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"Welcome back!" Rossi was seated at his desk again after the final advert break, and the gunge tank platform had been brought out behind him, with the two girls seated on either side of the booth. "Our first two guests are back, and it's finally the moment they've been dreading, because it's time to see who you voted into the tank..."

He sprang up from the seat and spun around, taking a couple of steps towards the platform. "Sorry to keep you waiting - are you all right over there, Sally?" he asked first.

"Kind of," the squirrel replied, a nervous smile on her lips. The bat girl opposite her looked over at her expression, then faced the front again, skimming her bare feet against the floor as she swung them back and forwards.

"I can tell you're anxious, Rouge..." The avian cleared his throat as she nodded. "And I don't blame you, sitting next to that thing - that dress of yours could be about to get a splash of color..."

The white bat grinned sheepishly, wriggling her shoulders up the way in a shudder and looking down at herself.

"But to find out who's getting it, here are the final results - you two can watch them on the camera monitor over there..." Rossi pointed behind him and to his left, and the two girls' heads turned, with Rouge putting both hands on the arm of her seat and leaning forward a little to see, as the displays over the audience faded to show a blank bar chart with views of both their faces from the cameras in front of them. "Computer, show us how the nation voted..."

The two bars on the chart began to fill a little at a time, each speeding up and slowing down at random, and Rossi spoke louder against the increasing noise of the studio audience, who cheered them on as they raced each other towards the other side of the screen.

"We've received 33 thousand calls from people who wanted to see either of you gunged this evening, and here's how they were split up - who's it going to be, Sally or Rouge..."

Both of the girls watched intently, their expressions changing from delight to dread as each bar faltered or shot ahead past the other one. The squirrel bounced in her seat as Rouge's bar crept past hers to take the lead and reach for the end, only for her own to suddenly leap forwards and light up as it filled the length of the screen. Her mouth fell open as her eyes widened, and she looked over to her opponent in disbelief as the bat girl pumped her hands in the air, whooping and leading the applause.

"Oh, Sally...!" Rossi hopped up on to the platform and stood to the side of the red-headed squirrel girl's chair as her shocked expression gave way to an anxious smile, biting her lip just before she leaned forwards and cupped her mouth and nose in her hands, cringing as she turned around to look up at him. The avian smiled, and put his hand around her back, rubbing up and down a little.

"I really don't know what went wrong, Sally, I thought you'd have an easy escape tonight..." He came round to the front and extended his hand towards her, and the squirrel girl accepted it resignedly.

"Me too..." Sally looked out towards the audience as she was led around to the front of the cubicle, prompting a sympathetic groan from them.

"Hey, it's a bit late for that now!" Rossi called out over his shoulder as he reached towards the handle and pulled open the booth's door, which came up to waist level. "You're the ones who did this to her in the first place, it's nothing to do with me..."

He patted the squirrel girl on the back as she tentatively stepped into the gunge tank and shuffled around to face forwards, seating herself on the plastic chair inside and shivering again as she squeezed its arms. Her eyes were fixed on the main nozzle on the ceiling, now looming right over her.

"Are the boots staying on?" Rossi asked, indicating down at her blue knee-highs. As she nodded, he swung the door closed and clicked it shut in front of her. Her shoulders shook in a helpless laugh again, turning her head to look around the booth she was trapped inside.

"I suppose they might give you some protection... but it's hardly there that you'll need it! Rouge..." The avian dashed to the side and offered his hand to the delighted white bat, who took it as she wriggled up from the chair, leaning past Rossi to watch the other girl squirming inside the gunge cubicle. "I've got to say I did my best to set you up as the villain - apparently it didn't work..."

"Yeah, you could say that," she answered with a nod, waving smugly to Sally through the clear panel between them. The red-haired squirrel sagged, running her hands back and forth along the chair's arms anxiously.

"Well, as the... I suppose you could say the winner of the vote, I think you should get to do the honors yourself..." He indicated towards the lever sticking up from the side of the platform. With a grin, the bat girl padded over to it and leaned forwards to wrap both hands around the handle, looking back towards her nervous opponent once more.

Sally's eyes followed Rossi as he stepped to the other side of the tank. "Just before this happens, I want to thank all our guests from this evening once again..." He called their names out, and nodded as he waited for the applause to die down. "And we especially want to thank these two for going through this, so now please give them a big send off - Rouge and Sally!"

Rossi clapped his hands together, prompting a cheer from the stands in front of them, and as he pointed over at the switch, the squirrel girl squeezed her eyes closed, visibly taking a deep breath as the bat tugged hard on the lever. Suddenly, an industrial siren blared over the noise from the audience, making Sally jerk her hands up from her seat and cover her ears, a moment before a column of mixed blue and yellow slime dropped from the pipe above her and smacked on to the top of her head.

The avian and bat both stepped back a little as the heavy gunge spewed crazily outwards, the squirrel's mouth opening in a shriek just before the opaque slop formed a smooth umbrella shape that hid her face, some of the slime licking forwards over the door of the tank and spilling messily on to the platform. After a moment it settled and the dome came inwards, splattering down on to Sally's shoulders and mixing into a murky green color as it crept around her neck to slither in fingers down her chest. The top of the dome dipped down slightly as she hunched a little further down in the seat, the crest of a slow wave of gunge visible behind her as it spewed out from her back.

Thick drops of slime sprayed outwards as the squirrel girl shook her head and squirmed a little to the side, revealing the left hand side of her messy face with brightly colored gunge slithering down the arm that she had clasped to her ear and dripping off the fur on her elbow. As she wriggled further out of the downpour from above, blinking her eyes open hesitantly as globs of the stuff rained down across her face from her dripping fringe, her mouth opened in a gasp once again as the booth began filling with green foam from the bottom up.

As the glop splashed outwards from her hunched shoulder, painting the side and back wall of the gunge tank in a messy layer of blue and yellow, Sally watched the surface of the thick foam quickly bubble upwards against the slime raining down into it. Gripping the arm of her chair tightly with her right hand, she squeaked again as the stuff reached the top of her boots, picking her feet up a little before hesitantly dipping them back in to the rising mixture.

Keeping her head bowed but moving her eyes up to look out at the cheering audience, she smiled resignedly and removed her hand from her head, flicking the collected slime on it away before clasping the arm of the chair. As the foam rose further up to spill into her lap, she relaxed and slithered back into the downpour as it began to thin out. She leaned forwards so that it splashed on to the back of her neck, tilting her head a little from side to side as it licked outwards from her.

As soon as she had straightened up underneath the drizzling remains of the gunge from the ceiling, four spurts of purple slime started up from the top corners of the tank. Sally gasped and quickly flinched down as the front two splashed into her face, spitting the stuff off her lips. She wriggled underneath the deluge as the paintlike liquid poured off her hair, taking care not to dip her face into the still rising green foam as the streams parted and rotated slightly over her shoulders and back.

As the hooter sounded again, the four sprays eased off, the gunk splashing over Sally's arms as the streams slowly parted. Picking her gunge-coated head up, smiling a little but with her eyes still closed, she raised her arms from the seat and turned her palms up to catch the thick gloop as it poured across them, then shook her head, spraying the mixed colors of slime outwards, and moved her arms to her face to wipe her eyes with the back of her hands. As she smeared the gunge on her face aside, wriggling out from underneath the last heavy drips of slime raining down from the ceiling of the tank, the green foam reached chest height and began slowly spilling over the door of the booth, breaking off as it fell and splatted on the platform in front of it.

The klaxon gave one last long blare to signal the end of the gunging as the soaked and messy squirrel girl slowly opened her eyes, taking her hands away from her face but keeping them up in the air above the chest-height foam bath. Her hair was drenched and clinging to her head and face, blobs of the smooth purple ooze slithering down and dripping from her muzzle and flattened ears, and as she looked down at the mass of foam she was sitting in she tilted her head in an attempt to shake some of the clinging slop off. The walls of the tank around her had been painted in messy arc shapes where the slime had domed off her head.

Rossi continued his applause, smiling as the gungy squirrel girl looked out at him, running her hands one by one over her hair and shuddering as the mixed colors of slime poured down her back. The bat girl opposite him had dissolved into giggles, both of her hands still clasped around the lever.

"Did the boots help?" the avian leaned slightly closer to ask, making the squirrel girl burst into an embarrassed laugh. She shook her head.

"I think they're filling up..." she said with a grimace. As a titter of laughter came up from the onlookers, she looked uselessly down at the bubbling green foam, then tried to push it down a little with her messy hands, squeaking as the surface closed over them.

Rossi moved to the other side to stand next to the white bat, who was watching the mucky squirrel with amusement. "You know, I think our set department's getting better... glad it isn't you in there, Rouge?"

"Kinda," she laughed as Sally wriggled aside to dodge another spurt of drips from the nozzle on the ceiling.

"Well, just to show there are no hard feelings, I think you should go and make up with her..."

With a pat on the back by way of encouragement from the avian, Rouge hesitantly tiptoed forwards over the splatter of gunge that had spilled over the front of the tank, leaning a little closer to whisper something to the squirrel girl. Sally raised her arms up, dripping with a mixture of green foam and purple gunge, and wriggled forwards with them open as if to hug her, then grinned as the bat girl hurriedly stepped backwards again, holding one finger up.

Rossi came forwards in her place as she retreated. "Okay, Sally, the cameras are off and your embarrassment on national TV is over - we'll get you out of there and down to the showers, all right?"

"Sounds great," the dripping squirrel replied, raising her slippery fingers up again to accept a towel handed to her by an approaching stagehand and closing her eyes before burying her face in it. Rossi straightened up as he tapped on the side of the tank.

"We're definitely doing this again next week..."