Shaggy and his pack met two more groups of Quinica. Neither of which was forcing the alien parasite into people’s faces, though. So Shaggy and his group only had the one jar as they headed back to the bar. His pack mates got some decent levels from the fights, though. Shaggy could see the improvements in the way the NPCs fought and dealt with the Quinica. Rita and Cekrass were level six, while Vick, Sybil, and Tom had jumped to level five.
They only had small Loyalty increases, though. Cekrass was the closest of his pack, but was having trouble making it all the way to a hundred. Meanwhile, the others were all climbing steadily up. Shaggy couldn’t wait to find out what a Henchman Pack member would be like. Maybe the typical pack boost would go up to ten percent instead of five.
Shaggy spun past an opening door as he ran down the street. He figured it must be close to evening with all the people coming and going from their homes. Several people gave his pack sideways looks as they ran through the dirt streets. With their torn up clothes and bruised faces, they probably made for a weird picture. Shaggy had been clawed up a few times in their subsequent fights. With Vick monitoring their Alien-In-A-Jar, he wasn’t firing as much as normal. So their over-watch was reduced to Sybil. Although Tom had some fun with his new claws. Shaggy wasn’t sure what they were made of, but the things were sturdy enough to rip through the Quinica.
Shaggy slid to a stop as he approached the empty square around their bar. Off in the distance, he could hear the murmur of people, and they were even a good number heading in the same direction as them. He could feel his pack’s shock as they walked out of the street and into the empty dirt square in front of the Viper’s Den. He was probably doing a poor job of hiding his own surprise.
The square in front of the bar was sparsely packed with various humans and aliens. Shaggy was sure he recognized a few faces here and there. But mostly, they all appeared to be civilians trying to get into the bar. The Viper’s Den was pretty busy when they had left, but now the bar and the square seemed full of people. Shaggy could make out table and chairs in the dirt just in front of the bar.
He shared a look with the others before he barreled forward through the crowd. At the edges of the square, Shaggy could make out a few armed guards. Obviously, someone had set up security for the entire square. Shaggy wondered how many people were here for the bar versus how many were here for the protection the stationed guards brought. Tom rushed over to a guy standing at the entrance to an alley leading out of the square. He struck up a conversation as Shaggy pushed on.
The smell of food hit his nostrils as he stepped closer to the makeshift patio dining area. Randomly dressed wait staff took customers’ orders while wearing surly looks on their faces. Shaggy grimaced as he thought they needed to find actual people to wait on tables. The thugs they were using now probably would not bring in a lot of customer. He could see a few more mildly behaved servers moving between tables, but they were going to have to hire more.
Shaggy was pushing his way to the front door as people angrily shouted at him. Apparently, line cutting was a cardinal sin. He grit his teeth and prepared to push his way through the door guards, when a voice spoke up from near one of the outside tables.
“Uhh, Boss? The employee entrance was just finished,” the voice said.
Shaggy spun and looked at the server in biker leathers. The man didn’t seem familiar, but he was looking at Shaggy with an odd mix of fear and awe. Shaggy liked the look, so he moved closer. Leaving the grumbling line of patrons at the front door. The leather-clad thug stood straighter as Shaggy drew close.
“Employee entrance?”
“Ye... yes, boss. Boss Ren had it put in. The evening rush can get a little crazy. As you can see. So he thought it best for us… employees to have our own entrance.”
Shaggy smiled and nodded at the Lackey. He turned to the others, who were all raising the eyebrows at the surrounding crowd. Vick was holding the alien jar close to his body and doing his best to keep it out of sight.
“I guess we are using the employee entrance then.” Shaggy said, looking around.
The thug noticed Shaggy’s dilemma and pointed a finger toward the eastern side of the building. Shaggy nodded in thanks and started that way. He and his pack had to push past a few more people and circle around some of the outside diners. But it gave Shaggy a look at the food their bar was serving. Burgers and fries seemed to be the standard. Apparently, with Ephemara’s Minotaur friends here, they were now a bar and grill.
“Boss…?” Rita said from behind him.
“Hehe. Inside first and then y’all can eat.” Shaggy chuckled.
His pack grumbled as they moved around the side of the building. Shaggy could understand. After hours of fighting space-vamps, he was not only hungry but his Regeneration could use a top up. His new dermal armor had curtailed a lot of the damage the vamps were doing to him, but his healing had helped here and there.
Shaggy found a small door with two guards. Both of whom were armed with pistols, which they held loosely, in their hands. Shaggy thought he was going to have to put someone through a door again. But one thug leaned over to the other and then they both moved out of the way.
“Boss,” One of them said, opening and holding the door.
Shaggy smiled wolfishly and nodded at the pair of guards. Behind him, he could hear Sybil snickering. But he ignored it and descended the stairs into the basement of the bar. The sounds of people talking and various feet moving around on a stone floor echoed in Shaggy’s ears as he came up to a second door at the bottom of the stairs. Shaggy opened it and walked into the basement.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The previously sparse room was now full of various members of their crew. Lackeys moved around carrying various bits of furniture and tables. Shaggy was sure he saw some guy carrying a slim Holo-TV toward the back wall. He gave Rita and the others a wave, telling them to disperse. He made sure to take the Quinica symbiote from Vick. They got the message as they fell into the small crowd of people going in and out of the various basement rooms. Shaggy moved over to where the War Table was. A few thugs were around the rectangular table and Shaggy heard Slink voice as he walked up.
“…take whoever you can get a hold of and check it out. Okay?” Slink was saying.
“Gotcha, boss.” A random thug next to Shaggy said.
The thug turned and grabbed a couple of his friends before he rushed up the stairs toward the bar’s interior. Shaggy tried to say something to Slink, but the boy was already passing a note over to a new set of thugs. Shaggy could guess what was happening and decided to let the boy work. A pale hand caught his attention and Shaggy moved around the war table to where Vlad, Ren, and Dave were seated. The table looked brand new and Shaggy wondered where they were getting the money for all these amenities.
“Some of it is stolen.” Ren answered his unasked question. “One of the Lackey’s knew where a warehouse was topside and our resident quest giver gave the order.”
Dave and Vlad smiled as Shaggy scratched his head and sat at the table. Setting the jar down on the table.
“But what tunnel did they use? Did the Quinica let them through?”
Vlad nodded as he drink from his blood-filled wine glass. “Yep. Apparently being at odds with the faux-vamps doesn’t stop them from taking our money.”
“Or our trucks.” Dave added.
“Well, have to see how long that lasts, but for now they are content to rob us blind monetarily rather than go to war with us,” Ren explained.
“Also, you’ve seen the streets down here, Dave. Do you really want to navigate them in a truck? It’d be a pain in the ass,” Vlad said.
Shaggy glanced at everyone before he stared back at the jar on the table. It seemed odd that no one was mentioning it. But he let it go as his own curiosity was getting to him.
“So some lackeys went topside, stole a truck, stole some furniture and then ran it all the way back here? For what? Clout in the gang?”
“Also credits.” Dave answered. “Thanks to everyone’s… donations, we have a decent amount of credits.”
“Some of which the boy moves through that War Table of ours to set up missions for the Lackeys. He is slowly becoming the nexus for our entire operation. He is getting a shit load of Loyalty with them too.” Vlad said.
Shaggy looked around for a drink. He spotted a server moving around with a platter of mugs and waved him down. Grabbing a mug, Shaggy took a sip of beer and asked another question.
“What about the shitstorm going on topside? There were giant robots and Cog drones moving around up there.”
Ren nodded amiably. “There were… a couple days ago. You were out for close to two days. Remember, one day in the real world is three here. So the heroes mostly have things under control now. Except for the movement to remove HLO oversight. We have a few scouts up there, but getting information is slow going. Obviously.”
Shaggy sighed as he thought about the time it took to get his wife’s pod set-up. It had taken a while, but he hadn’t thought things would change so much. The basement was one thing, but topside seemed to be a changed place. Also, what about their ‘War’ with the Quinica? He had been all for rooting the bastards out, but if the space-vamps were content to run their tunnels and leave them alone, then why bother. He took a long pull from his mug and sighed again.
“Would you stop? You look like someone poisoned your cat.” Vlad chuckled. “Don’t worry, we are still at a somewhat aggressive stance with the Wannabe-vamps.”
“Yeah, they’ve hassled our guys out there a few times. But they are also good practice.” Dave nodded happily.
“Our guys have also...” Ren started, reaching forward and grabbing the Quinica jar. “...brought us a few of these. Apparently, the Quinica are trying to expand.”
“Forcibly.” Shaggy confirmed as he finished his mug of beer. “They were damn near shoving the things down people’s throats.”
“Why did you bring it back here? The Lackeys I can understand. They thought we’d reward them, but I have no use for these parasites.” Vlad said, looking at the jar disdainfully.
Shaggy shrugged. “Figured we could study or sell it. Who knows what we could figure out if we had the right skill-set?”
“Dude, none of us are like scientist… Right?”
“No, Dave. We’re not, but we could maybe make a profit off them somehow. For now, let’s just set them aside and discuss other business.” Ren said, placing the jar back on the table.
“Such as?” Shaggy asked.
“We thought we’d run as a group for a bit and go pay the space vamps a visit. They’ve been gracious enough to visit our territory. I thought we should visit theirs.” Vlad grinned, showing his blood-stained teeth.
Shaggy chuckled. “Man, they really got under your skin, didn’t they?”
Vlad bristled. “Hey, the best way to have fun in this game is to poke the bear. So I figured wed go poke this one. That they are a collection of fake wannabe space vampires doesn’t even factor into it.”
Shaggy shared a dubious look with the others before he flagged down the wandering server for another beer. Dave and Ren smiled awkwardly as Shaggy drank. Vlad seemed a little nonplussed that the others didn’t believe him. Shaggy was about to ask if the kid was coming when the boy’s voice echoed from over his shoulder.
“Okay, folks. That’s it for today. If you didn’t get an assignment, see Ephemara or try to join a group in progress. Remember, whatever you make, the crew gets it’s cut! ALWAYS! Got that!?”
There was a general murmur of acceptance from the crowd and soon Slink’s pale, skinny body occupied a chair at their table. Shaggy grinned as he moved his beer over to the exhausted-looking boy. Slink glanced down at the amber liquid and shot Shaggy the stink eye. But before Shaggy could grab his mug back, Slink dove forward and tilted the glass into his mouth. Shaggy sputtered unintelligible as his beer was transformed into water by the system’s age-restrictions. The others chuckled as Slink downed the whole mug before slamming it on the table.
“It’s what you get for being an ass,” Vlad muttered.
Shaggy just grumbled as he flagged down another server.
“So you’re, like, really a kid, huh?” Dave asked Slink as the boy wiped his mouth with a sleeve.
“Two months and twenty days until I’m eighteen.” Slink said.
Shaggy collected his third drink from the server and downed a few gulps before he asked. “So you coming with us or not?”
Slink looked at them, confused until Ren explained what they had planned. The pale kid shook his head at their plan.
“We should hold off. Intel says they’ve got an elder coming in a few days. I say we wait until that little visit is over.”
“Scared of the big bad vamp?” Shaggy asked, amused.
Slink nodded. “Yep. Ephemara tried to scout out their headquarters and couldn’t even get close. They could sense her somehow. That was just the leaders that were here now. I don’t want to think what an older one could do. I say we wait.”
Shaggy looked around the table. He could see the disappointment in everyone’s eyes. They had really wanted to take it to the Quinica. But the kid made a good point. If the space-vamps could sense someone with Ephemara’s abilities, it was probably best to get more information. Ren sat back in his extra-large chair, sighing.
“So what do we do? I kind of wanted to go out and cause some mayhem together.”
Slink nodded as he turned his head in thought. “Well, we still owe that favor to Frank.”
“WHO?” Everyone else at the table asked.
“The builder guy. We said we’d help him with a job after the bar was built. Well, the payments come due. He wants us to handle it.”
Shaggy scratched his head in thought before he remembered talking to the rotund builder. Vlad seemed to remember too as they both glanced back at Slink.
“That’s topside.” Shaggy groaned.
“Yep.”
Dave smiled and drummed the table. “Soooooo, what did y’all promise the dude?”
Vlad sighed as he finished his glass of blood. “He wanted us to ruin one of his competitors.”
“Sounds like a piece of cake.” Ren said, crossing his massive arms across his chest. “Even if it is topside.”
Slink smiled. “Actually, it could be fun. His competitor works as a subcontractor for one of the biggest construction companies in Austin.”
“Fuck it. I’m in. As long as we’re sure the bar will be okay?” Shaggy said.
“The bar will be fine. Unless some players come around, but I think the Lackeys can handle that.” Ren said.
“So who's this guy work for?” Vlad asked, standing.
Slink shrugged. “Some weird company called D.A.D.”