Another broken-down Crodin ship docked in the hangar bay. Bart groaned. A Crodin wearing the most obnoxious hat yet climbed out and strolled towards him. What was this, Shri? This was the seventh Crodrin ship he had seen today. What was with these Crodin all needing repairs? Something big must’ve happened.
Bart Ledger was a self-proclaimed mechanic in bustling Earlex City. He was a lanky human with dirty blond hair (probably from working underneath ships), hazel eyes, and pale skin. He wore a pair of tan overalls and a darkened white t-shirt underneath.
Ever since his dad had retired from the business three months ago, Bart had wanted to take over the family mechanic shop, ‘The Toolbox’. He had followed his dad’s footsteps and he was determined to live up to it. Right now he was just a protege to the battle-hardened Guzzind Hokums, his dad’s best friend and a Tryptozian who had participated in the night raid of the Invasion of Earlex. Being from a war, he was full of lectures and he was very hard on Bart. This made things many times harder for Bart, whose dream was to own the family business.
Today was Bart’s busiest day yet. Not only had multiple Crodins in reprehensible hats shown up offering small portions of Crodin Coins for repairs (nobody uses Crodin Coins these days!), but also an increasing number of humans had been appearing. According to the new Factor X Mayor, they were sending in another shipment of humans from Earth. Earth people would get a culture shock when they arrived on Earlex. They found that although the money system was similar, the Earlexians had developed their own form of currency. They also had strange traditions, and obviously attracted many different species from all over the universe. Sadly, most people that came from Earth these days spent all their newly acquired money on a ship, hoping to “explore the galaxy”, only sending themselves into tons of debt. Then their ships would break and they would come to The Toolbox begging for discounts. It was sad, but Bart usually helped, as long as Guzzind wasn’t there.
“Hey, boy! Fix my ship!” He threw a sack of Crodin Coins at Bart. That was it! Bart had had enough of demanding Crodins. Bart stomped over towards him. As he got closer he realized the Crodin was literally wearing a traffic cone for a hat. He stifled a laugh.
“You fix it, you, you, construction worker!” He tossed the coins back. The Crodin steamed with rage. His hand hovered over his blaster inside a leather holster. Then a tentacle wrapped around his neck and squeezed tightly.
“Urghrrhgk,” The Crodin grunted. From behind him, Guzzind appeared. He looked even angrier than the Crodin.
“What do you think you’re doing, young man?!” Guzzind growled. Bart prepared himself for another lecture. Guzzind unwrapped his tentacle from around the Crodin.
“Sorry about that, I wouldn't want you to shoot my problematic partner.”
The disgruntled Crodin took off running towards his ship, his traffic cone falling off his head as he ran. “Wait! It still needs repair! You won’t be able to take off!” The Crodin didn’t listen. He revved the engines of his ship and started lifting off. The ship didn’t reach the roof of the building. It exploded, sending debris everywhere.
Guzzind grabbed Bart with a tentacle and threw him behind a tool bench. The Tryptozian then covered himself with his tentacles, letting them take most of the shrapnel.
As the smoke subsided, Bart peered cautiously over his tool bench. He had never seen an angrier Tryptozian in his life–and that's saying something. He had been to Shairek before, and had enraged many of those squids. Guzzind was absolutely boiling with rage. He was redder than Mars.
Guzzind howled and crawled toward Bart, pain stricken across his face.
Bart learned two things that day that he would likely never forget: Follow orders, and don’t tick off a Tryptozian.
Bart will return…if he survives Guzzind’s rage