"You're an idiot."

"How was I supposed to know the military would show up?!"

"If you had your Two-Way on, we could have told you."

"I was trying to be stealthy, you dang mutt!"

Shaggy kicked a wave of sewer water at Vlad's pants. "Oh, come off it! Vlad. You could've kept the Two-Way on low and still been sneaky."

Vlad hissed like a cat as cold sewer water hit his pants. He kicked some water in Shaggy's direction and the two engaged in a brief water fight. An echoing buzzing sound made them both freeze. The far off police drone soon faded away as the two of them glared at each other. They'd been wandering around the sewers of Abilene for thirty minutes after evading the military. Their brief fight with the armored soldiers hadn't gone unnoticed, apparently. The sounds of buzzing and stomping feet had surrounded them in the fog. Neither of them were seen, but the soldiers were clearly closing in on their lost patrol. Even dipping down into the sewers hadn't thrown off their pursuers.

Occasionally, the sounds of drones and sloshing feet had echoed in the sewer tunnels. It was only in the last ten minutes that things had finally calmed down. Which is why Shaggy chose that moment to needle the surly vampire. Vlad clearly knew he screwed up by leaving his Two-Way off. He was just too stubborn to admit it.

Once the buzzing was gone, both of them continued moving slowly down the tunnel. Shaggy was sure they were heading north again. But the twisty nature of the sewers made it hard to tell. Not to mention all the backing up they did when they realized the soldiers were still down in the tunnels. The constant turning around and finding alternative paths to get where they wanted to be was a pain enough. But then they had to deal with the nasty smell of the damn sewers. Shaggy was sure he had it worse. However, Vlad's senses weren't bad either.

They traveled in silence for another couple minutes until they came across an oddly shaped tunnel. The area was enormous, with a large channel of water running east to west. There were odd stone bridges interspersed along the flowing water. So they picked one and walked across. Shaggy grimaced as the smell took on a distinct tinge as they carefully made their way over the fast-flowing canal. The water went from smelling like shit to smelling like some kind of cleaner. The water even had a green tinge to it. Pointing it out to Vlad, the vampire nodded. But stayed silent until they reached the other side of the bridge. On this side of the canal, there were multiple smaller tunnels leading off to the north.

"Probably a detergent dumped in the sewer water before it gets to an actual treatment plant."

"Kind of strong, isn't it?" Shaggy asked as Vlad stuck his head down a tunnel.

Something must not have looked right, cause Vlad shook his head and moved on to the next tunnel down the path. As he crept along, Vlad gave the treated water a cursory look.

"Maybe. But given the way it smelled before, I'd say they needed something strong."

Shaggy gave a half-nod at that as they came to the second tunnel off their path. Vlad was midway into examining the large hole when a black orb shot out of the tunnel. The orb collided with Vlad and sent the vampire spinning into Shaggy. The two of them spun on the edge of their walkway, barely keeping out of the water as the orb oriented itself. Shaggy spotted a well armored and well-hidden camera on the orb's surface and immediately slashed at the thing with a claw.

A bright green bubble appeared around the orb as Shaggy's claws bounced off it harmlessly. The resulting recoil jerked Shaggy's body backward as Vlad tried to hold on to him. The two of them fell back into the rushing water as the orb spun away from Shaggy's attack. Vlad had enough time to look indignant before they splashed down. His body sank like a brick as Shaggy's body was pushed slowly with the current. He kept his eyes closed, but he felt Vlad get wrenched out of his grip and carried along with the water.

Shaggy felt his body begin to sting and heat up as he was submerged. He turned with the flow of water as his feet hit the bottom of the large channel. He was still being pushed slightly, but knew that with his density, he could probably claw his way to the edge. But that meant leaving Vlad and dealing with the floating orb himself. Doing his best to go weightless, Shaggy let the flow of water take him as he snapped his eyes open for a second.

Water stung his eyes, and he felt whatever was in the sewer water eating away at him. But he managed to catch a glimpse of a Vlad's body ahead of him. Swimming in the sewer water, Shaggy continually opened and closed his eyes. Letting his healing repair the damage from whatever corrosive was in the damn sewer water. Cause he was sure it wasn't a damn detergent. His skin was burning off and healing itself the longer he stayed submerged. Thankfully, with him swimming with the current, Shaggy was able to grab Vlad and orient him toward the edge of the channel.

The vampire was just as strong as Shaggy, but not as dense. Which meant that as Vlad swam toward the edge of the canal, he was pushed further along. Shaggy stayed with Vlad as he walked along the bottom of the canal, doing his best to ignore the biting sting of the water. When Vlad finally hit the stone side of the channel, Shaggy let him find his own way up and used his claws to climb out. Luckily, the side wall was just stone, so Shaggy managed to slowly creep his way until he was above the flowing water.

He blinked the water out of his eyes and tried to glance over at Vlad. He saw the pale man doing the same thing as him, just with his creepy long nails. Once Vlad's head was above the water, the vampire turned into mist and zoomed the rest of the way up the wall. Shaggy snorted at the action and Pounced his way up the short wall. His body crashed up onto the walkway with a solid thud and he immediately curled into a ball. Now that they were out of danger, Shaggy could feel every inch of his skin screaming. His clothes were in tatters, his skin was red and raw, and he was sure his body had green smoke coming off it.

"RRRGRGRH!!"

Shaggy shoved a fist into his mouth and bit down as he screamed nonsensically. He needed to remain quiet. The drones were still looking for them. Not to mention whatever that black orb had been. His own scream was so loud in his ears that he didn't notice that Vlad was rolling around next to him doing the same thing. His healing was working overtime, trying to douse the fire that was his raw skin. Shaggy dragged himself closer to the wall and panted as his body screamed in pain.

As his healing dealt with the worst of it, Shaggy finally managed to blink the stuff out of his eyes. He was sure they were clear when they stopped stinging and watering. As he looked around, he saw Vlad was in the same state as him. Except the pale man was hunched over on his side as patches of his pale skin were red. Vlad wasn't healing as fast as Shaggy and for a moment, he worried the vampire was going to get cubed. Instead, the vampire coughed up some water and groaned as he pulled himself up. Looking around, Vlad turned a red, patchy face to Shaggy and scowled. He opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. Just a raspy cough that Shaggy was sure meant the sewer water had torched Vlad's larynx. The idiot must've swallowed the water.

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Shaggy grinned, thinking about it, which set the vampire into another coughing fit.

"Not… Funny…" Vlad wheezed, as his body healed itself.

"Dude, you swallowed shit-water. That's kinda funny." Shaggy joked.

Vlad hissed at him, but it turned into a coughing fit. The two of them sat on the edge of the canal, panting and trying to get themselves back together. Shaggy tried to gauge how much longer his healing ability would be effective. But the water was still stinging him slightly. It sent his regeneration into overdrive as it tried to repair the damage. He started wiping himself off as best he could. But the stinging remained. Vlad got himself under control and pulled himself alongside Shaggy, his pale face slowly healing.

"What the fuck was that back there?"

Shaggy shook his head. "No idea. But it was hidden from our senses and fucking shielded."

Vlad rubbed his pale stomach as pieces of his shirt slumped away. "I don't think it was expecting us, either. Damn thing ran right into me. Felt like getting kicked by Dave."

"That shield tossed the both of us, too." Shaggy pointed out. "We were already reeling. But that shield fucking bounced us and I'm heavy as hell."

"I noticed. Were you walking along the bottom of the canal?"

"Dense bones. They're a bitch."

"Then why aren't you still fucking burning?" Vlad hissed, as the red blotches on his body were still fading.

"I got better healing, dude. We both know it. But that fucking water took a lot out of me."

"That's not water. That's fucking toxic. What the hell is it doing down here?"

"Don't know. Don't care. Let's just get home. We have a fucking convoy to hit tomorrow and we can't get sidetracked by toxic water."

Vlad raised an eyebrow that was slowly growing back. "You're not the least bit curious?"

Shaggy sighed. "Of course I am! But it's about priorities. We're already going to be fucking wrecked from tonight. I need to eat and get my healing topped up."

"And I need blood." Vlad nodded, shakily getting to his feet.

Shaggy joined him as he thought about the vampire's words. Groaning internally, he stuck his wrist out toward Vlad. The vampire looked at the gesture curiously. Shaggy remained silent as he simply waggled his wrist.

"Take what you need. But I swear to Christ if you try to turn me, I'll kick you back in the shit-water."

Vlad smirked as he reached over and grabbed Shaggy's wrist. He studied Shaggy's limp like a disgruntled sommelier before raising the wrist up to his fangs. Shaggy braced himself for the bite, but it never came. Instead, he heard Vlad ask.

"Are you sure? Y'know, the bite of a vampire can be quite a thing."

Shaggy rolled his eyes. "I'm not one of your sycophants, Vlad. Just take enough to heal yourself. Any more and into the drink you go."

Vlad scowled, but dipped his head down and extended his fangs. Shaggy winced as he felt the fangs dig into his skin. But the sensation was accompanied by a warm, pleasant sensation that shot down his arm. Unfortunately, the feeling didn't last long as Shaggy's healing fought it back. Shaggy got lost in the odd feeling of the two forces fighting it out in his arm. One was a wave of pleasantness shooting from where Vlad was biting. The other was Shaggy's own cold healing, working against whatever Vlad's fangs injected into him.

Vlad, for his part, started out draining the blood from Shaggy's wrist. Then the vampire went still as the blood seemed to hit his system. Vlad stood straighter, dragging Shaggy's wrist up with him. Shaggy saw annoyance flit past the other Player's face. But he didn't have a chance to ask as Vlad took three long sips and then dropped Shaggy's wrist like a hot potato.

"300 points!? Just for the initial sip? That's fucking madness! There's no way you're that much stronger than me!"

Shaggy watched the fang holes on his wrist seal up as the warm feeling left his arm. He flexed his fingers before smiling at Vlad.

"Well, don't get any ideas. That was just a one-off." Shaggy said, watching Vlad's skin heal faster.

Vlad nodded sullenly. "It has to be. I got a system message saying biting a willing player without turning them would give diminishing returns. I guess to keep me from using my friends to power-level me. Still though, 300?! Ridiculous."

"Get out of those meetings and into some actual fights, Vlad. Then you may be as cool as me."

"Fuck off!"

Shaggy grinned as the two of them looked around. This stretch of ledge was much the same as the one they fell from. Tunnels dotted the wall leading further north. They were about to pick one when Shaggy saw the flash of something black out of the corner of his eye. He tackled Vlad into a nearby tunnel and raised a finger to his lips. Carefully peering around the edge of the tunnel, Shaggy looked to the west, where he'd seen the flash of black.

A black orb was floating out of a tunnel about fifty feet from them. As he watched the tiny device float over to the water, Vlad joined him. The two of them watched the baseball-sized orb dip low over the water and extend a slim rod from its body. The rod dipped into the water and the black orb went nuts for a few seconds. All along the orb's outer surface, it seemed to waver and flex before a sequence of lights lit up on its side. The tiny orb pulled back in its rod and started floating down along the canal.

Shaggy pulled his head back into the tunnel and grimaced. Vlad was smiling as he kept an eye on the retreating orb.

"That thing definitely has something to do with the water."

"Yeah, yeah. I know it does." Shaggy growled as he yanked his Two-Way off his melted pants.

He pressed the talk button on its side, only for the device to spark dangerously in his hand. A small plume of smoke rose out of the Two-Way as Vlad turned to look at him. The vampire searched for his own Two-Way but it was long gone. Lost somewhere in the sewer water. But Vlad still looked hopeful.

"We're still going after though, right? That's what you wanted to tell the others?"

Shaggy dropped the remains of his Two-Way and rubbed his hands over his face in aggravation.

"Argh! Yes! We're following the mystery orb deeper into the sewers. Are you happy?"

"Only if we find something worthwhile." Vlad grinned, slipping out of the tunnel.

Shaggy groaned as he followed after his friend. They both knew this was probably a bad idea. But some of the best loot could be found on the most random paths. Who knew what kind of danger or excitement they'd find? They'd could still get some sleep before they hit the convoy in the morning… maybe.

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