THE ANNIHILATION

By Grand High Idol

Disclaimer: I do not own Monsters, Inc., nor any of its characters.

CHAPTER I

The entire incident started, it appeared, on a regular Friday morning in Monstropolis. With the fact that it was Friday and thus the end of the work week lingering in the air, every employee at Monsters, Inc. was desperate to collect as many screams as possible in hopes that perhaps they would receive extra work credit; some of the other infamous monsters around the area wanted to make the fantasy that they could actually make it to the list of top screamers in the factory become real. Naturally, Randall Boggs, the second best Scarer to date in the factory, was the most desperate of all.

Of course, he never showed actual desperation; he just bragged a lot, being the ego-wise creature that he was. And the same happened in the locker room that morning, while everyone was preparing to go to work. This area was his bragging ground, and of course he always hung around Mike and Sully whenever he had the chance. Today was one of his luckier days, it appeared, for Mike seemed to be having a few problems locker-wise.

"Today's the day, Sullivan," he said in a rather confident air as Mike struggled to get his locker open. "I assure you that today I—" He placed his hand upon his chest rather proudly—"will finally knock you out of the number one spot and become the greatest Scarer of all time in this factory!"

"Oh, knock it off already, will you?" Mike said rather annoyedly, still tugging on the handle of his locker door. "You say that every day, and it's never happened yet. Why don't you just accept the fact that my pal Sully here—" He paused in trying to force open his locker to gesture toward the blue and purple, bear-like monster behind him—"will always be the best Scarer in this factory, and that there's nothing you can do about it?"

"You say that like it's impossible," Randall replied, still sounding confident with himself. He shook his head and crossed both pairs of arms over his chest. "But I can assure you that it's not. Trust me, on casual Friday I work my hardest."

"Well, so does he!" Mike snapped back, gesturing toward Sullivan again. He then quit on the argument; he was still having much trouble with his locker. "Oh, for the love of the Almighty! What happened here? Did someone glue my locker door shut?"

"Now, who would do that?" Randall said innocently, moving his hands behind his back. Mike glared at him, then was about to open his mouth to say something rather nasty at the lizard monster in return when—

"Boys!"

All three were slightly startled for a moment, then quickly stood to attention as Henry Waternoose entered, looking exquisite and intelligent, as usual. His hands were positioned behind his back and his head was up, but the three could easily tell that his gaze was fixated on them. Mike slowly closed his mouth and released his hand from the locker door as the crab-like monster stopped in front of them, then lowered the gaze of his many eyes directly at Sullivan and Randall.

After a short silence, Sully finally spoke. "Um, good morning, Mr. Waternoose!" he said, rather casually. "Nice weather we've been having lately, huh? And on a Friday, too…just our luck, I'm supposing…" Waternoose looked unimpressed, so he quickly changed the subject. "What did you come in here for, may I ask?"

Waternoose was silent for a few seconds, then he finally said to the two, "I have a new task for you to perform today. Follow me, if you would be so kind."

At this, he turned around and headed out of the locker room. Randall and Sullivan stared after him for a while, then looked at each other, glared at their rival for a moment, then slowly turned back toward the direction where Waternoose had walked off and headed out after him. Mike stayed behind, wondering why he had only called upon Randall and Sully for this "task" and had not even considered to glance at him, but he shook it off, thinking it was only a job for Scarers, and resumed to trying to force his locker door back open, which didn't look like it was about to budge anytime soon, sadly enough.

* * *

Waternoose led Randall and Sullivan down the main hallway, until they finally came upon the main Scare Floor. The two monsters looked around in confusion for a few seconds, wondering why he had brought them to such a familiar place if it was such an important, secretive task, then realized the facts, shook it off, and resumed to following Waternoose. He was now talking as he walked toward his destination, his hands still behind his back and his voice sounding rather grave.

"I only called on you two for this task, and you may wonder why that is," he told them as he continued in a slow gait down the Floor. "Well, I am to inform you that it is because you are the top Scarers in the entire factory, and nothing more. Only an experienced Scarer can handle such a task as this." He sighed and shook his head. "This is the first time in years that we have had to deal with something such as this. My father dealt with it a long time ago, but he assured the factory that it was never to happen again."

"What is it, exactly?" Sullivan asked, raising his eyebrow out of confusion.

"This," Waternoose finally replied as he stopped near a rather dark corner, adjacent to the computer system, in the door slot nearest their current standing spot. Randall and Sullivan could only stare for a moment, for the object that the factory boss had stopped in front of was nothing more than a regular closet door to the human world. They had dealt with millions of doors such as those, and while Sullivan was still trying to piece this together, Randall scoffed and rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest yet again.

"What was the point of even calling us here this early?" he said, sounding rather annoyed with this fact. "It's just another door. Any Scarer can deal with something like that."

Waternoose glared angrily at him before continuing. "Not this door, my friend," he told the lizard creature, who stopped to stare at him. "This door has had previous legends—or, more appropriately, rumors—about it that other Scarers seem to easily believe." He paused before continuing, as if caught in a trance. "When my father worked at this factory, this door was just like any other door. It was used by hundreds of Scarers in the past, and nothing had ever happened. But then…" He paused again; Randall shot a glare of annoyance up at the ceiling. "But then one day, one of our Scarers went in there and…never came back out. Because of the 'human contamination', no one wanted to go in after him. He was lost…" He fixated his gaze back on the two and shook his head sadly. "He was lost…"

Sullivan's eyes widened slightly at this story, but Randall was unmoved. "So now what are you going to do?" the monster asked sarcastically. "After all these years you're finally going to send us in after him, or something? How would we even know where to look, if so? He's been gone for years!"

Waternoose glared at him again. "No, I was never planning on that," he informed the creature, sounding rather rough. "You see, a few years ago we've had rumors going around that the original children who resided in that house have moved away. The closet is now vacant to other children—perhaps even children that are afraid of monsters."

"And…?"

"In order to make sure that this is indeed correct, we need to test it. Because of the past rumors I cannot simply send in any Scarer. I need to send in one who has had much experience in the past, and because of that fact I have selected you two. I have indeed noticed that you both have made it to the list of top Scarers, if not you as number one, Sullivan." Randall growled at this remark. "Now, before the door is sent out to the main collection it needs to be tested as soon as possible. Which one of you would care to volunteer for this task? Remember, it involves some incredible risks…especially if the rumors we've been receiving are false. You're probably risking life and limb if you go in there now."

"But if the door is so dangerous, why didn't you shred it to bits in the first—" Randall began, suddenly noticing this fact, but Waternoose, who seemed to know where he was getting at, stopped him before he could finish his sentence.

"So, are any of you planning on volunteering?" His gaze traveled from Randall to Sully. "The volunteer will have my greatest regards. If you come out successful, I may even give you extra work credit for your trouble."

Sullivan, being what he was, was always ready to volunteer for any job Waternoose may offer. "I'll go—" he began, raising up his hand, but before he could finish fully Randall quickly butted in front of him, blocking him from view almost entirely.

"No way, Sullivan!" he snapped at the monster behind him; he then fixated his gaze on Waternoose and casually crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I'd be more than happy to offer, Waternoose. Now that you mention it, I could use something extra to do with my time as is."

Sullivan rolled his eyes at this remark and folded his arms, but Waternoose looked more than pleased. "Excellent, Mr. Boggs," he said happily; he then looked up at the door's light, which had been glowing a dull red since they had first entered. He slowly backed away, then made a hand gesture toward it. "The door is already prepared for the task. I wish you the best of luck in your mission."

"Yeah, yeah, thanks," Randall said quickly; he then shifted up to the door and shoved it open before quickly slinking inside it, outward into the room that lay beyond the doorway. He remained flat on the ground for a few seconds before finally getting to his feet, dusting himself off quickly, and cautiously looking around.

As the door slammed behind him, the room became engulfed in darkness—save the short beam of moonlight shining through a window across from him—and for a few moments the lizard monster could only stand there and stare. Although it was rather dim, he could still see quite a few details of the room itself—it was a child's room, all right; the small twin bed in the corner was proof enough for that. But it didn't look a thing like the children's rooms he'd seen in the past. For one thing, this room was entirely white—the paint on the walls was white, the chairs and tables in the room, the framed portraits on the walls, the tiled floor, even a few pieces of odd-looking, seemingly mediocre machinery in the corner—all white. He at least thought that a child such as this would have a bit of color in the room, but no matter. He could easily shift colors to white any day; it would be no big problem for someone like him.

After he finally came to his senses, he slowly began to slink across the room, toward the direction of the bed. He was sure to keep quiet for the sake of surprise, and all the while he was thinking that this was going to be just like any other scare he had done before, but just when he was about three yards from the bed he heard a rustle…and the child within the bed stirred.

Not expecting this to happen, he flattened against the wall nearest him, then, thinking of the first thing that came to his mind, quickly changed his skin tone to white just as the kid sat up. Now in full view, Randall could see that he was a rather small kid, about no more than ten or eleven, and was rather pale, with black hair. He was currently wearing pajamas that were the same color as his room, and as he reached over toward his beside table the lizard monster could clearly see that he wore glasses as well—black-rimmed, thick ones. He now remained completely still, trying to keep his breathing pattern as slow and as quiet as possible, as the kid slowly got out of the bed, then stretched and yawned, and began to head for the doorway.

Randall knew for the sake of timing that he shouldn't suddenly reappear and scare the kid out of his socks before he left the room, but he was itching to do so—he was a monster, after all. Deciding that he should do it now before he might not have the chance to do it again, he shifted his colors back just as the kid turned around (being half asleep), and slowly loomed forward.

The kid noticed him at once, and his eyes grew wide behind the thick lenses of his black glasses. Randall snickered to himself, then slowly raised his arms up, bared his teeth—he made sure that the moonlight hit them for added effect—narrowed his eyes, then let out an ear-splitting roar and lunged toward him. It worked—the kid screamed at the top of his lungs, then whipped around and ran out the doorway, into the hall. Randall halted his lunge, then snickered to himself again and crossed his arms. The "pretend lunge" always worked on small children…they always seemed to be afraid of something jumping at them out of the shadows. Then again, he thought, it wasn't only the children who freaked out at the lunge…he briefly remembered Wazowski…

He was too caught up in his thoughts for a few seconds to notice that the kid had stopped his screaming and was now shouting down the hallway as he ran. As his mind finally cleared, he heard the child's shouts as plain as day, and by the choice of words he didn't like the sound of it at all:

"Daddy! Daddy! Wake up! There's something in my room! Come and get it! Please!"

At hearing this Randall froze in place entirely. Sure, he could handle kids just fine, but never before in his scaring career had a child bolted out of the room and screamed for its parents over and over until help finally came. He had never come across an adult before in his life, and thus he did not know their strengths, weaknesses…nothing. If this child's father indeed heard his cries…he couldn't let that happen. Not tonight.

His first thoughts were turning around toward the closet door and heading back in the direction that he came in. That way, he realized, once the father indeed stirred and came into the room to investigate, he would see nothing and think that the child was just imagining things. He had heard of that quite a few times over conversations, and in this situation he was in it sounded like a reasonable choice.

As he heard the sound of the floorboards creaking under a great amount of weight, he quickly turned around and bolted for the closet door...and ended up colliding with it rather hard. Realizing the fact that it had slammed shut after he had gone in, he quickly recovered, then reluctantly placed his hand on the door and tried to push it open. It refused to budge, and thus he placed his entire body upon it, but still nothing happened. Afterward he tried to pull it open, but to no such avail; it appeared to be bolted shut.

"Well, this is just great," he muttered under his breath, sounding rather frustrated; he then heard the sound of voices coming from the hallway. Not wanting to give himself up, he quickly backed into one of the corners and shifted colors, just as two figures entered the room. One was the child he had scared, the other was a much larger version of him—namely, the kid's father. The kid was still trembling with fright and clinging onto his father's hand, while the older man was looking around the room cautiously, a suspicious gaze in his eyes.

Randall remained completely still as the father stopped in the center of the room, then slowly stepped over to the wall nearest him—yards from the corner where the lizard creature was standing—and slowly placed his hands on his hips, still looking around suspiciously.

"It was right there, daddy!" the kid exclaimed, pointing a shaking finger at the wall near his bed. "It just suddenly appeared and it tried to jump at me…it was going to eat me, I'll bet…"

"Jeremy, I told you that there are no such things as monsters," the father replied, leaning against the wall—his hand was now about a yard or two from Randall's shoulder. "You had this same problem last night, and you again ran to me and said that you saw a monster in your room."

"But daddy, I swear that I saw a monster in my room! It was right next to my bed!"

"It was probably just another one of your nightmares." The man placed his other hand on his forehead and sighed. "Listen, Jeremy, I don't have time for this. I've got a nature hike first thing in the morning, and if I don't find an experimental specimen within a week I'm afraid that I'll have to cancel my experiment…I can't let that happen, what with all this debt I've been in science-wise…" He sighed again and shook his head. "Listen, I'm sure that if you go back to bed, the 'monster' won't bother you again—what in the name of the world…?"

He said this last sentence as he shifted his weight to the side, thus letting his arm lean against the wall that met at the corner. However, as his hand had shot out, the tips of his fingers had brushed against Randall's chest, and the lizard monster had flinched slightly at the touch of an unknown human specimen. He quickly drew his hand back, stared at the corner in shock for a while, then quickly jabbed his hand out again, in a swinging motion to the side.

Having not enjoyed the previous touch of the human, Randall quickly moved to the side, but not before the man's fingertips could strike his chest again. Randall growled in frustration quietly, as the man slowly withdrew his hand and stared at the wall again, as the child (namely, Jeremy) slowly came up beside him.

"What is it, daddy?" Jeremy asked, his eyes still wide. "What's going on?"

"I…I don't know…" The man appeared to be staring out into space for a while, and the lizard monster slowly began moving to the side, hoping that the man's state of shock would be enough for him to get out of the room and possibly try to find a substitute closet. However, just as he was about to leave the wall, the man finally drew himself back, then shouted, "But I know that it's not any invisible friend!"

Right after he said this, without warning, he lunged forward, in the unseen Randall's direction. The lizard creature only had time to freeze in shock, then the man tackled him, sending him onto the ground. Now that the human was on top of him, Randall was at his maximum point of fear—though it was rare when he showed any—and thus did the only thing that came to his mind at the moment. He slammed his hand into the man's chest—hard.

Sure enough, the man let out a gasp of pain and shock, then slowly recoiled, releasing his hold from Randall. The lizard monster slowly arose, but it was not to be for long. The man had recovered quickly, and after a few seconds he leapt forward again, managing to snag the monster by the tail. He then pulled backward, causing Randall to lose his footing and fall to the ground yet again, emitting a loud THUNK. The monster twitched a few times, then snarled in fury and, turning around, leapt toward the human. Now was a brawl of choice, it appeared, and the lizard creature had had enough with this man.

The man let out another shout of pain and shock as Randall shot out, slamming his first pair of hands into the man's chest and knocking him down on the floor. He held his position, pressing more force onto the man with every moment that he struggled, still standing in a rather threatening pose—though he knew that the man couldn't see it—over him. The man didn't get the message, however, and continued to struggle, and Randall, knowing for certain that he had the upper hand in the brawl now, decided to shift back to his original pigment, to allow the human he was fighting with to actually see his opposer.

With the man still staring up at the ceiling, Randall allowed himself to slowly fade into full view, although he was still slightly shadowed due to the room's lighting. However, now that the man could see what he was truly battling, he gave a short gasp, and Randall could see his fearful eyes grow wider. "Good Lord, what on earth is this…this thing!?"

"That's him, daddy!" Jeremy exclaimed, pointing at Randall; he sounded very excited. "That's the monster that I was telling you about!"

"Good Lord!" the man repeated; Randall narrowed his eyes further and allowed them to burn directly into his. "I don't even—it's not in any of the—biology never explained—" He shut his mouth and paused for a moment before finally shouting, "Jeremy! Do something! Tranquilize it! Tranquilize it now!"

"But daddy, it's—"

"I said to tranquilize it, and nothing else! Quick, get the required materials before the thing does any more damage!"

Jeremy said nothing more, but quickly turned around and began to run in the direction of the doorway. Randall, knowing that whatever they were planning to do couldn't possibly be good for him, turned away from the man for a brief moment, then gave another low snarl and slowly released his grip from the man's chest. He at once dropped down onto all eights, and began to advance on the child, a threatening gaze upon his face as he drew closer. He then coiled back and was just about to lunge for the boy when a pair of hands shot out and grabbed him, halting his leap abruptly and sending him down onto the ground yet again.

"Oh no you don't," the man hissed at him, as Jeremy quickly disappeared down the hallway. Randall felt a feeling of helplessness for a few moments, but after a while quickly recovered from it and growled again in response at the man. He slowly raised one of his arms up, spread out his fingers, then slowly drew them back…he waited a few seconds until he was sure that the man thought he wasn't about to act, then—

"AAAAAAARRRRGGHH!"

The man nearly leapt a foot into the air, then recoiled yet again, clutching his stomach area with both hands. Randall slowly got to his feet, then drew himself up to full height, to make himself look more menacing, and slowly began to advance on him yet again. The man coughed a few times, then released his hands from his stomach and stared up at him, a fearful gaze on his face as he eyed the lizard monster. Randall grinned at his show of uneasiness, then slowly extended his hands and was about to make his next move, when something shot through the air and embedded itself directly into his neck, near the jaw.

The lizard monster gave a yelp of surprise, then fell to the ground, clutching his neck where the object had struck. Naturally, he came across the object that had struck him, and, although the last thing he wanted to do was to touch a human item (of course, it didn't matter much anyway, seeing that he had just fought with a human man for about five minutes), he slowly wrapped his fingers around it and tugged it out of his neck.

He cringed a bit as the object left the stricken area, and he now uncurled his hand to examine what exactly the object had been. Upon seeing it, his gaze of shock and pain now became one of great dissatisfaction. The only thing that they could manage to do after all this, was to fire a rather small dart directly into his jawbone? He shook his head. If that was all that they could do, he could easily finish what he had started earlier.

Tossing the dart aside, he slowly raised himself to his feet, then turned around in the direction that the dart was fired in—namely, the doorway. Seeing that Jeremy was standing in the center, holding what appeared to be a rather small gun in one hand, he emitted a low, throaty, slightly raging noise from his vocal cords, then slowly began to advance on the trembling boy, who was making no effort to move whatsoever.

He had only advanced a yard when he realized that he was beginning to feel slightly dazed. His vision was beginning to blur, and a small bought of drowsiness overtook him, but he decided that it was just an effect of the fight and continued his advance, although he did slump a bit as he stepped.

After another two yards he was barely able to stand up straight. Gasping for breath, he looked up in Jeremy's direction, only to see a series of blurred colors. The drowsiness was pressing onto him even more intensely, now, and his body was beginning to shake; he could no longer support himself. He only had a few seconds to wonder what on earth was wrong with him, but there was no such luck in figuring it out firsthand. It wasn't from the fight, he knew…

He knew that the man was standing behind him, but he didn't have the strength to turn around, nor the urge. He knew that the boy was directly in front of him, but he had barely any strength left to even stand. Gasping, he dropped down onto all eights yet again, then shook for a few moments, trying to hold his posture…

He failed. Three seconds later his entire body went completely numb, and he collapsed in a heap on the floor, not wanting to move another muscle, refusing to get up even though he could sense the approaching footsteps of the two humans…his brain was screaming for him to get up and try to fight the urge to shut himself down…but he ignored it and shuddered a few moments before allowing his entire body to relax…

Then came the darkness.