INDUSTRIAL ZONE 7 - Final  
Written by Iron-K, 2012

Nyte showered and changed much more quickly than the last time, and had a spring in his step as he approached the door that led back out of the changing room. He adjusted the waistband of the third pair of black IZ swim shorts he'd worn that day, slicking his hair back and smiling as he thought about the low chances of him and the girls staying dry during the final game.

As he pushed the door open, his eyes met Quinne's as she came out of the girls' changing room at the same moment. He froze as he looked over her head, catching a glimpse of Isla's back through the open door as she stepped into a new pair of bikini bottoms. Trying his best not to look like he'd noticed, he forced his eyes down to look at Quinne again, and she opened her mouth to say something but then looked to the side and gasped.

The snow leopard they'd seen in the previous round was already seated on the benches, sipping from one of the cups of water taken off the cooler at the side of the room. As she looked back at the excited pink fox bouncing on her feet, she began to get up, turning towards her.

"No, don't - " she began, but had the air knocked out of her as the fennec leapt through the air towards her, stumbling back on her feet as Quinne wrapped herself around her in a leg-encircling embrace. The cup clattered to the tiled floor, and Nyte looked around aimlessly as the fox planted a huge kiss on the leopardess's mouth, running her hands through her hair and over her ears.

"I can't believe you came on and got gunged and...!" Quinne enthused as she broke off the kiss, her broad smile right up against the feline's face. Delta took a couple of breaths as the ecstatic fox continued to gush excitedly, putting her hands on the Quinne's shoulders and slowly prizing her off her. She breathed out and smiled as the pink fennec giggled, unable to keep still.

"Yeah, just... remember I'm not going to make a habit of it or anything..." she said, brushing her hands through her newly clean hair and sitting down on the bench.

"No need!" Quinne flopped down next to her and took her by the hand. "When this goes out, I'm recording it so I can watch that bit over and over..."

The snow leopard cringed and sighed. "She really will!" she said across the table as Nyte sat down on the opposite bench. "She watches every other episode so much - this one's going to be on all the time..."

The fennec cackled as she let Delta go, drumming her feet on the floor before clapping her hands on her knees as if to keep them still. "So Nyte, who's going to be watching you getting gunged?" she bubbled.

Nyte looked up, surprised at the sudden question. "Er," he started, "Just... friends from uni, you know... I don't know how many of them watch this." He suddenly felt a growing sense of anxiety as he thought about who might be seeing him, especially not knowing just how much the cameras had picked up over the last couple of hours.

As he suddenly pictured the lizardess tumbling into the gunge vat in front of him again, the changing room door opened and he did his best to keep his face motionless as Isla emerged in a fresh bikini. She was closely followed by Becky, who brushing down the short fur across her tummy as she padded out of the changing area. The puppy girl smiled at Delta as she recognized her, and took her seat next to Quinne.

"I'm feeling a bit nervous here..." Nyte smiled as Isla sat down on the near end of the bench, the other three girls budging up to give her room. "Like I'm facing an interview panel or something..."

"How many interviewers have you had dressed like this?" Isla grinned as she tugged on one strap of her bikini top, then she leaned forward and looked down the row, missing Nyte's reaction. "Hey, judges - how many of us think this kitten needs to be gunged in the IZ final?"

Nyte watched with a small laugh, his cheeks beginning to heat up again as four hands went up in front of him, Isla raising Becky's for her before she relaxed and held it up herself.

"Hey, do you remember that on Sat-AM?" Quinne spoke up as she looked back and forward between the other girls. "They used to have a group of people who voted on who to put in the gunge tank..."

"Yeah, they had a few games like that..." Becky nodded. "There was one where they had the kids sitting on logs, and they had to jump down into the swamp when they reached the end!" She shivered, a faint look of disgust coming through her grin as she remembered. "I'm kind of glad we didn't have to go into anything like that stuff..."

Certain that his blush was getting more obvious by the second, Nyte raised one foot to cross his legs, clasping his toes and gripping to massage them as he listened to the girls eagerly exchanging memories. He'd seen most of the games that they were talking about at some point, either with the volume down on weekend mornings or by discovering them online much later.

"My favorite was the game on Massive where they would gunge 'em under the giant nose," Isla grinned as she joined in, shifting round on the seat and leaning forwards over the puppy girl. "They used tons of slime on that - everyone came out looking like... like Becky did when she got tipped into that vat..."

The puppy girl wriggled, clasping her knees as she gave a small laugh, then brought her hands up and brushed them through the clean, sleek fur on her shoulders. "Urgh, and we're all going to look like that soon..." she said with a nervous giggle. "Have you seen the final? If we lose this we're gunged up to our necks!"

"Hope you're looking forward to that, Quinne...!" Delta said, singing her partner's name as she ruffled the fox girl's hair before she wriggled out of the way. Nyte shuddered and nodded - he'd seen exactly what happened to all the teams that failed to complete the final game.

Isla's grin got wider and she started to answer, but all of them looked round as there was a sudden sound from the doors to the main set. Alex poked his head around one of the doors, then pushed it open all the way, holding it as he let the brown catgirl from earlier through in front of him.

"I'd like to introduce you to Tina," he said as she casually held her hand up to acknowledge them and strode over to take a seat on the bench next to Nyte. "Fresh from the wetroom, and none the worse for her experience..."

"We were rooting for you to stay clean!" Quinne called, making Tina smirk.

"Sure you were..." she shook her head.

"She got her reward - she was watching the four of you being gunged in the other games," Alex said, turning away for a moment as he stepped into the corner. He dragged a chair up to the head of the low table between the benches before sitting down on it heavily.

"Yeah," Tina said, eyeing them each in turn. "But I don't think any of them got it like I did..."

"Oh, I promise - they will!" Alex grinned and clapped his hands together as he looked at the team. "How are you all feeling - ready to face the gunge one last time?"

"Yep!" the fox girl said brightly. "We were just talking about the other shows like this we used to watch..."

"How about you?" asked Isla. "You must have watched this stuff when you were growing up - did you have any favorites?"

Alex put his hands behind his head, a hint of a smile on his face. "Yeah..." he started, and Nyte was surprised to see him hesitate, clearing his throat. "My parents never liked them, though - I always had to go round to my friend's house down the street to get my fix on Saturday mornings."

"Thank god they managed to keep you away from them," Delta smirked, and they all laughed as Alex nodded.

"Yeah... that didn't work out so well!" he agreed. "I've never asked them what they think of where I am now..."

"Hey, getting to run around with half-naked girls all the time... I'd say you were doing pretty well!" Tina said, leaning back on the wall as she folded her arms with a smile.

Alex smiled back at her and nodded. "I never thought this was what people would know me for, but I can't complain...!"

"So what was your favorite show?" Isla pressed, leaning forwards and propping her head up with one arm on her knees.

"Well..." Alex leaned back as he thought, rocking the chair a little on its rear legs as he put his foot on the low table. "You're probably all too young to remember this one, but when I was in early school there was a section they did on Sat-AM where they put everyone from the losing team in a... cell in a cave and poured out masses of green gunge into it from a tip-tank in the ceiling..."

"Oh, I've seen that on the net," Nyte realized, then stopped as the girls all looked towards him. "It was, uh, Dungeon Doom or something..." He tailed off, looking around the others and hoping one of them would also have seen it.

"There was something I used to watch that had a slimy dungeon as well..." Becky said in the brief pause. "They picked kids out of the audience and got them to play the games - I used to be dead scared of it..."

"It looked to me like you still are!" teased Isla, leaning over and putting one hand down on Becky's head, spreading it out over her hair.

The puppy girl nodded, shivering as Isla ran her hand down to her neck and down her back, keeping her in a hug. "Yeah, but... in a good way! It's like being on a rollercoaster or something..."

"A rollercoaster with slime - sounds like something I'd spend all day on!" exclaimed Quinne as Delta nodded behind her.

Alex smirked at the remark. "A lot of people say it's like that," he nodded as he pointed at Becky. "It's not something for everyone, but... you know, every single time on that dungeon game, there were at least a couple of winners who wanted to go in, too! That made me realize... they must be enjoying it, even though the show played it up as something they wanted to avoid."

The others nodded. "And now you're doing exactly the same thing to people who watch IZ," said Isla with a smile.

"We are!" Alex took his foot off the table, tipping his chair upright again. "You know, they designed a couple of these things to make even the people who want to be gunged squirm a bit... if you remember the Gunkpipe from right near the start this morning, I think that even Isla was a bit nervous of that one...!"

"Huh..." Isla folded her arms, but visibly shivered as she tried to smile confidently.

"And there's the sludge cube..." Tina volunteered with a shudder which Nyte felt as well.

"Hey, we didn't get that!" Quinne suddenly remembered, whipping her head round to face Alex. "Are you not doing that anymore?"

"Shh...!" Becky hissed worriedly from beside her, whimpering as a couple of the others laughed at her nervous display. Alex just smiled and nodded.

"It's still around... we could put you in there after the final if you'd like..."

"Um..." The fox girl hesitated unsurely, and folded her arms as there was renewed laughter, followed by applause from Delta. "But..." she said as it died down again, and pointed at the catgirl opposite her, "Why wouldn't you like that one? Didn't he say that you do mudbaths?"

Nyte looked to Tina, who hesitated, looking suddenly embarrassed.

"Mud... walks, yeah," she replied. "But it's different when you have this big ol' pipe dumping it down on to you..."

"Yeah, that's an experience you don't get anywhere but here," Alex laughed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tightly folded piece of paper. "Is anyone hungry, before we do the final? The canteen's just upstairs, or we can wait until afterwards..."

Nyte looked to the clock above the door, surprised to see how much time had flown past since he had arrived at the studio. "No, I'm fine," he said out loud as the girls shook their heads.

"Okay, good - that's probably just as well, because you're not meant to eat right before going swimming...!" Nyte smiled as the girls leaned forwards on their benches, watching the red wolf unfold the large sheet of paper and spread it out on the table in front of them.

Nyte came forward and knelt down next to the table, realizing he was looking at a plan view of the final game room. It looked more or less like he had seen on the show before, where the final game had been based around a large pool of water - he twitched as his eyes were drawn to the right hand side, where a circle marked the position of the large gunge machine that the teams had to go into if they failed to complete the challenge in time.

"Well, you can see Nyte's spot already," Alex said as he tapped his finger on the circle, and Nyte felt his cheeks heating up as he girls all looked at him. "Our team leader starts trapped in there, and the other three of you will start at the other side - two of you have to go through these obstacle courses at the sides, and one of you will have a swim to rescue him..."

"So this whole area's the pool?" Isla asked, jabbing her finger down into the wide open space in the center of the drawing.

"That's right," Alex nodded. "Although we've improved that a bit for this year..."

He looked around at the team members as he watched their reactions, smiling back at them. "Actually, I'll explain the rest when we're in there - want to come and see what I mean?"

Nyte smiled and hauled himself up again as the red wolf straightened and turned back around to the entrance doors. He fell into line next to Isla, glancing sideways and sharing an excited smile with her just as Alex pushed both doors open.

"Okay... main team, come with me - Tina and Delta, we'll get you in there after I've got them to their positions!" This time, Alex headed straight across to the large round door on the other side of the room, waiting for the team to gather around before thumping on the door with a force that made Nyte jump.

"ROB, we're back - come out here!" he called to the ceiling.

The polygonal yellow face faded into view through a haze of static on the screen above them. "What now?" it responded sharply, tilting down to stare directly at Alex.

"We're ready to try activating the purifier," the red wolf said as he looked up, stepping backwards away from the team to face the monitor. "This bunch got 1450 points, they're ready for the final and I've got a really good feeling about them - can you open the door for us?"

Nyte stretched up to look at the face as it tilted down to look at the four of them, nearly laughing as Quinne stuck her tongue out at it. "Don't you have the keys?" it asked back as it faced Alex.

"Oh, I knew I forgot something!" He clapped his hand theatrically to his forehead and dragged it down his face. "No, I think I got two of them and then I left them somewhere..."

The face sagged down with a withering sigh. "Aren't they the whole point of you going in there?"

"Well, sort of." Alex stepped forward again, squeezing between Isla and Nyte and putting his arms around both their shoulders. "But honestly, I concentrate more on getting this lot covered in gunge..."

Nyte laughed to himself as the polygonal face nodded, then felt a nudge on his other side and looked down to see Quinne poking him with her elbow.

"You're the team leader - maybe we should send you back through the gunge machines to find them...!" she said in a giggling whisper. "I'd come with you..." Nyte laughed under his breath and shook his head slowly as Alex continued to argue with the face on the screen.

"All right, all right," it said eventually. "I'll let you in for a couple of minutes - but only out of... pity."

The screen blinked off and the team faced forwards as a pneumatic hiss sounded from the large door in front of them, special effect smoke jetting between the metallic halves as they began to move apart.

"He's in a better mood than usual today..." Alex said as the doors parted, walking Nyte and Isla forwards and into the room beyond. As the smoke dissipated, Nyte's eyes widened as he took in the room in front of them.

A few feet ahead of where they were standing, the floor of the room was taken up by a huge vat of gunge the size of a swimming pool, stretching nearly all the way to the far wall. An inflatable ramp rose up out of the pool at the other end, going up a few feet and ending at the base of a cylindrical enclosure embedded in the opposite wall.

"Oh, my... god." He glanced at Isla as she spoke, a huge smile on her face as she gaped at the massive gunge pit, stepping forward to put her hands on the back of a pool chair that hung slightly out over the edge of it. She looked up, and Nyte followed her gaze to see a hopper like the ones they had been under in the last round suspended from the ceiling above it.

"Yes, it's pretty impressive, isn't it?" Alex said as he glanced around at the other girls' expressions. "Looking forward to taking a swim, Becky?"

The canine giggled through her cringe, looking down at the murky green surface as she wrung her hands behind her back. In front of her, Quinne stepped forward and put her hands out for balance, stretching her foot over the soft border of the pool and poking her toe into the gunge.

"How's the water?" the red wolf asked, and she squeaked as he put his hands on her shoulders, hopping back with him as a single drizzle of green slime slipped from her foot. "Don't get too far in just yet - we want to get a reaction out of you when you're tipped in!"

He turned the fennec around, and she giggled, her ears flattening as she faced the inflatable seat at the edge of the pool. "So that's where I'm sitting...?" she asked.

"That's right - for now!" Alex offered his hand, and grabbing his arm for balance, she clambered over the side of the chair and flopped down into it, looking down at the pool of gunge in front of her and bouncing in the seat. "We'll get back to you later and explain exactly what's going to happen to you..."

He reached up to the long spout of the hopper a couple of feet above the pink fox, and slapped its side. Nyte smiled as he watched her ears twitching down and then perking again as she stared up into the nozzle, then he twitched as Alex turned towards him.

"So let's get the rest of you to your positions! Becky and Isla, if you could pick a tunnel each..."

He pointed with both hands to the sides of the room - along the two side walls were two areas sectioned off with plastic panels, full of an assortment of obstacles blocking the route towards a pair of pits of white foam in the far corners next to the ramp. The lizardess gave Becky a confident smile before she headed towards the opening at the start of the right-hand tunnel, and Alex took the puppy girl's hand as he led her over to the other one.

"Think you've got enough energy left to get through all this, Becky?"

"Looks like a... an obstacle course in a fun house," she said as she looked along its length, pointing at a cluster of balloons between two inflatable barriers. She twitched as she held on to the frame of the tunnel's doorway, instinctively looking up.

"Yeah, we took some inspiration from them - but added some of our own touches!" Alex smiled as he saw where she was looking - a slightly dome-shaped red protrusion with openings around its edges was visible on the ceiling of the tunnel above the starting point, looking like a large showerhead. She laughed through her whimper, then stepped into the tunnel, brushing her fur down and looking forward at the course ahead as Alex closed the door on her.

Nyte swallowed as Alex turned around and approached him again, then looked at the fennec vivaciously kicking her heels against the front of the dunk seat beside him. As he watched her, she pointed up at the large cylindrical tank on the opposite wall of the room, then straight at him with her other hand as a huge grin spread on her face.

Alex spoke up as he put his hand on Nyte's back. "I think that the girls have been waiting a long time to see this, Nyte..."

Nyte nodded, whimpering a little under his breath as he looked up at the cylinder, and the foot-wide curved pipes running from the wall into its ceiling. Alex pointed as he led the way towards a set of steep metal stairs in the corner, and Nyte glanced back at Becky and Isla, his eyes widening as the lizardess blew him a kiss before he turned to follow the wolf.

The stairs led up to a suspended walkway that ran around the edge of the room, with a section running across the pool halfway along. As Nyte poked his head above the level of the walkway, he suddenly noticed another massive device suspended from the ceiling - a slightly angular metallic tank decorated with strips of caution tape was hanging over the far half of the pool, with wide nozzles pointing down towards the surface and curved windows on the side and base showing the same murky green slime inside.

He held tightly to the handrail, looking down at the surface of the gunge eight feet below as Alex led him towards the back of the room, where the walkway met the wall and formed a small bridge to the side of the clear cylinder. As they approached, a panel in its side hummed open, forming a doorway.

"Step inside..." the red wolf said as he held a hand out, and Nyte squeezed around him to face the entrance. "Just don't touch that key yet, whatever you do..."

Nyte hovered with one foot inside the tank, seeing a card key swinging from a strap hooked to the ceiling of the tank and then looked out beyond it at the view of the game room, still amazed at the size of the gunge pool that was now at the bottom of the ramp in front of him. After a few moments, he jumped as he felt Alex's hand on his back and gasped as the wolf gave him a gentle push inside. Feeling the cold surface of the bottom of the tank under his footpads, he staggered forwards, then half-turned around to face Alex as the door slid closed to trap him inside. With a nervous grin, he took a couple of steps into the middle of the cylinder and stared up at the opening of the gunge chutes and sprayers that were now poised above his head.

He watched as Alex strode to the center walkway, and his ears pricked as the red wolf drummed his claws on the handrail to get the attention of the team.

"Okay, listen, everyone! This is what you've been working for - we've loaded up the purifier with a payload of gunge," he said as he slapped the side of the massive tank next to him, "and you've just got our last obstacle course in the way before you turn it on. Scoring 1450 in the games gives you just about two and a half minutes on the clock..." Nyte looked as he pointed at the blank wall beside the cylinder, and he walked over to the side to look as a large red segmented timer was projected there, its digits frozen at 2:25.

"It's protected by a sequence of card keys, and someone did far too good a job at making them difficult to get your hands on..." He looked up at the ceiling, where three more keys were suspended on long metal poles with claw-like grips on the end - two above the pits of foam at the ends of the obstacle tunnels and one near Quinne's seat. "When Nyte takes the card from the inside of that tank, the room's failsafe power will come on - Isla and Becky, that's your cue to escape from your gunge cubicles and get to the other end of your tunnel as fast as you can. And if I can just introduce my two assistants at this point..."

Nyte looked up as the figures of Delta and Tina came out of the shadows on to the walkway at the other end of the room, and Quinne gave a gasp as she and the snow leopardess made eye contact. Delta gave her a wave with a grin, pointing to the row of small levers placed on the walls at intervals on each side of the room.

"As we gunged them earlier, we wanted to give them the reward of making things a little more slippery for you..." Alex continued as Tina moved to the walkway above the lizardess. Nyte watched as Isla nodded, raising her eyes to the wide sprayer poised above her head, and Becky hopped from foot to foot anxiously, biting her lip as she ran her fingers through the fur on her shoulders as she looked at the corridor ahead.

"Anyway, once you're at the other end, you'll have to pull the switches on the wall simultaneously to release the keys from the ceiling. Quinne's will drop into the pool in front of her, and the other two are going to fall into the foam pits. It's up to the three of you to find them from there..."

He paused, and Nyte felt his fur stand on end as the red wolf looked across at him. "It's sounding easy for you so far, isn't it, Nyte?"

"Y... yeah..." he said back, glancing at the sides of the tank he was trapped in.

"I think so, too - but don't forget that pipe above your head! After they've found all three keys, the girls have a slippery climb up the ramp to free you - and if they don't unlock that thing within the time limit... you're going to get the gunging of a lifetime as the tank fills up."

Nyte grinned nervously and shuddered, knowing the girls' eyes were all on him. His heart thumped in his chest as he looked up at the main nozzle above him, the card key swinging gently from its strap.

"Of course, girls, if you do manage to get him out of there..." Alex continued with a laugh, "he's also going to get the gunging of a lifetime as he slides down the ramp and gets his turn in the slime vat. All he has to do once free is wallow, swim, do whatever it takes to get through the slime and put that final card into the slot that's right below Quinne just now."

Quinne curled around to lean forwards, and Nyte twitched as she parted her legs and lifted them up, looking at the card slot on the edge of the pool just below her seat. She relaxed into a sitting position again, a small grin on her face as she looked up at Nyte and pointed down at it. He breathed out heavily as his gaze drew back across the huge slime vat and to the inflatable ramp in front of him leading down into it.

"Everyone know what they're doing?" Alex called, pointing at each team member in turn and getting a nod from them. "Just one last thing... Delta, could you just give me a hand with this?"

He beckoned the snow leopardess over, and gestured towards a large switch at the side of the walkway, pointing down at Quinne. The fennec looked up with a brow raised as the feline gripped the handle, and Nyte looked to the ceiling as there was a burst of color from a pipe above Quinne. The pink fox girl squeaked, her hands flying to her head as the column of orange gunge splashed down into the hopper above her, and she slowly unfolded herself again as she realized that it wasn't going to drop on to her yet. The splattering noise rose in pitch for a few seconds, then the downpour from the ceiling shut off, leaving strings of gunge drizzling from the corners of the hopper as Quinne blinked underneath them, stretching one foot to the side to turn it over underneath the slime.

"Okay, that's that set up...!" Alex grinned as Delta returned to her position at the side of the room. "Becky and Isla - just be careful of the square orange pads when you're pushing your way through those obstacles... you'll find out why!"

He paused as the fox girl looked up and stuck her tongue out at him, bouncing up and down against the inflatable seat as she looked up to the cap on the container of gunge above her. "I'll get you both back if you get me gunged!" she called, turning her head between the lizardess and canine. "Somehow..." she added, staring down at the gloopy surface in front of her and gripping the arms of her seat to budge herself upright.

"Nyte... you can start our final challenge by taking that card key, whenever you're ready."

Nyte stepped back and focused on the card swinging from its strap in front of him. Realizing that he was gripping the side of his swim shorts, he let them go and brought a hand up to catch the card in his hand, and with a deep breath, he tugged it downwards, his ears flattening at a faint electronic beep from the ceiling.

He swallowed as there was the noise of machinery starting up, and the ceiling lights swung around to darken the room. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the projected timer beginning to count down, then he ducked to watch as the nozzles above Becky and Isla sputtered into life, gently showering them with translucent green gunge.

The puppy and lizardess both yelped as the slime started pouring over them, leaning forward and looking at the keypads in front of them. Nyte and Quinne looked between the pair of them, Isla concentrating and pressing slowly while Becky tapped rapidly at it to try to find the combination to get out, her other hand clasped to her forehead to shield her eyes from the gunge shower. After looking on nervously, he smiled as a panel near the bottom of Isla's tank slid open to let her into the large round pipe lying in front of her, and the fox girl bit her lip nervously as she watched the lizardess crawling into the area with the gunge triggers.

As Isla emerged from the low tunnel, Becky managed to open her hatch as well and Nyte watched as she leaned over, her tail swishing in the air just before she disappeared from view into the tube. Suddenly, a buzzer sounded, and the fox girl gasped just before she disappeared behind a curtain of orange gunge poured from the hopper above her.

"Oh...!" Alex called as the slop sputtered over the giggling fox, the flow slowing to a drizzle as she bowed and shook her head. "I don't know who that was, but Quinne's already messy - and it doesn't look like it's going to get any better for her..."

Before he had even finished the sentence, there was another ring from the buzzer, and the thinning orange downpour bulged again, spraying off Quinne's head as Becky gave a frustrated yelp. Nyte looked down at her and saw her quickly taking her hand off a fluorescent panel hidden on the back of a low inflatable wall. She quickly climbed over it and visibly held her breath as she swivelled herself between a cluster of hanging punch-bags, stretching up in an attempt not to touch any hidden triggers and hesitating as Delta pulled the switch to send a spray of gunge falling on to the surface in front of her.

He looked to the other side of the room, where Isla was climbing a set of low steps to the edge of a pit full of balloons. After hovering at the edge, she jumped down into it and there was a yelp as she disappeared right underneath, a couple of the dark purple spheres floating into the air behind where she'd fallen. The cluster swelled and she poked her head out again, wiping patches of foam from a couple of burst balloons off her chin.

Nyte whimpered as she put her hands out to the sides and waded through the pit, yipping as a couple more popped against her and sprayed her with thin slime. As she neared the end, one bright yellow one was jostled to the top of the pile, and the lizardess grabbed it and held it in the air as she looked back at Quinne. Grinning widely as the gungy fennec gave a gasp, she squeezed hard and burst it, cackling as the alarm rang again and Quinne was enveloped by another slimy downpour.

Nyte tried to stand in a way that didn't reveal his excitement as he watched the lizardess slither her way through the remaining obstacles, yelping occasionally as the catgirl above her pulled a switch to cover her in gunge from the sprayers. Eventually she burst through a wall of crash-pad blocks at the end of the tunnel and stumbled towards the large lever on the wall, turning around to see where the canine was.

"Hurry up, Becky!" she encouraged as the puppy girl kept her eyes on a sprayer in the ceiling, walking a thin line between two large fields of triggers with her hands out for balance. As it suddenly burst into life, she dodged to the side instinctively and screeched as the buzzer sounded again, hopping quickly out of the gungy shower and looking back at Quinne with an apologetic smile as the fox girl leaned forwards, a cape of gunge splattering out from her back as two streams of it slithered down around her neck.

Nyte looked to the timer, surprised that only a minute had gone past, as Becky made her way over to the lever. She half-collapsed against it and tugged it down at the same time Isla did, and the four of them looked up as the mechanical claws on the ceiling clicked open, dropping the card keys.

"Whoa!" A sudden shout from the other end of the room made Nyte look back down again, and he half-laughed through a gasp as he saw Quinne's chair tipping slowly forwards. Scrabbling her arms instinctively against the inflatable surface to try to find a grip, the fox girl tucked her feet up and curled them against the seat. As the back of the chair rose higher, the hopper above her opened again, and she was briefly covered by a dome of orange gunge just before she burst through it as she fell forwards into the vat of slime.

Nyte's eyes widened as he saw the gunge in front of the chair bulge and ripple as Quinne thrashed in it, finding her footing. As she bobbed upright, covered from head to toe in a sickly mixture of murky gunge, she held her card key high in the air, wiping her eyes with her other hand and wading forwards as the thick slime rippled around her, lapping up and down against her waist.

He looked down at the two foam pits at the sides of the room, where the lizardess and canine were crawling around, already covered in the opaque white stuff with even more of it being pumped in from pipes placed high on the walls. Seeing Isla suddenly stretch up with the card in hand, he looked down at her foam pit as she waded forward and flopped against the inflatable barrier between it and the gunge pool. He bounced on his heels as he watched her struggle and half-turn around, kicking her way over the barrier, then he twitched and shuddered as there was a burst of gunge from the ceiling, splattering over her and making a thick glooping noise as it poured into the vat. With a yelp, she lost her grip on the slippery inflatable surface and plunged sideways into the pool of slime, flecks of gunge-stained foam drifting away from where she'd fallen in.

Nyte didn't hold back his grin as he saw the lizardess slowly haul her head and shoulders out of the pool, shaking her head as strings of ooze slipped from all over her skin. She turned around and blinked her eyes open slowly, bringing one hand up to run it over her slippery head as she bounced towards where Quinne was now struggling to get up on to the ramp towards the cylindrical tank.

He watched, shouting incoherent encouragement down to the two girls as Quinne grabbed one of the ropes lying along the length of the ramp and hauled herself up on to the surface, smiling as Isla butted her with her shoulder to push her up. As the lizardess tried to lift herself on to it, the fox girl got up on to her knees, going hand over hand up the rope to shuffle herself slowly forwards. She squeaked as a curtain of blue gunge splattered down in front of her, wobbling and then slipping against the gungy ramp but continuing to crawl slowly towards him.

"Come on, Becky, get in there!" Nyte looked across at the puppy girl as Isla breathlessly called over to her. Nyte glanced across at her, seeing just her back and head above the foamy white surface, her face tilted up away from the bubbling stuff as she walked randomly around searching for the card. Turning back up to face Nyte, Isla finally hauled herself on to the ramp, hunching her shoulders up as another burst of yellow gunge from the ceiling splattered over her back. He gasped and then clapped his hands together with a grin as she dug her toes into two of the footholds and slowly stood up, walking carefully against the surface and overtaking Quinne.

"How are you doing?" Isla called to him through the plastic front of the tank, and he grinned back at the gungy lizardess as she flopped down to kneel next to the card slots. Keeping firm hold of the rope with one hand, she leaned around to offer her other hand to Quinne, who tried to reach forward but overbalanced and collapsed against the bouncy surface with a squeak.

"Sod it, just leave 'im in there..." she laughed breathlessly, stretching her arm forward to pass Isla the second card. Nyte leaned around to look at the timer, tapping his toes on the floor of the cylindrical tank as Isla stretched forward to insert the two card keys into the slots below him, then she turned to look as there was a shriek from the foam pool to his left.

Struggling under a mass of white foam, Becky was holding her arm stretched up in the air, the card just visible at the end of it as she waded forward, wiping her eyes. She wobbled as she passed under the cascade of foam being pumped in from the pipe on the back wall, yipping as the thick cream-like substance slithered down her.

"Throw it!" Isla yelled over to her, holding her hand up. Nyte tensed up as the puppy girl took a few seconds to wipe her eyes, and pulled her arm back before tossing the card up towards the ramp.

Isla gasped as the card turned over in the air, foam spraying off it, and she stretched herself up, just missing the card as she tried to grab it in the air and then throwing herself to the side to trap it as it bounced off the far barrier of the ramp. She screeched in frustration as the slippery card slid out of her grasp, then whooped as Quinne dived to grab it and handed it back up to her.

"Yes!" She held it up triumphantly, then swung her hand over in an arc to jam it into the last remaining slot. Nyte glanced over his shoulder to see the projected timer tick down past thirty seconds, then swallowed as the front panels of the tank hummed open, realizing the spotlight was now on him.

"Go, Nyte!" Isla yelled, scrabbling for the other rope and swinging herself to the side to clear the path for him as he looked down the splattered ramp towards the pool of gunge. He stepped forward and hovered as he looked down with his toes curled over the lip of the tank, trying to see how best to drop himself on to the vinyl inflatable surface.

Hearing shouted encouragement from the girls, he took a breath and stepped out into space, folding his legs underneath himself and then landing on his backside. Immediately he began to slide uncontrollably down the gungy ramp, flailing his arms instinctively and grabbing on to Isla's ankle before slipping off. He tried to stay upright but fell on to his back, drifting around so that he was sideways, and Quinne yelped as his legs caught her, almost knocking her off the rope she was holding on to. Nyte's eyes widened as he saw a wide curtain of blue gunge drop across the ramp from the ceiling, and closed his eyes, screwing his face up as he passed headfirst underneath it before sliding down into the vat of glop.

The thick slime suddenly blanketed around him, cool and heavy against his fur, and replacing the sound from the surface with a glooping in his ears. Turning himself over and trying to get upright again, he gasped as his head burst back through the surface, shaking rapidly to get the worst of the slime off. Knowing that he was losing time, he waded forwards with his hand out but felt the ramp in front of him, then turned around and wiped the gunk away from his eyes, listening to the girls cheering him on as he tentatively blinked them open. Seeing the slot at the far end of the pool, he panted as he waded through the heavy liquid, his feet slipping against the bottom of the vat as he slicked his hair back and tried to get the gunge out of his vision.

As he reached the center of the pool, he twitched as another downpour crashed into the vat in front of him with a thick glooping noise, almost stopping but feeling his momentum carrying him forward underneath the yellow slime. He twitched as he felt the heavy gloop pour on to his hair and then down his back, but smiled as he looked down, watching the gunge swirling heavily around him as he walked through it.

The fur on the back of his neck stood on end as he heard an electronic voice counting down from ten, and he dived forwards, almost slipping and putting his face under the gunge as he paddled his hands in front of him and bounced the last few steps. Falling against the housing of the card slot with his heartbeat thumping in his ears, he scrabbled furiously to reel the card tied around his wrist up into his hand, juggling it in his slimy fingers before finally pushing it firmly into the slot and hearing a confirmation beep.

Nyte fell backwards as there was an explosion of colour in front of him, and lay half-floating in the gunge, panting and staring up as jets of yellow and blue foam shot up from nozzles at the edge of the pool, flecks of them splitting off and drifting gently down to land on his face and the surface of the slime around him. He smiled exhaustedly as he realized that the final game was over, and slowly rolled himself around in the heavy liquid to stand up. He looked across to the ramp just in time to see Isla slide into the gunge pool with a large splash, emerging slowly from under the surface with her arms held in the air as the off-color gunge dripped slowly down from them.

"You've done it!" Alex yelled from the gantry, and Nyte turned his head up to face him as he wiped his eyes, then followed his pointing finger to the tank on the ceiling, where jets of water were swirling through the opaque slime inside, the colors slowly evaporating to leave the contents clean. "Nyte, Isla, Quinne and Becky... with just a few seconds to spare, you're our first team to manage to turn on the purifier and restore the water!"

He paused and leaned over the handrail, looking down at the team as Delta and Tina came around beside him, the leopardess giving a smiling shudder as the gunge-coated fox girl waved up at her. "Although, looking at you just now... I think we're going to have to use just about all of it to get the four of you cleaned up after that..."

Nyte sagged and laughed, slowly wallowing back through the gunge towards the ramp as Quinne began to lower herself down hand over hand. She squeaked, slipping and flailing her legs against the slimy vinyl surface as she plunged into the slime as well, holding her hair away from her face as she bounced upwards out of it.

"Becky, I think you're the only player who's ever avoided going in the gunge pool..." The team's heads all turned to the puppy girl, who was leaning on the inflatable barrier between the slime and the pit of foam, barely visible under the pile of white fluff sticking to her fur. She giggled embarrassedly at the attention, hunching her shoulders as the blobs of thick foam slithered slowly down from her head to her shoulders, and wriggled to shake dollops of it off her fur.

"But never mind that - pull yourselves out and get up here! ROB, where are you?"

As the face of the computer materialized on the large screen near the ceiling and Alex began a conversation back and forth with it, Nyte joined the girls, skimming his hands over the surface of the slime as he looked around at them with an exhausted grin.

"We did it!" Quinne bubbled, lurching forwards in the gunge to give him a hug. He shuddered as she wrapped her gunge-coated arms around him, feeling their soaked fur slip against each other, and tentatively put his hand on her back as Isla looked at the two of them, spreading her arms along the lower lip of the inflatable ramp as she leaned back on it. As the fox girl let him go, wriggling and cackling delightedly as she ducked back to dip her shoulders under the gunge, he shared a grin with Isla, exhaustedly raising his heavy arms up to slap his hands together with hers.

"Come on!" He turned as there was a call from next to him, and saw the foam-coated puppy girl excitedly beckoning them over to a ladder that led out of the pool. He nodded and let the two girls go first before wallowing towards it, his fur nearly standing on end despite being heavy with slime as he felt the stuff slosh around him.

He watched the girls haul themselves out of the gunge bath in front of him, the slime dripping away from them in thick sheets and drips as they climbed the couple of feet back to the floor. As she straightened up, Quinne walked forward with her arms stretched out towards the puppy girl, who squeaked and backed away, yelping as the fox girl put her hands on the wall on either side of her head to pin her in place. The canine grimaced and gave a laughing shriek as Quinne closed in for a hug, staining the white foam with murky green as Isla leaned around to rub slime on the top of her head.

Nyte pulled himself out of the slime, one hand on the back of his swim shorts to anchor them in place as his waist came free. Laughing through a cringe as he felt thick blobs of it running down the fur on his legs, he curled his toes against the floor and watched a splatter mark spreading on the floor around him as the slime dripped from all over his fur. Looking up, he saw the breathless puppy girl squirm out of the others' grasp, and point up to the walkway overhead as she led the way towards the set of stairs leading up to it.

"And here they are at last!" Alex announced as the four of them climbed up on to the walkway next to him. Delta and Tina looked back and stood to the sides as they gathered around behind him. "I always said that I had a good feeling about them..."

The face of ROB didn't react as he turned away from it and addressed the team. "All of you - congratulations! How are you feeling after that?"

"About as good as we look..." Isla spoke up, running a hand over her head and leaving gungy furrows behind with her fingers. Becky grinned beside her, shaking her head.

"Well, as our first winners of the series, you each get our little memento here..." Alex reached to the wall and opened a hatch, and as the girls and Nyte leaned forward to see, he reached in and took out something from inside. Nyte grinned as he held it up in front of the team - it was a gold-sprayed trophy in the shape of the show's logo. "As well as getting to keep your IZ swimwear, if you can get it clean again after that, you're each going home with these... small rewards for braving the gunge..."

"Yeah, about that..." the polygonal face interrupted, and the red wolf turned around, putting the trophy back inside the hatch. "The reserve tanks are still full - team, do you want to get even?"

Nyte watched as the side door to the cylinder slid open again, his eyes widening as he realized exactly what that meant. He barely had time to react before Quinne gasped, then threw her hands up and leapt forwards, hugging Alex from behind and pushing him towards the entrance.

"Oh, do I have to...?" Alex stepped forward slowly, pretending to resist Quinne as he held on to the frame of the cylindrical plastic tank. "You've got six people out here it could happen to..."

"Yeah, but I think it's your turn - don't you?" The wireframe face turned towards the group on the walkway, and Nyte laughed as Quinne nodded rapidly. Suddenly, she turned around, looking him in the eye with a huge grin as she shot one hand out to grab his arm. He stumbled for a step, but didn't resist as she tugged him towards her, bouncing on her heels and hugging him excitedly as she pushed him into the gunge tank with Alex.

"I think we're going to get everyone in anyway...!" The red wolf smiled as Isla put her slimy arms around Delta and Tina, walking them towards the entrance and leaving no room on the walkway for Becky to escape past them. With a giggling whimper, the puppy girl tiptoed over the entrance, blobs of white foam still dripping off her fur as she cuddled under Alex's outstretched arm. "Come on in and make yourselves comfortable..."

Nyte caught Isla's eye as she slipped her hands around to the felines' backs, pushing them gently inside before she stepped into the gunge machine as well. Half-turning around, she jumped as the entrance hummed closed by itself, then walked around to his other side, draping her arm around his shoulder as he gently put his hands on her and Quinne's hips. Delta moved around to Quinne and hugged her from behind as the brown catgirl came around to Isla's other side.

With a defeated smile, Alex breathed out heavily as he watched the team cluster around him, then raised his head to address the camera. "That's it from us in the Industrial Zone... next time, I'll be leading a new team around with the goal of converting a second batch of water, and hopefully they'll end up in here without me..."

He paused to take a breath, and looked down as Quinne pushed against him, nudging him right under the large pipe above the center of the tank. Nyte smiled, glancing up at Alex's face before hunching down again.

"Good ni..." The last half of the word was drowned out by the blare of the gunge tank siren, and Nyte flattened his ears as he heard the huge valve open above them. He closed his eyes and heard a shocked bark from Alex just before he felt a wave of gunge splash over his face.

He bowed his head down so that the dome of heavy green slime splattered into his hair, half-opening his eyes and keeping his arms tightly around the girls next to him as he watched the gloop pour into the bottom of the tank, swallowing all their feet under a smooth green layer. He grinned to himself as he listened to the whoops and shrieks all around him, feeling Quinne bouncing under the stream of gunge pouring on to her head and shivering as more of the slime dripped down his back from Isla's arm.

Cringing as the gooey stuff slipped against his fur, he gasped as a cold wave of slime slipped over his hand on Isla's hip. He flexed his fingers and grasped her a little more tightly, whimpering as his hand slid against her smooth slippery skin. After a moment, he felt her beginning to walk forwards out of his grasp.

"Hey, wait..." he began to say as his hand slipped off her, his voice drowned out in the noise of the siren and the gunge splattering all around them. He looked up, holding his gungy hair out of his face with one hand as the curvy lizardess stood in front of him, gradually backing away through the knee-deep glop and pointing at the ceiling. Wriggling against the curtain of slime splattering across his back, he glanced upwards to see the opening of a smaller pipe above her head, and met her eyes again as a new siren joined the cacophony. The lizard girl looked up as the nozzle burst into life, spewing out a column of darker green gunge, and she only just had time to close her eyes and hunch her shoulders before she disappeared underneath it.

Nyte looked around him as the sloppy deluge continued, seeing five or six of the new streams pouring into the tank around them, and hearing the puppy girl shriek as one of them caught her on the shoulder, splattering outwards in an upturned bowl shape as she wriggled underneath it. He looked again at the bulge in the column of gunge in front of him, seeing Isla's green-coated fingers reach through the dome as she caught the gloop in her palms.

He grinned as her face poked out of the dome as well, none of her blue skin visible underneath the dripping green coat of slime. As she came forwards with her arms outstretched, he tentatively raised his hands to return the hug, but yelped as she leaned forward and planted her hands on his chest, pushing him roughly backwards. He splashed his feet in the gunge to stay upright as he stumbled away from her, and he felt a sudden cold on his back, giving an involuntary squeak as he stepped backwards underneath another gunge stream.

He closed his eyes as he felt the slime slump over his face, and hunched over, his hands going up to wipe at his eyes as he blew it off the end of his muzzle. As he felt the heavy gloop smacking on to his shoulders, his shocked expression gradually became a grin, and he dared to straighten up underneath the downpour of gunge but quickly bowed his head again as it glooped over his face, sticking his hair to his forehead. He jerked his hands up as his fingertips touched the surface of the slime, and slowly wallowed forwards out of the flow as the slime rose to waist height.

Looking around through the drips of gunge sliding across his vision, he saw Quinne under another of the gunge streams, her hands behind her head and looking up as if showering under the gloopy downpour. She shook her head and opened one eye as she looked around for Delta, then cupped her hands above her head and threw handfuls of gunge towards her as she backed away through the glop with a yelp.

The downpour from the main pipe in the center of the ceiling finally began to thin, bulging a couple of times as air bubbled out of it. Underneath it, the bright green sloppy dome gradually folded inwards, revealing Alex's shape again. Having been under the huge downpour the whole time, his red fur was completely plastered with gunge, with thick rivers of it flowing down either side of his neck to settle on the waist-deep surface. As he took a slow step out of the drizzling rain of slime from the overhead pipe, Quinne whooped and clapped her hands in the air, looking him up and down triumphantly as long strings of gunge dripped from his muzzle and chin.

Nyte gasped as Isla clapped a hand on his slippery back to push him over to join the wolf, and he stumbled forward through the gloop as Alex wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. Seeing Nyte coming towards him, he smiled and put his hand on his shoulder, turning him to face the outside wall of the tank.

Shaking his head to get the worst of the gunge away from his eyes, Nyte listened as the siren faded out, and became aware of noise from the lower floor of the room. Straining to see out past the slime-streaked plastic, he smiled as he saw the show's crew filing in through the main door, cheering and applauding as they lined up next to the gunge pool. He grinned nervously at the attention as Alex raised both his hands up in a victory pose, and broke into a helpless laugh as Isla wallowed up beside him and raised his own hand in the air.

He glanced back at the tank behind him, gasping as he saw it completely transformed under a coat of bright green, with the other slime-coated girls wiping their hands over their fur to clean themselves off while Quinne dipped her hands into the pool and splashed them with more gunge. As Isla turned away and dragged both her hands through the slime to splatter the fox girl from behind, Nyte glanced at the gunge-soaked wolf next to him, then scooped his hand through the slime preparing to splash it towards Isla.

A sudden knock from the direction of the walkway made him stop and turn around, and he saw another blue lizardess waving at them through the tank's slime-streaked entrance door - she looked similar to Isla but with lighter skin and closer to Alex's age. As the red wolf wiped his eyes, he made his way around to her, leaning on the wall for support, and pressed his muzzle to the plastic surface as she did the same from her side. Quinne whooped as she noticed the kiss, and Alex turned to look back at the team, a slimy handprint left behind on the tank's wall as he let it go.

"I'd like to introduce you to Blue, everyone..." he said, closing one eye as a small curtain of gunge slipped over his brow. He wiped his forehead with one hand as he held out the other towards the grinning lizardess. "Our floor manager since the show started, and the one who got me into all of this..."

"It wouldn't be the same without you," she called through the plastic wall, looking the slime-coated red wolf up and down.

"I'm flattered," he deadpanned, then cringed as Quinne's slimy hand came up to slide across the back of his neck. "For now, though, do you want to think about getting us out of here?"

Nyte slowly wallowed towards Alex as the gungy girls around him took a couple of steps towards the door, but he stopped as Blue held up the minicomputer that Alex had been carrying around throughout the show.

"Yeah, but not through this door - we're going to let you out the fast way..."

She pressed something on the screen, and the seven occupants of the tank all jumped as there was a twitch somewhere under the surface of the gunge. With a gurgling sound, the stuff began draining out of the tank, leaving a thick green film behind on the plastic as the surface lowered around their waists.

There was a gasp from Becky, and Nyte looked out the front of the tank as she pointed - the gunge was pouring out just below them and forming a thick, glistening cascade down the inflatable ramp, pouring stickily into the vat below. Nyte laughed under his breath, nodding and reaching his hands up to clasp the back of his neck as he saw exactly what their escape route was going to be. With the gunge at ankle height, the front panels of the tank parted, letting the stuff pour out over the lip as well.

"Come on down!" The lizardess's voice came from floor level, and Nyte looked to see that she'd returned to the side of the pool. She pointed emphatically downwards as a couple of other crew members came around next to her, dumping a stack of large towels on the floor and spreading a few out next to the vat.

"I think she means you!" Isla said as she put her hand on Alex's back, a broad smile on her face as Tina and Quinne joined her in tugging the red wolf over to the gap. Alex smiled from underneath the gunge still dripping over his face, looking out over the ramp as he stood at the tank's exit.

"Just think of how many other people you've sent down that slide!" Blue called above the whoops and cheers of encouragement that were beginning to come from the far side of the pool.

"How could I forget..." He shifted his weight back for a moment and then jumped forwards, holding both hands in the air as he hit the ramp in a sitting position. The girls clustered around the frame of the door, laughing and hugging each other as the wolf gave a shocked yelp, scrabbling his hands and feet against the ramp as he slid uncontrollably down and splurged into the gunge vat, a huge wave of green slime billowing up from around where he'd fallen in.

As he launched up from the bottom of the pool, painted in a new layer of green, Tina clambered out and lowered herself down on to the ramp after him, sliding down with her hands against one of the edges. Alex waded over to catch her as she neared the bottom, taking her feet and slowing her down as she gently glooped into the slime. Nyte stood on his tiptoes to watch as Becky hovered at the lip of the tank, realizing that she was the next in line.

"I'll do it with you, Becky," Quinne said, squeezing past the puppy girl as she tapped her on the shoulder and taking her hand as they faced the door together. "C'mon..."

She counted down from three, and Nyte stepped to the front as the fox girl leapt off the platform, tugging the hesitant Becky into space along with her. To a soundtrack of nervous and excited whoops and screams, they slithered down the ramp hand in hand and splashed into the mucky pool next to Alex.

"Get out there, you..." Nyte twisted round as there was a voice in his ear, and jumped as he saw Isla's face right up against his. She butted gently against him, then he jumped and stumbled forwards as she grasped his bottom with one hand, flailing his arms as he lost his balance and tumbled forwards on to the ramp.

He screeched involuntarily and braced himself as he fell on to the surface, but bounced upward again and managed to slither into a rough sitting position. Scooting down the slippery material, he closed his eyes as the gunge rushed towards him, and just had time to take a breath before he plunged into it.

The world went dark as the surface of the gunge pool closed over his head once again, and he pushed down with his hands as he broke to the surface, twitching as he felt gunge running off the tips of his ears. Slowly, he hauled himself upwards again, stumbling as he found his footing - without the timer going, he relaxed this time and took in the feeling of the smooth, slippery blanket enveloping him, shuddering as he felt blobs and rivulets of it trickling through his fur.

He flinched as a large ripple in the surface of the gunge made him bob up and then down, lapping lukewarmly against his tummy as Isla and then Delta tumbled into the slime after him, and opened his eyes to see them both bursting back up through the surface, Isla wearing a huge grin as she bounced in the pool and watched the slow ripples. He sidled up to her, his hand poised just above the surface of the gunge as he wondered if she would appreciate a return of what she'd just done to him at the tank's entrance, but then he whipped it away as she slithered around to hug him.

He stumbled backwards a step, bracing himself with one foot and grinning exhaustedly as he wrapped his arms around the gungy lizardess. He awkwardly tossed his head to one side to flick a gungy strand of his hair away from his mouth, trying to keep the rest of himself still as he hugged her close, aware of her slippery breasts sliding against his fur.

Eventually, he felt her hands sliding off his back and he straightened up again, combing his hands up and over his head to slick his hair back and tuck it behind his ears. He balled his fists and watched the slime slither out between his fingers, then blinked as Isla reached over and took him by the wrist. Breathing out heavily to clear his nose, he wiped his free hand down his muzzle, and wallowed slowly with her over to where the others had gathered.

"Oh, I've been waiting so long for a team to win this year," the lizardess said with a grin, and Nyte smiled back as she looked around at the figures bobbing in the gunge. "Do you realize what we go through in the recording booth, waiting to see if he's going to get it...!"

Slime slipped from Alex's shoulders as he laughed, flexing his arms out to the sides. "We need to do a crew special some time," he said. "You, me... who else do you want to see gunged?"

"Oh, not me!" The lizardess held a finger up and waggled it at him. "I did that last year, remember?"

"You should present it!" Nyte looked to Quinne as she spoke up, spluttering gunge away from her lips and dragging both hands through her green slime-soaked hair. "Then you'd really get to gunge him..."

A grin spread across the light blue lizardess's face as she nodded. "Sounds like a good deal," she said back. "I'd have to make sure the team lost so I didn't end up in there with you..."

The team laughed a little as they looked around at each other. Quinne slid over to stand next to Delta, putting her arm around the slightly taller feline's shoulder in a sideways hug.

"I thought you said you weren't going to make a habit of looking like this!" she said as she swung around to grin into her face.

"Urgh..." The green-painted leopardess shuddered, flecks of slime spraying out from her fur as she reached up to comb some of the stuff out of her hair. "At least you can't see this part on television..."

"I'm sure we can take some photos or something...!" the lizardess called from the bank, then looked to the cluster of crew members at the head of the pool, many of whom were holding their phones out to film the gungy wolf in front of them. "I think the rest of the guys have already..."

"Blue." All their heads turned as Alex cleared his throat, coming up to the edge of the pool and folding his arms on the inflatable ridge that separated it from the floor, next to the lizardess's feet. "Very important question - did you leave your phone on the desk?"

"Yeah, why?" The blue lizard crouched down to face him. "Have you -" The sentence ended abruptly with a scream as Alex's arms flew up to embrace her, and her shriek got higher in pitch as he stepped backwards, falling back below the surface of the gunge with a large splash as she toppled into the vat after him.

Nyte raised a hand to shield his face from the wave as the gungy surface billowed and rippled crazily, glancing around at the five surprised and delighted faces around him and hearing the roar of approval from the show's crew before a green streak shot back up through the surface. As huge streams and curtains of gunge came pouring away from the figure, the outline of Blue slowly reappeared, her skin completely painted in green with her shirt sodden and clinging to her shoulders. As she stood still with her mouth open in shock and her hands out to her sides, Alex bobbed up from the gunge as well, shaking his head and grinning as he slowly hauled himself back into a standing position.

"You...!" she spluttered, pointing one finger towards him then retracting it as she pawed at her head, wiping her eyes multiple times then shaking herself, sending blobs of slime streaking out from her head. Starting to stutter something else but giving up, she thrust her hands into the gunge in front of her and sent a huge wave splashing towards Alex, hitting him in a stripe right across his front as he turned his head away and barked through his laughter. Quinne came forwards with her hands cupped and bobbed up to pour the collected slime over Alex's head, and soon the rest of the girls had joined in to splash Alex from all angles.

Nyte hesitantly joined in as well, watching the goo splash across the wolf as he turned his face down, shaking his head as heavy streaks of gunge fell away from it. Alex raised his hands in the air with his fists clenched, then opened his palms, and Nyte and the others eased back as he waved in surrender. Nyte took a step back, shuddering again at the feeling of the slowly rippling gunge vat as the stuff poured and trickled from all over the green-painted wolf in front of him, his red fur completely invisible under the gunge.

He shook his hands and then clasped them together to drag them over his head, visibly shuddering as he opened his eyes and panted for breath. "Completely worth it," he grinned, his white teeth showing up starkly as thick strings of gunge dripped across his mouth.

"I can't believe I didn't see that coming..." Blue muttered as she held her hands up in front of her face, then lowered them to pick at her soaking shirt, stumbling as she almost lost her balance again.

Alex's grin stayed as he glanced around at the others during the moment of silence. "Well, the water's nice but I think it's time we headed back to the showers..."

"Aw..." Quinne groaned with an exaggerated pout as Becky nodded behind her. The fox girl dipped herself down in the gunge up to her shoulders, then flopped forwards to submerge herself, just the tips of her ears poking up above the slime. She shook her head as she bobbed up again, curtains of ooze slithering over her face, then stood up fully, holding her hands out and watching the slop drizzle from her outstretched arms with a tired smile.

"Come on - we'll show you around upstairs, show you your best gungings on-screen - and I think we have someone here who has a bit more cleanup to do than she expected..."

He laughed, raising an arm to defend himself as Blue dipped both hands into the gunge again and pushed a wave of it towards him. As she came forwards, Alex held his arms out and she lurched forwards to hug him, making him grin as she smeared her hands around over his head and face. With a smile, Nyte ran a hand over his hair and then turned away from them, raising his hands as one of the stage crew reached over to haul him back out on to the floor.

---

Nyte stood in front of the shower alone once more, still dripping with green slime after the brief walk back to the changing rooms. He stared at the cascade of water in front of him and then looked down at himself, rubbing his slippery fingertips together and trying to fix in his mind the weird feeling of being covered in gunge. Breathing out sharply, he decided he was ready to return to reality, and stepped forward into the stream of water.

He closed his eyes as the slime on his hair dissolved away, leaving it quickly feeling much lighter. As he slicked it back and faced up into the stream, he smiled as the games he'd been in over the last few hours flashed back through his mind, trying to imagine what they'd look like when he saw himself and the girls on screen. With his heart still beating fast from the excitement, he began running his hands over his shoulders, working the gunge out of his fur as he tapped his feet rhythmically against the tiles at the bottom of the alcove - he wanted to shower quickly so that he could catch Isla outside. Telling himself that he'd get up the courage to ask for her number, he started to sing the first few notes of a song that came into his head, then nearly screamed as a pair of slippery hands grasped him firmly from behind.

"Hi, Nyte...!"