"Pass me the pliers."
"Here you go, Poppy."
"Alright. Kissy, hold this cable like this."
Poppy, Kissy and Dogday were just in front of the same panel the doll had used last time to get the lights of Playcare back up and running. The three were performing the fixes Ollie had talked about before, which was mostly cutting or changing the place of cables so that the electricity was sent to the Gas Production Zone instead of anywhere else.
For now, it seemed everything was going smoothly.
"Okay, perfect."Poppy sighed, setting some cables aside as she found the Playhouse's main power node.
"What I'm going to do is really important, and I need you two to help me."The doll told the other toys.
They both nodded. "Kissy, you go to the elevator's panel with the pliers and cut the blue cable when I tell you, okay?"
The pink giant nodded as she grabbed the tool and crouched next to the big panel and opened the lid.
"Dogday, I need you to walk over there and open another panel next to that railing."
"Umm… Sure!"
Once the dog opened the panel, he found a lot of wires, switches, and more components he couldn't even begin to comprehend.
"There's a lot of things inside here."He commented.
"I know. Now, I need you to look for a chip somewhere behind all those wires and tell me what logo is displayed on it."
"A… chip?"
"It's a plastic square. You'll know what it is when you find it."
With a confused expression, Dogday began moving cables of different colors out of the way, making sure he didn't break any of them and that he didn't electrocute himself.
After a while of searching for the 'chip', Dogday raised an eyebrow when he saw what could be described as a 'plastic square' with a logo drawn on it.
"Have you found it?" Poppy asked.
"I think I did." Dogday replied.
"What logo does it have?"
"It's…" Dogday squinted his eyes, trying to figure out what the drawing was, but it was very faded to be clear.
He could distinguish a yellow circle with a red letter he couldn't distinguish. It looked a lot like the factory's logo. He suppressed a scoff.
"I think it's the factory's logo." He told Poppy.
"So they did the wiring themselves…" The doll hummed before nodding and manipulating some cables for a while.
"Okay, I need you two to listen to me closely." Poppy spoke without looking at them. "On the count of three, Kissy will cut the blue cable, and Dogday will take the chip out. We need to be perfectly coordinated, or we will completely cause a short circuit on the whole factory."
Kissy made a sound of agreement and nodded, but Dogday looked worried. "Take the chip out? But won't that electrocute me?"
"It would do that if you were to smash it." Poppy explained. "If you just take it out carefully and without touching any metal parts, nothing will happen."
Dogday stood a few seconds thinking, before finally taking a breath and nodding. "Okay. Whenever you say."
Poppy then grabbed two wires and disconnected them from their place.
"Ready?" She asked.
"Yes!" Dogday said while Kissy chirped affirmatively.
"One…"
She swapped the places of the wires in her hands.
"Two…"
She got them close to their place.
"Three!"
All at once, the two wires were connected, the chip was taken out, and a blue wire was cut.
Poppy readied herself for the worst, but it seemed nothing had happened and nothing had gone wrong. Everything had gone perfectly.
"Phew… I don't remember the last time I was that nervous…" She chuckled, jumping down to the ground.
Dogday sighed and closed his panel as well as Poppy's. "I'm glad I never became an electrician." He commented.
Kissy did the same and walked towards the two with a smile on her face.
"That's it then…" Poppy sighed. "Now we just have to plug it in underneath the statue and wait for Alex to be done with the generator, and we'll be ready to tackle that gas machine."
A long silence then fell over the group.
"Say…" Dogday muttered. "Is it me, or do you two have a feeling that something is going to go wrong?"
"You're worried about Alex, aren't you?" Poppy asked. "Don't be, Dogday. He's smart. He'll get that generator running in no time."
"I know but-"
They were interrupted when most lights inside Playcare suddenly shut off, leaving the place covered in almost complete darkness.
"What the-?!" Dogday exclaimed.
"Did we actually mess up?" Poppy wondered out loud.
A sudden sound broke through their confused yells. It sounded like a phone ringing.
Kissy looked around confused before she asked Poppy about the sound. "That's one of the hidden phones that the workers had around work areas to communicate with each other." The doll explained. "There should be a closet somewhere. Let's look for it!"
It didn't take too long to find where the phone was hidden. They just needed to follow the sound of the ringing, and sure enough, there it was, similar to the one Alex carried, but not portable.
Dogday was the one that picked it up.
"Hello?" He asked.
"Dogday!" Ollie's voice came from the other end. He sounded really stressed. "Oh no, oh no, this is bad!"
"What? Ollie, what's going on?" The dog asked, getting worried himself. There was only one thing that could worry Ollie that much.
"It's Alex!" He yelled. "He was making his way through the Counselor's Office, but Catnap got to him and put him to sleep before doing something to the power!"
The phone almost fell from Dogday's hands. "What…?" He mumbled.
"And that's not the worst! Catnap hasn't killed him yet! He's dragging him towards the Playhouse!" Ollie added. "This is so bad…"
"You can't be serious?!" Poppy shouted. Kissy gasped in shock too.
"I wanted to see where he was taking him, but he broke all the cameras he came across! I can't help you with finding him…"
"What are we waiting for then?!" Dogday shouted, hanging the phone without thinking. "Let's move!"
"Why did you hang up?! Ollie may have told us something else!" Poppy complained.
"What is there to tell?! I knew I shouldn't have left him on his own…" Dogday groaned.
The phone started ringing again. "Dogday, pick it up! Ollie has to have something else!" The doll demanded.
With a loud groan, Dogday picked up the phone again. "What do you need, Ollie? Come on, there's no time to waste!"
…
"Hello again, mutt."
That wasn't Ollie.
It was Catnap.
Dogday's soul left his body for a second, before his face contorted into anger. " You… " He growled. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO OUR ANGEL?!"
There was silence for a while before a sound came from the other side of the line. It sounded like… chuckling.
A deep, growly chuckle, coming from someone that hadn't laughed in years.
"Still as naive as always, are you not?" Catnap said with that disgusting superiority complex tone. "Your 'angel' will serve a much better purpose than running around with heretics like you."
A pause. "Forgive me, I have forgotten you cannot run around. Maybe crawl would be best suited."
Dogday clenched his fists as he put on an angry smile. "I hate you." He scoffed.
Poppy took the phone away from Dogday's hands. "What do you want, Catnap?"
There was another moment of silence as the three waited for whatever the feline would reply.
After what felt like hours, there was a response. "Do not come looking for the human. It will be the last thing you do."
And the call ended.
Ollie didn't call again either.
Dogday took the phone and let it back on its place before turning to Poppy, who was looking at him worriedly. "Let's go save Angel before it's too late." He spoke.
Poppy shook her head and then gave a firm nod as the three got in the elevator and headed down.
You'll pay for this, Catnap… Dogday thought as they reached the floor and tried his best to run for the Counselor's Office.
…
Alex couldn't see a thing. It was just black void everywhere he looked.
Were his eyes closed? Was he even awake?
He didn't know.
All parts of his body ached, and even if he tried, there was nothing he could do to move them.
He felt as if he was both floating and standing at the same time. As if he was getting crushed and about to explode at the same time.
After who knows how long Alex spent in that agony, he began seeing something. Sort of. It was like a swirling cloud of Red Smoke that spinned and spinned, making him feel even dizzier than he already was.
And then, slowly but surely, the cloud of gas began morphing.
The smoke turned from an heterogene bunch of gas into something Alex hadn't expected to see.
There was a straight road, surrounded by tall and thick trees. A cloudy sky with the last signs of sun being able to be seen. And at the very edge of his vision, the abandoned Playtime Co. factory loomed.
Alex tried looking around, but even if he felt like he was turning his head, the view didn't change.
He thought nothing else would happen, but he was proven wrong. Just in front of him, some sort of glass appeared, along with what looked like the inside of a car.
His car.
He realized he was inside of the car, more specifically, the co-pilot's seat. He could now move his head around, and when he looked to his left, he gasped.
It was him, driving.
Trying to distract himself, he looked forward again. As the factory began becoming larger and larger, Alex saw the other him glancing at the letter that had brought him into that mess in the first place, which was just below him.
It didn't take too long for him to go back to looking at the road, and the real Alex could see his expression becoming nervous, just how he felt when he was driving that fateful night.
It felt like he was spectating his own life.
And then something was heard.
"Find the flower…"
A whisper, coming from all directions and none at the same time. And the voice… it was that of Poppy.
"Find the flower…"
She repeated.
"This is not a place you come back from…"
Just at the end of that phrase, the car reached the parking lot of the factory, and the dream Alex switched off the car and sighed, before walking out of the vehicle.
But Alex couldn't follow his path. He simply stayed inside the car, watching as the fake version of him walked away into the factory.
Then, as Alex was about to try and shout for himself to stop what he was doing, everything faded back into a cloud of red.
Once again, it started swirling and twisting, morphing into another landscape.
Grimy white floor tiles, a desk, and a faded mural of Huggy greeting him.
The lobby.
"Do you have any idea of what you're doing?"
Poppy's ghostly voice asked.
Alex suddenly saw himself walking towards the area behind the desk and looking up at the GrabPack scanner, aiming the hand and missing the shot.
"Hopefully no one saw me missing that…" He heard himself mutter.
Before he could question it, everything once again became misty, and the clouds of red gas began twisting into what looked like a long and curved tunnel, through which Alex was flying.
Then, it stopped, and there was a new landscape in front of him.
Narrow corridors, with old looking structure. Blue wallpaper displaying strange shapes, all extremely clean and polished. Something new was also present. Voices. Many, many voices, either talking, laughing, or screaming. Children, adults, and more.
Home Sweet Home in its days of glory.
Just next to him, a young girl came running past him, gasping as she hid behind a corner. Was she playing hide and seek, maybe?
Alex then saw someone else arrive. It was an adult, but he couldn't make out their face. They quickly made their way towards the spot where the girl was hiding before grabbing her arm and dragging her along while she cried and screamed.
"I DON'T WANT TO GO!" The girl yelled.
"Stop it, Marie! It's just a checkup! Nothing will happen to you!" The adult replied bluntly, with what Alex easily identified as empty words.
Lies. Practiced lies.
That adult wasn't going to take Marie to a doctor's checkup. She was going to get experimented on.
"Do you know what's happened here?"
Another echoed voice spoke, but it wasn't Poppy this time.
This one belonged to Mommy.
Everything melted once again, and Alex was sailing the smoke for yet another time.
Why was this happening? What kind of hallucination was this? Why didn't Catnap just kill him ?
The cloud stopped again, morphing into a classroom. It was full of desks, chairs, and black shadows of children all looking forward towards the blackboard, where a familiar figure stood.
Miss Delight was giving class to the children, but despite Alex clearly seeing her move her mouth, he couldn't make out anything she said.
The blackboard said something about human anatomy, but that was all the info he could get.
"Do you know who we once were?"
That was Delight.
The cloud again. Alex couldn't take it anymore. He was mentally begging for the torture to stop. He wanted to cry, to scream, anything, but he couldn't.
He could only watch.
He then found himself in what seemed like the middle of a tunnel made for kids, just like the ones he'd had to navigate through while running away from the mini critters. Just like before, everything was squeaky clean.
Two voices came rushing behind him. One, a boy wearing a yellow hoodie and sunglasses (why, Alex didn't know), and another, wearing an orange shirt depicting a beach.
They stopped right in front of Alex's eyes.
"DD, I bet you ten bucks I can make it to the end of the tunnel before you!" The boy with the hoodie spoke.
"Hah! You better say goodbye to them because I'm gonna beat you!" The other boy smirked as they both laughed and sprinted away from Alex's sight.
Two boys who'd never be able to joke like that ever again.
"Do you see why we have to end this?"
Dogday.
The Playhouse faded, and the smoke appeared in Alex's vision again.
He thought the voices of the children were bad enough, but what he saw next was enough to make him sick.
The landscape faded into a wall, and Alex was confused. He turned around and figuratively gasped as he saw what was in front of him.
An operating table, surrounded by at least three people, all wearing masks, hairnets, and gloves.
Alex looked at the occupant of the table, and saw a child with brown hair and quite an elegant shirt for someone his age to wear. All his clothes and skin were pale and tense despite being unconscious, and he had burn marks all over him.
Alex looked to the side, finding a GrabPack with a half melted green hand laying on the ground.
That boy could only be one person.
Theodore Grambell.
He then noticed the floor was completely covered in blood and toy corpses, making him gag.
"Do you even know what is real and what is not?"
Catnap.
The smoke again. Alex felt himself start to cry.
And then, he fell to the ground with a loud thump. He groaned as he immediately looked at himself, finding he could see his hands, legs and body.
He was wearing his usual work attire.
Was everything over?
Alex looked forward. He noticed he was in yet another black void with only something different. Huggy standing in the same position as the first time Alex had seen him, only that this time, his sharp teeth were now visible as he smiled at him.
"No."
Poppy's voice cut the silence.
"You don't."
And everything turned black again.
And then…
An alarm began flaring.
Thousands of screams echoed at the same time.
A red light illuminated Alex and what was in front of him. Huggy's now empty pedestal, and the ceiling above it.
Alex widened his eyes when he saw what came from that very same ceiling. It looked like a hand, but the fingers were sharp metallic needles that seemed pointy enough to cut through anything, connected with what looked like cables or veins to two bones that seemed that were part of an arm.
That was the Prototype.
Wasn't he wonderful?
The hand stopped and turned to face Alex. Despite the absence of eyes, he could feel the Prototype staring at him.
And then, the red light disappeared, bathing everything in darkness again. Only the growing screams and pleas could be heard.
For a few seconds, Alex tried to scream. To curse at that thing for everything he had done. To try and make his voice part of the chorus of yells he could hear.
And yet, no words came out of his mouth.
The red light returned, momentarily blinding Alex. Once he could open his eyes again, he began looking at his surroundings.
He wasn't alone anymore.
Every single toy he had come across during his time in the factory was now circling him with a murderous look. Dogday, Catnap, Mommy, Huggy, Bunzo, even… Poppy and Kissy.
And before he could even stand up to do anything, everyone jumped to get him.
He felt the pain of every bite. Every scratch in his stomach, face, limbs, and more. Every single squeeze. Everyone was trying to kill him. And despite that, no wounds or blood ever appeared.
He was then dropped onto the ground, just in front of Poppy, who looked at him with a disgusted face.
"You are not our angel. You will never be. You're nothing more than a coward." She scoffed.
The last thing Alex felt was a swift slash aimed at his neck.
His head was pounding.
Alex tried to groan, but he couldn't make a sound. He slowly managed to flutter his eyes open.
Then he felt something going up from his stomach to his mouth as he couldn't stop himself from vomiting right there.
All that food wasted… Was the only thing he could think of.
Alex then noticed he was moving. More precisely, he was getting dragged by something.
He turned his head to look back, and noticed the newly formed trail of disgusting stomach fluids and half digested food in the distance, but something else caught his eyes.
A trail of blood leading to him .
His head fell to look at his chest. His shirt had three slashes that had pierced his skin, and were letting out quite a lot of blood.
At that rate, he wouldn't have any of it left inside his body really soon.
The one dragging him didn't seem to care, and Alex didn't need too long to find out why. There was a purple tail wrapped around his stomach, just like the first time he had woken up after the train crash, and he knew whose tail that was.
Alex tried to move his arms, legs, or anything he could to grab onto something, but the effects of the gas still lingered on him, and added to the blood loss, he had barely enough strength to move his head.
And yet, he didn't give up.
"C-" The moment that sound left his mouth, Alex began coughing violently, and he could swear something dripped from the corner of his lip. He couldn't wipe it, though. Not with his own arm.
However, it seemed that the poor attempt at speaking had done something, as he felt himself being lifted up a small distance before being slammed back to the ground.
"GRARGH!" Alex yelled, choking on his own saliva. Or was it blood? He didn't even know.
"Silence." Catnap's voice commanded.
And silence he got. Mostly because Alex couldn't bring himself to say anything else after that yell.
Slowly, he saw his surroundings change from the rocky walls from the caverns he now realized he was in into a familiar sight.
Padded walls covered in dirt and dried blood.
The Playhouse.
It's over… Alex thought, closing his eyes and resigning himself to his fate.
It wasn't long before there were giggles and not so hushed whispers coming from the mini critters.
"No way!"
"The human? Just like that?!"
"It's Catnap, what did you expect?"
"After all we did and we still didn't catch him and now he's just here…"
"I'm going to eat him right now!"
"Yeah, act like you weren't the main cause for him getting away three times."
"Shut up!"
Alex found the strength to smile at those last sentences. It seemed that mini Hoppy and mini Kickin were still at it.
"Catnap! Where are you taking him? He's still alive!"
Without stopping, Catnap replied to the one that spoke. "To the cells. He will die and then we'll celebrate getting rid of this… problem ."
Everyone seemed to cheer at the mention of 'celebrate'.
They were going to use his corpse for that, weren't they?
Alex really tried his best to speak, to wiggle out of the feline's grasp, but nothing worked.
It wasn't long before he felt himself going downwards through a staircase. Felt, as in hitting his head on each step of it, as Catnap didn't feel like lifting him off the ground.
The cat was surely making his death as slow and painful as possible.
Finally, they reached the swimming pool of the Playhouse, where Alex had been just hours ago. Funny he was going to die there.
There was the sound of a door opening, and then the sound of a cell door opening.
And then voices.
"Ugh, you again?! " Picky's voice yelled.
"Didn't you have enough already?" Bubba spoke.
Alex heard Hoppy groan in anger. "How about you go fuck off?! What reason could you have to-"
She immediately stopped speaking when Alex was raised from the ground and in front of Catnap, as he showed him to all the imprisoned critters like a trophy.
"What?!" The rabbit exclaimed.
"N-No!" Crafty added.
"A-Angel?" Bobby stammered.
"Impossible…" Bubba mumbled.
"N-No! N-Not h-h-him!" Kickin whispered, not daring to raise his voice.
"What did you do to him?!" Picky screamed.
Without anymore words, Catnap moved forward and stopped in front of Dogday's old cell. He then proceeded to throw Alex inside, his GrabPack coming off and falling. He barely stopped himself from vomiting from the pain again.
The door of the cell was then closed and locked.
"Thank you for the advice, Hoppy Hopscotch." Catnap ironically spoke.
"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" She yelled, trying to free herself, but of course she couldn't.
With a deep and growly chuckle, Catnap turned away from Alex and began walking away, his footsteps becoming more distant as time passed.
However, Alex knew he wouldn't take too long to come back. He was simply waiting for him to die, and he felt that moment would come soon.
"Angel! Please, get up!" He heard Bobby yell.
"You've faced worse before! Come on, get up!" Hoppy added.
"He's suffering from a slash to his chest and several hits to vital organs." Bubba said. "He… is not going to make it without help."
That only caused every single Smiling Critter to struggle to free themselves harder.
"Kickin! Break down your door! You are the only one that's not tied anywhere!" He heard someone shout. He couldn't even distinguish whose voice it was anymore.
"W-What?! I-I-I can't d-d-do that!"
"Ugh, SOMEONE! PLEASE!"
"ANGEL, DON'T DIE ON US!"
"ANGEL, DON'T CLOSE YOUR EYES!"
"STAY A-AWAKE!"
And yet, as all the voices cried for Alex to stay alive, it seemed his body had other plans.
The only thing he could do was feel as his last tears appeared in his eyes as he thought about the amount of people he was going to disappoint.
He had promised all toys he'd take them out of the factory, only to break that promise. He hated it. He hated everything.
Not one of them deserved to have gone through all the torture they had endured, and yet, he couldn't do anything to save them or to mend the wrongs Playtime Co. had done.
Maybe Pierre was right after all. Maybe he was an idiot.
His face twisted into a small smile as his eyes slowly began closing.
"NO!"
"DON'T…LL ASLE…!"
"AN…PLEA…"
And then, everything went black.
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
A lick.
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
Another lick.
…
…
Another one.
…
Huh? Is something… licking me?
I thought you weren't supposed to feel anything after death…
Wait, why am I thinking? What's going on? Did I really bleed out?
…
Another lick.
…
It felt so real. He thought that if he were to feel something after dying, it would be like a dream, but those licks felt… too real.
So real in fact, his sleepiness was starting to fade away.
His eyes miraculously started opening again.
"...hoot,...rking!"
"He's…ching h…ace!"
Another lick.
Alex slowly came back to his senses as he felt his face scrunch up at whoever was trying to wake him up.
His ears rang, but he still distinguished two new voices.
"His face! I think he's coming back!"
"Keep it up, Day!"
Day?
Yet another lick.
The pain was far from over, but he felt wide awake now. If he didn't have an open wound on his chest, he'd spring up on his feet.
It was now he managed to slowly open his eyes once again.
His vision was blurry, and he wasn't even sure he was seeing things properly, mostly because he was greeted with the sight of a pair of white pupils.
Wh-What?! Wh-Who?
"Demo- I mean, human!" That voice wasn't new.
No way.
Alex squinted, the world around him slowly focusing. He was right. The things he'd seen were white pupils, because the same mini Dogday from last time was in front of his face.
And it was his surprise that caused Alex to let out his first actual word in a while.
"H-Huh?!"
Mini Dogday gasped. "He's alive!" He shouted. "I knew licking him would work!"
He what?!
"Come on, let's turn him around!" One of the new voices said.
After that, mini Dogday disappeared from his view before Alex felt three pairs of small paws pushing him in order to leave him with his stomach facing up.
Surprisingly, it worked, and Alex let out a groan of pain at the sudden movement.
"Now, Nap! Get the cloth!"
"Kicks, get his shirt off!"
"Day, make sure he doesn't fall asleep again!"
And just like that, he felt someone tugging at his shirt as it was lifted up, exposing his bleeding wound to open air (more than it was already).
Then, Alex felt something getting wrapped along where the bleeding was. Slowly but surely, the pain lessened.
And all the while, mini Dogday stood inside Alex's vision, licking him again if he did as much as half-close his eyes.
Despite the ache in his throat, Alex managed to speak again.
"W-Why?" He asked.
Mini Dogday only smiled.
Before he even realized it, he felt half his chest wrapped in makeshift bandages as the other two mini critters were finished.
The agonizing pain was nothing more than a simple annoyance now, and despite still feeling groggy, Alex didn't feel on the edge of fainting anymore.
"We're done!" The mini critter in his stomach exclaimed before jumping down back to the ground.
Alex felt his shirt getting back where it should be as another mini critter also jumped down from him.
He tried to sit.
It was painful and hard. His stomach felt as if it was on fire, and his head pounded. It also felt a bit too cold for his taste.
Nonetheless, he was sitting on the ground, carefully rubbing his forehead.
Alive .
Alex turned to look outside his cell. He could see Hoppy staring between him and the mini critters that just saved his life in shock.
"I can't believe it…" She muttered.
"T-T-The ang-g-gel is a-a-alive. Tha-a-at's what-t-t-t matters…" Kickin mumbled.
Oh right. They didn't like the mini critters. Especially after they tried to… possess Dogday. Alex was thankful he wasn't conscious to hear them arrive, because he was sure the bigger critters hadn't liked seeing them even a bit.
Speaking of mini critters.
Alex's head immediately snapped to his side, finding three small plushies smiling and looking at him.
Mini Dogday was there, of course, but there was also a mini Catnap (ironic) and a mini Kickin. Wait, that last one looked familiar…
The mini chicken seemed to catch onto Alex's silent question, and let out a chuckle. "Yes. I am that mini Kickin. The one that got slapped by that mini Hoppy after accidentally helping you escape."
Alex widened his eyes. Wait, he did it on purpose?!
"Those were accidents, and you know it damn well." The mini Catnap spoke. His voice was… surprisingly high pitched.
"Hey!"
There was a chuckle coming from one of the bigger critters.
"Don't laugh, Bobby!" Hope exclaimed. "They are supposed to be our enemies!"
"Well, our 'enemies' just saved the angel's life, so I don't know what you mean by that." The bear laughed.
Alex still found it crazy that any of them could laugh in their situation.
Feeling slightly better, Alex tried to stand up, but he immediately regretted it, as he lost his balance and almost fell face first on the ground.
"Don't do that!" Mini Catnap shouted. "You've lost a lot of blood! You need to recover!"
"Sorry to interrupt, but there is no time for Angel to get in good shape." Bubba spoke. "Catnap could come back any second."
"CATNAP?!" Kickin yelled.
All the critters groaned.
"Hey, you'll have time for that later!" Mini Kickin interrupted. "We have to get the human out of here! And us, for that matter! If anyone finds out we're here, it's over!"
"What, mini Hoppy is going to tease you more now?" Alex smiled.
"I'm about to switch sides again."
"Switch sides after we're out of here!" Mini Dogday interrupted.
"I don't want to be a killjoy considering that it's my life that's on the line, but how do you expect to get out of the cell?" Alex said.
"Well, that's easy! We just have to squeeze through the bars!" Mini Dogday said with a smile before his face fell with realization. "Oh, right."
"That's why leave the plans to Nap!" Mini Kickin rolled his eyes as he looked at 'Nap'. "She's the brain of the three, and we are the ones that do what she says!"
"Wait a second, 'she'?" Alex exclaimed.
"Yeah, I'm actually a girl." The small cat spoke. "You can see how much they cared when creating us mini critters, since we were never supposed to speak or move when someone was watching, or whatever, they didn't even bother with stuff like gender."
"I don't even want to comment anymore."
"Can you four stop with your idle chattering and get back to finding a way out?!" Picky shouted.
"Picky, d-don't shout." Crafty muttered. "They'll hear y-you."
"If they haven't already heard Kickin's panic attack, then they won't hear us." Hoppy rolled her eyes as she looked at the critter, who was rocking himself on the ground while muttering something that was indiscernible.
"Now, who's idle chattering?" Alex rolled his eyes, trying to look for a way out while grounded.
"Ugh, you're hurting my head with all this nonsense…" Mini Catnap groaned, looking down at her body and pulling down the zipper on it before rummaging inside for something.
Alex recoiled seeing that. "Aren't your insides behind that zipper?" He half gagged.
"What? No, it's just a pocket. The insides-behind-zipper formula was only for the bigger critters." She said without even looking at him.
"Not comfortable, let me tell you that." Hoppy added.
"What are you even looking for, Nap?" Mini Dogday asked.
"This!"
From inside her pocket, the cat took out a big and heavy-looking metal key.
"No way you stole that!" Mini Kickin said with his mouth agape.
"Yeah, no way!" Mini Dogday added, sounding scared instead of amazed. "You know what Catnap is going to do to us if he finds out we took the key?"
"CATNAP?!"
They decided to ignore Kickin this time.
"No more than what he's gonna do when he finds out we just busted out his dinner." Mini Catnap replied. "Besides, it's not his key. It's a copy. He will never notice. I may be half-crazy, but I sure as heck am not suicidal."
She proceeded to hand over the key to Alex. "You're the only one that can reach the lock."
With a nod, Alex got the key and crawled towards the bars of the door, taking a deep breath.
Come on, Alex. Get up!
With a loud grunt, Alex used the bars to get on his feet and stand still without falling. The blood loss was making his head spin, and he still felt cold, but he was up.
With careful steps, Alex paced inside the cell, getting his GrabPack back on his back and immediately turning around when he noticed the still present remains of Dogday's blood in the walls.
He couldn't run, that was for sure, but as long as he was careful, he would be able to walk just fine.
With that, Alex passed his arm in between the bars and inserted the key inside the lock, opening without any difficulties.
With a triumphant nod, Alex pushed the door open, getting back to the cellroom's main hall and glancing at all the cells with the Smiling Critters still inside.
"Hey mini Catnap, can this key open all the cells?"
"It can, why?"
A smile crossed his face. "Are you going to need it back?"
"Uhhh…" She looked away in thought before she realized what Alex was talking about. "No, you can have it."
Alex silently thanked her as he put the key in his pocket.
He then turned towards the Smiling Critters. "I'll be back! And not half dead this time!"
"Be c-careful, Angel!" Crafty spoke.
"Yeah, who knows what those three can pull off!" Hoppy added.
"Hey!"
"That hurt!"
"I swear, the one time I try to do something good…"
Bobby laughed again. "Come on, don't stay here any longer. You have to live if you want to defeat Cat… you know who!"
Alex nodded, walking towards the door from which he had come from. "Wait, Angel! Don't go that way!" Bubba stopped him. "You know who is waiting for you!"
"You're right…" Alex muttered.
"You are not in a good enough condition to run away from him, Angel." Picky added. "You have to be in complete silence. I have a feeling there won't be another chance for you."
"If you go t-that way, you'll f-find another exit from the P-Playhouse." Crafty said.
"Yeah, but not one of us knows where that leads." Hoppy spoke. "A lot of white coats used to come from there, so I suppose there has to be a secret entrance."
Alex nodded again. "Okay. Thank you all. I swear next time I'm here, you'll all be free."
"Don't sweat it." Bobby smiled. "We can wait."
"Yeah, but the big Kickin can't…" Mini Dogday commented, looking at the sobbing chicken.
"Trust me, that's far from his worst breakdown." Picky rolled her eyes with a smile.
With no time to waste, Alex ran towards the other side of the hallway. Last time he had been inside the cell room, the doors were locked, but now, with the key, he could actually open them.
Alex was about to unlock the doors when he heard giant footsteps approaching from behind.
The little blood he had left froze.
"It's Catnap! Quick, human! Let's leave!" Mini Dogday hurriedly exclaimed.
Alex immediately opened the door and everyone passed through. The mini critters ran behind the corner as Alex closed the cell door behind him and locked it.
However, he was too late, because before he could hide along with the mini critters, Catnap entered inside the cell room.
He didn't seem to notice at first, but when the feline walked a bit closer, he suddenly widened his eyes.
Catnap then started looking back and forth between the empty cell and Alex for a few seconds, seemingly not believing his eyes.
Alex said he was going to try and talk to Catnap the next time he saw him, but it seemed it wouldn't be the case that time either.
He immediately sprinted away towards where he was told to go, urging the minis to do the same.
"COME BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE RAT!"
Alex could hear the sound of loud footsteps and loud bangs on the cell door behind him as Catnap tried to bust it open.
He cursed as he was forced to run away into the long padded hallways of the cell room. And boy, if he thought his head was pounding before, now it was mere seconds away from exploding.
He barely managed to reach somewhere where he couldn't hear the sound of Catnap going after him anymore, and he immediately fell against a wall, panting.
"I can't… do this…" Alex spoke between breaths, clutching his head.
"You can't give up now! Don't make me wake you up by licking you again! You know how bad you taste?!" Mini Dogday shouted.
"Day, he almost bled out. It's normal." Mini Catnap sighed. "But that doesn't mean it isn't inconvenient…"
"Just…" Alex huffed. "Give me a second…"
Through blurry eyesight, Alex found out they were still inside padded halls, and judging by the few cells that were present, the group was still in another area of the cell room.
Alex slowly limped inside the closest cell, finding it barely enough to fit him. Despite that, the walls had a few things scribbled over them.
The most visible one was a big message that read 'SIMON WAZ HERE!', whatever that meant. Below it, there was a less visible drawing of a metallic hand that sort of resembled the Prototype's.
Alex knew whose drawing that was, but he was confused about the big and really visible text.
"These are the cells they used when any of the big critters needed 'punishment'." Mini Kickin said.
"They tried to use it for us minis too, but they were too stupid to realize we could just escape between the bars." Mini Catnap rolled her eyes.
"Then they switched to using a box instead. A really small box…" Mini Dogday shivered.
Alex went back to the hallway, finding there were a few more cells of the same sort as the one he was just in.
One of them had a piece of paper with 'I will not burn the kitchen ever again.' written all over it, and next to it, another paper, this one reading 'I will not steal anything from the trash cans ever again.' except in the last line, which was a drawing of a stick figure wearing a lab coat with lines over it, an arrow pointing at it with the text 'my trash smells better!'.
Another one had yet another piece of paper with the front full of 'I will not steal a lighter to try and set the Red Smoke on fire ever again.', and on the back 'I will not try to rope Simon Smokes into lighting the Red Smoke on fire ever again.'
Who the hell is Simon Smokes?
The next cell had another writing punishment, this time with 'I will not blow up the School's laboratory with an experiment ever again.' and 'I will not expose the surprise marriage proposal of any employees ever again (seriously, why?!)'.
Who was punished for this?!
Most cells had either marks and drawings on the walls, trash, or pieces of paper with phrases written a lot of times, much like any teacher would punish their pupils with, except the punishment was double, because Alex couldn't phantom writing anything inside a space that small, specially if he were to be a bigger critter.
"Well, I'm feeling better." Alex sighed, dropping a poem about 'The annoyance of overly outgoing people' he had found on the floor. "Let's get out of here before we get caught."
"Agreed." Mini Dogday replied. "This place brings back bad memories…"
"Do you guys know where this corridor leads?" Alex asked the toys.
"We never went farther than this. The path is as unknown to us as it is to you." Mini Catnap replied.
"Ugh…"
Alex simply began walking forward, reaching for his pouch, intent on taking out his flashlight.
And found nothing.
Horrified, he looked down to confirm that, indeed, his bag was missing, along with his tools. Not even his gas mask.
"He took my things…" Alex mumbled.
That was bad news. Wandering around in the dark was a really bad idea, especially when not knowing the path.
Luckily, Alex still had his flare gun, so it wasn't completely hopeless.
The four reached the end of the now dubbed 'punishment room' and exited into yet more padded rooms, which turned darker each time they entered a new one.
Alex switched to his flare gun, hoping he still had some to use. Thankfully, when he pressed the trigger, there was actually light shot out of it, which earned a relieved sigh from him.
Three startled yelps were heard behind him.
Alex turned to see the three mini critters cowering behind the first thing they could find. "Oh, right. I forgot." Alex laughed, rubbing the back of his head.
"At l-least warn us!" Mini Kickin yelled.
"Yeah, my bad, my bad..."
After that small interruption, Alex made sure to warn the smaller toys before he shot a flare to light the way. They still seemed scared, but they tried to hide it by walking behind Alex.
After some time, the four found themselves somewhere new. There were no more padded walls. Instead, the floor turned into concrete, as the hallway led towards a wooden door.
With nowhere else to go, Alex entered, finding himself in a small office from which a huge area could be seen, specifically, what seemed like a football field, a basketball court, and some ruined stands.
"Woah, I didn't know there was an office behind this area!" Mini Kickin exclaimed, looking around as Alex closed the door behind him.
"It's been so long ever since we last went into the fields…" Mini Dogday mumbled.
"Well, the entrance collapsed, so…" Mini Catnap wondered out loud.
Alex left them to bicker on their own as he began looking around the office. There was nothing out of the ordinary inside, only papers upon papers and old books, along with what looked like a tennis ball.
The moment mini Dogday's eyes landed on the ball, his eyes widened and his tail began wagging.
Alex felt bad to say what he was about to say. "We're not playing fetch inside the office."
"Human, pleeeeeease!" He begged.
"Not in the office. Maybe later when we get out."
Mini Dogday immediately saddened.
Alex simply got the tennis ball and put it inside one of his pockets before resuming his search.
His eyes landed on top of one of the big shelves. He could see something that looked like a VHS tape hanging from the top shelf. Using his GrabPack, he shot one hand and got the tape.
It was a simple black tape, with the label having letters all different to each other, as if at least ten people had tried to write it. It read. 'The man behind everything', if he had read it properly.
Huh? What is this? Who is this referring to? And what does 'everything' mean?
"Hey guys, do you know any VHS players that can play this tape?" Alex asked the toys.
"I think there's one player at the entrance from the caverns…" Mini Kickin said.
"That's the one he broke!" Mini Dogday exclaimed. "He can't use that!"
"How do you know that?" Alex asked.
"Someone saw you break the TV with your own hands."
Alex decided not to comment further.
"Why do you ask? Is that tape important?" Mini Catnap asked.
"I don't know. It says 'the man behind everything', but I don't know what 'everything' means."
"If I had to guess by that name, I'd say 'everything' is talking about the experiments." The cat thought.
Alex's face turned into a frown in record time. "You mean this tape will tell me whose fault all of this is?!" He shouted.
"Probably… But I'm not sure."
"I need a tape player, now!"
"We should find a way to get out of here first…" Mini Kickin muttered.
"Yeah. Everyone in the Playhouse must be looking for us right now!" Mini Dogday added.
"Then let's get out of this office before it's too late." Alex spoke, going for the door.
However, he immediately flinched when he saw a big group of mini critters on the other side of the door, talking to themselves.
"Shit!" Alex whispered.
"What? What's going-?"
"Shhhhh!" Alex immediately silenced the toy dog. "There's minis outside the door! And they look like they're about to come in!"
The three widened their eyes.
"What do we do?" Mini Kickin worriedly asked.
"Simple." Mini Catnap said. "We need to hide the human somewhere where they'll not see him, and then just walk out of the door as if nothing happened! They still don't know it's us that helped him escape."
"But then we may not be able to escort the human anymore!" Mini Dogday told her.
"Do you have anything better? That window is fixed, and breaking it will make a lot of sound! And even if it didn't, there's nowhere to go in that area!" Mini Catnap shot back.
"Hopefully this will work…" Alex groaned. "But where do I hide?"
Mini Catnap looked around before pointing to a small closet under a table. "In there!"
"I can't fit there!"
"Try!"
Alex huffed, and tried to enter the closet under the table. It was a real right fit, but he could hide in there and hopefully not be found. Just in case, he readied his flare gun.
"Are you okay there, human?" Mini Dogday asked.
"Yeah."
"Okay, we're going to open the door now!" Mini Kickin spoke. "Be ready!"
"Wait!" Alex told them. "If the situation comes where I have to use the flare gun, run from it too, okay? You have to try and make them think you're not with me as much as you can."
"Understood." Mini Catnap nodded.
"Oh, and guys?"
"Yeah?" The three asked.
"Thanks for saving my life. I owe you a big one."
There was silence for a while before mini Dogday smirked. "I told you Catnap was wrong."
"I think it's the first time anyone thanks me for anything!" Mini Kickin muttered.
"Not me." Mini Catnap shook her head. "Be completely silent, human. We're going to go for the door."
"Good luck!" Alex said before the door to the closet was closed and the three toys headed for the door.
Alex didn't know how they did it, but he heard the sound of the handle being pulled before the door opened, shutting the conversation from outside immediately.
"What the- What were you guys doing in there?" One of the minis outside asked.
"Yeah, we were trying to come up with ways to open the door before going in ourselves!"
"Looking for that demon, duh!" Mini Dogday spoke as if it were obvious.
"...In an office?"
"You never know!" Mini Catnap replied.
"I mean, after Catnap's outburst, I would check even behind the padding of the walls!"
"You'd go that far?" Mini Catnap asked.
"Of course! Not all of us can be his favorite!"
"I'm not his favorite. It's just... complicated."
"Whatever you say, Nap…"
"By the way, did you hear? At least one of us helped that demon escape the cell!"
"What?!" Mini Kickin shouted.
"Yeah, you didn't know? Apparently some minis went into his cell and saved him! Who would do that?!"
"That's… crazy."
"And… is that even true? How did he know?" Mini Kickin hummed.
"Well, the big Kickin spilled everything after a single threat. He didn't see who exactly though…"
"But they did help him!"
"Much like you those three times."
"They were accidents! "
Alex mentally groaned. God damnit, Kickin! You can't just break down with a single threat!
"Well, whatever. After all this search, I need a break! "
"Yeah! Let's take advantage of this office and rest for a while!"
"Oh! Umm… Yeah, let's do that…"
After that, a lot of tiny footsteps headed inside the office were heard. Alex cursed again.
If he thought being cramped inside a small closet was bad already, hearing about the various complaints and insults about him wasn't helping.
"...and, AND-! He thinks he's so mighty with the 'Ohhhh, I'm going to get everyone out!'. For what?! So we can get experimented on again?!"
"Yeah! That guy doesn't know he has saved us and that we belong inside here, safe and sound!?"
Cannibalizing each other, fearing for your life,... Yeah, free indeed. Quite a bullshit excuse to keep all these toys trapped in here.
A hellish safe haven…
"Yeah, yeah! Free of the hands of those scientists!"
"Even if there's little food left…" One of them said, making the conversation stop.
"B-But that doesn't matter because he will provide!"
"You're saying you prefer being caged to this better new life?!"
"Of course not! Just… you know. Haven't eaten in a while. That human was going to be my long overdue dinner!"
The three minis on Alex's side silently stayed out of the talk.
After a lot more talking, the minis seemed to grow tired of discussing Alex and instead went back to looking for him.
"Aren't you guys coming?"
"Nah, don't worry about us. We three make a great team! We'll find that human for sure!" Mini Kickin exclaimed proudly.
"Are you sure? Hops was looking for you."
"I think he's even more sure now." Mini Dogday laughed.
There were a few shared chuckles before footsteps were heard fading away. Minutes that felt like hours passed before Alex heard a knock on the door of the closet.
"Human, you can come out now." Mini Catnap told him.
Trying his best and feeling all his body ache from the posture, Alex groaned as he stood back on his feet, once again rubbing his head.
"Geez, everything hurts…" He moaned from pain. "I appreciate you guys not talking about me."
"Better not to raise suspicion." The small feline said. "Now let's get out of here already."
With a nod, Alex quickly walked outside the office, turning to another hallway. All the rooms he encountered looked the same: decrepit walls and floor, sometimes with a few cushions or pillows that were once for children.
And surprisingly, Alex didn't see a single mini critter. He didn't complain though.
It wasn't long before they found a wooden door that led to a room similar to the one where Alex had encountered his first mini critter, in the sense of it having only furniture, a tape player, and a door that would hopefully lead to the outside.
Alex was reluctant to play the tape there, but he decided to risk it, mostly because he hadn't heard a single mini critter in all of this maybe-too-easy run-away.
With a sigh, he put the tape in as the TV displayed a simple black screen. Then, some text appeared on the screen.
'THERE YOU ARE.'
"What the-?" Alex exclaimed.
But the text changed. It was a message.
'WE HAVE BEEN TRYING TO CONTACT YOU, 'ANGEL''
'YOU MAY BE WONDERING WHO WE ARE, BUT THAT IS NOT IMPORTANT.'
'YOU WISH TO KNOW THE BEGINNING OF OUR CREATION, AND SO, WE HAVE DECIDED TO INDULGE YOU.'
'DO NOT EXPECT ANYMORE "GIFTS" FROM US.'
And then the text disappeared, returning the video to a black void.
"What even… Who is 'we'?!" Alex groaned.
He didn't have too much time to think about it, because from the black void something appeared. A darkened… music box? Jack-in-the-box?
Alex wasn't very sure.
And then there were voices.
"My name is Harley Sawyer. I'm called 'the Doctor'." A voice spoke.
Wait, Sawyer?! That name was somewhere before… In that tape with Pierre and Catnap, I think.
"When I look at this company we've built, I do not feel proud. Declining profits, failed experiments, people are constantly seeing things they shouldn't. How is that anything less than complete failure on our part? It's pathetic.
Now we're understaffed, safety protocols are being abandoned, workplace incidents are common. We can't avoid a lawsuit forever. We need to deal with all of these issues at once. I'm here now with a solution.
The Bigger Bodies Initiative.
Giant toys. We can increase our workforce and simultaneously decrease the number of lawsuits and people on our payroll if the people we have working…
Aren't people.
Put me in charge of it, and I will save this company."
The tape ended.
Alex recalled the name. 'Bigger Bodies Initiative'. That was what started the creation of the toys, and thus, the experiments on orphans, wasn't it?
And it all started because…
"All of this, just because of… money?" Alex mumbled.
He clenched his fists. "Because of MONEY?!" The human roared. "This Sawyer guy just decided to turn children into slaves because the company didn't want to lose profits?!"
Even the mini critters seemed shocked at the information. "They took everything away from us… because they wanted to make toys work their jobs?" Mini Dogday whined, apparently about to cry, just as the other two were.
"This is…" Mini Catnap began, but couldn't finish her sentence.
"A facade to hide an ulterior motive."
Alex's rage towards this new wretched 'Doctor' immediately disappeared as his head snapped back along with the other three to look behind them.
Catnap.
Four screams of terror sounded, and the minis hid behind Alex as he aimed his GrabPack at Catnap. For what, he wasn't sure. However, he noticed the expression on his face.
For almost killing him moments ago, Catnap looked surprisingly calm now. His gaze as he looked at the TV screen was… thoughtful.
"W-What?" Alex dared ask.
"That man's intention was never to save the company. He just wanted to achieve scientific progress for progress' sake."
Erm… That makes it worse ? And you're saying it with a straight face?!
For a long while, Catnap stood still, not even batting an eye at the human. His look was fixed on the TV.
Alex could feel the shaking of the three minis behind him. He was scared too, but it was only when his head started moving to look for an exit that Catnap finally turned to look at him.
And yet, he still didn't move.
What is this guy playing?
"Quite a unique tape you possess, rat." Catnap said. "There is only one copy, and only one being in the factory that has it."
His face got closer to Alex's. "How did you get it?"
Alex gulped. "I-... It was in an o-office. I t-think someone left it there." He stuttered.
The cat was mere inches away from his face, so much so he could feel his breath on his face, which smelled like rotten meat.
He was sure this was it. The blood loss from before still weighed heavily on him, and he wasn't going to be able to run away from Catnap if he tried.
But despite what he thought, Catnap simply backed away from him.
"Amusing." He simply said, his long tail giving a small flick.
"What does that mean?" Alex frowned. If it weren't a life or death situation, he would be angry at those words. "What's 'amusing'?"
"You are amusing, rat." He clarified. "Everytime you find the slightest piece of new information about this place, you get angry with yourself, long gone people, or you simply fall into depressive episodes. It is amusing to watch."
Alex frowned even more. "Glad to hear you think that…" He muttered. "What are you getting at? I thought you wanted to kill me."
Catnap simply grinned. "And who said I did not want to?"
Alex widened his eyes and took a step back in shock.
What he didn't expect was the three minis behind him to put themselves in front of him. "If you want to kill him, you'll have to go through us first!" Mini Dogday shouted.
"Y-Yeah!" Mini Kickin stammered, a bit less confidently.
"We won't go down without a fight!" Mini Catnap added.
Catnap glowered at them, clearly surprised and angry at the same time. "You- After everything I and our savior has done to feed you, take care of you, free you ,... you instead choose to side with a human?! " He growled before looking at the mini Catnap. "I wouldn't have expected this from you ."
Mini Catnap simply frowned. "You need a reality check."
Alex ignored whatever those two had going on, mostly because Catnap's monologue was the final push he needed to explode.
It seemed he was going to talk to him after all.
" Your savior ?! You mean the giant metallic hand that hasn't been seen here for years?!" Alex yelled back.
The feline immediately whipped his head towards him. "Quiet."
"No!" Alex immediately replied. "I'm not dying without you hearing me out!"
He placed himself in front of the mini critters, not breaking eye contact with Catnap. "That thing doesn't care about you! About any of the toys in here! He is using you!"
"How dare you?!"
"SHUT UP!" Alex blurted out. "I read your diary, Catnap! You know, the book in your room that's not been touched in who knows how long?!"
"Diary?" The three minis immediately exclaimed.
Alex could see a hint of red in Catnap's cheeks, but he still didn't change his expression.
"Yes, that book! I know you didn't want to do whatever you did to your friends! You know why you did it? Because your "god" told you so! Because they 'committed an unforgivable act of betrayal' or some shit like that?! What does that mean? I know! Not follow your little fraud's plan!"
At least I hope…
Alex could see one of Catnap's eyes twitch, but it was too late to stop.
"And this all takes us back to the beginning! Why would you do something like ripping your friends' limbs apart when you didn't want to?! Because you see the Prototype as a savior! And why?"
Alex readied himself to say what he was about to say.
"Because he 'saved your life, giving up his freedom in the process'!" Alex recalled Ollie's words. "He told you to do whatever thing he wanted you to do with that GrabPack so you could get into critical condition, then save you, and have a loyal fucking pup-"
Alex was interrupted when Catnap lunged at him, throwing him to the ground and pinning him there with a killer look and a claw to his neck.
"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK LIKE THAT ABOUT OUR SAVIOR?! HOW DARE YOU CALL THOSE TRAITORS 'MY FRIENDS'? HOW DARE YOU BRING UP MY OWN PAST IN MY FACE?!"
Alex could barely breathe, and he gasped and flailed around to try and get out of that situation.
"THOSE HERETICS… GOT WHAT THEY DESERVED!"
Alex swore that last line… sounded forced.
"Is… Is anything I've said wrong, though?" He wheezed.
And Catnap's hold on his neck got tighter.
"Snap… out of it…" Alex barely said. "He… doesn't…"
Care. Please… Just listen to me…
And then, after Alex thought his plot armor had run out, after feeling his eyes roll backwards, after hearing the three minis plead for Catnap to stop…
He did.
Catnap actually stopped squeezing Alex's neck, causing him to gasp for air and cough for almost a full minute.
"Holy, that actually worked?" Mini Kickin exclaimed.
"I don't think it was us." Mini Catnap told him, to which mini Dogday agreed.
Slowly but surely, Catnap backed away from Alex and the minis. He still looked really angry, ready to slit Alex's throat open, but yet, for some reason, he had let him go.
Alex finally stopped coughing as he managed to stand up again. "You're just a puppet to him. That's why he doesn't show up anymore. You've already done what he needed you to do."
Catnap didn't say a thing.
Alex didn't either. He was already done.
It was another staredown between the two of them.
After what felt like hours, Catnap did just as before, getting really close to Alex's face. But this time, he wasn't scared.
"You could have used your gas and knocked us out, and you wouldn't have heard me insulting the Prototype. It would have been an easy kill." Alex said. "Why didn't you?"
A pause. "You've already thought about this before, haven't you?"
Catnap still didn't reply.
After a long while of the cat breathing on his face, there was something that sounded like a growl coming from him.
"One last chance, rat." He said. "You have caused enough ruckus in Playcare. You, your little heretic friends and these traitors have one last chance to leave Playcare peacefully."
"And if we don't?" Alex dared.
"Then, I will come for you. And rest assured, you will not live long enough to say anything else."
And with that, Catnap turned around and left, leaving Alex and the mini critters standing there, confused.
I did something. He let me go because he has to believe me at least a little.
Alex couldn't help but smile.
"Let's get out of here. And quick." He said, motioning for the others to follow.
"We are not… leaving Playcare, are we?" Mini Kickin asked.
Alex scoffed. "After being so close to making Catnap see reason? Not a chance. Now come on. My friends must be really worried about me."
Alex then turned to look at them with a serious look. "Dogday especially."
The three whined. "Sorry?" Mini Catnap asked.
"We'll never do it again…" Mini Dogday added.
Alex sighed. He couldn't be angry at them, not with those cute little faces.
He then realized he was being a victim of emotional manipulation.
"Stop that!" He chuckled. "Don't try to pull any puppy eyes on me!"
"It was worth a shot." Mini Dogday smiled.
"But seriously, we won't try to crawl inside him again." Mini Kickin added.
"Yeah, because you can't. He's got his legs back."
They widened their eyes in surprise. "Huh?!" The three minis exclaimed.
"Yeah, I'll explain it to you as we walk." Alex then took the tennis ball from his pocket as mini Dogday's eyes sparkled and his tail started wagging again.
Alex rolled his eyes and threw the ball, with mini Dogday immediately running after it.
"I hate when you guys act too… not human." Alex mumbled, seeing what was supposed to be a child live the best moment of his life with a tennis ball.
"We hate it too, but we can't help it sometimes." Mini Catnap sighed.
"You either accept it or not. And I think Day did." Mini Kickin chuckled as mini Dogday brought the ball back to Alex.
"Again!" He exclaimed.
Alex simply shook his head with a smile as he threw the ball again.
"Let's go already."
And with that, the human opened the door that would lead them outside. Though Catnap's threat still lingered in his mind, he didn't think about it.
He wasn't going to give up on him, even if everyone thought there was no point in trying. Even if he knew everyone was rooting for Alex to finally put an end to him.
Even… if it was the last thing he did.