arachnid95
2nd Level Orange Feather
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2015
- Messages
- 2,269
- Points
- 0
I'm not quite as fond of this one as I am of the others I've written, but a few other people are, so I hope you enjoy! 
---
The Capture of Kitty Krash
Kitty Krash gazed out over the city from her building-top perch, sipping her iced Coke. Her leg kicked lazily over the edge of the building as she leaned back on one hand. The wind tousled her long blonde hair, the sun shone as brightly as it ever had, and everything was quiet and peaceful. In short, the day was as perfectly tranquil as any day in a big city could be.
And Kitty hated it.
Kitty Krash, you see, is no ordinary girl. She’s a superheroine, and one of the best in the business, despite her lack of experience—at the comparatively ripe age of nineteen, there weren’t very many heroes younger than her.
Catherine Sherman had received her powers only two years prior, when a bizarre red meteor had crashed into her backyard. Its extraterrestrial radiation had bestowed upon her incredible strength, the ability to fly, invulnerability to pretty much everything—except to radioactive elements like uranium, which cancel out her powers—superhumanly-sharp senses, and the power to fire flame-like energy blasts from her hands.
Having been a comic book geek her whole life, it was really only natural that she’d want to start a career in crime-fighting right away. Within days, she had already put together her costume—a red and black hoodie, emblazoned with a black star; a pair of black jeans; a pair of knee-high red converse; a short black cape; and a pair of red goggles to mask her identity—and had begun to practice with her powers in secret. It took her two months to master her new abilities, but at last, she was ready for her big debut. Calling herself Kitty Krash, she had launched herself into her superhero career, and was soon renowned throughout the city—and, indeed, the world—for her heroic actions.
Today, however, it seemed as though the city wouldn’t be needing her attention; all was quiet, and Kitty was bored out of her mind.
“Ugh, I wish something would happen,” she muttered to herself. “An alien invasion… a bank robbery… a fricking cat stuck in a tree… anything!”
Her plea was answered only by the wind. She let out an almighty sigh of weary boredom and finished her soda, crushing the cup with her hand.
“Whatever. Guess I’m not needed today,” she mumbled. “Might as well just go home and study for my English mid-term…” She got to her feet and stretched, then crouched low to the roof of the building and launched herself into the air. Within moments she was streaking across the sky like a comet, heading for her apartment.
Little did she realize, however, that she was about to get the action she craved—and more….
Halfway home, she felt something hit her hard in the back, sending her surprised body careening to the ground. She landed hard, her impact cracking the sidewalk.
“Agh! What the…?” She jumped up and scanned the sky for the source of the attack. She didn’t have to search long, because a large silver shape wavered into view about fifty feet off the ground.
Kitty recognized the shape instantly. It was a ship, belonging to her arch-nemesis, an alien overlord known to the human race as Sytus. Kitty had had plenty of run-ins with Sytus before; the bad-tempered, blue-skinned extraterrestrial had come to Earth early in her career, seeking to conquer its citizens. His conquest had, of course, been swiftly snafu-ed by the young heroine, but he was obnoxiously persistent. Like a bad penny, Sytus had returned again and again, always with some new weapon or tactic up his sleeve, in his ceaseless attempts to subjugate humanity, but Kitty had defeated him every time.
And now it seemed he was back for more. Despite the threat he posed, Kitty couldn’t help but smile—she had wanted something to fight, and now she had it.
“Sytus!” she shouted, knowing he could hear her. “Haven’t seen you in a while! Decided you missed getting your ass whooped, did you?”
“Very amusing, Miss Krash,” sounded the alien’s voice from the ship’s loudspeakers. “Still as witty as ever, I see. What you fail to realize, however, is that today, it is you who will—as you so quaintly put it—get your ass whooped.”
“Riiiiight,” she responded skeptically, her hands on her hips. “And just what exactly makes you think this time will be any different from the rest of the times I beat your blue heiny?”
For an answer, the ship fired another blast at her, sending a purple plasma ball hurtling straight for her. Now that she could see it coming, dodging it was a simple matter for her; she shot straight up in the air, causing the projectile to smash harmlessly into the concrete below.
“Hold still, you little pest!” said Sytus, firing off another two rounds. Kitty deftly flew around both of them, giggling all the time.
“Really? Is that the best you can do?” she taunted. “You’re losing your edge, blue boy; you used to be a bit more of a challenge than this!”
“Oh, so it’s a challenge you want?” retorted the villain, his voice full of confidence. “Well, if you insist…”
A small orifice opened up in the front of the ship and spit out an oblong silver projectile. It spun through the air for a moment, then exploded, producing a green shockwave that expanded outward in all directions. It hit Kitty, knocking her for a loop.
“Oof! What…?” She tried to steady herself, but realized with a jolt that she was falling. “Crap! That thing must have been radioactive!”
She started to panic; her powers wouldn’t return for another minute or so, and by that time, she would already be a pancake on the ground below. She didn’t know how Sytus had found out her weakness, but he had—and now she had no idea how she would get out of this predicament…
All of a sudden, she felt herself being pulled upward. Confused, she twisted around and found, to her surprise and dismay, that she was being lifted by some kind of tractor beam—straight towards Sytus’s ship!
“Ah, ah, ah!” sounded the rogue’s voice. “No dying on me, now; I have plans for you, my dear nemesis!”
She struggled to free herself from the beam’s grasp, but it held her tight; without her powers, she could do nothing but wait for the beam to deactivate.
A moment later, she was drawn through a door in the ship’s hull, which shut behind her as she was dropped into a holding cell in the ship’s cargo bay, the bars of which glowed green—radioactive.
“Dammit!” she swore, feeling herself growing weaker; radiation was like kryptonite to her—first her powers went, then she would slowly weaken until she was comatose. After that… no more Kitty Krash.
A door hissed open on the other side of the room, and through it stepped Sytus himself. He looked mostly humanoid, except for his dark blue skin, shiny black eyes, and pointed ears. He was garbed in his usual black military uniform and long cape, with gold buttons, trim, and tassels on his epaulets. He strode over to his captive rival with a smug smirk on his face.
“Welcome aboard, Kitty!” he gloated, flashing his pointed white teeth. “I’m so glad you could join me!”
Kitty glared at him with all the intensity she could muster; by this point, she was leaning against the bars of the cage for support. “Guh… g-go to hell!” she spat. “If you’re g-gonna kill me, j-just do it… b-but don’t make me s-suffer through one of your d-dumb monologues!”
The alien sighed dramatically. “Oh, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty… don’t you listen? I already told you, I have plans for you, and I can’t bring them to fruition if you’re dead! I just needed you nice and weakened so I could prep you.”
“P-Prep me? F… For what?”
“You’ll find out…” Grinning maliciously, he withdrew from a pocket in his uniform a hypodermic needle, filled with a sickly yellow liquid.
Kitty eyed the needle warily, but before she could stammer out a protest, she felt it prick her arm painfully. A moment later, her vision began to dim, and she fell to the floor of the cell, unconscious…
“…Kitty… Kiiiitty… wakey-wakey, Kitty Cat, you’re gonna miss the fun!”
“Ugh… Wha…?” Kitty opened her eyes, her vision blurry, then quickly squeezed them shut again; a dull pain throbbed somewhere in the back of her head. “Owwww…”
“Ah, awake at last! Don’t worry, the pain won’t last long, although that’s the least of your worries at the moment…”
As Kitty slowly regained her powers of thought, her memories returned. She remembered the scuffle with Sytus, being drawn into his ship…
Suddenly alert, Kitty’s eyes snapped open. Sytus was standing only feet from her, his hands behind his back, his mouth drawn up in a haughty grin.
“Sytus, you creep! Just wait’ll I get my hands on you, you… you…” She tried to lift her arms to throttle her foe, but found she couldn’t—she seemed to be seated in some kind of chair, her arms encased up to the shoulders in padded metal cylinders that held them at her sides. Her legs, stretched out in front of her, were locked in what appeared to be some kind of metal stocks. She struggled with all her might, but to her surprise, she couldn’t move her restraints even an inch.
“Go ahead, Miss Krash. Strain and strive all you want, you’re not going anywhere,” Sytus stated, his arrogant grin growing wider. “Even with all your strength, you can’t break these restraints.”
“What the hell did you do to me?” demanded Kitty. “Did that needle do something to my powers or something?”
“Oh no, my dear, that needle was just something to make sure you’d stay unconscious long after you’d been removed from that radiation cage; your powers are fully operational. It’s just that these restraints are comprised of a metal alloy from my home planet; it’s so strong, not even you can put a scratch on it.”
Kitty twisted and writhed, gritting her teeth, pulling as hard as she could until beads of sweat popped out of her forehead, but she got nowhere. Loathe though she was to admit it, Sytus was right.
She fixed him with a glare that radiated white-hot hatred. “Alright, egghead, why am I here? What exactly do you want from me, if not to kill me?”
“I’m glad you asked!” The warlord started to pace back and forth, his long cape trailing behind him. “You see, I happen to have found out exactly what it was that gave you your powers: a red meteor, correct?”
“Yeah, what of it?” She followed the villain with her eyes, her eyebrow raised.
“I thought so. That meteor is actually a power ruby, a very rare stone, quite legendary amongst space-faring races like my own, that grants those who come into contact with it immense powers—a property you have gotten to experience firsthand.”
“Wow, that’s very interesting,” said Kitty sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “Now I know where it came from. But what does that have to do with why I’m trussed up on your ship like some damsel in distress?”
At this, the alien stopped and turned to her, his grin wider and more sinister than ever. “Why, I want it, of course! With power like yours, coupled with my vastly superior intellect, defeating you and taking this pathetic planet for my own would be child’s play!”
For the first time since waking up, Kitty was genuinely worried. Sytus was right—if he got his sticky hands on that meteor, Earth was as good as his. “What makes you think I have it?” she asked. She did have it, of course; it was in her closet at home. She had discovered that her powers would slowly diminish if she didn’t “recharge” by soaking in its radiation every so often.
“Oh, come now, don’t try to bluff me,” scoffed Sytus. “I know how power rubies work. You need that meteorite to refuel your powers. You have it, and I want to know where it is.”
Kitty narrowed her eyes and stuck out her jaw. “Well, you can forget it! In case you haven’t noticed, I’m kind of invincible. Nothing you say or do will make me tell you where it is, so you might as well end your little game and let me go!”
Sytus laughed dryly. “Bold words, coming from someone in your position! As it so happens, there is a way I can get you to talk—invincibility or no invincibility.”
“Oh yeah? And what’s that?” Kitty smirked cockily, knowing that there was nothing in creation that Sytus could do to—
“Why, I could tickle you, of course.”
Never in human history has a cocky smile vanished more quickly than Kitty’s did.
“…What?” she said, not quite able to keep the disbelief out of her voice.
Sytus grinned. “Your feet, I believe, are very rather ticklish, are they not?”
They were, of course. Kitty had always been hopelessly, miserably ticklish on her feet. The rest of her body had been protected from ticklishness by her invulnerability, but for some reason, the soles of her feet still retained their sensitivity—her literal Achilles heel. And if there was one thing she couldn’t stand, it was having her feet tickled; even as a little girl, she hated having anyone so much as touch her feet, let alone tickle them.
“What’s the matter?” asked Sytus, cutting into Kitty’s stunned silence. “Nothing clever to say? Don’t tell me the great Kitty Krash has lost her famous razor wit?”
She stared at the villain, wide-eyed. “N-Now look,” she stuttered, “You’re wasting your time. I’m not t-ticklish, really…”
Sytus raised his eyebrows. “Really? Is that your best attempt at dissuading me?” Chuckling, the villain began to untie the laces on Kitty’s shoes.
Kitty started to panic. “N-No! Please, don’t tickle me!” she begged, her feet wriggling desperately, trying to stop Sytus from untying her shoes.
“Oho, so you are ticklish!” taunted the villain, slipping off her left shoe. “The rumors were true, then! Truth be told, I was just bluffing you; I really had no idea whether you were actually ticklish or not. But now I know exactly how to break you…”
“No! S-Stop!” Kitty could only look on helplessly as her right shoe was tugged from her foot; now only her white cotton socks lay between her feet and their impending torture. “Don’t you dare do this! I swear, if you touch my feet, I’ll….”
“You’ll what?” challenged Sytus. “You’re in no position to be issuing threats, my dear! Now, your choices are simple: either reveal the location of the meteorite now, or spend the next few hours laughing your pretty little head off…” With that, he grasped the tops of her socks and began to slowly peel them off.
Kitty clenched her toes, desperately trying to keep her socks on her feet, but her efforts were in vain. Soon, her soft, pale, and extremely ticklish bare feet lay vulnerable.
“Well, Miss Krash? What’s it going to be? Talk… or laugh?”
She bit her lip and looked away. She couldn’t tell him. She just couldn’t. With that meteorite, Sytus would be ruler of the Earth in a matter of days.
Mustering up her courage, she returned her gaze to Sytus’s cold black eyes. “Tickle me all you want, creep,” she spat, putting as much venom into her words as she could. “I’m not telling you anything.”
Sytus sighed. “I knew you’d say that. How boring. Ah well, you’ll talk sooner or later; I may as well have some fun in the meantime…”
He placed his fingers on the balls of Kitty’s feet, right where they met her toes. Even this tiny touch made her gasp. Smiling a smile of utmost evil, he slowly dragged his fingertips down her soles.
Kitty squeaked and clenched her lips together, trying hard not to laugh. “EEP!! Mmmmph!”
“Heh, how adorable!” chuckled the villain, gliding his fingers back up her smooth soles. “Come on, Kitty, let’s hear that laugh…”
“Nng!! N-no! MMMhmhmph!” She squeezed her eyes shut and turned away, her teeth gritted.
“Aw, come on, I know those giggles are bubbling up. You can’t resist forever…” The alien continued his slow, gentle assault, his fingers sliding up and down, up and down, just barely skimming over her soles.
“Gghh!! S-Stahap!! NNNGH!! No!” Her toes curled in a futile attempt to dampen the effects of Sytus’s maddening attack.
“You know… you want… to laaaaaaa-aaugh….”
Finally, she could resist no longer. The laughter burst forth from her lips like water breaking through a dam. “PFFFFFFAhahahahehehehehehehehahahahahaha!! Nohoho, ahahahahahaha!! Stahahahahap!!”
“There we are!” exclaimed Sytus, grinning triumphantly. “I knew you’d succumb eventually!” He sped up his attack, his fingers dancing lightly up and down the soles of Kitty’s feet.
“NAhahahahahahahahahahaha!! Stahahahahap, that tihihihickles!!”
“Do you want the tickling to stop, Kitty? Do you want me to stop tickling your feet?”
“Ahahahahahaha yehehehehes!! Ahahahahahaha stahahap!!” Kitty’s toes wiggled like things possessed.
“Then tell me, where is the meteorite?”
Torturous though this tickling was, Kitty knew she couldn’t give in. “Hehehehehahahahahahaha!! N-Nehever! Ahahahahahahahaha Ihi’ll never tehell you!! Ahahahahahahahaha!!”
Sytus shrugged. “Then I’ll never stop tickling you,” he said simply. He dug in with his nails a little, moving from lightly skittering to scratching her bare soles.
“NOOOoooooooahahahahahahahahaha!! Stahahap tickling mehehehehee!!” Kitty’s head whipped back and forth as she laughed. She hated feeling this helpless, hated the electric tickling sensations shooting from her feet to her brain. But she knew that the entire planet was depending on her to hold out, no matter how much she wanted this to end.
“Hmm, perhaps if I try a different tactic,” mused Sytus aloud. “Let’s see if these toes are ticklish…”
Before Kitty could even register what he had said, Sytus began to play with her wriggling toes, driving her laughter up an octave. “YAAAhahahahahahahaha!! Nohoho, not the tohohohohoes!! Ahahahahahaha plehehease, you have to stahahahap!!”
“On the contrary, my dear, I don’t have to do anything,” he said, his fingers wriggling under her toes. “You, on the other hand, have to tell me where the meteorite is, if you ever want me to stop tickling these adorable little toes of yours.”
“YAhahahahahahahaha!! F-Fohorget it, creep!! Ahahahahahahaha I’m not tehelling you ahahanything!”
“Fine then, have it your way.” The villain smiled; he almost seemed to be enjoying himself.
For a good twenty minutes, Sytus continued to tickle Kitty’s bare feet. His fingers spidered across her soles and wiggled against her toes, and Kitty could do nothing but sit there and laugh her head off.
Finally, Sytus decided to stop and let his captive breathe. “We can’t have you passing out, you know. Not yet…”
Kitty slumped forward, panting heavily. “Oh god… n-no more… don’t t-tickle me anymore…”
Sytus lifted her chin with one hand so she was looking him directly in the eye. “You know what you need to do to stop this torture, Kitty. If you tell me where the meteorite is, I’ll tickle you no more.”
For just a moment, Kitty was tempted. Just a few words and she could be free of this torment.
But she couldn’t sell out humanity. She could never live with herself, knowing that she had placed the Earth right into Sytus’s outstretched hands.
“I’ll… d-die first…” she spat, her gaze as hard as iron.
Sytus was growing visibly annoyed. “It seems your resolve is tougher to crack than I thought. For that, I commend you. But everyone has a breaking point—even you. And I will find it, one way or another.”
He stood up, wheeled around, and exited the room, leaving Kitty in her bondage. She had no idea what could be up her arch-enemy’s sleeve, but she knew it couldn’t be good.
She had no idea how long he was gone, but it felt like an eternity; her mind kept conjuring up horrific images of the things he could do to her sensitive soles. By the time he finally returned, carrying a cloth-covered tray, she was a bundle of nerves.
“Well, Kitty, I hope you enjoyed your little break, because you won’t be getting another one.” He smiled malevolently at her, his pointed teeth gleaming in a perfect row.
“Look, this isn’t going to work,” she said, trying once more to discourage him from tickling her further. “I haven’t caved yet, and I’m not going to, so just give it up already.”
“Ah, but you fail to realize something, oh enemy mine,” he replied. “I have been doing a little research, and I have discovered a few little toys that are sure to make you talk.”
Toys? Kitty didn’t like the sound of that. But whatever he had brought to torture her with, she knew she had to power through it. “Bring it on, egghead! You’re not gonna break me!”
“Oh, we’ll see about that…” he said, reaching under the cloth and pulling from under it a hard-bristled hairbrush. “From my research, I’ve deduced that this little tool is guaranteed to break the will of any unfortunate ticklish individual!”
Kitty snorted with amusement and relief. “A hairbrush? Really? Where exactly are you getting your information? Who ever heard of a hairbrush being used to tickle people?”
Of course, if you’re reading this, you probably know full well the devastating power held within the innocuous hairbrush. Poor Kitty never saw it coming.
“You’ll be eating those words in a minute,” chuckled Sytus, before firmly grasping Kitty’s big toes between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand.
“Hey, just what are you—YAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!” Kitty’s question was lost in her own hysterical laughter as her foe began to vigorously scrub up and down her bare soles with the brush. The hard plastic bristles raked the tender skin mercilessly, sending her into a whole new dimension of ticklish agony.
“Surprised? So was I, when I found out!” mused the villain, never ceasing in the brushing of Kitty’s poor feet. “Amazing how creative you humans can get when it comes to torturing each other!”
“GAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Plehehehehehease, make it STAHAHAHAHAP!!” Kitty thought for sure she was being driven out of her mind by the horrible ticklish blitzkrieg being inflicted on her soles. She couldn’t even wiggle her toes properly, owing to the firm grip Sytus had on them, so there was no relief even in that. All she could do was take her torture and pray that he stopped short of insanity.
Fortunately, even he was taken aback by the sheer tickling power of the brush; recognizing that his prey wouldn’t last long under its influence, he stopped after just a few minutes of tickling.
“Well now! Wasn’t that fun?” he cackled, grinning at Kitty over the tops of her toes. Kitty could only wheeze and glare at him as she greedily gulped down fresh breaths of air.
“Ready to talk, then? Or shall I be using our new friend a bit more?” He waggled the hairbrush threateningly, too close to her feet for comfort.
“Guh… N-no! Please… no… n-no more… of the… b-brush…” she begged. “I c-can’t… take it…”
“Well then, you had better tell me where that meteorite is, now hadn’t you?”
Kitty merely shook her head. Malicious though the brush had been, she knew she could take more of it, if it meant keeping the Earth out of Sytus’s reach.
Sytus twitched with anger; Kitty knew she was winding him up, and couldn’t help feeling a spark of satisfaction from doing so. “You know, on second thought, perhaps I should show you another tool I discovered that might work even better…”
Setting the hairbrush down, Sytus slipped his hand under the cloth again and pulled out an electric toothbrush. Kitty looked at it apprehensively; she had already made the mistake of underestimating the hairbrush, and she wasn’t going to make it again.
Sytus flipped the switch on the toothbrush. Its high-pitched buzzing soon filled the room, sending electric shocks down Kitty’s spine.
“Let’s see if you’re still unwilling to cooperate once we’ve finished with this little toy…” Grinning malevolently, Sytus lowered the spinning bristles to Kitty’s right heel and began to slowly move them up her sole.
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Ohohoho jehesus chrihihihist!!” Kitty screamed with hysterical laughter as the buzzing toothbrush scrubbed her tender soles. She thought for sure she was going to die laughing.
“My, but this one is effective!” remarked Sytus as he moved the toothbrush in circles around the bottoms of her feet. “If this doesn’t get you to talk, I don’t know what will!”
“AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! N-Nohot gonna hahahappen!! Ahahahahahahahaha!!” insisted Kitty; in reality, she didn’t know if she could stand much more, but she had to keep her tough-girl persona going.
“Hmm, not even if I do… this?” The villain suddenly stuck the toothbrush’s bristles between Kitty’s toes,
The ticklish heroine let loose with a banshee-like shriek before dissolving once more into panicked laughter; she couldn’t even work up the strength to say anything clever.
Finally, after another twenty minutes of torture, Sytus turned off the toothbrush and put it away, smirking cockily. “Now then, I believe you have something you’d like to say to me?”
Kitty groaned. She knew she was going to regret this, but she just had to say it. She just had to. She motioned with her head for him to come closer.
Eagerly, Sytus leaned in close to her, expecting his moment of victory. “Yeeees?”
Mentally bracing herself for the consequences, she whispered in his ear…
“K… K-Kiss… my… ass…”
Sytus’s smile vanished, to be replaced by an irritable scowl. He backed away from Kitty’s head, a growl of frustration sounding in his throat. “You know, you’re really starting to get on my nerves,” he said, before suddenly grabbing her toes again, picking up the hairbrush, and viciously raking the brush across her taut soles.
Kitty threw her head back and let loose with an almighty howl. “NYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! OHOHOHO GAHAHAHAHAHAD NOHOHOHOHOHO!!” She bucked and thrashed as much as her heavy restraints would allow her to, tears streaming down her red face.
Sytus continued his vengeful attack for several minutes, clearly relishing the suffering he was inflicting on his enemy. It wasn’t until she started to cough and hack between peals of laughter that he finally, reluctantly, put down the brush.
Kitty went limp and gasped for breath, sobbing quietly, while Sytus took some steadying breaths of his own.
“Whew! Mustn’t lose my temper…” he said to himself through gritted teeth. “Can’t have my captive dying of laughter before she tells me where the meteorite is, now can I?”
Hero and villain sat in silence for a few minutes, neither one of them able or willing to say anything. Finally, Sytus inhaled deeply and forced a smile onto his face.
“Now then! Why don’t you save yourself more torture by telling me where that meteorite is now?”
Kitty glared at him. “S-Screw you! I’m not t-telling you crap!”
Sytus sighed. A vein bulged in his temple. “Your resistance is strong, Miss Krash, I’ll give you that. But you’re going to have to break eventually, even if it takes all day…”
He picked up the hairbrush again, and Kitty’s stomach dropped. But he didn’t use it on her. Instead, he placed it back on the tray, under the cloth… and pulled out instead…”
“N-NO!” she gasped. “Please! N-Not that! Anything but that!” Her feet tried hopelessly to slip through the stocks, she pressed herself into the back of the chair in a vain attempt to phase through it, anything to get away from the implement of inhumane torture the fiend now held in his fingers.
What was this weapon, you ask? What torturous instrument, plucked straight from the depths of hell, was this diabolical madman about to use on our hapless heroine?
A feather. A stiff, white feather.
“Ohoho, what’s this?” said Sytus, his eyebrows raised in surprise. His jauntiness had returned as Kitty’s courage had, for the first time, fled. “You mean to tell me that the unbreakable Kitty Krash is afraid of a little feather?”
Kitty was not afraid of the feather. She was terrified of it. It may seem silly to you and me, that a feather should be her greatest ticklish fear, when she had just endured the ravages of a hairbrush and electric toothbrush. But as it turns out, for the tough, unfailingly badass Kitty Krash, the lightest touches are the worst, and what touch is lighter than that of a feather?
“Please! N-Not the feather! D-Don’t tickle me with that!”
“Alright, Kitty, I won’t tickle you with the feather… but you know what you have to do for me in return…”
She whimpered, eying the feather as Sytus twirled it between his thumb and forefinger. Her toes quivered at the thought of the feather on them, and she felt like crying. But she knew, as she had been reminding herself throughout her torture, that she had to be strong. She couldn’t let the meteor fall into Sytus’s hands—or humanity was screwed.
She took a deep breath and looked him straight in the eye. “I’ll talk when Hell freezes over, you demented, egotistical freak!”
Sytus’s face clouded with rage, and he unleashed a few swear words from his own language. “D’Agrok!Then prepare to die laughing, you stubborn little g’at!”
He lowered the tip of the feather and began to ever-so-gently stroke it up and down Kitty’s defenseless soles.
Faced with her most dreaded tickle tool, the poor heroine leaned back and screamed at the top of her lungs before dissolving into helpless laughter. “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! NOHOHO, GAHAHAHAHAD IT TIHIHIHIHIHICKLES!!”
The feather swirled across the bottoms of her feet, driving the poor girl completely insane with laughter. Its gentle kiss wasn’t nearly as rough as the brush’s unrelenting scrubbing had been, but it electrified every nerve it touched with ticklish sensation, and Kitty couldn’t stand it one bit.
Then her laughter went silent as the feather found her toes. Nothing came out of her mouth but the occasional gasp for breath as her wiggling digits were subjected to the plume’s torture. The wispy tip swirled around the pad of each toe, and then when she felt it begin to saw back and forth between her toes, she thought for sure she was going to crawl out of her skin.
When the feather made its way back down to her soles, Kitty managed to muster just enough breath to form two coherent words: “NAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! I’LL TAHAHAHAHAHAHALK!!”
Sytus could hardly believe his pointy ears. His nemesis, the great Kitty Krash, had finally been broken. He quickly dropped the feather, not wanting his quarry to pass out before she had a chance to talk, and leaned in close to her, hardly daring to hope.
“Well?? Go on, where is it?”
Kitty was sobbing profusely, both from her torture, and from grief. She hadn’t been strong enough. She had caved. And now, because of her, Sytus would win.
He began to grow impatient as she tried to catch her breath and quickly ran the feather up her left sole once, quickly, forcing an earsplitting shriek out of her. “Well, get on with it! Tell me where it is, or I’ll use the feather some more!”
“NO! Don’t! Please… d-don’t tickle me… anymore… I c… I can’t take anymore… It’s in my apartment… m-my closet…brown buh-box…”
Sytus cackled triumphantly. “YES! At last! The Earth will be mine!” He swiftly turned around and dashed out of the room, his cape flying behind him.
A moment later he poked his head back in, smiling sheepishly. “Ehm, one more thing, if I may ask… where exactly is your apartment?”
Five minutes later, the ship was hovering in the air above Kitty’s apartment complex. Kitty could only wait in her restraints while Sytus went in, grabbed the meteor, and returned. She still couldn’t believe she had let Sytus win. She could never face humanity again—not that she would have to, because it was very likely that Sytus would want to kill her as soon as he had his rock.
After a short while, he burst back into the room, beaming as he held aloft the glowing red meteorite. “At last! The power of my enemy shall be mine! And it’s all thanks to you, Kitty Krash! Thank you ever so much for your assistance!”
As the villain laughed and gloated, Kitty’s grief turned to fury. She wanted with all her heart to leap from her seat and claw his black eyes out with her bare hands. She could feel her anger surging through her veins…
…Or was it anger? She felt stronger, certainly, more energized. But how? She was still recovering from her horrific tickle torture, how could she—
Then it dawned on her. The meteorite. Now that she was in close proximity to it, she could feel her body soaking in its radiation, filling her to the brim with power. As Sytus stood there, marveling at his prize, she began once more to strain against her bindings.
Sytus noticed, and couldn’t suppress an amused chuckle. “Really? Do you think anything’s changed? Those restraints are still indestructible! There’s no way you’re getting out!”
She ignored his jibes and continued to struggle. She wriggled and squirmed, praying for just an inch, just a little give. She strained until her muscles hurt, until her face was bright red from exertion.
Sytus sighed dramatically. Tucking the meteorite under one arm, he strode lazily towards Kitty and leaned down. “Give it up, sweetheart! It’s over! I’ve won, and you’ve lost!” To humiliate and torture his foe, he used his free hand to lightly tickle her soles, forcing her to start giggling all over again.
“Nohohohoho!! Hehehahahaha!! No mohohohohohohore!!”
The meteorite was only inches away from her. She felt its power flow through her like an electric current.
“There’s no sense in struggling any longer! Your futile efforts will only hasten your impending demise.” His fingers found her toes and scratched her madly wriggling pads.
“GAAhahahahaha!! STAHAHAHAP!! Ahahahahahehehehahahaha!”
The cylinders holding her arms began to creak under the stress of her struggles. She felt one of them budge just the tiniest bit.
“Soon, I’ll be the sovereign ruler of this wretched little planet, and there’s nothing you can do about it!” Releasing a victorious laugh, he pressed his nails into her soles and solely raked them down.
With a roar of effort, the cylinders burst open, and her hands whipped forward and seized Sytus by the throat. The meteorite fell from the villain’s shocked hands and landed on the metal floor with a loud clunk.
“Oh, we’ll see about that!” she hissed through gritted teeth.
Sytus’s eyes were bugged out as far as they could go. “But! What! How!” he spluttered, forcing his words past Kitty’s choking fingers. “That’s impossible!!”
Snarling, Kitty threw the villain across the room. His head hit the far wall with a reverberating clang and his unconscious form slid to the floor.
Kitty leaned forward and tore through the metal stocks holding her legs. “There. Now there’s just one thing left to do…”
She stood up, wobbling unsteadily and wiggling her bare toes against the cold metal floor as she tried to get blood back into her legs. Collecting her shoes, socks, and meteorite, she cast one last disgusted glance at the crumpled heap of villain, then crouched low and burst through the ceiling of the ship.
Once outside, she set her things down on the roof of the building, then flew back towards the ship. She grabbed one of its wings and, with a grunt of effort, spun it around and around and finally released, sending it hurtling through the sky. She had no idea where it would land, and she didn’t much care. All she knew was that she was glad that her ordeal was over.
Sighing with relief, she settled back down onto the roof and massaged her still-tingling feet. She wondered briefly if she ought to be worried about the knowledge Sytus had gained from her.
“Nah,” she reassured herself, “Judging by the size of that bump on his noggin, he won’t even remember his own name…”
Smirking with satisfaction, Kitty Krash stood up, grabbed her stuff, and headed down to her apartment, a hot bath and a long nap on her mind.
Somewhere in the countryside surrounding the city, Sytus groaned and stirred. He raised himself up off the floor of his ship and looked around blearily.
His ship was a wreck, no more than a mangled and twisted mass of smoking wreckage strewn across the hot ground.
“D’agrok…” he swore, rubbing the bump on his head. “What the hell happened? God, this is going to take weeks to repair!”
Wincing in pain, he got to his feet and surveyed the damage. “This has Kitty Krash written all over it, I just know it…”
Something was nagging at the back of his mind, he just didn’t know what. He knew it had something to do with Kitty, and maybe something about power rubies, but that was all.
He swore again and started to limp away in search of his tools, when something white in the corner of the room caught his eye. Curious, he walked over to it and shifted a piece of debris off of it, revealing the object to be a white feather.
Something clicked in his head, and slowly, Sytus began to smile. One thing he remembered, one tiny, yet incredibly crucial detail:
“Kitty Krash has ticklish feet…”
The End
---
The Capture of Kitty Krash
Kitty Krash gazed out over the city from her building-top perch, sipping her iced Coke. Her leg kicked lazily over the edge of the building as she leaned back on one hand. The wind tousled her long blonde hair, the sun shone as brightly as it ever had, and everything was quiet and peaceful. In short, the day was as perfectly tranquil as any day in a big city could be.
And Kitty hated it.
Kitty Krash, you see, is no ordinary girl. She’s a superheroine, and one of the best in the business, despite her lack of experience—at the comparatively ripe age of nineteen, there weren’t very many heroes younger than her.
Catherine Sherman had received her powers only two years prior, when a bizarre red meteor had crashed into her backyard. Its extraterrestrial radiation had bestowed upon her incredible strength, the ability to fly, invulnerability to pretty much everything—except to radioactive elements like uranium, which cancel out her powers—superhumanly-sharp senses, and the power to fire flame-like energy blasts from her hands.
Having been a comic book geek her whole life, it was really only natural that she’d want to start a career in crime-fighting right away. Within days, she had already put together her costume—a red and black hoodie, emblazoned with a black star; a pair of black jeans; a pair of knee-high red converse; a short black cape; and a pair of red goggles to mask her identity—and had begun to practice with her powers in secret. It took her two months to master her new abilities, but at last, she was ready for her big debut. Calling herself Kitty Krash, she had launched herself into her superhero career, and was soon renowned throughout the city—and, indeed, the world—for her heroic actions.
Today, however, it seemed as though the city wouldn’t be needing her attention; all was quiet, and Kitty was bored out of her mind.
“Ugh, I wish something would happen,” she muttered to herself. “An alien invasion… a bank robbery… a fricking cat stuck in a tree… anything!”
Her plea was answered only by the wind. She let out an almighty sigh of weary boredom and finished her soda, crushing the cup with her hand.
“Whatever. Guess I’m not needed today,” she mumbled. “Might as well just go home and study for my English mid-term…” She got to her feet and stretched, then crouched low to the roof of the building and launched herself into the air. Within moments she was streaking across the sky like a comet, heading for her apartment.
Little did she realize, however, that she was about to get the action she craved—and more….
Halfway home, she felt something hit her hard in the back, sending her surprised body careening to the ground. She landed hard, her impact cracking the sidewalk.
“Agh! What the…?” She jumped up and scanned the sky for the source of the attack. She didn’t have to search long, because a large silver shape wavered into view about fifty feet off the ground.
Kitty recognized the shape instantly. It was a ship, belonging to her arch-nemesis, an alien overlord known to the human race as Sytus. Kitty had had plenty of run-ins with Sytus before; the bad-tempered, blue-skinned extraterrestrial had come to Earth early in her career, seeking to conquer its citizens. His conquest had, of course, been swiftly snafu-ed by the young heroine, but he was obnoxiously persistent. Like a bad penny, Sytus had returned again and again, always with some new weapon or tactic up his sleeve, in his ceaseless attempts to subjugate humanity, but Kitty had defeated him every time.
And now it seemed he was back for more. Despite the threat he posed, Kitty couldn’t help but smile—she had wanted something to fight, and now she had it.
“Sytus!” she shouted, knowing he could hear her. “Haven’t seen you in a while! Decided you missed getting your ass whooped, did you?”
“Very amusing, Miss Krash,” sounded the alien’s voice from the ship’s loudspeakers. “Still as witty as ever, I see. What you fail to realize, however, is that today, it is you who will—as you so quaintly put it—get your ass whooped.”
“Riiiiight,” she responded skeptically, her hands on her hips. “And just what exactly makes you think this time will be any different from the rest of the times I beat your blue heiny?”
For an answer, the ship fired another blast at her, sending a purple plasma ball hurtling straight for her. Now that she could see it coming, dodging it was a simple matter for her; she shot straight up in the air, causing the projectile to smash harmlessly into the concrete below.
“Hold still, you little pest!” said Sytus, firing off another two rounds. Kitty deftly flew around both of them, giggling all the time.
“Really? Is that the best you can do?” she taunted. “You’re losing your edge, blue boy; you used to be a bit more of a challenge than this!”
“Oh, so it’s a challenge you want?” retorted the villain, his voice full of confidence. “Well, if you insist…”
A small orifice opened up in the front of the ship and spit out an oblong silver projectile. It spun through the air for a moment, then exploded, producing a green shockwave that expanded outward in all directions. It hit Kitty, knocking her for a loop.
“Oof! What…?” She tried to steady herself, but realized with a jolt that she was falling. “Crap! That thing must have been radioactive!”
She started to panic; her powers wouldn’t return for another minute or so, and by that time, she would already be a pancake on the ground below. She didn’t know how Sytus had found out her weakness, but he had—and now she had no idea how she would get out of this predicament…
All of a sudden, she felt herself being pulled upward. Confused, she twisted around and found, to her surprise and dismay, that she was being lifted by some kind of tractor beam—straight towards Sytus’s ship!
“Ah, ah, ah!” sounded the rogue’s voice. “No dying on me, now; I have plans for you, my dear nemesis!”
She struggled to free herself from the beam’s grasp, but it held her tight; without her powers, she could do nothing but wait for the beam to deactivate.
A moment later, she was drawn through a door in the ship’s hull, which shut behind her as she was dropped into a holding cell in the ship’s cargo bay, the bars of which glowed green—radioactive.
“Dammit!” she swore, feeling herself growing weaker; radiation was like kryptonite to her—first her powers went, then she would slowly weaken until she was comatose. After that… no more Kitty Krash.
A door hissed open on the other side of the room, and through it stepped Sytus himself. He looked mostly humanoid, except for his dark blue skin, shiny black eyes, and pointed ears. He was garbed in his usual black military uniform and long cape, with gold buttons, trim, and tassels on his epaulets. He strode over to his captive rival with a smug smirk on his face.
“Welcome aboard, Kitty!” he gloated, flashing his pointed white teeth. “I’m so glad you could join me!”
Kitty glared at him with all the intensity she could muster; by this point, she was leaning against the bars of the cage for support. “Guh… g-go to hell!” she spat. “If you’re g-gonna kill me, j-just do it… b-but don’t make me s-suffer through one of your d-dumb monologues!”
The alien sighed dramatically. “Oh, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty… don’t you listen? I already told you, I have plans for you, and I can’t bring them to fruition if you’re dead! I just needed you nice and weakened so I could prep you.”
“P-Prep me? F… For what?”
“You’ll find out…” Grinning maliciously, he withdrew from a pocket in his uniform a hypodermic needle, filled with a sickly yellow liquid.
Kitty eyed the needle warily, but before she could stammer out a protest, she felt it prick her arm painfully. A moment later, her vision began to dim, and she fell to the floor of the cell, unconscious…
“…Kitty… Kiiiitty… wakey-wakey, Kitty Cat, you’re gonna miss the fun!”
“Ugh… Wha…?” Kitty opened her eyes, her vision blurry, then quickly squeezed them shut again; a dull pain throbbed somewhere in the back of her head. “Owwww…”
“Ah, awake at last! Don’t worry, the pain won’t last long, although that’s the least of your worries at the moment…”
As Kitty slowly regained her powers of thought, her memories returned. She remembered the scuffle with Sytus, being drawn into his ship…
Suddenly alert, Kitty’s eyes snapped open. Sytus was standing only feet from her, his hands behind his back, his mouth drawn up in a haughty grin.
“Sytus, you creep! Just wait’ll I get my hands on you, you… you…” She tried to lift her arms to throttle her foe, but found she couldn’t—she seemed to be seated in some kind of chair, her arms encased up to the shoulders in padded metal cylinders that held them at her sides. Her legs, stretched out in front of her, were locked in what appeared to be some kind of metal stocks. She struggled with all her might, but to her surprise, she couldn’t move her restraints even an inch.
“Go ahead, Miss Krash. Strain and strive all you want, you’re not going anywhere,” Sytus stated, his arrogant grin growing wider. “Even with all your strength, you can’t break these restraints.”
“What the hell did you do to me?” demanded Kitty. “Did that needle do something to my powers or something?”
“Oh no, my dear, that needle was just something to make sure you’d stay unconscious long after you’d been removed from that radiation cage; your powers are fully operational. It’s just that these restraints are comprised of a metal alloy from my home planet; it’s so strong, not even you can put a scratch on it.”
Kitty twisted and writhed, gritting her teeth, pulling as hard as she could until beads of sweat popped out of her forehead, but she got nowhere. Loathe though she was to admit it, Sytus was right.
She fixed him with a glare that radiated white-hot hatred. “Alright, egghead, why am I here? What exactly do you want from me, if not to kill me?”
“I’m glad you asked!” The warlord started to pace back and forth, his long cape trailing behind him. “You see, I happen to have found out exactly what it was that gave you your powers: a red meteor, correct?”
“Yeah, what of it?” She followed the villain with her eyes, her eyebrow raised.
“I thought so. That meteor is actually a power ruby, a very rare stone, quite legendary amongst space-faring races like my own, that grants those who come into contact with it immense powers—a property you have gotten to experience firsthand.”
“Wow, that’s very interesting,” said Kitty sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “Now I know where it came from. But what does that have to do with why I’m trussed up on your ship like some damsel in distress?”
At this, the alien stopped and turned to her, his grin wider and more sinister than ever. “Why, I want it, of course! With power like yours, coupled with my vastly superior intellect, defeating you and taking this pathetic planet for my own would be child’s play!”
For the first time since waking up, Kitty was genuinely worried. Sytus was right—if he got his sticky hands on that meteor, Earth was as good as his. “What makes you think I have it?” she asked. She did have it, of course; it was in her closet at home. She had discovered that her powers would slowly diminish if she didn’t “recharge” by soaking in its radiation every so often.
“Oh, come now, don’t try to bluff me,” scoffed Sytus. “I know how power rubies work. You need that meteorite to refuel your powers. You have it, and I want to know where it is.”
Kitty narrowed her eyes and stuck out her jaw. “Well, you can forget it! In case you haven’t noticed, I’m kind of invincible. Nothing you say or do will make me tell you where it is, so you might as well end your little game and let me go!”
Sytus laughed dryly. “Bold words, coming from someone in your position! As it so happens, there is a way I can get you to talk—invincibility or no invincibility.”
“Oh yeah? And what’s that?” Kitty smirked cockily, knowing that there was nothing in creation that Sytus could do to—
“Why, I could tickle you, of course.”
Never in human history has a cocky smile vanished more quickly than Kitty’s did.
“…What?” she said, not quite able to keep the disbelief out of her voice.
Sytus grinned. “Your feet, I believe, are very rather ticklish, are they not?”
They were, of course. Kitty had always been hopelessly, miserably ticklish on her feet. The rest of her body had been protected from ticklishness by her invulnerability, but for some reason, the soles of her feet still retained their sensitivity—her literal Achilles heel. And if there was one thing she couldn’t stand, it was having her feet tickled; even as a little girl, she hated having anyone so much as touch her feet, let alone tickle them.
“What’s the matter?” asked Sytus, cutting into Kitty’s stunned silence. “Nothing clever to say? Don’t tell me the great Kitty Krash has lost her famous razor wit?”
She stared at the villain, wide-eyed. “N-Now look,” she stuttered, “You’re wasting your time. I’m not t-ticklish, really…”
Sytus raised his eyebrows. “Really? Is that your best attempt at dissuading me?” Chuckling, the villain began to untie the laces on Kitty’s shoes.
Kitty started to panic. “N-No! Please, don’t tickle me!” she begged, her feet wriggling desperately, trying to stop Sytus from untying her shoes.
“Oho, so you are ticklish!” taunted the villain, slipping off her left shoe. “The rumors were true, then! Truth be told, I was just bluffing you; I really had no idea whether you were actually ticklish or not. But now I know exactly how to break you…”
“No! S-Stop!” Kitty could only look on helplessly as her right shoe was tugged from her foot; now only her white cotton socks lay between her feet and their impending torture. “Don’t you dare do this! I swear, if you touch my feet, I’ll….”
“You’ll what?” challenged Sytus. “You’re in no position to be issuing threats, my dear! Now, your choices are simple: either reveal the location of the meteorite now, or spend the next few hours laughing your pretty little head off…” With that, he grasped the tops of her socks and began to slowly peel them off.
Kitty clenched her toes, desperately trying to keep her socks on her feet, but her efforts were in vain. Soon, her soft, pale, and extremely ticklish bare feet lay vulnerable.
“Well, Miss Krash? What’s it going to be? Talk… or laugh?”
She bit her lip and looked away. She couldn’t tell him. She just couldn’t. With that meteorite, Sytus would be ruler of the Earth in a matter of days.
Mustering up her courage, she returned her gaze to Sytus’s cold black eyes. “Tickle me all you want, creep,” she spat, putting as much venom into her words as she could. “I’m not telling you anything.”
Sytus sighed. “I knew you’d say that. How boring. Ah well, you’ll talk sooner or later; I may as well have some fun in the meantime…”
He placed his fingers on the balls of Kitty’s feet, right where they met her toes. Even this tiny touch made her gasp. Smiling a smile of utmost evil, he slowly dragged his fingertips down her soles.
Kitty squeaked and clenched her lips together, trying hard not to laugh. “EEP!! Mmmmph!”
“Heh, how adorable!” chuckled the villain, gliding his fingers back up her smooth soles. “Come on, Kitty, let’s hear that laugh…”
“Nng!! N-no! MMMhmhmph!” She squeezed her eyes shut and turned away, her teeth gritted.
“Aw, come on, I know those giggles are bubbling up. You can’t resist forever…” The alien continued his slow, gentle assault, his fingers sliding up and down, up and down, just barely skimming over her soles.
“Gghh!! S-Stahap!! NNNGH!! No!” Her toes curled in a futile attempt to dampen the effects of Sytus’s maddening attack.
“You know… you want… to laaaaaaa-aaugh….”
Finally, she could resist no longer. The laughter burst forth from her lips like water breaking through a dam. “PFFFFFFAhahahahehehehehehehehahahahahaha!! Nohoho, ahahahahahaha!! Stahahahahap!!”
“There we are!” exclaimed Sytus, grinning triumphantly. “I knew you’d succumb eventually!” He sped up his attack, his fingers dancing lightly up and down the soles of Kitty’s feet.
“NAhahahahahahahahahahaha!! Stahahahahap, that tihihihickles!!”
“Do you want the tickling to stop, Kitty? Do you want me to stop tickling your feet?”
“Ahahahahahaha yehehehehes!! Ahahahahahaha stahahap!!” Kitty’s toes wiggled like things possessed.
“Then tell me, where is the meteorite?”
Torturous though this tickling was, Kitty knew she couldn’t give in. “Hehehehehahahahahahaha!! N-Nehever! Ahahahahahahahaha Ihi’ll never tehell you!! Ahahahahahahahaha!!”
Sytus shrugged. “Then I’ll never stop tickling you,” he said simply. He dug in with his nails a little, moving from lightly skittering to scratching her bare soles.
“NOOOoooooooahahahahahahahahaha!! Stahahap tickling mehehehehee!!” Kitty’s head whipped back and forth as she laughed. She hated feeling this helpless, hated the electric tickling sensations shooting from her feet to her brain. But she knew that the entire planet was depending on her to hold out, no matter how much she wanted this to end.
“Hmm, perhaps if I try a different tactic,” mused Sytus aloud. “Let’s see if these toes are ticklish…”
Before Kitty could even register what he had said, Sytus began to play with her wriggling toes, driving her laughter up an octave. “YAAAhahahahahahahaha!! Nohoho, not the tohohohohoes!! Ahahahahahaha plehehease, you have to stahahahap!!”
“On the contrary, my dear, I don’t have to do anything,” he said, his fingers wriggling under her toes. “You, on the other hand, have to tell me where the meteorite is, if you ever want me to stop tickling these adorable little toes of yours.”
“YAhahahahahahahaha!! F-Fohorget it, creep!! Ahahahahahahaha I’m not tehelling you ahahanything!”
“Fine then, have it your way.” The villain smiled; he almost seemed to be enjoying himself.
For a good twenty minutes, Sytus continued to tickle Kitty’s bare feet. His fingers spidered across her soles and wiggled against her toes, and Kitty could do nothing but sit there and laugh her head off.
Finally, Sytus decided to stop and let his captive breathe. “We can’t have you passing out, you know. Not yet…”
Kitty slumped forward, panting heavily. “Oh god… n-no more… don’t t-tickle me anymore…”
Sytus lifted her chin with one hand so she was looking him directly in the eye. “You know what you need to do to stop this torture, Kitty. If you tell me where the meteorite is, I’ll tickle you no more.”
For just a moment, Kitty was tempted. Just a few words and she could be free of this torment.
But she couldn’t sell out humanity. She could never live with herself, knowing that she had placed the Earth right into Sytus’s outstretched hands.
“I’ll… d-die first…” she spat, her gaze as hard as iron.
Sytus was growing visibly annoyed. “It seems your resolve is tougher to crack than I thought. For that, I commend you. But everyone has a breaking point—even you. And I will find it, one way or another.”
He stood up, wheeled around, and exited the room, leaving Kitty in her bondage. She had no idea what could be up her arch-enemy’s sleeve, but she knew it couldn’t be good.
She had no idea how long he was gone, but it felt like an eternity; her mind kept conjuring up horrific images of the things he could do to her sensitive soles. By the time he finally returned, carrying a cloth-covered tray, she was a bundle of nerves.
“Well, Kitty, I hope you enjoyed your little break, because you won’t be getting another one.” He smiled malevolently at her, his pointed teeth gleaming in a perfect row.
“Look, this isn’t going to work,” she said, trying once more to discourage him from tickling her further. “I haven’t caved yet, and I’m not going to, so just give it up already.”
“Ah, but you fail to realize something, oh enemy mine,” he replied. “I have been doing a little research, and I have discovered a few little toys that are sure to make you talk.”
Toys? Kitty didn’t like the sound of that. But whatever he had brought to torture her with, she knew she had to power through it. “Bring it on, egghead! You’re not gonna break me!”
“Oh, we’ll see about that…” he said, reaching under the cloth and pulling from under it a hard-bristled hairbrush. “From my research, I’ve deduced that this little tool is guaranteed to break the will of any unfortunate ticklish individual!”
Kitty snorted with amusement and relief. “A hairbrush? Really? Where exactly are you getting your information? Who ever heard of a hairbrush being used to tickle people?”
Of course, if you’re reading this, you probably know full well the devastating power held within the innocuous hairbrush. Poor Kitty never saw it coming.
“You’ll be eating those words in a minute,” chuckled Sytus, before firmly grasping Kitty’s big toes between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand.
“Hey, just what are you—YAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!” Kitty’s question was lost in her own hysterical laughter as her foe began to vigorously scrub up and down her bare soles with the brush. The hard plastic bristles raked the tender skin mercilessly, sending her into a whole new dimension of ticklish agony.
“Surprised? So was I, when I found out!” mused the villain, never ceasing in the brushing of Kitty’s poor feet. “Amazing how creative you humans can get when it comes to torturing each other!”
“GAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Plehehehehehease, make it STAHAHAHAHAP!!” Kitty thought for sure she was being driven out of her mind by the horrible ticklish blitzkrieg being inflicted on her soles. She couldn’t even wiggle her toes properly, owing to the firm grip Sytus had on them, so there was no relief even in that. All she could do was take her torture and pray that he stopped short of insanity.
Fortunately, even he was taken aback by the sheer tickling power of the brush; recognizing that his prey wouldn’t last long under its influence, he stopped after just a few minutes of tickling.
“Well now! Wasn’t that fun?” he cackled, grinning at Kitty over the tops of her toes. Kitty could only wheeze and glare at him as she greedily gulped down fresh breaths of air.
“Ready to talk, then? Or shall I be using our new friend a bit more?” He waggled the hairbrush threateningly, too close to her feet for comfort.
“Guh… N-no! Please… no… n-no more… of the… b-brush…” she begged. “I c-can’t… take it…”
“Well then, you had better tell me where that meteorite is, now hadn’t you?”
Kitty merely shook her head. Malicious though the brush had been, she knew she could take more of it, if it meant keeping the Earth out of Sytus’s reach.
Sytus twitched with anger; Kitty knew she was winding him up, and couldn’t help feeling a spark of satisfaction from doing so. “You know, on second thought, perhaps I should show you another tool I discovered that might work even better…”
Setting the hairbrush down, Sytus slipped his hand under the cloth again and pulled out an electric toothbrush. Kitty looked at it apprehensively; she had already made the mistake of underestimating the hairbrush, and she wasn’t going to make it again.
Sytus flipped the switch on the toothbrush. Its high-pitched buzzing soon filled the room, sending electric shocks down Kitty’s spine.
“Let’s see if you’re still unwilling to cooperate once we’ve finished with this little toy…” Grinning malevolently, Sytus lowered the spinning bristles to Kitty’s right heel and began to slowly move them up her sole.
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Ohohoho jehesus chrihihihist!!” Kitty screamed with hysterical laughter as the buzzing toothbrush scrubbed her tender soles. She thought for sure she was going to die laughing.
“My, but this one is effective!” remarked Sytus as he moved the toothbrush in circles around the bottoms of her feet. “If this doesn’t get you to talk, I don’t know what will!”
“AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! N-Nohot gonna hahahappen!! Ahahahahahahahaha!!” insisted Kitty; in reality, she didn’t know if she could stand much more, but she had to keep her tough-girl persona going.
“Hmm, not even if I do… this?” The villain suddenly stuck the toothbrush’s bristles between Kitty’s toes,
The ticklish heroine let loose with a banshee-like shriek before dissolving once more into panicked laughter; she couldn’t even work up the strength to say anything clever.
Finally, after another twenty minutes of torture, Sytus turned off the toothbrush and put it away, smirking cockily. “Now then, I believe you have something you’d like to say to me?”
Kitty groaned. She knew she was going to regret this, but she just had to say it. She just had to. She motioned with her head for him to come closer.
Eagerly, Sytus leaned in close to her, expecting his moment of victory. “Yeeees?”
Mentally bracing herself for the consequences, she whispered in his ear…
“K… K-Kiss… my… ass…”
Sytus’s smile vanished, to be replaced by an irritable scowl. He backed away from Kitty’s head, a growl of frustration sounding in his throat. “You know, you’re really starting to get on my nerves,” he said, before suddenly grabbing her toes again, picking up the hairbrush, and viciously raking the brush across her taut soles.
Kitty threw her head back and let loose with an almighty howl. “NYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! OHOHOHO GAHAHAHAHAHAD NOHOHOHOHOHO!!” She bucked and thrashed as much as her heavy restraints would allow her to, tears streaming down her red face.
Sytus continued his vengeful attack for several minutes, clearly relishing the suffering he was inflicting on his enemy. It wasn’t until she started to cough and hack between peals of laughter that he finally, reluctantly, put down the brush.
Kitty went limp and gasped for breath, sobbing quietly, while Sytus took some steadying breaths of his own.
“Whew! Mustn’t lose my temper…” he said to himself through gritted teeth. “Can’t have my captive dying of laughter before she tells me where the meteorite is, now can I?”
Hero and villain sat in silence for a few minutes, neither one of them able or willing to say anything. Finally, Sytus inhaled deeply and forced a smile onto his face.
“Now then! Why don’t you save yourself more torture by telling me where that meteorite is now?”
Kitty glared at him. “S-Screw you! I’m not t-telling you crap!”
Sytus sighed. A vein bulged in his temple. “Your resistance is strong, Miss Krash, I’ll give you that. But you’re going to have to break eventually, even if it takes all day…”
He picked up the hairbrush again, and Kitty’s stomach dropped. But he didn’t use it on her. Instead, he placed it back on the tray, under the cloth… and pulled out instead…”
“N-NO!” she gasped. “Please! N-Not that! Anything but that!” Her feet tried hopelessly to slip through the stocks, she pressed herself into the back of the chair in a vain attempt to phase through it, anything to get away from the implement of inhumane torture the fiend now held in his fingers.
What was this weapon, you ask? What torturous instrument, plucked straight from the depths of hell, was this diabolical madman about to use on our hapless heroine?
A feather. A stiff, white feather.
“Ohoho, what’s this?” said Sytus, his eyebrows raised in surprise. His jauntiness had returned as Kitty’s courage had, for the first time, fled. “You mean to tell me that the unbreakable Kitty Krash is afraid of a little feather?”
Kitty was not afraid of the feather. She was terrified of it. It may seem silly to you and me, that a feather should be her greatest ticklish fear, when she had just endured the ravages of a hairbrush and electric toothbrush. But as it turns out, for the tough, unfailingly badass Kitty Krash, the lightest touches are the worst, and what touch is lighter than that of a feather?
“Please! N-Not the feather! D-Don’t tickle me with that!”
“Alright, Kitty, I won’t tickle you with the feather… but you know what you have to do for me in return…”
She whimpered, eying the feather as Sytus twirled it between his thumb and forefinger. Her toes quivered at the thought of the feather on them, and she felt like crying. But she knew, as she had been reminding herself throughout her torture, that she had to be strong. She couldn’t let the meteor fall into Sytus’s hands—or humanity was screwed.
She took a deep breath and looked him straight in the eye. “I’ll talk when Hell freezes over, you demented, egotistical freak!”
Sytus’s face clouded with rage, and he unleashed a few swear words from his own language. “D’Agrok!Then prepare to die laughing, you stubborn little g’at!”
He lowered the tip of the feather and began to ever-so-gently stroke it up and down Kitty’s defenseless soles.
Faced with her most dreaded tickle tool, the poor heroine leaned back and screamed at the top of her lungs before dissolving into helpless laughter. “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! NOHOHO, GAHAHAHAHAD IT TIHIHIHIHIHICKLES!!”
The feather swirled across the bottoms of her feet, driving the poor girl completely insane with laughter. Its gentle kiss wasn’t nearly as rough as the brush’s unrelenting scrubbing had been, but it electrified every nerve it touched with ticklish sensation, and Kitty couldn’t stand it one bit.
Then her laughter went silent as the feather found her toes. Nothing came out of her mouth but the occasional gasp for breath as her wiggling digits were subjected to the plume’s torture. The wispy tip swirled around the pad of each toe, and then when she felt it begin to saw back and forth between her toes, she thought for sure she was going to crawl out of her skin.
When the feather made its way back down to her soles, Kitty managed to muster just enough breath to form two coherent words: “NAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! I’LL TAHAHAHAHAHAHALK!!”
Sytus could hardly believe his pointy ears. His nemesis, the great Kitty Krash, had finally been broken. He quickly dropped the feather, not wanting his quarry to pass out before she had a chance to talk, and leaned in close to her, hardly daring to hope.
“Well?? Go on, where is it?”
Kitty was sobbing profusely, both from her torture, and from grief. She hadn’t been strong enough. She had caved. And now, because of her, Sytus would win.
He began to grow impatient as she tried to catch her breath and quickly ran the feather up her left sole once, quickly, forcing an earsplitting shriek out of her. “Well, get on with it! Tell me where it is, or I’ll use the feather some more!”
“NO! Don’t! Please… d-don’t tickle me… anymore… I c… I can’t take anymore… It’s in my apartment… m-my closet…brown buh-box…”
Sytus cackled triumphantly. “YES! At last! The Earth will be mine!” He swiftly turned around and dashed out of the room, his cape flying behind him.
A moment later he poked his head back in, smiling sheepishly. “Ehm, one more thing, if I may ask… where exactly is your apartment?”
Five minutes later, the ship was hovering in the air above Kitty’s apartment complex. Kitty could only wait in her restraints while Sytus went in, grabbed the meteor, and returned. She still couldn’t believe she had let Sytus win. She could never face humanity again—not that she would have to, because it was very likely that Sytus would want to kill her as soon as he had his rock.
After a short while, he burst back into the room, beaming as he held aloft the glowing red meteorite. “At last! The power of my enemy shall be mine! And it’s all thanks to you, Kitty Krash! Thank you ever so much for your assistance!”
As the villain laughed and gloated, Kitty’s grief turned to fury. She wanted with all her heart to leap from her seat and claw his black eyes out with her bare hands. She could feel her anger surging through her veins…
…Or was it anger? She felt stronger, certainly, more energized. But how? She was still recovering from her horrific tickle torture, how could she—
Then it dawned on her. The meteorite. Now that she was in close proximity to it, she could feel her body soaking in its radiation, filling her to the brim with power. As Sytus stood there, marveling at his prize, she began once more to strain against her bindings.
Sytus noticed, and couldn’t suppress an amused chuckle. “Really? Do you think anything’s changed? Those restraints are still indestructible! There’s no way you’re getting out!”
She ignored his jibes and continued to struggle. She wriggled and squirmed, praying for just an inch, just a little give. She strained until her muscles hurt, until her face was bright red from exertion.
Sytus sighed dramatically. Tucking the meteorite under one arm, he strode lazily towards Kitty and leaned down. “Give it up, sweetheart! It’s over! I’ve won, and you’ve lost!” To humiliate and torture his foe, he used his free hand to lightly tickle her soles, forcing her to start giggling all over again.
“Nohohohoho!! Hehehahahaha!! No mohohohohohohore!!”
The meteorite was only inches away from her. She felt its power flow through her like an electric current.
“There’s no sense in struggling any longer! Your futile efforts will only hasten your impending demise.” His fingers found her toes and scratched her madly wriggling pads.
“GAAhahahahaha!! STAHAHAHAP!! Ahahahahahehehehahahaha!”
The cylinders holding her arms began to creak under the stress of her struggles. She felt one of them budge just the tiniest bit.
“Soon, I’ll be the sovereign ruler of this wretched little planet, and there’s nothing you can do about it!” Releasing a victorious laugh, he pressed his nails into her soles and solely raked them down.
With a roar of effort, the cylinders burst open, and her hands whipped forward and seized Sytus by the throat. The meteorite fell from the villain’s shocked hands and landed on the metal floor with a loud clunk.
“Oh, we’ll see about that!” she hissed through gritted teeth.
Sytus’s eyes were bugged out as far as they could go. “But! What! How!” he spluttered, forcing his words past Kitty’s choking fingers. “That’s impossible!!”
Snarling, Kitty threw the villain across the room. His head hit the far wall with a reverberating clang and his unconscious form slid to the floor.
Kitty leaned forward and tore through the metal stocks holding her legs. “There. Now there’s just one thing left to do…”
She stood up, wobbling unsteadily and wiggling her bare toes against the cold metal floor as she tried to get blood back into her legs. Collecting her shoes, socks, and meteorite, she cast one last disgusted glance at the crumpled heap of villain, then crouched low and burst through the ceiling of the ship.
Once outside, she set her things down on the roof of the building, then flew back towards the ship. She grabbed one of its wings and, with a grunt of effort, spun it around and around and finally released, sending it hurtling through the sky. She had no idea where it would land, and she didn’t much care. All she knew was that she was glad that her ordeal was over.
Sighing with relief, she settled back down onto the roof and massaged her still-tingling feet. She wondered briefly if she ought to be worried about the knowledge Sytus had gained from her.
“Nah,” she reassured herself, “Judging by the size of that bump on his noggin, he won’t even remember his own name…”
Smirking with satisfaction, Kitty Krash stood up, grabbed her stuff, and headed down to her apartment, a hot bath and a long nap on her mind.
Somewhere in the countryside surrounding the city, Sytus groaned and stirred. He raised himself up off the floor of his ship and looked around blearily.
His ship was a wreck, no more than a mangled and twisted mass of smoking wreckage strewn across the hot ground.
“D’agrok…” he swore, rubbing the bump on his head. “What the hell happened? God, this is going to take weeks to repair!”
Wincing in pain, he got to his feet and surveyed the damage. “This has Kitty Krash written all over it, I just know it…”
Something was nagging at the back of his mind, he just didn’t know what. He knew it had something to do with Kitty, and maybe something about power rubies, but that was all.
He swore again and started to limp away in search of his tools, when something white in the corner of the room caught his eye. Curious, he walked over to it and shifted a piece of debris off of it, revealing the object to be a white feather.
Something clicked in his head, and slowly, Sytus began to smile. One thing he remembered, one tiny, yet incredibly crucial detail:
“Kitty Krash has ticklish feet…”
The End
