Alas, the ominous Chapter 3. This is where things start to happen; Randy joins the RΩRs, Mike discovers Randy's secret - or does he? - and has to cope with sorrow while still competing in the games. To keep from straying from the storyline, this chapter only showcases the aftermath of the "Scare Games Signups scene", and the "Humiliation of the OKs scene". I meant for it to be assumed that everything else happening around these scenes occurs - give or take a few minor details - pretty much as it does in "Monsters University".
It was as if Mike's body was set on auto drive. He certainly was not consciously orchestrating the fevered pattering of his feet along the campus grounds. Oh no, he was too busy fuming inside to waste his precious mental energy on that.
Just when things had finally been starting to look up again! He'd just suffered the epic, unfair failure to end all epic, unfair failures; he'd been reduced from a Scaring major to a boring student in the most boring course known to monstrosity, that being Scream Can Design; and while enduring that course he had to put up with not just that jerk Sullivan's constant presence, but his constant glares in his direction. As if he was the one who'd made all this happen. Ah, but then he'd been reminded upon finding his calendar of the upcoming Scare Games. So there was a light at the end of this tunnel, after all.
Everything seemed to be going right again - he proposed his idea of entering the Scare Games to the brothers of Oozma Kappa, and they were more than eager to accept. Granted, they did not immediately look like the material champion scarers were made out of, but Mike was confident enough in his own knowledge and skill that he could get them all through. Besides, Randy would be there to help as well… wouldn't he?
Alas, that was where things had resumed going wrong. Mike had brought OK to the signups, proudly announced that they would be the winners of this year's Scare Games, and even made a deal with the dean that the entire team would be let back into the Scare program if they won. He had intended all along for Randy to be part of the team as well, but in the excitement stirred by the novelty of the idea he'd forgotten to even bring the subject up with his roommate. Perhaps then, it should not have rocked his core quite so much when Randy had - unnervingly casually - stated that he'd already joined the RΩRs. Except, how could he do this to him? They were roommates, they were best friends, they were partners! Even if nothing had been officiated between them, Mike had long ago admitted to himself that he loved Randy. He never even cognitively asked for the return of that, but he could have sworn at least that Randy valued the friendship they shared.
Just watching Randy reveal the RΩR fraternity jacket which now adorned his figure made Mike feel as though the ground had decided he required a lesson in levitation, but those last words he'd uttered to him before joining his - ugh, his brothers - at their sides…
"I'm finally in with the cool kids, Mike. Don't blow this for me!"
In hindsight, why shouldn't he? It wasn't as if those words had not made his heart explode in despairing shock anyway. It had been all Mike could do at the time to focus on, after being informed that his team was still one member too short, trying to acquire one more teammate. The fact that the only taker turned out to be Sullivan - all too obviously just because of the promise Hardscrabble had made should they prove victorious - was a coat of fresh cherries over an already excessively iced cake.
Well, Mike had had little choice but to accept Sullivan's "offer", but now that the registration for the games was closed, and that matter finalized, he had other issues plaguing his mind which absolutely had to be seen to without delay. Namely, what the heck had happened to Randy? How could he join a fraternity which Mike was all but sworn enemies with? How did he even manage to get their attention - yes. Yes, how exactly did that happen? Obviously the RΩRs needed a new member after shedding Sullivan, but how did Randy of all monsters so easily acquire the position? Roar Omega Roar was the top fraternity of Monsters University. It wasn't as if they'd be short of guys wanting in once there was an open slot. Plus, hadn't Sullivan told him at the beginning of the year that they only accepted the highly elite? Why then, did they take in a monster who was not only not "highly elite", but also the roommate and renowned best friend of a monster who'd been in a moderately unspoken feud with them since Day 1? No matter how you looked at it, it just didn't add up.
Mike's incessant pattering soon carried him into the proximity of Troll Bridge, whereupon his eye hastened to inform him that circumstances had not yet topped the scale which measured how much worse his life could get. Though they were silhouetted by the waning light of the early evening, at the edge of the bank just yards down from where he was now stopped, there was no mistaking the slender reptilian body which right now was laced via arms with that of a larger monster, nor was there any misconstruing the reason the two figures leaned so close towards each other…
"Randy?" Mike gasped, freezing still as the image burned into his mind.
It was clear from the way the lizard jumped out of the other monster's embrace, turning around and exclaiming, "Mike!" all the while, that he was panic-stricken. This may also serve to explain why he suddenly shoved the other monster back into the water, quickly muffling out his surprised protests.
"GAH!" Mike exclaimed, hands raised to the top of his head so to speak, though not in distress for the now water-bound monster. What he just witnessed before that - he'd never be able to expunge that from his brain.
Randy immediately faded from view, forgetting that he still had his fraternity jacket on. As soon as Mike registered the jacket scampering along the edge of the riverbank, his mind unlocked and, snarling, he proceeded to chase after the other monster. When he'd closed the distance between them enough, in one fell leap, Mike pounced onto the otherwise invisible back of the lizard, grabbing him by the lower arms and proceeding to drag him with unexpected vigour into the river.
"Mike! Mike, let go of me!" Randy snapped, struggling to break out of the cyclops' grasp.
"Oh no you don't - you're not getting away that easy!" Mike replied angrily. Now gripping the collar of Randy's jacket with one hand, Mike proceeded to swim hither and tither in the water, searching for the other culprit.
"Mike - blagh - Mike -gah - STOP IT! You're gonna drown me!"
"Really, Randy? The way things are going I couldn't be that lucky!" Mike yelled back, continuing his wild goose chase. It was not long, however, before Mike's high of fury wore down, assisted by his captive's relentless struggling, and with the other monster nowhere in sight, he finally gave up and returned to the riverbank.
Coughing, Randy reappeared and glared at Mike, yelling, "Dammit, Mike! I could've drowned!"
"Funny, it didn't look like you were worried for that other guy!" Mike retorted with matching anger.
"I had no choice, Mike!" Randy replied, "I - listen, whatever you think you saw, you've got it all wrong!"
"Have I?" Mike asked slyly, approaching Randy. "Then how do you explain all that lip action, huh? Is that how the RΩRs' initiation goes? A hot makeout session and then you shove them into the water? So where are the others, huh?" Mike pretended to shade his vision with his hand and search up and down for the rest of the RΩR population. "Or did they already get their taste of lizard breath and complimentary baths?"
"Mike, just let me explain," Randy stressed, trying to get the green ball to listen.
Mike, staring at the ground, had tuned out everything except the puzzle now fully pieced in his mind. "It all makes sense now," he muttered, scowling. "He's the reason you're in the RΩRs, isn't he?"
"Mike -"
"Which one is he?" Mike asked, standing up straight and turning back to Randy.
"If you'd just listen, I could - what?"
"Which. One. Is. He."
Randy blinked for a moment. Mike didn't know? He hadn't been able to distinguish the monster's identity before Randy had pushed him into the river? Well, couldn't he guess which monster was most likely behind his recruitment into the fraternity? Wait… if he couldn't, then… then that worked out just fine!
"I tell you what," Randy said, taking smug comfort in this realization, "you go and think this over. Take all the time you need. When you think you know which one, come back and we'll discuss it. Right here."
Possessed with a sudden desire to shake that smug grin off the lizard's face, Mike snatched him by his jacket again, yelling, "Don't mess with me, Randy Boggs! Tell me which one he was!"
"Which one who was?" Randy inquired innocently, jerking his apparel from Mike's hands and straightening it out again.
"Oh, have you forgotten him already? Well here, maybe this will jog your memory!" Mike attempted to drag Randy into the river once more, but this time the lizard was not having that. Judged by the physical turn of their confrontation then and there, one might think it had evaded both their minds that a fair chance still stood that they'd be caught by onlookers.
It did not take much for Randy to overpower Mike, once he stopped caring about the consequences his opponent would have to endure. In fact, just a slight twist of the wrist - not enough to break it but enough to incite pain - was all it took to make the smaller monster yelp and yank himself away, nursing the discomforted appendage with his other hand.
"Let that be a lesson to you, Wazowski," Randy declared, exacting bitter emphasis on the use of Mike's last name. This in itself seemed to antagonize Mike further. Growling, he made to charge at his ex-roommate again, but was startled in that moment by a timid, questioning voice calling him by name from mere inches behind. Turning around he came face to face with two of the brothers of Oozma Kappa; the one who'd gotten his attention a certain Scott "Squishy" Squibbles, the other known simply as "Art".
"Mike," Squishy repeated nervously, understandably apprehensive about speaking to the green monster when his temper had clearly short-circuited, "Y-you'd better get going. We're uh, we're all waiting for you back at the house."
Hands clenched, Mike's frown prevailed, but only for seconds longer, before his boiling emotions sizzled down. Slumping forward a bit, Mike nodded, and began to walk up the slope of the bank, before turning and saying to Randy, a finger pointing fiercely towards him, "You can't hide the truth from me forever, Randy! I'll find out which one of them you cozied up with sooner or later!" Turning back he continued up the slope, face in his hands, muttering, "This is all so humane! SO humane!"*
Squishy and Art began to follow Mike, but then Squishy paused, and turned back to Randy. "Uh, listen… You won't say anything to the dean or - or anything like that, will you?"
"Yeah," Art contended, "She would not be too happy about this."
For a moment, Randy considered. The idea was attractive, by all means. If Hardscrabble, or even if Claire Wheeler and Brock Pearson knew that Mike, of one Scare Games team, had instigated a fight with Randy, of another team, it most likely would result in Oozma Kappa's disqualification. A fitting punishment for the way Mike had just treated him, right? But then again… Randy looked the two OKs up and down. Bah, from the looks of them, they wouldn't last long in the games anyway - they'd probably be out by the first round. Why go to that trouble when the team was already doomed to do themselves in?
Scoffing, Randy assured them that neither the dean nor any authorities affiliated with the Scare Games would hear of this from him. They both eagerly expressed their gratitude and went on their way. What Randy hadn't told them, however… well, he would need to assauge Johnny after his rather rash effort to protect him, after all…
/
Admittedly, Randy's betrayal had gradually degressed in Mike's mind once things had gotten going with the Scare Games. From initiation into OK to making an admirable effort to be civil to Sullivan - or at least not gather up all the fur he shedded each night and stuff it in his mouth while he slept - to barely making it past the first round (and even then, only by the sheer fluke of Jaws Theta Chi being caught cheating), to narrowly succeeding in the second round, he'd had his mind full 24/7. In fact, getting his mind refocused on the goal of proving himself as a scarer did wonders for Mike. He became his normal, bright-natured self again. When the girls of Python Nu Kappa invited them to the mid-games mixer the RΩRs were holding, insisting that OK was "one of them now", he'd felt like he was on Cloud 9.
When Mike and his brothers arrived at the party, the thought of running into Randy didn't even occur to the green ball. Actually, while the others partied hardy, he ventured into the corridor where the portraits of high-achieving former RΩRs were kept, his gaze finally landing in wonder on the Scare Games trophy. He smiled at his warped reflection in the metal cup. Now that his team was starting to work as a team, it began to seem more and more likely that that cup would soon make the transition to the house of Oozma Kappa.
He'd been called back by the RΩR president's voice making a special announcement to the party-goers. Seeing the brothers of the hosting frat all together, calling the OKs up front for a special congratulations, it then struck him that, odd as it was, Randy was nowhere to be seen. As thoughts of the lizard finally rose in his mind, Mike was filled with a sense of foreboding. Unfortunately, his particular sense of foreboding may have distracted him from the one he should have felt right about then.
Within seconds, Mike and the others were doused in various colours of paint, confetti, and flowers, to the sound of laughter from virtually everyone else present. Awful it was, to be sure, but that wasn't to be the end of it. As soon as Johnny called, "Release the stuffed animals!", Mike had instinctively moved his gaze to where Johnny had directed his words. To his already whetted horror and dismay, none other than Randy materialized into view, triggering a rope and unleashing a horde of stuffed animals all around the OKs.
The humiliating scene was then immortalized with the aid of a camera, but Mike was not concerned with that for now. Even as cluttered as he was, he stormed right over to the lizard, demanding without regards to whomever might pay attention, "How could you do this, Randy? How could you partake in this?"
Casually, even coldly, Randy replied, "It's this little thing called being in the fraternity. We're in all our pranks together." Inconspicuously he leaned in and whispered, "Plus, it was the least I could do to repay you for that day at the bridge!"*
Whispering back, Mike hissed, "You know it could all have been avoided if you'd just tell me which one of these guys -"
"Mm-mmm," Randy shook his head, both pairs of arms crossed. "My lips are sealed."
"So where was this loyalty back when we were friends?" Mike demanded, emotion beginning to flood his voice. Not leaving room for an answer, he then said, "Alright, fine. If that's the way you want it, fine! Incidentally, Randy, your complexion's looking a little musty tonight. Maybe a slosh of PAINT will touch it up!"
A collective "Ooohhh," sounded from the crowd as Mike attempted to smear the paint coating his own body all over Randy, the lizard recoiling in alarm. Before he could reach him, however, he was grabbed by Johnny on one arm and Javier on the other, their grips gingerly but strong.
"Alright, take it easy, Killer," Johnny spoke with amusement, "I think it's plain to see you've all had a little too much fun tonight. Why don't you go on home and sleep it off, hmm?"
There were so many retorts Mike wanted to make, but he found himself silenced by the pained and confused expressions on his teammates' faces, and so, without a glance back or a word to anyone, he exited the RΩR fraternity's house with the rest of the OKs. The only words spoken the entire trip back to their residence were uttered by Sulley, under his breath.
"I knew this party was a bad idea."
/
Back at the Oozma Kappa fraternity house (a.k.a. the Squibbles' residence), Mike was left alone in the bathroom to wash up, being one of the last of the frat members to do so. His mind was a swirl of plaguing thoughts and predicaments. Not only had the Roar Omega Roar fraternity succeeded in publicly humiliating the Oozmas, but Randy, his former roommate, his former best friend and secret crush, had delivered the finishing blow. He had actually acted against Mike, without even the slightest hint of remorse.
After much scrubbing, lathering, rinsing, and so forth the last of the paint and flowers finally washed off of him. He turned off the shower and stepped out, grabbing a towel and drying off, then wrapping it around the closest thing he had to a waistline. On the outside, you'd never tell that Mike Wazowski had been drenched in magenta paint, and spruced up with flowers and confetti, prompting the laughter of dozens directed his way, and his inclusion in the classified "most adorable monsters on campus". On the inside, the trickery and betrayal this night served to prove he'd been subjected to on so many levels, had scarred him for life.
"You don't belong on a scare floor!"
"I wish I had your confidence!"
"Your luck will run out, eventually."
"I can tell we're going to be the best of chums!"
"You're not scary."
"Come on, Mike. Let's just move."
"Let's hear it for… the most adorable monsters on campus!"
"I'm finally in with the cool kids, Mike. Don't blow this for me!"
"GRAAAH!" Mike snapped, raising his fists in the air and bringing them down onto the sink counter repeatedly in a feverish effort to banish these stress-provoking recollections from his tortured mind.
"Mike?"
"Gah!" Mike turned around, startled, to see Squishy's good-natured face peering round the door. How the guy managed to sneak up on others without the barest minimal indication, he'd never understand.
"You okay?" Squishy asked, concerned. He'd overheard Mike's fit, naturally.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm OK. We are OK. And no matter what happens, don't you forget it! They may have sabotaged us tonight, but we're not beaten yet. I'm gonna be here for a while, so you go tell the others that, whatever it takes, we're gonna show those RΩRs just who they've decided to mess with! You got that, Squishy?"
"OK!" Squishy chuckled, winking at Mike before closing the door.
Left alone again, Mike turned his gaze to the mirror above the sink. Granted, he could only see the top half of his eye, but with the help of a stool kept under the counter that setback was eliminated.
His spur of the moment pep talk may have reached Squishy, but it hadn't even come close to lifting his own spirits off the ground. At least Squishy had reminded him of the bigger picture he needed invest in. For so long now, he'd managed to put Randy's betrayal of their friendship, or thoughts of the lizard in general out of his mind, with the tensions, suspense, teamwork and eventual thrills of success involved with competing in the Scare Games thus far. But after tonight… no, he had to keep his mind on his team, on the games, on his own goal of getting back into the Scaring Program. If Oozma Kappa still had a long way to go to truly prove themselves to the rest of the campus, he'd be sure to get them there, however long, winding and treacherous the path may be. Randy may have broken his heart, and helped to steal his stash of dignity, but Mike would not even let that crush his spirit, or his team's, no matter how much it hurt deep inside.
"8 I've got to train Oozma Kappa better," he confided to his reflection, inner turmoil spilling out into the open with his words, "even if I'm so delirious I can't tell a Jazz Clown from a Seasonal Creep and Crawl." Frowning at himself, he barked, "Your team is counting on you, Mike! Pull yourself together! WHAT KIND OF MONSTER ARE YOU?" he shouted, echoing Dean Hardscrabble's words of "inspiration". Laughing bitterly, he muttered ironically, "The most adorable one on campus."
Unbeknownst to Mike, his ranting was gradually attracting the attention of the OKs, and a hidden audience of sorts formed outside the bathroom door. Even Sulley was out of bed again, leaning against the wall just to the side of the door and listening.
Inside, Mike continued his bittersweet self-encouragement. "Put on your scariest face; keep your teeth sharp and gleaming, your snarl intimidating. Teach your brothers how to do their best; they need your help - and don't forget your bet with Hardscrabble!" Although Mike's words built positive momentum up to this point, his thoughts turned back to the other issue joined to this one by the hip. "And if the RΩRs have stolen Randy from you," he added, gazing momentarily at the floor in sorrow, before looking back at the mirror with fierce determination, "be scarier than them, Mike Wazowski! You can steal their thunder as payback! Turn your broken heart into terrifying rage, rework your wounded pride as fearlessness, invincibility! Show them what you can do, you have what it takes! Be scary, Mike Wazowski! Scare away the ruins of your broken friendship!"
Mike had barely realized that with each sentence he uttered he was raising his voice more and more, but now, with that climatic line, it was as if he'd spent all his accumulated adrenaline. Leaning over the sink as tears welled up in his eye, he said more quietly, "Scare away the poison in your heart… strong… as a… human's… touch! 8" And with that, he finally broke down and poured out the emotions he'd thus far kept dammed up in the back of his mind.
Though it was only about four or five minutes, it may have easily been as long as an hour before the disheartened green cyclops, after much crying and whispering of the name "Randy" over and over, finally calmed himself down, freshened up, and made to leave the bathroom. Even in his grievous state of mind, it puzzled him once he became aware of the muffled sound of crying on the other side of the door. Inching it open ever so slowly, he stared in bemusement at the sight of the house's entire population gathered outside, displaying various levels of melancholy. Don and Squishy each had their tentacles/hands clasped, staring sadly at the floor, the former muttering, "Poor Mikey." Art was actually bawling, off to the side (true to his introductory words),* as was Terri, whom Terry tried weakly to comfort despite looking the epitome of downheartedness himself. Even Sherri was there, dabbing at her eyes before going over to Mike and hugging him, assuring him that it would be alright, and offering, together with Don, to make him some hot cocoa with extra marshmallows if it'd help him feel better.
Although he was understandably jarred by the fact that everyone had overheard his impassioned words of ventilated stress, Mike couldn't help but be touched by their sympathy and understanding. To his surprise, (though the blue monster quickly dismissed it as a side effect of being awakened from a much-needed sleep after the evening's events) even Sulley, when their gazes met, seemed to bestow a pitying glance on him, before shrugging and walking back into their room, his cool, nonchalant demeanour restored.
AN: Ah, there it is. The "Spaventatores" equivalent to "Vesti la giubba". Granted, in "Pagliacci" Canio sings this aria right after discovering Nedda's infidelity, but I thought it was better to have this scene take place after Oozma Kappa's humiliation, because that incident would prove beyond doubt that Randy was "gone" from Mike.
On the upside, at least Mike's fraternity is there to support him, Sulley included.
Well, we haven't much more to go before this story is finished. Of course, between the events covered in this chapter and the next, things are again supposed to happen more or less as they do in the film - Mike and Sulley making peace and befriending each other, the team's rapid improvement and acing of the Scare Games, all up to the final event… but let's not get ahead of the story, now!
To make up for that halted spoiler, here are the details behind the asterisks I placed throughout the text:
1. After all, it wouldn't make sense for Mike to call the situation "monstrous", would it? With how the monsters regard humans, "humane" seems a more likely word choice.
2. Well, at least this way, Randy's participation in that prank is kind of justified. Maybe.
3. After all, did Art not say he was, "Excited to live with you and laugh with you…and cry with you,"?
I hope everyone's enjoying this fanfic so far; if you've anything to say, I'm all eyes!