I had planned this all along. There it was below us. The huge vat of swirling, thick, green goo purported to rubberize and expand any material it contacted. In short, it could turn living matter into a balloon.
Of course, that was exactly what I hoped for. Some people have goals. My goal was to become a balloon. Not just any balloon but the biggest balloon of course.
Without hesitation and before the tour guide could turn around, I leaped over the railing and plunged into the sweet, sticky, bubbling lake below. As I hit the surface I didn't quite sink but slid into it due to its viscous nature. Almost immediately I began gulping mouthfuls of the chemical and with equal speed it took effect. I could feel it filling me and changing me as I hastily lapped up ever larger mouthfuls of the syrupy stuff. I grinned as my belly gurgled and quickly rounded out, growing larger with each gulp. As my torso and limbs increased in girth, buttons gave way and seams burst. Within moments I erupted from my clothes to reveal a shiny green latex bodysuit with the word BIGGER emblazoned across the front in bold white letters.
High above, on the scaffolding, the tour guide and other visitors were in a state of both panic and awe. Alarms rang out as soon as I hit the vat and the guide flailed helplessly above, shouting for me to stop at once.
But of course I had no intention of stopping. The stuff was doing its job. I was growing by the second and I intended to drink every last drop of it. My intake increased faster and faster as I began to literally vacuum up the green goo. With each passing moment my belly grew larger and larger as I displaced the volume of the holding vat. Like a human water balloon, I was swelling with the contents of the tank. Within minutes of falling in I had reached the size of a couch...then a car. Then I doubled in size...and doubled again.
Finally, amidst all the clamor and panic, I had drained the vat dry.
There I was, lodged firmly in the vat like a cake that had outgrown its pan just slightly. I patted my bloated sides and laughed, somewhat nervously from my own surprise. Despite my hopes, I had no idea I could hold so much. I was much larger than I had expected I might grow. But not only was I large...I felt large. A sense of girth and fullness overwhelmed over me. A smile spread across my face and grew into a smug sneer as I realized this wasn't the end. It was merely the beginning.
I grinned and stroked my pumped up sides in a mixture satisfaction and awe.
“I..I..did it! I drank it ALL! HAHA! Can you believe it?” I shouted as I clutched my rubbery belly and wobbled my body. "Just look at this! I'm like a big fat water balloon, I'm AMAZING!"
"And you folks think I'm big now? Just wait! I am gonna get sooo big." I closed my eyes, concentrated and inhaled...and inhaled...and inhaled what became a superhuman breath. My cheeks swelled like small balloons themselves as I strained and blew inward with all my might.
And then, with a great wheezing hiss, I began to inflate.
The green liquid sprang into action, rubberizing me fully, expanding inside, pumping me up exactly as I had dreamed: bigger...bigger...bigger. My eyes widened with excitement as every inch of me suddenly began to expand and stretch, punctuated by the loud hissing noise that rose from within me.
"It's working! I'm growing!" I shouted with glee. "And I'm gonna get bigger," I said, turning to watch my arm puff up. "And bigger" I continued as I gleefully wiggled the fingers of the other expanding arm. "And BIGGER!" I shouted as I ran my swelling arms over my body.
The holding vat then began to groan and creak, protesting as my expanding girth battled for space. Merely encouraged, I inhaled once more, this time sucking in even more air and pumping my cheeks up like weather balloons. With a series of groans and grinding, the vat finally split asunder from my swelling mass.
Free off the vat, I patted my belly in victory and immediately waddled forward, eyeing my next goal: the large exhaust valve on the other side of the factory. As a wicked grin crossed my face, the crowd sensed my intentions and flew into further panic. I smugly lurched forward and shoved my belly into the valve, pressing harder and harder until a light popping noise indicated it had indeed inserted itself within my navel. Resting my hands contently on my sides, I laughed as the exhaust surged into me. My belly quickly swelled rounder and rounder, wider and wider by the pulsing stream of exhaust air.
"Bigger," I whispered confidently as I watched each blast of air pumped me even larger.
The crowd above had already dispersed as my blimping mass threatened to overtake every inch of the fateful factory. Outside, the former visitors had fled to a far side of the street and joined curious crowds who stood in awe as the spectacle unfolded. Windows suddenly burst, glass shards were flung through the air, and my body literally leaked out of every available opening in the factory. Doors buckled and were blown off their hinges as I continued to force my way out. Masonry cracked and walls groaned from the assault of my proudly ballooning bulk.
And then the street corner was rocked by a thunderous explosion of dust and concrete as the entire factory collapsed in a rain of mortar. A hush fell over the gathering crowds as the massive cloud of debris settled.
The crowd gasped as sections of the ruined factory began to shift and wobble. A steadily rising hiss along with a shrill stretching noise began to creep out of the rubble as chunks of debris were lifted by the massive green balloon beneath. Lumps of green latex began to peek out from beneath the huge pile of rubble, stretching and expanding like rubbery fingers.
I had not perished but was merely interrupted. More ruin fell aside as my massively blimping body pushed and pushed against it, lifting the former factory as I grew ever larger beneath it. With a great hiss and squeak I finally erupted from the debris like a massive green bubble. The word "BIGGER" had now stretched so large across my body it dwarfed nearby billboards.
"HA! Look at me! I'm GREAT!" I shouted, free of the confines of the factory as I reveled in my gloriously pumped up new girth. I must have been nearly as wide as a football field by then but I had absolutely no intentions of stopping.
I inhaled once again and this time and raised a pumped up arm to my mouth, blowing intently on my thumb. My belly wheezed and surged forth, stretching out ahead of me for dozens of yards. Surprised by my ability, I swallowed another great breath followed by another puff on my thumb. Again my belly surged forth even further. With a devious smirk, I blew again, craning my head back and watching as my bottom pumped up to almost match my belly. Triumphantly, I flexed my arms and inhaled through my teeth, listening as my arms and legs puffed up tremendously to support my girth. Within moments I had stretched myself into what looked (and felt) like a ridiculously over-pumped parade balloon.
“Now THIS is more like it!” I shouted as I patted and stroked my immense balloon body. As I grew larger, so did my ego and my delight. It was if my pride itself were filling me up, up, up. The bolder I became, the bigger I grew. The bigger I grew, the more I enjoyed it.
Next, I straddled a street and arched my back, shoving my massive belly forward with the utmost pride and resting my hands defiantly on my sides. Second by second I steadily expanded, growing tighter, wider and larger as the smirk on my face grew.
And yet somehow, I managed to lumber my gargantuan mass forward. Crowds watched in awe as I lurched towards the center of the city, wobbling, hissing and creaking with every massive step. Within less than a few blocks, I was proudly shoving my balloon body into buildings and obstacles. I looked and felt as if I were an even larger version of the Stay Puft guy with more belly and bottom than the entire city combined. I thrust my belly around like a wrecking ball, smirking, pumping it up and pushing aside anything in my path. I sat on buildings and monuments along the way, delightfully suffocating them in a sea of green latex as I expanded my ballooning bottom ever wider.
By the time I almost reached the city park, I had more than tripled in size since I left the factory and would soon eclipse it. Best of all, I apparently no longer had any need to puff or inhale as I noticed that I was somehow steadily growing now.
With a smug satisfaction that matched my size, I paused in the middle of the park to watch and listen to my ever-increasing girth. A steady hissing filled me inch-by-inch and pumped me larger by the moment. Overwhelmed with a sense of pride, I pounded proudly on my sides like drums. The deep bass echoed inside me with every thump. Simply watching my own body occupy more and more of my view only encouraged me further. I had dreamed of not only becoming a balloon, but becoming the biggest balloon ever and I was hurriedly exceeding those dreams.
I had grown from what looked like an unbelievably big-bellied, bottom-heavy Godzilla to an unimaginably massive green balloon. Now almost totally spherical, my head and once puffed up limbs had joined my titanic shape and sank into dimples. Unable to walk and despite my increasing mass, I luckily began to slowly float upwards, overshadowing the throngs of bewildered onlookers below.
Media and authorities descended on the scene, powerless to do anything but watch and broadcast the display as I slowly rolled through the sky, laughing and filling tighter by the second.
“Can you believe it?” I shouted as I rose towards the skyscrapers but the sound of my own hissing and stretching had drowned out my voice by then. My monologue was meant mostly for my own pleasure anyway. “I'll be BIGGER than this city!” I screamed to myself triumphantly as the clouds seemed to come closer and closer.
And with that my already gigantic sphere of a body impulsively swelled even faster. A sneer spread across my puffed face as I listened to myself filling to even greater girths. Far below, the city watched as the great green balloon hissed and swelled, overshadowing city blocks one by one as it gently rolled through the sky. Conveniently, my floating behemoth of a body rolled over until the word BIGGER, still emblazoned across my girth, filled the sky like an obscene billboard.
Confident of my capacity, I shouted again, “You think this is big? Watch THIS!” from high in the clouds. Again, I grinned as I readied to pump myself up even further but I halted as I was suddenly aware of a shadow eclipsing me. Flailing my hands and exhaling in an effort to rotate my massive blimp of a body, I rolled upwards.
Looming before me was what seemed an even greater blimp that had risen from the horizon. The seemingly infinitesimal stretched blue outfit it wore immediately gave it away. It was one of the girls in the factory tour with me. Somehow she had acquired the same expansive abilities I had. Had there been another tank of the chemical? Maybe so. It didn't matter now though. She was possibly ten times larger than I was...maybe even more. Besides that, she was still growing apparently as the hissing inside her was so loud it reverberated across the sky.
I realized she was slowly rotating through the air and floating towards me. I could hear her laughing hysterically as she grew closer...and larger. Finally, her head, proportionally much larger than mine and obviously inflated, rolled down into my view.
She chuckled, raised an eyebrow and calmly said, “Now then. Let's see who's gonna be the biggest.”
And with that she began to inhale...
TO BE CONTINUED