Self Destructing Messenger

#6 - Pyro Mania

The shrill cry tore at Azalea, decimating her nerves and she spun on the possible threat.

"Eeek! Cupcakes!," The voice squealed. It turned out to be one of the dancers, her head peeking out from the stage curtain. She stepped free of the fabric to reveal a double amputation, partial left arm and leg. "Girls there are cupcakes!" Several more voices joined the first, equally as enthusiastic.

"Dibs on a pink one!"

Azalea took a slow deep breath and eased down as a few dancers crowded the sweets. Several of them were missing limbs but wearing colorful prostheses. One woman was very small. Azalea wondered where she got her stripper clothes.

"A little tense there, mmm?" Pyro teased, putting his hands on the blonde's shoulders, kneading her flesh. "Sheesh, like granite."

She pulled away. "Don't touch me."

"Or ice." The crimson crusader put up his hands in surrender. "I was just trying to help."

"Really? Already?" Gia smacked Pyro across the back of his head. "You're such a freaking perv!"

The two started arguing but they weren't the only sounds of discontent. At the side of the stage, the first stripper to notice the baked goods was now throwing a fit.

"Who the heck puts hot sauce in cupcakes! My god my mouth is on fire!"

At that declaration the other girls stopped eating to stare at the hysterical dancer. She was fanning her mouth desperately with a prosthetic hand.

"What?" Elaine said, confused and concerned. "We didn't do anything bad to the cupcakes. We would never!"

"Then why does it burn?" She wailed, diving for the cups of soda Gia had poured moments earlier. Crazed, she grabbed one after another and threw them back. Caramel colored liquid cascaded past her chin and down her body, splashing on the floor and still she drank.

"What in the-" Elaine stammered.

Azalea pulled the teen back from the scene. "You have to get everyone out of here," she said into the young girl's hair.

"What? Why?"

In answer to her question, the stripper burst into flames. Fire engulfed every part of her body, her prostheses burning blue.

Elaine darted towards the other dancers and started ushering them to the exits even though the strippers didn't exactly have to be told to leave. Gia joined her but Pyro noticed Azalea's hesitation.

The blonde stood in place. Why did it have to be fire? She did not do fire. Fire scarred and deformed people. She was too pretty to be deformed. Pretty was all she had.

The crimson crusader dashed across the room, grabbing an extinguisher from the wall next to the bar.

"YOU!" Screamed the living bonfire, pointing towards the bar. Her voice no longer quite human. "You had them poison us!"

Pyro looked at her dumbly but she wasn't addressing him. She was speaking to the bartender. The older man doubled over in pain, clutching his head. Then he was still, slowly raising his eyes to meet the dancer's. He parted his lips, his jaw working back and forth forcefully. A ripping sound was almost lost to the roar of the fire as his skin tore and his mouth split sickeningly wide.

Can't be worse than fire, Azalea thought.

And then she was on her back. The booming noise from the sonic attack still filled the air as she struggled to right herself. Pyro had been hit as well and was face down, not moving.

Azalea pulled herself upright in time to witness the stripper set the barkeep alight. The rows of vodka and whiskey behind him burst, one by one, blanketing that section of the club in fast burning alcohol. Another sonic attack rattled the building as he slapped at the flames in vain. The flailing was short lived as he sank behind the counter.

The dancer wasn't doing well herself. Her prostheses had started to burn through at their smallest points. Her left foot snapped off and she fought, wobbling, to stay standing. Odds a bit more even, or uneven, Azalea picked up the fire extinguisher dropped by Pyro and swung as hard as she could, connecting with the face of the stripper. The woman went down hard but continued to move so Azalea bashed her again. And again.

When she was satisfied, the blonde looked over at tall vigilante, still unconscious. She could drag him out but could she do so before she passed out from smoke inhalation? No.

"Come on!" A voice from somewhere but everything was dark and getting worse.

Azalea found herself outside, not entirely sure how she had gotten there until she saw Gia and Elaine doubled over coughing. Pyro was there, too, slowly coming around. Azalea took a deep breath, thankful for the air she had thought so critically of earlier in the evening.

"Are you okay?" Elaine asked, touching Azalea's arm comfortingly.

The blonde nodded slowly.

"Good," Elaine said. "Because that was amazing!"

Azalea frowned and looked at the girl. "What?"

"The stripper was like 'you!' and you were so calm and then the bartender was all rawr and then bam!" The girl made wide sweeping gestures as she spoke, doing so a mile a minute. When her animated reinactment was over, she added, "You're like a real life super hero!"

Azalea laughed. "Yeah."

And then sirens filled the air.

***

"Gia had called 911 promptly as good little altruistic kids do," Azalea explained to Cayce as they continued their drive. "But they aren't all law and order. Before the cops got there, they hid me in the van. Gave their statements and what not. Afterwards the little group offered me a place to stay for a while. Pretty sure they'll do it again."

"Interesting," Cayce said without looking away from the road. "So you do this often?"

"More often than I'd like," she said.

"Because of a voice in your head?"

Azalea murmured her confirmation.

"How long ago was the flaming stripper event?"

"About two years."

"A lot can change in two years," he said.

"A lot changed while I was there but I still think they'll help."

"Why? Hero worship?"

"Something like that."