Led by Destroyer's dummy, close to a thousand Sangvis Ferri troops had successfully infiltrated the territory held by Griffin and Kryuger, positioning themselves under cover of a small forest in preparation for a strike. Their target, a small town of just ten thousand inhabitants, was also a crucial nexus in G&K's supply lines, the disruption of which would enable SF to attack in key points along the front line.

Though there were some T-Dolls guarding the town, they were merely a token force, not nearly enough to withstand an attack by Destroyer's forces—clearly they hadn't been expecting an attack from anything near the number of troops she commanded. It was almost too easy, the only caveat being that they had to move quick so as to strike the town before they were detected and enemy reinforcements sent.

Throwing caution to the wind in favor of speed as Dreamer had instructed, Destroyer forewent the use of any scouting forces during her advance, trusting that they would meet no meaningful resistance during their march. At a mere dozen or so miles from the town, they still hadn't encountered any enemy forces, and Destroyer was starting to think the whole operation would go off without a hitch. Already she was looking forward to the destruction of those enemy Dolls as something all but assured, when little by little she became aware of a ripple of alarm spreading through her forces.

Starting with those at the head of the battalion, all the units came to a halt as they detected a repeated shaking of the ground with a faint booming noise and the sound of crunching bark following each tremor. Soon Destroyer sensed it too, and she racked her mind trying to think of what it might be. It didn't quite sound like explosions, nor like artillery fire, and anyway it didn't have the right rhythm to be either of those things. She could think of nothing else, though, and with the sounds getting ever closer, she had to figure this out quick, so she directed a few SF scout units to hover above the treeline and find the source.

A few seconds later, she got her answer in the form of an image captured by the scouts' cameras, and immediately regretted her decision.

Dead center in the picture, out in the middle of a lush dark-green carpet, about a mile away, stood a dark figure rising starkly above the horizon—a giant for whom even the tallest trees, whose figure dominated the landscape, and whose angry purple eyes were looking right into the camera.

It was a giant Griffin Doll, and not just any of them, but the giant among giants herself, P7.  And as she felt the tremors drawing closer, Destroyer knew her odds of success had gone down to nearly zero.

“It's no fair! Why do I have to be the one to take care of all these missions?” P7 complained not for the first time that morning.

“You already know why,” Kar98k patiently said from her perch atop P7's shoulder, where she clung unperturbed to the threads of the 500-foot Doll's odd nun-like outfit, keeping herself stable against the constant jostling from P7's stride. “You're Griffin's most valuable asset—the Commander's most useful Doll. It's only natural you'd be put to work so often. You knew this would happen when you accepted the transfer to this new body.”

“But I just got back from another mission! Couldn't they have sent someone else instead? It's not like I'm the only giant Doll at the base. At this rate I might not be back at base tomorrow.” It was the 31st of March, which meant that tomorrow was April Fools' day; P7's favorite holiday, a day when she could run wild with her pranks, secure in the knowledge that for once she wouldn't get in trouble for it. She'd been all set to make the most of it this year, with a ton of prank ideas she'd been brainstorming, but with how busy she'd been recently it was already too late to make preparations for most of her ideas. She'd have to settle for something simple this year—assuming she was able to celebrate it at all.

P7 glanced wistfully at the town a couple miles to her left. “Say, if SF is after this town, can't I just go over there and wait for them to show up? I mean, why chase after them if we can wait for them to come to us.”

“Because once they see you there they'll just go cause trouble somewhere else. We need to eliminate them here and now. Besides, we both know that's not the reason why you want to visit the town. Now hush; the SF forces are supposed to be in the forest up ahead. Obviously you can't be perfectly quiet but the less noise you make, the closer we can get before they hear us coming.”

P7 sighed, but kept quiet otherwise as she started into the forest, scanning what she could see of the ground through the foliage. At first she tried to step softly and avoid damaging the trees any more than was necessary, but the forest grew thicker the deeper she went, and soon she could no longer avoid some destruction, cracking branches and even some tree trunks with her every step. Worse, she could see increasingly little of what went on beneath the thickening canopy, forcing her to crouch and hold open holes in the foliage to see if there were any SF dolls below.

Her frustrations kept mounting until at last she'd had enough. The final straw came when she raised a foot to take a step, only to find she couldn't put it down anywhere else without knocking down a tree or two. Well so be it! she thought and stomped her foot down, taking her frustration out on the innocent pine by sending its trunk crashing down beneath her slim white boot. More and more trees followed the fate of the first as she walked further on, ignoring Kar98k's admonishments to keep the noise down, until something in the distance caught their eyes—a trio of dark, reflective objects rising briefly above the forest canopy only to descend again a second later.

“Did you see that?” asked Kar98k. P7 nodded—those had definitely been SF scouts. “Looks like we found our target. Let's move in and take them down.”

“I'm way ahead of you.” P7 strode purposefully forward, crunching branches and tree trunks alike with every swing of her legs, her eyes searching intently for any SF units.

All of a sudden, when P7 was just a few short strides away from where the scouts had appeared, a barrage of bullets surged out from beneath the foliage, the fire of at least a hundred weapons rushing up to meet her. P7 paused and pulled Kar98k off her shoulder, cupping her in one hand while using the other to shield her from any incoming fire before proceeding. Save for a few of the larger rounds, which produced a mild stinging, none of the enemy's attacks did damage to the giant doll, at most giving her a buzzing feeling where the bullets bounced harmlessly off her skin.

On the other hand, the intense fire tore to shreds much of the foliage that had obscured the SF forces from view, letting P7 march confidently to destroy them.

This was bad. Even with all of Destroyer's massed forces firing together at the giant Doll, there was hardly so much as a scratch on her, and even those scratches were all from the manticores, of which she had only ten. How was she supposed to bring down that monster with such limited resources? She should have just dispersed her forces and tried to escape with as many as possible the moment she saw the Doll—better than having informed Dreamer about the giant only to be ordered to fight her to the death.

Maybe one of the others could have figured out some plan to take this monster down with the forces she had at her disposal—though Destroyed doubted it—but all she could think to do was to have everyone keep shooting at the giant P7, even as she came ever closer. By then the surrounding leaves rustled at P7's every step; the trees shook down to their roots, and the cracking and crunching of those she stepped on was almost louder than the roaring gunfire of all her forces combined.

Destroyer sent the scouts to attack the Doll's face, hoping their short-range fire might be enough to blind her, but the swarm of drones, which next to P7 looked like more like flies, was quickly swatted out of the air, and those that survived the swing of the giant hand either went on to crash into the Doll's head and shoulders, or else were simply left behind as she kept going without missing a beat.

“Stupid bugs,” said the giant. “It's all your fault I'm missing out on my April Fools' preparations. Now I'm going to make you pay for that.”

As she approached the brutes at the head of the formation, the black sole of her boot appeared in the sky above the melee units and quickly descended, crashing through sixty-foot pines to flatten over a dozen of them in an earth-shaking stomp. The survivors hurried to climb the white boot like ants, digging their knives into the smooth surface to help them climb, but they hadn't even made it past P7's heel when her foot rose once more and they were either thrown off with its sheer speed or else brushed off by the branches the giant foot blasted right through.

Her next step brought her right to the middle of the rippers and vespids, and when her foot fell on a couple squadrons she took a moment to grind them under her boot, reducing them all to an unsalvageable mess of mechanical parts and synthetic outer shells, all half-buried in the dirt. And then she was only a single step away from Destroyer and the line of manticores.

The SF ringleader couldn't remember ever being more scared in her life. The giant's expression was fierce; in it, she could see the intent to exterminate every last one of her forces, and as was becoming clearer by the second, there was nothing any of them could do to stop her.

Once P7 was in range, Destroyer joined her troops in shooting at the giant Doll, lobbing grenade after grenade from her launchers. But though she managed to hit the skin of P7's thighs, as far up as her shots would go, it seemed all she accomplished was leaving a small black soot mark on the spot of each explosion, more bug bites than bruises. Still she kept shooting, until she saw that massive black sole appear above the trees, swinging past her on the way to one of the manticores—the giant hadn't even noticed her!

Destroyer watched as that foot came down on the manticore, the great war machine fitting neatly under the end of P7's boot. The unit looked like no more than a mouse beneath the giant Doll, and as her foot slowly pressed down on it, the whirring of its gears as it strained to move under the immense pressure sounded almost like the whine of a wounded animal to Destroyer's ears, a sad and pitiful noise. But the Doll showed it no mercy, and slowly the manticore's armor cracked under her weight, until with just a bit more pressure the war machine was flattened in a quick succession of crunching noises as each separate bit of armor gave way and was destroyed.

A dreadful sense of helplessness came over Destroyer as she watched the giant grind the manticore's remains down all the way before turning her attention to the next one, putting it to the same slow death she had given the first.

Though most of Destroyer's force still remained, she already knew the battle was lost. The manticores were too big and slow to have any hope of escaping the giant Doll; she would grind them all down one after the other, then turn her attention on Destroyer and the remaining troops. Whatever Dreamer had said, there was no point in wasting her forces on a losing battle, and while P7 was occupied dealing with the manticores, she ordered everyone else to disperse, and took one last look at the monster before running away.

After finishing with the manticores, P7 lifted Kar98k back to her shoulder, and with the smaller Doll's help she tracked down the rest of the SF forces as they tried to flee under cover of the forest. Every so often an enemy squadron would stop to attack her, and she would lumber over to the offending forces to stomp them flat, crushing them as mercilessly as if she were dealing with ants. All the same, there was no real urgency to finish them all off, knowing that none of their remaining units could damage her. It was just a matter of some simple pest control now, and she freely took her time in dealing with the comparatively bug-sized troops, enjoying the catharsis of decimating these units which had once caused her so much grief.

“Is this really all that Sangvis Ferri managed to send?” she mused while crushing another couple squadrons of rippers beneath her boots. “What a waste of my time. A few squads of regular T-Dolls could have probably cleaned this bunch up while I stayed at the base and prepared for tomorrow. I think I'll need to have a word with the Commander not to waste my time with such easy missions.” Another squadron revealed itself to her right and she slowly walked towards it, smiling at the faint tickling she could feel from their bullets. 

“I'll walk up to him when he's out in the open so he can't avoid me, then pick him up between my fingers and bring him up to my level so we can talk face to face, just like so.” P7 demonstrated her intentions with one of the rippers that had been shooting at her, crouching to snatch up the enemy fighter and then dangling it by the legs as she brought it up to her eyes. The tiny thing tried to aim its guns at her, but P7 quickly tore them from its hands, almost tearing its arms off as well, and flicked them aside.

“Then I'll very slowly and patiently explain my request so he understands how important it is not to squander me on little stuff like this.” As she said this, P7 slowly squeezed the ripper's legs harder and harder; though it tried to wrest itself free, all its efforts could barely even dimple her skin. “And once he sees my point, I'll very gently put him back down.” The moment she let go, the ripper hurtled three hundred feet to the ground, slipping right through a gap in the trees' branches to crash down on the forest floor, its damaged body giving no signs of life save for some jittery twitches as its CPU tried to assert control over the body. P7 then raised her foot to step on it and the other rippers still busy shooting at her, ending them all with a satisfying crunch. “What do you think? Will the Commander listen to reason?”

“M-hm,” Kar98k muttered absentmindedly, her thoughts focused on the movement of the troops they'd been following. “P7, have you noticed anything strange about how our enemies are behaving?”

“Strange?” P7 turned her head, straining her eyes to get a good look at her companion. “Not really. Have you?”

“It's these squadrons that keep stopping to shoot at you. If the enemy wanted to improve their odds of survival they could just disperse into the forest and it would be almost impossible for us to find all of them from up here; at least a few of them would be able to hide or get away from us. Instead they keep opening fire on us and drawing our attention. It all seems very deliberate; I think they're trying to distract us with disposable troops to protect a more elite unit.”

“An elite unit? Like a ringleader?”

“It's likely. Keep walking the way you were headed before this last group distracted you. If I'm right, they'll try to make more distractions for you; ignore them and keep going straight. We can deal with any stragglers later with help from some other Dolls if need be, but we shouldn't let the ringleader get away.”

“I'm not sure if we'll be able to see them from up here, though.”

“Then put me on your boot. I'll keep an eye out below and tell you if I see anything.”

“Eh!? Are you sure about that? Won't it be dangerous for you down there? I mean, you could fall off and...”

“It's fine. The mission comes first. Besides, I trust you to keep me safe.”

“Really? Well, if you trust me, I'll just have to trust myself too.” Moved by Kar98k's dedication, P7 raised a hand to her shoulder, letting Kar98k hop on to be lowered onto her boot. Once she got the go-ahead, P7 carefully set out to where Kar98k had directed her. Sure enough, another squadron of vespids started shooting at her from behind after she'd taken just a few steps, but P7 ignored it and kept walking. More and more groups started shooting at the further she went, from every direction except straight ahead, all but confirming Kar98k's suspicions. Whatever was there, they definitely didn't want her finding it. Well, she'd find it all the same, and if it did turn out to be the ringleader responsible for these forces, P7 would be sure to make them pay.

“Crap! Why isn't she turning back?” Destroyer ran through the forest as quickly as her legs could carry her, yet even so she could feel the giant Doll getting ever closer, completely ignoring the several squadrons of SF troops shooting at her from behind.

As Destroyer looked over her shoulder, she saw the giant P7's white boot come crashing down behind her, with a normal-sized Doll on top of it. Was that one of her troops? The question flashed in the back of her mind and was quickly forgotten as she swerved to the right to try to get out of the monster's path, but as she ran, she dimly heard someone's voice shouting, “She's over there!”

Destroyer heard the voice again, from much closer behind her, after the P7 took another couple steps, and looking back again she saw the Doll on P7's foot pointing right at her, guiding the giant this way. “Crap!” she muttered again.

She tried to obscure her position by running through where the trees were thickest, and when the foot that held the other Doll went back up, she ducked behind the biggest trunk she could find. But in her haste to find a hiding spot, Destroyer had miscalculated where P7's foot would land next, and she jumped in surprise when the great white boot slammed down right at her side, sending a shower of leaves and broken branches falling from above. The ringleader couldn't hold back a cry, and the noise turned the boot-riding Doll's head towards her.

“She's right by your foot!” Kar98k shouted, sliding off of P7's boot just as Destroyer aimed her grenades launchers at her. Just in time; a pair of grenades soared through the air where she had been just a second ago, going on to explode many yards away. By then P7 was already looking down at the scene playing out beneath her, and she ducked to reach for the shrunken ringleader.

Seeing the giant hand descending towards her, Destroyer shot another few rounds of grenades at it, but though P7 hissed at the slight stinging she felt, her hand still kept coming and soon Destroyer was left with no choice but to turn and flee. Yet she'd barely taken two steps when P7 caught her and brought her, struggling, up to eye level.

“AAAH! L-let go of me, you... you monster!”

“Whatever you say,” P7 laughed All of a sudden Destroyer found herself falling from a few hundred feet in the air as those monstrous fingers released her. She screamed as she fell towards a clearing left by P7's steps, and held out her arms preemptively to try and grab some branch in her way, only to be caught by P7 before she even reached the Doll's knees

P7's tree-sized fingers curled over destroyer, leaving her encased in the giant Doll's synthetic skin. She railed against her captor, doing everything she could to escape her grasp, yet however hard she tried she could not so much as budge any of those fingers. When P7 let go of her a few seconds later, she found herself back under the giant's gaze, with Kar98k also looking at her from P7's shoulder.

“What's the matter? Can't you handle a little prank?” P7 asked, grinning at the little ringleader.

“J-just who do you think you are!?” Destroyer shouted, quickly getting to her feet. “Do you have any idea who you're dealing with? I'm Destroyer of Sangvis Ferri; I've killed hundreds of worthless Dolls like you, and you just made yourself the next one on my list. Now die for disrespecting me!” She raised her weapons, but just before she could fire them, one of P7's fingers curled to pin her down.

“Cute toys you've got there. But aren't these too dangerous for a girl like you? Why don't I put these away somewhere safe.” P7 snatched the grenade launchers from Destroyer's hands, handing them over to Kar98k for safekeeping.

“Ah! What do you think you're doing? Give those back to me right now! Do you hear me? Give them back! Give them back!” Destroyer beat her hands angrily against P7's hand, taking out her frustration in the only way left to her. There was no way this was happening; it was impossible. Had she really been defeated by a pair of lousy Griffin Dolls? What would Dreamer say when she heard about this?

“Aww, does the little girl want her toys back? Sorry, but those are a bit dangerous for a kid like you to be handling.”

“I'm not a kid! I'm a fearsome ringleader of Sangvis Ferri!”

“Really? Because you look just like a kid to me. A bad little kid who's been causing so much trouble and needs to be punished. The fun I get out of that should almost make up for having to come all the way out here to chase after you and your troops.”

“You... you... You bastards! You'll be sorry you ever messed with me! I'll be back some day, with  a bigger army and bigger, stronger weapons, and I'll make you pay for all this! Do you hear? ... Hey!!! Pay attention to me!!!”

“P7,”  said Kar98k, ignoring the ringleader's tantrum, “remember we still have more SF units to deal with. Finding them takes priority over you 'punishing' Destroyer.”

“Aww, but that'll take all day! Can't I just have a little fun with her first?”

“The mission, and peoples' safety, comes first. Deal with her quickly so we can finish up here; if we get them all today, maybe we could be back at base tomorrow.

“Fine, fine,” P7 sighed, dropping the struggling Destroyer on the ground.

Destroyer tried to stand, but the fall had damaged her legs and she could only roll onto her back to look up at P7 rising back to her full height. P7 raised a foot high in the air, holding it smugly over the damaged ringleader, who recalled the last images she had received from all her troops who had been crushed under the giant Doll's boots. Unwilling to take such humiliation, she triggered the self-destruct function she'd built into her dummy, destroying it before it could be crushed, and swearing, one day, to get her revenge.