Berries and Balloons -Comm.-

As was often the case, James needed some time to himself.

James (Scovile to his friends) was a somewhat abnormal Flareon, black with white fluff as opposed to the usual red-orange.  His abnormal coloring was due to the unusual circumstances of his evolution... *ahem* but I'm getting sidetracked.

Being somewhat mentally unstable, James spent a lot of his time in quiet and peaceful areas, such as the wide meadow he had chosen to explore today.

...Hm?  What's that smell?

A fruity scent caught the Flareon's attention.  Following his nose, he made his way to a fenced-in garden surrounding a series of berry bushes.  As he squeezed through the fence, one bush in particular got his attention; the berries on it looked like none he had ever seen before, each one a centimeter in diameter and colored purple with orange swirls.

Looks delicious!

James didn't delay.  He picked one berry and shoved it into his mouth, chewing it and enjoying its taste.  It was a fantastic blend of sweet and spicy that no berry he'd ever tasted before could produce.  Then he ate another berry, and another, and soon the bottom half of the bush (which was all James could reach) was picked clean.

His meal finished, James relaxed in the shade of the bush, patting his belly underneath him.  He hardly felt full at all, but his belly certainly looked bloated... in fact, it appeared to be expanding by the second.

"Flare? (Huh?)"

Unbeknownst to the not-so-innocent Flareon, this particular garden was run by a local laboratory devoted to performing experiments with plants to create new fauna.  That berry bush in particular was one of their recent projects, and so far the berries had not been taste-tested.

The juice in these berries was already reacting with the contents of James's heated stomach, creating gas that expanded rapidly, inflating the Flareon quickly.

Starting to panic, James tried to move, but his inflated stomach was already prohibiting his legs from touching the ground.  He fumbled helplessly for a moment before tipping forwards... and faceplanting into the berry bush.

"Mmf!"

As James struggled to right himself and get his face out of the bush, a clump of berries worked their way into his mouth and down his throat.  This, of course, added fuel to the inflation process.

Soon the Flareon was a huge black balloon, so large he took up the whole garden.  Another shake and he tumbled forwards, rolling over and crushing the fence (and half of the berry bushes as well).

"FLARE! FLAREON! (HELP! HELP ME!)"

James could barely move.  The shadow of his expanding belly eclipsed the whole town.  Letting out a blast of flame, he rolled himself back upright, to discover he was now higher up than the roofs of any of the buildings.

And he continued to grow.

What in Mew's name was IN those berries?

Now the Flareon's shadow eclipsed the whole town.  A moment later, he couldn't even see the town because his huge gut was in the way.  Flying Pokémon avoided his gigantic stomach as they crossed the air.

A burst of water suddenly hit James's face.  He yelped and blasted fire at the air before realizing he'd just hit a cloud.  He couldn't see anything but the sky and his own expanding gut, and he could barely feel the garden beneath him.

Maybe I'll become as big as a planet.  Maybe Kyorge and Groudon will turn me into a new Earth.  ...I don't want to be a planet!  HELP!

The atmosphere was getting thin; it was getting difficult to breathe.  James tried to scream again, but before he could he felt a huge, ripping pain in his belly.  Then he blacked out.

An indeterminable length of time later, James woke up at a familiar shrine.  He still had a headache from whatever he'd just experienced, so he couldn't quite remember which Legendary Pokémon dwelt there.

He later learned what had happened.  He'd grown large enough to crush the whole town, then burst from over-expansion.  One of the Legendaries had gathered up his pieces and brought him here to be healed.

James's mind drifted back to the unusual berries that had started the whole mess.  He wasn't sure he wanted to get that big again, but the berries HAD been rather delicious.

I would've been fine if I'd eaten just one.  Or two.  Or maybe three or four.