Shaggy prowled through the dark streets. His dark fur and the flickering street lights made his passage through the streets go unnoticed. But he found it odd that the neighborhood had become more alive as the sun went down. Not that it was a good thing.

Laser fire lit up the night, shouts in the distance echoed off the brick buildings, and the smell of gunpowder was in the air. Already Shaggy and his pack had run into several small gangs terrorizing all-night businesses. They had even stopped several home invasions in the two hours they had been patrolling.

“It makes sense, boss.” Rita thought at him.

“Yeah. If the HLO is behind this, they’ve probably paid off a few gangs to stir up more trouble.” Ephemara remarked in his head.

The telepathic communication was an interesting addition to the pack’s skill set. It had only appeared once every one of them had shifted. But it wasn’t like communicating with words. It was more based on feeling and grainy mental images. But it helped Shaggy to think of the combined feelings as words.

“I’ve stopped another mugging!” Stanley almost shouted. A wave of joy and images of dead muggers filled Shaggy’s mind.

The others of the pack sent the youngest member mental applause and pats on the back. Tom also informed them of stopping a breaking and entering attempt. The streets really were alive with crime at the moment. There wasn’t a drone in the sky though or any sirens. Shaggy shook his head.

“How sad is it that criminals have to police a neighborhood?”

“Par for the course in this neighborhood, boss.”

“But who cares?! It makes us look good.”

“Did you check in with your friend, Shags?”

Shaggy snorted and gave a nod. Even though most of his pack were roaming the neighborhood on their own. Sybil’s black wolf beside him, though, saw the gesture. She gave a chuffing laugh and the green tips of her black fur shifted in the low light.

“Dumbass just nodded again. Boss! You have to get used to talking in your head.” Sybil chortled as Shaggy got images of himself nodding.

“Shut up. It was a reflex, and yes, we swung by Nuc’s shop. But it was closed and barricaded.”

“Smart hybrid.”

“Indeed. Now, has anyone spotted any actual HLO troopers?”

A chorus of ‘No’s’ answered Shaggy, and he gave a massive sigh. It seemed by day the HLO patrolled the neighborhood and at night, their criminals hit the streets. Which the HLO cleaned up in the morning. It was a tight system, and one designed to make the HLO look good. Shaggy wondered if Mr. White planned to unveil the troops at some point.

“Thanks to our elite team, this neighborhood has been cleared of any malefactors.”

“Boss, please watch your stray thoughts. I’m still getting a few,” Vick groaned.

“The HLO are the type of assholes to say ‘malefactors’, though. I mean just say bad guys, sheesh!”

“Or criminals,”

“How about the legally challenged?”

Shaggy tuned out his pack as he bolted past a flickering streetlight. He and Sybil hadn’t come across much in the way of pedestrians. But he thought it best to keep their activities as hidden as possible. Something his pack seemed uniquely suited for, strangely. Sure, Vick and Rita were pretty much normal large wolfs with brown fur. But Sybil, Tom, Stanley and Ephemara all seemed geared toward stealth.

Shaggy had been concerned about Stanley’s silver-chromed body. But the giant wolf’s silver body seemed to reflect the darkness, making his sleek form even harder to see. Tom and Ephemara, meanwhile, were specifically geared toward stealth. They were both black wolves, but their inherent powers made them tough to spot. Tom’s wolf could almost fade into the dark and then you’d somehow forget the skinny bastard was there. It was unnerving. But it was nothing when compared to Ephemara.

“Aw, gee. Thanks, boss. I AM pretty special. But I’ve got movement. It looks like troopers.”

Shaggy and Sybil froze on the sidewalk as they absorbed Ephemara’s images. She had sent several street signs and landmarks to help them find her. Shaggy sent the all-call to the rest of the pack, but most of them were already moving. Rita and Tom moved in from the north, as Stanley and Cekrass curved in from the east. Shaggy and Sybil came up from the south and they all converged on an old parking lot. It sat in front of a large, grey, boarded up supermarket.

“Up here.” Ephemara sent down the link as he and Sybil paused across the street.

She sent them multiple images of two groups meeting on top of the defunct supermarket. Once was clearly the HLO troopers. Their white armor standing out in the darkness. The second group on the roof was a bunch of aliens and humans. Some were waving guns around, others had pipes and swords. But the mass of people didn’t look too pleased with the HLO. There were only ten HLO troopers against the thirty in the mob. But Shaggy figured that the troops could handle the mob long enough to teleport away.

“Not all of us can go invisible, Ephe!” Sybil complained. “How do you expect us to get up there?”

She and Shaggy had taken refuge behind some buildings on the north-side of the supermarket. Rita and the others had joined them as they watched the scene through Ephemara’s eyes. She was somehow perched on the roof and completely unseen by both parties. In his mind’s eyes, Shaggy was staring at the back of the HLO troopers. The two sides seemed to be in a heated argument. But Shaggy couldn’t hear what was being said.

“The gang members aren’t happy with the HLO arrangement anymore. They are trying to back away from the deal. The troop leader is being oddly cooperative. Saying that all the arrested parties will be allowed back on the streets once the HLO’s business is done. But the thugs ain’t buying it.” Ephemara reported.

“Stanley and Tom get as close as you can to the building. You are both the stealthiest. Once shit goes sideways, we hit the troops fast and hard.”

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

“Hey! I’m stealthy too!” Sybil argued, affronted.

Shaggy blinked at the slim black wolf. Her dark fur made her hard to spot, but then there were the odd flickers of her green tipped-ends of her fur. They occasionally made her whole body light up under the streetlamps. One second she was a dark wolf of the night and the next she was a green-fire hellhound. She even had horns like Shaggy had. Although not as big. Shaggy simply sent her an image of how she looked. She grumbled for a bit, but her wolf nodded solemnly.

Stanley and Tom prowled around their block of buildings and crept toward the supermarket. Ephemara kept up a constant dialogue about what was going on. But Shaggy put it to the back of his mind as he took in their future battlefield. The roof was wide and large, but he didn’t think it was going to survive multiple werewolves jumping on it. He was trying to come up with a solution when the first shot was fired. Surprisingly, it had come from another building entirely.

A stream of green shot through the night and slammed into the head HLO trooper. His armor ate the blow, and he recovered. But from there on it was bedlam. The gangsters opened fire and the HLO troopers defended themselves. Not waiting for them to initiate their teleports, Shaggy gave the order to attack. Adding his thoughts about the structural integrity of the roof.

Ephemara’s response to this was to sweep across the rooftop. Bowling any HLO trooper she hit off the side. As her black form raced off the western-side of the roof, Stanley and Tom leapt on the roof and snapped at the troops and fell back to the ground. Shaggy and the rest leapt from their hiding place and charged. Shaggy’s mind was filled with his pack mates, viewpoints and surface thoughts. He suggested his own and watched as his pack moved with his will.

He envisioned his pack making hit-and-run attacks across the roof. Then he got to watch as his plans were carried out. Ephe, Stanley and Tom started crisscrossing the rooftop. Snapping up the HLO troopers and vanishing off the side of the roof. Rita, Sybil, and Cekrass were rushing to do the same. But Shaggy had other plans for himself.

As he crossed the open parking lot, he leapt into the air. Aiming his body to come down on the HLO’s location, Shaggy shoved all of his emotions down into his wolf. He/The Beast ate it all up as he soared through the air, body twisting as it transformed again. He and his inner wolf were merged even closer together as his seven-foot form slammed into the roof and ominous cracking sounds filled the air. Shaggy ignored the cracking the shouts of alarm as he focused on the nearest trooper.

Surprisingly, his target got his gun up and around with Super Speed. But Shaggy was just a bit faster. His shoulder took a blast of laser fire as the trooper pulled the trigger, But Shaggy’s long claws swept through the trooper’s chest and torso with ease. The man screamed as he fell into two parts, but Shaggy was already on his next target. Cekrass and Sybil’s wolves swept across the large roof, snapping at the troops as they fired in all directions. Shaggy’s slight form went overlooked until it was too late.

Once Shaggy was upon them, the troopers fell into disarray. The enhanced speed and muscle from the man-beast form allowed him to make quick work of the remaining troopers. He glared down at the chopped up bodies, panting harshly as he felt the shift about to slip through his fingers. Off the sides of the building, he could hear the crunching of bone and metal. In his mind, the pack had fallen into some kind of feral state and they were currently… enjoying their kills.

His mind jumped off that train of thought as a bullet pinged off his hairy shoulder. Shaggy turned to see the swarm of gangsters glaring at him wide-eyed. A smoking pistol was in the hands of one guy in the front. Shaggy snorted as he stretched his back, fighting the urge to shift to his human form. He wanted this group’s full attention.

“Greetings,” Shaggy’s rumbling half-man/half-wolf voice said. “Welcome to my neighborhood. Who the fuck are you?”

The group’s eyes grew wider as he spoke. As one, they seemed to pull away from Shaggy. He snorted again and was about to speak again. But a red laser slammed into his chest and singed his chest hair. Shaggy blinked, annoyed. With a thought, he sent Stanley and Tom after the shooter.

“Call off your shooter before they get killed!” Shaggy order the group of scared gangsters.

The group glanced at one another. A few were shaking their heads violently. A tough-looking, bald-headed alien was shoved forward. He bowed awkwardly before he said.

“Uhhh, that’s not our shooter... umm, Mr. Wolf, sir.”

Shaggy raised an eyebrow.

“Alive.” Shaggy sent to his pack mates.

There was some general annoyance sent back down the pack link. But he ignored it as his body tried to shift back to human. He jerked violently forward as he fought off the impulse. Another bullet hit his stomach and suddenly he was fine again. The man-beast form was solid and ready for action. Shaggy blinked as the sensation fighting him stopped. Another shot rang out and a bullet hit Shaggy in the cheek. He growled angrily as Ephemara and Rita leapt silently onto the roof. Shaggy briefly worried about the roof’s stability, but it seemed to hold.

“Next idiot that shoots me is getting ripped apart and feed to my pack.” Shaggy growled.

“Ugh! Boss, don’t remind me. I just ate a guy.” Rita groaned.

“It’s not that bad, actually.” Cekrass responded, an odd chewing heard under his mental voice.

“It’s not. Kinda like chicken. Hey! This one is spicy!” Sybil said. The same chewing noises present in her voice.

Shaggy blinked away the mental image of two of his pack members still eating. In front of him, the gang members were rapidly throwing their weapons to the floor. Once there was a fairly big pile of guns and melee weapons, the group turned back to Shaggy. He grimaced as the will to shift back to human reasserted itself. This time it was back with a vengeance. He did his best to keep it at bay, but soon he found his muscles and bones shrinking down.

Panting, Shaggy came out of his forced-shift and looked at the sea of blank faces staring at him. A few people went for their weapons again, but growls from Ephemara and Rita made them pause. The bald-headed alien blinked as he stared across at Shaggy. He opened his mouth to say something, but a voice from the crowd interrupted him.

“Hey, that’s just a little guy!”

Several of the thugs grinned and Shaggy groaned as he grew out a claw. Scratching the side of his face idly, he said.

“Alright, bring that idiot forward. He's the first to be sacrificed.”

The crowd pulled back again, and the alien leader barked out a laugh. Ephemara stepped forward to fulfill Shaggy’s orders. But Rita quickly put her body between Ephe and the crowd. Clearly understanding that Shaggy was joking.

“I know you, don’t I?” said the alien leader.

Shaggy shrugged, ignoring the soreness in his muscles. “Maybe. I am pretty famous.”

“Uh-huh? What did you mean, YOUR neighborhood?”

Shaggy sighed and settled in to explain when another wolf jumped onto the roof. This time, the building creaked dangerously. Rita threw herself off the back of the roof. By the sounds of barking and whines, she clearly landed on Cekrass and Sybil. But he ignored that as Stanley dumped a slim body from his jaws. They were covered in saliva, but seemed otherwise okay. Their large black hoodie cover most of their torso and they remained unmoving. Even as Shaggy senses told him they were alive.

“Don’t make me kick you awake, fucker. You shot me and almost started a fucking war with the HLO. Now who the fuck are you?!”

The body stayed still for a few seconds. Although Shaggy was sure he saw the person shifting. With a sudden roll, the shooter got some distance and hopped to their feet. A black energy revolver in one hand and a slim display tablet in the other. Shaggy didn’t have enough time to process the tablet though as the twenty-something man shouted.

“I am Derek Perez! Junior Detective with the APD! You are all under arrest! Lie on the ground with your hands behind your head!”

Shaggy blinked and looked across at the other group of gangsters. Baldie stared back at him. With an almost practiced synchronicity, the entire roof burst out laughing. Even the wolfs howled their mirth to the sky as the Detective looked on with annoyance and maybe a little dread.