A/N: I was originally going to have this chapter be about Taylor getting the bandages off her eyes, but decided that it was too early. But that's the main reason why this chapter took so long. I've written 3,889 words already for the scene, and now I'm basically starting over. So I hope you'll all forgive me. But look on the bright side: Chapter 5 hopefully shouldn't take as long, seeing as I already have almost 4K words for it.

That's another thing: This chapter was originally much longer, at nearly 14k words. But due to multiple reasons, I decided to split it up. This one is now just under 11.5k, while the other is at 4.4k. The next chapter should come out quicker as a result, though will be shorter then this one.

Finally, the reasons for this chapter being so late is simply that college has been a bitch. To anyone who's gone to college or university, you know what I'm talking about. And before that during the summer, I was busy with work. This chapter has been ready for a while, but it's only now that I've found the time to prepare it for posting. I hope you can all forgive me. As I said above, the next chapter is partially done, so it won't take as long.

Not fully sure how to feel about this chapter. I feel like I could have done better, and I don't know if I displayed Taylor accurately. Please let me know what you think and how I can improve her if you think I can. Or if you think she's good let me know as well please so I don't feel the need to change her.

Reviews

Mike: I understand how it looks, but trust me, there's a reason for that. It'll be explained eventually. At least a part of it should be explained in chapter 5.

kaws: Not sure what you mean by union nor how you want me to get them involved. All I can say is that there is reason for no one being held accountable for what happened. As I told Mike in the above response, it will eventually be revealed, partially in chapter 5.

Tomiya Shiro: Trust me, that won't be happening. It'll be more like what you said. Someone who doesn't necessarily want to be a bad person, but someone who understands the unfairness of the world around her. You'll see what I mean in a few chapters. Probably around chapter 6.

Shadow of God: Oh trust me, she's going to. Things are not going to be like how they were in Worm. She'd going to realize the true cruelty and unfairness of the world around her and act accordingly. But she's not going to be full out evil. As for your statement regarding revenge, I couldn't agree more. And Taylor will as well. Sophia is going to pay, and Taylor will enjoy it. None of that crap in Worm how she 'never retaliated despite wanting to.' They harmed her, she can fight back, so she will. You and I seem to share similar thoughts on the story.

Pokefanljb: Thank you. That really means a lot. I'm just sorry it took so long to get this chapter out.

andrew213: Panacea's powers are used for the super serious stuff, and because they don't know the extent of the damage to her eyes yet. I haven't written this in yet, but after testing her eyesight a decision would be made on whether or not to put her on Panacea's list.

TheApatheticOne: You and me both. That's why I decided to make this story different. It first shows Taylor doing exactly what you described, but will eventually show her getting even with the world. Don't you worry, this story will be different from others in that aspect at least.

Taylor could feel the heat from the sun beating down on the hood and back of her sweater, the heat seeping through the fabric and into her skin. It was not an unfamiliar sensation, but it still felt strange. Understandably so, when one considered the fact that she could see neither the sun nor the sunlight illuminating the world around her. Light was, in almost every imaginable sense, useless to her. She simply didn't need it. The strings that made up every object around her was the same amount of visible to her regardless of their visibility to everyone else. What was essentially perfect night-vision was a benefit of her new sight, since she didn't need to worry about tripping over things in the middle of the night anymore. Still, she wasn't quite sure it was worth all the other aspects that came with it.

Chief among them was the fact that her father had not let her out of his sight for the near two weeks she'd been outwardly blind, not including the time she spent unconscious in the hospital. On the plus side though, the increased attention her dad had been conducting meant he wasn't spending much time at work. As a result, he had gotten backed up, and had to go to work for the day to try and catch up, finally giving her the freedom she'd been waiting for.

There was no question that Taylor loved her father and everything he'd done for her after the accident. But there was such a thing as too much attention. Even as he had prepared to leave in the morning, he'd stayed back for an extra twenty minutes just to make sure she'd be alright for the day. Repeatedly, he explained how there was food in the fridge, the doors would be locked, and he would stay near his work phone at all times in case she needed to contact him. But finally, after repeated reassurances that she would be fine, he left. Leaving the house for herself. So what was the first thing she did? She ran, of course.

More specifically, Taylor had put on the most inconspicuous clothing she owned and left her house for the first time in three days since the meeting with Blackwell. It was actually her first time being out of the house on her own since the incident. It felt nice to be free, even if it was just for a little while. She wasn't worried about her father calling in the middle of the day and not receiving an answer. Being the head of hiring and spokesperson for the Dockworkers Association meant that he'd be so busy he wouldn't have time to worry.

She reached a hand up and felt around her face, checking to make sure all the elements of her appearance were still effectively in place. They were. Her dark sunglasses were still pressed tightly against her bandages, her hair was draped over the sides of her head to hide the tape attaching said bandages to her skin, and the hood of her sweater was up all the way. She'd even gone to far as to wear a pair of thin black gloves, just to add to the 'poor' and 'uninteresting' look she was going for. Though with the scorching heat of the sun bearing down on her, she admitted to herself that particular choice may have been a mistake.

She looked down at the gloves covering her hands. They almost matched the colour of her own strings, making them nearly invisible to her eyes. She'd spent a good five minutes thinking about that when she got them out of the winter drawer. They were black, but they weren't black. There was a difference. Whereas the colour of the gloves was just like the colour black, the colour of her own strings was a deeper, far more intense form of black. The gloves were simply coloured black, but her strings were more like a complete absence of colour, which made them black. It was as sensible as it was confusing.

Tucking her hands into her sweater's pockets, Taylor couldn't help but imagine how much better she'd feel if she could just see herself in a mirror. Unfortunately, her 'string vision' as she had taken to calling it, prevented such a right. Who knew that mirrors were actually green?

Although Taylor knew she would probably never see herself again, there was another benefit to her new sight along with the 'night-vision'. She didn't need glasses anymore to see long distances. Before the locker, she couldn't have read the board at the front of the classroom without her classes even if her life depended on it. Now though, while she still probably couldn't read said board unless the letters were big enough, she could see everything clearly. At least, as clear as things could be when they were made up of coloured strings.

Not only could she see things clearly from meters away, she could see things beyond them. It was technically x-ray vision; another benefit to her new eyes. Although she had to admit, sometimes it was difficult to tell where something was. Was the car on this side of the building or the other? Was that photo in this room or the next one? These were the kinds of questions she would frequently find herself asking. She was improving in terms of identifying if an object was close or far, but in the nearly two weeks she'd been awake for, she'd honestly made little progress.

She interrupted her internal monologue by taking a moment to reach a hand up and wipe sweat from her forehead. She was honestly beginning to regret wearing a sweater on such a hot day, even if it was to help hide her bandages.

Taylor took a look around. She was currently walking down the street that was more or less avoided by most of the people in Brockton Bay. That was because the area she was walking was a part of the docks, and by association, technically territory of the ABB. The Azn Bad Boys gang. Honestly, she knew she shouldn't have been there. Just a quick look around gave her every reason why. The buildings were of obvious low quality, marred with broken windows, graffiti, faded and peeling paint, cracked mortar, rusty metal, and even scorch marks in one case. It wasn't just the buildings though. The road had potholes big enough to hide in, the very air around her stank of age and decay, and the sidewalk she was strolling on had grass and weeds growing through it.

The people sulking around the area was another indicator that she shouldn't have been there. While some of the people actually looked surprisingly normal, Taylor lived right on the edge of the docks and knew better. Almost everyone in the docks had their hands in something. Be it drugs, weapons, thievery, or any manner of crime under the sun, someone in the docks was doing it. Then there were those who were obviously homeless, based on their raggedy old clothing and filthy exterior appearance. It was easy to feel bad for them, until you realized that they wouldn't hesitate to gut you if they thought you had something they wanted. That was one of the reasons why she'd chosen to wear dark clothing and a sweater, to keep herself out of their sight and appearing unremarkable. A conflict was the last thing she wanted.

Taylor knew full well this wasn't the type of area to loiter around unless you were their kind of people. So why was she there?

Simple. It was close to home, and she was unknown. No one around knew her, it was unlikely anyone would try to interact with her in broad daylight. Even in the unlikely case someone tried, it would be easy enough to just run away. It was something she was good at, she admitted to herself sadly.

Regardless though, now that she was actually there and walking down the street, she was seriously starting to consider if her decision had been made in sound judgment. Just a mere glance proved the inner docks wasn't a good place to take a stroll through.

As Taylor walked, she absentmindedly reached a hand out to brush some tall grass growing from the walkway, triggering a memory. Back when she'd been in the hospital, she'd managed to locate some plants and animals through the walls, and had taken to studying them. She quickly discovered that animals, though she had only seen a few dogs in the hospital and birds flying outside, were just as dense and colourful as people were. She observed them changing colours just like all the people she'd seen, though noticeably less often, and noted that just like people she could not see through them. After being discharged from the hospital, she noticed the same thing in every other animal she saw. Be it squirrels, cats, or raccoons, they all behaved the same in terms of their strings. She'd only seen one case when they were significantly different from people, and that was when it came to insects. They displayed very dull and boring colours, and of a very small variety. It made sense, since they were so unintelligent and primitive-minded they couldn't feel the broad variety of emotions people and animals felt. She'd only ever sensed unfeeling grey, orange satisfaction, and in one case when she'd almost stepped on a caterpillar, purple caution.

It was strange though. When she looked at insects, she felt something... Odd. Not because they were so much different from everything else, but because... Actually, she didn't know why. If she stayed still and observed an insect, something she had done several times while stuck in the hospital, she could almost feel a sense of... FAMILIARITY. As though she knew the bug, or had seen it before. It was a foolish feeling since all bugs of the same species pretty much looked the same, but the feeling stuck by her. It felt like she was missing something, but had no idea what. It was far more annoying then it should have been, considering the feeling should have been nonexistent.

She shook her head, moving her thoughts along. The next thing she remembered was her experiments with plants. Through her eyes, they were unremarkable. They didn't change colour like people or animals, since they had no emotions. But, they were still too dense for her to see through. So they had one out of two. Beyond that though, there was nothing significant about them. The grass remained green, tree bark stayed brown, and another aspect of her sight was defined.

She sighed. "What I wouldn't give to have some answers." She thought miserably. Honestly, why did everything have to be so complicated in her life? Why couldn't things be simple? Other people's lives were probably pretty normal, so why couldn't hers? She'd always imagined growing up normally, and not-

Her thoughts trailed off as she suddenly sensed the emotions of the people ahead of her rapidly change. From light feelings of content, displeasure, or whatever else they were feeling, quickly changed to fear and apprehension.

Taylor had learned through experimentation that the strength that which peoples emotions radiated off themselves was much like water moving down a creek bed. Sometimes, if they weren't feeling anything strongly, then their emotions were like a light trickle of water gently flowing through the rocks of the creek bed to her mind. Other times, such as some times when she had seen people surprised or scared, their emotions burst out like a gushing torrent that swept everything, including other lighter emotions, away as it travelled to its location. In this case, that location was her mind. The people ahead were much more like the latter than the former. Their emotions gushed into her mind like an overflowing river after a heavy rainfall. The sudden and unexpected intensity of it nearly caused her to stumble.

Another benefit of her eyes and the abilities that came with it was that, in addition to being able to sense people's emotions, she could also sense their location. Without even looking, she could almost instantly tell that the torrent of sudden emotion was occurring about a hundred feet in front of her.

She brought her eyes up from the ground to gaze ahead, seeing people quickly moving out of the way, some even running into the streets, to clear a path for three men. Taylor nearly froze upon recognizing who they were. It was easy, considering their outfits. It would've been hard to mistake the green and red gang colours plastered onto the three obviously Asian figures.

ABB members, part of a gang infamously well known for theft, protection rackets, contraband, and no small amount of violence.

Taylor no longer wondered why people were filled with fear and were swiftly clearing the sidewalk. They would've been fools not to. ABB members were prone to violence, even for minor things.

Lowering her hood as far as she could and turning her gaze to the sidewalk, Taylor shuffled as far to the right as she could, practically scraping against the buildings. All she had to do was remain inconspicuous and not draw any form of attention. So long as she could do that, there wouldn't-

B̷̀̕Ŗ́͞ÈĄ̡̕͝K̶̡͟҉

Taylor froze. Her heart throbbed. A cold bolt of lightning shot through her nerves as she felt an all too familiar emotion, only times three. As all three of the gang members came into her emotional sensing range, her mind was filled with the smug confidence the three men were feeling. It was an emotional trait which Taylor's mind had tied directly to another, well known individual. Her long-time tormentor: Sophia Hess.

The strings of the sidewalk flickered as her head suddenly felt light. She saw-

T̸҉̨͜͏Ơ͘͏͠R̨͜͟͡M̷̡̡͘E҉̛̀͢N̴̶̴̡͝T́O̵̢R̴̢̛̀͞

She saw Sophia. She was there. At the end of he street. Standing. Smiling that god damn smile of hers as her soulless eyes bored into her. Arrogance oozed off her, suffocating Taylor's mind like a fire lacking oxygen. It choked every other emotion from every other person around her. It ruthlessly crushed the entrances to her mind which absorbed the feelings of others, leaving no room for anything but the emotions of her.

It wasn't her, she continually told herself. Yet... It was her. It... It had to be.

Taylor's breath hitched. Her arms began to shake as she could practically feel the strings that made up her mentality unravel and snap as they fought viciously against themselves.

It wasn't her. It was those three men.

But it felt just like her. It had to be her.

No. It was them who were emanating those feelings.

But it could still be her. She could be there.

No. It isn't. She isn't around. It isn't her.

It has to be! It's the same! It can only be her!

It's not. I'm safe.

I'm not! I'm never safe! She'll always find me!

She suddenly found herself back in that locker, with the suffocating metal walls pressing in on her from all sides and bugs crawling over her skin. Her eyes hurt. She could feel them eating away at her. Years of torment flowed into her mind with the crushing intensity of a thousand semi-trucks.

It was too much. She felt something T̨̀̕͠Ẁ̕͞I̢̕̕͝S҉̷̛́T̵͡Í͞Ǹ́͢͠G̷ ́͘A̕͏̢́N̴̶̢̕D̨̛́͡ ͟͜͞S̨͞͏͘͝H̀́͞͡A͡͏̕T̨̨̨T͝͝E͢͢͠͏Ŗ̵́̕̕I̴͝N̢͡͏̵G̵̵̛͘͘͝͞ as she was brutally dragged through the darkest alley of memory lane, breaking her. She could feel it happening. Her mind was leaving her, cracking and fracturing like a plane of glass under stress. It sought to break free from the shackles of sanity. All it would take was a single moment to come undone, and as it did-

SAFTY

PURGED WILL

ENDURING CLARITY

PURIFY

In an instant, it all disappeared. She was back, standing on the decrepit street of the docks, with the run-down buildings and pot-holed road. She gasped in the unpleasant air around her, reaching a shivering arm out to brace against the nearest building. As the fog of panic began to clear, Taylor shook her head and gulped nervously, looking around.

Nothing had changed. Everything around her was the same. No locker, no bugs, and no Sophia. No one even appeared to have witnessed her little 'episode', or whatever it was, something she was thankful for. However, as much as she wanted to, she didn't have the time to sit and think about what had happened. A brief glance up showed the three ABB members approaching, and appearing much closer than before.

Taylor whimpered slightly. She couldn't risk going through another... Whatever that had been, the moment they passed her. She needed to hide.

She spied an alleyway on her right. Movies had taught her that when trying to avoid someone, never go into an ally. However, movies didn't do real situations justice or ever end realistically, so she decided to dismiss those particular lessons and took a quick right into the ally, walking at a brisk pace through it.

Walking several feet into the ally, she glanced back over her shoulder.

She could see them through the walls. They had stopped. The three men were standing in a circle, talking amongst each other, just ten feet from the ally. They hadn't noticed her, seemingly too occupied with their discussion.

Taylor breathed a sigh of relief, running a hand through her hair as she came to a stop. Graced with some time to think, she turned her body to face the ally entrance and stared at it, considering what had just happened to her.

She saw three ABB gang members approaching ahead of her, radiating the same kinds of emotions Sophia Hess had pretty much daily before she'd even acquired the ability to sense them. After that, she'd... Well, she didn't really know how to describe what had happened. Panicked seemed like to weak of a word. It had been more like a full blown mental breakdown. It had felt like every aspect of her conscious had decided to take a swift and surgical dive into the realm of unending insanity. Everything felt like it'd been falling apart in that moment, and she'd been unable to get herself out of it. Yet somehow... She had. She'd suddenly and abruptly been able to pull herself together, even as her sanity felt like it was slipping away.

But... Why? How?

Taylor dragged a hand across her face, sighing. Basically, she'd experienced an unexplainable mental spasm, and it just as unexplainably ended. Where was the sense in that?

Taylor clenched her fists tightly, refusing to believe that she'd nearly lost her mind simply because she detected a few feelings that were similar to Sophia. When she'd seen the girl for the first time after the locker incident, she'd had nowhere near as strong of a reaction. Not even close. Yet for god knew what reasons, simply feeling similar emotions from three men had nearly broken her.

A heavy sigh whispered past her lips. "There's something else to this." She muttered to herself. "There has to be a reason." But what that reason was, Taylor had no idea.

She reached a hand up and clutched at her head, silently wishing she could just rip it open and look inside to see what was wrong. Because there was most definitely something wrong with her. People didn't just break down and fix themselves all in a matter of seconds. Especially not when it's triggered by something that simply shouldn't have been able to cause such a breakdown in the first place.

Running a hand through her hair, she sighed. Taylor despised considering it, even if it was just to herself and not even verbally, but maybe there was a chance, the smallest, tiniest possible chance that existed in a metaphorical size smaller than an atom, that the actions of Sophia Hess were affecting her more than she realized. But still, Taylor wasn't convinced that just a simple sense of other people's emotions, so similar to her, had sent her mind into a pit of dark memories which tore at her sanity like a hungry dog would a steak.

The blind girl shook her head, stuffing her hands in the pockets of her sweater. Maybe she was just too stressed out to be in public so soon. Maybe it was thanks to the equal curse and blessing to sense peoples motions she was picking up on things that she normally never would. For all she knew, people walked around filled with those same emotions all the time and she had just never noticed before she'd gotten shoved in that locker. It was only now that she could sense these things that she was perceiving them all, and they were affecting her for whatever reason. She would need to re-learn how to act in society without giving away her secret.

Taylor turned herself around, fully intent on taking the shortest and fastest possible route home-

BARK!

"Gaa!" Taylor jumped, quite literally, a foot in the air as a heavy bark jumpstarted her already tense nerves. Her head quickly shot down to see...

...

A dog. More specifically, a weird looking German Sheppard. It was just sitting there in the middle of the ally, staring at her with a pair of large, probably brown eyes. She didn't know for sure, as she could only see a white pinprick.

"Um... Hi there?" Taylor said awkwardly to the... Dog. She was talking to a dog.

The dog gave no form of a reply. It just stared at her, motionlessly. It didn't even have its tongue out panting. It just stared.

So, she stared right back, looking the dog over. There was nothing special about the dog from what she could see, aside from its fur. Since hair was the one thing on a person which didn't change colour to reflect emotion like skin did, it made sense that the same thing would apply to animals. As a result, Taylor was able to see the German Sheppard's predominantly white coat. It still had the black markings of a typical Sheppard, like the black fur mask around the face and the large patch on the back, but the area which was typically a dark tan was instead a snow white. It sort of reminded her of a Huskey. "Perhaps it's a hybrid," she thought to herself.

Also unlike skin, which was so dense it couldn't be seen through, things like fur and hair behaved and appeared like every other material from a visual standpoint, allowing Taylor to see through it. Underneath the unusual white coat, the dog was orange. Obviously, this wasn't the actual colour of its skin, but it told her even without using her senses that the dog was feeling curious about her. A mutual feeling.

Aside from its fur, however, there was nothing unusual about the dog. It had a collar, no visible wounds, and wasn't overly thin. The location and lack of a visible owner anywhere around made her think it might have been a stray, but the collar and its condition, at least through her eyes, made it look fairly well cared for. So really she had no idea.

"Do you have an owner?" She asked, not expecting an answer and predictably not receiving one. It just tilted its head at her. Taylor had to resist the urge to 'aww' at the cute sight.

She slowly reached a hand out, palm up, to let the dog smell her hand; basically asking permission to touch it. It was something she'd learned from her time as a child, researching dogs in the hopes her parents would one day let her have one. Obviously, it never happened, but at least the knowledge she'd learned could now be put to good use.

The dog brought its nose close to her hand, which she kept tense in case the dog snapped at it, and lightly sniffed it before giving it a lick.

It was like cutting a spikey ball of tension open to reveal an adorable ball of fluff. She rubbed a hand over the dogs head and crouched down on one knee in front of the dog, which by a quick observation she could tell was a boy.

"Hey boy. What're you doing here? Where's your owner?" She asked with a smile, scratching behind the ears and making the dog's tongue loll out. Taylor smiled. She loved dogs, and had always wanted one. Unfortunately her parents had always been opposite to her in that regard.

Taylor eyed the black collar around its neck, and reached down to check the diamond-shaped golden tag. "Chimera, huh? That's pretty neat. Your owner gave you a cool name. Must be because of your weird colour." She commented, turning the tag over and frowning. "But apparently wasn't the smartest of people. Who puts only the name on a dog-tag and not a phone number or address?" She huffed, glaring at the blank backside of the dog-tag. The dog- No, Chimera, understandably gave her no answer.

She sighed. "Well, sorry I can't help you. But if your owner wasn't smart enough to leave some sort of contact information, then I really don't think they should have a dog." She said, scratching under Chimera's chin one last time before standing up. "Go on then. Go back wherever you came from." Taylor said with a wave of her hands, but the Sheppard didn't move. He just sat there, staring at her with a happy dog look.

"Go on! Get! It's not like... Wait, what the hell am I doing?" She questioned herself, pressing a hand to her head. "I can't believe I'm talking to a dog." A snort escaped her as she considered her own foolishness. "I must really be losing my mind, aren't I?" The dog said nothing, and she resisted the urge to facepalm as she realized she was doing it again.

She stared down at the dog. It wasn't as though there was anything she could do. Calling animal control and having the dog taken away seemed cruel, and for all she knew, the owner was actually very close. "Well, it was nice knowing you, but I have to go. Bye." She gave a little wave and turned around-

"Well, well, look at what we have here."

"Oh god no." She thought dreadfully, briefly wondering what deity she had offended to make her luck as bad as it was.

The three ABB members from earlier had decided to, for whatever reason, enter the ally. Where they now stood before her, wearing their signature gang clothing and radiating the same damn smugness as before. She quickly classified the three of them as big, medium, and small, based on their noticeable height differences.

"I must say, I wasn't expecting to see someone passing through our regular shortcut. A pleasant surprise this is. " Medium gave a grin that was not at all kind.

"Yeah. It's great. Now can we go?" Big asked, a sense of boredom present in his request. This was reinforced by the overall grey dullness of his strings, and the feelings of tiredness emanating from them.

"Hey girly, you know this is our territory, right?" Medium's eyes pinned her in place as he ignored Big. She didn't answer, her only response was a stone silence coupled with a blank stare. But he continued on nonetheless. "Exactly. This is our property, and if you want to go through it, there's going to be a fine to pay."

Realizing what it was that he wanted, Taylor shook her head slightly. "I-I don't have any money." She answered, which was true. She'd left home with nothing but the clothes she was wearing. There had been no reason to take any money with her.

This was apparently the wrong thing to say, because medium scoffed. "Right. But you've got enough money to pay for all those clothes, right? I'm not buying the homeless routine. Nice try. Pay up, or there's going to be a problem." He took several threatening steps forewords.

"R-really, I don't have anything! I didn't bring any with me!" Taylor took a couple steps back, trying to extend the distance between them in case things turned bad.

Medium scowled again, but as he opened his mouth to say something, Small interrupted. "Hey, um, dude? We're going to be late if we don't hurry up. Don't you think we should get going?" The small, and seemingly young man said by the sound of his voice. Looking him over, Taylor suspected he couldn't have been anywhere over 20 or so. He was just short.

Big, still quite bored with the whole situation, took that moment to join in the conversation. "The kid's right. We should get moving."

Medium scowled and glared at them both. "We'll leave when I'm good and ready! Besides, this won't take long. Aki, grab her for me, would you?" Medium turned his head and asked Big, whose real name was apparently Aki. The large man sighed in exasperation, but started walking towards her with the smaller man nonetheless. Small meanwhile just stood where he was, not moving to help nor stop them.

It was at the moment that Big and Medium started their way towards her that Taylor realized just what kind of situation she was in. They were about to search her for money she simply didn't have. She didn't like that prospect one bit.

"W-w-wait! Don't touch me! I'm telling you, I don't have anything!" She exclaimed, backing away as she tried to dissuade them.

Medium only gave a mocking grin. "Then you got nothing to worry about sweetheart. Just let us make sure you're telling the truth, and you can be on your way." Even without the immediate reddening of his strings, Taylor could tell that was a lie. If he found out that she really didn't have any money, then letting her go would be the last thing on his mind.

Her attempts to stop them having failed, it was surprisingly Chimera, who had since been silently watching the exchange from his place on the ground, who then tried next by stepping forewords, raising his hackles and snarling at the two approaching men. Remarkably, it actually worked, stopping the two men in their tracks.

Medium had the sense to at least feel some worry as he stared at the large dog bearing its teeth at him. "Call off your dog, or things are only going to get worse for you." The man warned, a dangerous glint in his eyes.

Taylor, irritated by the man's personality and now pleased to actually have some sort of power over the two men, just shrugged. "He does what he wants. I can't stop him." She answered, forcing herself to take a few steps forewords, until she was standing right beside Chimera, to give the illusion of confidence. Even though she was still afraid of what might happen, she kept her true feelings buried as she crossed her arms and put on what she hoped was a confident smile.

This turned out to be a mistake.

Taylor's deception, no matter how well it may have worked, was just that. A deception. It wasn't real. So when Medium used her steps forewords against her and closed the distance between them quickly, her facade shattered like thin ice. She yelped and quickly backpedalled, though it proved unnecessary when Chimera lunged as well, clamping onto Medium's left arm and shaking his head violently. The man, understandably bothered by the dog currently gnawing its way into his arm, screamed and fell onto his back, giving Chimera a chance to really tear into the downed man's arm.

Big quickly sprung into action grabbing the dog by the collar, yanking it back while also rained down punches on the German Sheppard's head. Chimera didn't let go, but his pained yelps triggered Taylor's motivation to do something. It wasn't right to have Chimera defend her, for whatever reason, and then have him take all the abuse. She knew had to do something, and so leapt into action without so much as a thought about what she was doing.

Running forwards, Taylor punched the large man's shoulder, also grabbing his shirt and trying to pull him away. "Stop it! Leave him alone!"

As fast as a snake, his hand released the collar and instead grabbed Taylor's right bicep with bruising force, making her yelp.

"Ow! Dammit, stop it! Just leave us alone!" She yelled, beating at the man's muscle muscular arm and chest repeatedly with her free arm, only to have it harmlessly deflect off his rock hard muscles. She only stopped when the man squeezed hard enough to make her arm tingle, and lifted her up enough to force her onto the tips of her toes.

"Ow! Ow! Please stop! Just let me go!" She pleaded with the wall of muscle that was supposed to be a man. But her cries had no effect on him, and he continued to hold her as he now emanated red rage.

"You just couldn't do what he said, huh? You just had to make things more difficult." He growled.

Taylor yelped as the man's grip somehow tightened even more. "I'm sorry! Please, just let me go!" Taylor couldn't feel her lower arm anymore. The man was squeezing so hard he had cut off all circulation lower than her bicep, causing a tingling sensation along with the pain. It really hurt, and her mind briefly wondered if he was causing any permanent damage with the strong pressure.

The large man shoved her to her knees, still holding her tightly. "You know, I was originally going to convince him to just let you go after he got your money. But now, I think we'll take you to the boss. I hear he's got a thing for skinny girls."

If Taylor's eyes could have widened, they would be wide and filled with horror. It didn't take a genius to realize what he was saying, and the very thought of what he was suggesting was enough to kick her mind into overdrive. Higher-level reasoning was thrown out the door as her instincts screamed at her to fight back. To retaliate.

Without even thinking about it, she reared an arm back and punched him in the chest again. Only instead of uselessly bouncing off the almost pure muscle, something very different happened.

SURGE

Her arm fizzled, her heart throbbed, her lungs heaved, and her eyes BURNED as it felt like something cold and sharp suddenly opened and began to flow inside her. It felt like liquid nitrogen had replaced all the blood in her veins, icicles had taken the place of her bones, snow had become her new skin, and her heart had frozen over. The unexplainable cold brought with it no shivering or discomfort, nor even a feeling of dropped body temperature. Instead, the odd sensation felt like it had finally filled a long-lasting deficiency she hadn't known she'd been suffering. It was a welcoming chill that could stay as long as it wanted. For it brought with it something else.

Taylor felt the sensation of a cold liquid filling her skull as her left glove seemed to take on a mind of its own. As the glove covering her left fist came into contact with the man, it STRETCHED and BENT and BROKE from its determined shape of a glove into something much different.

The black lines which made of the fabric of the glove extended and stretched forwards, spreading over the man's chest like an ink splatter as he was forcefully pushed away from her. The rapidly stretching strings of the glove carried the man all the way to the entrance of the ally, where he slammed into a large dumpster with a loud boom, crumpling the green metal like a tin can and knocking the man out cold.

All this took place in the span of three seconds.

In that moment, everything around her seemed to freeze. It gave her a perfect opportunity to observe everything happening around her at once.

Firstly, Taylor found herself staring, in dumbfounded shock, at the long braid of withering black strings between her fist and the man lodged in the dumpster. Through her eyes, it looked like the strings which had made up the gloves had simply decided to extend themselves, gaining their extra length from no discernible place. Oddly, it didn't feel any different. The texture and overall sensation of the glove on her hand felt the exact same. It didn't even seem to weigh anymore, despite its obvious increase in size. She really couldn't feel the bridge of strings stretching from her fist.

Taylor watched the lines wiggled in place, reminding her of worms and snakes. Yet their only major movements outside of the bridge itself was from her own movements, swaying with her fist as she shook, struggling to comprehend what she had just done.

Chimera, startled by the sudden noise and movement, released Medium's arm, giving the bloody man the chance to rush to his feet and quickly run away, fear roiling off him in waves. Taylor didn't watch him flee, keeping her eyes locked onto the crater she had somehow just punched a man into.

She blinked rapidly, snapping out of her daze and turned her head as she felt a stream of constant, dense fear wiggle its way into her mind. It wasn't hers. At least, not all of it. Most of it came from Small. The man, unlike his Medium companion, simply stared at her with his jaw hanging open. He stood there for a solid thirty seconds, his string composition a mixture of dark purple and orange with a reeking 'smell' of terror and surprise. For a moment, his eyes shifted to her left, where Chimera was standing beside her, and his entire form was engulfed in what had to be the darkest shade of purple she had ever seen. Not a second later, he turned tail and ran away.

Taylor simply watched him go. Her eyes lingered on his form, layer upon layer of strings building up as he passed several buildings. She soon shook her mind clear, glancing back at the mess she had created.

Hesitantly, Taylor pulled her arm back, watching her 'glove' as she did so.

It came back with her hand, peeling off the man it had been attached to without resistance. Feeling a bit more inquisitive, she gently waved her hand side to side, observing as the elongated strings did the same. The strings didn't sway with her movements, instead remaining rigidly in the direction she pointed them. It was almost as though she were waving around a giant stick, only without the weight.

She couldn't stop a chuckle. "Wow." She said, in awe. It was the most amazing thing she'd seen since losing her normal method of vision. "Am I doing this?" She wondered, quickly berating herself for even questioning it. There was no other form of an explanation around, even as she scoured the area both close and far she found none, so it was obvious that she had to be doing it. Now it was simply a matter of how.

Feeling bold, Taylor opened her closed fist. The spire of strings, just like a hand, split into five pieces. Each one wiggled with her fingers, yet still lacked all resemblance to an actual hand. Though they curved with each point where a digit would be, it was more like tentacles then actual fingers.

Taylor spent a few more minutes testing the 'glove' out, seeing what different shapes she could make. But after those few minutes elapsed and the awe began to wear off, she frowned.

"I can't walk around like this. How do I get rid of this?" As soon as the thought passed through her mind, her arm tingled.

The strings of her glove began to shrink, loosing their length and, after just a few seconds, returning to the normal shape of a glove on her hand. Looking it over, there was absolutely no sign of the transformation whatsoever. It looked just like it always had. At least in her eyes it did.

Taylor stared. "That works, I guess."

{ALERT: PARASITE CONSTRUCT DETECTED}

Taylor jumped, looking up and around. Whatever thoughts she might've had quickly flew out the window however, as at the end of the ally, an enormous, snarling... Thing, came around the corner.

It was then that fear laced through her heart and mind. Her mouth opened slightly at the sudden, very unexpected sight. She'd been so surprised by the sudden show she'd put on for herself, that she hadn't even seen or sensed the creature approaching.

Put simply, it was a beast. A monstrous one. Due to her method of vision she couldn't make out its colour, as unlike Chimera it lacked fur, but was effortlessly able to make out its shape.

Easily the size of a garbage truck, walking on four legs with a long tail, equipped with a mouthful of needle-like teeth, with a short snout like a pitbull, and covered in layers upon layers of what appeared to be hard plates and spikes, the creature looked like a dog which had been dumped in hell, left to rot for years on end, and then spit right back out. If anything ever deserved the title of a Demon, it was this monstrosity.

The beast slowly stalked towards her, snarling and growling with the intensity of an earthquake. Though animal emotions were understandably simpler and less complex than a human, this creature was still carrying no small amount of hatred and irritation for the human that did nothing more than stand before it, paralyzed by her own fear. As it closed in however, this paralysis wore off as self-preservation won her body over.

Somehow managing to tear her own stunned stare off the creature, she turned on her heel and did a full one-eighty. The subsequent dropping of her jaw was completely justified.

Standing directly behind her, sharing an appearance almost identical to the first, was another one of the monstrous dog creatures. It stared at her with a huge pair of eyes, its pupils alone nearly the size of one of her own eyes. Unlike the first, it was not snarling, drooling, or behaving in any way hostile towards her besides a light growling. Had she been anyone else, this would've done little to comfort her. But for Taylor, its true emotions were as easy to read as a book.

It was not anxious, it was not annoyed, and unlike the first monster, it was not radiating rage like a volcano spewing ash. Instead, it was more like a gentle rainfall, with little pinpricks of anger spreading through her mind. In addition to the strange lacking of anger, she detected... Curiosity. It was an almost eager excitement directed at her and-

Taylor turned her head just barely, taking extreme care to keep herself facing the creature, but just enough to turn her sight down onto the untwisted dog beside her. Chimera showed no sign of fear, aggravation, or concern for the creature in front of or behind them. The German Sheppard simply... Stared, with an almost satisfied string composition. Chimera was sat back on his haunches, tongue rolled out and panting happily.

As though it could sense the sheer ridiculousness of the situation, the creature let out a snort. Though a quick measure of its emotions gave no reason behind it, so Taylor decided not to take it badly. Instead, struggling to ignore the snarling behind her and accepting the fact that the creature standing less than five metres away from her was mostly curious, she relaxed briefly and took a few moments to study it.

Much like the first creature, it walked on four legs, had a mouth full of extremely sharp teeth, a pair of large eyes, and was absolutely covered in hard plates and spikes of some unknown material. However, based on how the strings which made up these plates and spikes changed with the creature's emotions, she could tell that it wasn't artificial armour or something akin to it. They were actually a part of the creature.

Taylor flinched slightly as Chimera abruptly stood and walked forewords. The dog walked right up to the enormous creature, reared its head up as high as it could go, and licked the underside of the creatures spiky chin.

Taylor watched, utterly dumbfounded, as the creatures string composition changed from one of serious interest to one of... Playfulness? At face value, the thought of such a large and dangerous looking creature feeling playful towards a small dog less then half its size was complete and utter nonsense. And for anyone else, it likely would have been. Yet, there Taylor was, clearly sensing an eager craving to play. But in its desire, Taylor could sense something else. Something that prevented the creature from reacting to the dog currently licking its chin. She couldn't tell what it was, but it had an almost... familiar sense to it. Like seeing a shattered bottle, and knowing that the single shard sitting several meters from it was a part of the bottle, even though it was a different colour. It was a strange feeling that she couldn't place.

As Chimera continued licking the underside of the creatures long chin she noticed that, unlike the one standing somewhere behind her, this creatures snout was longer. Less blunt and more pointed, like Chimera's. Taylor didn't know what it meant, and didn't have time to figure it out either, because the moment after noticing this difference, Taylor's stomach chose to crawl its way up and hide in her throat as a growl so intense it vibrated the air around her signalled the other creature was now very close.

Hot breath that stank like trash puffed onto her back, making her shiver despite its warmth. She didn't even need to be able to sense emotions to know what the creature behind her was feeling.

Keeping her upper body as still as a plank of wood, she slowly, agonizingly slowly, turned her body to face the blunt-nosed creature.

This one was far, far more terrifying than the other. Possibly because it apparently seemed to like showing its teeth to people and biting the air right in front of their faces, but more likely because it was simply so close. But with all the composure she could possibly muster, Taylor forced herself not to react to the snapping jaws in her face. She honestly didn't know much about animals, but what little she did told her not to run, fight, or give any sign of aggression or submission to an angry animal. Otherwise, they might see prey or a threat.

"Easy there. Nice, um, doggy." She talked gently to the large creature, holding a hand up but not brave enough to extend it from her chest. "I'm not going... Er, I don't want to hurt you." She said, despite knowing full well that she couldn't have hurt the beast even if she wanted to, and that it could easily bite her in half whenever it wished.

Continuing to speak softly, for just a moment, its snarling decreased in intensity. She took a gamble, slowly reaching a hand out.

Her arm didn't even extend a foot before the creature snapped at it. She pulled it back with a yelp, just in time to save her arm from a bite which would have undoubtedly broken it, if not sever it. Taylor quickly took several steps back, feeling her heart drop as she felt her back come into contact with the hard, rough snout of the other creature.

It growled, snapping at her as well, causing her to quickly find an equal distance between the two creatures and stand there with her arms tuck up tightly against her chest. She looked back and forth, glancing at one of the creatures before quickly moving to the next. Currently, they were both emanating nearly equal amounts of irritation and excitement. She chose to take it as a bad sign.

This thought would go on to be reinforced as the blunt-nose creature lunged its head forewords snapped its jaws less than an inch from her shoulder, causing her to involuntarily shriek.

Remarkably, it was Chimera that, once again, came to her rescue. The Sheppard barked at the creature and stepped in front of her, growling. The larger, demonic dog didn't like that, and barked right back. Only instead of an actual dog bark, it sounded far more like a thundercloud or artillery gun going off, actually managing to vibrate the air around her and make her ears ring slightly.

Taylor didn't like what was happening before her. She could tell that, if something didn't change, the creatures would likely become much more aggressive towards her and Chimera, as she could sense that their aggression certainly wasn't decreasing. As risky as it was, she needed to do something. Even if it was something she might regret. It was either that, or wait until they were both torn apart.

Swallowing the fear in her throat, Taylor grabbed Chimera's collar and pulled him back to her side, though the dog resisted her slightly. She wasn't fully sure what to expect, but got a desirable result anyways. Chimera stopped barking and instead settled for a low growl, which in turn caused the creature to respond similarly.

"Good. Easy now. There's no need to fight." She spoke calmly, taking off her gloves and shoving them in her pocket before reaching a hand out for the second time.

Much like the first, the creature snapped at her, and she had to pull her arm back. Only this time, she didn't submit. She slowly reached an arm out again, looking directly into the dog's large sized pupil, unflinching. It growled, eyeing the hand. She saw it's neck muscles tense, warning her that it was going to snap again-

IMPOSE

Taylor shook her head lightly as a sudden dizziness overtook her, and her eyes suddenly felt itchy. Nonetheless, she fought through the light-headed feeling and resisted the urge to rub at the fabric over her eyes, keeping her hand out and palm up, the same thing she'd done with Chimera.

The demonic dog continued to stare at her, shuffling in place and casting off its aggression and confusion. But strangely, just as the dizziness and itch in her eyes disappeared as quickly as it came, the dog's strings slowly began to be consumed by a lacking colour of white. In turn with the colour's appearance, one which she had only ever seen once before in a living creature on her father, the strength of their emotions began to decay. She felt them begin to weaken and fade from her senses, like smoke in the wind. The white started from the noses of both creatures, and slowly worked its way back towards their tails.

Taylor could only watch, puzzled, as it slowly spread through their bodies and, once reaching their midsection, began to turn a calming green. The dogs game no outward sign of their string colour change, except that their irritation and nervous shuffling slowly dissipated, replaced by a sense of serene calm, copying the green colour spreading through them.

Taylor was no idiot, and was able to realize what was happening... Sort of. Somehow, the monstrous dog's feelings were being erased and replaced. The colour of white on their strings was like paper; a blank open space for something to make a new mark on. And the green was simply a feeling of calm that they were slowly beginning to feel, appearing overtop of the white. She had no idea how or why it was happening, but wasn't about to complain. If they were calm then they, hopefully, wouldn't attack.

She waited patiently, her head flipping back and forth between the two creatures until the majority of their forms had been consumed by clam and the white had disappeared. Once that happened, though there were still little swirls of suspicion and confusion mixing through their forms, Taylor decided to take an even greater risk.

Taking a cautious step towards the calmer of the two creatures, still the one with the longer snout, she slowly raised her right hand and held it out.

At first, it simply stared at her outstretched hand with its large pupils that held a certain intelligence to them. After an agonizingly long moment, it took a lumbering step forward. Then another. In just three of its large steps, it had closed the distance between them to less than five feet away. Its enormous head, with jaws large enough to snap her head off with a single bite, inched closer, sniffing the open palm.

Taylor remained steadfast, ignoring the warning growl from the other creature behind her. Even the fear that had begun to build up in her stomach was shoved to the side and forgotten. It may have been dangerous, with a high possibility of failure, but in her gut it felt like the right thing to do.

Finally, in an action that took only a single second, her gamble paid off as a long, wet tongue exited a toothy maw, and licked her hand.

Taylor had to force her face to remain neutral as the extremely rough, sandpaper-like appendage covered her entire hand and a good portion of her arm in warm, sticky slobber. Instead of voicing her disgust, she gave a what she hoped was a friendly smile. "Heh, heh. See? I'm not so bad." She shook her arm to remove most of the saliva, andcarefully scratched at the top of the creature's snout. Just to be safe, she kept her arm tense and her eyes on its strings, just in case it suddenly decided to change its feelings and snap at her for whatever reason.

Despite her worries, after a few minutes of gentle scratching, the creature's entire form had been drained of all its negative emotions. Replaced by calm and pleasurable emotions as it loudly 'purred' under her touch as her hands migrated under its chin. Taylor couldn't keep a smile off her face. "You really are just like a big dog, aren't you?" She asked, more to herself then the creature. Its only response was to 'purr' louder as she increased the strength of her scratches, sounding more like a jet engine than an actual purr.

Now that she had her hands on it, she could tell that the hard carapace it was covered in felt a lot like bone. Though she only had steak and pork bones to compare the sensation to, it really felt like it. Though she obviously had no way to tell for sure without seeing its colour or exact details, and even if she could've that may not be enough. She had no idea if it just looked like bone or if it really was bone. Though as she stared at the huge, deadly creature slowly turning to putty in her hands, she supposed it didn't matter.

Taylor nearly yelped as another large head suddenly nudged her left arm. The other creature maneuvered its large head under her hand and pressed against her side. A quick check of its emotions revealed that the other creature was actually feeling jealous. A chuckle escaped her lips and she ran a hand down over its head, scratching behind what she presumed to be an ear. She was rewarded with another low purr, and a stronger pressing against her side.

It only took a few minutes until Taylor found herself pressed up against the side of the alleyway with two enormous animals rubbing their large heads against her body for more scratches. The situation surely would have been humorous if she weren't the one being almost crushed by two creatures easily five times her size.

Chimera, she noticed out of the corner of her eye, was being strangely passive. The dog was simply sitting on the ground, staring at the exchange between the three. Taylor didn't detect any jealousy or want to join. Nor did she sense any upset emotions coming from the dog. Only a curious... Passiveness. Much like calm and satisfaction mixed together with no other perceivable emotions. In the back of her head, something found it strange that the dog was acting that way. One would think he would either want to be pet as well, or would simply leave. It was as though he-

{ALERT: HOST DETECTED}

{ALERT: HOST APPROACHING}

"H-huh?" Taylor's train of thought was derailed as a static-like voice, one she had heard before, suddenly rang in her ears. Yet, she didn't even have a second to think about it as she suddenly sensed two new minds come into range of her senses. They were coming from her right, towards the T in the alleyway that she was in. One she could tell was a person, feeling copious amounts of frustration, anger, and annoyance. The other was an animal which, she noted, held a unique similarity to the minds of the two creatures pressing against her.

There was no time to do anything. No time to push the creatures away, no time to think of a plan, not even enough time to check the status of her disguise as she sensed the two minds come around the corner and turn her way, where they promptly froze.

A simple look was all it took to spot them. The first and most obvious one of the two minds was the large four-legged creature which bore a striking resemblance to the two she was already quite familiar with. It looked almost identical to the long-snouted one, other than being slightly bigger.

The other was a human. Though at first, she had a moment of confusion thinking it was some sort of hybrid as all she initially saw was the face of a dog on the body of a human. It took her a few seconds to realize that the dog face was really nothing more than a mask, and she was able to look through it and meet the wide shocked and confused eyes of the person behind it. Taylor could tell the figure was a female, auburn haired teenager, maybe around her age. She was buff and well-muscled, and had a squarish face that helped contribute to Taylor's opinion that the girl looked quite butch. Beyond that though, Taylor couldn't really get much more from the girl. Not from where she was standing, crushed between two hulking dog-like creatures.

{PARASITE ANALYSIS: CANINE AUGMENTATION}

{PARASITE WEAKNESS: CONTROL LIMITED TO TRAINED CANINES}

{THREAT LEVEL: MODERATE}

For a moment, the two girls merely stared at each other. Confused blind eyes behind glasses and bandages staring into stunned wide eyes behind a mask. Then the masked eyes moved. First to the two large creatures pressing against her, then to the large man sitting in the crumpled dumpster, then down to Chimera, before finally moving back to her.

"... Umm... I-I'm not really sure what this looks like, but it probably isn't what you think." Taylor half joked half explained as the two creatures finally let up on their insistent rubbing, turning their heads to look at the newcomer. As they did, the girl seemed to finally snap out of her daze and issued a sharp whistle along with a snap of her fingers.

Both creatures ears perked up at the sound, and quickly trotted away from her and over to the girl, finally giving Taylor some room to breathe and stretch. One sat in front of the mystery girl, while the other sat right beside her. Both seemed to be feeling a mixture of slight worry, caution, respect, and satisfaction as they stared at the girl, giving off a surprising feeling of submission.

The girl, still feeling shocked, began to fill with a sense of suspicion and curiosity as she inspected the creatures. As she did that, Taylor was able to take a moment to process the fact that said girl was, surprisingly, ordering the creatures around and they were, shockingly, obeying her. But that voice she had heard... It had said something about canines and control. Was that it? Was that what the strange mystery voice had been trying to tell her?

Taylor didn't get to contemplate the possible breakthrough for long, because barely a minute after her personal space had been returned to her, she found it once again violated as the girl stomped up and stood less than a foot from her face. She opened her mouth and uttered a single, muffled sentence.

"What happened?"

Had Taylor been able to blink, she would have. Instead, her mouth gapped open and closed like a fish until she finally found her voice. "W-what?"

The girl's eyes hardened behind the mask, and one of the girl's arms came up to slap the wall Taylor was leaning against beside her head, making her flinch.

"What. Happened?" The girl growled, sounding more like an animal than a person.

Staring into the girl's cold eyes, feeling her irritation, curiosity, and suspicion flowing into her like a tsunami, Taylor could only gulp before descending into a quick explanation of the previous events.

A/N: So there we have it. Bitch has been introduced, and a new aspect of Taylor's mysterious power has manifested itself after some gang members try to mug her. Now, I'm not fully sure if I got Bitch's personality correct in this chapter, even though there wasn't much of it. There'll be more in the next, but if you have any suggestions on how to make her more accurate to how she was in canon, please let me know. Should she be more human, or more dog? I really want YOUR feedback so I know how to write my story. If I don't get any, I'm writing Bitch in the way I see her as. Nothing really wrong with that, but I want to know what you all want to see.

Speaking of which, I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE: The truth is, a lot of time has passed since I last read Worm. As a result, much of my memory may not be accurate regarding people's personalities or some little details. Plot based detail is irrelevant, since I plan to take this story in my own direction with only a few similarities to canon here and there. The point is, while I am reading Worm again, I really don't have much time to read it all (college and work) and as a result I may get the odd thing wrong here and there. If I do, please correct me, and I will make the correction ASAP.

Please let me know of any possible ways I can improve this story, and of any errors I might have made. I really want to know about them so I can give you all the story you deserve.

That's all for now. Please review and tell me what you think, and as always, I'll see you next time.