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“Alright, Rei, I’m going to visit the cemetery for a few minutes,” Max announced as he slipped on his navy-blue cotton jacket, heading for the front door. A tired-looking anthropomorphic Zangoose wearing a green jacket over a white tee, blue jeans, and slightly grey socks emerged from the guest-room, rubbing the sleep from his eyes in response, not really understanding what was going on, but merely responding to his name being called.
It had been a good three days since he paid Joeanna’s gravesite a visit. He still usually visited her daily, but his visits have fluctuated ever since Rei helped him out with a one-time seance to get some closure -- and also helped him get a girlfriend some time later. He still missed her, of course, but was more at peace with her passing and still wanted to keep her updated on his life whenever he could.
“Keep an eye on baby, would ya?” the red dog requested, lingering in the open doorway for a moment as he awaited the tired cat’s response.
“... eh?” Rei blinked a bit before snapping out of a drowsy trance. His vision cleared and he looked at the dog, his cheeks turning a light shade of red himself. “O-Oh! Uh… yeah, sure. Eheh.” He made an attempt at a smile that only made Max frown in response; he had a feeling that the cat-mongoose didn’t exactly like the idea of being left alone.
Unsure of how else to respond, Max gave the Zangoose a nod, said “Thank you. I’ll be back in a bit,” and closed the door behind him as he left, hoping everything would be fine when he got back.
Rei stood on the spot for a moment, unsure of what to do. He still wasn’t that used to watching Max’s cat, since she hadn’t entirely warmed up to him yet. Though, he didn’t have much time to dwell on the admittedly anxiety-inducing thoughts, as he was pulled out of his stupor by a light brushing upon his leg. Looking down, he saw a golden, long-furred feral cat looking up at him and purring as she nuzzled her body against his ankles and lower legs.
“Oh… h-hey there, Baby,” he greeted, putting on a genuine smile as he bent down to pick her up and cradle her.
Contrary to what he might’ve expected, however, the young cat looked confused by the gesture and uncertain of what to do for a few moments before struggling to escape Rei’s grasp. Equally confused, Rei attempted to keep her under control and moved to try to set her down. Upon releasing her, however, the cat made a run for the basement door, which had been left slightly ajar.
“Oh… nononono!” The cat made a mad dash for the… well… cat, but missed her by a margin as she reached the basement door and slipped inside, leaving Rei to crash hard against the ground a few inches from the door in quisition.
Rei pulled himself to his feet with a grunt, and stood before the door, staring at it with worry and concern. He hesitated to open it, but after a moment, he pulled it open.
The stairway leading into pitch darkness only intimidated him more, and he reached around the inside of the door frame for a light switch, sighing with relief and relaxing a little as he felt the familiar bump on the wall and flicked it upward. Any ounce of trepidation in him had alleviated by now. However, he remembered what his immediate priority was.
“Baby…? C’mon girl… don’t hide from, uh… from Uncle Rei?”
He flicked himself in the forehead, glad nobody was around to hear him coo for a hideaway cat.
Satisfied that the basement was coated in a dim light, and that the chances of being dragged into the darkest of depths by vengeful spirits were at an acceptable low, Rei descended the stairs to begin his search. He reached the bottom step, quietly calling out for the kitty once more.
Still nothing… dammit, Max was likely going to end his existence if he couldn’t find the cat.
Rei began to search, checking around boxes and old furniture, hoping he’d stumble across a hiding spot for the cat. He rounded the corner to see what appeared to be several rows of filing cabinets.
“... what the…?” A sense of curiosity overtook the Zangoose and he ventured forth, looking them over. They each had a label--either the letter “R” or “V” followed by a number.
He stopped himself. “... should I be going through Max’s private belongings?” His eyes wandered, and he considered his options. “... ehhhhh… he can’t yell at me for things he doesn’t know.”
Opening one of the “R”-marked drawers, Rei found himself coughing as a thick smog of dust poured out into his face. He waved it away to lay his eyes on several manila folders, each containing a moderately thick stack of papers. The cat wasn’t sure what these were or where exactly to begin, so he settled on observing the one at the immediate front.
The contents of the folder appeared to be formatted like a crude report, with images tacked on by paper-clips and footnotes scribbled in varying colors of pen in the margins of the Courier New font. As confused as the cat was, he felt more inclined to read the more his eyes caught sight of Max’s name littered throughout the report, alongside a fellow by the name of Chipper, whoever he was.
The style of writing was familiar; clearly, it was written entirely by Max himself. However, the contents were absolutely peculiar, something Rei simply struggled to wrap his head around.
“... every member of the Looney Tunes cast?” He muttered to himself, eyes narrowing. “... tickled them? Tickled every single member…?? Of the Looney Tunes cast?!”
He blinked repeatedly, shaking his head in complete bewilderment. What the hell was he reading? He chuckled a bit sheepishly, completely entranced by the intriguing piece of media clutched in his fuzzy hands. Surely this must’ve been some kind of ridiculous, old fanfiction. Right?
He quickly stopped himself, however, as he remembered something: Max had mentioned that he did something like travel to alternate universes or something and did this sort of thing for his old job.
Replaying that statement of apparent fact over and over in his head made Rei question who exactly he was best friends with.
Deciding he had seen enough from that, he closed the folder and looked over the filing cabinets again. Were all of these written reports of such works? Then, suddenly, a thought hit him and he quickly replaced the folder where he found it and opened the “V” drawer that shared the same number. Within these were also folders, although they each held a single bagged USB stick.
Videos? Rei immediately thought -- which would mean that “R” was for “Reports”. I guess… the proof would be in the pudding?
He took a moment to reflect on this discovery. It seemed… obvious in hindsight -- Max was surprisingly lacking in creativity when it came to labeling things, despite being an apparent on-and-off hobbyist writer.
Rei pulled one of these bagged drives out of a random folder and had been contemplating on what to do with it when he heard a meow. His ears twitched and his eyes widened. “G-Gah--! BABY!”
He had just remembered that he had chased Max’s kitten down into the depths. Berating himself for forgetting, he hastily stuffed the drive in his pocket and looked around the room for the source of the meowing -- quickly finding Baby casually padding over in his direction.
“O-Oh gosh… phew… there you are!” Rei sighed and chuckled in relief, gently scooping the cat off the ground under his arm. “S’okay sweetie, just taking a… m-minor ride upstairs!”
The cat-and-cat duo hurried up the steps, Rei glancing behind him one last time before he emerged on the ground floor, turned the basement light off, and shut the door behind him.
“Don’t go sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong, okay?” Rei mockingly berated the cat, setting her down gently on the floor. “I mean… ignoring the fact that I did exactly that.”
Baby retreated and turned to just sit and stare at Rei.
Rei blinked at and stared back for a few minutes before shaking his head, trying to snap himself out of the awkwardness of the feral cat’s odd behavior.
“Weird little--oh!”
Remembering the bagged drive he took, he pulled it out of his pocket and stared at it.
What was on this thing? He wondered to himself.
“...I guess there’s only one way to find out,” he concluded more audibly with a shrug before heading straight for his room to get to his laptop.
Rei opened the door to what could only be described as an otaku’s paradise. What was once the minimalist guest room to the dog’s house had now been completely transformed to the embodiment of a man-cave filled with Japanese-culture. Anime and manga posters littered the walls, along with Japanese scrolls and oil paintings of Shinto shrines. The surface of the bureau was covered in One Piece and Death Note figurines, with the respective manga in stacks on the floor. Piles of anime episode collections and movies sat by the television, and a tower of Durarara!! light novels stood proudly on the nightstand to the left of the large, freshly made bed -- which was the only clean part of the bedroom, and it stood out as a result.
He blushed at the sight. Although nobody was around to see or judge him, he was not exactly proud of his mess, nor how much he seemed to trash the room he had been gifted. Nevertheless, he intended to clean it… eventually.
Rei’s laptop was sitting on the bed, plugged into a charging cord that ran under the bed to a plug behind it. He made his way over, taking care not to trip over anything, and dropped down onto the bed to open the laptop, turn it on, and insert the USB drive.
The notification of a removable device being detected appeared on screen and he navigated his way to the folder, of which contained a single video file and another folder labeled “PHOTOS”.
Rei looked between the two, unsure of what to click for a moment, before eventually deciding on the video.
“It’s what I came here to see anyway,” he justified before double-clicking and opening the file.
His video player opened up and black took over the screen for a second before, suddenly, an image popped up of a younger-looking Max without glasses and a white squirrel Rei recognized as a pachirisu standing in a lush, almost tropical-forest-like area. Max’s clothes were much the same, but looked fresher and the squirrel held some kind of device as they both looked at the camera.
“Cam-Y,” the Max on the screen called out to the camera and it turned to focus more on him. “I want you to record our progress and take pictures once the tickling starts. Make sure to get a good angle to see both the tickling and the reaction.”
The camera responded with a nodding motion and a chirping sound.
“Good girl,” Max replied, as if somehow understanding it and looking satisfied by its response, before turning his attention over to the squirrel. “So… it’s a big, black dragon with an impressive wingspan, puppy-dog-like eyes, sleeps upside down by its tail and covers itself with its wings, and… kinda looks like Stitch?”
“Yupper!” the squirrel replied with an energetically cheerful high-pitched voice and a rapid nod after checking the device he held.
“Ok, then… shouldn’t be too hard to find,” Max replied before looking off into the sky first before checking his immediate surroundings and walking off in an apparently random direction.
What was all this? Rei thought to himself as he watched Max and this squirrel make their way around an island. He had half a mind to check how long the video was and skip ahead when he saw something that made him stop.
A dragon… a freaking feral dragon flew down and landed several feet from them near a pond, thrusting its head into the water and pulling it back out to chomp down on the fresh fish it had caught. Dragon’s weren’t uncommon, of course… well, anthro ones weren’t -- feral dragons, however, were almost unheard of! Furthermore, Rei’s shock only grew when he realized that he actually recognized the dragon -- it was one he had seen before, in a movie… wasn’t it?
It was… Toothless?
“Easy now… easy,” Max’s voice came from the speakers, pulling Rei out of his stupor. Upon looking at the video it seemed like the dragon… Toothless… had taken note of them and was looking wide-eyed and uneasy by their presence. Max could be seen approaching the dragon with caution, his hands raised in surrender. “We’re not here to hurt -- GOTCHA!”
Max leapt forward and grabbed the dragon around the tail. Thoroughly startled and freaked out now, the dragon leapt and took off in flight with Max in tow and the squirrel jumped into frame just in time to latch onto Max’s tail.
Rei was momentarily confused by this development--it was often a plot point in the films that Toothless couldn’t fly.
Upon looking closer as the camera somehow moved higher and followed them to keep up with Toothless, ignoring the unfolding action scene of Max clinging onto the dragon’s tail for dear life while the squirrel advanced with remarkable precision and began brushing his bushy tail on the dragon’s belly, Rei saw it -- Toothless’ tail was somehow whole and undamaged in this video.
SLAM!!
The volume of the force of the dragon colliding on the ground made Rei recoil in shock for a moment and he took in the scene before him to try and figure out what happened.
Toothless was on the ground now, wriggling on his back while the squirrel continued to tickle him almost relentlessly while poor Max was peeling himself out of a dent in the ground.
“Ok...” Max said, sounding a little worn now after apparently getting tail-slammed by a dragon. “Ok… now I just --”
Rei winced at the sight of Max being cut off by a direct kick in the face that knocked the dog on his back.
“Oh… ow… that dragon’s got a strong kick,” Max groaned as he struggled to get back on his feet and approached with more caution this time.
Rei’s eyes couldn’t help but widen at this -- first the hard impact against the ground and then this kick to the face and Max was still getting up and shambling onward with only a few minor injuries!? Evidently the red dog was built to withstand quite a bit of damage.
Toothless looked like he was about to get kicked again when Max dodged the blow and, instead, grabbed onto the dragon’s foot and clung on as he began to furiously scribble his fingers over the sole.
The tickling session lasted for several minutes before Rei paused the video and checked the run time. The cat’s jaw dropped when he saw the video’s length.
“Wh-what the… f-f-four hours!?”
Four hours? Really? REALLY?! The Zangoose was thoroughly stupefied. What… what WAS this?! He wasn’t sure if he could watch the whole thing -- for a good ten minutes or so, Rei skimmed to various parts of the footage, witnessing a few changes in angles, scenery, and even intensity of the content shown. All the while, the younger Max seemed incredibly thrilled by the whole thing, only stopping to explain things to the camera every so often.
After a while, Rei clicked off the video and set his laptop aside with a bit of a sigh. Running a hand through the hair on his head, the cat could only think of one thing. What was he going to ask Max?
… More to the point, WOULD he even ask Max? How would the Zangoose even get around to explaining how he became privy to this information? The thought of trying to explain to the red dog that he had been snooping through his stuff… it felt horribly uncomfortable.
No, Rei decided with a shake of his head, I’m not going to go through that. I’ll just… have to put it out of mind. It’s not like I have anyone else to ask anyway.
That thought sparked a sudden idea in his head. Perhaps… there WAS someone else he could ask about this….
In a sleek, pristine building, a tuxedo cat in a long lab coat and wearing light-shielding goggles was working on something -- soldering the edges of some kind of film to the underside of a gel-like substance. He stood alone in the main workstation of what appeared to be a very high-end laboratory. It was always his, but he had abandoned it for a time before a friend of his put in the dough to renovate it for him. It was an entirely unexpected, but very welcome gesture that the cat accepted gratefully. Since then, he’s resided there, coming up with ideas in his sleep and working on various inventions during the day -- many of which had been scattered around the room.
Whatever he was working on now, however, he was intensely focused on -- zoning out the surrounding environment and even the messages his own body had been sending, such as a growling stomach and a dry mouth. These were minor inconveniences that couldn’t be tended to at the moment as far as he was concerned. His own work was far too important. So important, in fact, that if it wasn’t such a rare occurrence, he might not have noticed when someone rang the doorbell.
He paused briefly at the shrill noise, but quickly turned his attention back to what he was doing, however, opting to finish what he was doing -- getting the last of the screen attached, before finally turning off the soldering iron, removing the goggles to reveal a pair of round glasses pinching the bridge of his nose over his yellow eyes, and turned to answer the door.
“... Rei?” the cat asked, though he smiled at the sight of the panting Zangoose before him. “To what do I owe this pleasure~?”
Indeed, Rei stood there, shaking, hands on his knees as he was slightly hunched over, belting out gasps for air. On the ground beside him was his bicycle, one of the wheels still turning, slowing to stop, as the pedals twitched from recent use. Clearly, the Zangoose had just arrived, which surprised Lou -- given the distance from here to where any of his friends lived, the tuxedo cat wasn’t entirely expecting Rei to bike the entire trip.
Rei stood upright and wiped the sweat from his forehead, holding up the small manila folder he had found at the house and quickly passing it to Lou. “I-I need… you to ch-check this…”
His legs almost buckled just as Lou took the folder, and the cat tilted his head curiously at his exhausted friend. “... come inside and take a seat.”
Rei didn’t need to be told twice -- within moments the exhausted cat-mongoose had tossed his jacket onto a nearby coat rack and slumped into a beanbag chair that was pressed against the wall. Not something Lou had picked out for the lab, that particular chair was a gift from Max and Rei one prior summer, and was part of a set of three. The cat was not very partial to them at first, but it didn’t take long for them to grow on him, and he comfortably sat down in a similar bag-chair beside Rei, as he opened the manila folder and began to look over its contents.
Within a second, his eyes had narrowed, and his grip tightened. What the hell?
“... it’s been ages since I last saw these… hmm.” Lou rubbed his temple. These reports… parts were written by Max, parts were written by him. The photographs were old, but all too familiar. “... Rei, where did you get this?”
“I-I found it in… Max’s basement.” Rei managed to compose himself, clearing his throat as he finally found himself able to relax. “I was trying to get Baby out and I… found these down there.”
“You found these when-- wait.” Lou looked at Rei curiously. “... did you leave Max’s pet unattended?”
“What? No.” Rei shook his head. “I called Molly before I came over, asked her if she could stop by and look after the cat. I needed to see you about this ASAP.”
Lou turned his head back to the folder and scanned the contents. Unaltered, perfectly preserved… and a decade old, if not more. “Well what exactly… do you need me for then?”
“... well I just wanna know what it is.” Rei shrugged, causing Lou to purse his lips. “I mean… I know you’ve invented a lot of things, but I saw real video of Max tickling a completely fictional character, so… I wanted to know if you had anything to do with it.”
“That seems like a very odd reason to seek me specifically out and not Max himself.” Lou noted, adjusting his glasses.
The Zangoose shrugged. “Well, Max was busy, and I saw your name signed at the bottom of a few of the documents, so there’s my other reason.”
“... right.” Lou passed the folder back to Rei and got up from the beanbag. “Well, there’s not much to say. This record is just one of few, from a now defunct business.”
As Lou began to walk away, Rei blinked and stood up to follow. “... that’s it? That’s all you’re gonna tell me?”
“What more is there to say?” Lou shrugged, returning to one of his various work tables. “... well I suppose the better question is, what more would you like to know?”
Rei rolled his eyes. “Um, everything? How this is even POSSIBLE? What do you mean by BUSINESS?”
“... it was possible with older technology and by business I mean… business.” Lou pursed his lips. “... what did you think I meant?”
“Bleh.” Rei stuck out his tongue. “You guys had a business about tickling characters that don’t exist?”
“A long time ago, yes.” Lou turned away and rested his elbows on the table, placing his hands under his chin and becoming lost in a recollection of thoughts. “The old machine we used to ‘jump’, so to speak… took up an immense amount of power. The amount of power outages the city faced was embarrassing, even for me.”
Rei was intrigued, but he figured he would come back to that as he tossed the folder to the table again, right beside the cat. “... and the business went defunct? Why?”
“A variety of reasons.” Lou waved a hand dismissively, but Rei noticed his shoulders stiffened. “We had some ‘creative differences’ with an old partner… who went on to start a rival business with a partner of their own, and they shut us down, just because they wanted to screw us over. It became too much of a chore to try again, and we let it quietly die out.”
Rei felt himself tense at the sound of that. Max looked like he was having fun in the video… and some assholes forced their business to shut down? No wonder Max didn’t talk about it, but that did beg the question…
“... what about the other business?”
“Gone.” Lou answered quickly, closing his eyes. “They weren’t that into the practice -- all they wanted was to ruin us.”
Rei went silent, not having any response to that. He just felt… oddly sad, and he wasn’t completely sure why. This had nothing to do with him, but with how much Max seemed to enjoy it… he could only wonder how the dog must’ve felt.
He was surprised to hear Lou chuckle a bit, as his tail flicked softly.
“... I won’t lie -- I feel a bit… nostalgic reading that file. I didn’t think I’d ever… miss the old project.” The tuxedo cat turned and gave the Zangoose a satisfied smile. “Congratulations Rei, you’ve surprised me today.”
Rei, however, didn’t look as satisfied. “... did Max have fun?”
“Oh, of course.” Lou shrugged, smile fading to a look of indifference once again. “He had the time of his life. Every job we had, he was very eager to get it done. He worked well with Chipper, up until he returned to his home dimension… your point being?”
Lou may have been confused as to why Rei was asking so many questions about this, but the Zangoose had already figured things out. He stuck a finger in the tuxedo cat’s chest, and Lou briefly flinched, before giving his friend a curious gaze.
“If that old machine was really that inefficient, then let’s make a new one.” He smiled softly. “You and me. What do ya say?”
Lou’s eyes widened, and he snorted a bit, scoffing. “Ha, that’s pretty sudden of you -- where’s this coming from?”
“It’s coming from a drive to make my friends happy and give them something they would love?” The cat shrugged. “This wasn’t what I was expecting to do today but, I’m set on this.”
“What, so you want to invent a new machine to… restart the business?” Lou folded his arms. “That doesn’t sound very practical.”
“And why doesn’t it?”
“Because it would be a hass--”
“That was Max’s excuse, wasn’t it?”
Lou opened his mouth to respond, but stopped himself. He bit his lip and gripped one of the sleeves of his lab coat.
Rei softened a bit. “... what’s the real reason?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you -- which is not a sentence I’d ever thought that I’D say.” Lou chuckled a bit.
The Zangoose just stood there silently, looking very expectantly at the tuxedo cat.
Lou felt the answer bubbling inside of him, but being able to say it… didn’t feel like him. He didn’t quite understand why he was feeling the way he did. What kind of answer WAS this? First the nostalgia, and now the… the… worry?
“... I wouldn’t want it to fail again.” He softly admitted, turning away in his chair.
The answer was not what Rei had expected, but the ensuing silence told him that Lou wasn’t going to say much more on the matter. It was not in his nature to, anyhow.
“Well it won’t fail this time, if we do something more cost-effective and less… resourcefully-expensive?” Rei shrugged, putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “C’mon -- let’s give it a shot. I want to give both of you this.”
Lou was not the emotionally charged and vulnerable type. He was a reserved and logical creature of habit. Though he did respect and cherish Rei as one of his best friends, even around him he, for the most part, kept his walls up.
He took those walls down and gave a rare, warm smile, before standing up and adjusting his glasses. “... very well -- I could use a challenge. Breaking out and updating age old schematics with a new lab partner does sound very… enticing.”
Lou gave Rei a bit of a smirk, something Rei chuckled sheepishly at. “Haha… I may know a thing or two about inventing but I’m clueless when it comes to something like a ‘dimension jumper’ so I’ll be asking a lot of questions.”
“Perfect~.” Lou walked past his friend, and Rei eagerly followed as they went deeper into the lab. “Absolutely perfect.”
Rei blinked, confused. “Why is that perfect?”
“Because answering the questions through our work will be the fun part.”
It turned out that “the fun part” occurred quite often. This was mainly due to the fact that Rei, for obvious reasons, was helping build the most complicated piece of machinery he had ever worked on. So much so, that he often had to ask questions for dumbing-down versions of Lou’s answers to previous questions -- something the tuxedo cat wasn’t too fond of, but obliged anyway.
One of the few questions that Rei did understand was regarding the target-size of the machine. According to Lou, the previous one was the size of a full room. His… former assistant -- the one who betrayed him and Max -- somehow managed to compact it into the size of a wristwatch. While Lou himself, admittedly, never figured out how she accomplished this, he was confident that this new machine could be compacted into something more of a human-sized capsule. Maybe a little bigger if Max planned on taking company with him.
Rei was hopeful and confident that they could get it done, so far as he followed Lou’s direction. The cat most certainly seemed to know what he was talking about, at least -- so much so that Rei was still feeling that confidence high by the time the first day of work had ended. They both agreed to keep it a secret strictly between them until the big unveiling to Max. Even Molly was kept out of the loop, which made Rei feel a little uneasy, but knew it would be worth it in the end.
Finally, after several weeks of working on it -- a record time, according to Lou, as the first took him over a year just to design the concept and then another two to actually build it -- the device was completed, featuring a glass capsule fit for two atop a platform that looked high-tech.
“Alright,” Lou replied with a light chuckle, having the look of someone who had done this sort of thing a million times over, yet wasn’t anywhere near bored of it yet. “Now. Time to test it. In, you go!”
Lou had rounded behind Rei and tried pushing him into the machine, much to Rei’s confusion -- and, mildly, amusement, as Lou’s physical strength was revealed to not be his biggest… well… strength, for the Zangoose had not budged an inch.
“... What?” Rei asked, looking over at the cat. “Why don’t you go in? You designed it and did most of the building and--”
“Precisely,” Lou replied, as though he were surprised the point wasn’t obvious. “This is something highly experimental. If something goes wrong and you get stuck or something comes in or something along those lines, I need to be on this side so that I can diagnose, reverse the consequence, and fix the problem at a moment’s notice.”
Rei furrowed his brow. The cat made a good point, but that didn’t mean he was happy to be a lab rat. Regardless, he let out a sigh and walked over to the machine. Putting up a fight would just be a waste of time, and he didn’t want to endanger Lou’s safety anymore than his own.
“So… where are you going to send me?” The Zangoose asked, stepping into the glass pod and allowing Lou to seal the door once he was securely inside. Rei tried not to feel too antsy or claustrophobic upon recognizing his entrapment, and what the machine was about to attempt to do to him. “... preferably somewhere safe?”
“Well, assuming the calculations ARE correct…” Lou returned to the control panel and scanned the various numbers littering the computer screen embedded in the structure, before he smacked away at the keyboard keys and typed in a set of coordinates upon a program line. “... I should be able to, at the very least, teleport you outside of the machine and into the room. Something simple, before we get to the crazier stuff… I’d rather ensure this works and you remain in THIS dimension before we take any big risks.”
“Sounds… like an okay plan to me.” Rei nodded, trying to relax as the tuxedo cat gave a half-hearted thumbs up, before he smacked the button on the panel.
The machine rumbled only once, for a brief moment, as it began to startup -- and a bright light emerged from a bulb on the top of the chamber. It engulfed the inner pod and Rei yipped as he found his body completely encased in the light. A loud whirring echoed within the lab, and the vibrations reverberated off the walls.
Then there was a soft, sparky flash, and the chamber was empty. Rei was gone.
Lou’s eyes widened, the results being different than what he had thought to happen -- perhaps his earlier tenure with an older, more taxing machine had clouded his expectations. But his concern began to rise as the silence lingered, Rei’s form nowhere in sight. Lou was far from a pessimist, but he certainly didn’t want to think he’d just vaporized one of his best friends.
That was when, suddenly, a blob of light flashed into existence just to the side of the machine, and it faded to reveal a dazed and confused Rei, wobbling and trying to stand upright.
“A-Ahhh… I-I’m baaaaaack…” Rei tried to blink all the blurriness from his eyes, as he slumped against the device.
An elated smile formed on Lou’s face. Feelings of nostalgic wonder flooded back to the cat in ways he didn’t expect. He couldn’t remember being this happy back then -- he was certainly intrigued and invested. Perhaps it was because… no, but maybe… what was the reason?
Regardless, the cat hurried over to try and help the Zangoose up -- almost comically falling over as he failed to do so, with Rei picking himself up anyway -- before hugging him tight. “BRILLIANT!”
Rei snapped out of his daze and awkwardly returned the hug. “... did you just shout?”
Lou pulled back and chuckled a bit dryly, adjusting his glasses and returning to the main control panel. “There’s a lot of satisfaction in seeing an old device reimagined into something far greater… plus I’m just as pleased to know you were safely transported.”
“Nyaaah, I wouldn’t say ‘safe’...” The Zangoose rubbed his eyes. “I feel dizzy, and the light was really bright…”
“I suppose we can tone down the brightness by reducing the power.” Lou noted, writing some notes on a little sheet of paper that he kept close to the keyboard. “But thankfully, even the most minute reduction in power won’t affect the machine’s capabilities… there’s something truly wondrous about how much flexibility we have to work with!”
Rei couldn’t recall a time he had seen Lou’s face light up like this, if ever. Perhaps moments like these were truly rare -- and only came up when the genius cat found himself all ensnared in his work. But he wasn’t complaining, he was thrilled to know the device worked and that Lou was happy.
But now came the real test.
“Alright, gather up the equipment.” Lou clasped his hands together. “Time for your first jump.”
“R-Right,” Rei replied, still a little disoriented as he began stumbling over to the machine once more.
“Whoa-whoawhowhoa!! Hold up!” Lou quickly interrupted, rushing over to Rei and forcing something into his hand. “Do NOT forget this.”
Confused, Rei looked down at what Lou had given him. It looked like a smartphone, only a little bulkier, with a dark-grey case and only one button on the side, where his thumb naturally went.
“... What is this?” the Zangoose asked.
“That’s the equipment I told you to gather,” the cat replied as he returned to the main control panel. “That’s a return device -- Max often called it the tether. I’ll spare you the details of how its signal cuts through universes to remotely activate this machine here, but it does. Furthermore, it’s lead-infused titanium-diamond casing ensures that it’d survive anything. Just in case something goes wrong.”
Rei’s blood went a little cold at that last bit.
“Wait… what COULD go wrong?” he asked, his voice quavering a little.
“Hmm?” Lou hummed, looking over at him. “Oh, nothing that couldn’t be reversed swiftly. It’s just some very precise measurements we’d have to do. Otherwise something could come in instead of you being sent somewhere, or you could be irradiated, or stuck, or -- and this is highly unlikely, as I’ve already made a repair for this back in the day -- your clothes could be vaporized during travel.”
Rei’s eyes went wide and he suddenly found himself very lucid. This was, suddenly, not sounding like a good idea at all.
“But you have the return device on hand,” Lou continued nonchalantly, as if he didn’t just list some horrifying and embarrassing possibilities. “So getting stuck shouldn’t be an issue, the clothes thing shouldn’t happen again -- and if it does, I have some spare ones handy -- and I have a decontamination station ready for use to remove any radiation as quickly as possible from your person just in case. But I’ve checked, double-checked, and triple-checked the coding every day these last few weeks just to be precise. So those are very slim in terms of probability -- next to impossible. The only thing of real worry would be if we accidentally summoned something instead. Because I may have accidentally copied the return code without realizing.”
“I thought you made super-sure you were precise!” Rei pointed out, his confidence these past few weeks vanishing.
“I did,” Lou clarified. “I can remove all possibility of dangerous error, but I’m not perfect, nor infallible. If there is a mistake, we’ll see it when the code runs and I can fix it.”
“C-Can’t we send in a dummy or something?!” Rei suggested, dreading the thought of going in there.
Lou just looked at him.
“... And how, pray-tell, is a dummy supposed to relay information to me or use the return device?”
Rei opened his mouth to answer, paused, then shut it quickly. He did not have an answer for that one.
“You’ll be fine,” Lou tried to reassure. “I’ll even try to send you somewhere you’d enjoy. Care to name a fictional world you’ve always wanted to visit?”
… well that was a loaded question.
Rei stood there quietly, trying to come up with an answer. He almost thought it’d be easy, but… so many possibilities flooded his mind. This machine could send him to any world… theoretically speaking. Any potentially existent dimension. And he had to choose one to go to? What would make the most sense as a logical first choice? What would be the perfect world to travel to? How could he take this big step forward in the best way possible?
“... surprise me.” The Zangoose finally settled, surprising Lou a bit. “Send me somewhere you’ve sent Max before.”
The tuxedo cat blinked, but he looked down at the keyboard and screen without another word and typed in a set of coordinates he had burned into his memory -- it felt odd typing them in once again after all these years. Then, giving Rei a thumbs up, he pressed the button on the control panel.
With a reduced voltage in the light above him, Rei wasn’t dazed or surprised when he was engulfed in the flash -- and in a blip, the light had faded… as smoke filled the chamber. A loud hissing filled the room as Lou watched curiously. The machine door opened and Rei stumbled out, coughing and waving the smoke away from his face.
“Bleh! Ugh, that sucked…!” He groaned, rubbing his eyes. “Mouthful of exhaust…!”
“... oh dear.” Lou frowned and quickly grabbed his clipboard sheet full of notes again. “Did I not use enough energy? Did it short circuit…?”
Rei just spat a bit of the remaining bad taste out of his mouth, failing to notice what had begun to emerge from the machine behind him. “Well whatever happened, can we not make it happen again…?”
“I’d like to avoid--” Lou stopped, his eyes widening as he glanced at Rei.
The Zangoose began to look more confused -- entirely oblivious to the large, abstract, disembodied purple tentacles that emerged from the smoky machine right behind him, and began to close in on him. The sight alone had distracted the tuxedo cat for a moment too long -- he only snapped to attention a moment too late.
The machine didn’t send Rei anywhere -- but somehow, it brought something unwanted here.
He instinctively dropped his clipboard and reached a hand out, as if it would somehow help. “Rei, look out--!”
But Rei yelped as the tentacles suddenly latched onto him, slithering around him and coiling him tight as he let out a shriek. The sight made Lou stop and freeze in fear.
“G-GAH!” Rei squirmed and shook, heart pounding in his chest. “W-What the h-h-hell?!”
Lou’s eyes continued to remain as wide as saucers, as he watched Rei be lifted into the air, the cat-mongoose squirming and kicking about in a vain attempt to escape. “How did… how…?!”
“L-LOU GET ME D-DOWN FROM HERE!!” Rei yelled, trying to focus on… well, anything. He was panicking too much to concentrate on using a Thunderbolt or Ice Beam attack… and his tight coiling made it impossible to grab and pull away.
Almost as if a switch had been flipped, Lou quickly went into work mode. Snapping his eyes back to the monitor as he studied the code while it ran, trying to locate where something had gone wrong. So focused was he on finding the error that he hadn’t noticed one of the tentacles slithering towards him.
“L-LOU!!” Rei called out as he took notice. “WATCH OU-HEEHEEHEEHEEE~!!” the Zangoose began to giggle, squirming about in the creature’s hold as its many limbs started poking at his belly.
Lou, however, remained oblivious. He needed to find out where things had gone wrong.
“Stabilizer? No. Precision tearing? … That’ll need to be tweaked, but that didn’t cause this. Coordinate-- whoa… that was WAY off,” Lou muttered to himself as he continued scouring through the code. “Aha!” he eventually cried out in triumph. “Found i--!”
The screen had vanished from Lou’s sight and the world seemed to flip up-side down as he felt something grab ahold of his ankle and hoist him into the air. The cat blinked, feeling his glasses and his lab coat slip a little. Nonchalantly, he pressed his glasses up against his face.
“... I had not anticipated this,” he admitted with absurd calmness despite the situation.
“WEHEHEHELL ANTIHIHIHICIPAHAHAHATE A WAHAHAHAY OUT!!” Rei shouted, panicking a lot more than Lou at the moment. The abstract beast was currently assaulting his taut tum, the tentacles stroking and slithering across his large stomach and mixing laughter amidst his terrified shrieking.
“I’m working on… it?” Lou replied, looking curiously around as more tentacles approached him and took hold of his remaining limbs with an almost gentle touch.
The cat couldn’t help but study the creature’s mannerisms. Where the tentacles were coming from, he didn’t know. They had emerged from the smoke out of nowhere and they took up most of the space in the machine by this point. Perhaps all of these tentacles were all this being had to its physical form…? He hadn’t encountered anything like this before and his innate curiosity led him to wanting to know just a little bit more about it.
“Well… whatever it is, it’s not hosti-hahahaile!!” Lou noted, before quickly falling into a giggling fit as the creature very suddenly poked and tickled its tendrils upon his vulnerable, feral-like feet. He began to squirm, but the hold on him was tight enough that it made him blush and the feeling of helplessness washed over him, much to the feline’s strange delight.
Lou was no stranger to being tickled, but it was particularly the feeling of utter helplessness and vulnerability that he really enjoyed. Though the creature evidently meant no harm, he gasped amidst his giggles as he felt his body become more taut, being stretched a bit as more slimy tendrils caressed his soles.
“Gheeheeheee~! Q-Quihihite plahahahayful ihihin fahahact~! Ahahahaheeheehee~!” the cat continued to note through his ticklish giggling.
This was not how he expected today to go whatsoever, but he wasn’t complaining.
Rei, on the other hand, was very much complaining.
“AHahahahahehehehehe s-stahahahahahap th-this thihihihihihihihihing~!!” His screams had died down and now he was just giggling like mad, trying to fight the tight hold the beast had on him as his huge belly was tickled and teased by the torturous tendrils. The Zangoose’s face had gone bright red and his eyes screwed shut, as he shook his head.
Not only was he incredibly unhappy with the ensuing tickle torture -- he frankly didn’t care how playful this beast was, he did not like this -- he was far MORE aggravated by Lou’s apparent lack of agency. He knew, first hand, that Lou got off on bondage to a degree. Having that trigger NOW? Good lord…
“L-Lohohohohohohooooouuuu m-mahahahake this st-st-stahahahahahahaaaaap~!” Rei whined, really doing his best to fight off how badly this tickled -- apparently, manic giggle fits were the best he could do. Feeling all the nerves in his tummy being stimulated by each cold, otherworldly stroke was… the worst.
And it became even more terrifying when, suddenly, he felt the cold air of the lab brush by his big feet, as his large soles became exposed to the open air once his boots had been flicked off by a stray tentacle.
Rei’s eyes bugged out wide, and his sensitive feet hadn’t even been touched yet. But they swayed and kicked about in the air, stuck out of the tentacle’s hold and left vulnerable to touch. And the thought alone of what this monster was gonna do to his poor soles drove him mad. It was unfortunate he couldn’t even see the little tendril that was creeping its way up to his plump feet, either.
“L-LOHOHOHOHOHOU H-HEHEHEHELP ALREHEHEHEADY!!” Rei shouted amidst his laughter, letting out a squeak as a cold and grimy texture began to flick upon his toes. “NYEHEHAHAHAHAAH~!!”
Lou, however, was enjoying this far too much to even hear Rei at the moment. The cat wasn’t usually a fan of getting tickled, but there was just something about being rendered completely helpless that just made him open to pretty much anything. It wasn’t like he sought out this kind of thing much, however. So, with that in mind, and with how rarely he got the chance to experience it, was it really so bad that he wanted to get to enjoy it just a little longer before figuring out a way for them to escape?
… Although, to be fair, he could at least try to think of a way out while he was enduring such euphoria. It would, at least, be fair to Rei, who clearly wasn’t having as good of a time.
“Ghyeeheehee~! Ohohohahahahaaa~!” Lou continued to giggle with delight, much to Rei’s chagrin, even as the tentacles continued to advance upon the tuxedo cat’s body -- adding more to poke at and play with his hips through his lab coat. Lou let out a ticklish yip and began to squirm and wriggle about, still unable to escape the tickling. All the while, Lou let his mind wander --trying to focus on whatever possibilities there were of getting them out of this.
Rei, meanwhile, only grew more impatient and desperate.
“LOHOHOHOOOOU~!! Y-YOOHOOHOO JEHEHEHERRK~!! TH-THIHIHIHISS IS NYAHAHAHAT THE TIHIHIME FOR YOUR FEHEHETISH!! EEP!!” The Zangoose laughed out in annoyed desperation, squeaking and squealing as he felt yet another pair of tentacles slip into his shirt and start playing with his pits. “NONONOHOHOHOOO~!! G-GEHEHEHT OUTTA THEHEHEHERE~!!”
Rei had never been tickled quite like this before -- by ravenous tentacles. But with how cold and slimy they felt as they invaded his body, he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to be doomed to this ever again. Every tingly stroke and prod to his tum and flanks, and swirl in his pits, continued to drive him up the wall. How many tentacles did this thing have??
His huge feet continued to flail about as well, still stuck out of the hold the monster had on him, with his big soles under siege from one large, rather thorough tendril that brushed its coarse, cool underside against his arches. “GYAHAHAHEHEHEHEE~!!”
Assuming they ever actually got out of this mess, Rei was definitely going to make Lou pay.
Lou, meanwhile, gave a pleased shiver as he felt more tentacles slip under his coat and start playing with his flanks. He couldn’t help but share in Rei’s curiosity about just how many tentacles this thing had -- although it was from a more scientific and excitable standpoint than the Zangoose. Unfortunately, however, he couldn’t dwell on that too much. He was supposed to be thinking of a way out of here.
“WOHOHOHAHAHEHEEEE~!!” the cat giggled, wriggling about as he tried to focus on escape rather than his own pleasure.
He thought, for one excitable moment, that perhaps if they just let the tickling last then it’ll simply let them go. He knew that this wouldn’t be satisfactory to Rei, however, and he truly had no idea how long this creature desired its brand of fun, so, he tried to think of other methods. Alas, only one came to him, and it was one he regretted -- he was a cat, after all, and equipped with claws… however, it seemed a bit too mean to hurt such a creature that brought no harm upon them.
If Rei could’ve read Lou’s mind, he’d probably have some choice words for the cat -- like how restraining and tickling them against their will was hardly considered “no harm” from his perspective. True, he did love it when it was Molly doing the tickling -- but that was different. She did it with consent, with love -- not out of nowhere and with slimy tentacles that were now starting to tease around his neck along with everywhere else!
“GHEEHEEHEEP~!! STAHPSTAHAHAHAHAAAP~!!” Rei begged, glaring at what he assumed was the lazy cat that was taking his sweet time formulating a plan. Oh, if only this thing wasn’t tickling him! He’d have probably tried to tear some of its limbs off by now. As it was, however, the overstimulation was turning him into too much of a giggly mess to fight back effectively.
Lou, on the other hand, was almost lost in a trance by now. Any and all thoughts of an escape route were interrupted by blissful stimulation from every passing second he was tickled. It was, admittedly, quite hard to focus. Yet, he still did not mind. His black and white face had turned quite the hot shade of pink as those tentacles continued to explore him, slithering around his torso and caressing his slender belly.
A part of him honestly wanted to locate this being’s realm of origin for future studies… and, as a bonus, future ‘experiences’ like this one. Even if this was, in all honesty, not his primary objective or interest, he wouldn’t be against future endeavors taking turns like this one did…
“NyeehehehahahahaHAHAHAHA~!!” Lou yelped out a loud laugh as his sides were squeezed by one tendril, while a few smaller ones returned to playing with his sensitive feet. Once again he lost his train of thought, his giggling only growing as soon as loose tentacles began to explore his own armpits. “W-WAHAHAHAHEHEHEHEHEE~!!”
Just as the intensity picked up for Lou, it continued for Rei -- who, by this point, had almost resigned to his fate.
“NYAHAHEHEHEHEHEE NAHAHAHAT TH-THE T-TUHUHUHUHUMMEEHEHEHEHEEHEE~!!” The Zangoose whined loudly amidst his laughter, tears starting to well up in his eyes and run down his beat red face.
He was too taut to effectively struggle now, his enormous belly being caressed by three little appendages. Occasionally a few began to slither upon his love handles, which sent shivers down his spine, and as they ascended to his pits, the inability to pull his arms down became even more taxing on his mind. Additionally, his trapped feet became soaked by a particularly vicious pair of feelers, which gingerly grazed upon his soles and pudgy tootsies -- almost as if they were being licked at.
“STYAHAHAHAHEHEHEHEHEHEE~!!” Rei’s eyes screwed shut, a wheeze breaking out over his intense laughter. His tummy had begun to blush from all the tickle attacking, as did his feet. Though the amount of red was nothing compared to his cheeks. “L-LOHOHOHOHOHOU P-PLEHEHEHEHEHEHEEEHEE~!!”
Rei’s pleading finally reached Lou, and the cat, getting pulled out of his pleasure-induced trance, knew that he had little time if he was going to get them out of this. He needed to act now. And he had only one workable idea in play.
Apologizing internally to the creature, Lou extended his claws and dug them as deep as they’d go into the tentacles that held his wrists in place. The tentacle monster, wherever it was originating from beyond the capsule, let out a pained shriek that tugged a little at Lou’s heartstrings before it loosened its grip around his wrists in an attempt to escape the pain.
With his arms free, Lou’s instincts kicked in and he fought back a little more frantically like a wild feral, swiping at the approaching tentacles that tried to keep tickling him before climbing up his own leg to reach the tentacles holding them and bit and scratched. With another pained shriek, the creature released Lou fully, and the cat twisted in the air, landing on his feet and hurrying over to the main control panel once more and worked fast -- kicking a mattress over to the approximate location he figured Rei might fall, re-locating the problem on the monitor, making a quick fix, and remotely activating it from there.
All at once, the creature vanished in a flash of light and Rei found himself up in the air, supported by nothing.
“GYAHEEEH~!!” Rei finally curled up, wheezing out one final laugh. He sucked in as much air as he could… when he realized he was still in the air.
That was when gravity finally took effect, and the Zangoose quickly began to plummet.
Lou watched as he fell, heading down towards the mattress… only to face-plant hard onto the laboratory floor, right next to the intended cushion. The thud made Lou wince, and he hurried over to the body of the Zangoose, who let out the lowest groan the tuxedo cat had ever heard come out of any living thing… ever.
“... are you… alright, Rei?” Lou asked softly, looking more awkward than anything.
The only response he got was a slowly raised hand that shakily turned to a middle finger.
Lou frowned before offering a hand out to the Zangoose in an effort to help him up.
“Ah. Don’t be like that,” the cat said softly. “I did the thing with the mattress as best I could under pressure.”
Rei only looked up and glared at Lou, before begrudgingly accepting his hand and pulling himself up -- ignoring the fact that the strain to do this was apparently enough to warrant a self-shoulder-massage from the tuxedo cat.
“And did you do the ‘best you could’ while we were getting tickled by the monster?” Rei spat, clearly still sore -- in more ways than one -- about this recent incident.
Lou paused for a moment, then gave a small shrug, looking neither guilty nor proud, nor entirely indifferent -- like he knew he could’ve done better in that regard, but wasn’t too broken up about it.
“It was… well… a little too fun on my end,” the cat admitted. “I didn’t entirely want it to stop.”
Rei looked like he was about to explode, but let out an exasperated sigh and massaged his temples for the time being. He knew about Lou’s… preferences. So this really shouldn’t have surprised him all that much.
“... Did you fix the issue, at least?” The Zangoose breathed out, turning his irritated focus back upon the cat.
“The main issue? Yes,” Lou answered with a nod, smiling a little. “And I discovered a couple more bugs that need ironing out, but nothing that should result in a repeat of that.”
Rei gave Lou one more look, before he sighed and smiled a bit in turn. “... alright. Think we can iron them out today?”
“Most likely, yes -- if we get to work right now.” Lou nodded and turned back around to head for the control panel. “Hopefully it will be perfectly functional by… tomorrow at the latest.”
Rei looked curious, and he slowly moved to join Lou at the panel, eyeing the data on the monitor screen. “... actually… if it takes us that long, why not just pull an all-nighter?”
“I already planned on that possibility…” Lou noted, the cat chuckling a bit. “I suppose we’re in sync in such a way.”
“Ha, maybe.” Rei chuckled. “I hope we’re also in sync on the idea of me not testing this thing again.”
Lou put a finger to his chin. “For the sake of your comfort, I suppose I can forgo using you as a lab rat.”
The Zangoose pursed his lips, looking rather unimpressed by Lou’s word choice.
But the tuxedo cat merely snickered. “What, aren’t I allowed to crack jokes?”
“It’s not like you to do so.” Rei rolled his eyes and took a seat near the panel, grabbing a clipboard and scribbling down an equation on it. “Let’s get to work. I wanna show this off to Max ASAP.”
Lou nodded and got to work, tail flicking with a bit of a smile.
“I suppose we’re in sync on that, too~.”
The afternoon hours had only just begun the following day when Max arrived outside of Lou’s lab, at the behest of a strange series of texts from Rei, and one from Lou that simply said, “Please come.” The sun beat down on the red dog as he gave a gentle knock to the lab door, hoping it’d be loud enough for them to hear. Rei and Lou had been acting very… aloof for the past few weeks. As curious as he was to what they must’ve been up to, he couldn’t get a straight answer out of them.
Max likely would’ve come anyways, but he made sure they promised to finally explain everything to him before he showed up today. With that confirmation text, he made the journey from his house to the lab. And now here he was, waiting outside for… whatever the heck was beyond those doors.
“Lou?” the red dog called out as he opened the door. He never usually needed to knock -- Lou used to find the sound disturbing during his work, and the red dog was always welcome over. Still, it had been a long while since he had actually visited the lab -- if only because Lou had moved out of it long ago, only to move back in after Rei had paid for a renovation to give it a complete makeover.
“... Whoa…” Max whispered in awe as he saw the results of said renovation for the first time. Everything looked so sleek and new and updated. He couldn’t help but smile as he thought of the kind of stuff Lou would likely be trying to invent, study, or discover in here. Regardless, however, Max still had a task. He needed to look for the cat and the Zangoose.
Pressing forward, he cleared his throat.
“Rei? You in here, too?”
“Over here, dork!” Rei’s voice playfully called out from down a hallway.
With a light chuckle and a little more confidence, the red dog made his way over.
“You know I prefer… nerd,” Max replied, slowing to a pause as he finally found them -- Lou and Rei -- and sitting between them was something he had never seen before. Some kind of man-sized capsule. Was this what they wanted to show him?
“Hey, bro~!” Rei greeted with a chuckle. “Surprise~!”
“Uh… thanks?” Max replied, with a dry chuckle of his own. “But, uh… what is it?”
“It’s the, uh… Nexus,” Lou answered. “Version 2.0. With a simpler interface, more compact space, and uses a minimal amount of energy -- to avoid blackouts or a heavy electric bill.”
Max’s eyes widened. He almost… couldn’t believe it. For the longest time, he simply stood there. Unsure of how to take this news, or even if he should approach it. Perhaps this was some kind of a dream?
… When he didn’t wake up, he eventually mustered up the nerve to cautiously approach it, if only to get a closer look.
“... What… what got you to build an updated version?” the red dog asked.
Lou simply gestured a hand over to Rei, who raised his own hand, wearing a warm smile with a light blush.
“... I found some files in your basement a few weeks ago, and… long story short, Lou and I got to work.” The Zangoose chuckled a bit. “He told me the story… and uh, it didn’t sit right with me, how it all ended.”
Max looked between the two, almost speechless. He still couldn’t quite process this all. “... you guys… did it for me?”
“Well, for all three of us. And because we could--” Lou adjusted his glasses but stopped himself as Rei gave him a bit of a look. The cat just chuckled. “Relax -- yes, Max. We wanted to do this for you most of all. But you have to thank Rei for the idea.”
Max and Rei shared a look, the red dog taking in the information as he looked his sworn brother up and down. He approached the Zangoose, and rubbed the back of his head. “... this was the big secret?”
“Yep… and somehow we kept it, heh.” Rei smiled. “And we never slipped, as persistent as you got.”
Max smiled a bit, but then he narrowed his eyes. “... wait, you were going through my private stuff? I keep those old files down in--”
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway…” Rei chuckled sheepishly and gave Max a quick shove toward the machine. “L-Look! Nexus!”
The dog stumbled a bit, and he made a mental note to give Rei a tickle later, as punishment for going through his belongings -- but he didn’t really mind all that much, to be honest. His eyes rested themselves upon the machine. Max reached out and rubbed a fuzzy hand across the sleek, glass exterior.
Suddenly, memories rushed back to him of all the adventures that he had, all those years ago. He felt his tail twitch and wag -- and he felt his heart sink as he remembered how it all came to an end. The dog was… fine with it for so long. Or at least, he convinced himself he was. He didn’t realize how much he missed it until… now.
Rei frowned a bit, a bit perturbed by Max’s silence. “... you… uh… are you okay bro?”
The response Rei got was a bit surprising, as Max quickly turned around and lunged at him, arms wrapping around him tightly as his tail wagged about behind him. Rei stumbled back with a gasp, but he quickly returned the brotherly embrace.
“Th-Thank you so much, you big dork…!” Max chuckled a bit, voice cracking. It wasn’t what he expected to make him feel… emotional, but something evidently overcame him. Maybe it was the lengths his two best friends had gone through for this. Their motives behind it.
Rei chuckled a bit, purring softly as he gave his older brother a squeeze. “Eheh… you’re welcome, bro. Lou and I worked our asses off… we’re glad you love it~.”
Lou smiled and approached the two, putting a hand on Max’s shoulder -- and briefly squeaking as Max suddenly pulled him into the hug, but he calmed down rather quickly once he realized there was no way out of the embrace of the two fuzzy dorks. Even if he wasn’t one for big hugs, Lou didn’t mind this one.
“You guys are awesome… really.” Max beamed, pulling back. Rei had never seen such giddiness on the dog’s face before now. Even Lou tried to recall the last time. “This thing really works? Even better than the old one??”
Lou nodded rather proudly, the cat gesturing to the control panel. “Everything can be controlled from right there, and travel is nearly instantaneous. Rei and I also came up with quite a few additional tools for any jumps, to make things more convenient and efficient.”
“We did our best to make this the best version of the Nexus possible.” Rei nodded, crossing his arms. “It’s the perfect version for the business!”
Max’s ears twitched. “... business?”
The tuxedo cat sighed a bit, but he let out a dry chuckle. “Rei talked a lot about getting the business up and running during our work sessions… I knew that would be a key goal from the get-go, but for someone who had no part in the original… he certainly was the most excited.”
“I know I’m no first-generation jumper…” Rei stuck out his tongue. “... but, if you wanna give your dream job another go, bro… I’d love to do it with you.”
That really hit Max somewhere deep, and he felt the smile on his face form before he even knew he was smiling. A warmth filled the dog, a grand sense of familiarity and satisfaction. Above all, it was the idea that something he loved was finally coming back to him. Perhaps, to some, or many, this kind of work was such a silly thing to love… but he found it fun, and held it close to his heart.
The dog had thought his business was long dead, and here he was, staring at his brother, who was steering the ship of its revival.
“... Rei, you really are… something else.” Max chuckled and pulled the Zangoose into another embrace. “Thank you bro… it’d mean the world to start up the business again with you by my side~.”
Rei giggled and hugged Max back, squeezing him. “I was hoping you’d say that… this is gonna be so much fun!”
Lou smiled and cleared his throat. “Ahem -- since we’re going to be using this device a lot, shall we go over the other equipment we put together?”
“I got a better idea -- let’s test them out ourselves.” Rei beamed. “Let’s jump!”
“Eh?” Max gasped a bit. “Right… right now?”
“Really?” Lou’s tail bobbed curiously. “Didn’t you say yesterday you didn’t want to step foot in there after--”
“SHUSH.” Rei suddenly hissed, before putting a smile back on. “Let’s just do a fun one, let’s get this thing rolling for ourselves before we make it a job!”
Max giggled a bit and nodded, wagging his tail. “I’d love that, let’s do it~!”
The cat blinked but chuckled, giving a nod. “I can’t lie… I’m pretty eager to take part, myself~.”
“Heck yeah! Let’s get this started!” Rei grinned, before looking at his brother. “Max, you go ahead and pick. Where are we jumping?”
Max went quiet, and he zoned out a bit as he went into deep thought. It had been… so, so long since he had this chance last. And now, he had the opportunity right there at his fuzzy red fingertips. There were so many possibilities, old and new… where to go first?
Then, he smiled, and put his hands together. “... I may have an idea.”
With the coordinates for the chosen dimension typed into the machine, Lou gathered up the necessary equipment that he and Rei had put together, into two neat little slate gray backpacks that he handed off to his friends. Taking his spot at the control panel, Rei and Max put their packs on and stood side by side within the machine.
Max exhaled, feeling a bit anxious -- but mostly excited. This machine, this new, sleek machine… was the new Nexus. It was, at its core, the device he had used all those years ago, with Lou and Chipper and…
He sighed a bit -- the last business had ended so badly. Max was far from a pessimist, but if history dared repeat itself, the last thing he wanted was for Rei to get swept up in that drama…
But one look at his eager brother’s face put his mind at ease. He smiled and took Rei’s hand, excited to start up the new era of this line of work with him. Rei said nothing and just shared a happy gaze with his best friend.
“Alright, are you two ready?” Lou called out from his spot at the control panel. “This won’t hurt, but your bodies probably are not going to be used to this new machine so soon... so you may feel a bit dizzy arriving on the other end.”
“Eh, a little daze is worth it~.” Rei shrugged, pumping his fists excitedly. “Let’s go, let’s go! This marks the return of…! Uh…”
He stopped and looked confused. “... well damn, we need a name.”
Lou was at a loss for words as much as Max was. True, none of them had come up with a name for the business -- or, rather, a new one.
“What was the old one called?” Rei asked.
“The Professional Ticklers Association.” Max replied. “PTA for short, I suppose.”
Rei blinked. “I swear that abbreviation was already taken.”
Max shrugged. “Small world, I suppose.”
“Question is, do we reuse that name, or come up with a new one…?” Lou pondered.
“... I got it.” The red dog grinned. “The… New Professional Ticklers Association?”
Rei deadpanned, shaking his head. “That’s incredibly boring.”
“I’m not good at on the spot naming. Hush.” Max stuck his tongue out at him.
“Hmm… Raining Cats and Dog?” Lou suggested, smirking a bit at his own admittedly terrible pun, which earned him a groan from the two inside the pod.
“You shush, you’re not supposed to be the comedian here!” The Zangoose retaliated, earning a nonchalant shrug from the cat. He went back to thinking when he gasped. “I got it… Dog & Co. Tickle Freaks!”
Max and Lou went silent at that, taking in the name Rei had suggested. Max just raised an eyebrow. “... I wouldn’t call us SUPER freaky… and, it’s not just my business. It’s all of ours.”
“Uh, yeah.” Rei rolled his eyes. “Hence the ‘Co’ part… from five seconds ago.”
The red dog snorted. “C’mon. I want you guys to have equal naming rights to this. We all deserve it.”
Rei smiled, blushing a bit. “I suppose… we can workshop it when we come back. Right?”
“Definitely.” Max nodded, before looking out to the tuxedo cat. “Alright Lou… start ‘er up! Send NPTA away!”
“Nuh-uh, send DCTF away!” Rei gave his brother a shove, and the two shared a giggle.
Their laughter echoed in the pod as a flash of light zapped them both out of this existence and into another, leaving Lou alone in the lab. The tuxedo cat raised his finger from the button and chuckled a bit, moving over to a separate table and opening up a laptop. He opened up a new word file and began to type away.
“Have a good first jump… RC&D.” He chuckled a bit at his own horrendous joke, as he started putting together a bit of a log.
The first log in ages. The first report for the new era.
It was finally time to begin again.
-----------------------------------------
“Alright, Rei, I’m going to visit the cemetery for a few minutes,” Max announced as he slipped on his navy-blue cotton jacket, heading for the front door. A tired-looking anthropomorphic Zangoose wearing a green jacket over a white tee, blue jeans, and slightly grey socks emerged from the guest-room, rubbing the sleep from his eyes in response, not really understanding what was going on, but merely responding to his name being called.
It had been a good three days since he paid Joeanna’s gravesite a visit. He still usually visited her daily, but his visits have fluctuated ever since Rei helped him out with a one-time seance to get some closure -- and also helped him get a girlfriend some time later. He still missed her, of course, but was more at peace with her passing and still wanted to keep her updated on his life whenever he could.
“Keep an eye on baby, would ya?” the red dog requested, lingering in the open doorway for a moment as he awaited the tired cat’s response.
“... eh?” Rei blinked a bit before snapping out of a drowsy trance. His vision cleared and he looked at the dog, his cheeks turning a light shade of red himself. “O-Oh! Uh… yeah, sure. Eheh.” He made an attempt at a smile that only made Max frown in response; he had a feeling that the cat-mongoose didn’t exactly like the idea of being left alone.
Unsure of how else to respond, Max gave the Zangoose a nod, said “Thank you. I’ll be back in a bit,” and closed the door behind him as he left, hoping everything would be fine when he got back.
Rei stood on the spot for a moment, unsure of what to do. He still wasn’t that used to watching Max’s cat, since she hadn’t entirely warmed up to him yet. Though, he didn’t have much time to dwell on the admittedly anxiety-inducing thoughts, as he was pulled out of his stupor by a light brushing upon his leg. Looking down, he saw a golden, long-furred feral cat looking up at him and purring as she nuzzled her body against his ankles and lower legs.
“Oh… h-hey there, Baby,” he greeted, putting on a genuine smile as he bent down to pick her up and cradle her.
Contrary to what he might’ve expected, however, the young cat looked confused by the gesture and uncertain of what to do for a few moments before struggling to escape Rei’s grasp. Equally confused, Rei attempted to keep her under control and moved to try to set her down. Upon releasing her, however, the cat made a run for the basement door, which had been left slightly ajar.
“Oh… nononono!” The cat made a mad dash for the… well… cat, but missed her by a margin as she reached the basement door and slipped inside, leaving Rei to crash hard against the ground a few inches from the door in quisition.
Rei pulled himself to his feet with a grunt, and stood before the door, staring at it with worry and concern. He hesitated to open it, but after a moment, he pulled it open.
The stairway leading into pitch darkness only intimidated him more, and he reached around the inside of the door frame for a light switch, sighing with relief and relaxing a little as he felt the familiar bump on the wall and flicked it upward. Any ounce of trepidation in him had alleviated by now. However, he remembered what his immediate priority was.
“Baby…? C’mon girl… don’t hide from, uh… from Uncle Rei?”
He flicked himself in the forehead, glad nobody was around to hear him coo for a hideaway cat.
Satisfied that the basement was coated in a dim light, and that the chances of being dragged into the darkest of depths by vengeful spirits were at an acceptable low, Rei descended the stairs to begin his search. He reached the bottom step, quietly calling out for the kitty once more.
Still nothing… dammit, Max was likely going to end his existence if he couldn’t find the cat.
Rei began to search, checking around boxes and old furniture, hoping he’d stumble across a hiding spot for the cat. He rounded the corner to see what appeared to be several rows of filing cabinets.
“... what the…?” A sense of curiosity overtook the Zangoose and he ventured forth, looking them over. They each had a label--either the letter “R” or “V” followed by a number.
He stopped himself. “... should I be going through Max’s private belongings?” His eyes wandered, and he considered his options. “... ehhhhh… he can’t yell at me for things he doesn’t know.”
Opening one of the “R”-marked drawers, Rei found himself coughing as a thick smog of dust poured out into his face. He waved it away to lay his eyes on several manila folders, each containing a moderately thick stack of papers. The cat wasn’t sure what these were or where exactly to begin, so he settled on observing the one at the immediate front.
The contents of the folder appeared to be formatted like a crude report, with images tacked on by paper-clips and footnotes scribbled in varying colors of pen in the margins of the Courier New font. As confused as the cat was, he felt more inclined to read the more his eyes caught sight of Max’s name littered throughout the report, alongside a fellow by the name of Chipper, whoever he was.
The style of writing was familiar; clearly, it was written entirely by Max himself. However, the contents were absolutely peculiar, something Rei simply struggled to wrap his head around.
“... every member of the Looney Tunes cast?” He muttered to himself, eyes narrowing. “... tickled them? Tickled every single member…?? Of the Looney Tunes cast?!”
He blinked repeatedly, shaking his head in complete bewilderment. What the hell was he reading? He chuckled a bit sheepishly, completely entranced by the intriguing piece of media clutched in his fuzzy hands. Surely this must’ve been some kind of ridiculous, old fanfiction. Right?
He quickly stopped himself, however, as he remembered something: Max had mentioned that he did something like travel to alternate universes or something and did this sort of thing for his old job.
Replaying that statement of apparent fact over and over in his head made Rei question who exactly he was best friends with.
Deciding he had seen enough from that, he closed the folder and looked over the filing cabinets again. Were all of these written reports of such works? Then, suddenly, a thought hit him and he quickly replaced the folder where he found it and opened the “V” drawer that shared the same number. Within these were also folders, although they each held a single bagged USB stick.
Videos? Rei immediately thought -- which would mean that “R” was for “Reports”. I guess… the proof would be in the pudding?
He took a moment to reflect on this discovery. It seemed… obvious in hindsight -- Max was surprisingly lacking in creativity when it came to labeling things, despite being an apparent on-and-off hobbyist writer.
Rei pulled one of these bagged drives out of a random folder and had been contemplating on what to do with it when he heard a meow. His ears twitched and his eyes widened. “G-Gah--! BABY!”
He had just remembered that he had chased Max’s kitten down into the depths. Berating himself for forgetting, he hastily stuffed the drive in his pocket and looked around the room for the source of the meowing -- quickly finding Baby casually padding over in his direction.
“O-Oh gosh… phew… there you are!” Rei sighed and chuckled in relief, gently scooping the cat off the ground under his arm. “S’okay sweetie, just taking a… m-minor ride upstairs!”
The cat-and-cat duo hurried up the steps, Rei glancing behind him one last time before he emerged on the ground floor, turned the basement light off, and shut the door behind him.
“Don’t go sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong, okay?” Rei mockingly berated the cat, setting her down gently on the floor. “I mean… ignoring the fact that I did exactly that.”
Baby retreated and turned to just sit and stare at Rei.
Rei blinked at and stared back for a few minutes before shaking his head, trying to snap himself out of the awkwardness of the feral cat’s odd behavior.
“Weird little--oh!”
Remembering the bagged drive he took, he pulled it out of his pocket and stared at it.
What was on this thing? He wondered to himself.
“...I guess there’s only one way to find out,” he concluded more audibly with a shrug before heading straight for his room to get to his laptop.
Rei opened the door to what could only be described as an otaku’s paradise. What was once the minimalist guest room to the dog’s house had now been completely transformed to the embodiment of a man-cave filled with Japanese-culture. Anime and manga posters littered the walls, along with Japanese scrolls and oil paintings of Shinto shrines. The surface of the bureau was covered in One Piece and Death Note figurines, with the respective manga in stacks on the floor. Piles of anime episode collections and movies sat by the television, and a tower of Durarara!! light novels stood proudly on the nightstand to the left of the large, freshly made bed -- which was the only clean part of the bedroom, and it stood out as a result.
He blushed at the sight. Although nobody was around to see or judge him, he was not exactly proud of his mess, nor how much he seemed to trash the room he had been gifted. Nevertheless, he intended to clean it… eventually.
Rei’s laptop was sitting on the bed, plugged into a charging cord that ran under the bed to a plug behind it. He made his way over, taking care not to trip over anything, and dropped down onto the bed to open the laptop, turn it on, and insert the USB drive.
The notification of a removable device being detected appeared on screen and he navigated his way to the folder, of which contained a single video file and another folder labeled “PHOTOS”.
Rei looked between the two, unsure of what to click for a moment, before eventually deciding on the video.
“It’s what I came here to see anyway,” he justified before double-clicking and opening the file.
His video player opened up and black took over the screen for a second before, suddenly, an image popped up of a younger-looking Max without glasses and a white squirrel Rei recognized as a pachirisu standing in a lush, almost tropical-forest-like area. Max’s clothes were much the same, but looked fresher and the squirrel held some kind of device as they both looked at the camera.
“Cam-Y,” the Max on the screen called out to the camera and it turned to focus more on him. “I want you to record our progress and take pictures once the tickling starts. Make sure to get a good angle to see both the tickling and the reaction.”
The camera responded with a nodding motion and a chirping sound.
“Good girl,” Max replied, as if somehow understanding it and looking satisfied by its response, before turning his attention over to the squirrel. “So… it’s a big, black dragon with an impressive wingspan, puppy-dog-like eyes, sleeps upside down by its tail and covers itself with its wings, and… kinda looks like Stitch?”
“Yupper!” the squirrel replied with an energetically cheerful high-pitched voice and a rapid nod after checking the device he held.
“Ok, then… shouldn’t be too hard to find,” Max replied before looking off into the sky first before checking his immediate surroundings and walking off in an apparently random direction.
What was all this? Rei thought to himself as he watched Max and this squirrel make their way around an island. He had half a mind to check how long the video was and skip ahead when he saw something that made him stop.
A dragon… a freaking feral dragon flew down and landed several feet from them near a pond, thrusting its head into the water and pulling it back out to chomp down on the fresh fish it had caught. Dragon’s weren’t uncommon, of course… well, anthro ones weren’t -- feral dragons, however, were almost unheard of! Furthermore, Rei’s shock only grew when he realized that he actually recognized the dragon -- it was one he had seen before, in a movie… wasn’t it?
It was… Toothless?
“Easy now… easy,” Max’s voice came from the speakers, pulling Rei out of his stupor. Upon looking at the video it seemed like the dragon… Toothless… had taken note of them and was looking wide-eyed and uneasy by their presence. Max could be seen approaching the dragon with caution, his hands raised in surrender. “We’re not here to hurt -- GOTCHA!”
Max leapt forward and grabbed the dragon around the tail. Thoroughly startled and freaked out now, the dragon leapt and took off in flight with Max in tow and the squirrel jumped into frame just in time to latch onto Max’s tail.
Rei was momentarily confused by this development--it was often a plot point in the films that Toothless couldn’t fly.
Upon looking closer as the camera somehow moved higher and followed them to keep up with Toothless, ignoring the unfolding action scene of Max clinging onto the dragon’s tail for dear life while the squirrel advanced with remarkable precision and began brushing his bushy tail on the dragon’s belly, Rei saw it -- Toothless’ tail was somehow whole and undamaged in this video.
SLAM!!
The volume of the force of the dragon colliding on the ground made Rei recoil in shock for a moment and he took in the scene before him to try and figure out what happened.
Toothless was on the ground now, wriggling on his back while the squirrel continued to tickle him almost relentlessly while poor Max was peeling himself out of a dent in the ground.
“Ok...” Max said, sounding a little worn now after apparently getting tail-slammed by a dragon. “Ok… now I just --”
Rei winced at the sight of Max being cut off by a direct kick in the face that knocked the dog on his back.
“Oh… ow… that dragon’s got a strong kick,” Max groaned as he struggled to get back on his feet and approached with more caution this time.
Rei’s eyes couldn’t help but widen at this -- first the hard impact against the ground and then this kick to the face and Max was still getting up and shambling onward with only a few minor injuries!? Evidently the red dog was built to withstand quite a bit of damage.
Toothless looked like he was about to get kicked again when Max dodged the blow and, instead, grabbed onto the dragon’s foot and clung on as he began to furiously scribble his fingers over the sole.
The tickling session lasted for several minutes before Rei paused the video and checked the run time. The cat’s jaw dropped when he saw the video’s length.
“Wh-what the… f-f-four hours!?”
Four hours? Really? REALLY?! The Zangoose was thoroughly stupefied. What… what WAS this?! He wasn’t sure if he could watch the whole thing -- for a good ten minutes or so, Rei skimmed to various parts of the footage, witnessing a few changes in angles, scenery, and even intensity of the content shown. All the while, the younger Max seemed incredibly thrilled by the whole thing, only stopping to explain things to the camera every so often.
After a while, Rei clicked off the video and set his laptop aside with a bit of a sigh. Running a hand through the hair on his head, the cat could only think of one thing. What was he going to ask Max?
… More to the point, WOULD he even ask Max? How would the Zangoose even get around to explaining how he became privy to this information? The thought of trying to explain to the red dog that he had been snooping through his stuff… it felt horribly uncomfortable.
No, Rei decided with a shake of his head, I’m not going to go through that. I’ll just… have to put it out of mind. It’s not like I have anyone else to ask anyway.
That thought sparked a sudden idea in his head. Perhaps… there WAS someone else he could ask about this….
In a sleek, pristine building, a tuxedo cat in a long lab coat and wearing light-shielding goggles was working on something -- soldering the edges of some kind of film to the underside of a gel-like substance. He stood alone in the main workstation of what appeared to be a very high-end laboratory. It was always his, but he had abandoned it for a time before a friend of his put in the dough to renovate it for him. It was an entirely unexpected, but very welcome gesture that the cat accepted gratefully. Since then, he’s resided there, coming up with ideas in his sleep and working on various inventions during the day -- many of which had been scattered around the room.
Whatever he was working on now, however, he was intensely focused on -- zoning out the surrounding environment and even the messages his own body had been sending, such as a growling stomach and a dry mouth. These were minor inconveniences that couldn’t be tended to at the moment as far as he was concerned. His own work was far too important. So important, in fact, that if it wasn’t such a rare occurrence, he might not have noticed when someone rang the doorbell.
He paused briefly at the shrill noise, but quickly turned his attention back to what he was doing, however, opting to finish what he was doing -- getting the last of the screen attached, before finally turning off the soldering iron, removing the goggles to reveal a pair of round glasses pinching the bridge of his nose over his yellow eyes, and turned to answer the door.
“... Rei?” the cat asked, though he smiled at the sight of the panting Zangoose before him. “To what do I owe this pleasure~?”
Indeed, Rei stood there, shaking, hands on his knees as he was slightly hunched over, belting out gasps for air. On the ground beside him was his bicycle, one of the wheels still turning, slowing to stop, as the pedals twitched from recent use. Clearly, the Zangoose had just arrived, which surprised Lou -- given the distance from here to where any of his friends lived, the tuxedo cat wasn’t entirely expecting Rei to bike the entire trip.
Rei stood upright and wiped the sweat from his forehead, holding up the small manila folder he had found at the house and quickly passing it to Lou. “I-I need… you to ch-check this…”
His legs almost buckled just as Lou took the folder, and the cat tilted his head curiously at his exhausted friend. “... come inside and take a seat.”
Rei didn’t need to be told twice -- within moments the exhausted cat-mongoose had tossed his jacket onto a nearby coat rack and slumped into a beanbag chair that was pressed against the wall. Not something Lou had picked out for the lab, that particular chair was a gift from Max and Rei one prior summer, and was part of a set of three. The cat was not very partial to them at first, but it didn’t take long for them to grow on him, and he comfortably sat down in a similar bag-chair beside Rei, as he opened the manila folder and began to look over its contents.
Within a second, his eyes had narrowed, and his grip tightened. What the hell?
“... it’s been ages since I last saw these… hmm.” Lou rubbed his temple. These reports… parts were written by Max, parts were written by him. The photographs were old, but all too familiar. “... Rei, where did you get this?”
“I-I found it in… Max’s basement.” Rei managed to compose himself, clearing his throat as he finally found himself able to relax. “I was trying to get Baby out and I… found these down there.”
“You found these when-- wait.” Lou looked at Rei curiously. “... did you leave Max’s pet unattended?”
“What? No.” Rei shook his head. “I called Molly before I came over, asked her if she could stop by and look after the cat. I needed to see you about this ASAP.”
Lou turned his head back to the folder and scanned the contents. Unaltered, perfectly preserved… and a decade old, if not more. “Well what exactly… do you need me for then?”
“... well I just wanna know what it is.” Rei shrugged, causing Lou to purse his lips. “I mean… I know you’ve invented a lot of things, but I saw real video of Max tickling a completely fictional character, so… I wanted to know if you had anything to do with it.”
“That seems like a very odd reason to seek me specifically out and not Max himself.” Lou noted, adjusting his glasses.
The Zangoose shrugged. “Well, Max was busy, and I saw your name signed at the bottom of a few of the documents, so there’s my other reason.”
“... right.” Lou passed the folder back to Rei and got up from the beanbag. “Well, there’s not much to say. This record is just one of few, from a now defunct business.”
As Lou began to walk away, Rei blinked and stood up to follow. “... that’s it? That’s all you’re gonna tell me?”
“What more is there to say?” Lou shrugged, returning to one of his various work tables. “... well I suppose the better question is, what more would you like to know?”
Rei rolled his eyes. “Um, everything? How this is even POSSIBLE? What do you mean by BUSINESS?”
“... it was possible with older technology and by business I mean… business.” Lou pursed his lips. “... what did you think I meant?”
“Bleh.” Rei stuck out his tongue. “You guys had a business about tickling characters that don’t exist?”
“A long time ago, yes.” Lou turned away and rested his elbows on the table, placing his hands under his chin and becoming lost in a recollection of thoughts. “The old machine we used to ‘jump’, so to speak… took up an immense amount of power. The amount of power outages the city faced was embarrassing, even for me.”
Rei was intrigued, but he figured he would come back to that as he tossed the folder to the table again, right beside the cat. “... and the business went defunct? Why?”
“A variety of reasons.” Lou waved a hand dismissively, but Rei noticed his shoulders stiffened. “We had some ‘creative differences’ with an old partner… who went on to start a rival business with a partner of their own, and they shut us down, just because they wanted to screw us over. It became too much of a chore to try again, and we let it quietly die out.”
Rei felt himself tense at the sound of that. Max looked like he was having fun in the video… and some assholes forced their business to shut down? No wonder Max didn’t talk about it, but that did beg the question…
“... what about the other business?”
“Gone.” Lou answered quickly, closing his eyes. “They weren’t that into the practice -- all they wanted was to ruin us.”
Rei went silent, not having any response to that. He just felt… oddly sad, and he wasn’t completely sure why. This had nothing to do with him, but with how much Max seemed to enjoy it… he could only wonder how the dog must’ve felt.
He was surprised to hear Lou chuckle a bit, as his tail flicked softly.
“... I won’t lie -- I feel a bit… nostalgic reading that file. I didn’t think I’d ever… miss the old project.” The tuxedo cat turned and gave the Zangoose a satisfied smile. “Congratulations Rei, you’ve surprised me today.”
Rei, however, didn’t look as satisfied. “... did Max have fun?”
“Oh, of course.” Lou shrugged, smile fading to a look of indifference once again. “He had the time of his life. Every job we had, he was very eager to get it done. He worked well with Chipper, up until he returned to his home dimension… your point being?”
Lou may have been confused as to why Rei was asking so many questions about this, but the Zangoose had already figured things out. He stuck a finger in the tuxedo cat’s chest, and Lou briefly flinched, before giving his friend a curious gaze.
“If that old machine was really that inefficient, then let’s make a new one.” He smiled softly. “You and me. What do ya say?”
Lou’s eyes widened, and he snorted a bit, scoffing. “Ha, that’s pretty sudden of you -- where’s this coming from?”
“It’s coming from a drive to make my friends happy and give them something they would love?” The cat shrugged. “This wasn’t what I was expecting to do today but, I’m set on this.”
“What, so you want to invent a new machine to… restart the business?” Lou folded his arms. “That doesn’t sound very practical.”
“And why doesn’t it?”
“Because it would be a hass--”
“That was Max’s excuse, wasn’t it?”
Lou opened his mouth to respond, but stopped himself. He bit his lip and gripped one of the sleeves of his lab coat.
Rei softened a bit. “... what’s the real reason?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you -- which is not a sentence I’d ever thought that I’D say.” Lou chuckled a bit.
The Zangoose just stood there silently, looking very expectantly at the tuxedo cat.
Lou felt the answer bubbling inside of him, but being able to say it… didn’t feel like him. He didn’t quite understand why he was feeling the way he did. What kind of answer WAS this? First the nostalgia, and now the… the… worry?
“... I wouldn’t want it to fail again.” He softly admitted, turning away in his chair.
The answer was not what Rei had expected, but the ensuing silence told him that Lou wasn’t going to say much more on the matter. It was not in his nature to, anyhow.
“Well it won’t fail this time, if we do something more cost-effective and less… resourcefully-expensive?” Rei shrugged, putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “C’mon -- let’s give it a shot. I want to give both of you this.”
Lou was not the emotionally charged and vulnerable type. He was a reserved and logical creature of habit. Though he did respect and cherish Rei as one of his best friends, even around him he, for the most part, kept his walls up.
He took those walls down and gave a rare, warm smile, before standing up and adjusting his glasses. “... very well -- I could use a challenge. Breaking out and updating age old schematics with a new lab partner does sound very… enticing.”
Lou gave Rei a bit of a smirk, something Rei chuckled sheepishly at. “Haha… I may know a thing or two about inventing but I’m clueless when it comes to something like a ‘dimension jumper’ so I’ll be asking a lot of questions.”
“Perfect~.” Lou walked past his friend, and Rei eagerly followed as they went deeper into the lab. “Absolutely perfect.”
Rei blinked, confused. “Why is that perfect?”
“Because answering the questions through our work will be the fun part.”
It turned out that “the fun part” occurred quite often. This was mainly due to the fact that Rei, for obvious reasons, was helping build the most complicated piece of machinery he had ever worked on. So much so, that he often had to ask questions for dumbing-down versions of Lou’s answers to previous questions -- something the tuxedo cat wasn’t too fond of, but obliged anyway.
One of the few questions that Rei did understand was regarding the target-size of the machine. According to Lou, the previous one was the size of a full room. His… former assistant -- the one who betrayed him and Max -- somehow managed to compact it into the size of a wristwatch. While Lou himself, admittedly, never figured out how she accomplished this, he was confident that this new machine could be compacted into something more of a human-sized capsule. Maybe a little bigger if Max planned on taking company with him.
Rei was hopeful and confident that they could get it done, so far as he followed Lou’s direction. The cat most certainly seemed to know what he was talking about, at least -- so much so that Rei was still feeling that confidence high by the time the first day of work had ended. They both agreed to keep it a secret strictly between them until the big unveiling to Max. Even Molly was kept out of the loop, which made Rei feel a little uneasy, but knew it would be worth it in the end.
Finally, after several weeks of working on it -- a record time, according to Lou, as the first took him over a year just to design the concept and then another two to actually build it -- the device was completed, featuring a glass capsule fit for two atop a platform that looked high-tech.
“Alright,” Lou replied with a light chuckle, having the look of someone who had done this sort of thing a million times over, yet wasn’t anywhere near bored of it yet. “Now. Time to test it. In, you go!”
Lou had rounded behind Rei and tried pushing him into the machine, much to Rei’s confusion -- and, mildly, amusement, as Lou’s physical strength was revealed to not be his biggest… well… strength, for the Zangoose had not budged an inch.
“... What?” Rei asked, looking over at the cat. “Why don’t you go in? You designed it and did most of the building and--”
“Precisely,” Lou replied, as though he were surprised the point wasn’t obvious. “This is something highly experimental. If something goes wrong and you get stuck or something comes in or something along those lines, I need to be on this side so that I can diagnose, reverse the consequence, and fix the problem at a moment’s notice.”
Rei furrowed his brow. The cat made a good point, but that didn’t mean he was happy to be a lab rat. Regardless, he let out a sigh and walked over to the machine. Putting up a fight would just be a waste of time, and he didn’t want to endanger Lou’s safety anymore than his own.
“So… where are you going to send me?” The Zangoose asked, stepping into the glass pod and allowing Lou to seal the door once he was securely inside. Rei tried not to feel too antsy or claustrophobic upon recognizing his entrapment, and what the machine was about to attempt to do to him. “... preferably somewhere safe?”
“Well, assuming the calculations ARE correct…” Lou returned to the control panel and scanned the various numbers littering the computer screen embedded in the structure, before he smacked away at the keyboard keys and typed in a set of coordinates upon a program line. “... I should be able to, at the very least, teleport you outside of the machine and into the room. Something simple, before we get to the crazier stuff… I’d rather ensure this works and you remain in THIS dimension before we take any big risks.”
“Sounds… like an okay plan to me.” Rei nodded, trying to relax as the tuxedo cat gave a half-hearted thumbs up, before he smacked the button on the panel.
The machine rumbled only once, for a brief moment, as it began to startup -- and a bright light emerged from a bulb on the top of the chamber. It engulfed the inner pod and Rei yipped as he found his body completely encased in the light. A loud whirring echoed within the lab, and the vibrations reverberated off the walls.
Then there was a soft, sparky flash, and the chamber was empty. Rei was gone.
Lou’s eyes widened, the results being different than what he had thought to happen -- perhaps his earlier tenure with an older, more taxing machine had clouded his expectations. But his concern began to rise as the silence lingered, Rei’s form nowhere in sight. Lou was far from a pessimist, but he certainly didn’t want to think he’d just vaporized one of his best friends.
That was when, suddenly, a blob of light flashed into existence just to the side of the machine, and it faded to reveal a dazed and confused Rei, wobbling and trying to stand upright.
“A-Ahhh… I-I’m baaaaaack…” Rei tried to blink all the blurriness from his eyes, as he slumped against the device.
An elated smile formed on Lou’s face. Feelings of nostalgic wonder flooded back to the cat in ways he didn’t expect. He couldn’t remember being this happy back then -- he was certainly intrigued and invested. Perhaps it was because… no, but maybe… what was the reason?
Regardless, the cat hurried over to try and help the Zangoose up -- almost comically falling over as he failed to do so, with Rei picking himself up anyway -- before hugging him tight. “BRILLIANT!”
Rei snapped out of his daze and awkwardly returned the hug. “... did you just shout?”
Lou pulled back and chuckled a bit dryly, adjusting his glasses and returning to the main control panel. “There’s a lot of satisfaction in seeing an old device reimagined into something far greater… plus I’m just as pleased to know you were safely transported.”
“Nyaaah, I wouldn’t say ‘safe’...” The Zangoose rubbed his eyes. “I feel dizzy, and the light was really bright…”
“I suppose we can tone down the brightness by reducing the power.” Lou noted, writing some notes on a little sheet of paper that he kept close to the keyboard. “But thankfully, even the most minute reduction in power won’t affect the machine’s capabilities… there’s something truly wondrous about how much flexibility we have to work with!”
Rei couldn’t recall a time he had seen Lou’s face light up like this, if ever. Perhaps moments like these were truly rare -- and only came up when the genius cat found himself all ensnared in his work. But he wasn’t complaining, he was thrilled to know the device worked and that Lou was happy.
But now came the real test.
“Alright, gather up the equipment.” Lou clasped his hands together. “Time for your first jump.”
“R-Right,” Rei replied, still a little disoriented as he began stumbling over to the machine once more.
“Whoa-whoawhowhoa!! Hold up!” Lou quickly interrupted, rushing over to Rei and forcing something into his hand. “Do NOT forget this.”
Confused, Rei looked down at what Lou had given him. It looked like a smartphone, only a little bulkier, with a dark-grey case and only one button on the side, where his thumb naturally went.
“... What is this?” the Zangoose asked.
“That’s the equipment I told you to gather,” the cat replied as he returned to the main control panel. “That’s a return device -- Max often called it the tether. I’ll spare you the details of how its signal cuts through universes to remotely activate this machine here, but it does. Furthermore, it’s lead-infused titanium-diamond casing ensures that it’d survive anything. Just in case something goes wrong.”
Rei’s blood went a little cold at that last bit.
“Wait… what COULD go wrong?” he asked, his voice quavering a little.
“Hmm?” Lou hummed, looking over at him. “Oh, nothing that couldn’t be reversed swiftly. It’s just some very precise measurements we’d have to do. Otherwise something could come in instead of you being sent somewhere, or you could be irradiated, or stuck, or -- and this is highly unlikely, as I’ve already made a repair for this back in the day -- your clothes could be vaporized during travel.”
Rei’s eyes went wide and he suddenly found himself very lucid. This was, suddenly, not sounding like a good idea at all.
“But you have the return device on hand,” Lou continued nonchalantly, as if he didn’t just list some horrifying and embarrassing possibilities. “So getting stuck shouldn’t be an issue, the clothes thing shouldn’t happen again -- and if it does, I have some spare ones handy -- and I have a decontamination station ready for use to remove any radiation as quickly as possible from your person just in case. But I’ve checked, double-checked, and triple-checked the coding every day these last few weeks just to be precise. So those are very slim in terms of probability -- next to impossible. The only thing of real worry would be if we accidentally summoned something instead. Because I may have accidentally copied the return code without realizing.”
“I thought you made super-sure you were precise!” Rei pointed out, his confidence these past few weeks vanishing.
“I did,” Lou clarified. “I can remove all possibility of dangerous error, but I’m not perfect, nor infallible. If there is a mistake, we’ll see it when the code runs and I can fix it.”
“C-Can’t we send in a dummy or something?!” Rei suggested, dreading the thought of going in there.
Lou just looked at him.
“... And how, pray-tell, is a dummy supposed to relay information to me or use the return device?”
Rei opened his mouth to answer, paused, then shut it quickly. He did not have an answer for that one.
“You’ll be fine,” Lou tried to reassure. “I’ll even try to send you somewhere you’d enjoy. Care to name a fictional world you’ve always wanted to visit?”
… well that was a loaded question.
Rei stood there quietly, trying to come up with an answer. He almost thought it’d be easy, but… so many possibilities flooded his mind. This machine could send him to any world… theoretically speaking. Any potentially existent dimension. And he had to choose one to go to? What would make the most sense as a logical first choice? What would be the perfect world to travel to? How could he take this big step forward in the best way possible?
“... surprise me.” The Zangoose finally settled, surprising Lou a bit. “Send me somewhere you’ve sent Max before.”
The tuxedo cat blinked, but he looked down at the keyboard and screen without another word and typed in a set of coordinates he had burned into his memory -- it felt odd typing them in once again after all these years. Then, giving Rei a thumbs up, he pressed the button on the control panel.
With a reduced voltage in the light above him, Rei wasn’t dazed or surprised when he was engulfed in the flash -- and in a blip, the light had faded… as smoke filled the chamber. A loud hissing filled the room as Lou watched curiously. The machine door opened and Rei stumbled out, coughing and waving the smoke away from his face.
“Bleh! Ugh, that sucked…!” He groaned, rubbing his eyes. “Mouthful of exhaust…!”
“... oh dear.” Lou frowned and quickly grabbed his clipboard sheet full of notes again. “Did I not use enough energy? Did it short circuit…?”
Rei just spat a bit of the remaining bad taste out of his mouth, failing to notice what had begun to emerge from the machine behind him. “Well whatever happened, can we not make it happen again…?”
“I’d like to avoid--” Lou stopped, his eyes widening as he glanced at Rei.
The Zangoose began to look more confused -- entirely oblivious to the large, abstract, disembodied purple tentacles that emerged from the smoky machine right behind him, and began to close in on him. The sight alone had distracted the tuxedo cat for a moment too long -- he only snapped to attention a moment too late.
The machine didn’t send Rei anywhere -- but somehow, it brought something unwanted here.
He instinctively dropped his clipboard and reached a hand out, as if it would somehow help. “Rei, look out--!”
But Rei yelped as the tentacles suddenly latched onto him, slithering around him and coiling him tight as he let out a shriek. The sight made Lou stop and freeze in fear.
“G-GAH!” Rei squirmed and shook, heart pounding in his chest. “W-What the h-h-hell?!”
Lou’s eyes continued to remain as wide as saucers, as he watched Rei be lifted into the air, the cat-mongoose squirming and kicking about in a vain attempt to escape. “How did… how…?!”
“L-LOU GET ME D-DOWN FROM HERE!!” Rei yelled, trying to focus on… well, anything. He was panicking too much to concentrate on using a Thunderbolt or Ice Beam attack… and his tight coiling made it impossible to grab and pull away.
Almost as if a switch had been flipped, Lou quickly went into work mode. Snapping his eyes back to the monitor as he studied the code while it ran, trying to locate where something had gone wrong. So focused was he on finding the error that he hadn’t noticed one of the tentacles slithering towards him.
“L-LOU!!” Rei called out as he took notice. “WATCH OU-HEEHEEHEEHEEE~!!” the Zangoose began to giggle, squirming about in the creature’s hold as its many limbs started poking at his belly.
Lou, however, remained oblivious. He needed to find out where things had gone wrong.
“Stabilizer? No. Precision tearing? … That’ll need to be tweaked, but that didn’t cause this. Coordinate-- whoa… that was WAY off,” Lou muttered to himself as he continued scouring through the code. “Aha!” he eventually cried out in triumph. “Found i--!”
The screen had vanished from Lou’s sight and the world seemed to flip up-side down as he felt something grab ahold of his ankle and hoist him into the air. The cat blinked, feeling his glasses and his lab coat slip a little. Nonchalantly, he pressed his glasses up against his face.
“... I had not anticipated this,” he admitted with absurd calmness despite the situation.
“WEHEHEHELL ANTIHIHIHICIPAHAHAHATE A WAHAHAHAY OUT!!” Rei shouted, panicking a lot more than Lou at the moment. The abstract beast was currently assaulting his taut tum, the tentacles stroking and slithering across his large stomach and mixing laughter amidst his terrified shrieking.
“I’m working on… it?” Lou replied, looking curiously around as more tentacles approached him and took hold of his remaining limbs with an almost gentle touch.
The cat couldn’t help but study the creature’s mannerisms. Where the tentacles were coming from, he didn’t know. They had emerged from the smoke out of nowhere and they took up most of the space in the machine by this point. Perhaps all of these tentacles were all this being had to its physical form…? He hadn’t encountered anything like this before and his innate curiosity led him to wanting to know just a little bit more about it.
“Well… whatever it is, it’s not hosti-hahahaile!!” Lou noted, before quickly falling into a giggling fit as the creature very suddenly poked and tickled its tendrils upon his vulnerable, feral-like feet. He began to squirm, but the hold on him was tight enough that it made him blush and the feeling of helplessness washed over him, much to the feline’s strange delight.
Lou was no stranger to being tickled, but it was particularly the feeling of utter helplessness and vulnerability that he really enjoyed. Though the creature evidently meant no harm, he gasped amidst his giggles as he felt his body become more taut, being stretched a bit as more slimy tendrils caressed his soles.
“Gheeheeheee~! Q-Quihihite plahahahayful ihihin fahahact~! Ahahahaheeheehee~!” the cat continued to note through his ticklish giggling.
This was not how he expected today to go whatsoever, but he wasn’t complaining.
Rei, on the other hand, was very much complaining.
“AHahahahahehehehehe s-stahahahahahap th-this thihihihihihihihihing~!!” His screams had died down and now he was just giggling like mad, trying to fight the tight hold the beast had on him as his huge belly was tickled and teased by the torturous tendrils. The Zangoose’s face had gone bright red and his eyes screwed shut, as he shook his head.
Not only was he incredibly unhappy with the ensuing tickle torture -- he frankly didn’t care how playful this beast was, he did not like this -- he was far MORE aggravated by Lou’s apparent lack of agency. He knew, first hand, that Lou got off on bondage to a degree. Having that trigger NOW? Good lord…
“L-Lohohohohohohooooouuuu m-mahahahake this st-st-stahahahahahahaaaaap~!” Rei whined, really doing his best to fight off how badly this tickled -- apparently, manic giggle fits were the best he could do. Feeling all the nerves in his tummy being stimulated by each cold, otherworldly stroke was… the worst.
And it became even more terrifying when, suddenly, he felt the cold air of the lab brush by his big feet, as his large soles became exposed to the open air once his boots had been flicked off by a stray tentacle.
Rei’s eyes bugged out wide, and his sensitive feet hadn’t even been touched yet. But they swayed and kicked about in the air, stuck out of the tentacle’s hold and left vulnerable to touch. And the thought alone of what this monster was gonna do to his poor soles drove him mad. It was unfortunate he couldn’t even see the little tendril that was creeping its way up to his plump feet, either.
“L-LOHOHOHOHOHOU H-HEHEHEHELP ALREHEHEHEADY!!” Rei shouted amidst his laughter, letting out a squeak as a cold and grimy texture began to flick upon his toes. “NYEHEHAHAHAHAAH~!!”
Lou, however, was enjoying this far too much to even hear Rei at the moment. The cat wasn’t usually a fan of getting tickled, but there was just something about being rendered completely helpless that just made him open to pretty much anything. It wasn’t like he sought out this kind of thing much, however. So, with that in mind, and with how rarely he got the chance to experience it, was it really so bad that he wanted to get to enjoy it just a little longer before figuring out a way for them to escape?
… Although, to be fair, he could at least try to think of a way out while he was enduring such euphoria. It would, at least, be fair to Rei, who clearly wasn’t having as good of a time.
“Ghyeeheehee~! Ohohohahahahaaa~!” Lou continued to giggle with delight, much to Rei’s chagrin, even as the tentacles continued to advance upon the tuxedo cat’s body -- adding more to poke at and play with his hips through his lab coat. Lou let out a ticklish yip and began to squirm and wriggle about, still unable to escape the tickling. All the while, Lou let his mind wander --trying to focus on whatever possibilities there were of getting them out of this.
Rei, meanwhile, only grew more impatient and desperate.
“LOHOHOHOOOOU~!! Y-YOOHOOHOO JEHEHEHERRK~!! TH-THIHIHIHISS IS NYAHAHAHAT THE TIHIHIME FOR YOUR FEHEHETISH!! EEP!!” The Zangoose laughed out in annoyed desperation, squeaking and squealing as he felt yet another pair of tentacles slip into his shirt and start playing with his pits. “NONONOHOHOHOOO~!! G-GEHEHEHT OUTTA THEHEHEHERE~!!”
Rei had never been tickled quite like this before -- by ravenous tentacles. But with how cold and slimy they felt as they invaded his body, he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to be doomed to this ever again. Every tingly stroke and prod to his tum and flanks, and swirl in his pits, continued to drive him up the wall. How many tentacles did this thing have??
His huge feet continued to flail about as well, still stuck out of the hold the monster had on him, with his big soles under siege from one large, rather thorough tendril that brushed its coarse, cool underside against his arches. “GYAHAHAHEHEHEHEE~!!”
Assuming they ever actually got out of this mess, Rei was definitely going to make Lou pay.
Lou, meanwhile, gave a pleased shiver as he felt more tentacles slip under his coat and start playing with his flanks. He couldn’t help but share in Rei’s curiosity about just how many tentacles this thing had -- although it was from a more scientific and excitable standpoint than the Zangoose. Unfortunately, however, he couldn’t dwell on that too much. He was supposed to be thinking of a way out of here.
“WOHOHOHAHAHEHEEEE~!!” the cat giggled, wriggling about as he tried to focus on escape rather than his own pleasure.
He thought, for one excitable moment, that perhaps if they just let the tickling last then it’ll simply let them go. He knew that this wouldn’t be satisfactory to Rei, however, and he truly had no idea how long this creature desired its brand of fun, so, he tried to think of other methods. Alas, only one came to him, and it was one he regretted -- he was a cat, after all, and equipped with claws… however, it seemed a bit too mean to hurt such a creature that brought no harm upon them.
If Rei could’ve read Lou’s mind, he’d probably have some choice words for the cat -- like how restraining and tickling them against their will was hardly considered “no harm” from his perspective. True, he did love it when it was Molly doing the tickling -- but that was different. She did it with consent, with love -- not out of nowhere and with slimy tentacles that were now starting to tease around his neck along with everywhere else!
“GHEEHEEHEEP~!! STAHPSTAHAHAHAHAAAP~!!” Rei begged, glaring at what he assumed was the lazy cat that was taking his sweet time formulating a plan. Oh, if only this thing wasn’t tickling him! He’d have probably tried to tear some of its limbs off by now. As it was, however, the overstimulation was turning him into too much of a giggly mess to fight back effectively.
Lou, on the other hand, was almost lost in a trance by now. Any and all thoughts of an escape route were interrupted by blissful stimulation from every passing second he was tickled. It was, admittedly, quite hard to focus. Yet, he still did not mind. His black and white face had turned quite the hot shade of pink as those tentacles continued to explore him, slithering around his torso and caressing his slender belly.
A part of him honestly wanted to locate this being’s realm of origin for future studies… and, as a bonus, future ‘experiences’ like this one. Even if this was, in all honesty, not his primary objective or interest, he wouldn’t be against future endeavors taking turns like this one did…
“NyeehehehahahahaHAHAHAHA~!!” Lou yelped out a loud laugh as his sides were squeezed by one tendril, while a few smaller ones returned to playing with his sensitive feet. Once again he lost his train of thought, his giggling only growing as soon as loose tentacles began to explore his own armpits. “W-WAHAHAHAHEHEHEHEHEE~!!”
Just as the intensity picked up for Lou, it continued for Rei -- who, by this point, had almost resigned to his fate.
“NYAHAHEHEHEHEHEE NAHAHAHAT TH-THE T-TUHUHUHUHUMMEEHEHEHEHEEHEE~!!” The Zangoose whined loudly amidst his laughter, tears starting to well up in his eyes and run down his beat red face.
He was too taut to effectively struggle now, his enormous belly being caressed by three little appendages. Occasionally a few began to slither upon his love handles, which sent shivers down his spine, and as they ascended to his pits, the inability to pull his arms down became even more taxing on his mind. Additionally, his trapped feet became soaked by a particularly vicious pair of feelers, which gingerly grazed upon his soles and pudgy tootsies -- almost as if they were being licked at.
“STYAHAHAHAHEHEHEHEHEHEE~!!” Rei’s eyes screwed shut, a wheeze breaking out over his intense laughter. His tummy had begun to blush from all the tickle attacking, as did his feet. Though the amount of red was nothing compared to his cheeks. “L-LOHOHOHOHOHOU P-PLEHEHEHEHEHEHEEEHEE~!!”
Rei’s pleading finally reached Lou, and the cat, getting pulled out of his pleasure-induced trance, knew that he had little time if he was going to get them out of this. He needed to act now. And he had only one workable idea in play.
Apologizing internally to the creature, Lou extended his claws and dug them as deep as they’d go into the tentacles that held his wrists in place. The tentacle monster, wherever it was originating from beyond the capsule, let out a pained shriek that tugged a little at Lou’s heartstrings before it loosened its grip around his wrists in an attempt to escape the pain.
With his arms free, Lou’s instincts kicked in and he fought back a little more frantically like a wild feral, swiping at the approaching tentacles that tried to keep tickling him before climbing up his own leg to reach the tentacles holding them and bit and scratched. With another pained shriek, the creature released Lou fully, and the cat twisted in the air, landing on his feet and hurrying over to the main control panel once more and worked fast -- kicking a mattress over to the approximate location he figured Rei might fall, re-locating the problem on the monitor, making a quick fix, and remotely activating it from there.
All at once, the creature vanished in a flash of light and Rei found himself up in the air, supported by nothing.
“GYAHEEEH~!!” Rei finally curled up, wheezing out one final laugh. He sucked in as much air as he could… when he realized he was still in the air.
That was when gravity finally took effect, and the Zangoose quickly began to plummet.
Lou watched as he fell, heading down towards the mattress… only to face-plant hard onto the laboratory floor, right next to the intended cushion. The thud made Lou wince, and he hurried over to the body of the Zangoose, who let out the lowest groan the tuxedo cat had ever heard come out of any living thing… ever.
“... are you… alright, Rei?” Lou asked softly, looking more awkward than anything.
The only response he got was a slowly raised hand that shakily turned to a middle finger.
Lou frowned before offering a hand out to the Zangoose in an effort to help him up.
“Ah. Don’t be like that,” the cat said softly. “I did the thing with the mattress as best I could under pressure.”
Rei only looked up and glared at Lou, before begrudgingly accepting his hand and pulling himself up -- ignoring the fact that the strain to do this was apparently enough to warrant a self-shoulder-massage from the tuxedo cat.
“And did you do the ‘best you could’ while we were getting tickled by the monster?” Rei spat, clearly still sore -- in more ways than one -- about this recent incident.
Lou paused for a moment, then gave a small shrug, looking neither guilty nor proud, nor entirely indifferent -- like he knew he could’ve done better in that regard, but wasn’t too broken up about it.
“It was… well… a little too fun on my end,” the cat admitted. “I didn’t entirely want it to stop.”
Rei looked like he was about to explode, but let out an exasperated sigh and massaged his temples for the time being. He knew about Lou’s… preferences. So this really shouldn’t have surprised him all that much.
“... Did you fix the issue, at least?” The Zangoose breathed out, turning his irritated focus back upon the cat.
“The main issue? Yes,” Lou answered with a nod, smiling a little. “And I discovered a couple more bugs that need ironing out, but nothing that should result in a repeat of that.”
Rei gave Lou one more look, before he sighed and smiled a bit in turn. “... alright. Think we can iron them out today?”
“Most likely, yes -- if we get to work right now.” Lou nodded and turned back around to head for the control panel. “Hopefully it will be perfectly functional by… tomorrow at the latest.”
Rei looked curious, and he slowly moved to join Lou at the panel, eyeing the data on the monitor screen. “... actually… if it takes us that long, why not just pull an all-nighter?”
“I already planned on that possibility…” Lou noted, the cat chuckling a bit. “I suppose we’re in sync in such a way.”
“Ha, maybe.” Rei chuckled. “I hope we’re also in sync on the idea of me not testing this thing again.”
Lou put a finger to his chin. “For the sake of your comfort, I suppose I can forgo using you as a lab rat.”
The Zangoose pursed his lips, looking rather unimpressed by Lou’s word choice.
But the tuxedo cat merely snickered. “What, aren’t I allowed to crack jokes?”
“It’s not like you to do so.” Rei rolled his eyes and took a seat near the panel, grabbing a clipboard and scribbling down an equation on it. “Let’s get to work. I wanna show this off to Max ASAP.”
Lou nodded and got to work, tail flicking with a bit of a smile.
“I suppose we’re in sync on that, too~.”
The afternoon hours had only just begun the following day when Max arrived outside of Lou’s lab, at the behest of a strange series of texts from Rei, and one from Lou that simply said, “Please come.” The sun beat down on the red dog as he gave a gentle knock to the lab door, hoping it’d be loud enough for them to hear. Rei and Lou had been acting very… aloof for the past few weeks. As curious as he was to what they must’ve been up to, he couldn’t get a straight answer out of them.
Max likely would’ve come anyways, but he made sure they promised to finally explain everything to him before he showed up today. With that confirmation text, he made the journey from his house to the lab. And now here he was, waiting outside for… whatever the heck was beyond those doors.
“Lou?” the red dog called out as he opened the door. He never usually needed to knock -- Lou used to find the sound disturbing during his work, and the red dog was always welcome over. Still, it had been a long while since he had actually visited the lab -- if only because Lou had moved out of it long ago, only to move back in after Rei had paid for a renovation to give it a complete makeover.
“... Whoa…” Max whispered in awe as he saw the results of said renovation for the first time. Everything looked so sleek and new and updated. He couldn’t help but smile as he thought of the kind of stuff Lou would likely be trying to invent, study, or discover in here. Regardless, however, Max still had a task. He needed to look for the cat and the Zangoose.
Pressing forward, he cleared his throat.
“Rei? You in here, too?”
“Over here, dork!” Rei’s voice playfully called out from down a hallway.
With a light chuckle and a little more confidence, the red dog made his way over.
“You know I prefer… nerd,” Max replied, slowing to a pause as he finally found them -- Lou and Rei -- and sitting between them was something he had never seen before. Some kind of man-sized capsule. Was this what they wanted to show him?
“Hey, bro~!” Rei greeted with a chuckle. “Surprise~!”
“Uh… thanks?” Max replied, with a dry chuckle of his own. “But, uh… what is it?”
“It’s the, uh… Nexus,” Lou answered. “Version 2.0. With a simpler interface, more compact space, and uses a minimal amount of energy -- to avoid blackouts or a heavy electric bill.”
Max’s eyes widened. He almost… couldn’t believe it. For the longest time, he simply stood there. Unsure of how to take this news, or even if he should approach it. Perhaps this was some kind of a dream?
… When he didn’t wake up, he eventually mustered up the nerve to cautiously approach it, if only to get a closer look.
“... What… what got you to build an updated version?” the red dog asked.
Lou simply gestured a hand over to Rei, who raised his own hand, wearing a warm smile with a light blush.
“... I found some files in your basement a few weeks ago, and… long story short, Lou and I got to work.” The Zangoose chuckled a bit. “He told me the story… and uh, it didn’t sit right with me, how it all ended.”
Max looked between the two, almost speechless. He still couldn’t quite process this all. “... you guys… did it for me?”
“Well, for all three of us. And because we could--” Lou adjusted his glasses but stopped himself as Rei gave him a bit of a look. The cat just chuckled. “Relax -- yes, Max. We wanted to do this for you most of all. But you have to thank Rei for the idea.”
Max and Rei shared a look, the red dog taking in the information as he looked his sworn brother up and down. He approached the Zangoose, and rubbed the back of his head. “... this was the big secret?”
“Yep… and somehow we kept it, heh.” Rei smiled. “And we never slipped, as persistent as you got.”
Max smiled a bit, but then he narrowed his eyes. “... wait, you were going through my private stuff? I keep those old files down in--”
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway…” Rei chuckled sheepishly and gave Max a quick shove toward the machine. “L-Look! Nexus!”
The dog stumbled a bit, and he made a mental note to give Rei a tickle later, as punishment for going through his belongings -- but he didn’t really mind all that much, to be honest. His eyes rested themselves upon the machine. Max reached out and rubbed a fuzzy hand across the sleek, glass exterior.
Suddenly, memories rushed back to him of all the adventures that he had, all those years ago. He felt his tail twitch and wag -- and he felt his heart sink as he remembered how it all came to an end. The dog was… fine with it for so long. Or at least, he convinced himself he was. He didn’t realize how much he missed it until… now.
Rei frowned a bit, a bit perturbed by Max’s silence. “... you… uh… are you okay bro?”
The response Rei got was a bit surprising, as Max quickly turned around and lunged at him, arms wrapping around him tightly as his tail wagged about behind him. Rei stumbled back with a gasp, but he quickly returned the brotherly embrace.
“Th-Thank you so much, you big dork…!” Max chuckled a bit, voice cracking. It wasn’t what he expected to make him feel… emotional, but something evidently overcame him. Maybe it was the lengths his two best friends had gone through for this. Their motives behind it.
Rei chuckled a bit, purring softly as he gave his older brother a squeeze. “Eheh… you’re welcome, bro. Lou and I worked our asses off… we’re glad you love it~.”
Lou smiled and approached the two, putting a hand on Max’s shoulder -- and briefly squeaking as Max suddenly pulled him into the hug, but he calmed down rather quickly once he realized there was no way out of the embrace of the two fuzzy dorks. Even if he wasn’t one for big hugs, Lou didn’t mind this one.
“You guys are awesome… really.” Max beamed, pulling back. Rei had never seen such giddiness on the dog’s face before now. Even Lou tried to recall the last time. “This thing really works? Even better than the old one??”
Lou nodded rather proudly, the cat gesturing to the control panel. “Everything can be controlled from right there, and travel is nearly instantaneous. Rei and I also came up with quite a few additional tools for any jumps, to make things more convenient and efficient.”
“We did our best to make this the best version of the Nexus possible.” Rei nodded, crossing his arms. “It’s the perfect version for the business!”
Max’s ears twitched. “... business?”
The tuxedo cat sighed a bit, but he let out a dry chuckle. “Rei talked a lot about getting the business up and running during our work sessions… I knew that would be a key goal from the get-go, but for someone who had no part in the original… he certainly was the most excited.”
“I know I’m no first-generation jumper…” Rei stuck out his tongue. “... but, if you wanna give your dream job another go, bro… I’d love to do it with you.”
That really hit Max somewhere deep, and he felt the smile on his face form before he even knew he was smiling. A warmth filled the dog, a grand sense of familiarity and satisfaction. Above all, it was the idea that something he loved was finally coming back to him. Perhaps, to some, or many, this kind of work was such a silly thing to love… but he found it fun, and held it close to his heart.
The dog had thought his business was long dead, and here he was, staring at his brother, who was steering the ship of its revival.
“... Rei, you really are… something else.” Max chuckled and pulled the Zangoose into another embrace. “Thank you bro… it’d mean the world to start up the business again with you by my side~.”
Rei giggled and hugged Max back, squeezing him. “I was hoping you’d say that… this is gonna be so much fun!”
Lou smiled and cleared his throat. “Ahem -- since we’re going to be using this device a lot, shall we go over the other equipment we put together?”
“I got a better idea -- let’s test them out ourselves.” Rei beamed. “Let’s jump!”
“Eh?” Max gasped a bit. “Right… right now?”
“Really?” Lou’s tail bobbed curiously. “Didn’t you say yesterday you didn’t want to step foot in there after--”
“SHUSH.” Rei suddenly hissed, before putting a smile back on. “Let’s just do a fun one, let’s get this thing rolling for ourselves before we make it a job!”
Max giggled a bit and nodded, wagging his tail. “I’d love that, let’s do it~!”
The cat blinked but chuckled, giving a nod. “I can’t lie… I’m pretty eager to take part, myself~.”
“Heck yeah! Let’s get this started!” Rei grinned, before looking at his brother. “Max, you go ahead and pick. Where are we jumping?”
Max went quiet, and he zoned out a bit as he went into deep thought. It had been… so, so long since he had this chance last. And now, he had the opportunity right there at his fuzzy red fingertips. There were so many possibilities, old and new… where to go first?
Then, he smiled, and put his hands together. “... I may have an idea.”
With the coordinates for the chosen dimension typed into the machine, Lou gathered up the necessary equipment that he and Rei had put together, into two neat little slate gray backpacks that he handed off to his friends. Taking his spot at the control panel, Rei and Max put their packs on and stood side by side within the machine.
Max exhaled, feeling a bit anxious -- but mostly excited. This machine, this new, sleek machine… was the new Nexus. It was, at its core, the device he had used all those years ago, with Lou and Chipper and…
He sighed a bit -- the last business had ended so badly. Max was far from a pessimist, but if history dared repeat itself, the last thing he wanted was for Rei to get swept up in that drama…
But one look at his eager brother’s face put his mind at ease. He smiled and took Rei’s hand, excited to start up the new era of this line of work with him. Rei said nothing and just shared a happy gaze with his best friend.
“Alright, are you two ready?” Lou called out from his spot at the control panel. “This won’t hurt, but your bodies probably are not going to be used to this new machine so soon... so you may feel a bit dizzy arriving on the other end.”
“Eh, a little daze is worth it~.” Rei shrugged, pumping his fists excitedly. “Let’s go, let’s go! This marks the return of…! Uh…”
He stopped and looked confused. “... well damn, we need a name.”
Lou was at a loss for words as much as Max was. True, none of them had come up with a name for the business -- or, rather, a new one.
“What was the old one called?” Rei asked.
“The Professional Ticklers Association.” Max replied. “PTA for short, I suppose.”
Rei blinked. “I swear that abbreviation was already taken.”
Max shrugged. “Small world, I suppose.”
“Question is, do we reuse that name, or come up with a new one…?” Lou pondered.
“... I got it.” The red dog grinned. “The… New Professional Ticklers Association?”
Rei deadpanned, shaking his head. “That’s incredibly boring.”
“I’m not good at on the spot naming. Hush.” Max stuck his tongue out at him.
“Hmm… Raining Cats and Dog?” Lou suggested, smirking a bit at his own admittedly terrible pun, which earned him a groan from the two inside the pod.
“You shush, you’re not supposed to be the comedian here!” The Zangoose retaliated, earning a nonchalant shrug from the cat. He went back to thinking when he gasped. “I got it… Dog & Co. Tickle Freaks!”
Max and Lou went silent at that, taking in the name Rei had suggested. Max just raised an eyebrow. “... I wouldn’t call us SUPER freaky… and, it’s not just my business. It’s all of ours.”
“Uh, yeah.” Rei rolled his eyes. “Hence the ‘Co’ part… from five seconds ago.”
The red dog snorted. “C’mon. I want you guys to have equal naming rights to this. We all deserve it.”
Rei smiled, blushing a bit. “I suppose… we can workshop it when we come back. Right?”
“Definitely.” Max nodded, before looking out to the tuxedo cat. “Alright Lou… start ‘er up! Send NPTA away!”
“Nuh-uh, send DCTF away!” Rei gave his brother a shove, and the two shared a giggle.
Their laughter echoed in the pod as a flash of light zapped them both out of this existence and into another, leaving Lou alone in the lab. The tuxedo cat raised his finger from the button and chuckled a bit, moving over to a separate table and opening up a laptop. He opened up a new word file and began to type away.
“Have a good first jump… RC&D.” He chuckled a bit at his own horrendous joke, as he started putting together a bit of a log.
The first log in ages. The first report for the new era.
It was finally time to begin again.
Story Archive
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Check out the top of my page for the next WIP story~!
Phew... Max and I started this one two years ago. May 3rd, 2019. Back then this wasn't even an ALI chapter, it was supposed to be the prologue of our upcoming series... but it evolved into... this!
Here it is -- the final chapter of the first series of 'A Little Introduction'~!
This is probably our most important world-building story so far, because Lou is an absolutely pivotal character in our flagship series. He's an eccentric, not-super-sociable scientist with enough quirks to last a lifetime, but he has a warmth underneath that his true friends bring out. Such is the case with his long time friend Max, and his close associate Rei. Max and I are very excited to delve more into his character, AND show him off more in our upcoming series.
... speaking of... this chapter not only closes out ALI, but also serves as the prologue (still) to the series that will honestly define us. XP
Max worked on a similar series years upon years ago, and this is essentially a revitalized revival of that old collection of stories. It's the reboot we can all get behind! Max and Rei are off to a variety of other dimensions to tickle the hell out of well known, and not so well known, characters of the media. All for your entertainment! And their paychecks. XP
We have SO much planned, we're super excited to finally open the doors to so many kinds of stories thanks to the introduction of Lou and the Nexus 2.0, so stay tuned for tons upon tons of stories going forward.
'A Little Introduction' will one day return for a second series, as Max and I still have a few more characters to introduce... but for now, we're ready to close the book on this one. We hope you all enjoyed it. <3 <3
Thank you all for reading... and Max and I will see you next time, in the next story. Cheers~!
Max and Lou (and Max's cat Baby) belong to max7345.
Rei belongs to... well... me! XP
Category Story / Fetish Other
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Male
Size 120 x 119px
Jeez I can't believe I have read all that and have no see it pass OwO , was a loooooong time I had no read a so long syiry and I had FUN to read it !!
Seriously The tickle-part was just a bonus facing the amazingness of the scenario and BG !! You guys are genius its just amazing to know these gute and fun stiry Max did a while ago will come back >\< !!! Haaaw I can't wait seriously.... its just so teasy to me I want see the next cause it have so lot of possibility now !
Congratulations Jake, you have success to justify a dimensional-traveling with yiur characters X3 you use a machine and me I use Shiro and Nova ! God pleas... I'll be happy if I could be part of some story as a secondary characters >\<.... Of course it mean I must be part of the story Idea but well if you guys give me the possibility I have so much to propose !
But enough talk about me, here its this stiry I congratulate ^^ most than a tickle story its a pure good fiction buddy !! You and max are amazing and gosh... this sage desserve a comic so much... I will train myself again and again and hope I could, with yiur aggreement, one day do a comic on yiur serie or at least if comic too hard, do illustrations pic for each story ^^.
I have take a looot of pleasure to read it, I was not so much in a syiry since a long while and I thanks you for that Jake...but also Max ^w^!! Thanks for this amazing content !! Pleas yiu guys keep the awesome work, it desserve wo lot of interest form the communoty cause the story is so reach and well writed !!!
So for resule, I looooooved read this ^w^ !
Seriously The tickle-part was just a bonus facing the amazingness of the scenario and BG !! You guys are genius its just amazing to know these gute and fun stiry Max did a while ago will come back >\< !!! Haaaw I can't wait seriously.... its just so teasy to me I want see the next cause it have so lot of possibility now !
Congratulations Jake, you have success to justify a dimensional-traveling with yiur characters X3 you use a machine and me I use Shiro and Nova ! God pleas... I'll be happy if I could be part of some story as a secondary characters >\<.... Of course it mean I must be part of the story Idea but well if you guys give me the possibility I have so much to propose !
But enough talk about me, here its this stiry I congratulate ^^ most than a tickle story its a pure good fiction buddy !! You and max are amazing and gosh... this sage desserve a comic so much... I will train myself again and again and hope I could, with yiur aggreement, one day do a comic on yiur serie or at least if comic too hard, do illustrations pic for each story ^^.
I have take a looot of pleasure to read it, I was not so much in a syiry since a long while and I thanks you for that Jake...but also Max ^w^!! Thanks for this amazing content !! Pleas yiu guys keep the awesome work, it desserve wo lot of interest form the communoty cause the story is so reach and well writed !!!
So for resule, I looooooved read this ^w^ !
A lovely way to cap off this prologue for the time being! Scientist gang represent!
What an awesome way to end the introductions! Kinda wanna meet Lou and truss him up to tickle him. :3
Oh, the introductions aren't over. We just finished the first season of them, as it were. We still have plenty of characters to show off and introduce to you all, we're just trying to determine the order that they go in.
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