Shaggy and Vlad snuck through the sewers like a pair of stealthy reptiles. At one point, Shaggy made the joke that he wished he had a skateboard. But Vlad's deadpan look stymied any joy he would've felt. So instead, the two prowl after their silent quarry. The black orb was floating lazily down the tunnel, following the water. Shaggy expected the thing to take more readings from the sewer water as it went. However, the thing rushed down the tunnel like it was late for a dinner date.

He and Vlad kept their distance as best they could as they tried to keep the little speck in sight. Thanks to their enhanced physique, they had an easy time of it. The tricky part was ducking all the damn drones that were still down in the sewers. Every now and again, they'd have to duck into a nearby side tunnel and wait for a drone to amble on by. Adding on to that headache were the sounds of other people sloshing around down there. Both Shaggy and Vlad's senses were enhanced enough to hear the echoing steps of the soldiers still below ground. On the one hand, Shaggy applauded their tenacity, but on the other, he wished the bastard would go away! They were freaking military soldiers. Didn't they have anything better to do?!

The drones and the sloshing of an unseen, but close, enemy kept their little journey tense. At several points, Shaggy just wanted to bum-rush a drone and rip its internals out. But thoughts of their mission in the morning kept him straight. Vlad, on the other hand, was slowly losing patience with their hunt. Shaggy could tell, because the vampire would shift into his misty form and rush on ahead as Shaggy raced behind. Every time Vlad would race ahead and then pop back into his corporeal form and glare at Shaggy. Like he was the one slowing things down.

Shaggy took to flipping the pale man off as they followed the tiny orb across the sewers. They had been traveling for close to an hour when Shaggy heard the running water grow louder. The channel they were running next to was already flowing fast. But it seemed to pick up speed as they followed the orb. The sound of crashing water echoed around the stone tunnel as they moved westward. He had an idea what they would find, but kept his mouth shut as Vlad raced ahead again.

This time, though, the vampire kept facing forward as he became corporeal. Their tunnel came to an end and opened up into a large spillway. Multiple water tunnels lead into the large circular spillway. Creating a large pit of waterfalls. All of which crashed down into a massive pool below. Even with Shaggy's dark vision, he couldn't see the bottom clearly and he doubted Vlad had anymore luck. Thankfully, their target was buzzing across the center of the spillway, heading toward another tunnel. They were about to hug the wall around the large hole and move around when Shaggy's ears picked up someone talking.

Without thinking, Shaggy dove at Vlad and hugged the inner wall of their tunnel. The vampire glared at him. But Shaggy put a finger to his lips and then pointed to his ear. Vlad froze for a few seconds and seemed to strain to hear anything. When he heard nothing but the sounds of raging waterfalls, he glared at Shaggy. However, Shaggy could still hear it. Just under the sound of water rushing and crashing. It was a sound he was all too familiar with. Someone was bitching.

"DON'T SEE… IT'S… NOT WORTH…"

The voice was decidedly male, but had a young whiny quality to it. Like a teenager that was just told they couldn't do something. Vlad struggled against Shaggy's hold for a few seconds until the voices grew more noticeable. The vampire's eyes went wide, and he nodded at Shaggy, tapping his arm. Shaggy released Vlad and turned to find the source of the voice. Three people were strolling through another side tunnel on the northern wall. The rushing water made their conversation hard to make out, but luckily, the group was shouting to be heard.

"I'M TELLING YOU. THEY'RE DOWN HERE!" said the smallest of the three figures.

They were wearing a cloak with the hood pulled up. But Shaggy thought the slim figure was possibly female. Otherwise, the person had a fairly pale skin tone and now discernible alien characteristics. The shorter one's two associates were noticeably broader and had obvious coloration that marked them as aliens. The largest of the three looked around the large spillway. His horned head nearly hitting his two companions. That, more than anything, told Shaggy that they were Players. The alien clearly wasn't used to his horns.

Spotting the black orb that was still moving across the large chasm, the horned Player pointed a clawed hand at it.

"LOOK THERE'S ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE THINGS!"

The three of them turned as one and immediately started chasing Shaggy and Vlad's orb. Shaggy looked down to see if Vlad still wanted to chase the orb. But the vampire was already mist. His black cloudy form zoomed across the narrow ledge that rimmed the spillway. Shaggy growled to himself and hurried after the vampire, still keeping an eye on the other group of Players. Their presence down here was going to complicate things.

The black orb and the Players disappeared down the western tunnel with Vlad's mist form close behind. Shaggy brought up the rear, ears open for signs of anyone else. The roaring waterfalls weren't helping. But Shaggy got snippets of the other groups' conversation as he joined Vlad at the western tunnel's entrance.

"Seriously… place stinks… drones…"

Shaggy strained to hear more, but the group was moving with purpose as they chased the floating orb. Vlad waited long enough for Shaggy to draw even with him before he poofed away again, chasing the Players. Shaggy had little choice but to follow and grumble to himself as the sound of rushing water became a distant echo. This tunnel still had a flow of water rushing toward the spillway, but the noise was fairly subdued in comparison. So much so that Shaggy could finally make out the other group's words.

"Don't destroy this one, Tucker! I got a feeling it'll lead us straight to the mastermind."

"Devika, calm down. You've been saying that for days now."

"Yeah. Besides, what Mastermind? A few NPCs get poisoned and you, for some reason, shout conspiracy. How does that make sense? Maybe the water just sucks in Abilene. Did you think about that?"

"Yes, Todd, I did! Each of the victims had similar symptoms, and they drank from their water recycled upstream from here. We didn't find anything at the treatment plant. So there has to be something down here."

"Whatever. Like I said, if we don't find shit, then we head to Nevada, right?"

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"Sure, sure." Devika said, sounding tired.

Vlad and Shaggy shared a looked, and the vampire started to mist up again. Before he could, Shaggy grabbed the slim man by his shoulder and dragged him to a divot in the tunnel wall. The two of them struggled for a bit while Shaggy tried to calm his partner down.

"What are doing?! They're getting away!"

"Vlad. What are you doing? Those are heroes chasing down a lead. We don't need this. Let's just head up and get back to the hotel." Shaggy said, waving a hand at the retreating Players.

"Dude, there might be loot! A Villain AND a party of Supers? Those are prime targets! We wait for one to beat down the other and then swoop in and rob everyone!"

"And what if the Supe's trash the Villain in three seconds? These are Players, Vlad. They could probably trounce whoever is at the end of all this."

"Maybe. But so what? Then we roll up and take them down. Between the two of us, we can rock a few Supes. Besides, you're missing the best part."

"What's that?"

Vlad's response was to stick a finger in the air and tilt his head. Shaggy let go of the slimmer man's shoulders as he tried to listen. But other than the arguing Players and the rushing water, he couldn't hear anything. He gave Vlad a curious look, but the guy was happily nodding his head as if Shaggy got it.

"The drones are gone!" Vlad said excitedly.

Shaggy blinked as he realized Vlad was right. Not only was the dull hum of drones gone, but so was the sloshing of footsteps. However, unlike his friend, Shaggy wasn't excited at the prospect. When he moved to tell Vlad that, he found the vampire was already gone. Muttering a curse, Shaggy looked around and found a black mist moving swiftly up the sewer tunnel. Growling, he followed after it, ears strained to hear anything.

Besides the arguing Players and rushing water, the next sound to present itself was cursing. Loud, vigorous, and creative, cursing. Shaggy arched an eyebrow as the group ahead of them hurried toward the noise. Vlad re-solidified long enough to smirk at Shaggy before he sped ahead again. Shaggy wanted to roll his eyes as he followed along, still on the lookout for anyone else.

The unfamiliar voice was coming from a small, square room that cut into the tunnel. To one side was a staircase and a ladder leading up and out of the sewer. On the other side was a large swathe of stolen equipment. Shaggy couldn't identify what sort of equipment it was. But it clearly wasn't working as intended, as an angry green man was pounding on several sensitive looking panels.

"Stupid! Broken pieces of kla'gran dung! How can you fucking break after getting a little wet?! SHIT! This will set me back days! God damn it!"

The tiny green man, who looked to be about just shy of five foot was pounding his tiny fist against something that looked expensive. Bits of toggles and buttons went flying as Devika and her team got into position. Shaggy thought the little Villain seemed to glow as the hooded Devika stood about ten feet away and cackled loudly.

"Haha! I knew you were down here, Villain! Cease your evil plan now or face the consequences!"

"Jesus, Devika. You didn't have to warn him," said the horned alien.

"Todd, look at the little guy. What's he going to do? Run away? We've got him dead to rights," the other alien man said.

Todd rolled his eyes, making his huge horned head flail about a bit. Shaggy took the opportunity to find Vlad and spotted the vampire in the far corner of the room, hiding in the shadows. He stayed their crouched low and gave Shaggy and wicked smile as the short Villain turned to address Devika and her party.

The alien that turned around revealing the face of a bastard child between a frog and fox. Slimy skin with a protruding nose. Sharp teeth and a long black tongue that almost lolled out of the man's skull. He had short, stubby arms and legs that ended in webbed hands and feet. His bulbous eyes took in the Player's before he gave a croaking laugh.

"Graw-ka! So another hapless group of stooges has discovered my lair, huh? What a pity."

"Yeah, dude. I'm not really waiting for the standard Villain speech." Todd said, rolling his shoulders and lowering his head slightly. "We've spent long enough down here."

"Todd! Wait!"

Devika shouted, but it was too late. The horned-headed player rushed the tiny frog-alien, his arms wide to grab the little bastard. The frog squatted down slightly before jumping high into the air. Letting Todd run headfirst into the lab equipment. The equipment sparked and Todd fell on his face as Tucker and Devika got ready for a boss fight. Shaggy figured it was a good time to grab Vlad and leave when the other side of the room exploded in movement.

The staircase and ladder on the other side of the room were suddenly filled with black armored soldiers. Drones poured in from the street, their loud buzzing filling the room. Shaggy jumped back into the tunnel just as voices started shouted and confusion ruled the room. He wanted to scream at Vlad, but that was going to have to wait.

The soldiers came down and leapt over the large, flowing river of sewer water. Once on the other side, they started trying to arrest everyone. Devika and Tucker were almost tackled as drones floated above them, taking their picture. The angry-looking frog alien was spitting gobs of green fluid out of his mouth at approaching soldiers and drones alike. Todd had pulled himself from the frog's machinery and, seeing his friends being assaulted, charged in again. Mass confusion reigned supreme as the soldiers shouted for obedience while the Supes proclaimed their innocence. Shaggy did his best to stay unseen as the floodlights from the drones tried to brighten the entire room. He debated between leaving Vlad to his fate and rushing in and helping.

He was just about to dash away when a new variant was added to the chaos. A red tornado of bats exploded out of Vlad's corner. Hundreds of red bats exploded out of the darkness and attacked everything. All the lights from the drones were obscured and the soldiers' shouts were buried under the sounds of flapping wings. The scent of blood clogged Shaggy's nose, and he stuck his head into the room just enough to see if Vlad was making his way out. The swarm of bats made it difficult to find the pale vampire. But Shaggy spotted the man… making his way to where the frog had set up his lab. Rubbing his eyes, Shaggy washed his hands of Vlad and turned to leave. The confusion in the room would be enough for him to make his escape.

Shaggy turned around and jogged away as he heard the soldiers trying to call for calm. He kept an eye over his shoulder as the sounds of drones almost made the tunnel shake. Taking the first tunnel on his left, Shaggy continued to jog and was thinking about what to tell the others when Vlad's mist form appeared. The pale vampire appeared out of the shadows, a large burlap sack in his arms. The sack clicked with the sounds of credits as Shaggy glared at Vlad.

"Dude! You left me!? Seriously?"

"Vlad. You rushed into a swarm of cops, supers, and drones. I like you. I would've broken you out of prison. But I am not being stupid with you."

Vlad shook the large burlap sack. "Does this sound like stupidity to you?"

"I'll let you know after we count it. But we'll do that above ground, okay?"

"Fine. Fine. I've got no problem with that?" Vlad said, slinging the sack over his shoulder and hurrying off down the tunnel.

Shaggy blew out a breath and rubbed his eyes again. A headache was forming, and he knew it had nothing to do with the smell of the sewers. He suddenly missed working with his pack and the group of Lackeys out of his cave. They never went crazy. They weren't vampires. Grumbling about all the ways his pack was better than Vlad, Shaggy hurried into the dark as the sounds of fighting and drones echoed behind him.

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