(Huggy's POV)
Poor Catnap. I can't imagine how awful he must feel. To lose his best friend like that. It was so horrible and gruesome. All three of us will be scarred for life because of that. I kept seeing that scene over and over in my head. Each time it made me feel even worse. My stomach churned and I felt a bit lightheaded as I tried to imagine how much pain that must have been for poor DogDay. I'm sure he wished for relief as each agonizing second went on. My own wounds felt pretty bad at the moment. I could taste blood in my mouth as my fangs ached. My torso screamed at me and my head throbbed. Each step I took as I walked seemed to jar the wound on my torso and make it even worse. The sooner we got back to the infirmary the better. For all our sakes.
I took a glance over my shoulder and saw Catnap slumped down low. His scorched body looked very painful. It made me think that I was better off than him. That my wounds looked pretty minor compared to his. I looked forward and saw the infirmary in sight. The human and I tried to pick up the pace to get inside for treatments right away. Catnap still trailed behind, oblivious to the fact that we had sped up. Or if he did know, he didn't care.
We stumbled up to the door and pounded furiously to be let in. I'm pretty sure I heard Boxy mutter something as he lumbered up to the door. What it was, I didn't know and I didn't care. As soon as the doors started to open, we pushed ourselves in. Boxy staggered his bulky body out of the way.
"What's the big idea?" He spat at us. But then he saw our condition as we lurched inside and let our bodies collapse in the waiting room. This was where most of the toys had congregated for bedtime. But none of them were asleep after we barged through the door. They all gasped and gaped at our bruised and bloodied bodies. Poppy and Kissy rushed to our side.
"Friend….ing in." The human strained out between coughs. Poppy raised a brow and cocked her head.
"What happened? Are you both okay?" Kissy asked. She stooped down and cupped my face in her hands. I stifled a cough. Blood pooled at the back of my throat.
"The Prototype….ambushed us….was too powerful…..we lost DogDay." Tears came back to my eyes as I mentioned the poor puppy.
"Oh, Huggy…." The pink creature sighed in empathy.
"We all….tried our best…but couldn't….do anything…." I explained in between my deep breaths. "Me….the human….and Catnap." My voice got quieter as I kept talking. That was when the whole room let out another gasp. My friend and I turned our heads to find Catnap dragging himself in here.
"H-hello." He weakly said, not even looking up from the ground.
"You!" Boxy-Boo growled and started stomping his way over to the feline. "What makes you think you can just waltz in here and expect hospitality from us?" Catnap's figure seemed to shrink before the box monster. He slowly backed himself away and ended up cornering himself against the wall.
"I…I know you don't trust me…" Catnap began to say.
"Oh, we definitely don't trust ya. Why don't I give ya a proper traitor's greeting?"
My friend and I gasped at the fact that Boxy was about to attack the wounded cat.
"Boxy, stop! Please! He's our friend now. Catnap's not under the Prototype's control anymore!" I begged to him. My body shook as I tried to get up and stop him. It was refusing to get up anymore. Same for the human.
"Please don't do this! It's wrong!" My friend added.
Boxy pinned the feline up against the wall by his shoulders. His big, monstrous mitts seemed to swallow the purple cat's shoulders beneath them.
Catnap's ears curled down as he averted his gaze from the box monster. The jack-in-the-box started to open up its mouth, showing its long fangs.
"Please, Boxy, don't!" I begged one more time. Tears came out of my eyes. Were we about to lose Catnap after all that too? My heart couldn't bear losing two friends in one day. The tears clouded my vision. Was that a good thing to not be able to see Catnap's death?
I saw the shadow of someone rush past me. The room gave another collective gasp. I blinked my eyes to shove some of that water out of there. For I now gasped too. Kissy had rushed over to intervene! She had clamped her fangs down on the back of Boxy's head.
"I've had enough of you and your selfish attitude!" Kissy hissed at him. "Put him down!" Boxy had stopped mid lunge, utterly surprised at the female's actions. He was so shocked that he didn't move or say anything at all. "Do it now!" Her grip tightened a bit so the box monster knew she was serious.
"Okay, okay. No need to spill any blood. I was just playing with the kitty a little." Boxy said, clearly embarrassed that he was stopped by a female. His hands let go of Catnap, whose body collapsed to the ground. Kissy still had her fangs on Boxy until she was sure the creature wouldn't retaliate on the cat.
"Don't come near Catnap again…or you'll get more than just a nip! Understand?" She asserted and then finally let go.
"Yes, ma'am." Boxy said and submitted to her. He slunk away to a corner and retreated into his box. Kissy turned back to us to find a whole room with their jaws dropped open. No one had ever seen her react like that before. At most, she had given others a slap or push. She had never used her fangs on another toy before.
"Well, what are you waiting for? These boys need medical attention." Kissy said. But everyone was still frozen in place. "Now!" She roared. Everyone scrambled to get supplies. The toys surrounded me and the human. They hesitated to go over to Catnap. As if they were afraid he would lash out at them. My friend and I knew that he was in no condition to do that. Even though we tried to tell them that, they avoided getting too close to him. I watched as Kissy turned back to Catnap to make sure he was okay.
"Are you okay, Catnap?"
"I….thank you. You're very kind. You wouldn't happen to have anything for burns, would you?" The feline asked sheepishly.
"I'm sure we've got something. I'll be back as soon as I can." She said and walked off to find something for Catnap's severe burns.
My friend and I laid sprawled on the ground. We turned and moved as needed for our wounds to get treated. After the toys witnessed Kissy helping Catnap and realized he was docile at the moment, they went over to help. Poppy came over to us as we were getting treated.
"Huggy, what are you doing bringing Catnap here?" She hissed at me.
"Because he helped us fend off the Prototype…and because he's our friend." I explained to her.
"You really expect me to believe that? After all he's done?" She spat and pointed to the cat.
"It's true, Poppy. The Prototype had brainwashed him into doing those awful things. Once DogDay figured out how to break the spell, his personality instantly changed." My friend added. The red-head doll still looked a bit skeptical. "He isn't the demon that you think he is. Couldn't you cut him a little slack right now? I mean, he did just lose his best friend. We all lost a friend back there…. and it was awful what the Prototype did to DogDay."
"Please, Poppy. I'm asking you to give him the same chance that you gave me." I begged. "Catnap could really use some friends right now. We all need to stick together if we want to defeat the Prototype."
"Oh….all right." Poppy finally gave in. "But if he starts any trouble, I'm giving Boxy permission to bite his head off." The doll pointed to the oversized box in the corner. Boxy's lid slightly opened. His eyes could be seen peeking out at the sound of his name.
"Thank you, Poppy." I breathed a sigh of relief. She nodded and went over to address the purple cat that was lying on his stomach. Bandages were wrapped around his head and the burns. He looked more like a mummy now than me. The doll stopped a couple feet away from his face. Catnap found it hard to look her in the eye.
"Hello, Poppy." He meekly said.
"Hi…" She drew out and began to pace in front of him.. "So, Huggy and the human think you deserve another chance to be on our side of the battle. They've only been around you for a short time, but they seem to think you're trustworthy." She stopped and looked him in the eye. "Are they correct? Will you prove me wrong about your murderous intentions?"
"Oh, yes, Poppy." The feline vigorously nodded his head. It made him wince from the wound on his head. "I'll be the best friend that I can to everyone here. Just like the rest of you, I want to make the Prototype pay. I must get revenge on him for what he did to DogDay."
"We promise you'll get that chance, Catnap." Kissy interjected. For she was still patching some of his burns.
"Very well, Catnap. You have your second chance." Poppy turned around. "Don't make us regret it." She added as she started to walk away. Once the doll was gone, Kissy gave the cat more words of encouragement.
"Don't let Poppy intimidate you. I think deep down she's glad that you're back with us."
"Thanks, Kissy. But I don't know if I believe that." His little purple ears curled down.
"We must have hope if we want to defeat the Prototype. All we have is one another, so we must cherish that." Kissy explained.
"You sound a lot like DogDay." Catnap sniffed. "I think you two would have been good friends. You're both right. It's what-" The feline started to get choked up. "It's what DogDay would have wanted." He cradled the puppy's sun pendant in his paw. Teardrops fell down onto the golden trinket.
Once the three of us had gotten patched up, everyone settled down to sleep again. All but us victims of the Prototype's siege. We kept tossing and turning, our wounds not comfortable to lie on.
I looked over to the corner to find that Catnap was no longer there. Instead, he was over by the door. He lay down on his haunches, staring at the door. I nudged at the human and pointed out the feline's behavior. Without even speaking a word to one another, my friend could tell that I was worried about Catnap. He merely nodded and we crawled our way over towards the purple cat. As we got close, we noticed tears slowly falling down his face. A slow blink let out another pair of them.
"Hey, everything okay over here?" The human asked him.
"Sure, I only just got my best friend killed." He said sarcastically. "You should've seen how scared DogDay looked when those plushies came for him. It was awful. Especially knowing that all that happened because of me. If only I hadn't fallen under his control, none of this would be happening right now. The Smiling Critters would still be a happy family." He put his paws underneath him and crawled over to the wall. His body sat up like a human, hugging his legs up against his chest. "And the worst part is, I never got to tell DogDay that I was sorry." Catnap's face buried into his arms.
"We're here for you now, Catnap. And we're going to stick together no matter what." I told the feline as I sat down next to him.
"That's right." My friend agreed and put a hand on Catnap's arm.
We eventually fell asleep huddled together. Probably out for half a day since we were so worn out from the battle. Poppy came by to check on us every day. She asked if we could stand and function on our own. I think it was probably two or even three days before we could even do that. Kissy normally came to hang around with us when Poppy didn't enlist her to go out scouting with her. We had been resting long enough that the Prototype would have built his defenses by now. It would be more difficult than ever to catch him off guard and defeat him.
