Ascent

She strode barefoot across the sands, wavy black hair blowing in the wind behind her.  Tall, tanned, and athletic, her red one-piece swimsuit hugged her form, leaving nothing to the imagination.  It was a clear day, and the beach had more than a few visitors, some of whom had noticed her arrival.  She knew she would attract attention - and even more, soon enough - though she paid it no mind.  What others thought, or would think, was of no concern to her.

As she neared the shore she pulled her arms out of her swimsuit and rolled it down, letting her breasts hang free.  Ignoring the murmurs of disapproval behind her she stopped just before the water, staring out at the sea.  Without a word she took a breath and spread her arms, and her breasts began to inflate.

They went from their normal shape to globular in an instant, her nipples pulled flat across their surface as they grew.  In a matter of seconds each were larger than beach balls, hanging down past her navel, and seconds later they grew past her knees, their pace not slowing.

By the time her breasts touched the sand, over four feet around, she had caught the attention of nearly everyone on the beach.  The reactions of the men varied from stunned disbelief, to confusion, to amusement, but the women only stared, enrapt at the sight before them.  One by one, they approached the shore, shedding their shirts and bikini tops as they went, stopping just before the water.  One by one, they spread their arms, and one by one, their breasts began to inflate.

Their pace was rapid, though none grew as fast as the woman in red; by the time theirs touched the ground hers were over twice her height, resting on the surface of the water.  Stretched along the beach was a row of flesh-toned spheres, growing ever larger in the midday sun.

To the left of the woman in red was a pale girl barely out of her teens.  No less than five minutes ago she had no breasts to speak of; now they were eight feet across, towering above her with cleavage deep enough to hide in.  A sudden gust blew and they bobbed up, pulling the girl forward as they rose higher and higher until finally, with a surprised laugh, the girl's feet left the ground.  Whooping loudly in celebration, she pulled off her bikini bottom and let it fall, rising naked into the sky.

The men on the beach watched as, one by one, the others took flight, carried by their massively inflated assets.  In the middle of it all the woman in red continued to grow, now larger than a two-story house.  Still, she remained on the ground, even as the others drifted away.  If she heard their shouts or cries as they left she made no move to acknowledge it as she continued to stand there, arms spread and growing.

Finally, the last of the others was carried off, leaving her alone on the shoreline once more.  She lowered her arms, looking up at her gargantuan breasts.  There were no longer any murmurs of disapproval - only stunned silence - but what others thought was of no concern of her.

The wind blew, and the woman's feet left the ground.  Carried aloft by twin tanned hot air balloons she laughed as she drifted into the sky, mingling with the others as they lazily floated over the sea.

*****

The door to the changing room opened and a thin young man of about twenty stepped out, adjusting his swim trunks. "Sorry it took so long," he said. "I..." He trailed off as he looked around, noticing that his companion was gone and that the people nearby, all men, were staring off into space.  Following their lines of sight up to the beach, he caught sight of a cluster of paired flesh-toned balloons floating into the distance.  It didn't take him long to realize what they really were.

"Oh no, not again."

Sprinting down the boardwalk he gasped for air, drawing in lungful after lungful without bothering to exhale.  His chest and stomach rapidly swelled into an impressive set of pecs and a wide belly, and his limbs thickened.  With each breath he grew larger and fatter with air, his shirt pushed up by his growing midsection.  Each step set his body shaking, and his growing, pneumatic girth was slowing his pace, making it harder and harder to move.

He dodged to the side to avoid another man on the boardwalk, tripping over a loose board in the process.  Landing on his stomach, he bounced forward several feet before coming to rest and, grunting, rocked side to side before gathering enough momentum to return to his feet.  Staggering forward, he continued pulling in air, ducking into the scuba shop and taking hold of a cart with four diving tanks on it.

This act did not go unnoticed by the clerk, who was trying to figure out which was more worthy of attention: The fact that the fat man who just entered his store was slowly getting larger, or why he was trying to make off with an armload of diving equipment. "What... are you doing?"

"I'm going after my girlfriend!" he shouted, dragging the cart outside.

The clerk tried to process what this meant as the young man tore the mouthpieces off the hoses and opened the valves, taking two hoses in each hand. "But those are oxygen tanks.  You can't fly with them."

He pointed at the floating women. "Tell them that," he said.  Thrusting out his stomach, he shoved two hoses deeply into his navel and the other two into his mouth.

His cheeks puffed out to the size of baseballs as the air entered him with explosive force.  His body instantly blew outward a foot in all directions, tearing his shirt and trunks to shreds.  A deep hissing echoed from within him as his limbs were forced to the sides, growing thicker before being absorbed by the sphere of his body until all that remained of his arms and legs were flat, circular lumps with hands and feet protruding from dimples at their ends.  He quickly grew to five feet across, then six before the hissing grew silent.  Spitting out the hoses he shouted, "more air!"

The clerk stared. "How the-"

He looked pointedly in the direction of some onlookers before jerking his head in the clerk's direction. "You two!  Help him!"

One of them nodded and hurried off into the store, taking the clerk by the arm.  The other began to follow but stopped and glanced at the young man's lower hemisphere before averting his eyes and pointing. "You do know you're naked, right?"

"You have one too, you know."

"Well not one like -that-..."

The clerk and the other man quickly returned, each holding a thick hose that trailed back into the interior of the store.  The clerk wedged his into the young man's navel before retreating into the back again, while the other rolled him forward and put it into his mouth.

As the air began to flow his cheeks bulged once more, the hissing echoing inside him as his body continued its push upward and outward.  He grew over the heads of the onlookers, then the store awning, then the building itself.  Twelve feet, then thirteen, then fourteen... the onlookers, once curious, began to grow concerned.  Suddenly his inflation slowed for a moment, and his body let out a loud pneumatic groan before throbbing outward and resuming its pace.  The people around him - including the clerk - panicked and scattered, leaving him alone and growing outside the shop.

The young man could hear the people fleeing, but was barely able to see anything through his puffed-up cheeks and over the horizon of his chest.  At least they did their part, he thought; the rest was up to him.  He was large - he knew that much - but he wasn't airborne, and if they could do it then damn it, so could-

The wind blew past, and for a second his backside lifted up from the boardwalk.  He almost let the hose drop from his mouth in excitement, but caught himself in time and clamped down harder, waiting for a second breeze.  As if on cue it lifted him up and held him in the air, his body tethered by the hoses.  The one in his navel popped free, his grip on the one in his mouth turning him upside-down before he let go.

Floating above the sea, he drifted along, trailing after the human balloons that left before him.

*****

The pale girl bobbed on the breeze, held aloft by her enormous, floating breasts.  The experience was incredible: The soft caress of the wind over her skin, the feeling of freedom as she floated, unrestrained, through the air... it was bliss.  She couldn't help but shake the thought that she left something important behind, though...

"Hey, wait up!"

She looked over her shoulder to see her boyfriend, naked as she was and blown up to an amazing size, floating towards her.  As he neared, she reached out and grabbed the tattered remains of the shirt dangling from his neck. "You left without saying anything," he said.

She cringed. "Sorry, things just kind of happened."

"No kidding.  Half the beach floated away."  He looked her over.  "How big are you, anyway?"

"I don't know.  I wasn't paying attention.  How big are you?"

"Dunno.  Lost track."

"Oh.  Well," she said, tying the end of his shirt to her wrist, "we're bound to float back over land eventually.  We can worry about landing-"

"...and clothes."

"-and clothes then."

"Gonna be a while, though.  We're pretty far out."

"Mhm."

Silence.

"Mile High Club?"

"Okay."