All things considered it wasn't the worst part of town. If one knew the dos and don'ts of the area they could come in, enjoy some libations and erotic company, and leave unscathed. All things considered returning customers were good for business, so the business owners put in a lot of effort to keep it that way. Stick to the main road and don't be an idiot, and the bouncers would be all the protection you needed, with a bit of lean, of course, to those who knew which hands to grease. Some people got unlucky, some upset the wrong people, and some wandered drunkenly into a back alley, but all in all things were pretty safe.

Aleah was no exception to this. Perhaps even more so since she was practically raised in the area, and was a step above greased palms by being one of the things the bouncers were specifically paid to keep safe. No business could survive without "products", after all. Unfortunately, sometimes those “products” were more exclusive than some people cared for. People with money always got the best things, and people without always want those things too.

Unlucky. Just enough people around that getting a little close to a stranger wasn’t suspicious, but not enough - and with an old, musty enough night filled with drunken and stuffy heads - that a happenstance glance was likely to fall on the scene. She felt the knife on her bare back about the same time she heard the threatening whisper in her ear. The startled gasp and hot burn of adrenaline running through her body made her miss the specifics, but she quite safely assumed it was something along the lines of don’t scream or be stabbed. It was always the same. Like these creeps had some sort of assault handbook. And it seemed like personal grooming and hygiene was also a part of the handbook, as evidence by the hairy man’s unbuttoned shirt, dirty pants, half-shaven-off pate dyed an ugly shade of red, and scent marked by cheap booze and a salty sort of stench suggesting he only bathed in the ocean. Not the sort of clientele the doorman she knew would let in, which means he had to have-

“Me mate says you only service the ritz.” Yeah, that. “We’re gonna step on back here and you’re gonna show me what’s worth payin’ so much fer.”

Fear was an interesting thing. Of course there was that red-hot terror involved in getting a deadly weapon pressed against your back, but at the same time that rush of adrenaline, the knowledge that the danger was surmountable and promised the satisfaction of seeing these creeps get a little taste of what they deserved, heck even the look in their eyes as they found the little helpless whore to be more than they could handle… exhilarating. This was far from her first assault since her name started getting out there in the community, but those little thrills weren’t getting old any time soon. Fear was nothing to fear, but rather embraced. Surely this was how one could really feel alive.

The loose fabric of her transparent red outfit, a simple affair of red and gold covering only her arms, shoulders, and legs - though considering where she was it was also marked by more modest, non-transparent shorts and sportsbra beneath - fluttered in the light breeze, trailing around her limbs like a ghostly aura, doing little to hide the exotic deep bronze skin beneath. Though her upper body held mostly still to keep herself from being cut and revealing her trump card too soon, the clearest sign that something was amiss in their victim, and one that would go unnoticed, was the soft sway in those supple hips; a ‘swagger’, one might say, that broke through the helpless facade and showed the excited confidence within. The city lights seemed entirely absorbed by those dark eyes, their depths revealing nothing from how completely devoid of luster they were at night.

Sure enough, as they pulled into a dark alley, the second figure emerged, a much cleaner, better dressed man in dark pants and jacket, with simple white shirt beneath the open buttons. Though he too was not without his filth, as the greasy black hair slicked back against his skull would suggest, right along with the lusty leer on his face. She felt a little shove on her back forcing her to stumble a few more steps towards the man. “Go on then. Give us a show!”

“Hah. Dream on sleaze balls. I only serve paying customers. Scum like you wouldn’t be able to afford me even if you were competent criminals.” she cooed softly in response, casting a haughty look over her shoulder at the knife-wielding man, lips curled into a smirk of her own.

“The fuck you say?? Bitch I’ll cut you!”

Well, that was easy. The slash came in low and wide, aimed at her leg and likely planned to prevent any running while terrifying her into compliance rather than actually hurt her. Far more clever than she’d given him credit for, but there was still one element he had missed. Something she let him discover first-hand as she made no efforts to dodge.

Slash

So sure was he that he had found a helpless victim, that he didn’t even notice the white flash rippling over the impact site like ripples in a pond. How could he? Who could have imagined a red light entertainer had unlocked her aura? Not even many of the bouncers had done that. Of course, that little display of ballsy endurance was less for the hapless attacker, and more for his sleazy friend. To the attacker himself, well… his smile wouldn’t even have left his face by the time he was on the ground.

The little dancer spun on a dime to face her foe, right arm lashing out and giving the retracting knife-arm a nice solid… tap. Meanwhile her left was already lashing forward to strike the man’s sternum with a much more solid-sounding… well it could technically be called a punch, though any martial arts teacher would probably call it one of the most ineffective punches they’d ever seen. Whatever it was, it seemed to do something, however, as she suddenly had plenty of time to push off with her back foot and spin again, a simple three-step dance that left her at the man’s back. She didn’t hesitate a moment before striking three more of those love taps up the length of his spine.

A smirk painted the little faunus’ face as her view cleared up, the smelly man crumbling into a heap on the ground at her feet, while the sleazy man took a stunned step back, eyes wide in confusion and disbelief. Ever the calm, confident showgirl, there was a certain alluring flair with which she reached up to the back of her head and pulled on a knot, her arm going out wide with a length of ribbon held in her hand. The rest of the ribbon quickly unraveled from around her hair in an almost magical manner, leaving the long braid of raven black locks beneath exposed to the night air as the strange red and gold fabric coiled up by her side. It was then that the man realized he was in trouble, and he quickly fumbled around to grab the weapon within his jacket. Too late.

Swinging her arm up and around revealed the end of the ribbon had somehow formed into a ball, providing enough weight to act as a flail of sorts as she swung it over her head once, and then let it fly on end of the second. Like any good flail, the fabric quickly caught on his side, and as soon as it did a strange light seemed to travel down its length, immediately causing the ball to start to unravel as it swung around its victim, very quickly wrapping his arms and chest up tight. He let out a grunt somewhere between anger and distress, opening his mouth as if to speak, but stopping as he finds a single finger sticking up from the hand holding the ribbon.

“You can apologize to your buddy later. Consider yourself lucky I’ll only take enough to cover the cost of the dust. Though don’t blame me if looters take the rest. Oh, and try this again and next time I won’t be so merciful. Sweet dreams~” she cooed with no small level of condescension, suddenly producing a small handful of dust from… well, somewhere. A rather distinct electric charge filled the air as she tossed the dust in an arc in front of her, the scent of ozone rising as she waved her hand through the cloud to weave the world’s essence into coherent, primal power, and finally balled up that power into her fist and thrust it, closing her hand tight around the ribbon. In an instant the ribbon lit up, the lightning bolt running across its length and sending her would-be assailant into violent shock, his scream caught in his throat by the muscle spasms.

“Che.” she declared dismissively, looking away from him and flicking her wrist, the ribbon unraveling and returning to her hand even as he collapsed to the ground. “Probably a bad sign that I was hoping for more of a challenge than that.”