Randall Boggs had made it back to the factory where he formerly had a job as a scarer. He got behind the door stations and with his now perfect vision from his corrected surgery done months ago, he could see all sorts of monsters running around and being goofy.
There were balloons everywhere and messes in places. Everyone was laughing and seeming to have a good time. To Randall, most of the monsters had always seemed to have good days and didn't seem to have problems at all. But this looked more like a circus. He crossed his arms.
Randall had a sense of humor, but not exactly for the circus, though he thought Michelangelo would be perfect for this scene before him. He smiled at that thought. Then, he noticed the canisters. The size of them had changed dramatically. They were huge compared to the old scream cans.
When another monster came back into the room from being in a door, he heard laughing from inside, and the can filled up with energy. That was odd indeed. Laughing for energy? It couldn't be.
Randall looked at what floor he was on. He was actually on his old floor! Floor F. Then he looked up at the scoreboard and saw it was the eastern seaboard, like usual, but the display said: Joke of the Day.
Things had really changed since he had been gone. Sullivan had been right. He would have been out of a job if he had stayed.
Then, there was another laughing sound as a little green monster came out of a door with a stool and microphone. Randall's eyes widened when he saw who it was: Wazowski! He had never thought he would see him again so soon.
Randall growled lowly at the thought of him. He was still mad at him. He didn't see Sullivan anywhere. He didn't see Fungus either. But then, could Fungus be in jail for being a part of what happened before? Randall had forgotten about his revenge he had wanted to dish out on Wazowski for a while. At this point, there was no point to it, not with the other monsters around anyway.
The lizard had to get out of here. He had come for other reasons. He left the floor, staying invisible. He went to the men's locker room and making sure no one was around, he found his old locker. Surprisingly, he still remembered the combo and unlocked it after making sure no other monster was around.
Once his locker was open, he saw that the stuff in it was not his. Obviously, it had been cleaned out and given to a new monster. He closed it and locked it again.
Randall left the locker room and climbed up to the ceiling to make sure he wouldn't run into anybody. He continued his way further into the factory until he reached the entrance. Looking around, he got to the floor and quickly made his way out the door.
Celia had looked over at the door for a moment, and saw it open and shut quickly without seeing anyone there. But, she didn't pay much attention. If only she had known who was back.
Once he was far enough away from the factory, Randall unblended himself. He had to catch his breath from staying that way for so long. He took a deep breath and looked around. From what he saw, it wasn't like this world needed him anyway. But he still wanted to see if he could claim anything back from his old apartment. Of course, he didn't have a key to get inside.
Randall began walking along the sidewalk, heading toward a bus station. Most of the streets looked like they did before. He knew this part of town. Some monsters didn't pay him much attention as he passed them by. There were some that gave glares as they weren't much of reptilian tolerators. Randall ignored them all.
He made his way to the bus station that he was familiar with, and sat down on the bench to wait for a bus that would take him to where he wanted to go. While he sat there, he looked over at some billboards. There were some posters displaying wanted criminals. Randall couldn't believe who he saw on there.
Randall went for a closer look. His name and picture was on there. Was he really that mean looking? And, there was Mr. Waternoose's name. So, his ex-boss was a criminal now? That was something, considering that he had once been a well respected CEO of the monster world.
Randall realized that if someone saw him like this, he might be in trouble. He decided to change the color of his skin to make sure that he wasn't recognized. He turned to a red color.
Not long afterwards, a bus came and Randall got on. The driver either didn't notice or didn't care. Randall remembered him well. He just went and got a seat on the bus without trying to draw attention to himself.
When no one was looking, he changed back to purple to rest until someone new got on the bus. Soon, the bus stopped and he recognized the rotten part of Monstropolis where he once lived.
He was glad to get off the bus. But he was also glad to have ridden one of his old buses in his world for a change.
He walked along until he found his old apartment building. He wanted so much to go home. But after not being here for so long, more than likely he was evicted anyway. Instead of asking for the supervisor, he vanished and went up the side of the building to where his apartment was and managed to open a window. He had always kept a window a crack open in case he needed to escape.
Randall snuck inside and saw that the stuff in here was not his. It belonged to someone else. Who knows what had been done with his stuff. Thrown out, most likely. He had nothing here. The supervisor might know who took his stuff. Maybe he had to reveal himself, or just go about his business.
He was lucky that no one was home at the moment. He crept back out the window. To stay here was to risk being caught. He knew who he could stay with: Fungus.
Randall went to Fungus's home in another apartment building. He made sure to stay vanished as he knocked on the door. No one answered. But then, it was a time of day when Fungus would be working. Silly him. But he did know there was a spare key. He used it and got in.
Once inside Fungus's apartment, the place seemed empty. All of his former assistant's stuff was still here, for the moment anyway. But everything looked really dusty. When Randall went to the fridge for something to drink, he was instantly greeted with bad smells from expired food and drinks.
"Yuck! When was the last time you cleaned your fridge, Fungus?" Randall said to himself. But then, he didn't know the situation yet.
Randall closed the fridge and got a glass out of the cupboard and filled it with water from the tap. He was so thirsty. He didn't know when he would have a chance to get another. Then, he went to the freezer and got a frozen dinner out that hadn't expired and warmed it up in the microwave. He was doing this so he could keep his stomach quiet. Plus, he wanted to taste some real monster food again.
When the microwave went off, Randall was ready for that food. It felt so refreshing to have some real monster food again. He then hopped onto the couch and turned on the TV. He was just making himself at home while he could. He knew his former assistant would be more than shocked to see him back, but he had to talk with someone about what had happened to him.
Randall knew that he hadn't always been the nicest to Fungus, and right now, he felt bad for the way things were before. Fungus had really been the closest thing to a friend that he had had while working for Monsters, Inc.
He finished his lunch and just settled down for some rest. He would wait for Fungus to get off work and come home so they could get things resolved. But little did he know, Fungus wasn't coming home that night.
Randall waited until well after nine o'clock, and his former assistant still wasn't home. He was getting flustered with waiting for so long. He spread his whole body out on the couch and did some stretches to keep his muscles loose.
After watching the late news, Randall was so tired that he fell asleep on the couch. Nobody ever came in.
In the morning, Randall saw he was in Fungus' apartment with the TV blaring away. He had slept through the night on the couch. He went and checked the bedroom to see if Fungus was here. There was nothing.
Randall went to the bathroom, and took a bath, using Fungus' soap, as he was trying to make himself smell more like his old world. His scent had been different when he was in the human world. April would not allow him to be really smelly while living in her house. But for the moment, it was acceptable.
After refreshing himself, he had another frozen dinner for breakfast. This was odd that Fungus had never come home last night.
He waited for another day and found Fungus wasn't coming home. Randall wondered if Fungus was taking a vacation, but it seemed unlikely that he could afford one.
Randall finally got fed up with waiting and he made sure things were as close as possible to how they were before he came inside. He hid the key on his way out the door.
It was evening now and he headed back to the factory, aiming to try to go back to the human world. Once he got there, he could hear distant voices, and he saw some monsters that were appearing to break into the factory after working hours were over.
Randall vanished for good measure. He looked over the top of a car. "Who are those bozos?" he asked himself.
The three monsters snuck into the factory. After spending so much time with the turtles, Randall knew this was very suspicious. He snuck up behind them.
They were looking for some kids to kidnap, as the machine kept on failing. Fungus was doing his best to fix it, but nothing was working.
Randall followed them to see what kind of trouble they were causing. Anyone who broke in after hours, even here in the monster world, had to be up to something bad.
They grabbed some kids and took off. Randall fought the urge to stop them, preferring instead to let them lead him to their hideout. He climbed onto their car. When they got in, they had no idea that he was even there. He rode it to the hideout, the suckers on his feet and hands doing their job.
He let them go in first before he followed behind them. This was a bad part of town. It was often where gangs and criminals hung out.
Once Randall got inside, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. The old Scream Extractor was on the ceiling and there was poor Fungus, looking exhausted and about ready to collapse. Why was he here instead of at the factory?
Most of the gang was out doing something else right now, but as usual, there was someone with Fungus to make sure he kept on working. Randall knew how to settle this.
Smiling, he snuck up behind the monster guarding him. He finally had the courage to use his tail as a weapon again. He tripped the monster, Smasher, up.
Smasher fell unconscious. Fungus was surprised the larger monster had gone down so suddenly like that. Now would be a good chance to get away from here, to finally go home.
"Fungus!" someone called. The voice sounded familiar.
"Who's there?" Fungus asked cautiously.
Randall appeared to him. "Me."
"Ah!" Fungus fell back in surprise. "Randall!"
"It's alright, Fungus. What are you doing working on this again? It's a horrible thing to be doing." Randall said.
"Mr. Waternoose… he- uh, is making me build it again so he can finish what we started - kidnapping kids for the energy of their screams. But you see, Randall, we have all moved on from being scarers. We use laugh energy now. It's much more powerful than screaming from fear." Fungus explained.
"I think I saw that on the floor I arrived on." Randall said.
Fungus had only just seen Randall, and already, he could sense a change in him. He didn't seem like the same vengeful lizard that he had known. And he had said that working on the Extractor was a bad idea.
"What are we going to do, Randall? I can't get away from here, and if I try, they beat me up or hit my head." Fungus said.
Randall could see many bruises on his assistant's body. He knew he had been this way not too long ago.
"We have to come up with a way to get rid of the machine." Randall said.
"And there's many kids to get home." Fungus said.
"Huh?"
"I said Waternoose is kidnapping kids again. Evidence showed he would kidnap many kids before he would let his company die, and that's why he was sent to jail. The CDA was involved. But, he escaped after a year. You were their first choice to do this job, but they kidnapped me instead since you weren't here." Fungus explained.
"Where were they looking? The swamps? They'd never find me there. I moved on from there." Randall said.
Little did they know that Smasher was regaining consciousness. Randall had his back to him. Smasher shook his head and looked over at this captive. Beside him, was the one they had been looking for! Smasher got up and went to go grab Randall.
"To where?" Fungus asked his former boss.
"Up the eastern coastline to live with some good friends I found there." Randall replied.
Then Randall noticed his friend's shadow seemed to have shifted.
"Uh, Randall?" Fungus stammered.
Randall felt someone behind him, as he was letting some of his ninja training take over. He swung around to look when he felt a blow to the back of his head. It knocked him into a wall, then down to the floor.
"Just who we've been looking for! You have come just in time to see your machine get fixed up. BY YOU! And you better make it work, or you can kiss your life and your friend's here, goodbye!" Smasher threatened.
Randall shook his head as he saw the taller monster towering over him. Fungus was powerless to stop him.
"Whoever you are, working on that thing is a mistake. You shouldn't take directions from Waternoose. He's just using you!" Randall cried.
"He's promised me and my gang fame, money, and action. And, we are looking forward to it."
"You'll never gain it," Randall argued. "Waternoose is a liar! He promised me that too. And knowing him, he would have banished me or killed me anyway so he could take all the glory for himself."
Smasher knew he had to get a hold of the lizard before he had a chance to get away. He had been told that Randall was more than crafty. But the blow to the head had probably knocked a bit off kilter.
Randall saw the taller monster coming toward him. He scrambled to his feet, but he couldn't get away fast enough. Smasher's big pincher hand came around and grasped Randall's top right arm. While Randall used his other hands to try and free himself, the other pincher closed on Randall's throat. "Gotcha! You're not getting away anytime soon, Boggs!"
Randall glared at him, baring his teeth. Now that he was on his feet again, he saw this insect-like monster was about as tall as he was. He began pulling him into the back. It made the lizard swallow hard.
Smasher grabbed some rope and using his three other pinchers, he managed to tie the ropes on Randall's arms and upper body. He secured him, then pulled him back up to the front to make Fungus work some more.
Fungus could only look over at Randall sadly. But the more he could see him, the more he noticed some more changes on the lizard that he had never seen before; a variety of vicious looking scars on his body. Randall must have been in some nasty fights out there in the human world.
Smasher eventually allowed Fungus to take a short break so that he could eat and drink. That was when Waternoose and the rest of the gang came back in from wherever they had gone. Fungus was sitting by a wall near Randall.
Waternoose saw his new guest, and the Nomads were shocked at who was here. Smasher instantly was on it.
"Look who found us, Mr. Waternoose!" Smasher indicated with his hand proudly.
Randall was shocked to see his old boss.
"Well, well, well, Randall Boggs. My friends here tell me that they couldn't find you and yet, here you are." Waternoose said. "Mind telling me where you've been all this time?"
"That's none of your business!" Randall snapped angrily.
"You were banished, weren't you? Sullivan and Wazowski did to you what we did to them." The crab monster mocked him, but he did have a point. "They saved me the trouble of doing it myself. But, now that you're back, you are going to make sure this machine works just right and it collects children's screams. I am not going to allow my company to be run by using laughter. It's absurd. Screams are the monster's way, and only way!" Waternoose proclaimed.
"I'll never work on that stupid machine. It literally ruined my life for two years!" Randall declared.
"Oh, really?" the Creeper said.
"Your little friend here has been working to finish your creation for a few months now, and he can't get it right. He's expendable to us now that you're here! Work on the machine, or he is going to be killed and tossed in the river outside of town!" the Creeper threatened.
Fungus looked at the Creeper in fear, and at Randall. Randall had not cared about Fungus for the longest time. But, now seemed to be the best time to come clean. Fungus was all he had now.
"No! Don't hurt him! I'll do it!" Randall begged fearfully.
Waternoose had never known Randall to say something like that. The old Randall would have loved to finally finish his machine. But then, it had been a long time since they had known each other.
"I've never known you to go soft, Boggs. You loved doing this job for me before."
"That was before some real friends showed me what an idiot I was to ever work for you!" Randall said angrily.
"Untie him so he can get to work on the machine." Waternoose ordered.
"Yes, Sir." Knuckles said and he cut the ropes on Randall's arms.
Randall rubbed his arms to get the circulation back into them. "Fungus, show me what you've done so far."
"He can show you, but you are the one taking over on the machine to make sure it's finished. We can't have it killing the kids. We need those screams intact." the Creeper said. "And if you even think about getting away, the little pipsqueak pays the price. Remember that, Boggs!"
Randall knew who could help with this, but he would have to get out of here first to get them. He knew he couldn't stop them alone.
Fungus got up and he showed Randall the machine. Randall could see where it needed improvements. When Randall looked at the wiring, he could see that it was off. Some of the wiring was overloaded and had to be taken out and replaced.
Fungus was now strapped to a chair and tied up to make sure that Randall stayed motivated. Waternoose and the whole gang was there now to make sure he wouldn't get away. A knife was pointed at Fungus.
While working, Randall thought of what the turtles would do, and what they had taught him to try to take down opponents. His friends had been threatened to draw him in before too. He knew he could use his invisibility to get away, but he had to get Fungus out in the process. He never would have cared before meeting the turtles and their friends. They had taught him how to care about others.
He had to come up with something to do that would prevent them from harming Fungus, and he had to do it fast. He had seen how Donatello had wired things before, even explosives. But then, he couldn't harm the kids that were in the back in the cages. He needed the turtles.
"Uh, excuse me, guys, but what I see is there is some faulty wiring that is likely to cause a fire. I need some more wiring." Randall said.
"What kind of wiring, lizard?" Swifty asked.
Randall told them that he needed a specific type of wire that was a little hard to find. This was just a diversion. There was a hardware store uptown. This gang had money from their previous burglaries. Waternoose had money too.
Fungus wondered what Randall was up to.
Randall wrote out a list. This was just to buy some more time. Three of the gang: Knuckles, Tank, and Swifty left to go to the store to get the items that Randall had requested.
Spyder, Tank, and Creeper were still here with Waternoose.
"Is there anything else that needs getting?" Tank asked.
Waternoose didn't trust Randall. He knew he had to be up to something. "Fungus already had everything to work with. How do I know that you need this new wiring?" he demanded.
"Why do you think it keeps failing?" Randall said, crossing his arms.
"Fine, but this better not be one of your little tricks." Waternoose warned.
Randall was lucky he was loose.
"Until the others get back, work on what you can." Creeper ordered.
"Not much else needs to be done." Randall lied. "Most of the work is done."
"There has to be something else that needs to be done." Spyder said.
"Work on the strength of the vacuum." Waternoose said. "Make sure it's in the proper working order."
Randall growled. He had had it with this evil machine. He had hoped to never see it again. "I will not!" An idea suddenly came to him.
"Oh, yes you will! Like we said." Smasher warned.
"You're going to have to catch me first!" Randall had wanted to separate the gang up before he would take them down.
He made himself vanish fast, and he sprang up the wall to get away from them.
"Kill the little one!" Creeper yelled.
Smasher grabbed the knife and started making his way over to Fungus with it. Fungus began squirming.
"Get down here, Randall!" Waternoose ordered.
"I never wanted to see that machine again!" Randall shouted out.
Waternoose and the others heard him yell, and could hear him moving about with such speed on the high walls. But then, there was nothing.
"No! No, please, no!" Fungus cried out as the knife was being edged closer to him.
Randall was watching from right above him. Just as Smasher was getting all too close, he dropped down on top of him, making him go down and knocking the wind out of him. He stayed invisible and grabbed the knife from his hand, running over to Fungus and quickly cutting the ropes. Then he dropped the knife.
Fungus fumbled in the ropes, trying to get out of them.
Waternoose and the other two were making their way over to them.
"Get on my back, Fungus! Hold on to my lower arms!" Randall ordered.
Fungus didn't question him. He got on. Then Randall said, "Lock your legs into my front legs." Fungus did as he was told, and Randall then climbed the wall again.
Fungus had never known Randall to be this courageous, but it was a good idea. Randall had saved him from his captors, but what was he planning?
"Hang on!" Randall ordered. He saw some windows on the high ceiling and he ran for them.
The monsters down below saw what Randall was aiming for. "Get outside!" The Creeper ordered.
Waternoose had picked up the knife and he knew what he was going to do.
Randall broke through a window with Fungus still on his back. He could feel the smaller one's hands squeezing his lower arms in a death grip. Fungus was so scared, he had his eyes closed. Randall continued climbing to the side of the building.
Fungus felt like he was slipping. "Whoa!" He cried out and opened his eyes.
Randall felt it too and he grabbed him with one hand. "Hold on!"
Fungus readjusted himself. Randall then began to make his way down the building. He knew he would need help in dealing with these thugs. He began to run the moment he hit the ground. Fungus stayed on him.
Randall got them a good distance from the old factory, then stopped so that Fungus could climb off. He had a feeling the human kids wouldn't be harmed at the moment. With him and Fungus not working on the machine, it would buy the kids some time.
"What are we going to do, Randall?" Fungus asked.
"I know some friends who could help. But I have to get back to the human world to get them. I can't take them down myself." Randall said.
"Friends from the human world? Do you know how dangerous that is?" Fungus questioned.
"These friends aren't human, Fungus. They helped me multiple times while I was over there. They helped me find myself - the real me - again." Randall said. "We also have to get those kids out of there and back to their homes."
"What about Wazowski and Sullivan?"
"We might have to get them involved too. But they would never believe that I've changed. They would take me down on sight. Well, Sullivan would. He already did once before." Randall said. "Fungus, you have to go get them, and I'll get my friends."