"Next time, we're using zip ties," Geoff said bitterly from his seat in Jack's car, his arms crossed as he pouted.

"There isn't going to be a next time. We'll probably never see him again. He's long gone, Geoff."

"He was perfect..."

"Quit fucking whining about it!" Jack yelled uncharacteristically. He was severely pissed off. They risked their lives for nothing and their hostage escaped. At least they were able to steal some gas...

"I don't even know his name," Geoff whined, ignoring Jack on purpose.

"Well isn't that the shittiest outcome of a one night stand," Jack spat, slamming on his brakes just to annoy the older man.

Geoff was silent, having no comeback and angry that he just about got his breath knocked out of him due to Jack being a cunt of a driver.

In the silence, Geoff played around with whatever was in his hands. A gun.. it was the boy's gun.

"I still have that kid's gun," he mentioned to Jack. "It's like a souvenir."

"Glad you have something to remember him by," Jack laughed, shaking his head.

They finally pulled up to the motel they were staying in, the two instantly relaxing at the idea of finally being able to sleep.

"I call the bed," Geoff nudged Jack with his elbow to be sure that the other had heard him.

"That's fine with me," Jack shrugged. "The futon is still better than the floor."

They'd had their fair share of floors in their career.

The two settle in quickly, ordering chinese takeout and watching old movies on the TV in the room. Along with drinking, this lasted until about 2am when they finally crashed.

This gave the boy the opportunity he was waiting for.

Geoff awoke slowly, blinking his eyes until the dim sunlight became less hazy.

He didn't remember shutting the shades last night.

"Jack?" he called out, but received no reply. He tried to turn, only to realize he was... tied to a chair?

"Very funny Jack, ha ha. I'm amused, now let me the fuck out."

Silence.

Geoff began to panic, turning his head as far as he could, only to see Jack asleep and tied up behind him.

"Fuck. Who did we piss off this time?"

It was a rhetorical question, Geoff did not expect an answer and was therefore surprised when he received one.

"Me," a voice from the darkest corner of the room spat. It was a voice that Geoff recognized.

It was the motherfucking boy.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, a little creeped out to be honest.

"Showing you how I felt last night."

"Oh great, you've got your revenge. Can you untie us and leave now?"

"No," the boy answered shortly, crossing his arms and stepping forward.

"Why not?" a voice that was Not Geoff's questioned. Geoff turned again, seeing Jack had awoken, although he did not know how long ago.

"I'm genuinely curious about your... crew," the youngest in the room answered. "And clearly, you two need some help."

Geoff's face flushed, embarrassed that he was being called out and ridiculed by someone who could be no older than 18 or 19.

"What about the crew?" Jack inquired, suspicious towards the boy and his possible motives.

"Well, you guys got a name for it?" the boy needled, making them sound like they were stupid. This did not please Geoff.

"Only if you've got one."

The boy pondered this for a moment, wondering if giving them his real name was worth it. He supposed it would be. From last night, it sounded like he had a pretty much guaranteed job offer within their small crew.

"Michael. Michael Jones," he answered.

"How old are you?" Jack immediately pressed, and Michael, apparently, bit his lip again in concentration.

"Old enough to buy a gun. Well, soon. In July, that's only two months away."

The two older men pondered this. The boy really was young, even Geoff didn't really start his gang career until he was 24, and Jack until he was 20. Considering that now they were 29 and 23 respectively, the bo-.. Michael was starting at an incredibly young age.

However, if what Michael had revealed last night was true, he had no place to go. Even if Geoff wasn't the most moral of people, he could give Michael something, couldn't he? Geoff had always had a strong paternal side, and it sure was coming out now.

"You're in," he said casually, as if it were no big deal. "You'll have to show us your skills though, but we suspect you'll be a good front line shooter. Your shot yesterday was impressive."

Michael flushed; He couldn't remember the last time he had been praised by anyone.

"Yeah, whatever," he said, trying to wave off his embarrassment.

"No, really," Geoff pressed. "You didn't even look at her! And you got her straight in the face! It was cool as dicks, dude."

Michael allowed himself to smile a little. "Thanks."

"Have you been trained at all?" Jack asked, curious as to who had taught him so well.

The curly haired boy shook his head though. "I taught myself."

"Holy shit..." Jack muttered, obviously astonished at that. Even he'd gotten trained, even if it was just by Geoff and some other guys he used to run with when he'd been even younger.

"Don't act so surprised," Michael sighed. "I told you, I've been on my own for years. Gotta learn somehow, right?" he shrugged as if it was no big deal.

"I mean, I guess..." Geoff trailed off, before suddenly piping up again, as if remembering something. "So you gonna untie us now or what?"

"I mean, I never actually agreed to join your little kill club. What's in it for me?"

"I mean, you'll have a place to stay, food, clothes, money... anything and everything, really. And us to protect you," Geoff listed, not really thinking as he babbled on.

"I don't need to be protected. I do that just fine on my own," Michael huffed, and Jack quickly recovered for Geoff,

"Oh no, of course not, we weren't implying you needed it, it's just part of the package deal, kid. We all need to have each other's back in this deal or it won't work out."

Michael pretended to think about his choice, though everyone in the room already knew it.

He started to untie the two men.

"I'm in."

After the two older men were untied, they began discussing ground rules with Michael. Ammo rules, killing rules, etc.

"Only kill if you need to, but leave no witnesses unless it will be beneficial to us somehow," Jack told Michael. "We usually have plenty of ammo, but we don't have a lot of heavy weaponry. Yet. Once we do, we'll need to be careful about how we use it until we can establish a stable connection for this kind of stuff."

"What kind of stuff do you two do right now?"

"Usually smaller raids," Geoff answered. "We don't dabble in drugs at all, but we try to intercept valuables and weapons when we can."

"However, having you with us, we hope to be able to start taking on bigger jobs. Gas stations are overrated," Jack added as he loaded some rounds into his pistol.

Michael nodded as he helped himself to the ammo, having already gotten his gun back while the men had been asleep, "Agreed. So what's the crew's name?

"The Fake Ass Holes Crew. It's Fake AH Crew for short," Geoff proudly answered, and Michael raised an eyebrow at him.

"Uh.. okay."

Geoff didn't seem to notice Michael's lack of enthusiasm, which he was grateful for. He didn't already need to be on the bad side of these guys, surprised that he wasn't already after the antics he had pulled in the past 12 hours. He continued to mess with his gun, the safety on (because he's fucking smart) as he listens to the two older men go over the plans for the next 'heist'. It was silly to call it a heist because it was such a small job, but whatever pleases Geoff...

They were apparently going to lie low for a few days, with Jack leaving every so often for light weapons pickup, because he had the intel on those. After they were sufficiently prepared, they were to go on a week long string of robberies from Guernsey City to Vice City and back again. Apparently, it was something that Geoff and Jack had only done twice before, and felt like they were ready to do it again with Michael on board.

"It's really not as scary as it sounds," Geoff said to Michael as he explained the rest of the plans. "We aren't doing anything huge, just holding up the occasional gas station and convenience store."

"We've gotta be sporadic about it though, so as not to raise suspicion or for anyone to see a pattern," Jack told the two as he circled and pinned several locations on their map. "And it's not just robberies. We're going to try to intercept a train on it's way from Las Venturas to Carcer City. Best case scenario, we catch it just before Carcer City at an isolated station, but we don't know how lucky we'll get on that one."

"What's on the train?" Michael inquires, imagining how big their score could be.

"It's a lotta gold," Geoff supplied. "It's from Las Venturas, after all. They've gotta have a shit ton of stuff out there that no one knows about!"

That's a big fucking score.

"How hard will it be to pull off?"

"Hard as dicks, probably," Geoff laughed. "But manageable with you here, and even better if Jack can get some good weapons this time."

"Where do you guys even get them from?" Michael didn't want to ask so many questions, but he was so damn curious. This was the most he'd talked to anyone in forever, and it was cool as fuck too.

"Some guy out in North Yankton. We don't know much about him. Just that he's an old fucker and has a son that he's training," Jack replied with a shrug. "But he provides, so we don't ask questions."

"Fair enough," Michael nodded. "Do you guys have blueprints of the places we're heisting?"

The two older men looked at each other. That was a bad sign.

"We really don't have that many connections," Geoff said quickly. "The guy in North Yankton is the only one, really."

Oh boy.

This was going to be an adventure.