Despite everything that had happened, despite the loss he had suffered, Neflite was smiling. Yes, it just might work. He might win after all. And now, he would apply his knowledge to the battle. No more sitting on his hands. The answer to everything, he hoped, was standing in front of him.

          “Yes, Master. I have heard of your great victories, and I am honored to serve you.” Felin had just been assigned to his S&T department at the Tickling Dungeon. Felin was one of a new breed of Negaverse denizens. She had read the new ‘Human Tickling’ study he had compiled and had reputedly started to devise her own theories.

          Felin looked like a humanoid cat walking upright. She was covered in white fur splotched with black, and had facial features like a cat’s. She moved with a fluid grace. To put it plainly, Felin loved to tickle. She lived for it and thrived on it. Furthermore, she was built for it. Her tail could split itself many times and was stronger than steel shackles. Her lithe fingers were excellent for probing ticklish crevices. Perhaps her most effective weapon was the fur that covered her. On contact, it spread oil similar to poison ivy, except for the obvious difference was that it tickled instead of itched. Neflite had heard watching one of her performances was hypnotizing. He wanted to see for himself.

          That was the reason a human girl was suspended by her wrists from a chain.

          “Okay. Felin, I’ve heard good things about you. Show me what you can do.” With a grin she sauntered over to the girl. The girl was fresh victim, not knowing what was coming. Thus, she whimpered and flinched when Felin came over. Felin placed a finger under her chin and raised her head. It looked like she whispered something. The girl’s eyes bulged in fear. With a sly grin, Felin released her and walked once around her, slowly. Felin’s eyes took in every inch of her body.

          Felin’s tail rose and wrapped itself around the girl’s legs, tying them together. She laughed and twisted, trying to get free. She nodded, once, then knelt slightly and licked the girl’s navel. She ran her tongue in circles and lightly touched on the skin. The laughter rose higher. Felin unwrapped her tail and stopped licking. She managed to curl herself around the girl, so that her head was next to the girl’s while her legs were on the other side. She spoke again, and her tail waggled slowly. Felin’s grin contrasted with the girl’s look of fear. She and the girl followed the tail’s movement to her underarms, halfway to which it split in two, one half each going for a separate armpit. She tried to look away, but Felin gently forced her head back. The girl tried to hold her giggles, but the tickling was too much. She began to laugh again. Felin meanwhile sneaked her hands down to the girl’s ribs and began to play them like piano keys. Felin’s expression was one of unrestricted glee.

          Felin unwrapped herself and moved her tails.  Finally she contracted it into one tail again, then ran it under the girl’s arms and back over her shoulder, then spliced it somehow so that it formed a continuous loop, which then began to spin. Neflite only thought he had seen the ultimate in tickling before. This drove the girl absolutely wild, and she pleaded desperately for mercy. Felin ignored her for about five minutes, then took the girl’s head in her hands, and, tail still whirling, spoke to her for the final time. She nodded so fast that it was a wonder her head stayed on. Felin walked over to Neflite.

          “She is broken. It was an enjoyable experience. I would like to work with her again,” Felin purred. Neflite only nodded in openmouthed shock. It seemed that Felin knew the psychological tools tickling gave her. If the girl was broken just like that… well, that was a consideration for another day. It was probably just Felin trying to make herself look good on the first day.

          “Well…” Neflite pulled himself together. “Do you have any objection to working research?”

          “Oh, not at all,” Felin laughed softly. “In fact, it is my dream to have a facility where human girls scream and plead for my mercy, and for them to know I am responsible for their ticklish torment. Yes, it is enjoyable to do the job by oneself every so often, but I can affect more people in the research department.”

          “That is the right attitude. You can begin working at once.” Neflite shook his head in amazement. What a find!

          “She said she would come. She never said she’d be on time.” Raye had still not reconciled herself to the fact that Serena was never on time. Now, twenty minutes after she was supposed to be here, they were still waiting.

          “Honestly, Raye, did you expect anything different?” asked Mina, exasperated.

          “Not really,” admitted Raye. “But I still wish she would get her act together.”

          Serena actually had gotten her act together over the past few days. She vowed to no longer cower or refuse to come to meetings. She was returning to her old self, including the chronic tardiness for everything.

          “All right,” Serena huffed through the door. “I’m here.” She slung her backpack in the next room with all the rest.

          “Late again, Meatball Head,” Raye said. “I think we should re-institute the lateness penalty.”

          “I-!”

          “Cut it out. Let’s get started,” Luna broke in. “In the days following Serena’s rather stupid but effective assault on the Negaverse, the disappearances of girls had dropped to nil. It seems that she did some major damage.”

          “Luna, her head is swelling like a balloon.” Lita was looking at the expression Serena was wearing. “Just move on to the important part.”

          “Well, anyway, just yesterday the disappearances started up again. The Negaverse is back on its feet and they will be gunning for you. Serena, don’t do anything like that again. You don’t realize how dangerous it is. You were very lucky,” Luna concluded.

          “The next thing to do is renew the endurance sessions.” A chorus of groans sounded. “Be quiet. This is for your own good. I realized that I stopped enforcing them, but that was when we thought the Negaverse was gone for good. Now, then, as I recall it was Amy’s turn. Amy, if you will please oblige.”

          “I have a change of clothes.” Amy took a plastic bag and went into the next room. Luna turned to the rest of them.

          “Remember, this is supposed to condition you against tickling. Don’t hold back; it might make a difference when crunch time rolls around. So are you ready?”

          “Uh-huh!” Serena was ready to go.

          “Heh heh heh.” Mina flexed her fingers and smiled devilishly.

          “Giving mercy is no fun at all.” Lita held a feather like a dagger.

          “I’ll just pretend that it’s Serena,” said Raye with a grin.

          “Hey!” Serena stuck out her tongue. Mina and Lita laughed.

          Amy returned. “Okay, I’m all set.” She looked very shy in her clothes; a tight pink sleeveless shirt and small white shorts.

          “Right, you know the drill. Get set up,” Luna commanded. Soon Amy was on the bed ready for tickling.

          “Gee, this doesn’t seem so bad,” Amy said, wiggling her toes. “I mean, how bad could it possibly be?”

          “Yeah, have you ever heard of the river de-Nile?” quipped Mina.

          “I- hey! Not yet!” giggled Amy. Serena was tracing circles on her stomach.

          “Oh yes yet.” Serena teased and dug in.

          “Hahahahahaha stop! Not yet. Hey ahahahahahahaha no!” Amy giggled some more.

          “Oh what the heck. Just go now,” said Luna.

          The words had barely left her mouth when the Scouts descended upon Amy. Lita and Raye worked on her petite feet. Amy was very ticklish there. On impulse Raye seized a hairbrush and stroked Amy’s sole.

          “Hey! Ahahahahaahaha! That’s ch-ch-cheating! Ahahahahaha eeehaahahah! No fair!”

          “Nobody ever said this was fair.” Raye grinned and continued her assault.

          “So does it tickle more here?” Lita asked, tickling Amy’s bare stomach. “Or does it tickle more here?” Lita tickled with her other hand through Amy’s shirt.

          “I think it tickles more here.” With an evil grin Serena moved up to her armpits.

          “WAH HAHAHAHAHAHAHA NOT THERE! AHA AHAHA EEHAHAHA EEE HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OH PLEASE NOT THAAAAAT! PLEHEHEHEHEHEHEZE! OH MY GOD THIS TICKLES! STAHAHAHAHAHP!” Amy was realizing just how ticklish she was. She had always thought herself to be not that ticklish but recent events had proved her very wrong.

          “Coochy coochy coo!” Mina teased with her feather. “My, what nice feet you have! All the more ticklish it makes you!” Mina was laughing herself.

          “Hey Amy! Tell me if this tickles!” Raye rolled the brush under her toes, bringing a fresh explosion of laughter. “What? I can’t hear what you said! I’ll just do it again, okay?”

          Intermittently teasing and tickling Amy, they passed the requisite half an hour.

          “Oh my!” Amy said, still laughing on the bed. “I didn’t realize just how merciless you guys were! I guess next time I will have to be so merciless!” Everyone chuckled.

          “Raye, come and pick the next name out of the bowl.” Luna pushed the bowl of names to Raye.

          Here was a golden opportunity for Raye. She could use her fortune-telling powers to pick Serena’s name out of the bowl! She could hardly keep from giggling as she reached into the bowl. Concentrating, she felt the three pieces of paper. Not that one… not that one… there! That should be Serena’s. She plucked it and tossed it to Luna.

          “Ha ha ha!” laughed Raye. “You’re in for it, Serena!”

          “What?” Serena asked, uncertain.

          “I agree with Serena,” said Luna. “Next up is Mina.” The look on Raye’s face was priceless. Serena broke out laughing.

          “So, how did it go?”

          “Easily, Master.” Jelex grinned. “They’ll never see it coming.”

          “Well, Felin, time to see if your gadgets work,” said Neflite. Felin had come up with some interesting ideas in her first few days. Both were meant to tickle the Scouts without direct involvement. These were the Tickling Backpack and the Feather Shoes, inserted into the Scouts’ stuff during their meeting.

          “The remote energy receiver is operational,” said Felin. “Aven is monitoring it now. The backpack should activate soon.”

          “Good. What else do you have?” asked Neflite.

          “Follow us.” Felin and Jelex turned and led Neflite into the Tickling Dungeon. Currently there were eight girls in session and five resting. Jelex broke off to take one to a stock station for manual tickling. Felin gave Neflite the tour of the recent developments.

          “Aven has finished the final model Torture Table. It will be used on the next ready victim. Neva’s last invention is also finished. It’s over there by the X-frame on the wall. Some of the new stuff is undergoing testing.” Felin moved over to the first item. A woman, a hole torn in the shirt around her waist, was laughing under the assault of six robot hands with feathers. Her wrists were bound to the ceiling with rope. Nearby a tickle imp monitored a control console.

          “This one is pretty basic. Some girls give off more energy in short, intense sessions while long, protracted sessions work better otherwise. We needed some more long-session equipment. A lot of our equipment is either high-intensity or inflexible in duration and/or intensity.”

          “This one poses an odd problem,” said Felin as they moved over to a tank full of red jelly. “Since Jelex’s jelly is used for tickling, I wondered how complete immersion would work. Jelex gave the jelly to us. When we tried it out, we hooked the girl up to a breathing apparatus and submerged her. She gave off a lot of energy, yes, but she was also completely broken in spirit. When she got out, we didn’t even have to tell her anything. She just walked to her room and locked herself in.”

          “How is that a problem?” Neflite asked.

          Felin grinned. “Because having a girl that just sits there like a pillow is boring. I think we should save this for the Sailor Scouts, because they’re the only ones we need to keep. Besides, we have to refill the tank after each session, and it really wears Jelex out, like giving blood.”

          “All right. What else do you have?”

          Felin picked up a black full-body suit. “This is an interesting one. We were trying to make an outfit that tickled the person wearing it. What we got was something else. Here, put your finger on it.” Felin laid the suit on top of a stack of papers sitting on a table. Mystified, Neflite touched it. Frowning, he held his finger there.

          “That’s odd. I…I can feel the ink on the paper.”

          “Right. This suit removes all barriers to touch, and it also amplifies the tickling felt by the wearer, increasing the effectiveness of any torture. However, it’s time-consuming to make, so we only have one right now.”

          “Good job. What other portable stuff do you have?”

          Felin led Neflite into the development lab. Many off-duty tickle imps were working on the new devices or developing new ideas. Their love of tickling made them productive workers. She picked up a pinch of blue powder on a nearby table. “This is meant to cause tickling. Unfortunately-“she blew the powder at Neflite.

          “What? Hey! A-achoo!” Neflite sneezed. Felin smiled.

          “Right now it causes sneezing. It still needs some work.” Next to the pile of powder two of the three-inch tall tickle imps were chatting animatedly. Neflite looked at them quizzically.

          “What are they doing here? I thought they’d all be outside or working.”

          Seeing Felin, the two imps sprang to their feet and asked in fairylike voices, “Do we have a job? Do we?”

          “Soon. Tomorrow,” Felin assured them. She turned to Neflite. “Yes, they are tickle imps, but Aven modified them. They can stay out of the dungeon for an extended period of time. These two will be going after Sailor Moon tomorrow on a test run.”

          “I see. How will you be able to find her?” Neflite asked. Felin shrugged noncommittally Neflite dismissed the concern, placing his faith in Felin’s ability. “So with enough of these, they can just fly around and gather energy for us?” He noticed a dummy wearing a Scout uniform a little ways away.

          “They practice flying into humans’ clothing, since it’s improbable that they can remove it themselves,” Felin explained. “Like Jelex, they can see how ticklish a human is, but they can do it with greater precision. Since they’re small, they can pinpoint and attack the specific vulnerabilities, much like the SPAT. Finally,” Felin said, moving over to a vat, “we have what is generally thought to be the best innovation yet.” She stuck a finger in the vat. It came out coated in a clear, oily liquid, much like baby oil. “This is meant to temporarily raise the ticklishness of all victims. Right now, it raises sensitivity in general, but we hope to refine it so that only tickle reception is increased.” A shout from Aven interrupted her litany.

          “Remote energy transceiver engaged! Commencing energy reception in five seconds! Four… three… two… one! Engage!”

          Amy slung on her backpack with the rest of the Scouts. The meeting was over, and everyone was getting ready to leave.

          “Well, I suppose I should bring a change of clothes tomorrow, shouldn’t I?” Mina grimaced, putting on her shoes.

          “Yes,” said Luna. “Be ready. And no complaining or whining. You’re all going to do it.”

          “Hey, easy, Luna! I’m not Serena,” said Mina with a chuckle.

          “No, but you’re just as bad,” Artemis put in from his place on Mina’s shoulder. “If Serena is the Queen of Klutz and Tardiness, then you’re the Princess.”

          “Shut up.” Mina stuffed him in her bag.

          “Hey! Watch it!” Artemis grumbled from inside the bag.

          “See ya!” Amy called as she left.

          “Bye Amy!” waved Serena.

          Amy walked down the temple steps, already reading again. She was idly flipping through pages when she felt something. It was in her backpack…? Suddenly a gaggle of robot hands extended out from her pack.

          “What?” she shrieked. The hands quickly snaked under her clothing.

          “Ahahahahahah hey! Help me! Hahahahahaa! Stop this thing! Ahahahahahaha eehehahahaha!” Amy squealed as she slapped at the arms. That stopped when the arms tickled her armpits. She tried to pull her arms down, but they were already in there, so it did little good. Amy fell over laughing, rolling on the ground. The hands tickled all over, worming under her feeble slaps and tickling at her skin. Amy was soon shrieking in uncontrolled laughter as the hands pawed at her skin, some of them even starting to tear at her clothing.

          Her cries brought the others out from the temple.

          “Oh my god! It’s the Negaverse!” cried Lita. “What on earth is that thing?”

          “P-please help meheheheheheh! Ahahahahah eheeheheheahahaha! It’s in my bah- bah- backpack hahaahahahahaha!” Amy called.

          Mina tried to reach for the backpack and pull it off, but Amy was rolling too fast. “Hey! Slow down! I can’t catch it!”

          “I can’t! AhahahAHahahahaAHhahahaha!” The hands continued their merciless torment. “HahahHAHAHHAHAHahahahaha noooo! Stahahahahahhahaahhp! Stop! Plehehheeheheheeeeeeze help me!” she begged.

          “Hi-yahhhhhhhhhh!” Raye leapt toward Amy with a battle cry. She landed square on Amy’s back with both feet.

          “OOF!” Amy let out as Raye hit her back with a thud.

          The sound of dying machinery came from her backpack, and the hands stopped and hung limp. Smoke rose from the pack.

          “Now what was that?” Mina asked as she rummaged around in the backpack. She pulled out a small metal box with lights on the sides. The hands were attached to it. “Hmm. I wonder what this thingamajig does…”

          “Mina! Don’t play with that. You know how mechanically adept you are,” said Lita.

          “Oh shut up. I bet this button…” she broke off, hearing a beeping noise. “What’s that mean?”

          Raye dashed over and grabbed the thing from Mina, then threw it into the sky, where it exploded.

          “Hmm,” said Amy, staring at the shower of metal fragments. “I guess the Negaverse doesn’t want us to see.”

          “But how did it get in there?” asked Serena.

          “Duh, you gave them the location of our meetings!” said Raye. Serena began to cry.

          “Hey! Raye, that was really mean. That was a cheap shot.” Lita moved over to comfort Serena. “Don’t worry about it.” Yes, Serena was most definitely her old self again.

          “The energy transfer has been disrupted. The self-destruct mechanism has gone off,” concluded Aven. Neflite examined the energy storage.

          “Doesn’t look like that much…” he mused.

          “No,” said Felin. “It’s not a lot, but it was risk-free. We can improve upon it. It was probably broken by one of the Scouts. The Tickling Backpack does not restrain the target."

          “Why not?” asked Neflite.

          “Not enough power,” said Aven. “If we made it strong enough to hold them down, it wouldn’t fit in a small space.”

          “When does the next thing go off?” asked Neflite.

          “Tomorrow,” replied Felin.

           Felin had more work to do that day. She inspected the whole dungeon, making sure that everything was running smoothly. To her satisfaction, many of the girls had begun to realize that she was the head of the department. The cringing when she came by brought smiles to Felin’s face. She was taking each individual girl into her office for a private session, meant to demonstrate who was running the show here. Jelex joined her on the tour. The two of them had become fast friends, unusual for denizens of the Negaverse, but each one’s love of tickling had helped overcome suspicions.

          “So, everything running OK?” she asked.

          “Mmm hmm,” Felin replied, thinking of something else.

          “What’s up?” Jelex asked.

          “I had a question that I was wondering about.”

          “You had better not go off on a tangent and begin spouting that ‘tickle theory’ stuff again,” Jelex grinned. “It’s all way over my head. I prefer to just go in and do the job."

          “It’s not that. You like your work, right?” asked Felin.

          “I live for this stuff,” Jelex smiled. “Why?”

          “Me, too. I was wondering… Jelex, are you ticklish?”

          “What?” Jelex frowned. “I…don’t know. It had never occurred to me.”

          “I was thinking about it, but I didn’t know how I might go about figuring it out. My line of thinking is that to fully understand tickling, we have to be tickled ourselves.” Felin said the last with some trepidation.

          “There you go again with that theory stuff. Anyway, if I’m reading this right, you want to… tickle me?” Jelex ventured.

          “Yes.” Felin seemed uncharacteristically shy about it. “I was just wondering. If you don’t want to do it, that’s OK.”

          Jelex frowned. “All right, but only for research purposes. If you go on a tickle frenzy you’ll pay.”

          They walked into Felin’s office. It was rather spacious and it connected to the development lab. Felin and Jelex went into the test rooms section and found an empty cubicle. Jelex walked over to the chain hanging from the ceiling.

          “Do it. Tie me up,” she sighed.

          With only the slightest hesitation Felin complied. Jelex hung by her wrists, just as vulnerable as a human, except for the hands. They were still useable.

          “Go on, tickle me! Get it over with!” Felin was waiting with an odd anticipation. Jelex frowned. Felin began to experimentally feel Jelex’s skin. It wasn’t too different from human skin, a little more fluid perhaps, but more or less of the same consistency.

          With a sudden shimmer, Jelex became her human form. She didn’t look really any different in appearance other than the obvious fact that her ears were not pointed and her skin was not red. When Felin blinked, Jelex said, “Well, I think I can get a better understanding this way.”

“Here I come!” Felin laughed. She used her nails on Jelex’s armpits.

          “How weird. I… ahahahahahahaha! I’m not used to laughing like that. It’s a strange feeling…! Eheeheeehaahahehehe!” Jelex’s ramblings were cut into by very girlish laughter.

          “How is it?” Felin asked, grinning.

          “Oh my god! Ahaahahahahahah! I’m really ticklish! I-hahahahah eheheheahah! I can’t stop laughing! Ahahaha ahahahah hahaha!”

          “Gee, you sound like the humans,” Felin teased. “Maybe you need to go into one of the torture devices.” Felin had wrapped her tail around Jelex’s stomach and was tickling there too.

          “Oh please no! Nahahahahahahahaah not that! If it’s worse than this… eeeheheheahahah! Oh stop please! Hahahahahah! I can’t take this! Eee heehehe aheheehaheehaa!” Jelex was shocked at the pleas that came from her mouth. She’d thought that she could handle it better than this…

          “No, you’re not done!” Felin replied. She was laughing as well. “Tickle tickle tickle!”

          “AAAHAHAHAHAAH OH NOOOOO! AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH I GIVE! STAHAHAHAHAHAHP! PLEHEHEHHEEEEEEEHEEEZE! I GET IT PLEHEHEHHEHEEZE! NO MOHOHOHOHORE!”

          “Nope!” Felin giggled. Her natural fur coating was tickling Jelex like crazy, causing her to whip the golden braid around frantically. Jelex roared with laughter, unable to stop and unable to free herself.

          “GYAHAHAHAHHAHAAHHA PLEHEEEEHEEEZE! STAHAHAAHAHAAAP IT! NO MORE I BEG YOU HEHEHEHEHEEHEHEHEHHEHHAHAHAHAHEHEHEHEHHE!”

          Felin decided to cut Jelex a break and stopped after ten minutes of tickling.

 “Well… haha… that was somewhat fun…” panted Jelex sarcastically, reverting to her normal form.

          “Yeah. Hey, you keep away from me,” warned Felin as Jelex got that gleam in her eye. Talking for a few minutes, she managed to persuade Jelex that now was not the time for revenge.  “I have more stuff to do. Want to join me?” asked Felin.

          “Sure!” Jelex smiled evilly when Felin turned her back.

          They left their cubicle and requested a particular subject. It took another fifteen minutes for the girl to arrive. During that interval Felin outlined her plan.

          The girl was the same one Felin had demonstrated for Neflite on. Her name was Megan.

          “Well, Megan,” she cooed, “we have some things to discuss.”

          “Oh, no… please don’t tickle me! I’ll do anything!” she pleaded.

          “You will do anything. But we’ll tickle you anyway.” Jelex secured Megan to a rope hanging from the ceiling. Unfortunately, her feet were not ticklish enough to warrant effort, but other than that she was ideal. Jelex began her routine of underarm and upper body tickling.

          “OH NO AHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA PLEEEEEZE! AHAHAHAHA AHEHEHEAHAHAH HAHAHAHAH WAHAHAHAHAH EHHEHE AHAHAH!” Megan screamed with laughter. Jelex’s many hands covered her body like a horde of insects, swarming her body with tickling. The hands poked, scratched, dug into her flesh, tickled her silly and kept on going. Megan’s laughter was mindless, forced from her mouth by the reactions provoked by the wickedly smirking Jelex and Felin.

          After about ten minutes Jelex turned to Felin. “You think she’s ready?”

          Jelex was tickling her legs now too. She grinned at what she saw. “Megan, I think you like to be tickled. Tell us that you love it when we tickle you.”

          “OHAHAHAHAHAHA EHEHEHAHAHAHAH  I HAHAHAHAHAHHA LOVE TO BE TICKLED! AHHAHAHAHAHAHAH PLEASE STOP! WAHAHAHAHAHAAHHA!” 

          “Well, if you love to be tickled then we won’t stop!” Felin laughed.

          “OHHOHOHOHHOH PLEEEEHEHEHEHAZE NO MORE! PLEHEHEHEHEHEAZE!” she begged.

          Felin joined Jelex at her upper body while still tormenting with her tail. Megan’s smooth skin was excellent for tickling, and now that she was too tired to move, she only sat there and received her torture. Even with the tail, her laughter died down until she fell silent.

          “Right. Here, have some water.” Felin pushed a cup to Megan’s lips. She drained it greedily. Jelex and Felin shared a grin. “Will you still do anything for us?”

          “Oh yes!” she nodded. “Anything! Just please don’t tickle me.”

          “Here’s what you’ll do. We’re going to let you out for a while. Go back to school tomorrow. We want you to check on a few things. Look for any girls that look like they’re being tickled. We want to know if our devices are working correctly. If you do it well, we’ll reward you,” Felin purred.

          Megan nodded. “Yes, yes, as you say.”

          It had begun.

          Serena dashed off to school, late as usual. She managed to be only five minutes late today, which was commonplace enough that nobody commented.

          “Hi, Serena!” waved Megan as they passed through the halls.

          “Can’t talk, I’m late!” Serena hurried by. She burst into class, took the exasperated lecture from Miss Horuna, and sat in the back of the classroom.

          Why do I bother coming to school? She thought. All I do is sleep anyway. Serena was half-asleep, staring out the window. Horuna knew she wasn’t paying attention, but it mattered little since Serena failed every test anyway. Serena daydreamed, thinking of the times before Neflite had begun to tickle torture them… Even now, she could almost feel the tickling, right there, little feathers on her ribs…! With a cry she realized it was real!

          “Serena!” Miss Horuna shouted. “It’s bad enough that you’re late, but now you’re disrupting class!”

          “Sorry, Miss H,” Serena giggled as she sat down. She didn’t remember standing up. She gritted her teeth. Yes, there was something under her shirt, going at her with tiny feathers. Whatever it was knew her most ticklish points…! Serena laughed out loud again.

          “One more time, Serena!” Miss Horuna threatened.

          Face reddening, Serena sat down again. That lowlife scum! It had to be Neflite. Just like him to come up with a sneaky underhanded method of tickling! It was awful. The two tickle imps, though Serena didn’t know what they were, showed no mercy. Even when Serena tried to swat at whatever was in her shirt, Horuna gave her the evil eye. So Serena was relegated to sitting still, or trying to, and not laughing, with some success. When her feeble, ineffective struggles ceased, the imps became bolder. Something that felt like small wings began to brush along her skin as well, in effect making even more feathers. Serena compressed her lips hard and closed her eyes, trying to pretend to some semblance of calm impassivity. The imps just tickled harder and faster along her upper body, twirling their feathers in her bellybutton, tracing the points along her ribs and brushing the sensitive skin under her arms. Now not laughing was a real struggle. People were looking sideways at her as she quivered and her face turned a bright red.

          Then the last straw came. Somehow, some way, it seemed that they had gotten into her shoes. It felt like more tiny feathers were waving slowly back and forth across her soles, burrowing into the little gaps between her toes and sawing back and forth. This was absolute torture for Serena. Her feet were her worst weakness and she knew it. Serena let out a cry of not-really-suppressed-at-all laughter.

          “Out! Out! OUT!” Miss Horuna screamed. “I’m sick of these disruptions!”

          Serena ran out into the hall, knocking over her desk. She flew into the girls’ bathroom and ran into a stall. There she pulled her shirt over her head.

          “You!” Serena shouted as the tickle imps came into view. They bolted as soon as she saw them. One got away, but Serena grabbed the other one. She held it in front of her with a toothy grin. It was trying to pull free, but since Serena was about twenty times larger it was a dead issue. She relieved it of its feather.

          “Well, now, what are you going to do?” she asked it. It stuck its tiny tongue out at her. As she asked the question, Serena wondered what she was going to do. She couldn’t let it go, but how could she keep it? Suddenly an idea struck her. Rummaging around in her handbag, she found a spool of thread she had used when she had tried to sew something for a project. Why it was still in there she did not know, but it was useful. Keeping her grip on the imp, she used the thread to bind its tiny arms above its head and she hung it from the door handle. She used her other hand to hold its legs together. The other item she had taken from her bag was the feather used for the endurance sessions. Serena faced the imp with a smile.

          “You’re an expert, so I guess you can see what I’m going to do, hmm?” she teased. The imp had broken out into a sweat. Serena’s feather was about as big as the imp itself, so it covered the whole side of its body. Its laughter was high-pitched and rapid. Serena delighted in finally paying the Negaverse back in spades. She moved to its exposed stomach. The response was just as good. The small creature’s senses quickly overloaded and it stopped struggling. Serena tied it up with thread and stuffed it into her bag.

          A forgotten sensation was remembered then. There was still something tickling her feet. Serena had been able to ignore it when she was running, then had forgotten it when she was exacting revenge. But now it came back with a vengeance, the feeling that someone was tickling her feet with feathers.

          Now what am I going to do? Serena thought.

          Mina twirled her pencil in her hair as she paid only the slightest fraction more attention than Serena had in her class. Blah, blah, blah… History was so boring. Who cared if the Root-Takhira agreement had been signed with the United States in 1897? (Author’s note: You really don’t want to know.) Mina tried to daydream, but something kept her mind from wandering. She frowned, concentrating. Oh, she must have tied her shoes too tight. It was pinching her feet. She reached down to loosen the strap before she remembered that this pair of shoes did not have straps or laces. With sudden realization she looked at her feet.

          Yes, there were four straps on each shoe running crosswise, holding the shoe to her foot. Mina wondered why anyone would bother to do that. It was slightly uncomfortable but it wasn’t a hindrance in any way. Mina immediately revoked the last as she, too, felt feathers at her feet. Oh, man, that was irritating! Was she going to have to walk around being tickled all day? The ramifications did not look good. She was already dancing a jig under her seat trying to get away from the feathers. She pulled at the strap, and it seemed that the tickling became worse. Tamper-proof… Oh, man, it tickled, and it tickled bad!

          These feathers were just about as bad as Serena’s, though as of yet Mina did not know of Serena’s plight. All she knew was that feathers were working on her feet, tickling her soles, and her only very slight relief came from the fact that her feet were not quite as ticklish as Serena’s. But it was torture nonetheless, especially as she did not have the option of running to the girls’ room and taking them off for a quick breather.

          Megan sat quietly in the stall next to Serena’s and listened to her mutters.

          “This is no good, I can’t walk around without shoes.” Serena was holding her shoe in her hand and considering her options. “If I put it on - “ she did, and immediately began to squirm “ - I look like an idiot with feathers in my underwear. No! Don’t give the Negaverse any ideas, lamebrain! I sure hope no one heard that…” Serena glanced around furtively from within the stall.

          Megan nodded. Felin might want to hear about that.

          “Oh, this stinks!” Serena said. “Gaah! I hope nobody pays attention to me today. Well, here I come.” Serena flushed the toilet and stepped out of the stall.

          Glancing at the clock must be scientifically proven to slow time, Mina thought. It certainly seemed like it. Only an hour left, yet at the rate hours were passing she’d be ninety before today ended. She had looked like a fool today, dancing when she sat and walking drunkenly, not to mention the spasmodic giggles that broke out at the most inopportune times. She had fallen innumerable times walking the halls. Already it had gotten to a point where people placed bets on how often she’d fall. Mina would have given them a piece of her mind… but she didn’t have a prayer of running in this condition. The only solace was that Serena looked even worse, and she was giggling constantly. She had detention for “multiple interruptions” and it meant more time in these accursed shoes, punishment enough to make her pay attention for a year.

          Megan left school quickly, looked around to make sure no one was watching and walked across the street and up to the corner, where the waiting convertible whisked her away.

          “Well, what happened?” asked Jelex. She and Felin were seated on either side of Megan in the back seat while Neflite drove.

          “It seemed to work,” said Megan nervously. “T-there were two girls, Mina and Serena, who were acting weird all day. They fell a lot, and they sneaked away when they thought no one was looking and laughed a lot. I-I followed them to see what happened. I think I heard one of them say ‘tickling’ and they agreed.”

          “What else?” Felin purred.

          “W-well, they know that you’re responsible, or at least they suspect it. S-Serena grabbed something in the toilet stall and was talking to it, and it sounded like she tickled it."

          “It could be one of the imps,” Jelex said. “One hasn’t come back yet.”

          “Th-the other thing is something Serena said she hoped no one would hear, and that she didn’t want to give ideas t-to you. She said something about feathers in her underwear.”

          Felin frowned. “There were no feathers in her-“ she broke off as the obvious idea hit her.

          “You thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?” grinned Jelex.

          “Exactly.” Felin turned to Megan. “Excellent work, my pet. Now, we have to make sure. Who is your master?”

          “You are,” replied Megan submissively.

          Felin grinned as she and Jelex moved in.

Megan was sleeping when the car pulled up to the mansion. Neflite, as was usual lately, hummed to himself as he went inside. He was becoming known through the Negaverse as a highly efficient collector of energy. Jelex and Felin shook Megan awake.

          “Come on, we’re here,” said Jelex. “Put this on.” Sleepily Megan complied, not knowing she had put on the touch-amplification suit. “You can go to your room now. You’ll get the next three days off as a reward.” They were walking through the hallways. Jelex and Megan separated at the junction between the labs and the rooms. “Have a nice time.” Jelex smeared Megan’s upper body with jelly. She ran shrieking down the hall. Jelex laughed and hurried to catch up with Felin.

          “Serena.”

          “Yes?” asked Serena timidly.

          “What time does the clock say?” Raye had that tone, that mocking-friendly tone that let everyone in the room know that she was highly pissed off.

          Serena felt about an inch tall. “Umm… it says five-fifteen.”

          “And what time do meetings start?”

          “At four.” Serena resented being grilled by Raye.

          “So how late are you?”

          “An hour and fifteen minutes.” Serena was miserable.

          “Yes,” said Raye. Everyone heard the coming explosion. “An hour and fifteen minutes. AN HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING?!”

          The shout was like a gale-force wind.

          “But…but…but my shoes! You know about my shoes!”

          “Don’t make excuses! Mina had the shoes too, and she was only twenty minutes late.”

          “Oh, leave it alone Raye. Quit shouting before I lose my hearing,” Amy put in. “Serena, this has got to stop. You have got to get here-“

          “Or anywhere,” Luna interjected.

          “-On time,” finished Amy. “You’re supposed to be the leader. Please try to set an example.”

          “Do something right for a change!” Raye shouted.

          “Well, I… I…” Serena rummaged in her handbag for inspiration, and she found it. “Aha! I found this in my shirt this morning!” Triumphantly she withdrew the captive tickle imp. It looked sick and decidedly worse for wear, having been in the handbag all day.

          Raye didn’t seem impressed. “And what is that?”

          “That looks familiar…” mused Lita. “Of course! It looks like one of those things in the Negaverse’s tickling dungeon!”

          “You’re right,” said Raye, examining it closely. “Hey! What were your orders?” Raye barked, assuming the commanding tone she did so well.

          The imp looked away haughtily.

          “That won’t work, Raye. We have to persuade it,” said Mina.

          “There is a way.” Serena’s voice betrayed no emotion.

          “And that is?” asked Amy.

          Serena smiled. “They’re ticklish.” Suddenly they were all looking at the imp in a different light, examining its features. Yes, this one wore the typical sleeveless shirt that stopped short of its navel. All the Scouts were grinning. Serena secured the threads that bound its legs and arms to the handles on a dresser, so that it was stretched out. “You may fire when ready.”

          The imp looked on nervously. “I tell!” it squeaked. “Aven tells us to go tickle Sailor Moon, shows us picture. You look like girl in picture. Me and my friend find you, go up your shirt. We train for this. At noon, we were to leave, but you find us and take me. Your bag is bad place. No air.”

          “Aven… She was the one who took us to the dungeon, remember, Lita? The one with big wings?” Raye asked.

          “Yeah. Ooh, I’d like to give her what for! Are there any more like you?” Lita asked the imp.

          “Only one. Supposed to be more but we were first. Today was test run.”

          They grilled the imp for another ten minutes without any result.

          “Serena, you take it home,” said Raye. “We’ll talk to it again tomorrow. And for heaven’s sake give it some air.”

          “Felin, you have an evil mind. I like it.” Neflite was very pleased with the results of the first test subject. Megan seemed to be fully submissive to their will. Aven rushing in to the office forestalled Felin’s response.

          “Master,” she panted, “Zoycite is here.”

          “What? Why?” asked Neflite.

          “Didn’t say. She demanded to speak with you. I left her in the lab.”

          “The lab, huh?” A plan began to form in Neflite’s mind. “Here’s what we’ll do…”

          “Really, Neflite, I thought you couldn’t go any lower, but this takes the cake!” Zoycite sneered derisively.

          “Hmm? Low how?” Neflite refused to play her game, and now had the successes to back himself up. Zoycite’s sneer twisted into a grimace.

          “Shut up. I don’t have time for your games, Neflite. Beryl sent me to inspect your operation.” Zoycite carried with her an authoritative air.

          “Do you want a tour? It can be arranged. Even a demonstration if that is necessary.” Neflite managed to keep the eagerness out of his voice.

          “Yes, I want a tour, and no, no demonstrations on your worthless human wenches.”

          “Suit yourself. This way. Look out for wayward experiments. Accidents can happen.” Neflite had taken a crash course on the devices in the lab from Felin. He managed to make it look like he knew what he was talking about. When he got to the “nonfunctional” powder, the show began in earnest.

          “Unfortunately, with all of the development taking place, it is inevitable that some things do not go as planned.” Neflite gestured to a large open cylinder of blue powder, which two tickle imps were pushing on a wheeled cart. “This powder is such an example. We were unable to make it suit our purposes.”

          “A pity,” Zoycite observed uninterestedly. The cart was passing by them, swaying as it went. It hit a bump on the floor and spilled all over Zoycite. She was covered in the powder.

          “Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing!” screamed Zoycite. She was about to continue when a huge sneeze interrupted her.

          “Bless you,” Neflite said with mocking sincerity. “Did you know that’s what humans say?”

          “Shut up, you – you – “ Zoycite sneezed so hard the recoil blew her back into a table. “Neflite! You’ll pay for – “ Zoycite’s next sneeze blew a pair of tickle imps backwards ten feet. The whole lab had stopped work and was now snickering at the helplessly sneezing Zoycite. Even Neflite no longer bothered to hide a grin. “I hate you!” she screamed, sneezing one last time as rose petals whirled around her, teleporting away.

          When Serena got home, all she wanted to do was sleep. She barely remembered to take the imp upstairs with her. She put it on the bureau, still tied up, and changed for bed. She was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

          When Serena began to snore, the imp started to wiggle out of its bonds. It had been able to do so since the first time it had been tied up, but had continued the farce to pinpoint Serena’s home. Now it freed itself and flew out the window.

          “We have about twenty modified imps now,” explained Aven. “We expect to release the bulk of them tomorrow.”

          “Great. Did I hear that one was missing?” inquired Neflite.

          “Sadly, yes. One still has not reported in. We think the Scouts captured it.”

          “A pity.” Neflite was not paying much attention. His mind was on other things. He’d need to keep moving forward, and devise a new strategy for taking the Scouts, while keeping his energy collection up, and… He realized that Aven had spoken to him.

          “What was that? Sorry.”

          “I was telling you about the energy we collected today from the remote receiver,” Aven repeated. “It was a fair amount, though nothing compared to what we get during a single session here.”

          “Uh huh. Listen, I need to go back to my office. I have work to do.” Neflite was increasingly preoccupied with the running of his operation. He felt like the head of a human corporation, and it made him tired and grumpy at times. He had heard of “paperwork”, and while he did no work on actual paper he knew what was being referred to. Sending performance analyses to the Queen, making sure the energy got there, reviewing the technology developments for final approval… it was such a hassle.                   

          Aven watched him go.

          “The boss needs to lighten up,” observed Jelex. “This stuff is eating away at him. Remember when it was just us? When we had only the girls we could grab and we did the job ourselves?”

          “Yeah. You miss those times?”

          “Not really.” Jelex laughed. “Now I can choose my victims and tickle for as long as I please.” A movement by the door caught her eye. “What’s that?”

          The final imp had straggled in, and gave its report to Aven before falling asleep. Aven and Jelex did some quick thinking. This would be like old times. No need to bother Neflite.

          Jelex cautiously peeked out of the portal she had made. If that imp’s directions had been accurate… With a triumphant grin she saw a girl who looked very much like Sailor Moon asleep on a bed. Beckoning Aven to follow, they stepped in quietly and closed the portal. Jelex giggled softly.

          “I think that’s her.” Jelex crept over to the bed, looking Serena over. “She looks so peaceful. What a shame we have to ruin it.” She tickled under Serena’s arm lightly.

          “Hehee… mmm.” Serena giggled and rolled over. Aven pulled out a feather.

          “Get ready to grab her.” Aven tickled Serena’s ears with the feather, teasing her. She chased Serena’s tossing head around, smirking at the giggles. Finally Serena awoke, and the first sight to greet her eyes was Aven’s smirk.

          Jelex clapped a hand around her mouth, at the same time sending other hands to restrain Serena’s limbs. Jelex giggled. “You made a big mistake… Sailor Moon.” Serena’s eyes widened in shock. “That imp got away and told us where you lived. So, we decided to have a little fun tonight…” Jelex started to tickle teasingly under her arms. Aven chose to move to the foot of the bed, and with a little flick, tossed back the covers. Serena’s feet wiggled around, in anticipation of the coming torture. Aven plucked a feather and began to slowly sweep it around her feet.

          Serena giggled around Jelex’s hand. She started to giggle harder when Jelex’s hands began to dig into her middle, pawing at her sides and tracing patterns on her stomach, with one hand tickling the inside of her bellybutton. More serious laughter began to come from Serena and her efforts to break free intensified. Aven giggled and commanded more feathers to work on their own, tickling along Serena’s legs and helping Jelex’s hands on her upper body.

          “This is just so much fun!” Aven gushed. “Your feet are so incredibly ticklish that it makes me laugh in joy.” She started to set feathers to sawing back and forth between her toes.

          Serena exploded in a bout of barely muffled laughter. “St-st-stahahhahaahahahahahap! No not theeehehheeeeere! Not my toes!” Her eyes began to tear up and her face started going red.

          Jelex tickled harder and harder, making Serena squirm frantically in a futile effort to move her body away from the tormenting hands. “You wiggle so cutely,” Jelex said with a smirk. “Heh heh heh. Just as I remember it.”

          Aven sent more and more feathers to tickle all over Serena’s body. Serena was bucking as hard as she could, prompting Jelex to use more hands to keep her down. The bed was rattling and squeaking as the bedsprings squealed in protest; Serena was banging her back into her bed, useless gesture as it was. Jelex and Aven laughed at her. Then Jelex’s hand slipped from Serena’s mouth.

          “NOHOHOOHOHOAH HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH STAHAHAHAAAAP! PLEHEHEEHEHEEHEEZE NO MORE! HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE HEEEEEEELP MEEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH! PLEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHZE!”

          “Quiet her!” Aven hissed. Jelex did, but they heard the unmistakable thump of someone walking down the hall.

          “Serena?” her mother called. “Serena, are you all right?
          Aven and Jelex decided that now was a good time to bail out. Creating a major commotion in the middle of the night was definitely not their idea of a good time. They barely beat a hasty retreat before Serena’s mother opened the door. “Serena, what happened?”

          “Uh, nothing. I had a bad dream.” Mollified, Serena’s mother went back to bed, muttering something about strange dreams.

          “Serena, what happened?” Luna asked, waking up.

          “They were here!” Serena burst out in a frenzy. “Jelex and Aven! They tickled me here! In my house!”

          Luna spotted a paper on Serena’s dresser. “Serena, this bad.” She handed the paper to Serena.

          “We know where you live, Sailor Moon. We know who you are. See you soon… Jelex and Aven.”