hands up, Shaggy stood. “Look, I don’t like it either. But if we stay, we’ll have to deal with a group that we have no information on. We don’t know what they want, or even who they work for. What we know is that they are heavily armed and have the capability to teleport their people in and out of the neighborhood.”

“So we just switch neighborhoods?” Levy asked. “What’s stopping this group from following us there and stopping us again? I think we both know we need to at least figure out who we are dealing with.”

“I know! I… just didn’t want to deal with it. This spy shit ain’t for me. I’d rather these wang-rods come out in the open for a fair scrap. But they will not give me the satisfaction.”

“What about them rod things?” Cekrass asked. When everyone stared at the giant lizard-man, he elaborated. “Them anti-teleport pylon things we got set-up in Under-Town? Could we get some for out here?”

Shaggy nodded slowly as he turned over the idea. Stopping the teleporting bastards from getting away would be a hell of an idea. But Shaggy wasn’t sure it would work. Seeing his grimace, Rita asked.

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“What is it this time?”

“Well, we need some kind of frequency for the pylons to block. We can’t just set up a defensive net and hope for the best.”

“The armor!” Xiv said happily, almost racing from the cave.

“Yes.” Shaggy stopped her. “The armor. But first we need to get it to Under-Town without Mr. White and his cronies finding out about this cave.”

“That’s easy. We…” Xiv waved a hand at SenSor, Cutie, and herself. “Take the armor back the long way round. There are other entrances to Under-Town. Then we talk to Roald and the gremlin-dude and get our anti-porting pylons.”

Shaggy nodded. “It’s a pretty boring delivery mission. You sure you want to handle it?”

Xiv shrugged. “I can’t say we won’t get distracted along the way. That’s why I want to take my whole crew. But I promise to be back by tomorrow… maybe the day after.”

Shaggy rolled his eyes, but nodded. “Fine. You lot go get Mell and head back to Under-Town. If Roald gives you any shit, come through the portal here and I’ll handle it. Meanwhile, me and the pack will try to dig into Mr. White.”

“I thought you didn’t want to do any spy shit?” Ephemara grinned.

“I don’t. But while we are out there, we can start clearing the neighborhood. With Kek’zar out of the game, it’s going to disrupt things for a bit. I want to get on with that. Also, we need to find out if he had any storehouses or anything.”

“So we’re on cockroach clearing duty?” Sybil grimaced.

“Hey, you could take a long walk back to Under-Town with Xiv instead of frying thugs.” Shaggy said blithely.

Sybil’s grimace became a full-on scowl and Shaggy had to hide his grin as his pack mates chuckled. It was a solid plan and maybe they could find something before their time limit was up. Levy waved a magic-free hand in the air, getting Shaggy’s attention.

“Not to add to the list. But we also need to take care of the deli upstairs. We need it to look like a legitimate business. So we need to fix the place up, find people to staff it, and find a supplier for meat. Also, I’m sure we’re going to need a business license of some kind.”

Shaggy groaned as he scratched his head. She wasn’t wrong. They needed to set up several front businesses topside. Things to make them look legitimate and help them ingratiate themselves with the community. Not that there was much of a community left. Shaggy glanced at each of his pack in turn. Ephemara and Rita immediately turned away from his gaze. Cekrass grinned happily. Stanley gave him a pained smile, Sybil flicked him off, and Vick was just staring at him.

“Where the hell did Tom go?” Shaggy groaned.

Off in the distance by the cave wall, a voice carried through the cave. “I’m busy helping move this dirt, boss. Don’t mind me, I’m far too busy to help set up any businesses.”

Shaggy sighed loudly as he rubbed his forehead. He could feel the mirth in his pack mates, but he needed someone to stay behind and help. Making a quick decision, Shaggy pointed at Cekrass, Stanley and Vick.

“You three stay here and help with the deli. Use whomever else you can grab and get the deli situated. Anyone gives you any shit, you go to Levy.”

“I’ll straighten them out for you.” Levy grinned as a purple orb of magic engulfed her hand.

“Rita, Ephe, and Sybil, you’re with me. We need to find out… what?”

Levy had started giggling the second Shaggy had finished picking his team for topside. Soon, Ephemara and Rita were laughing along with her, and it took Shaggy a few seconds to figure out why. He had picked all the women in his pack to go with him and, for some reason, that tickled his wife to no end. Shaggy exhaled from his nose and rolled his eyes.

“Damn it, Levy. I was just picking the most useful for the mission at hand.”

“Sure, sure.” Levy chuckled as her magic wavered for a bit.

“I’m serious! Rita is my backup, Ephe is the spymaster, and Sybil is for when shit hits the fan. They are all essential parts of the team. Cekrass and Stanley are brutes, no offense, that the team uses when we want to crush some skulls. Vick is the organizer and is great at spotting a threat. Set them up in the Deli and ain’t no one getting in.”

Levy seemed to think on his words for a bit. He thought she agreed with him when he saw her nodding. But her next words made him groan.

“That is all well thought out and a reasonable excuse for you to travel topside with your harem. You are excused to go frolic in the sunlight while your wife remains in this dark cave.”

“Did you want to come, love? Because you know I won’t say no to a little magical help.”

“No. I need to stay here to help with the deli and to keep the Lackeys in line. But I have to give you shit about your little harem as much as possible. It’s a wife’s prerogative.”

Shaggy sauntered closer to his wife and grinned. “I don’t think that’s exactly part of a wife’s purview. But you do you, sweetheart. I’ll be back as fast as possible. Don’t you worry.”

Levy grinned as she waved him away. “No, no. You treat your girls to something nice. I’ll be here sweating over a hot cave.”

Shaggy rolled his eyes as he gave Levy a quick kiss and returned to his pack. Xiv waved goodbye as he approached.

“We’re gonna head out now and try to be back quick. Don’t get into any epic fights without us.”

“You were just part of one! How many more do you need in a day?”

“Bah! That was barely a back-alley brawl. But this trooper shit? That’s the real deal, Shaggy, and we want in.”

Shaggy waved her off. “Then you better hurry. I imagine Mell is going stir crazy with only that armor to keep her company.”

Xiv and her crew waved goodbye to everyone as Shaggy took in his pack. They looked eager and ready. Shaggy could feel their hunger and their need to hunt and run. Cekrass and Stanley were a little sore about being benched. But Shaggy sent them some positive thoughts as he turned to Ephemara and the others. Rita grinned wickedly at him as Sybil’s frown deepened.

“You know you ain’t my type, right?”

Shaggy rolled his eyes and turned to the exit as Rita and Ephe cackled behind him. He was going to be eating harem jokes the entire rest of the day. He just knew it. Hopefully, they would find something to distract them as they scoured the neighborhood for Mr. White's troops. But for all Shaggy knew, they were just going to be bouncing through shitty small-time gangs. How many people could Mr. White really have?

“You just had to think that, didn’t you?” Ephemara said.

“Oh please, don’t bring your superstitious crap here. I’m serious. For all we know, Mr. White isn’t willing to send trooper after trooper into this neighborhood.”

Rita checked over her sword as they walked. “Uh-huh. All I know is if we run into a bunch of armored troopers up there, I’m blaming you.”

“I wonder how that armor does against fire?” Sybil asked, conjuring a fistful of green flame.

Shaggy rolled his eyes. “We won’t get to see this time out. Remember, we are trying to be stealthy about all this. We need to clear the neighborhoods while looking for signs of Mr. White. This is not a free-for-all brawl through the streets of Austin, clear.”

“Sure, sure.”

“Whatever.”

“Blaming you.”

“Y’all are the worst pack ever.” Shaggy grumbled.