“This is bullshit.”
“No, it isn’t. Now keep meditating.”
“Can’t I punch something? Or set something on fire?”
“No, Sybil. We tried anger with you and it didn’t work, remember?”
“Cekrass wasn’t angry, though. He just needed the adrenaline, right? Why not let us do that?”
“Cekrass was fighting me and got super excited. His adrenaline spiked, and it triggered his shift. Each of you has already tried that. Now we’re on this.” Shaggy sighed as he explained for what felt like the hundredth time.
“I get that,” Sybil said, opening one of her closed eyes and glancing at Shaggy. “But I feel like I was on to something for a second or two. Maybe if we try it again…”
Rita snorted as she smacked the blonde woman in the back of the head. “Bull shit, Syb. We can all feel you lying. Now, do like the boss said and focus. You don’t see Vick or Stanley complaining, do you?”
“Vick’s asleep and the kid is still glowing from being made a full werewolf. Neither of them is a good metric to judge by. But I bet Ephe agrees with me, right?”
Sybil had both her eyes open now and was looking down the line of cross-legged pack members. Vick was listing slightly to the side while Stanley looked like he was trying to force mental calmness into his brain. Ephemara, however, hadn’t budged since Shaggy had explained the exercise. But the intensity in his Number One Henchman was radiating so much it could almost be felt by all of them.
“Shh. I’m trying to reach lupine oneness with the universe or whatever.” Ephemara whispered out of the corner of her mouth.
Sybil slumped forward in her cross-legged position. Shaggy could feel the woman’s aggravation through the link. While he had been putting his pack through their paces, he had been focusing on the Link that connected them. It was an almost nebulous thing. But once he had enough time to focus in on it, it became almost tangible. The different feelings and emotions he could pick up from each one of them were astounding.
Sybil cracked an eye again. “What about Tom? Why isn’t he doing this?”
Shaggy sighed and turned to look at the skinny man in question. Tom had been through the same exercises as the others. Except he claimed to have felt some connection with the aggression aspects of being a werewolf. The pack had felt no lie in his words. So they were letting him work himself into a rage nearby. Although it wasn’t really going well. He was plenty annoyed by now. But it wasn’t exactly a white-hot fury that would trigger a shift. At least not in Shaggy’s opinion.
“Again, Sybil. You know why. We can all feel how close he is.” Rita explained.
Sybil groaned as she resumed her meditation position. “I swear if that slimy bastard shifts before I do, y’all will never hear the end of it.”
“We haven’t heard the end of it yet, Sybs.” Vick grumbled, surprising everyone.
Shaggy zeroed in on the Sharpshooter and studied his Link with the man. Vick was at a serene calmness that Shaggy almost aspired to reach. The man was so mellow that he had fallen asleep. Shaggy assumed that meant Vick was probably not a Calm-Shifter or whatever the hell term they had for it.
“Vick, why don’t you stand up and we’ll try something else.” Shaggy said.
“Oh, come on!” Sybil groused, but another smack from Rita stopped any further complaints.
Vick stood and lit a cigarette as he approached Shaggy. “So what’s next, boss? We’ve tried anger, calmness, annoyance, and ever other anger-based emotion. Do you want me to cry now?”
Shaggy huffed and shrugged his shoulders. “I really don’t know, Vick. Maybe? It’s not really about the emotion itself. That’s just the trigger. You hold on to that feeling and let it feed into your transformation. After the first few tries, the feeling sort of fades into the background and you get a sense of how to summon it at-will.”
“That’s a decent way to put it.” Rita agreed.
“WOOF!” Were-Cekrass barked as he came stomping over.
Shaggy had the big lizard alien of their crew practicing his own shifting. He and Rita were taking it in turns to stay shifted as long as possible. Sort of like training a muscle. They had taken to running about the enormous cavern under the Deli. Helping the digging crew move dirt around. It was great practice, and it actually wore them out fairly quickly.
“So I just have to run the gamut of emotions across my mind until I hit something?” Vick asked.
“Essentially. But the feelings have to be real. You can’t just fake a feeling like joy and be done with it. The memory of genuine feelings works too, but takes a greater degree of concentration.”
“No shit!” Tom shouted from where he was standing.
The lanky man was red in the face as he tried to work himself into a fury. Shaggy could feel the man’s frustration seeping out over their link. Shaggy sent the man positive reinforcement over the Link, but Tom practically recoiled from the feelings.
“That’s not helping, boss!” Tom hissed.
Shaggy quirked an eyebrow, but he shrugged. Tom was right. Getting a head-full of positive vibes probably didn’t help. If anything, it probably made it more difficult. He turned back to work with Vick when Stanley spoke up, sounding confused.
“Could you amplify our own emotions doing that, Shaggy? I mean… Boss?”
Shaggy froze and actually stopped to think of it. If he could send emotions down the pack link, why couldn’t he overload the link with feelings? He wanted to slap himself. He turned back to Tom and gathered as much aggravation and angry as he could. But Rita and Sybil both shouted out at once.
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“Not that much!”
“Me first!”
Both women glanced at each other as Shaggy released the feelings. He looked between the two, waiting for an explanation. Although Sybil’s complaint was obvious.
Rita grimaced as she looked between Shaggy and Tom. “Boss, that much emotion is liable to knock the dumbass out.”
“Since when are you an expert on the Link, Rita?!” Tom Snapped. “I can take it, boss. Hit me with everything you got!”
Shaggy glanced at Rita one last time. But the woman merely threw her hands in the air and waved him on. Shrugging, he gathered up his own feelings again. Focusing on rage and anger. With a mental shove, Shaggy jammed all his feelings down the link and at Tom. For a while after the attempt, nothing happened. But then Tom shuddered.
Their little corner of the cave went quiet as they all watched Tom shake. The man’s whole body seemed to vibrate visibly. His body bulged at odd angles, and Shaggy almost whooped in triumph. But then Tom screamed. A sudden psychic blast that carried physical weight slammed into all of them.
Shaggy went sailing into the dirt as he heard the rest of his pack shout in alarm. With a roll, Shaggy got back to his feet in time for a splitting headache to roar across his mind. Shaggy felt like his brain was spilling from his ears and nose. But with a quick check, he found it was just blood. Sighing, he wiped it all away and walked back to his crew.
The blast, whatever it was, had thrown him about fifteen feet away. The others had been luckier. Most of them were merely bowled over. Sybil, Rita and Ephemara gave him scathing glares as he approached and even Cekrass was giving him a reproachful look. Vick was bemoaning a lost cigarette while Stanley gripped his head in pain. Tom was unconscious and sprawled across the ground. Blood pouring from his nose.
Shaggy felt his pulse quicken with worry. But after a quick check, he found Tom was fine overall. Just knocked out. With a sigh, Shaggy stood and turned to inform the others. But the three women were still glaring at him. He gave them his best ‘whoops’ look and hoped that would be the end of it. Rita and Ephemara snorted and looked away. But Sybil had a grin on her face.
“My turn, boss.” She said.
“You cannot be serious.” Shaggy grumbled.
“Hey! You just found out what not to do. Now it’s time to start small and experiment. Let’s do anger again. But this time like a small dose.”
“We already know anger doesn’t work with you, Sybil. What would be the point of trying that emotion?”
“I don’t know. Practice using the correct dose? Just give me a smidgen of something.”
Shaggy looked at Rita and Ephemara. But both women were still not engaging with the conversation. Vick looked intrigued and Stanley was just getting up from the ground. The boy’s ears were silver. He probably used his Quinica to protect them.
With another sigh. Shaggy sent a dose of joy through the Link. It was a memory of joy from long ago. But the feeling still resonated strongly within the memory. So Shaggy hoped that would enhance the feeling somehow.
Everyone waited as Sybil seemed to become extremely quiet. The distant sound of mages, Lackeys, and bots working filtered over to them. But they all ignored it as Sybil’s face lit up with a smile. The normally grouchy blonde woman was grinning at Shaggy. But the smile quickly faded as she seemed to come back to herself.
“Well, that wasn’t unpleasant. But not the right feeling, Boss. At least I don’t think so.”
Shaggy nodded and quickly thought of another emotion. This time, he went with sadness. A distinct and heart-wrenching memory came bubbling to the surface of Shaggy’s mind. But he immediately stomped it down. Instead, he went with another memory from his childhood. One tied to losing a competition and feeling like a failure. He bundled the feeling up and sent it down the link.
They all watched as the feeling seemed to slap Sybil in the face. Her hazel eyes fell, and she almost looked ready to cry. Shaggy momentarily thought he had gone too hard with the memory. But Sybil quickly snapped back and glared at him. She quickly wiped her eyes and groaned.
“Argh! Don’t do that again and no! That’s not the right emotion.”
Shaggy nodded dumbly as he took stock of what they had tried. Anger was way out. Calm hadn’t worked either. Happy and sad were also either too broad or just not right. He thought about trying fear next. But with the look Sybil gave him, Shaggy decided to go for something else. He searched his memories for any significant feelings. Sorrow and rage filled a lot of his mind. But there was also joy and pride, too. Some memories had to be shoved back down into the dark pit of his brain again. But while he was mentally punting a particularly annoying memory into the void, something else came to mind. It was actually another memory tied to competition. Except this one was of him winning and the feeling of dominating an opponent. How empowered he felt at that moment. The rush, the cheers, the looks on his…
Shaggy stopped the memory there and focused on the feeling. It was a complex one. Happiness and exhaustion pulsed through it. But at its core was a feeling of being able to do anything, that feeling of conquering anything that got in his way. With as much feeling as he could muster, Shaggy sent the emotion down the Link.
It hit Sybil with almost physical weight. Shaggy was surprised to find the Pack Link almost pulse back at him as he checked on Sybil’s emotional state. An echo appeared over the Link and Shaggy saw Sybil almost rush off and try to chase the echo. Instead, she mastered herself and seemed to dig her feet into the dirt. After some time, the blonde woman came back to herself. Blinking rapidly, she turned to Shaggy and smiled.
“That’s it boss, I know it. It wasn’t strong enough, though. You got another one?”
Shaggy searched his memory, but that feeling of dominating another was scarce in his mind. He had been fairly young, and the feeling quickly was usurped by feeling so joyful and the rush of winning. Sybil seemed to read his mind, as she nodded quickly.
“Looks like not. That’s fine. I think I can chase down the feeling. At least now I have a direction to run in. Thanks, boss.”
Shaggy nodded and raised a hand as Sybil rushed past him. She slapped his open hand and cackled as she almost physically chased the emotion. Shaggy heaved an enormous sigh as he collected himself. Finding the right feeling was actually pretty draining. It was like giving himself emotional whiplash as he dove between feelings. Sure, the emotions were muted in memory, but reliving some of them was taxing. Shaggy stretched his arms over his head as a soft cough came from in front of him.
“Ahem.”
Looking up, Shaggy spotted Ephemara, Stanley, and Vick all looking at him. Each with an eager look on their face. He groaned. Rita walked over and patted his shoulder a few times in commiseration. But then the red-head swordswoman shifted into her werewolf form and ran off with Cekrass.
“Traitor!” Shaggy shouted as he watched the brunette and green wolves run off.
“Don’t worry, boss.” Ephemara grinned as Shaggy turned back toward them. “We promise to be gentle.”
“Ha Ha.” Shaggy deadpanned. “Just for that, Stanley is going first.”
Ephemara got a dangerous look in her eye. But when Shaggy didn’t budge, she turned it on the taller teen. Stanley sputtered under the weight of the shorter woman’s glare.
“I-I-I can go last. That would be fine with me, actually. Boss, you should do Ephe first.”
“Oh yes, please.”
“Ephe. Stop. Please.”
Shaggy rubbed his eyes as he searched his memories again. He found himself hoping that an emergency would happen topside as Vick, Stanley and Ephemara crowded around him. He locked in a particular memory and got ready to send it through the Link. It was going to be an extremely draining exercise.