Now for the Scare Games to begin and for the action to get toxic with Ozzma Kappa! The Toxicity Challenge is one of my favorites, seeing Art wanting to touch those urchins and him going straight into the challenge, laughing and jumping onto a pile of them, cuddling them as he swells up like a balloon! So funny and cute!
For Mike, getting through the Scare Games and winning was pretty much it. It was do or die for him, not only would he get back into the Scaring Program and prove Dean Hardscrabble wrong, but he'd also get to remain enrolled here in MU. However, should he lose, he'll have to leave MU.
"Very well. If you win, I will let your entire team into the Scare program. But if you lose, you will leave Monsters University." the Dean gave Mike her final ultimatum, the stakes were higher than ever when she hit him with that.
Thanks to Brandon, Roar Omega Roar was ousted from the competition, so he didn't have to worry about being defeated by those bunch of jerks. Even better, Randall and Brandon, two Scaring majors are apart of his team, naturally gifted and able to scare children.
Mike, along with his team were walking through a sewage tunnel late at night, with Brandon and Randall looking around, holding hands. Art was smiling as he admired where they were at and laughed.
"Out of all the sewage tunnels in this place, this one has always been my favorite." revealed Art, walking throughout the sewer.
"You've been here before, Art?" questioned Terry.
"I have a life outside of the house you know!" came Art, as they arrived at the exit point of the tunnel and right into the heart of the Scare Games.
Upon entering the heart of the fun, Mike, Brandon, and Randall, along with their fraternity saw Brock and Claire promoting the event, introducing the competing fraternities and sororities competing in the Scare Games. Jaws Theta Chi, Python Nu Kappa, Sulgma Sulgma Kappa, Gamma Roar Roar, Eta Hiss Hiss, and Oozma Kappa. The fellow monsters around cheered when each group was revealed, though it was pretty silent when Oozma Kappa was announced.
"Let's begin the first competition, the Toxicity Challenge!" revealed Brock, as the crowd roared.
"Human children are toxic! And anything they touch, is toxic!" stated Claire, pointing to the wall where there was a chalk drawing of human toys.
"We don't have any human toys, but thanks to MU's biology department we found a close second!" said Brock, as monsters from the biology department brought out a yellow box which looked like it contained hazardous material inside. "The Stinging Glow Urchin!"
Taking a pair of tongs, Claire reached inside the glowing box and pulls out a glowing pink urchin covered in highly venomous spikes. The whole crowd looked on in awe at the dangerous and highly toxic urchin.
"Trust me when I say you are not gonna watch this bad boy." said Brock, pointing his claw hands right at it.
"I wanna touch it." Art said, looking mesmerized by the beautiful urchin.
"And you certainly don't wanna touch any of it's friends." smirked Claire, her eyes moving over towards a series of tunnels covered with urchins.
"Yeah. I wanna touch em'." grinned Art, a big smile on his goofy face.
They saw Brock and Claire head down and point at the entrance to the tunnels, which is the starting line and the light at the end of the tunnel is the finish line. Claire revealed that whoever comes in last place is eliminated from the competition. Scott worried about them losing, with Mike remarking that they have everything to win as he points to himself.
"Mike, if we're gonna come out of this, we need to work together, as a team. You can't carry six other monsters yourself." said Brandon, rolling his eyes as he looked back towards Scott and the other teammates.
"You worry too much, I'm gonna win the whole game for us." shrugged Mike, heading over to the starting line.
The rest of the teams all gather at the starting lines, as Art's eyes sparkled as he looked at all the urchins he can cuddle with, as Randall and Brandon narrowed their eyes and looked towards the tunnel, both of them nodding at each other.
The girl teams spoke about teamwork, as Mike was caught up in himself to win this whole thing for himself, as Randall and Brandon were determined themselves not to be kicked out in the first round.
Adding onto the fun, or in this case, perhaps some sadistic amusement for the audience, Claire shut the lights off, with the urchins being the only source of light in the tunnels that illuminate in the pitch black darkness.
"I wanna go home!" gulped Scott in fear.
"Hey, good luck, ladies." said Terry, wishing luck to one of the rival competitors.
"Thanks. We're gonna rip you to pieces." sweetly said the leader Carrie Williams.
"What?" came Terri, confused and a little shaken by what the girl said.
The girls of Python Nu Kappa's eyes glowed yellow and they each let out a sinister hiss, as Terri and Terry, along with Scott were scared stiff. Brock then began the challenge, and each monster broke out into a run into the tunnels, with Art screaming as he takes the lead.
"I gotta touch em'!" screamed Art, stomping towards the urchins and jumping up in the air, landing on multiple urchins and cuddling them, as he sighed contently.
Just then, the urchins stung the shit out of poor Art, his body bulging and swelling up like a balloon, as the New Age Philosophy major let out a bellowing scream in agony, as Mike, along with Brandon and Randall were horrified by the effects of those things.
"Come on, Art, you aren't gonna let those urchins take hold of you!" yelled Brandon, stretching his arm out and wrapping it around Art's swollen body, grabbing his best friend and letting him sit atop his furry head.
Mike and Randall were in the lead, Brandon was trailing a bit behind due to having a bit of extra weight on top of him. The other teams began to get stung, along with Terri and Terry, Scott, and Don, with Don really getting it the worst with the urchins, as he yelps and screams in pain, leaving Scott horrified.
Randall and Mike ran into the next part of the tunnel, finding even more urchins and even some students above throwing them down at them, as Randall scurries away as fast he can, while Mike tries to dodge them as best he could.
Brandon's struck by an urchin, causing his right arm to swell up as he swats it off, only for it to stick to his left hand and cause it to swell. Mike ends up tripping on one and his left foot swells up like a balloon.
"Mike!" gasped Randall, only to be struck by three urchins, as his back legs swelled and one of his arms bulged.
The monsters of Gamma Roar Roar themselves quickly took the lead, as Randall and Mike follow after, getting even more stings along the way. Terri and Terry got their fair share of urchins, along with Scott taking one to the mouth as his whole body swells up like a balloon.
"Dean Hardscrabble really must be one heck of a sadist!" remarked Brandon, screaming as he's struck in the chest with an urchin and his furry body swells up.
Upon reaching the next part of the tunnel, even worse, the urchins were hanging by string, as Mike and Randall both plowed through them, getting more and more swollen up, as both of them screamed through the pain, as their bodies swelled and bulged, with Randall using his swollen tail to smack away the urchins, only for his tail to continue swelling and getting bigger.
No longer able to handle the pain any longer, Mike and Randall ran with all their might through the tunnel, as Gamma Roar Roar was the first to take victory, screaming as their faces and cheeks swelled by the urchins, both take a leap of faith and jump out of the tunnel and onto the finish line, horribly swelled up and slowly getting onto their feet.
"Mike, I can't feel my face. I think I need to go the hospital." groaned Randall, spitting through his swollen lips, as he rubs at his face.
"We can go to see the nurse later, at least we got ourselves second place." chuckled Mike through his swollen lips, just as Jaws Theta Chi crossed the finish line completely unharmed.
"Second place, Jaws Theta Chi!" announced Claire, to Mike's confusion.
"Our whole team needed to cross the finish line, Mike!" hissed Randall, angry with Mike for his reckless action.
The rest of the team arrives more badly stung than them, as Brandon groans and places his swollen furry friend down, as he's really bad swollen from all the urchins. Scott remarks that he can't feel anything.
Brock removes Oozma Kappa's name from off the board, as Mike watches in horror at his one chance going down the drain.
"Oozma Kappa has been eliminated!" announced Brock, as a smiling Dean Hardscrabble slowly approaches the smaller monster.
"Don't look so surprised, Mr. Wazowski. Even with two students from my program, it would've taken a miracle..." replied the Dean, only for her to be cut off by the Greek Council VP.
"Attention everyone, we have announcement. Jaws Theta Chi has been disqualified." revealed Claire, holding up a tin of protective gel against the urchins they used. "The use of illegal protective gel is cause for elimination."
To the shock of George and his fraternity, they watched as the referee removes the moisture from George's leg, then stabs it with the urchin, causing it to swell up like a balloon, with George screaming in pain. Claire had them removed from the leader board and thus, Oozma Kappa was back in the game.
"Your luck will run out eventually." came the Dean, as she turned and walked away.
"This is gonna be harder than I thought." whispered Mike.
Randall and Brandon both glared at Mike. It was a miracle they even remained in the games at all, they needed to work together as a team! All the other teams worked together to navigate through that hell of a tunnel. Brandon had to carry Art throughout the whole thing, taking multiple stings to ensure that he didn't put his buddy through anymore suffering.
Later back at House OK, after a trip to the nurses and some medication and antivenom, the swelling began to go down, though there was still gonna be some pain until the swelling went down completely over the next couple of days.
Scott, Terri and Terry, Don, and Art have all retired themselves to bed, too shook up and sore from today's nightmare event to even bother trying to listen to anything Mike had to say, they needed to rest anyway and get the swelling to go down.
"Poor Art..." whispered Brandon, tucking his sleeping best friend in as he pulls the covers up.
Brandon wondered why Art got so fixated on touching those urchins. They hardly seemed that appealing and looked to be something anybody would want to avoid like the plague. Though, Art did apparently love visiting sewers for some reason. He sighed and ran his finger along the monster's furry hand, ruffling his hair for a bit.
"Get some rest, Art. You earned it." whispered Brandon, walking out of the bedroom and heading downstairs.
"How's Art?" asked Randall.
"He's sound asleep. Can't believe he actually wanted to touch those things." shuddered Brandon, looking back at his still swollen arms. "At least the swelling's gonna go down."
For Randall and Brandon, they were relived the challenge was over and by some miracle thanks to Jaws Theta Chi cheating, they were able to remain in the Scare Games, but still, if it wasn't for Mike wanting to carry the whole team himself and thinking that only he had needed to cross the finish line to win.
The next challenge was Avoid the Parent, Randall and Brandon were hoping that it wouldn't have anything to do with those wretched sting urchins they had dealt with today.
Taking a seat beside Randall on the couch, Brandon cuddled up beside his beloved lizard boyfriend, they winced a little from the pain due to the stings they got from the urchins, but at least they could manage it.
They needed to talk to Mike. He needed to understand why teamwork was important in this competition, all the other teams were sticking together and helping each other out while running through that tunnel of pure hell. He's smart, but he needs to lower his ego and really look towards the value of having a team, if they wanted to win, they needed to work together.
"Hopefully, Mike will listen to us. He's so confident in himself to win, he's not thinking about the others and their talents. He doesn't even seem to notice that Squishy's around, it's like the kid's invisible to him." replied Randall, fixing his glasses as he takes a sip from his water bottle.
"Tell me about it. The kid looked like he was entering a war zone when the challenge began, especially seeing Don get just pelted with urchins." replied Brandon, eating a couple cookies Sheri had baked and letting out a burp.
Considering that Dean Hardscrabble had won the games four years in a row and the fact that Roar Omega Roar had continuously won the competition for years, it seemed like it was gonna be anybody's game this year and Gamma Roar Roar is currently the leaders, so they've got a new rival to deal with that has some very capable monsters.
"I think the scariest thing about Mike might be his overconfidence and determination in himself." remarked Brandon, thinking back to when he saw Mike kicked from the Scaring Program.
The words that Mike lacked something that couldn't be taught rang through Brandon and Randall's ears, as they wondered if she removed Mike from the program not just because she wasn't impressed by what he was capable of, but perhaps because of his ego and overconfidence in himself.
At that very moment, Mike himself came in, looking through a book as he's still a little swollen up, trying his best to ignore the pain he's in. Thankfully, he wasn't speaking with a lisp like he was when getting stung numerous times by the urchins.
"Hey, guys, where's the rest of the team?" questioned Mike, confused as to why the whole team wasn't down there.
"They've gone to bed, all of them drained, hurt, and exhausted from tonight's challenge. I was just upstairs checking on Art." replied Brandon, frowning as he thought back to his best friend in pain from the urchins.
It was time to confront their friend on this. Mike needed to hear this, he needed to understand that the Scare Games wasn't just about him getting back into the program, but also the fact he's got a team of six other monsters who need him as much as they need him.
"Mike, we need to talk about what happened today during the games." said Randall, rising from the couch as he winces a little bit as he walks.
"About how lucky we were to avoid losing thanks to George's team cheating? I'm just glad they cheated, otherwise we'd be done." replied Mike.
"No, it's about how you handled things tonight at the Scare Games. You ran out on your own and tried to be the first monster to the finish line, when all seven of us needed to cross the finish line together to remain in the games. Brandon had to carry Art through the tunnel, slowing himself down and taking multiple hits by those urchins and Don, Squishy, and the twins came out looking like they've been through war. Mike, we're friends, but we're also a team in this competition. You can't do everything, we've got to work together and use our talents to win as a team. What if our luck runs out in the next challenge and there's no other team that's caught cheating? We'll be eliminated." said Randall, trying to get through to his friend the best he could do.
Mike just stared back at Randall, speechless. He had a point, what if dumb luck couldn't save them again? He didn't know if the challenges coming up would be worse.
"You'e my best chum. Please, Mike, don't focus on yourself. We have to work together, we're a team, we're friends, and we stand together in this." replied Randall, taking a step over to Mike and putting his hand on his arm.
"Please listen to Randall, Mike. We both passed the exam and we can scare kids, but we can't hold the team ourselves. It's a team effort, we need to think positive, be positive, and be the most effective team we can be for the Scare Games." added Brandon.
"I know, you guys. It's just that if I lose this game, then I'm gonna be leaving MU." replied Mike, frowning as he looked down. "I made a bet with Dean Hardscrabble that if I find a team and we win, she'll let me and the others in the Scaring Program, but if I lose, then I have to leave."
Brandon and Randall knew the stakes were high, Mike's stay in MU determined on them securing a victory. Reaching out, Randall grabbed Mike's hands and held them, facing his smaller green friend and looking at him.
"Then let's do all we can to win, by being a team and working together as friends, Mike." smiled Randall, looking back at Brandon who nodded, as he walked over and put his hand on Mike's other arm.
"We'll win this competition and show them just what we can do, Mike." smirked Brandon, shooting a blast of confetti from his head spout.
Laughing, Mike gave his two friends a nod. Randall was right, he had to be a team player, Oozma Kappa needed him. They're a team, no one better mess with them.
