in association with
Scotty Boyo-PPGTKL Productions
is proud to present
The Powerpuff Girls
in
Laughter in Townsville:
Tickled Pink, Green and Blue
Chapter 6A: Blossom - Beauty and the tickle-BeastBlossom awoke minutes before her alarm was set to wake her, and so shut it off so as not to blind herself. She slipped out from underneath her light blankets wearing summer day clothes - a light pink summer dress and a pair of bright pink flip-flops.
Blossom floated to her bedroom door and placed her ear against it, listening for sounds coming from her family in their own rooms. On hearing nothing at all in several minutes, she carefully pulled the door open and floated towards the stairs after closing her door again behind her. Something else caught her attention though.
"Huh?" she whispered to herself when she noticed that Buttercup's bedroom door was open. Floating back over to it, she peeked around the door.
Beyond was what could only be described by any other person as a bombsite; to Buttercup, it was her room in its' natural state, pure entropy at work. Everything lay wherever it had been dropped upon entry. Clothes, books, toys, even training equipment; all scattered randomly across the floor. Buttercup, had she been there, would have argued that it was all organised using her own special filing system that Blossom's overly complex mind could never hope to understand; anyone else would simply call it a mess, as Blossom did.
One thing was missing however. Buttercup's bed was empty, her bed sheets thrown on the floor as she had gotten up for her nocturnal wanderings. This meant that Blossom would have to be careful, and avoid meeting Buttercup in the darkened house.
She quickly floated down the stairs and was just passing over the lounge when she heard a sound. Glancing towards the source of the sound, in the kitchen, she saw Buttercup heating some milk over the stove, before pouring it into a glass and heading back towards her bedroom. Blossom was seconds away from being seen, and whereas Buttercup had an alibi for being out of bed late at night, she had none.
Upon closer inspection, Blossom noticed something else - Buttercup was dressed in her day clothes as well, but her feet were bare, and were also a rosy colour that Blossom had seen all too many times before - usually on Bubbles' feet - from being tickled non-stop for a long while. All this Blossom saw in the seconds before she dove behind the couch.
Blossom watched as Buttercup floated back upstairs, into her room, and closed her door, before emerging from her hiding place and carrying on quickly towards the lab, wishing not to be seen by anyone else on the way.
Once there, she closed the Danger Grid door and called out:
"Computer: Activate scenario Blossom camp suffix random. Begin."
It was a hot, sunny day in Townsville Forest, where the Pokey Oaks Girl Scouts had gone for the Easter holiday week camp - or rather, four of them. Most of the troop had been taken away by their families for the holiday, so the camp was far smaller than had been initially expected.
All four girls had been taking part in activities for the past 5 days, and were too hot and tired to do anything today. The leaders had sensibly decided to let them have a day of rest before packing up and going home the following morning, and as Blossom was one of the campers, had left her to supervise the other girls and gone shopping in the nearby Townsville hypermarket for the day. This suited the girls just fine, and they spent most of the morning lounging in their tent reading, gossiping, and recounting embarrassing facts about their families.
Now, Blossom was sitting in the tent with the other three, Amanda, Clare and Danielle (though everyone called her Dani). The conversation had changed once more, and they were discussing which boys they most liked at school, as they were all in the same year at Pokey Oaks Middle School.
"I really like Mitch", said Clare, "bad boys are always so much more interesting, dontcha think, Bloss?"
Blossom snorted. "Heh", she said, "bad boy? I've heard from Buttercup that he sleeps with a stuffed teletubby every night!" This drew shocked, hysterical laughter from her friends.
"Alright then, Miss Smarty-Pants", said Amanda, "what about you, then?"
"What, you mean who do I like?"
The others nodded. "Well, there's...nah, I'm not telling. You'd laugh." "We won't. We promise", Danielle said in a whiny, almost desperate voice.
"Nuh-uh. His name is not passing my lips in this conversation", Blossom said, making a 'stop' motion with her arms. "Now, shall we get started on lunch?"
"Oh no, Bloss", said Clare, "you're not getting off that lightly. We've all told, and we're gonna make you talk!"
"How?" asked Blossom. Then she added, "See? There's nothing you can do to make me say anything I don't wanna." And with that, she got up to prepare lunch for herself and her three companions. They stayed huddled in the tent, whispering hurriedly to come up with a plan to make Blossom tell them her secret crush.
Sometime later, after Blossom had served up Sloppy Joes for four and was heading back towards the tent to find the other girls, they sprung their plan on her. All running from the tent as one, Amanda, Clare and Danielle literally jumped on Blossom and threw her roughly to the ground, Clare pinning Blossom on her back, arms to her side, by squeezing with her legs where she knelt in the grass.
"Oof! What do you think you're doing! Get of me Clare!"
"No way", said Clare, and squeezed harder to prevent Blossom wriggling out from beneath her legs.
"We're gonna make you talk," said Amanda, a playful yet devious smile on her face.
"Oh yeah?" Blossom smirked. "Remember; superhero? There's nothing you can do to make me spill."
"We don't believe you", said Danielle.
"Dani, how many times have my sisters and I been captured and tortured by bad guys through the years? You think you can crack me when THEY couldn't?"
"Yep"
Blossom shook her head in mock pity. "You're even more delusional than I thought, then", she said, still smirking.
At this point, Amanda returned with some guy ropes and tent pegs from one of the spare tents that had been packed for the camp.
"What's that lot for?" asked Blossom, apprehension dawning on her. Amanda set about tying the guy ropes around Blossom's ankles and wrists, while Danielle took the task of hammering the tents pegs, hard, into the firm ground, so that almost the whole of each peg was buried. When Clare moved from her perch over Blossom's prone form, Blossom tried to pull out the pegs, but they were buried too deep and she had no leverage, although there was some slight laxness in the lines so that her arms didn't become too tired. Blossom was now effectively tied, spread-eagled and prone on her back on the grassy forest floor, with three of her friends standing over her smirking at the super-heroine's helplessness.
"So what?" asked Blossom, confidently. "You're gonna leave me tied up and hope that I'll crack? The leaders will be back before sundown, ya know. And this is actually quite comfortable, now I don't have Clare sitting on me." Clare stuck her tongue out in response, and Danielle spoke up.
"Actually Bloss, we haven't even started yet."
"Oooh, now I'm real scared. Let's get on with this then; how're you gonna TRY to make me talk?"
"By doing this, said Amanda, kneeling down at Blossom's feet and deftly flipping her sandals off, revealing two soft, pink, and unknown to them also highly ticklish, soles. Then, she cracked her knuckles before reaching out and beginning to run her fingers rapidly over the bottoms of Blossom's feet.
Blossom raised an eyebrow in response. "You're gonna tickle-torture me for information? How lame..." she said, then added, "and clichéd, too."
"Well, we've got a few hours," said Clare, "so don't think you're safe yet, Blossy." A manic grin formed on her face as she sat next to Blossom's chest and began pinching and prodding her along the left side of her ribcage. Blossom showed no signs that this was getting to her in the slightest. Instead she merely lay there, contemplating how long it would most likely take before her friends became bored, and either let her up or else left her tied down and went to have their lunch. She also pondered why Danielle had not joined in yet...
"Guys, guys, guys - you're doing it all wrong," she said, after watching their efforts for several minutes.
"Oh yeah? How'd you know, Dani?" asked Amanda, wishing that Danielle would be more forthcoming with them.
"My big sister used to baby-sit me all the time when I was really little, and she loved to tickle me senseless whenever Mum and Dad were out." "So what would you do differently then?" asked Clare, stopping her own attempt.
"Well, you're doing it too hard for one thing", said Danielle. "Tickling is much more devastating when it's light - plus the Powerpuff Girls are used to being treated harshly by their enemies, right?" Amanda and Clare nodded. "Well, that means they're more desensitised to stronger sensations."
"Ah! I get it now!" said Clare. "Could you, like, show us what you mean, though?" she asked, moving out of the way for Danielle to take a seat next to the bound Powerpuff.
"Sure", answered Danielle, sitting down on Blossom's left side and ripping up a small tuft of grass. "Just watch this," she said, and ever so slowly let the tips of the grass blades glide up and down the inside of Blossom's left arm.
Hmm, now let me think... thought Blossom. It's about half one now, and the leaders said they wouldn't be back later than five, which means...what?
She was jerked from her thoughts by the feeling of something very small and smooth being stroked along her arm. Nervously, she tried to look around at what it was, but couldn't see as her arms were pulled back behind her. She could, however, feeling an itching sensation growing on the part of her arm that the grass was in contact with - an itch she felt the distinct need to scratch...
"What?" Asked Amanda. "The arm isn't ticklish, Dani", she pointed out.
"No, you're right", Danielle replied, "BUT the itch I'm producing will keep her distracted so that you can tickle her elsewhere."
"Oh, right. I get ya", said Amanda, and began fluttering her fingertips over Blossom's bared soles at this point. This time, there was an occasional twitch of the toes, as Blossom fought to control her body's reactions.
Ignore the itch, ignore the itch...o god, that tickles, ignore the tickling, ignore the tick...must scratch...help, I can't do this, I can't concentrate on both at the same...tiiiiiiiiiiime...
Blossom's tickled right foot was now bouncing rhythmically in time to the tickling that it was receiving.
"See, it's working already", said Danielle, pleased with herself for the idea.
"Yeah, yeah, stop showing off already", Amanda said. "Clare, give us a hand, will ya?"
"Okay", said Clare, plopping herself on the ground on Blossom's other side and caressing Blossom's bare upper ribs with her long fingernails.
"Soooo, Blossom", Amanda began, still lightly fondling Blossom's right foot, "you ready to tell us who this guy is that you like yet?"
"N-never", said Blossom, managing to ejaculate the word with the minimal of stuttering. "I won't talk."
"Really, you're making this quite hard on yourself," said Danielle, now moving to run the clump of grass gently over the vulnerable skin of Blossom's underarm. Blossom stifled a small gasp at the new sensation and her fists clenched tightly.
"Yeah," added Clare, "if you'd just tell us, we'd make a couple of comments and then find a new topic. By not telling us, you're only making us more interested in finding out who he is."
Amanda now brought her other hand into play, and began tenderly running the tips of the fingers on each hand over the fleshy undersides of Blossom's plump toes, causing her to clench them tightly.
"No fair Blossom, trying to avoid the tickling..."
Blossom was trying with all her might to ignore all three friends, but their methods, although similar, differed in some small ways that made it impossible for her brain to ignore all three simultaneously.
Maybe I should just tell them...no, I can't! I can't and I wo...oh geez, that's bad, that's really...must ignore...what was I thiiiiiiiiiiiiinkiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing?
She was finding it increasingly difficult to maintain her train of thought - all the sensations she was experiencing were overriding her mind and making it impossible to do anything. She shivered as Clare's fingernails strayed a bit too close to her other vulnerable underarm, and Amanda took the opportunity to softly tickle Blossom's high arches, causing her feet to shake in their bonds and the muscles in her arches to quiver, her toes wriggling around and the skin of her sole stretched tight, making them more sensitive than ever.
"Tell us, Blossom", Danielle sang, reaching out with her other thus far unoccupied hand to scamper her fingers over the material of Blossom's knee-length dress at the point over her belly button.
"No please, I'll do anything, please stop, please!" Blossom said, pleading with them, now shaking her head vigorously from side to side.
"Two words - that's all we want. Just his name; what is it?" asked Clare, still tickling her right side with both hands, all the way from her underarm down to her hip.
"Never!" Blossom almost spat out, followed almost immediately by a muffled giggle.
Blossom managed to regain control of her breathing, to an extent. She was shaking subtly now all over, her breaths were coming short, heavy and unevenly through her nose as she kept her mouth clamped tightly shut, and her feet were curling and flexing spasmodically under Amanda's light tickling of their defenceless soles, twisting around in an effort to escape both the teasing and the bonds. She bit her lower lip, hoping to distract herself from the all-over tickling with pain. Her jaw wobbled as the laughter welled up inside her.
"We've got her girls!" Danielle cheered. "She's weakening! She'll crack soon."
"No...I...won't", Blossom said, grunting out each word with a supreme effort to maintain self-control. Her body was clearly being hugely affected by this overwhelmingly effective tickling, although the only outward signs were her fidgeting feet and the way that her face was screwed up in total concentration.
Amanda had a devilish idea and stopped tickling Blossom's soles so that her feet calmed down and finally lay still. Then, taking eight blades of grass and placing a single one in each space between the toes, she signalled for the others to quit tickling for a while as she went to get something from the store tent.
Just as Blossom had been reaching the point of no return, where the laughter would burst out of her and refuse to be contained again, all the tickling feelings died away. She sighed in relief and let her body, which had subconsciously tensed up under the torture of the last ten minutes, fall limp.
"Thanks guys, I'm glad you...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahhahahahahahaha!"
When Amanda had returned, she had been holding in her hand a bag of frozen peas that she had taken from the cold storage box, and had unceremoniously slapped it against Blossom's well-tickled soles. The cold had been such a shock to her system in the exceptionally hot weather that her legs shook violently and her toes wriggled as if they were trying to escape from being attached to the ends of her feet. As they did, however, the grass blades moved in a sawing motion, back and forth, between her toes, which tickled immensely. The resulting combination of cold and tickling broke Blossom's dam of willpower entirely, and the laughter just came flooding out.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...O GOD NONONONONO HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH HAAAAAAAAAAAA HAAAAAAAAAAAA HAAAAAAAAAAAA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE HEEHEEHEEHEEHEE HEEEHEEEHEEEHEEE..."
Blossom's laughter rapidly died down from being loud, high-pitched shrieks that Bubbles would have been proud of, to a steady flow of gut wrenching laughter and violent shaking; Amanda, Clare and Danielle were startled by how much strength the Puff still had whilst being tickled so much all over.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA NO PLEEEEEEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEASE STOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOP STOPPIT I CAN'T TAKE HAHAHAHAHAHANYMOHOHOHORE..."
Blossom's whole body clenched tight in massive spasms of laughter, and the guy ropes were pulled tight as she tried to curl up on the ground beneath her friends. The tent pegs began to straighten into just plain metal rods where they were buried in the ground.
"Are ya sure she's secure?" Asked Danielle.
"Am I?" said Amanda, "you're the one who pegged her down, Dani."
All three girls were afraid at what might happen if Blossom broke free of her bindings; they didn't have to wait long, as they had continued tickling her - Amanda tickling the ultra-sensitive and rapidly wriggling and writhing feet, Clare stroking the right side of Blossom's visibly defined, heaving, ribcage with the ends of her manicured fingernails, and Danielle squeezing Blossom's left hip with one hand and brushing her left underarm with the tuft of grass in the other hand.
Blossom gave one massive scream of "HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!", as she finally managed to curl into a ball on the ground, and her bladder let loose under the continuous tickling assault. All three girls at one stopped tickling, although Blossom's laughter did not die down for another five minutes.
"O god, that tihihihihihihickled soooohoohohohohohohoohoohoo much... heeheeheeheeheeheehee tee hee hee hee..."
Finally, the hilarity stopped, and Blossom sat up in a small puddle in the muddy ground and surveyed the destruction around her.
Amanda, Clare and Danielle had all leapt back, moments before the guy ropes had let fly from the ground, and were cringing several feet away, shielding themselves with their arms and wary to move for fear of what awful revenge their super-powered friend might choose to take on them.
The guy ropes were shredded, the tent pegs were just straight metal rods, and the ground beneath her was muddy and - wet. The back of her dress was covered in said mud, all her muscles ached - especially those in her stomach and around her mouth - and she could smell...
"O god - please tell me I didn't...?"
"Sorry Bloss", said Clare. "We didn't think all that'd happen just from tickling you."
"Well maybe next time you plan something like this," said Blossom, grinning wryly, "you'll think twice about attacking me again."
"On the other hand," said Amanda, handing Blossom back her flip-flops and helping her to her feet, "at least we know now how to get ya goin'". She prodded Blossom in her stomach, causing the Powerpuff to double over in a renewed bout of laughter and to try to slap Amanda's hand away. "See?"
"Eeeee!...No hahaha fair..."
At last, when they had all calmed down, Blossom appraised her appearance. The back of her dress, and of her legs, was caked in mud. Her entire lower half was wet and she was beginning to smell, too. When Danielle suggested that she take a shower, a better idea occurred to Blossom.
"How about we all go skinny dipping instead?" she asked (sorry, an image for the guys:P).
"Cool!"
All four girls quickly divested themselves of their clothing and ran over to the lake, which they were camped right next to and jumped straight in - the water being only neck deep on them. Blossom briefly washed herself and her hair whilst the others played in the water, and then said, "All done...blub!"
Clare had taken the opportunity of Blossom turning to face her, and hand splashed, causing a wall of water to fall over Blossom's head, drenching her momentarily.
"You did NOT just do that!" Blossom shouted in mock outrage, the image ruined by the smile creasing her face. Danielle at that moment splashed both Clare and Blossom, but Clare ducked just in time under the surface.
"Hey - quit it! Why are you all picking on me?"
"Oh come of it Bloss, you can look after yourself", said Amanda, floating on her back some distance away.
"Hey, where'd Clare go?" asked Danielle.
"I dun...aaaaaah! Something's got my leg!" Blossom said.
Indeed, something had - Clare. After diving under the neck-deep water, she has sat on the bottom of the lake next to where Blossom was standing, and reached out to grab Blossom's ankles. She then wiggled her fingers over the back of the knee, and Blossom's leg buckled out from under her.
"AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahaha...not ahahahaahahahahahahahahagain!" Blossom said through her once more unbroken giggling fit. Seconds later Clare surfaced, still holding Blossom by the ankle, and pulled up on it, causing Blossom to tip over and end up standing on her head underwater. Luckily, one of the Powerpuff Girls abilities was being able to breathe under the water, so Blossom was never in any danger of drowning. The first thing she saw when she reopened her eyes was a wobbly vision of Clare's feet, and so she did the only natural thing she could in the circumstances - she reached out and grabbed Clare's right foot in turn, and tickled the tops of her toes ever so lightly. Her own laughter caused a veritable torrent of bubbles to float up to the surface and pop quite audibly.
"Ha! Gotcha again Bloss...what's...heh...that?" Clare said, and shifted slightly as she felt something stroking her toes. They wiggled subconsciously under the counterattack. Whatever it was didn't stop; in fact, it grew. Clare could feel her leg growing weaker, and noticed too late that Amanda, and Danielle, were closing on her position. Before she could do anything, they converged on her and began prodding and poking her stomach, her ribs, under her arms, and she found it harder to keep herself standing up.
Clare swayed mightily from side to side as the tickling weakened her defences, and very soon her feet left the lake floor and didn't return. She was now floating helplessly on her back as Blossom came up for air, and along with Amanda and Danielle, began revenge tickling Clare on the backs of her knees to keep her from righting herself in the water.
At this point, the hotline chose to ring. Of course, the hotline was not in Townsville Forest, but the girls always kept their mobile phones close by. These were tied into the hotline connection so that they could go about their everyday business, yet still be ready for action at a moment's notice.
Blossom left Amanda and Danielle to explore Clare's body for more tickle spots while she flew to the shore, grabbed a big, pink, fluffy towel and her mobile from the tent, and began drying herself off as she answered the call.
"Hello, Mayor?" She said, still half-listening to the joyful yelps of laughter issuing from out on the lake.
"Yes, Blossom," said Mayor Bellum. "We have an emergency - I know you're on camp, but your sisters - they've been kidnapped." "What? How?" Said Blossom, suddenly completely at the alert as she used her super-speed to dry and dress herself in seconds.
"I honestly don't know, Blossom. I called them earlier today to go on a surveillance mission, leaving you behind because you were on camp, and they never reported back." "What was the surveillance mission?" Blossom asked, as she found a clean pair of flip-flops in her kit bag.
"We were recently tipped off that Mojo Jojo has a secondary base deep in Townsville Forest, where he stores most of his most deadly weapons - including a massive secret stash of Antidote X. Special Ops couldn't penetrate the base, so we sent your sisters in to find out what's in there and report back. We know they went in, but we've not seen nor heard from them since. I think Mojo may be experimenting on them, trying to discover some heretofore hidden weakness he can exploit to finally destroy you."
Blossom shuddered to think what "weakness" he may have found - or how he may be "experimenting" on Bubbles and Buttercup. "OK Mayor, give me the details. Where do I go?"
Briefly, the mayor told Blossom the co-ordinates of the base and how her sisters had entered it. Blossom, assuming that entry would be compromised, would have to find alternate access.
"This is strictly Find and Rescue, Blossom. You must not attempt to destroy the base, we don't know what devastation that could cause. Understand?"
"Understood, Mayor." Blossom said, setting off on the mission to find and rescue her sisters, after first telling her friends where she was going.
Mojo - would - pay.