Concrete Jungle

by Onkwehonwe Kashatstenhshera

A cartel hitman, an ex soldier, a wayward gunmen with no cause, an ex KGB agent, & a familiar family oriented coke addicted thug find their way to sunny LS finding themselves around similar scum. Immoral car salesmen, low life bangers, king pins, & hackers. When an eventual rift in the friendship divides their destinies, alliances shift & none of them will ever be the same again.

86. Two Graves

Teranto

Dire Consequences

Ray turned to Sheldon. "We gotta get you both outta here. This city aint that safe anymore, bro. I've done what I can but this city but even with me this aint exactly where I was born and raised."

"So then where you gonna send me? I don't know about Jamaica, man it's too gfucked up down there. And I wouldn't be able to go back to my old stomping ground. Man this is fucked up! I'm not even getting to take a walk through the neighborhood!"

"You could take a walk as long as you don't mind a Triad walking up behind you and putting two in your brain stem. What about Vice City? Or even Liberty City?"

"Liberty? Mean that'd be kinda tight. Butr5 i don't know. If i cant go home then the farther away from Teranto I get the better. Maybe we could try Vice City...

Meanwhile a Chinese American who had joined the security detail joined the others in the hall. A Merryweather agent of African American descent standing five eleven with a muscular frame and a shaved head and dark skin turned to him. "They got you on this detail too?" The Merryweather security guard nodded. 'Yeah. Anything for a little extra money."

"I'm Miles Wilson. Yeah...these rappers, man. Some of them hire police detail for security that's the standard thing to do. But then some dumb asses only wanna hire the homies but then we see how far that gets you when they're scared to even use their guns or they run away when some shit goes down if it's a police scenario. Then you got this motherfucker and he's jnot even a big time rapper but he took the third option and he went with us. While i can't say a man who is either a thousandaire or a millionaire in the low millions should be spending this kinda dough on Merryweather it is the best bet."

"So what...we just sit up here this entire time?"

"Yeah. Unless the boss needs to go somewhere."

Lee got a call on his cell phone and it lit up as Don Percial. "I got orders straight from the top. I have to escort Big Ray outta here."

"Get the fuck outta here. You didn't even know what we do up here now you got escort duty?"

"I was playing a part but my true mission has been revealed. You don't like it you can take it up with the big cheese himself..."

The other Merryweather agents shook their head]s in disbelief. "Mr. Percival. Yeah...here he is..."

The man took the phone and on the other end, Sun Kang who was pretending to be Don Percival started cursing out the Merryweather agent and while Lee couldn';t make out what was all being said he could hear the screaming and he shook his head. "I hope you saved money cause most guys that get him that pissed are lucky to be mall security."

Flustered, the Afro Canadian Merryweather agent handed Lee back the phone and Lee said, "Yes, Mr. Percival. I understand. We'll get them ready for extraction. Should be no later than 2300 hours, sir. Understood."

He got off the phone. "Okay. Let's get ready for transport."

He turned to the African Canadian and said, "Knock on the door and tell him we're ready to roll out."

The man did as he asked and said, "Sir, we're ready for extraction. They're prepping a Buzzard for you."

On the other end of the door, Ray heard this and he said, "Shit...!" Under his breath. He went and grabbed two Handguns, both of them Glocks. He also gave one to Sheldon and his girlfriend. "That's a codeword. Triads have an assassin in the hallway."

A .40 Handgun was pressed against the back of Lee's skull. "Get your hands up right better be willing to name whatever asshole sent you if you want to cut yourself a deal."

Lee held his hands up as Miles disarmed him. "We were told to be on the lookout for anybody new and of the Asian persuasion. The Dragon Circle Jerks must be broke if they cant even afford to outsource."

Lee warned, "I have to sneeze..." Miles warned, "Just keep those hands where I can see them..."

He sneezed and did exactly that. The next sneeze he lurched forward a bit and grabbed the gun and a shot went off. Lee pulled the pin on a grenade he had brought with and he cooked it but held it against Miles's belt. "Stay cool! I'll blow this bitch up with me if you so much as twitch!"

"That fuckin accent is atrocious!" Growled a Caucasian male with gray eyes and blonde hair, originally from Iowa. "You're from the south? I think I liked it better when you talked like a regulars American.'

"Yeah, I think I'd rather hear a Chinese accent than a guy from the south who happens to be Chinese."

Lee moved Miles forward. "You want your boy to live you drop your fuckin guns right now and get that door open!" Sheldon's girl fired four shots through the door panicking. Lee shoved the man forward and the grenade dropped and he ran for cover. In an explosion of blood, flesh and bones, the hall was decorated in femur and shin bone and a few of the Merryweather agents caught shrapnel from it and the fragmentation. Lee grabbed the pistol from the belt of another agent and fired striking the man between the ridges of his right side of his nose and his eyeball.

"I JUST WANT SHELDON! SEND HIM OUT HERE AND YOU CAN WALK!" He bellowed. Ray fired through the door narrowly missing the Chinese American. "I guess you're gonna be the next dead rapper!" He bellowed.

The Merryweather security fired at Lee and he took four rounds in his vest. He got his shotgun ready and fired striking a Merryweather agent of Japanese American descent and he was hit in the right side of the neck blowing it apart. He fell leaking like crazy. Lee took cover in a room on the left that was a bathroom. "Get that motherfucker!" Growled a Canadian Jewish man with dark brown hair and blue eyes.

Ray pulled in two corpses. One was of Korean American ancestry while the other was African American. Ray got to the shotgun he kept and with a pull of the trigger both men lost their faces but he first striped their bodies. Lee made his way to the window an jumped out. The two of them were soon wearing the same outfit as the Meryweather security detail but they had armor on too.

"Okay..." Raymond breathed. "Here's what we do I'm gonna draw that fools fire and he;'ll focus on me and you're both gonna run."

As Lee ducked into a room with rounds raining after him he heard a series of screams from the Merryweather agents. He snuck a look out. He saw seven men, all of them of Asian descent wearing security suits too and all of them fired on the Merryweather agents. Lee grinned as he saw the Triad reinforcements. He strafed and fired the MP5 striking one in the right side of the chest near the ribcage. "I'll barbecue your fuckin ribs!' He screamed

He kept up the volley of rounds striking the man through the armor finally. One of the Dragon Circle Tong members pulled the pin on a flashbang grenade. "There's two people in there holed up with him..." Lee warned. "A man and a woman."

"Wǒmen yě jiāng bùdé bù bǎituō tāmen," Insisted the Dragon Circle soldier that had been spotted around Sun Kang a lot.

(We will have to get rid of them too.)

Lee shrugged. "Emphasis on we not me. I already agreed to take out one of them. Two more is extra on top of these other guards!"

"We'll take care of them. We knew a little girl like you could only handle one target maybe two at most."

"You have to kill me first!" Barked Ray as he got Sheldon and his girl towards the laundry shoot.

They finally got the plan together. Ray and Sheldon wore the security outfits and body armor as there were a few guards holed up in the room. "You should really just get out of here now. Don't even wait for us to get out of here."

"No they have to think we're both dead..." Raymond had a bodyguard of similar height to Ray who was half Chinese and half white burst out of the room with the Rifle blazing. He took down two Triads as he let off the IMI Galil. Lee brought him down with a shot to the chest and before the guard could shoot at him, the guard dressed in Ray's clothes was shot in the face at point blank range obliterating features and the differences between a man who was half Asian and half white and that of a Chippewa who was about 70% Native with some white ancestry but none from a recent parent. He had his clothes on.'

The other Merryweather agent who was similar enough in skin tone to Sheldon and hairstyle came out blazing with an MP7 wearing his clothing. "You motherfuckers! You hit us! Why the fuck are ya'll coming at me?!" He hit a Triad just to Sun Kang's left. He also hit Sun Kang. If Lee didn't spot his comrade in arms fall, he would have noticed the facial features differences between the agent and Sheldon.

He hit a Merryweather agent of Caucasian ancestry with blonde hair and green eyes and small lips standing at five eleven. He hit him in in the jawbone. He was dead before he hit the floor. Lee got Sun Kang off the ground as did the female Triad. The wounded gang boss winced as the Merryweather agents fired back and the two had to cover him. "We need to get the fuck outta this hotel! Pronto!" Lee barked. "Fighting bodyguards is one thing but I don't need to get into it with Teranto PD!"

"This is Canada. We call them Teranto Police Service here..."

"I don't care it's the same thing! You can call it whatever you want!"

They headed down to the elevator after Lee spoke to Manfred on the headset. "I need you to take all the cameras offline."

"Consider it done but I don't like keeping this secret from Mark. He needs to know if you're doing this kind of shit!"

"Look Many we got a big war coming with the cartel and we need all the help we can get and that's why I'm glad we got the Dragon Circles backing money wins wars too. Sun Kang is offering us 50 K for this. We need it, brother. "

"You aint getting paid and you aint getting more than twenty of my men..." Stated Sun Kang as they rode down the elevator. "That job you did for me buys you that much. Ten for you and ten for Task's help...'

"What about the Rifas?"

"They don't get shit other than what they were paid. And I paid them fair for their risks and efforts. Anyone who tries to say I didn't is just greedy. They got to kill some of their worst enemies and get paid for it. You got to see what it's like to be Chinese on the west coast instead of down south and your arms dealer and his chola girlfriend got to have a lovers getaway in San Andreas. Better than both of the states they came from."

"Last time I checked the Rifas hated the Vagos and Aztecas more than any Cineza."

"You're not from San Andreas that's why you don't understand..."

"And neither are you. You have dual citizenship in China and Canada but you convinced them to let you have American citizenship too just by pretending to be a Christian trying to go to a country that aint communist. That almost never happens. It doesn't happen. This shit is unpredecented. Aint that a word you Ivy League Asians would use?"

"Just because I wear suits and ties instead of goth clothing like you and your club doesn't mean I'm ivy league. I'm a rich man but I'll never be Ivy League. I come from the slums in Beijing. I might have worked a lot of my accent to have you not even notice but that doesn't mean that I had a silver spoon. You think New Arcadia and every other place you lived was hard? Try third world poverty. I don't condone the way some of my men talk about you for not knowing Chinese The American school systems are designed for IQ's of 100 and lower. This is because the average white IQ is 100. Asians clock in at an average 105 IQ so we find American schools to be unchallenging. And then there's affirmative action in that country. That harmed Asians more than it ever did white people."

"You know what the biggest difference between us is, Lee? I'm a US citizen and a Canadian citizen that's true. But the difference between me and you is that I KNOW I'm an immigrant. You've convinced yourself you're an American and even if that's how you were raised and there was no reason to teach you Cantonese in New Arcadia...it's not how others see you. Just give yourself a few years. You'll see. Something will happen and America will find a way to blame China. Or North Korea. Or both."

"Who would I have had to speak Cantonese to? There's more Vietnamese immigrants than anything else. This isn't China or a mostly Chinese city. That's the difference between there and San Andreas. Or Teranto. And I like it here there's just as many of us Towgee as there are you."

"New Arcadia also isn't in France. It isn't in England either. Besides...even if the BSU is like your family you know deep down on a cellular level whether you admit it or not it's not enough. Now look. I would never try to initiate you into the Dragon Circle. So if you are worried about that, don't. But you are a valued employee. And I do believe you get something out of this beyond just money. You need exposure to people like youself."

"I eat southern food more than Asian food, I've dated all kinds of women, and I'm a kick boxer rather than a martial artist. What does that tell you?"

"And yet you're still always the odd man out. Even those Vietnamese in East New Arcadia have a community a long ways away from home still have more of a home and a community than you will. Even if your gweilo friends in the BSU would never say anything against you the way I KNOW those kids in school growing up did to you down there...they can never understand the isolation. You're a little more resistant to the call to similar people to yourself than your friend Felix but I can see it starting to crack in you too."

"You're overstepping your boundaries. you got a little more cause to stand there and point the finger than somebody like T Mart and I know you know who that is since you seem to be following me to know this much shit about me but you don't know me that well."

"But I'm sure you take pride in being the second n command to Nero. And I'm not saying to drive a wedge between you two or even to say anything against the man. I admire Marcus's organization it's impressive. The last time they had an outlaw of this magnitude in these parts it was a bunch of them. Like John Martson and Arthur Morgan and Dutch Van Der Linde. Those were all cowboys though. The next stage in crime had to be the mobsters and the boot leggers. He aint Cosa Nostra but his family was bootleggers. But isn't it unfair that you and the rest of the BSU practically all of you gets to be orphans or runaways and Mark has his own real family and he only really hated both his parents and one brother and that doesn't even seem to be true for the one brother anymore. Haven't you ever wondered why you don't get to have a real family?"

"The BSU is my real family..."

"Okay blood family that is actually there for you and the BSU. Why do you have to always come second to him? Are you actually less capable or do you just not try enough? You could have better solidified your position in Sonny's organization with the Vietnamese. After what happened to them you should be down there taking care of business helping them wipe out the TPG'S."

"You sure got a lot to say about a city you know nothing about and a neighborhood you know nothing about. I'd be seen as an outsider in their organization just like I'm seen one in this one. My brothers don't see me that way."

"Why should you have to only have what Mark has but he also has the Roman Family behind him. If he dies what do you think's gonna happen. You really think you're gonna be the one to fuck Ana? From what you've told me she's never been with an Asian dude."

"She never said THAT."

"Has she ever been with an Asian dude at any point before or during her dealings with Mark or her husband?"

"I..I don't know, man! Who gives a shit?!"

"She's one of those Asian bitches that acts like she;s pro Asian but you never see her with another Asian unless it's a woman."

"How do you know her?"

"I'm a major Triad leader, Lee. A significant one in San Andreas and an even bigger deal in Canada. You think we didn't need IAA assistance? You think they don't send one of their liaisons for that?"

"She focuses more on the present...anyway what are you saying?! I don't wanna fuck her!"

Sun Kang was not sure if the New Arcadian was telling the truth or not. "But do you think you're man enough to take Mark's place? Cause whatever relationship you have with the Vietnamese it would be up to you to secure that alliance. If you didn't you'd be an idiot. And you'd have to decide if Bottles gets to live or die. Ask yourself. Has Mark thought about this? What to do? If he kills Bottles or makes a new deal?"

"He isn't ready to say..." Lee blurted out. He wished he hadn't even said that much but it couldn't be taken back to Mark.

They got him in the car and the female Triad warned, "Sun, you're badly hit. Worse than you thought. You should not talk."

"I've been through tighter spots than this..." The bloodied Triad boss insisted. Lee got them both in the dark red Admiral and began to floor it out of the area as they heard cops already.

"Who was that asshole we just shot? The guy with Sheldon?" He asked.

"He's some rapper from the states. Big Ray. You probably never heard of him but he's big out on the reservations. Or at least he was...'" He grimaced. "He's affiliated with the Red Warriors but i think he's more involved in the rap business. He aint even from Canada so...I don't know what would make him leave Minnesota to come and gang bang up here."

"I thought you were all right?' Asked Lee.

"I was. But then the adrenaline went away and the pain kicked in. I'm nice and fuckin beat down..we got the job done."

"Hey you sent me to do that alone to start. Why the change of heart? It almost seemed like with the amount of Merryweather guards on that floor, maybe you thought i'd get the target but then I die at the scene and there's no investigation."

"This is Teranto. Asians get profiled just as much as blacks do out here so even if you died, they would have assumed it was a Triad hit. There were dead Triads at Ox's mansion. She's the one that brought him down..." He said beckoning to the woman.

"But then you guys decided to help me which means you must have learned how many Merryweather agents to expect and if you knew that why not let me know sooner?"

"We didn't know until we knew. We did know that somebody was hiding him up there but we didn't know who. You know a place like that is a bad place for a high profile guy like Sheldon to hole up. It aint even that he's a ...fuck...! It aint even that he's a high profile gangster. He was nothing but a soldier but we took away most of his army if not all of them in that mansion hit. He's a loose end and a possible witness./ He had to go."

"I guess my street credit is up for killing a rapper though if he was mainstream I'd probably get more respect..." Lee chuckled.

"You would get arrested if people knew."

"Yeah. And I'm sure the Warriors would want to try if they knew. I know this is Paul Hoffman's part of the woods so it aint good I'm out here but we need the moiney and we need the help. What would it take for you to lone us another twenty men? We got a war with the cartel coming and the Triads are the only people I think in this day and age could ever take a cartel down pound for pond without being a cartel."

They pulled back to Chinatown and helped Sun Kang into his downstairs restaurant. "It's a good thing you got a doctor of your own, man. Even a country with a socialist healthcare system is gonna ask you why you got bullets in you."

"Lee..." Growled Sun Kang. "At least we got healthcare in San Andreas and Canada. Hell even in China. Down there you guys use grits to sew up bullet wounds."

He wired him the money and Lee shot back, "Fifty K American. Not Canadian."

"No shit..."

He then told Lee, "Wat a second! I got something for ya. The garage. Take it back to New Arcadia with you. I won't take no for an answer. You did good by me."

"I can buy a new car if I wanted a new one. I aint a charity case."

He opened the garage. "Yeah. But that's an American classic, I get it. You're strictly American you probably even like the cars with candy paints like they like i n the south more than a ride with a spoiler. What would you say if I told you it's a Bullet?"

"I'd say bullshit. I saw maybe 4 in the 90's and even then it was rare/. I never see em now. Besidesi f the cars they make for lowrider shows are nearly extinct those are all the way extinct."

Sun Kang opened the garage to reveal the blue Bullet with white stripes. "You could buy a car but you said it yourself you have expenses. So take the car I don't care how you use it."

"It almost sounds like you want to get rid of that car. Why else be this generous?"

"You did GOOD by us. When you do that even associates can be rich at the very least. And even if I wanted to get rid of it. It's wanted in Canada. You're headed back to the states."

"And what about border patrol?"

"I have people who will let you on through no questions asked. None of their damn business whose car it is you're driving but once you get back to Narcadia you can even get insurance for it."

Lee looked in shock at the car. "Where the fuck did you even find one of these?"

To his surprise he was waved on through.

Mai

She pulled up with Gina. "I'm tired of working with Lamar..." Mai stated. "After everything that idiot comes up with for a plan the end result is the same. We make the money, sure but he still ends up poor. Whatever we get paid for these lowriders it's not gonna make him rich."

Gina shrugged. "He can be annoying but he has a lot of influence. I'd rather be a homie than an enemy of Lamar cause he knows some dangerous people..." Gina then sighed. "Nobody in the hood would admit this cause nobody thought about it but if we ever warred with CGF we'd get mopped up I think. They just got way more people and their hood is like a fort."

"Fortress you mean. Yeah you're right about their numbers. But you got an ace up your sleeve..."

"All right Let's hit these Va Ho's..." Gina said readying her pistol before putting it in the holster she had strapped to her. They both had military grade body armor on.

Gina with a shaky voice said, "I just hope this armor holds..."

Mai turned to her and her inner IAA agent kicked in. "Hey! Listen to me. You got armor on and yes, it's visible on the outside. I never used to like that myself. But then a mentor..." She thought of the IAA United Liberty Contact agent, Bernard. "Told me something that made me chill out about it. Whether they know you have a vest on or not, they're gonna take shots at your center mass unless they're really good at a distance and most gangsters aren't so they're gonna go for your torso."

"I know..." The Japanese-Vietnamese-Korean-Chinese DNB girl stated. "But the difference is the element of surprise. If a motherfucker thinks I'm dead when I fall it gives me a chance to get the drop on him."

Mai nodded. "That's probably one of the best responses I ever heard. It's the right question to mentor in the Agency would have commended you for that."

"Commended?" Blinked Gina.

"Come on you know what that means you don't have to play stupid just to fix these boys egos around here. You're Asian you were born to be smart. In any race or culture the women are more educated than men especially nowadays."

"Yeah well...let's get to it, Lotus.'

Mai had the PSG1 and Gina got herself into position with the understanding that she would be up top while Gina would be down below. It only made sense. Gina was good with many kinds of weapons but a Sniper Rifle wasn't one of them. Mai had to chuckle to herself because to her just as Lee Shen was bad with Assault Rifles, Gina was bad with that.

"You making like me. Outside some ladies house taking pictures in the bushes. Hoping she don't call the cops. Eh but it aint even like that it's all consensual prearranged. We got a safe word and everything. That's just what gets us in the mood, kids! Don't try this at home! I never did!'

God you are such a fuckin retard! Mai thought.

You're like Day Day from the Friday movies. Loud mouth dim brain. Gina thought.

"Ya'll gone send me photos of the ride and I'm gonna tell you which ones to boost for Vernon," Lamar sounded off in their ears. Mai snapped pictures of a gold lowrider and a gray one coming in. Gina snapped the red one and a purple one.

They both sent the texts to Lamar. "Okay, we after the purple one and the red one. Take them dudes out..." No sooner had Lamar said this when Gina began opening up with the M4A1 that she had similar in style to Mai's choice of weapon. The rounds struck two Vagos down near the red lowrider and Mai began firing and striking two Vagos one, a man in a black jersey and black jeans shorts. He fell with six rounds in the left shoulder.

Gina returned fire from cover hugging the wall down below. She was behind the gate and she ran to cover behind a palm tree as the Vagos concentrated their fire at her. Mai reloaded and the return fire came up at her as the Vagos had weapons stashed in the cars. An Uzi was sprayed up at her and she took twenty rounds in her body armor in the stomach. Mai ducked down and blindly fired down. Gina yelled out, "WHOA! Watch out! Almost hit the cars we gotta jack!"

Gina came back blasting. She took four rounds in the vest and fell but rolled into cover. The Vago that had shot her was a Guatemalan male with dark brown skin wearing a black basketball jersey. Mai fired putting a round straight through the own bodyarmor did not hold. Gina cried out, "There's more of these assholes down here! I need you down here I can't get em all by myself!"

Mai ran down the stairs and readied her M4 dumping the Rifle in the car as she fired the M4 with one arm just to draw their fire and four of them did focus on her. "We got ranflas bitch! Not fuckin Jap cars with spoilers on em!" Growled a cholo with an Uzi as he sprayed at Mai. She was on the other side of the bulletproof car they were spraying the back and left side of it where she had gone to cover but she made her way to the right front quick on the right side and came around firing striking a Vago at fifty yards out. She hit him with four in the chest and three in the right thigh.

Gina took out the remaining three with her magazine. "You okay to drive?" Mai asked.

Gina called back as she reloaded, "I'm winded but I'm good!"

Mai was glad she said that in Vietnamese and not English so the Ese's didn't got into the purple lowrider while Gina got into the red one.

"You got the ride? Well take it back to G's crib. Quickest way is gonna be going off that ramp into the middle o the road."

Mai asked, "Lamar are you actually here? How do you know about that ramp?"

"Girl you sent me a motheruckin text! You losing it. You slipping! Shit they're coming after you try and lose em!" They got onto the road and Mai dialed T Mart. "Meet us in Rancho we're going up Little Bighorn and we got Vagos after us. Just get here we need backup!"

"Aight I'll grab Clay and we'll grab a posse!"

"No, just got there and we'll pick you up. We're trying to keep these lowriders from getting trashed it's a long story but me and Gina and Cherry were doing this for a while I'll explain later! Better yet just take enough with you and go get my car at the warehouse in La Mesa."

"Cool, I'll send Clayton then and I'll go get that for ya."

She hung up. Gina sprayed an Uzi she had taken off a deceased Vago. A golden Glendale pulled up and two cholas were trying to roadblock with one firing an AK out the window and the other firing a Mac-10.

Gina yelled, "They sent the hynas this time?! You ho's are just mad cause I creeped on a few of your men! Hahaha!" She cackled as she sprayed hitting the passenger with the AK before raking it around to the driver hitting her in the face while she'd shot her friend in the chest.

Mai asked, "Is that true?"

"Yeah. I've set up a few Vagos and killed them and I've got a few I keep on the line they think I'm just some random chinita piece of ass. I cover up my tattoos when we fuck. Or if its a tattoo i cant afford to show i dont. They aint ever seen my full naked titties not both just the left cause of my tat on my right."

"Wow.'

"Hey, the cholas do the same shit. They set up people too to kill them it's not my fault I'm smarter cause i figure i i keep one or two alive to fuck them and get information out of them I can get us at an advantage and they don't know I'm running around setting up and killing their homies. See we play the long game we aint like Vagas Aztecsas or even the Ballas and Family girls..."

"I thought you considered yourselves Families" Mai interjected.

"I do but just like a lot of other hoods were just neighborhood sets on their own before the Families were a thing that's how I see DNB. It's family's to me too and sorry I love those dudes in South Central but those niggas don't got a monopoly on the word Families./ That's like telling the Commission in Liberty City not to do it."

"True enough but Ballas call themselves Mob and Onda they call themselves Chicano Mafia they use the actual word mafia. I'm just saying my dad didn't found the set to be a Families thing. The Filipino dudes did that. We were line with letting it be all kinds of Asians not just Vietnamese but they had to go and make it something else."

Gina chuckled. "You know I've made un of T Mart for that before I said as much as an outcast as i am for being a quarter each at least I'm not Filipino. He doesn't l;ike that,"

Two Peyotes bombed after them down the street firing at them. Clayton crashed into the dark blue one from the side and came out blasting a P99. He hit both gang members, a female driver wearing a golden halter top and black dickies and a male with a shaved head in a black wife beater and gray dickies. "Thanks! you're a doll!" Mai called out.

"Yeah well I didn't bring my Rifle or shotty for these scraps all I had was this."

"That's good enough!" Gina insisted. "You don't gotta be Jack Howitzer we just need two extra people. Lamar had us two deep in a job that should have had more people."

The half Asian half black gunman nodded.

They kept going and he followed. T mart also pulled up in a dark blue Blista Compact. He had a window rolled down and he sprayed a Mac-11 out of the window and struck another carload of Vagos as they came up the road shooting at Mai and Gina.

"What you gonna do bout them holes in the motherfucking car?! Va Ho's shot your shit up!" T Mart demanded.

"We can always pay extra to get this shit taken care of. All of that is better than getting one of the bullets ourselves!"

'

They pulled up to the spot. Lamar was pouring liquor out on the curb. "This is or the homie Gerald, dog. Aight you two did good. Shake the spot for now after the shit ya'll popped of out there the one times is gonna be sweeping the hood looking for niggas just like they did out in Davis."

"Nah, they won't trace it back to the Hills/. They'll blame it on DNB's. Anybody that was to get any kind of description is gonna get descriptions of one Asian with white platinum hair with bangs and one girl with blue hair."

"Hey ya'll did good. Hey nobody spotted that bulletproof whip you use to mob up on em did they?"

"Anybody who saw it is dead..." Gina assured.

"Ah yeah well it dont matter no way. I need to get me one of them bulletproof rides case you know they want to take a shot at the big chief."

"Yeah. We'll get right on that when we see him..."

Unbeknownst to Mai, a dark green Oracle had been following them but had been incognito. Joaquin looked up and zoomed in with his phone on Mai and Gina leaving the projects. "There's those bitches, m,an...let';s go blast her. They laid down homies from our hood, from Rancho, Cerco Blanco, Fresa Trece, and the Eastsiders. Pavo's pissed, Listo's pissed let's just end these bitches. Aint that girl in leather the one Neto wants dead?"

"Yeah but we're just keeping tabs on it we had to follow them to see where they were getting their orders from. Now that we know this aint just a Da Nang thing, we gotta greenlight Lamar Davis. We'll deal with both another day."

"I thought he was already greenlit,m homes?'

"Yeah but he didn't have my personal attention like before. He mostly only had vatos from Strawberry to Vespucci after he's gonna have half the varrios in Sur Central after him and now since he dropped Chico from CB he's gonna catch a luz verde from them too. I'll let Neto know what's going on. We'll expedite pushing that Hmong bitches ticket."

"Aren't you a fuckin seal dog? Between you and me you're probably more chingon than Neto. You could take that bitch down now."

"First off don't ever say that again outside this car. That kinda talk can get you killed and yeah I'm a seal, fool but part of being a Seal is knowing strategy and tactics and it aint smart for just the four of us to go spraying her. Even if they're not from The Hills if the Locs see us blasting in their varrio they're gonna light this carrucha up before we get up the block."

"You've faced worse odds than this, homie! Weren't you in the middle east? Afghanistan?"

"That's not the middle east that's Central Asia and just cause I'm back doesn't mean I fight unwinnable battles. For the amount of soldados they go out right now I could probably get Mai and Gina. Maybe a few more but chances of walking out with no casualties are slim. Guacha, look up there on that balcony. They got people not just in the front but up and down the block. And on the roof..."

There were at least five families gangsters on the roof. "See that Bobcat parked over there?And the two inside? Stoppers. They're ready to to ram anything that comes close I don't even want tp guess how much firepower they got/ training or not when you're outnumbered a less trained enemy can still get you."

"Then what do we do, fool? We just leet it slide? Those chinitas got a lot of nerve starting desmadre not just with us but five different varrioos!"

He put the car in reverse. "We're not letting it slide. We're living to fight a different day, homes. And you don't go into an obvious death trap. Even the Viet Cong didn't go after the US embassy until they were good and ready. I got a lot of cuetes moving through the calles these days but I haven't had hands on a grenade launcher or rocket launcher for a minute. Haven't needed to. So what I'm saying is right now I don't have shit to blow up those rammer trucks and with just a few of us it woldn't be enough."

"Man, if you got more of the homies we could have got those fools, dog that's where that puto Lamar Davis lives. I been wanting a shot at that fuckers head for a few years. He's behind a lot of the homies that get clipped if it's green on gold you can bet that piece of shit is behind it."

"I know he's in there and he's an idiot but you're not counting how close we are to Forum Drive. They hear a few gunshots, they're gonna think just another day in the hood. Somebody gets smoked over owed money or a woman. Whatever. But they hear heavy artillery then we'll have Forum Drive and CGF on our asses and I can handle myself but I'd be wasting a lot of homies lives. Lamar's ambition is his weakness. He's the type that's so quick to look for an easy buck it's gonna get him killed one day. But not today."

He pulled over to Strawberry Avenue and saw an African American girl. "I got an idea..."

He pulled up alongside. "Hey mija...you wanna party?'

Tonya looked back at him. "Oooh shit you brought the whole familia out? What's good boo?"

"I just need twenty minutes of your time..." He could see a bit of fear in her eyes at the carload of Mexican gangsters in a car that she was sure none of them owned and she had heard gunshots from several miles away but that was to the east. But now she was starting to connect the dot.

"Hey I gotta meet my baby cause you know..."

Joaquin revealed his M9 and pointed at her. "I wasn't asking...we aint gonna fuck you. But you are gonna do what we say...starting by getting in the car."'

"I can't...! I'm expected...!" She looked around to see if any CGF or Forum Gangster members were on the block to bail her out but there were none. The gunshots and the impending sirens had cleared out any corner boys as they knew a bunch of cops while they were hustling was bad for business. They closed up shop forthe day and those who hadn't closed up shop hadn't even started because they slept during the day time and hustled and partied at night. All their gang banging was done in the day too.

Reluctantly, shaking, she got in the car.

Cypress Flats

"Tell me why you hate on the Familes and DNB's riding with them?"

"You know when one of the original Locs..Cookie Wilson was on the streets he committed at least four murders that we know more since he was around for the start of the Ballas. That's just what he got caught and executed for. But most of the people he was charged with killing were Asians. He called a Taiwanese family Buddha Heads as he gunned them down. This was a year before you were born and four years after the war ended back home so the anti Vietnamese sentiments were still strong. You wonder why I don't respect the Families? It's shit like that. Even when I was fighting on the side of the South back home the soul brothers were this way. They were no different than rednecks."

"You sound like you still hate em."

"They were against us over there. Am i saying that all are this way? No. But I think too many younger generation DNB's don't understand the way things were in the 80's."

"Yeah well they might have did that in Vietnam and out here in the wild west homie but you wanna know why I think Filipinos stand tall with the brothas? They were sent to kill us in the war over there too and a lot of them sided with us. They abandoned their post. I think when people talk about buffalo soldiers doing that for the Indians they get shit confused cause they fought us and them but they really did that with us."

"Yeah but look where that got ya'll..." Stated Clayton. "Filipinos lost that war."

"I see you as Asian...' He said looking at Clayton. "I'm mixed with white you're mixed with black. My being mixed doesn't take away from being Vietnamese just like it doesn't from you being Chinese but the difference is you have never lived in China. I have lived in Vietnam. You live in America a multiracial society. Diversity is good but too much of it can make you forget who you are. And you have. I looked into your background. You never even bothered trying to learn Chinese until High School even though your mother was always willing and wanted to teach you. Then you hurt her by trying to learn it in school as an elective rather than taking it from her."

"My home life wasn't easy, man! My pops was dead and mama was overworked and yet she tried to tell me who Not to hang out with she only pushed me to the streets. She pressured me too much. With teachers it was easier to learn."

"Yes. When you actually showed up."

He then turned to T Mart. "But just so we're clear most Filipinos are inconsequential too. You didn't fight against colonization very hard. Your women least of all. In the Vietnam war...we fought. Both men and women did. The last time Filipinos resisted the United States was the 1800's. Your countrymen always complain about other Asians not respecting you but you've never done anything worth respecting. What great empire came from there? What anti colonial resistance did you do? What culture is there really? What things did you invent? Japan surpassed most of Asia for a long time but then Koreans started making their own cars that are just as good. With us,m it's hard we had artillery dropped on us. You didn't. Not from the skies."

"It was known as the pearl of the orient before World War II. The Japanese fucked us up just like you.'

"The difference is in Vietnam we didn't need help from the Americans to fight the Japanese. Ho Chi Minh beat them. You all had to hide behind Americans. And nowadays you hide behind black kids against the scary Mexicans and scary white people. And as or the pearl of the orient that's according to European powers. Asia considered you unimportant."

"Nah homie it was some Filipino that helped start this shit it wasn't just you! How do I know you even helped start this shit? Why would some Filipinos agree on a name like Da Nang Boyz? They aint here to defend themselves when you say you did it."

"I never said I didn't do that with them I had help to be sure but they got caught and I didn't. The worst was the people that died. Besides it was 1980. Even though there were plenty of anti Vietnam war protests a lot of families served. And some of the Mexicans and black kids had family members that had just been there ten years ago. This was long after fighting the Japanese and even Korean war veterans would have been in their fifties is what young people remembered. As far as the East Side of Cypress Flats was concerned we were all Vietnamese. The black and Mexican kids saw it this way. Even some Samoans saw it this way. We weren't all Vietnamese but the twins also knew that where other Asians either fought to a draw or to a loss, the northern Vietnamese won."

"But you fought for the south you said it yourself. In your own country now you'd be seen as a traitor too. Just like in the US how we look at Confederates."

"That is true but the average Eastsider didn't know or care to know the difference. And we figured that if the cops all thought we were Vietnamese too in some cases it would help us with them too. They would not know our real names. It was always gook this dink that. If I had explained that I had fought for the South they wouldn't have cared. And in the end I know that I helped the North too. I saw the writing on the wall and defected. But they didn't know that. We decided for ourselves that if Vagos wanted Viet Cong we would show them true guerilla warfare. But what you forget..." He leaned in towards T Mart. "Is that whole younger generations and yes...the Twins modeled us after the Families sets that was not our original intention. And it would have never flied if I had stayed in San Andreas."

He then added, "And we fought black gangs back then too. Anybody that thinks we didn't is lying or misinformed. The Samoans did the same thing. The Psychos did the same thing. The difference is the Vagos as enemies were true to themselves and we were not. We modeled ourselves after the Locs and the Samoans did too. I hate Vagos don't get me wrong but I have more respect for them being somewhat true to themselves..." He smirked and said, "I say the same about the Psychos. They do copy some ebonics but they still also fight Families and Ballas but they're still a stand alone gang. If i could do it over I would have started them not the DNB."

Clayton added, "Yeah and to be fair the pearl of the orient it's like who called it that. White people? You didn't answer Khoi's question."

"I don't know homie..."

Mai approached them. Khoi turned to the two DNB's. "I'm going to speak to my daughter. Both of you give us some space."

They walked away. The elder Thu looked to her and said, "I hear you've been getting in more trouble with the New Arcadians. When are you ever going to learn?"

"Dad, it's easy for you to point the finger at me but the Agency has changed since you left and our mission still matters."

"If it matters that much you would just put a bullet in Neto's head and be done with it. He's got it coming if that's what you're worried about."

"I can't kill him..."

"You might have been told to stand down by certain people in the organization but that's more of a slow down order not a full stop. You'll never have peace if you don't kill them both. Him and Paul."

"I can't kill them. I might be able to kill Ivan but...Paul I was never asked to kill him but I know there's people in the Agency that would try and kill him later if they can to tie up a loose end..." She buried her face in her hands a moment. "I never thought I'd miss South Yankton. I'd take the boring countryside and small towns."

"South Yankton ids too small for people like you and me. Look at Task his tribe comes from out there and even he can't be bothered to live back there. It's a place without much hope."

Mai sighed. "I just don't know where to reach this guy, dad. We were friends for most of 2013. You know..everybody thinks it was just me, him, Neto and Ivan all commigting crimes together but it wasn't. We actually had a lot of in between where we watched TV together, went places, chilled. We even went to the beach together a few times. We all felt like normal people there."

"You still only knew them less than a year. That isn't enough time to truly know somebody."

"Yeah but I studied his background I looked into his past. I learned things about him without him telling me."

"This would make you even less trustworthy in his eyes. My flower...so beautiful and wise and strong you became but you still do not understand. You are not a true IAA agent yet if you do not see that it would have been better for you to still coax that out of him. Sure, you found out what you did and that is what we do but a true master at communication would have found a weak spot to get him to open up more."

"He told me things about his parents, the way he grew up but it was bits and pieces. I needed to find out more. I didn't just do that with him I did it with Ivan and Neto. Neto didn't know what I was up to and I don't think Paul was either but Ivan might have known all along for all I know. He's the one I know the least. I thought I knew him best we were closer but all along..."

Khoi told her, "At the same time you must not beat yourself up about it. You knew who Neto was and you knew who Paul was. Al you could find out about Ivan was that he was with the Bravta which is true. He was. KGB agents are more deceptive than Mohawk Warriors and Zapatistas. I don't think that kid would be able to fool anybody the way you could or Ivan could. But for all you know Ivan doesn't even know who you are."

"But even with what I did before. He doesn' trust me now. He won't. He put up a wall and he's so sure the Agency is gonna try to kill him.'

"Oh they WILL try and kill him. That's what they do. By the way...you weren't followed were you? You put your cell phone n the microwave right?"

"Yes. Jesus Christ, dad. I've been putting cell phones in microwaves because of you for as long as we';ve had them. And you had them a lot sooner than most people did."

"Watch how you talk to me. I am still your father and because you are well trained I know that a good smack to the mouth will not hurt you it will not kill you but your ears will ring like hell and you'll remember to respect YOUR FUCKIN ELDERS!" He then stated, "There was a time where I would have done that for you blaspheming too. But you know what I've come to recognize, Mai? Your mother is right. We should have never been Catholics. She never was but the church is full of shit. There's so many pedophiles in it and there's so many murderers in it all over the world. Buddhism is the way..."

"Yeah I get it. I..in some ways I still have some Catholic belief too but Buddhism gives me more comfort too. I'm starting to shy away from it but...I also have seen too much to think there is a God. Or if there is one it's not the God in church."

"The state we're in in the world..you have good reason to think that way. But listen...your friend might be too far gone. And even if he isn't you can't reach him. If you don't kill him, stay away from him. That asshole is back in Teranto so you need to stay in San Andreas. Do your job from here."

"I have to believe there's a part of him that can be reasoned with.."

"Oh sure you can reason with just about anybody but it doesn't mean they'll listen. You...don't understand what he's done so you don't know how to talk a man down. He killed his father. Even if he had a good reason to do it that does something to you. I...I killed my father. The same as he did. For different reasons."

"You never told me that! txiv you just said he died."

"He did die. In the south while the Vietnam war was going against the United States and the South we cleared the country out of French people. I was still a child. Like him. But I was twelve not fourteen. He was still one Frenchmen who hadn't gone home. Sure, the military had but not every French person did. And when we wanted to take back our country some were in the way. I only knew my father...briefly. We met maybe six times in my life and his. The sixth time...we were armed. Adults and children..." He sighed. "You know...because of my father's blood many Vietnamese distrusted me."

He sighed. "He was holding off our villagers with Sniper fire. Five other Frenchmen had been taken from their homes and had it set on fire. Along with them. I guess he didn't want to face the same fate..." He chuckled sadly. "But when I came walking into the crosshairs he could not kill his son. I took that chance. He did not suspect I was with them. He knew my mother lived in the south. I never understood how she could be witha Frenchmen especially one who was there as a soldier to occupy our country from '46 to '54. He killed Vietnamese freedom fighters yet he beds a Vietnamese woman. And he was working for the Americans as a translator too since he learned Vietnamese and English as well as French.

This was done by a lot of colonial soldiers all over history though, dad... She thought but she let the man talk.

"Then..because he had SOME compassion for me he asked me in French what I was doing there. He said it was dangerous. That I could get hurt. He tried to keep his attention on me and sniping at the same time. He wanted to give his full attention to me. I could tell but more villagers were coming. You see...by that time in the war...we were against Ho Chi Minh but many of those men had fought under him. Against the Japanese and the French. He knew that if he didn't keep them back they would get to the house and overrun had a rifle with a bayonet laid against the wall. While he was firing trying to keep them back I took the rifle...and I jammed it into his back. I watched the blood come from his mouth. I hit his spine. As he fell the rifle twisted and the blade did and lacerated his right lung. He just kept staring at me in disbelief...blood coming from his mouth, blood forming a pool under him. I could not stand to see his face. So I took the rifle...and i jammed it into his face. Again and again. It got worse. His face split apart and cracked like an egg. And then I fired the rifle into his face. I didn't even remember doing it until I saw that his face was unrecognizable."

He looked down. A single tear fell from his left eye. "The gunmen from my village, they saw what I did. They knew he was my father and they saw that I kil;ed him anyway. They trusted me from that day forward because they knew I picked being Vietnamese over somebody's son. He treated my mother like a prostitute even though she wasn't."

He turned to Mai. She wanted to hug him but she knew how emotionally volatile he was and there was still a machismo to him. He sniffed. "Didn't you say Paul's dad was his first kill?"

She nodded.

"Then we have that in common. That is part of why you can't reach him. You fought in a war, sure and you've seen things that even he hasn't seen but your first kill was in war. You didn't have to kill a parent. Your parent. When I think of this I think what if it hadn't been me killing him? What if the same thing that happened to him back then happen before he had me?"

"In many ways in most ways you had it worse than him."

"I did. But we both had shitty fathers and we both had the right to blow them problem is I stabbed him in the face so many times to get rid of the face that was looking at me in disbelief but in my dreams I see both his shocked face and his ruined face."

Even though Mai was only a quarter French it still weirded her out that she had this ancestry in her as well.

Paul

"We're helping that guy Ernesto win his war. He fucked up. I just showed them a demonstration without killing or even hurting any of them and they repay me by sending that bitch with a shotgun."

"I'm with you, man...it's just...when can we ever just stop with the warring with other people and just kick back and make some money, bro? All we've been doing is fighting. The Angels, the Post Ops, IC, when does it end?" Asked Little Joe.

"You're acting like a pussy. You're the fuckin class clown, Joe. You can't be that and be serious. I'm with K:or on this shit. They killed Ray. And since Sun Kang sent a hitman after one of our boys and killed hi,m.

Jared Cook stated, "You know I'm willing to help you out after what you did for Aila we all are but...you're helping Rotironhkwe'naná:wen?"

Paul shot him a glare. "Don't call them that, asshole!" He growled. Angus looked at Paul. "What did he say?" Paul explained to the non Mohawk Native. "That's a slur for Mexicans. It means their backs are wet. That's not Onkwehonwe values. That's the white man who came up with that."

"I saw it on our cultural named websiote for our language."

"So what? It shouldn't be somewhere that kids can see it. Think about it why insult people that are related to us down in Mexico?"

Jared explained, "I aint the one that came up with that look even before the white man I'm sure for Mexican tribes to get up here they had to cross that river."

Paul shook his head. "The right word for Mexicans is Rotiswaná:wen...we don't need to disrespect word for blacks is Ratihòn:tsi."

"Bro, even if you think that's disrespectful you forgetting Mexico is just like Canada? Jus like we got these Metis faggots out there trying to claim to be real Natives when they steal culture from Chippewas. Most Mexicans are mestizo which means they're detribalized just like these Metis fuckers. Backing up a mestizo like this guy you got us backing up...or even that cartel piece of shit you were riding with..."

"That piece of shit is part of how I even survived prison. Can you say any of us are innocent?"

"I know we did bad shit to get thrown in the slammer and I wasn't there for Aila when she needed me last. But the cartel is a whole different ball game, K;or. None of us on any of our rez's are involved with that. You got revenge for Aila shouldn't you stop fucking around in the States? You're home. Live happily ever after with Dawn, if you're smart. I'm just saying somebody like Neto or Ernesto..."

"I don't know Ernesto but Neto isn't a mestizo. His parents were Zapatistas. They're Mayans. They're fully Mayans."

"That fucker aint Mayan. Whatever tribe in Mexico he is look at his features. He's a desert Indian I've seen plenty of them when I was in the Southwest..." Stated Terrance.

"What were you doing out there?" Demanded Angus.

"Pow wow. Biggest in the country. Tribes from all over there."

Bobby added, "Hey maybe you don't like that word but the term for Chinese isn't that racist? Tehatikahré:sons."

"That's just descriptive it means they have long eyes. Describing them as long eyes isn't as much of an insult

"Yeah but Tehotikahratí:ronte is another term for them," Added Terrance.

Karakon:kie added, "He's right. The word Ratihnarà:ken is for white people and that just means their skin is white. Or Ratihnara'ken'kehró:non. People of the place where their skin is white."

K:or shook his head. "But that's descriptive."

"Bro, to be fair, " Bobby began. "It's not really fully a racial slur if you think about it. If they were our neighbors and some tribes from down there came up north they had to go through the Rio Bravo, right? How else would they get here?"

"Through San Andreas, you idiot..." Paul said shaking his head. Bobby growled, "Look here, man. You helped me get revenge for my cousin BUT DON'T YOU FUCKIN TALK TO ME LIKE THAT!"

Paul stared him down but he held his ground. "Or what?"

"Or I walk. I don't have to fight you, K:or. It aint worth got revenge for Aila. We shouldn't be out people left the states for a reason. Americans are fuckin assholes. And you're turning into one the more you're around them. And you got sworn in as a warrior finally and you were given a name and a clan. You call yourself a leader? Lead."

Paul sighed. "Come on. We gotta do this for Ray."

"I don't even get it, man w're coming down here just to go after a guy that came after a rapper that aint even dead."

"We want them to think he is so we gotta act accordingly. Lee didn't get him but he tried. All to get one Yardie. Besides, in order to fake the death we have to go down there looking for revenge even though we fooled them. He caused a hell of a scene in a city that isn't his. Me, I killed one guy in that city other than the enemies I already had walking the gauntlet. I spared all of them other than a fight. This is obviously a revenge thing. That plus I know Sun Kang had to have paid him. He'll be paying for that when I get back to the city."

"I gotcha, man it's just we already went after the Angels of Death and we got revenge for Aila. It seems pointless to go back to New Arcadia."

Blackwater

Rio Bravo

Ernesto and Syke O stepped into the house. They were at the border near Nuevo Pairaiso It seemed that the Romans and the BSU were occupied by the attacks now happening from the Ballas and the Russians and the Psychos. Ernesto knew Mark had his hands full and as much as he likely wanted to deal with Ernesto and be done ith it or the men that had killed Courtney.

T Cell also emerged. The aids infected Onda member was weakened by his status but he was more ruthless than ever. He had earned that name from giving other inmates infected blood and Ernesto almost thought that might be a good way to get revenge on Mark but he wasn't sure that was good enough. He wanted Mark and Lee dead.

They met the man wearing a three piece suit. He was a lieutenant for the Zero cartel that Ernesto had worked with in the 90's but before that he had previously been with the Juarez cartel. "I need a guarantee. The rest of my kids stay in Mexico. They live within your turf but you don't touch them and don't let anybody else touch them."

"Tu sabes...you and I used to be in business but yet UI hear in San Andreas you';d done some work with the Madrazo cartel. That's not good, companero. You might not be a Zero but you're allied with us. Every Ondero in the state is with us. You switched up to the San Andrean Onda. I get it it's survival and maybe you didn't want to be separate. But nobody's done that before. Been two kinds of Onda and lived to tell it. And nobody crosses Los Ceros."

"I didn't kill any of you in any of the time I worked with Martin. Besides, he's dead. And I'll be dead soon too but Mark Roman has to die. And Lee Shen. They killed my hijo y hija. I'm gonna take everything from them. What happened to his wife? That's just the start."

"We're with you, carnal. That bitch Marrick is ours. Fuckin mayate is like a fly on a windshield hanging onto the fuckin car and shit..." Sneered Snapper.

"What is it you want from us in exchange for letting us in? You're letting in fifty of us a day. A bunch of illegals in New Austin that's nothing new but you're lucky my soldados have fake ID's and American passports. Even fuckin citizenship. Now we want Marcus Roman dead and it will be us who kills him. I'll tell you what. You can kill one of them."

'I already told you. Keep my family safe. From any retaliation from them. Actually you know what? Make sure they don't live in Nuevo Pairiso or that piece of shit might find them. He's got allies in what's left of the Madrazo cartel."

"The Madrazos are in Sinaloa. We've got military grade weapons and ex military soldados. We've even got a few comaradas that served in the US military. Got an air force pilot, an ex jarhead and a Ranger. And as for those drones the BSU like to use we have our own this time. Some of them are military grade but the ones that aren't. Escucha mi. Whatever the Romans do they wont be enough to hold us off."

"Don't underestimate them. They got sociopaths working for them that make Mark Roman and Lee Shen look like a saint. They got IAA backup and Merryweather."

The cartel thug snorted. "And you think we don't?"

Ernesto sighed. "Mirate. Just get these gente in the cities. Make them sleepers. The vatos that look like they can be campesinos in your crew...have them set up with a leaf blower. Nobody suspects a Mexican with a leafblower. Not even in New Arcadia. And if they look more like the vatos that run the cartel they should dress up like the rich businessmen you see in town."

"Who do you think you're talking to, Ernesto?" Sneered the cartel representative. "We've been doing this for a long time, viejo. I went into the Mexican army myself. Just like Neto. Your camarada. I wonder what he would say if he saw you here talking to the same cartel that killed his parents?"

"He'd kill me. But I'm already a dead man walking. I'm ready for long as I take him down before I go down..." He looked into the man's eyes. "I wouldn't have worked with any of you 20 years ago if I'd known what i know about you. You're the worst kind of cartel. Madrazo cartel is bad but they don't sex traffic children or kidnap women to be raped/ They tax the pimps in Mexico that already exist and they have their own pimps."

"It's going to take the worst cartel to take down Vasquez. Even if you get Mark and Lee you still need to get the rest. But one thing has to happen going forward. You can't work with Neto again. He's our enemy. We won't ask you to kill him. But we expect you not to interfere with our duties.'

"I might not be in the best standing with half the fellas in Onda but when I finally kill Marcus...I'll earn my rose placaso. And I'll be remembered. Maybe not forever. Maybe only a hundred years or maybe not at all. But that's more than most people can hope for when they're gone. Most people won't be remembered fifty years after they're gone if they don't have living descendants. But I do. Maybe my familia if they survive can set the record straight. The public will see me as a menace but one day ...maybe I'll just be like Jesse James. Or Arthur Morgan. Enough time goes by if they don't forget you they'll just remember you by your legend."

With that, the Sicarios began to lead more of their men through the tunnels underneath.

Ernesto and T Cell got into a gray Hermes and began to drive east. Eventually, they reached Blackwater and stopped off at Quayside Road. Snapper and Cabello got in and Ernesto noticed four Chicana women dressed scantily in chola clothing but still showing off their bodies in varying black blue and green crop tops.

"Glad to see you weren't wasting time getting ready..." T Cell growled at the two out of state Onderos.

"You just mad cause we like bitches instead of verga like you?" Sneered Cabello. "That's how you got the name T Cell right?"

"I got it from heroin..." T Cell replied. "Tu jefita nunca podría permitírselo. Esas putas en Arizas siempre están buscando una limosna así que tuvimos que venir a otros arreglos. Has estado llamando papá al hombre equivocado todos estos años."

(Your jefita could never afford it. Those putas in Arizas are always looking for a handout so we had to come to other arrangements. You've been calling the wrong man papa all these years.)

The two Onderos made a move towards the car. "Knock it off! We're not doing this shit now!" Ernesto snarled. "We're getting vengaza for Carmen and Miguel."

Lady Casper and Tortura were nearby in a beige Savannah. They had their weapons locked and loaded. An M4A1 with an M203 Grenade launcher on it. Lady Casper wore a gold bandanna and a black wife beater over a weaker bulletproof vest and on top of that she had a military grade one. She also had tactical armor for her pants much like the bank robbers from the North Vinewood shootout.

Tortura wore a light blue bandanna and a gold plaid button up jacket. She had a similar armor setup. Her weapon was an AK-74 with a GP-25

With them in their lowrider was two members of Los Chingones a gang that Ernesto's varrio was against for years. A man standing five eight with a muscular build fresh out of the pen with a shaved head and a New Austin Rinches cap on backwards and a gold varsity basketball jersey and black jeans. His nickname was El Sniper. The next was a man wearing a black wifebeater with gray dickies and a brown bandanna around his head. He had a slicked back hairstyle. His name was Flaco.

T Cell's son Sancho was there as well who was also an Ondero from St. was driving a dark red Savannah with the top up and he had three Chicanos in the car with him. None of them were made but they were esquinas. Sancho was a light skinned Mexican with a handlebar mustache, almond shaped and almond colored eyes. Though his father was only about a quarter Indigenous and was mostly from the Spanish side of Mexico, but his mother had been a mostly Indigenous woman of stock from the Chihuahua desert region.

With his son was his girlfriend. She was a light brown skinned Chicana with red and black hair and pakle brown skin and a bit chunky. She wore a black fedora and a black jersey with atouch of pink on it/. She was nicknamed Gordita but she was really only chubby.

She was armed with two UMP's. They pulled up to a neighborhood controlled by teh Rifas. Ernesto let the rounds spray at a four person group of Rifas. The rounds sawed through each of them. Two Rifas ran outside with their Glocks blazing but Lady Casper swept up the two of them.

Gulfton Heights

Sunbelt

1 Hour Later

Chetah and Halcon happened to be stopping by so the OG could collect dues. He would be wiring it to the carnales locked up.

After that part was handled, they began to head out for their other task. The OG for Los Chingones. He was a gangster named Shadow who had lived in both San Andreas representing Vagos in Blaine County and had domne time out there as well as iout here in Sunbelt which he had done a nickel ot here and he had been the one to help school locals representing Southern San Andrean Chicano gang culture to learn how they repped it out west and help the already extablished vagos who were merely copyucats of the Vago and Onda street and prison relationship without the reglas to starting to put more San Andreas influence out here.

A fat Rifa member was with them and a skinny one. The chubby one was about a hundred pounds overweight. He had yellowish brown skin and a goatee and wore a 69ers jersey. A long time friend of Chetah and Felon's though Halcon didn;t know him. He had done six years in prison and while Halcon fancied himself the man who was showing New Austin vatos how to properly represent El Norte, he found a lot of Nuevo Austinitas who knew far less than Chetah did. But he had respect from what Chetah had said about this man, Ozzy or Oswaldo. He had been one of only six Rifas at one prison in a different county and on that yard there had been far more Vagos, Aztecas, Marabunta, Condados and other various New Austin Chicano gangs as well as paisa gangs.

The other homie who was driving was Salvador Nunez AKA Nune pronounced New-nay. Salvador had his hair in a Mongolian tail and wore a dark red plaid button up over a white wife beater and he wore black dickies. He also wore a gold crucifix. He was twenty five himself. He had been involved in a race riot on a different New Austin yard when a riot had kicked off between the Rifas and the white inmates and in that case, the Rifas were outnmbered despite Mexicans being a majority in that prison, they were fragmented by affiliations plus that wasn't counting gall the inmates that were not gangsters.

"So this puto is from Los Chingones? Now you're sure about that right? Cause those fuckers have been giving ixpoleros problems in the city, man."

"Hey homie I'm telling you, dog this bitch is the ONE. His varrio was even giving Ernesto's hood problems back in the day. You know how these Chichonas are. Everybody hates them."

"Yeah and that also means they're taking on a lot of people without much allies That was before the prison alliances started making it back to the street but now they got allies and with Ernesto's cliqua done, he needs to be next or it's just gonna be more problems."

"You know smething fool we should just go smoke his whole family. I heard that motherfuckers got like three kids. Four kids and an ol lady probably a side bitch too we shoulfd smoke thm all in front of him."

"Nah that shit you're talking about is NOT the way we do things. We don't hurt innocent people, man. Not if we can help it. Chetah vouched for you. You wanna be down with me with us on some real OG shit? You gotta do it our ways..." He was readying the Uzi in his lap. "I've done this shit in two states some people act like I'm hood hopping to do this in two states but this Movement NS has to go beyond the borders of one state. Also...I do want you all to know somethinhg if you ever visit the Motherland, San Andreas? There's a truce there. I been trying to get Chetah to see this too. It needed to be done./ I got animosity on my side but I'm telling you...enough is enough now I know things are different out here the truce aint happening but Onda has already patched it up wih us and they'[re good with Nuevo Onda and now they'e trying to reach an understanding with New Austin Onda. So eventually we will have to try peace."

Salvador sneered. "Man I aint ever being cool with a pinche scrapa homie fuck..."

Alongside them at a stoplight as they were a few blocks away from where Shadow was going to be, they got ready stopping to put their bandannas on. Chetah was the last to get hers on but a gold Savanagh pulled up and they heard curses, "Que chingada!" They saw a carload of male and female Vagos. They saw the Rifas and pulled out their own pistols.

Oswaldo had his Remington aimed out the window. Nune was trying to get his pistol ready and Chetah brought both Glocks up and began opening fire. The intersection erupted in an exchange of gunfire. Nune was riddled with six rounds in the initial volley and he fell slumped against the steeringwheel which was going off on the horn as blood dripped from his mouth.

The Vago windshield and front seats erupted into red as the two in the front of the car were riddled with rounds from Chetah as well as Halcon with his Uzi and two blasts from Ozzy with the shotgun. From the back seat of the Savanah one handgun was still being fired letting off nine shots. Two winged Ozzy in the right shoulder and a third ricochet round went through his stomach. The fourth round caught the right side of his jaw taking several teeth broken with ripped pieces of tongue and cheek flesh in his teeth.

The other car was still firing and Chetah ducked down as six more shots went off and one narrowly missed her. She was surprised that no rounds had hit her or Halcon yet. Halcon exited the car and began spraying the remaining magazine at the back seat. He got out reloading as he saw just one more person, a Vaga. He got out and as he looked at his handiwork he watched in horror as he saw a Vaga clutching a lifeless seven year old girl of Mexican American descent. She had been struck in the heart by a single round, the wound consistent with an Uzi.

She was screaming and crying holding her child. Chetah pulled Nune from behind thee wheel of the car and had to make a quick call to leave him in the street. She did the same for the other deceased homie. "Halcon let's bail! We gotta go! AHORA!" She got out and pulled him into the car. The Song Like A Merrygo Round played in the background as they sped from the scene.

Meanwhile

They had time only to hit up one spot in the contested turf that belonged to Nuestra doubted that any of the heavies would be at this place but it was onel It was a Puerto Rican style bodega in SW Blackwater. It was a front being used to clean money for Nuestra Syndicato. Ernesto and Syke O and Tortura and Casper and T Cell and Whispers fired on a trio of Rifas congregated outside of the bodega. Ernesto spotted one with dark brown skin sporting a Mongolian braid and he took five rounds in the side as Ernesto unloaded his AK-47.

Lady Casper and Tortura mowed through two cholas as well sawing them up properly. The bodega owner came outside racking a 20 gauge only for Tortura to let him have a face and neckful. "

They then threw their cocktails in the window of the shop. Ernesto got a call on his cell. He spoke a bit in Nahuatl then got off. "The Rifas just hit Shadow's kid back in Sunbelt. It's all over the news supposedly the police have descriptions of the peop;le who did it. It sounds like Halcon and Chetah. They had two other busters with them and they both got killed but they killed Shadow's daughter./ They killed everybody in the car except the mother of his kid. He had four kids. Now he has three..." Ernesto didn't know Shadow personally a different Ondero reresented for LC but he felt empathy and sympathy for the man. There was no greater grief.

"Fuckin punks man..." Growled Lady Casper.

"We'll be catching theem in New Arcadia. They got nowhere else to run and hide."

Paul

8 Houtrs Later

The AK rounds came cracking at the Romans and the BSU. Three BSU soldiers turned Militia members fell as the 7.62 rounds rattled them as white hot sparks rained down. They were surrounded by darkness. Mark and the others got into defensive mode. They returned fire and six Aztecas fell dead as members of the Militia, the 3rd and 17th ward and the Undertakers Inc were patrolling the 3rd ward.

Angus and Terranc sawed through a blockade of BSU and 3rd ward soldiers who had intended to ambush.

Link fired from a rooftop above a bar with an MP5 striking two carloads of Vagos hitting thm with prescise aiming wasting no shots. A 3rd ward gangstr fighting under Mark was checking the side streets to reenforc th Roman position.

Ernesto and the Vagos moved through the wards like locusts. Four members of the Militia pulled up alongside them but Ernesto and T Cell let them have it with rounds even as the BSU Militia members fired on them. With carefully aimed headshots the BSU goons were taken down without suffering any casualties. Mark spotted Ernesto and fired at him. He struck the older man in the chest ut th older man stayed down. Paul fired at Mark forcing the youngest Roman to cover.

Three men fell dead with slit throats as more of the infamous 29 had cut the throats of three BSU members from Treeport. One Caucasian with blonde hair and a stud in his nose wearing an Avenged Sevenfold T shirt and black jeans, one Honduran woman with medium brown skin and a medium frame and jet black hair. Last was a black man with his hair shaved in a bro hawk wearing a t shirt that said RIP Dimebag Daryl.

One of the Mohawk warriors however was hit by a 3rd ward gangster. Tune hit the man with twenty four rounds from a Skorpion. The heavily armored warrior went down as eight rounds got through th vest regardless. The man coughed blood as he even had two more in throat. Tune snarled at the masked warrior. "You came to the wrong fuckin hood, mane!" He squeezed another burst and extinguished the man's life with a burst to the chin.

Just then, a carload of Vagos were obliterated as two gumen from Undertake Inc and two from the Milita engaged plus five 3rd ward gangsters fired at them too. "You New Austin bitches need to get the fuck up outta here!" Screamed a 3rd ward gangster firing an M3 hitting a Vago in the chest. The gang member himself fell as twelve rounds from an MP7 swept both legs.

Ernesto tossed a pipe bomb at a pursuing gray Willard and it landed on the hood of the car. The blast was felt everywhere and glass rained omn the streets as the force blasted out wiondows.

Ernesto spotted Tune among the 3rd ward gangsters. He had seen him befor with Marrick. He droppd th Rifle momentarily as Tune fired at him and he ducked down in the car. Tune cam running torward to dom him but Ernsto kickd th car open and Tune was caught off guard and winded. Ernesto had his .44 ready and he pressed it against the gangsters face. He looked and saw that Tune had alrady been hit with three rounds from Tortura in the right ribcage and the small of his back.

He clubbed him with the .44 and he fell and his nose broke. Ernesto smacked him again in the face with it wanting to shoot him but also not wanting to give him an easy death. He put his hand inside the car door and then slammed it and his wrist was bent the completely wrong way with a sickening crack. Tune screamed and Ernesto slammed his face in the door. He then kicked the dying man in the stomach and then hit him once splitting his skull open. He then hit his already broken nose again and iot cracked and bled more and he spat teeth from the impact. After the nxt he had broken his eye socket. His face looked like a man with a peanut allergy but much bloodier and swolen. T Cell and Sancho stopped him. "He's done homes! Come on. We gotta keep moving. You were gonna meet up with that mayate that's helping right? You better get to it. We'll take car of the rest of this shit."

The gangster weakly got to his feet and Ernesto growled, "I'll give you a headstart. Run."

Wasting no time, Tune did this. Ernesto waite until he was almost a hundred yards out and began firing the .44 and he missed with three rounds but the last one hit him in the back of the right elbow obliterating it in a mess of bone and flesh. The 3rd ward gangster howled as he ran up the block. Ernesto figured him for dead soon enough.

T Cell nodded agreeing with his son. "W'll take car of those punks from the BSU and Undertaker and whoever else."

Ernesto and Barry met up at the rendezvous point getting into a black Stallion. They were on the outskirts of town. "You know what I need done, right? We drew in Mark's NS contacts so they'll be caught in a trap here in the city. Then you make your move on Martin Roman."

"I got it, homie...and I'm down. I got as much riding on this as you do. I get to be free again. I spent the last four years in the slammer. I expected to do life but Roland...he's a bitch but he's a godsend. I keep trying to make up for the past and last time I botched the deal that was made for me. This time, I aint hesitating."

"The hombre you're gonna be killing is a lawyer. He's not a bad man. He might be the only person in that family that's decent. That and his sister..." Ernesto sighed. On some level he still felt pity for Gwen and couldn't help but think that maybe the collision course he and Mark found themselves on yet again could have been avoided were it not for the bad timing of the shooting at his wedding.

He promised to himself that if he somehow made it out alive long enough to destroy the BSU here in the gulf of Mexico region, he would also go after the vatos that really shot the wedding up because after all, it was their fault that Miguel and Carmen were dead. It was all their faults. And he included himself in that but he had a weight off his chest. He knew now that the BSU and even the IAA were not gouing to be able to get the rest of his family.

"I'm still sorry as hell aboutr what happened to Marisol, man. And your son and daughter. But that's why it's important we gotta do this shit. I can learn from th mistakes I've made. You know...inside I really did try and do my time and not get in any trouble and I didn't but I knew what I was missing out on. It doesn't matter that I'd been separated from my daughter for years, dog. It doesn't matter that I may never see Liberty City again either. I gotta do what's right. Too many generation of St. Clair's ended up dead or inside or both."

"I'm sorry too. And yeah you should probably get out of the game permenantly. There's nothing but sadness in it. But for me that's all there is left. My kids gotta stay away from me and live their lives down there. Uprooted...you know they can get good jobs and good education down there they were law abiding and educated. In that way even though they're all my kids I can see that they're more of Marisol's kids. Miguelito and Luis they were min."

"What about Carmen? She had to be both of yours. Come on, son it took two to tango. She aint get herself pregnant and you can't tell me that was some virgin birth. Hey you know what else? She might have had that Creole basketball nigga seeing her for a while and shit and yeah i get it you got a problem with it shit I would be too. But for you it was cause he wa a nigga. For me, it'd be cause he's a light skinned nigga. It's a black trhing you wouldn't understand."

"No, we wouldnt understand that..." Ernesto said with an eye roll.

"I mean I do i get it but with ya'll it's teh women that get hyped up more when she's lighter. With us it's both genders the light niggas taking from the dark niggas. But anyway back to my point? You aint the only man she was ever with but you are the only one she had the kids of."

He then added, "Plus you told Carmen to stay away from white boys but you already told m,e what you was doing with Mrs, De Santa back in Los Santos..."

"I did what I had to do to keep that bitch happy so i could keep a job and stay on the streets."

"Well, look we got revenge on the guards, on the dixie mob all those that had a hand in your girl dying."

"I know..." Ernesto said. "And the juras are gona be all over me once this is over cause I been ordering hitrs lilke crazy but the ones that shot my son, Luis. They're out in Los Santos. I had a deal made/. i dont care if i dont get to personally kill them. All that matters is it comes from me."

"But on some real shit did you really kill that basketball nigga? Or did you just tune him up when you found out he cheated on her?"

"It doesn't matter. The official word is that he went to France and that's the last place he was seen. But who the fuck knows? It's suspiscuious either way a basketball star goes missing even if he takes a few seasons off it's sketchy. All that..even that bullshit is easier than dealing with a dead wife and two dead kids. Mark Roman...I wish I'd had you and Jrue with me when I first went to war with that punk."

"Yeah but Jrue...he wasn't made for this life, bro. He should have gone to that job he set out to do. That's one way him and I both fucked up. I escaped to Sunbelt he escaped to Sunbelt we could have just started over moved on from our pain I could have sent for my daughter and girl eventually. You...ywe would have never met you if you' stayed in Los Santos."

]

He nodded. "Could have should have woyld have. Tjhat's what my life has been. If I had never let Luis start doing what I did none of this would have happened so all three deaths are my fault. But they're more their fault and they're gonna lose everything they have. They think they know what suffering is? They don't.'/

"If this nigga Marcus you talking about lost his girl and his pops and his sister at his wedding I think he klnows what loss is. Maybe a bit too well and it makes him numb to when he does the shit to other people. You're the same way but I met Miguiel he was a knucklehead but he could have been a better kid if you had been home, Luis hadn't died, and your girl and you nevedr split up. Distance can only be worse for a relationshoip Een now my girlk has been briefed on this shit only I don't know if she my girl anymore. They got the most rare deal i ever heard of for me. New ID's when we done here but they still have the option to leave me if she wants it. I don't mind thouh cause she might stioll be better off after the shit I donee in ,y life you never know who wants to kill you."

"Yeah, it might be a good idea. I just left a kid back there, Syke O unconscious. He was headed down my path and I don't want that to happen. This is my fight from now on. I'm on the lista with some of the carnales and taht's fine they can try and make a move on me I still got comaradas that back me. You know,,. the thing that occurs to me too is that you might be getting outta prison and get a new life./ I might stilol end up doing life but now...I think it's better that way if I do. I'll be insolated and surrounded by the life I chose over my family. And my family what's left of it will be away from this. I never thought the Santana family would leave America to go to Mexico for a better life. But I did everything else backwards. Why not that?"

"It aint your fault son. Not all the way. Sure shit turned out bad anfd you made bad calls but come on, B. You forgetting that your pops, my pops were mixed up in this lifestyle too and we followed the same way. And you saw Miguel and KLuis and Carmen die behind that. I've lost people i cared about I aint never had that much family even despite being mixed with two different Caribbean countries most of our family is still in the islands, not the states.

Ya'll are bonded for life and that doesn't just end with when one of ya'll dies it has tpo be botyh of ya;ll till death do us part."

He spotted Ivan standing near a black Admiral. He opened the trunk of the car. Ivan handed Barry some written directions to an address. "That's where you'll find Mark's eyes in the sky. And that's where his brother will be."

Ernesto turned to Barry. "I want to get a chance to talk to you when this is over. Give you some advice where to go right where I went wrong after this but just in case I die tonight it's been real..."

"Get the fuck outta here you aint dying tonight nobody is dying tonight but Mark Roman/. He wasn't a problem for me before. He even spared me when he was supposed to lay me out. But if he had a hand in Jrue dying...and he did...we gotta handle it."

Ernesto nodded. "Go take care of Martin and Manfred. I'll be going after Mark and Lee. After I...take my time with this one..."

Paul

"Where the fuck is all this shit coming from toight?!" Demanded Mark as his Rif;le cracked through th night air and he hit a carload of Aztecas/. He knew they were not from Ernesto's varriuo but they were from the same city so they were still as much as his.

Paul fired his Rifle striking a white blonde haired blue eyed member of the Militia in the throat. Jared moved to the south to cover Paul. He spotted three Merryweather goons. Paul and the twenty nin had been training in darkness too Vietcong style and so their eyes had gotten accustomed to the dark. Mark and Lee were holding off several Vagos from their spot.

He spotted the New Arcadia Police coming in as well. He was not surprised that none were making an effort to stop Mark or the others from engaging. Angus fell as an NAPD officer, a white female with short red hair struck him with two rounds in the right leg. Terrance got him to cover. Shepard was with Paul as well and he let his AK-74 sing out and he hit three officers inckluding the one who had hit Angus.

Jared fired and hit an African American male officer in his mid twenties with six rounds in the right forearm and then three more in the gut. He had to reload howevreer just as Marcus had reloaded his own Assault Rifle.

Mark struck Jared twice in the chest. He coughed p blood and writhed in agony and curled into the fetal position. The man groaned. "It was a nice try but no cigar. You got outta jail just to die here."

"Fuck you...I just saw your future..just flashes...it's...full of suffering...believe it or not...it's more than you ever have..."

Mark sneered. "You'll excuse me if I don't take you serious on that..." Mark aimed the M1911 and with a pull of the trigger struck him in the forehead.

Lee was being pursued by a gunman with a Lee fired the M3 striking the Mohawk gunman and the man came collapsing as the shotgun blasted through the armor or rather found the chink in the armor. Jhe fell with the brachiel; artery ripped open by the blast. "you should have stayed out of this!"

Paul found three deceased Asian gunmen laying in the streets. All of them were well dressed and in their mid twenties. "Those are Sun Kang'ss men. That proves it even more that they were in bed with this asshole. I shoukld have expected retaliation for what we did.''

Missisipi River

He and Lee had each other in each others sights but both were being careful. "What's say we come out here and fight it out like men?" Lee suggested.

"Do I look stupid to you?"

"Very! You picked a fight with me in my own city...'

"I hope you were looking in a rear view or side mirror when you said that cause what you just said applies to you more than me. We CAPTURED you before. We didn't kill you and the only harm we did was when a few of you wanted to fight."

"And you think there wouldn't be blowback?"

"That's what this was? Blowback? Is that why you killed a rapper? You can probably get awa with murders but that's not one you'll get away with."

"You should watch the news. Rappers murders don't get solved. He wasn't supposed to be there!"

"Maybe that was true in the 90's but this is the 2010's and it's hard to get away with that kinda shit now."

"It helps nobody down here has heard of that motherfucker and won't care if he's dead. I guess a few of Adayh's friends may have listened to him but nobody else does I didn't know who he was!' In reality Lee had nothing against the rapper or his socially conscious messages about what the government did to Native people or about multi generational poverty and such. But he thought being a rapper that talked about that while being a gang member was hypocrisy.

"You won't go to jail..." Paul agreed. "But you won't get away with it either. How do I know you aint gonna shoot me?'

"I'll admit you got me at a bit of a disadvantage and frankly I think I might have a better chance hand to hand."

"You had a better chance with a gun actually at least that way you can get lucky. This way, not so much."

"yeah but now that I called you out yoiur ego has to see about it cause you wont be able to handle it not knowing."

He grabbed teh Chinese American and threw him headfirst against a green Peyote. His head busted the passenger side window. lee came back with a hard right kick to the solar plexus but he staggered with blurred vision which was a delayed reaction to the head injury. It bought him enough time to keep him back but only momentarily.

"What the fuck are you violating for now huh? What imaginary slight brought your punk ass back here?" Lee growled hoping to keep him talking long enough to let him recover a bit. Paul was having none of it. He could talk and fight at the same time as long as he was winning. He kicked his legs out from under him and Lee fell flat on his back.

"You shot Raymond.'

"Shouldn't tyou ask yourself why the fuck he was protecting a goddamn Yardie?! Explain to me how that works...you guys stand to benefit more from working with the Circle than a bunch of Yardies. That crew is m,ostly done for..." Lee said getting up spitting up blood as a shard of glass had gotten into his mouth and nicked a gum. "Why would you stand tall for a rapper who's towing the line for a Jamaican?"

"You got a point there but you should have run it by us. Shit, Sun Kang should have run it by us. We would have made him give him up. Ray would have gotten a violation at least. But we didn't know he was doing this we thought he was fuckin touring!"

"Yeah well his mistake got him killed..." Paul in his mind was smiling. He didn't give two shits about Sheldon but he liked being able to manipulate a BSU member. And using it as an excuse to knock them off the map was what he needed.

Lee charged at him and threw a hard left and Paul easily grabbed it. He followed with a right jab to the gut however and followed up with a knee he intended for his groin but Paul moved a bit from the gut jab and he hit him in the stomach instead. Paul throat punched the BSU member and almost burst out laughing at the wheeze that came from it and he proceeded to punch him in the stomach with a left followed by a right hook into his jaw. He then kicked him Lee in the jaw and as he fell he gave him a left kick to the chops. Lee groaned spitting blood from his lips and did something unexpected and he ran backwards into him.

He drove a right elbow into his face. Paul had blocked his backwards tackle but the elbow got him. Lee spun around with a one two punch combo dribbling his face like a basketball and he followed with a kick to the chest and sent him falling back. "Bigger they are harder they fall.." He sneered.

Paul got up, winded but Lee wasted no time throwing a hard right into his left cheek. He drove a knee into his chest in return and followed up with his oewn combo of lefts and rightsm, two lefts and two rights sending Lee back again. He knew that as a kickboxer he was going to try and wea him down but burpees and even jump rope which Tanaka had insisted upon which he hated more, had brought his lung capacity up but still he also knew Lee had been at it for years with the kickboxing so he was conditioned longer even if Paul was the superior fighter. Normallt when lee fought a fight the longer he could keep it going the more he would be likely to win.

But in this case Lee needed to end this faster. He threw six punches in a short succession all of them landing. Paul lay on his back. He started to get up and Lee gave him a hard kick in the side. He gave him a kick in the back and in the face. Paul caught his next kick. "I don't give up fights. I have to be knocked out or killed..." He rasped. He slammed him down and with that brought his own left foot down in an axe kick. He brought it on Lee's crotch and heard the Chinese American's voice go up an octave. He kicked Lee as hard as he could in the gut and as this lifted him off the ground with force he followed up with a kick to the right ribcage.

Paul cried out falling over. A bolt pierced his left side. He yanked it out and saw Task standing there. Paul retreated to cover. Task narrowly missed his face with the next. "So this is what it's come down to?! Skins killing skins?"

"You tell me! You were just about to shoot two."

"There's a lot more on my side than yours."

"We both know who we both work for so cut the shit, asshole! You aint supposed to be down here attacking nobody."

"Tell Lee that. See it isn't just that he attacked my friend. Because of a shootout at a downtown Hotel in Teranto people are scared to come to the city. Less tourism means less business."

Paul concealed a weapon he had used only once before but he had to put it together. Task had him pinned before he could get to his guns so he knew to stand up or go out to get it was to die. "I made a mistake giving Lee a fair fight!"

"Yeah you did! Now come on lets end this! There's been enough bloodshed in this city we got enough problems without you.'

Danyen found himself on his knees as Link, Jimmy and Eddie had their weapons trained on him. "We managed to get one of Paul's boys...do we kill him?' Asked Jimmy.

Danyen looked at Mark and said, "You gonna kill me, kill me. I never joined the R Dubs I know K:or cause we're from the same community but I don't bang. i do what Task does and you know I was here..."

"Yet you decided to join that war party...I should kill you or at the veery least dismember you but I'm thinking it's probably good we got a captive. You'll stay in good helth until I have a reason not to but tryting to escape would be a very bad move. You treated my men good as captives so I won't do anythin g to you. But I also know you';ve had dealings with Daday before I don't know to what extent. he's becoming a pain in my ass. Has been a while/ if I think that there's anything you can do to either calm him down or your old homeboy you will or there aint much reason to spare you the fate of..." He looked at the wallet of one of the dead. "Jared McComber. Boy he came a long way to die didn't he?"

Paul meanwhile, managed to get Lee in a headlock and began to pound the bacj of his head. "Go to sleep bitch! This is the end!" Lee was out like a light. Halcon tackled him and held him down from behind. "Now Chetah! Shoot him!" She tried but Paul shifted his weight and caused Halcon to stumble into her and he disarmed her. Task came around. "Drop whatever is in your hand!"

"Freddie!" Paul cried looking to Lee's left and he ducked down an Task fired missing Paul and he snapped up his handgun as a sidearm to meet the threat only to see he wasn't there. The Pikuni Indian IAA agent was not in this fight at all. Paul got the tomahawk ready and came back up and he threw it at Task's head. Task saw it coming part ways and started to move his head but he sa a flash of light and a blur and then blood filled his vision.

Paul looked down at Task and saw him gasping his mouth wide open as a cut made its way across his face with his nose as the middle point. Blood gushed like crazy and the Lakota fell bleeding losing consciousness./ He took Task's handgun and approached the rival gang member.

He pressed the barrel of his pistol against Chetah's right cheek. "You ready to die? I hope so. You came out ready to kill..." He watched her shiver at this. He grinned. "You're scared. I like that."

Halcon tackled him from behind but he drove an elbow into his face. Paul handed Chetah the gun. "Toma..."

"What?"

"COME ON! Take it! Earn your fuckin stripes! I killed your boyfriend I know enough about you to know you want to be Nuestra Syndicato. Do this and you will be. Whether I dropped out or not or walked away however you wannan look at it I spilled a lot of fuckin sangre in the pen."

She took it and aimed at him. "Come on..." He said. "You can do it..." He encouraged her. Her hands shook. She backed up. "No. You die your homies will just come after us."

"The Warriors? I can see why you'd think that but there's not any right here right now. For all they know I was hit by an unknown Rifa. Or maybe I was hit by one of the ward bitches. They aint gonna look for you in your barrio."

"Neto..." She said shaking her head.

Halcon took it and aimed it at him. "Fuck it. I'll do it. This fool should have rolled with the Others in the pinta. This shit? Between us and the Va Ho's was never your business."

"Hey! Don't...Neto will have them come after us if he dies!" Chetah begged.

"COME ON! WHAT THE FUCK KINDA NS ARE YOU?! YOU SAY WE TREAT YOU LIKE BITCHES SO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! WHAT KINDA FUCKIN NORTHSIDER IS AFRAID OF RETALIATION?!" He growled.

His reaction surprised Chetah and halcon. He had been calm and in control when torturing Lucifer but now he was tempermental and unhinged. "IF YOU HAD KILLED ANY OF MY FRIENDS NOTHING WOULD FUCKIN STOP ME FROM KILLING YOU! AND I WOULDN'T FEAR YOU COMING AT ME! I WOULD WELCOME IT!"

Marlk's voice filled the air. "She won't give you the death you're looking for. But I will. What do you say?"

"The tinto has more heart than you."

"Would you drop the cholo act? you live in Canada now..." Mark said with rolled eyes.

"Yeah and you talk in hood speak and in rocker lingo so fuck you very much."

"Soion you won't be talking at all. Ana told me not to come toi kill you but I'm just gonna have to apologize to her later. You're an asset but nobody told you it was cool to attack us."

"That's the difference between me and you. I do what I want. You do what you're told. Your boy Lee shot up a hotel and shot my friend."

Mark wasn't even about to bother to ask which friend and he had an expression on his face that showed that he either didn't know if Lee had actually done that or he did know but just didn't care.

He threw the first punch and Mark caught it but he was counting on that to distract him with a right hook but his left came to his gut and made him gasp for air. He freed his right hand by jerking it and as Mark staggered, he hit him in the jaw with a hard right. Mark was dazed but he did not let it put him down and out. He threw a hard left to the jaw followed by a right that hit both his nose and right eye.

Halcon and Chetah got Task to his feet with the former carrying him while she kept begging with him to stay with her.

"Did you have to kill him? I kinda liked that kid..."

Mark then grabbed him and threw him against the wall and came with a kick but Paul evaded grabbed his leg and slammed him to the ground. He brought down a left foot to stomp his chest. Mark wheezed but kicked his legs out from under him, and followed up with a left elbow to the face. Mark grabbed him and slammed him onto the hood of the Infernus. "You fucked up good!" Growled Mark punching him in the right side of the face with a good part of that blow hitting his temple. This caused a panic in Paul. He knew how vital the temples were and why they had to be protected in a fight. He kicked Marlk off of him.

Paul tried another kick but Mark blocked with his left arm and shot a punch to his groin. Fuck! Why did he have to go there?!

Mark growled. "I can tell you're one of those that keeps getting up unless you're dead or knocked out. So you're not getting up."

Paul groaned and Mark gave him a kick to the back and to the ribcage as he was doubled over. He gave him a kick to the forehead followed by a kick to the stomach. Paul kicked his legs out from under him.

He rolled off the hood of the car and Mark grabbed him and threw him headfirsrt towards the window. He held up his left ar,m to block some of it and the glass broke and cut his arm up everywhere. "SHIT!" He ripped out a few shards and his arm bled. "That was dumb..." Mark began. Paul wrapped it up with his plaid button up and tied it up in a torniquet. His right arm was his dominant arm and yet his left was somehow stronger. His left was the one unharmed. "I guess I'm gonna have to do this shit one armed."

"You got no chance now..." Mark said with a shake of the head.

He caught a right hook from Mark but the black gangster followed up with a hard left jab to the gut/.

"It doesn't matter you run this cit I proved i can fuck you up anytime/."

"Really cause I saw you lose some soldiers too. That gang of yours up in Canada;s a joke it's mostly addictts and teenage wannabes. Onlt a few of them are seroous."

"Lets say that was true..." Psul began but in his head he said, But it IS the truth."The Militia, the BSU, whatever you call yourselves. You got a bunch of amatuers out there. And it would take more than somebody likke me teaching them tas it would be to use guys like. Maybe we're luckier than most who fight Dead Beats but you start killing them, A lot of them are ex military so it's a good thimng you're getting better at aiming""

Paul threw a hard right to the gut and Mark took the brunt of it with the purpose of throwng a hard right kick to the left ribcage. He landed it and forced Paul back. Mark saw how close the abandoned gangster car was to the Missisipi River. Mark threw him against it and Paul's nose bled. He came back however with a elbow to the chest followed by a right stomp to his left foot. Mark had a hunting knife in hand which he tried to bring down at Paul;'s throat but Paul narrowly avoided it rolling off the side of the car and scraped his left elbow on the ground adding to the cuts he already had.

"You know...this all could have been avoided. Every part of this..." Mark growled grabbing his shirt from behind. "With one phone call."

"That...would be admitting you're in charge,. You can't be the man in charge and be equal...either you have hiearchy or you don't."

Paul grabbed his eyes and goughed them as best as he could and followed up with a barrage of punches to the face and stomasch. Mark blocked what he could but Paul kept changing up his fightingf styl;e.

Mark could do a lot of damage to him but he couldn't predict jis moves even when he thought he could. He had a better sense of his moves than their fight before but Paul knew that and was trying to stay ahead of that. He gave Mark a kick to the throat which caused him to wheeze it wasn't the worst injury to the throat he'd ever had but it had winded him. Paul then hit him with a hard uppercut. Mark pulled open the door of the abandoned Silver Sabre but Paul pumbled him from behind.

He flipped Mark back around on his back to punch him and he grabbed the hunting knife ready to stab him. He didn't see the now conscious Lee back to his feet. He shoved Paul who lurched forward and Mark let his own feet carry Paul over him and he let his own weight land himself in the car. Mark hit the neutral shift and the car tolled into the river. Mark grabbed the shotgun that was ashore. Paul came out of the water and the car sputtering and cursing but Mark fired shooting him in the face. He fell slumped in through the window halfway in and halfway out.

Mark saw a lot of blood but realized he had hit him in the chest and part of the face with rock salt not an actual slug or buckshot. The car sank down. Mark, in pain, got to his feet. "You think he's dead?"

"Unless he can breathe underwater that's it for him...but you and I are gonna talk about this once this is over...we could probably handle Paul, Neto or Ivan or Ernesto on their own but if the four of them worked together they';d beat us. Shit, if even three outta four are working together we might be done for...'

"I was just tryuing to win us more allies bro...through the Dragon Circle. Sun Kang has been a man of his word so far..."

Mark pointed out to him two Dragon Circle corpses as he helped him walk. The two Triads lay dead next to four Vagos. "Maybe but he aint gonna want to keep sending his men down here to die for us even if you did do him that favor."

Tune made it up the street and saw Marrick trying to crawl. He tried to help him up despite the holes in him. "Tune...you alive...?!" Marrick was in shock. He groaned looking at Bones's crushed and bullet riddled corpse with regret. "I got yo, brah..." He helped him up and the two tried to help each other walk but there was a lot of falling down in the street on both their parts until they found themselves bloodied sitting on a bus station bench.

Marrick didn't care he dialed 911 and requested thm an ambulance he would deal with the legal fallout later. "Who shot you all to hell, man...?"

"Ernesto...and some of the motherfuckas with him...I don't recognize em...shit..."

A dark mauve Glendale pulled up and automatic fire rattled out of it at the two men. They both tried ducking for cover but Tune was hit with a barrage of automatic rounds hitting him in the sternum, the stomach, the right shoulder blade and both of his feet. "Cartoon, man get the fuck up...!" Marrick bellowed as he held his bullet riddled friend.

Ant and Twitchy Rick and K Low leaned back into the car waving purple rags out the window as they had fired at them screaming obscenities.

Marrick began to weep. Two of his friends had died in one night for him.

As Paul was submerged under water, a woman had watched from the sidelines seeing the violence once again breaking out in her city. She saw the fight between Paul and Mark and how quickly it had turned around. She jumnped into the water to try and assist him. She pulled him out but he was so heavy. She swam as best as she could againstthe current. She saw Lady Casper and Tortura finishing off three wounded Merryweather agents. "Ayuda mi! He saved me before and he's dying!" The two noticed her and Casper said, "Hey you ripped youtr sttches opemn mia let us help you with that!"

They helped her get the heavy man out of the river and onto the bank. They began to do CPR and before long Paul vomited up water. He looked at the wet haired ex chola who had helped him. His face could be restored to normal but it would take some time.

He was in and out of conscooisness for a few days and he ws staying at Lady Joker's place. The same was true with Task at Chetah's. They got the badanage ofgf his face to be able to check on it and clean it as needed. The nasty cut would leave a nasty scar across gis face. Chetah kept him covered with a Mexican style poncho.

Paul rem,embered trying to get up and leave a few times but Lady Joker made sure he didn't. His brain was foggy. He closed his eyes and rested deciding questions could be answered later.

Mark, meanwhile, got a call on his cell. It was Ren. "Yeah what is it?"

"The ambulance just picked up Manny! He got shot three times they're taking him to the emergency room..."

'

"Fuck...how...?"

"I don't know but he said they were going after Martin next...before he passed out."

Mark turned to Mai. "Take care of Lee..make sure he doesn't die. I'm gonna go see about my brother."]

He carjacked a man in a blue Landstalker and began to speed to Martin's place. He made his way inside seeing signs of a struggle. Mark had both of his M1911's ready. He heard gunshots inside and made his way in but he heard Martin cry out in pain.

He heard several more rounds go off including one shotgun blast and an eexchange of handgun fire. He saw Martin bleeding in the doorway dressed like he had just gotten out of court and he had a wound in the left hip from the M3 Barry fired at him and Barry had to reload from cover and meanwhile Martin had returned fire with a .380 and had managed to hit Barry three times in the vest.

Barry also had a Beretta M92F which he fired off seven shots from. Of those seven, four hit Martin, all in the right side of the chest. Barry soon had the Beretta at his face and had the shotgun aimed with his other arm in Mark's direction. Martin coughed up blood as he stood with his foot on his chest. "This is how you repay me for sparing yoyr bitch ass?!" Growled Mark.

"You pissed off a powerful dude, my nigga that's on you. And ya'll killed my boy Jrue so you can expect get back for that too."

Mark firrred off one shot, then two to try and get Barry. Barry sent a volley of rounds his way as he moved along through the shothgun house. "Let me at leats cakll my brother am ambulance. You owe me that much. Whatever happens now...every second you breathe it's caus I let you..."

Barry dialerd 911 and piut it on speaker and slid oit towardds Mark'ds position. Mark gave a desciption of his brother and the area and address and then got off. "How many rounds you got left? Be honest./ Cause i got some but I cold have more."

"I could haver more..." Barry said. "I got four left in this here shotty. That's more than enough to cut your ass down to size aint shit personal in this game. I got a girl and a daughter to get home to. I don't want to dpo this I have to do this and at this point I'll smoke anybody to get home."

"I can respect that...but you in my way too and that I can't abide...I got six left in my shit. Three in each gun. So what you thinking?"

"I say we come on outy and give it everything we got. Whoever gets shot loses and dies. But if we both end up using em all then we'll have to use the weapons god gave us."

The two came out from their hiding spaces and with one shot from each Handgun from Mark and the first blast of an M3 barrage, the two began their final engagement.

Ivan

4 Hours Later

Ernesto and Ivan carried Buck from the car and had him tied up. They were at a four bedroom house in a rich area in New Arcadia known asJardin Suspendu.

He threw tequila in his face. "Buens dias, gavacho. Ready to meet your maker?"

Buck looked up at the Onda OG in terror. Ernesto wasted no time. He began punching Buck in the fce and in the abdomen. Within five punches Buck was bloody and sputtering though he bled from the first blow. "You know kids like you end up in the pinta with no gun. Using shank aint as esy as it looks in the movies but even then you never know when you're gonna get hemmed up by the guards and not have a filero on the yard. So you gotta get good with your hands."

He then punched Buck in the liver and Buck cried out in agony almost sounding like a baby. Ernesto sneered. "I heard you helped jump Neto. Marcus was able to handle Neto in at least one fight. But we both know you'd be too much of a punk to do it to him on your own. So this is for him too..."

Ivan smiled and watched as he did this and he lit a Redwood cigarette. "I hope your last day was a good day. Because this is it for you..." Ernesto forced his tongue out with pliers and Ivan put the cigarette out on his tongue. Buck screamed. "ERGGGGGGGHHHH!" He screeched with agony. Ernesto saw Ivan about to cut his tongue out but Ernesto stopped him. "I want to hear what this little bitch has to sy..."

"Mark's gonna fuckin kill you!"

Ivan chuckled. "If he can manage that we will deserve it and that will be that. By the ancient laws of combt and the code of the streets but you will not be around either way."

Buck growled at Ernesto. "I didn't kill either of them...not Miguel...and not Carmen..."

Ernesto smirked. "Then who did? You only have one way out of this. Neto said not to kill you but he didn't say I can't hurt you."

Buck spat blood. "He made you do this shit? I thought ya'll were a separate Onda and he's younger than you. What you taking orders from him for?"

Ernesto laughed. "You know in order to be a good leader you have to be a good follower. I was one. And you are too. But there's a problem. There's some people that are too young for this game. See...age isn't always so much a number as a state of mind."

"I aint too young for shit...i've already killed..."

"Yeah but you aint built for this life. The way shit was in my generation you had to be a grown man to get down with Onda or Nuevo Austuinita Snydicato. You had to be at least 25. That was where I made the mistake with Miguel. See he wasn't a bad leader he was just not experienced. He held out for a long time against you pendejos. But then you had to get a

Ivan smirked. "You know...your friend Ana in the IAA. Did you ever get to thinking about the missions she has been involved in?"

"No but it sounds awesome," Buck stated feigning stupidity.

"It was a rhetorical question, boychik. That means I know the answer to the question. Back in 2007...your friend Ana's husband stated that about on hundred prisoners held in their program only three tines was waterboarding used. The other thirty times was the military stress position. You're about to be put in it."

They zip tied his hands behind his back and placed his hands behind his back and with his arms up above his head from the back with his wrists wresting on the table above his head and shoulders and his head was bent over and he had a hood over his head. His knees touched the ground and his feet were up against the table directly behind them. "We'll see how you feel in forty eight hours."

Ivan put a pair of wireless headphones on Buck after duct taping his mouth shut again and he played Russian electric music. Ernesto turned on the TV to a sports game and then he turned to Ivan. "It is too bad you can't convince Neto to help us with this fight. He might be afraid to go back on his word and I understand he's got a kid too. I respect it. But with his soldados, yours and mine you know Mark would have no chance. Plus all the Armenians you got helpin g you and the Psychos. Mark's crew are outmatched.'

"Even if I know that would finish them off for sure and it would be the better deal it's going to have to be up to us. He's not willing to risk it all. Hypocrite really. He's not willing to go to war while he has a son yet he's willing to have recruited other people who may or may not be parents to go and be Zapatistas and fight and die right?"

"I can't associate with him anymore as it is. I'm in rocky standing with the rest of the carnales so this play is the only one I got left with the few comaradas i got. You never been to a prison so you don't understand how cars work..."

"I know how cars work even inside. I'm not an idiot..." Ivan stated.

"Then in simple terms i wrecked. I made a bad call and we had a wreck homes. So it's on me to fix it..."

Ivan asked, "What bad call?"

"I should have never tried peace with the Romans. I should have knocked them off the map. To think...just 4 years ago I was on top and I could have killed them if they'd come after us when Marisol was alive. But then again they would have tried to kill her too. Maybe it was always gonna play out this way."

Ivan looked out the windows and said, "You know...it's a good thing that Barry is dealing with Mark's brother. And Paul my old room mate should have Marcus busy."

"What? You brought a third party into this?"

"No. I didn't. Lee did something up in Teranto."

"It doesn't matter. He's dead as it is. I'll get my hands on all of them."

Ernesto woke buck up with tequila in the face and eyes. He had not slept, as expected. "Just fuckin kill me...get it over with..." Buck cried out weakly.

He was untied and let down from the stress position. He crawled into a fetal position and writhed in agony. Ivan had a a window open but he kept the blinds low and he stuck out an M4 carbine. Ernesto spat on Buck's face while keeping a boot on his ribcage. "You know Mark went after Barry to stop his brother from being killed. His real brother. He left you out to dry. You're the weakest link. You can't even handle being awake for two days? Do you know what kind of training I had to do to get into the KGB?"

"If I'm the weakest link..." Buck said his bloodied blue eyes peering up at the Mexican gangster, "And You kill me...you just make him stronger...cutting out the weakness..."

Ernesto chuckled. "We'll see. At best Mark is getting a pyric victory. Romans are pretty good at that."

"You don't gotta do this..." Buck groaned.

"Forget about it, chamaco. It's already done. You're a pawn I understand but you still played your part and a lot of pawns gotta fall before we can see which king still stands by the end. You killed Jrue. I wouldn't say he was like a son to me. In a way though, maybe. Maybe h's what Miguel would have been like if I'd kept him away from the in the end even Miguelito outlasted him. But Jrue died because of you. He was out of the game and you killed him. He was an only child you know."

"Boo fuckin hoo..." Buck growled trhing to be brave as he knew he wouldn't change Ernesto's mind. "You killed plenty of people, man. Spome of them had to be only children too..."

"Yeah but Jrue was just a kid that ended up lost in a different city. He was supposed to go to Los Santos for a tec job but he caught his girlfriend fucking around on jhim. The difference is he had good parents and a good job. He just started fucking up. If he went to San Andreas instead of stopping off out here he'd still be alive. People like me and Barry it was always too late for people like us. But him he was young. And I've been a bad parent but I'm gonna make up for it only as much as I can. I don't plan to be alive when this shit is over. You already took two of my kids. There will not be a third."

Ivan aimed an M4 out the window. He spotted a redheaded woman of about twenty five years walking her dog. "She's a long way from the gunfights in the ghetto. I wonder how many casualties it will take to bring the NAPD away from the wards?" He fired striking her and her dog, a black poodle in the face and she herself was hit in the right hip and twice in the left arm. She collapsed in the street and Ivan fired the carbine at the next victim as she fell over screaming.

The next victim was an African American male, aged 40, just returning home from work. He got out of a beige Bobcat only to be hit in the left shin and as he fell a third round struck him in the right wrist with the round exiting the other side and taking his pinky. The pedestrians fled as Ivan opened fire at a couple, both of them Caucasian in their early 30's. He struck the woman in the left buttock and the man in the back of both legs. A squad car pulled up and the officers radioed for backup. One officer was African American, a female with a brown ponytail standing 5'3 the other was Honduran American, a male standing at five eight.

They began engaging. They knew that ideally they should wait for backup but they saw a mass shooter and they had to deal with it. Ivan fired taking out the male first hitting his left knee cap. The woman fired three shots from her handgun before a round found her left wrist. Her partner fell over writing in agony. Ivan then fired and hit her partner in the throat. He fell over and she cradled him. "Stay with me, Esteban!" She cried out. "OFFICER DOWN! REQUESTING..." Ivan fired at her and hit her in her vest which withstood the single shot but it was enough to knock her down. He reloaded and he saw threee more people running down the street. "Gotta make it a little sloppy..." He chuckled. With a barrage of rounds making it seem wild he fired and the three people fell all of them shot in the back.

Ivan took several shots at the neighbors across the streets, then the house next to it. He sent two rounds in one house, one in another, three in another. The female officer fired back sending eight shots back at the house he was in before Ivan retreated from the bedroom he had fired from.

Ivan began to take Buck's exhausted arms and he began to duct tape him in place with a rifle in his arms but also attached him to straps he had adjusted for this mechanation. Buck seized it in sudden strength and angled it to Ivans torso and pulled the trigger. The dry click echoed Buck's hope dying. Ivan gave him an evil smile. "I'd be insulted if you didn't at least try."

They duct taped his mouth. Buck could not move based on the way he was duct taped. Ernesto began to bleach off everything they'd touched. "You've been a bad boy, Buck. You shot two cops. You're going to bring the cops out of the ghetto and straight to the suburbs.

"I should warn you and I think you know this...after this Marcus is going to kill you. I have a better chance at surviving this than you do. I can kill that boy with one hand. His training doesn't even amount to a fourth of what I know. He'd think he'll stand a bbetter chance against me than Task did but not by much. But you're still a civilian for all intents and purposes. Mark will probably beat you in a gunfight. And as for a fist fight well...yopu're already an old man with plenty of sores. Best to leave the fists fighting to young men like Neto."

"Mark did beat Mai in a fist fight..." Ernesto stated. "I heard about it..."

"Yeah she probably wasn't trying her hardest. She's still got years more training than he does either. If a woman from the Agency could actually be taken down in all actuality b a civilian who was only ever trained by BGA degenerates and the IAA's own Mary Kay Letourneau? Mai better hope that the Agency doesn't find out that she wasn't able to take a Civie like Roman down. If she worked for me I'd burn notice her on that basis alone. I wouldn't be surprised that the men I deal with from Grove Street and Covenant Avenue couldn't take him down but if an FSB agent lost to a rookie like him, it would be best to terminate her employment."

Ernesto turned to Ivan as they left. "You know they say that when you seek revenge you should dig two graves? I've accepted my fate. I don't know what yours will be. That depends on how involved you get in the war with him but let me tell you from experience if you have a shot at him, do what I failed to do and take it. Scorched earth. Because you won't get another chance if you don't take it against him."

Ivan smirked. "It's beautiful to see a man who knows he is going to die embrace it. That's a warrior at its purest form. And whether we live or die in battle, when we have that mindset we fight to the teeth and do the most damage. This is why the art of war encourages not to put an enemy's back to the wall with no way out. They'll fight harder."

"Si mon. And a six foot grave will suit me just fine. But the grave for my enemies? Chingada. It's gonna have to be a mass grave."

Buck was alone in that house. He heard sirens and loudspeakers outside. Before long, he also heard the sound of helicopters both news and police. He struggled against the duct tape and knew that if he could just get the duct tape off when they got inside he'd be able to tell them what had happened.

He tried angling his mouth to chew through the tape. Just then, he heard automatic fire going off in a different bedroom. Ivan had rigged a Machine Gun to go off via a timed device he had rigged. The rounds sprayed the perimeter where NAPD, N.O.O.S.E and FIB vehicles and response teams were. A few people were hit, five of them N.O.O.S.E agents and two of them FIB. They returned fire at the window.

Buck's heart jumped out of his chest as he had still avoided the rounds. Through the ringing in his ear he could hear and feel the footsteps advancing from both the front and back. They blew the doors breaching them just as he chewed through the duct tape enough to speak. "WAIIIIIT!" He wailed. He was surprise to see one FIB agent he recognized. His last thought was, Allison?! But he never got to echo the word verbally as three rounds from her handgun pumped lead into him, two to the chest and one in the forehead.

It was just three of many as the NAPD and FIB riddled him with rounds from the front while N.O.O.S.E had him flanked. When it was over, Buck lay on the ground the duct tape ablaze along with his shirt, his right eyeball had been blown out and a piece of skull and brain fragments protruded out of his already lacerated left ear. The tip of his nose had been shot off by an NAPD grunt with a deadly eye with his service pistol. He also had a shotgun blast that had hit both knees on top of at least two dozen 5.56 rounds in the back.

Alison shook, her chest heaving as she saw who she had shot. Sawyer came in as did Regina and Locke. When they saw the massacre in front of them, Sawyer's mouth dropped open. "The fucks this happy horse shit?!"

East Los Santos

Clyde had been scoping the gang house out for days trying to find a way to get inside and get Slim out He had tracked down the kidnappers via Lester easy enough but he still needed to get in there. He had an M92F and a .357 Colt Python. "You're gonna get yourself killed. You'll never get to your friend..." Jill stood to his right. "What are you doing here?" He demanded. "I have to get Slim out, Jill. It's my fault he'sd in this mess. It aint safe for you around here."

"Oh and its safe for you?"

"Look what I did to you everything that went on I was wrong and I more than paid for it I took a physical beating and a beating to my pride. But it is what it is. I don't expect you to forgive me but you do need to get out of my way."

"If you're going in to deal with the Vagos I'm coming with you. Two is better than one and it would be interesting to see what a reformed Clyde looks like."

"I can't ask you to do that. I got a responsibility to this kid."

"And that's why I gotta come with you. Make sure you survive to make it up fully. Mark is insane to have you as the face of a dealership."

"No arguments there but can we just keep it friendly or just not talk to each other then cause I care about you Jill but I don't wanna keep fighting over the past. And this could me it for me. A washed up old jock dies a kid with a future lives. It's a fair trade."

Jill opened her station wagon to reveal the M4A1 and Remington 1100 she was packing. She put on a ski mask and he did too. "You'd think you'd know by now dying isn't the solution. But I'll help you with this. You can't help him if you get shot before you get five feet."

New Arcadia

Chetah and Halcon were watching over Task who still had his face bandaged up. Finally it was time to remove the bandages and chec them again. He was in aworld of pain. Halcon sat by the window with a Kalishnikov in his lap staring out. He couldn't get the image of what he had done to Shadow's daughter on accident out of his head. He'd thought of making Chetah a member of NS and hadn't ruled it out to her verbally but right now the thought of anybody else joining a prison gang was too much and he was thinking of what he had just done and what he had said earlier.

It was true that there was now a truce between Southern San Andrean cholos and Northern San Andreas but that truce only applied to South Siders from Southern San Andreas and not the Vagos and Aztecas representing for Southern San Andrean Raza in uptate San Andreas. The down state Vagos saw them mostly as crash dummies since true south siders were supposed to live in the south and north siders considered them fake because they weren't even agreeing to the terms of staying out of each others urf on the streets.

The prison truce between the two cars was good as far as Northern San Andrean Rifas and Southern San Andrean Vagos and Aztecas went and even Marabunta, albeit reluctantly on the part of many Rifas sharing a yard with them but when it came to Upstaters they were still a problem and going forward he didn't klnow what would be done. But he knew the truce had not made it to New Austin and now he wished it had.

He didn't know if he could make somebody like Chetah or Felon see what he saw now but now because of what he had himself done with that Uzi, he felt it was impossible to do any good anymore. The Rifas on the streets were blaming it on the Vagos saying it was their fault for rolling in the car with a kid. He swallowed bitterly because he knew a bad call like that and a fuck up like that back in San Andreas would have cost him his life becase regardless of what happened, a kid still died and even NS leadership at the height of its power didn't like little kids killed.

The way the Vagos especially Los Chingones looked at it was that they were simply giving a ride to Shadow's baby mama and the daughter and were not expecting problems but much like any gangster they packed and if it was on it was on. In those moments before everybody started shooting, Halcon figured they must have wondered what the chances are the girl gets hit but they also saw the guns aimed at them and the car and knew that the only chance the kid had was if they having gunds, protected her by shooting all the Rifas ut it had played out different and the Rifas won that gunfight.

He had scarcely had timeto process any of this before he and Chetah had been thrust into another gunfight in New Arcadia and both almost lost their lives. I might just be donee with all this shit. I'm gonna give it some time cause the carnales are looking to me for leadership but this might just be it.

9th Ward

King and Lil King feasted on Burger Shot yet again. Lil King had a Dr. Pooper and a Cowgirl cheeseburger and fries. King had a beef tower and fries and they both split some chicken nuggets while King took a pull of Sprunk. "I found uncle homie..."

"You're woofing..." Lil King accused.

"Afraid not. But he's holed up in the motherfucking 4th. I would have had a chance at popping that nigga out if it wasn't for Joe and Cheddar looking out for him. That bitch nigga...he didn't just kill pops over mama now he done went and started rolling with the ops? Nah. We gotta find a way to go up in there you and me and murk his ass or get the 4th ward niggas to spit him out."

"It aint worth it, bro...nothing we done is eer gonna bring mama or pops back..."

"You weren't even able to kill the motrhedfuckers that killed mama so you owe me this one, baby bruh. You owe yourself too. The shit he didto pops is what set us on our paths. You being out in San Andreas flying colors be riding that robbery charge. He fuckd eerything up."

"You know shit wasn't perfefct when pops was around. They fought a lot..." The younger 9th ward gangster stated.

"They did but you know they loved each other and that's what matters She's ride or die they both was buit that nigga? He aint family. He aint my motherfuckin familty he might be related but he aint family. He the ops and he' gotta get blasted on for it."

"How we supposed tro get the 4th ward niggas to let him go, motherfucka? They probably hiding him out there just cause they know he a snake just like they are. Jiust like real niggas stand iup for each other bitches do too."

"I don;tr know yet young blood but let me think on that shit I'll find us a way to get him. I know you wanted to leave that life behind and you can but I want you to do that shit with me."

Neto

Neto was instructing the Aztecas under him in meth cooking operations. "This is the red phaspharus method. Match books and cold pills The striker plates off the matchbook cover to start the process. Cold pills got psuedophedrine. Main ingrediant in meth. Starter fluid, anti freeze, drain cleaner. You extract the chemicals they contain. Purify it, boil it and strain them through a coffee flilter. You don't need a fancy lab either. You can set up a lab in the trunk of a car. In a clandestine lab you can't even turn on the light. One spark the place goes up."

"Carnal we gotta handle business on the calles, homes. The Eastside Families, the SOP's, the DNB's they're all a problem. It'd be one thing if we had to deal with just them but mi varrio has pedo with Los Aztecas. And other varrios. Between our enemigas from other cliquas plus all the chavalas we scrap with in the pen, we got too much going on. Can you drop by Cypress Flats and give the vatos la palabra? They'll listen to you if you tell vatos to stop killing each other."

"Sure, Pavo. But I'm spending time with mi ninito and...I gotta get clean. I'm done with the meth. I gotta do this for my son. Just try to keep everything about business not war right now we got enemies everywhere like you said we're the biggest car in the pen. That makes us the most hated. I'm going to rehab for thirty days. If I can make it thirty days...I'll be able to stay clean. I know it. It aint goinna be easy convincing the kid I gotta go it's been me and him for monthjs and I don't want him thinking I'm gonna abandon him."

"There's another thing, carnal..." Triste mentioned. "The homies on the westside are having problems with those Mara Cucas. After what happened."

"That had nothing to do with the vatos from LS. That was the Salvadoran and east coast cliquas.." Neto stated.

"Hey you pt me in charge of the corners I got, wey and I network with the Azteca varrios on the west side too same as you I went to jail with a few of em but Big Evil wants a sitdown. This is what the streets are saying, dog. A lot of homies are gonna get killed..."

A chola from Cypress added, "Hey and you know what the carnales want it solved right? I mean I;m down for whatever but we gotta dealk with those Da Nang putos in the hood too."

"We'll see how it plays out..." Neto stated. He got a cell phone call and answered. "What now?"

Meanwhile on the TV, they were talking about how the trial of Patrick McReary had been dismissed along with the trial and police were now on a nationwoide nmanhunt for a serial killer that was known as the Iceman and many of Neto's homies had fought Patrick's men. As far as he knew Patrick was in the wind as a result as the cops now wanted to charge him with the murders that Packie had been arrested for.

Even though the safe assumption was that Paul had done this, he suspected it was more Mai's idea to have Patrick as the scape goat. And sure, Patrick had reason to want to come after Neto again anfd he had to worry about his son every day now but he had to admit that revelation on the news was a godsend and he was sure Patrick did not expect it either and that would most likely be his most pressing concern.

He pitied Mai as much as he hated her, if Patrick figured out she had a role in that.

Ivan

As he and vasily were back in LS going up thee Western Highway Vasil told him, "Pull over my old friend. We need to talk."

'About what?"

"About what we have been doing. To everyody. To that BSU kid that we tormented. To what you did to this Buck child. And the war with the IAA. It's going too far.'

Ivan glared at his best friend not believing his ears. "You're abandoning our mission? Because you have battle fatigue?"

"No. The mission still stands but we have to talk about this because things have to be different going forward from here on out. There is something I need to tell you, droog. Something that I have been doing for at least a year now..."

Paul

2006

His first few days at class had pretty much gone without incident. He was still living with Maria and her daughter andat the same school. He had worked with Packie and Dwayne before but he wasn't looking to get caught up too much in the criminal ways. He didn't want to be like his father.

He saw a group of African American students that looked like seniors. The head of them was a large African American standing at six feet. He had dark mahgany skin and a short haircut. To his left was a light skinned black gangster with blue eyes and blonde cormnrows. He stood about six feet. The next was a black dude wearing short dreadlocks. On his right. The next was medium complexioned with gold eyes.

"You lost fool?' Demanded the head footbal player. Paul thought to himself, Great what do they want?

---

Thats it for this chapter I know it's a bit mewssy but i will edit it more but in any cadse pAUL AND mark had their round two with Mark emerging victirious and Lade Joker saved Paul but i couldnt think of dialogue so I went with that.

As for Martin and Manny Manny was shot off screen but isnt dead and neither is Martin. Tune./Cartoon and Bones both had brutal ends not the most but they can't all be super gorey.

The missisii river car thing is just a way i could see Mark using that to his advantage. As for Barry and Marks showdown I figured I'd have that happen a certain way and leave it up to Zilla.

Bucks death is based on a kill Malvo did on Fargo.

Jardin suspendu is based on the Garden District in New Orleans.

The scene with Halcon and Chetah is obviously a reference to one of the craziest episodes of Snowfall I've ever seen just a brilliant way to illustrate what could and did end uop hapening a lot in South Central LA and really all over LA when civilians are caught in the dcrossfire that scene caused a l;ot of debate on the youtube video of it and people were saying the Bloofds or Leon should have just drien off well Leon didnt see Khadija's kid and then the Bloods well I don't think they were expecting to have a shootout and really it's not maybe so much that they meant to put the kid at risk but it's that they saw their enemies had guns, The point is it happened so fast nobody really had time to think.

And then I thought what if you could take that scene and apply it to Nuestra Familia vs Eme and what if you had somebody like Halcon who has been ahgainst the Vagos, Aztecas and Marabunta for a long time but then this is something even an NF membet would actually feel bad about. And if anybody wants to say how they ouldnt do their own dirt well yeah nowadays no but back when Eme and NF was new the made guys did most of their own dirt in and outside of prison. That's how they established their reputation.

So if an NF member in the 70's had accdntally killed a little girl that was daughter to not even just an Eme member but it could just be a shot caller from a Sureno clique it would still look bad and plus with Eme we already saw how it would be recieved at the Maxson Road murders when that baby was shot by that Sureno gfrom Sangra who ended up getting taken out by Eme for it on death row so this scene wax to sort of also throw in a scenario to where what if an NF member did that and do ou think the would get greenlit b their own homies for it especiall post Norteno-Sureno truce and while UI havent etablished that an blowback will happemn as Halcon is not m character just even the threat ogf that violence is sometimes just as much if not more ffective than the violence itself.

And if you don't believe me when i say that think about if ou have a reputation of a violent man and ou domnt have to kill somebod to get them to comply with you because your reputation proceeds you as somebody not to be fucked with. It's almost like doing the violence itself is the primative stage and the next stage is getting others to do it or letting your noteriet speak for you.

If i honestly had to give ou an estimate of where i would classif each of these characters power in terms of power well Paul would be like a mix of Sloppy the Mohawk La Eme member from Clanton 14, in terms of Teranto he's like just what ahigh ranking second in command type of Manitonba Warrior would be he has power in those cities but it only extends to those cities. I havent touched much on his current dealings in Liberty City and how i would utilize his pre LS days when he hung with the Lorfds vs 2017 Paul but between his connections to the McReary Family in Dukes, the Lords in Bohan and MAYBE Algonquin, the North Holland Hustlers actuially thats his Algonquin connection but yeah he's got some sway in three outta five buroughs so at this point in Libert City he'd be like Nicky Barnes or Frank Lucas in terms of influence and Packie would probably be like Micke Featherstone since that's probabl who hes based on.

And Mai well i mean take whatever you think th highest ranking Asian Boz member that was a woman would be nowadays and Ivan ehh hes like third in line to run the Markovich Family so take from that what you will. And Neto is like one of those big time Eme members from the Sprite generation. Since his gang the Azxtecas is based on 18th Street we will even sa that his Eme influence will be a bit based on Frank "Puppet" Martinez from 18th street who is one of the reasons why as far as Sureno gangs go 18th street is the one that makes the most mone for Eme and Puppet and his wife were both serious hustlers they could have large numbers of $ in very short amounts of time.

So this gives you a sense of which characters have the most territory if you tjink I gave more to Paul guess again. Neto still also has influence in the southern regions of Mexico plus Nuevo Paraiso. His Azteca homies from Chiapas that he grew up with are going to play a part in this toio though just how much I am not sure because I only want tjis story to be 100 chapters and i dont know if I'll do a follow up seqel story we'll see how it looks when we're closer to it.

Ivan also has substantial influence but really it's just a matter between him, Mai and Packie who you think of the three has the most or least influence as far as that goes. Besides it isn't really a competition either which way it's just to kindd of show the envioroments that these criminals interacted with and came from and Mai despite living in South Yankton has roots in San Andreas so we would have to count mainly only her shit she did in LS as her influence if you separate that from who she is as an IAA agent.

Packie i would say is pretty limited too since his influence is in Liberty City but unlike Paul or say, Ivan, he's at the top of the food chain pretty much while Mai, Paul and Ivan are all either in second or third tier leadership so if a character does have a lot of territiry it can be offset by the fact that they may only be second or third in command with the exception being Neto i would say in terms of territory and leadership he has the most power of all m characters. In terms of training now and having access to different criminal organizations covering the most territory it'd be paul. But ZMais agency is most dangerous, Ivan's is most subversive, Neto has the Zapatistas, Paul also has the Warrior Society not counting the gang called the Warriors (But even with that he fully intends to take advantage of an potential confusion law enforcement may have distinguishing an R Dub gang member from an actual Warrior)

Ivan is still probably the most dangerous in terms of deception and years of experience and he is the most ruthless of each of them. With Packie even though he does have the McRearyy Family and the IRA that';s mostly it. Plus through Paul also the connection to North Holland Hustlers but i havent decided how all that will play out in the 2017 storyline.

And Packie will do the same thing Paul is doing kind of tying in the warrior society to the gang, and Neto asnd the Zapatistas with the Onda status and Aztecas in Mexico Packie is doing the same thing in that he wil use fresh IRA members that need to hide out in America as hired guns but he'll use them as McReary famil soldiers and if they were detained by klaw enforcement at best they'd be associated with him rather than the IRA unlsess it is an illegal alien that ids activley wanted by the SAS then that's another problem. The reason i do this is because they are still at war with the Italians and the westies never had more than 20 people at their height yet they were willing to come at the mob with Tec 9's if a meeting had gone wrong.

But there id estimated at leasst 800 made guys in all the 5 families plus an unknown amount of associates it still wouldnt be enough but Irish illegal immigrants would be the only way to give them slightly better odds.

The two graves title is just obvious and cause of what Ernest said about the two graves is kind of a nice play on that old Chinese proverb it's something you would expect a gangster or a soldier with a high body count like Chris Kyle to say.

And bear in mind Ray actually is alive so this was kind of a big all that for nothing moment but still. Anyway hopefullyt next chapter will be soon and Clyde and Jills story wioll be touched up on next chapter/.

Thats all till next time