Pt 3- The Balloon Gauntlet
As the wheel spun the human prisoners all felt nervous. There was mixed feelings- the first person would at least get it over with, but on the other hand what the heck was about to happen?
Sure enough it slowly wound down before hitting a picture of Lara Croft. A claw emerged and dropped her into an area called "THE BALLOON GAUNTLET!"
"Yes everyone" the host confirms "A series of fiendish traps designed to test Lara Croft. She's an explorer on her planet. But she will have never come across what we have for her!"
I wish I had my gun, Lara scowled to herself. She looked up to see a golden idol at the top of a pyramid. Ah they want to make me feel at home, she grumbled to herself sarcastically.
She barely had a chance to get her breath before an inflated wrecking ball swung towards her. Shutting her eyes she imagined her body puffing out, deflecting the ball with a giant inflated suit gut.
Lara tried to run but her suit made her waddle awkwardly, the running motion causing strange squeaking noises. She then heard a noise. A whoosing noise like... FIRE!
The fire balloons whoosed towards her. She rolled out of the way, the streams of fire causing the gauntlet to blast in flames, resulting in an "ooh" from the crowd.
Got to keep moving, she realised. Can't let the next weird thing hit... she then saw something she didn't expect.
"RAAGH!" Giant, inflated dogs. Of all the things she was prepared for this was not the case. Before she could react they were on top of her, crushing her body, getting bigger and bigger. She felt the jaws come on top of her!
The jaws! That was it! She grabbed one of the dogs and gripped its mouth, its teeth sinking into its own rubbery skin. Just as she hoped they popped themselves!
She ran toward the pyramid. But as she did so she could feel the suit increasing in size, each step became harder and harder. She soon tripped over, hearing the laughs from the audience.
"Timber!" laughed the host. Lara felt humiliated, struggling to get up. What was the point, she thought. She pictured herself as a permanent blimp, a slave to this bizarre planet.
"NO!" she yelled out. As she became more enraged the suit seemed to react, ballooning out until she hit the ceiling. She picked up the treasure from the top of the pyramid in her giant inflated hand.
"That...that's cheating" grimaced the host. "But nonetheless you are through to the final!"
And with that, Lara disappeared and the wheel span again...
Pt 2- The Big Show
"Yes folks it's that time again!" the host beamed. For a moment the humans in the white balloon suits took a moment to adjust. It was hard enough with this man's suit, a suit so loud it would outsing Tom Jones for sheer volume. "Welcome to Ladie's Night at... THE INFLATOR GAMES!"
They all looked round. There they were in this strange stadium- part Coliseum, part elaborate TV studio, all inflated. The crowd were from all walks of life- baseball capped, opera glass wearing, novelty T-shirts. However the major difference is that they were all perfectly spherical, as indeed was this mysterious host.
"Now as you know for centuries our empire has been slowly taken over all of existence" the host grinned. She-Hulk cringed as she heard this. She had seen enough invasions in her time but somehow it was shocking to hear how blase this guy was about it. "But we like to have a little fun with our colonies!"
They all looked at each other, all confused.
"Yes ladies and gents, we are going to be putting our contenders from the planet Earth through all our battle rounds. As you know the winner will be set free and allowed to return to their time and dimension of existence. Those who fail become slaves of the glorious planet of Inflatia!"
Lara was the first to turn around and see them. Masses of strange looking aliens, all inflated to a spherical size, all looking miserable.
"What if we refuse?" yelled out Batgirl, which was not a smart move.
"Allow me to demonstrate" grinned the host, although one could sense discomfort at Batgirl's off-script response. He clicked a remote and a pipe emerged from the suit, thumping into Batgirl's mouth and causing her to inflate.
"If you choose not to participate you will be instantly immobilised." he stated in a simple matter of fact way. Having felt the point had been proven he pressed the button again, removing the pipe and causing Batgirl's head to return to its normal size.
"Well enough with the intros, let's find out who will be first in the Blimp Arena!" the host announced as he spun round a roulette wheel.
Everyone turned to each other as they saw the wheel spin, terrified about what would happen next...