LEON'S DUNGEON
Written by Iron-K

After the completion of IZ2, I somehow lost interest in writing for a while as I had a lot of other things going on. I had already started this story and shown a couple of fragments to people at the short-lived MessyFurs forums

This was a departure from the confined environment of IZ, which had just a few characters at a time - this time a lot more characters are featured as the show has a full audience, and this changes the way that the programme is written.

During the writing of this story, I began to encounter some of the difficulties that arise when writing about a world that we know nothing about. One of the areas that I found most difficult to write was the questions - in a quiz here, questions could refer to popular culture, history, and so on, but these are things that haven't been thought up about this world yet. I've tried mostly to avoid mentioning things altogether rather than make them up as I go along, as that approach seemed rather unsatisfactory.

Even things that we think of as very normal would be different - one of the characters here wears a leather jacket, but it's unlikely that these would exist in a furry world.


Dann returned to his study bedroom after having lunch in the residence canteen. His last class of the term had been that morning, and he still had a few hours before his group of friends got out of their afternoon lectures.

Checking his watch, he flopped down onto the bed and grabbed the remote for the television, switching it on to the quiz channel. Daytime TV had never been the best of entertainment, but since the wide success of Industrial Zone, gunge on TV had become a lot more popular again, with a few newer programmes having one or two messy sections.

After idly watching the first few rounds of the show, he smiled as the part of the programme he'd been waiting for came on - the team with the lowest score were being shown into a cubicle at the back of the set.

The phone rang just as the questions round began. Annoyed at the interruption, Dann leaned over to the phone and picked it up. "Hello?" he asked.

"Hey, you." He relaxed again as he recognised his girlfriend Ivy's voice from the other end. It had been just over a year since they'd first met, and she was now attending a college about two hours' drive away from his. "What are you up to?"

"I've just had lunch, I'm watching daytime TV to fill some time," Dann started. Suddenly the loud blare of a klaxon came from the television, and he looked up to see the couple being covered in a wave of orange slime from the top of the cubicle. Ivy giggled as she heard the sound.

"Up Against Time, isn't it? Me too. Actually, I was going to ask you... do you remember my friend Kristine, who works for Channel 23?"

"Kristine..." Dann repeated. "Oh, yeah - we went to her twenty-first a few months ago?"

"Yeah, that's her. She's been handing out studio tickets for one of their new shows, and I got us a pair!"

"What programme are they for?" Dann asked, smiling at her enthusiasm.

"Leon's Dungeon," she answered excitedly.

Dann thought for a moment - the name sounded familiar, but she sounded like she expected more than that. "I haven't seen that," he said. "I think I've heard of it, though... it's the sort of chat and variety show?"

"You're nearly right," Ivy laughed. "I can't believe you haven't seen it! I thought you'd be a huge fan. It's on Saturday evenings, about seven."

"Oh, I've got a class at the other end of the campus while it's on," Dann answered. "We must be the only college in the country that has Saturday classes."

"Can you skip it this week for me?" Ivy asked.

"That's not a problem - classes finished for the term this morning anyway. And it's been too long since we saw each other." He paused. "So what's this programme about?"

Ivy just giggled. "If you don't know, I think I'll leave it as a surprise," she answered. "Don't try and find out until tomorrow!"

"Well, all right, if you say so. I'll come over about the usual time, is that OK?"

"Yes, it shouldn't take too long to get there from my place. She's already given me directions."

"OK, it's a date," Dann confirmed. They said their goodbyes and he put the phone down, resisting the temptation to find out just what he'd agreed to.

---

"It's right in here!" Ivy pointed out the left car window, reading the last of her handwritten directions. Dann braked sharply, glanced in his mirror and steered carefully into the car park.

"Give me a chance, I only passed my test last month..." he said as he guided the car into one of the few free spaces outside the studio. They had arrived later than they had thought, and the programme was due to start in ten minutes.

"Still, we're here." Ivy leaned over to kiss him before getting out of the car, stretching her legs after the journey. Dann got up as well, locked the doors then walked with her to the reception entrance. 

"Got the tickets?" she asked as they walked through the door. Dann stretched round to the back pocket of his jeans and produced them both. He'd kept the promise that he'd made to Ivy and not looked up anything about the programme since they'd talked, but her asking him to wear old clothing had given him a pretty good idea of what it was about.

After waiting in a small queue to have their tickets checked at reception, they were shown into the studio. Dann walked through the door first, idly glancing at the usual notices about turning phones off, and blinked as his eyes adjusted to the gloom. The audience seats, which were already mostly full, were arranged in curved tiers, with a row of inflatable chairs at the front.

"What are those for?" he asked his girlfriend, nodding towards the noticeably different seats.

"You'll see," she grinned back. "What are our seat numbers?"

Dann glanced down at the ticket stubs. "320 and 321," he read out, heading off along the front row to find their places. After walking to the far side and climbing just over halfway up, they found the two seats at the end of a row.

"Sure you don't want to be on the end?" he asked Ivy as she started into the row of seats.

"Why do you ask?" she asked back, sitting down as the raccoon girl in the seat next to hers picked up her coat up to get it out of her way, handing it to her rabbit boyfriend in the seat next to her.

"You've been trying to keep it secret, but telling me to wear old clothes was a giveaway - if they pick someone out of the audience for anything..." He stopped in surprise as Ivy interrupted him with a laugh.

"You're close, but it doesn't work like that. Sit down and you'll see, it'll start in a moment."

Dann shrugged his jacket off and sat down next to her. Puzzled, he looked at the back of the seat in front of him - each audience member had a panel of four numbered buttons in front of them. He thought of asking Ivy about it, but anticipating another "You'll see" answer, he kept quiet. He peered toward the stage, but it was too dark to see anything on it. He sat back and waited, watching the remaining audience members file in and take their seats.

He jumped as the programme's foreboding theme music boomed over the speakers, and stared as the lights came up on the stage. The set had a medieval theme, with a rough stonework pattern across the three walls. A large arch with a portcullis across it was set into the back wall, and a large padded chair stood in front of it. The chair was connected to rails in the floor that led back towards the alcove.

The diagonal wall on the right had a similar arch, but it was covered by a large wood-effect door. Opposite it on the left wall of the stage, a crude pipe jutted out of the wall and angled downwards towards a clear blowup chair. Faint seams were visible on the wall on either side of it, and in a semicircle around it on the floor.

A couple of out-of-place-looking large plasma screens were mounted on the walls - one above the arch on the back wall, and another in front and above it, where it couldn't be seen from the stage. The titles for the programme were playing, synchronised with the live broadcast of the show.

He recovered from his daze and looked at Ivy again. "Impressed?" she giggled. Suddenly a cheer started up, and they both looked back at the stage to see the host of the programme walking out from one of the gaps between the walls - he was a gray panther, dressed in a black shirt and trousers, with his facial fur clipped at the front to form a goatee.

"Welcome to the Dungeon!" he boomed above the noise of the audience, holding his hand up to acknowledge their applause. He continued as the sound died down. "We've got another five hundred brave audience members in tonight, and four of them were chosen at random when they came in. Please welcome Steffan!"

The audience's cheering started again as an orange fox, about Dann's age but slightly shorter, stepped out from behind the wall. He was dressed in a blue shorts and T-shirt outfit, with the show's logo across the front.

"Jacqueline!" The fox moved aside as a jackal girl appeared, clad in a similarly coloured one-piece swimsuit. She was black, apart from a couple of chevrons of yellow fur across her ears.

Dann leaned closer to Ivy. "Did he say ‘brave audience members'?"

Ivy nodded again but didn't look at him, still applauding as the host called out another name.

"Wendy!" This time, a slightly plump mouse girl emerged from between the two walls. A chorus of whoops went up from a group of girls a couple of rows ahead of Dann and Ivy - obviously the group that she had arrived with. The mouse blinked her large blue eyes a couple of times as she got used to the glaring stage lights, then waved out in their direction. She was dressed the same way as Jacqueline, but her fur was beige in colour, with hints of white around her thighs and the top of her round head.

"And finally Charlene!" The host turned to where the contestants were emerging from, and joined in the audience's applause to encourage the last contestant, a short pink-tinged bunny girl, out on to the stage. She walked softly over to the group, staying at the back and smiling nervously as Leon approached.

"They've been chosen at random from the audience as they came in - none of them had any idea they were going to be on until they arrived, but one of them is going to be going away with plane tickets to the destination of their choice. However!" Leon raised a finger in the air, turned towards the audience and walked away from the group on the stage. "Only three of them are going to get to take part - and to avoid us taking the blame, we're going to ask you, the audience, to decide who leaves now." He put his hand on the back of the chair in the centre of the stage.

"If you're watching at home, the voting numbers should be on your screen at the moment." He turned around to the video screen at the back of the stage, which showed what the home audience were seeing. "The one with the most votes after we close the lines gets put into this chair and sent off in spectacular style," he continued, pointing at the large portcullis behind it, then walked towards the stage's front.

"But you in the studio have got some say in it as well," he called out. "You've all got four buttons in front of you, and a press of one of them will add a vote to one of our volunteers." He listed the four of them and their numbers, then waited as the onlookers leaned forward to make their decisions.

Dann peered over Ivy's shoulder as she pressed the button to vote for the fox, and made his own choice to put a vote in for gunging the bunny girl. He looked up again to see an empty bar chart displayed on the on-stage screen, and waited as the others made their choices.

"That's it! I know we didn't give you a lot of time, but we've got to see who we're going to eliminate right now..." Leon looked up towards the screen along with the four others on stage. The girls had all huddled together, anxiously awaiting the result.

"Jacqueline!" The jackal drew in her breath as her name was mentioned. "You got 30 percent of our vote." Her bar appeared on the screen, and the view switched to a close-up of the worried looking girl.

"Steffan..." This time, the fox straightened and looked up. "You only got 10 percent." He looked relieved as the screen updated.

"So it's either Wendy or Charlene that we have to say goodbye to already. I can tell you now that one of you had a landslide victory of forty percent to only twenty..." The girls put their arms round each other again as he paused for a slightly excessive time.

"Charlene." The bunny girl gasped. "You're staying. Wendy won the vote!"

A look of shock crossed the mouse girl's face, and as the audience cheered she looked down at the floor, giggling embarrassedly. Jacqueline moved to hug her, and she grinned as she accepted the embrace. Breaking away, she walked towards the host, who raised his hand to show her in to the seat in the centre of the stage. The seat was clearly inflatable, but had been moulded to look like a fairly grand leather armchair. "Sorry about this, Wendy, but it had to happen to someone!" the host encouraged her as she walked past him towards it.

"She doesn't look too bothered," Ivy whispered in to Dann's ear as the mouse girl clambered eagerly up in to the seat. She turned around and gripped the arms, squirming down on to the plastic surface to get comfortable, then tapped her fingers nervously on the armrests.

The presenter moved round to the lever at the side of the chair, closely watched by the mouse girl. "Ready?" he asked, his hand on the handle.

Wendy swung her legs forward, then let them drop down again, making the seat bounce a little. She nodded, sagging in the seat as she relaxed more, and wriggled her dangling toes.

Without another word, Leon tugged hard on the lever, and a mechanical grinding noise started up as the chair began being slowly dragged backwards on its rails. Wendy laughed again, her big eyes growing even wider with excitement as she moved further towards the back of the stage.

Whooping went up from the audience as the portcullis at the back began to rise, accompanied by smoke being pumped in from the stage floor. She twisted round in the seat to watch it going up, putting both her hands on one arm. She looked back at the audience with a grin, and returned to her sitting position as the seat reached the door. She looked up as she moved through it, but closed her eyes when a greenish light turned on, illuminating her from above. Screwing her face up in expectation, she bounced slightly in the seat.

Feeling nothing happening, she opened one eye then the other, looking around the inside of the alcove. She jumped as a warning bell began to ring, closely followed by a jet of green pie foam spraying on to her from her front left. Shrieking as it hit the side of her tummy and spattered out over her side, she twisted in the chair to face the source of the foam, holding out her hands in front of her so that it sprayed outwards off them. She shook her head as the foam rained down on her.

Giving another excited squeak as another stream of foam started up from the other side, she put her hand out towards it and struggled back around in the seat, slipping around on the now slimy air-filled cushion.  She settled facing forwards again, her hands out to her sides, trying without success to block the jets of thick foam that were cascading on to her.

Suddenly, a louder hooter sounded and a column of orange gunge dropped on the mouse girl from the ceiling. Squealing as it domed out over her head, she gave up on trying to stop the foam from hitting her and put her hands on the chair's arms to help her to squirm upwards in the chair, keeping her head bowed down as the slime splattered off her. As the slime downpour played from side to side, the audience got a glimpse of her giggling face under the upturned bowl shape, green foam clinging to her fur.

The hooter blared again and the foam streams shut off, leaving the gunge to drizzle to a halt. The mouse girl slowly lifted her slippery arms off the seat and flicked them out to her sides, sending the collected slime on them to the floor. As the chair was carried out of the alcove again she made an attempt to clean her face up with her hands, but she was still hardly recognisable under the orange and green mess when the chair jolted to a halt next to the presenter again. She acknowledged the wild cheering of the audience with a wave to them, then ran her hand over her head and turned to the host.

"I hate doing that to people," he smiled at her. "Sorry you had to leave so soon, but thanks for coming on the show, Wendy - you'll still get your Dungeon souvenir bag, and of course your front row seat for the rest of the show. How are you feeling?" He held his microphone out to her.

"Great," she responded, shaking more slime off herself. As she moved, gunge dripped from the edges of the chair as well as her bare feet. "Thanks for voting for me, everyone!" she laughed, putting her hand out in a thumb-up gesture.

The host took her hand and helped her down from the chair, and she carefully picked her way down the stairs off the stage, flopping in to one of the inflatable seats in the front row. Leon watched her go, then  walked back to the contestants. A long desk complete with screens at the front had been wheeled on to the stage during the gunging, and they were seated in a row behind it.

"So we're down to three already. All of you are safe for a while, but I'll be picking on the one with the lowest number of points a bit later on. We'll give you all a hundred to start with..." The three screens on the desk turned on, showing the score each of them had. "Now, to earn points during the next couple of games, you've got to gamble some of your score on whether whoever we pick will win or lose - if you guess correctly, we'll add your bet to your score, but if not, it's taken off." The three of them nodded, and the presenter turned to face the audience.

"Good luck to them - but now it's one of you who's going to be unlucky! Computer, pick our first victim from the audience!" The lights in the studio dimmed, and he turned to the large screen as it began to rapidly cycle through figures.

Dann jumped as he realised what was happening, and twisted round in his seat to read his number again. "So this is what you meant..." he whispered as he turned back. Ivy nodded, her smiling face just visible in the darkness. He moved his hand over to clasp it round hers, and gripped her hand tightly as the numbers on the screen began to slow down, passing their seat numbers. Suddenly a buzzer sounded as a random number was chosen, displayed in a bright yellow splat mark on the screen.

"Seat number two hundred and thirteen!" read out the host, turning back to the audience with a grin. The screen switched to a view of the chosen victim, spotlighted in the darkness near the front - a young leopard girl with shoulder-length ginger hair. She looked astonished to be shown up on the wall, but her shocked expression became a grin as she got up from her seat. Dann leaned over the chair in front of him to watch as she hesitated and looked down, kicking off her shoes. When she'd got out of them, she squeezed her way along the row to the end amid cheering from the rest of the audience.

Climbing the stairs at the front of the stage to join the host, she turned to face out at the onlookers with her hands behind her back, grinning back at them and swishing her tail nervously. She was wearing a black T-shirt with two white handprints across the chest, and a pink miniskirt. The host leaned towards her.

"Welcome! What's your name?" he asked, pointing the microphone in her direction.

"Margo." She ran her hand through her ginger hair, flicking it behind her head, and looked around distractedly at the machines on the stage.

"Good to have you on the show, Margo - you look like you've got dressed up for this, so we can give you the option of staying like that or giving you swimwear if you want it..."

She turned back to look at him. "I'll be fine like this," she said, nodding her head.

"In that case, I'll show you to your seat!"

"Yeah..." she giggled a little, turning around again and looking at the seat in the middle of the stage which was still dripping with slime. She turned her head, though, as the host took her hand and walked her over to the inflatable chair below the pipe jutting out from the left wall of the stage. Still giggling with nerves, she put her hand on her skirt to keep it out the way as she sat down, sinking in to the chair.

"Just one thing, Margo - I'd better take your watch." She looked down at it and hastily unfastened it from her wrist, holding it out to the presenter. He took it gently from her hand and put it in his pocket as she leaned back in the chair, putting her hands on its arms.

She rocked herself back and forward a little as the host backed away from her to the podium facing the chair. As he gripped the sides of it and leaned forward towards her, she looked up in to the large pipe a metre above her head, and brought her hand up to brush her fringe out of her face before returning it to the seat.

"Comfortable, Margo?" he asked with a smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She laughed again after saying it, still very excited.

"Before we start the game, who are you here with this evening?"

"My boyfriend, Karl." She looked to the audience, leaning forward in the chair and peering in to the darkness to see him. A hand went up from the chair beside hers, and she waved back at him.

"Karl!" repeated the host. The on-screen display switched to a black-furred wolf, who was sitting topless in the audience. He laughed embarrassedly, putting his eyes down as he saw himself up on the screen. "Come up here!"

The camera followed him as he took the same route that Margo had, laughing a little at the applause as he moved to the stage. Clearly better prepared for being invited on to the stage than his girlfriend, he was clothed only in a pair of shorts, and the camera showed he also wore a small chain around his neck. Margo clapped her hands together and bounced in the air-filled seat excitedly as he made his way up to the podium beside the host.

"Welcome to you too, Karl," Leon said as he approached, shaking him by the hand. "We're going to play a little game here so you can try and save your girlfriend from the gunge, how does that sound?"

"Fine by me," grinned the black wolf, looking over at her. She crossed her legs, smoothing her bright miniskirt out on top of them.

The host indicated the panel in front of them. "You've got six buttons, and pressing any of them will turn the light behind them on or off. The audience can see what you're doing from the screen." Dann looked up and saw the row of buttons displayed on the screen at the front of the stage, with another row above it, some of them lit. "What the audience can see that you can't, though, is the correct combination - you've got to find that for yourself, and you'll have thirty seconds to do it." A timer appeared on the screen, showing the number thirty. Karl nodded as he looked down at the panel. "If you find it, your girlfriend stays clean. If the time runs out, then I'm afraid Margo gets..." He turned and held the microphone out to the audience.

"Gunged!" Dann and Ivy joined the shout in response, as Margo looked up in to the pipe once more. She uncrossed her legs again, sinking down in to the seat. Tossing her hair behind her head, she looked back at her boyfriend, who was still smiling uneasily.

"How do you think they'll do?" he asked, turning towards the three contestants at the other side of the stage. One by one their bets were shown on the monitors below them - two Loses and a Win.

"They don't seem very confident... are you ready to prove them wrong, Karl?" Leon asked him as he hovered his hands over the panel, looking down at it. He nodded. "Then go!" The presenter stepped back as the lights faded, leaving only the two contestants spotlighted on the stage. Looking back and forward over the panel, Karl began unsteadily hitting buttons with the palms of his hands, a beeping sound being played with each press.

"Think he's going to save her?" whispered Ivy as she leaned closer to Dann, putting her hand on his knee and squeezing it. He shivered, and glanced over at Karl. The wolf still had the presence of mind to do it in some sort of order, and after trying all the possibilities with one button lit he moved on to two, but kept making mistakes and repeating combinations he'd already tried.

"Well, there are six lights, that's... what is it, sixty-four different things he's got to try in thirty seconds... it shouldn't be too hard, but the way he's going..." Dann said distractedly, watching the timer on the screen above the pipe count down past twenty.

"You want to see her gunged!" Ivy poked him in the side, grinning.

"Yeah... she looks like she'd love it!" Dann caught Ivy's hand and pulled it around him, placing his own arm round her. He looked back to the stage at Margo again, who was fidgeting in the seat as she became more and more sure of what was going to happen to her.

She bounced in the seat again as the timer reached ten, and a shrill buzzer began to sound with each second that went by. As the audience began to count down along with the timer, Karl gave up trying to keep an order and starting hitting buttons at random, but looked up just before the counter reached zero.

As a cheer went up from the audience, a loud and harsh hooter sounded, and Margo squeezed her eyes closed, gripping the arms of the seat. A stream of bright green gunge dropped from the big pipe above her head, joined a moment later by a darker stream right next to it, both glooping on to her head and doming outwards.

With a yelp, her hands flew to her head instinctively, her legs waving in the air for a moment before she leaned forwards and put them on the ground again. Her slime-streaked face emerged from the upturned bowl shape, the corners of her open mouth turned up to smile at her boyfriend as she felt the slippery gunge creep down her back, mixing in to another green colour. Karl looked from her to the audience and back, a sheepish grin on his face.

The hooter went off again, and she took her hands away from her head and put them back on the seat's arms, wriggling around as the slime began to ease off. She blinked a couple of times as the ooze drizzled on to her from above, slipping down her hair and dripping thickly on to her gunge-covered T-shirt. Shaking her head a little, she ran both her hands through her messy hair and stretched her arms out to her sides, flicking the mixed dark and light green slime on them to the floor.

"Oh, Karl!" The host dashed back over to the black wolf as the cheering and applause from the audience began to subside, the stage lights between him and Margo coming back up. "Come on over, let's see how she is." The two of them walked around the podium towards the chair. The wall behind it, the floor around and its occupant were now covered with a thick layer of green slime. Karl picked his way through the puddle around the chair, crouching down at the giggling Margo's side. She twisted round in the seat to ruffle his dark hair, streaking green slime across it. Slightly hesitantly, he put his arm around her.

"Are you all right, Margo?" asked Leon, keeping his distance. The feline gave an open-mouthed laugh, squirming in the seat as she squeezed her hands between her knees, feeling the slime seeping through her fur. She nodded enthusiastically, squeaking as a final drizzle spattered on to her head wetly, making it drip from her fringe. She brushed it out of her face with her hand.

"Well, you did get gunged in the end, but to make up for it, we're going to give you the chance to get your own back on Karl later on in the show, how does that sound?"

"Oh, yes!" Grinning, she turned to the shocked-looking wolf, who recovered quickly to smile back at her.

"Had a good time so far?" the host asked both of them, as the audience applauded. They both nodded. "All right, for now you can stay there and enjoy music from the first guests of the evening..." He held out his hand towards the dark side of the stage. "It's Wildfire!"

He joined in the audience's applause as the lights came up to reveal the band, and he retreated back to the side of the stage as they began.

"They're a bit loud, aren't they?" Ivy commented to Dann after a minute or so.

"I think they're pretty good." Dann was tapping his fingers to the beat of the energetic rock, still excited from seeing the leopard girl being slimed a moment before. He looked across to the side of the stage, and saw her clearing gunge off herself in the dim light.

"I'd have loved to see you under that," he said to his girlfriend, nodding towards the pipe. She leaned forward to see her again, then turned to grin at him. "I don't know, green might look better on you..."

Dann shivered, then joined the cheering as the last chords faded and the lights came back up, looking at Ivy's seat number out of the corner of his eye in expectation of them picking another audience member. He looked back at the stage, and saw the host advancing towards the band's vocalist, a blue cat-man wearing an open leather jacket and dark shorts. He shrunk back slightly but visibly, making the presenter laugh.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's Jorg! Not to worry, you're going to stay clean..." He held his hands out in an exaggerated peace gesture. "That was fantastic, when's it out?" he asked, pointing his microphone in his direction. The singer walked back towards him, his confidence returning.

"It's from our latest album, ‘Rising Force',"  and that should be out in a couple of weeks," he said, glancing at the couple on the other side of the stage.

"Was it one you'd written yourself?"

"I had a bit of input, but that was one of Farran's", he answered, nodding towards one of the guitarists - a grey she-wolf with long dark hair. "Actually, it's the first one she's written that we've performed, and I think it fits in well with what Bernd and I had for the rest of the album."

"So, Bernd started the band a couple of years ago - how did you and he meet?"

Dann began to tune out of the interview, distracted by looking at the couple at the other side of the stage. Karl had squeezed into the seat beside the dripping leopard girl, and had his arm round her as she squirmed around, still not used to the feeling of the slime sliding down her.

"Remember the Mixer on Industrial Zone?" Ivy suddenly whispered from beside him. He hesitated in surprise at the question, but couldn't help laughing a little.

"How could I forget? You looked amazing."

"That wasn't difficult when I was almost naked, covered in gooey stuff and trying to impress you..." she grinned. Dann shuddered again, remembering seeing her in that state on the programme.

"We'll have to watch the video of that again when we get back to mine. Do they have anything like that on here?"

"Oh, yes," Ivy giggled. "Just wait until the end."

They turned their attention back to the stage as the interview finished. "Now, if you'd like to stay with me, I'm going to have you as guest presenter for a while, is that OK?" the host was asking.

"All right," Jorg answered, slightly reluctant.

"It's all right, you'll be safe  - thanks to the rest of Wildfire!" He walked the slightly reluctant Jorg over back to the other side as the lights dimmed around the band. They stopped in front of the couple who had played the game earlier. Karl stood up again, ready to leave the stage.

"And thanks again to you two - we're going to send you off now to give Margo a chance to clean up, and meet another of the evening's guests." He put his hand out towards them and turned to the audience. "Karl and Margo, everyone!"

The presenter stepped back as the wall and part of the floor around the chair began to rotate, making Karl stumble and almost fall over. He clung a little more closely to the gungy feline as they were both carried around and off the stage, the audience applauding them out.

A few cheers went up as what was on the other side of the wall was revealed - being carried round and on to the stage was a six-foot perspex cubicle, with two chairs placed on either side of it. As it came around in to the light, the audience got louder as they saw the tank already had an occupant. She was a lioness, a few years older than the contestants she was replacing on stage, and was wearing a black shoulderless dress.

"Oh!" Ivy let go of Dann and leaned forwards, putting her hands on the seat in front and trying to get a better look. "It's that actress - what's her name... she was in that film we went to see the other day."

"The Mirror", Dann reminded her. "Yeah, I recognised her when she came around." They watched as the rotating section of the stage came to a halt, the wall back in place. The occupant of the gunge tank bit her lip nervously, waving out at the audience.

"Please welcome Safira!" Leon joined in the applause, striding back towards the tank. He showed Jorg in to one of the chairs set side-on to the audience, and seated himself on the other. As the audience fell quiet again, he put the microphone back to his mouth. "Welcome to the show, Safira, it's great to have you here."

"Oh, my pleasure," she said, bowing her head slightly in greeting. She looked up at the top of the tank, a half-grimace, half-smile on her face. "Is this thing safe?"

"Well..." Leon chuckled, scratching the back of his neck with his free hand. "For now, you'll be fine. Is it comfortable in there?" She looked up again, and nodded, shrugging. "Well, I hope it stays that way for a while, but that's going to depend on Jorg here." Jorg stiffened as his name was mentioned. "If he says ‘yes' or ‘no' at any time during the next ten minutes, you're going to get rather less comfortable. Got that, Jorg?"

"Y... er, I have," he hesitated, tapping the arms of his chair uncomfortably.

"I'll let you off this time," grinned Leon, turning back to Safira. "He seems far more nervous than you! Anyway, I'm sure that was just a one-off - he's going to be fine, and you won't be in any trouble at all." She laughed disbelievingly, looking up at the nozzle above her head, then nodded.

"Time for our contestants to gamble again..." Leon looked over at them as the lights turned towards them, and they soon came up with three "Lose" bets.

"We've got an awfully negative lot this time," the host laughed as he turned back towards Safira. So tell me about the film - it's your first leading part, is that right?"

Dann looked over at the screen above the stage, which was now showing a timer counting back from five minutes.

"Yeah, it was a very different atmosphere compared to when I used to just do TV shows," Safira answered. "But having experience there helped a little."

"Have you seen the film yet, Jorg?" Leon turned towards him, and he paused before answering.

"I haven't," he responded carefully, "I'm afraid I'm not really a film watcher." The lioness smiled a little as he thought about every word of the sentence.

The interview went on, with Jorg glancing over at the timer every few seconds. Safira even asked him a couple of questions of her own, laughing as he struggled to avoid saying either of the trigger words.

"Now, something that one of the crew wanted me to ask - she wanted to know what it was like to kiss your co-star, Niven?"

Safira burst out laughing. "What can I say? Even better than you think," she answered with a smile. "Although he's been acting for years, he must have had an on-screen kiss before."

"Plenty of them. You must have seen something with him in it, Jorg?"

"Yes, I..." The loud hooter drowned out the rest of his reply, and Safira's mouth dropped open just before she was engulfed by a column of blue gunge. Jorg leapt out of his chair and dashed to the side of the tank, away from the stuff splashing out the front as it domed out from the lioness' head.

She craned her neck forward so her face was out of the downpour, flinching a little as the slime slithered down her neck, creeping down in two streams around to her chest. The flow played forwards over her head, then to the sides to coat her shoulders. She yelped as she felt her dress slipping down the way, and grabbed the side of it with one hand, the other across her chest, ducking her face down.

At the sound of the hooter again, the flow began to shut off, and the dome of gunge slowly came inwards. Safira shook her head and grinned at the audience's cheering, still trying to slide her dress back up her slippery chest. She turned to the host as another drizzle spattered on her head, dripping down past her ears.

"Come back here, Jorg!" The cat hesitantly walked to the front of the tank and looked in at the gunge-coated girl, who laughed as she saw his worried expression. "Are you all right, Safira?" the host asked her.

"Yeah." She looked around at the thick blue slime dripping down the walls of the tank.

"We nearly saw a bit more than we'd hoped for," he smiled, nodding at her dress. Taking hold of each side, she squirmed in the chair and hiked it back up again.

"You'll have to go and see The Mirror for that," she laughed, moving her hands round to her front and pulling it up there while it began to slip back down again at the sides.

"We're going to save your embarrassment now and let you go - thanks so much for coming on, even though you knew what was going to happen..."

"No problem." She held her slippery dress with one hand and ran the other over her head, clearing the slime off it. She waved out at the audience as they applauded, and grabbed the chair underneath her as the wall started moving again. Running her hand over her head again, she flung a handful of gunge out the front of the tank as she was carried off the stage.

The inflatable chair on the other side of the wall reappeared, clean again and this time with a slot-machine-like reel above the crooked pipe. A podium had been placed right in front of the seat, with a large red button on it. Leon looked at the machine for a moment, then addressed the audience over his shoulder.

"I think it's time for another volunteer, don't you, Jorg?" he grinned. "But this time we really will let you volunteer - there's a chance for one of you to win tickets to the show next week, but you're going to have to take this challenge to get them. If you're confident enough to come up here, get your fingers ready on your voting buttons now."

He gave them a moment to get ready. Dann and Ivy both leaned forward along with most of the rest of the audience. "All right - now, Jorg is going to call out one of the four numbers, and we'll get the first of you who presses that number up here to play. Get ready!"

Jorg took the microphone as the host thrust it towards him, and looked around at the audience. "Four!" he decided suddenly, and there was a chorus of beeps as the audience reacted.

"Thanks, Jorg," the presenter said to him, taking the microphone back. "So, computer, show us who got there first."

The screen showed the rapidly spinning slots, which suddenly stopped one by one. The host called out the numbers as they appeared.

"It ends with a one... twenty-one..." Dann looked over at Ivy, who was grinning excitedly. He took her hand and looked back at the screen. "Twenty-one!" the host announced. Dann sagged and glanced sideways at Ivy again, who shrugged. They both joined the applause as a tiger from the far end of the audience made his way down to the stage.

Leon shook his hand as he reached the top of the stairs, and exchanged a couple of words with him that were drowned out by the noise of the audience. The two of them walked over to the blowup seat and he sat down, squirming back in the chair to get comfortable.

"You're looking confident - are you feeling the same way, Nafiz?" the host asked him as he placed his hands on the button.

"No," he chuckled, shaking his head. He brought a hand up to push his shoulder-length orange hair back.

"You've got a decent chance, though - we're going to start up that reel above your head, and you can stop it with the button that you have in front of you. Unfortunately you've got a three in four chance of being gunged, but if you land it on the star then you'll win the tickets." He stopped as the reel started spinning, speeding up until it was a blur. "Good luck!"

"I'll need it," the tiger said, thumping on the button and leaning back in the chair casually.

The noise from the audience gradually got louder as the reel slowed down again, growing into a cheer each time the star came round the reel. Applause started up as it appeared as the reel ground to a halt, but the cheering turned into a groan when it didn't turn quite far enough, stopping instead on the symbol next to it - one of the three splat marks.

Nafiz just grinned as the hooter sounded, having guessed what was going to happen, but jumped as the bright red downpour hit his head. As it continued he leaned back again, facing up into the torrent and letting the slime run down his front, shivering a little as it covered him. The flow soon eased off, and he leaned forwards on the button, his face and front covered in the stuff.

"That wasn't the right one, was it?" he asked the host.

"No," he grinned in response. "Like everyone else, though, we'll give you a consolation prize for getting on the show. Although it looked like being gunged was enough of a prize for you!"

The tiger wiped his hand across his face, clearing it to reveal a smile. "Yeah, I always wanted to do that."

"All right, get down to the front row and we'll carry on. Thanks, Nafiz!"

The rotating wall started up, and Nafiz waved as he was applauded out. The cubicle came round again, with the tank at the top refilled and a few thin tubes running from the wall to its sides. A panel had also been fixed to the front of the inside. As it stopped, Leon walked across the stage back to the three contestants.

"Sorry we've been ignoring you all this time," he said as he turned to them. "But we're going to give you the chance to increase your points again now, and then we'll find out what happens in there." He pointed towards the cubicle, making both the girls giggle nervously. "So, things aren't looking too good for Charlene at the moment as she's fifty points behind..." The pink bunny shook her head, smiling. "Still, that could change - Jorg, do you want to do the questions round?"

"Sure," he replied, looking visibly more relaxed. The host handed him a set of cards, and he read the top one while turning to face the contestants. "All right, there's going to be a two minute time limit, and you'll get ten points for every correct answer. Wrong answers'll take ten points away. Ready, everyone?"

The three of them nodded, and he began. After the two minutes were up, the positions of the contestants had hardly changed, and the bunny was still well behind.

"I'm afraid it's you, Charlene..." the host said, taking the question cards back from Jorg. The rabbit giggled a little again as she hopped down from her chair, and walked around to join the two of them on the other side of the desk.

"Jorg, could you take her place? We'll need you to take part in a game a little later on." Looking relieved to have the attention of the audience taken away from him for a while, the cat moved round the desk and took her seat as the host led Charlene towards the other side of the stage.

"Now, we're still going to give you a chance to escape," Leon told her as he led her towards the cubicle. "Are you any good at puzzle games?"

"Maybe..." she answered. Leon opened the door of the cubicle for her, and she stepped inside. She peered up into the valve at the top, then as the door clicked closed she looked down at the small board in front of her.

"I'm sure you've done this before, Charlene," the presenter said as the view on the screens changed so that the audience could see over her shoulder. In front of her was a sliding puzzle made up of fifteen squares and a gap, with pieces of the show's logo scrambled across them. "As soon as you make your first move, you'll have one minute to complete the puzzle and unlock the gunge tank. Otherwise..."

"Yeah," she grinned, looking down at the board again and hovering one hand over it. She decided on a move, and as she slid a square to the right a timer appeared on the screen. Encouragement and advice were shouted from the first few rows of the audience as she began to put them in order.

"That's the first row done!" announced the host after nearly half the time had gone by. "You're going to have to be faster..."

Charlene didn't pause, but kept on clicking the tiles around the board, ignoring most of the confused advice from the audience. The second row was soon complete and she started on the third. As the timer reached ten seconds she paused for a while, hesitating as she heard the buzzer sound out every second that went by, making the shouts from the watchers get more anxious. Suddenly she hunched forward again, sliding the last of the tiles into place at just below three seconds.

The shouts erupted into cheers and whistles, and she waved out to acknowledge them, obviously relieved. Turning towards the host as he came over to open the door again, she took his hand and climbed down from the chair.

"Well done, Charlene!" the host congratulated her as the applause died down. "You've stayed clean, but we still have to lose a contestant this round..." He looked over at the desk. The jackal girl, who had by far the lower score, was looking worried. "It's your choice who to put in that gunge tank, Charlene," he continued. "Steffan or Jacqueline? Jorg will be relieved to know he's out of bounds for the moment..."

"I'm really, really sorry... but it's going to have to be Steffan," the bunny answered. The audience gave a hiss that turned into a laugh as the host looked out at them disapprovingly.

"Hey, it's the sensible thing to do - get rid of someone who's more likely to beat you later..." Charlene looked at the floor, clearly embarrassed, as the fox walked round the desk to join them. Leon led both of them over to the tank, and opened the door once more to let him inside.

"Sorry!" Charlene repeated as he sat down. Leon closed the door behind him and put his hand on her shoulder. A mechanical whine started up, getting gradually higher as the host talked over it.

"I know we're sending you off a bit earlier than you'd hoped, Steffan, but you're still getting your souvenir bag for appearing, and we'll do our best to gunge Charlene later on..."

"Great," he began, then yelped as white foam suddenly spurted on to him from all angles, the spray instantly coating the sides of the tank as well as him. He hunched up and closed his eyes, a smile still on his face, as a warning buzzer began sounding repeatedly. On the third buzzer, a mixture of green and yellow slime dropped from the tank above him and began to dome out over his bowed head.

He shook his head a little, slowly bringing a hand up to his face to clear the slime dripping down his forehead. The host and Charlene stepped back a little as some of the gunge splashed over the tank's door, and watched as the dome came inwards, leaving the walls of the cubicle coated in a lime-coloured mixture. The soaked Steffan looked up at them, leaning back to let the remains of it pour into his lap.

Charlene had her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide as she laughed at the sight of him. In response he ran his hand down his front to collect a handful of slime, and flung it out the tank in her direction, then suddenly grabbed on to the seat as the rotating wall began to move.

"Thank you very much, Steffan!" the host called as the fox vanished behind the wall, replaced by the inflatable chair once more. Indicating to Charlene to return to the desk, he immediately turned back to the audience.

"Our first volunteer Nafiz got rid of one of the tanks for us, so there's a better chance of winning the tickets now. Anyone want to have a go? I'm not going to do anything elaborate this time, just hit any button and..."

He stopped as a buzzer sounded, and looked around to the screen to see it already displaying a number. "Seat one hundred, you've certainly got quick reflexes... come over here!"

Another spotlight turned on as a young red-tinged equine at the end of a row got up and walked down the stairs towards the stage, visibly shaking a little with excitement.

"Introduce yourself," invited the host as he walked towards him. He leaned towards the offered microphone.

"I'm Clyde," he answered.

"You were quick on that button - were you keen to get up here?"

"Oh, yes," he grinned in response. "Who isn't?" He slid around the podium into the chair, putting both hands on the top of the button.

"We've certainly got an eager audience tonight. All right, start it up!" The host stepped back as the lights dimmed and the reel began to spin again. Clyde pressed down on the button, then reclined in the chair as the noise from the audience began. Tapping his feet on the ground as he heard the reel slow to a stop, he grinned as he heard the blare of the klaxon, and his shoulders were already shaking with laughter as he disappeared underneath the dome of blue-green gunge.

Tilting his head to the side, he let the slime flow down one of his shoulders, splashing out on to the floor towards the audience. It suddenly shut off as he brought his head back up, and he gasped as a thick jet of green foam sprayed on to him from the pipe, accompanied by a loud hissing noise.

His hand went up to his forehead as the hooter sounded again, and he smeared the piled up foam down the side of his face as the last few blobs spattered on to him. Shaking his head to clear it of the gungy mixture, he grinned up at the host as he approached.

"Sorry, Clyde, but you didn't make it either. Did you enjoy it?"

"Definitely," he answered, nodding. He yelped as another brief slime shower dropped on to him from above.

"All right - I hope you're comfortable, because we're going to leave you there for a moment while we get back to the others. Thanks!" The host walked away from him as the audience cheered, and he waved out at them as the spotlight faded, leaving the side of the stage in darkness.

"So this is the last chance you'll have to score points before we see who goes through and who we have to say goodbye to... Charlene is still behind, but I think she's got a decent chance of catching up. But it's going to be a little more difficult this round, because you've got another player..." The girls looked towards Jorg's end of the desk, and he fidgeted uncomfortably.

"Jorg's here to help along the contestant with the lower score - that's you at the moment," Leon explained, nodding at the bunny girl. "If he buzzes in and gets a question right, then we'll add ten points to whichever other player is behind. Both of you can answer questions in the normal way."

The audience was silent as the question round played out. Jorg volunteered answers occasionally, closing the gap between the two players, but Charlene was still about fifty points behind when the buzzer sounded to signal the end of the round.

"That's it! So Jacqueline is still ahead, but I'm afraid that we're going to have to keep you in suspense for a while before you find out what happens to you next." Charlene giggled nervously. "Now, Jorg..." He straightened as his name was mentioned. "I promise this is the last thing I'll ask you to do, so you can escape after this..."

"OK, what is it?" he asked, looking nervous again.

"Remember when I said I wasn't going to gunge you earlier?"

"Yeah..." He nodded slowly.

"I'm afraid I lied." As the lights came up, the host turned towards the left hand side of the stage. The wall had been spun round again, and the device on stage now was a larger cubicle, which was set up like two gunge booths connected face to face with doors at the sides. Each had a plastic swivel chair in the centre. Two large flexible tubes led up from the tops of each part of the tank, and joined as they reached the pipe coming out of the wall. The host led the way towards it, and after an exasperated look at the audience, Jorg reluctantly got down from the chair and followed him.

"Come on, everyone's got to pay the price of fame some time..." Leon chuckled as he opened the door of the right hand side of the tank, motioning the blue cat inside.

"Yeah, but when we formed the band, they didn't do this to people." Jorg hesitated. "I'm not going in there with this jacket on..." he said.

"What do you lot think?", Leon started, but was quickly drowned out by whoops from the females in the audience. Dann looked away, slightly embarrassed, as Ivy stood up, leaned over the chair in front of her and whistled above the noise.

Jorg rolled his eyes and struggled out of his jacket as the cheering continued, then handed it to the host. Smiling at the reaction he was getting, he ducked inside the booth and sat down, looking up worriedly at the large pipe above his head.

Leon turned back towards him, passing the jacket to a stagehand. "Well, I'm going to be fair to you and give you a chance to escape. You're going to be asked three questions -" Jorg put his hand to his eyes as he heard this, and dragged it down his face. "- and if you get them all right, then we'll let you out of there clean. But if you get just one wrong..." The cat nodded, glancing above him another time.

"I can guess." A laugh came from the audience as the host turned to face them.

"But there's another side of this tank, and we need someone to occupy it..." The lights dimmed and the screen showed its slot machine-like number selector again. Dann tensed up as the reels slowed down, showing his seat number and then Ivy's, eventually stopping about ten seats past theirs. He jumped as an excited shriek came from the row ahead of them, and the audience all turned towards it as a vixen threw her hands up, waving at the stage.

"Seat 336, come on down here!" Leon laughed at her enthusiasm as she stood up, kissing her partner as she left her seat, and squeezed along to the aisle. She was wearing very little - only a revealing black bikini, and high heels on her feet. Cheers and whistles went up from the onlookers as she made her way forwards, her red fur shining in the spotlight.

The host took her hand as she picked her way up the narrow stairs to the stage, and he led her over so that they were standing beside the large tank. Her long blonde hair was tied back in a tight ponytail, which was about the same length as her white-tipped tail.

"What's your name?" asked Leon as the applause faded. He had to look up a little to face her, as her shoes added to her already reasonable height.

"I'm Isobel," she replied with a smile, running her tail through her hand.

"Welcome to the dungeon, Isobel - are you a Wildfire fan at all?"

"Yeah, I came here mostly to see them tonight, especially as Jorg was going to be your guest presenter."

"Not a big fan of me, then?" chuckled the host, opening the door of the empty half of the tank. Isobel just grinned in response. "I'd take your shoes off if I were you..."

"Oh." She kicked her high-heels off her feet and handed them to the host, then dragged the tie from her hair, tossing her head to shake out her gorgeous blonde hair. Walking around Leon, she sat down inside facing Jorg, giving him a wave.

The host clicked the door closed behind her, and stepped back, looking at the two thick tubes leading down into the cubicles as he produced a set of question cards from his pocket. "You know, the stage crew call this thing the Nose," he commented. The audience groaned, and Jorg grimaced as he glanced up at it again, seeing the resemblance. "How are you both feeling about it, by the way?"

"Bring it on!" Isobel yelled confidently, making Jorg laugh. "Terrified," he answered.

"Even though there's easily enough slime up there for both of you, we're going to let one of you stay clean... Isobel, we're going to let you decide what happens." She turned towards him as he passed the question cards to her, then faced the cat again, taking care to not let him see them. "You've got five questions there, and it's up to you which three to ask your opponent. He's got to get all three of them right to escape the show dry, so it's your choice to either make it difficult or ask him some of the easier ones. Remember, though, that if he answers all three correctly, then the Nose is going to cover you in slime instead - so choose carefully!"

The vixen shuddered, and glanced up into the opening before thumbing through the question cards. "OK," she answered.

"We're not going to tell him if he got the answers right until the end, and I've got to ask for the audience not to help him during this. Got that, audience?" he called out to them. After a pause, he turned back to the two on-stage contestants.

"Are you ready, Jorg?" the host asked. The occupant of the tank shook his head.

"Not at all, but carry on."

"That's the spirit - good luck!" He stepped backwards as the stage lights dimmed, leaving only the booths spotlit. A bass note boomed over the speakers, accompanied by a faint heartbeat sound. Jorg gave the audience a disbelieving look, then turned over his shoulder.

"Do you have to play that?" he asked, making the audience laugh again.

"Adds to the tension, doesn't it?" replied the host, his wide grin just visible on the edge of the light. "Whenever you're ready, Isobel."

"All right, Jorg, you should know this one - in music, how many different notes are there from one octave to the next?"

Jorg breathed out heavily, counting on his fingers. "Twelve."

"OK, second question - complete the Wildfire lyric: ‘I just want to set you free..."

The singer paused, moving his lips silently. "I should know this, I wrote it." A murmur of laughter came from the audience as he held his head in his hands. "And you'll... join me in the dream," he recited hesitantly.

"And for your last question, who was Safira's co-star in The Mirror?"

"Oh, God, what's his name." Leon covered his eyes with a hand as he thought. "It began with an N. Niven, or something like that."

"Is that your answer?" Isobel asked, grinning over at him.

"Wait, hold on! ...Yes, Niven. I'll go with that. Niven," he repeated, revealing his face again.

The tense music on the speakers came to a halt, and the lights came back up. The host walked back towards the cubicle, leaning on Jorg's side of it.

"How do you think you did?" he asked him, leaning in.

"No idea, are you going to tell me?" he replied. Instead, Leon moved on to the side that Isobel was occupying.

"Can I have those back?" He reached in to the tank and took the question cards back. "How many do you think he got right?" he asked her.

"Two." She crossed her legs and rocked the chair slightly from side to side with one foot, smiling across to Jorg who was jiggling his knees anxiously.

"Well, Jorg," the host announced as he walked back to his side, "I can tell you now that you did get the second and the third ones right." Jorg hung his head, putting his hand over his eyes again as another high-pitched whoop came from the vixen as well as most of the ladies in the audience.

Leon waited for the cheer to die down. "And you got the first question right as well."

Jorg looked up at him, shocked as he realised what he had said. His eyes then turned to the vixen, who was frozen with her mouth open. She looked at Jorg, then to the host and back.

"Gunge Isobel!" shouted the host over the audience's noise, jumping back out of the way as a rapid klaxon began blaring. Isobel flung her hands up to protect her face just before she was engulfed by a massive torrent of gunge falling from the pipe above her, the tube twitching as the stuff was pumped through it..

Dann looked up to the screen to see the close-up as she squirmed under the downpour. It was a mixture of thick deep green stuff and a thinner, stickier lime colour, with gooey yellow lumps that looked like egg yolks mixed in. He could only see the shape of the top of her head and her hands clutching it as she shook her head from side to side, the gallons of slime clinging to her and creeping down to cover her all over. The tank had no drain at the bottom and was beginning to fill up past her bare feet.

The huge downpour began to subside, and the stuff began doming out as the flow became thinner. Isobel squeaked as she wriggled underneath it, moving her head to the side and letting it hit her shoulder. As she squirmed, some of the gunge splashed over the central door and hit the shocked-looking Jorg, who edged back in his seat as the green stuff spilled into his lap.

The klaxon gave a longer, final blare, and Isobel brought her hands up to her face to wipe the slime off. She slowly ran her hands through her sticky hair, pushing it behind her head as the drizzle from above poured on to her, then yelped as a couple more of the yellow globs splatted on to her head and slid down the way to join the slimy mixture at the bottom of the tank. She stirred her feet in the knee-deep gunge, making it lap against the walls, and giggled as she looked down at herself.

"Well done, Jorg!" the host said above the cheering of the audience as he moved forwards again. "You look relieved," he added, leaning in to the tank.

Jorg looked up from trying to brush the slime out of his lap. "I am," he confirmed, breathing out heavily. He jerked his head around as Isobel squeaked again, and watched another brief wave of dark green gunge pour on to her from the pipe, making a thick muddy splattering sound as it hit the pool below. She turned her chair out to the audience, her eyes wide, flicking her gungy hands to dry them.

"Well, you have a girl that you should be grateful to, so I'll let you award her prize," continued Leon, handing him a couple of tickets. He looked down at them for a moment before leaning forwards to pass them to Isobel.

"Thanks, Isobel, for getting gunged for me - here are two tickets to the next Wildfire show," he said to her, laughing a little as she dragged more of the mixture off her fur. She giggled in response, shook her hands out again, and took the plastic-wrapped tickets from him.

"How are you feeling, by the way, Isobel?" asked Leon, picking his way through the spilled slime on her side of the tank.

"Just great," she laughed, kicking her feet in the gunge again.

"Are you still a fan of Wildfire after being gunged by their lead singer?"

"Of course." She nodded towards him, making green slime drip from her fringe. "Thanks, Jorg!"

"Well, I have to thank him as well now, because we're letting him escape the show, and we'll give you a chance to get cleaned up too." The presenter stood back from the revolving section of the floor. "Thanks to Jorg and Isobel!"

The wall began turning again, and both of the tank's occupants waved out at the audience to acknowledge the applause, the collected slime sloshing around Isobel's knees as the tank moved. The other side of the wall was brought round, looking the same as before.

"Anyone else want to have a try at this?" the presenter asked the audience. "It gets a bit easier each time..." He smiled at the enthusiastic cheering. "All right. This time..." He was interrupted suddenly by a harsh ringing sound from near the front of the audience. All eyes turned towards the source of the noise as a small squirrel girl ducked down to retrieve the phone producing it from her bag, and Dann raised his hand to his face, exasperated.

"They tell people to turn them off! Why..." He stopped as Ivy nudged him in the side. He looked at her grinning face, then followed her pointing finger back to the girl again. The lights had dimmed while she was searching under the seat, and she was looking around with surprise to find herself spotlighted, the phone pressed against her ear.

"I think we've found our next contestant!" smiled the host as she looked around worriedly, beginning to close the phone. "No, leave it on and come up and join me!" he told her. She opened it up again, then shrugged off her jacket to expose her swimwear. Putting the phone to her ear and apologising to the caller on the other end, she walked along the row and up to the stage.

"Welcome to the dungeon," Leon greeted her, crouching down to be at eye level with her. She was mostly golden brown, with a lighter patch of honey-coloured fur on her front stretching from her inner thighs all the way to her neck. She had reddish brown hair tied in large bunches at either side, and was wearing a red two-piece bathing suit. "Introduce yourself!"

"My name's Sally, and I've just started college." She looked down as she traced small circles on the stage with her bare foot, holding her hand across her tummy nervously. Suddenly, she grinned and looked up at him. "So, are you gonna gunge me?" she said eagerly.

"We'll come to that," grinned Leon. "Do you mind if I talk to your friend first?"

"Sure." She handed the phone over to him, and he straightened up as he spoke in to it.

"Hi there, who am I speaking to?"

"Hi, I'm Julie... who's this?" came the confused reply.

The presenter hardly disguised his amusement as he replied. "Julie, I'm Leon and you're live on the Dungeon!"

There was a surprised silence from the other end of the phone. "...Oh, my God!" she managed.

"Are you a fan of the show?"

"I know the idea of it, what are you going to do to her?" she asked, laughing a little.

"You phoned in the middle of the show, so we brought your friend up here to play a game with us. Do you have time just now?"

"Yeah," she replied excitedly.

"All right, we'll phone you back soon so you can try and save Sally, is that OK?" At the reply from the other end, he handed it back to the squirrel girl. "Say goodbye for now!"

"Bye, Julie!" she said in to it as another round of applause started up. Closing the phone, she turned to the presenter and handed it back to him, then looked over at the inflatable chair, her hand placed nervously at her mouth. Then, seeing that Leon was looking towards the back of the stage, she followed his gaze and jumped as she saw a large cubicle being wheeled on by two stagehands. Two large tanks were visible on top of it - one filled with blue slime, the other with yellow.

"I'm going in that?" she asked, her mouth and eyes wide as she looked at the host.

"You certainly are!" As the tank was set in to place and the stagehands dashed off, Leon took her hand and led her towards it. The tank was made to look like a telephone booth, with a transparent door at the front and a metallic back, where a phone prop was mounted. Leon opened the half-height door for her and gently pushed her inside, closing it behind her.

She sat down on the stool, running her fingers through her hair as she looked up in to the mechanism above her, then grinned out at the audience. She clasped her hands between her legs, rotating her thumbs nervously.

"Now that you're in there, Sally, let's get Julie back..." The host stepped back as the buzz of a phone ringing came over the speakers. "How are you feeling about being gunged, by the way?"

"Scared!" She giggled, twisting her fingers in the bunches of her hair again, then quietened as the phone was answered.

"Hello?" Julie's voice came over the speakers again.

"Hi, Julie, have you got your TV on?" Leon asked her, turning to face an on-stage camera. The screens around the studio changed to show the scene that the home viewers were seeing.

"Yeah, I can see her!" The scene changed to a view of Sally sitting in the tank. She excitedly waved both her hands. "What are you going to do to her?" she asked again.

"Well, nothing if you win this game... if you lose, then I'm sure you can guess!" A mild laugh went up from the audience. "We're going to play this using your phone, as that's what got Sally in to this trouble in the first place. What you have to do is find the four numbers that unlock the tank and let her out..."

"Right," Julie acknowledged.

"If you key in four numbers each time, I'll tell you how many you got correct. If you get the four correct numbers in any order then the tank will unlock and we won't gunge Sally... but you've only got five tries before it happens!" Sally squirmed in the seat, tapping her bare feet on the floor of the tank and moving her eyes up to look in to the nozzles at the top. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah."

"Well, Sally's going to be here to help you, so go whenever you're ready!"

As the lights dimmed, the view on the screens switched to Sally, with a phone keypad on the side. Below that, four numbers appeared one by one accompanied by phone-like beeps as Julie entered them. A buzzer sounded.

"That's 1, 2, 3, 4... a good way to start, but only one of those is right, Julie," commented the host. "Still, plenty of time yet. Four more tries."

"Come on, Julie!" encouraged Sally as another four numbers were entered.

"2, 4, 6 and 8," read out the host as the "incorrect" sound played again. "Sorry, Julie, only one right again! Sally's looking a bit worried..." She turned towards him, a nervous grin on her face.

"What do you think I should do, Sally?" Julie asked.

The squirrel girl folded her arms on her lap. "I don't know, have you tried 5, 6, 7, and 8?"

"No, should I do it?"

"Go on." She leaned forwards and put her hands on the door of the tank, trying to get a better view from a camera monitor as the numbers were entered. The same sound played.

"Still wrong, but you've got two right this time! What now?"

There was a discussion between the girls about which numbers could have been right. "All right, so we think the two is in it..." Sally eventually said thoughtfully. "And the seven and eight... we could try the nine as well."

"Okay." The key presses were slower than before - 2, 7, 8 and 9 - and there was a delay after they were entered. Sally jumped at the sound of the buzzer.

"Oh..." Julie sounded nervous as well.

"Don't panic, it's still wrong..." started the host, "...but you did get three of them right! You've got one last chance, Julie, and if you get it wrong I'm afraid Sally gets the gunge."

"Do you think the nine's wrong?" asked Julie.

Sally hesitated, with another glance upwards. "Yeah, could be," she said. "We know the two is right... how about two, seven, eight and zero?"

"You think so?"

"Yeah." The squirrel girl laughed a little. "Try it!"

"Sure?" she asked.

"Definitely." She nodded her head, a smile spreading across her face as she watched the screen in front of her intently. Julie entered the fourth digit and there was silence for a while. At the sound of the buzzer for the fifth time, Sally's mouth dropped open.

"Sorry, Julie, but you're out of tries!" Leon jumped backwards as a siren started up, accompanied by the flashing of lights inside the phone booth. Sally quickly closed her eyes and held her hands in front of her face, just before two yellow and blue streams of slime poured down on to her shoulders.

She squealed as they splashed off her, pressing her bunched hair down, and hunched her shoulders up with her hands held up in front. Rivulets of slime crept around her neck and oozed slowly down her chest. Squirming in the seat as the streams moved closer to her head, she giggled as she vanished beneath the downpour.

The audience could see her shifting around underneath the dome of slime, which was mixing in to green as it fell on to her and splattered off, slapping against the walls of the tank. Suddenly it shut off, giving the audience a view of the slimed girl. She took her hands away from her face to reveal her shocked smile, hunching her shoulders up and shivering. Slowly, she brought her hands back to her face to clear some of the gunge away.

She ran her hands over her head, then squeaked again as even more dropped down on to her with a thick glooping sound. She bowed her head down, her shoulders shaking as the heavy slime poured off the front of her head, the dome coming inwards as it slowed to just a drizzle from above.

Wiping her eyes, she grinned out at the audience, holding her fringe out of her face and leaning to the side to escape the last few drops as the host moved towards her again. The rest of her hair was caked to her head by a mixture of colours of gunge, and she shivered as she felt the ooze coating her fur, creeping down her back.

"How do you feel, Sally?" he asked her, pointing the microphone in to the tank.

Sally giggled as she responded, sliding her hands along her thighs. "Really, really slimy." Her hands went to her hair, trying to put it up again as she wrung the gunge out of it.

"Well, remember..." the host leaned in closer to her, "it wasn't us that did this to you, it was Julie!"

"Oh!" A shocked yelp came from the other end of the phone.

"What do you have to say to her?"

"It's okay, I still love you, Julie!" Her enthusiasm back, she whooped and waved with both her hands out the front of the tank, sending gunge dripping to the floor. The audience joined in cheering with her as the host spoke again.

"Hear that, Julie?" he grinned. "We'll get prizes sorted out for both of you a bit later on, as well as giving Sally her phone back, but in the meantime we're going to send her back down to the gunged people row - enjoy the rest of the show!"

"Thanks!" Sally clung to the underside of the stool as the stagehands reappeared. They took hold of the tank and wheeled it and her off the side of the stage, with a few wolf-whistles heard above the applause of the audience.

The host watched her go, then addressed the viewers again. "Like I was saying before that, I'm going to give someone the chance to win those tickets again. This time I'm going to put up a ten digit combination, and the first one to key it in gets to come up here. Ready?"

He paused for a moment as the audience leaned forward to their panels. Dann looked up at the screen as the combination suddenly came up, and began to press it in, but gave up as a number of confirmation beeps came from the rest of the audience.

"Seat 283, you got there first!" The view changed to show a black skunk girl, who gaped as she saw herself on the screen. She pulled her T-shirt off over her head to reveal a light two-piece swimsuit, then squeezed out along the row and walked up to the front to join the host.

"Come up here, someone's got to win these tickets..." he encouraged her as she hopped up the stairs, swishing her large white-striped tail behind her. As she reached the stage, Leon put his arm around her and led her over to the chair. Putting a hand on her tail to keep it out the way, she turned around and sat down, bouncing excitedly in the seat as she squeezed the podium between her knees.

"Sorry, terribly rude of me - I forgot to ask your name," the host prompted, leaning towards her with the microphone.

"Sandra," she responded, running one hand over the tuft of white fur above her chest.

"Now, Clyde removed another tank for you, so you've got a fifty-fifty chance of being gunged - are you feeling confident?"

She looked up into the threatening pipe with a laugh, then shrugged.

"Yeah," she said, leaning forward to put her hand on the button.

"All right - start it up!" The host stepped back to watch the reel over the pipe begin to spin. Sandra pressed the button almost immediately, and it began to slow down, passing the last splat mark and the star alternately.

Sandra kept both her hands on the button in front of her as the reel slowed, and closed her eyes as it clicked to a stop. She kept still for a moment, then opened her eyes as a fanfare played over the speakers. Her mouth open in a smile, she leaned to the side and forwards to look at the reel, which had stopped on the prize slot.

Leon joined in the applause, moving back towards her. "You did it! You and a friend are coming back next week to see the show - what do you think of that?"

Sandra whooped in response, putting her hands up in the air and drumming her feet on the ground.

"And as well as that, we'll get you to come down and slime the winner of this game next time," the host grinned.

"Fantastic," she said, nodding, then her face changed to puzzlement as she realised what he'd said. "Hey..."

"Sheng, where are you?" interrupted the host, calling out to the audience. A spotlight followed a tall rat-man as he got out of his seat near the front and walked up. Sandra looked back and forth between him and the pipe above her head.

"I can tell you've been looking forward to this," the host said, motioning towards the lever in the centre of the stage.

"Certainly have," he smiled. He placed one hand on the lever, making eye contact with Sandra.

"But can you gunge this cute skunk girl?" Sandra bowed her head forward and looked up at him, fluttering her eyelids.

Sheng paused a moment, laughing a little as she gave up, leaning back in the chair and tossing her black hair behind her head. "Yes!" he concluded, tugging on the lever.

The skunk girl's hands jumped to her ears as the hooter sounded, and she squealed as a column of orange gunge dropped from the pipe and domed out over her head. She leaned forward to get her face out of the downpour, keeping her hands on top of her head and giggling helplessly as the slime flowed down her back.

She leaned to the side to try and escape, her hands moving to her eyes as the gunge continued to splash into her lap. Straightening up as she felt it ease off, she flicked her hands to the sides, then raised her hands into the air as the flow dribbled onto her head.

The hooter blared again, and she screamed as she vanished underneath another downpour, this time purple. She squirmed back into the chair, facing out towards the audience with her eyes firmly shut, and let it fall onto her front. The slime formed a sickly brown colour as it mingled with the orange stuff, coating her completely.

As the slime shut off, she sagged as she let her breath out, and turned towards the host again. She shivered as the mixed brown slime ran down her, highlighted with orange and purple gunge dripping from her hair. Giggling as she looked down at herself, she slowly put her hands behind her head and wrung her hair out.

A lower pitched klaxon sounded, and Sandra froze. She looked up into the pipe worriedly, then quickly hunched down onto the chair as lumpy lighter brown gunge poured onto her back. Drumming her feet on the ground as the stuff dribbled down her fur, she leaned backwards and allowed it to hit her head, her gungy face just visible through the chunks spattering off her.

"Absolutely covered!" The host applauded along with the audience again as the last few lumps splattered on to Sandra's head. She was completely caked in muddy coloured gunge, and her shoulders were shaking helplessly with laughter as she tried to clear her face. "Come over here, Sheng..."

The rat followed him over to the side of the chair. "After all that, Sandra, I think you deserve these." He handed her a plastic-wrapped bundle, which she stretched her sticky fingers out to take. "Are you OK?"

"Oh, I'm just fine," she answered, putting her hands on her hips. Lumps of the stuff dripped to the floor from all over her as she moved.

"Sorry about that, Sandra," Sheng said, leaning towards her to shake her hand. She accepted it, making sure to run her gungy hand up along his arm.

"But thanks for coming on, and we'll make sure that you get to do this to someone else next week." She nodded, and waved at the audience as the rotating wall started. "Sandra and Sheng!" the host finished, putting his hand out towards them as they was carried off the stage.

Leon looked over at the blank wall that had replaced them. "Nothing on the other side, which must mean we're getting close to the end... but we've still got to eliminate one of our contestants!" He spun round to face them. "I'm afraid that you're still behind, Charlene... have a look behind you."

Both of the remaining contestants turned as the large double doors behind them slowly parted. Behind them was another alcove lit from above, with a variety of pipes pointing at what looked like a dentist's chair in the centre. Two came down from the ceiling, another four were placed diagonally to the front and sides, and a large central pipe came up from the floor, pointing at the chair from the front. Each pipe had a light on its end, and they were flashing in sequence as the machine was revealed.

The two girls turned back to the host, both looking worried as the onlookers cheered. He motioned for them to come towards him, and they got down from their chairs as the desk was wheeled away by another pair of stagehands.

"One of you has got to go in to this and answer five general knowledge questions. You can only get through to the last round and a chance for that star prize if you don't get gunged here, but the contestant who goes in gets the chance to win a few other rewards as well." He walked towards the chair as the lights dimmed, leaving only the top white light on.

"Now, Jacqueline, because you're ahead you've got the choice here... you can either put Charlene into this, or you can go in yourself and risk getting gunged. If you put Charlene in, she's got to get all five questions right to make it out clean, but you can escape at any time."

Jacqueline thought for a moment, before nodding. "I'll go in," she said.

Leon put his arm round her and guided her towards the chair as the audience applauded for her. She turned around to slide into the seat, one leg either side of the pipe jutting from the ground, and rested her hands on the chair's arms.

"How are you feeling?" the host asked her.

"Worried!" She smiled, her white teeth showing up against her dark fur.

"All right, here's what's going to happen - before I ask every question, you've got a chance to escape. If you decide to answer it, one more tank around you gets turned on." He paused as the lights on each section around her flashed in sequence. "If you get it right, you get one prize and we move on to the next question. When you decide to escape, or when you've answered all five questions correctly, we'll get you out of there and gunge Charlene with whichever tanks you've managed to activate."

He looked her in the eye, and she nodded. "But remember, the moment you get a question wrong, the tanks activate on you instead, and Charlene goes through. The first question's going to turn on the smaller of the two gunge tanks that you see above your head." She looked up again, twisting her head to see into the top of the alcove. "Sure you want to start this?"

She looked back at the host again. "Yeah," she answered, nodding.

"All right - your first question, for a set of music CDs. What's the colour of the cross on our national flag?"

"White," she responded immediately.

"Good, that tank's turned on." A light beeped into life above her head. "The second question's going to turn on the foam sprayers at your sides, but will earn you a portable music player if you get it right. What do you think?"

"Yeah, go on."

She got the second question right as well, which turned on the lights at the sides of the recess, and decided to answer the third.

"What letter of the phonetic alphabet is also a popular sport?"

The jackal girl looked shocked, and her mouth moved as she thought through the words in her head. "Golf!" she suddenly exclaimed.

"That's right," Leon answered with a laugh, watching the lights on the two pipes at the sides of the front turn on. "How are you feeling about being gunged by all this, by the way, Charlene?" The bunny girl giggled a little in response, and he turned back to Jacqueline. "You had some trouble with that - do you want to go on to the next question? It'll turn on that foam pipe placed dangerously near you, but a correct answer will get you a digital camera."

She stroked her hand along one of her cheeks thoughtfully. "Yes," she said.

"Which member of Wildfire was once in the band ‘Goldmine'?"

Jacqueline paused a moment, then laughed, looking down at the pipe between her legs. "I don't know it..." she giggled.

"Go on, have a guess," Leon prompted her.

The girl shrugged, and looked up at him. "Jorg?" she asked, very uncertainly, putting her hand behind her head to scratch behind her ears.

"What an incredible guess!" Leon walked out towards the audience, turning away from her to face them. He stopped, and grinned at them. "It was totally wrong - gunge her!"

Jacqueline put her hands on her head in readiness as the klaxon started up and the lights above the chair began to flash. Suddenly, with a low buzzer sound, thick pink foam spewed out of the pipe between her legs, covering her chest and tummy. Screaming at the cold feeling, she put her hands out to her front to stop it from hitting her, and spluttered as the flow continued, slowly covering her in a pile of foam.

Another siren wailed, and she squeaked again as the two smaller pipes sprayed thin transparent gunge onto her chest - blue from one side, yellow from the other - and played over her front, mixing into green as it pushed the foam out the way. She put her hands up and leaned her head back to get her face away from the slime, then yelped as the tank from above opened and hit her in the face with thicker green stuff. The sprayers from the sides shut off as the new downpour domed out from her head, flattening her ears down as she squirmed underneath it.

As the green slime continued pouring down onto her, the foam sprays from the sides started up and squirted more foam onto her from the sides, this time yellow. The flow from above began to subside, and she kept hunched forwards in the chair as the last few drops dripped onto her neck while the foam cascaded onto her.

Leon applauded along with the rest of the audience, and stepped back towards the messy jackal, who was unrecognisable under the layers of foam and gunge. The sprayers from the sides eased off, leaving trails of foam on the ground. "Sorry, Jacqueline, but it was Farran..." he said as she wiped her hands down her face, rubbing them down her legs to clear them. She laughed, waving out towards the onlookers.

"I'm afraid that means that you're not going through to the next round, but you did win those three prizes and you've got your gift bag as well... thanks for being a good sport tonight. Jacqueline, everyone!"

He stepped back and raised his hand to her, making her laugh again at the audience's cheering. The lights around the alcove went off, leaving her trying to scrape the brightly coloured foam from her fur. Leon put his arm around the bunny girl and led her to the front of the stage.

"So you're the last one left, Charlene!" the host said. She giggled and nodded. "You've been incredibly lucky, as you were a bit behind all through the show, but somehow you managed to turn the tables and gunge the other two contestants. How would you like to get one of our audience as well?"

"Definitely," she replied as she nodded again.

"Well, just to show them that no one's safe on this show, this time we're not even going to get our volunteer down to the stage..." He grinned as many members of the audience looked upwards. "I think some of them have got the idea. Let's show them who chose the unlucky seat..."

Dann blinked as the lights came back up all over the audience. All of them were looking around the ceiling, but there was still nothing to be seen.

"It's one of this half of the audience," Leon continued as half the lights went out again. Dann and Ivy were still in the lit half.

"Near the back..." the host announced. Most of the front rows were darkened again. Ivy reached over and took Dann's hand, rubbing her thumb in his palm nervously.

"It's the row starting at number 320..." Dann gulped as he was spotlighted, and looked along the rest of the row as it moved across to the end and began to come back. A timpani roll started up as the audience members in front of them twisted in their seats to see.

"In the first half!" The host grinned as the spotlight's path became smaller. Dann felt the eyes of most of the audience on him, and he kept his eyes on the screen as the light passed over him again. It began to slow down, and he gripped Ivy's hand more tightly.

"Three hundred and twenty..." Leon paused, enjoying the suspense. The spotlight was right over Ivy. "...two."

The raccoon girl next to Ivy stayed silent, a shocked look on her face as the rest of the audience cheered for her, her boyfriend laughing and clapping excitedly. Dazed, she began to get up, looking at herself on the screen.

"You don't need to move!" called out Leon from the stage. "Just look above you..." She did, and gasped as she saw a large cylinder filled with yellow gunge loom into view, lowering towards her.

"That was close," Dann whispered to Ivy, who was watching the tank as it got closer.

She turned towards him, a smile on her face. "It doesn't look like we're going to stay clean either," she laughed. The tank eventually stopped about two metres above the victim's head.

"She's looking worried!" Leon called from the stage. "Are you all right up there?"

The raccoon girl's boyfriend put his arm around her as she sat down again. She closed her eyes and nodded.

"What's your name?"

"Ailsa", she called down, then looked startled at the sound of her amplified voice.

"Well, you'll be not only trying to keep yourself clean, but the rest of the audience around you... so there's no pressure."

She laughed a little, looking up into the tank's funnel. The audience underneath it could see that the wide valve at the bottom was held in place only by a small catch.

"To stop that thing from going off, we're going to play a memory game - how are you at those?"

Ailsa glanced up at the cylinder again before answering. "Terrible", she responded.

"We'll see. You've got four buttons in front of you, and I'm going to get Charlene here to press out a combination that you have to copy." He handed the bunny girl a small controller. "Eight should be long enough to start off with, don't you think?" Charlene nodded, looking excitedly out towards the victim in the audience.

"Go as slow or as fast as you like," the host finished, stepping back from her. She slowly and deliberately pressed out a sequence of eight buttons, shown along with the raccoon girl watching them on the screens around the stage, and passed the controller back to Leon.

"Your turn now, Ailsa - can you remember the sequence?" The raccoon girl leaned forward, still with the rabbit's arm around her, and began copying the combination that had been shown. The tense music had started up again, punctuated by confirmation beeps from the machine. The rabbit leaned forward a little more to point to the next button, whispering in her ear.

"Hey, don't help her!" the host called out. "Or I'll set it off," he added with a grin, holding up the device that he'd given to Charlene. The rabbit leaned back, looking up at the gunge-filled cylinder above them, and jumped when a louder sound played.

"Yes!" Leon said, as the audience around her let out their breath. "Just two more of those to go - nine this time, Charlene?"

The pink bunny took the device again and tapped out another sequence, this time a little faster. Ailsa leaned over the panel in front of her, trying to use her fingers to keep track of which buttons were being pressed, and glanced between it and the screen. When the lights had stopped, she put in the first three, then hovered around deciding on the fourth.

Wordlessly, Dann put his arm around Ivy again and squeezed her shoulder as the raccoon got the fourth one correct. The onlookers on the row below them were beginning to shift forwards in their seats a little. On her press of the fifth button, a buzzer sounded instead of the normal noise, and she looked up, shocked.

"Sorry, Ailsa, that was the wrong button!" After glancing up again, she hunched forwards and put her head down under her arms. Dann looked up to see the catch on the cylinder slide back and the valve drop open, starting a column of yellow slime pouring down on to her, accompanied by the sound of an irregular buzzing alarm.

Ailsa squeaked as it hit her back, and it splashed outwards crazily as it continued to come down. It spilled in to Ivy's lap and on to the three audience members in front of the raccoon, who turned away as the wave came towards them. She drummed her feet on the floor as it dripped around her back, covering the seat as well.

The flow shut off, and the raccoon girl slowly leaned up, grimacing as the stuff on her back dripped down the way. Her boyfriend, who had shrunk back when the tank opened, shuffled back towards her and put his arm on her shoulder. Suddenly, the alarm started up again and she and the rabbit were hit on the head by another wave.

Dann gasped at the cold feeling as some of it hit his hand. Ivy squeaked and suddenly turned towards him, her face screwed up. He laughed as he saw that the gunge had splashed on to her, covering her left cheek and most of her side, and wiped her face with his hand as he leaned to look past her. Ailsa's boyfriend was holding her head under the flow, her hands placed firmly in front of her face as she shook her head to send the slime splashing outwards.

Applause started up again as the flow dripped to a halt, and the cylinder was carried up to the ceiling again. The rabbit, now as covered as his girlfriend, took her hands off her and leaned back in his seat, leaving her to wipe her hands down her face and gasp as she looked down at herself and the gunge-spattered area around her.

"Sorry about that, Ailsa, but you will get a souvenir bag for getting gunged for us," the host called from the stage. "The audience around you aren't quite so lucky - do you want to come down and dry off in the front row?"

"I'm fine here," she said, squealing as her boyfriend took a handful of the stuff from his fur and ruffled it into her hair.

"Best leave them to it," the host said, and turned back towards Charlene as the lights went down on the two of them.

"Now, I think after gunging three other people, it's your turn now..." The bunny grinned nervously. "There's only one more thing standing between you and the star prize... have a look at this."

He turned the bunny girl round to get her to look at another tank being dragged onto the stage - this one had a futuristic look to it, and had thick metallic walls all around apart from the usual window at the top of the front. A number display was mounted on the door. She looked around at the audience worriedly as the tank was set into place to the right of the central chair.

Leon walked her over to the side of the tank as he spoke. "So you've got two options, Charlene - you can either go home clean, or brave this foam tank and get a chance to win the holiday..."

"I'm going in!" she interrupted him eagerly.

"I can't argue with that," smiled Leon, opening the heavy door for her. There was a high stool inside the tank, and she clambered up on to it, turning around to face towards the audience.

"This part of the show relies on the viewers at home, so we need as many of you as possible to help Charlene out," announced Leon, turning towards a camera. "If you want to help Charlene win, the number's on your screen now - she needs ten thousand calls by the end of the night!"

He reached up to the top of the tank and flicked a switch, starting up a quiet electronic humming noise. The bunny looked around the tank edgily, but nothing happened to her. Leon turned to her as she looked forward again, and he produced a phone from his pocket, dialling a number as he continued. "Of course, we need to provide some incentive to our viewers..." he smiled at her. "Every time we receive a call... this happens."

Charlene closed her eyes in anticipation, and squeaked loudly as a brief spray of white pie foam squirted on to the side of her tummy. She opened her eyes again and scraped the foam off herself, flicking it to the floor.

"Are you OK with that, Charlene?" the host asked, his hand on the door again. She nodded, squealing as another couple of sprays from the ceiling spattered on to her shoulders. "Good luck!" He heaved the door closed and walked away from the tank as even more sprays began squirting on to her from all angles, the counter at the front rapidly rising.

"We're going to leave her in there for a while, so in the meantime, please welcome back Karl and Margo!"

The couple that had been chosen at the start of the show got up from the front row and walked side by side up the stairs. Margo was now dressed in a blue swimsuit bearing the Dungeon logo, similar to the ones the contestants had been wearing. "How have you been?" the host asked her as she reached the stage.

"Looking forward to this all evening," she grinned at her boyfriend. Karl shuffled his feet, looking a little edgy, and watched the foam squirting on to the rabbit girl in the tank behind him. He turned back as Leon addressed him.

"Let's not keep her waiting, then, Karl - follow me!" The couple walked towards the back of the stage with the host, who gestured the black wolf in to the large chair in front of the portcullis. He turned around to sit down in it and put his hands on the chair's arms. After glancing over at the foam tank next to him again, he looked up at his girlfriend, who giggled excitedly.

"All right, Karl, if you're sitting comfortably, I'll tell you the rules." Karl nodded, shifting his feet. "If you can answer five general knowledge questions correctly in under a minute, then we'll let you go away clean. Passing a question or getting one wrong is OK."

Karl looked worried, but smiled. "All right," he said. "What happens if I win?"

"I was hoping you might ask that." Leon took Margo's hand and turned her around, making her gasp as she saw the tank from earlier being wheeled on to the stage. The phone prop had been removed along with the chair, and this time only one tank of green slime was visible on top of it. In place of the phone, there was a large switch on the tank's metal back.

Karl raised his hands in the air and applauded, getting the audience to join in with him as Margo was led into the gunge tank. She ran her hands through her ginger hair and looked up as the door was closed behind her, then leaned on the top of the door.

"If you win, then I'm sure you can guess what happens to your girlfriend," Leon told him. "But she's got a lever in there that will send you back there if you don't." He pointed in to the dark recess beyond the portcullis, and Karl looked over his shoulder as well. "Are you ready?" he asked.

"Yeah." He nodded confidently, drumming his feet on the floor. A display faded in on the screens, showing a timer at one minute along with five empty circles.

"Here's your first! What are the three colours used to make up a colour TV screen?"

He thought for a moment. "Red, yellow, blue?"

"Sorry, that's wrong," the host responded with a smile. Margo clapped her hands together as he began the next question.

Dann looked over at the rabbit girl again, who was slowly being covered by a pile of foam. She dragged some of the fluffy cream out of her ears, only to squeak again as another jet hissed on to her head. Trying her best to stay quiet, she put her hands out to defend herself from the nozzles, but yelped every time an unexpected squirt got her from the side.

Ivy reached down to get her bag from under the chair. "Hold this a moment," she whispered to Dann, taking her phone out and handing the bag to him. Squinting to see the phone number in the corner of the screen, she dialled slowly.

Dann looked around nervously, remembering what had happened to the last audience member who had been spotted with a phone. He turned to Ivy again as she tapped him on the shoulder, and looked at her grinning face as she held the phone up to his ear.

"Thanks for calling Leon's Dungeon," a pre-recorded voice repeated. "Press five now to activate a foam spray."

Dann laughed quietly. "They've really made everyone a part of this," he said.

Ivy put her thumb on the central button and waited for a lull in the jets of foam that were cascading on to Charlene. Seeing a gap, she jabbed the button and grinned even wider as four diagonal foam streams squirted on to the bunny's head at the same time. "Was one of those mine?" she whispered to Dann.

"Hard to tell," he said, looking at the tank's victim. She was giving up trying to clean herself up, and was just occasionally wiping her face as she was slowly covered in the pile. She jumped and looked round as a siren began wailing.

"He's done it!" announced Leon, walking away from the wolf in the chair and looking in to the gunge tank. The leopard girl already had her hands clasped over her face in preparation. "I'm really sorry about this, Margo..." he said to her, the last word drowned out as a long, low klaxon sound blared.

A column of smooth green gunge dropped from the vat above her head, making her flinch downwards as it domed out over her. She leaned forwards so her face was out of the downpour, and moved her hands to lean against the tank's front as she bowed under the weight of the falling slime. As the stuff lapped over her head she moved one hand back to her eyes, then ran it through her dripping hair as the flow subsided.

She laughed as she looked down at herself, the slime on her fur shining under the stage lights, and streaks of the swimsuit darkened as it soaked into it. "Eugh," she groaned at the host as he looked in at her, then twitched again as another thick green spray started up from above. Her smile returned as the last few drops spattered into the pool at the bottom of the tank.

Leon turned back to Karl. "So you're our winner, but I've got a prize for both of you for being good sports... and also because we don't want to be responsible for you breaking up or anything..." There was a mild laugh from the audience. "We're giving you a romantic dinner for two at a local restaurant, the Northern Lights. There'll be a candelit dinner set up for you... they were even good enough to sponsor the show here. Here you are!" He produced a voucher from his pocket, and began to hand it down to him. "But... I think Margo would be a bit disappointed if we let you leave here clean, don't you?"

Karl froze, one hand out to take the prize, then he dropped it back on to the chair and smiled. "Yeah, I suppose so." He tapped his feet on the floor, looking over at the tank.

"It's his turn now, Margo - you know what to do!" The leopard nodded, and flicked her slimy hair behind her head again before turning round to tug on the large switch at the back of the tank, an open-mouthed smile on her face.

A mechanical whirr started up, and she and the bunny girl in the opposite tank both watched as Karl was carried slowly backwards under the portcullis. Looking up as he went underneath, he lifted his feet to stop them dragging on the ground, then put them down again as he felt the chair stop. Looking to his left and right, he suddenly closed his eyes as two licks of slime, obviously thrown from buckets, slopped over him.

He gasped, gripping the arms of the chair tighter as he felt the cold thin slime dripping from his fur, then hunched his shoulders and grinned as two jets of yellow foam cascaded on to him from above. He shifted in the slimy seat as the foam piled up on his head and slipped around down his shoulders in blobs.

Suddenly the foam streams shut off and the hissing noise stopped, to be replaced with the familiar klaxon. Karl glanced up for a moment before facing the audience and closing his eyes again, a grin becoming visible just before he was hidden by a downpour of green gunge from the top of the set.

Margo bounced in the tank, clapping her hands together, as he brought his hands up to catch some of the slime doming out from his head and into his lap. He shook his head, sending it spattering to the sides for a moment, then leaned forwards so that it dropped on to his neck. As the downpour began to thin out, he straightened again, looking down at his gunge-covered fur with a laugh, then back to Margo as the flow shut off, leaving almost none of him visible under the green layer.

Leon waited for the cheers to die down, then addressed the giggling Margo again. "I think it's probably better if you accept this now," he said, producing the voucher. "We thought you might get a bit messy, so we wrapped it in plastic..." She stretched her sticky fingers out to take it, and looked down at it as the host stepped away, her shoulders still shaking with laughter. "And you can keep the swimsuit as well," he finished.

He walked over to the other side of the stage as Karl brushed slime out of his eyes. "We've still got one last thing to do," the host announced as he looked at Charlene in the foam tank. She was now absolutely covered in a foam pile, only her face visible where she'd scraped the stuff away from it. Two more sprays were still covering her from the sides. "Let's turn this off for you..." She sagged relievedly as the host walked over to the tank and flicked the switch again, stopping the low humming sound and both jets. He leaned forward and placed his hand on the door. "How are you feeling, Charlene?"

She stretched her hands out of the foam and tried to clear some of it from her head and ears. "I feel like I need a shower," she grinned.

"But you'll be pleased to know that you managed to get 10,629 people phoning in for you to be foamed, which means you're getting the holiday!" The girl cheered, raising both her hands up and clapping them together, sending blobs of foam spraying outwards. "Let me just get our ten thousandth caller on the line..." the host said. She nodded as he stepped back, raising his finger to his earpiece.

"Hi, is that Rainer?" he asked after a pause.

"Yes, it is," laughed an accented male voice from the other end. "Hi, Leon."

"Great, so you're still watching, obviously... did you enjoy the show this evening?"

"I certainly did."

"Well, as you've no doubt guessed, you were the ten thousandth caller, so you're going to be getting a few free tickets to see the next one. How does that sound?"

"Fantastic, thanks," the caller said above the audience's applause. The bunny, now more relaxed, was cleaning her head and shoulders of foam.

"And as you contributed to the show, we're going to let you finish it off for us. Can you get ready with the five button on your phone again?"

"All right." He paused for a moment. "What's it going to do?"

"Charlene's about to find out," Leon grinned into the tank as she froze, and stared wide-eyed back at him. "But before that happens, thanks again to all our willing victims this evening, especially Jorg and Safira..." He looked towards them as they rejoined him on the stage, and he put his arm around the lioness as he continued. The show's title music faded in again, and the credits began to scroll across the bottom of the on-stage screens. "And to all of these people, who make the show possible. Now, Rainer,  press that button!" He stepped back from the tank, letting the audience and cameras get a clear view of it as a loud buzzer sounded above the cheers.

Charlene covered her face with her hands and hunched forwards in the seat. She squealed loudly as the tank dropped a mixture of orange and brown slime on to her head, which clung to her and slithered downwards, clearing off the collected foam on the way. She looked up at the audience, a sickly grin on her face which was intermittently visible through the slime splattering out from her head.

As the foam was washed away, she stroked her hands down her sticky ears a few times, getting her bare arms covered in the falling stuff as well. Spluttering as the gunge drizzled on to her head, she grinned at the audience and waved in response to their cheers, giggling as the view on the screens faded to black.

"Thanks again, everyone!" Leon shouted above the continuing applause. The two stagehands appeared again to open the tank and release the bunny girl, who was still shaking with laughter as she got up and carefully stepped out. "If you've been gunged and want a chance to clean up, there are showers out the door to the left - we'll return people to their friends at the entrance. Thank you!"

He acknowledged the audience with another wave, and finally led the two guests backstage. The lights came back up on the audience, who began to get up.

Dann stretched his arms up, grinning as Ivy looked over at him. Her left side was still covered in slime from the game earlier.

"What did you think?" she asked him, though she could tell he had enjoyed it.

"Amazing," Dann answered, getting up and struggling back into his jacket. "I didn't think anything could compete with IZ, but this comes close."

They walked down the aisle between the seats, and joined the queue for the exit. Sally, the girl who had been gunged in the phone booth tank, walked past them towards the showers. A spotted trail of slime was left behind her as she moved.

Dann watched her go, then looked at Ivy. "Speaking of IZ... want to dig out the tape of our episode of it when we get back to mine?"

"Well, it's getting pretty late." Ivy looked at her watch. "I would have to stay the night," she giggled as she looked back up at him.

Dann laughed back - she had used that line on him many times before. "How could I refuse?"