This is the first half of a story I am currently in the process of writing, which is based on the monthly reward piece I did for August 2022 - the character featured for that piece was Lio Fotia from Promare, and after seeing this movie in preparation for the pic, I realized that I had the perfect opportunity to build a story off of it! Of course, at the time when I was working on the reward pic, I was also dedicating myself fully to another story with someone else at the time (the one posted alongside the monthly reward for September that year, incidentally), so I had neither the time nor the incentive to turn away from the collab I was already partaking in back then. Now that I have sufficient motivation, barely enough spare time, and a plot idea in my head, though, I'm proud to present the specific part of this ticklish tale based on the reward pic with Lio! The complete fic will be publicly posted tomorrow as a Valentine's Day special, but for now, consider this a nice little early-access exclusive treat for all of you who have supported me throughout these turbulent times. Keep being awesome, y'all! :D
Contains: */M and M/M tickling, focused on foot tickling but with some upper- and full-body tickling. SFW for the most part, though with some slightly suggestive content.
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“Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.”
— Bruce Lee
How had it come to this? Was it destiny? Chance? Or something greater than either? In this day and age, the green-haired young man sprawled upon one of the couches at the Burning Rescue headquarters thought to himself, one could hardly tell.
Thirty years ago, for reasons seemingly unknown, a strange mutation had spontaneously appeared among certain members of humanity, giving them the ability to control fire and heat. These people, known as the Burnish, were soon branded as a destructive threat to the world at large against their wishes, and the ensuing chain of events had resulted in the Great World Blaze, a disaster that had wiped out half the human population. In the decades since, humanity would adjust to the Burnish, but still refused to accept them. In particular, a militia called the Mad Burnish became a cause for concern. As a result, the elite force called Burning Rescue was established to capture the Mad Burnish for the public good. In so many ways, however, things were not as they seemed.
Lio Fotia, the (now former) leader of the Mad Burnish, had been one of the second-generation Burnish, having developed his power at a young age. He was also one of the many witnesses to the treatment of his flame-wielding kin at it’s absolute worst, and that was arguably why he’d taken it upon himself to wage his crusade against the cruel and hateful world in the first place. Said crusade would eventually lead him to meet one of the most important members of Burning Rescue, Galo Thymos. That blue-haired idiot, bumbling though he was, would turn out to be absolutely critical in things changing for the better — not just for the Burnish, but for virtually everyone.
Lio’s gaze was unfocused and turned skyward as he thought back to all of this. He wasn’t sure how he’d ended up working for the very same rescue unit that opposed him and his cohorts just a few weeks ago; it had all happened so fast that he still couldn’t make sense of it. The events that had followed his first encounter with Galo had culminated in two shocking revelations. The first was that Kray Foresight, the founder of the Foresight Foundation that had funded Burning Rescue, was secretly using the captured Burnish to power a wormhole device to transport a small percentage of humanity away from Earth, believing the planet was doomed. The second was that the Burnish themselves had in fact become hosts for a species of parasitic energy being from another dimension, attuned to Earth’s core and responsible for their powers. Kray’s master plan would therefore have aggravated the Promare, as the beings were called, until they destroyed the planet entirely.
What had followed was quite possibly the most dramatic and terrifying day and night in both Lio’s life and all of Promepolis history. But at the center of it all was one person in particular who had proven instrumental in resolving the crisis. It had been Galo who had helped Lio calm down when the latter had let his Promare overtake him and go on a destructive rampage in search of Kray. The two of them had worked together to take down the evil executive and rallied the imprisoned Burnish to grant them the strength and will to power the mecha they’d discovered which had proved absolutely essential. The two of them together had come up with the idea to let all the Promare burn themselves out by consuming all they could, allowing them to return to their home world, which stopped the meltdown of Earth’s core at the cost of the Burnish losing their powers. But above all… Galo had saved Lio’s life that night. They had just escaped the core of Kray’s spaceship where the Burnish were held prisoner, but he was dying… until Galo had locked lips with him and transferred the energy of the Promare he had somehow acquired in a successful attempt to save him.
And now… somehow… for some reason… He wanted to experience the feeling of that kiss of life once again.
But was he worthy of it? Was he worthy of even being here, after all he had done as leader of the Mad Burnish?
Lio’s miserable reverie was interrupted by the entrance of four other people. Two of them were his dear friends, the scruffy-haired redhead Gueira and the long-haired blue-nette Meis, and they were accompanied at the moment by the slightly loony inventor of Burning Rescue, Lucia Fex, with her twin blonde buns and white labcoat.
“Hey Boss,” Gueira said with a cheerful wave. “You holding up okay?”
Lio thought about it for a second or two, before he sighed. “Honestly, I don’t feel alright. Thanks for asking, though.”
“We’re real worried about you, mate,” replied Meis. “You’ve been in quite the funk since we got here. What’s wrong with this cushy new job helping fix what got broken that one time?”
“Yeah, you’re supposed to be on cleanup duty with the rest of us,” said Gueira. “But all you’ve been doing outside of that has been moping around without doing much. Seriously, what gives?”
The fourth and final person who had entered the room, bringing up the rear, was Remi Ardebit, the task force’s green-haired lieutenant, and it was he who answered. “You two better drop it pretty quick. Lio still hasn’t finished his training yet. Which he hasn’t. Heck, for all the hype last month, he hasn’t even done well in it at all!”
“And yet you considered the two of us ready after a week or two?” Meis asked in disbelief.
“I thought all three of you did a decent job, personally,” Lucia commented, her pet rat Vinny perched on her shoulder and giving Lio a look as though he was feeling sorry for him.
Lio looked at each of the four in turn, before flopping listlessly on the sofa again. “I don’t know what’s come over me, really. I’m probably just tired, that’s all. When you’ve lived for so long with a pyrokinetic alien possessing your body, there’s no telling what can go wrong when it’s gone.”
Gueira and Meis exchanged uncomfortable glances. They too had lost their own Promare to help save the planet, and until recently, they’d had no idea what to do. It was lucky that as thanks for their help, Burning Rescue had offered the three of them a job closely associated with the humanitarian efforts in the wake of Kray’s destructive actions and the burning of the world by the Promare. Lio’s subordinates had been thrilled with this and relieved that they’d gotten off without too much trouble — but Lio himself seemed to be taking everything especially hard. Was his being tired a mere excuse to avoid everyone and be left to his growing angst over his past behavior?
Remi certainly seemed to think so. “Either way, house rules are house rules,” he replied bitterly. “You need to complete the training needed to join the recovery effort, and you can’t exactly do that while slumped over the couch like a wet sock.”
Lio groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s not like you guys actually want me to be out there helping everyone, though. You haven’t asked me to join you, only to train. Were you being serious when you told me I wasn’t prepared for the kind of work you do, or did you really think the former leader of the Mad Burnish was just that terrible for your branding image?”
Remi scoffed, making the others wince and discreetly back away. “Both,” he replied sourly. “I know, I know, you and Galo did a great job back then, but here’s the thing: people still aren’t used to, well, you. Captain Ignis outright stated that you shouldn’t be seen in public until all the legal crap regarding your criminal sentence is properly settled.”
Lio’s response was immediate, but Remi’s reaction time was even quicker. The lieutenant moved his head aside just in time for a black leather shoe to pass an inch from his ear, smacking into the opposite wall before clattering to the floor.
Now with one foot bare, Lio glared daggers at the person he’d just kicked his footwear at. “Are you kidding me?! I’m supposed to be out there making a difference like the rest of you! In what dimension is this fair?!”
“The dimension where you nearly burned down Promepolis,” Remi replied. “Much as Kray deserved everything that came to him, you shouldn’t act like you’re completely blameless. So much as I hate to say this, you’re staying put until you actually pass your training program. Again, house rules.”
Lio groaned and pressed both palms to his face. “Just my luck. I’ve been shat upon throughout my entire life just for being a Burnish, and now no one’s ever going to let me live that down. Don’t you have anything better to do than rubbing it in my face, too?”
“Who’s face? Rubbin’ what?” a voice asked from the doorway. A fifth person had joined them, and who would’ve guessed — it was that handsome, blue-haired buffoon Lio just couldn’t stop thinking about for some strange reason.
“It’s nothing, Galo,” Remi muttered, though he certainly didn’t sound like it. “I’ll leave you three to it — I need to take Gueira and Meis out for their latest cleanup. Something about a building collapse a few blocks east of here. Ignis, Varys, and Aina are handling a mess to the south this afternoon, and likely won’t be back until tomorrow, so it’s just Lucia in charge of you two. Try not to destroy the place before we get back, okay?”
Lio refused to even look her in the eye. “No promises there. Yet.”
“Sorry, Boss,” Gueira muttered apologetically. “Wish we could help somehow. More than we have, anyway.”
“Yeah, best we can do is provide emotional support, but that probably ain’t enough for you, mate,” added Meis. “But that doesn’t mean we won’t try!”
“Wait, what happened?” Galo asked, blinking a few times. “I spaced out a bit and missed it—”
“I’ll explain later,” Remi replied as he turned to leave. “For now, though, be nice to Lucia while I’m gone, alright? If you aren’t, I bet I’ll have to use a mop to clean up what’ll be left of you both. Come on, you two.”
Galo gave his superior a shocked look as the green-haired man and his new trainees passed him by and left. “The hell? I just got back here and you’re gonna be rude to us like that? Remi? REMI, COME BACK!!”
“Leave him for now,” Lucia replied as she sat down on the floor in front of the sofa Lio was on. “He’s been in a tizzy since, well, everything. All that cleanup stuff’s been leaving him with like what, four hours of sleep a night? Poor guy’s gonna earn himself a hospital trip soon if he keeps this up.”
Lio said nothing, instead opting to just lie there and wallow in his newfound misery. Galo, for his part, was totally confused, and decided not to ask any more questions about the newest recruits.
“Anyway, I’ve been making a few adjustments to the Galo de Lion,” Lucia said in a chipper tone as she pulled up a tablet. “Care to see? There’s a few new additions to the cockpit in particular…”
As Galo eagerly sat next to Lucia to listen to her latest ideas, Lio decided instead to tune her out, rolling over onto his stomach and pressing his face into the cushions. He should’ve known — this wasn’t training, this was a goddamn house arrest. Was he really going to be respected for once in his life, after all he’d done and been through to make the world better for those who’d had the same condition he did?
There really was no point in being here if he was going to be all but locked up, or at the very least regarded as unwelcome, only being kept around so nobody else would have to deal with him.
He might as well have been encased in the ice produced by the Absolute Zero Bullet he’d once taken to the chest, for all he knew or cared. Only this time, there was no emotional fire to melt the icy feeling of total helplessness enveloping him from the inside. Truly, being stuck here with nothing to do, and especially no way to help those truly in need like he wanted so much, was a fate worse than death for poor Lio.
Grumbling wordlessly to himself, the ex-Burnish wiggled his bare foot idly as he tried to get some much-needed shut-eye. He was unaware, however, that he was being watched.
Having snuck off of Lucia’s shoulder, Vinny perched on the arm of the sofa, observing the moping green-head. He seemed to want to comfort the boy in his own way, but he’d have to make it over to him first.
Lio’s foot eventually settled into a position such that his toes were planted on the couch cushion, pointing forward so his sole was stretched tight. Since his other leg was dangling over the edge of the sofa, the bare size nine was this nearest to Vinny. This wouldn’t be an easy climb, but the rat had to at least try.
Silently jumping down onto the cushion and stealing over to Lio, Vinny sniffed a little at the sole before him before wincing a bit at the whiff of his shoe. Then he started to climb, or at least attempted to — the smoothness of his sole was causing his tiny, blunt claws to slip. Still he attempted to scale the hill of skin, unaware of the effect he was having on the very person he was trying to reach.
Lio shifted a bit in his position, a faint giggle escaping his lips. Turning his head, he tried to scowl at Lucia, who was nearest to him, but the corners of his mouth were turned up in a smile. She’d definitely fail to take him seriously. Whomever was scritching at his sole, he’d just have to tough it out for now.
“Mmhmmhhh… Heheheh… C-cut it ohohout…!” he muttered, trying to wiggle his heel away uselessly before pushing at the cushion with his toes. All this succeeded at was angling his sole in a way that Vinny was able to climb onto it entirely, but the depth of his arch now made it difficult for the little rodent to reach the summit of his heel. This left his incredibly sensitive plantar arch at the mercy of all four of Vinny’s paws. Lio could practically feel his situation worsening as the rat continues to struggle his way up his taut sole.
“Fffhehhehhehhehh hhhhh gehehet away from theheheherrre! Ghhhhgghhhhhnnnn… N-no, I won’t, I shouldn’t—!!”
“Shouldn’t what?” Galo asked from Lucia’s other side. “You okay, Lio? What’d I do?”
Fed up with the game, Lio kicked his leg again, unwittingly sending the rodent flying clear across the room. He sat bolt upright and whipped round to point at Galo. “I was trying to get some rest, just this once, but you’ve kept scratching at my foot for no damn reason! Idiot! I’m not in the mood for your games, so just leave me alone!!”
Galo raises his hands in shocked protest. “I didn’t do anything! I’ve been talkin’ to Lucia this whole time!”
“Can confirm,” the inventor added. Then a thought occurred to her. “Wait a sec, where’s Vinny?”
A small squeak from the other side of the room answered. Still dazed from the hard landing but none the worse for wear, Vinny half-scurried, half-stumbled back over to the group, his fur looking frazzled in the most incriminating way.
“Oh dear, how’d you get over there while I wasn’t looking?” Lucia asked, before Lio gasped in surprise and regret.
“Ah, so it was you… I must’ve kicked you by accident. I’m sorry. Was that you climbing onto my foot a moment ago, then?”
The rat gave another squeak of total confusion, but Lio guessed at that moment that he certainly didn’t mean to do what he did. Instead, he hurried into Lucia’s outstretched, waiting hand, before curling up into a tiny, furry ball and hoping there’d be no further reprisal.
Galo, meanwhile, had a thoughtful expression all of a sudden. Without Lio noticing, he tapped Lucia on the shoulder and, once he’d gotten her attention, whispered something into her ear that made her eyes widen, and then narrow, a devilish grin on the faces of both of them.
Then Galo turned his head to look at Lio with a bright smile on his face. “I dunno who it was who got you good, but that ain’t important. You still need to do your trainin’, so how about I coach you for a session right now? Come on, it’ll be fun!”
Lio stared at him, completely dumbfounded. “You, training me? I… Uh… What kind of person do you take me as?!”
“Hey now, don’t be mad! I’ve been with Burning Rescue for longer than you have, so of course I know a thing or two. You’ll be fine, don’t worry!”
Lio gaped at him, before rubbing his eyes in disbelief. So often did Galo take the bombastic, impulsive, and often short-sighted approach to, well, absolutely everything, that when he made a legitimate point, it was honestly pretty scary.
“So, there’s no backing out of this, is there?” Lio asked, his tone already sounding just a little weary.
Lucia stood up, her pet rat now sitting on her shoulder once again. Neither of the other two had noticed the scheming smirk that had briefly crossed her face when she’d heard of what Vinny had done. “You do need to actually finish the training, too,” she replied. “We’ve got you covered — there’s a new installment in the training room if you wanna check it out! Care to come with me?”
Lio sighed in grim anticipation. “Alright, alright. Just let me get my other shoe, and then you can lead the way. So, what is this new installment you’re talking about?”
Lucia flashed a broad smile, her glasses almost shining. “I call it…”
“…the Galo De Lion Virtual Combat Simulator!” Lucia finished proudly, waving a hand towards the large pod-like thing sitting in the back of the training room. “So, to recap, it can simulate any situation your mech can get itself into, both great and, well, not-so-great. I studied the cockpit of the actual mecha so I could get the replica to look exactly like the real deal, and I feel like I succeeded. But of course, someone still needs to test it, right?” she added, leaning towards Lio with a knowing smirk and wink.
Lio gave her a look of understandable confusion. “I’m not sure why you’d want me to test it, though. I don’t have any more pyrokinesis to speak of, so I certainly can’t power the machine.”
“Already taken care of,” Lucia replied with a smile. “Your job is to man the weapons control panel and make sure all defense systems are read when the need to be. Galo, care to oversee the test while I run a couple o’ calcs way in the back?”
“Oh yeah, way ahead o’ ya!” Galo replied with a grin. “Shall we get ourselves ready?”
“I don’t suppose why not,” said Lio, though he was still slightly hesitant. “Are you coming?”
“Nah, I’m stayin’ outside t’ watch the mech from the outside in case somethin’ goes wrong. Lucia did set the thing to autopilot for the simulation you’re up against, so no need t’ worry about my performance. Just make sure all the guns blaze like there’s no tomorrow without blowin’ us up, okay?”
Lio raised an eyebrow. “I’d have thought you were the one who’d be more likely to blow us up, but if you insist...”
“Oh, and Lucia said for you to take your shoes off for this one. Wouldn’t wanna slip on the floor while in the middle of a fight now, won’tcha?”
Lio pursed his lips a little, his magenta eyes narrowing in obvious suspicion. Galo certainly hadn’t asked him to remove his footwear when they’d brought the Galo De Lion, then called the Deus X Machina, up against Kray’s own mecha, the Parnassus. He ultimately decided not to argue against Galo’s reasoning, which was surprisingly sound in this case — though he did have to admit that it took considerable restraint to stop himself remarking that a broken clock is right twice a day. Lucia would no doubt have had his head on a pole for that one.
A few minutes later, Lio stepped barefooted into the simulator, taking his position at the rear control station where, the first time around, he’d volunteered as the conduit for the power of the real deal. Upon reaching his position, he noticed two things: first, a pair of protrusions from the floor right in front of the control panel with slots or long holes on the front of each of them, and second, a body harness dangling from two cables affixed to the ceiling.
“Let me guess,” he muttered to himself more than anyone else. “This will all become clearer soon enough.”
“Indeed, it will!” Galo’s voice responded from a speaker on the control panel, startling the former Burnish. “But for now, let’s just say it’s t’ keep ya secure. So just slip your toes into those slots on the floor an’ strap the harness over your upper body.”
Lio complied, though he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of suspicion upon noting how, once he fit his toes into the slots, they seemed to hold them in an iron grip when he tried to pull them back out. The fact that he had to stretch up on tiptoe to reach the harness and pull it over his chest to secure it was even more disconcerting. Was there any specific reason for him to be practically suspended from the ceiling with only his toes touching the floor?
“Alright, what sim didja have in mind?” Galo asked over the speaker, presumably to Lucia since she was also manning the training sim from the outside.
“Hmm... You know what, methinks a classic giant octopus sounds good right about now,” the technician replied from elsewhere in the room. “Ready, Lio?”
The green-head nodded, trying to look as dignified as he could despite his less-than-compromising current position. “Ready.”
As if on cue, the HD screen taking the place of the windshield flickered to life, showcasing a startlingly photorealistic CGI imitation of the city of Promepolis. Lio had to give it to Lucia, the girl was a virtuoso when it came to anything technical. He wasn’t familiar with those things people were said to have watched a lot before the Great World Blaze — movies, were they? — but perhaps this was comparable to some of the better ones.
“Alrighty, then,” Lucia’s voice came from the speaker. “Let’s get this party started!!”
Before Lio’s eyes, the simulation suddenly came to life. The waters of the bay at the edge of the city churned white with roiling foam, and then a great orange creature erupted forth from the deep. Bulging yellow eyes with horizontal pupils peered from short stalks just below what appeared to be a huge, bulbous head, and sucker-lined arms rippled like ocean waves as the creature hauled itself out of the surging tides and began clambering onto the nearest suspension bridge, its arms wrapping around whatever was within reach.
“Wait, you said it was an octopus, right?” Lio asked as he noted the viewpoint in the simulation moving of its own accord, as if Galo was piloting the mecha alongside him. “It seems like it’s got six arms, not eight.”
“Eh, couldn’t set aside enough hard drive memory to simulate them all,” Lucia admitted. “Just imagine the other two are hidden by the rest of it.”
As the simulation moved nearer and nearer to the virtual foe, the beast responded by hauling itself up onto the road pathway of the bridge, before slithering closer. Lio worked his control panel with professional precision, and began unleashing a hail of computer-rendered bullets at the creature, causing it to recoil for a few precious seconds.
Outside the testing machine, Galo and Lucia exchanged knowing looks, with Vinny off to the latter’s side and looking as carefree as ever while he helped himself to a chocolate bar. It seemed the rodent was going to sit this one out, but no matter. The real fun was about to start, and he technically didn’t need to be involved — Lucia had, however, previously stated that he might as well watch anyway to see how far this was going to go.
Silently, Galo nodded. Lucia nodded back, and promptly started fiddling with her own control panel.
Inside the simulation, the octopus was giving as good as it was getting. Despite being bombarded by missiles and mortars, the colossal cephalopod had still managed to weather them all, and was now wrapping its tentacles around the limbs of the Galo De Leon.
Looking for all the world like the visual definition of concentration, Lio was about to activate the maneuver that would send the VR beast flying off of him. So focused was he that he almost never heard two simultaneous, quiet whirring noises as two slots on the floor opened up behind his bare feet. Rising out of them, unseen by the erstwhile test subject, came a pair of mechanical arms with spinning circular brushes upon them, and just as the simulated octopus began coiling its arms around where the legs of the mecha would be, they reached up and out of the floor, their brushes already spinning, before pressing said high-speed implements directly into the centers of his immobile, stretched soles.
“AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!” Lio’s eyes widened to their absolute limit as an undignified SCREAM escaped his lips. Vinny’s claws scratching at his foot had been manageable enough with some effort, but the sensation of so many wiry, purple-colored bristles assaulting the hollows of his taut arches was much, much worse. By all accounts, he surmised, the mecha shouldn’t be able to feel anything at all, let alone transfer the touch of whatever it came into contact with to it’s pilot. This could mean only one thing.
“LUCIAAAHAHAHAHHAH! WHAT DID YOU DOHOHHOHOHOHOHOO?!” Lio shrieked, twisting and thrashing this way and that as he tried to turn his head around to find out what was tickling him. The roar of the virtual octopus forced him to return his attention to the training exercise, but with the maddening feelings upon his soles continuing, his focus had been severely diverted.
“Oh, I... maaaaay have made a few adjustments to the simulator while it was under construction. We figured it’d make things a little more challenging, just for the heck of it. Distractions like what you’re going through will definitely make your work out there a whole lot tougher!”
Still laughing helplessly and struggling to locate the interface elements on the control panel to blast the tentacled terror off of him — well, in the simulation, anyway — Lio couldn’t help but agree.
It took all his willpower to regain his concentration, but after a minute of laughing and hitting more than half the controller interface elements at random, he finally managed to activate the new thermal shield function, enveloping the screen in teal-hued flames that caused the simulated octopus to recoil and slide off of the machine. Despite all six tentacles no longer being in contact with his virtual vehicle, though, Lio quickly discovered that the sensation of those unseen bristles tormenting his arches hadn’t left at all. In fact, with nothing else to focus on at that precise instant, the cumulative effect of the nervous shock every little stroke was producing only seemed to redouble.
The two simulated adversaries regrouped, heedless of Lio’s cackling, cursing, and screaming. It was clear that if this kept up, he’d slip up just enough for the sea monster to take him apart like the world’s biggest, squishiest can opener. How could things possibly get any worse for him?
As if to answer that question, Galo just had to speak up at that precise moment. “Alright, looks like the first stage of testing is goin’ smooth! How ‘bout we take it up to Phase Two?”
Lio began to panic at this, but before he could protest, the digital octopus had lunged at him once again, presumably binding the legs of the nonexistent mecha he was supposed to be piloting. One of the spinning brushes retreated from his right foot, sinking back into its slot, only to rise back out of the other hole in the floor, and as the one still in contact with his sole moved upward so it was now scrubbing the join between his arch and his heel, the second closed in on where the arch met the ball of the foot, resulting in two brushes attacking that sole at the same time.
“GAAAAHHHHAHHHAHHAHHHAHAHHAHHH!!” Lio screeched, desperately trying to free his toes to kick the brushes off, but the restraints held firm. “THAT’S ENOHOHOUGH! C-CALL THEHEHESE THINGS OFF AT OHOHOHONCE!”
“You’re still not done with the training exercise, though!” Lucia replied, pressing another button on her own console. “Hold tight, you can do it!”
“LIHIHIHIAHAHAHAHARRR!”
A few seconds later, another set of mechanical arms, this time with a narrower set of stationary brushes but with longer, turquoise-colored fibers — like the kind used in painting, except bigger — emerged just behind Lio’s right foot. Right before he could get back into focus as best he could, the second pair of brushes had started making rapid strokes upon the stretched-out canvas before them.
It was fortunate that the three of them were the only ones in the headquarters, since Lio’s laughter grew so loud by that point that more than a few members of Burning Rescue would never let him hear the end of it had they overheard and investigated the noise. The way the pitch of his voice had shot up several octaves at the same time that it was almost unrecognizable. If Galo and Lucia hadn’t been aware of just who exactly was chortling in the cockpit, they silently agreed, they’d have surely called security on what might well have been a home invasion by a total stranger who’d been unfortunate enough to get himself caught in the testing machine.
“YAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! WH-WHAT MADNESS IS THIHIHIS?!” Lio shrieked, squirming in place as the brushes continued their work. “WHY WASN’T I BRIEHEHEHEFED ON T-THIS PART OF THE TRAINIHIHIIING?!”
“Hey now, you're doing great so far!” From his place at the control panel, Galo gave his trainee two thumbs up. “Lucia did say you'd have to deal with surprises while out on the job, so what's wrong with having you be ready to deal with ‘em?”
“YOU IDIOT, THAHAHAT’S JUST AN EXCUSEHEHEHE!” came the hysterical reply from inside the simulator. “ABORT! ABORT! MAKE IT STOHOHOP! PLEEHEHEASE MAKE IT STAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHHP!!”
From her position at the external controls, Lucia had to suppress a chuckle, half rueful and half mischievous. The unfortunate truth was that for some reason, there was no way she could deactivate the arm-mounted brushes within the training device once she’d set them in motion — she’d have to debug that next time she looked into the code of the damn thing — and the only way to turn them off was to turn off the entire machine. And of course, despite his frantic calls to shut off the simulation, she suspected that in his stubborn pride, he wouldn’t have actually wanted that until the training exercise was complete. So until then, he was good and stuck, doomed to suffer from a merciless tickle attack bent on driving him to utter distraction.
Perhaps fortunately for Lio, the simulation didn’t last for much longer after the second set of brushes came in — desperately fiddling around trying to find out how to activate the thermal shield once again, he ended up pressing a suspicious-looking big red dot on the control panel by mistake. The lights of the cockpit began flashing red, and as his movements became more and more frantic — partly because of the tickling all along his arches, and partly because of his panic over the cumulative screw-ups he’d racked up from the start of the experiment — a voice from the speakers inside the simulator blared out: “WARNING: SELF-DESTRUCT MECHANISM ACTIVATED.”
“WHO DESIGNED THIS NEW CONTROL PAHAHAHANEL?!” Lio shrieked through his laughter. “AAIIIEEEEEHEHEHHEHEHEHEAHHAHAH! LUCIAHAHAHAHAHA! GALOOOHOHOHOHO! HOW DO I TURN THIS STUPID THING OHOHOHOFFFF?!”
“I don’t know,” Lucia muttered under her breath. “I didn’t think we’d get this far.”
Lio continued trying to press all the buttons he could, making a mental note to give Lucia a piece of his mind as soon as he was out of the simulator. Just as he feared, however, none of the other buttons were of any help. It was when the speakers went, “AUXILIARY STIMULATORS ACTIVATED”, followed by two more mechanical arms with gloves emerging from the walls of the cockpit, that Lio realized it was hopeless.
“NO! NO NO NOOOOHOHOHOHOHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH GET AWAY FROM MY RIHIHIHIBSSSS HAHAHHAHAHAH OHOHOHH SHIHIHIHIHIHIHITTTT EHEHEHAHAHHAHAHAHAH! TURN IT OFF, TURN IT OFF, TURN IT OHOHOHOFFFF!!”
From outside the simulator, Galo had a look of concern on his face. “Should we be worried?”
“He’ll be fine,” Lucia replied as she checked the monitor on her own console. “I think he’s just about done with this in every sense of the term…”
Just as the octopus monster on the screen slithered up the front of the mech, its beak opening wide and lunging at the cockpit, the screen and lights went out with a repeated mechanical declaration of “SIMULATION TERMINATED”. All the brushes along with the gloves slowed to a stop, the arms slumping away from their victim as he remained there for a few moments, still gasping for breath, before finally letting his forehead thunk against the control panel in defeat.
It was a few long minutes before he managed to carefully slide his toes back out of their receptacles on the floor as well as un-clip the harness, putting his feet down as gingerly as he could with each step out of the simulator. The other two were still at their respective positions in front of the consoles outside the machine, sharing a hearty laugh which was surely at his expense.
“Well, that was a bust,” Lucia said with a snort of amusement. “Oh well. Better luck next time, Lio…”
“NO! There will not be a next time! If you’re seriously asking me to do anything like that again, forget it. Whatever I’ll be facing out there, it’s a serious matter, and I have no patience for whatever the hell that was all about!” Lio leveled a fearsome glare at Lucia in particular. “You were the one who put those tickle implements in the testing simulator, weren’t you? I should tell Ignis about what you’ve been doing—”
“She may have done that, yes,” Galo admitted. “But those were actually meant for me. Puttin’ you in that sim machine was my idea, and I had a reason for it.”
Lio sputtered incoherently for a few seconds, his eyes bulging in outrage. “You — YOU—”
“At least ask me this, Lio. What were you doin’ before I came in?”
Lio had to stop himself and count to ten, still panting hard from both his outburst and the recent tickle attack, before he could think about it clearly enough. “…honestly, nothing at all. And I do mean nothing. I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere, and all I could do was train… but there really wasn’t anything I could do for even that, given that I’d passed all the previous training exercises before this one. I just felt like… like there wasn’t any meaning in all of this.” He glowered at Galo again. “But what does that have to do with what you put me through?”
Galo smiled warmly. “I think I know what got to ya when you were lyin’ on the couch. It was kinda like how I felt when Kray turned out to be, well, that. My purpose, my meaning, all of it had gone. And I have a feelin’ that when you weren’t allowed to be out doin’ stuff with the rest of us ‘cuz everyone was still mad at you, it was something like that. Not as much, sure, but still. That must’ve got to you real bad, and you couldn’t stop thinkin’ about it… until it overwhelmed you and left you too sad to do much at all. I had to get ya to do something besides feelin’ sorry for yourself, and this was the best I could think of. Uh… no hard feelings, right?” he added sheepishly, cringing at the inevitable rapport.
Lio thought about it for a second. “If I was sad before, I don’t feel sad now. I’m angry with you for what you pulled, idiot. And mark my words, I’m going to get back at you for this when you least expect it.”
To his credit, Galo wasn’t phased at all by the threat — in fact, he grinned even more broadly, his shoulders slumping in probable relief that Lio was back to his usual, outwardly cool yet inwardly passionate self. “That still counts as having me in your thoughts, though,” he replied with a laugh. “And hey, that’s better than nothing, right?”
Lio’s eyes widened until they were round as dinner plates, his indignance over the prank Galo had pulled on him being overridden in an instant by complete and utter shock as those last two statements sank in… along with the implication they carried.
He knew.
“Anyway, I gotta take a nap, seein’ as there’s probably gonna be some late-night work we’re gonna get dragged off to soon,” Galo said casually, stretching and exposing his smooth, slightly sweaty armpits for one brief moment. “Lemme know when the others get back. I’m sure you two can handle things while I’m out, right?”
The others nodded in assent, still too stunned by Galo’s surprisingly astute analysis of the green-head’s emotional state to respond. It wasn’t until the blue-haired man had left the room when Lio spoke up again, deciding not to address the obvious conversational topic for now.
“Did… Did you know I was ticklish before today?”
Lucia shook her head. “Nah. And Galo was right. The stuff I put in the simulator really was meant for him, and there’s a lot more where that came from. But I’ve wanted to put him through the tickle machines I’ve been developing for a long, long time. I honestly didn’t think you’d be the first to try them!”
Lio grumbled to himself wordlessly for a few moments, before turning back to her. “The toe restraints were calibrated to me specifically, though—”
“They’re adjustable. I could set them to Galo’s foot size with just one input command. Same with the brushes, gloves, harness…”
Lio nodded, though he still looked a bit skeptical. “So, it wasn’t until Vinny crawled onto my foot that you learned of how ticklish it was?”
“You can say that.” She chuckled. “So, I guess you could say he… ratted you out?”
Lio gaped, and then glared at her. “…No. Don’t ever do that again.”
“What? I saw an opportunity, and I seized it.”
Lio rolled his eyes. Leave it to Lucia to exploit an opening that good. But then a thought occurred to him, and he chuckled a bit. “Speaking of opportunities, though, I was wondering if you could help me find one of my own.”
“Oh? I’m listening.” The techie rubbed her hands together excitedly. “Didja have anything specific in mind?”
“Actually, just one thing.” Lio paused in thought, and then smirked mischievously. “Would you like to help me get some revenge on Galo?”