Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sawyer was having a bad day. It all started before the workday began as his personal assistant called in sick, citing a stomach bug of some kind that meant they couldn’t come into work for a fortnight.

He knew that this meant he would have to deal with all the logistical issues the facility had in regard to the research projects, as they was no-one who could act as a replacement who was authorized to know about the Bigger Bodies Initiative. It would make personally carrying out research projects more difficult, but he could manage until his PA returned to work.

At least he thought he could, but then the company’ supplier of medicine and medical equipment began to have issues acquiring a specific brand of liquid tranquilisers. They wanted to ask which brand would be a suitable replacement for the old tranquilisers, but due to the secretive nature of the project, the only way she would discuss it was in person.

As the other members of the Playtime Co. counsel refused to let her on site due to fearing the backlash of having a known criminal hanging in and around a toy factory, Sawyer was forced to meet up with the smuggler in a park on the other side of town at night.

Which led him to his current situation, sat on a bench in the middle of a park in the dark and nursing a terrible-tasting coffee from a café while waiting for whoever their supplier sent to meet him.

“They don’t even have the decency to arrive on time.” He grumbled to himself as he looked down the path and tried to will the contact to arrive, only to let out a huff as the path around him remained empty.

“I shouldn’t even be here, I should be back at the lab working on Yarnaby’ training. I swear, if Dr White messed with my lab while I’m gone, there’ll be hell to pay.” He grumbled as his desire for warmth overrode his standards, and he took another sip of the awful coffee.

“How can someone mess up a Latte so badly, let alone a barista?” He muttered bitterly, though not as bitter as the coffee he had the misfortune of possessing.

“I know. I’ve complained about that worker to the management before, but they’ve never done anything about it.” A voice replied from behind him, causing Sawyer to leap off the bench with a panicked yelp as he whipped around and prepared to throw the coffee at whoever had snuck up on him. However, he paused when he realised who it was.

“Doctor Adam? What do you think you’re doing, sneaking up on random people in the middle of the night?” Sawyer yelled as he glared at the scientist, before pausing as he wondered why he was in the middle of a park at night.

“Please, call me Uthman, I like to think we’re still on a first name basis.” Doctor Adam replied casually as he placed his arms on the bench’ backrest and leaned over it before continuing, “As for why I’m here, I would wager that I’m here for the exact same reason that you are.”

“And what reason is that?” Sawyer snapped, already getting frustrated with Adam’s evasiveness. Uthman looked at him for a moment before smirking knowingly at him.

“He really hasn’t changed a bit since medical school.” Sawyer thought in annoyance as he waited for his old friend colleague to reply, the urge to throw the coffee at him growing with each passing moment.

“Why, buying medical supplies from a criminal, of course.” Uthman replied, and Sawyer froze.

“There’s no way he knows what I’m doing, right?” He thought as he stared at Uthman, scanning for any signs that he was joking. Yet all he did was look at Sawyer with a smirk, his eyes gleaming with the familiar look of devious intent that Sawyer recognised from college. So he knew that whatever Doctor Adam was doing here, it was bad news for everyone involved.

“You’re joking, right?” Sawyer asked, if only to give himself deniability in court, just in case Doctor Adam was here on behalf of a law enforcement agency.

“Not at all. Our supplier of DNA samples said they needed to talk about supply issues; something about a police bust at a nearby zoo. Anyway, they said to meet up here at 11, but I like to turn up early for these sorts of things. And who do I happen to bump into than my old school partner.” Utham replied, casually ignoring Sawyer’ growing look of frustration.

“I forgot how much you like the sound of your own voice, Uthman.” Sawyer snidely spoke to which Uthman had enough self-awareness to pretend to look embarrassed.

“Still, even if you’re here to meet some random criminal, what makes you think I’m here to meet them as well? And that’s not even getting into the fact that you just accused me of conducting illegal experimentations.” He continued as he glared down at the shorter doctor, but Doctor Uthman only let out a quiet chuckle in response.

“Please, Harley; I know you. You spent more time in a laboratory or library than you ever have spent outside, and the only reason you’d go outside is if you needed to. So when I find you just sat in the middle of a park, after dark at the same place that I’m meeting a supplier of off the book medical supplies, you expect me to believe that you’re not here to meet them?” Uthman asked as he shot Harley a sceptical look, and for once Harley found himself unable to summon a witty retort in response.

Doctor Adam didn’t reply, he only kept leaning on the bench and looking at him with his smug expression. Sawyer let out a frustrated grumble before taking another sip of his awful-tasting coffee; every moment his mouth was occupied was another moment he had to think about how he should handle his old friend acquaintance.

“He’s obviously here for more than a simple meeting with our shared supplier. I know he’s a decent liar and yet he’s being extremely upfront with his secret projects, and he’s trying to get me to confess to something similar. Plus he’s familiar with the nearby coffee place despite our supplier choosing this place at random, which means either he’s a customer at a random café that he dislikes, or he’s cased this location beforehand.” Sawyer considered the situation as he scanned Uthman for any tells, but the man was as casual as ever. Which meant that if Sawyer wanted to figure out what Uthman was up to, he would need to bait it out of him.

“But if there’s one thing I know about Uthman, it’s that he loves to talk.” Sawyer thought as he lowered his now empty coffee cup before responding, “I’d admit that I’m here to pick up some regulated medicines, but I must ask; why do you need to get DNA samples off the record, and what does a zoo have anything to do with that?”

“Oh, you know how it is, we needed a reliable source of genetic samples to help us with our research. Trying to get them through official channels just raises too many questions with the people we don’t want asking them; not all of us are lucky enough to work with such a near infinite supply of samples, eh?” Uthman responded casually with a dismissive wave of his hand, a tone that caused Sawyer’ blood to boil as he grew evermore frustrated with the man in front of him.

“And how did you come to learn so much about my place of work, exactly?” He demanded as he reached a hand into his coat pocket, his fingers wrapping around the grip of the pistol the other department heads made him carry on his person at all times. Not that he could ever shoot Doctor Adam, but it would help if this turned out to be a police sting operation or a gang kidnapping of some kind.

“Oh, some guy called Leith Pierre sent me a VHS tape which explained that he was the head of innovations at the local Playtime co. factory, and he offered me a position in their research team after he apparently dug up some of our old research projects from medical school. I refused, as it would be a downgrade for me, but it got me wondering why a toy factory slash orphanage would even want to hire a medical scientist, let alone two.” Uthman explained with a seemingly casual tone, though Sawyer noticed Doctor Adam shoot a wary glance at the hand in his pocket.

“So I did some digging and found out that Playtime have hired countless scientists and researchers over the last several decades, and that that orphanage you have in there has the highest adoption rate in the country despite the record low numbers of adopted parents on the last several government censuses.” Doctor Adam continued, his nonchalant attitude fading away as his body tensed while he waited for a reaction.

Doctor Sawyer stared at the man before him as he considered the situation, before letting out a huff of frosted breath as he let go of the pistol and withdrew his hand from his pocket.

“If Uthman wanted to cause trouble for Playtime co. or me, then he would had taken his findings to the police and they would have sent a team to investigate us. And if he was working with a gang then they would have jumped me by now. But why is he asking me about my work if it isn’t to turn me in or to work with the company?” Sawyer quietly wondered as he thought about what he should say, as he needed to pick his words carefully to not incriminate himself any further.

After a awkward moment passed, Uthman seemed to take the silence as a sign to continue talking, “Now it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s happening there, even with how well you think you’ve covered up all those times some creature escaped and terrorised the local area and those deadly accidents that keep happening in there. Though I must say, I really thought a man with your standards and professionalism would be able to keep your projects under control.”

Whatever Sawyer was about to say died in his mouth as he stared at the man who smugly stood in front of him, his outraged at being talked down to about safety standards by Uthman Adam of all people set his blood boiling to the point that he couldn’t feel the chill in the air anymore.

“Oh, don’t stand there and act like you could do any better. I still remember how you use to act when we were conducting experiments for our research projects, and how you almost infected the entire school with the West Nile virus during our practical exams.” Sawyer spat out, glaring at Uthman and smirked as he managed to get the normally apathetic man to take a step back in shock and raise his hands defensively.

“I know that I have been careless in the past, but I’ve gotten a lot better since we parted ways. We haven’t had a single incident or breakout in my lab since I established it.” Uthman retorted with a tone of defensiveness in his normally monotone voice as he let his arms drop to his sides.

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Sawyer muttered as he continued to glare at Doctor Adam, a familiar weary feeling growing inside of him that he remembered getting whenever he dealt with the other man’ antics for too long.

“Then you’re just going to have to see it for yourself, aren’t you?” Uthman replied casually as his eyes shined once more, but Sawyer was too frustrated to pay it too much mind.

“Sure.” He replied tiredly as he glanced down the path in case their supplier had arrived yet, so he could sort out the tranquiliser issue and leave soon.

“Fantastic. Meet me at Banban’ Kindergarten tomorrow night at 9 o’clock, and I shall show you just how much things have changed.” Uthman spoke as he glanced in the same direction Sawyer was looking, before turning on his heel and walking away in the other direction.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Sawyer demanded as he watched his old friend walk away, down the cobble path and into the darkness surrounding them.

“You’d probably want some privacy while you’re talking to our supplier about your issues, so I’m going to get a drink from that café. You’ll probably be gone before I get back, so I will say goodbye, and see you tomorrow.” Uthman answered, not even bothering to stop walking as he did so. Sawyer considered following after him for a better answer but he knew doing so would only make things more frustrating for him, so he simply stood by and watched as Doctor Adam disappeared from sight.

He continued to watch the path in case Uthman came back, but after a minute he simply let out a frustrated huff and sat back down on the bench as he massaged his temples.

“I hate dealing with that man, he always tries to get a rise out of me. I bet he only came early just to talk to me and frustrate me.” He muttered to himself as he looked down into his empty coffee cup, only to pause as a thought struck him.

“He came here to talk to me. He knows enough about Playtime co. to cause us a lot of trouble if he wanted to, all because Leith was careless with who he talked to yet again. Yet Uthman only wanted to talk to me.” Sawyer thought aloud as he looked down the path his acquaintance had left down, replaying the conversation he had with the man in his mind until he realised something.

“He came here to invite me to see his work, at a kindergarten of all places.” He muttered as he looked up at the sky and the full moon shining through the cloud cover and light pollution, before letting out a light chuckle.

“Makes about as much sense as it does for me to work in a toy factory of all places.” He laughed as he continued to stare up at the sky in thought, before making up his mind.

“I could simply not turn up, but if nothing else, whatever Doctor Adam wants to show me will no doubt be interesting. Who knows, whatever he’s working on might even inspire my own research. Besides, I doubt anyone else has enough of a spine to stop me from going.” He decided as he looked up at the moon, in a far better mood than he was when he first came here.

Chapter Text

Just as he thought, none of his subordinates or peers dared to question him when he announced that he will be busy that evening with an engagement outside of the facility. Though they did give him and each other questioning looks when they thought he couldn’t see them, no doubt curious as to why he was leaving again so soon after he complained about the stupidity of their supplier the whole morning.

“No matter, let them think whatever they want.” Sawyer thought as he looked out the taxi’ window, making a note of the scenery as they drove to this kindergarten that Doctor Adam apparently worked at. The taxi driver in the front seat simply stared forward and drove in silence, no doubt because Sawyer shut her down when she tried to start a conversation with him.

“This better not be an elaborate prank of some kind, or else I’ll have him made into a test subject.” He thought to himself, even if he didn’t consider that possibility with any form of real seriousness. Though Utham was a prankster in the past, and quite the sadistic one if it took his fancy, he was smart enough to never target Sawyer in fear of painful retaliation.

“And I doubt he would risk it now, given what he thinks I’ve been up to.” He thought as the taxi pulled off the main road and down a side road leading deeper into the residential district, the sight of small stores growing evermore common amongst the houses and apartment buildings.

Sawyer simply watched the barren fly past the window without comment as the taxi drove deeper into the maze of unfamiliar streets, which would no doubt be bustling with adults and children alike going about their boring, unremarkable lives if it were any earlier in the day. Eventually the taxi slowed down as it pulled into the carpark of a single-story building, that had a sign written in Comic Sans on its roof that read, “Banban’ Kindergarten” with each letter in a different colour and a thick white boarder.

Sawyer’ attention was drawn away from the building as the driver spoke up, glaring through the rearview mirror and directly at him as she held out a portable card reader, “That’ll be 237.74$, though I must ask why someone like you would be coming to a kindergarten so late at night.”

Sawyer thought for a moment as he pulled out his wallet and retrieved his company credit card, “I could just not answer that question, though my presence here for no apparent reason might draw unwanted attention to myself from the local community. It’ll be better just to give her an excuse to shut her up.”

“I’m here on behalf of Playtime Co. to investigate the quality of this establishment, as we’re considering a program to organise donations to various childcare providers in the local community. We have heard good things about this kindergarten, but the company wants to make sure that those are not baseless rumours before we take any definitive action. So I’m going to be meeting one of the owners of this establishment and going over the business while no children are there to distract them.” He replied casually, the lie tumbling out of his mouth awkwardly as he kept eye contact with the driver.

She stared at him for a few more moments, before her eyes softened and she nodded in understanding. As he entered his card and his pin into the reader, he listened to her reply, “Playtime has always been good for the local community, ever since Ludwig opened it all those years ago. I still remember my mother talking about how revolutionary his charity work for orphans was back in the day.”

Sawyer nodded in feigned interest as the card reader pinged to signal that the payment was made, before taking it out and making a quick exit out of the vehicle. The driver seemed to deflate slightly at the complete disregard for her opinion but still waited a moment before pulling away to say, “Have a good night, sir.”

Sawyer waited for the taxi to drive out of sight before taking a look of his watch and noting the time was 8.50, still early but not as early as he wanted to be. He turned his attention back to the building, and noted how plain it looked from the outside. It was a simple concrete building with glass doors and a sloped tiled roof, the only thing that was strange about it other than the sign was the fact that the building lacked windows of any kind anywhere other than the front doors.

“There’s no point waiting out here.” He thought as he stepped up to the front doors and gave them a small push, finding them unlocked so he stepped inside. What greeted him inside was a plain reception room, with two rows of padded benches with trash bins and a basic receptionist desk. The walls were adorned with various artworks of childish quality depicting various stars, hot air ballons, and weird-looking creatures, as well as two massive buttons out of reach at the top of the walls.

There was also two metal sliding doors that were locked shut, and an open doorway leading to the right. Sawyer surveyed the room with a critical eye as he thought, “Well I’ve never been in a kindergarten before, but I suppose this looks like what I expected one to look like. Though I thought Uthman would have been waiting for me, not simply leaving the front doors open for anyone to wander inside while he’s off somewhere else.”

As Sawyer was alone, bored, and unsupervised, he decided to inspect the area more thoroughly to see if he could figure anything out about the kindergarten before Uthman arrived. He gave both doors a quick glance and noted that only the side door had a key card even though both of them were closed, and the receptionist area was bare of anything other than two computers and a sole computer chair. With this room explored, he decided to move onto the next.

The first thing that caught his eye was the massive picture of what he assumed to be some kind of green gorilla, which had the text “Jumbo Josh” next to it and a speech bubble under the text that read, “Eat vegetables and fruits to become strong LIKE ME!”

“I suppose the parents demanded that the kindergarten teach their kids to eat healthy, since they couldn’t be bothered themselves.” Sawyer snidely commented as he passed the wall art and stepped into a small cafeteria, noting how barren it felt with only three sets of plastic tables with benches and two vending machines stocked with various fruit snacks and drinks. The only other thing of note was another picture on the wall of an orange jellyfish with a sole eye, the name Stinger Flynn was written next to it along with another speech bubble that read, “Having many arms allows me to help a lot more people!”

“Of all the things I expected of a place that Utham worked at, I never expected it to be so… plain.” Sawyer muttered to himself as he walked back into the reception room and decided to sit on a bench as he waited for the other doctor to arrive, unsure how to feel about the place.

“This seems to be a plain ordinary kindergarten from what I can tell, but I know Uthman, and this is far too plain and clean for someone like him. Unless he was telling the truth about being better than he has in the past, though he definitely didn’t act any differently last night.” He thought to himself as he silently looked at the wall in front of him, only to be distracted by the sound of a sliding door opening as Uthman stepped into the room.

“I’m sorry if I kept you waiting for too long, but there was an issue in the lab I needed to sort out first.” Uthman spoke casually as he brushed some imaginary dirt off of his lab coat, before offering a hand either to shake or to help him stand back up. Sawyer simply glared at the hand for a moment before standing up by himself, keeping an eye on Uthman as the man awkwardly lowered his hand with a nervous look.

“Funny, he said he’s changed yet he still has the same expression when he’s anxious about getting feedback on his work.” Sawyer thought, but instead said, “Well, I’m here, so let’s see what you’ve been up to then.”

“Ah, straight to business, of course. You’ve always hated idle talk when you’re working. Right this way.” Uthman replied with a nervous tone before turning around again and walking back through the now open door, Sawyer following behind as he scanned the new hallway. It was plain white from what he could see, the only thing of note being the glass walls embedded in the hall parallel to each other followed by two open doorways similarly positioned.

“Now I can’t take you into the Laboratory like I planned to do because of that issue, but I have arranged for one of our most successful specimens to meet up with us in the play area. It’s right this way.” Uthman continued as he led Sawyer passed the two glass walls, and Sawyer noted that the left room was a classroom filled with bright plastic tables and chairs.

But Sawyer’ attention was quickly dragged away from the classroom when Uthman lead him into the Play area, which was a large room that was lined with a soft padded plastic. Thought there was a jungle gym and swings, Sawyer’ main focus was on how the room was styled to look like an outdoor park made of cheap plastics and metal.

“it looks like one of those play areas in the Game Station If Mr Ludwig had only paid a blind man a dollar to make it.” Sawyer snidely thought as he stepped over the blue plastic on the floor he assumed was meant to look like a river and stared at a plastic imitation of a dead tree.

“I know it doesn’t look great, but the kids seem to love it. Plus, the parents would have complained endlessly if we didn’t have padded floors in here.” Uthman spoke in defence of the room, as he seemed to have noticed the contempt that radiated off of Sawyer since he caught sight of the room.

“Uthman, I don’t really care about how you decorated this kindergarten. I came here to see your work, and all you’ve done is waste my time.” Sawyer replied curtly, turning his critical stare away from the room and towards the other man. Uthman chuckled nervously as he continued to stare down at him, rubbing the back of his neck as he glanced towards the hallway.

“He should be here shortly. He was right behind me just a moment ago, but the elevator up can’t take our combined weight at the same time, so I came up first to greet you.” Uthman replied nervously as his eyes flickered from the hall to Sawyer, and back again as they waited. Sawyer felt himself blink in surprise as he felt his confusion grow, and he struggled to form them into an adequate question.

“He?” Sawyer finally asked, but a loud thud resonated from the halls before Uthman could reply. A thud that was followed by more thuds in a steady beat that he recognised as footsteps.

“Ah, there he is now.” Uthman replied as his nervousness melted away, while Sawyer felt his own skyrocket as the steps grew closer and louder. The thing that struck Sawyer the most, however, was the fact that there was only one set of footsteps drawing near.

“He’s letting it walk here by itself without a security escort.” Sawyer realised as he instinctively reached his hand into his pocket to grab his gun, his senses sharpening with adrenaline at the thought of fighting off whatever was large enough to make those sounds. Something that was walking in through the doorway into the play area, and the sight of it froze him in shock.

It was unlike anything he had ever seen. A 4-armed pink monster, easily 3 meters tall, with a large crescent cephalofoil head and a massive gaping mouth. The strangest part was that while each arm ended with a metallic prosthetic with in-built tools, the rest of its body seemed to have been made out of a form of non-newtonian putty.

Then the giant spoke.

“Is this the human you were speaking to me about, Doctor Uthman?” the creature spoke in an accent comparable to Irish as it turned to look at Uthman, it’s mouth not moving an inch other than to breathe despite the fact that it was talking.

“Yes, this is my friend and old partner, Doctor Harley Sawyer.” Uthman replied casually, as if he was talking to a personal assistant rather than a giant putty monster whose mere presence stunned and bewildered him.

“How is he keeping his form from breaking apart? Even if it had an exoskeleton to form it, whatever it’s made of would have fallen apart without an exterior coating of some kind. How is it talking so well without even moving its mouth? Why is Uthman letting it wander around without an escort; how can he trust it not to cause us any harm?” Sawyer’ thoughts were running at a mile a minute as his mind was overwhelmed by questions, questions he couldn’t fathom the answers to.

“He’s quite the quiet one, isn’t he? Are you sure he’s as smart as you say?” The giant snarked as it gave him a side-eyed glance, which only filled Sawyer with even more questions about how and when it was able to learn and understand sarcasm.

“Now, now, this is the first time he’s seen anyone like you. Just give him a moment to gather himself, and you’ll see just how brilliant he can be.” Uthman replied as he sat down atop of a red plastic boat near the corner of the room and simply waited for Sawyer to process everything.

Sawyer, meanwhile, was too busy trying to gather his thoughts to pay any real attention to their conversation. He had been expecting Uthman to have been creating animal hybrids like he claimed he would in medical school, but something like this was beyond any of his expectations. Still, he forced down all of his shock and awe and feigned his usual professional attitude as he simply asked, “How?”

“We’ll get onto that later, but first; why don’t you introduce yourself?” Uthman replied, brushing him off as he turned to addressed towards the giant monster with a calm that baffled Sawyer.

“Very well.” The Giant seemed to sigh, before turning towards Sawyer and offering an arm that ended with a metal claw as it continued to speak. “I am Syringeon; I am the 4th successful case on this research project. I have heard many things about you, Doctor Sawyer, mostly good things. I hope that what Doctor Uthman has said about you is true.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Sawyer replied as he hesitantly raised a hand and shook the creature’ claw, making sure to grab the outer edge of the claw before quickly withdrawing his hand. He then shot a quick questioning glance at Uthman at how… normal the beast was acting.

“As if it were just a normal person; I must find out how Uthman conditioned this creation of his. If my experiments back at the labs acted anywhere close to this then they would be ready to work the production line, and Eddie would finally get off my back about his precious profit margins.” He thought as he looked back at the beast who was simply staring down at him unblinking, so he decided to continue speaking, “Uthman must have a lot of trust in you if he’s allowed you to walk around by yourself.”

The creature that was apparently called Syringeon let out a deep chuckle at that, which confused Sawyer until the pink giant replied, “Oh, they trust me far more than that. Doctor Uthman, may I boast to your friend here about what you have me working on?”

They both looked at the man sat on the boat, who wordlessly gestured for his experiment to continue with a pleased expression. Syringeon didn’t visibly react, though Sawyer didn’t know if it had the capacity to react to anything visibly, but it turned back to him and continued talking; “You see, the staff at this facility have allowed me a few freedoms in exchange for me working on a few simple tasks for them, such as surgeries, building maintenance, on-site security, and specimen transportation and recapturing.”

Sawyer blinked at the creature’ words as he processed what he heard, before turning to face Uthman and asking, “It’s joking, right? Surely even you wouldn’t be careless enough to allow an experiment to not only wander around the site freely, but to also work on security and surgeries of all things?”

Uthman simply looked at Sawyer with a smug expression as he reached into his coat, pulling out a familiar tape and holding it out to him. Sawyer glanced down at the tape, before looking back up as Uthman began to speak; “I know someone like you would never be able to take our word for it, so I had our acquaintance Syringeon here taped during some routine maintenance to prove his words and his capabilities.”

“Why are you showing me this?” The words fell out of Sawyer’ mouth before he realised what he was saying, the shock and complete unexpected nature of the whole situation having caught him completely off guard.

Uthman’ smug expression visibly turned a shade darker as he stood up and began walking towards them both, his height doing nothing to alleviate the intimidation he was radiating as he spoke; “You see Sawyer, I have revealed Syringeon to you because I know what you’ve been doing at Playtime all those years. You have been creating creatures for them, like me; but unlike you, I don’t create bloodthirsty and rebellious creatures that go on to escape and murder anyone they come across.”

“You have met Syringeon, you know how rational and capable he is compared to your creations, so now I will give you, and Playtime an offer; I will teach you the secrets behind Syringeon’ creation in exchange for 10 million dollars. Now that may seem like a lot, but Playtime is a big company with the money to spare, and you need my knowledge.” Uthman finished as he stopped right in front of them both, still holding the tape out that Sawyer could now recognise as an official Playtime VHS cartridge.

Sawyer simply stared at the tape for a moment as he tried to process everything that Uthman had said, before reaching out his hand and grabbing it as he coldly replied, “I can’t make a decision of that magnitude without first talking with the other department heads back at Playtime.”

“Of course not, and I don’t expect you to.” Uthman immediately replied as he stepped next to Sawyer and placed an arm across his shoulders, before slowly leading him back to the doorway as he continued, “It is a big decision after all; a lot of money, but also revolutionary research that will no doubt advance your own projects tremendously far quicker and cheaper than it would take for you to do on your own.”

“I’ll tell you what; as it’s as late as it is, I’ll let you get back home to rest and tell the others about my offer, and I’ll be waiting here to hear back from you when you agree to my deal or propose a counteroffer. Does that sound like a plan to you, Harley?” Uthman continued as he led the taller doctor back into the hallway, looking up at him as he asked his final question.

Sawyer, meanwhile, had been slowly feeling himself getting overwhelmed by everything, trying to process Doctor Adam’ words as he kept his eyes on the pink giant Syringeon who silently stood and watched the pair leave the room. He turned to look back at the smaller doctor at his question and simply nodded in reply as he struggled to get his thoughts together.

“Great!” Uthman replied as they both walked down the hallway towards the reception room, where he finally removed his arm from Sawyer’ back before turning to look at the other doctor and offering a hand to shake as he continued; “Well I’ll let you get on with your day, you no doubt have a lot to consider after everything I’ve shown you. It has been a pleasure to speak to you as always, and I look forward to hearing your response.”

Sawyer looked down at Uthman’ hand for a moment before sighing as he finally released his grip on his pistol, pulling his hand back out of his pocket and shaking it has he simply replied, “Likewise.”

Uthman nodded at this with a smirk, before releasing his hand and stepping back into the hallway as he replied, “Well I will let you find your own way out. Goodnight, Harley.”

The hallway door then quietly slid closed, leaving Sawyer alone in the kindergarten’ reception room where he slowly lowered his hand as he stared at the tape in the other. After a minute of processing everything, his expression shaped itself into a scowl as he realised what had just happened.

He supressed his urge to throw the tape against the wall as he thought; “Damn it all, he overwhelmed me again. He always did this whenever he wanted to make me agree with his plans, but I can’t believe that it still worked on me. I should be better than this!”

“Still, I’d probably need to let the other department heads know about this; if nothing else, they’d want to know that our research now has competition.” Sawyer muttered to himself as he glared at the door leading back into the kindergarten, before turning on his heel and stalking out of the building.

Before anything else, though, he needed to call for another taxi to pick him up.

Chapter Text

Uthman watched the others from atop of his rock as they went about their daily business.

The four remaining Givanium infants were gathered together on the fake island in the corner of the room playing pretend, not remembering or caring about how there were five of them just last week.

The case made from Weverly Mason’ donated DNA sample was ignoring them as she was crouched in the middle of the room etching math equations into the floor with a finger, and even from here, he could tell that she was struggling with a simple subtraction question.

Bittergiggle, meanwhile, was leaned back against one of the igloos with the newly named Kittysaurus curled up on his lap, the both of them no doubt relieved that their impromptu surgeries were cancelled after everything that happened last week.

“It’s surprising how quickly everything can go back to normal after Ramamba ate us all and died.” He thought as he idly scanned the room, the pain that reverberated throughout his body acting as his only relief from the sheer boredom he felt ever since he was placed in this section of the facility.

He was suddenly distracted from his thoughts when the door leading out of this section opened, and Syringeon stepped into the room followed by a tiny yellow creature. Uthman slowly slid down from the rock and landed on his feet as he watched the pair to see what they would do.

The yellow creature seemed to slowly slither forwards as they scanned the room, before stopping as they turned to look back at Syringeon who simply waved at them to go forth. The yellow creature seemed to be emboldened by this and went back to scanning the room, before their gaze settled onto him as he thought, “That must be the new experiment Syringeon was telling me about. I wonder how well she’s adapting to everything.”

Then Uthman blinked, and the yellow creature was directly in front of him.

“Hello there.” She said as she looked up at him, and it took all of his limited self-control to avoid yelling in surprise, though he did take a step backwards and bumped into the rock behind him.

“Hi.” He replied as he recomposed himself before kneeling down so he could be on her eye level, while supressing the urge to offer a hand to shake as she didn’t have any hands, and he didn’t want to offend her.

“I remember seeing you in my dreams a lot. You’re going to impact far more than you know.” She spoke casually, but with such a certainty that Uthman couldn’t help but pausing for a moment as he processed what she had said. That moment was long enough, however, for her to suddenly disappear right in front of his eyes and appear in front of Banbaleena.

Uthman watched as the pair introduced themselves, before turning his attention away from them as he started to walk towards where Syringeon was stood watching over the snail. He obviously noticed, but he didn’t draw his attention away from the new experiment even as he stepped next to him and asked, “So I see the others have decided that Case 11 is safe enough to interact with the rest of us.”

“That they have, though their hand was forced by several of the investors after Ramamba’ death and Case 6C’ disappearance.” Syringeon confirmed as he continued to watch Slow Seline, only taking his eyes off her for a moment to glance at Uthman and ask, “Are you certain that they won’t find him? Because if they do, it could unravel everything we’ve planned.”

“Don’t worry, I got him hiding in my second-best hiding spot. Even if he does somehow find a way out of the closet, he doesn’t have a keycard that can open the door to that abandoned meeting room.” Uthman replied casually as he looked up at his ally, to which he nodded in response and turned his attention back towards his duty.

“You should count yourself lucky that the other scientists are getting prepared for the deal Ut… the head scientist managed to organise with Playtime. Otherwise they would be diverting more resources to finding him.” Syringeon noted as they watch the snail disappear from where Banbaleena was and appear next to Bittergiggle and Kittysaurus, and from this distance Uthman noticed that she wasn’t teleporting but moving at a speed that his eyes struggled to keep track of.

“A deal with Playtime? It’ll complicate our plans if that goes through, and they start bringing more people into the facility.” He remarked as he considered the ramifications of this on their plans. He knew that it wouldn’t deter Sir Dadadoo, but none of the other experiments were as committed to the plan.

“You don’t know the half of it.” Syringeon huffed as he glanced down at him for a moment, before turning back as he continued, “The guy has been talking for weeks about this plan to get access to some resources that Playtime has. He specifically wants access to a staff member of theirs called Harvey Sawyer, and he’s asked me to help him get it. He even got me to act in a tape to show off to the guy; a waste of time in my opinion, but I know what happens if I don’t play along.”

An awkward moment passed before Syringeon looked back down at him curiously, but Uthman paid him no notice as the name Harvey Sawyer was familiar to him even though he couldn’t remember from where. He was dragged out of his thoughts when he felt something metallic poke him in the side of the head, and he turned to see one of Syringeon’ prosthetic mechanical hands. He glanced up and saw that he was giving him a side-eye as he said, “Keep your wits about you, Uthman. You’re not going to do anything with your head in the clouds.”

“Right, sorry. It’s just that that name seems familiar for some reason.” Uthman replied as they both turned their attention back to Case 11, who was now also sat next to Case 26 on Case 17’ lap while he slowly rubbed her shell.

They both watched for a moment, but afterwards they realised that nothing was going to happen, so they turned their attention back towards each other as Syringeon spoke, “Yes, I heard something about that. Something about working with him back a medical school. Apparently, he was the top of his class and is now the head of research for whatever illegal experiments Playtime are conducting.”

“Yes, he was.” Uthman muttered, his memory of the man becoming slightly clearer at his friend’ description, but he continued his thoughts aloud, “He was a brilliant scientist, but he also was completely unwilling to deal with office infighting and had no social tact. He never made many friends from what I know, and even sabotaged his own career since most people weren’t willing to work with him.”

 “And yet you seem to have good memories of him.” Syringeon noted with an odd tone as he briefly looked at him before turning his focus back onto the case currently under his care. Uthman paused for a moment at the comment and acknowledged the small growing warm feeling in his chest as he thought aloud, “I do remember working with him, or someone like him, a lot when I was getting my degrees, so I know how to get on the good side of someone like that.”

“And that is?” Syringeon asked as he watched the snail slowly slide off of Bittergiggle’ lap before sprinting over to the blob-shaped Givanium infants faster than anyone could track, causing the four to leap away shrieking. Uthman let out a laugh at the sight, before glancing up at Case 4 and replying, “You get them to think you’re helpful to have around.”

Syringeon turned to stare down at him for a moment, before nodding in understanding as he focused back on his duty, and they stood together in a comfortable silence. However Uthman felt restless as he had a question that he desperately needed answering, and so he asked it, “So when is Sawyer coming back?”

“What makes you so sure that he will be back? He said that he needed to talk to some other people, and they could very well refuse the offer.” Syringeon countered as he gave him a side-eyed glance.

“Well, from what I remember of him, he is completely obsessed with furthering his research, and he’ll do anything for whatever project he’s working on. If he things that the deal would help him at all, then he will go to any lengths to make the others accept the proposal.” Uthman replied casually, but before Syringeon could reply, Case 11 appeared in front of the pair.

“I’m ready to go back to my room.” She spoke as she looked up at her current caretaker, who seemed momentarily surprised at her sudden appearance but quickly suppressed it. He took one look at Uthman, before turning away and walking towards the exit as he spoke, “We’ll talk later.”

Uthman nodded and moved to walk away but paused as he noticed that Case 11 was staring at him again. He turned to look at her in curiosity when she suddenly said, “See you soon, Banban.”

Before he could reply, she disappeared again, no doubt down the door Syringeon had opened and just stepped through. Uthman stared down the hall with a scowl as he watched the doors closed, before quietly muttering to himself, “I really hate it when people call me that. Just because the place is called Banban’ Kindergarten doesn’t mean I’m Banban.”

(From above, a security camera watched as Case 6 stared at the sealed exit door for another moment, before turning around and walking towards their room.)

Chapter Text

In a meeting room deep within the Playtime factory’ executive offices, the four department heads watched as the tape began to play. The screen showed the giant pink creature Doctor Sawyer said was apparently named Syringeon, who was working on replacing a section of pipework.

Despite the fact that the tape was almost completely silent, the video was enough to show that the creature was able to easily lift the massive pipe into position with only two claws while simultaneously using its other arms to bolt it into place.

It was clear that the footage was made to showcase how the creature was skilled at performing intricate maintenance tasks by itself, but it was also clear from how it kept turning to shoot glares at the camera that it knew that it was being filmed and that the whole thing was likely staged.

“This acquaintance you made must have a lot of control over this creature of his if he was confident enough to get it to perform in front of a camera, despite the obvious risks.” Eddie finally broke the silence as he turned to face Doctor Sawyer, who only gave him a side-eyed glance before silently turning his attention back to the television.

He hadn’t needed to though, as a pair of teal arms holding a pair of scissors moved into frame. The creature glanced at it before quickly double taking, then glaring at the creature as it finally spoke in a near growl, “That isn’t a hammer.”

The tape suddenly ended as the specimen continued to glare at the other creature, and the four department heads sat in silent contemplation as the VHS player automatically ejected the cassette tape and dumped it onto the carpeted floor with a muffled thud. They sat in silence as they glanced at each other, before Leithe Pierre clear his throat before saying, “Well that was certainly an enlightening demonstration of this other doctor’ creations. What did you say his name was again, Harley?”

“His name his Doctor Uthman Adam.” Sawyer answered through gritted teeth at the way Leithe said his name, before turning to fully face him as he continued, “Though you should already know that, since the only reason he knew about us was because you sent him a video message trying to recruit him to work on the Bigger Bodies Initiative.”

The other two people in the room snapped out of their thoughts as they whipped around to stare at the head of innovation in shock, and there was no doubt in Sawyer’ mind that they hadn’t known about the job Leithe offered to Uthman. Leithe, for once, seemed to look sheepish as Eddie spoke out, “You told someone about the Bigger Body initiative?”

“Of course not. I only offered him a job in our research wing, a vague position that didn’t reveal anything confidential.” Leithe shot back as he glared at Eddie, before pointedly looking at Sawyer as he continued, “And from this demonstration he has given us of his recent projects, it was a good idea to offer him a position.”

 “It was a terrible idea.” Sawyer shot back as he met his gaze with an irate glare of his own, before continuing as he kept eye contact, “You gave up too much information in that job interview, and he managed to figure out exactly what we’ve been working on here down to what we’re making and what we’re using to make it.”

The room fell deathly silent as Sawyer felt everyone look at him, but he refused to turn away from Leithe’ gaze as it turned from its sadistic gleam to a rare cold intenseness that he had seen few times before. The pair continued their staring contest for a few seconds, before their attention was pulled away from the other as Stella broke the silence to ask, “I doubt Leithe told him directly about the project; how did this man find out about it?”

“By following the trail of breadcrumbs you and him failed to clean up properly. He figured out that most of the orphans weren’t being adopted from the inconsistencies with the official paperwork, and he figured out about the bigger bodies from all the reports that weren’t covered up in the local news agencies.” Sawyer answered as he glared down at the smaller woman, who immediately backed down after she saw the look in his eyes.

“She always backs down the moment she gets confronted; no backbone, that one. How she manages to look after kids without being able to put her foot down, I’ll never know.” Sawyer mentally huffed, only to jolt away as someone else slammed their hands on the desk. He turned to where the noise came from, and came face to face with an irate Leithe as he glared at him and retorted, “We wouldn’t need to cover up the breakouts if you didn’t let them break out of the lab in the first place!”

“And they wouldn’t break out all the time if you hired security guards that did their job instead of slacking off and abusing the test subjects for their own entertainment.” Sawyer shot back as he met Leithe glare with one of his own of equal intensity.

They stared at each other before Sawyer released a frustrated sigh and looked back at the television, recognising that he needed to de-escalate the situation before they got into another shouting match, so he said, “But it doesn’t matter how he found out about the Bigger Bodies Initiative. He has enough information to cause us no end of trouble, and we can’t stop him from using it if-“

“Sure we can.” Leithe butted in, still glaring at him before turning to the others as he continued, “If he’s is a risk to the project, then we should just kill him off and clear up whatever evidence he managed to discover. Problem solved.”

“The problem isn’t solved.” Stella retorted, to the shock of everyone in the room. Even Leithe seemed to snap out of his anger momentarily as he stared at her in confusion, while she continued talking, “He runs a kindergarten as well as that research project; he’ll have regular contact with all the staff at the facility and the parents who send their children there. Even if we manage to get rid of him without raising too much suspicion, his disappearance will be noticed by a lot of people we can’t afford to have asking questions.”

“We killed off more important people than a kindergarten principle in the past and got away with it. We’ll be fine.” Leithe replied as he glared down at her, his confusion quickly giving way to frustration as his idea was being contested by Stella of all people. Yet despite his point, she still looked unconvinced as she answered, “We’ve only gotten away with it because they were in the factory at the time. If we decide to kill him then we would either need to send a team after him or lure him here, and both choices will link us to his disappearance. If we at least pretend to consider his offer for at least a while, we could use it to coerce him to keep our secrets secret.”

The three men in the room looked at Stella for a moment before turning to glance at each other to try and gauge what they were feeling. Sawyer himself felt confident that he could at least get Stella to agree to make the deal, so the worse outcome now was causing a voting stalemate that delayed the topic until a future meeting.

Leithe, while seemingly digesting Stella’ words, still had a frustrated look in his eyes that meant he was angry that he wasn’t getting his way, to which Sawyer could only think, “He’s like one of the children in Playcare; angry that he can’t have everything go the way he wants even if the best option isn’t his. Still, if he’s so dedicated to killing Uthman then there’s no way he’ll agree to the deal.”

“10 million is a lot of money to pay this scientist for his research, even for the skill and training the creature it created seems to have.” Eddie spoke out, drawing Sawyer out of his thoughts and drawing all attention to him as he continued, “It would be far cheaper to pay a hitman through a shell company to kill him, and then recreate his research ourselves. We have the facilities for it, after all, and we even have reference material from this tape and your personal meeting with the creature, Dr Sawyer.”

“It’s not that simple, Eddie; I can’t just simply recreate his work from sight alone. You would know this if you ever stepped into the research wing you’re apparently in charge of.” Sawyer snapped back, glaring down at the businessman with a fury he only felt when the effort he put into his work was being undervalued. He felt the others’ eyes fall on him, but he ignored them to continue glaring down at his indifferent co-worker as he continued to rant, “We would need to start an entire new project dedicated to trying to re-create his results through trial and error; tests that would cost the company a lot of money, resources, and time that it simply does not have.”

“As well as the countless of lives lost during the testing! Who knows how many children we would have to sacrifice to create a pale imitation of what is already being offered to us.” Stella jumped in, unable to control her bleeding heart at the idea of losing more children to their research despite how often she sends them to their deaths. While Sawyer had no doubt that Stella’ contribution was brushed off by the other two men, they still seemed to be considering his point.

“As they should. The Bigger Body Initiative was created because the company was already losing money, so starting up another costly venture with no guarantee of rapid success would just make it another thing dragging this whole company into bankruptcy.” Sawyer thought as he looked over at Stella, who looked back at him and nodded at him, likely because she felt that they were on the same team on this topic. Sawyer acknowledged her look before turning away to look at the other two men, while thinking, “She’s a fool to think I care about the lives lost; every single one is worth more on the operating table than it would as a free person just for the discoveries we make alone.”

“We could just send someone into his lab to steal his research.” Leithe suggested uncertainly, though he didn’t show it beyond the few tells Sawyer learned to recognise on the man. Before Sawyer could speak up to point out the flaws in that idea, Eddie did so instead as he retorted, “How? All we know is that he has an elevator in the kindergarten that leads down to where he keeps this Syringeon creature. We have no idea where is or how to use it, and there’s no telling what kind of security he has down there. At the very least, we would need to send an entire team of people just to subdue this creature.”

Everyone in the meeting room took a moment to think over their options, as they all knew on some level that how they choose to deal with Doctor Uthman’ proposal will impact the company.

“It a big decision, and even I don’t know if Uthman can be trusted so who knows what they’re thinking.” Sawyer considered as he looked over the three other department heads, taking in their expressions as he thought, “If killing him and stealing his research is off the table then the only real option left is to try and make a deal with him, but even if they don’t know him like I do, introducing an outsider into the project is a massive risk for everyone. It’s no surprise they’re so hesitant despite how groundbreaking his research results are.”

Sawyer’ attention was drawn away from his thoughts when he noticed that Stella was looking at him with a contemplative expression, so he turned to face her and wordlessly raised an eyebrow as he waited for her to make her thoughts known. The other two noticed and waited for her comment, and being at the centre of attention seemed to stress her out more than normal. Yet she only took a moment to steel herself before asking, “Sawyer, you’re the only person here who has met this Doctor Adams. Do you think we can get him to negotiate with us, and will he cooperate with us on the project?”

“No. You’ll have to threaten him with severe repercussions to make sure he stays true to his word, but even then, he may still backstab you if he thinks he do it without getting caught.” He thought instantly but made sure to keep his true thoughts unspoken less he signs Uthman’ death sentence, consequences be damned.

Instead he took a moment to idly look over at Leithe and Eddie as he pretended to think, before looking back at her and replying, “I do. He has access to a lot of information that could have caused us a lot of trouble if it got into the wrong hands. Yet instead of striking against us, he went out of his way to propose this deal to us. Whatever the reason, whether out of desperation or to try and organise a joint venture, I do not know, but what I do know is that he wants to make this deal with us.”

Stella stared at him for a moment as she gauged him for any deception, before nodding as she turned to the other two and saying, “If that’s the case, then I will officially support the motion to try and negotiate with Doctor Uthman.”

Leithe looked her over blankly before looking away and letting out a deep sigh of frustration, raising a hand to run through his oiled hair as he considered everything. Eddie, meanwhile, was looking at Stella with the same doubtful expression he normally has as he spoke, “Even still, I am uncertain about the validity of this outsider’ offer. After all, the only proof that we have about the results of this man’ experiments are the first person’ account of seeing this creature enter a room and talk, and a staged video of it fixing a pipe. Even considering the amount of control he has over it, we have no idea how effective it is at actually performing tasks without supervision. It is a risky and costly bet for something that might not even be beneficial to the Bigger Body Initiative.”

“Well, the tape and Sawyer’ word is all we have to go on. It’s not like we could get him to show us a demonstration of it before we agree to negotiate a deal.” Leithe spoke out, turning his full attention towards Eddie as he patronisingly patted him on the shoulder, which Eddie responded by glaring at the hand with a look that could kill.

“Actually, he probably will show us if we just ask him.” Sawyer felt the words fall out of his mouth before he realised what he was saying, and the others slowly turned to face him with questioning expressions. Before any of them could ask him how he was so confident in his assertion, he quickly added, “If he’s desperate enough to approach us and try to make a deal with us despite knowing what we’re working on, then we can easily pressure him into meeting our demands even with the evidence he has against us.”

“You can’t know that for certain, Sawyer. If he feels that we’re pressuring him too much, he could use the information he has to ruin us.” Eddie shot back as he turned his glare unto him while Leithe silently watched, and it felt like he was studying them for something. Before Sawyer could come up with a retort, Stella spoke up in his defence, “If he wanted to ruin us, then he wouldn’t have offered us the deal in the first place. He’s only using it as leverage to get us to the bargaining table.”

“I’ve never seen Stella this involved in a meeting when it didn’t involve the children at Playcare, though then again, she’s probably so involved now because of them. The less research we need to do, the less children we need to sacrifice to perfect the process, after all.” Sawyer thought as he considered the woman, who had just entered a staring contest with Eddie. They both kept eye contact with each other, refusing to be the first to show weakness and back down.

Sawyer suppressed an amused chuckle at the sight, as he couldn’t help but compare the two to Yarnaby and The Nightmare Critters when they fight for the top position in their little dominance hierarchy. Yet like all battles for dominance, one of the competitors did back down first; it was just surprising to see that it was Eddie who broke eye contact first as he spoke, “Well, I do suppose that we could get rid of him if he tried to cause us any major trouble, so entertaining the idea of making a deal with him wouldn’t cost us too much in the long run.”

Stella stared at the businessman for a few more seconds, before letting out a sigh as she blinked and said, “So, we have decided that we’re going to reach out and try to negotiate with this doctor?”

“It looks like it.” Leithe spoke up in a passive tone, causing everyone to turn their attention to him as he broke his silence. He seemed to relish being the centre of attention again for a second, before turning to Sawyer and speaking in his normal smarmy voice, “I do hope that you don’t mind if I motion to have Harley here be our main contact with the man. His familiarity with him will no doubt be nothing but a benefit to us.”

The other two quickly agreed, but Sawyer stayed silent as he considered the head of Innovation with a glare and thought, “He’s up to something. Normally he would have Eddie be our business contact. The only times he says otherwise is if he’s trying to annoy me or he thinks Eddie’ approach would cause us issues, and he knows that he doesn’t need me specifically to approach him. If he did, he would have never sent that blasted job offer on that tape.”

“Fine. I’ll try to organise something with him as soon as I can ring him.” Sawyer spoke as he felt the three department heads looking at him, waiting for a response. They seemed to accept his answer as they looked down at their paperwork, no doubt second guessing themselves as they considered all the different ways introducing an outsider to the project could go wrong.

Yet Eddie perked up before anyone could say anything more on the topic, and he pulled out a file labelled sales as he spoke, “Now that all of that business has been taken care of, I would like to now discuss the topic of Mommy Long Legs; the product line has been showing a steady growth in sales since we released it onto the markets, and I believe that it is time to consider expanding the product line’ target audience by creating new characters that would appeal to different demographics.”

Even without turning to face them, Sawyer could tell that the other two department heads had mentally checked out of the conversation as Eddie continued to blather on about sale projections and focus group results. Yet he could feel Leithe glare at his direction every now and then, and he knew that whatever he was planning on doing with Doctor Uthman was not good for him.

“I hope Uthman doesn’t end up being used as a scapegoat or fed to Boxy Boo, it would be a waste of rare talent.” He thought as he nodded along to whatever Eddie was talking about, while mentally preparing himself to speak to Uthman about organising a live demonstration of his creations.

Chapter Text

“I don’t know why they think they need to involve me in their business talks. All it does is waste my time when I could be working on the Bigger Bodies Initiative like they want me to.” Sawyer thought as he stepped into his personal office and slammed the door behind him, no doubt scaring whatever lab assistants were walking past at the time.

His office looked the same as ever, furnished with only the necessities; a simple wooden desk with a basic computer setup, a telephone and a pile of project applications waiting for him to sort through. He walked past the two plain chairs on the guest side of the desk and sat down in the leather office chair on his side, being careful not to bump into the filing cabinets behind him.

He hadn’t bothered to decorate it like some of the others did with their workspaces, as he was always far too busy in the labs or the prison to bother. The only things in the room that he had brought in to personalise it was his master’s degree in biology and his Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree.

He looked over the two framed pieces of paper on the wall, before turning his attention to the large folder sat in the centre of the desk. It was stuffed to the brim with paperwork, and it was titled “Smaller Bodies Proposal” in Doctor White’ recognisably messy handwriting.

Sawyer scoffed at it as he picked it up to glance at it, before dumping it on the edge of the desk as he muttered, “How many times do I need to tell that fool that making the experiments the size of the toys they’re meant to look like is a waste of time and resources, and that the end result would be worse than the current Bigger Bodies experiments?”

Sawyer huffed in frustration at the request folder on the desk as he made a mental note to have a word with him about wasting his time on proposals he had already denied. He glared at it for a second longer as he thought, “Does he truly think that I would approve such an idiotic idea just because he worded it differently? I bet he did, he always thinks things will go his way if he simply brute forces whatever issue he’s facing. Like this project of his, he thinks that if he throws enough test subjects at it then he’ll figure out a way to keep his smaller bodied experiments alive after removing 90% of their vital organs. How pointlessly wasteful; If he wastes any more of my time by submitting this proposal again, I’ll have him demoted him to hazardous waste disposal.”

He huffed as he turned his attention away from the frankly ludicrous research proposal and instead focused on the dust covered telephone sat upon the desk. He picked up the handset and brought it to his ear, looking down at the dial pad as he moved to enter in the phone number. He froze as a realisation hit him, and he quickly swore, “Damnit all, that idiot forgot to give me his phone number. How the hell am I meant to talk to him about the deal if I can’t talk to him?”

He stared at the numpad as he racked his brain for a solution, before an idea struck him and he pressed a lit button to call a preset internal phone line. He quietly listened for a few moments as the phone rang, before it stopped abruptly mid-ring and a nervous voice spoke, “Hello Doctor Sawyer, sir. Is there something I can help you with?”

“Have someone bring a phone book to my office as soon as possible.” He answered casually, and he supressed a chuckle as he heard whoever answer the phone quietly gulp before muttering an affirmative before hanging up. Once he heard the line go dead, he placed the handset into the receiver and allowed himself to laugh out loud at how scared the worker sounded at having to enter his office.

His laugher had died down to a quiet chuckle by time someone knocked on his office door, so he suppressed his sudden good mood and reformed his professional expression before calling out, “You may enter now.”

The door creaked open at his words and a young woman cautiously entered the room, who looked as if she had been asked to give Boxy Boo a dental checkup rather than deliver a book to his office.  She stood there quietly in fear as she tried not to seem overly nervous, but after a moment of waiting Sawyer spoke, “Please hand me the phone book, I have an important call to make.”

“Of course, Doctor Sawyer, sir.” She spoke as she snapped out of her anxious thoughts and stepped over to his desk, gently placing the book in front of him before stepping back. He noticed her glance at the door as she seemed to consider simply leaving the room, but instead quietly gulped before asking, “Is there anything else you need of me, sir?”

“Nothing urgent, but make sure to let everyone know that I am not to be disturbed while I am on the phone. Am I understood?” He replied as he locked eyes with her, purposely making her more nervous to reinforce his reputation of being an intimidating boss amongst his subordinates. He suppressed a chuckle as he noticed she was starting to break in a cold sweat while he thought, “Good. A scared worker is an easily controlled worker, and if I can control them then I won’t need to lower myself to making death threats to keep people in line like Eddie and Leithe do.”

“Yes sir.” She quietly answered as she nodded, no doubt trying to appease him and end the conversation so she could leave as soon as possible. He stared down at her from over his glasses as she seemed to squirm under his gaze, before he was satisfied that he had done enough and turned his chair to face away from her as he replied, “Good. You are free to leave.”

“Thank you, sir.” She answered and while he couldn’t see her, he could hear her quickly opening the door and leaving while making sure not to slam the door as she ran away. He waited a moment to make sure that she was out of earshot, before letting out a low chuckle as he turned back around and opened the phone book to the Ba section.

“It’s so easy to make those subordinates of mine scared for their lives, and I don’t even need to threaten them to do it. If only that spineless warden took a page out of my book, then maybe we would have some half-decent security guards around here.” He muttered as he scanned the local businesses page for the number, before stopping as he spotted the name Banban Kindergarten near the top along with their business number.

“If this doesn’t work, then I’m going to head over there myself and give Doctor Uthman a piece of my mind for being so careless.” He muttered as he picked up the phone’ handset and dialled the listed number. He brought it to his ear as soon as he was done and listened quietly while it began emitting dial-up tones as it tried to connect his call.

After a minute of waiting, the dial-up stopped with a click, and a woman’ voice answered his call, “Hello, this is Banban’ Kindergarten. How may I help you?”

“Yes, hello. I am Doctor Harley Sawyer, and I am calling to speak to do… Mr Uthman Adam. I believe he is expecting a call from me?” He replied, quickly stopping himself from calling Uthman a doctor in case this receptionist didn’t know about Uthman’ experiments.

“Of course. Please hold while I see if Mr Adam is available at the moment.” She replied back before the phone suddenly began playing smooth jazz as she placed him on hold. Sawyer sighed as he glanced at the time on his digital wrist watch and noted that it was 1 pm, which meant that Uthman might be busy dealing with the kindergarten’ daily operations as well as his laboratory.

“Hello Harley, so nice to hear from you so soon. How can I help you?” Doctor Uthman’ voice suddenly blurted out from the headset as the jazz abruptly stopped, so abruptly that Sawyer jumped and nearly dropped the phone in shock.  As he gripped the handset tighter and brought it back to his head, he could hear Uthman ask, “Harley? Are you there?”

“Yes, I am, and I believe that I asked you to call me Doctor Sawyer.” He retorted as he stared at the wall in frustration, as if he could silently glare at Uthman through his phone. However, it seemed that his efforts were in vain as Uthman cheerfully replied, “Of course, Doctor Sawyer. Now, what can I help you with?”

“There are only a few things you could ever help me with, but one of those things is giving me a phone number so I can call you directly instead of having to call the kindergarten’ receptionist.” He replied bitterly, and he could hear Uthman awkwardly laugh through the phone. He almost verbally lashed out at the other doctor, but Uthman spoke before he could, “Yeah, sorry about that. I sort of forgot about the whole contact thing; I’ve only gotten a cellular telephone recently, and I’m still getting use to not needing to have the receptionist handle all of the calls for me. I can give you the number for it now if you want.”

“Don’t bother, I’ll just get it from you the next time I see you. Speaking of which, I have spoken to the other department heads about your offer, and they are uncertain about the ability and quality of your creation’s form. Simply put, they’re interested but the tape you sent us didn’t satisfy their queries; they’re demanding that you set up a live demonstration for us to see Syringeon in action, and they refuse to agree to any deal before you do.” Sawyer replied, making sure he didn’t mention that Uthman’ life would likely be at risk if the deal didn’t go through quickly.

“Oh.” Uthman replied in a tone far more upbeat than he expected him to be after hearing the demand, which only set off alarm bells in Sawyer’ mind. However, Uthman continued before Sawyer could say anything, “If that’s they’re main concern, then I can easily organize a demonstration for them. Would they be available to attend on Saturday night at 6.30? I can’t bring them in during the kindergarten’ open hours, you see.”

Sawyer blinked at Uthman’ question as he processed what he had said. It would be rather easy for the other department heads to find the time to attend the demonstration on Saturday evening as Stella was the only one who worked during the weekends at the Playcare facility, and it wouldn’t be too hard to pressure her into attending despite that. No, what Sawyer was pondering was something he couldn’t help but feel was strange about the situation, “He’s not normally this receptive to having to change his plans. Hell, he’s already started to plan out a live demonstration for us by the end of the week; a timeframe that would be impossible to achieve even with how well-controlled Syringeon is. Unless…”

“Doctor Sawyer? Are you still there?” Uthman called out through the phone, dragging Sawyer out of his thoughts and back to the present conversation. He took a moment to weigh up how quickly he could get the other department heads to agree to attend at such short notice, but the mere thought of annoying Leithe Piere settled any concerns he had as he replied, “Yes, that should be fine. Will you be expecting us to meet you at the kindergarten again, or is there a more covert entrance we can get to the lab through?”

“Oh, the kindergarten, obviously. Everyone will be gone by then, so it’ll be fine, and it won’t be a concern even if they did see you there. What are they going to do, complain to the police about some toy makers going to a place where kids are? We can just say you’re there to test out some new toy idea, and problem solved.” Uthman replied, shooting down Sawyer’s concerns as quickly as he did back in medical school. Before Sawyer could correct him, however, Uthman continued, “Now I would love to stay and chat, but I have to start getting everything ready for this demonstration. It’s going to be great, just you wait and see. Anyway, I’ll see you there, Harley; Bye now.”

“Now wait just a-” Sawyer started, only to be cut off as Uthman ended the call with a sudden click. Sawyer stared at the handset in complete disbelief as the dial tone rang out mockingly, before he realized what happened and he slammed it back into the phone receiver.

He huffed as he glared at the telephone in quiet frustration, but it quickly turned into contemplation as he thought about the situation, “There’s no way he’d be able to set up a live demonstration for us in only a few days, I know that much. He’ll need to write up a security rota for the day, organize and set up everything needed for the actual demonstration, and he’ll need to brief his staff about the visit in a meeting. There’s no way he could do all that before Saturday evening, he’ll need at least two weeks to get everything sorted to any form of acceptable standard.”

Before he could think about the upcoming visit in any more depth, his digital watch suddenly started to loudly beep out, causing him to jump out of his seat. After he realized what the noise was, he glared down at his watch and pushed the mute button before noticing that it was already 13.50.

“Oh, it’s my mandatory socialization alarm. After all this time, and I’m still not use to it.” He muttered out loud as he glanced at the phone on his desk once more time, before turning away with a huff as he walked out of his office and began making his way to the shared habitat of Yarnaby and the Nightmare Critters. He suppressed a chuckle at the sight of two lab assistants straightening up as they spot him, but his thoughts were elsewhere, “Well, if Uthman thinks he can get everything ready by Saturday, then I have no real reason to doubt his ability to do so. Anyway, I have more important things to think about, like making sure the emotional leash I’ve created with my pets remains ingrained into them completely.”