A Werewolf In Under-Town

Shaggy stared at Ephemara. Then he turned his head slightly and stared at Rita. After a few seconds, he went back to Ephemara. Both women were stone-faced and giving him nothing. Rita’s brown eyes were just as impassive as Ephe’s black ones. He looked back and forth between the two a few more times until he had to ask.

“Are you both serious?”

Ephemara sighed as Rita rolled her eyes.

“Yes, boss. We’re serious. Sybil made the request again this morning before heading to the shop.”

“Okay. But none of you have anymore prospects?”

Rita sighed. “Stanley didn’t think he knew enough about the Legion to make a choice. Cekrass only wants powerful members. Tom wants more women members. Vick and I are still deciding on our members and Ephe…”

“I’m not sure I should get a choice. The last person I picked had to be thrown out of a window for betrayal.”

Shaggy rolled his eyes. “You get a pick, Ephemara. So does Stanley? Seriously, how long has it been and you guys haven’t decided on new pack members?”

“You still have Sybil’s choices.”

“Those are obviously self-serving for Sybil, and I’m still not sure about them.”

“You asked for pack members and Sybil gave you her picks. That’s all.”

Shaggy sighed and sat back on his brown couch. “But Rin and Vud? You know she only wants those two because they work for her, right? They spend all their time over at her auto-shop disassembling cars. It’s clearly a selfish pick.”

“Oh, like you thought about it anymore deeply when you chose us.” Rita smirked.

“I did! You notice Yuki isn’t here, right? Or Gorje, or even Xelieran? Some of the people I chose originally weren’t a good fit with some of you. Sometimes they unbalanced the group. I originally wanted one Tank, and some ranged DPS. Now I’ve got two Tanks, an Off-Tank, two ranged DPS, and two Burst-Damage DPS. We need to keep the pack more balanced.”

“So what are we missing and why don’t the Bug Brothers fill that role?”

“Well, we don’t know what the brothers can do. Have either of you seen them fight?”

Both women shook their heads and Rita cross her arms.

“No, but insectoid aliens are normally pretty tough. They have exoskeletons and all that. Not to mention they are called Fusus Formica.”

Shaggy tilted his head in confusion and Ephemara snorted.

“Fuse Ants, boss. Those two can fuse together. I bet that’s why Sybil wants to see them as wolves. Imagine two insectoid werewolves that can probably fuse. The result would be a badass.”

“Sure, but remember, those two came in with Tone. The defenestrate’d betrayer. How do we know those two aren’t also plotting something nefarious?”

“Well… we don’t. But how do you know none of the others are up to something? Trust has to be freely given before it can grow, boss.”

“Stop eating fortune cookies, Rita.”

A decorative pillow from a nearby armchair slammed into Shaggy’s face and he heard Rita grunt in annoyance. The auburn-haired woman sat back roughly in her armchair.

“You asked, boss. But seriously, how are you supposed to build trust with someone when you start out not trusting them? All we can do is give them enough rope and see what they do with it. If it bites us in the ass, we are strong enough to survive it.”

Shaggy rubbed his chin and nodded a few times until he sighed. “What about our Pack composition? Adding two big guys like Rin and Vud? We already have two bruisers.”

Ephemara sat in another armchair next to Rita and across from Shaggy. “Well, Stanley will be nose-down in a laptop, attending school. And do we know both bugs will come out as bruisers? I mean, the shift changes people and grants weird powers sometimes.”

“Yeah, Sybil came out with your demon fire and Tom got that strange ignore-me thing.”

“Rita and Cekrass are tough as hell, Vick got super-vision, and my powers got a boost. Shit, the only one who didn’t get an upgrade was Stanley.”

“But he also has his Quinica.”

“And you trust that alien parasite?”

Shaggy shook his head. “No, but I trust Stanley to keep on top of it.”

Rita nodded. “Then trust us to watch the Bugs after you mark them.”

Shaggy wiped a hand down his face and sighed again. It wasn’t a bad proposition. He just didn’t know how well the two alien insectoids would mesh with the group. Then again, he really didn’t know what the group got up to in their downtime. Did they have downtime? Should he take his pack out for some R and R?

Catching his thoughts before they ran away with him, Shaggy nodded. “Fine. Tell Sybil to bring the Bug Brothers over later and I’ll mark them. On a provisional basis, just to see how they act. If they don’t work, we’ll move on to someone else. But that still leaves the third pack spot.”

“Do we HAVE to fill it?”

“Not really, but I would prefer to run with a full pack.”

Rita steepled her fingers and nodded slowly before a thought visibly came to her. “What about someone with more utility? Not someone strong per se, but someone that adds another layer to the Pack?”

“Like…?” Shaggy asked leadingly.

“Like Seth.”

Shaggy scrunched up his face and tried to remember the boy Rita was talking about. He was Dragan and Ulf’s brother and had limited super-speed. He used that to become the unofficial quartermaster for Shaggy and Levy when the teens were in the cave. Now, if Shaggy remembered right, he was helping Randa and Roald in Under-Town. A super-fast wolf did sound promising, but Seth wasn’t that big of a fighter.

Rita shook her head as she picked up on Shaggy’s thoughts. “He wouldn’t be part of the pack that fought. We could bring him over here and have him craft weapons for the pack.”

“He can do that?”

“It’s what he’s learning under Roald and Randa. Although it’s more Randa, really. The little gremlin has taken Seth as an apprentice and is teaching him things.”

Ephemara clapped her hands. “A werewolf armorer? I love it. Do you think the bite will give him some kind of crafting ability?”

Shaggy shrugged. “It’s a crapshoot. But I also like the idea. We have enough hunting force. We need wolves that can do other things.”

Both women got annoyed looks on their faces and Shaggy quickly explained. “I’m not saying you two are brutes. Ephe, you are our top spy and Rita, you are a brilliant organizer and manager. But you both are part of the standard hunting pack. So you can’t really do those jobs unless you stop hunting and neither of you want that, right?”

Both women nodded and settled down as the truth of Shaggy’s words hit them. The three of them sat in contemplative silence for a little while until Ephemara made a noise.

“Hmm.”

“What?” Shaggy asked.

“If we want to expand the pack beyond merely hunting, are the Bug Brothers the best choice?”

Rita nodded slowly. “I see what you’re saying, but we really don’t know enough about them to think of them as simple bruisers.”

“They are bipedal ants the size of Cekrass, Rita.” Ephemara deadpanned.

“But that doesn’t mean they are simple brutes. Ants can be industrious, clever, and even innovative builders. Sybil says the pair of them can take a car apart in a matter of minutes.”

“Pfft! That’s nothing. I could wreck a car in a few seconds.” Ephe bragged.

“No, Ephe. It’s a chop-shop. They literally take the car apart and sell it for parts. Or reassemble it as one of Sybil’s new fleet of vehicles.”

Ephemara got an impressed look on her face as Shaggy slowly nodded to himself. Voicing his thoughts, Shaggy asked.

“So they could develop some Super Building skills from the bite?”

Rita shrugged. “Like you said, it’s a crap shoot. We don’t know how things will turn out. But I still think we need to bring them into the fold. If at least to test them.”

Shaggy nodded in agreement and got up from his sofa. But instead of heading outside, he headed to the small area near the entrance. There the cave’s terminal sat, waiting. Originally, it had been slightly behind the house, but Levy moved it for convenience. Shaggy had promised the Lackeys some building types, and it was time to fulfill those. Over his shoulder he told Rita and Ephemara.

“Get the Bug Brothers and Seth down here ASAP. I’m going to see about making the grunts happy.”

“You going to arrange for a brothel to be built down here, Boss?” Ephemara asked.

“No! I’m going to see about adding some other buildings. Did the pack want anything?”

“Sybil wants her own room. We’ve been living in that Quonset hut thing since we got down here. Sure, we can go across and sleep at the bar. But this is supposed to be our home, right?”

Ephemara snorted. “You know she just wants the space so she can start bringing dates over.”

Shaggy nodded understandingly. “Yeah, having your private space is important. Like building a small honeymoon cabin and then having it invaded daily for business meetings.”

“Hey, you called us, boss? Besides, if you want a separate place to conduct business, maybe you should build that?”

Not having any retort to that, Shaggy merely grunted and turned back to the terminal. He felt the two women leave as he began working with the terminal’s menus. Navigating to the buildings tab, Shaggy could see both the Lackey and Pack dorms as well as the various houses the bots and mages were building. Everything had a progress bar, as well as the workers assigned to the projects. The maximum number of Mages and robots were assigned to building their fall-back position for Under-Town. Nothing was going to their own comfort. But their Lackey workforce was as high as ever. Mostly they were under “Duty-As-Assigned” meaning they were waiting for commands. Shaggy took their entire underground Lackey workforce and put them on other building projects.

Slink had given them a large amount of Lackeys and they were only using a fraction of them. Shaggy started several building projects and moved people toward their duties. He had some go to building a laundry area, while others he had build out an exercise yard. He was careful to avoid Levy’s trees, but he filled the space they had with various building plans. The lack of a proper builder was a huge hindrance. But it would keep the Lackeys busy and they could still work out guard shifts and time off. He was grimacing his way through scheduling the Lackeys in groups when Sybil crashed through his front door.

She was covered in grease and wearing mechanic overalls. But the manic look in her eyes was enough to make Shaggy freeze. Sybil hurriedly looked around Shaggy’s entryway before spotting him and stomping over. She smiled at him and he felt a chill go up and down his spine.

“You’re going to do it?”

“I was thinking about it, Sybil.”

“What’s there to think about? They are tough, smart and fast? That’s all we need as werewolves.”

Shaggy sighed. “Well, first, I would like to see what they want. Also, did you run all the way here from your shop?”

“No! I took a car, of course, and I’ve spoken to them. They want to be useful to their patriarch and this is the best way to do that?”

“Best way for them or you?”

Sybil blushed slightly. “Wha-what? How would this benefit me? That’s crazy talk. I just really want to see the pack thrive.”

“And the fact you’ll get two super-enhanced workers is not even a consideration.” Shaggy asked sarcastically.

“I mean… if they would like to still help at the shop, I’m not going to stop them. They are a tremendous asset to my workforce and they are cherished members of the Legion.”

“Sybil…”

“Fine! They are both better than any automated disassembly system. We could get through dozens of cars a day if they had a werewolf’s stamina.”

“Could you even sell that many parts?”

“No. But we could do other stuff and, with them working on the cars, it would free me up to tackle some pet projects.”

Shaggy rubbed his eyes as the sound of his door opening and closing again echoed in the room. Rin and Vud walked in and started examining Shaggy’s living room. Behind them, Rita was leading a nervous-looking Seth into the room. They were followed by Dragan and Ulf. The two brothers followed Rita silently as the matronly woman shot Shaggy a ‘don’t ask’ look. Shaggy quickly assigned the Lackey schedule, with a mental promise to double-check it later. Then he closed the menus and moved toward an armchair.

Sybil stayed standing as Rin and Vud grabbed the other two chairs and the brothers took the couch. Rita stood behind the couch eyeing Dragan and Ulf harshly. Apparently, the boys had invited themselves along and Rita wasn’t too happy about it. Seth was in some pretty casual clothes, but Dragan and Ulf came decked out in full-on combat gear. It was a little old and scuffed in places, but it meant the boys had gotten and spent themselves some credits. Shaggy smiled at the entire room. Once everyone’s attention was on him, he explained.

Rin and Vud stayed impassive and unreadable. But Seth’s face went from elated to sick-looking, and then back to elated again. When Shaggy was finished explaining why Seth and the Bug Brothers were here, he turned to Ulf and Dragan. Both of whom looked a little chagrined. Dragan coughed before he said awkwardly.

“We… ahem… We thought Seth was in trouble.”

Rita smacked the back of Dragan’s head and growled. “I told you he wasn’t. My word is not good enough for you?”

“Ms. Crawford, we believed you. It’s just -urk!”

Rita smacked Ulf on the head as well and gave Shaggy an exaggerated, apologetic look. Shaggy waved her off and turned to the two Insectoid aliens in the room. Their antennae were twitching back and forth toward each other. But nothing was being said. All the while, they stared at Shaggy with their large, ant-like eyes. After a few moments, their antennae stopped moving and Rin nodded.

“If the patriarch finds it agreeable, we see no problem with this… mark. Although we question how this will affect us. We are not human after-all.”

“Neither is Stanley, technically.” Sybil said.

Rin and Vud’s antennae went wild again. But quickly stopped. They both nodded to Sybil and stayed quiet. Shaggy waited for the pair to explain, but they remained enigmatic and quiet. With a sigh, he turned to Seth, who was still looking a little dumbstruck. When the young boy caught Shaggy’s gaze, he flinched.

“Are you sure about this? I mean, I’m not exactly the toughest and when it comes to building things, I’m not Professor Randa’s best pupil.”

Shaggy nodded. “That’s fair. But we mostly want to see if the Mark helps with that. If all goes to plan, you will be the Pack’s official quartermaster. Maintaining and managing our gear. I won’t say you’ll never have to fight, but with the upgrades the Mark gives you, you’ll be fine.”

“What about us?” Dragan asked, receiving another smack from Rita.

“We only have three spots open right now, and I want to focus on the candidates presented. But if they don’t work out, we’ll see about other options.” Shaggy said diplomatically.

Dragan looked disappointed, but Ulf slapped a large hand on Seth’s slim shoulder. “Naw, I’m sure it’ll work out fine. I can’t speak to the Bugs, but Seth can handle anything you throw at him.”

Seth gave his brother a smile, but stayed quiet. Shaggy gave the room one last glance around before he got up. He looked at Rin, Vud and Seth before smiling and asking the magic question.

“Do you want to be a part of my pack?”