Recovery and Relapse

Author's note: Hello, I'm back. Did you guys miss me? I know I had not worked on this lately. I felt that I needed a break from this. I had been going through some personal stuff lately. I had also started working on novelizations of the first two games with my own spin on some things. Anyway, here is a new chapter. Enjoy!


Vince and Johnny were brought back to the Saints HQ. Ever since they returned to the penthouse, things had been quiet, at least not with STAG trying to go after them in their aircraft, or even STAG soldiers strolling around on foot or in their N-Forcers. But after getting shot like that, maybe it was necessary to take it easy.

Shaundi walked Vince to his room, while Johnny went and sat on a couch like what he went through was no big deal. Shaundi closed the door.

"Sit down," Shaundi said to Vince and guided him right to the bed. "Take off that jacket and shirt. I need to look at that shot you took."

"I'm fine, Shaundi, you don't have to worry," Vince said. "Besides, aren't you always saying that we should go in with guns blazing?"

"First off, Vince, I know that ever since you and Johnny helped me shoot better, I do admit that I got a little more trigger-happy," Shaundi said. "Second, I know how crazy you can be, but after Pierce told me about those shots you two took, you and Johnny are lucky to still be going."

"Hey, Gat acted like it was no big deal, even though he was as fucked up as I was," Vince said. "We were both wearing vests, you know."

"Yeah? But Pierce told me how badly hurt you were," Shaundi said. "I know that I have my own methods, but after hearing that you were shot by a rifle, it made me more concerned before."

"I'm a little surprised, Shaundi," Vince said.

"Surprised about what?" Shaundi said.

"Ever since we arrived in Steelport, you seemed to want to just gun down the Syndicate like it's easy," Vince said. "I know that you care about your friends and fellow gang members, but it seems like I have been seeing a different side of you lately, except earlier when you lost your shit at the sight of Luz."

Shaundi let out a mild glare the moment she heard that name and gritted her teeth. A sound came out of her mouth, like a quiet growl.

"Oh, come on, don't try to change the subject," Shaundi said. "Come on, I need to look at you again. So please, let me see how bad that gunshot was. And why are you dressed like a Decker?"

Vince proceeded to unzip the jacket and took it off, along with the T-shirt he had on under it, revealing his bare torso. Shaundi may have liked the sight of Vince's pectorals and abs, her eyes widened in a more concerned fashion as she looked closely at Vince's chest.

"Shit, what kind of bullet shot you?" Shaundi said.

"It felt like 5.56mm or 7.62mm," Vince said. "Nothing I haven't gone through."

"I know you have been shot before, but this looks like something that a pro used," Shaundi said. "It seems like a sniper to me, and they don't fuck around and this looks like it came from a rifle of that caliber."

Shaundi sniffled a bit. "Man, you are so lucky."

"Will you stop? I'm fine," Vince said. "I'm surprised you're feeling this way right now."

"I'm feeling this way, because I care about you," Shaundi said.

"I care about you, too," Vince said, putting his right hand on her left shoulder.

"No, you don't get it," Shaundi said. "I mean…"

Shaundi paused for a bit and sniffled a bit and put her head down a bit and also her right hand against her eyes. Vince took a closer look at her. It wasn't hard for him to see what she was feeling.

"Just tell me," Vince said.

"I think I'm falling for you," Shaundi said.

Vince looked at her dead in the eye. Moist, her eyes were, there was no denying it, no way of hiding it.

"Oh," Vince said and turned away a bit.

"I just want to know," Shaundi said. "Why are you so hesitant in giving this a try? I know you like me. I like you, too, maybe even more than that. But at the same time, you don't seem ready for anything like this, even though I know you want me for more than just my body. I'm not sure if I believe you when you said that it's not the right time. So tell me what it is."

Silence plagued the air, at least from where Vince was sitting. In that very moment, he started to remember being put in a trunk with a woman he liked and the two getting shot before the car being pushed into the water. Sure, he kind of dated another girl around that same time, but he liked this girl in particular. Although Shaundi was familiar with a woman named Lin in the Saints before she joined, but she never knew the extent of Vince's relationship with her. She had heard the story, as well as that he had a connection with her, but at what degree was what she wondered, especially with how hesitant she was.

"I will tell you soon, but not right now," Vince said. "But I didn't lie when I said that I'm not ready for anything like this right now. As for anything else, I was dressed like a Decker because Kinzie told me about some moles in our organization provided some info to the Deckers. So she had an outfit for me to wear to trap them."

"Who shot you and Johnny?" Shaundi said.

"We don't know," Vince said. "It just came out of nowhere. We don't think it was any of the Syndicate or even STAG. This person seemed like they were targeting both of us."

"You mean this was a professional hit?" Shaundi said.

"Well, Pierce and the others would have been shot as well," Vince said.

"But wait, who could be gunning for you two?" Shaundi said.

"Who isn't gunning for us?" Vince said.

Shaundi sighed. "That's not what I meant. If this was a professional hit, then someone must have specifically been targeting you two."

"Well, whoever it was, it has to be someone that Johnny and I know from way back or what," Vince said. "Maybe not the shooter, but the person who hired the shooter. But I don't know who it could be."

Shaundi went ahead and sat right next to Vince. She was really close to him and guided her hand right to his face and then turned his head so that he could face her.

"You need to give yourself a rest a bit," Shaundi said. "If you and Johnny are targets, that person could still be out there and the moment you two walk out, you might be dead."

"I'm not afraid to die," Vince said.

"I know, but I can't lose you, not like that," Shaundi said. "You will tell me why you are so reluctant in pursuing something with me. We like each other, you know that, but I know you're hiding something from me. I know it's not that bitch Luz. It's definitely something else. You need to take a nap or something. I'll be outside. Pierce and I will try to look out for stuff. Okay?"

Vince nodded his head.

"That's good," Shaundi said and proceeded to lean in, giving Vince a nice peck on the lips. Vince proceeded to do the same thing back to her.

Shaundi got up and approached the door and got out of the room. Contrary to what Shaundi suggested, Vince had other ideas. He wanted to take down the Deckers soon, as well as strike against STAG and find out who was behind the hit on him and Johnny. He got out his phone and found the first person he wanted to speak to.

"Hello, Boss," Kinzie said.

"Kinzie, just checking in," Vince said. "Tell me the deal. Is it ready yet?"

"Just a little more time," Kinzie said. "I had some of my contacts that you took from the Deckers that one time to try it out."

"Really?" Vince said. "How did it go for them?"

"Let's just say that some handled it well, and some thought it was too much," Kinzie said.

"You couldn't use any of them to handle Miller through cyberspace?" Vince said. "By the way, I went by Planet Saints earlier and those Decker girls weren't there."

"I don't know what to tell you," Kinzie said. "But according to what I saw on here, some person on a hover-bike of some sort was flying through the air."

"Hold up, what?" Vince said. It all came back now, as something irregular was flying through the air.

"I can't tell you what it was that I saw," Kinzie said. "But from any camera source that I have out in Salander, something happened to a feed that was in that general area."

"So what you're telling me is that you couldn't hack the camera from that area?" Vince said.

"I don't have all of Steelport with camera feeds, but with that piece of footage, I did manage to find something," Kinzie said. "For only a few seconds, I saw that hover-bike land on a roof, but then my signal was jammed."

"Did you at least see who could have been on the feed?" Vince said.

"I saw something," Kinzie said. "Why? You first mentioned Matt Miller's primary enforcers and then you bring this up."

"Because Johnny and I got fucking shot!" Vince said. "And it wasn't by the Deckers, either. We were shot by a sniper or some shit. I have a feeling that the two Deckers were ready to make their move until they saw that Johnny and I got dropped."

"Hold up, I'm looking at the footage again," Kinzie said. "Okay, I'm going to send you some footage I saw. I couldn't get everything, but it looked like the feed's signal was jammed for only a few minutes. After the signal came up, the person was gone. I will do my best to identify this person."

It didn't take long for the video to come to Vince's phone, as he felt the vibration. That was the signal that Kinzie had sent some footage.

"Thanks, Kinzie, I will look at it," Vince said. "And please keep my posted on where I can find those two Decker chicks."

"You got it, get better soon," Kinzie said.

The call had ended. Vince immediately opened the message and saw the video. Actually, there were different videos from different angles. One thing he could make out was that this person was a woman, dressed in mostly black but the outfit she wore had some orange on it. From one other video, he noticed a familiar symbol on the hover-bike. He took a closer look. It was orange and looked like a sun. In fact, it looked like the Ultor insignia. The footage also depicted this person throwing a grenade of some sort, causing the signal to jam. She wouldn't be blowing herself up, so this seemed like a different kind of grenade.

What the fuck? He thought. Could Ultor be after them again? Ever since the Saints started their alliance and jointed with Ultor's media group, it seemed like things were sort of squared away with them, at least to a point. Really, the problems with Ultor mainly started with the Masako team coming after Vince in a bar, where he basically shoved a female bartender behind the counter so that he and the civilian wouldn't be riddled with bullets, but also managed to fight back against them.

Could it be? Nah, it couldn't be, or could it? So many thoughts flowed through his head in that moment. There was only one person whom he had unfinished business with who was likely still working with Ultor. Could that person be behind the hit? As for the woman assassin, it's nothing he hadn't experienced, but with him and Johnny dropping, it was possible that she got the job done. He was going to find out who that assassin was.


Meanwhile, in the entertainment area, Johnny sat on the couch watching "The Anna Show," with Benjamin King as a guest, promoting his latest book. This time, he was wearing a gray suit, along with a gray turtleneck sweater, as well as a yellow scarf and yellow dress shoes. On top of that, his head was shaved and he had glasses. Another guest on the show was actor Keith David, who talked about getting into politics.

"Damn, King, you may be out of the game, but you still rocking the VK flags," Johnny said to himself. He looked up and saw that Tony and Lucy walking by.

"Oh, hey, what's up?" Johnny said. "Come on over, I'm watching something."

Johnny turned back around. "Ow!" he yelled.

"Hey, Johnny," Lucy said. "You took a pretty good shot earlier, are you sure you're okay?"

"You kidding me? I've been shot in the leg and stabbed in the gut twice," Johnny said and then moved his body a bit. "Ow!"

"You know, I think you need some ice," Tony said. "Lucy and I will bring some."

"Sure thing," Johnny said.

During that time, Vince had gotten out of the room, dressed in his usual purple gear this time. He looked to be on a mission, as the one person he needed to talk to was Johnny.

"Going somewhere?" a female voice said. Vince froze and looked up and saw Viola and Kiki standing by. The voice was Kiki's.

"Oh, hello, ladies," Vince said. "Just looking for Johnny."

"Johnny is watching TV right now," Viola said.

"Thanks," Vince said as he started walking away, but then stopped once again. "Oh, one other thing, do you two know anything about Matt Miller's two top enforcers, Kirsten and Grace?"

"Just that those two girls don't fuck around when handling their shit," Viola said.

"I'm sure that with all the stuff you had gone through with the Deckers, you saw some girls on skates and some hammer, right?" Kiki said. "Well these two taught the others what they know. Like Viola and I had told you before, they mostly control the dirty work and call the shots for the most part of the Deckers, while Matt handles the dirty work in cyberspace and the final stuff.

Vince was at a loss. Although he knew that these two ladies were with the Syndicate and were familiar with the other gangs, but they seemed to be on it with everything that had been happening with the Deckers lately.

"I have seen some of Matt's other crew members, they looked really young, but these ladies don't seem that young," Vince said.

"Matt's main crew is just friends of his from England," Viola said. "So he is the leader or boss of them, but he doesn't get involved in the heavy work. He is mainly on the same level of Phillipe and Killbane because Phillipe didn't know how to operate his smartphone."

"Really," Vince said like he wanted to laugh. "How do I find these ladies?"

"You don't," Kiki said.

"They find you," Viola said. "They're pretty high-tech savvy themselves, like working with surveillance and stuff. I've seen them take down military and police. They're quick on those skates."

"I've seen those other ladies with the skates," Vince said.

"Yes, but these ladies are the originals and the real deal," Kiki said. "I'd watch out if I were you."

"I can handle them," Vince said.

"We're coming with you," Viola said.

"Oh no, this is my thing," Vince said.

Kiki added, "We want to make the Syndicate pay. You'll need Viola and I in case those two bring out more Decker mercenaries."

"Okay, both of you are in," Vince said.

Vince led the twins over to the entertainment room while Johnny was watching TV. On the screen, it was now on Keith David talking about his aspirations for a political career.

"Johnny, are you up for a little murdering?" Vince said.

"Shit, always, usually depends, why?" Johnny said.

"Viola and Kiki told me about some Decker enforcers that need to be taken out," Vince said. "How are you feeling?"

"Back is still a bit fucked up, but remember, we were both wearing vests," Johnny said. "I can handle myself out there."

"Okay, let's get going," Vince said.

Vince, Johnny, and the DeWynter twins were now set to put more of a hurt on the Deckers. They all went to the armory to find some weapons to use.

Shaundi walked into the main area and through her peripherals, she saw the quartet enter the elevator.

"Hey, what the hell are you guys doing?!" Shaundi said.

"We're about to take care of some business," Johnny said.

"We'll be back," Vince said.

"But you two should…," Shaundi said.

The elevator door closed. They were off. A glare grew on Shaundi's face. Why did Vince not listen to her? But then again, shouldn't she know him by now? Still, she thought it wasn't a smart move.


Another note: Well, that was it. This was my comeback. I will continue to do this. The break was necessary. I did a lot and was a bit fatigued by doing this a lot and also personal stuff. But I have more ideas for this, along with my novelizations of the first two games.

Also, I had a hard time deciding the footage for Cypher and what she would use to jam the signal. I thought of her having a jammer gadget, kind of like how in the first Mercenaries game that the North Korean forces had signal jammers. But then I thought about chaff grenades, which was a Metal Gear reference and decided to go with that instead.

Oh, and as for the mention of SR2 with the lady bartender, I never liked that part when the Boss would just knock her out and use her as a human shield like that. So I decided to deviate it a bit.

Next up, the Saints put more of a hurt on the Deckers. Stay tuned.