INDUSTRIAL ZONE GUEST CLIP - BLIZZARDDOGS
Written by Iron-K, 2010

"Okay!" Alex burst through the swing doors as he strode into the room, pushing them open with both hands, and four heads turned as he made his way to the front. "While we give our team a chance to get cleaned up, I'm down here in the guest suite with the Blizzarddogs," he announced to the camera, making his way to the middle of the room and spreading his arms towards the four husky girls standing at the quiz podiums behind him, all dressed in black IZ swimwear. A couple of uneasy cheers went up, the girl on the near left throwing her hands in the air at the mention of their name and the one beside her more half-heartedly pumping her fist.

He turned and smiled. "I'm sure they were a lot more enthusiastic in rehearsals... but I think we can forgive them for feeling a little more nervous now! They're here to promote their new album, and to play one of our games that might end up with some of them getting just a little bit messy..."

He looked down to the far end of the room, where a wide five foot high rectangular recess was set into the wall, with a small grille running around it just below ceiling height and a set of nozzles on the ceiling pointed down at a pink plastic couch. The girls looked at each other, a couple of shudders and nervous grins visible before the energetic red wolf continued.

"Michelle! Welcome to the show," he began, and the girl on the far left - a tall blue-gray husky with lighter fur on her front up to the underside of her muzzle - turned her head to face him again. "The group's new album's coming out this weekend - can you tell us a bit about it?"

"Sure," she began, looking over his shoulder at the camera. "It's going to be called 'Northern Lights' - it's our second album, the follow-up to our debut two years ago, and it's got twelve brand new songs and 'Cold as Ice' from the video that got put out online last week."

"And you've been all over TV recently, it looks like it's going to be good - what made you come in to the Industrial Zone?"

She hesitated a little, then gave a small laugh. "Mostly... our manager," she admitted, then smiled along with Alex as she nervously flicked her hand through her brown hair.

"Oh..." he laughed, and then turned to the girl next to her, who had slightly more bluish fur and a head of short purple hair. "Tara, welcome to you, too - you want to give a shout to a special someone, don't you?" he started.

"Yeah, my mom's fifty today!" the purple-haired husky answered, and waved to the camera as Alex pointed behind him at it.

The red wolf spun around as well. "Hi, Tara's mom - and when you get to watch this, I hope you won't come after us if something terrible happens to Tara as it often does on this show..." He turned back to her as he tailed off.

"I think she'll love it," Tara grinned.

"Especially after you've announced her age on national television!" Alex chuckled, and left her bouncing on her heels excitedly as he faced the next group mate, a shorter girl with brown fur unlike the others' blue-gray color.

"Siobhan, how are you feeling?" he asked with a smile.

"Kinda nervous," she admitted with a nod, her curly reddish-brown hair bobbing behind her.

"Why's that? You should be used to being in the spotlight..."

"Yeah, but not with..." She gestured over behind the four of them at the recess on the back wall, hunching her shoulders up a little.

"Well, we'll get to that thing in a minute - there's a small chance it might not happen to you!" With a friendly smile as she giggled anxiously, he turned to the last of the husky girls.

"Samantha - nervous about going in as well, wanting to keep that lovely hair clean?"

Sam had slightly darker fur than Michelle, gray and white with straight brown hair. She brought her hands up to her head as Alex mentioned it, and looked confidently over to the booth.

"Yeah," she started, looking the gunge machine up and down. "I'm hoping to get the others in there!"

"Spoken like a true team member," Alex smiled, prompting laughs from Tara and Siobhan as he brought a device out of his pocket and held it up in front of him as he addressed the whole group.

"Okay, we've met all four of you - it's great to have the band here, and we're going to have a little quiz," the red wolf announced, bringing up the pocket computer and tapping a couple of places on its screen. "And these questions were specially sent in to us by some of your fans - we're going to see if you know each other better than they do!" The girls glanced at each other as he began to explain the game.

"I'm going to ask a question about each of you in turn, and the others can buzz in and try to answer it. If you get one right, then you get yourself ten points, and the subject of the question gets ten points, too. If you've got the most points after I run out of questions, then you get to stay clean and dry, but the other three... well, they're going to find themselves in our biggest gunge tank, right behind you." He raised an arm up and pointed, and the four girls turned around, looking over at the wide booth set into the wall behind them. "So you've got the best chance of not getting gunged if you know the others well, and they know you as well! Wanting to stay out of there?"

He looked around as Michelle and Siobhan nodded. Tara smiled and just shrugged, while Samantha tapped her fingertips on her buzzer, continuing to stare over at the booth behind them.

"Well, good luck, everyone - but there can only be one winner!" He turned to the girl on his left. "The first question's about Michelle, for Tara, Siobhan and Sam. Before the band got together, what school did Michelle attend?"

There was a pause, with the other three girls looking at each other before a buzzer noise came up from the opposite end of the row.

"Sam?" Alex prompted, swinging around to face her.

The husky girl at the far end of the row ducked down a little to speak into the microphone protruding from the podium. "Er, Oakenfold College," she answered, and twitched as she heard an electronic bell sound.

"That's right! That means you get ten for the right answer, Michelle gets ten for a correct answer about her - both of you are on your way." He faced Tara, whose ears pricked as she listened.

"What's the name of Tara's younger sister?"

This time, there was much less of a pause, and Alex turned his head to the left as Michelle's buzzer went off.

"Uh, Yvonne," she said.

"Correct - you've taken an early lead! And Tara, you're on ten..." He faced the third girl in the row, the only brown-furred husky.

"Siobhan, let's get you caught up - Siobhan's first stage appearance was at a music festival when she was twelve. What instrument did she play?"

The tall husky girl on the left pressed her button again, just before the others. "Violin?" she asked uncertainly.

"Michelle's got it again - you just have to be a little quicker on those buzzers! And with that right answer for her, Siobhan's off the mark as well." Michelle stooped forward to look at the figure 30 displayed on her podium, then along at the row of tens on the others, and she looked up quickly as Alex faced the girl on the far right.

"Sam's turn - what's her favorite football team?"

He looked between the three girls as their hands hovered over the buzzers, then looked straight at Tara as her light came on. "Yes, Tara?"

"The Bombers?" she guessed, one hand going up to run through her purple hair.

"Is that right, Sam?" Alex turned towards her as the other girl laughed a little.

"Er, what's it say on your thing?" she asked back.

"It says Bombers here - why, is that not right?" Alex laughed. "They play for your city, don't they?"

"Think so," she nodded.

"Then that's close enough! That's the last time we're accepting questions from fans, I think they were just making some of these up..." Alex chuckled as he turned back to the tallest husky girl on the left.

"Michelle, you're still the safe one in the lead just now! And you're known for your height - but how tall is she, exactly?"

Michelle smiled and stood back straight from the podium for a moment. Her head whipped around at the sound of Tara's buzzer sounding again.

"Six... no, five feet eleven," she said, then paused, whimpering as Alex paused, a smile spreading slowly across his face.

"It sounded like you changed your mind there... but you're right, she's just off the six foot mark by one inch," he eventually said. Tara sagged and clapped her hands together, while Michelle raised her hands to her head, pushing her hair up a little. "Yes, not including her hair! And it's your turn now - what was Tara's nickname in school?"

"Oh, no..." The purple-haired girl cringed, her shoulders shaking as a buzzer sounded immediately from the right hand side.

"'Boatlights'!", Samantha called out, and Tara nodded embarrassedly as the correct sound played.

"That's right, both of you get ten points - that's terrible, who sent that in?" Alex asked with a laugh, glancing over his shoulder at the camera. "But can you show us why, Tara?" Alex beckoned towards the camera, and the husky girl faced it, opening her eyes wide and fluttering her eyelashes a little. "Yes, she's got one eye that's blue and one that's green..."

Tara faced the red wolf again as he cleared his throat. "Bonus question for anyone, by the way - what colors would her eyes have to be to match actual boat lights?" There was a pause, with a couple of the girls looking at each other. "Nobody? It's red for port, green for starboard... Anyway!"

He spun on his heel slightly to face the brown-furred girl. "Siobhan's the youngest out of the four of you, but only by a year - when does she catch up, when's her birthday?" Siobhan leaned forward to look around and started to say something, but there was another buzz almost immediately from Tara.

"The 27th, it's in two weeks," she said quickly.

"Very good! You're not in danger of anyone forgetting, Siobhan - if I'd done this with a boy band, there would have been total silence for that question..."

The brown husky giggled a little, then ducked forward to check the scores on the front of the podiums as Alex turned to the last girl in the row.

"Sam, you were very eager to remind everyone of Tara's nickname, here's one for you - how many times has Samantha failed her driving test?" The dark gray husky scoffed as she stepped back from the podium, one hand on her hip as she jokingly rolled her eyes.

This time, Siobhan's light came on as she thumped her hand repeatedly on the dome-shaped buzzer. "Five!" she called delightedly.

"Yes, that's it - Siobhan, you've finally pushed your way in and answered a question! Sorry, Sam... have you passed yet?"

"No, the fifth one was last weekend," she answered, with just a hint of an embarrassed smile at the corners of her mouth.

"Well, maybe the sixth time'll be a charm for you..." Alex looked along the row of podiums and back. "Okay, we've got one more pass to go before the gunge, and it's looking like anyone could stay out of there - Michelle and Samantha are on 40, Tara's just ahead on 50, and Siobhan's still trailing a little at 30..." The brown husky gave an anxious laugh, glancing to the others. "Siobhan, stay quick on that buzzer if you want to avoid the slime..." He turned away from her as she hunched over her podium, drumming her feet on the floor.

"Michelle, back to you - what Blizzarddogs song did Michelle name as her favorite in your last TV appearance?" The light on the podium next to Michelle came on immediately. "Tara, you've been quick all through this game - what was it?"

"Got to be the latest one, 'Cold as Ice'", she answered.

"Absolutely right - that was an obvious one!" Alex looked down at his questions again as Siobhan and Sam exchanged nervous grins. "Yes, it's looking like staying dry is just about a two-woman race now..."

He swiveled to face Tara. "What was the name of the band Tara was in when she was in school?"

He looked up as none of the buzzers went off, and waited a few more seconds as the girls exchanged glances with each other.

"Nobody knows? Siobhan, want to take a guess?" he invited, but she stepped back, shaking her head. "It was 'Iditarod'... did you come up with that, Tara?"

"No, it wasn't me!" she answered.

"Well, no points there, anyway, but you're still in the lead..."

He turned to the brown-furred girl, who was twisting her hands behind her back with an awkward smile on her face, having realized she couldn't now catch up. "What's the first name of Siobhan's b..."

Michelle thumped on her buzzer before he'd finished the question. She began to answer but stuttered as he turned to face her. "Er... brother or boyfriend?" she asked hesitantly.

"I can't tell you, you're the one who stopped the question!" Alex shook his head with a grin.

"Oh..." She whimpered, rubbing her forehead distractedly as she prepared to take a guess. "Mike's her boyfriend..." she said, facing him and drumming her fingers nervously on top of the podium. She began tapping her feet as well, wincing under her breath again as Alex stayed silent, then she breathed out heavily as he eventually nodded.

"Yes - and that's a guess that might have saved you from the gunge, we'll see! Samantha, the last one's about you..." Michelle leaned forwards as he began to read out the question slowly and carefully.

"Like a lot of groups, you've all come to be known by your first names. But what... is Sam's surname?"

The others pushed their buttons almost simultaneously as he said the last word, and he looked around at the three of them.

"Tara! Your light came on, you've just got in first - tell us!"

"Benton!" she exclaimed.

"That's it!" The LED counters on Tara and Sam's podiums flicked up one last time as Alex returned the computer to his pocket. "That's all twelve questions, and the final scores..." Alex paused as the four canines leaned over the fronts of their podiums, looking at the numbers on the front, and a couple of cringes and nervous grins went up between them. "They're all different, so that's very neat - Siobhan got forty points, Samantha's on fifty, and at the end there it was a real race between Michelle and Tara for the first place - Michelle got sixty, but Tara just got it at the end and has come out on top with seventy!"

Tara grinned up at him with the announcement, and put both hands in the air, whooping as she delightedly turned and looked at the slightly more nervous expressions of the other three girls.

Alex smiled, giving them a moment before he continued. "And it looks like they all know exactly what that means..." Siobhan nodded, fluffing up her curly hair with her hands as she closed her eyes - "you're off to the gunge tank! Come over here!"

Moving around to the left side of the podiums, he took the worried-looking Michelle by the hand as he pointed towards the wide booth at the other end of the room. She squeezed his hand in return, looking at the pink blowup couch behind the slightly curved plastic door as the others padded over with them, Samantha putting an arm round the brown-furred girl and with Siobhan returning the hug as they approached the booth.

"Now, you've probably seen this thing working before," he started, letting go of Michelle and putting his hands on Tara's shoulders as she nodded. "Think your fans are going to enjoy this?"

"Maybe..." she laughed as he stepped forwards to undo the catch on the door.

"Well, I will... I don't know about your group mates!" Alex swung the door a little forward, and beckoned to the nearest of the girls. "Come on, let's have you inside!"

Samantha slipped around the door and faced out to the front, sidling over to the far end of the inflatable couch before flopping down into it and looking up at the wide nozzle above her, pushing her brown hair behind her head. She looked over at Michelle, who was hovering at the entrance to the tank, looking unsure as she stooped down to look at the ceiling.

As she ducked, Tara bounced to her side and tapped her on the shoulder. "Swap you, Michelle?" she asked, flicking a pointing finger between the two of them. Gratefully, the taller girl quickly shuffled backwards, making Siobhan hop out of the way as Tara scooted around the door to take her seat next to Samantha.

"Well, that was a chivalrous move by Tara..." Alex announced, giving Siobhan an encouraging hand on the back to nudge her into the tank. The brown-furred husky whimpered a little through her nervous grin as she ducked inside, then turned around to squeeze herself on to the end of the couch, her arm gripping the side as she jiggled anxiously. "And thanks for making that game we just played totally pointless...!"

As he closed the door on the three husky girls, Tara looked up and playfully stuck her tongue out at him, then leaned back in the seat and raised her arms up to drop them around the other two girls' shoulders. Siobhan wriggled closer to her to return the hug, slipping her free arm across her tummy fur and shaking her head as she turned her eyes up to the ceiling.

"Michelle, then, step over here with me!" Taking the tall husky gently by the arm, Alex walked towards the giant lever sticking out of the wall next to the booth. Michelle followed, padding backward a little as she kept her eyes on her group mates inside before facing the red wolf.

"Okay, Michelle - you've earned your... well, you haven't really earned your freedom," he corrected himself as she smiled awkwardly, glancing back once again at the grinning Tara. "But the fact is, you're safely out here, and you're going to have the honor of pulling that lever to start the gunge machine up on your group mates!"

He held a hand out towards the large red handle and stepped away backwards across the room, leaving the three girls on the seat leaning out to look at Michelle, who hesitated with an awkward laugh.

"Sorry, everyone..." she apologized as she reached up to the lever, and clasped her hand around it as she pulled it downwards. She jumped at the sound of a mechanical clunk, and took a couple of steps away from the tank as the room's lights dimmed, leaving only the three girls inside illuminated. Siobhan closed her eyes as a shrill alarm bell began sounding, with Tara withdrawing her arms from her group mates and squeezing them between her thighs, flicking her eyes from left to right.

The three of them jumped as a klaxon blared above the alarm noise, and there was a sudden yelp from Samantha as a wide column of mixed red and yellow gunge dropped from the ceiling and splashed thickly over her head. It spewed outwards in a dome shape, covering her grimacing face, and Tara instinctively leaned away, putting a hand up as the brightly colored gloop splattered over her chest and side. A second later, the nozzle above her turned on as well, pouring more heavy yellow and blue gunge on to her shoulder. Her mouth fell open in a shocked gasp and she tossed her head aside, a slimy mixture plastered across the side of her face, before she wriggled back to duck underneath the downpour, the stuff glooping out in waves on to both her shoulders with fingers of it slithering around her neck.

The brown husky girl at the end of the couch cringed, giggling at the splashes of slime that were heading in her direction and making nervous glances up at the spout looming above her head. As she looked up, the klaxon rang again, and she squeezed her eyes closed just before a green and yellow downpour splurged down on to her, splattering out on to the tank's walls beside and behind her. One side of the gungy dome splashed down over her nervously grinning face and slithered over her chest as she ducked under the weight of the slime with a high pitched squeak.

Michelle had her hands clasped to her mouth to disguise her smile as she watched her three group mates squirming in the tank, the sloppy downpours above them tilting slightly to the left and right to splatter across their shoulders, completely covering them in the mixed colors of gloop. After a few more seconds, the left downpour began to thin out, becoming a rain of thick blobs that splotted on to back of the slime-coated Samantha's bowed head. Blinking her eyes open, she smiled through her gritted teeth and brought her hands up to push her heavy hair behind her head, squirming to the side and slipping her arm around to defend herself as splashes of the blue and yellow slime above Tara splashed into her lap.

Tara kept sitting straight with her head under the slop, her giggling face visible under breaks in the gungy dome as the flow sputtered to a stop above her. Streaks of blue slithered down among the yellow gloop covering her head and shoulders, with thin drizzles pouring off the tips of her flattened ears and some of the last globs slumping down over her eyes and around her muzzle. She shook her head, making Samantha twitch as blue and yellow drops flew out from her fur to splash over her, then she turned to face the greenish dome splashing over her side from Siobhan's head, sticking her left hand into the sloppy downpour with a grin.

As the ooze subsided, Siobhan gradually became visible again underneath it, and she picked her hands up, looking down at them and waggling them in front of her to shake the slime off as she leaned forwards out of the blobby remains of the gunge flow above her. Eeping as the heavy globs smacked on to her back, she looked down at the lime green mixture that she was coated in, wriggling her shoulders as she grinned squeamishly out at Michelle. Carefully, she sat back in the slimy seat, and then jumped, squealing as she was hidden by a blast of white foam sprayed from the top corner of the tank.

Samantha and Tara looked over at the loud hissing noise, watching the fluffy white foam stick to the brown husky girl's gunge-coated fur and matted hair as she put her hands up to defend herself, one eye closed as she whimpered through her grin. Suddenly a spray of foam came from the opposite side of the tank as well, and Sam twitched, her ears flattening and her face in a grimace as the stuff sprayed across her right side and back. Turning around slowly, she raised one hand into the onslaught of white stuff, shielding it from getting into her face.

Tara laughed, wiping her eyes as she looked from side to side at her group mates struggling under the sprays of foam, then looked down in front of her at the pool of slime that had collected at the bottom of the tank. She pulled both feet out of the shin-deep gloop, giggling as she leaned back and watched the ooze drizzling from them, wriggling her toes.

Two more jets of foam burst into life above the middle husky girl, and covered her instantly in a fluffy white mass before she had the time to react, yelping and dipping her feet back into the slop as she dived forwards, almost bending double. Hesitantly blinking to look out, her eyes showed up underneath the layer of dripping white foam on her face before she closed them again and flopped backwards into the blizzard of foam, raising her arms into the jets of white stuff as well.

A wave of orange slime poured out of the grille at the back of the tank's ceiling, and the three husky girls yelped, all leaning forwards a little as the slop poured on to the back of their heads and necks, heavy streaks of bright orange slipping around their shoulders. The two girls on the left settled back into the seat together, with Tara rolling her shoulders as the gunge slithered around them, coloring the blobs of foam still spilling down on to her as they dripped and splattered into her lap. Siobhan wriggled further forwards, her face in an open-mouthed shocked smile as she looked out the front of the tank, her eyes moving between Michelle and Alex as she ran her hands over her gunge-soaked hair.

Suddenly, she yipped and looked down, almost jumping to her feet as the level of slime in the tank bubbled up over the girl's laps. At the other end of the tank, Samantha raised her arms up, her hands hovering over the orange-stained foam floating on the surface of the rippling gloop as it crept up over her tummy, streaks of the orange slop slithering down over her chest and tummy. She twitched to the side as a wave of green spewed out of the grille on the side next to her, catching her ear and right hand side before it began spilling down the wall, continuing to fill the tank as the orange wave subsided. Tara watched the curtain of slime pouring in beside her, shaking her head again as the sloppy orange foam and gunge mixture trickled down from her head to her face.

Siobhan squealed as the green stuff splattered on to her from the opposite wall as well, putting a hand out to lean on the slime-streaked wall as she shook her head, the ooze going right across her before splattering slowly backwards across her from right to left. Her other hand came up to pull the mixed green and orange slime off her right ear, pricking it up as a lower alarm began repeating from somewhere in the ceiling, two red warning lights pulsing just above them. Glancing at the wave of green slime as it poured across her arm, she cringed down, closing her eyes and then covering them with her free hand.

With an audible click, a huge curtain of mixed dark and light green slime fell from the ceiling and splashed across all three of the girls, and a few squeaks and yelps went up behind it as it broke over their heads and domed outwards, forming heavy wells in the surface of the gunge as it poured down into it. A couple of gunge-coated arms and faces poked out of the glutinous downpour as the tank filled up to chest height, the sloppy liquid slithering down the three girls and coating all their fur in a murky green mixture. As the torrent began to ease off, the green gloop finally spilled forward over the door in front of them, taking the stained foam with it, and the oozing mixture broke into blobs as it fell to splat on to the floor in front of the filled gunge tank.

Alex stepped in front of the booth as the alarm wound down, keeping his eyes on the three mucky huskies as he moved to the other side to stand next to the giggling fourth group member. "Michelle..." he started. "Congratulations on keeping your fur clean - glad you didn't end up in there?"

The tall husky girl hesitated for a moment, catching her breath. "Yeah," she laughed, watching the three of them squirm in the gloop, the stuff rippling thickly from side to side with every movement any of them made. She shuddered as the dripping remains of the last green downpour continued to splatter down across all three of them, making thick splashing sounds as drops of it smacked into the gunge bath. All of them were covered in a dripping mixture of dark and light green paintlike gloop, with only streaks of their fur colors becoming visible underneath it all as they wiped at their eyes and faces.

"Well, as for you three... sorry you had to get gunged, but did you enjoy yourselves? Siobhan, I think you were doomed to find yourself in here from very near the start..."

As he stooped towards the tank, the curly-haired husky looked up at him, blinking against the gungy droplets still spattering on to her face. "Yeah, I guess," she giggled embarrassedly, and squirmed back in the seat. She put her feet up against the clear door, her footpads just showing through the thick green liquid.

The girl in the middle pulled both hands across her eyes, dangling her fingers in front of her and watching the slime drizzle off her fingertips as Alex moved along to her. "Tara, how does that stuff feel?" he asked, and she smiled, submerging her hands into the gunge bath again.

"Icky," she decided, and looked at Siobhan as she nodded in agreement, then turned her head and grinned at Samantha, whose hair was dangling in front of her face and completely covered in a smooth helmet of dripping green gunge. One of her hands was underneath the slime, gripping the arm of the couch, and the other was hovering in front of her, squeamishly picking through the heavy curtain of her hair.

"Sam, are you OK under there?" Alex grinned, leaning a little to the side in an attempt to see through to her face. The slippery husky girl reached her hand up under her hair and slowly pushed it over her head, her face in a giggling grimace as her heavy hair tumbled and splatted on to her back.

"Yeah, I'm okay," she spoke up as she pulled her other hand out of the gunge, the thick slime pouring away from it as she held it in front of her face with a sickly grin. Reaching over, she wiped the front and back of it on the side of Tara's face as the purple-haired husky squirmed away with a laugh. "Doesn't she get anything for staying out of here?" she asked the red wolf, her dripping finger pointed accusingly over at Michelle.

"Well, it's not what you mean, but we do have a little something here..." Alex continued to the far left wall, where he pulled a rusty hatch open and took a gear-shaped trophy from the recess behind it, holding it up as he walked back across the room toward the only clean husky girl, picking his feet up high as he waded through the pool of slime that had spilled on to the floor.

"Michelle, this is for you - it was really Tara who won it, but I don't think she's in any state to accept it just now - and I think the whole band earned it together, wouldn't you say?"

"Oh yeah, definitely," she nodded, looked over at the gungy Tara, then squeaked and jumped to her side as a green streak of slime splashed on to her hip. She looked down at her dripping fur, then at the grinning face of Siobhan, who was half standing up in the tank, green slime trickling down in drizzles from all over her fur and with her arm raised forwards as she flung another handful of gunge in her direction.

Alex chuckled as she retreated out of range of the flying slime. "I think you deserve a taster, at least... hey!" He dodged back as Siobhan suddenly turned around to direct the next wave at him, raising his arm up as a green wave splashed on to his side. The other two gunged husky girls joined in as Alex turned away from the booth, twitching and smiling as the barrage of thrown gunge spattered across his back. He stumbled forwards to face the camera once again, one arm still raised against the slimy onslaught as Michelle laughingly pressed herself against the wall in the corner.

"I'd better get out of here as well! While..." He flinched at a splash against his shoulder. "While we get them hauled out of there, here's their newest video one more time..."