Book Chapter - The Funhouse Protoype - WIP - 1/29/23 (Patreon)

The hallway was long and claustrophobic, feeling as if it was almost alive as it seemed to go on and on and on. The squeaking footsteps came closer and closer, looming behind him as a constant reminder that he would not escape. With every step he took, he thought he could finally wake up from this surreal nightmare, but the hallway seemed to be stretching further and farther with the exit as far out of reach as his chances of getting home.

Jake, a muscular alligator man, and Boris, a slightly chubby but tall polar bear man, had only just found themselves in the strange vast underground labs. With nothing but rubber shorts for clothing, they were forced to retreat after escaping from the weird inflatable padded rooms they were nearly forced into, with only the hallway as their option for retreat while pursued by the rubber-coated androids. Jake took a quick look back, seeing one of the androids waving something in one of their hands, a pink shiny ribbon of some kind with two green balls attached to both ends. With a swift powerful toss, the android tossed the device towards them, and Jake just turned his head forward as he redoubled his sprint.

But then, he heard a loud thud from behind him, looking back to see Boris had fallen face-first onto the ground, with the ribbon snuggly tangled around his ankles and weighed down by the two green balls now laying beside his fluffy feet. With the androids rapidly approaching, Jake had no choice but to continue his retreat, leaving his friend behind. Just as Boris was about to reach down to untangle his ankles, the two green orbs began to hiss loudly, quickly expanding to twice their size while gravitating upwards. Before he could even react, he felt them tugging on his legs, becoming flustered as the inflating balls began pulling him off of the floor.

Desperately pawing at the ground, he only then realized that the metal floor was completely seamless, with nothing to grasp onto as his legs were hoisted above him, the orbs still inflating until they begin to squeeze around his feet. Boris gasped as pointlessly bapped his muscular hands against the floor feeling the ballooning inflatable rubber balls squeeze up his ankles until he was hoisted off the ground completely. While one of the androids continued their pursuit of the alligator, the other slowed down and stepped up to the helpless polar bear letting out a crackled chuckle as she placed her hands on her hips. This android had one leg that had slightly darker rubber on her right leg, with a sharp gash on her thigh. With that, she simply stared at him as he dangled upside down, suspended off the ground as the balls continued to expand and envelop Boris all the way up to his knees.

Feeling the ever-increasing tightness traveling down to his body, he fussed and thrashed about trying to free himself, only for the balls to squeak and creak with his futile struggles as the android watched in amusement. Meanwhile, the sound of hissing air grew louder and louder as they continued to expand, smooshing and pressing around the polar bear's lower half until they reached his pelvis, resulting in a loud growling moan from Boris as the inflation quickly sped up. Realizing this, he quickly pressed his arms down against the squishy rubber balls sandwiching his body from both sides, but his muscular arms only got stuck underneath the puffing green rubber, pinning them to his sides as the balls squeezed up around his chest.

With only his neck free, he could only shake his head and whimper until the rubber pressed up underneath his chin, only stopping once it tightly inflated over his mouth. “Mmph!? Mmmmph!” Completely sandwiched in a ball of green rubber, his defiance was reduced to reverberating squeaks and groans just bearly audible outside his prison. Boris struggled against the tight double-layered latex from within as he remained suspended upside down, glaring at the rubber robot that stood triumphant before him. Though satisfied with her catch, the robot just sighed, feeling just a bit underwhelmed with just how easy and quick it was to capture the strange beast-man.

It was then that she reached over to the com on her wrist, connecting to her partner further down the hallway. “06 wait.” she instructed. The machine she was addressing turned her head all the way around, still running as she resumed her pursuit. “What?” she asked. “Reacquiring these test subjects has gotten… dull…” the stationary machine explained, leaning nonchalantly against the floating polar bear balloon next to her. “Don’t re-acquire him just yet.”

“Are You nuts 85?” the other machine growled, slowly gaining up on the beast-man. “If I let this alligator loose in the facility, I’ll get downgraded!” she snapped. “I’m not saying to let him go per se-” 85 responded, still leaning against the double-floating bondage balloon. “Hear me out, there is a prototype inflatable test chamber only a few blocks from here. I can access the chamber by connecting to the terminal, all you need to do is herd him to it.” 06 went silent for a moment, thinking about her partners alternative while keeping the alligator man in her sights. She could technically catch him at any time with her arsenal of rubber gadgets, but indeed, the task of recapturing these slippery anthropomorphic people was getting rather monotonous. Out of curiosity, she quickly accessed the data on the test chamber in question, looking over all the interesting sets and toys the chamber had to offer. Getting closer to the end of the hall, she began to slow her pace and responded to her counterpart. “OK, I’ll seal off the exits ahead and put him in the right direction.”

85 then switched the frequency of her com to contact one of the other lab employees. “Yes, hello Andra, you know that new testing room you’ve been working on with Rei-Uno? Could you connect me to the block's terminal for just a minute?” Finally, Jake reached the end of the hall, fumbling his hands against the control panel on the left side of the door before finally opening it. 06 did not immediately pursue, stopping at the terminal as she stuck all four of her main digits into the open socket next to the controls, connecting to all of the block's corridors. Jake saw multiple elevators ahead, with two separate hallways on either side at the end of the room. But before he could make a choice of where to go, almost every elevator suddenly slammed shut ahead of him, with the only open one being on the far end of the room, right next to the left hallway. With few options, he ran towards the hallway on the right, sprinting as fast as he could right as a blurry projectile flew past his head.

With little time to react, he only stumbled to a halt once the projectile landed directly on the hallway wall with a splat, jiggling and wobbling like a water balloon before rapidly expanding outward. In less than a second, the strange shiny ball swelled up until it filled the whole hallway, bulging out with reverberating creaks so loud he could feel the vibrations of the rubber shaking the room. Not wasting another moment, he turned the other way toward the other open hallway, only for another projectile to be shot toward it as well, swelling up and blocking it in an instant. Jake looked back to the android, staring down the barrel of a small metallic nozzle poking out from her wrist as she slowly advanced on him, slowly but confidently advancing on him with little hurry. Panicking, he quickly bolted toward the one open elevator, running inside as it slammed shut behind him. 06 tucked the barrel back into her wrist, putting her counterpart back on the calm. “We got them, do your stuff.”

The young alligator could feel his heart pounding like a jackhammer as he backed up against the cold metal wall of the elevator, pressing one of the random buttons vigorously, as he begged for it to move. Elevators had always been frustrating to him, but this was 10 times worse, watching the door with panic in his eyes as he expected the feminine machine to rip it open with her bare hands. At that moment, he heard metal rattling all around him, thinking his worst fear had to come true before he realized that the whole elevator shaft was shifting around him. Backing up into the corner, he curled his tail up beside his leg as he braced himself for the worst.

But after a few moments, the shaft went eerily silent, putting Jake on edge as he simply remained curled up in the corner. Then, a sudden metallic KLACK from beneath him shook the cubicle, looking down to see the floor had split in the middle, and continued to widen. The young man gasped as the metal plates beneath him retracted into the walls, backing up as far as he could as a frightened wine left his scaly lips. But to his bewilderment, beneath the floor wasn’t a large open elevator shaft, but what seemed to be a large, puffy, shiny-looking tube. The soft echoes of soft, creaking rubber could be heard emanating from the large opening, as if the tube stretched on for miles below. From where he stood, it looked like an inflatable slide, one you would see in a bounce house or something.

Regardless, he continue to back up against the wall, but with no railing whatsoever, he was unable to keep himself in place for long before the floor beneath him retracted completely. With a heart-dropping yelp, he plunged into the large inflatable slide, the padded segments of the tube breaking his fall as he slid down the smooth rubber. Everything went dark as he plunged deeper into the slide, bapping his hands, and feet around as he tried to get some leverage to stop his descent, but the rubber was too slippery to grasp. The slide would twist and turn, sending him every which as he fell for nearly 30 whole seconds before he could see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Before he could even adjust to the brightness, he was free from the tunnel end and landed belly first onto a soft inflatable surface with a loud reverberating squeak, bouncing and down for a few brief moments before he was able to regain his bearings. “Ugh…” he groaned, the sudden but soft impact proving rather disorienting for the young man tried to sit up, which proved difficult with how squishy the floor was. When he finally adjusted to the light, yet another baffling sight greeted his eyes, as he found himself in a large, colorful bouncy castle.

At least, that's how it appeared at first glance…

The floor was bright pink, its soft squishy surface giving it the hue of fresh bubblegum with over a dozen shiny balls of all colors scattered about. The four columns in the corners of the structure were all bright red, same as the ceiling with the opening to the slipery cushy slide he had entered from ominously looming right above him. But what immediately caught his attention were the walls, which were made of shiny transparent plastic lined with black tubes that looked like metal bars. Jake had no idea what to make of this, it was as if he had been plopped into an inflatable jail cell! His breath quickened as he looked all around him,  realizing that there was no other exit aside from the one above him. He was trapped! Unable to stand up due to the squishy floor, he crawled forward toward the edge of the bouncy castle to find that the tubes lining the clear pvc wall were also made of inflatable rubber.

Pressing his hands up against the flexible surface, he looked between the bars to see other similar bouncy castles in the surrounding area, he was in some kind of warehouse or storeroom. “That machine… she led me into a trap.” he sighed, slumping down as his hands slid against the soft tubes and clear plastic. With that he collapsed on his back, allowing himself to sink into the cushy pink rubber as he watched the opening above him slowly closing shut, collapsing in on itself with a loud SQUEAK until it left no trace. The young man was frozen as his eyes were left wide open, slowly coming to the realization that he was probably going to be there for a while. Closing his eyes, he simply lay in silence until one of the nearby rubber balls bumped against his cheek, tickling his scales as he reached up and grabbed it in his hand.

—

1/29/23

Looking up at the shiny sphere, the rubber ball gently smooshed between his scaly fingers, its bright yellow surface listening in the dim light that entered the cage. Giving it a soft squeeze, he couldn’t help but feel a bit relaxed as warped in his palm. It had the squishiness of a stretch ball, the softness of a pool, but the flexibility of a lightly inflated balloon, this was enough to calm his nerves a bit, as at least he had something to do until he was picked up by the machines and brought back to the padded cell room. WHOOSH! Without warning, the ball suddenly inflated in his hands, bulging beneath his fingers as he tossed it with a surprised gasp.

Sitting back upright, he watched as the ball gently came to rest next to him on the floor, before it yet again increased in size with another swift rush of air. Jake just stared at the now doubly inflated ball, his eyes wide with complete bewilderment, but also that of burning curiosity. With some effort, he rolled back on his hands and knees, and crawled his way over to the ball, slowly bringing his finger over to it as he gave it a gentle poke. It took no less than a couple of seconds for the ball to react as it yet again grew in size. What used to be the size of a tennis ball was now nearly the size of a basketball, with his finger now squishing deeply into its rubbery surface.

Jake felt his heartbeat just a little faster, feeling the flexible surface press around his finger as an idea popped into his head. Though a bit hesitant at first, he grabbed the balloon in his palm and wrapped his arms around it, holding it against his chest as he took in a deep, calm breath. It didn’t take long for the ball to puff up again, increasing its size even more as it squished against his chest and wedged underneath his chin, growing to the size of a beach ball in his passionate hug. He let out another whimpering gasp as the rubber warped over his arms, maintaining his hug until he released it, allowing it to bounce away as it floated to the other side of the bounce house.

Jake watched with a smile as the ball gently plopped next to a couple of other nearby balls, bumping them as they also puffed up to its touch, much to the delight of the alligator man. Meanwhile, 06 was remotely watching the camera feed from where she stood on heads-up display, while 85 stood guard with the captured polar bear man who remained trapped in his double balloon in bondage. Boris could only whimper in defeat as two of the human guards clad and white latex pushed his floating prison back down the hall to his cell. 06 was then approached by 85, proudly putting her hands on her hips as she leaned over to her counterpart. “So… how is our little alligator doing?” she asked sounding rather pleased with herself.

06 slowly turned her head. “I’m sending you the feed now. But what does this room do exactly?” she responded, sharing the footage with the other android. “Oh… The room isn’t special per se.❤️But….” 85 chuckled. After puffing up to double their size, the two newly inflated rubber balls bounced up in the air and flung in different directions, one flinging into the corner, and the other, a bright pink one rolling over to Jake as it came to rest in his lap. Before he could even reach down to grab it, the ball puffed up again and squished against his groin, making him gasp as the latex rubbed up against the thin spandex of his garment.

Then, hearing the swift rush of inflating rubber from across the room, he looked over to the corner when he noticed the other inflatable ball had also puffed up in size, as it began bumping up against the other balls that also began to grow and inflate. There was a small twinkle in his eyes as he began to giggle, taking the pink ball in his hand as he threw it back to the beachball-sized balloon. Upon impact, both balls again, rolled in separate directions, popping up against the rubber balls as they also begin to increase in size. These balls would also bounce away and knock against other rubber balls in the room, starting a chain reaction as each and everyone began popping around like popcorn as they all began to increase in size.