Pokémon Going

“A Dragonite!”

Kim screamed as she whipped her phone from her desk and bolted for the door, shouting apologetically to the protests of her coworkers. She had just been idly clicking around one of the myriad Pokémon Go tracking sites when she’d seen it spawn in the park a couple of streets away. It was an opportunity too good to miss.

The wait in the elevator to the ground floor was excruciating. The shouts of her colleagues as she had dashed from the office rung in her ears. She could get in some serious trouble for this, but it would be worth it for a high powered Dragonite.

She burst through the doors into the lobby, once again apologising as she ran past the guard at the reception desk—his greetings ignored as she rushed out the front of the building. And… shit. The duel carriageway. She hurried up to the nearest crossing point, mashing the button in the vain hope that it might encourage the lights to change quicker. Nevermind, this wait was more excruciating. She idly span the nearby Pokéstop while she waited.

After a few minutes the light changed and she ran with a renewed vigour. The Dragonite could be minutes away from despawning and she wasn’t even halfway there yet! She felt one of her shoes fall away; forcefully shaking the other one off so that it didn’t disturb her stride. Her clothes clung uncomfortably to her skin, dampened with sweat, they had started to retreat up her chest. Running was becoming increasingly difficult, devolving into a lumbering waddle as she drew closer to her goal, the spot where the Pokémon should appear was within her sight.

She gasped breathlessly. She tripped, recovering her stance but dropping her phone, fumbling as she tried to snatch it back, phone bounced off her plush belly scales and onto the ground.

Wait, what?!

Kim screamed. A huge, round, creamed-coloured stomach hung out in front of her; thick, wide scales stretching horizontally across it. She poked at her gut, seeing that hands had become flattened, three stubby claws all she had left for fingers. No wonder she had dropped her phone.

She leant down to try and pick it up. The screen had cracked and turned off, the face of an obese Dragonite reflecting back at her from that small, black mirror.

She was a Dragonite?! She flailed around, sinking her paws into her wide bulk. Her thick thighs framed her sides, the light brown leg lumps leading to the tiny, clawed stumps of her feet paws. She could flap her wings with a little effort, and her thick, fat tail seemed more than happy to sway of its own accord.

She was still exploring her new body when she heard a distant shout and the sound of running. Someone was coming!

She stumbled as she looked around for cover; unable to find anything suitable for disguising her wide berth. Even the widest tree in the vicinity was a fraction of her size and she would stick out like a big, creamy thumb against the dark foliage.

So she ran. Well, waddled. Really slowly. Her huge, ponderous gut and yet-wider hips meant that she could barely move at all without some part of her body dragging across the ground. She even tried flying, but she knew her comparatively little wings would be unable to lift such a bulk.

A fat Dragonite! Why’d it have to be a fat Dragonite?!

The footsteps grew louder and the shouting more excited, they were rounding the corner, soon to be within visual her range.

“There’s the Dragonite!” one of the voices called out.

“Damn, that’s an XL one if I ever saw it,” said another.

“Catch it!” shouted another.

Kim gave up running and turned towards them, hoping to broker some sort of peace, but her words came out mangled—converted into the indecipherable language of a Pokémon. It didn’t matter anyway, they were too occupied with the digital Dragonite on their screens to look up at the real Dragonite in front of them. Pokéballs started flying her way.

Now she had to think like a Pokémon.

She dodged the ones that had been thrown poorly and she could bat away those that came within reach, but the balls kept coming. Some of the trainers switched tactics, utilising their Razz berries to distract her. She could taste them—a pulpy, fruity mess magically appearing in her mouth. She swallowed it, able to feel it run down into her tummy where it expanded into fresh layers of flab. She kept batting away the Pokéballs, hearing the various players cursing as they used dozens of them just trying to land a shot.

More Razz berries appeared in her maw, forcing her to swallowing them. They filled her up nicely, her already swollen gut bulging across the ground in front of her. She groaned, the exhaustion getting to her, she couldn’t…

An Ultra ball smacked her in the middle of her gut. Everything went black.

She heard the voice of one of the players come from the dark ether. “Only 10 CP? Well fuck that then.”