Starlight Saint

Returning to the church the next day, Starlight found Paul reading a book which wasn’t as surprising as the title of the book. She couldn’t help but wonder if her father put him up to reading it just to mess with her.

“‘Animal Farm’, huh? Did my daddy ask you to read that just to mess with me?” Starlight flatly asked.

Paul said nothing for a few moments as he placed his bookmark on the page he was on before closing it. He shrugged, “Yes, though your mom was in on that too. Coincidentally, it’s also the book my book club had chosen for us to read before the next meeting. It’s nice when you have a group that can openly discuss controversial stories without getting their undies in a bunch over the political aspects within the story.”

Starlight raised an eyebrow, “One: you have a book club? Two: that has to be one of the most intelligent things I’ve heard you say so far.”

Paul smirked, “In reverse: I have my moments, and yes, I have a book club. I do have a life outside of the Saints.”

Starlight shrugged, she knew that Paul wasn’t offended. “I learn something new about you every day.”

“Yep, and it’ll be a long time before you fully unravel the mystery that is me. So, where’s my birthday present?”

“It’s at the Friendly Fire nearby. I actually came to get you so we could go together.” Starlight sighed as her expression instantly turned bitter. “Unfortunately, Dex is there too since he has our next mission lined up.”

At this point, Starlight’s opinion of Dex was lower than the bottom of Lake Superior, the deepest of Michigan’s Five Great Lakes. The man’s ego was so big that it was a wonder how he could get his head into the church. The only reason Starlight listened to him at this point was because Julius put him in charge of dealing with the Carnales. However, once the ties between the Carnales and the Columbians were severed, she was uncertain if Dex would have any further use to the campaign.

Paul rolled his eyes, his expression dry as a desert. “Great, let’s go see what he wants, I guess.”

The two then headed over to the Friendly Fire across the street and entered to find Dex talking to a female sales clerk with blonde hair. “Welcome to the Friendly Fire,” the clerk greeted as she turned her attention to the two. “What can I get you today?”

“I’m here about the McManus,” Starlight responded.

“Ah, our finest product. Wait there, I’ll bring one out.” The clerk took a few moments to open a case in the back before assembling the requested weapon. She came out with what looked like an expensive-looking sniper rifle. “As per store policy, I have to give the presentation for this weapon.”

The clerk cleared her throat before she began, "This is the "McManus". As you see, it's fully collapsible and comes in a stately black attaché. The eighteen inch cryogenically treated stainless steel bull barrel gives this rifle a guaranteed accuracy of point two minute of angle at six hundred yards with match grade ammunition. With its hand reamed chamber and match grade trigger, the "McManus" is designed for the marksman who wants to reach out and touch someone at a moment’s notice."

“It’s perfect, I’ll take it,” Starlight said.

“Lovely, would you like it gift wrapped?” the clerk asked.

Starlight pointed to Paul, “Nope, just give it to Paul here. That’s his birthday present.”

The clerk gasped in delight, “Oh my! Well Happy Birthday to you! You two must be great friends for her to buy you this amazing piece of hardware.” The clerk was cautious in her assumptions of Starlight’s relationship with Paul. She didn’t want to assume they were lovers in case she said something that might offend them and ruin the sale.

Thankfully, the two weren’t offended as she gave the rifle to Paul while Starlight completed the transaction. A huge grin appeared on Paul’s face as he admired his newest weapon while the three of them left the store. “Wow! This is the most advanced rifle on the market! I've wanted one of these for months ever since I heard about it.”

“I figured that you would want something that didn’t make so much noise,” Starlight explained. “Still, I can help you clean and polish your father’s old rifle if there is some sentimental value to it.”

Paul nodded, “Thanks, that old rifle brings back good memories of times when my dad took me out shooting.”

Before the conversation could take an emotional turn, Dex finally spoke up to get to the main topic. “Aight, let's get this shit going. First of all, tight job on that factory, you two. We found a memo that said that Hector is meetin' with the Columbians tonight at the Poseidon Alley docks. Hector's boys will be packin' serious firepower. In other words: RPGs. A direct assault on the meeting area will be suicide. Take your new toy and find a nice, tall building to wait on. When you see Hector makin' his move, take your shot. When it all goes down, the Carnales are gonna blame the Columbians because they’re gonna think they got fucked bad. Good luck, you two.”

Once Dex returned to the Church, Troy, who was nearby, approached the two with some additional information for their mission. “While the meeting is tonight, I suggest you don’t be late. To make sure Columbians and Carnales get fucked from this whole ordeal, I called in a tip to the cops about the meeting happening a little later than the actual meeting time to give you time to get out of there after you've fucked them up.”

Starlight narrowed her eyes at Troy as he had done something she wouldn’t want him to do. She would need to have words with him. “Paul, can you head back to the church real quick? I need to have a word with Troy.”

Shrugging and not caring about what was about to happen since he was still admiring his new rifle, Paul did as told and returned to the church while Starlight led Troy into a nearby empty alley. “Why did you tip the cops to this?” she demanded.

Troy sighed, knowing that this conversation was coming. He took a drag of his cigarette before he explained, “Listen, I didn't have much choice. Monroe has been getting impatient with me and he's starting to suspect that I had actually become one of you guys. I had to give him something or he would pull me from this gig and likely do something stupid like lead the entire precinct on you guys. He knows how dangerous the Saints are becoming, especially since you were responsible for the downfall of two gangs, soon to be three. The grace period was all I could afford to make sure you don't get caught up in a sting operation.”

Starlight put a hand to her chin as she processed that information. It was clear that Monroe was starting to bring his full attention onto the Saints and that would be a problem in the near future. However, that would have to wait until after the Carnales were taken out. “Tell me, what would you like to see happen after the Carnales are taken out?”

Troy shrugged, “Honestly, I’d like to see the Saints disband since I was in it to get rid of the other gangs plaguing Stilwater. I hope Julius will since he wouldn’t want to see the Saints become another Vice Kings, though there are some who would see the Saints continue once it’s all over and they’re the people I’m most worried about.”

Starlight nodded, “Well, we can discuss this another time. For now, I have things to do before tonight.” She then left the alley first and returned to the church, followed by Troy.

As they entered, Troy suddenly remembered something that he needed to tell Starlight, which was the main reason he went to see them at the Friendly Fire. “By the way, Julius wants you and Paul to head over to the refinery at Black Bottom. The place ain't of much value to the Carnales, but they’re hanging out there like they own the place while tagging the place up to display their ownership. Julius wants you to send a message to them by tagging over their tags. You ever done any graffiti?”

Starlight shook her head, “No, painting isn’t really my strong suit.”

“Well, do the best you can.” Troy then left Starlight who went to get Paul and informed him of their newest mission at Black Bottom. Strangely, Paul seemed really excited about this mission for some reason but he wouldn’t explain why until they got there.

About fifteen minutes later, the two arrived at the Black Bottom Refinery. Starlight was surprised that Paul brought a duffel bag with him that was loaded up with spray paint cans. She wasn’t about to question where he got them from since they would be needed for this mission.

As they expected, the place had a significant number of Carnales thugs guarding the place. The complex appeared to lack any facilities where one could conceal a drug lab so the refinery was likely a place for them to hang out.

The two moved in and started shooting at the defenders with pistols and SMGs as they approached the first piece of graffiti with the Carnales design on it. Paul had Starlight cover him as he stood in front of the logo and put the bag down and opened it to pull out two cans of spray paint and got to work painting over it. The Carnales noticed what was happening and were enraged by Paul’s actions. However, Starlight put them down before they could aim at her friend.

Surprisingly, the paint job only took a few minutes before Paul announced the tag complete. Starlight couldn’t help but be amazed by the level of detail Paul put into his graffiti. “Wow, impressive!”

“I took a lot of art classes back in school,” Paul explained. “I’m actually surprised they still had such a program since I’ve heard a lot of art programs got cut in schools across the US and the Stilwater school district is poorly funded.”

Starlight shrugged, “Well, hope you’re up for doing that a few more times. Now let’s keep going.”

After clearing the area around another Carnales tag, Paul repeated his work on it before they started heading up the catwalk to deal with the tags on the upper levels. With the upper levels being a more confined place to fight, Starlight started taking out her enemies with her sword.

Paul painted over two more tags on the next level before heading to the upper levels to paint over three more. By that point the Carnales finally gave up and retreated from the refinery. It took a few minutes for the two to find out that the Carnales only made seven tags around the refinery.

Once the thugs were gone, Starlight reported their success so Julius could send some of his people to take the place over. At the same time, Starlight noticed a few people wearing suits among the Saints thugs. The suits explained that they were part of Mr. Wong’s people and they were there as part of Starlight’s plan against the Carnales. The Saints decided to accept the explanation and let them be. Starlight smiled as she could see that everything was going according to plan so far.

“So, you think I could give Laserbeak a paint job? I bet it would look good in purple,” Paul offered. However, a laser beam from the drone nearly hit his foot which made Paul jump back. Laserbeak, who was perched on Starlight’s shoulder, gave him a look as if it was wary of him. “Is it just me or does your drone have its own personality? I would think it would want a different look instead of that scarlet coat it has that could cause people to mistake it for something from the Carnales.”

Laserbeak tilted its head as if it wanted to convey something but lacked the proper functions to do so before it flew onto Starlight’s hair and suddenly changed its color to match its royal purple color while simulating a teal stripe as well to complete the illusion. Paul soon realized that Laserbeak was trying to convey snarkiness by showing off that it could change colors on its own. “Well fuck you too…” he moped.

“Alright you two, that’s enough,” Starlight chided. “Paul, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before that Laserbeak has a function that allows it to change colors. It’s part of its stealth functions, especially during times where I need info from an enemy.”

Paul shrugged, “Eh, I’m not too bothered by it, though it is good to know. Still, it would be nice for Ravage to have some stealth functions too.”

“We’ll see.”

“Anyways, I take it Wong’s men are getting into position, given the ones here?”

Starlight nodded, “By the time the Carnales catch wind of Mr. Wong's men in the area, Hector should be dead by then. In the meantime, he has something else for us. Someone named Ralph near the airport needs help with his shipping company and he wants us to hurt his competitors. He will give us the list when we meet him.”

“More carjackings, huh? Sounds fun! Let’s roll!”

The two arrived at the address of a warehouse near the airport where they met a tough-looking man in a brown overcoat and fedora. The man introduced himself as Ralph and that his shipping business was fucked because of his competition. He handed them a list of cars carrying shipments that he wanted stolen while telling them that they could keep whatever they stole, including whatever they made from selling the shipments, since he only wanted to see his competitors suffer for ruining his business.

Neither Starlight nor Paul were sure why Ralph was willing to shortchange himself for the sake of revenge but they weren’t going to argue since it meant more money for them.

The first shipment they hijacked was carried in a Carnales vehicle. More specifically, a La Fuerza which was wanted by Miguel. After stealing the car and making the thug driving it regret their line of work, Paul took the car to the nearest Rim Jobs to give it the needed customizations before handing it over to Miguel.

After that, Paul and Starlight hijacked three more Carnales vehicles along with four others including a Bulldog that Starlight secretly wished she could have found sooner while she was scratching off a previous list of vehicles to steal. There was also a police car on Ralph’s list which Starlight considered strange but she went with the flow of things.

Once they finished hijacking the shipments they returned to Ralph, he rewarded Starlight with a set of leather racing clothes since he heard from Wong that she liked racing. He also gave them an armored truck but they weren’t sure what to do with such a vehicle so they left it with him for the time being.

With the task complete, Starlight and Paul soon found themselves with little else to do until tonight so they decided to check out the shops in the downtown district. Starlight didn’t really care for the clothing but she found a few music tracks that she couldn’t get from the other music stores in Stilwater.

After a few hours of shopping the two discovered that the meeting would begin soon so they dropped what they bought at Starlight’s house before heading over to the docks. Keeping away from any Carnales patrols, the two climbed up a dumpster to reach a fire escape to climb to the top of the building before heading across a connecting path to another building that gave them a great view of the meeting area.

During the climb, Paul was busy assembling his new sniper rifle and preparing it for its first use. Once it was assembled, and Starlight checked it as well to make sure it was ready, the two remained hidden until the meeting started.

A few minutes later, they spotted a trio of four-door cars: two fully red and another red with a white top between the other two. The three-car convoy looked like a typical escort pattern which made it easy to guess that Hector was in the middle car. This also made Starlight wonder whether Hector was still underestimating the Saints or if he was so confident that the meeting wouldn’t be disrupted. Either way, this would be his fatal mistake.

“Once the talks start, take the shot,” Starlight whispered. Paul nodded and pointed his rifle toward the cars. “All escorts need to be taken out as well. We can’t have word getting to Angelo that a Saint sniped his brother.”

The cars came to a stop near the end of the docks and twelve targets emerged. Just as Dex warned, the escorts were packing RPGs while the odd one out wore a crimson overcoat. Using the scope to zoom in, Paul locked on to the figure. He couldn’t see the man’s face, but he had to assume that he was Hector. The Carnales approached a group coming toward them from the end of the dock wearing white or light gray suits. It was assumed that they were the Columbian representatives.

Once Hector and the Columbians were near each other, Paul took aim, doing his best to make it a headshot. Keeping his breath steady and his nerves calmed, he squeezed the trigger.

In the next moment, several things happened. Hector Lopez dropped like a sack of potatoes and everyone there realized there was a sniper nearby. Realizing this, the Columbians fled the area while the Carnales scrambled for cover. Paul managed to snipe two more thugs before they began retaliating.

By now the Carnales realized where Paul’s position was and began firing rockets at him. Starlight offered to help but Paul rejected it, stating that he was having the time of his life right now and he didn’t want her magic to make things easy for him.

Shrugging, Starlight instead decided to pull out her phone and look up the Lopez family’s bank accounts. It took some doing but she managed to locate them. It wasn’t hard to hack into the accounts as the passwords were easy to predict, even if the passwords were in spanish.

Following this, Starlight executed a series of transfers to dummy accounts and offshore dummy accounts before the funds ultimately ended up in her account. Seeing how much she gained from this made her whistle in awe as she found that not only would it get her through college, but it would allow her to live comfortably for years to come. “Jackpot!” she declared.

As she finished the last of the transfers, she noticed that the sound of explosions had stopped, informing her that Paul had finished off the last of Hector’s guards which meant that it was time to get out of there before the cops showed up. The two were able to escape unnoticed thanks to the confusion.

On the way back to the church, Starlight called Wong to give him the go-ahead, “Mission accomplished, time for the next phase.”

Wong chuckled, “Well done! My men are in position as well. Mr. Price has been waiting for a chance to show what he can really do.

An hour later, the docks were teeming with police officers. The Carnales who survived were being loaded up into the police cars along with a few of the Columbians who failed to escape in time.

Victor, who arrived to investigate what happened, remained hidden as he did his best to gather what information he could for Angelo. He eavesdropped on a conversation between two officers and found out that they had been tipped off and had confiscated a lot of drugs as a result of the sting operation. The worst part was that he heard that someone had killed Hector.

Hearing enough, Victor snuck out of the crime scene and contacted Angelo.

The door to Angelo’s office flew open and a panicked Luz entered. Her expression was ghostly pale. “¿Qué pasa, Luz? ¿Por qué irrumpes aquí de esa manera? (What's wrong, Luz? Why are you barging in here like that?)”

“Angelo, it’s terrible! The credit card you gave me has been declined!” Luz exclaimed. “I went out to buy some shoes but the card was declined due to insufficient funds!”

“¡Imposible! (Imposible!)” However, as Angelo was preparing to call his bank to find out what happened, he received a call. “What is it? I’m in the middle of a problem.”

The call was from Victor who informed him about what happened at the docks. Angelo’s eyes widened in shock and his skin turned pale before it started turning red with fury. "Victor, listen to me very carefully. I don't give a fuck about the drugs, I don't give a fuck about Orejuela--"

“What about Manuel?” Luz asked.

“¡Mira mujer! ¡Cállate el hocico! (Look woman! Shut your snout!)” Angelo snapped. He returned his attention to Victor, “Who did this to my brother?”

“What about Hector?” Luz asked.

“¡Luz, por favor! (Luz, please!)” He roared at her before returning to his call, using every ounce of his willpower to calm down, “Okay, okay, you're right. You deal with the Saints, I'll handle the Colombians. If Manuel is behind this, yo le voy a enseñar por qué la familia López es la más fuerte! (I'm going to teach him why the Lopez family is the strongest!)"

Angelo hung up the phone and attempted to calm down as he prepared to take action against the Columbian liaison. However, as if his day couldn’t get bad enough, he received another call. However, he failed to suppress his rage this time, “¿¡Qué pasa ahora!? (What is it now!?)”

This time the call was from one of his field lieutenants. The lieutenant reported that his boys had come under attack from a group of people in suits. More interesting was the fact that the new attackers were shouting in Chinese, giving the impression that whoever was attacking them might be aligned with the old man, Wong Sheng Tai. From what Angelo recalled, the old man was a retired member of the Chinese Triad but he still had connections to that clan.

What was worse was that the Saints who were guarding the areas that had been taken from the Carnales were hanging back as if the conflict had nothing to do with them, hinting at a possible alliance between the Saints and the Triad. If that was true then his situation had gone from horrible to outright catastrophic.

With so many problems piling up on him all at once, Angelo was feeling overwhelmed. Unable to control his anger any longer, Angelo slammed his phone so hard on the holder that he smashed the whole device. “¡Esto no puede estar pasando! (This can't be happening!)” he roared. “Como si mi hermano muerto fuera lo suficientemente malo, ¿ahora las potencias extranjeras quieren un pedazo de la familia López? (As if my dead brother was bad enough, now foreign powers want a piece of the Lopez family!?) Well bring it on! Saints! Columbians! Manuel! Triad! I’ll take all of you on!”

“Angelo, what about the credit card?” Luz asked.

That did it. No longer seeing reason, Angelo threw the remains of his phone just past Luz, barely missing her and shattering against a wall behind her. Fearful for her life, Luz bolted out of the room screaming while Angelo had a meltdown and flipped his desk over.

Once the police cleared out of the area, Several crews of Saints and a few Triad members moved in and took over Poseidon Alley.