At the warehouse in the monster world, Waternoose was overseeing the repairs on the scream extractor. He was seeing the progress, but there were just so many wires to deal with and to make sure it was all working correctly.
Fungus was making short progress on his own. The gang were very impatient individuals, as was Waternoose. He was so scared of his ex-boss and the gang he had hired for this job. They were all threatening him if he didn't get the job done, and he would be hit often enough. It was enough motivation to get him to work harder to get the job done.
One of the gang, Swifty, would often go into the factory at night and get into the files. He looked for where Randall Boggs was, and there was no sign of anything. It didn't say where he was living now or if he had been banished. He hadn't been seen in over a year.
Waternoose knew that Randall had been committed to working on that Scream Extractor for what he had brainwashed him with: fame, money, respect, and admiration for making it should it have succeeded. And it would have made it a lot less work for the other monsters. It would have put some monsters out of work, but if it meant power for their world, he was all for it, and he didn't care about kidnapping children. The welfare of the human children meant nothing to him; they were just the fuel source.
Fungus knew that the human kids were more than that. Of course, he had kept the secret that the kids weren't really toxic, but he knew about their emotions were about the same as a monster's. They had to be impressed in order to get them to laugh. There had been some that they were scared of him too. He hated to see them scared, as he was an easy monster to intimidate.
When Swifty came back from the factory that night, he said to the Creeper, "Boss, I have tried everywhere. I don't know where Boggs has been put. There has to be someone that knows where he is."
"Alright. I think I know someone who might know." The Creeper meant Fungus. He was sure to know.
On one of his breaks, Fungus was just sitting in the corner, eating his food that he had been given, when the Creeper came up to him and picked him up by the fin on his back so suddenly.
"Ah!" Fungus cried out in pain.
"Alright, runt! Who were the last ones to see your scare partner?" Creeper demanded angrily.
"It- it would- have b-been Sul-Sullivan and W-Wazowski!" Fungus stuttered in pain.
"Thank you." Creeper said and then dropped him.
Fungus landed on his feet, but fell over too. He knew they were looking for Randall. He had been used to being without him and he had been happy for a long time that he wasn't threatened all the time with being put into the shredder if he didn't do something right. But Randall had never tried to do it, and he didn't beat him like these monsters did. This gang and Waternoose redefined the meaning of the word 'monster' to him.
The Creeper knew that they needed to get either Sullivan or Wazowski to talk. They had to find that lizard.
He and his gang, plus Waternoose, started a plan that would get the smaller monster first. He would be easier to go after. Smaller monsters were always an easier target first.
The next week, as they watched the factory workers leaving for the nights, Mike was seen leaving by himself or with his fiance. They wanted to get him alone preferably. He was also one of the last ones to leave because he would also check up on Celia if she felt up to dating. Or he would be checking on Sulley to see when he would be home, but some sorts of paperwork took awhile before he could leave.
At the end of the week, Mike was finally seen leaving alone again, walking home. The gang got close enough to him behind some cars that were there for the night shift. A lot of other cars had cleared out from the day shift.
Mike was about to get to the crosswalk when he was suddenly grabbed by his right arm and picked up. "Whoa!"
He came face to face with the Creeper. "Hello, Wazowski. We have to talk."
"Who are you?" Mike demanded.
"I am the Creeper and this the Nomads Gang." Creeper introduced the gang, but not their names.
Mike gulped. He had heard of this gang. They were nothing but trouble.
"What- what do you want?" He asked in a nervous voice.
"Just some information, but not here." Creeper said. He passed Mike to Tank and Smasher.
They left the parking lot and to another street, and back to an empty warehouse. There, they put Mike onto a chair and tied his hands behind his back, just so he wouldn't run.
"Now, Wazowski, you better give us that information." Tank said, towering over him.
"Or what?" Mike demanded.
"Or we make sure you never see your precious sweetheart again." The Creeper said.
"You wouldn't dare!" Mike challenged.
"Then tell us what we want to know and we'll let you go." Swifty said.
"What do you want to know?"
"We want to know what you and your friend, Sullivan did with Randall Boggs. A certain someone knows you were the last ones to see him heading into the door vault after you and that child at the time. He hasn't been seen since then. Where is he?!" The Creeper ordered angrily.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because we are some old friends of his and are seeking him out for something important." The Creeper knew he had to make this little pipsqueak talk, so he turned it into a nice lie.
"Figures Randall would hang out with a bunch of mean jocks like yourselves." Mike remarked sarcastically.
"Where is he?" Swifty asked again.
"And don't tell us he left because we know that's a lie. Tell us or we mean what we say." The Creeper threatened. "We know Boggs was a determined worker and scarer. He wouldn't just abandon something important."
Mike didn't want his beloved Celia to be harmed in any way and he wanted to marry her soon. He wanted to be around for her.
"Just as Mr. Waternoose had us illegally banished, but we returned to stop his evil, and Randall came after us for rescuing the kid, and we did the same thing to Randall that he helped Waternoose do." Mike explained.
"You illegally banished him? To where?" Spyder asked.
"As far I know, down in the southern US states. I don't know if he's still there. He hasn't made it back." Mike said. "I haven't seen him."
The gang knew this was going to be a tough one. At least now they knew of Randall's whereabouts. He was somewhere in the human world, if lucky to be alive.
"You better tell no one of this incident, Wazowski, or we'll be back!" The Creeper said.
"As his friends, we needed to know where he was." He lied.
"Whatever. Now let me go! I told you what you wanted to know." Mike said. He never wanted to see Randall again. He might have been a friend long ago, but once he turned against him and Sulley, they had been enemies ever since.
"Take him back to where we got him and release him." The Creeper ordered.
Tank and Swifty took Mike back to the spot where he was caught and cut his hands free. Then they released him.
"We just wanted to know where Boggs was. But we won't stop at hurting someone unless you give us good reason to. Now get out of here." Tank said. "Before we change our minds and tell no one of this, or else!"
Mike ran. He just wanted to get away from them. He was lucky he had gotten away unscathed. He managed to make it home, if very shakily. He waited for Sulley to get home.
When Sulley did finally come home, he saw Mike was scared.
"What happened, Mike? You look scared." Sulley asked.
"A gang called the Nomads kidnapped me after work tonight and demanded information from me. If I didn't, they said they would harm Celia." Mike explained.
This sent a warning to Sulley. "What did they want?" He demanded.
"Information of what we did with Randall. They said they were old friends of his. They wanted to know where he was."
"Did you tell them?"
"Yes. I did. I didn't want them to harm Celia."
Sulley knew this was a problem. It meant that they would probably break into the factory and try to find the door that they put Randall through. Mike had told him it was a door to some Cajun humans down in Louisiana.
If these guys had really cared about Randall, why didn't they come forward a long time ago? There might have been time to save him. But it was more than likely too late. Randall was sure to be long gone or dead by now.
Sulley would have to tell the CDA about this.
…..
The gang returned to their warehouse and told Waternoose what information they had found all too useful.
"So what did you find out?" Waternoose demanded.
Fungus was working on the machine, but stopped to hear what they were saying.
"We got some good information. Wazowski said that he and Sullivan threw Boggs into the human world after that door chase. He's been gone since then." The Creeper replied.
"They banished him illegally." Waternoose said. "But no different than what me and Randall did to them. Did he say where? What section of the world?"
"Somewhere in the southern US. A swamp." Swifty said. "I've heard of it before. I saw some accounts while I was looking through the files. But I had no idea Boggs was there. Nothing was ever revealed where he was."
"Of course it wouldn't be! Sullivan and Wazowski wouldn't want anyone to know about what they had done to Boggs. Swifty, the next time you go through the files, look for any doors that have been destroyed that were not on file, then you have the door!" Waternoose ordered.
"Yes, Sir." Swifty said.
Fungus knew this was trouble. But he got back to work. Of course, he didn't want Randall being mean to him again. He already had more than enough bad luck going on with all these big baddies being around him and ordering him around and hitting him.
But after what happened, Mike was more than likely going to tell Sulley what happened and they in turn, would tell the CDA. It would be better to lay low for a few days, or go somewhere else.
...
They laid low for a little over a month instead before Swifty finally managed to get in again. He looked through many files until he finally found it. The destroyed door down in the Louisiana bayou. Cajun humans lived there and were some of the most dangerous people, if some of the most stupid to knowing what actual creatures were.
Swifty looked through some more files to find a place that might have been close by. He found one. He took the file with him and showed Waternoose.
Waternoose knew a secret way into the factory, and it was better done at night. Since the basement was near the sewers, they could get inside that way, from the sewers.
Three of the Nomad gang, Tank, Smasher, and Spyder were going to go inside to this swamp and see if they could find the lizard. They planned to be gone for a few days, but the door would be left in place. There were some old, abandoned parts of the factory too to take the door. It would be left on standby.
Waternoose led the three monsters chosen to go to the human world through the sewers to the secret way into the basement and up and out that way, and into the factory. They got the code for the door to be used, summoned it and got it, then went to an abandoned part of the factory.
The door was hooked up first, then the code put in from the card. The door was activated and the three monsters snuck inside, without scaring the child that was in the room. Waternoose didn't want any of his plans ruined this time. But he didn't care if these other monsters paid a price, as long as they found Randall to finish this up.
…
For over a week, they searched these swamps and found nothing. No trace of the lizard. He was probably dead. It would be easy to get lost out here or eaten by the gators that swam in this filthy, stinky place. Plus it was hot and muggy.
Tank, Smasher, and Spyder were ready to head back. It took the same amount of time getting back just as they went into the swamp and back to the same house. They had their own way of activating the closet to get back to the monster world. They had a special remote.
They all got into the house and back to the child's closet. They got back to their world and had to tell the boss that there was no trace of the lizard monster.
"You keep working on that machine!" Waternoose kept ordering Fungus. He wanted it working perfectly.
The machine was near completed and ready to soon be tested. But, would it work properly?