"Hey, can't you drive any faster!"

"Calm yourself Sophie! It's not exactly good weather outside."

Tracy carefully steered the car around another turn on the mountain pass. She drove quickly but carefully, keeping a careful eye out for ice on the road.

She spared a glance at her team mate Sophie in the passenger seat. She sat over there because she famously always drove too fast. The last thing any of them needed was to explode in the country side. Fortunately, her "fuse" braid was perfectly intact.

Once she was around the turn, she checked the mirror for their other passenger. "Are you still comfy back there Grace?"

The rookie red head smiled, tilting her head to the side to express happiness. "Definitely. Sorry Emi and the team has to cancel, they have a way of...well, they're in stitches."

Tracy and Sophie chuckled at the thought of the other Toy Tinkerers being flattened and sewn into clothing for the night before Grace continued.

"But, I'm sure we'll still have fun. This seems like an awfully long way just to go ice skating though."

Sophie grumbled in the front seat  "I, uuuh, may have been banned from the local indoor rink."

Grace looked slightly shocked. "Oh? But you two are so nice! Why would they-"

Tracy interrupted before Sophie could continue, or more importantly, get too angry. "It's a long story. We can talk about it over a drink after a race with everyone another time."

"Oh..." Grace bit her lip, now even more curious, but respecting their wishes.

Then Tracy spotted their dirt trail. "Anyway, we're here!"

She drove the car a short distance off the road into the woods, parking behind some trees atop the hill near their mountain lake. It wasn't huge, but it was a cozy valley with open space at the bottom. Likely a water reservoir from the mining operations that used to exist in these parts. The air was crisp, and snow coated the pines, making them glad they had winter coats and warm pants on instead of their usual flashier everyday outfits.

They got out and walked to the a trail down the hill. Tracy paused and crossed her arms, looking proudly over the hillside.

"I'm not saying it's a secret spot, but I don't think anyone else knows about our lake spot."

Sophie nodded her agreement. "Yup! Just us, the outdoors, and a quiet lake to skate on all to ourse-"

"LOOK OUT ZOE!"
*WHAM*
*SQUIIIIIIISH*

The trio looked at each other, then hurried further down the trail overlooking the lake. Sure enough, their four rivals from the Dust Bunnies were already skating on the lake. Or at least 3 were skating, and Zoe was very squished against a rock on the shore, somehow flattened in a profile view of a figure skater trying some variety of twirling jump.

Tracy took a deep breath. "Well, this is unexpected, but I'm hoping this could actually be fun." She coughed and cleared her throat before shouting a greeting. "Zoe? Jess?"

Jessica looked up, noticing the newcomers for the first time. "Who- Oh! Sophie! Tracy! What are you doing here? Oh and Grace too? Come on down!" She waved her arm for emphasis, inviting them to join the fun.

Sophie called down. "Sup Bunnies! What the heck are you doing out by our lake?"

Scarlett yelled back. "Your lake? This close to our-OOF!"
*BWOOMP*

Her girlfriend Amber gave Scarlett a solid pound on the head, not enough to squish her but enough to shunt her head into her chest. "Close to a spot where we used to hang out as kids. What are you doing out here?"

Tracy and Sophie looked at each other, wondering how much to explain about Sophie's incident.

Sophie shrugged, and closed her eyes knowing it was inevitable. "They probably already know anyway. It's not like I don't always expl-"

"Sophie's apparently not allowed at the ice rink, so we came out here for a relaxing evening!"

They looked at Grace, casually shouting a response and strolling down the mountain. Tracy looked back at Sophie and shrugged. "Maybe they do, but she doesn't."

* * *

Once Sophie, Grace, and Tracy equipped their skates, and everyone peeled Zoe off the rock, everyone was skating.

Tracy noticed Grace and Scarlett were chatting like old friends. She laughed, figuring there must be some red head club she didn't know about. Still, that gave her a chance to chat with Amber. She skated up to the blond.

"So, had any good races lately?"

Amber raised an eyebrow. "Weren't we both getting melted by the Whirling Inferno last week? Didn't they forge you into a matching hammer?"

Tracy laughed. "You know, as grumpy as I was at the time..."

Amber giggled as she interrupted. "Your face on the hammer head said it all."

Tracy smirked. "I might frame that picture. I could probably smash...what did they forge you into? I just remember you being a puddled mess."

Amber pouted. "They didn't. They just kept the heat on me and told Scarlett to look. Two instant puddles of racers. *Sigh!* One day I will get that girl to wait until after the race."

Tracy laughed. "Fat chance of that. But seriously, I meant your actual races."

"Oh!" Amber's face instantly lit up. "You mean my 5Ks?  We actually had one the other week where nobody started a pileup! Do you know how hard it is to chisel 50 sweaty women apart in the cold when they freeze together? Getting through it was a minor miracle!"

Tracy slapped her leg laughing. "It's impossible! Don't you have some way of just melting them apart?"

Amber shook her head. "You'd be surprised how many people hate melting more than they hate being tangled. I keep telling my friends to lighten up, and too many are 'Oh no I might fuse with someone! What will my sig other think?!'"

Tracy tried and failed to stifle her laughter. She needed a minute before she could speak through it. "Wow, some of them need to pay attention to how that stuff works more."

"I know right?"

"Anyway, the real reason I'm asking is because my soccer team could use an extra. Everyone knows you've got the endurance, and as much as it is a foul, a little thing like getting flattened into the turf wouldn't stop you like it does some of the others. Would you be interested?"

Amber nodded slowly. "It's been a while since I played much, but it does sound like fun. Is trampling a big problem though?"

Tracy sighed. "Not too big, but every now and again someone a little too big, or let's say, too enthusiastic shows up. You're there minding your own business and then-"

"INCOMING!"

"Huh?" The new soccer team mates looked up and...

*WHAM!*
*SQUISH!*

...Were too late to avoid Zoe driving a combination zamboni and steamroller.

Tracy and Amber turned at the last second to run from the machine, but both got thrown on their stomachs. The Zamboni quickly caught up to them, squishing their legs to the ice. Pink and gray smears appeared from their pants as Amber and Tracy's bodies were stretched and squished to the ice, mercilessly flattened and sprayed with freezing cold water. Both moaned when the rollers reached their butts splattering generous amounts of toony flesh to the sides before freezing them to the ice.

"OOOH!"

Both wore expressions caught between surprise and pleasure as their upper halves suffered a similar fate, boobs pleasantly spread and squished, and they vanished to the ice.

Zoe eventually parked and walked back to inspect her handiwork. The ice was smoothed  out after their afternoon of skating, but now had two frosty human cutouts attached to the surface. Both vaguely resembled their original colors, only much bluer from the cold.

She kneeled next to the one with a smear resembling a ponytail, occasionally glancing to the other with frosty smear with box braids. "I'm sure I owe you this for something Amber. Sorry not sorry to squish you too Tracy, but the red head said please."

Zoe stood and started walking away before yelling up the hill. "THEY'RE ALL YOURS SCARLETT!"

Amber's voice was barely audible to Tracy, muffled by the ice. "Oh no!"

"Ugh, what now?"

"Scarlett's probably about to make a cold drink out of me. I hope you don't mind getting-OH!"

*CRRRRRK*

Tracy realized something happened to Amber. Her ice sheet clattered, trying desperately to restore herself and see what was happening, but it wasn't easy in the cold. "Amber, what do you mean cold drinks and what is hap-AAAH!"

*CRRRRK*

Scarlett finished skating her first lap through her friends. She held her arms behind her back with a huge grin on her face, looking down and running her skates clean through the frozen splats on the ice. Each pass sliced off an arm, maybe something else in half, and sent a literal shiver through their spines.

* * *


Jess, Grace, and Sophie stood on the hill top, watching the chaos unfold below.

Jess was pointing at the zamboni as she spoke. "So that's when we talked to Ally about getting a roller installed. Most zambonis don't have one, but, well, it seemed like a fun idea for the league."

Grace nodded slowly, scratching her head. "True, though you're lucky we had such a cold day outside. I didn't think they'd freeze that quickly. And then slicing through them..."

That's where Sophie cut in. "Are those skates from Kara?"

Jess nodded. "Yup. Only she would sponsor skates sharp enough to slice and not shatter a flat frozen friend."

Grace looked like she just walked into a toy store. "So then you could take Amber and use her for a flavored snow cone or a blast of snow or...oh my, I need to talk to this Kara later. I have some ideas that need those tools installed."

Jess laughed. "Sure, we'll talk to Zoe later."

Sophie laughed and started walking down to the ice. "Yeah that is pretty neat. I'll let you two geek out over things though, I want to get a piece of frozen Tracy for later."

Grace was still looking down at her hands, oblivious to her surroundings. "I mean, with blades that well made, one could do blending, puppeteering, rearranging of features, all for fun of course."

Jess shook her head. "I have a feeling you've been thinking about this stuff way too long and...oh this is bad."

That snapped Grace out of it. "Huh?"

Jess pointed at the frozen lake. Sophie was busy collecting Tracy fragments, and Zoe had parked the zamboni roller near a small food stand she had not noticed until that moment.  She was carrying a bucket of pink and yellow ice chips that could only be Amber.

That left Scarlett as the only one skating, waiting for her Amber treat. She was skating in circles, trying to go faster. She had let Sophie through without incident, but there was a large mark in the ice where Scarlett arced around her.

Grace was slow to think it through. "Wait, how sharp are those blades? Scarlett's leaving an awfully deep cut in the ice everywhere, you can see from there Sophie snuck in and...oh no! SOPHIE!"

Sophie looked up from collecting Tracy. "What?!"

*CRACK!*

Sophie and Scarlett both fell over with the sudden shift in the ice. They both fell in the same half of the circle, with enough force to tip it into the air...

*SPLASH*
*CRSSSSSH*

Dunking both of them in the cold water below. The sheet of ice itself cracked and fell apart into the water after, harmlessly making waves.

Grace jumped from the surprise, wondering what she should do. She looked to Jess for guidance, but she was already running in Zoe's direction.

"I need to get the cart out of range, you be careful if you go to help them."

Grace stood for one more moment before taking off. "Oh, helping them out of the ice, right!"

* * *

"Just a little more...aaaand...there."

Grace got the last ice cube out of the water. She wasn't even half way to the lake when three giant ice cubes bobbed to the surface. She quickly identified one as Scarlett and another as Sophie. The third was a mystery until she noticed Tracy's yellow eyes examining their new surroundings from within.

So she did what anyone would do in her situation. She reached into her hair, pulled out her extra long ice tongs, and fished them out.

Now that Tracy was on solid ground next to the lake, Grace could work on thawing them out. She put her oversized tongs back into her hair, briefly inflating the pig tail until the tongs were all the way in and it snapped back to normal. Then she reached in the other one for a chainsaw, and some some flint and steel. She cut down a tree in a flurry of movement, set up a camp fire, and moved the ice cubes next to it to thaw.

It wasn't long before she saw water dripping down the sides.

"Oh, thank goodness. That was...quite exhausting."

Once she saw drops melting away from their surface, Grace finally collapsed from expending so much energy. She made sure she was out of the flame's reach, not wanting her hair to ignite and burn her to ashes yet again, but she otherwise didn't want to move. Grace closed her eyes and fell back on the ground.

Despite knowing she wasn't actually on fire, Grace was vaguely aware that her legs were feeling extra toasty. She tried to wiggle her toes, and felt a gooey sensation where her ankles should have been. She giggled, realizing her legs were probably melting near the fire.

*Oh well. I think I earned a little melty relaxation time. Aaahhh.*

Grace eventually heard snow crunching. She sat herself up on her elbows to find Jess and Zoe, each holding two snow cones, one yellow and one pink. Then she looked down and confirmed everything below her thighs was now a big silver Grace puddle.

Jess took in the sight of three giant ice cubes dripping around the camp fire and their worn out friend. "Looks like you got everyone out. Good work!"

"Yeah! But whew..." Grace took a deep breath for emphasis. "That was exhausting. I kinda want to just lie here for now."

Everyone laughed.

Zoe got close to Grace and kneeled down, offering her the yellow snow cone. "Here, we should keep you solid. Do you like banana blond?"

Grace took it tentatively. "Banana?"

Zoe shrugged. "It's gotta be all the protein shakes she drinks."

The snow cone shook in Zoe's hands. Grace figured Amber must have still been annoyed at getting caught like that on the ice.

Grace smiled and took a bite. "Mmmm, she's delicious. I have been meaning to get back at her after she voted for Emi for best cake."

Zoe laughed and took a bite of her pink cone. The Amber desserts in their hands actually shivered as she was eaten.

"Just one question," Grace asked while they ate. "Why did the ice flipping mean you had to move the cart out of the way? It was on dry land wasn't it?"

"Um, ladies?" Jess interrupted loudly, making sure she got her friends' attention. "We need to get out of here. NOW!"

Grace and Zoe looked where Jess was pointing. Sophie's ice cube melted enough that the end of Sophie's braid was exposed. And it seemed to have caught fire. A large spark was slowly working its way closer to Sophie's head.

Zoe's eyes briefly popped out of her skull towards the spark. "Oh shit!"

Jess took off towards the top of the hill once they saw it. Grace figured that was towards where the Bunnies were parked too.

Zoe tried to sprint that way too. Tried.

*SQUISH*
"WAAAAAAAH!!!"
*THUNK*

Instead, she slipped on Grace's melted legs, and fell on her butt.

Meanwhile, the fire on the braid was getting closer to Sophie's head. In the ice, her eyes were following it, her face smiling and tensing up for what was coming.

Grace tried to get up and help Zoe up, but could only slowly glide along her melted lower half. She was basically a half human floating on top of a blob of girl goop that looked like her skirt.

She was also still oblivious to the threat. "What's the big deal? So Sophie melts or burns up in the ice. We restore her and get back to skating, right?"

Zoe sighed and smacked her forehead rather than try to stand up. "She didn't tell you why she was banned from the ice rink did she."

Grace tilted her head, confused. "No?"

Zoe smacked her forehead. "Why do you think her team name is the Boomers? Unless some miracle puts her fuse out, you're about to find out."

Grace looked back at Sophie. "Wait, you mean...?"

Now that Grace thought about it, her braid leading to her head looked an awful lot like an old TV show bomb. And it was almost burned up.

Grace wobbled over to Sophie, trying to reach up and do something to put the braid out.  Unfortunately, she couldn't stretch high enough. Her melted legs made that impossible.

Accepting defeat, Grace slumped down, letting her legs spread into a puddle. She tried to force the rest of her body down, but couldn't force her body to liquefy. She looked back to Zoe as a last resort. "Think if I get closer to the fire I can finish melting before she explodes?"

Zoe pouted. "Nope. *Sigh* I hate disintegra-"

*KABOOOOOOOOM*

* * *

Jess stood a reasonable distance away. Knowing she was safe made it easier to laugh and enjoy what was happening to everyone else. She had to laugh, knowing she would be the one cleaning up the mess after. Sophie's explosions were always spectacular.

*KABOOOOOM*

This one had a decent radius to it, over what she joked was her usual 20 foot fireball range. It reached the lake, shattering the ice and heating the water closest to shore.

Jess was staring at Zoe's eyes, since she and Grace were closest to the blast. She always loved the chance to see Zoe's body change shape. As soon as the flames subsided, Jess saw Zoe's blackened body hovering and spinning over the lake. Her tumbling slowed, and she puffed one ash filled huff of frustration. Gray cracks ran through her, and Zoe's body broke apart, crumbling into dust. Zoe's ashes fell into the lake, leaving her silver eyes glaring back up at Jess for just a moment, before they too unceremoniously splashed into the water.

The ice mostly protected Scarlett. Her ice prison tumbled through the air, but it was badly cracked. She struck the ground near the lake, shattering all the ice around her. Her body floated in the air for a moment, giggling awkwardly.

"Wheeeeeeee...hee hee...something feels weird...EEP!"

After one chuckle, cracks ran through her, and she too shattered like a cheap porcelain statue. Blue and red shards of the melty one scattered on the shore, and Jess was not looking forward to putting her back together.

Tracy's block had a lower profile, since she was already reduced to chunks of ice. The blast pushed her ice cube away, quickly melting it along with her still inside. When the smoke cleared, Jess saw the long swatch of brown and neon red goop stretching to the lake. Jess knew Tracy was tough, but she wasn't sure how Tracy would take to getting melted this badly at first. Then she found Tracy's lips floating in a swatch of brown. She was licking her lips, smiling.

Sophie herself, as always, was a charred mess with no hair left. Her hot pink eyes looked rather pleased with herself, a common sight after she exploded. Jess figured Sophie would rather be a free pile of ashes than a human stuck in an ice block, and Sophie rarely passed up a chance so explode if she thought it improved her situation. Jess knew she would be the easiest to clean up, since Sophie crumbled to dust next to the campfire clearing, with her eyes rolling along the sides of her ashes.

Jess felt the warmth of desire welling up inside, but remembered to keep her emotions in check at least until they had more privacy, and especially until their friends were restored. As much fun as messing with her room mates in their transformed states would be, there was plenty of time to do that back at the house.

Which brought her attention back to the snow cones in her hands. She gave the pink one a final lick. "You there Amber? I think I'm going to need your help restoring everyone."

The snow cones wobbled. "Yeah. I think there's enough of me here to..."

The two piles of slush in her hands shook violently, hovered into the air, and slammed together. A splash and mixing of goop later, and Amber's body reformed next to Jess.

Jess nodded. "Cool! Let's go."

Amber hurried after. "Alright, but I do NOT drink too many banana shakes."

Pushing the Tracy spray back together wasn't too bad, especially since Tracy was no stranger to recovering from Sophie's explosions. That gave them a third set of hands to put Scarlett back together.

Which, as always, was harder than it seemed. After five minutes, Scarlett was still an unresponsive pile of broken pottery, seemingly unable to move.

Tracy kept shaking her head in disbelief. "Can't she like, build a hand and sweep herself together?"

Amber and Jess both sighed before Amber spoke up. "Nope. She's gotten better, but Scarlett's restoration speed on her own leaves a lot to be desired."

Jess elbowed her. "But that's why you like her, right?"

Amber giggled, and clicked another piece of Scarlett's head into place. "She stays squished real good for real long."

The red head was finally assembled enough to speak up. "Heeeey come on. I'm right here you know. Just get us back together so we can get some proper snacks. We need to heat up."

*SPLASH*

"She's right you know. We can talk all that AFTER I lose this water weight. If there's anything I hate more than disintegrating, it's falling into water as ashes and over hydrating."

The four looked up, seeing a very waterlogged Zoe pulling herself out of the still warm water. She was probably three times her normal weight, bloated with lake water.

Jess smiled at her warmly. "Maybe babe, but I still think you look great like that!"

Zoe stuck out her hip and smacked her butt, sending ripples through her water inflated body. "That's because I always look good, dear."

"Mmmm!"
*SPLOOSH*

Tracy looked back down at Scarlett, now a pool of blue and red goop. "I know we joke about her melting, but really?"

Amber laughed. "Look at the bright side. No more puzzle pieces."

Jess gave Zoe a quick hug, whispering something in her ear that made even Zoe blush. Then she looked back to the group.

"Okay, that's almost everyone. Does anyone know where Grace went?"

Everyone shook their head and started looking around.

Zoe balled her fists in frustration. "Jess you had the best view, how did you miss her?"

Jess sighed. "Because I was staring at you babe. You never disintegrate for me. You were right next to her though, where was she?"

Zoe rolled her eyes. "She was trying to reach Sophie's fuse at the top of the ice block."

Jess looked at Zoe. "Wait, so she was half melted near the top of an explosive?"

Everyone stared at each other, then looked up.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

Grace reappeared falling like a shooting star. Her top half was glowing red hot from reentry, wobbling as if it was in a liquid state. Her previously melted bottom half was a silver splatter trailing her like goop out of a fountain, the tail of her meteoric state.

And she was hurtling down towards the side of the hill behind them, fast.

*WHAAAAAAAM*
*SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH*

Grace felt her top half compress for just a moment, before her body splattered apart more than it ever had before. Drops of Grace's body rained down everywhere, coating the entire hill in silver and red from her impact. Grace goo was easily covering at least a hundred feet.

The whole gang winced, knowing that as good as squishing could feel, this was a pretty big splat. They were a little worried, until Grace's voice echoed from the whole hillside.

"OOOOoooooooooooooooooooohhhhh...Agaaaaain...."

Jess finally looked at her assembled friends. "Well ladies, I think we're going to need an extremely large bucket."