The Boss was left by himself once again, and instead of moping this time, he headed to the bridge, greeted by Keith.

"How we doing, Keith?"

The former vice presidents turned and nodded towards his boss. "Smooth sailing, Mr. President. No destination in mind until we figure out a plan."

"Good man. Let me know if something comes up." The Boss nodded as he left, striding his away around the ship. His wandering was stopped by Ben King, who all but pulled him into the planning room, urgent look on his face.

"Shit, playa. Things are going down."

The Boss took a look at the map on the table, multiple areas on the Steelport Map circled in red.

"Easy, King. What am I looking at?"

Pierce took over for an explanation. "Those circled areas are broken parts of the simulation. None of us can get into them, even with our powers. We've been trying to figure it out, until I was nearly killed by a rogue CID unit the other day."

This was news to the Boss, who was resting on the table by his forearms. "I'm listening."

Pierce nodded. "See, I was trying to investigate the area – it's like the chunk is just missing. So I went in to have a look around, nearly got fried by a red looking mutha fucking CID unit. Said something about "You are not Mother," and that nigga tried to cook me like a turkey. Got my ass outta there before more of them showed up."

The Boss placed a finger to his chin, pondering this new information. "Nice work, Pierce, King. I'll go tell Matt and Kinzie." The Boss rapped his knuckles on the table before heading out to seek Matt.

He found the hacker on the lounge sofa once more, favorite handheld game beeping its' annoying tune.

"Miller." Ignored. "Miller." Ignored again. "Oh, for fucks sake." The Boss snatched the gaming device from the former Deckers' hands, much to the latters' disappointment. "Who are you, you bloody-!" A sharp look shut Matt up very quickly.

"Good boy." Miller gulped, and the Boss continued. "I want you and Kinzie to go over the simulation code tonight. See if you can find anything to do with this "Mother" a red CID was talking about. Let me know if you find anything." Handing the game back over to Matt, there was a momentary flash of pain on the Bosses face,but it disappeared so quickly that it could have been imagined…could have.

Miller left the lounge after that, going to seek out his worst enemy, but also greatest ally. The two of them together could wreak all kinds of digital hell, and their skills were perfect against an alien simulation such as this. Naturally, Matt found her in her little alcove below the transport bay, typing away on her Zin laptop. Waving to get her attention, he began speaking to Kinzie, relaying what the Boss had told him.
"Huh, so this Mother chick is an AI, huh?" Kinzie was already logging this new information into her running database. Matt answered. "Apparently, a powerful one. The Boss…I don't know if I imagined it, but he looked scared."
Kinzies' fingers stopped as she stared blankly at the screen. "You saw it too, huh?"

"It's not like him at all. I've never seen him like this."

"Matt, keep in mind that he lost his two best friends only weeks apart. That would hurt anybody…but you're right." She closed her laptop, meeting Millers' gaze. "We can't just ask him about it, though. He just plays it off as nothing."

The British hacker voiced his concerns. "Then what can we do?"

The American hacker responded. "Right now? All we can do is figure out this 'Mother' thing Pierce was talking about." She was quickly back into business mode, and as she opened her laptop, Matt retrieved his, and together they worked in silent efficiency.

While his Saints were busy at work, the Boss was in his quarters, brutalizing the ever loving shit out of a heavy bag they'd manufactured from leather and grains of rice on board. It was by no means perfect, but for him to exercise, it fit the bill. Currently, though, it was more a vent for his emotions. First Gat, then Shaundi. His two best friends, gone in a matter of weeks. He vocalized a grunt, slamming his wrapped fist into the bag. He was shirtless, and his knuckles were not wrapped. He didn't care that they had started bleeding ten minutes ago, and each hit stained the bag further. He didn't care. His friends were gone. Slam. Dead. Slam. Never coming back. Slam. He wanted them back, damn it. He wanted Gat to show up and knock this bag of its chain. He wanted Shaundi to walk in and share her silly stories. He needed them back, and without them, he felt like he was slowly losing grip on reality.

Reality came rocking back when an explosion rocked his feet, thrown to the ground. "What the fuck was –"Another explosion, the Boss rushing to his feet and towards the bridge. He cursed the door open, and found his ship face to face with a Zin ship – this one, however, was painted all black with red war stripes.

As the enemy ship fired, he ordered Matt and Pierce on the few guns they had. "Matt! Pierce! Guns! Now!" The two who were called jumped into action, crawling below decks for the ball turrets while Keith made use of the forward guns.
The Boss yanked his phone from his pocket, searching for Zinjai, found, and dialed. As per usual, ZJ picked up on the first ring. "Yes, Your Excellency?"

"ZJ, there are Zin shooting at us! What gives?! I thought I earned the Empire after killing Zinyak."

"You did, sire, but rouge cells have recently come into existence, and from what I can gather, they are after you, Your Excellency."

The Boss angrily cut him off, hanging up. He stood in the bridge, supporting himself with his hand on the back of a seat. "Fuck! Kinzie, fry this mother fucker!" The redhead calmly obliged, spinning up the custom-made fore cannons. These bad boys were capable of firing a near unlimited amount of energy at their target – at a rate that would make The Flash look like he was walking.

The deadly firearms, starting spitting deadly plasma, but the enemy Zin ship had a shield – this would be a problem. Of course, The Gat had a shield of its' own, but Keith calling out "Shields at 78% 70% 51%" did nothing to improve their current situation. "Damn it. Kinzie, you know what to do." Their eyes met a brief moment before she turned back to her console and readied an EMP bomb. This would knock both ships out for a while, but their EMP had a special feature – it was explosive.

The Boss steeled himself for an oncoming shockwave, his hand resting on the back of Kinzies' seat. "Launch-". He was about to give the order before the alien ship fired plasma none of them had either seen before. It was bright purple and slow moving. He expected to bounce off their shields, but it didn't. "Evasive maneuvers, now!" Asha yanked the yoke up, to dodge the plasma. When she did, however, both Pierces and Matts signal cut out. Keith confirmed his fears. "Turret 1; lost! Turret 2; lost!"

Two more fallen Saints. The Boss had enough; there would be time for sadness later. Right now they had to kill the alien bastards that had taken his friends. A steely calm voice echoed from within him, his gaze burning a hole in the hull of the opposing ship. "Kinzie. Drop the EMP, and fire everything we have at those fucks." The lack of emotion in his voice hastened her process; the spiky looking soccer ejected from beneath them, the ball floating lazily towards the jet black ship. A spark flickered on top of the ball, and an electric wave blasted outwards. Both ships went dark; but power was always reserved on The Gat for the weapons. Her gaze as steel as the Bosses, she took hold of the guns control and indeed used everything the ship was armed with. Turrets, plasma rockets, even a few human warheads they discovered on board.

To say the enemy ship was destroyed would be an understatement. The EMP had done its job, as had the weapons. No trace of the enemy remained apart from small bits of debris floating in the space it had just occupied.

"Good work."

Two more dead, and Kinzie and Asha's faces reflected how he felt – shocked.

What was happening to his Saints? What had happened so they'd die so quickly, one after another? He wanted to know so badly, but for now, it escaped him. What didn't escape him, however, is one thing.

Protect Kinzie.