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For the past several weeks now, all Sora has been doing is running. Running from the guardians of light, running from Organization XIII, running from Maleficent, running from everyone, really, even from himself as much as he’s able to. By now he’s used to it, a constant routine of escape and evasion in between sleeplessness and starvation. But what he isn’t used to is having to run from the denizens of the worlds he takes refuge in.
What he isn’t used to is being a fugitive among strangers in a strange place he’s only just stepped foot in.
He doesn’t know how they spotted him amidst the dark, rainy city streets. He doesn’t even know who they are or why they’re chasing him. All he can make of them are their bizarre yellow bodysuits, concealing any and all features, with more and more appearing around every corner he turns to pursue him. He doesn’t dare try to fight any of them, and he isn’t yet capable of making good use of his confounding new powers to ward them off. So he’s left with no other option but to flee until he’s lucky enough to somehow lose them.
The only problem is, luck is something that Sora hasn’t had in a very long time.
Because sure enough, they manage to corner him in a dead-end alley. He’s forced to stop short at a tall brick wall as a bright beam of light from a helicopter flying high overhead all but blinds him. What seems like an entire army of those strange suited men surround him, each of them a wide array of menacing devices Sora can’t even begin to sort out the use for. As if the noise of the helicopter wasn’t enough, a deafening alarm blares from it, forcing him to cover his ears as he finds his back against the wall, with nowhere to go and nothing to say as he spots one of the suited men step forward with a megaphone in hand.
“Attention human teenager,” he begins authoritatively. “You are hereby detained by the Child Detection Agency for questioning. Do not resist or we will have no choice but to use-”
He stops short when the agent beside him suddenly fires off the blaster he’s holding without warning. Sora lets out a startled cry when he feels a sudden stabbing pain in the side of his neck, pain that only dulls somewhat when he pulls the large dart that caused it out from where it had struck him. Almost immediately, his limbs begin to feel heavy, his thoughts turning slow and fuzzy as the blinding lights and bizarre agents begin to blur around him. In fact, he only barely hears the argument that ensues as he all too quickly starts to lose the fight to stay conscious altogether.
“Dang it, Kevin! I said we were only going to use force if he resisted!”
“S-sorry, sir! My claw slipped…”
“Again? Yeesh… This is why Joe usually handles the dart gun. Shame it’s his night off.”
“So what should we do with the kid, sir?”
“Only one thing we can do. Take him to MI. The boss’ll sort out what happens to him from there.”
Sora doesn’t have enough strength left in him to even try to figure out what any of that means. He doesn’t even have enough strength left to plead for mercy as he slowly falls to the ground, his body limply hitting the wet pavement as the agents begin to cautiously approach him from the corners of his dulling vision. That vision eventually fails him along with the rest of his senses though as the stunning effects of that dart truly take hold. He’s out like a light long before any of the agents even touch him, before they take him to whatever “MI” is and whoever their boss might be.
Before he’s whisked off to yet another unknown fate in another unknown world.
Being the CEO of Monsters Inc. has plenty of perks, from a complimentary company car to the lavish executive suite to free lunch in the cafeteria each Tuesday. Sully can’t complain about much when it comes to his relatively new position for how much it’s improved both his life and the longevity of the company he cares so much about.
Still, he could do without the late nights though.
At the very least Mike volunteered to keep him company. His friend’s snarky antics keep the drudgery of paperwork from becoming too overbearing, though of course, with his help comes more than a fair share of complaining. Complaining that Mike makes sure to lay on thick by the time midnight rolls around.
“Ya know, Sul, I could be spending my evening with Celia, painting the town green,” he notes as he files away yet another round of forms. “But noooo, I’m here , pushing paper until the wee hours of the morning.”
“I know, Mikey,” Sully smirks as he signs off on another stack, already knowing where his best friend is going with this.
“And you know why that is?” Mike hobbles over to the CEO’s desk, hands perched on the round sides of his body.
“Because ya love me,” Sully glances up with a wide, toothy grin.
“Well, duh,” Mike rolls his eye. “But also because of that stinkin’ power shortage! Tell me again: how are we on the verge of another energy crisis when we were so sure that laughter would solve our problems for good?!”
“It’s not that simple, Mike,” Sully sighs, shaking his head. “Laughter is ten times stronger than screams, yeah, but… well, you know how it is out there. Kids were getting harder to scare, and they’re getting harder to crack up too. We’ve just gotta shift our strategy around a bit and I’m sure we’ll be right back on top, you’ll see.”
“Uh, so how’s that ‘strategy’ comin’ along then, eh?” Mike asks, hopping up to take a seat on his friend’s desk. “Got any brilliant ideas yet?”
“Mm… I’m working on a few,” Sully says vaguely, averting Mike’s curious gaze. “Nothing’s set in stone yet though, so, uh-”
Fortunately, before he can flounder in coming up with ideas he doesn’t quite have, Sully’s interrupted by a knock on his office door. Surprising, given how late it is, though who slithers in hardly is.
“Roz!” Mike greets, trying too hard to be cheerful as he hops to stand on Sully’s desk. “How ya doin’? Is that a new hairdo I see? You know, you are looking as radiant as freshly-slimed snail-”
“Can it, Wazowski,” Roz quiets him, deadpan as ever. “Sullivan, we have a situation.”
“Oh, uh… what kind of situation are we talking about here?” Sully frowns as he stands. He’s used to frequent meetings with the head of the CDA, but to receive one so unexpected this late at night is unprecedented. Which of course, means it must be something serious.
“A human situation,” Roz says simply. But it’s enough to throw Sully’s entire night, heck, his entire world even, completely off center.
“Y-you… you mean…?” he stammers, unable to get the question out.
Roz slowly surveys the room, making sure it’s secure from any prying eyes before she divulges the truth. “That’s right. Another human child has found their way into the monster world. My men found him wandering around downtown Monstropolis earlier this evening. They brought him back here for proper investigation.”
Before Sully can say a word, before he can even really think , suddenly, the entire room erupts into chaos. Mike gasps, falling off the desk as the lights violently flash and flicker repeatedly, the ground itself shaking from its very foundation. Anything remotely electrical follows suit in acting up, from the copier to the computer to the coffee maker, each going utterly haywire in turn. The upheaval lasts for what seems like ages until the room itself can no longer handle it. Light bulbs burst to pieces from their fixtures as lightning strikes brutally just outside the window. Sully nearly grabs Mike and takes cover, yet Roz is surprisingly calm–not that anything ever seems to shake her to begin with. But just as suddenly as it all ends, it all comes to a swift and stark stop .
“W-what… what the heck was that ?!” Mike gapes as he inspects the damage done to the now dark room.
“That would be our ‘guest’…” Roz informs, already leading the way out of the room as she beckons Sully and Mike to join her. “You boys are going to want to meet him. He’s… special , to say the least.”
The pair exchange a dubious, almost nervous glance, though they both know better than to say know to Roz. They follow her toward the factory’s lowest levels, all but unaware as an old foe emerges, watching and waiting from somewhere just out of sight.
“‘Special’, huh?” he smirks, more than ready to make his move. To tear down his longtime rival, and to finally make this company his own. “Well, let’s just see how special this kid really is…”
Sora isn’t used to sleeping much anymore, and as such, he isn’t used to waking up. But on the off chance that he is able to find sleep, he’s used to waking up in the same place he fell asleep, in the woods, in a secluded alleyway, in caves carved into cliffsides. Not in a large, cold metal room with not a single door in sight.
His breath hitches in emerging terror only seconds after he sits up. He’s on his feet even faster, rushing toward the single standout wall of the room, taken up by what seems to be a wide mirror. He winces at the sight of his own unkempt reflection in it, his messy whitening hair, no longer concealed by his now fallen hood, his filthy skin and clothes, his crimson-tipped claws, his glowing golden eyes. But he can sense something else just behind that mirror, something he narrowly catches sight of when he presses closer to it to take a better look. He can’t make out much through the dark glass, but he’s able to see the vague silhouettes of the men in the yellow suits, the same men who had cornered him in the city, who had apparently captured him and brought him here. Wherever ‘here’ is.
“Hey!” he shouts, beating his fist against the apparent one way window. “Let me out!” A few of the agents glance in his direction at this, but none of them seems to listen to him as they continue working on various machines on the other side of the wall. Sora tries again, this time swinging his claws at the glass in the hopes of shattering it. It’s surprisingly sturdy though as the most he accomplishes is leaving a few shallow scratches on its slick surface. His dread only continues to rise as he takes a step back, glancing around the cold walls entrapping him on all sides. Though the cell is rather sizable, Sora can’t help but feel like those walls are closing in on him, suffocating him the same way a completely different cell, another prison entirely did so many months ago.
“H-help!” he yells, his voice breaking a bit as he throws his hand out, begging his Keyblade to appear. Of course, it doesn’t, refusing to obey him against his practically overwhelming fear. When he realizes that the only tool that could possibly set him free isn’t showing up, that fear skyrockets as he struggles to speak, struggles to breathe, struggles to do anything but sink even further into distress and despair. “ Please !” he chokes hoarsely, pressing his hands tightly against his head as he sinks to his knees. By now, he’s caught the attention of most of the agents observing him from the adjacent room, but still none of them make a move to release him. Instead, they simply watch as his terror surges to the point that it can no longer be contained.
In many ways, it’s no different than the countless other panic attacks he’s had before; except this time, when he screams, all hell breaks loose.
He’s so caught up in his own despair that he doesn’t even notice it with his eyes wrenched tightly shut, his voice hitching high in echoing fear. But the agents observing him just on the other side of the glass certainly take notice when the lights above their head burst brutally, they notice when their machines and tools all follow suit, they notice when dark, shining black spikes shoot up from the ground around the boy in the cell, they notice when that very same ground begins to rumble violently. They notice an eruption of sheer, raw power , unlike anything seen in this city, or the next one over, or the next one after that, in decades . Perhaps unlike anything ever seen… ever .
It goes on for what seems like an eternity, until Sora finally reaches his limit. He collapses face first to the ground, burying his face in his hands as he sobs and tries to shut it all out. As he tries to imagine himself anywhere but here, in this prison, in this nightmare that no one will save him from. Every now and then, his panic will skyrocket as he realizes there truly is no way out, resulting in several resounding rounds of screaming, which all have the same effect as the first. But Sora never notices when the dull lights of his cell flash and flicker, he never notices the startled scrambling of agents trying to keep everything under control on the other side of that awful one-sided window.
He doesn’t know that through his terror, an entire city is receiving enough energy to keep every last building in it lit for a year.
On the other side of the glass, Sully and Mike arrive at the tail end of yet another power surge, if they can even be called that by this point. Clear damage has been done to the factory as a result of the strain, though that’s something that will have to be dealt with some other time. Because now, the most either of them can do as they follow Roz into the observation room is survey the chaotic state of both the CDA agents occupying it, as well as the strange black spikes littering the spaces between them.
“Oy, what are you fellas up to in here?” Mike asks with an apprehensive frown. “Some kinda late night glowing rock party?”
“W-we didn’t do this!” one of the agents reports, pointing to the large window before them. “The kid did!”
“Huh…?” Sully raises a furry eyebrow as he steps a bit closer. It takes him a moment or two to spot the human in question between all of the spikes converging around him, but when he does, he can’t help but feel sorry for the little guy. He’s huddled with his knees pulled close to his chest, his partially white hair as dirty as his tattered clothes are as they hang from his bruised and skinny form. His golden eyes are wide as they dart around his cell, likely looking for some way of escape, but ultimately finding none, something that only serves to give Sully even more sympathy for this unexpected, seemingly innocent ‘captive’. “Did you really have to lock him up like this?” he asks, turning back to Roz skeptically.
“It’s standard procedure,” she states as unemotionally as ever.
“So what do you think, Sul?” Mike asks as he joins him near the window to get a better look at the kid. “This one’s kinda scruffy, not to mention a good bit past our usual demographic…”
“He reminds me of Boo,” Sully says softly as he places a hand against the one-sided glass.
“Aw, geez, you sentimental fuzzball,” Mike grins, lightly punching his friend’s arm. “Is every kid you see from here on out gonna remind you of Boo? ‘Cause quite frankly, I don’t see much of a resemblance here.”
Sully smirks at this, but the levity doesn’t last long as he poses a question to one of the nearby CDA agents. “So, uh, what’s the deal with the spikes?”
“To be honest, Mr. Sullivan, we have no idea,” the agent shakes his head as he looks over his clipboard. “This kid is unlike anything we’ve ever seen. His screams are incredibly powerful, strong enough to ignite the entire Monstropolis power grid and then some! It really is outstanding–and somewhat terrifying. Mostly terrifying, actually.”
“Well, I guess that explains the power going haywire the whole way down here…” Mike notes before a sudden idea strikes him. “Oh! Say, Sul, you know how we were talking about that, uh… ‘cower portage, earlier?” he glances around, dropping his voice to a whisper lest he let any confidential information slip.
“...The what?” Sully blink, not following.
“Gah! The power shortage ,” Mike reiterates a bit louder, though thankfully, none of the surrounding CDA agents seem to be listening. “If what they said about this kid is true, then he could just be the answer to all our problems!”
“Aw, Mike…” Sully frowns, rubbing the back of his neck as he glances to the window once more. “We can’t just keep a kid trapped here against his will so we can use his screams.”
“Who said anything about that?” Mike retorts, crossing his arms. “I’m not talking about pulling a Waternoose scheme here. Heck, I’m not even talkin’ about harvesting the kid’s screams. I mean, just think about it; if his screams are strong enough to send the entire city’s energy skyrocketing, imagine how much more powerful his laughter would be…”
“...You’ve… got a good point,” Sully acknowledges, surprised he didn’t think of it first. Granted, Mike has always been the schemer between the two of them; and this time, his scheme could certainly serve them well instead of turning into some kind of disaster like they usually tend to. Except… “But, uh, I don’t know if the kid will be too gung-ho about helping us after we, you know, locked him up…”
“ We didn’t do that,” Mike corrects, nodding over to the nearby CDA agents. “ They did. Besides, kids are easy ; just look at how quick you hit it off with Boo! All you gotta do is sweet talk him, and he’ll be eating out of the palm of our hands. Well, your hands, ya know, cause they’re a lot bigger than mine, but you know what I mean.”
“Hm… it’s worth a shot I guess,” Sully shrugs before turning to one of the surrounding CDA agents. “Hey, can you let us in there? We wanna talk to him.”
“Uh… no can do, Mr. Sullivan,” the agent shakes his head. “This child is much too dangerous and unpredictable to-”
“Let them in,” Roz interjects dryly. And of course, given her status as the esteemed leader of the CDA, not a single one of her reporting agents protests.
“Y-yes, ma’am!” another agent explains, tapping a few buttons on the wall beside the window. Mike and Sully exchange a nod as they watch the access door slide open, giving way to a small desanitizing chamber between that and the cell itself. It takes a few seconds for that second door to open, allowing the two just enough time to come up with some kind of action plan.
“Alright, so I’ll kick things off with my standup routine and if that doesn’t work, then we’ll hit him with some slapstick and puns! Everybody loves puns!” Mike grins, just as ready as he’d be on a normal shift on the Laugh Floor.
“Uh… maybe we oughta lay off the laughs at first, Mikey,” Sully advises cautiously. “The kid’s lost and scared and clearly not having a good time right now. I think it’s safe to say he’s not in the mood for any jokes…”
“Fine, fine, I see where you’re coming from,” Mike concedes surprisingly easily. “But the second the kid so much as cracks a smile, I’m whipping out every last knock knock joke I’ve ever told.”
Sully nods with a small smile, though it’s quick to fade when the door finally slides open, revealing the tiny, terrified child beyond it. Teenagers aren’t something they usually deal with in their line of work–kids usually tend to age out by the time they’re 10 at the latest. But despite his age, with his face buried in his tightly-tucked knees, this teenager seems far more vulnerable, far more fragile than any they used to scare. Which is why Sully takes the lead, making sure to be as quiet as possible as he properly steps into the cell to greet the quietly weeping child as carefully as he can.
“Uh… hey there, little fella”
The second he so much as hears another voice, the boy’s head darts up, his bright yellow eyes wide as they catch sight of the pair standing in the newly appeared door. And of course, Sully barely even has a chance to finish saying hello before the child erupts into another absolutely terrified scream.
Several of the lights of the cell shatter from the strain as raw power surges throughout the entire building all over again. Fortunately, it doesn’t last long as the boy scrambles to his feet, his screams silenced as something–a giant key from the looks of it, flashes out of thin air into his open palm. Mike and Sully don’t even have to spare a baffled glance before the boy aims the tip of that key directly at them, sheer shadows shooting out of it straight at them. Fortunately, the pair has the wits about them to dodge out of the path of this unexpected attack, but in doing so, they leave the door wide open for the boy to charge through. And of course, that’s exactly what he does.
Sora doesn’t think twice about the fuzzy blue behemoth or the odd one-eyed creature as he rushes past them, he doesn’t think twice about the crowd of yellow-suited agents waiting for him on the other side of the door. He doesn’t think twice as he throws his hands up in a blind panic, walls of spikes protecting him from any of them on either side. He doesn’t even think twice as he bursts out into an empty industrial hallway, running down it without even a single idea of where he’s going or how he’ll get there. The only thing he does think is that he needs to get out of here, he needs to escape, he needs to be free .
And he’s willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that no one makes him their prisoner ever again.
He hasn’t the faintest clue as to what kind of building this is as he races through its winding corridors. He doesn’t run into any more frightening monsters or weapon-wielding agents as he speeds up several flights of stairs, his adrenaline running high enough to give him the energy he so desperately needs to keep going. But even that energy isn’t enough to help him summon a dark corridor, which refuses to appear to get him out of this world, no matter how much he tries to make one appear. Still, he almost thinks he’s in the clear when he emerges into a vast, wide open room, some kind of factory floor from the looks of it, though the colorful banners hanging from the rafters do throw him off a bit. Sora doesn’t bother questioning it though as he makes a beeline for the far side of the room, hoping there will be some way to get outside there. He’s about halfway there, halfway to freedom… when they finally manage to catch up to him.
Suddenly, countless agents pour in from the other side of the room, forcing Sora to turn on his heel before they can get too close. He’s stopped almost immediately though when even more agents run in from the other side, essentially trapping him in the very center of the massive room. He grips his Keyblade tightly, his fangs bared and his new powers ready to help him fight his way through if he has to. But just before he can make his first move…
“Wait!”
The crowd of yellow suddenly parts to allow that same blue beast from before through. He’s followed by his round green companion, as well as an almost bored-looking slug-like creature slithering slowly behind them. Sora tenses at the sight of them, raising his Keyblade as he readies himself for what he believes to be an oncoming battle the best he can.
“S-stay back!” he warns, assuming these bizarre creatures can understand him. “Everyone, stay back!”
“Whoa there, kid,” the blue monster steps forward, an almost worried look on his face as he raises his clawed hands. “Just calm down. We’re not going to hurt you.”
“Oh yeah?” Sora challenges harshly, distrustfully. “Then why’d you lock me up in that room?!”
“Hey now! Don’t point that oversized key at us!” the green creature retorts, disgruntled. “The two of us didn’t put ya in the hoosegow. Roz and her clowns did.”
“Wazowski…” He freezes in apparent fear as the slug woman scolds him dryly.
Despite Mike’s small slip-up, Sully is quick to smooth things over, namely by being much more polite to the head of the CDA. “Uh… Roz? Maybe your team could… ease up a bit? I think Mike and I can take over from here.”
“...If you think you can handle this, then by all means,” Roz surprisingly concedes. “Stand down, gentlemen,” she orders her agents as she begins to slither away with the unspoken command for the entire squadron to follow. “Given that this is his factory, we’re leaving this case in Mr. Sullivan’s… capable hands. But just remember,” she glances back at Sully critically. “I’m only a short call away if you need me.”
“Oh,” Sully rubs the back of his neck, surprised by her apparent generosity. “Uh, gee, thanks, Roz-”
“ Don’t need me,” she cuts him off, her sharp warning more than clear.
And just like that… Mike and Sully are suddenly left alone with the second human they’ve ever met.
Though as they turn back around, they’re met with the unsurprising sight of that human trying to slip away from them unseen. “Whoa there, kid! Mike practically sprints forward to cut the boy off before he can get too far. “I dunno where you think you’re going in such a hurry, but we’re here to tell you that you’re not leaving until you tell us how you got here and why you have the most powerful screams Monstropolis has apparently ever seen!”
“W-what?” the boy starts, completely lost. He still grips his key like a vice, backing up until he just so happens to bump into Sully behind him. It’s enough to startle him all over again, leaving him stuck between the two monsters as he glances both ways, as if deciding who he should go after first.
“You can relax now, kid,” Sully urges patiently. “We finally got the CDA off your tail. You’re safe with us, promise.”
“S-safe?” the boy bristles. “With two… two… I-I don’t even know what you are-”
“Uh, we’re monsters ,” Mike points out unceremoniously. “Man, and I thought teenagers were supposed to be smarter than kids…”
“Monsters?” the boy jolts, and yet his key lowers somewhat. “You just… call yourselves that like it’s nothing?”
“Why wouldn’t we?” Sully frowns, confused. “It’s what we are, after all.”
For some reason, this seems to strike a chord with the boy as his key finally disappears. His distrustful expression softens somewhat as looks between the pair, clearly still uncertain about something, though what that something is, remains to be seen.
“Alrighty then,” Mike interrupts, clapping his hands together as he grins eagerly. “So if you’re not gonna try and run off again, then let’s start over on the right foot. The name’s Mike–Mike Wazowski. And this big blue lug here is my partner in crime, Sully.”
Sully grins, offering the boy a kindly wave. “Nice to meet you, uh…”
The boy hesitates, still a bit guarded, but he still quietly relents all the same. “Sora,” he says, glancing down. “My name is Sora.”
“Alright, good, great, perfect,” Mike quickly concludes. “So now that we’re all simpatico , we’ve got a little proposition for ya, Sore.”
“Sor a ,” the boy corrects, pouting somewhat. “And… what are you talking about?”
Sully can’t help but chuckle as he puts a hand on top of Mike’s round body to simmer him down as he takes over at a much slower pace. “Uh… we can talk more about all that later. For now, you look like you could use a bit of cleaning up–n-no offense. There are showers over in the locker room, and I think I have a few snacks up in my office if you’re hungry.”
Sora absently places a hand over his slim stomach, showing in all but words that yes, he clearly is very hungry. And yet… “But… I don’t have any money to-”
“Money? What do you think this is, a five star resort?” Mike scoffs with a wave of his hand.
“You don’t have to pay us anything,” Sully agrees earnestly. “We just want to make sure you’re ok. Is that… ok with you, Sora?”
Sora doesn’t respond for a long moment, torn between running again or accepting the apparent kindness these two strange creatures are offering him. Such kindness isn’t something he’s accustomed to much anymore, not since he fled from the lights, from his friends, from anything even remotely resembling a home. The difficulties of his solo journey thus far have made him wary of trusting most anyone, much less literal monsters like these two appear to be. And yet… as he glances down at his own hand, at his own set of claws… he can’t deny that he has much more in common with them than he would have liked to admit.
So he simply nods, forcing his ever-lingering fear to subside the best he can as he follows the seemingly friendly monsters deeper into the factory. Because really, how can they be any worse than all of the monsters he’s already faced thus far? How can they be any worse than the monster he’s so quickly turning into?
Without the time or means to maintain proper hygiene, Sora has managed to accumulate more filth than he’d like to admit while on the run. That filth all goes drifting down the drain however, as he enjoys a pleasantly warm and cleansing shower, the first one he’s had in a very long time. Part of him thinks he should have enough energy reserved by now to summon a dark corridor when Mike and Sully aren’t looking, to leave this odd world behind the soonest chance he gets. But for some reason or another… he doesn’t. Instead he stays after his shower, long enough to get dressed and long enough to let Mike and Sully lead him up to the factory’s executive suite. He stays long enough to take a seat on the office’s plush couch, and he even stays long enough for Mike to bring over the complete contents of the minifridge for him to choose from. Unfortunately, though Sora is far from picky about what he eats these days, the pickings are disappointingly slim.
“Alright, I’d say we got a pretty good spread here,” Mike grins as he lays it all out on the small table in front of Sora. “Some chopped moldy onions, a leftover rotting fish sandwich, ooo, and a nice sour slice of cockroach cake. Take your pick, kid! But, uh, maybe save some of that cake for me if you’d be so kind.”
“Um… do you have anything that… hasn’t gone bad?” Sora asks, wincing away from the ‘food’ in disgust.
“Uh, why wouldn’t you want good that’s gone bad?” Mike asks, his single eye full of confusion.
“Because he’s a human, Mikey,” Sully interjects, carrying a few bags of chips in from a connected room. “Humans don’t eat like us. Remember Boo?”
“Tch, yeah I remember how the little ankle nibbler cleaned us clear outta popcorn–oooohhhh,” Mike nods, understanding. Fortunately he takes the rotting food away as Sully hands his load over to Sora.
“Here,” he grins warmly. “You should be able to eat any of this. And don’t worry if you’re still hungry after–we’ve got a whole vending machine stocked full of it.”
“T-thank you,” Sora says unsteadily, not accustomed to simply accepting handouts. Not accustomed to getting much of anything for free lately, especially not food. But sure enough, the various bags of chips are edible, even if they aren’t exactly filling. As a result, he tries not to scarf them down too fast, lest he be left unsatisfied by this meager “meal”. Even so, it’s something to eat at the very least, and Sora can’t help but appreciate that. Which is why he stays where he is and allows Mike and Sully to carry out something of an informal “interrogation” on him.
“So, uh, how’d you wind up here in the first place, kid?” Mike kicks things off, taking a seat on the other side of the table. “You follow one of our guys through your little brother or sister or cousin’s closet door or something?”
“What? Door?” Sora frowns. “I didn’t come through any door. I used a da–uuuh, um, you know what, I don’t think how I got here is really that important-”
“Uh, I’d say it kind of is,” Sully counters. “We don’t get a lot of humans here in the monster world. And when we do, well… it’s kind of a ‘situation’, if the CDA chasing you around wasn’t proof enough of that.”
“The CDA…” Sora repeats curiously. “You mean those guys in yellow? What’s their deal anyway? Why’d they capture me and… a-and lock me in that cell?”
“Aw, they didn’t mean any harm by it,” Mike assures. “The CDA’s short for the Child Detection Agency. Back in the scaring days, everyone used to think humans were dangerous–hilarious, I know, so they made sure to keep our world and yours as separate as they could be. But nowadays, they’re a little more relaxed–or at least we thought they were before this whole mess happened.”
“We’re sorry about all that, by the way,” Sully says, absolutely sincere. “They probably would have just let you go after realizing you’re not a threat, but, well… they noticed something sort of… special, about you, Sora.”
“Oh really?” Sora retorts with something of a deadpan scoff. He seems to radiate ‘specialness’, to the point that it’s become much more of a curse than a blessing. It’s turned him into a target for just about everyone, from Maleficent, to his master, to even the creatures inhabiting this strange place. Which is why he’s more than prepared to spring up from his seat and start running again if he has to. If this all goes downhill the way he can only assume it surely will.
“Yeah, turns out, your screams are insanely powerful,” Mike informs with a broad grin. “See, this whole place runs on–or at least it used to run on scream energy–that’s what our factory here is for. Our slogan used to be: “Monsters Incorporated: We put the care in scare!” And lemme tell you, kid, your screams are strong enough to keep this place running for decades !”
“I-I don’t understand,” Sora shakes his head. At the same time, his stomach begins to drop, anchored by a sudden sense of dread he can’t quite shake as the implications of this information starts to sink in. The implications of just how outright alarming it is. “My… screams power your world?”
“To put things simply, yeah,” Sully shrugs, apparently seeing nothing wrong with such a concerning concept. “That’s actually what we wanted to talk to you about. Y’see, lately, we’ve been-”
“Sullivan! Wazowski!” A sudden call from Roz over the intercom brings the conversation to a grinding halt, startling both monsters and their human guest alike. “Get down to the surveillance room now . We have another situation on our hands.”
“ Another one?” Mike asks incredulously. “Yeesh, you’d think Roz and her cronies are losing their touch for letting so much slip through the cracks in one night-”
“I heard that, Wazowski,” Roz cuts him off, a swift reminder that the head of the CDA has ears everywhere . Either that, or she has the entire factory wired, which is also just as likely. “Just get down here already.”
“Right away, ma’am,” Sully complies with a grin and a salute. That grin soon fades however as he focuses back on Sora for a moment. He knows leaving a human child alone in the monster world isn’t the safest thing to do… but then again, this is a teenager, much older than the only other child he’d dealt with before had been. How much trouble could he possibly get in? “Uh, you can wait up here if you want, Sora. We’ll be back in just a few minutes, ok?”
Sora nods, gripping the couch cushions tightly on either side of him. Still, he says nothing, his face an unyielding mask as he watches the pair depart, though not before Mike issues an upbeat farewell that, to Sora, almost acts as something of a warning instead.
“Sit tight, kid, and when we get back, we’ll talk business,” he grins, winking his singular eye. “It’ll be a total scream ! Get it, cause ya know, s-”
“Yeah, Mikey,” Sully chuckles as they walk out. “I think he gets it.”
Sora waits only a moment or two after the doors close before he darts up out of his seat. Any semblance of calm he had mere moments ago shatters, replaced with a rising distress akin to what he’d felt back in that cell only about an hour prior. They want to use him, of course they want to use him. Everyone wants to use him–he’s so “special”, so “powerful”, so vulnerable. And far too weak to stop any of them from trying to get exactly what they want out of him.
He should have seen this coming the second he was captured. Mike and Sully are only feigning kindness to him, why wouldn’t they be? Even monsters like them certainly wouldn’t genuinely be nice to him or what to help him. They only want to use him to help themselves. To use his screams to power their bizarre world. Sora doesn’t have to think too hard about how they might get those screams out of him either–after what Maleficent did to him, he’s no stranger to torture and just how agonizing it can truly be. Which is why he has no plans to stick around for another round of it.
He hurries to the center of the room, giving him enough space as he holds his hand out to summon a dark corridor, to get as far away from this frightening place as he possibly can. But just before his magic can spark to life, out of nowhere scaly hand slaps over his mouth from behind, another hand grabbing both of his and pinning them tight behind him. Sora freezes in instant panic at this sudden plight, panic that only multiplies tenfold when he hears a sharp voice whisper directly in his ear.
“Don’t scream yet, kid. You’ll be doing plenty of that in just a bit…”
“Alright, Roz, what’s the big idea?” Mike huffs as he and Sully enter the surveillance room. “We nearly had that kid ready to sign on to keep us energies for years , but you just had to call us down here for-”
“A security breach, Wazowski,” Roz cuts him off, somehow completely deadpan and dead serious all at once. “A very serious security breach.”
“You mean a different kind of security breach than a human making it into the monster world?” Sully asks, suddenly worried.
“See for yourself,” Roz slithers back to allow the pair to join the CDA agents surrounding the wall of security screens. “We were monitoring the feeds and just so happened to spot an old ‘friend’ slithering around.”
Mike and Sully have to essentially squint at the screens so they can try to see what she’s talking about. But the second Sully spots him, those telltale purple scales, those beady little eyes, the way he naturally blends into his surroundings at any given juncture, he nearly lets out a roar of sheer fury on impulse alone.
“Randall!” he shouts, slamming a heavy fist down onto the security deck. “What’s he doing back here?!”
“He must’ve snuck back in through another door in the human world,” Mike concludes, scowling. “Couldn’t that slimy weasel just get lost and stay lost? With everything else that’s going on, the last thing we need is someone like him sneakin’ around the place. What do you think he wants now that he’s no longer working as Waternoose’s flunky?”
“No idea…” Sully admits. “But whatever it is, it can’t be good.”
“Sullivan,” Roz suddenly interjects, her tone still slow and unenthused despite the severity of the situation at hand. “Remind me again. What did Randall attempt to do the last time he was here?”
“Uh… kidnap human kids so he could extract screams from them,” Sully replies, unsure of where she’s going with this.
“And what do we currently have in this factory?”
“Uh…” Sully scratches his head, forcing Roz to be more specific.
“Where’s the boy, Sullivan?” she asks, lowering her voice to show her displeasure at a mistake Sully hadn’t even realized he’d made. Until right now.
Mike and Sully exchange a gaping glance, all three eyes between them widening apt alarm as the potential danger their new young friend is in hits them. And when it does, it hits them hard .
“Sora!”
Sora swears he must be cursed. Whether that curse be a punishment, a test of character, or even just plain bad luck doesn’t matter. All he knows is he’s cursed to be captured over and over and over again. He’d like to think he’d start to grow numb to it by this point for how many times it’s happened to him. But the blind terror shooting through him the second he wakes up tightly shackled to a frigid metal chair.
He almost screams until he remembers that’s probably exactly what his captor wants him to do. Said captor is a monster that bears some resemblance to an oversized lizard, with purple scales and two sets of arms. It doesn’t take long for the monster to notice he’s awake as he tinkers with some sort of treacherous-looking machine nearby. And as soon as Sora sees that machine, he can already tell it's going to be used on him somehow for some no-doubt nefarious purpose.
“‘Bout time you finally woke up, brat,” he says with a bit of a haughty smirk. He only briefly glances away from the machine he’s working on, not even bothering to comment on Sora’s initial attempts at trying to escape from his bonds.
“W-who are you? Why are you doing this?” he demands, though his voice trembles on every word. He hesitates in posing his third question, but in the end it comes out anyway, fueled by mistrust and suspicion that are both stronger now more than ever. “A-are you workin with those two I met earlier?”
“Yeesh, human teenagers are somehow even more annoying than the small ones…” the monster rolls his narrowed eyes, as if he’s inconvenienced by even having to listen to Sora speak. “But fine , if you’ve gotta know. 1. The name’s Randall, don’t forget it. 2. That should be pretty obvious to someone with screams as freakishly powerful as yours. And 3. No, of course I don’t work with those two–wait.” He stops short, perchin a hand to his chin as a sudden idea comes to him, one that he doesn’t hesitate to act upon as he breaks into a wide, sinister grin.
“Ohhh, you mean Sullivan and Wasowski? Yeah, we go waaaaay back,” he slithers closer to Sora, though he can’t really wince away as trapped as he is. “I’m a really good ‘friend’ of theirs. And as a friend, they asked me to do a little favor for them. See, Sullivan’s head honcho of Monsters Inc. here, and he doesn’t like to get his hands dirty with jobs like this. So he had yours truly go through all the trouble of setting the Scream Extractor up and dragging you down here so we can make the most of all those ‘super screams’ of yours.”
“I… I knew it…” Sora mutters mostly to himself, completely crestfallen. “But… I still don’t understand. Why’d they pretend to be so nice to me if they were just going to do… this ?”
“I dunno, to butter you up, bring ya into some kinda false sense of security, what do I look like, a psychiatrist?” Randall deadpans as he returns to the Scream Extractor’s control panel. “Look, why don’t you quit yapping and start screaming already? I’ve got power to generate and plans to carry out, and I don’t have time to listen to some dumb kid cry about how his new ‘best buddies’ betrayed him or whatever.”
Sora swallows hard, blinking back tears. He doesn’t know why he’s so upset, he figured this very thing would happen, it’s why he’d tried to flee this world the second Mike and Sully had their backs turned. And yet… it all still stings so much all the same. To almost be taken in, to be treated with something almost akin to kindness, to almost feel like he’d finally made a friend or two in lieu of all the ones he’s lost lately, to almost feel like he wasn’t alone anymore… only for every last part of it to be nothing more than a cruel and cunning ruse. It’s agonizing every bit as much as it’s infuriating. And right now, with no other options at his disposal, Sora decides to let that fury take over.
Because in a world filled with monsters, he might as well become a monster too.
“You want me to scream?” he almost growls as he feels–readily allows his anger and all of the darkness that comes along with it rise to the surface. “Ok then. I’ll scream…”
And scream he does.
Before Randall even has a chance to hook him up to the extractor itself, Sora erupts into a raw, visceral scream, one that easily reflects all of the rage and pain he’s feeling right now. That scream is quick to turn feral as he lets the darkness of his heart wash over him, numbing that pain and everything else really as his body starts to morph and mutate into a much more sinister state. Such a horrific transformation is enough to startle even an old scaring pro like Randall as he slowly backs away from the Scream Extractor and the young human restrained for it.
Or rather, the heart-craving creature that used to be human.
“Yeesh! Where did Randall take that kid? Back to the human world?” Mike huffs, essentially sprinting to keep up with Sully as he rushes down the factory halls.
“I doubt it,” Sully scowls, incensed by the mere thought of Randall harming another innocent child. “A kid with screams as powerful as Sora is bound to be a huge prize for him. There’s no way he’d let him go that easily.”
“Ugh, you’re right,” Mike agrees sourly. “I don’t even wanna think about what a creep like Randall would do with that much scream energy at his disposal. Combined with our power shortage problem, he could put the factory right outta business!”
“The factory isn’t what I’m worried about…” Sully mutters, and it’s true. He loves his company, cares deeply about its employees and the important work they do. But right now, all he can think about is a few months ago, when he’d raced through these same halls to save another human child entirely. Right now, all he can think about is how much Sora strangely, achingly reminds him of Boo, so small, so fragile, so innocent, so scared .
And so very worth protecting.
As the pair frantically searches the factory’s corridors, they’re caught off guard when the lights begin to violently flash once more. It’s a sure sign that they’re getting close, or at least they hope they are. But it’s only when the power abruptly shuts off completely, only as they’re left in near total darkness, only as they hear a vicious growl and a terrified shriek that they realize they’re much closer than they thought.
The backup lights kick on, casting the hallway they’re in into low, ominous shadow. Mike and Sully barely have time to adjust their eyes before someone abruptly runs into the latter. And that someone just so be none other than–
“Randall!” they both exclaim, angrily standing their ground against their old foe.
But surprisingly, Randall seems uncharacteristically shaken and noticeably scratched up as he tries to weave his way past them, anxiously checking over his shoulder every few seconds for something. “Outta my way, chumps!” he shouts hotly. “If that… thing catches up to me, I’m a goner!”
“What are you talking about, you beady-eyed son of a-” Mike stops short when a black blur suddenly rounds the nearby corner. As soon as he spots it, Randall lets out an almost humorously undignified squeal before darting off in the opposite direction before either Mike or Sully can even try to stop him. Not that they get much of a chance to as his unknown pursuer swiftly turns its attention on the two of them instead.
It brutally knocks Mike aside as it barrels into Sully, somehow having enough strength to knock the much larger monster clean off his feet. He grapples with the creature for a moment or two, eventually managing to catch it by both of the wrists before its long claws can strike him. But it’s only as he finally manages to pin this savage, snarling, shadowy beast down that Sully starkly realizes this isn’t a beast at all.
“Sora?!” Sully gasps, scarcely able to believe his eyes. At the very least, Sora seems to recognize his name as he backs off, his empty golden eyes narrowing as he backs up a bit from the pair, still growling all the while as he hunches low and threateningly.
“No way!” Mike gapes, baffled by what he’s seeing. “What did Randall do to the poor kid? Run him through some kinda ‘tall, dark, and terrifying’ machine?”
“Something tells me Randall’s not behind this…” Sully frowns, though he’s quick to leap into action when Sora suddenly lunges toward them. “Look out!” he warns, pushing Mike aside. Sora leaps past them, walking on all fours as he turns to try the same move again, at least until Sully makes a shaky attempt at stopping him.
“Sora… if you can understand us, then you’ve gotta snap out of it,” he begins, raising a protective arm in front of Mike as they both back away.
“Yeah, kid, you don’t wanna attack us!” Mike adds a bit less steadily. “We’re your new best buds, Mike and Sully, remember?”
Strangely, this seems to incense Sora as he bristles, growling just a bit louder as his eyes glow just a bit brighter. “Oh what? Does he not trust us or something?” Mike exchanges a diffident glance with Sully.
“I mean, he did only meet us a few hours ago,” Sully points out, but he turns a touch more sincere as he sets his sights back on Sora again. “But I thought we made a decent impression. Monstropolis might be a little… scary to someone like you, Sora, even though this world is full of monsters… deep down, most of them aren’t that bad. Including us… including you .”
He smiles as he extends a hand out to the baleful boy, and though Sora flinches away from that hand in fear at first, Sully doesn’t draw it back in. Mike can’t help but adopt his friend’s smile as he does the same, neither of them saying another word as they silently offer this strange, wayward child the exact same thing: two helping hands when he needs them most.
And despite everything, despite the pall of wild, thoughtless darkness hanging so heavily over his body, despite the betrayal still stinging his heart, despite all of the fear still flowing through his mind… somehow he reaches his own clawed hands out towards theirs… and accepts them both.
The shadows start to fall away from him in turn, leaving him weak to the point that he isn’t properly able to stand once they’re gone. He sways forward, barely conscious, but he never hits the ground. Because Mike and Sully are both there to catch him instead.
“We’ve got you, Sora,” Sully warmly assures as he hoists the exhausted boy into his arms for some much-needed rest. “We’ve got you.”
Though he tries escaping the factory, it isn’t long before Randall is captured and detained by the CDA. They punish him in the same way Mike and Sully had before–by banishing him back to the human world and shredding the door they pushed him through immediately after. Of course, it’s not a guarantee that he won’t stay away forever, but at least it’ll take him quite a while to find his way back. And with everything finally settled and safe, Mike and Sully waste no time finally explaining their true intentions to Sora as he recovers. And suffice to say, they’re quite different from what he’d been expecting.
“Wait, so… you guys didn’t want to use me for my screams?” Sora asks as the pair leads him into the factory’s spacious lobby. “You wanted to use me for my laughter ?”
“Eh, ‘use’ is a strong word,” Mike shrugs. “We just wanted to ask you if you’d help us out by supplying us with some of that grade-a laugh power you’re bound to have if your screams are that strong.”
“But of course, we won’t force you into anything if you don’t want to do it,” Sully adds earnestly. “It’s up to you.”
For a moment or two, Sora has no idea how to respond to this offer. The fact that he has a choice in the matter at all is mystifying enough on its own. Choice isn’t something he’s had much of lately, he had no choice but to run away from the lights, he’s had no choice but to obey his master and superiors whenever they show up. He’s had no choice but to keep making the same kind of terrible mistakes over and over again. But suddenly, there’s a break in that cycle, a stunning shift, a choice of all things, being offered to him by two monsters , of all creatures. Two monsters who are some of the kindest , least ‘monstrous’ people he’s met in quite some time.
“So, what do you say, Sora?” Sully brings him back into the conversation. “Mind helping a few monsters out? (I promise I won’t make you sit through Mike’s standup routine, it’s more… groan-worthy, than laugh-worthy).”
“Hey! I heard that!”
Sora isn’t able to hold back his first snort of laughter at this. It only grows from there though, filled with a mix of relief and amusement and delight he doesn’t even have to fake. He hasn’t laughed, hasn’t really smiled much in quite some time; he’d nearly forgotten just how good it feels too, to the point that he doesn’t want to stop lest he lose this feeling. Lest he forget once again what something even similar to happiness can be.
He’s so caught up in this sudden, inexplicable bout of joy that he doesn’t even notice when the factory’s power, which has been completely out for well over an hour now, suddenly bursts back to life. Mike and Sully gasp, both of them grinning in apt excitement as the lights above their heads shine brighter than ever before, with the rest of Monstropolis glowing radiantly in turn. Unlike the frantic, chaotic energy created by Sora’s screaming, his laughs bring power of a different kind, something much more consistent and careful and warm . That warmth lingers even when his laughter finally dies down into soft chuckles before fading out entirely. But the bright smile hanging on Sora’s face stays, or at least… it does at first.
“Of course,” he nods, eager to do anything he can to repay the pay for their generosity and care. “I’d love to help. But…” his smile finally slips as his gaze drifts downward. “I probably shouldn’t stay long… I’m looking for something important, and if I don’t find it soon…” “my master will punish me…” he almost says, shaken by both the thought itself and the fact that it had flown so naturally , so immediately through his mind.
“Well… that’s ok,” Mike says, catching Sora off guard. “We just need ya to fill up a few laugh canisters for us and then we can get you going back to the human world where you belong.”
“Back where I belong…” Sora repeats longingly, only able to wish it were that simple. That he could go back to where he once thought he belonged, back to who he once thought he belonged with. He almost says exactly what he knows to be true, that he doesn’t really belong anywhere now, not with the lights, not on the islands, not even here in a world of monsters just like him. But instead, he simply smiles, knowing that, if nothing else, he’ll get to stay here in this strange new world with his strange new friends for a little while longer. At least until the tides of fate carry him somewhere else, before they force him to stand alone all over again.
“You coming, Sora?” Sully asks as he and Mike begin making their way back to the Laugh Floor to get to work.
Despite everything, Sora smiles as he trails after them with a nod, his heart ringing with a strange sense of nostalgia as he glimpses between the pair of them. As he almost, almost sees another pair entirely, as he sees the two companions he used to always have by his side before he’d been forced to leave them behind. He almost sees Donald in Mike and Goofy in Sully, and after so long without them, it’s almost enough to make him cry.
Until he remembers he’s supposed to be laughing. So that’s what he does, to give a city light, to make his new friends happy, to be whatever anyone needs him to be. He laughs at the witty banter Mike and Sully exchange, at the best showing of slapstick and puns and gags they can provide. He laughs until countless canisters are filled to the brim with the precious energy he provides this world. He laughs until he literally can’t anymore.
But in the end, that laughter is absolutely lost when he bids his friends farewell. As he steps outside of the factory, only to be greeted by his young master. As he’s coldly escorted out of this world and to another one entirely, to a world where he won’t be a monster finally at home among so many others.
Because in every other world, he knows that he’s the only, and the worst monster there is.