FIZZY BACKFIRE

Because there are not any concerts planned for this day, Jake wants to chill out, so he goes to the local park. It's not too crowded today, but there still is a plenty of people there. At the park, he encounters a familiar persona sitting in the table. That purple cat - Jefferson. And he for sure is up to something. Jefferson spots the blue bird and waves at him. The blue bird approaches him.

"Hey, Jake! What's up? The last gig was amazing!" - Jefferson greets Jake and suggests to sit in the table. "Yo, Jeff! Thanks! Anyway, just decided to chill out here. We didn't get any concerts planned for today. What about you?" - Jake responds to the cat with a happy smile like usual. "Great! Say, Jake... Would you want a little competition?" - Jefferson asks with a sly smile. "Sure, what competition?" - Jake is curious. "A burping contest. You and me. I have some soda over here. Each of us has a bottle and has to chug it down completely. Then the one who lets out a bigger burp wins. How do you like that?" - Jefferson places the soda bottles on the table. "Well, sounds fun! And I get a free soda, so I'm in! So, what's the wager?" - Jake responds, all ready for the challenge. "I like your attitude! Well, how about 50 dollars?" - The purple cat suggests. "Sure, let's do it!" - Jake happily accepts the bet.

"Wait! I know you like to fool other folks. You probably got a more fizzy one, so you'll let out a more powerful burp, huh?" - Jake gets suspicious. "Nah, both sodas are fine, I guarantee!" - Jake tries to assure the bird that none of the sodas have been messed with. "Hm, how about we switch the sodas? That way I'll be sure." - Jake suggests. "Argh... Alright." - Jefferson agrees with a seemingly annoyed face and switches the sodas. But the truth is that the sodas are in fact different. The one Jake got earlier before exchanging it with Jefferson is in fact an extremely fizzy kind, just poured into the bottle after a different soda. The purple cat's plan was all along to make Jake think that Jefferson's soda is the more fizzy one, so the exchange results in Jake actually getting a less fizzy one. The chubby bird doesn't even know he just fell into a trap.

After the sodas are switches, the two proceed to prepare. Jake decides to go first. He opens his bottle and pours the entire soda down his throat in seconds. He swallows a little air and his belly bloats up slightly. And when the blue bird is ready, he fires away. Suddenly, the entire park can hear his powerful and long burp, "How was that, huh?" - Jake smiles and seems proud of himself, once again finding his chubby belly reliable. "Yeah, that was kinda impressive. But it's gonna be nothing compared to what I can!" - Jefferson seems very confident, knowing that his plan is going exactly as he wanted.

Now it's the purple cat's turn. He grabs his bottle and opens it. Drinking the entire thing with ease, Jefferson prepares to burp and... nothing happens. No matter how much he tries, he can't let out a single burp, The cat can't understand what's going on. He indeed drank the extremely fizzy soda. He tries burping again and again. No results at all. Jake sees that. - "Not fizzy enough? It seems you owe me 50 dollars, dude!". Jefferson doesn't give up though. - "Give me a few seconds!". However, nothing happens, at least for now. The purple cat wonders what's wrong.

Jake is just about to say something until he notices a certain detail... - "Um, Jefferson... Did you get fatter recently?". "What are you talking about?" - Jefferson seems confused. "I mean, your gut is rounder than the last time I've seen you. Almost as big as mine!" - Jake points out. Jefferson is still confused until he looks down. - "You're making no sense... What the...?!" - The cat notices that his belly is indeed rounder than it was. It was completely flat a while ago.

Jefferson's belly then gurgles loudly, making him quite nervous about it. Before he can say anything about it, he now sees that it's swelling up even bigger! In no time, it gets as big as a basketball, lifting his shirt up, to the degree his belly button is visible. The cat clutches his gut and helplessly tries to stop it from expanding further. Jake sees it and comes closer. - "Gee, what kind of a soda did you drink?" - The bird smiles as he figures out Jefferson meddled with the sodas. However, he isn't angry about it, actually finding the situation amusing. To playfully tease the cat, he starts drumming on his purple belly, much to Jefferson's annoyance. The cat feels both annoyed and embarrassed.

The gas buildup doesn't seem to stop anytime soon. Jefferson's gut continuously becomes bigger and rounder, getting to the size of a beach ball. "So, you messed with the sodas, huh? I guess that's one lesson not to cheat for you, my friend!" - Jake teases Jefferson and pokes his still inflating tummy. The purple cat only nods with an annoyed expression. He keeps inflating with no sign of this process ending anytime soon. The bird decides to give him a helping hand and rubs his belly. Jefferson seems to actually enjoy it, but he still can't get over a thing that he's turning into a balloon in the middle of the day in front of the public.

The cat's gut swells up so big that it's pushing against the table and he eventually falls of the chair. It gets as big as a large yoga ball, only getting bigger. He feels quite stupid in this helpless situation and has no clue what to possibly do. Jake doesn't have any either, but he's trying to come up with something. He leans against the bloated Jefferson, actually finding his ballooned up body a comfy spot. - "Hey, it's not that bad! Didn't know how comfortable it'd be to lean against you!" - He smiles while Jefferson only rolls his eyes in annoyance.

Jefferson soon realizes another thing. Since his stomach is running out of space, the gas starts to inflate his entire body, slowly making him orb-like in shape. He becomes rounder and bigger with every second. The cat puffs up further while Jake seems to be enjoying himself. People in the park keep staring at him as well. Jake playfully nuzzles Jake's belly button with his beak. He's careful with his beak though, he doesn't want to pop the unfortunate cat. He feels no grudge against Jefferson, though he still doesn't mind to tease him for playing dirty.

At some point, Jefferson's feet and hands start to balloon up too. His cheeks are also getting puffier. The blue bird then gets an idea. He pulls out one of his feathers and proceeds to tickle one of the purple cat's feet. Jefferson lets out a muffled laugh, managing to accept his defeat. He's just wondering when it's possibly gonna end, still not able to burp. But as a little time passed, he started to accept it and even enjoy it slightly. He gets to relax, eventually getting used to be in this shape.

However, he notices he stopped feeling the ground below himself. He is now so inflated that he started hovering. His limbs are sinking into his ball-like body. Jake sees that he might float away, so he grabs the cat's tail and ties it with a rope to the bench, calming him down. 
He's now a big floating orb with a head, tail, hands and feet sticking out. Jake keeps his eye on him, so he won't float away. The inflation is now slower, but Jefferson is still bloating up.

Jake then gets hungry. Luckily, there's a burger joint nearby, so he goes there for a moment. But unfortunately for Jefferson, he becomes bigger and lighter, while the rope holding his tail starts to slip off. It seems Jake didn't tie the rope tight enough. He tries to wave his arms around, but they are all sunken into his body. The rope slips off the cat's tail and he starts floating away. When Jake leaves the burger joint and sees him, he's already too high above, so the bird can just observe Jefferson flying into the sky.

At this point, the purple cat can see the entire town from above. He becomes bigger and tighter, almost about to pop. Luckily, he's stopping to inflate. While he's worried, he finds it actually relaxing to fly up in the clouds. From the ground, he looks kind of like a big, purple blimp. He can't really do anything right now, so there's only hoping that something will make him deflate enough to get back on the ground. Even the people on the ground can't see him now.

Jefferson keeps going up, not even sure how far he's from the ground. The only things surrounding him are clouds. But considering he's starting to see the stars, it seems he's almost about to leave the atmosphere. He's basically at his limit now, but thankfully for him, he stopped swelling up. Now his only worry is not to end up in space. He's now a bit scared. As far as he knows, leaving the atmosphere wouldn't end up well for him. But the only thing he can do now is depend on his luck.

As the air pressure increases, Jefferson starts to feel a weird sensation in his stomach. He gets an idea and tries to burp again. Actually... It worked! He lets out a loud burp and the air from inside of him leaves. Quite too fast though, as he's deflating like crazy, spiraling around and flies back to the ground really fast. As he's completely deflated, he face-plants on the ground, with Jake just standing next to him and munching a burger. Jefferson is completely fine, but makes a decision to be more careful with fizzy soda from now on.

THE END