Terrain's Troubles
By: Cartman's Girl

Notes: Wow, a Monsters Inc. story! This might lead somewhere, who knows. It mostly surrounds my fanmonsters Terrain, but it'll involve Sully and Mike more further down.

~*~

Terrain slammed her coffee mug down onto the table angrily. Sure, her mug chipped as it hit, so what. It wasn't the first thing to break because of her temper. She large female monster grumbled to herself as she flicked through the Employment section of the Monstropolis Newspaper. It had been a good month since she was fired from Monsters Inc. Why had she been fired? She couldn't make children laugh. She wasn't made to get laughs, she was made to get screams of fear. Bed wetting fear! In actual fact, she was fired because she did scare a child. She sat back and frowned to herself, frowning all six eyes as she remembered that fateful day.

"Okay girls, Western Seaboard coming online!" Sheila, the Floor Manager shouted. Terrain wasn't as confident as she usually was on the job. The four legged tiger-like female chanted to herself as she stood at her station.

"You can do this. You know you can do this. You can do this." Suddenly her used-to-be Scare Assistant, Mally, walked up. She looked just like a blob with a mouth, well I guess that's what she was.

"Hey Terrain, guess what!" she said.

"Um, the company's returning to old ways?" Terrain asked somewhat hopefully.

"Heh, no. Mr. Sullivan's coming in today to see how we girls are doing!" Mally declared cheerfully, and clapped her blobbish hands together, making them form and fall back into her body. Terrain stared at her blankly.

"You're kidding." She said.

"I wouldn't kid about something as big as this! All the girls are getting all their stuff ready!" Mally jiggled with anticipation. Technically she always jiggled, but oh well. Terrain snorted.

"Oh whopdee. I preferred Mr. Waternoose to Sully any day."

"Oh don't be such a sore head, just cause you can't scare kids anymore doesn't mean you have to ruin it for the rest of us! Now buck up!" Mally smacked Terrain on one of her legs, and slid away. Terrain made a face and wiped away the pink slime on her leg. She never did like Sully. Ever since they were in School together she hated him. And now he was her boss. Oh how the tides had turned against her.

"It's HIM!" shrieked some random monster girl from down the room. All eyes, and believe me there was a lot of them, turned. There was Sully, walking into the Laugh Floor C. He wore his usual tie, and was glancing at his paper work on a clipboard. He waved slightly to a few girls, who, as typical girls, lost consciousness. Sully walked up to Sheila.

"Well Sheila, how's tricks?" he asked.

"They're doing great so far! We're just about to start our first day as Laugh Floor C." Sheila replied, tugging at her glasses which were held on by her horn where her nose would be.

"Ah great." Sully nodded. He glanced at a few of the monsters, who were getting ready for Nine O'clock, so their day of work would start. Terrain pulled her shoulders back and yawned, revealing her three rows of sharp Shark like teeth in her mouth. Shaking her head, she stood back.

"Focus, keep focus." Terrain muttered to herself. Finally Sheila counted down, and all the monsters went into their varied doors. Terrain took one deep breath, and walked into the room. The room was dark, but if it had been day time it would have been a very colourful room. Pink wall paper, white carpet, pink bed… girls room obviously. Terrain slinked into the room, closing the door behind her with her tail. She froze suddenly. She'd forgotten the joke she was going to tell. "Oh no." she muttered to herself. She bit one of her large nails, trying to remember what it was. It had something to do with a frog and a piano, she remembered that. As she thought, her tail began to thud on the ground. Terrain's tail sometimes acted like it had a mind of it's own, and this was one of it's moments. Unknown to Terrain, the thudding sounded too much like 'Scary Feet'. The little girl in the bed heard them, and glanced over her shoulder. That's when she saw Terrain. A large, furry, sharp toothed monster stood in her room, biting her finger nails.

"AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" the girl screamed, this shocked Terrain and she vanished from sight. One of Terrain's bizarre ability was to turn invisible. Not how her late friend Randall could change his skin colour, but she could become invisible. The girl stopped screaming, and sat up in her bed.

"Hey hey I'm sorry!" Terrain suddenly reappeared again, at the foot of the girls bed leaning over. "I didn't mean to-"

"AAARRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" the little girl screamed again. Terrain gave up, and fled from the room. She leaped back into the closet and slammed the door behind her. Panting heavily, she stood there. That didn't go as well as she hoped. Usually she would have been proud of herself, getting not one but two screams out of a little girl, but now…

"Terrain?" Terrain jumped as a voice spoke her name, and she whizzed around. Her large tail hit Sully right up the head, causing him to stumble back.

"Argh! I'm sorry! Wait… no I'm.. yes I'm sorry!" Terrain had to stop herself. Wasn't every day she got to smack Sully up the head with her tail. Sully shook his head, and looked up at her before standing up again. Now the two were faced to face.

"Did you just scare someone in there?" he asked. This got a lot of attention. Terrain blinked a few times, her eyes blinking at different times.

"Scare? Me? Oh, no… of course I didn't!" Terrain stuttered, this was her job after all. "She was… just screaming with laughter! Yes!" Sully just stared at her blankly. He wasn't buying this. "…okay yes."

"Ugh, Terrain!" Sully sighed, "The idea now is to amuse children, not scare them!"

"I know that! You think I don't know that?!" Terrain snapped, frowning. "Of course I know, but I can't HELP it if I suddenly forget what my joke was and suddenly the kid wakes up and screams at me can I?!" she stepped forward every couple seconds, causing Sully to back up.

"Hey calm down!" Sully held out a hand, "I know, these things happen, but you've got to keep your wits about you! It's just like back when we scared them, just-"

"Just like it!? It isn't just like it!" Terrain shook her hands, "We didn't have to make them LAUGH! I was great at scaring! I was the top scarer in this Floor! Now I can't even make my brother's little two year old laugh! I admit it! I'm not funny!" she suddenly grabbed Astra, a tentacle monster who was near by. "Tell him, am I funny?! Am I?!" Astra just blinked.

"Um Terrain, I think you should go have a time out…" Sully said nervously.

"Time out? I can't have a time out, I've got kids to scar-I mean kids to amuse!" Terrain gave him a pleading look, but Sully shook his head.

"Sorry Terrain."

"Pft, like you're sorry." Terrain scoffed, "You ruined this job for me."

"Well if you don't like it maybe you should go!" Sully frowned.

"I wouldn't mind leaving!" she snapped back.

"Then you're fired!" Sully yelled.

"You can't fire me! I quit!" Terrain stormed past him, her tail swaying as she did and it smacked down a few various monsters and she left the floor. Sully stood there staring after her, not even believing what happened here.

~*~

Terrain sighed, maybe it was sort of her fault she was fired. She'd been grouchy since she heard of the new Management, and who her new boss was. She and Sully went way back, all the way back to Kindergarten. Oh yeah, they were cute little tuffs of fluff back then. The two got along, but then School started. That's when Mike Wazowski moved to town. Sully didn't talk to Terrain as much as he had used to, and he and Mike became bestest best friends. Believe it or not that hurt Terrain. She and Sully were friends first, and suddenly she found herself alone in the School Community. Sure a few guys spoke to her from time to time. But that was only to get answers for that night's homework or for food from her lunch box.

She thought once she got her job she'd never see or hear of Sully again. Wrong again. There he was, first day of work with Mike by his side. Of course, the two were Scarer and Assistant together on Floor F. She thanked her lucky stars she was in Floor C. There, she ruled the Scare Floor. Her scaring techniques were brilliant, but she just never got the same recognition like Sully did. She wasn't a suck up to Waternoose for one. Another, she was a girl. Girls weren't expected to be great scarers. They were expected to be Secretaries like Cecilia and Roz, or mothers, but not scarers. Whenever she did good, Waternoose would walk right past her and congratulate Sully. But at work, she found someone who agreed with her.

Randall Boggs. Now there was a friend she had. They weren't best friends or anything, they just spoke during lunch at the water cooler. He hated Sully too. Seemed he had the same problem. The two were neck and neck on the All Scare Time Record, but Sully was one scare ahead of him the whole way. Also, Randall had this great technique. His skin could change colour, to make it seem like he was invisible. He said it'd taken him years to learn, but finally had it down pat for his job interview.

Then one day, Randall wasn't at the cooler like he usually was. Eh, he was probably busy Terrain had thought. So she let it pass. But soon a week had gone by, and still Randall was no where to be seen. This was also around the time Mr. Waternoose had been arrested by the CDA for kidnapping children. The whereabouts of Randall was unknown. Some say he was banished, others say he was murdered, others say he just went insane and was committed to the mad house.

While they were planning new management, Terrain walked onto Mike. Really, she stepped on him by accident.

"Oops, sorry Mike." Terrain muttered, though she wasn't really. Little butter ball.

"Ugh, no problem…" he rubbed his head in pain.

"Say I was wondering something." She said innocently, glancing down the hall way to make sure no one was around.

"Wondering what?" Mike asked.

"What did happen to Randall?" she asked. Mike froze. She could smell the panic around him.

"Randall? Hm, that's a good question you know? I really have no idea! Maybe he quit, who knows. Oh my, look at the time! I have a date!" with that he ran off. Terrain knew he knew something. Him and Sully. It figured. The guys get rid of one of her friends, one she had something in common with. A hatred of Sully and Mike. She shook her head, and got to her feet. Maybe a nice walk would clear her head. Stepping out the large door of her home, she lumbered down the streets. Everywhere, things were alive with life. Workers having their lunch breaks at cafes, children sat in their School yard eating lunch. Terrain stopped, and stared. There it was, the usual large sign. "Monsters Inc." course, the slogan had been changed. "The Staff sure has a laugh." She hated that one. She heard Mike thought of it, figured. She snarled and stormed past it.

"Stupid city." She muttered aloud to herself. Time ticked on, and still Terrain was walking. When she needed to clear her head, she had to clear her head. By now she was in the country, walking up a small hill. Ah, The Hill. It brought back memories of her childhood with Sully. The two, on weekends, would run up the hill and spend the day playing Chase and Scare within the woods. Course, it all came to a stop once Sully met Mike. She didn't even know why he liked the small eyeball. He wasn't furry, he didn't have a powerful roar or any scaring technique. She sighed sadly and sat down on the hill. Sitting there quietly, she heard some of the native birds singing as the sun began to set in the distance. She swore she could even hear the childish laughter of herself and Sully on the wind too.

"Did you turn invisible again T??" It was followed by Terrain's girlish giggles as she would cling to a tree, and just stand still enough hoping Sully wouldn't find her. But he ended up tripping over her tail. "Found you!" he laughed happily.

"Aw you always find me!" Terrain whined slightly, and the two would rough house till their parents – who were enjoying a picnic together – would call for them to come back to the family cause it was time to go. Those days were long gone by now, and would never happen again. Terrain folded her front arms, and just watched as the sky turned from blue to dark blue, and the stars twinkled. The city lit up, as par usual. She looked down at the ground, and just sat there. One day things would have to get better. She'd find a friend, she'd get a job, hopefully she'd even find 'The One' everyone keeps talking about.

'The One', as her Mother had said, is the one you feel totally happy to be with. You don't even have to talk when you spend time together. All you need is to be with that person, and you'll be happy. Hah. Love, it seemed impossible. All throughout High School Terrain had her crushes on boys, but they never cared for her in return. She had to go to the Scare Ball with her cousin for crying out loud. And they didn't even dance. Terrain had sat with the hopeful girls, who were hoping a boy would ask them to dance. All of them ended up dancing, 'cept her.

Having four feet wasn't easy, especially when it came to dancing. And it was those feet who had kept her out of the Military. Since she had no real good job qualities she had attempted to join. But her feet were too big and they'd give her cover away. Then her Father had told her to apply to Monsters Inc. They always needed new Scarers. That's where things went downhill even more so then they were.

"Guess I gotta face it." Terrain said simply, getting to her feet. "Clearly I'm not meant to be happy." She frowned, and walked down the hill again. "But hey, I'm not gonna give in! Sure life's been as bad as bad can be, but I can get through this! I always have!" she started walking down the long road which lead to the city. "I'll get myself a good job, a job I can put my head into! Then I might find the guy, and I'll be happy. Yeah! You hear that?" she looked up at the stars. "You may have a million points to zero against me, Fate. But Terrain Magnolia isn't about to throw in her towel so easily!" she stopped, since she realised a random farmer was staring at her.

"What?" she asked. He blinked and hurried away. "Let's hope I'm right." Terrain said, entering a side street which would lead to her house. "Hope to high Heaven I'm right."

[To be continued]