Athos Bay was a small part of the city that bordered Mission Beach where the Saints base of operations was located. While the district itself had little value, it was also where the Carnales would be in the best position to spy on the Saints. Taking control of the small district would give the Saints control of half of the highway to the Carnales-controlled districts.

The center of Carnales operations for Athos Bay was an abandoned storefront that contained a skeleton crew of Carnales members led by a single lieutenant.

Playa and Pinkamena drove casually around the storefront to scope out the defenses and noticed a single red car that one may use to make a getaway if things got too heated.

Since Playa wasn’t going to discuss any plans because he still remained mute for some reason and Pinkie was sure it was because of nerves instead of some medical condition, Pinkamena had Playa charge into the storefront by himself, guns blazing. To make sure nobody tried to make a getaway and turn the assault into an irritating chase, Pinkamena decided to sabotage the La Fuerza parked outside the storefront. She reached into her mane and pulled out one of Pinkie’s timed party bombs that her counterpart used for impromptu parties. With the timer activated, Pinkamena tossed the bomb into the floor of the passenger side of the La Fuerza.

The violent mare ran around the corner just as the lieutenant was starting to make a break for the car. When the Carnales officer entered the vehicle he quickly turned the car on then shifted it into gear before flooring the accelerator pedal. It was when he was racing close to the vehicle’s top speed when the party bomb detonated in a cacophony of loud music and blinding confetti. The device was not designed to go off in small spaces and so the blast blew out all the windows and caused the lieutenant to go into a panic and lose focus of the road. The car veered off into oncoming traffic which ended up smashing into the car hard enough that it was sent flying into the sea.

The lieutenant was unable to gather his wits fast enough before his car was flooded with sea water and the vehicle was sinking fast. The seatbelt was stuck so the lieutenant couldn’t get free of his sinking prison. He would not drown, however, because somehow the car ended up exploding in the water, taking the lieutenant with it.

Word quickly got back to the Saints that the abandoned storefront was now actually abandoned. The gang quickly moved in and drove the remaining Carnales back to their side of the highway. Those who remained were given the choice to change flags or be left for City Sanitation to pick up. The number of people wearing purple shirts in the city had a noticeable increase that day.

Playa didn’t see what exactly happened to the lieutenant but that was fine. He figured that Pinkamena took care of him and left it at that.

His phone rang and he answered to find Julius wanted him and Pinkamena to return to the church and get ready to reclaim the Row. The church was nearby so the trip was short. Playa and Pinkamena, in a four seater, parked outside the courtyard before Pinkamena called Julius and told him they were waiting.

A minute later, Julius and Troy exited the church and entered the vehicle. Troy mentioned that there was a turf war going on at Harrowgate and every gang was participating in it. He had some reservations about letting the newbies participate in the matter instead of bringing Johnny but Julius had faith that the two of them could handle it.

The group arrived in an area that contained a number of warehouses where some of the crates were placed outside the buildings. There were also a number of semi-trailers left in the area.

Once the group got out of the car, the Saints moved in on the gang members that were fighting each other as well as the saints. The chaos going on gave the Saints an edge against the other gangs as they moved as a single group while the others were scattered all over the place.

Pinkie took that moment to pipe up nervously, “Hey, Mena?”

Pinkamena was startled from her killing reverie. “What do you want?”

“I think I have an idea. I still don’t like seeing you going around killing these people no matter how mean they are. But if it really makes you happy, I’ll help you if I can.”

Pinkamena thought for a moment and figured it wouldn’t hurt for her to make herself useful since she was dead weight to her as things currently stood. “So what’s your idea?”

“Switch with me, I think I can help you and the Saints take them all out in one fell swoop.”

Pinkamena sighed, “Fine, just don’t get us killed. If anything, you’re more reckless than Playa’s driving.” Pinkie giggled.

Pinkamena took a deep breath, and after releasing it her features changed to her curly, brighter form. With Pinkie back in control, she put her guns back in her mane before pulling out a megaphone and an air horn. She then rushed up to a nearby crate and opened it to reveal a number of noise-cancelling ear muffs. She placed one over her ears and passed the rest to the Saints who quickly put them on because they had a good idea about what the party mare was about to do.

Mere seconds later, a loud sound blared from the megaphone that was so loud that it could be heard for miles. The nearby gang members stopped fighting as they became disoriented while trying to work through the loud, painful ringing in their ears.

The fighting Rollerz, Carnales and VK were further distracted when they saw a bouncing pink pony pronking through the area holding a sign that said “Party this way.” The confusion turned to curiosity as they were led to an area of the complex that had a number of tables with food on them as well as a stereo that had a cassette tape in it that played only one track. The VK, LC and WR all gathered at the tables in their disoriented state because the loud noise made concentrating a challenge for them.

With all the rival gang members gathered in one place, Pinkie slipped away from the party and rejoined the Saints who were watching the strange event. Pinkamena took over again and presented her guns, letting the Saints know that this was what the mare had planned. The Saints pulled out their pistols and opened fire at the fully exposed gang members. The Saints rivals were mowed down within seconds. Those who were smart enough to flip the tables to create barricades did so too late as their numbers were too few to stop the Saints anymore.

Those who survived long enough surrendered and were given purple shirts to change into later.

Meanwhile the turf war commotion had caused the police to come running. “Can it ever be easy?” Troy asked nobody. Playa, Pinkamena, Julius and Troy got into the nearest four seater which was a car that belonged to the Vice Kings. Before Playa got into the driver seat, Pinkie forcefully took over again and forced Playa into the passenger seat while she took the driver seat. Pushing on the accelerator, Pinkie dashed past the nearby police car. The cops attempted to ram Pinkie’s car and even drive in front of it, but somehow she always managed to turn, swerve, and outright avoid the police’s attempts to stop the fugitive vehicle.

Pinkie soon managed to ditch the cops, forcing them to give up the chase. Troy requested for Pinkie to drop everyone off at the church. “Okie dokie lokie,” she said.

Troy and Pinkamena each had a question for the party pony.

“How did you know that crate had ear muffs?”

“When did you learn how to drive?”

Pinkie giggled, “Silly, I had crates of ear muffs hidden all over the city for crates of ear muffs emergencies.” Troy once again decided to drop the matter and filed any future pony-related madness into a box labeled “Pink Pandora’s Box.”

She then responded to the other question, “It wasn’t too hard, I saw Playa driving and thought he was playing bumper cars instead of actually driving.”

Pinkamena was at a loss for words even as she tried to sound them out, “That doesn’t make any...you know what, that’s fine. I’ll let you handle the driving when necessary. Better than Playa’s driving since he drives like he got his license from a milk carton.”

Troy stared at the pink driver for a few moments before leaning over to Julius. “Hey, is it me or does Pinkamena look cheerful all of a sudden?” He whispered.

Julius placed his fingers on his chin as he thought for a moment. “I think I’m starting to understand something about her. When she introduced herself at the church, she called herself Pinkamena and sometimes Pinkie. I think which one we call her depends on her appearance. Could be that she has two personalities with their own identities but I ain’t no psychiatrist. Whatever the case, we should just address her based on that theory because that’s all we have to go on.”

Troy shrugged, “Whatever you say, she still weirds me out though.”

“You and me both.”

The four of them arrived at the church and Julius announced that he was pleased that the Row belonged to the Saints again. However, the Saints were far from done with their campaign against the rival gangs. He requested for Playa and Pinkie to join a meeting he was going to be setting up soon.

Julius addressed the crowd before him by stating that they may have the Row again, but the other gangs were going to be coming for them now and they would keep coming until all three gangs were disbanded or the Saints were, and the Saints had no intention of losing the war.

Dex, the one with the purple headband, was put in charge of leading the efforts against the Carnales. They were the oldest gang in Stillwater and their connections to a Columbian drug cartel meant that they had the money to keep their operations going for years to come. Since the Saints couldn’t afford to anger the Columbians, Dex would have to play it smart and outwit the Lopez family who lead the Carnales.

Julius wanted Troy to handle the Vice Kings but Troy outright refused to go against Benjamin King, the leader of the VK. Pinkamena suspected there was a story there but let the matter lie for the time being. Johnny volunteered to lead the campaign against King instead, despite Julius’ protests. Julius asked Dex to keep an eye on Johnny to make sure he didn’t do anything rash. For the first time, Pinkamena felt like she had met someone she might eventually come to respect as she heard about Johnny’s simple policy about dealing with King.

Dex asked about who would deal with the Westside Rollerz, the newest gang in town. That was answered by a woman who walked up to Julius. The woman wore a black short top and some tight blue pants. Her hair was done up in a bun. Some idiot even insulted her by calling her a ho which earned him a punch to the face. When she asked if there were anymore comments, Johnny gave some snarky advice on how to throw a punch which earned a snicker from Pinkamena.

Julius had asked the woman, Lin, to gather intel on the gang from the inside since they knew so little about the newcomers.

Once the Saints lieutenants had their roles they began making their preparations. Julius asked Playa and Pinkie to assist the others but also to take care to focus on one gang at a time because angering all three gangs at once was just asking for a war on three fronts and that was something that the Saints couldn’t afford.

With that, the duo were left with an important decision to make. They can go after the Carnales and deal with the ruthless Lopez family and their connections to the drug cartel, they can go after the Vice Kings and dismantle whatever operations that the enigmatic Benjamin King had going, or they can go after the Westside Rollerz to figure out what operations they had going and who was leading them.

Whichever one they chose, the campaigns against them were not going to be easy.

Author's Note

This concludes the prologue portion of SR1. The first gang to be attacked has already been chosen by the way.