Starlight Saint

A new day dawned in Stilwater as Starlight rose from her slumber and prepared to have her first prepared breakfast at her new home.

Last night was interesting when Johnny came home from the hospital. He got an earful from Aisha about how reckless he was when he attacked the abandoned police station. Johnny simply let her vent until she was satisfied since she looked like she needed to let out some pent-up stress.

The bright side to all of this was the fact that the Vice Kings lost one of their executives with the death of Anthony Green. Starlight had a feeling that Benjamin King was going to start losing control of his empire very soon since he lost his bodyguard. From what Starlight had surmised from the executives, Warren Williams and Tanya Winters were too ambitious for their own good and this would spell trouble for King soon.

Now that they had weathered the counterattack from the Vice Kings, Starlight decided it was time to remove King’s trump card from the game and she had all the tools she needed to do so.

“Hey pumpkin,” Johnny greeted as Starlight entered the dining room where Aisha was nearly finished cooking breakfast. “While I was at the hospital, Dex called me and wanted to meet us and Paul at the Sloppy Seconds clothing store on Harrowgate. I just know he’s gonna bitch at me too.”

“Johnny…” Aisha warned.

“What? It ain’t like Starlight hadn’t heard the word before. Besides, she’s sixteen, she would have heard it sooner or later.”

After picking up Paul, the three headed for the clothing store on Harrowgate to meet with Dex who they found sitting on a countertop. “Good timing, I got a plan to hurt the Kings,” Dex said.

“Do I get to do some murderin’?” Johnny asked.

“No.”

“Your plan blows.”

Instead of continuing the argument, Dex made an attempt to return to the main topic, “Hear me out, alright? King’s obviously got somethin’ goin’ on with the police–”

“Yeah, he’s been giving Monroe kickbacks and I have the bank account info to prove it. There’s a decent amount of cash in the account.”

Dex’s eyes widened in shock, “How did you…never mind. Just…just go out there and cause some havoc. If we turn the public’s eye to the Kings, the police won’t have a choice but to come down on them.”

“Not really,” Starlight remarked. “As long as the money is still coming in, Monroe will still go easy on the Kings, even if your plan does cause tension between them.”

“Oh, and I suppose you have your own plan, little girl?” Dex mocked, showing his irritation.

“Hey, back off from my daughter, Dex,” Johnny growled. “Just because she is good at makin’ plans doesn’t mean you can go off on her.”

“Whatever,” Dex tossed Paul and Johnny a yellow jacket and a yellow hoodie. “Put those on.”

“I’m yellow enough as it is, Dex.” Johnny quipped.

“Just put the damn shirt on and go on a rampage already,”

“What about me?” Starlight asked.

“What about you?” Dex snapped. “Look, in case you haven’t noticed, your hair is purple. I could count on one hand how many people in this city have purple hair and the Kings already know that someone with purple hair is trying to fuck ‘em up. If the media sees you rampaging with these two, King will be able to use the footage against us.”

“Alright, we’ll head out and do some damage. In the meantime, chill out.” Johnny warned before he and Paul left the store.

Dex took a few deep breaths to center himself before he turned his attention to Starlight. “Sorry I blew up on you, It’s just that I take pride in being the brains of the Saints. I thought I needed to make sure Johnny had the Kings handled, but I don’t think I’m needed for this operation anymore. I think with you, Johnny and Paul, you have this shit locked down so I’m gonna turn my attention to the Carnales while you three finish up with the Kings.”

Dex then tossed Starlight a map of Stilwater that had five places marked with yellow circles. “Those are the locations of where I found the cops meeting the Kings to get in on their protection rackets. Deal with them however you want.”

He then started to leave the store from the back since he didn’t want to risk getting caught up in the rampage, but paused for a moment. “One other thing, a lot of Kings have been seen going in and out of an abandoned grocery store in Huntersfield. That’s all I’ve figured out.”

Starlight watched Dex leave. While her opinion of the guy had soured a little, she had more important matters to take care of. Since she wasn’t going to be part of the rampage, she decided to consider how to deal with the grocery store.

After a few minutes of coming up with ideas, she thought of one that could work because of what was going on right now. She then pulled out her phone to call a certain undercover cop. It took a few rings before Troy picked up. “Yeah?”

“Hey Troy, I need your civic connections again. Would it be possible to send a squad or two to the abandoned grocery store on Huntersfield?”

“That place that’s a stronghold for the VK? No can do, Monroe wouldn’t allow it.”

“Turn on a radio or TV and see what Jack Armstrong has to say.”

Starlight waited for Troy to look for a media outlet and tune it to the news. After a few minutes of waiting, Troy picked up again. “Wow, that’s unusual behavior, even for the Kings.”

“Even if this doesn’t break up their relationship, the public is going to demand Monroe to do something about the Vice Kings and he will probably respond by dealing with one of their holdings in retaliation to ease public opinion. I want you to direct Monroe’s wrath to that grocery store.”

“You know that Monroe still won’t hold them for long,” Troy pointed out.

“Just long enough for the Saints to move in and claim another of their strongholds.”

“Alright, if Monroe’s as pissed as you say he is, I should be able to sweet talk him into raiding that store.”

Starlight headed to the location and waited at a nearby location for a couple of hours before she saw several police cars and S.W.A.T. vehicles park in front of the grocery store. The police came armed with shotguns and rifles and looked ready to use them if the thugs didn’t surrender. Thankfully, the thugs proved that they had a survival instinct and surrendered themselves to the cops.

While she knew that the police would only hold the thugs for a short time because of the deal with King, this would give the Saints enough time to take the store over and claim Huntersfield. Also, because of the chaos stirred by Paul and Johnny in Glenview Hills, also known as Nob Hill, earlier, the Saints were able to drive the Vice Kings out of two neighborhoods. Considering that the VK had nearly half of Stilwater in the form of fourteen neighborhoods out of the thirty-six that compose the whole city, they still had five territories left.

Regardless, Starlight had a feeling that the hotheads of the VK leadership were not going to stay quiet anymore.

Meanwhile, at King’s meeting room in his penthouse on Adept Way, Benjamin King was on the phone with Richard Hughes, a city alderman. King tried to explain that it was the Saints who committed the destructive acts but the footage showed two men in yellow, a color the citizens associate with the Vice Kings these days, committing the acts so the citizens were going to blame his gang and make stronger demands for the city to take action against them.

“No, I’m not making any excu–-I will. Tell your wife I said hello. Goodbye, alderman.” King hung up his phone with a resigned sigh.

Warren, who was rudely leaning back with his feet on the table, took this time to try to reason with his boss in his own way, “Great, now we got yo’ crack ass friends trippin’. Like I said, fuckin’ with city hall is a waste of time. We even lost two more hoods because of this wack-ass bullshit you got going with the cops.”

“You’re wrong, Warren,” King shot back. “Workin’ with city hall is what gives us power.”

Warren pulled out his GDHC .50 pistol to show to his boss. “Yo, fuck that. This is what gives us power.”

After everything that was happening today, King was finally fed up with his subordinate’s whining. He was not in the mood to put up with him. “Get the fuck out of my office!” he ordered.

Warren silently complied with King’s order, though the look in his eyes said that this wasn’t over.

Once Johnny and Paul gave the media enough footage of their trail of destruction, the two found somewhere to hide before they ditched the yellow clothes and left the area in Johnny’s car. They met up with Starlight at the church. Starlight noticed that her father was looking especially refreshed after what happened. “I think that bonding experience went pretty well this time. Sorry you didn't get to be part of that, sweetie. I'll make sure you get to be part of the next one.”

“Don’t worry daddy, I had some fun while you two were away. I’d say the Kings are nearly finished by this point. Dex gave me an idea about our next move. Let’s discuss this in your office.”

Once they were in Johnny’s office, Starlight unrolled a map of the city with the yellow circles on it. “Dex said that these are the places where the cops meet up with the Vice Kings to receive their cuts of the money the Kings receive from their protection rackets. I’ll leave it to you on how we deal with them.”

“See, this is why your plans are better than Dex’s plans, sweetie,” Johnny explained. “It gives me room to be me. I already have the perfect plan, just need to borrow some of Tony’s noisemakers and I need Samson to rig a car bomb for me. While I go get everything ready, why don’t you and Paul go find some things to do to entertain yourselves.”

“Sure thing daddy, I have some things I need to check off my to-do list anyway.”

As Starlight and Paul headed out, Starlight received a call from Wong. “Hi Mr. Wong,” she answered. “What can I do for you?”

“I have another request for your services. A client of mine in Tidal Spring requests the
services of someone who can steal a few cars for him. He heard about how you helped his friend Phil and would like for you to do the same for him.”

“Sure thing, we’ll get on that right now.” Starlight hung up and informed Paul of their next destination which turned out to be a delivery business that was still in the process of setting up. The client was facing the building he was admiring, wearing a striped shirt and a black vest.

“You two must be the ones Phil recommended. I’m Sam. I know this place ain’t much to look at, but this place is gonna make me rich. Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to handle a rig. When I tried getting a job truckin’, they told me they don’t hire kids from the ghetto. So I’m gonna start my own company and put those bitches out of business. I need you two to jack me some rides so I can get started.”

Sam then handed the two a list of cars he wanted while the two raised an eyebrow at Sam when they saw some of the items on the list. However, they shrugged and left to start their job.

The first three cars earned them some ire from the Vice Kings since they were owned by the gang. However, Starlight and Paul easily evaded them and turned the cars over to Sam. The fact that he wanted a Reaper like the one Starlight drove gave her mixed feelings about stealing one for him, but they found a standard Reaper to give him. While they had no problems stealing a Voxel sedan and an Interest sedan, they had to steal another troublesome FBI SUV which made Starlight question why such a troublesome vehicle was desired by mechanics.

A stroke of luck gave Starlight and Paul the opportunity to steal two Mag SUVs that were being driven by two individuals who looked like they were racing each other. Whether they were friends, rivals or brothers, neither Starlight nor Paul cared. Paul shot up both of their vehicles and forced the two to stop their cars. Starlight and Paul threatened them to leave their cars behind and run away before they each took the wheel of a Mag.

“Meet me at the B.P.S. store downtown when you’ve delivered that one to Sam,” Starlight ordered.

“Why do we need two Mags again?” Paul asked.

“Because Samson wants one too. Since this one needs some customizations and I’m the one with the discount coupons, I’ll be taking the one to Samson.”

“And the store?”

“I’ll explain when we meet again.” Starlight then drove off to the nearest Rim Jobs to get it customized before she turned it over to Samson. She had Laserbeak follow behind her with her car so she could return to it when she was finished.

Half an hour later, the two met back up at the B.P.S. delivery store in the downtown area. However, Starlight raised an eyebrow at her friend who was wearing jewelry for some reason, particularly, silver chains and a medallion.

“Why are you wearing that?” Starlight asked.

“Dunno, Sam said I could use some bling for some reason,” Paul responded.

Starlight rolled her eyes, “I have no idea what the appeal of that is, but keep it anyway in the off chance I come up with an idea on how to make use of it. For now, let's head around the back. There’s someone there I’m hoping to catch before he goes out on delivery.”

Once they reached the back of the store, which was where packages were loaded into trucks, Starlight saw who she was hoping to meet. “Take the wheel of the truck. I’ll hit the side to let you know when to take off. Your destination is the airport.”

“Wait, you aren’t going to…” Paul realized.

“If he doesn’t comply, then yes.”

Hank was loading the last of the packages he was to deliver for the day and prepared to close the back door of his truck when a mysterious force lifted his body and hurled him into the truck where he crashed into a few of his packages. As he tried to recover from what happened, he spotted a silhouette get into the back of the truck with him moments before the door closed and he was left in complete darkness.

However, the darkness was only temporary as a turquoise light illuminated his surroundings while he heard the sound of the intruder knocking on the walls moments before he heard his truck’s engine turning over. As he felt the vibrations of the truck as it was running, he realized that he was being kidnapped.

“What do you want from me, a ransom?” Hank asked. “You’re wasting your time, I’m not worth anything.”

“Oh, but you are worth something as a witness to an upcoming trial that you are supposed to be a witness for and that’s something we cannot allow. Now, are you going to be cooperative and not testify, or do I need to make sure you don't?” Starlight asked.

Hank now had a better idea about what was going on now. Someone didn’t want him to testify against that criminal and they hired this girl, and whoever was driving his truck. However, the criminal was also his bully in school and he wasn’t about to walk away from the chance to put him behind bars. However, he needed to find a way out of this mess.

In the end he decided to try his luck and hope the girl was gullible enough to believe him, “Alright, I won’t testify against him now let me go.”

However, if he were a person with a shred of luck, Hank would be in a better career field than a delivery driver. To his misfortune, the girl easily saw through his lie. “Right.” she spoke.

Hank suddenly found himself lifted into the air where he saw one of the larger boxes, one large enough to fit a person, getting emptied out. A floating packaging tape gun started wrapping him from his feet up to his neck in tape before he was deposited in the box and was sealed inside. A small hole was made in the box to give him a breathing hole.

Hank screamed obscenities, which went unheard because Starlight put earplugs in her ears, the entire trip to the airport where his box was loaded up into a cargo plane bound for Santo Ileso.

As the two watched the plane load up the last of its cargo, Paul gave Starlight an incredulous look, “Is this going to be a thing for you? Sending people to Santo Ileso when you feel like it?”

“I’m contributing to the town’s development. Besides, I was in a mood for some irony.”

“So what’s gonna stop him from calling the police on us when he gets there?” Paul asked.

“I’d be a fool if I sent him just anywhere. Last I checked, Santo Ileso doesn’t have a cell tower for miles. That place is a dead zone. Besides, the PD is too lazy to handle every complaint unless it directly affects them.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Starlight was about to summon Laserbeak to bring her car to pick them up but Paul stopped her at the last minute when he spotted a Nordberg SUV nearby. Since Samson was needing one of those, Paul decided to use that to take them back to the church since they were sure Johnny was ready with his plan.

On the way to the church, Starlight told Paul to stop when she spotted a familiar face on the sidewalk talking to someone. The man looked like he was trying to peddle cheap watches to someone. Starlight looked at the list of witnesses where she had marked off Hank and noticed that the peddler was the street hustler Don.

Starlight had done some research on Don after Marcel gave her the list. Apparently, the man was a notorious scammer who sold junk that looked convincing to gullible people. He pulled this stunt with a lot of people in Stilwater and the police were not in the mood to deal with him.

With this information, Starlight pulled out her phone and accessed her social media. Paul looked at her questioningly, “Is this really the time to be checking your Facebook?”

“Trust me Paul, there are plenty of fun ways to make sure someone doesn’t testify in court and I am about to use one of them. Have you ever heard of a flash mob?”

“You mean one of those instances where a bunch of people get together to make some creepy artistic expressions before dispersing?”

“Yep, you are about to see what happens when a flash mob gets violent.”

Sure enough, a few minutes later a number of cars turned up and a lot of angry people got out of their cars to approach Don. The mob quickly cut off his escape route. Starlight and Paul watched the scene unfold while Starlight dialed 9-1-1. Don ended up viciously mobbed by nearly everyone he had scammed at one time or another. By the time the crowd was finished and left the area, Don was beaten, bloodied, bruised and left unrecognizable on the sidewalk with a number of fractured bones, barely alive.

Starlight suspected that Don was going to be staying at the hospital for a very long time, well beyond the date of the upcoming trial.

Once they heard emergency vehicles coming, Paul decided that it was time to get going.

They stopped at a Rim Jobs and customized the Nordberg they stole before turning it over to Samson. Starlight summoned her car again to deliver the two to the church where she spotted her father waiting for them next to a blue Cavallaro. The two parked and headed over to greet Johnny.

“Hey pumpkin,” Johnny greeted. “You ready to get this plan going?”

“Sure am, daddy.”

“Alright, I’m gonna drive over to where the cops are picking up the protection money from the Kings. Paul will make ‘em cease and desist in a brutal way. If we make sure the only cops hit are the ones workin’ for King, people are gonna ask questions and the cops are gonna have no choice but to come down on the VKs to save face.”

“This is going to be a two-pronged plan,” Starlight added. “While daddy’s plan will wound the cops’ pride, I’m gonna appeal to Monroe’s greed. While Paul blows up the meeting areas, I’m gonna hack Monroe’s secret bank account where he keeps King’s bribe money and make it look like King’s taking back everything he gave him. Monroe’s an incompetent police chief so he isn’t going to think twice about the thought that King is backstabbing him. For once he will be motivated to do his job.”

“Alright, we got our plan, let’s do this.”

The three got into the Cavallero which Johnny warned was rigged as a car bomb so he had to drive carefully. Once they reached the first meeting area, Paul pulled out an RPG launcher and fired a rocket into the area that obliterated most of the thugs and cops while Johnny drove on through.

From there they drove from meeting to meeting while fending off some angry thugs and cops while Starlight focused on her phone as she cracked the bank account passcode for Monroe’s account and King’s account. From there she initiated a transfer of liquid assets to the VK leader’s account while making it look obvious. However, Starlight felt that neither Monroe nor King deserved that money so she carefully transferred the money again through a series of offshore accounts, courtesy of Sharp, before ultimately ending up in her account.

After the last meeting was forcefully interrupted, Johnny drove through a Forgive and Forget to get the heat off them before he headed for the studio reconstruction site. The three exited the vehicle while Johnny opened the trunk to find a number of explosive charges inside. He armed the explosives and pulled out a detonator before closing the trunk.

“I think the Kings are through kissing the Policeman's ass. Now, I'd say it's time to give
Warren a nice final "fuck you" and this'll have been a helluva day,” Johnny said while the three walked away before he hit the detonator, blowing up the car and further damaging the studio and undoing all reconstruction efforts.

Starlight smirked, “Oh, this won't be the final present we have for Warren, I hope he appreciates my gift to him.” She then pulled off one last hack and transfer while imagining how much hell the Vice Kings were going to catch after what she did. “How’s that for a ‘loan’, Warren?”

Police Chief Monroe was sitting at his desk lazily skimming through reports that he really didn’t care to read. He could see how his predecessor went senile after all the paperwork he probably went through on a daily basis. However, he wasn’t going to be like him. He was going to enjoy his eventual retirement living in the lap of luxury thanks to King’s money.

Suddenly his phone rang and he checked the ID. “Huh? My bank? What could they want?” He answered, “Hello?”

“Is this Richard Monroe?” the employee asked.

“I am, why are you calling me?”

“I wanted to let you know about a breach in our security and I regret to inform you that your account was the target of the hacker. I regret to inform you that we were unable to prevent the contents of your account from being emptied.”

“What!?” Monroe shouted. He had a feeling that he knew which account the employee was talking about and as he thought about it, his face took a darker shade of red as rage gripped him. “Who did this?” he demanded.

“While we are unable to track the hacker who committed the act, we know that your assets were transferred to an account belonging to someone named Benjamin King.”

“That dirty, no good thieving backstabber!! He will rue the day he made a fool out of me!” Monroe’s shouting was heard by everyone in the station. However, they all knew about his deal with King so it wasn’t that much of a shock that he would openly talk about what went on between him and King. However, Monroe’s tone gave the officers the impression that things were about to get lively for them.

Dan hung up his phone with a calm demeanor. However, while he looked calm on the surface, there was a boiling fury threatening to erupt within him and whenever that happened, heads rolled. He called to his brother, “Mike? There’s something we need to discuss.”

“What is it, Dan?” Mike asked.

“It would seem that all of our liquid assets that we loan to debtors have disappeared.”

“That is a serious problem, Dan. Do we know who did this?”

“Thankfully yes, it would seem that our money ended up in the account of someone named Warren Williams.”

“One of the Vice King leaders? Why would he ‘borrow’ that amount from us?”

“I have no idea, but since he did so without our permission, I see no need to extend to him the common courtesy we give to our other clients.”

“Twenty-four hours?” Dan asked, implying the grace period before taking action.

Mike nodded, “With interest and a fee for grievances caused against First Born Loans.”

Benjamin King was not having a good day.

The mess earlier about the two Saints rampaging downtown wearing his colors had muddied up his relationship with city hall since he couldn’t prove that his gang was being framed. Adding to his growing headache was the fact that Warren was getting a big head and was almost certain that he was planning to turn on him.

His day worsened when he received a call from Monroe who gave him an earful over the phone about him taking back the money he gave to him for no reason. King tried to reason with the chief that he had no knowledge of this but the police chief was not in the mood to listen to reason. When the call ended, King was certain that his deal with the police and city hall was finished. He had a feeling that the Saints were involved in it. He couldn’t imagine anyone among Julius’ people who could pull off such a devastating stunt so it had to be someone he recruited recently.

However, before Benjamin could think more on this, Warren barged into his office with Tanya. “See, this is what I’m takin’ ‘bout. Fuckin’ with city hall was a waste of time.”

“Who said you could come in here?” King asked.

“We need to talk,” Tanya pressed.

“Do we now.”

“You’ve been putting yourself before the crew,” Warren accused. “If you hadn’t been wastin’ our time stickin’ your nose up them white boys’ asses, we coulda owned the whole damn game by now!”

“I’ve told you before, we ain’t gettin’ into that shit. The Vice Kings were founded to keep the other gangs in line. Me and Julius didn’t create this gang just to see it become another Carnales.”

“Lotta good that did, Carnales came back the moment your hold slipped and now they’re back and we got the Rollerz and the Saints on top of that. It’s because you were a pussy that they came back and took over those markets we coulda owned. So either grow a pair or do us all a favor and drop yo fuckin’ flags!”

King was now officially finished with Warren so he grabbed him by the head and pressed him against the table. “You forget who you’re talkin’ to. I am Benjamin muthafuckin’ King! I’m the man who took a bunch of baby gangstas from Sunnyvale and turned them into one of the most influential and feared forces in this goddamn city. You know how I did that?”

“How, Mr. King?” Warren grunted.

“I did it by knowing when it was time to build, when it was time to watch and when it was time to act. I’m through carrying your punk ass. If I were you, I’d drop those damn flags and get the fuck on out of here before I erase your ass.” King then let Warren go.

However, Warren glared at King in defiance, “I ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

“You ain’t hearing me, son. I said–”

“Yo, fuck that, you ain’t hearin’ me.” That was when Tanya opened the door and allowed a large number of thugs into the office.

“What’s the meaning of this?” King demanded.

“I built, I watched and now I’m acting,” Warren stated, throwing King’s words back at him.

King growled before he grabbed one of the baseball bats from a thug and bashed him with it. He ran across his table and made for the door while avoiding the other thugs. While he managed to escape, Warren managed to wound King with a round in his shoulder.

This attempted coup had finally convinced King that Julius was right all along about what the Vice Kings had become but was too blinded by his pride to see it. Having no other choice now, King decided it was time to swallow his pride and call the one man who could help him, enemy or not.

The coup ultimately turned out to be another blunder by Warren as the thugs used in the coup were the ones protecting Humbolt Park in the museum district. When one of the Saints thugs reported the weakened resistance, Julius sent a crew in to secure the neighborhood, bringing the VK-owned territories down to four.