A Different Point of View
by Randall Boggs


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Chapter Five - No Other Choice

I sprinted down the MI hallway, trying to get to the simulator room. Sullivan and Wazowski had pushed their luck - twice (or more, I've lost count, frankly). It was time I called in the big guns - my boss, Waternoose. Sharply turning around a corner, there it was: the distinctive red doors that were a trademark of the simulator room.

I quickly glanced over my shoulder to see if those two were coming this way yet, before going in.

So far so good. I saw nothing.

So, I bet you're wondering, why was I going to Waternoose? Well, Sulley and him are "buddies", correct? So, who would this big throw-rug go to for help when he finds an MI employee like me involved in illegal activites? That's right. Henry J. Waternoose. So, I figured he'd find out once they got here. It was better me warning him, than having Sullivan and Wazowski reveal what they know first. My punishment would, no doubt, be much worse if I didn't warn him.

I quickly shoved one of the doors open and entered the simulator room, where some newbies were just learning the ropes. Waternoose noticed me immediately and excused himself to talk to me privately.

As soon as he approached, I grabbed his arm and pulled him out of earshot so we could talk. And boy did we need to talk. . .

"What's going on, Randall?" Waternoose asked me, sounding almost suspicious. I knew he could tell something was up, simply by the look on my face. He does that sometimes. Creeps me out, really.

I kept my voice low as I quickly summarized the situation. It's not like I'm gonna quote everything I said here - 'cause you've already heard it, so it would be boring. I nearly had the kid, grabbed Wazowski, yadda yadda yadda. . .

Anyhow, I knew he'd be mad to hear this, but did I really have any other choice? Waternoose's face got more serious by the moment and he creased his brow as I finished up. "And now, I have the feeling Wazowski and Sullivan are on their way here to tell you."

Waternoose held to his silence for a few moments longer, his five eyes practically staring daggers at me as he thought of what to say. Right then, I was glad I was in the active simulator room. There were other employees in there to witness anything he did. That meant he couldn't do any physical harm to me - which is always a good thing. And by the look he was giving me, I could tell he was seriously considering it too. . .

Finally, he spoke. "I can't believe you let word get out!" he hissed at me. "Don't you know what that's going to do to my plan?"

I cringed a bit under his tone of voice, but I continued to hold my ground. "Look," I defended myself. "It wasn't my fault! Wazowski and Sullivan let the kid out. I tried to get her away from them without revealing anything, but I ended up catching Wazowski! He's already been to my lab and knows almost everything I'm up to. I tried using the Extractor on him, but - "

My excuse/explanation was cut short by my now-furious boss. "Shut up," he snapped. "It looks like I'll have to take matters into my own hands." He sighed, shaking his head. "I'll have to give them the same treatment I gave Yeti."

"Banishment?" I asked.

He nodded, glancing past me for a moment in thought. "Since YOU can't seem to handle things properly," he replied, turning his attention back to me.

I was taken aback by that statement. I knew he'd blame me for it, even though I did everything I could to prevent this.

Now don't get the idea I'm calling myself an innocent angel here. I know the mistakes I made now. Banishment does that to ya. But, truthfully, I DID try my hardest to keep this between me, Fungus, and Waternoose. Just watch the movie again and see for yourselves. I gave them chances. . .

Anyhow, I gave him my best "I'm-so-disgusted-with-you" look. "And how are we going to do this without anyone else knowing?" I asked, motioning to the new employees-in-training across the room.

Waternoose rolled his eyes and gave me HIS best "I'm-so-disgusted-with-you" look. "Just let me take care of that," he replied, pointing his crabby finger at my chest. "YOU just get the door ready - set it to #3462. Understood?"

I sighed. Who was I to argue with Mr. High-and-Mighty? I gave him a slight shoulder shrug. "Yeah," I said flatly. "I understand."

"Good," he said, searching my face for a moment before turning around to join the newbies again.

My blank expression formed into a glare as he turned his back towards me. It was a good thing I was getting something out of being involved in this company scandal, or else I'd have dumped him like a bad habit long ago. That was the only thing that was keeping me hooked on being his partner - despite the bumpy road we were riding on and everything else that got in the way.

I stomped out the door, shoving it open angrilly as I entered into the hallway. Who did he think he was? He wouldn't even have gotten this far if I hadn't agreed to help him! HE'S the one who came to me one day (after rummaging through a bunch employees' personal files) and asked me to help him build a scream extracting machine, offering all kinds of rewards in return for my assistance. It was ridiculous that - all of a sudden - I'M the one subject to blame.

I turned the corner again and made my way towards Scarefloor B - where we got the banishment door last time. I also went there because that floor was the only one (besides A) not active at the time. I snuck inside and dialed up the door code. Waternoose made me memorize it, since keeping the door key - so he says - would be "just another clue for the CDA to follow".

If you ask me, I think he just likes ordering people around.

The metallic door came out of the door vault, down the track, and lowered itself into one of the door stations. I was grumbling to myself as I dialed in the code Waternoose gave me. 3462. . .3462. . .I wonder where that led. Wherever it was, it would be quite a surprise for my rivals.

That idea cheered me up a bit. At least I wouldn't have to deal with them anymore. Always sticking their noses into my business and rubbing their accomplishments in my face in front of everyone. . .

Suddenly, the door unclamped from its station and began lifting up into the air. I vanished and hopped on, clinging to it as it rose to the ceiling. I knew full-well where it was headed. I rode that door through the tunnel running in the opposite direction of the door vault. It coasted for a few moments before entering the simulator room.

I looked down to see Waternoose, the kid, Sullivan, and Wazowski standing there. A smirk crossed my face. Waternoose was tricking them and it was working well. I kept invisible as the door lowered into it's place, then I hopped off.

Wazowski was starting to look unsure of the door and he pointed at it. "Uh, sir. . .that's not her door," he muttered.

"I know, I know," Waternoose said, calm as ever.

Then I appeared and opened the door, a pretty satisfied (but kinda sinister) smirk on my face. Then I motioned with my hand to the inside, where a fierce snow storm was raging.

Then my boss finished, a smirk on his own face. "It's yours."

The shocked expressions on their faces would have been good revenge for me. But, still, I had the urge to push them through the door myself. I didn't, though, it wasn't my job. My boss gave them both a hefty shove and they plummeted into the snow. Sullivan let out one last "NO!" and my boss shut the door, letting me deactivate it immediately afterwards.

That was it. They were gone! My suffering would finally be over!

Pfft. Boy, was I wrong. . .What is it they say all the time? Don't count your chickens before they're hatched? Yeah. I did that and paid for it (as you'll see in the next few chapters).

Big time.

Anyhow, shoving all other thoughts aside, I headed out the door with Waternoose - who had the kid in his arms. Nothing would stop us now.

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"Don't!" came the kid's scared cry as I carried her over to the Scream Extractor chair.

She whimpered pitifully as I strapped her in and shied away from my gaze. For a moment, as I looked at her fearful expression, I felt a slight pang of guilt and pity. I'd seen eyes like those before. . .

My own.

You see, I had been brought up in an orphanage - since my parents died when I was only three - and I was used to abuse by my caretaker. As a little kid, things were obviously not too great for me. It pains me to mention it, but it's true. It was in that moment that I confirmed my suspicion that this human kid wasn't dumb, not more than us. Unlike what monsters are really led to believe, humans seemed to have feelings and emotions just like we do.

Waternoose suddenly broke me out of my thoughts as he spoke. "Finally!"

I turned to face him, trying to rid my expression of all remorse and pity. The last thing I needed was to start getting attached to this kid, knowing full-well that she could be killed by my Scream Extractor. I saw what it did to Fungus and if it did that much to him, I was pretty sure this would not be a pleasant experience for her either.

"I never should have trusted you with this," he went on, glaring. "Because of YOU I had to banish my top scarer!"

I waved him off. "With this machine, we won't need scarers," I replied calmly, then I gave him an annoyed sideways glance. "Besides, Sullivan got what he deserved. . ."

Waternoose gave me an evil glare and jabbed a finger in my direction accusingly. "Sullivan was TWICE the scarer you'll ever be!" he retorted.

I turned my head and bared my teeth, giving him a hateful growl deep from within my throat.

That comment cut me deeply. All my life, I've heard people say I wouldn't ever amount to anything. That I'd never accomplish anything but failure for the rest of my miserable life. It was as if no one believed I had a purpose. I so badly wanted to prove them all wrong, and now here was my boss saying exactly the same thing.

It made me furious and all the old hurt resurfaced again, blocking out any care I had for the kid left. She was my ticket to respect and I'd do what I had to to get it. Scream Extractor or not.

"Turn on the machine," Waternoose ordered, totally ignoring my response.

I soon joined Fungus at the control panel and he turned a knob, causing the SE to rev up. I watched, a smirk forming on my face as I watched. I was thinking of all the recognition and respect I'd be getting after this. The reward I'd finally get once all of this was over. I'd been waiting all of my life for sucess at something and here it was, waiting to be proved.

Now was my moment. Finally, for once in my life, something would be going right.

The kid squirmed in her seat, trying to get away from the approaching nozzle. "No! Kitty!" she begged.

I kept watching, hoping that my machine would work without interference this time. The smirk on my face got wider. My boss also seemed to hardened his expression as it got increasingly closer to her face. Suddenly, the worse thing that could happen - happened.

"RROOAARR!!" came Sullivan's explosive growl.

The guy just seems to pop out of everywhere nowadays. I was beyond shocked to see that and, obviously, I wasn't alone. Fungus and Waternoose were also equally shocked.

"Kitty!" the kid squealed in delight as he grabbed my months of hard work and just ripped it off of the mechanical arm as if it were a skinny tree branch.

And it didn't stop there. Oh no.

He then got the concept that it would be a good idea to toss it at us, damaging it even more than it already was. It was like something from "The Hulk". I shot Waternoose a panicked glance - as if to say, "What do we do now??" But he never returned it, his gaze was still on Sullivan. Heh. Yeah. I bet HE was glad to see his beloved "top scarer" again.

I was still kinda in a state of shock. My mind wouldn't work as I watched my machine slid towards us. How'd he get back??

The machine quickly approached, pinning my boss and Fungus between it and the wall. I simply lept to the wall and watched Sullivan grab the kid.

"Kitty!" she said.

He picked her up. "Sorry Boo," he replied.

Boo? Is that what he called her? Hm. Fine. So be it. But if he thought he was going to run off with her, he had another thing coming. I bared my teeth menacingly, trying to think of a logical thing to do. My mind was racing. Also, the anger welling up in me seemed to overshadow anything else my mind was telling me.

"Stop him!" Waternoose ordered to me.

I let out a low growl and vanished. Little did I realize, he was using me as his own personal "attack dog". I also concluded, after a long time of thought in Lousiana, that if I got rid of them for him, the authorities would find ME instead of HIM guilty for murder. Waternoose, basically, wanted to get rid of them but didn't want the evidence on his hands - in case the CDA caught wind of this. So, he played on my jealousy and blinding anger to get the job done.

Now, does anyone besides me think he's a manipulative, money-hungry CEO? If ya don't, just keep reading carefully and I might make my point clear to you all. For the record, he's pulled the "sick 'em!" routine on me more than once. . .

Flipping back to the story: I spotted Sullivan grabbing the kid's card key as I slithered over to him. Immediately, I knew what he was up to. And it wasn't going to happen. Not if I had anything to do with it. Swiftly, I climbed the pipe above him, hung on, and swung the rest of my body forward - landing a hit squarely in his face.

He fell backwards and I lept to the ground with the grace of a cat. I landed a few more blows on him, trying to make him let go of the kid - just long enough for me to swipe her and run off. All I needed was the kid, but a call from waternoose changed my mind. . .

"Finish him off!" he yelled from another part of the lab.

For the moment, I gladly would have done so. In fact, I tried. But my body was too exhausted from all of the work and stress piled on me for the past month, that I just couldn't give the fight my best stuff. I kept invisible, too, precisely for that reason. I knew that, if Sullivan managed to land a hit, I'd be down indefinately. I wasn't even sure if I'd be able to summon the will-power to get up again if that happened. Better to be safe than sorry. . .

Hey, he couldn't hit anything he couldn't see, right?

So, I continued to beat the stuffing outta him, but he still wasn't going down. I had to admit, I could have done better, but the odds were against me for the moment. Then I spotted it. A scream canister. Then an idea popped into my mind.

I hefted the canister into my upper hands and swung it at Sullivan with all my might. Quickly, I lept to the overhead pipes and hung on with my tail, lowering myself into Sullivan's face. I slowly appeared, a satisfied, toothy grin on my face.

"You don't know how long I've wanted to do THAT, Sullivan!" I told him, clenching my fists before disappearing again.

He swung at me, but I was too fast for him. Do you REALLY think I'd wanna be hit by THOSE claws? I'd be nursing wounds like that for weeks. So, I played on the safe side. Not that I'm a coward or anything. Don't even SAY I'm scared of Sullivan. But I wanted to be able to keep my job - my livelihood - and, most of all, I was desperate for this to come to a stop.

I continued landing punch after punch. It did some damage, but nothing more than knocking him temporarily senseless. None of the hits I was giving him were working like I wanted. So, I gave him a final roundhouse kick, using my tail to whip him forcefully to the ground.

Just then, Wazowski came in, hitting Sullivan with a snowball. He looked up groggily. "Mike?!?"

"Look, it's not that I don't care about the kid," Wazowski was saying, totally unaware of the situation.

Sullivan swung at me again. "Mike, you don't understand."

"Yes, I do. I was just mad, that's all," he continued, turning his back to us. "I needed some time to think. But you shouldn't have left me out there."

Naturally, I resumed landing punch after punch at Sullivan as they debated their personal issues. It was a nice distraction, if I do say so myself. I slammed Sullivan against the nearest pipe, using my body strength to pin him there, and I bent his arm behind him. This was getting really frustrating that I wasn't doing much more than putting bruises all over his furry body. So, I started trying other options.

"I'm being attacked!" he managed to blurt out to Wazowski.

Too bad he's not all that perceptive. Because he TOTALLY missed Sullivan's point. At the moment, he was kinda in his own little world. Which was lucky for me, I suppose.

"No, I'm not attacking you," Wazowski continued, turning towards us again and pacing. And - as you know - I just continued beating Sullivan to a pulp. "I'm trying to be honest. Just hear me out. You and I are a team. Nothing is more important than our friendship."

The kid then ran up to Wazowski - proving that she's more perceptive than even him - and began whimpering. He STILL didn't get it. "I - I - I know kid," he said. "He's too sensitive."

Finally, fed up with all of this and letting my anger get the better of me, I began to wrap my muscular body around Sullivan's neck and squeezed with all my might. Maybe that'd shut him up, in case he decided to reveal anything else he knew to Wazowski before I did him in. He gasped for air and, of course, Wazowski amazingly kept jabbering on.

"Come on, pal," he continued. "If you start crying, I'm going to cry. . .and I'll never get through this. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you - but I am now.

"Ow!" Sullivan cried.

Wazowski sounded outraged now, still oblivious to the situation at hand. "Sulley, I am bearing my soul here. The least you could do is pay attention!" Poor, clueless Wazowski. . .

WHAM!

I was abruptly hit in the face (and blinded) by one of his snowballs. I swear, Sullivan craned his neck just slightly, KNOWING I'd be hit. Smart move. I'll give him that much. But then he added insult to injury, by slamming me in the jaw with his fist. I was out cold, sliding to the floor.

I don't remember what happened between then and waking up but, when I began to come to, I had a terrible heaviness on my head. I knew I'd be suffering badly if Sullivan managed to land a punch. And, boy, was I right. . .

I didn't want to get up. For the moment, all I could think about was my poor, throbbing brain. But Waternoose yelled at me, sounding angry that I hadn't done my "duty". "Get up!" he demanded. "There can't be any witnesses!"

You know, now that I think about it, Waternoose could have easily just gotten out from behind that Scream Extractor and gotten rid of them HIMSELF. But he didn't. Again, he called upon ME to get them, instead. But I wasn't thinking clearly - at ALL, now - so I dragged myself to my eight feet.

I turned my head towards my boss' voice (though I couldn't see 'im) and frowned angrilly. "There WON'T be," I replied firmly.

I forced myself to stand to my feet. It took alot of will-power to get myself to move on but, hey, Waternoose promised me everything I've ever wanted. How could I give up now? So, I stomped around the corner, scanning the room for someone. Then I spotted him. Fungus was cowering behind the Scream Extractor, covering his head.

"Fungus!" I snapped annoyedly.

He jumped to attention and looked up at me. "Y-y-yes?"

"You're coming with me. Got that?" I replied, eyeing him.

Fungus wordlessly nodded and that was all the confirmation I needed before running out the lab exit. It was time for one final shot at shutting those two up. The last chance, I knew, I'd ever have. Fungus and I emerged from the secret exit and into the hallway. I knew those two were heading for the Scarefloor. So I went in that direction, shoving everyone out of my way as I followed the trail.