Shaggy’s ride through the justice system was quicker than ever. He was barely two steps into the building before he had every gun in the place on him. There were even a couple of powered officers standing around, waiting for him to make a move. When he didn’t, Shaggy was summarily tackled to the ground and swiftly processed. He was bagged, photoed, fingerprinted, and vigorously searched. He was sure some officers owed him dinner.
Then came the questioning. Which was that part that seemed to drag on forever. Why was he here? What was he up to? What was his pack up to? How long had he been in the neighborhood? That last one confused Shaggy. He had been sure that the police were aware of his pack’s presence in the neighborhood. But the way the cops were questioning him made him doubt that assumption.
Through it all, Shaggy kept mostly silent. He confessed to a few minor crimes they had him on, like Obadiah had instructed. But he kept things about the pack and the Legion quiet. Even when some of the enhanced cops got a little rough, Shaggy stayed silent. Even with the power suppression collar on, Shaggy’s dermal plating made a difference. In truth, Shaggy spent the time cataloging what the damn piece of tech did to him.
The collar was a slim cylindrical necklace that sat snugly against his throat. It wasn’t tight, but he wouldn’t forget it was there anytime soon. As soon as it was in place, Shaggy felt his connection with the pack cut almost entirely. He could still feel hazily where his people were, but it was difficult. Shifting any of his limbs was out. He had no control over his shift and, from the bruising he felt under his shirt, his healing was also stymied. But his senses were still there. He could still smell and see scent trails in the air. Along with the more physical aspects of his evolutions. His bones, his skin, and whatever armor he had in place.
He tried to allocate some Evo points as an enhanced cop with light super-strength went to work on him. But that’s when he found another aspect of the collars he hadn’t known about. The damn things blocked his access to his Evo Trees. He couldn’t level up after his fights with Mr. White and Ryall! The involuntary growl that escaped him upon learning this made the cops vacate his interrogation room.
He had nearly five hundred points in both his Mutation and General trees. All of it just sitting there, useless. Shaggy glared at the numbers until a squad of riot cops stormed into his room and threatened to shock him unconscious. He ignored them and berated himself for getting wrapped up in Obadiah's nonsense. He was locked in at his current power level for the rest of this little mission. But thankfully, he didn’t need to beat himself up about it. There was a roomful of cops willing to do it for him.
The rest of Shaggy’s ‘interrogation’ was permeated by the smell of his own burning skin as the cops broke out the taser. Trying to get answers from him. He ignored their questions, their begging, and their false evidence. He was busy writing a forum post on how suppression collars were bullshit. Shaggy wasn’t one for public discourse on game matters. But he had nothing else to fill his time. So instead, he railed against the game for locking him out of using his precious points.
The community was… responsive.
“HAHA! Dumbass finally got his ass caught.”
“No shit, it locks you out. It’s a collar meant for prisoners. You don’t think they want you getting stronger, do you?”
“Holy Shit! Shaggy, the Cog-slayer, is going to prison? You going to be streaming in there? I ain’t seen super max.”
“The game doesn’t let the streamer cameras work in prison, either.”
Shaggy read through the comments as he felt his body being moved. He was sore and the burns and bruises on his body weren’t healing. He was roughly shoved into a cell and left waiting as he busied himself. The forums were a net zero on the prison system. A lot of conflicting reports and anecdotal stories. Shaggy’s own pervious jaunt into prison was far different from this time. Before, he was classified as a low-level threat. Which meant no collar, no reinforced holding cell, and no manacles. All of which he now had.
But the one thing every player agreed on in the forums was that prison was a joke. You’d get slapped with a fine and thrown in jail. From there it would be a matter of in-game days before some super-villain crashed through the place looking for grunts. And if a Villain didn’t show up, the Players, themselves, would stage an escape. By all accounts, it was a fun, repeatable, dungeon-type experience that a lot of Villain players did. Some would sneak their way out using underground tunnels or the cover of night. Others would simply start a riot and punch their way out.
The ease with which these things occurred didn’t seem to upset the HLO or the local government. It was all just par for the course. Apparently, Hero Players could even request to stand guard around a prison to stop other players. It was like a PVP arena. Heroes and Villains pitting themselves against each other to help or stop a jailbreak. And judging by the number of Heroes commenting on his collar post, escaping from jail using the usual methods was going to be hectic for a while.
There were dozens of heroes shouting that they were going to stop him from escaping several times. Others simply wanted to test him and the limits of his healing. Shaggy hadn’t been aware of how famous he had gotten. Sure, the Cog Raid was the Legion’s big coming out party and he and the guys had really made an awesome showing. But he hadn’t been clear on how big HE had gotten. There were people calling him out all over the forums. Some wanted to help him escape, others wanted him to fail.
“This complicates things.” Shaggy muttered to himself as he sat in his dark cell.
“What does?” Obadiah’s voice said from the shadows.
“AIEEEEEE!” Shaggy screeched as he jumped into the air.
His head slammed into the ceiling, and his vision blacked out for a short time. When next Shaggy opened his eyes, the old cyborg was standing over him with a scowl on his face.
“Well, it’s good to know the scent-suppressors work. But really, son, was all that necessary?”
“How the fuck did you get in here?!”
“I’m a spy with years of experience and friends in high places. How do you think?”
Shaggy stood shakily to his feet and glared at the taller man. “Well, I’d guess your spy skills or your friends then. Why are you here? And what’s taking so long?”
“We’ve hit a snag. Somehow, the HLO got word that you had turned yourself in. They made the request that you be sent to Super-Max immediately. Fortunately for us, they don’t get to dictate how or when prisoner transfers happen.”
“Yeah, I feel extremely lucky.” Shaggy groaned.
“But this means that they are aware of you and will be monitoring your transfer with interest. You need to be careful once you get to the prison. Don’t approach Duke at all. Let him come to you.”
“Wait. Isn’t he in isolation? How in the hell is he going to approach me?”
“I’d wager he’d use intermediaries. Keep your ears up and scrutinize anyone who approaches you.”
“No problem there. Apparently, my fame is pretty high with the low-level crime crowd.”
Obadiah’s eyes went black as his AI processed that. Once it was done, the NPC was back in place. “Good. Use them to cultivate a few assets of your own. You won’t have long, so soft-tactics won’t work. Press-gang who you’ll need and be ready. We expect the HLO will break Duke out either just before or during the transfer to Super-Max. Either way, it happens. Try to follow Duke and see what he’s up to.”
Shaggy set his back against the cool concrete wall of his cell and sighed. “Ahhhh, yeah, yeah. I got it. Is there anything helpful you can tell me, or are you just here to scare the shit out of me?”
“That’s it about the job. But I wanted to let you know that the police chief here has been notified to stay away from your neighborhood. By the time you’re in jail, it will have filtered down to the beat cops.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“You work fast.”
“And I keep my word. How about you?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll track down Duke and play it by ear. You won’t have to worry.”
Obadiah said nothing as he stepped back. The shadows on the floor seemed to leap up and cover the man. In the blink of an eye, Shaggy was alone in his cell again. Left with nothing but a pain in his head and a worried feeling in his gut. He was sure that the HLO would get word to Duke about him somehow. Which meant the supposed Mutant was going to be ready for him.
Shaggy thought about his approach the whole time he was in his holding cell. But by the time they came and got him, he was still unsure of what to do. As they made him dress in a prison jumpsuit, while they changed out his manacles for enchanted ones, and even when they injected something into his neck. He could not think of a way to watch Duke while in the prison.
Rubbing his neck where the injections hit him, Shaggy was marched out of the police station and into the early morning sun. He’d been inside for over a day and the sun was rising yet again. Shaggy blinked. He hadn’t even been aware that time was moving that fast. In fact, him being led to prison already seemed extremely fast. Even if he had admitted to several crimes. He stopped his introspection and looked around.
He was standing in line behind five other prisoners. Cops in riot gear and holding enchanted weapons watched them all. Although Shaggy was sure he caught more than his fair share of angry looks. Each prisoner was checked with physical, magical, and technological means before they entered the bus. But the line was still moving quickly. Scenting the air, Shaggy caught several snipers on nearby roofs. All watching his bus.
As it came to Shaggy’s turn to be examined, he had to stifle a gasp. Agent Two was glaring at him from under a police hat. Slick glowered for a few seconds before he roughly inspected Shaggy. From his hair and collar, all the way down to his brand-new prison issue sneakers. Agent Two ran his fingers through Shaggy clothes until he was satisfied. When he was, he grabbed a wooden wand and waved it across Shaggy’s body. Purple sparkles flashed across the wand for the first few seconds, and Slick had to smack the wand across his palm. But once the sparkles stopped, Agent Two finished his magical sweep. The sweep with the technological wand went faster and Slick didn’t seem as interested as he waved the baton and checked a readout. Once he was done, he shoved Shaggy toward the van with a whisper.
“Don’t fuck this up.”
Shaggy didn’t have time to respond in any way as he climbed the steps onto the bus. The look the bus driver gave him from behind their heavily reinforced cage made him hurry along. As soon as Shaggy stepped into the back half of the bus, a quiet cheer went up from several seats. The bus was only half full, but the cheer seemed to come from all over. In several spots, aliens and mutants were waving at him from their seats. Their demeanor and overall lack of decorum immediately marked them as players.
The nearby NPCs watched the cheering Players and then stared daggers at Shaggy. He waved nonchalantly at a few of the players and hurried to an open seat. When he sat down there, several other passengers moved their own seats to get closer. There was almost a fight to get the seat next to him and Shaggy almost laid down. But the human-looking young man who won the seat quickly took his place and smiled at Shaggy.
“My Man! Hows it going?!”
Shaggy simply stared at the young player as the boy raised his manacled hands for a shake. Seeing Shaggy’s hesitance didn’t stop the jovial player, though.
“So, I have to ask, what is the great Shaggy doing on a prison bus?”
“Going to prison.”
“Hmph! Oh, you’re a funny man, huh? Well, listen here, funny man. I want in.”
“Sorry, my guy. I don’t swing that way. Good luck to you, though.”
The young man’s face twisted in disgust before he lurched toward Shaggy. Pinpricks of pain exploded in Shaggy’s chest and he looked down. The young player’s fingers had transformed into points and they were jammed into his chest. Or at least as far into his chest as they could get. The player tried to comprehend what he was seeing as he looked down at where he had stabbed Shaggy.
Realizing the cuts weren’t that deep, Shaggy responded with a head-butt. Shaggy’s forehead met the kid’s nose and then crashed through his face. His follow prisoner Player went sprawling into the aisle and exploded into a mote of cubes.
“Shit!” Shaggy swore, watching the player die.
“Dumbass.” Another player said from nearby.
Shaggy glanced up to see an alien with a long nose that went down to his chin. It flopped across his dark purple face as the Alien player shook his head.
“I didn’t mean you. I meant that guy,” He said as he waved his manacled hands at the disappearing cubes. “We all know you pretty much soloed a Raid Boss. What was he going to do? Threaten you?”
“That had been my plan.” Said a deep voice from behind Shaggy.
Shaggy spun in his seat and came face to face with a rock monster. The alien’s entire body was composed of tiny pebbles and rocks that shifted and undulated. Shaggy could see different types of rocks making up the player’s skin as they grinned at him and raised their own hands in submission.
“Dude, you just collapsed that dude’s face. I think you can relax about trying to be the big dog.”
“Ha!” a weaselly voice cackled. “Big dog. I love it! Cause he’s a werewolf, right?”
Shaggy searched for the voice until he found a pair of beady eyes looking at him from the seat diagonal to his. A three-foot tall talking stoat bared its teeth at him in a facsimile of a smile. When Shaggy continued to stare, the stoat shivered slightly and lowered its head.
“By the way, I didn’t solo a raid boss. My guild was with me,” Shaggy said as he settled back into his seat.
The floppy-nosed alien nodded. “I know. But you were the one that disappeared with him on top of that pyramid thing, right? So you had to have fought him solo at least a little, right?”
“RadicalDave said that was a personal quest.” Said the rock alien’s deep voice.
“Who’s RadicalDave?” Stoat asked.
“He's Legion’s streamer. RadicalDave was the one who streamed a lot of the Raid when it first popped.” Said an unfamiliar voice from the seat in front of Shaggy.
A pale face glanced over at Shaggy with a bored expression. It was a human male with long, dark hair in a ponytail. He was wearing an eye-patch and seemed to have selected every facial scar the Character creator would allow. They clashed harshly with the player’s young-looking face. He had the scars of a war veteran, but the face of an anime protagonist. The flash of blue electricity behind the player’s eyes gave Shaggy a hint to the man’s power.
“Although now,” Continued eye-patch. “RadicalDave’s gone quiet. You want to explain that, Shaggy? Or are you going to head-butt me to death, too?”
“Depends.” Shaggy answered. “You going to try to shock me, one-eye?”
A look of surprise appeared on eye-patch’s face. But he quickly masked it with a smirk. Their small group of players fell into quiet conversation as the bus took off. Shaggy got several questions about his guild and what they were up to. But he kept things vague. So did the others when Shaggy tried to ask what they were all doing going to prison. The only one that answered was eye-patch or, as he introduced himself, Matteo. Apparently Matteo was repeating the prison breakout raid repeatedly in the hopes of proc-ing a secret quest. Several of the others laughed at him, but Shaggy wasn’t too sure that it was a stupid thing.
The game reacted to their decisions in real-time. Who was to say that Matteo wouldn’t eventually stumble upon something the Game Master put in his path? But the one-eyed player took the ribbing in stride and explained that so far nothing big had happened.
“But something big will!” Stoat said happily. “I mean, a big-timer like Shaggy is walking into prison, right? So something has to be happening.”
Everyone’s eyes turned to Shaggy, but he simply shrugged his shoulders and tried to get comfortable again. The lumpy green bus seat was hell on his bruises and the stab wounds in his stomach were still bleeding. Stoat looked annoyed at not getting an answer. Floppy-nose, though, nodded understandingly.
“Look, Shaggy, we get it. You don’t want to trust a bunch of randoms with your quest. But we can make things easier for you once you're inside. I mean, whatever you have planned has to be easier with a few extra bodies, right?”
“I’m not planning anything.” Shaggy said simply. All four players around him groaned in disbelief before he added. “But if anything happens, it will happen fast and you’ll need to be ready.”
Matteo grinned as Stoat nearly vibrated off of his seat. Floppy-nose gave Shaggy an appreciative smile. But the rock alien behind him wasn’t so circumspect with his elation. The deep-voiced alien gave a resounding cheer that rocked the bus. The driver swerved harshly before swearing in his own alien language. Shaggy winced and turned a glare back at the rock alien. So did the other three players.
“Sorry.”
Shaggy rolled his eyes and faced forward again. Thankfully, they weren’t too far from the prison. He could see it in the distance. A large gray building surrounded by electric fences and guard towers. Just outside the fence was a low-grade blue shield that covered the entire prison. It flickered ominously as they approached before it turned off completely. They turned into prison and were directed to the drop-off point. Shaggy exhaled a breath and waited for orders to get off the bus. Above the prison, he could see Supers flying across the sky, running protection for the prison.
With an evil grin across his chubby face, their bus driver spun in his seat and opened the bus’s door.
“Welcome home, assholes. Enjoy your stay.”
The prisoners lined up and filed out of the bus in a straight line. Already Shaggy could hear the guards shouting orders. They were separating each prisoner into their respective lines. They were classified by power-level and each section of the prison was for a separate classification. Shaggy had been in D-block before. But with Obadiah's help and his own growing legend, Shaggy knew he’d be placed in B-block this time.
As he marched from the bus, Shaggy was shoved and prodded toward his section. He watched as the others were placed in separate lines as well. Floppy was in C-block, as was Rocky. Stoat went to D and, to Shaggy’s surprise, so did Matteo. The long-haired criminal shot Shaggy a wink as he lined up behind the shaking Stoat.
Shaggy shook his head. He’d worry about that later. They would only have a few times a day to meet up, anyway. He could worry about everyone’s classifications later. For now, he had to worry about standing out. As the only criminal standing in the B-Block line, he was already sticking out more than he wanted to. He turned toward the long walk toward the in-processing building. It was a long hallway with reinforced plexiglass for walls. B-block prisoners lined the walls, ready to watch Shaggy walk to his new home. He could see them already glaring at him. Cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders, Shaggy muttered under his breath as he walked forward.
“Well… let’s see how this fucking goes.”