SAT-IZ - Scene 7

Written by Iron-K, 2013

Starring Susi

A lone bare bulb hung from a beam on the ceiling, dimly illuminating the corridor of the Industrial Zone's storage area where Alex was working on opening a six foot square shipping crate. The front of the crate was on hinges but was chained shut at the side, with a barred window in the centre through which a pair of grey-furred hands were visible clasping them from the inside.

"Welcome back!" the muscular red wolf acknowledged over his shoulder as he wriggled the steel cutters in his hand around the chain holding the gate shut. "It's been a while since we saw each other, but we've just received a special delivery from a contestant who was on the show a couple of years ago..." He strained to close the cutters and there was a snap followed by the sound of the chain snaking on to the floor. He tugged the hinged panel open and reached inside, tugging the occupant out by his arm.

"This is our special guest Susi..." Alex started as a monotone grey wolf stumbled out of the crate, blinking in the light. Unlike the slightly taller red lupine next to him, he had long brown hair tied into a ponytail at the back, and he was wearing only a pair of tight Y-fronts. He smiled anxiously as Alex put his arm around him, leading him down the corridor as he read from the minicomputer in his hand.

"Susi's in his mid-twenties and he's a great friend of Indy, a folf who was on the show in our second series," he read aloud, holding the screen away from the other wolf as he tried to stretch up to see it. "She says that when the two of them were growing up they were always trying to get the other muddy or slimy... is that true?" he broke off, turning to Susi, who hesitated for only a moment before nodding enthusiastically.

"And having experienced the Industrial Zone herself, she wanted him to be have an appointment with the experts..."

Alex stopped at a door on the left of the corridor that was bordered by black and yellow warning stripes, bolstered by a diamond-shaped sign in the centre with a flame symbol. He put the device away and undid the bolts with his free hand, guiding the younger wolf into the gloom ahead of him.

"She wrote in to us saying she really wanted to see you in the Hotseat - a simple request, and one that I think we can grant right now!"

He put his hands on the young wolf's shoulders as the door swung closed behind them. They were in a tiny, dimly-lit room, with a floor that ramped up slightly at the back to lead up towards a three foot wide rectangular alcove. It was partially covered by a waist-high metal door to form a booth, with the back of a curved futuristic chair just visible above the top. The booth was lit by a bright green tube light from above, and various tubes, clusters of wires and electronic displays were dotted around the back and side walls, flashing specks of colored light across the alcove.

"She's watching us from the control room just now, with her hand no doubt poised on the switch!" The red wolf stepped up to tug on a large lever on the wall next to the alcove, wrenching it down the way. "So let's get you inside..."

Susi stood awestruck as the metallic door slowly slid downwards with a rusty grinding noise, the green rectangle of light spreading on the floor around him. As it clunked into place, Alex put his hand on the young wolf's back, encouraging him towards the gunge tank with a gentle shove.

The grey wolf stepped up the ramp and turned himself around, the harsh green light from above giving his fur a slight tinge as he stepped under it. He sat down heavily and then wriggled back in the chair so that his toes were only just touching the floor. He skimmed them back and forth and fidgeted, unable to keep still as he looked up at the cluster of nozzles above him.

"Okay, Susi - you've seen the show, you know how the Hotseat works!" Alex said as he let go of the lever, and the wolf jumped as he door began rising again to shut him inside the booth. "Indy sent us three questions related to your friends - and if you can answer all three of them correctly, then I'll let you out of there clean. But if you get just one wrong, she throws the switch... and you get covered in all the gunge and grime that's built up in the pipes around you," he finished with a grin. The grey wolf nodded, unable to keep his eyes from flicking around the tank. "All clear?"

"Yeah, come on!" Susi answered, tapping his hands in rhythm on the chair's arms, then he interlocked his fingers and flexed them. He jumped as the metal door clicked back into place in front of him, and two large metal bolts on it snicked home to lock him inside.

"All right, here we go..." The dim light in the room faded out further, leaving just the green glow from the Hotseat. Alex raised his pocket computer again and turned it on, illuminating his face from below. He waited, watching the contestant's nervous smile as bass tension music faded in over the room's speakers.

"Here's your first question!" he began. "Indy told us about one of your friends who recently found unexpected popularity voicing a..." He paused and furrowed his brow, re-reading the question. "Voicing a homicidal partridge in a series of visual novels," he shrugged. "So - including the partridge, how many of the twelve gifts in the song about the Twelve Days of Christmas were birds?"

The grey wolf exhaled, looking to the booth's ceiling as he thought, his lips moving as he silently repeated the song back to himself. Alex waited as he carefully counted off the verses on his fingers.

"Ffff... no, six," he said eventually, dropping his hands back to the arms of the seat.

"Second question!" Alex proceeded without acknowledging the answer. "Another friend has a creative hobby - he paints miniatures for tabletop wargames. What we want to know is - what millennium is the famous futuristic edition of Warhammer set in?"

The wolf leaned back, looking confident for a moment before speaking. "Well, it's 40,000, but that would be the... 41st millennium - which do you want?" he asked.

"I'm the one asking the questions here!" Alex smiled back at him, and tapped on the screen. "The answer here's correct - that's all I'm saying..."

"Okay. So if the first millennium was from one to a thousand... actually, yeah, the 40th," the wolf said, and wriggled upright in the seat as Alex brought the computer up again.

"All right. And your final question," he started, his eyes flicking between the screen and the wolf in the tank. "A third friend is a very talented classical pianist. Do you know much about that genre?"

"Uh, a little..." he answered.

"Well, let's hope so, because Indy asks..." He paused, smiling as the young wolf leaned tensely forwards. "What is the second note of the fourth bar in Lupini's famous Concerto Grosso?"

Alex flopped the computer down to his side and held his other hand out to the young wolf expectantly. Susi's eyes widened a little, but he managed to keep his expression calm, and stroked his hand along his chin as he considered the question thoughtfully.

"Which note did you say?" he asked.

"Don't act as if this is going to help!" The red wolf shook his head with a laugh as he looked down at the question again. "Second note, fourth bar."

Susi put his hands behind his head and stared up at the nozzles above him, exhaling as he considered his choice. "D sharp," he guessed with a smile.

"Okay, that's three questions..." Alex concluded as the tension music faded away into silence. "How do you think you did?"

"Don't know - why don't you tell me?" the grey wolf answered back.

"Oh, it's going to be like that, is it...!" Alex paced towards the tank and faced the wolf inside. "Let's make this quick - you only got two right, so you're going to get gunged..."

Susi's smile broke into a grin as he sagged, gripping the arms of the seat a little tighter. He hunched down a little in readiness, but looked back at the red wolf as he continued.

"However... to make the forfeit a little special, Indy requested that you take those things off first!" Alex pointed downwards, and the wolf looked down in surprise to the pair of briefs hugging him. "So if you wouldn't mind handing them over..."

Susi hesitated, then looked down with a slightly embarrassed grin and dipped his hands below the height of the booth's door, wriggling awkwardly for a few moments and then ducking down. He came up again holding the white underwear in his hand, and pulled his hand back to throw them towards Alex.

The red wolf caught the briefs with a smile just before they flew into his face, then tossed them to the side of the room. "Oh, it's been a while since we did this... nice to revive an old Industrial Zone tradition, isn't it?"

Susi grinned silently, his cheeks glowing as Alex retreated to the side. "Indy, now's your chance," he started as he held a hand up to the embarrassed wolf. "Pull that lever!"

The wolf flinched as there was a loud mechanical clunk, and a couple of rotating warning lights turned on inside the booth as a klaxon began sounding. He half-closed his eyes and trembled, flicking his eyes between the nozzles aimed at him from the front corners of the tank, before yelping as a huge column of yellow gunge splurged over his head.

He ducked under the heavy slime and then straightened up again as the bright yellow ooze cascaded from his head to his shaking shoulders and slithered down his fur, painting it in dripping fingers. He tilted his head a little, making the glistening dome of gunge splash outwards over his head and splatter on the opposite wall, revealing his grinning muzzle underneath. He brought one upturned palm up to catch the stuff as it poured off the side of his head, rubbing his fingers together as it dripped through them to the floor, then ducked fully into the deluge again to get his other side covered. Cupping his hands in front of him, he shook with laughter as the yellow glop splashed off them and ran down his chest and tummy.

The gunge slowly began to run out and Susi straightened up underneath it, staying upright as the dome folded inward and slowly became a steady drizzle that formed a slight mound on the top of his head before slithering off and down his face. He brought his hands up and wiped outwards across his eyes as the drizzle broke into a series of heavy drops, and he just had time to blink them open again before four translucent jets of green goo sprayed at him from the front corners of the tank.

The wolf gave a shrieking bark, holding his hands out in front of him instinctively to defend himself and sending the slime splashing over the booth's door for a moment before he relaxed and leaned back in the seat, throwing his fists in the air. His grin was just visible under the yellow slime dripping across his mouth as the green gunge sprayed over him, mixing with the stuff on his completely yellow-painted fur and slowly slithering down as the colors mingled together. The wolf flinched as the streams rotated lazily, one of them splattering into his face for a moment before arcing over to spray against the gunge-stained back wall.

Susi twisted around a little and shook his head, sending drips of green and yellow slime everywhere, then wiped at his eyes and muzzle again just as the gunge alarm dropped to a lower repeating blare. Knowing what was coming, he quickly straightened up again and put his slippery hands on his lap, just before a click of a valve sounded from the ceiling and he was engulfed by a downpour of black sludge.

The dark gunge poured over the wolf heavily, oozing over the contours of his face and dripping in a stream off his muzzle and into his lap as he stayed upright underneath it. He flinched at the ticklish feeling as it crept around his neck and down his chest, fingers of the stuff oozing and mixing with the yellow slime and forming a sickly green-brown color. Slowly, he raised both hands into the downpour of black stuff, sending a dome of it splattering out the front of the tank before he let it pour back on to his head again.

The black downpour of ooze twitched as an air pocket bubbled out of the nozzle, then slowly began to ease off. The wolf tilted his head back to face up into it for a second before flinching down again and shaking his head, twitching as the green jets of slime slowly weakened and poured over his lap. He sat up, a barely recognizable slimy mess in the midst of a huge black and yellow splatter mark covering the tank's walls, as the alarm faded and finally turned off.

He faced downwards, a mixture of ooze pouring off the end of his muzzle, and opened his eyes, gasping with laughter as the black goop slithered through every strand of his fur. He held his hands up to the sides and looked from left to right at the dripping curtain they formed, then barked as another heavy shower of the stuff slapped on to his head, splattering around the tank. Shaking his head, he looked up at Alex with a grin, his teeth and the whites of his eyes showing up starkly behind the gunge covering his face.

"Susi, you're looking a bit unpleasant - are you okay under all that?" Alex laughed as he approached, sharing the younger wolf's grin and peeking over the tank's door. "Yeah, he's definitely okay..." he said as he stepped back, kicking his feet through the mess of mixed slime that had escaped the tank. "And there's tons of gunge out here as well!"

The young wolf blinked and put his hands on the metallic door to lean forward and look, a stream of off-green gunge slithering slowly down the outside surface from his fingers. As he leaned back in the slime-coated seat, another shower of yellow drips dropped from the nozzle above him, forming a streak on the top of his head that oozed down through the black muck.

"So I'm afraid we're giving the IZ trophy to Indy this week," Alex started as the gungy wolf nodded, holding a hand to his forehead to shield his eyes from the slime dripping off his head. "But you'll get our gift bag and your IZ swim shorts, which you wisely chose not to wear in there... here, you can have these back!" He ducked and scooped the white Y-fronts off the floor and tossed them back towards the wolf. Susi put a hand up to catch them, but missed, and one of the leg holes snagged around his ear.

Alex turned to the front of the room to address the camera, leaving Susi under the still dripping nozzles looking down at his slime-coated fur.

"Time for us to get out of here - we'll get him carted off to the showers, though I think we need to go past the control room for some hugs with Indy before he gets there..."