After some intense debate, Grace declared the contest a draw. That, and the fact everyone was hungry, led to a table for 9 at one of Scarlett's favorite restaurants.

Most of the gang sat around the large table chatting pleasantly. Only Zoe looked a little grumpy.

Jess noticed this and nudged her shoulder. "Hey, what's up hon? You still get to paint Scarlett later, right?"

"Yeah, but I feel like I had this won. Scarlett used knowledge from a race I was in! I should have remembered Emi loves sudden spready squishes through her shirt."

Jess shrugged. "Maybe, but Grace was right. Emi's been through a lot today, her body wasn't going to take much more of this. I'd rather not have to tell the league we turned the rookies into puddles for a week while they recovered."

Zoe rolled her eyes. "Eh, I guess. Still, I'm not sure how many people here know about Scarlett's eating habits."

As if she summoned her, a waitress appeared with plates of steaming hot food. Everything was covered with hot peppers. She served a little to everyone, changing the mood at the table from conversational to slightly worried.

Zoe put her arm around Jess's shoulders. "If I have to melt for Scarlett repeatedly, I'm going to at least enjoy the show."

Jess chuckled while Scarlett stood to speak.

"I think we had a lot of fun today. I'd like to thank everyone for coming out, especially Emi for being a really good sport. That's why we let her have the first choice from my personal menu here."

Grace looked at Emi, prodding the hot peppers with a fork. "You ordered this? Emi, I'm not sure this is a good idea."

Emi scoffed at her. "Oh come on. Scarlett only let me pick from things with at least 4 hot peppers on the menu. If we're doing this, I'm not holding back, I'm going straight for the drippy skulls."

There was nervous laughter and clinking glasses around the table before everyone started to eat their food.

Amber gave Scarlett a quick peck on the cheek before munching. "Remember, you're driving home if I'm stuck in your water bottle."

Scarlett winked and smiled, then went in for the hug. "I'm counting on it."

Everyone took a bite, though the Dust Bunnies delayed to see everyone's reaction.

Ally sighed warmly. "Oh this is delicious."

"Allison, please." Cassie sighed and shook her head. "The blend of spices is overpowering the palette of natural flavors underneath."

Ally had to blink. She knew Cassie could be a snob, but this was new. Then she saw her phone setup. "Cassie, are you streaming this? You DO KNOW what Scarlett's doing right?"

"She's paying for my dinner, and I'm letting my fans know how lot tier this food is. It's like they care more about being spicy than tasting good. There are herbs and spices trying to shine through all those peppers. You can even just barely taste that it was fried in some fat, which while sending me to the gym later, a true gourmand knows to love the flavor it provides! But these spices are simply-"

"Whoa!" Cassie's critique was interrupted by Phoebe. Her skin was bright red, and smoke was shooting out her ears.

She weakly cried, "It's...too...hot!"

*FWOOOOOOOOOOSH*

immolated, spontaneously combusting into a pillar of flames. Only her eyes and pink bow remained visible.

The blaze only lasted a few seconds before Phoebe went out. Completely charred, she collapsed into a pile of blue and blond ash on her seat. A small amount of Phoebe powder, her bow, and blue eyes, landed on the table instead.

Amber laughed from across the table. "And I thought I had no tollera-blblblbbl"

Sure enough, Amber was a drippy mess of yellow and pink, melting like ice cream on a summer day, doing her best to lean over the table so her eyes could drip there and follow the action while the rest of her body pooled on the floor.

The other forks clattered on plates from there. Jess, Ally, and Grace all seemed to take it in stride, sighing as they melted like candles from the spicy food within them. They smiled, pooling near their seat in cute colorful gooey blobs.

Zoe was doing her best to collect her melted mass in her curves to get a reaction from Scarlett. As long as she was overheating and melting for Scarlett, she was going to melt her back. Unfortunately, even she was melting too fast to hold herself together. Zoe tried to hold  mold her melting boobs bigger, but only succeeded in breaking her melting body apart, losing cohesion into a large black puddle on the table.

Only Emi and Cassie were as upset as poor Phoebe. Emi, having already been melted and flattened and popped and everything else today, whimpered as she lost cohesion and  liquefied in front of her friends again. She instantly lost solidity and fell to the floor, paint in a human shape splashing into a gooey pink and black mess.

Cassie though...
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG! No no no I will NOT give in to this cheap food's heat fetish and melt on stream!"

Despite her words, Cassie was already flowing onto the floor, globs of her pale skin and green hair mixing everywhere. She was reaching for her phone on its stand, desperate to turn it off. "The internet...doesn't need...to see this...bleeeeeeeeh"

*SPLOOSH*

Cassie splashed onto the table. She spilled everywhere, waves of Cassie painting her spot at the table. Her angry eyes spun in a particularly thick pool of peach and green on the table, glaring at the camera, making waves her goop.

The puddle bubbled around her eyes. "Uuuuugh! This was NOT worth the flavor!"

Scarlett was fumbling with a restoration beam at her end. "Oooooh...you two..."

She was flanked by Zoe's face melting on top of the remains of her boobs on one side, and Amber's puddled face on the floor winking while wiggling her melting semi-solid butt on the chair. She just managed to zap Amber, before she splashed to the ground in spectacular red and blue waves herself.

The fully restored Amber stretched. "Okay. Now, here's the beam..."

She zapped Scarlett first, then went around the table until everyone was back in their seat.

After making sure everyone was solid, Scarlett waved for the waitress to come back. "I think we're ready for the second dish. Oh, and ask the green one what she thinks good spicy food is."

Cassie looked at Scarlett, horrified.

Scarlett leaned forward, her gaze piercing into Cassie's very soul. "I must know what a food critic thinks is the best melty food!"

* * *

The meal lasted ten courses. By the end, most of them had exploded, half had breathed fire. Once Phoebe and Amber involuntarily rocketed up towards the ceiling; it took a while to separate the two blonds after that, both nervously laughing at the idea of being stuck together too long while Scarlett melted at the though of their fused curves.

They waved goodbye to Ally, Phoebe, and Cassie, then Zoe turned to Scarlett and Emi. Scarlett, despite her legendary spice tolerance, with a little help from Amber and Zoe showing off, was currently a bubbling mess of blue and red in a bucket. Emi, after a suggestion from Jess, was subjected to Grace's fire breath from the most recent meal. Zoe took Emi's ashes and added them to a small pot of boiling water, ensuring Emi would gel together but remain melted down.

"There! Now that both of you are ready, I think Grace and I can begin our art class. Jess, Amber, you're welcome to join us but you have to bring your own supplies.

Amber and Jess, suddenly looking very serious, glared at each other, lightning flickering between their eyes.

* * *

"Got it!"

Jess held up her completed Zoe rubiks cube, letting her bombshell girlfriend pop back to normal.

Amber pouted. "Arg, I was so close!"

Grace's fragmented voice came from her cube. "Actually, I'm not sure where any of my...you know what, never mind. You were close."

With that, Zoe zapped Grace with the restoration beam, and directed Amber to a modest planter sized bucket.

"So now what, you find fire, inflate for me, don't tell me you're-MMMPH!"

Zoe smooshed something into Amber's mouth. "I had left overs packed to-go."

Amber's eyes watered up from the spices, her face turned red. She resisted, but melted rapidly. Globs of Amber colored sweat dropped down her sides, her legs already collapsed into peach puddles beneath her pink bubbling butt. In mere moments, she was transformed into a bucket full of yellow and pink paint for Jess.

Zoe clapped her hands, and got several easels and canvases out of the car. "Well ladies? Lets make our friends beautiful."

* * *

Grace was putting the finishing touches on Emi. She wasn't the best artist, but she had something resembling her friend on the 18x24 inch canvas. Sure her torso was a rounded edge rectangle, her curvy bits giant circles, but you could tell who it was.

Every time Grace ran her brush through Emi, she could see the little ripples flutter through the bucket, presumably sending shivers through Emi. *I wonder what it's like for her in there. I must be driving her crazy every time I stir her around. Maybe I should have volunteered to let Amber and Jess paint me...*

Still, Grace was mostly thankful that she could paint her fishnet details by dipping her brush in a bits of Emi that had fishnet already mixed into it. She always wondered why you could paint a pattern using a melted person like that...but that was philosophy for another day.

"This is looking good, but it needs something more. Hey Zoe, you said you had a spray bottle right?"

Zoe held it up. "Yeah! Don't tell me Emi likes that too?"

Grace had her guesses. She winked. "Maybe I'm just making her look good."

On the canvas, abstract Emi started moving around clumsily. "Spraying? You better be careful with me!"

Grace just laughed and shook her head. "You'll just be surrounded by pretty pink clouds of yourself. Or will your fishnets make it look like a big chain link fence..."

She thought about it for a moment before continuing anyway. She could barely hear Emi squeeing as she was forced out of the canister as mist onto the canvas.

Once Grace was satisfied, she looked back at Zoe. "How's Scarlett looking?"

Zoe kept painting with one eye closed. Every time to ran the brush through Scarlett goop, it bubbled and burbled. "She's looking good. Her blue shirt makes a great blue ocean, her red hair the perfect sunset. I used her brown shorts for the raft. I'm almost done with the rest..."

Grace raised an eyebrow. "Wait, are you painting her as herself anywhere?"

Zoe smiled. "Don't worry, there's plenty of Scarlett's skin tone left."

Grace decided she didn't want to know. "Riiiight...Jess, how's Amber?"

Jess was attacking the canvas with a brush dripping with Amber blond. "Here, I think it's done."

Jess turned it around so Grace and Zoe could look at her work. It wasn't the highest quality, but it decidedly looked like a giant yellow Godzilla with a pink belly was rampaging through town.

Jess stood in front of it and smiled. "All I could think of was giant sized monsters, so I made Amber into one. I hope she doesn't mind."

At that moment, Amber started punching and clawing at the surface. The canvas jumped around, the yellow kaiju started oozing up out of the page, and....

*WHAM*
*SQUIIIIIIIIISH*
"OOOOOF!"

Amber's jumped off the canvas, growing into a ten foot tall behemoth. Naturally, she landed directly on top of Jess. Her body squished, growing wide under the monster's feet. When Amber stepped off her, Jess was a huge brown and purple disk, tiny face up with huge butt and boobs, pancaked an into into the ground.

Amber locked her eyes on Zoe. "RAAAR! As long as I'm stuck in this shape, we might as well have some fun!"

She stomped towards her team mates, wiggling her claws. "Maybe I can grab the Scarlett canvas, find someplace quiet, rearrange her and..."

Grace saw Amber stop in her tracks. Zoe was holding something up, but she couldn't quite see it around Amber.

The beast jumped, clapping her feet. "RRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!! That's...ooooo"

*SPLOOOOOSH*

Amber collapsed back into a gigantic pool of yellow and pink paints, leaving a mess on the ground between Grace and Zoe. Pink and yellow bubble hearts floated into the air for several seconds after, popping to splash into the rest of her.

Zoe herself was smiling smugly. "Works every time."

Grace walked over. "What...how did you do that?!"

Zoe took her canvas out from under her arm. "I showed her this!"

Grace studied the portrait. It was as Zoe described. Scarlett was melted up to her waist, pooling on a raft at sea in front of a beautiful sunset. The technical quality of the piece was astounding, the detail work and shading were great.

There was just one problem. "YOU PAINTED HER NAKED?! And her boobs looks bigger than yours!" Grace fluffed her own bosom for emphasis.

Zoe's smile somehow got bigger. "Yeah! I took some liberties, but everyone knows this stuff sells! Just look at her girlfriend, nothing but a giant yellow puddle of-"

*WHAM!*

Grace returned her mallet into the hammer space in her hair, satisfied Zoe was thoroughly squished on the ground. Even the Zoe pancake was giving her a thumbs up, approving of the squish.

She picked up Scarlett's canvas and carried it to the rest of her melted self. "Come on Scarlett. I'm guessing even you might not want to take things that far in public."

She finished speaking as she placed the canvas down on the easel near the rest of her melted body.

Scarlett blushed and shrugged. "I dunno, if she paints me like this I might need to commission her more."

*SPLASH*

Grace rolled her eyes, and threw the whole bucket of Scarlett at the canvas. "I think you can figure out restoration from here.

She turned around so none of them could see her blush. *I will admit though, maybe if I have someone special to mail myself to one day, that is a fun idea.*

* * *

After snapping photos and restoring their portraits, everyone agreed it was time to go home. Zoe did most of the driving, since they still had to drop off Emi and Grace.

Jess, Grace, and Emi were sitting around the couch, saving pictures to Grace's laptop, while Zoe used the washroom.

Grace was surprised by the sheet number of good photos there were, highlighting just how flexible their bodies were. "Wow. We went through a lot today."

Jess laughed. "Yeah. Ironically, it feels like the only thing you didn't go through was an actual wringer."

Emi gave her a playful shove. "Hey, don't get any ideas!"

They all laughed. Jess calmed herself enough to keep going. "Hah! Well, you know, we have a pretty good taffy machine if you ever wanted to try this again."

"Telling them about YOUR favorite things now Jess?"

Zoe walked into the room. She was smiling, but with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "I know I should have remembered it first, but...grrrr there's gotta be ANOTHER thing Emi likes."

Grace crossed her arms. "Come on now Zoe. We already did a lot today."

Jess gave Zoe a look as well. "I know you're a little jealous your mentee pulled out the instense squishing at the end, but come on, it was fun."

Meanwhile, Emi was trying to twiddle her thumbs and go unnoticed.

Zoe slowly walked behind her. "Come on Emi. One more. There's intense pressure involved?"

Emi's face lit up. "Well, maybe if-"

Zoe grabbed her by the shirt. "That's a yes!"
Jess and Grace both got up to stop her, but Zoe was pretty fast when she wanted someone turned to mush.

Before either could react, Zoe slammed Emi into Grace's laptop's USB ports. Parts of Emi's lets splattered, but mostly her body compressed, bulging and expanding in weird places as her mass figured out how to process itself into the machine, before getting shlurped up.

Grace stared at Zoe a little dumbfounded. "Well NOW what are we supposed to do?"

Jess face palmed. "Do you have a printer?"

Grace paused. "Yes...you mean?"

Zoe winked, hugging her chest. "Just remember, you might need to print these on landscape."

With that, she touched her fingers to the USB port. Her body took on a liquid sheen, and Zoe was slurped into the laptop like spaghetti. She twirled through the air, shrinking into the machine until a few black droplets splashed away.

Jess face palmed harder, partially flattening her own face.

"Here, I think I found them." Grace looked in her images folder and found two new gifs. One of chibi Emi pounding the screen, another of chibi Zoe squishing herself into a pancake with her own mallet on loop.

Jess sighed. "Okay, so go here, click this for flat colors...remember to undo this setting for when you do this with Emi...alright click print."

Their printer hummed to life. It jumped around more than usual, as if jammed with some excessively large file. Eventually a large pinup poster of Zoe, with her arms behind  her head tying her braid, and to prominently display her cleavage, surrounded by a white backing, emerged.
Jess wiggled her fingers, ready to strike. "Now, as soon as she's out I'm crumpling her up so we can leave you two here safely for the night."

"Oh, I've got a better idea!" Grace pounced on the Zoe cutout. Like a whirlwind she started folding and tearing. There were some protests from the page, as Zoe really didn't like getting ripped in any situation, but Grace has a master at her craft.

In less than a minute, Grace held a large Zoe paper crane.

"Thank you for the fun today Jess! We'll have to do it again sometime."

Jess laughed, taking her folded friend. "Okay. I'll make sure Zoe doesn't cause any more trouble tonight. Thanks again for the rubiks cube tips! You and Emi should get some rest. "

With that, they left.

* * *

Moments later, Grace clicked print on Emi as instructed. Again the printer hummed to life, but something wasn't quite right.

*VRRR*
*VRRR*
*VRRR*
"Ack! Emi!"


Scores of tiny voices shouted, "HELP US!"

Grace rubbed her head. "Gah! How to I slam all of you...oh!"

She reached into her long pigtails, and produced her favorite over sized mallet. With one solid swing...

*SQUOOOOSH*

The pages all flattened together into an Emi colored splat. She pulled it back into the air, stretching the Emi goop underneath, and...

*POP*

Emi stood restored, if a little dizzy. "Ooof...thanks..."

Grace tucked her hammer away, and put an arm around Emi. "You okay?"

"Yeah."

"Good. You know, you brought all that on yourself today."

Emi looked back at her, weakly shrugging off the side hug. "What do you mean?"

Grace smiled. "You don't have to pretend to hate getting transformed if there's stuff you like."

Emi blushed. "But it's embarrassing! How many people actually like turning into goop."

Grace rolled her eyes. "More than you think. Why do you think there's enough money for us to do it professionally? You need to talk to some nurses and find out some of the weird ways people melt themselves then have a little trouble restoring."

Grace grinned and twirled a pigtail, turning around to be coy. With everyone else gone, she could be a little rough about teasing Emi. "Besides, just look at last month's highlight reel. Zoe's right, you really did let the world know when you burst through your fishnets, moaning and-EEEEP!"

*POP*
*HSSSSSSSSSSS*

Grace felt a familiar prick at her side. Emi held Grace's favorite dagger against her hip, puncturing her butt like a large balloon, giving her the pleasurable sensation of air rushing out of her body.

"Aaaaaaaaah yeah...it's wonderful, but why'd you go and do that?"

Emi put the long narrow dagger down on the coffee table for Grace to retrieve later. "I get it, okay? The world knows Emi squeals with glee when she gets sliced into gooey cubes. I'll just have to say it's a work persona thing. Now enjoy deflating into a heap, I know you're a little sad that didn't happened today."

Grace's legs were already deflated piles of toony flesh on the floor. The rest of her body was crumpling too, folding over herself without enough pressure to hold her up. "Oh you...mmmm no fair popping my big bu-....*snoooore*"

Emi giggled. Grace was legitimately cute when she was a deflated balloon, but she lost all her energy whenever it happened. She definitely let loose while deflating too, she'd normally never talk about her rear end.
"Silly Grace. Get some rest."

Emi checked the locks and walked towards the hall to her room. "See you in the morning. I'm going under my Fantastically Flat weighted blankets until they turn me into a puddle, with or without the heating option."

*CLICK*