Amber was relaxing, enjoying a quiet afternoon. Today was one of her few days off, so it was time for some rest, some reading, and hopefully no restorations required.

That plan ended when Scarlett came running in. "Amber! We have to sign up for this weekend's League event!"

Amber sighed and sat up. "Huh? I thought we were just practicing this weekend. What has you so excited?"

Scarlett held up her phone. "They're having a video game themed race, with stuff based on one of the old Donkey Kong Country games! It's using an abandoned factory theme. This is practically made for me!"

Amber looked it over the post on the screen. It was covered with colorful cutouts that resembled Scarlett's old video games. "Saturday at one? I guess we can make that work."

Scarlett jumped, "Yay! I'm going to go train at the mine!"

Scarlett ran back to their room to get changed while Amber continued studying the ad. "Wait, they're firing super heated rocks from cannons?" She looked up and sighed, lamenting the loss of her day off. If Scarlett was this inspired by an event, she couldn't let that go to waste. "So much for staying in one piece today. Scarlett, wait up!"

* * *

The week of practice went fast, Scarlett and Amber were as ready as they were going to be for the race. They were getting dressed in the locker room, putting on the Dust Bunnies Dark Orange tank tops stamped with the team logo, and light brown shorts. Once they were dressed, they started reviewing the League's course notes for race participants.

Amber stretched as she spoke. "Anything good in there?"

Scarlett shuffled through the paper notes. "Mostly what we already knew. They're some rope swinging, they somehow have barrel cannons, and they have machines to represent the enemies from the game." She turned the page to Amber, showing what looked like a cardboard cutout of a bee hanging from the ceiling.

Amber looked highly skeptical. "How did they even make cannons work? And they're still not saying what's where?"

Scarlett shook her head. "Nope. Just that they'll go together somehow. It does say the cannons will fire if we say 'Go.'"

"And that's it?"

Scarlett continued reading. "No. It also says we get a surprise from the Ratpack."

Amber gave Scarlett a confused look before reaching for her toes. "It's their week to play Spoiler again already? Oh wait, that means we're up again in a few weeks. Damn we need to think of something later."

Scarlett was still reading the notes. "Apparently they built an entire maze in here?" Scarlett held up another page, showing Amber the sample maze.

That made Amber pause her routine. "A maze? In a factory?"

Scarlett shrugged. "It says something in there fits the theme and it's more fun this way. We squish whoever is in there, take a key, and move on."

"Weird."

Scarlett turned to the last page. "The last thing in here says we need incapacitate a large robot, and that's the finish line."

Amber laughed. "Sure, that sounds fair. Giant robot versus squishy us."

Scarlett almost looked like she was having second thoughts. "It does sound ominous, but I guess we'll figure it out. I really want to do well this week!"

Amber knew she was serious. "Babe, I've never seen you practice this hard. We're going to do great." She started walking towards the door. "Are you ready? I think we're up soon."

Scarlett tossed the papers to the floor. "You bet!"

* * *

Like most events, there was no live audience or PA system here. Scarlett asked about it once. League officials said, and later Zoe and Jess confirmed, insurance simply wouldn't allow for it. Nobody wanted to pay to separate and restore that many people if something bad happened. So when the ladies were given the green light to begin, they walked out into a large empty room.

The walls were covered in riveted steel plates, as was the platform they stood on. It was on top of a tower standing on a concrete floor. It was tall enough that a fall would almost certainly splatter the victim.

This room had chains hanging from the ceiling. Some were swinging, and others linked into net patterns to climb on. They were suspended high over the cold floor below. Their goal was across a series of similar steel platforms suspended from the ceiling, and reach a conveniently marked Exit door on the other side of the room. Their only method of transportation was to swing and climb.

A single chain was resting on the steel platform they entered on, draped over a hook so they could easily get started.

Amber studied the room. "There are supposed to be a few of these high rise rooms, right?"

Scarlett nodded, "Yes, but each one has an added twist. I don't see anything else dangerous in here yet." She pointed to something  on closest platform. "Nice! Look, they gave us chains to throw to the floor. I was wondering how they would handle something resembling checkpoints."

Amber nodded. That would be useful. "I guess we don't know what the gimmick is in here until we get started." She walked up to the chain they were meant to start with, "Shall we?"

Scarlett walked up, grabbed the chain with one hand, and draped her other arm around Amber. "Alright, let's do this!"

This was the most obvious obstacle for the event, so swinging on one chain together was one of the things they practiced. Much to the disappointment of fans at home, Scarlett and Amber swung gracefully from one chain to another. They crossed the factory floor to the next platform easily without making a mess.

Amber and Scarlett exchanged a high five. Scarlett thrust a fist into the air, "One down!"

Amber pointed ahead, "Yeah, but I count at least another five more of these. Keep you head in the game babe."

Scarlett sheepishly lowered her arm, "Oh, right."

The ladies jumped for the next chain, then grabbed onto another one that was hanging straight down. Amber was reaching to grab the next swinging chain when they heard an ominous buzzing *whap*whap*whap* sound.

They looked up, and saw spinning blades. They almost looked like a helicopter, but were painted with some sort of green armored figure. Blades were slowly descending down both sides of their chain. In fact, it looked like more were slowly descending along every chain between them and the next platform.

Amber did not like what she was seeing. "Oh shoot, Scarlett let's go!"

"Coming!"

The ladies scrambled to continue before they got sliced up. They swung from chain to chain and made it to the next platform, but the pace was clearly wearing on Scarlett.

Amber tried to give some encouragement while jogging in place. "You okay babe? We've gotta keep up the pace!"

Scarlett had her hands on her knees, trying to dry sweat off her hands before the next set of chains. "One sec. Just need a minute to catch my breath here."

"You'll have a minute later, we need to go now if we want a good place in this!" She grabbed Scarlett and started swinging.

It started well, but they were moving pretty fast. On the third chain, Scarlett's grip slipped. "WAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

"Scarlett!" Amber was hanging from the next chain, and could only watch her girlfriend plummet to the floor.

*SPLAAAAT*

Scarlett fell at least 25 feet to the concrete below. Cracks spread through the floor underneath her. Her body expanded on impact, her normal five and a half foot frame spread out over eight in its flattened state.

"Hang on Scarlett, I'll try to get to the next stop and come back for you!" Amber tried to swing ahead, but she spent too much time watching Scarlett's fall. She had to swing low on one chain to stay under the blades. Hanging from the bottom gave her too much momentum for her next jump, sending her too high and into the trap.

"AAAACK!"
*BZZZZZZZT*

The blades sliced clean through Amber as they descended. She split apart midair into neat cylindrical chinks from the head down, as if someone tossed a pile of coins in the air. Each slice took the plunge to the floor.

*SPLAT*SPLAT*SPLAT*SPLAT*SPLAT*SPLAT*

Each Amber coin flattened on impact, creating a collection of colorful dots just short of the next platform on the floor.

Behind her, Scarlett was peeling her arm off the floor
*SHHLLLLLLUUURP*
And used them to peel up her head.
*SHHLLLLLLUUURP*

It did not take her long to see Amber's dots.

"Uh oh! I better get her back together!" Scarlett finished peeling herself off the ground, didn't bother unflattening herself, and waddled over to Amber. She used her wide flat hand as a spatula to get each Amber slice off the ground, and stacked them together. Once the pile was assembled, she smacked it on the top.

*BOOOING*

Amber sprung back up into a crinkled shape. She studied herself before using her hands to smooth herself out. "Ouch...That one stings. You ready to try again?"

Scarlett finally used her thumb to puff herself back into shape. "We're ready for them this time. Let's go."

* * *

After a few more attempts, and a few more face plants, Scarlett and Amber advanced to the next section.

This area was more connected, with no wide open spaces, but continued the industrial theme. The steel scaffolding they stood on wound over several vats of chemicals, and had gears and pistons set up to crush things along the way.

Both ladies studied the course. After a few seconds, Amber pointed to a large object about halfway between them and the other end of the section. "Okay Scarlett, see that gear in the middle? I think it's moving with the pistons."

Scarlett followed Amber's gaze and found the spinning gear. Sure enough, every few seconds, it spun around in time with the pistons. "Okay, so don't go slow there. Do you think we can sneak through the pistons to get there?"

Amber nodded, "Only one way to find out. Let's get moving!"

The duo started running. The early pistons were easy to avoid, almost like they were only there to make sure racers knew they existed. Some came from the ceiling, some crunched together from the side. They were capable of squishing, but they weren't exactly hard to avoid either.

The central gear was another story. They paused again in front of it.

"Amber? I think this is too long to get over without it spinning."

"We've gotta try though, right? You want to try it first or should I?"

Scarlett wiped some sweat off her forehead. "Alright, I'll give this a shot." She waited for the gear to finish a rotation and started running. About two thirds of the way across, she felt the gear lurch forward, ready to spin again.

"Uh oh..."

Amber saw Scarlett jump, but her foot caught one of the gear teeth, killing all of her momentum. She winced, knowing what came next for Scarlett as the gear spun forwards.

*WHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR*
"WHAAAAAAAAH!!!"

The gear must have spun at least 20 times in those few seconds. The first time around, Amber saw Scarlett flattened against the gear with her arms stretched overhead. Each revolution, Amber saw Scarlett's features stretched and smeared more and more against the gear. When it stopped, Scarlett was reduced to a smear of color stretched over about half the gear.

"Well, at least you're still easy to pull off." Amber was pretty sure she was grabbing Scarlett's hands, and started flapping her girlfriend off the gear. Thankfully, when the gear spun again, Scarlett came loose, and Amber was able to reel her in. She gave Scarlett a a few shakes and *POP* got her back to normal.

"Whhhoooooa..." Scarlett stumbled around before falling safely on the ground. "Watch that first step..."

"Yeah. The gear was faster than we thought. I wonder though." Amber watched the gear spin two more times before making her move.

"Watch this babe!" She ran across the gear, and about half way tensed up to jump. The moment Amber felt the gear move underneath her, she jumped forwards, using the gear's momentum to throw herself to the other side.

After sticking the landing, Amber raised her arms victoriously. "See Scarlett! It's easy!"

Scarlett yelled back from the other side. "Okay! But watch for that piston!"

"What are you HUUUUURK!!!"
*SLAM!*

Amber made it far enough across that she was not in a safe area. A piston came down from the ceiling, crunching her body into a disk on the floor. It went right back up to the ceiling shortly after, revealing a comically mostly flattened Amber. Her feet were still sticking out the bottom of her pancaked body, allowing her waddle out from under the smasher. Her eyes and hair were popped out of the top as well, which looked ridiculous, but let her see where she was going.

The Amber disk hopped up and down a few times with angry eyes, before it bulged on the top and *POP* returned to a normal size. She shook herself off, slapping her face a few times. "Alright Scarlett, come across! I'll catch you!"

Scarlett looked unsure of herself. "Are you sure?!"

"Yes! We don't have time to dilly dally!"

Scarlett tried to look determined. She still wasn't confident in this plan, but Amber was right. They did need to put up a good time, and this was *her* event. After the next gear spin, she sprinted over the gear again.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" she yelled, putting all of her energy into it.

When the gear spinned, Scarlett jumped. Except she timed it too early, and got no momentum from it.

"Whooooa not again!"
"Scarlett! Jump again!"

Scarlett heard Amber as the world slowed down around her. She kicked blindly towards the spinning hear as she landed, hoping to vault off it and gain its momentum this time. To everyone's surprise, it worked, and she flew straight into Amber's arms.

"Ooooof!" both girls had the wind knocked out of them. Scarlett hit Amber too much speed, knocking both of them backwards on to their backs.

Right under the crusher.

*WHAM!*
*SLAM!*

Both ladies were messily splattered on the floor. They were still recognizable as themselves, but their bodies did not hold together for a clean flattening. Hair looked like spilled ink, and flattened features blurred together.

"Sorry Amber. I guess I jumped at a weird angle."

"It's okay, we'll get out of here and-HRRRRRRRRRRRK"

*SMASH*

The brown and orange puddle of Amber finished, "soon...ow."

* * *

After reconstituting, Scarlett and Amber crossed into a room structured much like the first. A large open floor plan, with both ladies on a steel platform high above the floor below. The difference was this room had barrels instead of chains.

Scarlett was jumping and smiling. "I knew they'd make these things work somehow!"

Amber looked at the one in front of them with a healthy dose of skepticism. "Scarlett, how the hell are they going to make barrel cannons work? I mean, we can't just touch them and WHOA!"

"Go find out for us Amber!" Scarlett was shoving Amber into the back of the cannon next to them.

*THUWUUUMP*

As soon as Amber touched the back of the barrel, it started sucking in everything around it like a vacuum out for revenge. Her shirt got sucked in first. Amber was trying to pull herself away, but the barrel kept tugging. She felt her stomach pinch and get pulled through the side of the barrel. "Whooooah! This feels weird!"

Amber's body started folding on itself as the barrel pulled relentlessly. As more of her body touched the barrel, she was pulled in through more slats. Her chest and legs mushed up against the sides, before splitting into multiple streams of Amber flowing into the barrel. Her face looked completely baffled that such a feat was possible, before it too mushed up and oozed inside.

"You okay in there Amber?" Scarlett was a little flushed from watching her girlfriend get torn apart and sucked in, but she tried to keep herself together.

Amber's voice sounded distant, echoing from inside the cannon. "Uuuuuh, maybe? I think I'm in one piece again. I can't feel anything though. I'm forget how to to make this thing go thWHOOOOOOOOAAAA!"

*BANG*

With Amber saying "Go" the barrel fired. Scarlet watched a large, round, cannonball shaped Amber fly through the air, before striking and getting sucked into another barrel. It wasn't as satisfying to watch her get sucked into a barrel from this distance, but the process looked the same. The second barrel started moving, swinging along contraptions hanging from the ceiling, forcing its cannonball to think about when to fire.

"Damn it Scarlett where are you?! You're the one that likes these crazy games and knows when to go!"

She realized her mistake. "Ooops"

*BANG*
*SPLOOOOOOOOOOSH*

Amber was fired completely off course. The orange and brown cannonball went no where near any other cannons, and splattered on the ground instead. Amber burst apart like a goopy waterballoon on impact.

Scarlett winced, "Ooof...right, don't randomly say go. I need to help Amber get together so I can go for a ride." She climbed down to the area between platforms, and help mold Amber back into shape.

* * *

Scarlett stood with her back to the cannon, looking at Amber. "You watching me babe?"

Amber rolled her eyes, "Yes Scarlett, I want to see how you handle this."

Scarlett smiled and fell backwards into the cannon. Amber watched as Scarlett's body collapsed against the barrel and oozed inside. "Wow...okay, you were right Scarlett, that does look pretty cool."

"Told ya!" Scarlett's voice echoed from inside the cannon. "Here I GOOOO!"

*BANG*

Amber watched the Scarlett cannonball fly through the air and get sucked into the next cannon. With the benefit of watching Amber's accident, Scarlett had little trouble navigating to the next platform. It held what amounted to a large in-floor tub for racers to splat and reform in.

Scarlett was able to quickly pull herself out of her puddle, and wave back to Amber. "Come on babe, it's easy!" She looked around and found a ladder to toss into the gap, effectively making her side a checkpoint.

Amber grumbled and dove back into the cannon. She took more time than she would like, not being as familiar with these things as Scarlett clearly was, but still made it across safely.

"Yay! You did it!"

"Okay Scarlett, now what?"

Scarlett skipped towards the next cannon. "We do it again!" She dove headfirst into the side, getting sucked in like before.

"Okay, I'll catch up with you in a minute."

"Don't wait too long Amber. Just stay a barrel behind so you know where to..." Scarlett waited on the barrels ahead of her to line up, "GO!"

*BANG*

Again, a dark red and orange cannonball flew threw the air from barrel to barrel. Amber took Scarlett's advice, and tried to stay one barrel back.

After the first few shots, they heard the next gimmick appear.

*BZZZZZZZZZ*

Both ladies looked from their cannons and saw buzz saws coming down from the ceiling. They were each flanked cutouts of bees attached to the sides. None of the saws came for the barrels themselves, but they did position themselves in inconvenient places between them.

"Ugh, not the bees..." grumbled Scarlett."

Amber could barely hear her teammate through the buzzing noises. "WHAT DO WE DO NOW? ARE YOU OKAY WITH THIS?"

"I think so? We just need to be careful when we go-"

*BANG*
*BZZZZZZZZZZZ*
"AAAAAAAAAH!"

Amber didn't have the best viewpoint, but she could see Scarlett fire directly into one of the saws. Her body was no match for polished steel, and got ripped in half by it. Both halves of the Scarlett orb flew off course, and both eventually splattered on the ground below.

"Aaaaah...whoops?"

Amber took a deep breath. This was going to be an experience.

* * *

After clearing their artillery course, the ladies walked into a room that more or less resembled and entry hall. It had two separate doors opposite their entrance, and a large map of a maze between them. Amber and Scarlett approached to study it.

Scarlett was looking for any useful information. "Oh yeah, they did say there would be a maze here somewhere."

"Yup. Someone from the Ratpack is in here to play Spoiler this week. They enter when we do, and they have a key that gets us out of here." Amber pointed to the middle. "She should be in the middle, here. She'll have something to squish us with, so a frontal assault is not recommended. Somewhere in there is something to help get her, and all we know is 'it fits the theme.'"

Scarlett nodded. "Okay. So, I go left you go right?"

"Sure. Good luck!"

They walked in.

* * *

Amber turned another corner in the large maze. It was mostly steel walls, but occasional sections were made of Brick. She walked up to the first few she saw to confirm they were really not made of steel. Each time, she felt the scrape of bricks. They were built solid enough to not tumble over with a push either. Amber could only wonder why they existed in the first place.

Despite investigating the walls, Amber was moving quickly. She knew whoever was in here from The Ratpack would know how to navigate the maze even faster, so she could not waste time looking for whatever was supposed to help them.

Unfortunately, she found a dead end. Worse,

"Is that you Amber? It's not like you to get cornered like this."

Amber turned and recognized the Asian woman standing behind her. She was 5 foot 2 inches tall, had long black hair, sexy curves, and the strength to wield a very large wooden club. It was practically a small tree trunk with a 6 inch diameter, looking ridiculous in her hands at 4 feet long, but Amber knew she trained with those things a lot.

She probably wasn't escaping this cleanly. Amber knew she had to stall for Scarlett. She sighed.

"Hello Yuki. Good to see you again! Is that a new club?"

Yuki's eyes lit up. "Yes! I carved it last weekend and-Hey wait a minute. I'm not supposed to let you distract me. You want this." She held up on old fashioned key on a leather cord around her neck, shaking it at Amber before shoving it back between her boobs.

She raised her club. "I think your efforts are going to fall flat!"

*WHAM*

Amber dodged to the side of Yuki's smash, trying to scramble by her. *I need to get around her and keep searching. If I can figure out where my weapon is, or at least lead her on a chase so Scarlett can find something, I've done well.*

*WHAM*

Yuki's club swung into the wall as Amber rolled by, and took off through the maze.

"You can run Amber, but remember, we build this maze!"

Amber made a right turn running away, then ran right again around the next corner. She wanted to go left, but she didn't see any other options. After 2 more right turns, she realized she was getting herded in a circle, right back to Yuki.

Who was waiting with her club raised high.

*WHAM*
*SQUOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH*

Amber raised her arms reflexively to catch the club as it came crashing down on her, but it was far too heavy. Her arms crunched out to the sides, her chest crumpled. Her knees bent trying to support the weight, but they too snapped and were forcibly spread on the floor as Amber's entire body was mushed into a six foot pancake.

"Gotcha! Alright, now to find your partner. I hope it's Scarlett, she's always fun to play with. See you at the party tomorrow!" Yuki waved to the disk and trotted off, club slung over her shoulder.

Amber focused on peeling her arms off the ground.
*SHLURP*SHLURP*

She used those to start pulling her head up from the rest of her.
*POP*

She looked around "Well don't I look ridiculous, a normal sized head over a large splat of myself. Yuki's too nice though, I've had worse."

Amber stuck her thumb into her mouth and started blowing. Parts of her body started inflating around the edges of her disk. Once she had a full ring of air on the outside she started shaking, before.

*VVVVVVVVVVV*

Her body sprung up like an accordion, bouncing up and down in place. Amber scratched her head. "Accordion? Really? I didn't think Yuki smashed me this hard!" Amber started hopping down the hall, making loud dissonant noises as she hopped, until finally popping back to normal around the next corner. This time she went the other way, and one more corner later...

"What is this? Looks like one of those barrels from earlier. But why does this one have a Rhino head stamped on it?"

Amber approached the barrel cautiously. "Does this do anything if I touch it WHOOOOOOOOOOOAAAH!"

* * *

Scarlett wasn't the best with mazes. She knew the answer wouldn't be simple, but she went with a left hand rule, following the wall to her left until she couldn't any more.

She fulled expected to have gotten lost, but she kept finding new territory.

She even passed by a spot marked "exit." She made sure it really was locked, but the fact she got to the other side of the maze surprised her.

She went past a few more corners before running into her opponent.

Yuki jumped and smiled. "Scarlett! Good to see you again!"

Scarlett quickly spun around to go back the way she came. "Whoops, sorry Yuki, can't talk, going this way now."

Yuki chased her, giggling. "Scarlett come back! I need to show you my new club!"

"Oh I'm sure it's nice Yuki but I'll check it out lat-HURK!"

*WHAM*

Yuki smashed Scarlett from behind, flattening her face to the floor. Her legs were bent up at the knees, her arms splayed out to the sides, and her whole body spread out about twice as wide as normal.

Yuki laughed. "Nice, I got both of you! I'm going to see if I can find Amber again. Have fun getting up! See you soon!" She scampered off into the maze again.

Scarlett slowly peeled her arms off the ground. She pulled her head out of the splat and called into the maze. "Uuugh...Yuki! The weight's nice but you need to do that slower so it doesn't sting!" She jammed her thumb into her mouth and puffed *POP* herself back into three dimensions.

"Now where was I going..." Scarlett started looking around. :"I just hope I don't run into Yuki again."

* * *

Scarlett encountered Yuki for at least a fifth time.

*WHAM*
*SPLAT*

All Scarlett could think, as she tried to pull herself off the wall, was Amber must be really good at hiding. It was hard for her to move at all anymore from being constantly flattened. Every time she got herself back together, Yuki came back, saying "Sorry, couldn't find Amber!" before reintroducing her club.

Scarlett managed to peel a gooey tendril of herself off the wall. She was pretty sure this one had a hand on it, not that it mattered. She was already dripping down the wall, unable to maintain a solid form due to her constant pulverizing.

When she finished collapsing into a puddle on the ground, Yuki laughed again. "Sorry Scarlett, just business, you know how it is. I'm going to do a quick Amber check and come back for you, so don't go too far!" She left the area, walking around a corner.

*Grrr...Must...pull...body...together...* Scarlett's goop shook and tried to pull itself together, but Scarlett was out of energy.  The red and orange goop along the wall just jiggled.

Yuki's footsteps echoed around the hallways, growing quieter before she found a loop and returned to Scarlett's room. "Oof, looks like I did go a little too hard on you." She ran a finger through Scarlett to confirm she was as bad as she looked, then hefted her club over her shoulder. "Good luck with the rest Scarlett, I think I owe you a drink later."

Yuki started to walk away when a loud rumble started echoing through the halls. "What the heck? Oh no Amber found it."

Scarlet managed to get her eyes into position to watch what was about to happen.

*CRAAAAASH*
*SQUIIIIIIIIIIIISH*

Scarlett saw an Amber colored rhino break through the brick wall behind Yuki. *OOOOOH IT WAS A RHINO BARREL! I wanna ride it.*

Yuki tried to back away, but she couldn't escape Amber. The rhino's front legs landed directly on her head, crushing it like a squeeze toy. Her eyes popped out, hair fraying out behind her, as her head was disappeared into her chest. Her arms flailed as her body compressed and widened in all directions under Amber's girth. Yuki's legs crunched like aluminum cans, and her butt spread out on the floor as Amber squished her.

When Amber's forelegs struck the ground, Yuki's body had no where else to go. She splattered everywhere, leaving behind a gooey mess.

Amber looked around and identified the puddle in the corner as her girlfriend. "Hey babe, need a lift?"

Seeing Amber energized Scarlett enough to pull a loose semblance of her figure together. She crawled to Amber, bits of her dragging behind. "Yeah. And let's not forget this!" She reached into the epicenter of Yuki's splat and pulled out a key on a necklace.

"Sorry Yuki, I guess we owe you a drink now too." Scarlett shlurped onto Amber, and they ran off for the exit to the maze.

* * *

Shortly after leaving the maze, they entered another barrel cannon. It fired the the ladies through a tunnel to another large room. Unfortunately, after reforming from landing, Amber was in her normal shape.

This room was full of smaller gaps, no chains or additional strange barrels. About half way through, their view of the path went away, and everything appeared to go downhill.

Scarlett walked out first. "Okay, they wouldn't leave us with something this simple. What's happening here?"

*BANG*
"What?"
*SPLISH!!*

A large fireball crashed into Scarlett's side. The intense heat sent a shock down her spine, as her body completely gave in to the urge to melt and give way to the rock. She gasped as she flowed around the rock and collapsed into a puddle.

Amber watched the fireball cut through her girlfriend, leaving Scarlett's head floating above a ring of her liquidy self, shimmering and smiling as she splashed to the ground, and had to remind herself she was in a race. "Come on! Get it together Scarlett!"

She dragged the Scarlett goop aside just before another fireball crashed through, and started arranging her into a humanoid shape. Scarlett's body felt like chewed up bubblegum. "You there hon?"

Scarlett's colors started rearranging into her normal appearance as she solidified. "Mmm, I think so. That was a fun surprise."

Amber looked up every time a fireball crashed through, worried at first they were both about to get splattered again. As Scarlett reformed, and she had time to study them, she noticed the pattern of their shots. "Oh you know, these things are on timers. We just need to run between the shots."

"Makes sense. I always hated the owls in these games." She pointed at the source of the attacks. Sure enough, there were cutouts of owls painted above the cannons, positioned to look like they were carrying them.

Amber nodded. "Alright, so let's get moving."

The ladies started advancing cautiously, watching the walls to look for turrets. They moved a little slower than Amber would like, but they also didn't get crushed by flaming cannonballs, so she considered it good progress.

By their judgment, they were about half way through this section. Scarlett paused. "Hang on a second Amber, I need to catch my breath."

Amber paused. "Okay, but not too long. We're almost there." She took a few steps forward to see if anything would trigger.

One shot crossed in front of her from the left.
Another came from the right about step ahead.
"Both sides this time? I guess we need to look in both dire-HUUUURK"
*SQUOOOOOOOOOOSH*
A third shot came straight down from the ceiling, splattering Amber into a melty five foot puddle.

Scarlett fell to her knees, looking wide eyed at Amber's sizzling splat. "Oh shit that looked good. I need one of these for home." She shook her head, remembering where she was, and scrambled to Amber's side. Scarlett barely pulled her away from the next shot, grabbing hold of the edge of the splat and dragging it out, leaving a streak of color on the ground.

Amber slowly gathered herself together. "Uuugh...It does feel nice and warm, but I would have liked more warning."

Scarlett extended a hand. "Here."

Amber took it, and started drawing herself out of her puddle, SHLUUUURPING up as she stitched herself back together.

They looked around for more cannons. Finding none, they worked out the timing and proceeded.

* * *

Amber helped Scarlett climb the large staircase to the middle of the room. Each step was four feet tall. Individually, none of the climbs were hard, but one right after the other was draining their stamina. At the top, they could see a mostly downhill stretch that went to the door signaling the end of this area.

Amber directed Scarlett's eyes down the hill. "Okay, almost there. All downhill from here."

Scarlett smiled, glad to be done climbing. "Yeah, should be easy now that we have a process for finding these cannons."

*CLACK**CLACK**CLACK**CLACK**CLACK**CLACK**CLACK**CLACK*

On cue, hundreds of panels down along the walls of the final stretch flipped over, revealing turrets. Some were aimed where they stood.

Both ladies gulped. "Uh oh."

*BANG*

They ran, scampering down the path, dodging and dipping and diving. They didn't get far before Scarlett tripped, falling face down on the floor.

"Ack!"
"Scarlett!"
"Go go I'll catch UAAAAAH"
*SQUOOOOOOSH*

The shot hit Scarlett's legs, reducing them to a flat goopy mess behind her. Her top half tumbled forward from the blast, splitting from her legs, gooey strands from her waist failing to hold herself together.

"Ack, damn sloped floor. Stop rolling body!" She eventually got her arms out and stopped tumbling. "Okay, I need to get my legs back, focus, and just maybe I can catch up before...Huh?"

Scarlett looked around. Her leg goop was flowing down the slope, dripping and sliding around her.

"Now there's a thought." She started paddling her arms as if she were body surfing. "Hey Amber, catch the wave!"

Amber was ahead of her, dancing through shots. She looked back upon hearing Scarlett's voice. "What? The wave?"

"ACK!" Two shots melted her arms off, leaving her standing next to two peach puddles, dripping at the shoulders.

"Oooooh myyyy..." Scarlett licked her lips. She had seen too much melting Amber today to hold herself together any longer. "That does look good blllbblbbllb..." Still staring at her dripping girlfriend, Scarlett completely melted into the wave of herself. It was already starting to flow fast, and with the extra goop from a full Scarlett, there was enough for Amber to legitimately slide in.

The wave picked Amber up from behind, and even grew a little larger from picking up her arms. "Babe I'm not sure this is a good ideaaaaaa! Whooooah!" She was sitting in her girlfriend, sliding down the slope, and shots were flying all around them. Scarlett was flowing downhill fast enough that the cannons couldn't time their shots.

Amber smiled, giving in to the downhill rush. "Oh wow I can't believe this is working! We might actually get down there faster and-pfffthahahahahaa! Hey stop tickling me back there!"

While she was stuck in a tickle fit, neither of them noticed they were actually going to reach the bottom of the hill.

"Stop tickling meHAHAHAHAHA-"

*SLAM!*

Scarlett crashed against the wall spectacularly. The wall and floor near it were covered with her colors, drops splattering everywhere for several feet around the impact. Amber was flattened against the wall, knees up and out. The only good thing about her predicament was her arms. They were painted on the wall next to her posterized self. She was also with dripping with Scarlett.

Amber slid down the wall, folding on top of herself in the ground, her face staring at the ceiling. "Well, at least that was fast."

It took several seconds before Amber's floppy body snaked up into the air, and *POP* returned to three dimensions. She looked around at the mess that was Scarlett, and started dragging her back together again.

* * *

Once Scarlett collected herself, she and Amber walked through the door. The hallway inside was a dimly lit, but otherwise fitting with the industrial theme of the course. Their footsteps echoed through the steel passage.

Amber took the lead. "What do you think is in here Scarlett? You're the gamer of the two of us."

"Well, this is a dark room after a lot of other things. You think the giant robot is here?"

Amber looked back, a little spooked. "Oh yeah, the giant robot. They don't really expect us to deal with one, do they?"

An arc of electricity zapped Amber, lighting her up. She floated off the ground, skeleton flashing, as she fried in front of Scarlett.

When it was over, Amber stood hunched over, her hair and ponytail sticking out on ends. She mumbled, "I guess they can..." as her legs fell to dust beneath her. She tried to look over her shoulder at what attacked her, but the rest of her body crumbled into a pile of Amber dust on the floor.

Scarlett knew Amber would need a little time to recover from that. She ran ahead, looking at the giant robot coming down from the ceiling. "Come at me ya big bucket of bolts!"

She looked around for anything that might be useful. The walls were cluttered with chains and shelves of stuff. Scarlett knew how these games worked, and searched for anything large to throw. There was no way they expected anyone to jump high, after all.

Then Scarlett saw the barrel. "Oh my. If only Jessica was here." Scarlett ran to the TNT and tried to lift it.

"HHHRRRRRRRRRRNGH!!!" It was heavy. Scarlett could barely heft it over her head.

The robot started hovering down towards the ground. Scarlett moved in, winding up to throw the barrel.

Scarlett was still balancing herself back and forth trying to line up a shot. The robot came down low enough, that he flames from its rocket started flaring out on the floor. Some of them caught the barrel.

The color drained from Scarlett's face. "Oh no."
*KABOOOOOM*

Amber was just starting to pull herself back together when she heard the explosion. She looked at the fireball, and saw a charred Scarlett standing in its wake.

"Scarlett! Are you okay?"

"Amber, remind me to lift more." Scarlett fell backwards, her body exploding into a cloud of dust on impact with the ground.

Amber looked back up at the robot, and saw electricity building up around its antenna again.

*ZAAAAAP*

Amber dove to the side, just avoiding the lighting bolt. She kept diving and rolling around the room, not really interested in disintegrating again. She took a little time between blasts to look around the room while Scarlett was slowly pulling herself together.

Without Scarlett's bias towards looking for barrels, Amber looked a little closer at the details along the wall. She found something interesting near the exit door. She pulled a switch labeled "Robot Power." The Robot's eyes dimmed with a loud "power down" sound.

Scarlett's voice sounded exhausted. "Hey Amber, did that switch do it?"

Amber looked at the freshly restored Scarlett, standing directly underneath the robot. "I think it's off now Scarlett, but you better move."

"Huh?"

*SQUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISH*

Without the power on, the robot crashed to the floor, crushing Scarlett underneath. The Robot fell on her head, the residual heat on the engines making short work of her solidity. Scarlett was forced to the ground, bits of her splashing out as the robot finished the job of squishing her.

When the robot fell away from the door, Amber saw the flattened, messy, eight foot wide Scarlett pancake. She looked at the shelf next to her, grabbed a bucket, and walked over to inspect the damage.

Scarlett's mushy eyes looked in Amber's general direction. "Remind me not to blow myself up under robots again."

"Sure thing babe. Let's get out of here though." Amber scraped Scarlett into the bucket, and carried her out the door to the finish.

* * *

Scarlett and Amber rested in the locker room while the other teams finished the course. To their surprise, they finished with the third best time. That forced them to wait around a little longer for interviews before returning home tired, but happy. After dinner, they watched the highlights together.

Scarlett was fiddling with her hair, not believing what she was seeing. "I still can't believe we finished in third with all of our recovery time. Did that many teams have trouble with the swinging ropes?"

Amber laid an arm across her back, giving her a quick hug. "Looks like it. That, and you did figure out the cannons faster than anyone else."

Scarlett blushed "Yeah...Oh, How much extra do we get paid for that?"

"Enough to pay the bills next month. Now if only you didn't blow yourself up..."

Scarlett shook off Amber's arm. "Heeeey!"

Amber raised her arms defensively. "Okay, okay, that was only a small mistake. But we did find out you make a good water slide."

"Oh thanks for reminding me. As if the interviews didn't focus on that enough." Scarlett rolled her eyes. "But you know, we do need one of those hot rock cannons for you."

Amber stuck out her tongue. "Pffft. Was it really that good to see me splatter?"

Scarlett walked towards the bathroom. "I mean, all I need to do is think about you."

Amber saw her starting to drip and laughed. "That easy huh? You know, maybe we are lucky. You melting at anything happening to me really helped us in that room."

Scarlett sat on the edge of the tub and waved her arm, dismissing the comment. Her dripping arm struck the side of the tub, and the force stretched it so much it fell off her shoulder. Scarlett looked at the arm and the messy tendrils collecting in the tub. She looked a little surprised, but only shrugged.

"Just get in here babe."

She leaned back and fell in, a splash of her colors visible over the edge.

"Of course!" Amber eagerly stripped down, and hopped into her girlfriend for a relaxing evening.