INDUSTRIAL ZONE - EPISODE 2
Written by Iron-K in 2004

It was fifteen minutes before the show was due to start. Dann, a nineteen year old red foxmorph, arrived breathlessly at the IZ entrance room, pushed the door open and looked around. The room was pretty simple, just a few chairs strewn around the walls with a couple of doors leading off to male and female changing rooms - quite different from the huge set on the other side of the far door that had become Industrial Zone's trademark.

There was no one else in the room yet, but he thought he heard talking from beyond the female changing room door. Feeling his excitement growing, he pushed open the other door and walked over to the changing bench, taking the show's outfit out of a locker as he passed.

He smiled to himself as he began getting out of his normal clothing, revealing the silvery white fur on his chest, and hardly believing that he was getting to go on the show. Since the decline of messy TV there hadn't been any programs like the shows that he remembered watching when he was younger, but IZ, as it had come to be known, had more than made up for that. Having loved the first series since he'd first seen it, he'd got over his nervousness and applied to be a contestant on the second, but hadn't even thought back then that he would have been picked to appear.

He looked down at the show's clothing that he was now wearing - shorts and a t-shirt, yellow all over apart from the black IZ logo on one side of the chest. By the feel of it, the top was quite thin. Checking he'd closed the locker behind him, he flicked his bushy tail to straighten it out, then walked barefoot over to the changing room door and pulled it open.

One of the girls had come out of the other changing room during the time he'd been in, and she looked round as he came in to the room again. She was a lizard girl, her light blue scaly skin contrasting the yellow of the IZ clothing she was wearing. Dann noticed she was of a medium build, and nicely curvy... though he tried to clear those thoughts from his head before he sat down beside her.

"Hi there. Dann." He offered his hand to her, and she shook it.

"Bluu." She clearly made an effort to put the emphasis on the last part of her name, but Dann couldn't help smiling as she said it.

"That's..." - he was going to say "appropriate", but tailed off before he did. The lizard sighed, knowing what he was going to say anyway.

"Okay, I know. Call me Blue, everyone does." Dann nodded, noticing that she had a slight Southern accent.

"Good to meet you, Blue. Where are the others?" He looked over her shoulder at the female changing room door, and she glanced at it as well.

"Oh, they're still in there - they've both decided to wear the bikini outfits." Dann wasn't aware that he'd reacted to that, but he must have done, as Blue turned back to him. "Hey, don't get too excited," she said, but a small smile was breaking through her expression.

"I haven't seen bikinis on the show before..." he said, trying to remember the numerous episodes that he'd seen. "I just caught it one evening about midway through the series, and I just had to watch it from then on... did you watch it before at all?"

"Oh yes... in fact, all the time, what with my boyfriend being on it and everything..."

"Your boyfriend went on? Wait..." Dann raised his eyebrows in surprise. "The presenter, Alex, is...?" Blue slowly closed her eyes, smiling, and nodded. "Lucky him," Dann grinned. "So what made you decide to come on?"

She curled her toes nervously, then flexed them back. "Well, Alex thought that it was about time I had a go. I came up with some of the games for the first series, you see, so he decided I should get a first-hand feel for them as well..."

She broke off and turned as the changing room door opened behind her, and the other two girls stepped through, clad only in the yellow IZ swimwear. "Ivy, Angela - this is Dann," Blue introduced them.

"Hi," he said, only half-conciously sucking his stomach in a little as they sat down opposite them. Angela was a tall and slim she-wolf with long, shaggy grey fur but no extra hair on her head, and Ivy was quite a lot shorter. She was another reptilian, but not of the same species as Blue - she had a more humanlike face with a cute button nose compared to Blue's long snout, and had smooth deep green skin that shone as the light reflected off it. She had a tuft of blonde hair on her head that hung down to around ear level, her pointed ears sticking out through it.

"So what made you want to come on, Dann?" asked Angela, her voice softer than he had expected it to be. It wasn't an easy question for him to answer, though.

"Well... I've always liked watching people being gunged, I wanted to try it for myself." He didn't meet her gaze as he felt his face heating up beneath the fur on his cheeks. "...I don't know why, really," he finished indecisively.

Her reaction was much more enthusiastic than he expected. "Hey, I can understand that. And having it done to you feels even better than just watching it, believe me!"

He looked up at her quizzically. "You've been gunged before?"

"Oh, I told the others before... yeah, but it was ages ago, on a kids' game show... they had two teams from different high schools against each other. It wasn't really a messy show for most of it, but I was the leader of the team that lost, so the rest of my team got to sit me in a tank and pull the lever to drop the gunge on me."

"Bad luck," said Dann, though he allowed himself to smile a little, both with relief that she didn't think him strange for enjoying it, and also at the thought of her dripping with slime.

"Are you kidding? It felt fantastic!" Angela arched her back in the chair and stretched, shivering as she remembered the feeling again. "There was a lot of it, as well... what do you think made me want to come on here in the first place?"

"Fair enough", Dann laughed. "And you, Ivy?"

Ivy looked up shyly at him and brushed the hair dangling down in front of her eyes out of the way. "Oh, I... I don't know. It just seemed like it would be a fun time to me," she said, biting her lower lip a little in a half smile. He could tell that she was nervous about being on the show, but it seemed to him that she might enjoy it more than she was letting on.

His thoughts were interrupted as Angela spoke again, leaning forwards to address the lizard girl opposite her. "So Blue, you lucky girl, how did you meet that handsome wolfboy?" A smile spread across Blue's face as she continued teasingly, "Did you get the job on the production team so you could be near him?"

"Well, actually I was the one who was involved with the show first, back when the team hadn't even started production," answered Blue. "I wasn't a major part of it back then, I just came up with a few of the ideas for the games, and just now I'm one of the tape editors that put the whole thing together once it's been filmed. When the team got the go-ahead to make it a series we needed a presenter, and I thought he would be the ideal person so I encouraged him to put his name forward - you know, lively, energetic... loud, you could say!"

"That's a romantic relationship, gunging people together," laughed Dann. Ivy giggled a little as Blue rolled her yellow eyes. "How long have you been going out?"

"Let's see... it must be at least four years now. I knew him long before we even started on IZ. He's 27 now and I'm four years younger than he is."

"You're making me feel young," smiled Dann, "I'm only nineteen. Actually, am I the youngest here?"

Angela nodded. "I'm 21 - and you, Ivy?"

"Twenty." Ivy ran her fingers through her hair. "Only just, so there's not that much of a gap, Dann."

He smiled back at her, then hearing the door at the far side of the room he turned to it, and jumped as he saw the presenter, Alex, emerge from it. A tall lupine with short dark red fur, his appearance would have been imposing if it wasn't for the friendly smile he had on his face. He wore only a pair of loose yellow jogging trousers, tied by a drawstring.

"Welcome, everyone!" he greeted them, full of energy. "Glad you could all make it - looking forward to being on the show?" He smiled as they all nodded, and moved towards where they were sitting.

"You must be Dann," he said, taking his hand and shaking it as Dann nodded. "Welcome to the show. I hope you don't mind being on with three females - we get a lot more ladies wanting to be on this than men for some reason."

"No problem at all," Dann grinned back. "Especially such nice looking girls," he added as an afterthought, hoping they'd find it funny. The other three laughed a little as the host then turned to Angela.

"Angela! The first thing I have to ask you - are you looking forward to being gunged again?" he laughed.

"Oh, yes," she grinned, showing her white teeth. "I can hardly wait."

"Excellent, that's what I like to hear. Have you done anything like this before, Ivy?"

Ivy shook her head as he looked at her, biting her lip shyly.

"Not to worry, are you looking forward to it anyway?"

"Definitely." She nodded decisively.

"That's great, you don't seem nervous at all!" Alex put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and then took it off as he walked over to the last of the four contestants.

"Now, here's a face I recognise," Alex chuckled as he looked at his girlfriend. "Ready to experience your own games for yourself, Blue?"

"It'll be... interesting," she answered, nodding.

"Good, because we've got a few of those ready for you!" He winked at her, and then dragged a chair over to the centre of the room to talk to all four of them.

"I'll just recap the plot of the show for you. We'll be making our way around the Industrial Zone, a huge complex that was abandoned after the central computer became self-aware. Its name was Silicon, and it's going to be what's laying the obstacles in our way. As for me, I'm not really on its side or yours - in the show I have to do what the computer tells me, but I'm also going to be fighting to give you a chance as well. After you've gathered points in each of the four areas of the complex, we'll go in to the Final, where you have a chance at shutting the computer down and winning. Easy!"

The team smiled at his enthusiasm. "You look to me like you're going to be a great team, and I'm sure you can't wait to go, but I've got to talk to you about a couple of things first. I don't want to scare you with the whole safety side of things, but the show does involve a lot of machinery so we have to be careful. Remember that even if during the programme I say that we can't turn a machine off, there's always a way we can stop in an emergency. Just shout for me if you're seriously uncomfortable and we can stop everything. But happily, we've never had to do that!"

"One more thing about safety... gunge is obviously slippery and slimy stuff, so if you've got it all over you - which I can guarantee you all will do by the end," he grinned as they looked at each other, "then take care moving around. The gunge we use is made from coloured industrial food thickener, with a couple of extra ingredients thrown in as well to get a variety of kinds - thick, thin, lumpy, and so on. I'm sure you'll experience most of them! It's as safe to get doused in as water. Now, that's another thing about my script - if I say you're about to get covered in something particularly nasty - for example, we've got an 'oil tank' ready to slime one of you on this show - it's really just going to be the food thickener gunge made up to look like that, so there's no need to worry. We like getting you messy, but we're not here to torture you!"

"Now, there's something else I have to warn you about... because you're all well over the required ages, there are going to be some games where you've got the option of fortfeiting some clothing, maybe for extra time or points." Dann's heart jumped as he went on. "That applies to you as well, Dann! But taking anything off is always going to be optional - we don't want to make any of you uncomfortable. Don't feel you have to." The four of them nodded another time.

He started to get up. "Oh, and one more thing - we'll need to select one of you to be a team leader, just to make the decisions about who to pick for each game and things like that. Actually I forgot about that when I took the last team round, I had to make up something quickly once we'd already started filming. Blue was on to me a bit for that!" He grinned over at her, then looked round at the rest of the contestants again. "Any volunteers?"

The team looked at each other for a moment, then it was Blue that spoke first. "Angela, you've done it before, how would you like to do it again?"

Angela looked surprised for a moment, then grinned. "Yeah, I'll do it!" she exclaimed, leaping to her feet, ready to get started.

"In that case, let's begin!" Alex turned to the door and put his hand on it, then turned back to the team as they got up and gathered round. "The whole thing is set up so that it flows as smoothly as possible - from the moment we walk through this door, I'll just be guiding you around the whole place as if we weren't being filmed. That means that you'll probably forget about the cameras before too long, so don't be too nervous about them either. All you need to do is to have a good time... and it looks like you all will! Follow me!" With that, he pushed the door open and strode out in to the wide space beyond it. The four team members went after him, and gathered round as he stopped, spinning round on his heels to face them.

"Welcome to the Industrial Zone, team! This door leads to the room that Silicon is kept in, the machine that you're trying to beat." He pointed over his shoulder to a large heavy metallic door set in to the wall. "But before we can go through, you're going to have to get points in the other four areas of the complex to earn time in there. Team leader, where are you?"

"Here!" Angela stepped forward, eager to get going.

"We've got four places to visit, and not a lot of time! How are we going to get in - through the chemical plant, the orbital station, the military base or the factory?"

"Let's try... the military base," she decided.

"Right, I'll take you there!" Alex set off at a run down one of the four corridors leading off from the main room, leaving the rest of the team to run to catch up with him as he sped along the passage. Soon he stopped at another heavy door, but one that was smaller this time, which was made to look as if it had been propped open by the use of a girder. As the team caught up with him, he turned to them again.

"We've reached the entrance, but it's going to get harder from here - the base had a lot of security measures in place, and I'm certain that the computer's modified them so that it's as difficult as possible for us." He slipped through the small gap in the door, followed by the contestants, one by one. As soon as they'd all got through, he quickened his pace again, shouting encouragement as they tried to keep up.

Turning the corner, Alex skidded to a halt. The contestants caught up with him and all of them saw what was ahead - an ominous-looking set of red lasers slanting across the corridor at different angles. The host began walking towards them.

"Actually, that looks a bit difficult for now, I think we'll stay on this side for a bit before entering." He stopped at the start of the trap, then turned back towards the team. "I know somewhere we can have a bit of a warm-up game before going in to the complex," he said as he dashed towards them again, leaping through the group and landing in front of a small door that lay across the corridor on the corner. He opened it and extended his hand to indicate they should go inside, and they filed through the narrow door.

As the host closed the door behind them, Dann looked around at the room, stepping towards the centre as he got his breath back from the running. The main feature was a five foot high perspex tank in the middle of the room with a plastic swivel chair bolted to the ground inside it. It had a slightly rusted but ornate frame, and a large covered section at the top for its reservoir. At the front of the top there was a light set in to the frame, at the moment turned off. He smiled as he reminded himself he was getting his first real-life look at an IZ gunge tank.

The host strode in to the middle of the smallish room and spread his arms. "This should be perfect for the first game, and also for getting someone used to the slime!" You see that wire up there?" The team looked up to see a thick metal wire near the low ceiling, circling the entire room around the machine, rising and falling irregularly. Alex moved over to the back of the tank and picked up a long rod with a metal loop on the end of it, which had been resting over a red section of the wire that was insulated with plastic.

"I'm sure you've all played something like this before," he said as he stepped carefully forwards, making sure the loop stayed clear of the wire. "The objective of this game is to get the loop all the way along the wire and back to the start again," he explained, tracing the route in the air with his finger, "with points only being deducted for how many times the metal touches the metal. There's no time limit, so you can take as long as you need, but of course, there's one major difference between this and the version you'll have played... if you touch the wire, then this happens!" He brought the loop down sharply.

The team jumped as a buzzer sounded and the light on the tank came on. It gurgled in to life, dropping a thin column of lumpy oatmeal-like bright green slime on to the chair with a wet slurping sound. It only lasted a second before stopping, a couple of drops splatting on to the chair as the puddle of slime spread outwards on the floor of the tank.

Alex smiled at their reaction, and put the loop back on to the plastic. "So, three of you can work on getting the loop around the course, and the fourth one of you will be inside the gunge tank hoping that they don't make a mistake! Who's that fourth one going to be, Angela?" he asked, leaning on the machine and turning to her.

She looked around at the others. "I think it should be someone who's watched a lot of this before but hasn't been slimed herself - Blue!" she decided, eagerly pointing at her.

Blue smiled a little uneasily as Alex took her hand, and looked in to the tank as the door was opened for her. "Good luck in there!" he grinned, patting her on the back as she made her way inside. She bent over to brush the lumpy green stuff off the front of the chair with her hand, then turned around and nervously sat down, her hands clasped on her lap. The host closed the door behind her with a clunk.

"Start whenever you're ready, you three," he instructed as Blue used her feet to swivel around so she was facing where they would start. "Good luck!"

The victim looked up nervously in to the nozzle at the top of the tank as the others gathered around the dangling handle. "Anyone want to go first?" Angela gestured towards it.

Ivy stepped forwards and took hold of it, lifting it off the red plastic and tentatively stepping sideways to start it off. Slowly she moved to the side, holding the handle with both hands and treading carefully, watching the top of the loop closely. Blue looked on, her hands placed nervously against her cheeks, as Ivy guided it around the first corner.

Dann and Angela carefully followed her as she moved the loop down a shallow slope in the wire, and she slowed down as she reached a steep rise. She moved to guide it up the slope, but had second thoughts and moved back, looking over her shoulder at the others.

"Someone take over here!" She jerked her head towards the handle, and looked up again to hold it steady as Dann glanced over at Angela, then moved to take the handle from her.

As it changed hands the top of the loop dipped to the wire, but he just managed to save it from touching it. Slowly he moved his arms up and forward to take the loop over the slope, but jumped as he pushed it up too far - the alarm bell rang and he heard a squeal from Blue as the gunge was dropped on to her.

Getting the loop steady again, he carefully turned around to see Blue with a grin on her face, eyes closed as the light green stuff oozed from the top of her head down one side of her face, dripping on to her shoulder and soaking in to her shirt. A drip fell from the top of the machine and splatted lightly against her head. He shuddered as he imagined again how it felt, then looked back up as he continued to guide the loop along a flatter section.

Blue brushed some of the slime off her head and rotated the chair around to follow his movements, tapping her feet against the floor as he reached the second corner. He handed the loop over to Angela as he reached the bend in the wire, who shakily guided it around. Dann looked over at Blue again, and jumped as much as she did when the light at the front of the tank came on again, accompanied by the warning bell.

A thin stream of the bright slime dropped down on to Blue's head as she squeezed her eyes closed, and it spattered outwards to stick against the walls of the tank, some of it dripping down her smooth head. She grinned as the brief shower stopped again, leaving the lumpy gunge to ooze down her face and drip to the floor.

She moved her hands up and wiped it off her face, running her hands over her head as she swivelled round to watch Angela again, who was now further on and about to reach the third corner. As she moved around it, she touched the wire again, making Blue yelp and bow her head forwards as she was coated by even more of the thick bright liquid. She straightened as it was turned off, the back of her clothing coated in slime.

The wolf girl handed the loop back to Ivy as she got the loop clear of the wire. Ivy carried it forwards on the last section before they got back to the start, carefully guiding it round an awkward twist in the wire. Speeding up as she neared the end, she got too fast and touched the metal one more time before cheering as she placed it on the finish.

"Nicely done, all of you", said Alex as he watched the fourth stream inside the tank shut off, leaving the lizard girl dripping with bright green slime. He moved towards the door of the tank and opened it, taking her by the hand as she ducked out of the machine. Watching her amusedly as she ran both hands over her head, making gunge drip down on to the back of her shirt, he continued.

"That's just a taster of what's waiting for you later on! Anyway, the team made four mistakes, so that's thirty points out of fifty that you get for the first game. Not a bad start, indeed. Now we'd better get inside there, so follow me!" He flung the small door open and dashed out again, followed by the rest of the team, stopping when he got to the edge of the laser field and turning around to face them.

"This doesn't look too safe, team... I know that there's another way past this part, but I'm not sure how reliable that will be either. Angela!" She quickly looked up at him. "You're the team leader, why don't you test it for us?"

"...All right," she replied uncertainly, but not without a smile across her muzzle. Alex took her by the hand and led her to a metal hatch in the left wall, which he slid open.

"That should take you to the other side," he said, pointing at the other end of the corridor. "Let us know if it's safe!"

Angela ducked in to the hatch and disappeared from view. A few seconds later, the team saw her emerge behind a clear perspex section of the wall halfway along the laser-lined corridor. She crouched down and tried to open a hatch on the other side of it, but it seemed to be locked.

"Are you all right, Angela?" called the host. He stepped carefully over one of the red beams, ducking under some more as he made his way to the middle.

"Both of the hatches are stuck, I can't get back either!" she said back, watching him come nearer.

"Ah, I thought that might happen," Alex said nonchalantly, making Ivy laugh. He continued past the middle and made his way to the end, expertly weaving past the beams. "The computer must have sealed it off, it looks like we'll have to take the hard way after all. As for you, we'll free you once we all get to the other side..."

Angela looked upwards and grinned. Dann guessed that she'd seen the obvious trap of a gunge chute up on the ceiling. He was soon proved right, as the host reached the other side and turned back to face them.

"You've seen how to do it, team - now you all need to do is get across! And try not to touch any of the lasers on the way, because I've got a fair idea what will happen if you do..." He raised his palm in the air, and Angela yelped as she realised what he was going to do. He brought his hand down in the path of one of the beams, shutting it off and sounding a siren.

Angela's mouth fell open, and her eyes were wide as lumpy deep blue gunge glooped on to her from above. Ducking down a bit under the heavy slime as it splurged off the top of her head, she bounced on her heels as she felt it slide down the back of her neck. When the stream shut off after a couple of seconds, she shook herself to get rid of some of it, the paste-like substance dripping from her fur in globs and creeping over the swimwear she wore. Looking back up, she made an evil-looking grin at Alex, who turned back to the other three. "So again, five points off for every beam that's broken. Of course, it'll get easier for you if you break beams, because they're turned off if you do. Come on!"

"Ladies first," Dann grinned, looking to his left and right at the two girls next to him. The green stuff was still dripping from Blue's head - after seeing what had happened to her and now Angela, he couldn't wait to get slimed himself.

The lizard girl he was watching stepped forwards first, carefully picking her foot up and stepping over the first beam as Angela watched her closely from inside the small chamber. Equally slowly, she crouched down and shuffled on her knees beneath a high laser, making sure to lean away from one that was almost vertical down the corridor.

The team could see the concentration on her face as she picked her way down the corridor, following the same route that Alex had taken before her. Angela closed her eyes, ready to be gunged as she crawled between two awkward diagonal lasers at the end, but there was no siren, and she hadn't got any more messy when Blue finally stood up at the end of the corridor, helped by a hand from her boyfriend.

"Ivy?" Dann turned to her, seeing that she had the same expression on her face as she had had in the changing room - the cute smile, biting her lower lip with her teeth nervously. He glanced down at the rest of her body, and realised he was really looking forward to seeing her gunged in that bikini as well.

Trying to take his mind off that thought in case it showed too much on him, he swallowed and watched her as she bent over, ducking the first of the high beams. He was concentrating on looking at her even more than Angela was as she crawled forwards on her hands and knees between two of the lasers, wiggling a little as she avoided them.

As Ivy got back in to a kneeling position, her elbow brushed against one of the beams, which instantly vanished as the siren sounded. She gasped and whipped her head to the left to watch as the grinning wolf girl was again enveloped by a torrent of blue gunk from the ceiling. Her top half was hidden from view as it domed over her head, clinging to the walls of the tank and slowly sliding down them.

Gunge dripped from Angela's muzzle as the flow abated, leaving her once again soaked with sticky blue fluid. She looked down and shook her head rapidly, sending drops of the stuff spraying against the tank's walls, then looked up at Ivy, waving at her through the messy perspex. "Keep going!", she called to her, and Ivy turned back to the corridor.

Angela ran her fingers up her muzzle and over her head as the greenskin continued making her way painstakingly down the trapped corridor. The team leader flicked her hands, sending a splash of collected blue gunge to the floor, then leaned forwards and pressed them on the front of the tank, her fingers outstretched as thick gunk dripped from them down the perspex. She jiggled excitedly up and down on her heels as Ivy approached the end.

Ivy picked herself up off the floor and took a step forward over the last of the beams, but misjudged it and put her foot down on it. She shrieked and leapt in to the air, startled by messing up what should have been an easy finish.

The wolf gave a whoop as the colourful slime dropped on to her head again. A large wave that had glooped out from her head splatted on to the inside of the tank's front, obscuring the team's view of her completely.

"Last one, Dann!" the host called down the corridor as the splattering sound of gunge being dropped subsided. Dann looked forward at the rest of the team, and ducked down as he stepped over the first beam, making sure he was well below the high one slightly further on. He looked carefully above his head again before straightening up, and turned sideways to step between two vertical lasers. Looking up as he moved, he saw Angela wiping away the liquid on the front of the tank with a messy hand, peering out through the small window she had cleared in the slime.

He turned his head again to take in the corridor, and paused as he tried to work out where to go next. Eventually he decided to lay himself flat on the floor and crawl the rest of the way, which was the easiest way he could see of doing it.

Awkwardly, he got down on his front and pushed himself forwards over the smooth floor with his elbows, keeping himself very low to avoid breaking any beams. Slowing down even more as he approached the end of the corridor, he began wriggling his way through two very close beams, making sure that he kept his short but bushy tail flat as well.

Just as he had got halfway through, he closed his eyes as he heard the siren, but managed to keep his head still as he reminded himself that moving would probably break the other beam as well. He just listened to Angela laughing from within the tank, accompanied by the splatting sound as she was once more covered in gunge.

He shuffled himself away from the remaining beam, then crawled more easily to the end and accepted Alex's outstretched hand to raise himself up off the floor. Turning back, he saw Angela peeking out at them from within the tank, her palms up against the inside window.

"That was good as well, you three, you only gunged her three times! Time to get her out, though, I think." Alex opened another hatch, and ducked inside. He emerged again followed by the messy wolf girl, who had her eyes wide and mouth open in a smile. Gunge dripped slowly from her long, thick fur to the floor as the presenter announced the result.

"35 points for the game, you're still doing well, and we've got inside the complex. Now, we've still got two of you who haven't been gunged yet at all - who would you like to see getting covered next?"

"Ivy," answered Dann, at the same time as Ivy said his own name. He chuckled, and turned to her.

"Team leader Angela, what's your decision?" asked Alex.

"Well, I think Ivy." She paused and gave another huge lupine grin at the girl she had picked. "Because she gunged me more!" she added, holding up a hand towards her and wiggling her fingers to make the stuff stickily drip from them.

"All right. Come with me, Ivy - I've got a very simple game for you." The host took the greenskin's nervous hand and led her and the team around the corner, then through another door in to a much smaller room, not more than a few square metres. It was divided in two by a glass pane that ran almost the full width of the room, with gaps at the sides just big enough to get past. There were only two other features in the room - one was a panel raised off the floor to waist height, with four lit buttons on top of it. The second was an inflatable chair against the back wall behind the glass, which was positioned underneath a grille in the ceiling.

"I think you know where to go, Ivy!" laughed Alex as he let go of her hand. She squeezed around to the other side of the glass pane and sat down in the seat, peering up in to the grille as she did so. She smiled, but was tapping her feet on the floor nervously. Her hands gripped the arms of the chair.

"As for the rest of you, the idea's easy. There are four buttons on the panel, I'll give you points for pressing each one of them - of course, the catch is that one of them opens the vat of gunge above Ivy's head. How are you feeling there?" he called through the glass. She giggled a little in response, brushing her hair behind her head with her hand as she took another look up. "Don't worry, you've got a pretty good chance of staying clean, Ivy - well, one in four." She rolled her eyes, still laughing with nerves. "Who's going first?"

Angela, being nearest, raised her hand and moved over to the panel. After hovering her hand over it, she chose the top right button, and pressed down on it. Ivy huddled down a little in the chair and closed her eyes as a beep sounded, but nothing happened to her.

"One pressed - twenty points. Ivy's clean so far... Blue, how about you to choose next?" Alex stood aside to make way for her as Ivy looked upwards another time, tilting her head to try and see more clearly what was up there. She huddled down suddenly as she heard the sound produced by Blue pushing the second button, but again she was safe.

"Forty points so far! And Dann, it's up to you to decide now..." He gestured towards the panel, and Dann took his place at it. He looked down at it, seeing the only two remaining lit buttons, and then back to Ivy, who was grinning nervously at him from behind the glass.

"A fifty-fifty chance, Dann. One of them lets Ivy escape clean, the other means she gets completely slimed..." the host commented.

Dann looked from one button to the other and decided on one. He looked up at Ivy and nodded, and she squirmed down in to the seat, shutting her eyes in preparation but still with a smile on her face. He held his breath and pressed the button.

A few seconds passed with no sound except that of Ivy jiggling nervously in the chair. Finally, the beep sounded for the third time and both she and Dann visibly relaxed.

"Excellent! A full fifty points for the game. We'd better start moving further in, we've spent enough time here," said Alex as Ivy got up and slipped back past the glass pane. He waited for her to get through, then headed for the door. The team followed him down the rest of the twisting corridor, and turned the last corner to be faced with a large door at the end.

"I thought that we had got this door open before..." The presenter moved towards it and tugged on one of the metal handles, which didn't move it at all. "The computer must have found a way of locking it... the keypad's over there, but I have no idea what the code is."

The team watched as he stepped over to it and punched a string of numbers in, which were shown as he entered them on a large wall monitor. A buzzer sounded, which was clearly not a 'correct' sound. The numbers faded out from the monitor to be replaced with a large skull-like face, making the four team members jump - those who had seen the show before recognised it as the face of the computer.

"Problems, Alex?" he sneered in his familiar mocking tone. Alex looked up at him calmly.

"You have to give them a chance, Silicon, it's the rule," he reminded him. "And it's only the first round, so..." He tailed off, turning away from the monitor to look towards the door. The machine appeared to think for a moment.

"I can give you a chance. But naturally, I'll need someone to take a risk..." The face looked over at the opposite section of wall, which was sliding in to the ceiling to reveal a booth set in to it, a plastic chair fixed to the centre of the floor. "Who's it going to be?"

Dann looked over at Angela to see her looking back at him. "It's got to be you, Dann, you're the only one who hasn't been in a game!"

"All right." Responding in a tone that he hoped didn't show the excitement that he was feeling, he stepped towards the tank as Alex opened the half-height door. Turning around as he entered the small booth, he sat down as the door was shut behind him and placed his hands on the door's top. Looking up like any victim on the show did, he saw that the roof of the cubicle was plain apart from a circular black pipe jutting out slightly from the centre, directly above his head. His heart already pounding, he faced the monitor opposite him.

"Right, Silicon, Dann's in the gunge tank," Alex announced to the computer. Dann felt a thrill as he said those words, it wasn't something that he ever thought he'd really be hearing. "What now?"

"The combination is an eight-digit code. I'll give you the first digit," the on-screen face said as the figure 5 appeared on the left hand side of the screen, "but the rest of the team are going to have to guess the rest. Come over here!"

Angela, Ivy and Blue obeyed, gathering around the screen, while Alex took a step back and glanced at the fox. Dann craned his neck to see over his team mates as the instructions continued. "We're going to play a game... you have to guess whether the next digit in the code is lower or higher than the one before it. I'll let you have only two wrong answers before something very nasty happens to the team member you've sacrificed. Ready?"

They nodded silently. Dann blinked as a spotlight was turned on him, leaving the rest of the room in near darkness, and the machine asked, "Higher or lower?"

Dann shifted in the chair as they huddled together and discussed it. There wasn't much advantage in guessing either way.

"Lower," Angela eventually called out. The next digit appeared with a loud buzz which startled them all - but it was indeed lower, the number three.

Again he asked the question, and the team didn't talk about it for long this time before Angela called out "Higher" to him. The computer buzzed again as the next digit came up, but this time they had it wrong - a figure 2 had appeared, this time in red, on the screen.

Dann tapped his feet on the floor and looked up expectantly, taking his hands off the door and putting them in his lap, and wriggling backwards so that he was right under the nozzle. He looked back to the team as the host whispered to them. "Don't worry, you've still got another chance before Dann gets splatted - and this next one should be fairly easy."

"Higher", Angela said immediately, and she had it right - the fourth digit in the sequence was seven. This time, the team had a much longer discussion before deciding to risk another "Higher".

The computer paused slightly before revealing the next digit. Dann jumped as it came up - it was the number eight, meaning that they had it right again. He breathed out, rocking back and forth a little on the seat as he anxiously awaited the outcome of the game, already imagining the feeling of being covered in slime dropped from the machine above him.

"Lower!" Another buzzer, and a 6 was revealed. Dann began to calm himself down again, as they needed both the next two numbers wrong to fail the challenge. If he didn't get gunged here it was bound to happen somewhere else in the show.

The team guessed Higher, and he was surprised when a 1 was the next digit. Alex stepped forward towards them again. "Oh, it all hangs on this last digit now... right and we get through that door with two contestants clean, wrong and... well, one of them gets very messy indeed. Angela - what's your decision?"

"Higher. It must be." Her voice was anxious, though, and she couldn't keep still as there was a long delay before the number came up. After a few seconds that seemed far longer, the buzzer sounded and the last digit of the code was displayed - a zero.

Dann grinned as soon as he saw it, closing his eyes tightly and making sure that he was sitting up straight on the seat. Clasping his hands tightly in front of him, he heard Angela bark in frustration as a klaxon began sounding, then flinched as he felt the cool wave of gunge hit the top of his head, flattening his ears against it.

He closed his mouth tightly but stayed smiling, feeling the ooze sliding down over his shoulders and soaking his clothing, splashes of it spraying on to his muzzle and slowly dripping off, pooling in his lap. It made a wet slapping sound as it hit him, amplified by the close walls of the booth. It was a weird sensation - the thick liquid felt heavy on his fur and extremely wet, even more than water because of the way it clung to him. It felt like he was being covered in yoghurt, he chuckled to himself underneath the torrent, and put his hands out in front of him to catch some of the stuff that was doming out from his head, letting it drip between his fingers.

Suddenly, it shut off, and he felt a couple of thick drops slapping down on to his gunge-coated head. Shaking it to clear it, he opened his eyes and looked down at himself, seeing a coat of pink gunge covering most of his lap, with two trickles running down either side of his neck. He shivered as he felt the stuff running down his back, tickling him as it went. Grinning up at the rest of the team, who had turned to watch, he felt another downpour start, but kept his eyes open as the brightly coloured slime splashed down across his view of them, lasting only a couple of seconds before running out.

"I don't think that pink's really your colour, Dann", laughed the host as he moved to open the slime-streaked door of the tank. He got up, shuddering again as he felt the stuff dripping down his legs and off his bare feet, then walked out, looking back at the gunge creeping down the once clean walls of the booth.

"Well, team," announced Alex, closing the door with a clunk, "Dann got gunged, but at least we got the combination, and Silicon seems to be leaving us alone - he's had his fun for now!" Grinning, the fox held his arms out to his sides, watching the stuff drip stickily to the floor from them as Alex put in the correct combination to open the large door. "I can give you forty points for the game as you got to the last digit, and that brings you to 155 for the first round - a good start indeed! But where next, Angela? The chemical plant's to the left, the factory to the right," he gestured as he walked through the door to a fork in the passage. "Or we could go up to the orbital station."

"Let's go to... the factory," decided Angela.

"Here we go!" Alex leapt through the open door and led the team to the right, in to a much darker corridor. It looked older than the environments that the team had seen so far on the show, with pieces of rusted pipes and other junk littering the floor, and a few dim lights flickering on the walls.

"Watch your step here, this place hasn't held up well since it was abandoned," advised the host as he picked his way over the debris. Reaching a junction, he span around to face the others.

"We're inside the factory. This used to be the place where all the foodstuffs for around the complex were produced and stored. The machines are still here, but they've been... modified to suit its new purpose," he grinned. "Team leader, who's going to be the first in a game this round?"

"I'll do it," she said eagerly, stepping forwards.

"Good, you're keen!" He walked over to a nearby small metallic door and spun the valve in the centre of it, kicking a discarded section of pipe out of the way as he pulled it open. Taking Angela's hand, he led her in and waited for the others to file through before closing it behind them.

Dann looked around at the latest game room - the main feature was a semicircular vat of yellow stuff attached to the left wall, the sides of it coming up about three feet from the floor. The sweet smell coming from it told him immediately that it was custard. Directly above the tank's centre on the wall, a pipe jutted down from the ceiling. A metal chair was attached to the same wall, not over the vat yet but to its side, on a rail so that it could be positioned above it.

Peering further in to the relative gloom, he could see more of the room - eight large buttons adorned the wall opposite the vat, and in front of them was a lever on the floor. At the back of the room from where he was standing, there was a small alcove beneath a circular vat that was crudely marked "Grease" in faded hand-painted letters.

"We call this one the Custard Dunk," smiled the presenter. "No points for guessing why... let's get you up here!" he said as he walked with Angela towards the chair. He knelt down as she took hold of its arms from the front, and gave her a leg up to help her on to the raised seat. She turned around, sat down and grinned at the yellow gunk-filled pit to her side, tapping her feet against the foot rest at the front.

Alex walked around to the front of the vat and pulled the lever. "That's you ready to drop, Angela", he remarked as the chair slid sideways in to place so that she was positioned directly below the large nozzle in the ceiling, above the middle of the tank. "But just in case you win this game, we're going to have to have someone in there," he indicated the alcove in the wall, "to get messy instead... keeps the computer happy! You've got three to choose from, who's it going to be?"

The leader looked over at her three team mates, and back at the yellow pool she was poised over. "Blue again," she decided.

With slight nervousness still showing through the smile on her face, Blue stepped forward and let herself be led by Alex over to the tank set in to the wall. She stepped up to get in, letting go of her boyfriend's hand, and turned back to face the room with her hands clasped in front of her.

"Here's how it's going to work!" The host bounded back towards his place beside the lever, turning to address Angela. "There are eight buttons on the wall behind me," he pointed over his shoulders with both of his thumbs at the large push-buttons mounted on the back wall, "and one of them is going to activate the custard dunk for Angela." She took another glance downward as he continued. "But for each one that doesn't, the team gets ten points and a light will turn on next to Blue... and if all five of them get lit, then I'm afraid Blue gets all that cold, gooey grease!"

Blue shuddered but smiled a little, only now looking up at the vat of gunge above her head.

"I'll let you two take it in turns. Do you want to choose first or second, Angela?"

"I'll go first. Can I have..." she paused for a moment's thought, then pointed, "The one on the top right?"

"All right, let's hope you don't gunge yourself this early." The presenter turned to the two contestants not in danger of a sliming. "Go ahead," he invited them, and they both moved over to the wall. Dann reached it first and stretched up to press the button as Ivy watched the others.

A buzzer made Dann jerk his hand away from the button, and he whipped round to see that the light nearest the floor next to Blue had turned on. She leaned around to look at it, then stood straight again, bouncing on her heels.

Angela looked relaxed on the dunk chair as Blue guided Ivy towards her choice of button. The wolf girl was leaning back in the metal seat, her hands behind her head as she awaited another button being pressed, and smiled even wider than before when the buzzer sounded another time, illuminating the second of the five lights. Blue looked upwards again, turning her head to get a better view of the machine above her.

The team leader leaned forwards with her elbows on her knees, and after a moment's thought she selected the button next to the one that Blue had chosen. Ivy moved over to it, looking at her as she placed her green hand on it to confirm her choice, and when she responded with a nod she put her weight on it to push it in to the wall.

This time the sound was different - a loud siren startled the team as the lights around the vat began to flash. A grin slowly spread across Angela's face, and a moment later she yelped as she was hit by a column of bright yellow custard from the ceiling.

The gooey liquid splattered out from her head, dropping in to the vat below her with a glooping sound, as she shook her head rapidly underneath the deluge. As it began to subside she brought her hands up to her face and cleared it a little, with custard still clinging to her fur and slowly dripping down in to her bikini. She looked up at the source of the slime, but then gave a squeak as she felt the chair beginning to tip forwards. Looking down at the vat below, she shuffled forwards in the chair as it tilted, and slipped down herself just before it tipped her in, splashing on her front through the surface of the slime.

Her head broke through the surface again, completely coated in the sweet yellow stuff, and she laughed loudly as she slipped around in to a sitting position, hugging her knees as another cascade fell from the ceiling. She bowed her head as it splashed off the back of her neck, glooping on to the surface of the vat, then looked up at the others with a wide grin on her face. There wasn't a space of her grey fur left visible - the yellow mess clung to everywhere, and she was loving it.

"Well and truly gunged, Angela! And no slime at all for Blue..." Alex looked over at his girlfriend as she stepped down from the machine, looking visibly relieved. Instead of getting up, Angela twisted her legs around again and crawled forwards on her hands and knees to reach the edge of the vat, the liquid making a glooping sound as she made her way through it. Reaching the edge, she took hold of the side with both hands to haul herself out.

"Two lights on, that's only twenty points... but we can improve that! Angela, if you're under there somewhere..." He peered at the wolf girl, who was standing hunched over, her arms outstretched in front of her and dripping custard from every strand of her fur.

"Alex!" Startled, the team looked up to where the booming electronic voice had come from. "Take them to the tapioca machine."

The host shrugged as the team looked around at each other, wondering what the machine could be. "I'd better do as he says," he decided, walking back towards the door and opening it for them. After showing them through he took them around a corner to a long stretch of corridor that ended in a dead end.

At the end nearest the team stood a spherical tank, over a metre in diameter. The top half was made of clear glass, and the bottom was a metallic blue, covered with small blinking lights as most of the rest of the machinery on the set were. A pipe led from the top centre of the sphere and went up to the high ceiling. Behind that was an empty rectangular vat, which stood on the floor about a metre high.

Stretching from there to another similar vat at the dead end, the corridor was lined with yellow inflatable material. On the far wall there was a similar vat, and above it a large screen. As they watched, it switched on and displayed the computer's face.

"What do you want them to do, Silicon?" Alex called up to it.

"Simple. Get as much tapioca from this vat in to the one next to the machine at your end. You've got one minute to do it, and the team member to get the least in goes in to the machine when the time runs out!" With that, the face vanished and a counter began counting backwards from sixty.

"Hey, wait!" Alex turned to the team. "Quickly, everyone, get over there! I expected him to give us more time..."

Dann was the first to have reacted, and dashed over to the edge of the inflatable section of corridor. He wobbled unsteadily as he put his foot down on it - it was only half inflated and was very difficult to walk on steadily. Going down one of the slightly firmer ridges, he made his way shakily to the other side and looked in to the vat.

Floating in the lumpy beige stuff there were four clear bowl-shaped inflatables. He grabbed one and dipped it under the surface, shivering at the feel of the chilly liquid on his hand. With a full bowl of it he turned to make his way back, as the others bounded over to join him.

He slowed down when on the air-filled section, trying not to spill too much, but as the others got on as well it became even more unsteady and the stuff splashed out, covering his chest. With more of it dripping to the floor he reached the end and tipped the rest in to the vat.

Turning round to go again, he looked up at the timer, but was distracted by a downpour of tapioca released from a tank on the ceiling. With a heavy dull splash, it hit the middle of the inflatable and spread outwards, making the surface slippery. He carried on forwards regardless, picking his way over and squeezing past Angela and Ivy, who were both struggling to stay upright. Angela was already slipping because of the custard still clinging to her from the previous game.

Filling his bowl again, he started heading back towards the machine and saw Blue slowly making her way over the wet section in front of him. Despite her carefulness, she slipped and flailed her arms out, landing awkwardly in the tapioca pool. Quickly, she slithered forwards in the slime and picked up her bowl from where it had fallen. Scooping some of the stuff from the floor, she tipped what was left in to the vat and turned around for another run.

Dann tried to make his way over the slick surface behind her, shuffling his feet slowly through the puddle, but was taken by surprise as another torrent from the ceiling caught him on the shoulder. With a yelp he held his bowl closer to him and leaned away from it, almost overbalancing but catching himself. Blue reached the end at the same time as he did, and they both dumped what they had left in to the vat.

Both of them turned to go again, but a klaxon sounded as they did so to signal that their time was up. Angela and Ivy reached the end and turned to face the screen as the face faded back in.

"The contestant who got the least amount across is..." It paused for a moment and smiled. "Ivy!" it called out triumphantly. A spotlight shone from above on to the girl, whose mouth fell a little open as she looked anxiously over at the spherical machine. Slowly, she turned towards it. Alex, who had been watching from behind the device, walked over towards her.

"Sorry!" Alex was grinning as she nervously gave him her hand, clearly worried about receiving her first sliming.

"I'll go in with you if you want, Ivy," Dann suddenly heard himself saying. He hoped that he didn't sound too obvious, but as soon as he said it he realised he probably did. Alex raised his eyebrows a little, but kept calmly in his character.

"Fine by me... we've got another victim for you, Silicon!" he called up, and beckoned Dann to follow him to the sphere as well. As he reached it, he let go of Ivy's hand and bent down to open a hatch near the bottom.

Ivy, who was looking far more relaxed now that she had him going in alongside her, was the first to crawl in to the machine after it was opened. She stood up, still a little hunched over because of the low glass ceiling, and shuffled round the central chair to the other side. Dann ducked down and crawled through to join her, looking back as Alex closed the hatch behind him.

He looked over at Ivy, who had that same half-smile on her face that he'd seen outside the changing rooms. She leant forward and took his hand, pulling him towards her and then sitting him on the chair right below the pipe. As he looked upwards in to it, she turned around and sat on his lap, wriggling her hips a little to get comfortable.

Dann closed his eyes, aware that she could probably feel his excitement, and tried to think of something else. It wasn't easy - at that moment she reached down and took his hands, and placed them on either side of her bare waist. After holding his hands in place for a moment, she folded her hands on her lap.

"They look ready to me - go ahead, computer!" Alex was now watching them from outside, along with Blue and Angela. A high-pitched repeating alarm began wailing, and Dann tensed up, gripping Ivy's waist just a little more tightly as she shook on top of him. He began thinking about sliding his hands up a little further, just as the lumpy deluge was released from above.

Ivy squealed as the beige substance hit the top of her head, splurging outwards in a bowl and raining down on Dann as well. She leaned forwards so it hit her on the back of the neck, and Dann closed his eyes tightly as his grin was hidden by a deluge of tapioca that had splattered in to his face. He turned his head to the side, shaking it as he felt the stuff slithering over Ivy's waist, slipping past his hands.

He stroked his hands up and down a little as a louder hooter sounded, and he felt the level of gunge inside the sphere rising up. He risked opening his eyes and saw the stuff rising quickly, soon covering his legs and still coming. Smiling under the messy layer that had stuck to him, he pulled Ivy back in to the torrent from above, making her squeak and hold her hands to her face, protecting it from the masses of slime pouring down on her head.

The tapioca continued to gloop down in to the half-filled sphere, and it reached Dann's chest height before the downpour shut off. He opened his eyes and leaned to the side to see past Ivy, who was by now coated in a layer of the stuff, lumps of which were dripping slowly from her outstretched arms. The glass sections of the sphere had been splatted with gunge, but some of the outside was still visible. He grinned in response to the cheering from the two clean team members, and let go of Ivy's waist to wipe his hand across his face, clearing a little of the stuff off.

"He got twice what he wanted!" Alex looked down at the hatch at the base again and appeared to have second thoughts. "Wait a moment..." He walked once around the sphere, undoing catches around the sides, and then lifted the top portion of the sphere away, sliding it up the pipe where it locked in place. Dann and Ivy were left sitting in a pool of lukewarm tapioca, with even more still dripping in to it and on to them from the movement of the top half.

Ivy got up, wiped herself down a little and accepted Alex's hand to help her out. The stuff flowed off her bare feet as she was hauled out of the lumpy gunge, and she knelt on the floor for a moment to get her breath back before straightening. Dann pulled himself out and slipped down, collapsing on to the floor happily.

"You actually did pretty well in that game, considering the conditions - thirty points go to you. Two more games yet to come in this round, so who's going to go in to the next one, Angela?"

"Well, in this round there's only one of us who hasn't been gunged yet," she remarked as she turned to the lizard girl, "and that's Blue!"

"You're a very fair team leader, Angela, I like that," grinned the presenter, taking Blue's hand as he led them dashing down back to the main corridor again. Veering around to another door at the side, he opened it for her and guided her inside, leaving the others to go in behind him.

As Dann stepped round the door he was surprised at the look of the room - the walls were almost hidden by a tangle of rusty pipes and valves that twisted around each other in a complex pattern. High up, attached to the ceiling, was a tank with a window in the front, through which they could all see it was filled with a thin slimy yellow substance. A red timer was already counting down just above the window.

Three of the pipes around the walls were arranged so that they ended up pointing down to a small glass tank sitting on the floor, which Blue was being shown in to by Alex - two diagonally from each side and one right above it. As she sat down inside the tank, she drew her knees up close to her chest and looked around at the pipes directed at her.

"Raw egg," commented Alex, referring to the contents of the tank on the ceiling. "There's no way for us to stop the timer, but what we can do is try and redirect the contents to somewhere else before it all drops down on to Blue!"

Dann stood up a bit straighter, paying attention to what the presenter was saying rather than watching Blue squirm in the slightly cramped glass tank. The sides of it came up to her neck as she was sitting down, and it was slightly shorter than the length of her legs, making her bend her knees a little.

"Three of these valves are on pipes that lead from the tank up there," he pointed, "to the tank down there! It's those three that you have to turn off. Good luck!" Finishing as the timer reached one and a half minutes, he stepped back to the door to let them look around for themselves.

Wordless, Dann started following the pipe jutting out from the left of the machine with his eyes, trying to keep his eye on it as it angled through the countless other pipes on the walls. He walked over and put his hand on it as it reached a lower part of the room, but it soon spiralled up towards the ceiling again.

He took a look around at the others, who were pacing the room with their eyes towards the ceiling, looking for where the pipes came out. Blue looked up at the tank above her, and put her hands on top of her knees, drumming her fingers on them uneasily.

Looking back at the pipe he was following, Dann traced it all the way down to a red circular valve at chest height. He took hold of it, then glanced at Ivy again unsurely. She nodded, and taking that as a signal that she thought it was right as well, he began turning it. It moved easily but it took many turns before locking in to place closed.

Stepping back in to the middle of the room, he watched Angela shut off one that she'd found as well. "Ivy, any ideas about the third one?" he asked her.

"I think so... see that pipe up there next to the three coming out of the wall?" She pointed to his left. "I'm sure that's where it leads."

"Thanks!" Dann rushed over to it, followed by Ivy. The timer had reached twenty seconds, and Blue was looking worried. "This one?" he turned and asked her, placing his hand on it. As she nodded, he followed it with his eyes quickly, up to the ceiling and back, and saw the red valve on it just a few metres from where he was.

"Come on!" he called, dashing over to it and beginning to spin it frantically with ten seconds remaining. Moving his arms as fast as he could, he kept his eye on the timer and felt the handle stop just before it reached zero.

A long, loud klaxon sounded, and Blue drew her knees tighter up to her chest, putting her arms around her legs and closing her eyes. With a glooping sound, the level of egg in the high tank began to drop. As it bubbled out, Dann was surprised to see none fall on to the lizard girl, but then realised that they had won the game, redirecting the flow.

"Well done, team! You saved Blue from being egged and got a full fifty points for the game." Alex dashed forwards from the door and offered his hand to help his girlfriend out of the tank. As she stepped out, he ran back towards the door again. "We'd better try and escape from this place now, because by the route that we're going, there's another obstacle that we're going to have to pass first."

Stepping through the narrow doorway, followed by the team, he headed towards the end of the corridor, where a large door took up the whole width of it. Pulling it open to the side so there was barely enough room to squeeze through, he beckoned the team onwards. Dann was the last to go through, and he looked behind him to see the host slip through as well before closing and locking the door behind them.

"This is what we call the Mixer." Dann looked at the arrangement of tanks and pipes on the left wall of the small but high room. Five metal cisterns were arranged in a row just above head height, and a pipe led down from each of them. The five pipes joined in the centre, then angled back in to the wall. Just underneath that was an alcove in the shape of a cubicle, with a chair placed in its centre.

Facing the whole arrangement, in the middle of the room there was a control panel at waist height. Behind that there was a large screen on the wall opposite the tank, displaying a shot of the panel from above. A door identical to the one they had come through was on the far wall.

"Each of the five tanks is filled at the moment," the presenter began to explain. "To get through that door, we need to empty all five of them - either drain them off within the time limit, or they'll be emptied in to the tank below them!"

He strode over to the central control panel as he spoke, pointing at the screen showing the movement of his hand across it. "Once this is started up, we'll only have about two minutes to drain all five before they're automatically dumped in to the lower tank. These select the tank that you want to drain..." he indicated left and right keys on the panel, "and once you've decided you have to put in the codes to get rid of it. The machine will tell you the code, but you'll have to remember it as it flashes it out on these buttons." He pointed to a square of coloured buttons, each with a small light within them.

"I think the best way to do this is to take turns inside that tank, and swap over whenever someone puts in a wrong code. So if you're at the control panel and you hear this," he stabbed a coloured button at random and a low buzzer sounded, "then run over to the tank, press the button at the side to unlock it and step inside yourself!"

The team looked at the threatening-looking machine and back at the smiling host. "Ready?" They all nodded, coming round to his side of the panel. "The only thing is to decide who to go in first... team leader, are you brave enough to volunteer or are you going to delegate it to one of the others?"

"I'll go in first," Angela grinned as she bounded over to the machine, clearly loving the thought of being covered in five tanks of gunge. The host caught up with her as she reached it, and he pushed the button to slide the short perspex door aside and let her in.

"There is one more thing," he added as she sat down, her hands clasped between her legs. The door slid shut again, coming up to the seated Angela's chest height. "If you find yourself running low on time at any point, you can forfeit an item of clothing for the duration of the game - just in case there's a real emergency! It'll give you a few more seconds."

Angela's eyebrows raised and she looked down at the bikini she was wearing, but she kept her smile. "Ready?" called Alex over to the three at the panel. They nodded, and Ivy stepped towards the controls.

At the word "Go!" from Alex, Ivy quickly looked through the contents of the tanks. Dann read them on the large screen behind them as she cycled through them, and laughed a little at the thought of one of the team members getting covered in them - ketchup, chocolate, baked beans, mayonnaise and butter. Deciding on the third, she watched carefully as the four-button-long pattern was flashed out on the coloured buttons, then pressed them in the correct order. She began to look up to the tank, but quickly put her eyes down again as another sequence came up, this time eight presses long and a little faster. Hovering her finger uncertainly over the buttons, she made a few lucky guesses and got the second combination right as well.

"Well done!" encouraged Alex, looking up as the light above the fourth tank along went out. "Choose another!"

This time, Ivy selected "butter", and watched the display again. This time, though, her finger slipped and she pressed a button out of sequence, making the machine buzz loudly. Pushing her fringe up out of her face, she looked up anxiously at Alex.

"Bad luck - quick, over here and release Angela!" Ivy ran over to the tank and pressed the button to open the door, quickly getting in herself after the wolf girl ran over to rejoin the team. She flicked her hair out of the way of her eyes again and looked up in to the top of the tank.

Dann had taken over at the panel, and had gone for the "mayonnaise" choice. He managed the first code, but as he pressed a button during the second one he heard the buzzer as well. Running over as quickly as he could, he thumped the button to let Ivy out and took his seat in the tank instead.

The on-screen timer was just ten seconds off the one minute mark, and he remembered they'd only turned one of them off. As Blue stepped towards the panel, he looked up in to the top of the tank and saw five wide nozzles, closely placed against each other, with a sixth opening for a camera facing downwards. Lights on the ceiling next to each of the nozzles showed that four of them were still activated, but as he watched one went out - Blue had turned off the mayonnaise tank.

He looked back at her as she chose "butter" for the second time in the game, but she got the first combination wrong and came running over towards him at the sound of the buzzer. With fifty seconds to go, she let him out and he stepped down, hurrying over to where Angela was now at the controls.

Standing behind her with Ivy, he looked over at the five tanks again - the chocolate, ketchup and butter were still in danger of being dropped in to the gunge tank. Startled by the buzzer again, he moved a little closer to Ivy, looking over her shoulder as she took Angela's place.

Angela hurriedly stepped in to the tank and closed the door behind her, drumming her feet anxiously on the smooth floor of the tank with just under thirty seconds remaining. She began moving her fingers to her back, but then seemed to decide against taking anything off.

Trying to concentrate on the combination she was being given, Ivy carefully pressed out the sequence, clapping her hands as she got a set right and turned off the third of the tanks, the one containing ketchup. She yelped, though, as she got the first sequence for the chocolate tank wrong, and ran over and let Angela out. A little hesitantly, she sat down inside the gunge tank and looked up in to the nozzles.

She looked wide-eyed at the timer again, which was now just under ten seconds. As Dann selected a tank at random, she made a decision, and reached around to her back to unclip the bra part of her bikini. Dann looked up as she slid it off her shoulders and down her arms, and he blinked, swallowing, as she threw it out the front of the tank to Alex, her face frozen in a nervous grin.

"Quickly, Dann, that's another ten seconds you've got!" called the presenter, making Dann shake his head to clear it and hunch over the panel again, trying to resist the temptation to look up at the topless, giggling Ivy. Concentrating just on the sequence, he lasted until the sixth press of the longer sequence before getting one wrong. He turned to look at the timer, which had just three seconds remaining, then twisted around to sprint towards the tank.

"It's wrong, but he's not going to have enough time to get you out of there!" the presenter said as the time ran out, half a second before Dann reached the button. "Sorry, Ivy, time's out and you're locked in!"

Ivy jumped as a hooter went off. She leaned forward and shielded her eyes with her hands, expecting to be covered from above, but gave a yelp as she saw what was happening at her feet. A foamy white substance was being pumped in from the bottom, and was slowly filling the tank, clinging to her as it went. Dann realised that it was whipped cream - the kind that comes in spray cans - and watched as Ivy stretched herself upwards in an attempt to get away from it.

She screamed as the level rose above her waist, but it turned in to a laugh as it continued to ooze upwards. As it reached her bare breasts, covering her up again, it began spilling out over the top of the tank's front. Remembering that there was still more coming, she glanced upwards at the nozzles above her for a second, then back to the rising white stuff again - she didn't know where to look. Suddenly she decided, and ducked down, clutching her hands against the sides of her head to cover her ears from the noise, hunching forward a little but taking care not to dip her face in the cream.

The hooter sounded again, and the two streams of melted butter and chocolate was released from above. She ducked under the weight of the warm sticky torrents as they splurged against her head, rebounding off and slopping against the walls of the tank. Her blonde hair was covered instantly, and all the rest of them could see of her was the shape of her head and shoulders, glistening with the gooey mixture as even more poured down on to her, the brown and yellow colours mingling with each other as they slid downwards.

She straightened up a little after a few seconds, thinking that it had to be over soon, but still more was coming in, and the cream was still rising as well. Realising this, she hauled herself upwards against the weight of the deluge, put her hands over her face and stood upright, waist deep in the bubbling cream, her chest plastered with white. With the rest of the gunge still cascading down on to her head, it wasn't long before the ooze had crept down and covered her top half completely.

Feeling it finally easing off, Ivy ran her hands up from her face through the gungy mess of her hair, and Dann was relieved to see that she was laughing at the sight of the yellow and brown mixture running down her flesh. She bounced slightly on her feet to shake some of it off, the sweet mixture dripping from the tips of her nipples as the chocolate sauce trickled out from above. She flicked her hair out of her eyes again, waded a little forward in the cream to escape the slimy drizzle, and put her hands on the top of the tank's door, a wide grin on her face as the last of it dripped down behind her. Trickles of the gooey stuff dripped down from her fingers on the door of the tank.

"Look at that... absolutely covered!" Alex commented as he walked towards her. "Here's your top back, Ivy." He handed her the top half of the bikini. She took it with a giggle, slapped it against her sticky breasts and reached around to do the back of it up as the presenter announced the result of the game.

"I think she enjoyed that, team - you look delicious, Ivy." She ran her hand through her sticky hair again, a grin breaking through the mess still dripping down her face. Dann nodded in agreement with Alex - he'd given up fighting his excitement long ago. He swallowed and regained his composure, just hoping that he hadn't looked too aroused during Ivy's gunging. Standing inside the tank covered in chocolate and cream, and obviously loving the feeling of it, she looked absolutely stunning.

Alex opened the door to let her out, and she stepped carefully forwards, the cream spilling out the front. After finishing doing up the back of her bikini, she laughed and put her arms around the surprised Dann, who tentatively returned the hug, feeling her smooth skin underneath the thick slime. Pulling away, she looked down at the sticky stuff sliding down her as the rest of the team moved over to join them.

"Time to move on." The presenter closed the door and clapped his hands together, spraying cream everywhere. "You managed to turn off three of the five tanks, so that's thirty points for the game, making 130 for the round. So that means at the halfway point, you have two hundred and eighty five points!"

The team members smiled at each other in congratulation, and he turned to the leader. "Angela, where next? We can leave the ground now and go up to the orbital station, or if you'd prefer we can stay around a while and visit the chemical plant."

"Up to the station," decided Angela, still laughing at the sight of Ivy, who was trying in vain to brush the sticky chocolate off her flesh.

"OK - well, we're near a way up that we haven't tried before yet." Opening the other door easily, Alex set off along the corridor, slightly slower this time to allow Ivy to keep the pace without slipping. After a short walk, they arrived at a set of four metallic pads set in to the floor, in a raised area to the side of the main corridor.

"A teleportation suite," announced the presenter. "The technology was still in the experimental stage when the complex was abandoned, but I think these are still in working order. Step up."

Dann and the others stood on a pad each, and Alex walked over to a fifth pad next to a lever in the wall. Dann couldn't help looking up to see if there was a tank of gunge looming above his head, but the ceiling was disappointingly blank.

"Now, if this works the way I think it does, then we'll be instantly beamed to the orbital station," continued Alex, pretending to examine a monitor on the wall. "It'll just transport us, and our clothing of course, so it should have the added effect of cleaning you all up. The gunge and stuff should be left behind. Let's just hope that we all arrive in one piece as well!" Grinning at the contestants, he pulled the lever.

Dann flinched before remembering that nothing was going to happen. Alex had been right at the beginning, he thought - he'd almost forgotten that it wasn't real. The presenter looked briefly to one side, then turned to them again.

"Well done, team, you've managed pretty well so far. The cameras are off now, so you can relax for a while!" Dann looked over his shoulder at Ivy, who noticed his gaze and grinned back at him. He shivered as he glanced at the dripping gooey mixture which was now sliding down to cover her top. "For now, you can get clean the old fashioned way - the showers are in there, and you each have a change of clothes in there as well," Alex continued, indicating two doors behind him.

Blue stepped down from the pads first, followed by Angela. Dann just had to look back at Ivy again before stepping off, but tried not to look too fascinated and kept looking straight forward as he headed for the door.

"Dann..." Alex caught his attention and he spun around. The presenter pointed to the adjacent door. "Men's showers are in there," he laughed.

"Oh... sorry, yes." Dann looked up at the top of the door, and saw that he had indeed been about to follow the girls in to the female showers. "Thanks." Embarrassed, he hurried over and pushed the other door open, turning round in the doorway as Alex spoke again.

"If you go through the doors at the other end once you've cleaned yourselves up, we'll meet up again there," he said. "It's far from over yet, though - I'll see you once the rest of the games are ready!" With that, he headed back down the corridor. Dann closed the door, noticing Ivy give him a little smile and wave as he did so.

Breathing out heavily, he looked around at the shower room and tried to put her out of his mind for now, even though he could hear the chatter of the girls reaching his ears from the room through the wall. He headed towards the bench at the side of the room and began taking his messy clothing off.

Meanwhile, the girls on the team were having a discussion in the next room.

"So... about Dann, Ivy", started Angela, a grin across her muzzle as she reached around to undo her top.

"What about him?" Ivy, who was already in one of the shower cubicles, hesitated just before turning on the water, and pretended not to know what the wolfgirl meant.

"Oh, you must know what I'm talking about. He's obviously loving watching us all getting messy, but I think he likes you!" Having got undressed, she walked in to the cubicle beside her, speaking to her through the wall.

Ivy giggled as she turned the shower on. "You think so?" She ran her fingers through her hair as the warm water splashed on to her skin, washing the slimy mixture off her green flesh.

"You should have seen his face when you were getting covered in chocolate," Angela continued from the next cubicle. "He couldn't take his eyes off you."

The greenskin laughed again, but felt her face heating up in a blush. "Oh, he's only male... they're all the same, really, aren't they?"

"Oh, come on Ivy, it's obvious," Blue joined in from the other side. "He asked to go in to that tank in the last round with you, I don't think it was just because you were looking worried!"

"Well, he seems nice..." started Ivy, then tailed off again. Yes, she did like him, she thought to herself, but she decided to change the subject a little. "Alex does as well, though, Blue."

Blue was almost clean by now, and was just lifting her breasts to sponge off some green goo that had worked its way underneath them. She smiled, and simply responded, "I know, he is."

"Not to mention that he's..." Ivy stopped quickly, realising what she had been about to say. She felt the blush again, and indicated her groinal area, even though neither of the others could see her. "You know." She turned off the shower.

The lizard girl laughed as she realised what she meant. "You've noticed. I'll let you in to a secret, though - he's not really that big. It's just a sort of cup that he wears over himself, you know, so that if he gets excited during one of the games..."

Ivy's eyes widened, her hand now on the cubicle lock. "And you don't mind that?"

Blue opened her own cubicle and strode across to the opposite bench naked to grab a towel, wrapping it round herself quickly as Ivy opened her own one. She took another towel and threw it to the greenskin, who caught it and looked back at her.

"He can't really help it. It's not as if he'd, you know, start anything with anyone other than me. He's promised me that."

"I still don't know if I like the way he's getting aroused because of sliming me..." Ivy began towelling her soaked hair, shaking her head to straighten it out a little again.

"Well... he's 'only male', remember?" laughed Blue. "And you're dead gorgeous, as well - you should be pleased!"

"When you put it like that..." Ivy glanced over her shoulder as the last closed cubicle was opened, and Angela walked out naked, water trickling through and dripping from her soaked fur.

"Is there a fur drier around here?" she asked, looking around, shivering at the cold after getting out of the stream of warm water.

"It doesn't look like it," answered Blue. "Still, you'll be getting messy again soon anyway, I don't think it matters that much!"

"True enough." Angela grinned, and took a towel, beginning to scrub herself with it in an attempt to get reasonably dry. "So, Ivy - go and talk to Dann!" she said again, the smile across her muzzle getting even wider. "Come on, I know I would!"

Ivy felt a little awkward as she dropped the towel and got in to a clean bikini. "But what should I do?" she asked the other two as she ran her thumbs along the inside of the rim of the bottoms to straighten them out.

"I don't know! But you'll have to remember that males don't understand subtlety, take it from me. Let him know you're interested, surprise him!" the wolf girl continued eagerly.

"I'll try," answered Ivy as she finished putting on what little clothing she wore. "I will, honest!"

"All right, that's good enough - for now!" teased Angela, waggling a long finger at her.

"Anyway... all ready to go?" Blue asked, stretching her clean shirt down to get rid of the folds and letting it spring back in to place again.

"Ready!" The wolf girl hooked the back of her bikini top together, and looked down at herself as she brushed some of her breast fur down to neaten it. She led the way out of the shower room in to a more metallic corridor lined with banks of fake computers on the walls. Alex and Dann were already waiting for them.

"Ah, there you all are - ready to get messy again, I see," Alex laughed. "We're going straight in to a game here, though, so I need someone to be the victim... and I don't think Blue's had anywhere near enough slime yet, so..." He took her hand, grinning.

"Oh, you would say that," said Blue, with a nervous smile. "What's going to happen to me?"

"I'll show you. Hang on a minute, team, I'll be right back." With that, he led Blue off around a corner.

Dann watched them disappear from view, then turned back to the other contestants. He was sure he saw Ivy quickly glance away as he turned around, and tried to think of something to say.

"Did you get it all off OK?", he managed.

"What?" Ivy's brow creased, then she realised he was talking about the mixture she'd been covered in before. "Oh... yes, but it took a while." She grinned widely. "Felt kind of nice."

"I know what you mean, I'm sure I would have loved it," answered Dann. He was sure he saw Angela wink at Ivy just before the host arrived again.

"All right, we're ready now," he said, walking up from behind Dann. He led them through a nearby low doorway in to a dimly lit room that looked like a kind of storage area - various oil drums and crates were strewn about the floor, and pipes rose from the ground and ran along the walls. At the back of the room, there was a set of pads very similar to the ones they had been put on before the showers.

"If you'd just like to step up there again... sorry, but we can't get this bit seamless until someone invents the real thing," laughed the host. "A bit of acting required of you here... just try and react as if you've been taken apart in to your atoms and reassembled again. It's not something that happens all the time, but I'm sure you can imagine..."

Dann grinned and nodded along with the rest of them, though he was still wondering where Blue had been taken. The host turned towards the back of the room and waved to signal to the cameras, then turned back and returned to his show personality. He breathed out, feeling his chest as if to check that it was indeed still there, then walked off his own pad. "See, it wasn't too bad, was it? All here?"

Dann stepped down from the pads and looked down at his hands in front of him. His own excitement helped in making him look a little shaken. He glanced back at the other two girls stepping down. "Where's Blue?" he said out loud, hoping he was meant to.

"Blue? I..." Alex looked around again, and looked a little worried. "The transporter must have been set up by the computer to take her somewhere else... that means she could be..."

Suddenly there was a banging noise from a dark corner at the back of the room, making all the team jump and look round along with Alex. He pushed his way past a couple of stray oil drums and went past the team, vaulting over a third as he hurried to the source of the noise.

"Here," he said as the team caught up with him in the corner. It was difficult to see anything, with only some red light from a digital readout set just above head level, but a door was just visible below it. Dann looked up at the readout, and noticed it was already counting down from just over two minutes.

"There must be a light somewhere around here..." Alex ran his fingers along the walls, eventually hitting something. As he pressed the button, a couple of tube lights buzzed in to life around them and illuminated their surroundings. The team could now see there was a narrow but tall window in the door, and Blue was visible beyond it. She was in an area the size of a large shower cubicle, with nozzles lining the metallic walls about halfway up, and a large opening visible right above her head. Standing in the centre of the tank with her hands behind her back, she gave a nervous grin back at them.

"Ah... I might have known." Alex didn't seem surprised. He grabbed the handle on the door and pulled, but nothing happened. "Great... locked." He glanced down at the side of the door nearest the team, which had a number of chains and bolts attached to it. "All right, that's going to take a while to open, and I don't like the look of that timer there." With a warning beep, it reached two minutes as he pointed up at it.

"We're going to have to be quick! I know that the combinations and keys to those five locks must be around this room somewhere, but it's anyone's guess where to start - split up, start hunting!"

He continued his explanation as Dann, Ivy and Angela moved back in to the main part of the room again, each racing to a separate part of the room to look for anything that might be useful. "This space station was once used for the study of aliens and extra-terrestrial activity - as this part is storage, I'd guess that what Blue's trapped inside is a preservative chamber. Not harmful at all, you understand, but the fluid that's pumped in there is going to be very thick and slimy indeed..."

After a hunt around, Dann was the first to find something - a set of keys virtually covered in oily stuff that was leaking out of a barrel. He carefully stepped in to the mess and picked them up, then started dashing back to the door.

"Are you OK in there, Blue?" asked Alex, his face pressed to the perspex window. Blue slowly looked up at the tank above her head, and nodded with a smile.

Dann reached the door noticing the timer at one minute thirty, and saw an old-fashioned padlock fastening a chain through the door's handle. He knelt down quickly and began trying all the keys on the ring that he'd found, eventually getting it to unfasten, and dropped the chain and keys to the floor.

"Good! That's one lock open, there are four more..." Alex watched as Dann raced back in to the room, with Blue leaning against the door and struggling to see as well.

Angela was peering in to the darkness of a couple of crates, and nearby Ivy was rolling empty drums out of the way to get further in to the corner. Dann ran past them and headed for the place he'd found the keys, dodging past a couple of drums that Ivy had moved.

"Ivy, it's on the barrel!", he heard Angela call out, and whipped around to look. Scratched in to the rusty surface there was a four digit code. Ivy span the barrel around to read it for herself, then rushed off to put the code in to the door as Dann went back to searching. A few seconds later, he heard a beeping sound as one of the combination locks was opened.

"Two locks undone! And just over one minute to go," Alex commented from the corner as Ivy went back down to join the search again.

Dann looked in to a couple of boxes quickly, but there was nothing of interest inside them. Moving them aside out of the way, he suddenly noticed a small electronic card that had been hidden beneath one of them. Grabbing it, he didn't even stop to check what it was before starting to run back to the heavy door again.

Once he reached it, he looked around at the door, trying to think where the card might be used. Blue was leaning against the door, looking to the side out at the others who were still searching. There was still one more padlock and chain around the handle blocking the door from being opened, the main combination lock had been undone by Ivy, a panel on the door that was held in place by four screws... He glanced up at the timer, and jumped as he realised they only had thirty seconds left, then looked back to the door. Suddenly he saw the slot next to it. He slid the card through it and heard the sound of another lock sliding free.

He turned to go again and nearly crashed in to Angela, who was bounding towards the door with a screwdriver.

"This any use?" she panted as she showed him it.

"Yes, undo the screws there!" He pointed to the panel he'd seen earlier. As Angela set to work on it, anxiously looking up at the readout, Dann crouched down to look in the gap under a vague bit of machinery. Seeing nothing, he crawled a bit further on, peering in to the darkness below it.

He jumped as suddenly a low foghorn sound played. Knowing it certainly wasn't the same sound as earlier, he leapt to his feet and dashed back to the door again, which now had two flashing red emergency lights rotating on both sides of it. Angela had jumped back when the loud sound had played, and her hand had shot to her mouth in surprise, but she was giggling behind it now as she saw what was happening inside the tank.

Dann quickly looked at the timer, which as he'd thought had reached zero, then looked through the window. The inside of the chamber was now bathed in red light. Streams of white gunge were being pumped in to it from the walls all around Blue, hitting her at about waist level, and splashing stickily off her then dripping down and slowly filling up the tank. The victim had her eyes tightly closed but a smile on her face as the level rose to her knees, her hands up near her face.

Dann felt a hand on his waist and looked around to see that it was Ivy that had put her arm around him. Surprised, he looked up at her face, then followed her gaze back to the gunge tank, putting his hand on her hip. Blue looked up from the waist-level slime bath back at the four that were safely on the outside, then her face was hidden entirely by a thick column of slightly dirtier-looking off-white gunge that was released from the ceiling, glooping outwards in an upturned bowl shape from her head.

She squealed as the alarm sounded again, and arched her back, moving her head forward so that the slime splashed off the back of her neck. Grinning out at the others, she shook her hands rapidly, flicking the gooey substance in to the rising pool, then yelped as she felt the level rise over her fingers. She put her hands on her head for a couple of seconds, then as it crept up to her shoulders she decided to give in and let them dangle down in to the slime. She straightened and shut her eyes as she felt the flow from the top slow to a drizzle, stretching up on tiptoe to try and keep her face out of the neck-deep bath and allowing the small streams of white to trickle down her snout.

Angela whooped, clapping her hands together, as Blue hauled her arms out of the slime and ran them over her head, breathing out heavily. She slowly opened her eyes, blinking them a couple of times, and looked out at them, still smiling nervously. Drips from above splatted on to the surface.

Alex stepped forwards to look at the door. "Well, I would say you didn't quite make it there, team... but you made rather a good attempt at unlocking it. Now at least we can get her out of there..." Angela had got three of the four screws off, and the panel was dangling from one corner. Alex pushed it out of the way and pressed the blinking red button underneath, which made another lock click open. He looked to the side and picked up the remaining padlock to look at it, then glanced at Blue who was watching him intently from inside.

"Oh, can someone drain the chamber? The lever should be around here somewhere, and we don't want that spilling all over us when we get the door open..." By now, Blue had stopped standing on tiptoe and was standing with her face half-hidden by the gunge. Angela glanced around the wall next to the door, saw the switch and pulled it, making the lights come up inside the chamber again and the level to slowly drain, gradually revealing a very slimy lizard girl as it went. With white slime clinging to her previously clean skin, her clothing was completely sodden.

"Sorry," said Ivy from beside Dann as she let go of him, standing up straight again.

"Oh, don't worry," he looked round and smiled at her. "Were you scared?"

"Got it!" Alex interrupted them as he slid the chain off the door. Taking hold of the handle, he looked down to make sure that the chamber was empty before he hauled the door open to let Blue out. She shivered as she stepped down from behind the doorway, dripping a white trail behind her.

"Are you OK, Blue? Hey!", he added as she put her arms around him and hugged him with a laugh, pulling away quickly to leave white slime on his red chest fur and one of his cheeks. He looked down at himself with an amused smile. "You got three locks open, that's thirty points... who's next for a game, Angela?"

"Dann, he hasn't been gunged nearly enough yet." Dann couldn't stop himself from chuckling as she said that.

"Yes, I have to agree with you there," answered Alex. "Everyone follow me!" He set off at his lively pace towards the door of the room, letting the team catch up once they were out in the corridor again. Heading down another of the metallic passages, he abruptly stopped at a small hatchway halfway up the wall and undid the catches to open it.

"This is your entrance to the game, Dann," he said. Dann peered over the host's shoulder at the dark space beyond the hatch, which wasn't much bigger than a metre high by half a metre wide. He moved out of the way as he stepped back. "Don't worry. Go on in and have a seat."

Trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness, Dann warily climbed awkwardly up in to the space, feeling a breeze on his face as he moved further inside. He twisted around to look back at the team as he sat down with his legs in front of him, using his hand to push his tail out the way. Alex put his hand on a button next to the open hatch, making him look up quickly, but there didn't appear to be anything there.

"We'll meet you inside, Dann - your transport to the game's provided!" With that, the presenter shut the hatch behind him, leaving him in the darkness wondering what he meant. He didn't have to wait long, as at that moment he felt a jolt as the floor beneath him began to move - it was a conveyor belt taking him forwards.

He sat waiting for about half a minute, hearing the muffled voices of the others as they made their way round somewhere else. He tried looking around him idly, but could hardly see anything in the gloom. Suddenly, he saw a light ahead as a section of wall hummed open, and he was carried out in to a room.

Blinking a little as he was taken out in to the light again, he couldn't help laughing silently as he saw what was at the end of the belt - set in to the floor a couple of feet below the end was a small but very sticky looking blue and green gunge vat. The belt was moving slowly, but it wouldn't be long before he was carried over the edge.

He looked to his sides - the room was of medium size, and various complex-looking control consoles were standing in the middle of the room at all angles, forming an irregular path through the room. At one end of it stood the others, and Alex was in the middle of explaining the game to them.

"Here he comes, we'd better hurry this! The conveyor belt's been locked at that speed, but there is a way to override it at the other end of the room. If any one of us steps anywhere near it, the sensor on the conveyor will activate and Dann'll get dropped. There is a way around that, though - the machine is set up only to recognise faces, so if we cover up your team leader's head then she'll have a chance of getting through and pressing the button on the far wall. Angela won't be able to see anything, though, so the other two will have to guide her through."

Dann grinned as Angela took a balaclava-like hood from Alex and pulled it over her head, muzzle-first. Unable to see anything through the white material, she put her hands out a little to steady herself.

"Ready, everyone?" The host took Angela by the hand, led her to a black and yellow line that ran across the width of the floor, and nudged her gently over it. "That's as far as the rest of us can go. You've got just over a minute - quick, get her across!"

Ivy leaned around Angela to get a better view of the room ahead. "OK, step forward from where you are." The wolf girl took a couple of slow, deliberate steps ahead of her, her hands out in front to cushion herself against anything that may have been in the way.

"Hurry!" With that call from Blue, she sped up a little, putting one foot in front of the other more confidently, but still with a slight hesitation.

"All right, stop." That was Ivy again, when Angela had reached the side of the belt. "Turn left... a bit more... and walk forwards again."

Dann looked away from her and back at the vat ahead of him. It already seemed a lot nearer than before. As he watched, a ceiling tank above it released even more blue and green slime, which hit the end of the conveyor belt and part of the surface of the vat noisily.

He smiled as Angela froze, startled by the noise of the gunge slapping in to the vat. With encouragement from the other two girls, she got going again and reached the second corner.

"Angela, stop... turn left, no, right..." Blue stumbled over her directions, knowing there wasn't much time left. "And go forwards again, but be careful, you're right on the edge of the vat."

She was indeed very near it, and the guides had to make her stop and make slow adjustments to her direction a few times to prevent her from putting a foot in the wrong place and falling in. Once she was safely past it, Ivy called out again.

"There's a computer in front of you, Angela, so turn..." Dann watched as she hastily turned and shuffled forwards, feeling the air in front of her with her hands again, but at that moment a loud hooter went off - he realised they'd run out of time.

Suddenly he was almost thrown flat on his back as the conveyor sped up, and barely had time to realise what was happening before he was carried through a curtain of gunge released from the ceiling. He took a deep breath and flung his hand up to hold his nose closed before he went right below the surface of the vat.

The cold, slimy feeling surrounded him for a moment, then he came up again, shaking his head to get rid of some of the slime as he bobbed up and down on the rippling surface. Just as he opened his eyes with a laugh, the hooter sounded again and even more of the stuff came down, pushing him under the surface again. Spluttering and trying to swim through the slimy stuff, he felt the edge of the vat in front of him and hauled himself upright.

Clinging to the side, he wiped his eyes with one hand, and opened them. With a grin he looked around at the others - Angela had taken her blindfold off and was grinning almost as much as he was. Blue and Ivy had rushed over to the vat's side and were leaning down over him.

He braced himself on the side and tried to haul himself out, but the weight of the slime clinging to his clothing made it very difficult to climb up. Leaning his top half on the side of the vat, he accepted Ivy's hand and pulled again, a smile on his face as he thought of pulling her right in with him. Instead, he chose just to get himself out, and rolled over away from the edge of the vat, panting with the effort that it had taken.

Leaning up on his arms, he looked down and realised that his sodden clothing was clinging tightly to him, not disguising much at all. Shifting around to try and cover things a little, he saw Ivy standing over him, giggling as she offered him her hand again. He took it for the second time and stood upright, slime dripping out of his fur and clothing as the host joined them.

"Not a bad performance, team, but Angela didn't get very far so I can only give you twenty points," said the host, taking the hood back from her and calmly tossing it in to the vat. "But we can do better... who's going in next?"

"I think it's Ivy's turn again!" the team leader answered, watching the blindfold sink beneath the vat's surface with a faint gloop.

"I know exactly what to do for this game," said Alex, smiling knowingly as he took the greenskin's hand. "Come with me, Ivy, you're going under the Pod!"

Dann grinned as well as he watched Ivy run hand in hand with Alex out of the room and along the corridor, followed by him and the other two contestants. The pod that he had mentioned had been one of the games that had made IZ so popular in the first series, and it had been a personal favourite of his as well. Soon, they reached an open space at the end of a corridor, and he got his first look at it in real life.

The machine was made up of a large black metallic sphere supported by three legs at angles to the ground - one behind the main part, and two nearer the front. Beneath the sphere, which was covered in slowly pulsing and flashing lights, there was a small metal chair which was fixed to the floor. In front of that there was a keyboard, held up by an arm coming from one of the front legs of the machine.

Alex led Ivy over to the pod and she sat down, looking up at it as she leaned back. The top of it was very close to her head, and Dann knew why - so that the stuff that dropped from it wouldn't splatter too far out from the victim but would cling and cover whoever was under there. Excited by the fact that this time it was going to be Ivy, he turned to Alex.

"If you've seen any of the show before you'll know what's coming, team! Ivy has a keyboard in front of her, which looks like this..." A large wall monitor turned on behind him, with a view from a camera on the underside of the pod looking down at the keyboard. It was covered in alien-looking symbols, with few obvious differences between them. "That goo-filled pod is timed to open in one minute, and the keyboard's the only way to stop the machine. On it there are six symbols that don't appear anywhere else - all the others have a matching pair somewhere or other on it. It's those six that Ivy has to press to escape clean, and it's up to the rest of you to help her find them - ten points per correct button pressed. Oh, and whatever you do, make sure she doesn't press any wrong ones! Ready?"

The three of them nodded. Dann glanced at Ivy, who was already hovering her hands over the keyboard, as they all moved closer to the screen. He looked back at it and saw that a timer had started counting down the sixty seconds that they had to save the potential victim - there was a slim chance of escape, but no one had left that seat clean on all the episodes that he'd watched.

Ivy slowly moved her right hand over the keyboard as the rest of them all watched the monitor. On the screen they saw her hand slow down as she saw a likely-looking button, and she rested her forefinger on it for a second just before pressing it.

A buzzer sounded, and Ivy jumped, closing her eyes. All that had happened, though, was that five seconds had been removed from the timer. Slowly she returned to the keyboard, hunching over it.

"Keep your hands out the way, Ivy, we can't see!" Angela called to her. Dann glanced over as she leaned back away from it, her eyes showing that she was nervous but a smile returning to her face as she glanced upwards again.

"Got one!" That was Angela again, as the timer passed forty seconds. "It's three along and the second one up, Ivy, see it?"

Ivy quickly leaned forwards and jabbed the button, which this time produced a higher pitched sound.

"Yes! Ten points." Alex continued watching the monitor from behind the team, saying nothing else.

Dann was surprised at how fast the time seemed to be running out - they had used half their time and had only got one of the symbols. He looked over the whole display of the board, trying to keep one eye on the timer, and saw another one that he didn't think appeared anywhere else. He looked around the screen again, trying to see a duplicate...

Blue suddenly called over to her from next to him. "Ivy! There's one right next to where your left hand is now... no, up a bit... left..." she guided her finger towards it. "There, press it!"

Another correct bell sounded. It hadn't been the same as the one Dann had seen, either. "There's another one, Ivy, it's... six along on the top row. No!" he said as Ivy pressed the button at the opposite side of the keyboard. "Sorry! Six along from the right, I mean!" He put his hand over his eyes, rather embarrassed to have made such an obvious mistake, but soon he heard the sound that meant another correct button had been pressed. That was closely followed, though, by an alarm as the last ten seconds began to count down.

He looked up at the board display again, then back to Ivy. She looked up at the team from her position hunched over the keyboard, then up to the pod inches from her head. She closed her eyes, cupping her hands over her mouth and nose in preparation, as the last couple of seconds came off the timer. It hit zero with a loud buzzing sound, and she squeezed her eyes even more tightly shut, but kept her head under the machine as the lights on it began to flash much faster.

"Watch out, Ivy, here it comes!" Alex hadn't even finished his warning before the keyboard swung away from Ivy, and with a glooping noise she was covered by a thick stream of pink gunge from the pod. It domed out over her head and splatted out on to the floor, hiding her from the view of the team for a moment before she leaned her head forwards, a nervous grin on her face and her eyes up to look at the team as the stuff flowed down her back and around her neck. Her hair had already been totally covered, and the stuff dripped from her long fringe. As more slime dropped on to the back of her neck, two rivulets crept over her skin, flowing over both of her shoulders and running in to her top - and as Dann couldn't help noticing, pooling between her breasts.

Another stream started up further forward of the first one, making Ivy squeal as it flowed down on to her head again. She jerked her head backwards in to the original flow, her hands still on her face, and giggled in to them as she felt the smooth sticky slime flow down her skin, the new deluge splashing in to her lap and sliding down her legs.

Both of the slime torrents slowed at the same time, dripping on to Ivy's hair and lap as she sat there with her eyes shut, completely covered in pink gunge. She moved her hands up over her head and brushed her hair back out of the way as she arched her back, making the stuff drip slowly from her to the floor, then she rubbed her eyes and blinked them open. Holding her hands out to the sides with outstretched fingers, she posed and laughed as Alex moved over to help her get up.

He put his hand on her head so she wouldn't hit it on the bottom of the pod as she got up, then took her hand and walked slowly with her across the pool of gunge that had spread out from under the machine. She was still giggling a little when she rejoined the team, and laughed out loud when Alex nonchalantly wiped the backs of his gungy hands across Angela's clean tummy fur, making her yelp with surprise.

"You didn't save Ivy from the slime, but you did get thirty points, team." Alex flicked the last of the gunge to the floor. Dann looked over at the empty chair underneath the pod, which still had a few pink drips splatting down on to it, then back to Ivy and the pool of slime forming at her feet as it slid off her. She saw him watching, and walked over to his side as the host continued. "We've spent just about enough time here now, and I think it's time to get back to ground level."

Alex dashed through the group of four contestants, out of the room and down the corridor, leaving the rest of the team to catch up with him. "I don't want to rely on the transporters again this time, but I know another way down - one of the cargo transport pods is nearby."

They arrived at a set of double doors, which opened automatically as Alex passed through. As he ran in behind him, Dann took in his surroundings - sunk in to the floor in the middle of the room was a large pool, about three metres across, with black and yellow warning stripes painted around its edges. It was filled with white foam, with a few clusters of gooey-looking brown bubbles on the surface.

"This is the reprocessing room, team," Alex explained as he walked around the edge of the pool. "A huge amount of chemicals were used in the running of this station, and this is where the overflow was stored. It was left to settle so that the reuseable stuff was left on the top of that vat, and then it was just a matter of taking it off and shipping it back down to the ground. And we'll be taking the same way down." He headed over to the opposite side of the room, to a door with a "Surface Transport" sign, and looked at the opening panel as the team gathered round.

Pressing the "open" button, the presenter stepped back from the door and looked up at it quizzically. Nothing happened. He hit the button a couple more times, but still the door didn't react.

"Oh." He suddenly seemed to notice the large panel beside the door for the first time, which had parts on it that were set deeper. "That's where the mechanism for the door should be, but some parts are missing..." Slowly, he turned around and looked towards the vat. A few more bubbles floated to the surface, bursting with messy popping noises. "And I think I know where we'll find them."

Ivy giggled nervously, realising what they were going to have to do, as Alex walked over to the side of the vat and knelt down, dipping his fingers in to the foamy surface. "Should be safe," he shrugged, lifting his hand out and flicking the foam off it. The four of them looked down at the vat. "Any volunteers for who to dip?"

Dann hesitated for just a second, then spoke. "I'll do it." The host made way for him as he crouched down next to the pool.

"OK, Dann - you'll find the missing five parts under the surface somewhere, and someone will have to work on putting them all back together as you get them. I'll award points depending on how quickly the team manages to get that door open."

"All right." Dann got down in to a sitting position and tentatively touched the surface with his feet. The foam felt ticklish against his foot pads. He half wanted to just jump right in, but he didn't know how deep it went down, so slowly he dipped his feet further in to the lukewarm pool. He breathed in a bit as his legs vanished between the surface with a sucking noise, up to his knees. Beneath the thin foamy surface he could feel that it was filled with thicker slime, and it wasn't smooth like the stuff that had been in the vat he'd been dunked in to - it had small chunks in it that he could feel clinging to his legs as he moved them around. It felt like the stuff in a mud bath.

Deciding to just get right in, he pushed himself off the edge of the vat with his hands, and stumbled as his feet quickly hit the bottom. He straightened and watched the surface wobble around, disturbed by him dropping in to it. The stuff came up to just over his waist, and he could feel the lumps of it oozing out of the way as the liquid settled again. He slowly turned around to the others again, his hands skimming the surface, noticing that the foam had been pushed out of the way when he had entered, making a patch of the lumpy dark chocolate-coloured slush underneath visible.

"How does it feel, Dann?" asked the presenter, crouching down at the side again.

It felt slightly strange, but Dann was enjoying the feeling of the textured gunge oozing around his lower body, making his shorts and the bottom of his shirt heavy. Rocking slightly on his feet, he answered. "Feels good. Anyone else want to come in? The water's lovely," he grinned up at them.

Alex turned around and looked up at the three girls - none of them looked too keen to get in, not even Angela. "I think they'll work on putting the machine back together for now," he laughed. "Ready to start?"

"Yeah," Dann responded, glancing down at the muck again. The foam was beginning to be pushed aside where he was standing as well, exposing the murky liquid underneath.

"Then go!" Alex started the stopwatch strapped around his arm, and left the group and began strolling casually around the edge of the pool, watching Dann struggle to walk slowly through the vat, leaving a trail of pushed-aside foam behind him.

He moved carefully, treading forwards and trying to feel anything underneath the surface, trying not to be too distracted by the feeling of the stuff around him. Waves on the surface of the vat rippled away from him as he walked through it. Feeling around with his feet, he felt something resting on the bottom.

"Got something!" He moved himself so he was standing over it, dipping his arms further down and trying to reach it. Angela walked around the side of the vat to get closer to him.

"Come on, Dann, get in there!" she encouraged, watching him struggle around.

Dann looked up at her, then breathed in and crouched down so that the gunge came up to his chest. Feeling around his feet, he got a hold of what he had felt earlier and hauled himself up, feeling the wet sludge oozing slowly down his fur to settle back on the surface again. He awkwardly waded over to the pool's edge and put the cubic machine part at Angela's feet, then turned around and went to the middle again as she picked it up, shaking muck off his hands.

He watched her dash over to the panel beside the door as he continued searching, scooping the liquid out of the way with his hands to speed up his progress. Stubbing his toe against another part underneath the gunge, he bent forward to reach in to get it, and straightened again. He breathed out heavily to get rid of the bit of foam that had become attached to the end of his muzzle, brushed the lumpy gunge off his chest with one hand, and handed the second part up to Ivy.

As he turned around, he froze as a hooter went off. A stream of dark green slime splattered in to the middle of the pool from high above, and Dann turned his face away as it splashed outwards from the surface, making it ripple wildly. After just a couple of seconds it slowed to a drizzle, and he looked up to see a set of pipes in the ceiling that he hadn't noticed before, pointed down at the vat.

"The computer knows that we're here!" called the host as Dann struggled through the liquid, crossing the new green patch as he went to the middle. Another stream splurged down behind him, disturbing the surface with a thick glooping noise. "Better hurry up!"

He ducked down further, feeling forwards with his hands as well as his feet, and kept on searching, going around the edge of the vat. He turned his head towards another torrent that slapped down in to the pool, and at the same time his foot hit something else at the bottom.

Kneeling down so that he was nearly up to his neck, the slime lapping against his shoulders, he tried to get a grip of it, watching Blue walk around so she was next to him. Suddenly he yelped as he felt a deluge of wet gunge splatter out from his head, and toppled forwards under its weight, submerging completely under the surface which closed with a gloop behind him.

He surfaced quickly, grasping the part, and wiped at his eyes with his free hand, still feeling a drizzle pouring down on to his head. Exhaling sharply to clear his nose of slime, he blinked a couple of times and passed the third part up to Blue, who ran over to the panel as Ivy returned.

"Need some help in there?" Ivy paused, then quickly crouched down, swung her legs around and sat on the side, dangling her feet in to the gunge vat. She twisted round and put her hands on the edge, then lowered herself gently in to the muck, squeaking a little as she felt it against her flesh. The foam on the top had all but gone, leaving the murky green and brown surface visible.

She walked towards Dann with her arms outstretched for balance, looking down at the gunge as she moved. As she neared him she stopped, and felt a little forwards with her foot. "There's one here!" she called to him.

Dann waded towards her a little and ducked down again, feeling around with his hands under the surface. He came in to contact with something and grasped it, but it was different -

"Hey, Dann, that's me!" Ivy giggled, but didn't try to move away from him. Dann jerked his hands away from the bare thigh that he'd been grasping.

"Sorry!" he said, a little embarrassed, and ducked down further as Ivy watched him. He got hold of the fourth cube and waded to the side again, dodging left to avoid another thick green downpour, and put it on the side of the pool. Angela, at the panel, noticed and made her way over to collect it.

"One more, Ivy?" He turned to her and waded over to the opposite side of the vat to speed up the search, as both of them moved carefully, glancing upwards occasionally when the warning hooter went off.

"Got it!" The greenskin ducked down in to the vat and felt at her feet, stretching her head upwards to avoid getting her face in it. She got hold of it and stood up, the part clutched to her chest which was dripping with murky, lumpy slime. Turning towards the edge, she froze as the hooter sounded again, and looked up to get a faceful of green gunge.

Tensing up, she bowed her head as the stuff splurged out from her hair, and shrieked, gripping the cube tightly. Shaking her head as the last of the stuff dripped on to her, she carried on wading to the side and placed the part on the edge. She flicked her head back to get her messy hair out of her eyes, and put her hands on the edge, then hauled herself up and out of the tank with difficulty, wiggling a little to get rid of some of the muck clinging to her.

Dann did the same, reaching around to the back of his shorts to make sure that they didn't come off as he rose out of the pool, and he followed Ivy to the door as she slid the last part in to place. When it was in, Angela thumped the switch, and with a hum the door opened.

Alex walked calmly over to join them, paying no attention to the streams of gunge still pouring down occasionally in to the vat. "Good work, everyone - it took a while to find the parts, but you got it open in the end. I think I can give you 25 points for that, and that brings your total for the round up to a hundred and five. Now, time to escape!"

He walked between the four of them and through the door, and they filed in behind him. Behind it was a very small room with doors on both sides, which they all only just managed to squeeze in to.

"Sorry it's a little cramped, it wasn't really designed for five people," commented Alex as he closed the door behind them and hit a "launch" button on the wall. "We've only got one more place to visit now, and as luck would have it this pod takes us straight there - the chemical plant."

He looked around at the four of them, smiling as he saw the sludge that was still dripping down Dann and Ivy. "That was excellent work in the vat, you two," he said again as they brushed the slime off themselves. "You've got a total score of 390 for the trip so far, and these will be your last four games to score in before the final."

Suddenly a mechanical sound effect played, and Alex turned around as the opposite door opened. He led the team out to a narrow, dark platform overlooking a small pool of water - they could see the main corridor ahead of them, but a grille across the middle of the room blocked their way. The only illumination came from a flickering tube light on the ceiling.

"Oh, I forgot to mention - there's just one obstacle that we have to get past to get in. The pool leads to the other side underneath, though the grate's in the way on the surface - we'll have to go under."

With that, he leapt forwards in to the pool and ducked underneath the surface, guiding himself underneath with a hand on the bottom of the divider. He surfaced quickly on the other side, shaking his head to dry it a little, then put his hands on the edge and hauled himself out. With water trickling through his short red fur and dripping to the floor, he stood upright.

"Easy. Come on!"

Blue was the first to jump in to the water, making a large splash as she hit the surface. Wading over to the grille with the water up to her belly, she took a deep breath and submerged herself, guiding herself with her hand as Alex had. Quickly, she surfaced on the other side and pushed herself up out of the water.

Ivy went next, the pink gunge from the pod and the thicker stuff she had just been in being washed off by the water as she leapt in. She held her nose just before she went under, and kicked her legs to propel herself to the other side of the room.

As she broke the surface again, Dann stepped off the platform and in to the water, breathing in sharply at its coldness but suddenly feeling a lot cleaner as the gunk from before came free. Struggling through to the grille, he reached his hand under to grab the other side, then held his nose as Ivy had and sank underneath, hearing the splash as Angela leapt in behind him.

He surfaced again and wiped his eyes, shook his head and looked up at the others. Ivy, whose flesh was shining even more because of the wetness, bent down and extended her hand to help him out of the water. He couldn't help noticing her nipples had become visible through her bikini because of the water's temperature, but he tried to not let it distract him as he straightened himself up.

Angela came up from under the surface and clambered out, the water trickling through the long fur on her legs and back in to the pool. She had barely had enough time to get up and get her breath back again before the host took off down the corridor. The rest of the team looked at each other, then ran after him.

Abruptly, Alex stopped and spun around to face the four of them as they caught up. They were at a T-junction with a monitor set in to the otherwise blank wall.

"This is it, team - the chemical plant, the last place you'll be able to score points before the final, so it's vital that you do well here to get enough time." They nodded as he paused. "Before that, though, I've got something to show you - remember this, Angela?" He pointed over his shoulder.

"What?" Angela looked confused for a moment, then looked past him, and realising the monitor was showing something, stepped towards it. She burst out laughing as she saw what was on it, and Dann and the other two girls rushed over to join her.

Dann watched over the wolf girl's shoulder and smiled as he realised what it was as well. On the screen, a young grey wolf wearing a light blue T-shirt and shorts was being shown in to a clear cubicle, with a late high school age audience looking on. Even though she was several years younger, there was no mistaking that it was Angela.

She watched herself laugh excitedly on the screen and look up in to the top of the gunge tank, which was decorated with multi-coloured "splat" marks on its walls. Beside her, both the team that had won and her own team mates were looking on. One of the girls wearing similar blue outfits was directed by the host towards a lever at the front of the tank - she was another wolf, but with longer, golden brown fur.

After showing her to the lever, the white she-cat host turned back to the occupant of the gunge tank. "Well, Angela - your team lost to the yellows, but here's one more easy question for you - what do the colours blue and yellow make?" The camera switched to the young Angela squirming excitedly inside the machine, and Dann glanced to the side to see that she was grinning at the memory of being inside there.

"Green", the on-screen Angela giggled, glancing upwards again at the spout above her head before looking at her team mate at the lever.

"That's right - pull it, Dawn!" The other girl tugged the lever hard, starting a siren along with flashing lights inside the machine, the colours of both teams. The young Angela covered her eyes with her hands, her mouth still open in a smile, and she suddenly disappeared beneath a torrent of light green slime dropped from the top of the tank. A huge cheer from the audience went up as she squirmed down under the weight of the falling gunge, which was rebounding out from her head again and lapping against the tank's walls.

Dann himself chuckled at what he was seeing as the on-screen deluge slowly eased off to a drizzle that poured down Angela's head and oozed stickily down her muzzle. As it became just a few drips, the girl cleared her face with her hands - it was easy to see that the wolf really had enjoyed it as much as she was now.

He looked around at Alex again as the monitor showed a grinning wolf girl with green slime clinging to strands of her shaggy hair, slowly dripping to the floor, and the clip faded out.

"Yes, I'm sure you remember that," said Alex as he put his arm around her, leading her away from the screen and down the corridor. He stopped at a nearby doorway and punched a code in to a keypad next to a door with his free hand. "Now, we have something for you in here."

Angela's eyes widened as she guessed what it might be, and as the door hummed open she excitedly shrieked as she saw what was inside. She dashed in to the small room, followed by the host and the rest of the team.

Dann had already guessed what it was when he stepped through. The girl that he had seen pull the lever on the monitor was inside a cubicle in the middle of the room, with a pipe leading from it to the low ceiling. Her sleek golden brown fur shone under the light from above, and she was wearing only a black bikini with the "IZ" logo on one side. She looked a little worried, but still had a smile on her face as she saw Angela's surprise at her being there.

"So, Angela, introduce us!" said Alex, walking up from behind her and leaning against the cubicle.

"Well..." She cleared her throat and calmed down. "This is Dawn, everyone... we were at school together, and she was the one that pulled the lever to cover me in gunge when we were both on that game show in our last year." Angela paused for breath, still visibly excited. "Am I going to get to gunge her?"

"We'll see about that," grinned Alex, and turned to Dawn. "Welcome to the Industrial Zone, Dawn, how are you feeling about having masses of green slime splatting down on to you from that pipe?"

"Nervous, but I'm kind of looking forward to it!" She looked up in to the pipe above her head.

"Good! Remember it won't definitely happen... you've got a chance to let Angela get it instead." Alex walked around to the front of the tank again, producing a couple of devices from his pocket that looked like TV remotes. He bent down and lifted the door of the tank up a couple of inches by a handle on the base, then slid one of the controllers to Dawn, who picked it up. "You were on a school show before - how are your maths skills?" he asked as he closed the tank again and straightened.

"Oh, terrible!" laughed Dawn. "I think that was what got Angela gunged in the first place."

"She's right, but it really wasn't my best subject either," agreed Angela, accepting the other device from Alex. Dann looked over the girl's shoulder and saw that it simply had ten figures and an Enter key on it. The presenter took her hand and led her over to stand beside her friend's gunge tank, facing a large monitor on the wall.

"Well, I thought it would be an idea to ask the computer to see how much you'd improved since then. He's going to ask you a minute's worth of quick problems - at least, he thinks they're quick - and the first one of you two to key in the right answer to each will get a point. At the end of the minute, if you've got the most points, Angela, then Dawn knows what's going to happen..."

Dawn giggled, and pointed up to the pipe above her head. "Yes, that's right, Dawn... but if you've got the most points then we'll get you out of there and you'll get to gunge Angela... again! Sound fair?"

Both contestants nodded. "No helping her in this game, team, I'm afraid - and Angela, the points you get for the team will depend on how far you are in the lead when the minute's up. If you're in the lead, that is! Ready..." The girls both raised their pads, pointing them at the screen. "Silicon, start the questions!" The lights dimmed and the host took a step back, leaving the contestants watching the monitor.

Dann watched the questions slowly going past and the scores both rising. Both of the girls seemed to be doing equally badly - the questions seemed simple enough to him, but he supposed that it would be different if he was under the pressure of time. And gunge, he smiled as he added to himself.

He wondered if he should cheer Angela on or something, but kept quiet as the seconds were counted down on the screen. There were just a few seconds left now - Angela was just leading by one point, and the question on-screen was 192 x 3. He looked over at them and laughed to himself at the sight of them trying to work it out - Angela had her hand over here eyes and was nodding in time to herself counting in her head, Dawn was tapping on her pad and trying numbers as they came in to her head. Suddenly, Angela reached down and stabbed out an answer, making her score to rise to two above Dawn's with a blip. A moment later, a hooter sounded to signal the minute was up.

Dawn looked at the pipe again with a nervous grin on her face as Alex stepped forward. "Two ahead, Angela! Good work at the end there, that's twenty points for the team... but your main prize is inside here!" He knelt down beside Dawn, who burst in to giggles, hunching herself up on the seat and squeezing her clasped hands between her legs. "And she looks like she's going to love it... come on over." Getting up, he walked over to a large switch set in to the wall below the monitor. Angela excitedly raced over and took hold of it.

"But," he continued as he placed his hand over hers on the lever, "you can earn ten extra points if you let someone else pull the lever and go in there yourself as well!"

Dawn cheered and beckoned Angela with both her hands. "Come on in, Angela!"

The wolf looked from her friend to the lever and back again, a smile appearing on her muzzle. "Yeah, of course I'll do it!"

Alex walked over to the tank with a grin and leaned over to grab the handle at the base of the front, then slid the door up the way, motioning for her to step inside. She did so, grinning, and took her place on the bench next to the other victim. The host leaned in to take both of their controllers, then they put their arms round each other's shoulders as the door was closed again. Angela looked up in to the pipe that was now looming above her.

"Hope you're ready, Dawn, you're about to find out how it felt!" Alex looked around at the three other contestants. "Ivy, Angela's been getting you to face the slime a lot, I think it's your turn now. Get ready!" Ivy moved to the lever as the rest of the team and Alex gathered around the tank to watch. "Count it down, team! Three..."

Dawn took a glance upwards and giggled, hunching down a little further on to the seat.

"Two..."

Angela, who was by now laughing as well, squirmed a little closer, her arm jiggling on Dawn's shoulder.

"One..."

The grey wolf put her other arm up in the air and grinned, while the other girl put her free hand over her eyes.

"Gunge them!" called Alex to Ivy, who pulled the lever and started up the whooping siren. At the same moment, a thick green torrent of gunge dropped from the pipe above and hit Dawn right on top of her head.

She gave a high-pitched squeal which quickly turned to laughter as the deluge splattered off her head - the rich muddy texture of the gunge made it come away in lumps rather than form an umbrella, which splatted against the tank's walls as well as the side of Angela's face. She took her hand away from her eyes and looked at the floor instead, trying to flick the substance off her arm as the flow was moved over to Angela's side.

Angela stuck her tongue out as she was enveloped by the messy downpour, the slime sticking to her long fur and staining her clean swimwear a darker green colour. Dawn looked away as it splattered towards her the same way it had done before, and held her hand up in the air above her as she felt it coming back to her side, sending lumps of it cascading down on to both girls.

Thick dollops of the slime dripped from the overhead pipe as the torrent slowed down, dripping on to the girls' shoulders. Dawn shivered as she felt the slime coating her head dripping down and around the back of her neck. As the siren shut off, Angela turned more towards her and hugged her fully, pressing their gungy cheeks together.

Alex moved forwards to open the door again, laughing. "Come on out, Angela - Dawn, I'm afraid you're staying in there a while." Angela ducked out of the tank, leaving the thoroughly messy Dawn inside, and the host closed the door on her again. "How are you feeling, by the way?"

"Just great," she responded. She yelped again and put her hands to her head as more green stuff was dropped on to her, a thick wet slapping sound being made as it hit her and dripped to the floor of the tank. When she was sure it was over, she wiped her hands over her eyes and up across her head, grinning out through the front of the tank as gungy lumps dripped from her caked fur. 

"Well, enjoy yourself, because you're trapped in there until the end of the show! We're going to move on now, I'm afraid," said Alex, turning towards the door and leaving her to wipe herself off. Angela ran her fingers over her head and flicked the collected slime off to the floor, then waved to Dawn as she walked out of the room, followed by the three others.

The host turned to the team leader as the door hummed closed behind them. "Good work there, Angela, that's thirty points for a start to the round, and you're looking pretty good in green. We've still a lot more to do here, though, so I think I'd like two contestants to play against each other in this next game. Who are they going to be?"

Angela immediately turned to Dann, much to his delight. "Let's have Dann and..." she looked between the two other girls, "...Blue."

"Right! Dann, you've been gunged in every game you've been in before, let's hope this one goes better for you!" Alex took both the selected contestants' hands as he ran past them, and continued going as they staggered a little in their run to keep up with him. After turning a corner, he abruptly stopped and let go of them to put a code in to a door panel, then jumped inside before the door had finished opening. The two contestants that had been selected walked in behind him, followed by Angela and Ivy.

Dann stepped out from behind Alex and looked around at the contents of the room, hearing the door hum closed behind him. The most prominent feature was the gunge chute - in the centre of the back wall there was a large nozzle pointing down from the ceiling, but there was nothing below it. He looked to his left and right and saw that the tanks that they would be using weren't yet under it - they were mounted on wheels which were attached to rails on the floor. Both of the rails curved around so that the tanks' routes took them under the gunge spout.

"Take a tank, both of you!" the host directed, and Dann headed for the left one, it being the nearer to him. Reaching up, he pulled the handle on the door of the phonebooth-like cubicle, which swung outwards. Taking a large step up to get inside it, he attempted the tricky task of closing the door behind him. The door was the full height of the tank, rather than just half of it, and didn't have a handle on the inside. He looked across and saw Blue struggling as well, then turned to Alex as he spoke again.

"Looks like they need some help, you two. Could you close the doors for them?" he asked the two remaining contestants beside him. Ivy immediately dashed over to Dann's tank and shut him in, with Angela arriving next to Blue a few seconds later. "And lock them!" he grinned as the two contestants outside the tanks turned the locks on the doors to trap them inside.

Dann pushed a little on the door of his tank, grinning at Ivy as he checked that he was indeed stuck in the open-topped cubicle, then turned and from his higher position noticed lines painted on the floor across the rails, marked with increasing numbers the closer they were to the central chute.

"Okay, Dann and Blue. Each of you will be trying to gunge the other in this game, but you've got to work together as well. I'm going to ask you both questions in turn. If you get it right, your opponent will be moved one space towards the nozzle that you see in the centre there. But if you get it wrong or pass it, you move instead. And of course, whoever reaches that nozzle first gets gallons of slime poured in to their tank," he laughed, watching Blue shudder a little as she looked towards it. Dann just grinned, he couldn't have been looking forward to it more.

"When one of you gets slimed, though, the amount of points the team gets will be the number that's on the line that the other tank is on. You're both on zero just now, and there are four more lines before you reach the end of the course and that gunge machine. So to get the maximum points you'll have to work together... or you could be ruthless and get your opponent under there as fast as possible! Ready to begin?"

Dann nodded, watching Ivy turn to him to watch. Listening to his first question from the host, he thought for a minute before giving the right answer, making Blue look over at the spout on the ceiling worriedly.

"Angela, could you give her a push along? That's it," the host said as Angela wheeled the tank over. Blue wobbled, almost overbalancing, as the wolf girl stopped it on the second line, which had the figure 5 painted next to it. "Now, Blue, your chance to get even again..."

Blue got her question wrong, though, and pressed her hands against the sides of her cubicle to keep herself upright as she was moved to the fifteen-point mark. Letting go, she turned back to Dann as he was asked another question.

"Sorry, Dann, wrong answer!" The fox looked over at the nozzle as Ivy turned to him, grinning up at him as she moved his tank over to the second line. She pulled it back a little to get it in to place as the host asked Blue another question. This time, she got it right, moving Dann another line up so that they were side by side again.

Dann thought for a while on the fifth of the game's questions, then decided to pass it. "Getting close now!" commented Alex as he was moved by Ivy past Blue and up to the line marked "25", only one line away from the curve that led under the nozzle.

He leaned forwards against the door of the tank and watched Blue struggle with her question. Eventually, she gave an answer, but it was wrong, and she put her arms out again to balance as Angela pushed her tank another line closer.

With the two of them parallel again, Dann answered his question correctly, sending Blue to the last line, which was worth fifty points. She gulped nervously as she got a close look at the underside of the device on the ceiling, only a metre away around the curve of the track.

"Not looking good for you, Blue! But the game hinges on you now - if you get this right then you'll get fifty points for the game, and... well, you might be gunged anyway... but if you get this wrong, think of going under that!" Alex walked forwards so that he was between the two tanks as he turned to her and asked the crucial question. When she answered it, a grin spread across his face and he slowly looked up at her.

"Sorry, Blue, it's the wrong answer!" He quickly continued as his girlfriend gasped, taking a look over at the central machine again. "Angela, push that tank again, and get out of there!"

Grinning as only she could, the wolf girl braced herself against the floor and pushed on the tank again. Dann and Ivy cheered as they watched her moving it around the curve. The lights in the room dimmed to red and an urgent-sounding buzzer started ringing as the occupant of the tank ducked under her hands. Looking up at the nozzle as her tank was stopped under it, she yelped as the machine started up, a torrent of thick and gooey red slime splatting off her from the ceiling and coating the walls of the cubicle. It shone under the light as it domed out from Blue's head, hiding her from view.

Angela hopped over the rail as it continued, a high alarm bell being added to the buzzing sound. Suddenly the downpour stopped, and Blue, who had red gunge dripping from all over her, cautiously straightened, removing her hands from her head. As soon as she had done, she squeaked as she felt even more starting to pour in, not just one stream this time but a multitude of drizzles of green gel from the roof, which heaped up a little on her skin and clothing before beginning to drip stickily downwards in to the red pool that had already reached ankle-height. She covered her eyes with her hands, bouncing on her feet as she felt it creep down her.

Slowly, the green stuff ran out and she wiped her eyes as the sirens shut off. She put her hands down at her sides, but instantly they shot to her head again when another column of red slime glooped down on to her from the ceiling, hitting her on the back of her neck and working its way in to her shirt before splashing down in to the collected slime below. After a brief downpour, it slowed to a few drips, this time staying stopped as the lights came back up.

With the rest of the team cheering, Alex moved forwards and unlocked the door, stepping back as he opened it and the stuff sloshed out on to the floor. He offered his hand to Blue, who took it as she carefully stepped down from the tank, cautiously putting her messy feet on the floor before putting her weight on them. When she was down she smiled at Alex and stroked her messy fingers through his chest fur, leaving his front streaked with brown mixed slime.

"Twenty-five points!" he announced simply as he unlocked Dann's cubicle as well. Dann got down a lot more easily than Blue had, and laughed as she lunged towards him as well, smearing the stuff over his cheeks and forehead. Struggling away from her, he wiped it off with his hands and turned to Alex.

"You're doing pretty well for the last round, team, you've already got 55 points here so far, and two very messy contestants... still, it's time to move on again, and this next game's going to involve the whole team..." He moved towards the door again and continued, "There's something down the corridor that I'd like to show you!"

Leaving the room, he waited for the others to catch up with him once he was out the door, and led them down the corridor to a space where there was a much wider space at the side. Against the back wall of this area was a row of four large clear inflatable chairs, spaced about a metre apart from each other, and above them was a large cylindrical pipe that spanned the whole width of the room. Attached to the bottom of the pipe on a rail, at one side of the room and not in a threatening position yet, a large nozzle hung down from the main part of it. A couple of hanging tubes were connected around it to make it look more complex, and, Dann thought excitedly, somehow threatening. It was something that he'd seen before in the first series...

"The Dispenser! Take a seat, everyone, forgive me for not joining you..." Alex gestured towards the chairs, and each team member headed for a seat as he explained further. "This machine used to be just part of the chemical production line, but we've adapted it for our own purposes here."

Dann turned around and sat down, feeling the plastic surface give a little as it took his weight. He watched Ivy sit down beside him on the far left chair, while Angela and Blue took the seats to his right. He leaned back, resting his arms on the arms of the chair, and noticed that the opposite wall was a large mirror, letting each contestant see all of their fellow competitors as well as the large pipe above them. He struggled to lean forward and looked down at the ground - the chair was quite high and his feet weren't touching the floor, instead dangling at the front so that his weight was entirely in the chair. The same went for all of the other contestants apart from Angela, whose long legs let her rest just her tiptoes on the ground.

"It's a simple device, this," continued Alex. "As the name suggests, the whole thing was just a dispenser for the large amounts of chemicals that were manufactured here. As I'm sure you've realised, we've taken out the bottom half of it and put you four under there," he grinned.

All four team members looked up above their heads as the nozzle began to move across them, passing quickly over all of their seats. Dann noticed that Ivy ducked a bit as it slowed down above her at the end of the row, but it went back the way it came and stopped at the far side where it had started again.

"Here's how it'll work - that dispensing nozzle above your heads will slide so that it's above someone, and I'll ask them a question. If you get the answer right, then it just moves on... but if you're wrong..." He paused for a moment and looked up at it, then back to the team, looking around at all of them as he spoke. "I'm sure you can guess! But the good news is that it's not just gunge in there, you'll get a couple of chances before being covered in slime." His smile got wider again - Dann could tell he was loving this. "Also, if you don't know the answer to a question, you can pass, but then that'll force the contestant before you to answer it - with the same penalty if they get it wrong!"

A row of ten lights flashed on behind the chairs, seen by the team in the mirror. "When anyone gets a question wrong, one light will go off, and when they're all off I'm afraid we have to move on. Once any of you've been slimed, I'll leave the gungy contestant alone and won't ask them any more questions." He looked around at them again, then pulled a set of question cards out of the pocket of his loose fitting trousers. "Sounds rather complicated for what it is. Well, it's the way Silicon wants it to be done - I'm sure you'll pick it up as we go along!" He cleared his throat. "I think we'll start from the left... Angela!"

The wolf girl, who had seated herself as near to the nozzle as she could get, looked up excitedly as the machinery slid in to place above her, humming as it moved. It stopped suddenly, making the dangling tubes swing back and forward from the sudden jolt, and she looked back at Alex.

"As we're in the chemical plant, they'll be chemistry-themed questions... I hope you're good at them! But it's going to take a lot of effort to get the top score here, you'll only get five points for every two questions that are answered correctly. Angela - to the nearest hundred, how many elements have been given names?"

"Oh, that's easy... one hundred... and nine, isn't it?"

"Correct! But don't get too confident, they do get harder!" Alex took a few paces along, keeping with the nozzle as it slid so that it was above Blue, who glanced up at it, smiling nervously as she heard the click.

"Blue! Who first constructed the periodic table?"

The lizard girl opened her mouth, her eyes widening a little. "I... oh, what was the name... Men-something? Mun..." She stopped abruptly as a loud hooter went off, and squirmed down in to the chair, hunching her shoulders. As the sound of the hooter ended, a torrent of water was dropped on to her, and she shrieked and flailed her dangling legs in front of her as it splashed outwards, a few drops hitting Angela and Dann in the neighbouring chairs. She leaned forwards and shook her head as the last of it dripped on to the back of her neck, her clothing soaked and the watered-down gunge from the previous game running off her in streams.

"Are you all right, Blue?" the presented asked, keeping the smile on his face. One of the lights at the back of the room had turned off, leaving nine.

"It's cold!" Blue threw herself back in the chair and shivered as the nozzle began moving again. Dann watched it closely as he saw it move in to place above him, until he was staring right up the dark chute in the centre of it. He looked at Alex again as he said his name.

"Dann, what's the formula for the substance that Blue just got covered in - water?" he asked.

"H-two-O," Dann answered carefully. It was something he was sure of, but answering questions seemed far more difficult when there was the threat of that thing above his head. Not that he wouldn't have enjoyed the consequences.

"Correct, that's the first five points earned! Now, Ivy..." Alex paused, watching the large funnel slide over towards her. She squirmed upright in the chair, giggling as it moved so that it was ready to soak her.

"What's the common name for calcium carbonate?"

Ivy thought for just a second, then glanced over at Dann. "Pass!" she called back to Alex. The hum of the sliding nozzle started up again, and Dann's heart jumped as it moved back over to him.

"Well, Dann, do you have any idea?"

Dann looked over at Ivy, an apologetic grin across his muzzle. He was sure he should know the answer, but just couldn't remember while that thing was above him. "Don't know!" he said to the presenter, and closed his eyes, hunching his shoulders as the hooter went off again.

He yelped through his closed mouth as the freezing cold deluge splashed on to his head, flattening his ears against it, and he felt it trickling down through his fur and soaking his clothing. Feeling it drizzling in a stream from the end of his muzzle, he opened his eyes again as the last of it dripped on to his head.

"Sorry, Dann!" He heard Ivy giggle from his left, and turned to her, blinking water out of his eyes and smiling at her. He looked up as the funnel moved back so that it was looming over her again.

"Ivy, you escaped the last question, here's another..."

Dann twisted in his chair, looking at the row of lights - eight of them were left on. Blue was still trying to brush drops of water off her head and the exposed parts of her arms. Angela, a couple of drops of green gunge from the tank three games ago still dripping from her fur, was watching the whole game in the mirror in front of them.

He whipped his head round to Ivy as he heard the hooter go off, and saw her hunch forwards in the seat, the edges of a smile visible round the hands that she'd clasped to her face when she had heard it. She dipped down as the water hit her, bouncing up and down in the chair while it ran off her and pooled on the seat. Soon it stopped, leaving her hair dripping and stuck to her head, with droplets of water on her skin and trickling down her legs, drizzling from her bare feet to the floor.

"Only one dry contestant left now, and we're back to her - Angela!" The wolf grasped the arms of the chair and pulled herself a bit more upright while the nozzle slid over back to her, dripping a little water on Dann and Blue along the way. She got her question right again, though, and the funnel was moved on to the lizard girl.

"Blue, what's the name given to the process that separates chemicals by boiling them?"

She thought for a moment, her lips moving as she tried to remember, then abruptly looked up. "Distilling! Distillation!" She pointed a finger at her boyfriend triumphantly as she said it.

"Correct, well done! Your turn again, Dann." This time, Dann watched the machinery slide above him in the mirror on the wall. This was a game from the first series that he'd always loved to watch, and it was even better getting to see himself taking part in it.

"What would you use a Buchner funnel for?"

Dann felt his heart speed up again - he had no idea what the answer was. He looked over at Blue, who he could pass the question back to, but she didn't look as if she knew it either, and anyway, he would just end up getting another -

His thoughts were interrupted by the hooter going off again, and he realised that he'd left it too late. Squeezing his eyes closed, he gripped the arms of the chair as a wet hissing sound started up above him, and a moment later he felt a wave of thick but light stuff spattering on to his head and shoulders. He grinned as it continued, having guessed what he was being covered in, and shuddered as he felt the stuff rolling and dripping down his chest and back, a couple of blobs of it splatting on to his arms.

Laughing as the hissing stopped, he brought his hands up and wiped them across his eyes to clear them, then shook his hands to get rid of the foamy mass that he had scooped from his face. Holding his arms out to the sides, he looked down as the stuff slowly crept down his clothing - as he had thought, it was custard pie foam, like shaving foam but less soapy, and it clung more than soap foam would. He ran his hands down his muzzle as the machine was moved on towards Ivy.

"The first one to be foamed, Dann! But we've got two more contestants in danger of a foaming, and Ivy's one of them... Ivy, how many atoms does the prefix 'but' suggest?"

"Four?" Ivy hesitated before answering her question, closing her eyes as she guessed the answer, but she had guessed luckily - the nozzle slid all the way back to Angela again.

"All right, team leader, you're doing well - a correct answer to this will bring you up to fifteen points. What's the only non-metal that conducts electricity?"

Angela thought for a moment, then looked up at Alex. "Silicon?" She jumped as the hooter went off halfway through her saying it, and curled up on the chair as she was soaked with water from the overhead funnel, which splashed outwards to hit the wall and spatter on to Blue as well. The green slime from the game Angela had been in before was washed away by the cold downpour. Hugging her knees, she slowly looked up and relaxed as it slowed and dripped on to her, the water trickling out of her wet fur as she put her feet on the floor again.

"Carbon, it's carbon, isn't it?" she said, shaking herself out as best as she could while seated, and spraying water everywhere.

"Right the second time," smiled Alex. "That's three contestants soaked and one foamed... only five lives left!" He took a couple of paces with the funnel as it hummed over to position itself above Blue. This time, the lizard girl got her question right easily, and Dann straightened himself up, feeling excitement rise as the large machine slid over to him.

"You're in danger of being gunged, Dann! Ready?" Dann nodded, still trying to pull himself up against the slipperiness of the foam on the chair. "What's the chemical name for table salt?"

"Sodium chloride", Dann responded carefully. He was sure that was right, but glanced nervously upwards anyway...

"Correct!" He relaxed as the funnel slid away from him and took up position above Ivy again. Like he had done, Ivy squirmed back in the chair so that she was sitting up straight in it.

"Ivy, to avoid getting foamy, what's the two letter symbol for the element iron?"

"Ir?" she guessed, but jumped as the hooter signalled that she'd given a wrong answer. She closed her eyes, laughing and squealing as the pie foam squirted down on to her from the machine with a loud hissing noise, the blobs of white foam piling up on her hair and shoulders as they rained down on her. A couple of drips of it rolled off down her chest, pooling at the edge of her bikini top, with more stray foam collecting in her lap.

Bringing her hands up to her face to clear her hair out her eyes, she flung a handful of the stuff over at Dann, who had been watching the pretty greenskin being covered very closely indeed. She met his gaze, a wide grin on her face, then looked up as the nozzle was once more moved back to Angela.

"Just four more chances, let's hope you can get this one, Angela!" Alex asked her her question, but she got it wrong again and was also covered in foam as the machine hissed above her. She stayed still in the chair with her eyes closed but smiling as the foam sprayed down, covering her features as it clung to her wet fur. Tapping her fingers on the arms of the seat, she shook her head as she heard the hiss of the spray stop.

"Bad luck!" Alex said simply. "It's Blue's turn again now..." He began asking her the question just as the funnel clicked in to place above her. "What is the lightest element?"

Blue hesitated, then glanced to the side at Angela, who nodded at her. "Pass!" she said back to him, and sagged back in to her chair as the funnel moved back over to the team leader.

"Well, Angela, you seemed to know it - what's the answer?"

"Helium." Angela's mouth fell open as the hooter sounded again, realising what was about to happen. This time, another faster siren started up, and a torrent of red and yellow gunge hit the girl, splattering off her in a dome shape and almost hitting Blue as well. Angela yelped as the mess hit her, the ooze beginning to mingle in to a smooth orange colour as the torrent became a thinner column, making it slide down over her slimy fur after hitting her on top of the head.

Dann and Ivy leaned forwards in their chairs to get a better view of her as she lifted her arms off the arms of the seat, which was bouncing slightly as the added weight of the gunge fell on it. The slime dripped from the tips of her fingers, oozing down past her shoulders over her breasts, and sliding off the front of her bowed face. The column slowed to a drizzle, then to drips that spattered off her head to the floor, as she raised her hands in the air and flicked them down, sending a wave of the heavy slime off them and in to her lap. As the hooter sounded again to signal that it was over, she cleared her face of gunge, getting her ears to point up again from where they'd stuck down on to her head, and leaned forwards to wipe her gungy hands on her relatively clean lower legs, smearing the orange mixture down them.

"Oh, Angela - gunged by Blue!" The host laughed as the gungy lupine playfully flicked her hand at the lizard girl, sending a few drops of the liquid in her direction. "Sorry, but the answer I was looking for was hydrogen... how does it feel being slimed under the dispenser?"

"Great." She wiggled her fingers and toes as she held her hands out, making the slime drip from them, then returned her hands to the arms of the seat.

"Well, you're safe from any more questions, at least," said the host as the other contestants leaned back in their chairs, ready to carry on as the funnel moved onwards. "We've got two chances left, and a lot of points to get! Blue, you've not even been foamed yet, and you can't pass this time..."

This time, though, Blue got her question right, and despite the thoughts of getting gunged like Angela had just done, so did Dann. Ivy cleared her throat and ran a hand through her white-spattered hair as the nozzle slid in to position above her.

"Ivy, to avoid the gunge, what kind of light would you use to find the composition of a chemical?" Ivy looked worried, but relaxed as he gave her two choices - "Infra-red, or ultra-violet?"

She looked over at Dann again, and he thought uneasily for a moment she was going to pass the question back to him, but then she turned to Alex. "Ultra-violet."

The hooter sounded again, and Ivy's eyes widened. Closing her eyes as she was enveloped by blue and green slime, she cupped her hands over her nose and mouth, and squeaked through her tightly closed lips as the siren rang. Dann leaned closer to her, watching her squirm around underneath the messy downpour as it flowed over her head and down her shoulders, working its way in to and over her swimwear and covering every inch of her green flesh as it mixed in to a turquoise mess.

With the air-filled chair wobbling underneath her, she raised her slimy arms up in to the deluge and made it splatter away from her. Dann shifted away a little in his chair as a splash of it flew towards his chair, landing with a wet slurp just below the arm of his seat. After that, the torrent of ooze above Ivy subsided, leaving the mixture of coloured gunge dripping from the fringe of her hair, running down her arms to the elbows and oozing off them to her lap.

"Sorry, Ivy, I don't think you need me to tell you what the correct answer was!" She ran her hands up over her face and through her hair, the deep green colour of her skin becoming visible again as she wiped the gunge off, and again she grinned over at Dann cutely. He returned her smile, then faced the presenter as his name was mentioned.

"Dann and Blue, just you two now..." The nozzle slid over to the blue lizard to start again, with the orange gunk-covered Angela looking on from beside her. "Just one life left, and you've got twenty points so far... one more question right to get it to twenty-five."

Dann was paying far more attention to Ivy than to Blue's question. She looked gorgeous sitting there covered in slippery slime, and she clearly knew he thought so - she blew a quick kiss at him while the lizard was answering, a drip of slime falling from her hand to the ground. He could only think to smile back at her as the funnel hummed back towards him.

"Careful here, Dann, getting this question wrong won't only gunge you but it'll end the game with 25 points. What's the atomic number for uranium?"

Dann shook his head, then looked at Blue, who obviously had no idea either. He could pass it to her and get her foamed, but the game would end anyway, and besides, he wanted to be gunged. He looked in the mirror at the one light that was left on, then to Alex. "No idea," he declared, letting a grin spread across his face at the thought of what him saying that meant.

Sure enough, the hooter sounded another time, and he closed his eyes, keeping his grin fixed in place as he heard the siren start up. A moment later he leaned forwards as he was engulfed in the sticky torrent of gunge from above, shaking as he felt the wet stuff soak in to the thin clothing that he was wearing, and slide down past and through his fur.

"Gunged," he mouthed to himself with a grin underneath the deluge, feeling the heavy liquid pour down on to his bowed head and slither past his shoulders, coating his back. Soon, he felt it subside, and leaned back to put his head under the last drizzle, feeling it drip from his head as he heard the hooter sound for the last time, with Ivy clapping excitedly from beside him.

"It's all over - 25 points! A good score for a game in the last round." Dann wiped his hand across his eyes, blinking a couple of times as he saw a couple more drips of goo splash down in to his lap - he was covered in a mixture of green and yellow gunge, which had made a bright lime green colour as it hit him. He began to climb out of the seat as Ivy walked over to him, and accepted her outstretched hand, slipping out of her grasp a couple of times but eventually being pulled up off the seat by her.

He shivered a little as the slime oozed down his legs to cover the red fur on them, and ran his left hand up through the fur on his head as he smiled at Ivy. He stretched his hands out and stepped forward, and she accepted the hug, putting her slimy arms around him. He stumbled as she suddenly squeezed him close to her, grinning in to his face, and to his surprise she gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Before he could react, she wriggled out of his grasp, took his hand and led him across to Alex, behind the other two contestants.

"Well played, everyone, it was a struggle to get points there but you managed it rather well. No time to recover, I'm afraid, because we've just got time for one more game before the final. For the last game, there's an opportunity to get a full fifty points... but whoever volunteers will have to get gunged without any protection at all - and that includes clothing!"

Dann had seen this before on the show - they didn't really force the contestant to be naked, they always had them strapped in to a chair in a way so that it covered them up. He still wasn't keen on volunteering for this one, though, so he looked down and brushed the wet gunge from the dispenser off his fur, trying to not draw attention to himself.

"I'll do that." Surprised to hear Blue's voice, he turned to her along with the other two girls. She looked back at them. "Well, I was the only one that didn't get it in the last game," she continued.

"Sounds good to me," answered Angela. "No one else want to do it?" As the rest of the team stayed silent, Alex took his girlfriend's hand.

"All right, Blue, you asked for it! Now, I know just the place to put you..." He led them around a corner, passing a door on the way, to a small hatch set in to the wall.

"There it is." He hauled it open and bent down to peer inside at the darkness. "Now, if that leads where I think it does, it comes out in a tank that's just off the room we passed back there. It's not been used for years, but when this building was still running it was used as a waste tank - all the oil, lubricant for the machines and all the other grime like that was piped in to there after use."

Blue shuddered, but kept her smile - like everyone else, she could see what was coming.

"The pipes were sealed off years ago, so there must have been quite a build-up of the stuff since then. The computer's not been able to get rid of the gunk either... that is, until we give it access to it," he smiled. "Still, what we need to decide now is just how much protection you're getting for this, Blue. A pair of goggles will cost you ten points. Sacrificing twenty will get you a shower cap as well. If you want waterproofs to wear then you have to pay forty points, and if you're willing to give up all fifty then we'll just leave this and go straight to the Final. What do you think?"

"I'll just go in without anything," said Blue immediately. "We need the points!" The other team members nodded.

"Well, if you're sure! Crawl along the tunnel until you get there, and if you get undressed and strap yourself in to the chair we'll be right with you. Push the button on the chair once you're ready."

"OK." Blue bent down and looked in to the dark, tentatively putting her hands inside the tunnel with the team cheering her on behind her. Alex closed the hatch behind her as she crawled fully inside.

"Well, there's no turning back for her now!" the presenter commented as he guided the rest of the team back around the corner. He punched another code in on the door panel to slide it open, then led them inside.

Dann looked around - this room was small and grimy, a couple of tube lights on the ceiling dimly illuminating the space. On the wall nearest the hatch that they'd just left was a pair of flat metal panels, one above the other, reaching from floor to low ceiling. In front of it were two levers set in to the floor, one slightly larger than the other.

"It really looks like it hasn't been used in ages... I wonder just how much is waiting to be pumped in," Alex acted thinking out loud as they gathered around the levers, facing the panel. "Anyway... once she's ready we'll open up the tank from here, and then we can unseal the pipes that lead to it by pulling the bigger lever. It should probably make for a good gunging," he grinned. "Enjoyed yourselves so far?"

His question was greeted with a whoop from the two girls, and Dann just grinned and nodded in response. He certainly had.

"I thought so. Anyway..." Alex paused for a while, looking towards the wall that Blue was behind. A small light suddenly came on just beside it. "Right, that's her ready now, so let's get this started!" He pulled the smaller of the switches in the floor and turned back towards the metal panels. With a humming noise, the top one began to slowly slide in to the ceiling, revealing the lizard girl sitting in a metallic tank set in to the wall, half open at the top. She had discarded her IZ clothing and was now just covered by a set of straps in the chair she occupied. They were no more revealing than a bikini would have been. She smiled as the door stopped with a clank, a green light from above appearing to tint her skin slightly turquoise.

"This is what we call the Hotseat." Alex grinned at her as she shivered. "So, the only question is - are you ready, Blue?" He placed his hand on the larger lever. "You've decided to go in there without any protection, without even any goggles, for a full fifty points - are you sure about this?"

Blue looked at the small protruding nozzles to her left and right, and then the mechanism above her head, hidden from the rest of the team. Closing her eyes, she nodded, and hunched her shoulders, wringing her clasped hands nervously in her lap.

"Angela! I think the team leader should get to do the honours." Alex stepped back from the lever and gestured towards it. "That'll let Silicon start the machine up."

The wolfgirl smiled, showing her teeth a little, and strode up to the lever to take hold of it. With a look at the girl in the tank, she tugged on it, triggering both the electronic laughter and the familiar alarm as the lights dimmed.

A sickly grin spread across Blue's face as the alarm continued, and she seemed to try to hunch herself inwards even more, the soft green shade from above now the only light in the room. She opened one eye, and quickly closed it again, jiggling in the seat as she waited for something to happen.

Suddenly, the machine started, and Angela gave a whoop as two streams of green gel from the sides of the tank spurted towards the lizard girl. With a yelp as the streams splattered against her neck, the victim jumped slightly, arched her shoulders further up and opened her eyes again. She looked down to watch it as it clung to her skin and drizzled down the way, working its way underneath the straps that covered her. She wriggled, the streams being played down to her shoulders, and shut her eyes tightly as they then moved up closer to her face.

As the siren got faster, she screwed up her face, which was instantly hidden from the rest of the team by a column of thicker yellow gunge which hit her right on the head, splurging out the way in to an umbrella which changed shape slightly as she squirmed underneath the deluge. She moved her hands up to her face, the torrent being angled so that it hit her shoulder, and the team could see the bright slime dripping down her other side, covering her skin as it slid down the way.

Laughing now, she wriggled against the straps that held her back in to the chair as the torrent stopped, then it suddenly started again further forward, covering her knees and dripping down her legs to her bare feet. She sloshed them in the muck that was collecting in the bottom of the tank, the flow of gunge slowing to a drizzle as it was brought back to her head. The sprays from the sides were easing off as well, the green gel splashing noisily in to the bottom of the tank.

She rubbed her eyes and then opened them, shaking her head and sending streaks of yellow flying out of the front of the tank and spattering on its walls. With a grin she relaxed her shoulders, just as a thicker black substance was dropped from above on to her waiting head.

This time, a lower alarm sounded, and with a loud shriek, she bowed her head and jerked her hands back to her face. The oily black sludge clung to her skin as it slithered down her, mixing with the yellow from before and forming a dirty green colour, pushing some of it out of the way. She kept her eyes and mouth firmly closed as the new gunk flowed down her face and dripped from the end of her snout, collecting in her lap. Some of it crept around her neck and down her chest, filling the inside of the top strap.

Slowly, the downpour of gunk slowed to a drizzle, the thick stuff dripping in dollops on to her already covered head. She straightened her head, but kept her eyes tightly closed as she ran her fingers up over her face and down the back of her neck, sending a wave of gunge sloshing to the floor of the tank. Only when the siren stopped did she finally open her eyes, blinking them a couple of times, the bright yellow of her eyes showing up against the oily sludge still clinging to her head.

The lights came back up, and Alex walked over to the tank, laughing. "How did it feel, Blue?" he asked her, looking down at the messy lizard girl who was still trying to brush some of the grime off her skin. By now barely recognisable under the layers of gunge, she looked up at him.

"Yuck!" she said simply, running her hands along her cheeks, the gunge sticking to her fingers. She squirmed again as a little more black stuff oozed down on to her, making a wet slapping sound.

"But you got fifty much-needed points, giving you 130 for the round, and just in time too, because now we've gone through all the areas of the complex and it's time to face Silicon!" He left the tank and walked towards a camera set in to the opposite wall, as Blue took her hands a little away from her face and watched the slime drip down her arms, laughing. "Get in to your swimwear... and I'll take you in to the Final."

He paused there for a few moments, and turned back to the team again. "That really was a great gunging, you know - that's the first time we've used that machine!" He walked across the room again and leaned in to the tank, the three relatively dry team members following him to peer in around him.

"Are you OK, Blue?" he asked her, laughing. She was still brushing her hands over her head, trying to get rid of the black ooze that was coating her. Streaks of her blue skin were now visible underneath it. She whooped, rubbing her eyes.

"I'm fine." She breathed out, and leaned back in to the chair. "How do I look?" she giggled, putting her hands behind her head and posing, the stuff dripping from her elbows.

"Great." Alex pushed himself up again and stood straight. "I think it's time to get you cleaned up for the final, though, so I'll leave you in peace now - you know where to go for the showers?"

She nodded, and Alex reached up and pulled the top panel down on its rail again, putting it back in to place with a click.

"All right, everyone else, come with me!" He led them at a slower pace around the corner, where a familiar sight greeted them - the room that they had started the show in, with the large computer room door on one wall. "We're going to get you cleaned up for the last round, even though there's a chance that you'll get messy again if you don't make it. The changing rooms are just back through the door - you'll recognise you came in that way - and I'll be waiting for you here!"

---

Dann stood in the glass cubicle, feeling slightly cold with just swimming trunks on, and looked across at the room where the final game was to take place. They hadn't changed it much from the earlier series of the show. The team leader, Angela, was in a fairly large cylindrical tank set in to one wall, a couple of metres high and wide. Between her position and the other three was a large pool of a translucent green liquid - this time, just coloured water. Dann and Blue were in cubicles in the opposite corners, with Ivy in between them, who was sitting on an inflatable platform in the pool with her legs dangling in to the water. In front of Dann and Blue were a series of obstacles each, with highlighted square pads scattered across them. He looked up at the nozzle above him as Alex emerged on the platform on the far side of the room, next to Angela.

"Welcome to the final! You've gathered 520 points throughout the game. One hundred points gives you half a minute, so you've got two minutes and 36 seconds exactly to shut the computer down."

He leaned over in front of the tank and pointed down at three slots in front of it as Angela leaned up on her tiptoes to watch him. "There are three key cards that have to be put in, and they're hidden around the room. Dann and Blue are going to have to find the first two, but first Ivy has to release them from their cubicles by pushing the button at the front of the tank. But if she doesn't make it to that button within twenty seconds of the game starting, you two are going to be soaked by the water tanks first!"

Laughing as they both looked up again, he continued. "Angela's the only team member in danger of being slimed again, though, at least for the moment. The two of you have to reach the cards in the foam pits at the end of your obstacle courses, and if you touch any of the pressure pads along the way, there's a lot of gunge above her that's ready to be released." This time it was the wolf girl who looked up with a wide grin, moving back to the centre of her tank.

"Meanwhile, Ivy's got to struggle back through the water and on to the platform again. Once the first two keys are inserted, a rope will fall from the ceiling and she'll be able to use that to climb up and grab the last of the keys. Then she's just got to rush back and put it in. Simple!" The four of them nodded, and he pointed to a large lever on the wall. "But if you don't make it - which I'm sure you will, by the way - I'm afraid I've got to put you all in that tank to share the consequences with your team leader. Ready?"

At a cheer from the four of them, he pushed the button to start the large timer positioned above Angela's tank. Ivy slipped off the platform and splashed down in to the pool awkwardly, which came up to her shoulders. She struggled through the water, trying to push it out of the way with her arms as she fought against it, but not making progress fast.

Dann bounced on his heels and watched the timer as she moved through the pool, and she wasn't anywhere near the other side when fifteen seconds had gone past. He hunched his shoulders and closed his eyes, knowing what was going to happen as he heard the valve open above his head.

Yelping above the noise of the splashing water as it drenched him, he felt his fur bristling with the cold. He wiped his eyes and cleared the water from his face, watching Ivy get to the button and release him and Blue from the cubicles. He looked over at her stumbling out of the tank, similarly soaked in her one-piece swimsuit, then to the route he had to go along.

He picked his way over a set of tiles on the floor easily and ducked down to get in to a low crawl tunnel. Trying to get through the inclining tube as fast as he could, he heard a beep as one of his hands touched a pad, but tried not to let it slow him down as he propelled himself forward on his hands and knees.

Reaching the end, he pulled himself out and looked at Angela, who had bright yellow slime sliding down her head, slowly dripping on to her shoulders. He heard another sound as Blue pressed one of hers, and pink stuff slopped on to the wolf girl from the ceiling to mingle with the yellow. She shook her head as it came down so that it splashed off, and ran her hands over her face, flicking the slime to the floor.

He turned his attention again to a set of bars sticking out of the wall, which reminded him of the lasers game from earlier on in the show. Carefully, he ducked down and slid under the first, then weaved his way through the others, only touching a bar and gunging Angela two more times.

Reaching the end, with the timer already at one minute, he jumped down in to a pit of white foam. It felt like the custard pie foam he'd been covered in earlier, and came up to his knees - soon, he dropped to his hands and knees again to search for the card he was looking for, hearing Blue slide down in to the water behind him.

After frantically scrabbling around in the foam, he finally picked up the card and hauled himself over the inflatable barrier between the foam pit and the green water. Glad that it was warmer than what he'd been covered in before, he waded towards the front of the tank. Angela and the floor of the cylinder were now covered in a mixture of colours of slime, which was slowly dripping down from her fur. Sliding his card in to the slot, he looked up and saw the wide nozzles that covered the ceiling of the tank, then turned to where Ivy was struggling to get back on to the platform. She had succeeded in getting one leg up and was trying to haul herself out, clawing her way on. A hatchway in the ceiling opened and released a rope and a white powder from the roof - it was flour, which settled on her soaked skin and formed a slimy paste.

Taking hold of the rope, she hauled herself upright and jumped up violently to being climbing. Her progress was slow, but she was steadily moving upwards as foam began spraying down on to her from the ceiling. Closing her eyes, she continued shinning up, and Dann shuddered as he watched her legs slide up the rope.

Stopping just below the ceiling, she reached up in to the space above and felt around for the card as the rest of the team cheered her on. They all jumped as a klaxon sounded, though, and the three on the outside of the tank turned towards the timer to discover that their time was up.

"Sorry, team, you know the rules." Alex, who had been watching the whole thing, stepped forwards and offered his hand to Blue to help her out of the green pool. She grabbed his arm with both hands and hauled herself out, where she stood on the side. Dann looked around as Ivy flopped back down on to the air-filled platform, then slid in to the water again to wade over to them. He looked back at the presenter and accepted his hand as well, using the side of the pool to climb out.

Shaking himself a little drier, he turned around as Ivy reached the side and crouched down to help her out. She jumped up using her hands on the sides first, then heaved herself out by taking his hand.

"Are you all right?" he asked as she lay panting for a second. She jumped to her feet and faced him, her face close to his.

"Fine!" she grinned, glancing behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw Alex showing Blue through the hatch in the wall that led to the main tank, then looked back at her. She walked past him, and he yelped as she slid her hand over his tummy fur, up across his chest, then down his arm to take his hand again so that he walked with her.

"I've no choice, I'm afraid," said Alex with a falsely apologetic tone as they walked past him through the hatch. After a second in darkness they emerged in to the light again, where Blue and the gungy Angela were waiting for them. They squeezed in to the tank along with them as the door automatically closed.

Ivy, still with a firm grip on Dann's hand, led him to the centre of the tank and faced him, with the others to their sides. Her grin got wider as he looked up at the large nozzles that he'd seen before, now directly above the four of them.

"Ready?" Alex had his hand on the lever. Before they had time to answer, he tugged down on it and the loud klaxon sounded for the last time.

Dann closed his eyes and grinned as widely as Ivy, but nearly lost his balance when she whooped and put her arms around him in a hug, pulling him forwards towards her as the slime rained down all around and over them. He responded by sliding his arms around her as well, the smile returning to his face after the shock. He could feel the level rising around his legs at the same time as it flowed over the two of them, coating them entirely and making them bow their heads down to keep their faces from being covered. He shivered as Ivy wriggled in his grasp, but held on tightly to her and made sure that she couldn't escape the deluge from the ceiling.

As the siren stopped and he felt the downpour easing off, he took one arm off Ivy and used it to wipe his face clean, then shook his head and looked around. The last drizzles of dark and light green gunge were still flowing in to the tank from the multitude of chutes above them, splattering in to the waist deep slime. Angela, her long fur once again a matted mess of green, was playfully splashing the stuff at the already coated Blue, who had her hands out in front of her to defend herself, the slime dripping from them in to the pool.

He looked at Ivy again, who still had her eyes firmly shut, and stroked his hand across her face to get rid of the slime on it. Breathing out heavily, she looked down at herself and giggled at the sight, then looked straight at Dann and grinned. Suddenly she lurched forwards and kissed him. He recoiled back, nearly toppling them both in to the slime, but then recovered and tentatively put his hands on her waist, stepping towards her.

"Hey, calm down, you two!" laughed Alex from the outside of the tank. They broke off and looked out through the glass front of the tank towards him, then grinned at each other again and waded forwards hand in hand to join Blue and Angela at the front.

"Bad luck, team... you were close, but Silicon's won this round. I could tell that you had a good time trying, though!"

Angela whooped and threw her hands in the air, sending slime splashing outwards, with the others joining in a second later. All of them laughed as another short burst of slime was released over them.

"You've still got your five hundred and twenty points, and that puts you on our leader board just behind the first team, who were always going to be difficult to beat. I think you should stay there for a while!"

He turned away from them to address a camera on the far wall, and Dann swallowed to compose himself.

"Ivy," he half-whispered, turning to her. She was completely plastered with green slime, and smiling at him through it. "I... I mean... I'd like to see you again, you know." He cringed as he said it - he'd meant it to sound more confident - but felt relieved as she kept her smile.

"Finally! I thought you'd never ask," she replied. "I think you look pretty good in green!"

Dann looked down at himself - he could hardly see any of his red-brown fur underneath the huge amount of slime that had fallen on them. Ivy struggled a little further towards him.

"Well," she whispered, "I know we're both going to need a shower soon..."

Dann's eyes widened and he looked her up and down as she giggled. "Of... of course," he stammered, feeling his heart begin to pound with the thought.

"I'll sneak through when we get out of here. But we're going to get messy again together some time, aren't we?"

"Oh, yes," Dann laughed back, and put his arms around her as Alex turned back to them. Shaking his head with amusement, he stepped forward to let them out of the tank and the Industrial Zone.