INDUSTRIAL ZONE
Written by Iron-K in 2003

"Hi, where do I go for 'Industrial Zone', please?"

The foxmorph receptionist looked up through his glasses at the excited-looking pink dragon girl in front of him. She was quite young, and rather cute, he had to admit to himself, though maybe a little... nicely filled out, he would have said politely. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Gwen", she answered. He glanced down at the list of people due to come to the studios that day, and found her name. 'Industrial Zone'... they had had a lot of people apply to appear on that. It was one of those messy game shows - he couldn't really see the appeal of them himself.

"OK, Gwen, it's down a floor - the lift's over there - and just through the door on the left." It was literally a big thing, this programme - last year they'd built the set for it across two entire floors of the studios. For its popularity, it looked like it had been worth it, though. "Have fun," he added with a smile as she turned to go.

"Thanks, I will!" she replied, and gave him a wave as she headed to the lift.

---

After the short lift ride, Gwen made her way down the corridor, trying to keep a steady pace to disguise her excitement. She hadn't really expected to be picked for the show, but after watching the first series she hadn't been able to resist applying to get on it - she had been a fan of the programme since it first appeared, enjoying watching contestants (particularly males) being covered in gunge, and really liked the idea of being slimed herself.

Gwen could hear an excited voice chattering and giggling from the other side of the door as she approached it. It sounded like the other contestants had already arrived. This would be her first time meeting them - the four members of teams were picked pretty much randomly for the programme, so that even though they were always of roughly the same age, contestants had to work as a team without knowing the others too well.

She took a deep breath, and pushed open the door to find that only two contestants were already waiting in the room, their eyes on her as she came in. One of them was a jaguar girl, maybe slightly younger than her, with long, flowing blond hair. The other girl, who she had been talking to, looked slightly older - a chipmunk with golden brown fur. Her jet black hair was cut straight at shoulder length. Both of them were wearing the show's normal contestant outfits - yellow shorts and T-shirts with the show's logo, with bare feet.

"Hi... I'm Gwen," she smiled at them. The jaguar giggled again, and waved at her enthusiastically.

"Hi! I'm Rachel, and this is Cleo," she said, pointing enthusiastically at the chipmunk. Cleo looked skywards, seemingly a little fed up of the feline's vivacity but too polite to show it to her.

"The changing room's through the door to the side, Gwen," the rodent added more calmly. "Actually, there's a choice of outfit for this series."

"Thanks, I'll be through in a minute," she replied as she pulled the door's handle and walked through to the changing room. The choice that Cleo had mentioned turned out to be between the normal set that she had seen the others wearing, and alternatively a rather skimpy-looking bikini. She didn't really want to expose that much skin to the cameras.

She sighed, and picked a "large" size set of T-shirt and shorts. She was very self-conscious, and not very confident about her body, especially when compared to the two slim team mates that she had just met. She tried to forget about it as she stripped out of her clothing, and instead tried to concentrate on the fact that she would be appearing on her favourite programme soon.

Feeling rather comfortable in the show's outfit, she stuffed her clothing in to a nearby locker and straightened the outfit she was wearing, excitedly imagining it and herself being covered in slime by one of the show's machines. With that thought, she joined the others in the room again. Rachel was still giggling away, perhaps just due to her nerves.

Sitting down opposite them, she tried to find something to say. "...Did you watch much of the first series?" she tried asking Cleo, who shrugged.

"Well, I saw it a couple of times, I didn't really follow it." She flicked her hair back behind her shoulders with her hands. "What was the story of it... something about destroying the building's computer. Silicon, was that what it was called?"

"That's right," Gwen nodded. "During the challenges, we collect points to get time in the final, where we get the chance to take on the computer that's taken over the building. If we can shut it down, we've won. I think only one team managed it in the first series." Not wanting to reveal that she was as much of a fan of the show as she really was, she hastily added, "Of course, it's all just an excuse to get us covered in as much gunge as possible."

Cleo smiled a little for the first time. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Looking forward to it?" Gwen nodded, and the rodent turned to Rachel, trying to involve her in the conversation. "What about you, Rachel?"

"Sure, getting a bit messy should be fun," she laughed. "My boyfriend, he's a big fan of the show, and he said I should have a go at it. I know he just wants to see me get gunged, though." She collapsed in to giggles again, but fell silent as she heard a tentative knock on the door to the corridor.

The door opened slowly, and a blue-furred bunny girl nervously peered around it. "Er... is this the right room for Industrial Zone?" she asked hesitantly. They nodded, and she stepped fully through the door, turning around to close it behind her. She was short, and very cute-looking - younger than the others. Her most notable features were her large ears, sticking out through her short white hair. She hovered around, not knowing whether to sit down.

"I'm Cleo, this is Rachel, and Gwen," Cleo introduced her gently. "The changing rooms are just through there, you'll probably need a small size outfit." At that, the bunny nodded and hurried through the changing room door.

"She doesn't seem happy," observed Gwen as the door shut behind the rabbit, realising that she hadn't given her name. She had rather hoped that there would be some males on the show, in fact.

"It's probably just nerves," replied Cleo with a shrug. "I'm sure she'll settle down once she's got to talk to us."

"Why did she come on in the first place, if she's that worried about it?" wondered Rachel.

"Well, she probably thought it a good idea at the time. It's not as if there's much of a prize on offer, anyway," remembered Gwen. "I think all the team that won got was a set of those 'Industrial Zone' trophy things, anyway... and of course they weren't put in the huge gunge tank at the end like the others were," she smiled. She was rather looking forward to that.

Cleo gave her hint of a smile back at her. "What's the point, if we're going to be messed up so much before that anyway?" Gwen just shrugged - she couldn't answer that. She noticed that Cleo didn't seem very nervous, but then she didn't exactly seem enthusiastic either - almost indifferent.

The bunny came back through again. Like the others, she had opted for the normal outfit.

"Here, sit down," said Gwen to her, patting the seat beside her. The rabbit shuffled over to her and did so. "What's your name?", Gwen asked, trying to make her as comfortable as possible. She could see genuine fear in those huge green eyes of hers.

"Electra," she replied quietly. "Sorry, don't worry about me... I'm just nervous."

"Of being on television?" asked Rachel, leaning forward to talk to her.

"Not really... well, you know..." She tailed off again.

"Oh, the gunge," Cleo realised. "Don't worry about it too much, it's just a bit of fun."

"Yeah..." The rabbit looked at the floor. "I didn't really want to come on the show - we had a contest at my school to see who would be best for it. And I had to go ahead and win it." She laughed a little, but it sounded forced. "I went along with it anyway - I just didn't want to seem scared."

"Still at school? How old are you?" asked Cleo.

"I'm eighteen. I was only just old enough to go on the programme."

"That's right - you can only get on the show if you're above your age of consent," remembered Gwen. "I'm nineteen, so I'm only just above as well."

"I'm the same age, Gwen," Rachel joined in, "had my birthday last week. But for us it's sixteen when you can... well, how about you, Cleo?"

"Eighteen," Cleo answered, not mentioning the age limit for her race. "Really, El, I don't think that you have anything to worry about."

Electra smiled a little at the pet name that Cleo had already made up for her. "I've never even seen the show before. How much gunge is there, anyway?", she asked.

Gwen hesitated to tell her - it had been billed as the messiest show ever, which admittedly was the same way that every gunge show was advertised. This one, though, had good reason for it. "Rather a lot," she admitted. "But we'll try to keep you out of the messiest games," she added to reassure her.

Suddenly, the door to the studio opened. Immediately, Gwen recognised the face of Alex, the show's tall vulpine presenter, peering round the door. "Hi, girls," he began cheerily as he closed the door behind him. "Oh, don't get up yet", he added as he saw Gwen get to her feet, "I need to talk with you about a few things first, although I can see you're keen - that's always good."

He made his way around the four of them, introducing himself and getting their names one by one. Gwen had always liked his personality when watching the show, and getting to meet him was another thing she'd been looking forward to. He was clearly a bit of a show-off, though, as he wore only a pair of loose-fitting jogging trousers, the dark red fur on his muscular upper body on display. Gwen had always found him quite good-looking on TV, but there was one detail which she had never noticed the cameras pick up. While he was talking to her, Gwen tried to keep her eyes on his face, but she always found that her gaze travelled downwards...

"Don't be fooled," Cleo whispered to her once he had turned to Rachel. "It's got to be a pair of socks that he's got stuffed down the front of them or something." Gwen nodded, still not quite convinced. Cleo just smiled slightly, and shook her head.

Alex finished off with Electra, then drew another chair up and addressed all four of them.

"OK, team, it's good to have you all here. Before we start, just a few words. Have any of you been on TV before?" The four girls shook their heads. "No? Well, it doesn't really matter, as the whole TV aspect is designed to be 'invisible' as far as you're concerned. You won't see any of the camera crew, engineers, and so on, though they'll be working behind the scenes. It'll just be the five of us in there. Remember to try not to look directly at any wall-mounted cameras, though." They all nodded. "You won't have to stop while I do any introductory pieces or links, either - any additional pieces that we need will be edited in later, and we should be able to just go around as if we weren't being filmed at all. Many contestants do tend to forget that the cameras are on them, in fact."

"I'm scripted in places but a lot of it is just improvised. You won't be scripted at all, so just be yourselves. We'll add special effects in some sections, so if you see anything unusual like the blue walls, please try not to let them distract you either." He looked round at them again. "And remember, no matter how much storyline that I give during the games, we can stop the machines at any time. If you follow my directions, you'll be perfectly safe, but just scream for me if you're seriously uncomfortable. Of course, you can't just use that to escape the consequences of losing a game," he grinned. Electra flinched, but he didn't notice. "We'll be using a few machines from the first series - the ones that were too good to leave out - but for the most part the games will be new to you. Keeps the show fresh."

"If you've seen the show before you'll already know the basic storyline... I'll guide you through the four areas of the set, going through three or four challenges in each section, and in each game you'll earn points, which give you time in the Final. Sometimes, Silicon the computer will come in at scripted places - he's supposed to have once been the building's control computer, but he got a bit power hungry. We've got a rather talented friend of mine doing his voice, I have to admit he's rather convincing - even I'm scared of that laugh of his sometimes. Remember it?" Gwen nodded. "I'll explain all this again once we're being recorded, so try to look interested even when I repeat myself!"

"And now - this is what you've all been waiting for - the gunge." With a smile, he leaned forwards towards them, seeming as eager to talk about it as Gwen was to listen. "Most of the gunge we use on the programme is based on industrial food thickener, but for the factory round we use what we call 'kitchen gunge' - a variety of different foodstuffs. Anyway, no matter how unpleasant it feels, I can assure you that what you'll be being covered in will be perfectly harmless to you, and it won't have any permanent effects. It's also fine if it gets in to your eyes or mouth, so don't worry about that either - it won't sting or anything, it's as safe as water. Some enjoy the feel of it more than others, but trust me - no matter how nervous you're feeling at the moment, I've found that most people find it good fun once they've been gunged for the first time and got over their nerves. And that's what you're here for - to have fun."

Gwen looked sideways at Electra. She didn't really seem any more relaxed. She turned back to the presenter as he sat up again. "I'll go over the rules again while we're being recorded. Ready to go?"

The four girls nodded, and he led them through the door in to the hub of the show's set - a large metallic room with four corridors extending from it. He turned to them again and pointed to a large, heavy door behind him.

"Through that door is the machine you're trying to beat. Before you take it on, though, you'll have to travel around the four areas of the complex - the Military Base, Chemical Plant, Factory and Orbital Station. It's your choice where to go first. Who's your team leader?"

The four of them looked at each other. They hadn't chosen a leader yet. Realising this, Alex continued. "All right... how about you?" He pointed at Rachel, who giggled.

"OK, then." Rachel had been very shy when talking to Alex - perhaps that was the reason that Alex had chosen her, Gwen thought, to give her a more prominent role.

"Where to, then? It's your choice." Alex listed the four locations again. Rachel paused a while, and chose the Orbital Station. "Right - follow me, you're taking a trip in to space!" Alex set off at a run along the corridor, and the rest of the team had difficulty keeping up with him. After passing a few doorways, they arrived in an entirely blue room, occupied by four devices that looked like flight simulation machines, raised on stilts with an inflatable chair on a raised platform below each of them.

"Welcome to the Hangar." Alex leaned closer to Rachel, and added, "Don't worry about the state of the shuttles - we got them cheap, but they get you there." Rachel giggled again. Gwen rolled her eyes - Alex was obviously attracted to her.

Alex straightened again. "Sit down, make yourselves comfortable." Each team member took a seat, and the seat and platform arrangements began rising upwards slowly in to the devices. "Now, you'll be taken to the Orbital Station - I can't go with you just now, so I'll communicate with you through the shuttles and the system on board the station." The platforms clicked in to place.

Gwen looked around at the interior of the "shuttle". It was rather cramped and dark, with the walls blank apart from a few panels of blinking lights, and she could just make out the text "Shuttle 3" painted on them. Instead of having a viewing window in front of her as it had appeared from the outside, there was a wall behind a transparent screen on which there were four monitors - one large at the top, and three smaller ones underneath.

A slight rocking sensation started - Gwen realised this was caused by the pistons on the underside of the device. It felt rather strange, but of course the journey to the space station had always looked a lot better on television with the added computer effects.

The monitors turned on suddenly - Alex was on the large top monitor, and the other three contestants were shown on the smaller lower screens.

"Can you hear me, team?" They all acknowledged Alex. "Good. You've got a while before you arrive, so I'll explain the rules as we go. In each environment you'll take three or four challenges. For most of these, the team leader - that's you, Rachel - will have to select a team member to play the game, and they run the risk of being gunged in the process. Not all games are like that, though - there will be some that involve two players, or even the whole team. I just hope you're prepared to get messy!"

Gwen nodded eagerly, and so did Rachel and Cleo. Electra did as well, with some hesitation. Gwen watched the head-and-shoulder shot of her on the monitor - she felt quite sorry for her, she seemed to be having regrets about coming on the show already.

"Excellent. You'll have the chance of scoring up to 200 points every round, making a maximum of 800 points before the final confrontation with Silicon. Every hundred points you earn during the games is worth half a minute of time during the last challenge, meaning that you have up to four minutes to defeat the computer. Plenty of time, isn't it?" The girls nodded again. Alex chuckled. "Come on! You're going to win this!" This time, he laughed as his encouragement was greeted with a cheer from three of the girls. Electra just nodded again, still unable to get relaxed.

"Anyway, you should be coming in to land about now." The rocking motion of the devices slowed, then stopped. Alex continued, "The first challenge of this round is to find your way to the control room of the station. Silicon's got control of most of the machinery, and remember he'll be out to get you. Good luck!"

With that, the platform lowered from the shuttle, and Gwen waited while she and the other contestants descended to the floor of the blue room again. They all got up, and made their way to the centre of the room, none of them too sure what to do.

Alex's voice came over the loudspeakers again. "By the way, team - your route to the control room starts by the door at the far end." The team turned to the door.

"Let's go!" Rachel giggled again, and set off at a jog towards it, her long tail bobbing behind her. The rest of the team followed her through it and in to a metal corridor lined with technical-looking equipment. Rachel slowed to a halt as the team arrived at a T-junction. "Which way?" She turned to the rest of the team for advice, eager to get going.

"To the right," Gwen said immediately. The other three turned to her, and she realised that not everyone had seen the programme as much as she had. "Oh, it was always to the right in the first series," she explained. "I think it'll be the same - the left corridor always had some kind of trap in it..." She noticed Electra shudder, as if the consequence would be something far more unspeakable than a mere gunging.

"Sounds good to me," Cleo agreed. Rachel nodded and set off again. The team passed a couple of windows, which were again blue-screened, before the corridor curved around to the left. Rachel skidded to a halt suddenly when she saw what was around the corner.

The trap was a tightrope suspended inches above a pit of thick green gunge, with handrails at shoulder height running parallel to it. It was the only way over to the other side, six or seven metres away.

"Turn back?" Electra suggested, holding her hand to her mouth worriedly. At the sight of the gunk, she was back to her nervous self.

"We're here now, we might as well try and get across," responded Cleo, confident as ever. "Going to get messy in the end anyway," she grinned.

"Wait a minute..." Gwen walked over to the edge of the pit and hung on to the end of one of the handrails for balance. She leaned forward and dipped her bare foot into the green slime, squealing as it disappeared in to the liquid with a gloop. She continued to submerge her leg to test the depth, enjoying the feeling of the gunge against her skin. Eventually, she felt the solid bottom of the container when the level was just below her knee. "It's not deep, Electra," she said as she hauled her slimy leg out again, walking back to her and shaking the stuff off her leg as she went. Electra still looked unsure.

"Don't worry, El - it's perfectly safe," Cleo said, putting a reassuring arm around the rabbit. "I'll show you - I'll go first." She walked towards the rope and handrails, and took hold of both of the rails with her hands. She looked over her shoulder. "Watch", she said to her, and placed her right foot on the rope.

Cleo slowly made her way across the pit, sliding her hands along the rails and walking along the rope. The handrails were providing enough support for her not to fall off, though the rope was shaking worryingly. She alighted on the other side, and called to her, "See! It's not that bad. Come on, you can do it!"

Electra sniffed and composed herself, striding towards the way over with exaggerated confidence. Placing her hands on the rails, she set off across the rope before she could change her mind, cheered on by the rest of the team. She kept her eyes on her feet and took small steps, ensuring that there was no chance of her falling off in to the gunge below. Glancing forwards for a second, she saw Cleo encouraging her from the far side, and she put her arms around her as she took the final step to safety.

Gwen and Rachel cheered and applauded her, then looked at each other to decide who should go next.

"You first," suggested Rachel. Gwen grinned.

"No problem - I've got my foot gungy anyway, so I'll take the easy way across." Gwen made her way over to the edge and sat down, feet dangling in to the slime over the edge. She pushed herself forwards off the ledge so that her feet touched the bottom of the pit, and waded through the knee deep gunge to the other side. Occasionally, the thick gunge would splash upwards on to her thighs, making her squeak with excitement. She considered faking a trip and falling face first in to the stuff so that it would coat her completely, but she thought that it would be a little too obvious. She reached the other side, accepting Electra's outstretched hand to help her up. "Your turn, Rachel," she called back across the pit, shivering at the feeling of the slime running down her legs.

Rachel placed her hands on the handrails, and hesitated. "You can do it!", Gwen called again. She was surprised - the jaguar had seemed fine with the idea of being gunged before, but now that she saw it she seemed to have changed her mind. Still, after a few more encouragements from the three safely on the other side, she started across the pit. Inch by inch, she made her way over, carefully making sure she was balanced before making another step.

Suddenly, a splashing noise from behind her made her jump and lose her balance. She fell to the right, but caught on to the handrail with both hands, feet still on the rope, and she looked back. A thin waterfall of green gunge that took up almost the entire width of the corridor had started pouring in from the ceiling, and it was slowly making her way towards Rachel. Panicking slightly, she continued faster along the rope - the way she had fallen made her progress awkward, as she had to step sideways along the wire and move hand over hand, all the time facing downwards. She had plenty of time, though, and reached the other side well before the slime-fall had a chance to catch up with her. The team cheered again as she stepped off the rope with a sigh of relief.

"So where now?" she managed to say after taking a few seconds to get her breath back. The main passage continued ahead of them, and there was also a smaller corridor leading off it to the left. She began to make her way down the wider route.

"Wait!" Electra called out. Rachel froze, then carefully turned round to face her. The rabbit just pointed at the wall, slightly beyond where Rachel was standing, and shook her head. The feline turned again, and saw the danger that Electra had spotted - there were small holes lining each of the walls, obviously gunge nozzles.

Slowly, Rachel stretched her hand forward. The movement triggered the machine, and white foam sprayed in to the corridor and on to her hand from the nozzles. Electra squeaked in shock. Rachel jerked her hand back quickly, which stopped the machine, and wiped her hand on the front of her top, turning back to Electra.

"N... not that way." Electra pulled herself together, and headed decisively down the other corridor to the left, followed by the rest of the team. Her progress was slow, as she was always looking carefully ahead for potential traps - Gwen thought her level of nervousness was almost comical, but didn't say that to her.

The team reached another corner, and Electra signalled to the team to stop. She flattened herself against the wall and peered around it carefully, expecting something to go off as soon as it detected her, but nothing happened.

"There's something there", she whispered to the other three. "It doesn't look good."

"Don't panic, Electra," reassured Gwen, and stepped around the corner to see the obstacle. This time the floor was tiled in a grid of about ten by ten large squares, stretching across the corridor, and above on the ceiling a number of tanks with nozzles could be seen.

"They must be activated when we step on certain tiles," observed Rachel. "So if we just avoid stepping under them we should be safe."

"Yes, you're right," agreed Electra, trying to appear less worried than she really was. "I'll go first this time," she added hesitantly, and stepped on to one of the first tiles, looking upwards. She tentatively stepped forwards again, and gave a gasp of surprise when she felt the second tile sink slightly beneath her feet. She quickly flattened her ears against her head and froze, expecting to be hit by a torrent of gunge.

Nothing happened. She lifted her ears again to hear encouragements from the other three, and turned back to face them.

"It's all right, Electra, you're safe", called Cleo. "Keep going!"

The bunny nodded and turned again, this time her eyes fixed on the floor and touching each tile with her foot before stepping on it. She was just heading straight across rather than trying any of the tiles to the side - she wanted the shortest route to safety. Feeling another tile sink, she looked upwards again, but seeing nothing, just continued across.

"They're moving!" Rachel was the first one to have noticed that the tanks in the ceiling had begun to slowly make their way towards the rabbit. "Electra, look out!"

Electra glanced upwards just in time to see one of them take up position above her. With a scream she dived forwards, clearing the rest of the tiles and landing in a heap at the other side. Just behind her, a gallon of blue gunge splattered on to the tile where she had been standing, accompanied by the sound of a siren. All four of them recognised that noise - the classic game show warning that someone was about to get very messy indeed. Fortunately for her, the victim had escaped this time.

"Are you all right, El?" called Gwen as the siren wound down. The bunny picked herself up and gave a sigh of relief that she was still clean.

"I'm fine, thanks. It wasn't too bad, and we're nearly at the end - I can see the control room from here," she said, pointing down another side corridor. "Come on!"

Gwen went across next, stepping quickly over the tiles and avoiding the puddle of blue stuff. She made it across without triggering anything. Rachel followed her, eyes on the ceiling, ready to avoid anything coming towards her, and made good progress for most of the way across. While looking at the ceiling, she stepped on a trigger and almost lost her balance, but straightened herself. Looking up again, she saw a tank had moved so that it was above her, and heard the siren start up.

She didn't know which way to jump - her reactions weren't as quick as Electra's. Forcing herself to step forwards, she nearly got to the next square before she was hit, but squeaked as she felt a splash of gunge on her hair. Running across the rest of the way and making it to safety, she gave a nervous laugh and wiped the stuff off the back of her neck - she hadn't been coated in it, just got a bit of a taster.

Cleo was the last to attempt the obstacle, and she made it over quickly, hopping from tile to tile and avoiding the gunge on the floor left by the other contestants' attempts. Like Gwen, she made it to the other side without any problems.

The team made their way down the side corridor that Electra had pointed out earlier, and arrived in the control room - a round area with computer screens on the walls and multiple corridors extending from it in all directions. Hearing a door humming open, Electra yelped and span round to see where the noise came from, the less tense members of the team also looking round slightly after her. Alex stepped through the door, closing it behind him.

"Surprised to see me?", he laughed. "I used my personal shuttle - a perk of the job. Don't panic, Electra, you're safe for now," he added, giving her a reassuring pat on the head. Gwen felt a little daft as she remembered that they were still on the ground and hadn't actually moved at all during the time in the simulators. "You made good time, though - worth forty points if you ask me. This station used to be a set of labs for researching alien artefacts, but now the computer has taken over. Now, this is where the challenge really begins. Rachel, as team leader you're going to have to select someone to go in to a game, to beat the machines and try and score points for the team. Of course, whoever you select will be in danger of being covered in slime... or they might be quite safe, depending on which game they're put in."

Rachel looked around at the other three, unable to make a decision.

"Any volunteers?", she asked. Gwen looked round at everyone - they all seemed reluctant to be the first, and this was finally a chance to get totally messy.

"I'll do it", she answered. Alex nodded at her.

"Very brave of you. OK, follow me, everyone." He crossed the room to one of the side corridors and stopped at a small door a few metres down it. "We'll start with a simple game, Gwen - this one's the Cube. All you have to do is stay in this room and avoid the gunge as much as you can for just less than a minute - fifty seconds, in fact. You'll get one point for every second that you're in there. If you want out, just hit the door and I'll release you... but you're going to win, aren't you?" Gwen nodded excitedly. This game hadn't been on the first series, and she hadn't recognised either of the obstacles on the way to the control room either. "Good luck!" Alex hauled the door open and gestured to her to step inside. She did so, and the door was closed behind her.

She looked at her surroundings. The room was small, only about a seven foot cube. Lining the metal walls, ceiling and floor were various nozzles of different sizes. She didn't have much time to take it all in, though, as she heard the hum of machinery start up, and white gunge began to trickle in to the room through a few of the wall nozzles - not nearly enough to get her messy, though.

Slowly and carefully, she made her way in to the centre of the room. Hearing a spraying noise behind her, she turned her head to see foam being squirted in to the room from the ceiling next to the door. Realising that it wouldn't lose her points if she was gunged, she headed towards it, but didn't reach it before it turned off.

She snapped her head round when she heard a splashing noise behind her, and saw that multiple streams had started to squirt in from the ceiling of the room in the centre, where she had just been standing. Heading back towards it, she only just managed to walk in to the torrent before it turned off, leaving her still quite clean. At that point, she realised with disappointment that the game was fixed so that she didn't get too messy too soon in the programme.

It started to get a little messier, though - she looked down to see the thick soupy liquid being bubbled up through the floor, only squirting up to her bare ankles before falling to form a pool on the bottom of the cube. Looking up just in time to see a jet of foam squirting towards her, she squeaked as she was hit from all four walls. This stuff was thin, though - more frothy than real gunge, and it didn't even soak through her top.

She heard the door hum open again accompanied by cheers from the rest of the team. She turned back to it, feeling the foam streams subside, and saw Alex reach his hand through to help her out. Hesitant to leave without being messed up, she took his hand anyway and walked out.

"Good work, Gwen - I thought you'd want to escape, but you hung on and got the full fifty points for the round," Alex smiled at her as Gwen tried to hide her disappointment. As if she'd want to escape - she had hardly been touched by it. "Things are going to get harder, though. Rachel, who do you want in the next game?"

Rachel looked across at Cleo and Electra. The bunny tried not to meet her gaze. 

"Cleo", she chose, appreciating that Electra was still reluctant to get messy. The chipmunk smiled a little, and took Alex's outstretched hand. He leaned towards her.

"I think we'll put you under... the Pod," he said with a smile. Gwen's heart jumped - she recognised the name of the game from watching the programme. This had been one of her favourites. Eager to see it for the first time in real life, she ran close to Alex and Cleo as the team followed them back through the control room. This time they were led down another corridor to a small room with a large screen on one wall and the machine itself.

"This is it, Cleo," the host said as he led her over to the machine. It was familiar to Gwen - a fairly large black sphere covered in alien-looking flashing lights, supported at a height not too far from the floor by three legs at angles to the ground. Beneath it there was a small metal seat, which Cleo eased herself in to. She leant back to look up at the pod above her, and shuddered excitedly. It was only about half a metre from her head.

Some of the best gungings of the first series had been in this room, remembered Gwen. The texture of the slime in this game had been smooth but looked sticky as it splattered outwards from the victim. She remembered a couple of cute males being slimed under that thing particularly - and just about everyone who had been in the game had got the gunge. Naturally, she was envious of Cleo for getting to be on the receiving end, but she was still excited about getting to see it for herself.

Alex, crouching under the machine, reached around the device and brought around a keyboard which was attached to a metal arm extending off one of the front legs. He positioned it in front of Cleo, wished her good luck and strode back to the team, straightening again.

"I think some of you will recognise this one", he remarked as the screen turned on, showing a close-up of the keyboard. Rather than the traditional layout, it was covered in strange symbols, all looking similar but with some obvious differences.

He explained the rules of the game, which were familiar to Gwen as well. "Now, that pod's timed to open in exactly one minutes' time, and frankly even I don't know what kind of alien goo is stored in there. Cleo has to deactivate the pod using the keyboard if she wants to escape clean. Most of the symbols you see on it are repeated more than once, but there are five of them that are unique. It's those five that Cleo has to press to stop the machine. If you press a wrong one... well, I'll let you find out for yourself if you don't know already," he grinned. "Good luck!"

A timer starting counting backwards from sixty on the screen. Cleo, who had spotted one of the buttons already, leaned forwards towards the keyboard and jabbed her finger on it. It was answered with a "correct" bell.

"That's ten points already... not bad." Alex continued watching the screen as the three other team members scanned the shot of the keyboard for the remaining four symbols.

"There - two down from the top right!", called Rachel after a few seconds. Cleo moved her hand towards it and hesitated, quickly looking around to see if it was repeated. Her finger moved towards it. "No, wait!" Electra shouted as she saw the same one further over, but Cleo had already pressed it. A buzzer sounded, and five seconds blipped off the timer.

"My mistake, Cleo..." Rachel fell silent again. Cleo saw another correct button and pressed it as the timer reached thirty.

Gwen kept silent for a while as the team searched, not seeing any of the unique symbols, but suddenly she realised she had been looking at one for a while. She called out its position at the same time as Electra shouted the fourth one, which confused Cleo in to pressing another wrong button and lowering the timer to fifteen. She hunched over the keyboard and pressed the two buttons correctly with ten seconds remaining.

A buzzer started to sound with every second that dropped off the timer. Panicking slightly at the sound, her face contorted in concentration, Cleo feverishly looked over the whole keyboard, her right hand hovering around it. She just hit one button at random, which knocked the last five seconds off the timer and started an alarm.

The screen turned off and Cleo looked up from the keyboard, grinning at the team nervously as the flashing lights on the pod speeded up. She knew what was going to happen. Alex turned to the chipmunk again, and the keyboard swung away automatically.

"Sorry, Cleo - prepare to be gunged!" She glanced upwards at the pod above her head again before screwing her face up and bowing her head forwards to protect her face from the slime, hands clasped on her lap. To the accompaniment of the continuing siren, a stream of smooth thick green gunge dropped from the pod on to the back of Cleo's head with a gloop, rebounding outwards and leaving her face clean. She squeaked in surprise, but smiled a little through her gritted teeth as the stuff hit her head and began to dribble through her hair and down inside her top. She arched her shoulders to protect the back of her neck, and instead it trickled around and down her front, making her shiver. Gwen was impressed by the continuing noise, audible even above the siren - when watching the show, she had always assumed that it was just a sound effect added in later, but the liquid really did make that sound as it slopped out of its tank and on to the victim.

Cleo gave a whoop as a second stream started up, slightly further forward of the first one, covering her face and creating the well-known "umbrella" effect as the slime splattered off her head. The team couldn't see the reaction on her face, but she brought her hands forward, palms up, and poked them through the curtain of gunge to catch some of it as it dropped, allowing it to slither through her slender fingers to the ground.

The dual streams slowed to a drizzle, bringing the umbrella gradually inwards and revealing a grinning, very gungy chipmunk sitting in the middle of a large splatter mark. The last of the slime slithered down Cleo's head, her clothing completely soaked and sticking to her fur. Her hair was heavy with gunge which formed a curtain in front of her face, so without moving her head she brought her hands up, shook the slime off them and parted her hair again, looking upwards at Alex with her head still bowed. She whimpered slightly as a last trickle of gunge dribbled on to her head and slopped down on to her shoulders.

"You look great, Cleo," commented Alex as she hauled herself up from the seat and looked down at herself, allowing more slime to slide down her legs to the floor. She carefully made her way over the large gunge puddle, taking care not to slip, and reached the team again. "I think she enjoyed that." Cleo nodded enthusiastically and ran her fingers through her hair to collect some gunk, flicking it at Alex with a grin. Electra took a couple of steps back and hid behind Rachel, anxious to not even get touched by it.

Cleo certainly did seem to have really enjoyed it, thought Gwen. She found it strange that the chipmunk girl had remained so indifferent up until now - was she just here to be gunged as well? Maybe she was just good at hiding her emotions.

"Well, that's another forty points. You've done pretty well in the first round - three games played and only one team member had to feel the gunge. I think it's time to get back to ground level, so follow me!" Alex set off, and Gwen remembered that the fourth game in a round was usually an "incidental" game rather than in one of the rooms.

The team followed Alex in a safe route back to the hangar, and Gwen climbed back up on to the platform, sinking down with a resigned sigh into the comfortable inflatable chair and drumming her fingers impatiently on the chair's arms as it rose in to the device. She still couldn't get her mind off how it would feel to have been completely gunged, but she reassured herself. She would get another chance... she hoped.

As the platform clicked in to place, she waited for the machine to start its movement, but there was no rocking effect this time. She thought it strange, but it was just as well, really - she'd never liked flight, even fake flight.

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the shuttle being filled with red light and a booming laugh coming over the loudspeakers. She couldn't help but feel a little scared - she recognised the laugh from the earlier programmes she had watched. It was Silicon. His terrifying skull-like face filled all four of the monitors in front of her. They were certainly making this realistic.

"Alex! Your team's success is beginning to annoy me. I've arranged a little surprise for one of your precious contestants!" Gwen's heart jumped as the computer continued in its electronic voice: "Remember, I have control over everything on the station. It was a simple matter to re-program one of your transport shuttles..."

"Re-program?", Gwen repeated under her breath nervously. Who was it going to be, and what was going to happen? Was that why there was no rocking effect this time...? "In exactly two and a half minutes... well, let's just say something very unpleasant is going to happen to the unlucky contestant in..." Gwen mouthed the words, somehow knowing what he was going to say - "shuttle... number... three."

Thrilled, she felt her heart beating faster. It was bound to be something to do with being covered in slime. She glanced over at the wall to double check that she was indeed going to be the potential victim, then, hearing a humming noise above her, she jerked her head up. As she watched, a section of the ceiling of the machine slid back, revealing what was beyond it on the blue room's ceiling - namely, two huge tanks of gunge, one blue, one yellow. And of course there were the two funnels, side by side, pointed directly at the gap in the ceiling, and below that her head. Why hadn't she noticed them from outside the shuttle? Well, she hadn't had a reason to look up before. Anyway, that didn't matter. This was it - the chance she'd waited for. She hadn't had to wait long.

"Yes!", she exclaimed ecstatically, but still in a whisper, not wanting the others to hear. She had been distracted by watching the machine prepare to slime her. Realising Alex was saying something she lowered her gaze to the monitors again - now it was showing the familiar layout, with Alex on the large top monitor and her team mates on the bottom three, but this time with a "Reception only" warning lit up.

"...and it looks like we've lost all contact with it. All we can do now is to try and correct the programming, and it's not going to be easy. We've still got two minutes before whatever happens to Gwen... happens." His face on the screen was replaced by a large diagram, dotted with red and green lights. Gwen couldn't understand any of it, but then she wasn't the one that had to. "You have to block that command from being sent to shuttle three by turning all the lights to green, and I'll give you an extra 50 points if you manage it. Good luck team, I can't help you I'm afraid."

TWO MINUTES.

Another electronic voice - not that of Silicon, but just as nasty. A timer appeared overlaid on the diagram on the main monitor, and she watched the other team members lean forward in their chairs to get a better view of the monitors in front of them.

"What... what are we meant to do?" panicked Rachel.

"I think... move B5 to D8". That was Electra, more composed. "Can we do that?" Something happened on the screen - Gwen wasn't quick enough to see what - and one light on the diagram turned green. "Yes!" Electra clapped her hands. "You see the black wires going across the board? We can move them, one end at a time, to different positions on the board, and we need to turn all the lights around the edges green."

"Oh... I get it." Cleo this time. "So... A5 to E5?" she asked hesitantly. Gwen saw the wire move that time, but there was no change in the lights.

ONE MINUTE THIRTY.

"That might work, yes." Electra made a few more moves, changing a few more lights round. Gwen still didn't really understand the object of the game, but Cleo seemed to have picked up on it. That Electra was quite a girl, and she was worried that she might solve it before the machine gunged her.

"Wait!" Rachel hadn't spoken for a while. "But if you move there, doesn't that leave you with nothing to put on the bottom row?"

Electra was shocked at the mistake. "Oh...! You're right. We'll have to move them along one place each."

Gwen smiled as they tried to correct their mistake. If they carried on like this, it didn't look like they were going to make it.  Taking in her surroundings again, she realised that there wasn't any way for the liquid to drain away to. If the tanks were activated then the machine would slowly fill up until she was sitting in a bath of gunge. With excitement she also realised that she couldn't escape even if she wanted to. She glanced upwards again at the huge dual funnels aimed at her. "Bring it on", she laughed.

---

ONE MINUTE.

Alex, cut off from the team in a room near the "hangar", sat back in his chair and watched their progress. Secretly, he loved it when someone failed a challenge if it involved a female contestant. It was a free opportunity to watch a girl being covered in slime. He was no sadist, though - the contestant had to enjoy being gunged, or what was the point?

He was looking forward to this in particular - Gwen had seemed really eager to be covered earlier on. He would have made sure that Electra went into that shuttle, as she was the only one that hadn't felt even a drop of slime yet, but she didn't seem too happy with the idea, and he didn't want her first experience to involve this much gunge. Changing the view to Gwen's shuttle, he got comfortable, smiled and waited.

---

FORTY.

Gwen watched the screens on the wall in front of her closely. The three of them didn't look as if they were making much progress. Even Electra didn't seem to know what to do any more, only making the occasional hesitant move. Her excitement grew as she became more and more sure of what was going to happen to her...

A thought occurred to her. Could they see her? No - Alex had said that they couldn't communicate with or see her. So, if they couldn't see her, what was the harm in ensuring complete gunge coverage?

Knowing there wasn't much time left, she leaned forward, grabbed the collar of her yellow contestant's top with both hands and eagerly pulled it off over her head, placing it over the back of the seat. She glanced up at the timer as she undid her bra and twisted round to put it beside her top. After that, she tucked her legs up to take off her shorts over her bare legs. It was just as well that she wasn't wearing anything on her feet, she thought - shoes would have been awkward to take off in a hurry.

TWENTY.

She slipped her knickers off as the timer reached twenty seconds. Now completely naked, she flopped back into the chair and looked at the screen again. They were just over halfway there, which hopefully wouldn't be enough... She looked at it carefully, trying to work out what their next move would be -

Then she realised. Of course someone could see her - the programme would be broadcast, after all. They were bound to have a camera in here somewhere... Looking frantically around, she saw it. Up at the top, just to the right of the monitors, and that shape on the side of the funnels above her head was probably another one. She froze, then relaxed. This was an adult programme, and they'd had nudity on it before - sometimes a contestant forfeiting an item of clothing or two to avoid the gunge, at least for a little while. She'd probably just be giving viewers more than they expected. Anyway, races which had fur were more relaxed about nudity. She was uncomfortable about her furless body being exhibited, but didn't a gunging make up for that? She gave the camera on the right what she hoped was a sexy wave and a smile, then squirmed back down in to the chair, drawing her legs in a little tighter and placing her own arms on the arms of the seat.

"I've got it!" Electra's sudden cry made her jump. "B4 to E9, and that's it!"

The wire moved across the screen. "That's it?" She'd got herself worked up, and now it wasn't going to happen to her?

"Thanks a lot, El," she said bitterly as the last wire clicked into place. Of course, they'd get the maximum score for the game, and that was the point, but she was still disappointed.

An alarm started to sound. Gwen's hopes rose again, and she looked back at the screens. That certainly didn't sound like a winning sound effect...

TEN.

Electra looked again, crestfallen. "Oh, no..."

NINE.

"The light in the centre! I forgot..."

EIGHT.

"Quick... um... A4 to A3! A5 to..."

SEVEN.

"...B... oh, f..."

SIX.

Gwen laughed as her excitement got the better of her. That would have to be edited out - Electra wasn't even supposed to know language like that at her age.

FIVE.

Forgetting herself, Gwen lifted her right hand from the arm of the seat and reached between her legs.

FOUR.

She thought better of it, and returned her trembling hand to the chair's arm. She counted under her breath with the voice...

THREE.

One of the others was saying something, but she was far too absorbed to listen. Just as long as nothing miraculous happened now...

TWO.

She closed her eyes, hunched her shoulders and smiled in anticipation. Just a couple of seconds more...

ONE.

The last second seemed to take forever. She could feel her heart pounding impossibly quickly. She took a deep breath and held it... what if they'd done it? Performed a heroic last-second rescue?

ZERO.

As the timer reached zero, the computer's laughter echoed, and through her closed eyes she saw the light vanish from the cockpit as the monitors turned off. Gwen grinned and leaned forward slightly to avoid the gunge getting in her face, keeping her hands on the arms of the inflatable chair. She heard a slurping sound above her head as the stuff was released, a klaxon sounded, and half a second later she gasped as the colourful torrent of gunge hit her with a satisfying glooping noise.

Almost laughing with glee, she leaned further forward under its weight, the blue and yellow slime dripping down her face as the deluge continued, impacting on the back of her neck and sliding down her smooth skin. It felt just as good as she had imagined - the gunge was smooth and almost creamy, like custard. It had a clammy feel to it, though, and she had imagined it as being warmer, but that was just a minor thing - it still felt fantastic. After a while, she felt the level rising around her legs. She waggled them to clear them of gunge, then realising this was pointless she dipped them back in to the rising pool. After a few more seconds, the downpour thinned out, eventually just becoming a few drips from above.

She wiped her hands down her face and opened her eyes again, still feeling some thick liquid drops descending on to her head. The two colours were beginning to merge into a deep, pleasant green, especially around the seat where most of the slime fell. Her shoulders and the tops of her breasts were mostly covered in this colour as well. But the gunge only came up to her knees - there had surely been more than that in the tanks above her? She turned to look up above her head, but in the same instant she heard the familiar slurping again, and, realising excitedly that that had only been a pause to give her time to breathe, she squirmed back down into the depths of the chair.

This time, there was no klaxon - she squealed as the thick liquid splattered on her head again, and leaned backwards this time so that it covered her chest and slithered down her front. She giggled as the level began to rise above her waist, over her belly, then around her breasts.

Panting for breath and stretching herself upwards, she began to worry slightly about what she would do if it got much higher, but thankfully she felt the shower ease off and eventually stop, with the level of gunge at neck height. A final hooter sounded to signal the end of the gunging.

Her hands, now under the surface, were just as covered as her face. She lifted them out of the slime and shook them to get some of the gunge off, then brought them to her face and, laughing, managed to wipe away enough to feel comfortable about opening her eyes again. It was a strange sight - the once perfectly clean cockpit was now filled to just above its middle with yellow, blue and green slime, the colours mixing in to each other, and she was sitting in the middle of it. Squirming around in the slime, she sank back into the chair and sighed, enjoying the feeling of the thick liquid oozing around her body.

A few more seconds passed, then she gave a start as the monitors came back on - could they see her, naked? No - that "Reception only" warning was still lit up. It was part of the 'plot' of the programme, that communications to the third shuttle had been cut. Anyway, they probably wouldn't have been able to tell that she was unclothed under the opaque gunge. She hauled herself upwards, heaving her shoulders out of the pool, propped herself up against the back of the seat, and listened to their conversation.

"Gwen? Are you all right?" That was Electra's concerned voice, clearly feeling responsible for whatever had happened. Gwen smiled again, closing her eyes. If Electra could know how much she had enjoyed it...

"Sorry, Electra, she still can't answer you. All right, team..." That was Alex's voice. "You didn't quite complete the challenge, but you can have twenty-five out of fifty points for getting more than half of the lights green. But - and I'm sorry to say this - the program wasn't corrected in time, and as a result Gwen in shuttle three just got covered in two hundred gallons of gunk from the waste storage tanks. I don't know how happy she'll be with your performance!"

Alex had said it in a friendly, joking way, and Cleo and Rachel just half-smiled, half-grimaced at the news, but Gwen saw Electra gasp and cover her mouth in genuine horror. "It's OK, El...", she murmured, aware that the blue rabbit couldn't hear her. She didn't want her to feel guilty about something she'd got so much pleasure from, but it turned out that would have to wait.

"We'll get her out when we arrive back on the ground in two minutes' time, but for now we still can't talk to her or do anything to help - she's stuck there sitting in a pool of gunge", continued Alex. This at least turned out to be untrue, as she felt the slime beginning to drain away through an unseen opening at the bottom of the shuttle that moment. "She'll be fine, but more than a little messy."

The monitors turned off again - she assumed the rest of them could still talk to one another. The level was now down to below her knees again. Realising she had better get dressed before she was let out, she pulled her underwear back on as the last of the liquid disappeared. Her top and shorts pulled on easily over her now-slimy skin - she could feel her top clinging to her front, soaking up a little of the gunge. Everything was in just as messy a state as it would have been if she'd kept her clothes on, with the exception of her top which had been covered by her shorts over the back of the seat, so she got up and rubbed it a little against the slime-streaked wall to make it look as if she had been gunged fully clothed. Exhausted but happy, she sighed as she sat down again and leaned back in the chair, looking up at the transparent empty tanks.

---

Alex leaned back as well, stunned but pleasantly surprised. That had been the best gunging ever. He couldn't think about it too much for now, though - his girlfriend wouldn't be happy about him paying too much attention to one of the contestants, especially one a good few years younger than him. He switched the view to the others, trying to clear the thoughts of the cute dragon girl from his head.

"Don't worry too much, Electra - she really enjoyed it, believe me. Now, we've got a bit of a surprise arranged for Gwen later on in the programme, I just need to know a few things about you all..."

---

A while later, Gwen felt the floor give a sudden jolt and begin to move downwards. Glancing upwards for just a moment again, she looked around to find herself being lowered from the shuttle back in to the blue room. The others were already there, getting their first look at the results of the gunging. She laughed as she saw Electra's expression, as she still looked horrified.

"S-sorry, Gwen," was all she could manage to say.

"No problem," Gwen laughed as the floor came to a stop and she climbed out of the chair, dripping with green slime. Electra seemed to relax, but only a little.

Alex emerged from the far door of the room to greet them. He threw Gwen a towel and she started dabbing herself dry. As she did so, she was sure that she saw him wink at her - did he know? He must have been watching her from somewhere...

"A good start, girls - you got 155 points in the first round. We've still got three more places to visit, though - the chemical plant, the military installation and the factory. What's it going to be?" He turned to Rachel.

"How about... the plant?" Rachel replied.

"Okay, and who do you want to take the first challenge?"

"Electra." This time there was no hesitation. Gwen glanced over at the bunny, but she didn't seem surprised - she had been expecting it, Gwen supposed, being the only one that hadn't been in a game yet.

"Let's go!" Alex set off through the far door at his lively pace, leaving the team to run to catch up with him. As they followed him along a maze of corridors, Electra ran alongside Gwen.

"How does it feel?" she said in a whisper, hoping the others wouldn't hear her. Gwen laughed.

"It's great, you'll enjoy it." She looked Electra in the eye. "I promise, you've nothing to worry about."

They passed under a door marked "Chemical Plant", surrounded by special effect smoke.

"I'm just... a little nervous about it, I've not done anything like this before."

"Neither had I." Secretly, Gwen had actually fantasized about it more than a few times, but she wasn't about to say that to her.

"Okay." The rabbit, though nervous, put on a brave face and smiled. "You'd better be right," she laughed with forced humour.

"Here," said Gwen, running her right hand down her slimy left arm and reaching over to Electra with a handful of gunge. She dodged away with a squeak, though, and at that point they were interrupted as they arrived at the door to the first game room.

"Electra?" Alex bent down to talk to her as she moved towards him. "Bad news - it's the computer again. He wants to test your knowledge, and if you don't pass... there's no telling what he'll do. Still up for it?"

The cute rabbit nodded, wordless. Alex opened the sliding door by entering a code on the panel beside it. She padded in, the door closing behind her. The team moved to a monitor to watch the game.

Gwen watched Electra make her way over to the only obvious feature in the room - an inflatable chair. It was very similar to the one Gwen had been in previously. She smiled as she remembered the feeling... Trying to forget it for the moment, she watched as Electra eased herself gingerly into the chair, which was illuminated by a soft light from above. She was obviously still very nervous, and she had every right to be - clearly visible above her there was a cylindrical tank full of a semitransparent yellow gel substance.

Electra cowered in the seat, shaking slightly, as Silicon's booming voice sounded again. They certainly weren't being lenient with her.

"Seven out of ten correct answers will please me. Are you prepared?"

She didn't answer. The computer continued slowly with his first question.

"What element has the symbol 'Sn'?", he asked, unseen. Gwen heard Cleo groan to herself. Chemical-themed questions - she should have known.

"Tin." Electra's answer was confident. However, there was no right or wrong sound, or any acknowledgement at all. Gwen looked at Alex, standing behind them, but his face gave nothing away. Silicon just continued with his questioning.

As the game continued, Electra's answers got far less immediate and confident as her nerves got to her. By the end, it seemed to Gwen that she had given up entirely, sure of her immediate future.

"Pass", she answered wearily to the tenth question, sinking down in to the seat. There was no answer from the computer for a moment.

"Seven out of ten would have pleased me." Electra was shaking now.

"Why doesn't she just get out of the seat?" Rachel whispered. Cleo shrugged, then looked sideways at her.

"She knows it's only fair if she gets it, even though she's scared. You should be impressed." The chipmunk leaned closer to hear.

"Four was your score. Your knowledge... was insufficient."

All watching the monitor worriedly, they saw Electra tense up and fold her ears down on to her head. A siren went off in the room, and the bunny's reaction was immediate - she gritted her teeth, screwing up the rest of her face in an attempt to hide it from the impending gunge. She leaned forwards, almost bending double to get her head out of the way, and clenched her hands near her mouth. The rest of the team looked on, helpless.

A thin stream of the syrupy gel descended and slowly coated Electra, not splattering outwards as it had done to Gwen in the shuttle, but instead clinging to her and running down her furry body. She screamed as it enveloped her, but quickly clamped her mouth tightly shut and put her hands over her face. Feeling the stuff trickle down the back of her top, she screamed again, sitting up and hunching her shoulders awkwardly. This made the slime flow around her neck instead and start covering her chest.

She wasn't feeling anything dripping over her head, so slowly she took her hands away from her face and looked at the yellow substance oozing down over her breasts, the gunge still raining down on her neck. As she took her hands away from her face and clenched them again, Gwen saw with relief that she was smiling a little now, beginning to enjoy the experience despite her fears. Slowly, she leaned backwards a little more, allowing the goo to impact on the top of her head and dribble down from there, her eyes still tightly closed and her hands near her face, ready to defend herself again if it splashed in to her eyes.

There was no second wave for her - after a few more seconds the tank was empty and Electra was covered in the stuff from the waist up. Dollops of the gunge dripped down from her head on to her relatively clean legs. She laughed nervously, then reached up to her hair and squeezed some of the slime out of it, squealing as she felt it drip down her neck. Sitting up further, she dragged some of the gel off her ears so that she could raise them to their normal positions again, flicking it off her hands to the floor. Shaking her head to rid it of some more of the gel, she got up from the chair as she heard the door open and she walked out, laughing with relief, to rejoin the team.

"Are you all right?" Alex was the one to ask this time, though he'd seen for himself that she'd changed her mind halfway through. Electra laughed again and nodded. The movement dislodged more gunge from her hair and it dripped on to the corridor floor. She turned to Gwen and hugged her.

"Thanks", she said into Gwen's ear. She pulled away and straightened her clothing again. Gwen brushed the yellow gel off her chest.

Alex addressed them again. "Four out of ten - that's twenty points and a good gunging for Electra. The next game's going to involve the whole team, but of course we'll need someone to take the consequences if you lose..."

"Me!" Electra volunteered eagerly, hopping from foot to foot with excitement.

"Again?" Alex looked slightly unsure - it wasn't usual for a contestant to be in two games in a row.

"Well... why not," agreed Rachel. "If no one else wants to do it." Gwen and Cleo nodded, prepared to let Electra have another chance to enjoy the slime. Alex shrugged, and led them a few doors down to a viewing window. Through the window there could be seen a large vat of green, sticky gunge - about two metres across and a metre deep. There was a set of stairs leading up and around it to a higher level at the back of the room. Jutting out above the vat was a platform similar to a diving board, and on the back wall there was a large wheel, like a larger version of a steam valve. Punching in the code to open the nearby door, Alex explained the rules of the game.

"You were meant to be trying to save Electra from being dropped in to the vat, but I think as she enjoyed it so much last time we'll change the rules a bit and make the objective to dunk her in." The bunny cheered as he continued. "You see that valve on the back wall?" - he pointed - "You've got to turn that once around to activate the platform, but it's not going to be easy. First you'll have to lower the steam pressure by using the levers on the sides of the room."

The door opened and the team took up their positions in the room - Gwen next to the valve, Cleo and Rachel on either side at the sets of two levers. Electra scampered up the steps and seated herself on the board above the vat, legs apart, her feet dangling down to an inch above the surface. She clung on to the sides of the board to balance herself, and stretched one leg down to dip her toe in the gunge. Giggling, she submerged her foot up to the ankle and pulled it out again with a slurp. Strands of the sticky stuff clung to her foot, and she laughed as she felt it start to slide down and drip off in to the vat again.

"Ready, team?" Alex was watching through the glass with some amusement. Above the clear section of the wall on this side, there was an indicator which showed the pressure - 100%. He counted down from three over a microphone, and the game got underway.

After wondering for a few seconds what to do with the levers, Cleo and Rachel found that the "steam pressure" could be lowered by alternately pulling the levers back and forward. Watching from her vantage point as they settled into a rhythm, Gwen kept an eye on the counter, tugging at the wheel occasionally.

"Use both hands!" Cleo shouted across to Gwen, still pulling furiously at the levers. Gwen glanced at the counter again, which was at 50%. She turned around and hauled on the wheel, which began to turn a little.

"It's beginning to move!" She kept pulling with all her strength as the counter hovered at around 50%. Rachel and Cleo were clearly becoming more tired. After a few more seconds the speed of the huge wheel picked up and she managed to get it nearly to the halfway point. Looking around, she saw that Rachel was leaning against one lever, panting. Cleo was still going, but not as fast. The indicator had climbed back to 70%. She tugged on the wheel a couple of times again, shouting "You can do it, Rachel!" over her shoulder. Suddenly she felt the wheel give way, and it turned to about three quarters of the way round.

A hooter sounded and a short shower of dark green sludge dropped on to Electra from the ceiling far above. She squealed as it hit her, and it dripped from her, running off her toes into the lighter green stuff below. Shaking her head, she looked up, and then behind her to where Gwen was standing. Gwen briefly wondered why she was looking at her, but then realised. She looked up just in time to get a faceful of the same kind of dark green gunge.

She yelped. Wiping her eyes and face, she carried on with pulling at the wheel as a second wave hit her on the back of the head, dripping down her shoulders and back. The floor was becoming slippery with slime and it was becoming difficult to pull. She saw another set of arms join hers on the wheel - they were Cleo's. She glanced behind her again - Rachel was going at the levers with renewed vigour, and the indicator had dropped to 60%. As the green stuff splattered both Cleo and Gwen from above, together they pulled the valve all the way around.

The lights dimmed, leaving just the vat illuminated, and the same hooter sounded. Electra cheered, clapped her hands together and shook with excitement as the other three team members turned to watch. She clenched her hands again, grinning and bouncing on the seat, looking down at the green surface and waiting to be dropped in to the gunge tank. An instant later another shower of the sludge hit the bunny, but this time the platform dropped out from under her and, with a yelp, she submerged completely beneath the surface of the slime with a thick splashing sound.

A moment later her head emerged again, a large grin on her face. Sticky strands stretched from her head to the surface, as they had done with her foot earlier. She stood up with some difficulty, the gunge coming up to her belly, her erect nipples clearly showing through her soaked top. Gwen couldn't tell if it was because of the coldness of the gunge or if she was turned on by it. She was nearly in hysterics, laughing as she wiped her eyes. As the lights came back up, a final portion of gunge scored a direct hit on her from above. Under its weight she ducked back in to the slime and nearly keeled over again, but just managed to keep her balance. She stood up straight, shook her hands to free them of gunge again, and waded slowly and awkwardly over to the side of the pool, eyes down, keeping her hands at head level to avoid getting them too messy again. She balanced herself by holding the vat's edge, the dark green slime creeping down her and coming to rest on the surface of the vat's contents.

Rachel was waiting to help her out. Electra, giggling, dipped her hand in to the vat and splashed some green stuff over in her direction. With a squeak, the feline retreated backwards to avoid it. Slightly reluctantly, she stepped forwards again and took Electra's hands. With difficulty, she hauled her out of the pool - the bunny was obviously rather reluctant to get out. With the green slime dripping from her body and trickling down her legs, she clambered down and got back on dry land again, standing beside the vat, her hair and clothing heavy with gunge. Her blue fur was completely hidden underneath the green liquid which was oozing and trickling from everywhere. Seeing Rachel wiping her hands on her shorts, she grinned and put her arms around her waist, squeezing her body against her. Rachel squeaked, turned her face away and struggled to break free. Eventually she shoved the laughing bunny aside, and brushed some of the stuff off her cheek.

Gwen turned to Cleo, watching the thick green slime slowly drip down her. Her dark hair and shoulders were covered in it, and it was slowly making its way down the rest of her as well, seeping through her clothing. Gwen herself was in pretty much the same state. As the door opened they made their way towards it, Electra leaving a trail of dark and light green gunge behind her.

"You did it - you took over one minute, but that's still 40 points. How did it feel?" smiled Alex as Electra walked through the door, squelching. She got her breath back.

"Great," she laughed as she dragged gunge off her sodden furry ears again. "But it's heavy."

"Just one more game before the end of the round, then you can clean up again. Who's it going to be this time?"

"I think Rachel should have a go," said Electra, grinning at Cleo and Gwen. They nodded in agreement.

"Hey, wait a minute..." started Rachel, but before she could continue she was interrupted by Cleo.

"Go on, Rachel - you haven't been in a game yet, it's about time you had a turn." The rest of the team started encouraging her as well.

"Oh, all right then," Rachel gave in. "OK, Alex, show me what's going to happen to me."

A smile spread across Alex's face as he thought of which game to put her in. "Gladly", he said as he turned around to the door directly opposite the one they had just come from, doing his familiar routine with the code panel on the side of the door. "Everyone in," he motioned to them. Rachel went first - Gwen at the back heard her gasp as she saw what was in the room.

As she herself walked into the room she smiled as she recognised the room's contents. The room was small, like the first room that Electra had been in. In the middle of this one there was a device similar to a phone booth, with a pipe leading up from it through the low ceiling. It was, of course, one of the show's famous gunge cubicles.

She looked at Rachel, who was giggling helplessly with her face buried in her hands. Alex closed the door behind them and put his arm around her, leading her over to the gunge tank. She hugged him back as she was walked to it. Gwen couldn't help but feel a little jealous of her, getting so close to him.

Letting go of her, Alex opened the door of the tank - this one was unusual in that it opened by sliding the front of it upwards. Rachel ducked slightly to get in and seated herself on the stool. Alex slid the front panel back in to place as Rachel looked upwards. Gwen wondered, not for the first time, what it would look like from the receiving end.

"There's no real game to this one - all you have to do is decide how much gunge Rachel gets. Of course, the more gunk that drops on to her, the more points the team earns." Alex watched her squirm inside the tank. She glanced upwards again. Alex turned back to the rest of the team, and asked, "What's it going to be - zero, fifteen, thirty or fifty?"

"Can I go with fifteen?" Rachel suggested from inside the tank. Alex laughed.

"It's not up to you to decide - it's your so-called friends here. Zero points means that Rachel escapes clean, while at the other end of the scale, fifty points, you've got to empty three whole tanks of the gunk over her. What do you think, you three?"

Gwen had seen this game before. No team ever let the contestant leave the gunge tank clean. In fact, there was obviously only one choice. "Fifty!" they all chorused. Rachel cringed, but laughed a little at the same time. Alex smiled again. This was just what he had wanted.

"Would you do the honours?" He motioned to the activation buttons, set on three podiums surrounding the tank. Each team member made their way to a button - Cleo on the left, Gwen at the front and Electra on the right. "Ready, Rachel? Remember, it's their choice, not mine!" Rachel giggled again, shook her head, leaned forwards to get her head out of the way and covered her face with her hands. "Each of your buttons will release a tank on to your leader, team. One after the other or all together - your choice."

The three team members lucky enough to be on the outside of the tank huddled together and discussed the gunging order. Rachel looked up again as she realised that it wasn't about to start up, but quickly returned to her ready position as she saw them prepare to activate the machine.

"Sorry, Rachel!" Electra laughed as she pressed her button, and the familiar siren whooped. They watched as the helpless feline was splattered from above by a thick column of purple gunge. It had the consistency of paint, and rebounded outwards in an upturned bowl shape as it hit her, coating the sides of the booth. Rachel squealed as she felt the slime drip down the back of her hair, soaking through her thin top as it poured on to her back.

As the downpour thinned out to a trickle, Rachel straightened up, taking her hands away from her face. Her expression was that of shock, but mixed with clear enjoyment. The purple gunge hadn't got her full on the head, but she could feel it trickling down the back of her neck. She smiled slightly, forgetting the danger of another tank being dumped on her. Seeing her chance, Gwen activated her gunge tank. Rachel was immediately hit by another shower of slime, this time orange. She yelped as she was completely coated in the stuff, ducking down again and returning her hands to her face hastily as the new colour dripped from her long blond hair and merged with the purple to make a sickly greenish brown on both her and the tank's sides.

After that shower had finished, she peeked out from behind her hands, then moved them up to the top of her head in an attempt to cover her hair. Her mouth hanging open in a smile, she looked at the last team member, Cleo, and then upwards. Cleo released the last tank, and a third wave of red gunge began to pour in. Rachel quickly looked down, narrowly avoiding it hitting her in the face, and whimpered as the goo washed over her, working its way through her clothing and seeping in to her underwear. She was clearly enjoying it, but cowering from it at the same time.

Alex slid the door of the tank up as the red deluge slowed to a drizzle from above. Rachel quickly took the opportunity to get out, and almost crawled out of the booth as the last few drops fell on to the stool. Her hair, shoulders and back were a mess of multi-coloured gunge. She straightened up and flicked her head back to get her matted hair out of her face. "Thanks for that," she laughed, rolling her eyes and shivering as she felt the stuff slide down her body inside her clothing.

"It was worth it for fifty points." Alex turned back to the door. "To the showers first, and a change of clothes for all of you," - he looked at Rachel and Electra - "then it's on to Round Three!"

He led them at a lively pace through the corridors again. After a few more twists, they arrived at the entrance to a section of the corridor with nozzles jutting out of the walls, about five metres from one end to the other. Most of the nozzles were at waist height or lower down, but there were a few aimed at the chest or head area.

"Just a water-sprayer. It was meant to clean any hazardous chemicals off quickly." With that, Alex stepped in to the corridor. As he put his foot down on the surface the nozzles spurted water at him and he ran through it to the end, his fur fairly wet but not completely soaked. He beckoned them on from the far end. "Come through one at a time - don't worry, it's nothing worse than what you've been covered in so far."

Rachel went first, the water cleaning away a little of the gunge that had fallen on her a few minutes ago. Gwen was next, followed by Electra, who squeaked as the felt the cold water on her bare arms and legs. She dashed through, ducking the higher sprayers, leaving only Cleo.

---

Cleo stood at the end of the corridor, looking at the team cheering her on from the far side. She already knew what was going to happen - this corridor wasn't just there to get them wet. It would be another set-piece end of round game, and she was going to be the victim this time. Looking forward to the tension and danger of being gunged, she stepped in to the corridor towards the team, only showing her excitement with her usual hint of a smile.

After only a couple of steps, she jumped at the sound of the computer's familiar evil laughter booming from an unseen source. A glass panel slid down to cut her off at the end of the corridor, and twisting round to look back she saw another one descend, trapping her inside. The lights dimmed to red and the water sprayers shut off. She allowed her face to break in to a grin, anticipating what was going to happen next as an ominous gurgling noise sounded from the sprayers.

Suddenly, they start spewing green gel in to the corridor and on to her, instantly getting under her clothes. Whimpering quietly at the pleasantly sticky feel of the liquid against her short fur, she stepped slowly and carefully along the corridor through the streams of goo to stand at the end nearest the team.

---

Alex acted surprised as the water was replaced with sticky goo. "Silicon! I should have known he'd try something like that. Team - the numbers in the code to unlock the panels and get Cleo out of that corridor are 4, 1, 9 and 2, but I don't know in what order. There's a panel over there," - Alex pointed to a code panel on the wall to the right of the glass pane - "and you'd better hurry!".

The three free contestants dashed over to the panel, which looked like it had at one point in its life been a calculator before being incorporated into the show's set. Electra got there first. Gwen looked over at Cleo - her clothing was already soaked and dripping with gel, but to make matters worse the corridor was beginning to fill up with gunge.

"One, two, four and nine?" Electra asked Alex. He nodded at them and turned back to watching Cleo beyond the glass screen. She looked back at him, glancing down to check the level of the rising slime.

They watched as Electra systematically began to put codes in. The depth of the gel had reached above Cleo's ankles.

"Two, four, one, nine...?" Electra continued to try each possible code in turn on the panel. Gunge was being pumped in to the corridor faster now. "Two, nine, four, one?" She said them in a whisper as she put them in to aid her concentration. Each complete code was answered with an incorrect buzzer. Gwen and Rachel were watching over her shoulders, but they were leaving her to it - she didn't seem to need much help.

Gwen glanced at Cleo again. She was finding it difficult to keep upright now, so she leaned forwards and put her hands on the glass for support. Suddenly, a nozzle that she hadn't noticed squirted her on the side of the head. She gasped in shock and took her hands off the glass surface to wipe the goo off her cheek, but as she did so she lost her balance and toppled sideways into the rising gunge with a splash. She emerged quickly with her eyes closed, and, spitting out green slime, put her hands back on the glass, her slim body glistening with the coat of gel and her saturated clothing clinging to her tightly.

"Four, two, nine, one?" Electra punched in the code, and this time it worked. The glass panel nearest the team slid open again from the bottom up, and the gunge spilled into the corridor where the team was standing, carrying Cleo along with it. She lay shivering in the spreading pool of green goo for a few seconds to get her breath back.

"Good work for getting Cleo out of there, team," commented Alex as he took Cleo's slimy hand and helped her to her feet. "Are you OK?" Cleo nodded. "Good, but you were a little slow so I can only give you twenty points for that game. That makes..." He left Cleo trying to claw some of the gunge out of her hair, and walked over to the code panel. "I should have paid more attention at school," he joked as he used it as an impromptu calculator. "130 points from this round, plus 155 from the first, equals... 285 points out of 400 so far! You're not doing badly at all."

He straightened up again. "So, team leader, where next?" They were at a T-junction. "The left corridor leads to the military base. The right leads to the factory. Your choice, Rachel."

"The factory," Rachel grinned. She didn't mind which one it was as long as it involved getting messy.

"Good choice. But first I think you all need a shower." Alex led them down the corridor on the right until they arrived at a door at the end. "OK - you can go in and clean yourselves up a bit, though I wouldn't expect it to last long!" He laughed as the girls cheered, and with that he walked off down the corridor, back the way the team had come.

---

Gwen stripped and got in to the shower cubicle, looking around it first just in case they had decided to put a gunge trap in it - they had done that in the first series once, making an attractive red-furred fox contestant unwittingly cover himself in white gunge by pushing the button to turn the shower on. She closed her eyes as she pressed it, and was almost disappointed to find that this one was normal. She showered quickly in the warm water, and got the remains of the dried slime from her experience a while ago in the "shuttle" off her.

As she turned the shower off and opened the door, Gwen noticed Cleo get out of her cubicle, which was next to her own, and make her way naked over to the bench on the far wall, where she had left her towel. She had an exaggerated feminine walk - on tiptoe, wiggling her hips from side to side as she slowly took steps. From here, Gwen could see that she did have a short furry tail, but it had been hidden inside her shorts. She couldn't help wishing that she had a body like Cleo's - there wasn't an ounce of excess fat on her.

Cleo picked up her towel and suddenly turned around, everything in full view. Gwen, startled, tried to look away quickly but Cleo had obviously seen her watching. Gwen looked at her feet.

"Sorry," she mumbled. "You're just... pretty impressive." Cleo laughed.

"Don't worry about it, I'll take it as a compliment. But remember... my face is up here."

Gwen forced herself to look upwards - her gaze travelled over a small triangle of darker, thicker fur between Cleo's legs, her flat stomach, then her perfectly rounded breasts tipped by dark brown nipples, before reaching Cleo's face. She was clearly amused.

"There's no need to be embarrassed by it. You're pretty good yourself, you know."

"Really?" Gwen had never really thought of herself as particularly attractive. "...Thanks," she managed to say, as she stepped out of the covered cubicle, her hand covering her naked groin.

"No problem." Cleo wrapped the towel around herself and handed Gwen another one. "Do you enjoy it?"

"What, the gunge?" Gwen hesitated. "Yeah. Why... don't you?"

"Of course. I just don't really feel comfortable about enjoying it." Cleo certainly seemed comfortable talking about it, though. "I'll be honest with you - I did watch most of the first series, and I really wanted to be gunged, I don't know why."

"There's nothing wrong with it. I..." Gwen tailed off.

"Don't worry". Cleo flashed a smile at her, and started putting on a clean outfit. Gwen did the same.

---

"Rachel?" Electra knocked then whispered through the wall between the two cubicles, which were back to back from Cleo and Gwen's.

"Yeah?" came the reply. Electra hesitated, cleaning the clingy green stuff out of her fluffy white tail.

"How did it feel?" She couldn't help asking. There was a pause for a while.

"It was pretty good, once I was in there. Like being covered in... coloured cream, or something. Why?"

"You just seemed nervous before, I wanted to make sure you were okay." Electra turned off the shower and quickly went over to get a towel.

"Well... I don't know, I thought it would be a bit embarrassing, being the centre of attention and everything," Rachel said through the cubicle door as she turned off her shower. "Alex was right, though, I did just forget I was being filmed. Pretty cute, isn't he?"

"Rachel!" Electra laughed at the unexpected comment, though she had been thinking the same thing herself. "He's about ten years older than you!" 

"I can dream, can't I?" Rachel giggled in reply. "But David wouldn't like me saying that, I'm sure! Could you pass me a towel?"

The bunny did so, looking away as the door opened and Rachel's hand emerged around it to grab the towel. "Is your boyfriend in to... messy stuff?" she asked, feeling a little awkward - she'd never been in a relationship, and didn't really know if it was appropriate to ask.

"He never really mentioned it to me before he asked me to go on this show, but I know that he's going to love the sight of me covered in gunge! You love it as well, don't you?" she continued as she opened the door, the large towel covering her from her chest to her knees. Electra looked at the floor.

"Yeah... I thought it felt great. I can't understand why I felt so nervous about it before."

"You never know 'til you try, eh?" laughed Rachel as she opened up the towel, facing away from Electra, and started scrubbing her back dry as the bunny got back in to her clothing.

---

After getting in to their clean outfits, the four of them stepped out of the door on the opposite side of the room to find Alex waiting for them. The environment was different here - rather than the clean, metallic corridors, there was more than a touch of decay about the place. Rusted pipes and girders were strewn about the walls and ceilings, some corroded away entirely. The effect gave the impression that the area had been abandoned for some time.

"It's decision time again, Rachel. Who's going to be the first to feel the gunge this time?"

"Um..." Rachel looked around at the other three in the team, and Gwen's heart jumped as Rachel's eyes alighted on her. "Gwen," she said.

Alex took Gwen's hand. "This way!" He guided her, more slowly this time, down the decayed corridor in front of them. The rest of the contestants followed them, picking their way over pipes and junk strewn about the floor, and eventually stopping at a large industrial-looking door at the side. Alex spun the valve in the centre of it and hauled it open.

Gwen walked in and looked around at the room. The interior was the same kind of dark, rusted environment as in the corridor. The most obvious features were against the wall to the right. Placed about three feet apart were two glass tanks of an opaque yellow-orange substance. They were cylindrical in shape - about a foot in diameter and perhaps a metre and a half high. Pipes from these tanks led upwards for about a foot and then turned to connect in the middle. Jutting out forwards from here was another pipe, obviously the nozzle of the gunge machine. Below it there was a cushioned rubber chair, placed between the two tanks.

The floor was mostly rusted as well, but in the centre was a large slightly raised square, maybe four metres along a side, made of sixty four alternately black and white smaller squares. It looked clean compared to the rest of the room.

She turned around to see the rest of the team follow in behind her, Alex closing the door behind them after he entered the room. "You know what to do, Gwen", he said as he turned to spin the valve closed again.

Gwen walked over to the chair between the glass cylinders, turned around and sat down, her hands on her lap. As she did so, she looked upwards at the central pipe. The nozzle looked like a showerhead, but without the spray head - just one large hole. Looking to her left and right at the tanks, she placed her hand on the one to her left, and was surprised to find it warm to the touch. The one on the right was as well. She jumped as a gurgling sound effect played, similar to the noise when a bath empties.

Alex, having finished with the door, looked over at her. "This old factory is the place where all the unused foodstuffs from the complex were stored. Of course, Silicon managed to adapt the machines for his own purposes, and to earn points in this challenge you'll have to beat him in a mind game. Now, in this game you can't try to avoid the gunge yourself, Gwen, you have to select another team member to go up against the computer for you. Who will it be?"

Gwen considered her options. The most obvious choice to win the game was Electra, as she had nearly prevented the shuttle gunge tank from activating. She was about to say her name, but then she reconsidered - she wanted to be gunged, after all. So who was least likely to win the game? A choice between Cleo and Rachel. She hated to think it, even just to herself, but Rachel didn't seem like much of a thinker to her, so she seemed the best choice.

"Rachel," she said out loud. The feline raised her eyebrows in surprise. She turned to Alex.

"Good choice. Step over here, Rachel..." He led her to stand on the black square nearest the centre of the side on Gwen's left. "Ever played chess?" Rachel shook her head. "Shame, because this game is based on it, and you'll be up against Silicon."

A white floating skull - the face of Silicon - was projected on to the central white square on the side opposite Rachel, who jumped. "Just a hologram, it won't hurt you," reassured Alex, putting his hands on her shoulders. "However, if it touches you, it's bad news for Gwen," he said, glancing at her. He turned back to Rachel and continued - "You have to survive ten complete turns - that is, twenty individual moves - on the board, and if he touches you then I think Gwen knows the consequences!"

Gwen excitedly looked up at the nozzle again, drumming her feet on the ground, as Rachel stood there nervously. "Silicon can move like a Queen - in any direction for any number of squares. However, you are limited to a Knight's movement. You can either step two squares to the side, then one forwards or backwards, or the other way around - one square sideways, then two at right angles. Got that?" Rachel seemed unsure, but she nodded anyway.

"Now, there's no help from you team mates here, but to give you a chance, we'll let you have the first move." He let go of her. The lights dimmed, leaving the gunge tank lit along with the giant chessboard. Rachel looked around her, then at the shimmering skull. In the darkness, the rest of the room seemed invisible. Carefully watching the skull, she sidestepped one square to her right, and took two steps forward.

As she stood there, the skull began to move. It floated silently, moving straight forwards across the board to come to rest in line with Rachel horizontally, and settled there.

The skull now two squares away from her, Rachel decided to get as far away as possible from it. After some silent deliberation, she slowly took two further steps forward, then stepped to the right again.

Silicon appeared to think for a few seconds before moving. Eventually, it slid back along the way it had come to be in line with Rachel again, this time three squares away.

Rachel began to step forward again, but then wobbled and steadied herself. Instead, she took two paces backwards and one to the right again, leaving her on the side of the board. She had survived three moves so far, but Gwen noticed Electra, who was just visible on the edge of the light, put her hand across her eyes while shaking her head. There was obviously something she had seen wrong with Rachel's style of play.

This time, the skull slid sideways two squares to threaten Rachel diagonally. She nervously looked around, looking for a way to escape. She and Gwen both jumped as the gurgling sound played from the gunge tank again to remind them of the imminent danger. Hastily, she moved one step away from the side of the board and then two steps backwards, reaching the edge of the board where she had started.

There was no hesitation from the skull. It drifted slowly and calmly over to the back edge as well, ending up one square away from Rachel. It turned to her mockingly as she realised that there was nowhere left to run - no matter which way she moved, the skull would get her on the next turn.

Gwen watched excitedly as Rachel trudged one square forward. With a last glance around to make sure there was no escape route for her, she sidestepped reluctantly to her left twice.

As calmly as before, the skull moved forwards and left, straight at the feline. She tried to lean away from it, but it carried on relentlessly and as soon as it touched her, it vanished along with the light on the board. The only light in the room now was on Gwen.

Gunge erupted from the nozzle above Gwen without warning, coating her shoulders and the back of her head and neck immediately. She yelped with shock and closed her eyes tightly as the layer of yellow slime on her oozed downwards, covering more of her back and chest. There was no siren, just a continuous wet squelching noise as more of the stuff splattered on to her, the sides of the tanks that the gunge was coming from also being covered as it bounced off Gwen's head. The slime was much warmer this time, but not to the point of being uncomfortably hot. As the torrent continued, a smile spread across Gwen's face. She licked some off the end of her snout, and the taste made her realise what she was being covered in - yoghurty liquid cheese.

She smiled even more as the sensation continued - in addition to the smooth, sticky feeling of most of the cheese, the occasional gungy lump would find its way down the back of her top, or slither down her front. In contrast to the sudden start, the gooey stuff was now being oozed gently over her - it was a very pleasant feeling. She looked downwards and opened her eyes, still feeling the flow over the back of her neck, and watched as it trickled down her body, dripping off her face to cover her thighs and the area between her legs. Flicking her eyes to the side, she saw the level of gunge in the tanks drop down and eventually empty, the insides of them streaked with cheese. As the thick, lumpy residue from the bottom of the tanks was dropped on to her head and it slithered down both sides on to her shoulders, Gwen opened her eyes and started pulling the cooling, solidifying cheese off her upper body.

The lights came back up again. She saw Alex reach out his hand towards her to help her get up. She took it and struggled to her feet, feeling the back of her top peel away from the chair as she did so, strands of cheese being left behind.

"You lasted five moves before you were captured, Rachel. Not bad for a beginner." Rachel just smiled, and watched Gwen as she continued to wipe away the gunge from her exposed skin, allowing it to drip to the floor. "Half the moves means half the points. You scored twenty-five for this round, and the next challenge is just through there." Alex pointed over his shoulder at another door opposite the one they had come in by. "We need two contestants for this game, and both will be in danger of being gunged. Who are they going to be?"

"Well, Gwen and I just played a game, so El and Cleo should go in to this one," answered Rachel. The team members who had been picked looked at each other and nodded.

"A good reason for you to escape the gunge, isn't it?" He winked at the feline and turned to walk to the door. The rest of the team followed him as he led them through the heavy door in to the next room.

This was another game that Gwen recognised from the first series. It had been called the Bean Machine, or something silly like that - it was like a large cylindrical clear tank with two padded seats in it, which were on rails so that they could rotate around the curved edge of the cylinder. On the ceiling of each side of the machine were small rusty pipes which led down from tanks on the roof not far above, but that wasn't the main threat of the machine. Positioned menacingly above the back of the tank was a very large clear-sided vat of baked beans in sauce, with a funnel pointed down in to the cylinder. A podium was positioned below the bean vat so that the chairs could slide in to position behind it, and there was a monitor screen on the wall of the tank behind the podium.

"I have to admit I like this one," commented Alex as he walked over to the machine. "Allow me," he said to Cleo and Electra as he opened the curved door on the front. They both excitedly ducked inside and made their way to the two seats, which were positioned between the three tanks. They were also rather high up, so they couldn't rest their feet on the floor. Alex closed the door once they had been seated, and appeared to lock it.

"Right. You'll be playing against each other to try and avoid being covered in the contents of that tank above you." The two of them looked up at the large vat, and Electra giggled excitedly. "However, that's not all - you can also gunge your rival by using one of the tanks at the side. As you can see, you'll be moving around a bit in this game." As he said that, both of the chairs moved around away from each other, startling the contestants on them, so that they were below the small tanks at the sides, with Cleo and Electra facing each other.

"One of you will go under the big tank first, and the other team member will stay beneath their smaller one. From there, I'll ask a question which can be answered correctly with 'yes' or 'no', and the contestant under the main tank can answer it by pressing one of the buttons on the podium under the tank. If you get it right, then that gunges your partner - only a little, though - and you stay where you are. You can opt to pass the question and not press either of the buttons, and if you do that then you go under the smaller tank instead, in danger of getting a splattering from your team mate who will be positioned in control of the buttons. And you'll want to make sure that you pass a question if you're not sure of it, because if you press the wrong button... then this happens." He pointed towards the screen at the back.

The lights dimmed, and the monitor at the back of the tank turned on to show a clip from one of the earlier shows - a small black fox screaming and laughing as she was covered in the contents of the tank from above, the lumpy gunge creeping down her body, filling her top and splattering outwards on to the podium and surroundings, the deluge oozing down every inch of her fur to almost coat her completely. Electra squeaked at the thought of that happening to her, and Cleo just smiled and flicked her hair back behind her shoulder with her hands.

"We'll score this one by giving five points for each correct answer in the game. If you reach fifty, we'll just continue until one of you gets completely gunged - we have to keep the computer happy." He grinned, and Gwen saw that he was really going to enjoy watching the outcome. "The first question is for... well, let's have you, Cleo."

Gwen and Rachel watched the rodent's chair slide round so that it was positioned directly under the main funnel, her eyes fixed on the bean tank as she moved. She looked down again at the buttons, which were marked "Yes" and "No", and placed her hands on them.

She had no idea of the answer to the question that Alex asked her, though, so she decided to play it safe and pass. The chairs slid around again so that Cleo was ready to receive gunge from her smaller tank, while the bunny was in danger from the main one. Unable to stop giggling, she hunched her shoulders as if she was expecting it to go off any second. She felt confident enough to try answering her question, and extended a hand forward to press down on the "Yes" button, taking care to keep her head and the rest of her body under the tank.

Hearing a beep as she pressed it, she jerked her arm backwards and closed her eyes, but then opened them again when she realised she wasn't the one being slimed. Instead, a thin stream of blue gunge trickled down on to Cleo, who silently bowed her head forwards so that it flowed off the front of her hair to the floor. There wasn't much of it, and she stayed relatively clean. She ran her hands through her coloured hair, looked up again and flashed a smile at the laughing Electra.

The rabbit got two more questions right, getting Cleo a little more gungy - this time she stayed still and gave her usual hint of a smile while the blue goo trickled down all sides of her head and dripped down on to her lap. Electra couldn't answer her fourth question, though, and the positions were swapped once again.

Cleo took her chance for revenge well - she answered two questions correctly in a row, covering the cute bunny in a couple of helpings of red slime. Electra sat back so that her head was right under the tank, now a lot more confident than she had been at the start of the show, and squeaked as she felt it slither down her body. When Cleo decided to pass the next question, she passed back to her immediately, not trying to answer hers either.

This time, Cleo was far less sure of her answer, and hovered her hand over the buttons for a couple of seconds before making her decision. She pressed the "No" button hard while looking over at Electra, but she gasped and nearly fell off her seat as a klaxon began to hoot. It was going to happen to her.

She didn't have much time to prepare herself. She clung on to the sides of the seat with her hands, and her face was frozen in a shocked expression, which didn't change as the torrent of gunge engulfed her. She screeched, and the others saw her shift around under the deluge, the lumps splattering off and coating the surrounding area as well as the victim. It completely enveloped her - they couldn't see any of her at all through the descending curtain of gunk, except the shape of her head as it impacted on it.

Suddenly, the messy flood stopped with half the tank still full, but the klaxon continued, and the team could see Cleo again. She was almost unrecognisable, with beans and sauce dripping off her from everywhere, running down off her head and shoulders and forming pools in the folds of her clothing. Her hands were now over her face, and she wiped them down and looked up at the team again. Flicking her gungy hair back with her hands, she leant back and smiled open-mouthed at the team, but as she did so the tank started up once more.

With another yelp, her hands flew back to her face just before she was concealed by the deluge again. Whimpering, she could feel the lumps going down in to her top and the sauce filling her underwear, as the rest of it dripped down the outside of her clothing, making it stick to her. She stayed completely still as the last of the sticky substance was dropped on to her, and remained in that position for a few seconds after the end of it to make sure it really was all over this time, while a couple of beans dripped from the tank on to her head. She had really been coated well - the team could hardly see more than a vague blob of orange-brown gunge below the tank until she drew her hands up and over her head through her hair. This motion made even more of it slide down her back, though, and she grimaced as she felt the globs of it slithering down against her fur. Most of the lumps were already sliding off the outside of her clothing, leaving just the gooey sauce behind. She jiggled her dangling legs to shake some of it to the floor.

Wiping her eyes a couple more times, she looked over at Electra again, who was still laughing at the sight of her covered in beans. Grinning, she leaned forward and this time pressed the "Yes" button, as more sauce dripped down from her arm. The bunny yelped as she was unexpectedly showered with red gunge again, the weight of it pressing her ears down on to her head. She clutched her hair as it dripped down over her face, and flicked her slimy ears at Cleo playfully when the shower eased off.

Alex opened the door of the machine, chuckling at the victim's revenge at the end of the game. They both hopped down from their chairs and made their way out, a slimy trail of beans being left behind Cleo, to re-join their cheering teammates.

"I can't give you anything for that last one," he laughed to Cleo, "but you earned twenty-five points for that game. You're still straight average for the round, which isn't bad, but let's see if you can improve on that in the next game... who's going in, Rachel?"

"Well..." Rachel considered. "I think that Electra wanted to get the gunge, so I'll give her another chance."

"All right, but we'll have to get you gunged again soon, won't we, girls?" She smiled nervously as Alex grinned at her, and he let them out of the room through a door in to a new corridor. He looked around at the few doors opposite them as if deciding which machine to use for the round. "...This one, I think." He hauled the door open and walked in, followed by the team.

Unlike in the last game, this machine was a new one. Pipes descended from a tank of gooey yellow stuff fixed to the ceiling and formed a complex pattern around the walls. Three of them were arranged so that they ended up pointing at the floor under the tank - one straight down, the others diagonally from the sides. Underneath them there was another glass tank, this one empty. It was about the size of a large fish tank. It was obvious what the pipes were aimed at, and a large red timer on the front of the tank was already counting down.

"I don't think I need to tell you what's going to happen here, girls," remarked Alex as he led the smiling rabbit to the machine. Holding his hand, she clambered in to the empty tank, and looked up at the threatening nozzles. "That's raw egg in the tank up there, and time is already running out, as you can see. That machine's automated, meaning that Silicon has control of it, so we can't turn it off. All we can do is try to redirect the contents of the tank before Electra gets egged."

The bunny giggled and hugged her knees - there wasn't enough room for her to straighten out. She watched as Alex showed the team the complex set of pipes running around the walls.

"At the moment, all the valves are open - that means that some of the stuff can drain out of the room when the machine activates, but not all of it. All I can tell you is that you have to make sure that only the three valves leading to your friend are closed - and you have...", he looked over at the timer, "...one and a half minutes to do it!"

He retreated to the door as the team looked up at the pipes above Electra's head.

"OK... I'll follow the left one. Rachel, you take the middle and Cleo go on the right. All we have to do is spin the valves that lead to those three nozzles," said Gwen, immediately realising what to do. The other two nodded and began trying to follow their pipes with their eyes through the tangled mess on the walls.

It turned out to be harder than Gwen had thought - she kept losing her place and having to start again. Rachel managed it very well, though, and she began turning a valve just after the timer had reached one minute.

"How do we know if we've got it right?" she called as she worked quickly at spinning the valve closed. Gwen, distracted, lost her place again.

"Er... just double check it," she said quickly, searching frantically for where she thought she'd last seen the correct pipe.

She kept following the pipe, but she really wasn't sure if it was right. The timer had reached twenty seconds, and Cleo had already found and finished closing her valve. Gwen placed her hands on the handle of a valve, looking again to check...

"No, I think it's this one," said Rachel behind her, putting her own hand on another handle.

"Sure?" asked Gwen, although she wasn't certain if she had the right one either.

Rachel hesitated, trying to follow its path back to the machine quickly, then shrugged. "Only one way to find out," she laughed, and quickly began turning it, eventually turning it off with only a few seconds left.

"What now?", she asked, looking at the timer again. Electra looked up, then back to her, grinning.

"I think we must have got a wrong one..." mused Cleo as she walked over to them. The timer reached zero and once again the alarm sounded, this time with an unpleasant gurgling sound as the tank began to empty.

Electra grinned again and squeezed her eyes shut but didn't lean forward this time, sitting up straight to receive the gunge. Nothing hit her. Confused, she looked upwards at the pipes again. At the same time, the four of them realised that it was indeed draining, but it wasn't being poured in to the lower tank - they'd redirected it.

"Very good, team... it looks like you've done it." Alex stepped forwards again as the timer on the front of the machine faded out. He helped Electra, who looked rather disappointed to have not been egged, out of the tank. "That's another perfect game - fifty points."

"We've played three games here so far, and you've got just 100 points. Still, we've still got time for one more. Who's going to play it... Rachel?", he laughed as he emphasized her name, leaning down so his face was level with hers.

"All right, I can't avoid it this time. I'll do it," smiled Rachel, the team cheering her on behind her.

"I know just the place." Taking Rachel's hand again, Alex led the team at a jog out of the room and down the corridor for a while, until they reached the start of a conveyor belt that led through a perspex curtain in the wall. "From here, you'll be taken through the factory's automated production line by the conveyor, and it's up to your team mates what happens to you." He helped her up on to the belt, and she sat down facing the curtain.

"Ready?" he asked her, his finger on the Start button. Rachel nodded, and he pressed it, sending her slowly through the curtain as she waved to the others. "We'd better get moving, find where she's going to come out," said Alex as he continued down the corridor.

He stopped suddenly at a monitor high on the wall above two levers, and the three girls nearly crashed in to him. "There!" He pointed at the screen, and the others stretched themselves up to see. The conveyor belt - now leading through a dark metal tunnel - had stopped, and Rachel was positioned under a large funnel labelled "Custard". She was looking around her at nothing in particular, not knowing about the camera.

"We can see her, but she doesn't know we're here. I know that one of these levers gets the conveyor belt started again... no prizes for guessing what the other one does. What do you think? Electra, let's have you first."

The bunny stepped forward and put one hand on each lever, looking from hand to hand, trying to get some clue as to which was the right one even though they were identical. After some consideration, she pulled the left lever.

A hooter sounded, and Electra giggled as she saw the custard splurge over Rachel. There had been no warning for her, so she hadn't seen it coming at all - her reaction was delayed. Half a second after the gunge hit her, she yelped and leaned forward, a stripe of yellow goo down the front of her hair. She raised her hands up from the belt to brush it off her face, feeling the cold custard slither down her soft fur, some of it rebounding off the back of her neck. Slowly, she looked up again, laughing, her eyes and mouth wide open in surprise.

"I don't think I need to tell you that that was the wrong lever, Electra," smiled Alex. "Second time lucky?" Electra, laughing as another thin stream of custard drizzled on to Rachel from above, pulled the correct lever, and the feline was carried off camera again.

"I think I know where she's going to come out this time..." Alex ran back the way they had come and darted down a side corridor, stopping once again at another monitor. They saw Rachel in just about the same setup as before, with the custard dribbling down her pretty hair. This time, the funnel was labelled "Maple Syrup", and Rachel had her shoulders arched and her head tilted forwards in readiness.

"Gwen, your turn now." Alex indicated the levers, exactly the same as before. Realising that hesitating was pointless, she just pulled the left lever. The conveyor belt moved forwards again, and she saw Rachel's shoulders sag  - she looked relieved not to have been covered in that sticky stuff.

"OK, I don't think it's far this time..." Alex was certainly keeping the pace of the game up, and Gwen was beginning to feel a bit tired out. Fortunately, it was just another short run to the next monitor, where Cleo was called forwards to pull a lever.

Reading the "Tomato Puree" label on the funnel, Cleo smiled. "Well, I'll try the left again - it worked last time." She tugged on the lever and again sent the belt forwards.

Immediately, Alex took off once more. "Well done, team - we're nearly there!" Once more, they came upon the same arrangement of levers and the monitor. This time, "Chocolate Sauce" was the threat. "Your turn again, Electra."

Once more, the bunny placed one hand on each lever. "Well, the left lever worked for Gwen and Cleo... but it can't be the left one all the time," she said aloud.

"I'm going to have to hurry you... Silicon might just decide to release it anyway, you know what he's like," said Alex, looking over her shoulder.

"Oh, right," she said apologetically, and looked from lever to lever. She grabbed the one on the right and gave it a pull.

The gooey sauce splattered on to Rachel with a thick, rich slurping noise, and Electra jumped back as she realised she'd got it wrong again. All of them could see that the feline was enjoying this one, though - she looked upwards and allowed the deluge of chocolate to pour over her face and down her front, her clasped hands squeezed between her legs. She squirmed as she felt its warmth, moving her head around so that it would cover every part of it. With the last of the sauce trickling on to her from above, she wiped her face with her hands and licked her lips, grinning cheekily from underneath the sweet, sticky layer clinging to her fur.

"Sorry, Electra, it looks like you're just unlucky in this game." Electra pulled the other lever, laughing nervously. "I think that's near the end now - there might be a chance for her to get cleaned up soon. She should be about... here." Alex strolled over to a wall and knocked on it. "Are you in there, Rachel?"

"Yeah, I'm here", came the muffled reply.

"Just as well you like chocolate... you're nearly at the end, we're about to see if we can clean you up a bit by using the water sprayers, OK?"

"Okay!" Rachel laughed again.

"Can you see anything?" Alex turned around to a green-tinted monitor, which was lower down on the wall this time - it was connected to a "night vision" camera. Rachel was being slowly carried across the camera's view.

"No, nothing," she replied, sitting up straight.

"Don't worry, the team's going to try and guide you to turn on the water now," he said, stepping back and allowing the team to take his place.

"All right, Rachel - you're still being conveyered along, but we can see the button now," Gwen called to her, noticing it on the wall down the tunnel from Rachel. "It's on your right."

The jaguar started feeling the wall to her right. "No... down a bit... you're just coming up to it now. There - press it!" The team watched as Rachel pushed the button, and she shrieked as jets of cold water spurted on to her from the sides, soaking her clothes and fur. It did clean a bit of the mixed foodstuffs off, though.

"You're coming up to a lower tunnel, Rachel - lie down!" instructed Alex, and nervously, she did so. As she vanished from the camera's view once more, he ran down the corridor again followed by the team. "There she is!" he called as they rounded the corner at the end. She had reached another opening in the wall, but only her feet were sticking out of it - the rest of her was still positioned under the machine. Beside this end of the belt were two levers, larger than the others had been, which were labelled "Activate Conveyor Belt" and "Activate Gunge Tank".

"Are you all right in there, Rachel?" he called in through the hole.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she responded, laughing. "Thanks for the water, Gwen!"

"There's just one more lever to pull." Alex reached for the 'conveyor belt' lever, but then hesitated. "I'd better let you decide this one, team," he said to them. "After all, as far as computers go, Silicon has a wicked sense of humour, and the functionality of these levers might just have been swapped, if you know what I mean...". He jerked his head towards Rachel. "I could be wrong, though. It's your choice."

As he stepped back from the levers, Cleo moved in to look at them. "What do you think?", she asked the other two.

"It's bound to be a double bluff," started Electra after a pause, seeming almost frustrated that she couldn't work it out.

"What if it was triple?", smiled Gwen.

Cleo clicked her tongue in irritation and turned back to the levers. After a few moment's thought, she put her hand on the knob of the "gunge tank" lever. Again, she looked over her shoulder to see if Alex's face gave anything away. He just smiled back at her innocently.

"I'm pretty sure the computer would want us to think we were going to gunge her, so it would try and make me pull the wrong lever. But... no, I don't know. Will I try this one?" Cleo gave a last look at the other two for reassurance, then settled on her choice and decisively pulled the "Activate Gunge Tank" lever.

The all too familiar siren wailed. Instantly, the lights dimmed to red again, and the rodent squeaked as she realised her mistake, jerking her hand off the lever. Hearing a scream from Rachel, all eyes turned to her feet, still the only visible part of her. They could see that she was shaking with laughter, and she curled her toes back as the machine carried out its work on her. For the moment, they could only imagine what was going on, but a couple of splashes of red goo were visible, dripping around her ankles.

Alex stepped forwards and pulled the other lever as the siren's volume decreased. Rachel lay perfectly still as she was slowly carried out by the belt from under the machine, and now the team could see that she was coated from her head to her ankles in strawberry syrup. The conveyor belt stopped once she was completely revealed. Feeling the air above her blindly with her hand, she sat up with difficulty, fighting against the syrup sticking her to the belt. She hastily tried to wipe the sticky stuff off her scrunched-up face, like someone emerging from a shower with their eyes full of soap.

"Ooh... nasty," Alex commented, but not concealing a smirk. "Hang on a minute, Rachel." He hurried over to a nearby hose reel on the wall, grabbed it and turned it on, splashing a gentle stream of warm water over the feline's face and working his way downwards. She purred at the welcome clean-up, and swung her legs over the side of the conveyor belt, standing up and spinning round so that she could be cleaned completely.

As the water played over Rachel, Alex announced the points. "I think I can only give you fifteen for that, team - that brings your total for the round up to 115. Still, it's not bad - it brings your total up to exactly four hundred." Meanwhile, Electra sneaked around behind the others and reached through the gap in the wall to scoop some syrup from under the machine, and with a laugh flung it at Alex. He gasped as she scored a direct hit on him, the gunge sticking to his short fur. "Hey..." he looked down at his syrup-spattered chest, then grinned at Electra and turned the hose on her. She squeaked and ran to hide behind Gwen and Cleo, who both yelped as they were soaked by the water as well.

Alex handed the hose to Rachel, and smiled as she played the stream of water over the three of them. After she'd soaked her fellow contestants, cleaning off most of the gunge from the previous round from them, she giggled and turned the hose on the presenter, who barked with surprise and rushed over to the wall to stop the flow of water.

"Well," he panted, the water trickling out of his soaked fur, "I think after that soaking we'd better get somewhere warm to dry off, and we've got just the place nearby." He ruffled Rachel's gorgeous hair on his way past her, and led them back the way they had came a little until they reached a large grate in the wall in front of an ancient-looking cargo lift.

"You're going to have to help me a bit here, team," he said as he placed his hands on a couple of bars. He strained to pull it to the side, assisted by the four contestants, and after a few seconds the grate squeaked aside.

"Good work," he congratulated and led them in to the lift, which began travelling slowly downwards. "We're heading in to the basement now, which has the waste storage facility in it. The purification machines give off a lot of heat, though - spending a while there should be enough to dry you all off." Gwen smiled knowingly - it was obvious that the point of going down was to put someone in another game rather than just to clean them up.

After a couple of floors had passed by, the lift juddered to a halt and the rusty doors creaked open to reveal a dark room. Gwen felt the heat immediately - it certainly was warm, and she could almost feel her damp clothing drying already. As for the contents of the room, she could only just make out a few ancient-looking pipes running around the walls near the lift and across the floor, twisting around each other and the girders that supported the ceiling, leading off in to the darkness.

Alex strode out of the lift and pulled a large switch on the wall. With a buzzing sound, the tube lights on the ceiling illuminated the room to reveal that the pipes converged at a cubicle in the centre. The cubicle, unlike the traditional shape of a gunge tank, was in fact cube-shaped. There were no windows in it - the sides were entirely made of the same style of rusted metal as the pipes. These pipes led to it not just from the top, but from all angles. Gwen excitedly wondered who was going to have to go in to it as the team walked out of the lift.

Silicon's voice boomed again from an unseen source.

"Alex!" He jumped, and looked around him, acting scared of the deep electronic voice. "Give me the dragon." Gwen squeaked with delight. Alex looked over at her.

"Sorry, girls - it looks like you don't get to choose who takes this challenge. Want to do this, Gwen?" She nodded eagerly. Alex took her hand, ducked a low pipe and headed towards the cube. As they approached it, Gwen noticed another feature of the room. On the back wall behind the cube there was yet another large inflatable chair, this time with another rusty pipe - obviously a gunge chute - sticking out of the wall a couple of metres above it, and bent at right angles to point down towards it. Right next to it was a lever, and it was the chair rather than the cube that Gwen was being led towards.

"Hop on." Alex reached the chair and helped Gwen up on to it. Thinking that whoever had designed the games had really liked inflatables, Gwen struggled in to the chair. The seat of it was quite high off the ground, so her feet didn't touch the floor, instead dangling at the front. It was also tilted slightly backwards, probably to prevent her from leaning forwards easily. After settling down, she faced the booth in front of her. On this side, there was a clear panel taking up the whole of the front. She could make out someone moving and shifting nervously inside it, but it was too dark inside to see very clearly. She peered at it, trying to see who was inside. Alex was about to answer that question for her, though.

"Well, Gwen - Silicon wanted to see a dragon get gunged, but it doesn't have to be you. Have a look at who you've got a chance to get messy." With that, the light inside the gunge tank came up to reveal another female dragon, a few years older than Gwen, sitting inside. She was green-skinned, with yellow on her front and on the insides of her legs, and wore only a very brief black bikini. She was of taller and slimmer build than Gwen, but like her she was completely hairless. She gave her fellow dragon a nervous wave and smiled as Alex walked back to the side of her tank and leaned against it. "Recognise her, Gwen? Tell us who's in there."

Gwen had recognised her immediately, but was almost too surprised to speak. "...She was my maths teacher," she managed, "...in my last year of school." Alex leaned down to speak with her.

"Welcome to the Sludge Cube, Kyra." She shifted again as she heard the name of the gunge tank, tapping her bare feet on the clean metal floor of the machine uneasily.

"Pleased to be here," she said with a laugh. Alex smiled almost wickedly.

"How do you feel about being gunged by your ex-pupil?"

The green dragon laughed again. "She's not going to make it." She turned away from Alex and looked at the pipe above Gwen, grinning. "There's only one dragon that's going to get covered in sludge in this game!" Gwen was rather impressed - Kyra was playing along with being a villain well, and she had always been so serious before. Thrilled at getting the chance to gunge her, she sat up as Alex turned back to her.

"Gwen, it works like this. All the waste from the complex above us is piped around this basement. What you're aiming to do is get the chance to pull the lever and pump all that gunk on to Kyra." He pointed at the cube, and the occupant looked at the pipes pointed at her from the left and right. "We'll make the challenge a simple questions round. What will happen first is that your teacher will get one minute of questions. The number of correct answers that she gives will be counted on the readout behind you." Gwen twisted in her seat to look up at the black panel, which beeped in to life displaying a 0.

"After that, we'll give you the same amount of time to answer questions. For every question that you get right, we take one point off that counter... and if it reaches zero... you know what happens, Kyra!" He spun round to face her again as he said her name, and she whimpered. "Now, Gwen... there's a catch." He walked over to her chair and pointed upwards. "You can pass questions without penalty, but for every question you get wrong you get a bit of gunge." Gwen looked up at the rusty pipe. "Don't worry, Kyra, that doesn't go for you as well. You won't feel a drop of gunk unless Gwen pulls that lever."

Alex reached in to his pocket and pulled out a set of question cards. He walked back so that he was halfway between the two dragons and prepared to start. "Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention. Gwen - if you don't get the counter to zero, you get all the sludge instead!" He smiled as she gasped excitedly and looked up at the gunge chute again. Kyra whooped and clapped her hands. "Ready, Kyra?" The green dragon took a deep breath.

"...Yeah," she decided.

"Here's your first question. What was..."

Gwen didn't really pay attention to the questions that Kyra was being given, instead watching the panel behind her count up the number of questions she would have to answer to gunge her. She didn't dislike her, but she seemed like she'd enjoy being messed up anyway. The programme had always featured a slot like this, where there was a surprise appearance from a friend or relative of one of the contestants... they usually had a very messy fate. She had another look at the so-called Sludge Cube, turning away from the counter which had reached 4. As well as the obvious pipe leading in to the tank from straight above Kyra, there were two smaller tubes coming in at the side about half-way up. Additionally, there were a few more of them positioned on the ceiling of the cube, which obviously wouldn't hit her if they went off. Gwen excitedly realised that the tank would fill up if it was turned on, and if she had her way, Kyra would be getting a gunge bath.

A buzzer sounded, interrupting Gwen's thoughts and making her jump. Alex chuckled. "Don't worry, Gwen, you're not going to be gunged just yet." She glanced behind her - the counter was at 8. A difficult task for one minute, but still... "Now, your questions are going to be about your team-mates and the show so far, so I'll have to ask you three to step behind the cube..." The three others went out of sight, with a call of "Good luck!" from Electra. "Are you sitting comfortably?" Gwen nodded confidently.

"Okay, the clock is ticking. Who was the first on this programme to get completely gunged?"

That was an easy one. "Cleo".

"Right. What colour are Electra's eyes?"

"Green". They were difficult to miss.

"Good again. Does Cleo have a tail?"

Gwen gulped as she remembered that embarrassing moment, but managed to answer. "Yes".

"You're doing well here, no gunge yet... and speaking of gunge, what three colours did Rachel get in the triple tank?"

"Orange, purple, red." This was too easy...

"How many times has Electra been gunged?"

"Twice."

"And how many games have you been in, before this one?"

"Three. Oh, wait -  four if you count the shuttle."

"...well, four. All right, I'll let you off this time," Alex said reluctantly. Gwen realised that he really wanted to gunge her, but had to be biased in her favour because of the nature of the game. "What was in the last trap on the conveyor belt?"

Gwen grinned. "Strawberry syrup."

"Just one more to get right... what's the colour of the tip of Rachel's tail?"

She paused. This was a difficult one, probably just thrown in to gunge her... she could always "pass", but there couldn't be much time left, and she really wanted to cover Kyra...

"Black," she guessed, and gripped the arms of the seat just a bit tighter. Alex paused.

"I don't believe this... it's right again!" At that, Gwen breathed a sigh of relief. Kyra looked shocked, and laughed helplessly as she remembered her fate. "You can come out now, girls." The three of them emerged from behind the tank cheering, eager to watch the gunging. An alarm bell rang and continued as Alex spoke to the green dragon. "Kyra..." He walked slowly towards the tank. "Sorry, but it's going to happen! Gwen, reach down to your right and pull that lever!"

Gwen looked down at the lever handle and leaned to the side, placing her hand on it. Turning to watch Kyra's reaction, she pulled it to the accompaniment of an exaggerated mechanical sound effect and a cheer from the rest of the team.

Kyra sat up straight and froze in place, leaving her eyes open. A low buzzer began sounding repeatedly, and she yelped as two streams of thick sticky brown stuff squirted on to her neck from the sides of the tank. She hunched her shoulders and grinned back at Gwen as the goo began to dribble down her shoulders, and over and between her breasts.

A siren joined the clamour, and gunge began to pour in to the cube from the top as well, but as Gwen had guessed, missing Kyra. Gwen couldn't help but feel a bit disgusted at the sight of it - the sludge was watery but had lumps in it. She watched transfixed as the cube began to fill with it, Kyra drumming her feet on the bottom again as she felt it ooze between her toes. The green dragon drew her legs in tighter to avoid getting splashed, relaxed her shoulders as she felt the gunge from the sides ease off a little, and looked upwards at the streams of slime pouring in.

Right on cue, the sirens intensified and the main torrent above her head started up, hitting her full in the face with darker gunk. She shrieked and tightly closed her eyes, bowing her head down, using her hands to wipe away some of the stuff from her face as it poured on to the back of her neck. The tank began to fill up much more quickly, and as she felt the level rise above her waist she seemed to give up on protecting herself and sat straight again, laughing, allowing the gunge to hit her directly on the head and rebound off to splurge against the sides of the tank, lumps of it making their way down her bare back as the level crept upwards.

A few seconds later, the deluge trickled to a halt and the sirens wound down. Just as the level of muck in the tank had reached over her chest and she seemed to think it was all over, Kyra gave another yelp as even more nozzles squirted slime on to her head from various angles around the tank. This stuff was still brown, but different - lighter and translucent. It washed away the remains of the darker, thicker gunk from her head, but clung to her face in its place. It didn't last long, and Kyra smiled again slightly as it dripped from her snout.

Alex leaned down again to be level with Kyra. She squeaked as one last dollop dropped on to her head and slithered down her snout to settle on top of the shoulder-height muck. She was still frozen in place, eyes tightly closed with a grin on her face.

"Are you OK, Kyra?" he asked with a laugh. Kyra realised that it really was over this time. She shook her head in attempt to shake some of the sticky brown gunge off, and opened her eyes, pulling her hands out of the sludge and running them over her head, laughing as she saw the state she was in.

"Yuck... yeah, I'm fine." Kyra smiled. She dipped her hand in and splashed a bit of gunge in Alex's direction. He retreated backwards slightly despite the perspex being there.

"Tell us - how does it feel in there?" The gungy dragon put her hands back below the surface and thought for a moment.

"Really, really mucky," she concluded. Alex chuckled, and straightened again.

"Congratulations, Gwen, you messed up Kyra without getting so much as a drop of gunk yourself. But... there's a lot of gunge above your head. How would you like to get covered in that stuff? It'll be worth ten extra points," he added as the rest of the team and Kyra cheered her on behind him.

Gwen listened to them, and looked at the mess that Kyra was sitting in. Normally, she would have loved to be gunged, but that stuff looked really yucky... She looked back at Alex, and shook her head slowly. A groan of disappointment came from her team mates. Alex, however, had other ideas.

"Well, I think that the dragon that you gunged should have the final say, don't you?" Gwen watched, horrified, as a pull-chain was slowly lowered down from the ceiling of the cube, dangling a couple of inches from Kyra's slimy face. "Kyra, it's your decision. Five seconds to decide whether to keep Gwen clean or to give her the gunging that she gave you!"

Kyra didn't need five seconds. With a sucking noise, she pulled her arms out of the quivering mass of sludge she was sitting in and grabbed the chain with both hands. Grinning evilly in Gwen's direction, she tugged it hard.

The alarm sounded again. Gwen looked upwards, then realising that was a bad idea she squeaked and tried to lean forwards and curl herself up on the chair. The angle made it difficult, though. As she was struggling to get in to a good position, the lukewarm brown muck hit her directly on the top of her head. She screamed and leaned backwards instead, closing her eyes tightly.

She tried to lean her head back, away from the descending gunge, but her snout was splashed by it as it hit her chest. The smell of it made her a little more relaxed, though - it was clearly synthetic stuff again. She began to enjoy the feeling more as it flowed down her front, impacting on her breasts then dribbling down her and dripping to the floor - it was rather a small stream of gunge, but there was no escape from it. Struggling forwards to allow the slime to hit her head again, she opened her eyes as she felt the lumpy torrent slow to a trickle.

Kyra and the team cheered as they saw her, transformed by the layer of muck. Electra was the one to step forwards and offer a hand to help Gwen out of the seat. Gwen smiled at her, scooped some gunge from the pool that had formed between her legs and playfully ruffled her hair with it. The bunny giggled and ducked away, but offered her hand again and helped Gwen clamber down.

"Looking good, Gwen," said Alex as she dripped her way towards him. "So that's sixty points for this game, which is supposed to be impossible - still, never mind, it's a good start to the fourth round. Thanks for being here, Kyra." He leaned on the cube again to face her. Still neck-deep in the gungy muck, Kyra rolled her eyes, but laughed.

"My pleasure. Good luck, Gwen - and the rest of you as well." With that, the light in the cube went out.

"She can stay in there for a while, eh, Gwen?" Alex winked at her. "Meanwhile, we've got another three games to play, so let's get back up to the base." He led the team back to the lift again, and they began to ascend back to ground level.

"We're heading in to the military base now - your last chance to score points before the final. This time, Silicon has adapted the security systems that used to protect the building - we'll have to be careful here, because if we make one false move there's no telling what he'll do to us."

With a jolt, the lift halted again at the rusty door that they had opened before. Alex walked out of it and the team followed him through the small gap between two large metal doors, which had apparently been jammed open with a fallen girder. Beyond it, the corridor became much 'cleaner' again, with polished floors and pipes running along the ceiling.

"Well, that was a quick journey, and most of you are pretty clean after that soaking earlier - sorry, Gwen - so it's time to try and get you messy again. Rachel, who's it going to be?"

Rachel paused as she thought about who hadn't been in a game for a while, and decided on Cleo. The rodent accepted Alex's outstretched hand and was led towards yet another door, which slid back in to the wall automatically as they approached.

"We're keeping this simple - it's another gunge cubicle game, Cleo!" The team followed the presenter through the door. The perpex-sided tank stood prominently on a slightly raised platform in the middle of the room, and in front of it there were a number of levers, arranged in a semicircular pattern. Alex led Cleo around the back of the tank to let her in and shut the door behind her. As she sat down, she looked expectantly upwards. The cubicle didn't have a tank of slime above it - instead, one of the pipes running across the low ceiling was aimed down towards the hole in its top. Also, the front of the tank only had the bottom half covered by perspex - the top half was open. "Comfortable, Cleo?" She looked back down at him, and nodded with a smile. Alex rejoined the rest of the team at the levers.

"I'm afraid we're continuing the levers theme here, girls. You'll have guessed what's going to happen here - like before, one of the levers will trigger the flow and thoroughly splatter Cleo. There are eleven of them, so I'll give you five points for every one that you pull, even when you gunge her, but as soon as that happens we'll stop. In the unlikely event of you getting fifty points without activating the gunge tank, I'll even let her out clean," Alex grinned. "Who wants to go first?"

"I'll do it." Gwen walked around the semicircle and placed her still slimy hand on a lever at random, then looked up at Cleo. She pulled.

Sirens went off all around the room, and Gwen gave a start. Cleo's jaw dropped comically in surprise, and she curled up, putting one hand to her face to protect it. Slowly, she looked up and put her hand back on her lap when nothing hit her, and as the sirens wound down the team realised that it had just been to scare them.

"Five," announced Alex, hardly concealing his laughter. "Electra, you'd better go next while the chances are still good, you don't seem to have much luck with levers."

Electra, smiling, stuck her tongue out at Alex before choosing a lever. She hesitated a little before she tugged on it. This time, the lights dimmed to red, but there was no sound. Cleo put both her hands to her face this time, cupping her mouth and nose, and glanced upwards at the pipe, but again she stayed clean.

As the lights came back up, Rachel eagerly stepped forwards as Alex announced the ten points. She scampered round to the lever on the far right and switched it. Nothing happened apart from a slight gurgling sound. Cleo, who was hunched forwards, straightened up again, rocking herself slightly back and forward on the chair, and looked to her side at Rachel.

Gwen saw it - a large stream of beige gunge dropped from the pipe above the unsuspecting chipmunk. She tried to shout a warning to her, but was too late - as Cleo turned her head back towards Alex, expecting him to give the score again, the sirens and flashing lights started up and the cream torrent hit her right on the head.

At first, the goo splattered outwards in the typical bowl shape after hitting Cleo's hair, but as she felt it slop over her she shrieked, flinging her hands upwards and leaning forwards. Gwen was surprised - this was the most that she had reacted to any gunging during the show. As it rebounded off her neck, it splurged out violently because of the large height it had been dropped from, hitting the sides of the booth and trickling down. She shifted around under the downpour, and a few streaks of it found their way out of the front of the tank to splat on the ground below - it wasn't exactly like the baked bean gunge that she'd been covered with before, but it had liquidy lumps in it, like wallpaper paste.

The torrent suddenly stopped, leaving the beige liquid trickling down the walls and dripping from the rodent's hair, but Cleo remained still, expecting a second wave. It hadn't covered her head much, most of it instead trickling down her back. Sure enough, a second wave came, and she ducked under its weight. After the brief shower, she straightened again only to be hit by a third portion of gunge - this time, it got her right on the head, showing up very well against her dark hair. She laughed out loud, and ran her slimy fingers through her hair, shaking them dry as the sirens stopped.

"Sorry team - only fifteen points for that game. You look great in beige as well, Cleo... and it's still coming!", he added as yet more of the stuff unexpectedly splurged from the pipe on to her head, the splattering noise very clear without the siren in the background. As the cold gunk dribbled down her face she giggled again, collecting the stuff from her hair and flinging it out the front of the gunge tank at her team mates.

Alex went around the back of the tank again to let her out. She got up and walked back to rejoin the team, but not before sliding her hand along the slimy surface of the tank's wall and smearing some of it across Alex's cheek. Strands of her hair, soaked with gunge, hung stickily out of place across her face, and her clothing had been soaked again.

"Fifteen wasn't a great score, but we can still make up for it," said Alex as he closed the door of the tank. "Who's going in next, leader?"

"El, she hasn't been gunged for ages," replied Rachel. The rabbit gasped, delighted to have been picked. As before, Alex took her hand and led her out of the room, followed by the rest of the team. This time, they walked down the corridor for a while before Alex stopped.

"Wait here for a minute," he told them, and disappeared through a nearby door with the bunny. A moment later, he emerged again. "Electra's taking the easy route through, girls, but I'm afraid it's going to be more difficult for us - we're going through this." He pointed around the corner.

Lining the corridor were a multitude of red laser beams, criss-crossing at angles for about ten metres. Halfway down the corridor, Electra was seated behind a glass panel on the wall, where she could see the whole obstacle.

"The object here," said Alex as he slid himself under a low beam, "is to get across..." - he stepped carefully along, picking his feet up high - "...without touching any of the beams." He continued to demonstrate, getting across by contorting himself around the beams. He jumped over the last one and turned to the three girls. "If you break a beam, the alarm will sound. And... this happens."

He passed his hand through the beam he had jumped over. A bell rang and Electra yelped as a cold shower of bright yellow gunk from the ceiling enveloped her. It only lasted a fraction of a second, but it was the same heavy paste-like substance that was currently dripping down Cleo, so it covered her rather well. Wiping her hands down her hair, she looked upwards at the source of the downpour, then grinned at Alex as the gunk dribbled on to her shoulders.

"I don't think she's too worried about it, but I'll be deducting five points from your starting fifty every time a beam is broken. Still, breaking a beam will also turn it off, so it could make things easier for you. Come on, team leader - show them how it's done!"

Rachel lay down on the ground and shuffled forwards rather than risking jumping over the first low beam, then stood up to look around. She chose to duck under a high part of the next diagonal one, but as she stood up her tail broke the beam. She squeaked as the alarm sounded, and Electra was splattered by the machine again. She shook the runny gunge off her head, and looked back at the feline, who was still struggling to straighten up without touching another beam.

She just managed it without falling over, and carefully slid one of her legs between a pair of beams that went straight across the corridor next to Electra's tank. Picking up her other foot, she awkwardly hopped away from them, succeeding in not touching either as Electra clapped encouragingly.

Deciding to jump between a difficult set of crossed lasers, she stepped back for a run-up, checking carefully behind first. Unfortunately, she leapt too high and touched another beam in the middle of her jump. She was shocked at the alarm's sound and landed in a heap, luckily at Alex's feet.

He helped her stand up again. "Are you all right?" She nodded, and looked back at Electra, who was wiping the remains of the latest downpour out of her hair. The glass at the front was beginning to get covered as well, and the team could see the globs of it dripping down inside. "OK, next please!"

"After you," smiled Cleo to Gwen.

Gwen nodded, and following Rachel's example lay down and tried to wriggle under the low beam at the start. She found the movement difficult, though, and flipped on to her back to propel herself across the floor with her feet. She only just touched the beam while turning over, but it was enough to ring the alarm again. She heard Electra's laughter as the machine once again covered her in paste. Straightening up again, she watched the bunny squirm as the thick yellow liquid oozed down her flattened ears and face, creeping inside her clothing. The victim squeezed her hands together on her lap. "Keep going!" she called to Gwen.

She did so, and didn't touch any beams until she got to the pair of parallel beams that Rachel had got through successfully. Turning to face the gunge machine in the wall, she tried stepping over the lower beam, but her legs weren't long enough - as she placed her foot down on the other side she was right in the path of the beam. Startled at the sound of the bell, she looked up at Electra and broke the top beam as well.

Feeling even more gunge on the back of her neck, the rabbit leaned backwards as if showering in the doubly long torrent. The goo rebounded as it hit her directly on the head, and it coated the sides and glass front of the tank, hiding her from the team. As the team saw the downpour subside, Electra leaned forwards and wiped the glass with her hand so that she could see out again, her face in a broad grin. Gwen smiled back apologetically, though it was clear she was enjoying it, and crawled under the last beam to reach Alex and Rachel.

Cleo started off when she saw Gwen reach the other side. Her progress was made much easier, not only because she had a smaller body but because five of the beams had already been turned off by the others. She crawled most of the way across the corridor, only once misjudging the height of one of the beams and setting off the machine another time. Electra squealed as the wiped-clean front of the tank was splattered with gunge again.

"All right, you can come out now, Electra," called Alex as Cleo stood up on the safe side of the beams. They watched as she emerged through a nearby door, brightly-coloured paste dripping down her head, off her ears and soaking her clothing. She leapt at Rachel, who was again the most clean team member, and hugged her like she had done after the vat round, smearing the gunge down her hair and face as the feline giggled and tried to push her away.

"You scored twenty points for that, girls, and we're heading in to the last game before the final." Alex led them around the corner, to where a rail ran across the floor, from a door at one side of the corridor to a curtain made from plastic strips on the other. Through the curtain, the team could all see the machine to be used for the game - a frame of pipes and girders supporting tanks of gunge at various heights and positions around it. The rail led to the centre of the construction, through a gap at the front.

"We call this The Ride. It's your choice again, Rachel, but remember you haven't been in a game for a while," smiled the host. "To spice things up a little for the last challenge, whoever you pick will have to strip off before they're carried under the machine... by this chair." He opened the door to reveal a metal chair at the other end of the rail, with a few straps across it which were placed to preserve the modesty of the contestant chosen to ride it. "Of course, we'll give you the opportunity to buy back some protection from the slime before you go under, but it'll cost you precious points!"

Rachel whispered to the others. "Anyone want to go in?" She seemed anxious to have an excuse not to be picked. Gwen looked at the chair, remembering that this would be her last chance to be gunged...

"I'll go in," she said confidently. The others turned to her.

"Are you sure, Gwen?", asked Alex. "Remember, once you're in there's no backing out - it'll all be automatic, controlled by the computer, and we won't be able to save you from him."

"I know," she grinned in response, and Alex showed her to the chair.

"All right. Now, we need to decide just how much protection you get from the machine. Ten points will buy a pair of goggles - prevents the gunk from splashing in to your eyes. I'd certainly get those if I were you.  Another ten points and you get a shower cap. Twenty points on top of that and you'll be given waterproof clothing, and if you forfeit all fifty points then you won't have to be gunged at all. What do you think?"

"I'll take the goggles... I don't think I need anything else." The rest of the team nodded in agreement - they hadn't got many points this round so far.

"Good choice. We'll leave you for a few minutes to strap yourself in - just leave your clothes here, you can pick them up afterwards. Press the button on the front once you're ready. Oh, and of course - we're not filming this bit, so don't worry." He led the others out of the room and closed the door behind them, leaving Gwen alone.

Once again Gwen stripped out of her gunge-stained clothing, feeling great excitement just at the sight of the chair she was going to be put in to. It resembled a dentist's chair, leaned slightly backwards with a rest at the front for the feet. Sticking up on the ends of the arms were small rods to be used as handles, she noticed as she reached around to unclip her bra.

After putting her clothing to one side, she climbed naked in to the chair, which was surprisingly comfortable for something made of metal. She wondered briefly how to do up the straps, but soon worked it out - the top one had two cups for her breasts and clipped together in the middle. As for the one at the bottom, it was like a car lap-strap with an added strip between her legs. She wasn't actually wearing anything, but the arrangement of the straps made her entirely decent as if she was in a bikini. Making sure she was covered, she pressed the button under the front of the chair.

The others came in again, presumably having had some signal when she pressed the button. She thought that Alex looked particularly impressed, but was trying not to show it as he bent down to hand the large laboratory goggles to her. She pulled them on over her head, then returned her arms to the handles on the seat.

"Here, let me..." Alex leaned down towards her from the front, and tightened the front of the topmost strap slightly. As he did so, Gwen felt the back of his hand brush against the bare flesh of her left breast, and stifled a quiet whimper.

"Sorry," he whispered to her as he straightened up again. Gwen just smiled up at him - she was sure it had been deliberate. She wriggled in to a more comfortable position against the rather tight straps as Alex placed his hand on the lever to start the machine. "Sure you want to go through with this, Gwen?" he asked, ready to pull it.

"Yeah!" she replied eagerly. Alex pulled the lever, and Gwen felt the chair jolt as it started moving backwards out of the room and across the corridor. She gave a wave to her team mates as it carried her through the curtain.

When the clear strips had settled back in to place, she twisted in the seat to look at the machine as the chair rattled towards it. The main parts of it were three Y-shaped frames at the front, left and back, supporting large tip-tanks. Another vat was at the very top of the machine, and as she was carried in to the middle of the frames, she noticed a few more nozzles pointed at her from around the whole device. The chair jerked again as it was brought to a halt.

She trembled with anticipation, feeling her heart quicken as the siren started up - this time a cartoonish "awooga" sound. Focussing on the curtain again, she saw the rest of the team cheering her on from the other side. Knowing it was going to happen to her any second, she gripped the handles of the chair and risked a look upwards to see the two green tanks at the side begin to tip in towards her.

Squeezing her eyes shut and squirming down in to the chair, she squealed as she felt the two streams of thick slime pouring on to either side of her head - smooth and creamy, like the shuttle gunge had been, but this time warmer. Remembering she had the goggles on, she opened her eyes to see the green liquid dripping down them, obscuring her vision as it flowed down from her head and shoulders, creeping down in to the areas of her covered by the straps.

Feeling the torrents subside, dribbling over her shoulders as they did so, she could see again through the dripping slime. Electra was jumping with excitement, Rachel was clapping and cheering, and Cleo was just smiling and nodding knowingly at her calmly, arms folded. Alex was behind them all, admiring the sight of her through the curtain. She let go of the handles for a few seconds and pumped them in the air in a victory salute to acknowledge them, then remembering it wasn't over yet she gripped the two rods again.

As soon as she did so, she felt another wave of gunge on her head - this time it was from the tank at the back, and she felt it slither down the back of her neck and form a pool behind her bottom, as well as splatter outwards and obstruct the team's view of her again. She giggled uncontrollably as it slid down her nearly naked body, merging with the green slime against her skin and pouring in to her lap. The deluge eased off, dribbling the last of the tank's contents on to her. The slippery stuff had lubricated the surface of the chair under her, making her slip further down. She tried to wriggle against the straps so she was sitting up straight, laughing as she saw the merged liquid drip its way over her.

She looked up at the others again, but was enveloped by a foam spray from all angles. With a yelp, she let go of the handles, and waggled her legs as she slipped downwards. This foam wasn't like what she'd been covered in near the start of the show - it was thicker, like shaving cream, and it piled up on her, some blobs of it falling to the ground. She whimpered a little as the white foam gently cascaded on to her skin.

Soon, the foam streams subsided, and she wiped the goggles clean with her hands, blowing heavily out of her snout to clear her nostrils. By now, she could hardly see any of herself under the fluffy white mass that had piled up on top of her, only her pink legs visible dangling down from the chair. Slowly returning her hands to grip the handles again, she pulled herself upwards against the slipperiness. She began to think it was all over, but there was still more to come.

Grinning as a low buzzer joined the siren, she leaned back to look upwards, and instinctively closed her eyes as the top tank released dark blue paste from high above her. Laughing as the heavy gunge splattered on her lap, she looked again and watched it wash away the foam, colouring it blue as it was swept off her. Gradually, the deluge came back and splurged off her head, bouncing outwards again and dribbling down her body, working its way everywhere.

The blue downpour gradually subsided, slowly bringing in the umbrella shape, and as the last of it trickled down on to her, she breathed out heavily. She could feel the slime creeping down her, the lumps of the paste slowly sliding against her bare flesh as the final few drops splashed on to her head. She shivered as the chair jolted again and began carrying her out of the machine towards the curtains.

Cleo, Rachel and Electra all cheered as they saw her emerge through the clear strips, barely recognisable as she wiped the merged colours of slime from her bare skin and threw handfuls of it at them. The chair jerked to a halt in the middle of the corridor this time, giving them all a close-up look of the messy, giggling dragon girl.

"That was great, Gwen - forty points well earned." Alex grinned openly as he announced the points. "You did really well, you've got the score for the round up to 135. That gives you a final score of 535 - a great score for the first team of the season!" He stopped as all four of them cheered, letting them enjoy the moment, then continued, "But remember it's not over yet - now we've got to use those points to get rid of the machine that's been controlling this the whole time. Get changed in to your swimwear, Gwen," he called after her as the chair started up and slid in to the room again, then turned to a wall-mounted camera. "We're going in to the Final!"

---

The team were in the room that Gwen had seen so often on the show - most of it was taken up by a large pool of water at about chest depth. She was standing on a small inflatable platform in the middle of the end of the pool, and on the sides to her left and right behind clear perspex screens were Cleo and Electra. At the far end of the pool, Rachel was enclosed in a large cylindrical glass tank built in to the wall, no doubt with gallons of slime ready and waiting above her. All the team members were now in swimwear, though none of them had gone for anything too revealing - all of them wore one-piece yellow IZ swimsuits. 

Alex, standing on a platform beside Rachel's tank, explained the rules of the final game to them all. "This is it, girls - the moment you've been waiting for. It's just going to take three keys to free the complex from the computer." He indicated the three metal keyholes side by side, just above the water surface in front of the tank. "To free your team leader and shut the computer down, the three keys, hidden throughout the room, have to be turned at the same time. Remember that we've only got limited time in this room, though - the 535 points you earned during the show gives you just over two and a half minutes." A red timer came on above the tank. "If the three keys aren't inserted by then, I'll have to offer you to him to do as he wants... and we all know what that is!"

Rachel, who was having another giggling fit, looked upwards. Gwen certainly knew what it was... in the last series, the teams that failed were put in to that machine and covered in a huge amount of thick green gunge. As good as the last sliming had been, she was secretly rather hoping that they didn't win so that she could feel it again.

"Gwen, you'll be first in the water. You've got to press the button to release your team mates from their cubicles so that they can start off as well. The button's here, next to the keyholes - remember, you've only got twenty seconds to get there after you hit the water, otherwise they get soaked!" Cleo and Electra both looked upwards at the tanks of water suspended above their heads. "After getting out of their cubicles, they'll have to go through the obstacles at the sides to this end of the room, getting their keys on the way. Now, try not to touch any of the triggers, you two - Rachel may be having a relaxing time in the tank, but she'll be gunged if you touch any of the buttons along the way. Once you've got your keys from the ends, drop down in to the water. That's where you come in again, Gwen - the trapdoor that's above you now will open, and you have to climb up the pole to reach the last key. After that, it's a race back to here, to turn the three keys before the time runs out. All clear?" They nodded. "Good luck, everyone - the time starts when you jump in to the water, Gwen."

Gwen looked across at the tank - she could see the button to release the two of them just below where Rachel was standing. She took a run up and jumped as far as she could so that she didn't have to swim as far, disappearing below the surface with a splash.

She surfaced again, wiped her eyes and looked at the timer, struggling forwards against the water. She scooped water out of the way with her hands as if doing a breaststroke, even though she could easily touch the bottom of the water with her feet. She pushed herself off the bottom to dive for the release button, her fingertips touching it just before twenty seconds had gone by.

The bunny got out of the cubicle just before the downpour hit her, but Cleo was less quick - as the door slid back, she yelped as the tank emptied on to her. She shivered and stepped out of the tank, soaked to the skin under her fur, her nipples becoming visible through her swimming costume because of the cold water.

Electra was already halfway along the first of the obstacles - a low crawl tunnel lined with trigger buttons on the bottom. She carefully made her way through the clear tube, doing her best to not touch the glowing pads, as Cleo swung herself along a set of bars on the ceiling of her side, the cold water dripping from her feet. Near the end of the tunnel, the bunny slipped, and Gwen jumped at the sound of the alarm, spinning round to watch Rachel.

The feline laughed a little as the thin downpour of smooth but sticky yellow gunge dropped on to her, but was otherwise pretty silent - she didn't move to get out of its way. Cleo yelped as she slipped off the bars, and another stream started up beside it, splattering on Rachel's right shoulder. This time she moved so that it got her on the head, sticking to her hair and making it hang heavily in front of her as she squealed at the feeling.

Time was running out faster than Gwen had thought - just over a minute and a half to go. Turning back to the two others, she joined Rachel in cheering them on as they made their way over and under sets of bars, the jaguar girl laughing as the machine splattered her whenever they touched one.

Cleo was the first to reach the end despite Electra's slight head start, and leapt in to a shallow foam pit searching around for the key. Realising that she had better get back to climb up the pole when the trapdoor opened, Gwen struggled back to the platform she had started on while Cleo, her key in her hand, jumped down in to the pool. Gwen climbed out of the water using the rope at the side, and turned around to see Electra slide down in to the water with her key as well. She stepped back as the hatch in the ceiling slid back and a metal pole descended from the ceiling to allow her up. Hearing the encouragement of her team mates, she grabbed on to it and looked upwards.

She quickly screwed her face up as she saw powdery white stuff being dropped on to her - it wasn't gunge this time, it was flour, which stuck to her wet body to form a gooey paste. She didn't pause to wipe it off, and instead gripped the pole again and started shimmying up it as thick foam was sprayed on to her from the ceiling.

Making good progress, she made it up to the hatch in the ceiling, reached up to the platform above and felt around for the key. Not being able to find it, she climbed up a little more so that her head was beyond the hatchway and she could see what her hand was going in to. It turned out to be piles of foam spread throughout a small gap encircling the pole. She stuck her left hand in and felt around again, realising she was wasting time. Struggling around to face the opposite way, she closed her eyes against the foam stream from the ceiling and tried feeling in the other side, and she eventually felt the key in her hand.

Slipping down the slimy pole and landing awkwardly on the air-filled surface below, she looked up at the timer. Just ten seconds. She crawled to the edge and threw herself back in to the water, but it was already too late - as she resurfaced she heard the buzzer signalling time out.

"Bad luck, I really thought you were going to make it," said Alex, reaching down to help Cleo out of the water on to the platform. "Still, time's up and you know what that means!" Gwen reached the edge of the platform as Electra climbed out, and took Alex's hand to be lifted out, slightly disappointed that they hadn't won but eagerly awaiting what was to come next.

"Let's get this over with," the presenter said as he opened up a small hatch in the wall next to the tank. Rachel, still giggling, her fur slippery with yellow slime, hugged them as they all ducked in to the machine. The door was closed behind them, then she put her arms around them all and gathered them in to the centre of the cylindrical tank in a group hug, right below the huge opening.

"Ready, team?" Alex asked. Gwen twisted around to see him grinning at them from his safe position outside, his left hand on the huge switch to start the final gunging. They all cheered in response. "They're all yours, Silicon!" he called as he pulled it, starting up the electronic laughter again.

Gwen closed her eyes and joined the others in a whoop as the sirens rang. A moment later the torrent of gunge enveloped them, and she laughed along with the rest of them as she felt the sticky liquid splatter on her head and not only slither down her own skin, but also past her arms on Cleo's silky smooth fur on her left and Electra's fluffier hair on her right. Shivering as the tank slowly began to fill up, she wriggled her toes to feel the thick slime ooze around and between them. As the level reached her waist, she opened her eyes, let go of the others, and wiped her face with her hands. She saw the last drops of the multiple big streams of gunge splurge in to the tank they were standing in, disturbing the mixed light and dark green surface with a thick glooping noise.

Rachel, hunched forwards opposite her, had her eyes wide open, her mouth turned up in a laughing smile as she felt the gunge drip down from her heavy hair and from her back, trickling around to her cleaner front over her swimming costume and through her fur. Looking to the side, she watched Electra struggling to keep her balance in the pool, wiping it off the fur on her upper body and flicking it off in to the slime below. Cleo, wordless as usual but this time with a broad grin on her pointed face, put her arm around Gwen and waded awkwardly through the gloop with her to the glass front again, followed by the bunny and the feline. A couple more trickles of slime dribbled down in to the tank as Alex spoke to them from the other side.

"Sorry, team, but you know we have to keep him happy! You didn't shut him down, but you did get 535 points, which makes you top of our leader board for the series - quite an achievement, even though there was no one on it before!"

This time it was Rachel who hugged Electra - as the bunny listened to Alex, the jaguar girl put her arms around her from behind, smearing green gunge across the breast and tummy areas of her swimsuit, making her squeak in surprise and overbalance in to the slime. She stood up again and coughed, gunk flowing from her swimsuit and trickling through her fur as Alex laughed. This was his favourite part of the programme - the team hadn't been here for the prize, they had been here to have fun. "Have you had a good time, though?"

He turned away as the girls cheered, triggering another small slime spray across the four of them. Looking at the opposite wall of the room, he said his final piece to camera: "Well, they were a great team but Silicon was too good for them. He's still in control, at least until I lead another team through the Industrial Zone! Good night!" He waved at the far camera along with the girls, and turned back to them.

"That's the only bad thing... there's no audience here," he laughed. "You really have been a great team, girls... let's get you out of there and in to the showers again, you all look like you need them..."

---

Gwen was the last to exit the changing room beside the room they had started in, after double checking that she had her souvenir "Industrial Zone" t-shirt (a clean one, of course) in her bag. She opened the door and joined the others, now clean and all in their normal clothing. "Ready to go?" she asked cheerily.

They started making their way out, but Alex hurried through the door behind them, a little out of breath.

"Gwen, I just need a quick word with you - a form you have to sign, the producer wants one of your gungings included in the titles for the series. Won't take a minute," he smiled.

"I'll catch up with you," said Gwen to the others, and was led by Alex through to a small office as they made their way to the entrance.

"It's just here," said Alex, indicating a form laid out on the table. "For letting us use the bit where you were in the Ride in the opening titles." Gwen looked down at it as he stepped back.

He sounded like he was about to say something, then hesitated. "That was, er... some pretty fast undressing you did in the Shuttle," he eventually commented, visibly embarrassed. Gwen, still looking down at the form, felt her own cheeks burning in a blush.

"Thanks," she tried, not really sure what to say.

"We'll probably cut that bit out... that is, if you don't want it in."

"Yeah, it's probably better that way." She looked up to see his familiar reassuring smile.

"Although we'd probably get great viewing figures for it," he laughed. "You're really cute, Gwen. It was great to see you enjoy the day so much."

She smiled back at him, quietly surprised to have been given such a compliment by one of her heroes. They hugged each other briefly, and after saying goodbye she turned to catch up with the others.