The Fat Andalite
The tumble from well-renowned scientist to imprisoned, lonesome criminal was a rough one. Ardina-Eskallon-Taryal had just barely recovered from her near-death experience to find herself housed less-than-comfortably in an Andalite holding cell in the Bronx. She was a laughing stock. A bloated, unattractive laughing stock. Her criminal activities had done nothing to gain her sympathy from her captors, and nor had her condition and obsession granted the respect that she so desperately craved.
All she wanted was food! That's all she ever wanted! And for so long she'd had it. In helping to create a processor that granted Andalites the superior sense of taste, she's experienced heaven. But it was always to be her downfall. Overindulgence had not spared her once-glorious form. Her cell was barely wide enough for her gargantuan frame; a stomach that almost dragged along the ground between her hooves, swollen so bulbous that any side-step would press her to the walls either side.
That damn Nicalor… And his moronic sidekick. How could a pair of such incompetents get the better of her?! Someday, she swore, she would get her own back. If only Nicalor could have fallen for her trap, just as much as he'd fallen for her. There would have been nobody to stop her.
But her fatal mistake was her own gluttony. She underestimated his shallow nature. They had fallen so madly in love, but he could no longer bear the sight of her. What a rotten corpse, he was… Surely he could see her inner beauty. The inner beauty that she so intricately portrayed.
Alas, she was just as revolting on the inside as she was on the out. Perhaps even such dull-minded specimens as he could truly see that. Now, Ardina was facing a lifetime imprisoned, licking her wounds and breaking endless lines of treadmills.
No, she thought to herself, they can't keep me caged like some animal! I'm too smart, too cunning!
The time eventually came to shift the weighty beast. As an embarrassment to the race, the Andalites would take her back home to forever remain out of the public eye. She had made a mockery of them in front of the Humans, and that simply would not do. One evening, the officer on duty arrived to inform her.
Ardina heard hooves stomping down towards her cell, and she remained as silent as she ever did, resting back in the shadows as much as her rotund body would allow. He stopped outside of the thick steel bars and glared at her, and hand raising up to block his nose.
((There you are, Ardina-Eskallon-Taryal. Why is it that this terrible smell always seems to be coming from your cell?))
((Be quiet,)) She grumbled. ((Can't you see I'm trying to sleep?))
((Why should we let you sleep? Nobody else here gets any, with your constant farting,)) He huffed. ((Maybe if you tried harder to maintain a good attitude, we'd be less inclined to make your stay so uncomfortable.))
She wasn't in the mood for yet more condescension. ((What do you want?))
He stepped back, still so offended by her stench and appearance. ((You're leaving for Andal tomorrow. Your escorts will transport you to the spaceport where they hope to find a vessel capable of taking such weight.))
((Are you calling me fat?!)) She blasted.
((No. I'm calling you a vast mountainous expanse of blubber. The difference is in scale, my dear.))
((If I weren't behind bars…)) She seethed, attempting for the thousandth time to whip her tail, which was conveniently tied to her right hind leg.
((You will be on your best behaviour tomorrow. No acting up. The pitiable escorts tasked with shifting your sorry form do not want to spend the rest of the year in therapy. I have the right mind to cover you in blankets.))
She sat back against the far wall of her cell, bouncing slightly off of her thickened tail. ((Is that all? Do I get five minutes of sleep now?))
((No,)) He huffed. ((The chief has been far too generous in offering you one last Human meal of your choosing before you leave. Personally, I don't think you deserve it, but it's not my decision. What do you want, you fat, flatulent pest?))
Ardina was highly tempted by the prospect of one last Human meal, and was about ready to blurt out a long, long list of favourites. But at the last second she stopped herself. For all the punishment she'd placed on herself physically, her mind was still somewhat untouched by her unhealthy obsessions. She knew the facility and its limits. She knew her own abilities. There was always a way out of this, and she wasn't going to leave behind any genuine attempt to grasp again at the teat of freedom.
((Very well. I would like the best Indian takeaway in town,)) She requested with her most innocent eyes. ((Something fiery. Oh! And a bottle of wine to wash it down with.))
The male officer sighed and took a mental note. ((Red or white?))
((Oh, definitely red…)) She hummed.
((Will that be all?))
((That is all.)) She replied.
As the officer scrambled hurriedly away to escape her constant stench, she finalised the plan in her head. She cackled lightly to herself, petting lovingly at her swollen gut, awaiting her last Human meal.
No… It wouldn't be her last. Of course not! This time tomorrow, she would be a free Andalite again, in search of vengeance and yet another sweet, sweet meal.
Her meal soon arrived, undeserved as it was. The officer, again with hand clasped to nose, handed over a large bag, oozing with the scent of the Bronx's best Indian food. She could smell the spice, and feel the heat in her gentle hands as the delivery was made through the steel bars. The bottle of wine followed, the cork pulled halfway out for her convenience. Oh, how ready she was to devour such a marvellous meal! She waited for the officer to scurry off again before deciding to open up the bag to the goodness held within.
She thought it out of spite that he had purchased her the hottest vindaloo on the menu. His last shot would be to cause her Human mouth to erupt into flame. However, she didn't morph Human. It would be her hooves that received the tingle of such a flaming hot recipe. She took the lids from the small tubs of food and dipped into them her hooves. Her taste was extremely limited, and that disappointed her, but she knew that it was a necessity for her plan to work.
The empty tubs were thrown aside upon completion as she hummed cheerfully to herself, the sight of freedom so near. The last step was the wine. Using petit fingers, she popped the cork from the bottle. Then, she set the bottle away to the side. With a considerable struggle, she reached back over impossible girth, and the poor, poor cork was placed conspicuously away. She went momentarily cross-eyed.
Her plan was set into motion. Now, all she had to do was wait.
Late in the evening of the next day, the escorts finally arrived to drag away the sorry state of an Andalite. The corridors were cleared of obstacles so that her bulky form could somehow squeeze through of her way to the large truck that had been hired out to transport her. Being a couple stories up in the building, the short journey would consist of a trip down the elevator at the end of the cell block.
There were three escorts altogether, and they met up outside of Ardina's cell. They gawked in horror as they set eyes upon the gorged, grotesque monster. The duty officer arrived last and spoke to them.
((Yes, this is her. Ardina-Eskallon-Taryal, the embarrassment.))
Even he noticed a difference. Ardina had ballooned somewhat, rounded out so that her hooves could just barely drag her forward. They had no idea why, and put it down to just another consequence of her gluttonous lifestyle.
The opened up her cell, and began the arduous task of squeezes her out, with many moans and groans coming of it.
((At least she doesn't smell so bad today,)) The officer muttered to the others. It's usually enough to wipe somebody out cold.))
Together they pulled and pushed, and managed to get her into the corridor. She was being somewhat cooperative, but her inability to effectively move herself in such a bloated state was proving troublesome. They considered rolling her, but she whined about how undignified it would be.
((I don't think you should worry too much about your dignity.)) One of the escorts commented.
The few other cell-dwellers would point and laugh. Sometimes at her, sometimes at the escorts. Sometimes just at the situation that they were witness to. They didn't particularly care, and the laughter went unchecked. Small obstacles were crushed as Ardina squeezed by, like a lowly unfortunate trash can swallowed by her girth as she passed by, reduced to a flattened wreck. Eventually, though, after many unsatisfied pants and yelps of frustration, they managed to drag the Andalite balloon to the end of the narrow corridor and into the foyer. It was nicely lit, with small plants dotted around and a grass floor only the officers and security were granted.
Ardina was tempted by the grass, but there was a slow ache in her stomach that had been growing since the start of the day. Her belly creaked and strained with the building pressure within her, and she knew that absorbing anything more into her overtaxed body could be disastrous for her plan. She could already feel the pressure becoming too difficult to handle. She only needed to get a little farther…
She was practically rolled to the elevator door, and one of the escorts pressed the button to call upon it. Already present, the doors slid open almost instantly. To their relief, it was just wide enough to slide her in. However, there was only enough room for one escort with her.
((Take this,)) The officer spoke to the brave volunteer, handing him the shredder that was set to stun. ((Any problems, just stun her.))
He stepped into the elevator beside Ardina, shoving himself against the aching, taut stomach to give himself enough room. Ardina groaned, and the sudden increase in pressure almost caused her to attack too early. ((Hey, watch what you're doing!)) She yelped.
The escort didn't bother to respond, an instead reached to press the button that would begin the elevator's descent. The doors slowly closed inwards, and the other escorts disappeared from view.
Now, Ardina could attack.
The escort didn't know what she was attempted when she started to strain. She clasped her hands and closed her eyes, grunting lightly. Suddenly, out flew the cork, followed by the most repulsive, ear-shattering bout of flatulence that even she had experienced.
The escort shrieked, but panic blew away all of his rational thinking, and the stench quickly reduced his to a crying, flailing wreck. He batted against her stomach, as if it would do anything else except force more out of her. Within seconds, his cries to nobody slowed and quietened. He collapsed against her side, motionless.
She took the opportunity immediately, closing her eyes and picturing the tiny image of a fly in her head. The changes began, and the enormous blob shrank down. Fat melted away, her tail shrivelled back into her huge posterior. She only had moments, but that was all she needed.
When the elevator doors slid back open, the escorts and the officer outside found only one inhabitant. He lay flat on the floor, groaning, flickering in and out of consciousness. A stray cork sat sulking beside him, as well as the tight restraint that would disable her tail. The smell hit them, and they knew just what had happened.
It was too late to act. There was the briefest glimpse of a tiny fly zooming up through a grill on the ceiling of the elevator. Ardina was escaping. She zoomed up into the blackness of the elevator shaft, flowing with the adrenalin of victory. She could just taste that wonderful freedom!
It took a while before she saw anything other than the darkness. She flew ever upwards with flickering fly wings, zipping through the air with what seemed to her like neck-breaking speed. Soon, up in the distance, she saw light shining down upon her, picked up by the complex network of the compound eyes of her morph. When she shot through the smallest of gaps, she felt what could only be the mild breeze of the outdoors, a rush of wind that indicated to her that she'd finally broken loose of her shackles. On she went, flying with tiny wings as far as she could from the building, far enough that she could find an isolated place to demorph without being spotted. A dark alleyway, somewhere. She would morph Human, a suitable disguise to take her far, far away.
But though she had her freedom, she was not satisfied. Of course, a McDonald's Happy Meal would assuage some of that emptiness, but what she wanted most of all was her revenge. It was Nicalor who had ruined her. It was time to ruin him. And, oh, would she ruin him…