Mr. Cat walked towards Stumpy and his amps, trying to cover his ears with his paws as well as she could. If only he hadn't lost at rock-paper-scissors…

"Nutcracker!" he called, but the squirrel couldn't hear him.

"Nutcracker!" he tried again, a little louder. Still no response.

"STUMPY!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. This didn't work either, so Mr. Cat simply whacked him on the head with a mallet.

"Ow!" Stumpy reached up to rub his head, taking his hands off the guitar and providing a much-needed halt to his music. Mr. Cat felt his ears ringing.

"Oh, hey Mr. Cat! Did you want something?"

"I just wanted to give you these headphones!" Mr. Cat handed him the noise-canceling headphones. "They're supposed to help you get better at playing music!"

"Thanks, but… no thanks."

"Huh?"

"I'm already good at playing music, because I'm so awesome! There's no way I could possibly get any better at it!" Stumpy replied, a smug smile spreading across his face as Mr. Cat facepalmed. The rodent bent down to pick up his guitar, only to see Mr. Cat holding up a bazooka.

"JUST PUT ON THE DARN HEADPHONES!"

"Okay, okay!" Stumpy grumbled. He put the headphones on, but by the time he turned to face Mr. Cat, the feline was long gone. Stumpy shrugged, picked up his guitar, and began to play. He was unable to hear himself playing, for obvious reasons.

Mr. Cat must have done something to my guitar, he thought to himself. What a jerk. Oh well. I should go watch TV. The Mr. Coolskin animated series must be on right now. I can talk to Mr. Cat about my guitar later...

Stumpy flopped onto the couch and turned the TV on. He could see Mr. Coolskin's mouth moving, but he couldn't hear him. He concluded that the TV must be on mute and pushed the button on the remote to turn the volume up. He kept pressing the button, but even when the TV was turned all the way up, he couldn't hear it. Naturally, there was only one explanation for this.

"Stupid piece of garbage!" Stumpy shrieked as he threw the remote at the TV, breaking it.

Kaeloo and Mr. Cat, hiding behind a nearby bush, groaned internally, knowing fully well that they would have to pay for a new TV. They both stepped out from their hiding place and darted over to the couch where Stumpy was sitting, pretended to look shocked that the TV had been destroyed, and began to yell at him. The yelling, of course, was not fake. However, even though they had the combined volume of an erupting volcano, Stumpy couldn't hear a word they said, which was probably a good thing because if he could hear what they were threatening to do to him, he would require several years of intensive therapy. He was fairly certain that this was another prank devised by his friends so they could have a laugh at his expense - this was far from being the first time they did such a thing.

"Alright, why can't I hear anything?" the squirrel demanded. When he couldn't hear that either, he began to panic. Not once did it occur to him that the headphones were the reason for his current condition.

"Mr. Cat! MR. CAT! I can't hear anything anymore!" he cried. The cat put on a surprised expression and beckoned Stumpy to follow him. Kaeloo tagged along and the three friends went to the medical examination room. Mr. Cat motioned for Stumpy to have a seat on the examination table. He listened to his heartbeat with a stethoscope, tapped his knee with a rubber hammer, and looked inside his mouth with a tongue depressor. He sadly shook his head and called the others into the room. Stumpy watched everyone's faces change from confusion to shock and horror. (Mr. Cat achieved this effect by describing in great detail what he'd do to Quack Quack if he ever got his hands on a blowtorch, a belt sander, and an electric fan.)

"What's going on?!" Stumpy asked, genuinely frightened. Mr. Cat picked up a piece of chalk and went to the blackboard at the back of the room.

You've lost your hearing, he wrote. Stumpy's eyes went wide.

"WHAT?! How could this have happened? I must have been attacked by ninjas! Or zombies! Or that alternate universe me who keeps showing up in Smileyland!" he said, beginning to hyperventilate. Kaeloo walked up to the board and Mr. Cat handed her the chalk.

Maybe your loud music ruined your hearing! she wrote.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" screamed Stumpy, dropping to his knees on the ground. Everyone winced.

Pretty pulled her phone out and texted him. Stumpy felt his phone vibrate and picked it up to see what the message was.

JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE DEAF NOW DOESN'T MEAN WE ARE! STOP YELLING!

This text was followed by three angry emojis.

"I've gone deaf! I've gone deaf! I'VE GONE DEAF!" Stumpy screamed. He ran off into the horizon, continuing to scream all the way. Complete silence reigned for a few seconds, and then everyone burst out laughing except Quack Quack.

"Quack?"

"Too far?" Mr. Cat repeated incredulously.

"It's just a joke!" said Pretty, rolling her eyes.

Everyone else may have been laughing it off, but Quack Quack had a bad feeling about it.