Life fell back into its usual rhythms for the guys. Spring classes, parties on weekends, and some time spent as another species if you own a chronivac or are friends with the owner of one.
It was just another school day when Tony woke with a yawn and glanced at the clock. He had another ten minutes before he had to get up. That was good because, he glanced under the sheets, this morning's erection would take at least that long to dissipate. Ten minutes passed in hazy semi-consciousness. Tony tried to review everything that was expected to go on in his classes that day. This served the dual purpose of getting him ready for the day and being a suitably dull subject to help speed his penis back to flaccid size.
Finally, he climbed out of bed and went to the dresser to get a pair of boxers. He had to have some coverage during hte short trip from his door to the bathroom door. Tony pulled a pair of white boxers from the battered dresser his mother had bought for a dollar at a yard sale but didn't even bother to put them on. He just held them against his left hip to block the view of anyone looking up the stairway and went out into the hall. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Mark's covers bundled in a line. Reed thin Mark must be under there somewhere. So, he figured the bathroom was his. He pulled the door open and pushed it shut with practiced grace, tossed his boxers atop the towel rack and took his penis in his left hand. He was a split second from starting a long, satisfying piss when Mark snapped "Hey!"
As shocked as he was to find his little brother there already on the bowl and to have almost pissed on him, the most shocking thing was that his little brother was not . . little. Mark sat on the toilet obscuring all but the base of it between his feet from view. He was not a reed thin 118 pounds. He had rolls of fat everywhere, 3 chins, sausage link fingers, gynecomastia, even rolls of fat at his ankles and wrists. Tony stared at him in shock. Mark had to weigh almost 300 pounds. What the hell was going on?
"Are you gonna stand there threatening to piss on me or will you help me up?"
"Um . . sure. Sorry" Tony stammered and offered a hand to his brother who could barely lift his giant ass from the seat without help. Now that he stood next to him, Tony could see that he was still 5'8" tall. But . . ? He tried to recall last night. Mark had gotten back fairly late from his ballet class but Tony hadn't seen him. He finished reading The Myth of Sisyphus and went to bed without ever actually seeing Mark. When did this happen?
"Um, Mark . . about your weight. I . . "
"I know" said Mark, all chipper "I've lost 10 pounds in the last two weeks. Back under 3 bills for the first time in six months!" he said and offered his hand for a high five.
Tony just stood there with his mouth open. "But Mark. You weighed one eighteen yesterday"
Now Mark was the one with his mouth open and staring. "Wh-what the hell are you talking about? This is hard enough for me without my brother, the ultimate pretty boy, giving me shit, too. I thought you were going to encourage me. It's bad enough the way Mom and Dad are to me but you've always helped. How 'bout congratulations for me getting down to 297? Just cuz I'll never look like you" he said giving a slap to the arc of Tony's rock hard ass, "doesn't mean you can't support me!" Mark was near tears as he wrapped a towel around himself and stormed off to his room.
Tony's mind whirled with the possibilities. This had to be a chronivac thing. They must have set it so that poor Mark didn't remember how he used to be. Fucking Jeff or Eric! Tony let out a long sigh. As long as he's like this, I've got to help him. He's still Mark.
Tony pulled on his shorts and ran into Mark's room. He put his arms around his suddenly elephantine brother's shoulders, apologized and assured him over and over that he would support him. When Mark seemed to have relaxed, Tony left and took a shower. All the while he lathered and scrubbed, he tried to figure whether it had been Jeff or Eric. He couldn't decide but resolved to beat the crap out of whichever it had been. There weren't supposed to be any transformations against the will of the subject. No way did Mark want this. Hell, Mark loved being the skinny ass that he was.
Tony dressed and went downstairs. Mark was on his fourth bowl of cereal, happily munching away, until he saw the look on Tony's face and he quickly switched to a contrite dieter's expression. He let out a tremendous burp as he dropped his head somberly, ruining the effect. Tony just sighed and grabbed the orange juice container from the fridge and took two long gulps.
"You're not drinking from the container, again, are you, Tony!?" came his mother's shout from the living room. Not at that moment rationalized Tony, having returned the container already. "No!" he shouted back and grabbed a bagel from the counter. He lifted his lipid laden brother by the collar, pulling him up out of his chair. He'd have to go with Mark all the way to the junior high to help protect him. If they were going to make it on time, they'd have to leave right away. It was nearly painful for Tony to slow to the pace of his waddling brother. Mark had a sort of teeter totter gait, leaning all his weight over whichever leg was down so that he could swing the other one around it and not have his thunderous thighs rubbing too much.
As they neared the junior high, Tony could hear other kids snickering and making remarks about how fat Mark was. He turned and looked a couple of the 13 year olds in the eyes and they gulped and shut up. With a pat on the back and a few words of encouragement, Tony left Mark and headed for the high school. He jogged the last hundred yards or so and just caught Jeff on the sidewalk in front of the main doors.
"Jeff!" he smiled furiously. "We need to talk right away!"
Jeff looked at Tony with raised eyebrows. "About what?"
Tony pulled him over to the side of the building around the corner.
"About my brother Mark!" he nearly growled from an inch away.
"What? What's yer issue, man?"
"You didn't use the chronivac for a little fun at Mark's expense?'
"What? No. I-I didn't do anything to Mark. What are you talking about?"
"You didn't boost Mark's weight up to three bills and make him think he's always been a super fatty?"
"No. I swear. Where is he now?"
"He's at junior high getting shit on for being a super lardo"
"Well, I didn't do it"
Tony, who had seemed to calm down for a minute, suddenly seemed to get even more furious. "Eric!" was all he said before running into the school. Jeff tried to catch up to him but Tony was amazingly fast. He barely slowed from a full out sprint even dodging between gaggles of kids blocking almost the entire hall. By the time Jeff got to him, Tony had Eric on the floor with his knee on Eric's chest and his hand tightening Eric's collar to the point of asphyxiation.
". . didn't you, you fat bastard? Didn't you!?"
Jeff tried to tackle Tony but, to his surprise, only bounced off a prepared Tony who'd seen him coming.
"I-I-I didn't do it" gurgled Eric
"Well, one of you did!" said Tony. Finally Jeff bearhugged Tony off of Eric. Eric declared his innocense just as consistently as Jeff had. Tony didn't believe them. One of them had to be lying. The records on the chronivac would prove one of them wrong.
"Or it'll prove us both right" said Jeff
"How can that be?" demanded Tony. "One of you has to have done it"
Still, both denied any involvement. They all agreed that the five of them, Mark and Jack, too would meet at Tony's house that night.
Tony met up with Jack that morning and told him what had happened to Mark. Jack immediately denied any involvement and Tony accepted it from Jack. But they kibitzed between themselves all day as to whether it was more likely to have been Jeff or Eric.
Finally, the school day ended and Tony ran to the junior high. He got to the entrance just as yard wide Mark was waddling out the door. Tony rushed through a crowd of other kids to be at Mark's side. "Hey buddy. How's it going?"
"okay, I guess" offered Mark.
Tony gave him a hug. "Don't worry pal. We're gonna fix everything for you. We're gonna fix everything for you"
He took Mark's books for him and helped him through the swarm of kids going to the crosswalks and to the buses. He helped his suddenly circumferentially challenged brother across the street and down a street leading away from the school. The street was still swollen with kids and a couple times a minute, another bus roared by.
Just as Tony gave Mark a push to send him down a side street shortcut, a bus roared past them just a few feet behind. Tony felt an odd tingle up his spine for a moment, but thought nothing of it and walked on behind Mark. But only for a couple steps then he tripped.
Mark looked over his shoulder and laughed "I'm stocky and you're gawky!"
"Huh? What the hell's going on?"
As Tony looked on in shock from all fours where he'd fallen, his fingers nearly doubled in length and his arms stretched so that his long sleeve shirt now barely extended past his elbows. But his longer limbs weren't keeping the same proportions. His wrist and forearms had become so small that his watch now slid easily from his hand up to his shoulder. He got to a kneeling position and then stood up just as his already slender waist and hips narrowed further, as if in a vise such that his 31 inch waist pant drop right off him, not even touched by the body within. Tony reached behind himself with his gigantic hands and felt the oddly deflated surface of his new rear. He tried to pull his pants back up without kneeling too far but couldn't. Still, it was only their falling that brought the hem anywhere near Tony's shoes which, thankfully, had expanded in direct proportion with Tony's now size 17 feet. Last of all, Tony's face and head changed shape, lengthening almost comically, like the rest of him.
Till finally, Tony's 167 pounds was stretched over a 7'5" tall frame, leaving him with a 20 inch waist, 20 inch chest and a rear end flat as a pancake. Tony had no time to marvel at his new shape. He wouldn't. He'd always been like that. He'd always been a pituitary victim. His clothes were now jeans and a t-shirt fitted to his extremely oblong body. He ambled along beside his brother, always having to take care not to trip over his giant feet. He and Mark had been cursed in different ways but they always stood by each other. The kids pointing and laughing at them on the passing buses didn't matter. They had been derided all their lives for something they had no control over. They'd get through it and be respected some day.
It was this seven foot five inch tall, 20 inch waisted Tony who answered the door when Jack rang the doorbell, bending over to stick his head out. Jeff and Eric were right behind Jack.
"What are you guys doing here?" asked Tony as his friends stared with mouths wide open at his bizarrely altered body.