Thread: Empire - City of Lost Cause (Black_Out and meomeo)

The chaotic mess in the first class cabin spilled to the outside the moment that the Vagabond made his escape from the car. There were a handful of cops on the scene. None of which were in a great position to cut off the villains line of flight as his long wiry legs carried him across the tracks and away from the boarding platform they were stationed upon. They yelled for him to freeze, called out for him to stop, but of course he didn't listen one bit. The crack of gun fire erupted from one over zealous rookie. It wasn't nearly as easy as taking aim at some stationary target at the training range. Each shot from his rapidly unloading pistol bit into the ground around the darting and twisting movements of the Vagabond. One of the officers nearly tackled his trigger happy companion, bringing the short barrage of gunfire to an abrupt end as the passenger's began to flow out the door behind the fleeing criminal. Mark was among the back end of the first handful of people to clamber out of the front exit of the coach as he hand't bothered to collect any of his things. His casual business attire remained intact as he was just far enough up in the car to not be caught in the cloth decaying green mists that were beginning to finally dissipate. Just as he hit the exit Mark stole a brief glance back towards Vallie, catching her in the midst of adorning herself in her some strange metallic getup. Unlike the others that turned right and immediately exited onto the boarding platform, Mark turned left and followed after the fleeing crook. Mark found himself full of adrenaline and his heart pumping with courage. Sitting for so long next to Vallie, feeling like he might of actually hit it off with a woman well out of his league. He wasn't exactly thinking with his mind at that moment. He didn't really know what he was doing as he hopped down from the train and landed on the gravel laden tracks. But he found himself giving chase after the Vagabond who was skipping nimbly across the tracks. Suddenly he found himself scooping up a golf ball sized chunk of gravel and pivoting his feet. With one heave that called back to the glory days of his youth spent playing baseball he threw it on a straight line right towards the back of the villain just as he was about to duck out of sight behind an out of commission car on the far end of the rails. It was a darn near perfect throw. The small gray rock zipped through the air and cracked into the right shoulder of the Vagabond just as he was about to turn and vanish behind the derelict car. Sadly for Mark the light weight kevlar armor beneath the villains ragged garments made it's impact far less impressive then he momentarily thought it might of been. He realized quite quickly it's ineffectiveness. Steel tipped tap dancing shoes skidded to a halt as the Vagabond stopped by the edge of the dilapidated train car. It was a turn that for Mark happened in slow motion as the deep crimson scarf encased visage of the super villain turned to peer at him. His narrowed insidious eyes stared back from under the shadows of the bent and crooked brim of his black top hat. In that moment all the courage and adrenaline burning through Mark's body fizzled out and he found himself looking back towards the train, hoping that Vallie was about to show up. Praying, really. Back in the cluster fuck of the train car Vallie was finding it increasingly difficult to get her attire on quickly. More then once she was jostled about by several passengers forcefully trying to make their way out of the car. The fat man that was nearest Vallie when the bomb went off barreled past her, holding his carry on luggage in front of his junk. Other's created jam ups as they feverishly tried to get their stolen belongings back, or simply sought to get their items from the overhead compartments. It was an absolute zoo. Of course a few camera phones remained out, still catching it all. They were spilling out, pushing and shoving each other, with about zero concern for one another as they fought to get up on the platform. The congested wave of people fleeing from the train car gathered the full attention of the trio of officers. Yelling and screaming the evacuees poured up onto the boarding stage of the Empire Central Depot, overwhelming the meager group of police men as they sought to try to get control of the situation. No one could see Mark through the buzzing crowd as the Vagabond turned and faced him. Both of his black leather gloved hands had taken up opposite ends of his diabolical deep crimson scarf and began to twirl them around in some sort of homage to an old kung fu flick. The sinister laughter cut at Mark as the raggedly dressed villain quipped at him while the scarf blurred about. What do we have here, Hammer Time's sidekick? The ends of the stretchy scarf cracked out and snapped at the ground at Marks feet like whips and sent up showers of gravel as they blasted against the bed of small stones littering the ground. Mark was frozen in complete terror as the showman like villain spun his surreal elongating red scarf about himself with nimble and practiced ease. You didn't really think this one through, did you, fella.