Dave’s exclamation was the starting gun for the fight. The Phreaks surged forward as Shaggy and Slink dived for covered. With his ability to heal slowed and almost completely spent, Shaggy thought it best to avoid the slew of laser fire. Slink returned fire as they got behind some wide machinery. Meanwhile, Dave was whooping loudly, clearly having the time of his life. Sounds of bones crunching and kicks landing echoed in the dark room. Shaggy tried to peer around the large mail sorting machine he was standing behind, but a Phreak with mantis arms rushed into his face.
“Shit!” Shaggy shouted and kicked out instinctively.
There was a loud crack, and the mantis Phreak shot backward like a cannon. They slammed into the far wall and hit the ground, unmoving. Shaggy growled as he grew out his claws and tried to focus on his man-beast form. Shifting on an empty stomach was proving tricky, though.
“I’m sure Dave is having a great time, but you need to get out there,” Slink murmured as he blind-fired around the sorting machine.
“I know! Give me a second. I’m hungry.”
“We don’t have time for you to get a snack.”
Shaggy ignored the teen as the sound of lasers hitting their cover echoed in the room. He could see his inner wolf lazily laying about its little mental yard. The damn thing was rolling about the place like it didn’t have a care in the world. Shaggy poked at the wolf with his mind and got an indignant yelp back.
“Yeah! I bet that’s annoying. You know what’s more annoying? Getting shot to death by a thousand laser. So how about you throw me a bone?” Shaggy spoke in his mind as another Phreak rushed around the side of their cover.
Shaggy took the legs out from under the Phreak and then slammed their head into the ground. Still focused on his inner wolf. The gigantic beast merely huffed at his assertion that they were going to die. Although it did stick its head up at the mention of the word ‘bone.’ Shaggy rolled his eyes at the excitable wolf.
“Yes, we can eat later. Right now, we need to hunt!”
His wolf chuffed again loudly in his mind. A quick mental image of Shaggy’s latest victim crossed through the mental space and his wolf barked excitedly. Shaggy glanced down at the caved in face and bleeding legs of the Phreak that had just attacked him. He felt the wolf salivating at the sight and shivered internally.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding!”
“Fuck!” Slink screeched as a red laser hit him in the shoulder.
The boy’s robe started smoking as he threw himself back into cover with a grunt. He glared at Shaggy again, and Shaggy felt his stomach flip. Not looking at the corpse at his feet, Shaggy tried to force the shift again as he spoke to his inner wolf.
“Fine. But I don’t want to see anything.”
With that, his inner wolf leapt to its feet and barked happily again. Shaggy felt the shift take hold and left the safety of his cover. He ran for the line of Phreaks as he spotted Dave still fighting in his peripheral vision. But instead of his legs and body getting longer, which was normal for the beast-form, Shaggy felt his whole body growing. Which meant he was going full wolf. He growled in frustration, but let the wolf do its thing as, for the first time, he let the wolf take control.
Shaggy was shoved into the mental space as his wolf’s howl echoed in his ears. His feet hit the grassy meadow he had made for his inner wolf, and he glanced around. The wolf’s giant cage was sitting in the field, along with the various things Shaggy had conjured for him. Slightly above and behind him, Shaggy found a screen back to the real world. His wolf was going ham on the Phreaks, ripping and biting them to pieces. Shaggy throat burned as he felt them swallow the bloody chunks of their victims. He could also feel the Phreaks’ attacks landing on their massive wolf's body. But with the wolf gorging itself on their enemies, they were healing faster and faster.
Shaggy looked away as his wolf practically slurped up a struggling tiger-humanoid with fly wings. He could still feel the NPC struggling in his throat as he looked around for something to keep his mind busy. He focused his mental energies and conjured a chair to sit in and tried to think of something to pass the time. But a sudden and violent rumbling made him look back at the screen. Dave was standing in front of his face, punching and kicking as his wolf tried to bite the blue-armored mutant in half.
“Whoa! Hey! Quit that! He’s a friend!”
Shaggy felt the wolf acknowledge his words, but it kept trying to attack Dave. With a force of will, he batted his inner wolf in the nose. Again, the wolf stopped attacking, and it growled inwardly at him.
“Don’t give me that shit, you idiot. If you can’t play well with others, then you can come back in here.”
Shaggy saw Dave back away from his four-legged form as his wolf huffed in annoyance. Then Shaggy was sent multiple images of his pack mates. Images of Rita, Ephemara, Vick, and the others all flitted through his mind, followed by a positive feeling. Then Dave and Slink’s images echoed past his mind’s eye, followed by a more ambiguous feeling.
“No, they aren’t Pack. But they are still friends, you nimrod. What does the room look like?”
The wolf gave a mental shrug as it moved their big head to look around the room. The back room of the post office was a bloody mess. Corpses of Phreak gang members were everywhere, and very few of them were in one piece. Shaggy felt the wolf’s hungry echo across his mindscape again, and he winced away. Then his wolf picked up a scent that neither Shaggy nor the wolf recognized.
Immediately, the wolf crouched low into a hunting position and growled. Scenting the air, he found someone hiding in the ceiling and barked loudly. Shaggy tried to process the scent again as something was familiar about it, but his wolf leapt into the air and raked the tiled ceiling with its claws. The tiles on the ceiling collapsed and shattered as they fell to the floor along with their hidden occupant. The scent grew stronger as the wolf sighted the newcomer and instantly attacked.
“Oh shit!” Shaggy said as he thrust his consciousness forward to reassert himself.
The wolf fought him a bit, but it was a little distracted attacking a certain secret agent. Shaggy felt himself slam into his lupine body. The taste of blood was still in his mouth and he wretched at the sharp metallic taste. But he also backed away from Agent Two. The spy was backpedaling while raising his sword to meet Shaggy’s massive maw. Agent Two’s slim katana looked like a toothpick to Shaggy, and he snorted derisively. The agent seemed to understand his slight, but kept quiet as he prepared to defend himself.
Shaggy sighed and canceled his shift. Already, he felt his inner wolf circling in its cage, ready to relax and go to sleep. Shaggy came back to his human form with no shirt or shoes and rolled his eyes. Apparently, going fully feral had some drawbacks. He spit out a mouthful of blood and picked at the hair in his teeth as Agent Two watched him warily.
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“Dude, are you back to yourself?”
Shaggy nodded as he shouted over his shoulder. “Yes, Dave. The wolf’s back in its home. Sorry about that. He can play a little rough.”
Dave snorted as he approached Shaggy and Agent Two. “If that was playing, I don’t want to see what he does to people he hates.”
Shaggy looked around the bloody room and nodded in agreement. Slink limped over to them, throwing back a vial of liquid into his mouth. His shoulder was still smoking, and it looked like he had taken a few cuts and bruises as well. The three of them turned to Agent Two and waited as the swordsman stared back at them.
When it became clear none of them were going to attack, Agent Two whispered into a wrist mic. Shaggy rolled his eyes.
“Seriously? Just bring the old man in. We’ve got his prize, and he probably wants to look it over.”
Agent Two’s eyes narrowed. “Protocol.”
“Friend of yours, Shag?”
“Asshole.” Shaggy answered Slink.
Agent Two said nothing and stepped back toward the door. He took a position at the open doors side and waited. Shaggy turned to his two friends and looked them both over. Slink was panting, but seemed okay now, and Dave, still in his armor, looked the same as usual. Shaggy thought he spotted a crack in the mutant’s blue armor, but it was gone as soon as he noticed it. Slink raised an eyebrow as Shaggy started walking back to Duke’s body.
“Shaggy?”
“He works for the old man along with a mind-reader… and another player.”
“And why is he here?”
“Probably because Obadiah is always watching people he considers to be assets.”
“Pfft! You aren’t that lucky,” Agent Two shouted.
“Then what the hell are you doing here?”
“Our people spotted you moving in Under-Town. I was asked to find out why. I just arrived when your little fight with the Phreaks started and was going to leave when I noticed Duke dead on the floor. You know Obadiah wanted him alive, right?”
Shaggy shook his head at the snarky smirk on Agent Two’s face and stopped himself from rolling his eyes. “Yeah, well, that wasn’t an option. The idiot tried to fistfight a mentalist without proper mental protection.”
“Yeah, the big dude totally got mind-sucked.” Dave nodded his helmeted head.
Agent Two glanced at Dave in confusion before the sounds of footsteps filled the air. Slink and Shaggy got their weapons ready. But Agent Two stood at attention as Obadiah entered the room. The old man’s face didn’t change as he took in the corpses on the floor and the spatters of blood everywhere. His eyebrow cranked up a notch at Duke’s body, but he said nothing as he rubbed his hands together and sighed.
“Well… you boys made a mess.”
“I let the wolf out while I was hungry.” Shaggy said, by way of explanation.
Obadiah pursed his lips and nodded slowly as he took another look around the room. Shaggy could tell the old man was gauging Shaggy’s current strength and probably re-categorizing him in his mind. Not wanting the old man to control the flow of the conversation, Shaggy dragged Duke and his small gurney across the room. It was rough going for a bit, but Slink and Dave quickly hurried to bring the giant man before Obadiah. Once in place, Shaggy dropped the gurney and waved his hands dramatically.
“One A-tier powerhouse, freshly dead and ready for whatever you want him for.”
The old cyborg rolled his eyes. “I wanted him for questioning.”
“Yeah, that wasn’t going to work. He was having delusions of grandeur. Wanted to trade you in to the HLO for a shot at more power.”
“More?!” Obadiah asked incredulously.
Shaggy shrugged. “That’s what he said. And judging by the way he was acting, he believed they could do it too.”
Obadiah rubbed his chin as he thought things over. Eventually, he turned to Agent Two and gave a nod. The agent started whispering into his wrist again as he turned away from them. Shaggy felt a weird tension hit the room as Obadiah turned back to them and smiled. He was wondering if they were going to have to fight the old cyborg when the man reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope.
“That is some information on your rivals down here in Under-Town. Being who I am, I can’t give you all a stack of credits outright. But I can point you to some interesting bits of information. Such as, did you know that the person running the UGB has a father in Austin’s City Hall?”
Slink sucked in a breath as Shaggy let the information wash over him. He found he didn’t really care. He just wanted to get back to his territory and continue working with his pack. Dave also seemed a little checked out of the conversation as he idly kicked Duke’s arm with his boot. The blue-armored man seemed to kick something loose from the floor as he bent over to pick it up. Shaggy ignored Dave as he looked between Slink and Obadiah. The boy was now fully engrossed in the documents the old man had handed over.
Putting an arm around the kid’s shoulder, Shaggy nodded at the old man. “Well, I guess that’s enough from us. You probably don’t want us watching what you’re about to do.”
Obadiah opened his mouth to say something, but Agent Two announced the arrival of the medical team. Shaggy led Slink out as Dave hurried to follow them. As they got to the door, a team of people in hazmat suits came bursting through the post office doors. They had multiple carts on wheels and several medical bags that they carried toward the old man. Shaggy and his group went largely ignored until one of the staff ran straight into Dave.
“Whoa! Dude, you gotta be careful!” Dave said good-naturedly as he steady the person and brushed off their suit.
The silent member of the medical staff nodded at Dave several times before they ran to catch up with their friends. Shaggy noted that Dave was moving stiffly as they exited the post office and started walking back to the bar. Slink was still buried face-first in the documents, so Shaggy asked Dave.
“What’s up with you?”
Dave waited for them to be a full block away before he answered. “I’ve got our samples, dudes.”
The mutant’s face was still covered by his armor, but Shaggy could hear the grin in the man’s voice. Dave tapped his thigh and nodded as they continued walking.
“What?”
“Our sample? Of Duke’s DNA or whatever? I stabbed him with a piece of glass that was on the floor, then grabbed a plastic bag off that medical dude. We just need to find a place to stop so I can put the sample in the bag.”
Shaggy almost stopped walking, but Slink’s pale hand wrapped around his wrist. The boy was no longer looking at the files. Instead, his eyes were looking around for other people as he walked them toward a nearby shack. Shaggy thought the teen looked like he wanted to kiss and smack Dave at the same time.
“Dave, you beautiful dumbass! That was a hell of a risk.” Slink cheered in a whisper.
Dave shrugged as he put his back to the street and tapped his thigh armor again. A small compartment opened up and Shaggy could see a sizeable chunk of glass in there. The chunk was practically covered in blood, and Dave even gotten some skin and hair. He opened another compartment on his armor and pulled the plastic bag as he tried to sneakily put the glass in the bag. Slink watched it all with bated breath as Shaggy watched the street. This bit of Under-Town was quiet and out of the way, but anybody could stumble by.
Once the glass was in the bag, Dave placed the bag back into his armor’s compartment and then dismissed his armor.
“There, haha, now no one can steal it from us. Getting that piece of glass through that giant-dude’s skin was a bitch, though. Thanks for distracting the old man, Shaggy.”
Shaggy smirked and shook his head. “It’s a good thing I didn’t know that’s what I was doing. Otherwise I would’ve blown it.”
“We need to hurry and get this to our own medical team. I’m going to use Obadiah’s info to make us some credits and then upgrade the medical room. I don’t know what we can pull from Duke’s blood, but we’ll get what we can and push it out to the Lackeys as soon as possible.”
Slink hurried off, still muttering to himself. Dave and Shaggy shared a look before they hurried after the teen. In a couple more blocks, the streets were going to be full with the criminals and scum of Under-Town. The last thing they needed was for Slink to start blabbing about something important around non-Legion members.
Shaggy grinned as he and Dave quickly caught up and silenced the boy’s mutterings. They took a longer route to get back home, but it also meant they ran into fewer people. Already, Shaggy was thinking about his own cave, and what he was going to do once he was back home.