"Thanks for having me back. I wasn't sure you wanted to see me again after my overpowered character last time."

Jessica shrugged. "It's alright Ally. We needed someone else to run a game so the four of us could play together for once."

Scarlett unpacked her dice in front of her, adding "That and she wanted to play with higher level characters with strange abilities."

Ally looked to her four players. "Alright, we might as well get to it. What is everyone playing anyway?"

Scarlett put down a mini wearing loose blue silks, and a fist raised in the air. A strip of blue swirled around her, made to look half like cloth and half like water. "I'm playing an Undine, one of those half humans half water elementals. She's trained as a monk. Her clothes almost look like currents of water moving around her. Her strikes kinda stretch from her with quick splashes, but when she gets angry they're like fire hoses. Few can withstand the pressure of a frontal assault."

She grinned, happy with her monk.

Zoe couldn't help but ruin the moment. "That assumes she stays solid though. Either she's turning into a puddle punching too hard, or she's melting into one watching herself flow around the room."

Scarlett blushed and shrugged, eliciting laughs from the table.

"Well if you're done." Amber placed her mini, a beautiful woman wearing a stiff red vest. "She's a human Ifrit, actually born in the fire plane. The vest looks fancy, but it's more about staying cool."

Scarlett chuckled and nudged her girlfriend. "So you're saying you're hot stuff?"

There was a brief moment of dead silence until Jessica said "Boooo!"

Amber smiled and shook her head. "Yes, she's literally made of fire. If you stare into her eyes you'll think fire is threatening to erupt from her body at any moment, and her friends know that threat is real. She trained as a sorcerer, and is more than capable of incinerating threats to ashes in less than a second."

She leaned over towards Scarlett to end her speech. "She can even let her body crumble to ash, and reform from her flames on the scorched battlefield."

Scarlett visibly had steam coming out her ears at that.

Zoe rolled her eyes. "Well, while you're burning everything in sight, I'll be looking good over here."

She put down a mini dressed in flowing silks, many of which looked transparent. "She's as quiet as a spring breeze. Her hair is always waving in the air just to look cool. If you look close enough, you can see her always hovering just an inch off the ground."

Zoe ran a hand along her braid, flourishing it as if it was also in the wind. "She Sylph heritage, and she uses the winds to sneak around undetected. Even if someone does manage to slice and squish her, she'll just turn into a puff of smoke and get back to normal. Just think of her as a less evil assassin type."

Ally smiled. "I'm loving these neat ideas! What about you Jess?"

Jess raised her arm dramatically over her head, and as carefully as she could without disrupting the table, brought her mini down hard on the table.

"Oreads are about as subtle as the rocks they are made from, so it makes sense to play the fighter. She wears an official looking green and brown uniform, a tabard over thick light steel chains. The armor is a little light for a front line fighter, but anyone who says that hasn't ever seen her become a hulking mountain of stone."

Jess paused and flexed at that, pretending to burst right through her shirt.

"Sure she knows how to use weapons, but whenever a true challenge appears, she's more likely to leap in the air and become a crushing boulder. Even if she shatters on impact, she's more than capable of rebuilding her body, brick by brick."

Ally smiled. "That does sound pretty good. Practically indestructible. I'm surprised you didn't go bigger after what I made you deal with."

Jess laughed. "Oh, next time? I'll bring you the real squishing machine. This just fits the theme."

* * *

Satisfied with party's characters, Ally got the part moving.

"Right then. So for tonight, you've been following a lead on your 'Duchess' to a nearby city. You've been tracking a set of powerful magic items going missing, some of which you think she needs for some desperate last effort. You arrive to dire news. There's been a recent spat of explosions across the city. Besides angering denizens with constant disintegrations requiring varying levels of restoration, there's been a lot of less restorable property damage. You were checking on your target item during one of these incidents, and while everyone rushed to the explosion, you stopped the item from being stolen out from under the constables's noses."

"You easily stop the goblins and their wood golem, but it doesn't add up. Witnesses to the explosion claim they saw larger creatures in cloaks with ash-red skin lurking through the shadows with each incident. You start tracking them, find their tracks path back and forth from the city. You're currently lying in wait for them along their path through the forest."

Ally reached into a back and pulled out four red "miniatures" that towered above everyone else's. They were large if not huge females wearing light leather armor. Some would question whether it provided any protection at all, but then giants usually didn't worry about getting squished by normal sized people.

Jessica chuckled at the sight of the fire giants. "I should have known you always go big."

Ally winked back. "Well, you know what they say. The bigger they are, the louder they squish. Each one is carrying a large sack. None appear in perfect health, as if they've been dealing with something else. They're armed though, you can immediately tell these aren't run of the mill stone throwing idiot giants. So with that...what do you do?"

* * *

Jess stepped out from her hiding place in the trees to confront the four oncoming giants.

"STOOOOOOP!"

The giants stopped and made a show of looking around in mock confusion.

"Did you hear something?"
"Nope, just us."
"Must be some small woodland creature squeaking. Nothing important."

Jess rolled her eyes. "HEY! Down here you big lugs!"

This time the giants calmly looked down on Jess standing alone in the woods. They snorted and chuckled while their leader spoke.

"Listen tiny one. Either you move, or we squish. Your choice."

Jessica's deep brown skin took on a rocky texture. Her shoulders were bulking up, puffing her clothing away from her body.

"You can try if you like. But we really need to know what you know about the explosions in-HURRRRRK!"

*SQUISH*
*CRUMBLE*

The giant stomped and twisted her boot into the ground. Jessica crumbled under it, chunks of her scattering all around the size 30 boot. The giant lifted her foot and saw two large amethyst eyes painted like powdered chalk in the dirt, staring at her. "I will never get tired of stomping tiny adventurers. They smear so easily! Now let's-"

*RUMBLE*RUMBLE*

Huge stone fists popped out of the ground, grabbing the giant's ankles. She tried to jump back in shock, but lost her balance and fell backwards. Her windmilling arm knocked her hood off and let her bright orange hair spill out.

The hands grew into arms, and huge Jessica shaped earth elemental climbed out of the earth. Towering over the fallen giant, she glared at the rest while they scrambled to draw their rarely used blades.

"Don't say we didn't ask nicely."

Jess jumped and tucked her legs, spinning in the air until her whole body turned into a huge boulder. She crashed into the giant's shins, flattening her body like a tube of toothpaste with a very satisfying squish sound. Her legs spread out in a pair of red and leather ripples. There was an extra yelp, half surprise and half pleasure, when Jess forced her mass up to her hips and squished them, plastered her giant butt to the ground. The rest of her torso and chest got sucked under the boulder and smeared about shortly, ending one threat.

*SQUOOOOOOOOSH*
"AAAAAAAEEEEEEP!!!"

Jess rolled at the other giants. They scattered out of the way, letting her crash into a large tree.

*SPLOOOSH*

The ball of earth crashed, sending mud and rock crumbling everywhere. Within seconds, Jessica's purple eyes floated up, and earth and stone collected around them to begin her assault anew.

Jess lifted her hands to spin her head around on her neck, spinning it into its proper place with a loud *CRAAAAAANK*. "Let's get 'em!"

"Nice bluff! If you can't hold together after something as simple as that we'll-"

*SHWIP*
*SPLAT*

The giant's friends turned around to see why she stopped talking. They found her body standing without a head, her neck a smooth sheet of fire-giant-red flesh. Her head was splattered on the ground, looking like melting ice cream after its fall.

She put her arms up to fight. "Where are you?! Come out and fight me!"

"Fiiiiiine."

Zoe floated out of the trees, her braid fluttering in the air behind her. She swung her curved dagger into the air, releasing a vertical focused blade of air through the giant.

*SPLOOOOSH*

The giantess's body burst open down the middle in reddish goo, sliced in half by the assassin. She started peeling apart towards the ground.

"Oh no, you don't get to just pick yourself up."

Zoe kicked in the air and sped towards the collapsing fire giant. She was lined up to drop kick her, but once she got close, she wound up her arms and spun.

*WHOOOOSH*

Zoe became a whirlwind, drawing in the split giant and tearing her up like a blender. Bits of fire giant colors got tossed around the clearing. Red stained a tree, a strip of leather armor draped over a branch, until only her separated legs remained intact.

Zoe stopped spinning, holding up the giant's dagger in both arms. "Hey ladies, look what I found!"

Her arms creaked and buckled. It was bigger than she thought.

*SQUISH*

"AAAAH HA HA HA!"

The last two giants laughed at Zoe. Now aware of their attackers, they kept an eye on Jessica and looked around for more trouble.

It found them. One felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned and saw a red haired woman with a blue tinted arm stretched all the way up to her neck level.

Scarlett's face looked disappointed in the giant. "You should have stopped."

The giant grabbed her arm and yanked her up. "And what are you going to do about it little one? Just because you can stretch doesn't mean-"

*KICK*

Scarlett snapped the giant's neck as she flew into the air. She stretched her arms around the giant, extending them into huge streams of water. Once she wrapped them around her foe, she flung herself down feet first.

*STOMP*
*SQUISH*

The giant's head was flattened onto her shoulders, most of its mass forced into her chest.

Scarlett swung to the ground, spinning around the giant. Her bluish arms practically melted around the giant, flowing around her as a solid wall of water. When Scarlett landed, she turned, breathed deep, and pulled her arms together.

*SQUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISH*

They squeezed and compressed the giant, and when Scarlett sucked her arms back into a normal state, the giant was a 4 foot tall red ball, with an angry face and oversized leather corset printed on.

"Grrrrr! Let me go!"

By now the last giant was visibly worried. Three powerful foes, and only herself left. She raised her sword and charged at Jessica, still a giant earth elemental relaxing against a tree.

*KABOOM*

The fire giant paused, disapointed at the explosion. She turned, shaking her head at the a sorceress in red. She still had fire her eyes and smoke rising from her hand.

"Really? A fireball? You know we're fire giants, right?"

Amber breathed steadily, her eyes still alight. She closed them, and moved her hands around, fire lighting around her.

"I'll give you one more shot. But if you're really friends with these fools, you should know better than to waste fire spells on me."

Amber's eyes opened with a small burst of fire. "COME TO ME, LITTLE JOEY!"

"Little Joey? Who the hell is-"

*STOMP*
*SQUIIIIIIIIIISH*

A gargantuan T-Rex, it's own skin crackling with fiery red energy, appeared in the air about the giant. As immune to fire as the giant was, she was not immune to being squished. She collapsed all the way from 10 feet tall to a satisfyingly squishy 30 foot gooey splatter, prevented from perfectly pancaking when lumps of her body squished up against the surrounding trees.

* * *

There were high fives all around the table.

Amber hugged her dice "He's so cute! I can't believe we forgot about him for so long."

Jess shuffled the papers in front of her with a satisfied grin. "You know, I could get used to an over powered character like this."

Amber chuckled. "Me too. But give me something not immune to fire next time!"

"Sorry Amber." Ally had a knowing smile. "There will be plenty for fire to use later. Right now, you notice how strangely not-scorched that giant's bag is. Clearly whatever they were carrying was fireproofed."

Zoe leaned in and scratched her chin. "Oooo, loot! What WERE they carrying?"

"Well Zoe, they were couriers. And the bags are moving..."

* * *

Zoe and Scarlett both opened the sacks their giants were carrying, while Amber and Jess came over to assist. The weird movements within demanded investigation.

Scarlett's bag contained lots of odds and ends, ropes, slightly used weapons and armor, a kettle for cooking, but also a small creature. It was some sort of tiny, cat sized forest pixie or sprite by the look of her. She had pink ribbons and white cat ears in her blond hair...

* * *

Scarlett got excited. "Oh! A blue shirt too? Did you bring Phoebe along?"

Ally laughed and shook her head. "She's working tonight. I just needed someone to base the sprite's appearance on."

* * *

The pixie crawled out of the bag, fixing bits of her body that got squashed in transport. "Oooof, thanks. That was a close one."

Scarlett helped her stand. "Wow, I didn't expect them to have a hostage. What happened?"

The pixie blew into her hand to unflatten her cat ears. *POP*

"I was investigating some weird water mill factory that appeared along the river. It disturbed all of the animals living there, AND it was stinky like sulfur! I tried to go in and some weird green woman squished me a lot and gave me to those goons. They said the boss wanted me sent all over."

Scarlett scratched her chin. "Did you see anything else in there?"

"I got a glimpse of the some machines. They were making some sort of-"

Zoe cut them off from across the clearing. "OOZE!"

Amber reacted first. A ray of scorching hot fire bolted through the air and into the strange grey ooze next to Zoe, a direct hit.

* * *

Ally held a hand up to stop Amber. "Oh, don't bother rolling damage."

Amber scratched her chin. "They're that weak?"

Ally picked up a pile of her own d6s. "Not exactly. Why do you think they were in a fire proof bag?"

* * *

*KABOOM*

A huge explosion engulfed Zoe and Jess. When it cleared, powerful half elementals or not, both were charred black.

"Note to self. Don't use fire on strange grey slimes." Zoe's body collapsed into a heap of ash, falling apart from her feet on up.

"At least that explains the explosions." Jessica's eyes lingered in the air, staring at Zoe's, before her body disintegrated too. Both their eyes glared at Amber, then fell into their collective dust.

Pixie Phoebe continued as if nothing happened. "Exploding oozes, yeah. It's not good, but I don't think I can stop them. You four seem pretty strong though."

Amber kneeled next to Phoebe, and took out parchment to take notes. "Sounds like a job for us. Could you share what you found out with us, and tell us where the factory is? I think we can take care of whatever's in there."

Phoebe pointed vaguely north west. "It's about 4 miles that way. It's along the river, so you can't miss it. You can find water for your friends there too."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that." Amber laughed and pointed at Scarlett. She was already summoning big orbs of water to drop on her friends, mixing them from blackened ash to goopy puddles of their colors. It didn't take long for them to mush and climb into the air, and restore their normal forms.

Phoebe nodded. "Great! Although..." She reached down the front of her shirt, dug around and pulled out a silver cat figurine that was as big as her tiny head. "If you get into trouble, just ask this for help and I'll see what I can do."

She looked at the other two rumbling bags before leaving. "Oh, and stand further away from those before opening them. I'm...going to put some distance between us now."

* * *

Ally raised her hand, fingers pinched. "And with that, your new forest friend snaps her fingers," *SNAP* "to summon the strangest white fluffy kitty you've ever seen. It's large enough for her to ride, and she speeds into the woods."

"That was fun!"

"Neat. So I guess we go to the factory from here?"

Ally double checked some notes and rolled some more dice. "Yup! No more random giants. There might be a stray bear or two, but everything you encounter is trivial to characters of your level, so..." Ally made eye contact with Zoe, "I won't claw Zoe to shreds today."

"HEY!"

The rest of the table laughed at Zoe's reaction.

"Okay! After a few hours and a little searching, you find the factory. It's a large wooden building along the river, overgrown with ivy on one side. The thick boards show scorch marks, telling you this place definitely has fire insurance. It's surrounded by enough trees, you might have not even noticed this building if you weren't looking for it."

Ally's voice dropped as she looked around the table. "And the door is just hanging open, inviting you in."

Jessica looked at the group. "Well, what are we afraid of?"

Ally cracked her knuckles. "Well then, your oread fighter leads the way in. There are a few hallways, an unused check-in desk covered with dust, and a door labeled 'Production Line'. Does anyone want to sign into the guest book?"

Scarlett rolled her eyes. "Oh just take us into the production room."

Zoe raised a finger. "I don't know, we might want to let our villain know we're here and that we care."

Ally looked up from her notes. "Do you?"

Zoe scoffed. "Oh hell no. Next room please."

Ally smiled and continued. "You find mostly open space in the production room, but the walls are lined by heavy machinery. It holds a long conveyor belt hooked up to the water wheels in the floor. Does anyone in the party know anything about tech? Crafting, professions, Occult, or Arcana?"

Everyone looked around, waiting for someone else to answer.

"Nobody? Okay, I guess everyone roll up perception checks then."

Dice clattered across the table. Amber and Scarlett seemed excited.

"Okay, first thing's first, Zoe doesn't notice any traps."

Zoe leaned back and blew on her hand.

Jess laughed at her. "You realize a 21 is nothing at this level, right? No villain should have anything under 30 at this point. Maybe even 35."

Ally reached under the table and put a large model of the room on the table. After a few oos and aahs, she said "3D printing is wonderful. Anyway, put your minis down."

* * *

Amber investigated a large steel enclosure attached to the side of the machinery. She lifted the metal grating to look inside. "I don't know what this thing is, but it's pretty big inside."

Scarlett checked out the openings of the conveyor belt area. "This whole place just looks weird. Lots of pipes are coming in, but I have no idea what's in them."

Jess and Zoe were investigating other corners of the room, making a more thorough search of floor boards and other tight spaces.

Amber's voice echoed from within the steel contraption. "I can't see a thing in here. I need a torch."

*FWP* the sound of a fire igniting in Amber's hand echoed from within.
*FWOOOOOOOOOSH*BRRRRRRRRRR* The roar of a furnace lighting, and machine cranking up, followed.

Jess and Zoe ran across the room. "What the hell happened?!"

"WAAAAAAAAAAH!"

They looked to Scarlett's voice. Inside the machine, scoopers for various materials were slamming on top of her, squishing her into a half dome shape. Every so often the conveyors dumped her into a large wooden bowl with paddle mixers, stirring her up into a gooey mix of reds of blues. Rollers and other contraptions were plentiful to keep the mess of blue and red slime flat and stretched out on the production line, processing her for some unknown end.

Jess looked at Zoe. "I have to get her out of there."

"But won't the same thing happen to you?"

"Hey, I'm half earth elemental." She pounded her chest. "I'm tougher than I look. You go check on Amber and start breaking things."

"You sure?"

Jessica's skin took on a stony texture. She slammed her fist together, and the sound of stone striking stone echoed through the room. "Definitely. Oh, and maybe get Amber out of there if you can." She guarded against the first bunch of crushing and slamming devices without incident, and jumped further along the path.

Zoe tried to approach the furnace where Amber was trapped, but the heat was INTENSE. "Damn Amber, you really picked the right place to start a fire."

She felt warmth assaulting her body. It felt relaxing and wonderful and...she looked down at her yellow and black silks. They were already melting and mixing, running together with her already goopy skin. She sighed, and let her body go. Her butt splashed to the ground spectacularly, making a pleasant puddle for her torso to splatter in.

But she was a sylph, half born from the wind itself. If she was taking this much heat...

Zoe accepted the heat surrounding her and started bubbling. The steam rising off her body gathered, and the evaporated windy Zoe continued approaching the furnace.

"Amber! Are you okay in there?"

Her response was half scream and half unintelligible mess. "GAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"Hmmm..." Zoe lightly touched the furnace door, and watched her hand instantly burn away.

"Ooookaaaaay, still not doing that. Uuuuuh, maybe I can blow this out?" Zoe shook her arm, letting her misty form regenerate. She took a deep breath, expanding her ample chest even more, and blew.

*FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH*

"Uh ooooh..." Zoe floated higher to look at the machines and what havoc even more fire would bring.

"GAAAAH!"

Zoe looked to Jessica's yelp. With the added power from supercharged fire, the press she was under became a problem. Jessica's legs shattered into chunks of stone, then her thighs. She could see her face blush deep red when her hips cracked. Whatever she was feeling made her lose focus, because cracks spidered through the rest of her faster. All of Jessica crumbled to sand, and the crusher claimed its victim.

*WHAM*

When it lifted, Jessica was neatly pancaked on the conveyor. It zoomed her along, gooping her up much the same as Scarlett was, until...

"Oh no!"

Jessica was thrown into the same vat Scarlett was in. She was splashing around, probably trying to harness her liquid state to flow around but unable to escape the tenacious machine. It mixed them into one big pile of muddy goop.

Looking at her transformed allies, Zoe was a little overwhelmed. "YAAAAAAH! I don't know, shut everything down!"

She started swinging her windy blades wildly. Any cable or cord that could be cut was shredded by fierce winds. Fortunately, it had the desired effects. Glass shattered, smoke spewed everywhere, and vents clattered to the floor.

*SPLOOOOOOOOSH*

A torrent of mud spewed from end of the pipeline. The four eyes within the puddle confirmed it as Jess and Scarlett, pulverized into a single messy puddle.

*CREAK*
*THUD*

The furnace door fell to the ground, and a completely blackened Amber inched out on stiff legs. She made it a few steps into the middle of the room before her body became covered in spidering red lines.

"That was...too hot..."

*POOF*

Despite being half fire elemental herself, Amber's human half succumbed to the flames and utterly disintegrated. Her green eyes were the only sign the pile of ash was once a person.

Zoe's form swirled and solidified on the ground, resuming her normal shape. She looked around at her friends and scratched her head.

"Uhh...go team?"

* * *

"So should I try to centrifuge you two apart or can you make your restoration checks?"

Amber tapped her fingers on the table. "Just get Scarlett back on her feet, my character's a little thirsty."

Zoe looked at her, confused. "Why didn't you go full fire elemental?"

Amber looked at the GM's seat. "SOMEONE said I got caught by surprise."

Ally grinned. "Yup! Able to keep the fire going but unable to withstand it once the blaze went out."

"WOOOO!"

Scarlett's fists were in the air triumphantly. The die in front of her showed 20.

Jessica laughed. "I mean, I like getting our characters back on their feet, but wasting the nat 20 here?"

Ally laughed. "It's good. That means I don't have to stall for time. You all get up fast."

The ladies all looked at Ally with varying degrees of worry.

"Zoe helps everyone restore themselves and get back on their feet. You have a short period to rest and make sure all of your parts are in the right place. Just as you ready yourselves to go further in, you hear a HORRIBLY screechy voice. Anyone here speak infernal?"

Jess and Amber raised their hands.

"Good, you can understand her."

Ally put down two Large minis, each covered with green spikes, horns, wings, and...

Scarlett pointed at the minis. "Why do your devils have long green hair?"

Jess chuckled and smacked her forehead. "Oh I'm going to enjoy this too much after our last session."

* * *

She whipped her spiked belt off from her waist. As fashion it looked devilishly good, but when the hammer head flew out from her hair and shook the ground in front of her, its true purpose became apparent. She screeched in the Infernal tongue.

"WHAT HAPPENED HERE?! Do you know how many goblins I had to bribe to make this thing work?"

A second devil entered behind the first, shaking the steps and leaving scorched claw footprints as she stepped. "Oh stop complaining you nitwit." She stretched into the air, and produced her own chained hammer.

The first devil rolled her eyes. This time she spoke in the common tongue. "Fine! Slice and squish the tacky looking adventurers first."

Zoe reacted first, charging at the devils. "Hey! Who are you calling tacky looking!"

*SLICE!*

The first devil's head, caught surprised by Zoe's blinding speed, had her head sliced clean off. It tumbled through the air into Zoe's hands. She grinned. "Now who looks tacky? Headless was so last season."

"Oh, but regeneration is forever."

"What?"

The head in Zoe's hands disintegrated to a fine green dust. The sexy devil body tensed up, bulged at the top of the chest and neck, and *SPLORT* grew her head back good as new.

Zoe was baffled. "How the hell?"

"Exactly!" The devil spun her chain in a quick circle, building hammer momentum. The swings were wide enough to slice Zoe with the spikes. The infernal weapon sliced through her like butter.

*SHWP*
"GAH!"

Zoe was sliced in half vertically, and started falling apart when the devil crashed the hammer head down on her.

*SQUIIIIIIIIIISH*

Zoe was completely flattened. Both halves of her were pancaked mid fall, creating the ridiculous look of both boobs squished wide to sides of her stunned face.

Then the second devil approached. "Ugh! Can't these fools see we're perfect as is? Why try to give us haircuts like that?!"

Her eyes flashed with a blue light, and a lightning bolt shot through the air at Jessica.

"YYyYYyYYeeeeEEEeeEEaaaAAaaAAAhhHHh!"

Her skeleton glowed through her skin from the sheer power of the lightning bolt. After a few seconds of lighting up the room, her body crumbled to brown and purple dust.

"Riiight..." Scarlett looked at her friends. Beheading the devils did nothing, and she was already spending her time re-integrating Jess with a splash of water. Satisfied the fighter goop was swirling together, she charged them. Her body rippled in the air as she took on a more watery form.

"If you're so concerned about your hair, don't forget to wash..."

Scarlett punched as hard as she could. Her arm thrust forward in a tremendous burst of water. Scarlett's huge fist hit with the force of a waterfall, squishing the devil against the wall.

"PLEEEEEH"

"Rinse!"

Scarlett spun and whipped her heel out. Her whole leg extended on another stream of water, and her liquid foot stomp-slapped the devil against the wall. When Scarlett pulled her leg back, her opponent was a mish mashed smear of green and other colors.

"AND REPEAT!"

She threw another fist at the second devil, but lacked the pure oomph of the first strike. This devil actually grabbed her arms, surprising Scarlett since she thought she was made of pure water.

"What the heck?!"

The devil yanked on Scarlett's overextended limbs, and tossed her overhead into the wall behind her.

*SPLASH*

Scarlett splashed spectacularly against the back wall, splattering everywhere. Fortunately, the liquid nature of her body made it very easy for her to pull back together.

Thus, Amber was not concerned.

She reached down and yanked on some inky purple goo, pulling the Jessica blob back into shape.

"Do you still have that holy trident we found under the sea?"

"Uuuh I think so." Jessica reached behind her back, dug around for a moment, and pulled out a 7 foot long trident.

"Good." Amber trudged forward, weaving a spell with her hands, and eyes glowing once again.

The horned Cassie devil cackled. "I might have to admit you're a hottie with that look, but please. Devils are forged in fire, and," she posed and moved her hands over tanned skin, "always well tanned. There's no way you could-"

The devil was cut off by Amber yelling "FREEZE!" The flames surrounding her turned a pale blue. She thrust her arm forward, and a 3 foot wide beam of freezing polar cold slammed into the fiend before them. A loud cracking sound filled the air as her body turned blue, and icicles formed on her body.

Amber pumped her fist. "Yes!"

Chattering teeth came from behind the Cassie. A dome of ice with an ice sculpture of Scarlett's upper body was shivering, caught in the blast. "Cooo-coo-coooooooooool!"

Jess didn't waste any time. "I get it now. She can regenerate, but this weapon..."

She hurled the weapon. The holy trident ripped through her, shattering her midsection and wings. Her legs fall apart, and her upper body plummeted.

*CRSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHH*

The devil shattered apart. Her wings broke like glass, her beautiful chest scattered in pieces. Her head somehow stayed intact, sliding across the floor in front of Jessica.

"Y-y-y-yoooou!" She spoke through clattering teeth, while the rest of her shards each burst into green clouds. "As s-s-soon as s-s-someone s-summons me ag-again, and I tha-a-a-aw out, I will-"

Jessica stomped the frozen head with her thick boots. It shattered apart, releasing another burst of green.

"That's one down. *COUGH* Oh man why do they always have to smell like brimstone."

"UUUUUUUUGH!!!"

They looked to the wall. The one Scarlett smeared was coalescing into a recognizable figure of a devil. She pushed against the wall, stretching green bands of muck behind her as she emerged, until *SNAP* she was a three dimensional devil once more.

She spun her fancy spiked chain mallet, building up speed. "She was impossible, but at least she had good taste. I'll have to get rid of you myself."

* * *

Zoe smiled at the table. "So, can I get up now? Poor me is still squished and sliced."

Ally rubbed the head of the defeated Cassie mini, removing it from the table. "No Zoe, you're still stunned by Cassie's chain. She's actually pretty cool like that."

"Would have been cool if you did that without freezing me." Scarlett whined.

Jess shrugged. "Alright, so we just need to not get disintegrated again, squish that one again, and get the spear back...again. Where is it anyway?"

Ally grinned. "Speaking of 'Again'..."

* * *

Amber and Jess risked looking away from the approaching devil to locate the spear. It was embedded in the huge base of the large Scarlett ice sculpture, now covered in cracks.

*CRSSSSSSSSSSSSSH*
"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

Scarlett shattered, huge chunks of her body sliding apart and breaking against the floor.

When they turned back, Cassie was charging them. "Boo hoo little red head can't stay in one piece. YOU'RE NEXT!"

Jess side stepped the razor sharp chain. Amber threw a gout of flame at the devil, washing over her and filling the back of the room.

The Cassie devil was unscathed. "I already told you, we're fire proof!"

*WHAM!*

Amber's body collapsed under the hammer's weight, squishing into a beautiful six foot wide pancake.

The devil looked around with wild rage in her eyes. "NOW WHERE'S THE LAST ONE!"

"Look up dumbass."

Jess was in mid air, spinning and curled up. Dirt, rocks, and other debris in the room surrounded her, until she was completely transformed into a giant boulder.

Color drained from Cassie's face, her wings and shoulders sinking. "Oh shi-"

*SQUIIIIIIISH*

Cassie was reduced to half her height, and twice her width. She stumbled around with her hair frazzled and eyes spinning. Bits of her body enlarged by mass transfer were trying to escape her clothes, jiggling freely in the air.

But Jess wasn't done.

*SQUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH*

Cassie's body rippled out from where she stood, almost thoroughly squished. Her non-flat feet stuck out from her pancake body. Only the top half of her head had depth otherwise, half buried in her saucered bosom, half sticking up. A large bump started rising up from it when

*SQUAAAAAAAAAAAASH*
*SMASH*
*KASPLASH*

With repeated smashes Cassie looked less and less like a flattened devil and more like a weird mess of green slime on the ground.  Bits of her splashed around, strands of her clung to Jessica's bounder body, only to get slammed into a gooey mess once again.

After what felt like forever, Jessica got tired of her fun. She landed next to the green goop, and the boulder uncurled into her normal figure.

The puddle rippled on the ground, and Cassie's face formed on top. "You can't just squish me forever! Once I pull together I swear to hell I'll shred you and then-PLEEEEEH..."

Scarlett, once again water after Amber's "stray" fireball, stirred the puddle with the holy trident. It splashed green slime around, slicing through the thick goop. Her body evaporated into a thick green smoke that quickly disappeared back to its fiendish plane.

* * *

Ally clapped. "Not bad! Scarlett and Jess clean up their friends, the stun effect on Zoe wears off after a minute or so, and you're ready to move along!"

"Wooo!" Cheers and high fives came from around the table.

Jessica slide the remaining Cassie mini towards her. "That was great! I still can't believe you made her a devil?"

THAT got Ally doubled over laughing. "Oh! You should have seen her when I told her I was modeling devils on her appearance."

Ally stood up quickly, knocking her chair to the floor. She wound up her arms, and spun in a tornado. When she stopped spinning, she looked like a red haired Cassie.

She put a hand behind her head in a pinup pose, and spoke in a very fake, very deep version of Cassie's voice. "Well as long as I look good and you squish them, fine. I don't care."

Zoe suddenly got out of her chair, looking VERY excited. "Oh we're doing that?!"

She also did a spin change, looking like Cassie with black hair and bigger boobs. She arched her back and put a hand on her forehead in a mock tragic pose. "Just make sure nobody thinks about squishing me and do whatever."

Scarlett stood up much slower and more tentatively than the others, intrigued by their antics. "Oh, can I try that too?"

Zoe nodded eagerly. "Yeah I told you to try this stuff more often!"

"Okay..." Scarlett took a deep breath, and spun.

The mini red and blue tornado resolved into a huge mess of tangled pretzled knots, wobbling to stay balanced.

Scarlett's head, itself squeezed in the middle by a knotted limb, was left cross-eyed as she spoke. "Uuuuuh, I don't think I did it right."

Everyone had a laugh at Scarlett's expense, though Ally eventually tried to get them back on track. "Good try! But...should we hold the game up while someone untangles that?"

Amber leaned into one of Scarlett's stretchy curves and tugged at some knots. "Nah that'll take too long. I'll have her solid by the next encounter though."

Amber squeezed two handfuls of Scarlett's knots up to her face, and gave her a deep kiss. Scarlett moaned softly, melting and dripping loudly onto the floor.

Ally nodded, and reached for one of the Cassie Devil minis. "Okay, that's one way. Guess I'll put these away while that happens."

Jessica lifted the other Cassie mini off the table. "These are still incredible Ally. You have to tell me what you use to print these later."

Ally grinned. "Oh these? They weren't printed with traditional materials."

She slammed her fist down on the table.
"PLEEEEEH!"

The green splatter under the table groaned from the weight of Ally's fist.

Everyone solid raised eyebrows around the table.

Ally shook her head until looked like herself again. "She had a disagreement with Phoebe this morning. I found out when a friend pointed out Phoebe's underwear stretched across the outside of our house. Fortunately she absolutely *LOVES* these game sessions and didn't disagree when I offered to test melt her through the 3D Printer."

Amber looked up from the puddle of Scarlett to laugh. "Didn't disagree, or you already squished her?"

Zoe, still looking like a Cassie recolor, waved her arms in the air and mock screamed, "WAAAAAAAH I can't believe Ally melted me again waaaah..." while melting herself into a messy bubbling puddle, oozing and dripping from her chair to the floor.

Everyone laughed for a good minute at Zoe's antics. She quickly pulled herself back together as if nothing happened, while Scarlett slowly pulled her blushing face out of her goop.

Eventually Ally calmed down enough got them back on track. "Oh that's perfect! But you know, she always calls me Allis-...never mind. Moving on..."

* * *

After the ladies pulled themselves together, they cautiously climbed the stone stairs to the door the devils entered from. Naturally, the stairs on the other side led down instead of further up. Underground were more halls lined with pipes full of strange colorful bubbling liquids they couldn't identify. Occasionally there was a window looking down on a storage area with piles of larger solid materials. Huge boulders. Tree trunks. Bricks. Metal ingots.

Amber scratched her head, looking down on them. "What do you think they're doing here? That doesn't look like exploding slime."

Jess looked through the glass over her shoulder. "You're right. Whatever this is, I don't like it."

After two floors of empty halls like that, they descended into another large machinery room. This one was already running. It reeked of sulfur, with loud squishing noises.

Scarlett trotted forward along with Zoe. "Oh! That's it, I hear squishing noises!"

Amber stopped Scarlett. "Wait! I don't like the look of what's up there!" Amber pointed up at the ceiling. It was covered in something resembling cargo netting, with huge amounts of steel and stone held inside. "I'd rather not get squished again down here."

Jessica stopped Zoe too. "That's bad, but check her out."

In front of one of the machines was a humanoid woman with bright red hair. She was focused on the machine, measuring liquids and monitoring gauges.

Jess met everyone's eyes. "Let's go slow. We want to say hello before whatever that is gets dropped."

* * *

Zoe leaned over the table. "We sneak down."

Ally raised an eyebrow. "Okay, but you know there's nothing to hide behind. All the good stealth in the world won't help you if she randomly turns around."

Amber grinned. "I can put up a veil of illusion so we all look like those devils."

Scarlett mock pouted. "But I just got solid from the last time we did that!"

Everyone laughed at the joke, but Ally asked the important question. "Okay, but who's doing the talking?"

She rolled two d10 behind her GM screen...

* * *

The heroes, now looking like green haired devils, sneaked down the steps as quietly as they could. Unfortunately, they had nothing to hide behind when she inevitably turned around anyway. Her bright red hair and light complexion matched Ally's. Up close they could see her lab coat was off white, lightly stained from years of use. She wore a light red blouse underneath. Tomes and tomes sat on a nearby table, though only Amber recognized the Arcane symbols along side the alchemical ones.

"Oh, about time you got back. Did those giants pick up the goods?"

They did their best to not tense up while Zoe gave an answer. "Yes mistress. They're on their way to carry out your will as we speak."

Ally raised an eyebrow. "And the constables still aren't on to us?"

Zoe shook her head. "Of course not. They have no idea what our mistress is after."

Ally nodded slowly. "Excellent. We'll have the Wind Sphere out from the Halls of Restoration in no time."

Zoe paused. She knew the party helped hide the sphere in a new location. But couldn't risk revealing she knew about it either. It was a gamble either way.

"Indeed. And then the Duchess can summon entire armies from the Plane of Air! Entire kingdoms at our mercy!"

Ally cackled. "Oh, I thought she just wanted to inflate some royalty for ransom money. THAT is much more interesting."

Zoe did her best to save it. "I've seen her perform simple pranks like that before for money, but she's much more devious than that."

Ally grabbed a rod from her work bench. "Oh save it. I told you, she always calls me Allison. Usually when someone calls me mistress I'm holding a rolling pin. Now..."

She waved a hand. The illusion of Cassies was swept away in a cloud of green smoke.

"Yup, you're the ones she warned me about. I wasn't sure I was going to give the Duchess the Sphere anyway, but good to know she wasn't wrong about you. Now, if you're really strong, you can deal with my Boos."

Zoe, now looking like herself with her braid blowing in the breeze, looked confused. "Your what?"

Ally twisted the rod. "Oh, they love to squish."

*SNAP*

She raised her arms to embrace the morning sun. The party looked up to see the heaps of stone and steel falling straight for them. They dove out of the way, but turned to see Ally not even try.

*SQUOOOOOOOOOOOOSH*

With a smile on her face, Ally's body smooshed out extra wide under the stone, before disappearing underneath.

Jess scratched her head. "That was weird, but at least she's gone?"

Then the stone and steel golems stood up.

Scarlett looked at her friends. "Uh oooh..."

* * *

"So wait." Jess wanted to get Ally's attention at the table. "Why shouldn't we just peel you off the ground and get out of here?"

Ally smiled. "Oh, even you can spot this as the fighter."

Jess rolled a die.

"Yeah, even a 12 sees the grate where you saw Ally standing. She's squished, but she's not in the room. Only a slight strand of red on the grate proves she was ever here."

Jess and the others looked disappointed. "Dang."

Ally raised her arms in a mock shrug of contemplation. "Well, you could also squish yourselves through to go after her."

Scarlett blushed. "I-...uuuuh...not right now."

Ally cracked her knuckles. "Okay, then roll initiative."

* * *

Scarlett pounded her fists together and charged in. She jumped, and threw a roundhouse at the giant steel creation.

*CLANG*

Scarlett stuck in the air and wobbled. Tiny cracks started forming in her body. "This thing's stronger than it looks."

*CRASSSSSHHHHHHHH*

Scarlett exploded like glass. She showered the floor with blue and red shards of herself. Her friends could swear they heard an "Mmmmm" from her remains.

Their monk shattered, Jess charged the stone one. "We'll deal with the metal machination later."

Jess charged in, and the golem raised its arms.

*WHAM* The golem slammed a fist down, and she dodged to the side.

*WHAM* The other fist fame smashing down, and Jess dodged again. Now the golem was wide open for Jessica's attack.

*CRUNCH* With one big swing, Jess drove her huge stone fist into the stone golem.

Her arm wobbled and got bent all out of shape upon punching the solid stone golem. Much like Scarlett, her arm fell to dust, although Jessica only lost her arm.

"Ow! How strong are these things?!"

"ROOOOOOOOOOOOAR"

Only then did Jess realize her dodges put her between the golem's two open hands.

"Oh you've gotta be kidding m-"

*CLAP*
*SPLAAAAAAAAAT*

With a gooey noise, the Golem's hands squished Jess. When it opened them, Jess was a double wide sideview poster of herself.

"Oof...I was not looking to get thinner today. Someone help me before-ACK!"

*CLAP*CLAP*CLAP*CLAP*CLAP*

The Golem continued its assault. Each time it opened its hands Jess looked a little less like her figure and more like a big disk of colors. Eventually even she couldn't take the pressure, and a splatter of brown and purple exploded out from within, spraying the surrounding area. Jess's face was painted on a thick strand of brown hanging between the hands, with spiraled eyes.

"Clean up, aisle me..."

Amber looked at Zoe. "Well that's not good."

Zoe nudged Amber with her elbow. "I dunno, looks like she's having fun. How's about after this you and I take our puddles and-"

"ZOE!" Amber interrupted. "We need a plan before things get worse." She grabbed the tiny cat bangle hanging on her necklace. "Hey, if you can hear me, we need help here-whooooa!"

Before Amber could finish, the golems reached down and lifted both ladies off the ground. They gently closed their hands around them..

*SQUISH*SQUISH*SQUISH*SQUISH*

Both golems worked their material, revealing brief glimpses of their clay like bodies getting kneaded and molded. With one last flourish, both golems revealed them shaped into giant balls.

Amber shook angrily. "Let me go!"

Zoe bounced with excitement. "You needed to apply more pressure a little lower on my back, but I guess this works."

Amber didn't have time to glare at Zoe before they were juggled through the air. The golems passed through the air back and forth, then added bouncing passes. Each one shook and struggled to restore their balled up bodies, but neither could escape their current shape.

Amber screamed at them. "Don't you get bored of just passing two balls around?"

Miraculously, they stopped.

"Whew, I didn't think that would work. Now, can you...oh no."

The steel golem passed Zoe to Amber's stone golem. Rocky juggled Amber and Zoe, while Steely reached down and crunched the Scarlett shards together with the sound of crunching glass.

*SQUISH*CRUNCH*SQUOOSH*
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh-"

Whether or not Scarlett was enjoying it, Amber saw the blue and red ball get passed to her and Zoe. Then it collected Jessica's goop from around the room. It really squeezed, revealing a more crystallized Jessica inside to get her solid.

"Oh great, now we need to undo THAT to get her back to normal too? How the hell do we-"

"I made it!"

Amber saw the small creature riding in a small beast down the stairs. "Is that...a corgi?!"

Tiny Phoebe charged in, answering her summons. "I'm here! What happened to you?"

She saw her earlier rescuers balled up and being juggled between the pair of golems.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA JUST HELP US!" cried Amber's blond and pink ball.

Phoebe scratched her head. "Hey, didn't you say you and your friends were sort of half breed elementals?"

"WHAAAAAAAAAA!"

Phoebe nodded and reached down her shirt. "I'll take that as a yes."

*POP*

She pulled out a sparkling bright pink whisk, and pointed it at the juggling balls.

"Now let's see...The black silks can fly and the blue and red one was all wet, so...you can rust the metal thing!"

Phoebe barely saw Amber's sphere wobble and yell "WHAT?!"

She shook the whisk at Scarlett and Zoe, zipping them over. Zoe touched the whisk first, and...

*KERSPLOOOOOOSH*

Her body inexplicably burst into a messy slime matching her colors. She swirled around in the air, only her silvery eyes flowing about showed she was more.

*SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOSH*
"MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmm"

Scarlett crashed into the whisk next. She bent against the device and burst in a huge splatter of blue, though from the sound of it, she enjoyed it a lot more than Zoe.

"Now, make some mist!"

Phoebe swirled her whisk wand around some more, catching their goop out of the air. As she caught them, Zoe bubbled into black smoke and Scarlett liquefied. They tightened into a bubbling ball, before

*WHOOOOOOOOOOSH*

A dark blue mist settled all around her. Phoebe pointed at the steel golem, and sent them at it. Their mist swirled around the machine, slowing it down gradually until

*CREEEEEEEEAK* it turned brown with rust, and stopped moving.

The remaining stone golem dropped Amber and Zoe, throwing its hands up in shock.

"You're next!" Phoebe summoned the Jess and Amber ball to her.

Amber's eyes went wide on the ball. "Wait, what are you?!"

*SPLOOOOOOOOSH*
*SPLAAAAAAAAASH*

They also exploded into a mess of gooey colors above Phoebe. She swirled her mixing wand again, and Amber's fire mixed with Jessica's pile of gravel.

"MELT THE STONE THING!"

Phoebe's wand fused them together into a stream of hot lava. It coated the giant pile of rocks, and quickly melted through the joints.

"ROOOOOOOAR"

Phoebe grinned. "Well, that's done. I think that pays my debt, but I like you so you can keep the kitty a little longer." Phoebe tucked the wand back into her shirt with a loud *PLOOMP*. "You four can pull yourselves back together right? Later-EEEEEEEP!"

The golem fell apart rock by rock, but the huge body piece broke off and rolled straight at her. Phoebe ran, but her tiny legs couldn't get her to safety.

*SQUIIIIIIIIIIIISH*

Phoebe got painted on the floor at twice her height, a thin blue ribbon. She was so thoroughly squished, most of her features were smeared away into the light blue strip.

She managed to peel her face off the floor like a wobbly neck. "It's a good thing you 4 are made from the good stuff. Now let's find whoever is running this gunpowder factory and-' "

She stopped, the cloth twisting and turning, looking around frantically.

"Oh no! Just stay down." She stuck herself on the floor and closed her eyes, making her look like a harmless blue stripe of paint to anyone that didn't look closely.

A rickety steam powered mess of metal with a giant broom attached came in. It passed harmlessly over Phoebe, only quiet muffled complaints as she spread another inch wider.

No one in the party had recovered enough to protest getting swept up. At best, they wobbled in protest.

The mess of stone, iron, and strange goopy elemental matter was swept to a trap door near the grate the weird scientist was squished through earlier.

It spoke with the cold soulless voice of a mindless magical creation. "Trash collection complete. Processing for reconstruction."

It pushed a button, and dumped everyone in.

* * *

Scarlett cautiously looked at her friends at the table. "So...did we win?"

Zoe whispered to Jessica "I'm just surprised she's still solid."

Ally nodded while looking over her notes. "Yup! You should be happy Jess talked me into the whole lava idea earlier."

Jess leaned back and gave everyone a thumbs up. "Made sense to me. Although," she looked back to Ally, "I didn't think we'd be out of HP like this. Where did it just dump us? And how hard is it going to be to pull back together?"

Tension build in the room while Ally scratched her chin.

"Oh it will be fun. You've been dumped into the golem recycling process with the parts."

Scarlett's eyes lit up. "Oh! Are we going to get mashed together into a giant robot?"

Ally looked at Scarlett with intense eyes. "Only if you're lucky. Care to try something?"

There was some chatter from Jess Zoe and Amber while they tried to figure out if it was worth trying that or just trying to get out. Scarlett grabbed a die and rolled it without thinking twice "Come on Dust Bunny Robot!"

The sound of plastic on wood clattered through the room, silencing other conversation.

"Uhhhh...."

Ally looked at the number 1 staring at the ceiling. "Well, you get mashed alright. I hope you're all better at rolling restoration after getting a rude awakening from the machine."

* * *

Deeper still under the facility was one more giant empty room. The steel door at the end of the machinery opened, and a large stone and iron cube were dumped on the floor. The materials for the golems were ready to be used again.

*WHRRRRRRRRRR*CLUNK*CLUNK*CLUNK*CLUNK*

The machine bounced and tensed, as if building up from some huge exertion. It spat dark smoke into the air before opening to spit four more cubes into the room.

"Ow!"
"Hey!"
"AaAaAarg!"

Naturally, the colors matched the party. Jess and Amber held together relatively well. Zoe dented her side against Jessica's corner, and Scarlett simply couldn't hold herself up on landing. She looked like a box that an elephant sat on.

Jessica blinked, twisting her box form as much as she could to look around. "Uuuuugh, where are we even? And what's that smell?"

Amber hopped up to her, arching her cube back as much as she could. "I don't know, but look up there!"

Above the room was a production line of buckets. Each was filled from a strange pipe carrying grey ooze looking just like the ones they had seen earlier.

"Great! We can shut the machine down now!"

Zoe shook a little, and popped the corner of her box out. "Yeah, let's do this!"

"I wouldn't get excited just yet."

The 4 cubes looked at each other, confused.

"Over here! I thought heroes knew to look down."

Looking again, the ladies found the pile of red cubes on the floor. Whatever their mad scientist was up to, she hadn't pulled herself together just yet.

Jess hoped forward, making a huge thud as she thwomped the ground. "You're one to talk. Give me one reason I shouldn't just squish you now."

Two of the Ally cubes rolled over, turning her insane eyes to the party. "Oh, I haven't begun to fight."

Jess hopped forward again, but two giant mechanical, wooden barrel encased arms came out of the floor. One flicked Jess onto her back, and the other slammed a fist down upon her.

*SQUIIIIIIIIIISH*

Instead of a 4x4x4 cube Jess was now a 8x8x0.1 sticker

Everyone else stayed back as the hands pushed against the floor. The ground underneath Ally shook, and a huge battle mech emerged. The scientist cubes miraculously managed to stay in the pilot seat, and once the machine fully emerged the hands closed around them.

*SQUISH*SQUISH*SQUISH*

With a few detailed touches, Ally was sitting fully restored in the seat. Once she was molded back together, the mech reached into a "pocket" and pulled out goggles to put on its pilot's face.

"Now...let's see what you can do."

* * *

Amber's jaw practically fell on the table looking at the "mini." "You want us to fight that?"

Ally flexed her hands and cracked her knuckles. "Oh, I think you'll think of something. She's nothing your party can't handle."

"Yeah but if you haven't noticed..." Zoe pulled her arms up to her sides and pulled in her knees with a loud cranking noise, trying to make herself look as much like a cube as possible at the table. "...we're not in great shape."

"You just need to think outside the box Zoe."

* * *

The mech punched the ground, scattering the cubes to different parts of the room.

Amber came to rest first. Even as a red and pink cube, flames sprung up around her. "Alright, no sense in saving this."

The flames got brighter until Amber was a glowing golden yellow within. Her body split and spun apart into 4 chunks, floating in the air. Each spun around, flames gathering behind her glowing body, until...

*WHOOOOM*

Amber rocketed at the mech. Each bit exploded on contact, engulfing the machine in flames. It staggered back, shaking the ground, while the fire around it gathered into a feminine figure. She still had a warm glow around her, but the fire solidified into a restored Amber.

She looked exhausted, but had a satisfied grin on her face. "Hah! Nobody's stood up to that before. Not...what?"

The smoke cleared, and Ally's mech still stood. The front had huge scorch marks, but was not much worse for wear. Its arms were busy smothering the lingering flames around it.

That task done, it turned and squared its shoulders to Amber. "NO FIRE IN THE LAB!"

*WHAM*
*SPLOOOOOSH*

The mech's fist came down on Amber. Her entire body buckled, squooshing tremendously wide under the force. As soon as the  knuckles hit the floor, Amber gave out, splattering and splashing red and blond goop for feet all around. Strands of her stuck to the mech's retracting fist, stretching long before snapping back to the unrecognizable puddle on the ground, quivering in protest.

Zoe blinked as bits of Amber splashed onto her. "Well that was rude. Overly mad just because of a little fire in..."

She looked up and her voice trailed off. "...in the same room as entire tanks of explosive goop. LADIES! NEW PLAN!"

Scarlett and Jess saw Zoe bound up onto one of her corners. She started spinning on it, faster and faster, until her cube like body dissolved into a whirlwind.

Ally swung at her, but only came away with a dark mist that quickly vanished. "Hey! Get back here!"

"Don't forget about us!"

*CLOOOOOOOOOONG*

Ally shielded her goggled eyes from broken boards and splinters flying into her face. Jess landed in front of her, now with a rougher stone texture and covered with sawdust, only mostly a cube as she had popped out her legs to charge Ally's machine.

"AAAAAAARG!!!" Swatting wood chips off her goggles, Ally forgot about the whirlwind and stared down her geometric opponent. "Why you little, come here!"

The mech reached down and hugged the cube of rock. With a little strain, it lifted Jess up to it's barrel chest, and squeezed.

Jess kicked in protest. She may have been a giant rock, but she did need to try and bash the mech again. "Put me down you mad woman! You're wasting your time."

*CRACK*

Jessica was more than a little worried hearing her body crack. She wasn't crumbling yet, but this thing was clearly stronger than she thought. She looked for her options. Zoe was still flying up towards something, but she wasn't there yet. She looked in the chest cavity while the crazy scientist glared at her with wild eyes, squeezing the controls to squeeze her.

*CHRRRAAAACK*

Jess felt the eerie tingle of breaking apart running through her body. Solid stone or not, this mech was strong enough to shatter her. The size of the gears she could see in the hole she gashed were ridiculous. If only there was some way...

*CRAAAAAAAAAAACK*
*TINK*TINK*

Jess was pretty sure she saw part of her waist bounce into the gears and...

That was it.

"SCARLETT! HIT ME!"

"Are you sure?"
*CRACK*
"JUST DO IT! AS HARD AS YOU CAN!"

Scarlett wasn't sure why she was about to shatter her friend, but if it worked this would be one to remember. And tell detailed stories about. Very detailed stories.

She vibrated with excitement, and with an eventual *POP* broke out of the cube and into her normal shape. She wound her arms up, felt the water's energy builds in her arms, and pushed forward.

*SLAM*
*CRSSSSSSSSSSSHH*

Scarlett's punch finished the work of shattering Jess. As her solid stone friend crumbled, she mixed with the jets of water from Scarlett's fist, forming a very muddy mess. The pressure from the water and the mech's hug pushed her right into the giant crack in the armor she made earlier.

Ally didn't realize it was happening. "Hah! You're all nothing before me! NOTHING! Now I can steal the orb from that fool of a villain and I will..."

She paused as the mech struggled to step forward, its internals clogged with an amazing amount of Jessica mud and gravel.

Ally worked the levers in front of her again. "I...WILL..."

*WRRRRRRRRwumpwumpwump*
It refused to move.

"What?! No! Get up! Come on, I have them right where I want them!"

"HEY RED!"

Ally looked up. Zoe's lower body was still a whirlwind, and her top half was holding the hoses running the gunpowder ooze production.

"Get gooped!"

She turned the hose away from the buckets, and through the air at Ally and her mech. Grey goop rained down on the mad scientist.

The mech's arms waved around wildly, desperate to get the explosive ooze away, but it was everywhere. "No no no! Get this off me!"

Scarlett, safely off to the side, looked around. She wished she had thought of that. There had to be something she could use to ignite the muck. Anything...

*SQUISH*
Scarlett felt something weird in her hand. She looked down, and saw a strange softball sized glob of red and yellow with a green eye.

Amber said "Throw me!"

"Mmmm I love my friends." Scarlett licked her lips and used a deliberate wind up to hurl Amber. The blob of sorceress glowed through her motions. Scarlett released her in a red streak of fire, rocketing towards their enemy.

*WHOOOOOOOOM*

Ally looked up from messing with the controls to see what sounded like burning. Her face went pale.

 "Oh no, not again..."

*KABOOM*

Ally and her mech were engulfed in a fiery explosion.

Scarlett saw the fire rushing towards her, and barely dissolved into a puddle before the flames rushed over her. She reformed out of the water after the explosion cleared. The remaining flickering flames were resolving into Amber's body, but Ally's mech was no more. Anything wood was already obliterated, leaving only a thin metal frame of the inside. Floating in the air above it was a completely charred black human shape.

Ally coughed. "One day, I WILL stop disintegrating in these stories..."

Today was not that day. She quickly crumbled to the ground starting from her feet, landing in a neat pile of black ash. Her eyes hovered in the air an extra moment, looking disappointed, before landing and rolling on the rest of her.

Zoe floated down next to Scarlett, careful not to scatter Ally around. "Wow...I guess that worked."

Scarlett wiped sweat off her forehead. "Yeah."

"So..." Zoe continued. "Now what."

Scarlett looked at the piles of intact machinery around them, then the pile of dust. She gathered a ball of water to float above her hand. "Oh, I have an idea."

* * *

Ally stared at Scarlett. "Oooo, you what?"

Scarlett was still blushing and giggling, leaving Zoe to restate the plan. "We restore Amber and Jess, then I make a little whirlwind to carry you over the top of a machine, and Scarlett splashes you with enough water to pop back before we drop you in."

Ally cackled. "Nice! She looks down after you restore her, mutters in a deep voice 'I HATE you,' and tumbles in. You peek through the sides and see her get stretched and smashed, her appearance distorting under her grunts until all you see is a pink mush flowing through. From the sound of it, you think she might be secretly relaxing in there. Eventually, the the pink blob you turned her into gets spat out the other side in a big bottle, convenient to bring back to town for justice.

"Whoa...That was good. Once we're done here, me next on that ride. Good description." Scarlett was visibly into it.

Ally smiled at her. "Thanks! I practiced that one."

Jess laughed. "That is the key. You've been playing these games a while haven't you."

Ally shook her head while putting her dice, minis, and Cassie away. "No, I mean I actually practiced it. Boo threw me into one of those last night, only instead of a bottle he took a rolling pin to me. It was a *very* comfy evening."

"Oh..." Scarlett completely lost control, and melted to the floor.

Everyone laughed while Amber got up to get the mop.