The Restwell Boys

By Travis Barr

Young Alienette, Hesha, is having some frightening nightmares...and some pesky critters are plaguing her quaint, little apartment! So she holo-calls the only biz boys known to solve both problems--The Restwell team! But in helping Hesh with her nightmares, the boys have unwittingly have unwittingly opened up a gigantic can of Effen Galactic corruption and mayhem! Now they must join forces with a hopeful senator to try and expose and bring down the Effen forces of evil!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Travis Barr
• Release date: Mar 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370916528

Travis Barr

Travis Barr grew up in Southern California and went to CalState University of Long Beach. He graduated with a BA in film then furthered his education with a teaching credential. Travis has always held a fascination with the fantastical and suspenseful in storytelling. With his second novel and first part of The Chosen Trilogy, "The Spider Agenda," he has taken that wonderment to new levels of gripping tension and spellbinding adventure. "Agenda" sets the scene for what is to come in the second installment, "The Wasp Initiative" and is the seeds for which will come to full climactic fruition in the third tale, "The Hornet Operative." Travis still lives in the California area with his family and good friends, and enjoys the beaches of his youth. His favorite TV programs include "The Walking Dead," "Falling Skies," and "The Strain." His most cherished novels of all time include Peter Straub's classic tale, "Ghost Story," Bill Blatty's "The Exorcist," and Stephen King's "'Salem's Lot." His favorite film will always be George Lucas' "Star Wars."

Book preview

Chapter 1

And so here they were, four boys of different alien origin from four different worlds who were striking out on their own, making a name for themselves.

That was the plan anyway.

Theoretically, they possessed the tools necessary for the job. There was The Vaccuumater, a lengthy device that could suck up a pesky critter and trap it for future storage. Then there was The Shockinater, another long tool typically used to zap critters—and drive them into the path of the aforementioned Vaccuumater. In addition, their arsenal included The Webinater, a gun to catapult web nets at critters, The Fuminater, a gun that gasses critters too quick or small to be trapped, and Traunt Detectors, infrared scanner devices to ferret out traunt critters.

And there was their most important weapon of all—the boys themselves. Or so it would seem at any rate.

The unofficial leader of this business venture was a young man by the name of Cordann Blu, hailing from the planet Dooshlodia. Cordann’s immediate family consisted of a mother and father, two younger twin brothers, and a younger sister. The mother, Betley, was an aloof sort who spent most of her time pruning and pining over her plant garden. The father, Caradeen, was just a plain pretentious jerk who came from money and was clearly obsessed with his reputation…and fried pork. Morski and Korski were clearly chips off the old sociopathic block, as they repeatedly displayed their propensity for opportunistic connivance. In stark contrast, however, was Cordann’s younger sister, Lania—a somewhat insecure wallflower who was rather ignored by the rest of the family. Except for Cordann, who always encouraged Lania to find a life direction and pursue it head on.

But enough about Cordann the Dooshlodian, the next boy of our attention is Neffelefekus, an Enzymian from the planet Andor who was naturally sensitive about his name. Neff, as the other boys called him, had more than a passing interest in hypnotherapy, and had studied the field extensively at the Andorian University of Fralton.

His family was made up of a father named Koleffekus, an industrious man who dealt in fuel production. The mother was Stona, the embodiment of an overprotective mother to her two children. She smothered them in many ways…and sometimes the offspring had a strong desire to smother her—in her sleep. The daughter, big sister to Neff was named Caldona, who would pester Neff frequently regarding Cordann. It was evident she had the hots for her brother’s friend.

The third boy of interest is called Parn, a Paxellian from the planet, Subpaxel. Parn is the young man who first suggested that the four chums enter into a business venture together.

His family was deeply entrenched in politics—father, Smeldus was governor of Keedo City. But mother, Itshtinx was truly the political muscle behind her husband’s governorship. Both parents were typically busy as hell, and it was a wonder that they even had Parn in the first place. Certainly they had no time to produce a second child.

And the fourth and final rascal of this new career venture came in the form of Morch Caletskian, or Morch the Porch, a Minisculian hailing from the planet Cubaat. Morch was blessed with two mothers, Peesha and Excreesha. Together, the same gender parents ruled the male enhancement industry on Cubaat and a few other afflicted planets. Peesha was quite a direct woman and not very sparing of feelings—particularly of those who worked for her and her partner. Excreesha possessed a bit more in the way of diplomatic graces, yet in her own way she could be just as manipulative as her life mate.

Both moguls of the lucrative unit fix-it trade had clear intentions of gearing Morch to follow in their footsteps, take over the reigns of their empire someday. But Morch, of course, had other plans for a self-sustaining career.

Restwell Mind and Pest Cleaners was the name of their small and fledgling company. And as mentioned before, the four boys owned the tools necessary to perform the duties. Now the question was, could they use them effectively enough to actually get the job done?

In a few moments from now, they would certainly find out.

They had run through several equipment and job scenario drills in the past few months, gearing themselves up for the real deal.

But the real was at hand presently. Time to see if practice properly prepared for actual duty.

Who’s up for this?! Cordann Blu asked his crew of Restwell cohorts, his tone full of gusto.

"We are!" the other three replied with vigor, holding their equipment a bit tighter.

Cordann held a vacuumater in front of him while Neff gripped a shockinater. Parn had possession of the webinater which left the fuminater in the tensed clutches of Morch. All carried a traunt scanner.

Equipment check, Cordann ordered with officious barking. He hit the power switch on his weapon and it hummed to life as it should.

Neff hit his and it purred like a charm. Yeeaahh, son, he added with fierce pride.

There’s that puppy, Parn said in the same tone as his powered properly.

Morch, however… Aw, you piece of jiss… He growled as his tool glitched and sputtered out. And frustratingly banged on it with his fist a few times hoping to jar it to proper functioning, but it wouldn’t heed.

You okay, Morch? Cordann asked in concern.

"Fine," Morch spit out as he transitioned from fist bangs to out and out kneeling down and smacking the device on the hard ground. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

Don’t break it, Neff chided.

I’m not… Morch grunted. WHAM! WHAM! ...WHAM! He alternated sides to hit on the thing—WHAM! WHAM! CRACK! BONK! TINK! BAM!

And finally…power up…

Morch rose with his humming fuminater and finally boasted, "Yeeaahhh…"

Now they all turned to face their destination: a large house owned by a bio-chemistry specialist by the name of Doot.

Neff asked, Does this Doot fella have a last name?

Cordann answered earnestly, No, as far as I know, it’s just Doot.

Parn put in, Doot…Dooter, Dootman…

Morch elaborated, Doot is moot…

Parn again, Don’t shoot the Doot…

Someone do the Doot…

Dooter Rooter…

"Doot-tololgy—"

"Are we gonna do this, or are we gonna stand here all day and insult our first paying customer’s good name?" Cordann asked with annoyance and impatience.

…Dootyshorts— Parn let slip and giggled but tried his best to get it under wraps. All right, I’m done.

Cordann rolled his eyes then said with as much conviction as his nervous being could muster, All right, let’s…approach…

They held their positions for an instant longer, then they slowly trotted forth toward the front door of the house. A sensor alerted the occupant of the house that guests were at the door. A moment later, it was answered.

Restwell? Doot inquired as he stood inside the opened doorway and stared at the boys.

That’s us, Cordann replied with a bright face. You have some nasty critters giving you some hassle?

Yes indeed, Doot said, In the basement and running through the wall spaces.

You hear and see ‘em?

"And see their droppings. It’s getting to be a serious problem, especially with my work."

Say no more, we’re on it.

Come in, please.

And so the boys entered. And embarked on their first assignment as the self employed representatives of Restwell.

Chapter 2

See anything yet? Cordann asked as he and the other boys searched the corners and crevices of Doot’s expansive yet shadowy basement.

Nothing, Neff replied.

Me either, Parn echoed with a bit of deflation.

Zippo, Morch gave flatly. It’s like they knew we were coming.

Well of course they did, Neff added coarsely, They heard us coming into the room, ya jiss scooper.

Morch jabbed his fuminater out toward Neff. How’d you like this jammed up your jiss hole?

"Boys! Cordann blasted in a bit of a whispery wheeze. A professional demeanor is key to our success here! If our customer heard us talking this way—"

You’re right, sorry, Neff amended apologetically.

Sorry, Morch agreed. He turned to Neff with penitent eyes. You’re a master of the shockinater, Neff. I respect you.

Neff said in kind, And you’re a wiz with the fuminater, Morch. I respect you.

They nodded at each other in good faith. Parn smiled at the show of common comradery between his two friends.

But Cordann turned back around and rolled his eyes, thinking, these are my business partners. Soon he refocused on searching for a sign of the pests they had come to remove.

Parn commented, Doot was right about the droppings. There’s certainly plenty of those littered about.

Cordann asked, Can you determine what critters there are from the droppings?

Aaahh…nodies, looks like…possibly some botters.

Nodies and botters, Cordann pondered and prepared his mind for what could happen. A nody was a particularly inhospitable and troublesome type of rodent with not one, not two, but three separate heads. Knock two out and the third one would keep the body going. And they were quick, not too easily trapped. Botters were a bit of a different story—they were bothersome to be sure; but they were also quite sensitive to light. Their four eyes needed the shadow to move around and do their damage. Deprive these little lizards of the dark and they become disoriented and mostly ineffective. Just watch out for their elongated tails—which acted like miniature whips! Not something you want to feel unless razor sharp pain is what you enjoy.

Something skittered, out of sight.

The boys tensed, aiming their weapons in the direction of the telltale sound.

Something else scampered in another direction, another darkened corner behind some crates. The boys quickly swung their aim that way. Still nothing visible for them to target.

I think they’re playing with us, Morch quickly got out.

Look behind everything! Cordann blasted. And all four did so hastily, careful not to damage anything.

Another whisk of a creature zoomed out of sight from the peripherals of the boys.

Into a vent in the lower portion of the wall.

I’ll wager they’re all in that air shaft, hiding out! Neff hollered as they turned to spot the vent.

Well, we’ll see about that, Cordann returned as he pulled from his belt pouch a tiny orb-like