Buzzap

Always competing with Fritz



Buzzap
Buzzap carefully counted his pieces of treasure. “I don’t normally bring this low of an amount,” he muttered to himself. Ne nervously walked back and forth throughout his chasm. “Too little, too little” He kept muttering to himself. He had to think of something before tomorrow to ensure he would earn more treasure. He huffed as he marched down a long tunnel of his chasm. He finally reached the room where he kept all his useless parts. “If they won’t buy my inventions, then they can buy my junk,” he snarled. He started sorting through his junk, deciding which ones he should bring to mark tomorrow. He held up a metal pipe. “No,” he told himself. “This isn’t a metal pipe. This is a straw. A straw that can turn even the dirtiest of water clean when you drink from it.” He maliciously smiled as he put the pipe in a box that he would take with him tomorrow. He kept sorting through his garbage, and practicing his pitch about what the objects ‘actually’ were. A pair of broken silver wings, don’t even tell the buyer their broken. A failed jetpack invention for snappers, just tell them it ran out of fuel and can be refilled with a certain type of ooze from Baldwin. He chuckled to himself. “Fritz may be a smart opponent, but not even he is smart enough to come up with the lies I have come up with.” After another 2 hours of sorting, Buzzap tiredly walked to his sleeping chamber. He dreamt about all the treasure he would bring in tomorrow, and the envious look on Fritz’s face. He woke up early the next morning and gathered his trash to bring to the market. He set up his stand in the middle of the marketplace, waiting for his first naive customer. It wasn’t long before a shiny green skydancer walked over to his stand.
“What is all this rubbish your selling?” She asked.
“Rubbish? These are some of the most valuable treasures in all Sorneith! Why, haven’t you heard of any of these?” Buzzap responded. The skydancer looked a bit confused, as she slightly cocked her head at him.
“I’m afraid I have not heard of any of them. Would you mind telling me what are these treasures are?” she asked.
“Of course!” Buzzap replied as he help up the metal pipe as an example. “This right here is a straw that can turn even the dirtiest of waters clean!” The skydancer gave him a suspicious look.
“I’m not sure if I quite trust you on that. It looks like a rusty metal pipe to me,” she replied.
“Ah, but it is more than just rust on the pipe. This rust looking substance is actually made up of healthy bacteria that help purify the water! I assure, this one of the rarest straws in Sorneith!” Buzzap exclaimed. The skydancer became increasingly interested the more Buzzap talked about it. After a few more questions to determine if this ‘straw’ was authentic or not, the skydancer came to the conclusion that it was real, and paid Buzzap 100kt. Buzzap smiled devilishly as he watched the skydancer walk off with the useless metal pipe. A few customers later, and a mother snapper and her hatchling came by. “Perfect,” Buzzap thought to himself as he saw them approach. “Welcome to my shop!” He exclaimed. “I think I may just have the perfect invention for your child!” Buzzap told the mother. The child looked excitedly at what Buzzap had to offer. Buzzap brought out his failed snapper jetpack invention.
“This right here is one of the last copies of my jetpack. I fit it especially for snappers,” Buzzap said with a grin on his face. The child snapper’s eyes lit up as he stared at the marvelous jetpack.
“Mother, I can fly with the other dragons now! May I please have this? Please!” The child begged.
“Well, how much are you asking for it?” The mother inquired.
“Well, this is a rarity. 500kt, at the least,” Buzzap responded. The mother decided this would be a good use of her treasure, after all, the jetpack was adjustable in size as her child grew up. The child ran away happily with his new jetpack, excited to try it out when he got back to his lair. As the day neared to an end, Buzzap looked around for to see Fritz’s disappointed face. But there was no Fritz. “He must be away working at one his useless inventions,” Buzzap muttered to himself. Although he did not get to see the envious look on his rival’s face, he did walk away with piles of treasure. With this treasure, he knew he could fund his greatest invention. He would be the first dragon in Sorneith to ever bring another dragon back to life.

Fritz
Fritz stayed up late that night, making a prosthetic leg for a pearlcatcher that lost their leg while in battle. Fritz yawned, but wouldn’t allow himself to go to sleep. After a few more frustrating hours, he decided he would work on it tomorrow and get some sleep tonight. After all, this was only his second day working on the project. He woke up still very tired the next morning. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get to work on his prosthetic immediately, for he had to go to work. He went to the workshop where he worked to build inventions that he could sell to the public through his shop. He was immediately greeted by his rival, Buzzap.
“Well, well, well, look who arrived late,” Buzzap teased.
“I’m sorry Buzzap. I stayed up all night during the weekend, and barely got any sleep. I didn’t mean to arrive late. Besides, I intend on staying after to make up for the time I missed,” He replied. Buzzap rolled his eyes. Trying to be friendly, Fritz tried starting a harmless conversation. “Well, what did you do over the weekend, Buzzap?” He asked.
“Scammed a few customers so I could fund my new project,” Buzzap responded sarcastically. Although they were rivals, Fritz knew Buzzap well enough to know that he wasn’t being sarcastic. Fritz sighed.
“Do you have any idea how terrible you’re being? Not only are you harming your customers, but you’ll be harming yourself. Soon, nobody will buy anything from you. Is your project really that important?” Fritz said. Buzzap gave him a cold stare and frowned.
“Yes, it is that important,” Buzzap responded. Fritz and Buzzap started to get to work on their separate public inventions. Fritz planned to make a special hat that could raise the surrounding temperature of a dragon’s head if it was freezing outside, or cool the surrounding temperature if it was blazing outside. Today, he decided to work on the temperature sensor part, so the hat would know whether to cool or heat up the surrounding temperature. Their boss, who was an imperial, cam in to check on their work.
“These inventions better be good,” he remarked. “Our sales are dropping dramatically. I won’t hesitate to fire anyone who has useless inventions.”
“Well, if Buzzap would stop scamming his customers, maybe the business as a whole would have a rise in sales,” Fritz responded. The imperial shot a cold look at Buzzap.
“Is this true?” He asked.
“Of course not! Poor Fritz just knows that he would be the first one fired from the business, so he’s just trying to blame me for the failures when it’s actually---”
“Enough!” The imperial roared as he interrupted Buzzap. “You two better get your rivalry under control! You may have two different shops, but you work under the same business!” He stormed out, leaving the workshop with an awkward silence. Fritz ignored Buzzap for the rest of the work day, no matter how much Buzzap taunted him. After completing his sensor, Fritz clocked out and made his way to his shop, so he could sell a few of his inventions. Fritz was making good sales profit, but he was still concerned. What was Buzzap so determined to invent. Whatever it was, it worried him. Buzzap was always deceitful, but he didn’t know why. As the workday came to a close, Fritz closed his shop, and prepared himself for what he was about to do. He was going to follow Buzzap to his home, and see what he was up to. He knew this would only give him less time to work on his prosthetic, but he knew he had to know what Buzzap was up to. When Fritz saw Buzzap exit his shop, he began to follow as quietly as possible. He kept his distance so Buzzap would not sense him. Fritz was almost caught a few times, but he was successfully able to follow Buzzap to his chasm. “Now is not the time to get caught,” Fritz thought to himself as he entered. Fritz silently followed Buzzap through his twisting hallways, hoping that Buzzap was too stupid to turn around even once. He arrived at a mysterious looking room, with mysterious tools and objects inside. Once Fritz got inside, he hid behind some machinery while Buzzap was looking in the opposite direction. Buzzap wheeled over a silver table, with a white cloth draped over it. The cloth was covering something, and Fritz hoped that it wasn’t what he thought it was. Buzzap dramatically took off the cloth, to reveal a dead mirror. Fritz’s eyes widened in horror and disgust as he stared at Buzzap just revealed. The mirror was ghostly pale with little color remaining. Buzzap started to plug in electrical wires. Fritz closed his eyes, for not even he could witness what Buzzap was about to do. He heard Buzzap laugh.
“All of Sorneith will stare in awe at what I have created!” Buzzap exclaimed. Fritz slightly opened his eyes to see what was happening, and to make sure that he was not yet caught. He saw Buzzap approach a switch, and with one flip, bright blue electricity ran through the wires into the mirror, who was being brought back to life. Fritz heard a painful screech as the mirror opened it’s once dead eyes and opened it’s horrible mouth. Fritz had seen enough. He quickly ran from his hiding spot. Buzzap saw him and screamed.
“Come back here you fool! Don’t you tell anybody what you’ve seen, or there’ll be consequences!” Fritz ignored him and ran back to his own home. Once he got back home, he went to sleep. He was too sick to work on his prosthetic. He didn’t know who tell what he just saw. After all, nobody would believe him and he might be fired and be outcasted for spreading such terrible lies. He decided not to return to the workshop the next day. He didn’t care what his boss would say, but he did care what Buzzap would do to him.

Lore by AmberGinger