Fearful of acid

But now she was a good hundred feet in the air, the centipede not strong enough to hold her up on its own, so she sagged with every passing second. I tried to fly past, the Wretch active, and found the centipede before me was quick to react, to form S-bends that caught me and caught the Wretch. Like flying into a net or web. They wrapped around, caught, and flooded the surface of the Wretch with acid-


My aura did nothing, as I pushed out full strength. I had to dismiss the Wretch, instead, to slip through a gap, escaping. Acid splashed my boot and sent a shock of black horror through me.


Foil hung from the length of one centipede, head turned away as acid ran down the grey-black slats and angular legs of the centipede itself, down its length to her glove and arm.


I hesitated, and I hated myself for hesitating, so I threw myself forward the moment the hate registered.


Thoughts of Crawler and my bath in acid vomit were dark in my mind, as I raced through skies that were just as dark. Moisture in the air pelted me, each droplet a fresh shock of dark terror, because there were centipedes looming above me and there was no knowing if the moisture was precipitation or if it was something that would melt my flesh and scar me forever.


Because as bad as the scarring might end up being, as dire the situation, there was simply no fathomable reality where a parahuman would ever heal me.

***

I moved more gingerly, one eye on the building and the army I knew was in there. A deeper cut in my leg, that was starting to burn. A cut at my upper arm, shallow but long, from elbow to shoulder. Another deeper cut at my forearm, short but grave enough that I could have buried a pinky along its length. No burning there.


My boot had been bleached where the acid had struck, but it didn't look like the material had been eaten through. The damage was seemingly worse with my breastplate, with corrosion clearly evident, the metal cracking into what looked like scales, flecking off.

- Heavens 12.7