The trip toward the Under-Town Arena District was rough. Vance stayed in his human form while carrying Shaggy. But the old man was moving fairly quickly and bouncing Shaggy around. Once they had arrived in the Arena District, it took a while longer just to find something to eat. Eventually, Shaggy had the old werewolf run into the arena itself and get him a few hot dogs.
He was currently seated, leaning up against the giant metal wall of the arena and stuffing plain hot dogs into his face. Dang stingy werewolf wouldn’t even spring for condiments. Savage. Shaggy winced as his legs repaired themselves and he drew a few eyes as loud pops signaled his bones repairing themselves. Vance stood nearby, looking around cagily.
“What’s with you?” Shaggy asked around a mouthful of food.
“I just don’t like crowds. They set my senses on edge.”
Shaggy took another large bite of hot dog and nodded understandingly. Ever since they arrived in the more populated main street of Under-Town, the scent trails that Shaggy could see increased heavily. The swirling motes of blue and yellow danced around, nearly obscuring his vision entirely. But he had quickly learned how to dull and block them out. Although he noted other smells didn’t have scent trails, only people.
Vance interrupted his pondering by sighing loudly. “Well, I think that’s all for today. I need to get going.”
“Whoa! What about the Man-beast form? You haven’t taught me anything about that.” Shaggy grimaced as he stood, knee and ankle still sore from healing.
“Ha! Get a few successful hunts under your belt before you worry about that. Although with how you already have the partial transformation down, I’m sure you could figure it out yourself if you wanted to. But I have other charges and most of them don’t call a dreary cave full of ruins their home.”
Shaggy threw another bite of hot dog into his mouth and chewed. He was already trying to figure out the next step to his Man-Beast form as Vance walked away with a curt nod. Shaggy waved as his mind worked at the problem. He idly watched Vance’s red scent trail grow weaker as he walked further away. When suddenly he saw another red scent trail appear in his vision.
Curious, he followed it. As Vance had explained, Red was his ‘Known Threat’ color, so somewhere on the main street was a threat that he had fought with previously. Shaggy tried to guess at who it could be, but he was drawing a blank. He finished the last of his hot dogs and continued south along the road, watching the other scent trails around him while shutting down the scents further away from him.
Shaggy was confused as he followed the red scent trail until it landed on a large group of people who looked like they had recently been in a fight. There were men and women in fancy suits laying in the dirt in surrounding a weird mix of people. There was a cowboy, complete with hat and boots with spurs in them, a slim green giantess of a woman with long black hair, a short person in a black hoodie, an old man in military cargo pants and a plain shirt, and a…
“Professor?!” Shaggy shouted.
The six foot green lizard man in a lab coat spun around, weapons raised. Shaggy immediately noticed his friend’s shiny new black armor and, as he looked, he realized that some of the others in the professor’s group were also wearing the same type of armor. Some even had a weird symbol on their armor. It looked like a star in a circle.
“Shaggy! Hey, hows it going?” The Professor asked as he kicked over one of the men in the street and started looting.
The Professor’s party members joined in as Shaggy moved close. As he did, he realized that the men on the floor probably belonged to the Rakgu family. They were dressed like old-fashioned mobsters and Shaggy saw a few old-fashioned Tommy guns laying in the street. When he noticed the large crates some of the Professor’s party members were carrying, he understood.
“Ahhhhh, I see the Rakgu have made their stance on your illegal selling clear to you.” Shaggy nodded.
“Actually,” said the green giantess in a posh accent. “they just demanded that we had over our crates and go with them. We disagreed.”
“Vehemently.” said another woman’s voice coming from under the black hood.
“Oh.” Shaggy said, glancing between the two. His scent trails marked the giantess as an alien and the short hooded one as a mutant.
“These Rakgu anything to be worried about?” asked a large man in wizard robes standing behind the Professor and still glancing around for threats.
Shaggy nodded. “Oh yeah, they are one of Under-Town’s Big Four. One of the top gangs down here. They also didn’t take kindly to the Prof here peddling his wares on THEIR street.”
“Damn Doc, you really have a knack for pissing people off.” Said a young sandy-haired teen who was helping hold a crate.
The Professor shook his lizard head and said. “Hey, it ain’t my fault. They didn’t stop me last time, so how was I supposed to know?”
Shaggy’s attention was back to the two crates of goods the Professor’s group was carrying. He grinned as he thought about what could be in them. He also thought he had an idea of where they were going. But thought he could see if he could get weapons for his group as well.
“Well, unfortunately, most of the sizable groups down here don’t really like people trading in their territory without them getting a cut. Of course, me and my group would be more than happy to take some stuff off your hands.”
Shaggy saw the other players tense up as the Professor stood. The Professor gave a throaty chuckle as he patted a nearby crate that another two teens were carrying.
“Don’t worry, your and the guy’s stuff is in this one. But I was hoping to get most of this to the Brute Clan.”
Shaggy nodded, watching the weary glances he was getting from the others. “That makes sense. Then let’s go. Me and the guys are set up a few blocks east of your lizard friends.”
“Oh, you met them?”
“Oh yeah, Vlad’s with them now, trying to set up some kind of non-aggression pact.”
The old cowboy chuckled. “Don’t wanna tangle with a few dozen lizards, huh?”
Shaggy snorted. “A few dozen? There are hundreds down here. All built like your wizard friend here and at least a foot taller. Really Prof, you should have told me more about them. Damn guys snuck up on us as we were clearing our territory of riff-raff.”
“How does anyone from the Brute Clan sneak up on anyone?” Said the blonde teen. They had started back down the street, eyes open for more Rakgu family members.
“Hey, they can be pretty sneaky when they want to be. Also, we had just cleared out a group of thugs, so we were a bit lax in our observation skills.”
“Can you go back to there being hundreds of Brute Clan members down here?” The Professor asked.
Shaggy nodded, confused. “You didn’t know? There are at least three other full Brute Clans down here now. Although now that I think about it, Wulkun said they had just arrived.”
“You didn’t bring enough weapons, Prof.” The old cowboy chuckled.
Shaggy saw the professor sigh. “They get what they get. I can only make so much and I don’t want to spend all my time building stuff.”
“I got to get my own crafter down here.” Shaggy said with a pointed look at all their armor. “The benefits far outweigh the cost. Plus, I know a pretty decent spot to ‘shop’ at, eh, Professor?”
The Professor gave him a tooth-filled grin showing off a long row of short pointed teeth. Shaggy was about to ask what his friend had brought them when the thudding of footsteps interrupted him. They had barely gone a few blocks when more Rakgu seemed to show up out of the alleyways and buildings surrounding them. Shaggy grimaced as he recognized the bespoke suit and figure of Mr. Tillani.
“So, we meet again, my friend. I thought yous and yours were out on Dirt Row.”
Shaggy snorted and glanced around casually. “What, I’m not allowed to venture out, Mr. Tillani? I can have business elsewhere.”
Mr. Tillani grinned with a smile that did not reach his eyes.
“Oh sure, you can go wherever you please in Under-Town. However, I told you that my people can hold a grudge and it would be better if you made yourself scarce. At least for a short time. But now I find you traipsing through our territory with a known seller of illicit goods.”
“Oh please, let’s not pretend it’s the nature of the goods you disagree with. It’s the fact that you didn’t get a cut of the sales.” Shaggy chuckled.
“While that is correct.” Tillani said through gritted teeth. “It’s more about respect. When some jumped-up Supe lizard comes into our territory and starts selling goods, we are supposed to get a cut. He owes us!”
“Well, considering I did not know I was supposed to kick anything up to you. I would say that’s your problem. Also, if I recall correctly, I was under the Quinica’s protection at the time.” The Professor had one his large bore energy pistols out and casually hanging by his side as he addressed Tillani.
Tillani turned his angry gaze toward the lizard-man. “Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Although I was unaware of your Quinica connection, that will be addressed in due time. For now, you will hand over those two crates and we will allow you to leave.”
Shaggy chuckled as he watched the Professor and his group readying their weapons. The cowboy drew what looked like two laser pistols while the giantess took up a boxing stance. The woman in the black hoodie seemed to summon the shadows to her arms, the large man in robes summoned both ice and fire in his palms. Even the blonde boy drew two stun batons.
“Hahahaha. Oh, Mr. Tillani, you should really check who you are messing with before you risk what? Twenty or thirty guys.”
Tillani grimaced at the group and glared at Shaggy. “They are nothing we can’t handle.”
“Oh, I wasn’t talking about them. I meant me!”
Shaggy felt his voice drop to a growl as he focused on his transformation. He heard his bones shift and pop as he felt himself growing larger. He tried to maintain eye contact with Tillani, but the pain was still too much, so he grimaced and shut his eyes. Focused on shifting. He heard a few exclamations coming from both the Professor’s group and Tillani’s as he felt his front paws come into contact with the dirt.
As he felt the pain ease away, Shaggy opened his eyes and shook his wolf head. He preened a bit at the looks he was getting from both groups and even a few bystanders. But soon he dropped his head and growled menacingly at the onlooking Rakgu thugs. He thought he saw a few of Tillani’s group gulp fearfully. Tillani, himself, just looked annoyed as he looked around at his fearful crew.
“I told you before about loyalties and how careful you should be about showing them. It seems you haven’t taken me seriously. We will withdraw, but know this is not over for you or your little friends.” Tillani said through gritted teeth.
“Meh. I’d say we were more frenemies. Eh, Shaggy?” The Professor’s voice said from beside Shaggy’s lupine head.
Shaggy looked over before nodding along with the lizard man. Who he noted was just slightly shorter than his Werewolf form. He grimaced internally at his own small stature before he shook it off and glared at the retreating gangsters. A glare that was entirely ruined by almost every one of the Professor’s group walking over and rubbing Shaggy’s fur.
“Now that is soft.” Said the old cowboy.
“It is indeed.”
“Fluffy.”
Shaggy shuddered, uncomfortable with how good everyone's scratches felt. He shook his massive body and walked back down the street. He kept his head on a swivel for more of Tillani’s men and tried to document as many scents from them as he could. Nearby, he heard the old man in military pants ask the Professor in a whispered tone.
“He one of them?”
Shaggy turned in time to see the Professor nod along. He tilted his head inquisitively, but the lizard waved him off. Shaggy trotted along with them for a short distance before his size became an issue in the growing crowd of people. Shaggy wondered if they were so apathetic about his appearance because they were NPCs or because he wasn’t attacking. But he soon felt the need to shift back, but that meant he had a problem.
The trip toward the Under-Town Arena District was rough. Vance stayed in his human form while carrying Shaggy. But the old man was moving fairly quickly and bouncing Shaggy around. Once they had arrived in the Arena District, it took a while longer just to find something to eat. Eventually, Shaggy had the old werewolf run into the arena itself and get him a few hot dogs.
He was currently seated, leaning up against the giant metal wall of the arena and stuffing plain hot dogs into his face. Dang stingy werewolf wouldn’t even spring for condiments. Savage. Shaggy winced as his legs repaired themselves and he drew a few eyes as loud pops signaled his bones repairing themselves. Vance stood nearby, looking around cagily.
“What’s with you?” Shaggy asked around a mouthful of food.
“I just don’t like crowds. They set my senses on edge.”
Shaggy took another large bite of hot dog and nodded understandingly. Ever since they arrived in the more populated main street of Under-Town, the scent trails that Shaggy could see increased heavily. The swirling motes of blue and yellow danced around, nearly obscuring his vision entirely. But he had quickly learned how to dull and block them out. Although he noted other smells didn’t have scent trails, only people.
Vance interrupted his pondering by sighing loudly. “Well, I think that’s all for today. I need to get going.”
“Whoa! What about the Man-beast form? You haven’t taught me anything about that.” Shaggy grimaced as he stood, knee and ankle still sore from healing.
“Ha! Get a few successful hunts under your belt before you worry about that. Although with how you already have the partial transformation down, I’m sure you could figure it out yourself if you wanted to. But I have other charges and most of them don’t call a dreary cave full of ruins their home.”
Shaggy threw another bite of hot dog into his mouth and chewed. He was already trying to figure out the next step to his Man-Beast form as Vance walked away with a curt nod. Shaggy waved as his mind worked at the problem. He idly watched Vance’s red scent trail grow weaker as he walked further away. When suddenly he saw another red scent trail appear in his vision.
Curious, he followed it. As Vance had explained, Red was his ‘Known Threat’ color, so somewhere on the main street was a threat that he had fought with previously. Shaggy tried to guess at who it could be, but he was drawing a blank. He finished the last of his hot dogs and continued south along the road, watching the other scent trails around him while shutting down the scents further away from him.
Shaggy was confused as he followed the red scent trail until it landed on a large group of people who looked like they had recently been in a fight. There were men and women in fancy suits laying in the dirt in surrounding a weird mix of people. There was a cowboy, complete with hat and boots with spurs in them, a slim green giantess of a woman with long black hair, a short person in a black hoodie, an old man in military cargo pants and a plain shirt, and a…
“Professor?!” Shaggy shouted.
The six foot green lizard man in a lab coat spun around, weapons raised. Shaggy immediately noticed his friend’s shiny new black armor and, as he looked, he realized that some of the others in the professor’s group were also wearing the same type of armor. Some even had a weird symbol on their armor. It looked like a star in a circle.
“Shaggy! Hey, hows it going?” The Professor asked as he kicked over one of the men in the street and started looting.
The Professor’s party members joined in as Shaggy moved close. As he did, he realized that the men on the floor probably belonged to the Rakgu family. They were dressed like old-fashioned mobsters and Shaggy saw a few old-fashioned Tommy guns laying in the street. When he noticed the large crates some of the Professor’s party members were carrying, he understood.
“Ahhhhh, I see the Rakgu have made their stance on your illegal selling clear to you.” Shaggy nodded.
“Actually,” said the green giantess in a posh accent. “they just demanded that we had over our crates and go with them. We disagreed.”
“Vehemently.” said another woman’s voice coming from under the black hood.
“Oh.” Shaggy said, glancing between the two. His scent trails marked the giantess as an alien and the short hooded one as a mutant.
“These Rakgu anything to be worried about?” asked a large man in wizard robes standing behind the Professor and still glancing around for threats.
Shaggy nodded. “Oh yeah, they are one of Under-Town’s Big Four. One of the top gangs down here. They also didn’t take kindly to the Prof here peddling his wares on THEIR street.”
“Damn Doc, you really have a knack for pissing people off.” Said a young sandy-haired teen who was helping hold a crate.
The Professor shook his lizard head and said. “Hey, it ain’t my fault. They didn’t stop me last time, so how was I supposed to know?”
Shaggy’s attention was back to the two crates of goods the Professor’s group was carrying. He grinned as he thought about what could be in them. He also thought he had an idea of where they were going. But thought he could see if he could get weapons for his group as well.
“Well, unfortunately, most of the sizable groups down here don’t really like people trading in their territory without them getting a cut. Of course, me and my group would be more than happy to take some stuff off your hands.”
Shaggy saw the other players tense up as the Professor stood. The Professor gave a throaty chuckle as he patted a nearby crate that another two teens were carrying.
“Don’t worry, your and the guy’s stuff is in this one. But I was hoping to get most of this to the Brute Clan.”
Shaggy nodded, watching the weary glances he was getting from the others. “That makes sense. Then let’s go. Me and the guys are set up a few blocks east of your lizard friends.”
“Oh, you met them?”
“Oh yeah, Vlad’s with them now, trying to set up some kind of non-aggression pact.”
The old cowboy chuckled. “Don’t wanna tangle with a few dozen lizards, huh?”
Shaggy snorted. “A few dozen? There are hundreds down here. All built like your wizard friend here and at least a foot taller. Really Prof, you should have told me more about them. Damn guys snuck up on us as we were clearing our territory of riff-raff.”
“How does anyone from the Brute Clan sneak up on anyone?” Said the blonde teen. They had started back down the street, eyes open for more Rakgu family members.
“Hey, they can be pretty sneaky when they want to be. Also, we had just cleared out a group of thugs, so we were a bit lax in our observation skills.”
“Can you go back to there being hundreds of Brute Clan members down here?” The Professor asked.
Shaggy nodded, confused. “You didn’t know? There are at least three other full Brute Clans down here now. Although now that I think about it, Wulkun said they had just arrived.”
“You didn’t bring enough weapons, Prof.” The old cowboy chuckled.
Shaggy saw the professor sigh. “They get what they get. I can only make so much and I don’t want to spend all my time building stuff.”
“I got to get my own crafter down here.” Shaggy said with a pointed look at all their armor. “The benefits far outweigh the cost. Plus, I know a pretty decent spot to ‘shop’ at, eh, Professor?”
The Professor gave him a tooth-filled grin showing off a long row of short pointed teeth. Shaggy was about to ask what his friend had brought them when the thudding of footsteps interrupted him. They had barely gone a few blocks when more Rakgu seemed to show up out of the alleyways and buildings surrounding them. Shaggy grimaced as he recognized the bespoke suit and figure of Mr. Tillani.
“So, we meet again, my friend. I thought yous and yours were out on Dirt Row.”
Shaggy snorted and glanced around casually. “What, I’m not allowed to venture out, Mr. Tillani? I can have business elsewhere.”
Mr. Tillani grinned with a smile that did not reach his eyes.
“Oh sure, you can go wherever you please in Under-Town. However, I told you that my people can hold a grudge and it would be better if you made yourself scarce. At least for a short time. But now I find you traipsing through our territory with a known seller of illicit goods.”
“Oh please, let’s not pretend it’s the nature of the goods you disagree with. It’s the fact that you didn’t get a cut of the sales.” Shaggy chuckled.
“While that is correct.” Tillani said through gritted teeth. “It’s more about respect. When some jumped-up Supe lizard comes into our territory and starts selling goods, we are supposed to get a cut. He owes us!”
“Well, considering I did not know I was supposed to kick anything up to you. I would say that’s your problem. Also, if I recall correctly, I was under the Quinica’s protection at the time.” The Professor had one his large bore energy pistols out and casually hanging by his side as he addressed Tillani.
Tillani turned his angry gaze toward the lizard-man. “Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Although I was unaware of your Quinica connection, that will be addressed in due time. For now, you will hand over those two crates and we will allow you to leave.”
Shaggy chuckled as he watched the Professor and his group readying their weapons. The cowboy drew what looked like two laser pistols while the giantess took up a boxing stance. The woman in the black hoodie seemed to summon the shadows to her arms, the large man in robes summoned both ice and fire in his palms. Even the blonde boy drew two stun batons.
“Hahahaha. Oh, Mr. Tillani, you should really check who you are messing with before you risk what? Twenty or thirty guys.”
Tillani grimaced at the group and glared at Shaggy. “They are nothing we can’t handle.”
“Oh, I wasn’t talking about them. I meant me!”
Shaggy felt his voice drop to a growl as he focused on his transformation. He heard his bones shift and pop as he felt himself growing larger. He tried to maintain eye contact with Tillani, but the pain was still too much, so he grimaced and shut his eyes. Focused on shifting. He heard a few exclamations coming from both the Professor’s group and Tillani’s as he felt his front paws come into contact with the dirt.
As he felt the pain ease away, Shaggy opened his eyes and shook his wolf head. He preened a bit at the looks he was getting from both groups and even a few bystanders. But soon he dropped his head and growled menacingly at the onlooking Rakgu thugs. He thought he saw a few of Tillani’s group gulp fearfully. Tillani, himself, just looked annoyed as he looked around at his fearful crew.
“I told you before about loyalties and how careful you should be about showing them. It seems you haven’t taken me seriously. We will withdraw, but know this is not over for you or your little friends.” Tillani said through gritted teeth.
“Meh. I’d say we were more frenemies. Eh, Shaggy?” The Professor’s voice said from beside Shaggy’s lupine head.
Shaggy looked over before nodding along with the lizard man. Who he noted was just slightly shorter than his Werewolf form. He grimaced internally at his own small stature before he shook it off and glared at the retreating gangsters. A glare that was entirely ruined by almost every one of the Professor’s group walking over and rubbing Shaggy’s fur.
“Now that is soft.” Said the old cowboy.
“It is indeed.”
“Fluffy.”
Shaggy shuddered, uncomfortable with how good everyone's scratches felt. He shook his massive body and walked back down the street. He kept his head on a swivel for more of Tillani’s men and tried to document as many scents from them as he could. Nearby, he heard the old man in military pants ask the Professor in a whispered tone.
“He one of them?”
Shaggy turned in time to see the Professor nod along. He tilted his head inquisitively, but the lizard waved him off. Shaggy trotted along with them for a short distance before his size became an issue in the growing crowd of people. Shaggy wondered if they were so apathetic about his appearance because they were NPCs or because he wasn’t attacking. But he soon felt the need to shift back, but that meant he had a problem.
