FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Pointing enthusiastically down the corridor, Alex took off at a run again. Amy smiled as she struggled to keep up - the start of the last round on IZ always involved gunging a guest that one of the contestants knew, and she couldn't help imagining seeing one of her friends getting covered. Grinning at the thought, she almost crashed into Alex as he suddenly stopped at a door, keying in a combination on the number pad next to it.

"We've got a bit of a surprise for one of you in here," Alex said as the door hummed open, turning towards the others. "And I think it'll make up for a sliming earlier." Amy looked at his face carefully to see if she could guess who it was from his expression - he seemed to be looking at Sadie, but she couldn't be sure.

She forgot about trying to guess who was on when she walked into the room - it was a place she recognised instantly. One wall of the dingy room had two heavy-looking metallic panels mounted on top of each other, and she remembered that they concealed a tank behind them. On the wall to its side, there was a large screen. The major addition to the room, though, was a wide cylindrical tank supported by four legs. Beneath it, directly under a large spigot, there was a green blowup chair facing the tank on the wall.

Amy gasped as she felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned and looked up to face Alex.

"That's your seat, Amy," he grinned, nodding towards it.

Amy swallowed, looking up at the large vat, and walked distractedly towards the chair, supported by Alex's arm around her shoulder. Climbing into the chair, she first looked up at the threatening valve above her head, then noticed a large lever at the side of the seat. Looking across at the scratched metal panels, her heart got faster as she wondered who was behind them.

Alex walked over to the section of wall opposite her as the other three girls lined up at the side of the room to watch. "Ready, Amy?" he asked. She nodded. "Let's see who you've got the chance to slime." Thumping on a button next to the panels, he stepped back as the top one slid into the ceiling with a mechanical grinding noise.

Amy peered into the gloomy tank, leaning forward as she tried to see who it was. Her eyes widened as she saw brown chest fur, and caught a glimpse of one white hand. She gaped in amazement as the panel slid fully into the ceiling. Dexter smiled back at her nervously, lit from above by a soft green striplight and surrounded by blinking panels on the tank's walls.

Her shocked expression turned to a smile as Alex moved towards him, and she leaned back in the seat laughing to herself, thinking that she should have seen it coming.

"Welcome to the Hotseat, Dexter," the presenter started, reaching in to shake him by the hand.

"Thanks", he answered, looking around at the futuristic-style tank. "I think Amy's a bit surprised to see me."

She grinned widely as the host looked across at her. "She's definitely eager to get you slimed, though," he smiled. Amy nodded in agreement as he squirmed, looking a little embarrassed.

The screen turned on as Alex looked back at Dexter. "Here's what's going to happen - Amy's going to ask you three questions from a selection on the screen over there, so she can make it as difficult or easy for you as she likes." The rabbit put his hand over his eyes, making all four girls laugh.

"And if you get all three of them right, we'll let you out of there clean, and Amy will be getting another surprise..." All of them looked at the vat above Amy's head. "But if you get even one of them wrong... well, do you want to see what happens to people who give wrong answers on the Hotseat?"

Dexter smiled, shaking his head as the lights darkened, and a video began playing on the screen - a montage of gungings from the tank that series. Amy giggled as she recognised a few people she remembered from earlier shows being covered in gunk from all angles - the tank's speciality was having two gunge sprayers at the sides as well as the one at the top. She laughed out loud as an already messy reptilian girl struggled under a thick downpour of lumpy black grime, and imagined that happening to her boyfriend.

The three girls at the side cheered, obviously looking forward to it as much as Amy was. Dexter ran his hand over his head, wriggling uncomfortably in the seat as he waited for the game to begin.

"Ready, Dexter?" Alex asked, smiling confidently at him.

"Yeah." The rabbit breathed out heavily, looking to the side at the screen, which was now displaying a list of questions.

"Amy, pick your first one."

"All right... Dexter, how would you write the number 100 in binary?"

Her boyfriend sagged, smiling. "I was hoping you wouldn't ask me that one..." he said, looking up into the mechanism above him. He paused for a while, counting on his fingers. "One..." he began, holding one finger in his other hand. "One, zero... zero, one, zero, zero?" he answered uncertainly.

Amy looked across at Alex, waiting for him to announce whether it was right.

"Carry on," he said simply. She turned back to the screen, looking up and down the list to find something else that would be difficult to do under pressure.

"What's forty-six by nine?", she asked.

Dexter sat forwards, resting his head in his hands as he counted carefully in his head, nodding as he thought. "Four hundred and fourteen," he said eventually, straightening up and putting his hands back on his lap.

"And..." She looked down the list carefully, searching for what she thought would be a difficult one. "What do the initials TNT stand for?"

"Tri-nitro-toluene," her boyfriend immediately answered, a lot more confidently than she had hoped. He nodded, and sat back in the seat as the lights in the room came up again.

Amy wriggled in the plastic seat uncomfortably as the host just smiled at Dexter, no one in the room making a sound.

"Well, Dexter," he said eventually, "Amy asked you three questions..."

The rabbit nodded, jiggling tensely in the seat. Amy glanced at the other three team members, who were huddled tensely in the corner.

"And you got three... right."

Amy's heart lurched as Dexter's expression went through shock to a wide grin, and he pointed across at her, miming gunge pouring down onto his head with his other hand. She gripped the arms of the chair tightly, drumming her bare feet on the floor and holding her breath as she waited for the cold wave of slime to slap her on the head.

Nothing was happening. Confused, she let her breath out again and looked quizzically at the host, who just smiled.

"About that surprise, Amy... we're not actually going to gunge you under there." The grinding noise started up again, and the lower panel of the Hotseat's front slid into the floor. Amy's mouth fell open as she realised what was going to happen.

Dexter hopped down from his seat as Alex approached Amy. He took her by the hand as she giggled helplessly, still remembering the gungings that she'd just seen replayed. As they got up and passed her boyfriend she turned to hug him, feeling him shaking with stifled laughter as he wrapped his arms around her. Giving her an apologetic kiss on the forehead, he pulled away and smiled as he watched her being shown into the gunge tank. She backed into the hard plastic chair nervously, looking around at the array of dull blinking lights around her.

She swallowed nervously as the bottom panel began to slide upwards again, trapping her in the metallic tank. Looking carefully at the walls, she saw the small protruding gunge nozzles placed at shoulder height, and an obvious large opening on the ceiling.

Her boyfriend was being shown into the inflatable chair that she'd just left. He flopped down into it, looking up into the valve that she had thought was about to cover her, and leaned across to the lever, grinning at her eagerly.

"Dexter, you know you're the first person to have ever escaped the Hotseat?" the host asked him.

"Is it usually more difficult?" the rabbit said back with a grin.

The host chuckled a little. "That's not very fair to Amy, she did try her best..." Both of them looked over at her, and Amy immediately tried to put on her best wide-eyed innocent expression for her boyfriend. She rocked edgily back and forward a little, knowing that a wave of gunge was just moments away. She watched her boyfriend's hand move slowly across to the lever, resting on its grip.

"She looks like she didn't mean it - but she tried to gunge you, so let her see what would have happened!" Alex stepped back from the vat as the rabbit tugged hard on the switch. Amy gasped and looked from left to right as a loud hooter sounded, wrapping her hands around her to shield herself from the slime from the sides, but grinned broadly as her boyfriend vanished underneath a torrent of blue and yellow gunge instead.

He yelped from underneath the thick messy dome that was splattering off him, and bowed his head down to let it hit his neck, his ears flattened down onto his head. Two waves of slime spread out from his shoulders as he looked up at his giggling girlfriend, his face spattered with brightly coloured gunge. He flinched as the downpour flicked forward, the liquid splashing down onto his lap.

As the downpour eased off, he straightened up again, bouncing a little in the air-filled seat under the weight of the drizzling slime. He brought his hands up to his head as a wave sloshed down over his eyes, trying to clear the stuff off.

"You weren't really expecting to be let out of here clean, were you, Dexter?" the host asked, leaning on one of the pillars supporting the vat as the flow drizzled to a halt.

Dexter straightened, raising one hand to his head to straighten out his sodden ears, and grimaced as the slime slid down the back of his neck. He shook his head, shivering as a couple more thick drops spattered on to him, then opened his eyes to look down at himself and the wide splatter mark surrounding his chair.

"My only question is..." he said, catching his breath as Amy snickered at the sight of him, "would that have happened to Amy if she'd been sitting here?"

The host chuckled, pacing across the room so that he was beside the mouse girl. She stopped laughing, anticipating that she wasn't going to escape getting messy either.

"Well, you'll always wonder, won't you," he answered with a grin. "But I think we can let you see what would have happened to you if you hadn't escaped..."

Amy jumped as a siren drowned out Alex's last few words, and she closed her eyes, hunching her neck up as she heard a noise from the two side nozzles. A moment later, she gasped as two streams of goo began spurting on to her sides, and she heard the laughter of the other girls on the team. Wriggling back in the plastic seat, she opened her eyes again and watched as the two translucent green streams played up and down, staining her white fur a light shade of green as they went.

The left stream moved up to her face for a moment and she turned her head away, laughing at the ticklish feeling of the continuing spurts as she wiped at her eyes. She paused a moment as a louder klaxon started up, and kept her eyes closed as she remembered the wide pipe above her. She just had time to raise her hands up in front of her face before she was engulfed by the cool, slimy torrent from the top of the tank.

She kept in that position as she felt the gunge dome out from her head, listening to the wet slapping noise it made as it lapped against the walls of the tank, and wriggled her bare toes in the pool that was forming around them. After a few seconds the flow shut off, and she slowly took her hands off her face and blinked a couple of times, leaning back in the seat as she saw that both she and the tank were now coated in a layer of thick yellow custard-like stuff. The other three team members were cheering for her, with her boyfriend laughing and applauding as he watched. She squeaked as the flow suddenly began again, splattering into her lap and on to her tummy, and put her hands in front of her to shield herself from it.

As the yellow stuff from the ceiling thinned out, the two green streams that had been splurging on to her shoulders also moved back, making a thick pouring noise as the stuff fell into the ankle-deep gunge pool. As the last of the green stuff dripped out of them, Amy looked down at her yellow-coated fur and giggled to herself, then her heart leapt as the soft green light in the tank changed to red. Remembering about the last part of the gunge machine as the klaxon changed to a lower blare, she quickly returned her hands to her face and shivered as she felt a thicker, lumpy column pour on to her head.

She held her breath as the slush glooped down over her, not doming out like normal gunge but clinging to her hair and fur as it oozed down the way. Leaning to the side a little in an attempt to escape it, she allowed it to pour stickily off one side of her head and down her left shoulder as she wiped a splash of the grime from her face. Shuddering again as she felt the lumpy liquid creep down her neck and back, she shifted forwards slightly as the downpour sputtered to a halt.

Relaxing and breathing out as she realised it was all over this time, she slowly opened her eyes and looked around at herself again. She was coated in an unpleasant mixture of yellow and black gunge, which was mixing together to form a deep murky green as it dripped from all over her messy fur. Bringing one hand up to her forehead to catch the oozing black stuff as it slithered from her hair, she smiled and waved out of the tank in response to the watchers' applause, grinning across at the slightly less messy Dexter.

"I know I ask this a lot, but how does it feel in there, Amy?" the host asked her. She brought her hands down from her head, feeling the gunk slither between her fingers as it dripped its way to the floor.

"You should've come in with me," she answered, sticking her tongue out at him as she flicked some of the grime in his direction. He just smiled, and stepped back as the lower panel hummed out of the way again to let her out.

Amy hauled herself up from the messy seat, shivering as she felt the collected slime slide down her as she moved. Dexter stood up too, and straightened as he got out from under the vat, offering his arms for another hug. Eagerly, she wrapped her arms around him, scrubbing the black gunge into his hair as he laughed softly.

"That looks like a happy ending to me," Alex laughed as he watched them. "Dexter got all three questions right, so no points for the team there... but I'm going to give Amy ten for getting slimed so spectacularly. Anyway, there's still plenty of time to make up for it."

Amy and Dexter broke off the hug, an arm each still around each other as they faced the host. "Speaking of which, I think it's time to move on now - are you going to be all right, Dexter?"

"Yeah," he answered, picking specks of the black stuff out of his fur.

"We'll have someone along to show you where to get cleaned up... eventually," Alex grinned. "In the meantime, the rest of you, follow me!"

"Good luck!" Dexter called as the girls filed out of the room around him. He blew a kiss to Amy as she turned around in the doorway, and she returned it before running to catch up with the others. Seeing them vanish around a corner, she dashed over to join them, still wiping black and yellow gunge out of her fur. Feeling heavy because of the clinging slime, she managed to catch up with them slowly after running through a long corridor, and walked breathlessly towards them as they gathered round another door.

"We've got something for the whole team in here," Alex said, pushing on a panel next to the entrance to open it. "You all right, Amy?"

"Yeah." Amy nodded, smiling as she panted for breath, then stepped into the room after the others. She blinked a couple of times as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Like the room with the Hotseat, it was made to look much older than the areas that they had been in before, and floor tiles shifted slightly under her feet as she cautiously walked forwards.

Tamara was already heading towards the only visible feature of the room, which was a set of dark inflatable chairs, arranged in a square to face each other. Amy followed her, and glanced up as she sat down to see exactly what she was expecting - cylindrical canisters of gunge were mounted above each of the seats.

Coco and Sadie took the chairs on Amy's left and right as the host closed the door behind them and picked his way over the broken floor, switching on a pocket torch to light his way.

"This is another game where you'll all have to work together," he started as he reached them, leaning on the back of Amy's chair. She twisted round to face him. "It's another questions round, but this time, the time limit is split between the four of you."

The four girls looked up as a set of timers mounted on the overhead canisters beeped into life, showing sixty seconds each. Each of them could see the time above the others' seats, but not their own.

"After you get a question right, you'll have to nominate another team member to pass on to. The aim is to use as much of your time as possible, but the moment one of your timers reaches zero, you're going to go into this."

Amy jumped and lifted her feet as the floor below them jolted. A bright green light shone from the gap that had appeared in the tiles, and soft special effect smoke rose from below as the section in the middle slid away to reveal a pool of murky green gunge.

The girls shifted back a little in their seats as the floor clicked into place, their feet now dangling over the edge of the gunge pit. A couple of bubbles glooped to the surface as they watched. Amy looked up to see Tamara grinning down at it, eager to begin.

"I think we'll let your team leader go first," the host continued, straightening up and wandering casually around to the other side of the group of chairs. Amy blinked as a white spotlight faded in to illuminate her, and swallowed as she heard the timer begin to tick down above her.

"Amy, who played the lead role in last year's film 'Revolution'?"

"Niven," she answered immediately. A buzzer made her jump, and she rubbed her feet together distractedly as Alex read out a different question. She had to make a guess at the answer, but was relieved to hear an electronic bell sound from above her, stopping the timer.

"You're safe! Who are you going to pass on to?"

Amy glanced around. "Tamara," she decided.

The bunny squirmed to straighten up as she listened to her question, then answered correctly. Amy watched as the other three nominated each other in turn, trying to guess what time remained on the counter above her. Eventually, she was nominated again by Sadie, who had spent a lot of time getting questions wrong and only had about ten seconds left on her timer.

Distractedly listening to the ticking of the timer above her as the question was read out, Amy stumbled over the answer as she said it, but still got it right. Looking quickly at the other three counters, she selected Coco, who had the most time left.

Leaning forward, Amy looked down into the slime vat and shivered at the look of the surface of the thick liquid. Suddenly she realized she had been nominated again, and straightened up to face Alex as he read out the question.

"Amy, what are the last five letters of the alphabet, backwards?"

"Z, Y, X", she recited immediately, knowing that this would have been easy if it wasn't for thinking about that canister about to splurge open above her head. "W, V."

"Good! Who's going next?"

She hurriedly glanced around the three timers - all of them only had about ten seconds left. "Coco," she said quickly, and the squirrel sat up as the host turned to her.

"Coco, what number do the keys on a calculator add up to?"

"Um..." The squirrel bit her lip as she thought, tapping her feet on the front of the chair in time to the beeps coming from above her head. Suddenly an alarm shrieked from above her, making her jump and look round at Alex.

"You're out of time!" the host shouted over the noise of the siren. Amy followed Coco's gaze as she looked up at the canister above her head, and saw the catch snick aside to release a downpour of bright green gunge. The squirrel girl leaned forwards, hunching down on the seat as the slime splattered on to her back, thick waves of it splashing out to the sides to spray Sadie and Tamara as well. As the flow continued, Coco's seat began to tilt upwards at the back, and she squeaked loudly as she slithered out of the downpour, flailing her arms as she disappeared into the gunge vat with a thick glooping noise.

As the now empty chair tilted back again, a slimy drizzle still pouring on to it, the other three girls leaned down to watch the pit. Coco burst through the surface spitting out slime, sending a wave of thick liquid splashing into the air and coming back down into the pool with a heavy splatting noise. Curtains of gunge slid off her head as she straightened up in the shoulder-height liquid, leaving a layer of dripping green stuff coating her hair and face. She raised her hands out of the gunge, shivering as the slippery liquid slithered down her arms, and wiped repeatedly at her eyes and nose.

Suddenly another alarm sounded and another green downpour crashed down into the vat from the ceiling. The squirrel girl squealed as it splashed down on to her, moving backwards and bowing her head down to escape the flow, her hands clasped over her face. As it slowed to a messy drizzle, she slid her hands down to clear her eyes, then dipped her arms back into the slime, her gungy face grinning up at the others.

Alex crouched down beside the vat, and she turned to face him, bobbing up and down slightly as she panted for breath. None of her honey-brown fur was left visible underneath the green stuff, which slowly trickled back into the vat from her hair and chin.

"Are you all right in there?" Alex grinned as she wiped at her dripping fringe, shivering at the feeling. Another short wave of gunge glooped down into the vat behind her.

She shrugged exaggeratedly in response, lifting her hands out of the pool and watching the stuff pour back into it.

"Well, how would you like to get the next lowest scorer gunged as well?" Alex asked her. She nodded eagerly in response. "How does that sound to you, Amy?"

"Fine," she said, smiling over at Tamara and Sadie. The skunk girl huddled down a little in the seat, looking up at the tall canister above her.

"Good, because it's you!"

Shocked, Amy heard the catch on her canister sliding aside, and she only just had time to squeeze her eyes closed before she felt the wave of gunge splash on to her head.

Tilting her head to the side to escape the downpour, she giggled as the stuff poured on to her right shoulder, slithering downwards to cover her chest and back. Squirming to the other side, she heard Coco's laughter along with the sound of the gunge splattering down into the vat in front of her.

Amy straightened again, feeling the final drizzle pour on to her head as the gunge oozed and trickled down her fur. She shuddered, and looked down at the laughing squirrel girl. Sliding her hands over her shoulders, she flicked small handfuls of gunge at her as Alex moved to help her out of the vat.

Coco reached up to grab Alex's hands, kicking her legs to get herself out of the gunge pool. Still giggling, she let go of him and smeared a handful of gunge on to his cheek. As he chuckled and wiped it off, she shivered as the green stuff dripped from her fur, forming a pool around where she was standing. The other three girls got up and joined them as the vat began to close again.

"You managed to use most of your time there, so you get forty points for that game," Alex said as he walked out the door. "It's a bit of a trek to our next room - come with me!"

He ran more slowly this time so the girls could keep up, Coco slipping around a little behind them. As they turned a corner he beckoned Amy to run alongside him.

"So who do you want to go into the next game, Amy?" he asked.

She thought for a moment, as Tamara pushed forward to run alongside them, grinning eagerly. "I think it's my turn," she said.

Alex laughed a little. "Well, you've been in the third game in just about every round so far - why break tradition?"

He caught her hand and ran with her a few more paces, then darted to the side of the corridor and pushed open a set of double swinging doors. Catching them as they came back towards her, Amy held the doors open for the other two as they caught up.

The room beyond the doors was small and metallic, with a bank of monitors and controls on one wall. Opposite this console, two curved metal barriers were on the floor and ceiling, forming a closed-off area behind them with a gap in the wall that led into darkness. The other feature of the room was a seat that looked slightly like a dentist's chair - this was mounted on a set of rails that led to another gap in the wall, covered by a set of dangling plastic strips. It looked strangely like the entrance to a ghost train.

"Tamara, this is what we call the Ride - and you'll be pleased to know it's been upgraded a bit since we last used it on the series." He raised a hand to show her into the chair, and she hopped up on to it, twisting round to get comfortable. As she looked around at the other team members, he leaned over her to secure a restraint across her lap.

"It's not that it's dangerous," he explained, "we just don't want you to have the chance to escape!"

The bunny girl shivered, and grinned as he moved back to the others. The chair was facing away from the door it was going to go through, so she could still watch the preparations for the game.

"Okay, you three - Tamara's going to be on the ride and you'll have the responsibility of saving her from whatever happens during it. Come over here and I'll show you..." He led them towards the bank of confusing switches and displays. "You'll be able to see what's happening up there on the row of screens. Throughout the ride, both you and Tamara are going to get clues as to how to let her escape clean, and you'll have to work together to help her out."

The three of them clustered around the console, trying to work out what he meant as he moved over to a large switch on the wall opposite the slightly nervous-looking rabbit girl.

"Ready, Tamara?" he asked, his hand on the lever. As she nodded, he tugged on it and a mechanical whine started up as the chair began to move. The team watched as Tamara was carried slowly backwards through the door, and was spun around to face the direction she was going in as the chair rattled around the corner.

Amy looked along the row of monitors, trying to catch a glimpse of her. Eventually, she came into view on one of them, and the seat ground to a halt as they watched.

"All right, I can see... there are a lot of rows of four lights on the ceiling. The first one's red, blue, yellow, green," they heard her voice coming through the speakers on the panel, already describing the clues she could see. The three of them looked around for a matching set of controls, and Coco pointed to a row of four coloured buttons. She tapped in the sequence that the bunny girl had read out, but nothing happened.

"What's the next one, Tamara?" she shouted. Another sequence was read out, but it had no effect either.

The rabbit looked up again. "Yellow, blue..." She squeaked loudly as a siren went off and a tank opened above her head, splurging a thick column of red gunge into her face. Bowing her head down, she wiped at her eyes as the torrent splattered off the top of her head, creeping down to coat her shoulders. The chair started up again, leaving the ooze drizzling to a halt behind her.

The team hardly had time to react before the chair stopped again, and Tamara blinked her eyes open to look around. The others could see two sections of wall near the ceiling pivoting inwards towards her.

"All right, there are two tip-tanks above me - one of them has a symbol that looks like an upside-down triangle on it, the other one..." She hesitated, craning her neck to see. Amy looked frantically around the length of the console, searching for a matching control, and finally saw it in an array of buttons to the left. Coco spotted it at the same moment and stabbed at it.

"The other one's a circle with half of it black and the other half white!" Tamara called, squirming away in the seat as drizzles of translucent green goo began falling from the slowly tipping tank. Coco looked down to see about four buttons matching the description. "Which half?" she called back, but the bunny had already hunched down ready for the gunging, and as a klaxon sounded she vanished under a wave of green slime poured from the tank above her.

The team watched as the flow subsided, leaving the gel to dribble down the wall. Tamara raised her sticky fingers to her head and wrung out her ponytail, shuddering as the stuff dripped and oozed through her soaked fur. She jumped as the chair began again with a jolt, carrying her into the view of another monitor. As it slowed down, it began spinning slowly, making her open her eyes wide again and look around frantically.

"There are... a lot of nozzles on the walls all the way around me," she giggled nervously, "and there's something written above them - "G, A, a hash sign, B..."

"They're musical notes," Sadie spoke up from Amy's right. She looked down and saw a set of keyboard keys at the front of the console, then stepping towards them and nudging Amy politely out the way, she pressed in the combination that had been read out.

The girls turned back to the monitor to see the chair start up again, the slimy bunny girl still dripping with mixed red and green slime from the gungings before. As the ride continued, she looked up to the ceiling.

"There's a word on a sign in front of me, it's -" Again, her sentence ended in a squeak as two large sprays of foam started up from the walls ahead of her, the chair slowly carrying her towards them.

"What's the word, Tamara?" Amy called out as she moved to a keyboard to her right.

"Psychology! Psychology!" she repeated above the hissing noise, bouncing in the seat as it slid towards the curtain of white gunk.

Looking down, Amy hovered her hands over the keys and jabbed at the buttons. She was normally a fast typist, but having to do it without a screen and knowing what was going to happen made it much more difficult than she would have thought. Tapping the last letter, she jumped at the sound of a buzzer and watched as the bunny girl was carried through the foam spray, giggling and holding her hands out to the sides to defend herself as the gooey white foam spurted all over her.

A noise came from behind the team, and they turned around to see the bunny emerging from the gap in the wall behind them, leaning forward as the chair juddered to a halt in the alcove formed by the curving wall. Amy glanced sideways at the other team members, and they moved away from the console towards her.

"Now, there's just one more thing to go..." Alex started as the three team members giggled at the gungy bunny girl. She wiped a blob of foam off her right side and flicked it at Sadie.

"You see these two levers?" Amy looked around as the host continued, and followed his pointed finger to two levers on either side of the curve out of the wall - one of them was labelled "Activate gunge tank", the other "Release".

"It looks as if it should be obvious which one to pull, but remember that a lot of the machinery here's been modified since it was set up - it could be a trick," he smiled. "It's up to you which one to pull - one of them's going to let Tamara out and give you a last ten points, the other's going to get her very messy again."

The three team-mates huddled together to decide as the rabbit looked up into the recess above her, its contents unseen by the rest of the team. After a moment, they broke apart and looked at the host.

"Reached a decision, team leader?" he asked.

"Yeah." Amy stepped over to the switch that was labelled as the gunge lever. Tamara just giggled, looking up helplessly again as the foamy mixture dripped from her head.

"Go ahead," he nodded.

Amy tugged on the switch, pulling it down, and jumped as the loud blare of a repeating hooter filled the room. Quickly, she looked back at Tamara, who squealed loudly as a wide spray of multiple streams of blue and green slime slopped down on to her from the recess above. They played a little from side to side, coating her completely.

Shaking with laughter, she brought her hands up to catch some of it as the foam and slime from before slid off her. Flicking her ponytail behind her head as the brief but heavy shower eased off, she put her hands on her head and shivered, thick droplets of the liquid dripping from all over her.

"Bad luck," Alex said simply as he moved forward again. "How are you feeling, Tamara?"

The bunny girl, her fur stained turquoise from the gunge mixture, brought her hands up again to wipe at her face. Shaking her head to stop the slime dripping into her eyes, she just stuck her tongue out at him. Chuckling, he leaned forwards a little more and undid the restraint across her lap.

"Well, you did get Tamara covered in gunge, but you got twenty points along the way for saving her from two parts of the ride... and I'm afraid that we've got to head into the last game now," Alex announced as he took her hands and hauled her out of the seat, lifting her over the barrier and back on to her feet. "Amy, this time it's not going to be so much a game as nominating one of your team-mates to get gunged for the good of the team, to get those last points before the final - do I really need to ask who it's going to be?"

All of them turned to look at Sadie, who was biting her lip uncertainly, with her hands behind her back and dragging one toe on the floor.

"Well, we've only got one team member who stayed clean this round," Amy said. Coco and Tamara nodded, as Sadie's smile turned into a nervous grin.

"Sadie, the team leader's spoken - are you ready to go through with this?" Alex asked, taking her by the hand.

"Sure," she answered, worriedly swishing her tail as she waited to see what was going to happen to her.

"Then come with me!" Alex took off at a run, with Sadie stumbling to stay on her feet as the others tried to keep up. They were led out of the room and down the corridor. Eventually it opened out, and Amy recognised that they were in the room that they had started in, with the large door to the final. Suddenly, Alex darted to the side, and headed down another of the four corridors leading away from the hub. She read the word "Hangar" on the sign above the entrance as she followed, and blinked as the team turned the corner into an entirely blue room.

The only features of the room were a set of four capsules that looked like flight simulation machines. Looking up, Amy saw a set of large tented lights on the ceiling - this room was entirely unlike any other they'd been in as it actually looked like a studio, and the blue colour was so that the background could be added into the programme later. Ducking past the first of the machines, she followed the rest of the team as they gathered round the one at the far end. Alex leaned against it as he turned to face them.

"Now, Sadie," he began as she padded her way to the front of the group. "This machine's due to go through the shuttle wash soon, and usually you're not meant to be in one when we start it off - but I don't think that's going to be a problem for us. The only trouble is that the wash station hasn't been checked in a while, and I'm pretty doubtful that it's actually water in there now..."

The skunkette laughed a little as she realised what that meant for her.

"Now, you're going to be taken up and around to the other side of the complex, and we won't be there to save you. It could get a bit intense in there - so I'm going to give you the option of buying some protective gear in exchange for points." He kicked out a box from under the machine, and pointed down to it. "Ten points'll give you these goggles. Twenty for a shower cap, or fifty for all those and waterproofs. But if you decide to go through with this, remember we're giving you 60 points back."

He pressed down on the door's catch, and guided it with his hand as it swung upwards. Amy craned her neck to see inside past Sadie - the interior was gloomy and dark, with a couple of pulsing lights illuminating an inflatable chair that faced a large monitor placed behind protective plastic. After staring fascinatedly for a moment, Sadie turned back towards the team, biting her lip again.

"What do you think I should do?" she asked.

She looked a little uncomfortable, and Amy was about to ask Alex to give her the waterproofs, but Coco spoke first.

"You don't need to get anything!" she suddenly exclaimed eagerly. "Go on, you'll be fine!"

"Get something if you want," Amy added quickly, anxious for her.

Sadie laughed, and looked back at the capsule then at the team again, looking agitated. Suddenly, her expression changed back to a smile, and she turned to Alex.

"I'll do it without anything..." she said, then pointed at the squirrel girl. "...if Coco comes in with me."

Amy grinned at the idea, and turned to Coco, whose mouth was hanging open with surprise. Gently, she placed her hand on the squirrel's back and gave her a gentle push towards Sadie and Alex, making her step unsteadily forward.

Recovering quickly, Coco shook her head to clear it, and skipped excitedly over to join them as Alex took Sadie's hand and helped her up into the gloomy interior. She clambered in after her as the skunkette sat down, bouncing slightly in the seat as she looked upwards at the blank ceiling. The squirrel turned around and squeezed on to the seat beside her, putting her arm around her and resting her hand on her shoulder.

"Both ready?" Alex called to them, his hand on the door again. As they nodded, he hauled it down and clicked it back into place, leaving them hidden inside. Amy and Tamara looked up at him as he turned away from it.

"Now," he said, lowering his voice, "the cameras are away from us for the whole time on this part, so I can show you what's going on in there..." He beckoned with a finger and headed over to the opposite wall, where a small set of monitors was mounted. One showed the interior of the shuttle, complete with the two girls looking around them nervously, and another displayed what they were seeing on the screen - a rendering of a heavy hangar door in front of them.

Alex placed a finger on a button next to the monitors, then silently pointed back in the direction they had come and upwards. Amy looked over her shoulder, then up again, to see two massive tanks that had been hidden by the large lights from the other side. She couldn't help gaping at the size of them - combined, they were almost as big as the chamber below. One was filled with orange liquid, the other with blue, and the pipes below them met in the middle to point straight down at the shuttle.

Amy glanced over at Tamara, who looked similarly impressed, and grinned back at Alex as he started the machine up. They watched the two girls jump as the shuttle juddered around them, their eyes on the screen as it showed the door opening and them moving off.

"How are you, girls?" Alex called into the microphone next to the screens. Coco glanced around, and gave a thumbs up sign, not knowing where to face. Sadie tapped her fingers on her arm of the chair and just nodded a little.

As the simulated flight continued, Amy kept looking up at the tanks above the gently weaving capsule. Suddenly it took a steeper dive than normal, and she looked back at the screen to see it showing that they were coming in to land again.

Sadie leaned over to Coco and whispered something inaudible in her ear as the video they were being shown slowed, the shuttle shuddering again as they watched themselves being guided through a wide corridor on a set of rails on-screen. As a corner approached, they both gaped as they saw a set of on-screen tanks identical to the ones that were really above them loom into view. Amy put her hand to her mouth to stifle her giggling as they both gasped and looked at each other, and they hugged a little more tightly as the machine ground to a halt.

A whine emerged from the shuttle, and a little more light illuminated the two of them as the ceiling of the capsule slid aside. They both looked up to see the tanks being exposed, and flinched again as a loud klaxon began sounding repeatedly. Sadie gripped the arm of the seat tightly as it continued, closing her eyes and slowly grinning, while Coco stared up at the tanks and bounced excitedly. Suddenly Amy heard a loud click sound from behind her, and whipped her head round to see a glutinous cascade of orange and blue gunge drop from the tanks towards the capsule.

Looking quickly back at the monitor, she watched as Coco closed her eyes and faced forwards, a grin on her face as she raised both her arms in the air. Suddenly the deluge slapped down on to Sadie's head, hiding her from view completely, splattering out crazily and covering the squirrel's side as she jerked away from the cold downpour.

Sadie's arm emerged from the messy dome as she raised it up, keeping her other hand around Coco as she wriggled from side to side. Slowly the slop played towards the squirrel, and splashed out from her head, revealing Sadie's expression briefly as she shrieked excitedly. Ducking down, she shook her hand and ran it over her head, opening her eyes again and giggling towards the camera in front of her, only for the gunge to come back and hide her from view again.

Coco shook her head, sending specks of slime flying out in all directions. Her head and shoulders were dripping with blue and orange gunge, mixing into green as it slithered down her. Suddenly she gasped as she felt the shuttle beginning to fill up, and looked down at the ground to see her ankles disappearing into the rising green pool.

Amy, still amazed by the amount of slime that was pouring down on to them, looked around to watch as it glooped out of the tank and down towards the opening, listening to the screams and whoops emerging from the hole in the ceiling. After a moment, she turned back to watch the chaos inside as the gunge level rose up to the girls' knees.

Sadie drummed her legs on the floor, splashing in the thick liquid as she arched her back away from the continuing downpour, a ticklish grin on her face as the slippery stuff slid down the fur on her back. Coco ran her hands through her heavy hair as the stuff oozed up to tummy level, her shocked smile being momentarily hidden by the gunge pouring back and forth across both of them.

Turning back again as it began to subside, Amy watched the flow slow to a drizzle as the two girls were slowly submerged up to their shoulders. Playfully, Sadie gripped Coco's arm a little tighter and pulled her towards her, making her squeak as the ooze dripped on to her head. The skunkette shivered, the slippery green stuff slowly dripping from her hair as she brought her other hand out of the gunge bath to push it behind her head.

"You all right?" laughed Alex as he spoke into the intercom again. A duet of whoops emerged from the capsule as the girls looked at each other's faces. Coco squirmed around in the gloop as she looked around the messy chamber, and Sadie held her gungy hands just above the surface in front of her, her fingers spread to let the slime drip off them. Slowly, she raised one arm over Coco's head and put it around her shoulder to cuddle her again.

"All right - you've more than earned your sixty points! We'll get you back here and cleaned up a bit, then we'll see how you do in the final."

---

Amy stepped into the large cylindrical tank and looked up as she walked forward, examining the cluster of pipes on the ceiling pointed down towards her. She turned back to face the rest of her teammates as the clear door hummed closed behind her, and watched as Alex led them to their positions.

The room that contained the game's final challenge was mostly taken up by a pool of translucent green liquid that stretched about twenty metres from one side of the room to the other. At the opposite end of the pool from the cylindrical tank Amy was standing in, an inflatable raft was hooked to the narrow ledge the rest of the team were standing on. Holding on to Alex's hand, Tamara tentatively stepped on to it and flopped down on to her hands and knees as it wobbled underneath her. Picking herself up, she shuffled to the edge on her bottom and dipped her toes into the green water.

The other two team members were being led into a pair of cubicles at the far end of the room, one at each side. Above each of them was a tank of water, and a set of obstacles stretched out ahead of both of them. These obstacle courses ended with a slide into a foam pit each, with inflatable barriers separating them both from the main pool. After Coco and Sadie had been shut in the cubicles, she watched as the host dashed back towards her end of the room, jumping across to a small platform right beside the large tank.

"Welcome to the final, team! That last 60 points brought you up to a total of..." Alex turned to a counter above Amy's tank, which she heard beeping into life, "seven hundred and twenty-five, which translates into a time of just over three minutes to complete the last challenge. And here's what you have to do in that time..."

He pointed a finger at Tamara, tracing the route she was going to follow as he spoke. "Tamara's going to start - once she's in the water, she'll have twenty seconds to get to the button here to release you two." He pointed down at the front of the cylinder, where a small console flashed just above the water's surface. "If she doesn't make it in twenty seconds, the tanks above you will open..." Amy watched them both look up, Coco shivering at the thought of being sprayed with the cold water. Tamara pushed her hair behind her head, looking back at the host as he continued.

"Once you're released, you'll have to get past the obstacles ahead of you. Watch out for the yellow panels like this one," he gestured towards a glowing floor tile near the end of the course, "because if you step on any of those, your team leader's going to get a bit messy."

This time, Amy looked up to the pipes again, and shuffled a little to the left to position herself under the central one.

"When you get to the end, slide down into the foam pit and find the keycard hidden somewhere in it - once you've got that, get into the water and put it in the right slot here," he continued, pointing down to the console again. "Once they're both in, it's over to Tamara again - a rope ladder's going to fall from the ceiling above the raft there, and she's got to climb up to get the final key. After that, it's just a short swim back to the console, she's got to put it in with the others, and that's it!"

He stepped back a pace, looking round to see if they'd understood. "Think you're going to make it?" he asked, and laughed as he was greeted by a huge cheer from the three girls at the other end of the room. "Just as well, because if you don't, I'm going to have to put you all in here to share the consequences with your team leader!"

He produced a whistle from his pocket. "Good luck, everyone," he said, then paused for a moment before blowing through it, starting the timer.

Tamara immediately slipped into the water and launched herself forward into a powerful front crawl. Even though she had said so earlier, Amy was surprised at what a strong swimmer she was, and she pressed the button easily after only about ten seconds had gone past. She turned around to watch the other two climb down from the opened cubicles, and cheered them on as they started on the obstacle courses.

Amy jumped as a buzzer sounded, and she looked up to see a yellow gunge stream spurt out of one of the pipes. She quickly jerked her head away, but smiled a little as the cold stuff splattered on to her shoulder. Another two buzzers sounded as the girls touched the pressure tiles, and closing her eyes, she squeaked as another couple of slime streams started up to slap against her head.

She opened her eyes, seeing the mixed colours of slime dripping off her head, then flicked her hair back and watched as Sadie emerged from a low crawl tunnel at the end of her section. Without getting up, she crawled over to the slide into the foam pit and slithered down into it face first, sending specks of white foam up into the air.

She emerged from the pile, her face plastered with the thick white stuff, and began hunting around for the hidden key. Amy flinched again at the sound of another buzzer, and closed her eyes in preparation for the gunge wave that glooped on to her head. Looking back at Coco after the brief shower, she saw her jump into the pit at her end too.

Tamara looked back at Amy for a moment, then began wading back through the water towards the raft again to be ready for her next section of the challenge. As she moved, she cheered on the two girls who were hunting around and getting increasingly covered in foam.

There was a shout from Coco, and she held up the key card that she'd found. She slipped towards the inflatable barrier that separated the foam from the water and clambered over it with difficulty, wiggling her hips to get over as she clawed at the other side. Hauling herself over, she tumbled into the green water with a splash.

As she waded towards the card slots, Sadie scrambled into the water as well, slipping in backwards and turning around quickly to bob over to join Coco. They inserted their keys, and turned to watch as a rope ladder fell from the ceiling above the raft that Tamara was approaching.

The bunny girl clambered back on to the raft with difficulty, scrabbling at the surface with her fingers and toes and eventually hauling herself on to its surface. As she looked upwards into the ceiling, a hissing noise started up, and she ducked down as a cascade of white foam spurted on to her from the top of the ladder.

Amy bounced on her heels, joining the other girls' cheers of encouragement as Tamara shimmied up the rope ladder, her face turned to avoid the foam spraying down on to her. Reaching the top, she stretched one arm out and plucked the last card from the top of the hole in the ceiling, then with a quick look down, she let go of the ladder and flopped back down on to the inflatable surface below.

Rolling over as she bounced on the blowup raft, she tumbled awkwardly back into the water with a large splash, the foam on her coming off and floating on the surface. Amy, who was almost jumping up and down with excitement, tried to look up to the timer that she knew was above her but couldn't see it from the inside of the tank. She turned down to the others, who were looking anxiously between it and the struggling bunny girl.

"How long?" Amy mouthed to them, but at that moment they turned away to watch as Tamara broke through the surface again, spitting out water. Lunging forward, she got back into her strong swimming stroke as the other two clapped for her, stepping aside as she approached, the final card in her outstretched hand. With a last leap forward, she stabbed at the keycard slot and jammed it into place.

Amy's mouth fell open as the lights in the room flickered into darkness, a humming noise spinning down to represent the electronics in the room shutting off. Suddenly she shielded her eyes as a strobe light started up and a pair of foam sprayers erupted from either side of the front of the cylinder, spraying from side to side and shooting multicoloured froth into the air that drifted down and settled on the three girls in the water. Tamara raised her hands in the air with a loud whoop, shaking her head as the foam blobs landed on her face, and slowly fell backwards happily into the water.

Amy grinned happily as the other two girls hugged each other ecstatically, and waved at them as they jumped up and down together in the water. Turning to her, they both waved back, Coco running a hand through her hair to clear up the foam that was still raining down on to them as she cheered loudly. Sadie, still breathless, hung on to her and smiled back.

As the lights above them faded in gradually, Alex stepped out of the dark area he'd been watching from and walked slowly to the edge of the water. He applauded as he moved towards them.

"You've done it, girls! You got the three keys and shut him down with just over ten seconds left on your timer," he pointed up to the unseen counter above Amy's head, "and that makes you our only winners of the series!"

He raised his voice at the end of the sentence to keep it above the loud whoop that Tamara gave as she bounced on her feet, turning to the others and pumping her hands in the air again. The others joined in as Alex opened the sliding door of the cylindrical tank, and Amy ducked out of it to join him on the platform, wiping the remains of the gunge that had fallen on her from her shoulders. The host crouched down and offered his hand to help the other three out of the water, and she stepped back and leaned on the wall, exhausted from the excitement, as he pulled them out one by one.

"So that means I finally get to give these to someone!" Alex moved to the wall beside Amy and slid a dark hatch aside. The girls gathered around to watch as he opened it, and looked at each other excitedly as they saw the four IZ logo trophies that were given to winners of the programme.

Alex reached in and began handing them out, starting with Tamara on his right. "That means you get to go home with this little token, along with your souvenir IZ swimwear and all that other stuff just for being here..." Coco and Sadie grinned down at their awards as he turned to hand the last one to Amy. "And one for the team leader - we couldn't have done it without you!"

Amy looked at the plastic trophy happily, made in the shape of the gear-like IZ logo and with the words "I beat the Industrial Zone" engraved across the base. It wasn't a large reward, but it was the idea of having beaten the challenge that was the real prize. She looked up as Alex turned to face the opposite wall, putting one hand on her shoulder and getting her to turn around with him. One of the wall screens was now displaying the scoreboard for the series, with them at the top.

"And with your total of 725 points, you're..."

"Alex!" Suddenly the electronic voice boomed out angrily across the room, making the girls jump and turn to face the source of the noise as a red light shone from inside the cylinder. Slowly, its door opened automatically. "Come here."

Amy glanced over her shoulders at the others, who like her were just remembering what happened the last time a team had won on the programme. Tamara's expression, still shocked at the loud sound of the voice, slowly turned into a grin as Alex hesitated.

"Do I have to?" he asked, looking vaguely at the roof with the speaker. "They beat you, you've got to be fair about that." There was no response.

"Well, team, it looks like I don't have a choice." Alex stepped towards the open door, acting reluctant as he leaned forward to look up at the pipes above its floor. With his hand on the tank's frame and one foot inside, he looked back over his shoulder and grinned at them. "Unless any of you want to come in here with me?" he asked.

Tamara immediately put her trophy back down, and with another loud whoop, skipped towards him and squeezed into the large tank underneath his arm. The others exchanged glances, then did the same, climbing into the cylinder as the bunny girl tugged at Alex's arm to pull him right into the centre of the gunge tank.

"All right, Tamara, I know..." he chuckled as he turned to watch the others come in. "Can someone get that door for me?" he asked. Coco turned and pulled it closed with a click, then scampered over to join the others as they clustered around the host.

"Now, normally I would have to be outside pulling the lever to slime you all, but I'm sure the computer has a way to..."

He was cut off by the loud ringing of an alarm, and Amy looked up to see a massive torrent of green stuff being released from the wide pipe above them all. Closing her eyes, she felt Alex flinch down as the gunge slapped noisily against his head, and a moment later shivered at the feeling of the slippery stuff splattering on to her fur.

Keeping her eyes closed as she heard the other pipes starting up, she stepped back from the group and turned away, letting the slime splash across her back. Turning around and carefully blinking her eyes open, she giggled at the sight of Tamara pushing against the host to keep his head under the gunge flow, with the dark and light colours mingling as they splattered crazily off his head. Sadie and Coco had stepped back as well, and were exchanging glances as the tank filled up with mixed green gunge around them.

Alex jerked forward suddenly, and Amy laughed out loud as she saw his shocked expression, the thick green slime on his head and face slowly dripping from his chin. He stumbled forwards a little out of the main flow, wading unsteadily in the knee-deep pool, and turning back to Tamara, gently but firmly pushed her sideways into it.

The bunny girl gave a squeal that became muffled as she was enveloped by the gunge flow, and she lost her balance and sat down heavily as she fell over. The host grinned as she rolled away and got up into a kneeling position, her ears and ponytail hanging heavy with thick green slime.

As the alarm sounded again, Amy felt the level rising to her hips, and dipped her hands into it to scoop slime out her way so she could move towards him. Suddenly, Coco and Sadie called his name and together splashed a wave of gunge towards him, which splatted against his front as he turned around to face them.

Amy covered her mouth to stop herself from giggling as Alex slowly brought his hands up to wipe at his eyes. The main gunge flow was easing off now, leaving them all in a waist-deep slime pool, but his top half was still plastered with bright merging colours. Opening his eyes as he flicked the slime off his hands into the pool, he turned towards Amy and pointed at the two girls. With a grin, she joined in splashing them back, laughing as they squeaked and turned away from the waves of slime slapping against them.

Alex turned away from them, wading towards the front of the tank as he wiped the gunge off his face and shoulders. "All right, I've got to..." he spluttered and laughed as Tamara leapt up and clung on to his side, smearing more slime over him with her hands. "I've got to finish the show now!" he protested, gently prizing her off him and depositing her back in the pool.

Amy looked over at the bunny girl as the host made it to the front of the cylinder. He leaned forward against it exhaustedly and was hardly able to stop laughing as he did the final speech to the camera. Tamara re-emerged from the slime, heavy curtains of gunge sliding away from her as she straightened up. She was totally covered in the green stuff, her yellow fur completely hidden, and she shivered as it slowly dripped and slid down her.

Putting a slippery arm around Amy, Tamara brought her over to join the other two giggling girls in the middle of the tank, forming a group hug. Sadie's hair was heavy with the mixture of slime and was dangling messily over her face.

"Enjoyed yourself, girls?" the host said over his shoulder.

Amy joined in the cheer and closed her eyes, knowing what was coming. Another gunge spray sputtered into life, and she giggled and squeaked as it rained down on the four of them, a muddy spattering noise being made as the drops glooped on to the surface.

The hug broke off, and Amy ran her hands over her head again, wiping at her eyes and slowly opening them to look around at the scene around her. The tank was filled waist-deep with the green gunge mixture, with streaks of it clinging to the walls and window at the front. The other three girls, like her, had been absolutely coated in it and were visible as little more than dripping green blobs above the surface. As she watched, Sadie lifted her heavy hair up out of her face and, giggling helplessly, flicked it behind her head.

She looked to see where Tamara had gone, and saw her wading forward towards the host as he struggled to the end of the section about applying to be on the programme. Breathlessly coming to the conclusion, he turned towards the girls and beckoned them to join him as he raised an arm up to wave, but yelped as the bunny girl suddenly jumped up and put her arms around him from behind. Toppling back, he lost his balance, and Tamara dodged out of the way in the same trip she'd used on Amy earlier, sending Alex splashing backwards under the gungy surface.

Amy, her face frozen in delighted shock, looked around at the others as the host's arm broke through the surface, sending specks of green stuff flying up as he struggled to steady himself. Slowly, his head emerged, and he got up, eyes firmly closed as the ooze slid around and off him. He moved his hands up in front of him, shook them to get rid of some of the slime, and flicked the stuff out of his eyes, his face breaking into a grin as he shook his head.

"You..." he said, pointing a finger at Tamara again and shuddering as the gunge dripped from his arm. He was as completely coated as the girls now, with the thick slime covering his fur from head to toe. "I think this is a fight that I just can't win," he laughed as he turned back to the window.

A couple of stage crew members were approaching to let them out, and suddenly Amy saw they were accompanied by Dexter. She waved at him as they watched from the other side of the perspex barrier, exchanging amused glances.

"Want to let us out of here, Blue?" Alex asked, shivering as he raised his head to talk to one of them.

The reptilian girl he had addressed looked him up and down again. "I don't know, I think that we should leave you in there a while - you had it coming to you after all that time!"

Amy grinned up at him as he put a hand into the slime and flicked a wave against the front of the tank. It hit it with a wet slapping noise and slowly slithered down it, leaving a gooey film behind. Laughing, she moved over to the switch beside the cylinder and tugged it upwards.

As Amy felt the level of slime in the tank slowly falling, she looked back up at the gunge-coated red wolf again. When she'd come in she had never expected the team to win, but seeing him like that would definitely be the highlight of an experience she'd never forget.