For far too long Eva was lost in the constant uproar of her pocket prison. The walls constantly crushed at her from all sides, freedom was always tantalizingly close, and time lost any and all meaning. Had she been trapped for minutes or hours? The latter she suspected, but that was just it: she didn’t know. All she knew, and all she could focus on, was the relentless and unending motions of Tina’s stride. The neverending cycle of rising and falling, of rolling around the fuzzy interior of her pocket, and of being pressed against the side of her leg. A merciless punishment. 

The outside world couldn’t hear any of Eva’s pleas, but she could hear it - Oh, she could hear everything beyond the boundaries of her prison. An impossibly large realm where even the softest sounds now carried an imposing reverb; and where the footfalls of giants sounded off like a series of explosions at every turn. Perhaps out of fear she’d be caught, Tina remained largely silent, always on the move before anyone could approach her. Where she wandered, Eva had no idea. She could speculate, but frankly her mind was a bit occupied.

The initial shock still rattled at Eva and her heart never stopped racing. It was only due to her long stay in this prison that she could begin to collect her thoughts. She pushed back against the latest panic attack that began to seize her and let out a deep breath - More a frenetic gasp against Tina’s leg - before closing her eyes. She was reduced to virtually nothing. Naked and trapped in a velvety abyss with nothing but pocket lint as company. Eva grasped at one of the folds around her and muttered a silent prayer for it to end. Quite rich from a woman who wasn’t even religious, but, as her whispers drowned out against the storm of giant noises outside, she held steadfast to a quiet hope. 

Naturally nothing happened. It wasn’t as though some guardian angel would come and change what had happened. All Eva had was the horrifying reality she couldn’t deny any longer: Tina had shrunken her.

Tina. Had. Shrunken. Her! 

The phrase repeated itself ad nauseum in her thoughts and yet it still made no damn sense whatsoever. Why?! How? What the hell was Tina up to? How did she do it - Did she steal a prototype from R&D? How the hell did that twerp sneak away with something like that?! There were so very many questions and, as Eva had unfortunately learned, the world beyond her captor’s pocket didn’t notice or care how much she screamed her thoughts aloud. 

Every so often the giant’s fingers would return for her. Thick, tree-trunk digits that came not to rescue or torment, but just to make certain she was still trapped. They were unbearably hot to the touch, clammy and trembling as they pinched Eva’s body between them. Her struggles amounted to nothing as the pudgy fingertips ran the length of her body. Sometimes for a few seconds. Sometimes longer. Pale monsters confirming that their prey was still secure before invariably retreating back to the light of the world beyond. 

Whenever Tina’s hand left there remained a sense Eva had been violated in some inhumane way. There was nothing Eva could ever do against them, and at times the digits seemed to take an almost perverse joy in slowly exploring the contours of her naked figure. It was enough to infuriate her. Fill her with such hate and vitriol that she wanted to scream in a biblical fury. Beneath that, however, was a sobering feeling alien to the once normal-sized woman: Fear. The rage could keep her going without thinking of her situation, but in the moments of stillness Eva always felt her eyes watering. The few, but precious times where she hugged herself and felt an impossibly heavy weight on her shoulders. She couldn’t remember the last time she had ever cried, but here the tears flew naturally. She felt so…so...

Helpless.

There was never a moment in her life where Eva had been brought so low. There had never been a point where anyone had been brought so low - Yet, here she was. Naked and crying in the pocket of some dweeby office assistant, and to what end? A question that now haunted her more than anything. 

Every time her eyes shut she saw Tina. Not the short young woman from the office, but that...that...Thing. The titan whose body steadily soared to the heavens with a remote in hand and resolve in her eyes. Someone stunned by what she was doing and yet intent on carrying it out to the end. It was a haunting image that would never leave her. This was no happenstance or accident, but a deliberate act. And so, for the hundredth time, Eva had to wonder: What for? No matter how often she asked herself, she couldn’t find an answer. At least, not one that brought her any comfort. 

Such was Eva’s situation for...however long she remained trapped. Eventually, she realized Tina had left the office and was driving home. She realized it once the thunderous steps stopped for an extended window of time. Though she supposed the roar of a gargantuan engine was a good clue too. If she had any hopes of crawling out of this pocket to freedom, it was during this drive. While Tina wasn’t moving and the ground around Eva was stable. Yet, she hesitated. The opportunity had presented itself, but if she tried to escape it would mean being outside again. With Her. Alone. In a vehicle she couldn’t escape from anyway. What ensued was an internal struggle between fear keeping Eva rooted in her cloth cage, and reason begging her to seize the chance for freedom. 

Fear won.

The drive itself wasn’t long, it only felt as much because of the path to the outer world staring Eva down the entire ride. Soon enough there were the groans of a car door opening and the upheaval of Tina on the move again. Eva braced herself as she was thrust back into the familiar cycle of rising and falling. After a few dozen steps Tina stopped again, her fingers reaching for Eva. Visceral fear gripped the shrinking woman as she kicked at the incoming digits. They merely ignored her efforts and pinched either side of her body to pluck her into the outside’s blinding light. 

Eva shielded her eyes with a wince, barely having enough time to blink away the spots from her vision before the fingers around her body let go. Her stomach sank as gravity took hold, Eva falling with a curt scream. Mercifully, it was not a long descent before she crashed onto a hard surface. 

“Aaa-Ow!” Eva landed right atop one of her legs. She grunted and nursed a reddened kneecap, eyes slowly fluttering open to adjust to her surroundings. Her new, very alien surroundings. 

It seemed she was in someone’s apartment, most likely Tina’s if she had to guess. The first thing to catch Eva’s eye were a series of posters along the walls depicting cartoon characters in assorted styles. Arranged between many of them were actual photos, as if in afterthought. Lining one of the walls were a number of shelves with assorted clutter on them, mostly movies and games. They bookended a nice-sized flatscreen with various devices in the stand beneath it. Honestly, if someone were to ask Eva what she assumed Tina’s home looked like, this was pretty much it. 

Before investigating the area further, Eva noted a shadow beneath her. Drawn by curiosity, the woman looked over her shoulder and shrieked once again. 

Not even a dozen feet from her, Tina’s face loomed seemingly larger than ever. Gigantic brown eyes stared down in amazement from behind the thick lenses of her glasses, drinking in every detail of Eva’s terrified and tiny figure. Tina’s lips slowly parted and a gentle, wafting breath came out to permeate the coffee table Eva had been dropped onto. It took everything she had not to scream again. 

“I...really did it…” Tina muttered. “You’re...really here. Like...tiny.”

She spoke like a woman convinced she was dreaming. Her hand returned with a finger outstretched, quickly poking at Eva’s head. A quick, light tap and it nearly pushed the reduced woman flat on her back. Any thoughts either of them may have had that this wasn’t real vanished right there. Eva scuttled away from the towering visage of the young woman, not getting terribly far before Tina pulled back. The giant sheepishly rubbed at the back of her head, seemingly at a loss for words. It was well over a minute before she spoke again, slowly and meaningfully. 

“I don’t even know how to start.” She admitted with the slightest echo to her voice. “Can’t imagine what it must be like for you. You’ve gotta be so…” Tina shook her head. “I guess it doesn’t really matter at this point, huh?” She looked to her finger and then to Eva again, as if debating on another poke. 

The cadence and mannerisms were all familiar to Eva. A subtle, but important reminder this was not some alien creature towering before her. It was just Tina.  No matter how gigantic she was. In a strange way that was a comfort. It helped Eva collect herself and steady her breathing. She slowly stood, measuring shorter than Tina’s littlest finger, but it was enough to return just the slightest hint of confidence back to the shrunken woman. 

“What...What are you going to do to me?” Eva asked quietly. “Why…? How could you do this? Do you have any idea what you’ve done?!”

“Hmm…” Tina pulled herself back, seeming to quadruple in size simply by standing straight. She held her chin for the moment and regarded Eva, not appearing particularly off put by the questions. “I...think the why is kind of obvious at this point, don’t you think?” Putting aside how unsettlingly casual she was about her reply, it was a fair point.

“So...what? This is about payback? Revenge?”

Tina glanced aside, biting into her lip ever so.  “Hrhmm...Yes and no. You’re definitely a bad person Miss Rhodes. Honestly, you probably deserved this a while ago, but I wouldn’t really call it payback. I don’t really care about that.”

Eva blinked. “Well, what do you care about?”

“I care about stopping a bully.” Tina stated flatly. “And stopping her before she hurts anyone else.” 

The giant woman sighed and fell backwards onto a dark blue couch. Lining one of the corners were a number of plush creatures from one of those shows Tina was ever infatuated with. She sighed and lifted her legs, hugging them to her chest as she remained focused on her captive. Hanging just off the edge of the cushion, a pair of petite feet fidgeted awkwardly with one another and offered Eva another grim reminder how small she now was. 

“This...is about some sense of justice?” Eva balked. The very notion was enough to make her sick were the situation not so dire. She grimaced and noted the familiar mannerisms on display before her. There was a comfort to them. Despite all appearances, Tina was still Tina. Still a pushover. 

“I guess?” Tina quirked her lips. “It’s...complicated. I…” Her eyes veered away and she adjusted her glasses. “I...don’t like hurting people.”

Oh good lord, this again. It was beginning to feel like the woman was just trying to lead her on. “Well you have a damn strange way of showing it.”

“You tried to hit me.” Tina huffed. “After throwing a fit at work.”

“You deserved it.” Eva snarled.

“And you deserve this.”  

That certainly shut Eva up. Tina took the chance to tighten her hold around her legs, most of her face hidden behind her knees. Hesitation quietly festered in her eyes. “I debated on it for a long time cause it seemed so extreme, but when you did all that...Well…” She shrugged her shoulders ever so. “And...I guess there is one other reason.”

“Another reason?” Well this outta be good. 

Tina hesitated again. She looked to Eva, then away, then back to Eva. Multiple times. “I don’t like to hurt people...but…”

"But?"

“I...do...like punishing people.” She admitted, a flush hitting her cheeks. “Bad people who deserve it. Like...you.”

It was quiet after she finished. The words hung heavy in the air, Eva stunned and Tina embarrassed to have said them. The smaller woman looked to the mastermind behind all of her recent woes and it was like her thoughts had devolved into white noise. She awaited a laugh. A meek giggle followed by a “Just kidding.”. One that never came, leaving the two in this uncomfortably silent standoff.

There was just no way. There were others like that out there, but Tina? This Tina? Tina, the gentle bookworm? Tina, the awkward office sweetheart who could barely walk ten steps without stumbling? Tina, the girl who knew nothing about politics but whose eyes lit up on the subject of children’s cartoons? There wasn’t a mean bone in the woman’s body. There couldn’t have been. Tina was much too meek for anything like that. 

She could try to deny it all she wanted, but Tina didn’t appear to be joking. The woman was instead shy, like she’d revealed some deep dark secret. Which finally started to make it settle in. If...Tina was like that, and she had someone who had wronged her at such a small scale...Oh.

Oh No.

“...You can’t be serious.” Eva took a step back.

Rather than respond immediately, Tina turned her head with an awkward smile. Her eyes remained fixed on Eva as the woman continued to back away. It didn’t matter of course. She was trapped atop a table and they both knew it. The giant bit into her lip and drew in a sharp breath as she hugged her knees. There was an edge to her eyes that froze Eva in place. Something she had never seen before in Tina. When her voice finally did answer her, it rang louder than it ever had.

“I wish you could see how amazing your face is right now.”

That did it. Whatever illusion of calm Eva had abandoned her and she turned to escape in a frenzy. Where she ran didn’t matter to her. All that she cared about was putting as much distance between herself and this...this monster as possible. It may’ve been a steep drop from the table to the floor but she didn’t care; Eva ran. She fled as swiftly as her reduced legs could take her, traveling both a great distance but also nowhere at all. No matter if it was ten feet or a hundred, Tina was still right there. Watching her helpless prey try to escape. She made no effort to give chase because there was no reason to. It was far more amusing watching Eva try to get away.

A futile effort perhaps, but Eva tried nonetheless. She was a frightened insect skittering across a table, blindly moving away from the immense figure trailing her like a hawk. She reached the edge of the table and nearly stumbled off a 50-foot precipice. Behind her, Tina wore a lopsided smirk; as if daring her. The fall was more than enough to be fatal. The alternative though...That was something so much more terrifying. Eva looked to Tina, then to the edge. Back to Tina, all around the table. Was there a way down? Would she survive the fall? There was carpet but...what if she turned around and begged Tina to turn her back instead? She…-She didn’t know what to do! Every answer was a bad one! She...She needed to think! To think and…

And then Eva slipped. 

The table’s edge was curved, and in her panic Eva failed to account for that. That was all. Now she fell through the air, gasping out as a world far too large for her zipped by. There was a surprising clarity now that her choice had been made. Rather than freak herself out it was left to gravity’s impartial judgement what came next. She was at the mercy of the world, and that was far more preferable to Tina. 

For such a seemingly big drop, it certainly didn’t take long to land. She saw the ground coming in fast, and to make matters even worse Eva landed in the worst possible way: face first. Pain assailed her every nerve as her world went black. Her body fell into a heap on top of itself. Anyone would’ve died, but...Eva blinked her eyes moments afterwards. There was a lingering soreness, but she opened her eyes and was...fine? Somehow?

“H-How am I…?”

“Confused?” Tina’s thunderous voice asked, unseen but absolutely heard. Her couch screamed in a mess of springs and unfurling cushions as the giant rose to her feet. Dread filled every fiber of her being, but that same dread compelled Eva to look above. To the cutesy face peering at her from overhead, hunched over the table. “You must be really worked up to forget what happens to things we shrink, Miss Rhodes.” 

There was the explosive impact of a footstep. Then another. And another.

Things they…? Oh. Right. It was a spiel she had given countless times. The same one featured in every gaudy R.E.I. ad: Durability. Reduced objects had enhanced durability brought about by an increased particle density. No wonder Tina hadn’t even tried to stop her, Eva was never in any danger. There was a sobering realization behind that. One Eva couldn’t reflect on before another explosive step grabbed her attention.

The first bare foot slammed directly ahead of Eva’s body, a blast of air gusting past her. It forced the reduced woman to clamber to her feet in a hurry; and as she did the other foot joined its mate, pivoting as Tina faced her former employer directly. There was something...carnal behind those familiar glasses. An alien quality to the smile she wore. One hand fell naturally to her hip and it seemed as though any apprehension she had before left at the sight of Eva squirming in her wake. Her former boss had been reduced to a naked, pathetic thing trapped in her shadow.

Eva felt her legs threaten to give out as she looked up. It...It didn’t even feel like she was staring at Tina. She was too big, too confident, too...in control. Was this really her? Was it some kind of impostor? Or...Maybe this was just the first time she’d ever truly met her assistant.

“I was a little worried you wouldn’t be durable to be honest, but it looks like you are.” Tina boomed. “So...would it be fine if I…?” Her pale, dainty foot began to lift from the ground and it was clear what her intent was. Eva turned and ran on instinct, her efforts granting Tina a satisfied smirk. 

“Mnn...Run…” She moaned, foot trailing over Eva. “Hurry up Miss Rhodes...~ You don’t wanna get stepped on, do you?”

Her sole lowered slowly, descending yards at a time towards their target. Eva shrieked and scrambled as best she could, still not out of the way. “T-Tina! Stop!” She cried out in a voice too pitiful to have come from her. “I’m not some kind of toy! You can’t do this!”

“Why can’t I? You used to do it to people all the time.” The giant lagged on purpose to give her prey just another time to narrowly avoid being stepped on. It was a mad dive that saw Eva rolling along the carpet, but there was no rest before Tina lifted her foot once again. “Though I guess you never treated them like people, huh? So why should I treat you like one now?”

“Please! I’m sorry!”

“No you’re not.” Tina stated flatly. “You’re sorry it’s you like this and not me.”

Her foot came down immediately after. No warning or build up. A simple, effective stomp. A roof of doughy skin crashed into Eva’s lesser form and slammed her into the floor, compressing and squishing around her body. Pressure and pain unlike any the small woman ever knew before surged within her, her screams muffled by Tina’s unyielding sole. All it took was a slight twist of her ankle and the agony spiked. Eva’s body bent and stretched to awkward, impossible angles. Yet for how bad it may have felt or looked, they both knew the truth - That Eva, despite all logic to the contrary, was completely fine. 

After grinding her foot in for a time, the young woman lifted it behind her and looked, smiling in awe at the plastered form of her former boss. Her voice was an almost giddy whisper. Akin to a child on Christmas day. “I still can’t believe it. This is really happening, isn’t it? I’m not dreaming? I can just…” 

Her foot swung out and sent Eva flying. Before she could even begin to process the utter disgrace of being stepped on like an insect she had already been flicked into the air, smacking right into the side of one of Tina’s shelves. 

“Oops!” Came the sharp gasp from Tina, unaware of the immense strength that came with size.

Eva’s world spun around her as she struggled to wrap her head around the situation, her body slowly sliding back to the ground below. Meanwhile the ground rumbled once again as Tina took the paltry two steps needed to catch up to her. 

She towered from on high and was all Eva could see. After being stepped on her usual wits and confidence abandoned her, and all that left were the mewlings of a far lesser woman. “W-What are you going to do to me?”

“I wonder?” Tina giggled and plucked the tiny woman up, balancing her in her palm. “What do you think?”

“That...You’ll kill me?”

The very notion seemed to offend the giant and snapped her out of it. “What? Of course not. I would never do that.”

That answer offered the coldest of comforts. Eva gulped, biting back tears as she cowered before the petite visage. “T-Then what? Torture me?”

For a moment the giant hesitated. Whatever trance that had guided Tina mere moments ago was gone, and she was back to someone more familiar. She averted her eyes and pulled in her lips thoughtfully. “Not torture no. More like I wanna…” Her cheeks flushed red, the woman forcing herself to look directly at Eva.

“I wanna break you.”