Graduation came and went for Starlight and her friends. The ceremony would have been one of her happiest moments if she wasn’t worried about what was going on back home the whole time.

Starlight was actually quite eager to get back home and take back what she had conquered once. She wasn’t about to let a bunch of opportunists steal what she had worked hard to obtain. If it weren’t for who she suspected blew up Paul, the Saints could have become a criminal empire by now.

Of course, she couldn’t blame just one person for the Saints falling apart. The entire leadership was a ticking time bomb for the gang. One was hopelessly egotistical to the point that it was a wonder that he didn’t try to usurp leadership, one was an undercover cop and the last was never fully committed to leading the Saints, content with getting rid of the other gangs before orchestrating the Saints’ downfall.

It annoyed her that her father used to be subordinated to Dex of all people. At least he was smart enough to not try to assert himself over her or things would have turned ugly really fast.

Her thoughts continued to drift to her home as she boarded Alberto’s plane. It wasn’t a large plane but she didn’t need a commercial airliner just for her friends. It had a single aisle with four seats in each row so Starlight, Larxene, Alberto and Savage could sit in the same row together.

The flight lasted several hours and the four were treated to a wide variety of beverages, courtesy of The Roman. Starlight decided on a cider which was light on the alcohol. Just because she was officially twenty-one didn’t mean she was going to be irresponsible. Alberto decided on a glass of champagne while Larxene and Savage decided on a couple of beers.

Once the plane landed around midnight, Starlight reactivated Laserbeak and had it retrieve her car. It took some time for the car to arrive since her house was on the other side of the city from the airport. While they waited, Starlight obtained a complementary map from an info desk. She and her friends gathered what info they could from the workers and anyone they could ask. They would need to know where the lines were drawn and which gang owned which neighborhoods.

After some time they found that most of southern Stilwater was owned by the Brotherhood. This included the Truck Yard, Chinatown, Apartments, Barrio, Docks, and Airport districts. The Sons of Samedi owned most of central Stilwater, with the exception of the Row. This included the Factories, most of the Red Light, Projects, Arena, some of the Expanded Suburbs and a new district that opened up recently known as the University District. The Ronin held nearly the entire northern island. This included the majority of the Suburbs, Downtown, High End Retail, Museum, Marina and some of the Red Light districts. The Row was owned by Ultor Corporation.

Starlight once considered attending Stilwater University which would have officially opened the year Paul fell into a coma, but their reputation and their low quality of educators would not have given her a good education.

Once the car arrived, Starlight drove herself and her friends throughout the city to see what had changed in five years. Other than the fact that Ultor had built a tower in the Row and turned the place into a tourist trap and the new university, there were also a couple of smaller islands to the west of the main city that were part of Stilwater. One island was a prison complex which seemed like a smaller version of Alcatraz and the other was where a nuclear power plant was built to power the city.

Once the group obtained enough information, Starlight gave her mother a call to let her know that they had arrived in Stilwater. Aisha, in turn, informed her that her father’s last appeal hearing would start in a few hours at the Stilwater Courthouse. Starlight and Aisha were certain that Johnny would receive the death penalty.

“Don’t worry mom, we’ll get him out,” Starlight assured.

As her call ended, Starlight’s phone rang again. This call came from Troy’s personal number. It was about time for him to update her on Paul’s condition. “Yeah?” she answered.

There was a pause in Troy’s voice, as if what he was about to say would change Stilwater forever. Finally, with a sigh, he spoke. “I just heard from the doctors at the prison. He’s waking up.”

The shock and elation from the news made Starlight fumble gracelessly with her phone for a few moments which Larxene responded with a snort of amusement. Starlight ignored her and continued her call. “You’re not shitting me, right?”

“I swear it’s what they told me,” Troy replied.

“Fine, you do remember your promise right?”

“Yeah, I won’t stop you from reforming the Saints. Though you better hurry if you plan on rescuing him. Johnny’s going on trial soon. Just try to minimize collateral damage when you’re taking on these gangs.”

“I can’t promise that, especially if clients are out there requesting the Saints to do property damage.”

Troy sighed, “Yeah, I figured that would be the case. City’s gotten weird in the past few years. Some people are actually imitating some of the things you and Paul used to do. There’s also this new television series called FUZZ where people go around dressed as one of us and take police brutality to a whole new level while dealing with the imitators. The producers film around the city and will probably ask you and Paul to star in a few episodes.”

“That seems more like Paul’s thing but I’ll keep that in mind.”

“I know you’re planning on raiding the prison. All I can ask is for you to avoid killing the guards as much as you can. I know they will get in your way but they’re still good people.”

Once the call ended, Starlight turned to her friends, “Change of plans, we need to get a boat to the prison ASAP.”

“I’m on it,” Alberto replied. He then used his phone’s GPS to locate a suitable place where they could find a boat. As it turned out there was a small dock in the University district and there appeared to be a police boat moored there.

By the time they hijacked the boat and took it to the penitentiary, it was 2:30 in the morning. Starlight figured that a stealthy approach would be a wise idea since they didn’t want to get swarmed by the guards so they managed to avoid the lights. It irritated Larxene that they had to be sneaky since she usually preferred flashy approaches, but she also saw the merit in stealth in this case. Alberto stayed behind to tune up the boat.

Once inside the prison, Starlight cast an invisibility spell on herself and the others. She could have done so sooner but she wanted to conserve her magic and the spell didn’t last long.

As they explored the interior trying to find out where the guards were holding Paul, they overheard two guards talking about someone finally waking up after years of breathing through a tube. They followed the guards while listening to the banter about one’s wife cheating on him with an Ultor executive while his daughter was listening to Aisha albums all day.

Starlight’s group followed the guards into a medical ward where the doctor quipped that the patient was doing pretty good for being caught in a massive explosion. Starlight had to move out of the way as a nurse carried another prisoner on a stretcher. The nurse explained that the prisoner was shanked before placing him on a bed next to where Paul supposedly was.

The doctor then took the bandages off Paul’s face and checked to see its condition. “Yes, that looks like it healed nicely,” the doctor commented.

“Ugh…Why do I feel like a tank blew me up?” Paul wondered groggily.

“Welcome back to the land of the living, you’ll be wishing you didn’t soon enough,” one guard said.

“You got anything you wanna say to the judge you better start thinkin' of it now…” the other guard warned.

With that, the guards and the doctor left Paul with the former two returning to their duties. The doctor moved over to another station out of earshot from Paul.

Before Starlight could move to greet Paul, the prisoner beside him greeted him first. “Psst! Hey! Is it really you?” the prisoner whispered.

“Who the fuck are you?” Paul asked.

“Name's Carlos, I'm here to bust you out.”

“Do you have any better reason for me to trust you than just giving me your name?”

“My brother was in the Saints, Michael. You knew him?”

“Kid, unless they were Starlight or the Saints leadership, picking your brother out from the others would be like playing Where's Waldo except Waldo's wearing purple. So unless you have something better, you could be another asshole trying to send me to Hell.”

“Look, I got stabbed to get myself in here to talk to you. Doesn’t it show I’m loyal?”

“It shows that you’re dumb enough to let yourself get stabbed,” Paul shot back.

“I’m trying to help you! You need my help.”

“Fuck that, I’ve got Starlight and the Saints,”

“Sure you do…” Carlos sarcastically replied.

“The fuck that’s supposed to mean?”

“Long story short, the Saints disbanded and no one knows where Starlight is.”

“I’m right here,” Starlight declared as she dropped her spell.

“What the fuck!” Carlos shouted. Paul also jumped in shock but gave a more subdued response.

However, Carlos’ outburst had also alerted the nearby doctor who spotted Starlight and her friends. “How did you get I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I…” the doctor cried as an electrified knife struck him and tasered him unconscious.

Larxene recalled her knife with her glove before turning to the others. “I’m pretty sure we’re on a tight schedule now so let’s save the recap for when we aren’t risking hundreds of guards coming down on us.”

Paul stared at Larxene for a moment before looking at Starlight, “First, glad to see you again. Second, is she with you?”

“It’s been a long time and yes,” Starlight replied. “Now get your ass out of bed, we need to move.”

Nodding, Paul struggled with a surprising amount of effort to get up and put his feet on the floor. “What the hell!?” he wondered. Unfortunately, when he got off the bed he collapsed on the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. He found that moving his muscles was proving to be a challenge as he quickly became exhausted. “What’s wrong with my body?”

Starlight groaned, “I should have known this would happen. I’ll need to use a great deal of my magic to regenerate your muscles. For as long as you’ve been out, they’ve atrophied pretty badly.”

“Fuck, how long have I been out?” Paul asked.

“Five years,” Carlos said.

“Tick tock people…” Larxene reminded them.

“You two clear the way for us,” Starlight ordered Larxene and Savage. “I need to concentrate my magic to regenerate Paul’s muscles since we don’t have the time for months of physical therapy to get him back into shape. Carlos, help me carry him.”

“Y-yes ma’am,” Carlos obeyed.

“I could always zap his muscles back into shape,” Larxene offered. “I’ve heard that electricity can help stimulate the muscles.”

“You can do that when we’re safe,” Starlight smirked.

“Hang on, don’t I get a say in this?” Paul complained.

“Your complaint has been heard,” Starlight replied. “Please wait five to seven weeks for a proper response during which time Larxene will determine whether or not she gives a fuck.”

“Which will be a definite ‘no’,” Larxene added.

Paul groaned while Larxene snickered.

As they exited the medical ward, they noticed some guards in the next room. The guards reacted quickly and sounded the alarm just as Larxene zapped them unconscious. Starlight ordered Carlos to collect their weapons which he complied. Since Starlight was busy working on Paul’s muscles she couldn’t fight as she usually did so she and Carlos both took a pistol.

Since there were no other guards around at the moment, Paul decided to ask some questions while they were carrying him. “I see you have some new muscle. Where did you find these two?”

“They’re my old college buddies. They wanted a piece of the action in Stilwater so I obliged,” Starlight replied.

“Wait, you went to college? How did you manage to get a college education so fast?”

“It wasn’t fast, I actually spent nearly five years getting my degrees.”

“Wait, Carlos wasn’t joking when he said it’s been five years!?” Paul exclaimed.

“Oh sure, believe it from Starlight and not from the guy who’s been nothing but honest with you…” Carlos grumbled.

“Them’s the breaks, kid,” Larxene snarked.

“The guards are probably gathering up to stop us,” Savage warned. “We need a distraction.”

“Laserbeak, you’re up,” Starlight ordered. The drone then hacked into the security mainframe of the prison and unlocked all of the cell doors in the prison, leading to a lot of shouting from freed prisoners all over the complex ready to beat up their jailors.

The group managed to get out of the building only to witness the prisoners and guards fighting one another. The area was dense with rioters and guards who were blocking their way to the docks. The bright side to all of this was that none of the rioters or guards had noticed them as they suspected that some of the prisoners were former thugs from the old gangs.

“So how are you planning on getting us past that, Star?” Paul asked.

“I believe it’s time for Savage to do his thing.” With a nod from Starlight, Savage barreled his way through the crowd like a certain unstoppable mutant from X-Men. The prisoners and guards were bowled over and thrown aside leaving the group to cross the courtyard and pass through the metal gate to the docks.

“Whatever he’s eating, I want some too,” Paul quipped.

Thankfully the police were so preoccupied with the escapees that there were few guards after them so Carlos took the wheel of a nearby abandoned prison bus and drove them over to where their escape boat was.

Once they boarded the boat, Starlight placed Paul on his back so she could fully concentrate on regenerating Paul’s muscles while she had Savage man the mounted light machine gun on the back of the boat in case they had pursuers. Alberto, who had tuned the boat for speed, gunned the boat and headed for Stilwater. The boat ride was a bit rough because of the choppy waters and the fact that they were moving faster than a jet ski which caused Larxene to hang on to something for dear life. Thankfully, nobody appeared to pursue them.

By the time they reached the city, Starlight wiped the sweat off her forehead as she had done what she could for Paul’s muscles. He wasn’t back to full strength but it was enough for him to move freely again as well as fight. Beyond that, Paul would have to make sure he got plenty of exercise to regain his stamina and strength.

With his job done, Carlos left the group as he had his own agenda to pursue for the time being, such as dealing with his deadbeat friend, Ramon. He tossed his gun to Paul who managed to catch it, showing that Starlight’s treatment worked.

“I gotta say, you made some amazing friends, Starlight,” Paul complimented. His expression then became a little more somber. “Was Carlos right about the Saints disbanding too?”

Starlight nodded with a sad look on her face. “It’s true, though with who was leading us, it was bound to happen. Julius wasn’t interested in continuing after we defeated the Rollerz, Vice Kings and Carnales, Troy was an undercover cop and Dex…well, the less about him the better.”

“So what else happened while I was out?” Paul asked. Starlight then gave him the summary about what happened to Stilwater over the five years he had been out, including the new gangs, Ultor taking over the Row and the city experiencing a few additions.

“So, are we heading to the courthouse to save your daddy or what?” Larxene asked.

“I was getting to that…” Starlight shot back with a glare.

“Something happen to Johnny?” Paul asked.

“Yeah, his trial is starting soon so we need to head over to the courthouse. You ready to get back into the swing of things?”

Paul cocked his gun, “Let’s get this shit started!”

Author's Note

Fun Fact: Using your muscles after 5 years of not using them is not fun.