by Brad Johnson
Matt "Daredevil" Murdock awoke strapped to a cold wooden table bolted to the floor; he was completely immobilized. Someone removed his shoes, and he could feel the cool air through his dress socks. He could smell the damp of the warehouse, the grease, his captor's deodorant.
"Sleeping Beauty wakes up finally," the man said in a mild Puerto Rican accent.
"Where's Franklin?" Matt asked, referring to his best friend and law partner Franklin "Foggy" Nelson. They had gone out for drinks after a late night working on a case and Foggy hailed a cab to get them home, but *something* seemed off about the driver. But by the time Matt smelled the sleeping gas, it was already too late, and now Foggy was somewhere in this warehouse in the hands of these thugs.
"Your friend is a little busy at the moment..." the thug said.
Matt could hear Foggy's high-pitched laughter coming from down the hall. He had noticed it in the background when he woke up, but he was just now realizing it was his friend. A man asked Foggy if he was working with Daredevil.
"AHAHANO! HAHAHAHA!! I SWEAR! AHAHAHAHA!!" Foggy screamed through his laughter.
The hell? Matt turned his attention back to the thug. "What do you want with us?"
"Well first, where are my manners? Call me Hector. You and your associate are defending a murderer, and last night his arresting officers were beaten to within an inch of their lives by Daredevil. That can't be a coincidence."
"I have no idea how Daredevil operates," Matt lied, "But I do know my client was framed for that murder. And now his lawyers are being kidnapped and presumably tortured for information? How's it gonna look in the courtroom if we show up tomorrow looking like we've been through a meat grinder?"
Hector snorted and said, "Don't be ridiculous there are other ways this can go."
Matt could hear Foggy laughing hysterically and begging that he didn't know anything. Was Foggy being tickled or something? The man torturing him said, "This can go on all night."
"So are you working with him? Daredevil, as everyone is calling him nowadays?" Hector asked.
"Honest, we don't know anything about him or how he operates," Matt said.
"I don't expect honesty from a lawyer, and I don't have to beat you to a pulp to get you to tell me everything you know," Hector replied as he lightly dragged four fingernails up Matt's left heel. Matt gasped and curled his toes, but the straps kept him from jerking away. His heightened senses had their drawbacks, and one of them was that he was extremely ticklish. As the fingers reached his arch, Matt shuddered and writhed, but did his best not to laugh. He won't give Hector the satisfaction of hearing him gaffaw like a lunatic.
"A live one, I see," Hector said without stopping the light tickling.
"Y-you're making a mistake!" Matt squeezed out, still holding his laughter.
"We'll see about that."
Hector pulled off Matt's sock and tickled his bare foot in earnest. Matt burst into laughter despite his best efforts. God, it was even worse than he imagined. Hector's nails felt like electricity as he racked them up and down Matt's sole. Sometimes Hector would switch things up by focusing on the soft spot above his heel, or holding back his toes and tickling underneath. All of it was pure humiliating torture. How long was he tickled? A half hour? Longer? All he knew was that it was driving him crazy. He had to think of something. He obviously couldn't just tell Hector he was Daredevil, but he had to say *something* to make it stop, if only he could just think. A break finally came when Hector paused to take off Matt's right sock.
"Wait, I'll tell you!"
"Oh?" Hector said as he pulled off the sock.
"He works for the NYPD," Matt lied, "To go places and do things they can't. Even most cops don't know that about him, plausible deniablity."
"There are over 30,000 cops in this city. We're gonna have to narrow the field a bit."
"I don't know his real name, I swear!"
"Why do I not believe you?" Hector said as he turned to grab a pair of objects from the table behind him. "I call these brushes the Twin Terrors. Several years ago this boxer was costing me money with his undefeated streak, Carl "Crusher" Creel. I had reason to believe he wasn't playing fair, so I had him brought in. He tried to be a tough guy, so I used these on the bottoms of his feet and after 30 minutes he was begging to confess that he was cheating. Long story short, I don't think you're being honest with me. Let's see if we can change that..."
If Matt thought he was ticklish before, nothing prepared him for this. He screamed with laughter as the Twin Terrors went up and down on his soles; there wasn't even a pretense of dignity anymore. Matt desperately pulled on the straps to find some weakness to try to break free, to no avail. His was laughing so hard he couldn't form words if he wanted to, and every agonizing second of the tickle torture made confession that much more tempting.
"We'll see if you feel like lying after a half-hour of this..." Hector said mischievously.
*********
Foggy caught his breath as Axel, the thug working him over, stopped to listen to the madness in the next room. "Sounds like my brother is using the Twin Terrors on your friend," Axel said. Foggy's face was flush from laughter and embarrassment. Axel had tickled his pits and feet and that was horrible enough, but it had to be tenfold for Matt due to his powers. Foggy knew what he had to do.
Axel took a plastic hairbrush off the table. "Shall we continue?"
"Wait wait! I'll talk. I'm Daredevil!"
"Say what?"
"I've been the one prowling Hell's Kitchen every night! Do whatever you want with me, just let Matt go!" Foggy pleaded.
Axel didn't look convinced. "I see. I'll be right back," he said, then left. Foggy listened as Axel went into the other room; Matt's laughter stopped and the two brothers briefly conversed in Spanish. Foggy had studied the language over the past couple months and could pick out some bits and pieces; his heart sank when he realized Matt had already made up an identity for Daredevil.
"OK Stevie Wonder," one of the assholes said, "You're coming with us and we're gonna figure out which of you is going to be honest first..."
Foggy smiled. He knew that as soon as they undid his straps, Matt would give them a beatdown they wouldn't forget. And sure enough, he could hear crashing noises coming from the other room. A few seconds later, Matt came rushing in, barefoot and tussled, but free nonetheless.
"Thanks for not cracking," he said as he untied Foggy.
"Don't mention it. Literally. I'd be okay with never speaking of this again."
"Sounds good to me," Matt said as the two young men made a break for it. Granted, Foggy was only being half honest. Knowing Daredevil's biggest weakness was sure to come in handy someday...
