Tall, Dark, and Handsome

Anna didn't have to be a mind reader to know that something was wrong with Molly.  For the past few days she had been distracted and listless, often staring into space when she should have been working.  Even on their days off she spent time on the balcony, looking out towards the sea and sighing wistfully to herself.  She also didn't need to be a mind reader to know what that something was.

"Come on," Anna said. "Tell me."

Molly glanced over her shoulder before sighing and turning back towards the water. "Tell you what?"

"Who is he?" She put her hands on her hips. "It's obvious you're in love."

She smiled longingly. "He's amazing.  He's tall, strong..."

"Yeah?"

"Confident..."

Anna nodded. "Okay."

"Scaly, breathes atomic fire..."

"...what?"

"Maybe a metaphor of some sort, there's so many layers to him that-"

"Hold it." As Molly turned to face her, Anna continued. "You're in love with Agrodon."

"Yeah." She smiled wistfully. "He's great, isn't he?"

"He's a thousand feet tall and rises out of the ocean to wreak havoc."

"He's hot, though."

"Why can't you be normal and just lust after that fish guy from The Shape of Water?"

"I'm not going to settle," Molly shot back, folding her arms across her chest.

Anna made a circle with the finger and thumb of one hand, balling her other hand into a fist and bumping them together. "I can think of at least one problem you'd run into, and that's assuming you could even get his attention."

"I know, but he's just..." She sighed deeply, running a hand through her hair. "If only I could be with him on his level, you know?"

Anna eyed her friend, resolve slipping away despite her better judgment.  Molly was eccentric, there was no doubting that, but there was genuine longing in her actions.  Even if her choice in men was highly questionable, she deserved a shot at love; everybody did.  The least Anna could do was help her out.

"I probably shouldn't be doing this," Anna said, "but I have a plan.  Change into something stretchy and meet me outside."



*****



Behind the apartment complex was a small park, left in a half-finished state when the building's owner ran low on funds.  There were no trees, only partially paved paths, and the closest thing to a pond was a slight recess that got swampy during heavy rains.  It was open and flat, however, which was all that Anna wanted from it.

"This isn't going to work," Molly said.

Anna set the bike pump down, letting the long, coiled hose on her shoulder slide off to the ground. "...and yet you still changed and followed me out here," she retorted, gesturing to Molly's biking shorts and sports bra.

"Yeah, well..." She scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "I guess I really -want- it to work.  Donny's not going to dick himself, you know?"

She gave her a look as she stooped, picking up the end of the hose. "'Donny.'  You're calling him Donny now." Shaking her head, she plugged the nozzle into Molly's navel before moving to the pump. "I hope this is worth it," she muttered, before pushing down on the handle.

Molly recoiled in wide-eyed shock as there was a sudden pressure against her navel that quickly gave way to what felt like all the muscles in her body stretching on their own, and her line of sight shot up a foot.  Anna raised the handle and pressed it down again and the sensation repeated, her vision rising higher.  Her mouth moved wordlessly, and by the time she got the words out she was tall enough that Anna only came up to her waist. "Woah!  Hold it!"

Anna froze, looking up at her. "Is something wrong?"

"I..." She looked herself over, patting herself down.  She -felt- normal, though her skin had a faint sheen to it that reminded her of a balloon, and there was a slight paunch to her stomach that wasn't there before.  Despite being twice its normal size, her outfit seemed to be handling its new scale perfectly fine. "...I can't believe this is working." Glancing around, she added, "everything looks so different from up here."

"Should I keep going?"

"Uh, yeah?  I guess."

As Anna resumed pumping, Molly's growth showed no signs of slowing.  If anything, she seemed to be gaining height faster as time went on, watching as the windows of the surrounding apartment blocks went by.  The air that had been affecting only her belly spread elsewhere, giving her a spare tire around her waist and thicker forearms and thighs, and a hissing sound gradually became audible with each pump and fit of growth.  As her head cleared the roofs of the five-story building found herself instinctively hunching over, hiding from view.

Anna paused again to pick up the pump and step away from her, barely coming up to her mid-thigh. "Why are you so worried people are going to see you?" she shouted up at her.

"I dunno, I just feel... weird being this big."

"Just think of it-" She rolled her eyes, muttering "I can't believe I'm saying this," under her breath before shouting again, continuing to pump. "Just think of it as getting closer to Agrodon."


"That's true," Molly replied.  Her body grew yards at a time, and she found herself moving her feet together in order to stay in the center of an increasingly confining space. "You know, this is actually kind of nice." She grinned as the curve of her body rose up beneath her breasts up to her neck and to the sides, going from pear-shaped to egg-shaped. "This must be what Donny feels like."

"You mean being big," Anna said.

"Well, yeah." She continued rising up, the apartment roofs below her waist.  Going unnoticed was now an utter impossibility, if not from her size then from the loud hisses that punctuated each burst of air, and several pedestrians and cars had stopped to gawk at her.  However, her prior concern had quickly melted away as she watched the world grow smaller around her, the attention she was getting growing more and more insignificant as the shore came into view.  Had the pneumatic giantess thought to look behind her she would have noticed that she had outgrown the skyscrapers in the business district, now being the most dominant feature of the skyline.

As Molly grew to such a scale that the five-story apartment merely reached her ankles, a siren began to sound.  Far beneath her in shadow of her belly, Anna stopped pumping, tugging on hose and causing it to slip free with surprising ease before cupping her hands and shouting upward. "Molly!  Agrodon's coming!"

While Anna was too small and too quiet to hear, Molly still understood what was happening.  She looked down, finding her body in the way, then pivoted her hips to the side and craned her neck for a clear view of her home and the surroundings before gingerly raising a foot over the roofs of the buildings, putting it down in the middle of a nearby parking lot.  Despite being entirely filled with air she had an impressive weight to her, and deep cracks formed in the asphalt as several cars crumpled painlessly underfoot.

She stepped from lot to major intersection to lot, more concerned that she would trip and fall over a building than destroy them.  A ten-minute drive through traffic to the beach was covered in a dozen steps, her heel coming down through the boardwalk as her toes touched the water.  Molly paused to adjust her outfit and fix her hair before laying down across the beach, backside taking out another swath of boardwalk and part of a tiki bar.  Putting on her most coquettish look, she rested her head on her hand and looked out towards the ocean.

In the distance the water frothed and churned, waves tumbling towards the shore before the sea parted, revealing a high spiny crest, and beneath it the head of Agrodon.  He let out a mighty roar as he surfaced, headed towards the city before the sight of something - or rather, someone - as large as he was gave him pause.

Molly winked. "Hey, hot stuff.  Instead of smashing downtown, why don't you smash me instead?"

Agrodon paused in thought before speaking, his voice a perfectly enunciated baritone. "Is this a metaphor for how mankind has embraced atomic power and used once-destructive technologies for the betterment of civilization?"

She smiled. "Baby, if it's you?  I'll be a metaphor for -anything-."