Menacingly the pale sun woke up in the next morning. The air was full of anticipation, full of something unknown, hiking there like an invisible menace. Mike and Sulley's minds were filled with nervousness, as the looming factory buildings of Monsters Incorporated became nearer. Usually the brisk morning walk to this laugh factory had been one of the merriest moments of the day, but this time, the both chums had shadowed expressions on their faces.
"So… what do you think, Mike?" Sullivan muttered half in his own thoughts.
"Dunno, dunno, dunno. I mean, c'mon. We were yesterday discussing late about this slinky called Randall. But what are the odds that he would be there as the puppet master? How could he ever have got back? The nice stargate where we kicked him in, was put to smithereens. That way he could not possibly have come to say hello over here again." Wazowski spread indignant his arms when trotting forwards. "It can't be him! There has to be another reason for all this mess and clash!"
"But Mike… remember how we once got back to Monstropolis from Himalaya? It's not that impossible at all. Although we were banished in the wilderness, we were able to locate an appropriate door, once I found the village", Sulley sighed sadly back.
"Umm… yeah, well that's true." His friend took a more severe observation in the topic, "But just think about it! It's too much of a cliché! He just cannot pop here and plot revenge against us, that's…"
"Mike, what if we just go and see what happens today?" Sulley put his big hand on the green eyeball's shoulder, "It… it can be just plain misfortune. Maybe this all has nothing to do with Randall, maybe it has, or maybe there is really someone else breaking havoc. But let's just go there and put up some investigation. You, me, and our trusted friends. I guess we can find out the reasons."
"Yay! I've always wanted to be a detective!" the little cyclops whooped.
But the hours truly did not begin in a delightful atmosphere. As the leaders of the power plant stomped towards their offices along the corridors, they achieved only angry frowns as their prizes. No one greeted them, only those nasty goggles accompanied their steps. Behind the corners lurked all kinds of creatures that kept whispering to each other in small groups. Even a couple of hoots could be heard being shouted after the buddies, calling them with not-so-nice bynames.
"Do you hear how they caw at us, as if we were some vultures! This is getting too far, badbadbadbad… baa-ad thingy…" Wazowski poked antsy his hairy pal.
"I think we keep a big palaver today. Seemingly we have lost our positions of trust among the employees. And it's my responsibility as the chairman of this enterprise to put the pieces back together here", Sulley crumpled his brows.
"Sure, go ahead, this jigsaw puzzle has already too many unfitting pieces. We'd need a chainsaw to reshape them!"
In the lobby that leaded to the leaders' separate offices, was a guest waiting for the arrivers. This person, however, was not a foe with a tuned slingshot.
"Smoopsiepoo!" Mike's big eye widened as he saw Celia sitting in the waiting room chair. Surely he was surprised to meet her here. Their relationship had been somewhat in scales the last times, because of the workground accidents and common monstrous mistrust. Not so sweetly had this female batted her eye to her boyfriend any more, moreover there had been disbelief and suspicion shading the blue iris. And her beautiful snakey curls had used to rattle nastily as Michael had walked by. But something had occurred early this morning, that had made her re-ponder her assumptions concerning the latest monstrosities.
"Smoopsie, my oozing blossom, what is it?" Mike came rushing to her. Celia's face did not reflect any hatred towards him, but merely light fear.
"Mike? W-what's going on here?" she asked with a shaking voice.
"If I'd know, I'd tell it you immediately! I swear! But my head is as empty as a huge green balloon, no ideas, no clues, no tips, no evidence, no intimation!" Knocking his head with his knuckles, the bogey produced a hollow sound. "But… you're here! I thought you were mad at me!"
The girl bent a bit towards the shortie. "I'm sorry, Googly Bear, I was a bit prejudiced. But I really didn't know what to think about all this. But… today I came here a bit earlier than usually, because, uh… I actually thought I could return your unfinished paper work to Roz, Googly Bear. Despite that I was a bit angry at you. But you had once again left all your reports lie pell-mell on your laugh floor desk."
Mike grimaced uneasily, as he heard about his well-known flaw. Orderliness and diligence were positively not his best achievements.
"But, when I returned with the papers to the lobby, I heard there was a small chaos going on at the coffee automat. Someone had found an open bottle of nuclear waste in the big coffee container. I heard they were blaming both of you, but how come either of you could have done that? Yesterday I left the reception when you both had already gone home –or so I assume- and there was nothing wrong with the coffee automat then. And none of you could have put the radioactive thingy there this far because you had not even arrived to the factory yet! And why would you even do anything like that since you use the same coffee automat?" she hastily clothed her news into words.
"Phew! Glad I didn't drink that!" Mike wiped his forehead, "That would have been a bit too strong coffee for me! Ok, yeah, we are not the culprits. Someone else has been polluting."
Sighing Sulley took the office door keys out of his bag and snapped the lock open. "Look, I think we better keep a little personnel meeting, now. I need to hear what has been going on here." And so all the three entered his private space.
Two hours went on as the triplet contemplated everything between cave monsters and pterodactyls. Randall Boggs rose up to be the main topic. He would be the only logic reason for everything, he would assumingly be a person who wanted dark avenge, if he succeeded to return. But unsolved questions were so many. How had he come back, if then had at all? Where was he hiding, if he had caused all this? Here in the factory or someplace else? Why was there so much gossip roaming around his name? Randall this, Randall that. As Celia told, some workers were accusing Wazowski and Sullivan about a banishment crime, something that had been done against an 'innocent person'. Questions, riddles, theorems… but no replies.
It was decided that Sullivan would keep a large meeting about an hour after the lunchtime. Every employee would be asked to come there, and a voice of reason would talk. But, before that, both Mike and Celia would return to their works and try to do everything as normally as possible. Although… in such a menacing atmosphere it was not quite easy.
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Celia was returning from her lunch hour back to the reception. Everything was foaming around her, and seemingly she experienced this as a threat also towards her. There were gollywogs that muttered that they would not return to the laugh floor at all, but would wriggle, bounce or slither to James P. Sullivan's office and take notice. And, in other alcoves the silent rumors about Randall and his exile went on. As the Medusa-like monster girl winded forwards along the stylized corridors, pieces of nasty words echoed into her ears. Those were indeed not directed towards her, but against the leaders of this factory.
"What is it that I hear the name 'Randall' more often than I should hear it?" she anxiously went on thinking. "There has to be a connection. Although Sulley Wully and Googly Bear were not sure about that has he somehow found his way back here, there has to be some kind of basis for that. All the awful gossip…" Abruptly Celia stopped her ongoing. Solely she resembled a big idea bulb right now, since she had suddenly recalled one interesting little detail. Who had started the rumors? Who had begun at the first place to denigrate everyone's favorite monster fellows? There it was, the source of this all –or so the woman thought- right at the end of this alley, soon turning behind a corner. This gorgon, pushing a trolly trolley, had been a quite visible spook lately. With his three legs he hobbled forwards, aiming towards the destination. At the moment, the receptionist was entering a hallway where not a single other behemoth was present, except she and that eye target.
"Isn't that Trent Oogabooga? Hmm…" the lithe girl pressed quickly herself nearly flat against the wall. Thus she hindered the man possibly from seeing her. He walked ahead back against her, with a good speed, pushing furthermore the narky flivver.
"Didn't he begin to say all those cruel things against my friends?" she pouted silently, "I'm definitely positive about that! He was the one! But where is he going? I don't think I've ever seen him on the laugh floor, either seen him going to a particular office…" Other petite pieces of intriguing information found their ways to her brain-synapses. "He is always pushing that food carriage. But he never serves anyone, actually. To whom is he bringing all that diesel coffee and those high-octane candy bars?" And where is he really going?"
This was Celia's chance to play a secret agent. Resolutely she understood that this grey, spotted hobgoblin might take her to the right trails. There was undeniably something fishy with Oogabooga.
"I'll follow him! That's it! I'll find out myself, if he has something to hide."
It was decided. The woman would pursue Trent, whatever it would take. Carefully, without producing a sound, she squirmed along the wall, keeping her pose as small and invisible as possible. The halls only continued and continued, the climate somehow turning more oppressive. The sign of Z-wing had vanished behind the turn, and the cat-mouse scene continued. Indeed, Randall's henchman was directing his tiptoeing towards the 'secret laboratory'. However, Boggs was not that stupid (although he had re-built the old hidden chambers), that he would have used the same old entrance behind the tool scaffold (it was bricked in). As for the villain's comeback, there needed to be a new postern.
One more dextroversion. And this alley was a perfect cul-de-sac. The only things there were, were some laugh energy bottles on the floor, with some miscellaneous old junk lying here and there. At the rear wall, was a large, orange Z-letter painted on the wall, circled with a sphere. Celia had to lie low now behind some containers, as Oogabooga had instantaneously begun to leer cautiously around him.
"Hope he didn't see me… but what on earth is he doing here? This is an impasse! Unless…" the girl peeked warily from behind the heap of energy bottles where she hid. Her ocular went wide as a truck tyre, as the following seconds went on. Trent was completely assured that there was no one noticing his commissions, and so he pushed the center of the izzard-painting, hitting an almost unseeable button with his finger. It blended so perfectly in the orange paint that only by observing the wing sing extremely close, some bugbear might have spotted it. And, as the lock was released, the whole wall began to creak low. The round figure, where that letter was illustrated, was cut in two halves, opening a black hole in the wall. Randall's henchman took up a flashlight from among the foods, and switched it on. Thus he disappeared in the surreptitious doorway, closing then the entrance behind him.
"…Unless there IS really a secret door! And there is!" Celia continued her interrupted sentence. "I should get Mike here, but there's no time… no, I have to go in, and now. I miss the tracks, if I don't follow him", she deliberated for a nanosecond, but then rose up and skulked at the rear wall. Now, as she knew the placing of the clutch, it was a piece of mudcake to re-unlatch the gate. The Z broke into two halves, and there the round dark gap was again. Its inners resembled a vent shaft, although such in a large scale that even a rotund blob would have fit in. Scary and frightening it was, but she once wanted to be a brave female. So, one breathe of courage and she treaded in. And bang! The hatch dashed close behind her. It became sackcloth dark.
"Oh, great, now I excelled myself in stupidity. Of course I should have had some kind of light with me", she snorted to herself annoyed. "If I was dragon species, I could illuminate my way with my exhales. But of course in the trickiest situation I find that I'm not a member of that family."
But there were not many options available. By feeling about the metallic wall, she forced herself to move on in the blackness. Any longer she could not jump away from there, since in this artificial night the girl could have not even dreamed to find a reverse opener very rapidly.
Some time went on. Nervousness had crept back to Celia's mind. The route seemed to be eternally long. At times, she thought to hear faint noises echoing from somewhere. However, no direction for them could be determined. The haunting blurry chimes could have come from anywhere, maybe from this tube, or then from the friendly scarecrow world dimension beyond there. The tiny hair snakes she had, had began to hiss fearfully, as if foreseeing something spiteful.
"Shht, girls." The hostess whispered. "I can't fulfill my mission, if you don't keep it quiet now." The cold iron-alloy wall went on under her left palm. Trent or his flashlight was nowhere in sight. The shaft where she rambled, receded somewhat and also it felt a bit slippery. But that was not the all. Abruptly she hit her forehead against something hard.
"Ouououououuu! Hisss!" the snakes moaned.
"Shht! I was the one here who got hurt more than you!" the bogey scolded her hair. What was there hindering her way now? As she fumbled there in the complete dimness, she grasped that there was a solid wall ahead. Another stalemate, that is.
"Oh, wonderful. Did I succeed to get lost in here?" she puffed tempered. But no, that could not be possible. She had followed straight the way where that rumor-teller had wriggled. It had to mean that here was another door. The courageous woman would only need to find a knob. With her little hand she again touched back and forth the wall, and bingo. There was a round handle-type thing on the right side, although nearly on the floor level. What was behind it, would stay as future's worries.
"Phew… hakuna matata, this is it. Got to get out of here." Thus she twisted the unlocking object, letting the second slit squeak open. Yellow light flooded in from the crack. Gingerly Celia peered in, but did not observe any movement around. Not a soul was in sight, but some kind of clatter was heard at some distance. It had to be that gray eyeball pushing his trolley.
"I'm going in and no complaints from you!" the monster one last time whispered to her locks. Hence she slid her legs on the other side, and entered a machinery-room type space. This was perfectly the same shady chamber where Randall had kept his hideout at the times of the scare power. Nevertheless, this girl had never visited this place before. So it was utterly an unknown area for her. And although she banged it in her head all the time that she possessed the bravery, there was the angsty mood present. It did not feel quite nice for a fragile receptionist to spy some assumed villains.
Peeking from behind a large heating device Celia now rediscovered Trent. Wrinkling her brow she astonished what was that MI worker actually doing. He arranged the foods and goods onto a metallic table, where were some seats arranged around it. And behind it, in the dim rear, where heaps of laugh energy bottles, seemingly empty ones. But they did not actually resemble the common yellow ones that were in use of the amusement job. The lass noted that there was put a red extension to the other end of those. Also, as if to 'reshape' the containers for further evil use, there was painted the common 'toxic' sign on them, namely a scull with two bones crossed under it.
"But that's horrible! Who wants to daub good energy storage bottles like that?" she thought timidly. "But, my assumptions were right. Trent Oogabooga is having his fingers in some wicked plotting. And someone else is also lurking here, obviously Randall Boggs. I gotta go back and tell Mike and…" But her brainwork was foully cut short. Celia was about to turn around and tap back to the secret door, but… she almost collided with the menace himself, Mister Boggs. He had already for a long time stood behind her, although in the invisible form.
"Eek!" she gave an alarmed yelp, as she met his squinty, arrogant eyes right in front of her.
"Well well, what have we got here? Isn't it Mr. Green Goblin's little Smoopsiepoo?" the lizard slyly smiled.
"You! So you are behind this!" she spat back angrily. "You're the one who has been sabotaging the laugh floor and… AGH!" the female gave an exclamation of hurt. The purple foe had in a bolt slinked behind her, and arrested her hands behind her back with a firm grip.
"Good guess, if I may say. But the winds of change will blow upon this factory, and we will be turning to the existence we were made to be at the first place. That is, no hair balls in the leadership and no stupid titters hailing flower power…"
The shocked Celia writhed in the arresting clutch, now almost muddled. She could have possibly not expected that someone was spying the spy who was spying the henchman. And compared to this frail female, the lizard boy had so much power that it would not be quite easy to fight oneself free. Celia's snakes tried to bite the nemesis, but in vain. He could keep his distance.
"Quick-tempered, are we? That's what I've always liked in you." Randall chuckled back. "Curious, pretty and hot-headed. Not bad, not bad. But, now I suggest you join our little lunch here with this brainless minion of mine, and we'll see, if we can find a compromise."
"Compromise? WHAT? You let me go, you disgusting m…" the girl squealed.
"Disgusting what? Disgusting monster? Mm, I like the sound of that. I am a monster and I'm proud of it. Also, I try to act like one, unlike those circus fools on that idiotic giggle ground, or whatever…" he mumbled, "But, now would you come and sit here?" Boggs began to drag her towards the table. Trent goggled there confused at the show, he had had no clue about external visitors. And before the baffled receptionist had the time to utter a syllable, the evil violet creature had tied her tight in an old rusty chair.
Shaking off some dust from his hands, Boggs went to sit in another seat opposite to Celia. The detained female had just comprehended her new state, but Randall already went on with his speech.
"Now there, missy… I'm offering you an opportunity to cooperate with me, because I happen to like you. You got the right spirit, but it only needs to be directed to the right grooves", he grinned smugly, rubbing his fingers together.
Fury reddened again her face. Spitting out her opinion clearly enough, she barked, "Oh so you happen to like me? Well I never have liked your slimy appearance and schemes, so be sure that I'll not be part of your whatever-disgusts. And what is going on here? Weren't you supposed to be in the human world?"
"Mmm… yes, I was… but always the clouds change, the whistle blows, the stream of time flows forwards… I have simply come back to alter the ongoing events, since they do not please me." The chameleon rose up from his seat, beginning to walk slowly across the dusty floor. Of course Celia's words did irritate him, but this bugbear was sure, that he could change her mind and snakes as some diurnals would go on. "We're getting a new leadership soon to Monsters Incorporated. I will be returning to my glory, and so will the monstrosities rejoice…" an enthusiastic turn was done back to the girl, "…With scream energy. That's the only and pure thing that will roll this enterprise to its former supremacy."
"You must be completely insane. Everyone knows laugh energy is ten times more powerful than scream energy", she shook her head in disbelief. "Oh, yes, now I'm fully assured that there has never been anything right in your head."
"Hmmhehehe. Not so fast, tootsie. You see, with little engineering and intuitivism an intelligent person like me can get everything work. If my scream extractor was not a success, I have now something better in pocket."
Celia watched befogged as the energetic lizard picked up one of those noveau-looking energy bottles from the floor. He turned it over for some seconds in his three-fingered hands, then went on with his visionary lecture.
"See this container? This is my creation, Project 626, aka Scream-o-vision. This red small part on the other side of the bottle contains an ac voltage circuit with some simple amplifiers and transistors connected to each other. It all is based on the amplifying of an analog signal. Hmh, good that I once was diligent enough to study advanced physics and electronics in the Gremlin Tech University of Bogybridge. However… if you would have ever decided to peek at a natural science book instead of thinking about what nail polish matches up with your skirt, you could have read that every signal has a certain frequency. So do screams and laughters. And, I have invented how to boost up the scream frequency, so that this form of energy becomes even more powerful than this senseless teeheehee."
Celia stared at him her eye wide open. So this evil engineering master had planned something like this?
"You're even crazier than I thought", she gasped, "Do you seriously think you could get the workers of MI to work as SCARERS again? They love their jobs, the ones they have now! You…"
"Hm-hm-hm. Maybe I overvalued your intelligence. Of course, hanging around with that green hollowhead zombie does not increase anyone's ability to produce sensible ideas. I give you a tip: your IQ will rise noticeably up when you agree to work with me. That will also take those ropes off. Yet, where was I…" Boggs narrowed his eyes, fingering his chin. "Ah, indeed. How to get the workers on my side? Well, practically they ARE already on my side. My propaganda has worked well. And those nice sabotages have been the last bubbles in their baths. Such simple-minded folks… they are easily bent to work for me. I was once supposed to be the follower of the old Waternoose, be the top scarer, and now I'm only turning the history back to what it should have been from the beginning on. And… I think I will find tens of voluntary persons to take care of those morons in the management…"
"No! You can't do that, you…" an opposing yelp reached his ears.
"Oh yes I can! I just turn my thumb down like this…" the enemy at first pointed with his thumb towards the ceiling, then slowly directed it towards the floor. "And every fool will be swept away." Traipsing near the girl, Randall smirked, "I think we have currently the time when a brilliant speech needs to be concluded with an evil cackle." Hissing at the present so low that only she heard, he chuckled, "See, stupid henchmen always expect their masters to laugh evilly." Again, the tone was put more audible. "So, let's conclude it with an evil cackle, gheheheheheh. Now, just watch and learn, how I take the strings and be the puppet master."
…to be continued…