[Alice Morrow]

Paladin Am I more than you bargained for yet? + Coryelle Wilde + wearing

"And if you don't follow those rules, what makes you any better?" She saw the tension suddenly build in the other woman. Clearly stepping towards her hadn't made the situation any better, even if Paladin was attempting to defuse it. She wasn't worried about what Punk might do to her, she was documented as super strong and tough, but little else besides. There was quite literally nothing she could do to hurt Paladin, unless she was hiding electrokinesis somewhere in her bag of tricks. Paladin shook her blue haired head. "No, you just want to think that. The system isn't perfect, but it works. If I handed something like that in you can bet they wouldn't just burn it." Idealistic perhaps, but true in a way that Paladin would likely never understand. For better or worse, she was the face of the Hero Program, and her word carried a lot more weight than that of most. After all, if she denounced the Police Force every major news station in the country would be hanging on her every word. Not that she would ever do such a thing. Freezing as she saw Punk reach behind her back, she slowly rose onto the balls of her feet. She knew that was where the gun was, and while bullets held no fear for her now, there were people stood behind her who had no such advantages. She was poised and ready to dive to either side to attempt to intercept the bullets. Strangely though, Punk simply placed the gun on the ground, kicking it across towards Paladin. Before the Hero could open her mouth the vigilante was gone, a plume of dust rising where she had kicked off with enough force to fracture concrete. Paladin's eyes narrowed, and she kicked off herself, with markedly different results. Instead of bursting into a run she leapt horizontally, lifting her feet from the ground as she flew on an intercept course towards the running woman, arms out stretched to seize her. Her speed proved to be her undoing however, and Punk jinked out of the way almost at the last second. Snarling in anger, Paladin put her foot down and came to an almost dead stop, absorbing kinetic energy at such a rate that the dust around her simply fell out of the air. She stepped forwards towards the retreating figure, this time not making the mistake of a wildly uncontrolled charge. Instead she started to run. Punk might have true super strength, but months of practice meant Paladin was pretty good at simulating it. She blasted off, covering nearly ten feet with her first step, absorbing most of the impact as she landed and swinging her other leg forwards as she released another burst of kinetic energy. It was a strangely elongated, leaping run, and it didn't let her catch Punk, but she could keep pace enough until she was ready to leap once more. Again the other woman dodged, and Paladin almost released a blast in her frustration. What stopped her was the fact that they were now amongst buildings. She might have been able to hit Punk, but with her increased toughness she likely would have been uninjured, anyone hit by her flying body however, would have been a very different story.

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