If there was one thing that Randall wanted to change the most about the Scream Extractor's original design, it was its size. In hindsight, he couldn't see too many of the machines fitting on a scare floor. A frame would have to be made to install them into the ceiling, which could get in the way of door tracks depending on the layout. They would be obstacles on the floor itself, blocking the flow of traffic. If one were in need of repairs, its station would likely be down for rest of the shift. Such things would hinder its efficiency.
The best means of addressing the problem in the short term was to try to convert it to a more mobile design—even if it would still be incredibly bulky. He could figure out how to better upgrade the Extractor at a later point. For now, reconstructing it was pressing enough.
"Do you really need this much space?" Tani asked, moving backwards to shove yet another box beneath a metal workbench.
Randall had decided on a separate, larger section of the warehouse to build the machine in. It was in just as messy a state as the room they used to hide out. It was also farther from the entrance or any normal pathways. Pipes and a long blockade of doors to their left helped obstruct it from view.
He stretched at the waist as he finished pushing another heap of junk along the adjacent wall, "Believe me, I will."
The green reptilian paused in a moment's thought, "Think you'll need any help? It's been a while since I've touched a wrench, but you do know I grew up around mechanics."
"After watching you wreck that washing machine, I think I'll pass..." he answered with a slightly playful tone.
Tani gave him an annoyed pout, but didn't push it further.
It wasn't that the offer wasn't tempting: Randall still didn't want to involve Tani any more than he had to. He didn't want her being labeled as an accomplice if things went bad. He also didn't want to guess her reaction to seeing the Scream Extractor firsthand just yet. If she ended up hating it, he didn't want to add fuel to that fire by allowing her to play a part in building it.
"I made the machine before and I can do it again. Just take the chance to relax."
The two hadn't quite finished clearing the floor when a big, horned shadow stretched across it. It was Johnny, giving them his usual, charismatic grin. A small bundle of manila folders was tucked underneath one of his arms.
"Eager and hard at work!" he gave the pair an approving nod, "Just what I'd like to see."
It was easy for him to say: He wasn't doing any manual labor. Now that they had stopped moving things around though, Randall noticed how quiet the warehouse had gotten. He heard fewer doors moving along the tracks or tapping against one another as they were sent back down from the scare floors above. With no windows, the only way for them to keep track of the passage of time was by sound. Several hours must've passed.
Johnny walked over to one of the workbenches and began to spread the folders out across its surface. "I looked over that list you sent me, Boggs," he explained without a glance over his shoulder, "Half of it, I can get, but the rest is going to be a pretty tall order. You better know what you're doing."
"Of course," was all Randall said back, a bit offended by that last remark.
His mood improved again after the Fear Co. CEO waved for them to come closer and continued, "And Tanith... I think you're going to like the present Boggs and I are getting ready for you."
The young woman raised a brow and gave him a hesitant look, not moving until Randall also encouraged her over with a somewhat diabolical smile. Standing on either side of the devil-like monster, the pair watched as he began to reveal each of the folders' contents.
Within all of them was a small stack of papers topped with the image of a seemingly random monster. Each one was a big name in the scaring industry, at least on the business end of things: The administrators of various energy companies. Confused, Tani narrowed her eyes at them before her gaze zeroed onto the portrait of a furry monster with a large brow and yellowed saber-teeth resting under an equally heavy moustache. She reached out as if to pick up the file, drew her fingers into a ball, and then settled on poking at it with a heavy tap.
"That's him," her voice was uncharacteristically grim when she said that, years of unresolved anger bubbling to the surface all over again. She didn't have to explain who he was: The one who callously tossed her back into the human world after the first time she tried so hard to escape it.
Meanwhile, Randall felt a dark sort of content from having a visual of a long-unknown someone who had caused them an unbearable amount of grief. He was right to ask Johnny to look into it as soon as he could. Naturally, Sullivan and Wazowski deserved the most blame for setting off the domino effect that led to Tani's door deactivating mid-scare and leaving her stranded. However, this was the monster that had watched her crawl back to safety only to banish her outright.
The production of scream energy had always been important to monster society. As Randall had gotten to know more and more of how it worked off a scare floor though, he'd gotten to know just how frighteningly powerful those at the top of the industry could be, to the point that the laws and punishments involving it didn't always make sense. Tampering with some mail could get you banished, but sneaking through a door, blowing it up, and risking the entire monster world got you a college expulsion? Even Waternoose thought little about tossing someone into the frozen wastes of the Himalayas.
There was no way Randall would allow this one to get off easy.
"Figures it'd be some creaking, old coot," Johnny picked up the folder in Tani's place with a tsk, "His name is Floyd Scabbing, from TRR Grid. I've met him a few times at scare summits. His company takes a lot of doors around the Gulf of Mexico and the South and Central Americas."
The location matched up. From what Randall could remember, based on the swamp environment, he and Tani had likely found each other in the United States' southern coastal region.
"Word is that TRR Grid hasn't been able to handle the scream shortage as well as others. If you're looking for payback, I could definitely help you get it."
There was a cunning gleam in Johnny's expression. Randall suspected that the ROR alumni was already trying to figure out how to double his profits—getting on Tani's good side and taking down a competitor in one swoop. Tani, however, didn't take him up on his proposal immediately. The only thing she jumped at was the Fear Co. CEO's grip as he patted her on the shoulder.
"It'll be the next order of business." If he noticed her reaction, he didn't comment on it. "Boggs also mentioned you were still into scaring, right? Once things shut down, feel free to use Fear Co.'s simulator as much as you like."
The two former RORs then shifted gears and began to discuss what Randall would be able to get started on as early as the next day. Compared to the Extractor itself, building a mobile frame was child's play. The materials for it could be gotten quickly and he could have it largely ready before other parts arrived.
Then Johnny left right after finishing their talk. Despite how things had ended back at MU and the rough start, Randall found it easy to do business with the other monster. However, as Johnny bid them goodbye, Tani could only treat him with a careful politeness at best. Randall closed the gap between her and himself as Johnny walked away. There was no telling when her patience might snap.
"Like I said before, working with him is only temporary," he assured her in a low voice, making a pointed motion with his hand, "Think you can hold back on telling him off for a while?"
"I'vebeenholding back," she replied matter-of-factly, "I learned more than just how to use a wrench from my dad and the other mechanics. And I've picked up even more words now from living at a dump!"
Tani was very forgiving; sometimes, he thought, to the point of insanity. Having been on the receiving end of that lenience—and having balked at the lenience she showed to Mike and Sullivan after the times they'd upset her—he never really understood why the RORs seemed to be her one exception. Although they got on her nerves, she had even treated the members of the PNK sorority with a begrudging acceptance. The likes of Johnny and Chet, meanwhile, had never really been given a pass.
Then again, maybe if he'd shown that same level of caution, things wouldn't have turned out as they did. He was not that naïve college freshman anymore though. He was more than capable of standing his ground against whatever bad terms Johnny tried to throw at them.
They waited another couple hours for the factory to go completely still before making their way to the scare simulator. Aside from tiny, unremarkable changes to the bedroom set pieces, it was almost an exact replica of the one used at Monsters Inc. As Randall looked around for fake toys to scatter across the floor, Tani walked up to the animatronic child tucked in bed.
She rubbed her arm and whistled, "They sure have come a long way with these things, huh?"
Knelt down, he glanced over his shoulder at her. The sight of the technology—which was a lot more advanced than what either of them had practiced with in their early days—must have caught her off-guard.
"It's a lot more lifelike…"
"Yeah, but it still works the same," he told her.
For a moment, Randall thought she might've been intimidated by the striking change; however, he spotted the end of her tail gliding above the wooden boards in slow, yet eager movements—like a cat that had stumbled upon a curious, new toy.
A new thought soon bothered him. What if he was giving her false hope?
It wasn't that he didn't think she could pull off a scare. It had to do with something he'd muttered to Waternoose when his old boss had gone into an obnoxious fit after they thought they had gotten rid of Sullivan and Wasowski: With the Scream Extractor, they wouldn't need scarers.
He'd mostly said it to get Waternoose to shut up. After going so far in his own career as a scarer, even if the Extractor ended up being the only way to collect energy going forward, a part of him would be sad to see it all come to an end. Scaring took more than just a fearsome appearance: It was a thoroughly-honed craft with centuries of practice from countless monsters behind it. The idea of never having officially bested Sullivan in the field would also be incredibly unsatisfying…
There were bigger issues as well. Passionate scarers and other idealists wouldn't like the mechanical approach of collecting screams. A lot of people would be out of work because of the machines. Waternoose, however, either hadn't thought of these complications or hadn't considered getting rid of his scarers to begin with. For now, the same appeared to apply to Johnny—and maybe he wouldn't want that drastic a change, having put in the same effort into scaring that they had.
Maybe it would become one of those arguments that didn't have a clear-cut resolution. Both he and Tani would simply have to navigate around whatever came up.
With the stage prepared, Randall instructed Tani to get into position while he moved behind a control panel, pulled out a mockup report, and adjusted a few settings. He couldn't help feeling a bit silly as he read off the file in a manner similar to how their professors once had, "I am a four year-old boy afraid of physical injuries and goblin masks. Which scare do you use?"
There was a long pause. The languid movements of Tani's tail became flustered. Eventually, she could only give him an embarrassed grin. He felt even more awkward, realizing that he was asking for a lot by quizzing her right off the bat. Even he had forgotten the names of many techniques.
In the end, what mattered was the execution. He dimmed the lights and waited for her to go.
Everything started off well enough: Tani didn't make the rookie mistake of forgetting to close the door behind her. If he noticed anything off right from the get-go, it was that she was far too slow. She was being careful, but took too long silently crossing the minefield of toys. A scarer needed to be quick on their feet to limit the chance of waking up their kid early and in order to meet their daily quotas.
Once Tani prepared her scare though… It wasn't enough to fill the fake canister and she was clearly out-of-practice, but it was beautiful.
Yet again standing by the bed, Tani hit the frame to jolt the animatronic out of its 'slumber.' By the time it spotted her, she was looming over it in a limp pose. Her mouth unhinged like a snake's, splitting wider and wider to the point that it looked like her lower jaw was about to snap. Her gums became more pronounced and she finished the subtle move with an abrupt tilt of her head.
Randall actually forgot she could do that. He'd only seen her do it once before, when she missed lunch one day and had to scarf something quick between classes. She had inhaled an entire carry-out box of pasta in one bite.
Tani released her body like a spring only a second later, a guttural hiss tearing from her throat. She jerked her weight forward and a mechanical shriek echoed through the room. Her exit needed the most work, but it was also nothing that couldn't be fine-tuned with practice.
The two reptiles lost themselves in their nostalgia, cycling through scares despite the tiring workout they had put themselves through earlier.