Chapter 2: The Mad Machinist (Finale!)

Lucy and Emily enter a large, empty, circular room.

“Alright, girls, it’s time for the finale! Step onto the two lit panels and we’ll discuss what’s next!” The Machinist announces over the intercom, reminding the girls of the ubiquitous wrestling announcers from TV. Two lights shine towards the center of the room, about 5 feet apart.

The girls walk over to the lights and stand on them, facing each other.

“Is this it?” Emily asks.

“Prepare for battle, girls!” As the Machinist yells out this challenge, the floor all around the small space where the lights shone begins to shift, folding inwards and revealing a massive sea of the tickling hands they had to deal with throughout the whole obstacle course.

“What is this??” Lucy exclaims. Both of the girls look around and find that they are each left on one small platform that is just big enough to accommodate both of their feet comfortably. There isn’t much space on either platform, so they have to be careful not to lose their balance and fall into the pit of hands that tickle the air below them.

“Oh, those are just part of the penalty for the loser!” the Machinist announces excitedly. “Now, think fast!” Two small devices fall from the ceiling over each of the girls, Lucy catches each of hers, but Emily misses one, and it slips down into the hands below. One of the hands catches it and reaches up to Emily, handing it to her.

The devices are slightly taller than their fists, but are about 10 inches long with a handle on one side and a small door on the opposite side. As each girl grabs ahold of the handles, one of each device in one of each of their hands, they notice a small, glowing red button on the handle where their thumbs rest.

“Are we supposed to push this?” Lucy asks the Machinist.

“Go on and give it a try!” he quips back semi-threateningly.

“I hate when he’s so vague…” Emily remarks quietly to Lucy.

Lucy puts her thumb over the button and presses. The box grows a little bit in size, the handle moving away from the rest of the device slightly, and a few small trigger-like loops reach out from the grips of the handles, one for each of Lucy’s fingers. A long metallic cable shoots from the end of the box and ends in one of the mechanical tickling hands like the ones below them. When Lucy pulls a trigger on the grip, the hand’s corresponding finger pulls inward like hers does. It takes a little time for her to get a handle on moving the cable-like arm, but she gets the hang of it. She presses the other box’s button as well and gets the same reaction as before.

“This is pretty neat!” Lucy exclaims excitedly. She looks over and sees Emily has also activated her boxes as well, holding her own tickling mechanical hands.

“Ohhhh, wait…” Lucy calculates out loud.

“That’s right, Lucy! I’ve already figured it out!” Emily exclaims, tossing one of her mechanical hands Lucy’s way! Lucy stumbles backward, but stops herself just before she falls off the small platform she’s standing on, looking down over her shoulder at the patiently waiting tickling hands below. Emily’s hand reaches Lucy’s left side and begins tickling as Emily squeezes the triggers erratically. Lucy squeals with laughter and instinctively throws her own hand across the divide between the friends, tickling Emily’s milky left thigh with light scratches. Emily retracts her relentless hand and Lucy does the same with hers.

“So, this is what he meant by ‘battle!’” Lucy exclaims. As she does, Emily throws one hand at Lucy, grabbing her left wrist! She then throws her other hand and grabs hold of Lucy’s side, this time kneading her curvy waist with the tickling fingers. Lucy is unable to defend herself with her wrist held by Emily and begins cackling loudly, doing her best not to fall off the platform.

“Come on, Lucy! You love being tickled! Just go ahead and jump into the pit and then we are finally through the obstacle course!” Emily tries to persuade her. Emily really just wants to win, so she’s pulling out every trick she can think of as she continues tickling Lucy’s exposed and vulnerable side.

“Never!” Lucy shouts, whipping her left mechanical hand towards Emily to tickle her neck ever so gently, causing Emily to recoil with a giggle and to force her to retract her hands from Lucy’s ticklish side. Lucy is way too competitive to just give up on a challenge. And there’s no way she’ll let Emily beat her!

Lucy tosses a hand towards Emily, but Emily swats it away with her own. Lucy then tosses her other arm towards Emily, grabbing on to her right thigh and giving it a merciless squeezing tickle! Emily begins laughing loudly, unable to squirm away from the tickling hand. Lucy tosses the hand Emily initially swatted away back at her, grabbing the left side of her ribcage and gives it a gentle, rubbing tickle torture.

Emily’s laughter turns to howling and she tosses her hand at Lucy, who ducks and dodges it, causing it to return to Emily. She begins throwing her hands wildly, trying to do anything to stop Lucy’s relentless tickling, but she can’t.

I can’t win as long as I’m holding on to her, Lucy realizes. But if I let her go, then I won’t be able to tickle her!

Then, Lucy has a realization. She pulls with the hand holding Emily’s thigh and continues tickling, pulling Emily forward and closer to the edge of her platform.

“NOHOHOHO!” Emily protests as she slips forward, struggling to maintain control as her thigh and ribs are tickled mercilessly. Lucy releases her ribcage and throws the hand back as quickly as she can, grabbing Emily’s hip and digging in with the mechanical fingers, tickling as fast and as deep as she can into Emily’s incredibly thin and ticklish hip bones.

Emily loses her grip and falls into the pit of tickling hands beneath them, dropping her tickling weapons and getting caught by the sea of hands, stretched out in a spread eagle position, and tickled relentlessly all over her pale bikini-clad body.

“Wow, that was faster than I expected!” the Machinist announces excitedly over the intercom. The laughter of Anna, Kristen, and Heather can be heard in the background with pleas of a break. “Well, Lucy! It looks like you win! Now, have fun with one of your prizes! Tickle away!”

The intercom clicks off and the other girls’ laughters are silenced as Emily’s still rings out from below. The hands which caught her now bring her up to Lucy’s level, holding Emily spread-eagle in front of her. Her body is heaving from the tickle torture the hands exacted upon her, sweat trickling down from her now-pink body.

“Ple-he-hease, let me have a break,” Emily’s chest heaves as she attempts to catch her breath after such a relentless tickling from the sea of hands below.

“Of course, Emily,” Lucy allows. “But don’t expect much mercy once we get started!” Lucy winks at Emily, waiting for her friend to catch her breath before she claims her reward.

Emily’s deep breaths slow and she inhales deeply once more to calm herself, preparing her mind for the tickling she is about to receive. “Ok, I’m ready,” she declares with resolve.

“Alright! Here we go!” Lucy exclaims excitedly, reaching out with her fingers wiggling in the air in front of Emily’s exposed belly. She quickly flits her fingernails over Emily’s ticklish tummy, giggles pouring from the restrained girl. Light ticklish scratches dance across Emily’s midriff, the feather-like sensations causing increasing panic in her chest, giggling giving way to laughter.

“Hmm… It’s hard to tickle your feet in this position,” Lucy ponders aloud, not letting up on her spider tickling motions.

“Wha-!” Emily exclaims. In response to her suggestion, the hands quickly flip Emily around, now holding her arms to her sides and flipping her so that she is lying on her stomach, suspended in the air. Her ankles are held together right in front of Lucy, her pale, smooth soles held perfectly in place for some ticklish attention.

“Ohhh…” Lucy stops her tickling, considering how this new development could affect her fun here. “Maybe I’d like to tickle your armpits now?”

The hands whir to life and flip Emily over so that she is now face up, her arms pulled over her head and her body flipped around so her armpits are held next to Lucy. Her ankles are still held back so that her knees are bent as if she was kneeling, but her body is parallel to the ground with her arms straight above her head, exposing her armpits to the ticklish whims of Lucy.

“And now, your belly button?” Lucy experiments once more. The hands pull a little more on Emily’s arms and one hand pushes gently on Emily’s back, making her arch her back so that her belly button is now stretched and vulnerable right in front of Lucy.

“Are you ok, Emily?” Lucy asks, noting that all this movement could be uncomfortable and some positions might be a bit much for her.

“Yeah, I’m perfectly fine! This is awesome!” Emily exclaims, finding her inner adrenaline-junkie. It’s also immensely impressive how responsive, precise, and quick the hands were in changing her position in response to Lucy’s words. “Robotics is amazing!”

“Ok, just making sure! Now, let’s see…” Lucy returns to her bound prey whose stretched, oval-shaped navel is presented to her in an exceedingly ticklish position. Lucy continues her very light tickling of Emily’s defenseless belly. Emily’s laughter starts right back up, louder than before given her stretched and ill-protected state.

“HAHAHAHAHA, THIS IS SO MUCH WORSE!” Emily exclaims through her laughter. But Lucy was only just getting started. She moves from her light tickles of Emily’s belly to a kneading tickle of her sides.

“NOHOHOHOHO!” Emily exclaims, squirming desperately against the robot hands holding her in her ticklish predicament. But she can’t escape! Lucy’s merciless fingers squeeze and dig and wiggle and probe her incredibly ticklish sides, causing an incredibly ticklish sensation that Emily just can’t handle. Emily’s uproarious laughter echoes throughout the room they are standing in. Her ticklish torture causes her sides to slowly turn pink and her tightly closed eyes to water with ticklish tears. Her entire body begins to sweat just a little, but enough to help Lucy’s tickling fingers glide even more effortlessly across her ticklish torso, multiplying the ticklish torture even more!

“Tickle, tickle, tickle, my little Emi-leeeeeee,” Lucy teases Emily in a sing-song voice. The teasing makes the tickling even worse and Emily’s laughter increases in volume as her sides are relentlessly tickled. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for quite a while now!” Lucy admits to Emily. “You’ve always been so sensible and cute. But I’ve always been the victim, not often enough the perpetrator. Now, it’s my turn to show you just how ruthless I can be when I want to!”

“Let’s find where you are most ticklish and exploit it,” Lucy threatens. “Let’s try… Your armpits!” The hands holding Emily respond to Lucy’s suggestion and quickly move her forward and down so that her armpits are now facing towards Lucy. Lucy slowly reaches for Emily’s elbows which are held taut above her head by the restraints. Emily begins twitching against her bonds as Lucy lightly dances her fingernails down from her elbows to the tip-top of her armpits, tickling so slightly as to cause Emily to dance around in her fetters, but she hasn’t begun laughing quite yet.

“Please, Lucy!” Emily begs, her voice straining to contain her ticklish laughter.

“Please tickle you? Ok!” Lucy obliges happily. She spider-tickles Emily’s milky armpits, relentlessly skittering her fingers all over the sensitive hollows, causing Emily to squeal with girlish laughter and thrash around in the restraining hands. Emily begs and pleads for mercy, but Lucy cannot help but continue her ticklish torture of her captive, becoming more and more merciless as time passes and Emily’s laughter increases in volume and panic. Her helpless body continues struggling against her bonds, but she knows she will only get a break when Lucy decides it’s time to stop. And she has no idea when that time will come. So, she continues laughing and squealing and thrashing and begging as the tickle torture continues on and on, Lucy’s relentless fingers tickling away inside her perfectly exposed armpits.

“Hmm… I think it’s time we try someplace else…” Lucy puts her hand under her chin, thinking about her next target. “I think it’s toe-tickling time!” The hands whir to life and reposition the helpless Emily so that her feet are in the air and her body is face-down but parallel to the ground. Two extra hands come up and hold her toes back so that Lucy has unmitigated access to every square inch of Emily’s soft, white, sensitive soles.

Lucy wastes no time and begins quickly scraping her fingernails along Emily’s ticklish soles, causing the most incredibly ticklish sensation Emily has ever felt in her life! Emily screams with laughter and cackles uncontrollably as her soles are tickled by the merciless red-head.

“My goodness… I think we have a winner! Coochie coochie cooooo,” Lucy exclaims in her sing-song manner again, continuing her ticklish assault on Emily’s soles. Her fingers dance back and forth along Emily’s tender feet, tickling her from the ball of her foot all the way back to her heels and then back again. Emily’s feet twitch within their restraints, but she can’t do anything to defend them or even wrinkle them with the powerful but gentle hands holding her still! All she can do is laugh and think about how ticklish she is on her adorable little feet. Tears are pouring from Emily’s eyes now as her eyelids squeeze together, unable to open given her incredibly ticklish situation. Laughter spills constantly from her lips, her babbling pleas falling on deaf ears as Lucy quickly dances her fingernails on her feet, now simply focusing on her oh-so-ticklish heels.

Emily’s ticklish squeals continue to ring out and Lucy finishes her off with the most torturous tickling she has ever received: toe-tickling. Lucy’s fingers tickle deep into Emily’s stretched toes, ticklishly scratching at the stems of her toes and lightly tickling the tips of her toes. Emily has never experienced a foot tickling like Lucy has given her, and her laughter is evidence of that. She screams and laughs and squeals, the begging and pleading from before merely gibberish now that her mind cannot form coherent sentences or even words through her ticklish howling. Lucy just tickles away at her incredibly ticklish toes and her ticklish fits continue until Lucy finally slows, now just barely scratching at her soles.

“Cooldown time!” Lucy exclaims excitedly. “I hope you had fun, Emily. I know I did!” Lucy continues her gentle stroking of Emily’s poor soles, now pink from all of the ticklish torture she just endured for what felt like hours, but was probably mere minutes.

“Yeaheheheheah, fuhuhuhun,” Emily giggles out. The hands that restrained her now set her down on the same platform as Lucy and all of the hands retreat beneath the floor from where they came. Emily is lying on the cool metal floor, catching her breath from her ticklish torture. Lucy crouches down next to her to check on her.

“You… are… so… good… at tickling…” Emily tells Lucy through gasps for air.

“Why thank you!” Lucy exclaims happily. A door opens behind them and the other three girls wander in with the machinist behind. All three have towels wrapped around their waists or heads with various parts of their body obviously having been intensely tickled as evidenced by their splotchy red skin and their deep breaths as they approach Lucy and Emily.

“That was fun, Professor!” Lucy exclaims, the rest of the girls just raise their thumbs up in agreement, still catching their collective breaths. “But I do have a question. All of the obstacles were machines but one. And I thought you built machines. But the octopus one… It seemed pretty real to me. Was it also a machine?”

“Very astute of you, Lucy!” the Machinist responds. “Actually, I borrowed that one from a friend of mine. She experiments with genetics and evolution. She actually has a private zoo at her place full of creatures similar to that octopus. Some of them are frightening and some are small and cute and others are large and friendly. But all of them have been carefully genetically selected to be excellent at tickling! If you and your friends would like, I could give her a call and see if she would be willing to let you visit?”

“Hell yes!” Lucy exclaims excitedly. “What do you all think, guys??”

Everyone just gives her an exhausted thumbs-up, too tickled out to get too excited about it.

“Well, that settles it, then. I’ll give her a call!” the Machinist then runs back out of the door. The rest of the girls help Emily up and walk slowly out of the room where Lucy and Emily had their showdown.

“Ya know, I’m exhausted… I could really go for a coffee or something…” Anna yawns.

“Me too…” Kristen agrees.

“I’m so jazzed about this Tickle Zoo, though! Aren’t you??” Lucy can’t stop thinking about the incredible creatures she might find, befriend, and be relentless tickled by.

“Of course, I am stoked,” Heather responds. “But first… coffee.”