Tom the air head. The first story by Jsuelieta The house was quiet as usual, or as quiet as it ever got after a scuffle. A certain grey cat sits outside with bandages around his tail after having gotten it slammed in yet another mouse trap from his mousey rival. Of course, he'd set it out himself not minutes before, but as usual it backfired all over his hindquarters. While he sat and stared into space he started to thinking "What is it about that darn mouse that makes him so hard to get? It's certainly not his smarts...he's just so darn small!" As he thought this a light went on in his head and grinned an evil grin, snickering to himself as he slunk off to his nearly forgotten basement lab to prepare... Elsewhere in the house, a little brown mouse carried an almost unbelieveable stack of food from the kitchen back to his hole in the wall. He smiled to himself as he looked at the daily tally he kept by the tiny door that read "Jerry: 5, Tom: 0." He'd have to put that in his scrapbook later and remember to wipe it clean. He looked around for a moment as he started pushing the food into his hole, suddenly realizing something was out of place, where was Tom? Usually he'd be all over the place trying to stop Jerry's little shopping trip, has he given up? No, that would be way too easy, he's probably off plotting something. Maybe he's going to try to build the better mousetrap again? He certainly wouldn't be dumb enough to try and make poison again...would he? Nah, not after what happened last time. Puting thoughts of Tom out of his mind, Jerry tossed the last of his food into his mouse hole and went in for a well-deserved rest and feeding frenzy. Down in the basement, Tom is working hard over a tub full of assorted chemicals and liquids, wearing a gas mask to avoid inhaling anything nasty. He grins as he stirs his creation, snickering gleefully at what he's cooked up. How could he have been so dumb in the past? If Jerry couldn't get into his mouse hole, then he couldn't escape, it's brilliant! He'd have to be careful though, remembering his last experiment with trying to slip anything to the mouse, his fur bristling at the thought of the mouse-hulk who gave him such a sound thrashing, and of the invisible mouse from some vanishing cream, along with that goofy duck. This time he'd be more careful, this time he'll make sure to test his mix throughly, and make sure not to leave such a thing where someone could just use it, it could make his life a lot more difficult if it fell into the wrong hands. "Or paws," he thought as Spike lumbered past the slightly uncovered basement window, the muscular dog making his usual patrol with his son, Tyke. Tom shook his head as he removed his stirring stick from the tub and inserted an eye dropper, taking a small amount and dripping it into a captive bird's mouth he'd caught to have for lunch, had things not turned sour earlier. The bird licked it's beak and chirped happily, now slightly relieved since it figured this meant that mealtime was canceled, but soon enough it's chirps turned to high-pitched squeaking. The bird looked confused for a moment as it's feathers almost melted into a shiny, transparent skin, it's body becoming light and hollow, though no less alive. The poor bird squeaked as it struggled while it's body started to expand, it's paniced breathing taking more and more air into it's body, breaking the string that held it immobile until it was an almost perfect sphere, lacking a place for the air to escape it simply wriggled on the table while Tom laughed in a sinister way. "I've got you this time, Jerry, there's no escaping me now, but how do I get you to drink it...," Tom thought to himself, taking the balloon-bird and tossing it to himself as he thought. "I've got it!", Tom thought, "I'll bottle it and stick it in the fridge! That moron will think it's just some fruit juice or something that I got for later, he'll never suspect a thing." As he realized his fool-proof plan, he accidentally squeezed the balloon-bird, his claws puncturing the poor thing's latex skin, causing it to explode in a loud *POP*, leaving little but scraps. Tom looked at what he'd done and grinned even wider, his ears curving to look like horns as he rubbed his paws together evilly as he started off to get some empty soda bottles from the garbage. Jerry, in the meantime, relaxed in his mouse hole, tapping his paw to a little music while he had his post-pantry-raid snack of a block of cheese. After he finished his snack he looked around his hole. Everything seemed ok, plenty of food stored for later, everything was neat and organized, but something was missing. He snapped his fingers and looked in the direction of his door "That darn Tom must be up to something again, I havn't heard any noise from him in way too long," Jerry thought, "Usually he's got his hand in here trying to get me by now. I better go find out what he's doing..." So Jerry started off in the direction of some of his emergency exits, deciding to go to the kitchen first, since he'd forgotten go get himself some soda to wash down his cheese. As Jerry pushed aside the outlet cover he noticed Tom puting some bottles filled with pink liquid into the fridge. Jerry grinned to himself, but his grin faded almost immediately as Tom suddenly noticed him. While Tom was busy sticking the ballooning potion in the fridge, he noticed Jerry peeking out of one of his hiding places. Normally he'd have made a grab for the mouse, but he'd prepared for something like this to happen and instead started waving a little white flag. When Jerry saw the flag he stepped out of the outlet hole, leaving it open in case he needed to escape, staring at Tom suspiciously. He'd half-expected the cat to try and catch him under a glass, or stuff him into one of the bottles, but instead one of the bottles was offered to him. Tom smiled innocently, the usual halo appearing over his head, which made Jerry even more suspicious, but he couldn't turn down free soda! He took the bottle, which was about twice his size, and climbed to the top of it, taking a good, long sniff. It smelled alright, like a slightly sour fruit punch, kind of like someone'd made it primarily from pink lemonade. He looked around for a moment before Tom, still acting nice, added a straw to the bottle, taking one himself to keep up the ruse. Jerry smiled a little, seeing that Tom was going to take a drink as well and started sucking on the straw, rapidly draining the bottle dispite his size. Tom watched with a devious grin, never letting the potion touch his lips while Jerry drank to his doom. As Jerry finished he noticed a slightly odd aftertaste, sort of...rubbery. He shrugged and gave a little salute to Tom before starting back for his hole, but before the cat's eyes Jerry's fur started getting shinier. Jerry stopped in his tracks when he noticed that he felt awfully light, dispite the soda he drank, and the aftertaste wasn't going away. He looked down at his belly, expecting to see it rounded out, what he didn't expect was to be able to look right through it! His fur and skin had turn transparent, and the oddest thing of all was there was a tiny nozzle where his bellybutton should be, like on a basketball. Tom smirked to himself as he saw this and made a grab for Jerry, who tried to run but couldn't move! His latex paws couldn't get any traction on the well-waxed counter! Unfortunately, before Tom could get ahold of Jerry, the back door swung open, startling Tom but giving Jerry a chance to escape, jumping down onto the ground and skating to the living room where he could hide. Tom cursed silently as Spike and Tyke entered the room, Spike chuckling to himself as he finished his lecture to his son, "And THAT, son, is why cats hate mice, and why mice are friends with dogs! Now, how about a drink?" Tom looked around for a moment for a place to escape with his potion, but then got an idea. If the dogs drank the potion, then he could just get rid of them right along with Jerry! As he stood contemplating the idea, Spike walked up to him with an evil grin and suddenly started barking loudly right in Tom's ear, causing the poor cat to jump a foot in the air, and send the bottle he was holding flying, though it was a short flight as the bottle dropped right into Tom's throat, causing an interesting-looking bulge in his neck. While he stood, trying his hardest not to swallow, Spike slapped his back "Don't just stand there, ya stupid cat, swallow that and get running so m'boy here can chase ya!" The potion momentarily forgotten about, Tom swallows the entire bottle with a wet splash and takes off outside, Tyke following at a slightly slow pace, yapping loudly. Tom ran himself right up a tree to hide from the miniature mutt, suddenly realizing what had happened. He gave a small gulp and looked down at his tail just in time to see it turning to latex, creeping up his body slowly. As it reached his stomach, the bottle he'd swallowed falls down into his tail, taking his now-lighter body down to the ground. As the rubberization finishes, Tyke comes around the corner, sniffing around for Tom, but all he finds is the rubberized cat, who's too stunned to move. Tyke sniffs a couple times before taking off again, figuring it was just a pool toy or something. Tom sighs a little in relief as he realizes he was alright, alright being a relative term at this point, getting himself up and dusting off. He looks around and spies a bicycle pump lying on the ground, grinning as he walks over to grab it, oddly able to lift it. "Now this is strange," Tom thinks to himself as he heads inside, "Why would I be weighed down by a little bottle, but I can lift this thing easily? Maybe it's got something to do with my insides all being air while my outside still thinks there's muscle...Oh well, if it works, it works!" A rocket scientist, he ain't, but Tom soon finds himself back in the living room, Spike nowhere to be found, probably out watching his kid go in circles or something, but that's not really his concern now. Jerry sits hiding under a chair, debating on making a break for his hole. He reaches his decicion right as Tom enters. Jerry wastes no time in making a sneaky dash along the wall for his hole, but it's not easy to be sneaky when you squeak every time you move. Tom may not be the brightest crayon in the box, but he knows what a rubber mouce sounds like, and throws the pump like a javelin, and just as cartoon physics would dictate, it lands right on Jerry's tail just as he's in diving distance of his hole. Tom grins and squeaks loudly, surprising himself a little as he'd intended to let loose a yelp of joy, but shakes his head and goes over to play with his catch. Jerry looks on in horror as Tom snatches him up and holds him by the tail, his other paw grabbing for the end of the pump's hose, which has a small attachment to fit Jerry's new air port. The little mouse shudders a bit as the cold metal is inserted into his belly, it didn't really hurt, if anything it felt remarkably good. He didn't have much time to enjoy it, though, as Tom had set him down and started pumping madly! With each pump Jerry got larger, filled with more and more air, but what Tom dosen't notice is Jerry is increasing in size overall, not just in the belly. Jerry, on the other hand, does notice, but of course dosen't make any move to stop it. He just smiles as he gains height up to three feet...four feet...five feet...seven feet...ultimately eight feet before he starts to feel a little tight in the skin, pulling the pump hose out. Tom, being the mad cat he is, is too busy pumping like crazy, hoping to hear a loud explosion any time now. Jerry taps him on the shoulder but he just brushes it off and keeps pumping, though he certainly stops when Jerry cracks him over the head with his fist, causing Tom's body to get flattened to the floor, then immediately spring back up. Tom looks up at the giant mouse and looks to the right at the readers, pointing at his head and Jerry and making crying sounds. While he's doing this, Jerry removes the attachment from the hose and stuffs it in Tom's mouth, taking the other end of the hose off the pump and starting to blow into it! Tom's belly expands outwards, his back doing the same thing, he couldn't understand why it was he was growing like this but Jerry had become Mega-Mouse. As his torso became a ball it hit him, he'd used the port on Jerry's belly, which inflated him 'properly', while he was just getting a gut full of air! His belly continues to expand, starting to take his arms and legs while Jerry shrunk slightly, losing air to Tom. Jerry had managed to figure out how to control his air, the feeling of being inflated giving him some knowledge of his body, knowledge he's using to get back at Tom for making him like this. Tom's belly grows until all that's left of the rest of him is his head and tail, which Jerry decides to leave there and pulls out the hose. Tom sits on the ground, helpless to the giant-size Jerry, who had shrunk to about five-and-a-half feet tall with a gloating look of triumph. He looked at Tom quietly for a moment before looking around the house, deciding to roll Tom over to an empty corner. He knew eventually Tom would figure out how to deflate himself to a reasonable size, maybe even how to inflate himself properly without a pump, but by then Jerry would know a lot more, and until that time, he had run of the house! Jerry went to the kitchen and made a couple of sandwhiches, though they didn't seem that appitizing to him, at least not before he'd given them a dose of the potion. He took the rubberized sandwhiches out to the living room and actually sat on Tom, using him as a chair. He held up one of the sandwhiches to Tom's mouth, who turned his head away, but then caved and ate it, the two looking content to sit and eat for the time being. Tom would have his revenge someday, but for now, this wasn't so bad. Back in the kitchen, Spike grabbed a couple bottles of the potion and took them outside to Tyke, sitting back by his doghouse. "Well son, we may have lost that cat, but at least we can still have our drinks!" To be continued...? -~Questions and constructive comments can go to Jsuelieta@gmail.com. Tom, Jerry, Spike and Tyke are all copyright Turner Entertainment, I don't pretend to own them and never will. This story, however, is copyright to me. Please don't use without permission. This is my first story attempt and I'm welcoming all suggestions~-