helium

"Once home, and before Amelia could have the presence of mind to go to the hospital, she felt something flutter in her chest. It was almost as if she could feel her breasts inflating…"

Yet another case of somebody working alone late at night in the lab.  Won't you people ever learn?

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Ms. Bouncer is ©Venya8008

An illustration from the short story "Above the Dance Floor" by Dragon-6860.

Once they could be studied, it was found that the little machines Irene had been infected with were keyed only to her DNA and inside anyone else they stopped replicating after a few generations.  Without pumping out the helium, those infected will inflate almost as big as Irene does, though after a while they will deflate when the nanites cease to funtion.  A pump will aid in deflation or control the inflation.  To operate, the nanites require a lot of energy which they get from consuming adipose so those who are repeatedly exposed tend to slim down very nicely.  

For several days after the lab accident and fearing she would lose her job, Irene was able to hide her condition by slipping into a supply closet every hour and using a vacuum pump to keep herself looking somewhat normal.  That seemed to be working until she was held up in a video conference all morning long, unable to leave.  While she successfully concealed her swelling with the tactical use of her lab coat, what she didn't know was that the nanites in the helium she was outgassing had saturated the small room and her coworkers had each ingested a rather large dosage of them.