Ashe flew down the street, uncaring of the multitude of traffic laws she was currently breaking. Given all that had transpired, she was fairly certain that those laws would be the least that she broke in the hours to come.
Racing a motorcycle through the streets was beyond reckless. All it would take is one car to end her life, but she couldn’t slow down, not when her people might be dying and there was something she could do about it.
Caralina wasn’t as close to her as some of the others, being the oldest of those rescued, but she was still one of them and one of her main confidants besides. She probably should have waited for Keiko, gone with some backup into what was almost certain to be another fight, but she was already halfway to the hospital and it was too late for regrets.
A red light came and went, some poor sedan blaring their horn as she weaved past them going well over a hundred. There were pockets of smoke on the skyline as she rode east towards Halsey and beyond where the closest safe hospital for her girls resided. Nobody would dare take them to the hospital she’d been stitched up in downtown. At least when she almost died the ambulance driver vetoed that hospital and took her right to Mercy East.
A construction warning sign got a grimace out of her, but she pressed on. It wasn’t actual road work, but a large construction effort was underway on a Patriot megachurch. Ashe had considered torching the place just for shits and giggles, but that would just feed into their numerous insurance scams and result in a profit long term.
Her focus on the project, and her subsequent slowing probably saved her life. A van pulled out of a street and stopped abruptly in the road, Ashe’s eyes widened, and she barely swerved around it only for another van to pull out in front of her. Cursing, she leaned to her left and braked, barely managing to keep the bike upright, then gunned it into the mess of ongoing construction.
She crashed through a tarp, bleeding off her speed with it, and her bike came out from under her as she tried for the controlled slide that Crystal taught her. Not that she ever had a chance to practice, which was why she wasn’t surprised when she came to an abrupt stop against a wall.
Ashe groaned, getting her feet back under her as she tried to get her bearings despite the spinning room. Her leather coat was torn, but her gear had taken the brunt of the crash. The phrase dress for the slide, not the ride popped into Ashe’s head and she almost laughed. Tires screeched, cutting off that thought as doors were flung open and orders shouted.
Despite her head still feeling like it was floating, Ashe moved, drawing her gun as she stumbled deeper into the partially finished mess of what would one day become a hallway leading to the stadium-like sanctuary. She had to keep moving, otherwise she would be an easy target. Thankfully most of the walls weren’t finished, but that also meant that the taclights had little issue zeroing in on her.
Luckily the hallways beyond were far more complete, which stuck out as odd to her addled mind, but she went with it. At least the floor wasn’t sideways anymore, not that it helped all that much, her stomach was churning and she was fairly certain something was bleeding after that, but the adrenaline was carrying her forward.
Right, she had professional mercenaries after her, having come out in force just to make sure she was killed tonight. Someone was going through a lot of trouble just to get her in these situations, and she was sick and goddamn tired of it. Ashe knew she wouldn’t be able to stand up to their heavy armor, even with her own tactical gear, what little of it she had incorporated into her current outfit.
Wood exploded around her as the mercs opened fire, the shots suppressed but still loud in the night, and Ashe dropped to the ground. Something had hit the armor like the hand of god, but she didn’t have the luxury to stay down. Ashe rolled and stumbled back to her feet, breaking into a sprint through the dark.
That lasted all of two seconds before she tripped on something and tumbled again. Fuck, that wasn’t working and she couldn’t exactly just grab a light of her own, that would just tell everyone right where she was. Blinking, Ashe realized something and couldn’t help but grin. It was time to take a page out of one of her favorite hero’s playbooks, ironic as that thought was given that she was absolutely a villain.
They wanted to hunt her in the night? She was going to teach them to fear it.
Rather than get back up and run, she crawled. Orders were being shouted, and she could have swore she heard one of them say something about being sure to identify the body. She crawled for a few seconds, bumping into something solid which she picked up and waited. The lights crept closer, sweeping across the ground. Ashe took a breath, then threw the object.
It clattered across the way and all the lights snapped over to it. Ashe scrambled to her feet and jumped up, grabbing one of the wall frames and pulled herself up. Stalling for time would benefit her more than them, but she also knew how likely it was that help was on the way. She considered pulling out her phone, but the light would only give her position away.
She did take a moment to open her phone anyway, if only to set it to silent before someone messaged her and got her killed. She lucked out that nobody noticed, stowing the phone, she moved up into the scaffolding that would eventually become the second floor of the structure. Unfortunately, her utility belt wasn’t loaded down with an impossible collection of gadgets that would allow her to take them down one by one, but she would just have to make do.
She crept through the frames, the lights below her just enough to make sure she could see what she needed to step on next. It was slow going, but none of the increasingly frustrated men thought to shine their light up.
Ashe was patient, and waited for one of the men to step into one of the more complete offices, shining their light into a back storage room. He muttered something in what sounded like Russian, then turned. Seeing her opportunity, Ashe lowered herself down and darted towards the man, pulling her knife as she jumped on his back and sunk it into his neck.
He jerked and struggled, but the most noise he mustered was a wet gurgle as she pulled him down to the ground and set him gently on the concrete. She pulled the strap of his gun free and clicked off the light. Stripping away his extra ammo, she was quick to pocket the magazines. The suppressed rifle wouldn’t do her much good if she was trying to remain unnoticed, but she would take what she could get.
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More surprising, the man had a grenade, which gave Ashe an idea. She spent a few moments rigging things, then rolled them man over and hooked the string to the pin. Not wanting to stick around, she climbed back up to the unfinished rafters and raised her pilfered gun and fired a single shot.
“Got her!” she yelled, pitching her voice low.
Her voice cracked, and she almost coughed, forcing it down with a herculean effort. She wanted to gag, dropping her voice like that always hurt and the rumbling in her chest felt wrong on a fundamental level. Still, it served the purpose she wanted, and the goons were on the move, zeroing in on her position.
She hurried across the space, still being careful to not misstep and give the game away as she circled back towards her bike. The metal framework was thankfully sturdy as she put some distance from her trap, making sure she was moving away from where she had crashed into the building. Much as she wanted to grab her bike and run, she knew they would be waiting for her.
“Shit, man down!” one of the mercs yelled.
He was reaching out to check the man when someone grabbed his arm.
“Don’t.” he then reached down and very carefully shifted the body. “The bitch trapped it.”
He had a hand on the string, keeping the entire thing from being sprung. Ashe snarled and brought her stolen rifle up and took aim. She fired a single shot, clipping the man’s arm. He screamed, jerking back, and pulled the pin in the process.
Ashe didn’t have time to revel in her action, dropping from the rafter and into one of the finished rooms adjacent. A few bullets pinged above her, then the grenade detonated. Ashe took that opportunity to run, exiting the shop and back into the main hall. Someone shouted, but it was drowned out in the chaos from the blast.
She wasn’t quite sure where she had crashed into the building, but the vans that the mercenaries had arrived in were a good indicator and illuminated things enough for her to see the team of four moving in, their attention firmly in the direction of the blast. She moved far away from that mess and deeper into the stadium.
The lack of light was a problem, and the occasional flashlight beam was fucking with her vision, but she kept moving, ducking into cover when she thought someone might see her. The chaos was helping, but she knew she had only delayed things. Ashe didn’t have a plan, she just knew she needed to get away. Caralina still needed her help.
Ducking into another partially constructed room, Ashe pulled her phone back out and checked her messages. Keiko was on her way, and Crystal had left her mom with the mayor to do the same. Ashe wasn’t happy with that, knowing her mom was likely a target as well if they were going after everyone, but she just had to trust that her mom could handle herself.
She sent her a message anyway, telling her to be careful and get somewhere safe asap and made sure everyone knew she was ambushed at the megachurch construction and needed help. It was the best she could do at the moment. Ashe had to worry about herself. She took a shaky breath, and used her phone light to check herself over. She wasn’t bleeding from where she had been clipped, but it still hurt like hell. Her jacket was torn from the crash, but her under armor had held up.
Stretching her shoulder, Ashe got back to her feet when she saw flames light up a distant stretch of the construction. Her heart skipped, breath hitching as the fires quickly spread, encircling her. They were spreading fast, far too quickly for it to be anything but an intentional attempt to smoke her out, or burn her alive. Arson was her gimmick dammit, and Inferno wasn’t about to go down to a literal blaze. They wanted her to fight her way out, but she wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction if she could help it.
A more morbid part of her was amused that she wouldn’t have to burn the place herself.
With the way the flames were spreading, they must have people pouring gas all around, but there was one section that remained oddly flame free, the herding point. She could charge in, try to fight them all off, and likely send a message in the process, but Ashe was just one girl. She didn’t have any special powers, she wasn’t some action movie star, she knew it would just get her killed.
“Time for a strategic withdrawal,” she muttered, and ran towards the flames.
The smoke was cloying, despite the heavy sea breeze blowing it away as quickly as it bellowed forth. That was to say nothing of the heat that was quickly building in the mostly enclosed space. She saw her first figure through the flickering flames, and brought her rifle up and put two rounds down range.
She didn’t stay put and instead kept moving deeper, knowing that someone would call that attack in. If they were sending people in after her, she would make sure they learned that nobody fucked with Inferno and walked away whole.
The building shook and Ashe stumbled. She turned and watched as half the structure began to collapse into the ground. Had they just detonated the tunnels? Fuck, had they prepared the entire church as a kill zone just for her? Someone was going to be pissed about that, and no doubt the blame would be pointed right at her. Ashe just had to hope that Caralina was alright, because she wasn’t going to make it to her in time to be of any help.
The ground shook again, and Ashe watched a portion of the second floor collapse behind her. Shit, she was running out of time. The only advantage she had was that they weren’t quite sure where she was. That thought gave her an idea, and Ashe spun back around, looking beyond where she had shot the sentry and scanned for any figure she could beyond them.
She saw one in the flames, wearing a full silver flame suit. She took aim and fired, hoping that would convince her pursuers that she was doubling back. Truth be told, she was desperate. Ashe was a girl with no plan whom death had come for, and she was determined to spit in the bastard’s face.
Death must have heard her taunt, as a figure stepped around the corner, wearing familiar heavy armor. Ashe recognized him as the man Alejandro had sent to summon her just days prior when he delivered the armor. Fuck, he really was behind all of it and was ready to clean up any loose ends from working with her, whatever his goals had been.
“You know,” Ashe said as they stood there, neither raising their weapon. “If this was all he planned to do, he should have just killed me and left the others out of it.”
The figure shrugged, but did not speak. Standing there as if they were offering her the courtesy of speaking her mind. Ashe wasn’t going to have any of that shit, but she also wasn’t going to waste the opportunity. She glanced from side to side, weighing her options. She would dart to the right when they began to raise their rifle and take her chances with the burning mess beyond.
“Well, if it’s all the same,” Ashe said, then dropped into a roll when they moved. Bullets cracked, and the burning overhang fell just before she reached it. She turned, glaring at the man as he kept his gun pointed at her. Ashe sighed, even as her heart thundered and her breath turned shallow.
She soon found the gun aimed at her and knew there was no way out of this, she was going to die. If that was to be her end, she let her mind drift back to her mom, how disappointed she must be that Ashe had turned to crime, how much she would lament that it had brought about her death. How she had failed her girls, but most of all, she sent a silent thought to Crystal, apologizing for letting her down.
The armored figure, with flames dancing behind him, adjusted his grip and fired.