At first glance, it seemed a mundane sight. Connor had seen plenty of uninflated balloons in his lifetime, after all. But this was the first time he’d ever seen one so big. And big or no, he had no idea what it was doing in his backyard.

He leaned down and picked it up, inspecting it. Indeed, the balloon was whole - this wasn’t simply the popped remains of a balloon. But curiously, also, it seemed to have an unusual pattern. It was mostly yellow, both a darker and lighter shade, with some orange as well, the orange and light yellow forming a flame pattern. In fact, it seemed like... a Fire Stone pattern? Had he come across a rare piece of Pokémon merch he’d not heard of before? Well, whatever the case may be, he wasn’t about to complain!

His first impulse was to puff it up right then and there. But even in his excitement, he quickly realized the impracticality of that. With a balloon this big, blowing it up would normally take quite a while. So instead, he rushed to the garage and retrieved a hand-operated air pump, then headed back to his backyard to start inflating his new balloon. He attached the balloon to the nozzle and started pumping, excited to see just how big this exotic Poké-themed balloon could get. But even despite how big it was, he was surprised to see how slowly the balloon seemed to be filling with air. It seemed like it should be going faster than this, but he didn’t dwell on it, simply continuing pumping, not realizing that only a small share of the air from the pump was actually going into the balloon itself. The rest, instead, was magically arriving inside his own body.

Once the balloon was filled enough to look rounded, rather than simply like an empty rubber bag, Connor noticed that he could feel the grass under his feet. Odd, he thought. He could have sworn he’d remembered putting on his shoes. However, he simply shrugged and continued pumping, figuring his memory had simply failed him. But an outside overserver, if one were present, would have seen his shoes slowly dissolving away as he pumped, revealing a pair of cute, shiny orange paws to the outside world. They would even be able to see through those paws, getting an orange-tinted view of what was on the other side.

As the balloon grew slowly larger, more than merely his feet were transformed. The transformation crept upward, turning his ankles orange as well. But then, instead of more of the transformation moving upward, his ankles turned white, then reshaped themselves, now resembling thick puffs of white fur on his ankles, jutting out to the back. Though rather than being furry, they were just as smooth and shiny as his hind paws were. It was only after these were formed that the transformation continued to spread further and further upward. Once it reached his shorts, they too began to dissolve, revealing his now-orange and air-filled legs underneath. But they weren’t all orange, as two thick black stripes formed on each leg.

With all the pumping he’d done so far, Connor had expected to be tired, but it was quite the opposite. He felt more energized than he’d felt in recent memory, and he even felt lighter, though he attributed this effect to how excited he was for his new balloon, rather than realizing that this sense of lightness was more true than he realized. And so, he continued pumping.

Next was his hip area. What was left of his shorts vanished, revealing the orange underneath, a thick black stripe on either side. His shirt, no doubt, would soon be dissolved as well, but first there was another change to occur, as a small white mound appeared above his hind. It then slowly grew, forming into a big, bushy white tail. Or at least, it resembled being bushy, though just like the rest of him, it was smooth and shiny.

Though he’d dismissed the previous sensations, the existence of a new limb entirely could not be ignored or rationalized as perfectly normal. He stopped pumping and looked back, giving a surprised yelp at what he saw. Instead of seeing his jeans, shoes, and normal human legs, he saw something clearly more animal-like. But it was no normal animal, either! He readily identified the legs and tail as those belonging to an Arcanine. But even then, he could easily tell it was no normal Arcanine - not that Arcanine was normal in this boring human world - but rather a shiny, air-filled, inflatable Arcanine! And judging by that knot at the end of his tail, he was becoming a balloon as well, just like the Fire Stone balloon he was inflating. Though instead of being balloon-shaped, he was turning into one of his favorite Pokémon.

It was a difficult thing to process. Stuff like this simply didn’t happen, but yet it was happening here, right before his eyes! He felt like he should get some help, and perhaps get cured of whatever was happening to him. But yet... that wasn’t what he wanted to do. Logically, he felt like he should be scared, but he simply wasn’t. How could he be? This was the sort of thing he’d dreamed of happening to him for so very long. And now that it was finally happening to him! How could he possibly turn his back on the opportunity to live out such an amazing dream?

And so, he took off his Pokémon-themed shirt - not wishing to lose that as well - and continued pumping, now trying to go even faster. He couldn’t wait! As he pumped, he looked back, watching his waist changing to the familiar black-and-orange pattern of an Arcanine. He stood up straight on his hind legs, looking down to see that his belly had turned black from the changes, just like an Arcanine’s, though of course far shinier and squeakier. He then lowered himself back down to continue pumping. He’d found it more difficult to stand up on his hind legs than before, but that was to be expected. It was fine, though. After all, he wouldn’t exactly be standing up straight while pumping anyway. Being on all fours wouldn’t be that much of a hindrance to him here.

As the balloon slowly approached normal balloon size, the transformation reached up to his chest and upper back. At first, it was much the same as with his waist, continuing the pattern of orange and black, but then his chest turned white, before puffing out and shaping itself into what appeared to be thick, poofy fur on his chest, though just like all the other white fur, this too was simply a squeaky imitation of fur. He most certainly did not mind, of course, wagging his squeaky tail as the transformation continued.

It soon reached his shoulders, creeping down his arms, forming black stripes on them as well, while turning the rest of his arms orange. Though after a bit, they were definitely not arms anymore. He continued pumping with his forelegs, watching his hands morph, changing from pale with five fingers, to orange with three shorter, thicker toes. He was worried this might make the pumping tricky, as his fingers had proven quite useful for operating the pump, but by moving his paws to hook underneath when pulling back up, he was able to keep pumping just fine, albeit a bit awkwardly.

Next was his neck. The inflatable fur on his chest continued up his neck, while some of that same fur formed on the back of his neck as well, the sides still showing the orange and black pattern. But then, his head began to change. He could not see it, but he could feel the thick, squeaky white “fur” travel up the back of his head, covering it and the top of his head in it. He felt his ears changing and moving up, then he reached up with one forepaw - while still pumping with the other - to feel his newly-formed squeaky canine ears. He pumped further, watching his nose pull out farther, forming into a squeaky orange muzzle. Then, the squeaky white fur spread upward, covering his cheeks and muzzle with white squeak-fur, completing his transformation.

He’d been wagging his tail all the while, but now it was wagging harder as he looked himself over again. He began hopping around the backyard in delight, gently floating back down each time. He was surprised at just how far he could jump each time, even considering he was now a balloonie. Perhaps there was a little helium inside him as well? Whatever the explanation, it was quite fun being able to jump so high!

But yet, looking back at the Fire Stone balloon, something bothered him: Although he was fully transformed, it was only the size of a normal balloon, whereas it could easily get much larger. But what would happen if he continued making the balloon bigger? Well, there was only one way to find out, and so he bounded back over to the balloon and continued pumping.

At first, the pumping didn’t seem to have any results. Yes, the balloon was slowly getting larger, but he didn’t feel anything unusual from it at first. But then, it became more noticeable, as he could clearly feel his belly starting to stretch. He looked back, seeing that although it was subtle, his belly had indeed grown. He blushed, knowing it was certainly an unusual desire, but this too was part of what he’d fantasized about. Not only did he dream about being a Pokémon and being inflatable, but he also dreamed about being big and round as well. And so, he continued pumping further.

His tail swished in delight, as he felt his belly growing larger and larger. He had always wondered what it would feel like, having one’s belly filled with air and slowly expanding, and now he finally knew how wonderful it truly was. He could feel his belly stretching, but it was nowhere near taut yet, still with plenty more room for air. Soon, he could feel blades of grass brushing against his big, squeaky belly. Then, his belly began pressing against the ground below. Before long, it was his belly that was holding him up; not his paws, which could no longer touch the ground.

Even so, he kept going, pumping more and more air into both the balloon and his own squeaky belly. Over time, it slowly became harder to pump, as his growing belly was impeding his ability to do so. He was worried that if he let go, he’d roll back and be unable to reach the pump again. But still he kept pumping, and after a while his belly was as wide as it was tall, looking like a perfectly-round and mostly-black squeaky ball, to which the rest of him was attached.

He felt even lighter now than before, his tail wagging from the blissful feeling from his own inflated belly. He wanted to get even bigger, and so he kept pumping, watching as the balloon got to a truly impressive size, his own belly growing large enough to fit two normal Arcanines within. He felt, now, like his belly couldn’t take much more air. His belly felt taut, a very pleasant feeling indeed, But at that point, he noticed himself rising up a bit. Not from his own growing belly, but from how light he had become. He was floating away!

In his surprise, he accidentally dropped the pump, not only losing the means to try to inflate further, but also losing his grip on what might have helped weigh him down and keep him from floating away. He tried grabbing at the pump again, but his squeaky paw couldn’t get a good grip as he found himself floating upward.

He gave a yelp of fright, worried that this might end in him being popped by a wayward bird or simply getting too high up. But then, as he had gotten well above the top of his house, he noticed that the Fire Stone balloon had detached itself from the pump and was now floating nearby. He stared in confusion as it began circling around his bloated belly. He felt his direction subtly changing, and instead of going straight up he was starting to go forward. He found it difficult to believe, but somehow this balloon was guiding him. And he had a feeling, deep down, that it wouldn’t let any harm come to him.

He looked down at the buildings below as he passed them by. He’d never imagined he’d have such a lovely view of his neighborhood, let alone that he’d be seeing it as a squeaky, inflated Arcanine. But it was indeed happening, and he was looking forward to finding out what else he’d see on his grand balloonie adventure.