(Wow, I am shocked at the amount of reviews I got last chapter. Although oddly I got ten and only seven showed up. Weird... Anyway, this chapter is a lot longer-as I said, these chapters are longer than the prologue's, which is what will cause the updates to be further in between. It was originally longer, but I cut some things out.

I know I had a lot more of an author's note planned, but it's nearly 5:am (oh btw, more of my updates are in the wee hours of the morning), and I can't remember what they are.

This chapter features a new, important character that's going to be one of the mains. Enjoy~! Feel free to point any mechanical errors I might have made. It's five remember.

And follow this fic's tumblr at thescalypurplemonster~!)

Sulley was exhausted when he woke up. His morning regiments to prepare for work didn't hold the happy perk they usually did. Rather than extensive training with Mike shouting in his ear until he was deaf, they both did separate training, or tested things on each other normally. Different jokes, different faces, different physical stunts that resulted in injuries for the sake of hilarity.

Today Sulley just wanted to get to work, get the day over with, and get home and relax. He had one harrowing night.

It wasn't enough that he spent most of it trying to contemplate on what the right answer was on Randall, oh no. He just had to have a string of nightmares to top it off, and wake up later than he was supposed to, which caused him to rush to get Boo.

He had made his decision on what to do with the malicious lizard, and it came to him the moment he woke up from a nightmare.

It was dark in Monstropolis as he and Mike opened the factory doors. Boo was at their side in a nightgown, with a confused and frightened expression on her face, that made Sulley's heart break the more he remembered it.

They dragged a desperately screaming and cursing, leather bag towards another door, and didn't even bother to open it as they suspended it in the air. Randall could be heard reduced to pleading, and in some instances, it sounded like he was crying as well, as they hurled him into this other door.

When the door slammed shut Randall was alone in the darkness. There seemed to be glaring eyes leering all around him—humans or animals—he didn't know, but Sulley had watched as the frightened lizard bolted and the sinister shapes followed him. Probably for the sake of the dream's convenience, Randall wasn't able to use his cloaking ability. And Sulley watched as the creatures caught him and started relentlessly abusing him, tearing at him, kicking at him as the shaking lizard curled up pathetically and prayed for respite.

It had taken hours to get back to sleep after that, which is probably why he was so late getting Boo home. Too late in fact. When he got back he could already hear her parents' frantic murmurs through the wall that she wasn't in her room, and when she toddled out to them, exasperated sighs and promises to put a gate on her doorway at night.

He knew he needed to be more careful. Visiting her at night was already breaking a rule. Letting her come to Monstropolis every night broke even more rules, but Sulley didn't care. He was careful with Boo, as he knew other monsters were with their children. During the day (or at least after 12, when Roz went to lunch, and 4, when she went home) work was just about making the kids laugh, and then moving on to another door. Things tended to be much different when an agent of the CDA wasn't watching them.

Monsters spent a longer time with their children, and many had formed bonds with them. Sulley had no idea if anymore children had been in their world, but he wouldn't be surprised with how close the monsters were to the children. Physical contact was forbidden, but Sulley knew many of the monsters ignored that rule when Roz wasn't around. He had a few monsters come to him and gush about how they couldn't describe the feeling when a child had hugged them.

Really it wasn't really professional to be ignoring so many rules, but hey, as long as they were enforced when they were supposed to be. What was the harm?

"You're looking a bit terrible, Pal. Boo keep you up all night with her snoring or something?" Mike snickered as they drove down do the factory. With the energy crisis solved Mike was free to drive everywhere.

"She's three, Mike. She doesn't snore. There was just...some bad dreams." He hesitated, rather having Mike think he was up all night soothing a toddler's nightmares than his own—about his enemy, no less.

"Alright, that makes sense. No doubt it was about that scaly creep I'd imagine. I told you seeing him again had some effects on her. So we gonna throw him in another door, or the shredder? If it was up to me, I'd choose the shredder!" The green monster rubbed his hands together gleefully.

"No," Sulley said firmly as he unlocked the factory doors and punched in his numbers. "I'm not sending him anywhere."

"WHAT?" Mike stopped the spotted monster there in his tracks, holding his hands out dramatically in front of him. "What—tell me you're joking. Please just tell me you're joking. Tell me you aren't stupid enough to actually keep that dangerous criminal in our city!"

"I'm giving him a chance," Sulley muttered. "One chance. I'm doing it for Boo. I don't know why, but I don't think she wants him banished." He held up his hand before Mike could blow up on him. "And I know she's just three, but I also know her." He rubbed the back of his head. "Kids can sense things—young kids can. Things adults can't see. And I think she sees something in him."

Mike's ranting died on his tongue as he instead gave his friend an impressed look. "Gee Sull', when did you become such an expert on children?"

The spotted monster gave an embarrassed shrug. "Child psychology book. I nabbed it from her room one night after she had a nightmare." He shrugged. "They only taught us so much about kids in Monster's University—uh, the little time we spent there. Besides, you've known Randall forever, and you said he used to be a good guy."

"Oh, he was," Mike agreed, thinking back to a nerdy, friendly lizard that baked things every day and hugged you if you had a bad day, never knowing the concept of personal space. "He really was." He shook away the sting at the remembrance. "But that was a long time ago, Sull'. I don't think he'll ever be that way again."

"Well, we'll have to see," Sulley shrugged as he prepared to call a meeting in the factory's old lecture theater.

"So what? We're just gonna let him run around free in the city?"

"Of course not."

Randall winced as he was roughly untied, unchained, and a blinking piece of metal was snapped onto one of his feet. "What the heck is this, some state-of-the-art foot cuff?"

"It's called a tracker, Lizard Boy," Mike sneered. "Sulley borrowed it from the CDA. It'll monitor each and every movement you make, so you can't try any funny business."

"Odd," Randall said dryly. "I thought that was what this whole company was about now—funny business."

"As if we're letting you near the children," Sulley snapped. "Mike and I have made sure you'll be far away from them where you're working. And especially far away from Boo."

Randall rolled his eyes. "I already told you-"

"That you're not interested in Boo," Mike finished for him, mimicking his jabbering jaws with his hand. "Yada-yada-yada." He shoved a large broom towards him. "Just get sweeping, you snake."

Randall glared down at the broom in his hand, and back at the two monsters. Surely they didn't expect to reduce him to a title as low as janitor. "You've got to be kidding me."

Sulley and Mike crossed their arms and glared. "It's either this or...we'll show you to the door," Mike snickered. Randall paled, his frills lowering.

Degrading as the job was, at least further up near the main floor, he'd be able to see just what this company had been reduced to, and figure out an answer to get everything back the way it was. "Fine," he hissed. "I'll start sweeping."

He swore, the amount of the trash thrown onto this floor had to be there just to spite him and make his job all the more miserable. There had never been so much dirt and garbage before. Waternoose had always made sure of that, that the floors were clean as a whistle. Any neglectful janitors were always threatened out of a job if they didn't make sure of it.

The lizard growled to himself as he tapped at the metal cuff on his ankle. With this thing on there wasn't much he could do, or many places he could go. He had tested the limits when he curiously took a step just a few inches away from the main doors. The annoying thing had started to blare loudly, until he took a step back.

He was a prisoner in the factory, unable to leave. How would he be able to get home with this stupid thing on? Did he even have a home anymore? It had been a year, what if his apartment had been rented out? ...Or burned?

The lizard growled to himself, the thought of strangling or tossing into the shredder the unfortunate soul that would dare rent his apartment coming into his mind.

He slammed a mop down onto the tile floor and tried to ignore the every-so-often twinges of pain and hunger. The hunger came more than the pain did. He had hardly eaten anything in the past few days other than what the shrimp offered him. And she was three, she didn't know much about proper nutrition and had only given him candy and cupcakes. The healthiest he remembered getting was a piece of cheese and some bread.

His stomach felt like a hollow, withering pit, and he felt dizzy enough from the pain of his wounds to vomit. They also hadn't been treated well, minus the night the shrimp poured Whiskey (he still asked himself how anyone thought her relatives were suited to take care of a toddler) on the cuts.

Randall yelped as something abruptly, deliberately knocked into him, sending him stumbling with the mop. He whirled around angrily to see a larger, yellow and green monster there. The monster sneered at him and tipped his coffee, making it splash onto the tile.

"Oops, you missed a spot."

Randall snarled, his tail flicking in anger as he swallowed the curses and insults he wanted to spit out, and instead just went back to cleaning the floors. No doubt with his restrictions, even if he were to call the monster a nursery insult like stupid, he'd probably get penalized for it somehow.

The hunger was getting to be a bit too much to ignore. He didn't have any money, not a red cent to pay for anything at the cafe (if they'd even feed him anyway). He knew he could just as easily ask Sullivan or Mike for something, but he'd be damned if he did so. He wanted to preserve whatever dignity a scarer-turned-janitor could have.

He cleaned up the coffee stain without a fight and dragged his cleaning supply cart down the hallway, groaning as the delicious scents from the caffe made his mouth water. His stomach growled and whined in yearning, and he tightened his hands on the mop to try and keep himself from diving into the cart of desserts, or devouring his cleaning sponge, which was looking more and more like sponge toffee by the minute.

He watched as a smaller red monster with ridiculous glasses set down a plate of donuts and poured himself a coffee. He could just cloak himself and nab a few donuts. But if security was tracking his movements so extensively, that wasn't an option.

The lizard sighed and was just about to head down the opposite hallway to continue working when the little red monster removed the glasses and he saw who it was. "Fungus?"

Fungus turned to him, his eyes wide in shock. "Randall?" Shock turned to fear, which turned to a brief moment of happiness, and then fear again as his old annoying stutter came back. "S-so it's true? Y-you're back!"

"In the flesh," Randall said dryly, walking over to stand next to the monster. He tried to ignore the cinnamon scent wafting from the freshly baked tidbits.

"I-I thought you were dead!" Fungus blurted.

"Thought or hoped?" Randall retorted sharply. A hurt look came to the little monster's face and he looked away. Randall huffed and cleared his throat, his tone becoming lower and softer. "So—uh, who's the monster you're assisting now?"

"A-a n-newer recruit named Marv," Fungus mumbled out, his stutter starting to lessen. It was easier to talk to Randall when he wasn't barking orders and threatening him. "Although a-assistants get to do a lot now too. I've had a lot of doors of my own." He beamed. "I love my job."

Randall stared at the twerp with utter disgust. They had all gone from terrifying, respective scarers to these goofy clowns, and no one was even bothered by it, by the fact that all this company's work had just gone down the drain. He would have snapped something if the pleading growl of his stomach didn't interrupt him.

Fungus heard it and frowned worriedly. "Oh, uh—a-are you hungry? You look pretty thin." He held out the plate of donuts. "Want some donuts? You can take as many as you like. I-I had a few already."

His stomach roared out a yes before he could. Initially he wanted to snap at the irritating thing, but it was better from Fungus than Sullivan. He snapped up several donuts, and they were gone within the span of three seconds. Fungus scanned his eyes over Randall's many wounds, and there was sympathy on his face.

"You-umm, you-you look really hurt, sir. I have some ointment in my locker if you want it for your cuts."

At this, Randal finally did snap at the little red bean. "I don't need your sympathy, Fungus. Just leave me alone." He stormed away from the monster so he didn't have to see the hurt look on his face.

He dragged the supplies further down the hall, and made his way past the CEO office. He didn't bother to glance through the door, certain it wasn't Waternoose in there. He didn't know who; actually he had a feeling he knew precisely who.

"Randall?"

Crap. Randall's teeth gritted in frustration. That voice wasn't helping his nausea. But it only got worse when he turned his head and saw the big brute coming out of the CEO office. Please no... "Sullivan..."

There was a slight touch of concern in the spotted monster's eyes as he took in the lizard's condition. Really he had been too occupied with his own thoughts to care or even see the monster was hurt at all, but there it was. He blinked when he realized the lizard was staring in horror at the sign on the door, CEO. "Oh yeah, about that. Guess I got promoted."

And on that lovely note, and the combination of his many injuries and malnutrition, Randall found himself slowly sliding down the wall. His vision began to blur, and he could feel strong paws holding him up.

"Whoa—okay, we better get you some help." He could feel the lighter monster becoming deadweight in his arms. "Ugh, we'll get some food into you then and do something for those cuts."

It was strange how willingly Randall accepted food from him. Sulley was sure he'd need to cram it down the monster's throat. Of course, he supposed he could thank that on the fact the reptile was barely lucid at first. And he so wished that were still the case as he treated Randall's wounds and listened to him cry like a baby.

"Ow! Oww! Watch it, you big BRUTE!" Randall snarled all sorts of hateful things to him through loud cries of pain as Sulley lightly dabbed more and more of the cuts with medication. Gods, what was in that bottle, acid?!

"You know Randall, you're really not in the condition to be taking care of yourself. You should have mentioned you were hungry and I would have gotten you some food. It's not like you're under a prison sentence."

Randall snorted bitterly. "I'm a janitor, Sullivan. It may as well be-EE!" He cut off with a squeal of pain as Sulley put a final drop of medicine in the most infected of his wounds.

"Oh yeah," Sulley scoffed, rolling his eyes. "You're being fed and cared for, and you're not in any cell. You must really be suffering."

"Can it, Sullivan," Randall snapped back. He winced as the bigger monster tied up his tail and a few of the injured limbs with bandages, biting off the fabric.

"Look, how about for now you just clean the windows out on the laugh floor. And then—well then I think you should go back to the basement and just lay down. You really don't look so good right now."

Randall would have snapped at his boss in that moment, but he realized it was probably the closest he'd get to seeing what things were like right now, uncomfortable as it would be with everyone staring at him. He nodded, and took his cart, dragging it to the entrance of The Laugh Floor. With a deep breath, he shoved open the doors.

The laughs and eager chatter on the floor stopped the moment he walked in. Somehow even the laughter of the children stopped. All eyes were on him. Randall tried to glare them all down so they'd get back to their own business, but it didn't work. Still a little dizzy from all the events, he looked more drunk than frightening.

"Alright, nothing to see here!" Mike abruptly called out into the vast room, his eye hilariously red from having dumped a bottle of soap into it to make an especially tough young boy laugh. "We're not paying all of you to stare at the convict, get back to work!" They did.

Randall kept his head down as he started scrubbing the windows. Eyes looked over at him now and then, but for the most part, the monsters were listening to Mike's orders and left him alone. He used this time to actually study the new Laugh Floor.

When he escaped he didn't have much of a chance to actually take a look at what this once thriving scare company had been reduced to, but now he could see. Some of the fiercest monsters were there in stupid glasses, juggling bouncy balls, practicing funny faces in the mirror. It was disgusting, really. All these respected scarers had suddenly become the kind of clowns parents would hire for their children's birthday parties.

Randall stiffened when he saw Fungus. He was there beside this new monster—Marv, he assumed. And he was helping to get him a new door. He was just there laughing, and talking with his new partner. He looked so happy. He wasn't even looking at him.

Randall wasn't sure where the anger and sudden pain came from, but it did and he wasn't watching as he started cleaning the windows vigorously, taking his frustration out on the large, long handled sponge mop. And he wasn't paying attention when he heard what sounded like Mike give a panicked shout.

"Randall! Watch out!"

Before the lizard could say anything else, the handle of his sponge mop suddenly slammed into something with a resounding clang. He heard the little green pea give a gasp and everyone dove under things in a panic. Randall snorted and was about to call them out on how ridiculous they were being when the sound suddenly split the air.

It was loud, more so than any scream Randall had ever heard. And it was powerful. Where-as a broken canister before caused the lights to flicker, this time they literally exploded into shards. Some glowing lights on activated doors did as well. Randall yelped as glass shards flew down from the bulbs, and from the windows.

Several more canisters opened, and soon it sounded like there were fifty different children laughing thunderously in the entire room. The power instantly went off in the factory, the only light trickling in being the sun outside.

Sulley finally threw open the doors to the Laugh Floor, and was met with the sight of his employees staring fearfully up from where they were hiding behind objects, and a certain lizard with a cat-ate-the-canary expression glancing back from the canister to the new CEO.

"Well congratulations, Sull. All in all, between Randall fainting in the hallway, scaring the life out of the employees, and pretty much completely destroying the factory, I'd say today's been pretty successful, haven't you?"

"Can it, Mike," Sulley groaned. He flicked on the switch that led to the company emergency generator. "It could have gone worse."

"Yeah, I suppose so," Mike deadpanned. "He could have accidentally blown everyone up with dynamite. We got pretty lucky, eh?" He watched as his friend sliced a card through the reader, and a creamy blue and white door descended. He gaped in horror. "What are you doing? I thought you were getting Boo!"

"I overheard her mother saying she was taking her to her grandmother's tonight. This door is for Randall."

"WHAT?"

"You saw what he did, Mike! He's obviously not cut out to be a janitor!"

"And so your answer is to put him with the kids?"

Sulley sighed as he leaned against the machine, watching the entrance for Randall. "Of course not—not yet. The other monsters aren't used to him back and he is not ready to get back to being near children every day." He shrugged as he looked at the door. "I figure he could practice, when it's late and no one but us are around. That way we can keep an eye on him too in case he-"

"Blows the kid up?" Mike offered.

They looked up when Randall's exhausted, serpentine form limped painfully into the room. "What am I here for, President Sullivan?" he snipped out in exhaustion. "I'm tired, and I want to go to bed. Or—to the pile of wood shavings in the basement I mean."

All of his sour mood went away when he saw the door. And without thinking, he blurted, "A door past hours? Isn't that against the rules?"

"Oh right!" Mike laughed sardonically. "Because you're Mr. Protocol, the monster that snuck a door past hours, and kidnapped a child. I'm pretty sure that's against the rules, Lizard Boy. Just be glad we're giving you a chance at all."

The reptile scowled angrily. "Oh I see, you're trying to make me your newest recruit of clowns? I'm a scarer, Sullivan. I have no interest in being a comedian."

The other monsters glared. "Either take it or leave it," Sulley snapped. "It's either this or nothing."

Letting that sink in, Randall glanced from one monster, to the other. And then back to the door. Finally, angrily shoving both monsters aside, he stepped in.

It was dimly lit by a spinning lamp in the corner of the room that projected glowing stars on the ceiling. And it seemed to be a typical child's bedroom with multicolored walls. One was pink, and the other was sky blue. There were photos scattered literally everywhere on the walls. Some of animals, of nature, and what looked to be a girl and her family. They all had captions under them. The handwriting looked to be done by someone no older than eight or nine.

Randall froze when he heard a gasp.

He spun around to see the child awake and sitting up. She had bangs similar to Boo's, only blonde, and jade green eyes. Her hair was as straight as a bed sheet, hanging down to her rear, which was covered by a large, baggy white night shirt.

Randall stood there for a moment. He had no idea what to do now, because this wasn't the way things went. The routine was sneak in, make them nervous with a few subtle gestures like the ruffling of the curtains, and then frighten them.

But here, what was he was supposed to do? He didn't know how to be funny! He didn't get a degree on how to be a comedian! She sat there, staring at him in awe and not making a sound. Neither did he.

Finally he cleared his throat and barely croaked out, "Uhhh...what kind of monster wants to Disco? The boogieman!"

You could almost hear the proverbial crickets chirping in response. That joke had made him want to cry, and the child merely stared at him blankly. Then she took out her camera and snapped a picture. He yelped as the flash blinded him and rubbed his eyes, glaring at her. She stared back.

He could feel himself sweating, cursing over the fact he was becoming panicked. "How do you get to a monster's house? Walk down the street and turn fright at the dead end! What's a monster's favorite type of bean! A human bean! Get it?"

End me. End me now.

Finally, the girl snorted and crossed her arms. "Wow, comedy gold. Maybe you should stop before you hurt yourself."

"What?" Randall hissed.

"Are you real-deaf as well as comedy deaf?" the brat snarked, "The only thing funny about you is your face!" She grinned, freckles showing. "Hey, that's a good name for you actually. Funny Face. I mean you're not funny, but you really are funny looking. I bet you could make a career off how freakish your face looks."

The only thing stopping him from strangling the impertinent brat was the threat of banishment if he did. "Why you little..." They both froze as a light turned on in the hallway.

"Emma!" an angry female voice called. "I saw that flash and I know it's not lighting! Were you taking photos of your room again? Get to sleep!"

Randall gasped and stumbled backwards over a soccer ball, tripping and falling hard on his back. He glared when the brat did laugh at that, but there was no time to insult her or say anything as he hurriedly made his way to the closet door and resisted all he could to keep from slamming it in anger.

Outside, Sulley and Mike watched as the red meter went up by a quarter. They shrugged to themselves and sighed.

"Well Pal," Mike said," It looks like you and I have quite a project on our hands."