(Author's Note: If you're reading this, then let me say thank you for sticking with my story so far!
On a tad more serious note, I have included my Boss's name into the story - my apologies if you're not into that sort of thing, though I doubt I will be using it as much as I will be using just "the Boss" and other alternative titles for him. Again though, thank you for reading, and I hope you like this latest chapter!

Please enjoy!)


Thankfully for Shaundi, while she had lied about where she'd been when she went to Kinzie's, she hadn't been wholly wrong. While she and the Boss had been lighting every Syndicate-tied gang member up with fiery bullets during the evening for the past several days, one of the morning crews managed to find a Decker black market tech smuggling operation, another finding a Luchador 'roid ring the day after. Shaundi was entirely sure that she had wasted several lucky stars for that miracle to happen, though she hoped that she still had a few left after waking up to a text from Kinzie that Sunday morning.

Boss's you-know-what's came in. Come to Smiling Jack's ASAP. Delete this after reading.

"Couldn't just meet her back at the warehouse, could I?" Shaundi groaned to herself softly, sleepily stretching from underneath her covers. Taking a minute to seriously debate the pros and cons of getting out of bed and facing reality versus staying curled up in bed, the lieutenant finally forced herself out of bed and into the shower. She really hoped that Kinzie would be able to shed some light on the situation, though she was hesitant to try and do anything like hack into the Boss's phone again - and to be talking about this in a pretty public place like a local diner.

Tugging on a pair of purple skinny jeans and a coat to go over her white tube top, Shaundi put on her black heels last before heading out the door and to her garage. Stepping into her sleek Torch, she plugged her phone into the audio jack and started up her playlist before pulling out of the garage and heading into the world. Usually she'd hum and sing along, but today she couldn't bring herself to do more than strum her manicured nails along to the beat against the steering wheel. It was weird, knowing that you were going somewhere where the only thing you would hear is bad news - and weirder there was nothing she could really do to prepare for it. At least she'd know that if she was going to walk into a rival gang's crib most of her problems could be solved with bullets: however, she wasn't a doctor, wasn't a tech expert, certainly wasn't a mind reader, and those were the only things that might be able to help at the moment.

Digging her phone out of her pocket at a jingle announcing a new text, Shaundi sighed in frustration at the sight of a new text from the Boss. Pulling into a parking spot alongside the diner, Shaundi put her car in park before reading it to herself:

Morning, Shaund. We got some new leads on another Luchador operation, call me when you can so we can raise some hell.

Shaundi smiled sadly, and texted back:

Hey, Boss. I've got a meeting with the IWSWS execs today, but I'll see what I can do.

It was admittedly easier to lie over a text than in person, though she still couldn't help but feel the knot in her stomach cinch itself a bit tighter once she hit 'send'. Putting her phone away, she unbuckled herself and put a hand on the door. It's for his own good, Shaundi told herself, whatever he's hiding is a skeleton that doesn't need to be in his closet. It's time for some spring cleaning.

Taking a breath, she opened the door and stepped out into the morning sun.


Smiling Jack's smelled like cigarettes, cheap coffee, and greasy hash browns. Which, not surprisingly, looked to be on most every table in the diner. The morning crowd of the place looked more dead behind the eyes than eccentric, which made the fact Kinzie was hiding under an empty table stand out more than blend in.

"Kinzie, what the hell are you doing under there?"

"Hiding out waiting for you, duh! You alone?"

"Well Kinzie, considering we're getting breakfast at a diner, not quite. I didn't bring anyone with me though. C'mon, get out from under there, you don't know what's been there."

"Oh, we're not eating here. I just wanted to meet here in case the Boss or his weird tech-savvy friend bugged my warehouse."

"What? Kinzie, why would you- oh, fuck it. Kinzie, sit up, we're eating."

"And risk getting spotted out that window? No, thanks."

"Kinzie, if anyone tries to bother us, I'll shove my heel so far up their ass they'll be able to taste imported shoe leather, all right?"

Kinzie thought about this for a moment.

"Okay, fine. But you're paying."

"Fine." Shaundi agreed, sliding into one of the booth seats as Kinzie wiggled out from her hiding spot, pulling out a manila folder crammed with papers from beneath the booth and putting it onto the table. Waving over a middle aged waitress with her hair in a bun and ketchup stains on her apron, Shaundi ordered a glass of water for the both of them, trading Kinzie one of the menus for the folder.

"So, are these the results back from the lab?"

"More than that," Kinzie said, whispering and sinking ever so slightly in her seat as she spoke. Resting her arms and head on the table as she talked, she gestured for Shaundi to open the file, adding, "I pulled a few favors-" read: probably hacked or blackmailed the shit out of someone "- and I managed to score a few of the Boss's medical records from Stilwater, and one from the hospital that one time he fucked himself over on landing out of the copter a few months ago when you guys were just establishing yourselves here. Now, if you look at the blood results on all of them, you'll find-"

"Kendall?" Shaundi exclaimed, a look of surprise on her face.

"I'm... sorry, what?"

"His name is Kendall." Shaundi emphasized, pointing to one of the Stilwater reports. Sure enough, "KENDALL PROFIT" was written in large letters across the top in the name category, with "the Boss, Playa" written in a section for known aliases. Kinzie looked down at the paper, then at Shaundi.

"... Yeah, it is. I thought you already knew that." Kinzie commented.

"Well, I knew his nickname," Shaundi muttered. Kinzie raised a doubtful brow and gave a slight smirk, and the brunette clarified, "he told me once, back at Stilwater U."

"Ooh, didn't know you and the Boss were college buddies." Kinzie teased. Shaundi rolled her eyes and went back to the files, skimming the papers over.

"Yeah, something like that. So, what's wrong with these? They look pretty normal."

"Exactly! So at first I thought that meant he must have started using Upgrades in Steelport," Kinzie explained, "but then I realized that in the report my lab guys sent me back, his blood still looked the same! Normal, other than a slight increase in oxygenation in the blood over time. So I looked at his actual DNA profile, and it looks like the guys found something weird."

Pausing in their discussion to order breakfast - for Shaundi, waffles and fresh fruit, for Kinzie, a bowl of cereal - and getting right back to it after the waitress left again, Shaundi took out the Boss's DNA profile, giving a soft whistle as it stretched out from its accordion-esque folding, littered with letters and highlighter marks.

"Looks like they found a lot of things weird," Shaundi commented, "so just what are all these? DNA pieces that shouldn't be where they are?"

"More than that," Kinzie insisted, "Shaund, if you look at the sheets beneath it, those were the analyses on the components of what was left of the goop inside the syringe. The lab guys said that they found some crazy cocktail of enzymes and basically every nucleobase in there being kept from binding until they can react within a live host-" Now, Shaundi had actually done relatively well in biology, when she bothered to attend classes for it. However, the more Kinzie sped up her lowered tone in excitement, the further lost she got, "- and if you combine that with the fact that most of this was swapping itself in for what is believed to be junk DNA and somehow being able to code itself into more than just whatever poor clumps of cells it can sink into-"

"Get to the point, Kinzie."

"He's mutating himself, Shaundi!" Kinzie exclaimed. Realizing she might have raised her voice a bit above normal at the weird stare their waitress gave them while she handed each woman their breakfast, Kinzie sheepishly lowered her voice again. She poked her cereal around with her spoon, taking a small bite as Shaundi quietly stared down at her waffles.

"Er. Sorry for yelling. But... this is- Shaundi, this is serious. Hypothetically speaking, it should also be impossible. All of the components of that Upgrade hypothetically could've went to the wrong parts of the DNA and given him a weird genetic disease, or have done nothing, but they all went along the strands somewhere it would cause the biggest effect and caused benign mutations. I mean, my guys said a few of them looked like true random mutations, but they also said that they might just show themselves as-"

"Strange physical side effects, right?" She asked quietly. Kinzie hesitated, but nodded.

"Right. It's like someone took all the Syndicate's research on genetics like what they were doing with Oleg and the Brutes, but perfected it - or damn near did, anyways," Kinzie watched as Shaundi cut into the waffles with more force than necessary for a breakfast food, her eyes sharp and cold. Stirring around her cereal, she added, "the Boss is basically trying to make himself a superhero, though I'm sure this just confirms our suspicions that's what he was doing since we tried to hack into his Upgrades app."

"Oh, he's not making himself a hero," Shaundi hissed with a dark laugh, "heroes don't mutate themselves and murder the shit out of people and lie to their friends." Were they friends? Shaundi liked to think he saw her as something more than a business asset as his lieutenant, that he knew she'd always be right behind him. And sure everyone was entitled to their secrets, but this... this was...

Kinzie awkwardly ate a few more spoonfuls of cereal, watching as Shaundi poured some syrup onto her waffles, and gave one mutilated piece a powerful stab. She looked like she was going to eat it, but just dropped her fork instead.

"Kinzie," Shaundi finally asked, "if he's mutating himself to be better than human, then how long do you think it'll take before he stops being one?"


"Thank you for your purchase," the voice sounded as placid as it did whenever it showed up, "please enjoy."

The Boss walked behind the dumpster beside their air transport garage, and picked up the small cardboard box on the ground next to the walkie-talkie radio that gave a soft hum of static. Opening the box up, he took out the needle within and sighed softly, eyeing the dark green fluid within as he pulled up his shirt an felt around his side. Picking a star on his side he couldn't remember injecting into before, Kendall sank the needle into his blue skin and gently pressed down on the syringe's plunger. The final Melee Upgrade went in easy, and considering he'd left it unchecked for awhile to focus on improving his weapons and the weapons for the rest of the Saints, he still actually had a decent amount of cash left. Not enough to buy some of the higher level Upgrades he wanted, but he needed to get a few more respect levels for that too, anyhow.

Giving a deep sigh when the syringe was emptied into his body, he leaned against the wall of the massive garage. Stuffing the used needle into the box, the gang leader tossed it into the dumpster and checked his phone, holding it in one hand so he could massage the injection site with the other. Other than the blue skin thing, had had to admit (he actually rather enjoyed his hair color, surprisingly) that for the most part, his dealer was true to their word in that he would get near unstoppable. The Boss had joined Oleg and one of his newly established morning crews for some mayhem destroying the Deckers operation and all of their shiny new toys, and so effectively crushed them without as much as more than a few scratches on his half that even the large Russian was impressed.

Part of him only wished that he'd had the prowess he did now a few months ago so he could have destroyed Philippe with his bare hands, which he figured would be much more satisfying than just crushing him like a bug. More of him wanted to have been as powerful as he was now years ago, back in Stilwater. He had just been a foreign exchange student back then, too shy off of his native soil to talk much... god, maybe back then if he had the set of brass balls he did now and spoke up sooner, dominated the gang earlier, he could've done more, he could've-

Blinking, Kendall realized he had lost track of what tab in the Upgrades app he was on, as he had been thoughtlessly clicking and scrolling, only looking for locks and unchecked boxes. He had reached the Gang Abilities tab again, and had stopped on a description for the "Homie Health Increase". Frowning down at the photo of his friends next to it, he gave a snort. It's not worth it, he reminded himself, they wouldn't even believe me if I told 'em what it did, and they'd be pissed if they found out why I was doing this.

"They're fine," he said to himself quietly, "my crew's got all the guns and all the support they'd need to help themselves. They don't need extra health, don't need extra time to hold on 'till they can get up again." The radio suddenly silenced itself, someone on the other side picking up.

"Johnny did."


Shaundi needed some air in a bad way. She doubted she could get any clean air in this god-awful city, but she'd settle for relatively fresh. The lieutenant drove straight into the park, her music blaring and her windows down, her knuckles blanched white as she gripped the steering wheel.

You shouldn't be upset about this, part of her mind said, trying to rationalize the news, he's still the Boss, now he's just different. Think about how much you've changed and how everyone still likes you! The only thing he's been doing to himself has been making himself harder for those Syndicate and STAG bastards to kill! You should be happy he's trying to make it difficult for you to lose him after you've already lost so many of your other friends! Still, it was just one question that stood against that logic, but it was enough to make her heart sink: At what cost?

Screeching the car to a halt up against the curb near the park, Shaundi stepped out and slammed the car door shut. Her heels clacked harshly against the paved concrete paths, and her look was enough to make people walking on the path to quietly part away from her like the sea away from Moses. The deeper along the path among the billowy trees and by the rippling water she got, the less urgent her steps moved. Burning down to a slow stroll, Shaundi kept silent, absorbing the strange sound mix of bird calls and car horns as she walked. In fact, it was almost working to numb her to the day's discoveries until her phone started to ring.

"Oh, for Christ's-" Shaundi growled under her breath, taking out her phone and looking at the caller ID. Oh, just Pierce. Still, poor bastard had the worst case of timing. Picking up the call, Shaundi answered with a sharp, "what, Pierce?"

"Damn girl, just what crawled up your ass this morning?" Pierce snapped back. Shaundi huffed and rolled her eyes.

"I'm busy, what do you need?"

"I need you to get not busy real quick is what I need," Pierce retorted, "get to Port Pryor ASAP! We were cracking down on a Luchador operation and we accidentally killed an undercover agent, so now we got STAG soldiers and masked assholes all over this motherfucking place! Get your ass to the 3 Count and we should be able to get 'em to step off!"

"I'm on my way." Shaundi replied before Pierce could even finish his sentence, and she hung up. Well, so much for being able to duck away from business for the day with her figment show execs she was meeting. Turning around, she bolted back to her car, sending anyone who could move fast enough to be out of her way scattering. By the time she had thrown herself into her ride and punched the gas, her phone was ringing once again. Giving an audible "ugh", she took in a breath before answering her phone again.

"Hey, it's Shaundi," she said to the caller, "I'm getting out of downtown now, I'll be there as soon as I can. How's it going?"

"Oh, it's just peachy," the Boss replied sarcastically, "it's always a pleasure to have STAG tanks circling my bloody casino and Brutes banging on the doors. You good on guns and getting to the party?"

"Not sure if 'party' is the word I'd use," Shaundi answered, "but I've got enough left from our drive last night, thanks. You already there or are you heading in from elsewhere?"

"I'm leaving the airport now, I'm taking a chopper over," the Boss explained, "I shouldn't be long getting over there. Tell the crew to fall back and hold the crib 'till I get there, from there I'll clean house and let 'em take care of the survivors. Call me if you run into any problems trying to get to the 3 Count."

"Got it."

"Good. Talk to you later, love."

Hanging up after the Boss did, Shaundi tossed her phone onto the passenger seat and took out one of her pistols, holding it in one hand while she drove with the other. Well, she thought to herself, I wanted a distraction. Guess I better be more careful with my wishes.


By the time Shaundi rolled up onto the scene, there was a lot of green, a lot of white, a lot of purple, and many, many things broken or on fire.

Forcefully swinging open her car door and making the Luchador rushing to rip her out of the purple Torch stumble back, Shaundi plugged three rounds into his head and throat before the masked gangster dropped dead. Tucking her pistols away, she quickly dove back into her car, snatching the TEK Z-10 she had hidden under her seat. Kicking a STAG soldier in the balls at the feel of the butt of a rifle coming down on her back as she had been getting her submachine gun, she whipped around and pulled the trigger, the man's howls in agony as flame caught in the fabric between his armor muffled by his face mask. Darting past the military man and on into the heat of the fight, she stopped to help a few fallen Saints along the way and began barking more orders the deeper in she got.

"Everyone fall back inside, the Boss is on the way! Swing back 'round to the garage if the front door's blocked, break a window and climb in, I don't give a shit, just get moving!"

"I think they're doing a good job at helping us break the windows, at least!" Angel called over the riotous noise. Shaundi looked over and saw him on top of one of the Brutes, the beast of a cloned man bellowing and thrashing as Angel dug his knees into the Brute's shoulders and kept his head locked between his thighs so he could get as many cheap head shots in with his glock as he could. Oleg was currently trying to beat back two other Brutes, leaving Angel free to fire until the clone beneath him dropped dead.

"Careful, Oleg!" Shaundi called, and opened fire on one of the Brutes that rose his hands over his head behind Oleg, the sharply dressed Russian's hands interlocked with one of his mutant knockoff offspring. Circling around to get a better shot, Shaundi opened fire on the second Brute until she could feel the metal of her gun get hot in her hands, The beast howled and clawed at his back where the incendiary bullets sank into his flesh and caught the tatters of his clothes aflame.

"Thank you, Shaundi," Oleg replied, "once we take care of these monstrosities we will be joining the others inside."

"You better take care of them soon," Shaundi retorted over the sound of her gun as she opened fire on a Luchador truck speeding right towards her, "the Boss said he's cleaning house when he gets here!"

The phrase appeared to spark a second breath from the Saints still battling from outdoors - and a small sense of panicky urgency, considering how fast they dragged their bloody bodies to the casino doors. The Luchadores gave whoops of falsely placed confidence as the waves of purple retreated, and the STAG members were quick to take advantage of it, shooting out the cockier Luchadores while pressing forward to box the Saints further into their crib. Shaundi could see several tanks rolling in from the highway right before a badly burned and thoroughly enraged Brute charged her.

With a well placed sweep of his beefy arms, Shaundi was sent flying, hitting the hood of a long since abandoned Saints backup vehicle with a yelp. Angel was on the burnt Brute almost immediately, giving a holler as he kicked out the brute's knees and drove several bullets into his skull.

"Shit." Shaundi hissed through gritted teeth, rolling off the hood with a pained moan and several other swears. She swore she felt her ribs crack when she tried to move - ugh, today was just not her day. But if it wasn't going to be her day, she could sure as hell guarantee it wasn't going to be anyone else's, either. Hastily reloading her submachine gun, the lieutenant gunned down a masked bastard with a grenade launcher that just hopped out of one of the tacky green cars, pressing forward and aiming a few shots at the goons that came with him for good measure. After all, it was rather hard to focus on, you know, not being on fire, even while a pissed off brunette was running over and stealing your dead friend's grenade launcher. Walking backwards as she fired, Shaundi scattered rained grenades down by the vehicle, many exploding earlier than they normally would thanks to the fiery heat of the flailing Luchadores near them. Wincing at the heat and the feel of bloody debris fly around her, Shaundi turned her attention to the creaking of tanks as they chugged closer. She barely got out a handful of grenades under their treads before she heard the ominous sound of a helicopter whirring above. Looking up and seeing a purple chopper, Shaundi gave a relieved grin and turned to the other Saints.

"Boss is here!" She yelled. What few of them were still out perked up and hurriedly tried to fend off the STAG and Luchadores on their tails. Shaundi dropped the grenade launcher and moved as quickly as she could with a very sore back, moving to help pick up a fallen blonde Saint bleeding on the ground with her friend. The Boss pressed a few buttons in the copter, and a very soft sound of a turret gun powering up sounded from above.

"Boss is cleaning house!" Oleg barked over the sounds of confusion from the rival gang and the soldiers. Shoving over the bent corpse of a Brute, he charged for the door, scooping up Angel as the ex-masked wrestler clawed at Luchador's mask as well as any other purple-clad bodies he could before running into the casino. Following in shortly behind him, Shaundi kept her back to the door and walked backwards inside, sending sweeping waves of bullets outwards to fend off anyone who wanted to follow in after them.

"I'll seal the doors with Oleg, everyone else get to the penthouse, Boss is cleaning house outside!" Shaundi ordered the stragglers in the casino. They hobbled along obediently, Oleg moving over to Shaundi to help her close the doors. Shaundi locked the doors, and Oleg picked up a few of the slot machines and piled them in front of the door to keep whatever was pounding on the doors outside away from them. Shaundi heard the low shriek of a VTOL fighter plane hovering in the air, but by the time she looked outside, the drumming of bullets and missiles whistling out of the copter took over the symphony of destruction outdoors. Running with Oleg to the elevator, by the time they got to the penthouse to help distribute the sniper rifles and RPGs, the VTOL was nothing but a metal carcass, what was once the cockpit nestled snugly in the remnants of the tank it crashed into.


It didn't take very long before the Luchadores and STAG crews realized that "cleaning house" was a Saint colloquialism for "obliterating any and everything causing a hassle to such a complete and total nothingness that it would trouble them no longer". What the Boss didn't send to meet their maker with missiles and a rain of bullets, the Saints from the safety of the penthouse destroyed with their rocket propelled grenades and bullets from sniper rifles. By the time the Boss parked his chopper onto the helicopter pad, what few members of both law enforcement and rival gangs alike that could still move teetered away from the scene of the crime in what few cars they had remaining or into the alleys pocked between buildings.

"Anything else for ya, sunshines?" Kendall called down to the retreating backs of his would-be foes from the safety of the helipad, a RPG launcher slung over his shoulder in casual threat. Laughing and casually flipping the carnage beneath him the bird, he headed inside. Gesturing for the Saints within to give it up, those that weren't too badly bloodied managed to give a few cheers and applause to their leader as he stepped inside. Placing his weapon down to join a growing pile of other launchers the others used, he gave a few people as he went by high fives and pats on the back. He was grinning, but Shaundi knew he was doing more than flaunting his cocky swagger that all but rolled off of him: his gold eyes were scanning each body for blood and broken bones, seeking all the chinks in his gang's armor that managed to be penetrated. He might have been the Boss now, but he was once a foot soldier like them not so long ago he couldn't remember, after all. Once he got through a brief survey of the damage done, the blue-skinned man pulled himself away from the crowd and stepped up onto one of the couches. Whistling to gain everyone's attention, he paused for dramatic effect and glanced back outside through the large windows. Shaundi noted that he had picked up a pair of black devilish horns sometime today - at least, secretly wished they were actually bought and not grown.

"Well," the Boss began, gesturing back to the windows outside, "I'd say it looks pretty damn clean out there, eh?" He cracked a fanged grin at the chorus of snickers and hollers of agreement.

"Now, I think we've all earned ourselves some hard liquor and down time, what say you?" Another, more lively chorus roused, and the Boss laughed and clapped his hands together before gesturing for everyone to go about their business.

"Then get going, then! Pierce, call that one shop in Loren Park I like, you're on pizza duty."

"The fuck man," Pierce whined, slumping his shoulders, "you know I hate pizza duty!"

"And I'm sure my other lieutenant and our boys hated getting the shit blown outta them because they were fighting outside." the Boss retorted. Stepping down from the couch, he gave Oleg and Angel high fives and Pierce a friendly pat on the back at his pouting expression, but held back from giving Shaundi a high-five just yet.

"A few of our guys got busted up pretty bad, I'm gonna call the hospital and see if they can't hook us up with anyone or if we have to send 'em all there. You all right, love?"

"Got smacked around by a Brute and had one of those STAG fuckers hit my back pretty hard, but I think I'll be fine." Shaundi replied. The Boss frowned and gestured for her to turn around. Huffing at his display of concern, Shaundi turned around and shirked off her jacket, revealing part of her back where her tube top had hiked up a bit. Frowning, the Boss moved closer, and Shaundi tensed at the sudden sensation of warm knuckles brushing against her bare lower back as her boss started to lift up her shirt.

"What the hell are you doing?" She hissed, quickly grabbing the front of her shirt and tugging it down so he couldn't pull the back of her tube top higher. He responded in a low whistle, not pulling any more at her wish, but he could see enough of the mottled blue and black on her back to know it probably crept up to regions unseen.

"They got you good, Shaund," he commented. She felt a few curious fingers gently press into her skin, and she winced at the contact. His brow furrowed at her reaction and he added, "you gonna be all right with your show and all that looking like this?" Her show? Why would- oh, right.

"Eh, they can do miracles with makeup," she replied, awkwardly reaching behind her to tug down her shut as Ken pulled his hands away, "I'll be fine, I've been through worse shit." The Boss forced a small smile onto his face at that.

"I suppose I couldn't interest you in any painkillers the nice men in white coats may give me, then?"

"I said I was fine, not that this didn't hurt like a bitch." Shaundi retorted, picking up her jacket as she spoke. The gang leader grinned and chuckled at her.

"I'll see what I can do for you." he snickered. Patting her shoulder affectionately once she tugged her jacket back on, the blue skinned man left Shaundi to head downstairs to the lobby. Watching his broad back as he left, Shaundi caught herself staring for longer than what was socially acceptable and shook her head. Walking over to the nearest chair not being occupied by another injured Saint, the lieutenant sunk down into the chair, and watched Pierce as he tried to corral votes for what toppings should be on the pizzas.


"It's for their own good." The Boss said the words aloud to himself, trying to convince himself that he knew this was the right thing to do. The elevator sank down to the ground floor slowly, and the Krhyme station played quietly. The ambulance would be arriving any minute, but now...

The blue-skinned boss hesitated, then swallowed hard, steeling up as he pressed the button. Even if he knew it would be for the benefit of all the Saints, his first thought was "I'm sorry" when the order for the upgrade was processed. The elevator dinged, signaling he was on the first floor. The radio cut out.

"Thank you for your purchase," the dealer's voice chimed, "you know what to do."

"Please enjoy."