Industrial Zone Series 2 Episode 4 - Round 3

Story by Iron-K on SoFurry

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#3 of Industrial Zone


[Comments:]

The third part of four IZ4 rounds. This one has the more...physical contact game at the end that Gwen got her boyfriend interested with when it was shown in the Evening With Gwen story. Two of the other games (or at least, the tanks that go with them) are very much inspired by Noel's House Party and Get Your Own Back, but I did enjoy using them :)


Alex turned the corner to rejoin waiting for him outside the exit of the shower room. "Ready to go again?" he called as he approached, and grinned as he was met with four cheers. "Who's going first, Amy?"

Amy looked round at the other three. "I think we need to try and get Sadie a bit more messy," she decided. The skunk girl blinked slowly and smiled, stepping over to take Alex's hand.

"You're right there," Alex responded. "And we need someone to be a potential victim so that we can get into the factory - come and follow me!" Taking off at a dash again with Sadie, the others ran down the corridor to keep up with them, stopping quickly as the passage opened out into a room.

At the other end of the room was a large door, locked with a wide metal bar on the front that protruded into the wall. Looking to the side as she followed the others in, Amy saw a table placed in an alcove at one side of the room, then looked the other way and couldn't help laughing as she saw what she'd volunteered Sadie for.

Alex led the giggling girl towards the main feature of the room, which was a clear cubicle set into the wall, similar to the one that Gwen had been in. This time, two gigantic tanks were mounted on the wall above it - one filled with yellow gunge, the other with pink. Sadie couldn't take her eyes off them as Alex opened the door for her, and she backed into the cubicle to sit down. Still staring up, this time at the wide nozzles above her head, she shook her unruly hair back out of her eyes.

"Have a look over here," Alex said, pointing to the other side of the room and running through the group of contestants as he dashed towards it. Following him, they gathered around the table. It was divided into sixteen squares, with fifteen tiles and a gap. Tilting her head to the side, Amy realised that the pieces looked like they could be rearranged to form the show's logo.

"This is a classic sliding puzzle, you'll all have played something like this before," Alex said, looking around at them as they nodded. He left them standing by the table and walked slowly over to Sadie again. "But this time, you're playing to save Sadie from being slimed in the Mixer."

Sadie giggled again, squeezing her hands between her knees and drumming her feet on the ground as he approached. He pointed to a large red button next to her tank. "You need to hit this Stop button to save your friend, but it'll only activate once the puzzle is complete. If you don't make it within two minutes of time starting, Sadie's going to get a little messy."

"A little?!" Sadie leaned out of the tank again and looked up at the huge tanks, her mouth open in a smile.

"Maybe a bit more than a little," admitted the host. "But you've been fortunate so far apart from that bit of bad luck in the last game - are you feeling confident?"

"No," she answered decisively, leaning back into the chair again and shaking her head.

"Let's prove her wrong, team - your time starts now!" Alex called. He looked down and started the stopwatch that he wore around his wrist.

The other three girls huddled over the puzzle, whispering to each other about where to move first. Eventually, Coco stretched across the table and began sliding the top left corner of the logo into place.

Amy and Tamara encouraged her as she looked around for the second tile and uncertainly moved it up the board. Amy leaned across to help her, trying to keep a count of the time in her head.

"You've got a minute and a half left," Alex called as the fourth tile was moved into position. Surprised at how fast time was running out, Amy looked over at the girl in the gunge tank, who was looking back and forward between the game and the nozzle above her head.

Coco struggled to get the second row lined up as the time reached one minute, with the help from Tamara and Amy distracting her more than helping. Eventually, half of the logo was completed, and she turned her attention to the seven tiles on the bottom.

Flicking the remaining tiles around the board as the other two glanced anxiously over at the tank, the squirrel quickly lined up the third row and snicked it into place. Hesitating as she looked down at the fourth, she realized that they were in the wrong order, and stopped with one hand on the last tile.

"Come on!" Tamara called, practically jumping up and down. Shaking her head, Coco reached out to move again, but froze as a loud hooter blared and a high-pitched whine started up. All three of them looked over to Sadie again, who had her hands clasped nervously in front of her with her eyes tightly closed.

As they watched, two streams of light green foam began pumping in from near the bottom of the tank, slowly filling the cubicle. Sadie squeaked as she felt the stuff on her toes, and opened her eyes to watch as the level slowly rose around her. She lifted her feet up slightly and moved her hands to cover her ears, giving a scream that turned into a laugh as her legs got tired and she dipped her feet back in.

"You've still got ten seconds before the main tanks go off - hurry!" Alex called above the noise of the machine.

Coco looked down again, but Amy couldn't help watching as the skunk girl squirmed from side to side, watching the green stuff creep upwards to cover her bare tummy. She clasped her hands together and placed them on top of her head, away from the rising foam. The hooter sounded again as the level of foam reached the top of the door and began spilling over it, blobs of the stuff breaking off and splatting heavily on the floor. Sadie looked from the foam to the gunge chute above her and back, giggling helplessly as the klaxon blared for a third time. A loud click sounded, Sadie drew her arms in a little tighter to her head and she was engulfed by a downpour of yellow and pink gunge from the tanks above her.

The other two looked up as Sadie wriggled underneath the heavy slime, leaning slightly forwards to get her head out of the flow. Slowly the downpour was brought forwards to follow her, splattering off in a messy dome as it hit her head. She balled her hands next to her ears as she felt the gunge slipping down and around them, and tried to gather up her hair which was falling in front of her face as it got heavy with slime.

Slowly she raised her hands up in the air out of the huge downpour, and brought them round to her chest, suddenly flicking her hair behind her head again so that the team could see her face. Her eyes were firmly closed, but her mouth was hanging open in a slightly shocked smile. Suddenly her face was hidden by the glistening slime slumping down over it, and she ducked down into the foam again as the two colours of gunge slithered down her, mingling into each other as they went.

The high-pitched siren began to fade out, and Sadie leaned to the side a little as the steady downpour slowed, with dollops of the stuff falling out of the chute and splatting on to her already messy shoulders. She had been completely coated by a mixture of foam and gunge, with none of her black fur visible under the mess. As the last drizzle fell from the tanks above her she straightened again, her shoulders shaking with giggles as the slime dripped onto head.

"I think it was about time that happened," laughed Alex, beckoning to the other three to join him beside Sadie's gunge tank. "Are you all right in there?"

The colourful blob with the skunk girl underneath moved about as she nodded, and she carefully gathered up her hair and placed it back behind her head, revealing her face. She laughed again as she opened her eyes and saw the others approaching, then looked down at herself and tried to push some of the slime off her shoulders.

"Well, you did get covered in the end, but the team completed three rows of the puzzle and that's worth 40 points. Was it worth getting slimed for that?"

"Maybe," Sadie answered, panting slightly to get her breath back. She squealed as another drizzle started up and hit her head, giggling as she ducked out of its way.

"Let's get you out of there before the tanks get the chance to fill again," the host said as he moved towards the door. Pulling it open, he raised his hand to show the victim out. Slowly, she wriggled forwards off the chair and carefully put her feet down on the floor, dragging part of the pile of green foam out with her as she walked back out again. She stood in front of it as the door was closed, her hands stretched in front of her and dripping with slime.

Alex moved away from the group and began to haul the heavy door at the far end of the room open. As the team watched, Sadie suddenly stepped forwards and put her slimy arms around Coco in a hug, making her shriek and squirm out of her grasp, pawing at the yellow stuff smeared across her chest and tummy. The host turned around amusedly, beckoning them on.

"Come on! We're inside now, and we need another volunteer..."

"Amy's turn!" Sadie said eagerly, pointing straight at her. Another drizzle of slime fell from the tip of her finger.

"I don't think I can argue with that," Alex grinned as they all came forward towards him. He turned to move into the corridor beyond the door, and looked back over his shoulder. "It's been a while since you were in a game, hasn't it, Amy?"

"Yeah." Amy nodded, nervous at being the centre of attention again but looking forward to it all the same.

"And I think I know just the place to put you - come with me!"

Amy stumbled as she was led by the hand past the door and down a rusty corridor. This part of the set was made up to look a lot older than the rest of it, and exposed pipes and scattered debris lined the passageway. After a moment they arrived at a door, which Alex began opening with the valve handle in its middle.

"I think that you've been let off pretty lightly for the team leader so far, Amy," he said as he rotated the handle round. "But we can always sort that out..." Amy gulped as he pushed the door open, and followed him in.

She looked around nervously, spotting her place in the room immediately. Half of one of the walls was taken up by a semicircular vat of yellow stuff, with walls stretching about three feet off the floor. Its surface was lit by a row of fluorescent tubes on the ceiling. Next to the lights, a pipe jutted down towards a rickety-looking chair which was attached by rails to the wall.

Following Alex towards the side of the vat a little reluctantly, she watched as the chair hummed sideways on its rails so that it ended up away from the pool. Alex put his hand on one of its arms as they stopped.

"Want a hand up?" he asked her. She nodded, then squeaked as he put his arms around her and picked her up with little difficulty. Gently, he turned around and placed her on the seat, where she nervously placed her hands on the chair's arms and rested her feet on the bar below it. With a jolt, the seat began to move again, and she gripped the arms a little tighter as she was carried sideways, stopping above the vat's centre so that there was no escape.

Taking her eyes off the gooey-looking surface below her, she looked up at the rest of the room. Opposite her, the wall was lined with eight large buttons, about a foot across each. To the side of them, an alcove was set into the wall, with a perspex door covering half of it. Above this cubicle, one side of a circular metal tank curved out of the wall - it was marked "Grease" in crude stencilled letters.

She watched as the other girls gathered around the vat, looking between her and the obvious gunge tank on the opposite wall. They all looked to the side as there was a loud clank, and Alex turned away from the now closed door and moved back into the light.

"Now, as you've got the risk of being tipped into this, Amy," he said, spreading his arms out and pointing down to the vat, "I think it's only fair that you get to nominate another team member to go into there. Any preference?"

Amy smiled, looking between the three of them. She didn't want to pick Sadie because she had already been in a game, so that left Coco and Tamara. And Tamara probably wanted a bigger gunging than this, so Coco was the obvious choice. She looked at the worried-looking squirrel girl, who looked back at her, her hands clasped over her tummy.

"Remember when you volunteered me to go into the tank at the beginning, Coco?" she asked. Coco looked down, wriggling her toes.

"Yeah..." she giggled. She looked up as Alex tapped her on the shoulder, and followed him as he walked over to open the tank's door for her. She stepped up into the grimy cubicle, her hands held out to brush against its walls for balance as she turned around. Alex closed the perspex door behind her, and she looked up at the nozzle above her head.

"This is a game based purely on chance," the host said as he returned to the middle of the room between them. Putting his arms around Tamara and Sadie, he led them over to the button wall. Coco leaned forward out of the tank to watch.

"Basically, you've got to pick six of these buttons to press between you," he continued. "Seven of them will keep your team leader safe, but there's one hidden among them that will plunge her into the vat of gunge down there." Amy tapped her arms on the seat as she glanced down again.

"You can choose the buttons however you like - in turn, at random, whatever you want. Tamara and Sadie are going to be the ones who decide how you do it. Sound simple enough?" They all nodded.

"Oh, and Coco... I don't think I need to tell you what happens if Amy finds six safe buttons," he grinned over at her. She nodded, and pointed at the vat of gunge above her. "So your goal in this game is to find the activation button before you get slimed yourself."

He turned to face the two girls who were safe for the moment. "So it's all up to you - get this game going!"

Tamara and Sadie exchanged a few words that Amy couldn't hear as the host walked to take up a position beside Coco's gunge tank. After nodding at the skunkette, Tamara turned to Amy.

"I'm going to get Coco to pick them," she announced. Shifting a little in the uncomfortable seat, Amy nodded. The bunny girl spun around energetically and skipped towards Coco, obviously enjoying being the host for a game.

"Coco, you've got six chances to find the button that dunks Amy. Can I have your first three choices?" she asked, looking up at her with her hands clasped behind her back.

The squirrel leaned out of the tank again to look at the wall beside her. "The three on the top row nearest me," she said.

Tamara nodded over to Sadie, who quietly stepped forwards and stretched up on her tiptoes to reach the top row of buttons. Amy held her breath as she awkwardly pushed forward. She watched Coco flinch as the button was pressed, but it lit up to the accompaniment of a bell sound.

The skunkette moved along the row, pressing the other two buttons that Coco had selected, with the same effect. She looked back at Tamara.

"It wasn't any of those," the bunny girl announced. "But you've still got three more chances to stop that huge vat of gunge from opening..." She raised both her hands up towards it. "Scared?"

"Yeah." Coco bit her lip as she glanced upwards at the spout pointed down at her, twisting nervously from side to side.

"Can I have your next two choices?" Tamara asked, looking back over at the wall.

"I don't know..." She tapped her hands on the door of the tank as she thought. "The two furthest away on the bottom."

Amy tensed up again, watching Sadie head for the button. She looked around before pressing it, waiting to see her thrown into the gunge pool, but the bell sounded again. She moved over to the one beside it and suddenly thumped on it.

Nothing happened for a moment, then the sound of the same bell rang out. Amy let her breath out, slumping a little in the chair.

"No! Now, you've got a one in three chance of finding the right one this time, or you know what happens!" Tamara was practically bouncing with excitement

Coco laughed tensely, and leaned out to look at the layout of the buttons again. "The one that you're right next to now, Sadie," she decided, shaking her head.

"All right - get back in there and we'll see if you're right!" Coco straightened up, looking upwards once again at the gunge chute. Amy curled her bare feet around the dunk seat's footrest, trying not to hold her breath as Sadie used both hands to push the large button.

There was a moment of silence, a low rumbling being played from somewhere as they waited for the sound. After five seconds that seemed much longer, the button lit up to the sound of the bell.

Amy relaxed, clapping her hands together, then looked up at the squirrel girl as she remembered what was going to happen. She was standing straight in the middle of the tank, her hands clasped over her face in readiness.

"I'm really sorry about this, Coco..." Alex said as he stepped forward, making her peek out from between her fingers. A gurgling noise played, and she covered her face again as a gooey column fell from the tank above her, hiding her from view as it splurged outwards over her head. Tamara threw her hands in the air and jumped up and down as she watched the tank covering her.

As the downpour continued the squirrel leaned forwards, bowing her head down and putting her hands on the front corners of the tank to balance herself. She grimaced as the gel-like substance glooped on to her neck and splashed in a slow wave outwards, a few drops making their way over the door of the tank. With a smile, she leaned to one side, turning her face away as the gunge poured on to her shoulder.

Feeling the flow ease off, she straightened up and let the last gooey drizzle pour on to her sticky hair, where it dribbled down to drip on to her shoulders. "Eurgh," she giggled as she ran her hand through her hair, then held her hands out in front of her to make the translucent goo drip from the tips of her fingers.

Alex grinned, stepping slowly towards her as she held her fringe up with a hand to her forehead, with gooey dollops dripping from her darkened blonde hair. Still shaking from laughter, she coughed a couple of times as he approached and opened the door for her.

"Well, if it's any consolation, you did just earn sixty points for the game," he said as she took his hand, stepping down carefully toes-first on to the floor. Shivering as the gunge continued to drip from all over her, she looked up at Amy, who was still perched above the pool of yellow stuff.

Alex put his arm around the slimy squirrel. "You know, we could always get your team leader back for that anyway..." he said casually. Amy's heart jumped, and she tapped her feet on the footrest, looking down into the gunge pool that she knew she was about to be thrown into. Coco turned to the host sharply, an open-mouthed grin of delight on her face, and nodded rapidly.

"Want to try and find that button, you two?" the host called over to Tamara and Sadie. The bunny girl skipped back over to join the skunkette, and watched as she thumped the button next to her. Amy looked on nervously as it lit up like the others had done. Looking up at the only remaining button, Tamara sped over and jumped up to hit it. This time, an alarm sounded and she spun round to face the vat.

Amy raised her hands up from the arms of the seat and held them near her face, her eyes on the surface of the pool as a set of flashing lights came up and spotlit the patch right below her. Suddenly she heard a mechanism opening above her, and squeaked as a cold, runny downpour domed out over her head. As she arched her back to stop it trickling down the back of her neck, she forgot about the pool below her, and when the chair suddenly fell forwards she fell face first into the vat with a loud gloop.

Turning around underneath the gooey surface by pushing her hands against the floor of the vat, she struggled into a sitting position again, feeling the coat of thick dripping yellow stuff ooze and trickle through her fur. Wiping at her eyes, she carefully blinked them open and looked around at her cheering team mates. Another spray splattered down into the vat just behind her, making the surface wobble and lap from just below her shoulders to her neck. Giving a half-sigh, half-giggle, she pulled her hands out of the gunge and ran them over her head to try and neaten her hair a little, shivering as the stuff in her hair ran down her back to settle on to the surface.

"You all right, Amy?" Alex detached himself from Coco and leaned over the side of the vat. Amy sat up, hugging her knees as she felt the liquid ooze around her.

"Yeah," she laughed in response. An idea came to her, and grinning to herself, she brought her hands up to splash the yellow slime out towards him. He instinctively jerked back as the wave hit him in the face and chest, and she laughed as he spread his arms and looked at the splatter mark covering his front.

Shaking his head, he leaned forward again and put his hand forward to help her out. Raising her hand up to grip his, she hauled herself upright, wiggling her hips to get out as the heavy liquid poured down her body. She stood in the vat for a moment, brushing the gunge off her arms and shoulders, then waded forward and carefully stepped on to the floor again.

Alex approached to take her hands as she steadied herself, the yellow slime rolling down her and dripping heavily on to the floor. "So after that, who would you like to be the next victim, Amy?" he asked.

Amy looked over at Tamara, bringing a hand up to brush the gunk that was dripping from her forehead away. "We've only got one clean team member left," she smiled.

"All right! Tamara, I could see how much you enjoyed gunging people, so let's give them another chance to get their own back..." He spun on his heel and strode out of the room, reaching a hand behind him to catch her arm and drag her along with him. She skipped a couple of steps and walked alongside him as the group headed out the door. After marching her round a couple of corners, they arrived at another entrance, which he hauled open.

Still feeling the custard-like stuff trickling through her fur, Amy shivered as she followed them in. The most obvious feature of the room was a large chessboard-like raised section of the floor, a chequered eight-by-eight grid of two-foot squares. Looking over to the right, where Tamara was being led, she saw the victim's seat for the game.

On the wall of the room, two cylindrical tanks were mounted, each about a foot in diameter and a couple of yards high. They were filled with a pulpy-looking bright orange substance. Pipes led from the top of each of the tanks, and they met in the middle where a spout pointed down at a clear inflatable chair nestled in between the two cylinders. Tamara was being shown into the seat, sliding backwards on to it and looking up at the funnel above her head, then bouncing a little to get comfortable.

"It's up to you to save Tamara from the slime here," Alex announced as he moved back towards the other three girls. "Step up here and I'll show you."

He beckoned them up to the chessboard-like arrangement in the middle of the room, pointing out where they should each stand - Sadie on the left corner, Amy on the right, and Coco standing on one of the squares in the middle of their side.

"We're going to be playing a game against the computer," Alex explained, stepping off the board. As he moved away from it, the lights in the room darkened and a red spotlight illuminated one square on the opposite side of the board. The light was masked so that the shape of the light on the square looked like the face of the computer.

"You three and the computer get to move one square each turn," the host continued. "Your goal is to make it off the other side of the board before he catches you - but if he ever manages to move into the square that you're on, you're captured - and if that happens, Tamara's going to get a surprise as well."

Amy looked at Tamara, who was also spotlit in the darkness. She grinned up again, resting her head on her hands and putting her elbows on the seat's arms, bouncing her feet off the inflatable surface of the front of the chair.

"Have you got that? After every move the computer makes, you can all move one space." The three of them nodded, and Alex moved away from the light.

Amy turned her attention back to the red spotlight, and watched as it moved slowly towards them, stopping on the next square. She glanced at the other two girls, who took their steps along with her - Sadie and Amy moving forward, but Coco hanging back.

The turns continued, with the girls moving towards the centre of the board, wary of the face coming to get them. On its next turn, it slanted towards Sadie, who took a step backwards. Coco and Amy kept moving towards the other side of the board, with the squirrel girl stepping diagonally to try and get away from it.

"That's right - split up, he can't go for all of you," Alex commented from his position out of the light. Once again, the face moved to be beside Sadie, and shyly she moved back to be cornered by it. Amy glanced at the bunny girl again, who was watching the situation eagerly.

On the next turn, Sadie had no choice but to step into a square next to the skull-like face, and she closed her eyes as the spotlight moved on to her. A buzzer sounded as the red light blinked on and off, and an alarm rang out from the side of the room.

The three girls turned to watch as Tamara tensed up, hunching her neck and closing her eyes. A moment later, there was a loud glooping noise as air bubbles rose up in both the tanks, and suddenly a downpour of lumpy orange gunge spewed out of the spout above her. The thick downpour domed out over her head as it hit her, her messy ears visible for a moment before they were both pushed down on to her head by the weight of the slime.

With her top half hidden by the upturned bowl shape, the team watched her drum her feet on the ground as the downpour splattered off her and coated the sides of the cylindrical tanks as well as the floor around the seat. As it began to ease off, she brought her hands up from the chair's arms and turned them upwards, catching the lumpy stuff and letting it drizzle through her fingers. Shaking with giggles, she brought both her hands up and mushed the handfuls of slime into her face, turning her head up to catch the last of the flow as it drizzled thickly on to her head.

The team heard Alex laugh as the echo of the siren died. "It's your turn again," he said simply.

Amy moved another step forward, and turned to watch the face move back towards them diagonally. She looked forward worriedly to see if it could catch her before she made it across to the other side, but after a few more turns, they both stepped off the other side safely.

The lights in the room came back up as Alex walked slowly towards them, clapping. "Two out of three isn't bad at all," he said, "and that gives you forty points for the game. Want to come and see how Tamara is?"

The three of them joined the host as he strode over to the tank on the wall. Tamara was barely recognisable even though she'd only got one third of the tanks, and it was difficult to see her top half at all under the pile of gungy orange lumps on the chair. Bringing a hand up to wipe her eyes, she giggled again, dislodging chunks of the stuff and sending them dripping to the floor. Opening her mouth to say something, she felt the slime sliding down her face and quickly pursed her lips to shake it off her.

"How are you feeling, Tamara - gunged by your accomplice from the last game?"

The bunny girl couldn't stop laughing as she continued to clean her face off. Suddenly another gurgle came from the machine, and the three others jumped back as Tamara squeaked, another murky downpour splattering on to her from above.

"Come on, let's get you out of there," Alex said as he offered his hand. Tamara took it and shuffled forward in the seat, the mess on the chair glooping down to cover the area she'd left as she struggled to get up. Eventually she straightened again, standing with her arms held out in front of her and repeatedly flicking them to send waves of gunge to the floor. Wiping again at her face, she shook her head to clear it off and playfully threw her collected handfuls of slime at Sadie.

"Shall we move on?" the host laughed, heading back towards the door. The team followed him, the lights in the room flickering off as they left. They filed outside and turned back to the host, ready for the next game.

"By the way, Coco, it's a bit of a special day for you, isn't it?" Alex turned his head to ask her as he closed the door, stepping forward to put his arm around her again and guiding her forwards along the corridor.

Coco smiled, anticipating that it was more than just an idle comment. "Yeah," she answered, "it's my eighteenth."

"I thought so," the host said as they stopped at a junction. One branch of the corridor faded into darkness, but there was a vague spherical shape just on the edge of vision. "That's why we set up a bit of a surprise for you," he finished, and the team jumped as the lights suddenly buzzed into life.

Amy blinked at the sudden light, and looked down the newly visible corridor. The spherical shape that they had seen before was a round machine in two halves - a glass dome on the top and a metallic blue bowl shape underneath. Standing on her toes to peer into it, she was that the bottom half was full of a smooth layer of white stuff.

Beyond that, the corridor's floor changed into spongy inflatable material, and continued until a dead end, where a blowup chair was placed facing them in the center of the wall. Alex started towards it, taking the giggling squirrel by the hand.

The other three watched as they made their way over the inflatable surface, Coco bouncing along it excitedly. It looked like it wasn't fully inflated, and Alex wobbled a little unsteadily as he walked, but he was trying not to show it. When they reached the chair, Coco eagerly sat down, looking up instinctively but seeing nothing on the ceiling.

Alex made his way back towards the team, running awkwardly as his feet sank into the plastic. Slightly out of breath, he landed next to the sphere again and walked around it, undoing catches along its edge as he spoke.

"Usually you have cake on your birthday, but this was the nearest we could get from here," he explained as he lifted the glass dome away from the bowl. From the other end of the corridor, Coco craned her neck and leaned forward in an attempt to see what was inside as the other girls gathered round. They looked down at its contents, which looked like thick white whipped cream.

"We didn't want this to go to waste," Alex continued, pointing down at the smooth creamy surface, "so your objective for this game is simple." He raised his finger up and turned around to Coco again. "Cover her in as much as possible!"

The squirrel girl's mouth dropped open as he pointed at her, and she laughed as Tamara eagerly plunged her hands into the stuff to gather up an armful, grinning maliciously.

"I'll let you get one handful out for free to start with," Alex said as the others reached inside. Amy shivered as her hands broke through the creamy surface into something slimier underneath, and lifted the mass of foamy stuff up to see that a thick yellow custard-like liquid was dripping from its underside. She backed away from the bowl carefully, lining up with Sadie and Tamara at the edge of the plastic surface.

"After you begin, you'll have a minute and a half to get Coco coated," the host said from behind them. "Ready?"

The three girls cheered, laughing as Coco giggled helplessly from the other end of the corridor, and began advancing towards her as Alex gave the word to begin.

Tamara made the fastest progress, blobs of the creamy armful she was carrying dripping down behind her as she bounded towards the squirrel girl. Coco squirmed back in the seat and shielded herself by stretching her hands out in front of her as the rabbit got nearer, but squeaked as Tamara dodged round her and pushed two handfuls of the stuff against her face.

Amy and Sadie struggled over to her as she brought her hands up to clear her eyes, and Amy dropped her handful onto the top of her head. She started to run back along the inflatable surface to collect another, twisting round to watch as Sadie smeared cream along the squirrel's arms, mushing the stuff on her head down into her hair at the same time.

Passing Tamara and almost slipping on a patch of dropped cream, Amy reached the bowl and stuck her hands in again, getting a large blob of the yellow stuff along with the foam. She stepped onto the surface, hugging the stuff to her chest and shivering as the custard-like liquid dribbled down her, and started towards the chair again.

She watched as the bunny reached Coco, who had given up trying to defend herself and was leaning back in the chair and giggling, watching them all approach with one eye open. Tamara grinned again and lunged forwards, squashing the whipped cream right into her chest.

Coco screamed as the bunny girl moved her hands around, smearing the stuff all over the fur revealed by her bikini top, and squirmed around as she moved her hands down to her tummy to wipe them off. Amy arrived at the chair and dropped more on her, and the rabbit dipped her hands into the foamy pile to lather it around and cover her front completely.

The two of them turned away as Sadie arrived, and bounded back towards the nearly empty bowl, hearing Coco's giggles behind them. Together, they reached into it and pulled out a handful each. Amy, slightly out of breath, watched Tamara turn to head towards the chair again, but laughed as she slipped and fell face first on to the inflatable surface, right into the pile of cream that she'd been carrying.

Amy stepped over her as she rolled to try and get up, and looked towards the now almost completely white and yellow squirrel girl, who had raised her hands up in front of her messy face to protect herself. Her hair was plastered to the sides of her head, and blobs of cream and yellow gunge dripped down her as she squirmed in the seat. Amy had almost reached her when she heard the loud klaxon signalling that time was up, and bounced to a halt, scraping handfuls of cream from her front and flinging them over at the chair instead.

"Well done, team," Alex congratulated as he picked his way towards the far end of the corridor, taking care not to slip on the slimy surface. "But I think that Coco's quite relieved that your time is up."

Coco nodded, giggling again and trying to catch the handfuls of foam that Amy was throwing at her. A layer of white foamy cream covered almost her entire body, and blobs of it dripped from her hair as she moved. She wiped her eyes and blinked a couple of times as Alex crouched down beside her, grinning out at him from under the clinging white layer.

"That was pretty spectacular," the host said as he looked at her, "and I can hardly see her, so I think you deserve all sixty points for the game." Coco put her arms up in the air and whooped, clapping her hands together and spraying cream out from them.

"But I don't think any birthday humiliation would be complete without this." Alex got up again and started heading towards a switch on the wall. "Happy birthday to you..."

The other team members laughed, and joined in with the lines of the birthday song as Coco shrank back in the chair, shaking her head. On the last note, Alex pulled the wall switch, making a klaxon sound in a jarring discord.

Amy looked up as a trapdoor opened in the ceiling, and laughed, stepping back a little, as a spray of green gunge cascaded down on to Coco. She shrieked again, raising her hands back to her face and waggling her legs as the green stuff splattered all over her, pushing away the white foam as it soaked into her hair and fur.

The squirrel laughed as she leaned forward, letting the last gungy blobs slap down on to her back. She opened her eyes and stretched her hands out to the sides, looking around at the large green splat mark that had formed around the chair. Shaking her head to get some slime out of her hair, she smiled again, bouncing in the seat.

"I hope we've given you an experience to remember," Alex said as he moved towards her again, offering his hands to help her up.

"Oh, yes," she laughed as she was hoisted upright again. Putting her hands behind her head, she wrung her hair out, grimacing as the stuff slid down her back.

"All right, the sixty points there brings you up to a huge five hundred and ninety-five for the three rounds so far," the host continued, "so I don't think you've got anything to worry about as we head into the last building! We've got to head to the security station now, but first of all we've got to make a stop-off back at the chemical plant. Follow me!"