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Halloween 2013

Choose the Goo

Story © Russet'13

Characters © Their Creators

Part Four: True or False

-0-

Stepping out onto the metal platform suspended around the edge next game's circular gunge pit Freaky folded his arms and leant on the railing to give the cameras a lazy, confident yet friendly smile. "Welcome everyone; sorry for the longer than expected break, our technical director had to deal with a small staffing issue. I'd share it with you but sadly there aren't any cameras in the recording booth. Maybe Nall will share their fate with you later but for now we have a new game to play!"

Pushing off from the railing and gesturing toward the circular pool of gunge beneath him as the camera drew back Freaky revealed the four long ramps that had been fixed into place with their ends overhanging the goop. Set atop each ramp was a chair on some runners. Anyone sitting on those chairs would be at risk of being rushed down the ramp and pitched into the whorled mixture of thick, slimy blue, yellow, purple and green gunge. It wasn't a big vat compared to the massive pool that had lurked beneath the assault course. Nor did it have the volume of floor space the faux apartments had sported. Only seven feet wide and six high it was more like a large temporary swimming pool but the gunge was just as thick and as the camera panned across the slick, slimy surface something made it gloop. Before anything more could be revealed the camera switched back to Freaky who had a glint of mischief in his eyes as he called out loudly.

"Let us invite our four remaining contestants out here to join us," applause kicked into existence as Panzer spoke loudly to introduce each of the remaining contestants.

"Well let's hear it for Daniel, he's shown us his strength and physique is a match for any challenge we have to throw at him," the mewtwo walked out of the wings, waving confidently at the cameras as he climbed up onto his chair. His black hide gleamed under the lights of the camera and his long tail swayed from side to side, the bulbous tail end waving itself at every camera he could see. The wardrobe had seen fit to dress him in baggy cargo pants and a simple vest, the purple colour of both a rather striking ensemble against his dark skin.

"Next up is Forest, this young wolf has certainly surprised us all with his agility and quick thinking," the grey wolf raised a paw shyly toward the cameras, scrambling up into his seat quickly, embarrassed by the praise being lauded upon him. His blue cargo trousers and shorts were of the same style as Daniel's and as he got comfortable Freaky walked over to have a quiet word with the wolf as Rook began to introduce the next contestant.

"Next up we have Delph," the lights swung around to focus on the blue bunny dressed in green that quietly made his way out from back stage. He paused to stare at the setup and visibly squirmed as his eyes were drawn toward the large pool of gunge and the ramps with their chairs attached. Shaking his head in disbelief he moved over to his chair, tugging at the collar of his t-shirt before hurrying up to sit in his chair and look around.

"Seems Delph is a bit shy, either that or he really wants to take a dive, it's hard to tell from the way he is squirming up there." Panzer called out softly. "Still let's leave our blue furred friend to squirm at the idea of landing in the goo and greet Con!" The griffin made his way slowly onto the set, taloned feet clacking against the metal walkway as he made his way around the vat toward the last chair. The bird hybrid spread his wings and paused to wave happily at the camera, stretching his arms above his head as he reached for the ladder, showing off his bared feathered chest without a care for who might be watching. "Looks like someone is feeling confident and the red trousers really do go well with those feathers. I'd not mind taking some time out to hang with that bird. Still everyone is here and Freaky is just doing the rounds talking to our contestants so let me explain the rules for everyone back home."

The camera slowly panned around the room, showing the four remaining contestants settling into their chairs and examining the buttons installed into the arm rests of each seat. "This is the true or false round, Freaky will ask a question and our contestants have ten seconds to input their answer. Once all the answers are in the timer will stop and the real answer revealed. There will be five rounds and when we get to the end whoever has the most wrong answers is taking a catapulted ride into the vat below."

The camera shifted around to focus on Freaky as he walked back from talking to Con and smiled at the audience, "And that my friends, is when the fun really begins! We've got a fun forfeit in store for the loser, but more on that later! Panzer timer please," brandishing a laminated card Freaky turned to face the contestants, asking if they were all ready. After they all signalled that they were Freaky launched into the questions, swiftly driving the contests forward giving them as little time to think as possible.

"702 divided by three is 234,"

"A giraffe has no vocal chords,"

"Comfortable room temperature for a snow leopard is 14 degrees Celsius,"

"Polaris will one day cease to be the northern star due to planetary tilt,"

"The continent of Antarctica is quite small when compared to the size of glacial ice covering the land."

Five questions, each following the other with the players given scant few seconds to hit the true or false buttons on their chairs. Less than a minute had passed since Freaky started speaking and it was over, the short length of the game clearly confusing the contestants considering how long the previous games had been. But before anyone could ask a question Freaky called on Panzer to display the scores.

"Certainly, in the lead with four points is Forest," a counter above the gunge pit flashed and lit up with the wolf's name and score at the top of the leader board. "Next is Con, our friendly griffin has three points and next we have a draw! Daniel and Delph are on two each."

"Well this will be fun," turning to face the camera Freaky gestured toward the blue rabbit and black reptilian hybrid, "One more chance, one final question to determine who'll be going for a sudden swim in the muck," pulling out a card and smiling the raichu turned to regard his contestants. "Con, Forest come on down from up there, now let's see..." delaying somewhat whilst the wolf and griffin climbed down the raichu span the question card around and around between his fingers before abandoning it for another card and with little warning called out the question.

"Olympus Mons is the tallest volcano on Titan,"

There was a moment's pause as both Delph and Daniel slapped a button on their chairs. A buzzer sounded and orange lights mounted above Daniel's chair started to spin, striving him as a klaxon sounded and the mewtwo yelped in surprise as his chair was ratcheted higher, moving him away from the ladder.

"Sorry Daniel," Freaky said with a warm chuckle, "But that statement was false, Olympus Mons is on Mars, still not a bad try and I'm sure you'll be back to play with us again! But for now I'm afraid it is time to say goodbye," he made a sweeping gesture toward the vat as the surface started to churn and glop violently, "Looks like someone is coming to say hi too."

Daniel glared down at Freaky and called out, "I'd have been fine if it was another physical test, seriously those questions were so obscure I... what?" he broke off, staring in shock as the surface of the goo vat started to lap and shift all on its own. The heavy gunk swirled slowly, patches of blue and yellow gunge seeming to congregate, pulling together, strange bulges and shapes started to lift up out of the gunk. Firstly there was a shape that looked like a large ear. Black ooze bulged into the shape of a nose for a moment before receding. Daniel was rendered speechless as the goo shifted and glooped, frozen in place by what he was seeing. Only his chair suddenly clacking into place at the top of the ramp jerked him out of it and he desperately reached for the armrests, tensing his muscles, getting ready to jump clear.

He never had the chance, the mechanism holding his chair in place suddenly snapped forwards, hurling him down the ramp as a huge head roared up out of the gunk. It was blue with a thick mop of blonde hair. Daniel saw the whole edifice rear up, jaws opening wide as he rushed towards it. Someone screamed, the words, "Its Flinty," barely registered before the chair hit the end of the ramp and pitched him forwards into the air. Twisting, wriggling his limbs Daniel tried to twist himself away from those huge jaws but he was going too fast. That giant fox mouth closed about him with a gloop and Daniel moaned as waves of thick gunge rushed all around him. A semi-solid surface much like a tongue rippled beneath his body as he was rolled around and then pushed backwards. He couldn't see; gunge was everywhere, clinging to his body, squeezing beneath his clothes, slipping and sliding along his smooth hide as he was tipped backwards. For a brief moment he felt that his tail was free and thrashed it back and forth, trying to wrap the bulbous tip around anything. Seconds later he felt a pair of slick, gooey lips close about his tail and suck. It smothered under the surface of the warm goo and everything suddenly clenched tightly about his body. A warm layer of goo rushed about his body whilst the strange, semi-solid mass just beneath the slimy, liquid surface seemed to pulse, ripple and drag him forwards. As he was rolled and squished from side to side Daniel felt his gunge saturated clothes slipping. First his t-shirt slid off over his head, pulled away by thick slime that seemed to grasp and tug at it despite his best efforts to hold onto it. Then moments later his heavy, soaked cargo pants followed suit, sliding down his legs, tugged firmly out of his grasping hand and away. This left him his slippery hide bare to the gunge of this strange creature's maw. Naked, coated in slime and fighting a losing battle against the sucking, gulping motion of that strange tongue he tipped forwards and down. Arms and legs thrashing through the goo Daniel made one last valiant attempt to hold onto something before he dropped over a lip into an open space and fell a metre or so before plunging into a thick swirl of goo that pulled him down.

-0-

Clinging to the railings Forest stared in shock the big bulge that had been his struggling form slipped down the fox's throat. He had been reduced to a squirming outline of limbs and head visible for just a moment before he was lost to sight, falling into the thicker gunge of the vat. The head, Flinty's head made from living goo turned slowly to regard the other contestants and grinned cheekily before sinking back into the gunge. It spread out, losing its strange cohesion until all that was left was a swirl of regular looking slime.

"What... where is he!" Con demanded, feathers puffing up as he turned to glare at the host, "He should have come back to the surface by now! How... what.... was that really Flinty!"

Lounging on the railing on the opposite side of the pool to the three remaining contestants the raichu gave them all a lazy grin. "Watch, I'm sure you'll see Daniel soon, it'll be quite the show.... for everyone at home at least."

The screens around the pool lit up then, showing the rippling surface of the gunge vat as the level of goo filling it started to recede. Forest stared numbly at the pool, watching as the gunge drew back. He barely registered how there was no residue left clinging to the inside of the pool, his eyes were focussed on the large, scaled purple and green shape rising up out of the gunge, seemingly drawing all the gunge into itself. It was an alligator, a huge one, curled up in a semi-circle in the bottom of the pool; he had short stumpy legs, large claws and a very heavy looking tail. He was also heavily scaled, from the thick ridges along his spine to smaller scales covering his underside. The beast was however made completely from purple and green slime but the way it had solidified, shaped itself into this massive 'gator made it look almost solid except for the slight sheen of goo coating the surface of his scales. Yawning, showing off huge teeth it rolled its eyes to look up at the three contestants clustered together overhead. Everyone's eyes were on another part of its anatomy however; its gut was just an unseemly bulge with a shape struggling inside. Slowly, before their eyes and the eyes of everyone at home colour drained from the 'gators gut, the gooey purple slime that he was made from becoming transparent.

Con let out an involuntary whimper and leant forward to stare at the shape slowly becoming visible. It was Daniel; he was coated in a layer of blue slime struggling inside the tight confines of the alligator's stomach. Watching from above the griffin couldn't quite work out what was happening at first but it slowly became clearer as Daniel's frantic efforts to find some way out became more frantic. He was shoving against the clear walls of the stomach but all he managed to do was to make it warp out in a transparent bulge that wrapped about a limb or his head. For a few seconds he'd hold the bulge, straining with all his might to break free but then the 'gator would grunt, twitch its tail and clench firmly, pushing Daniel back inside, making the lizard like hybrid slip and slide in the gunge.

Slowly at first but picking up speed as the minutes passed and Daniel became frantic the blue gunge coating his body seemed to leech away as a thick, slimy, black liquid started to fill the small, confining space. He was melting, dissolving into black gunge and as he tried valiantly to break free everyone saw the moment when he realised his body was just solidified goo. He froze, slipping backwards, waistline sinking into the goo now filling a third of the stomach. He lifted one hand and stared at it, wriggling fingers that now dripped and oozed. He pressed his other hand against the wall and visibly shuddered as his arm squished up to the elbow, splattering apart under pressure. Feebly bringing his head back Daniel looked into the eyes of the others before sinking backwards, his body collapsing, spreading, and filling the transparent stomach with nothing but slimy black liquid.....

With a yawn the alligator stretched, lifted its head and waddled slowly through an opening in the side of the pool where the cameras caught it splashing apart to flow down the chute beyond. Purple, green and black gunge rushed away out of sight except for the view on every screen and being beamed out to thousands of homes. For a few moments there was silence before the ring of shoes on the metal jerked Con out of his shocked stupor. Delph was hurrying toward the entrance to the changing room, picking up speed as he went, wide eyed and bolting for it. He nearly made it too but when he was a metre or two away from the door a geyser of multi-coloured gunge erupted up through the grill walkway before him making him jump back in alarm.

"Let me go!" he shouted across the now empty vat to Freaky who was still watching them with a lazy smile, "You, you killed him! Killed them all, you can't do this to us!"

"Actually," Freaky said with a wide grin, "We can, you signed the consent forms, if you didn't read them it's no fault of ours." the raichu grinned widely, "You cannot quit, you cannot leave, only the winner of the final prize can walk out of here...anyone else we reserve the right to melt into gunge. It won't kill you however."

"No, Delph watch out!" Forest shouted but a hairs breath too late as a pair of lavender arms squished about the blue rabbit's chest and squeezed him tightly. The ferret holding him was a jaw dropping sight, lavender with a grey throat and underbelly were his most dominant colours but spiked and whorled all over the tips of his lavender fur were multi-coloured spikes. He was a veritable rainbow and as he squeezed Delph his arms squished, the shift from real fur to goo imperceptible as his arms pressed against the bunny's t-shirt.

Frozen in terror Delph's eyes rolled back to stare into the masked eyes of the ferret holding him as he chirped, "Hi, I'm Luka you're not going to quit on me now are you? I mean it'd be fun if you did I'd get to add you to myself like all our other new friends.... but...." he drew out the word but accompanied it with a big mournful pout directed at Con and Forest.

"What!" Forest shouted, tail dancing back and forth in agitation as he watched Luka slowly getting gunge over Delph's clothes.

"It'd be no fun! One of you has to claim the Final Prize! If you quit and I just get to gloop you for breaking your contract that'd be no fun."

"So... so if we win we can walk free?" Delph asked quietly, voice barely audible to the microphones.

"Last person standing gets to use the final prize, it'll be great but wouldn't you rather win the chance then scupper your hopes forever by getting turned into goo by quitting?"

"So..." Freaky said quietly from across the vat, "Are you playing, you all have a chance... or does the show end now with all of you taking the forfeit for breach of contract?"

For a moment the three remaining competitors looked at one another, eyes clouded with indecision before they nodded. Luka grinned and stepped back, allowing himself to melt and pour through the grill leaving the pathway to the changing rooms open. Freaky smiled at the cameras then winked before the screens went blank and the commercials rolled whilst everything was made ready for the next round.