Paladin grunted with effort as she hurled the car at the sneering figure across the street. Property damage be damned, she was going to take out Darkstar. Someone had to, and Darkstar was beginning to run out of opposition to... whatever their plan was.
"Fuck... you!"
The vehicle spun like a rather unaerodynamic shuriken, only to smash against a wall as her target... did the splits? It was hard to see any expression under the hood (how did it always manage to shadow their face?), but Paladin was sure that she didn't like it.
"Fucking fight me!" she screamed. And that was the most infuriating part, really. Both times she'd managed to catch up to Darkstar, they just didn't *fight* her. Instead they did silly acrobatics and taunted her. And they weren't the kind of taunts she'd been trained to ignore. No-one acted like that!
"Maybe if you stop fighting, we can fuck. You must need a good fuck. When's the last time you took a break, pet?" Darkstar's soft voice wheedled its way to her ears, sounding for all the world like they were just behind her. Was that their power? Fancy voice projection? It couldn't be. What had happened to the others?
Paladin screamed in frustration and kicked off the wall behind her, launching herself like an angry javelin at the villain. Darkstar cackled, whipped out their cape, and Paladin flew through it, crashing into the wall.
In the moment it took her to throw the offending garment from her head, Darkstar was gone.
"Fuck!"
She took a moment to breathe, wiping sweat from her brow. Her white bodysuit was reinforced with all kinds of exciting materials and techniques, but it had a hard time dissipating heat from Paladin's overdrived physiology.
That creep had gotten away, just like last time. What was their game? Neither had landed a hit on the other, yet Darkstar acted like it was their damned birthday every time. Well, at least she had a clue to go on, now.
Paladin went to pick up the discarded cloak, only to look at its final moments as it seemed to evaporate into thin air. What the heck was it? Some kind of magical summon? A self-destruct mechanism? Pondering the options, she rubbed at her shoulders, only for her hands to come back with a thin film of black slime on them. Ew. She probably had some of that cloak disintegrate on her when she flew through it. She'd need a shower after this.
Well. No time like the present. With all the work it took her to find Darkstar, she wasn't going to get anywhere in this state. Maybe she should relax a bit. Recharge. Go in fresh tomorrow.
Elena groaned as the hot water sprayed against her back. She turned the pressure all the way, until it felt like the water was trying to drill through her back. Fuck, that felt good.
Finally, her body relaxed, and her mind followed suit. Being Paladin was hard work. Not just the physical effort of combat, but the combative *attitude* that was required as part of the job.
Tonight, she decided, she would chill out. She needed it. Taking care of her mental health was as important as anything else. Elena would just watch some TV, order a pizza, and relax.
It wasn't until the next morning, as she was putting on her suit, that she saw the stain. There was a black splodge on her shoulderblade. But she'd washed the suit and it had come perfectly clean! (she had several, but preferred to keep one in reserve rather than wear them both out)
Elena prodded her shoulder, but felt nothing out of the ordinary. She hadn't noticed it during her morning exercises, and wouldn't have known anything was off if she hadn't seen it. Well, it didn't seem immediately threatening, and she had to find Darkstar. Maybe they'd offer some answers. Villains loved to talk. If that fell through, she'd go see one of the special doctors that dealt with her kind. Special doctors for special girls.
This time, Paladin was lucky. She found her quarry after only a few hours of leaping from rooftop to rooftop, checking out the streets. And there was Darkstar, lurking in an alley, no doubt scheming something nefarious. Well, Paladin would put a stop to that!
The Hero dove off of the building, fists first.
The move was perfect. It was silent, it was precise, her target unaware.
