Shaggy felt and heard his target’s jaw pop free as his knuckles slammed into the side of the man’s face. He grimaced as the gangster went down in a screaming mass. He had really had to dial back his strength when throwing punches at people he assumed were normal. It had made this entire attack annoying for Shaggy. Trying not to kill someone was way harder than just letting loose and rending them open.

Nearby, Levy was firing black bolts of magic into a few shooters. George’s gang members had taken to backing off and shooting from defensible positions. Luis and Mari’s thugs were pretty useless until they started picking up dropped guns. Then they were useless and dangerous.

A bullet pinged the cement floor near Shaggy’s feet. He turned to see Marvin looking worried as the teen tried to hide a pistol behind his back. Shaggy grimaced and moved. He didn’t have time to reprimand the kid, as he and Rita had charged the line of thugs. Relying on his healing and her armor, they hit the line of shooters and battered them till they retreated further into the warehouse.

Little fights were still taking place throughout the warehouse. But the key problem was the mass of shooters. All the animals that had shown up in the initial charge were now dead or escaped. At least, Shaggy assumed.

Charging forward, Shaggy felt the familiar sting of bullets hit his dense body. They pinged to the floor as he found the shooter and pounced. Sybil’s blue energy shots pelted the line of shooters as Shaggy landed a clean hit on the alien that had fired on him. Thankfully, all it took to drop most of the shooters was one solid punch. With Levy and the others providing cover fire, Shaggy felt they would have this all wrapped up soon.

“Boss…” Rita said from nearby.

Her tone made Shaggy curse his thoughts that this was ending soon.

“Yeah?”

“They’re running downstairs.” She pointed her baton at a few of the thugs in a running retreat.

They were sporadically firing as they made their way toward a stairwell. It was on the floor, toward the southwest corner of the warehouse. Shaggy could not think of a reason for such a large warehouse to have a basement. But he sighed and waved a hand in the air for everyone to join him.

Sybil and Levy sent a few spells and shots toward the retreating gangers before joining. Luis and Mariposa came hurrying over as well. Both kids had fully exhausted their powers within the first few minutes of the fighting. Now they both sported small machine guns, and Mariposa had a pistol strapped to her hip.

Shaggy tapped his tac-vest, bringing everyone’s attention to it. “Okay, Luis, Mari. You guys can split. We’re gonna follow them down. Take your wounded out of here.”

Luis looked annoyed as he raised his weapon. “Come on! We can help. We fucked this asshole up. Let’s get down there and burn’em out.”

Shaggy sighed, but Mariposa slapped Luis on the side and explained. “You want fifteen people to jam ourselves into an obvious trap? Let them handle it. You saw fucking bullets ping off his tiny ass. He can go down there.”

“I have a tiny ass?” Shaggy muttered aloud, but no one said anything. Levy gave him an exasperated look.

“Look, you kids go back home and heal up. Remember though, Don’t touch anything in this warehouse. It’s for the cops.”

Shaggy felt Rita and Sybil turn their tac-vests away from the conversation as he nodded slowly.

“What!?” Luis screamed, drawing another slap from Mariposa.

“Oh, yes ma’am. We won’t touch any of the drugs in the warehouse. Y’all go about your business.”

Shaggy continued to nod as he slowly backed away from the conversation. He looked at his wife, who was grinning. But when she saw he was looking, she turned it into a look of love and hugged him. Shaggy nestled into the hug as their tac-vests jammed together. He didn’t know what kind of camera or listening devices were on these things, but he figured it was best not to say anything more.

If Luis and Mariposa got his message correctly. Their little group of ne’er-do-wells would take a few things and head out. Shaggy hoped that Xelthub and his friends weren’t waiting at the building. He shook off the thought as he turned back toward the stairwell and their current problem.

“We going in guns blazing, boss?” Sybil asked as she looked her pistols over.

“I don’t know. You good for ammo, though? You’ve been shooting them things a lot.”

Sybil chuckled and tapped the side of a silver pistol. “K-Tech power supply. Lasts longer than any other battery on the market and won’t wear out the internals. Shit’s the good stuff.”

Shaggy shrugged, and Levy moved closer to the stairs. Rita moved with her, ready to jump in front of the attack aimed at her pack leader’s wife. Shaggy sent a mental ‘thank you’ through the pack link, but the old woman just sent him back a mental scoff. For Sybil and Rita, it seemed almost ingrained in them to defend Shaggy and Levy. Shaggy wondered if the pack link was affecting them too much, but then he shrugged. If it was, they couldn’t do much about it, unless they wanted to leave the pack.

Shaggy moved next to his wife and heard her muttering under her breath. Figuring it was a spell, he gaze down into the darkening stairwell. His dark vision lit up small bits of the stairwell, but he couldn’t see anymore gangsters. Levy deflated as she finished her spell and wiped the back of her hand over her forehead.

“Whew! Okay. So there are about twenty of them down there, waiting. It’s just a long hallway with a few doors into side rooms and then a larger room at the end of the hallway. Most of them are in that larger room.”

“Well shit. That’s a handy spell.” Rita chortled.

Levy waved away the compliment, pretending to be haughty as she sniffed. “Tis nothing dear. These asshats didn’t even place any protections on their little rat’s nest.”

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“Well, to be fair, they don’t seem magically inclined. More animal inclined.” Shaggy said.

“Yeah, what the fuck was with that?” Sybil added. “I had a damn giant eagle dive-bombing me for a hot minute there.”

“Badger.” Rita said.

“Panther-thing.”

They all exchanged looks before shrugging. It was an interesting affectation for the gang, but it hadn’t been too much trouble. Shaggy even suspected that some of what was waiting for them downstairs were more animals. Sighing, he cracked his knuckles and stretched his shoulders. His plan had already formed in his mind, and he was sure Rita and Sybil had gotten it. But he voiced it for Levy.

“So I’ll take the front, Sybil next. Then Levy and Rita in the rear. I’ll clear each room as I hit it and then move on. Once we hit the big room, Sybil and Levy you two take out the larger threats while Rita and I start from the outsides and work our way in. Good?”

All three ladies nodded simultaneously and Shaggy smiled at how his plan was accepted so quickly. Rita rolled her eyes at his feelings of happiness and Sybil just snorted. Levy gave them a confused look, but Shaggy spun and headed down the dark stairs.

His vision turned to black and white, but the scent trails were still in the air. Their color against the grey of his vision almost screamed at him. Shaggy smiled like a predator as he rushed toward the first door on the right-hand side. Scent told him there were two bastards in there waiting and he could almost smell their fear. Or maybe he could. He still hadn’t really parsed that smell in its entirety. Everyone was slightly different.

BOOM!

Shaggy’s thoughts were interrupted as a shotgun blast took him off his feet and sent him sprawling toward the opposite wall. He felt his head slam against concrete as the sounds of shouting, spells and gunshots rose in the air. He could smell burning ozone from Rita’s stun baton, too. But by the time he was back on his feet and reoriented, the ladies had already torn through the room.

Shaggy shook his head as his healing pushed the buckshot from his body. Luckily, none of this gang was sporting energy weapons. Being burned sucked. Although he felt like his healing was slowing somewhat and checked his pockets for food. But they came up empty. Shaggy was trying to think when the last time he had restocked was when a candy bar smacked into his face.

“Boss, we have to talk about your tendency to get side-tracked.” Rita said as she reached into her pocket and pulled out another candy bar.

“Really,” Shaggy said around a mouthful of chocolate. “You want to get side-tracked talking about being side-tracked too much?”

Levy watched the entire exchange with fascination as Rita flung another candy bar at Shaggy’s head. He easily dodged the projectile and snatched it from the air. As he was twisting open the wrapper, he heard his wife ask.

“Why are you feeding my husband snacks?”

Rita and Sybil just chuckled as Shaggy choked on part of his candy bar. “ACK! Damn peanuts. Chocolate’s worse addition. My healing is tied to my hunger, babe. The more I use it, the more I need to eat. Empty stomach equals no healing. Well, beyond the in-game slow healing, that is.”

“So you have to carry snacks with you?”

Shaggy nodded as he scarfed down the second candy bar. Despite the hated peanuts. Once he was done, he wiped his mouth as best he could and righted himself. He wasn’t, by any means, full. But the added calories would take him through to the end of this brief engagement. Shaggy waved at the others as he took the lead spot again. But as he got to the next door in the hallway, he slowed to a stop.

“What? Afraid of another shotgun?” Sybil chuckled.

“That shit stings, you know,” Shaggy griped. “But no. I just noticed something, though. There’s only one scent coming from this door.”

“So? Get in there and stomp his ass.” Rita whispered.

Shaggy shook his head. “It’s just… the scent is green?”

The three ladies all stared at him, waiting for him to explain. But Shaggy waved them off as he moved closer to the door. He knew what it was, but he figured the best way was to just get things over with. He waved for the others to be ready as he grabbed the door handle and twisted. Wrenching the door open, Shaggy barely had enough time to swear as an enormous wall of brown fur filled the doorway.

A black-nosed bear came charging out of the room. Shaggy swore and instinctively jumped to the side, away from his pack. The bear turned to follow and Shaggy heard spells and gunshots again, as well as Rita’s baton. It gave a massive roared and spun back around, but Shaggy burst forth and smacked the large animal on the nose. The bear’s head flung backward, and it fell on its ass. It gave Shaggy a very human looking shocked look, before it roared again and charged.

Its large furry paws came down toward Shaggy’s shoulders. Shaggy reached up and grabbed the bear’s wrist as best he could and tried to manhandle the bear away from him. Surprisingly, Shaggy found that he was slightly stronger. He grinned as he slammed his head forward into the surprised bear’s face. The bear shook its head and roared again, but Shaggy just head-butted it again as the ladies attacked the bear’s broad back.

But the bear seemed to remember it had teeth as Shaggy went in for a third head-butt. This time, Shaggy’s shoulder was pierced by several fangs. Luckily, none of them seemed to make it through his dermal plating and the bear worked its jaw trying to chew. Shaggy screamed, released the bear’s paws. He wrenched the bear’s jaws open and freed his bleeding shoulder.

He glared at the bear as the beast reared back again, ready to slam down on top of Shaggy. But suddenly, black straps of magic emerged from the walls and wrapped the bear in their grasp. The bear struggled for a few seconds before the wraps tightened and wrenched roughly. There were several loud snaps as the bear went limp and fell to the floor. Shaggy smiled until he heard Rita’s cry of concern.

Shaggy barely noticed his tac-vest fall away from his body as he rushed around the dead bear. Beyond, he saw Sybil and Rita crouched next to a collapsed Levy. Shaggy gave a sigh of relief that his wife hadn’t vanished. That meant she was still alive in-game.

“What the hell, love?”

Levy rolled onto her back and smiled up at him. “Sorry, that was a load of magic. Combined with the battle upstairs, my MP was already low. I just need a few minutes.”

“Or we could go handle it.” Sybil said, although she didn’t sound too sure of herself.

Rita looked at Shaggy for orders. But he was doing some quick math. Three out in the hallway meant there were seventeen more thugs in the last room. Even with Levy, it was going to be a tough fight, and none of them were at their best. They kept having to pull their punches and Sybil could only provide so much cover on her own. The best thing to do was wait. Although that would probably give George’s gang more time to prepare.

As the bite marks on his shoulder finally healed over, Shaggy realized his vest was gone. A thought entered his head, and he mulled it over for a few seconds. Rita and Sybil seemed to follow along with his thought process as Levy got into a sitting position. Shaggy decided and reached down and picked up his wife. Rita and Sybil followed as he went back to the first room and sat his wife down in what was a decent-looking break room.

“You three wait in here and I’ll guard the door.” He said simply.

Levy looked ready to argue, but Rita placed a hand on the drow woman’s shoulder. Levy nodded slowly and glared at her husband. She said nothing, but Shaggy was familiar with the look. That was her ‘don’t be an idiot’ look. Shaggy gave her his best ‘you already know I’m an idiot’ look, in return, and went into the hallway.

Seventeen gang members were probably too much for them if he and Rita had to hold back. But if he could go all out? Then those bastards would be toast. Shaggy felt his grin get bigger as he turned toward the end of the hallway and grew his claws. He passed the remains of his vest just as he felt his shoulders pop. He relaxed his mind and tried not to make a sound as he practically fell through the door at the end of the hall.

The smell of formaldehyde and animal feces filled his nose as it elongated. Shaggy heard screaming and shouts of alarm go up as he came up on all fours. He shook himself out of the change and smiled at the surprised looks on all the gangster’s faces. He even saw a few more animals in the room. All of them looked so much smaller now. So much easier to deal with. Much more prey-like.