Shaggy ducked an incoming punch from a random teenager and slammed a fist into the kid’s abdomen. The poor boy double over and started coughing. Shaggy grabbed the guy by his hair and put the point of his knee into the kid’s nose. The boy went limp and Shaggy glanced around. Blobby was flailing their tentacles around, whipping anyone who could get close, while the other members of their war party beat into the hapless bunch of thugs.
Shaggy had taken ten Lackeys with him. They still didn’t have a communal pool to pull from yet. So he and the other players each grabbed the Lackeys that had some level of Loyalty with them. Shaggy had nine others besides Blobby, Ephemara and Tinsel on his Lackey list now. Each with a Loyalty rating of forty or above. Apparently, beating the shit out of people was a good way to prove your strength to the NPC Lackeys.
Tinsel had opted to head out with Ren, which was understandable. But Blobby said they wanted to get out and bust some heads. So Shaggy brought them along with the new bloods. Less than half of this new group were full human, and they were all low level, according to his Lackey tab, but they were holding their own with the small-time hoods in the north.
Shaggy had to duck as another one of the teenage wannabes went flying over his head. Turning, he saw the large lizard man, Cekrass. Shaggy had mistaken the guy for a member of the Brute clan, something the large reptile-man hated. Apparently, he was a part of a different Alien race entirely. Shaggy shouted at the nearly seven-foot tall, slim reptile alien.
“Whoa! Cekrass, watch where you’re throwing people!”
Cekrass rubbed his hands together and his long tail jolted around nervously. “Aww, I’m sorry boss. I didn’t think he would go that far.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t be standing there like a bump on a log, boss-man!” Shouted a human man nearby.
The well-built man jumped and aimed a headbutt at an oncoming thug. The flying headbutt caught the thug full in the face and he went down in a heap. Shaggy watched as Yuki started kicking his opponent over and over. Shaggy sighed and let the Lackeys do most of the fighting. These smaller gangs weren’t even a challenge for him or his Lackeys. They had even stopped using their guns, as most of the gangs would run off if they saw one. Except those with more durable Aliens.
“Hey, Yuki! He’s done. Move on.” Shouted a woman’s voice.
The older woman, Rita, hip-tossed another thug and punched them in the temple. The poor thug passed out and Rita laid her opponent down on the dirt street. Shaggy ignored Yuki’s response as he moved through the fight. The pair had been arguing since they left the Bar. Yuki was clearly a hot-head young dude, whereas Rita was tough, but somehow matronly older woman.
Several young gang members tried to stop him as he moved through the crowd. But what his crew didn’t handle, a single punch from him did the job. Shaggy sighed and thought about how he should have gone topside with Vlad. At least up there had been challenging. Shaggy snapped another jab into some poor kid’s face and moved over to a squat metal building with a yellow and white gang symbol on it.
The gangsters from this neighborhood had assured him it was supposed to be some kind of Alien language meaning ‘Elite Warriors.’ But for all Shaggy knew, the yellow and white scribbles meant ‘free chicken on Tuesdays.’ Shaggy didn’t bother with the door and just shoved his transformed claws into the metal wall and started cutting. Nearby he saw his new Lackeys, Relsh and Vick, stopping a few thugs from assaulting him. He finished cutting a hole in the wall and gave them a wave of thanks.
The Lackeys were pretty good at dealing with rabble, that was for sure. But they were in no way comparable to the Players. But Shaggy thought that the Level in the Lackey tab looked promising. Who knew? Maybe Lackeys could get super powerful if they leveled enough. Shaggy shook off his thoughts as a loud bang resounded in the metal building he walked into. He felt something pelt against his skin and smelt gunpowder in the air.
Someone had tried to shoot him. Shaggy glanced around and found a skinny kid with a pistol crouching behind a makeshift wooden bar. The kid wasn’t wearing a shirt, and he was clearly terrified that his pistol wasn’t working. The shaky kid fired a few more shots at Shaggy, most of which went wide, but a few pelted Shaggy in the chest and legs. Tearing up his new clothes... again.
Shaggy growled and launched himself at the kid. The gang leader tried to back away, but tripped and fell onto his ass. Shaggy dismissed his claws and gripped the thug by his hair, and batted the gun away. The shots had caused a lot of shouts to come from outside and Shaggy was hoping none of his guys had gotten shot. Shaggy casually smashed the gang leader through the bar and picked up the gun. The gang leader tried to crawl away, but Shaggy stomped a foot down on the guy’s leg.
“Hey now. Don’t go leaving so soon. I gotta talk to you.”
The shirtless gang leader tried to turn over as Shaggy was standing on his leg. Shaggy kept the pressure on as the kid punched Shaggy’s leg to get free. Seeing that turning over wasn’t working, the gang leader reached into a pant pocket and pulled out a slim knife. Shaggy sighed again and slapped the loser in the face as the kid tried to stab him. The blow sent the kid reeling back onto the floor, where he held his cheek and screamed in pain.
“Oh, shut up! I didn’t even hit you that hard. Now wise up and answer my question. Where do you damn kids get your weapons? These aren’t that impressive. But you’re the third small-time outfit we’ve hit that’s had a few of them.”
The gang leader screamed in pain for a short while more. Until Shaggy wrenched the boy up and threw him into a nearby rat-infested couch. The guy continued to whimper, so Shaggy threatened him a few more times. It wasn’t until Shaggy grew his claws and thrust them under the boy’s chin that the thug found his voice.
“Geez man. You can find guns everywhere. Someone on Main is always selling them. They might be shit, but we got needs. Y’know?” The kid said around his whimpering.
Shaggy grumbled and looked over at the small pistol. It looked pretty old and beat up once he studied it closer. He grunted, annoyed, and tucked the gun into the waistband of his pants. Only to quickly take it out again. That was not comfortable at all. He looked around the squalid little hut and tried to see if there was anything of value. But it was slim pickings.
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It looked like all this gang’s money was going into drugs and alcohol. Also shitty guns. Shaggy gave the skinny gang leader a once over. The young man had junkie written all over him. He was sickly thin and his hair looked like it was falling out. Shaggy gave a grunt and stood. This entire operation was beginning to seem like a bust. He lifted the gang leader’s gun up and fired a shot right into the leader’s head. The junkie gang leader slumped over dead on the couch as Shaggy walked back out of the hole in the wall and took in the view.
His crew had been victorious. Most of them looked to be nursing some pretty big bruises, but they were overall fine. Shaggy tried to see if anyone was shot, but his newest headache rushed into his face, excitedly.
“Boss, boss, boss! We got over four hundred credits so far with this lot!” Tom said happily.
Shaggy pushed the human man’s head out of his way and continued to look around. Once he was sure none of his were shot, he glanced over at Tom. The Lackey was shuffling from foot to foot, holding a credit reader they had found. Someone had put the guy in charge of handling the loot in order to shut him up. It hadn’t worked.
Shaggy pointed a finger inside the hut. “Leader’s in there with a bullet in his skull. See what he has on him.”
Tom nodded frantically and rushed into the building. Nearby, Gorje and Xelieran were turning over unconscious or dead bodies and going through their pockets. Yuki and Rita were still arguing while Blobby was... eating a few of the corpses. Shaggy gave another grunt as he threw the small pistol to a pale Alien woman named Sybil.
“Rest up! Once Tom has an account of everything here, we’ll move on again.”
There was a mix of cheers and grumbles as everyone set about taking the valuables from their latest victory. Shaggy knew that every credit helped, but these small-timers really weren’t worth the effort some time. He rattled the credit chips in his pocket and thought about Petra’s projections for the bar. They needed thousands and his crew were barely clearing a hundred per gang hideout. Shaggy moved through the bodies lying in the street and sat next to Blobby, who was currently digesting his meal.
“~Boss~”
“Blobby.” Shaggy said as he sat back against a metal hut.
Blobby’s amorphous form burbled. “~You doing alright, boss?~”
“Yeah. I’m good, Blob. But these small-timers aren’t going to make us the money we need.”
“~Of course not. This is the middle of nowhere. Even for Under-Town. It’s just the dregs up here. But at least it’s good exercise.~”
Shaggy nodded as he idly watched an Alien man dissolve in Blobby’s blue form. He turned away as the skin started to melt away.
“I get that, but I am so bored.”
Yuki grunted from nearby. “Hmph! Well, you could help a little more. You were just wandering around during that whole fight.”
Shaggy glanced at the stocky young man. Some of the Lackeys had surrounded Tom and were getting the Credit chips evaluated. But Yuki was still slowly going through pockets. Shaggy smirked and answered the angry bastard.
“Should I wipe your ass for you too? I can take most of these small-timers myself. It’s you lot that need the training. No better way to learn than to get your head knocked in a few times.”
Yuki sneered at him, but said nothing. Nearby, some of the other Lackeys chuckled at Shaggy’s words. Shaggy was sure he had lost some loyalty to that little remark, but the bright white letters at the bottom of his vision proved him wrong.
Murayama Yuki – Loyalty Up
Shaggy snorted in amazement and brought up his Lackey tab. He as he looked at the long list of people that were currently his Lackeys. He was pretty sure their personalities played a part in raising their Loyalty. But he didn’t have a reliable metric to farm it. So far, being himself had proven pretty effective. But he was sure some forum-monkey had crunched the numbers in the most efficient way to raise Loyalty. Cause that made games fun, efficiency.
Tin’Cel Tan’To-Nimea
* Perinadon – Level 4
* Personality – Calm
* Loyalty – 50/100
Ephemara Naluc
* Stafintom – Level 5
* Personality – Chaotic
* Loyalty – 78/100
Blubblliynnblobenerbluberski (Blobby)
* Mucunoid – Level 3
* Personality – Ambivalent
* Loyalty – 74/100
Tom Fash
* Human – Level 2
* Personality – Jabberjaw
* Loyalty – 64/100
Sybil D
* Deighen – Level 2
* Personality – Stoic
* Loyalty – 55/100
Gorje Tiv
* Slicavian – Level 2
* Personality – Calm
* Loyalty – 47/100
Xelieran Dov'ik
* Dracavic – Level 2
* Personality – Chaotic
* Loyalty – 60/100
Cekrass Sslrisses
* Varanoid – Level 2
* Personality – Dimwitted
* Loyalty – 70/100
Vick Nash
* Human – Level 2
* Personality – Combative
* Loyalty – 60/100
Rita Crawford
* Human – Level 2
* Personality – Motherly
* Loyalty – 43/100
Relsh Poiter
* Ashikian – Level 2
* Personality Fastidious
* Loyalty – 42/100
Murayama Yuki
* Human – Level 3
* Personality – Chaotic
* Loyalty – 53/100
Tinsel’s loyalty was getting concerning, but Shaggy chalked it up to him not hanging out with the big rhino-man. Meanwhile, Ephemara’s Loyalty had gone up while Blobby’s had gone down. If only a little. So hanging out with your Lackeys was essential to building Loyalty. But they also had to like you too. Yuki finished searching through pockets and through the credits chits to Tom.
“Okay, short-stack. Why don’t you take on the next group of small-timers and show us lowly grunts how it’s done?”
Shaggy looked at the top of Yuki’s head and gauged the dude’s height. If anything, he was slightly taller than the broad-shouldered young man. Before Shaggy could answer, the Alien, Gorje, spoke up.
“Hey, didn’t you see him wolf out back at the bar? I’m pretty sure he could clean house with a few of the gangs out here.”
“Yeah.” Agreed Vick. “He bit that one guy’s head off. Best not go around giving him shit, little Yuki.”
“Who the fuck are you calling little?”
Vick snorted as Yuki got in his face angrily. The taller man stared down at Yuki and looked ready to say something, but Shaggy interrupted.
“There’s an idea. I’ll do the next gang myself. After that, you lot can do the next one. Then so on and so forth until we get bored.”
Shaggy glanced around at the others, who all looked pensive at his idea. He saw Rita chewing her nails worriedly and even Sybil looked put off by his words. Shaggy raised an eyebrow at everyone as they stood in the dirt and body filled street. Soon the Alien, Xelieran, coughed and said.
“Uh boss. Taking out a small gang without you and without guns. Is probably a step too far. Just saying boss.”
Shaggy stared at the scaly Alien for a few seconds before he nodded. “Oh! No, you guys can take the next gang however you want. Use those pistols of yours or whatever. But if anything goes too bad, I’ll also step in. But if I have to step in, then that means you all have to go through Dave’s training when we get back.”
Several Lackeys nodded in agreement. While others, including Yuki, didn’t seem to like the idea of taking the excitable player’s lessons. They all discussed it between themselves for a few minutes before Blobby brought up an issue.
“But what do we get if we have to step in to save you?”
Shaggy snorted and looked at the eager faces of his Lackeys. “I’ll give you my share of the loot if it comes to that. But we all know it won’t.”
Rita, Vick, Gorje and Tom cheered, with Cekrass joining in a few seconds later. The others still looked a little worried, but some of them nodded in agreement. Yuki was staring at Shaggy, but he ignored the angry little man. This was a decent way of shaking things up. With virtually no downside for him. So far, nothing in the north section of Under-Town could challenge him. At least he hadn’t met anything yet.