A Cartoon of Betrayal and Strife

by jedilordrevan

In the world of Hannos Barberos, many kingdoms live in peace... or at least they appear to. In truth, every king and queen is constantly scheming and fighting for dominance. With one hand they extend a olive branch, while the other hides a knife. Everyone is fighting for survival. always aware that no one stays on top for long. There is blood on the crown... go and take it.

4. Many Can Play Games

A Cartoon of
Betrayal and Strife
M.C. Deltat

Chapter 4: Many Can Play Games

Shaggy watched as four menacing hostiles slowly inspected themselves in perfectly robotic fashion.

'What do you mean there is an issue?' An echo came from the mind link. "I thought Foghorn and you took care of everything?"

'Evidently not. They seem to be some really muscular spies here.' Shaggy replied. 'Hold on…Zoinks what are they doing' he cried out as he watched each of the four rip very make-shift weapons from the columns supporting the building themselves. They then proceeded to march slowly in sync towards Shaggy. Honestly, they weren't as fast as he thought they would be. Still, seeing Foghorn just now recovering from being launched into the wall, Shaggy knew he had to be careful.

Shaggy moves up to engage the quartet in a fight. Using the bunkbeds as cover, Shaggy ducks and weaves through the aisles and rows to be as fast as possible. The bodies attempt to respond but everything they do seemed to be really slow for some reason. Almost as if they have some lag time in between witnessing an action and picking the appropriate response. Still, the few times a hit is close, its strong. Several times, the four beings are able to completely destroy a bunkbed with a missed slam. Shaggy doesn't bother with parrying or blocking; his bones likely wouldn't be able to take the blow. It took Shaggy maneuvering well at his peak, but his blade eventually found the necks of two of the four. Satisfied that those two would go down, he relaxed knowing that two would be easier.

It was only pure nerve that prevented Shaggy from having his back caved in by a gigantic wooden makeshift maul. Instead, it only slammed into the floor, creating a massive hole. As he evaded back several steps to figure out what happened, Shaggy's eyes shot out towards the two men he thought he had put down already. He could see that, there was in fact, slashes at both of their throats, but just no blood coming out.

'FOGHORN!' Shaggy thought as loud as possible. 'GET UP. THESE CAN'T BE MEN. THEY DON'T BLEED'. Shaggy watched in the north end of the room, as Foghorn almost won his struggle to get to his feet.

'I'm sorry, what do you mean they don't bleed' Tweety asked over the link. He sounded like it was a struggle to communicate and maintain the connection simultaneously.

'I mean I slashed two of them in the neck, but they are still standing; all four of them are still trying to bash my brain in with structural columns,' Shaggy cried as he evaded yet more blows.

'No shot,' Roadrunner added. 'need visual to assist'

'FOGHORN,' Shaggy yelled again, 'ARE YOU COMING!'

'No need to make a ruckus,' Foghorn thought back, 'I can hear you. I am coming.'

'Can you give me more details,' Tweety asked 'Maybe I can identify the cause.'

'Uh, I would love to, but I am a tad busy keeping my brain non-impacted.' Shaggy answered. Looking in the distance, he could see that Foghorn was finally standing, but he did not look fight ready. Perhaps he had a concussion from the impact or something. Regardless, he didn't look capable to fight just yet. 'ah screw it,' Shaggy gritted out as he dodged yet another blow. 'Roadrunner, you on the south side?'

'Correct.' Roadrunner answered.

'Foghorn, don't help me fight. Go open a window for Roadrunner.'

Foghorn began a jog to the south wall, but eventually his brain caught up with what his eyes were seeing. 'Uh, Shaggy, there is no window south wall.'

'Then make one,' Shaggy ordered. He landed another pierce against one of the spies, but it didn't react.

'Ah, with pleasure,' Foghorn thought.

Foghorn brought back his massive greatsword and began slamming it against the very walls of the building. He eviscerated through the dry wall like it was paper. The intermediate structural beams snap away like twigs. Then the final exterior brick façade on the outside crumbled away as if the very heavens themselves demanded it. In but a few seconds, Foghorn had opened up a massive hole along the south side of the building.

'I can see now' Roadrunner said. Immediately, scores of arrows flew into the room. Each one found its mark against one of the four men currently trying to break Shaggy's kneecaps. But while they each staggered for a moment after each piercing blow, they still continued their assault.

'Foghorn come help me now,' Shaggy ordered.

Foghorn listened to his team leader, helping to divide the attention of the four. But despite their best efforts, every one of the four refused to go down. No matter how many slashes, stabs, or piercing arrows were sent at them, the effect of each was just ignored.

'I GOT IT' Tweety yelled to the crew. 'SKIN SUITS! THESE AREN'T REALLY PEOPLE.'

Shaggy grunted. 'What was your first clue' Shaggy's sword shot out and perpendicularly separated one of the beings faces from their heads with a neat perpendicular slash. The body kept retaliating, but it was unable to prevent its face from sliding right off. The nose, the mouth, the soulless green eyes, it all fell clean off. Revealed behind the face was a skeleton beast.

'Skeletons' Shaggy cried out.

'No wonder our piercing attacks were ineffective.' Foghorn commented as he observed through the corner of his eye. 'We have been hitting nothing of import this whole time'.

'You know what to do then,' Shaggy commented. 'Murderstroke.'

'Murderstroke,' Foghorn agreed.

Both Shaggy and Foghorn reversed their grips on their weapons; their hands now using the blade to hold onto the weapon. Ready with their makeshift mauls, they soon resumed a new, impassioned assault onto the slow skin wearing skeletons. This time, they were greeted with loud cracking noises accompanying every single blow landed. As a result, the skeletons get slower and slower with each resisted hit. Eventually, they lost their faces, their legs, and even their arms. They soon could no longer make retaliatory strikes, seeing as you need hands to hold onto weapons.

'Oh, not a moment too soon,' Foghorn thanked as he destroyed the final of his opposition.

'I agree,' Shaggy added. "I was running out of bunk beds to dodge in-between of' His enemies no longer resembling humanoids, but instead literal piles of bone fragments on the floor.

'Were these skeletal warriors the ace in the sleeve of the seditionists?' Tweety struggled to ask.

'I do have to admit. They would be a struggle.' Foghorn admitted. 'Especially if you were hoarded by a lot more of them without being prepared.' He made an effort of cleaning his sword before putting it away. 'Queen Mandy truly has some beasts in her ranks.'

'Wait,' Shaggy interrupted. 'I found notes from the Captain saying that they were struggling; That their promised aid hadn't even arrived yet.'

'Maybe lies?' Roadrunner asked.

'To whom?' Shaggy asked. 'They didn't know we were coming. Plus, an awful lot of them where busy getting sloshed when we arrived.'

'So, what do you think this means.' Foghorn asked. 'Did… did you think the spies didn't know about these skeletons being here? That they replaced a few of their numbers in secret?'

'What would that signify if it were the case,' Tweety asked.

'That the Professor's alliance with Queen Mandy might not have been as strong as we assumed.' Shaggy answered. 'That someone is playing a game a fair bit more complex than what we are currently playing.'

'If you are right, then that means Queen Mandy was spying on her own allies.' Foghorn hesitated.

'To what end though?' Tweety asked.

'Red flare in the sky,' Roadrunner suddenly interjected. 'Its origin is the Lab, I think.'

'We are about to learn to what end, I'm afraid' Shaggy eventually answered. 'We need to run now.' He looked over at Foghorn. 'Are you good now?'

'Only needed a few seconds,' Foghorn confirmed.

Shaggy nodded. 'Meet us outside Tweety, Roadrunner,'

'Right' they both echoed, 'We will be watching for you.'

'We jumping out,' Shaggy ordered Foghorn. 'Much faster than stairs.'

Foghorn and Shaggy both sprinted towards the hole that Foghorn created but a few moments ago for the fight. They both, with zero hesitance, leaped out of the hole on the second floor of the building. Shaggy landed on the ground, but rolled to distribute the force away. Foghorn, meanwhile, slammed into the very ground, creating a small crater in the dirt. Both slowed their pace momentarily to allow Roadrunner and Tweety to catch up. Once they fully climbed down from their vantage spots, the group went back to running at full speed.

Shaggy decided to share a theory he had as he ran.

"Guys, I think we've been tricked. All of this has been a deep ploy by Queen Mandy." Shaggy didn't even bother speaking through the mental link. 'No, don't cut it yet Tweety, I just prefer to think out loud right now. Need a break from the voices in my head.'

'Aye' Tweety answered.

"As I was saying, we've been played like a damn fiddle here." Shaggy continued. "it is my belief that the spy house was purposely left unsecured for us to assault."

"Why would the Professor allow us to slaughter his own men like that?" Foghorn asked. "Why waste the resources inserting seditionists in the first place?"

"You have to remember that the Professor believed this would be a joint operation between himself and Queen Mandy." Shaggy explained. "Queen Mandy must of decided that she would employ lies and deception for her end of the bargain."

"She agreed to send over an agent to assist. But that agent never arrived." Roadrunner claimed. He nodded to the red flare still in the sky. "Do you think the agent is the cause of that?"

"Who knows." Shaggy admitted. "It's definitely something bad causing that."

'Surely their task would have been easier accomplished if they were to do it together, no?' Tweety asked. 'Why divide up like this?'

"If there is something I've learned about those who hunt for power," Foghorn began, "It's the fact that none of them wish to share anything that is gained. If you would be willing to stab your own family for gains, well, who in the entire world would you be willing to share anything with?"

"Indeed," Shaggy agreed. "Queen Mandy obviously had plans for whatever was stolen from The Lab, plans that didn't include The Professor."

'Why make them think that aid would arrive then?' Tweety asked again.

"So that there would be no competition." Shaggy explained. "What were most of those spies doing when we found them?"

"Face first in a bottle of booze." Roadrunner answered. "Meanwhile, Mandy's men are doing whatever is happening over there" He pointed once again to the flare.

'Then…' Tweety hesitated, 'Who were the flesh bag skeletons spying on? What was their goal?'

"Who really knows?" Shaggy muttered. "Who really knows?" Shaggy was silent for a moment as he led the crew through increasingly twisting back alley turns. "I suppose the simple answer would have to be that they had multiple goals. First, make sure that the Professor's spies don't get anything valuable. Second, keep an eye out for King Bug's men."

"I suppose they didn't have a secret third goal of helping the spies survive the attack." Foghorn added.

"No," Shaggy answered. "As far as Queen Mandy was concerned, they were only a distraction to give her own men more time to do whatever they are doing at The Lab."

'Wouldn't there be a risk of The Professor finding out about this betrayal?' Tweety asked.

"How?" Roadrunner asked. "We killed them all. Who is left to share what happened?"

'Ah,' Tweety thought.

"Dexter must be working on something truly marvelous to make all this deception worth it." Foghorn sighed.

"Hang on," Shaggy ordered. "We have a problem." Shaggy's hands went down to his belt as he grabbed some daggers. "Foghorn, I need you to throw me at 1 o'clock, full power." As he gave the order, he simultaneously flipped his grip on the daggers so that he was holding them by the blade ends.

"What?" Foghorn asked.

"NOW TROOPER" Shaggy yelled.

Foghorn, as he jogged, grabbed Shaggy by chest and picked him up. Foghorn tensed his arms back before throwing Shaggy forward as strongly as possible.

Shaggy first flew high into the sky. The first thing he noticed was that Dexter's Lab is very close to his crew's location. The second thing he noticed, was a pair of very goofy looking skeletons attempting to shadow his crew using the rooftops. Frankly, the stealth waddle being used by the skeletons looked ridiculous to Shaggy.

The creatures eventually notice a man in the sky, but take evasion action way too late. These types of artificial creatures tend to have a lag time for such radical situations. Shaggy had ample time to successfully mark out his targets. Aided by gravity, Shaggy's daggers fly pommel-forward straight towards the skeletal feet. Within seconds, the daggers make contact, and the sound of 4 ankles cracking echo in the immediate area. The two skeletons topple to the floor noiselessly, as their legs no longer had the capacity to support their boney bodies.

'ROADRUNNER CATCH ME! Shaggy yelled.

Immediately, Roadrunner charged ahead of the remaining trio. Crawling up the side of the nearest house as if it were second nature, Roadrunner quickly found himself on a roof, approximately underneath Shaggy who was still falling.

"ZAVTAN" Tweety yelled. A pulse of purple magic shot out of his hand and flew into Shaggy.

"What?" Shaggy couldn't help but ask. He felt a purple beam hit him, but he couldn't immediately tell what changed. "Okay." Shaggy muttered. "COMING DOWN ROADRUNNER!" He maneuvered his body to be as wide as possible and then braced himself. Shaggy must have only been in the air for seconds, but the fall felt much longer than that. Ultimately though, he felt himself slamming directly into Roadrunners awaiting arms. He could hear the wood cracking at Roadrunner's feet but his arms didn't falter.

"You comfortable?" Roadrunner asked.

"I can't complain" Shaggy answered.

"Cool, get off," Roadrunner ordered.

"I'll think about." Shaggy replied.

Roadrunner stood there, not quite sure to do as Shaggy refused to get out of his arms. He was eventually relieved when the other two members of the quartet finally made their way up to the roof. Seeing the gang all here, Shaggy reluctantly got off his perch on top of Roadrunner.

Roadrunner made a show of cleaning his hands.

"So, I am guessing the mental talk is off now" Shaggy asked. "What was that spell you used."

"Momentum arresting spell," An out of breath Tweety explained. "Made it safer for Roadrunner to catch you. Also, yes, mind talk is off. I can only concentrate on one spell at a time. I decided that you not becoming a pancake on the floor was probably more valuable than hearing your pain ridden screams during your last few moments of lucidity."

"Fair enough." Shaggy admitted.

"It'll take a little bit for me to be able to cast it again." Tweety felt the need to defend himself.

"I wasn't blaming you. Don't be so defensive." Shaggy said. "Its fine. Deal with your own stuff."

Foghorn, wishing to keep the conversation moving, decided to ask his own question. "What did you see when you were in the air?"

"Skeletons." Shaggy answered. "They were ahead of us slightly. I broke their ankles. Now they aren't going anywhere."

"Were they trying to alert their allies attacking The Lab?" Foghorn asked.

"Who knows." Shaggy shrugged. "All I know for sure now is, considering how many agents Queen Mandy had watching the house, it definitely was some sort of delaying tactic. Draw us out for as long as possible so that they can finish their job at The Lab."

"If that's the case, I feel the need to ask." Foghorn hesitated. "Are we walking into a trap?"

"Would it matter?" Shaggy asked.

"No" Roadrunner answered. "We spring it."

Shaggy sighed. "I can see the entrance to the lab right down here." He gazed at the massive laboratory compound a few units ahead of them, the red emergency flare finally decaying out of the sky. Even from here, Shaggy could see the corpses lining the floor. "It looks like a dang nightmare." Shaggy began climbing back down the other side of the building. "Let's just prepare ourselves for whatever we have to do. We've made it this far and I don't like leaving missions halfway done."

The rest of the crew nod before joining Shaggy in his climb down. Within moments, they make their way down on the ground, right in front of the entrance to the Laboratory complex. Almost immediately, they find themselves being forced to breathe through their mouths, as the putrid air stung the nostrils. It was much harder to tolerate the treat their eyes were forced to endure however. Whoever attacked this place seem to make it their mission to leave as much filth behind as possible. The fallen bodies of comrades lost lied everywhere, and in many pieces. Stray limbs, stray bones, stray fluids, it lied everywhere over the greens. There was a massive battle here. The living lost.

Yet still Shaggy directed his crews deeper through the front yard. The target, the laboratory exterior gates, were clear in vision... as were the 2 skeletal guards guarding the hole a battering ram had no doubt made. Fortunately, their backs where to the entrance as they seemed to be watching something. Now, it was only a game of noise. Shaggy walked through the front grounds with his crew as quietly as possible, careful to not accidently step on the remains of battle. This was quite the challenge since there was gore draped literally all over the front yard of the Laboratory. From experience, Shaggy knew that the remains of a dead man in armor, or any dead skeletal creatures, would cause quite a noticeable echo to whomever cared to listen.

Shaggy calmly signaled Foghorn to take the left. Tweety was ordered to stay back with Roadrunner. Within moments, they followed through. Shaggy meanwhile broke off to the right, carefully creeping his way along the crafted marble walls that had since gained new artistic blood splatter. As Shaggy inched forward, he slowly became aware of a deep voice coming from the inner courtyard of the Lab. He couldn't quite make out what it was saying, nor did he make any effort to decipher it. Shaggy was just happy that he couldn't hear any further bloodshed. That meant there was still time to stop the key from turning. He could still stop Queen Mandy's agent from achieving whatever they wanted to achieve here.

Shaggy and Foghorn finally got their bodies right up against the exterior wall. They slowly shimmied along the wall until they got to the giant hole piercing through the gate. Shaggy first signaled Foghorn to wait. Then, Shaggy slowly peaked his head through the hole to gaze at what was beyond. In the far distance was the Fortress Laboratory. Directly in front of the Lab interior gates were two separate lines of troops facing off against each other; there was a smaller collection of human guards who were facing off against the other group, a much larger force of armed skeletons. A few paces behind the skeletons was one of the largest men Shaggy had ever saw in his entire life. Strangely, the massive man was not dressed in a single bit of armor. Instead, he had a full body, sleeveless, skinsuit; a skinsuit which only served to enhance his massive physical form. His head was topped with long flowing orange hair, and it appeared that he had an eyepatch over his left eye. The most significant protection on his body that Shaggy could obviously make it was the prosthetic right hand which seemed to be made entire of iron. Then, tied to his back and waist, were many weapons of all types. Interestingly, a little behind the tall man, was a large 4-legged skeletal beast with a giant, pointed battering ram mounted onto its back.

"No doubt how they got through this gate." Shaggy whispered. He shook his head. He refocused on the matter at hand. Looking over to Foghorn who was still waiting for orders, Shaggy signaled him to slowly approach his skeletal guard. As he creeped forward, he could finally make out what the giant was saying as well.

"You have an opportunity here to be a part of greatness." The colossal man said. "Throw your chains free. You only find yourself limited in your explorations under the Rabbit. Serving Queen Mandy, you Dexter could be a part of so much more. No limits, no ethnics, no red tape."

Shaggy continued to creep right up behind the skeleton as he listened. 'So, Mandy wants more.' He pondered.

"We are already capable of anything you brute." Dexter responded. "I have things here that you wouldn't believe."

"I can believe in quite a lot, my friend." The colossal man laughed. "For example, I hear you have quite the interesting runic device inside that lab." He paused as if pretending to remember. "The Harvester?"

"How do you know about that!" Dexter yelled before breathing. He took a moment to relax himself before being to speak again. "It matters not …"

Shaggy zoned Dexter out as he found himself now directly behind the skeleton. Unmoving, it was still unaware of its oncoming immortal end. Shaggy looks at Foghorn who is in a similar position. He nods. They both engage.

Shaggy quickly wraps his left bicep underneath the skeletons head to get a strong lock on it neck. Then Shaggy's right hand launched to the top of the skull's head, fingers in the eye holes, to force the entire head right into his bicep. Shaggy then launched himself backwards, back through the gate threshold onto the ground. Once he hit the ground, he used his legs to generate the momentum needed to spin his body around. Using the energy generated, his knees flew out and crashed into the skeletons spin, severing it relentlessly.

A breath of relief was let out once the skeleton stopped moving in resistance. Shaggy looked over to Foghorn, expecting him to have taken care of his skeleton in a similar manner. Apparently, he had decided to take a simpler approach. Foghorn put one hand on the skeleton head, the other hand on the skeleton shoulder, and pulled in opposite directions. The Skeleton popped before dropping to the floor due to its impromptu decapitation. Shaggy shook his head in shame. He carefully crawled his way back into the Lab courtyard happy to learn that the giant man hadn't notice his guards taken down.

Lord did he look annoyed listening to Dexter's monologuing though. Shaggy wasn't sure if Dexter was purposely trying to irritate the massive with conversation, or if he was trying to fill the air with noise so that Shaggy could take out the skeleton. Either way, the orange ginger looked like he wasn't going to tolerate it anymore.

"Thank you for all this talk regarding the Harvester Dexter," the massive man eventually interrupted. "But I really must ask if there was a point."

"Really, you haven't figured it out yet?" Dexter asked. "Then my point is to be self-evident. Mandy and her people aren't smart enough to handle the Harvester. Only I am capable of the action."

The massive man laughed. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. Queen Mandy has some pretty intelligent people within her domain; least of all them me." He added as an afterthought.

"Impossible." Dexter began. "Inconceivable that any single person in that dreadful place could match my intellect."

"You know what?" The colossal man had apparently decided he had enough of this. "Okay then. So, when I take the Harvester to my lady, I'll make sure that I take you as well, just in case." He makes a show of detaching his metal right hand and attaching a twin blade in its place. "You will have the privilege of being able to say that you were captured by Hoss Delgado: The MAN WITH NO EQUAL." He yelled out. "KILL! RIP THEM TO SHREDS." He directed his men. "CREATE A PATH FOR THE RAM."

"We are out of time," Roadrunner whispered. "Need to act now."

"Foghorn and I are must take out the battering ram mount first." Shaggy watched as the Lab guards did their best to defend themselves. "We just need to destroy the back legs as fast as possible, and the entire thing will just collapse without the equal weight distribution." He looked at Roadrunner. "Wait till the Ram is destroyed, and I have explicitly taken Hoss's attention. Then you can attack." Shaggy then looked at Tweety. "Do you have close combat capabilities? I actually don't know."

"Yes." Tweety muttered. "I can fight." He held out a hand that began to subconsciously vibrate as it manipulated magical energy. Slowly, an ethereal airy, yet still opaque, sword formed a little bit away from his hand. Once the process was down, Tweety did a couple test swings.

"Alright then." Shaggy said. He looked at Foghorn. "Tweety will help you with the normal skeletons. Once you two divide and conquer, help me with the giant. I might need it."

Shaggy and Foghorn charged to the back of the battering ram mount. The last step before reaching it, Shaggy made a giant leap and landed right onto the beast hind leg. The weight of Shaggy's entire body falling upon the tiny area of the metatarsals, well, there was no question. A loud crack filled the air as Shaggy caused a complete fracture in the beast's right leg. Meanwhile, Foghorn ran forward, once again reverse his grip on his massive great blade. Blade in hand, Foghorn slammed the makeshift maul/pommel right into the beasts left hind leg. It proved completely unable to resist the blow from the powerful paladin. The Beasts left leg joined its right in a new shattered state.

Suddenly finding both rear legs completely fractured, the skeletal beast could no longer generate the balance needed to stay standing. Predictably, It collapsed first in the rear. As it faltered, the sudden movement caused the battering ram to act erratically as it impacted further into the beast's spine. That shattered next. With nothing holding the beast together, the rest of it soon feel apart. It was a loud and spectacular collapse. The ram's fall mirroring its mount. Soon, the back of the ram was jammed into the ground, slightly of kilter leaning on top of the remains of a boney monster.

Shaggy had no time to enjoy the crash though. Hoss had finally noticed the reinforcing team.

He smiled a dreadful smile. "Good, you are finally here." His free hand pulled out a third blade to hold. "Truth be told, you took slightly longer than expected. Waiting for you was quite annoying. I had to listen to that small man's babbling for far too long."

Shaggy couldn't help himself. "Well, I just wanted to make sure you were as annoyed as I was."

"Interesting plan." Hoss flourished his swords. "Let's see how it plays out." He charged, each footstep like a small earthquake.

"ATTACK!" Shaggy yelled.

Roadrunner immediately began letting loose arrows down into the courtyard. Seeing as his targets were skeletons, he was unable to quickly fell any of them. However, his aid proved immensely valuable as he caused the bone monsters to falter one after another with each arrow impact. The human defenders found themselves suddenly able to resist a force that massively outnumbered them. No longer was each individual laboratory protector finding themselves ganged up on in a four on one fight without mercy. Roadrunner's output was so thorough that the skeletons could no longer hit uncontested blow after uncontested blow. But the guards still couldn't kill them. They either lacked the talent or equipment to put those monsters down.

That is where Foghorn and Tweety can in. Foghorn's massive blows with his reversed blade made light work of the skeletons… literally. Not worrying about being hit in return, for he was confident that Roadrunner would cover his overextensions, Foghorn walked into the fight making extremely wide arcs into each skeleton. He took special focus in de-limbing each of the monsters, knowing that it would be very difficult for a skeleton to be a threat if it found itself short of a hand or two. And the skeleton's found themselves unable to resist. Recognizing Foghorn for the threat he represented, the monsters made an effort of charging him, but that only provided easier access for him to destroy them. The air filled with bones falling apart. It was mostly all arm bones though, and they were all fractured beyond belief.

Tweety meanwhile found that the skeletons had extremely low innate magic resistance. Despite the massive number of bone monsters focused on Foghorn, Tweety still found more than enough skeletons marching at him. Fortunately, they were rather slow and ungraceful. Tweety found it quite possible to evade their blows one at a time, using the Lab guards as aid, before launching counter attacks with each dodge. Each time Tweety attacked with his ethereal blade, another skeleton's body part parted almost as if they were pre-cut pieces. It was almost as if the sword was acting more like a woodsaw than a blade. The small knight took quick advantage of his feat. He didn't bother aiming to be honest, as any slice he landed would ultimately result in a bisected skeleton. Instead, he focused on pacing himself properly so as to not exhaust himself. At least that is what he outwardly told himself. In reality, he was quite concerned about completely running out of magical power, not physical power. He really didn't want to die to a bunch of skeletons.

This fight with the skeletal hoard, was truthfully, only the side course though. At least that is how Shaggy saw it. He drew his single red blade, held it firm in his hand, and charged to meet Hoss. He saw Hoss throw out a slash with the weird double blade attached to his metallic wrist on his right arm. Shaggy throw out his own blade to match it. Instead of stopping Hoss's blade however, Shaggy met a truly unstoppable force. The power behind Hoss' arm completely forced Shaggy's sword back. There was no defense Shaggy had that was capable of resisting such a blow. Completely shocked at the strength, Shaggy's sword hand completely shot back as it was blown away by Hoss' still oncoming blow. Panicked at such a development, Shaggy's legs frantically circle stepped back to gather some space for a moment to think.

Hoss however had no intent to allow Shaggy a break. "What's wrong," He laughed. "I thought you were going to give me a fight to remember?" He gleefully pursed the fleeing Shaggy with a low to high slash.

"Zoinks," Shaggy pirouetted away to barely evade the attack. Using the momentum of his spin, Shaggy followed through with a slash to Hoss's chest. It wasn't supposed to be a lethal hit, nor was it intended to be. Shaggy was just trying to keep with the flow of battle. But surprisingly, Hoss decided to just stand still. He didn't even try to attempt a block. He decided to just take the blow. Shaggy's face blew up in shock as he felt his blade bite into Hoss's pecs. The shock then turned into terror when he failed to even cause a scratch, let alone spill any blood.

"HA. HA. HA." Hoss slowly laughed.

Shaggy tried to pull his blade back out, but Hoss' pecs locked up, trapping the blade.

"Here, let me help." Hoss mocked. He made a dramatic show of bending down to stab his left sword into the ground. Then, using his now free hand, he slowly reached up to the blade and grabbed it. Then, he pretended to struggle as he pulled it out of his own pecs. Eventually, he got bored however, and relented his pecs, allowing his hand to get the blade out. Shaggy, having no patience for the show, immediately pulled the sword back himself. He then hopped back a few more spaces. Hoss meanwhile, feeling the sword sliding though his fingers, decided to have more fun at Shaggy's expense. "Ahhh, hiss, that burns." He swung his fingers as if to air them out. "Papercuts," Hoss said as if it explained all. Seeing that Shaggy wasn't about to laugh, Hoss stopped shaking his hand only to look once more at them. "Oh wait. Actually, these are fine. Oh well, papercuts are no laughing matter."

Shaggy brought up his free hand and bit hard into the space between his thumb and index finger. 'Calm down.' He told himself. 'Hoss is trying to irritate you. You have dealt with far worse before.' Shaggy carefully looked at the rest of the battlefield. The rest of his team were handling the skeletons fine. If he could just stall, they would no doubt be able to help him quickly. But how could they help?

Shaggy's eyes noticed the spike of the ram pointing up into the air.

"Alright then." Shaggy whispered. He brought his sword back forward.

"Did you catch your nerve so soon?" Hoss asked. "Alright then. I'm having fun." He lowered his left hand to once more pick up the extra blade.

Shaggy charged. He stayed low, focusing entirely on evasion. Hoss was built like a cyclops, but luckily had the speed to match one as well. Shaggy sidestepped a straight thrust from Hoss and threw out a slash of his own at Hoss' ankles. It felt like he was trying to cut through fresh steel.

"Uh uh, Too long." Hoss mocked. He sent another sword slash at Shaggy's exposed back.

"Zoinks." Scooby cried out. He rolled in-between of Hoss's legs, barely evading the tail end of the backslash. Using the speed of the roll, Shaggy pivoted into a front flip, landing on his legs some distance away.

"HELLO!" Hoss cried out as he sent scores of sloppy slashes from his left and right. Shaggy's feet went into overdrive as Hoss proved he wasn't quite as slow as Shaggy initially assumed. High left, medium right, uppercut left, thrust right, diagonal left. Thrusts came out rapid fire as Shaggy barely evaded, unable to even think about returning a blow.

Suddenly though, Shaggy found an opportunity. Hoss's slashes had gotten so erratic that he had basically given up any concept of defense. When the motion of the right hand was slightly off kilter with the left hand, Shaggy was able to sneak a fast thrust in-between Hoss's arms, aimed directly at Hoss's remaining eye. "I HAVE YOU!" Shaggy screamed.

Hoss was unable to defend; Not with his sword arms anyway. They had already committed to their slashes at Shaggy's chest. Instead, Hoss merely rotated his head to the right. The sword pinged as it impacted into the eyepatch.

"Smart idea" Hoss grinned. "It's worked before." As Shaggy pulled his sword out, it took the eye patch with it revealing a ball of pure steel. This wasn't the first nix on the orb; it had been scratched before. "Unfortunately for you, it will never work again."

Shaggy spit as he spun in-between the two slashes coming his way.

"Eventually, you will get tired." Hoss proclaimed. He kept slashing; eacg nick on Shaggy's skin signifying a close call. "Just like every speedy man I fight." He resumed his wild slashing without abandon. "You can hit me as much as you want, but you will never win. I only need one touch." His left hand went for another thrust. Suddenly though, he felt a hand grab his elbow from behind. It didn't stop his hand by out-forcing it, more due to the shock of another participant.

"Maybe I can provide a helping hand then." Foghorn said.

Shaggy didn't take a moment to glance if Foghorn was done with his side of the fight. Instead, he immediately used the opportunity to go back to Hoss's feet and once more slash at his ankles. It's rough, but he actually manages to injury Hoss's achilles tendon a small bit.

"GREAT." Hoss cried out as he spun around to attack the Chicken man. "The more the merrier."

Shaggy pulled back out when he saw the spinning attack from Hoss. Foghorn, meanwhile, found himself being outpowered as he hopelessly failed to keep his grip on Hoss's elbow.

Hoss ended his spin before going for a power attach on Foghorn with his metal arm.

Shaggy quickly jogged to Hoss's side and strikes his blade in-between the double blades to slightly draw it off-course. Due to the force behind Hoss's blow, Shaggy was unable to stop the attack, but it still slammed harshly into the ground instead of Foghorn. While Hoss was momentarily dazed, Foghorn did his own wide swing directly into Hoss's uninjured leg. Being massively stronger than Shaggy, he actually managed to cut far deeper into Hoss's tendon.

Hoss didn't notice at first, focused as he was on his blade hand currently buried in the dirt. But when Hoss dramatically pulled his hand out, his body massively recoiled back, onto his trick leg. "Ahh," Hoss screamed. He faltered. It was only a tiny bit, but it was enough.

Shaggy and Foghorn began their own relentless assault against Hoss. Blow after blow was launched into the colossal man's broad chest. None actually served to do any damage, but they proved admirable in keeping Hoss off-balance. With each blow, Hoss tried to stabilize his stance, but his injured leg continued to shake unendingly. Hoss found himself moving backwards continuously; uninjured but going where Shaggy wanted him.

Eventually, Shaggy decided that Hoss was in the correct place. "CHARGE" he screamed. Shaggy, Forhorn, Tweety, Roadrunner, and whatever guards were still alive made a mad dash directly into Hoss's body mass. Not a single man used a blade, for that would have been useless. Instead, they focused on putting as much momentum into Hoss as possible.

He had no idea what they were trying to do, until he felt a very large point slowly piercing through his back. "NO, THAT'S CHEATING!" He cried out struggling to resist however he could, swinging his arms and legs. Unfortunately, he soon found several groups of men restraining a limb each. Without a stable perch, he could not generate the force to throw them off.

"I'LL LIVE WITH THE SHAME" Shaggy hissed through his teeth.

All the men continue to push with whatever force they could muster. Until finally, they find themselves successful. The large spike of the battering ram pierced entirely through Hoss Delgado's chest.

"I'll FUCKING KILL YOU ALL" He was still conscious. Honestly, that terrified Shaggy. "WHEN I GET OFF THIS THING, I'LL END ALL OF YOU." Suspended in the air as he was, Hoss struggled as much as he could. Fortunately for Shaggy, the ram was very firmly mounted in place.

"I don't think he'll get off anytime soon." Tweety commented as he looked at the Hoss's position.

"Yes, but he is still alive." Foghorn exclaimed. "Surely we can't just leave him like that."

"Please do," Dexter yelled in the distance from his perch in the Lab. "I have plans for him. Experiments that he will definitely prove to be most useful in. His clear resilience will be a most interesting point of investigation."

Shaggy shrugged. "Good enough for me." He looked at his crew. "We need to get back to the King. Too much has changed for me to be comfortable leaving it to the original plan."

"Hang on," Dexter once more yelled down. "I can give aid and healing. Give me a moment to get down there."

Shaggy held up his hands in a preventative motion. "No, No, its fine Dexter. Please just stay up there." He brought his hands back down. "For the duration of the day, it would probably be safest for you to stay inside your fortress."

Dexter looked unsure. Without asking for permission, he looked down, and yelled. "Mandark, send out the horses. Quickly."

"No, we don't have time for gates to open, nor do we have time for you to bring horses out." Shaggy continued.

Dexter smirked. "Who said anything about opening the gates."

Suddenly, four massively blinding, glowing lights generated in space. They began by making a small orbit an arbitrary distance away from their origin before falling farther and farther away. Soon, each of the four spots formed massive rings in the air.

"He is autogenerated magical spell rings." Tweety explained in awe. "It's a transportation spell."

The rings flashed once more in light, forcing the four to look away, lest they be blinded. When their gazes returned, the lights were gone and, in their places, where four strong horses.

"Could you just teleport us to the colosseum?" Shaggy asked.

"Sorry, still doesn't work well on sapients." Dexter apologized. "Even if we did get the calculations down, I don't trust our power generation to send all four of you in a rapid fashion." He pointed towards Hoss who was still screaming on the battering ram. "It will take a little while to teleport him inside a test cell." Dexter frowned. "Won't be a pleasant experience for him either."

Shaggy shrugged. "I had to ask." He looked at his compatriots. "As I said, we need to mount up."

They looked at each other. "Why are you stressing so much about this," Tweety asked "We dealt with the active plan and the hidden plan. Should be done."

Shaggy shook his head. "To much extra stuff that I didn't account for has happened." He explained as he climbed onto the nearest horse. "I want to be in the colosseum near the King for the final phase… just in case."

The rest of them began mirroring Shaggy, climbing onto their own closest horses. "Final phase?" Roadrunner asked. "There is more?"

Shaggy nodded. "I'll tell you on the way. Hiyyah," Shaggy ordered his horse out. The rest followed.

"Thanks for the help" Dexter yelled out as he watched his horses speed away.

Shaggy, Tweety, Foghorn, and Roadrunner sped down the throughway road as fast as their horses could go. They didn't bother being anywhere near as quiet as they were on their way in. Dead bodies were being knocked away, loose bone fragments were being shattered into even smaller pieces by fierce horse steps, and anything that couldn't be hit, was instead being leaped over with loud horse jumps. It was as the crew made their mad dash to the colosseum; Shaggy broke the situation down as best he could.

"When I first arrived to this city, I gave King Bugs news relating to three things." He began. "I told him of the danger implied by the Professor, a potential alliance between the Professor and Queen Mandy, and a traitor."

"Wait, a traitor?" Foghorn asked. "Why was that not the first thing we dealt with?"

Shaggy shrugged, a difficult action to do while riding a wildly bucking horse. "King Bugs wasn't concerned about it. He felt that traitors will always exist no matter what we do. He instead wished for us to deal with the plan that the traitor enabled." He explained.

"Well, it seems that the plan was significantly more complex than you expected." Tweety added.

"Yes," Shaggy nodded. "Hence why we are currently speeding to the colosseum. A dash that is thankfully much faster on top of these horses." He held on as the horses made a few rushed turns.

"So, your fear is that the spy is a much greater threat than expected?" Roadrunner assumed. "That they are to act today against the King."

"Well at first, King Bugs assumed that no traitor would try anything at the party." Shaggy explained. "He felt that there was no chance that the Professor would order anything erratic while the King was surrounded by countless foreign dignitaries." He added. "To much opportunity to drum up sympathy if the ploy didn't immediately pay off." Shaggy paused in thought. "But after today, it's quite clear to me that Queen Mandy would not have such misgivings. I think she would order whatever she wanted… nothing off limits."

"Yes, after today, it's quite clear that Queen Mandy and The Professor aren't exactly on equal terms." Foghorn thought out loud. "She would backstab her own allies; She obviously has no restraint for such brazen actions against people with whom she has no relationship."

"So…" Tweety hesitated, "was the King left all alone, to fend for himself if something did go wrong?"

"Not as far as I know." Shaggy guessed. "I assume he had something in the works. Him and his Queen aren't stupid people. They probably came up with something. If not, that is why…"

A massive crash interrupted Shaggy. Screaming soon echoed in the air.

"WHAT WAS THAT!?" Tweety asked.

"Presumably, something going wrong at the colosseum." Roadrunner muttered. He looked over to Shaggy, firm despite the horse. "We are going to find out really quick if the King's plan is satisfactory."

"and if it isn't?" Tweety hesitated.

"Well, that is why we are here then." Shaggy answered. "We will make sure everything plays out the way it should. Even if I have to deal with Queen Mandy herself."

The horses finally turned the last corner to get to the city center. They were exhausted, as clearly indicated by the continuous wheezing, but it was to be expected. Despite only riding for a limited time, Shaggy had pushed his own mount extremely roughly; his crew had only followed suit. Plus, frankly, who knew what these horses had been doing to begin with in the Labs. Based on the sight before Shaggy though, pushing the horses had been the wise move. The Colosseum had 4 primary methods of egresses. In addition, there were also a number of smaller side entrances used for staff or for participants of the show. Literally every single entrance was currently packed full of people fleeing as if for their life.

"You know, I'll be honest." Tweety couldn't help himself. "This looks like a usual weekend for a night at the colosseum."

Roadrunner gave Tweety the side eye. "Are you considering all the screams of terror?"

"I am especially considering the screams of terror." Tweety laughed.

"Enough." Shaggy ordered. He began to climb off his mount. "Get off your horses. We are going to investigate ourselves."

The foursome each climbed off their mounts. The horses, without any riders on top of them, decided that now is a good time for a rest. They each kneeled down and promptly wemt to sleep.

"Man, I wish I could do that." Tweety comment as he gazed at the horses.

"I wish you would go to sleep too." Roadrunner growled. "Wouldn't have to hear your whining anymore."

"Enough I said." Shaggy repeated himself. "Follow me."

It was a struggle, but the quartet forced themselves into the crowd. They struggled as they fought against the outflowing tide of people. Evidently, when everyone is trying to flee out of the colosseum, finding your way in isn't easy.

"Stay together." Shaggy struggled as he was battered back and forth by the people running away. "Don't be sloppy. Make sure no one accidently falls away." He looked at Foghorn. "Grab a hold of Tweety. Make sure we don't lose him."

"Aye," Foghorn follows the order, placing a firm hand onto of Tweety's shoulder.

"I don't appreciate this type of belittling," Tweety coughed out. He was taking the crowd assault worse, but Foghorn's grasp did legitimately help.

"Then don't be so little." Roadrunner sniped.

"WHAT!" Tweety turned his head to Roadrunner.

"Oh nothing." Roadrunner turned his head away. "I am merely agreeing with Shaggy that providing any significant aid would be difficult if we found ourselves stuck outside the colosseum all separated."

"I won't tell you all a fourth time." Shaggy hissed. "Please focus." He looked desperately at the crowd fleeing. "There has to be a reason these people are fleeing."

"Wait, something oncoming in our direction." Roadrunner called out. "DROP TO THE GROUND, NOW!"

All four men immediately drop. A few of the smarter civilians see the armored men drop to the ground and decide to follow suite as well. This ends up being an intelligent move as several spears fly out of the colosseum entrance. They fly relentlessly true as the poor people, crowded man to man, offer little to no resistance to the steel points. Many poor unfortunate beings find themselves with a new hole bleeding through their chest… or at least they would if they survived the experience to begin with.

"OH LORD." Tweety yelled in terror as he witnessed dozens of people stabbed though the heart with a steel spear. Some were lucky, they immediately died, exploding in showers of blood onto all surrounding people. Others were less lucky. The spear didn't piece them in an instantly lethal point. They had the harrowed privilege of lying of the floor, to slowly bleed out and die.

"I believe that is what people might be running from." Roadrunner grimaced. The bodies of so many dead innocents littered the floor around them. "More still barely living than dead." He looked at Shaggy. "I agree with you. We need to hurry."

Shaggy slowly got up onto his knee. "Don't get up yet." He ordered. "There is still more coming. He pushed his hands onto the ground, to generate the force to stand up completely. "Just one more spear heading this way."

"What are you doing then." Tweety hissed. "Get back down.

"Na. I will give them a taste of their own medicine." He whispered. Shaggy outstretched his own arms. His hands twitched in a flexing motion, almost as if they were practicing their grip speed. Satisfied with his tested reaction time, he waited.

Evidently, he didn't have to wait long. Another gigantic steel spear soon blazed out of the colosseum exit.

"COME AT ME!" Shaggy yelled as he dug his feet firmly into the ground.

The spear didn't disappoint. It flew dead straight out of the colosseum and directly at Shaggy. He meanwhile positioned his hips low with his arms out. He stood true, facing down the advancing spear without fear. Then, at the last second, he pivoted to the left while shooting both hands out. The spear rushed slightly by Shaggy, just barely missing his chest. However, it didn't fly significantly past Shaggy as his hands both reached out and grabbed the spear as it flew. Then, bearing down hard on the heels of his feet, he used the momentum of the spear to cause a pivot in his body. As Shaggy pivoted, his hands forced the spear to begin to drop down into the ground. Shaggy pivoted a full 270 degrees before ultimately lowering the spear enough for it to crash into the ground. The surrounding crowd screamed in horror for a bit before they noticed that Shaggy caught the spear in his hands. Then they cheered in joy.

Shaggy inhaled a deep breathe. "Allow me to return the present then." He mumbled. He reversed his grip on the spear before rotating back. He then drew his arms back far to charge, stretching his pecs back as tight as possible. Then, with a strong exhale, Shaggy shot his arms forward and let loose the spear. He watched satisfied as the spear flew true back into the colosseum.

"Let's go." Shaggy turned to his crew. "A path has been cleared for us."

"Hopefully before any further spears come our way." Tweety mumbled.

"I wouldn't worry about it." Shaggy responded.

The quartet charged into the closest colosseum entrance. They immediately made their way through the first chamber, jogging right to the stairs leading to the exterior area. After a few more moments of running, the crew found themselves outside in the upper seats. Blinking the bright sunlight away from his gaze, Shaggy walked a few steps forward to take in the disastrous sight before him.

"So, I suppose King Bugs was incorrect to assume that the colosseum wouldn't be targeted then?" Roadrunner asked.

Shaggy could only mumble his response. "Ya."

Looking down at the crowds, Shaggy could only see bloodshed. The crowds where full of people screaming for aid as skeletal creatures beared down on them. For the vast majority of them, no aid would ever come. There were just too many skeletons and to little soldiers to help. What little soldiers were at this location where currently down in the arena space. The grounds were covered in the destroyed remains of chariots, presumably from the races. Fighting in and out of them were human guards engaged with extremely massive skeletal monsters.

Although Shaggy did take joy in one thing he saw. Out in the distance, he could see the remains of a skeletal cyclops with a spear right through his eye.

"Shaggy Look," Roadrunner interrupted Shaggy's satisfaction by pointing something out.

Following the direction, Shaggy gazed at the other side of the colosseum. He saw King Bugs sitting calmly with Queen Lola and Magistrate Daffy at his sides. That wasn't the interesting part. The interesting part was Hector Bulldog standing at the ready as Sylvester and Tasmanian Devil advanced menacingly towards the King, with weapons ready for combat.

"So, there were two traitors, not one." Shaggy mumbled.

"What would you have us do Shaggy." Foghorn asked. "There is too much death for the four of us to effectively help everyone."

"We don't." Shaggy answered. "The situation is such that it demands cold, hard, triage."

"We prioritize the king." Roadrunner exclaimed. He almost began running, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

"No." Shaggy disagreed. "I can deal with the traitors." He directed his knights to the colosseum arena. "I want you all to assist the guards in killing the larger beasts."

"WHAT." Foghorn cried out.

"Just one of those beasts throwing spears was enough to massacre dozens outside the stadium." Shaggy explained. "If King Bug's men fail to suppress those monsters, if they get outside of the colosseum, we have lost any chances of suppressing this cataclysm. They will get out and they will spread out, killing indiscriminately throughout the entire city." Shaggy finished.

"Are… are you sure." Tweety hesitated.

"I've made my decision." Shaggy commanded. "Go."

The other three nod. They each unsheathe their weapons before charging down the stairway until they ultimately jump into the arena.

Shaggy watched them for a little until they quickly scattered among the shattered chariots for cover. He then pivoted his head back up to look once more at King Bugs' side of the colosseum. Turning his head slightly, he could see Hector the Bulldog engage in combat with the Tasmanian Devil. Expanding his gaze, Shaggy saw Sylvester who wasn't immediately engaging Hector. No, Shaggy instead found Sylvester staring right back at him. Shaggy brought up his fist in a taunt.

Sylvester returned the favor by bring up his hand and pointing right at Shaggy. He yelled. He yelled so loud that it almost shook the colosseum. "STOP HIM."

Countless skeletons in the colosseum stands suddenly stopped their current action. Whether they were in the process of stabbing an onlooker, or they were in the process of leaving the stands to chase escapees, they stopped. It was quiet for a moment. One precise second, when any nearby monster was without motion. Then it wasn't. They all charged right at Shaggy.

Shaggy chuckled. "You can try." He stared Sylvester down as he unsheathed his sword and reversed the weapon for the last time today. Blade firmly in hand, Shaggy firmly planted himself, taking a deep breathe.

Beat…beat…beat…

Shaggy could feel his own heart. Looking back at Sylvester, Shaggy could see that he no longer cared to watch. That traitor had decided to join the Tasmanian Devil in fighting Hector.

"ALRIGHT; GO." Shaggy charged.

He had a long distance to go, as he had to circumvent the entire outer circular length of the colosseum. To make matters worse, the entire part was swarming with skeletal beasts hunting for his blood.

Shaggy didn't even look back. He charged slashing his sword with such incredible force. With each blow, skeletons fell to the ground, finding themselves without their limbs or heads. Shaggy stayed low, maintaining constant flux in his blows. He swung high, low, diagonal, the side. A constant dance of blade found its way moving forward through the masses of skeletons.

He didn't stop. Even if a strike didn't completely end a skeleton, he didn't hesitant. Even when Shaggy was slashed in return due to his 100% offensive style, he didn't hesitant. Shaggy continued to charge forward through the steel and bone.

"Keep running," Shaggy spoke to himself. "Don't fucking stop." He glanced at his goal. He was getting closer; so much closer. "Shit" In the distance, Shaggy saw Hector take a fierce axe blow to the side.

"FASTER" Shaggy yelled. "Need to go FASTER."

Seeing Hector falter, Shaggy gave up what little defense he still had. He charged through the skeletons still in the way. What monsters weren't shattered apart, found opportunity to launch blows on Shaggy. His armor took them. Shaggy ran forward, as pieces of steel fell behind him.

Closer. Ever closer still.

"AAAHHH" Shaggy screamed as he approached the home stretch of the sprint. His blade arm was a blur of movement. He didn't bother hitting anything at his sides anymore. Instead, he focused entirely on clearly a path forward. When his hand was in recoil, when his sword was in recharge after just finishing a strike, Shaggy acrobatically jumped using his free hand as a pivot, over the skeletal heads. He took more blows his way. The many lacerations across his legs proved that they weren't nearly as protected as his upper body, but he continued relentless.

His passion was not without fail however. He could see his target. Sylvester was in the way though. He no doubt wished to stop Shaggy from providing relief to a currently brutalized Hector.

"BRING IT PUSSY," Shaggy yelled. He single-handedly corrected his grip on his blade before charging right up low to Sylvester.

Sylvester spun his long knife around several times before catching it in an icepick grip. "COME AT ME" he shouted before returning the engagement.

Shaggy initiated the fight with an upwards slash directly into Sylvester's neck. Sylvester parried the blow with a perpendicular quick strike of his own to rob the momentum from Shaggy's blade. He then stabbed down hard, aiming for the vulnerable spot between Shaggy's neck and collar. Shaggy twitched his shoulder to the right to get the blade to impact uselessly on his pauldrons. Meanwhile, as Shaggy's blade flew back from the parry, his hand momentarily jumped off the hilt to flip to a fist position. Shaggy then jabbed Sylvester right in his face with the sword guard, causing him to stagger back.

With the precious few seconds gathered from Sylvester being stunned, Shaggy quickly side stepped around and wall ran to get closer to the Tasmanian Devil while also building height.

"COMING DOWN," Shaggy yelled as he jumped down hard over the Devil's current position.

The Tasmanian Devil roared at Shaggy before taking a step back to evade the stomp. Then, holding his dual axes up close to the blade, so that it was more knuckle duster than axe, he punched hard at Shaggy's face.

Shaggy, faster than Tasmanian Devil could deal with, used his own hand to slap the oncoming axe away. Then, as Tasmanian Devil stood there shocked, Shaggy went for a massive power kick directly into his target's chest.

The traitor flew back several feet, flat on his back, close to Sylvester.

With the few seconds he had, Shaggy kneeled down to Hector, who was covered in slashes from the axes and stabs from the long knife.

"I'm here you stupid bulldog." Shaggy laughed.

"Great – cough cough," blood came out of Hector's mouth as he tried to speak. "Not a moment too soon to deal with this clusterfuck.

"Ya," Shaggy laughed. "Don't worry about it anymore though. I am here."

"Imma close my eyes for just a moment – cough – I'll be up really soon." Hector claimed.

Shaggy could see he was about to pass out real soon. "I'm sure you will be." Shaggy quickly looked back behind him, the royal retinue was all still seated, watching.

Shaggy made his decision. "Alright. Take care of him." Shaggy used his free hand to grab Hector by the collar. He then slid him all the way back to Queen Lola. "You hear me?"

"Certainly." She nodded. Queen Lola quickly began ripping pieces of fabric off her own dress to start tying up Hector's wounds.

"Stop looking over here." King Bugs pointed out. "You have a job to do."

"And I see you are still wearing a dress." Shaggy muttered as he stood back up to face Sylvester and the Tasmanian Devil. They were just standing, waiting. "Thank you kindly for waiting. So few have the manners."

"It matters not." Sylvester mocked. "This won't take long regardless of any manners." He gestured to himself, then to the Tasmanian Devil. "Not when you have to face the two of us, and certainly not when you are as exhausted as you are."

"Interesting theory." Shaggy flourished his sword with one hand, then wiped away the blood on his face with another. "Let's test it, shall we."

The Tasmanian Devil charged with a roar first. Within moments he was in front of Shaggy, relentlessly throwing punch after punch with his impromptu axe knuckledusters. Left jab, right upper cut, left hook, right cross, right cross again, left smash. Shaggy found himself ducking and weaving, unable to get a return strike as his opponent was too up-close for a sword slash return. With little options, after Shaggy dodged the latest punch at this face, his right leg went out and smashed into The Tasmanian Devil's knee … really hard. He screamed in pain, faltering down to his other leg. With room obtained, Shaggy brought his sword in to a downward slash aimed for the face.

He was unable to connect his hit as, at this point, Sylvester ran up and pulled hard on the back of the Tasmanian Devil's neck. The man fell onto his back, but that was Sylvester's intention. Shaggy's sword missed its mark as The Tasmanian Devil's head was no longer there. Then to protect his co-conspirator as he got back up, Sylvester made a thrust aiming for an armor gap in Shaggy's side.

Shaggy walked forward, far quicker than Sylvester was expecting, and captured Sylvester's entire arm in-between his side and his sword arm. Then, with his free arm, Shaggy punched Sylvester in the face, really hard. He dropped his grip on Sylvester's arm, as he watched the traitor fall right down next to his friend.

"Huh," Shaggy commented. "You know what, I think you might be right. This will be quick."

Sylvester snarled as he slowly climbed up to his knees. He looked over to The Tasmanian Devil, who was also getting up, and growled at him. "Don't charge in alone." A growl was what he got in return. Regardless, both of the traitors got up to their feet at the same time.

Shaggy, understanding that he wouldn't have a chance against the two of them at the same time without the initiative, charged first. His sword thrusted directly into Sylvester's face. However, it was quickly punched away by The Tasmanian Devil's axe, deflecting it away to the side.

"Our turn," Sylvester grinned. He brought his long knife up and savagely slashed at Shaggy's throat.

Shaggy followed the momentum of his blade, pirouetting to the right to bring his neck away from the danger zone. This unfortunately led to Shaggy's right ear getting a massive laceration.

"FUCK," Shaggy cried out. He continued his rotation, launching a power back kick, directly into Sylvester's chest. Then seeing that the Tasmanian Devil was going for another brutal punch to his face, Shaggy jumped on his single leg into a reversal by grabbing the beast's arm and placing it under his person. Shaggy pulled on the arm as he fell, bringing the Tasmanian Devil down with him. Then, Shaggy brought his sword over stabbing into The Tasmanian Devil's armpit.

It was a glancing blow. The Tasmanian devil screamed in pain as he quickly lost all feeling in left arm. Before it completely went numb and worthless however, The Tasmanian Devil brought the axe down hard onto the exposed portion of Shaggy's free hand. The pain forced Shaggy to release his hold on The Tasmanian Devil's right hand.

It was at this point Shaggy noticed Sylvester returning for a strike at Shaggy's exposed back. Shaggy flipped his legs around, using the generated momentum to launch himself off his back and onto The Tasmanian Devil. Then he continued the spin putting The Tasmanian Devil on top of him. Sylvester didn't react in time, bringing down his blade onto his ally's chest plate. No damage was done, but at least Shaggy wasn't stabbed in the back. With all his strength, he then launched The Tasmanian Devil off him and into Sylvester.

As they crashed together, Shaggy got back onto his feet. While his enemies separated, Shaggy took a quick stock of himself. His right ear was bleeding something fierce, and he had a large gash in his upper left arm. He looked at The Tasmanian Devil, who had just gotten to his feet. Shaggy needed to finish this quickly, and judging from the dangling arm, that one was currently the weaker of the pair.

Shaggy charged at him fast, before Sylvester could call for another charge. His sword went for an aggressive slash at The Tasmanian Devil's good arm. The Tasmanian went for a simple block by punching his axe blade into the sword blade. That was what Shaggy wanted. He sent his weak arm out to grab the axe by the lower part of the hilt.

Shaggy's eye became partially aware of Sylvester charging in from beyond. He had to do this quickly.

Using his leverage on The Tasmanian Devil's axe, Shaggy pulled down hard, causing his target to trip. As he began to fall forward, Shaggy himself went straight to inflict a massive head butt. The blow landed. While the Tasmanian Devil's head staggered back from the hit, Shaggy brought his sword close and slit his throat. Shaggy then let go of the axe which allowed The Tasmanian Devil to fall completely.

Before Shaggy could cheer too much however, his danger sense made him very away of Sylvester's thrust. His back shots sideways to evade the attack, but Sylvester was not to be deterred. Seeing the blow was about to miss, he immediately pivoted his blow to Shaggy's left leg.

Shaggy can't muster the energy to move fast enough. The knife finds its way in-between the plates of his upper leg armor and cuts a good bit into his kneecap.

"AAAWWW" Shaggy screams once more in this fight as he pulls away. He looked at Sylvester who had a victorious grin. He breathed heavily as he collected himself. "Why are you smiling?" Shaggy huffed. "I'm the one who just killed your friend. Now you are alone."

Sylvester smiled. "Am I alone? I wonder." He brought up his long knife to lick the blood off. "But you won't have to worry about that, not when I ram this in your eyes."

Shaggy said nothing; He didn't have the energy to waste. Instead, he simply waited for Sylvester to come to him. Time was on his side after all. He was fighting to preserve a life, while Sylvester was fighting to take one. It was up to him to the make the move.

Sylvester didn't let him down. Considering Shaggy already down and out, he didn't even attempt to attack with rigorous form. Instead, he just charged in, swiping his blade.

Shaggy waited. He waited and watched as Sylvester approached with his sloppy stabs. He was heavily injured, could barely move, and was having trouble even maintaining a defense posture. This would have to be quick. It would have to end in as few movements as possible.

Shaggy sighed. He knew how to deal with this. He mentally prepared himself.

"What's wrong Shaggy!?" Sylvester yelled. He saw Shaggy cease all movement. "Are you just waiting to die? WELL THEN, I WON'T KEEP YOU!" Sylvester went for a stab, attempting to sneak his blade in-between Shaggy's pauldron and chest plate. To his shock, Shaggy didn't try at all to dodge. He just took the hit. "What?" Sylvester asked, almost beside himself.

"A lesson for you." Shaggy struggled to keep his voice even. He forced himself to utter each word in utter sanguine clarity. "If your fighting style relies on sneaking hits in-between armor plating, you need to learn how to more accurately place your blade. Wasting a blow on a bone won't kill anyone. You need to pierce straight and true into the essence of a person." Shaggy brought up his blade. "Like this."

Shaggy returned the favor to Sylvester. His sword rose up before descending directly into Sylvester mouth. It traveled straight through the neck until it pierced the core of Sylvester's very being. Angling it slightly, Shaggy decimated the lungs and heart before feeling Sylvester lose all fight in his body.

As Sylvester fell to the ground, Shaggy pulled his sword out. A fountain of blood sprayed out of the newly vacated path. That very blood sprayed all over Shaggy's face. He could barely feel it. His body was starting to go numb. He glanced at the knife, still jammed in his steel plate and scratching against his ribs. He left it in there. Taking it out would only lead to more bleeding. He turned around, beginning to hobble towards King Bugs. Then a thought returned to him. "Was Sylvester alone? What did he mean by that?" he pondered. Gazing at the King's area, he noticed the Magistrate Daffy beginning to approach Bugs from the back. "If there could be two spies, surely three isn't unbelievable?" He saw Daffy begin to pull a dagger out of his cloak. It wasn't unbelievable. "BUGS!" Shaggy screamed. "THERE WAS ANOTHER TRAITOR!" He tried to run to assist, but his legs stumbled over themselves.

"If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself." Daffy mumbled. He took his dagger out unnoticed, as both Lola and Bugs were occupied looking over Hector. With no one to stop him, Daffy walked right up behind his king, and stabbed directly into his the dress back.

He was met with resistance. "What the..?" Daffy asked out loud. It didn't feel like hitting a person. It almost felt as if he stabbed into a steel plate.

"You know, it was the Queen's idea to be honest." King Bugs spoke out loud. He turned around slowly, causing Daffy's dagger to get pulled away; stuck as it was. "She told me how easy it is to hide armor underneath a dress. She said that there are so many possible external layers and accessories, no one would ever notice." He made a show of poking the dagger stuck in his back. "She was right, it looks like." He turns back to look at Daffy, giving him a death stare. "I am very disappointed Daffy. Extremely disappointed."

Daffy slowly backed up in fear. He even tripped over and landed flat on his behind.

King Bugs huffed at the display. "Shaggy. Kill this man."

"With pleasure," Shaggy bit out through gritted teeth. He continued to hobble closer, sword still in hand.

Daffy struggled to get to his feet. Seeing how close Shaggy was, he tried running away. Unfortunately, he recognized that he couldn't get away. He had nowhere to flee, even if he got away from Shaggy. Deciding that he needed another option, Daffy turned around and shouted. "WAIT," He held his hands out. "Surely we can discuss this."

"There is nothing to discuss. You are a traitor and I am contracted to kill them." Shaggy coughed before continuing. "This transaction requires very little discussing." He kept hobbling forward.

"And then what? You kill me and leave with any significant rewards." Daffy would not be deterred. "How about you kill Bugs yourself, and I reward you like the King I will be."

"I can already see that you are a traitor." Shaggy explained. "Excuse me if I don't trust you."

"Isn't that a shame." Daffy suddenly laughed. "Well, you can't claim I didn't try to save your life."

"What?" Shaggy asked confused. He looked at Daffy. Something just happened, just now. His fear almost completely disappeared. Whatever emotion was once on Daffy's face, it was now entirely replaced with calm. "What are you talking about? There is no path in our future that leads to you killing me. You are done."

Daffy's face grew a smile. "Oh, it doesn't matter if I can't kill you." He pointed to the side. "It matters if they can."

"What?" Shaggy couldn't help but ask again. Out of the corners of his eye, he glances.

"No," he whispered. He turns his entire head in fear.

There they were. Hovering over the center of the colosseum, there were the three Powerpuff girls. Shaggy had never seen the main three before, only Princess Morbucks. She had been gorgeous, but looking at the Powerpuff girls now, it wasn't even a comparison. Truly these three were incomparable. Any mortal word in Shaggy's lexicon that could have been chosen would have been an insult. For it was impossible for a manmade word to truly capture even a fraction of the perfection radiating from these three girls in dresses.

And yet, there was something wrong… something off. Shaggy would never in a million years be able to say, but something felt missing. Almost as if there was some infinitesimally miniscule crack in the ethereal glass that made up these three women. Shaggy would never be able to determine what, because what happened next captured his attention immediately.

The three girls suddenly dropped from their position in the sky. They fell fast and with purpose.

With a burst of energy that Shaggy didn't even know he had left; he ran to stand right in front of King Bugs. He held his sword forward in a guarding stance and waited for what was to come next.

The three girls continued their crash directly into the sand ground of the central arena. From that impact, a massive dust cloud shockwave exploded. The artificial dust storm forced all the men, skeletons, and anything not sealed to the ground to fly into the air and crash hard into the arena walls. But that wasn't it for the dust storm, no, for it continued to shockwave out into the stands themselves, going seat by seat.

Shaggy eventually saw what he was waiting for. Resolving himself, he watched as Buttercup's face exploded out of the dust storm, traveling faster than the shockwave itself. She flew straight at Shaggy, with her fists at the ready.

"Can you entertain me?" She asked as she punched hard with her right first. Shaggy barely got his sword in the way, holding the flat side of the blade with both arms to block.

The resulting blow shook Shaggy to the very core. Every single inch of his being vibrated as it took the force output by Buttercup's massive punch. Shaggy became very immediately aware of every bit of damage he took over the course of this day, for it all screamed in agony. He held back a shout, but only just barely.

"Oh, looks like you can't" Buttercup taunted him. She brought her face close to Shaggy's face. "And here I was expecting so much from you." She whispered.

Shaggy, seeing that his limbs were out of commission, made the only move he could. He went in for a headbutt. He didn't even wind back for it, instead just committing to the face just inches away from his own. And yet when he slammed forward, he completely missed.

"Oh, that won't do," Buttercup laughed. She was hovering intimately close to Shaggy's right side; as if she had no fear to give him. "Oh, you took a lot a hits already." Hovering in space, she gave a mock pout. "I guess it wouldn't be a fair fight then." Her hand then went to her chin as she attempted to look deep in thought. "I want something to remember you with though." She finally noticed the knife still stuck in Shaggy's breastplate. "Oh, I got it. I'll take this." Buttercup ripped the knife out. The motion was so quick, if you blinked you missed it. In fact, you probably missed it even if you didn't blink.

Shaggy didn't have that issue. He felt it. He felt it deep in his heart. He could no longer hold back the screams.

"AAAAAWWWWWW!" Shaggy shouted his lungs ragged due to the pain. By the time he fought the urges back, he noticed that Buttercup was no longer there. He looked around seeing no trace of his opponent. He looked at Bugs who pointed back to the arena center. Shaggy hobbled forward for a better look.

There they were, standing in a central crater caused by the initial explosion. The three stood perfectly there, with not a scratch, blemish, single particle of dust on top of them. It was as if the dust storm exploded everything else except them, as if it knew better. The remains of all the combatants and waste still remained crashed into the arena walls; the shockwave didn't hesitate to blast them. But it didn't touch the Powerpuff girls. No, they stood as in the middle of the arena as if nothing happened at all.

Wait, there was one pile near the girls. Shaggy squinted. "FUCK." They took the traitors with them. Shaggy tried his best to fight through the pain. He tried his best to ensure that his voice wouldn't immediately falter due to the pain. He was more or less successful. "WHY DID YOU TAKE ALL OF THEM. 2 ARE DEAD!" Shaggy screamed down.

"Even in death does service not end." Bubbles explained. "The Professor has plans for them. Him and Queen Mandy." She didn't yell. She didn't need to. Shaggy heard every word perfectly.

"Queen Mandy will come for you more directly next time." Blossom told King Bugs.

Shaggy decided that he might as well try. "QUEEN MANDY BETRAYED THE PROFESSOR. SHE WAS GOING TO ALLOW HIS MEN TO DIE FOR HERSELF TO PROFIT." He shouted.

"Did she?" Buttercup asked. "I wonder."

"Yes Buttercup." Bubbles added. "I wonder what possible ploys Queen Mandy could have that we don't know about."

"I suppose we will just have to take your word for it." Blossom mocked. "The assumption that we don't know what she's doing." She paused for a second before continuing. "In the meantime, I would warn you, only out of respect. You will be hunted. You will be chased. You will be ended." She spoke primly.

"I WILL TAKE DOWN WHOEVER COMES AFTER ME!" Shaggy shouted. "JUST LIKE I ENDED PRINCESS MORBUCKS!"

"Oh my," Bubbles gasped. "Another bold claim." She laughed.

"Yes, what a claim." Blossom joined in laughter. "To have killed the Princess."

"I HAD HER HEAD. I KNOW I DID!" Shaggy shouted.

"Can you be sure of whose head you actually have? I would have to think you can't be." She smiled at seeing Shaggy's face. He was trying so hard to keep a confident visage, but after everything that happened today, there were holes. "It's quite the mystery I am implying, I know." Blossom had a demure smile on her face.

"Oh I know. He could put together a crew to investigate this." Bubbles laughed.

"I think he used to have one of those, didn't he?" Buttercup asked excitedly.

"Yes, he used to." Blossom answered looking at her sister. She looked back at Shaggy, still standing in the distance. "Good bye Shaggy. You will be hearing from one of us," she paused before clarifying, "any of us, real soon."

With that the Powerpuff girls left with the traitors. They flew away and there wasn't a single thing anyone could do. They didn't even leave that quickly for they knew they didn't have to.

Shaggy watched. Frozen to the railing, his fists glowing red as they tightened against the rod. Shaggy watched as the girls slowly flew up over the colosseum and deep into the horizon. Once the Powerpuff girls where truly gone from his vision, the little remains of Shaggy's energy also disappeared. He almost immediately blacked out, falling backwards. He tried to fight passing out though. He didn't want to smash the back of his head into stone. But while he could resist the urge to go dark, he had no more control over his body. He braced himself for the rough blow.

Except, it wasn't rough. He could feel himself being caught and gently placed into a lap.

"You can rest now Shaggy. You have fought very bravely." Came the relaxing voice of Queen Lola. "You can go to sleep."

Shaggy changed his mind immediately as he decided that actually was a very good idea. Everything soon went black as his eyes quietly closed.