Carlos left his group of scientist as soon as he had heard what had happened after the weather. He ran to the radio station, that was only a couple blocks away but he got there too late, when Carlos got there the door to Cecil's booth was locked, it took him five minutes of banging on the door and yelling the radio host's voice to have the door finally open. The first thing Carlos noticed upon the door opening was the fact that Cecil wasn't in the room, "what happened to him?" Carlos asked worried.
"Mr. Palmer has been taken to, how can I put this, taught a lesson," Lauren Mallard said smiling.
"So you're going to reeducate him?" Carlos said as he shifted his weight back and forth between his two legs.
"You could say that," spoke the man who looked very similar to Cecil sitting in his desk chair. "The only difference is that this will be more thorough. He will be more placid, much easier to control"
"You can't," Carlos stammered as he processed what the man was saying.
"Oh but Carlos," Lauren said placing her hand on his shoulder.
Carlos was too stunned to do anything.
"You wouldn't want us to do anything else to Cecil would you?" Lauren said smiling.
"I- no- please don't hurt him," Carlos said quietly.
"We won't if you just turn around and go back to your scientist over at the house that doesn't exist," the man smiled.
Carlos was scared so he just turned and walked quietly out of the radio station. Once he bled a little on mat to open the door he started to run. Carlos ran back to his team of scientist.
"Carlos what happened?" Rochelle asked worried.
"Strex Corp has Cecil and they are going to reeducate him," Carlos explained as he struggled to catch his breath.
"Well that shouldn't be too bad, he's been reeducated a bunch of times before," Michael shrugged before he returned to taking readings of the house that isn't really there.
"But never like this," Carlos pleaded. "I'm scared that he won't be himself when he comes back."
"What did they say they were going to do?" Rochelle asked.
"They said that they were going to make him more complacent, easier to control," Carlos was running a hand threw his hair in distress.
"We need to get him," their intern Sammie said.
"Strex Corp would kill us," Dave said in a patronizing manner.
"So, I've lived in Night Vale my whole life and Cecil is much more important than any of us. Cecil gives a voice to the underdogs of this town. Without Cecil in his right mind the town will fall to pieces and Strex Corp will finally gain the upper hand," Sammie said forcefully.
"Um," Dave stuttered and no one else was able to utter a word. Sammie was usually a quiet, passive, and intelligent girl who barley ever spoke loud enough for anyone to hear her properly.
Angie finally spoke up, "Do you have any ideas on how to get him or where they are keeping him?"
"Well my little brother was with Tamika Flynn's group so I have a couple ideas," Sammie shrugged.
"Are you really going to do this?" Carlos asked in wonder.
"Yes, of course."
"Why?"
"Because I care about Cecil and this town."
"And you two are cute," Angie added.
"Well of course that too," Sammie said rolling her eyes.
"We're going to die but I can't have you two rescue my boyfriend without my help," Carlos said with a grim smile.
"If you're helping then I will too," Michael said.
"I'm so in," Rochelle said with a smile.
Everyone collectively glared at Dave, "Well I guess I can't let you all kill yourselves on your own."
About an hour later they found themselves outside of one of the old mining shafts with the words, "This is not an entrance to the reeducation center," over the gate.
"I don't think this is it," Dave said as he turned around to leave.
Carlos grabbed the collar to Dave's shirt and dragged him back to the entrance, "Come on."
"But it says," Dave tried to argue.
"I know what it says," Carlos said as he reached over and opened the gate. "Come on."
The six of them walked into the old mine shaft for a good half an hour before anyone spoke. "Carlos how much further?"
"How should I know?" Carlos asked and whole group lapsed into silence again.
It felt like an hour passed before the makeup of the cave changed. The walls slowly changed to slick white with the occasional poster that said things like, 'Turn back now. Please turn around? Like now? No, fine, have it your way…" As you can see the makers of the posters had slowly stopped caring. Soon they started to see Strex Corp employees, Rochelle pulled them over to the side of the hallway so that they were hidden behind a pile of boxes. "Okay guys how are we not going to be caught?"
"Well we could try to act naturally," Michael suggested.
"Like how?" Dave asked.
"Well we could pretend like we were studying the effects of reeducation above ground verses underground," Sammie suggested.
"But they know how much I care about Cecil, they will catch us," Carlos said concerned.
"Well... we could change your appearance…" Sammie suggested.
"Dude can I cut his hair?" Rochelle asked as her face looked up.
"No," Carlos said forcefully as he placed a hand over his hair.
"Carlos, your hair is a mane everyone recognizes you by it if we cut your hair they won't bother you," Michael said sympathetically.
"Cecil will kill me."
"So is that a yes?"
"Fine," Cecil groaned. "Make it look good at the least."
"I'll do my best," Rochelle said as she started cutting away at his hair.
When she was done Carlos had a type of short Mohawk, "How is this any better?" he asked as he looked at himself in the reflection of his phone.
Dave took off his hat and shoved it onto Carlos's head. "Now give me your glasses."
"I hate you all," Carlos said before handing his glasses over.
"You'll thank us latter," Michael said as they started to walk back down the hallway.
"Not about the hair cut," Carlos muttered as they approached something that looked like a main desk.
Rochelle walked up to the desk which was covered in peeling yellow posters. "Hello, we are a few scientists from in town and we would like to study the effects of reeducation underground verses above ground. Nothing will be released to the public of course but please could we watch a reeducation process and maybe ask the person before and after questions."
The woman behind the desk took a few seconds to realize what Rochelle was talking about before she smiled and said, "Oh yes we are just preparing a person now. Come with me, I'll show you all there." She got up from behind the yellow desk and showed the six of the m to a cinderblock room in which Cecil was sitting on the cement floor. "We'll be back in five minutes to collect him," the woman smiled once more before leaving them there.
"Hey Cecil," Carlos said as he took off the hat he was wearing.
Cecil ran to the cell wall, "What happened to your hair?"
"Guilty," Rochelle said with no shame in her voice.
"I hate you," Cecil sneered.
Carlos laughed, "Glad to know that you're okay."
"What are you all doing here?" Cecil asked confused.
"We're getting you out of here," Sammie said as she started to pick the lock.
"Sammie!" Cecil said brightly. "How is your family?"
"We're okay," she smiled as the door swung open.
Just as Cecil stepped out of the cell an alarm went off. "Now what?" Cecil asked.
"We run?" Dave suggested.
"That is a brilliant plan," Cecil said and they set off running through the cave and out into the fresh air. An hour later they were barricaded into the scientist lab. Carlos was bandaging up Cecil's cuts when Cecil asked, "Now what?"
"We need to get people together to free the kids," Sammie said as she paced the lab.
"Like who?" Rochelle asked as she microwaved a bag of popcorn.
"Well the girl and boy scouts are still resisting Strex Corp," Angie suggested.
"Okay but how will we get everyone together?" Michael asked as he also paced the lab.
"Radio...?" Dave suggested.
"Cecil would you be up for doing radio for it?" Carlos asked his boyfriend cautiously.
"Of course I am," Cecil smiled. "When do I start?"
A/N: so this became therapy after the events of Parade Day because holy shit that was uncalled for… but yeah I hope this helped anyone else deal with the events of that episode…