“Fucking idiot.”
“I said I was sorry, T.” Shaggy said as he pulled the van into a different sky-lane.
“It’s Malevolent or Levy for short in game. You should respect in-game etiquette.”
“Yes, dear”
Levy shot him an angry look, but Shaggy just grinned. She could be as angry as she wanted, but he was just happy she was here. His feeling must have shown on his face, because hers softened. Shaggy chuckled as he angled the van toward downtown Austin.
Getting away from the estates had been fairly easy, but Shaggy didn’t want to relax until they were closer to the city. Loads of police and drones were about and he could only hope none of them scanned their damn van. They were headed to Under-Town anyway, but better safe then sorry.
“How do you not recognize your own wife!?” Slink asked from the backseat for the millionth time.
Levy raised an eyebrow at Shaggy, who could only groan.
“For the last time! She looks entirely different!”
“She can’t look that different. The game’s character creator won’t allow it. Unless you choose an alien race with like tentacles or something.” Ren said.
“Unhelpful!”
“Well I am taller, and the skin tone is vastly different. Not to mention the hair.” Levy said.
“SEE! That’s practically everything!”
Levy snorted. “Everything about my looks. But the fact you couldn’t look into my eyes and see the very soul of your wife is wounding.”
Shaggy merely groaned.
“I knew it was you immediately, you know.” Levy said.
“I look exactly the same!”
“The same as you did a few years ago maybe.”
Shaggy simply ignored the jab and continued. “Anyway you’re here now. So why didn’t you do all this yesterday?”
“Haha. Well for one I had to take you down a peg. Not every woman who approaches you in a bar is hitting on you, you know?”
“Argh! I get that but you still could’ve introduced yourself then.”
Levy smiled. “But your embarrassed face was so cute. Also I was a little angry about you not recognizing me.”
She wiped a nonexistent tear from her cheek. “sniff. I had all these ideas about our joyous and tearful reunion.”
“Pfft. You were planning some prank, weren’t you?”
Levy merely smiled and Shaggy shook his head. Slink asked another question from the back of the van. He and Ren were all healed up and relaxing while Shaggy rode up front with his wife.
“So are you a wizard or something?”
Levy shook her head although the boy couldn’t see her. “Nope. Sorceress. One of the great Evil Sorceresses under the Mad Witch Korrigan.”
“Who’s this Mad Witch?” Shaggy asked.
Levy deflated slightly. “Come on! The Mad Witch? Big evil lady with a screw loose? Was part of the tutorial event when the game started?”
“I was dealing with my broken mutation.” Shaggy said.
“I was fighting robots.” Ren answered.
“I was...occupied.” Slink muttered.
Shaggy thought back to Slink’s friends and how they tricked him into playing and then abandoned him. He was probably being arrested when the tutorial event was going on. Or maybe that happened later. Levy raised an eyebrow at Shaggy. She probably picked up on the boy’s subdued tone, but Shaggy shook his head and mouthed later. Nodding his wife continued.
“Well she’s a regular Super Villain. She’s pretty big in the Austin area. At least, she was until she was captured and thrown into a magical prison. But several of us malicious magical folk set about breaking her out.”
Levy grinned at the memory and Shaggy was happy to see he’s wife had been having fun while they took turns in the pod.
“How long did that take?” Ren asked.
“Not to long really. There was already a group of NPC cultist trying to break out their master. Us players just helped. We gathered materials for the spell and fought off the cops and heroes while the cultists did the heavy spell-work. But once Korrigan was free that’s when things got interesting.”
Shaggy could feel his wife vibrating with excitement on the seat next to him, but it was Slink who asked.
“How?”
“She has her own pocket dimension!” Levy declared happily.
Shaggy just raised and eyebrow as Ren coughed awkwardly from the back of the van.
“Guh, You non-magical folk.” Levy bemoaned good-naturedly.
“Please enlighten us, oh magical mistress.” Shaggy grinned.
“Hmph. It means that she is in charge of her own mini-world. It has it’s own shops and trainers and even has a small area were we can farm XP. Although it is mostly for low-level players.”
“What does she get out of it?”
“Magical power. The more magical people aligned with Korrigan. The stronger her realm becomes. She takes a portion of your mana every morning to fund the space. Kind of like a tax.”
“What about the non-magical people.”
Levy grinned. “They pay actual taxes to Korrigan. She runs the place like a queen and the players that have aligned themselves with her have begun to build up her realm. There was even talk of building a magic school for us villainous types. It is SO cool.”
Shaggy smiled as it reminded him of Under-Town. But probably more well-protected. He didn’t want to think about the number of robots or people it would take to invade a magical dimension. Slink also must of thought similarly because he spoke up.
“Sounds like Under-Town, although probably with better defenses.”
Levy shook her head. “Not really. Korrigan is weak right now so she is just sitting back and gaining power. In fact some bastard recently broke into the realm and started demanding shit from her.”
“Who?” Shaggy and his friends all asked at once.
“Some guy named Cog. Apparently he’s hot shit out here, but he was furious with Korrigan. Word is she went back on their deal or something.”
Shaggy stomped on the brakes and left the car in hover as he stared across at his wife. Multiple cars started to honk and swerve around him in the sky-lane, but he ignored them as he asked.
“Cog is in Korrigan’s dimension?”
Levy glanced at the hover-cars going around them and sighed. “Dear. Fly the car first, please.”
Shaggy grumbled as he took his foot off the brake and continued toward Austin.
“To answer your question. No. Cog left as soon as he talked to the Korrigan. Rumor is he got the answers he needed and left.”
“Ideas?” Shaggy asked through the hole in the van’s wall separating the front from the back.
Slink hummed idly. “Maybe something went wrong with his spell?”
“I was there Slink. The spell went off without a hitch.”
“But what about the cost? What did he have to pay?” Said Ren.
“He died.” Shaggy deadpanned. “We both did.”
Levy raised a hand. “Excuse me, love. Could you be a dear and tell me what the fuck you’re talking about.”
“Sorry, T. It’s just I have history with Cog. Bloody history and a quest to take his ass to a blood god.”
“S’plain.” Levy said as she sat back.
Shaggy joined the traffic going into the city and navigated the sky-lanes as he told the story. The traffic was thankfully light as he flew around large buildings and various antennae. The sky-lanes were much more regulated in the city. One swerve off the lane would see your car seized up and put into emergency mode. Then your ass would be walking. The car would land itself and lock up for an hour or two. Which was why there weren’t a lot of hover-car chases. Although a few flying jack-asses liked to speed over head every now and again.
Shaggy was finishing his story as he adjusted the car for a landing and got ready to turn into an alleyway. The entrance to the Under-Town tunnel was just big enough to accommodate the van and once they were inside it would widen even further. What worried Shaggy was the Quinica guarded the exit into Under-Town itself. But that was something they could get into later.
“We taking the van down?!” Ren asked incredulously.
Or they could talk about it now. Shaggy stopped his story to answer. “Yes. There’s a chance some of the cops at Barton Creek scanned it, so we should take it down.”
“The Quinica aren’t going to like this.”
“Fuck’em, Slink. I want to get home.”
There was some errant grumbling from the back of then van, but Shaggy continued telling his wife about his dealings with Cog. Including the invasion of Under-Town and his most recent mission from Xang the Blood God. He finished as they were traveling down the dark tunnel to Under-Town and his wife whistled sharply.
“Wow. You’ve been busy, huh?”
“He’s a trouble-magnet is what he is.” Ren complained.
“But doesn’t that make the game that much more fun.” Levy laughed.
“Hehehe, yeah it does.” Shaggy chuckled. “But now I have to find Cog and find a way to beat and banish him to Xang’s realm. All within two months.”
“I can get some of my witches on it.” Levy offered.
“You got Witches?”
Levy snorted. “They’re my friends. I met them while trying to free for Korrigan. They are other players with magical archetypes. Good girls.”
Levy slipped a silver device from her pant pocket and tapped it’s surface. A screen popped up, but Levy’s face scrunched in annoyance as she tapped the device again and again. Shaggy chuckled as he watch his wife fiddle with her phone.
“Love, we are deep underground. The thing probably doesn’t work.”
“Huh? Oh no, it works. It just none of my friends are on right now.”
The van shifted as Ren moved his face near the opening. “You have a phone that can work in Under-Town?!”
Levy waved her slim communicator at him. “Magically enchanted and untraceable. Trill did it for me in exchange for some magical components. Had to pull a few eyes from some demon bats, but it was well worth it.”
“Communication is one Under-Town biggest pains. That and transportation.” Slink’s muffled voice said.
“Just having something to communicate with our people would be great. Especially if we are topside.”
“Which you will be, remember?” Ren said.
“I know, I know.”
Levy gave him a curious look, but he waved a hand as they pulled their van toward the exit of the tunnel. The lights of Under-Town were visible just beyond the opening. But several Quinica were manning a chain-link gate. They were speaking to the various people and vehicles entering Under-Town and Shaggy saw more than a few people arguing loudly with the space vampires. Shaggy growled and shifted his right hand into claws as a pale woman walked over to his window.
Shaggy lowered the window and glowered at the Quinica. She looked a little surprised and then her eyes narrowed.
“Wolf” She said simply.
Apparently his reputation proceeded him. Shaggy grinned and said. “Parasite.”
The woman’s face got even uglier look as it twisted into a look of rage. She looked ready to order an attack when Levy leaned over Shaggy’s lap. His wife gently pushed on his shoulder and chided him.
“Dear, stop aggravating the nice lady. She’s just doing her job aren’t you, honey?”
Shaggy wondered what his wife was doing. He was sure the Quinica was going to shout at Levy, but instead the Quinica shook her head a few times then smiled.
“Yes.” She said. “Yes, ma’am. I’m just doing my job.”
Shaggy could see the dead-eyed look from the Quinica woman. As he tried to figure out what was going on his wife whispered.
“But we’re all good here, right? You can let us through?”
The Quinica woman nodded idly. “Yes. Yes, ma’am you can go on through.”
The woman raised a hand and the gate started to open. Shaggy gave his wife an open-mouthed stare, but she just waved a hand imperiously.
“Drive, husband.”
Shaggy could see the small impish smile on his wife’s face. He just shook it off and drove the van through the gate. He wasn’t sure how long what his wife had done would last, but he didn’t want to chance it. He squeezed his van onto the nearest road and took off toward the bar.
Under-Town’s roads were horrible for driving. The twisted and turned at odd angles. Some of them were way too skinny for any kind of vehicle and the local population would often fill the streets to capacity. The fact that it was nighttime didn’t help things at all. At night is when Under-Town came alive.
Topside workers and other refugees who should’ve been asleep at this hour were out and about. Drinking, gambling, whoring or even all three. It was a town built for excess and if you needed the drugs or food to keep going, you could probably find it in Under-Town.
The saw a couple of tough-looking thugs fighting off a few Cog robots, but Shaggy didn’t recognize them. As far as he knew they were getting close to their territory. But maybe the local population had taken to cleaning up the remaining bots themselves. Under-Town may have been full of the downtrodden and criminals, but it was also full of tough bastards. Shaggy grinned as he swerved around a couple of assholes in the street.
“You like it here.” Levy said.
“You know me, love. I got a soft spot for the little guy.”
His wife just smiled and put her head on his shoulder. Their passage through Under-Town went completely unmolested. But when they finally made it to the square around the bar, Shaggy had to stop the van. It seemed like every time he came back to the square, there were more and more people. This time was no exception, but what made things even more surprising was the bar.
The squat two-story bar they had when they’d left was now replaced by a sturdy-looking three-story structure. It even had a new, neon, green sign in the shape of a snake. The Viper’s Den was packed. People were scattered across the square, sitting, standing, eating, and talking. Shaggy turned the van off and spoke toward the back.
“You two are going to want to see this.”
The van shifted as Ren and Slink got out. Shaggy heard Ren swear as Slink sputtered. The mass of people drowned out the words. But Shaggy was sure both his friends were questioning what happened. He looked down at his wife, who was grinning at the spectacle outside the window.
“Nice place.” She pulled herself up and smiled warmly at Shaggy. “Do you think they are ready for the two of us?”
“HA!” Shaggy barked a laughed as he held his wife’s hand. “Hell no. But we are going to have a shit ton of fun anyway.”
“Fucking idiot.”
“I said I was sorry, T.” Shaggy said as he pulled the van into a different sky-lane.
“It’s Malevolent or Levy for short in game. You should respect in-game etiquette.”
“Yes, dear”
Levy shot him an angry look, but Shaggy just grinned. She could be as angry as she wanted, but he was just happy she was here. His feeling must have shown on his face, because hers softened. Shaggy chuckled as he angled the van toward downtown Austin.
Getting away from the estates had been fairly easy, but Shaggy didn’t want to relax until they were closer to the city. Loads of police and drones were about and he could only hope none of them scanned their damn van. They were headed to Under-Town anyway, but better safe then sorry.
“How do you not recognize your own wife!?” Slink asked from the backseat for the millionth time.
Levy raised an eyebrow at Shaggy, who could only groan.
“For the last time! She looks entirely different!”
“She can’t look that different. The game’s character creator won’t allow it. Unless you choose an alien race with like tentacles or something.” Ren said.
“Unhelpful!”
“Well I am taller, and the skin tone is vastly different. Not to mention the hair.” Levy said.
“SEE! That’s practically everything!”
Levy snorted. “Everything about my looks. But the fact you couldn’t look into my eyes and see the very soul of your wife is wounding.”
Shaggy merely groaned.
“I knew it was you immediately, you know.” Levy said.
“I look exactly the same!”
“The same as you did a few years ago maybe.”
Shaggy simply ignored the jab and continued. “Anyway you’re here now. So why didn’t you do all this yesterday?”
“Haha. Well for one I had to take you down a peg. Not every woman who approaches you in a bar is hitting on you, you know?”
“Argh! I get that but you still could’ve introduced yourself then.”
Levy smiled. “But your embarrassed face was so cute. Also I was a little angry about you not recognizing me.”
She wiped a nonexistent tear from her cheek. “sniff. I had all these ideas about our joyous and tearful reunion.”
“Pfft. You were planning some prank, weren’t you?”
Levy merely smiled and Shaggy shook his head. Slink asked another question from the back of the van. He and Ren were all healed up and relaxing while Shaggy rode up front with his wife.
“So are you a wizard or something?”
Levy shook her head although the boy couldn’t see her. “Nope. Sorceress. One of the great Evil Sorceresses under the Mad Witch Korrigan.”
“Who’s this Mad Witch?” Shaggy asked.
Levy deflated slightly. “Come on! The Mad Witch? Big evil lady with a screw loose? Was part of the tutorial event when the game started?”
“I was dealing with my broken mutation.” Shaggy said.
“I was fighting robots.” Ren answered.
“I was...occupied.” Slink muttered.
Shaggy thought back to Slink’s friends and how they tricked him into playing and then abandoned him. He was probably being arrested when the tutorial event was going on. Or maybe that happened later. Levy raised an eyebrow at Shaggy. She probably picked up on the boy’s subdued tone, but Shaggy shook his head and mouthed later. Nodding his wife continued.
“Well she’s a regular Super Villain. She’s pretty big in the Austin area. At least, she was until she was captured and thrown into a magical prison. But several of us malicious magical folk set about breaking her out.”
Levy grinned at the memory and Shaggy was happy to see he’s wife had been having fun while they took turns in the pod.
“How long did that take?” Ren asked.
“Not to long really. There was already a group of NPC cultist trying to break out their master. Us players just helped. We gathered materials for the spell and fought off the cops and heroes while the cultists did the heavy spell-work. But once Korrigan was free that’s when things got interesting.”
Shaggy could feel his wife vibrating with excitement on the seat next to him, but it was Slink who asked.
“How?”
“She has her own pocket dimension!” Levy declared happily.
Shaggy just raised and eyebrow as Ren coughed awkwardly from the back of the van.
“Guh, You non-magical folk.” Levy bemoaned good-naturedly.
“Please enlighten us, oh magical mistress.” Shaggy grinned.
“Hmph. It means that she is in charge of her own mini-world. It has it’s own shops and trainers and even has a small area were we can farm XP. Although it is mostly for low-level players.”
“What does she get out of it?”
“Magical power. The more magical people aligned with Korrigan. The stronger her realm becomes. She takes a portion of your mana every morning to fund the space. Kind of like a tax.”
“What about the non-magical people.”
Levy grinned. “They pay actual taxes to Korrigan. She runs the place like a queen and the players that have aligned themselves with her have begun to build up her realm. There was even talk of building a magic school for us villainous types. It is SO cool.”
Shaggy smiled as it reminded him of Under-Town. But probably more well-protected. He didn’t want to think about the number of robots or people it would take to invade a magical dimension. Slink also must of thought similarly because he spoke up.
“Sounds like Under-Town, although probably with better defenses.”
Levy shook her head. “Not really. Korrigan is weak right now so she is just sitting back and gaining power. In fact some bastard recently broke into the realm and started demanding shit from her.”
“Who?” Shaggy and his friends all asked at once.
“Some guy named Cog. Apparently he’s hot shit out here, but he was furious with Korrigan. Word is she went back on their deal or something.”
Shaggy stomped on the brakes and left the car in hover as he stared across at his wife. Multiple cars started to honk and swerve around him in the sky-lane, but he ignored them as he asked.
“Cog is in Korrigan’s dimension?”
Levy glanced at the hover-cars going around them and sighed. “Dear. Fly the car first, please.”
Shaggy grumbled as he took his foot off the brake and continued toward Austin.
“To answer your question. No. Cog left as soon as he talked to the Korrigan. Rumor is he got the answers he needed and left.”
“Ideas?” Shaggy asked through the hole in the van’s wall separating the front from the back.
Slink hummed idly. “Maybe something went wrong with his spell?”
“I was there Slink. The spell went off without a hitch.”
“But what about the cost? What did he have to pay?” Said Ren.
“He died.” Shaggy deadpanned. “We both did.”
Levy raised a hand. “Excuse me, love. Could you be a dear and tell me what the fuck you’re talking about.”
“Sorry, T. It’s just I have history with Cog. Bloody history and a quest to take his ass to a blood god.”
“S’plain.” Levy said as she sat back.
Shaggy joined the traffic going into the city and navigated the sky-lanes as he told the story. The traffic was thankfully light as he flew around large buildings and various antennae. The sky-lanes were much more regulated in the city. One swerve off the lane would see your car seized up and put into emergency mode. Then your ass would be walking. The car would land itself and lock up for an hour or two. Which was why there weren’t a lot of hover-car chases. Although a few flying jack-asses liked to speed over head every now and again.
Shaggy was finishing his story as he adjusted the car for a landing and got ready to turn into an alleyway. The entrance to the Under-Town tunnel was just big enough to accommodate the van and once they were inside it would widen even further. What worried Shaggy was the Quinica guarded the exit into Under-Town itself. But that was something they could get into later.
“We taking the van down?!” Ren asked incredulously.
Or they could talk about it now. Shaggy stopped his story to answer. “Yes. There’s a chance some of the cops at Barton Creek scanned it, so we should take it down.”
“The Quinica aren’t going to like this.”
“Fuck’em, Slink. I want to get home.”
There was some errant grumbling from the back of then van, but Shaggy continued telling his wife about his dealings with Cog. Including the invasion of Under-Town and his most recent mission from Xang the Blood God. He finished as they were traveling down the dark tunnel to Under-Town and his wife whistled sharply.
“Wow. You’ve been busy, huh?”
“He’s a trouble-magnet is what he is.” Ren complained.
“But doesn’t that make the game that much more fun.” Levy laughed.
“Hehehe, yeah it does.” Shaggy chuckled. “But now I have to find Cog and find a way to beat and banish him to Xang’s realm. All within two months.”
“I can get some of my witches on it.” Levy offered.
“You got Witches?”
Levy snorted. “They’re my friends. I met them while trying to free for Korrigan. They are other players with magical archetypes. Good girls.”
Levy slipped a silver device from her pant pocket and tapped it’s surface. A screen popped up, but Levy’s face scrunched in annoyance as she tapped the device again and again. Shaggy chuckled as he watch his wife fiddle with her phone.
“Love, we are deep underground. The thing probably doesn’t work.”
“Huh? Oh no, it works. It just none of my friends are on right now.”
The van shifted as Ren moved his face near the opening. “You have a phone that can work in Under-Town?!”
Levy waved her slim communicator at him. “Magically enchanted and untraceable. Trill did it for me in exchange for some magical components. Had to pull a few eyes from some demon bats, but it was well worth it.”
“Communication is one Under-Town biggest pains. That and transportation.” Slink’s muffled voice said.
“Just having something to communicate with our people would be great. Especially if we are topside.”
“Which you will be, remember?” Ren said.
“I know, I know.”
Levy gave him a curious look, but he waved a hand as they pulled their van toward the exit of the tunnel. The lights of Under-Town were visible just beyond the opening. But several Quinica were manning a chain-link gate. They were speaking to the various people and vehicles entering Under-Town and Shaggy saw more than a few people arguing loudly with the space vampires. Shaggy growled and shifted his right hand into claws as a pale woman walked over to his window.
Shaggy lowered the window and glowered at the Quinica. She looked a little surprised and then her eyes narrowed.
“Wolf” She said simply.
Apparently his reputation proceeded him. Shaggy grinned and said. “Parasite.”
The woman’s face got even uglier look as it twisted into a look of rage. She looked ready to order an attack when Levy leaned over Shaggy’s lap. His wife gently pushed on his shoulder and chided him.
“Dear, stop aggravating the nice lady. She’s just doing her job aren’t you, honey?”
Shaggy wondered what his wife was doing. He was sure the Quinica was going to shout at Levy, but instead the Quinica shook her head a few times then smiled.
“Yes.” She said. “Yes, ma’am. I’m just doing my job.”
Shaggy could see the dead-eyed look from the Quinica woman. As he tried to figure out what was going on his wife whispered.
“But we’re all good here, right? You can let us through?”
The Quinica woman nodded idly. “Yes. Yes, ma’am you can go on through.”
The woman raised a hand and the gate started to open. Shaggy gave his wife an open-mouthed stare, but she just waved a hand imperiously.
“Drive, husband.”
Shaggy could see the small impish smile on his wife’s face. He just shook it off and drove the van through the gate. He wasn’t sure how long what his wife had done would last, but he didn’t want to chance it. He squeezed his van onto the nearest road and took off toward the bar.
Under-Town’s roads were horrible for driving. The twisted and turned at odd angles. Some of them were way too skinny for any kind of vehicle and the local population would often fill the streets to capacity. The fact that it was nighttime didn’t help things at all. At night is when Under-Town came alive.
Topside workers and other refugees who should’ve been asleep at this hour were out and about. Drinking, gambling, whoring or even all three. It was a town built for excess and if you needed the drugs or food to keep going, you could probably find it in Under-Town.
The saw a couple of tough-looking thugs fighting off a few Cog robots, but Shaggy didn’t recognize them. As far as he knew they were getting close to their territory. But maybe the local population had taken to cleaning up the remaining bots themselves. Under-Town may have been full of the downtrodden and criminals, but it was also full of tough bastards. Shaggy grinned as he swerved around a couple of assholes in the street.
“You like it here.” Levy said.
“You know me, love. I got a soft spot for the little guy.”
His wife just smiled and put her head on his shoulder. Their passage through Under-Town went completely unmolested. But when they finally made it to the square around the bar, Shaggy had to stop the van. It seemed like every time he came back to the square, there were more and more people. This time was no exception, but what made things even more surprising was the bar.
The squat two-story bar they had when they’d left was now replaced by a sturdy-looking three-story structure. It even had a new, neon, green sign in the shape of a snake. The Viper’s Den was packed. People were scattered across the square, sitting, standing, eating, and talking. Shaggy turned the van off and spoke toward the back.
“You two are going to want to see this.”
The van shifted as Ren and Slink got out. Shaggy heard Ren swear as Slink sputtered. The mass of people drowned out the words. But Shaggy was sure both his friends were questioning what happened. He looked down at his wife, who was grinning at the spectacle outside the window.
“Nice place.” She pulled herself up and smiled warmly at Shaggy. “Do you think they are ready for the two of us?”
“HA!” Shaggy barked a laughed as he held his wife’s hand. “Hell no. But we are going to have a shit ton of fun anyway.”
