Finding Bodecker took some time, but when they did, the large man was already hard at work. The large alien man had somehow gotten a few Lackeys to build him a strange cubicle behind Shaggy’s cabin. It looked like an office workspace, complete with a desk, filing cabinet, and water cooler. Shaggy shook his head at the sight and walked over. Bodecker was hunched over his desk and hands hovering over a data-pad’s keyboard. The big guy typed fast for a person who could put his entire hand through the device if he wasn’t careful.

Shaggy assumed their approach went unnoticed, but Bodecker quickly finished what he was doing and glanced up. His beady, black eyes scanned over Shaggy and Levy before landing on Seth. Spotting the blonde-haired youth, Bodecker nodded in understanding and reached into his desk drawer. He pulled out a different datapad and placed it on the desk.

“I need an inventory of the weapons we have. The supply people already gave me one, but having multiple points of confirmation is always a good thing.”

Shaggy nodded and picked up the pad before passing it back to Seth. He looked around the speedily constructed room that simply had three shoddy walls and an open front. He raised an eyebrow at Bodecker, but the alien simply shrugged.

“It’s what they could get done on short notice. The second housing area is almost finished, though. So soon our construction teams to get around to making me an actual office.”

Shaggy nodded. “Sounds fine. But make sure it’s big enough for a team. You’re going to need help.”

Bodecker sighed. “Sure, chief. Was there something else I could help you with?”

“We’ve just talked things over with Corvi and he’s eager to get started. So I thought you could show him and Seth around.”

“I can do that. But we’ll need a protection team.”

“Is it in a rough area?”

“No. But the gangs have stepped their game up top and I don’t want to risk getting hurt. In fact, my wife insists I don’t.”

Shaggy looked at Levy in confusion.

“Yeah,” she confirmed. “The incoming gangs got a little tougher. But so did our people, and with Slink’s spies joining things, we’ve got enough to cover everything.”

“Really?” Shaggy asked, cracking his knuckles.

The fight against the Raks had been boring, and he was ready to throw himself at another challenge. Duke was dead, and the HLO was currently staying quiet. Shaggy’s near future looked to be filled with boring base construction stuff. Levy’s palm slapped into his temple and Shaggy blinked. His wife was rubbing her hand as she shook her head at him.

“You’re still hiding from the police! If you want to play, we can do it at night. Or we can take a stroll through Under-Town.”

“Under-Town is a powder keg I don’t want to kick over just yet,” Shaggy answered, helping Levy rub the pain from her hand. “But we can go on a midnight stroll tonight. Just the two of us?”

A wave of disappointment came from Shaggy’s pack, but he mentally swatted those feelings away. Levy’s face softened, and she shook her head again.

“No. At the very least, we’ll have to take that pack of yours. A few of them are getting antsy, I can tell.”

Shaggy simply nodded as he felt happiness come over the Link now. He almost wanted to roll his eyes at the eager bunch of werewolves. They acted like puppies sometimes. Still maintaining a straight face, Shaggy looked at Bodecker and smiled.

“We’ll get you a team or two to walk y’all out there. Is there anything else I need to know about on the business side of things?”

Bodecker sighed and looked down at his datapad. “Well… what do you have time for? Because the business agreements with the city have come back. We need to go over those and make sure the business owners sign them. Then we have a construction company that finally got back to us.”

“That’s the squirrel people, right?”

Levy chuckled as Bodecker shook his head. “No. It’s the construction company who has ties to the SQWILLIUP crime family. They were a little annoyed that we wanted to meet in person, but they’ve agreed to it. They want to meet outside the city at one of their build sites.”

“Cause that’s not suspicious at all.” Levy deadpanned.

“Actually, it kind of isn’t. The Raks are extremely defensive about their turf. So any other crime family would probably get attacked like crazy in downtown Austin.”

“Then why are we being attacked?”

“Who says we aren’t?” Shaggy asked. “You just said that the local gangs have stepped up their attacks on our turf. Who do you think could push them our way?”

Levy scrunched up her nose. “That seems like a roundabout way to go about it. Why not just attack us?”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Shaggy shrugged. “Game balance? Who cares? Besides, if these Sqwuillium people want to throw down, all the better.”

“And they are the only construction company to answer us?” Levy asked Bodecker.

The big alien nodded and tapped at his datapad again. “Yeah, the other two companies I reached out to still have not answered. I assume we are being blacklisted due to our position near Rak turf and our recent dealings with the HLO. There was another company in the city, but all of their DAD contracts were pulled and they went under. Apparently the head of the company was sleeping with some DAD board members’ wife.”

Shaggy remembered old Drew Spiegal and smiled. He and the others had ruined the man for Frank, their foreman for all their Under-Town construction efforts. Unfortunately, the others were keeping the man busy, so Shaggy and Levy had to find another construction company. It was also a good idea to use multiple companies, anyway.

“Let them know we will meet them then and let’s get started on the permits we’ll need for the new businesses.”

“Most of those are still in the approval process, but getting the Business Agreements signed and sent back should speed things up.”

“And why can’t the business owners do that?”

Bodecker scratched his cheek with one massive finger. “Well, I figured you would want to see what your people were signing. Most of the agreements are the standard fair, but some come with strict requirements before they can be signed.”

“Such as?”

“Well, Mr. Stein needs a butcher’s license before he can sign his and Corvi will need a one to run the Automaton Shop. All appropriate license needs to be digitally attached to the paperwork and then sent back to city hall. Once that’s done, they’ll be granted a business license and be able to operate.”

Shaggy blinked as he thought about Franklin selling meat above them right now. Bodecker seemed to notice his confusion and nodded amicably.

“Some lee-way is being given to business owners because of the neighborhood’s… recent problems.”

Levy nodded as Shaggy scratched his head. “It’s probably a good idea, dear. Just to get a sense of what the city is asking for. Once we’ve seen a few, we can just pass the job of verification off to more trustworthy people.”

Shaggy grumbled but moved over to the other side of Bodecker’s desk and held his hand out. A stack of thin tablets was placed in his hands and he offered a few to his wife. As he did, Corvi and some other unexpected guests showed up at the same time. The pale yellow, multi-legged alien rushed over, getting ahead of Leslie and Chromia’s group. But the ladies didn’t seem annoyed at the move.

Shaggy’s eyes traveled across the other three ladies in Chromia and Leslie’s group. Apparently, the two women had gathered a small crew together. All women. Levy prodded Shaggy’s side at the sight, but he ignored her as he took in the odd group. Branka gave him a confident wave from behind Chromia’s shoulder. But the other two women looked a little worried. Which was an odd look on the taller one cause she was a minotauress. The other was some purple alien with long black dreadlocks and pointed ears. She was putting up a good front. Trying not to look worried at addressing the boss, but Shaggy could see the feint scent trails of fear around her.

Seth intercepted Corvi before the old alien could say a word and Shaggy took that moment to address Branka.

“Didn’t I put you on Deekin’s team?”

“Come on, boss! The teams are constantly rotating members in and out. Some people just don’t click, y’know?”

“And you weren’t clicking with Deekin’s team?” Levy asked, raising an eyebrow.

Branka shrugged. “Not particularly. They were a good group of guys, but not my speed.”

Shaggy quirked his own eyebrow at Chromia and Leslie. Both ladies grinned at him and shrugged their shoulders. Shaggy sighed, but waved them closer.

“What can I do for you ladies?”

“Well, we were wondering if you had anything else for us besides patrol.” Leslie said.

“Yeah, patrol is scut work for the dregs. You know we can do better than that.” Chromia added.

The purple alien and the minotauress both winced at her tone, but Shaggy simply grinned.

“Everyone has to patrol, Chromia. Even me. But it does just so happen that we have a group going out that needs protection.” Shaggy waved a hand at Bodecker, Corvi, and Seth.

Branka raised an eyebrow at Seth’s inclusion, but said nothing. Leslie and Chromia had different expressions plastered on their faces. Leslie looked delighted to help, while Chromia looked ready to spit venom.

“Protection detail!? Come on! That’s almost as bad as patrol. And isn’t one of them one of your little doggies? Have him protect them!”

Leslie smacked her one-eyed friend in the head and Shaggy was about to say something when a weird growl entered his ears. For a moment he thought it was himself, but it was coming from his right. Looking over, he spotted Seth baring his teeth and making a growling noise. The boy seemed unaware that he was doing it as the eyes on him brought him out of it. Once he realized what he had been doing, Seth went pink in the cheeks and bowed his head. Shaggy chuckled and sent the mental image of the pup growling to the rest of the pack. Seth snapped his head up as the image hit him and gave Shaggy a hurt look.

“Aw, don’t sweat it, kid, we all do it.” Shaggy waved the boy off. “And Chromia, you asked for another assignment. It’s this or you can join the grunts on patrol. If you don’t want to do either, you can walk your metal ass straight back through the portal to Under-Town.”

“Her metal ass, huh?” Levy chuckled lasciviously.

“Levy…” Shaggy groaned.

“You said it.”

“Leave it.”

“Sure sure.”

Shaggy rubbed his eyes at his wife’s antics before looking back at Leslie, Chromia, and Branka. “Can y’all do it? It’s a quick trip there and back. Seth can probably help, but Corvi and Bodecker… well…”

He trailed off as Seth and Bodecker were shaking their heads quickly. Corvi looked a little affronted, though. The short alien reached into his shirt and pulled out a large pistol. He waved it about as he wailed.

“I can more than take care of myself, you young poodle! I don’t need no protecting just to walk the damn streets!”

Shaggy rolled his eyes and threw up his hands. “Whatever! Just go! Bodecker, Levy and I will go over this stuff and get it to the right people. We’ll also get construction started on an actual office for you and your team. Do you have anyone picked out yet?”

“Not yet, chief. I’ll take our profiles and find someone.”

“Find a few someones, Bodecker. You’re going to need a lot of help to keep this machine running.”

The giant alien nodded as Leslie and her team stepped up to surround him and the others. Corvi was still complaining as they were marched away. Shaggy felt a headache coming on as he stared down at the datapads in his hand. Nearby, Levy pulled the dirt into the air with her magic and formed it into a blocky chair. Shaggy took one look at Bodecker’s more comfortable office chair before offering it to his wife, but she shook her head as she joined him at the large desk. The two of them put their heads together as they went over the various business agreements.

For a few precious moments, Shaggy was transported back to when he had first started his business, IRL. Levy had helped him file all the paperwork and stuck by him through the late nights of the early years. Her shoulder brushed against his the same way it always had since the first day he met her. At the arcade. On two uncomfortable stools. Shaggy wrapped an arm around his wife as they silently read the day away.