Starlight Saint

Paul was listening to some tracks at a Scratch That music store in Sommerset while Starlight was eagerly searching for the latest albums of her favorite artists. She loved her mother’s music, at least the ones her parents let her listen to, but she was not a one artist person.

“Starlight, you gotta listen to this track,” Paul said.

Starlight put on the headphones and listened to the sample song. While she could get into the rhythm of it, the song wasn’t something she would put on her favorites list. “Not bad,” she commented. Once the song ended, she put the headphones down and the two walked out of the store with their latest purchases.

Once they were in private, Starlight decided to ask what Paul did yesterday as she had heard that he had caused quite a commotion. As Paul explained his day, Starlight made sure to mark the Cavallaro and the FBI SUV off Samson’s list. She wasn’t so sure about calling up someone like Samantha for any future tasks but she would keep her in mind just in case.

Once Paul finished his tale, Starlight smiled proudly at her friend. “Impressive work! I knew you could do things without me. Though I am concerned that the Vice Kings are going to try something soon. They aren’t stupid like the Rollerz.” She shook her head, putting that thought on the back burner for now. “Anywho, I think you deserve a reward.”

Paul gave her a look of outrage, “Seriously? What do you think I am, a dog?”

Starlight pulled out a small catalog of mechanical designs. “You’re right, maybe I shouldn’t be rewarding you with your very own mechanical drone. I shouldn’t be treating you like a pet, after all.” She began putting the catalog away.

“Now hold on, maybe I can at least take a look and see what you have,” Paul hastily said. If he were honest, he was a little jealous of Starlight’s mechanical pet and had sometimes wondered what it would be like to have one.

Paul didn’t miss Starlight’s smirk so he rolled his eyes as he took the catalog. He looked through the few models available and was impressed with each one, but only one design looked like it suited his tastes. “How about this Ravage model?” he asked.

“That one, huh? I will need some car parts and weapons to build it. Select a paint job and I will have a project.”

Before Paul could choose, Starlight’s phone rang. The ID displayed her father’s number. “Hi daddy, what’s up?”

“Hey pumpkin, you might wanna head home early and lay low for a while. Looks like Monroe’s comin’ down hard on us.”

Starlight understood what was happening. Based on what she had seen from the police, Monroe wasn’t the type to suddenly come after the Saints on a whim, that would require encouragement from a third party and she knew who that party was.

It was unfortunate that Mr. Wong’s protection only offered limited protection from the police. If the cops were after her personally, things might get ugly for him since dealing with the city government was tricky business and could lead Mr. Wong to ruin.

“Alright, I’ll head home then.” She hung up.

“Trouble?” Paul asked.

Starlight nodded, “Yeah, looks like King’s sicced his police attack dog on us. We’ll need to be careful to avoid getting arrested.”

“Police attack dog? What are you talking about?”

“A reliable source of info I received told me that Police Chief Monroe is receiving kickbacks from King.”

“So we’re dealing with the Vice Kings who are backed by the pigs?”

Starlight nodded, “Yep, we will need to come up with a plan to turn the cops against King. For now, we need to weather this attack.”

Starlight’s phone rang again. It was her father again. “Yeah?”

“Change of plans, the Vice Kings are tryin’ to get Tanya’s old digs back. Head over there and drive ‘em out.”

“Understood!” Starlight hung up and looked at Paul, “Looks like the crackdown was a cover to help the Vice Kings retake Prawn Court.”

“What? That was the first hood I took solo! Ain’t no way I’m gonna let them take that from me!”

The two quickly jumped into Starlight’s car and headed straight for Prawn Court while breaking many traffic laws but not gaining any police aggression since the police were usually apathetic about how anyone drove unless they injured someone.

They soon arrived at the area where the Saints and the Vice Kings were fighting. Paul pulled out an SMG and started turning the attackers into swiss cheese while Starlight sliced and diced the poor thugs with her sword.

The last lieutenant found himself alone with a number of Saints pointing their weapons at him. He wildly waved his SMG at everyone around him, daring them to make a move on him before he made his declaration, “Tanya is gonna know about this! Just you wAARGH! My eye!”

As the thug was making his declaration, Starlight teleported in front of him and slashed his left eye. The other Saints, except Paul, thought she moved in anime style to cut him since they didn’t believe that magic existed in the world while they watched so much anime that they actually believed that anime things could happen in reality. “Yeah yeah, I’ve heard it all before,” Starlight retorted.

Clutching his bleeding eye, the lieutenant dropped his gun and bolted. “I’ll drop your ass for this, bitch!” he called out as he ran away.

“Looks like that’s all of them,” Paul said.

“Yeah, great work everyone. Now find some place to lay low until the cops chill out.” The Saints nodded and left while Starlight and Paul made their getaway.

Since Starlight’s car could be identified easily by the police, Paul found a car to hotwire which turned out to be a Keystone sedan. They took the car to Starlight’s mansion. Thankfully, they made it there without incident and avoided being followed by the police.

Aisha and Delilah saw them coming and decided to make some tea for them to calm their nerves since they were sure that they had just come out of a tense situation. “Hey you two, how’s the war going?” Aisha asked.

Starlight sighed, “It was going alright for a while, but now King is using his connections with the police against us.”

“That’s not good. Do you still think you can take down the Vice Kings?” Delilah asked.

“Yeah, we just need to take advantage of Monroe’s need to maintain his public image. If word got out that he made a deal with King, it would ruin him. If the secret is threatened, Monroe will turn on King to save face.”

“Do you plan on hacking the police mainframe to find evidence to blackmail him with?” Aisha asked.

Starlight shook her head, “Tempting as that is, mom, I doubt Monroe is stupid enough to leave evidence of his illegal activities on the police mainframe.”

“You never know unless you try.”

A few hours later…

I can’t believe he’s stupid enough to leave evidence on the police mainframe. Starlight thought as she examined Monroe’s transaction records. The expenses were far greater than what the department should have been capable of with their budget. She should know since she looked up their budget as well. Not only that, but the expenses went into personal purchases. Even more damning was the fact that she also found a bank account in Monroe’s name that was titled “King Kickbacks” which held a significant balance. It wasn’t as much as what she received from taking Sharp’s assets, but it came close.

Realizing how idiotic the police chief was, she wouldn’t lose sleep over emptying the account. However, that would come later as she wanted to have some fun toying with the Vice Kings before she kicked that hornet’s nest.

“Find anything?” Paul asked. He and Aisha were looking over her shoulder while Delilah stayed behind them.

“A lot more than I was hoping to find, actually,” Starlight noted. “Seems I grossly overestimated Monroe’s competence. I found plenty of evidence of him receiving kickbacks from King.”

“I figured you would,” Aisha said. “Monroe only got the position because his predecessor was on the force too long and went senile, forcing him to retire and picking Monroe as his replacement.”

“Word on the street was that Monroe was the lasiest officer on the force and underperformed to the point where he should have been kicked out years before the chief retired,” Delilah added.

Starlight giggled, “Now I really won’t feel bad about robbing him when the time comes.”

Suddenly, Starlight’s phone rang again. “Daddy’s calling again.”

“Tell him to hurry up and deal with Warren,” Aisha playfully requested.

Starlight picked up the phone and answered. Johnny replied, “Hey sweetie, looks like the cops have simmered down for now. Most likely because Monroe can’t spend too much time hunting us or it’ll look suspicious since they aren’t arresting any VKs. Chances are Tanya’s got a base of operations somewhere near Prawn Court since she seems interested in that place. I’m gonna look into it. I’m also callin’ because Julius wanted me to pass on a request to you. Seems some VKs are meetin’ at a parking garage in Filmore to discuss rigging games. For some reason he seems pissed about some hockey game.”

“Alright, we’ll take them out. Also, mom wants us to hurry up and deal with Warren.”

“Heh, probably will happen sooner than later if Tanya tries to use her boy toys as meat shields. Take care, sweetie.” The call ended.

“Looks like we can resume our day,” Starlight said.

“Let’s get going,” Paul declared.

Before they headed for Filmore, the two stopped at a couple of places. First, they stopped at the nearest Rim Jobs to put a retro spoiler on the Keystone Paul stole. They then turned the car over to Samson before Starlight summoned her car with Laserbeak. They headed for Filmore in the downtown area of Stilwater and west of Union Square.

Upon arrival, Starlight had Laserbeak scan the garage for any notable features. After a minute, she was informed of the VK vehicles on the various levels of the garage as well as a small makeshift ramp that could be used for a risky getaway.

Starlight wasn’t taking the risk of one driver getting lucky from a jump like that. “Laserbeak, deploy turret. SAM mode.” The back of Starlight’s reaper opened to reveal its turret that aimed its explosive payload into the air.

“Sam mode? Who is Sam?” Paul asked.

Starlight rolled her eyes, “SAM, S-A-M. It’s a military acronym for Surface to Air Missile.”

“Oh.”

“Alright, let’s go in, rampage and clear them out.”

“Good thing I bought plenty of grenades from Friendly Fire earlier,” Paul remarked.

“Just stay the hell away from me in case you pull a pin by accident,” Starlight demanded. “You’re a good friend, but not good enough for me to get blown up with you.”

The two proceeded to move from level to level in the parking garage while dealing with anyone and anything in yellow. Starlight took out a few with her revolver and SMG while switching to her shotgun when enemies got close. By now the Vice Kings were wary of getting too close to her since she was known to be brutal with a sword.

The real reason Starlight was not using her sword to attack the VKs was because her partner was targeting their cars with grenades and she didn’t want to be caught up in an explosion in case Paul made a bad throw.

Their tactics proved effective as the two left a trail of death and destruction all the way up to the top level of the parking garage. Only one car was on that level. However, the thug was in no mood to be annihilated so he quickly got into his car and floored it toward the makeshift ramp.

Instead of giving chase, the two watched the guy drive off only to be obliterated in midair by a rocket.

“Send a text to Julius to let him know that Filmore is ready to be taken,” Starlight ordered.

While Paul was writing the text, Starlight received a call. This time it was from Mr. Wong. “Hi Mr. Wong. What can I do for you?”

“I am glad to know that you are alright after what just happened with the police.
I was wondering if you or your friend would be interested in handling a request that has been made to me.”

“Sure, what is it?”

“The owner of the $tock$ nightclub in Nob Hill has requested the service of someone not afraid of committing acts of widespread destruction. Would that interest you?”

“Sounds like something that Paul might do since he is...brave enough...to carry around a bunch of high explosives.” Starlight suggested, putting a positive spin on Paul’s reckless habits.

Wong chuckled, “I thought you might say that. Also, Libby wanted me to pass along to you that Tyrell is in need of a racer in Brighton. She praises your racing skills so she is looking forward to seeing you win his series.”

“That sounds like something I want to do. Thank you for the heads up, Mr. Wong, and to Libby as well.” Starlight ended her call and let Paul know about the job offer.

“Sounds fun,” Paul replied. “If working with the Saints doesn’t work out for me, then maybe I could apply to be a demo man.”

Starlight rolled her eyes, “Sure, all you would need would be a grenade launcher, an eyepatch and a Scottish accent and you’d be set.”

As they left the garage, Starlight witnessed a sight that made her even more disappointed in Stilwater’s law enforcement. A meter maid was collecting quarters from parking meters and placing them into a bag, which was within her duties. However, she noticed the woman taking a few of those quarters and putting them in her pockets, as if keeping some for herself.

“She’s stealing quarters from the parking meters?” Paul questioned.

Starlight suddenly remembered that there was a meter maid on the list of witnesses Marcel wanted dealt with. Bringing up the list, Starlight found Louise the meter maid on it and the woman fit the description in the picture.

Using a nearby payphone, Starlight placed a tip to the Stilwater PD. The police may be incompetent, but they weren’t about to let someone get away with stealing what may eventually go into their paychecks.

The police arrived a few minutes later to apprehend Louise who was a block away from her vehicle, a Quota compact vehicle. Paul used the commotion of the arrest to steal the meter maid’s vehicle and deliver it to Samson.

Starlight headed to Brighton to participate in Tyrell’s races, which he was grateful for since he was desperate for another racer and glad it was the one who took first in Libby’s series.

As Tyrell expected, Starlight smoked the other racers in eight races and earned her second coupon for Rim Jobs customizations.

Meanwhile, Paul headed for Nob Hill where he found the club that was owned by a middle aged woman named Mary. Mary was after her ex husband’s alimony payments and he wasn’t paying. It was Paul’s job to go around demolishing everything her ex owned until he paid up. Mary also promised whatever he wanted as a reward for the assistance.

Unfortunately for Stilwater, Paul got overzealous in his rampage as much of downtown ended up on fire that night. The fire department was working overtime for this and the police department lost a lot of good men that night.

Regardless, the deed was done and Paul returned to Mary for his reward. Interestingly enough, Paul asked for a steady supply of hand grenades to go along with his steady supply of pipe bombs.

When Starlight heard about this later, she facepalmed as she began thinking of her friend as the most reckless man in Stilwater and probably the luckiest man in Stilwater, given that he keeps so many explosives near him, and yet he hadn’t gotten himself blown up yet.