I'm sorry it took me longer than expected to write this chapter. I was trying to come up with a good plot twist for this chapter, and I think I got one.

Also, I've noticed some people hoping that Shaundi and Pierce will become a couple. I hate to break it to you guys, but they're going to remain as good friends, much like Shaundi and the boss in SRTT.

A Wounded Bird

"I thought you'd never ask," Pierce stated, "I say we hit Powder."

"You can't be serious," Shaundi immediately replied, shocked at his suggestion. He wanted them to see the stripper?

"What's the problem?" He curiously asked.

"You want to see a stripper now?" She fumed. "We have more important things to worry about than seeing a goddamn stripper!"

"No, no, not that powder," Pierce corrected her as he raised a finger to illustrate a point. "Powder is a designer gun store downtown."

"So?" Shaundi questioned once more. "Why do we need to invade a designer gun store?"

"Well, between you and me," he stated before continuing, acting as though what Shaundi was being told was supposed to be kept secret, "I saw some of Loren's thugs enter inside earlier as I passed by. You know, those Morning Star assholes?"

Shaundi cocked an eyebrow at Pierce's comment about the Morning Star and took back her previous remarks. She was now very intrigued with his suggestion of raiding what seemed to be Loren's gun store.

"In that case, we're burning Powder to the ground," Shaundi announced as a somewhat mischievous smirk spread her lips. "Let's go," she added before they departed from Saints' HQ.

Shaundi and Pierce arrived at Powder in no time. The gun store's location was easily given away by the four flags that stood on top of the building, each of them displaying a long, pink sniper rifle, something that wasn't a very common sight in Steelport. Above the store's front doors was a large, neon-pink pistol. If one could guess, it appeared to be Powder's logo, or at least its symbol.

Pierce, armed with only a lone .45 Shepherd, poked inside the door to hopefully get a better view at the opposition they'd be dealing with, and there had to have been at least a dozen Morning Star mooks inside, if not more. Despite seemingly being armed and ready for any attack, they appeared to be casually chatting.

"There's a lot guys with guns in there. Maybe we should go through the back way," he recommended as he closed the door and slowly turned to face Shaundi.

"Maybe you should've came more prepared," she noted as she made a slight gesture toward Pierce's lone pistol. He tried to think of a witty comeback, but Shaundi had somehow gotten her hands on a K-8 Krukov, a much more powerful gun than his .45 Shepherd, and decided to refrain from saying anything more. He then readied himself, assuming she was going to enter through the front.

Shaundi noticed Pierce's change in stance, and kicked the doubled doors open with her heeled boot. The force applied in the kick caused the doors to slam into the walls, as the Morning Star mooks were grouped together, armed, and ready to fire, except that they weren't. Apparently they were waiting for Shaundi to make the first move.

The leader of the Third Street Saints indeed moved first, and her move came in the form of a headshot from her assault rifle that decapitated one of the male Morning Star, causing blood to splatter everywhere. Luckily, neither she nor Pierce were splattered with any blood.

Instead of ignoring the blood stains and firing upon the two Saints, they started screaming like a bunch of wild banshees, an entirely out of character reaction from them. Shaundi responded to their frantic outburst by increasing her kill count, deciding to set her priorities first and ask questions later. The only problem with increasing her kill count, however, was that the Morning Star were running all over the place instead of remaining huddled together, thus making manners slightly more difficult, but it wasn't anything she couldn't normally handle. As the new boss of the Saints, she had to instantly take advantage of an opportunity whenever one came in flying through the door.

Once the room had seemingly been cleared of all Morning Star, Pierce, standing behind Shaundi but to see a good view of everything that just occurred, decided to question their strange behavior.

"Man, just what the hell was that shit all about?" He pondered while placing a hand on his chin in a thinking gesture. "They took that bloodbath pretty damn seriously."

"Beats the hell out of me," Shaundi replied while she slowly entered the gun store while carefully watching her footing, "but this isn't the time to think about it. We need to clear this place of anymore Morning Star," she added as she discovered the coast was clear and signaled her hand for Pierce to walk alongside her.

For a designer gun store, Powder was quite the bizarre sight. The entrance of the store was filled with what appeared to be a nearly-endless amount of crates and boxes. At the top, ledges could be seen hanging below the ceiling, but there were no staircases that properly led to them. Shaundi and Pierce were trying to find some sort of door to hopefully point them in the right direction, but it was much easier said than done.

"Pierce, do you see a door anywhere?" Shaundi asked her lieutenant, who walked off to the right.

"Hell no," he simply replied while walking off to the left. "I don't get this shit at all. How the hell they're able to work around all these fucking boxes is beyond me."

"That's the thing: WHY are there so many boxes?" She pondered as she continued searching to the right while constantly brushing past seemingly endless number of boxes. "I know this is a gun store, let alone a designer gun store, but Jesus, the first room in Powder is larger than an entire Friendly Fire."

"Makes you wonder if Loren's hiding something with all these boxes, doesn't it?" Pierce asked her he as he also brushed past several boxes. "There has to be some reason behind this."

"I don't know what he's hiding if he's even hiding anything, but I'm not about to wait around and find out," Shaundi stated in a manner that allowed Pierce to guess that she didn't want to enter an in-depth discussion about Loren and the boxes. She was honestly starting to become slightly freaked out by not only the severely high number of boxes, but the fact they were all exactly the same. Luckily for her, things were finally looking better for the two of them.

"Pierce, follow me! I'm on the right trail!" Shaundi shouted as she found a set of ordinary doubled doors and proceeded to open them, as Pierce quickly followed suit. On the inside of the doors was an ordinary faculty kitchen, complete with a refrigerator, microwave, and other essentials. At the same time, a couple of Loren's mooks were in the kitchen and attacked the two Saints with, naturally, the full intent of killing them. Shaundi and Pierce readied themselves to retaliate against whatever was going to be thrown against them.

"These motherfuckers are everywhere, aren't they?" Pierce asked as he removed his .45 Shepherd and a Morning Star head. Shaundi chose not to respond as it was a rhetorical question.

"It would seem that way," she replied as she intentionally kicked the other Morning Star mook, a male mook, in the crotch with her heeled before fatally punching him in the head.

Once they were certain the two mooks were dead, Shaundi and Pierce ventured onward through the second set of doors, only to return to the same room as before, except it was a different area, as an orange platform filled the center of the room at the ceiling. Looking closely, Shaundi noticed the platform was home to some snipers.

"Shit, it's almost like Loren knew we were coming! Take over from the snipers!" She ordered as she made no hesitation in diving behind the nearest set of boxes, while Pierce did the same somewhere else. Despite hiding from sight, the snipers were easy to make out, as they unintelligently wore vibrant clothing, and their sniper rifles featured built-in laser sights that could probably be seen from a mile away, instantly giving away their position. In this case the snipers somewhat balanced themselves out, as for nearly every disadvantage there was an equal opportunity advantage. Although the sniper rifles revealed their positions, the rifles themselves were dangerously powerful and could leave visible holes in any form of material.

Shaundi waited until the sniper closest to her turned his back to her, and when he did she made no hesitation to take a chance, and placed a well-aimed shot into his neck.

"My leg!" He cried out before collapsing to the ground, dead. Shaundi ignored the strange cry before deciding to find Pierce, who meanwhile was shown struggling with the sniper. Each time Pierce did so much as reveal an article of his clothing, the sniper immediately fired a sharp bullet, barely missing him by an inch every time.

"Shaundi, I could really use some help over here!" Pierce yelled in slight panic, as he wasn't making any progress in taking down the sniper.

Seeing as her coast was currently clear, Shaundi dashed over to his location and dived behind his hiding spot. "Having some problems?" She queried.

"You bet. Each time I poke around trying to kill this bitch, he always comes close to hitting me instead," Pierce stated as he threw his arms up in disgust, acting as though he was out of options.

"This is why I said you should've come prepared earlier. How the hell do you expect to kill a sniper this far away," Shaundi momentarily paused to exaggerate how far away she and her lieutenant were from the sniper, "with only a pistol?" She asked as she pointed at his .45 Shepherd. "That's why I brought this," she explained as she focused his attention on her K-8 Krukov.

Pierce could only scoff in disgust at Shaundi's competence, but at the same time he realized that he wouldn't do the Saints any justice as a good leader with his almost-always arrogant attitude and personal incompetence that had been a staple of his character since the day he joined the gang. It also didn't help that everyone who wasn't a lieutenant, such as Shaundi before the deaths of Johnny and the boss, or the leader, which was Shaundi's current position, ridiculed him whenever they had the chance. Even the Saints' mooks laughed their asses off at him. There was a good reason as to why the boss chose Shaundi to be the new leader of the Third Street Saints instead of Pierce Washington, and that was because she possessed a wider range of intelligence and common sense than arrogance and occasional stupidity.

After her exchange with Pierce, Shaundi killed the last sniper and signaled for him to follow her, as she found a staircase that led up to the platform the snipers were previously keeping careful eyes on so they could look out for any incoming Morning Star, but there seemed to be none after that point.

Shaundi's lieutenant didn't say another word throughout the rest of their venture throughout Powder. It seemed that her statement about him needing to become more prepared in case of large-scale situations affected his mood in a great way. Instead of apologizing to him for her sometimes irrational behavior, she didn't say anything of the sort whenever she felt the need to speak with him. As far as she was concerned, Pierce needed to learn crucial lessons from his own dumb mistakes to become a stronger man. Even though it was Shaundi's duty as the leader of the Saints to protect her lieutenants and foot soldiers, there was a large difference between protecting and babysitting, as was the case with Pierce. If he didn't learn from his mistakes, Shaundi's hopes of eventually destroying The Syndicate would result in a disappointing and humiliating failure due to her having to constantly drag him around like a baby because he can't properly defend himself when the numbers appear to be stacked against them.

The elevated platform Shaundi and Pierce stood on branched out in several directions. All of the paths, except for one, led to nothing but dead ends. The path that didn't lead to a dead end showed a single door that in turn revealed a somewhat dark hallway that led to another door. It was a chance for Pierce to make a somewhat witty remark, but Shaundi putting him in his place caused no such banter to be uttered from his mouth.

Instead of the next room being filled with endless boxes like before, it was instead filled with surprisingly large computers. Whatever purpose they were built to fulfill was unknown, but Shaundi and Pierce found themselves surprised at the sight.

Pierce, having another chance to make a witty comment, refrained from speaking. Shaundi, somewhat out of character, decided to the remark she guessed he was thinking, considering someone had to do it.

"You know, for a designer gun store, I have yet to see a single gun in here," she stated as she surveyed the area. "I think you were right in saying Loren was hiding something, Pierce," she added, hoping to get Pierce to speak.

He did.

"Wait, I was right about something? Holy shit, I don't believe it!" He excitedly exclaimed as a huge smile covered his mouth. "This is fucking great!"

Meanwhile, Shaundi was slightly cringing at his reaction. "Pierce, just because I thought you were right about something, doesn't guarantee you were, so don't get your hopes up."

"Actually, I'd say Mr. Washington was quite correct in his guess," a voice suddenly resounded from the speakers that surrounded the computer room. Shaundi instantly recognized the person said voice belonged to.

Loren.

"What the fuck do you want, Loren?" Shaundi questioned him in an annoyed tone. "Can't you see we're busy trying to destroy your precious gun store?"

"What I want is nothing more than the Saints to be burned alive at the hands of The Syndicate, Ms. Shaundi, and you shall be its first victim after your friends Mr. Gat and your former boss," he stated as casually as possible while snickering at his own remark as if it was a sick joke. "As for Powder, I honestly couldn't care less what you do to it. I can always build another one."

"One, my name is Shaundi, not 'Ms. Shaundi', and two, I'm gonna make sure I rip your fucking head off before that happens," Shaundi stated in a venom-filled tone as though rage was consuming her body, "and besides, if you want me to be the first victim, why don't you come down here and face me like a man instead of hiding back in your 'precious' Syndicate Tower like a fucking pussy?"

"Now, now," the Belgian man taunted her, not the least bit fazed by Shaundi's insult and vulgarity, or even the fact that she was aware of his hiding spot, "there's a much better time and place for that. For the time being, I'd like you to say 'hello' to my… little friend," Loren trailed off, laughing once more as he ended the chat between the two.

"'Little friend'? What the fuck is that French fuck talking about?" Pierce pondered out loud to himself.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake, almost as if an earthquake was occurring.

Unlike an earthquake, however, the shaking became increasingly more violent as time passed by and the vibrations in the ground nearly caused Shaundi and Pierce to be swept off their feet, only for it to suddenly cease as the two regained their balance.

Shaundi and Pierce turned around and exited the kitchen, only to be introduced to a figure that could be described as nothing more than a hideous abomination. It appeared to stand around eight feet tall, possessed arms that were as wide as tree trunks and seemed powerful enough to stop a moving train, and was heavily, and nearly literally, breathing down their necks. Whatever this figure was certainly wasn't very happy to see them.

"What. The. FUCK. IS. THAT?!" Shaundi exclaimed in what sounded like absolute fear.

"I don't know, and I sure as Hell don't wanna find out!" Pierce shouted in response as he attempted to escape from the abomination, only to be violently slammed into the nearest set of boxes by the brute, seemingly killing him in the process.

"PIERCE!" Shaundi yelled in horror at her friend, who appeared to have lost his life. As much as she wanted to help him, she didn't dare move a muscle, as she feared meeting the same fate as Pierce.

"Ms. Shaundi, allow me to proudly introduce you to one of my brutes," Loren introduced the figure to Shaundi as his voice returned to the speakers. "They are the most effective killing machines to walk the face of the Earth and will make no hesitation to brutalize anyone who stands in their way."

Brutalize? Explains why they're called brutes, then, Shaundi thought to herself despite being legitimately afraid of the brute that was towering over her.

The brute made the first move by trying to swing at her, but Shaundi quickly dodged the attack and emptied an entire clip of ammo from her K-8 Krukov at the brute's head believing it would die from the shots, but it hardly appeared unfazed by them; in fact, it only seemed to become more aggravated than before.

The brute just ate an entire clip of ammo like it was nothing!

Shaundi personally had to chastise herself in the situation she found herself in. If she had the opportunity to spend enough money to fully upgrade her K-8 Krukov, it would come with a grenade launcher that would likely provide her with an essential advantage against the brute, but unfortunately she hadn't done that in this case. As a result she was forced to run from the brute while occasionally firing bullets at its head to hopefully damage it and momentarily stagger it.

Despite its large and bulky stature, however, the brute was a fast runner and was coming close to placing Shaundi in the same fate as Pierce. Shaundi, who was running for another set of boxes, quickly turned her head to notice the brute catching up to her and decided to stand against the wall. She was hoping the abomination would be dumb enough to ram itself into the wall, seeing as a lack of intelligence was a trend that caught onto most large monsters.

The brute, realizing the leader of the Saints was against the wall, backed up and slowly readied itself before charging toward Shaundi like a ruthless bull. At the last second, Shaundi hastily dived out of the way, causing the brute to come crashing into the wall with nothing but a large SPLAT! accompanying the impact between its head and the brick wall in front of it.

Shaundi flinched at the sound of the impact and closed her eyes, but slowly opened them to noticed that the brute's head was completely missing, and part of the brick wall was coated in its blood.

Well, at least these things are dumber than they look.

She recalled her K-8 Krukov along with whatever number of bullets remained inside and dashing over to Pierce's location to check on his condition. Upon a brief inspection, it could be believed that he was dead. In reality, it turned out that the 'meeting' with the brute had knocked him into a coma, as he was breathing at a slow rate. Even though he wasn't gone, Shaundi realized that if she didn't assist Pierce with the proper help, he would be dead.

Without any hesitation, Shaundi hauled Pierce's unconscious body over her shoulder, and slowly departed from Powder, as the confrontation with the brute left her completely exhausted due to not arriving prepared, a trait both she and her lieutenant seemed to have in common with each other.

Once she had fully departed from the designer gun store, she took a temporary last look at it, as if she was indirectly implying she would later return to burn it to the ground. Even though destroying The Syndicate was one of her top priorities, a higher and much important priority was protecting her crew, as she didn't want Pierce or any other Saint to undergo the same fate as Johnny and the boss did. Loren, Powder, and the rest of The Syndicate weren't about to leave Steelport anytime soon, so she had all the time in the world to fulfill that goal. As Loren himself said, there was a much better time and place, as much as it pained her to follow the Belgian man's advice.