Hello everyone. I'll be announcing that I won't be able to update the story for this week because of Midterm Exams. So I will try and publish one or two chapters to make up for this week. Anyway, this chapter is the second and final part of Welcome to Los Santos. The mission that occurs in this is known as "Learning the Ropes." from Grand Theft Auto Online. Due to sheer tiredness and laziness (it was 1:45 AM in the morning), I decided to make a two-part "episode" chapter. What you will read from this chapter is Thomas stealing drugs for Gerald and the rest is history (if you've played GTA Online, you would know this). Anyway, back to the story.

Chapter 4: Welcome to Los Santos Part 2

After our discussion, I proceeded to get into my car and drive down to where the deal was taking place. This took me no less than two minutes since I was practically speeding by traffic. I've got to say though, the traffic in the city is no less worse than Liberty City, where traffic can be heavily congested.

Anyway, I manage to arrive to where the deal is going down. So, I drift my car to the other side of the road , get out of my car, grab my pistol, and walk into the alleyway. While I'm doing this, some guy with blue, baggy jeans and a purple, plaid shirt approaches me.

"Hey man. What are you doing here?!" the guy replied questionably.

"Oh, me? Nah, I'm just waltzing in here, not trying to do something drastic and dangerous. No wait, that's what I'm here to do. Give up the fucking drugs, bitches!"

"Hey guys. We got a fuckboy ready to taste lead in his dome. Get him!" said the angry gangbanger.

So begins the brawl. I quickly draw out my pistol and shoot about five bullets into the first guy. Then I put myself against the wall for cover. From the corner of my eye, I see one Ballas member moving for cover behind a crate, so I quickly shoot at him four times in the abdomen and falls down to the ground.

"Do you want some more, you assholes!?" I said boastfully.

"Shut the fuck up and let us kill you son!" one of the Vagos shouted.

"Oh well, guess I gotta snuff the life out of y'all." I said dryly.

I then reload my pistol with another magazine and seek out another enemy. One Vagos guy is in open space, but quickly shoots me in my right hip with three rounds. I hide behind cover and shoot the living lights out of the guy who wounded me with three other rounds. However, I'm feeling some pain from the injuries, but I manage to perform a combat roll nearby another crate in order to seek cover.

Without wasting too much time, I quickly blind fire six rounds into the air, but two of them hit a guy who exposed himself in the open. There are about two more guys remaining, so I reload another magazine into my pistol. Afterwards, I pop out of cover and shot a Ballas member. I search for the last one, who is hiding behind another crate. Aiming for a clean shot, I notice that his foot is a bit extended, so I then fire at him and he lets a painful scream.

"You son of a bitch! My foot!" the gang member shouted

"Well, life's a bitch, now is it not?" I boasted.

"Now, before I put a bullet into your goddamn skull and leave you departing for the afterlife. Just one thing, where are the drugs?" I asked the gangbanger .

"My homie ran off to Strawberry, probably. You might see him running away."

"Why thank you so much for the info, bitch. By the way, the name's Thomas. Thomas Marston." Afterwards, I shot him in the head and left to get the drugs.

With no time to waste, I search for the guy that is running away and I quickly spot him. I grab out my pistol and perform a drive-by on him. Then, I quickly get out of the car, pick up the drugs, and call Lamar.

"Hey Lamar, this is Thom. I got the goods, plus I'm on the way."

"Good, dawg! Lemme send you the coordinates I'm at Gerald's ." Lamar stated.

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Soon after, I arrived towards Forum Drive and showed up at Lamar's location, which was outside an apartment complex.

"Hey G, come out here man. My boy, Thomas is here."- Lamar said as he called Gerald

"Hey dog, how are you doing?" I gave Lamar a fist pump, then Gerald comes out of his apartment.

"It's nice to meet you, Gerald."

"Well, goddamn, you antisocial motherfucker, you gonna speak?!" Lamar angrily told Gerald.

"Hey." Gerald said to me. (No wonder Lamar said what he said. This dude's shut like a mouse in a church!)

"See, I told you. Y'all gonna get along great! I told you. By the way, give him the dope." Lamar told me.

"Yeah, alright here. It's alright don't bother counting it. You got anything else interesting, bring it my way." Gerald dryly stated towards me.

"See, what did I tell you, motherfucker. He likes you. And now you got you some bread, what you need to do is get you some motherfucking gear, cause you look bummy as fuck."

I look at my clothing and all I'm wearing is a Stank v-neck shirt with faded, blue jeans. That to me, is not "bummy as fuck."

"You can't be walking around me looking like that. You need to better represent-ate yourself. You know what I'm talking about. Hey G, don't get lost fool. Come on, man. Tear that shit off, man. I need my commission, G!" With those words, I left the complex.

I check the time and it's late at night, say around 2:00 AM. Usually, I would look for a place to stay, but given the situation at hand, I decided to sleep in my Stanier for the night.

The morning comes by, and it's 8:30 in the morning. I woke up, sleeping in the same clothes I arrived in. You could say that I was practically living like a bum in the slums of Liberty City. The first thing I remembered to do was go to a clothing store, as Lamar put to "better represent-ate myself."

What I did first, since I didn't know all of LS was set up a GPS or "waypoint" as people here like to call it. I searched for a clothes store and I found one at Sinner Street. As I'm driving, I tune the radio to West Coast Classics and the song, "Worst Comes to Worst" by Dilated Peoples comes on. To be sincere with you all, I miss the times when rappers would actually have something to rap about instead of money, chains, and girls with no self-esteem.

Anyway, I go into the store and there are numerous options to choose from. For me, I have a good taste in urban clothing and footwear, as I'm a huge fan of Hip-Hop and Alternative music. Looking for some clothing to wear, I found a red, checkered shirt (with a long-sleeve white shirt underneath) and regular, blue jeans. Soon, I went for a black Los Santos hat and grey sports kicks.

Anyway, I left the store to go eat breakfast at Bite's since I was feeling hungry. Afterwards, I get a call from Lamar.

"Hello?" I asked Lamar over the phone.

"Hey, hey, it's your boy LD… If you need some cheese real quick, come fuck with me. We got licks all over town just waiting to get hit. Just walk in with the blam blam and point it at the fool over the counter. He gonna break bread. And they insured, don't nobody give a fuck no way. It's all good. I've been peeping this one spot where they've been making a gang of bread, you down with that shit?"

"Hell yeah, I'm down. Need the money while I'm still livin." I said with confidence

"Now I knew I saw something in you, dawg. Alright, let me send you the coordinates."

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After the phone call ends, I went to East LS to the store Lamar told me to rob. Now, let me be honest with you all when I say this, but I have never robbed a store. Yes, in some shape or form, I'm a virgin for that. Go ahead and laugh if you will.

Before robbing the store, I take in a few breaths, afterwards, I get out of my car and head off to the store. There I see alcohol merchandise, snacks and a bunch of other items. An Asian-American clerk is behind the counter and he greets me.

"What can I get you today, sir?"

With that being said, I quickly grab out my pistol and point it towards the clerk (just like Lamar said.)

"Listen Mister, I got no time for your bullshit, so please empty all the dead presidents in that damn register today or I'll empty out something else!" I told the clerk with harsh authority in my voice.

"Okay, Okay!"

*Shoots at various items in the store*; "Come on, I don't have all day. Hurry up right now or you'll be sorry for wasting my time!" I tell the clerk with anger building in me.

The clerk finally finishes and gives me the stolen cash, but as I notice my surprise, some girl comes out of nowhere and tries to kill me. In order to quickly outdo her, I perform a combat roll and shot her four times in the stomach. However, I did shoot at the security camera in the store to make sure the cops don't detect me.

I get out of the store, slide across the hood of my car, and turn on my car. If there's one thing that I've learned as my time as a mercenary, cops patrol the streets, not the wilderness. So instead of doing those awesome police chases that you watch on TV, I went up towards those green hills and hid up there from the pigs for about 3-5 minutes.

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Later on, I'm driving on Power Ave and I receive a phone call from an unknown number. When will it end?

"Hello, who is this?" As I asked the person on the other end.

"Hello, this is Simeon-my friend Lamar told me to call you – he said you were something of a big shot, only with an inadequate sense of style." Thanks, Lamar…

"Maybe you should improve yourself with a fine car. I've got a friend at Los Santos Customs who can help you out… for sure."

"Thanks, but how am I going to obtain one?"

"Simple, you steal it. Have a good day." Said Simeon.

So now I have to get a vehicle… For me, looking for a car around a city as large as Los Santos isn't a problem. All I need to do is hijack someone's vehicle or look for a parked car around certain areas. As I'm looking around for a good car, I noticed a red Bravado Buffalo parked by Legion Square.

No one is nearby my location, so I smashed out the Driver's window and got in the vehicle. Since the keys weren't there, I had to hotwire the car. I got out of there and drive towards LS Customs. There I spoke to the mechanic.

"Hey there, what can I do for you today?" the mechanic spoke in a courteous manner.

"I'm going to need a tracker and insurance for this Gauntlet, along with new car keys." I said to the mechanic.

After some minutes of waiting, changing out the color scheme to a black and purple design, and working on the car a bit. I managed to complete Simeon's request.

Afterwards, my phone is ringing and it's Simeon.

"Simeon, what is it now?"

"I'm calling to let you know that since I gave you a free ride to modify and own a car, you'll be doing me jobs from now on."

"You've got to be freakin' kidding me here! I never wanted to work for you" I said in complete exasperation.

"I'm not kidding, my son. This is business that I'm doing. Besides, you'll get pay from me anyway. Goodbye."

"Damn it! What next?"

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I swear on my life that I was pretty pissed at the situation. Working for a faux car dealer?! Is there anyone else who's in that situation as I am right now? All of a sudden, I receive a text from Gerald telling me to "prove my worth" at Cypress Flats since he wants to test my gun skills before working for him.

Later on, I arrive at Cypress Flats and there I see about seven people there.

"Anyone sent up here by some antisocial drug dealer to prove their worth?" I said to all of them.

"Yeah." Said everyone there.

"So what's in it for all of us?" I said to them.

"Apparently, whoever lives, depending on the team or the time limit, which is nine minutes, will receive a good amount of money. This whole Deathmatch concept has been around for a while." Said an Asian guy

"Well, that's a sick concept isn't it? The whole thing's insane."

"Deal with it, yo. Some crime bosses do this to separate the weak from the strong."

So the rest of us are arranged into teams of four and I meet the rest of them.

"Hey, name's Thomas. Thomas Marston."

"Marston? You share the same name of the guy from the book, 'Red Dead'. The name's Miles Roth."

"Nice to meet you, Miles. I get that a lot from people. What about you guys?" I asked the others.

One of the two mercs speaks up. Has a Midwest accent in him.

"Name's Austin Johnson. I've read Red Dead as well. Wish I could write as well as your ancestor, Thomas!"

Soon, I noticed a Chinese/English girl in my midst.

"Alright. Hey, you pretty lady. What about you?"

"Name's Maddie. Maddie Bellamy, from Liberty City."

"Wait a minute… I've seen your face before. Weren't you doing time for that failed Carcer City heist you did with a crew. I could have sworn you were still in prison."

"Nope, I had a damn good lawyer, got two years, Mama Dukes disowned me, had a falling out with a friend; came down to Los Santos for a fresh beginning." Maddie stated to me.

"Damn, that's the best summary of anyone's life that I've ever heard. That's quicker than college professors trying to explain a simple concept to their students."

"I did go to college for a while until the passing of my dad happened. Then I fell into the underworld of America afterwards just to support myself and my mother."

After the whole convo, everyone got ready. We all went in teams of two in order to help assist one another. Austin and I went through an alleyway and drove a yellow Gauntlet to see where the enemies where. It was a good idea, since we noticed two guys moving across the street to get to another alleyway.

We got out of the car and started to sprint towards the alleyway opposite of where we were. By the time we got there, two of them had split into different directions, but one was nearby running towards us as I could hear footsteps.

I told Austin to take cover behind the crate beside me as I spotted a Caucasian man with a white v-neck and black cargo pants is running towards a garbage dumpster for cover.

Spotting him, I managed to give him five shots in his abdomen; however, he performed a combat roll at the last shot, shoots me twice in both my left shoulder and my arm, but I manage to kill him.

Austin and I move up towards the alleyway adjacent from where both of us are standing. As we're running towards the end, a black male with a white hoodie, purple shirt, and blue jeans is on top of a roof, shooting at both me and Austin.

We search for cover, until Austin shouts out, "Follow me!" Turns out, he found a staircase at the side of a grey building which leads up to a rooftop. We both search for cover at a ledge, until Austin spots the guy and shot him directly in the head, causing him to fall down to the hard ground, bleeding out.

"Dang, Austin. That's pretty nasty what you did to that fool." I said with complete awe.

"I usually go to the AmmuNation gun stores sometimes, to sharpen up my gun skills. You should come sometime." Austin stated to me.

"I will, thanks for the advice."

"Let's go see the others. Hope they're still alive." Austin said in complete worry

We go the meeting area, and by grace, they're still alive.

"Miles, Maddie! You guys okay?" I asked both of them

"Yeah. Only with a couple wounds." Miles stated.

"Gerald should be available right now. I'm really hoping he pays us well for this shit or there will be hell to pay!" Maddie stated to us.

"I'll call Gerald to let him know." I said to everyone else around me.

So I dialed Gerald's number to let him know that all of us are alive.

"Hey G. I'm alive and so is my team. Now how about the money you offered?"

"Yeah, fool. Course I got the money. Let me send it to all of your bank accounts for assurance. How does 7,580 dollars sound?"

"Hell yeah, G!" I said in complete excitement

"Good, I'll be having more jobs for you all to do. Peace."

I ended the call and let everyone know about the development.

"Said he'll put in our accounts. It's all good"

After the whole thing was over, we gave each other our numbers and went on our merry ways…

Alright! Finally, the chapter is done! This took me over the course of six days to complete. Probably, the longest chapter I've ever worked on for this story. I apologize to those whose OC's weren't included. One thing that I can promise is that they will be featured in Strangers and Freaks styled chapters. For those who are asking, "Who the hell are Miles and Maddie?" They're OC's I created to expand the cast a bit. I got one more I want to show in later chapters.

One issue that I'll have to deal with is the whole "GTA Online Heists" trailer and past DLCs. Given that Heists will be up in Early 2015, I'll need to go into great detail with those missions. As for the previous DLC's, I'll have to figure out a way to explain all of the content in the story. By the way, I'll be on vacation next week. Thank you to those who've been reading it this far. I can't thank you enough. Peace out.