"Ready?"

Amber and Scarlett glared at each other. Neither was going to lose this contest easily.

"Set?"

Scarlett's knuckles turned white, her death grip on the air pump somehow getting tighter. Amber had been in these inflation competitions before, so she was much more relaxed. She tilted her neck until her vertebrae cracked loudly.

"GO!"

The ladies started pumping furiously. The hiss and creak of air inflating rubber filled the air. Their faces turned red from the strain of pumping.

Zoe called from behind them, watching anxiously with Jessica, as the actual balloons in the carnival booth in behind the counter from their friends grew larger. "COME ON SCARLETT! YOU'RE BETTER AT THESE CARNIVAL GAMES THAN AMBER!"

"I'M TRYING!"
Amber pumped faster. "NOT IF I CAN HELP IT!"

The balloon in front of Amber billowed out. Scarlett's balloon was half the size of Amber's when it went *BANG!*

Scarlett threw her arms down in frustration. "Noooo!"

Amber laughed. "Oh come on, you know I'm stronger than you."

"Yeah, but, you know...I'm good with pumps." Scarlett was trying to hide a grin, thinking about her squishy consequences for losing the bet.

Zoe was laughing with Jess. "Yeah, well we have one more game to play, right?"

Jess pounded her fists together. "Yup! If you heart flat girls so much, we need to make you one."

* * *

They walked through the summer fair until they found the Whack-a-Mole machine. Once the groups in front of them took their turns, Zoe and Jess each grabbed a hammer.

"Alright, whoever gets less points gets to join Scarlett?"

Jess grinned. "You're on. No way you're better with a hammer than me."

Amber was grinning with her arm around her girlfriend. Scarlett was smiling and blushing, thinking about what was coming next, not really focused on the action. "Anyone interested in betting on Zoe?"

Scarlett giggled. "And have you do something else to me? Nah."

"GO!"

Zoe and Jess lifted their hammers, and set about whacking moles. Jess was a little faster, and as the game went on, her score gradually got higher and higher than Zoe's.

The timer on the game went from three minutes to one, and things were looking bad for Zoe. Jess was whacking more and more moles, not giving Zoe a chance to catch up.

Her swings were also getting a wilder and wilder.

Jess was aware of the score differential, and wanted to tease Zoe about her impending loss. "This game is so much fun! Right Zoe!"

She turned a little too much while looking to see Zoe's reaction, and took the momentum of her hammer swing with her, right into Zoe.

*CHRRRRRSSSSSSHHHH*

Zoe's body took Jess's swing full force, shattering like glass. Before she could react, shards of Zoe's tummy were exploding around the whack-a-mole stand.

Jess dropped her hammer. "Ack! Zoe!"

Zoe's eyes were blinking as it shattered on the ground next to her limbs. They rolled around towards her friends's feet, pupils spinning.

Scarlett and Amber were laughing. Amber kept it together enough to pick up Zoe's eyes "Jess! How could you!"

Scarlett was hiding a big smile behind her hands. "You know that means she wins by DQ right?"

Jess was holding her forehead, embarrassed. "Yeeeah. Here, help me get her cleaned up."

She picked up a the conveniently placed "Mole Mess Restoration Vacuum". Almost every game had a similar machine nearby, for both accident prone and mischievous carnival goers. Tan and black bits of Zoe piled up inside the bin, eventually joined by her dark eyes. Once they found most of Zoe, they pushed the button, and the machine whirled to life, blending the bits together into a smooth black slime. The machine DING-ed, and released the black goop to the ground, which splashed, and bounced up, forming into Zoe.

She had the biggest smile on her face. "I got a ballooo-oon! I got a balooo-oon!"

Jess rolled her eyes. "You know, if I didn't know your aversion to shattering, I'd say you planned this."

Zoe sprang to her feet, and winked. "We'll never know. Let's get you and Scarlett into shape!" She ran towards their destination, tugging Jessica's hand behind her.

* * *

They arrived at the row of balloon stretchers. There were still acts that would pass through towns were a talented performer would use more traditional and stage magician methods of squishing, stretching, and turning people into balloon animals. As those acts got lewder and lewder, someone eventually created the machines to automate the process. One would just put their friend into the machine from the top, and a long stretchy clown balloon was inflated at the other end. The newer machines even had clear siding so people could see their friends getting rolled into a stretchy balloon. It was a surprisingly popular attraction, and there was no shortage of skilled clowns standing ready to bend and twist everyone's friends into all sorts of interesting shapes.

Amber gave Scarlett a big kiss before sending her into the machine. She was pretty sure she saw Scarlett dripping on the way in, already daydreaming about what was about to happen to her.

Jess sat on the edge looking at Zoe. "You're buying the first round later." Zoe laughed and shoved her smiling girlfriend in.

Scarlett and Jess fell down the chutes into the rollers of their machines. Shortly into their drops, the machinery grabbed their hands and feet to keep their future balloons stretched out. People wanted long skinny balloons, with no mass getting shifted around to make things uneven.

Both ladies felt the rollers creep up their legs, squishing them up to their tummies with a satisfying *SQUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH* noise. They could feel their legs getting pulled down and stretched out on the other side while it happened, keeping their flattening slow to make them nice and long. The machines laid them across a long platform as they passed through, so when rollers finally squished their heads, they were long, completely flat ribbons of their selves.

The machines made sure their new balloons's arms were next to their stick thin bodies, and brought another roller down on their faces.

*WRRRRR*WRRRRR*WRRRRR*

The roller zoomed back and forth across them, being careful not to smear their features around. They got rid of stray wrinkles, and squished them out to twenty feet long. Neither was very thick, but their arms fused to their and the legs fused together, leaving Scarlett and Jess each as a single long ribbon.

Its work done, both machines spat the ladies out feet first, but stopped at the head. A small hose went into their mouths.

*HSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS*

From their heads on down, both Scarlett and Jess filled up with helium as long clown balloons, their eyes and other features visible along them.

Zoe picked up her brown and green Jessica balloon, smiling. She was thinking about one thing though.

"Hey Amber, what are you twisting Scarlett into?"

Amber was nuzzling her nose against the front of her Scarlett balloon. "Scarlett's my little lost puppy, so I think she should play the part. You?"

"I have no idea. I guess we are the Dust Bunnies?" Zoe lightly pinched the purple hair of her Jessica balloon, being careful to not touch her with anything remotely sharp.

They brought their girls over to the clown on hand. Scarlett went first.

*CRRRRK*SQUEAK*CRRRRK*

The clown's hands were a blur. Scarlett's colors were swirling like a spinning artist's palette in space, as rubbery squeaky noises filled the air. Scarlett wasn't quite sure where any of her body was in those few seconds, but when the clown suddenly stopped, her long balloon body looked like a puppy. She could even wag her tail.

Zoe brought her hand to her mouth, giggling at how cute Scarlett looked. "Oh, I didn't know I could make Jess do that!"

Amber rubbed her puppy dog's head. "Don't worry, Scarlett is...uh...too used to this shape."

Jess was next.

*CRRRRK*SQUEAK*CRRRRK*

Jessica had a similar experience. There was a swirl of green and brown in the air ringed by purple as she felt her body twist in impossible ways. A few more twists, and she was twisted into a rabbit with purple ears, and all four limbs sticking out.

Zoe held Jess by her puffy arms, while Amber tipped their master balloon shaper.

"Aaaaaw who's adorable! You could be our Bunny mascot like this!" Zoe mockingly tapped Jessica's balloon face. Jessica's painted on the balloon somehow moved, sticking out her tongue.

"Now now Jess, no restoring yourself for a little while, that's the bet!"

Amber laughed. "I guess I'm lucky there. If Scarlett unstuck herself that fast, we would all cheer for her."

That made Zoe double over with laughter. "Oh Scarlett! Hey, if you can get out of that without melting, I'll take your place for the night. What do you think?"

Scarlett's tail wagged faster, but that was the only reaction Scarlett could manage in her condition.

"So where are we going Zoe? I hear there's a knife juggler."

Both ladies could feel their balloon girlfriends wiggling with frightened anxiety at the mention of sharp objects.

Zoe looked at her wobbling balloon as she responded. "Oh! I've heard of him! Let's go!"