Aisha and Johnny continued their walk down the street, only this time Aisha was now carrying a baby Starlight in her arms. Johnny was carrying the sheathed katana he found over his shoulder. Though when he tried to unsheath the weapon to get a better look at it, he was surprised that the weapon wouldn’t budge from its housing.

Johnny grunted as he struggled to pull the blade free, growing frustrated over time. “Fuck! Did someone super glue the entire blade into this thing?” After a few more attempts he gave up and returned it back onto his shoulder. “Whatever, it’ll make for a nice wall decoration at least.”

“Johnny, I wish you wouldn’t curse in front of Starlight.” Aisha chided.

“Why not? If she doesn’t learn it from us she’s gonna learn it on the streets or in school. And those kids are learning to curse younger and younger.”

“I know, but I’d still like for her to have her innocence for a few years.”

“Fine, I’ll keep the cursing to a minimum for Starlight’s sake.” Johnny said while wrapping an arm around Aisha.

Aisha smiled, “Thanks, Johnny.”

They soon reached Johnny’s car which was a Bootlegger, a two-seated hot rod with a light gray body. Since Starlight was going to be living with them he would need to buy or steal himself a four-door vehicle later.

Once the two were in the car and Starlight was as secured as they could get her, Johnny drove off toward Aisha’s apartment. On the way he drove past a battle between the Vice Kings and the Carnales. Tempted as he was to take them both out, Johnny had to focus on making sure Starlight and Aisha were safe.

The family managed to reach the apartment without incident. The apartment wasn’t a healthy place to raise a baby but they didn’t have much choice at the time since they were short on cash. Aisha knew that she would have to be the one to provide for the three of them since most places in Stilwater had already fired Johnny by the time he graduated because each time some idiot pissed him off by trying to rob the place. Any place that would accept Johnny because of his fighting skills refused him because the place was under one of the three gangs’ control and he had already done something to annoy each of them.

It was agreed that Johnny would be a stay at home dad for Starlight so he handled the cleaning and half of the cooking in addition to tending to Starlight’s needs.

Stilwater being as it was, there was no shortage of excitement in Johnny’s life and while some of the excitement became a threat to the baby, it only motivated him to count the number of bones he breaks in an offender’s body before he had enough.

The first time such an incident occurred, Johnny was surprised to notice that Starlight giggled happily whenever he beat the fools within an inch of their lives. “You like that, huh? I can already tell we’re gonna get along well.”

It was a few months after they found Starlight that Johnny and Aisha began to notice unusual happenings with Starlight. One of them was objects glowing in a turquoise light and floating around. The two of them were beginning to wonder if the apartment was haunted but they couldn’t afford to move at the time so they had to deal with it and hoped that the ghosts weren’t hostile.

Another incident happened when they saw Starlight’s hair growing in. When they found her, she appeared to be at the age when the infant would be freshly out of the mother’s womb so it came as a shock to the two when they saw purple hair growing on her head with a few strands appearing teal. Since human hair was typically either black, brown, blonde, red or gray, this was very odd. Even the doctors they took her to couldn’t explain the phenomenon.

By the time Starlight was age six, she was ready to attend school. Johnny and Aisha found that Starlight learned her colors, shapes and numbers quickly so they didn’t have to put her through kindergarten, which was a relief since Stilwater didn’t really have a program like that since the rampant gang violence had the daycare facilities shut down because parents feared their children getting caught in a massacre. Not to mention that the State of Michigan didn’t require children to attend kindergarten.

Starlight had proven herself ahead of the curve in school which made her a target for bullies up until she showed that she wasn’t afraid of getting suspended from school. She had watched her daddy fight and she picked up on a few of his moves which led to a few unfortunate bullies getting bloodied. The bullies backed off from her quickly afterward.

Sometime after Starlight’s seventh birthday, Johnny and Aisha witnessed another strange phenomenon. It started when Starlight called out to them. “Mommy! Daddy!”

The parents guessed that their little girl wanted to show them something. Where normal parents expected some drawing or an art project to put on the fridge, Starlight threw those expectations out the window when she appeared to be floating in a turquoise aura.

“What the fuck!?” Johnny exclaimed. Aisha gasped.

Starlight didn’t seem scared. In fact, it almost seemed as if the girl was somehow controlling this aura. She demonstrated this as she moved in the air as if she was swimming in it.

“Johnny, remember that time we saw objects floating in Starlight’s room? You don’t think…”

“Yeah, good thing I told that ghost hunting group and their great dane to fuck off,” Johnny quipped.

“Johnny…” Aisha chided.

“Right, right, no cursing.”

Starlight finally lost her concentration and dropped right into Johnny’s arms before she fell asleep. He put her back into her bed where he tucked her in. “Never thought parenthood would be like this. Usually you deal with temper tantrums, making messes of various types, bringing stray animals home, typical kid stuff. Us? We get something like that kid who could move objects with her mind like in that one movie. What was her name? Maddie? Margaret?”

“Yeah, I saw that movie too and we won’t be like those awful parents.”

“Ya got that right.”

Ever since that night, Starlight had been working on controlling her powers and discovering new ways to use them. They allowed her to do so on the condition that she never use her powers on them.

Years passed and Starlight got better control of her powers which she had taken to calling magic since it felt right in her mind for some reason.

Speaking of minds, one day Starlight ended up pulling a prank on the school principal where she used her magic to take control of his mind and had him sit in on a class while she demonstrated her engineering knowledge as she dismantled his car and assembled the parts into a mechanical bird that she named Laserbeak. Needless to say, the principal was furious when the spell wore off and he found out what happened to his car. However, he never found out who the culprit was.

When Starlight took Laserbeak home Johnny asked where she got the bird from. He was impressed that she made the construct and was laughing uproariously when she heard where she got the parts from.

“Y’know, the parental side of me couldn’t be more proud, the rest of me is imagining the priceless look on the principal’s face and wishing someone took photos.”

“Here you go, daddy!” Starlight handed the photos of the principal throwing a fit and acting like an angry monkey next to his car that looked like the Rollerz had been there to strip it of its parts. What was more hilarious was the fact that Starlight had actually painted a Rollerz tag on the car.

There were times where Starlight did get caught in her mischief but the school let her antics slide because of her grades. She was actually at the top of her class and the school. This was making the school look too good for them to institute any harsh punishments such as expulsion so they had to settle for giving her detentions.

Of course, the school also wanted Starlight to graduate faster when her antics were causing the staff a lot of grief so they put her into an accelerated program and she ultimately graduated by the time she was ten. Middle school was met with similar circumstances and she ended up in high school at thirteen.

Expenses were piling up for Johnny and Aisha though. Johnny’s employability was still non-existent and Aisha wasn’t making enough from her jobs to pay for Starlight’s tuition.

That was when Aisha found an opportunity for them to make a lot more money when she discovered that Kingdom Come Records was holding an audition for singers.

Johnny was skeptical because the business was owned by the Vice Kings. However, Aisha went anyway and she blew the judges away with her singing and she signed the contract that started her singing career.

It only took a few months for Aisha to realize that she made a terrible mistake in going to that audition since they were now extorting and manipulating her into staying with them and becoming a source of income for the Vice Kings.

Johnny contemplated on what he could do to get Aisha out of this mess and while he did think about blowing the place sky high, he didn’t have the resources to do so.

A knock at the door led to a fateful meeting that day as Johnny opened the door to find a middle aged dark-skinned man rearing a purple shirt under a black leather jacket along with a black leather hat, baggy black pants and bright orange sneakers as well as a gold chain around his neck with a holy cross.

“Who are you and what the fuck do you want?” Johnny asked.

“Names Julius Little and I’m here because I know your reputation, Johnny Gat.”

“You and everyone else in this shitty town.”

“How would you like it if you were given the chance to make this town less ‘shitty’?”

“I’m listenin’”

Julius nodded and began his pitch, “We all know this city is plagued with motherfuckers who think they’re entitled to have the whole thing to themselves. I say it’s time to get rid of them, once and for all. I’ve worked with Benjamin King for years before he became another problem. I’ve fought the Carnales for years and just when we get rid of them they come back for more. Now we have the Rollerz movin’ into Stilwater. All three of them are fighting turf wars left and right and God knows how many innocents are caught in the crossfire.”

“So where do I come in?” Johnny asked.

“I need people who can get things done. People who are sick and tired of the way things are and ready for things to change and be that force of change. That’s why I’m raising a new gang who can take the fight to the Vice Kings, the Carnales and the Rollerz and return this city to the way it’s supposed to be. If you’re interested, meet me at the old church on Saint’s Row. Thank you for your time.” With that, Julius walked away and Johnny closed the door.

Johnny spent some time contemplating Julius’ offer. It was tempting to just join Julius and bust some heads, but he also had his responsibilities with Starlight. He couldn’t just go to war against a bunch of gangs and potentially put his daughter in danger. He would need to consult Aisha about this.

Said person returned home a few hours later looking very stressed. She seemed ready to collapse anywhere and Johnny quickly caught on to her condition. “Eesh, what the fuck happened?”

Johnny knew that Starlight was out shopping right now and she had taken that katana with her for protection so he didn’t have to worry about cursing in front of her even though she picked up on the words around the start of middle school. He also found out last year that only she could pull the sword out of its sheath since he tried after her successful attempt and failed, meaning that it had to be tied to her magic somehow.

“My record company is what happened! Fucking parasites!” Aisha growled. “They’re working me to the bone and I can’t quit because of that fucking contract. Even worse is that I seem to have a stalker who won’t leave me alone.”

Johnny led Aisha to the couch where she laid flat on it before she continued her complaints. “Then there was the turf war between the Vice Kings and the Rollerz at Prawn Court. I nearly got shot at least three times!” After a few more minutes of venting, Aisha let out a deep sigh to calm herself. She gave Johnny a serious look. “It’s getting worse out there, Johnny. It’s a three-way warzone out there and none of them seem to be winning. I’m worried Starlight isn’t going to make it to eighteen before one of these gang members guns her down.”

“Don’t worry, Eesh. I’ve been teaching Starlight how to fight so she won’t go down that easily. I also had her visit one of the local Friendly Fires on the way home and pick up a piece. It’s about time I taught her how to use one.”

“Johnny, I…” Aisha’s trailed off. She hated the idea of their daughter having a gun but Stilwater was too dangerous and as much as she hated the idea, Johnny was right. “Just…just be there to watch her back if she gets into trouble.”

“You know I will, Eesh.” The two then shared a brief kiss moments before Starlight entered through the door.

“Hey mom, hey dad!” Starlight greeted. “I got that piece you asked for.” She showed the two the VICE 9 pistol she bought.

Johnny smiled and walked over to her, pulling out an NR4 pistol and briefly putting a hand on her head. “Attagirl, now it’s time for some father-daughter bonding time.”

After a fun time at a shooting range, with Starlight showing that she had good marksmanship skills, the two returned home and Starlight went to bed.

Johnny sat in the living room alone since Aisha went to bed early. He sat there thinking about Aisha and her worries. She was right, the turf wars were intensifying and no side showed any signs of giving ground. At this point the Rollerz had taken over the western sides of the city and the commercial districts, the Carnales held the industrial districts and the airport and the Vice Kings were in control of most of the northern island and the red light district on the southern island.

There was also the fact that his violent side was itching to go out there and start a kill count. He’d been keeping it in check for years for Aisha and Starlight but he knew that he needed to do more to protect them.

He knew what he had to do.

Taking out his phone, he used the GPS app to locate the old church. He had somewhere to be tomorrow.

Author's Note

You may have noticed that Johnny was making a reference to a film in this chapter. The movie he was referring to is called "Matilda" which came out in '96. If you have time, you should look it up. It's actually a pretty good movie in my opinion.