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Bonnie had seized upon her self appointed role as leader, Uma couldn't help but notice, being the first to fall into step behind the stage hand as she lead them on a twistingly complex path that no doubt would lead to the set. Something that was fine by her, the still timid kitten more than happy to stay behind where, she hoped, she was likely to be safe from any messy tricks or traps that lay in their path. Well..safer anyway.

'Well..she's being bold.' Lucci whispered as she fell into step beside Uma, her soft utterance no doubt reaching Adam's ears too given how he was trailing a few feet behind them both. 'I wonder if she will be so brave when get to the set proper.'

'What is there to be brave about?' So..Adam could indeed hear her, the young male easily keeping up with them in visual objection to his Sloth heritage. 'Surely nothing messy is going to happen until we get into the games. Is it?'

'Depends if they have kept the villain from the pilot.' Lucci replied with a shrug. 'I hope they have. After the games, she seems the most fun part of the show. Even if she isn't above gunging us as soon as the whim takes us.'

'Well..it's all right by me is Bonnie is the bold one.' Uma said with a squirming shiver both of her companions couldn't miss. 'I'll just be glad to make it through without being gunged outside of a game thank you very much. I'm not sure I could take the suspense.'

'Well..if she does gunge you, I'll help to share it around.' Lucci replied with a laugh. 'A good messy hug should help get the worst of the gunge off you. Unless Adam would like to volunteer to do the hugs. No..maybe not. I think he'd do the chivalrous thing and take the gunging for you.'

'Or take it with you.' Adam thought, fighting down the shy goofy grin threatening to break out on his cheeks, hoping above hope that his jumpsuit hid the sudden hardness that flared in his loins. None of the three girls mentioned anything, although in Uma's case that might be because she was blushing and momentarily lost for words.

'Are you guys going to keep up?' Bonnie scolded, her mouth all too obviously working just fine. 'I want to get this started and I can't do that without you.'

'Oh? So you need us now?' Lucci teased with a smirk. 'Not thinking about taking all the games on by yourself?'

'Hardly.' Bonnie replied coolly, despite her stomach squirming. Playing all the games was certain to get herself gunged. In hindsight perhaps coming on the first episode wasn't the smartest move, if she had waited she might have had a chance to work out the games that were the best to avoid getting messy. On the other hand, she might have missed her chance had she waited so she just had to make the best of it. Surely going first would be a good move, since they were highly unlikely to start of with a hugely messy game only to ramp things down later. Unless....

'Just through here guys.' The stagehand announced, her paws tugging open a heavy door that slid easily on the runners guiding it to dock along the wall that held it. 'I'll leave you here. Just follow the corridor ahead and you can't get lost.'

'Wait? You aren't coming in?'

'Me?' The stagehand chuckled nervously, flicking a paw through her hair slowly. 'Not on your life. I'd like to stay clean thank you very much. But you'll be fine. Just go straight ahead you'll find Lena. Have fun.'

'Are you going to keep up?' Lucci teased, the kangaroo slipping past Bonnie with a smirk that made the raccoon shoot her a frown. And she wasn't the only one, Uma and Adam had joined her in moving down the narrow corridor decked out in polished chrome with little lines of flickering lights running along the floor and ceiling, a rather plain background broken on by that and a few recessed panels of some kind of black glass or plastic in a oddly hexagonal shape dotted at intervals along the walls.

'Well..I was going to check if you were ready.' Bonnie countered, quickly taking her place at the head of the column, really the only thing she could do to save face. 'Since I guess you are, let's get in there.'

'Eager to get going I see. Good for you.' That voice floated out of the darkness ahead of the quartet, a fifth figure appearing as the lights around them slowly rose to full illumination, highlighting not just the small circular room which lay at the end of the corridor but the meerkat waiting inside it, dressed in an jumpsuit similar to theirs yet in plain black and overlaid by a slightly faded tan jacket cut in a military style, marked with a stylised icon of a full moon on either sleeve. An outfit and overall look which gave her the impression of someone used to a life of adventure while still retaining an aura of subtle elegance and style. 'Welcome to Serenity Base proper. The show hasn't started recording yet so we have some time for me to go over the basics for you. I'm sure some of you have heard some of them but I'd like everyone on the same page.'

'Work for me.' Bonnie made a point of stepping into the circular room first, seeing more of the black panels fixed into the walls, along with small inset indentations that seemed to be control pads of some kind given the keys she could see marked with odd symbols.

'Excellent. To give you a brief breakdown, the objective of the game is to defeat Cobalt, the mastermind of this maze. To that end each game you play will net you one or more tokens. These tokens will equate to points. The further you progress the more those tokens will be worth and the greater your chances of winning the game overall. I'll explain more of that once we start recording. All of that sound good?'

'I guess so.' Bonnie replied, seeing the rest of her team nodding in agreement.

'Excellent.' Lena clapped her hands together . 'Now, all we need is a team leader. Anyone want to volunteer?'

'Bonnie is your girl there.' Lucci chimed in unexpectedly. 'She wants to lead and we are all okay with that.'

'Good then.' Lena nodded. 'So..if you guys want to stand over there, we can get started. The cameras will be rolling all the way but don't let that frighten you. You can't say or do anything wrong. I'll have scripted lines and so will a few other furs you might come across. It's okay for you guys to jump in and improvise a little. We like that around here. So does Cobalt. A little sass or fire goes down well with her. She admires guts as much as I do, even if she has a funny way of showing it.'

A funny way that usually involves someone getting gunged, Lena added internally, not wanting to scare them off. Some of the best ratings in the pilot came from the interactions with the players and Cobalt, well.. maybe that and the end result of them. Still..it's tv. Have to give the viewers what they want.

'Welcome to Serenity Base.' Lena said with a smile equally as much for the cameras as the potential viewers. 'Once to be the start of Earth's Ambitions to explore the vast reach of space, this impressive moon base was to be a centre of science, learning, and technology; a concentrated facility not just to supply explorers with all the resources they could need but to develop and train future generations of these bold frontierfurs. Formed of a peerless tower some 100 floors high, this artificial Luna Peak is surrounded by spaceports, armouries, barracks, security and processing centres while the tower itself contains a host of scientific, experimental, technological and training facilities as well as production areas. Sadly those experiments pushed too far and broke the walls of reality, opening a gap in the fabric of Space through which Cobalt entered, her very presence instantly subverting the base's power and technology...' Here Bonnie glanced st the small keypads again, the odd symbols making sense now, even as an icy trickle crept down her spine. Did that mean they weren't safe even here?

'...turning it from a scientific base to a fortress of her grand designs.' Lena continued, unaware of the raccoon's musings. 'A handful of colonists near the Spaceports managed to escape while the staff were left truly at her mercy. Perhaps you might meet some of them along the way and discover their fate. Still..the rumours of that fate haven't stopped those possessed of daring, cunning, skill and dauntless spirits to test this most devilish of mazes to try to overthrow Cobalt's control. And here we have one of those teams. Uma, Lucci, Adam and Bonnie, the team leader. Bonnie, as team leader you will have to choose an area for your team to start from, choosing from either barracks or processing. Which will be accessed by a teleporter just ahead. So..where shall we go?'

'Barracks.' Bonnie said quickly. 'Yes. The Barracks it is. Follow me.'

True to her word, Lena lead the team at a rush to a door at the rear of the room hidden behind a short turning, a door she clearly expected to open at the press of the button beside it. Only it didn't, a sharp buzz being the only response they received. Well..that and a screen to the right flickering to life displaying in bold red letters one simple message.

ACCESS DENIED.

PROVIDE PASSWORD TO PASS THE PORT

TO PASS THE PORT PASSWORD MUST BE PROVIDED

'So...what does that mean?' Bonnie asked.

'Good question.' Lena replied. 'Anyone got a good answer? Come on, I can't carry you all the way.'

'Don't look at me.' Uma chimed up, a truth softly spoken as she walked up to the console in a gesture to show willing. 'It's all mongoose to me.

'Well..we need to work out the password to pass the port.' Lucci mused, quickly joining the young kitten with an arm resting on her shoulder. 'But can't pass the port until we have the password. Surely that's what it says.'

'Yes..but that doesn't help, does it?' Bonnie asked as she and Adam joined the group.

'Maybe not, but it's all we have.' Adam said. 'It's..all we have...so...wait. Hang on. Password Provided. So..they've given it too us. Must have. To pass a port, you need. Oh..of course. A Passport. The Password is Passport. I'm sure. Here. Let me just.....'

'Be my guest.' Uma said, politely sliding aside to let Adam work at the keyboard. Which he did, his paws tapping out a quick string of eight letters which, after a pause, yielded a chime to which the door yielded to a second later to a smile from Lena.

'Well done. I was sure I would have to prompt you there. Now, let's press on. The Barracks await us.'

It was with that phrase that Lena lead the group on, one by one filing into the small room that no doubt was playing the part of the teleport, since an actually teleport was a step too far for modern technology even with the developments produced in the last decade. Which surely meant they were going to have to fall back on some special effect to produce that..well..effect.

However that was achieved none of the team actually found out and Lena was staying tightlipped about as the door behind them opened with a soft whoosh, the meerkat leading them out into a surrounding that couldn't have been any different from the one they left.

While it was no less spartan and plain than the chrome control room, it certainly was less polished. The smart, gleaming almost mirror bright walls replaced with darker, much more mundane metal dotted with struts and beams and crisscrossed pipes and ducts running over head. A jumble of piping that matched the closely riveted panels that formed the walls and floor, each section formed by identically shaped and sized triangular panels neatly slotted close together. It was an ambiance setting a tone of a place much more functional. And oppressive. Bonnie couldn't help feeling that, even as she worked hard not to show that. Something to do with the darkness maybe, a hangover of one too many horror movies. Didn't help that that darkness could be hiding something indescribably icky just waiting for them.

'So..the Barracks. Not a looker as places go. But it's always been designed to be functional. Good thing we aren't here to set up home. We are here to get on with some games before Cobalt figures out where we are. So, let's get going. Don't worry. It's perfectly safe.' Lena chimed up, stepping a few paces away from the small room to let the others follow along behind her. 'If a bit dark. Hang on here a second. I'll find the lights. I think they are over here.'

'You okay?' Uma whispered to Lucci as Lena vanished into the low lighting. 'It's dark I know but I think it's okay here.'

'Is it though?' Lucci whispered back. 'Sure, it looks it. But you saw the pilot, there were..what would you call them..traps around. I don't see why they would have changed that. So..surely there could be some here. Right here.'

'I don't think so. I'll show you. Watch this.' Uma said, stepping away from the teleport room to turn back to face her teammate. 'See it's perfectly..ahhh.'

'Uma.' Lucci cried out over the odd splash that followed her shout, peering through the darkness towards the point where her new friend was standing. Or had been. It was hard to see through the darkness but she was sure she had vanished from sight. And she had, the lights around them choosing just that moment to flicker to life, revealing the suddenly bedraggled kitten rising out of the small pit which had claimed her, pink tinged water dripping down her ears, tail and arms and through her matted hair which framed a goofily smiling face.

'Okay. So I was wrong. No gunge at least. So it could have been wors...' Uma chuckled playfully.

Chak.

'Oh dear.' Uma chuckled again, slightly more nervously now as that hard sound was followed by the softer whirring of some machinery overhead. Machinery which was quickly revealed to be a series of vents in the ceiling, narrow slits that clacked open to blow streams of warm air over the dripping kitten. Which might have dried her off quite nicely had not those jets been followed by slower rushing streams of pink bubbly foam, streams that flowed together in one growing column. A column which in no time at all had reached and enveloped the still giggling kitten.

Arms held out from her sides Uma dipped her head a little under the frothing foam, tail swishing from side to side as the mound of bubbles around her feet grew with the layers clinging to her delicate frame. With only her ears showing as the weight of the bubbles on her head grew and slipped away to be replaced with a fresh mound, Uma shook with freshly playful laughter, having no choice but to wait until the pouring stream stopped lest she risk toppling down into the water still pooled around her ankles, almost certainly since she couldn't see properly.

Uma didn't have to wait long, the blowers ceasing as quickly as they had started, at last allowing Uma to sweep her eyes clear and step out of the shallow pool. Far from seeming mortified or affronted, Uma had taken it in good grace, taking Adam's paw to help her out of the water and bubble filled pit that had claimed her.

'Well..mostly safe.' Lena amended. 'Still, let's not worry about that. On we go. Through here.'