It was a bright sunny day, and Tails was having a well-deserved rest by a pond, only a couple of days after his latest fight with Dr. Eggman. Tired and sore, the young fox was taking some time to himself to recharge, and was relaxing without any cares or worries as he lay beside the water. The area he was in very rarely got many visitors, so he could be sure that he wouldn't face any disruptions. Or so he thought...
At about mid-afternoon, Tails suddenly heard a voice speaking to him. He didn't hear what it was because it took him by surprise, but upon sitting up and looking behind him, he could see that there was a small person stood by him. It looked like a young male cat, about the same age as Tails himself.
“Oh, uh, hi! What did you say, sorry? I didn't hear...”
“Sorry, I didn't mean to surprise you...I don't come here often and I've gotten a little lost, I was just asking if you knew the easiest route through the forest?”
“Oh, sure!” Tails stood up and smiled at the cat, excited to see a friendly face around the forest “It's real easy, I can show you through if you want?”
“Oh, really?” The cat looked timid and anxious, but seemed very happy to be offered such help, “That would be great, thanks! Um...I'm Kat, by the way”
Tails was amused by the fact there was a feline literally named Kat, especially a male one, but he chose not to comment. “It's no problem! I know a way to get you through in no time! And my name is Tails! Follow me!”
Tails and Kat shook hands and began walking with each other. Tails wasn't expecting to meet anyone new here, so he was chirpier and happier than usual. The feline seemed pretty happy too, but also weirdly apprehensive and nervous. This led to Tails trying to be even more welcoming to calm the cat's anxiety, but of course, he didn't know why Kat was acting so nervous...
“So where are you headed to?” Tails inquired.
“Oh, just meeting up with some friends at the far edge of the woods, I tried taking a short cut, but, you know...I ended up here.” Kat giggled quietly.
“Yeah, it is pretty easy to get lost around here. Even I used to a lot when I was younger!” Tails said, “But fortunately it's a smaller forest than you might think, so it's easy once you are in the right direction.”
“I guess...I'm more used to the big city to be honest.”
“Cities are good, but living around these parts is a heck of a lot more relaxing for sure!”
“Yeah... oh hey, do you mind if we stop here for a minute?” Kat stopped and pointed towards a small cabin. It looked quite small and rickety.
“Really? That cabin looks pretty old, there probably aren't even any seats in there...” Tails replied.
“No, trust me, my friends took me in here the last time we came through! There is a big supply of water kept in here, and I'm pretty parched! It'll only take us a minute, and we can at least get a bit of a cool down from the sun!”
Tails was surprised that such a dilapidated cabin would have any water supply at all, but he did certainly like the sound of cooling down from the sun. “OK, sure!”
Kat immediately looked a lot happier and more excited, as if it was a lack of water that was making him look so apprehensive previously. He led Tails into the cabin.
The young fox tried looking around as soon as he set foot into the cabin, however he soon got a much bigger surprise than simply a water supply – before he could even look to the right, he felt some large, bulky arms grab him suddenly and pull him into the corner of the cabin by his arms. He could see that there were a few other figures in the cabin too – all looking large and strong.
“Aahh! Kat! Heellppp!!” He shouted in panic as he was grabbed. He looked to Kat, who seemed oddly calm given the situation. He simply stood there and watched as Tails was manhandled and held down by several of the attackers. One person held his arms tightly, another held his torso and another held onto his legs. After he was held still, Tails could see that the others were also cats – ones that looked much older and bigger than Kat, all with dark brown fur.
“Got him!” One of them shouted, in a rough, deep voice. “Good work, boy! Knew you would come in useful some day!”
Tails looked in shock as Kat smiled at the comment from the attacker. Kat wasn't looking for a way through the forest – he was an enemy leading Tails into a trap!
“Ugh, what do you all want!?” Tails said, now angry and frustrated at being tricked, “Let me go!”
“You are the young fox Miles Prower aren't you?” One of the bigger cats said, smirking, “One of the many friends of the hero hedgehog Sonic?”
“Yeah, I am! Why do you wanna know?” Tails shouted, almost beginning to growl at all of the cats holding him captive.
“We think you may know yourself where the precious Chaos Emeralds are...and we would like to have them!”
“Wha?? Are you working for Dr. Eggman!?”
“Oh no no no, we are an independent group of thieves. We would never take orders from anyone! But we do expect easily irritated young foxes to take orders from us, so I'll ask you politely first: Where do we go to find the emeralds?”
“You guys must be nuts! If you think I'm telling you where the emeralds are then you've got another thing coming, mister!”
“If you don't willingly tell us, then we certainly have ways of making you tell us...”
“Oh yeah? Nothing will get a word out of me!”
“Well well, we will have to see about that.” The large cat smirks again and gestures towards his fellow thieves. “Take his shoes off...”
Tails struggled in confusion as he felt the henchmen pull his big red and white shoes from his feet, revealing his white socks beneath. “What are you doing? Give me back my shoes!!” He shouted, however barely a few seconds after he had lost his shoes, the leader of the cats had approached his feet and began stroking his claws gently on his socked soles, reducing the captive fox to cute, high-pitched giggles.
“Are you ticklish, hmm?” One of the other cats taunted.
“Hehe...yes! Very, so-haha-stop it!” His brief plea was quickly ignored however, as the claws on his socked feet began to get even more rapid and rough, increasing his laughter.
“Tell us what we need to know and we'll stop...”
“Hahaha-neverhahahaha!! I'll neehehever talk!!”
“Oh you will... go for his underarms!”
Tails continued to struggle, but he was completely overpowered and could not stop the henchmen from attacking his exposed armpits, which were very sensitive. The claws felt even more tickly on exposed skin, and Tails was blushing from the humiliation of being held against his will like this. His giggling grew louder.
“Feel free to talk at any time, little fox. We can keep ourselves busy giving your body some tickle torture abuse whilst you think about it. You'd better hope we don't find any of your sensitive spots...”
Tails knew that his entire body was basically a sensitive spot, but at least his socks were on...for now. Still, he could feel the claws moving from his underarms down to his sides, which were slightly more ticklish and made him squirm his whole body from side to side. The cats still maintained a tight grip however, and Tails was forced to endure the evil tickles.
After a few minutes, the ticklers turned their attention to Tails' cute round tummy, and the fox knew he was in for a bad time then. His belly twitched within half a second of a claw tracing it, and his visible struggling and reactions seemed to spur the interrogators on even more. Three of them all had one hand on his torso, as they used their other hands to keep him held tight, and the feeling of three sets of claws all sadistically tracing his belly made Tails burst into hysterical laughter, blushing deeply and filling the room with his giggles.
“Ooh, ticklish on the tummy, eh, boy? You feelin' them claws have some fun on your belly?”
The taunting from the leader cat did nothing to help Tails' embarrassment and made him feel even more sensitive and ticklish. Now that his belly was being tickled, he had been reduced to a curling and squirming ball of furry giggles, and he knew he couldn't take much more. Thankfully, after about 10 solid minutes, they seemed to slow down slightly, although certainly did not stop tickling, as they allowed the leader to talk some more.
“Too ticklish, eh? Wanna talk and make it all stop?”
“Hahaha-NO!! I'll-hahah-not—tahahahahalk!!!!”
“Hmm, well if you don't talk, I'll have to take your socks off!” The leader threatened, looking at Tails' socked feet.
“Nohohohoh!! Dohohont take my sohohhoocks!! Nohohot my feehehehehet!!”
“Well, you ain’t talking, so its about time you showed us your bare feet, hehe!!” The head captor grabbed Tails' soft white socks and pulled them off, revealing his big, orange feet to him and his fellow criminals. The foxes toes wiggled and curled as soon as they were exposed to the breeze. He gestured for his partners to stop the upper-body tickling, as he crouched down to Tails' level and smirked at him.
“Final chance, Prower. Tell us where the emeralds are, or we will tickle torture you all day. Your underarms, sides, belly, and especially these big feet of yours, all gonna be tickled so hard if you dont speak up...”
Tails knew he wouldn't be able to take it, but he couldn't let them have any info on the emeralds. He had to suffer the tickle torture – for as long as possible.
“I-I don't know...”
“Very well...tickle tickle tickle!” The leader of the cats placed his pointy claws on Tails' bare soles and immediately began wiggling and scritching at his soft vulnerable feet. As he did that, the other cats all made sure that a set of claws was on every tickle spot – his armpits, his sides and his tummy – and they all began ticklishly abusing them in much the same way.
Tails laughed like he had never laughed before, and struggled to the point that the cats had to try extra hard to hold him down against his will as they tickle tortured him. His face blushed bright red, he tried his best to curl his tummy away from those evil claws, and his feet – well, Tails had never knew that such ridiculously ticklish sensations could be felt on his poor sensitive feet, which squirmed side to side as much as they can as his toes wiggled, curled and splayed every which way, but there was no way for them to get away from those sinister tickly claws.
It only took about three minutes before Tails literally couldn't take anymore. Every ticklish spot on his body was being ravaged by the cat's pointy, tormenting claws, and his toes were beginning to get tired from wiggling so much, at least when the leader wasn't digging his claws into and between them. He had to make it stop, no matter what it took, he just absolutely wanted the tickles to stop.
“OK, OK, I'LL TALK!” Tails shouted. Thankfully, the tickling stopped immediately and he was immediately able to catch his breath – however he knew that he then had to give them what they wanted. He didn't want to give them a chance of finding the Emeralds, so he had to just hope that they would fall for a lie.
“Go on then! Talk!”
“The...the emeralds are...spread out everywhere...but if you go through the big city into the darker forest at the other side, you will find a lot of them in there pretty easily....”
There was a menacing pause of about 15 seconds as the cats pondered the info they had been given. Tails had made it up entirely on the spot – he didn't even think there was another forest at the other side of the city – but he was praying that they would accept it.
“...Hmmm...thank you, young fox! I knew you would co-operate eventually! Let him go.”
Tails sighed with relief as his lie was accepted and he was let go by the heavier cats.
“Hmph....you'd still better look out for any of my friends! They'll be looking for you!”
“I think you'll find we can easily evade any of them.”
“Unlikely...anyway now that you’ve let me go I wanna get out of here, where did you put my shoes?”
“Your shoes and socks will be returned to you in due time, once we have confirmed that the Emeralds are where you have told us they are.”
Tails widened his eyes when he realised the cats were withholding his footwear. “What!? You expect me to walk all the way back to my home with bare feet?”
“Hehe, precisely...and if we find out that you have lied to us...we will be promptly arriving at your home to deliver a punishment...”
After saying that, the cats all quickly got out of the cabin and ran away towards the city. Tails was hit with a wave of anxiety – the cats did know he lived around here after all, and it wouldn't take them long to figure out the lie. But now the only thing on his mind was walking back to his home barefooted. As he struggled against the rough ground against his unprotected tingling soles, he could only hope that he could figure a way to stop the cats from getting the upper hand on him again...
