The sun was setting on Los Angeles as Alex's helmed visage peered out from the rooftop of an office building. Everyone was going home, their jobs concluded, looking to sit in peace, see their families, treasure the quiet hours of their simple lives. But always, always, there were those out there who would prevent this order of things, who did not see peace and prosperity for all as good, and necessary, and... possible. That was why, even though Alex Trebon's job was concluded, The Paladin's was just beginning.

Well, sort of. It'd been a good day, and he'd been able to get in the armor and intervene in two muggings during his lunch break, so his job wasn't really [i]just[/i] beginning. But then, maybe that meant it'd been a bad day, since there'd been two muggings for him to stop, and he'd certainly prefer it if there were less muggings rather than more.

He was getting sidetracked, and Alex shook his head and yawned inside his helmet. His... 'activities' were taking a toll on his sleep schedule, but he wouldn't - couldn't - stop. Not to act with the power he'd been given seemed so... selfish, even if it was just for a night to catch up on sleep.

There was a buzzing in his ear from the police radio he'd set up in his helmet, and he was quickly jolted awake. With alertness came sickness as the details of the dispatch became clear to him. A massacre... a bloody mess made of a local anti-meta meeting. Doubtless the work of some disgruntled Meta-human, believing that senseless violence would help their cause, bring things to a better result, a more advantageous peace. Or maybe they wanted no peace at all - maybe they wanted massacre after massacre, stretching on forever.

The Paladin ground his teeth and rose. He wasn't far, and the report was recent. He could get there before whoever had done this could make a clean getaway. He could make it.

He began to jog across the rooftop. Running in the armor wasn't easy, but it wasn't impossible, especially not when he could get some momentum going. When he reached the edge of the roof, he shot out his hands. At his command, the light solidified, making a shimmering bridge between this roof and the next. Without a second thought, Alex stepped onto it and carried on his course.

In this way he ran, rooftop to rooftop, until at last he could see the scene of the crime. A great number of people were congregated outside, murmuring and gasping at the blood running from the doorway. 

Alex watched from the rooftop as a figure he didn't recognize emerged from the building. There was the killer. The Paladin jumped down from the rooftop, a sword of white light solidifying in his hand.