An Interesting Tour

Plastimatic Industries was a huge megacorporation, specializing in hoses, blow up pools, latex products, inflatable inner tubes, and other summertime fun products, all made of vinyl and rubber. Pawpy considered himself lucky to even be inside the main Plastimatic building. A few weeks ago, he decided it couldn't hurt to apply for a job there, since he was such a fan of their products. Who knew, maybe there was an opening for a koopa. The company's vetting process for new employees was stringent to say the very least; somehow though, with a combination of good recommendations, sheer luck, and the will of God, he found himself invited to work in their warehouse. A letter received several days earlier informed him that he would be working in product testing, which suited Pawpy just fine.

Before any of the training, all employees went through a tour of the Plastimatic facility, a sprawling factory rivaling the size of a small city. Warehouses, assembly lines, and office buildings stretched out for miles in all directions, as well as occasional food courts or recreational parks. The whole facility was quite impressive and awe inspiring, showing off the power of the single company that did so much business around the world. Inside the largest of the warehouses, a small group of people carefully trudged forward behind a perky vixen.

"Here at Plastimatic Industries, we're always looking for the newest, greatest scientific breakthrough to incorporate into our products. When it comes to innovation, the future is now! The future... is you!" The vixen walked slowly to lead the group of new employees, as she spouted off the company propaganda meant for one time visitors. She wore a dark blue blazer and pants, and over enunciated her words, as though she were talking to a foreigner who didn't understand the language.

"That doesn't make any sense," a wolf in the back called out, like a student trying to correct a professor.

Turning on a dime, the vixen glared at the small gathering of furs as she snapped, "Shut up." Without missing a beat, she smiled wide and turned around again to continue leading. The group took a moment to process exactly what just occurred and concernedly looked at one another, before collectively starting to move again. Whoever this fox was, she was definitely not to be messed with.

While everyone else was satisfied following the vixen tour guide, Pawpy's boredom increased exponentially with every instant spent listening to her condescending voice. There had to be something more interesting around here. He drummed his blue fingers anxiously on his light blue shell and looked from left to right, wishing for anything more interesting to happen.

"I'm gonna go crazy listening to this..." he whispered to himself. Pawpy slowed down to look around and practice a bit of pavement gazing. At least it was more interesting than listening to the vixen prattle on for hours. But then he realized that no one else was talking around him... in fact, the room was strangely silent. He blinked and looked around. Empty space greeted him with not a soul around anymore. It seemed the tour hadn't noticed one missing person and moved on to who knows where. In a building this size, they could've gone anywhere.

On one hand, this would be problematic for eventually finding the exit, and Pawpy was sure to miss out on lots of information. But on the other hand, who was going to stop him from exploring the facility now? This could be just the adventure he was looking for. Grinning gleefully, he played Eeny Meeny Miny Moe with the different directions to decide where to walk. Satisfied with his choice, he strutted off.

His claws hit the tiled floor and the sound echoed through each room, each one just as empty as the last. One room was a laboratory... another room was full of barrels of chemicals... yet another had an assembly line of beach balls... just how big was this building anyway? Pawpy lost his direction several times, making circles between each of the rooms as he tried to find something interesting to do. At the very least, he could claim later that he knew more about the different parts of this complex.

After several minutes of aimless wandering, the koopa saw another person walking around. The giraffe was dressed in blue clothing, a sort of form fitting uniform, with a badge on the right side of his chest. Maybe this was one of the guards for the building? Pawpy wasn't sure whether he should try to approach him, or hide away, so he elected to stand still and remain silent by default. Unfortunately for him, that wasn't what this employee was about to do. The giraffe cocked an eyebrow and started approaching Pawpy.

"Hey you, what are you doing here? This is a restricted area, no guests allowed. Where's your ID?" the giraffe asked. The guard wasn't particularly burly, but he was very tall and plenty intimidating enough. Without thinking, Pawpy searched his pockets but didn't come up with anything. This could prove problematic.

Gulping slightly, the koopa said, "Ohh, I'm a new employee, so I still don't have my ID."

With a dismissive snort, the giraffe grunted, "Uh huh. Why aren't you with the group then? There's only one batch of new employees today, and that harpy Melissa never lets anyone out of her sight."

"Uhh, wait, no! I really am new here!"

"You're gonna have to come with me, sir."

But before the giraffe could get any closer, Pawpy's fight or flight instincts kicked in. This job was too important; he wasn't about to get caught and lose his chance to work here. It was time for something drastic.

"Hey look, a tall branch with delicious, green leaves on it! Just for you!" Pawpy yelled, pointing behind the giraffe. The instant the giraffe broke eye contact, the koopa turned tail and ran. It wasn't the best distraction, sure, but so long as it worked then he wasn't about to complain. All he wanted was to just put distance between him and the guard as quickly as possible.

It didn't take long for the guard to realize what happened though, and soon he was in hot pursuit. Pawpy heard the stomps of the guard's shoes, and saw even more guards joining the chase as the giraffe yelled for backup.

Left at this junction, then right here, left, left, right... this place was worse than a labyrinth! How was anyone supposed to figure out where to go? Not that it mattered where he went, all that mattered was staying ahead of the guards. Which wouldn't be lasting much longer... Pawpy huffed as he ran, slowly getting worn out. Meanwhile the guards were just as loud as ever and getting louder as they approached. The koopa looked all over the rooms as he ran for something useful to his escape; it was time for another distraction, but what would work this time?

There weren't many options available in this laboratory room, but there were plenty of tables and machines that looked easy to knock over. As he ran, Pawpy grabbed sides of tables and flipped them toward the door, knocking glass and solutions everywhere. In his haste, he nearly didn't see the chemicals on the tables he flipped. He only noticed once it was too late to stop them from getting on his shell. But there was no time to stop; he would just have to clean it off later, once he wasn't getting chased by a bunch of angry guards.

The floor was coated in all manner of debris now, and all the guards slowed down to make their way around the huge mess. Some slipped and fell, dragging others down with them, and generally the whole group created a great ruckus. After putting several more rooms between himself and his pursuers, the koopa laughed happily and realized there was no need to run away anymore. He'd escaped scot-free. Now if he could find the new employees and subtly fall back in with the tour, it would be like he'd never left at all. The perfect crime.

But first, there was one thing important to take care of. Whatever those liquids in the lab were, it needed to come off now. Pawpy reached around his back to his shell to find where the chemicals had spilled, in order to get them off. But instead of finding anything wet, his shell felt smooth. Nothing was left anymore. With a grunt, he started feeling around his sides and front as well, and getting underneath the shell. Those chemicals made him feel all sticky and awkward while running, like having syrup on your hands after eating pancakes. They had to be still there, he specifically remembered spilling those tubes.

He scratched his head of brown hair, confused as to where the liquids had gone. Oh well, at least that made clean up easier. Maybe the chemicals had dried already. But they would still be terrible to get out later; polishing a shell took much more effort than most people realized. Regardless, it was time to get back to the tour. That vixen lady, Melissa, would definitely not be happy to find someone sneaking around. Pawpy began making his way back to find his fellow new employees, but he was still panting from sprinting.

"Maybe after a short rest," Pawpy gasped. With a sigh dramatic enough to rival most soap opera actors, he leaned on a nearby table to relax and catch his breath. The table creaked under the applied weight; koopas had plenty of extra girth to work with after all. As he leaned though, the table seemed to creak again, even though he wasn't shifting his weight at all. A strange change was coming over him, and he suddenly felt lightheaded. Maybe the fumes from the chemicals earlier were affecting him? It wasn't out of the question, sure, but if that was the case it wasn't like he could do anything to stop it. Rather than worry, Pawpy strengthened his resolve to find his tour group and get right back to learning about his new place of employment.

Soon it wasn't just his head that was feeling light though. He felt a strange lightness pass slowly across his back, spreading outward in a circle. Pawpy tried to turn his head to see what was going on as he walked. It felt like something was underneath his shell, and while it wasn't unpleasant, it was definitely strange. The koopa's brown eyes got wide as dinner plates as he saw just what was happening back there.

Instead of the shiny surface of his koopa shell, this time a different kind of shiny surface greeted him. It looked for all the world like a splash of vinyl was covering his shell, as if someone had taken a hose that shot liquid plastic and sprayed his shell. He could even see the boundary between where his shell went from vinyl to hard, polished surface. But it didn't seem to be staying stationary; that boundary was moving, with more and more of his shell being covered by this strange plastic stuff!

Pawpy couldn't believe what was happening, and out of shocked curiosity placed a paw on the rapidly changing shell. It was soft to the touch now, and it really did feel just like a beach ball or a pool toy. With a little extra press, he felt the shell give way slightly. It wasn't just that his shell was being covered with something, his shell was turning into the plastic.

And Pawpy wasn't really sure how to feel about that yet.

A little of the plastic seemed to come away when he removed his hand, stuck to his fingers like particularly persistent glue. Now that it was on his hand it started to spread there as well. With a surprised ‘eep,' the koopa shook his hand rapidly to get the stuff to come off, but that only served to make the situation worse. Bits of the plasticized part of his hand flew in all directions, mainly attaching to other parts of the koopa's body.

At first it felt like a creeping coldness growing across his body, but once the strange goop had completely covered a part of his body, it was more like an incredible feeling of warmth. The sensitivity of his leathery, blue skin didn't seem to diminish as the changes progressed. Soon enough, his entire hand was covered in the strange goop, and his back was completely plastic as well. His belly, legs, and nose were slowly beginning to follow. The nose was especially interesting, as he felt the insides of his nose change at the same time. He realized that he could no longer smell anything. But maybe this also meant he wouldn't have to deal with allergies, or sneezing, or colds?

Pawpy still wasn't sure whether to be freaked out by the changes, or to embrace them. He had asked for something interesting to happen after all, and by god this was definitely something interesting! He balled his hand into a fist, and felt the vinyl... no, his hand squeak and deform slightly from the pressure against his more malleable appendage. Once he was finished, his whole body was going to be inflatable and flexible. For now though, all he could do was watch in silent awe as the rest of his body continued their changes.

Now his arms were both totally covered, and his legs all the way up to the knees. And on his back, the shell was completely changed. But it hadn't just become a pool toy shell, it had actually attached itself to his back. Pawpy ran a hand over the shell lightly, listening to it squeak as vinyl met vinyl. It was a funny sound, and he chuckled as he realized he was the one making it. This might not end up being such a terrible change after all, considering how much he liked pool toys.

On his stomach, the vinyl spread a bit slower, as it also pushed its way through to his belly, slowly reducing the weight there. Pawpy could actually feel the lightness of the changes occur, and felt like he could jump much higher with all this weight lost. Yet the roundness of his belly remained; he gently pushed in on himself, feeling pressure behind it that was diminishing slowly over time as his insides were replaced with only air. But it wasn't painful at all, so he really had no complaints so long as it stayed that way. But then he realized that he could keep pressing in on his belly, as though it were an inflatable ball that wasn't filled all the way. It seemed that maybe losing pressure inside wouldn't be that good after all.

"Uh oh," he whispered aloud, suddenly quite worried. "Okay, no problem. I'll just find something to fill myself up I guess. If I'm a pool toy, it should work just fine, right?" At least, that was the assumption. Who knew what was going to happen next after all. It's not like this was a common occurrence; people didn't just randomly turn into pool toys.

He walked slowly, trying to get used to the feeling of his vinyl legs' movement. Moving was much easier now that he was lighter, so that walking ended up being more like bouncing. Based on how the changes were progressing too, that was going to just continue even more.

The inflatable koopa bounced into a new room, hoping to maybe find something that would help him increase his internal pressure. A conveyor belt... some hoses... a wall painted with inches and feet as a large ruler... and there they were, air tanks. This room was clearly meant for stress testing the various products Plastimatic made. How lucky could he get?

Well, with luck being a relative term that is. He was still stuck as a koopa pool toy, and now it seemed that the changes were completed. His whole body was hollowed out, made of vinyl, and not quite filled enough. Pawpy decided that he would go for the biggest tank he could find, as he wasn't sure just how much air filling his new body would take.

Just as he was connecting the hose and brought it up to his mouth though, he heard a female voice getting closer. It sounded like... yup, that was definitely Melissa. That vixen would ruin everything, Pawpy was just sure of it. She was bound to be pissed when she found him this way; even though he hadn't known Melissa that long, it didn't take a brain surgeon to imagine her reaction. So without wasting any more time, the koopa bit down on the hose and turned the valve on the air tank to begin filling up.

Instantly, he knew this was a good decision. The feeling of flowing air through his empty insides felt half ticklish, half like getting a belly rub, but felt completely fantastic. The pressure behind the hose was much stronger than the koopa toy had expected though. Only a few seconds passed before he was back to his regular size, with his belly just as distended as normal. But the air didn't stop there.

The inflation continued at a rapid pace, bloating the koopa beyond what should have been his normal proportions. There was the expected expansion of his gut, so that it started to look less like a beer gut and more like he had eaten a beach ball. His other limbs were inflating as well though, lengthening to accommodate the increasing pressure inside his vinyl body. Pawpy watched curiously as his height seemed to increase in proportion to the amount of air pressure. The liquid must not have totally solidified yet. That goopy, plasticizing stuff had been flicked off his hand pretty easily after all. So that meant as long as he kept the air flowing, he would get taller instead of just more inflated.

The koopa still had his hand on the valve, ready to turn it off at any second. But suddenly, that didn't seem like nearly as much of a problem anymore. The rush of air into body left him feeling light headed, partly due to that air also inflating his head as much as the rest of his body, so he was understandably a bit loopy. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he could hear a voice of reason shouting to stop the inflation before anything else crazy happened. At the same time, his pleasure seemed to be outweighing that voice. Pawpy sat down with the hose in his mouth, reveling in the sensation of his expanding vinyl form, and debated what to do. At 10 feet in height, his thoughts were derailed by an unwelcome visitor.

"And here is our Stress Testing floor, where we- WHAT THE HELL?" cried a female voice from the entrance. Pawpy lazily turned his head to see Melissa and his group of fellow employees coming in.

He greeted them with a wave and a grin. "Hey there guys, how're things going down there?"

"H-How? What did you do?!?" the vixen screeched. "What are you doing, inflating yourself? Imbecile, stop that this instant and get down here!"

"Well aren't you a ray of sunshine, Melissa. First off, the name is Pawpy, thanks for asking. And well, it's a funny story. I don't know what happened, and I don't know how to get back to normal. So I kind of can't do that," Pawpy said, blushing and shrugging his shoulders just as they crested 15 feet while sitting down. For that matter, he still wasn't sure whether he even wanted to get back to normal yet; this was easily the most exciting and entertaining thing to ever happen to him, and so far that was outweighing his own concerns about returning to his regular koopa self. The hose suddenly became taut in his mouth, and the koopa looked down to see that he'd stretched the hose to its limit. Well that wouldn't last much longer at this rate of growth. The inflatable koopa picked up the air tank carefully, finding it to be surprisingly easy to lift now that he was larger.

"Don't make excuses you overblown reptile, just fix it!" Melissa screamed, coming up to Pawpy's foot to give it a swift kick. The koopa glared down at her. What on earth was her problem anyway? Now that Pawpy was this size, he knew that there was nothing Melissa could actually do to stop him from continuing his inflation. In fact, he got a sort of enjoyment out of watching her scream and curse at him. He decided right then and there to continue with his growth, if only to spite the tour leader.

Of course, the logical part of his brain quickly pointed that the plan wasn't the best course of action for him. If he was smart, he would take the hose out, set it on the ground, and wait for some of the scientists to actually do something about the issue. But logic didn't seem to hold much sway over the Pawpy at this point, thanks to his own enjoyment of the situation and the gas making him feel loopy.

So rather than take out the hose, Pawpy ate the gas tank whole.

"Are you insane? What are you doing? Stop that!" Melissa cried, backing up as she realized the gravity of the situation.

"Sorry, the tour is cancelled for the day. It might be time for all of you to leave now," Pawpy chuckled. The group of furs behind Melissa all muttered amongst themselves, some watching in awe and others trying to urge everyone to run away. In the end, it was Melissa who made the first decision to get the hell out of Dodge, but as the growing inflatable koopa in front of them reached 20 feet in height it didn't take long for the rest of the group to follow suit. Some screamed as they ran but most just pushed and shoved people out of the way, trying to get as far away as possible. Guards heard the commotion and, after investigating the situation for a few seconds, made the decision that a "tactical retreat" was for the best.

The expanding pool toy wasn't finished yet though. He noticed plenty of other air tanks around the area, begging to get used. And he certainly didn't want anything to go to waste! Still not entirely in his right mind, Pawpy began to turn on each of the nearby air tanks and drop them onto his awaiting tongue. The growth sped up, slowly at first, but more and more as the air tanks began their work on him.

The koopa growled to himself appreciatively, enjoying his new found size. But he wanted to move around now, to get used to his new perspective on life. He stood slowly, but didn't get as far as he expected he would as his horns squished against the ceiling tiles.

Blinking in surprise, Pawpy smirked and said, "Well then, time to raise the roof, literally!" Of course, no one was nearby to hear the terrible joke. The koopa pushed his two hands against the ceiling and grunted from the exertion. The ceiling didn't budge though, not even an inch.

That sobered up the inflating koopa pretty quickly, losing most of the enjoyment he'd been having from his growth. "That's probably not good," Pawpy said to himself. Well no problem, he just needed to stop the inflation. Except that he... ate all the air canisters. So that wasn't really an option either. Maybe he should have listened to that voice of reason earlier after all.

He had to squat down again as his growth was speeding up, reaching 50 feet tall now, and barely able to fit inside the room. In fact, most of the room was rapidly being filled with a pool toy koopa. It wouldn't be long now before he could try to push himself out of the building again, to solve his growth issue.

It took only a minute for Pawpy to reach 100 feet now, as he got on his hands and knees, officially completely filling the warehouse sized stress-testing room. His tail squished up against a wall, curling up under his belly, and the spikes on his shell mashed up against the ceiling again now. He pushed upward with all his might, trying to get the ceiling to yield. But it was no use; being filled with air didn't give him enough leverage to break through the ceiling, even at this size. All he got was the sound of squeaking as his body slid against the walls and ceiling.

No, he had to get out now! The macro sized koopa toy gave it one more shot, shaking from the effort of pushing upward, but still nothing. The ceiling creaked ominously in response, but it did not break or crack.

This isn't going to end well, Pawpy thought to himself, as the pressure building up from his growth increased ever more, and the walls began to show signs of stress.

---

Outside the Plastimatic facility, a police barrier had been set up to keep any employees out of the area. No one was allowed to cross, for any reason whatsoever. And anyone who asked about it was quietly shooed away. Classified information, they said.

But it wasn't going to remain classified for much longer. An enormous, blue koopa paw suddenly burst from the side of the warehouse, followed almost immediately by a second paw. They were larger than any fur, and the onlookers stood in stunned silence as they wondered what on earth they were, or who they might belong to.

Suddenly, the entire warehouse seemingly exploded outward. Pieces of walls, machines, and various pool toys were flung in every direction. And in the middle of it all, a giant Pawpy expanded suddenly, freed from the confines of the building that had resisted his efforts to move for so long. By this point, he was nearly 700 feet tall, and had easily demolished the entire building, along with every room inside.

Standing up now to stretch his legs, Pawpy blushed and looked down at the mess he'd created. The growth was slowing down, thank goodness, but this would be one heck of an accident to explain to his bosses on his very first day of work. He looked off in the distance, and saw that most buildings except the very tallest of the office buildings could only come up to his ankles.

Curious and still kind of excited by all these changes, Pawpy took a step forward and grinned as his paw squeaked on contact with the ground. Even though he was filled with air and completely hollow, with as much vinyl as he was made of now, the ground deformed slightly under the weight of his paw. He was just about to continue his experimenting, when the koopa heard someone using a loudspeaker to get his attention. Whoever this was, he was saying something about 'further experiments' and 'compensation for your cooperation.'

Well it looked like he wasn't going to be going anywhere for quite a while. At the very least, he was sure to have secured his employment here for a long time, even if it wasn't the way he'd expected it to happen!