“Well, look at that.” Shaggy grinned. “The little Hero has gone rogue.”
Kaleb sighed at his theatrics. “Not really. But I can offer you and your friends some weapons and credits for a dishonest night's work.”
“Vhat would ve have to do.” Said the tall man with the top hat in heavily accented speech.
Shaggy groaned. “Damn it, Vlad. We told you: You don’t have to talk like that!”
“Oh screw you, Wolfy. It’s part of my character. That’s how vampires talk!” Said Vlad waving his cloak dramatically.
Kaleb could see the other two members of Shaggy’s party roll their eyes as Shaggy sighed. Kaleb stared at Vlad. He didn’t have the pallor or teeth of the Quinica. Instead, he had the large fangs of the stereotypical vampire from the movies. Turning to Shaggy, Kaleb jerked his head at Vlad.
“He serious?”
“Yeah.” Shaggy said annoyed. “He likes to play it up, but he is a good player. Plus his mutation isn’t bad; He gains points by drinking blood and he uses those to upgrade himself.”
“That’s sounds overpowered.” Kaleb said looking at Vlad who nodded.
“It vas vhen I first vas born. But now those lesser mortal no longer sate my thirst.” Vlad said back to using his accent.
Kaleb looked questioningly at Shaggy. Shaggy rolled his eyes and put the Tiger Claw in his hand back down. “He told us that the early advancements were cheap. But now he can’t afford anything using the points from normal NPCs. He thinks that he has to drink from Supers now, but we haven’t had the chance to find out yet.”
“Ookay, good to know. Well, anyway, you guys interested in work or not.” Kaleb said trying to move the conversation along.
Shaggy moved to his friends and looked them over before turning back to Kaleb. “First how about you tell us what you want to do? Then will decide if we wanna help you.”
“Fair enough.” Kaleb said putting the lid back on his weapon bin. “First off: 100 credits for some information.”
“Shoot.” Shaggy said.
“How many entrances are there to Under-Town and can we get a hover dumpster to surface level?” Kaleb asked leaning against the metal shack behind him.
The party of four looked between themselves all shaking their heads. Shaggy glanced at Kaleb before speaking. “Ahem, we don’t know.”
Kaleb sighed quietly. “Ok, 200 credits for you to find out from me, good.” The group all nodded. “Second thing: I need you to steal us a hover dumpster. I know some people use them down here.”
“If you know who has one, why not just steal it from them?” Shaggy asked.
Kaleb shook his head. “Can’t do that. At the moment they are friends and I don’t want to burn that bridge. Also, I don’t know how strong the Quinica are down here, best not to piss them off.”
“Those fakes?!” Vlad screamed dropping his accent again.
Shaggy ignored the outburst and shook his own head. “Well, then I don’t know where to get one.”
“I do.” said a quiet voice behind Shaggy.
Turning they all looked at the youngest member of their party. The pale boy shrank under their combined gaze before pointing at the big Rhino-man. He stuttered a little before the words tumbled from his mouth.
“H-H-H- He does too. We both saw it!”
Shaggy put his palm out in a calm down gesture. “We believe you, Slink. Now tell us where we can get one.”
The Rhino-man looked down, confused at the young boy. Seeing that the rhino would not be any help, the boy, Slink, swallowed loudly before he spoke trying to sound confident.
“It was when you were talking to that cheetah girl, Shags. The Phreaks had a few of them lined up outside that little compound of theirs.”
Shaggy nodded as he seemed to remember. “Guards?”
Slink shrugged his shoulders helplessly and looked to the big rhino. The Rhino-man seemed deep in thought and was rubbing his chin with a meaty gray hand. When he saw them all staring at him, he silently shrugged his own shoulders, baffled.
Shaggy groaned angrily. But Kaleb spoke up first. “That’s fine. At least we know where one is and if you lot don’t mind pissing off the Phreaks…”
The group all shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders. Shaggy rubbed his hands and asked a question of his own. “So, once we have the truck what are we stealing? Robbing a bank? Raiding an armory.”
“Stealing junk.” Kaleb said truthfully.
Shaggy and the others seemed to deflate at his words. The tubular growth on Slink’s face and neck seemed to writhe under the skin. The Rhino-man even walked away. Vlad was the only who that remained interested. Seeing this Shaggy slapped the mutant vampire on the shoulder.
“Don’t even think about it, Vlad. He is crazy.”
Vlad brushed his shoulder where Shaggy had hit him and stared back at Kaleb. “I don’t think so. He is dead serious and I am vondering vhat could make him so serious. Aren’t you?”
Shaggy looked at Kaleb and grimaced. “You really going to hire a crew to steal junk?”
“Well, we are stealing from K-Tech, so yeah.” Kaleb said. Tapping the bin he added. “As you might have guessed: I am a crafter and I need parts and equipment. I know of a dump site but they have armed security.”
“Why have armed guards in a junkyard?” Asked the Rhino-man.
Kaleb just smiled as Shaggy slowly nodded. Turning to the Rhino, Shaggy answered for Kaleb. “It’s a high-end company, Ren. Even their junk must be worth a lot and if you have someone who can fix up that junk. Make it useful again, well that increases the worth quite a bit.”
Kaleb drew his Cybar pistol again and held it up from them to see. He twisted it in his hands showing off the altered power supply. Ren nodded slowly but Slink was shaking his head. The growth under his skin undulating like crazy. The kid grabbed Shaggy’s shoulder and tried to jerk the bigger man back.
“You can’t be seriously considering this, man. We are literally stealing junk. Come on, man we haven’t fallen that low. We can join up with one of the Under-Town gangs. They are all recruiting since the Faceless’ got wiped out.”
“Come on, Kid. If we can get our hands on some decent weapons, we can set up our own gang down here.” Shaggy argued back.
Kaleb holstered his pistol and watched the conversation. Slink seemed like he wanted to argue, but he could see Shaggy’s point. He turned to Vlad and Ren but the two taller men both held greedy looks on their faces. Seeing that he couldn’t win Slink just sighed loudly.
“Just make sure he pays us.” Slink mumbled.
“About that,” Shaggy said turning back to Kaleb. “We are talking about K-Tech guards here. We will need hazard pay. Also, a guarantee that you’ll build us some equipment from what we collect.”
“Yes to the equipment, but no to the hazard pay. 3,200 credits for all of you.” Kaleb said playing with the credit sticks in his pocket.
Shaggy’s party all yelled out their outrage. Shaggy calmed down his friends and made a counteroffer. “Oh, come on! That’s only 800 a piece. We are talking armed guards and getting on K-Tech’s shit list. We have to at least get 2,000 a piece.”
“1,000 a piece.” Kaleb countered.
“1,800.” Shaggy came back.
Kaleb let the credit sticks in his pocket slip through his fingers as he thought. He was seriously considering agreeing to the price and just leaving the group at the junk site. But, Shaggy and the others were Players, that changed a good deal of his plans. Expendable muscle was one thing, but this was a group that could have come back and come back with a grudge.
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If he betrayed them what did he get? A small group that would be a nuisance in Under-Town whenever he did business there. But if he nurtured this friendship, these players could be a real force in Under-Town. Plus, if he was managing their equipment then he could control their strength. Then again controlling Players was a fool’s game. Hearing shaggy cough, Kaleb came out of his thoughts.
“Sorry, was thinking about something. 1,300 credits is my final offer.” Kaleb said figuring that he could cut ties with them after tonight.
Shaggy grinned and held out his hand, but Kaleb shook his head. Standing Kaleb and pushing the weapon bin toward Shaggy and his friends.
“Payment after the job. For now, you get these weapons and the 200 credits if you get me that information I asked for. The job’s a no go if we don’t have an exit.” Kaleb said as he held up a credit stick.
Shaggy groaned as his friends moved toward the bin to look at the weapons. Kaleb just shrugged his shoulders at the shorter man. Ren and Slink pulled out two claws a piece but Vlad was scratching a one with his pointed fingernail. Looking up, he saw Kaleb watching him.
“I vish to see vhich is better. My claws or yours.” Vlad said as he took one claw out and moved away from the bin.
Shaggy glanced into the box and grumbled. “You gave us too many.”
“Use the rest to make some friends.” Kaleb said smiling.
“Seriously? You want more for the job?” Shaggy asked.
“I want to fill up the hover dumpster. So I at least want two more, but if you think we need more you can go with that. But you can take the Claws either way. Consider it a Don’t-fuck-me payment.” Kaleb said grinning at Shaggy as Daivor floating over from where he had been watching.
Shaggy burst out into a fit of laughter at Kaleb’s words. “HAHAHAHA! Well, these should work as bribes or payment for some extra muscle. But it could take some time. We know where to get the dumpster trucks, I’ve never thought to use anything other than the entrance I found to get down here.”
“How did you get down here?”
Shaggy shook his head and made a disgusted face. “False door in an alley. Let’s out in a garbage pile just outside of Under-Town in a tunnel. You?”
“Cemetery. Slide down to a mattress on near the main street.” Kaleb said. “And now that I think on it there may be someone I can ask about other entrances.” Kaleb said thinking of the old frog-man that had greeted him his first trip down here.
“Oh, don’t do that. Give us a chance to earn those credits.” Shaggy said smiling.
“You have a chance. You just have to take it right now.” Kaleb grinned back as he noticed the others had all heard their conversation.
Glancing at his friends Shaggy stopped smiling and dashed off yelling. “I’ll ask around the lamplighters territory. You guys go get the truck. Ren, pick up the weapons and Vlad find us a few more guys. Weapons as payment.”
Ren hefted the bin onto his massive shoulder as the others moved off at a brisk pace. The cut through the bustle of human traffic on main street and disappeared. Daivor floated down until he was right in front of Kaleb and puffed long and hard on his pipe.
Blowing a waft of smoke at Kaleb, Daivor asked. “Are you sure that was a good idea?”
Kaleb waved the smoke out of his face and shook his head. “No. But I’m taking a gamble. If it turns to shit, I’ll cut ties and find another crew for next time.”
Daivor floated near Kaleb’s shoulder and followed him as they walked down main street. “Next time, he says.” Daivor grumbled.
Kalb ignored the Gnome and moved down the street. He had to make a brief stop at the rat burger vendor. A female yellow lizard manned the stall this time and oddly enough she smiled and greeted Kaleb by name. Kaleb chalked it up to what he had down for the Brute Clan but he still found the exchange a little weird.
He was halfway to the entrance he used when he saw a sign. The Hopping Kickshaw. Slapping his forehead, he remembered that the small old frog had a curio shop around here. He was sure the name was right. Unlike the rest of main street this shop was in a building, well at least a cube with a side missing. As Kaleb glanced inside he saw a small frog-man with a short beard sitting behind a counter.
Moving in Kaleb wracked his brain for the small old frog’s name until it came to him. “Devron!”
The old wrinkled frog snapped his wide eyes to the front of the store and smiled a lip-less smile. “Oh, uh, lad. It’s good to see you again.”
Kaleb smirked at the small frog. The old amphibian clearly didn’t remember him. “It’s Professor. You helped me when I first got down here. I just had a question for you real quick.”
The old frog seemed to deflate behind his counter. “Ahh, it’s getting harder to sell oddities these days.” He said mournfully.
Kaleb bit his tongue and glanced around the shop. The frog’s intentions couldn’t be more clear: buy something or no information. Kaleb looked and the cramped shelves full of small jewelry boxes, bone pipes, strange looking knickknacks, and other weird items. He eventually found a small rectangular bag meant to be strapped to a thigh or waist. Figuring he could use another bag, Kaleb paid Devron 25 credits and asked his question.
“Oh, there are tons on entrances to Under-Town or at least the tunnels around here. I had a map around here somewhere.” Devron said as he dove beneath his counter.
Kaleb clenched his fist and counted down from ten as Devron dug around his junk. If I could have bought a map, why did I buy the bag. Fuck it, the bag will be useful, anyway. Kaleb thought as Devron leaped up from behind the counter holding a folded up paper map. Looking it over, Kaleb felt that he was finally getting a sense of how massive Under-Town really was.
A spiderweb of tunnels spread out from Under-Town in all direction. Someone marked some with various insignia some of which had a dash through them. Turning the map to Devron Kaleb asked.
“What’s this?”
“Mark of whoever owns the tunnel. That one has had a few owners it looks like. Map is 75 credits.” Devron said holding out a large hand.
Kaleb grumbled and passed over the money. After the frog took the money, Kaleb went back to studying the map. There were several tunnels leading, using his memory of the video he had recorded he found the tunnel that he had taken to the dump site. Someone had marked it with the image of a pointy-eared, sharp tooth face. Kaleb grimaced, the Quinica apparently owned that tunnel. He would have to at least check if Herr Blutschläger was still in Under-Town.
Kaleb rolled the map back up and saw Devron staring at him and tapping a finger against a sign. ‘No loitering’ Kaleb rolled his eyes and left the shop heading straight for where the Quinica set up shop. Daivor followed, once again speaking in Kaleb’s ear.
“You see who owns the tunnel.”
“Where do you think I’m going?” Kaleb answered.
“To let them know we will use their tunnel?” Daivor said sarcastically.
Kaleb crossed the busy dirt street and kept his eye on the opposite side of the street. Soon enough he could make out an empty spot where the Quinica usually set up shop. It didn’t seem that anyone was there, so Kaleb moved closer into the street in front of the spot. He could just make out a few shadows in the alley behind where the Blutschläger set up shop. Quickly moving away, Kaleb felt a face smack into his chest.
“Really, dude?” Shaggy said rubbing his nose.
“Didn’t see you there, Shaggy.” Kaleb grinned.
“Oh, short jokes? That’s where we are now?”
Kaleb shrugged and pulled the map out of the bag strapped to his thigh. Shaggy groaned as he held up a similar-looking map. Kaleb almost laughed out loud at the sour look on the man’s face. Shaggy folded his map and put it back into his pocket.
“Do you know who I had to kill for that map?” Shaggy asked.
“Don’t care. We have a truck yet?” Kaleb asked.
“How am I supposed to… AHHH! FUCK!”
Shaggy bent over at the waist and grabbed his ears in pain. Kaleb looked around for the source of the attack but he couldn’t see anything. People kept moving around them in the middle of the street. Eventually Shaggy took a deep breath, righted his posture, and looked off to the east. Kaleb could see the man’s eyes watering from the pain. But before he could ask anything, Shaggy took off at a run.
Kaleb followed as they ran down a cross street going east off the main road. As the ran Kaleb watched Shaggy grab his ear and almost fall over while still running. He was about to ask what the hell was going on when they turned a corner and saw a large dumpster truck painted red, black, and gold. Sitting in the driver seat with his head out the window was Vlad. The vampire was blowing into a small metal tube.
“FUCKING QUIT IT!” Yelled Shaggy as he covered an ear and leaped up and swatted at Vlad’s face.
“Oh, sorry, Volfy. I didn’t see you there.” said Vlad sounding smug and leaning away from Shaggy swatting hand.
“He already made that joke, asshole.” Shaggy said pointing at Kaleb.
“Looks like you guys got a truck in record time.” Kaleb said trying not to laugh at Shaggy who was rubbing his ears and staring daggers at Vlad.
Slink moved around from behind the truck a creepy grin on his face. “They weren’t even guarding them.”
“Yes, they were.” Said Ren also coming from behind the truck with two other Rhino-men.
“They were drunk and asleep. You didn’t have to knock them out.” Slink said.
Ren shrugged and moved to talk to the Rhino-men. Kaleb noticed that the three Rhino-men were all wearing Tiger Claws; Looking up at Vlad, he asked. “Those our muscle?”
“Yeah, I figured vith them and the volf, we should be able to collect your junk.” Vlad said.
“That’s something I want to get straight.” Kaleb said before he spoke louder to the whole group. “You all are just grabbing pieces of metal. The bigger the better. If you see something interesting though, sure, toss it on the pile. But your main concern is filling up the truck. Your second concern will be any security patrolling the junkyard.”
“We can handle being the lookout.” Slink said as the weird thing under his skin traveled around his face.
Kaleb had the creepy feeling that Slink wasn’t talking about the others in the group. But he nodded and just met eyes with everyone. Mentally he was going over the route to the dump site. Daivor had seen it too, so between the two of them he felt confident they could get there. Turning to Shaggy, Kaleb waved a hand at the front cab.
“After you.” Shaggy nodded as he rubbed his ears.
Watching as the Rhino-men and Slink get into the back of the truck. He briefly hoped they would have room for the return trip. But he put those thoughts out of his mind and got into the cab along with Daivor. After Shaggy finished punching Vlad in the arm multiple times, Kaleb gave Vlad his directions. Vlad nodded and moved the hover truck down into the dark tunnel.