SAT-IZ - Scene 4

Written by Iron-K, 2010

Featuring Fran Cervice - http://www.furaffinity.net/user/thefunkyone

"It's Saturday morning, and we've got the best reason to get up for it!" Alex, the lupine presenter of Industrial Zone, pushed the double doors of the game room open with both hands as he strode through them. "And we've got another contestant, who might be thinking it would've been better to stay in bed..."

He stepped around to the room's side, where a six foot high clear plastic booth was nestled in a slight alcove, with three wide curved pipes stretching from the wall to its ceiling and the base of its sides. Seated inside was a pink rabbit girl with shoulder-length hair slightly darker than her fur, cut into two curtains either side of her face. She jumped as he tapped on the ceiling of the tank.

"This... beautiful bunny," he started, holding one hand out towards her and smiling as a slight blush came over her face, "is Fran Cervice, and I've got to admit that she's not quite here of her own choice..." He ducked and looked into the cubicle as the swimsuit-clad rabbit silently shook her head. "She's quite a talented individual - she's into robotics, anime and cosplay, and we've actually got a photo of one of her costumes here..."

He pointed to the wall opposite the tank, where a projected screen flicked on, showing an image of Fran posing in a lineup of costumed characters. Her hair was brushed back and dyed red, and she was wearing a small red top that left her tummy bare, dark leggings with a heart motif, and orange gloves and boots.

"Fans will probably recognize that costume as Cutie Honey, from the series of the same name..." Alex turned to the rabbit inside the booth, who had her hands cupped around her mouth and nose, embarrassedly looking up at herself in the photograph. "Was that put together yourself?"

She cleared her throat as she took her hands away from her face, running her fingers through the fur on her lap. "Yeah," she answered, "all of us in that were the... fan-made group."

"It's very impressive - some might argue a better use of your time than what I spend my life doing to people..."

The bunny sighed, and gave a weak smile as she looked up at the nozzle of the tank she was sitting inside.

"By the way, has anyone told you who nominated you to go in here?" Alex continued.

"No," she said simply, shaking her head. She folded one foot on top of the other, staring down at her toes as she swung them forward a little before dropping them back to the ground.

"She was the same one who gave us that photo..."

"Oh, not Sam...?" Fran suddenly turned to him, her eyes widening disbelievingly.

"I'm afraid so... a mouse who's been one of your best friends for a long time, and who thought that if anyone could win an IZ challenge, it would be you!" He paused as the rabbit smiled tentatively at his explanation. "Or maybe she just wanted to see you get covered in gunge, I don't know."

He straightened up as she winced again, and he walked a couple of paces away, producing his handheld computer from his pocket. "She gave us a little story about how the two of you met, actually..." Turning around, he held up the device and read from its screen. "She says that she'd seen you around the convention center in that outfit, and you were talking to another fan, who you kneed in the balls..." - Alex almost cracked into laughter as he read out what was in front of him, but managed to keep going as he glanced aside at the bunny girl's cringe - "...after he and his hands got a little too close for comfort."

"Yeah, I did..." The pink rabbit looked to the floor, an embarrassed laugh creeping into her voice as she remembered. "And he couldn't walk for about a week after..." she added meekly.

"Really?" Alex laughed. "Perhaps I'd better stay away from you myself..." He cleared his throat and carried on. "No, I think it sounded pretty well-deserved... Sam said it was one of the funniest things she'd ever seen, and the two of you got talking after that..."

Fran nodded, still cringing at the memory, then looked up as he tapped on the screen. "But just to reinforce her case," he said casually, "she also gave us a note from your mum agreeing that you should be put in here as well."

"Hwuh?" The bunny gave a distressed squeak, a stunned look across her face as she sagged forwards, looking up at him with eyebrows raised.

"Oh..." Alex smiled back at her abashed expression. "Don't make that face too much, or I might not have the heart to go through with this...!"

The rabbit closed her eyes, her shoulders shaking in a helpless half-laugh, and then she straightened back up again, distractedly glancing at the spout looming above her as she brought one hand up to scratch behind her long ears.

"We're going to be fair and give you a chance to save yourself, though," he continued, pointing at the screen behind him as the image faded to show a glowing green timer fixed on sixty seconds. "We asked both Fern and Sam about some of the anime series that you own, and we've come up with some questions on your favorites. If you can get five of them right in one minute, then we'll stop the timer and... there won't be a problem." He paused as she nodded thoughtfully. "Comfortable in there for now?"

"Kind of wish I was wearing more..." she answered, continuing to look up at the wide nozzle as she hugged both her hands across her tummy.

"Oh, don't worry - we'll soon get you covered up again," Alex said, flashing a grin at the bunny's cringe as he approached. "Let me just show you around this thing quickly..."

He kicked at the curved pipe prop leading out from the wall at the left base of the tank as Fran put both hands on the arm of the seat, looking unsurely down through the perspex wall. "You're sitting in one of our favorite booths just now - we call it the Mixer, for reasons that will become obvious quite soon. It's probably enough to say that there's a... lot of foam and slime ready to be pumped in, if you don't pass the challenge..." The rabbit inside the tank visibly cringed at the mention of it, drawing her legs in a little closer together as her eyes dropped to the opening of the pipe at her feet.

"And that?" she asked. She pointed down, putting her other elbow on the chair's arm, her hand on her cheek. Alex followed her finger down to a small white towel draped over the pipe next to him.

"That's... just there for you on the outside chance things go wrong and you get covered. But as you know, I want to help you avoid that happening if at all possible..."

She raised an eyebrow incredulously, then shook her head, folding her arms as he strode back to face the tank.

"Just one thing before we start - I think I should hold on to those earrings for you, for much the same reason..."

Fran flicked her eyes to her left ear as he mentioned them. She brought both hands up, one eye closed with her tongue between her teeth as she fiddled with the clasps, then slid both of them off her ear and flicked it behind her head as she handed them to Alex with her other hand.

The red wolf stepped back, sliding them into his pocket as the bunny girl put her hands back on to her lap, facing out of the tank at him. "Okay..." He paused and looked over his shoulder at the projected screen. "You're going to have one minute, you need to get five right... are you ready?"

The pink bunny straightened as she drew her breath in, then exhaled sharply. "I suppose so," she answered, clasping her hands together on her lap.

"All right - the best of luck, you know I'm right behind you... let's start it up!"

The rabbit rolled her eyes a little at the remark, then gasped as an electronic click signalled the timer beginning to count down. Tapping her forefingers together, she anxiously looked out at Alex as he read a question off the screen of his handheld.

"Okay, you should know this first one - in Cutie Honey, that costume we just showed," Alex said as he waved his finger up at where the photo had been, "what is Honey's surname?"

The rabbit took a breath, then hesitated for a second, distractedly glancing to the floor of the booth. "Er, Kisaragi", she answered.

"That's right - that's one of five!" Alex nodded encouragingly, and looked back to his handheld device as she leaned tensely forwards. "Soul reaper Rukia Kuka... er..." He stumbled over the unfamiliar name, and shook his head before starting again. "Rukia Kuchiki is a central character in which Tite Kubo series? We'll give you five seconds back or something..." he added, waving a hand towards the projected timer.

"Bleach." A small nervous laugh crept into the pink lapine's voice as she quickly repeated her answer, already having called it out when he had first mentioned the name.

"Yes! Which comic book series stars a rabbit ronin, based on the swordsman Miyamoto Musashi?"

"Er..." Fran drummed her palms on her knees for a second, staring up at the ceiling. "Usagi Yojimbo", she responded, this time with a more confident nod.

"Absolutely right..." The red wolf looked down again and hesitated as he read the screen, having difficulty keeping up. "Okay... in the Harauhi Suzumia series," he started, slowing down to pronounce the name, "what is the name of Haruhi's after-school club?" He looked up at the booth as he finished.

"The SOS Brigade", she said back immediately.

"That's four! And you just need one more..." Alex paused as he looked disbelievingly to the projected counter on the wall, then twitched his thumb on the scroll wheel of his device as he faced its screen once more. Fran anxiously looked on, twisting her hands on her lap, then her eyes widened as he spoke again. "Ah - what is the full name of the creator of Cutie Honey, normally known by his - "

"Kiyoshi Nagai", she called, a grin creeping on to her face as she interrupted him.

"Yeah," Alex said as he stopped mid-sentence, flopping the minicomputer down to his side and looking up at the timer as the bunny smiled delightedly, straightening up and then relaxing back in her seat. He shook his head as he read it out slowly. "Thirty-six seconds left, and a bit to spare - that's honestly the best performance we've ever had here."

He crossed in front of the beaming rabbit girl, her gaze following him as he reached to open a hatch in the wall. She craned her neck to see around him, squirming a little aside and out of the way of the nozzle above her, then settled back into a sitting position as he turned back to face her, holding up a small gold-sprayed trophy.

"I've got to say, Fran, I wouldn't have been able to answer any of those... I think our question writers thought they were a lot more challenging, or... maybe you're just that good! Either way, that means you've more than earned one of our Industrial Zone keepsakes here..." He reached slightly into the tank, and the bunny reached up to accept the gear-shaped trophy. A relieved smile grew across her muzzle as she turned it over in her hands.

"But we had two people who really wanted to see you gunged, and I don't want to disappoint them either..." Alex continued suddenly, backing away, and the rabbit girl gasped as she heard him.

"Wh..." she started, and then shrieked as there was a sudden wet bubbling noise from the base of the tank. She looked down, jerking her legs up as two strong jets of thick bright yellow foam spewed on to her feet from the pipes at the left and right of the booth, and she gripped her hands a little tighter as the bottom of the cubicle disappeared underneath the cloud. A dirty industrial alarm blared from the ceiling and her hands shot instinctively to grab the sides of her head just underneath her long ears, raising her knees up to keep the trophy steady for a second before it tumbled off her lap and into the calf-deep foam.

Folding her elbows slightly more inwards and hunching her neck up as she stared down at the rising foam, she gave another nervous whimper that was covered up by a second buzz of the klaxon. Her eyes widened as the foam inched up her legs, and she raised her knees slightly away from the bubbling surface. Suddenly she shut her eyes again as she heard a heavy clunk from above her, her head bowing down as she screwed her face up, just before the alarm gave a long third blare and she was engulfed by a mixture of dark green and bright yellow gunge from the overhead nozzle.

The falling slime spewed outward off her head for a moment, the surface glistening under the studio lights, before she ducked forwards under its weight, her head poking out of the upturned dome shape with a streak of slime painted over the front of her hair. Her eyes were still closed, with her mouth in a small ring of surprise as the cool gunge slithered down her back, a wave of the heavy liquid visible rebounding from her shoulders and splattering on the back wall of the booth. As she slowly relaxed her shoulders, looking almost like she was about to laugh at the feeling, two fingers of the stuff slithered quickly around her neck and she hunched up again with a squeak, gritting her teeth as the bright mixture flowed down into her lap.

Feeling the rising foam reach her waist, the rabbit girl yelped and brought her hands down to brush the stuff away. As the yellow bubbling mixture crept over her hands, she squirmed a little backward, putting her bowed head back underneath the downpour of gunge and twitching as it billowed out in front of her, splattering down into her lap and sending specks of the yellow foam floating upward. She turned her palms upward, strings of the ooze slipping through her fingers, before reaching forwards and shaking them to attempt to get the slime off.

Fran leaned to one side, taking her head out of the slowly subsiding downpour and facing to one side as she felt the ooze hitting her shoulder, pouring gently down over her front and back. As the slimy downpour sputtered to a halt she straightened again, the last thick blobs of the ooze making her duck and twitch as they rained down from the nozzle to smack on to the back of her hair. As the slime finally ran out, breaking into a set of dripping strings, she squeamishly brought her gungy hands up and lifted her soaked hair away from her back, grimacing at its gooey texture. Timidly, she blinked her eyes open, wrinkling her nose as a solitary drip of slime slid down her mostly clean face, dripping slowly off the end of her muzzle.

Letting out the breath that she'd held, she straightened herself up and looked at Alex with an embarrassed smile, then squeaked as another shower of slime sprayed down on to her head, ducking and closing her eyes again as the slimy blobs slid down over her face. This time, she brought one hand up to her forehead, trying to wipe the brightly colored gunge away from her eyes but streaking the foamy mixture across her face instead.

Casually, Alex strolled to the side of the foam-filled tank, watching Fran trying to pull the slime-drenched curtains of her hair away from her face as he stooped and whipped the towel off the pipe. "As I promised," he announced, reaching into the tank and presenting the small cloth to the gungy rabbit. Opening one eye, with the rest of her face still screwed up, she reached orward with both hands, her slippery fingers held apart from each other as she grabbed it between her finger and thumb, then she shook it out and buried her face in it, rubbing it over her eyes and muzzle.

"I think that's actually a better prize, in the short term at least..." The red wolf made eye contact with her as she dragged the towel away from her face and opened her eyes again, and she gasped a little as she looked down at the foam surrounding her up to her tummy. She raised her arms, gritting her teeth as the colorful slime slipped around them and dripped slowly from her fur. "Are you okay under all that?"

"Eugh... sort of..." she replied, squirming her shoulders as the thick mixture of gunge continued to slide slowly down over her.

"Well, Fran, thanks so much for taking on the challenge - I'm sorry you had to end up like this, I only do it because they pay me to..." Alex dodged back a little as she shook out the slime-stained towel in front of her, watching the drips of gunge fall down into the foam. "Of course, it wasn't really me that did this to you, it was Sam and your mum..."

"No, it was you," the bunny said back immediately, pointing up at him and blinking against the drips of slime still falling in strings from her fringe. She held the towel to her forehead, dragging it across and then shaking her head, her heavy wet hair smacking on to the back of her neck.

"Oh...! Usually I can pass the blame on to someone else, I'm going to feel really bad about this now..." The red wolf chuckled, and began to step back from the booth. "Well, to make up for it, we're going to send you away with the IZ swimsuit and everything else that we give to people for being gunged for us... and you've still got your trophy somewhere down there, if you can find it..."

The rabbit girl looked down into the foam, and began to lean forwards, trying to reach underneath it, but quickly straightened again instead. Alex turned away as she continued to run the towel over her face and head. "Fern, Sam... I hope you're happy! Let's go back up to the studio before I start feeling too guilty about this..."