Damsel in Distress: A Diaperfur Adventure in Seven Episodes. Part Two.
#4 of Pink and Blue
Damsel in Distress: A Pink & Blue Diaperfur Adventure Tale in Seven Episodes
Part Two
This is a mature story so please be 18+ (in your non-regressed state) to read, and involves furs in diapers and ageplay, so also please like that. (It's also a silly adventure/romance story with characters in these situations rather than a straight-out regression or sissification story.)
It is also a continuation of [Damsel in Distress, Part One](%5C)
(Whoa, that was hard to figure out, right?)
The conclusion will be posted on Friday, so if you'd rather read the whole thing at once, you can wait for the weekend. Click the By Folder view on your upper right to view all related stories.
Plot recap from Part One:
For months and months the blue faction of boyish AB/DL furs struggled as their heroic outlaw leader, the black Lab Roger and his true-blue wolf cub sidekick, Rian, lost new recruits to the rival pink faction of AB/DL sissies, led by Roger's next-door neighbor and sister, the leopard Empress of sissies Calliope.
But thanks to the sissy fox princess Serafina, the boys have obtained the plans for Calliope's new sissy academy, in exchange for a promise to rescue her from an unpleasantly long chastity punishment. The ultimate showdown between pink and blue begins as the boys assemble their entire team for a raid on the academy-unaware that Serafina has been imprisoned by her teammates and they are walking into a trap!
Character recap:
Baby Blue leaders (Secret Circle members):
Roger: Leader and daddy to the Baby Blue boys, a black Labrador expert in water-based combat. Calliope's brother and neighbor.
Rian: Roger's true-blue wolf cub sidekick, Baby Blue's second-in-command and co-founder, social linchpin of the boys, and an ardent collector of cub gear. The shrimpy wolf has had more than playful contact with Serafina on previous missions.
Dex: A sensitive raccoon martial artist, Roger's second boy and Rian's close friend, Dex is Baby Blue's third-in-command and combat specialist.
Twitchy: The nervous, goggle-wearing bunny is the newest Circle member, shadowing Dex on his first combat mission. He ordinarily makes up BB's tech team at Hideout #4 with his partner, the pocket-sized but toolbox-carrying mouse and gadget engineer, Squeak.
The Pink team leaders (Empress and Ladies in Waiting):
Empress Calliope: Roger's leopardess sister and neighbor, leader of the sissies and headmistress of the soon-to-be sissy academy. She's crossed paths with the Baby Blue boys, but never engaged any of them personally-until now.
Princess Cassandra, a.k.a. Cassie: A huge, quiet sissy Newfoundland infallibly loyal to her mistress. The brawn and ofttimes reluctant disciplinarian of the pink faction.
Princess Serafina: Formerly Roger's sidekick, Serafina turned to the sissy side many years ago and retains a keen awareness of what boys like, making her the most sexually experienced and proficient lady-in-waiting. Her ties to both teams make her a key advisor but also compromise her judgment because of past feelings for Roger and burgeoning ones for his sidekick Rian. Currently imprisoned for leaking information to the boys and in a chastity device.
Lady Lin Lin: The newest lady in waiting, this undersized but hyper-competitive panda already put the boys out of commission on one mission and is eager to do so again. Perceiving Serafina's weakness for the boys, she has pounced on an opportunity to go after the vixen's princess crown.
And now . . .
Part Two (two episodes, 6,800 words):
Episode 4. The Empress Strikes Back!
Episode 5. Failsafe!
Episode 4. The Empress Strikes Back!
"Watches synchronized. T Minus 60 and counting!" Roger, Rian, and Dex exclaimed in unison at the forested meet up site while Twitchy and Squeak unloaded sacks of equipment to hand out.
Dex eyed Rian's latest outfit incredulously and shook his head. "When I said you shouldn't fight your cute, I didn't think you'd take me that seriously."
The wolf cub had opened his trench coat to reveal a short-sleeved white sailor suit with a blue trim, complete with a matching sailor hat and baggy shorts, topped off by what appeared to be a blue adult-sized cub harness; he was operating, judging by the relatively loose shorts, at his three-layer minimum. The front of the suit said, U. S. Cub Guard Rescue above the breast. Rian tugged on the harness. "This is totally getting me up that busted fire escape," he remarked, clicking a bungee cord to the hook where a cub leash could attach. "And no sleeves or pant legs to get caught on anything. I'll roll right in."
"Well, I still think it's dumb," the coon remarked, then added, with a touch of envious pouting, "Where do you find this stuff anyway?"
"Well, someone's looking bright-eyed and fluffy-tailed this morning!" remarked Roger as Twitchy handed him a short-wave radio. "I guess you got a lot of sleep?"
"Quality over quantity!" Twitchy exclaimed, nodding brightly. "Can I talk to the Rescue Team for one second?"
Rian and Roger exchanged glances and stepped aside with the bunny, who reached deep into the pockets of his baggy jeans, as Dex's combat troops gathered around the war-painted raccoon in a huddle.
"What's up, Twitch?" Rian asked. The bunny just smiled as he produced two large pacifiers from his pockets and handed one each to Roger and Rian, who looked at them quizzically. "I know the Rescue Team specs are for light armaments, but, since you two are running solo . . ."
"Every well-designed system has a failsafe. You know, a backup system that you probably will never have to use, but that still exists-just in case. Well, these are yours. A present from me and Squeak. Let's say they give a new meaning to the term sucker punch." He put his arms around the two leaders' shoulders, and whispered instructions.
******************
T Minus 15.
Roger dropped through the half-open skylight into the unused attic of the school building, coughing as he stirred up clouds of dust. He opened the trap door and lowered himself into the top-floor corridor, holding his body suspended by both paws for a moment while he looked up and down the hallway. Seeing and hearing no one, as expected, he dropped onto the linoleum floor with a soft thud and, reaching into his backpack, extracted the top item, an impact-absorbing coffee thermos, which he unscrewed to remove a loaded water balloon, clutching it behind his back in his left paw. As soon as he had put everything back, he radioed his signal phrase: "One if by land!"
******************
T Minus 10.
The stairs between the third and fourth floor fire escape platforms had long since rusted away. Rian's bungee cord caught on the railing with a click. Once it was settled, he bent his knees and hopped up, twice, the rebound bounce boosting the shrimpy wolf just high enough to catch the bottom of the fourth floor platform.
"Phew!" he let out, pulling his scrawny weight up the railing around the platform carefully, one paw after another. From where he dangled he could see that Calliope's bathroom window was, as always in the overheated apartment building, cracked just the slightest bit open to keep the air circulating.
He began panting as he neared the top of the spiky railing and hoisted himself over it; he whined involuntarily as he had to flip one leg over the top at a time and rest all his weight momentarily on his crotch. Only three diapers on, but it's a good thing I still put a stuffer right in the middle, he thought, as he pulled his other leg over and tumbled unsteadily on to his feet on the fourth-floor fire escape platform.
He sat down to rest for a moment and took off his sneakers and his backpack, leaving them both on the platform and taking what he would need out of the knapsack. Then, scampering over to stand beneath the frosted bathroom window, he stood on his tiptoes to peer through the crack and set in place the car jack Squeak had given him to help get it open, first hooking his bungee cord to the top of the jack; he was a good half foot too short to push the window very high up himself.
In a moment it was in place, and he was pumping the handle, hoisting the window a little bit further open, and himself another centimeter or so into the air, with every pump.
Soon he could see into the empty bathroom. As expected, he would drop right into the bathtub. He took the radio off his belt to radio his signal phrase right before he swung in: "And two if by sea!"
The radio crackled back in a moment. "And I on the opposite shore will be," answered Dex, so Rian knew the Squad A boys were in position in the locker room.
Then again, in about twenty seconds. "Ready to ride and spread the alarm," Twitchy completed the signal phrase. He and a handful of second-string boys were in position in the small separate bathroom removed from the locker room, that remained designated a men's room, for non-sissy visitors; they would provide Squad A with background cover fire.
*****************
T Minus 2.
The dozing sissyfox shifted in her soggy diaper and pricked her ears as she heard a clatter in the punishment room. "Cassie?" she asked sleepily, blinking. Her mind was just playing more tricks on her. She had spent the whole night in Level 3-mild sensory deprivation bondage-and her tail twitched uncomfortably as she started to doze off again. Before she did, though, she heard something snap, and her right forepaw came free from the bedpost it was attached to.
"Oh, thank goodness!" she exclaimed, reaching up for the leather hood that had a muzzle hole but no eyeholes, and began unsnapping the neck buckles. "I knew you'd come to your senses. I'm sorry about all the things I said, Cassie, but . . ."
She sniffed. She thought she could smell crumbs from cinnamon scones falling on to her muzzle; yes, she licked, that's what they were. In another minute, her left forepaw came free as well just as she pulled up the hood and turned to see the small visitor standing on the bedpost of the punishment cot, leaving a trail of crumbs behind him.
"Squeak!" said the mouse, holding up a pair of pliers and pointing proudly to his toolbox on the floor and then to the dangling air vent on the wall, which was swinging by a single screw.
Serafina instantly became alert. "Did Roger send you?" she asked.
"Squeak!" said the mouse affirmatively and he held up all his fingers, indicating there were many more as he nodded reassuringly.
"Everyone?" she barked at the mouse. "No! Listen to me! You are all in terrible danger! I need to talk to Roger! The boys are walking into a trap! Today is not even the real opening! This whole thing is a set-up!"
Her mind leapt days back as she suddenly recalled Roger describing part of his plan to recover the key. There will be plenty of time to search the apartment while Callie is at the school, he had said. Rian can do that. Besides me, he knows it best. It was more or less what she would have expected; and Callie knew her brother at least as well as Serafina. "I know exactly what Callie will do! And I have to warn the boys before it's too late!"
"Squeak!!" cried the mouse in alarm, waving his paws frantically, holding one to his ear with fingers in the shape of a phone, and then shaking his head sadly. "Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!"
"Then take me to someone who does have a way to call him! And fast!"
"Squeak!" said the mouse as he snipped through the bonds on Serafina's legs and the sissyfox sat up, rubbing her ankles.
The mouse leapt on to the floor and scampered over to his toolbox, flicking it open, and lifting its top tray to reveal what was underneath. "Squeak squeak!" he pointed anxiously at its contents, and then up at Serafina's nose. "Squeak?"
She looked down as she stood up unsteadily and shook her head. "Oh, you have to be kidding. It's been years since I've even looked at one of those."
"Squeak!" said the mouse, hopping up and down.
"All right," she said, biting her lip as she reached into the toolbox, and whispering, "Just hang in there, Rian!"
*********************
Lin Lin's voice spoke mellifluously over the combination gymnasium/assembly room's public address system, addressing the small crowd assembled in the gym's unfolded bleachers. The panda's speech echoed into the locker room and restroom: "Welcome, everyone brave enough to make this first important step, to your first period class. I know you have all been personally selected by Empress Calliope and by at least one of our qualified recruiters. A special welcome to my girls-you, of course, are the best. You will be hearing more from the Empress about her vision at our afternoon assembly. For now, I am honored and excited to say, that your lives will never be the same. And as your physical education instructors, Princess Cassandra and I will be delighted to begin today with basic charm school discipline-posture, balance, dance . . ."
T Minus 0! And . . .
Dex's ten A-squad boys, clad in a variety of pirate, bandit, cowboy, and martial arts costumes, burst out of the locker room door and poured into the school's gymnasium / assembly hall from its side, directing a first volley of foam-tipped arrows, plastic projectiles, dodge balls, and a blast of water fire toward the crowd they saw assembled in the first few rows of the bleachers and toward the speaking podium.
"Hold up!" Dex suddenly shouted, his eyes flickering over the bleachers as he slid to a halt and raised one paw in the air, but as the volley had already been launched, he was a split second too late.
There was a loud metallic click over the PA system as the recording of Lin Lin's voice terminated, and the first barrage of missile fire collided with a defensive row along the edge of the bleachers and at the podium of fragile inflatable animals, balloons, and bags, all filled with flour, sugar, glitter, and baby powder, and covered in pink plastic and inexpensive dresses. The devices burst and, thanks to a powerful fan on the opposite side of the gym, spewed forth blinding white sparkly clouds that swirled into the air around the attack squad, blinding them and stinging their eyes as the overwhelming scent of talcum dulled their noses.
"They're ready for us! It's a trap!" the raccoon shouted frantically, pressing his radio button, but the now-useless device emitted a shriek of static; something was jamming the frequency.
"Squad B, fall back! Fall back!" he shouted as loud as he could, coughing as he inhaled the flour and talcum mixture. His boys scattered in confusion and the sugar stung his eyes as he made out a crowd of petite figures running toward them and saw some of his troops falling to the floor in tears. "Repeat, B Team! Get out of here! We'll buy you time!" Dex leapt up into the air as a line of sissies approached with their arms locked. He managed to get above the cloud, but was hit in the air by a bucketful of ice water, causing the flour and grits of sugar to adhere in a sticky layer to his soaked martial-arts outfit.
The raccoon landed outside the smokescreen and behind the advancing girls to find himself facing Lin Lin just as she hurled the empty bucket at him. He spun to avoid it, and jumped again to avoid her kick. "Kung fu!" he thought aloud. "I can counter that." But something was off; he felt so much heavier than usual; with a sinking feeling, he realized that not only his uniform, but his thickly layered cloth diapers were soaked all the way through. The greatly increased bulk of his bottom completely altered his center of balance.
Lin Lin followed him into the air and pirouetted not once but three times, catching his punches and flipping his arms up and backward, causing him to land on his back on the gym's shiny hardwood floor with a sodden thud. She dropped next to him on her toes and stopped spinning, looking down at the fallen coon. "And figure skating," she corrected him archly, then asked tauntingly, "Not as quick as usual? Waterlogged, maybe?"
All around him, Dex could see flailing, blinded, or running boys being surrounded by giggling sissies who entangled them in silk sheets and ribbons that further restricted their movement. There must have been about fifteen girls under Lin Lin. His mind filled with dread at what would happen next. On the rare events when Dex did lose his cool or a fight, the results were unfortunately predictable and totally out of his control. That's why he worked so hard to make sure it never happened.
Tears streamed down his eyes. In a moment the raccoon began bawling, kicking his legs wildly in the air, and occasionally sucking his thumb. A large, warm yellow puddle spread out under him on the floor, further soaking most of the lower half and back of his outfit. He would be a little kit throwing a tantrum for some time.
"I wonder what a mighty fighter little Dexie Wexie will grow up to be," Lin Lin suggested to her girls, "in a dress." Dex opened his muzzle to squeak out something, but still inhaling the settling powder, only let out a high-pitched series of small sneezes. At once, the now helpless martial artist was surrounded by giggling girlie furs.
The panda smiled down at him and patted his muzzle. "Do not worry, coonie. You'll probably be clumsy in a skirt at first, but I have a feeling you'll get used to it. Now let's bring our new girls to their first classes. School is in session as of today, Baby Blue boys. And our entering class," she remarked to the fallen warriors with a broad grin, "is you."
A dodge ball whizzed by the panda's head and she pivoted to see its source, a white rabbit clad in denim with gritted teeth standing behind the girls at the top of the bleachers, holding a megaphone snatched from the locker room in one paw.
Twitchy was entirely covered with the flour and talcum mixture-except for the lenses of the safety goggles snapped down over his eyes. A row of six other boys knelt in front of him across the top row of the bleachers, a mix of Nerf rifles and Super Soakers cocked and pointing downward, and a handful of dodge balls grabbed hastily from the gym's supply bin arrayed across the bleacher seats in front of them.
A tug-of-war rope lay behind the dodge balls. Before he spoke Twitchy reached down with his now free throwing hand to unlink the end of the rope from his belt.
Lin Lin gritted her teeth as she realized what had happened. That was how he had pulled his small line of boys straight through the smokescreen and avoided her girls; they had been holding the rope and all their eyes had been closed except for his. He had used her own smokescreen as cover to get his boys behind her and into the bleachers while she fought with Dex's. This was a nuisance.
"Don't give up! We're still fighting! Anyone who can get free!" Twitchy shouted over the megaphone, his various maps of the school flashing before his eyes. "Join us on the bleachers! Make for high ground! Don't run away! Every exit from this room has bad visibility; if it's a trap, you're just stumbling out there to be pounced! We have to make a stand here! Dex wouldn't leave us!"
The panda's eyes flashed and her lip curled up into a confident smirk.
"All that would have been considerably more impressive if your throw had actually hit me!" she shouted up at Twitchy.
"But since you missed, I assume you are what they call the second string. Well, do not worry," she gestured behind her at Dex, who only wailed louder as two girls held his legs down long enough for a third to yank his pants off. "I am still accepting applications."
*********************
"This is what you get for putting me on ignore, sis!" Roger said as he flung the door to Calliope's office open and stepped through the small waiting area to view her desk-which was empty.
His nose caught a familiar scent, and the Labrador growled, turning slowly, "Cassie."
"Hello, Roger," the quiet Newfoundland said placidly as she leaned back against the door, pressing it shut and locking it behind her with one paw. "My mistress said you would understand what it meant if I told you-what was it?-that your princess is in another castle."
Her large brown eyes gazed at him mournfully from under her frilly Easter bonnet. "She reassures me that everything that is happening is indeed for the best. Still, I would be very sad, if you are not willing to wait here for her. I would rather not lock up someone else so soon after Serafina."
*********************
Rian froze mid-step in his path from the living room to Calliope's bedroom door.
"What an adorable costume, Adrian," said a familiar voice that seemed to be coming from behind him, then in front of him. "And what an adorably ridiculous way of coming in. All you had to do, was knock."
The wolf cub's ears flicked. He was used to hearing Calliope speak in brusque, imperious tones, but her voice this time was soft, mellifluous, and gentle. She didn't sound mean. Not at all.
But Roger's words echoed in his head: 'If somehow you do encounter her one-on-one, the protocol is: Run. And call for help. In that order.' He reached for the radio on his belt, and pressed the button. "It's Rian. I'm in trouble! She's here!" he blurted, but the device only emitted a piercing static shriek so loud that he winced and dropped it to the floor in shock. He wanted to run away, but the leopardess sounded so uncharacteristically . . . nice.
"You've become so dear to my brother," the voice continued, unconcerned by his abortive distress call, "Yet you and I have never sat down one on one. I simply can't imagine what nonsense he's told you. Did he say, for instance, not to be alone with me at any cost? Well, I can imagine why. He's only frightened that someone will finally tell you the truth. You see, I know far, far more about you than you think."
The wolf cub felt goose bumps cover the skin under his fur and his nose twitched as he was enveloped by the scent of floral perfume. The imperial leopardess stepped out of her bedroom and walked toward him, wearing so much silk she seemed to shimmer.
"My brother's sudden expansion all began with you, little Adrian," she explained gently as she approached. "And I blame myself. Way back when we first met, I should never have handed you off to my ladies-in-waiting as a toy. It was unfair to both of us. I apologize for not recognizing your potential."
"If you're here . . . the boys at the school!" Rian blurted out. "My friends! Roger!" Why did he feel stuck? He grabbed at his harness with one paw and took a deep breath, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to count to ten. His right paw inched its way into his pocket.
"Oh, don't worry," Calliope smiled and waved her paw, laughing gently. "Everyone will be all right. It's a silly wild goose chase, something I had to arrange to make sure we could talk uninterrupted. The academy isn't even opening today."
"I'm just conducting one admissions interview." She reached into the folds of her dress and produced an Oriental silk fan, flicking it open as she stepped nearer. "Yours."
"What are you doing to me? Oh no!" Rian exclaimed aloud, as the fingers in his pocket gripped the pacifier Twitchy had given him tightly. "I understand why Roger says you're so dangerous now! You . . . you use genjutsu!"
She looked down with a gently amused smile. "I don't even know what that nonsense word means, sweetheart," she began to say. "But stop looking so worried about throwing or dropping all your playthings in my apartment. It doesn't matter if you do or don't, because . . ."
Rian thrust his right fist, grasping Twitchy's pacifier, upward, toward her mouth as she spoke. He just needed to land one hit . . . but his eyes widened with dismay as the ruffles of silk shifted into an indistinct mass before his eyes and, as though in a blur of shimmering folds, Calliope moved, with the speed of a big cat on the hunt.
Suddenly he felt her warm breath on the back of his neck and the lacquered side of her Oriental fan rapping his fingers hard enough that they sprang open. The wolf cub watched with dismay as his ultimate weapon clattered to the floor and slid out of sight into the bedroom and under the bed.
She concluded her sentence calmly, "None of your children's toys can hurt me."
Next time: Failsafe! The boys have walked right into a pink trap. All is lost! Or . . . is it? The ultimate showdown between pink and blue continues.
Episode 5. Failsafe!
"I really thought you were smarter than this, Cassie," Roger said, inching his right footpaw forward and swinging his left paw, which still clutched the water balloon behind his back, down toward the Newfoundland's bonneted head.
Cassie effortlessly caught his left paw in a giant vise-like grip, catching his paw between his fingers and holding them apart in a vise-like grip that prevented him from either opening them enough to drop it or squeezing them shut to set it off. At the very same time the Newfoundland opened her mouth to offer a rejoinder. As she did, Roger's right fist swung up from his pocket and connected with the larger dog's muzzle, ramming Twitchy's pacifier into her open mouth.
"But you sure look like a sucker today," he concluded, grinning at her.
The Newfoundland tried to spit out the pacifier, but found herself sucking it instinctively, and looking up at Roger with wide eyes as she fell first on to her knees, then, involuntarily relaxing her grip, onto all fours. A massive trickle spilled down between her legs and into a slick puddle on the floor. Roger hopped backwards to avoid the spreading urine, letting his water balloon fall and splash harmlessly on the office floor behind him.
The Labrador patted her head as he reached into his backpack with one paw. "Twitchy was right. That is one powerful diuretic. Even at your size, I'm afraid you won't be doing anything except peeing yourself continuously for the next ten or twelve minutes, with an intensity that prevents you from moving much, besides maybe a slow crawl. But you should be able to help me with this. For Serry's sake."
He pulled out and unrolled his map of the school, holding it in front of the hulking puppy's nose. "Where's my sister? I just want to talk to her."
Cassie was wetting so intensely her vision blurred, but she managed to focus on the image and leaned forward, touching a spot with her huge nose and also licking it with the tip of her giant tongue. Roger looked down at the map and asked, "In the school gym. Are you sure?" Although it required considerable effort, she feebly nodded.
Roger hopped over the puddle just as its rim touched the toes of his sneakers and landed on the other side of Cassie, opening the door and casting a backward glance into the office from the hallway.
Knowing the Newfoundland couldn't follow, he called back cheerily as he replaced the map in his backpack, "Hey, Cass! Even in this state, you would never give up Callie. So I bet if you want me to think she's in the school, she isn't! Pretty cool how I figured that out, huh? Like a spy! So when you do finally manage to call sis, tell her . . . I'll see her soon!"
The huge dog collapsed into her own still-spreading puddle with a resounding thud and let out a low, despairing whimper.
Roger assumed a more serious demeanor, biting his lip as he ran down the corridor and headed for the nearest stairwell. "Good luck, boys," he whispered. "I believe in you. And Rian-just hang on, little buddy. I'm on my way."
*******************
"Owwwwww!" cried the Dalmatian crouched next to Twitchy as the dodge ball he had thrown at Lin Lin came hurtling right back at him and knocked him on to his luckily padded rear with tears in his eyes. "Why do we suck so bad? We haven't hit her once, and she keeps hitting us."
"Don't give up! You're almost here!" Twitchy shouted into the megaphone, looking down hopefully. Two of the flour and powder-covered Squad A boys had managed to kick their way loose and were crawling on to the first level of the bleachers, shaking off their ribbons. "Rifles go!" A volley of Nerf projectiles aimed closer to the front of the bleachers drove back the girls who had been gripping at the escapees' ankles and sent a large silk screen they had tried to throw over the flour-covered boys flat to the ground.
"Now dodge balls again!" Twitchy shouted. "All at that panda!"
Lin Lin didn't move as the three balls hurtled toward her, instead grabbing a metal twirling baton from one of her teammates. Spinning it rapidly with both paws, she sent all three balls bounding across the floor and off into the corners of the gym.
"Not good," said Twitchy, lowering the megaphone and shaking his head. "She just realized she's been returning our ammo by batting them back at us. That means we won't have enough left to keep this up much longer."
The rabbit dropped the megaphone and hopped one level down on the bleachers, reaching behind him and drawing the Nerf sword strapped to his back. "Twitch!" called the Dalmatian, "Where are you going?"
"Take command, Kyle!" the bunny shouted. "I know you can do it. Just stick to the rhythm and keep shouting orders! Keep covering Ace and Jax until they get up here and then turn the megaphone over to one of them. Someone has to take out that overachieving panda or we're toast!"
He hopped down another level. "Twitch, no!" the Dalmatian called after him as the rabbit gathered speed, leaping from one bleacher level down to the next. Then hearing Kyle call, "Dodge balls!" he leapt high at the same time as he heard them whizz above him, knowing the other girls would scatter before the volley, and aimed straight for Lin Lin, thrusting his Nerf sword out blindly.
The panda sidestepped the balls easily and rammed her twirling baton into the hilt of Twitchy's sword, flipping it backwards and out of his paws, flying over her shoulders.
Here goes nothing, he thought as he hopped backwards, unslinging the one-shot foam ball blaster Squeak had modified from his back and giving it not one, but two quick pumps. Lin Lin swung the baton to deflect the single ball it would normally fire, but instead two balls connected by a string whirled out of the device, wrapping around the baton and sending it skidding across the floor out of her smarting paw.
The two opposing leaders - the petite panda, clad in a schoolgirl uniform with white top and short green skirt, and the flour-covered, talcum-scented rabbit, she disarmed and he with an empty weapon - faced each other calmly for a moment. Lin Lin eyed Twitchy up and down, holding up a paw indicating that her girls should hang back and let her finish this herself.
"You are . . . interesting," she admitted reluctantly and with a hint of curiosity. "Smarter than the other blues. Not that it takes much. So . . . what will you do now?" she asked, assuming a fighting stance. "Surprise me."
"Ummm," Twitchy blushed and thumped his foot against the floor, at once stalling for time and genuinely embarrassed. "Admittedly, I didn't think quite this far ahead. I'm sort of surprised I'm still standing honestly." All of a sudden, he couldn't help but hop and giggle as he felt something run up his pant leg, and he tried to disguise the hop by shouting, "Dodge balls! Fire!" The next volley of balls from the tiring second-string boys fell a good six inches to a foot short of their target, except for one thrown too hard, which flew well over her head and banged the opposite wall.
Lin Lin didn't even move and her sympathy seemed to fade. "That again? No more tricks left," she sounded somehow disappointed. "I guess bunbun bottoms finally reached his limit. Seems you cannot handle equations with too many variables." Then, she added with a smirk, "Well, I can. Now I know the capabilities and limits of everyone on your team. Including you."
"That's ironic," Twitchy said inexplicably, as one of his large feet resumed tapping.
Lin Lin snorted and lowered her paw. "All right, girls . . ."
A streak of red liquid splattered across Twitchy's safety goggles. The panda reached both paws behind her to touch the back of her blouse then raised her trembling forepaws, red streaming down them, to her face in horror, her eyes widening. The sissy girls scattered around the gym and began whispering frantically and in sudden confusion.
With a series of staccato clicking shots more projectiles thudded into Lin Lin's back and the stains spread rapidly from her blouse to her skirt to her fur.
"M . . . my . . . my . . . outfit!!" she shrieked, wheeling on her heels only to slip and fall as three more shots hit her chest. "Stop, milling around, girls! They have a shooter somewhere! Get the bunny! Finish this! And find the fur who's . . . "
"It's all right, girls, take a break, you've earned it. I'm sure she had you drilling since well before dawn," countermanded the voice, familiar to most of the assembled sissies, of the stately vixen clad in a light, slightly tattered green silk dress who approached placidly from the locker room.
"Speaking of variables," Twitchy bent over the panda, spattered with red paint, and smiled down at her, "I was just saying it's ironic you know so much about your competition-but so little about your supposed friends. You," he said, righting himself and turning to face the fox, "must be Serafina."
The fox smiled calmly as she handed him the empty paintball gun handle first and nodded graciously. "Thank you for the loaner. That was . . . satisfying."
Without bothering to look down at the panda, she removed the tiara from the stunned bear's head and settled it gently over her dainty ears. "But it's Princess Serafina. And since I still outrank all of the sissies and soon-to-be students that I see here - Girls," she called out, and began moving around the gym, explaining, "Most of you know me as a Princess, and advisor to Empress Calliope. To the new recruits coming from other handlers, hello - I am going to be your instructor in a very important - extremely special - subject. I hope it will become your favorite class. We'll talk about that later. But for now, playtime is over, you can let the boys go."
"I will commend all of you to Empress Calliope for your fine work in thwarting this dangerous assault and sending the blue team a stern warning not to interfere with our real opening. Especially meritorious for those of you who were just accepted. I was sent by the Empress to inform you that that was the full extent of today's exercise, whatever else you might have heard from - ambitious - ladies-in-waiting. And to reassure you that we are not interested in students," she gestured at the fallen, wailing boys, "who are not up to our rigorous admissions standards. I'm also here," she added as she turned to a young bear who yawned and blinked involuntarily, "to check up just to make sure that no fur was being worked . . . unreasonably hard. We are, after all . . . supposed to be having fun."
"I lost," Lin Lin, still too stunned by the outcome to mount a counterargument, and exhausted from her grueling preparations and the long fight, spoke to herself as she lay on the floor and stared up at the high ceiling of the gym in stunned disbelief. "I have . . . never lost at anything in my entire life. Not even hopscotch. Or jumping rope. And to . . . a fox. No," the panda burst into tears and broke down crying as she forced herself to voice the awful truth, "I lost to a boy! A grungy, geeky, gangly, goggle-wearing boy. Who is grimy and awful and smelly and smart and twitches his whiskers and taps his foot and chews on his lip . . . oh why am I noticing such stupid things that do not matter?" Her sobs became shorter. "I hate boys and I hate their stupid games and dumb rituals that would never include me. Anything boys can do I can do better anyway! I hate everything about them! Especially about him! He must be the very worst boy! Ever invented! In history! I am sure of it; but oh, this day is so confusing!"
Twitchy's boys scrambled down from the bleachers and spread out over the floor, rushing to their fallen comrades as the sissies fell back. Twitchy felt a tugging on his tail and a quivering voice asking, "Bwo?"
A smile broke across his face as he turned to see his regressed co-captain, let loose by his captors still wearing the top of his karate uniform and a droopy cloth diaper. He was covered in flour and his war paint ran down his face, but Twitchy was relieved to see no more damage had yet been done than some ribbons tied around his ears and a daffodil painted on his muzzle. Even as a kit, Dex flailed a little too furiously to make getting his shirt off an easy task.
"Oh Dex!" Twitchy threw his arms around the oversized baby coon gleefully and tussled his head. "Don't worry. You and your boys were awesome. I wouldn't have lasted five seconds out there if not for everything you put me through these last few days."
"Bwo?" the coon asked again.
"I know," Twitchy nodded. "Don't worry. We'll find Commander Rian in no time."
The coon shook his head and wrapped his arms around Twitchy's waist, rubbing his face against the rabbit's crotch. "Bwo!" he said.
"Oh!" Twitchy said in shock. He gulped and turned beet red. "You mean . . . me . . ." he pointed at himself, and, not quite sure how to phrase the rest, "you mean I should help you out the way that, umm, the Commander does at . . . umm . . . times like these?" The raccoon nodded, smiling, and flicked his tail against the floor.
"Well . . . I would be honored," Twitchy patted the regressed martial artist's head as the other boys gathered around him. Twitchy's sense of smell was still blunted by all the talcum that covered him but he thought his ears caught squishing as well as sloshing as Dex fidgeted on his rear. "Umm . . . Kyle . . ." the rabbit asked the Dalmatian coming up behind him and still holding the megaphone, who remained jittery from repeated dodge ball blasts to the torso, "Any idea how long this usually lasts? I might need a paw with my new little brother. You know . . . he has a brown belt."
"Ahem," a stately vulpine paw rested on Twitchy's head as Serafina, having spoken briefly and reassuringly to each of the girls under Lin Lin's command, broke through the celebratory blue team huddle. "Are you done thanking everyone, et cetera?" she asked with mild impatience. "Because as soon as you've accepted your award, I need a way to call Roger, or Rian. It's very important."
Twitchy beamed up at her, his eyes starting to glaze over. "Princess!" he said, yawning as he did. "We have radios! But they've been jammed. I dropped mine, and Dex dropped his, but I'm sure they're still in this mess . . . somewhere!" He gestured vaguely. "And just as soon as we find them, I bet Squeak and me can figure out what's jamming the signal and have us back online in a jiff!" The mouse, resting in Twitchy's pocket, said, "Squeeeak," sleepily, before collapsing limply over its edge, slumbering.
"Yup," Twitchy continued without noticing Squeak's exhaustion, "the boys from Hideout #4 can do anything, right Squeak? The Captain and the Commander will be just fine because we gave them secret super-weapons! And we saved Dex, and the princess," he yawned again, wider, "and Baby Blue, and . . . everyone! We . . ." Twitchy trailed off as he collapsed backwards into the waiting arms of the Dalmatian, his slim night's sleep finally taking its toll. "Won," he concluded dreamily, and dozed off, the largest smile of his life plastered across his face.
Kyle laid him gently on the floor, and Dex cuddled up next to Twitchy, resting his head on the exhausted rabbit's chest.
Serafina moaned and slapped her forehead in frustration, addressing the Dalmatian. "Can anyone else fix the radio?"
Kyle shrugged apologetically. "I can try, Princess, but I'm kind of with Twitchy here. We boys, we really need to tend to-and change-our own. It's over. Everyone is safe. And with what we've got left . . . I'm so far down on the food chain I can't believe I'm even talking to you. A few days ago my biggest assignment was entering Rian in a soapbox derby."
Serafina shook her head and looked down. "I'm afraid not everyone is safe. To tell the truth I have doubts about whether Callie even knew the full extent of what Lin Lin would try to do here. It would be just like that panda to go off-mission and try to capture all you boys on her own just to present you to the Empress as a gift and make herself look good."
Kyle stared at Serafina blankly. "What are you saying . . . this . . . all this . . . wasn't the real trap? That we were fighting for nothing?"
"No." Serafina took a deep breath and patted him on the head. "It was a trap, all right. You fought for your freedom. And your friends. And to preserve the proper balance between pink and blue, necessary for both to exist. You're some of the bluest boys I've ever seen Roger pull together. This just is not how Callie would strike at her brother. She's not so heavy-pawed. She and Roger have existed for years in a delicate state of equilibrium. If she feels that balance has been disrupted . . . ." She bit her lip nervously. "She would just go after the one thing that had altered it. Try to make contact with Roger. Search the school, radio him, do what you have to do. Just tell him-listen carefully-Callie will be at the apartment, and I'm on my way there, and Rian is in danger. That's all. Do you have any vehicles, anything?"
The Dalmatian shook his head ruefully, "We came here on paw."
Serafina stood up unsteadily and steeled herself. "Then that's how I'll go. I just pray I'm not already too late."
To be continued. . . !
Next time: Twitchy's failsafe has saved the boys back at the school-but the brain of the boys' team is tapped out and the orientation of Baby Blue's co-leader is still on the line! Rian is facing his toughest battle ever-alone-in the two-episode conclusion.