Shaggy waited in the office for over half an hour. He tried talking with Obadiah, but the old man brushed him off. Apparently, the cyborg was busy with something else. Bored, Shaggy took in the warden’s office. It was full of awards and trinkets for either Volk’s or the prison’s greatness. He rolled his eyes at a glass case displaying the first uniform worn by the first prisoner in the prison. Momentarily, Shaggy wondered what happened to that prisoner, but he put that thought aside as he paced around.

Plants, pictures, and furniture dotted the rest of the office. Shaggy was familiar with every inch of the office by the time came to get to work. Even the heavy duty safe, mounted behind a picture frame. It had a biometric lock and a five-digit keypad. Shaggy wasn’t going to risk it. But he had some fun theorizing ways to break into the thing. But without his powers, it would be impossible. Not to mention, he’d probably summon every guard in the place to his location.

When Obadiah finally signaled that he was ready to go, Shaggy was sprawled across the warden’s couch. He was idly planning his route back and trying to come up with ways to keep his mind occupied. Then the terminal beeped, and he lurched off the couch. Obadiah’s voice cracked over the speaker as Shaggy set to work finding the prison network.

“You’ll have to disconnect from the warden’s private network and then attach the terminal to the prison’s.”

“I got it,” Shaggy said wearily.

“You’ll need a pass code to connect, but I have it ready. Say when.”

“When.”

Obadiah rattled off a string of numbers and letters and Shaggy’s fingers rapidly typed across the terminal’s keyboard. It was sort of anti-climatic after the work it took to get to the office. Not to mention the work it would take to get back to his cell. Literally all he was doing was making the warden’s terminal public and viewable on the prison’s standard network. Once Shaggy was done, Obadiah went quiet and Shaggy thought he heard clicking coming over the speaker.

He waited in the warden’s chair for what seemed like another thirty minutes before the old man spoke again.

“Umm, oh. You can return to your cell now, Mr. Robertson. I have what I was looking for.”

Shaggy scowled. “And you’re not going to tell me a damn thing about what I just got for you?”

“No. It’s too sensitive. All information is Need To Know.”

“Until something I need to know, but don’t, comes to bite me in the ass.”

“It is my job to foresee such circumstances and prevent them, Shaggy.” Obadiah explained, his tone going firm.

“You can’t prevent what you don’t see coming.” Shaggy grumbled as he got up from his seat and stormed out of the room.

The damn cyberspook was far too cagey for Shaggy’s liking. But he had accomplished the mission. Now he just needed to get back to his cell. Which meant jumping down an elevator shaft. Shaggy rotated his shoulders and waggled his arms, getting the blood flowing and loosening up his muscles. The last thing he needed was to wrench an arm out of its socket while catching himself. But the elevator surprised him by dinging loudly and opening as he walked up.

Shaggy jumped back and brought his arms up. Ready to defend himself. But the bright elevator was empty as the doors slid open. Obadiah’s voice echoed out of the circular elevator car.

“Calm down, Shaggy. I can take you down and wipe the system logs. They’ll never know we were here.”

Shaggy muttered angrily to himself as he stepped into the elevator. As the doors closed and he felt the movement of the car, Shaggy turned to look at the camera on the elevator’s wall. He was sure Obadiah was watching him. So he addressed his question to the camera.

“So, could you lead me all the way back to my cell? It’s be a hell of a lot easier if someone was leading the guards away from me.”

Obadiah sighed. “Unfortunately, no. I’ll have to cut off my access here soon. Central will get suspicious of all the activity on the network this late at night.”

“Joy.”

Shaggy fell silent as the elevator raced down to the bottom floor. With a decrease in acceleration and a soft ding, the car came to a stop, and the doors opened. The dark hallway leading past the library met Shaggy’s gaze, and he sighed as exited the elevator. He stalked down the corridor and past the lone turn in the hallway. He was just passing the library doors when all the lights suddenly turned on.

The bright hallway made him blink, but he kept his wits enough to scan his surroundings. Nothing was around him, so Shaggy slightly relaxed until a loud klaxon filled the halls with noise. He winced against the noise as he tried to come up with a plan. Ducking into the library, Shaggy found a large shelf full of books and crouched low behind it.

He was wondering what had happened when Obadiah’s voice echoed from nearby. He couldn’t quite make it out over the klaxon. But Shaggy could follow it well enough. Keeping low in the now lit library, Shaggy followed the old man’s voice to a row of holo-emitters bolted to a large table. Each emitter had a corresponding keyboard and speaker. Obadiah’s voice was coming from the terminal closest to him.

“Shaggy! Are you there?! I saw you duck into the library! Can you hear me!?”

Shaggy shouted over the klaxon as he tried to focus on Obadiah’s voice. “Yeah, I can hear you! What’s going on?! Is this us?!”

“No! Wally Wondrous has attacked the prison!”

Shaggy couldn’t stop the cackle that bubbled forth from his mouth at the villain’s name. But Obadiah cut him off harshly.

“Don’t let the name fool you! He’s an A-tier threat with reality-bending powers! Lock yourself down and try to stay safe! I think he might- Krrsshk!”

The terminal cut off suddenly, and Shaggy felt his vision twist. The world exploded into a cavalcade of colors and Shaggy witnessed several bookcases turn green and bend inward upon themselves. Even as they did, their books stayed on their shelves. The tables and chairs in the library bent and twisted into odd shapes while turning bright colors. The table turned orange, the chairs a bright yellow, and the carpet was now shaggy and sky-blue.

Shaggy swallowed a mouthful of saliva as he felt his stomach turn at what he was seeing. It was an assault on his eyes and the constant shifting and twisting of furniture made him sick. But that was nothing compared to how he felt when he looked down at his own body. His skin was a sickly green and his limbs were long, with three-fingered hands at the end of each arm. His fingers were long and spindly, with rough-looking claws on both hands. He screamed, but all that came out was a string of nonsensical growls.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The world stopped twisting, but the colors stayed as Shaggy felt examined himself. He was naked save for a brown loincloth covering his junk. He had just realized what he was when a loud bang came from the front of the library. Oinks and squeals filled the air as Shaggy moved away to find some cover. He hid behind a yellow blob that now resembled a bean-bag chair. Keeping low, Shaggy peered around, trying to find the source of the noise. Something within him recognized it, but it wasn’t his wolf. It was something else, something primal and foreign.

An echoing squeal sounded close and Shaggy abandoned his cover and fled upward. He climbed the nearest bookshelf like a tree. His new claws making the journey easy. When he reached the top, Shaggy went prone and scanned all around. Just ahead, amongst the kaleidoscope of colors, were three massive pink figures. The porcine ears easily cresting the tops of the bookshelves. The thing within Shaggy hollered at him to run. But he stayed still as one of the creature came fully into view.

A massive, pink, bipedal pig stomped into an open space between the shelves. It was just as naked as Shaggy and carrying a wooden club. Which it proceeded to use on the colorful furniture, obliterating it. Soon the squealing, oinking creature was joined by two more of its brethren and Shaggy’s inner passenger almost fainted in fear. Shaggy bit down on his lip and took control of his feelings. The big bastards looked strong, but slow. His claws and teeth were sharp. He could take the three little pigs.

Ignoring his protesting instincts, Shaggy pulled himself along the top of the bookcase on his belly. Below, the pig creatures were oinking and gesturing all around. Soon the three of them broke apart and started to search the library. Shaggy knew they were looking for him, but they weren’t going to see him. Not until he wanted them to.

He reached the end of his bookcase and waited. He could see one of the tall pigs comings his way. But like many people, the dumb bastard didn’t look up. Shaggy waited for the pig to get just past his hiding spot before he dropped on the pig’s back. The pig’s massive body was spongy and surprisingly slippery. Shaggy had to use his claws to gain a grip, which caused his piggy victim to squeal in pain. Black, inky blood flowed over Shaggy as he quickly raised himself up and used his long spindly limbs to reach around the pig’s neck. He dragged his claws across the squealing pig’s throat and then dropped to the floor.

Already, Shaggy could hear the stomping footsteps of the other pig creatures. He rolled behind another bookshelf and hurried away from the noise. A flood of pride flashed through Shaggy as he heard the gurgling death noises of the pig he had attacked. Judging by the alarmed squealing of the other pig monsters, Shaggy was sure he had killed the thing. Quickly, he looped around wide in the new, colorful library. Trying to circle back around to his remaining targets.

As he moved, Shaggy had to move around a few more odd bits of furniture. Each one was a different color and twisted in such a way, it was unrecognizable. He pushed a lumpy pink mass to the side and his clawed fingers sank into the goopy mess. Looking around, Shaggy saw that the colors were started to run out of everything. The inner creature within him shuddered in fear and Shaggy had to agree. Whatever magic Wally had conjured was running out. He wasn’t sure if the pig creatures were guards. But if they reverted back, he’d be at a severe disadvantage. As well as being easily identifiable.

He curved back toward where the pigs had been. Keeping his ears open for any squealing or grunting. Thankfully, the enormous pigs were so large that they practically shook the ground when they walked. Shaggy found the next one, around another shelving unit, and climbed. Attacking from above had worked the first time, so he figured why change tactics? Again, he crawled along the top of the bookcase and fell upon his target. This time he led with his claws and both hands slammed into the top of the creature’s pig-like skull.

The claws on both of his hands sank deep and more black blood exploded over Shaggy’s lanky arms. The pig monster tilted over, immediately crashing into the bookcases and sending it to the ground. Shaggy yanked his claws free and tried to rush off. But as he turned down another aisle full of books, he came face to snout with the last pig monster.

The pink beast oinked and squealed in outrage as it swung its club wide. The sound of cracking wood echoed everywhere as the beast bashed the surrounding shelves. Shaggy quickly ducked and leapt forward, leading with his claws. He sunk his rough gray claws into the pig’s meaty thigh and tried to jump away. But he wasn’t quick enough to yank his claws free. The pig-monster dropped his club and squealed in anger as he grabbed Shaggy around the neck. His claws were pulled free as Shaggy was lifted into the face of the panting pig. The thing shook him violently and Shaggy was sure he was going to die. Then the world flickered.

For a moment, everything returned to normal. The pig monster shrank into a fully armored guard whose grip was broken as he lost his massive size. Shaggy felt his body grew out more and his green hands returned to normal. They both stared at each other in shock, then the guard reached to his waist to grab his communicator. Shaggy launched himself forward, and the two tussled for a short amount of time until things flickered back to the colorful world again.

The pig squealed in surprise as its meaty hands grasped futilely at its now-empty hip. Shaggy wasted no time and sent both of his clawed hands into the monster’s face. The pig oinked in surprise and then shuddered as its body collapsed. Shaggy rolled out of the way of the crashing body and stood triumphant over his kill. The little beast inside growled in glee and Shaggy felt a familiar feral joy at having bested his prey.

Then the world collapsed back to normal again. The colors disappeared, and the shelves and chairs snapped back to their original shapes. The destruction the pig monsters had wrought as they charged about the place was still there, though. So were the bodies of the guards. Shaggy searched around and found three dead guards on the floor of the library. Each of them looked like they had been clawed up by some kind of beast. Their armor was torn and their flesh was had huge rends through it.

Shaggy sighed as he tried to collect himself. His flesh was back to normal and he could even feel the weight of the suppression collar back around his neck. He returned to the library terminals and tried to get in contact with Obadiah. But all that he got was static.

“Old man! Are you there!? What’s going on?!”

The klaxon was back in full force and Shaggy was still standing in a brightly lit, and destroyed, library. He didn’t like his chances if he hung around. But he needed information. Was his route back to his cell clear? Did other prisoners get out? What about the guards? However, all he got was more static, until something finally broke through.

“Prison… hiss fucked… hiss plan… hiss laundry…”

Shaggy ran as the static ate away the message again. He didn’t need to hear anymore. They were going to Plan D on this little night mission. He and Obadiah had planned several contingencies for if things went to shit. One of them was an alternate route back to Shaggy’s cell. Unfortunately, it meant going down to the basement and then through the laundry. He wasn’t sure on how things were now, but if Obadiah was giving the order for Plan D, then things had gone to absolute shit. Plan D was only a viable option if the prison was under-going a riot. Which meant that Wally Wondrous had truly fucked the place up.

Shaggy sprinted out of the library and back down the hall. He could hear shouts and footsteps echoing everywhere. But he didn’t see any guards yet. He passed the turn in the hall and he thought he heard someone shout. But he kept running. He hit the metal elevator doors at full speed and quickly wrenched them open. The doors fought him valiantly, but Shaggy managed to get them wide enough to squeeze through.

“Halt prisoner!” a modulated voice said from behind him.

Shaggy ignored it as he pulled himself through the gap in the doors. His foot flailed in the open air and Shaggy had a very brief moment to question his plan. Then he heard a laser bolt hit the door next to his head. Yanking himself the rest of the way through, Shaggy’s body tumbled end over end into the dark elevator shaft. His arms whipping around in the dark, looking for something to grab a hold of.