Thread: Empire - City of Wonder (Black_Out and The Supple Nail)

There was a long, pregnant pause punctuated only by shifting rubble and the groans of wounded men trying to drag themselves away from the deadly amazon. She stood over them, hands on hips, looking over the aftermath with warrior's pride. The police below would make easy work of these miscreants now. There was no movement but something, a sound, a shifting floorboard, alerted Diana's subconscious. Instantly she dove forward, tumbling into a somersault as the staccato explosions of a high powered fully automatic rifle roared above her. Bullets flew around her like rain, cutting trails through the room and leaving pinholes of light from upstairs to shine through. Diana continued her roll and came to her feet in one smooth motion, poised to move. She needn't have bothered though. Whoever was firing was doing so blindly, not even bothering to aim. Once out of the hail of bullets she was in little danger. The trail of destruction cut its way forward and Dianna's eyes widened. She leaped forwards, wrist outstretched, and the final bullet from the clip ricocheted off to shatter a nearby window. She was poised over one of the downed thugs, her arm outstretched, her mystical bracer had saved his life. Whoever had been firing had been heedless of hitting their own men. Animals. The ruffian looked between Wonder Woman and the trail of bullet holes leading directly for him, then flopped back in a dead faint. For the first time the tiny, grim warrior's smile left Diana's face. These criminals had no honor, no code. They cared not even for the lives of their own underlings. Heavy footsteps thumped above her and she followed them, one ear cocked. Her senses had been trained hunting purest white stags in the deep forests of Thermiscyra. The mistress of the hunt had once told Diana that she was as skilled a hunter as Artemis her patron, goddess of hunts. The clumsy retreat may as well have been broadcast to her and she moved swiftly, stalking through the abandoned building in pursuit of her quarry. On the roof the twinned goons wavered, training their weapons on the stairwell. For long minutes there was no movement from the building, just the milling of the police below them and the no longer terrified sounds of the crowd. With Wonder Woman's arrival it had turned from a harrowing debacle into a glamorous spectacle. Just as their nerve broke and they turned to retreat the flimsy plating of the roof heaved beneath them. With a single stroke Wonder Woman's sword sliced up through the roof between them and the hero herself followed, bursting up through the roof as if it were made of tissue paper. Her barrier bursting blow sent one perfidious Karletto brother sprawling. The other, Steven, rounded with his assault rifle just in time to see the gleaming streak of a blade slice it neatly in half. He stumbled backwards, fumbling one half of the bisected weapon but throwing the other half desperately at the lithe form of the heroine marching towards him. She neatly swatted it out of the air with her sword, cutting it in half again, before pouncing on the Karletto brother. He tumbled down over his own feet, heaving and sweating and she flipped him over contemptuously with her toe. Panic shot through his features as the sharp point of her boot heel drove him down to the ground and her sword raised over head. Then the pommel came crashing down on his skull and he was knocked senseless. Diana gathered the unconscious thug over one shoulder and marched over to the other, surreptitiously trying to crawl away. She seized him by the scruff of his neck. He shrieked as she lept from the edge of the building, his chubby arms pinwheeling helplessly as he fell. Diana landed gracefully and flung him to his knees, along with his unconscious brother, at the stunned looking police sergeant's feet. The others are still inside. She said, gesturing behind her. Although they should pose no trouble for you and your men. These two... Andrew Karletto flinched away from her glare. Appear to be the ring leaders. The following minutes were split between strict, careful professionalism and awestruck congratulations. Swat operators found little resistance as they corralled bruised and disoriented criminals into a paddy wagon, taking time between trips to gawp at the tall, statuesque beauty helping to oversee the operation. She even hoisted one of the heavier, unconscious thugs like he was a toy and trundled him into the van.