Be Gay Do Crime

The woman surged forward, only to stumble on the second step.  Ashe reached out to catch her on impulse, the hood falling back as she dropped to one knee to brace.  Looking down, she could see the pain and fear in Yessina’s eyes, the exhaustion creeping at her consciousness.

“She’s in rough shape,” the now bloodied man said, and Ashe recognized his voice as Kyle, her instructor.  A tightness in her chest reminded her of their last interaction.  “Get the surgical kit!” 

“Got it,” Eric said, settling in beside them.

Ashe helped settle the woman on the floor and cleared the way for the two medics to get to work.  That didn’t help settle Ashe’s anxiety, because if Yessina was here, then where the hell was her mom?  As if sensing the question, Yessina’s eyes fluttered open, landing on her again before she screwed them shut again. 

“Inferno,” she said, her voice labored.  “It was Alejandro, your…she made sure I got away safely.” 

“Is she alive?” Ashe said, her voice coming out emotionless, despite the tempest swiftly overtaking her mind. 

“I think,” Yessina started, then began to cough as Eric pulled the hoodie away to reveal the bloodied gray jumpsuit beneath.  A shard of metal had pierced her side, and it was a small miracle that she’d made it back to them at all.

Ashe shook her head.  “Don’t try to talk.”  She then turned to Mercedes.  “I need to know what happened to my mom.  She was with her, I can’t just—” 

“Go,” the woman said, “we’ll make sure Yessina makes it.” 

Nodding, Ashe got to her feet and went to the door.  Crystal was quick to fall into step with her along with the rest of her team.  Once outside in the parking lot of the unassuming dive, and away from the bouncers at the door, Ashe let out an explosive sigh even as worry clawed at her gut.  

Was her mom even alive?  What had happened?  Yessina was in no condition to speak, and Ashe didn’t know what she should do.  Crystal leaned against her, and Ashe nearly collapsed onto her, wanting nothing more than to scream and wail to the world.

Instead, she remained outwardly stoic, a beacon of stability to her team, even as she raged against an uncaring universe internally. 

“Well, this just turned into a shitshow,” Brie said, leaning against the van. 

Robbie huffed.  “Been one all night, do try to keep up, Guisante.” 

Brie paused, her eyes wide.  “No.  Not just no, but fuck the hell no.  You are not calling me pea.” 

“I dunno,” Crystal mused.  “It’s better than Hanabi.” 

“Really?” Keiko said.  “You’re doing the quips now?  When everything’s gone to shit?  My girlfriend was apparently our leak, Ashe’s mom is likely roadkill, and—” 

Ashe barely had a moment to blink, Crystal having shifted just enough to get a solid right hook into Keiko’s cheek.  The woman bounced off the nearby car and hit the gravel hard.  All the banter died and Crystal put a single boot atop Keiko’s hand, pushing down just enough to drive the point home. 

“It’s called deflection,” Crystal snarled.  “We’re all barely holding it together in our own ways, alright?  We needed five minutes to decompress, then we would be right back in the thick of things, minds just that small bit clearer and ready to tackle the problem at hand.  You’re not the only one hurting, so have some damn empathy for once!” 

Keiko looked up, tears in her eyes, but anger and defiance lighting them up from within. 

Ashe could feel some sympathy there, they were each dealing with their own pain in their unique brands of bullshit.  Ashe couldn’t lash out, so she shut down instead.  Keiko didn’t have that hangup, so she was ‘weapons free’ to do whatever. 

Ashe really wanted to kiss Crystal for shutting it down so spectacularly. 

It had snapped her out of her own morose spiral, and she had some idea of what she could do to get ahead of things.  So, while Crystal and Keiko fell into hushed whispers, Ashe pulled out her phone and dialed a number. 

“Ashe,” Mother said.  “Is everything alright?  Linda said you were—” 

“Mom’s missing,” Ashe said sharply.  She heard her mother start to explain, but she let Inferno take the wheel and barrelled right over her.  “Yessina just turned up at the Tangled Web near death and has no idea if Mom is okay.” 

The sharp intake of breath told her everything she needed to know.  Her identity as Inferno was pretty much out in the open, and hiding it wouldn’t do anyone any favors right now.  She needed to embrace it fully, own her mistakes. 

“I’m sorry I asked you to protect Yessina.”  There, secret’s out.  “I’m in over my head here and everything is falling apart around me.  Alejandro’s making his move to all but claim the city and it’s pandemonium out here.  I doubt I’m going to survive the night, but I figured you deserved to know why everything happened the way it did.” 

A heavy silence fell over the call and Ashe had to check to make sure it hadn’t dropped.  It hadn’t, and the silence drug on.  If Ashe strained her ears, she thought she might have heard breathing on the other end.  It didn’t matter, she was just waiting for the shoe to drop.  She knew who she was up against, and if Mom wasn’t already dead, she was wishing she was while he did something depraved that he was no doubt going to show Ashe in an effort to break her. 

She was going to lose her family tonight. 

It was the cold truth of the matter, Ashe had made her choices and now they were all coming back to bite her in the ass.  Mother would turn her back on her, and Ashe would watch her mom die in the most fucked up way possible while Alejandro gloated. 

Then she too would die.

“Northbound on Sycamore, heading deeper into Keen,” Mother finally said, breaking the silence and startling the hell out of Ashe when the words registered.  “Her watch has a GPS tracker.  It’s your best shot and I don’t have any officers to spare to send after her on the word of a criminal.” 

The statement stung, but Ashe understood.  It was the cold truth of it all, and Ashe had to embrace it if the people she loved were going to get through the night alive.

“I’ll get her back,” Ashe said, feeling conviction in her voice once again.  “That bastard dies tonight.” 

“That’s more like it,” Brie said, startling Ashe.  She hadn’t realized the little demon had crept so close, or that she was listening in.  “I still owe him a steel toe to the dick.” 

“We all owe him something,” Robbie added.  “Do you have access to this tracker, or are we going to be relying on running commentary?” 

“Right,” Mother said, “that facet slipped my mind.  You already have the app, I’ll approve you to track us for this evening.” 

“Thanks Mother,” Ashe said.  “I’m sorry I kept this all from you, and since I probably won’t get another chance to say it.  I love you, and thank you for everything.” 

Ashe almost expected silence, or some mocking answer delivered with dry wit, but the answer came quickly. 

“I love you too, Ashe,” Mother said, her voice hollow.  “And I’m sorry we failed you.” 

The call ended, and Ashe took a deep breath as she switched to the family tracking app and her mom’s signal pinged as it traveled down Sycamore.  She just had to hold onto that slim hope that she wasn’t too late. 

“Load up,” Ashe called out, offering a hand to Keiko who was still sitting in the gravel.  She accepted, and allowed herself to be hauled up.  “We all get through this, then we can find our closure, alright?” 

Keiko glared back, then looked away.  “Yeah, alright.” 

“Good enough.” 

Nodding, the group piled into the van and loaded up on the gear that they hadn’t dared bring into the Tangled Web with them.  It was bad enough that they had taken their sidearms, which could have easily resulted in a blow up, but she refused to let her team walk into a potential slaughter.  In addition, bluetooth headsets were passed around, and they all hooked into the voice lobby on the group app, though Robbie did need an invite to the server. 

Less than a minute later Ashe was seated in the back and Robbie was taking his place in the driver’s seat.  Opening the tracking app, she looked again at where her mom’s watch indicated she was.  They had pulled off of Sycamore and were now driving straight west to…  Oh fuck. 

“Is that,” Crystal started, but Ashe was paying more attention to the implications of what she was seeing. 

“They’re bringing her here,” Ashe said, looking up with wide eyes.  “Fuck, they know we’re here.” 

Robbie growled, spitting off to the side.  “Probably has someone inside the bar that messaged him the moment we arrived.” 

“Or is watching us right now,” Keiko added. 

“What now?” Brie asked, looking between all of them. 

Ashe wasn’t sure, and for once she envied Brie for being new enough that she was the one looking to others for the answers.  That was one of the better parts of her early days, she could look to Robbie for the answers.  Why he wanted her in charge was something she still didn’t understand, but that meant it was also up to her to see things through. 

She needed to use what she knew of the man against him.  He was theatrical, putting on a persona that was larger than life and more than a little insane.  She could play into that to some extent, but he was no fool.  He wouldn’t hesitate to put a problem down if he felt that the tide was turning against him.  He would only posture for as long as he felt it served his reputation to do so. 

“Pull the van near the entrance, it can at least break up line of sight for those inside,” Ashe said, already moving to get back out.  “He’s going to grandstand, we’ll need to take advantage of that.  Keiko, Brie, get line of sight on the parking lot and keep an eye out for anyone keeping tabs on the place.  We don’t want you to lose the element of surprise.  Crystal, you’re with me.  He’ll be expecting us front and center.  Robbie, that armor still worth a damn after your last stunt?” 

“It’s ugly as sin, but should still work as intended,” the man said with a raised eyebrow. 

“Then stay in the van and load up,” Ashe said.  “You can be our shock and awe if things go pear shaped.” 

“Which they will,” Keiko muttered. 

Brie patted her on the shoulder and moved out of the van, offering her a hand down.  The pair then ran off towards a fire escape across the way.  Ashe then set off as well with Crystal following right on her heel as she walked back towards the bar, this time with rifle in hand. 

“They aren’t going to be happy,” Crystal said. 

Ashe couldn’t help the snort that followed.  “How often have you seen Mercedes happy?” 

“Last Halloween,” Crystal said.  “Robbie dressed up as a fairy princess, then sang a bunch of songs on the karaoke stage.” 

“Oh my god,” Ashe said, barely able to restrain her own giggles at the mental images that were conjuring up.  “Please tell me that someone recorded this.” 

“Oh yeah,” Crystal said.  “Remind me to show it to you after we put Alejandro six feet under.” 

Now that was something to look forward to.  Hell, she’d make popcorn just for the occasion!  It was almost enough to chase away the thoughts of her own imminent death.  Well, that just gave her yet another reason to survive the night.  She already had a long list of those, but one more certainly wouldn’t hurt. 

Glancing aside, Ashe looked at the stoic form of reason number one.  Her girlfriend was without her mask, her blue hair a bit sweat matted, but still beautiful.  She hadn’t been in nearly as many scrapes as Ashe herself had experienced through the night, and a mirror was one of the last things she wanted to see. 

Ashe feared that her hair catching fire had to have burned most of it off, and confirmation of how bad it was would only serve to shake her already fragile mental state.  The soreness she could mostly ignore once the adrenaline got pumping, and nothing felt cracked or broken thankfully.  She’d likely be one giant bruise once the day was done, but things could always be worse. 

The moment she stepped through the front door, it got worse.  Both bouncers had their guns on her in an instant.  Half the patrons followed a moment later.  Ashe raised her hands, leaving the rifle dangling from its strap.  In her hand was her phone, which still showed the tracker, with the blip moving ever closer.

“The fuck are you doing back,” Mercedes barked.  “You gonna try to tell us that you did something spectacular in the time it takes me to take a shit?” 

“Classy,” Ashe muttered, not that she was much better.  “Thought you would like to know that my mom has a tracker on her, and it’s heading this way.” 

Mercedes’ eyes narrowed, scrutinizing in their appraisal, then widened when Ashe shifted the phone so she could see the screen. 

“The fuck are you playing at?” Mercedes growled.  “Why is he coming here?” 

Ashe shrugged.  “Probably because someone he paid to keep an eye out let him know we swung by.  Might be anyone in this room, might be someone setup outside, hard to say.” 

“Ma’am,” Kyle said, “this is hardly the place to hold off a siege.” 

They had moved Yessina, laying her down atop the bar while Eric was working on her injuries, stitching something on her side.  Kyle was cleaning blood from his arms in the sink now that it was clear there wasn’t an active threat inside the bar, just outside of it. 

“I am well aware,” Mercedes muttered.  “Alright Inferno, you’ve got our attention.  What do you plan to do about this bastard when he comes calling?” 

That was what it all came down to in the end, this was all about Ashe and the fuckups that led to this very situation.  If she had just stayed with the Viuda, never attempted to strike out on her own due to rumors, she would still be safely small-time, running ops with Robbie.  But then, her girls might not be as well off as they were.  That was one thing she was proud of, even if the intention had been perverted by Alejandro’s meddling.  She was going to have words with Yessina, but until then, she had to set things right.  This was her fuck up, she was going to own it.

“He’s going to want me,” Ashe said.  “I plan to give him exactly what he wants on a silver platter.”

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