Shaggy was wrong. Maven and her team were actually pretty understanding. He and Levy chewed the fat with them for a while. But eventually they made it back to the deli and logged out. After a promise to meet back up with the vigilantes later, of course.

Maven, while young, seemed to be pretty cool and had a level head on her shoulders. Holly, the one with the tablet, was a little uptight, but she didn’t seem hostile. Trevor and Forn, the boy and the snake-lady, seemed a little more wary of Shaggy and his team. At least Trevor did. Shaggy might have misread Forn’s angry-looking face. She talked little during their brief interaction.

Apparently, their group was hired by the community to protect their neighborhood from the gangs and the white-armored HLO troopers. They’d had some success with the gangs and were just coming off their first battle with the troopers. Which is why, Maven said, they were down by a man. Shaggy introduced himself and Levy as Deli owners, but left it at that. Luckily, none of Maven’s group seemed to recognize Shaggy or Levy from the video on the Cog raid. But he didn’t know how long that would last.

As Shaggy logged into the cave beneath the deli, he could already feel the tension in the air. Levy shot him a worried look and then hurried off to check the cave. So Shaggy took it upon himself to check the deli. Rushing through the tunnels, Shaggy passed dozens of Lackeys. All who seemed to have a far-off look in their eyes. At least until they saw him stalking the tunnels. Then they seemed to brighten considerably.

Shaggy pinged his pack but found most of them down below in the cave. Taking some R and R. Cekrass was above in the deli, though, and contrary to the rest of the Lackeys, Shaggy’s pack felt more relaxed. He quickly summoned those who were awake and doubled his speed. Lackeys cleared a space for him as he rushed toward the maintenance door of the deli. Taking the deli steps two at a time, he arrived in the kitchen and froze.

The smell of various meats hit his nostrils and Shaggy was momentarily stun-locked. The meat was uncooked and still a little bloody. But Shaggy could feel his inner wolf salivating at the smell. It took Franklin tapping him to shake Shaggy out of his stupor.

“Boss! You okay?”

Shaggy got a hold of himself. “Huh? Yeah, it’s just… this place smells great.”

Franklin smiled as he nodded knowingly. “Yeah, your pack has been hanging out upstairs more and more since the first shipment. The stuff’s been cut and is ready to be sold. But we still have a problem.”

“Paper?”

Franklin nodded. Shaggy blew out a breath and patted his deli manager on the shoulder. He led them both out of the kitchen. As he did, he realized Franklin was wearing a long white apron covered in blood spatter. Apparently, his manager had taken upon himself to cut up the meat. Shrugging, Shaggy walked into the front of the shop, which sat empty save for Cekrass, the bug brothers and…

“Xiv! How ya doing? Glad to see you’re back.” Shaggy smiled as Xiv and Mell both stopped their conversation to regard him.

They had been talking to Cekrass and were surprised as he approached. Mell grinned, but Xiv looked a little miffed. Brushing the arms of her jacket, Xiv asked haughtily.

“I thought I told you not to get into any epic fights without us?”

“What epic fight? We’ve been in a few skirmishes with the troopers. But nothing major.”

“Then what’s this I hear about you getting arrested and then escaping HLO custody?”

Shaggy shot Cekrass a dirty look, but the big lizard merely grinned and took a sip of his beer. Shaggy rolled his eyes and went to sit at the table. As he did, Rin and Vud quickly stood. He waved for them to sit down, but neither would move until he was seated. Xiv huffed and took her own seat as Mell cracked a beer.

“So first off,” Shaggy started. “Don’t believe everything you hear. I was arrested and then let go on a technicality. I don’t think it will happen again, so let’s be mindful of the cops in the future, clear?”

Cekrass and the bug brothers nodded as Mell and Xiv glared at him. Ignoring them, Shaggy turned to Cekrass with a raised eyebrow. His pack mate understood him immediately.

“Neighborhood is doing well, boss. The business can’t move forward, though. That big armored girl is doing half our work for us. But I feel the troops aren’t done with us yet. They’ve been too quiet.”

Shaggy blinked. That was the most he’d heard Cekrass speak since he knew the lizard. The big lizard felt that thought and snickered as he tossed back his head. Draining the small can, Cekrass nodded at Rin and Vud. The two insectoid aliens nodded, spoke as one.

“We have also hit a snag with Miss Sybil’s Auto-shop. While all of her paperwork was submitted correctly and on time, city hall is withholding all the paperwork.”

Shaggy shivered as the two voices harmonized with each other as they spoke. It didn’t sound bad, but it tickled his spine in a weird way. He nodded at the information and then turned to Xiv and Mell. The two women merely sat staring at him. It dragged on for multiple minutes until the stare-down was interrupted by the rest of Shaggy’s pack stampeding into the deli. Mell and Xiv shot his pack a look before Xiv opened her mouth.

“All the armor and weapons have been safely delivered to Under-Town. They were getting their guys outfitted when we left.”

“Not that they need it.” Mell muttered.

Xiv nodded. “Yeah, it isn’t exactly open warfare down there. But there’s this weird tension in the air. Like the next spark might make the whole place explode. Vampire boy and the sexy one are consolidating our power base while the kid is engaged in a damn shadow war.”

“That kid has a proper ‘power-behind-the-throne’ feel to him.” Mell added. “It creeps me right the fuck out.”

Shaggy smiled as he thought of Slink being creepy. “What about Dave? He hanging in there?”

“Pfft! Regular people’s hero, that one. He’s running around taking collections from people in our territory. They deliver the credits with smiles on their faces. It’s like they don’t realize they are paying a gang for protection.”

“Hey!” Shaggy mock growled. “We are a legitimate security agency. Protecting the citizens of Under-Town… Well, the ones that can pay, anyway.”

Xiv snorted again and continued her report. “Also, the kid says that your business is up and running.”

“MY ARCADE!? How’s it doing?”

“Alright I guess. Kid said he was depositing your cut of the business into your account. After the Legion gets its slice, of course.”

Shaggy nodded as he fought the urge to check his credit balance. He didn’t think the arcade would make him a millionaire. But having another revenue stream was bound to help. Xiv and Mell shared a look before Xiv posed a question.

“So what’s this I hear about another team in the area?”

“There’s a young girl out in the neighborhood. Walking around in giant metal power armor. Her and her team were hired to by the community watch to protect this place.”

Mell grimaced. “They gonna be a problem?”

Shaggy shrugged. “No more than the HLO and the gangs already out here.”

“Do they know you’re a Villain?”

“By now? Probably. But we’ll burn that bridge when we come to it. For now, they are a buffer between us and the HLO.”

Xiv nodded. “They are vigilantes anyway. If the cops come busting in, they’ll get wrapped up with us, too.”

“Actually,” Stanley said from a nearby table, drawing everyone’s attention. “They have a legitimate contract with the neighborhood. So they are on the right side of the law.”

“How did they get that pushed through? All of our paperwork is being stopped.” Shaggy asked.

Stanley nodded. “Yeah. Derek said they were having that issue, too. But then a few people from the community watch raised a stink at City Hall. It took some time, but once they got around the HLO, the city had to capitulate.”

“Wait, you can do contract work as a Supe? How does that work?” Xiv asked, but Stanley merely shrugged.

“You can ask Maven when we meet them.” Shaggy said. “I have a few questions of my own. Not the least of which is if they know I’m a Villain yet.”

He waited to see if any of his pack knew the answer. But they all slowly shook their heads at him. Ephemara was mentally poking him, though. Clearly, she wanted to talk. But first, Shaggy had a question for Sybil.

“Since when do you have an auto-shop?”

The blonde-headed woman snorted. “I don’t. At least not yet. Right now, it’s more like a damn junkyard. But don’t you remember, boss? You told me to build us a motor pool.”

“Yes. A hidden motor pool we can pull cars from as needed. Not a full-on legitimate business that’s going to draw attention.”

“Oh, don’t worry, boss. It’ll will be far from legitimate. And this way, we can still have our motor pool and make some credits on the side.”

Shaggy rubbed his face. “Didn’t you pull those cars off the streets in our neighborhood? People are going to notice if their stolen cars are just parked in front of an auto-shop.”

Sybil rolled her eyes. “Boss, please. I’m smarter than that. With some of the guy’s help, we’ve salvaged most of the cars. The plan is to take the best parts and build us some cars. I figure a sedan, a van, and a truck will work out just fine. Unfortunately, none of them will have the flight upgrades, but we can only work with what we have.”

“We’d also be easier to track if we are on the sky lanes.” Rita added.

Sybil nodded gratefully at Rita and looked pleadingly at Shaggy. With a sigh, he nodded his head. Who knew? Maybe they’d get lucky and Sybil would be a business genius. Ignoring the woman’s fist pump of victory, Shaggy looked around. No one else seemed to have anything else to report, so he dismissed his pack and stood up.

He hadn’t figured out the source of the strange tension in the Lackeys. But he figured Ephemara was about to tell him. She approached as Shaggy stood and walked toward the front door. But Mell and Xiv joined them shortly after, drawing a glare from Ephemara. Shaggy waved his second in command down.

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“They’re fine. What’s up, Ephemara?”

With a final glance at Xiv and Mell, the pale woman leaned in. “Tone has gone missing.”

Shaggy sighed as he felt a pain form in the center of his forehead. “Our replacement spymaster?”

Ephemara nodded. “Along with a few Lackeys and some weapons.”

Shaggy bit his lip to stop himself from screaming. Once he was under control, he glanced around at all three women. Xiv and Mell looked confused, but excited. While Ephemara looked anger and annoyed. Brain racing, Shaggy asked.

“How long ago was this and what have we done to track them down?”

“It was just this morning and we’ve got a few Lackeys out in the neighborhood, boss. But if I was Tone, I’d be long gone by now.”

“Well, that’s good, at least. We won’t have to worry about his dumbass. If he played us, we’ll keep an eye out to teach him a lesson. But I want our attention on this neighborhood for now.”

Ephemara nodded and then bit her lip in consternation. Shaggy could tell she wasn’t done, so he prodded her mentally through their link. She sighed as she drew closer and whispered in his ear.

“We caught another one of our gang trying to skip out of the cave with our stuff. It took some persuading, but he told us he worked for Master Tone and that-”

Shaggy slapped his forehead hard. “Okay. New plan, Ephe. Please find Tone and bring him back. I imagine that’s the reason for the general malaise around the cave today?”

Ephemara nodded and Shaggy rubbed his eyes. His headache had now become extremely prominent. Unaided by Shaggy, smacking himself.

“Okay then, I guess I am going to be dealing with this little moral issue. Xiv, Mell, what do you two want to do?”

The two women shared a look and then glanced at Ephemara. The pale woman opened her mouth to say something scathing. But she quickly snapped it shut as Shaggy gave her a mental prod to be nice. Ephemara glared at him before she turned back to Xiv and Mell.

“If you two think you can help, that would be wonderful.”

Xiv and Mell smiled. “That works for us. We’re here to help and I can use some action after the dull shadow war of Under-Town.”

“No kidding.”

The three women left the deli and Shaggy slowly started walking back toward the maintenance tunnels. Vick and Stanley had taken Cekrass’ place now. Rin and Vud were also gone now and at Shaggy’s questioning eyebrow, Vick answered.

“Sybil took them to help with her auto-shop. Along with a few of the others.”

Shaggy nodded and continued walking. It was still light outside, and he didn’t want to be seen. The angels somehow finding him was still a large worry in his mind. Not as much as their new morale problem, but he would handle that. He was going to be confined to the underground until the sun set. So what better time to mingle with the common rabble of the Legion? Maybe he’d even find a link to Tone, that bat-faced bastard.

Shaggy eyed every Lackey he walked past, occasionally checking their names against his Lackey list. The Legion was still drawing from a large pool of Lackeys. Most of whom were well above the median Loyalty level of fifty. Even As Shaggy got closer to their cave, he found that most of the Lackeys working the tunnels were happy. Even the ones with a fear bonus didn’t have Loyalty that Shaggy thought he should worry about.

But when he got back to the entrance of their cavern home, the sounds of magic and fighting reached his ears. With an annoyed growl, Shaggy dropped into a loping run. He shoved Lackey’s out of the way and zigzagged around the trees near the entrance. Off in the distance, he could see Levy’s purple magic brighten the dark cave. Rita, Tom, and Cekrass were fighting as well, but none of them seemed in to be in great danger.

Shaggy cleared the tree line near his log cabin and looked around. Off toward the dormitories, Levy was throwing her magic at a retreating alien. Shaggy charged and curved around to meet the retreating attacker. The alien with tentacles for hair didn’t even see him coming as Shaggy pounced upon them. He wrapped his arms around his wife’s attacker and held them fast as they tumbled into the dirt. With a forceful squeeze, Shaggy broke the alien’s arms and forced all the air from their body. He tossed the now-screaming alien off of himself and went to stand just as Levy arrived.

Her dark face was contorted into a sneer of angry and annoyance. Shaggy noticed she was favoring her right side and looked down. A silver dagger was jammed into her side, and she was holding it in place as she glared down at the alien. Levy gripped the handle of the weapon and yanked it free before Shaggy could stop her. But Levy calmly waved her hand over the injury, which hissed and steamed before healing slowly.

Levy raised the dagger to her eyes and snorted. “Pfft! Mage-Killer blade? Ha!”

She kicked her assailant over in the dirt and looked down into a flat-faced purple alien with long tentacles for hair. Shaggy wanted to ask questions, but Levy summoned a purple ball of magic and jammed it into the alien’s face. The poor alien didn’t even have time to scream as their flesh was melted off their skull. Their tentacles went rigid before flopping down into the dirt.

“I had questions.” Shaggy muttered.

“I know! I got angry. Like you can’t relate? That shit stung, Shags.”

Shaggy gave his wife a careful hug. They didn’t really need this one. Rita and the others of his pack had already captured the dumbasses who had attacked them. When he told Levy this, she smiled, but a dark look quickly replaced it.

“We’ve got rats in the ranks, love.”

“I know, dear. Levy just told me. Apparently, our hand of friendship was slapped away.”

Levy smirked. “Well, I want to do some slapping of my own.”

But Levy shook her head and pulled a small purple orb from her robes. She toyed with it for a few seconds before she got an evil look in her eyes. It took Shaggy a few seconds to recognize the orb that contained the demon. He briefly wondered what his wife was going to do, but then she thrust the orb into the dead alien’s chest. The corpse glowed purple for a few seconds as Levy stepped away and started reciting a chant. Soon, the glow around the alien body turned orange and Shaggy noticed the temperature growing hotter.

The alien’s flesh melted away as an eerie red glow suffused their skull. All the blood and viscera evaporated as Levy’s chant reached a crescendo. Shaggy noticed that they had drawn a crowd, but it was too late to shoo them away as the alien’s skeleton suddenly shuddered and sat up. The orange glow around the skeleton seeped into its bones and set its empty eye sockets ablaze with fire. The skeleton slowly got to its feet and unsteadily checked its body.

Its bony fingers traced up its legs and into its ribs and spine. It clasped a skeletal hand around its own spine before its head snapped up to Levy. Its flaming orange eyes blazed with fury as it took a step toward her. Shaggy got in the way, but the Skeleton ignored him as a deep voice boomed from its skull.

“You would imprison me in such a menial vessel?! How dare you, witch! I am a demon of the cursed realms, I shall not be cont-”

“Silence.” Levy intoned sagely.

The skeleton’s booming voice ceased, and it glanced around mutely, annoyed. Levy casually walked around Shaggy, still limping slightly from her stab wound. She examined the skeleton for a few seconds before she whispered to it.

“Don’t worry, demon. This is merely a transitional stage for you. This corpse has answers. Knock around in its head and find me the one called Tone. I need to know where he is.”

Levy waved a hand as the skeleton shuddered. The sound of someone taking a large breath filled the air as the skeleton’s voice came back.

“Accursed witch! I am the Demon-”

“I don’t care! Find me what I need and then we can talk, demon!” Levy ordered.

Shaggy blinked as he watched over everything. Rita and Cekrass arrived, carrying three bodies between them. But Shaggy shook his head. He didn’t think they were going to need them. The skeleton was twisting its skull left and right, as though looking for something. Soon the demon spoke again, this time more subservient.

“This body was to kill the wolf’s love and then escape. The one called Tone promised riches and power to all that followed him. Few took up the offer.”

Levy nodded hurriedly. “Yeah, yeah. Where is the bastard!?”

“He’s escaped to the east. Toward the towers of steel and the false light of technology. He sits upon another’s throne and plots to usurp their power.”

“Less prose and more directions!” Levy ordered.

“You human creatures are so confusing. Building monuments to the sky and sheltering within like a pack of rats. Looking down over the world as if you wished dominion over it. When in truth, such power would kill you. I co-”

Levy growled as she snapped a hand out. Fingers extended palm toward the ground. The skeleton yelped as its body fell away. It’s orange-glowing skull, the only part remaining. Levy snatched the skull from the air and turned its eyes toward hers.

“Since you have chosen to remain unhelpful, you shall show me the way.”

“I would never! I shall not suffer su-” The skull’s voice boomed indignantly before it was cut off again.

Levy ignored the raging skull as she held it in her hand. Shaggy caught his wife’s eyes and saw that she was still pissed. So he turned to Cekrass and waved the big lizard forward. Rita was busily slitting the throats of the other traitors as Shaggy waved Cekrass toward Levy.

“Go with Levy and handle this. Take Ephemara with you. I’m calling her back now.” Turning to Levy, he added. “Xiv and Mell will probably want to go with you.”

“I do too!” Rita called.

Shaggy turned toward his wife and saw her smiling. She used a belt to strap the skull to her hip and winced a bit as she grazed her stab wound. Sighing, Shaggy nodded at Rita. The older woman finished her gruesome work and then joined Cekrass and Levy. Shaggy wanted to go as well, but it was still daylight and judging by his wife’s face, she wasn’t waiting. So instead, he figured he’d hold down the home front. Stanley, Vick, and Tom were still here, and Sybil was nearby. He’d be able to keep himself busy until nightfall.

Levy read his face and placed a gently hand on his cheek. The caress turned into a cheeky pinch as she laughed. “Maybe next time, don’t get arrested.”

“Follow your own advice, love. You’re heading straight toward downtown. There are a ton of registered Supes down there. Be careful and be quick, yeah?”

“I’ll be fine. I’ll have half your pack with me.”

“Be careful with them, too.”

Levy wrapped her long arms around his head and smiled. She gave him a quick peck and then hurried off, still wincing. Cekrass rushed after her as Rita stopped by to pat him on the shoulder.

“She’ll be fine, boss. We all will.”

Shaggy nodded. “I know. It’s me that’s going to die of boredom.”

He nodded toward the dead bodies of the ones that had attacked her, Cekrass, and Tom. “Think that’s the end of them?”

Rita shrugged. “I’d wager so. If they had more, they would’ve hit us with more. But you be careful too.”

Shaggy waved her off. Rita ran off to follow Levy as Shaggy looked around at the crowd of people just staring at him. They had all seen and heard what was going on. But now they seemed to look at him for orders. He glanced toward the back of the cave.

Excavation was going well, but the building seemed to be taking awhile. Shaggy sighed as he waved at the back wall.

“Excavators and mages back to work. Those who were on a break, finish it up. I’m going to be helping build out more houses. So let’s get back to work, yeah?”

Multiple Lackey’s gave him nods as they went back to their business. Some went to the dormitory, while others walked back to the eastern wall. He noticed several robots in the distance still trudging away. Wondering if he could order more from the Legion, Shaggy made a beeline for the cave’s terminal. Sure, he could probably build new houses with his hands. But why bother when he could have the system do it?

Trying not to think about the fun adventure Levy and his pack were having, Shaggy doubled his pace. The sooner he got to work, the sooner it would be night. The sooner it was night, the sooner he could get out of the dark cave and finally go on another patrol.

From above, a feeling of elation hit Shaggy. Ephemara had already met Levy and the pale woman was excited to find and gut Tone.

“Ignore it, Shaggy.” He told himself as he rounded the terminal. “They’re just going to look for one traitor downtown. How exciting could it be?”