It was late that night when winter finally came. Blotting out the constellations above, the grey haze of snowfall had begun to descend upon the land transforming the grey and dark red districts of the city into a white purgatory. There was definitely something different about this year though. The metropolis’s many steam turrets, engines and tesla coils which dominated the city’s skyline were usually more than enough to keep the snow at bay. Rising upwards, the intense heat was usually more than enough to keep any storm at bay, but not this time. Within hours, the city had become locked down, the populace hunkering out the weather in their homes and most vehicles unwilling to risk the roads.

To many it was the beginning of no end of problems for their businesses and plans. For Cassandra, it was everything she could have hoped for.

Partially buried in the deserted snow covered streets, the diminutive feline sat there looking up at the sky with a broad grin dominating her features. She couldn’t have asked for a better environment for field testing her latest creations. After the incident with the diving suit prototype there had been little opportunity for real tests of any concepts, but this time? This time was going to be different, this time she could succeed.

The irony of her excitement wasn’t lost on Cassandra. Any other time she would have spent such snaps curled up indoors to wait out any blizzard, her thin grey fur providing little protection against the cold. Even through think winter clothing she would have been frozen to the core, but now? Clad head to toe in the thick orange rubber of the high atmosphere pressure suit, she couldn’t have been happier. The red measurements of the thermometer wedged between the pressure valves on her wrist marked the temperature as being well below zero. Everything from the snowflakes impacting upon the armoured glass dome of her helmet and crunch of snow under her boots said she should have been shivering. Yet every part of her gently squeezed body felt as if she were next to a billowing fire.

Cassandra’s merry semi-toasted stated was a definitive sign that her prototype was working. Designed for exterior operators on the ever treacherous high altitude air vessels, the suit was intended to allow for repair work without the risks of freezing or requirement to drop to a safe level for crewmen to exit the craft. The methods used were slightly different than just wearing warm clothing beneath it. Reaching around, Cassandra twisted a valve next to the suit’s air tanks, connecting to the quietly chugging coal miniature engine connected to their back. Twisting it slightly, the outflow increased and the warm inner layer between the suit’s puncture resistant skin and her bare fur began to bulge slightly. Cassandra felt a shiver of pleasure run down her spine as the layer squeezed slightly tighter, caressing her body. Pressing a fingerless glove against her stomach, the feline giggled slightly realising that, despite its snug fit, anyone looking from outside would think the inventor had put on more than a few pounds.

Something next to her moved, and Cassandra looked up to see the massive form of Sophia stomp down through the oaken front door to their house and drop down into the snow next to her. Garbed in the second of the two prototypes and carrying her helmet loosely in one hand, irritation clouded the husky’s features as she turned to face her partner. Opening her mouth, Sophia spoke a few words before stopping as Cassandra shook her head, tapping the helmet. While the soundproofing would stop a technician working near an airship’s deafening engines from, it made talking to anyone not speaking into a radio an impossibility. With a sigh of resignation, the engineer carefully lowered the helmet into place and sealed it around the neck ring of her suit, which automatically started to inflate with steam.

“I said, you look ridiculous” Sophia repeated, looking down in disapproval as her own girth began to balloon outwards as the suit did its work “and I’m not sure why you asked me to wear this.” The feline shrugged, the gesture punctuated with squeaks as the rubber protested with the movement “to help make up for lost time perhaps? You did manage to sabotage our last project after all.“ Cassandra knew that might have been going a bit too far. The incident had ultimately been caused by both of them, her pushing too hard on the single engineer assigned to her task, but given her humiliation over it she wasn’t about to pass up a reminder.

If Sophia was unhappy about the reminder she didn’t show it. “Sure, to help sort out flaws of your gear not wear them” she twisted around, trying to get comfortable “unlike you I don’t feel the cold, so what’s the point in me donning this stuff?” With a huff of frustration she shifted her weight and eventually found the source of discomfort, yanking hard on it. Sophia’s hand came away, the snapped end of a rip-cord held in one hand. “I don’t remember this, did you add it?” She had just enough time to recognise the alarmed look on Cassandra’s face before she felt its effects.

With a loud pistoning “FWOOMPH!” which reverberated through the snow, Sophia’s suit didn’t so much inflate as explode outwards. The straining rubber went from maintaining a roughly human shape to near spherical in a matter of seconds, the material engulfing the husky’s limbs and tails in moments. The loud snap which followed, heralded a brief rain of broken leather straps and belt before she was swallowed entirely within her suit, leaving only the straining glass sphere of her helmet visible amid the sphere of orange which had become her body.

The object hung there in the air for a moment, before it began to slowly drift skywards. Scrabbling upright, the Cassandra clumsily launched herself skywards trying to keep her partner grounded. By some small miracle, both of her thick gloves closed around the tip of the husky’s tail still protruding downwards just managing to drag her down to the ground. Cassandra’s already embarrassed face turned a deeper shade of crimson as Sophia’s voice blasted through her helmet speakers asking the obvious question: “WHY IN HELL WOULD YOU EVER ADD SOMETHING LIKE THIS!?”

“Um, safety in case someone fell from a high place” Cassandra admitted, already knowing how this sounded. Anyone who would be working on an air vessel’s exterior would be subject to the mercy of even the lightest crosswind with a high chance of being knocked off. Rather than using something as unreliable as a safety harness, she had instead designed another layer within the suit to fill with helium in case of falling. In retrospect, this may not have been the smartest idea. From the half breathed angry profanities above her, it seemed Sophia was in agreement with the feline’s sudden change of opinion.

“Fine,” Sophia answered, with something which sounded halfway between a sigh and a low growl “back to the drawing board on this once I’m not in public view. Just get me back to normal size.” There was a pause before she added “You can do that, can’t you?”

“Um, yes?” Cassandra answered in a less than certain tone, quietly wondering if she could even remember where the safety valve was, let alone prize it open while holding her friend down. Then a brainwave passed through her inventor’s skull. “There is, uh, one quick way to finish this” Cass managed, straining as she tugged Sophia down into the snow before throwing herself atop the husky’s swollen belly. “If it involves a pin then you can forget about it” came the response “figure out something else.” Cassandra just shrugged at that before curling up onto Sophia’s helium bloated form, sighing as she found somewhere comfortable “then I’ll just have to keep you pinned in place until the release valves kick in.” She giggled slightly before turning her head skywards, “but if it helps, you look far cuter like this than you ever did in those engineering overalls.”

With Sophia’s angrily sarcastic comments ringing in her ears, Cassandra looked back up to the snow-filled skies once more…