Ill-Gotten Gains, Part 2

Mr. Wolf is addicted to getting bigger, but with his unchecked growth, is there any room left for the original heist?

Thanks for supporting us for another month, everyone! Enjoy, and look forward to our next cycle in a few days.

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"How do we not have anything bigger than this?" Mr. Wolf growled, gritting his teeth. He was sprawled out on the parking lot of the convention center where the Mr. Galaxy competition was being held. The other members of the Bad Guys gang- Shark, Piranha, Snake, and Tarantula- were all shifting nervous glances between each other as Wolf was bench pressing their getaway van.

It was all part of a plan the others were starting to fear was getting out of hand- Wolf was usually their cool, level-headed point man and unofficial leader. Now, it was like trying to reason with a bull seeing red. Through the use of a few not fully legal substances, Wolf had grown gigantic, easily one of the biggest animals competing in the Mr. Galaxy competition, and was definitely outpacing practically every human competitor. He was a towering monument of beastly muscle, limbs roped thick with powerful, stone-like mass, his chest wide and deep, the crest of his pecs nearly edging out past his muzzle; every part of his frame was burgeoning with solid muscle.

It was supposed to be a simple plan: Wolf would win the bodybuilding competition, Shark would disguise himself as a judge to make sure all of Wolf's tests for illegal substances came back negative, and they would make off with a four hundred pound trophy of solid gold. If they could pull it off, it would be a pay day worth over eleven million dollars- the rest of the gang just needed to make sure Wolf didn't go nuts. So far, he had been using their main vehicle as a weight for bench presses.

Shark glanced nervously between Wolf and Mr. Piranha, who was eyeing Wolf's form. "Jeez- and he's demanding a second dose?" Piranha shook his head. "Yeah, you gotta go talk to him, Shark."

"W-what? Why me?" Shark hissed.

"Because you've known him a long time, you're on good terms with everyone- and," Piranha smacked the shark's rear. "You've got the most padding. If he decks you in the face, it won't be so bad."

"Damn light's in my eyes…" Wolf muttered. He set the van down and stomped towards the street light bearing down on their parking space. Grabbing the pole in his thick hands, he tensed his powerful arms, biceps inflating, anvil-like triceps billowing, and thick veins poking through his sleek fur. He twisted the pole like a pretzel, directing the light in another direction before he flopped back on the ground, ready to continue as he grabbed the van's bumper and dragged it back over.

Shark, watching the canine's casual display of strength, choked down his nerves. "First of all," he glanced back to Piranha, "Rude. Second of all, that's easy for you to say- I say one wrong thing to him, he's gonna go Japanese whaler on my ass and turn me into an endangered species!"

"Yeah, well," Piranha shrugged, and then shoved Shark forward. "Better you than me!" He said, before darting around the corner.

Shark whimpered. "Wait, wait-!" He stumbled forward, nearly tripping over Wolf. The massive canine stopped, glancing up at Shark as he hold the van overhead.

"Shark?" Wolf grunted between reps, his voice sinking deeper the larger he got. "'Sup?"

"Oh, uh- y'know," Shark hugged himself, forcing a wide smile. "Just wanna check up on my- uhm- best bud, see how you're feeling."

"'m great," Wolf huffed. He set the van down and rolled over, giving a view of his sprawling landmass of a back. Hefting himself up, he began doing one-armed pushups. After five, he frowned, and glanced up at Shark. "Hey, how much do you weigh?"

"Uh…" Shark ran a hand over his head. "About four hundred?"

Wolf nodded. "Perfect. Sit on my back."

Shark blinked. "What? Wolf, we've been friends a long time, but I dunno if I feel-"

The canine rolled his eyes. "Not like that, man. I need extra weight to get my pump on. Gym's closed, and since apparently stealing the equipment would be 'drawing too much attention,' I need something else. On my back."

"Right- yeah, sure, no problem." Shark said quickly, clambering onto Wolf's back. He squirmed a bit- between all the swells of muscle running down his spine and flaring out along his lats, it was hard to get comfortable.

"Sit still." Wolf growled.

"Right!" Shark squeaked, just grabbing a hold of as much beastly muscle as he could. "Sorry, sir."

Wolf began his reps, occasionally switching hands. "So…" Shark finally said. "How many do you wanna do?"

"My max is one fifty. Gonna go for two hundred," Wolf replied.

"Right, right, good…" the formerly biggest member of the Bad Guys gang was fighting the urge to leap off. Just the feeling of all those rock hard muscle rippling beneath him, that raw power hefting him up like he was nothing, was giving rise to a number of emotions he wasn't quite ready to deal with. "S-so… uh. You doing good?"

"Y'already asked that."

"Right, right. So- hey, we were thinking, uhm. Maybe we can go for something else, besides the trophy. I heard there's a new museum display with lots of fancy gold…"

"Why'd we want to do that?" Wolf snapped. "Trophy's gonna be good as mine. I'm going to win this thing."

"But, y'know, it's not a guarantee… a-and I mean, it's drawing a lot of attention to you, and we're devoting a lot of time to this one job, it just seems like this might not be worth it, a-and- I'm sliding off-" Shark slipped off Wolf's back as the hulking back abruptly stood up. Forcibly, Shark was pulled to his feet, Wolf holding him up with one hand effortlessly.

"Shark. Let's get something straight, here," Wolf snarled. "We're staying on this job. I'm going to win. We're going to get that trophy, and you're gonna stick to your disguise, and like it."

"B-but, uhm… we just were curious if you had a good reason, is all," Shark offered lamely.

"We're doing it because I'm the biggest," Wolf growled, pumping his free arm, his bicep blooming and rising up dramatically, swelling to the size of a basketball. "Because I'm the strongest, and because I want to win." He set Shark down, folding his thickly roped arms, his biceps jostling his pumped pecs. "That good enough?"

"O-oh, yeah, yeah, perfect, ironclad, sounds great, just wanted to make sure you were on board- I for one am excited for you, and excited to be a part of this plan," Shark spat out, tripping over his words.

Wolf nodded curtly, then lumbered off. "'m gonna grab my stuff from the dressing room, then we're outta here."

Shark put as much distance between him and Wolf as possible, rushing back to the others. Mr. Snake, Mr. Piranha, and Ms. Tarantula were all waiting impatiently by a bus station at the end of the parking lot. "Okay y'all, Wolf's lost his damn mind."

"So what do we do?" Tarantula asked. "He's already set for a second dose. What do we do when he gets even bigger and what, turns into the Hulk's hairy cousin?"

"We could ditch him," Snake said. The rest of the crew turned on him, scowling. "What? He didn't stick any of you all in a vent to steal some stupid protein powder."

"Look, we're the Bad Guys, but we stick together," Tarantula said. "Wolf would stick with us if something went wrong. So how can we get this job done and get him back to the senses, without him squashing us like bugs?"

"So, we're all agreed he's ready to snap, right?" Piranha asked, and the rest of the party nodded. "What if we point him in another direction to go off? Hear me out- he's gotten super competitive. He's ready to get even bigger. Once he's freakishly huge, we'll tell him one of the other bodybuilders talked smack, and he can freak out on them- and then we can sneak off with the trophy as he causes a distraction."

Shark crossed his arms. "How big is this distraction going to get? I mean- that's still four hundred pounds of gold we gotta get out of the convention center and into the van- wasn't the whole point that Wolf would be strong enough to carry it out without any problem?"

Mr. Snake, who had been thinking quietly, smiled deviously. "Oh, I think I can make it a big distraction. The trophy will be hauled around on a cart- we can get it to the van."

"Yo."

The rest of the Bad Guys gang nearly leapt at Wolf's deepened voice. Towering over his friends, the beastly canine arched his brow. "What're we talkin' about?"

"Just…" Tarantula looked around desperately, thinking fast. "We were worried the van wouldn't be big enough for the trophy- that's all."

Wolf's suspicion eased, and he nodded. "Oh, no worries. Once I win this thing, I'll just carry it back to base."

Shark grinned. "Right- cool, that's, heh, one less thing to worry about."

Wolf returned the grin and smacked his friend on the back, nearly toppling Mr. Shark over. "Well, c'mon," the canine grunted. "Got everything we need for that second dose. I'm gonna crush the competition."

"Y'know, I think that's just what we needed to hear," Snake quipped, winking at some of the others as they piled into the increasingly cramped van.

The second dose of wolfsbane and ingredients of increasing degrees of illegality went less smoothly than the first- it had gone much like the first. Wolf was given the dosage, locked in a safe with enough red meat to feed an army, and he was given time to gorge, grow, and burn off all his energy until he was back in his right mind. Just as before, the rest of the Bad Guys listened intently as the heard Wolf thrashing and tearing apart meat; but then the floor began to shake. Snake had to dodge as part of the ceiling plaster started cracking, and Shark braced himself as the massive metal door began to groan. Part of the metal suddenly bowed out- as if something had punched it. Then, the door was blown off its hinges, and the Bad Guys only got a glimpse of a leg as thick as a redwood, followed by an earth-shaking stomp. The dust cleared, and they only saw a wall of sheer, bloated muscle- Wolf's face didn't even come into view until he hunched down, pressing his sheer wall of pectoral muscle. Massive, boulder biceps jostled his chest as thick, powerful fingers wrapped around the metal doorframe and pushed them further apart, forcing through his sprawling mountain range of shoulders and burgeoning, heaving flanks. The floor cracked with his heavy footfalls, and his ears pressed flat against the ceiling; Wolf had outgrown his clothes again, giving plenty of evidence that his virility also benefited from the growth.

"Oooh yeah," Wolf groaned, his voice deep and gravelly. "That's more like it!" He curled his arm, his massive, anvil-sized tricep tightening as his bicep inflated large enough his curled fingers were digging into the crest of it. "I'm gonna own this competition by the time I'm done!"

Mr. Wolf was drawing every eye the day of the competition. People could hear him before they saw him- a hearty, bassy howl followed by his ham-sized fist thumping his gigantic chest, and the crack of concrete and slam of his heavy footfalls. Somehow, the Bad Guys had found a pair of golden posing trunks to encase his girth, but was still stretched thin over his swollen adonis belt and the chiseled, shapely spheres of his glutes. He smiled toothily, brimming with supreme confidence. He- and pretty much his entire competition- already knew who the newly crowned Mr. Galaxy was.

The rest of the Bad Guys, however, were already getting to work. Snake and Tarantula were keeping a close eye on the solid gold trophy, Shark was on standby to grab the cart and drag it out, and piranha was on Wolf duty- jogging to keep up with the canine's massive, lumbering strides, and looking for just the right trigger to set Wolf on a rampage. He finally saw his chance- a massive Rhino, his body sculpted like he was made of solid granite, he was the only one that came close to Wolf's size- and his only real competition, depending on how much the judges could be swayed by form and shape over sheer mass and raw strength.

Piranha had known Wolf the longest out of all the Bad Guys, and knew just how to play his old friend. He glanced back at the rhino. "Oh- wow, what a dick," he murmured, just loud enough for Wolf to hear.

"Huh?" Wolf grunted.

"Hm? Oh, nothing, don't worry about it, bud," Mr. Piranha replied.

"What? You just called someone a dick, who?"

"It's really nothing, you shouldn't lose your concentration."

"Piranha. Tell me."

The diminutive Bad Guy sighed. "Look, don't get upset. But I heard that rhino over there."

Wolf furrowed his brow, already glaring at the competition. "What about him?"

"Eh, I heard him say something about calling you fat… and your mom sleeping with the judges." Piranha hid his smirk; Wolf's mother was a weak spot, always.

Wolf was already bearing his fangs as he stomped towards the rhino, the other bodybuilders slowly backing away at his approach. "Hey, conehead! You got something to say to me? Say it to my face!" He shoved his massive chest against the rhino, like a tidal wave of mass slamming into him- Wolf stood a head taller than him, and smirked as the rhino's snout was wedged into his pecs. "Heh- if you can reach, of course."

"What the hell, new blood?!" the rhino spat, pulling himself free. "You wanna start something?"

Wolf smirked, and slammed his fist against his chest, making the engorged mass ripple. "Maybe. You know what, tiny, I'll even give you first shot." He held out his gigantic arms, lats spreading out like wings. "Go on!"

The musclebound rhino snorted, and wound back his fist- he hit Mr. Wolf in his eight thick, brick-sized abs, but they barely rippled.

"Damn, what was that, Little guy? What, you trying to tickle me?" Wolf smirked. Tensing his enormous cannon of an arm, he wound back his fist like a battering ram. "My turn."

Piranha winced as the hit made impact, and the rhino went flying, straight through a wall and landing with a deafening crash. Almost instantly, the rhino was back on his feet- with muscles to spare and a leathery skin, he could bounce back from one big hit. Immediately, he charged, managing to push Wolf back several feet before the gigantic canine wrestled him to the ground- and soon, others were joining in too. Half a dozen bodybuilders tried dogpiling Wolf, but the canine still pulled himself up on his earthshaking, pillar-like legs, throwing them off with nothing more than a flex. "Alright, c'mon! I can take all of you wimps at once!"

Piranha tapped his burner phone. "Alright, that ought to do it- Shark, Snake, get the trophy out of here!"

"What about Wolf?" Tarantula asked.

Piranha glanced back as Wolf let out a primal roar, smacking down a burly bear so hard he left a crater in the marble floor. "Eh… he'll be fine."

The Bad Guys gang made off with the Mr. Galaxy trophy as only the best thieves could, dragging it into their hideout by the afternoon. All the news was buzzing with the massive brawl at the bodybuilding contest, and they just needed to wait. Soon, Tarantula got the call.

"Uh-huh. Yeah. So, got it all out of your system? Good. Yeah, don't worry- we'll be right over." The spider hung up before looking at her partners. "He's cooled off- thanks to that giant hunk over there," she gestured to the trophy. "We can get our giant hunk on bail."

They reached the county jail soon after, though with a bit of apprehension- none of the Bad Guys knew how to deal with police not trying to actively arrest them, but finally found a long-suffering desk sergeant able to walk them through the bail process.

"Just to confirm, this your friend?" the officer asked, sliding a mugshot to Shark. The others peeked over his shoulder, a mixture of groans and stifled chuckles. Wolf was practically posing, smirking toothily as he wore nothing besides his tight speedo and was casually puffing up his chest.

"Yeah, that… that's definitely him."

"We had to put him in the impound lot with some of the braces we use for cars," the officer explained. "He couldn't fit in any of the holding cells- and kept bending the bars. He was brought in for three charges of disorderly conduct, inciting a brawl, quarter of a million dollars of property damage, and one charge of indecent exposure."

Shark whistled low, and Tarantula shook her head. "Yes… Thank you, officer. Won't happen again."

Soon, Wolf was squeezed out of the police station. He still dwarfed the rest of his crew, but smiled warmly on seeing them. He managed to scoop all of them up, mashing the whole crew against his immense chest, biceps like boulders pressed up against their backs. "Aw, am I glad to see you guys!"

"I-it might be the last time if you don't put us down!" Snake wheezed.

"Right! Right, sorry." Wolf set everyone down again, hunching down to look them in the eye properly. "Look, like I said, when I go through this change, I completely lose it. I'm sorry about everything, I wasn't in my right head."

"It's all good, man," Shark said. "So… any idea when all this wears off?"

Wolf shrugged his mountainous shoulders. "No idea. I mean- it'll wear off eventually, but… maybe we can find some more unique jobs…" He curled his arm again, pumping his swollen bicep. "I kinda like putting the big in the Big Bad Wolf."