WhiteOut took a seat in the command tower. The runway was clear and the route from Minnesota to California was made to avoid flightpaths as much as possible. GalvanGal had on her spandex and twin-cape while Streaker zipped up his parka with his helmet already on. He climbed onto her back with his arms over her shoulders. Aaliyah wheeled out Garrick onto the tarmac. He said that he needed to see this.
“Are you sure about this?” asked GalvanGal.
“I’m sure that we have no other option,” said Streaker.
“Then you better hang on tight.”
GalvanGal launched into the sky. The wind scream as they tore through it to reach 10,000 feet above sea level.
“See? That-that was nothing,” said the Streaker before the pop in his ears went away. His breathing belied the thinness of the air.
“It’s gonna get worse from here. Tell me when to go,” said GalvanGal without a smile.
Together in the Circuit Tango, GalvanGal transferred a fraction of her vast energy to Streaker. The power surged through him with a grunt. He tightened hold, his arms around her neck and his legs around her waist. He gave her a thumbs up, the motion of it blurred to her. With the Circuit Tango, Streaker brought time to a halt for all but the two of them. The rest of reality was crushed under the pressure.
Not wasting the precious time he had granted her, GalvanGal charged the both of them into pure light. In a flash, that light bolted across the continent in a streak that could be seen by half the world. It was as if the heavens were rent by an amethyst blade. The thunder was heard—and felt—even further round.
They reformed into flesh in the sky over the Sierra Army Depot. Their arrival shook the land for miles around. Animals and insects scurried through the shrubbery as amethyst sparks rained upon the rumbling desert.
She came down to land on the runway of the Amedee Army Airfield. Streaker jumped off her back, threw off his helmet and parka, and stumbled over into the dirt. The employees came to pick him up, but on instinct—
“Are you okay?” asked GalvanGal.
“I’m fine, you need to go,” said Streaker.
With that, GalvanGal bolted off. She still had a long flight ahead of her and without Streaker she put all her energy into her waltz to get the speed she needed to reach every prison in California. When it came to fighting the immortals, she would have to make do with whatever she had left in the tank.
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A level IV facility is the highest level of security reserved for the most dangerous and violent offenders. Inmates are typically housed in single cells and have limited access to activities and programs. They are under constant supervision and may be subject to more restrictive policies and procedures than prisoners at lower security levels. The perimeter is secured by internal and external armed coverage. At the same time, inmates are provided opportunities for rehabilitation through participation in work, vocational and academic programs, substance abuse treatment, and self-help programs.
High Desert State Prison in Susanville, California, was one such facility. It has seen a rapid turnover in top management and investigations for complaints of prisoner abuse. The electrified fence was added to prevent escape. HDSP is involved with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s new Reentry Hub programming geared to ensure that, upon release, offenders are ready for the transition back into society. None of that mattered anymore, as today, HDSP was destroyed.
An immortal in wolf’s armor stood in the prison’s library to read a book. He was guarding the extraction point.
Beyond the library, His partner sculpted a bloody path through the carnage. She was impervious to present attacks and did not bother wasting resources. Instead, her gaze turned to stone any who opposed the immortals: the guards who did not have the sense to flee and the inmates who did not have the sense to surrender. What did not fall under her gaze were bitten with venom by the snakes on her head. Either fate was better than being torn apart in thar carnage, as inmates tore each apart with improvised weapons and bare fists.
Once the facility falls, those allied to the cause would be returned to their gang leaders to continue the fight. That was the plan until the sound of thunder petrified the prison.
“GalvanGal!” the gorgon exclaimed with joy. Lightning strikes could be heard in the other buildings and rapidly approached this one, to the panic of the inmates. Even if she could not turn GalvanGal to stone, the petrifying gaze was enough to slow the speed of lightning and harden the bend of light. That would be enough to bring her down to their level.
The wolfman was tossed out of the library, into the cell block down the hall where the gorgon could see him. His gargoyle armor was shaken loose by electric gyrations. A bolt banked around the corner and shot up to the railing right in front of the gorgon. The petrifying gaze at the last moment turned the light into flesh. GalvanGal’s hand glanced the gorgon’s chin as she flew past, a breath away from the fate of Medusa.
“Why are you doing this?” asked the GalvanGal.
“These agents of the state, like you, Thunder Thighs, have stolen freedom from their own brothers and sisters in the name of propping up a crumbling world. I am here to liberate them,” hissed the gorgon.
“Then why have them kill each other?!”
“Not all of them could be enlightened. Those who cling to petty fealties have no place in our future. The rest will be absorbed in time.”
“I see. Then I just have to stop the future,” said GalvanGal.
She got used to the feeling of rocks under her skin, as much as one could, and charged. A fireball blinded her long enough for snakes to reach her throat. The fangs could not pierce her, but the venom stung all the same.
She pushed through to take hold of the gorgon before she could slither away. The petrifying gaze, flame breath, and venom coating her scalp barely scratched GalvanGal’s defenses. Her discharge shocked through the gorgon’s armor, averting the gaze, snuffing the flame, and frizzing the snakes. The gorgon and her armor were released to fall to the grown.
With the immortals neutralized, she would have to leave the inmates to be dealt with by the police as there were still twenty prisons under siege with 40 more immortals that only she could stop.