Prank viruses are common among the Scum Faction, so when Thomas finds himself infected by a fattening virus, he assumes it would be an easy fix. However, it soon balloons out of control, and when Thomas actually starts to like its effects, he ends up reaching sizes even the virus's programmer couldn't foresee...

A story I wrote using  Icefyer's character. I put it off for a while since I kind of got burned out from writing, but it's finished now. I tried experimenting with my writing a bit, as this story is a lot shorter than my usual ones, and I think it turned out alright.

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At a futuristic restaurant on Mars, a rat-like creature was tapping away at his keyboard, tidying up the code of his latest virus. Like most of his peers in the Scum faction, he was notorious for causing ruckus in his city, though his methods were a bit on the obscure side…

“Hey Ray, what’s up?” called out his friend, who took a seat at the other end of the table. With a loud tap, Ray typed the final character of the virus he’d been working on all week. He clicked the compile button, hoping he didn’t make any errors. When the console output read “COMPILE SUCCESSFUL”, he sighed with relief, forming a mischievous grin.

“I’ve just finished programming my latest virus,” Ray replied confidently. “I have a good feeling about this one, Trent.”

Trent rolled his eyes. “You say that about every virus, but all they end up doing is fattening your victims around fifty pounds at most… What’s your obsession with fattening viruses, anyhow? Aren’t there more dangerous viruses you could program?”

“Sure, but I’m not looking to hurt anyone. I’d just like to see a few more butterballs around here. A little fat never killed anyone. Now, to choose my victim...” He looked out the restaurant window, watching as species of all kinds walked past. His eyes widened upon noticing a scurrier not unlike himself, with a green body, purple highlights, and a robotic backpack strapped to his back.

Trent, watching his friend’s line of sight, sighed. “You’re not thinking about targeting that guy, right? He’s a tech engineer!”

Ray smirked. “Exactly.” With a few taps on his keyboard, he uploaded the virus wirelessly from his laptop to the passing scurrier. “I’ve designed this virus to be especially punishing when anyone tries to tinker with it. If all goes to plan, this city should have its own scurrier whale by the end of the night.”

~

Thomas whistled as he made his way to work. He punched in his work pin at the door, lifting his head to allow the security camera to scan it. The door dinged and unlocked itself, allowing him to continue towards his office.

“Good morning, Thomas.” called out his coworker.

Thomas smiled. “Good morning to you-” Suddenly, he felt a light but noticeable pain in his stomach, as if someone kneaded it.

“Bad food?” his coworker joked.

Thomas didn’t remember eating anything other than rations, certainly nothing that would make him sick. “I guess,” he responded meekly, picking up his pace as he went to his office. It probably wasn’t anything to worry about anyway.

Thomas jumped to his office chair, unlocking his computer with his thumbprint. He opened up the code he started on yesterday; his company was working on updating the security system of some of the local ships. While working, he heard a soft hum coming from below, which only grew louder as time passed. Twenty minutes in, the noise became too loud to ignore. He looked down, stunned to find his stomach bloated and heavy. Thomas groaned; maybe he did eat something bad last night.

Thomas tried working again, using one hand to cradle his belly and the other to type code, but he could hardly get anything done. After writing only thirty lines of code in twenty minutes, he realized he wouldn’t get any meaningful work done at this rate. He left his room and popped into his boss’s office. “Hey, I think I’m going to have to take the day off. My stomach-”

His boss looked Thomas up and down with alarm. “Certainly, Thomas. Take as much time as you need.”

“U-um okay...” It was uncharacteristic of his boss to let him off so easily, especially without an excuse. When he walked outside, he looked down again, letting out a worried shriek. His stomach, once merely a small bump, stuck out like a huge cooking pot. Thomas poked it curiously and found it had it a soft, dough-like texture. This wasn’t simple gas he was bloating with; it was actual lard! He sprinted as fast as he could towards his house. Unfortunately for him, his stomach wasn’t the only thing getting bigger. Everything from his cheeks to his legs to his bubbly butt bulged out as well, which wobbled and clanged together with each step he took.

Thomas arrived home ten minutes later, collapsing on the floor in a heap of sweat. He was now fat enough to classify as obese, his stomach stretching out half a foot in front of him. He slugged his way to his bedroom, wheezing with every heavy step he took. He turned on his computer and scanned his brain, searching for any possible viruses. He soon found what appeared to be a fattening virus and began dissecting its code in search of any exploits that could eradicate it.

All the while, his body continued to bulge; his stomach grew fat enough to touch the floor, his legs became as thick as liter bottles, and his butt stretched wider than couch cushions. His fingers plumped into sausages, making it difficult for him to work on the code, though luckily he didn’t have to do too much typing.

When Thomas finished coding his counter-virus, he compiled it and transferred it to his brain, waiting for it to execute. Soon, he heard a rumbling in his stomach. He sighed, thinking this meant the end to his fattening. However, seconds later, his fattening spiked massively. His stomach quickly bulged out, filling the space beneath his desk. His limbs began to fatten and stretch out, making it impossible for him to utilize his keyboard with both hands.

Panicked, Thomas rescanned his brain, wondering what went wrong. He was stunned to find two fattening viruses inside. Instead of eliminating the virus, he ended up duplicating it. The virus must have had some anti-tampering mechanism built inside.

Thomas’s body pushed against the surrounding furniture. He was more blob than scurrier at this point, completely beached on his couch-wide rear. Weighing over a ton, he had no means of leaving his room or calling for help. His mouse was buried beneath his water bed of a stomach, and his keyboard was clenched in one of his paws; all he could do was press “enter” to re-upload the counter-virus, which would only worsen his predicament.

Thomas was helpless as he fattened out of control, breaking his bed frame and dresser as he did so. It would be a nightmare for any other scurrier, but Thomas oddly didn’t care so much anymore. He liked being large, having so much comfortable flab to lie back on. Actually, he secretly wanted to be inflated for a while, and it felt even better than he imagined. Still, he had responsibilities to attend to, and he couldn’t work if he couldn’t even lift his arm. He needed to call for help so someone could start working on a cure for him, but that was impossible while he was trapped in his home.

Thomas concocted an insane but semi-feasible plan. He wouldn’t be noticed if he was trapped in his home, but if he became fat enough to burst out of his home, he would certainly gain the attention of his neighbors, leading them to call for help for the sake of their own homes. However, at the slow pace he was growing, it would take forever for that to happen. It seemed counter-intuitive, but the fastest way to finding a cure was to actually ramp up his growth.

The last time he uploaded the code, it caused the fattening virus in his brain to multiply, so if he uploaded it again… As soon as he pressed enter, his body suddenly fwoomped outwards. His ass pounded against the back wall and his stomach obliterated the rest of his room. A quick scan of his brain confirmed his suspicions; both viruses in his brain were duplicated, meaning there were now four fattening viruses inside. His heart began to thump rapidly. He enjoyed the rush his chaotic fattening gave, feeling himself press into all corners of his room. At this rate, it’d only take minutes to burst out of his home, but he grew a sudden urge to speed up his growth even more.

Thomas pressed enter on his keyboard, doubling his growth once again. He burst out of his room, quickly spilling into the kitchen and dining room, packing on hundreds of pounds by the minute. He experienced another rush of dopamine, loving the thrill of fattening. He pressed it again, creating sixteen viruses in his brain. Seconds later, he burst out of his house, spreading onto the lawn and street. His goal was accomplished, but the green blob was still unsatisfied. He pressed it again and again and again, creating 32 viruses, 64, 128… He just couldn’t stop himself, only breaking out of his trance when he lost his grasp of his keyboard. He gulped, realizing what he just done. Twenty presses would have been enough to send over a million viruses to his brain, and he must have pressed it dozens of times… He definitely overdid it.

Thomas fwoomped at a catastrophic rate, crushing his entire block within seconds. His fat splurged out like an avalanche, tearing down buildings and structures in a blink of an eye. He did end up returning to work, only to smash it under his gut within seconds. Luckily, the town was quick to issue an emergency evacuation, ushering everyone to the nearest ship. Ray, the scurrier responsible for the fat virus, handed over the cure to the virus, but it turned out there were so many copies in Thomas’s brain that it only did a small dent to his colossal growth. The city’s engineers predicated it would take about five minutes to tweak the code so it was strong enough, but that gave Thomas enough time to blimp to even more outrageous sizes.

Thomas began spreading over the city, soon covering the entire Scum faction. He began spreading to the surrounding factions, each of them falling prey to his mountainous fat in less than a minute. He turned into a massive ocean, quickly replacing the red surface of Mars with his green lard. It wasn’t long before he outsized Mars itself, drifting away to become his own planet. Thomas felt a huge surge of pride, knowing he was bigger than the planet he once called home. His mind went ballistic, demanding to become bigger and bigger. The billions upon billions of fattening viruses were more than willing to oblige, blimping him fatter than each of the planets in the solar system one by one. He stretched thousands of miles wide, then tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands… It seemed like his growth would never stop. He no longer cared about work, or mobility, or anything; the planetary scurrier was in fatty heaven, growing for who knew how long.

Alas, the engineers of Mars finally coded a cure, hastily uploading it to Thomas’s brain. The viruses in his brain were killed all at once, stopping his growth abruptly. His final size stretched half a million miles wide, making him easily bigger than the Sun. Thomas was upset at first – he wanted to outgrow the stars, then the Milky Way itself – but then he realized he would just want to grow forever and never be content at any one size. He smiled as he looked around him, appreciating just how huge he was. He was the biggest thing in the entire solar system, certainly a worthy accomplishment on its own. Sure, the engineers of Mars might be working to undo his beautiful progress and slim him down again, but for now he relished in his impressive size. Who knows, maybe someone else might plant another fattening virus in his brain instead, making him even larger than he already was, but for now, he was happy being the fattest scurrier who ever lived.