In a vast desert several miles away from Abel City, a cave stood in the sands, where a Krokorok has taken up residence. Although it appeared as an ordinary cave at first glance, it actually held a basement deep within, though it more so resembled a dungeon than anything. The cave was largely unknown to most, except for a few Mavericks that were aware of the Krokorok’s wealth. Due to the increasing amount of times Mavericks have attempted to raid his home, the sand crocodile Pokémon became paranoid. While others actually had yet to steal anything, that did nothing to ease the Krokorok’s paranoia. Aside from pesky Mavericks, no one has attempted to stray near his cave because of its hidden location.

But one particular Reploid was unfortunate enough to have wandered too close to the cave.

The Krokorok was currently in his basement, which was filled with a wide variety of tools and equipment for the sole purpose of punishing those who dared to raid his home. Earlier that day, when the sun had begun to set, he had spotted a certain blue Reploid wandering through. Their armor was a luscious, royal blue, complete with cyan and dark grey accents. Their belly and limbs were also cyan, and their eyes were an emerald color with a friendly and gentle glint in them, far unlike the Mavericks that tried to steal from the Krokorok.

That particular Reploid turned out to be none other than X, one of, if not the most famous android in existence, and a proud member of the Maverick Hunters.

Although X’s reputation was known by many, the Krokorok had barely heard of him, mostly due to him living a solitary life. This, along with the fact that there have been several attempted raids in his cave, made him immediately distrustful of the blue android. Thus, he kept a close eye on him, and while X had not done anything to vandalize his home, the Krokorok was still suspicious. And when the Azure Hunter entered his cave (possibly for shelter), he decided to take matters into his own hands- by knocking X unconscious and detaining him.

Once X had been knocked out, the Krokorok dragged his body to his basement, where the robot was placed in restraints so he could not escape.

X remained unconscious for what seemed like several minutes, until…

“Wake up!”

X was splashed across the face with a bucket of cold water, rousing from his unconscious state rather abruptly and rudely as he gasped from shock.

“Wha- what was that?!” The sudden splash from the cold water instantly made X’s senses return to him. The first thing he tried to do was get up, but when he moved his limbs, he found that they were in some kind of restraints. His hands tied together behind his back with rope, and his ankles were trapped in a wooden block with a pair of holes in the middle. But what shocked the Azure Hunter even more was when he realized most of his armor had been removed. His chest plate, pelvic armor, foreleg armor and boots were removed, leaving him with only his helmet, shoulder and forearm armor.

X looked around. He was in a basic room, the walls and floor made up of dull, dark grey bricks, with the floor having somewhat lighter ones. It was mostly empty aside from various tools hanging on the walls, and the contraption he was currently trapped in.

“Hey! Look at me!”

X heard a voice nearby. He shifted his attention to directly in front of him, where he saw an odd, crocodile-like creature standing in front of him. The creature looked annoyed. “W-Who are you?! Were you the one who captured me?”

“Who am I? As if you don’t know who I am!” The crocodile-like creature responded, sounding visibly annoyed.

“I’m not lying, I really don’t know who you are!”

“You smug robots are always terrible at lying. Who are you, and why did you come here to my home?!”

“I- my name is X. I found this cave while I was on a mission, and I thought I could use it as shelter for a sandstorm that was about to come. But I didn’t know this was your home!” X replied. His voice was relatively more soft-spoken compared to the other robots that had attempted to steal from the Krokorok, but even that didn’t quell the latter’s suspicions.

“Likely story. You just happened to use my home for ‘shelter’ just so you could steal my riches!”

“If I knew this was your home, I would’ve asked if I could stay here until the sandstorm passed.”

“I’m not buying one bit of that garbage. You thieves just LOVE to make lies just so you can have an excuse for stealing my stuff, don’t you?!” The Krokorok replied angrily. “You robots think you’re SO tough, but not when you’ve undergone a little bit of torture…”

“T-Torture…?!” X was now getting nervous, but he tried to put on a brave face.

“Relax, I’m not gonna whip you or anythin’. Besides, aren’t ya comfy in those stocks?”

“No, why?” X replied, anticipating what the Krokorok was planning to do with him.

“Well, you might be wondering why you’re in stocks right now. Can ya take a guess?”

X looked down at his own feet, or rather, the wooden stocks restraining them. He could see the tips of his toes poking out above the stocks. They wiggled slightly. His feet were very human-like, with five toes on each one, albeit they were cyan just like the rest of his synthetic skin thanks to his bodysuit.

“You’re… going to do something with my feet…?” X asked, more confused than anything now.

“Well, duh. Everyone knows that most people have ticklish feet, and yours look rather adorable, I’ll admit…”

Ticklish? Oh, no, the Krokorok couldn’t possibly mean…!

“Wait, you’re going to tickle me…?!”

“Well, you HAVE been sneaking around with those feet of yours, so I’m not gonna treat them kindly.” The Krokorok picked up a feather from a nearby tray. It was long, possibly from some kind of large bird. “You think that I’m nothing more than a sadistic captor? Think again. Just because I tied you up here doesn’t mean I intend on HURTING you. This isn’t gonna be anything like those stereotypical captor-captive scenes in the movies. I’m only doing what I have to do. I’m not going to let thieves get away with it anymore, and all I want is the truth. And I’m going to tickle it out of you. So, I’ll ask you again- WHAT did you come here to steal?”

“I’m telling the truth! I didn’t come here to steal anything!” X replied, though there was a hint of nervousness in his voice, knowing what his captor was about to do next.

“If you don’t wanna spill the beans, then fine. In the meantime, however…” The Krokorok slowly lowered the feather toward X’s stocked feet. “How ‘bout we give these cute feet of yours some attention, hm?”

“No! Wait! My feet are very sensitive!” X tried to plead, but he blushed when he realized what he had just said. It didn’t help that the feather had made contact with his sole, and it began stroking delicately across the blue android’s feet that sat in the stocks. The tickling wasn’t intense, but X’s feet were rather sensitive, so it didn’t do anything to dull the ticklish sensation. When the feather stroked his soles a couple more times, his toes were already wiggling adorably.

“N-Noho! Stohop that! Hehehehe! D-Don’t-“ Giggling was already beginning to pour out of X’s lips, but he was cut off by the Krokorok.

“I won’t lie, but you’re a pretty cute thief, I’ll give ya that.” The Krokorok teased, grinning with satisfaction as he traced the feather slowly across his prisoner’s sole.

“Hahahaha-T-That tihickles! I-I’m nohohohot lying!”

“Aw, come on, this is only the beginning!” The feather increased its speed and coverage over X’s soles, stroking all over the soft, sensitive arches, heels and over and around his toes. X squirmed desperately, but there was no escape. He tried splaying and wiggling his toes, but that only resulted in the feather sliding and sawing between them. He then tried shielding one foot behind the other, but it forced him to stretch his feet across the stocks to do so. Plus, it only made it worse for the android’s poor, ticklish foot in the front. Worse, X could already feel himself blushing from embarrassment.

“How much does that tickle, X? I’m not gonna stop tickling your feet until you confess…!” The Krokorok smirked mischievously. He decided to saw the feather between X’s toes some more, watching as the helpless digits wiggled cutely. “Coochie, coochie, coo~” The Krokorok teased as he tickled the Azure Hunter’s pudgy toes. His teasing made the latter’s blush grow deeper. “Who’s got cute ticklish toes~?”

“Plehehehehease! N-Nahahahat my feet!” X pleaded through his giggles. His giggling was bubbly and adorable, almost like a child.

“Yes, your feet! Your feet that treaded into my cave!”

The feathering on X’s bare feet continued for the next little while, with the occasional break for him to be interrogated more, but no progress was made. X only continued explaining his innocence, no matter how much his feet and toes were tickled ruthlessly by the feather.

“Man, you’re a persistent one. But no matter. I just gotta make things more persuasive.” The Krokorok goes to the nearby tray and fetches a small length of cloth from it.

“P-Persuasive…?! What do you mean- Hey!” X started, but was cut off when the Krokorok started wrapping the cloth around his eyes.

“Oh, pipe down. I just thought that blindfolding you will make you more submissive and helpless. And that means I can be SURE whether you’re telling me the truth or not.” As Krokorok spoke, he tied the cloth around X’s eyes tightly so his vision was completely shrouded. With X now currently blindfolded, the tickling would be more intense, but the Krokorok wanted it to be even MORE so. “And now, I’m gonna stop those pesky feet of yours from moving so much.”

X felt something thin wrap around both his big toes, tying them together and pulling them back against the top of the stocks. His toes were tied together with string, and though he tried to wiggle and splay them, he quickly realized his feet were much more vulnerable than they previously were. Once the Krokorok tied the string to the top of the stocks to attach it there, X’s big toes were stretched back, stretching his soles taught. His bare feet squirmed, but they could only wiggle gently.

“Please! Don’t do this! You don’t have any proof that I did anything wrong!” X cried.

“Come on, I’m only tickling your feet. It’s hardly any kind of harsh punishment!”

That doesn’t make it any better… X thought, his feet wiggling uselessly against the stocks and string. As this was happening, the Krokorok selected his next tool of choice from the tray, which the Azure Hunter obviously couldn’t see.

“At least loosen whatever you’ve tied around my toes, it’s very tiHIHIHIHIHI!!!” X spoke again, but his words dissolved into a squeal when the Krokorok began using the next tool on his feet. It didn’t take long for him to realize that there was a brush scrubbing across his feet. “Hehehehahahaha-No! Nohohohoho!”

The brush was quite stiff and had rough bristles, and was also rather large, nearly big enough to cover an entire foot. The soft teasing of the feather was replaced with rough, scraping tickles all over the blue android’s poor, ticklish feet, which were now more sensitive and vulnerable. Every individual bristle sent ticklish shocks through X’s feet, especially the ones making contact with his arches and his helpless toes. Because his big toes were tied together, he couldn’t even shield one foot with the other anymore.

“If you want me to stop, you’ll have to confess. It’s that simple.” The Krokorok grinned as he moved the brush mercilessly back and forth across X’s trembling, oversensitive feet, not letting the bristles pull away from the surface for a single second. He even moved the brush’s bristles to right underneath the Azure Hunter’s toes, and the latter shrieked in hysteria. It was then the Krokorok got an idea.

“You’re looking pretty ticklish right there, let’s see if you can handle it…” The sand crocodile Pokémon started brushing under X’s wiggling toes.

“GAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! N-NOT THEHEHEHERE!! STAHAHAHAHAP!!” X broke into ticklish hysterics, his squirming becoming more violent as the brushes worked right under his toes. The nerves there were so hypersensitive that his toes pulled against the string holding them back, desperately trying to curl up to protect themselves. But alas, the string kept them at the mercy of the devilish brush.

The hairbrush was already harsh enough to X’s feet, but it was UNBEARABLE under his toes. His ticklish feet and toes were being attacked by the brush, and all his toes could do was wiggle uselessly. The string tying his big toes together didn’t help the torture, and only worsened it, and all X wanted was to curl them up just so they wouldn’t have to suffer under the bristles any longer.

After brushing X’s feet ruthlessly for about half an hour, the Krokorok decided to stop and give him another chance to speak, leaving the latter panting with exhaustion.

“So, Mr. Blue, have you had enough yet?” The Krokorok asked, slinging the brush over his shoulder like a baseball bat.

“Please… Stop this…! I’m being completely honest…!” X said, catching his breath.

“Sure you are… Do I look that dumb to you?!”

“N-No, but I… I promise, I only came here for shelter, though I didn’t know this cave belonged to you! I know I shouldn’t have trespassed, and why would I ever want to steal anything from you?” X’s feet squirmed in the stocks again. When the Krokorok saw this, though, he got an idea.

“Because you’re jealous of my stuff, just like those other lousy robots!” As Krokorok spoke, he started wiggling X’s toes one by one, pinching them gently between two claws.

X found himself stifling giggles as his toes were forcibly held and wiggled. It wasn’t as intense as the brush, but his toes were just too sensitive. The digits twitched in Krokorok's grip as they were pinched and wiggled against their will.

“Pffft..! Noho, stohop that…!” X said in between giggles, his lips once again forming into an involuntary grin as his toes were toyed with, his cheeks turning pink yet again.

The Krokorok intended on stopping after toying with the Azure Hunter’s toes after about half a minute, but he ended up getting a little too into it, and it went on for a few minutes instead. “This little piggy went to the market,” Krokorok began, as he continued wiggling each individual toe. “this little piggy stayed home…”

By now, X was blushing even MORE from the fact that his captor was acting out a childish poem as he teased his toes. “Stohohohop! Plehehehease…!”

“This little piggy had roast beef, this little piggy had…” The Krokorok stopped at X’s pinky toe, and ended his sentence with one last wiggle. “… none.”

X finally got the chance to breathe and regain himself once the Krokorok had finished his teasing. But the latter was far from finished with the blue android…

“I’ll ask ya one final time, X… Will you confess?”

Despite his embarrassment and loss of energy from being tickle-tortured for the past several minutes, X remained defiant. There was no way he was going to heed to such a creature…!

“For the last time, I am NOT lying! I meant everything I said when I explained why I came into your home!”

Now the Krokorok was furious. He STILL wasn’t getting the answer he wanted. In a fit of rage, he slammed his fists down onto the table X was sitting on, jumping up onto it and grabbing him by the neck with his claws.

“AAAAARGH! That’s it! I’ve had it with you making a fool of me! You’ve left me with no other choice but to punish ya!”

“P-Punish me…?! Wait! Stop-“

X was cut off when something was stuffed into his mouth. The Krokorok had brought out a cloth and wrapped it around his mouth, tying it in the back to tighten it and forming a cleave gag so it was gagging the android.

“M-Mmmph?! Mmph!” X tried to protest behind the gag, but all that came out were muffled, unhappy noises.

“That’s better. I was getting tired of listenin’ to your pleas, anyway.” The Krokorok taunted, slowly dragging a claw up and down X’s bound foot, causing his feet to squirm and toes to wiggle as much as they could with the string tying his big toes together, and forcing muffled giggles to spill from his gagged mouth.

“Mhmhmhmhmhm!!”

“Heh, and you’re still just as sensitive as ever… But don’t think I’m only gonna use my fingers for this…”

The Krokorok’s words made a few beads of sweet trickle down X’s forehead. With his vision being restricted, he had no way of telling what his captor would do to him next, nor could he protest thanks to the cleave gag. The least he could do was wiggle his free toes, a blush forming on his cheeks once more…

“MMMPH!!!” X squealed through his gag upon feeling something making contact with his feet. But it didn’t feel like the brushes from before. It felt sharp and prickly, like cactus thorns, but colder. The torturous sensation crawled up and down his soles and arches, even briefly reaching just right under his toes, before going back down again, and vice versa.

X didn’t recognize the tool the Krokorok was currently using, but the latter was teasing him with a Wartenberg pinwheel. The tips weren’t sharp enough to cause any true harm, but that did nothing to dull the absolutely torturously ticklish sensation they caused on the blue android’s oversensitive feet.

“How do you like that, thief…?” The Krokorok asked, mockingly. “I can tell you’ve never felt something like this on your feet before, have ya?” The sand crocodile Pokémon kept up the verbal teasing as he rolled the pinwheel over X’s helpless soles. He wasn’t doing this just as physical punishment- he wanted to make the Azure Hunter feel embarrassed, humiliated, and what would happen when someone dared to steal his precious belongings. “You’ll be feelin’ nothin’ but tingling on your feet for hours that you won’t be able to sneak around on ‘em for a while…”

The noises coming from X’s gagged mouth were a mixture between hysterical laughter, ticklish squeaks, whines and adorable moaning. His feet had become much more tenderized than they were from the constant torture they suffered, combined with X being deprived of two of his senses. He thought things couldn’t get much worse until a second pinwheel joined the first one, and both his soles were now under attack by the tools, and his laughter and struggling were amped up to a whole new level. Dark spots formed in his blindfold as tears of hilarity began to fall down his cheeks from how hard he was laughing. His feet couldn’t handle being attacked by the pinwheels that they splayed and curled at the same time despite his big toes being tied together by the string, desperately trying to get away from the pinwheels. But they would never escape their suffering.

The torture of the pinwheels continued on for the next hour, and by now, X’s soles had become tinged red underneath his blue bodysuit from being tickled excessively. Throughout the ordeal, the Krokorok realized that the pinwheels drove X to complete hysterics, and he tormented his poor feet with them continuously. Once a full hour had passed (although it felt like an eternity to X), the pinwheels were withdrawn from his soles, and the blue android could finally have some relief. The only thing he wanted right now was a nice massage on his feet to ease the tingles in the nerves there, which made him giggle softly behind his gag.

“You glad you’re finally getting some relief?” The Krokorok asked. “I hope you are, ‘cause I think I’ll let you go… in the morning, that is.”

“Mmmmph?!” X protested in response to the Krokorok’s words, but he didn’t struggle too much. He was already too exhausted.

“Since you’re stuck here for the next little while, I figure I should keep you busy, hm?” The Krokorok smirked, before attaching something to the stocks X’s feet sat in.

A thick, wide roller, covered entirely in countless, feathery fibers. On the side sat a control panel, and the device was adjusted so the fibers rested on the blue android’s ticklish, abused feet. A small, confused giggle spilled from his mouth as he felt the roller make contact with his soles.

“You like the device I have set up for ya?” The Krokorok asked. “I can’t take full credit for it. A… friend of mine helped build it for me.”

“Mmrrrrpphh!!”

“Aw, quit yer whining. In fact, this will feel much softer than the pinwheel, I assure you… You’ll be staying in here for the next several hours until the sun comes up again, so I suggest you get comfortable, ‘cause I’m not letting you go until morning!”

X shook his head side to side, muffled pleas streaming through his gag, as he didn’t want to take any more of this torture. But his captor had no plans to release him anytime soon, and was well behind the point of mercy or pity. With a grin, the sand crocodile Pokémon activated the roller device, sending the fluffy fibers rolling all over the length of the Azure Hunter’s sensitive soles. The sensation was nothing like the light feathering from before- the roller sent his feet through absolute, ticklish hell, especially since his feet had been tenderized from being tickled and toyed with so much. They were stroked by countless tiny feathers, with each passing second, and X could feel every individual fiber sending the familiar ticklish sensation across not just his feet, but through his legs as well. The sensation was electric, sending ticklish shocks surging all the way through his whole body, which was squirming violently and thrashing against the restraints to no avail. He couldn’t even wiggle his toes around, or splay and curl them that much, as his big toes were still tied together with the string. It didn’t help that the fibers made contact with right underneath the Reploid’s toes thanks to how wide the roller was. All X could do was laugh hysterically, squirming uncontrollably out of reflex, much to his captor’s delight.

As X heard the Krokorok walking out of the room and leaving him alone with the tickle torture device, he tried to endure the tickle torture by blocking out any ticklish thoughts that ran through his panicked mind. But when he was trying not to think of the torture his feet were enduring at the moment, he only thought of his mistake he made earlier that day- wandering into that Krokorok’s home, which subsequently led the current situation he’s in now. A part of him was telling him that it wasn’t his fault, he had no way of knowing this cave belonged to a creature. But at the same time, he thought that if he hadn’t sought shelter for the night, maybe this could’ve all been avoided.

Walking into another room in the cave that was connected to the dungeon, the Krokorok could still hear the faint sound of X’s helpless laughter through the walls, making him smirk with sadistic pleasure as he relished the thief-turned-prisoner’s suffering. He mentally facepalmed for wanting to give the robot the benefit of the doubt, and he found himself briefly wondering if the so-called thief really was just an innocent passerby.

In the end, though, he shrugged, and walked over to his bed, which was made out of a medium-sized slab of smooth rock, complete with a pillow and blanket made from the fur of some animal. Before collapsing onto the bed, the Krokorok looked around to make sure no one had ransacked his room. To his relief, everything seemed to be in the exact same place, with the rest of the furniture in their respective spots. Smiling with relief, the sand crocodile Pokémon collapsed onto his bed, the Azure Hunter’s helpless laughter from the other side of the walls serving as his lullaby to lull him to sleep.

Right before he gave in to sleep, though, the Krokorok realized he should have gone to check outside his cave and see if anyone suspicious was wandering dangerously close there. But he decided to brush it off. For now, all he wanted to do was to get some much-needed rest before he releases X in the morning…

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Meanwhile, a couple of Mavericks were trekking in the desert, discussing what sounded like plans to steal riches from anyone unlucky enough to cross their path.

“So, where should we start first?” The first Maverick asked his partner, who was walking beside him.

The second Maverick, who was much larger than the first one, shrugged. “We’ll just steal from the first person we come across.”

The two eventually stopped at a nearby cave. “This place looks good. We might be able to find somethin’ dandy in here that’ll make us rich.” The larger Maverick said.

“But it’s just an ordinary cave.” The first Maverick peered into the mouth of the cave. The inside of the cave was pitch-dark, making the darkness look endless and difficult to tell what was inside.

“True, but we won’t know for sure if we don’t go in.” The second Maverick replied.

“I guess you’re right…” The two Mavericks approached the cave’s entrance and walked inside, but as they did, they heard an odd sound coming from deeper within.

“Hang on, is that… laughing…?!” The first Maverick was confused. He couldn’t tell if his ears were playing tricks on him. He turned to face his partner. “Hey, do you hear someone laughing in there…?”

The larger Maverick listened intently at the noise coming from deep within the cave. “Huh… Yeah, you’re right… Somethin’s goin’ on in there.”

“Should we go in?”

“Nah, it’s probably nothing. Plus, I doubt we’d find anything interesting in there, anyway.”

“You’re the boss.”

The two Mavericks soon left the cave, and continued on their walk, unaware that the cave happened to be the home of a Krokorok, who was putting subjecting a certain blue Reploid with a red gem on his helmet through the most humiliating torture imaginable…