“Then he goes around the south corner, back to the entrance and back inside. Which tells us that the guards are, indeed, on an hour long rotation. Hey! Are you listening?”
Shaggy yawned as he lay on his belly in the dark alley in his wolf form. He and Vance were crouched low next to a half-collapsed brick building. The old werewolf had led them right to this spot and pointed out what appeared to be a nearby Phreak hideout. But Vance had then proceeded to use the past two hours, watching the guards circle the short building.
It looked like an abandoned fuel station that the Phreaks had surrounded with fencing. It comprised one main building and an awning covering several fuel stations for older type cars. The fencing itself was a simple chain-link and seemed to be hobbled together from multiple pieces. Shaggy didn’t think the structure looked too imposing, not for two werewolves.
But Vance had been adamant that they stay outside and ‘track the scents’ of their prey. Using scent trails, they could tell that there were at least fifteen people in the fuel station, including the three roaming guards outside. All of whom rotated around the building for the hour that they were on duty and then they went back inside. Then someone new would come out and start his patrol of the building. Shaggy felt that if Vance got his way, they would be out here until they had seen every gang member take a turn.
Vance sighed. “This is important. We need to get a sense of everyone in that building.”
Shaggy groaned and rolled over onto his side, ignoring the old Were. He really didn’t want to spend all his time in-game stalking one fuel station. He figured between the two of them, they could easily pick off a few guards here and there and slowly take the thugs apart.
Vance smacked Shaggy’s furry back, annoyed. “God damn it! I told you a proper hunt takes time. We can’t just go rushing in there. We need to study them for a long while and then, when we get a feel for who’s in there, we pick our target and take him down. Then we sit back and watch how they respond.”
Shaggy snorted, not looked back at Vance. He knew how they were going to respond. They would send out a few more guards to look for the missing one and if those went missing, they would send a few more. After that, they would either lock themselves in the station or form a hunting party. Shaggy tried to convey this with a few yips and growls, but Vance shook his head. He wasn’t sure if the old Werewolf could understand him entirely, but at worst Vance could get a sense of what he meant.
“No. We can’t just start taking them apart. That would…” Vance stopped himself before he sighed loudly. “Fine. You want to try it, then you go ahead. But once it blows up in your face, we do it my way, okay?”
Shaggy jumped up to all four legs and circled excitedly. He could feel his tail smacking into the brick wall next to him excitedly. He moved to the mouth of the alley and glanced over at the fuel station. It was pretty well separated from the other buildings out on a small corner. The nearest building was around the back of their location. But Shaggy figured that would be the safest place to start. With a final glance at Vance, who merely waved him away, Shaggy crept back down the alley.
Using the nearby buildings as cover, Shaggy circled further west until he was along the backside of the fuel station and waited for his target. It didn’t take long for a short, deathly pale-looking woman with long black hair to come around the corner. He waited for her to get halfway along the building before he darted out, staying low to the ground and opening his mouth wide to attack.
The woman had barely enough time to turn around before Shaggy was upon her. His massive jaws encircled her jaw and neck, and with a mighty chomp, he killed her. He felt warm blood fill his mouth as bone and sinew snapped beneath his teeth. Still being careful not to sallow anything, he still didn’t want to eat anything Sapient. He dragged her back toward the building when a voice arose from behind him.
“What the fuck is that?!”
Shaggy spun his massive head to see the next of this rotation’s guards come around the corner. He quickly dropped the dead woman’s body and turned around, making his way toward the western buildings. Behind him, he heard a shrill whistle pierce the quietness of the neighborhood, as well as feet thudding along in the dirt. Shaggy thought they got organized way too quickly as he darted into the alleys between buildings.
“It went this way. Damn thing was as big as a horse.” Said a voice coming from another alleyway.
Shaggy dropped onto his stomach and tried to sneak along as he heard his pursuers. He could see the scent trails in the air, but he didn’t know which were from the station and which were just people in their houses. He sighed as he thought about what Vance had said about marking their targets. The old man had been right. Of course, Shaggy would never tell him that.
As he heard the footsteps drawing closer, he looked around for a way out of this predicament. Sure, he could lead them down the various alleyways, but eventually, they would corner him. He glanced up at the roofs of the nearby buildings. They weren’t as close together as the buildings in North and East Under-Town, but they could most likely hold his weight. He got his hind legs under him and made a leap up the nearest building, clearing the rim easily and coming down on the roof with a dull thud.
He waited a few seconds to see if the roof would hold. All he got were a few creaks and groaning from the building he was on. He heaved a sigh of relief just as a purple head peeked over the opposite rim of the building. A large purple alien was climbing the fire escape up the building with a large rifle on his shoulder. Shaggy unthinkingly charged forward, jaws opened wide again. The alien barely had time to look up as Shaggy’s jaws slammed down on his shoulder. But surprisingly, the Alien didn’t scream. Instead, he gave a grunt and then circled his enormous arms around Shaggy’s neck.
The next thing Shaggy knew, he was hoisted into the air, looking straight down at the alley below. Down in the alley, the alien’s friends were waiting, looking up at them. Shaggy ground his teeth into the man’s shoulder as they tilted precariously backwards. He realized the alien was going to drop them both into the alley. He tore his teeth from the man’s shoulder, feeling bone snap and the arm go limp, but it was too late.
The pair of them went tumbling down into the alley. Shaggy gave a yelp as his torso collided with the opposite building on the way down. He slammed into the ground, feeling all the air rush out of him as dirt and dust were kicked up into the air.
“Fire!” someone shouted.
Shaggy felt several large caliber bullets tear into him as he tried to reorient himself. Pain screamed through him as hot bullets pierced his large lupine body. He blindly charged through the dust, trying to find a way out. The loud clap of automatic weapons filled the alley they were in. As he moved, a yellow speedster appeared in front of him and batted at him with a baton sparking with electricity. He felt his muscles spasm and lock up as he went limp.
The bullets continued to rip through him faster than he was healing. Shaggy aimed a bite at the speedster, but they moved too quickly, appearing behind him with a wicked smile. Working on instinct, Shaggy raised both back legs and kicked the yellow alien hard. The look of surprise on the stun-baton bastard was gratifying as they went sailing into and through a nearby brick wall. Shaggy darted after them, seeing his exit.
Shaggy felt his body slam into rows of clothes and tools as he entered what looked like a small hardware store. But he didn’t have time to take any of it in, as he rushed straight through toward the front door. He put his head down as he ran through it and continued toward another nearby alley, footsteps in close pursuit. Shaggy scanned his environment for another low rooftop, trying to ignore the itchy feeling coming from the various bullet wounds in his side as they healed. He dashed around into alleys, trying to shake his pursuers, but they were never far behind.
Finally, he turned a sharp corner and instead of continuing down another alley; he went up again. He had to kick his back legs against the wall of the building to get the height required, but he made it. As he landed on the even brick roof of another half-collapsed building. He tried to calm his heart and focus on his human form. He breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the rough roof beneath his feet and a chill breeze pass over his bare chest. As he glanced down, he saw plenty of bullet holes still healing and his stomach gave a loud grumbling.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
He swore. His healing was almost tapped, and he still had at least five Phreaks to go. Unless they called for backup again. He heard footsteps coming from below and quickly hid behind the lip of the roof. Soon the footsteps stopped, a loud voice swore.
“Fuck! Where the hell did it go?”
“It couldn’t have gotten far. It’s a large-ass wolf. As soon as we find it, I’m going to rip its god damn snout off and feed to it.”
“Who do you think sent it?” Another voice asked.
“Don’t know, don’t care. For all we know, it’s another of Nimalita’s experiments. All that matters is that we kill it. Kord, check the roofs and we’ll continue looking down alleys.”
“Aww, Eric. You saw what happened to Ted.”
“Ted wasn’t as fast as you. Now git.”
Shaggy quickly peeked over the rim of the building to look at his pursuers. They were a collection of multi-colored aliens. All humanoid. What Shaggy found odd was that none of them had the same grafted on animal parts as most Phreaks Shaggy had dealt with. He quickly tried to memorize their scent trails as he saw the same yellow speedster he had knocked through the hardware store wall disappear. He barely had enough time to bring his head back in before that same speedster appeared on the opposite roof. A plan quickly formed in his head and he pretended to be asleep against the rim wall of the roof.
Soon enough, he heard dirt and rocks skitter across the roof as the speedster appeared near him. He pretended to jerk awake and yelled as belligerently and drunkenly as he could.
“Ya damn punk! Steal my clothes and leave me to die! I’ll show all you scud-sucking fucks who’s boss!”
Through half-lidded eyes, he saw the speedster move closer while chuckling. “Haha. Hey there, man. I hate to tell ya this, but you are most definitely in the wrong place and at the wrong time.”
Shaggy cracked an eye and stared at the yellow speedster. As he did, he could see that what he thought was a pure alien was obviously some kind of hybrid insect-alien. The speedster had segmented eyes like an insect that seemed to blink rapidly as he approached. Shaggy continued his drunken act, moving to stand.
“OH! You want a piece too! Well, come on! I ain’t got nothing but my bare ass and a dream! Let’s do it!”
He put his fist up limply as the speedster zoomed right up to his chest and got right in his face. Shaggy could smell the guy’s bad breath as he leaned in and chuckled darkly.
“Hehehehehe. Oh man, would I make you pay if I had the time, but sadly…”
Shaggy didn’t wait for him as he transformed his hands into claws and jammed them into the alien’s stomach. Shock appeared on the speedster’s face, followed closely by anger. As he looked like he was about to scream, Shaggy dug his nails all the way up the yellow alien’s torso. Purple blood spilled out, covering Shaggy’s feet and the now-dying speedster’s pants. The yellow Phreak pant for a few seconds before his breath finally died and he went limp.
Shaggy sighed as he salvaged what he could of the alien’s clothes. Including the blood-soaked pants and shoes. He used what remained of the speedster’s shirt to mop up what he could. As he did, he monitored the scent trails of the other Phreaks. They were still in a group and moving slowly down an alleyway.
After getting dressed, Shaggy glanced around for the nearest roof near the other Phreaks. Luckily, the roof was slightly lower than the one he was on, so the jump wasn’t too difficult. Although the speedsters’ large shoes threw off his weight slightly. The things seemed designed to help slow the speedster down. He grimaced as a loud smattering of rocks tumbled across the roof and he paused to see if anyone had heard. But the scent trails were still moving away, searching for his wolf form.
He found a door into the building’s stairwell and sprinted down the stairs until he was back on the ground floor. He could see the scent trails of those he was tracking still in the air and leading a few buildings over, and he tried to think of a plan. Shaggy left the building a traveled in a wide circle until he got in front of his prey. He was waiting in an alley as the four Phreaks passed by. They composed of two more male purple aliens, a red woman with tiny horns on her head, and an androgynous pale alien bringing up the rear.
All four of them wear carrying automatic rifles and glaring at their surroundings as they moved. Crouched behind some random junk, Shaggy spotted a door leading into the three-story building running along the same alley as the Phreaks. He quietly crept inside and kept an eye on the scent trails as he looked around. It was another old and abandoned building. This one looked like a small clothing store of some kind. But the ceiling had caved in, opening a large hole to the second floor.
Shaggy quickly formulated an idea and went to the wall of the alleyway where his prey was slowly moving. Using the scent trails, he found the pale alien’s scent and lined his arm with where he thought the alien was. He flattened his hand and grew his claws as he crawled with his target.
“Man, I hope this works.” Shaggy thought as he jammed his arm forward with all his might through the brick wall.
He felt bricks fall onto his arm as he rapidly searched for his target. When he felt his arm come into contact with cloth, he gripped and pulled. He was rewarded with a shocked looking grey alien being yanked through the now collapsing wall and into his arms. As quickly as he could, he gripped the alien’s neck with his clawed hands and jammed his knife-like claws into it. The door to the alley was just opening as he quickly dropped the now-limp alien and leapt up through the hole onto the second floor.
Gunfire raged below him as he searched for a window or door or something. The Phreaks below him were swearing up a storm as they rushed through the ruined clothing store. Shaggy spotted windows leading out into the alley and made a run for it. His thudding footsteps seemed to draw the Phreaks’ attention as they opened fire on the floor under him. Bits of tile and wood showered around him as bullets whizzed by him.
Putting on a last bit of speed, Shaggy hurled himself bodily through the window and out into the alley. But his jump not only cleared the alley, it sent him flying into the adjacent building’s window with a loud crash. He heard muffled shouting as cuts on his arms and face slowly healed back up.
“He went into the next building! Move!”
Shaggy quickly got a look at his surroundings as he heard the Phreaks run back into the alley again. He was in a wide open office space. A few cubicles were still up here and there, and a long series of windows ran the length of the alleyway.
“Well, that’s a shit view.” Shaggy thought idly as he heard a door open in the alley.
He crept toward the window just above where he heard the door open and arrived in time to hear a male voice.
“Clara, you wait out here in case he makes another jump out of a window. This has to be the guy in charge of the damn wolf.”
“Gotcha boss.” Clara answered.
Shaggy heard the thudding of feet as what had to be the two purple aliens were rushing upstairs. He glanced at the large window into the alley and grit his teeth. He wasn’t sure if his healing was going to survive the two-story fall, but he had to try.
Shaggy heard a door behind him slam open just as he put his clawed hands through the glass and gave a quick hop through the window, hoping to land on the Phreak outside. He felt bullets fly by him and even a few slam into his back as he dropped like a rock straight down on top of the red alien woman. He felt his left knee break as it slammed into the woman’s shoulder, and when they both collapsed to the dirt alley, his right ankle broke as well.
“Clara!” someone shouted from inside.
Shaggy painfully lifted himself into a sitting position and jammed a claw into the woman’s neck. She gurgled as blood filled her throat and he tried to stand just as several bullets slammed into his chest, knocking him backward.
An anguished scream resounded through the building’s hallway and out into the alley as Shaggy’s back slammed back into the dirt. He panted tiredly as his hands grabbed at the dirt, trying to lift himself up. As footsteps ran ever closer, his right hand found something metal, and he quickly realized it was Clara’s rifle.
He tiredly raised his arm and blind-fired with the gun into the building’s open doorway. The kick-back made his arm jerk wildly, and he held on for as long as he could. Eventually, he lost his grip on the gun and it jerked out of his hand. He lay there quietly, panting as he listened for any signs of the Phreaks. His knee and ankle were still broken, which meant that his healing was all tapped out. He needed to eat something.
He tiredly glanced up and into the office building’s hallway. He saw the bodies of both purple aliens and sighed in relief. Shaggy shook his head and thought about the past couple of minutes. As the werewolf, he was supposed to be hunting them, but they had literally run him ragged. Apparently, the old wolf knew what he was talking about. Who knew?
Shaggy chuckled as he mentally chastised himself. All it would take was some patience and he could’ve handled that whole fuel station cleanly. But in truth, that wasn’t his style. He was more of a do now and ask questions when and if they were asked. Grimacing, he dragged himself toward the office building, hoping there would be an old vending machine or something.
As he painfully drug his legs through the dirt, he glanced down at the dead alien, Clara. Her eyes were open and her face was still in a rictus of shock. As he looked her over, he remembered how Vance had mentioned how Wolves hunt for food. He thought about it for all of 3 seconds before he shook his head. He wasn’t that desperate yet.
“Stubborn pup.” A voice muttered from behind him. “Perfectly good meal in front of you, and you’re going to ignore it because of societal taboos. Bah!”
Shaggy painfully rolled onto his back again and looked both ways down the alley until he spotted Vance.
“Hey some of us have a problem with eating anything with a face, two-legs and a bank account, okay?”
Vance snorted as he approached. “So, what did you learn?”
“To always carry snacks and a change of clothes? Also, that wet jean pants are heavy as hell.” Shaggy joked as he glanced down at his blood-soaked jeans.
Vance smacked the top of Shaggy’s forehead so hard it made him check his health pool.
HP: 78/223 (Regeneration Halted)
“Ow, Vance. What the hell? I’m dying here. Let’s get me some food.”
“That’s what the hunt is supposed to be for, young pup. But, no, you’d rather leap from building to building like a damn rabbit than hunt properly. Then when it comes time to enjoy the spoils, you balk.” Vance said as he leaned down and picked Shaggy up.
“I am not eating anything sapient, Vance. Not if I can help it.” Shaggy said through gritted teeth as he was lifted bodily over Vance’s shoulder.
“This hunt was an utter failure.” Vance said, affronted. “We have a lot to work on and I think we will do it away from these… Phreaks.”
Shaggy groaned. “As long as whatever we do includes a few hamburgers, I’ll be happy.”
“You know there’s a thriving illegal trade in a bovine alien race prized for their meat. They even make a decent hamburger out of them. I wouldn’t be surprised if some criminals down here don’t have a thriving slave trade in the stuff.”
“You just have to ruin everything, don’t you, Vance?”
“It wasn’t me who ruined a perfectly good hunt.”
The pair argued as they slowly made their way out of West Under-Town. Shaggy vehemently defending his stance to not eat people.