Touch 2.3

Horror.

What can I say about it other than it is absolute?

One minute I was being punched across the Brockton skyline, towards the oldest hotel in the city, and the very next I was in Hell. I was in a city, tall buildings, bright lights, the smell of smog, sea and cheap meat from street vendors was thick in the air, but all of that was overwhelmed by the copperish smell of blood. The rain did nothing to hide it, nor did the wind carry it away. There were monsters all around me, dead or dying, red goop seeping from their pours with faces contorted in pure agony.

[God is coming.]

Those that survived were soundlessly screaming. Begging for the mercy that death would shortly bring because the creature that stood across from me. The creature was tall and thin with a dragon instead of a spider running up his skeletal torso. Its eyes glowed like hellfire, and so did his grinning maw. There was an ancient power that seeped from this particular monster like a thick miasma of bloodlust and carnage. I was exhausted, wounded, and facing a monster that would have put Jack Slash and the Siberian to shame…

…But it wasn't the creature, nor the screaming horde of bodies that circled us, nor my imminent doom that was the source of my horror.

[God is Coming]

It was a boy. Blonde hair, blue eyes, couldn't be older than twelve… he was bleeding, and that THING was laughing. Laughing at the chaos and the death of everything I held dear…

…That We held dear because that child was mine as much as my Other's. He was the product of Our love for Annie, and all that was left of her, and there wasn't a chance in Hell that we were going to let that monster take him away from Us.

[God is coming]

My beloved is silent as We charge forward. We had never been New York's protector, we had fought in its street, We had protected the Innocent against the Guilty, but that dubious honor had never truly belonged to Us but the heroes were busy and We weren't to let this city go like that thing wanted. We weren't gonna let Dylam

"Get away from our son, you Bastard!"

The earth shook with every step as Our muscles scream in protest and Our heart slowly stops beating.

[God is Coming}

I was dying.

I knew that… hell, I was practically dead. Demagoblin, Red Goblin, the Spider-Brat, Thor, and that monster had done too much to Me.

[God is Coming]

There wasn't a thing either of us could do about it, but at least I could save him, Annie. At least I wouldn't have failed you so completely. He didn't need to know who I was or who I'd been after you… left Us- I mean me, but Peter -who the Hell is Peter?- would make sure he safe and hopefully he'll become something better than the both of us. Dylan Brock would live, even if We ended up dead.

[God is coming]

I jumped up into the air, lifting Mew-Mew over my head, and brought it down as hard as I could. The godly lightning that hit Us as We swung ripped us apart. This isn't like the time; we used the third rail to stun him. This is meant to kill him, but it didn't need to kill you, my shadow. The pain is enough to keep me going, so I hit him again as I cast you off.

And once again the world exploded in lighting. I barely feel its teeth digging into my chest or its claws digging into my mangled free arm.

[God is coming]

I can barely feel you anymore. Just don't forget me…

We love you, Annie.

I love you, my dear, my darling one.

Keep him safe.

[God is here]

And with another flash of lightning I wasn't.

wake up, taylor… I can't lose you.

-X-

I awoke to an aching body and an infernal quiet.

'What was that?'

I was keenly aware that I was naked and that my arms were bound above my head by three sets of metal cuffs, not enough to be an inconvenience but it was really fucking annoying. Stiffness and aching muscles were the most essential ingredients for an awful day.

'Not the time, Taylor.' I thought to myself. 'I'll figure it out later.'

Without opening my eyes, I reached out around me in an effort to better gauge just how screwed I was.

The room I was in was smaller than my bedroom but not small enough to be a closet, which meant I was either in a cell or in a smallish room.

Which meant that I had been captured after Glory Girl went full Kano on my heart, but the question remains by whom. The place was too clean to belong to the Merchants, too dirty to belong to the PRT, and too small for the Empire… maybe the ABB, we haven't really interacted with them outside of a few muggings.

…

We really should start hitting the ABB more before some asshat on PHO started drawing connections to the all Asian gang.

'We should really change that before people start thinking of as criminals.'

Where are they keeping me? Close to the water but not close enough that I could taste the salt in the air. So either in the docks or close to them.

Opening my eyes was a mistake I would come to regret as the gritty details of my memory began to kick in. It hit like a truck, no pun intended. Emotions tend to run high when an icon of justice, an alleged protector of the Innocent, decided to kill me for trying to save someone. Panic rises to a fever pitch as I began to wriggle in my restraints.

I was trapped.

'Oh, God. Not again.'

Quicker than I could humanly think my other wraps itself around me with inhuman speed. My shadow did as it had always done when it needed to protect me, but there was something different this time. I can't feel my other's presence. There is no warmth or cold, only a particular numbness that existed before the Locker. The quiet that I had noticed earlier quickly became agony, and with it came the rage.

The sorrow-filled scream that tore through my very being as I shook under the stress of my current reality was horrible, worse than the Locker. I wasn't screaming because of the hole that golden-haired bitch had punched a hole in my chest, nor because I was surrounded by unnatural darkness that neither my beloved shadow nor I could pierce. I screamed because the small constant comfort that my other had provided for the last few weeks was gone. The first real companionship since my mother died was gone, and I was alone.

I rose from my chair with a start sending it careening towards the wall behind me and ripped apart my restraints. I didn't stop there. With a hiss, I launched myself through the door, that splintered immediately upon contact and spread myself out. Tendrils from my significantly shorter hair flayed about searching for something to hold onto and someone to take out my anger on.

The bigger, the better and if it turned out to be Glory Girl… I'll get to test my might across her stupid face.

Something tackled me. It was larger than a horse with sharp teeth and hard skin. It looked like some kind of hybrid rhino that had an unfortunate run-in with Blasto. It was strong enough to push me through the window and into the street where two more of its friends were waiting for me. They tried to rip into with their teeth, but they couldn't pierce my other's skin. The creature moved like pack hunters and tried to circle and trap me but every time they tried I'd beat take my pound of flesh!

They weren't Glory Girl but would have to do.