A Werewolf In Under-Town

After several more hours of sweaty back-breaking work and Shaggy was hot, annoyed, and ready to claw the eyes out of the next person to shoot him an ugly glare. After his lunch-time altercation with Ralph, he had several humans and aliens shoot him the stink eye. Or Alien equivalent. Ren seemed to get a few surly looks as well, but Shaggy was sure his giant friend was a little more intimidating than him. Still, Shaggy put his head down and kept working, moving palettes into various trucks going toward various sites.

Shaggy briefly thought about asking where some of those trucks were going. But with Dave still in possession of the stolen tablet, they would find out eventually. Not to mention what Vlad and Slink were digging up in the Spiegal Brothers offices. So instead he busied himself marking and cataloging the smells of ever bastard that looked at him sideways. Ralph still hadn’t come back from the doctor’s office, which seemed a little odd.

Soon a loud whistle blew, and his day came to an abrupt end. Shaggy grunted and dropped the palette-jack he’d been dragging around. A few more surly looks in his direction made him grit his teeth and return the piece of equipment, but he flipped several people the bird as he did.

“Making friends everywhere, huh?” Ren asked as he trudged next to Shaggy.

Shaggy merely grunted as he took off his sweaty work-shirt and sighed loudly. Just outside the warehouse, their furry boss was handing out envelopes to a few workers. Dave was chatting away at her and their surly boss looked ready to decapitate the talkative mutant. Shaggy and Ren moved to grab their friend, but a group of people got in their way. Almost as one.

Shaggy sighed as he mentally counted everyone in the group. There were eight of them. All marked by Shaggy’s scent ability. Meaning that at some point during the workday, they had shot him angry looks. Shaggy guessed they were fellow union workers like Ralph. The new short leader stepped forward. It was another alien. This one had the pale skin-tone, but four eyes climbed up his forehead, each blinking separately at both Shaggy and Ren.

Shaggy cracked his knuckles and got ready for a fight.

“Finally.” He thought as he marched forward aggressively.

“Uh… uh… we need you both at the meeting.” The four-eyed alien stammered, quickly back-pedaling away from Shaggy.

It took him a few seconds to register what had been said, but once Shaggy processed it, he stopped dead in his tracks. Ren, who had been a little more reluctant to fight in a company warehouse, blew out a tired breath and asked.

“What meeting?”

Four-eyes gulp as he stared at Shaggy’s angry posture, but answered. “The union meeting. We have to get you guys to fill out the cards and then you can be part of the union.”

“I don’t think…”

“We’ll be there.” Ren interrupted. “Just let us know where.”

Shaggy snapped his head around so fast, he heard his neck pop in several places. He missed the alien union workers’ directions as he shot his most incredulous look at Ren. The Perinadon ignored him and seemed to memorize the address he was given. Shaggy made a noise somewhere between a grunt and growl and stomped off. Dave was still bothering their boss and Shaggy wanted to get out of the stifling warehouse.

“So then, you know, the hero transforms into this, like, armored avenger. Willing to fight all sorts of crime and, like, bad guys. He even has this sweet-ass motorcycle that he drives around on, fighting crime.”

“And this is all thanks to some sort of alien belt thing?” The boss asked, sounding weirdly entertained.

Dave shook his head. “Naw, not really. I mean, the belt helped. But it more awakened what was already within our hero.”

“It also signaled to the belt’s ancient enemy that a new hero had arisen?”

“Exactly!” Dave shouted excitedly.

Shaggy stared at what was the oddest conversation he had ever heard. Neither Dave nor the boss had registered his approach, and Dave looked ready to expound further about a belt-clad, transforming hero. But Shaggy shook off his confusion and placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“Dude, we gotta meet the others.”

Dave’s smile briefly fell, but he quickly replaced it as he nodded amicably. “Ah, sure dude. I was just telling Cla’ruun about my powers.”

Shaggy raised an eyebrow, but the furry alien woman, Cla’ruun, chuckled as she said. “No. I asked you about your powers and you exploded into some fanciful tale about an alien belt with body-morphing powers. Don’t get me wrong, I have seen my fair share of alien tech, but nothing powerful enough to make a normie human, powerful enough to go toe-to-toe with an ancient alien race.”

Dave’s smiled widened. “It was all just a precursor, Clar. Just the appetizer I was getting to my mutant abilities. Promise.”

Shaggy’s brain stalled as Cla’ruun smiled back at Dave. He couldn’t figure out what made the dude so likable to people. The angry boss-lady hadn’t screamed at anyone in the past couple of minutes. In fact, she seemed generally happy to discuss what Shaggy was sure was an old show with Dave. Shaggy shook his head and tried to interject in the conversation again.

“Tell her later, my dude. Works over.”

Cla’ruun shot Shaggy an angry look, which he just shrugged at and waved toward an approaching Ren.

“We said we would meet up with our friends and talk about work. How it went, what we thought. Y’know?”

“We did?” Dave asked, clearly confused.

Shaggy just nodded as Ren arrived and grabbed a money envelope from Cla’ruun.

“Thank you very much, ma’am. It has been a fulfilling day. See you tomorrow.” Ren said cheerfully as he pocketed the money envelope.

“Bullshit!” Cla’ruun grinned. “You bastards were disruptive as hell at lunch. Granted, Ralph probably started it. But that’s how some of those Union guys are.”

Shaggy simply grunted as he tried to turn Dave toward the main office building of Spiegal Construction. Dave almost tripped on his own feet, but caught himself and waved goodbye to their surly warehouse boss.

“Bye, Clar. I’ll tell you the rest of the story later!”

Shaggy rolled his eyes and kept walking as he flung his damp shirt over his shoulder. Even with the sun going down, he was still hot as hell. Thanks to his in-game stats and abilities, he was in way better shape than in he was in real life. But a full day of picking up and moving palettes would make anyone sweat.

They had just gotten to the front door when it swung open and a small stream of people came pouring out. They got plenty of odd looks as they waited for the stampede of office workers to stop. Everyone seemed extremely eager to leave, which Shaggy could understand. This manual labor stuff really wasn’t for him.

“Hey!” Shaggy suddenly shouted, surprising several people. Ignoring them, he slammed a fist into Ren’s enormous arm.

“What the hell was all that about with the Union shit?”

Ren turned and looked down at Shaggy before he sighed. “It’s another avenue of information. We could do with several up here. I feel that this is going to be a long job.”

“Whoa! So you mean, like, I’m going to have to drive around again tomorrow? No bueno dude.”

“Okay, you can shut up. You weren’t sweating all day in a hot-ass warehouse with various jackasses glaring at you all day.”

Ren sighed louder. “Just ignore them. You broke their friend’s chest.”

Shaggy grumbled incoherently and waved a hand. “Bah! It was his own fault. We all knew where that shit was going. Same place this little ‘meeting’ they want us to attend is going. It’s going to be an ambush and we’re going to have to fight our way out and probably get in trouble with another criminal organization.”

“Aren’t they, like, a Union? Y’know, a group of people designed to fight for the rights of the workers?” Dave questioned as the office doors closed shut.

“Pfft. Those were absolutely gangsters. Probably got the whole construction business under their purview.” Shaggy said smugly.

“You’ve watched too many vids.” Ren muttered as he scanned the slowly diminishing crowd of office workers.

Shaggy wrenched the front door opened and sighed as a blast of cool air hit his bare chest. “Mark my words, they are going to jump us at that meeting.”

“Fine. Then don’t go.”

“Oh, hell no. I’m not missing that. It’s been over six hours since I hit someone and that is a fucking travesty.”

Dave followed them into the office building and past the main desk. “Dude, you might have, like, anger issues. I’d look into that. Maybe take up a hobby, find something to help you mellow?”

“Excuse me, the office is…” the new guy at the front desk started to say.

Shaggy shot the guy an angry look and kept walking toward the door to the stairs.

“I have a hobby. It’s smacking stupid people.” Shaggy said as he turned his glare back to his destination.

They had just made it to the door to the stairs when it swung open and a tired-looking Slink stepped out. He caught sight of all of them and smiled. But Shaggy didn’t see Vlad. He gave the young boy a questioning look, but Slink moved toward a nearby water dispenser embedded into the wall.

After a quick drink, Slink sighed. “That was a long ass, boring day.”

“Really?” Shaggy muttered, crossing his arms. “That’s so sad for you.”

Shaggy felt pain flare in the back of his head as Ren smacked him. “Shut up already. We’ll get you something to do later. Where’s vamps?”

Slink gulped down another drink of water before smiling. “Upstairs. A victim of his own success.”

Shaggy couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face. “Stuck in a cubicle, huh?”

“Oh yeah, poor pale bastard can file paperwork faster than most. Even those with multiple arms. Also, office politics probably dictated that he handle all the shit work.”

“Ha! Sucks for him.” Shaggy guffawed.

“Fuck you too, Wolfy.” Vlad’s voice said by Shaggy’s ear.

“AAAHHHHH Fuck!”

Shaggy jumped a full ten feet into the air, head slamming into the ceiling with a meaty thud. He felt the several minor cuts heal as he spun angrily on his vampire friend. Vlad didn’t look any different after a long day at the office. Maybe a little pale, but he was a vampire. Shaggy blocked out the others’ laughter as he reached for his friend’s collar.

“What the fuck, vamps?”

Vlad merely smiled and waved toward the front door. Everyone left in the office chuckled as they made their way out of the foyer. Vlad gave a short wave to the receptionist.

“See ya later, jimmy. Have a good one.”

Shaggy saw Jimmy the receptionist try to hide his own mirth as he and his friends made it to the front door. It had been a good gag, and Shaggy appreciated the levity. But he really wanted to punch something now. He aimed a kick at Vlad’s knee as they exited the building. There was a loud, satisfying pop as Vlad went down. His left leg could no longer support his weight.

“Damn mutt!” Vlad yelled loudly as he tried to right himself using the building.

Shaggy laughed as the others started shouting over each other. Ren and Slink seemed to think he went too far. But Dave just laughed good-naturedly. Soon enough, Vlad’s leg healed, and they made their way toward the street. Shaggy was sure Vlad was going to strike back, but the nearby K-Tech guards probably stopped him from retaliating.

Shaggy kept an eye out in-case the guards did something. But they mostly gave them a quick once over and left his group alone. Once out and across the street, Shaggy glanced left and right. Ren waved them westward down the street and the others followed. Shaggy groaned loudly as the sun set and cars passed them.

“We really need a car.”

“You could go full wolf again and we could ride you.” Slink said with mirth.

Vlad and Dave smiled and looked and Shaggy expectantly. But he shook his head. “Not happening.”

“Besides, we don’t need it. We aren’t going very far. The Union meeting is at an all-night diner down this road. Apparently, the union guys meet there some nights after work.” Ren explained.

“We’re going to a Union meeting?” Vlad questioned.

Shaggy cackled and shook his head. “No. We’re going to an ambush. We got into it with a couple of crooked Union guys and Ren went and made friends with them.”

“Eighty percent of that is in your head.” Ren said. “That guy was a little pushy, but the others seemed fine. This is going to be a nice quiet meeting where they explain their Union and try to get us to join.”

Shaggy blew a raspberry at the grey alien, but said nothing. They continued down the sidewalk having idle conversations until Slink asked.

“Wait, so are we joining their Union. I don’t know about you guys, but my day sucked. I was an office gopher all damn day and getting people their paperwork and coffee is not how I want to spend my time.”

“Agreed.” Vlad said.

“Please, you bastards don’t know how good you had it. We were out there sweating in a hot warehouse while Dave here…” Shaggy trailed off as he turned to look at Dave.

Dave had his head down and was reading over a large data-tablet. Shaggy grinned as he moved to look at what Dave was reading.

“Wait, this is the thing you pulled from furry lady’s office, right?”

“Okay, dude. Her name was Cla’ruun, and she was a lovely person. But yes, this is what we stole. I copied over as much of her system as I could with the time I had. Looks like I got a bunch of their satellite locations and work sites.”

The others all stopped, and they all bent their heads over the tablet. Shaggy really couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Except that it seemed to list addresses and shipment numbers. He almost jumped for joy.

“Fuck yeah! So we’re done right? We hit a few of these locations, set a few fires and then run back home, yeah?”

Ren and Vlad glared at him like he was an idiot as Slink carefully took the tablet from Dave.

“You remember that K-Tech is guarding some of these places, right?” Vlad asked.

“Yeah, but…”

“And you know, even if we stop some of these projects, it’s not going to ‘ruin’ Frank’s rival.” Ren added.

Shaggy growled in his throat as the horrible realization that he was probably going to continue warehouse work weighed on him. Slink and Dave continued to pour over the tablet as Ren moved the group further along. Vlad just gave Shaggy a smug look before they got to the end of the block and turned the corner.

Ren stopped after the corner and looked up the north-heading street. Even if the big guy didn’t raise his hand and point at their destination, Shaggy could’ve probably guessed. The squat three-story brick building didn’t stick out that much. But the bright blue and red neon sign, emblazoned with the name ‘Callahan’s’, lit up the darkening sky. Shaggy grinned as he pulled on his shirt. The sweaty stench of the shirt stung his nose, but he ignored it as the thought of the coming fight filled him with glee.

“Jeez, maybe I do have a problem.” Shaggy thought as they all started walking toward the diner.

Shaggy cracked his knuckles and grinned at everyone. He could hear the sounds of carousing and the smell of food wafted from the building. He even could see several scent trails he had marked earlier in the day. Vlad and Ren gave him disapproving looks while Dave was smiling happily at the sounds of merriment coming from inside. Slink was still perusing the tablet.

“Shags, don’t start shit,” Vlad said warningly.

“Oh, shit’s about to start.” Shaggy grinned, “but I’m going to let them start it.”

Ren sighed and pinched his horn with his massive fingers. “Just don’t kill anyone. Please. We don’t want to spend our time up here running from police drones.”

Shaggy nodded absently as he shoved his way into the bar. The sounds of and smells of exhausted workers relaxing after a hard day’s work ground to a halt as he and his friends marched their way in.

Shaggy grinned. “So tell me about this... Union.”