They were barely out of the alleyway when Cekrass yelled and wrenched the car into a swerve. Shaggy didn't have any time to ask a question before Stanley shouted into the backseat.

"Blockades!"

"Blockades?! Plural?" Maya shouted back as footsteps still thudded around on their roof.

Shaggy pulled forward and looked out the front window as Cekrass spun their Hummer around. The street was filled with cops and various types of cop cars. Sedans, armored SUV, and he even spotted a damn military-grade APC. Multiple thuds hit the side of their car as Cekrass didn't appear too concerned with running cops over. He didn't blame the lizard either.

As they turned northward into Downtown, Shaggy also go a glimpse of Levy's zombies rushing out into the street. Adding to the chaos. Turning to his tired-looking wife, Shaggy suggested.

"Love, maybe it's time to drop that zombie spell? It looks like it's draining you, and it's only clogging up the streets."

Levy shook her sweaty head and grinned. "Not a spell. It's a summoning."

"Do what now?" Maya asked.

"I summoned actual, feral, plague zombies."

The entire car froze as what Levy said sank in for everyone. Shaggy even heard Vlad on the roof shout in confusion. Shaggy tapped Cekrass shoulder and pointed away from the zombies. The big lizard nodded, stepping on the gas and ramming into a few cop cars. Levy shrugged her slim shoulders.

"We were going to need a distraction."

Maya scoffed as she looked out the window and gripped her pistols. "And you chose zombie apocalypse?!"

"It won't be that bad!" Shaggy argued, looking to his wife for support. But Levy just shrugged again, making him groan.

"It's probably best if we lose the cops quickly."

"They aren't the real problem." Stanley said, pointing out the window.

His finger was aimed upward, and Shaggy's ears tuned into the massive amount of buzzing that was going on. The drones outside the car were unending, and they were circling their vehicle like a swarm of bees. Shaggy groaned as he looked around the car while pointing to Maya's window.

"Do what you can to disrupt the drones. We need to get away."

"With two pistols?! You're dreaming."

Shaggy grabbed the nearest box and shoved it over Levy's body. He assumed it was filled with more of the space racist's weapons. The weight and the noise it made when Maya grabbed it reinforced that idea. He turned and looked for another box of weapons as Cekrass barreled down the street. Levy's cool hand tapped Shaggy's side as he looked through boxes.

"Give me a few minutes. I have another spell."

"Is it summoning a Meteor?! Cause I think we're good with world-ending magic right now!" Maya shouted as she rolled down her window and stuck her head out.

Shaggy scowled at her, but let it lie as he found a submachine gun. There wasn't much ammo in the box, but he could make do. As he loaded a magazine, Levy sat up and crossed her legs on the backseat. She was getting into the meditation position to increase her mana regeneration. Shaggy gave her as much space as she needed as he rolled down his own window. The sounds of shouting and screeching metal entered his ears before he turned back to his wife.

"Tap me when you're ready!"

Levy nodded, but Stanley turned in his seat. "Give me a gun too, boss!"

"No! You and Cekrass find some damn food and eat. You're both fucking low."

"But-"

"No Buts! Fucking eat! That's an order!" Shaggy said before sticking half his body out the window and opening fire.

The tiny machine gun barked in his hands as he aimed up at the swarm of drones. The air was so thick with them he barely needed to aim. He just held down the trigger, fought the kickback and let fly. The bullets pinged loudly off the metal shells of the drones. But some of them actually backed off, which Shaggy took as a win. When he was about to duck back in to reload, though a sharp blow hit the side of his face. Initially, he thought one of the drones was firing back, but then he caught sight of a black boot swinging for his head again.

Instinctively, Shaggy punched out, hitting the tip of the boot and sending its wearer spinning. Vlad roared in triumph as he blurred into vision on top of the car. With a feral kick, the vampire booted the cop he'd been fighting off the car. Shaggy covered his face as the cop sailed over him and then looked around. Vlad was panting on top of the car. Looking tired, but victorious.

"Great, Vlad. You killed one cop. Now how about you help with the thousands of others!" Shaggy shouted, waving his gun at the cars chasing and in front of them.

The slim vampire wiped a hand down his face before waving Shaggy off. "Yeah, yeah. Give me a second; that foul mortal was exceptionally challenging."

Shaggy rolled his eyes and popped back into the car to get a reload. As he did, he heard Cekrass and Stanley munching away on something while Levy was still in her trance. Over Levy's lap, Shaggy spotted Maya digging through her box of weapons. Sticking her head up, she waved a brightly glowing pistol at him.

"Energy weapons work better. But we don't have many energy cells."

"Fantastic." Shaggy grumbled, loading in a fresh magazine and cocking his machine gun.

Maya merely smiled at him before he stuck his head back out the car and started to shoot. He had barely started firing when Vlad waved at him to stop. The vampire was sitting on the roof of the car, in almost the same position as Levy. He reached out a pale hand to Shaggy.

"Give me a weapon too."

"What?! What about your blood bat thing? Do that, ya damn creature of the night." Shaggy said mockingly.

"I'm out of blood for that! Just give me a damn gun already. The cars are getting closer."

Shaggy looked behind them and saw that some of the cop cars were inching closer. Scowling, he passed the machine gun to the vampire and then ducked back inside. He quickly stuck his head inside his box of weapons and tried to find something. But other than an odd assortment of pistols and more machine guns, there wasn't much. He pushed that box to the side and opened another one, hitting pay dirt.

"Oh, hell yeah!" Shaggy growled, pulling out the small black orbs.

He'd never used a grenade before. But the operation was fairly self-explanatory. Pull pin, throw thing, enormous boom. Chuckling to himself, Shaggy pulled the pin on the first grenade and chucked it out the window. The small black oval flew over the first cop car and exploded in the windshield of another car following them. Shaggy grimaced at his aim. But at least he'd hit something.

"Was that a damn grenade, boss" Stanley mumbled around a mouthful of food.

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The boy was holding a small silver bag, and Shaggy could smell the chemical additives from a mile away.

"Yes, and what the hell are you eating?"

"MREs — and they're fucking gross."

Shaggy chuckled as he stuck his hand out the window and dropped another grenade. The sound of cars roaring down the road was joined by intermittent explosions as Shaggy used the grenades one at a time. Once Vlad ran out of bullets for his machine gun, Shaggy passed him some more grenades. The two of them joyfully launched grenades at the cops before a spiky green laser hit Vlad in the chest. The vampire was slammed onto the roof of the Hummer and almost thrown off. But Shaggy quickly tossed his grenade and grabbed the vampire.

More spiky green lasers showered the top of the car, and Shaggy looked up to see a purple humanoid flying alongside the drones now. The Supe was shooting lasers out of his eyes and smiling like a jackass. With a growl, Shaggy pulled Vlad in through the window of their hummer and the two of them fell to the floorboard. Levy's body was buffeted somewhat, but she remained focused on getting her mana levels back up. Shaggy shoved Vlad back up to his feet as he looked around. None of the lasers had pierced the roof of the car yet. But he felt it was only a matter of time.

"You two alive!?" Maya shouted from her side of the car, her head still outside.

"Yes, but we got a Supe in the air."

"One of the ground too." Vlad said from Shaggy's window.

"What?"

Shaggy leaned over the skinny vampire and tried to peer out the window. It was difficult with the two of them. But he could just make out the police cars moving aside for a well-muscled man in spandex. The giant of a man was stomping the ground and flinging himself forward. Using his superior strength to emulate super speed. Vlad pressed his nose against the window and hissed.

"He's going to hit us soon."

"Well, we can't let him do that, Vlad." Shaggy growled back even as the muscle-man pulled even with the back of their car.

Shaggy was looking for another grenade as their car almost wrenched to a stop. The Supe was trying to pull them to a stop even as Cekrass slammed on the gas. In tandem, Shaggy and Vlad jumped into the back seat of the car and punched the back window out. The glass shattered and fell into the street, narrowly missing the strong Supe's feet. He jerked back reflexively before looking up and grinning at them. The Supe raised one massive hand, keeping the other on the car as he reached for Vlad and Shaggy. Vlad pulled back, but Shaggy pushed the vampire forward into the Supe's hand.

"Open wide, Vlad!"

"What are you-agh!" Vlad started to say before his fangs were forcibly jammed into the Supe's palm.

The super yowled in surprise before trying to pull his arm back. But Shaggy and Vlad's combined strength kept him at bay. They held on to the Supe as Vlad drained the blood from his hand. Quickly, the Supe's pallor grayed and their hummer picked up speed again. The cops were way too close now, but Vlad and Shaggy were just about strong enough to pull the Super into the car. As Cekrass pulled their Hummer away, Shaggy and Vlad yanked the poor Supe into the Hummer's backseat. Shaggy held the struggling strong-man down as Vlad got a better angle for a bite and drained the man dry. Once all that was left was a desiccated corpse, Shaggy tossed the Super out the back window again and patted Vlad's shoulder. Vlad's response was to slug Shaggy in the arm.

"Asshole! You could've warned me! That dude was salty as fuck. Blegh!"

"Yeah, yeah. Do you have enough for your damn voodoo yet?"

"What?! No! It's going to take more than a super-chunky Super to fill my tank, Shaggy!"

"Don't worry." Levy's voice said from the front seat. "I've got enough."

"Woohoo!" Shaggy shouted, jumping into the middle seat again and pulling Maya back in.

The gunslinger looked confused for a few seconds until Levy started chanting.

"Oh jeez, what is she summoning now!?"

"Hopefully, something to get us out of this," Vlad said, aiming his machine gun out the back window and firing.

Levy said nothing as her eyes glowed, and her power surged into her hands. Purple energy coursed through her body and then flashed out into the car. Lighting it up like a beacon for a few seconds. Then, the car flickered out of existence for three whole seconds before popping back. Shaggy blinked in confusion as he found they were still on the same street, driving away from the cops.

"Huh," Levy said, nonplussed.

"Huh?! What the fuck does huh mean?!" Maya shouted.

"It means that someone cast a counter-spell right when my spell went into effect."

Every head in the car turned to look at the onslaught of cop cars chasing them. Not to mention the drones in the sky.

"What if we knock out the cop cars until we hit the right one?" Maya asked.

"There's too many of them for that." Vlad argued. "How about we pull down that flying Supe and give me another bite? Just a bit more blood and I can summon another blood-bat tornado."

Shaggy scowled over the sounds of Vlad and Maya's weapons being fired as they spoke. Both ideas had some merit. But he didn't want to risk their digital lives on a slim chance. They needed a foolproof escape plan. Barring that, they needed a few precious seconds to enact a spell. From what he understood of magic, line of sight was a fairly big thing most of the time. He was trying to think of something when he glanced out the front window again.

Cekrass had been driving them around the north end of downtown Austin. But they were now facing the western edge. A bridge was visible down the road. A line of cop cars waited at either end of the bridge. The sight of the bridge sparked a memory of Shaggy in a similar situation once before.

"Is that the bridge over Shoal Creek?" Shaggy asked, pointing out the front window.

"Maybe? But so what? That creek is shallow as hell. They barely need a bridge for it." Levy shrugged.

"Cekrass! Turn us south now! Follow Shoal Creek all the way to the Colorado River! Maya, Vlad, Levy, and I will hold off the cops. Let me know when the Colorado is in sight!"

"I don't like the tone in your voice, Shaggy." Vlad said from the back seat.

"It's the tone he gets when he has an idea." Levy laughed and summoned her staff.

"That's what I mean!"

Shaggy ignored them, even as Levy used her staff to cut a hole in the hummer's roof. His tall wife then stuck her head out of the car and started throwing magic at anything that got close. Shaggy found himself another weapon, an energy pistol this time, and started firing out the window. He barely paid attention to what he was firing at as they barreled down the streets.

Pedestrians and civilian traffic seemed to be a thing of the past as cops and drones filled their vision in every direction. Even the flying Supe above them seemed to get swallowed up in a wave of drones that followed their car religiously. Which, honestly, Shaggy was thankful for. A show was no good without an audience.

Once things started looking familiar, Shaggy pulled his head back in and tapped Levy's thigh. His wife giggled at him before ducking down to hear his plan. He whispered it in her ear while keeping one eye out the front window. Timing would not be a huge issue. But if this didn't look right, they wouldn't succeed. Levy cackled as she heard the plan and then nodded before standing back up. Shaggy wanted to tell the others, but he could see the Colorado River already getting closer.

"Boss!" Cekrass called.

"I see it. Take us down the access road down toward the water."

"Why do that when they've given us a perfect launch pad?" Stanley asked, already tuned in to Shaggy's plan.

The boy was pointing at a pile of barricades set up along the side of the road. It wouldn't be a perfect jump. But it would sell the theater.

"Shaggy…" Vlad said, still firing out the back.

"Everyone prepare to get wet!"

"I hate this plan already."

"You people are crazy!"

Levy quickly sat down even as Cekrass yanked the car toward the stacked-up barricades. The bottom of the Hummer scraped along their cement tops as the front and then the back of the car was lifted up. With the speed they were going, they had just enough altitude to clear the barriers blocking off the Colorado River from traffic. The back of the car hit the barrier, and they were rocked forward roughly. But they still were aimed right at the river.

A mighty splash filled Shaggy's ears, followed by ice-cold water filling the car. They quickly sank as Cekrass and Stanley unbuckled themselves and rushed into the back seat. Shaggy let the water take him as he grabbed his wife about the waist. His pack mates did the same with Maya and Vlad even as they tried to question what the plan was. It was too late now, as their Hummer sank deeper into the dark water.

Once the car was fully submerged, Shaggy exited the Hummer. Carrying Levy in his arms. As they went, his wife's eyes lit up with power once again, and a purple bolt of energy struck the vehicle. Stanley, Cekrass and Shaggy did their best to keep their backs to the hummer even as they tried to swim away. Levy's bolt sank into the metal of the car and then seemed to super-heat the interior. In moments, the vehicle exploded, sending an underwater shockwave that carried the six of them a little further away.

Shaggy grinned. That was half of the plan done. Now, all he needed to do was find the underwater pipe again. Stanley and Cekrass held on to Maya and Vlad as the two Players shot Shaggy evil looks. He gave them his best placating smile as he kicked his legs to where he thought the pipe was. Above them, the muffled sounds of cops and drones were everywhere. Already huge blue swaths of light were cutting through the water, searching.

Thankfully, Shaggy's memory served him well. The pipe and its broken fencing were still there. Shaggy swam through quickly and followed the pipe all the way to the entrapment area. He popped up with a gasp as cold air filled his lungs and the stench of a sewer filled his nostrils. He released Levy as she swam for the edge of the floor that made up the other half of the room. Cog's old trap room seemed to be partially flooded now.

"Or was it like this to begin with?" Shaggy thought to himself.

Coughing and shouting signaled the arrival of the others as Stanley and Cekrass released their charges. Shaggy pulled himself to his feet and sighed in relief. They had done it. At least for now, they were away from the police.

"Shaggy! What the hell?!" Vlad shouted as he pulled himself out of the water.

"What is this place?"

"Welcome!" Shaggy said, his elation filling him with a little bit of theatrics. "To the Villain Cog's first base!"

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