Apparently most of these chapters will turn out longer than I expected. Yet somehow I finished this one quickly. You should absolutely not expect that to become a trend. Anyway, we started with comedy and then fell off a cliff into tragedy; now for the promised action.


Appa divulged a soft moan as Aang and the others returned to the edge of the village where the bison and the royal zeppelin were parked. Aang, upon reaching Appa, placed a hand gently on his head and ran it through his fur. The familiar sensation was calming for both of them.

Not far away, one party of Fire Nation soldiers also approached, headed by Weiss, Blake, and General Mak. Zuko turned to meet them, and when they had properly regrouped, his subjects stood at attention and the general performed the Fire Nation bow.

"Fire Lord Zuko," Mak said. "We have found no sign of -"

He was interrupted by a loud cry from beyond the horizon. Everyone turned to look.

At first, all that could be seen was a small cloud of dust. Then the diminutive figure of Momo flapping hastily toward them became visible. Shortly after this, more soldiers - many of them clearly having abandoned dignity and running for their lives. Those furthest behind were maintaining better form, launching repeated orange flashes back at the writhing black mass in pursuit of them. As it closed in, gaps in the mass became clear, white and red hues glinted, and it was revealed to be not one indistinct body, but an entire horde of creatures all but trampling one another in a mad dash.

Among the torrent, the easily-differentiated forms of Ruby and Yang shot this way and that, attacking in whichever random direction they could manage.

Ruby's voice came carried on the wind accompanied by many beastly snarls. "We found the Grimm!"

Everybody, including Appa, fell into more stable stances, and Weiss and Blake drew their weapons. Sokka looked left and right at his companions before remarking, "Attracted to negative emotions. Right."

"Before we get into this," said Blake, turning toward Toph, "one question. Are you - actually blind?"

"I can see fine," Toph replied, "just not with my eyes. All that stampeding they're doing, you feel that in the ground? That's how I see. I can feel each one of 'em running, General Mak over there shaking in his boots, and your heart pounding in your ears."

Weiss's eyes widened at this, while Blake's only narrowed. Toph made no further comment, but she grinned slyly.

"Don't worry about us," Sokka cut in. "We can fight. This is just a bit more - inconceivably horrifying than we're used to."

"Nice pep talk," muttered Toph.

Sokka ignored her and turned to Aang. "Now just to make sure . . ."

Aang stared coldly at the Grimm horde. In a voice no warmer but loud enough for everyone around to hear, he said, "Do whatever you have to to stop them. And watch each other's backs."

"With all due respect, Avatar," said General Mak, "we only take orders from the Fire Lord."

Without looking and in complete deadpan, Zuko said, "Do what he says."

Unfazed, Mak turned to his troops, raised a fist, and shouted, "You heard him, men! Let's show these beasts the might of the Fire Nation!"

At that, the soldiers formed up in a row in front of the others. Aang pulled his glider into position behind him. Weiss held her rapier close to her face. Toph cracked her knuckles. Sokka gulped.

Momo sailed overhead, passing them all by. The soldiers already in combat with the Grimm drew near. Appa growled again, and then opened his mouth and roared powerfully.

Whether by incidence or design, the oncoming soldiers parted before them, and Mak took it as a cue.

"Ready . . . fire!"


"So I ask you . . . when the first shots are fired . . . who do you think you can trust?"

The broadcast cut to static.

"A bit melodramatic, wasn't it?" said Mai.

Looking around nervously, Ty Lee said, "I don't think that was part of the show, Mai . . ."

As if responding to her comment, a loud siren let out a long blare over the stadium. An inappropriately serene female voice came over the speakers, "Alert. Incoming Grimm attack. Threat level: nine. Please seek shelter in a calm, orderly manner."

Mai had no time for a sarcastic remark before the people around them exploded into a frenzy. Some attempted to form lines in the designated walking spaces while others went as far as clambering over their heads. The two Fire Nation girls sat in the middle of the chaos, unsure what to do. Ty Lee stared down at the pieces of the girl-machine, her eyes wide.

The speakers squeaked briefly, and this time a male voice spoke, also calm but in a less disturbing way. "Ladies and gentlemen. Please. There is no need for panic."

Immediately after this, a terrible screech came from overhead, and Mai and Ty Lee looked up to see a gigantic black bird standing on top of what appeared to be another light trick that was acting as a roof for the stadium. The bird flapped, stomped its feet on the hard light, and pecked at it, sending tremors through the colosseum that were perceptible even over the vibrations of the scrambling crowd.

It screamed again.

"Mai?" Ty Lee's voice trembled along with the floor. "What do we do?"

Mai glared up at the bird with distaste. "We survive."


The combined din of fire blasts, gunshots, Grimm crying out threateningly, and Grimm squealing as they were slain was ceaseless. With enemies everywhere, the combatants had little control of where they ended up over time, forced merely to attack whatever came at them.

From overhead, where Aang soared with his glider, it was utter chaos; trying to observe the whole of the battle was simply disorienting. Whenever his eye found someone to follow, though, they did seem to be surviving.

Behind him, a series of screeches; he glanced back at the group of winged horse-things pursuing him. Just as he turned forward, Appa thundered by, and Aang looked back again to watch the bison bowl through the creatures, scattering them. One recovered and followed Aang diligently.

The Avatar flew toward a black bird several times larger than the horses. When he caught the bird's attention, it flapped around in his direction and paused. Then, with a strong beat of both wings, it sent a hailstorm of feathers speeding toward him.

His brow furrowed, Aang easily weaved his glider this way and that through the onslaught of projectiles. Judging by the screams, a few of them may have stricken the Griffon, but it was still not deterred.

As the giant Nevermore dove at him, Aang's eyes and tattoos pulsed white, just for a moment. Then he pulled his glider into a spin, still moving up toward the bird.

Aang's twirling speed became fast enough to create a funnel of wind that trailed behind him. As this grew in size and strength, the persistent Griffon attempted to slow down, but was unable to escape being sucked inside the vortex.

Closing in on the Nevermore, Aang suddenly threw himself into a backward flip and folded up his glider. Pointing the staff into the center of his end of the wind funnel, he swung the entire cyclone underneath him and up at the bird just in time to slam the smaller Grimm into the larger's chin. The dispersing wind then sent the two of them hurtling wildly through the air, whereas Aang popped his glider's wings back out and continued on his way.


"Did he just use a tornado as a whip?" said Blake, looking up at Aang from the ground.

"I love these guys," Yang replied, nonchalantly backhanding a Beowolf behind her.

A pair of Boarbatusks came rolling toward the two girls at high speed, and they fell back into combat stances. The first boar aimed at Blake, who cloned herself and stood on her own shoulders just before impact. The clone dissolved and the hog rolled right on through, and Blake somersaulted backwards after it. Yang, an instant later, smashed her fist into the ground before the second Grimm, sending it straight up into the air in front of her, spinning even faster than before. With her other hand, she punched the beast back in the direction it had come.

Before the balled-up monster hit the ground again, the ground rose up and hit it instead.

Toph stood nearby, situated in that particular stance of hers that reminded Yang of a praying mantis. Grinning, Yang once again punched the Boarbatusk toward her, and Toph, with a similar grin and punching motion, batted it back with her plate of earth.

As the volley continued, another Beowolf - or the same one - barked behind Yang, but as she glanced backward, Toph stomped a foot and jerked the ground beneath the wolf up sharply, sending it shooting into the sky like a firework.

As they increased the strength of their blows to the Boarbatusk, hitting it back and forth faster, a pained yelp came from overhead, and Yang looked up to see the follow-through of a swing from Aang's staff that had knocked the Beowolf back down toward them.

Smiling wider, she shouted to Toph, "Finisher!" Then she pointed both fists down and blasted herself into the air.

Toph bent her earth panel into a ramp that caught the boar and rolled it into place under the falling wolf. Yang rose past the same wolf, reached upward, and propelled herself downward with another double shot. Then, at the same time, she delivered a downward haymaker to the wolf and Toph stomped up a stone platform under the boar, and the two Grimm exploded into giblets from the sandwiching forces.

As the smoking monster chunks rained around the platform, Yang landed heavily atop it on both feet. Standing up, she cocked her gauntlets, spewing empty shells around her, and pulled a pair of new magazines off of her belt.

Hearing a menacing hissing behind her, she tossed the magazines lightly and spun around, catching them in her gauntlets and raising her fists at the white head of the King Taijitu.

The snake, in its way, reared up slowly, preparing for a quick strike, but as it did so Yang caught another movement in her periphery. Looking right, then left, she saw that the spent shells had floated into the air around her. Turning her head back toward Toph, she confirmed her suspicions: Toph's hands were spread out toward the snake, at an angle lined up with the used Dust casings.

Toph quickly cocked both hands very much as Yang would her gauntlets, and the shells all spun themselves to face toward the snake. Then she threw a punch, and the bullets peppered the Grimm's face, causing it to hiss and squeal in agony.

"I love these guys," Yang repeated to herself, and then launched herself toward the Taijitu.


Sokka's first ingenious plan was to keep his emotions so positive that he would become invisible to the Grimm. This turned out, after seeing the village and his friends so broken by it, and in the heat of battle with toothy monsters of pure evil lunging at him, and lacking any bending or whatever miraculous powers of pure awesomeness Team RWBY wielded, the name of which they had mentioned but he was understandably having trouble remembering at the moment, to be more easily said than done. Besides that, he quickly got the impression that the sometimes-many-more-than-two eyes of the Grimm were more than merely decorative, which in retrospect he probably could have just asked one of those girls about.

Well, too late now.

As the Beowolf repeatedly slashed at him with one hand and then the other, he ducked, leaned, and blocked strikes with his warrior's club.

"I - could really - use - a - space sword - right about now!" he told the beast between blows. It offered no opinion on the matter.

Noticing something else running toward him - a couple of weird-looking Grimm with only two legs - Sokka managed to whip out his boomerang and send it in their direction before returning his attention to the Beowolf's ministrations.


As the Boarbatusk built up kinetic energy for another spinning attack, Blake watched two Creeps dash by behind it. When the pig tumbled toward her, she kicked it back with all her might, sending it just in front of the Creeps, both of which tripped over it in sequence. Just after this, a small blue boomerang flew into view and bounced off of one of the Creeps' heads, slightly stunning it further and sailing straight upward.

Blake propelled herself forward off of a shadow clone and the rolling Boarbatusk swerved back in her direction. With a flurry of slices from Gambol Shroud, Blake kept the first Creep occupied, and just when the second got back up, the boomerang fell down and she kicked it into the Grimm's face; once again, it ricocheted off the bony armor, but Blake continued to work its trajectory into her routine, striking the Creeps with a furious barrage until they both slumped over dead. At this point the Boarbatusk leaped out of its spin and attempted to land on her, and she neatly impaled its vulnerable underbelly on her katana's sheath.

Her bow twitched as her second ears picked up a noise from behind, and she called upon the Dust stored inside her weapon. Flipping out of another clone, she left the Boarbatusk flopping to the ground and landed on top of the Griffon swooping in. The clone, composed of fire, then exploded forcefully; she dug her sword into the monster's hide as it careened skyward.

The explosion also sent the boomerang flying sideways.


An explosion distracted both Sokka and the Beowolf, and he turned his head just in time to allow him to catch his returning boomerang. Seeing the smoking Grimm corpses lying in a burnt crater in the ground, he looked down at the weapon and said, "Whoa! Nice job Boomerang!"

The wolf growled at him, and he grinned and tossed the boomerang showily.

It was promptly batted off to the side by the wolf's claw.

Sokka slumped forward. "Aww . . ."

The monster dove at him, and he threw himself out of the way in the direction of the deflected boomerang.


As several Creeps and Beowolves dropped dead at once to reveal Weiss standing in the middle, she paused to catch her breath. A nearby Death Stalker spotted her and scuttled around to face her. She closed her eyes for just a second; when she opened them, a white glyph appeared behind her. She quickly hopped backwards onto it and then jumped off, clearing the circle of corpses and staring down the approaching scorpion.

Weiss spun her weapon's revolving chamber, then spun around herself and thrust the rapier into the ground. Before her, the earth became coated in a sheet of ice, which extended underneath the legs of the Death Stalker, causing them to slip repeatedly and slow its progress.

Katara surfed by on her supply of water, and, passing the scorpion, melted the ice beneath it and pulled the water out like a tablecloth. Luckily, she was no magician, and the arachnid was yanked backward, flopping onto its belly.

Taking the opening, Weiss shot forward between the Grimm's claws and plunged her sword directly into one of its many eyes. Keeping her grip on Myrtenaster, she quickly flipped herself up to stand on its head as the two claws crashed together where she had just been standing.

The yellow stinger of the tail lunged at her from above, but was jerked to a halt before she had to defend - a length of water had wrapped around the tail and was keeping it at bay. Katara, behind, stood firm and held her hands out as though pulling on a tug-of-war rope, though the water whip began some distance from her fingertips.

Weiss once again activated the ice Dust in her sword, which was still lodged in the Grimm's eye. With horrible crackling noises, spikes of ice began forcing their way out of the joints of the scorpion's armor from inside. After a few moments of shivering, the Death Stalker was blown apart, replaced by what looked like an ice sculpture of a giant lotus flower. Weiss, thrown skyward, conjured another glyph and stood on it, observing the battle around her from an elevated vantage point.

A group of Creeps moved in to surround Katara, so she appropriated the water from the lotus and swirled around to create a protective ring branching into eight watery tentacles. Figuring that she had that situation covered, Weiss scanned for somewhere else to jump back into the fray.


Zuko danced through the flailing of a Beowolf's arms while scoring minor hits with his fire daggers. Increasingly burned and desperate, the beast made to close him off with a lethal hug, but a sudden ear-splitting bang blew open a hole in its side. Canceling the small dagger jets and stuffing a larger fireball into the wound, Zuko glanced aside to find Ruby hefting her scythe out of the ground where she had planted it to steady her shot. The Beowolf shuffled back in pain, and in a flash of red flower petals, Ruby appeared on its shoulders and readily decapitated it.

Following the sound of its head landing on the ground, Zuko heard behind him a louder thud followed by a groan, and turned to look.

One of his men lay at his feet, sporting only light scratches but clearly winded. Several yards away, unmistakably the thing that had thrown the soldier, stood another Beowolf. This one was bigger, with greater amounts of bony plating, including armor down its lower jaw and what looked like exterior ribs. Compared to the monstrous bird chasing Aang around the sky, it was still quite small, but Zuko recognized an alpha wolf when he saw one.

The Fire Lord stepped over his defeated subject toward the beast.

The Alpha kept its eyes trained on him, and its long ears darted to and fro. Unlike its brethren, it did not immediately rush forward, but waited for him to make the first move.

Ruby beat him to it.

Sailing over Zuko's head with petals trailing from her cape, she swiped her scythe at the Beowolf, only for its claw to strike the side of the blade and redirect her over its shoulder. Zuko took the opportunity to punch several bursts of flame at the Alpha, which shielded its face with its other arm.

As Ruby scrambled back to her feet, Zuko leaned forward and brought his fists together, then threw them both at the Beowolf, producing a large beam of fire that lasted for several seconds. When the flames cleared in front of him, he was shocked to find the Grimm sprinting right at him, apparently having run headlong into the attack. He dodged its claw, but lost his balance and fell backward.

When the wolf lunged down at him, he took a cue from its own tactics and rolled toward it instead of away, just barely managing to slip under it to safety. Pushing off from the ground with his hands, he generated a brief firewall for protection as he regained his footing.

The Alpha's black fur was smoking, not as Grimm did when they died but from the fire. Nevertheless, it moved assuredly, spinning to face him and using the momentum to lash out again with its claw. Zuko dropped into a swipe kick, ducking under the blow and sending a stream of fire at the wolf's feet. It hopped back to avoid this, and then Ruby's scythe slammed into the dirt next to Zuko.

Shots rang out as the diminutive girl cranked the weapon's firing handle repeatedly. The Alpha jerked at each impact, but did not seem more than bothered. Zuko, however, stared down at the mechanical blade in concentration.

Whatever it was doing was not exactly fire - or lightning, for that matter - but he could feel the energy created by each shot. Synchronizing his breathing with Ruby's firing rhythm, he suddenly thrust his hand at the scythe with a loud "Ha!"

The weapon's shot was amplified by Zuko's chi, displaying the girth of a fireball along with its usual higher speed. At being stricken with this blast, the Alpha was properly stunned, slumping onto one knee and laying a hand on the ground for support.

Ruby let out a delighted if incoherent string of praise and yanked up her scythe. Bolting into the air with her rose petal ability, she fired a scythe shot at such an angle as to send her into a spin, descending toward the Alpha. Acting on instinct, Zuko aimed a flame burst at her twirling blade, turning the girl into a deadly vortex of fire.

The combination of heat, momentum, and sharpness of edge was enough to dig into the flesh of the Beowolf's back, leaving multiple large gashes. The Grimm convulsed, but ultimately collapsed at the same moment that Ruby touched down on the earth, the circle of fire dispersing around her.

Zuko intended to thank her for the team-up, but before he knew it she had been replaced with fluttering petals.


Ruby sped along the battlefield, slashing left and right whenever a Grimm whooshed by. Before long, she ran out of oomph for her Semblance and had to skid to a stop.

Her timing turned out to be fortuitous, because a moment later she felt the ground beneath her feet softening into slipperier sand. She glanced to one side where Toph stood with one foot on the face of a dead Creep, but the earthbender looked as surprised as Ruby did by the sand situation.

Then the sky seemed to darken.

Looking up, Ruby saw Aang, with his glider, making a nosedive for the sand, and a Nevermore of similar size to the one from their initiation at Beacon on his tail, its wingspan blocking out the sun.

Caution defenestrated, Ruby aimed her scythe and repelled herself backwards, the shot throwing up a huge cloud of dust. Seconds later, Aang plunged into the top of the cloud, and then out of the side. The Nevermore, as was presumably Aang's plan, was not so lucky, its head becoming lodged in the sand pool, sending a small quake through the surrounding earth.

Aang landed, stowed his glider, and held one hand out toward the Grimm. By closing his fist, he caused the sand to become as stony as his expression.

The bird abruptly stopped struggling.

As Ruby watched it begin to evaporate into black smoke, she was vaguely aware of her teammates happening by in rapid succession. Finding themselves in a momentary lull of Grimm activity, Team RWBY regrouped with Aang and Toph, though for a while only silence was exchanged between them. Then . . .

"Guys?" said Toph nervously. "What's that?" She pointed, and the others turned to look.

In the distance, something loomed, huge and dark. It was approaching slowly, but each of its quadrupedal steps covered the length of a barn. It was elephantine in stature and build, with curving tusks and rows of sharp white spikes along its back. Its eyes burned like volcanic pits, and as it grew closer, the degree to which it towered over - everything became increasingly obvious. And it was headed straight for them.

"Uh-oh," Ruby understated. "Goliath . . ."

Everybody took a moment to digest the appearance of the beast. Finally, Aang turned to face the others.

"I'll deal with it," he said. "You guys handle the small ones."

"THEY'RE NOT THAT SMALL!" Sokka screamed as he ran by, pursued by an Ursa.

"Aang," said Weiss as Yang blasted off to save Sokka, "there's no way you can -"

Aang's eyes and tattoos suddenly shone white once more, and maintained it this time. Though he made no bending motions, a powerful wind whipped up around him. When he next spoke, the voices of all of his past lives spoke with him, creating a deep, dramatic echo.

"This is our world," said the Avatar. He turned toward the oncoming Goliath and rose off of the ground. "Let's take it back."

A large, distinct ball of air formed around Aang as he was lifted higher still. A small spark before him ignited a stream of fire, which circled him to form a ring around the air ball. From a nearby feeding trough, water snaked out and made another such ring, perpendicular to the fire one. Lastly, a series of stones popped out of the ground and lined up end to end to create a third loop, spinning around Aang along with the other three elements.

Then, as Aang's element ball drifted toward the Goliath, he raised his arms with his hands pointing down at the earth beneath him, and it began to rumble. Boulder-sized chunks were torn from the ground, piling up underneath the glowing Avatar. Higher and higher the rocks lifted the wind sphere, and Ruby, Weiss, and Blake leaned back their heads to watch it grow, their jaws falling lower in the process. Finally, as Yang returned with Sokka in tow, they stood in the shadow of Aang's completed construct, which matched the Goliath in height.

Atop the earthen golem, Aang's air ball sat as a mock head. Suspended inside, the Avatar made the motions of taking a step forward, and in response the golem lifted its massive stone foot and strode toward the giant Grimm. The impact when its foot returned to the ground almost threw Ruby's group off of their own feet. As the golem continued toward the Goliath, the elephant hesitated, ceasing its own march for the time being.

Team RWBY looked at each other, and Yang said what they were all thinking.

"We were protecting him?"

Sokka put a hand on her shoulder and said, "That job's not over. When he gets all glowy, that's called the Avatar State. It makes him stronger, but it's also dangerous for him. For one thing, he can get out of control."

"Is that out of control?" Ruby asked, pointing at the golem.

"Nah," said Toph dismissively, "he's done that before."

"Wait," said Ruby, "does this have anything to do with seven chocolates?"

"Oh yeah!" Yang added, and she formed a square shape with her fingers. "And ant farms?"

Sokka rubbed his chin. "Spider ants or plain ants?"

"Sokka!" Toph barked. "More important things here!"

"Right, right, sorry. The point is, the extra power comes from Aang's past lives. When the Avatar dies, he's reincarnated. But if he dies in the Avatar State - he won't be. Ever."

Everyone sans Toph looked up at the golem again. It had almost reached the Goliath, which had taken a defensive stance. The immensity of the two of them made the idea of a normal-sized person being able to affect the fight seem ludicrous. Then Ruby perked up.

"Ooh! Ooh! I have an idea!"


With a snarl, another Beowolf loped toward Zuko. A glint of the sun drew the Fire Lord's attention to the monster's back, where, amongst its bony spikes, a sword was buried to its halfway point. Wide-eyed, Zuko drew the blade's counterpart, and then he did something that he knew he should not. For but a moment, he abandoned the wisdom of the Sun Warriors and allowed anger to become his driving force once again. With a long, loud cry of pure rage, he brought the boy's sword slicing down through the air, and a powerful stream of flames burst out along its arc.

The flames burned bright blue.

The creature was halved diagonally, and the blade from its back, glowing red-hot, fell from its dissolving form and embedded its point in the ground. Closing his eyes, Zuko forcefully threw the inscribed sword into the earth next to its twin. Then he took a deep breath, turned, and walked away.

The ground shook beneath him, and he opened his eyes to find, in the distance ahead of him, a brown colossus striding purposefully toward a black elephant creature of equal magnitude. A breeze - air displaced by the golem's giant steps - ruffled his hair as he looked on in awe, reminded of his glimpses of the Ocean Spirit's behemoth form when Aang had fused with it at the North Pole. The image of Admiral Zhao being pulled into the murky depths lunged unbidden into his mind's eye.

Then a fierce cry sounded behind him, and he spun around and kicked a blast of fire - back to its normal orange hue - at the diving Griffon.


Aang's rocky creation took its final step, landing within melee range of the titanic elephant Grimm. The Avatar's shining white eyes looked down into the Goliath's searing red ones. Red like roses; white like snow. The two stared at each other for seconds that seemed like hours, the whistling wind of Aang's sphere of elements causing the Goliath's tentlike ears to ripple slightly.

The elephant shifted its head uncertainly. Then it rose its foot to move forward.

In a voice - nay, voices - that shook the very heavens around them, the Avatar roared, "GET OUT OF MY WORLD!"

Mimicking Aang's motions, the golem heaved a mighty punch backed by the weight of untold tons of solid earth that cleaved the air before it with its sheer force. The sound of the impact upon the Goliath's skull-plate was like an entire thunderstorm condensed into a single boom. Below and behind, Toph covered her ears.

The Goliath's foot returned to the ground, its whole body sliding backward. The golem lowered its fist and the two were still for another tense moment.

Then the elephant trumpeted and charged.


"Ruby," said Weiss, "of all your insane plans -"

"Come on!" said Yang. "It's too awesome not to try!"

"It's completely impractical!" said Weiss in exasperation, shouting over the monstrous noises of the battle of giants.

"It . . . really is," Blake admitted. "But then again . . . how else do we fight a Goliath?"

"I like it!" said Toph, slugging Ruby affectionately on the arm. "But Twinkle - I mean, Aang isn't that coordinated. He'll need my help." The ground trembled beneath them, and she added, "So let's get going! Ice Queen, you in or out?"

"I just think there are some things we need to -"

"Too late!"

With a stomp of her foot, Toph catapulted Team RWBY toward Aang's staggering golem, and a moment later rocketed after them by way of a rocky pillar. Sokka was left standing alone amidst the rubble, staring at the situation pensively, until more not-that-small Grimm circled around him.

He smiled nervously, choking on a hollow laugh.


Katara spun, collecting all of the water from her octopus arms, and froze it into a large, vertical sheet of ice, which she commanded to swing downward like an axe in order to attack a particularly large Creep charging at her. The first blow did not break through the monster's armor, but impeded it enough for her to easily land a second, which neatly bisected it.

Hearing scuffling sounds behind her, Katara turned to see an Ursa rearing up menacingly. The bear roared at her, and she responded by blasting the whole axe's worth of water into its open mouth. Caught quite off guard, the Ursa stumbled around; a pack of Beowolves surrounded the two of them, and, tearing her hands apart violently, Katara ripped a ring of icicles out of the Ursa's insides and sent one into the belly of each of the wolves.

In the corner of her eye, she watched Toph and Team RWBY leap like fleas toward the imposing silhouette of Aang's stone giant.


Feeling her way through the blinding vibrations in front of her, Toph threw up her arms, and beneath her and each of the RWBY girls rose a tower of earth, lifting them up to Aang's height. The golem had its hands wrapped around the Goliath's tusks, and the two were leaning their weight against one another.

"Aang!"

She was unable to see Aang himself, floating as he was in the air ball, but she could tell that something went wrong; the golem went slack and the elephant Grimm was able to push it backwards toward them. She guessed that she had shocked Aang out of the Avatar State; regardless, she punched both her arms forward just in time to toss herself and Team RWBY onto the golem's shoulders before it smashed into their five stone pillars.

"Sorry," she said quickly. The rocks underneath her collected themselves again, suggesting that Aang had "glowed it back up." The golem stopped sliding backwards.

"Listen," Toph shouted, "we're gonna help you out with this one! Just hold tight for a second!"

The Goliath let out another angry trumpeting noise, and the five girls leaped into action.


An Ursa once more nipping at his heels, Sokka tossed himself into a bush for cover, only to find himself tumbling down an incline on the other side. The Grimm charged after him, keeping its footing down the slope. When the ground evened out, Sokka rolled to his feet and faced the beast, which stood on its hind legs and roared at him.

Drawing his club again, he said, "Okay Sokka, get it together. Big scary evil monster? No problem. You can handle this."

Before either of them could attack, the earth rumbled on either side of the Ursa, and out of the ground popped two Creeps.

Sokka swallowed hard, and his voice rose an octave. "Alright . . . three scary death monsters. Could be worse."

There was a snorting noise, and Sokka felt a hot puff of air on the back of his neck. Slowly turning his head to investigate, he found a large, brown-furred creature with enormous tree-like antlers and stalactite-like fangs standing right behind him.

His nervous expression turned to one of vexation, and his voice went deadpan. "Saber-tooth moose lion. Sure, why not."

The moose lion growled, and the Ursa bellowed right back. Sokka threw himself flat on the ground as the huge animal leaped over his head and into combat with the three Grimm. Despite the Ursa matching its size and the monsters outnumbering it, the moose lion displayed superior strength, and after a few short seconds the Grimm had all been sliced open by horn, tooth, or claw. The Ursa pawed stubbornly even in its death throes, causing the moose lion to lift it off the ground with its antlers and heave it backwards into the side of the slope, where its body finally slumped in defeat.

Victorious, the animal rounded on Sokka, who had gotten to his feet and made to sneak away. Face-to-face, the moose lion stared at him and snorted again.

"Uheheh . . . ah . . . hey there, big fella . . ."

The creature produced a low grumble. Raising its oblong snout slightly, it sniffed Sokka's head from chin to wolftail. Then, suddenly, its expression softened, and it stood still, looking at him with curious eyes.

Sokka returned the sentiment for a moment, and then his jaw dropped like an anvil.

"No . . . way . . ."

Then he threw his arms skyward and smiled ear to ear.

"Foofoocuddlypoops!"

The moose lion opened its mouth and gave Sokka a long, slobbery lick across the face. Sokka wiped the excess drool away and then hugged the animal around its massive neck.

"Wow, you sure sprouted up! I guess my karma finally paid off!" Sokka removed one arm, crossing his legs and leaning against Foofoocuddlypoops with a devious expression on his face. "Hey, so since you're here and all, what would you say to helping me fight some more of those mangy monsters?"

Foofoocuddlypoops responded with another friendly lick.

"Alright!" said Sokka, patting the moose lion on the head. "Now we're talking!"


Toph tore one of the boulders out of the center of the golem's chest and hurled it at the Goliath. The rock shattered against its bone-plated head; the beast showed little concern over it. Toph then slid down the front of the golem's body, her feet adhering to the stone enough to prevent her from falling to her doom. Situating herself inside of the hole that she had just created in the chest, she entered her mantis stance.

She could feel Ruby and Yang running down the golem's right arm and Weiss and Blake down the left. When they arrived near the hands, Toph took a deep breath.

With a mighty heave, she ripped the bottom half of the golem's right arm down off of the top half, and then repeated the same for the left side. Yang and Blake hopped down onto the lower two of what were now four thinner arms, and Yang gave Toph a thumbs-up signal.

The Goliath attempted to interrupt, but Aang sent a roaring blast of fire into its face, and kept pumping flames at it long enough for the girls to complete Ruby's vision.

Each member of Team RWBY stood on the end of a rocky arm and allowed Toph to embed her up to the waist in the stone. Upon completion, the golem now effectively had the four girls for hands.

Ruby loaded a new Dust cartridge into her scythe.

Weiss spun her rapier's revolving chamber.

Blake unsheathed her katana and brandished both the sword and the sheath.

Yang punched her fists together and smiled.

Aang spread his arms, and the golem's top two arms, holding Ruby and Weiss, followed suit. The arms holding Yang and Blake rose into an imitation of Toph's mantis stance, copying her movements in the chest cavity.

Aang let out another tremendous roar, spitting a jet of fire high into the sky.


Yeah. So when I said "just like in the 2014 Godzilla movie," I uh... I meant it. The first version of the golem with just Aang, I should note for those of you who haven't read the comics, is from the comics (specifically, The Rift, Part 3), which is why Toph says he's "done that before." Now, to make Yang (or rather Barb) proud, here are all the punny names I've come up with for this particular kaijuoid:

- Avatron

- Rwbot

- Aanguirus

- Earthen Huntresszord

- Combat Dirt

- R.W.T.O. (Really Wild Terrestrial Obstruction)

- Category VI (going off of Pacific Rim and because there are six people involved)

- David (it's fighting a Goliath; also a reference to Camp Camp)

- Tophra (to rhyme with Mothra)

- It's Also A Gundam

- Lady Fancyfingers

- Dusty

Unfortunately I don't have hardly any of the next chapter prewritten, so it will probably take a long time. But we will actually get to see this thing in action.