Susan's eyes stung from crying. She hadn't gone a day without it since she got here. None of this should be possible! Her life had shot from one extreme to the other on the spectrum of normalcy and she was still reeling from the impact. Never before had she been so unsure of her future. Her whole life it seemed she knew what to expect, knew what was coming next. And now… she didn't. She didn't even know herself anymore. Instead of being married, house hunting, working a normal job, she was now the type of person who tried to escape from prison, punched holes in walls, and hung out with literal monsters. Not to mention this new body of hers. Sure, mostly it was still the same, but it was so much bigger, so much stronger than she was used to. The physics of everything change when you're that tall, like how long it took the water to soak her hair in the shower, how her clothes folded around her, how the metal of the prison echoed under her feet. Sure, maybe she looked the same, aside from the hair, but every little thing about her felt so- alien. It was absolutely overwhelming. And in the stark, steely walls of the prison, surrounded by people and things that seemed so miniscule to her, there was nothing to take her mind off it.

Her cell began to clank and rattle once more, signaling she was descending into the yard. She sat herself up on her bed and tried to compose herself, wiping her face. The front panel pulled up and harsh light flooded the dim chamber. Monger was waiting, floating on his jet pack. Susan approached the opening, not surprised to see she was the only monster there. Instead of hovering directly in front of her face, the general spoke to her from just out of arm's reach.

"Now we can't keep you in your cell for a full week, and we can't keep you in a broken tank, so you're gonna have the yard to yourself for awhile. But if you so much as dent another wall in this prison, we'll have to make an exception!" The general's instinct was to get up close and personal to deliver a remark like that, but he forced himself to stay out of the giant's immediate reach. Susan noticed. "Are we clear?"

"We're clear," Susan sighed.

"Good. All doors in the yard have been powered off and locked for construction, so I doubt you'll be able to pull off another breakout while you're here. I expect you on your best behavior." The general flew off, leaving Susan alone. She walked towards her table and solitary chair, hearing her every movement echo back at her. She sat, and rested her head in her arms on the tabletop.

The time alone did Susan some good, she got to think for once without the eyes of the other monsters upon her, and though she was still being watched, the yard felt far less intrusive than her tank. And with no little monsters running around, Susan pretended for a while she wasn't a giant. Every now and then, the smaller table would appear in her periphery, but she ignored or dismissed it the best she could.

Protocol required the base provide enrichment for the monsters. Unlike human prisons, there were no specific laws to adhere to regarding exercise and sport for the monsters, but it was unanimously understood that cabin fever was to be avoided at all costs. Monger and some of the long-time employees still had the scars from a very bored and very frustrated Link, when he was first incarcerated. Ginormica had thrown the enrichment team for a loop. She was, in essence, human, so figuring out what to give her wasn't hard. Scaling those things up to be useful was the hard part. Most of the personnel hadn't ever seen her, but rumor spread quickly through the base. Even the workers without access to monster holding areas could still see the aftermath of that night throughout the base. The catwalk ripped from the wall, the dents in the floor where she fell, the busted up gyrocopters that she swatted out of the air like flies. The enrichment team did not want her bored.

While they were busy printing extra-large copies of books and magazines, the team had managed to produce a suitable unlined notepad and a few pencils. It took Ginormica a few tries to get used to writing without snapping the pencils or tearing the paper, but she soon developed a light enough touch. She never considered herself much of an artist, but with nothing else to do, doodling became a primary pastime. She tried to draw Derek, but her sketches didn't come out well at all. There was always something off about his face, and she either couldn't place it or couldn't fix it each time she tried. At one point she looked down, seeing an army of misshapen Dereks, all looking disapprovingly at her. She crumpled that piece up and pushed it off the table. She gave drawing herself a try. It was certainly easier than drawing someone else, she thought. She put herself in her wedding dress and scrawled some flowers around herself. It was no masterpiece, but it was calming to look at. Satisfied and a bit more confident, Susan attempted to draw the other monsters from memory.

In the end, Monger only kept the monsters apart for 4 days. They were behaving well, and he thought Ginormica had learned her lesson. That morning, as Susan's cell door slid open, she was surprised to see the others emerging from their own holds.

"Good Morning, Susan," Dr. Cockroach called cheerily, as if nothing had happened.

"SUSAN!" Bob gasped, slithering full-tilt towards the giant. He flung two freshly extruded arms around her ankle and hugged it as tight as he could. Susan felt her heart leap, and she crouched down to greet the blob. "I missed you so much! I haven't seen you since the wedding!" he wailed. Susan chuckled and opted not to correct him. He suddenly snapped out of melancholy and beamed up at her. "What have you been doing all week? And what's that?" he pointed at the pencil behind her ear. The day before she had accidentally brought it back to her room, and she tucked it there this morning so she wouldn't forget it.

"It's a pencil, see?" she said, removing it from her hair and offering it to him.

"Wow! Would you look at the size of that!" he took it and spun around, holding it above his head. With those words, Susan was dropped back into reality. Without much time to dwell, an electronic beeping announced the arrival of their breakfast. Silver tubes descended from the ceiling and dropped each monster's meal in place. Link sat down and began eating without a word, but Cockroach gave him an expression that said he wouldn't get off so easily. Link continued to chew very slowly, knowing full well how the doctor felt about him talking with his mouth full. After a few moments he couldn't keep the charade up for any longer, and swallowed. The doctor cleared his throat gently and traced a line between Link and Susan with his eyes. The Missing Link sighed.

"Hey, Susan," he rumbled, his voice still craggy with sleep. Susan looked up, or rather down, from her oatmeal. "I, uh, wanted to say I'm sorry for what I said the other day." Dr. Cockroach continued staring at him, encouraging him to deliver the entire message. "You're going through a lot right now and I was being a jerk."

"Oh," Susan was a little taken aback. She never expected an apology from Link, much less one that sounded so sincere. Maybe she had him pegged wrong. "Well, thank you," she added. They all continued eating quietly.

Dr. Cockroach noted that Susan actually was, in fact, eating. It was the first time he had seen her interested in the food she was served. He smiled softly to himself, confident she was in higher spirits today. Perhaps the time alone did everyone some good.

"I have some good news for you, my dear," the doctor called up to Susan, as soon as he finished his meal. "I've spent the last few days drawing up schematics and collecting parts, and I expect to have another functioning prototype by this evening."

"That was quick," Link retorted, not sounding particularly malevolent.

"You'd be surprised what I can accomplish without distractions," Dr. Cockroach returned. Susan smiled softly in response as she finished the last of her oatmeal.

"That is good news! Thanks, doctor." She moved to set her spoon down and accidentally elbowed her notepad, which tumbled to the floor.

"Oh gosh," she mumbled, leaning to pick it up, but not before Link and the Doc caught a glimpse of their likenesses.

"Hey, that looks familiar," the ape chided, knuckling over to the stack of paper. Susan began to retrieve it to her table, but Doc interrupted.

"No, please Susan, we'd like to see!"

"Oh, I don't know…" The giantess turned the pad and held it close to her chest.

"What's going on?" Bob asked rather loudly.

"Susan drew pictures of us," Link added, before Susan could interject.

"With a pencil?!" Bob zipped over to the two, now extremely eager.

"Come now, dear, let's have a look."

"Yeah, show us, Suz." Link crossed his arms and nodded up at the pad. Susan looked down at her drawings, and then back at her waiting friends. What did she have to lose?

"Alright," she conceded, lowering the paper back to the floor. "But I'm warning you, I'm not an artist."

The other three looked over the drawings, smiles seizing their faces.

"Would you look at that, they're practically life-size." Link mimicked the position of his image and compared.

"Not bad at all, Susan!" The doctor crossed the pad to his portrait and inspected it carefully.

"Aw, thanks guys," Susan said, feeling a blush warm her cheeks.

"Well I don't know about you two, but this looks nothing like me." Bob furrowed a gelatinous brow at the sketch. It was simple, but to be fair, it was probably the most accurate of the three. "For one, it's not even blue."

Susan opened her mouth to explain, but decided against it. She and Link shared a knowing glance as Dr. Cockroach stepped in to attempt to explain the properties of graphite. He got nowhere fast.

"Susan didn't have blue, Bob," The Missing Link interjected, as Doc became increasingly frustrated.

"Oh." The doctor was both relieved and a little annoyed that that was all it took. "But she still didn't draw my antennaes," the blob added. Dr. Cockroach tried to explain that he was the only monster with antennae, but before he got a word out, Bob extended two thin tendrils out of the top of his head.

The look on the doctor's face immediately drove Susan and Link into fits of laughter. Bob too got swept up in the giggling, and even Doc couldn't resist a smile in spite of his defeat.

"Wait, wait," Link chuckled as the laughter died down. He turned to Susan and straightened his expression with some effort, before giving his best impression of the bug's look. Susan erupted again with a laugh that shook the hollow walls of the prison, but none seemed to mind. As far as the other inmates could remember, it was the first time.