And I want you to lose like I lose when I play, what could have been

“Finally!” Morgana sighed in relief as she stepped out of the marsh and onto solid brick. For the first time, it felt like she was making progress! She was finally in the maze proper!

…It just occurred to her that Morgana had spent literally the entirety of this challenge wandering through a bog. And while that certainly fit her witchy aesthetic, it wasn’t the sort of thing that she’d like to do more of. It was time to really put her brains to work and find a way out of this place!

She turned and looked back to Dani and Ella, who followed her under the large awning. A door stood embedded in the wall ahead of them. The way out! …Or in, as the case may have been.

“I’m just glad we didn’t have to deal with any more of those stupid vines,” Dani said, shaking her head. “Talk about miserable!”

“You’re telling me!” Ella nodded in agreement. “Come on, we-we should probably go inside.” She shivered. “It’s starting to get cold!”

Snapping her rubber-band with a “Thwap!” because it helped her feel soothed, Ella was the first one through the door, with Morgana and Dani quick to follow after her.

But not quick enough.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” The floor dropped out beneath Ella’s feet and she disappeared from sight, sliding down a chute to the utter shock and bewilderment of the two girls rigt behind her.

By the time Dani and Morgana could register what just happened, Ella was long gone.

“El-Ella?!” Morgana screeched in dismay.

“Holy-! Ella!” Dani exclaimed, running to the edge of the chute. She squinted down, but couldn’t make out anything but blackness.

Morgana blanched. She knew exactly what Dani was about to do. “H-hey! Wait up!” She lunged forward and grabbed Dani’s wrist, holding on tight as the tomboy jumped down the chute after the wailing latina.

Where could the chute be leading?

https://strawpoll.com/61gD9JQEVZw

“Mmf… fuck, oh yeah… right there, yeeeeeessss!” Carly was rubbing her pussy through her tight shorts with one gloved hand, while the other was pulling gently on her hair. Her ears flopped about with excitement as sweat dripped down her flushed face, and pheromones doused the corridor, filling this part of the maze with the aroma of raunchy sex.

Dawn’s cheeks were even redder than Carly’s, if that was possible. She would claim that it was just due to embarrassment from seeing someone playing with themselves in front of her, but honestly, she had gotten used to it at this point. No, if you pressed her on it, she would admit the truth- the pheromones Carly was giving off were really starting to get to her.

She hoped that her friend would figure out the map fast, because the constant flow of orgasms was starting to wear her down.

Then there was Marley. Yeah, her blush was mainly out of embarrassment as she tried not to look at her sister cumming her brains out for the good of the team. If Carly had a niche, this was definitely it. And no, that wasn’t just Marley being cynical.

…Well, not entirely.

“O-okay… I… I think I… I think I got it…” Carly mumbled, her fingers slowing down. It took her a second for her to catch her breath. “Don’t have your… super-memory, Dawn… so… I had to go a lot more than I thought, but… I think I… got the right path.”

“Good,” Dawn said, pulling on her collar to fan herself. She was really starting to perspire. “So, uh… which one?”

The sooner she got out of this hotbox of hormones, the better. When Carly pointed a shaky finger to the left path, Dawn practically sprinted towards it.

“Hey, wait up!” Marley called after her, helping her sister to her feet. Not an easy task- Carly’s legs were like jelly, something Marley could sympathize with. “Give my sister a chance to catch her breath first, Dawn!”

“Right, sorry,” Dawn said, slowing down. This time her blush was due to shame. She was the one who’d been insisting how important it was that they all stick together, and what should happen but she runs off right in the middle! Embarrassing, to say the least.

Leaning against the wall, she tapped her toe and waited for Carly to regain her composure. Thankfully, orgasmed out or no, Carly had quite a lot of sexual stamina, and regular stamina. She hiked up steep mountains for fun, after all!

“Okay, I think I’m good,” Carly said, the feeling finally returning to her legs. “Dawn, we can- …Whoa! Hey!”

A flash of pink, and Carly’s bunny form hopped away. She was back to her usual self now, which was good- her clothes were her normal clothes again, and weren’t stained with her juices. And her hair no longer had the texture of sweat-matted fur.

…She’d miss the ears, though.

Carly adjusted her glasses. “I guess that took longer than I thought,” she said. “Unless cumming runs down the clock or something!” She laughed at the notion and stepped forward to go join Dawn on the right path.

…And tripped right on her face.

“Aaah!” Carly managed to reach out her arms fast enough to stop herself from smacking boob-first into the brick floor, which was a relief. But she didn’t understand why she’d fallen! What was the matter? Were her legs really that unstable? She hadn’t felt like that since she lost her virginity, or when she gave birth…

…Wait, never mind. It wasn’t that Carly’s legs weren’t working, the ground was shaking! It took her a second to register that, but when she did…

“Dawn!” Marley’s cry snapped her sister’s attention back to the present. She looked ahead, and saw a giant iron gate slam down shut right at the entrance to the corridor, separating them from the cat girl completely.

Dawn went pale. “H-hey! Guys!” She cried, grabbing at the bars of the gate as the corridor stopped shaking. “What’s going on!? It- it locked or something-!”

“The maze must have changed again, damn it!” Marley slammed her fist against the wall. “We got careless!”

“Are you kidding me?” Carly came over to inspect the bars. They were less bars, and more solid iron two-by-fours interlocked together like mesh. Yeah, this was one sturdy fucking gate. She shook it and it didn’t even budge.

“Are we stuck like this?” Dawn looked anxiously down the hall. It wasn’t like she was trapped- there was a long path behind her. But she couldn’t take her friends with her.

“Maybe Dani could break through this… or I could, if the Anitrix was working and let me turn into that lizard girl again,” Carly said, biting her lip. “But like this…”

“I can’t believe this is happening!” Marley groaned, expressing her disdain loudly for all of them to hear. “It’s so stupid! We did everything right, too!”

They really had, that was the part that stung. The three of them had tried to stick together. And they basically had, too! None of them had been more than ten feet apart from each other since they joined up!

…But apparently, ten feet was just far enough for a wall to block them off completely.

“Come on, Dawn, you’re a genius,” Marley said. “Surely you’ve gotta have some idea of how to get out of a cage, come on!”

“Yeah, it’s called ‘find the key’,” Dawn said dryly. “What do I look like here, Harry Houdini? I’m not magic, Marley. Even I’m not flexible enough to fit through these gaps.”

“Oh! That’s it! I’ve got a plan!” Carly said, her face lighting up. “First step, I get more than ten feet away from you, Marley.”

“Great, I hate it already,” Marley groaned, rolling her eyes.

“No, I’m serious!” Carly insisted. “You turn into slime, then Dawn scoops you through the bars! Then I come back, and you’re human again! See?”

“Okay, that could work,” Dawn conceded, even though she doubted Marley would be up for it. “But how do YOU get through?”

Carly blinked. “Uh… I’m still working on that part,” she confessed.

Dawn rolled her eyes and Marley slapped her face in exasperation.

“Well at least I’m trying!” Carly protested. “Come on, sis, you’ve got have an idea in that big brain of yours!”

Nope, Marley didn’t. She might be more booksmart than her sister, but honestly, something like this was way more in Carly’s neck of the woods. It was like a puzzle right out of a video game or anime or something.

Minus the “puzzle” part. So basically it was just a big middle finger screwing them over.

“I don’t think there’s anything we can do…” Dawn finally said what all three girls were thinking, but none of them wanted to admit. “Obviously, somebody is trying to separate us. That’s why one of the paths is still open.”

“Yeah, the wrong one,” Marley said, feeling her butt starting to clap already. On the other hand, the maze had just shifted hard. Who knew if the paths her sister had seen were even correct or not. Maybe they could get out of this…

“Hey Dawn, you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking, are you?” Carly asked worriedly, biting her lip.

Dawn nodded solemnly. “I am,” she confessed. “We… we should probably go our separate ways here. It’s pretty clear that’s the only option.”

Carly shook her head. “But the slime idea-”

“Yeah, that was never going to happen,” Marley cut her off, not even willing to entertain the possibility.

Carly groaned and rolled her eyes. “But… what if we just wait?” She held up her wrist. “When the Anitrix recharges I’ll get another roll, so if it’s the lizard or the mole one, I could clear a path for you! Or, you’ve still got your three transformations you could use-”

“Carly.” Dawn reached through the cage and took the other girl’s hand, giving her a gentle smile. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about me, okay? We don’t even know if the transformations would help, or if you’ll even get the right animal form when the watch does recharge. And who knows how long that would even take?”

She shook her head. “If we want to get through this maze, we’ll have to split up. I don’t like it either, but it looks like that’s the only way.”

Carly pouted. Marley was surprised, it looked like her sister was about to cry! And she rarely did that.

Carly’s really worried about Dawn, huh? Marley suspected they would be fine. Between Carly’s x-ray glasses and her own… assets, they had the tools they needed to do well in this challenge. Dawn had her brains, sure, and could orgasm on demand, which was definitely helpful, but Marley would still put her odds on the two of them getting out before their friend did, and she suspected her sister had done the same calculations in her head.

Marley felt really bad about it herself. But she could see the logic in Dawn’s position. Better to take matters into their own hands and keep going, rather than wait around and make no progress just to keep the group together.

“Okay, Dawn, we’ll go,” Marley said, tugging on her sister’s wrist. “Come on, Carly.”

Carly let out an exasperated sigh oozing with ****. “Fiiiiiine,” she groaned, shooting Dawn another sympathetic look. “But Dawn, you be careful, okay? Don’t get into trouble.”

“…Yeah, I’ll do my best,” Dawn dryly replied. But the corners of her lips perked up. She really was going to miss the two of them, that was the sad part. She watched them go down the other path and her ears drooped down.

“Well… so much for doing this as a team,” she said, turning and heading down the dimly-lit corridor ahead of her. “Guess I’m on my own again.”

What will Dawn find on her own?

https://strawpoll.com/poy9kLQdpgJ

The rumbling of the maze wasn’t just limited to the area Carly, Marley, and Dawn were in. No, it was shaking the whole place!

But going back in time just slightly to before the maze started to shift, a rather interesting discussion was occurring, now that all of Lynette’s prisoners had been freed from their chains. Even Holly, much to her chagrin.

No one would have likely even noticed if the room started shaking, though, because their attention was all focused on one thing in particular.

“Put me down! Put me down I say! You stupid hag!”

“…It’s talking,” Amelia said, bluntly stating the obvious as she looked incredulously at the ragged doll in her hand.

“Of course I’m talking! I have a mouth, don’t I!?” Lynette screeched at her.

“Your mouth is sewed on,” Kim pointed out. “You’re not even a Barbie.” Lynette was rather unique as children’s toys went. She was more of a stuffed animal instead of the usual plastic children’s dolls. The creators had said that was so she’d be easier to cuddle and love. The truth of the matter, having worked in one of their assembly plants, Kim could say state with confidence it was because the company had gotten sued so many times over children swallowing plastics that they weren’t taking any risks.

…But that was neither here nor there. Barbie dolls didn’t talk either. Unless they had a speaker. Not that Kim could afford fancy toys like those.

“So you’re alright!” Sylvia was beside herself with glee. “I’m so happy for you, Lynette!” She grabbed the doll from Amelia’s hands and gave her a tight hug.

“Let. Me. GOOOOO!” Lynette screamed at her. “You’re crushing me! Stupid fake sister! Let me go! Or I’ll stab you!”

“You can’t even move,” Gina pointed out. Lynette was doing a lot of talking, but she couldn’t actually move her limbs. She really was just a doll. Sentient somehow, yes, but not even in a cool “The Daughter-in-Law of the Third Wife of Chucky” sentience.

Basically she was just being a whiny bitch. Although, it was maybe a reasonable response to Sylvia’s enhanced strength squeezing the lumpy, worn-out stuffing out of her. She looked liable to pop her poorly-resewn seams.

Luckily, Rose was able to rescue her… more or less.

“Just so you know, you LOST that little game you were playing, dolly,” Rose said, plucking the dirty doll out of Sylvia’s arms and turning her around so she could look her in those beady, lifeless little eyes. “We beat you. And after what you did to us, you’re lucky we don’t cut you up into little bitty-bits.”

“…Cut you up into little bitty-bits,” Jess mumbled under her breath, crossing her arms over her chest. A cute pout puffed up her cheeks.

Rose ignored her.

“Just try it!” Lynette growled. If she could move, she would strangle Rose right now! …And also, if she had fingers.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin scowled and cracked her knuckles.

But Rose wasn’t about to be intimidated by a doll! She’d triumphed over far greater foes, like Nick’s heart! “Keep threatening me,” Rose said with a smirk. “See where that gets you.”

She winked. “Or, you could be nice to me… and I promise I’ll bring you right to Dakota. What do you say, Little Lynette?” Compared to the woman who’d attacked them, the name was far more apt now.

“You will?!” If Lynette’s face could make expressions, she’d be glowing with joy. “Yes, absolutely! Whatever you ladies need!”

“Oh, so suddenly she’s all conciliatory now,” Kim scoffed, rolling her eyes.

“Ooh, can I get a turn to hold her?” Vivian asked excitedly. “I always wanted a talking doll when I was a little girl! None of my dolls would ever talk back to me.”

Everyone looked at Vivian with barely-concealed sympathy.

“What?” Vivian looked around. “Doesn’t everybody wish their dolls could talk?”

“Oh, Vivian,” Gina sighed, rubbing her temple.

“Let’s forget about the doll for now,” Holly declared. “We should focus more on getting you girls out of this maze!”

“I would say that is the correct course of action at this time, yes,” Amelia agreed with a nod. “Now that we have a large group like this, we should be able to handle the maze quite well.”

“What, you mean work together?” Rose wasn’t sure how she felt about THAT. “I mean, yeah, I guess so, if you think that’s the best move, Amelia.”

She’d completely forgotten about the whole “You guys owe me big time for saving your asses” and nobody was in a hurry to remind her.

“You’re not including me in this, are you?” Holly asked, pointing at herself. “I don’t even know what I’m still doing here. I was sent to be a helper. I’m not even PART of this challenge.”

“Hey, that’s a good point,” Kim nodded. “Sylvia? You were a host. You know why she would still be with us?”

Sylvia shrugged. “I mean, it all depends on how Dakota wants to run her challenge,” she pointed out. “In some challenges, helpers and the like disappear after lending assistance. And sometimes…”

“You’re stuck with them,” Kim said, giving Holly a playful grin. The shorter girl stuck her tongue out in respose.

Gina giggled and shook her head. “Well, I’m certainly not complaining! Welcome to the team, Holly! And, uh…”

She turned and looked at Jess, not sure what to make of the clumsy fox girl who’d accompanied Rose. “…Miss Human Shield?”

“Hey!” Jess wailed.

“Not cool, Gina,” Rose said, shaking her head. “She’s a Fox Shield, don’t be racist.”

“HEY! I have a name!”

“Jess, it was?” Sylvia came over to greet her. “You work for Little Miss, right?”

“Yes! I work with Little Miss!” Jess said with a beaming smile.

“And from what I hear, under her as well,” Rose snickered. Not that she even knew who Little Miss was.

Jess stared blankly at Rose. Did she think Jess would be bothered by that joke or something? She wore that with pride! Embarrassed pride, yes, but pride all the same.

“Anyway, Amelia’s right, we should head out and get this challenge started again, now that we’re all together,” Kim said, looking around the dank chamber that had emerged in the wake of Lynette’s fall from power. It looked like they were at a relay point or something, there were a lot of hallways leading off in different directions, at least two on each wall.

They’d have to pick carefully.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin realized it first, thanks to her enhanced senses. But being mute, she couldn’t warn anyone.

All she could do was run at Kim and throw her arms around her, tackling her to the ground just as the floor where she’d been standing erupted.

“What the hell!?” Gina screeched, shielding herself as the ground began to burst open. Everyone scattered as a massive tree emerged in the center of the room. The trunk shot up, up, up, breaking through the ceiling, and massive roots stretched out, forming walls that split the room into multiple sections.

In a matter of moments, everyone had been scattered as the maze continued to shake, readjusting itself and splitting up the large group of girls.

Who joins up with Vivian?

https://strawpoll.com/XOgOVja14n3

Who joins up with Rose?

https://strawpoll.com/7rnzV261DnO

Who ends up with Holly?

https://strawpoll.com/w4nWWPjJlnA