Spontaneous Inflation

The phone rang, as it had been all morning.

"Hello?" she asked, finally picking it up.

"Jodi? Where the hell you been? We need you in here to investigate something! Pronto!"

"A case? Right away, chief." She yawned, dropping the phone to the floor. Jodi didn't feel like going in today. Not after the night she had. She went back to bed for a while.

Hours later, she entered the National Paranormal Research Building deep in the center of Georgetown, DC. She hated mornings & after chasing down a crazed lycanthrope the night before, she wanted more sleep! But she knew that was impossible, especially for working here. Insomnia was like a working requirement. She walked in, sipping the coffee from the kwikie mart, it tasted like shit! Her cripped blonde hair back in a ponytail, she was dressed in a brown trenchcoat & her work clothes. She didn't even know how she got into this business! She could've been a model! Agents were knocking down the doors for her in college! But no! Her schooling had to come first! She walked up to her chief, waiting for her next to the elevator.

"So what's so urgent today?" she asked spitefully. Her boss, the Chief stood there angrily. He looked like Shaquille O'Neil at age 50.

"Jodi! I've been waiting for you all morning! This is important!" he bellowed.

"What's the haps'?" asked Jodi jokingly as she took another sip of the shitty coffee.

"Remember a few months back? That whole Spontaneous Combustion thing?" the chief said seriously.

"You mean those people who were just inexplicably going up in flames? How could I forget?" she laughed as she followed him onto the elevator. They were heading to the labs in the basement.

"Well it's sorta like that… sorta." Said the Chief. "These were the victims… before." He said, handing her a few photographs. They looked like young beautiful girls, all about the same age. These were everyday photos, nothing special about them. One was a pretty young black woman, another a brunette, & the other a bleach blonde, all looking remarkably healthy & in shape!

"And after…?" Jodi asked.

"Well that's what we're going to see now." He sighed as the elevator came to a rest. They walked toward Lab Beta. The door opened with a hydraulic hiss & Jodi saw what had become of the three young victims.

"Oh… my… god!" shouted Jodi.

"Sick, isn't it?" Said the Chief. They walked into the lab & there lie the three girls, or at least what had become of them! They were gigantically round spheres, naked with hands & feet & heads with puffed-up cheeks. It was like they had been attached to air hoses, industrial strength! They looked ready to burst. Jodi walked up to one of them slowly, finger extended. She wanted to touch them, see what they felt like. She drew her finger closer to the girl, the girl wincing.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Said a voice with a slight accent. "First of all, their bodies are all under a lot of tension. Any more stress & they could each take out this whole building. Second, would you like strangers poking you in such a situation?"

"Jodi, this is Dr. Kyoko Miyazaki. She's an expert in these sorts of things." Said the Chief. An Asian woman in a lab coat holding a clipboard joined them. "She'll also be your partner for this investigation."

"What?" screamed Jodi. "A partne…"

"Ah, don't get all 'I work alone' on us now! This in important! Whatever this is could strike anybody. And these girls stopped at a certain point, the next person might not be so lucky!" shouted the chief. "Nor will the vicinity around them!"

"Fine." Sighed Jodi. "So… are they… alive? And what are they… filled with?"

"Oh, very much alive." Shook Kyoko. "They're responsive to everything around them. They're just so full of what-we-guess-is air, that they are incapable of normal speech, usually they'll just moan or let out little murmurs." There was a brief pause as Jodi circled one of the inflated girls. "And from what we can tell, they're just full of normal everyday air. We just don't know how they ended up like this." There was another pause as Jodi inspected the middle blimp-girl.

"So I guess you haven't gotten anything out of them." Said Jodi, inspecting another one.

"Nope. Though eyewitness reports have said that they looked perfectly healthy when suddenly, they just started to… inflate. Spontaneously." Said Kyoko.

"Where were they found?" Jodi asked.

"Well, Sasha here was grocery shopping, she inflated in front of twenty-eight people… spontaneously. Meredith was a secretary hard at work at the Sawyer Sawyer & Kelly law firm… blew up like a bomb… spontaneously & last but not least, Sarrah was on a date in the middle of a crowded restaurant! She was eating the mousse when suddenly, bam……also spontaneously." said Kyoko, placing a palm on each one gently. Suddenly the Chief's phone rang.

"Hello?" he asked. The girls watched him, swollen ones included. "Aw… hell." He clicked off his phone & faced them. "We got another one!"

Jodi & Kyoko were on the scene almost immediately. It was just about five blocks away. There was a huge crowd in the way.

"Agent Jodi Sinclair, National Paranormal Research Bureau! Back up!" as she shouted, the crowd dispersed, revealing a red headed girl swollen into a spherical shape, just like the others, only this time just a bit larger. The shreds that used to be her denim pants scattered around her, tatters of a torn tanktop around her neck. There were a few cops on the scene who had already found out her identity.

"Her name's Zoe Quinn, she's 19, no health problems, no nothing. She had five bucks on her & was walking her dog." Said the seen-it-all Veteran. Jodi looked to see a leash still tightly clasped in the swollen girl's hand. Behind the girl's massive body, a Jack Russell Terrier laid next to its owner. "Should we move her?" asked the cop.

"NO!" shouted Kyoko. "There might be a loose piece of gravel or something. If she rolls on it, say goodbye to this entire block! There's already a crew coming to pick her up!" Jodi investigated around the swollen girl when suddenly, she got a clear view of the poor girl's face. It looked like a face of scared disbelief. Jodi wasn't usually the comforting type but she decided to give it a whirl.

"It's okay." She smiled. "Everything's… everything's going to be alright!" as she placed her hand gently next to the fleshy orb's side. The victim looked a little relieved, smiling back though still looking fairly shook up, as would anybody. Jodi couldn't find anything around the girl that looked suspicious. She leaned up against her black Jetta. Kyoko joined her. "This is weird." She said, turning to face Kyoko. "And I deal with weird on an everyday basis, so for me to call this weird…"

"Yeah…" agreed Kyoko as the Bureau's clean-up crew came in. "Four girls… no known connections… aged 20-23, now a 19 year old. I don't get it either."

What they didn't see was the grinning man at the newsstand across the street.

"I told you everything that I saw!" said Brendan. He was Sarrah's boyfriend, on hand at the time of her inflation.

"There was nothing suspicious? About anything?" asked a frustrated Jodi, leaning against the table later on back at headquarters.

"Listen. I just want to see Sarrah! Can you at least tell me how she's doing?" he pleaded.

"She's fine." Said Kyoko. "Now if you can help us, we could possibly be able to help her! So was there anything out of the ordinary?" Brendan sighed.

"Okay, I'll start from the beginning. I mean if it'll help!" he crossed his arms & sat back frustrated. "It was our three month anniversary. We had a simple dinner there. She had the Salisbury Steak… nothing strange about that! Everything was fine. Then came desert." He paused. "She got Chocolate mousse & ate it normal, nothing weird about it. Then when she was about 3/4 done she looked up at me, her eyes as wide as saucers. They began to tear & she muttered 'no' & suddenly she…" he sighed & covered his face. "She just blew up … like a balloon or a blimp or something! She just like burst out of her clothes &… it was just… scary." He hesitated for a few seconds. "The only thing that seemed weird was the waiter."

"The waiter?" asked Jodi.

"Yeah… He had blonde spiked hair & an ace bandage around his hand. I asked him if it was anything serious but he just laughed & said it was just a little trouble at the grocery store. Sarrah said she recognized him & suggested we go somewhere else. Why didn't I listen…?"

"Whoa! Grocery store?" jumped Kyoko. "Ladies & Gentleman! We have a lead!"

"His name is Sean Curtis." Smiled Kyoko dropping a folder on Jodi's desk. "He's 20. He got hurt at the grocery store two days ago at about the time of Sasha's incident. He went to the lawyers after getting his hand checked out to file a law suit. He's a waiter at the restaurant, & check this out."

"What?" asked Jodi. Kyoko handed him a picture.

"This was found in Zoe's wallet… she was his girlfriend!" Kyoko laughed. "Can you say… 'paydirt?'"

"I think we should check this guy out!" smiled Jodi, "Besides, I missed lunch today & I'm starving!"

It was about 7:00 pm. They entered the restaurant, intending on asking Curtis about his involvement. The two were seated conveniently at one of Sean's tables.

"Hi, as you already know, I'm Sean. May I help you two ladies' order?" he smirked.

"How did you…know that we… knew…?" Kyoko asked puzzled.

"Why don't you just answer our questions. You seem to know them already!" said Jodi. Sean smiled silently, a bit of fright flashing across his face. Then he took off. Jodi & Kyoko jumped up to follow him. "He's a telepath/telekinetic! Somehow, he's doing this with his mind! That's how he knew we were looking for him!" said Jodi as they ran into the kitchen after him. "But something isn't right! He's going about everything too normally!" They lost him around a corner for a second.

"There!" shouted Kyoko, seeing the back door swinging. The two investigators followed. They entered the deep alleyway behind the buildings. No one was there. Both drew their guns.

"I didn't know they let you lab geeks pack heat!" laughed Jodi while searching for the suspect.

"You'd be surpri-ohhh!" Moaned Kyoko.

"Kyoko? What's the matter?" shouted Jodi.

"I think… I think…… He's… he's trying to inflate me!" she said, dropping her gun & holding her arms out at her sides, slowly waving them in small circles. "Ooooh!"

"Oh shit… Curtis! Come out so I can shoot you, you coward!" shouted Jodi.

"I'm… sure… that''ll get him… out in the open-NAAAAAAAAUUUGGGH!" screamed Kyoko. Suddenly, her midsection began to look a little bulgy. "Wha-Why? Why, Sean? Why are you… doing this? UNNNNNNGGGH!" she moaned, getting no answer. She was right, she was inflating! Slowly at first. The waist of her skirt began to feel a little tight. But now, her whole body was starting to fill up with air.

"Just hold on, Kyoko!" said Jodi, looking back at her partner. The sight surprised her. Kyoko stood there, her blouse growing tightly against a belly of a woman three months pregnant.

"I'm… I'm… trying…" Kyoko whined, her belly gaining a month in seconds.. She was starting to grow faster & faster, & not only in her belly. Now her breasts were starting to inflate as well. Suddenly, Sean's laughter echoed thru the alley. "You…. You…. Bastard!"

"Bastard, eh?" a voice asked, echoing around them. Suddenly Kyoko began to grow even faster.

"AAAIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!" she screamed. She looked as if suddenly she was ready to deliver a baby, then in seconds, two babies. She grew faster & faster, her clothes ripping at the seams around her.

"Kyoko? My God!" screamed Jodi. She turned to watch her partner's entire body begin to inflate. Her hips, thighs, breasts, & ass all billowed out in all directions, catching up with the size of her belly. Her limbs began to look more like soft cones as she waved them frantically. Her puffing torso, assimilating the rest of her body as she grew more & more spherical. The growth only stopped when her swollen sides reached as far as her hands & feet.

"Ooooooooppphhh………Unnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngh." She moaned helplessly, slowly rolling onto what used to be her belly. Jodi couldn't believe what had happened to her. She watched as Kyoko still waved her puffy hands hysterically.

"I think there's a good place to stop. Anymore & things could get a little messy!" laughed Sean, still in hiding.

"You little creep! Show yourself!"

"Okay!" he laughed. "Is this good?" Jodi swung back around to face the voice, only to see that he was holding Kyoko's massively inflated body in front of him to act as a shield. "Go ahead & shoot! If you hit your puffy friend here, say goodbye to Georgetown! You want that?"

"Why are you doing this, you little shit?" Jodi asked, gun drawn but unable to do anything.

"Well it all started two days ago, at the Grocery store. I was bumped & my hand got caught in the automatic doors. I know, nothing horrible, only a hairline fracture. But I did get kind of steamed. I wanted to get the woman back, but I didn't know how. I just became so angry at her. I just followed behind her. She had no idea. I wanted to do something horrible when suddenly I just felt something click in my head, like a light switch! Suddenly, she just blew up into the blimp you must have found her as! Then the next day I figured that wasn't enough so I was going to sue. The secretary, Meredith was very helpful. Not to mention hot! So I figured why not try it on her. Low & behold? BANG! She puffed up right-quick!" he laughed imitating a southern accent as he leaned against Kyoko's gigantically bloated body. "Then at work, my ex girlfriend shows up! On a Date! I figured it would be nice payback for the bitch! So while she was on desert, she swelled up right in front of her date! I told her the chocolate mousse wouldn't be kind to her figure. You should've seen the look on the poor bastard's face! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"You sick little…" Jodi started.

"I don't think so." He laughed, pulling his pen for orders out his pocket & poking it gently against Kyoko's tight skin. The poor young doctor winced & let out a pathetic moan. "Continuing on… I don't know, but I began to get a little turned on by blowing these chicks up! SO that's when I went to my girlfriend, Zoe. She had no idea it was me, hell I'm probably the last person she suspects, whining if I'll still think she's sexy at this size, am I right? This morning, she went out to walk her dog & BAM! I got her too. You two… well it's pretty self-explanatory… Self defense."

"Us… two?" asked Jodi, feeling a weird sensation come over her. Sean snickered.

"At's right! Now blow up big & nice, Jode'! I wanna make you the biggest one yet!"

"You little perv…" she froze, dropping her gun. "Ohh!" she moaned. Sean laughed, letting Kyoko go.

"Come on! You can do it! I wanna make you grow with a bang, like Meredith!" he laughed evilly. Jodi place her hands on her flat abs to find them a little puffy. All she could do was moan & feel her insides gain pressure. "This is going to be great!" he laughed to himself, concentrating on Jodi's body. Jodi felt the pressure increasing inside her as though she was ready to pop when suddenly, her eyes widened & her sides just burst out in all angles with a loud 'pop'. Within seconds her shreds of clothes surrounded her massive body with cone limbs. "Nah… know what? I want you to suffer a little first…" he said, slowing the growth down.

"Ungh… stop……this!" she struggled, but she kept getting bigger & bigger. Sean laughed, walking up to her.

"Sorry, no can do." He laughed, pushing her with his finger. She rolled onto her back like a weeble. Sean looked down at her with a smirk. "It's a good look for you Jodi. Honestly. Too swollen to even move!" The poor agent could only moan as she swelled out more & more. Soon she was a little larger than Kyoko & Sean decided to stop. He looked at his watch. "Aw damn… I gotta get back to work! Don't go away! I'll be back for you too later." He smirked, walking back into the restaurant.

"D-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-do-don't……..l-l-e-lee-lea-vvve… us-s-s-s………h-he-here." Kyoko murmured. She thought back to the other victims. They were able to speak! Too bad she could only now understand them after it was too late. The door to the kitchen slammed shut & both agents lie in the alley helplessly, the cold wind brushing against the skin of their massive bodies. They'd moan & whimper with each breezy tickle, but there was no one to hear them in this deep alleyway.

So they both lie there, waiting for their 'inflator' to come back.

Kyoko couldn't believe this. She was supposed to be the expert in paramedicine, especially this sorta thing! Now the once frail Asian woman now lie there, in the dank alleyway, the size of a Volvo with her even larger partner. She'd become one of the victims after thinking it could never happen to her. She could just lie there & whimper, tears streaming down puffy cheeks.

Jodi was feeling pretty much the same. Oh she'd survived worse! Much worse. It was the sheer humility that was getting to her! She'd blew up alien space crafts! Staked Vampires! Exorcised ghosts! Hell, 24 hours ago, she was across town chasing down a werewolf! After capping a silver bullet in its head, she'd figured she'd seen it all. But this? This really took the cake!

They lied there for what seemed like hours! Waiting for him to show up, feeling the air inside them begin to get frigid. Suddenly, the echo of sirens filled the air. They began to rock frantically & whimper loudly. The sirens stopped & they figured all hope was lost. That was until they heard the Chief, calling for them. The sirens, it was their guys! They'd come looking for them! Jody jiggled her massive body & let out the loudest scream she'd ever mustered before.

"H-H-EEEEEEE-LL-LPP-pa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she whimpered, just loud enough for the chief to hear it, he kicked down a wooden fence between two of the buildings where he saw two of his best agents lying, swollen up like blimpish mockeries of their former selves.

"Oh my gentle, Jesus…" he sighed.

Meanwhile Sean, with an old army jacket on & a duffelbag around his shoulder walked along the side of the beltway. A car came by & he put his thumb out.

"Need a ride?" asked a beautiful young ponytailed girl.

"Where are you headed?" Sean smirked.

"Dallas." She smiled.

"Yee-hah!" laughed Sean. "Same place I'm going!"

"Hop in then!"

"Thanks!"

"Okay, gentle! Gentle with them!"  sighed the Chief, rolling the two agents up along side the other girls. The eyes of the other girls watched over puffy cheeks to see the two women who possibly had a chance to make them normal again, in the same boat Kyoko began to cry, tears rolling off her face & onto her massively swollen body. Jodi just sighed & looked at the Chief as he walked backwards out of the sterile lab, switching the lights off as he left.