I pulled my shirt off, dropping it on the bench in the locker room before unzipping my jeans. Stepping out of them, I messily folded them and placed them on top of my shirt. Just as I had taken off my underwear, though, I heard a voice from the door say, "bet you never thought you'd be getting paid for this."
I jumped, fumbling for the pile of clothing before holding it against my crotch in an attempt to hold on what modesty I had left. "Shania!"
The tanned and ponytailed young woman stepped into the room, letting the door swing shut behind her. "What? It's not like we haven't seen each other naked before. Or in other compromised positions."
"This is the men's locker room!"
"Like I said, it's not like we haven't seen-"
"Fine, whatever."
"Anyway." She held out a thin grey bundle. "We're going to be wearing something different today."
I took the bundle in one hand and let it unfold, trying to hold it up for a better look while still covering myself with the other. After realizing that Shania wasn't about to help me or leave I grumbled and turned away from her, letting the wad of clothes drop. Shania gave a wolf whistle and I shot her a look over my shoulder, taking it in both hands so I could see what it was.
We normally wear something like diving suits, but with a little more stretch. Okay, a lot more. This one was different from my normal one, though; for one thing it was grey, and for another it had a logo plastered vertically on either side. "Dynafix?"
"Yep." Shania gestured to her red suit, the letters "BRF" plastered across her stomach. "We're being sponsored, so we gotta wear the logos."
"We've sold out."
"Are you complaining?"
"Hell no. If you're good at something, never do it for free."
*****
As we walked across the beach I noticed that it was a bit busier than usual, with a handful of the people wearing suits similar to ours. "This sort of thing happens a lot at this beach, doesn't it?"
Beside me, Shania shrugged. "There's just something about it that draws in the weirdos." She trailed away, heading for a large hot air balloon basket. One of the people standing by it handed her a headset, which she put on. "Maybe it's something in the water. Anyway, we'll talk about it later."
I waved to her and kept walking across the beach towards my destination: A propeller-driven gondola like you'd see on a blimp with a collection of straps attached to the top. Three guesses as to what - or who - was going to be the blimp.
It's weird, being able to become so big but being completely unable to move normally in the process. They say that there's two ways you can feel when you're inflated - powerful or helpless - and you can tell a lot about a person by which one they feel more.
*****
The ground crew climbed down off the top of the gondola once the straps were connected to me, and I adjusted my headset and lay down on my stomach, head forward. "Ready?"
"Ready when you are, Alan."
I paused to calm my nerves, then took a deep breath.
Air rushed down my throat, quickly filling my lungs before spreading to the rest of my body. My stomach instantly bulged, followed by my butt and chest growing wide and round, then my arms and legs growing thick, dangling down and resting against my stomach. I swelled with air, my belly taking up more of my body as my arms became cone-shaped, sticking out to the sides as they slowly became wider and flatter. I grew as wide as I was tall, then twice that, then three times. I looked down, my chin pressing against the swell of my chest, watching as my line of sight moved forward until I could finally see over the edge of the gondola.
By now I was round, or at least as round as I normally get: My body is completely spherical, but there's still curves where my chest would be, and my limbs are flattened half-spheres with my hands and feet sunk into the ends. I'm a little jealous of the folks who can go completely round; they just look more balloon-like to me. I like to think my size makes up for it, though, and at least I don't grow down there unless air is pumped directly into it. Most guys who do need special suits or else things get really uncomfortable.
I paused, looking down to see that a small group of people had collected beneath me as I grew. Far beneath me; my head had to be at least four stories up.
I winked. "Like what you see?" I shouted.
A few of them broke out into laughter while one gave me a thumbs-up.
"Then you're going to love this," I said, then took another breath.
It's a well-known fact with us that the bigger you are, the faster you can grow. I'm not sure how it works - something to do with the two-balloon experiment - but I'm glad it does or else getting to a good size would take way too long.
My body let out a long, low creak as it suddenly swelled faster, and I felt my suit and the straps shift and pull across me. A few of the people below me took a step back, worried by the ominous noise, and I watched as they grew further and further away as my head rose higher. I was growing by yards now, filling myself full of air and becoming a true human blimp.
"Shania," someone said over my headset, "you're all set."
"Roger that," Shania replied, then I heard the rush of wind as I watched a red sphere rapidly grow in the distance.
Remember what I said earlier when there were two ways you could feel when inflating? For me, when I inflate, I feel powerful. In a matter of minutes I can transform from a normal human being into something absolutely massive and awe-inspiring. My body can stretch and grow to contain an unimaginable amount of air, or water, or helium, making even buildings look tiny by comparison, and every time I grow I stretch a little further and push my limits even farther.
I watched Shania bob on her tethers in the difference, puffed up to the size of a hot air balloon; I was still growing to the proper size in the time it took her to start and finish. In my growing shadow, far beneath me, a woman snapped pictures of me with her smartphone. Behind them on the boardwalk a group of college-age girls cheered on two of their topless friends, their beach ball-sized breasts pressed against the other's as they grew. Behind them in a secluded part of the beach a young woman was busy running an air pump, blowing her boyfriend up into a puffy giant. He was large, but I was far larger.
The gondola straps began to press into me, but I kept pulling in air until they were snug before stopping. The volume of air in me was immense, and I could feel the pressure pushing out in all directions, but I contained it easily. The only things keeping me from being mistaken for a real blimp were my hands, feet and head, and at my scale they were so small as to be barely noticeable.
Over the headset I heard Shania ask, "are you done yet? You look done."
"One hundred feet," I replied. "Give or take."
"Well, I'm set here. You ready?"
"Let's go."
I heard the chatter of the crew over my headset, and the propellers on the gondola whirred to life. The straps pressed into me as I lifted off, carrying the cabin into the air. In the distance Shania rose up, and together we floated through the skies.