Smiling Critters One-Shots

Trapped in a Soft Play Centre

It had been going on for hours. What was initially meant to be a 2 hour trip organised by Bobby Bearhug just to have some fun and de-stress from the day's events had eventually escalated into a full-on play without a care in the world. The Smiling Critters had been whooshing down slides, crawling through dark tunnels and playing in the ball pit. Kickin Chicken thought he'd outgrown this sort of thing, but as soon as he went through the tunnel that had no windows whatsoever, he grew to love it.

Unfortunately, when Bearhug had told them that it was time to go, she'd been roped into the fun-and forgotten about everything else. In fact, they were so careless about anything but their fun that when the flick of the play centre's lights sounded, it took them all by surprise. DogDay, the leader of the Critters, poked his head out of the tunnel he'd just climbed into, and said "Oh no... Critter Crew, we have to get out, now!"
Alerted by this, the Critters made for the exit, and saw the doors closing. Just as they were about to make it through, Picky Piggy slammed into the door, marking that it was closed. Rubbing the painful lump on her head, she said "We're trapped... at least until day."
"Thanks, Bobby!" Hoppy scolded. "You were supposed to tell us when to leave!"
"I did, but then you dragged me into the fun and I forgot all about it!" Bearhug argued.
"You forgot?" Kickin Chicken shouted. "How could you forget! Now we're trapped in here because of you!"
The other Critters started to blame Bearhug, who grew increasingly sad the more they berated her.

Meanwhile, up on a walkway in the play area, DogDay had been watching everything. He took a deep lungful of air, and let it loose in one sentence.
"EVERYONE, SHUT UP!"
His exclamation echoed around the whole building and was enough to keep the Critters in seated silence.
"I know we didn't want this to happen," DogDay said. "But we can't go blaming our own. Besides, Bearhug didn't lock the doors in front of us. The employees did. The other Critters nodded and apologised to Bearhug, as DogDay slowly made his way back towards them.
"What do we do now?" Crafty asked.
"Well, it's pretty dark, but we don't want to turn the lights on," DogDay answered.
CatNap, who was watching the whole situation, nodded in agreement.
"However, there should be some flashlights in the back room that we can use."
The Critters followed DogDay to the back room, and found that there were flashlights. However, there were only seven of them.
"CatNap's fine with this," Bubba Bubbaphant told the others. "He's a cat anyway, so he should be able to see perfectly in this darkness." So the Critters came back out.

"What should we do to pass the time? We can't just sit here!" Hoppy said.
"I have an idea!" Kickin Chicken said. "We could play Survive the Hunter!"
"Too scary," DogDay said.
"Ugh... it's basically just Hide and Seek, with a cooler name!" Kickin explained.
"Okay then. Heh... I stand corrected!" DogDay chuckled.
"I'll be the Seeker, or Hunter!" CatNap piped up. "Whichever you prefer."
"Okay!" Kickin said, putting a timer wristband around CatNap's wrist, timed at one minute. "Here's how to play. The seeker must hunt down all the hiders, or survivors. Once a hider is caught by the seeker, they must be taken back out into the play area. The last hider standing wins!There are two rules for hiders. You cannot leave the play area while a round is in progress, unless you are caught by the seeker. When this happens, you must follow him, and not attempt to get somewhere else. Second, once seven hiders have been taken out of the play area, the only one left must give me a shout, showing that they have won the round. There is one rule for the seeker in this case. CatNap, don't use your Poppy Gas please!"
"Are we ready?" Kickin said, lining up with the other Critters but CatNap.
"Yes!" the others chorused.
"Okay! We have one minute to hide, and then CatNap can search for us. CatNap hit the button on the timer, and a loud beep signified the start, and the Critters ran into the play structures. CatNap couldn't see where they went because it was so dark, but he could see the structures.

Once the timer hit zero, CatNap said "Ready or not, here I come!" He meant it with good intent, but since the Critters couldn't see him, it was actually pretty terrifying.

Kickin crawled into one of the tunnels, his flashlight the only aid he had. He was afraid that CatNap would see him through the windows of the tunnel.

Down in the ball pit, Crafty Corn hid underneath them, trying to keep her mane, tail and horn from sticking out.

Bobby Bearhug hid beside a rainbow bridge above the set of big slides below. She kept her breath quiet as possible, lest CatNap hear her.

Bubba hid down a slide near the exit, having slid down when CatNap started looking for them.

Meanwhile, DogDay, Hoppy and Picky were roaming, hoping CatNap wouldn't find them. In fact, every time they heard a purr they ran in the other direction as quickly as possible.

Indeed, those purrs didn't only scare those three. It scared them all. The uncertainty of where CatNap even was made every second scary, followed by screams of mixed fright and fun from Bubba, then Crafty and then DogDay. Finally, Bearhug could take it no more and curled up in a ball and whimpered. CatNap didn't hear this, but he had heard Bearhug breathing beforehand. He headed towards her, but paused when he saw her quivering in sheer terror.
"B...Bearhug?" CatNap asked. "What's wrong?"
"I'm scared..." she answered without hesitation. CatNap picked her up and brought her out as normal. DogDay looked at her and hugged her, the sudden embrace causing Bearhug to uncurl herself and look up at him.
"Kickin!" CatNap called out, startling everyone in the play structures for that matter, including Kickin himself.
"Your 'game' scared Bearhug almost half to death! I found her curled up in a ball in fright."
Kickin immediately realised the mistake he'd made. If he'd done it during the day, he wouldn't have scared anyone. But since it was at night, with only a flashlight to aid each hider, he'd scared the Bearhug, who was already softer-hearted than the others.
"Everybody out!" Kickin said, and they all streamed out.
"I'm... sorry I scared you, Bearhug," Kickin said. "I forgot how... delicate you are and..."
"It's fine, Kickin," Bearhug reassured him. "For now, let's just play in the structures until morning, when the play area opens again.

The other Critters nodded, and headed into the play structures again, followed by Bearhug.

One-shot done! Hope you like it! Next up, it's a movie night, with a DogDay x CatNap story!