Tammi was sure about a lot of things in her very short life. She was sure that you either took things or you had those things taken from you. She was sure that if you could not struggle against the tide you might as well lay down and pray. She was sure that pretty words and moral standards were next to useless. She was sure that she was not a good person but honestly, she could care less.
Good people did not live long healthy lives. That little lesson applied triple when you lived in Brockton fucking Bay. In the Bay the weak got taken advantage of and that may be sad but it was the truth. You heard countless stories of junkies throwing their lives away for another hit but in the Bay you hear stories of junkies selling their own family members for a taste of that life.
Skidmark a man that literally named himself shit stain was in a position of power. Sure, he was a joke to most people but if he wanted you to blow him then you better get on your knees and suck his cock for all it was worth. There was not a god damn thing a normal person could do in the face of someone like him. You would be fucking lucky if Skidmark just wanted you to suck his dick.
No, Squealer was a good example of what would happen to you if he wanted something more. That poor girl was drugged with so many different substances that her sweat probably gave a contact high. Squealer was someone that could be strong but she was used and abused and the good guys never bothered doing a thing about it.
It was a horrifying notion that you would find yourself drugged up and whored out because you managed to catch Skidmark's eye. That was just one of the gangs in this city and while Tammi would like to think of them as the worst the ABB came pretty fucking close.
Lung was a monster that demanded featly and respect wherever he went. What did the murder lizard do with that fear? He got his crew of limp dicked losers to kidnap girls and force them into prostitution. Morals can go fuck themselves when she had classmates disappear one day and show up in one of those ABB brothels.
It was honestly hard to see who was worse between the Merchants and the ABB as they both kidnapped girls and fucked them up but the ABB did come ahead a bit as they dealt further into the flesh trade. The merchants only kidnapped someone because they wanted to get their dick wet the ABB did it because it was profitable. The Merchants come out worse for her because the notion of losing your mind and begging for your next hit gnawed at her.
This world was fucked and those two gangs proved that very well. The PRT may say they are the good guys and they may save the day some times but this city was cancerous and they never struck the root cause. She could never understand that but maybe it was just another play at power.
If the world was not fucked up then they would not need superheroes. But it was not like the average citizen needed to live like this. The world was already pretty fucking bleak with giant monsters tearing cities apart and murder hobos that went around spreading more misery. So did they really need to leave rapists and drug lords alone? It was not like Lung fucking went to Endbringer fights the fucking chink just roared around here but proved his dickless-ness by hiding away.
She got where Cole was coming from. She really did, she knew that being a Nazi was fucking stupid. That being white did not make her special or that it made anyone else special either. She knew that the world around her would view her as nothing more than the scum on their boots but the alternative was worse. That was the thing Cole did not understand. Her beliefs were not just about everything going her way. No, she spewed what she did because it brought her some semblance of safety.
Being part of the Empire meant that she was not going to disappear one day because some rice muncher decided she was worth a pretty penny. It meant that she was not going to be jumped by some fucking monkey and drugged until she forgot her name. Being a part of the Empire meant that she was not going to be just another statistic in Brockton fucking Bay.
Admittedly it was not just about safety. She liked feeling like she was strong. She liked everyone watching her and wondering if she would blow their heads off. She liked walking towards someone and demanding whatever they had and having them fork it over because they were weaker. She liked the thrill of ruling her little kingdom and if she had to call someone a nigger every once and awhile she was fine with that.
She was not blind to the faults of the Empire either. It was a literal gang of Nazis so they were not the most pleasant of people. A lot of cursing out minorities and beating the living shit out of those they considered lesser.
The only consolation to the Empire was that they did not deal in the flesh trade, not because of any moral reasons but the other gangs had a stranglehold on it. That did not mean girls were safe from Empire thugs either, they did rape minorities when they felt that itch but it did mean the thugs would leave her alone because of her blondness.
She may be a part of the Empire but she was not delusional like most of their members. Honestly, the only ones that really threw their nuts into it were Hookwolf and his crew. Fuck she was not even sure if Kaiser believed in what he was saying or if he was just coasting off of what his father built.
She did not regret being a part of the Empire. She was not even a regular thug so she did not need to see the nitty gritty details. She could just coast by on her clan status and the fact that she was a pretty blonde girl. What she does regret is trusting her uncle.
Her parents were a terrible example. They fully believed in the Nazi rhetoric but they held none of the power of the Clan as they left it. So she was stuck as a powerless weakling that was known to have Nazi parents. Her younger years were not really that pleasant. Then her Uncle came around showing her what it meant to be part of the clan. Introducing her to all the pleasure being powerful meant. He would take her around the Empire and show her all that she could take.
She was so enamored with what he was showing her that she did not even question things. Like why her parents left the clan when they clearly still felt a certain way. If she did she might have found out they left because of her. They knew how the Clan treated children and while her early life sucked it would be leagues worse if she grew up in the Clan. The Clan had a reputation for raising Capes and most people knew that meant immense trauma.
Maybe her Uncle was luring her in with the promise of power before springing the trap on her but he did not finish doing that. Instead when he was showing off his power he got busted and instead of protecting her he threw her under the bus. He got off scot-free through his connections and he left her all alone to face the burglary charges. That day she learned that there was really only one person she could trust.
Cole, he was the only thing that she had going on in her life that was worth a damn. When the world started crashing around her he was the only one who stood by her side. She could tell that this whole situation was eating him up and seeing him breaking down slowly after finally coming out of his shell was killing her inside.
Yet, if he just stopped coming and left her like everyone else she was not sure what she would do.
Cole well Cole was interesting in a way that most people could not see. When she first met him he was just a pretty face to look at as she lorded over the other Empire kids. He was just another person who fell in line as he was too afraid to do anything else.
She learned that her opinion of him was wrong rather quickly. It was not that he was afraid of what would happen to him if he did not fall in line. No, Cole was not really afraid of anything. Better yet Cole did not really feel anything as far as she could tell.
He followed in line because resisting her command was more effort. Knowing that she was rather irritated and moody during that time but eventually, she dropped it. Cole may have just been a doll to look at but at least he was a good-looking one. So she kept him by her side despite his lacking responses.
Then he started to try. Cole might have been fooling himself and hiding away from everything but underneath everything his heart still beat and he wanted to connect with someone. So when he started opening up to her instead of anyone else it was a bit of an ego boost and her pride never felt higher.
She was better than even the other Empire kids. Cole opening up to only her proved that. So instead of just a pretty face to look at he became someone she could talk to. Someone who would listen to whatever she said and say despite him disagreeing with her.
She was rather shocked when she found out that Cole hated that his father was a part of the Empire and that Cole hated the rhetoric that was being passed around him. For most of the Empire kids, they were taught their values from very young and they followed it religiously.
She was only slightly different in that regard. She did have those values pumped into her head from her parents but the weakness of her younger life meant she did not put much weight into it. She was not anything special and that stung to admit but she was a realist.
No, she was born weak and she was probably going to die weak. For a good long while she thought she was strong but as the handcuffs wrapped around her wrists and her Uncle ran she knew that she was fooling herself.
Being in Juvie taught her that she was not as strong as she thought she was. Being a Nazi was never pleasant at the best of times and being one in jail was looking for things to go wrong for you. Sure, there were others like her in this prison but they were losers like she was.
Any of the real hitters were taken out of prison subtly so she was left with little to no allies in a place that wanted to stomp her face in. The other girls wanted her to know her place no matter what and the guards were not going to look kindly at a Nazi even if they were also white.
No, she probably got the harshest treatment from the white guards as they did not want to be associated with someone like her. They certainly did not want people to think they held similar beliefs.
She was having a hard time in prison and Cole saw that. Cole was becoming more than that minion who followed along with her whims because it was a hassle to resist. No, Cole was someone who genuinely cared for her.
She could see that as he fell apart in front of her eyes. She never thought she would mean so much to him despite her being the only person he actually talked to and interacted with. She never thought he would mean so much to her.
But in her weakest moments, she found her heart aching at the thought of never seeing him again. Of not hearing his dumb stories or his small smiles as she looked at her.
In this cell of hers, she learned that the only thing she really feared right now was losing him.