"Hey Kinzie where is the Boss?" Johnny asked with annoyance in his voice. Johnny had felt like Marissa had been avoiding him for the last few days and was starting to get frustrated. He hadn't seen the girl in years and now that they were finally working together she was hardly around.
Kinzie didn't look up from her monitor. "She's in the simulation. You better get in there too, we're finally moving on to the next step in the plan." Shaundi poked her head around the door to get Johnny's attention. When they moved into the simulation room everyone was waiting by their individual pod. Kinzie soon followed after them placing her laptop next to one of the computer monitors and plugged it in to a wire that had magically appeared.
"Alright everyone we only get one shot at this. We all need to meet at my old warehouse but we need to make sure that the Zin don't catch on to what we're doing. To make sure this doesn't happen we will all need to connect to the simulation at different times and in different locations. Once in the simulation it should be alright just don't draw any attention. Alright Pierce and Ben you guys will go in first. Johnny, you will go with Shaundi, Matt and Asha. That then leaves me and Keith. First pair go."
Slowly one by one the team began to enter the simulation. Although being in the simulation before the whole team Marissa was the last to arrive. "I'm not late to the briefing am I?" She asked Ben directly. As she entered Johnny looked at her.
She was wearing skin tight jeans with a pair of purple heels. He could never understand how she walked in them let alone fight. She was also wearing a very short, relieving purple vest like top that showed off most of her stomach and her back. This is when Johnny noticed a tattoo he had never seen before crawling from her jeans up to the base of her back. Marissa had a few tattoos, most she got with Johnny right behind getting one of his own until Aisha died. The last time Marissa got a tattoo, Johnny had booked in for laser removal stating that "Aisha always hated my neck tattoos."
Johnny was snapped back into the conversation when Marissa mentioned something about being murdered in her sleep. To act as though he was paying attention he quickly said "whoa, whoa, whoa guys. Can we just get to murdering already?" Marissa rolled her eyes. This was the Johnny that she had missed all these years. The blood thirsty murderer who was always by her side kicking ass. Matt soon joined the group. "We've got a problem, the Zin are coming."
"Here?!" Kinzie almost had a heart attack. She wasn't ready for this. She had planned every small detail making sure that where ever there could possible be a flaw or a chance of failure, it was deleted. The Saints could not afford to lose. Shaundi ran over to the monitor and the group saw that an entire army of Zin soldiers was marching towards the warehouse with an arsenal of weapons, tanks and UFO's. "Defend the base! Not a single Zin makes it further then that entrance do I make myself clear?!" Everyone jumped up and grabbed their guns. "Yes Boss!" Everyone cried simultaneously. Johnny was the last to leave the room. "Just like old times ha Boss?" Marissa let out a small laugh. "You said it. Now let's show them who they're messing with."
"Everybody get to the roof!" Marissa cried. There was no way they could take all the Zin that were attacking them. They were not prepared for this attack. There were too many of them and the Saints didn't have enough ammo or fire power. While Ben and Pierce covered them Marissa and the others ran towards the roof. "Why are we running? I'm down for some murder." Johnny claimed.
"Johnny not now! We need to get everyone out of here including you. I will not lose you again or watch you take a god damn life threatening injury do you hear me!" Johnny looked at Marissa and nodded. He thought it would be Shaundi barking at him for being reckless again and was surprised to see it was Marissa.
Whilst they were running up the stairs to the roof Kinzie had been shot in the leg by one of the Zin troops. Marissa stood on one side of her and took her weight while Shaundi did the same on the other. It was difficult to get her up to the helicopter with such narrow steps but they found a way.
"Get in! Get in!" Shaundi helped Kinzie into the helicopter while Marissa got into the pilots seat. "Boss, Pierce and Ben are getting into that car. We've got to cover them." Johnny slid one of the doors open and started firing down at the Zin. Marissa joined him on the main controls firing missiles at anything that would get in the way of her friends. "Shaundi how is Kinzie's leg looking?" Marissa called back.
"It's fine there wasn't much damage. I've stopped the bleeding." Shaundi joined her and took to the other set of controls. "Good. Kinzie where too?" As if by magic Kinzie pulled out a laptop and started to scan the area. "I've sent coordinates to Ben and Pierce where to go. Now all I have to do is- Oh no!"
One of the Zin had planted themselves on top of a building with an RPG and had fired it at the helicopter. Marissa had tried to dodge it but it was too late; they were starting to lose altitude. "Everyone just hold on! I'll try and find somewhere safe to land." But there was no time. They were losing altitude too quickly and had to bail out.
"Is everyone ok?" Marissa said rubbing her arm. It wasn't broken but very badly bruised, a feature she didn't know could happen in the simulation. "We walked away, right?" Johnny said with a smirk as he helped Kinzie up. Marissa suddenly thought back to when the plane crashed over Stealport and how even then Johnny Gat had managed to just 'walk away' without a single hair out of place.
Before them was a large door with Professor Genki's face on it. Johnny took a closer look at the door. "Super Ethical Reality Climax. Who names this shit?" He looked around the rest of the building and soon found that this was the only way down. The doors opened easily and the team walked through the corridors into one of the main arenas. Kinzie moved over to one of the consoles in the wall to override the security system on the door so that they could get out.
"Uh-oh." Kinzie looked over at the Boss to hope that she didn't hear what Kenzie had just done. "Boss, the game is on." Shaundi called with worry in her voice. Marissa knew how to play this game. She was a champion back in Stealport and knew that with Johnny on the other turret there was no way they were in trouble. Every Zin that tried to find their way to the Saints was shot down on sight. Soon Marissa and Johnny were making a game out of it seeing who could land the most head shots. They managed to keep the Zin away from Kinzie and Shaundi long enough that Kinzie had overwritten the security system and they could leave.
Johnny nudged Marissa and said "you do realise that I won right?" He was hoping this would bait her to argue saying that she had won but she said nothing. They worked their way down to the bottom floor where the Genki Mobile was waiting. More Zin were blasting their way through but Shaundi stayed behind to cover them. "Go, I will give you some time and pull out of the simulation once you've gone." And with that Marissa, Johnny and Kinzie sped off in the Genki Mobile. Ben soon came over the radio saying that Pierce and him were about to head out too.
"Kinzie how did the Zin know where we were? I thought the warehouse was safe." Suddenly it started to rain fire. "Shit that can't be good."
Zinyak fell from the sky and grabbed Kinzie by the throat. He repeatedly slammed her into the car until she was unconscious. Johnny tried to save her but Zinyak backed handed him sending him flying. With Kinzie in his possession he jumped into the sky. Marissa tried to follow him but when she was at the same height as him he kicked her back down to earth. Marissa couldn't bring her legs down to touch the floor for impact and started to panic. Just as she thought she was going to hit the floor she felt strong arms around her. "I've got you." Johnny had caught her just in time.
Shaundi came through on the radio. "Boss you need to get back to the ship. Now." She sounded urgent. Before either of them could move they were torn out of the simulation. Pierce and Ben were out cold on the floor and Zin were attacking the ship. Once again it was up to Marissa, Shaundi and Johnny to clean up the mess.
