“Thank you once again for the honor and privilege to earn your business!” her peppy and upbeat voice carried a hopeful tune that rang in the cozy little office room. The powder white feathered bird gave a sincere bow at the hip in the direction of the video conference screen she was just conversing with. Once the screen went blank with a beep, she raised herself and stood upright, her bouncy and airy crest feathers settling into place as bangs over half her face. Her azure blue eyes filled with unbridled optimism first, then a breath of exhaustion next.
“Whew, these meetings always take it out of me,” she mused herself as she brushed a gentle feather against her beak. She turned to her work desk: an organized cacophony of chaos between stacks of documents, folders and an assortment of markup tools, all before a computer terminal resting on standby. The bird trotted the length of the wall lined with filing cabinets to retrieve a file folder that rested atop her day’s work, her high-fashion high heels sounding gentle clicks with each step she took across the carpet floor. “But it’s more than worth it!”
The white bird clad in business attire carried a brisk pace down the halls that connected her office to the rest of the compound. She tried not to rush too urgently: her pencil skirt would allow for only so much of a pace and stride of her lengthy legs. Her midnight-grey blazer jacket was just as confining. It all made her pine for the freedom and comfort of a bunny suit. Thankfully, the elevator was free, so she was just a button press away from meeting up with her boss and hopefully closing up a busy workday.
A nice and brief elevator trip ended in a much different environment than the office-laden floor the bird just departed. Her steps now rang with harsh clicks and clacks as she traversed a smooth and sterile floor lined by clinical walls that bore no sunshine. Entire walls gave way to views of laboratory floors hosting machines, pipes and tubes containing various creatures within. The bird was familiar with the marvels of science that hid behind each door: it was her job to account for the ins and outs after all. At last she arrived at the lab bay she sought. The multi-paneled door slid open in a monstrous manner to grant the bird entry.
“Breezy, dear! Please tell me you have good news!” A posh and self-confident voice called out to the white bird as she entered the dimly lit lab. The voice belonged to another female bird of near equal figure and proportions to Breezy, except she was adorned in silver feathers and a lab coat. The silver scientist bird was brooding over a large tube apparatus that snaked upward into a larger machine that resembled a snail shell. There were other fluid filled tubes that neighbored the floor surrounding her, but the tube the silver bird was sulking over was noticeably empty.
“Oh gosh, Verra! What happened?” Breezy stepped with caution as she approached the forlorn silver bird.
“Setup for this new Replication Unit was nearly complete today when I found this tube sprung a leak!” Verra cradled her wings around the dry and empty tube that could easily hold the volume and mass of either of these bird women. The tube was rather rubbery and pliable as it fell somewhat limp in Verra’s wings. As she turned the tube about, there was a sizeable tear where the material transitioned from transparent to an opaque grey socket that attached to the floor. “There must have been a bad batch in

the latest mold press! Oh, I knew we shouldn’t have cut back on the formula measurements. Who knows how many of these tubes could burst when they’re stressed under pressure?!”
“I’m so sorry, Boss. I know you’ll find a way to make up the lost ground. You always do!” Breezy leaned down to offer Verra a consoling wing, ready to help lift the silver bird to her feet. Verra accepted Breezy’s warm gesture, brushing her wings against her coat and skirt to fluff out the wrinkles and regaining her composure.
“Thank you, my dear Breezy. As always, you’re a delight in my day.” Verra adjusted her glasses, and for a moment, a digital readout and clock flashed across her lenses. “Goodness me, it’s gotten late already. Do you have that good news for me, deary?”
“Yes! Absolutely, that’s why I rushed down here to find you!” Breezy readied the file folder in her wings, shuffling it about slightly as she prepared to present it to Verra. “I’ve got a new client lined up with big potential! They’re an agriculture resource manufacturer with some robust distribution lines.” Breezy looked up at Verra, who at the moment seemed nonplused as she contemplated her cup of tea. Breezy continued, “You see, they used to be a big player in the early days of pesticide formulas. However, recent pushes and demands for organic products has forced them to pivot to modern options.”
“Farm fields, hmm?” Verra uttered as she sipped her tea. “Cloning vegetables is hardly a challenge to my skills. I was synthesizing plant life as an undergrad,” she sniped as she returned to her tea.
“I thought they may not be worthy at first either, but like you, I did some deep research,” Breezy continued as she flipped through several pages within her prepared documents. “To properly vet them as a potential prospect, I examined their contract history and public trade records. They were approached several times by larger chemical manufacturers for lucrative partnerships: classic signs of buying out the competition. Turns out these big chem factories were floating military contracts to diversify where they produced a number of warfare poisons.”
Verra turned from conversing with her tea, captivated by this development. “And this company declined every offer?”
Breezy nodded as she closed the folder in her wings. “Yup! Every single one of them. This company goes out of their way to steer clear of any involvement with government or military entities!” Breezy bowed as she extended the paperwork to Verra reach. “Just like you like it!”
Verra deftly received the file folder and flipped it open with one wing while keeping her tea steady in the other, studying the details of Breezy’s work ever further. “You know, I may just have something to offer them after all.” Verra concluded her cursory scan of the document as she sipped the last of her tea. “Tenta, lend me a hand, dear!”
Not a moment after Verra had barked out these words, a glob of green translucent goo has slithered from the shadows of the research floor. The trailing slime from its slippery slither caught up with the main body of the blob and gathered into one spot on the floor, as if it were a small animal standing at the attention of master’s orders. A cheeky little smile formed in the creature’s body as it settled into place.
“Here, return these to my desk and meet me in Research Bay D-6 afterwards,” Verra instructed as she placed her empty tea ceramic and the file folder within grasp of the eager verdant blob. Slithering

tentacles stretched upward from Tenta’s central body to receive the items from its master, eagerly slurping them up within gooey amorphous bodice. With squishy enthusiasm, a sort of salute, Tenta swiftly slithered out of the lab bay’s door. Verra and Breezy headed the same way side by side, the door left open as a courtesy from Verra’s sluggy assistant.
The steady clicking and clacking of high heels traced the walls of the laboratory compound as Verra made her way to a new research bay with Breezy in tow. Laterally, the hallways offered little room to roam, especially as foot traffic had peaked with several green and grey creatures shuffling about from lab to lab. Each creature carried the design of various pokemon species, but was painted in a latex rubber sheen from top to bottom, liquids subtly shifting and sloshing about inside each one. It was a varitable parade of walking water balloons!
As much as Verra was tempted to pause and hug each creature that passed her by, she was laser- focused on the task at hand. In mere moments after breaking their meeting in the previous lab bay, the pair of sharply dressed birds arrived at a new lab setup, albeit one that looked very similar to the previous one. At the heart of the lab chamber rested a similar looking snail shell apparatus that nearly stretched to the ceiling above. And much like the others, a series of fluid filled tubes extended from an opened end of the snail shell and attached to the cold lab floor via rubbery grey sockets.
Breezy noted that all the featured tubes were wholly intact in this lab bay, free of any damage. No matter how many times she had seen these marvelous devices at work, Breezy could still become lost at tracing the gaze of her reflection from the green glow emanating from within the liquid concoction. She brushed her powder-ivory wing along the smooth surface of the translucent piping that rested above the bulging grey platform before her, entranced by the bubbling slurry the stirred within.
Verra, meanwhile, took to the computer terminal installed at the heart of the snail shell design. “This machine is host to a number of experimental enhancement hormones that should be applicable to our task,” Verra rattled off to a distracted Breezy. “Though for an agricultural client, I think a growth formula should seal the deal.”
“That sounds delightful!” Breezy rang her support with unabated enthusiasm.
“I’m glad you agree, dear,” Verra turned to her avian companion. “That attitude will be most useful for this next step. Oh Tenta, darling!”
Within seconds, the eager green glob had formed itself to wait at attention before Verra, ready for her next command with a sly smile.
“Initiate application protocol,” Verra ordered her gelatinous familiar with stern precision before fixing her gaze back to Breezy. “Subject: Breezy.”
“I’m sorry wha-?” before Breezy could breathe another word, her entire figure was encased in slithering green tentacles. In mere moments, every inch of her body was surrounded by Tenta’s gooey embrace from head to toe. Breezy’s body was overcome by a natural impulse to fight back and struggle, but she knew Verra and Tenta meant her no harm.
Once Breezy was secure within Tenta’s gelatinous body, a single tentacle tendril sprang out from the central bodice that was Tenta’s majority. The tendril snapped with honed precision towards the nearest

test tube column, penetrating the grey rubber socket at the base as it too had turned permeable and gooey.
“Good boy, Tenta,” Verra cooed towards her slimy pet. “Remain calm, Breezy dear. You may experience a series of tingles and sensations from this formula.”
Spurts of liquid volume pulsed from the green test tube, slithering through the connection tendril to Tenta’s slimy body surrounding Breezy. Tenta was pumping samples of the liquid from the tube to mix with its own chemistry to surround Breezy in a gelatinous chemical bath! As Verra forewarned, Breezy felt warm tingles in her body, starting at her chest and her core, then radiating out through her wings and legs. It made her feel itchy at first, but then it became soothing and relaxing!
Before long, the sensations went from warm and soothing to cold and chilly for Breezy. As she was overcome with the shifting sensations, her entire body began to steadily increase in size. In just a few seconds she had already grown a couple feet taller! She peered down towards Verra as she continued to sprout taller. Breezy has always wondered what it would be like to look down on her boss.
More and more moments passed as Breezy continued to grow larger and taller, maintaining her usual proportions all throughout. Tenta continues to pump more and more of the liquid chemicals from the tube, however his grips on the ivory bird was slipping loose. Breezy’s ever-increasing volume was overwhelming the gooey blob’s ability to maintain a grip! She grew and grew until.
SPLORTCH!
Tenta became a splattered mess of green goo strewn about the lab floor, even managing to splatter a bit on Verra who continued to monitor the progress unperturbed. Breezy continued to grow ever larger, despite the line of chemicals having stopped since Tenta’s splattering. Breezy tried to steady herself: she had now grown taller than the entire snail shell structure at the center of the lab!
Breezy’s head was beginning the press against the ceiling above her when the growth finally slowed to a stop. She was easily at least 30 feet tall now, if not taller! Her wings and feathers were wider than sails from a boat, yet still pillowy and silky soft to the touch. Regaining her sense of space and position, Breezy peered down to see Verra as a tiny figure standing at her feet. Tenta had managed to recollect itself into a single blob, even the mess that had coated Verra was back into the collective mass.
Breezy breathed a sigh of relief. “Are you okay, Verra?” Breezy’s voice had deepened considerably thanks to her enlarged scale, yet it still carried the familiar tune of her cheery cadence.
“More than okay, darling!” Verra shouted in reply. Tenta also waved various jiggles in silent approval of the successful experiment. “Thank goodness the formula worked on your clothing as well! You’ll need to look sharp for our new client!”
Breezy gave a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of her fluffy head with a tired wing. “Y-yes ma’am.” Just when Breezy thought her work day was winding down, it was looking to get busy all over again.


A (not so) small gift art for  TheLoneCrow, featuring his characters Breezy, Verra, and Tenta! And he was also able to help write a story for this piece, and I absolutely love it! Thank you so much for allowing me to do this! I had so much fun with it!

Art © Me
Characters/Story ©  TheLoneCrow