The riot continued the following night. CJ had gotten Seville Boulevard and Temple Drive back together, with the help of LB, and he spent most of the day helping the Grove Street Families take over several territories of the Ballas around the city. The riot was getting even worse, as even the trains on the tracks were either being derailed as it accelerated or catching fire right before blowing up as well. There were even drivers that were running over a number of pedestrians.

The rain had suddenly poured by 7:56 PM, and the worse the riot got, the bigger the storm became. The pedestrians continued fighting and robbing from stores, and the vehicles and buildings were getting demolished.

CJ was now riding his bicycle on the street wearing a heavy green hoodie and baggy black pants, as well as black sneakers. He had been riding around through the hood and it wasn't long before CJ finally heard his cellphone ring. He pulled it out of his pocket to answer it.

"Talk," CJ answered.

"Carl, it's Sweet," he heard Sweet answered. "Now I know that you got the Seville Boulevard Families and Temple Drive Families back together, and Big Bear is fresh out of rehab and popping heads again with the Grove, so there's no more drugs in our territory. But we're still not completed yet. We missing the final piece of the puzzle."

"Whatchu mean, Sweet?" CJ asked.

"We're missing our most important member of the family," Sweet told him.

CJ then knew exactly what he was talking about. "Oh shit!" he replied. "I almost forgot! I was so busy taking back the hood from them Balla Pushas I almost forgot about Ryder!"

"Yeah," Sweet said. "Just come over! I got a discussion about this!"

So CJ hung up his cellphone and stored it in his pocket. He then hopped back onto his bicycle and rode down the street through the riot. The fire continued to spread around the asphalt, and the vehicles were catching fire and exploding afterward. CJ continued riding his bicycle until he finally made it to Grove Street. He hopped off and ran to Sweet's house.

CJ stepped inside and heard Sweet talking in the living room indistinctly. The former walked through the hallways and stepped inside the kitchen, where he saw Sweet talking on the phone.

"Calm down, girl," Sweet said smoothly over the phone. "Calm down. I understand you're worried, but we gonna find him even if we had to tear the city to pieces to do it."

"Hey Sweet," CJ said. "Who you talking to?"

Sweet ignored CJ's question and continued listening to the woman on the phone. "Yeah, he just walked in," Sweet answered the woman on the phone. "I'll let you talk to him right now!"

Sweet then handed CJ the phone. "Here, Carl," he told CJ. "It's Lisa. She wants to talk to you."

CJ felt his heart thumping again as he grabbed the phone. "Hello?" he answered in a slightly trembling voice.

"Carl, it's me!" he heard Lisa say over the phone.

"Lisa," CJ answered. "How you doing, girl?"

"I'm safe," Lisa replied. "But unfortunately, I'm also stressing out again! This riot around the city had lasted for three days now, and Lance still hasn't turned up! I'm starting to get worried!"

"I know, Lisa," CJ told her. "I'm becoming worried about him right now too."

"Listen to me, Carl," Lisa said. "You already know that Lance and I don't get along at all, and after I moved out of the Grove, I stopped talking to him until last year, when I finally moved out of this city and decided to never contact anyone out here again, except Kendl. Lance can be a lot of things. He's annoying, he's pompous, he's arrogant, he's a dumbass, and, as you already know, an asshole. But for all his many, MANY, MANY faults, whatever our differences between me and him, he's still my brother, and I can't afford to lose him through this riot!"

"Don't worry, Lisa," CJ told her. "Sweet and I will find him. I'm sure he around here somewhere."

"Please find him, Carl!" Lisa cried. "Now!"

"We will, girl!" CJ told her. "We will!"

CJ handed Sweet the phone, and Sweet spoke to Lisa. "You can count on us, Lisa," he said. "Just hold tight, girl!"

Sweet hung up the phone and turned to CJ. "You heard her, Carl," he told CJ. "We gotta find Ryder and complete the gang round-up!"

"Well where should we search?" CJ asked him. "He could be anywhere in this riot."

"Then we'll just keep searching until we finally come across him," Sweet told him. "Now come on! We gotta find our life-long soldier pronto!"

CJ and Sweet got their assault rifles ready and headed out of the door. They saw LB standing outside of the street. He was armed with an AK-47 as well.

"Yo what up, homies?!" LB greeted.

"LB," Sweet said giving him a handshake. "Long time, no see. What's happenin'?"

"Aside from this riot, not much really," LB replied. "We got Seville and Temple Drive back together, and they helping y'all reclaim the city from the Ballas and Vagos."

"I heard about that!" Sweet told him. "We may have Seville Boulevard and Temple Drive together again, but there's just one more member of our gang missing. We gotta find Ryder! Now! His sister's getting worried, and now we're getting worried! So get in!"

"Right behind ya, homie," LB told him. "I've been searching for him myself."

The three hopped inside Sweet's Greenwood and drove away.

"So how you think we gonna find Ryder through this riot?" LB asked.

"Simply," CJ answered. "We gotta think like Ryder."

"Ah shit," Sweet replied. "You gonna have me fry my brain for thinking like that nigga? Man I must really be losing my mind now!"

CJ chuckled at Sweet's joke. "But seriously," he said driving through Idlewood. "We gotta think about the first place where he could be hiding in this crazy neighborhood."

"Yo CJ," LB said. "Didn't you rob some shit with Ryder before? I still remember I provided the van for you guys to use to collect the crates full of weapons."

"Good idea, LB," CJ said. "Let's check over through Jefferson by the train tracks."

So CJ made a right turn on Jefferson and drove parallel to the train tracks. He saw that a train stood there smoking, and the pedestrians were all attacking each other on front. CJ looked through the raucous fighting and searched harder. But he couldn't find Ryder anywhere.

"I don't see him there," Sweet said. "Where else do you think he went, CJ? What else did you two rob?"

"We went to rob some war veteran that lived over at East Beach," CJ answered.

"Cool!" LB said. "Let's check there."

CJ drove through the city and zoomed through the calamity on East Los Santos, where even the strippers were attacking other pedestrians. The police were also beating them silly. He made a right turn on East Beach and drove straight down. CJ drove slowly through the city as Sweet and LB peered through he window on a search for the Grove Street Families gangster.

"Any sign of Ryder?" CJ asked Sweet and LB.

"I seen a bunch of crazy ass folks beating the shit out of each other," Sweet replied looking through the window. "But none of them are wearing any green."

"Say CJ," LB said. "Those look like the same Weekend Soldiers who owned the warehouse at the Ocean Docks you and Ryder broke into back then."

CJ then saw the National Guards around the streets as he drove through the city. They were beating severely on some of the pedestrians through the heavy rain. "Ah shit!" CJ said. "He probably taking out some National Guards over at the warehouse!"

"What if he actually GOT taken out?!" Sweet cried.

"Well we gotta get there to make sure he still standing!" CJ said.

So he decided to make his way to the Ocean Docks and drove as quickly as he could. He made a right turn on Playa del Seville and drove straight down until he made a left turn on Willowfield. The heavy raindrops splattered on the windshield, and the windshield wipers on the Greenwood vigorously swept through to wash the rain off the windshield. CJ drove down the street, through the bridge, and made it to the warehouse by the Ocean Docks. CJ then parked the car and hopped out.

"You sure Ryder's out here in the Ocean Docks?" Sweet asked CJ.

"That's what my instinct is telling me," CJ replied. "You know how unpredictable Ryder is. For all we know, he could be robbing this place."

"Shit," LB said. "That fool will try to rob the whole train out of its tracks if he tried. That's how wild he is."

"A'ight listen," CJ told Sweet and LB hopping out of the vehicle. "The best we should do is split up. I'll find Ryder here while you go search for him in other places of the city."

"You right, bro," Sweet said sliding to the driver's seat of his vehicle. "You see Ryder anywhere, call me, and we'll do vice-versa."

CJ watched as Sweet drove away, leaving CJ himself to walk to the warehouse. The gates were closed, but it didn't stop him from hopping over the wall. He then came across one of the National Guards, who was armed with an assault rifle and pointed it to CJ's face. CJ stood there dispassionately.

"You're that same asshole who broke into our warehouse and stole our weapons the last time you came here!" he growled to CJ.

"Yeah," CJ said casually. "And?"

"You're gonna get yours!" the soldier said to CJ prepared to do him in. "You're gonna meet your–"

His sentence was interrupted by a gunshot, which he took to the heart. The soldier then dropped dead onto the ground.

"Bull's-eye!" CJ suddenly heard Ryder's voice from the distance. "That's how I do it, ninja style!"

"Ryder?!" CJ called standing onto his feet. "Where you at, homie?!"

"Up here, fool!" CJ heard Ryder's voice call from above.

CJ then saw that Ryder was standing on top of the roof of the warehouse distantly. "Ryder?!" he called once again.

"Take the stairs, motherfucker!" Ryder shouted from above.

CJ then walked around the warehouse and found a set of stairs on the side. He climbed them and met up with Ryder, who was now wearing a dark green hoodie with the logo "Grove 4 Life" on front. He wore his hood over his head.

"Yo Ryder!" CJ said giving his friend a welcoming handshake. He couldn't be happier to see his friend again. "Great to see you again after all this time! What you doing up here?"

"Cappin' these Weekend Soldiers, fool!" Ryder answered.

"Where the hell you been at?!" CJ asked.

"It's a long ass story!" Ryder replied. "But I'll explain everything to you later! Right now, I got a job to do."

"Oh yeah?" CJ asked. "And what's that?"

"See that tank sitting over there?" Ryder asked pointing at the tank on the left side of the warehouse.

"Yeah?" CJ replied. "What about it?"

"We gonna jack it from them National Guards," Ryder said. "I tell you, CJ, niggas out in the streets be acting a fool in '92, and it's only gettin' worse through this riot! So we gonna need all the protection we can get, and that tank over there look promising!"

Same old Ryder! CJ thought grinning. A crazy fool! Straight crazy ass fool!

"Okay," CJ said. "But how we gonna swipe that thing with all these National Guards around the warehouse?"

"Easy, fool," Ryder replied. "We use this here sniper rifle to take them all out stealthily. Since you been rolling with me during our past robberies, I'll let you take the shots yo'self."

Ryder handed CJ the sniper rifle. "You think you can take them punk ass National Guards with this rifle?" he asked CJ.

"Nigga, have you seen me handle a sniper rifle?" CJ asked smugly.

"That's why I'm giving the rifle for you to handle, fool," Ryder replied. "Show me whatcha got, CJ!"

So CJ used the sniper rifle to aim at one of the many National Guard soldiers prancing around the tank below and pulled the trigger, killing the soldier.

"Bull's-eye!" Ryder shouted.

CJ used the same technique on three more guards consecutively.

"Three in a row, fool!" Ryder cheered. "You on a roll now, CJ!"

CJ continued shooting each of the soldiers at a time with a single shot to the head and even into the groin area for some of them.

"Ice them, CJ!" Ryder yelled. "We finna jack that tank!"

CJ used the sniper rifle to take out more guards as Ryder kept on urging him to do so. There were about forty guards around the warehouse, and each and every one of them were getting shot down. When CJ took down the last guard, he saw that there were nobody else guarding the tank.

"Hurry up and get down before any of them Weekend Soldiers come around, motherfucker!" Ryder told CJ as he guided CJ down the stairs.

"Hey Ryder," CJ said as they made it down the stairs. "How you get in here anyway?"

"I had a little help from a homie from the farm," Ryder replied.

"A homie?" CJ asked. "Who?"

Ryder guided CJ to the side of the docks, where they looked below to find a boat with The Truth inside wearing a raincoat.

"Carl," The Truth greeted as he waved to CJ. "Greetings, fellow traveler."

"Truth!" CJ said. He turned back to Ryder. "When you meet Truth?!"

"After I got out of rehab," Ryder told him. "Once I took the train back to Los Santos, we ran into each other in East Beach, where I was going undercover, and we sorta hung out after I surreptitiously capped them Balla motherfuckers. We been getting in contact with each other since, and he even let me ride his cool speedboat all the way over here."

"CJ, man," Truth told CJ from in the boat below. "Your friend is real reliable. You sure are lucky you have him by your side."

"Truth, you have no idea," CJ said.

"Hey, Ryder," The Truth called. "You sure you don't want any of these mushrooms?! Real stuff!"

"Naw, I'm straight, old man," Ryder answered. "I ain't down with that shit."

"Okay then," Truth said as he prepared to start the boat's engine. "Well, I'm off to explore the invasion in the city. There's no telling what aliens might spawn through the riots."

CJ and Ryder watched as The Truth sped away in the boat. "Man," CJ said. "Usually, I'd asked how you were able to tolerate that dude, but knowing you, it ain't really that hard to believe."

"Man, screw you, CJ," Ryder said slugging CJ on the shoulder. "Come on. Let's go steal the tank."

The two then ran to the tank. CJ was the first to hope inside, with Ryder hopping in from behind, and more guards around the warehouse were suddenly coming out.

"Hit the gas, CJ!" Ryder demanded. "Them Weekend Soldiers are coming for us!"

"Shit," CJ muttered. "I wish I knew how to control this damn thing!"

CJ struggled to activate the tank and looked around frantically for the accelerating button.

"Hurry up, fool!" Ryder told him. "Before those guards jump us!"

CJ pressed the red button, which fired bullets from the cannon, blowing away many guards after them. "Careful, fool!" Ryder scolded CJ. "We gotta drive out of here!"

"I'm searching for the controls!" CJ shouted searching frantically. "How the hell is anyone supposed to control this thing?!"

"Nigga, it's this switch right here!" Ryder growled as he reached for the switch on the left side. The tank's engine promptly started.

CJ then saw the levers on the right side and turned them. "This must be the steering levers," he declared. He then came across the pedal on the bottom, which caused the tank to move forward. "I think I found the acceleration pedal!" he said.

"Well now you know how to control a tank," Ryder told him. "Now get us out the warehouse, nigga!"

CJ struggled to turn the tank around and moved forward to the exit, where the National Guards were chasing after him, only to get ran over by the tank. CJ then crashed the tank through the gates and nearly rammed into a pillar up ahead.

"Easy, fool!" Ryder chastised. "Just 'cause this tank is solid don't mean it's indestructible, motherfucker!"

"Whatever, man," CJ said as he struggled to stay steady when he drove the tank. "So what happened to you for the past weeks, Ryder?"

"That PCP caught up on me!" Ryder answered. "After me and LB decided to check up on this in Los Santos, my brain was swelling up, and before I knew it, I just passed out. Was caught slippin' that time. Next thing I knew, I was lying on a bed and found myself at the Ivory Towers Drive-Thru Mental Clinic in Las Venturas. So I figured that now that I'm physically clean from that shit for good, it was time for me to take the train back over here in LS."

"For reals?" CJ asked. "Why didn't you come back to the Grove?"

"Because I was goin' deep cover," Ryder replied. "Smoke and C.R.A.S.H. had already had this whole city on lockdown even before the riot, which is why the Ballas took over every last hood around this neighborhood. So I had to stay in hiding until C.R.A.S.H. was finally charged with all the shit they got away with and we would be free to take back our hood from the Ballas and take out Big Smoke. So for a while, I've been cappin' them Balla Pushas stealthily using this here sniper rifle. But then after I heard the charges was dropped, it was on! Throughout this riot, I continued to cap them Balla Pushas stealthily and to sniff out some info on Smoke's whereabouts so I can now blast that fat motherfucker! I gotta tell ya, CJ. C.R.A.S.H. been sweatin' us for years."

"For real!" CJ replied. "Tenpenny has really gone out of control this time."

"Gyeah," Ryder replied. "Now take me back to the Grove. I'm gonna announce my return!"

CJ drove the tank through the street as he went straight to Willlowfield. Everyone there were still going crazy. Vehicles were also being destroyed. The thunderstorm boomed loudly as the rain poured even harder. The city was still going out of control, and not even a heavy rainstorm was enough to bring everybody down.

CJ finally managed to drive the tank back to Grove Street and he and Ryder hopped out just in time to find Sweet and LB drive back as Sweet out the vehicle on park and he and LB hopped out.

"Yo Sweet!" CJ called to his brother pointing at Ryder. "Look who I found hangin' out at the warehouse!"

"Yo what up, homie?" Ryder greeted walking right in front of CJ.

"Oh snap!" Sweet called giving Ryder a handshake. "Ryder! What's happenin' with you, Dog?!"

"Straight," Ryder replied. He then saw LB right beside him. "What's crackin', LB?"

"Straight as well, Dog," LB replied giving Ryder a handshake as well. "Yo I miss you, homie!"

"You too, LB!" Ryder told him.

"Where you been at all this time, nigga?!" Sweet asked Ryder.

"I been in rehab," Ryder told him. "Then I went undercover to get some info out of C.R.A.S.H. and make sure they'd be charged and off our asses. Then I could find where Big Smoke's fatass was hiding in! I was so determined to find him that I had to ask all his lackeys who worship his ass where he hidin'. None of them answered. But I did snipe some of them Balla Pushas and Vago bitches in they hood."

"Shit," Sweet uttered. "Smoke could be anywhere at this point. But it's great to have you back, Ryder."

"Great to be back, Sweet," Ryder told him. "I told you, it's Grove 4 life!"

"That's my homie," Sweet said giving Ryder another handshake. "Grove 4 life!"

"Yo Ryder," LB said climbing onto the tank. "I'ma take the tank to the storage just in case we're ready to use it."

"A'ight, LB," Ryder called. "Peace out!"

LB climbed into the tank and slowly drove away through the riotous city up ahead.

"By the way, Ryder," Sweet told him, "I got a call from your sister earlier. She was worried about you."

"Oh yeah?" Ryder asked.

"Yeah," CJ added. "Lisa told me she was stressing out over your absence, man."

"Well she ain't gotta worry," Ryder said. "I know how to take care of myself. I told you, I'm like a ninja on all these motherfuckers!"

CJ and Sweet just laughed. "Great to have you back, Ryder," CJ said grinning as he patted Ryder on the back.

"Yeah," Sweet added. "Well now that you're back, it's time to round up the rest of the families to have a meeting inside the house. We gonna show the Ballas and Vagos that Grove is climbing back and we gonna end this riot once and for all!"

So the trio walked inside Sweet's house and started planning. CJ couldn't be happier to have his childhood friend back after two months since last seeing him. He was confident on finding Big Smoke and Tenpenny and getting every hood around Los Santos back from the Ballas and Vagos. It was getting intense in his home city, but CJ was determined to take it all back.