A Werewolf In Under-Town

Shaggy thought it was amazing how fast the ‘civilians’ around the warehouse drew their weapons. One second they were milling around a large warehouse, the next they were firing handguns at the enormous wolf that had leapt over their fence. Shaggy ignored them all as he charged straight for the warehouse, following the bright scent trails he had picked up again. Sure enough, they were leading right into the warehouse.

Slink gave several shouts of alarm, but mostly just kept himself curled against Shaggy’s back. The whirring of the drones overhead lessened as they split up to record some civilians. People having guns wasn’t a rarity. But the fact that all the people standing outside this warehouse had them, was sure to raise a few eyebrows.

Shaggy turned a corner around the large warehouse and ducked through the truck entrance, careful not to scrape off Slink. Hundreds of wooden boxes filled his vision, and he had to shoulder past a few of them. The scent trail lead deeper into the warehouse, so Shaggy barreled forward as he heard several metal drones behind him run into things.

Shaggy navigated almost entirely through smell. As the warehouse was almost completely black. Cobwebs covered the odd corner and bits of garbage littered the floor. The crates he would smash into would fall to the floor and crack open, revealing nothing. They were empty. This place was clearly not being used to store goods.

When he finally heard a familiar voice, Shaggy slowed down and listened. Even as drones batted around the place.

“What do you mean, she’s gone?! She was tied up! How could you idiots lose her?!”

Shaggy turned his head to look back at Slink. Slink stared back, worried, but the boy also look a little green. The ride was clearly not agreeing with him. Shaggy followed the voice until he found a squat brick office attached to the side of the warehouse’s interior. His enormous frame, passing by the office windows, did not go unnoticed.

“What the fuck is that?!”

Shaggy dipped his head and grinned inside. There were five men and women standing in the office, all in civilian clothes. But Shaggy could recognize the large stone man that had thrown him from the apartment window. The smaller ninja was also there, standing next to an empty metal folding chair. The short brown-haired man was nursing a bandaged abdomen and was red-faced from screaming.

Shaggy was about to charge his large body through the window and bite the stone man. Or the little leader, he wasn’t picky. But an unseen voice stopped him.

“Awww boss, I didn’t think you cared.” Ephemara said, appearing next to Shaggy and patting his side.

Shaggy chuffed and ignored the petting as he glared at the plainclothes ninjas. Slink spoke up from his back, excited.

“Ephe! Great. Now, let’s get the hell out of here. I don’t like all these drones taking pictures of my face.”

Shaggy agreed, but hesitated. They still didn’t know who this group was or what they were doing. But Ephemara spoke again.

“Don’t worry, boss. I was bringing you a present.”

She held up a slim laptop and Shaggy could see she was also carrying a large bag. Probably full of her ill-gotten gains from this place. Shaggy gave her a wolfy grin as the short ninja inside the office spurted in anger.

“Fucking Hell! Get them, damn it! We can’t let them get away with that. The boss’ll kill us!”

Ephemara leapt up onto Shaggy’s back and he grunted. Two people seemed to be his limit. Turning, he made a beeline for the entrance as shouts and gunfire went off behind him. The drone’s whirring got even louder as a drone swooped in low next to his head. Shaggy nipped at it angrily as he shoulder past more empty crates.

His enlarged teeth tore easily through its metal, and the drone went tumbling over his shoulder. A loud ‘oof’ from Ephemara told him that the drone had hit the woman. She gave a triumphant cheer as Shaggy ran.

“Oh yeah, boss! Do you know how much these are worth back home?”

Slink whispered. “Can we talk around this thing? Doesn’t it, like, record everything?”

A loud electrical noise came from Shaggy’s back as Ephemara responded. “Not anymore.”

Shaggy ignored them as he saw the light from the truck entrance loom in front of him. But it was quickly disappearing as the shutters were closing. Shaggy put on an extra burst of speed as he saw shadowy figures start jumping around the various towers of boxes. He really didn’t want to deal with more ninjas right now. At least, he didn’t, until he saw the large grey bastard standing right in front of their exit.

Shaggy barreled straight at the large ninja. The ninja spread his arms like he was planning on catching Shaggy. The two collided with a muted ‘whomp’ and Shaggy felt a lot of his momentum get stopped as the large stone man dug his feet into the cement floor. A loud cackle came from the stone man and Shaggy looked down to see the ninja grinning at him. Shaggy grinned back and opened his enormous jaws. He bit down with all his might on the man’s head.

There was a loud crunch, and stone cracked under his teeth. Shaggy lifted the man by his head and kept running. He had to pick up speed again and the struggling ninja in his mouth was a pain. But Shaggy just kept biting and slid his way under the closing doors. The doors closed behind him just as he made it through. He turned to check if Ephemara and Slink were still with him. But a solid punch to his nose from the stone ninja made his eyes water. He focused his jaws muscles entirely on biting.

Soon another loud crunch sounded and Shaggy felt something warm hit his tongue. The body went limp in his mouth and Shaggy spat it out. Blinking to clear his vision, Shaggy opened his eyes to pure mayhem. The civilians had opened fire on the drones. Which had brought out more Supers. Bolts of energy and gunfire flew everywhere in the warehouse parking lot. Flying heroes and Speedsters rushed this way and that, taking out as many people as they could.

Shaggy saw even a few ninjas dressed in black battling Supers in places. His own recent murder of the stone man hadn’t gone unnoticed, either. More drones and Supers were making their way toward him. Ephemara tensed her leg muscles on his back and slapped his side.

“Mush, Wolfy! Head north. I know how we can lose them.”

Shaggy bolted forward, giving an indignant bark at being told to ‘mush.’ Several speedsters and fliers got in his path, but he mowed them down as he continued to run. The drones overhead followed, but a sharp crack from his back made them back off.

“Where did you get a gun!?” Slink asked.

“Hmph! You two took too long to find me. I was almost out of stuff to steal in that warehouse. Do you want one?”

“Fuck yeah!” Slink answered.

Soon, more cracks of gunfire came from his back as the two fired on the encroaching drones. For some reason, they left the rare speedster to Shaggy. But he had created a surefire method of stopping them at this point.

“I need you to pull over your wolf right... Blergh!”

Shaggy pulled in his broken paw as it healed. Tripping Speedsters was a rough business, but it seemed to work almost a hundred percent of the time. The few times a speedster dodged or jumped, Shaggy would snap his teeth at them. Few Speedsters could dodge while mid-air, at least that he had seen. The fliers were, again, the real pain in the ass. The constant bullets and energy blasts were draining Shaggy’s healing.

Soon the Colorado river came into view and Shaggy slowed down. But Ephemara spurred him on again.

“Into the river, Wolfy. I’ll keep the evidence safe.”

“Fuck, this is going to be freezing.” Slink complained as Shaggy increased speed again.

A bolt of electricity from a flying super made his muscles tense up for a few seconds and he missed the jump. Instead, they went tumbling down the embankment and straight into the river. The blast of cold water on his skin was soothing, but also way too chilling. He felt Slink maintain his hold, but Ephemara’s grip disappeared entirely. Looking around, he found the pale woman diving deeper into the river, her long black hair pluming out behind her.

Shaggy groaned as he doggy paddled for a while and then dove. His large mass and heavy bones made it laughably easy for him to sink almost to the bottom of the river. He did his best to follow Ephemara, but she was too fast and he was too big. So he shifted back to his human form.

Soon he was human again... and naked... with a teenage boy on his back. He quickly shook off Slink and swam after Ephemara. She had stopped at a large sewer drainage tunnel. It had large vertical bars guarding its entrance, but Shaggy figured he could handle that. A quick shift to his hands and a swipe and they were swimming down a drainage tunnel.

Every now and again, Shaggy would look back. Expecting to see a horde of Supers chasing after them. But they were clear, somehow. Soon, the tunnel curved upward and the rush of water lessened. But Ephemara didn’t swim against the current, instead she found a piece of wall and started feeling around. Shaggy felt his lungs burn as he and Slink helped. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but he was hoping he would know when he found it.

It was Slink who found it. He twisted a small pipe that was attached to the drainage wall. As soon as he did, a large opening appeared in the wall, covered in a clear bubble. Shaggy held back as Ephemara dove into the bubble. He watched as the woman’s black hair collapsed as she left the water. Realizing there was air in the bubble, Shaggy and Slink followed her.

They passed through the membrane of the bubble and collapsed to their knees. Shaggy took huge gulps of air as he shivered. Slink tossed Shaggy his wet clothes and laid on the ground panting. Ephemara was wringing out her hair as Shaggy pulled on his wet clothes. Soon the entrance closed and Ephemara spread out her arms.

“What the hell are you doing?” Shaggy coughed as he tried to put on his wet shirt.

“Driers” Ephemara said simply.

As soon as she finished speaking, a blast of hot air washed over them. It almost made it hard to breathe, but their clothes and hair were being dried. Almost as quick as it started, the driers stopped and Shaggy was standing in damp clothes instead of soaking wet ones. Ephemara tsked.

“They never get you fully dry. Well, we can see if they have towels. Common courtesy is to replace what you use. But how many villains do you know that adhere to common courtesy?”

Shaggy glanced around the empty stone room. Besides the odd bit of piping and the exit door, there wasn’t a lot to the place.

“What is this?”

Ephemara walked toward the large exit door and tried to wrench it open. “Some of the older villains in the city have their various escape tunnels. So if you know about them, you can use them. Glad I remembered this one honestly.”

“And they just let people use them?” Slink asked, confused.

“Oh, hell no. Matter of fact, if whoever owns this tunnels finds us, we are going to be screwed.”

“How do you know about this tunnel, but you don’t know who owns it?” Shaggy asked as he watched Ephemara struggle to turn the large valve handle on the door.

Ephemara grunted, still trying to open the door as she explained. “There are rumors in Under-Town. All the lesser gangs know about these things. Maybe someone did some Henching under a major villain, or maybe they were in a rival crew. You know how word gets around. Are either of you going to help me?”

Shaggy chuckled and moved to help as Slink looked around the room. “So, how do we know we aren’t being watched? Maybe whoever owns this tunnel is keeping an eye out and we could be screwed.”

“Well, deal with that when it happens. For now, let’s just be glad the Supes didn’t follow us into the river.”

“Of course not. They don’t enjoy getting their fancy equipment wet. Those HLO wrist communicators aren’t waterproof and they have to pay for replacements.” Ephemara explained.

“Ha! You’re joking?”

“So we escaped because a Super Organization skimped out on water-proofing?” Slink asked, holding back a laugh.

Ephemara joined in the laughter as Shaggy felt the door handle spin. “Pretty much. You can always trust people to cut corners.”

“I guess.” Shaggy said as the door finally opened.

A blast of metallic stale air hit Shaggy nostrils. He was surprised at how good the cold air felt on his skin and he almost closed his eyes. But a gasp from Ephemara drew his attention back to the door. As the door creaked open, they found themselves face to face with a large copper-colored automaton. Its large rectangular red eye was glaring down at them as it stood in the doorway. Its frame taking up the entire space.

“Well, shit…”