Shrieks in the wind could be heard for miles around. It could be mistaken for the deafening roar of a hurricane, but this storm only ran down one street, as GalvanGal’s tempest of punches thundered throughout the town. The punches kicked up dirt and litter, and shook glass and brick, as the sheer force reverberated in the air, but each one missed its mark nonetheless.
Immortal, on the backfoot to the untrained eye, bobbed and weaved around each strike. His hands slid down her arms, pushed out of the way so slightly to make way for his counterattacks. Even under her onslaught, he struck her with his fingertips, palm strikes, chops, and backhands. His pinpricks could not harm her, let alone stop her, but they made their point.
She leaned off her assault as he took another step back. The moment before his other foot could reach the ground, she clapped a gale to throw him in the air. He jumped with one leg, tapped her back to vault off her as she torpedoed under him, and landed on his feet as she twirled about herself to face him.
“Have you gotten complacent without me in your life to push you?” asked Immortal in that mechanical voice made by his mask.
“I’ve trained every day,” responded GalvanGal.
“All the worse that you’re still a novice. For example,” Immortal snapped his fingers.
GalvanGal felt her fatigues get pulled up at points all over her body. When she tried to move, a bottle was thrown at her head from behind and it broke and drenched her with booze. When she twisted in reaction, a window broke and rained glass on her. That was when she saw them—when the shards bounced off of wires, she saw the shimmer stretch across.
“I placed spider mines all over you while you flailed around. Now that they’ve been detonated, every gooey thread has been planted into your surroundings. Your every movement will be harried, especially if you don’t want to bring damage to this foreign town. As a member of ‘civil society’, you have to deal with the whining of ungrateful civilians, too weak to fight their own battles yet bold enough to chastise the ones who fight for them.”
It would be effortless for her to pull away from this trap, but he was right. Part of a hero’s responsibility was to limit collateral damage, even if only property. That expectation became more unreasonable against elusive and powerful villains, but heroes aren’t concerned with what’s reasonable.
GalvanGal stood still as she used her sparking shimmy to raise each mine embedded in her fatigues. With all of them held up, she ripped her fatigues apart without moving, which left only the civilian clothes she wore underneath.
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Immortal was gone. They must have gotten their objective, so there was no reason for him to stay. It’s unlikely that he would attack civilians himself, so the only ones in danger were the unconscious policemen. She could hear the pitter-patter of ants on a concrete trail and the percussion of mildew that dripped on aluminum.
But not him. It was much the same with electroreception: to the vision that saw the neural energy that coursed through all living things, Tyler Deimos was a ghost.
If she flew up, she could have a view of the whole area but he could hide in suburbia as well as any jungle. Assuming he has not left already. For now, gathering those officers would have to do.
He appeared behind her, her roundhouse kick swung at air, her other leg was swept out from under her and a slap to her face crashed her through a wall. Stray lightning peeled at the mouth of his mask. He brought his finger to feel the spot that was torn while she used flight to catch herself mid-fall. He looked in the reflection of a window to see the mar where the covering was broken off to reveal the metal within.
Hannah, from that limbo position in the air, waltzed her body into another swing aimed at him. Without turning his gaze, Immortal used one hand to reflect her fist back into her face. The alcohol ignited with the lightning to add to the explosive impact that threw GalvanGal over the street and through the corner of a store and sent her tumbling down the next street like a stone skipping water. Every impact left craters in the asphalt until hit the curb of the sidewalk.
She laid there too dazed to stand up properly. She wobbled onto her hands and knees, ready to throw up at any moment. With her head still hung low, she saw his boots beside the white road mark.
“It always ends up like this, Hippo. You were always my worst student. Nonetheless, I have my responsibility as a teacher, and I will not make the same mistakes again.”
From under the palms of her hands, GalvanGal unleashed an Amethyst Marley that filled the street and spilled onto the sidewalk with a concert of electricity. His first boot stamped her head into the voltaic ground. He walked along her back as a bridge over the hazard and stomped her head into the ground as it ended.
“Are you done embarrassing yourself?” He said as he continued to walk down the melted, bubbly street. He took off his coat and hung it over his shoulder.
GalvanGal’s whole body crackled with lightning as she charged herself. Her waltz brought her up into a bolt straight for him. He flung open the coat with both hands, like a matador with his muleta, to catch her. The impact spun him off his feet, but he wrapped the coat around her as much as feasible and landed on the pavement. She thrashed in her confines, loose limbs and electricity swung wild. She flew them up into the air and slammed them both down through an office back into the pavement with debris raining all around.
His grip never faltered while her tantrum grew limper until she was just a dead fish in a bag. Since she stopped moving, Immortal unveiled the results: half he hair had fallen out, and her skin was sickly grey. He put on his coat and looked down at her as she gasped for air.
“Look at this, you made a mess anyways. What was the point of holding back if it was going to end up like this?” He knelt on her neck to stifle what breath she had, “Don’t you understand? I’m the villain that threatens your whole world, and you’re the only one left that can stop me. When they hold up the ashes and ask you why, will you be able to tell them that you held back? If you don’t plan to destroy everything to kill me, save your people the false hope and give up.”