Shaggy was sweaty and annoyed. After hours of moving Pallets to and from various white trucks, he was beginning to hate everything and everyone. It didn’t help that, for some reason, the other nearby employees weren’t moving the pallets in his area. Also, the damn metal warehouse was a fucking sweat-box. He had to take multiple breaks to get water, although a snooty-looking bastard in a suit and tie seemed to mark down the number of times he got a water break. A low growl and a hateful glare had been enough to send the little snot running. Which was the high point of Shaggy’s workday.
He caught glimpses of Ren off in the warehouse, lifting pallets like they weighed nothing and marching around the warehouse. The eight-foot alien wasn’t the only Super-Strong worker the company had, but the rhino-man was fairly easy to spot. Shaggy could tell that Ren was also oddly ostracized by their fellow workers. He really wanted to figure that out, but anytime he approached his fellow workers, they scattered like a bunch of cockroaches.
He caught sight of Dave a few times as well. But even the normally chatty player was being stonewalled by the rest of the employees. Dave took it all in stride and even forced his friendship on several of the drivers. But Shaggy couldn’t tell if that had born fruit yet. But at least Dave was allowed out of the sweltering hot box Shaggy found himself caged in.
He even tried to find out why there wasn’t any air conditioning in the damn place. But the surly alien supervisor just yelled at him to get back to work. Shaggy had to physically stop himself from impaling the furry bitch on his claws. If she wasn’t shouting herself hoarse at a random worker, she was holed up in her office in the center of the warehouse. Which Shaggy was sure was air-conditioned. He made a mental note of its placement and went back to moving pallets.
The work was fairly easy. He just moved the pallets to their corresponding truck and threw the damn thing in. A few drivers had griped about proper placement, but Shaggy just flashed his pointed teeth and they left it alone. He had just tossed another pallet into the back of a white truck when a loud whistle resounded through the warehouse. Shaggy had to cover his ears as the sound shook his damn skull.
“Alright, pansies! Get some chow in ya and then get back here on the double. Lunch is thirty minutes. If you go even one minute over, I’m docking you a full hour’s pay! Got that!?”
Shaggy bit back a retort and wiped a hand over his sweaty face. He briefly worried about heat exhaustion as he trudged out of the warehouse and into the relative coolness of the outside. The sun was on its way down, but the Texas heat still beat down on them. Shaggy caught sight of Ren’s large form heading toward a shady spot near the office building and moved to follow. He could see some of the other workers pulling out lunch boxes and paper bags, but he really didn’t feel like eating right now.
“Dude!” A thump on Shaggy’s back made him trip forward a bit.
He stopped himself from turning and decking the grinning face of Dave. The happy-go-lucky player was shuffling along on his feet like he didn’t have a care in the world. Shaggy grunted through gritted teeth and said.
“Having fun Dave?”
Dave nodded rapidly as they approached Ren. “For sure, Shags. I mean, driving around all day is pretty boring, but at least I got me some tunes. Also, did you know there is a player that’s a radio DJ? Least I think they’re a player. It’s fucking wild dude.”
Shaggy merely grunted as they joined a tired-looking Ren in the offices building’s shadow. The shade of the building helped, but Shaggy was tempted to take off his t-shirt and used it to sop up the damn sweat he was practically swimming in. Dave looked at both of them before he snorted.
“Dudes. Y’all are, like, completely sweaty.”
Shaggy and Ren glanced at each other before they glared at the smiling player. Their glares seemed to bounce off Dave’s shield of cluelessness. Shaggy sighed and moved to sit next to Ren. Dave joined him and the three of them put their heads together. Shaggy was about to tell them how useless his day had been, but Ren held up a large grey hand. In the center of his palm was a slim piece of paper with the words ‘We’re being watched’ printed on it. Shaggy raised an eyebrow as Dave immediately started looking around.
Ren jerked their friend’s head back around and shook his head. Shaggy sighed and started looking for something to write on. Ren seemed to get what was happening and dug into his pant pockets. Soon the three of them were tearing bits of paper and writing quick messages.
“Why?” Shaggy wrote.
Ren just shook his head as Dave rapidly scrawled something.
“Like, is it the cops, dudes?”
Shaggy blinked at the fact that the man wrote like he spoke, but Ren shook his head again and wrote his own quick message.
“It’s the employees.”
“Company loyalty?”
“Don’t think so.”
“Maybe it’s, like, a body snatcher situation?”
“What do we do?”
Ren was scribbling down an answer when a loud voice shattered their quiet conversation.
“Hey! Who are you guys with?”
The three of them turned and stood as a tan-skinned man and six other humanoids had walked over to them. Shaggy silently berated himself as Ren crumpled up his bits of paper and turned to address the crowd of workers.
“With?” Ren asked.
The tan man that had spoken sneered as he explained. “Yeah, who ya with? This is a union gig. We can’t be having any non-union workers taking jobs away from hard-working Chao certified workers.”
“Chao?”
“You can’t be freaking serious!” Shaggy shouted over Ren’s question.
He was still extremely heated. In both senses of the word, and the fact these bastards had been watching them over some Union vs Non-Union nonsense was something that grated on him. He was all for Unions, but for these guys to ignore them all day just because they weren’t Union, annoyed the hell out of him. Shaggy pushed his way past Ren and stared up at the tan man. Shaggy came up to the man’s shoulder, but he was sure that if he needed to, he could cut through the damn bastard.
Ren hissed at his shoulder, but Shaggy ignored it as he glared at the taller man.
“Oh, we take our Union very serious around here. Mr. Chao has worked very hard so that no upstart pipsqueak and his friends could come in here and take jobs away from us honest worker types.” The man smiled down at Shaggy as he spoke and Shaggy was sure the smug bastard antagonizing him. But he really didn’t care.
But a glance over the man’s shoulder showed Shaggy that the warehouse supervisor was coming out of the warehouse. Probably ready to start shouting again. Shaggy tried to time it just right as he stuck a finger up at the smug asshole.
“Listen here you Ass – Ah – Ah – ahchoo!”
It was the fakest sneeze Shaggy had ever attempted, and judging by the man’s demeanor, he hadn’t fallen for it for a second. In fact, the man seemed prepared for some kind of attack. However, he hadn’t been prepared for Shaggy’s kind of attack. Shaggy jerked his head forward roughly just as his target shifted colors. Shaggy caught a bit of grey as he felt his head collide with the man’s chest.
There was a loud crunch and Shaggy heard tearing metal as he jerked his head backward. Rubbing his nose to sell the sneeze. As he did, he got his eyes back on his target. The tan skinned man was now transformed. His skin was the grey color of iron and his eyes were black pits. Eyes that were currently staring down at the large indent in his metal chest. Even through the man’s work shirt, Shaggy could tell he had caved the smug fucker’s chest in. The man coughed up some black liquid before he fell over.
“Whoa! Hey Ralph, you okay!”
“Holy shit!”
“What did he do!”
Shaggy tried to look aghast as he moved to help the guy stand back up. Granted, he wasn’t moving quick and Dave and Ren weren’t helping at all.
“Oh man! I’m soooo sorry.” Shaggy said, trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. “I must be allergic to your cologne or something, man. Totally accident.”
The now grey metal covered man glared up at Shaggy as he struggled to breathe through his bent metal chest. Several of his friends started shouting and Shaggy was about to let them get a few shots in so he could claim self defense. But the Warehouse boss was suddenly screaming.
“Alright, you bunch of bastards! Get back in here! There’s work to do!”
“Cla’ruun! Ralph's been hurt!” One of Ralph’s cronies yelled.
Shaggy joined in. “Yeah. Sorry! It was my fault I sneezed and head-butted the poor guy. Must have taken the wind out of him.”
“Totally what happened, Boss-lady!” Dave added.
“Dave, please stop helping.” Ren whispered as they all made way for the furry woman.
She pushed her way toward their little group and glared down at Ralph. Shaggy thought he saw her eyes widen slightly at the damage to the man’s chest, but she rallied and bellowed again.
“Everyone back to work! Someone get into the office and get me an injury form! The rest of you get out of here. Not you newbie! You stay right where you are.”
Shaggy grimaced as their little group broke up, and Ren and Dave walked back to the warehouse. Shaggy glanced around to make sure no one was watching and mouthed the word ‘office’ at Ren. Ren nodded once and placed a large hand on Dave’s shoulder. Dave waved at Shaggy and followed along. Shaggy smiled as he turned back toward his victim.
“Suppose you think you’re clever, huh?”
Shaggy wiped the smile from his face and tried to look contrite. “I don’t know what you mean, man. I just sneezed. Although I am sorry about what happened.”
The woman’s furry features scrunched up in disbelief. Shaggy tried to place her alien race, but he couldn’t. She didn’t look like any sort of animal. If anything, she looked like a normal, slightly burly woman. Just with fur all over her body. She toed Ralph’s body as the man still wheezed, trying to get air into his collapsed chest.
“Should we get him to change back?” Shaggy asked, trying to get the focus off of himself.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t ya? It’d take care of your problem right quick.”
Shaggy just raised an eyebrow and the furry lady sighed. “He’s chest is caved in. If he shifted back, it would still be caved in and then we’d really have a problem.”
Shaggy nodded in understanding and tried to look contrite again. “Ohhhh. Well again, I am so sorry. He was just going on about some Union nonsense and things were about to get a little heated…”
“About to?!”
“Yeah, but I wound up sneezing, and this happened. I would never start I fight on my first day. I just wanted to ask where he got off demanding that we be part of a Union.”
The furry woman snorted again. “Not surprising. Chao’s boys can get a little territorial.”
“So you knew this was going to happen?” Shaggy asked, trying hard to keep the edge from his voice.
The woman narrowed her eyes at him and looked ready to argue. But one of Ralph’s friends came back. He was dragging another man dressed in a lab coat. The doctor knelt down and placed both his hands on Ralph’s chest. Pink energy flowed out of the doctor and into the still wheezing man. The furry boss-lady snarled and waved Shaggy away.
“Get back to work, damn it! I’ve got to fill out the paperwork for this mess.”
Shaggy almost did a little dance as he nodded solemnly. “Yes, ma’am.”
Shaggy turned and started fast-walking back toward the warehouse.
“You and your friends might want to look for other employment!” The woman shouted behind Shaggy, who turned. “It’ll be safer for everyone.”
Shaggy could see actual worry in the woman’s eyes. So he took the warning for what it was and rushed back into the warehouse. He ignored the increased heat and glanced around. Immediately, he spotted Ren arguing loudly and flailing his massive arms around. Some of Ralph’s little gang were all shouting back at the much bigger alien, but nothing seemed to be about to happen. It was mostly just posturing and chest-pounding.
Shaggy grinned as he spotted Dave exiting the boss’s office. But his grin quickly fell as Dave waved a slim data slate at Shaggy and mouthed the words ‘I got it.’ grinning madly all the while. Shaggy waved his excitable friend down and rushed over just as the furry boss woman made her way back into the warehouse. Shaggy damn near had to jam the slim tablet up Dave’s shirt and slap a hand on the talkative guy’s face to keep Dave from blabbing.
“What the hell are you lot doing?! Get to work before I fire all of ya!” the boss shouted as she made a beeline for her office.
Shaggy half-dragged, half-carried Dave away from the squat little office. Once they were away, Dave tried to take out the tablet again, but Shaggy slapped the other man’s hands and shook his head. Ren walked past them and raised an eyebrow in question. Shaggy nodded as he looked around. Assured no one was looking, he mouthed the words ‘after work.’
Ren nodded, and Dave groaned loudly. Shaggy raised an eyebrow.
“Dude, this thing is hot against my abs. It’s uncomfortable.” Dave whined in a whisper.
Shaggy had to stop himself from slapping his friend and merely waved him away. He wasn’t sure what they had gotten from the office. But he hoped it would help. It looked like their short stint as warehouse workers were going to come to a violent end. Shaggy grinned. All this cloak and dagger shit was fun, but he really wanted to punch someone. Judging by the way the other workers were glaring at him, he figured he would get his chance soon enough.
Shaggy was sweaty and annoyed. After hours of moving Pallets to and from various white trucks, he was beginning to hate everything and everyone. It didn’t help that, for some reason, the other nearby employees weren’t moving the pallets in his area. Also, the damn metal warehouse was a fucking sweat-box. He had to take multiple breaks to get water, although a snooty-looking bastard in a suit and tie seemed to mark down the number of times he got a water break. A low growl and a hateful glare had been enough to send the little snot running. Which was the high point of Shaggy’s workday.
He caught glimpses of Ren off in the warehouse, lifting pallets like they weighed nothing and marching around the warehouse. The eight-foot alien wasn’t the only Super-Strong worker the company had, but the rhino-man was fairly easy to spot. Shaggy could tell that Ren was also oddly ostracized by their fellow workers. He really wanted to figure that out, but anytime he approached his fellow workers, they scattered like a bunch of cockroaches.
He caught sight of Dave a few times as well. But even the normally chatty player was being stonewalled by the rest of the employees. Dave took it all in stride and even forced his friendship on several of the drivers. But Shaggy couldn’t tell if that had born fruit yet. But at least Dave was allowed out of the sweltering hot box Shaggy found himself caged in.
He even tried to find out why there wasn’t any air conditioning in the damn place. But the surly alien supervisor just yelled at him to get back to work. Shaggy had to physically stop himself from impaling the furry bitch on his claws. If she wasn’t shouting herself hoarse at a random worker, she was holed up in her office in the center of the warehouse. Which Shaggy was sure was air-conditioned. He made a mental note of its placement and went back to moving pallets.
The work was fairly easy. He just moved the pallets to their corresponding truck and threw the damn thing in. A few drivers had griped about proper placement, but Shaggy just flashed his pointed teeth and they left it alone. He had just tossed another pallet into the back of a white truck when a loud whistle resounded through the warehouse. Shaggy had to cover his ears as the sound shook his damn skull.
“Alright, pansies! Get some chow in ya and then get back here on the double. Lunch is thirty minutes. If you go even one minute over, I’m docking you a full hour’s pay! Got that!?”
Shaggy bit back a retort and wiped a hand over his sweaty face. He briefly worried about heat exhaustion as he trudged out of the warehouse and into the relative coolness of the outside. The sun was on its way down, but the Texas heat still beat down on them. Shaggy caught sight of Ren’s large form heading toward a shady spot near the office building and moved to follow. He could see some of the other workers pulling out lunch boxes and paper bags, but he really didn’t feel like eating right now.
“Dude!” A thump on Shaggy’s back made him trip forward a bit.
He stopped himself from turning and decking the grinning face of Dave. The happy-go-lucky player was shuffling along on his feet like he didn’t have a care in the world. Shaggy grunted through gritted teeth and said.
“Having fun Dave?”
Dave nodded rapidly as they approached Ren. “For sure, Shags. I mean, driving around all day is pretty boring, but at least I got me some tunes. Also, did you know there is a player that’s a radio DJ? Least I think they’re a player. It’s fucking wild dude.”
Shaggy merely grunted as they joined a tired-looking Ren in the offices building’s shadow. The shade of the building helped, but Shaggy was tempted to take off his t-shirt and used it to sop up the damn sweat he was practically swimming in. Dave looked at both of them before he snorted.
“Dudes. Y’all are, like, completely sweaty.”
Shaggy and Ren glanced at each other before they glared at the smiling player. Their glares seemed to bounce off Dave’s shield of cluelessness. Shaggy sighed and moved to sit next to Ren. Dave joined him and the three of them put their heads together. Shaggy was about to tell them how useless his day had been, but Ren held up a large grey hand. In the center of his palm was a slim piece of paper with the words ‘We’re being watched’ printed on it. Shaggy raised an eyebrow as Dave immediately started looking around.
Ren jerked their friend’s head back around and shook his head. Shaggy sighed and started looking for something to write on. Ren seemed to get what was happening and dug into his pant pockets. Soon the three of them were tearing bits of paper and writing quick messages.
“Why?” Shaggy wrote.
Ren just shook his head as Dave rapidly scrawled something.
“Like, is it the cops, dudes?”
Shaggy blinked at the fact that the man wrote like he spoke, but Ren shook his head again and wrote his own quick message.
“It’s the employees.”
“Company loyalty?”
“Don’t think so.”
“Maybe it’s, like, a body snatcher situation?”
“What do we do?”
Ren was scribbling down an answer when a loud voice shattered their quiet conversation.
“Hey! Who are you guys with?”
The three of them turned and stood as a tan-skinned man and six other humanoids had walked over to them. Shaggy silently berated himself as Ren crumpled up his bits of paper and turned to address the crowd of workers.
“With?” Ren asked.
The tan man that had spoken sneered as he explained. “Yeah, who ya with? This is a union gig. We can’t be having any non-union workers taking jobs away from hard-working Chao certified workers.”
“Chao?”
“You can’t be freaking serious!” Shaggy shouted over Ren’s question.
He was still extremely heated. In both senses of the word, and the fact these bastards had been watching them over some Union vs Non-Union nonsense was something that grated on him. He was all for Unions, but for these guys to ignore them all day just because they weren’t Union, annoyed the hell out of him. Shaggy pushed his way past Ren and stared up at the tan man. Shaggy came up to the man’s shoulder, but he was sure that if he needed to, he could cut through the damn bastard.
Ren hissed at his shoulder, but Shaggy ignored it as he glared at the taller man.
“Oh, we take our Union very serious around here. Mr. Chao has worked very hard so that no upstart pipsqueak and his friends could come in here and take jobs away from us honest worker types.” The man smiled down at Shaggy as he spoke and Shaggy was sure the smug bastard antagonizing him. But he really didn’t care.
But a glance over the man’s shoulder showed Shaggy that the warehouse supervisor was coming out of the warehouse. Probably ready to start shouting again. Shaggy tried to time it just right as he stuck a finger up at the smug asshole.
“Listen here you Ass – Ah – Ah – ahchoo!”
It was the fakest sneeze Shaggy had ever attempted, and judging by the man’s demeanor, he hadn’t fallen for it for a second. In fact, the man seemed prepared for some kind of attack. However, he hadn’t been prepared for Shaggy’s kind of attack. Shaggy jerked his head forward roughly just as his target shifted colors. Shaggy caught a bit of grey as he felt his head collide with the man’s chest.
There was a loud crunch and Shaggy heard tearing metal as he jerked his head backward. Rubbing his nose to sell the sneeze. As he did, he got his eyes back on his target. The tan skinned man was now transformed. His skin was the grey color of iron and his eyes were black pits. Eyes that were currently staring down at the large indent in his metal chest. Even through the man’s work shirt, Shaggy could tell he had caved the smug fucker’s chest in. The man coughed up some black liquid before he fell over.
“Whoa! Hey Ralph, you okay!”
“Holy shit!”
“What did he do!”
Shaggy tried to look aghast as he moved to help the guy stand back up. Granted, he wasn’t moving quick and Dave and Ren weren’t helping at all.
“Oh man! I’m soooo sorry.” Shaggy said, trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. “I must be allergic to your cologne or something, man. Totally accident.”
The now grey metal covered man glared up at Shaggy as he struggled to breathe through his bent metal chest. Several of his friends started shouting and Shaggy was about to let them get a few shots in so he could claim self defense. But the Warehouse boss was suddenly screaming.
“Alright, you bunch of bastards! Get back in here! There’s work to do!”
“Cla’ruun! Ralph's been hurt!” One of Ralph’s cronies yelled.
Shaggy joined in. “Yeah. Sorry! It was my fault I sneezed and head-butted the poor guy. Must have taken the wind out of him.”
“Totally what happened, Boss-lady!” Dave added.
“Dave, please stop helping.” Ren whispered as they all made way for the furry woman.
She pushed her way toward their little group and glared down at Ralph. Shaggy thought he saw her eyes widen slightly at the damage to the man’s chest, but she rallied and bellowed again.
“Everyone back to work! Someone get into the office and get me an injury form! The rest of you get out of here. Not you newbie! You stay right where you are.”
Shaggy grimaced as their little group broke up, and Ren and Dave walked back to the warehouse. Shaggy glanced around to make sure no one was watching and mouthed the word ‘office’ at Ren. Ren nodded once and placed a large hand on Dave’s shoulder. Dave waved at Shaggy and followed along. Shaggy smiled as he turned back toward his victim.
“Suppose you think you’re clever, huh?”
Shaggy wiped the smile from his face and tried to look contrite. “I don’t know what you mean, man. I just sneezed. Although I am sorry about what happened.”
The woman’s furry features scrunched up in disbelief. Shaggy tried to place her alien race, but he couldn’t. She didn’t look like any sort of animal. If anything, she looked like a normal, slightly burly woman. Just with fur all over her body. She toed Ralph’s body as the man still wheezed, trying to get air into his collapsed chest.
“Should we get him to change back?” Shaggy asked, trying to get the focus off of himself.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t ya? It’d take care of your problem right quick.”
Shaggy just raised an eyebrow and the furry lady sighed. “He’s chest is caved in. If he shifted back, it would still be caved in and then we’d really have a problem.”
Shaggy nodded in understanding and tried to look contrite again. “Ohhhh. Well again, I am so sorry. He was just going on about some Union nonsense and things were about to get a little heated…”
“About to?!”
“Yeah, but I wound up sneezing, and this happened. I would never start I fight on my first day. I just wanted to ask where he got off demanding that we be part of a Union.”
The furry woman snorted again. “Not surprising. Chao’s boys can get a little territorial.”
“So you knew this was going to happen?” Shaggy asked, trying hard to keep the edge from his voice.
The woman narrowed her eyes at him and looked ready to argue. But one of Ralph’s friends came back. He was dragging another man dressed in a lab coat. The doctor knelt down and placed both his hands on Ralph’s chest. Pink energy flowed out of the doctor and into the still wheezing man. The furry boss-lady snarled and waved Shaggy away.
“Get back to work, damn it! I’ve got to fill out the paperwork for this mess.”
Shaggy almost did a little dance as he nodded solemnly. “Yes, ma’am.”
Shaggy turned and started fast-walking back toward the warehouse.
“You and your friends might want to look for other employment!” The woman shouted behind Shaggy, who turned. “It’ll be safer for everyone.”
Shaggy could see actual worry in the woman’s eyes. So he took the warning for what it was and rushed back into the warehouse. He ignored the increased heat and glanced around. Immediately, he spotted Ren arguing loudly and flailing his massive arms around. Some of Ralph’s little gang were all shouting back at the much bigger alien, but nothing seemed to be about to happen. It was mostly just posturing and chest-pounding.
Shaggy grinned as he spotted Dave exiting the boss’s office. But his grin quickly fell as Dave waved a slim data slate at Shaggy and mouthed the words ‘I got it.’ grinning madly all the while. Shaggy waved his excitable friend down and rushed over just as the furry boss woman made her way back into the warehouse. Shaggy damn near had to jam the slim tablet up Dave’s shirt and slap a hand on the talkative guy’s face to keep Dave from blabbing.
“What the hell are you lot doing?! Get to work before I fire all of ya!” the boss shouted as she made a beeline for her office.
Shaggy half-dragged, half-carried Dave away from the squat little office. Once they were away, Dave tried to take out the tablet again, but Shaggy slapped the other man’s hands and shook his head. Ren walked past them and raised an eyebrow in question. Shaggy nodded as he looked around. Assured no one was looking, he mouthed the words ‘after work.’
Ren nodded, and Dave groaned loudly. Shaggy raised an eyebrow.
“Dude, this thing is hot against my abs. It’s uncomfortable.” Dave whined in a whisper.
Shaggy had to stop himself from slapping his friend and merely waved him away. He wasn’t sure what they had gotten from the office. But he hoped it would help. It looked like their short stint as warehouse workers were going to come to a violent end. Shaggy grinned. All this cloak and dagger shit was fun, but he really wanted to punch someone. Judging by the way the other workers were glaring at him, he figured he would get his chance soon enough.
