"Hmm..."
Alexia meticulously studied each of the cars that were being presented to her in the lot, one which she was expected to take on a potentially-deadly highspeed course through downtown Vinewood, one of Los Santos's busiest and brightest districts.
"You see anything you like, Ms. Knight?" asked a smaller Black Skull with many painful-looking facial tattoos and piercings.
"Alexia's fine, thanks," she smiled at him. "And um...I dunno, I really like this one, but...do you have it in red?"
Grinning nervously, the man immediately jumped into the front seat of the Ubermacht Oracle she had pointed out and floored it down the highway adjacent to the parking lot.
Seconds later he returned, with a fresh coat of blood red paint on the tiny coupe.
"Only the reddest for m'lady-I MEAN, Alexia."
He attempted at joking to her, but these efforts were mostly in vain because of his overwhelming nervousness. Despite the nice and understanding persona she was giving off at the moment, he knew all too well that a wave of a finger from this woman could possibly cost him his life, something he was not willing to risk over a subconscious slip of the tongue or offensive gesture.
"Wow, this is nice," Alexia commented as she climbed into the drivers' seat. She was definitely picking up on his nervous aura, which caused her to question whether her family connections were going to do her much good in this new city.
"Um...thank you. Good job."
"My pleasure, ma'am-ALEXIA, sorry."
The anxious Black Skull backed away awkwardly, all the while making eye contact and smiling in the most uncomfortable way imaginable.
Alexia turned the key, adorned with a deluxe sequined black skull keychain, and successfully started the engine. Predictably, the loud roaring sound attracted Lamar, who had been rolling up another foul-smelling blunt with a group of doots.
"Damn girl, that sho' is a nice whip. Course, it's...not as nice as mine, but...you know, still nice."
Alexia couldn't help but smirk at Lamar's obvious fallacy.
"Really? Well, at least mine smells a hell of a lot nicer."
"Ahh, I knew you wouldn't be so shy 'round me for long," said Lamar, grinning like a stoned Cheshire cat. "Welcome to the family, homie."
Alexia gleefully took hold of Lamar's outstretched fist and proceeded to shake it, not realizing that a handshake was not his intended gesture of friendship.
For an unusually long while, Lamar stared at the girl with a potent expression of befuddlement and indignation, as if she had somehow done him a great dishonor by not returning his desired fist bump.
Realizing that she had potentially done something terribly wrong was enough to cause Alexia to turn a newly-discovered glossy shade of red. She proceeded to slowly slink down into her seat, attempting in vain to remove herself from Lamar's continuing deriding gaze.
Once she was sufficiently low enough (which was practically on the floor of the car), she was suddenly snapped from her trance of embarrassment by a loud banging noise, originating from the roof of her 4-door coupe. What she saw was Lamar, practically out of breath from the relentless hoarse laughter that escaped from his mouth. So out of control was this intense case of the giggles that Lamar had to repeatedly bring down his once-friendly fists onto her car's roof, in a desperate attempt to calm down.
"Man...man, sh...man-" Lamar attempted to speak. "That shit was the funniest...that shit was...it's goin on my LifeInvader, man I...oh, man, homie. Whoo! You-you crack me up sometimes, girl, and I fuckin...I fuckin love you fo' it! I love you, baby!"
Alexia gradually got around to sitting upright in the drivers' seat, the beet red coloring of her face fading as she saw that Lamar was not offended in the slightest.
"Now give me some knuckles, girl, Fo...For real this time!" said Lamar, letting out the last of the chuckles and holding out his fist once again.
Alexia reeled back and delivered a firm bump onto Lamar's leathered knuckles.
"Oh hell yeah, baby you got it! You-!"
"HEY!" squeaked an unfamiliar voice behind them. "Could you quiet down PLEASE, I'm trying to pick out a suitable vehicle! THANK YOU!"
The little girl quickly stomped off to wherever she had come from, leaving both Alexia and Lamar's mouths agape. Beyond curious about whether this was some sort of prank, she stepped out of the car, leaving the engine idling so that she and her new friend could investigate.
"Hmm, V8 engine, 5.7 Liters, very nice," the little girl observed. Alexia noticed a slight lisp in her voice, the result of visible yellow braces on her teeth. Her strawberry blonde hair was tied in long, Dorothy-esque pigtails behind her.
"So, um, how fast can this puppy go?"
"Oh, 110, easy. 0 to 60 in 4 and a half seconds," replied the nervous Black Skull from earlier, who didn't seem to have nearly as much trouble talking with the elementary-aged girl in front of him.
"Wow. Pretty nice for a 4-door sedan. Those fools at the LSPD probably bit off more than they can chew with this cruiser. Um...y'know, it's got good stats for its class, I'll take it."
That being said, the Black Skull tossed the little girl a set of keys to the black Cheval Fugitive that she had picked.
Alexia and Lamar, had been observing the scene from behind a nearby dumpster, staring as if they were witnessing some sort of extraterrestrial or paranormal occurrence unfold in the tiny parking lot.
"Shit, girl...that looks like yo' competition," Lamar informed, wearing that same goofy grin that he usually donned.
"Wait...weren't you my competition?"
"Naw, well I am...but I guess the boss wanted to induct both new members simultaneously."
Lamar leaned in closer. He began to speak in a low whisper as the girl rolled past, testing out her vehicle in the parking lot.
"A couple nights ago, we found her tryna lose some heat down by Dock City, I think she'd like, escaped from a mental institution or somethin. But she was drivin' like..."
Lamar made some crazy motions with his leathered hands, unsure how to describe the girl's impressive driving skills.
"She drive like the devil, man. But, uh, when she lost those rollers we uh...hit her up, askin her to be part of the crew. And in exchange, we said we'd give her some protection, a steady income, an' access to the best vehicles in the city. I, uh...think she signed on 'cause of that, she is, like, REALLY into cars, man."
The two competitors sat for a while, watching as the girl maneuvered her jet-black sedan around the lot's many obstacles, getting a feel for how it operated before the race that was about to commence.
"But, uh...good luck to you," said Lamar, much more cheerfully.
"Thanks," Alexia sarcastically replied.
"No problem...Kiss on it?"
The glare that Lamar received from that statement was enough to force him to back off immediately.
"Aight, aight...you can't really blame a homie fo' tryin' his luck."
Lamar proceeded to his car, and Alexia did the same.
"Speakin of tryin' his luck, that's kinda what yo' uncle just did, dawg!" Lamar warned from behind the sputtering of his V8 engine. "Man, that homie just phoned in an' put down a HUGE-ass bet on yo' ass, like 10 G's man, fo' real!"
Lamar's information only succeeded in filling the air of the not-so-smelly Ubermacht Oracle with a suffocating odor of anxiety. If Alexia lost this race, just how disappointed would her uncle be? After all, she had known him since she was a toddler, before he had moved to this city, and was aware of his tendency to get slightly...violent when angered.
Alexia's stress-induced train of thought was interrupted by the sight of the other two cars pulling up onto the highway, lining up in a side-by-side fashion. Alexia rushed to do the same before anyone could judge her for being too slow.
Once situated, Alexia peered over to her right to look at the strange little girl, Before the race, she was applying some chapstick and adjusting her interior rearview mirror, the deafening sound of Nonstop Pop FM blasting from her speakers.
"Hey! Little girl!"
Alexia successfully grabbed the attention of the child, who glanced over at her with an obvious sense of scrutiny.
"Listen, um, I dunno how you got here or...how you're driving right now...but, good luck anyways!"
Alexia smiled, as she had just seemingly socialized with another person in Los Santos.
"Oh, please, I don't need luck," the girl chided her. "Especially from a freakin' goth girl."
"Hey...young lady! What makes you think I'm-?!"
"Man! Y'all can fuckin' catfight later, an' I'll be sure to get it on tape!" yelled Lamar impatiently. "For now, let's just put our foot to the gas, and see who the fuck is the better driver in this shit, man!"
"Yeah, what he said!" the little girl lauded. "I love you, you stupid loudmouth!"
"Exactly homie, I...wait, loudmouth?"
Before Lamar could question further, his attention was turned to a stunningly-beautiful woman, wearing only a black bikini and a matching black skull mask. She began to strut provocatively out onto the highway, in front of the three anxiously revving cars. In her hand, she carried a loaded Marksman Pistol, which she raised above her head and prepared to fire into the air.
"Aww, shit, here we go!" The adrenaline in Lamar's blood and the fact that he just might hook up with this girl later on had him practically bouncing up and down in his seat.
At long last, the trigger was pulled, and the three racers wasted no time in accelerating, missing the bikini-clad woman by mere inches.
In the lead were the mysterious little girl and Lamar, with Alexia's Oracle bringing up the rear.
"Right up here homie! I'm bout to go nice and slow fo' yo'-hey, man! WHAT THE FUCK!"
Lamar's planned taunting of his two competitors was brought to an abrasive halt as the little girl mercilessly rammed into the Emperor's rear end. Lamar tried his damndest to fight the girl off as her far-superior vehicle delivered more and more merciless collisions to the back of the old rustbucket. Finally, the girl managed to get at just the right angle to execute an almost-flawless PIT maneuver on Lamar's beloved old hoopty.
Alexia could only watch in horror as Lamar began to spin out of control. In the process, he hit a nearby curb, which at the speed he was going, immediately sent him airborne. All of this vehicular chaos then transitioned into a wild barrel roll over the concrete, smashing a few pedestrians in the process, before smashing through a nearby shop window. The girl's tiny middle finger could clearly be seen sticking out of the drivers' side window as she sped off.
The red Oracle immediately stopped to help her friend, but Lamar, who appeared completely unhurt, was quick to step out of his totaled vehicle and usher Alexia away.
"Man, go! GO! Get that psycho bitch!"
Seeing as he was indeed alright, Alexia's eyes narrowed toward the road; she proceeded to floor it down the highway, tire smoke and determination accompanying her departure.
"I love you, baby! You so hood!" Alexia barely heard over the thundering sound of her engine.
After executing a tight turn down a narrow Vinewood street and then turning onto an immense divided highway, the little cheater was soon in Alexia's sight, weaving through the heavy city traffic like the devil that Lamar had described her as. So flabbergasted was Alexia by this display of vehicular superiority that she barely had time to swerve left and avoid the blue Vinewood Tour bus that was proceeding at a high velocity from one of the intersecting roads.
This last-second obstacle managed to force Alexia into the opposite lane of traffic, sending legions of honking horns and blinding oncoming headlights her way. A semi truck and a dense line of cars prevented her from returning to the relative safety of the correct lane, so she was forced to make a beeline to the sidewalk. The sickening thuds of people against the speeding hunk of metal was enough to make Alexia cringe.
"Sorry! Sorry!" Another thud, followed by a girlish scream. "I'm sorry!"
A rather unlucky obese man became wedged between the hood of her car and her windshield, leaving his face pressed up against the glass.
"I-I'm so sorry!" the frightened woman attempted at apologizing.
The fat man's eyes lowered after seeing this pitiful sight; he looked at his unwilling assailant with not anger or shock, but rather slight annoyance.
"Woman drivers," he audibly muttered, before successfully managing to roll off of her windshield.
This just about gave Alexia a second or two to avoid a line of metro buses and navigate to another side road that led up a hill. The little girl was much closer now, only about a car length and a half away, which gave Alexia extra motivation to dodge a line of cars and a billboard so that she could eventually come side-by-side with the other vehicle.
As soon as the two cars were within striking distance, each girl immediately took the opportunity to deliver several rage-induced blows to each others' vehicles. All throughout this demonstration of vehicular-induced madness and brute force, the two competitors refused to relent, steering their cars toward each other in the hopes that maybe one of them would spin out into the nearest wall or semi-truck.
In spite of the chaos, Alexia soon sensed an opportunity in the form of a wide row of cars occupying the opposite side of the road. With a maniacal, evil-looking grin on her face, she positioned herself at an angle towards the back of the other car, to ensure that it would not back out of her maneuver. Then, before the little girl realized what was going on, she began to steer into the other car with impressive force in an attempt to push the younger girl into the path of the speedy oncoming traffic that had just been released from a lengthy red light. The little girl attempted to counter this by shifting to reverse, but the Fugitive refused to back up under the relentless force of the slightly-bigger Oracle.
As the blinding glare of multiple headlights came closer, the little girl, in a state of panic, had no choice but to swerve to the nearest sidewalk, obliterating a streetlight, a sign, and perhaps a few pedestrians in the process. Alexia, meanwhile, swerved back onto the right side of traffic and proceeded down Vinewood Boulevard, the road that the race had started on.
"Oh my God..." Alexia snickered at first, then broke out into a hysterical spell of laughter, mostly due to the effects of high-octane adrenaline coursing through her blood vessels.
"I...really didn't think that'd work...And now I'm gonna win!"
An impromptu finish line was now in sight, with several Black Skulls cheering her on from the sidewalk on both sides of it.
Alexia's semi-victory was interrupted by the sound of screeching metal behind her; The little girl had found her way out of Alexia's trap and was currently speeding toward her Oracle. The wrathful look on her face affirmed that the girl was now out for blood.
"CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP!" Alexia was quick to shift into 2nd gear and make for the finish line like some sort of metallic gazelle being chased by the far-superior steel cheetah.
The little girl followed suit, shifting to the much-faster Fugitive's highest possible gear. The finish line, it seemed, was within perhaps a football fields' distance.
"C'mon, baby...Oracle! Don't...don't give up just yet! Come on! COME ON!"
The terrifyingly-anticipated sound of metal on metal sent Alexia into a frenzy, desperate to escape the wild spin that her car was being thrust into. Both vehicles, locked in such a desperate high-speed power grip, went into uncontrollable arcs and patterns as each crossed the finish line. The foreboding screech of burning rubber against concrete served as an almost-universal signal to the seasoned onlookers, who were quick to move out of the vicinity before they could be careened into.
Alexia attempted to brake as she realized her trajectory took her straight into an enormous brick wall. Steering as far left as she possibly could, she just barely managed to avoid a potentially-fatal head-on collision. Instead, only the right side of her hood slammed into the wall at well over 50 mph.
This impact was more than enough to shatter the windshield and passenger-side window, but Alexia was quick to shield her face from the thousands of glass splinters flying her way. Her quick thinking, unfortunately, also served to divert her attention from yet another imminent collision that came from the back. This one managed to stop the car entirely and send Alexia lurching forward in her seat. Her face smashed into the newly-deployed airbag so hard that her ears immediately started to ring.
For a brief moment in time, everything was still and deathly silent, save for the incessant high-pitched droning in her eardrums. At this moment, the blur of honking horns and the roars of engines were no longer, and the view outside her shattered window was not zooming past her at an insane velocity. This relative serenity was soon brought to rest as Alexia began to taste something all-too-familiar; it was a very bitter, iron-tinted taste, and it was starting to form a bright red pool on top of the airbag that her head had slammed into.
This rather unsettling sight was the last thing Alexia could consciously comprehend. Tiny multicolored geometric shapes soon clouded her vision, accompanied by a bittersweet blackness creeping in from all sides. All she could do at the moment was allow it to blanket the stars in front of her and eventually surrender her to a somewhat blissful state of unconsciousness.