"Is it wrong that I enjoy talking more and more?" Aldrich asked. He didn't speak to himself; he spoke to the air, and to the broken thing he held suspended a few feet above the churning sea.
"AHHHHHH! PLEASE! MY HANDS! I CAN'T"
"I've noticed I'm also enjoying inflicting pain on you," Aldrich said, his voice smooth and terrifyingly conversational. "Which is very weird in its own right. It's like a new flavor I'm learning to appreciate."
"AHHHHHHHHH"
"You're being very unreasonable," Aldrich said, bringing Alex's face inches from his own. "The blood supply to your extremities has been cut off for ten minutes. You basically don't have hands anymore. Why continue to shout about a part of you that no longer exists?"
"PLEASE... JUST STOP... SOMEONE... HELP... ME..."
"That's the strange part," Aldrich whispered, his blue eyes actually smiling. "I am finding that I don't want to stop. Every fiber of my being is screaming at me to crush every single bone in your body. I really, truly enjoy hurting you. It's a fascinating defect. But... I won't. I'm going to restrain myself. So, you should thank me."
Alex's head lolled back, his breath coming in ragged, wet hitches. He looked at the golden-haired monster holding him and saw no mercy. "Tha... Thank you..."
"You're welcome," Aldrich said. "But don't get too comfortable. I'm going to drown you soon."
Alex let out a weak, bubbling groan, his eyes unfocused as they drifted toward the dark water below.
"What... t? AHHHHHH!"
"Can you imagine it?" Aldrich whispered, leaning in closer. "As I drag you down into the deep trenches and begin to consume you... what will you be screaming for? Is it because you're drowning, or is it because I'm eating you? It's an interesting biological question. Which fear will override the other? In my opinion, it will be the consuming, as it involves physical stimulus as well what do you think."
"Please..." Alex finally broke. The tears carved clean tracks through the blood on his face. "Please, God... save me... somebody help me..."
Aldrich sighed, a long, heavy sound of genuine irritation.
"You know, you're really spoiling the experience for me," Aldrich said, his voice flat. "I rarely talk this much. I've gone out of my way to share with you, and all I'm getting in return is 'please' and 'AHHHHH' and 'my hands.' It's very repetitive."
Aldrich continued. "you're the person I've talked to the most on this planet. That makes you very special in your own right you should be better than."
Suddenly, Aldrich's face twitched. His jaw tightened as if he'd just tasted something bitter.
"I'm talking too much again," he muttered, his voice dropping into a flat, dangerous tone. "I really, really need to stop. This... vocalizing... it's a waste of energy. It's loud. It's human and most importantly its very compromising."
Suddenly, Aldrich looked past the ruined buildings, the corpses, and the fires. A blue and red streak was cutting through the sky, flying fast towards them.
"It's time to leave," Aldrich muttered, his voice flat, the theatricality of the last ten minutes vanishing instantly. "All my objectives have been completed, and I even got you as a nice bonus."
"NOOO, GHHHH!"
Supersonic's scream was cut off as the violent sea waves flooded his mouth. The sudden G-force of the dive, combined with the impact of the water, felt like hitting a brick wall.
Homelander was the undisputed king of the sky and the land. No matter how much power Aldrich had integrated, he knew he could not yet fight a lifetime of experience and honed violence, nor did he see the need too, for now.
The lightless trenches were Aldrich's feeding grounds now. He knew the Deep's powers were a finite resource, a loan from a lesser creature that would eventually expire, but until that happened, he would make full use of it. Under the weight of a thousand atmospheres, Homelander's heat vision was a flickering candle, and his speed was a clumsy thrash.
Down here, in the cold and the dark, Aldrich was the only thing that could breathe. He tightened his grip on the broken supe and dived deeper, leaving the King of the Sky and land to scream and vent at a surface he couldn't penetrate.