Shaggy wasn’t surprised to find the diner still open. It wasn’t that late in the evening, and Vil’ N’s seemed like an open all night kind of place. However, once Shaggy stepped through the door, he could feel every eye turn to him. He took a cursory glance around, but couldn’t find Ephemara. He gave another weary sigh and turned around. But he had barely hit the door when a furry hand landed on his shoulder. A soft voice whispered in his ear as he turned back around.
“Come with me.”
Shaggy turned to see the waitress that had served them food earlier in the day. Her voice was surprisingly soft for such a large imposing minotauress. She was waving a hand at the back of the diner. So Shaggy followed. Several Patrons turned to look at them as they walked, but soon they went back to their food. Those who kept their gaze on Shaggy and the waitress found a large angry glare aimed right at them.
She lead him to toward the back of the diner and through a door leading to the kitchen. Shaggy looked around as they passed through the kitchen, but it was a pretty standard diner kitchen. Stove, fryers, loads of cabinets. The waitress grabbed his shirt and drug him through the rest of the kitchen. Apparently, he wasn’t moving fast enough for the bovine woman.
They passed through unmolested in the kitchen and through a back door. They stepped into the dark night and through the small parking lot behind the diner. There was a large rectangular trailer home right behind the diner and they were walking right for it. The waitress let go of his shirt and gave three quick raps on the door. The door was opened by another Minotaur, who stared at them for a few seconds before the waitress shoved her way in.
Shaggy followed right behind and entered the trailer. He entered at a living room that was clearly enlarged for a Minotaur. Shaggy glanced around, taking in the kitchen and small dining area. He thought he saw bits of metal on the floor, but his attention was grabbed by the Minotauress waving him toward the back. He marched down the short, carpeted hallways toward the back room. He gave a quick knock and waited, but the waitress’s soft voice shouted at him again.
“Just go in. She’s probably unconscious. Just wake her up. Get her out of my house.”
Shaggy shook his head at her forced anger. She was obviously worried about Ephemara and didn’t want to say it. He twisted the doorknob and stuck his head into the room. It was dark, with only a single lamp lighting up the surprisingly large room. A massive bed took up most of the room, however, with Ephemara’s small body right in the middle under the covers. However, right next to her was 1138’s prone figure. The small robot was either powered down or broken as it laid at the edge of the bed.
Shaggy quickly moved over and picked up the small bot. One of its arms had been crushed and torn away. It hung loosely in his hand, and he briefly wondered why they hadn’t trashed the whole thing. He was about to set the thing aside when Ephemara spoke up from her place on the bed.
“Little bastard got me good.”
Shaggy set the thing down and looked over at the woman. She seemed fine, but grimaced as she sat up. Shaggy remembered the little thing stabbing Ephemara in the back, but he hadn’t seen what with. Ephemara twisted on the bed and raised her shirt. There was a large white bandage on the small of her back. It looked like an overgrown band-aid.
“It had something like a knife in its arm. Fleur crushed the damn thing, and it powered down or something. We didn’t know what to do with it, so we kept it. Maybe we can reprogram it or something.”
Shaggy shook his head. “The way things went down there, I would rather trash the damn thing and be done with it. For all we know, Cog has some kind of tracking bug on it.”
Ephemara waved a hand at him. “Fleur can have her brother find someone to wipe it for us. Magically, that is. It’ll clear out anything that old sexist fuck did to the little guy.”
“Alright. Whatever you say. But do it twice and then again for good measure.” Shaggy said as he shook his head and sat on a footrest near the edge of the bed.
“What happened down there, boss?”
“I do not know. I think we were goaded into a fight and then unleashed some new brand of hell on the city. But the important thing right now is finishing what we came up here to do and then getting back to Under-Town. Let the Supes deal with that old Villain.”
“Yeah, about that, boss.” Ephemara said as she grabbed her bag from the side of the bed with a grunt of pain. “Fleur and I have gone over this laptop. It had a little water damage because I am not so good at phasing things other than myself. But we pulled a few things from it.”
Shaggy watched as she sat back in bed and opened the old laptop. She glanced at him over the screen and waved him over. Shaggy sighed and took a seat next to her and looked over the information. Ephemara explained the Ninjas were hired help from a big gang that operated topside. They didn’t list their employer’s name, but they said that they were hired to find a certain police officer with knowledge of various undercover agents.
But the handler had somehow gotten wind of what was about to happen and went into hiding. So the ninjas were watching the person’s apartment and the police headquarters in case someone tried to contact the handler. That had all been three months ago and now the Ninja’s employer was getting angry. So the Ninjas were about to use some kind of trump card to draw out the handler.
“What was the trump card?” Shaggy asked as Ephemara closed the laptop.
She shrugged her shoulder and grimaced. “I do not know. But whatever it was, they were sure it was going to get the handler out of hiding.”
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“Well, that’s no help. We were already going to have enough trouble talking to this person and now they are in the wind.”
“Actually, boss, Fleur had an idea about all this.”
Shaggy sighed. “Really? You’re going around telling people who aren’t in the crew about this?”
Ephemara shrugged, unapologetic. “Hey, she got me out of a tight spot and that was after I screwed her over on a job. I owed her.”
“No, you didn’t, Ephe.” Came Fleur's soft voice from the door. “Your family. Even if you're a hard-headed idiot. I wasn’t going to let you bleed-out on our doorstep.”
“Although you should have!” Shouted a deep voice from the front of the trailer home.
“Shut it, Racine,” Ephemara and Fleur shouted at the same time.
Shaggy scratched the bridge of his nose and groaned. “Your plan?”
Fleur stared at him. He met her steely glare with a tired look. She seemed to come to a decision and spoke.
“Why don’t you grab one of the new Supers and use their HLO communicator? Depending on how green they are, they might not have implemented the correct restrictions on their wrist computer and you can run a search.”
“Yeah, but you’ll have to be quick, boss. Once the communicator’s bio-metrics realize the Super is out, they’ll send back-up to the location.” Ephemara said excitedly.
Shaggy groaned angrily and stood up. “How the hell am I supposed to grab a Super? Not to mention I don’t even know what I’m even looking for.”
Fleur shrugged her massive shoulders. “With all the new Supes in town it would be easy. There are always someone out and about doing night patrols and as to what you're looking for. They are a Police handler on the run. I will bet they made a request for aid from the HLO. But with all the red-tape and nonsense that entails, they probably haven’t gotten clearance for a protection detail yet.”
“After three months?!” Shaggy asked incredulously.
“Bureaucracy is a hell of a thing.”
Shaggy paced in front of the bed as he thought about it for a few minutes. He could feel Fleur and Ephemara’s eyes on him as he thought through the problem. With a last sigh, he nodded his head and looked at them.
“Fine. I’ll give it a shot, but if this doesn’t work, we’re heading back down. Got it?”
Ephemara gave him a two-fingered salute and moved to get out of bed, But Shaggy stopped her.
“That’s a nope. You’re staying here and healing up. Maybe see about your new toy.” Shaggy said waving the injured woman back down.
Ephemara looked affronted, but Fleur chuckled. Ephemara glared at her bovine friend. “You go with him, Fleur. He’ll need someone to watch his ass.”
Fleur looked hesitant, so Shaggy shook his head. “I got this. You rest up and I’ll be back before dawn. Take care of her, Fleur.”
Shaggy head for the door as Ephemara sputtered behind him. He figured a nice solo run was just the thing he needed to take his mind off of Cog. He could still see the cackling young man in his mind and wondered what the hell the old coot was up to. As he passed the living room, he saw Fleur’s brother sitting on a large couch. He gave the man a wave as he headed out the door and back into the night.
He stood in the parking lot between the diner and the trailer and sighed loudly. This would not be easy. He took a deep breath and studied the various scent trails he saw. There were multiple trails of blue and yellow floating everywhere on the wind. He tried to focus on a few to see what he could glean from the smells, but all he got was a general sense of a humanoid. Which wasn’t very helpful.
He groaned as he spun in place. Finding the right person was going to take all night. But suddenly, a familiar smell on the wind caught his attention. Curious, he started to follow the yellow trail. Shaggy moved toward the trail and locked it in as best he could. The trail was flickering, which meant it was probably a respectful distance away. He checked the sky for drones and began walking toward the scent.
He kept an eye on his surroundings as he walked down the sidewalk. He had to dive into a few alleyways, as a drone would fly overhead occasionally. But they left him alone. He spotted a few cop cars every now and again, but he hid his face as best he could and continued walking toward the scent. Eventually, he found the owner and he couldn’t help but grin.
The pink Super from this morning was leaning up against a building and having a heated conversation with his wrist. He was still wearing his pink full body armor and his bike was nearby. But he had removed his helmet. The Super’s bike still had a dent on the front from where Shaggy had slapped it. Shaggy maneuvered his way to the side of the street the Pink Super was on and ducked into another alleyway.
Once inside the alleyway, Shaggy summoned his claws and jumped to the fire escape of a nearby building. The loud metal clanging made him stop for a few seconds, but the Pink Super was obviously enthralled with his call. Shaggy made his way up to the top of the building and leapt over to the next building. He continued hopping between buildings until he jumped down to the two-story building the Pink Super was leaning against. As he glanced over the side, he heard part of the Super’s conversation.
“No, Joel. I don’t care if it was my turn on the rotation. I shouldn’t have to do patrol today. A giant wolf slapped me off my bike today! Doesn’t that entitle me to some kind of mental health day or something? It was terrifying.”
After a few seconds where Joel on the other end of the communicator responded, the pink Super continued complaining. “No. I know Sara broke her leg, and the others aren’t in any better shape. But, come on! There are no other Supes in the area that can take this beat?”
Another rather lengthy reply followed and Shaggy strained his ears to hear, but nothing came of it. Soon the Pink Super was speaking again.
“What do you mean, there’s an ant problem? What kind of ant problem would draw away so many Supes from downtown Austin?”
Another quick reply.
“Okay. Now I know you’re lying to me.”
An indignant squawk.
“Fine, Joel. Whatever. Don’t tell me. But the others owe me for doing this damn patrol by myself.”
The Super continued to complain as Shaggy stood on the edge of the roof just above him. Shaggy was sure this was a horrible idea, but he figured the armor would save the Super’s life and his healing was topped up after dying. So with a deep breath and careful aim, Shaggy stepped off the side of the roof and plummeted straight down on top of the Pink Super.
A loud grunt sounded from both of them as they collided, and Shaggy felt both of his knees shatter. As he grit his teeth against the pain, Shaggy watched the Super, who lay on the ground unmoving. As his legs healed, Shaggy drug himself over toward the Super’s wrist computer. A tinny voice was shouting from the device as the Pink Super lay there unmoving.
“Andy?! Andy, respond! Andy, if you’re joking around, I am going to be pissed!”
Shaggy quickly started typing on the wrist communicator screen. A mini-computer terminal popped up with a list of options. Shaggy quickly navigated through the menus as Andy’s handler became increasingly concerned. Shaggy felt his knee pop back into place as he looked over the Under Review files of the HLO website. He almost chuckled at the fact that Andy hadn’t logged out of his HLO account. The Super’s credentials made searching the site a breeze.
Shaggy found the file he was looking for after a few minutes of frantic searching. Apparently a police officer had indeed filed a request for aid with the HLO but, after three reviews, they were still unsure if they wanted to get involved with police business. The file was set to go under review again this month. Shaggy grit his teeth at where the review was supposed to happen. The DA's office in downtown Austin.
He memorized the proper identification procedures as best he could, but a disturbing robotic voice emitted from the communicator.
“Unauthorized access suspected. This unit will fry itself in the next five seconds. 1...2...3…” Said a computerized voice.
Shaggy quickly dropped the communicator as white and blue electricity played along its screen. Andy jolted as the device sent an unknown amount of voltage through his body. Shaggy grimaced and looked back down at the wrist communicator. The screen was now blank and smoke was slowly raising from its white surface. Shaggy thought about it for a few seconds before he picked up the dead device and took it off Andy’s wrist. He didn’t know if it would come in handy, but it couldn’t hurt.
A siren wailed in the distance and Shaggy stood, popping both of his knees in the process. He took off like a shot back toward the diner, weaving into and out of alleyways. He kept his face down and his ears up. Listening for any signs of drones. But the night was overall pretty quiet. After running a few blocks, Shaggy started to walk again. The sirens were in the distance and overall; the night had been fairly successful.
“I sort of feel bad for Andy, though.” Shaggy grinned as he tossed the HLO branded communicator up and down in his hand.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad night’s work. The diner’s neon sign came into view as he walked down the sidewalk. He wanted to get the information he had memorized written down as soon as possible. Shaggy hoped Fleur had something to write on, and maybe he could convince her to get the cooks at Vill’ N’s to make him something. He had a feeling it was going to be a long night of planning.