“So a werewolf’s metabolism sucks.” Shaggy said as he set his third beer down and looked at his friends sitting next to him.

They had been in the arena for almost an hour, but all the fights so far had been between the small time gangs or just a few random fighters. Shaggy, Slink and Ren had all been eating and drinking the various arena food from the stalls in the second ring of the arena. But halfway through his second beer, Shaggy realized he wasn’t feeling the usual buzz games gave players who had been drinking alcohol.

“At least you can taste it.” Vlad groused from his seat next to Shaggy.

The vampire had also tried to drink. But as a vampire, he couldn’t even put the stuff in his mouth. Apparently, it looked and smelled like trash to his in-game senses. He had to spit the beer out all over the row in front of them, almost causing a fight, but the group of aliens in front of them took one look at Ren and kept their mouths shut. Of course, nothing was as funny to their group as what happened when Slink tried to drink a beer.

“This is such bullshit.” Slink said from his seat next to Ren. His arms were crossed, and he had a sulky look on his face.

“Watch your language, junior.” Shaggy chuckled as he guzzled down another beer.

The others nearby also chuckled as the boy seemed to slide further down in his chair. Slink had tried to drink some alcohol and was immediately stopped by the games system. After giving him a notification informing him of his own underage status, the game’s AI transformed the beer in his hand into a soda. Shaggy remembered how the boy had stood up in his seat and started shouting into the air about how he was only three months away from being eighteen. The legal drinking age.

Ren, the only one of them to actually be enjoying a beer, smiled as he sipped slowly at his second beer and watched the two aliens in the arena fight. The two fighters were fighting over some dispute between two of the lower gangs. The arena could be used as a place to settle gang disputes and which ever major crime family was in charge of the arena would make sure that whoever won got what they wanted.

Of course, only the minor gangs in the owner’s territory could do it. But with the Phreaks coming to try to take the arena from the Rakgu Family several small gangs from their territory were trying to settle a few things. A few of the surrounding people had informed them it didn’t always work. Sometimes the crime syndicate in charge didn’t care enough to try to police the lower gangs. But ultimately, the arena was another way for everybody to save face.

The hot-blooded criminals who wanted a war could be placated or outright taken care of in the arena. While the more moderate members of the gangs could all make bets and maybe grow their power base a bit. It all sounded a little too much like politics to Shaggy. He wasn’t nearly drunk enough to deal with politics. Luckily, Vlad was eating all this information up.

The mutant vampire, after trying and spitting up several foods unsuccessfully, had engaged several individuals in conversation. He was talking up a storm with a bald turquoise alien with four antennae at the moment. Shaggy still couldn’t accurately tell who was a player and who was an NPC in-game. But if he had to guess, he would bet that the turquoise alien was probably an NPC. Villain players seemed to be a bit more dramatic about everything.

“This is soooooo boooooooring.” Slink whined. Flopping about in his seat like a petulant child.

Shaggy just shook his head as he heard Ren try to calm the kid down again. Shaggy was beginning to think Ren was a teacher or something. He seemed to be very good with kids or teens like Slink. The big rhino-man had already calmed the boy down several times already and Shaggy was still wondering when the big man was going to just call it quits and tell the little whiner to suck it up.

“Calm down, Slink. Why don’t your practice with your snakes again?”

Slink sighed. “They’re all tired and they kind of prefer to be inside me when they sleep.”

Shaggy nearly spit up his beer as he heard and saw several people turn in their seats to look at Slink. The boy seemed oblivious to how his words could have been taken. To his credit, Ren kept a straight face and just nodded understandingly.

“Okay then. Why not just talk to them?”

“They’re Alien Serpents. I don’t think they talk.” Slink huffed.

Ren finished his own beer and looked for a trash can before he set it down between his legs and turned back to Slink. “So ‘you think’ they don’t speak, but you don’t know. Why don’t you try.”

Slink seemed to think about it before a loud voice permeated throughout the arena. Shaggy turned to look back at the arena floor to find a flamboyantly dressed individual with a wand in their hand. Their clothes were a weird mix of circus ringleader and arena gladiator. Their pinstripe pants were a dull red and yellow color. On their chest they wore what looked like leather armor splattered with red paint. They even had curled, pointed shoes and a large red top hat. As they waved their wand about and spoke, their voice filled the arena.

“Ladies, Gentlemen, and all the rest of you scumbags! Are you ready for a SHOW!”

The arena burst into deafening noise as people shouted, applauded, and stamped their feet. The giant metal monstrosity that was the arena was literally shaking as thousands of people roared in acknowledgment. Shaggy gazed around, finding several people watching the crowd the same as him. They didn’t seem to be looking for anyone, though. It was more like they were keeping the peace, or at least making sure people didn’t get too rowdy.

“Wow. Criminal peacekeepers. Learn something new every day.” Shaggy thought as he turned his gaze back to the ringmaster.

“Well, you bunch of rambunctious reprobates! We have quite the treat for you all tonight! We have a three-way fight!”

There was a questioning murmur rumbling through the crowd as everyone turned to each and started whispering. Shaggy gazed around as well, shooting a questioning look at Vlad. The vampire shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. Ren and Slink also looked confused. It was supposed to be a fight between the Rak syndicate and the Phreaks.

“Calm down, ya bunch of disgusting delinquents! First, in the southern corner. We have our illustrious, benevolent benefactors! The Rakgu Family!”

Cheers went up through the crowd as about fifteen people stepped up from the north side of the arena. They seemingly appeared from out of the ground, but upon further inspection, Shaggy could see a small entryway leading down below the arena. There were seven individuals of both genders and both human and alien. But they were all dressed in dirty and torn pinstripe suits. All of them stood stoically on their side of the arena as the cheering crowd died down.

“Next in our north corner! We have our challengers! The group of disgusting runaway experiments who apparently don’t know any better! One ass-kicking a month wasn’t enough for…. The Phreaks!”

Shaggy’s ears were again assailed by the loud clamor of people shouting, cheering and jeering at the new group of people climbing up from the southern entrance built into the ground of the arena. Shaggy even saw a few people throw bottles at the group of Phreaks. There appeared to be about twelve of them, and each one of them appeared to be a humanoid, except they all had animal or insect characteristics. Some had animal ears while others had arms or legs that look like they had been grafted onto them from an animal.

Whatever had been done to them seemed to have been done shoddily and with little oversight. But every one of them stood proud and ignored the crowd as they stared across at their opponents. The ringmaster let the jeering and cheering go on for a bit longer before they shouted everyone down again.

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“That’s not all ya bunch of loquacious losers…”

There was a brief silence as everyone stared at the ringmaster. The ringmaster coughed and faltered for a second under everyone’s curious gaze. A loud voice shouted from behind Shaggy.

“What’s that mean?”

The ringmaster coughed again as he continued, as though he hadn’t stopped dead during his speech.

“No! We have a group of fools so stupid, so vile, so inept, that they thought they could steal from the Big Four! That’s right, folks! Tonight we have a treat rarely seen in the arena. Courtesy of Under-Town’s own brand of filthy do-gooders, the UGB. We have for you tonight…. some rotten criminals!”

Shaggy had thought the crowd had been loud before, but now the crowd absolutely lost it. He looked around at the various people in the crowd. Along with himself and his friend, he saw several other people looking confused. He was willing to bet the other confused people were also players. Shaggy was trying to remember the faces of other players as Ren roughly gripped his shoulder and spun him back toward the arena. He was about to shout a question at his friend when he saw what Ren wanted him to see.

The small group of criminals were being thrown into the arena from the stands by a bunch of guys in police tactical gear wielding what looked like stun batons. Among the group was a Perinadon that looked oddly familiar to Shaggy. He spun to look at Vlad and Ren. Vlad just shrugged his shoulders, unsure, while Ren nodded his head with absolute certainty. Slink was looking between them all before he got an incredulous look upon his face.

“There’s no way!” He shouted over the still cheering crowd.

Ren just looked at them all as he slowly nodded his head. “It is. That’s fucking Tinsel!”

Vlad looked unconvinced as he stared at the group of ‘criminals’ still being thrown into the arena. “How can you be sure, Ren?”

“Yeah, dude. No offense, but you all look kind of similar.” Slink shouted.

Shaggy just stared at the group as they all collected themselves on the arena floor. They all looked beaten and ragged. They were all wearing tattered clothes. Whatever they had been through, none of them looked good. Ren spoke up over the cheering that was finally dying down.

“Trust me. I don’t know how I know. I think the game is telling me that the Perinadon is someone I know. It’s probably because I am also a Perinadon. Like I can tell other Perinadons apart because I am one.”

Shaggy gave a half nod in acknowledgment as he turned back to the conversation. “Not the weirdest thing a full-immersion game will do.”

Vlad seemed to think about it for a bit before he agreed. “Okay. Sure. It’s Tinsel. But what can we do about it? Do we really wanna piss off two or three of the biggest gangs in Under-Town for an NPC? Not to mention ruin everyone’s fun? This crowd looks like it’ll rip us apart.”

Ren looked ready to argue, but a voice from the row of seats ahead of them spoke up. “Ha! Everyone out here would love it if you ran out there and caused a little trouble.”

The speaker was a purple-colored alien that had two large pearl-white horns sticking up from his head. Another similar looking alien next to him was nodding along.

“Yeah, if one of thems is in your guys’ crew, you can tell one of them UGB grunts and they’ll toss ya in too.”

Shaggy went to look between Ren and Vlad. But Ren was already up and moving toward one guard that was patrolling the walkways. Vlad looked annoyed, and Shaggy could only let a bark of laughter as Ren got closer to the guard. He moved to join Ren, waving at Vlad to follow. The vampire started complaining under his breath, but he followed along.

“Wait for me!” Slink shouted, standing up.

But Shaggy put a hand on his shoulder and kept the young Alien seated. “Nope. You need to find us an exit. Use those snakes of yours and find us an escape route in case we have to make a run for it.”

Slink looked like he wanted to argue, but he must have thought better of it cause he got up and made to walk out of the stands. Shaggy sighed as he shuffled his way past the other people in his row and started walking toward Ren and Vlad, who were in a conversation with the guard.

“All weapons must be turned in before we allow you to help your criminal friend.” The guard said as he took in Shaggy’s appearance.

All three of them patted their pant legs and raised their hands, showing that they didn’t have any weapons. The guard looked annoyed, but he continued with his speech and as he glared at each of them. Shaggy met the human’s gaze and just stared back until he shifted his glare toward Vlad, which didn’t go any better for him.

“We caught your Perinadon friend with several weapons that obviously broke the illegal weapons provision of the Law of Under-Town.”

Ren snorted angrily. “There are laws in Under-Town?”

The guard looked annoyed. “Of course there are. Handed down from the governor of Under-Town themselves. Now! Do you know where your friend got these weapons?”

All three of them just stared dead-eyed at the guard until he clicked his teeth in annoyance and waved them down toward the rim of the arena where the seats met the pit.

“Just head on down and I’ll let the others know you are going to defend your fellow gang member.”

Shaggy almost wanted to correct the guard. Tinsel wasn’t really a part of their gang. He was just an NPC they had met while working a job for another player. But it really wasn’t worth it, and Ren was already making his way down toward the arena pit. Vlad and Shaggy shared a look before they both just sighed and followed their large friend.

A few in the crowd seemed to cotton on to what was happening as the three of them got to the rim of the pit. Several people were cheering and jeering again, and Shaggy no longer heard the ringmaster hyping up the fight. As Ren went over the edge into the arena proper, Shaggy looked around at all the onlookers. His eyes caught movement, and he spun to see Vlad raising a fist in the air and waving back at the crowd.

“What the hell, dude?”

Vlad continued to wave back at the crowd as he said. “Well, we wanted to get our names out there. Can you think of a better way other than going toe-to-toe with two of the biggest gangs down here?”

“I’d prefer it if we didn’t have to risk almost certain death.” Shaggy said as he went over the side and into the arena pit.

“Well, it’s not like they are going to announce our names, and we get to show the other unaffiliated NPCs and players down here that we’ll stick by them in a fight. It’s a good look for us either way.” Said Vlad as he used his vampire speed to run down to the pit floor.

The dirt kicked up as Vlad stopped next to Shaggy. “Yeah, I’m sure showing others how well we can take an ass kicking will do great things for our rep.”

The two of them crossed the arena toward Tinsel, Ren walking slowly ahead of them. The ringmaster in the middle was standing stock still as Ren approached. Not in fear, it looked like the fancily dressed individual wasn’t even aware of the large Perinadon’s approach. It looked to Shaggy like the ringmaster was receiving orders through some means.

Sure enough, just as Ren passed them in the middle of the arena and continued walking toward the other side, the ringmaster burst into motion again. Shouting out to the crowd.

“It looks like we have another wrinkle on our tapestry of pain tonight, maggots! One of our dastardly criminals was apparently part of a crew! And they are here tonight to help defend their poor lost member!”

The ringmaster skipped around as Shaggy and Vlad grew closer on their own journey across the arena. Shaggy did his best to ignore the flamboyant ringmaster and make his way across as stoically as possible, but Vlad was still next to him, waving and throwing the occasional finger at the crowd. The ringmaster skipped closer to them and Shaggy saw they were clearly an Alien of some kind.

They shoved their wand at Shaggy as they kept pace with both him and Vlad. “So, anything you want to say to your poor wayward member?”

“No.” Shaggy said shortly, but Vlad quickly rushed over and spoke into the wand.

“I vould just like to say that Ve are terribly ashamed that they got caught. Any member of our crew should know better. But then again, they veren’t holding anything important to the crew, so this is not a big deal.”

Vlad was hamming up his role-playing vampire accent as the ringmaster listened in with what Shaggy was sure was false interest. After Vlad finished, the ringmaster chuckled into their wand before asking in mock curiosity.

“What? Really? Weren’t they caught with some nasty bits of weaponry?”

Vlad grinned, showing off his enlarged fangs. “Oh please, we are not concerned about such petty trinkets.”

Shaggy turned around as they got closer to the far side of the arena where the so-called ‘criminals’ were gathered. “Easy Vlad.”

Vlad gave Shaggy a look before giving a subtle nod, then going back to his vampire accent. “Oh you be careful, Volfy! We Vampires fear nothing!”

The ringmaster looked between them both before they got the far off look in their eyes again. The conversation must have been quicker this time, as they almost immediately jumped back into character. They ran around Vlad and Shaggy as they finally joined Ren, who was talking quietly with Tinsel.

“Ladies and Gentlemen! It looks like the festivities are finally ready to get underway! Make sure your bets are placed with a bona fide Rakgu bookie! Also, remember that loans are available in the offices by the concession stands!”

The ringmaster made it back to the center of the ring, where a large metal platform was rising slowly into the air. They jumped aboard and continued hyping up the crowd.

“Remember folks! This one is for all the marbles! If the Phreaks succeed, they will be awarded ownership of this fine establishment! But if the mighty Rak family defends themselves, then it’s six more weeks of winter for the Under-Town arena!”

The metal platform they were standing on finally stopped raising up. The ringmaster laid down and looked over the edge at Shaggy and the rest of the criminals. Their voice grew sarcastically sad as they added.

“And if our poor petty criminals manage to not only survive, but thrive and then win?! Then they shall all be awarded full pardons from the one and only Underground Government Body! Shall we all wish them luck?!”

A chorus of cheers and boos echoed in Shaggy’s ears as he turned to look at the criminals standing with him. Aside from Vlad and Ren, they all looked beaten and worn down. Several of them sported large bruises, and some were even limping. Vlad was standing near Ren, swapping his gazes between the Phreaks and the Rak gang members. Shaggy moved closer toward his friends as the cheering grew and grew.

“So, do we have a plan, or is this going to be a giant melee?”

“I don’t think this is going to be a melee. More of a massacre.” Vlad said, as he continued to watch both groups at either end of the arena.

Ren and Tinsel finished their quiet conversation and Shaggy gave them a nod as he asked. “What makes you say that?”

Vlad turned to look at Shaggy, exasperation in his eyes. “They are both looking at us like we just kicked their pets.”

Shaggy quickly turned to observe the different groups and, sure enough, they were both staring daggers at their group. “What the Hell is that about?!”

Vlad shrugged, and Ren also shook his head. Shaggy saw several Rak gang members summon balls of fire, water, and ice, while others simply pulled pipes and large machetes out of their coats. Across from them, the Phreaks brandished their claws and several of them flew up into the air with an insect like wings. Shaggy sighed and tried to find the zen-like state that helped him transform his hands.

As he felt the twinge of pain in his hands, Shaggy turned to his friends and grinned.

“Well, nothing to do but show them who they are fucking with!”