Thread: Empire -- City of vice. (BlackOut & Claire)

The grumbling and grunting behind her was enough to put any thoughts of a chase out of her mind. She hadn't seen the slippery suited criminal flee, but she knew he was likely to be out on the street and potentially armed it was a recipe for stray bullets and collateral damage that she certainly didn't need on her rather sparkling - at least among the public - reputation. The talented young heroine had seen a number of supposed vigilantes vilified in the cities press, and by the local PD, when their actions had been deemed reckless. Any damage to property, injuries to bystanders, or cost to the good taxpayers and citizens of the city seemed to be pounced upon by the media, painted as foolish, dangerous or worse, criminal. With their ties to some of the shadier organizations and individuals, the supposedly free press of Empire City seemed free to ignore the most powerful, corrupt and public figures, instead turning their sights on various scapegoats, including the dangerous renegades who tried to bring some justice to the streets. There was money, and a lot of it, tied up in the cities various vices, much of it now entirely legal thanks to changes at the top of the legislature strip clubs, indentured servitude, weed, pornography... all of it. It was a side of the city that Shade, and her ilk, wanted to see banished. She, for one, knew that the vice fed crime, it led to the corruption of innocents, to ruination for those who stood in the way of the special interests. It meant she had to take down their operation one piece at a time. Henchman by henchman, pill by pill, club by club. God damnit! Wont you guys just stay unconscious?! Shade muttered, her eyes narrowing in irritation, she hated letting anyone get away. But at least she had the money and at least half of shipment of contraband too, and none of it was guaranteed to stay that way if she went chasing after the lone, cowardly, escapee. Shade turned her back on the old brown van and headed back towards the groans and anger, towards the few conscious prone and injured men who wished her harm. She moved astonishingly and unnaturally quickly, kicking away weapons from the two men who lay on the floor before the sedan, and tying their hands with the bright yellow cable-ties she kept in a tight black pouch at her hip, then turning her attention to the 4 men inside of it. Two of them were reaching for weapons, fumbling in the darkness for guns that had slipped out of their grasp and onto the floor. Each was greeted with a remorseless flurry of violence as they groggily grabbed for their guns, her tightly wrapped and well trained fists finding their mark with alarming skill and accuracy, swiftly rendering each them silent and unmoving. But the violent and swift moving wraith had little time to admire her own handiwork. She heard the blaring of the intermittent sirens, they were distant but growing ever closer. Easily less than a minute away. Fuck, I didnt call them... Shade realized, retreating gracefully up a fire-escape as the lights of the cruiser rolled slowly past the front of the alley. The lights atop the vehicle dying, as its doors swung open. Theyve gotta be dirty cops... she noted, knowing there was surely no way that they had arrived by pure chance. They couldnt have arrived on the scene so quickly without a tip, perhaps even without information that could only have come from someone connected to the whole mess. She only had to watch and confirm it. This is the police. Put your weapons down! The two men from the cop car called out into the darkness, their words piercing the silence, echoing off the concrete and red-brick walls. Shade watched them stealthily from up on high, her eyes scanning below as they moved past the van, their pistols drawn. The officers didnt once touch their radios, instead calling out towards the fallen men in the alley again, and then lighting it up with their powerful torches. Keep down! Stay down! Put your hands behind your heads! the two cops repeated, their aggressive voices booming, the order barked as they descended on the scene that Shade had left behind the aftermath of her violent deliverance, and the destruction she had wrought upon the criminals and their operation. Shade watched as the cops checked the two guys on the floor, rolling them over onto their stomachs, seemingly searching them for weapons. Were they good cops after all? Was is just a ruse? Shade had little choice to challenge them either way, little option to take them on dirty cops had protection from above, they were not the types of enemies that anyone made lightly. She had only one play left, only one thing she could do to try and bring down a response which would stop things going south. With that she started to climb, up towards the roof, up towards the ledge from where the violence had begun. She moved quietly, with purpose and a plan, scaling flight after flight of cold metal, no longer caring much for the action beneath her feet on the alley floor. As she reached the top she looked around for anything that might help her, a brick, anything finding some loose piping beneath an abandoned old heater and pulling it free from its concrete standee, the heavy steel pipe about perfect for her needs. Here you go boys Shade called, running towards the front of the building, launching her metal pole through the air towards the upper windows of the large bank across the alley. It was going to make one hell of a noise and set off an alarm which would bring the cavalry swarming...