Warmup Story Halloween Thing

“Al, are you sure this is such a good idea? The streets are kinda… narrow,” the fluffy firedog worried.

“Yeah. It should be fine. Since when have we ever gotten into trouble with things like this?” the scientist replied, holding a growth ray in one hand. He twirled it in his finger loosely as if totally unworried by the dangerous thing in his hand. Alkali and Arcabui had plenty of experience working with tech like this, and definitely never got into trouble with it. Never ever.

The two of them decided earlier that evening to go trick-or-treating together, because it’s Halloween and why the heck not. After which Alkali suggested that it might be easier to get candy at a giant size. More height, more ground covered, at least according to his logic. Perhaps that would be true. Arcabui had his reservations though. Nothing was ever that simple when it came to Alkali’s experiments. Couldn’t he just have a regular night of going out to get candy? But there was no avoiding the choice. He’d already consented to going trick-or-treating and really, there was no chance they wouldn’t end the night giant anyway.

“Hold still and we’ll be fine, alright? I just tuned the ray this morning so it’s in tip-top shape,” the otter said as he took aim. He stuck his tongue out and closed an eye, to help with his aim of course. Bui sighed and stepped off the sidewalk toward the middle of the street. Better to be there and avoid collateral damage.

Alkali didn’t wait for that though. Bui felt a warm blast hit his back, along with a spreading sensation of tingles over his fur. He yelped, turning around just in time to see an otter grinning crazily and his wagging tail. Did he just- FWOOMP. The thought of accosting his trick-or-treat partner caught in his throat as the world shrank away. He stepped backward awkwardly, trying to rearrange his stance while his feet slid over the pavement. Something felt slightly off about this particular growth spurt. He was no stranger to getting tall but this one felt stronger. The way his paw pressed into the street after his step caused more shaking than he was used to. Looking around was all it took to realize what was going on.

Of course Alkali was going overboard. As usual.

“Trick-or-treat! Here’s your trick Bui!” the little otter yelled upward, as the canine face reached above apartment complexes. Arcabui huffed and looked around at the buildings. This wasn’t good. Not much space left in the street before he’d be knocking those over. His fluffy tail tucked slightly while he walked backward, looking for a good place to step over the block of buildings. He’d be safer with one paw per street.

It took a little maneuvering, and plenty of cracked streets but the growing Arcanine finally felt comfortable with his position. And just in time too as his growth slowly came to a stop. Trick-or-treaters on the street shined their flashlights up at the giant Pokemon in awe, illuminating Arcabui from below. A bright full moon silhouetted the canine above making him look like an enormous werewolf. He waved down at them, blushing awkwardly.

“Heh, uhh… hey down there,” he muttered, the bass of his voice rumbling through the city. “Least I don’t have to worry about my costume this year. Giant monster still counts even if I went as that the last five years, right?”

“Course it does buddy,” a voice called out from the roof of a high-rise. Bui needed to look around for a second to find who it was; at his size the voices of normal-sized people were pretty quiet. Right at about knee height was Alkali, sitting at the edge of the skyscraper and grinning like mad. The otter must have run at full speed up the building to get there so quickly.

The fire-dog sighed. “Well? Are we going trick-or-treating or not? If we’re doing this get up here already. You’re the one who wanted to go as giants.”

Alkali laughed and turned the ray backward on himself. “Yeah yeah, I got it. One giant otter coming up!”

With a small spark of blue energy, almost too small for Arcabui to see it, a large grey shape grew into view atop the skyscraper. Clearly Alkali didn’t think through his plan too thoroughly though as he grew enough that the high-rise office building started to collapse under his bulk while sitting atop it. Eyes widening, he quickly jumped to the ground to avoid any collateral damage. This only served to cause even more damage from his quaking footfall though.

“Oops. Uh. Sorry about that,” Alkali said, rising up to stand tall again. He didn’t want to think too hard about the car crushed under one of his feet. Best to ignore it. He probably had macro insurance. At least he hadn’t grown too large; the ray was purposely set to only grow him to a fraction of Arcabui’s size so he could enjoy the sight of a giant firedog better. A moment later a heavy hand landed on the otter’s back, picking him up far into the air for a bear hug.

“I can’t believe with all the practice you get you aren’t better at this giant thing yet,” Arcabui giggled. “So you got your trick in… but where’s my treat?”

“Huh? What do you mean-” Alkali started before he was smothered by the chest fluff of an excessively large dog. Bui had plans of his own, and those plans involved revenge for the otter’s trickery. He could feel Alkali struggle in his bear hug but the strength difference between them made it a losing fight. He reached in and carefully, very carefully, extracted the growth ray. It grew along with Alkali thank goodness; working the growth ray would already be a tricky situation at this size difference. Squinting down at the ray in his palm he used a single finger to reach in and find the ray’s trigger.

“What I mean is, if you get a trick, then I’m going to take a treat,” he muttered. This was a bit like hitting a needle in a hay stack. Or at least, an otter in a hay stack made of Arcanine fur. When Arcabui felt confident enough he pulled the trigger and the beam of green energy flew into his chest. Shortly after something inside rumbled and with an exaggerated FWOOMP Alkali burst forth. He landed heavily on the ground, no longer trapped in his giant friend’s embrace.

“Oof! N-Now hang on Bui, you’re not uhh… sore from the trick are you?” Alkali stuttered.

The Arcanine didn’t reply though. Rather, he aimed the growth ray once again and fired. Arcabui climbed atop the otter’s body to hold on tight. From here he could feel the way Alkali’s body shuddered, bursting forth taller and further at each instant. The otter was still seated after falling down, but that didn’t matter. His shadow still loomed over the whole of the city, clouds approaching the top of his head. His tail squirmed out across the country side, stretching and thickening while the otter’s face turned red from blushing. This was not what Alkali had in mind when he started the evening.

“B-Bui, hang on… mmmph… it feels good… but d-don’t you want to slow down? I’m pretty big already,” Alkali huffed. The shaking from his growth quaked the state below. He could only imagine what sort of view any of the other people down there might be looking at.

Seated atop the otter’s crotch, clothed in the largest pair of shorts known to the world, Arcabui’s tail wagged. “What’s wrong? Aren’t you enjoying our trick-or-treating, Al?” he asked. The Arcanine smiled deviously before aiming the ray once again…