A Werewolf In Under-Town

“Hey, Shags. You still alive?”

Shaggy groaned as he came awake. His back hurt, his chest hurt, matter-of-fact everything seemed to hurt. He blearily opened his eyes to see Slink’s face inches from his own. Shaggy leaned his head back down to the alleyway floor and mentally looked himself over. Other than the pain, he didn’t think he was bleeding anymore and his HP showed he was still healing.

Shaggy reached into his pocket and pulled out a candy bar he had bought after the diner. He had a pocket full of the small bars. He unwrapped and chewed the bar as he grumbled.

“What the fuck was that about?”

Slink shrugged his slim shoulders. “I do not know. We were looking over the bedroom when Ephe went down. Next thing I know, I’m trying to fight a giant ninja. He knocked me out and the next thing I knew, you and Ephe were gone. Although you weren’t hard to find.”

Slink turned his head to look up. Halfway up the building was a broken window. The remaining frame was bent outward from Shaggy’s passage. There were even indentations on the fire escape where Shaggy had slammed into it. He barely remembered hitting something metal. He groggily got to his feet and stretched his back, which popped loudly. Apparently, his regeneration didn’t mean he couldn’t still be knocked unconscious. All the healing in the world won’t help when you can’t defend yourself.

“Did you say they took Ephemara?”

Slink nodded, looking worried. Shaggy grimaced, thinking about what the ninjas would do to the poor NPC. Probably torture her for information. But about what? Were those ninjas the ones that had ransacked the handler’s apartment? What were they looking for? Them? The handler?

Shaggy gripped his head as he felt a headache coming on. As he shook the cobwebs from his brain, a scrap of black cloth was thrust under his nose.

“Sniff this.” Slink said. Shaggy raised an eyebrow questioningly, but he got it as Slink explained. “Your a werewolf, so I figured you could use this to, y’know, follow them? I mean Ephemara will probably be fine. But these guys know who we’re looking for, right?”

Shaggy grinned and nodded as he took a giant sniff of the cloth. Sweat and body odor hit his nose hard, and he momentarily started coughing. Slink slapped his back a few times as Shaggy focused on the scent. Multiple traces filled the air, and he watched them as he started taking off his clothes and armor. Slink stammered something, but Shaggy interrupted him.

“I’m going to shift. Carry my stuff and follow along as best you can. Okay?”

Slink took the bundle of clothes as Shaggy started shifting into his werewolf form. It felt like it was getting easier, as the pain seemed to have lessened. His bones were shifting easier and the itchiness of the fur growing was there and gone before he could fully notice it. Soon he was shaking his large wolf head again, trying to get the scents back into his nose.

The scent trails appeared and flickered in the air. Probably showing how faint the scents were. He stuck his snout in the air and took another few sniffs before he moved out of the alley and into the street. There were a few shouts of alarm as a six and a half foot wolf stepped into the street. But Shaggy ignored them as the scent trails left the building and then disappeared into the street. He could hear Slink talking behind him, but Shaggy was laser focused on the smells he was getting.

“They obviously got into a car.” Shaggy thought as he sniffed the road.

The scent of tires and fuel hit his nose. Shaggy took a few minutes to sort out the varying smells before he found one with traces of the scent from the cloth. He was just happy that they weren’t in a flying car. He did not know how he would track that. Shaggy took one more long sniff to confirm the scent before he gave a bark and started to run, following the flickering scent trail.

He heard Slink shout behind him as he barreled down the street. Cars filled the road ahead of him, so he weaved around them as best he could. Even getting on the sidewalk and jumping over a couple of people. Shouts of alarm went up by the public and, after a few blocks, Shaggy thought he heard the whir of an overhead drone. But he ignored it as he barreled through the street and to the south.

However, as he approached a bridge that crossed the Colorado, he had to stop. A blockade of police vehicles stood in his way, and several brightly dressed Supers stood in his way. Shaggy grumbled as people, who looked like they were from animal control, approached him. As Shaggy contemplated shifting back, Slink appeared next to him and explained breathlessly.

“There’s... nothing to…. whew... worry about. He’s just a Werewolf.”

Shaggy tilted his head toward Slink and tried to look incredulous. Slink just shrugged as the animal control people backed off as a police officer and Super approached. The police officer looked annoyed while the Super sauntered, almost happily. The Super was in a full leather red battle suit with a weird-looking motorcycle helmet thing on his head. Shaggy thought that the skin-tight red suit was probably not going to offer a lot of protection, but who could say?

“Can you get your friend to shift back? We don’t have him in our database, which means he is an undocumented Were. Also, our drone’s facial recognition has you as an escaped prisoner. So we are going to need you to come with us.”

The police officer said, hand on his sidearm. Shaggy heard Slink sigh, and he shifted from paw to paw as he studied the Supers. They were all in the same battle suit, just in different colors. They were an unknown factor in a fight. The police wouldn’t be a problem. But the drones would probably be a pain in the ass. They could follow him all the way to where Ephemara was. Although…

Slink had his hands raised, Shaggy’s clothes held under his arm. Shaggy gave an excited bark and circled like he was having the best time of his life. The cop backed up and drew his gun, startled as the red Super dropped into a fighting stance. Realizing that it was just a dog playing, they both relaxed slightly, and that is when Shaggy dipped his head and put his snout between Slink’s legs.

The boy gave a surprised shout as Shaggy did his best to flip his friend onto his back. Feeling Slink grab a hold of his fur, Shaggy took off like a shot toward the bridge. Several shouts and warnings sounded as Shaggy heard the telltale whirring of more drones. After a few more shouts ordering him to stop, the police opened fire as he made it to their blockade.

He felt the sting of small arms fire and Slink shouted in alarm from his back. But Shaggy continued and barreled through the blockade, leaping a police car and continuing to run. Shaggy grunted as something bigger hit him on the back. He twisted his head as best he could to see a blue-suited hero standing on his back and pointing at Slink imperiously.

“Halt foul criminal! You shall not escape the justice of the… ARGHHH!”

Seemingly on reflex, Slink had shot Moe out of his sleeve while the man was talking. The large orange snake sunk his large fangs into the man’s thigh as Slink kicked out. The man tumbled off of Shaggy’s back as Slink collected Moe. Shaggy shook his torso from side to side and helped get the idiot off his back. The blue hero went down and Shaggy poured on every bit of speed he could.

“That wasn’t cool, little doggy.” Said a woman’s voice from right next to Shaggy’s head.

Shaggy turned to look and came face to face with a yellow suited speedster. She was in the same uniform as the other two and she was running just as fast as Shaggy was. He stared bewildered as she spoke in her heavy Texas accent again.

“Now I’m gon’ need you to stop and me and my friends are gonna take you and the boy to jail. Can you do that for me?”

Shaggy could hear the smile behind her helmeted head and he snorted. Trying something, he swiped his right fore-paw into her legs and watched. She successfully jumped over his slow swipe, but she couldn’t get her legs back under her after the jump. She went tumbling head over feet in the road and Shaggy had to swerve a bit to make sure he didn’t get hit.

Slink shifted on his back and Shaggy heard the kid’s voice in his ear.

“Those were the weirdest Heroes I have seen. But at least they were polite.”

Shaggy yipped happily in agreement as the surrounding whirring grew louder. Shaggy glanced around to see at least seven oblong drones following right along with him and grinned. It was all going according to plan so far. Which meant the plan was due for something to go horribly wrong any minute now.

Shaggy shook the thought from his head and found the scent trail again. It wasn’t flickering anymore, which he hoped meant they were getting close. Not only was the car’s scent getting stronger, but he could make out the red and blue trails from the two ninjas they had fought. The trails took a sharp turn westward and Shaggy followed as a new sound joined the whirring drones.

“Uh, Shags…” Slink said worriedly.

Shaggy turned his head and saw three motorcycles gaining on him fast. One red, one pink, and one black. Shaggy sighed as the Supers started to catch up. A sudden blast of pink energy coming from the pink bike made him dodge to the side. An enormous explosion of asphalt and dirt blew into the air as the pink energy ball hit the road. Meanwhile, the red and black motorcycles kicked into a higher gear and got alongside Shaggy as he ran.

Shaggy gave a grunt as he side-swiped the red one with his body. He collided with the bike and sent it careening away as the red-suited hero tried to regain control. Meanwhile, the Super in the black suit drew a long sword and leaped from their motorcycle and onto Shaggy’s back. Their bike went sliding into the road as Shaggy dodged another pink blast of energy.

“You and your evils shall answer to justice!” A woman’s voice shouted from Shaggy’s back.

He felt a bite of pain as the sword dug into his back. Slink shouted, in fear or as a battle cry Shaggy couldn’t tell. But soon he felt the two fighting in the limited space on his back. He jostled a bit left and right, trying to give the kid an edge. But he was interrupted by the return of the red hero.

The hero got alongside Shaggy and drew two pistols from his motorcycle. Before he could give the pesky hero another shove, the two energy pistols fired into his side. He gave an involuntary yowl of pain as the energy burned into his skin and he could smell himself cooking. He went for another wild shove, but the Super deftly moved his bike out of the way and stopped firing.

Shaggy could feel his burns healing as Slink was still fighting on his back. The sound of another pink energy blast made him swerve wildly again. More asphalt went into the air as the Red hero looked ready to fire again. Shaggy swerved away and checked the scent trails again. They were more vivid and colorful, and in the distance, Shaggy thought he could see a warehouse.

They had left the residential area of Austin and had entered a more spacious area. So Shaggy left the road and turned away from the scent trail itself and made a beeline from where he thought the scent was coming from. The red hero’s shots went wide as the Slink gave another scream from his back. Shaggy started running through a grassy field and zigzagged around the few trees in his way. He could see the warehouse fence in the distance, but the Super on his back spoke again.

“You vile evil-doers shall rue the day that… AAAAHHHHHHHH Glgrk!”

Shaggy felt a weight leave his back, and he nearly celebrated, but Slink’s worried voice screamed in his ear.

“Shaggy stop! Curly fell off!”

Shaggy tried to turn his head to give the kid an incredulous look, but he couldn’t see. After a few more long strides, Shaggy felt Slink jump off his back as well and he finally stopped running. Turning around, he saw the pink and red Supers getting closer as Slink ran to the prone form of the black-suited hero. Shaggy gave a grunt of exasperation as he ran to help Slink.

Shaggy and the two other Supers got to Slink at almost the same time. The red hero was firing away with his pistols as Slink picked up his snake. The pink hero aimed their motorcycle right at Shaggy and sped his bike up. Obviously intent on ramming the large runaway wolf. Shaggy used his body to stop the red hero’s shots as Slink tried to climb back aboard. Meanwhile, the pink hero was barreling down on him.

As Slink finally grabbed a hold, Shaggy swiped a large front paw against the front of the pink bike. He felt the skin of his paw tear and he was sure he had broken a few bones. But the speeding bike flipped over and a scream came from the pink hero as he went over his handlebars and into the grass, hard. Shaggy spun away again and ran back to the toward the warehouse. The red Super was still firing behind him, but the shots were getting further and further apart.

Turning, Shaggy could see the red Super was off his bike and checking on his friends. He gave a loud sigh as he continued on. The noise from the overhead drones was still present and Slink voiced his worries in Shaggy’s ear.

“What are we going to do about the drones?”

Shaggy shook his lupine head and barked. Getting the message, Slink screamed worriedly.

“Nothing?! What do you mean, nothing?!”

Shaggy grinned as he approached the warehouse fence. Just beyond, he could see men and woman milling about the warehouse. They were dressed as civilians, but Shaggy was sure they were ninjas. As the drones whirred above him, Shaggy prepared himself to leap over the fence and into the warehouse. He could feel Slink grab two handfuls of his fur in either excitement or fear. Shaggy grinned as he cleared the fence. This was going to be wild.