A Werewolf In Under-Town

Shaggy snapped his head back up and glanced around. The others were still looking at Petra, who had just finished talking. So no one seemed to know that he had nodded off for a few seconds there. He mentally went over what he last remembered, but most of it was related to the various minutiae of running a bar. Shaggy didn’t really get most of it, but Ren and even Slink, surprisingly, kept the conversation going.

From what he understood, they had a staffing and a supply line problem. They could use some thugs to shore up the staffing issues. But the tunnel where they got their booze was under the control of another gang. So they had to pay a surcharge just to get their ordered shipment. The gang that ran the tunnel to topside was a small off-shoot of the Quinica. Also, if they wanted more than just liquor, they were going to have to pay more.

When Ren had asked about taking the tunnel for themselves, Petra had explained that they simply didn’t have the manpower. If they took a tunnel, they would spend all their time defending it and wouldn’t have enough time to even run shipments through it. For now, it made more sense to keep paying the Quinica. But they needed to increase their payments if they wanted to include food for the bar.

Part-way through Petra’s portion of the meeting, Blobby came back with more lumber and even a few workers for Frank. Then Ephemara showed up, dragging 1138 around like it was some kind of doll. But neither of them seemed to have the stomach to sit through a business meeting, and Shaggy couldn’t blame them. Ephemara took the corpse of 1138 somewhere after assuring Shaggy the thing had been magically debugged. While Blobby took a well-earned break and socialized with some of the new crew.

“So it sounds like money is still our biggest issue.” Shaggy said, trying to sound like he had been paying attention.

Everyone turned their heads to him and stared. But he shrugged. Regardless of what they had been talking about, he probably wasn’t wrong.

“Yes, Shag. That’s why we are trying to think up other revenue streams.” Slink sighed.

Shaggy raised an eyebrow. “We just take it. Right? I mean, what did we get for those drugs we got from the Phreaks?”

“Low-cost healing from the Needle Sisters.” Ren answered.

“What else?”

“Nothing else. That was it. We turned over the bags and Rashi said we would get a discount.”

Shaggy put his head in his hands. “We didn’t ask about the crap that wasn’t medicine? There had to be something in there we could have sold.”

“I’ve told you I am not comfortable selling drugs.” Ren grunted, crossing his large gray arms over his chest.

Shaggy put his hands up. “Fine. Then we are stuck with robbing the other gangs around here and charging protection fees. Unless we want to head topside. But I tell you that’s a pain in the ass and if we start asking people for money then Vlad’s ‘hearts and minds’ shtick is going to go down fast.”

Slink nodded and tapped the table. “Once we have the bar up and running, it should be able to pay for itself. If all goes well. So all we need is the start-up capital.”

“Which we can get from the other gangs.” Ren said.

Shaggy agreed and glanced at Petra. “How much do we need and when do we need it?”

Petra looked down at her tablet and swiped a few times before she looked back up. “It’s going to take a couple thousand in credits to get everything going. Although we are saving a lot by basically kidnapping our workforce.”

Shaggy looked over at Frank and his work crew, who were all diligently working under the eye of a few thugs.

“Hey! It’s not kidnapping.” He said indignantly. “They’re all adults. That means it’s abduction. Completely different. Plus we are paying in favors.”

They all just looked at him as he grinned at himself. Soon Petra cough and continued. “Once we have the credits, we can then see about making our shipments a regular thing.”

Ren nodded. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure Tinsel and the others have scared enough of the smaller gangs off by now. But we might want to send a few people north to cement the message.”

“Yeah. So it sounds like we leave one group here and the rest split into teams and start making credits.” Shaggy cracked his knuckles happily at the thought.

“What’s the split? For the crews?” Dave asked, having spun around in his chair. Apparently, sitting backwards in a chair for a long period was bad for his legs.

Shaggy jumped at hearing Dave’s voice. The usually boisterous young man had been quiet for the past few minutes. Which surprised Shaggy. Then what Dave had said registered with him. He totaled forgot about paying their Lackeys. He was willing to bet they would leave in droves if they didn’t get rewarded for their work. Shaggy glanced at Ren and Slink.

Ren looked to be thinking, but Slink spoke up. “What about fifty percent goes to the gang and the other fifty is split between the crew that did the job? Anything found on a body is the finders. But anyone found looting during a fight doesn’t get a share.”

Shaggy raised an eyebrow as Ren clapped his large hands. “Great idea. But team leads should get a larger share, right?”

“Sure. But we can come back to that once we are fully set up. We are going to have to do something like a payroll for the entire gang eventually. But for now, we can earn goodwill with the NPCs and cement a base for ourselves.” Slink explained.

“You’ve been on the forums, haven’t you?” Shaggy said with a fang-filled smile.

Slink just grinned back and shrugged. Petra looked between them all and nodded before she stood up.

“Okay, I think that is all that I had, really. Let me know when we have the capital and Mr. Blue can place the order with his people.”

“Yeah, how does he do that anyway?” Shaggy asked.

Petra shrugged. “He sends a runner to the Quinica. They are the ones who hold the tunnel and they save or reserve our goods on their shipments.”

As Shaggy nodded, a tired-looking Vlad stepped through the large space where the bar door was going to go. He had blood down the front of his face and shirt. The vampire looked a little punch-drunk to Shaggy, but he made his way toward them and sat down in Petra’s now empty chair. Petra gave them all a smile and walked over toward Frank and Mr. Blue.

Shaggy glanced over at Vlad’s suit and cape. The vampire player had really played up the motif when he had created his character. But now the cape was torn, and the suit was dirty and bloody all over. Shaggy was about to tell Vlad to buy a change of clothes, but he let it go. Who was he to talk? He was going through clothes faster than he could buy them. In fact, he was surprised Ren's clothes were still in decent condition.

“So,” Vlad started. “Rakgu thugs are still coming into our territory, Wolfy.”

He didn’t make the statement accusatory, but the question was clearly there. Shaggy sighed. “Scholer said she would do something. Let’s be vigilant, but give her some time. We can have a group head that way, anyway. To monitor things and to go forward with our plans.”

“Plans?”

Shaggy and the others explained their idea of marching out in force and start stealing for the other gangs. Vlad nodded along understandingly and even seemed a bit excited at the prospect. After asking a few questions about the bar and the division of Lackeys, the others asked Shaggy to go over what he had wanted to tell them. After calling for Ephemara, Shaggy explained about their trip topside.

He glossed over most of the stuff about the Police Handler. Mainly focusing on the Vil’ N’s Diner and the Supers he had fought. They all had a good laugh at the five colorful motorcycle Supers and the ninjas. Both Ephemara and Slink added their own anecdotes to the story from their perspectives. Then Shaggy went over their encounter with Cog.

He explained how the old man had brought them to his Lair and the various robots they had seen. He also went over how they had been intentionally goaded into a fight and his Pyrrhic victory over the old man. The others gaped at him as he told them how he was cut in half by Cog’s robots and eventually dropped the ceiling on both of them.

“Dude, you killed a named villain? That’s freaking crazy.” Slink asked, wide-eyed.

“Yeah. I don’t think anyone’s done that yet.” Vlad added as Ren nodded in agreement.

But Shaggy shook his head. “They still haven’t. It was all a part of some ritual to make Cog young again. He had to die in battle in order for it to work, I guess. So he goaded us and then I killed him, so whatever spell was on him worked. Now he’s back, young again, and just as crazy.”

Shaggy glanced at the others as they looked at him, amazed. “What?”

“You still killed him.” Ren said simply.

“Yeah? Yeah. I guess I did. Heh.” Shaggy scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “Still doesn’t change the fact that there’s a megalomaniac topside with an army of robots.”

Vlad waved him off. “Bah! That’s a problem for the Supers. What we need to do is capitalize on this win. Did you post any of the footage?”

“Deathville doesn’t record.” Slink said, sounding annoyed.

“Still, the win would look good for us. We could get more players and start an actually League down here. Turn our Hideout into a full-scale Lair and really get shit going.”

Shaggy shrugged. “We really want to get people that way? I’d rather be a little more careful about recruiting Players. We got plenty of muscle with the Lackeys.”

“I agree. We should be a little more careful with Players we don’t know.” Ren said.

Dave coughed awkwardly and looked away. Everyone gave him chagrined looks and promised they weren’t talking about him. Shaggy coughed again before he turned back to Vlad and explained.

“I just want anyone new to gel well with the rest of us. I’m not really one for Guild-Level play. Always been more of a grunt, myself.”

Vlad nodded as he visibly calmed down. “Yeah. That’s understandable. Still, though, keep that footage.”

Shaggy agreed, and they fell into silence for a short time. Each lost in their own thoughts. Shaggy glanced around and noticed several Lackeys just loitering near the bar. They really had to wrap all this up and get their crew out there. A gang that sat around doing nothing wasn’t worth much. He looked back at his friends and rapped his knuckles on the table. When they all looked at him, he said.

“Okay, so one of us stays here and guard/babysits our bar. The rest of us split in separate directions and march on some territory.”

“The Rakgu are to the south. Do we want that headache?” Vlad asked, as he did his best to wipe the dirt from his clothes.

“East of us is the cavern wall. Not a lot to explore there.” Ren added.

“Okay. So Slink and Ephemara, you take a smaller portion of our crew. The sneakiest of the bunch and engage in some espionage down south.” Shaggy said.

Ephemara and Slink both nodded, but Chromia frowned.

“I’ll go with them. I know the area better and can point out soft targets.”

Shaggy stared at the enemy, turned ally with suspicion. He glanced at Ephemara and waved his head at the tan woman.

“She ain’t wrong, but keep an eye on her.”

Ephemara pointed a finger gun at him. “Got it, boss.”

“Standing right here.” Chromia muttered.

Slink looked excited at the prospect of traveling with his two favorite women. But Shaggy ignored it and turned to Vlad. “So, between the rest of us, who wants to pull guard duty?”

“Oh, I got guard duty, my dudes.” Dave said excitedly. “I’m going to be online for a while anyway and I can teach the crew some stuff while I’m here.”

Shaggy shrugged his shoulders and looked at Ren and Vlad. “Two directions and three of us. West is Phreak and UGB turf. North is unclaimed and to our northwest is the Brute Clan.”

Ren stretched. “I’ve seen enough of the north. Nothing but small-time thugs. But we need to clean it out for safer shipments deliveries. I think I’ll take West, though.”

Vlad didn’t disagree and instead steepled his fingers and grinned. “I have another idea. Shaggy, why don’t you take North and I’ll go topside?”

“Did you not hear my story? It’s a shitshow up there.” Shaggy said.

“Yeah, but you explained what we have to look out for. Drones and Supers. Piece of cake for a creature of the night, like me.”

Shaggy shrugged. “Whatever dude. If you get dropped into Deathville, don’t come blaming me. Guess that leaves me with the north. All we have to do now is divide up the crew and get to work.”

Ren nodded. “Yeah, but we should be on the lookout. The Rakgu are still sending their dregs at us.” Looking at Slink, Chromia, and Ephemara, he added. “Maybe y’all can look into that as well?”

Slink and the two women nodded. The rest of them fell into discussing a head count of their Lackeys. They were still getting a few filtering in, but for now, they had a large group of people. Plus, if anyone showed up while they were gone, they could be added to the defense team. They also discussed their weapon shortage. Shaggy and the others had the Professors weapons, although he hadn’t seen Ren using that hammer of his yet. But the rest of them were still woefully outgunned by the bigger gangs.

As they eventually broke apart and headed to gather their assigned Lackeys, Shaggy grinned. He was heading into virtually unknown territory. Newly powered up, with a crew of NPCs ready for a fight. He really couldn’t wait for his wife to get in here and play with them. But for now, it was another day and another adventure. Time to cause some mayhem.