Murder Time, Fun Time

Acquiring a penthouse headquarters was certainly a step up from religion-based buildings such as a church or a mission that led into a run down underground hotel.

While everyone was checking out what the Syndicate left behind, Pinkamena decided to place a call to one of the Genki representatives to gather information on the city layout and basic information on the Syndicate. After all, if they wanted her to go around butchering the Syndicate, they should have the information she needed to effectively deal with them.

From what she was told, Steelport was divided into five districts, four of which had actual neighborhoods while the fifth was just a military armory. The other four were named Downtown Steelport, New Colvin, Carver Island and Stanfield. The Syndicate held ownership of those four districts with the organization being composed of three factions.

"Why are three of the districts named after three of the characters from 'The Wire'?" Pinkamena asked.

"Beats me, Mayor Reynolds was the one who renamed them after he took office," the representative responded.

The representative continued her explanation on the Syndicate. Philipe Loren was the leader of the Syndicate while the factions that the organization was composed of were led by three sub leaders.

The Morningstar, the faction that likely incorporated the other two, were a European gang with exquisite tastes. They specialized in arms dealing, human trafficking and prostitution. The sex trade was supervised by Loren’s proteges, Viola and Kiki DeWynter. The faction operated mainly in Downtown Steelport and New Colvin.

The Deckers were a gang of computer geniuses that handled the money laundering for the Syndicate as well as all cybernetic related crimes. The leader of the Deckers was a professional hacker named Matt Miller who was often reclusive and cowardly but was much more confident on the cybernetic battlefield. They were based in Stanfield

The Luchadores were a male only gang who only employed masked wrestlers. They were the muscle of the Syndicate and handled the gambling operations and sold steroids. The leader of the Luchadores was a self-obsessed masked wrestler named Killbane. His real name was Eddie Pryor, a name that Killbane hated with a passion and a note that Pinkamena would leave in the back of her mind for the time being. Killbane was the Syndicate’s attack dog and may have a little too much ambition which would mean that if a power void were to form in the case of Loren’s death, he would be the one to take it. Carver Island was the focus of Luchador activity.

Knowing that these sub leaders existed told Pinkamena that the Syndicate was not going to end with just the death of Loren. The Saints would have to deal with the DeWynter sisters, Miller and Killbane as well.

Pinkamena informed Playa of the new information over the phone while the Saints leader was busy practicing his base jumping off the helicopter pad.

“Yo Mena, check it out,” Pierce said as he walked up to her holding a keyring with a large number of keys on it.

“It’s a bunch of keys. You know what they go to?”

“Yeah, these are safety deposit keys. Of all the shit the Syndicate left behind, these seem the most important, at least I hope so. Only way to find out is to head to the bank and see what they got.”

“Alright, you tell Playa about this and I’ll get Gilda ready to run aerial escort. If those keys are important, the Syndicate will be on you the moment you leave the bank.”

Playa and Pinkamena boarded an Oppressor helicopter and Gilda took to the skies as Pierce entered the bank and began going through the safety deposit boxes. The Saints flew around the bank a few times to take out any Syndicate who were early to the party.

All three Saints were armed with Annihilator RPGs and ready to blow up a lot of Syndicate cars.

Once Pierce finally exited the bank with whatever he found, he entered his car and headed for a place to hide from the Morningstar who were heading straight for him.

Gilda made sure the area ahead of Pierce was clear as she fired rockets at incoming Moringstar cars and blew up blockades with Playa and Pinkamena adding to the firepower.

Pierce made it to the hiding place but needed to deal with his remaining pursuers before he could effectively hide. While Pierce was getting on foot, Playa and Pinkamena landed the helicopter on a nearby rooftop and used the cords attached to the harnesses they were wearing. Hanging over the edge of the roof, the duo pulled out sniper rifles and began shooting at Morningstar either as or before they exited their cars. Gilda blew up the cars as they were getting out.

Once Pierce had effectively hidden himself from the Syndicate, the two retracted the cables and boarded their helicopter to return to the hideout with Gilda close behind.

Once Pierce felt safe that the heat was off of him, he returned to the hideout to look over the documents that he obtained from the safety deposit boxes.

While Pierce was examining the documents, he called the Ultor headquarters and requested a shipment of Saints goods to sell in Steelport. The shipment was later delivered by air to the penthouse.

Pierce asked Pinkamena to drive him around Steelport while he peddled the goods to the citizens since he intended to promote the Saints brand in the city. The madmare agreed to the task since she didn’t have anything to do at the moment.

Once the duo got to Pierce’s car, Pinkie took over and drove Pierce to a couple of locations where he would make his deals. Meanwhile, Morningstar were chasing them throughout the district. Whenever Pinkie had to make a stop, Pinkamena took over and blew up the cars with her party cannon and bloodied her Vorpal Blade by dismembering the, as Rarity would put it, abominations to fashion.

Thankfully, the buyers didn’t give Pierce any trouble and Pinkie was able to get the two of them back to safety at the hideout.

Playa, Pierce and Pinkamena were sitting around in the lobby of the penthouse as Pierce was just finishing up his examination of the documents. As he finished, a wide smirk formed on his face.

“You look like you won the lottery,” Playa commented.

“In a way, we did,” Pierce responded.

“So, what’s so important about these documents?” Pinkamena asked.

“Oh, these are more than just documents, they’re the deeds to every store and property the Syndicate owns in Steelport. We just gotta head to each one and buy ‘em up. Once we do that, we’ll get a nice cash flow going.”

“I’ll let Pinkamena handle it this time,” Playa said. “I’ve had enough fun playing investor in Stilwater.”

“Yeah, ‘cause people will jump at the chance to be bought up by a pony,” Pinkamena said with words dripping in sarcasm.

“Maybe if you were an ordinary pony. I know you’ve been gaining fame lately yourself, Professor Pinkamena.” Pinkamena blushed and looked aside as she was taken aback at the mention of her recently acquired stage name.

Pierce continued, “Playa’s right, word’s spread fast about your fame around the most favorite TV show in Steelport. I even watched a few episodes so see what it was about. Wiping out an entire cast of mascots within the time limit each episode isn’t somethin’ a normal contestant could do. I doubt even Johnny could do it that efficiently.”

“Hey!” Johnny shouted from across the room, “I could do that if I wanted, I just don’t have the time for game shows.”

“My point is that people are as likely to let you buy ‘em up as they would Playa. And since Playa’s leavin’ this to you, it’s your problem now,” Pierce finished.

“Fine, I’ll do it. But what will Playa do? The Syndicate aren’t like the Stilwater gangs so tagging a location isn’t going to be worth anything and I doubt people carelessly leave CDs on the ground like the people of Stilwater does. If he’s not investing, what is he doing?”

“This time I’m gonna be the one who handles the assassination contracts and vehicle requests,” Playa said. “While I’m not needed to make a big decision as a leader, I’ll be handling some of the challenges the other Saints have set up for me.”

“So you plan to fool around and only act like a leader when you need to be,” Pinkamena deadpanned.

“Pretty much. If you’re gonna lead your own gang one day, and I have a feeling you will, you gotta learn how to handle the boring stuff too.”

Pinkamena raised an eyebrow, “What makes you think I will?”

“Just a hunch.”

Pinkamena started her business venture by heading to the Friendly Fire in Loren Square in Downtown Steelport. Pierce tagged along to help show her some of the basics of taking control of the city.

Pinkamena and Pierce went inside the Friendly Fire to negotiate buying up the store in their name. Surprisingly, the storekeeper was quite desperate that a simple hundred dollar investment was enough to claim ownership rights of the store. Since Pinkamena had plenty of cash, the investment was a negligible expense.

The store owner mentioned that because of his refusal to sell to the Syndicate, they tried to bury her business but thanks to the protection of the saints, the store would be back on its feet in no time. She also mentioned that any other store that Pinkamena bought from now on would be a lot more expensive, ranging from five thousand to ten thousand dollars.

Pinkamena thanked the storekeeper for the advice and followed Pierce into an alley where they discovered a box filled with sex dolls.

Pinkamena gave Pierce a deadpan stare while the lieutenant felt the mare’s judging stare.

“It ain’t like that, they’re collectible. You’re supposed to find them all.”

Pinkamena maintained the stare.

“Judge me all you want. I don’t have to justify my hobbies to you.”

“Remember what I said about you humans having a lack of self control? You’re not proving me wrong,” Pinkamena commented.

“Whatever, let’s just head to the apartment building.”

Pinkamena knew plenty of mares used stallion sex dolls back on Equis, but that didn't stop her from teasing Pierce every now and then.

The trip to the apartment building was spent in silence. The landlord seemed just as desperate as the Friendly Fire storekeeper that a hundred was all Pinkamena needed to pay to own the building.

Pinkamena had asked Pierce about how she was supposed to collect periodic income from the businesses to which he showed her the cash transfer application on her phone that took all incoming payments from businesses and set them in a queue to be added to her own bank account.

“Alright, the next thing we gotta do is find where the Morningstar are doin’ their deals and wipe ‘em out. We do that, and the hoods will be much easier to hold.” Pierce pointed to a likely location of a Morningstar deal on her phone’s map. Pinkamena drove to the location and found a large group of Morningstar making deals.

With the group so close, Pinkamena announced herself by firing her Party Cannon at the group, killing a number of them with an explosion. Her Vorpal Blade finished the rest while making the area look like a crime scene of a massacre.

Pierce directed her to another Gang Operation which was dealt with the same way except blowing up a car helped take out nearly all of the Morningstar in the area.

After finishing off the group, Pierce had Pinkamena take them back to Friendly Fire because while they owned the place, the Saints could protect them and the Syndicate would have to back off.

“Sounds like a game of tag where the more places you own, the more bases there are,” Pinkamena commented.

“I guess you could think of it like that.”

Once the aggression from the Morningstar had subsided, the duo returned to the hideout. On the way, Pierce mentioned that in addition to the sex dolls, which Pinkamena withheld her comment, there were a number of other interesting collectibles scattered throughout Steelport that ended up there as a result of what went on during their plane ride a few days ago. Besides the sex dolls, there were also palets of cash and drug packages that were also collectible. Pinkamena once again withheld her comment about the strange collectibles. Pierce also mentioned that she should get some face time with her fans by taking part in some streetside photo ops.

While the activities of Steelport were relatively new to Pinkamena, she had a feeling that she was meant to be doing this sort of thing, minus the weird collectibles of course.