"UGH! STUPID MINI CRITTERS!" Dogday shouted at the entrance of the Playhouse. "I can't even take two steps inside this cursed place without at least one of them bothering me!"
It was then he noticed Kissy and Poppy coming towards him. "Nothing in the Counselor's Office. He's not there." The doll worriedly spoke. "Did you have any luck?"
"Couldn't even get past the door without risking getting seen." The dog groaned.
"What are we going to do?" Poppy exclaimed. "It's my fault, I shouldn't have let him go in there alone!"
"Poppy, it wasn't your fault…" Dogday tried to tell her.
"It doesn't even matter, does it? Alex might be dead, and it doesn't matter who's responsible!" She cried.
Dogday wanted to say something, but no words came to him. What if the angel was really… dead?
What would happen to all of them?
"We… we can't just give up! We have to hope he's okay…"
"Hoping won't help us!" The doll shouted. She was so immersed in her misery she didn't notice Kissy's arm patting her shoulder.
"But there's nothing else we can do… I am as scared of losing Angel as you are, Poppy. But, there's nothing we-" Dogday however, did notice Kissy's attempts to get their attention. "Kissy, what's wrong?" He asked.
The pink giant raised one of her hands to her mouth, motioning them to shut up. They obeyed, even though Poppy had quite a hard time doing that.
And them, Dogday's sensitive ears picked something.
"...t's an exit?"
It was faint, but it sounded like…
"Alex?" Poppy stuttered.
"Sounds like him…" Dogday muttered in disbelief. "It sounds like it's coming from behind the walls."
Meanwhile, quite literally a wall away from them…
"Seriously, why is this exit so far?" Mini Kickin whined.
"Can't you be more like Day over there and keep quiet?" Mini Catnap groaned.
"Shut up! Why don't I look for some yarn for you to play with so you can be more like Day, hm?" Mini Kickin shot back.
"Who do you think I am?! Throwing my composure away for some yarn?!" Mini Catnap humphed, looking away with an offended face. "For your information, I'd only do that if I ever found a mini Touille running around somewhere!"
Mini Kickin rolled his eyes.
Alex all the while simply chuckled at their antics, making sure to keep throwing the tennis balls for mini Dogday.
And then, after countless complaints from mini Kickin, they finally arrived at a door. "Alright, ready?" Alex asked the minis.
"Duh! Finally we'll see something other than the Playhouse!" The chicken exclaimed.
"I think you're the only one of us that's never left it." Mini Dogday told him.
"Yeah, I kind of always got carried around the whole place." Mini Catnap added.
"Killjoys…"
With a final roll of his eyes, Alex opened the door, finding it was camouflaged on the walls. The moment the four of them stepped out of the hallway, they were met with a darkened Playcare, where Alex could barely see past his nose.
"Was it always this dark?" Mini Kickin asked.
"I think someone must have killed the power…" Alex replied before sighing. " Again… "
"So what's the plan?" Mini Dogday asked.
"The plan? First, we find the others and we regroup. We explain the situation, hopefully avoid any confrontations between them and you, explain to them Catnap's situation, and then we'll think of something." Alex said. "I think that's good. Though, I don't know how we'll find them in the dark…"
"By 'them', you mean them ?" Mini Catnap spoke, pointing somewhere ahead.
Alex frowned with a confused look and then looked where the plush was pointing at.
His face fell when he saw Dogday, Kissy and Poppy all comically glued to the wall, listening to something.
What the…?
"I can't hear anything anymore!" Dogday exclaimed.
"Maybe he's gone somewhere else?" Poppy asked.
Kissy said something.
Alex face-palmed at the sheer stupidity of the situation. Instead of sneaking up behind them and patting them to get their attention (he didn't want to risk getting hurt by them jumping back in shock), he instead cleared his throat.
At once, the three heads snapped to look at him, before they all widened their eyes in surprise.
"Could you guys explain what you're doing?" He chuckled.
He was then tackled into the ground in a tight hug before he could even react. Dogday was squeezing him as if his life depended on it, and Alex could see tears in his eyes and his tail wagging like crazy.
"Goodness, you're okay! You're not dead, Angel! Thank goodness!" He mumbled, too fast for Alex to understand properly.
"Owowowow! Dogday, cut it out! My chest!"
"Dogday, stop!" Alex heard Poppy shout. "He's hurt!"
It took a while for him to let go of Alex, but when he did, the human breathed a sigh of relief.
"Geez, I knew you were worried, but…" He groaned, clutching his chest.
Immediately, the three toys' heads fell to look at it.
Kissy let out an alarmed sound.
"Oh my-!" Poppy exclaimed.
"Angel, who did this to you?!" Dogday yelled.
He simply sighed with a shake of his head. "Who else? Catnap did. He almost killed me with a slash to my chest and the Red Smoke. And he broke the new shirt we got from the wardrobe too!"
Dogday clenched his fists in rage. "Oooh, when I get my hands on that cat , he's going to see what this 'mutt' can do!"
"Wait, what do you mean he almost killed you?" Poppy interrupted.
"Yeah, after doing what I described, he kind of left me to bleed out in front of the other Smiling Critters?" Alex chuckled nervously before shuddering.
"He WHAT?!"
Kissy and Alex both had to hold Dogday in place as he quite literally tried to break down the door to the Playhouse.
"Cut it out, Dogday!" Alex groaned. "I'm okay now! It's okay!"
"No, it's not okay!" He replied, struggling to free himself. After a while, though, he finally gave up and sat down on the ground, sighing. "Sorry for that. I can get a bit… temperamental sometimes."
"Yeah, no kidding…" Alex rolled his eyes.
"But if Catnap slashed your chest and left you to bleed out inside a cell, how did you escape?" Poppy asked. "There's no way you could have done it alone!"
Alex squirmed nervously. "Yeah… hehe."
He took a deep breath and looked at the bigger dog. "Dogday, you're not gonna like this but…"
He tilted his head in confusion.
Alex simply turned around. "Okay, guys! You can come now!"
Without wasting a second, the three minis walked towards Alex, with mini Dogday still carrying the tennis ball in his mouth before stopping next to the human.
Alex didn't know Dogday could jump higher than his own height. "AAAAH! WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS DOING HERE?!" He screeched.
"Hey!" Mini Catnap shot back.
"Not cool, man." Mini Kickin added.
"Mhm mm!" Mini Dogday mumbled.
"Drop the ball to speak, please." Alex sighed.
Reluctantly, the small plush did what he was told, before repeating what he had just said. "As I said: That hurt!"
"You want to know what hurt?!" The bigger dog said. "You lot trying to crawl inside of me and eat me from the inside!"
"We weren't going to eat you." Mini Catnap groaned. "It was just a way to get to the human by taking control of your body."
"Oh, my bad, you're good then. NO, YOU'RE NOT! You think that makes it better?!"
"Okay, okay, stop yelling." Alex stopped them, clutching his head. "We'll get caught if we're not careful. Let's get somewhere safe and I'll explain everything."
"Angel, you can't seriously be suggesting we-"
"Dogday, these three minis saved my life. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for them." Alex simply spoke. "And they have also promised they wouldn't try anything on you."
Dogday seemed really reluctant to get even close to the minis, but seeing Alex be that serious, he took a deep breath before shaking his head.
"Fine. If you trust them, then… so do I." The dog spoke through gritted teeth.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Alex." Poppy added.
He sighed, nodding. "Trust me, they'd had a lot of opportunities to backstab me."
"And we didn't!" Mini Dogday exclaimed. "We can't even stab you without a knife!"
"No, doofus! It doesn't need to be a knife! Any sharp object works!" Mini Kickin added, causing the mini Catnap to groan with a face palm.
"I'm surrounded by idiots…" She muttered.
"Okay, okay, let's get down to the statue so we can all be on the same page." Alex interrupted, as everyone walked towards the statue.
"...in conclusion, Catnap gave us all one last chance to leave or he would come and get us. All of us." Alex finished, getting up from the chair.
"But there is no way we are doing that, right?" Nap (Alex had decided to stop calling them 'mini' and whatever critter they were and start using their names) added.
"Of course not!" The human exclaimed. "We are far from done in Playcare."
"And what do you suggest we do now, Angel?" Dogday asked.
"We have to get in touch with Ollie again." Poppy suggested. "We need to know what happened with Playcare's power."
"And then what?" Day blurted.
"Then, we have to go back to our previous plan. Restore the energy to the Gas Production Zone." Alex finished.
"You can't be serious! Did you forget the big cat that just threatened you?" Kicks shouted.
"And what else do you want to do, feather-brain? Hide until we starve?" Nap shot back.
"Let's keep things civil, please…" Alex sighed.
Suddenly, Alex's phone started ringing again, startling everyone. "Speaking of the devil…" The human smirked, pressing a button on the phone. "Ollie? Is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me." He replied. "Something's gone wrong with Playcare's power! It seems most of the generators that supply non-necessary energy have been disconnected!"
"What does that mean?" Dogday asked.
"It means that even if everything looks bad, our plan is still unaffected! Though, I hope you guys can see in the dark, because there's practically no lightning anywhere!"
"That's what flashlights are for, right?" Alex told him. "So there's no problem with the rerouting we did then?"
"Not anything important."
"Great! Then, what's our next step? The generator inside the Counselor's Office should be powered."
"You need to grab the chord next to the Counselor's Office and plug it underneath the statue! That way we should reach 100%!" Ollie replied.
"Great! I'll go do that right now." Alex then looked at the rest of the toys. "You guys wait for me here. It won't take too long."
"No way!" Dogday exclaimed, standing up. "You're not going there on your own!"
"Dogday, the building is barely a few steps away." Alex frowned.
"I know! But there's no light outside! What if Catnap is waiting for you?"
"I don't think he'll be-" Nap began.
"I didn't ask you!" The bigger dog interrupted her.
"Hey, stop that!" Day said.
"You didn't even let her finish!" Kicks finished.
Alex face palmed before looking at Poppy. "Poppy, please, say something."
"Huh?"
It was then that Alex realized that the doll had been silent for a while, looking down, and she had just perked up when she heard her name.
"Are you okay there, Poppy?"
"Yes, yes. I'm just… thinking."
"About what?"
"..."
Alex looked at Kissy with a questioning glance, but she too shrugged.
"-but you just got your legs sewed! You shouldn't walk too much!"
"I'm not leaving Angel alone with you three even if my life depended on it!"
Alex groaned, tuning back to the discussion between Dogday and the mini critters.
"For the love of god, can you guys stop? What are you even fighting for now?"
"We are saying that Dogday shouldn't go with you to get the cable because his legs can't be too healthy yet!" Day said.
"And I'm saying that I am fine!" The other dog replied.
Alex groaned again. Out of all the times they decide to act like kids, it's gotta be now…
"They got a point, you know? I'm still not sure how you're even walking."
Dogday widened his eyes. "Wha- You can't be serious, Angel!"
"I am. But I'm not saying they are right either." The human told him. "Look, it's just a few steps. I'll take the phone and Ollie will tell me if there's something approaching. Just wait here, okay?"
"But-!"
"Dogday." Alex sighed. "Listen, I am really flattered you worry this much about my well being, but I'll be fine. I promise. You stay here and rest. Who knows how much you ran around when you all were looking for me."
Dogday visibly deflated, but he only sighed. "Okay. If you say you'll be fine… But if anything is wrong, scream as loud as you can and we'll be there!"
Alex chuckled. "Sure, bud."
He turned towards the exit, phone in his ear. "I trust you can see Playcare fully from wherever you are?" Alex asked Ollie.
"Yeah! It's too dark, but I'll try and warn you if I notice anything weird." Ollie replied.
"Okay. Thanks, buddy."
And with that and a wave, Alex left the control room underneath the statue, the room falling into a long silence.
For a few seconds that felt like hours, no one said anything. That was, until Poppy sighed.
"I'm going to show him the tape."
All eyes fell on her. "Which tape are you talking about?" Dogday asked.
"You know which tape exactly." The doll huffed.
The room fell silent once again before a wave of gasps went across the room. "That tape?" Nap exclaimed. "The one that has…?"
"The Hour of Joy. Yes."
"You can't do that!" Day yelled.
"What if he… I don't know, gets scared and leaves us all?!" Kicks added.
"I can't believe this, but I have to agree with them." Dogday frowned.
Even Kissy seemed worried about that, letting out a worried chirp. "You think that he'll leave?" The doll scowled.
"You are helping a human who has come back into the factory with the simple goal of finding out what happened to his coworkers, and now has been roped into a plan of revenge he didn't sign up for." Poppy blurted. "Don't you think the least we could do is answer this question?"
All the toys looked at each other with uncertainty. "You're scared of seeing Alex's reaction to… that event, as much as I am, but you all know that he will find out eventually, especially if our next stop is the Prison. You know what that's called? Being selfish ."
At the mere mention of the word 'selfish', everyone seemed to look down in shame.
"Yes, you're all being selfish to someone that's been nothing but kind and patient with you. I get how it is, but you have to understand it's not the right thing to keep it hidden from him."
With those words, the toys once again looked at each other for a while, before nodding.
"You're right, Poppy." Dogday said. "It's better if he finds out from you than from… anyone down there."
"Yeah… And he's gotta have some sort of idea about it by now." Nap sighed.
"I really hope he won't just leave…" Kicks looked away.
"But what if he does? What will we do then?" Day asked.
Everyone fell silent again.
Poppy took a deep breath. "That's something we can't know for sure. Though, until I find the tape, I ask you to not say a word about this to Alex. Just… try and act normal."
Just as she said that, footsteps began sounding from the stairs as Alex appeared from there with the Counselor's Office cable in one of the GrabPack's hands.
Even he could notice the atmosphere wasn't the same as when he left. "Uhhh… Am I interrupting something?" He asked.
"No, don't worry. We just… had a very big discussion with Dogday!" Day explained, trying to look innocent.
"Yeeeah…" Alex didn't look too convinced.
"That's enough about us, Angel." Dogday interrupted before he could ask anything else. "Nothing happened outside, did it?"
Alex chuckled uncomfortably. "Weeell… You're not going to believe this, but while I was walking towards the Counselor's Office, a tile from the ceiling fell down and almost hit me."
"If I hadn't seen it, he would probably be dead from the impact!" Ollie added.
"Yeah… I owe him a big one."
Dogday looked at him with a mixture of disbelief and worry, while Poppy simply shook her head. "Just plug the cable, please…" She sighed.
Alex nodded and went to do just that.
However, the screen next to the connected cables only went up to 96%. "Huh?!" Alex yelled.
"That's not enough?" Poppy added.
"I'm not going to activate any more generators! I refuse!" The human muttered.
"You won't need to!" Ollie cut in. "Poppy has the key she used to activate the dome's lights last time, right?"
The doll nodded. "I do. Why?"
"Just give it to Alex and he can use that panel to get the last bit of energy we need!"
"Wait, is that why we needed to do those fixings?"
"Yup!"
"What fixings?" Day asked.
"Nothing, don't worry." Poppy told him, pulling out a small key and tossing it to Alex. "Be quick, Alex."
"Yes, ma'am!"
And Alex ran off with the phone towards the last cable.
Unsurprisingly, the room stayed silent again, as uncomfortable looks were passed from time to time.
It was mere minutes before steps once again echoed and Alex appeared down the stairs, a serious look on his face.
"You will not believe what happened."
"Please, Angel, don't tell me another tile almost crushed you." Dogday deadpanned.
"Let's just say I owe two big ones now."
"Alex…" Ollie said.
"Oh right! The cable!"
Alex immediately went to plug the cable, finding that the screen finally displayed 100%.
He could not believe his eyes. After all he had gone through, after all the hardships, the almost death experiences, they were back at 100%.
They were so close.
"Okay! That should be enough power." Ollie spoke.
Suddenly, from the spot the keys usually came for Alex to get them, something else appeared. It was a bigger and bulkier battery, which was blue instead of green.
"Woah!" The three minis exclaimed.
"Now you just need to take that battery to the Gas Production Zone, so we can get out of here!" Ollie cheered.
"So it's the end? We just have to do that?" Dogday asked.
"Yup!"
"What are we waiting for then? To the Gas Production Zone!" Poppy exclaimed.
"Wait!"
Everyone stopped and looked at Alex. "What's wrong, human?" Day asked.
"I want to do something first." He raised the phone. "Ollie, do you mind trying to call the phone in the Game Station again? I want to make sure everyone up there is okay."
"Sure! Just give me a moment."
The call ended, and after a few seconds, Alex could hear the dial tone. It lasted for a very long while before the call hung up by itself.
It seemed there was no reply.
"Huh. I wonder why they don't pick up…" He muttered, picking the phone again once he heard it ringing.
"There's something going on at the Game Station, Alex." Ollie spoke. "Even if I look at all the cameras I can, there doesn't seem to be anyone."
"What?!" He exclaimed.
"And not just that! The area looks completely destroyed and messed up! It's as if someone went there. Someone big. And with bad intentions."
The group turned to look at each other with worry. "You don't mean…" Alex barely whispered.
"I don't see any corpses, so they are alive! Probably ."
"I'm thankful the way back is blocked by the train crash, or I'm sure you'd be marching there right now." Poppy rolled her eyes.
"How can you be so calm?!" Alex worriedly exclaimed.
"Don't worry, Angel." Dogday cut. "If they are alive, they are most likely somewhere safe."
"How do you know?"
"I don't. But we can't go there, so there's no point in worrying, right?" The dog tried to reassure, even though he didn't look sure himself.
Alex didn't look very convinced, but even then, he sighed in defeat. "Fine… I'll trust you."
As the group exited the control room with the battery and headed for the Gas Production Zone. "Oh, and once we're done, we'll be sure to make a plan to get the Smiling Critters out of the Playhouse!" Poppy added.
Alex looked at the door, which was illuminated by a bright emergency light, before sighing.
"I can't believe it. It feels so… surreal to be over with Playcare after everything…" He laughed. "I think I may actually-"
"Alex, watch it!"
Without warning, a tile from the ceiling fell where Alex was just a few seconds ago. He barely avoided getting crushed for a third time. The other toys stood looking at him with a mixture of a smile and a surprised face.
"Now I owe three big ones."
The Gas Production Zone was still as daunting as ever. The huge machine with the gas tank full of Red Smoke was enough to send shivers through Alex's spine as he and his friends arrived at the area, which was almost fully dark, with only Alex's flashlight giving any sort of light.
"Here we are…" Poppy sighed.
"I feel like something's wrong." Alex frowned. "It's been too easy. Catnap gave me an ultimatum and yet he's nowhere to be seen."
"Maybe he was just bluffing?" Kicks asked.
"You out of all of us here should know Catnap never bluffs." Dogday replied.
"He's right." Nap added.
"Great, so he's just getting ready to scare us. Cool." Alex groaned.
It was then he noticed Kissy helping Poppy enter a vent in the far end of the room. "Hey! Where are you going, Poppy?"
"I'm going to get something I need to show you. You should go and divert the gas while I do that." The doll replied with an uncharacteristic tone for her.
"Uh… Okay."
And just like that, Poppy entered the vent, leaving Alex confused. He turned to look at the rest, who seemed to be nervous about something. "Are you guys okay?"
"Yeah! Why wouldn't we be?" Day replied very fast.
"You aren't good at lying, you know?" Alex frowned.
His gaze scanned the others, finding similar expressions on their faces. "What's going on with you all? Is it about the thing Poppy went to get?"
Their expressions made him think the answer was a yes.
"What is she even getting to make you this nervous?"
No reply as the others fidgeted uncomfortably. Even Kissy looked worried.
Alex frowned. "Seriously?"
"It's better if you just wait for Poppy to come back." Dogday sighed.
Alex scowled and sighed. "If you say so…"
He began looking around for a place to put the battery in, and in the distance, he could see a bigger blue battery hole. He guessed it would go there.
He took a step towards it.
"Human, wait!"
"Angel, stop!"
The two dogs exclaimed in unison, as they restlessly turned their heads to look for something.
"What's wrong?" The human wondered.
"We've heard something." Dogday replied.
"Wait, you too?" Nap asked. "I thought I was the only one!"
"I haven't heard anything…" Alex mumbled.
"That's because humans have worse hearing than us!" Kicks said.
"Said the chicken ." The small feline rolled her eyes.
Kissy then started doing what seemed like sniffing the air. After a few seconds, however, her pink face turned ever so slightly paler.
"What's wrong, Kissy?" Alex questioned. He was starting to get worried.
Now, it was the others' turn to sniff the air.
"Hey, I smell something!" Kicks exclaimed.
"Me too…" Day added. "I swear I've smelled it somewhere before…"
"Yeah, it's really familiar." Nap nodded. "It smells like…"
Dogday's face went white. "Lavender." He said. "A-And burnt poppies…"
Alex widened his eyes. "He's here…?"
"ALEX!" Ollie's agitated voice came. "CATNAP'S-" And the call cut abruptly.
Suddenly, there was another sound, but not just any sound.
A voice.
"You had one chance."
Everyone's head snapped back. It came from the same door that Alex went through to get his GrabPack 2.0, from which Red Smoke was leaking.
It opened, revealing a tall, slender purple feline with white glowing pupils and a wide smile.
"Such a shame you don't know when to give up…"
And without any warning, Red Smoke began filling the room from all directions.
"Run!" Alex yelled, dropping the battery.
No need to say it twice.
Every single toy ran away from the giant cat, but they didn't get too far. First, Kissy dropped to the floor, followed by two smaller thuds, those being Day and Kicks.
At that point, there was so much Red Smoke that it was impossible to see past one's nose. Alex heard a lot of heavy coughs before an even louder thud was heard.
Dogday was down.
And Alex wasn't too far behind.
As the smoke began filling his lungs, he coughed and gagged, as he tried gasping for air. Before he could even get close to the exit, his legs gave up, as he fell to his knees.
His eyes grew heavy.
"What's the matter, rat? Cat got your tongue?" He heard Catnap taunt from behind the mist.
His knees couldn't hold his weight anymore, and he fell forward, landing on his arms.
"You could have left with your 'friends' and avoided this."
Not even his arms anymore. He fell down to the ground, laying on his stomach.
"Alas, it seems you are too stubborn to see that."
Alex barely managed to look back, seeing a pair of glowing pupils looking at him. Waiting for their chance to strike.
"You've made your last mistake, rat."
Alex tried to force himself to stand, but nothing worked. He couldn't fight the Red Smoke. And now, there was truly no one to save him.
He could only hope it would be fast…
…
"I won't let it end like this.
Get up."
Alex's eyes snapped open. Who the hell-?
"I need you alive.
Get up."
Where was that voice coming from?
"No one said it would be easy.
Get up."
Whatever that was, it hurt to listen to. Alex somehow managed to get one of his arms in a way he could push himself off the floor, but he still didn't have any strength.
"You can take it.
Get up."
His other arm was now in the same position. He wished he had an extra arm so he could cover his ears. Shut up. Shut up, please!
"Nobody is here by choice.
Get up."
He was on his knees. The steps behind him suddenly stopped.
"You're stronger than this.
Get up."
Alex groaned, planting one of his feet on the ground, making the greatest effort he'd ever made.
"You're almost there.
Get up."
Alex sucked a breath before a groan escaped his mouth. Everything hurt. He couldn't get up. He couldn't… He just wanted everything to end.
But he couldn't let it end like that.
Not with everyone counting on him. Not after everything he had to go through. Not after the promises he'd made.
Not when his friends weren't safe.
With every single bit of strength he had left, Alex tried to push himself back on his feet. He was so close. HE COULD FEEL IT!
"THEY STILL NEED YOU.
GET UP ."
With a shriek, he used his knee as a base to push himself onto his feet. Inertia almost made him fall forward again, but Alex managed to regain his balance.
He was up.
He let out a laugh that sounded half crazy as he clutched his face, barely breathing and trying his hardest to stay awake and on his feet. It couldn't end like that.
It wouldn't end like that.
Alex saw Catnap's eyes barely a few steps away from him.
"Interesting…" He muttered. " This is the first time I have seen an employee resist the gas."
"HUMAN!"
Alex perked up at the sound of that shout. It was Nap. "RUN AWAY! THERE'S AN ELEVATOR! USE IT!"
He barely registered the words. Run… and elevator? Where? How? His vision was blurry, his ears rang, and there was just so much Red Smoke. He couldn't even begin to think of a possible way his legs would move.
"Run away?"
A deep chuckle filled the room.
"I̴̪̋ ̴̙̀w̶͔̌o̷̹̒ű̴̟l̶̛͔d̵͓̈ ̵̻̚l̵̰̆i̵̢̍k̶̗̎e̵͍̎ ̷̝̀ț̷̈́o̸̠̍ ̸͊ͅs̴̡̛ë̴̙́e̷̤̔ ̷̡͛t̸͕͑h̶͇͗ǎ̶͇t̷͇͛.̷̜͒"
When he heard the big thumps of Catnap approaching him, he expected the feline to appear from the mist. And yet, what he saw instead would probably give him nightmares forever.
Instead of the usual purple fur, Catnap was now pale gray, and the already unusually big smile was now stretched and contorted to impossible lengths. Also, if Alex thought Catnap was already thin enough, now there was barely any muscle left. Instead, he could see all his skeleton pushing through his skin. And his claws…
God, his claws.
Every bit of haziness Alex was feeling disappeared at that very moment.
There was only one thought that filled his mind.
Run.
Alex turned around and sprinted in the opposite direction of Catnap. He couldn't see where he was going, but he could hear the loud footsteps behind him drawing closer and closer.
Before long, Alex saw something in the distance. It looked like the elevator Nap told him about. He didn't know where it would take him, but his situation was definitely not one to be picky.
Once he was there, he pressed the button on the control panel next to it, opening the door. He immediately entered the platform and pressed another button inside, as the gate shut and the elevator began lifting.
The shaft was protected by a grated fence, and Alex thought he was safe, but his heart skipped a beat once he saw Catnap appear from the mist and look up at him before he jumped onto the wall and climbed upwards, as his head followed Alex, even bending into angles that shouldn't be possible.
Alex pressed the button as much as he could, but the elevator didn't move any faster.
At that rate, Catnap would reach his height and most likely break the gate before killing him.
However, it seemed like someone really liked him, because the elevator shaft ended and Alex was lifted above the room's ceiling, cutting Catnap off.
Alex stood still for a while, before he slumped on the ground, exhausted. He wanted to fall asleep so much, but he knew that if he did, it would be over for him.
Maybe Catnap couldn't reach him at that moment, but he was going to find a way to do it eventually.
It was then that realization hit Alex like a train.
Catnap was alone with the rest of his friends.
He was about to get the elevator to stop and go down, but then he thought. What would that achieve? He would just get killed faster.
He had to hope Catnap would only focus on him and not the others.
Suddenly, the elevator stopped moving and Alex heard something open behind him. A garage door.
He was scared. Scared of what would happen next. Scared of having to fight Catnap. Scared of… having to kill him. But he knew that he had to do something to get him to listen to reason.
With newfound determination, Alex exited the elevator and entered this new room, ready for whatever awaited him.
He couldn't see.
He couldn't breathe.
This was something new.
Dogday wasn't a stranger to nightmares. Ever since that fateful day when he was taken from Playcare, almost every night was spent in some sort of eldritch abomination of a dream his mind created, and Catnap's gas only made everything worse.
But even then, being in a completely dark room that apparently had no air for him to breathe was new.
He tried to scream for help, but nothing came out of his mouth. He didn't even know how long he spent in that state, but no matter how much time he spent without air, he didn't feel anything like fainting from it.
And then, from the dark void, something slowly faded into his view.
A pair of white pupils.
Then, the darkness in front of him morphed into the body of Catnap, who had him pinned to the ground, as he squeezed his neck tightly with a murderous look.
Dogday tried to struggle. To squirm. Anything.
But it wasn't enough.
He heard something. It was so distant he almost missed it, but someone had called his name.
He didn't have time to think about it as Catnap's claws began to pierce his neck, drawing blood and making the pain flare even more.
He heard it again. Clearer. Louder.
"...ke up!"
Dogday screamed as he felt his vision start to blur.
The hand he was using to try and get Catnap off him lost its strength as it fell on the ground. Dogday began gagging.
It was over.
He slowly closed his eyes, waiting for the sweet release of death.
The last thing he heard was that same voice again.
"WAKE UP!"
Dogday snapped his eyes open as he began coughing like he had never done before.
It was a nightmare. He thought. Just a nightmare…
Even though he knew he was awake, his head pounded and he could barely see anything other than red.
Was he… awake, even though he was breathing the gas?
"Dogday!"
That was the same voice from his dream.
Slowly, he turned his head to his side, finding that damned mini Catnap next to him. He tried to say something, but nothing but a groan came out of his lips.
"Goodness, you're actually awake!" The small cat exclaimed. "Listen, you need to get up and drag Kissy out of here before you guys suffer oxygen deprivation!"
Dogday couldn't even phantom how he would move, let alone drag someone.
"Where…" He groaned. "Where is Catnap?"
"He chased after the human! I don't know where!"
Those words somehow gave Dogday the strength he needed to force his body to get into a crawling position. He doubted he could get anywhere further than that.
"How… am I not unconscious?" He asked Nap.
"I don't know! Same as the human, I guess! A lot of exposure to the gas must have given you some sort of small immunity!" She guessed.
"Well, at least the years of torture weren't in vain…" He growled, crawling towards Kissy's body. "Where do… I take her?"
"To the room Catnap came from! There's a vent duct there, so the gas gets taken out quickly. I already took Day and Kicks there, and I would have taken you too if you weren't so heavy!"
Dogday looked around to see the door a small distance ahead of him. Cursing to himself, he bit one of Kissy's arms and dragged her over to the 'safe room'.
Once the deed was done and he was out of the gas' reach, he immediately dropped down back onto the floor of the room, taking a deep breath of the oh so sweet oxygen before coughing again.
Slowly, he began feeling better.
Nap didn't take too long to enter the room either, as she quickly ran towards the minis and tried to get them to wake up, with no effect whatsoever.
Dogday tried the same with Kissy, but she wouldn't even flinch. They were all deep asleep.
"They won't wake up!" Nap exclaimed.
"Kissy neither…"
Nap groaned. "Damn it! We can't just leave them here!"
"But what about the Angel?!" Dogday yelled. "He can't fend Catnap alone!"
"Dogday, we can't follow them!" The small plushie argued. "The human took the elevator and who knows where Catnap wandered to! We have to hope everything will go without any issue."
"I can't just hope! We're talking about a human that's escaped the gas somehow ! He must be barely conscious! He can't fight Catnap alone regularly, imagine half asleep!" Dogday almost cried. "I can't…"
"There's nothing we can do Dogday. I'm sorry." Nap sadly said.
"What in the world is going on here?!"
The two's heads snapped up towards the vent, finding none other than Poppy carrying a tape as her head popped out of the vent cover.
"Poppy!" They exclaimed.
"Why is everything full of gas? Where is Alex?!"
"Catnap ambushed us! He used his gas and tried to kill the human, but he escaped towards the elevator in the back of the room!" Nap explained.
Poppy groaned. "Towards the Safe Room?" She asked. "There's no way out of there! Catnap will corner him and kill him!"
"You're not helping, Poppy!" Dogday shouted.
The doll stood still, thinking long and hard about what to do next. However, it seemed not even she had a good plan.
"We can't enter the Safe Room without the elevator Alex took. And even if we could, there's too much Red Smoke for us to cross the room safely. We have to wait until it goes away before trying to call the elevator." Poppy told them.
"We can't wait!" Dogday said again.
"It's not a matter of if we want or not, Dogday!" Poppy shot back. "Do you think I want Alex to fight Catnap alone? No! But we need to be sure we'll be able to get to the Safe Room without fainting on the way there."
Dogday bit his lip nervously, before he sighed. "Ugh, fine…"
Poppy looked around the room, before turning around. "I know a way I can help Alex! You all stay here! I'll be back!"
Poppy then ran away, as her steps echoed behind the walls before they slowly faded.
As Dogday and Nap looked towards the elevator shaft Alex had gone through, the cat sighed before clasping her hands together. "Please, human. Don't fail now…"