Hugo lies on his back on the dock floor, looking straight at the undercarriage of the large ship above him. Covered in grease, he wipes his mouth and sneezes.The door to the dock opens and a jolt of electricity sizzles underneath Hugo. He sits up quickly and smacks his head against the bottom of the ship. He groans as the door closes and Sam walks by.“Next time, just buzz me,” Hugo says.Sam kneels down next to him as Hugo rolls out from underneath the ship. It’s covered in a large tarp and no one has seen it except him. His face is not pleased.“Sorry sorry sorry. You know I have that way with people,” Sam says.“You have no way with people. What do you need?”Hugo wipes his hands on Sam’s shirt and smiles. Sam shakes his head and grabs Hugo’s hand.“I need your help on something. Can you follow me downstairs?”Hugo shakes his head but follows along with him anyway. It’s his job, and he does so with his head down. He doesn’t know what to expect.“You know, I’d get something done up there if you’d all just leave me…” Hugo stops suddenly as the doors open, revealing the room.The room of his dreams.“You’re drooling Hugo,” Sam laughs.Hugo wipes his mouth and smacks Sam on the arm. His eyes have grown large by the room and his mouth is still slightly open.“What in the world is this place?”“That’s for you to decide.”“What?” Hugo questions.Sam puts his arms out and waves around the room.“What do you think it should be?” Sam asks.Hugo starts to push Sam out of the room, back toward the doors to the stairs.“Wait wait wait…” Sam tries to stop him, but he’s unable to.“Give me time,” Hugo says, and slams the door in Sam’s face.He moves back into the open room. Bare walls. Metallic. Cold. Empty. A fresh room with nothing in it and a clear palette to work with.He smiles and looks around. Hugo cracks his knuckles and opens his belt pouch and pulls out a pair of goggles.He looks around the room and pulls out a tool kit. He flicks the two together and creates a small explosion.“Cool…”He sits down in the middle of the room and lifts one of the tiles up from the floor. A knock comes from the door, but he doesn’t move. He cuts through the tile in the floor and pulls wires up from inside of it.Another knock at the door. Hugo looks over the top of his goggles, but sits still. Another knock and another and the knocking becomes increasingly more rapid. Almost lightning quick.“I’m not opening it Hale…”He smiles and opens another pouch on his belt and pulls a long blowtorch, seemingly from nowhere.The knocking stops.“I don’t even have to open it to know you’re still there. Nice try though.”The knocking explodes and the door blows off the hinges, right over Hugo’s head. Hale stands there, motionless, smirking at him.“You could at least get up,” Hale says.Hugo points to the stairs as the blowtorch erupts, burning through the tile and cutting straight down the middle. He continues to pull more and more tools out of the endless belt pockets and pouches, and places them in a neat row around him.“What are you doing?” Hale asks.Hugo doesn’t move. One hand continues to flip through the wires and the other lines up more of his tools.Hale walks up to him and kicks the tools out of place.“Seriously, are you labeling these things? And where in the world are they coming from?”Hugo looks up at him and stops working.“Are you here for any particular reason?”“Bored. Just bored. Absolutely positively immensely bored.”Hugo rolls his eyes.“If you have to know…”“I do,” Hale says, sitting next to the tools as Hugo starts to line them back up.“I am. I am placing them in alphabetical order. That’s why the hammer comes after the blowtorch when I put them down and the screws come after that. Make sense?”Hale nods his head.“And they’re coming from these pouches in my belt. Pouches that are connected to a super-secret thing I invented a little while back but haven’t talked about because of reasons not worth noting,” Hugo says.Hale looks at him, unconvinced. Hugo shakes his head and takes his goggles off completely, smudging more grease and oil across his face.“Okay fine. Fine fine fine. I invented another dimension that I use for my tools so I don’t have to lug around a huge backpack or something. Plus, I get to keep cool stuff in there like sandwiches and cookies and video games.”Hale seems uninterested as he turns the blowtorch on. He backs up quickly as the blowtorch almost explodes in his face.Hugo laughs.“Please leave now. And don’t say anything to anyone,” Hugo asks.Hale rushes out of the room as quickly as possible, shaking his head.“Your secret is safe with me little dude.”Hale leaves the room. Hugo quickly replaces the door on its hinge and smelts it back in place. Locking himself in. He places the goggles back on and looks around the room.Nothing in there but him and the tools.He looks around again and pulls three small boxes from his front pouch. He lines them in a row and steps back.He taps his left foot against the floor three times and folds his arms.Three robots blossom like weeds from the boxes and stand in front of him, ready to follow his orders. They stand in a line, one two three, the tools still in a line next to them.“Alright guys, we’ve got work to do, especially if this is going to be a training room.”The robots all salute Hugo, who smiles and laughs.“Let’s get to work.”The end
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