This story contains themes of transformation, you have been warned
The crook was fast, almost too fast for the rubbery hero to keep up. He had just robbed the bank, his bag shedding crisp fresh dollar bills as he ran, but for someone who was probably carrying a few hundred thousand in cash he was surprisingly hard to catch up to. The robber had dashed through a few alleyways and Elastacy had almost lost him, but as she had exited the dark alley she noticed a door close in the distance. Quickly she ran up to the building in chase, throwing open the door and dashing inside. If she had been smarter she would have taken a moment to observe the building, to maybe understand what she was getting herself into, but Elastacy was no such hero.
A blinding amount of light and color blinded the rubbery hero as she entered, disorienting her for a moment. Everywhere she looked was a different color of the rainbow assorted to a variety of shapes. If her prey had been smart he would have taken the superhero in that moment of confusion, but he must have not been as she was slowly able to regain her senses. Her eyes started to pick out the objects around her, from streamers to an inflated palm tree, balloons and balls, to weird costumes that even she struggled to understand. Such a bizarre assortment of things could only mean one thing, that she had been led into a party supply store.
“Bastard” the hero commented to herself as she looked into the space. It was difficult to see, with the room being so littered with props and decorations, giving thousands of spaces for robber to hide. She was confident that she could take the man in a fight, it was surprisingly difficult to injure someone of such a rubbery form, but it was always ill to give the advantage to the enemy. She took her time creeping through the store, her rubber soles giving away nothing of her presence. Progress was slow however with so much to check and explore, and Elastacy found it difficult to keep track of them all. There was a chance she had missed the man, maybe even walked right passed him. The thought was distracting, and Elastacy found herself looking again and again at the door of the store as she descended into the stacked high aisles, expecting at any moment for the robber to make a break for it.
But he never did. Aisle after aisle she searched, but there was no trace of the man. After what felt like minutes she stumbled out of the last one only to find a service counter buried at the back of the store. It wasn’t empty however, even if one was ignoring that what little free space there existed back there was dominated by two massive helium canisters. Behind the counter was a large man dressed in a clown costume, reading lazily from a comic book that rested on the counter.
“Hello” the hero asked cautiously as she approached. A sign escaped the man’s lips as he straightened, and although he looked towards the hero she couldn’t see his eyes under the goofy and large Afro he wore.
“Welcome to Party Supply, where the party starts before the party” he stated in a deadpan tone, indicating how little he meant it. “Will you be wearing that out of the store today”
“Wearing that?” she parroted in slight confusion before noticing her gloved hand. Obviously he had been talking about her super suit. But in such an environment it would be easy to confuse it with something off the shelf. “Sure. By the way, did you happen to see...”
“Please lean forward so I can scan the tag” the hero was cut off, seemingly indifferent to anything but getting the conversation over with. Even though there would be no tag to be found Elastacy complied, if nothing else to just keep the conversation going.
“Yes, anyways did you happen to see someone run through here? Tall, rugged” she asked as she as the man’s rough, calloused hands wrapped around the back of her neck. “Wearing a mask...” she tried to ask as it all clicked into place. Her face was now inches from his and it wasn’t his hair that was covering his eyes, but an actual mask. Quickly she slammed her hands into the counter, attempting to get away from him. Her body responded just as fast, flying up and away from the ground with the generated momentum. But still she was eye to eye with the robber.
The hand wrapped around her neck was still there, it’s rough texture giving plenty of grip against her super suit. Maybe jumping hadn't been the best idea, the super heroine thought as the massive man pulled her in. Arm’s cartwheeling Elasticity was unable to stop herself as the man yanked her behind the counter and mashed her mouth around one of the canister heads. Another massive hand clamped around the hero’s head, deforming half of it in the process as he pinched her rubbery flesh painfully around the mouth of the cylinder. Her eyes struggled to focus as two copies of the valve floated back and fourth in front of her, as her mouth was assaulted by the taste of old rubber and unclean
steel.
From such a description it would seem like she hadn’t fought back and just accepted her fate, but between being dragged over the counter and slamming into the cylinder she had only been able to raise a single hand before disaster truly struck. A pair of hands entered Elastacys vision, each wrapping around the valves in unison before turning. A torrent of gas was released into the hero, her body whipping back and fourth under the strain before it started to fill her. As the pressure grew Elastacy’s control of her body weakened, giving her precious seconds left before she would be incapacitated. With the last of her strength she threw two punches at the man, a quick jab with her left and a vicious one with her right.
He swayed from the hits, and Elastacy could almost taste victory as her body stiffened a little more and her arms went uselessly stiff from the growing pressure. But his hand didn’t release from around her lips like she expected it to, and as she watched the wig of the man fell off, revealing the robber she had been chasing. Defeated there was little the ballooning hero could do as her belly expanded outwards like an oversized exercise ball, with two beach ball like tits to follow. Her bottom tried to swell, but this flatter part of her rounded out with her back and sides, preferring to take on the shape of her outfit more than anything else. As the lighter than air gas filled the hero she found herself lifting slowly off off as her body slowly began to take on a form more like a cartoon balloon than rubbery hero. Her weightless body began to pull against her trapped lips as her limbs retracted, leaving her well and truly at the mercy of the robber she had been pursuing.
He didn’t seem to notice what he was doing, nor care as she turned into a personal blimp in the store. But just before the hero’s limbs fully retracted into her bloated form the man cranked the pump closed and with a quick twist knotted the hero’s lips. The helium, now sealed within the balloon of a hero, pulled at her, tempting her to sail towards the ceiling. All that was anchoring her to the ground was the man’s index finger and a thumb, else she would be flying towards the rafters. As she watched the robbers other hand drifted toward a roll of ribbon as if to finish his work. But instead of grabbing it and tying the hero to something he just rested it on it.
His thump tapped against the roll, as if to taunt her. Surely he would finish the job. Yes he was a robber but he wouldn’t just let her go. But the man had other plans. He had done what he had set out to do, and with the hero out of the way he was well and truly free from any punishment. So he just let go, and all Elastacy could do was watch as he shrunk smaller and smaller till she bumped into the rafters, joining a dozen or so other balloons that she hadn’t noticed till just now that were trapped up there too. Then the robber was gone, out the back door and away with his loot.
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It would take days for Elastacy to finally get down from the ceiling. Days of watching customers come and go. In and out of the store, watching the employees mill about, minding their own business. Watch, with hope and then despair as some even looked up, spotting her among the other balloons, only to return their attention to whatever else could distract them. It was only on the fourth day did someone she didn’t want to see walked it. A certain magical capable captain that had gotten her so long ago. But for some reason when the captain had spotted her she had simply transformed her back. The heroine was still twenty feet off the ground when it happened, but even Elastsacy had to admit it was nicer to be half splatted against the ground instead of being trapped against the ceiling. But to her dismay the captain was gone before she recovered, leaving Elastacy to dejectedly make her way home. Another villain had gotten away. Again and again her super power was being used against her. Maybe she wasn’t cut out for it after all.