Pooltoy Cooling Off This summer was a scorcher. Over 100 degrees regularly, for multiple months. Everyone wanted better ways to keep cool. Going to the beach, the pool, getting ice cream, sitting inside with the fans blowing… it didn’t matter how, just that everyone needed to beat the heat. Even scientists needed to beat the heat. For example, Alkali had planned a beach trip for the day. GroLabs was air-conditioned sure, but Alkali wanted a summer vacation day outside! The summer would be over before he knew it, so better make plans now. Visiting the ocean would work great for keeping cool even with this hot weather. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the right equipment to bring along; most of his days were spent in a lab, so he didn’t have beach towels or umbrellas or toys ready to bring. He did have an idea for how to help with that though. The Dewott reached into his pocket to pull out the two passengers he’d grabbed for the trip. “I wanna show you guys something before we head to the beach, it’ll make our swimming much more fun,” Alkali said, holding both micros in one hand. A tiny coyote and cat, named Quinn and Theo respectively, looked up at the smiling Dewott face and shuddered. It was probably supposed to be a reassuring smile, but from this low perspective it looked much more sinister as if Alkali was planning something awful to do to them. Theo and Quinn squirmed in the scientist’s grip but they already knew it wasn’t going to be possible to escape. They were used to this treatment at GroLabs. The way Alkali spoke about ‘beach fun’ gave them a few ideas of what was about to happen, probably with pooltoy TF or being shoved into his board shorts or between paw and flip flops. “When he lets us go, get ready to run,” Theo whispered to Quinn. It was a long shot, but probably their only option. There wouldn’t be a chance to run though. The micros were shoved into a set of mechanical claws, repurposed from a prize machine’s claws to be used in science experiments. Dangling from their upper bodies at the end of these chrome claws gave them hope that escape was more possible. After all, the grip strength from these claws was weaker than what Alkali’s fingers could apply. Theo started wiggling to get free, while Quinn tried to chew through the restraint. Unfortunately for them the claws were dangled directly above a vat of deep black, thick, and gooey liquid. They wouldn’t want to escape now, or else they’d just fall in the liquid anyway. It wasn’t immediately clear what that stuff was going to do, but they wouldn’t need to wait long either. Alkali slammed an ominous, red button to start the mechanics of the claws holding Quinn and Theo. It slowly dipped into the black goo, putting their paws into the cold, viscous liquid and letting it climb up their legs. It only stopped lowering once they were submerged past the knees. Theo’s fur all stood on end and his tail stood out straight against his backside as the frigid temperature ran all the way up his body. “W-What the heck is this stuff Alky?” Quinn asked. At first he assumed it was going to just wait here before dipping in further. After a few seconds wait it became clear that the goop was climbing further up his leg. And it left behind a shiny and squeaky-clean surface of vinyl everywhere that it touched. Theo and Quinn watched with wide eyes as the empty, puffy, pooltoy feeling of being filled with air spread across their legs, then waist, and up toward their chests. “I think you can figure that out now, can’t you? Feeling the pressure inside?” Alkali asked with a devious chuckle. It only took a few minutes for the pooltoy transformation goo to reach up to their heads, curling across their shoulders and covering their faces entirely. It creeped until even the end of their snouts were covered, completing their transformations. Theo and Quinn looked at each other nervously, bodies squeaking with each movement. Then they looked at their hands, shocked by the lack of fingers. The hands could still flex and grip things, but the rounded edges of fingerless bappers felt like they were stuck in mittens that couldn’t be taken off. Despite the darkness of the TF liquid the colors and features of their fur was maintained across the vinyl surfaces. “W-Well, as long as this is temporary I guess it’s fine- AHHH!” Theo started to say, before Alkali’s fingers squished around his waist and picked him up. The micro pooltoy’s face blushed at the realization of how good pressure changes inside his new form felt. Quinn was quick to follow afterward, but his tails were already wagging; neither micro was really against this particular experiment. Pooltoy TF was squarely in their interests. Alkali gave the two, tiny pooltoys a testing squeeze as their vinyl bodies squeaked, each one held in a hand large enough to use the transformed micros as stress balls. “Alright, step one complete.” “Wh- Just step one? What’s next?” Theo asked nervously. --- But they probably could’ve guessed the next experiments without much effort: inflation. Alkali’s experiments at GroLabs usually involved getting larger after all. An empty lab bench got used for Quinn’s inflation experiment. He worried briefly when a hose nearly as wide as his entire torso approached in Alkali’s hand. Just where was he planning to put that anyway? When the giant Dewott’s hand popped his pooltoy nozzle, Quinn breathed a quick sigh of relief. The hose still wouldn’t fit inside though; Alkali had to use a tiny adaptor so that the hose could go into Quinn’s valve. That adaptor sped up the water instantly once it was inside Quinn. The sensation of having his valve filled was… well it felt like having a hose shoved into his mouth, but going toward his tummy instead? An interesting feeling to say the least. Another part of the feeling he was more familiar with, that of being turned into a sloshing balloon of cold water. Quinn tried to move away once Alkali let him go, but the hose weighed too much to pull off. That wasn’t going to get any easier either as he felt ice-cold water fill his empty body. Both bappers reached toward the hose and tried to yank it free; he could barely wrap his hands around it though, and didn’t get enough grip to actually free his nozzle. Holding tight to cut off the pressure wasn’t an option either, as his hands just kind of squished and deformed around the hose. Vinyl squeaking and stretching noises filled the lab bench that Quinn sat atop. His inflation didn’t change the proportions for his limbs, head, and tail. Instead it just felt like his torso, tummy, butt, and the rest of his body expanded to stretch like a water balloon. Quinn wanted to stop the water inflation desperately, but if he took a moment to just let the feelings overwhelm him, it -did- feel good. He drummed his hands across his tummy. With a squeeze into his rounded tummy all the water sloshed inside. Every inch of the cooling sensation splashing against his internal vinyl made the pooltoy blush. “Alright, hold on tight Quinn,” Alkali said as he turned a comedically oversized valve to the maximum flow rate. “WOAH,” Quinn cried as the water rate went from ‘filling a bathtub’ to ‘fire hydrant putting out a fire.’ His stretching vinyl body covered the lab bench within seconds, starting to ooze over the edges of the platform like an overfilled balloon. The coyote pooltoy’s arms pinwheeled in place as he tried to avoid getting beached on his back. The center of gravity was sloshing around now though, mostly out of his control. Once too much of his pooltoy form was leaning off the bench there was nothing that could stop Quinn from rolling off, then he bounced off the floor. Most of the space inside him was sloshy water instead of air now, aside from the small bit of air that kept him inflated at micro size. This extra weight was incredibly difficult to move. He used the inertia from rocking back and forward to roll himself to right-side up but aside from that, he was completely immobilized. That made him just the right size as well to be a water-inflated chair. Alkali lay on top of the sloshing, squirming pooltoy yote with a satisfied sigh. Very comfortable. Still growing. Nice and cool too. “I needed to test multiple ways of growing you after pooltoy-ficiation. So you get the inflation, but Theo’s going to get the macro treatment,” Alkali explained. Theo didn’t agree to that ‘experiment’. Too late to back out now though. Alkali was easily able to tie him up using some zip-ties. Theo thought that was kind of overkill for a pooltoy as small as him but soon learned why it was going to be necessary. The scientist popped open his valve and carefully attached a hose. This one was labeled ‘Macro’ with no additional details on how this particular gas worked. The gas that filled him started rounding out Theo’s tummy instantly, but soon the pressure dissipated to pushing into the rest of his limbs as well. The seams across his sides and limbs stretched but not in the way he was used to feeling. Rather than increasing pressure building and building up to a climax, his vinyl expanded outward to make more room for the pressure. The air pressure remained the same, but Theo’s surface area expanded instead. Within minutes he’d gone from a handheld pooltoy to a toy just as tall as a person. And along with that, the zip ties were breaking apart too from the pressure. Whatever Alkali put into this gas was rebuilding and stretching his vinyl so that he wouldn’t burst apart. He just… grew to fit the pressure. Alkali needed to push Theo to the ground with a foot and step on his back to keep the pooltoy from squirming free. “Alright, you’re gonna need something a little stronger while this experiment is in progress. Something to grow with you.” That’s how Theo ended up with a yellow growth collar on his neck, slightly too tight and squeezing to puff out around the top and bottom of his collar. The Dewott let Theo free and the pooltoy’s paws shot straight to the neck. “What the heck Alky, what is this?” The collar wouldn’t budge, and the air pressure increasing around it kept making it difficult to get leverage in there. The vinyl surface of his neck was pushed completely up against the metal. “Growth collar. It’ll grow with you as you expand. And then grow you too, whenever I want you to get bigger! You WILL enjoy it~” His pooltoy’ed eyes swirled with a blue and black hypnotic pattern, then with a soft ‘nyaaa’ he sat backward on his quickly rounding out butt, letting the softness and squeaking of his body take control. Those suggestive words from Alkali put him at ease. No more worries about having a collar on anymore, it felt totally natural to wear. Comfortable even. Theo’s body was starting to lose definition, rounding out all over as if the height change wasn’t quick enough to keep up with all the air pressure. He was puffy, and expanding much more the longer he remained attached to the hose. Lab benches, cabinets with chemicals, equipment all pushed into Theo’s form as it squished enough to practically vacuum-seal each piece of furniture with black and blue vinyl. Theo’s head sunk more into the orb of his own body, a huge surface of black, shiny plastic, pressing up into the ceiling. Down below, Alkali was ripping the regulator off the air tank. He walked forward arms-open and went ‘squeak’ as he squished into Theo’s tummy. Quinn couldn’t escape though, finding himself beneath the expanding wall of vinyl as it enveloped and smothered him into the ground. Then just as the air in his tank ran out, Theo could feel his body trying to spring back into place. The air started rearranging inside, pushing his limbs back out into shape and- before it was even finished, there was literally no room left inside the lab. From wall to wall, the pooltoy kitty was squeezed against himself and filling every square meter available. “How are we gonna get through the doors to get to the beach, Alky?” Theo asked, trying to squirm and get his face closer to the double doors. “None of us are going to fit through there now,” Quinn observed soberly. “Already taken care of!” Alkali explained. It took some effort to squirm his hand enough from Theo’s heavy pressure , but he was able to get into the labcoat after a few minutes effort before pulling a remote with a single button on it. When he pulled it free Theo’s body pushed the remote button-first against his vinyl. The ceiling above them started to part down the center and fold back. It looked like a football stadium opening up, giving them a view of the sun and blue sky above. Once there was enough room for it, Theo’s whole upper body expanded upward with a ‘fwoomp’ like a balloon suddenly inflating. He was finally able to actually stand up, and although his tummy got caught on the sides of the roof, he was finally able to tear himself away from the building and step out into the open. “Okay, now get us out of here too Theo. Pick us up please.” The enormous pooltoy leaned into the wrecked portion of the lab, unsure how safe it would be to do what Alkali asked. This was probably the best option for getting Quinn out of there without rolling him though. Theo picked up Quinn in a pooltoy bapper that squished against the coyote’s vinyl hide. Lifting hundreds of gallons of water-filled pooltoy was a bit like squishing a stress ball. Theo grinned deviously and gave it a few testing squishes, chuckling as the yote squeaked and yipped each time. “Cut it ouuuut!” “Hehehehe,” the feline giggled. He couldn’t resist one final squish before saying, “Okay, let’s get going. Ready Alky?” Alkali’s thick Dewott rudder wiggled back and forth as Theo’s hand came down to give him a platform for climbing up. Theo lifted the GroLabs scientist up at breakneck speed and set him on a shoulder so Alky could feel like he was directing a giant monster around the city. The bapper didn’t leave too much collateral damage behind in GroLabs, but to be fair there wasn’t much left that could be broken after Quinn and Theo filled most of the space just with their growth. “Ready to go, let’s have our beach vacation,” Alkali said. “Head to the city, straight through downtown Theo. The fastest way to get there is to go directly.” “Through the buildings?” the cat asked incredulously. “Well you might not be big or heavy enough to go THROUGH a building. But around them, and squeezing between them for sure.” This city around GroLabs was used to macro experiments and intrusions, so although the emergency sirens were activated, most people just went indoors or got out of the way of the Godzilla-sized pooltoy. Theo found that his steps didn’t damage the pavement as he walked, despite the size. Being filled with air made him much less heavy as a macro! He could make cartoony stomps all through the city and the worst that would happen is a car squishing into his paws, undamaged but maybe a little bent in. “Nya~! Make way for Cat-zilla!” Theo yelled as he walked between skyscrapers, towering above most of the buildings in his path. Except for two in the business district where the pooltoy cat found himself wedged between the buildings. He pushed both hands on the skyscrapers to pull himself free but found there was not enough force to get out. “Eh? Wh- okay, hang on, let me just… uh oh. Think I’m stuck Alkali.” Alkali hummed thoughtfully, looking down at the wide belly and hips completely trapped. “Well I can either get down and push… OR…” “Or what?” Theo asked nervously. “…or we could fill you up with even more air and see when you push the buildings over.” “Wha- PLEASE don’t do that, just help push me through!” “How can I do that, blimp-zilla? I’m not big enough to push those wideload hips or wobbling tummy.” Theo’s face blushed as he stammered, trying to come up with an idea that wouldn’t lead to him getting inflated, grown even MORE. This was already an embarrassing enough situation, he wanted to get back to normal soon. --- Alkali relaxed into his brand new beach chair, and sighed contentedly. These experiments worked even better than anticipated. Maybe that meant that the lab could move on to mass production. These inflation and macro gasses could see very frequent use. Not like Quinn or Theo would complain about this change to their periodic experiment plans. Quinn was blushing up a storm, embarrassed but still enjoying his time on the beach too. He’d dug out a small canyon into the sand to give himself a place that wouldn’t roll away. His water sloshed back and forth inside every time that Alkali adjusted his sitting or got up. That kept him cool for the beach adventure, but it looked like Theo was the one having the most fun of all three. Across the entire beach shoreline, a huge, rounded, pooltoy cat was floating out in the water. Seagulls landed on Theo’s body, looking like tiny dots across him, and providing plenty of shade for anyone that wanted to get out of the sun. Theo had both arms behind his head to relax properly. He wasn’t in a rush to turn back to ‘normal’ anymore. Maybe a day or two relaxing on the beach was just what he deserved after all the stress of experiments in the lab. That, plus he wasn’t looking forward to asking Alkali about the reversal for this transformation. Too often the answer was ‘there isn’t one, it’s permanent.’