Inflation Olympics Chapter 3

As Sandy and Laurie led Sarah back to the locker room, Sarah began to hear noises of activity: the rush of compressed gases, lockers opening, lockers shutting, the hum of many voices of conversation, and the occasional laugh of a shared joke. The sounds themselves left Sarah completely unprepared for the sights that met her eyes as the trio entered the locker room.

Hugely stretched leotards, unitards, and speedsuits of varying colors and designs were resplendent around the room, filled to capacity with the distended bodies of their occupants. Sarah could look nowhere in the large locker room without her eyes falling upon someone's vastly inflated torso, ballooned rump, swollen limbs, or a bosom that resembled nothing so much as a pair of zeppelins attempting to race with each other. All shapes and sizes of women were present. Sarah noted huge, rounded figures much like her two companions, overly exaggerated hourglass figures, women with large, swollen bellies, distended helium-filled bottoms that didn't look like their owner could even sit upon them, and the occasional otherwise-uninflated woman who had evidently had a pair of airbags deploy from her chest. Many were only slightly inflated as of yet, a fair number were quite similar in size to Laurie, and a few were even on the same scale as the hugely-inflated Sandy.

All of the ladies were involved in various preparations. Some struggled to tie their hair back, fighting against ballooned arms that resisted bending. Other women adjusted and pulled at their garments, trying to find a more comfortable fit. Many of the less inflated were still taking deep draughts of helium from small gas cylinders produced from their lockers, and their bodies distending before Sarah's very eyes. Now and then, Sarah heard the "whish-whish" of inflated Lycra-clad bodies pressing together as women milled about in the inflated crowd, walking to lockers, to the sinks, or stooping to zip a duffel bag. The huge locker room that would have been able to comfortably hold more than a hundred and fifty women of normal construction seemed filled to capacity by perhaps only forty.

"Hey everybody!" Sandy yelled, moving into the throng. As she stepped past various other women, either party was obliged to squeeze past the other with a laugh or smiling apology accompanied by the whisper of taut Lycra and squeak of ballooned flesh pressing together.

"Hi, Sandy!" called one redhead bearing an incredibly-ballooned belly. Various other cries and greetings echoed from around the room, with one brunette who was sucking from a cylinder of helium simply waving an inflating arm in greeting.

"Where's Laurie?" asked someone else.

"Over by the door!" Sandy said, pointing the direction with a nod of her head.

"Hi, Laurie!" called several, waving.

"Who's that with her?" asked one platinum-blonde woman with a well-inflated lower body who was preparing to tug on a yellow unitard.

"Dunno... a new contestant, maybe?" replied her astoundingly big-breasted neighbor that was rubbing lotion onto her arms while sitting on the concrete island in the middle of the locker room.

"Hi there! Are you new?" the blonde called to Sarah.

Another woman further back waved to Sarah and yelled, "I've got a space open on my bounce squad if you need it!"

Still another yelled, "I can squeeze you in on my speed-inflation team, new girl!" Nervously, Sarah took a hesitant step back from all the attention from so many over-inflated women. She felt herself press back accidentally into the distended softness of Laurie's body, and leaped forward again with a yelp. From her place behind Sarah, Laurie took Sarah by the shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

"She's not a new contestant everybody," Laurie explained. "She's that reporter I mentioned last time, Sarah Alders! Everybody be nice to her and make her feel welcome please!"

"Hiiiii, Sarah!" chorused the inflated occupants of the room.

"Um... hello," Sarah replied, with a shy wave. Normally she was a very assertive person, you had to be to be in journalism... but she'd never had to deal with balloon women before! One by one, the women went back to their preparations, aside from a few now and then that waved to Sarah happily when they noticed her gaping in disbelief at their hyperpneumatic physiques.

"Don't worry," said Laurie, giving Sarah another reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. "Everyone is happy that you're here."

"I know," said Sarah, sheepishly. "This all just takes a little getting used to!" Laurie laughed good-naturedly.

"I imagine it does! It's been so long since I've been new, I guess I've forgotten what it feels like!" Laurie took a step forward and beckoned Sarah. "C'mon, I'll introduce you to the other two girls on my relay team!"

Laurie led Sarah over to the woman with the short, platinum hair and the jumbo-sized inflated backside that had wondered who Sarah was earlier. She had managed to somehow wriggle her way into her yellow unitard.

"Sarah, I'd like you to meet Lindsey. Lindsey, Sarah."

"Hi there!" Lindsey said. She finished smoothing one seam of her yellow unitard that ran down one huge flank, and shook Sarah's hand warmly. "Glad to have you here!"

"Hi," Sarah said. Laurie then turned to the huge-breasted woman beside Lindsey, an otherwise-petite woman with raven locks spilling down to her shoulders.

"And this is Amanda... Amanda, Sarah," Laurie said.

"Hi, Sarah," Amanda replied quietly. Sarah greeted her in return.

"Amanda's always so serious right before events," Laurie admitted. "She's the last runner on the relay team." Amanda did manage a smile. She seemed to be glad to be talking rather than thinking about the competition of the coming events.

"Yeah... I'm the one that goes through the finish line," Amanda said. "That's why I have these," Amanda explained, poking at her ballooned bosom.

"Uh...?" Sarah asked, uncertainly. She had a bizarre mental image of Amanda using her swollen chest to win a photo-finish during a race. She tried extremely hard not to stare or gape at Amanda's exposed cleavage. Sarah had almost gotten used to the appearance of the extremely inflated bodies that abounded in the locker room, but Amanda's inflation evidently existed rather exclusively in her breasts, and on her otherwise petite and slender frame the effect was dramatic.

"It's a lot easier to run fast if you're only inflated in the chest," Amanda explained. "Since I'm the last runner in the relay I don't have to hold very much, so I can concentrate on speed." Sarah was relieved that Amanda's explanation made more sense than her imagined one. Amanda tugged on one of the shoulder straps of her red leotard and adjusted her pneumaticized endowments. Sarah couldn't help but notice that the two orbs jostled and fought for space inside the décolletages of the crimson leotard like a duo of trucks fighting over a parking space.

"I see," Sarah said in response. It made sense, at least. Sandy joined the four of them again, squeezing her way through the bevy of inflated bodies that surrounded them. She sketched a mock salute, and settled her inflated body into a sitting position next to Amanda on the concrete island. She leaned forward, placing her arms on top of her inflated breasts with her hands clasped over top of her cleavage. She rested her chin on the tops of her hands, and she seemed to be merely resting on top of some pillows. Sarah could almost forget that those pillows were Sandy's own inflated breasts and body.

"Hey guys," she said once she'd gotten comfortable. Lindsey zipped up her bag, and pushed it further towards the center of the concrete island. She sat down in the place the bag had vacated. Sarah noticed that even though she was quite short, Lindsey's overinflated backside buoyed her several inches higher than even the extremely-inflated Sandy sat.

"Hey Sandy," Lindsey said. She glanced at Laurie and then back at Sandy. She added, "So are you guys still going through with 'Plan B' for the relay today?" Laurie nodded.

"'Plan B?'" asked Sarah.

"'Plan BIG,' said Sandy with a big grin. "What I was explaining to you about the relay while Laurie was inflating."

"'Fraid so," Laurie affirmed in response to Lindsey's question. "Nobody's tried this with the relay before, like I said, so we're also going to get the element of surprise. Hopefully some of the other teams will be distracted, and between that and the additional helium we're going to be carrying, I think we'll easily make up the lost time."

"Great," Lindsey pouted.

"Heh, what are you worried about?" Laurie asked with a grin. "I'm getting half of Sandy's helium, you just get a quarter of it."

"I know, but she's in all the max volume events," Lindsey complained. "Saying I'm getting a quarter of her helium is like saying that I only have to drink a quarter of the Pacific ocean!" Sarah noticed Sandy watching this exchange with a big grin on her face, and she suddenly got the impression that Sandy rather enjoyed the reactions of people to her impressive capacity. Amanda broke the silence after Lindsey's grumbling.

"Just think of it as just another test of your abilities, Linz," Amanda said. She then barely stifled a laugh before adding, "And a chance to stress-test the seat of those tights!" Lindsey glared at her, but Sarah saw the resigned gallows humor in Lindsey's eyes.

"I dunno what you think is so funny!" Lindsey said smugly. She poked at the side of one of Amanda's endowments with an index finger. "Sure, I'm going to be waddling down the track with a huger-than-huge behind, but you're going to be trying to find the finish line with those pontoons inflated so big they're going to be floating up in your face!" Amanda laughed and leaned back slightly, resting her weight on the heels of her hands. Sarah noticed that the pose caused a rather alarming forward projection of Amanda's balloon-like breasts.

"Well," Amanda reasoned, "I can run backwards. Whereas you're going to be waddling regardless of which way you run!" Lindsey stuck her tongue out at Amanda and crossed her arms before looking away in mock injury.

"Seriously though, Amanda... you probably want to stretch out a bit more than that," Laurie warned. "Even you're going to be holding a lot."

"Geez, you think so?" Amanda asked, concerned. She turned and surveyed Sandy. "Um... how much bigger were you planning to go during the race?" Sandy only grinned and spread her arms wide and puffed out her cheeks comically.

"Oh man," Amanda said, her alarm showing in her raised eyebrows. She looked down at her bosom. "I guess I do need to be ready to hold a lot more," she confirmed. Amanda reached into her gym back and produced a black metal cylinder the length of her forearm that had a pressure gauge and dangling hose attached. She briefly checked the gauge and put the free end of the hose into her mouth. Amanda adjusted the tiny gauge on the cylinder and hissing gas began to force its way into her bosom. As more and more of the chilly helium filled her, her already-distended bosom began to swell and expand like a time-lapse film of a pair of pumpkins ripening on a vine, the material of her top stretching and groaning as it was forced to expand along with Amanda's burgeoning breasts.

Sarah let out a small squeak, but nobody heard it.

Oblivious to Sarah's discomfiture and Amanda's burgeoning mammaries, Laurie, Lindsey, and Sandy began to discuss their plan of attack while Amanda listened in.

"Well, as long as we're really going through with this, we might as well think through it," Lindsey observed. Laurie nodded.

"What do you want to know?" Laurie asked.

"Well, first of all, how do you want to do the handoffs?" Lindsey inquired.

"Directly is probably best," Laurie said. "The handoff hoses we usually use aren't going to cut it... they're too narrow, and we need to pick up all the time we can during the inflations themselves, since we're going to be so slow while running. As long as everyone is okay with that," she said.

"I'm okay with it," Sandy said.

"Me too, assuming we can even GET that close," Lindsey said.

Amanda merely flashed a thumbs-up sign, unable to speak around the hose that was still bloating her breasts.

"Well, regarding being able to get close enough, I don't think it's going to be a problem," Laurie said in response to Lindsey. "Sandy and I are probably going to have to approach backwards to get close enough, but I think all the other handoffs will go fine." Lindsey nodded.

"What about your initial inflation, Sandy?" Lindsey asked, turning to face the hugely swollen woman, who was still leaning forward and resting upon the pillows of her body and bosom that were trapped between her thighs and her arms.

"I've taken care of it already," Sandy said. "I told the starter I wanted the regulator on my tank set to fifteen times starting relay pressure."

"Geez," Lindsey said, awed. "Are you sure even you can take that?" Sandy laughed politely, but with true mirth in her eyes. "...What?" Lindsey asked, hesitantly.

"You need to come watch some of the max volume events more often, Linz," Laurie said, laughing along with Sandy.

"How come?" Lindsey asked.

"Starting pressure for maximum volume speed inflation is about seventy times relay pressure," Sandy said.

"Holy crap," Lindsey whispered, eyebrows raised. Amanda's eyes widened.

"Is that a lot?" asked Sarah. Lindsey could only nod dumbly.

"Fifteen times is going to be a walk in the park for me," Sandy continued. "I'd go a lot faster to gain us some time, but if I go much faster than that I don't know if I'm going to be able to stop at a size that's going to be all that comfortable for Laurie," Sandy said.

"Yeah, really... no more than that," Laurie said. "This is going to be a big stretch for me as it is." Lindsey nodded, agreeing overwhelmingly. Amanda spat the hose from her mouth and quickly screwed the regulator shut. Her breasts were perhaps twice the size they had been and her leotard didn't appear happy about it.

"Man, I can't believe we're doing this," Amanda said with a rueful chuckle.

"Well, even if we don't win there's always notoriety, right?" Laurie asked happily.

"Yup!" crowed Sandy. "People are going to be talking about this for a long time!"

"I can see the headlines now," Lindsey said dryly. "Stupid girls in relay put max volume girl on team as first runner, second runner rolled off field, immobile, after handoff." Sandy laughed loudly.

"Anytime one of you wants to make that sort of headline, just let me know," Sandy said with an evil grin. Just then, a speaker in the corner of the locker room's ceiling came to life with a crackle.

"Everyone participating in the 4-person mobility relay, please report to the arena. Team captains, be sure to sign in with starter," it said.

"That's us, gang," Laurie said. Sandy clapped her hands and laughed. Laurie smirked.

"You've really been looking forward to this, haven't you?" Laurie said in chagrin.

"You bet!" Sandy agreed. "I always thought you should have been in the max volume events, and now I get to see you try that body shape on for size!"

"'For size' is right," Lindsey said. Laurie laughed nervously, discomfited.

"Well, anyway, we ought to get down there and get signed in," Laurie said. Sandy grinned evilly at Sarah.

"She's a little embarrassed about how big she's going to be getting in a few minutes when I hand off to her in the relay," Sandy said to Sarah.

"Hush, you," Laurie said accusingly, blushing slightly. Sandy just laughed, but it was a good-natured laugh. "Anyway, we really DO need to get down there, girls," Laurie said, recovering. The five of them stood, and began moving towards the exit of the locker room, and deeper into the building. Sarah noticed quite a few other girls of varying proportions standing and beginning to leave as well. Several of them looked rather alarmed by the fact that Sandy appeared to be leaving for the event too.

"Well," Laurie said to Sarah, "get ready to see a competition like you've never seen before!"