The Star Attractions: A Pink and Blue Diaperfur Adventure Part 1
#7 of Pink and Blue
The Star Attractions: A Pink & Blue Diaperfur Adventure in Nine Episodes
Part One (Prologue-Episode 3)
The next adventure in the Pink and Blue diaperfur series begins. To see other stories in the series, click on the "By Folder" view to the upper right.
This story can be read out of order but continues the events of:
[Newbie](%5C)
[Operation Baby Blue](%5C)
[Damsel in Distress](%5C)
Please note, I'll be breaking this story up into a few parts throughout the week for furs who prefer to read it a bit at a time. The whole thing will be up Friday so if you'd rather read it all at once over the V-Day/P-Day weekend you can wait.
Here is the usual long list of deadly side effects: This is a mature story so please be 18+ to read. It involves furs in diapers, ageplay, crossdressing, and boys on boys, among other things.
It is an adventure and romance story involving these elements, rather than a straight-out fetish regression/sissification piece, and thus has a lot of plot and character story in addition to the fetish elements.
And one special warning: This story revolves around Dex the raccoon, probably the most serious character in the Pink and Blue series because he does not use diapers or regress voluntarily. Thus, although it is still generally a silly conceptual fetish story, it will have some darker parts than the others. Back to lighter stuff next time.
Don't like any of that, you've been warned up front!
In brief: The heroic faction of boyish Baby Blue AB/DL furs defends the city's age playing scene from complete domination by the pink forces of sissification now headquartered at Empress Calliope's Academy for Special Boys. It's a non-stop battle until . . .
Spring break! The severely shortpawed blue and pink teams have called a break-long truce, and, with all the regular leaders on vacation, Dex the regression-prone raccoon is temporarily in charge of Baby Blue.
So when his friends Twitchy and Squeak go missing on a field mission, leaving only a mysterious distress call in the middle of a circus fairground, Dex seeks help rescuing his friends from an unlikely source-the crack pink team agent and scheming panda girl Lin Lin. But she's their worst enemy! What is Dex thinking? And why is he so moody lately? Is the boys' team's tree-hugging tough guy losing his grip?
Character recap:
Baby Blue Boys:
Dex , a sensitive raccoon martial artist, is Baby Blue's third-in-command and combat specialist. Currently the highest-ranking member of Baby Blue in town, Dex is one of the few Baby Blue boys who doesn't wear diapers voluntarily. Dex also regresses, psychologically, to a kit whenever he loses a fight, for reasons not fully understood even by him.
Something has been off about him ever since a major battle at the sissy academy, when he led his boys straight into a pink team trap set by the panda girl Lin Lin and suffered an embarrassing defeat. Is he just licking his wounds? Or is he upset about something else?
The nervous, goggle-wearing bunny Twitchy ordinarily makes up Baby Blue's tech and behind-the-scenes support team at Hideout #4 together with his partner, the pocket-sized mouse and gadget engineer Squeak. They saved the boys' team during the battle at the academy after Dex was KO'ed, earning his close friendship. Both are missing in action.
Roger, a black Labrador, and Rian, his true blue wolf cub sidekick, are the regular leaders of Baby Blue, but are currently out of the country for spring break. Rian, Dex's best friend and sometime big brother, began dating the sissy princess fox Serafina after rescuing her from a chastity punishment during the boys' raid on the academy.
Empress Calliope's Academy for Special Boys (Pink Faction):
Empress Calliope , Princess Cassandra , and Princess Serafina are the regular leaders of the pink faction, but are out of town during spring break on a spa trip. Serafina recently began dating the boys' team's second-in-command Rian.
Lady Lin Lin , an undersized but overachieving and hypercompetitive panda, set a trap to capture and sissify the entire boys' team in an attempt to steal Serafina's Princess crown-and nearly succeeded, KOing Dex, only to be outwitted at the last minute by Twitchy and Squeak. Physical education instructor and feared disciplinarian at Empress Calliope's Academy for Special Boys, she is the highest-ranking pink team member still in town. Unhappy that she is still outranked by Serafina, whom she has always considered disloyal and too friendly to the enemy Baby Blue boys.
Episodes in Part One (total 7,800 words):
Prologue: Pinch Hitter
Episode 1. Overlook
Episode 2. Flying Solo
Episode 3: Triple L
Prologue: Pinch Hitter
"Roger that, Ace," Kyle the Dalmatian lifted his paws from the keyboard and leaned in so close to the center of the three monitors in Hideout #4 that the tip of his nose brushed against its flat screen as he spoke to the recon squad leader through his headset.
"I'm looking at you now. Yup, that blue dot is definitely you. I would recognize it anywhere. Just go . . ."
He bit his lip and slid his wheeled chair back about a foot away from the screen, holding one arm above his head and the other up and at an angle to his right as he tried to visualize a clock, leaning sideways bit by bit.
"Two o'clock . . . Three o'clock . . . Three thirtyish kind of . . . from your current heading to the meadow. Then south . . ."
He leaned pressed his nose against the monitor for a second, squinting at the satellite surface image, and then pulled it away, leaving a large wet smudge. "Yeah, south, for a quarter of a mile, and at the fork take the path on the right," he spun around 180 degrees in the chair and looked back and forth between his still-outstretched arms, correcting himself quickly, "I mean left! My right! Your left! Because you're going south! And usually north is in front of me! But it won't be in front of you! Go left!"
Having spun to face the entrance, Kyle could see the electric sign above the door that read, "BB Tech is always on call! No bathroom breaks in - 00 - hours," with the "00" blinking at him repeatedly, and accusingly. He would fix that sign just as soon as the support calls stopped. And right after he changed his increasingly soggy X-Plus diaper, luckily reinforced with an extra absorbency liner.
He was wearing only that and a pale blue tee-shirt. His pants hung on a hook on the door. He had realized sometime yesterday that working solo here didn't give him time to keep pulling them on and off before and after every change, so today he had just pulled them off and hung them up as soon as he came through the door. It made changes more efficient.
A change . . . that sounded good. He glanced longingly at the outpost-style rubber mat and rudimentary wipe, powder, and diaper supply setup on the floor not more than six feet away from him that he had been trying to get to for at least an hour now.
"And in another quarter of a mile, go behind the waterfall! There's a changing station for your boys there!" He concluded into the headset triumphantly. Phew! "Sorry, this isn't as easy as he makes it look-err, sound."
"Three thirty meadow, south a quarter, fork left a quarter come to a waterfall," Ace summarized briskly, as much for Kyle's benefit as his own. Then there was a long pause of about thirty seconds on the other end of the line, but Kyle knew the call was still on because he heard twigs snapping, leaves crunching, and considerable grumbling in the background before the lynx asked, in an icily calm tone, "Are you sure? I have a couple messes here and we've near used up our backpack supplies going in circles."
"Yes," Kyle answered firmly.
Then, after about ten seconds of palpable silence, he added, blushing, "Like ninety percent this time."
The Dalmatian could hear increased commotion as the cat on the other end moved and started to lead his group forward. He could also hear Ace take a deep breath, as though calming himself down and counting to ten, before he resumed speaking. "Okay, into the hills so I'll cut out in a minute. One last question from my boys before I do."
"Fire away, Ace," the Dalmatian said, pivoting back to face the monitors and sliding the chair forward to rest his forepaws above the keyboard.
It was the third time so far that day that Kyle heard the fur on the other end ask, in as patient a tone as he could manage, "How's the mission to find Twitchy going?"
Episode 1. Overlook
Two years earlier. Near the site of the U. S. Mixed Martial Arts Association National tournament. Juniors.
The raccoon on the hospital bed breathed slowly and steadily, the corner of his lips turning up in a faint smile as his blurry vision cleared with each blink and his gaze settled on the familiar badger seated in the visitors' chair.
"Hi, coach," he said, his voice still thick with sleep. "I didn't hear you come in." He looked around the sterile white room; he felt cold in his hospital gown. "Is my uniform somewhere? I don't know where they put stuff like that, but I'll need to get dressed before we head back."
The badger leaned forward, visibly relieved, and patted the raccoon's head. "Dex," he said anxiously. "Thank heaven. The doctor told me you'd be okay, but it's good to see you awake. Your parents and I have been coming in shifts. No no," when Dex pressed his forepaws down on the bed in an effort to sit up, the badger leaned forward and gently pushed the raccoon back down on to the mattress, "don't try to move. You still have lots of painkillers in you, I think."
"You sound like mom," Dex answered, relaxing slightly. "Maybe tomorrow then?"
"Dex-" the badger fidgeted, hesitantly, frowning as he looked down at the still groggy raccoon, and shook his head. "I talked to the association folks and he was disqualified, so your ranking is a bit up in the air, but still - umm, you know you can't compete for a while, right? I'm sorry."
"I know. Don't worry!" The raccoon only laughed, which caused him to cough a bit, wince and clap a paw onto his ribs, and smiled up at his sensei reassuringly. "Hey, I wasn't hit on the head, coach. I just want to see the rest of it."
The badger frowned and stared at his shoes for a long moment before looking back up. "You've been here for two days, Dex. The tournament is over."
"Oh," the coon said as he slumped back down into his pillow. "Who won?"
"In your division, Wen Chu," the badger answered matter-of-factly. "He took the polecat from Indiana who came in third last year."
Dex stared up at the ceiling with a blank expression. "Chu is good," he said vacantly. "I would have liked to see that."
**************
The coon's eyes snapped open; a fur with less sensitive ears would never have heard, much less been woken up by, the muffled crunch of leaves under careful paw approaching. It was his partner; no other fur Dex knew moved so deliberately in the woods.
The raccoon had been dozing fitfully, sitting up against a tree in his karate outfit, his right paw still resting loosely on the paintball gun holstered on his waist and a cowboy hat slanted down over his eyes. The truth is he was glad to be woken up. He had been having another bad dream. The sparse forest was half-illuminated by a waxing moon. Still, being a raccoon, Dex usually didn't need more than a split second for his eyes to adjust to the dark and identify the approaching figure. He stood up and tilted his cowboy hat back. "Jax," he acknowledged the approaching Plott hound. "Contact?"
"Mixed bag, Dex," the black-and-brown mottled hound dog greeted his coon superior with a silent salute and straightened the badge-covered Boy Scout sash that he always wore over his other clothes when on missions, gesturing for Dex to follow him to the edge of the overlook where they had settled at sunset.
The two furs looked down at the sprawling, illuminated campsite, where enormous tents stood side-by-side with rows of concession stands, hastily assembled carnival attractions, and a large, creaky white Ferris wheel, stopped for the night. Five tractor-trailer trucks were parked nearby. From this high up Dex could see the glint of several campfires throughout the fair grounds. "It's a mess of smells. I thought I'd be able to move more freely after hours but turns out nighttime is party time for half the crew; I had to be even more careful not to be spotted."
Dex bit his lip. "Did you pick up Twitch, though?"
Jax nodded. "All over the place. And I spent a lot of time on the perimeter; he hasn't left. I'm sure of it. The fresher smells are all inside."
Dex drew the paintball gun, firing two pellets over Jax's shoulder to mark the tree behind him, at the top of the path down the hill, with a large yellow splatter. He had been doing that whenever Jax reported back with a confirmation of Twitchy's trail, so any of the boys would be able to retrace it easily. As he reholstered the gun, he asked, "Well, why hasn't he made contact yet? And where is he in there?" The coon gestured vaguely. "That place is huge."
The Plott hound shook his head. "It's a circus, Dex. Literally. Odor mess like you wouldn't believe. And I'm an air scenter. He's in that fairground. That's what I can tell you. You want a ground trail through all that you find me a bloodhound for Wilderness 1."
Dex nodded thoughtfully, surveying the sprawling campsite. "We're working on it. Till then you're the best nose Baby Blue's got."
Jax wrinkled his face as he looked at the cloth poking out over the waist of Dex's pants. "And believe me on this team it's a mixed blessing," the dog replied pointedly, then he reached into his pockets, pulling out a miniature tape deck. "I did find an auditory that I want a second ear to confirm on."
Dex blinked. "You carry a tape recorder? Why?"
"It's to record bird calls," Jax fidgeted, and looked down at his footpaws bashfully. "Don't tell Ace. He says birding only exists so girls can have a wilderness sport." Then he added petulantly, "Because fishing is soooo exciting. . ."
"So much foreplay. I wish you two would just pitch a tent somewhere secluded and get it over with." Dex rolled his eyes and waved his paw. "Play your stupid thing."
"This was looping on the PA outside that pavilion there right up until the circus closed for the night," the dog explained, pointing, and then clicked on his tape recorder. A tinny, recorded voice announced, with what sounded like a drum roll in the background, "Ladies and gentlefurs, *tap tap tap* step right in to see the one *thump* the only *thump* master of mysteries, *thump* impresario of illusions, *tap tap tap* Alphonse the Amazing. Every hour on the hour. Ladies and gentlefurs . . ." The hound clicked the tape recorder off and looked at Dex meaningfully. "Did you hear it?"
Dex narrowed his eyes. "There's a drum roll or something in the background. I guess it's supposed to sound climactic." He clapped his paws-lightly, tap tap tap-heavily, clap clap clap-lightly, tap tap tap-and shook his head. "He sure has a bad sense of rhythm, though, whoever it is."
"No he doesn't." Jax shook his head and tugged on his Boy Scout sash, pointing to a badge with two crossed signal flags on it. "You just clapped SOS in Morse code."
Next time: Dex has a lead on his missing friend! But is the coon losing control of his team-and himself? What's been eating him, anyway?
Episode 2. Flying Solo
"Why did he have a tape recorder?" the lynx on the other end of the two-way radio asked suspiciously.
Dex and Jax sat in a clearing in the middle of the woods, where the bright noontime sun shone down on them. After a fitful morning's rest, they had backtracked to the nearest site where they had clear reception.
Dex had been skeptical when the two ex-Boy Scouts had started running so many seemingly pointless recon missions, but between Ace and Jax the boys now had not only trails, but also a radio map that covered most of the wooded area within a days' walk of any of their hideouts, so they knew good and bad signal zones. Patrolling boys made an effort to pass through good ones periodically and check in with Hideout #4 so even remote patrols could remain in contact. Earlier that morning Dex had passed a message through Kyle requesting that Ace move in range for an emergency radio conference, and a returned message had confirmed a time.
"That's not important," Dex answered curtly, pulling down the brim of his cowboy hat to keep the sun out of his eyes, and fidgeting with the sheriff badge pinned to his yellow karate outfit.
He had pinned it next to the gold badge with the letters "BB" over a pair of crossed safety pins that identified him as a member of the Secret Circle, the highest echelon of the diaper-loving boys' fraternity Baby Blue, dedicated to the celebration and propagation of all forms of boyish behavior and to an ongoing war against the dangerous forces of sissification that had claimed so many of the city's helpless age players-the pink forces now headquartered in Empress Calliope's Academy for Special Boys.
"Let's recap what is important. One, our changing supply chain has been disrupted. Two, Twitchy and Squeak, that's our whole tech team, went missing on a routine mission to check on all the caches and diaper drop locations and figure out why stuff was disappearing. Three, according to Jax, they're in the middle of a circus ground, throughout which someone is broadcasting a coded distress signal," Dex continued, counting the facts on his fingers. "Our course of action is clear. I'm pulling all available boys for a search and rescue mission. We all go in there as circus guests, break off into cells of two or three, and we do a top-to-bottom search of the place. Another cell will always be a bark away if anyone needs help."
There was a long pause. Jax shook his head anxiously. "I'm not on board, Dex," Ace answered over the radio.
"What do you mean you're not on board?" the flustered raccoon asked poutily, flicking his paw at Jax to indicate his annoyance. "It's spring break. Roger and Rian are out of the country and Twitch and Squeak are missing. Don't make me pull rank. I'm the only Circle member in play. But anyway Baby Blue tactical missions are my responsibility."
"And hideout defense is mine," Ace answered. "Roger and Rian aren't the only ones away for spring break. We're down to one boy in most of the hideouts, a skeleton patrol crew, and we have a pinch-hitter on comm who's in way over his head. I'm not comfortable leaving the hideouts unmanned. That's just asking for the academy girls to swoop in. What will the prospects think if we come back to find all our bases redecorated? Or walk into another sissification trap for the whole team? We'd never have another recruit again! Might as well paint the whole town pink."
"For the last time, Ace," Dex paused to stick his tongue out at the radio before continuing his answer, "the sissy academy is as shortpawed during break as we are. That's why we called a break-long truce. I was there myself, I saw Roger and the Headmistress, and Rian and Cassandra, shake on it."
Jax shook his head more urgently, holding up his thumb and his index finger in the shape of an L and thrusting it backwards and forwards into Dex's face.
"Truce shmuce," Ace shot back over the radio. "Not all the pink team leaders are on vacation and I don't trust any pawshake as long as she's in play. I'd bet you my last box of wipes she's somehow behind this whole thing, and is just waiting for us to send everyone in there and leave our bases defenseless. Well maybe you don't get tired of it, Dex, but I'm not going to be made a fool of again. And I bet Jax will say the same thing, just with more crying. Give me a plan B."
"Give us a minute, Ace." Dex cut out and crossed his arms, gesturing to Jax. "Can you believe this? Do you think he would talk that way to Rian?"
When Jax just looked down at the grass Dex sighed gloomily. "It's you too, huh? Ever since I led everyone into the girls' trap in that gym . . ."
"No, Dex," Jax looked back up and, leaning forward, put his paws on the thighs of the raccoon, who was sitting seiza-style. "None of that was your fault. It's just-how have you been feeling since the break started? Is something bothering you? Are you okay? Do you really feel up to calling the shots on a rescue mission? Ace and I can run this one if you want to take a breather. Really. Practice for your black belt test. Do some schoolwork. Take it easy."
The raccoon blinked, taken aback. "What do you mean am I okay? Take a breather? What are you saying, Jax?"
Jax took a deep breath. "It's just-you're the last fur I'd expect to take the sissy team at their word! We other field boys count on you to stick up for us in those Circle meetings. Especially now that Rian is-" the dog screwed up his face in a distasteful expression as he uttered the next word, "dating-one of them. I know you're upset about it, too."
"And your black belt exam is coming up. Now Roger and Rian are on vacation, and Twitchy has gone missing, those are the only three furs you let take care of you, when you-" Dex glared at him, but Jax said it anyway, "when you regress to a little kit. That by itself would be a lot on any diaper boy's plate. You've hardly slept the whole time we've been tracking Twitch, and every time you do you have-accidents-"
The hound tapped his nose. "You'd need more than chlorophyll to hide it from me. Plus you've been wearing that stupid hat the whole time, which is like something Rian would wear-not you."
"Rian gave me this hat," the raccoon answered defensively, tilting it down over his eyes and biting his lip. "He said it might soften up my look. He should know; he has like a kajillion outfits."
"That's just it, Dex," Jax sighed. "You used to make fun of Rian's outfits. Your look was fine. And suddenly you're insecure about it. Sunglasses last week. Cowboy hat this week. You know, Ace and I didn't switch to wearing cloth at home because of Rian. We did it because we looked up to you. War paint and everything."
Dex fidgeted uncomfortably and chewed on three of his fingers for a moment. Then he snatched up the radio and pressed the button. "All right, Ace," he said calmly. "Here's your plan B. Let's test the truce. And let's test me, since those are the two things everyone around here seems to be unsure about."
"I can use it to take the biggest threat to the boys' team into that fairground with me. If she has nothing to do with this, I have a gut feeling she wouldn't pass up a chance to rescue Twitchy just to show him up and prove she's smarter than he is. At least, I can sell it to her that way. And if that worked for real the two of us are as good as a team of ten boys. If she is behind it, well-she won't pass up the chance to get me alone. But I'll be ready, and I'll take her captive. It's too risky to involve anyone else, so I'll run it solo. "
"Either way, she'll be out of play within 48 hours, and you'll get a signal from me. Then you should be comfortable following the paintball trail and moving the whole team in after us. If you hear nothing in that time, well you run whatever skimpy rescue team you want. Personally, I'm not willing to pull punches when it comes to Twitch's safety."
He handed the radio to Jax and stood up, starting to make his way back down the hill in the direction of the nearest hideout. The radio crackled. "Did he just say what I think he said?" a stunned Ace asked. "I know Dex is charming when he wants to be but does he really think-?"
"Oh, you idiot," Jax cut him off, answering into the radio as he smacked his forehead. "Now see what you've started. Why are you always so insensitive? You had to go and make him mad."
"Don't be silly," the cat answered. "Dex pouts and glares but he never really gets mad. Say," he asked, "why did you have a tape recorder?"
******************
"To answer your anticipated question," the petite panda, wearing a purple leotard, addressed the five dress-wearing diaperfurs who stood alone in the middle of the large gym, watching her apprehensively as she folded her paws behind her back and paced back and forth, "you're here during spring break because you five are in borderline territory, and I am less lenient, or as I prefer to say, more devoted, than your other instructors."
She rounded on one of them sharply and suddenly. "Alexandra," she glared up into the eyes of a taller, quivering bear. " Playing with a Game Boy during home ec. Are you serious about feminization, Alexandra?"
The bear shook. "Y-y-yes, Lady Lin Lin," she squeaked out, then added, "ma'am. I . . . I am a baby . . . girl bear." She looked down at the floor. "My daddy brought me here and he maded me take the test and he says so. He says it's real 'portant for me to do what my teachers here say. To make myselfs ready for him, before he'll go inside 'a me."
"Sports are one thing. A girl's body is as important-no, more important-to her than a boy's, but videogames," Lin Lin shook her head. "There's no excuse to be made there.
"And Alexandra-" she gripped the bear's muzzle and stared up into her eyes, "Really? A sissy name that allows you to still go by your boys' name, huh? Do you really think, just because we've let it slide up until now, that anyone teaching here is fooled by that old trick? I'm starting to think you're a blue spy. But you're a little too dumb even for that. Your posture's terrible too. Stand up straight."
The bear stiffened as Lin Lin released her muzzle and continued speaking. "I'll be contacting your caretaker to discuss remedial measures he can apply at home and to suggest alternative names. In your case I'll be recommending something like Muffy or Mimi or Tam Tam that you won't be able to pull a boys' name out of. You," she said firmly, slapping the bear's wrist as she started to open her muzzle in protest, "have no say in the matter and will learn your new name when you see it printed on a collar or engraved on a keepsake locket. Until then you don't have one, and you'll answer to 'girl', 'sissy bear,' or anything reasonably similar." There was chortling from some of the other girls.
Lin Lin resumed pacing and readdressed herself to the group. "And the rest of you have no right to snicker! A whole list of nasty offenses. Weakness of will. Pawing without permission-a little sissy student always needs permission. Even if you need to ask somefur in the hall at random, that's better than . . . indulging . . . on your own. If we weren't so short on tubes. . ."
She pursed her lips thoughtfully and wheeled on a golden retriever, who had looked visibly relieved when she mentioned the lack of chastity devices.
"Oh, don't worry, Kitty!" she snapped at the dog, renamed on 'his' enrollment with deliberate irony. "Here's what we'll do for you instead. Since I have better-and less depressing-things to do than watch your pitiful imitation of girlhood all day, for the rest of break, you'll need the permission of your fellow remedial classmates each time you want to paw."
She smirked. "All four of them. I'm guessing they'll each want to be satisfactorily relieved first. Maybe in a couple different ways. So I hope you're prepared to deliver-at a minimum-four orgasms for each one you get to have from now on. You'll be wearing a little punch card on your collar just so you can't lie to anyone about how close you are to your next treat. And we'll run a buddy system so at no time will you be sleeping, changing, or going into the restroom alone. Don't even think about it."
Her eyes narrowed as the dog sunk to her knees dejectedly under Lin Lin's stern gaze and wet her diaper in fear. "Because I won't be as nice about this offense the next time. And your teammates will be able to reduce their own punishments if they do catch you sneaking off like that. If you do, girls-just send pics to my cell phone. Sissy bear here will be your bathroom and bedroom buddy first."
"Moving on, one of you," this time the panda lifted a dodge ball from the supply bin along the gym wall and the girls all cringed, "said that girls are weaker than boys. Maybe more submissive sometimes, but weaker? Girls can take pain that boys can't imagine. Whether it means having a cub or, for one of you posers, having a bigger fur . . . maybe two bigger furs . . . inside you."
"You have to get used to taking a little bit of pain . . . Brianna!" she whirled and threw the ball, hard, at a slight fox attempting to hide behind two others in the back, who fell flat on the ground and burst loudly into tears as the it rolled over her and off across the floor.
Lin Lin shook her head. "Falling on the floor and crying like a baby. That definitely makes me think your boyhood will never be washed out. A girl takes everything in stride. On the other paw, I know a boy who every time he loses a fight . . ."
"Yo, triple L!"
The panda quivered suddenly and pivoted as the dodge ball whizzed back at her from the opposite side of the gym, raising both her paws and catching it with a loud smack; it had been thrown hard enough that the front of her paws stung.
"Look at that! You've still got it!" called the raccoon, still wearing his yellow martial arts gi, with the cowboy hat hanging on a cord around his neck, and waving cheerily as he approached.
He made his way past the surprised girls and sat down on the lower tier of the bleachers, settling in comfortably and assuming the pose of an interested spectator as he flashed the panda a wide smile. "And it sounds like you miss me."
Next time: Triple L: Dex may need to put on more than a smile to convince the boys' biggest enemy to help him out! What's with the nickname? And-what's up inside that circus?
Episode 3. Triple L
Lin Lin glared at her visitors with all the ferocity that a petite girly panda could muster. "What did you call me?" she asked.
"Triple L," Dex explained brightly. "It's short for Lady Lin Lin. Get it? It's a nickname! An affectionate one, of course. It is still Lady, and not Princess, right?"
Lin Lin ignored the question and, without removing her eyes from Dex, thrust the dodge ball across the gym and into the opposite wall with a loud bang. "Why are you here?"
Dex grinned. "Worried you'd be lonely. There's a rumor going around that the Headmistress and Cassandra are treating Serafina on a deluxe spa trip to smooth over any lingering hard feelings. Drag that your invitation was lost in the mail. Thought it might make you feel better to pick on a boy for a little while. Pink and blue are supposed to help each other out during the truce, after all. And you and I are the highest-ranking team leaders still stuck in town. So we can commiserate about being ditched. Say, your English is getting better all the time."
"It was always better than your Chinese," the panda said frostily.
"But I don't speak-" Dex laughed jovially, "Oh, I get it."
She rolled her eyes. "Girls," she said to the confused and still trembling sissy trainees, the edge of her lip beginning to turn up in a wicked smile. "This is a special treat. Meet the star athelete-though hardly, as you may have gathered, the sharpest mind-of Baby Blue. Since he appears to want something from me, maybe he'll humor all of you with a demonstration of his talents. One that will prove my point."
Dex leaned forward and tilted his head, his tail flicking. "Sounds like fun. If I do it will you do something for me?"
"Oh yes," Lin Lin smiled. "Reasonable assistance is a condition of the truce. On the off chance, of course, that you pass."
"This gym is only part of my classroom." The panda pointed to the back door. "You heard what I said about endurance and taking things in stride. A real sissy needs to do that with poise and a certain-naturalness of demeanor. All my girls have to run an obstacle course out back in under five minutes that requires a wide range of movement and considerable maneuverability in various positions-jumping on a trampoline, climbing, crawling through tunnels, hopping, skipping, spinning, diving, you name it."
"And they have to do it cheerily smiling the whole time, with a nice curtsy at the end. It proves to me they're truly comfortable as girls. Of course," she turned to the girls for backup, as their curiosity mounted, "since Dex here is a star-not to mention a died-in-the-wool, gum-chewing, plays-in-the-dirt boy-I'm certain he could easily run the course in less than our current record time." As she spoke, she padded over to the locker room and eyed Dex's body from head to toe appraisingly.
Dex squinted and bit his lip. This would be easier to pull off than he thought. The panda really was too pumped up on girl power if she thought he couldn't do that. "I feel like I'm missing something, but why not? Besides the curtsying and twirling stuff, that doesn't sound so bad."
"Excellent!" Lin Lin pushed open the door to the girls' locker room with a wide grin and reached inside to pull out a rack of adult-sized frilly and babyish dresses. She rested her paw on a purple one with ruffles, ribbons around the middle that looked like corset ties, and a hoop skirt-a dress that looked not only remarkably babyish, but also remarkably constrictive. "Of course," she said archly, as she took it off the rack, "there needs to be a fair basis of comparison."
Dex gritted his teeth. "Twitch," he muttered, "let's both hope you're in less trouble now than you're going to be in when I find you."
**********
Science officer's log. Stardate: Nine Eleventy Billion. Point Three. I write this to accept sole responsibility for the failure of our away mission, and in what may be my last act as a commissioned Starfleet officer, to recommend a commendation for Lieutenant Squeak. It is thanks to him that we solved the mystery of our vanishing supplies. Right after he reported back to me with photographic evidence of our suspicions, I, on the other paw, did what a commanding officer should never do. I violated the Prime Directive, by openly criticizing the primitive religion of this pre-warp planet-which resulted in our capture before we were able to relay our findings to Deep Space 4. At present . . .
"Hi, Twitchy," said Alphonse the gloomy weasel in his habitually depressed tone as he stepped into the trailer and tossed a bag of diapers and a box of wipes through the bars of the large animal cage that held the bunny. "That should keep you for a while."
The bag landed with a soft thud next to the white, denim-clad rabbit with a pair of safety goggles settled askew on his forehead, who was scribbling the log entry in his notebook by the light of a flashlight held in his opposite paw. His right foot was handcuffed to one of the bars at the far end of the cage. The rabbit dropped the flashlight and jerked to look up at his visitor, his whiskers twitching angrily as the melancholy weasel, who wore a magician's hat and a long black cape with gold stars on it, over a cheap imitation of a semiformal outfit, turned and started to trudge away.
"Hey wait!" Twitchy shouted. "We had a deal! I fixed your sound system and made your loudspeaker so it can keep looping the same announcement. But I told you nothing else on that list gets done until I see my partner! Are you all new at this villain thing anyway? You're supposed to ask me to do one big thing for you so we can argue about it. Not a whole long list of petty things that would take like five weeks. That's not bargaining, it's just slave labor."
"Alphonse!" said a booming voice. "What are you doing back here again, you failure?! You're not done yet! Jack sprained his ankle so I need you on the evening shows tonight too! You're in the big top as a substitute clown in 10 minutes! Try to look happy out there!"
The weasel slumped dejectedly and addressed Twitchy over his shoulder, "Welcome," the mustelid magician said gloomily to the rabbit before he exited the trailer, "to the circus, Twitchy."
"As for you," the large, brawny white tiger cracked at the light switch with his whip, flicking on a row of light bulbs screwed into the trailer's ceiling. He spoke in an assertive, resounding announcer's voice that echoed off its metal walls. "Your pet mouse is fine. It does seem like neither one of you will try to run off without the other. So I think I'll keep you apart so you can work off the debt a little more efficiently. And that bag is being added to your tab."
Twitchy raised his head defiantly even though he was on his stomach with one foot chained behind him and one of his long, white ears flopped down over his eyes, and waved his flashlight at the ringmaster threateningly. "Squeak's not my pet! He's my friend! And those diapers were never yours to begin with! You've been stealing them from our supply stations in the woods. But you crossed the wrong rabbit this time. I know what you're up to here. You're not really keeping me to pay back that money. It's because you saw the pictures Squeak took when I dropped my camera and you were scared."
"That whole tent is full of stuff-the rubber and latex costumes, the leather stuff, the nursery supplies, the leashes and collars and riding equipment. I bet none of it's yours. Half those boxes still had packing labels on them! I don't know if you're using it or selling it, but I bet you snatch stuff like that wherever you find it and count on the furs you take it from being too scared or embarrassed to report it! Is that right? Why else wouldn't you give me my camera and my walkie talkie back?"
Twitchy pointed his flashlight directly up into the ringmaster's face and blinked it on and off at him like he was firing a weapon, but the lights in the trailer were too bright for the flashes to bother the tiger. "Well you're in for it now! My friends and I aren't embarrassed about our diapers and we want them back. Just you wait until Dex and the other boys get here! Then you'll be sorry you didn't play nice with me."
The tiger tipped his black ringmaster's top hat to Twitchy with one paw and replaced his whip in the holster on his black leather belt. "An engineer and a detective. I was afraid you might start jumping to crazy conclusions like that. Quite an imagination. I guess spy isn't on your resume, though, or you'd know how to keep a lower profile." The tiger shook his head. "I had to refund every ticket after the commotion you caused at that magic show. So many upset parents. I really hate complainers. People are so cheap, they'll take any excuse to get their money back. And now we have to fix half of Alphonse's stuff. It's just like when you can't pay the bill in a restaurant, young man; you get put in the kitchen to help wash the dishes. It will take more than a loudspeaker to cover the cost of all those tickets. Besides, you're such a smart little rabbit. I thought you would jump at the chance to help that clown college reject build a better show."
Twitchy gritted his teeth and flicked his whiskers as he recalled the fiasco with chagrin. 'Oh, come on! Someone must feel brave today! Yes! You in the back who just stood up! You're our audience volunteer!' Alphonse boomed from the stage as the spotlight settled on the rabbit.
'What?!' Twitchy looked around in a panic; he had hopped up because his partner, the pocket-sized mouse Squeak, had just reported back and run up his pant leg, replacing the rabbit's pen-sized digital camera in his pocket. 'No, that's not-' Twitchy hung his head. It might call less attention to them if he just played along. It couldn't take more than five minutes.
The weasel hesitated a moment before he boomed out cheerily, 'Well, you look a bit big for the circus, but it takes all kinds! Who knows, maybe we'll actually have a halfway decent show for a change-heh, I'm just kidding, folks! Come on up on stage, young man! Show these kits they have nothing to be afraid of and maybe some will raise their paws for the next trick. There, there you go,' he patted the rabbit on the back as Twitchy bit his lip and made his way past the giggling cubs in the audience up onto the stage. 'So why did you come here today . . .'
'Twitchy,' the rabbit said, shaking his paw. 'Well you might not believe this, Mr. Alphonse,' he fidgeted with the goggles on his forehead, starting to relax and even to feel a little excited (smart as he was, Twitchy was still just as enthusiastic an age player as his Baby Blue brothers, after all), 'but I wanted to be a magician when I was a cub. I used to love magic shows. It's what first got me interested in engineering. I used to watch them again and again, until I had figured out how everything works! So when I saw there was one here I thought, why not pop in back for one performance and . . . '
Alphonse smiled and cut him off. 'You can't figure out magic, Twitchy!' The weasel turned to the audience and waved his wand theatrically, twirling his cape. 'You just have to believe!'
He wouldn't have felt it ordinarily, but the rabbit's large ears could hear a slight crinkle as the weasel's free paw, using his cape as a cover, brushed against the rabbit's pocket.
'Sure you can!' Twitchy said brightly, starting to get carried away and rocking on his heels. His tail began wiggling, and he was heedless of the mouse in his pants tugging on his waistband anxiously. 'Why, no wonder all these kids look bored if you keep telling them that! Figuring it out is the fun part! Like I bet just now, when everyone was distracted on one side by you waving your wand and on the other by you reaching over to my pocket behind your cape, and thought you put something in there, you were really doing something somewhere else on stage like . . .'
The rabbit reached into his pocket and pulled out a long white handkerchief, that seemed to keep coming, and stumbled backward as the panicking weasel tried to hush him. His large foot caught on one of the cords running across the stage, and the rabbit tumbled backward, knocking over the covered black table in the center, along with an upturned top hat on it. He fell flat on his back as a trap door that had been directly beneath the covered table sprang open and a flurry of doves flew out of it, and the top hat rolled off the table along the front of the stage, revealing to the audience that the top of it swung open on a hinge.
Twitchy, beet red, looked up at the horrified magician, who was frantically collecting or covering all the things, including, unbeknownst to either at the time, Twitchy's digital camera and his walkie talkie, that had been dropped on stage, while he tried to stamp the compartments that had sprung open closed with his feet.
'Or . . .' Twitchy finished, abashed and still sprawled on the stage, as half the cubs in the audience began jeering and the other half burst into tears, 'this could just be a really bad magic show.'
**********
Dex hastened through the waist-high hedge maze, walking as briskly as he could with the small steps his tightly laced outfit permitted and with both paws on his skirt to keep it from snagging on any brambles. He kept an increasingly pained smile on his face, as Lin Lin and her previously glum students watched him with growing enjoyment.
Then he skipped through ten hopscotch courses, bypassing only the marked square on each one, and found he had to let go of the skirt, letting it blow in the air, and hold out both his arms to keep his balance being on only one paw for so long. Then he made the final hop, up onto a trampoline from which, after several bounces, he had to leap through a wooden hoop suspended on a pole six feet above the ground; an easy jump for him to make with assistance but he winced when he leapt through as he heard the hoop of his skirt click against the side of the hoop.
Oh no! I hope my dress is okay, he thought, I hope none of the ruffles got caught or torn! What if one did and the girls notice? I'll look like a fool. They'll all laugh at me. I might even fail. Oh, it better still look just as frilly as . . . Is this what girls always feel like? Even though he was only thinking of his chances to pass the challenge and rescue Twitchy, his stomach churned in revulsion that the words crossed his mind.
He landed triumphantly on his toes directly on an X pointed on the ground, and looked down as he curtsied, both to conceal the fact that his jaw was clenched and to make sure the dress was unscathed. Oh thank goodness, not a snag. It still looks just like new. As pretty as ever, he thought with relief as he smoothed the skirt out, then shuddered involuntarily at his own train of thought. "Thank you," he said as sweetly as he could manage before he righted himself, "Lady Lin Lin."
His heard jerked up as he heard a loud snap and he saw the panda holding a digital camera. She had caught him just at the moment he was fussing with his skirt during the curtsy.
"That's going straight on our class webpage," she said with a wide grin. "I'm going to treasure it for a very long time."
Dex let his phony smile fall away, resumed his natural posture, and looked at his watch. "Two minutes," he said stonily, "and thirty seconds."
"Two minutes and forty-five seconds," Lin Lin corrected him as she pressed the stop button on her own. "I heard that tap and it's a fifteen second penalty." She paused and looked at the ground, kicking up a clod of dirt as she admitted with a sigh. "But it's still a record."
She resumed her snide tone quickly, though. "Congratulations, Dex. You're a natural. I'm even willing to let you keep your dress as a souvenir-since you seem so attached to it. Maybe your cubby wolf friend would like you better in it. That does seem to be . . . his thing." The girls behind her tittered and whispered to each other, this time with her tacit encouragement.
The raccoon had already unlaced the five corset straps and let out a long breath as he expanded to his regular bulk. He pulled it off over his head. "Now it's my turn. Start packing," he said coolly as he threw the girly outfit in a crumpled mass at Lin Lin's feet, standing there in his undershirt and his thickly layered cloth diapers as he walked over to the side of the course and retrieved his karate outfit.
"We have roughly a day's walk ahead of us and it's already past three. I can't waste any more time here. I think Twitchy is in real trouble. I'll explain more on the way." He glared at her. "And be nice. I won't talk mean about you."
"The bunny? All right. . . A deal is a deal, I'll go. This lot behind me is fairly hopeless anyway. Two or three days more or less won't make a difference." Lin Lin tilted her head and looked at the suddenly serious raccoon with mild curiosity, shaking her head as he got dressed. "What would you even know about me to talk mean about, Dexie? That I suffered one humiliating defeat in that gym, and that I don't like the fact one of my superiors is dating one of yours?"
"There, see, it should be a piece of cake to make civil conversation," Dex said with a grin as his head popped out of his karate uniform and he thrust his arms out of its sleeves. "We already have so much in common."
Next time: Dex has sealed the deal and the first joint pink/blue mission is underway! Dex and Lin Lin hit the road-the circus-and the big time!