by Travis Hill
*****
The group of teenagers laughed at the stupid bug. Some threw trash at him that they picked up off the street. Others hurled insults at him. Still others mimicked stomping bugs with exaggerated motions. The giant alien tried his best to ignore them as he scuttled down the street toward his new employer’s office. The teens danced around, getting in between his four legs as he walked, trying to trip him while demeaning him with verbal abuse.
“Hey. Spider. Hey you stupid spider.”
“The only good bug is a dead bug!” came a shout in a ridiculously fake southern drawl.
“Space loser!”
“Go back home, illegal alien!”
“Hey bug-tard!”
“RAID kills bugs dead!”
Finally Gxkxl had had enough. He let out a noise that the panel around his neck couldn’t translate, but the teenagers got the meaning of it as four spikes made a sudden and dramatic entrance from the sides of his gruesome face, all of them leaking a shiny, glowing fluid. The four claw-fingers at the end of each arm also produced sharp spikes that leaked the same glowing substance. Gxkxl lifted two of his legs from the ground while spreading his arms and claws out wide. A loud crack interrupted the taunts as two massive wings flared out from the back of the alien’s armored torso.
The teenagers began to shout in fright and scatter at the menacing display. When they were at least twenty meters away, they turned around and began cursing at Gxkxl again, with even more vulgar and colorful insults than before. Gxkxl scuttled towards one of them, but the human boy just laughed and ran away. The rest soon grew bored and moved on, looking for another target to torment.
