Smiling/Nightmare Critters: Pancake Predicament:
CatNap yawned and stretched as he groggily got out of bed. The purple feline felt a smile spread across his face as he saw the scene outside. With the sun shining in a practically cloudless sky, it was a truly lovely morning. As the purple feline put on his crescent moon necklace and headed downstairs, he sighed with contentment, eager to see just what he and his friends would do today. However, just as he was about to wonder if anything could go wrong, he heard grunting coming from the kitchen, and grunting in a lot of different voices. CatNap turned the corner to enter the kitchen, and realized this day would certainly be an interesting one.
All of both the Smiling and Nightmare Critters, baring CatNap, Baba Chops, Poe, and Allister Gator were in a line, everyone holding onto the chest or waist of the one in front of them, all grunting and groaning. CatNap looked to the front of the line to see DogDay holding onto a ladle, which was surrounded by what appeared to be batter. The bowl the batter was contained in was being held to the wall by numerous lengths of the thickest chains CatNap had ever seen. CatNap looked at the other three critters that weren’t in the line. “Um… what’s happening?” CatNap looked from Poe to the struggling line. Poe looked up from their journal for a moment and then went back to writing. “Well, Maggie decided to try and make some ‘special’ pancakes, and I believe the results speak for themselves.” CatNap simply looked back at the line, mouth agape, “T-this is because of some pancakes?!” Baba sighed as she watched the crowd, “Yeah, Simon tried, then DogDay tried, then they both tried at once, and…” she took a moment to sigh and shake her head before continuing, “…now this.” CatNap stared at the line struggling to pry the ladle out of the batter, “How… how long has this been going on?” Allister scoffed, staring at a stopwatch, “12 minutes and counting for this attempt alone, even though we could, y’know,” Allister raised his voice to a yell, “just throw this crap out and buy replacements, like I suggested almost half-an-hour ago!”
Simon Smoke groaned as he heaved, “We… get it… Al! Shut up!” Poe sighed, not even bothering to look up from their journal, “…and yet you thought your pride was more important than reason, as usual.” Simon managed to force one of his eyes open to glare daggers at Poe, “I’m… going to… strangle you!” Baba snickered, “Less talk, more pull, Mr. Muscles!” CatNap looked over at DogDay, the canine’s face red as a beet, teeth grit, veins protruding across his face and muscular arms, and after a few seconds, DogDay lost his grip on the ladle, sending the line of critters sprawling on the ground, all gasping for breath.
Rabie Baby was among the first to pull themselves upright, glaring at Maggie Mako, “Great work, genius, next time you may want to consider adding less cement to the batter!” Maggie managed to open one eye and glared at Rabie, “Hey, I did not add cement to the batter! I… I just didn’t add enough water, that’s all!” Simon was the first to actually stand, sighing as he looked down at Maggie, “If you were trying to make a food more physically demanding than your stupid ton cake, mission accomplished!” PickyPiggy slowly got into a sitting position, “I… I’m sorry… what?” Simon shook his head, “Maggie made this huge pound cake once that could’ve been used as anchor.” Maggie sat up, snarling, “Hey, it wasn’t that bad!” Poe stopped writing for a moment to look up at Maggie. “After we managed to lift that culinary atrocity, we had to use a scale meant for cars to weigh it. It weighed 3,578 pounds,” Poe said flatly. At this, Simon puffed out his chest, a cocky smile upon his face, “What Poe means is that I, all by myself, was the one to lift that!” Icky Licky sat up, “I almost had it myself, thank you! I… I lost my grip, that’s all!” At this, Simon chuckled as he began to bounce his pecs, “Sure, sure. Best part of that cake was the pump I got from lifting it! I never thought that a food could give me such a workout!”
Bobby BearHug got up, groaning, “Anyway, what are we gonna do? The ladle just won’t budge!” KickinChicken leapt to his feet, eyes twinkling with excitement, “Ooh! I’ve got a wicked idea! We should get a rocket ship, that’ll pull it out in a flash!” Simon facepalmed, “Okay, nimrod, where are we gonna find a rocket?” Allister sighed, “Guys, you all pulled together for 12 minutes and 24 seconds, why don’t we just take the infinitely easier route of buying a new ladle and bowl?!” Simon growled as he glared at the ladle, “I’m gonna find a way to get that out! I can’t just give up, I’m the strongest of the critters!” Bubba Bubbaphant, still panting, raised one of his arms weakly, “Actually, DogDay has repeatedly shown he’s stronger than you. His perfect win-rate in your arm wrestling matches prove that by itself.” Simon paused, looked at DogDay, then sighed, “Okay, fine, I’m the strongest of the Nightmare Critters. Point is, I can’t let this stupid spoon beat me!” Touille stood up, snickering, “Gotta hand it to you, Maggie, I never thought someone could make a ladle and some pancake batter into the sword in the stone!” Bubba finally pulled himself to a sitting position, “It’s called Excalibur, Touille.”
DogDay was still panting as he stood up, “What… what are we gonna do? We can’t just give up, right? There has to be a way to pull this thing out!” DogDay nodded to Allister before continuing, “I mean, we’re going to have to buy new stuff, this can’t be salvaged, I just want to know if there’s anything we can try.” Simon was shaking with rage as he glared at the ladle, almost looking like he was about to start crying in frustration, “I am not letting this stupid thing win! I’m prying this stupid ladle out if it kills me!” CatNap was quiet for a moment, staring intently at the seemingly immovable ladle, “Let me try.” DogDay looked over at CatNap, “Wait, what? By… by yourself?” CatNap nodded without looking at DogDay, walking towards the ladle, “I can pull it out, don’t worry.” The critters paused, it was clear by the determined glint in CatNap’s eyes that he was being serious, and yet, they had all tried together and failed, was it even possible that CatNap, by himself, could do anything to help? Icky grunted and shook his head, “Honestly, let him take a crack at it, not sure if it’ll do much good but at least it’ll give us a breather.” Baba snickered as she looked at Simon as he was still quaking with anger, “I think Smokey the Strong could certainly use one, lest he pop a vein on those big ol’ muscles of his!” Simon shot a snarl and a particularly nasty glare at her before turning his attention back to CatNap, who now stood right in front of the ladle. The purple cat stood there for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and wrapping both hands around the ladle. His expression hardened as he took another deep breath, leaned forward a bit, then leaned back as he began to pull.
At first, as they all expected, nothing happened save for CatNap’s muscles starting to bulge from the task. As the cat continued, it was clear from his expression that he was putting more and more effort in, yet still, nothing happened for about half a minute. Then, as DogDay was considering trying to convince his friend to give up before he hurt himself, he thought his eyes might have been playing tricks on him, since it seemed like CatNap was a touch bigger. Just as he was about to dismiss it as his imagination, CatNap let out a soft grunt and the same thing occurred, the growth this time being more noticeable. “H-hey, guys?” DogDay started to stammer, “d-do you think CatNap’s g-growing?” As he looked around at the others, most of them were nodding, the others most likely too surprised to speak. Simon gave his head a harsh shake, “No, no, he can’t be, th-there’s no way that pipsqueak is actually getting bigger!” By now, CatNap’s teeth were grit as he gave another heave, and this time, almost as if to mock Simon’s disbelief, the cat’s muscles grew much larger, now rivaling Simon’s size.
CatNap growled a bit as he kept at it, with no sign yet that he was making progress in prying the ladle free, “Come on, let’s see what you’re made of!” With a much louder grunt, the purple cat pulled again, his muscles once again growing, now being larger than Simon, a fact that, given that the dragon was pouting, was clearly to his chagrin. Still, the ladle wouldn’t budge, so CatNap kept going, his eyes now narrowing from the strain. None of the other critters made a sound, too surprised by how big CatNap had grown to form any coherent words, and most of them let out a soft gasp as CatNap grew again after yet another heave, his muscles now being nearly as large as DogDay’s. At this point, veins started to protrude along CatNap’s arms, his face starting to darken as his breathing became more labored. The cat snarled as he kept up the pressure, “I can do this. I don’t care how strong you are…” CatNap took another deep breath and heaved again, bellowing out the end of his sentence as his muscles now surpassed even DogDay’s immense physique, “…I’m still stronger!”
After he took a second to process what he saw, DogDay cheered, “You can do it, Cat! Show that spoon who’s boss!” As he said this, the other Smiling Critters joined in, all shouting encouragement to their now enormous feline friend. As he heard their cheers, CatNap’s determination grew even stronger, they were convinced he could pry out this stubborn ladle, they were convinced he was strong enough to do what they combined could not, and he was hellbent on proving them right. CatNap looked at the ladle and snarled, “No more messing around!” As CatNap started to pull with all his might, his already huge muscles grew even larger. The cat’s legs now resembled tree trunks, quivering as he got into a stance that provided more leverage, his pecs bulged out from his chest like balloons, being so large that it was a wonder his crescent moon charm didn’t become stuck between them each time he sucked in another breath, and even while his arms were nearly completely straight, CatNap’s biceps and triceps were the size of cannonballs, to the point where one would be forgiven for assuming an actual flex would make either so monstrously large as to burst through his fur. As this incredible effort began, CatNap managed to roar out another sentence before being reduced to grunts and groans, “You’re… coming out… now!” By now, almost all of the critters were cheering for him as his already darkening face got far darker, veins now snaking like anacondas across the feline’s gigantic muscles, it was clear that CatNap wasn’t giving up until he either he couldn’t pull any longer, or if he pulled out the ladle. As they all watched, their cheers started to grow louder as they began to see cracks in the batter around the ladle, steadily growing larger and larger as CatNap trembled more and more. DogDay was practically jumping like an excited child as he shouted, “You can do it, Cat! Just a bit more!” CatNap let out one final, strained roar as he felt his strength was just about to give out, when after a few seconds, with a loud crack from the batter, the stubborn ladle was finally free, the inertia nearly causing CatNap to fall over as he heard his friends all let out a deafening cheer.
It took a moment for CatNap to catch his breath, long enough for DogDay to reach him and give him an excited hug, “You did it, Cat! I-I can’t believe you actually did it, that’s awesome!” CatNap nodded, still panting as he grinned, “T-thanks… I’m stronger than I look…!” DogDay’s eyes twinkled with excitement as he looked all over his friend’s gigantic body, “Oh man, that’s not even scratching the surface, you’re like a superhero with those muscles!” DogDay chuckled as he flexed his arm, the canine’s bicep being impressive in its own right, “I guess I’ll have to spend way more time at the gym if I want to even hope to catch up with you.” The two laughed for a bit before DogDay’s eyes lit up, “Ooh! While we got a chance, you wanna compare biceps? I’m itching to know just how big those arms are!” CatNap chuckled, a tad bashful at his friend’s offer, but nodded as he stood, the two stretching out their arms so that CatNap’s was right behind DogDay’s. KickenChicken was hopping as he spoke, “Okay guys, whenever you’re ready, let’s see those muscles!” DogDay and CatNap grinned at each other before flexing their biceps as hard as they could, both grunting a bit at how much effort they put into it. DogDay was very muscular, looking more akin to a professional bodybuilder, yet there was no contest, as CatNap’s bicep was over twice the size of DogDay’s, a fact that made both of them grin from ear to ear. DogDay chuckled, “Well, if I need any help with something too heavy for me, I know who I’m looking for first!” CatNap grinned and nodded, wrapping his friend in his beefy arms as the gang group hugged.
