Rainbow Factory Human Resources

by Cheshire Kat24

With growing demand for more and brighter colors, Rainbow Brite is working overtime to ensure the world has all the color it needs. However the work is taking a toll on her friends and resources. One day she receives the offer to become the new manager of the Rainbow Factory. Is the answer to her troubles, or a never-ending nightmare?

2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Executive Team

When Rainbow Brite arrived at the Rainbow Factory the following day, she stepped into a nearly empty facility. The bottling room was silent, and in the main production hall the Fire sat still within its gyroscopic setup. The only thing of note was an odd pile of ash on the floor in the center of the room and a strange heaviness in the air. The Umbrella Mans office had been cleaned, with only a few items remaining on the large desk: the tome of Rainbow Philosophy and a handwritten letter.

To Lady Rainbow Brite,

I am sorry that I cannot be there to walk you through your first day as the new Manager of the Rainbow Factory. I have left all the relevant keys to the Factory in my desk drawer, all marked with their purpose. There is also a ledger that outlines the various positions and procedures that staff are required to maintain. You will find a months worth of product within the warehouse, that should be enough to get your team in place and the Factory fully into your capable hands. Deliveries are shipped on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I wish you the best on your venture, and perhaps we shall meet again after YOUR Retirement.

Fondly,

The Umbrella Man

Rainbow set the letter down and looked around the darkened office. She sighed and felt the weight of this new responsibility on her shoulders. She had started from nothing before, and she could certainly do it again. The Rainbow Factory certainly wasn't nothing but it would take more than just herself to run it as well. The biggest boon was that her magic worked here now. And that little fact would make it much easier to get things going.

Twink carefully stepped up into the office behind her. "This place is creepy Rainbow, what are you going to do with it?"

"It always looks scarier in the dark Twink. I need you to go back to Rainbow Land and tell all of the Color Kids to meet me here. I need to discuss this with them," Rainbow pushed open a door at the side of the office to a large meeting room with a heavy long wooden table. The meeting room was dark, heavy curtains covered the windows and blocked out all the light. Rainbow began opening the curtains and letting the sunlight in. Traces of gold tones in the wood began to glow and colored pieces of glass threw light around onto every surface.

"Its so dusty!" Twink covered his nose and mouth.

"Just for now," Rainbow did the same with her sleeve. She opened a few windows. "And you might as well tell them to bring Star Sprinkles and a dozen or so Sprites with them. We need to come up with a plan."

"Okay Rainbow!" Twink ran out of the room, leaving Rainbow Brite alone.

Rainbow Brite crossed her arms and closed her eyes in thought. She thought that she would be nervous or intimidated, but she wasn't. There was nothing here that had bothered her just yet. Even the lack of employees didn't upset her. The Umbrella Man said they had extra product in the warehouse, so the orders could still be filled. The best part about the whole transfer was that she was free to do it her way with no one telling her yes or no. She was determined to be the best Manager the Rainbow Factory ever had.

Within the hour the Color Kids began to make their way through the factory and to the meeting room. Rainbow had been cleaning it a little and was helped along by a few Sprites as they arrived. She had just finished cleaning the chairs when Canary Yellow, predictably, was the first through the door.

"This place is so big Rainbow! Are we going to run all of it?" Canary took a seat near the head of the table, at Rainbows right.

"That's the plan. It just looks intimidating because its unfamiliar," Rainbow set the ledger in the middle of the table and began flipping through it.

Red Butler was the next to arrive, he and his Sprite Romeo were already looking at the ceiling and the lights. "This place is a dump," he almost sneered. "You want us to work in this?"

"Its old, but that doesn't mean its bad," Rainbow said with a smile. "Its just needs some love, maybe a new coat of paint here and there…"

"I was thinking it needs a gallon of gasoline and match. Look at this, knob and tube wiring? Seriously? The whole place is a fire hazard!"

Canary giggled. "So you want to be the one to fix it?"

Red grumbled. "We could just build our own Star Sprinkle foundry in Rainbow Land."

Rainbow offered him a seat at her left. "Just give it a chance. This is an opportunity to spread even more color throughout this world, and maybe even others. If things don't work out in a year we can take another vote and I'll find someone else to run the factory. Okay?"

Red seemed satisfied by this. Even if they agreed on nothing else, the Color Kids enjoyed a challenge. They were color elemental beings in themselves, and each of them were well over a thousand years old. Even if they appeared as child-like beings, that was simply the nature of magic. Innocent until proven otherwise.

Rainbow greeted the other Color Kids as they entered the meeting room. Lala Orange sat next to Red and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. Shy Violet sat next to Canary, and Indigo sat next to Shy Violet. Patty O'Green and Buddy Blue were the next ones to enter. Patty sat next to Lala, and Buddy took a seat at the opposite end of the table. Moonglow was next, and she came in yawning, then sat next to Indigo. Tickled Pink and Stormy were the last two, and they took seats across from each other. The rest of the seats were filled by the Color Kids assistant Sprites, and when they ran out of seats at the table, they pulled in chairs from other places. It was a packed room. The Rainbow Factory Meeting room probably hadn't been this full in a long time.

Rainbow looked over the multicolored faces of her assembled team. "Thanks everybody for coming. This really means a lot to me and I'm happy that everyone has decided to back me on this project. I don't need to tell everyone that we have all been having trouble keeping up with the color demands lately, and this factory is a chance for us to catch up and learn new ways to make our work better. We have been left with a blank slate. I'm not sure who if anyone is still working here, but right now we need to develop some kind of list of responsibilities to get this place running again," she opened the ledger to a page where the Umbrella Man had listed the departments and their role in the function of the Factory. "The Umbrella Man left me a letter saying that there was enough inventory to last us a month, and orders are sent out every Tuesday and Thursday. Today is Monday, so we need to make sure those orders are ready to be shipped. Does anyone want to take on the Shipping area?"

Buddy Blue raised his hand. "What does Shipping do?"

Shy Violet raised her hand. "If I may Rainbow?" Rainbow Brite nodded to give her a chance to talk. Violet then continued. "In industrial settings, the Shipping and Production departments work together to ensure that customer orders are filled. This usually entails the assembly of orders, care-taking of warehouses, maintenance of any machinery, equipment or vehicles, and creation of invoices or bills or lading. Teams of workers-"

"Teams? You had me at teams," Buddy smiled.

Violet cleared her throat and went on. "Teams of workers pull together to ensure that product is successfully delivered to the customers."

Buddy Blue spoke up again. "That sounds like fun! Don't worry about Shipping, me and Champ will make sure those orders go out on time!"

Rainbow Brite nodded. "Thank you Buddy. Its a big help."

Canary pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down, "Buddy Blue, Shipping Manager."

The Color Kids all giggled. This was a new game for them, and it came with actual titles and roles for everyone to play.

Rainbow herself giggled and looked around. "Okay, now that the customer orders are covered, next up we need to get more rainbows made. Shy Violet, since you are the more technically savoy of us, after the meeting, can you go down stairs and look at the process to see what we will need to do to get it back up and running?"

"Gladly Rainbow!"

Patty then chirped from her seat. "And when you do, you will need someone to manage the process and all the people that work there right? I've got the most Sprites that answer to me, so its like a ready made team."

Canary then wrote down, "Patty O'Green, Production Manager, and Shy Violet...Hmmm...IT Manager."

Another round of giggles. Red Butler then rolled his eyes. "I guess I can't let this place fall apart around or on my friends. Put me down for maintenance Canary."

"Red Butler, Facility Maintenance Manager."

Lala Orange looked at Red, and not to be outdone, stood up as well as raised her hand. "We...We are going to need customers right? The Factory has no reason to run without people buying our rainbows."

"Lala Orange, Sales Manager."

Indigo spoke up softly. "And the Factory can't run without workers."

"Indigo, HR Manager," Canary recorded.

Stormy looked around. "I'm not sure what I can do but...I noticed that this place is pretty dusty, and there's an area next to the bottling line downstairs that recycles and sanitizes bottles to put the rainbows in. And if there is anything I'm good with, its dumping a lot of water everywhere!"

The Color Kids giggled, and then Moonglow spoke up with a yawn. "I'm not sure what I would be good at...since I mainly work at night."

Canary studied her for a second. "Moonglow, Night Shift Manager, and Stormy, Sanitation and Housekeeping Manager."

Tickled Pink then giggled. "Well if Moonglow is the Night Shift Manager, then I'll be the Day Shift Manager. After all, we can't put everything on Rainbow. I can answer the little questions or lend a helping hand where I can."

Rainbow Brite smiled and felt pride in her team, everyone fell into place so smoothly and without a fuss. "Thank you everyone for all of your help. I know that if we all work together we will have lots of fun and create beautiful rainbows while we're at it. I'll go ahead and call the meeting here, and let everyone go and get settled into your departments. Let me know if anyone needs any help, work together, no one persons job is more important than anyone elses. We work as a team."

The Color Kids excitedly filed out of the meeting room, discussing what they were going to do in their new playground. Canary looked up from the assignments paper and then said with worry in her voice. "Rainbow, I don't have a job! I didn't volunteer for one! What am I going to do?"

Rainbow laughed a little. "Don't worry. I know the perfect job for you. I know you love teaching people, and helping everyone out. So I think you should be Quality Control."

Canary looked confused. "What does that do?"

"It means you help everyone pull together and make sure the rainbows we make are the best we can do. You also help keep an eye out for every ones safety and that they follow the rules we agree upon to keep everyone safe. Its a very important job I think you would be great at. How about it?"

Canary smiled and wrote down her name on the piece of paper. "Canary Yellow, Quality Control."

---

A sign went up in the Sprite village the following day. Posted on the board usually reserved for community announcements, right there next to anniversary dates, yard and bake sales, was a "Help Wanted" notice for the Rainbow Factory. A crowd of multicolored little fuzzy bodies, young and old gathered around the signboard, each reading about the opportunities for new jobs. Sprite Village was a mining town, and there were quite a few Sprites that were no longer able to work in the mines, and the Color Crystal processing facility in the Color Castle only needed so many bodies to run it. The female Sprites in particular were interested in some of the roles, as it gave them a bit of financial freedom and a way to earn money if their partners had been injured in the mines, after all, how hard was it to monitor bottles going down a line? Or to turn a few knobs on a machine if the colors in a tube were the wrong hue? Colors were their entire existence, it was in their blood.

It took about a week to gather up the job applications and get everyone sorted out to their appropriate managers. Sprites that had lost limbs in the mines were more than happy to learn how to drive a forklift or study up on new technology to find good spots in the Factory. Other Sprites that had never wanted anything to do with the Color Crystal mines still could find good jobs loading trucks or fixing up electrical systems. Sprites from other villages and even far-off farms came to the Color Castle for interviews. The mines were still high-paying work for those that could get into them, but the Rainbow Factory was a place for new opportunities.

The first wave into the Factory were Red Butlers own red Sprites. The went in and began fixing equipment, lighting and installing some basic safety measures as Canary and her team of yellow Sprites came across them. Canary and her Sprite, Spark, were faced with the daunting task of going over the few remaining equipment manuals, procedures, and safety regulations that were stored in numerous three ring binders or bracket-bound flip books. Shy Violet and her team of Sprites dove into the IT work, replacing old systems with new computers, abacus with calculators and so on.

The first month was stressful for everyone involved. In addition to their Rainbow Factory responsibilities, Rainbow Brite and the Color Kids still had their duties in Rainbow Land to tend to. To save on commuting time, Rainbow had a simple guard shack installed on the edge of Rainbow Land. The Sprites and Color Kids could pass through a secure gate that served as a portal to the grounds of the Rainbow Factory. It took some energy to run the portal, but it made things easier in the long run.

Between Violet and Red, they got most of the Factory running and more importantly explained the process to the other Color Kids and their Sprite assistants. Canary documented, and Patty did test runs with her teams until they found the right balance. Her group of green sprites worked the production floor, busy monitoring the Fire's output and adjusting the steam regulators to brighten or dim the colors, or moving pallets of empty or full bottles to and fro. Buddy settled into his role in Shipping almost too well. His blue Sprites ran like a well oiled machine in getting the finished rainbows loaded into trailers or whatever conveyance the customer sent, and also taking in empty bottles to be cleaned, sanitized and recycled for the next batch of rainbows. Stormy didn't have a bunch of sprites to answer to her, but a few of the others volunteered to help her out.

It didn't take long for the first injury to happen. A pallet of freshly washed bottles toppled over and shattered on the floor, cutting one of the Sprites up pretty badly. All eyes went to Canary as to why she didn't predict and prevent this from happening. Canary pointed to a procedure that stated the bottles were only supposed to be stacked but so high, of which the other party stated that they had never seen such a procedure. This resulted in a shouting match on the production floor where some Sprites were trying to clean up the mess (and blood) while others were either trying to lay blame or responsibility. Finally Tickled Pink and Rainbow both got involved and together with Canary a new rule was established. Upon hiring, everyone was to sign a paper saying they had reviewed all of the safety and proper handling rules within the Factory. This paper was dropped into a file with the Sprites name, so disagreements like this wouldn't happen any more. But it didn't stop some of the hard feelings from starting to develop.

Then came the next big dilemma. Some of the Sprites wanted to work in other areas, but it made it hard to tell which Sprites belonged to which areas. Since the Color Kids had color-coded Sprites, it was easy to determine that the red Sprites were maintenance, the blue Sprites were Shipping, the green were Production, and so on. Canary used this as an opportunity to push safety rules in that each department would have color-coded hard hats instead. This made things much easier. Shipping now had blue hats, Maintenance had red hats, and on through the rest of the color chain. Canary saw this as her first compromise and win, and all of the Sprites were now free to work their preferred jobs as long as they had the right hat to tell them apart.

However between the Color Crystal mines and the Factory Production floor, there simply weren't enough Sprites to cover both. Which left Rainbow Brite with the hard decision of how to balance out the distribution of labor between the two locations, Rainbow Land and the Rainbow Factory. Violet and Lala along with Tickled Pink made the suggestion to start looking for workers outside of their own Sprite labor pool, and a meeting was held to see who would best suit the needs of the Factory. Humans were out of the question. There were precious few humans who could be trusted with the knowledge of the Rainbow Factory let alone its inner workings. No, they would have to look toward other fantastic creatures, or elementals such as themselves, preferably those who already had commitment to the human world and would benefit from the success of the Rainbow Factory.

Thus the first "Help Wanted" signs went up in Care-A-Lot, the Isle of Wuz, and Popplopolis. By the end of the first three weeks, Rainbow Brite had established guard shacks/portals to the Rainbow Factory in all three places and thus expanding their labor pool considerably. And by the end of the month, the Factory was humming along producing rainbows from the Fire. Rainbow Brite couldn't help but feel a sense of pride when she looked out over all the multicolored species and peoples in her factory. She had done it again, by taking an old abused and forgotten place and turning it into a vibrant and beautiful environment where everyone worked together.

At the end of the first month, Rainbow called a meeting with all of the Color Kids and newly appointed managers in a few of the other areas that needed help. The middle of the table was loaded with snacks and drinks and everyone was in a relatively good mood. Once everyone was seated, Rainbow called the meeting to order.

"First I would like to thank everyone here for pulling together and making this a reality. The Rainbow Factory was an intimidating place at first, but we filled it with light and joy and made sure that we could get the product out on time and that the rainbows are the best we can do. I want to welcome Scorch Heart to our management team, he is in charge of the bottle recycling facility and has been a great help in creating new bottles for the Factory to store the rainbows in."

Scorch Heart hailed from Care-A-Lot, and as his name suggested, he didn't get along very well with his fellow Care Bears. He was grey in color with a tummy badge that resembled a heart made of embers. His personality was gruff and curt, yet he was reliable and his workers were strangely loyal to him. "I don't do meetings very well, so...Hi everybody. Yeah."

Rainbow smiled sweetly. "Thank you Scorch Heart," she then addressed the rest of the room. "I feel its safe to say that Phase 1 is complete, and now as we move onto Phase 2, I would like everyone's input."

A hand went up.

"Yes Tycoon?"

Tycoon, a recent new hire from the Isle of Wuz, stood up and adjusted his blue vest. "As the newly appointed head of Accounting, I have not heard of any Phase 2, 3, or 4 for that matter."

"My apologies. We are currently working on mission statements for each Phase to keep everyone up to date, but for all of the new faces, Phase 2 is construction of a Color Crystal Preparation Plant, or a CCPP and a Star Sprinkle Foundry, the SSF. With these two things built here in a central location to all of our worlds, it creates a Color Hub that everyone can draw from. We will be able to greatly expand our customer base to the Isle of Wuz, Popplopolis, and beyond. Care-A-Lot is already on the books as a very dedicated customer and they have signed a contract to use Rainbow Factory products exclusively."

Lala raised her hand. "Rainbow are fun and easy enough to sell, but will we sell other products eventually?"

Rainbow nodded to acknowledge her. "That is always a possibility, and probably a task better suited for Phase 3 or 4. Does anyone else have any suggestions or questions?"

Patty stood up and side-glanced Canary. "I'm sure everyone has heard about the accident last week in regards to the breakage and loss of an entire pallet of Jeroboham sized bottles. Yes the glass bottles have a certain sense of class to them, but do you think we should look into aluminum canisters or pressurized tanks? They will be more durable, more easily recyclable, and wont create as many issues if a pallet of them tips over."

A murmur went around the table. Patty O'Green had a point. Violet raised her hand and spoke up. "I can attest to changing from glass bottles to pressurized canisters. Our rainbows are bottled from six to twelve bar, or roughly ninety to two hundred pounds of force per square inch. This means that the rainbows only last about five minutes upon exiting the bottle, regardless of the size of the bottle. But with metal canisters, we can have a wider range of thirteen bar to just over one hundred thirty seven bar, or one hundred ninety five psi to two thousand psi respectively. This in conjunction with smaller nozzles as exit points, we can extend the duration of our rainbows exponentially, or even bypass the mixing process altogether and just can individual colors at a time and sell them as packs. By making the process more modular, custom orders can be filled reliably."

Tycoon spoke up. "This all sounds very fea..fasi...doable."

"Parts of the factory will need to be configured," Red mumbled.

"We already have a color separation system in place, I don't see how it would be too much of a stretch to put in a few more bottling lines," Patty leaned over and looked to Red.

Red leaned in and called out. "That's still seven processing lines in a place that currently only has one. Are we going to keep the same size bottles? Are we going for sheer psi or weight as a selling point? How much does a rainbow weigh Patty?"

"Eleven grams per cubic meter," Violet said automatically.

Canary did some numbers in her head. "Good heavens that actually really heavy depending on how big the rainbow is…"

"Nah, rainbows are pretty light…." Buddy commented.

Everyone began to laugh.

Rainbow Brite laughed and called her Managers to order. "We can hold a brainstorming session later when we begin planning. Both Patty and Violet brought up a very good suggestion, and I would like to do more research before full implementation of the process. Tycoon, can you give me an estimate on the additional costs of running more lines? Aside from the installation and labor, there are the energy costs, and upkeep costs to keep in mind when installing a new system. If it is to be done, it will probably take place as part of the construction of the CCPP and SSF. So for the time being, please continue working together. I'm so very proud of all of you," she smiled at everyone. "Unless there is anything else, the meeting is over. Lets keep bringing color to the world!"

The Color Kids grabbed their share of snacks from the table and went back to work. Canary Yellow hung back for a moment. "You know Rainbow, we might not need to install seven different lines...we could just have three and each one works with sympathetic colors. Like red orange and yellow on one, green on another, then blue indigo and violet."

"Hmm...that is a good suggestion. But we will still need to create a kind of over-flow and storage system for the colors we aren't using at the moment. The present set-up doesn't work well for that. The Spectrum is too fragile for long term storage outside of the bottles," Rainbow rested her hand on her chin. "Hmm…"

Shy Violet looked up as she heard about this problem. "Do you mind if I adopt that task?"

"If you can figure something out then go for it Violet," Rainbow smiled. She stepped out of the meeting room and went into her office.

It had taken a bit more than a new coat of paint to make the Umbrella Mans old office a cozy enough space for Rainbow Brite to feel comfortable in. The windows had been cleaned, the dark furniture had been moved, all the old things had been cleared out. The stained glass windows remained though, as did the bookshelves with a new coat of paint. Rainbow had hidden the tome of Rainbow Philosophy in a locked desk drawer. Canary followed her friend into the office and sat down in a chair in front of the desk. "Rainbow, I need to talk to you about something…"

"Hmm? What is it Canary?" Rainbow asked, sitting in the chair opposite Canary.

"Its Patty. I'm having some trouble with her."

Rainbow nodded. "I had noticed the two of you aren't as friendly anymore, did something happen?"

Canary sighed. "Its the way she runs the production floor. She moves way too fast with no regard for safety half the time, and as long as the rainbows get into the bottles she doesn't seem to care if they are of the right quality or not. I had to bring a whole pallet back from Shipping this week because a fluke in the color filtration process made the violets and blues mix together. Patty just wouldn't listen when I told her that wasn't going to be acceptable. The accident with the bottles and the Sprite could have been easily prevented if she had just followed the rules."

Rainbow sighed. "You know I can't pick sides in this. Patty runs the floor the best that she can, just like you are doing all that you can. Its so important that we all work together."

"She keeps ignoring me when I tell her to be more careful!"

"I know you feel bad when it seems like she doesn't listen. But you can't control her process. Now if someone actually gets injured again, or if she starts damaging equipment, then that is a reason for both of us to step in and resolve the issue. Until then, she is doing a great job at making sure these orders are filled."

"Rainbow…"

"I know you care, and this whole Factory is something new for all of us. But we have to trust each other and help each other out as best as we can. Now I will talk to Tickled Pink about keeping an eye on the mixing process, because you are right, we can't send out bad rainbows. And I'll ask her to keep an eye on Patty as well. If you find a batch that doesn't pass, just do what you have been doing. Hold it, and then we will all discuss what to do about it. Okay?"

Canary looked at her feet. "Okay Rainbow."

"And chin up, you're doing a great job."

"Thank you Rainbow," Canary stood up. She wasn't satisfied with the outcome, but at least she had made her grievances known. She would have to keep an eye on Patty still, but at least Tickled Pink would be brought in on the potential issues too. "Oh, I almost forgot. I'll probably be back to the Color Castle a bit later than usual tonight. I'm planning on getting some extra work done, I'm behind on a few reports."

"Okay, I'll make sure to save you some dinner then, don't stay too late," Rainbow said cheerfully.

Canary gave and half smile and waved goodbye, then stepped out of Rainbow Brites office and went on to her own. She passed by Lala's office, then Tycoons, Tickled Pink and Moonglow shared a larger office, Indigo's office was on the bottom floor as were Reds and Buddy's. Canary's office was the furthest away from all the others by a long shot. It did make her feel a bit excluded at times, but it also afforded herself and her Sprites a bit of privacy. For the most they were left to their own devices. Canary walked past the cafeteria where a few of the workers were enjoying their lunch break, then down a long hall past the employee lockers, meeting rooms, and other such areas. She finally arrived at her door and opened it into a quaint yet orderly system of rooms.

The first and second largest room was the combined QC break and locker room. Here they had a table loaded with clipboards and worksheets and the odd coffee mug. The walls had peeling and cracked paint. Red kept saying he was going to get around to it, but hadn't yet. Canary had the suspicion that she and her techs would have to be the ones to eventually fix and paint their own office areas. The largest room was reserved for the color lab. Here captured Spectrum was on display inside glowing glass tubes. Samples were taken from different parts of the process in the factory and tested for hue and brightness, and also tolerable amounts of impurities. There were also a few of the black bottles containing rainbows sitting near a machine to test the pressure within the bottles to ensure that the rainbows would climb as high and stay as long as they advertised.

Canary went through another door into her personal windowless office that seemed to have more filing cabinets than space for her desk, as if she were some kind of guardian of all of the Rainbow Factory's paperwork, which in retrospect, she supposed she was. Her desk was just big enough for her monitor and keyboard, and a small space to store her temporary files before they were stored in the cabinets around her. She had her own bookshelf loaded with various operational manuals, maps of the facility, testing equipment, and other random items. She sat down, turned on her computer and listened to the machine grind and whirr away as the CRT monitor came to life and displayed a basic prompt in amber text on a black screen. Canary pulled over a stack of papers and began to work on the reports.

Sometime later Spark, her Sprite, peeked in the doorway and waved at her. Canary looked up from her work and yawned. "Hmm? Yeah, I'll be heading home to Rainbow Land just as soon as I finish up these reports. We discussed adding extra lines in the meeting and I'm trying to justify adding only three lines instead of a full seven like Patty wants. You go on without me."

Spark stepped away from the door for a second, then came back with a cup of hot tea and a styrofoam cup of noodles, he set them on a corner of her desk and Canary smiled.

"Thank you so much. I won't be much longer though," Canary sipped her tea, then waved her Sprite goodbye as he left the office. She went back to her work, only looking up long after her noodles and tea had gone cold. She ate them anyway.

Hours later she finally printed her report on their relatively older printer. She made sure the feeder paper was lined up on the pegs correctly, then sat around for a moment to rip the pages apart and the guide bars off the papers to finally have the report ready for Rainbows desk the coming Monday. By the time she had left the Quality Control offices, it was fully dark outside. Sanitation wasn't running because the following day was a Sprite holiday. The outside windows were dark, but the halls remained lit, if a bit creepy in that limnal space kind of way.

Canary walked up the hall. She had been here late at night before, and knew the sounds of the Factory when it wasn't processing, the ticks and pops of the air ducts, the hum of numerous large machines, even the buzz of a few random light bulbs. Her booted feet made light sounds as she walked up the hall and held her work bag close. She passed by the cafeteria and heard the low voices of people talking and dark figures sitting at a few of the distant tables. Canary stopped in the hall. There wasn't supposed to be anyone else here. She took a few steps back and looked into the cafeteria to see who else was working this late, maybe Red getting ahead on some repair work or maybe-

The cafeteria was empty.

"Strange…" Canary turned off the cafeteria lights and shut the doors. For a moment she stood looking into the dark windows, wondering if those dark figures would return. When they didn't she supposed that she was just over-tired. After all this place was old, the lighting was sparatic, and what she thought were voices could have very well been an old-fashioned radiator letting off steam in another room. Canary checked her bag and started walking up the hall again toward the side door that would lead her to the guard shack that would take her to Rainbow Land. She had only taken a few steps when she felt the odd sensation of being watched. Canary stopped, and against her better judgment, turned to slowly peek over her shoulder.

In the middle of the hall, well past the cafeteria and almost to the opposite side of the building was a man wearing all black and a wide-brimmed hat. He was tall, his hat nearly touched the ceiling lights above him. His face was featureless save for a pair of glowing white eyes.

Her breath caught in her throat and she began to walk faster, constantly looking over her shoulder at the odd visitor. That was not an employee and if this was some sort of joke she would let whoever did it have a piece of her mind. She ran for the side door in front of her. There should be someone on duty at the guard shack. Footsteps sounded behind her and when she looked back, the shadow man thing was closer. Canary broke into a full run and slammed into the doors, pushing them open and into the night. She crossed the newly paved asphalt drive and reached the guard shack. She ventured one last look at the Factory and covered her mouth before she could scream.

Every last light in the Factory was on, every window was brightly glowing against the dark sky. Canary could see the light from the stained glass windows of Rainbows office, and standing in the window, looking down at her, was the shadow man with the wide-brimmed hat. He gazed down at her with glowing red eyes. Canary turned and stated pounding on the door to the guard shack, but when she turned back around, the Factory was dark again. Some lights were on, but the place was sleeping peacefully now.

The Sprite on guard duty opened the gate and Canary ran back to the safety of Rainbow Land.