Immediately

No walls of supersteel are going to stop you. If you make this snappy, the perp might make it to prison before lunchtime - you hear they've got tortillas on the menu. The seemingly impenetrable dull gray walls amount to nothing before your superhuman hands. Bursting into the room like Power Girl in her famed cover picture, you are greeted by friendly screaming, alarms and gunfire. The bullets don't impede your intrusion, but they do tear sizeable holes in your clothes.

Sophie: "Alright boys, might as well hold your fire. I think it's obvious I... Hey, I SAID STOP!"

Not only is your shouting lost under the sound of heavy gunfire, but the guards are all wearing earplugs. You lean lazily against the torn-open door and let the volley of bullets massage your body. A few seconds of relishing are enough for you, before you proceed to retrieve and crush all operated firearms in a literal jiffy.

Sophie: "Now do I have your attention?"

Somebody still has the audacity to still pull out a taser and launch it towards you. Considering your super reflexes and speed, this is roughly the equivalent of building a speedbump to stop a speeding car. Now you're just angry. You deflect the shot with a literal handwave.

Sophie: "Does anybody else have a quarrel with my presence? Huh!?"

Your voice reaches superhuman volumes, and booms through the enchoing lair, as you throw your hands to your sides and look around inquisitively. The henchmen look terrified.

Before any of them can react, you scoop out a large chunk of the already-busted door and encase the goons in a makeshift jail cell molded from the metal. Then, you delve deeper into the lair in hot pursuit of who you believe to be the main culprit.

Scouring the entire base with your superhuman vision, you soon see a very strange figure operating some sort of an unknown machine in the lowest floor. Not wanting to waste a second with navigating the maze-like hallways or god forbid taking an elevator, you swoop down there straight through the dozens of stainless steel layers which make up the floor.

Sophie: "Hold it right there!"

Just as you speculated - this isn't a human at all. Rather, you seem to be dealing with some kind of a dragon-human hybrid, with the general body shape of a woman, but leathery wings, horns, tail, claws and orange scales. The strange lady spits out in fuming rage:

Betrixie: "Cursed be thee! What heavenly make are thou, to make short work of my defenses so deftly?"

You're a bit befuddled by her vaguely outdated speech patterns. Thankfully, your superhumanly fast brains bail you out. With a booming and impressive voice, you bellow out:

Sophie: "My name is Herculass, and I'm here to bring an end to your statue-animating schemes."

Betrixie: "Grrr... Thou hasn't me beat yet, nay!"

The dragon lady places a finger onto a button on the machine's control panel.

Betrixie: "Were I perchance to operate this little doodad, my hidden radio antenna will call forth a wave of morphosistic rays to turn all people in all the surrounding villages to gold! So not a step closer, my dear, or you'll have an awful lot of yellow blood in your hands."

Sophie: "A secret antenna? Is it any more secret than that twiggy little rod disguised as a fir that I yanked off a minute ago?"

Betrixie: "Th-... A..."

You tilt your head for a bit while watching the colour slip away from her face. Dejected, she takes her hand off the button.

Betrixie: "...Balderdash!"

While it's true that you could've easily dispatched this wannabe villainess by means of super speed, you get extra points for orchestrating such a positively degrading end to her criminal career.

But, while victory and justice taste sweet, you can't help but long for a more satisfactory mission from a narrative standpoint. Imagine if this villain had outsmarted you on your first mission! She could've definitely been your arch nemesis.

Oh well, there's likely more of those to be had.

ENDING 35 -A Heroine Is Born-