AdrenalineWorld

Bruce nodded along, trying to remain attentive and not think about Teruko in the show business... or in a sexy dance class... or in a shower... "I'm kinda surprised you just picked it up and turned it on," Bruce lied. He was in no way surprised that that was Teruko's first action. "But it sure seems strange for someone to reset a custom Navi like that and just leave it out in the open, for anyone to take, especially with the PET." He absolutely couldn't guess the motivation behind that, so his first guess was actually that the Navi had somehow reset the PET herself, or had someone else in the real world do so. Then, that person had left Ante there... but why for just anyone to pick up? Was there something about Teruko in particular?

Thinking about that led Bruce to another motivation hole, and he decided the whole mess was to much of a hassle and gave up. He probably wouldn't have given it any thought at all except that he doubted Teruko herself had ever done so. After all, Ante was clearly a pretty special Navi... one might be inclined to put less than her best effort into tracking down the Navi's former operator.

"As far as Dare goes... I guess you could say a friend and I came up with her together? Of course, that friend died," Bruce said, pausing temporarily as if in reflection but still smiling comfortably. "It's not a hard story or anything, so I guess I'll tell it: I had a friend who worked in the same business, but she was much smarter than me. Unfortunately, for all her brains she didn't know the main difference between the two of us. I'm built like a tank and I recover like, uh... a lizard losing it's tail or something, you know? But she didn't have that... and she pushed herself as hard as me, anyway."

Bruce leaned back on the cart's side and stared at his PET in a rare contemplative gesture. "We had a lot of time to talk before she died... the way we saw it, Navis have all of the ambition that you or I have in the real world, but they don't have the same limitations. I guess you'd say Dare is a tribute to that spirit she had? She's the one who came up with most of that, anyhow..." Bruce thought for a little longer before realizing he was spacing out. "Oh, but uh, yeah, in case it wasn't obvious, a lot of how Dare looks comes from her. That decision's actually about all I put in to Dare's basic programming."

"So anyway, you have a guy?" Bruce asked Teruko with a grin, remembering that his pal would probably only be willing to keep this ride running in circles so long. Sooner or later, someone would actually want to ride this (Bruce doubted it, though: he thought the dinosaurs looked pretty cheesy when they weren't in fast motion).

Hearing about Bruce's deceased friend caused Teruko to seriously rethink her actions since entering the park. "His girlfriend died doing all sorts of reckless stunts and yet he's still taking girls along with him on these kinds of things? There's such a thing as getting over it too easy," she thought to herself with a gulp, wondering what would have happened if she hadn't gotten off of that bike walking. "That's a good way to keep her alive, though. The net sure is nifty," she replied, shaking the thought from her head. It did sound like Bruce had cared for the person and tried to watch out for her, but being safe just goes against some people's natures.

... And it sounded like Bruce wasn't out of the market for women after that experience. "Oh, no. No guys right now," she laughed, thinking that if he'd said this just moments ago, she'd have thought she was being hit on by the famous Von Derzel. Realizing that she was instead being hit on by the not-so-famous Bruce Shiner, she was a little more skeptical of the approach.

That inhibition aside, Teruko had to admit that her sex life... heck, relationship life in general had been pretty dead ever since she got settled in to her new apartment and gym instructor job. She just hadn't gone out of the way to meet anyone; for an exercise nut, she was seriously lazy. With that in mind, she decided that if she turned down Bruce so easily, she'd just be giving in to laziness again. "I'm in the market, though! I just gotta find cool guys. And, uh, a guy who'll treat me to a dinner that doesn't involve any red meat," she finished, pressing her finger to her lip thoughtfully. Her diet had been a deal breaker in the past.

"How about you, huh? You get any of those movie star groupies, or do stunt guys not get those?" she asked, giggling at the thought of Bruce being swarmed by groupies. In her mind, he made a really dopey face, not knowing what to do with all of them.

Bruce's heels were cooling considerably as he realized it sounded like Teruko was in the market for a date, not just a fling. He supposed that was what he got for picking a potential based on her body and a vague inclination that might have been carelessness rather than the proper "spirit of adventure," so to speak.

Deciding he shouldn't count himself out so early, Bruce tried to imagine an actual relationship with someone like Teruko, but... no red meat? He hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning, and just the thought of red meat was setting his stomach to growling. He supposed he was willing to consider that prospect, but at the moment it wasn't even worth considering: "some cool guys" was apparently a category that currently excluded him.

Bruce figured he could develop that if he wanted, but probably on repeat engagements. And then again, maybe Teruko would change her mind and decide she wanted to take a walk on the wild side... doubtful, though, if the adrenaline of a high-speed dino ride wasn't already putting her there.

"Well, no problem hanging out for now. Our Navis seem to get along, and I guess I've technically threatened her life on two occasions today, so I'll chum around as long as she'll have me. Nothing wrong with shooting the breeze." Bruce supposed there was nothing wrong with having a female friend...

... But a body like hers that you couldn't have a little fun with still felt like a damn shame.

"Nah," Bruce admitted, scratching at the side of his head. "The thing about groupies is that they mostly form when you're the kind of person so famous you'd be recognized by face, or people are keeping track of where you go, stuff like that. Problem is that stunt guys are supposed to look like those guys from a long and fuzzy distance or in a retouched shot. So when I tell chicks about my line of work, mostly all they want to know is how I can hook them up with Von Derzel, right?" Bruce spread his hands and laughed to make a point of how ridiculous that was.

In a part of his mind, however, he imagined a scene in which Teruko said something like "I hadn't thought of that! Can you really do that?!" If that happened, Bruce was probably just going to throw in the towel on behalf of his manhood right then and there.

"Good points, good points," Teruko admitted, supposing she'd been silly to think Bruce would have groupies. Suddenly perking up, she turned to him and pounded one fist into her palm. "Oh, hey! I hadn't thought of that!" she suddenly exclaimed, then stopped just a breath away from demanding he rid himself of his man-towel. "The stunt guy's actually way cooler, isn't he?" Musing to herself, Teruko realized that she'd been silly all along to keep thinking about Von Derzel. What good is Von Derzel if Bruce is the one on the bike all the time?

"Woah, so like, tell me some of the stunts you've done! I wanna know!" she exclaimed. "Like that one from Fight Cycle? That craaazy one where he flies across one side of the toll bridge and lands on the other side, then spins and goes back across it when he sees those other guys?!" Now that she realized Bruce was the guy doing those stunts, it was suddenly like having Von Derzel in a one-on-one interview (granted, it was an interview on a fast-paced dinosaur ride, which was a pretty weird place to fangasm).

"Oh! Remember that one in Road of the Cyber Rider? That was just over the top, where that one bad guy has the girl, and she turns into a motorcycle when he holds her legs like a wheelbarrow. I mean, it was stupid at the time, but that movie was full of awesome stunts! Do you think we could do it right now?" she continued, meaning to ask if they could try some of the awesome stunts from Road of the Cyber Rider but unfortunately making it sound like she wanted to try being turned into a human wheelbarrow.

Bruce liked the turn this conversation had taken. He always personally felt this way himself, but he'd allowed himself to mostly put that feeling on the backburner because he new the way the business worked. Hearing how cool the stuntman was from someone else felt pretty good.

Of course, Bruce quickly realized she had entirely the wrong idea about how some of these stunts were performed. Apparently, Teruko had never watched the "making of" included on-disc with some of her Von Derzel favorites. "Geez, were you paying ANY attention when we talked about the rigging system for Dare?" Bruce thought to himself.

Well, Bruce was happy to let this particular fantasy continue. Not like he'd want to shatter a poor fan's dreams, after all.

"Oh yeah, Road of the Cyber Rider! That's probably my favorite piece I've done, I actually pitched some suggestions with the director while we were out drinking one night and he-" Bruce started, talking over Teruko in his enthusiasm, before abruptly having his legs cut out from under him. "I mean... yeah, that one was pretty dumb."

Bruce heard what he took as an odd request and raised an eyebrow. "Well, I dunno that I'd really classify it as a 'stunt,' but if you want," he replied. "I guess I'll show you the best way to get started. I'll kneel down here, and you lie on your stomach in front of me... then you raise your legs up and I'll grab them."

Bruce was hesitant to admit that this was probably the closest he'd get to having fun with Teruko's body. Still, wasn't this more like a game older siblings played with the younger than a stunt? Well, not like Teruko hadn't surprised him before. "You sure about this? I mean, I guess this will be fun and all, but I can't imagine it'll be that exciting after the stunt I showed you earlier this morning."

"Huh? You can teach me to do it right now?" she asked, looking surprised. She tried to imagine how in the world Bruce was going to help her experience one of the amazing stunts from the movie she'd watched while on the top of the dino ride's insanely fast-moving cart. Nodding enthusiastically, she followed Bruce's instructions, not realizing what a prone position she was putting herself into as she lay down in front of him. "Like this?" she asked, watching her PET instead of looking back.

What kind of stunt involved this kind of position, anyways? "What was that about my legs?" she asked as an afterthought, trying to imagine a stunt that could involve lying down on one's bike and changing leg positions. Maybe Bruce was going to lift her body up and help her get upside down, like those trick riders? That was usually on a mountain-bike, though, not a motor-bike.

Distracted, she looked back to her PET. "What the heck are those two doing...? I guess it's better if I don't ask," she thought, gulping as she tried to make sense of Dare walloping Ante's backside with her open palm. "Anyways, Bruce, you ready to do it? I gotta admit, I'm a little nervous. This is a weird position to be in for... this kinda thing," Teruko laughed nervously, keeping a cheerful smile all the same.

While Teruko readied himself, Bruce checked his PET, figuring Dare and Ante had probably finished up their show. A shame he didn't record it. What greeted him when he looked, however, was the exciting view of his Navi wailing on the expectedly shapely (but unexpectedly less covered) backside of Teruko's Navi. "What the hell? How is Dare getting bigger sexual thrills out of this excursion than I am?! ... And since when was she into that?"

Bruce realized he couldn't jump to conclusions about his Navi. In any case, Bruce was happy Teruko had her back to him and, with any luck, would be helpless to look back here once this bizarre "stunt" began. He was sporting a pretty mad boner right now, but he figured engaging in this kid's stuff when what he really wanted to do was grab some tail would fight it back.

"Okay, here goes..." Bruce lifted Teruko's legs onto his shoulders, restraining himself and making sure he grabbed her gentlemanly far from her upper legs. Hooking her feet over his shoulders, he then raised her legs from the ground, forcing her to prop herself up on her hands to avoid having her face pressed against the floor. "Just remember, this is what you were asking for!"

Bruce began moving forward, not running but still quickly walking. Teruko would be forced to paddle forward on her hands to avoid being run over by him. The situation was awkward enough that Bruce couldn't really think of any conversation to make, but he had to admit, the angle view he was getting wasn't doing much to help his body cease its involuntary functions.

"Well, not that this wasn't fun and all, but what say we take a time out to F*CK!" Bruce had started to look behind him, feeling a bit ashamed. For the second time today, he was cut off by the same animatronic dinosaur hanging from the ceiling, rapidly approaching him from behind it had when he'd been forced to throw Teruko to the ground to save her from an unsightly haircut. Bruce immediately threw Teruko's legs apart and dived forward on top of her, smothering her with his weight to keep both of them down as the machinery whizzed past overhead. His body had unfortunately ended up almost aligned with her own. As a result, his hips were jammed against her own behind, making the secret Bruce had wanted to keep a suddenly pressing matter.

Rattled, Bruce wasn't sure exactly what would be done from here, but he was distantly aware that Teruko probably wouldn't be able to see with him pressing her to the floor. He didn't mind the feeling at all, but he knew that if he didn't fix this problem quickly, it could easily turn into a harassment charge, and dressed up with all of the creepy fixings that would make the paparazzi love it. "VON DERZEL STUNTMAN TAKES LOCAL GYM INSTRUCTOR ON 'WILD RIDE' IN THE JUNGLE!" Still, his body didn't seem to respond to him when he tried to get up. His hands gave up on the first time he attempted to rise, ramming him back into Teruko and causing some awkward grinding as he struggled to get back to his feet.

Teruko did her best to pretend she was holding on to the front of a motorcycle, wondering how in the world anyone could lift their back enough unaided to imitate the pose Bruce was putting her in. "Gee, is this really how they do it? Does it use stunt rigging or something?" she asked, blushing a bit as she realized her t-shirt was sliding up on her belly, but finding herself unable to use her hands to fix it. "Wait, my shirt!" she giggled, squirming to try to fix it.

Of course, that mildly flirtatious fun was quickly ruined as Bruce abandoned ship, throwing her on her face and digging his boner into the seat of her pants. Her first impression was that this must still be part of the stunt; maybe he'd put something hard back there to imitate the feeling of riding a seat? She had just enough experience, however, to quickly realize the real identity of the thing pressing up against her. "Holy crap... it's big too," she gulped, remembering back to the only other guy she'd ever let get his thing on her so intimately.

She continued to pray that she was misunderstanding something, but it soon appeared to her that wasn't the case. He was actually moving his body up and down, possibly trying to rub off on her using the curve of her hips. "What a pervert...!" she thought to herself, trying to decide what in the world she ought to do.

As if trying to save her, Ante suddenly appeared again on her PET screen. "I got the situation worked out with Dare," the navi communicated, coughing awkwardly into her fist with her eyes closed. As she opened them, her face went as red as Teruko's she could clearly see Bruce hunched over her operator, looking as if he was pumping his body up and down on her buttocks. "W-Wait, what are you doing during our mission?!" she asked. "Has he even been operating?!"

"H-He's operating now alright," she sobbed, trying to figure out what to do. "Truce! Compromise!" she cried out, becoming increasingly upset at the situation. "I mean, I like you, but not here! Your friend in the raptor suit's still below us, isn't he? And the driver?!" she cried out. "... Oh God... T-They're here for a threesome!" she thought to herself, her jaw dropping as she tried to comprehend the ridiculous, kinky mess she'd been dropped into. "They're all going to surround me and try to do me while wearing stupid-looking dinosaur outfits!"

"... No, I'm not having enough faith in humanity. Bruce is a good guy! He's been cool to me," she reminded herself. "Even though I've called him lame and stuff. He's not trying to rape me," she sighed. With this in mind, she suddenly realized that Bruce might be distraught, thinking that she might have given him the impression that she was uncomfortable and scared. Not only did she not want to look like a wuss, but she didn't want Bruce to think she thought he was a bad guy. As such, she made the worst possible move: she teased him. Keeping her face against the floor, she grinned back at him with her eyes still squinted shut and moved her buttocks against his hard-on. "Naughty, naughty Bruce!" she giggled, trying to tone down the situation in a terribly awkward way.

"I... I really can't see that working," Ante gulped, still half-convinced that Bruce was a sexual predator.

"No, I uh... seriously..." Bruce muttered, still making half-hearted efforts to get up. He couldn't tell exactly what Teruko was thinking, but Ante certainly sounded like she was casting one vote for BRUCE IS A RAPIST...

Just as he had finally convinced his arms to hold up the weight of his shoulders so he could raise his hips from Teruko's bottom, however, she was driving it back against him. Bruce was just about to go bananas. All of the rational thought he'd gathered to this point had been wiped clean. It was like fate had intervened, the stars had aligned, and the power of destiny itself was telling Bruce: "For your great patience and long suffering, I permit your desires and grant you SEX."

Bruce was practically reaching for his zipper, backing his package away from the inviting cushion of his partner's behind to do so, but he still caught himself glancing left and right self-consciously to make sure nobody was watching...

... Sure enough, Dan was peaking over the side of the ride like some voyeuristic velociraptor.

"Dammit, Dan!" Bruce shouted, getting up and storming over to where he was peeking with half a mind to stomp him off the cart.

The man was sounded like he was muttering some excuses. Snippets of words could be made out: "... getting really bored down there... thought you were finally... certainly sounded like..."

"What the hell, man! Agh, whatever, just... just get outta here before I step on you. This is the last time I'm doing this, seriously..."

Dan descended the ladder again with a shrug, and Bruce turned back around, reaching into the wind-blown tangles of his hair to scratch the back of his head. After breaking from the act, he'd remembered what had sounded like protests from Teruko earlier (which meant he was actually doing one better than his Navi dealing with their respective partners). Going any further would probably have been a mistake. With the shear strength of will to not let this situation get any more awkward, Bruce's body worked to power down his system.

The situation wasn't all bad, though. He'd gotten a pretty dreamy feel of what he'd been hoping for, and even better, he half-and-half felt like he'd felt some wild spark there with Teruko. Maybe his dream fling wasn't as far off as he'd imagined?

The fact that Teruko had her PET right there but hadn't immediately dialed the park's security or something or called "rape" for his friends to hear in that situation meant that he owed her some thanks. "Sorry, eh... that dinosaur head was coming by and I had to get us down, I guess I didn't do it the best way I might have. I didn't mean to..." Bruce trailed off, not particularly wanting to go right out and say "ram my junk against your butt in a humiliating attempt to get off the floor."

"Anyway, Dan's going to tell Lucio to pull the ride to a stop next pass. They need to, anyway, since people will be wanting to ride some time soon. I won't say I regret the experience, and I won't say it's 'dangerous' compared to what I'm used to, but damn, that head is annoying."

"Uh, hello, Bruce?" Dare chimed in. "I dunno what kind of crazy antics you two have been getting into while I haven't been able to watch," she began hypocritically, "but you can't just pick up and move shop! If we jack out now, we won't be able to get back to the same place."

"Oh, really? Shoot!" Bruce didn't have a lot of experience operating, so he hadn't even thought of that. "So wait, we're stuck here until your event is finished? We'll be up here while they have customers!"

"Hey, you're the one who said the point of that ride is to challenge its limitations in a way nobody else has, right? Well, nobody else has done this before, even you! It's another exciting hurdle to clear, right?" Dare said, teasing Bruce and apparently not taking the issue very seriously.

"Great..." Bruce muttered, running his hand down his face.

"Oh, and you recorded my performance earlier, right? Did you see it all? Wasn't it awesome, Bruce?" Dare gushed to her operator.

"No, I didn't record anything. If you meant my sudden discovery of your special friendship with Ante and your kinky fetishes, yeah, I totally saw that."

"Wha- Bruce!" Dare started to shout, genuinely blushing in a way that Bruce couldn't normally get out of her, but Bruce put her on mute just to mess with her.

"Anyway, yeah. Guess we're stuck up here, and we'll have to keep it down. I'll explain it to Dan when he climbs back up, but if Lucio finds out we're still here, he'll kick us off in spite of everything I've done for him. Sorry," Bruce apologized to Teruko. "And thanks for putting up with this. We'll go for some more normal thrillseeking when this is over with if you want, if you've got any rides you particularly wanted to hit. I'll buy you a lunch or something," Bruce said with an uncharacteristic awkward smile, "assuming I can find anything healthy to eat in AdrenalineWorld, haha."

Having such fun teasing Bruce, Teruko was surprised when he suddenly backed off. Staring forward again, she looked for any further signs of dinosaurs, but saw nothing. She missed his awkward fumbling with his zipper and subsequent discovery of his pal, watching him in a velociraptor costume. The next thing she knew, however, Bruce was explaining that the ride was about to become populated and that he was sorry for making such a fool of himself.

Unfortunately, Teruko knew two things: 1) Whatever food she found in AdrenalineWorld was absolutely not going to be healthy, unless it was exotic live insects or something, and 2) Whatever spot they found next to bust in was probably going to be a lot more boring than this one, since Bruce was cooling down. If there was one thing Teruko didn't want to be, it was bored, and she certainly didn't want her new buddy feeling stuffy and apologetic about anything either, let alone BOTH of them being bored. That'd be the pits.

As such, she tried to come up with something neat they could do instead. A rational person would suggest that they both move down to the seats, ride along with the other customers, bust from there. Give the velociraptor his space up top. Unfortunately, Teruko wasn't a rational person. Teruko was much more interested in continuing to have fun. And this wasn't a chicken, or, dare she think it, another rational person. This was Bruce Danger Shiner. He'd probably rather have fun too.

"Say, can your ride function without the velociraptor up here? I just had the neatest idea!" Teruko replied after a long silence.

Ante slapped one hand to her forehead, already having realized that if Teruko was going to be rational, she'd be suggesting moving back to the passenger area of the cart.

"It's a little dare! A challenge, if you will," she offered in a silly, fancy voice, returning to her upright sitting position as she talked. "How about we play a little game? Let's keep on horsing around up here. We'll bet based on whether or not the people under the cart notice us or not! If either one of us makes enough noise to alert the people on the bottom, that one has to buy the other a dinner," she proposed with a big grin, hoping that Bruce'd be more willing to partake in foolish and risky games than her last companions. "Oh, and I guess if we both stay quiet, I'll buy you a dinner. What do you say?"

"That's ridiculous, Teruko. I remind you that we are on a very important mission looking for a notorious net criminal. If you take your focus off of that, we're going to-" Ante protested, before quickly being cut off in a manner similar to Dare moments ago.

"Come on, I know you want to!" Teruko giggled, bouncing up and down where she sat enthusiastically. In truth, she really did know he wanted to. His body had been pretty honest about that fact. "You're not going to chicken out, right?"

Bruce listened to Teruko with one eyebrow raised. "Well, yeah, Dan's gonna need to come up here. It's not exactly a convincing dino ride if one of the dinosaurs is hanging out chugging a soda with the passengers..."

Teruko's proposition, however, was enough to make Bruce want a way to make this work. "H-horsing around?" It was like the darkening he'd experienced earlier, that dull period where he'd just assumed accidental grinding was as far as he was going to get and settled for it gladly, was merely a dark cloud passing over a radiant, sunny, sexy day.

"A noise challenge?" Bruce asked with a dumb expression on his face. "Well, I never turn down a challenge, of course, but hrm..." Of course, if they kept their playing playful, there wouldn't be any problem with having Dan up here other than the guy's body odor. On the other hand, if that spark Bruce had sensed earlier was still here, and Bruce thought chances were surprisingly good it was, Dan was going to be one smelly dinosaur of a third wheel.

Whatever fate was attempting to get Bruce laid today suddenly hit him with a bolt of divine inspiration. "I got it! A totally awesome way for me to accept this challenge, pay Dan back, and solve our dino crisis! Hold on a sec, I'll go work it out with Dan. Wait here, and uh, watch my PET." Bruce hit the switch to unmute Dare and left it on the roof beneath them. "I'll just be a sec. You can talk with Dare, if you want."

With a skip in his step, Bruce rose from where he sat and headed for the ladder, descending it and preparing to cut a deal with his pal.

"I didn't hear, I didn't hear. What's going on?" Dare asked, hoping to get back up to speed and apparently forgetting she could just ask Ante.

Teruko had been enthusiastic and ready to roll moments ago when it was just her and Bruce, but now left alone with Dare, she began to feel a little guilty. She didn't want Dare to think she was a floozy. And what about Dare? If she liked Bruce herself, this sort of thing might make Teruko seem like an enemy. Gulping, Teruko tried keep a smile on her face and explain what she was planning.

"Oh, uh, Bruce and I are going to play a game. A high-stakes wager, where the loser buys the winner a dinner! And you know that's high-stakes with me, because I'm a picky eater," she giggled. "Whereas in his case, I'd imagine it's more like high steaks," she mused, trying to change the pronunciation to make her meaning clear. "Do stunt actors have expensive tastes? Or do they not have that kind of money?" she asked Dare.

Thinking carefully, she realized that this was actually a pretty good opportunity to increase her odds in the competition. "Oh! Dare," she whispered into her ally's PET. "Do you know if Bruce has any soft spots? Is he ticklish anywhere?" she asked discreetly, hoping the navi could provide her some insight while still failing to fully elaborate on the nature of the competition.

Dare's attention was currently focused on Teruko's Navi, so she seemed surprised when Teruko spoke to her, evidently having forgotten about the situation she was trying to catch up on. "Ah, well that sounds cool. Yeah, I dunno if it's a general stuntguy thing, but Bruce can put away some food. I dunno what 'that kind of money' entails, but I know he eats big when he gets the chance. It might surprise you to know that he has to watch what he eats a little bit, too... a stunt man's got to keep in good shape. He likes his red meat, though."

"Soft spots?" Dare asked, making sure she heard correctly. "Wow, she must be really into Bruce... she seems to want to know everything about him. I wouldn't have guessed she was the shy type, finding out this stuff through me." Dare thought for a moment, then realized this probably related to the game somehow. Thinking of tickling specifically, Dare put two and two together and realized this was probably some competition to keep quiet. "I dunno about ticklish... you know, if I didn't know better, I'd think the guy's senses were dead, the way he can take a beating. If you really just want to straight-up win, I think we both know Bruce isn't the brightest star in the galaxy, right? You could probably trick him into making noise pretty easily... Anyway, I'll leave it up to you! I'm sure you've got some good ideas about what to do, right?"

"Good luck," Dare finished with a wink behind her shades, believing that she was offering encouragement to a lovestruck girl having a hard time reaching her object of affection. Dare then shut off her communication window, thinking the two would want their privacy and happy to let them have it, at least until she got bored.

At about this time, Dan came back up the ladder, fully clad in his ridiculous velociraptor costume, and swaggered up to Teruko as if he had every business being there. With some difficulty, he reached up and lifted the dinosaur costume hood off of his face, revealing...

... Bruce underneath. "How do I look?" Bruce asked, spreading his arms, and turning to give her a full view of the dark green outfit. The quality actually looked pretty cheap when you got a good look at it. Bruce seemed to fill it out a bit more snugly than the man he'd borrowed it from, but overall it was a nice fit. The head was obviously the most cumbersome part of the ensemble, and looking inside it seemed like it was designed with a wire mesh that allowed the wearer to see through the dinosaur's mouth without revealing his face in the darkness. Bruce reached inside the hood and fiddled with something, eventually causing it to make a shrill dinosaur roar. Evidently, some noisemaker device was inside.

"Yeah, I worked out an agreement with Dan... basically, when we get to the key point of the ride, I just have to go down there and scare some kids. Simple stuff. I'll program it into my PET real quick so we'll get an alert when it's time," Bruce said, picking up his PET and messing with some simple quiet-alarm systems he could manage without Dare's help. "So, cool? Ready to get started?" Bruce asked, hopping from foot to foot a bit and clearly looking excited.

"Oh crap, she's right! Bruce is like some kind of robot when it comes to sensation... Well, the sensation of pain, anyways. He seems to react just fine to other sensations," she thought with an awkward smile. "I guess that rules out just punching him until he cries out. Wait, was I thinking of doing that in the first place? I sure hope not," she mused, rubbing her chin thoughtfully and making a serious expression.

"Wait, what? Ooooh, darn!" Teruko mumbled, trying to get Dare back on the PET. The navi had left without giving her much she could use. Crossing her arms and tensing her eyebrows, she tried to decide what in the world she was going to do. Nervously, she flicked on her own PET to talk to Ante. "Ante! Do you have any experience with making men cry out against their will?" she asked hopefully.

After appearing on the screen, Ante stared back with a blank expression. "I'm sorry, I don't," she answered honestly, adjusting her hat self-consciously as she responded.

"Daaaarn! Phooey!" she cried out, turning back off the monitor. "What am I gonna do?!" As she growled and hissed, she grabbed hold of her bob ponytail and yanked it like it was some kind of stopper which, once removed, would allow her ideas to flow better. Of course, it didn't take long before she got to stop thinking so hard about it, as something much more distracting took her attention.

Frowning, she squinted at Dan and tried to figure out why he'd come up to join her. "Sorry for hiding up here on the ride! But wait, didn't you say it was okay earlier? I don't-" she started, then quickly realized it was Bruce behind the mask. Her grin came back as she came to the realization, but her face got red at his eagerness and the silliness of the whole situation. "Really? In a dinosaur suit? That's so crazy," she sighed.

Her frown returned as she remembered that she still hadn't figured out how to start. Even her earlier position would be a little difficult to play up with this new suit Bruce had adopted. The rubbing sensation wouldn't transfer well; she began to believe that she was going to have to apply some real pressure if she wanted to get a response out of the new and improved dino-man. She also had to get used to being quiet. Even if she came up with something good, she couldn't afford to cheer or exclaim like she might normally.

"I'm starting!" she whispered, then suddenly dived to get behind Bruce. Quickly, she searched for some limb to take hold of. Grabbing a tight hold on it, she tried to think of what to do next; whatever it was, she'd have to be able to apply enough pressure to make him feel it. With a confident grin, she stuffed the limb into the small gap between her groin and thighs, then locked it down like a wrestler doing an armbar.

... Unfortunately, the limb she'd grabbed was the suit's tail. As such, Bruce felt no bodily sensation whatsoever. "A creature like you understands something like this, right?! The weakness is always the tail!" she expressed quietly, grinning as she twisted the appendage between her legs.

Bruce was initially surprised when Teruko immediately got behind him, thinking that she and Dare must have worked together to come up with something devious. Soon, however, Bruce figured out what she was up to not by feeling or by looking, but just by listening to what she was saying. The stuntman wasn't really much of an actor, but he figured he should try and play along. "Aaraaargh, how can I fight back against your vicious dinosaur-hunting technique? Unless..."

Bruce suddenly made a tight turn, hoping he hadn't overestimated how far the tail extended. He needed it to be long enough to allow him to turn so he was now facing Teruko. Wiggling his glove-clad fingers momentarily, he attempted to thrust his hand to his adversary's sides and tickle mercilessly. "Let's see if I can make you... uh oh!"

Bruce attempted to throw himself down next to Teruko on his stomach, relenting in his assault. "I'm dumb, I completely forgot that the ride isn't stopped yet. It's just slowing down now to let the passengers on. Noise or no noise, if either of us is up right now, anyone taller than a kid coming through the entrance will see us in the cart's false top. Wait a sec and we'll start."

Teruko had made a mistake in her calculation of the odds, as usual; she'd asked if Bruce was ticklish earlier while neglecting the fact that she herself was highly ticklish. She knew that her success in the contest would hinge upon this current moment, hiding her vulnerability, and avoiding breaking out in a telling fit of giggling. Putting on a silly face with puffed cheeks, like she was trying to hold her breath, the 30 year old woman tried to avoid laughing herself to tears like a child.

Thankfully, relief came as Bruce threw himself back down onto the floor, this time not on top of her. At first, she figured he must be dodging another branch or low-hanging dinosaur, but this time it was just to avoid being seen by children entering the ride. Remembering that it would be primarily kids along with their parents on the ride seemed to make what they were doing all the more taboo, which just made her more antsy. "Mmmrrrrr, I wanna start though," she whined, laying out flat against the cart's roof.

She waited silently for just a minute, but eventually started whispering again, like a little kid who can't stay quiet after lights out even though she knows she needs to sleep. "Psst! You start next time, okay? That way it's fair," she offered. In truth, she knew this might work to her advantage, as he was unlikely to go for a second tickle assault again after having just tried it a second ago.

Bruce rested against the floor thoughtfully, listening to the dull noise of the tour guide's explanation through the metal. He was surprised that the surface was as sound resistant as it was. Shouting or banging might reach the tourists below, but it was unlikely anyone would notice their whispering...

More importantly, though, Bruce was having a hard time thinking of what to go with as a start on his offense. She'd managed to hold her own when he tested her ticklishness, and he couldn't straight-out wrestle her like she'd done to him earlier... if he hurt her and she cried out in pain, obviously, he was going to have more to worry about than winning a silly competition.

Considering his options, he decided to assume that if Teruko had put forth this wager she was either not concerned about Bruce trying to get some, or, Bruce thought wishfully, trying to make it happen herself. With that in mind, Bruce figured he could at least use that angle to begin to press her safely. It ought to force her into a position where she'd have to do something interesting to escape or make him make noise...

"Or I'll just take a knee in the balls," Bruce admitted. "But hey, that's a chance I'll have to take." Bruce never avoided a risk when pain was the only consequence. He had to admit that an investigation of the rooftop following a (probably womanly) cry of pain from him would likely result in some embarrassment, but hell, the whole thing was already pretty embarrassing.

With no warning, Bruce whirled on Teruko and attempted to pin her back to the floor, holding her arms down while he straddled over her body, putting them face-to-face. His breath came heavy (and his smell a little sweaty) as he leaned over her like some voracious dinosaur. "I've got you pinned down now! Ooh, you ought to call out for help now, because you won't believe what I've got in store for you to make you squeal if you don't give up right this second!" Bruce's whispered bluff was crafted with the same level of carelessness and "Impending rape"-ness of his costume.

When Bruce leaped back on top of Teruko, she had the brief, alarming thought that maybe she'd failed to notice another critically important animatronic dinosaur trap. Quickly enough, she remembered that Bruce was in the costume, as dinosaurs certainly didn't have the same man-hands that he had. "Oh, you sneak! Cheater, cheater!" she giggled, then gasped, realizing she hadn't hidden her voice. "Cheeeeater!" she hissed again in a whisper.

Without the use of her arms, she would have to figure out something to get Bruce off of her (and potentially make him cry out too). She was all for fun games, but her competitive streak wouldn't let her try anything less than her hardest. And yet, as she took the only sensible option, bringing her knee up to ram it mercilessly into Bruce's vulnerable crotch, she reconsidered. She didn't think he'd want to be friends with her any more if she did that.

Her flexibility had already allowed her to reach her knee all the way up near her belly, so that her foot was nearly flush with Bruce's groin. It was time to either do or abort mission. With a labored and indecisive frown, she tried to figure out what she was going to do to proceed. Unfortunately, as she did so, she unconsciously shoved out her foot, pressing it up against Bruce's groin; not a kick, but a lighter motion. The sole of her sneaker caressed Bruce's junk in an awkward way as she tried to adjust her leg so as to free it from underneath his body. "Whoops, uh... whoopsie," she laughed quietly, beginning to sweat as she gave the stuntman/velociraptor an unintentional footjob.

Bruce mentally steeled himself in what he knew would be a fruitless effort to stifle the throttling pain he was about to feel. Gritting his teeth, Bruce realized that what he was in actuality feeling was simply a pressure... and, considering his current state, a not altogether helpful (or unpleasant) pressure.

As much as he wanted to interpret this as Teruko's way of informing him playfully that she gave amazing footjobs, he understood that Teruko was thinking in the spirit of competition. There was only one way to read the message Teruko was sending: "This is check, and unless you want my queen taking your king you're going to back off and try something else."

Thinking again of the potential pain he'd just dodged, Bruce was more than happy to try and reconfigure his position. Unfortunately, that reflex told him to pull back his pelvis, which caused a corresponding dip in his torso... causing him to plunge his face into Teruko's chest.

While he'd normally stop and enjoy this situation, his crotch was still definitely in a danger zone. Bruce's hands seemed to want to keep down Teruko no matter what, perhaps to hold his only tactical advantage: as such, he couldn't move away because he'd have to let her get to her feet or let go of her arms. With that in mind, there was only one option. Bruce shifted his body upward and moved to crouching (almost sitting) on Teruko's stomach, putting his package ungentlemanly atop her chest. Bruce couldn't help but think how that would feel if there was a little less clothing in the way... but then found he could help, because otherwise he was going to get a boner going big enough that Teruko would notice no matter how much ambiguous dinosaur leather was between her and it.

"Uh..." Bruce said dumbly, not really able to think of anything to say. "I just thought of this," he whispered low key, "but should we check on what Dare's up to?" Bruce omitted Ante, figuring that if anything was up, Dare would be behind it.

Teruko tried to collect her senses as Bruce suddenly went ape-crazy on her boobs, first burying his face in them and then moving into a position like he was trying to make a nice Bruce sandwich out of them. "Yeah, it's way bigger... he wasn't into this kind of kinky stuff either," she thought to herself, allowing herself once again to remember her single past partner. Her face became redder as she found herself staring at the dinosaur crotch, where the bulge had become impossible not to notice.

As her breathing intensified, her breasts began to heave up and down as well. "Oh, uh... Yeah," she muttered, turning her head to the side so that she could see Ante's PET, where it was conveniently lying upon the ground. "Looks a little silly, but everything looks fine. I'm sure they can handle it. Ante'll give me a ring if she needs me," she assured Bruce with a grin, although she was still unable to bring her temperature down.

"Let's see... How do I... Hmmmm..." she grumbled, trying to think of how to wiggle out. The only way to get free would be to slide under him. Experimentally, she attempted to slide her body forward with a quick lunge to get free from and behind Bruce. This, of course, only served the purpose of smushing his dino-boner in between her breasts awkwardly and leaving her face right near his velociraptor groin. "...Hm," she muttered awkwardly, trying to slide back to where she was and applying even more friction. "No, maybe..."

As she slid around, her shirt began to ride up her belly, although she couldn't see it from her own angle. She could feel it, however, and hissed, trying to keep her exclamation reserved enough not to alarm anyone, yet still capable of grabbing Bruce's attention. Her reflexes had kicked in, making her self-conscious about her stomach, as usual. "My shirt!" she warned him ambiguously, still red-faced.