Scarlett knew Jessica wasn't a fool, but this was a really long trip.
Jessica asked if Scarlett thought she could fix some old equipment. Most would be electrical, but the purpose was a mystery. Jessica refused to say anything more to her other than bring her tools. The drive really did take about an hour just to get out of town, then _more_ driving through the woods to reach the mountains. What was actually out here remained a mystery.
Jessica pulled into what amounted to a gravel parking lot, "Yup. It's the only way to keep this a surprise. I knew the three of you would probably stop following me halfway here if you got curious where I was going every day. And that said, heeeere we are!"
Scarlett got out of the car. The lot was lined by a few sections of old wooden fence as it approached the stone signaling the mountain side. Most of them were showing signs of rot, falling loose from their posts. They were covered with vines, and the wooden beams in the rock wall indicating this was actually...
"An abandoned mine? Jess, are you crazy?"
Jessica laughed, "Yes? Think about it though, we can go nuts in here with training grounds. And who wouldn't want to have a cool hideout?"
Scarlett smiled, but tilted her head. "And maintain something this far out? My phone barely has a connection out here. This fence is falling apart. Do we have power in the mine at least?"
"Oh yeah, the power lines still work." Jessica pointed up at the lines, guiding Scarlett's eyes along the wire's path to the mountain. Sure enough, Scarlett could see functioning lights fat the entrance. "I made sure the electric bill was paid up too. It's ours."
"And how...?"
"Some old industrial baron owned this ages ago. Thought he could find something valuable in these mountains. All he did was bring a lot of tractors into town and ruin a perfectly good mountain side. This property has been abandoned for a while now because you're right, nobody wants to be out here. I got a tip from an old friend and got the land cheap. Plus, it gave me a place to practice." Jessica pointed to a pile of empty dynamite containers.
Scarlett stared. Jessica was clearly not impressing her. "And you think it's safe now?"
Jessica wobbled her hand, "Almost. Zoe knows I've been training with this stuff. She knows to track down my phone if I'm gone for too long, just in case. I've cleaned up a lot of the inside, but there's still a few things to tweak. And to setup the real fun, I needed someone with your skill set."
"Jess, this does sound awesome, but I'm going to at least text Amber to check on us in a while too. I mean, just how sturdy are those support beams?"
Jessica walked inside the mine, "Oh these? I actually got these into place last week. They support the entrance no problem." She gave the nearest vertical beam a good punch, then gave Scarlett a thumbs up. "See, nothing to-"
*WHAM*
The beam fell, striking Jessica on the head. Her body collapsed around it, quickly compressing and spreading out on the ground. Jessica was pancaked underneath, her butt and boobs expanded in the process protruding out on both sides.
Scarlett calmly walked up, grabbed Jessica's butt, and pulled. Jess stretched and strained as Scarlett pulled her out, her boobs that were smooshed out the other side getting pulled flatter and longer as they were forced under the beam. Scarlett held her five foot floppy friend up so her spiraling eyes could see the text she wrote Amber, "Jess is crazy, if I'm not back by morning drive to these coordinates and bring a vacuum. <3 Scarlett"
Jess snapped out of it, "Okay...it's MOSTLY fine. Just be careful. And I guess Amber can know, we'll be ready soon. Now shake me out already and let's get started."
Jessica was wide enough Scarlett needed both hands to give one good shake. Jessica popped back into three dimensions, and they walked inside.
* * *
"Mine carts? I mean, you can't just trap people in a maze forever Jess. Can't we just add a locked door like normal people?"
"And let them know this place is active? I mean, I know persistent people will just peel themselves off the rocks and keep looking. That's why some of the stuff we're adding is to keep an eye on who uses the cart. Most people won't be able to pick themselves up immediately, then we bring them back outside."
"Okay, I guess that makes some sense? But I'm still adding a door further in. But as long we we're here..." Scarlett climbed into the cart, "may I?"
Jessica laughed, "Sure, but this isn't exactly your high speed car. Hang on tight."
Scarlett laughed, "Anything I should look out for Jess?"
"If you want to see the back, just make sure you take the paths that go up, up, down, down, left, right-"
Scarlett cut off Jessica, recognizing the pattern, "Really?"
Jessica shrugged, "Hey, you'll remember it right? If you want to check on the rest, just don't go those ways. Most of the others loop around on each other, and every path has a sign that points back out."
"Neat!" Scarlett threw the switch, and started going down the track, "Alright, I'll be back soon."
* * *
Scarlett decided that three was her lucky number, and took all three paths ramping up first, knowing the third was wrong. Sure enough, she got lost on loops. She had to give up and make her way back to the start, where Jessica was waiting.
"Having fun?"
"Well, I got lost, and the cart moves at a good pace. Let me try one more." Scarlett started pumping the cart and went in again.
This time, she waited until the next to last fork to go the wrong way. Three turns later, she saw a rock wall before her. The tracks rudely ended in a caution barrier, as if they were unfinished. Scarlett didn't have time to stop.
"Damnit Jess, you could have told me this already had trAaAaAaApS!"
*CLANG*
The cart was stopped by the end of the tracks peeling up, throwing its passenger towards the wall.
"WAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"
*SLAM*
Scarlett tumbled end over end before her back crashed upside down into the wall. Her arms were splayed out and flattened to the wall first, as she started spreading out from the impact. Her butt was on top, legs pointing down, her calves covering her elbows. Most of Scarlett's flattening mass was shunted towards her butt, which spread out a few feet as it became part of the wall. The resulting Scarlett poster was a ridiculous eight feet tall, with 3 feet of butt on top, and 2 large flat pancakes on her chest.
"Ooow...okay that was kinda fun, but this might be tricky." Scarlett fought the daze and tried to peel an arm off the wall. Her wrists peeled off with a short *SHLRRP*, but her legs held them down. Scarett's face turned red as she fought to untangle herself.
"HRRRRRRN"
Her biceps stretched as she tried to lift them from under her legs. It felt like they might tear if she forced the issue, so Scarlett paused to regroup.
"RRRRRRRRG"
Scarlett focused more on her legs this time, and managed to peel all of her limbs off as a set, even if they were still stuck together. She roller her eyes, "Oh, great, they're stuck together. Hopefully they break up when I reinflate." Scarlett managed to get her flattened thumb into her mouth and blow.
*POP*POP*
Scarlett's head popped off the wall first, then her butt, her boobs, and her arms. Finally, she popped her whole body off the wall. "Ooof...These things need better brakes. I better hurry up and get back."
* * *
While Scarlett was slowly recovering, Jessica staring at her watch. "*Sigh* This is taking too long. Please don't tell me Scarlett plastered herself to a wall back there." She started walking into the tunnels, muttering to herself, "I really should have gotten more than one cart."
*CLANK*CLANK*
Jess's shoulders sank. There wasn't enough light to see far enough down the tunnel to know what was coming, but Jessica was pretty sure Scarlett was about to provide her a mine cart.
*WHAM*
*SQUIIIIIIIIIISH*
*SHWIP*SHWIP*
"OOF!"
The cart's leading edge threw Jess to the ground, arms splayed. She felt herself expand against the ground as she flattened out, feeling the cold metal of the rains against her sides as she was pushed back into a 10 foot long rectangle of herself. Worse, her arms felt like they were out in space somewhere, somehow disconnected.
Scarlett couldn't see much either, but she knew she hit something on her return trip. She hopped out of the cart and ran back to see what happened, and discovered Jessica.
Her flattened teammate's eyes glared at her, filling the space between the rails to about 3 inches high. Jessica's arms were intact beyond the rails, gooey strands of dark skin and Jessica's shirt waving in the air where the cart wheels sliced them off.
"You're late Scarlett."
"Sorry Jess, didn't expect you to be on the tracks." Scarlett smiled and scratched her head, "Do you, uh..."
Jessica's eyes narrowed, "Don't say it!"
"Need a hand?"
"Uuuugh...Yes, just give me my arms back please."
* * *
The ladies spent most of the morning fixing lights and testing the cart tracks. After lunch, Jessica introduced Scarlett to the next project, and walked her into a large cavern.
"This will be the main room for us," she said, sweeping her arm across the view for the big reveal. "We can set up the practice gear here once the rest of it gets delivered. Over there are some side tunnels I figure we can use for locker rooms and whatever else we need."
Scarlett stared at the underground complex. "Jess this is huge! We could probably fit a a whole course in here." She pointed to a pile of crates in the middle of the cave. "It looks like you've already started a collection."
"I have the basics for some traps over there." She brought Scarlett's attention back towards the side rooms, "Want to see the break room? Come on, there's a hot tub, we just need to get it hooked up later."
Scarlett perked up, "I need to see this. You're not the type to get 'just' a hot tub." Scarlett ran ahead to check it out.
"Scarlett, slow down, I haven't had a chance to smooth out all the paths yet!" Jessica was trying to keep up, but remained cautious, letting Scarlett get further ahead.
She was far enough ahead to not hear everything clearly. "What did you-oof!" Scarlett tripped and rolled across the floor into a wooden support in the corner.
*SNAP*
The beam fell, along with a pile of rocks it was supporting. Scarlett tried to scramble out from under it, but was mostly squished underneath. She could feel the stone's crushing weight on her back. Everything below her shoulders was flattened. Her curves already felt like they were spread on the floor to twice their normal size, and every time another rock fell, it felt like she was widened further.
If she wasn't trapped, or maybe if the rocks were a little warmer, Scarlett could almost see herself enjoying the back rub. For now, any thoughts of Amber doing this to her with a rolling pin would have to wait.
"Scarlett, are you okay!" Jessica was yelling, but her voice was quiet through the rocks.
Scarlett turned and discovered the cave in had sealed the passageway. Getting back would take some work. "I think so. Just mostly crushed over here. Give me a minute to pull myself out." Scarlett started feeling around with her arms, looking for anything she could use to pull herself out.
Jess called back, "Okay, I think I can blast the rocks away to clear the passage at least. Hurry up and get out of there!"
Scarlett's eyes went wide, "Blast?! Whoa! I just said to give me some time!" Scarlett twisted herself around and started tugging at whatever parts of her were sticking out of the rocks. She was making some progress, but she was mostly stretching out her chest, while most of her stayed buried under rocks.
Jessica reached into her bag and produced several sticks of dynamite, not that Scarlett could see it. "Oh don't worry, I'm pretty good at this stuff now. I managed to get this space created didn't I? This will just take a second."
"You're not inspiring confidence Jess!" Scarlett pulled at her body harder, desperately windmilling her other arm against the ground for leverage. She got as far as her waist, her chest already stretched out six feet long from the extraction.
"Just keep your head down, you'll be fine." Jess placed the explosives, lit the fuse, and turned to run. "This should detonate in ten seconds."
Scarlett was in the process of extracting her butt from the rocks. Just like the rest of her, it was stretched out, straining to stay connected to the rest of her, her body creaking from the tension. Her head was at least 12 feet away from the original cave in, but she heard Jessica mention "detonate." Scarlett yelled back, "WHAT?!"
Jess started to respond, "I SAID DETONA-"
*KABOOM*
To Jessica's credit, the pile of rocks was destroyed outright, completely scattered apart, clearing the way.
Scarlett was no longer trapped, but the scattering rocks also finished the job of plastering her to the floor. She was stretched out a full 30 feet from the blast, her head and arms crushed face down by passing rocks, her torso still stretched from her efforts. Her legs, caught under the rocks from the blast, were forced into the ground enough to look like they were splotches of wet paint.
Jessica was mid sentence, and forgot to find anything resembling cover. Fully caught in the explosion, a crispy charred Jessica was standing in the same place she planted the dynamite. "Detonate...ten seconds ago." Her statement finished, she collapsed into a pile of ash, her eyes rolling off to the sides.
Scarlet's voice was muffled on the ground. The back of her head bulged, her arms trying to force herself up.
*THWPTHWPTHWPTHWP*
Scarlett's head started rolling back along the rest of her. "Jessica I swear you need to be more careful with those explosi-vvvvmmmf," Her voice disappeared behind herself as her head was rolled into the middle of herself.
* * *
Scarlett had to give Jessica credit, this might actually work. They had most of the power in place for the practice course. She was assembling one of the last power stations, when she heard a trickling sound from the back wall. "Hey Jess, did we spring a leak back there? Did you check for water when you were blasting down here?"
The ladies ran over to look at the source of the sound. Sure enough, there was a crack in the wall near the end of one of the old mining areas, and water was flowing in. Jess looked embarrassed, "Uh oh...maybe I overdid it there."
Scarlett shook her head, "Okay, I'll try to find something to patch it. We can't ruin all this work." She jogged back towards their supplies, figuring they must have something in the back that could help.
Jessica ran towards the leak instead, "Alright, I'll handle the water. We can't let the machinery get wet!" She raised her hands, as if measuring the water coming in, before shoving her face at the leak.
The water stopped splashing to the ground, but Jessica's hips started growing.
Scarlett looked back and did a double take. "Jess! I know you can hold a lot, but you don't...Damn it, I'll run before something bad happens." She sprinted away.
Jess did try to stop the water outright, but there was too much pressure to send the water back. The leak wasn't large, but it was intense. Not entirely opposed to this fate, Jessica started drinking *I guess I'm a water balloon for a while. This should be fun.*
She pushed the water into her stomach first. The flow wasn't enough to instantly "fwoomph" her, but her belly was still growing as fluid rushed in, steadily expanding from under her shirt for at least a minute until it was rubbing against the wall. *Mmmmmm-ow! Note to self, smooth out the walls before next time. Then I can properly enjoy this.*
The sandpaper quality of the wall established, Jessica noticed her breasts were now taking in water, growing in size as if trying to catch up to her still expanding tummy. *Okay, if I'm growing that fast, and I need to be able to stand to get out of the way, and if I can't get pushed from the wall...Scarlett needs to hurry.* Her boobs were already getting into volleyball territory, and as good getting bigger always felt, Jess knew she needed to stay intact as long as possible.
Jessica's expansion dragged on for minutes, growing at an agonizingly slow pace. Her gut was getting too big to stay close to the wall, so Jess tested lying down on it so she could keep drinking. *Good, nothing sharp down there. I really should have checked that first.* With nothing threatening to burst her early, Jess put all her weight on it. Her body sloshed as she rotated forward, keeping her mouth on the leak. Her stomach was jiggling all over as the fluids shuffled within, leaving her mostly unfilled legs dangling in the air.
She had no problem guzzling more and more water to keep the room dry, but it occurred to Jessica that she didn't know how much room she had to grow in to. It also occurred to her that her wobbly body had reached a beautifully bountiful size. *Damnit Scarlett needs to...Ooooooh my shaky body feels good.*
She needed the space, since her butt was going to fill up next. Her already thicc thighs began puffing up as water sloshed in. Her shorts got tight against her as her legs pulsed larger and larger, flopping down from the weight of the liquid inside. Her butt filled out too, making it harder to tell where her belly stopped and her hips began. Her body was still rocking back and forth from the incoming water, looking more like a ten foot water balloon than a woman lying down. *Oooooh screw it this feels too good. I don't know what's taking Scarlett so long but this won't be the first time I've broken half the gear here!*
Jessica tried to move her arms to touch herself, and finally felt how much her arms had grown. She never meant to fill them up, knowing mobility was key, but she was out of other places to shunt the water. Her everything was filling up, sagging under the water weight, slowly being absorbed into one giant water balloon. She could hold on for a while, but her capacity wasn't infinite. She was already a twelve foot water balloon, and she was still growing. She was expanding slowly enough that she didn't even notice when her clothes flattened against her, looking like they were painted on her ridiculously large body.
"MMMMMMMF SCRLLLLTT!!!"
"Okay Jess, I found the sealant and-Whoa!"
Scarlett felt her jaw actually drop to the ground. Before her was a 20 foot Jessica, jiggling all over from the struggle to contain all the water within. Filled to the brim and still growing, Jessica was a magnificent sight. Scarlett managed to remember the equipment she was here to protect and slapped herself in the face before thinking too much about Jessica's body, then windmilled her arm to reel in her jaw. She took one step towards Jess before hesitating.
"Uh, Jessica, can you move right now?"
Jessica's comically large head wobbled as it turned, her painted on eyes lost in the joy of growing.
"I'll take that as a no. Well, uuuhh, you're pretty close to that backup power source, so I'll just wait back here." Scarlett scampered backwards and got behind a rock wall, peeking around so she wouldn't miss the exciting conclusion. She did join the league to watch this stuff after all.
"WHT?!" Jessica started looking around frantically. Bumping into a power source while full of water couldn't end well. When she felt tingling in her feet, she knew she was finished growing.
*BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT*
The high voltage machine sent electricity jolting through Jessica. Inflated beyond the point of having a skeleton to light up, she flashed like a disco ball. She hoped Scarlett knew where the vacuum was when she disintegrated.
But Jessica felt something else happening.
The electricity started performing electrolysis on the water inside her, splitting it into component gasses. Jessica's failing electrified body suddenly had a huge increase of pressure from within as the gas tried to escape. Her body wanted to grow out, bubbling and undulating violently from the concoction within her, while also fighting the inevitable result of getting fried by voltage.
Jess was out of energy.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!"
*BOOM*
Steam and gas burst forth from Jessica, her body scattering as scraps and dust. One moment she was a huge water balloon, the next, a chaotic vortex of steam, water, and skin.
Scarlett stood, stunned. "Hooooly...I'm doing that to Amber later." She shook herself out of it, and cautiously entered the room to clean things up.
* * *
They double checked the walls, and did one more walk through of the power requirements. They could have finished sooner, but Scarlett insisted on making sure the hot tub was hooked up properly.
"Scarlett, you know we don't need that immediately, right?"
"Jess, I promise you, I will give the hot tub a thorough inspection with Amber once we get her in here."
Jessica laughed, "Okay hot stuff, don't go getting sucked into those pipes just yet." Jessica checked her watch, "Oh! I think the delivery should be here by now. Let's head back to the car and see if it's been dropped off."
Both ladies made their way outside to find the lot full of large crates with Transformation League logos.
Scarlett raised an eyebrow, "Wow, that's a lot of stuff. Jess, what's actually IN these boxes?"
Jess smiled "Oh, just some surplus league traps. Stuff that was either too old, too worn out, or just some trap the crowds were getting bored with. I know some of the maintenance people, you'd be surprised how hard it is to get rid of oversized swinging axes."
"Whaaaaat?" Scarlett smiled, "We have blade traps to set up now?"
"For now we're just getting things inside. Tomorrow we can actually set up the traps, especially since" she pointed at the pocket with Scarlett's phone, "we need to wrap up before your girlfriend comes answering your message. Besides, it's game night. Let's get out of here."
"Oh yeah!"
"Anyway, I figure in another day or two, we can bring Zoe and Amber out here and see if they can clear the course. Then we can take them back to the locker room so you can finally," Jess used mock air quotes, "inspect the tub."
Scarlett smiled, "Sounds like a date."