Thick smoke filled the air, smelly as fuck and left most minds in a haze. Aubrey was well used to it, having worked the streets for most of her remembered life. She’d tried every drug that tended to float around the streets at least once in her life, just to know how she would react to it. She hated having her mind torn away from her, it was the one thing that nobody could steal from her. She refused to allow anyone to break her.

Even when the traffickers grabbed her and drugged her, she kept a firm hold on her own mind. She pretended to break, blended in with all the others who had fallen apart. She helped piece them back together, especially that Jessica brat that Inferno had insisted be in charge even over Caralina who had more than a decade of life experience over any of them.

It baffled her, at least at first. Once she had gotten a read on her rescuer, Aubrey understood. Jessica had abused her, physically and mentally, and she wanted the girl under her thumb. Ashe needed control over her abuser, to bend her to her will. It was insidious the way she was taking the broken girl and molding her into something useful. She had nowhere to go, nobody left but Ashe and those around her.

Ashe owned her outright.

The funniest part of all of it, Ashe didn’t even realize what she was doing. She was so green that it hurt, naive as all hell, and all the more precious for it. How could she not throw her lot in with the woman that would be fiercely loyal to those that supported her? Where else was she going to find a handler that actually gave a damn about her well being?

She even trusted her enough to include her in planning, to give advice, and to carry out those plans. It was so astronomically stupid of her, and yet, there Aubrey was, sitting among a mess of Iron Patriot assholes, getting them drunk and high off their asses all to cater to one of the little Ember’s plans.

Ashe wasn’t even close to recovering from her last bout of disaster, which left half a dozen dead. That bitch was a force of nature, and the sooner she realized it, the sooner the city would be shaken to its core.

Everyone assumed that Alejandro was the most dangerous person in Jericho, and for most examples, they would be correct. He was a live wire, thriving on chaos and unpredictability. That had uses, but it was the methodical nature of his organized actions that made him stick around longer than a passing storm to be weathered.

Ashe was the storm, and she had the capacity to be so much more, but only if she learned her lessons quickly. She was a quick study at least, and seemed to be worth the investment. Having Riptide as her fuck buddy was no doubt an asset there. She had a reputation that wasn’t easily ignored, having drowned several fascists in the currents of the Cape. Add in Hanabi and Ashe was building a solid power block around herself.

She wanted to build influence and power, she just didn’t know how much she already had in her corner. Once she started expanding, getting a few more actions under her own name, things would escalate quickly. People flocked to power, and Ashe was soon to hold more than she knew what to do with. It was amusing to watch from up close, and best of all, she was able to do what she does best while having a front row seat for it.

She had four girls with her at the moment, all waiting hand and foot on a dozen guys. They were smoking, drinking, and one was currently doing lines off her ass. Men were so damn easy to please that it could almost be considered a joke. Just suck a couple of dicks, maybe ride one or two, and they were content and ready to damn near worship you for more.

They still had twenty minutes before Ashe was set to start her show across the street, she would need to break out the special stuff soon. One of the guys had gone over a few minutes prior to fetch more of his buddies since Aubrey claimed to have an excess of the fun stuff to go around.

So easy to manipulate.

Unless something went stupid, she would soon have nearly a dozen dead fascists needing to be cremated. Good thing they had some diesel fuel tucked away expressly for this purpose. It would be a capstone to the night, and mirror Inferno’s own show.

Aubrey didn’t like to kill people, but she had done so more than once. It was just a fact of life on the streets, sometimes you had to kill someone to save your own ass. People that didn’t want to pay especially. Those bastards always went for the weakest girl, figured she would be easy to bully.

All she wanted was to get this shit over with, get home, wash the taste of cum from her mouth, take a scalding hot bath, and crawl in bed. She still couldn’t believe how hesitant the others were to accept that apartment just because someone died in it. Did people not understand how often people died in homes all the time?

Superstitions were just silly.

Barely anything needed replaced, it was all moderately used and a few plug in air fresheners and candles was all it took to get the worst of the smell out. She’d cleaned some of the rotten messes up, like the damn fridge, yuck. Bought new sheets and a new mattress with her early earnings, and generally settled into her new life. It was strange, being comfortable while having a roof over her head. She even had groceries in her fridge!

Right, getting side tracked. She had a bunch of ungrateful fuckers to keep entertained for a few minutes longer. Hopefully that didn’t involve dropping anything again. Her stooge with the police was working late, so he wouldn’t be able to make it. Bonus to him wanting to see her as often as he did, he needed to work overtime to make sure he could see her and make rent.

Most of the other girls were all pleasantly stoned themselves. She’d even encouraged it so they wouldn’t accidently spark something unwanted. Unfortunately, one of the newest recruits she’d brought on wasn’t quite playing along with that.

“Kara,” she said. The poor girl jumped. She should have known better than to bring on someone so new to an important job like this, but she was short on people. At least she wouldn’t be around when things went down in a few minutes. “Could you break out the whipped cream? I think these boys deserve a show!”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Those still sober enough to understand her cheered, and she too grinned. While Kara was fetching that from the bag, she got up, to some asshole’s muted protests, and broke out the tools she would be using to incapacitate everyone. Shot glasses and some pure as hell European alcohol that would put a Scot on his ass. When she asked Keiko for some strong shit, she hadn’t expected her to actually get something expensive, which she hadn’t, she just gave her the empty bottle filled with cheap ninety percent alcohol. It also meant she needed to make mixed drinks with it if they weren’t already completely fucked. She took one sip of Keiko’s personal bottle of the same stuff and almost hurled at how vile it was.

She brought out a couple of mixers and got to work, she wasn’t legally allowed to work a bar, but that hadn’t stopped her from doing some shifts at seedier places when she wasn’t able to do her normal work. Thankfully those times were rare, but they still happened.

“Alright boys! This shit is top shelf, all courtesy of yours truly!” she declared, lining up the glasses before filling them. “Drink up, get fucked up, then get fucked!”

The cheers were a bit more dynamic after that one, and she made sure everyone got a glass with enough alcohol to fuck up their liver for good in it. She watched as everyone drank and smiled. Keiko had distilled a couple of poisonous plants into a potent mixture before adding it to the booze. She claimed it would only enhance the effects of the rest of the shit they were on before handing the bottle over but stressed none of the girls were to partake.

The dick returned with three more guys from the warehouse alongside Kara, who had five cans of whipped cream to go around. One of the new guys was bitching about leaving the warehouse short-handed, but was placated when the girls got up, completely nude, and handed them joints and began to service them. She brought them cups as well, and the whipped cream began to flow across her girl’s naked bodies and still more coke snorted off tits and ass.

A sickening display of hedonism, but she was deadened to it all.

The bottle was drained, the men were in a heady haze, and she knew it was just a matter of time before they began to drop and her girls could pack up and go. Her phone was tucked away, the tone set to something girly that she would recognize right away, and only one person had the number. It chimed right on the dot for when Ashe said she was starting her own end of the job.

She glanced at the clock, she didn’t know how long it would take for an alarm to be sounded, but she needed to make sure everyone was sufficiently fucked up to not react. That, and she needed her girls clear before first responders arrived. She did a tally of the men that had been invited in, all of which were fucked up, but not all were so out of it that she thought they wouldn’t notice all the girls disappearing.

Aubrey gave a discrete signal and two of the girls slipped away, the other two were still busy finishing up with two of the more awake men, the whipped cream being put to good use. Once they were done, she had them step away, but not leave. She refused to be alone in a room with so many men in varied mental states.

One bastard with an actual swastika tattooed across his chest was not quite out of it yet. She grabbed a small package from her bag and walked over to him, feathering gentle hands all over him. It was stupid how the racist pigs didn’t give two shits about ethnicity if the girl was hot enough and drooling over them.

Really, letting these bastards have a night of bliss before their death was too good for them. They deserved to die screaming, not with damn smiles as they slipped away. Pity that option was too dangerous for her girls, and they were still her priority.

She was careful with the contents, making sure she didn’t touch the contact side of the patch at all as she stuck it to his exposed skin. The effect was swift as his eyes turned glassy and distant, a lopsided grin pulling at his face that could have been confused for a stroke. She made the rounds, putting patches on each person in some vague priority of who she thought might not be quite out of it just yet.

Then, she unlocked a side room that had been left locked since the first visit. She’d opened it during the first visit, revealing a basic room with water and canned goods. It also had a clean pair of shorts and a camisole for her to slip into. This time, it had something extra, five gallon jugs of diesel fuel and a one gallon can of regular old gas. Diesel was good for setting the stage, but struggled to get going on its own, that was where regular gas saved the show.

She carried the first two cans out, and began to douse things, including their guests. They didn’t really mind, not with all the shit in their systems. Hell, she was pretty sure at least one of them was already dead and two others were well on their way even before she was done with her prep.

The building was thoroughly fucked by the time she grabbed the gas can and poured it out by the back door. The girls had already left in their own van, leaving her to exit in her own little beater currently sporting expired tags from a junker and a fake sticker. It didn’t matter, she would be scrapping it in a day or two regardless.

She set the gas can in the trunk and fished out a box of matches. She lit one and set it inside the box before tossing it into the gasoline soaked entryway. The box burst into flames, and set the building ablaze in seconds. The fire would spread swiftly, the diesel’s lower evaporation rate helping it along.

Aubrey knew that she would need to thank Hanabi for that tip, as it looked like it was working exactly as promised. She wasted little time pulling away, and noted dimly that the warehouse Ashe was hitting wasn’t nearly as on fire as her own objective. Not even a hint of flames showed just yet, and she grew worried.

Biting her lip, she kept glancing at the phone sitting in her cup holder as she drove. Concern gripped her heart as the blocks zipped by, and she was about to risk a call when the second text came in. Aubrey breathed out a sigh of relief, knowing that the worst of it was behind them, though she didn’t know how Ashe had fared in her own actions. Her reputation as Inferno would certainly grow, but had she been hurt further? Had Crystal or Keiko?

That part wasn’t her immediate concern, she knew, and getting attached to an employer never ended well in her line of work, but she couldn’t help it, Ashe was someone that was still fresh enough to not be jaded as hell. She cared, and for that reason alone, Aubrey would do her damndest to help.

When the phone rang, she grinned wide and answered with enthusiasm.

“Sup girl! How was your hot date? Because let me tell you, mine was a scorcher. Just yum! It was just so perfect and—”

Ashe groaned on the other end, cutting her off and prompting a bit of laughter from her companions. It seemed they were well enough to not just dump ice water on her good mood, which meant they were okay. She wasn’t going to have to bury someone else she was actually starting to like.

Tension left her shoulders, and she finally let herself unwind. Now she just needed to make sure that her friends did the same. Just because she could be cold and calculating didn’t mean she couldn’t play things up, and besides, it was more fun that way. She could have fun and tease her friends, inject some levity following what was no doubt a brutal night for all of them.

Lord knows she needed it too.