“Turn your army and the Avatar over to me, and give Bataar your location. He'll present you with our terms.” So said General Kuvira, the Great Uniter, to President Raiko of Republic City. But before anything could be done in response to her demand, a great portal opened up on the field where the two armies had gathered. It was even greater in size than Kuvira's giant mech suit “Colossus”, drawing thousands of eyes to its ethereal glow. What in the world was happening? Was it a rift to the spirit world? If so, it was a bigger one than anyone had ever seen.
Everyone held their breath as the portal continued to glow, until finally something appeared from it: a giant black boot. It struck the earth with a heavy thud, sending a tremor over the two gathered armies. That massive foot was big as a house, and the leg that followed was more than a hundred feet at the knee. Then came a second giant leg, and with it the rest of this colossal being.
It was a woman, yet one who stood over twice as tall as Kuvira's mech though she moved with far more ease and elegance. The black heeled boots that everyone had seen stretched all the way up to her waist in one piece, more like a pair of leggings or a body suit than proper boots, with a zipper going all the way up the front of each leg. Her thin, white and black coat had zippers stretching over the length of its sleeves, and she wore a loose belt over her waist. But stranger than her clothing were the pair of ears atop her head; pointed, furry ears, like those of a cat. They were black, the same color as her wavy, shoulder-length hair. Her feline appearance was accentuated by the pair of bright amber eyes that swept over the land, taking in everything and everyone. Everything seemed to surprise her, especially Kuvira's mech, but certainly no less than she surprised them all.
As if one giant weren't enough, a second one stepped out of the portal right after her. It was another young woman, with long, yellow hair, wearing a pair of brown boots, khaki overalls, a small brown jacket and an orange scarf. She stopped beside her companion as the portal closed behind her and, like the first giant, she examined their surroundings curiously. “Whoa, this place is really tiny! Are those people down there? And what, is that some kind of giant robot?” she said, putting air quotes around those last two words. Her voice was like thunder in its intensity, so powerful that everyone in a thousand foot radius felt themselves vibrate along “Looks like it, Yang,” said the first giant. “In fact, I'm pretty sure we popped out right in the middle of a battle.”
“You know, when they said this place was small, I didn't think it'd be this puny!” Yang crouched over the gathered armies to look them over. As they saw her enormous figure descending towards them, both armies turned tail and started a disorderly retreat, trying to put as much distance between themselves and these women as possible.
“What are you doing? Stop running, all of you! Troops! Get in formation behind me, now!” Kuvira shouted at her army through the speakers on her suit as she turned her mech to face the giants. But even she was intimidated by their enormous size, and she made her mech take a step back before raising its energy cannon at them. She didn't want to provoke them into an attack, but if they turned violent on her, she would defend herself and her army with whatever it took. She just hoped her cannon was strong enough to damage them.
“So, were you little guys about to fight each other? Tsk-tsk! Didn't anyone ever teach you war is bad?” Yang chided them playfully. “Maybe we should teach you that lesson yourselves. What do you say, Blake? Wanna help me scare these little ants into behaving?” Blake deliberated for a moment. “Oh, alright. I suppose it wouldn't be any worse than letting them kill each other. Maybe giving them a mutual enemy will help them make peace.” She held out her hand to help Yang to her feet, and after sharing a kiss, the both of them turned their eyes on Kuvira's mech and took a step towards it.
“Halt!” Kuvira shouted, taking another step back. The energy cannon on her mech's right arm glowed bright pink with spirit energy, ready to fire on the giants. “Not one more step! This here is my land, and you two are intruding on it! This is the only chance I'll give you: go back to wherever it is that you came from, or I'll make you regret ever showing your faces around here!” Yang and Blake gave each other a sidelong glance, smiling as though they were looking at a yapping pup and not a twenty-story-tall war machine with the power to destroy entire armies.
Kuvira held her aim steady, ready to fire at a moment's notice. She thought herself prepared for whatever they might try, but when he giants moved, their speed took her completely by surprise. They were fast, the both of them, far faster than anything so immense should be. In the blink of an eye they were standing beside her, with the black-haired one delivering a kick which launched the huge mech into the air. At the apex of Kuvira's flight, the second giant punched her mech away, her fist striking it with a deafening clang.
The Colossus flew more than a thousand feet along the ground. When it hit the earth it rolled over once and then slid for hundreds more, tearing a huge gash into the ground, then it creaked and groaned and tried to move before falling perfectly still.
Yang brushed her hands. “Heh! Piece of cake! Looks like there's nothing but the little guys to take care of now. You wanna split up? I'll take one army, you the other?”
“We might as well. Just take it easy on them, okay? We're only trying to scare them,” Blake said, and went after the Republic City army. Though they'd been running for a couple minutes already, it took her only a few steps to reach them. Her massive feet came down right behind them, sinking into the earth and shaking the ground so hard that the fleeing soldiers could no longer keep their footing and fell to their knees or on their faces. From there she just needed one long stride to step in front of them all, cutting off their route back to the camps.
At the same time, Yang went after the remnants of Kuvira's army, swiftly running out in front of them. “Going somewhere, little guys?” she said, resting a hand on her hip as she towered over them. “Awfully rude of you to leave when I just got here. Should at least say hello before going off like that! But you're gonna stop running now, aren't ya?” The people closest to her stood frozen under her gaze, but the ones further away tried to scatter in every direction. “Hey! Aren't you guys listening?” They heard the giant move, and when they looked back over their shoulders, they saw something huge flying towards them. They screamed and threw themselves on the ground just as the enormous object passed over their heads to fall heavily on the ground before them. Only when it lay still did they realize that they were looking at one of the giant's boots, now stripped from her foot and lying in front of them like a big hill. The other boot followed after it, and together they cut off almost any route the soldiers could have thought to escape by.
“Have I got your attention now? Why don't you turn around and come join your friends back here, or else I'll stuff you down those boots and see how you like being my insoles.” The soldiers knew they had no choice. Meekly they went to join the others, and stood under her colossal figure while she took off her yellow, black-toed socks.
Sitting down before them, Yang then slid her feet forwards, almost catching the troops under her feet as she stopped just a couple yards away from them. Her toes were huge; the pinkies were as tall as the average Earth Empire soldier, while her big toes stood taller than any of them, and taller than any human being they had ever seen. The troops backed away uneasily while those toes splayed and wiggled. Above, Yang sighed, enjoying the cool earth under her soles and the fresh air blowing softly between her toes. “Whew! Beating that giant robot of yours got me soooo tired! I could really use a foot massage after such a loooooong battle. What do you say, little guys? Think you're up for it?” Grinning, she turned her feet sideways, showing off her vast soles to them. The Earth Empire troops didn't want anything to do with her feet, but they came forward all the same and stood together at her feet. One by one they stretched out their arms and pressed their hands to her soles. Her skin was hot and humid, and so was the air around it. Whenever the breeze stood still, it almost felt like being in a sauna.
“Hey, don't just stay at the bottom! There's so much more of my feet that you're not rubbing! Go on and climb my soles, why don't you? What? Are you scared of them or something?” Yang scrunched her feet, scaring all the little troops away from those shifting walls of flesh. As she laughed at them, though, they meekly returned and started to climb up her soles like she'd ordered. Soon her feet were practically covered in Earth Empire soldiers from top to bottom, and all of them bus rubbing her soles like their lives depended on it. “Heh! Looks like you're all quick learners! Maybe I won't have to stuff you in my boots after all!” Meanwhile, Blake had managed to make Republic City's army stop running. Over a thousand tiny souls now stood at attention for her, ready to obey her every whim so they wouldn't be crushed under her. “There, that's better. You're all such cute little things, aren't you? It's too bad you were all ready to go to war. But that's what we're here to fix, isn't it?” Some soldiers tried explaining to her that they had only been trying to defend themselves from Kuvira's attack, but their voices never reached her feline ears. Either that, or Blake pretended not to hear so she would still have an excuse to play with those little people. “All of you gather up. That's right, get real close together, just like that. Perfect!” They all stood in a little circle now, about a hundred feet across, or just one foot from Blake's perspective. “Now, stay still for me. This might be a little scary at first, but it probably shouldn't hurt, I think.” Blake's words weren't the least bit encouraging, but the troops didn't dare run yet. Going along with what she said might be bad, but disobeying her was definitely bad. All of them stood still and watched as she turned around and then peered back over her shoulder. As if her words hadn't been scary enough, there was something really disturbing about the way she looked at them. Even so, they didn't want to believe she would hurt them, not until she started crouching down. When they saw her enormous but descending towards them, there could no longer be any doubt what she had in mind. The army scattered, everyone pushing at each other to get out of the way, with people tripping over each other and being trampled by their companions. When Blake was fully crouched, she looked at them one last time and then moved back, falling right in the middle of the frightened swarm.
Some people managed to get away in time, but many more were caught by that earth-shaking impact, flattened at once under her butt. Most of them instantly crushed alive, but a few survived, suffering under her incredible weight. When Blake laughed and wiggled her butt, still more of them were crushed, and their bodies ground into the earth. “How are you holding up down there? Did it hurt?” she asked while a dozen survivors struggled for their lives around the edges of her cheeks. She really hadn't expected them to die so easily, and she was disappointed and a bit guilty when she moved her butt and saw what had become of them, but she shrugged it off. “Guess that'll teach you not to go to war,” she said, and wiped of her butt before going after the survivors, all of which were running for Republic City again.
Her boot fell in front of the main group, knocking them off their feet. She told them to stay still, but they didn't trust her anymore after what happened to their companions. Instead they ran around her foot, with some of them throwing streams of fire at her boot as they went. Blake was interested to see that they were creating the fire by themselves.
Other troops splashed water at her boots and froze it, as if that might keep her stuck to the ground, while still others raised platforms of earth, each holding a small number of troops, which then went sliding along the ground away from her. A fourth type of soldier took to the air, usually by themselves but sometimes carrying someone else with them. It all amused her enough that for a while she was content just to watch them. Then she started wondering, how else could they use those remarkable powers of theirs? She stepped in front of them again, then went down on her knees and reached for a group of them.
Water benders attacked her giant fingers with water whips that stung but did little damage. Earth benders tried to protect themselves with walls of earth, or to create holes for them to jump inside to stay out of her reach. Air benders swiftly avoided her fingers and took to the sky, and fire benders shot streams of fire at her fingertips whenever they came close enough.
Only the fire could really hurt her, and even then only if she held her hand still and let them keep attacking her, which she wasn't dumb enough to do. As long as she kept moving, they couldn't focus their flames on any one part of her long enough for it to do real damage. The worst that happened was that they left some black marks on her skin, but those were easy enough to scrub off with a little saliva, and once her fingertips were covered in spit, their attacks couldn't even manage that much. Once she started actually trying to catch them, she easily snatched up fire and water benders, and even caught some air benders as they were flying by. Only the earth benders hiding underground avoided her, and even then only because she didn't want to risk crushing them right now. Soon she had a decent collection of troops trapped in her fist, all of them squirming in there, trying to wriggle out between her fingers.
Blake was just wondering what to do with them when suddenly something flew right by her face, shooting a stream of fire at her eyes before flying away. Blake shut her eyes and tried to swat away whatever was attacking her, but it had already flown away by the time she did so. Opening her eyes, she stood and looked around for whatever that thing had been, and felt an annoyance in her left ear, as if someone were blowing right into it. She moved away and looked to her left, where she just barely saw someone flying on one of those gliders that the air bender troops had been using. She tried to swipe it out of the air, but it slipped between her fingers, and after correcting its flight it swept by her face blowing fire again.
“Interesting,” Blake thought and stepped back. All of the troops she had until now only ever used one element each to defend themselves, even when another would have served them better, but this one could use at least two. Were there more people who could use multiple elements? Could everyone here use at least one? Was it an ability to be learned, or were people here born with it? So many questions. Maybe she would learn the answer to some if she stuck around in this world. For now, though, she was more interested in examining this attacker.
Without thinking she let go of her catch, sending a few dozen troops falling to what would have been certain death had the air benders among them not managed to cushion everyone's fall at the last second. She kept some distance from the attacker and watched it closely, then swiped at it. Again it dodged between her fingers, but as it was trying to right itself in the turbulence that followed, Blake swiped a second time and this time caught it in her palm. Her fingers curled around the tiny thing. When it kept struggling, she squeezed it firmly until it stopped, then opened her hand and quickly plucked it up between her fingertips, bringing it to her eyes for a closer look.
The attacker was a young woman, she saw, around the same age as Yang and herself, or maybe a little older; brown skinned, with shoulder-length hair and wearing a blue outfit. She grimaced and scowled as Blake held her, and struggled against her fingers, trying to wrest herself free.
“Hey, Yang, look what I found,” Blake called out. Yang moved her feet back, knocking down most of the soldiers who'd been rubbing them, and stood up, walking over to Blake. “She was trying to attack me just now, and was doing a pretty good job for such a tiny thing. Isn't she just adorable?” “Heh! She's pretty cute, yeah,” Yang said, and reached down to pet her little head. The woman scowled at her, and tried even harder to free herself. “Ooh, she's feisty too. I like her! You think we could take her home with us? She might make for a cute pet!” A pet? Korra had heard enough. She wasn't about to sit here listening to these two giants mock her anymore. Fueled by her anger, she entered the Avatar State, and released a burst of air that pushed Blake's fingers away from her and let her fly out of her grip. She propelled herself to the ground ahead of the giants' attempts to catch her, and as she approached the earth, she gathered the elements around herself, striking at the two giants with all four.
Blake, still in her boots, was impervious to them, but Yang's bare feet were another story. Korra flew between them, raising sharp rock spikes under her feet, throwing sharp shards of ice at her toes and following them up with huge jets of fire. “Ouch! Hey, that hurt!” Yang said, pulling back her feet as each came under attack from the Avatar. “Man! I really didn't want to do this, but I guess I'll have to teach you a some manners. If you survive this, maybe you'll learn not to attack me again.” Yang raised her foot high up in the air, her bare sole hanging high over Korra, then stepped down on her. The earth sunk under Yang's foot, the enormous power of her stomp packing it as tight as could be, but at no point did she feel anything like the tiny woman who'd been attacking them. At the last moment, Korra had created a tunnel in the ground, and she jumped into it ahead of Yang's foot. From there she kept moving underground until she had made it out from under Yang's foot, then made an exit tunnel and flew out of it, throwing some more attacks at the giantess while flying away.
“Ha ha! Is that little bug giving you trouble?” Blake teased as Yang jerked her foot away again.
“That bug is way tougher than she looks!” She tried to stomp Korra again and again and again, but each time the Avatar ducked underground and dodged her blow, then counterattacked with more rock spikes under Yang's feet. “Damn it! You little... Just wait 'til I get my boots! Blake, could you make sure she doesn't get away in the meantime?” Blake shook with stifled laughter. “Sure thing, Yang; I'll protect you from the mean little bug.”
With the yellow-haired giant retreating for the moment, Korra knew she needed a change of plans. Sure, she could harass the giants where she could hit bare skin, but even then she was no more than an annoyance. She needed something more. Something really big. She thought back to her battle with Unalaq and Vaatu, when the both of them had fought with giant bodies of spirit. If she could just manage to do that again... but how? She would need an incredible amount of spirit energy, and it wasn't as if one could simply find something like that just lying...
“That's it!” Korra moved as fast as she could go towards the wreckage of Kuvira's mech. Blake's steps thundered behind her, easily keeping pace without needing any more than a casual stroll. The cat-eared giant could have stopped her at any time, but she seemed content just to keep watch. She probably thought she had nothing to fear. Well, soon enough Korra would prove them wrong.
There was a big gash in the side of the giant mech, and Korra could see a glow coming out of it. As she neared it, she saw that the Colossus's energy core had been exposed by the damage. Perfect! She stopped right at the opening, and with Blake watching curiously, she pulled all its spirit energy to herself, building with it a body of blue light that grew and grew, to the same size as the Colossus and them larger. Soon it matched the two giants, and only stopped growing when it stood a head taller than them.
Both Blake and Yang, the latter now back in her boots, stared at her in surprise, clearly taken aback by the little bug they'd been messing with suddenly transforming into such a giant.
“This is your only warning. Leave this world and go back where you came from. If you don't, we'll fight, and I won't go easy on you.” Korra took on a fighting stance. Blake backed away until Yang put an arm on her shoulder.
“You wanna fight, huh? Fine by me. Maybe you'll prove more of a challenge than that robot was.” Yang cracked her knuckles and stretched her neck from side to side. “Alright, let's see what you're made of!” She ran forward and punched at the giant spirit construct, and was pushed back a few hundred feet when their fists connected in the air. Then Blake ran in after her, swinging at Korra with her Gambol Shroud. The Avatar dodged, and counterattacked with a shot of spirit energy that hit Blake on her right side before rushing at Yang to throw a punch of her own.
The battle between the three titans went on for several minutes, though to the thousands watching them from afar it felt more like hours. Everyone pinned their hopes on the Avatar to save them from these strange giants, even the Earth Empire troops who had been so willing to fight her just a half hour ago, and she didn't disappoint. Powered by the energy taken from the Colossus, she proved more than a match for either of the other giants, though together they were more evenly matched.
Though they weren't yet defeated, Yang and Blake knew that the way things were going they wouldn't be able to beat this spirit giant. “Not bad,” Yang said, rubbing at her cheek where Korra had managed to land a blow. “You're way better than I expected. I didn't want to have to do this, but I guess we have no choice now. You with me, Blake?” Blake nodded. “Time we stop holding back.” She reached out and took Yang's hand, and suddenly a transformation started taking place.
Korra had been going in for another attack, but when she saw the two giants grow even larger, she stopped and gaped in awe at their growth. They surged higher and higher until they stood ten times as tall as they had before, each of them now a mile tall. Big as mountains, the earth shook with every shift of their weight, without either of them taking a single step. Their head nearly reached the clouds, and when they cast their gaze down on Korra, the Avatar could feel a terrible pressure all over her body, as if they were already stepping on her. She stepped back, and saw the Colossus beside her. She reached out and tried to draw on whatever energy still remained inside, but there was no more than a trickle left. Her spirit body grew another ten feet, but nothing more.
“Ah! So nice to be back to our normal size, isn't it?” said Blake.
“To be honest, I almost forgot we shrank down to come here, considering how tiny everything was even when we were small. Sure is funny seeing everything everything get even more itty-bitty, though. Now then, I guess it's time we took care of this little problem.” Korra was running even before Yang took the first step. She needed more spirit energy, now, and the only place she knew to find it was in the Republic City's spirit wilds. “Everyone, get out of the way!” she shouted ahead of her, but it was useless. Not five seconds after she started running, Yang appeared in front of her. Korra tried to change direction, but a kick caught her in the chest and knocked her back. As her body hit the ground, she saw Yang approaching, and desperately raised her arm to shoot another beam of spirit energy. It held Yang at bay while she blocked it with her gauntlet, but Korra knew she couldn't keep it up for long before her energy was drained. Not that she'd have the chance either way.
Blake appeared behind Korra then, and stepped on the blue titan, that big black boot weighing on the top half of her spirit body and holding down both her arms. Yang came next, and her brown boot pinned down Korra's lower half. No matter how she struggled, she proved no match for them, and that was with them both holding back. Slowly they upped the pressure on her, until her spirit body couldn't take it any more. Yang and Blake looked away as it burst in a flash of blue light, and when they looked again, it was completely gone.
They stepped back, and crouched to examine the ground. Had the woman survived? At first it didn't seem so, but finally Blake spotted a tiny figure down below, lying in the thin stretch of unbroken land between both their boot prints.
The explosion of her spirit body had knocked Korra out briefly, and when she came to again, she was met with an enormous pair of fingers coming for her. Too stunned to bend at all, she could only try desperately to crawl away before those fingers snatched her up and she found herself smothered between a pair of fingertips so huge that the ridges of their fingerprints were as thick as her arms. She had never felt more utterly powerless than she did now being carried up to meet the giants' gaze, not even when her bending had been stripped away. She was nothing but an insect besides these monsters, and now they were probably going to kill her for opposing them.
Korra didn't even have it in her to struggle against Yang's grip, knowing it was completely useless. She trembled under the gaze of those massive eyes, and tried to beg for mercy though all she could do was groan.
“Not so tough now, are ya?” Yang gloated over her puny foe. “You put up a decent fight, but without our handicap, you never really stood a chance. Now I don't think you could even tickle my feet.” She squeezed a bit harder, and Korra cried out in pain. “Y'know, I could crush you for being such a pain to deal with. Wouldn't need much more effort than this.” “Oh, don't do that! It'd be a shame to get kill off such a cute little thing.”
“Don't worry, I wasn't going to. I wanna keep her too. Who knows? Maybe some day she'll learn to love being our pet. But until then, I figure she needs a bit more discipline.” Crouching down, Yang tugged at the cuff of her socks and dropped the tiny Korra inside, then shook her foot until that little bug had settled down at her toes. After that it took just a little curl of those sweaty digits to scoop her up between them, and a tiny bit of pressure to plaster her to Yang's skin, leaving her at the mercy of every twitch and wiggle of Yang's toes. “Have fun in there, little bug! I figure I'll take you out in, hmm, some ten hours maybe. Until then, don't be scared to drink my sweat if you get thirsty! And my toe jam is all yours too!” She laughed and curled her toes one more time, utterly smothering Korra in their flesh while their heat and sweat seeped into that tiny thing.