Aiding and Abetting Written By: Umbral Eclipse It was dark, totally black. Even after groggily opening his eyes it was still dark. Aid couldn’t remember much, but he did remember something significant happening. The events slowly came to him as he stirred himself into alertness…. It was a call like any other, someone yelped for help, and fortunately, Aid was the perfect pup to take care of it! An accident that was mostly resolved, but some people still needed some medical assistance. Aid remembers sliding down from the tower and into his ambulance, driving to the site of the incident as fast as he could. He then remembers tending to everyone, bandaging up some injuries and making a call to Ryder that the situation was resolved….but on the drive back? Poof! Everything got blurry, and purple, and was someone giggling? Aid wanted to rub his eyes or stretch his legs but….he couldn’t? He felt very stuck, sitting in something but the darkness made it hard to see. A lamp light slowly rose in brightness, revealing more of his surroundings, as well as what he was stuck in. He was in some sort of warehouse, and in a more secluded corner of it as well, considering the shelves of boxes on each side of him. He was tied to a padded chair, with his arms tied to the armrests, and his ankles stuck in a pair of stocks. He struggled again and again, trying to find some slack in his bondage. Not to mention, where was his vehicle if he wasn’t on it?! This was bad. If only he could get free and touch his tag he could- “Hello there~!” A voice is suddenly close, and on his right. The Golden pup lets out a yelp of surprise, “What wait, wait what!?” The voice chuckled, its source stepping into his field of vision. She was a tall cat lady, with an armored, yet slim and black suit like she was a thief. She resembled the Kitten Catastrophe Crew but….older, and much more mischievous with that constant smile and yellow eyes that almost seemed to glow under the room’s lamplight. “Aid was it? You’re the cutest little pup I’ve seen yet, and I need you to help me~.” She cooed, approaching her captive with that consistently cheeky smile. “U-Um….who are you? And if you wanted help….why did you capture me and...y-you know, tie me up?” The pup asked, making the stocks jiggle in place to enhance his point. She starts to pace around him, “I can’t give you my name, but I can tell you that I needed you….away from your little friends to make this easier. To get to the point, I want to know a particular thing about your tower, the ‘Lookout’ you call it?” She continues, giving him glances every so often to read his expression. “I-I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.” Aid responded, shaking his head. “That’s for pups only!” “Is that so~? Well, I suppose I’ll have to convince you to talk in….other ways.” She stops in-front of his stocks, reaching a hand out and unstrapping his shoes, gently pulling them off with a few firm tugs. “H-Hey! Those are mine!” Aid barks, trying to yank away his feet to prevent his shoes from being taken, but it only made it easier for the shoes to slide right off. They drop to the floor with a loud “THUMP!” leaving only his white socks with red colored toes and heels. “These are just the cutest. We’ll start with just your socks~!” “H-Huh? What do you-EEP!” He jumped in his bondage, a lone claw tracing around the line that separated red from white under his toes. His reaction was almost instant. “Mmppfft~! H-Hehehehey! C-Cut it out! That tickles! Ehehehehe~!” He said in a peal of adorable giggles. “I know, that’s why I’m doing it~!” The cat lady responds with a sweet smile, continuing with just the claw traces for now. Aid giggled and guffawed for the better part of a minute, bouncing around the ideas of why this strange cat lady started randomly tickling him as a way to “convince'' him. It wasn’t until he felt her fingers sneak past his ankles and pull the hem of his socks forward that he started connecting the dots. As the light teases continue and his socks slide ever upward off his feet, he finally responds. “W-Wait! Y-You’re not gohohonna-?!” His socks peel right off, being dropped to the ground along with his sneakers. Revealing two adorable paws of golden color, and perky pink pads that looked extremely tempting to squeeze. The fur was thinner around his paws than most of his coat, making it quite easy for any deviously minded individual to…. “Oh yes, I’m going to tickle those cute paws until you tell me what I want to know~.” She grins evilly, baring all her claws and wiggling her fingers in that classic “I’m gonna tickle you~!” sort of way. “W-Wait….n-not my paws! P-Please not my p-p-paws! Not there!” He whimpered, curling his bare toes tightly as the wiggling fingers got closer. “Well, if you’re not willing to talk, I’ll just have to resort to this!” She says with a sneer, quickly skittering her claws on tender puppy paws. “Tickle tickle tickle~!” He didn’t even put up much of a fight, puffed cheeks, spreading grin, and instant burst of giggles that he could no longer contain. “BYEAH-HEHEHEHEHE~! STAWHP! IT THI-HI-HICKLES!” “Well that’s the idea~!” The cat grinned at the cackling pup, her claws rapidly skittering across his tender paws. He couldn’t stop laughing, squirming in his chair frantically and trying to hide one paw behind the other, but they were too far apart to work. Her tickling was random and chaotic, never letting him get used to where she was focusing on for more than a minute before torturing a new spot on his puppy paws. The worst was when she focused on his pads, oh his poor pads! Squeezing or digging into them was more than enough to get him to send him into hysterics, along with twice as much struggling and pleading. The pup could barely talk past his mad laughter, only able to clutch his fists tight as he hoped for it to be over soon. Tears slowly collect around his tightly closed eyes, trying his hardest to resist the cruel tickles, only for it all to stop suddenly. He takes some heavy breathes, feeling as though he’s been tickled for hours, but it’s only been a few minutes. His toes stay tightly scrunched before slowly easing up during his break, regaining his lost stamina. “Do you feel like talking now, sweetie?” The mischievous cat asked with a grin. The pup shook his head defiantly and puffed his cheeks, not saying a word to the cat lady. He was sent into giggles moments after his adorable resistance attempt, claws quickly diving and scratching in-between his wiggling toes. “I suppose a few more minutes of torment should get you into a more agreeable mood~.” Aid hated being tickled too much, and this was one of those moments that was definitely too much. The claws danced and kneaded around his struggling paws, it only encouraged his tormentor to tickle in certain spots more to get cute giggle fits or loud cackles out of the poor pup and weaken his resistance to questioning. It was more like she was playing with his paws than actually torturing them, teasing them with little scritches and pokes if they move one way, then countering when they move the other, this little game always ended with her claws trapping his paws and making it much harder for him to bat away fingers that would sink into his pads or burrow in-between his toes. Minutes and minutes of non-stop tickling pass, before it suddenly stops, though it takes a moment for Aid to stop giggling, and his paws to stop wiggling. Aid huffed and puffed, laying back in the padded chair as he blinked some tears from his eyes. He whimpered, looking down at the devious cat that still wore a cheshire grin. “Now will you tell me about your tower~? Pleaaaaase?” She asked politely, batting her eyes in an innocent way. “N-Nnh….” Aid stammered for a moment, if he refused, that meant more tickling, but….he couldn’t tell her about the lookout! That was too risky, and he wasn’t going to give the bad guy whatever she wanted, even if she did ask nicely! “N-No means no! I can’t tell you!” “I see! You’re a resilient pup, buuuut….” She reaches down under her seat, bringing up and setting on her lap a duffel bag. She pulls out a copper colored bottle labeled “Baby Oil” from her duffle bag, flicking the cap cover open. “....I suppose it’s time I use this method, yes? This makes even the bravest pups talk~.” “W-W-What’s that for?” Aid asks, already deducing it’s for his feet and tightly scrunching his toes. She says nothing in response to his nervous query, sitting back down on her chair and squirting a sizable amount of oil into her hands, gently rubbing them together and starts to lather the tender paws in oil with firm, yet gentle rubs. Feeling her hands delicately knead the warm baby oil into his paws was quite an experience for Aid. On one hand, the warmness of the oil and the tender pressure of his captor’s hands working his paws over was very relaxing… It was like he was getting an executive spa treatment. On the other hand, the pup couldn’t stop grinning and squirming from the firm presses or strokes, even the squeezing of his pads made him belt out some adorable giggles he just couldn’t hold back, hissing through the gaps of his teeth. It was utterly embarrassing that even this was enough to give him the giggles. “Are all pups as ticklish as you~? If so, I might need to catch more of them.” His captor taunts, gently squeezing his pads with the oil again. “P-PLE-HEASE DO-HO-HO-HON’T! That’s A-AH-HAHAHA-A-AWFUL! Hehehehehe~!” The pup giggled, his cheeks as red as his red and white uniform. “You seem to like the idea, you just can’t stop giggling!” She grins, finally letting go of the squirming paws. The paws almost shine in every direction you look at them, the oil was equally spread all over, ready for the next phase of torture. “Now then, sweetie. Feel like telling me about that fancy tower’s secrets now?” The cat asks, rummaging through her bag for the next tool. “N-No! Never! I’m not gonna tell you!!” “Very well, let’s try some more encouragement, mm?” The cat purrs, taking out an electric toothbrush and flicking it on. Aid gulps in terror, tightly curling his oiled paws in some form of defense. Aid screwed his eyes shut, thinking he can brace himself and build resistance to whatever ticklish sensation that was about to besiege his paws. He hoped that he could outlast the interrogation and hopefully, be able to contact his friends to save him. He was sorely mistaken. Upon contact, Aid instantly squealed, pulling and squirming hard in his restraints as howls of cackling left his tiny muzzle. It tickled far worse than he could have predicted. The oil tenderizes and slicks up his paws enough to let the toothbrush effortlessly glide around his scrunched soles and ever-tender pads. The brush switched which paw it was tickling frequently, scrubbing the pad of the left for a little bit, before darting under the right’s toes with quicker scrubs. No matter how much he paddled his feet around or squeezed his toes down, nothing stopped it from being so unbelievably ticklish. The scrubbing continued around the arches and down to the heel, she was careful not to wear him out too much with incessant torture, lifting the toothbrush off to let him breath for a few moments, before setting it right back on his paws again for another bout of torment. It was a cycle, minutes of absolutely devious torment, break, and then back to torture. It only took a few repeats of the cycle for the poor golden retriever to finally shatter under the evil brush, begging in earnest to make it stop. “A-AAAH! AHAHAHA~! PWEEE-HE-HE-HEASE STAWP! ICAN’TTAKEEHEHEHEHET~! AAAHAHAHAHAHA!” The toothbrush quickly scratched away on his foot pad again. “Ah-ah-ah~. No begging, only talking.” His tormentor cooed. “OKAYOKAY- I’LL TAHAHAHAAALK!” The pup blurted out, the tickling stopping the moment he gave in. “Good boy, now then…. I heard you pups have a very interesting item. A meteor I hear?” She purrs, tip-tapping her claws on the tops of his paws. “You wouldn’t happen to know where that meteor is kept, now would you?” “U-Urm….I-I...EEK!” He feels a claw slowly trace down the side of his foot. “A-Ah! B-B-Bottom level! B-But it’s not giving powers anymore! It’s just a big ol’rock!” The Golden Retriever confessed. “Is it now? That’s unfortunate….still, I think I might want it for myself, for my ‘exploits’.” She purred, fidding with something under her wrist and pointing the bottom of her hand at Aid. “Thank you darling, night night.” A spray of purple mist floods Aid’s nose, making him sneeze and cough for a little bit, before a sudden sense of drowsiness starts to overtake his mind. The room gets blurry, the light becoming faint, and his body feeling very loose and light.... “A-Aaah….oooh...n-nighty night…” Aid murmbled, his eyelids growing very heavy, the last thing he heard was a taunting giggle before he fell asleep right then and there, limping back into his chair. Later…. The sound of chirping seagulls and smell of the sea hit his senses first, as well as the missing feeling of tightness around his ankles and wrists. His eyes groggily opened, a blurry mix of blue, green and white met his vision, slowly clearing up the more he blinked. Aid looked around to find that he was under a tree’s shade, he was out of that warehouse and back in Adventure bay, albeit a random location. He slowly sat up, groaning as he took in his new surroundings. The cool breeze around his paws made him realize he was still barefoot, with no sign of his shoes or socks anywhere in sight! That mean cat lady! She kept them! Fortunately, his pup pack was still around, resting on the side of the tree. A quick search and some test code phrases confirmed that all his stuff was thankfully still there….but there was still an even bigger problem! That cat lady knew about the lookout, and the team could probably be in a lot of trouble if he didn’t get going now! He stood up and started to transmit his pup tag, but before he could get a single word out, he let out a small “Yeeep~!” He had already forgotten several things at the moment; the oil further sensitizing already sensitive paws, the tickling that tenderized them, and the fact that his vehicle was nowhere near him and somewhere in Adventure Bay….it meant he was going to have to walk through ticklish grass just to get back to the Lookout! Oh boy…. “Aid? Is that you? Come in Aid!” A familiar voice buzzed through his tag, it was Ryder! “M-Mister Ryder Sir! You’re-hehe-Not going to be-hehe-lieve what just happened to me!” Aid giggled out, trying not to sound silly as he tried to skip around the grass to not tickle himself. “I’m just glad you’re safe! You’ve been gone for a while! I’ll have Skye confirm your location and you can debrief at the Lookout!” “R-Ro-hoger!” Aid smiles, “Thank you!” “You’re really giggly, Aid. Is everything okay?” “E-Everything’s fine! I’ll explain when I get there!” Aid assures, despite his flustered tone. This was going to be a very, very embarrassing report. But hopefully, they’ll be able to stop the cat thief before she gets the chance to strike. For now, his newest priority was skipping around ticklish grass and finding a good position for Skye to pick him up, someplace where he wouldn’t be tickled silly by just standing there. He couldn’t wait to get in a pair of spare shoes and fresh socks after this!