A Werewolf In Under-Town

A purple orb engulfed Levy as Shaggy threw himself forward. The Man-beast form came easy to him as he charged the white-armored soldiers in the streets. The night was lit up with hundreds of crisscrossing lasers. Some smacked into Shaggy’s body while most slammed into the street and exploded in a hail of asphalt. Shaggy’s bestial form crashed through the front lines of HLO troopers and started scything through them with his claws and teeth.

Their armor lit up with magic as his large clawed hands hit them. His claws left long rends in the white metal of the armor and Shaggy huffed in annoyance. Their armor was tougher somehow. So he changed tactics. Instead of clawing and stabbing at them, Shaggy started to break them. He grabbed whoever was foolish enough to get close and snapped their necks or broke their arms.

Behind him, Levy shouted. “I need bodies!”

Shaggy spun as he backhanded a soldier further down the street. His wife was standing in the middle of a small dome of magic. Her staff was embedded in the street and the skull she had taken to carrying was floating in front of her. Shrugging, Shaggy grabbed the nearest soldier and broke his neck before tossing him toward his wife. She smiled at him gratefully as her hands danced in the air around the skull.

“More!” she shouted.

Shaggy rolled his eyes and turned back to the crowd of HLO troopers. More of them were quickly backing away from him as they maintained fire. But some were charging at him with white-metal weapons. He used his forearms to shield his face from the bright lasers still peppering him and rushed to meet the melee troops.

A foolish swordsman tried to jab him with his long blade. But Shaggy ignored it as he snapped out his enormous jaws and took the man’s face off. He spit the blood and bone into the street as he blindly tossed the body back to Levy. The white blade clattered to his feet and two more melee troopers rushed in. One with a giant hammer and another with a spear. Shaggy wasted no time and grabbed the hammer-wielder by the head. He slammed the trooper into the street headfirst as the spear-user poked him. The weapon drew blood, and Shaggy snarled in annoyance.

Squeezing the trooper in his hand by the neck, Shaggy waited until he heard the armor crack before throwing the dead trooper toward Levy. Then he turned to the spear user, who was currently trying to back away. Shaggy dashed forward as the trooper turned and ran. Seeing that the soldier was trying to draw him deeper into the HLO lines, Shaggy jumped backwards and grabbed another trooper as he went. The gunman yelped as Shaggy picked him up and twisted his helmet all the way around.

Shaggy took his newest victim back to his wife’s dome with a few quick leaps. Levy’s dome seemed to be holding firm as more lasers slammed into it. A nice pile of bodies was in front of it and Levy’s magic was creating purple clouds of magic between the skull and the corpses. Shaggy dropped his prize on the pile and turned back to the street. The troopers were still shooting at them, but between Shaggy’s tough skin and Levy’s magic, they were both safe. Although, the odd shot managed to do a small amount of damage. Shaggy’s healing was more than enough to deal with the current rate of fire. That’s when the heavy artillery hit him.

It was a blast of red energy that blinded Shaggy as it hit him. He was rocked off his feet and went sliding into Levy’s shield orb. Pinging off of the orb, Shaggy had enough time to catch himself before another red blast barreled down on him. He dove to the side even as his skin healed from the first blast.

Beside him, Levy’s voice was echoing through the air as she spoke some spell. The mass of corpses rose into the air and the skull in front of her glowed purple and then black. Shaggy spotted where the red blasts were coming from just as Levy finished her spell. He spotted her falling to a knee and her shield wavering as the spell completed. But everyone’s attention was quickly grabbed by the black cloud that spewed forth from the skull. It congealed into a humanoid shape with red eyes as Levy pulled herself to her feet. Blue lasers shot through the thing, but the inky mist ignored it as it stared down at Levy.

“Demon! Take these sacrifices and fulfill this bargain. Destroy our enemies and then return to whence you came!”

The red eyes seemed to narrow as the mist glared at Levy. But she held its gaze until it seemed to nod. A deep voice rocked through the streets as it moved toward the pile of bodies.

“The deal is accepted.”

The mist covered all the bodies and seemed to swell as Shaggy moved closer to his wife’s shield orb.

Shaggy gave Levy a confused look. Tilting his large wolf-like head.

“What? ‘Whence it came’ sounded better, then go home when you’re done.”

Levy gripped her staff as she and Shaggy were still pelted with laser fire. The red blasts seemed to have a long reload time, and they didn’t seem to have a lot of them. Shaggy glared down the street and to the rooftop where the bastards were. He turned to try to communicate his plan to Levy, but his wife was already nodding.

“You handle that. The demon will Tank for me and I’ll provide support.”

Shaggy nodded and looked at the demon whose inky black mist-form was coalescing into a seven-foot tall red demon. Laser fire zeroed in on the new target and tried to take it down. But the demon merely snorted in annoyance as he turned on the crowd of troopers. He flexed his long arms and razor-sharp nails as his goat-like feet pawed at the road. With little preamble, the demon charged into the troops and started taking them apart. Shaggy was surprised to see that the demon’s nails had the same problem as his claws. They were going to have to get some of that armor.

“Go, love. We’ve got this and I assume your Pack is on its way.”

Shaggy nodded, but then tried to look around for Mr. White. Again, his wife seemed to catch his meaning.

“The slippery bastard took off when his troops showed up. But don’t worry. I have contingencies for him. You just go clear the roofs.”

Shaggy grinned wolfishly and stared lovingly at his wife. After sharing a sweet look, Shaggy burst forth and hit the troopers right alongside the demon. More melee fighters had pushed to the front and multiple wounds were opening and closing on the red demon’s body. Hammers, swords, spears and even axes were swung about expertly. But both Shaggy and the demon didn’t care. They’d soak the hit and then kill the idiot who had swung the thing.

But Shaggy didn’t hang around the front line for long. After killing a few of the melee fighters, he dashed off to his left and jumped into the squat brick building there. He heard more of those red blasts hitting the street below him, but Shaggy kept his eyes upward as he pulled himself up the building with his claws. Once he was over the lip, Shaggy started mindlessly slaughtering the troopers there.

“ETA, Rita?”

“We are still incoming, boss. But the neighborhood is full of the white-armored fucks. The bastards teleported in all over.”

“Deal with who you can, and hurry. I think it’s going to take everyone on this one.”

“Agreed.”

Shaggy tossed a trooper off the roof as a large red orb zipped past his head. He felt the heat from the energy and growled at the pain. The blast had missed and still burned the crap out of him. Shaggy could see the heavy weapons team several roofs down and he started moving that way. He leapt to the next building and started clawing into the troops there. They scrambled to get out of his way, but the small roof and Shaggy’s size made that a losing battle. A few crushed limbs and some broken necks and Shaggy was off to the next rooftop.

Below him in the street, Levy’s demon was doing the same. Except the red beast had to deal with melee fighters. Although Shaggy would’ve preferred that to the shooters, who kept trying to kite him around the roof. Behind the demon, Levy was free from her protective bubble and gliding through the streets on her long legs. She danced around the laser fire as her staff shot purple spears of magic into the HLO troops. The purple rays seemed to hunt out their targets as Levy flipped, spun and twirled down the street. Shaggy could see his wife’s smile, even from up on the rooftops, and it made him almost purr in happiness.

“My god, I love that woman.”

“Boss?”

“Damn it! Stop reading my thoughts!”

“You’re projecting!”

“And it’s distracting.”

“Yeah! Go back to killing things!”

After the members of his pack berated him, Shaggy jumped across to the next roof and started killing. Another red blast hit his side and Shaggy felt his fur and the skin underneath rapidly healing. Checking his reserves, Shaggy felt like he still had plenty to go. Enough for the night. If nothing big came into the neighborhood. That’s when the buzzing noise started up. Shaggy swore as in the distance the oblong shapes of HLO drones came into view on the dark skyline.

“Fucking hell! We got drones.”

Shaggy howled to get Levy’s attention, and she turned to see him pointing at the problem. If the HLO got footage of them engaging the HLO troops, everything they’d done in the neighborhood would be for nothing. The HLO would say that they were quelling a riot Shaggy was leading or something. Not to mention that HLO drones meant that HLO Supes weren’t far behind.

“It’s not a problem, boss.” Stanley spoke up in his head.

Shaggy bit the head off another HLO sniper as he asked. “Explain?”

“I called Derek. The neighborhood watch is also out in this. If we can get footage of the HLO troopers attacking the neighborhood, we can end this.”

“They’ll never let those recordings see the light of day.” Rita argued.

“We need to get our hands on a drone and record the HLO’s crimes.”

Shaggy looked over the roof as his wife sent her magic up into the sky at the oncoming drones. They exploded in shards of electricity and metal. Shaggy winced.

“We’ll have to find more, then. Everyone, stay in civilian-mode. We are civvies trying to protect our neighborhood. Stanley, do you know where Derek and the Watch work out of?”

“Yes, or at least, I think I can find them.”

“Good. That’s the plan, people. Protect yourselves, get a drone, and record something sinister. Everyone clear?”

“On the vague plan with no specifics? Yeah, boss. We got it.”

“Less lip, please.”

Shaggy gave a final angry glare at the heavy weapons team. They had missed their last shot and were rapidly reloading. They were one more roof away. But Shaggy had to get to Levy and tell her the plan. Which meant he had to drop his transformation. Still glaring at the weapons team, Shaggy threw himself over the edge of the building and shifted back to his human form.

His booted feet hit the sidewalk, and he dashed toward Levy. She was still dancing and spinning in the street behind her demon. Purple spells shooting out in all directions. Shaggy could see lasers hit her clothes and sizzle out as a thin purple barrier shimmered on her body. He didn’t like how thin the barrier looked, but he didn’t have time for that.

Blue lasers pelted him, and soldiers tried to get in his way. But a well-placed punch and judicious use of his slide-move got him to Levy quickly. He tapped her shoulder as he ran past and she stopped her twirling dance to follow him. The demon roared in the street and seemed intent on killing every trooper on the street. Which suited Shaggy just fine.

“Are we retreating?” Levy asked.

“We are advancing to the rear.” Shaggy corrected. “We need to get the HLO’s atrocities caught on camera.”

“What atrocities?”

“I don’t know. Let’s go make some.”

Shaggy laughed as he dashed down an alleyway to the side of the street. But as he got to the far end, he was surprised to find a fifteen-foot metal wall blocking the exit. The letters HLO emblazoned on its surface. Shaggy punched it and felt a sharp stab of pain shot through him. A blue flash crackled over the wall as Shaggy hit it, then dissipated.

“Argh! Damn it! Of course, they blocked off the streets. Give me a second.” Shaggy growled as he wound up again to hit the wall.

But his wife’s staff blocked him. Above them, more laser fired down on them. But Levy ignored it as she waved the tip of her staff in an intricate pattern. With a whispered word, a beach-ball-sized green blob flew from her staff and smacked the wall. It sparked and hissed as Shaggy watched. Soon, there was a large hole in the metal wall and his wife was smugly smiling at him.

“Work smarter, not harder, love.”

“I can do both.”

“All evidence to the contrary.”

“Let’s go, you menace. We have an evil corporation to frame.”