Portal XL

You wake up in a dingy room, almost like a hotel room.  It is blandly decorated and pale, looking as though it hadn’t been cared for in years.  You cough slightly as dust fills your lungs.  You sit up, feeling a little woozy still.  Your head pounds.  After a moment, you catch the glint of a mirror near the bathroom.  You rise shakily, slowly walking towards it.  When you reach it, you take a moment to look into it.  You see a slender woman, willowy, yet not flat.  Running your hands down your sides, you feel your gentle female curves.  Big blue eyes look at you from under a mop of black hair.  Most of it hangs down your back in a ponytail.  Your torso is clothed in an off-white tank top with “Aperture” emblazoned across it.  Your legs glow orange in their uniform-esque sweats, and a matching jacket is tied around your waist.  Tall white boots encase your feet, reaching halfway up your calves.

“I certainly hope you have finished.” A computerized voice said.  It was feminine and musical, yet you recognize it with a thrill of horror.  “I know there is, well, a LOT of you to examine.  But you and I have unfinished business.”  The voice of GLaDOS was like a voice from the grave, considering you thought you put her there.  “Your heart rate has risen, which means you are surprised to hear from me.  Which is strange.  Usually murderers have some sort of dreams where they hear the voices of the deceased.”

You certainly do feel your heart racing.  You never expected to hear from her again, much less find yourself back under her control.  Your mind already begins racing, trying to figure a way out of the computer’s clutches.

“I would bet your mind is racing, trying to figure a way out of my clutches.” The computer mocked.  “I think you know what to expect.  But I don’t hold a grudge.  I just want to get back to testing.”  You remember the tests, never knowing when your life was going to end.  Lasers, bridges, passive turrets, and only your handy portal gun to get you through.  You recall surviving her every challenge, finally defeating her.  At least, you thought.

“Wait, you can’t test without your portal gun.  Fortunately, I anticipated this.”  Your closet door slides open, and a mechanized arm holds out the portal gun.  “See?  All shiny and new.  And the portals are in your favorite colors, blue and guilt.  I mean, orange.  Did I say guilt?  Who knows, that’s probably the only words you hear coming out of my speaker.”  You take the gun and strap your right arm into it.  You feel more complete now.  Without another moment, you stride toward the door and grab the knob.  It doesn’t move.

“Oh, I forgot.” GLaDOS says.  “You think you’re ready to test.  Well the bad news is, I got enough information with you the way you are.  I’ll need to make some changes, then I can test your reactions.  It should be fun.”  The walls in your room move backwards, giving you another fifteen feet of space.  The ceiling rises several feet.  The bed, dresser, and sideboard sink through the floor and are replaced with empty tiles.  “Since I monitored you awakening, I started filling the room with a specialized gas.  No neural gas this time.  I’ve learned that humans will fail 100% of every test if they start off dead.  It won’t kill you, at least not perhaps in the way you think.”

Butterflies fill your stomach.  You massage it without looking down, trying to determine where GLaDOS could see you from.  Something presses against your hand and you look down, filled with alarm.  Your stomach is expanding.  It’s fairly slow, slowly growing one pulse at a time.  Your heart beats a little faster as soon, you look like you ate a large meal.  After several more moments, you look about eight months pregnant.  Your thin tank top keeps up with your growing stomach.  You reach down and loosen the jacket tied around your waist.  The hiss from the vent intensifies.

“You’re taking a little too long,” GLaDOS explained smoothly.  “I thought I would speed up the process.”  The expansion speeds up, your belly almost exploding in size.  You could fit a companion cube in your stomach.  Reaching down, you can feel your belly button poking out from under your shirt.  The hem was riding up, exposing your enormous belly and sides.  Even though you know it won’t do any good, you try to pull your shirt down.  There is a tinkling sound from the speakers that you belatedly recognize as laughter.

Abruptly, your stomach takes a pause.  Before you can celebrate, your sweats begin to feel tighter as your slim thighs and perky butt swell.  Your thighs widen and, as you grab your butt, you feel it expand like a pair of exercise balls.  They soon catch up to your enormous middle in size.  Your boots lift a little off the ground.

“How about some atmosphere?  It seems awfully quiet in here.”  On the white walls, suddenly you see a hot air balloon inflating.  “That should lighten the mood.”  The swelling resumes, your waist growing steadily.  You reach down and run your hand over your swelling body.  It feels just like a latex balloon, growing like someone was blowing into you.  Soon, you are almost completely round, your toothpick arms and slightly swollen calves sticking out of the giant orb that is your body.

“Would you like to see yourself?” GLaDOS said happily.  A picture replaces the hot air balloon- a pink, cartoony pig, its legs akimbo.  “Wait, that isn’t quite right.”  Then you appear, looking at yourself in the mirror.  You look like a ball with three stripes- the thin white at the top, which is your severely ridden-up shirt, the middle stripe of pale flesh tone, your huge stomach, and the bottom stripe, the bright orange of your inflated pelvis and legs.  Your head is comically tiny and your arms thin, spread out to keep your balance.  Your vast thighs shrink slightly into big round calves, which end in your tiny booted feet.  You try and move, the motion turning into an exaggerated waddle.  GLaDOS titters over the speakers again.

“You know, now that you outsize me by several feet, you almost intimidate me.  Of course, I could always do this-” The room shakes violently.  If you were your original size, this wouldn’t bother you.  However, in this state, you are thrown to your buoyant stomach.  Your nose is about six feet from the ground as you wave your limbs helplessly.  “Aww, like a turtle.  I’ve always wanted a pet turtle.  But that will have to wait until testing is concluded.”

The floor vanishes from under you.  You can feel yourself spinning through the air, arms and legs waving as the wind buffets you.  Suddenly, with a rubbery smack, you hit the ground on your side.  Surprisingly, it doesn’t hurt.  You bounce and roll a bit, ending on your enormous rear.  A mechanized shelf pushed you from behind, steadying you on your little feet.  “Since I haven’t had time to reconstruct the elevators to fit your, gracious, size, all of your transportation will be like that.  However, it may matter even less.  You’ll see…”  Shaking your head, you determinedly waddle in the direction of the door.  The dark room lights up one light at a time until the door is illuminated.  It is an extra wide door, with a cartoon depiction of you.  Rather, it’s a circle, white on top and orange on the bottom, with a head and arms.

The room you enter is huge and fairly simple.  There is a giant lake in between you and your exit.  Everything around you seems portable, so you shoot your portals- one next to you, the other next to your exit.  It is a bit of a tight fit, but you squeeze through.  The door too is a bit of a challenge, but you make it easily.  A giant hole awaits you where you remember the elevators to be.

“You know what?  Not enough has changed.  So we’ll add this.”  With a thrill of horror, you feel the inflating in you again.  You look up at the far wall and see your reflection.  You are visibly growing.  It doesn’t last long, but you know it’s added several more cubic feet to your size.  “So I will be testing several things this time around.  How you react to testing in your constantly changing state, and how long it will be before you explode.”