Anyone who has dared to walk the streets at night knows the terror that the threat of the Vahziloks can cause in the hearts of any man, woman, or child. Even the heroes of Paragon sometimes shudder at the mention of their name.

Event promoter Samual Pierce passed on some information to City Hall about a bigger name in the Vahz circle that he’d heard muttered by some of the local gangs. Digger.

The sewers of Paragon have long been a haven for the criminal and villainous elements of the city due to the police forces inability to regularly patrol. In an effort to keep them clean, and prevent any kind of large uprising, the city often asks heroes to venture in and arrest anyone they can.

The Vahz are particularly dangerous. These twisted scientists and doctors, and their reanimated corpse slaves, are so feared because anyone who falls before them stands a chance of becoming one of them. Their forced recruitment of the dead into their ranks sends a chill up even the most courageous spines.

In this case, Mr. Pierce passed along with his Vahz information the name of a local hero by the name of Touched.

“Touched has been showing promise as a young heroine,” Pierce said in an interview. “I think she’ll do great things for Paragon. I know she’s done well for me, helping keep some of my events gang free.”

I asked Touched if I could go with her into the sewers in search of this Digger, and graciously she said I could. After I’d been fitted with a hospital stat monitor and promised to stay out of the way, of course.

Having never actually been in the sewers, or seen a Vahz with my own eyes, I didn’t really know what to expect. But as we ventured deeper, the adrenaline in me kept me brave enough to follow Touched, at very safe distance.

The Vahzilok are everything I’d ever heard them to be. Twisted, biomechanically augmented abominations of humanity. The souls of these once members of our society are hopefully gone, and not enduring the agony of reaminated life after death.

Touched worked methodically, releasing each one from this world as she searched for clues to Digger’s location. She’d also brought with her a satchel full of hospital devices which she used to return stolen corpses to the morgue for return to their graves.

“I think what I fear most in the Vahz,” Touched said in a moment of rest and vulnerability, “is seeing someone I knew in the face of one of these creatures.” We sat in silence for a while, and I felt the weight and truth of her words, before we continued deeper into the sewers.

It seemed like hours, and like the waves of undead attackers were endless, until we heard the echoes of someone commanding the reapers and mortificators.

Touched wasted no time now, and rushed forward using her mutant powers to stop them in their tracks. She engaged Digger in what I can only assume was a battle of epic proportions. Here is the only picture of Digger I got before my fears got the better of me and I retreated to safety.

The moaning of the reaminated finally subsided, and Touched emerged from the sewage control room, battered but obviously not beaten.

“I hope the prisons can hold him,” she said as she helped me to my feet.

Me too, readers. Me too.