I somehow wrote the longest chapter in this whole series in one and a half days...that's a new record. :*D
So, here's a new chapter for you guys, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW AND GIVE SUGGESTIONS! I would love to see more than three reviews on this, and it would definitely motivate me to write a lot faster. :3
Oh, and PS...I found an error in the Shaundi chapter. Somehow, tequila and rum can transform into each other. xD I'll fix that ASAP.
An eager woman rushed into the Stilwater Memorial Hospital with a grim look on her face. She had fresh cuts on her cheeks from what looked to be from a sword, and her hair was sticking to the smaller bleeding wounds that covered the rest of her face. However, she didn't seem to want any kind of treatment at all. It looked as though she needed to urgently see someone. She shoved past nurses, doctors and receptionists and made her way to the elevator that would take her up to the Intensive Care Unit. The people in the waiting room just watched; a few of them were very aware of who she was, but none of them seemed to know what her intentions for being there were. Cautiously, they ignored her overwhelming presence and began to refocus on their own reasons for being at the facility.
She mashed the button to call the elevator down and waited impatiently. As soon as it dinged open, she pushed all of the others aside. If they objected, she answered their complaints with a sneer. Unwillingly, they all stepped out so she could have the whole elevator to herself.
She slipped a cigarette out of her pocket and fumbled for her lighter. Her hands trembled from nerves as she placed it in between her lips and lit it up. The smoke filtered throughout the small space, and she enjoyed a brief moment of euphoria as the smoke filled up her lungs. A happy sigh nearly escaped her lips, but then she realized why she had came here in the first place and a scowl appeared instead. She exhaled slowly when she reached the upper wing of the hospital, which was bustling even more than the floors below it. Faculty members moved every which way to make sure that all of the patients were being efficiently taken care of.
Liz could only hope that they were keeping her best friend alive.
After the Ronin had killed Aisha and severely wounded Johnny, she had sworn to tear up any of the Asian gang bangers that came into her sight. She had done just that, and after an anonymous call from a reliable source, she had killed the lieutenant who had caused her friends irreparable damage. Things seemed to be getting a little better as every moment passed by.
She scanned the clipboards that hung in the recovery room doors and looked for Johnny's name. After wandering down countless hallways, she found a board with the name she was looking for in the farthest end of the high alert hallway. Numerous notes were written on his form; most of them describing the unstable state he was currently in. With a frown on her face, she strode into his room and tried her best to maintain her already shaky confidence level.
Johnny lifted his body up from the cramped hospital bed when he heard her walk in. Other than the doctors, nobody had even bothered to notice that he was there. It was a feeling that he wasn't used to; usually when he simply entered a room, his demeanor commanded attention from everyone that surrounded him. Now, only the Boss seemed to care about his current condition. He had gotten calls from most of the other lieutenants, but none of them appeared to have the time to come to visit.
From what he could recall from the day of his incident, Aisha had been killed. It was the only memory that was etched into his volatile state of mind. As gruesome as it was, he remembered the sickening thud her head had made when it hit the floor. It pained him to think of her being dead. She was the only thing in his life that constantly shined brightly, and it had now been ripped out of his grasp.
He greeted his guest with a somber expression, and the look on her face matched his perfectly. She stepped towards his bed and sat on the side of it, not wanting to start a conversation on her own.
Their interaction was limited for the first five minutes; it consisted of small talk about the weather and how everyone else was doing. Liz avoided the touchy subject that she knew Johnny wanted to discuss. After a long pause, he broke the silence.
"She's dead, isn't she?" Johnny asked quietly. Liz bit her lip and nodded.
"What about the Jyunichi bastard?" he mumbled. "Is he gone?"
The woman next to him threw her cigarette on the floor and stomped it out with her work boots.
"I cut him up myself." she said. He figured that she had been in some sort of a fight based on her appearance. Her face was marked with small cuts everywhere, and the tips of her hair were slightly redder than usual from the blood. It was a style that he usually expected from her. Without a bruise or a cigarette, she looked incomplete.
Fervently, she changed to subject to something slightly happier.
"When are they lettin' you out?" she asked. A small smirk appeared on her colleague's face.
"I should be up and murdering in the next few days." He paused and ran a hand through his matted hair. "Of course, the doctors didn't say that, but you know what I mean."
Liz stood up and looked around the room, which had an oddly pleasant view of Stilwater. Crossing her arms, she paced around the room in sheer boredom as she waited for the conversation to continue.
"Do you need anything while I'm here?" she asked. "Like…clothes and shit?"
Johnny shrugged. "A rifle and some booze would be nice." he replied awkwardly. Watching her being genuinely concerned was killing him on the inside. He hated to admit it, but Liz was most likely the biggest sociopath out of all of the Saints. She expressed no remorse for any of her actions, she hated asking her lieutenants for help, and she had never gone a day without putting a bullet in someone's head or threatening to do so. It was a personality that appeared to fit for a gang leader, but not for a normal woman. When she legitimately worried about something or someone, he couldn't help but think something was really wrong. Something about her was off; and not even Johnny Gat could tell what it was.
Their conversation wound down after a half hour. The things they did talk about really had nothing to do with what happened. Liz hoped that they wouldn't have to talk about any of it ever again.
"I gotta go meet Pierce." she said hesitantly. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do while I'm gone."
Johnny shook his head and almost let out a chuckle, but something had cut him off. The lights had suddenly gone off all around him, and based on the screams coming from everyone else, the whole hospital's electricity had gone out.
"Change of plans." she exclaimed. She lunged for the gurney that he had been resting on and began to wheel it out of the room along with the machines that he was hooked up to. Johnny only sat back and watched; he knew this was going to be one hell of an adventure.
Things had been fairly quiet at the Saints Headquarters since Kinzie had arrived. She didn't come around the penthouse much; the most likely cause was because of how much she detested all social interaction that wasn't through a computer screen. Liz had received periodic text messages from her, but most of them just showed her lack of progress. On their boat ride home she had said something about knowing of two good allies, and so far she hadn't mentioned anything else about them.
Liz drummed her fingers on her desk and looked around her office for something that could potentially distract her. The whole room was too well-manicured for a person like her; business certification diplomas were hanging on the walls, and the whole area had a major executive vibe to it. The thought of redecorating it had passed through her mind a few times until Shaundi had chewed her out on it. She kept on saying how they needed to have a more professional impression from now on, and apparently stripper poles and purple paint wasn't going to do it.
She turned off her computer and began to ponder what exactly had happened to the Saints. They had never even tried to go for the "professional" appearance that Shaundi had described. They were always just the purple gang from Stilwater, and that's what they thought they would be until someone bigger came around to take them over. Of course, the Saints had became much bigger than they ever thought they could become. Liz looked down at her own clothes; small black shorts, an expensive purple tank top, and her old leather jacket. That jacket seemed to be the only memento of her old days back in Stilwater. Her wardrobe had changed dramatically during the past five years. Gone were the days where it was perfectly acceptable for her to be striding around in low rise jeans and a tight purple wifebeater. Now, if she wasn't wearing heels or a designer label, her lieutenants would tease her mercilessly.
In fact, her worn leather jacket was the only thing in the whole penthouse that she had actually kept from the old crib. Everything else was at her Red Light apartment back in her old city.
She sighed and looked down at her desk. A slight feeling of shame hung over her as she thought about what Johnny had said hours before he had died.
"Is that what it's all about? Movie deals and ass tasting energy drinks?"
It wasn't in her nature to doubt the gang that she had brought to power, but the words of her best friend echoed in her mind as her phone began to vibrate in her pocket. She cursed under her breath and picked it up. To her surprise, it was Kinzie calling her. This was the first time she had actually called and not texted. Hoping for an important update, she answered the phone as fast as she could.
"You'd better have something for me." she said fiercely. She could almost sense Kinzie smiling smugly from her tone.
"I do, actually. The DeWynter sisters are keeping a guy named Zimos at Safeword. He's the one I was talking about earlier."
Liz furrowed her eyebrows. Those names sounded oddly familiar to her. When she didn't respond quickly, she heard a sigh come from the other end of the line.
"The DeWynters run the prostitution ring in Steelport. They're affiliated with the Syndicate, and they wanted to take Zimos down. He's been a pimp here for as long as anyone could remember, so they locked him up. Oh, and Safeword is a BDSM club that caters to various acts of perversion. The name comes from-"
The Boss quickly cut her off. "I get it." she said with a hint of disgust in her voice. She could hear Kinzie whisper something about a tea cup a few second later, although she chose to ignore the statement.
"Just grab someone to help you and get over there so you can save him. I've also got some info on another guy, but I need to find a location first." Kinzie continued.
"Awesome. Just…text me next time. I'll go grab Pierce and we'll swing by the club tonight."
After a satisfied grunt from Kinzie, Liz hung up the phone and got up from her cushy chair to go find Pierce. She highly doubted he would really want to go on this kind of adventure, and she was pretty sure Pierce wasn't into the whole bondage thing. Regardless of that, it would be easier to bring him than to bring Shaundi. At least he didn't complain like she did.
"Why the hell are we doing this?" Pierce asked as he stepped into the passenger seat of the bright purple sports car. Liz was right; he hadn't wanted to come at all.
"We're doing it because we need allies in this city. Do you want to take this place over or not?" she replied harshly. Her friend sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Whatever." he barked. It had been years since he had been to a club like this one, and he wasn't interested in going back. The experiences he had had there were anything but wonderful.
As if on cue, Liz made a sharp turn and turned to Pierce, letting her eyes completely drift off of the road.
"So, you ever been to one of these clubs?" she mused. Pierce's eyes bulged out and a snarky grin adorned her face.
"I look like I go to one of those clubs?" was the only response he could give. She chuckled and made another hard right turn.
"Well, sometimes a man might need to take a break, especially with a stressful job like yours…" she continued. He sighed even louder than he had a minute before and crossed his arms.
"Just stop talking." he hissed. Liz gripped the wheel a little tighter and swerved into the gated Safeword parking lot, eager to get things going.
After about an hour of interrogating gimps and searching the smelly passageways known as the "Pony Barn", the two Saints finally found who they were looking for. The only identification the pimp had was a rhinestone Z on his back. He was fully saddled up with a cart hooked onto his back, and as disgusting as it was, they had to find a way to get him out of there.
"This is our guy?" Pierce asked. Liz stepped back and took a look at the aging man.
"The Z doesn't give it away?" she asked. Pierce smiled mildly and took a stride towards their future ally.
They both cautiously began to take the gear off of him until a voice echoed from a distant hallway.
"They went this way!" it yelled. The only people it could be were the police or the Morningstar, and regardless of which one it was, they still had to get the hell out of the club.
"Shit…" the woman mumbled. Instinctively, she hopped onto the cart that the pimp was carrying and motioned for Pierce to do the same.
"We don't have time for this, Zimos. Just get the fuck out of here!"
Out of all of the things Liz had encountered while being a Saint, what had just happened to her had probably been the weirdest experience ever. Somehow, Zimos had managed to cart them all the way outside. With the help of some firepower, the three of them had killed their pursuers and made it out without being torn apart by the Morningstar guarding the whole club. Liz wiped her hands off on her legs in complete aversion. She didn't mind getting dirty, but this took it to a completely different level.
Zimos unhooked himself from the cart and unstrapped the ball that was in his mouth. Pierce threw the man's silver microphone to him. He brought it up to his throat and began to speak, and strangely enough, his voice was totally autotuned.
"This isn't some sort of gang bang, is it?" he asked. His voice had a very bizarre rhythm to it, but it matched the odd form of swagger Zimos seemed to have.
"Why you gotta put that image in my head, bro?" Pierce asked with remorse. Zimos smiled at him.
"I'll take that as a no, then." he replied.
At that moment, Liz's phone began to vibrate in her pocket. She sighed, wondering what someone would want from her at this time of night. It wasn't unusual for her to get calls this late; however, they were usually for something that wasn't exactly important.
"What's up?" she answered. She lifted the phone from her ear for a moment to see the number that has called. To her surprise, it was Kinzie.
"Hey," she began. "I think I found the other guy I was talking about."
Liz beamed from ear to ear.
"Text me the address, I'll be right on it."
Yes, I know I kind of bend the missions around a little bit...I do that on purpose.