Visions of Greed

Chapter 16: Glowing In The Dark

Recommended Songs: Down On My Head- Yellowcard, Let Go- Red, When We Were Younger- You Me At Six

"It looks like we've got even more biggering to do." a familiar voice whispered as Once-ler stared at the scene outside the window.

Once-ler gasped and turned around as the scent of smogulous smoke began to permeate the air, but before Once-ler could see Greed-ler, Once-ler's alarm clock went off and the smell instantly vanished. After Once-ler shut down the alarm, he washed up in the adjacent office bathroom, got dressed, and had something to eat. Then he made his way downstairs to unlock all the doors and inspect the factory before the day officially began. Just as Once-ler had finished inspecting the building, he saw his mother in the hallway.

"Good morning Mom!" Once-ler greeted her cheerfully, but his face instantly fell when he saw his mother's stern expression.

"The chief operating officer and the head of manufacturing asked me to find you. They want to speak with you before the factory opens today." Isabella informed him.

Once-ler nervously bit his lip. A request for an impromptu meeting this early in the morning could not have been good. Once-ler felt a sense of dread as he followed his mother down to the meeting room, where the chief operating officer and the head of manufacturing were already seated at the table. As soon as Once-ler and his mother sat down to join them, the chief operating officer began to speak.

"Good morning Mr. Once-ler," the chief operating officer greeted him. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with us on such short notice."

"You're welcome. What did you want to discuss?" Once-ler asked, trying to hide his nervousness and remain professional.

"A couple of recent incidents have brought some issues to our attention," the chief operating officer answered. "First of all, we would were wondering if you had any plans to make another upgrade to the electrical panel when we expand the factory. We are concerned that even the new panel will not be sufficient enough for the bigger building, and we do not want to experience another blackout."

"I most certainly agree, and I definitely intend to make another upgrade." Once-ler replied, trying to sound confident. In reality, he hadn't actually thought about it before, but now that the issue was brought to his attention, Once-ler would see to it that plans for an upgrade were made. The whole incident regarding the blackout had been humiliating for him, and Once-ler agreed that he never wanted anything like that to happen again.

"Excellent news, sir" the chief operating officer replied.

"As for the next issue..." the head of manufacturing continued, "...I hate to bring this up, but we also need to talk about the incident at the factory where you mistakenly believed that one of the machines had malfunctioned."

Once-ler cringed as the head of manufacturing described the incident. Sure, he was supposedly recovering from an illness at the time, but the whole scenario had still been quite embarrassing for him.

"First of all,we want to make sure that such a malfunction doesn't actually occur in the future." the head of manufacturing explained "So, in addition to upgrading the electrical panel whenever we expand the factory, We think that we should also upgrade the manufacturing equipment."

As the head of manufacturing spoke those words, images of the broken and malfunctioning machine flashed through Once-ler's mind. Accompanied by the sound of a sinister voice that issued an ominous warning, "...if you don't wish for such a nightmare to come to pass, then you had better wake up and make me your reality..."

"Mr. Once-ler?" the head of manufacturing asked as he noticed the dazed expression on his boss' face.

Once-ler snapped back to reality. "Um...oh yes...I agree. I'll get started on a proposal for those upgrades right away." Once-ler answered, hoping that was the end of the meeting.