CLEANUP CREW - SANDRA
Written by Iron-K, 2019

"So, our swimming teacher Sandra is in her traditional gear and she's ready to go for a dive like nothing she's experienced before..." The orange squirrel walked on to the inflatable set next to the centerpiece of Cleanup Crew's finale. A buxom otter was seated on the blowup chair poised precariously at the edge of the set's central vat of gunge, nude with her bare toes dangling just above the surface of the slime pool. Behind her, an inflatable incline rose several feet upwards, with a pair of chains visible stretching from her chair's back up the ramp and over a pulley at the back.

Rish smiled as the dark chestnut otter glanced between him and the slime. "Welcome to the Gunge Plunge, Sandra - how's the pool, you want to give it a test?"

Sandra smiled, her hand stroking nervously through her mane of curly black hair. She looked down and placed her other arm on the seat to steady herself, and tentatively stretched one foot towards the wet sheen of the surface of the pool. She dipped her toes under the surface as she held her breath, then withdrew her foot and shuddered as she leaned forward.

"Ew..." she giggled, staring down at the thick gungy mixture coating her toes. The usual bright orange and green of the pool had been streaked with black slime, which flowed among the colors to form a muddy mixture as it dripped slowly off her claws.

"Like we said at the start, you're here because you always pick on your daughter Kerry to demonstrate whenever you're teaching her class - do you want to confess to that now?"

"Yeah, I... might..." Sandra said, distractedly staring down at the gunge in front of her as she squeezed the inflatable arms of her seat. "But it's only 'cause she's a strong swimmer!"

"Flattery isn't going to get you anywhere now!" Rish smiled, and looked up to the top of the ramp. "Looks like Kerry doesn't think so either..."

Sandra twisted in her seat to follow his gaze - next to the pulley mechanism, a younger otter was seated in a plastic cubicle, nodding in agreement with the squirrel host. She was nude as well, her fur similar to Sandra's but with a lighter chest and tummy bordered by hints of silver. She sat in a much less relaxed pose than her mother, her hands squeezed nervously between her thighs.

"Kerry, how are you feeling in there?" Rish called over.

"Fine, I guess..." The younger otter shifted her hands and flexed them against the arms of her seat as she blinked in the spotlight.

"Heh, she's not looking too confident - but the entire swim class is rooting for you, Kerry!" Rish swept his hand out to indicate the gaggle of girls watching from the front row next to the giant inflatable set, and a chorus of whoops and cheers erupted from them. The otter in the booth smirked a little, and raised a hand to acknowledge them.

"Sandra, I'll explain how this works! When we start the clock, you're going to be slowly hauled backwards up that ramp. You'll be heading towards the pipe of doom, which is ready to burst open above you and send you back down on a slippery slide into the gunge." The squirrel pointed up and the two otters followed his pointing finger to look at the industrial hopper suspended from the ceiling at the top of the ramp - a tapered tank with a long square nozzle on its underside. On the nozzle's front, chevron patterns in black and yellow pointed downwards, and five lights were arranged vertically along it, blinking in patterns.

"But we want to give you a chance to rescue yourself - if you happen to get five of my questions right before your time is up, then we'll shut off that pipe... and gunge your daughter instead," he continued, indicating the smaller tank suspended above the booth and tracing his finger down again to point at the younger otter. She looked up into the nozzle hovering above her and eeped, rolling her shoulders nervously as a camera operator came in close to get a shot of the looming tank from below.

"Not looking forward to that, Kerry?" Rish called over to her, and chuckled as she shook her head.

"Well, we'll try not to make it too easy for your mum - Sandra, did you ever watch Get Your Own Back?" Rish asked.

"Er, yeah," Sandra nodded as she turned back to face him, her fingers stroking through her hair around her left ear.

"Well, we're reviving a classic here - when you answer, you're not allowed to use any word that starts with the letter S," he announced, a grin spreading on his face as the curvy otter slumped forward with a laugh. "You know this game, don't you - did you always think you could do better than those contestants?"

The otter shook her head. "No," she mouthed through her nervous laughter, staring down at the surface of the slime inches from her feet.

"Then let's give it a try anyway - start cranking her up!"

Sandra twitched as the studio lights dimmed to highlight her, and the winches at the back of the ramp began rotating with a mechanical noise clicking rhythmically from the stage speakers. She gasped as she felt the chair gradually begin to rise as it was pulled backwards up the slide, and her ears perked as she looked to Rish.

"Sandra - in your classes, what do you teach people to do?"

"Uh..." The otter stared down at the large round pool of slime glistening under the lights in front of her as the chair continued to inch upwards and away from it. "S... going... through water?" she said uncertainly.

"That's good! You're getting it," the squirrel nodded, throwing the question card away over his head. Sandra glanced back at the pipe above Kerry as one of the five triangular lights on it illuminated, then turned back to Rish as he read out the next question. "How many wonders of the world were there?"

Sandra was silent for a few moments, her mouth moving a little as she thought desperately. "Almost eight," she said carefully.

"Hah, that's close enough," Rish replied, throwing another card away as another light buzzed on above Kerry. "Question three - what's silverware made out of?"

"Um..." Sandra leaned to the side to glance down at the ramp's surface as she neared the halfway point. "It's like... it's not gold, but..." She tailed off, frantically drumming her fingers on the seat.

"Yes...?" Rish encouraged her, moving one hand in a slow circle to encourage her.

"Oh! Metal - precious metal?" the otter blurted.

"Yes, you got there!" grinned the squirrel. As the third light came on, the young otter beneath it looked up, placing a hand to her chest as she began to giggle through an anxious grimace. At the same time, Sandra drummed her dangling feet on the front of the blowup seat, her toes wiggling and flexing as she gripped the arms of the chair tighter.

"What's the opposite of happy?" Rish called up from ground level.

"Uh... despondent," she answered with only a moment of hesitation.

"Wow, nice one!" he said with a nod of approval, and Sandra glanced over to look Kerry in the eye as the fourth light flickered on. The younger otter bounced in her chair, her hands bunched into fists in front of her as she squeezed her eyes closed. "And this could be your last one - what do you find a lot of at the beach?"

"Aaah...!" Sandra cringed, putting her hands to her face as she ran through words in her head and trying to block out the cheers of encouragement from the audience as she inched ever closer to the top of the ramp. "Sand, seaw... sunbathers... no, shells..." She flapped her hands at her temples, thinking desperately. The young otter clasped her hands to her mouth, breathing heavily behind them with wide eyes as she glanced between the gunge nozzle above her and Sandra with her eyes closed in concentration.

"Water!" Sandra shouted, opening her eyes again and pointing a finger at Rish.

"Yes!" Rish exclaimed back, dropping the rest of the cards and leading the audience in applause. Sandra pumped both her fists in the air as her chair clicked to a stop, hooting in triumph. Beside her, Kerry gasped, her eyes wide and hands clasped to her mouth as she watched the fifth light buzz into life, then the five of them began to cycle in sequence. "So Kerry, I'm really sorry - we're starting up the gunge!"

A dirty industrial hooter blared from the ceiling and there was an audible clunk from the tank before a downpour of bright orange slime burst from the top of the gunge booth. The young otter beneath it clasped her hands to her eyes at the last moment, revealing a nervous grin just before the gunge crashed down on to her head, cascading out in bright arcs and streaks as it splashed out from her head and shoulders.

Whoops and cheers from the girls at the front of the seats cut through the hooting klaxon as the smooth downpour of gunge continued to spew down onto the otter girl, her grimace just visible through the dome shape it made as it splurged off her. She shuddered as she felt the glop ooze down her fur, covering her patterning and hiding her behind a coat of thick orange slime.

From the inflatable seat next to the tank, Sandra gaped at the luminous splatter, putting a hand in front of her mouth to disguise her smile as she watched the gunge pour over Kerry, slapping against the walls of the tank and painting them in heavy splatter marks. As the downpour of ooze finally began to subside, she caught her daughter's eye, a hand halfway to her mouth as if to disguise the huge grin on her face as she looked at the soaked and slimy otter next to her. But her face turned to shock as the hum of machinery started up again, and she jumped as the chair she was sitting in continued being dragged backwards.

"Hey, you said...!" she blurted as she looked down at Rish. Beside her, the younger otter blinked her eyes, squeamishly put a hand under the gungy curtain of her hair and lifted it to the side to look out of the slime-stained tank.

"Oh, that pipe's turned off - I never said anything about stopping the dunk seat..." the orange squirrel smiled nonchalantly. "Sandra, as I say so often here - prepare to be plunged!"

"Aaah...!" Sandra whimpered and looked to Kerry, whose eyes widened as she smiled. She gave a little whoop, pumping a gungy arm in the air as she watched the chair reach the top of the ramp. There was a clunk as the winches stopped, then Sandra screeched as the chair tipped forwards, dumping her back on to the ramp and sending her sliding down.

There was a burst of bright green from the ceiling and a wide curtain of slime crashed down on to the surface of the ramp from a tip-tank above. The otter was hidden from view for a moment before she burst through it, her limbs flailing as the slippery liquid made her flop on to her back. With her legs raised in an undignified flop, she scooted off the end of the ramp and dropped bodily into the vat of slime, plunging beneath its gloopy surface as long fingers of the goo from the ceiling poured down after her.

Screams of awestruck delight came up from the girls at the front of the audience as a huge splash of green and orange slime spurted up from the pool, the gungy surface of the vat heaving forwards and sending a rolling wave of slime pouring off the front of the inflatable set. As it reflected back and lapped against the end of the ramp, the otter burst back out of the gunge, sending another psychedelic splash outwards. The girls from the swimming class continued to lead the cheers from the watchers at the sight in front of them - the buxom otter stood up to her waist in the gunge vat, her curly hair drenched in slime and hanging over her face with her fur totally obscured by the slowly dripping mess of orange and green clinging to her all over. As the curtains of gunge trickled off her, she blindly bobbed forwards, her hands in downward claw shapes in front of her with goo trickling in long strings from her fingertips.

A renewed shriek sounded from the audience as another burst of yellow slime crashed down from the ceiling, raining thick gungy blobs over the otter and spattering heavily into the vat around her, colouring the gloopy surface. Sandra hunched her shoulders and ducked as she felt the goo slither over her, her mouth open in a gaping smile as she moved her hands up to form a tent above her eyes. Bobbing as the gunge lazily rippled around her, she wriggled to the side, slowly unfurling and pushing her mass of gunge-soaked curls to one side of her head.

Rish joined in the applause from the watchers as he stepped forward again, taking care to step past the huge puddle of gunge that had splashed out of the vat. He smiled down at the shocked, slime-coated teacher with long strings of gunge dripping from every strand of her fur, then raised his head to face the younger otter in the booth. "I'm sorry about the gunge, Kerry, but we got her covered as well - was it worth it in the end?"

Kerry nodded, one gunge-coated hand still clasped to her chest with a wide grin on her face as she took in the scene in front of her. She blinked as another trickle of slime from the gunge tank's ceiling fluttered over her head and shoulders, blinking as the orange goo poured forward over her already soaked hair.

"Well, thanks for taking one for your team - did you enjoy that, girls?" He laughed at the chorus of shrieks and whoops in response, and looked down to his side at Sandra, who was waving out to them with a weary smile, her other hand still holding her gungy hair out of her face.

"And Sandra, thanks so much for coming on and taking the dive of your life with us - how's this stuff for swimming?"

The otter glanced down at her gunge-coated chest, shuddering as the ripples in the pool of slime continued to lap at her tummy. "I still prefer water," she giggled, running one hand through the other and squeezing the gunge out of her fur before wiping her face with her arm.

"I don't blame you," the squirrel grinned back, then turned back to the audience. "We'll get Sandra and Kerry cleaned up soon - but join us again to see who's next for the plunge!"