Playa looked at Starlight as she said those words. "Sorry," Starlight said, "It's just... You've seen the friends I was showing you? I only knew them from grade school. But I didn't have long to know them since I'm such a genius I was allowed to skip multiple grades. Maybe it's the catalyst for my telekinesis, I don't know. The point is I didn't want to lose touch with the friends I made, since I knew I wouldn't really be fitting in with the higher grades. Like a part of me wanted to hold on to every new friend I made."

She shook her head. "I never even told them about my current life. I don't know about Troy and Julius, but I made good friends with Lin and Dex." She shook her head. "Listen, I don't like talking about my past a lot. Let's put it on the back burner for now and do a few chores for the Saints. It'll take Samson some time to rig up that surprise for Lin." Playa looked at Starlight, but simply nodded.

The duo headed to Chinatown, where they met with another lawyer named Seth. "Hey there," the man said, "I already heard about you from Lee. So, what sort of accident are you involved in? Traffic? Walking? Hot coffee?" "Hot coffee?," Starlight asked. "You'd be surprised how dangerous it can be," Seth noted, "Listen, I've been in this business for over a year. Worked on my law degree for five months. To me, your injuries are a good source of revenue for both our parties."

Starlight turned to Playa. "Relax, I can take the fall this time. Somehow my powers can form some sort of barrier around me, and I can act with the best of them." Playa raised an eyebrow. "Either that or I can play pinball with your brains again," Starlight quipped. Playa put up his hands in acquiescence. Starlight smiled as she headed out, ready to get her mind off her one-sided conversation from earlier.

"Okay, here's comes a tough one," Starlight said, "From my Dad's numerous altercations with the cops, I happen to know Bill on our current hit list is an FBI agent..." She sighed. "I've never been good offing police officials. Dad hates authority so he'll do it by the boat-load, but me... It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Plus, to even lure out the FBI we'd have to kill, I dunno, at least two dozen or more civilians. All that to kill one guy we can't even find normally."

Playa shrugged, and tossed a grenade into a nearby crowd. He then smiled gently at Starlight. "Oh," she said in realization, "So you plan on taking this one. Okay, I can accept that. Have fun, I'm gonna go over here and start throwing up now. That way I can get over the guilt faster. Or at least I hope so..." She went into a nearby alley while Playa drew in enough police attention to get Bill running in, before gunning him down with his K6 Krukov.

Needing to get her mind off the brutality, Starlight decided to hit up a contact at Poseidon Alley. The guy, Lorenzo, ran a street racing circuit around the district. "Hey there, girl," he said when he saw Starlight, "You're the one Julius mentioned, right?" "Yeah, that's me," Starlight said, "Look it's been a rough time and I need something to relax." Lorenzo laughed. "Well, I don't know how relaxing street racing is for you, but it might just take your mind off things. Careful though, the tuners around here don't play nice with newcomers."

Playa watched from the provided camera as Starlight zoomed through the courses. Some of them were standard lap races, some checkpoint races, and some were point to point races, where the drivers could take any route to a designated finish line. Once Starlight won the last race, she got out of her car smiling. "Well, I certainly feel a lot better. Come on, Playa, we still have some time to kill." They capped off the afternoon by nabbing two tags and a CD in Fox Drive, another tag and CD in Pilson, and one final CD in The Mills.

The next day, Starlight got a call from Lin. She and Playa met their friend at an inconspicuous nightclub. To Starlight's amusement, Lin pulled Playa aside for a quick dance while she talked. "Okay, the cars are rigged to blow once the engine reaches a high enough temperature. All you gotta do is make sure you get them nice and hot. They're competing a race down in Chinatown tonight."

Playa looked over to Starlight, who nodded. Playa then nodded to Lin. "Okay, make sure you give them some tough competition. These guys are meatheads, so when they see someone driving better than them, they'll hit the nitrous to blow past you. And when they do..." She leaned in to Playa's ear. "Boom." Starlight giggled silently as Playa shivered, likely in pleasure. "After that, just get outta there," Lin said smiling, "And thanks for the dance."

As Playa rejoined Starlight, she smirked. "Admit it, you liked getting that close to a girl as hot as Lin." Playa looked back at the club as they exited. Then he turned back to Starlight, and nodded as he returned the smirk. "Troy should be here any second," Starlight said, "He's in on the plan, and thinks he may have a great way to insure this plan goes smoothly." Sure enough, Troy pulled up in a sports car.

"Alright," Troy said, "Let's get this stupid lap-race started." Starlight and Playa looked at each other, then at Troy. "We would except for one thing," Starlight said, "It's a checkpoint race." Troy's mouth hung open for a second as his cigarette dropped to the ground. "Sorry, brain freeze there. Guess I'll have to wait until after the race to light up again. The plan won't work if we're blown to hell."

Starlight and Playa got into Troy's car. "Julius told me about your earlier racing," Troy explained to Starlight, "That'll help us keep up. But these guys have thicker skin than Lin realizes when it comes to competition. We wanna get them riled up enough to hit the nitrous, we need to get under their skin verbally." "So, insult their manhood?," Starlight suggested. "Among other things," Troy said with a nod, "Just leave that part to me. All you gotta do is close enough to the Rollerz for them to hear me."

Starlight nodded. As they approached the race, Troy spoke up again. "I'm a little worried about Lin. You go undercover long enough, sooner or later you start thinking like the people you're trying to infiltrate." Starlight looked at him. "How would you know?" Troy didn't answer. Starlight sighed at that. "Look, I won't pretend I'm not worried about her. In fact, I'm probably more worried than you. But Lin knows who her friends are, and she really hates the Rollerz. Trust me, she'll stick with the Saints."

"I guess that's a good point," Troy admitted, "Anyway, here we are." Sure enough, the entire set was mostly Rollerz. "Hey," one of them said, "Who are these newcomers?" "We were under the impression this was open invitation," Starlight said as she and Troy got out and switched seats. The Rollerz seemed surprised that a girl was driving, but this just made them more confidant.

As the race got started, one of the Rollerz managed to pull up to Starlight. "Hey babe, how about a date when I win?!" "Sorry!," Starlight replied cheekily, "I don't date slowpokes!" Troy smiled as the taunt worked, the Rollerz deciding to show Starlight how fast he was, only to go out in a blaze of glory. "That's a little too fast." The next guy didn't fare any better, thanks to Troy's heckling. "So, you're really going to risk giving up your parents' ride on this race!" Troy just shook his head as the idiot punched the nitrous and soon joined his buddy.

Near the finish line, Playa spotted the last Rollerz zooming in on his nitrous, exploding just before hitting the finish line. "That was cutting it close," Starlight noted. "You doing all right?," Troy asked, "Johnny mentioned you used to get sick at the thought of killing people." "I've gotten better, more or less," Starlight said, "Though only when it comes to rival gangs, or if I'm getting paid to off someone. Then I can swallow it down. Anyway, with the race disrupted, our own boys can move in on Chinatown. Which means we finally got a foothold on the Rollerz."

Driving around the Saints new territory, Playa remembered they had another contact in the area. However, when he and Starlight went to meet the guy, Dennis, he was speaking on the phone. Despite his tone, his face showed he was worried about something. "Look, tell Mr. Wong not to worry. Yes... Yes, I promise everything is on time, there's nothing to worry about. Alright, goodbye."

He hung up and leaned his head on a nearby support column. "I am so dead..." "Not yet you aren't," Starlight said, "We don't have you on Wong's hit list." Dennis turned to look at them. "And if you can help me get the cars I need for him, I won't wind up on there. I'm having trouble getting it done myself, that's why I asked Julius for help. I have the list Wong gave me. Every ride you can snag let's me live that much longer."

Luckily, it didn't take long to find the first vehicle. Parked right outside the Ultor Arena was an Attrazione, ripe for the taking. However, Playa also noticed the billboard for a demolition derby. Seeing his face, Starlight said, "Go ahead and sign up. I'll get the car to Dennis and meet you back here." Playa nodded as Starlight hotwired the car and drove off. Inside the dome Playa saw a couple cars already out in the arena.

The first car pulled up. "Hey, are you crazy? The derby is about to start, and you're just standing around." "Don't mind my brother," the driver of the other said, "He's just being a pussy. Just grab a car, there's still room on the roster for another driver." Playa nodded. During each round he had to take out a certain of vehicles to win. By the time he was done, Starlight had returned, having delivered the stolen vehicle.

The next day, after meeting four of Starlight's friends and snagging four more tags in Sommerset, Playa got a call from Lin. 'I met up with this Rollerz mechanic named Donnie. Sweet guy, definitely a lot nicer than the rest of the Rollerz. Anyway, I overheard him and his buddies talking about a storage garage in Pleasant View where they stash some of their more high performance cars. If we take them out, it would really cripple them.'

"Whoa, whoa, let's slow it down here," Starlight said, "We just hit the Rollerz yesterday. If we act on everything little thing you hear, they could get suspicious of you." 'This is all low-key attacks,' Lin argued, 'And that garage isn't anything we couldn't have found out about on our own. I know you're worried, but trust me when I say I can handle this.' Starlight sighed. She turned to Playa. "See why I'm so worried about her?" Playa nodded.

On the way to the garage, Starlight grabbed another CD in Pleasant View, as well as three more tags. Once at the Pleasant View Garage, Starlight took a look walk around the area. "I only see six cars. Lin suggested there would be eight." Playa pointed his thumb at the nearby road. Starlight nodded. "Well, we can probably stake the place out. But let's deal with what we can first. Got the gear?" Playa grinned as he lifted up the RPG they had brought to easily destroy the vehicles.

As it turned out though, destroying some of the cars drew in the other two cars. Before long, the entire garage was useless to the Rollerz, though some decided to switch sides since the Saints were already moving in to take Pleasant View. "I guess that helps a little," Starlight said, "But I still got a bad feeling. Sooner or later Lin's gonna get in over her head. If Julius doesn't have plans to pull her out before that happens, I may just do it myself."

Hoping to calm Starlight down with another contact job, Playa took her to Southern Cross, where they met with club owner Rico Martinez. The guy in question seemed to have a look of contentment on his face. Suddenly he blurted out, "Get outta here puta." Playa was about to leave, but Starlight put a hand on his shoulder and pointed below the table Rico was sitting at. Sure enough, one of the club's female waitresses crawled out from under it, wiping her mouth a little.

"Sorry for the outburst," Rico said, "These discussions are best done without... Distractions. Anyway, I got the word from Julius, and as it happens the timing couldn't be better. Here's the quick exposition. Until I opened this club, I was a nobody. My neighbors, my family... They didn't give a flying fuck about me." "Let me guess," Starlight said with a grin, "That changed once you started getting money."

"Exactly," Rico said, "Now they're all suddenly my friends, and all want a few favors. Now I don't mind helping out, so long as they understand the consequences. Most of the time they keep their end of the deal. But a few can't seem to grasp reality here, and that's where you come in. You head out to where these people invest their cash, and do a little collateral damage. The more damage you do, the bigger the message it'll send." The job proved easy, but Starlight kept getting annoyed, and queasy, whenever civilians got caught up in the mayhem.

Hoping to take her mind of her new problem, Playa decided to bite the bullet and take Starlight to meet another contact who would let her indulge in her favorite activity, using him to play pinball with traffic. So they met with Dr. Raymond Gonzales in Cecil Park. "Nice to meet you," the exuberant doctor said, shaking both their hands, "Lee told me all about your work with him. I do a lot of work with his law firm myself, and my testimony in court has cost insurance companies millions."

"No less than they deserve for stiffing their clients on insurance contracts," Starlight said, obviously starting to cheer up. "Lee has told me how you normally operate," Dr. Gonzales said, "Perhaps you can use the same tactics around here. You just make sure to sell the severity of the injuries. I'll handle the paperwork. We do it just right, and we can all walk away a whole lot richer." After that, Playa's one thought through the pain was how much happier Starlight seemed, in spite of the acting she had to pull off to seem horrified at Playa's injuries.

Author's Note

I was told that this story was looking more like a Saints Row walkthrough, albeit with Stalight added in. Honestly, that's a good point, so I started by including more insight into Starlight's character in the previous chapter, and working on some interactions between her and Playa for this chapter.

Thing is though, it's kinda hard during these first few chapter since Playa, the player character, is mute for the most part. And it doesn't help that the way these first game chapters are being set up the story missions are kinda far apart. It'll get better before long, but I think I'll switch gears for the chapters revolving around the second game.