Ch..1 the Hero

"It's Monday, why must it be Monday?" Sure enough, as I turn my head towards the clock on my night stand '6:30 AM Monday' a day hated by fat cats and everyone else. I looked around my crappy apartment bedroom, it's small, really small, and the bed takes up most of it. What's left is taken up by the nightstand and junk littered all over the floor. Ignoring the allurement of my bed, I walked into the living room.

To the right is a cracked window and a slightly bent door, a TV on a crate sits between them. To my left is the kitchen/washroom/computer room. Complete with a rusty fridge, busted washer, broken floor tiles, and a restroom with the door missing. I walked towards the couch in the middle of the room, grabbed the wallet from the armrest, and pulled out a driver's license. 'Itchigan E. Featherworth. Age: 19. Occupation: Local Repair Mobian.' On the left side of the card is a picture of a frowning, sepia brown hedgehog with sharp, coffee colored eyes. His fur looks messy and unkempt, the gray hoodie he wears looks like it was taken out of the trash, which isn't far from the truth. With his arms across his chest, black, torn, leather gloves with his fingers exposed can be seen. While not seen, it can be assumed he's wearing faded jeans and black sneakers. If you haven't figured it out yet, that hedgehog is me, and I hate Mondays. You see, I'm the local repair Mobian. I'm the guy people go to should something get broken, but people tend to hold things off till Monday, then they come to me. I put the wallet in my back pocket, grabbed my keys and, with some effort, opened the door to see... Robotropolis, the unholy city of scum, pollution, and badnicks.

'Sunshine Motel: you can feel the sunshine' my light in a town of darkness. I began walking towards the parking lot, he faces I see, nothing but frowns, but as I reach my destination, a ray of hope. The children are playing in the lot, smiling and giggling without a care in the world. One child darted towards me. A young coyote girl with a pink T-shirt and jean overalls, Wendy's her name I think.

"Itchy, Itchy!"

"Then scratch it!" I replied sarcastically

"No!" she said with a giggle. "Guess what Mr. Itchy, my tooth is loose!" she smiled and began fiddling with her front tooth. It wiggled back and forth.

"That's great Wendy! Maybe when it falls out, the tooth fairy will give you some cash."

"What's a tooth fairy?"

That pulled on my heart strings. "Well a tooth fairy is a magic creature that takes your tooth from under your pillow and replaces it with money." I began rubbing the quills on my head, this is getting awkward.

"Oh, my mommy says magic doesn't exist."

Yet another tug on my heart strings. Suddenly, a young white mouse named Pricilla in a yellow sun dress walks over.

"Guess what Mr. Itchy, it's my birthday!"

"Really? And me without a birthday present, wait right here." I walk towards a large black 18-wheeler and climbed inside the trailer. I looked at its contents of junk and tools and got to work. This hunk of metal is known as the Scumbucket. I call it that because its previous employment was carrying broken robots back to the junk yard. It later ended up in the junkyard and eventually to me.

I climbed out of the trailer and was greeted with a group of children watching me, the birthday girl in the front. I handed her a cardboard box with the words 'To: Pricilla' on the lid. She opened the box and pulled out a pair of small hollowed out badnick shoes with two metal objects known as trucks welded on the bottom, each truck with two wheels screwed on each side. "Wow roller skates! Thanks Mr. Itchy." She slipped them on quickly, falling only once but was soon riding on air. As the other children watched in awe, I climbed into the Scumbucket and drove away into the town of darkness and far away from this ray of hope.

I hate my job, especially on Mondays. I hate my customers, they either think they're too smart for their own good and try to do my job, or are too dumb to cooperate. The worst part is the payment, power rings and more power rings. Our dear friend Doctor Robuttface passed a law saying that power rings can be used as tax payment when he discovered they can be used as a power source. This gave them value, but not as currency, and people are always trying to pay with them. Well its quitting time, might as well close up shop and…

"Hello? Is anyone here?"

"Shit" I thought to myself. I headed into the back office of the repair shop, and ducked under the desk. I can see two televisions to my left. One connected to a camera outside, the other inside. On the latter I can see a hedgehog wandering around the shop.

"Hello?" "Nobody here, go away."

"But you're here."

"No, this is a recorded message, please leave a message after the beep *BEEP*" I sure hope this works. The last thing I want is something to make me actually work.

"Hello!"

I jumped, banging my head on the table, ouch.

"Oh my goodness are you alright?"

"Yeah I'll be fine."

"I can go if you want."

"No, no you found me fair and square, what do you want?" I crawled out from under the table and got a good look at the hedgehog. If I'm 3 feet 5 inches, she's probably about 3 feet 2 inches. She's a much brighter shade of brown then me and her fur is much neater then my own. She's wearing a blue vest with a white tube top and skin tight athletic shorts. Like most Mobians, she wears white gloves. Her emerald green eyes look so…innocent.

"Well if you look here." She motioned towards her raised leg. She's wearing with and blue knee high boots with heart shaped belt buckles on the outer sides. On the raised leg, the sole was hanging by a few threads.

"Sheesh, what happened?"

"I…had an accident." She let loose a forced giggle. I gave her a closer look. Her clothes are all tattered and she had a small cut on her left cheek. She looks like she just came out of a cat fight.

"Well what do I look like a cobbler?"

"A what?"

"A cobbler, you know, a guy who fixes shoes?"

"Sorry, it's just, I can't go anywhere like this and you were the first guy I saw."

"Alright, alright." I sat on a chair and pulled out a sowing kit from a cabinet next to the desk. She gave me a funny look.

"What? I have accidents too." I held out my hand and she removed her boot slowly, hoping not to cause any more damage. Once the boot hit my hand, I went straight to work.

This boot, it isn't normal. The sole is made out of rubber yes, but it's some kind of special rubber. This is the kind of stuff you'd find on a racecar.

"What's your name?" said the hedgehog

"Itchigan, but my friends call me Itchy." She took a step back and began fiddling with her quills. I felt a bit insulted. "It's not because I have fleas".

"Oh" she blushed "I'm sorry, my name's Sonar."

"That's an odd name for a hedgehog."

"Not as weird as Itchy." She giggled.

"Touché" I grinned. "Well that's done" I handed her the newly repaired boot. She slipped it on and gave it a few stomps while I pulled out a calculator.

"alright so with the cost of the string used plus the cost of the broken needle and seeing how it' past closing time, it's going to cost you about ten bucks." I looked up from the calculator only to see that she was gone, a wad of cash laying where she left off. I counted…1000% tip eh?

I headed home, past the streets, past the parking lot, past the door, a room, and another door, and hit the sack. I thought to myself "I'm glad today's over" but I may have thought too soon. The phone began to ring. "Hello? Yes…yes…WHAT!?