Over an hour later, the three friends still sat in Rima’s penthouse. Gage stood on the table, pacing back and forth, while the girls had their feet propped up on the same table – but at an acceptable distance away. Still, every once in a while Gage would get a pungent whiff, although he declined to lodge a complaint. He didn’t want to seem weak.

Needless to say, Alicia’s claim had sparked an intense discussion, and despite a while spent talking things through, they still weren’t sure about the next move. They had long since removed her from the conversation by casting a Sleep spell on her, in part because of the most contentious subject: what to do with her.

“We can’t just let her go,” complained Charis. “Just think about everything she’s done to us! The bitch needs to pay.”

“We can just let her go, and we will,” replied Rima evenly. “What she did was… evil… but we can’t stoop to her level.”

As for Gage, his opinion fell somewhere in between, although he wanted to lean towards to Charis. He couldn’t easily forget his fury from the not-too-distant past. In fact, he couldn’t remember much else from those last moments before he activated the shrinking sphere. His anger had basically overwhelmed him, something he usually avoided. He would endeavor to stay in control in the future.

Suddenly, Gage realized that Charis and Rima were both giving him pointed looks, obviously seeking his input. He cleared his throat and delivered, “Sorry, Rima, I’m with Charis.” Rima’s expression remained unreadable. “The way I see it, we can use Alicia to our advantage. If the game is consistent, she’ll provide a significant power boost to one of you if you keep her as an item. That advantage can’t be overlooked, especially since we’ll probably be running into stiff opposition soon.”

“Yeah! What he said,” Charis crowed. “I know exactly where I’m going to put her.” Her grin was positively wolfish.

“Fine,” huffed Rima, her impassive façade finally cracking. She allowed for a small, slightly worn smile. “I’ll admit it – I wouldn’t mind having a turn with her in my shoe.”

“That’s the spirit,” encouraged Charis. “Now that that’s settled… what should we do about you, Gage?” She wiggled her toes a little just to torment him. Gage didn’t know when it became okay for them to use their size and feet to “play games” with him, but now that it had become a thing, he couldn’t object too vehemently without seeming weird. On the other hand, they weren’t crossing the line with any of the joking; still, it bugged him a little that they could be so cavalier about it when not so long ago they were at the mercy of someone bigger with malicious intent.

Gage deliberately came to a stop close to Rima’s feet, in a probably-too-subtle attempt to show they didn’t intimidate him. “I feel like there’s something in there that we can work with,” he said slowly. “I just can’t figure out how to put the pieces together. Either way, we should definitely try to seek out Alicia’s contact. This person clearly has the power to do amazing things – maybe he’ll have an easy fix for my size issue.”

Rima and Charis nodded in agreement, but they fell into thoughtful silence for a moment. Gage held his chin in his hand, occasionally casting glances up to where his two gigantic friends sat on the couch. He also tried his best not to stare warily at the two pairs of massive feet occupying the table with him, especially Rima’s, which were much closer.

Presently, Rima offered an idea. “I’ve been thinking about it for a bit, and here’s what I’ve come up with. Why don’t we approach this mysterious jailbreaker and have him turn Gage back to a normal player. Then we could just kill him – ”

“Oooh, can we stomp him please?” interrupted Charis with a giggle.

“Actually, that could be kind of fun,” teased Rima, giving Gage a nudge with her big toe.

“Are we seriously gonna talk about me like this?” he protested with theatrical outrage, giving Rima’s toe a solid punch. He knew that it couldn’t possibly hurt her, but she winced in mock pain anyway for his benefit. Both girls laughed, maybe a bit too much, and Gage could feel the heat rising in his face. He didn’t want to admit how much the size difference bothered him, even to himself, but the girls definitely used the disparity as an opportunity to make light of him. Not that he took himself so seriously that he couldn’t handle a little ribbing – he just felt so… powerless. As a person who prided himself on control, that rankled.

“Okay, okay, we’ll try to think of a more dignified way for you to go out,” promised Rima; but then her face grew somber, and she sighed. “Not gonna lie, I’m gonna miss you at this size.”

“Me too,” Charis agreed.

“And why is that, exactly?” asked Gage, actually interested to hear their thoughts.

“Well, I just… and sorry if this is shallow, and please don’t take offense,” Rima hedged, “but I just felt safer around you. Like I could trust you more, that I could depend on you more.”

“It’s kind of weird, but I felt the exact same way,” said Charis. “I’m sure it’s all based on subliminal body messages or whatever, but I didn’t think it would affect me so much. You’re just such a cuddly little guy now, you know?”

“Hmm…” thought Gage aloud. “Well, if it makes you that happy… maybe I could consent to switching back to this size on occasion – if you’re extra nice to me.”

In a flash, Charis snatched him up and hugged him tightly to her chest. Even Rima clapped excitedly. “Aw Gage, that is so sweet of you.”

“You’re welcome,” groaned Gage, his voice muffled by her gigantic cleavage.

…

Charis and Rima decided to walk across Town to where Alicia claimed her contact was. While their destination – a towering skyscraper that was at once wholly unique yet indistinguishable from the endless background of other breathtakingly futuristic architecture – was surprisingly close, it still took the better part of an hour to get there. Hardly anyone actually walked through Town when a disc or teleportation stations – or basically anything besides walking – provided more expedient travel; but Charis really wanted to give it to little Alicia, so she insisted on hoofing it across the cyber metropolis’s many sky bridges.

Dropping to one knee, Charis removed her boot and withdrew her hot foot. On the sole, Alicia’s slightly flattened body adhered firmly via an abhorrent glue of sweat and foot gunk. The little dominatrix looked quite pathetic, and Gage (who hovered on Nightwing nearby) actually felt a pang of pity; but Charis’s stern expression broadcast her feelings on the matter unmistakably. With two fingers, she peeled off the human insole and brought Alicia’s limp form up to her face, fixing her with a ruthless glare.

“You smell like fucking foot and you look like shit,” announced Charis, “but I just want you to know that you deserve every bit of punishment. Every time my big, smelly foot smashes you into the ground, I want you to remember what you did to us. Just be grateful that my friend here,” she nodded to Rima, “won’t let me really make you pay. It could be much, much worse,” she finished darkly. Alicia only sobbed weakly in response, and Gage had to remind himself how awful she had been in that very same day. “Now take us to your friend.”

With that, the group entered the building through a pair of shiny chrome doors.