Chapter 2: The Mad Machinist (Part 4)

“Well, now that Kristen has been eliminated from this contest, it’s just us four,” Heather observes rather unnecessarily.

“Yep, that’s kind of how math works,” Anna quips, still rubbing her belly button after receiving the tickling of her life from the belly button wands in the last obstacle.

“I wonder what kind of obstacle could be next!” Lucy wonders out loud, getting more excited with each new obstacle and the opportunity to be tickled to insanity.

A low radio static sounds over the loudspeaker as the Machinist comes on the intercom. Kristen’s laughter can be heard in the background as she screams, “Not my feet, please!”

“Congratulations on making it this far, girls! As you can probably hear, Kristen is doing just fine. She’s having fun with one of my latest creations! Now, who’s going to join her after the next obstacle?”

All the girls shrug their shoulders, hearing Kristen’s screams of ticklish laughter over the still-live intercom.

“The next obstacle will be unique for a competition: a team building course!” the Machinist is obviously excited for this one. “You must pair up to tackle the next obstacle. Lucy, Anna, who will you two pick?”

“Emily!” Anna shouts, trying to claim the friend she believes might be the most present in a ticklish scenario.

“Alright, I guess it’s you and me, Heather!” Lucy exclaims happily, almost hoping having ticklish Heather as a teammate might cause her to lose so she can be tickled by some of the new toys the Machinist has created.

“Alright, so now that team’s are established, stand next to your partner at the starting line on the floor.”

The girls line up at the starting line, seeing two spots where they assumed each team should stand.

“First team to the end of the obstacle wins! However, making it without your teammate still counts. But it won’t be best for them! Are you ready?” The Machinist acts like this is a big-time wrestling match and not an obstacle course built entirely around tickling its participants silly.

“GO!” A green light flares up from the back of the room. The end of the room seems really far away and it is blocked by a wall. The girls take off running to the end of the room and two large robotic dummies pop up out of the floor, one behind each team. A countdown begins on the other side of the room, starting with ten and counting backwards.

10

The two teams run to the other end of the room as fast as they can. They find a rope ladder attached to a wall at the end of the hallway. They have to climb up this ladder as fast as they can before the countdown reaches zero.

9

Lucy reaches the wall first and grabs on to the rope ladder, holding it steady for Heather to climb up. Nearby, Anna reaches the rope ladder and begins climbing as fast as possible. As Anna begins her climb, the wall behind the rope ladder opens up and what was a steel wall becomes a wall of perpetually tickling feathers poking through the openings in the rope ladder. The ticklish feathers reach Anna’s belly and force her to let go of the ladder only a rung or two up.

8

Anna catches herself as she laughs from the quick, unexpected tickle. Lucy holds the ladder for Heather and reassures her, “If you can just make it through this bit, then you will be able to move on.” Heather looks at Lucy and gives her a determined nod.

7

As Heather climbs, Anna begins her ascent again. This time, Emily is holding the ladder to try to keep it steady while Anna wiggles and squirms against the tickling feathers, holding back ticklish laughter from the relentless belly-tickling feathers. Heather’s laughter is definitely not held back, loud belly laughs fill the air. However, she holds on to the ladder and makes her way up slowly but surely.

6

Lucy forgoes holding the ladder anymore now that Heather is halfway up. She jumps on to the rope ladder and begins climbing, giggling while the feathers wiggle and tickle against her bare belly, belly button, and ribs.

5

Anna loses her grip on her right hand, too tickled on her belly by the neverending sea of feathers to keep focus. She begins to fall, but regains her resolve, facing the ticklish feathers yet again with suppressed giggles.

4

An errant feather slips into Heather’s belly button and causes her to lose her grip, bumping into Lucy, who is giggling and squirming against the feathers which tickle her own belly and belly button. The girls’ bikinis are providing no protection from the fluffy assailants. But I guess that was the point, after all.

3

Emily slips from the rope and begins roaring with ticklish laughter as the feathers gently tickle her exposed armpit.

2

Heather slips again and bumps Lucy, causing her to fall back to the ground where she catches herself. The red-haired bikini-clad beauty grabs hold of the rope ladder again and begins climbing, undeterred by the tickling feathers. In fact, she’s still enjoying them.

1

Anna slips and bumps into Emily’s hand, knocking her down to the floor where she lands on her feet. Now safe from the tickling of the feathers, Emily has a chance to catch her breath.

0

But only for a moment.

The robotic dummies which appeared from the starting line begin to rush towards the girls who are struggling to reach the top of the rope ladder. Emily turns to see the dummy on her side of the field rush her and stop right beside her and, as she screams, long robotic appendages reach out with hand-like structures and grab her wrists, forcing her to sit in a seat on the side of the dummy with her arms straight up in the air. Cuffs quickly latch around her ankles and lock her into her seat, her green bikini providing no cover from the inevitable ticklish fate that is to befall her.

____________________________________________________________________________

As Emily is strapped into place and prepared for tickle torture, Lucy and Heather are still trying to make their way up the rope ladder, laughing their way up as the feathers tickle away at their exposed bellies. Heather slips from the rope ladder, accidentally bumping Lucy’s hand and knocking her off of the rope ladder. As she falls, the dummy waiting below quickly launches out a helping hand… or four. Each hand catches each ankle and wrist as she falls, providing a gracious and gentle landing into waiting, tickling hands.

“Why me, again?” Lucy asks aloud, knowing that she chose to go up the ladder second in case something like this happened.

The dummy pulls Lucy in much the same way that it pulled in Emily. It locks her arms straight above her head, and cuffs her ankles into a seated position, leaving no wiggle room for her. Her belly button is still as pink as her bikini and Emily’s is as red as Lucy’s hair. Neither of them can withstand much more tickle torture as they will reach their limits soon, but now the question is: how does the Machinist determine who is the first one out from here?

Heather and Anna make it to the top of the wall, hoisting themselves over with blushed faces. They rub their tickled, exposed bellies and look back over the wall. The feathers that were once plentiful and tickling them retreat into the wall and they see the two girls are held down by the dummies.

“Well now, this is interesting! I guess we’ll have to see who has the better endurance to break this tie,” the Machinist announces over the intercom system. “So, how about this? I need a really tough, longsuffering vic-...er… I mean, guinea pig… to test one of my machines. So! Whoever passes out first from being tickled by these dummies gets to keep competing!” Lucy looks up at the loudspeaker with excitement and Emily looks up in horror.

“I’m going to be tickled until I pass out??” Emily squeals, terrified.

“I’m going to be tickled until I pass out??” Lucy squeals with delight.

“This sounds like it might be very interesting!” the Machinist exclaims over the intercom. “Now, dummies! Tickle!”

Emily and Lucy both roar with ticklish laughter as the robots tickle their sides, armpits, and feet with an assortment of feathers and fingers. Fingers attack Lucy’s armpits, quickly dancing across her vulnerable hollows with intermittent changes to rough, hard tickling. Her curvy sides are tickled by the lightest touch from large feather dusters, each feather providing more tickles to more ticklish skin. Spinning bristles tickle up and down her feet, moving from her heel up to the balls of her feet and back.

Emily’s armpits are tickled with small, stiff feathers that tickle like mad against her bare skin. Mechanical hands tickle her sides, switching between kneading and quick dancing tickles all up and down her sides from her exceedingly ticklish upper ribcage to her thin, sensitive hips. Her feet are tickled by two mechanical hands which rake up and down her soles, letting the other parts of her body suffer the most intense ticklish torture while they tickle away at the same rate, gently, without any change at all…

“STOHAHAHAHOP! I CAN’T HANDLE THIHEHEHEHIS!” Emily cries out with ticklish laughter breaking through her pleas.

“THIHIHIHIHIS IHIHIS AHAHAMAZING!” Lucy exclaims, stretching her body out for the tickling feather dusters and hands to continue their ticklish assault on her bikini-clad body. Although her tickle torture has only lasted a few minutes, her sides and armpits are already beginning to match her pink bikini. Her laughter booms through the hall they’re in, contrasting with Emily’s squeals of ticklish delight and terror.

“Can we help them?” Heather asks innocently as Anna continues on towards the goal. “We can’t exactly do anything else until one of them passes out, right?”

“I mean, unless you want to end up like them…” Anna suggests as they both shudder listening to the merciless tickle torture their friends are enduring at the hands of the tickle machines. “Can we even try to do anything at all?”

“I don’t know…” Heather’s voice trails off as she tries to think of a solution. “I know! What if we go down their and tickle them so that maybe they’ll pass out faster!”

“What?? That is ridic-” before Anna can even finish her sentence, Heather is climbing down the rope ladder towards the tickle machines below.

“WHAHAHAT ARE YOUHOOHOO DOHOOHING??” Lucy manages to ask through her raucous laughter, the hands at her armpits now digging into her ticklish hollows causing her to scream.

“I’m going to help!” Heather exclaims, running over to Lucy to tickle her belly button. Her excited finger only inches away from the red-head’s deep innie when she is suddenly caught by a mechanical hand and quickly pulled away and held suspended in the air by Emily’s machine, a single mechanical hand holding on to her wrist.

“AHAHAHAHAHA, IHI THIHEEHEEHINK IHIHIT’S SLOHOHOWING DOWHAHAN!” Emily says, wondering what was wrong with her machine.

Suddenly, Lucy’s machine grabs ahold of Heather’s other wrist, holding both wrists above her head as they suspend her off the ground.

“WHAHAHAT’S GOHOHOING OHAHAHAN?” Lucy exclaims, the fingers at her armpits slowing their tickling and the feather dusters at her sides retracting into the machine which was, just moments ago, perfectly content tickling away at her gorgeous figure.

The hands that were working their ticklish magic on Lucy and Emily swiftly lunge to Heather’s ankles, pulling her into an X-shape, suspended upright between the two machines. Then, the hands which held Lucy and Emily to their respective machines lift each of them up to the top of the wall, releasing them where they collapse on the floor, panting from constant laughter.

“Wha- huff was huff that huff” Emily barely manages to get the words out, doubled over and rubbing her bare sides. She’s just grateful for the break.

“Ohhh, man…” Lucy pouts. She desperately wants to find out her ticklish limits. “I wanted to know how long I could stand it!”

“Lucy, we all know you just wish you were tickled more,” Anna prods, jumping down on top of her bikini-clad friend and tickling her sides. Lucy giggles and squirms, barely fighting back as her bare sides are tickled.

“What do we do now?” Emily asks the room, Lucy’s laughter still echoing around her. Static comes on over the radio.

“To be honest, I did not expect this. So, I guess you can just move on?” The Machinist suggests over the loudspeaker. The door behind the girls opens and Anna stops tickling Lucy and stands to face the open passageway.

“G- Guys??” Heather exclaims, still held suspended from the floor, looking up at her friends above who look back at her vulnerable form. “D- Don’t leave me!”

“Sorry, Heather! I’m sure you’ll be able to handle whatever the Machinist throws at you!” Anna reassures her.

“Umm… If you say so!” Heather replies, positive she didn’t believe that for a second. Her friends move away from the edge of the wall and enter the door and she hears a loud SLAM! as she is left alone in the room.

____________________________________________________________________________

Immediately after the door slams shut behind her friends, the machines which hold Heather whir to life.

“Uh oh! What’s HAPPENING??” Heather exclaims to the empty room.

Static comes over the loudspeaker as the Machinist explains, “I programmed the robots with a backup plan if they captured two victims at once which required them to tickle each until one passed out. But I hadn’t planned for anyone to be reckless enough to jump back in to the pit with them after that programming had kicked in! I guess they will just follow their programming as if they both caught a victim?” Hmm…” the Machinist trails off. “I guess we’ll just have to find out!”

“I’m going to be tickled until I pass out??” Heather exclaims, the whirring of the machines providing no comfort as mechanical hands appear from all around them, some wielding feathers, some wielding brushes, and some wiggling their menacing fingers in a tickle tickle motion, all moving towards Heather’s exposed and restrained figure.

“AHHHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Heather’s laughter resounds throughout the entire obstacle course as the hands make contact with her suspended body, the bare skin incredibly sensitive to the merciless tickling of the robotic hands.

Two hands dig their fingers into her ticklish armpits, her raised arms held still by the hands which grip her wrists so that she can’t protect them. The fingers wiggle and gently prod her smooth, soft skin, staying perfectly in place as she struggles against the hands holding her steady in her ticklish situation. Then, the hands switch to a light tickle, fingers dancing gently across her entire exposed armpits from the top of her ribcage all the way up to her elbows. The gloved fingers tickle relentlessly and her laughter never ceases.

Two other hands stroke her sides with large feathers, tickling lightly as if dusting a shelf. As they tickle and tickle, Heather struggles against her tormentors, causing more hands to emerge to hold her midriff still by placing one firm hand against her belly and one against her back. The hands at her sides then flip the feathers around, tickling her sides with the firm stems of the feathers as if writing letters with quills. They repeatedly tickle her soft sides from her ribs to her hips, forcing her to writhe in ticklish agony.

The hand that was initially placed on her belly to hold her still unexpectedly begins its own ticklish torment. As the hand holds her still, it moves down right below her belly button, still holding her still. As it does, it sticks its index finger into her belly button and Heather feels something cold in her belly button as the finger fills it with baby oil. Then, it begins its ticklish torture, vibrating quickly and moving in a quick circular motion, tickling her belly button with even more ferocity and precision than the wands from the previous obstacle. As it digs into her innie belly button, she shakes and squirms against its ticklish fervor. But since it holds her still, the hands continues its eternal tickling, causing Heather to scream with ticklish laughter.

“IHIHI’M GONNAHAHAHA DIEHIHIHIE!” Heather screams, tears streaming down her face as her laughter carries on with her ticklish torture.

Two of the hands which were part of the initial attack tickle Heather’s bare butt with kneading motions, squeezing and jiggling and tickling away at her exposed backside, the bikini bottoms she wears provide no coverage, much to her ticklish dismay. The hands change tactics to gently tickling the backs of her thighs, up to her butt, and back, the dancing fingers tickling her legs and butt without any mercy at all. The gentle tickling of her butt and legs has nothing on the tickle torture on her hips, however.

Mechanical hands gently massage her hips, tickling her with light squeezes which cannot compare to the tickling on her armpits or her butt… yet. However, the hands begin to move from tickling her hipbones, down to tickling her right where her legs meet her torso, gently squeezing and tickling up and down.

Up and down.

Up and down.

Until they move back to where her legs meet her torso and they dig in, tickling hard with each and every finger doing its ticklish work on her trapped body.

“NOHOHOHOHO! THAHAHAHAT’S TOHOOHOO MUHUHAHAHA!” Heather screams as the hand continue their tickling, roughly squeezing her hips and causing Heather to roar with ticklish laughter so loud that the girls hear it in the next obstacle. The hands tickle away as Heather’s attention is brought to the last pair of hands which tickle her bikini-clad, ticklish body.

Two hands holding brushes reach towards her feet, but they only barely tickle her feet with the brushes, letting the bristles barely touch her twitching, ticklish feet. The bristles tickle her heels as she jerks her feet forward. Then, when they reach her toes, she pulls her feet back and spreads her toes to avoid the tickling bristles. The hands holding her ankles hold her firm, but despite her small form, Heather puts up a struggle and pulls hard against the hands, moving her feet slightly away from her ticklish teasers. However, it’s time for the hands at her feet to help the others accomplish their mission. So, the hands at her ankles sprout small belts which wrap around her toes, pulling them back and securing them so that her entire sole is exposed and flat, completely vulnerable to the tickle torture to come.

The hands which were once tickling her feet gently with brushes pull back slightly. Then, a whirring noise can be heard as the hands begin spinning quickly, causing the brushes to spin at an incredibly fast rate. Then, with her toes secured, her soles exposed, and the rest of her body facing incredible tickle torture, the brushes make contact with her feet, tickling with such an intensity that Heather’s laughter becomes even more extraordinary. The ticklish torture from the brushes spinning away on the soles of her feet, moving back and forth from her heel to the balls of her feet over and over and over, tickling without mercy as her belly button is oiled and tickled, her armpits are teased and tickled without slowing, her sides are feathered and ever so lightly tickled by stems and plumage, and her butt and hips are jiggled and kneaded. Heather’s laughter overtakes her as her bikini bottoms become wet, tickled to the point of wetting herself. Heather slumps in her bonds as the tickling overwhelms her, no more energy available to squirm and struggle, but only laugh as her body is tickled to her limits.

With so much tickle torture, it was a wonder that her laughter still rang out. However, slumped in her bonds, laughing hysterically, and tickled to the point of humiliation, Heather’s vision slowly fades to black and her laughter ceases as the robot’s ticklish torture ceases.