G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S, yeah, G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S.
The music was blaring, the drinks were flowing, and a scantily clad woman was giggling in her lap.
It was shaping up to be a fairly normal Los Santos Friday night for Aliza.
She'd been in the city for a month, and had quickly discovered that there was quite a demand for people with her particular skillset. After that first job, she'd quickly found herself at the top of Gerald's speed dial whenever he needed a shooter. Lamar had introduced her to an obvious con man, Simeon, who'd had her stealing cars for his scams.
And then there were the jobs that Lamar came up with on his own.
Dear god, how did he survive before she'd been there to hold his hand? His plan almost always boiled down to a very formulaic approach.
Step 1, drive to the location. Step 2, draw weapons. And step 3, charge in guns blazing and yelling about Apache blood.
She always had to step in and offer a better plan. In the case of the job that they'd pulled that day, she'd distracted the drivers while he'd stolen a tanker truck full of fuel. It wasn't that bad of a job, if not for the fact that Lamar's contact for selling the fuel was an 'OG', as he called it, one of the high ranking members of the CGF. The guy had screwed them and they'd only walked away with two grand a person.
She did feel a certain affection for Lamar, he was a likable enough guy when he wasn't doing something idiotic, and he was loyal to a fault. Whenever she pulled a job with him, though, she felt like an older sister watching her baby brother on the playground, keeping him from jumping off the top of the slide and stepping in when the bullies went too far.
The professional in her reminded her that it was basic asset management, but just like any older sister stuck watching their baby brother, she knew it was necessary and that it wasn't that much of a chore, but it still got tedious as all hell sometimes.
"Hey, Aliza, yo, you in there?" Lamar's voice pulled her out of her reveries.
"Oh, what? Yeah, sorry." She pretended that she'd been entirely focused on the strippers, it was less likely to offend her present company.
"Yo fool, leave the girl alone, she didn't drop four hundred on a stripper to listen to your black ass." The third person at their table was Franklin Clinton, who she was fairly certain was the answer to how Lamar had survived so long on such stupid plans. Franklin was far more reasonable than Lamar and held a far clearer view on the gang lifestyle. He was one of the best drivers that she'd ever seen, and by amateur standards, he wasn't a bad shot.
"The fuck do you know, but as I was sayin'…." Lamar went back to his story, something about a prostitute, a bag of crack, and some Balla getting killed. She ordered another drink and returned to her thoughts
Despite Lamar's amateur approach to jobs, when she was honest with herself, she'd enjoyed the last month more than the entire time she'd spent in Liberty. She loved being back in the action, she loved getting a call to go bust up a drug deal or jack some idiot's car. It was, for lack of a better word, fun. It didn't have the same challenge as when she was working for the Institute, but it was far more interesting than the work that she'd been doing in Liberty.
She looked at her watch, it was 9:40. Time to finish her drink, bid the boys a good night and find a girl to spend the night with.
As she walked out into the parking lot, she was greeted with the rather unpleasant sight of a young blonde woman being beaten by her old friend, Mark Ashford.
Naturally, she felt the need to politely reintroduce herself and thank him for her car, politely, with the highest caliber of decorum…
And violence.
"Hello Mark, so nice to see you again." She grabbed him by the jacket and threw him up against the wall, pressing her elbow up against his windpipe. There were very few things that could really piss Aliza off anymore, bullies were pretty high on that list.
"You crazy whore, you stole my car!" He writhed and tried to shove her back, she responded with more pressure on his neck and a knee to his groin. This made him stop resisting rather quickly.
"No, no, you're confused, I won your car, and you signed the title over to me. Don't you remember?" She divided her focus between Mark and the unconscious young woman. She would have to examine the injuries more closely, but the girl looked fine. Banged up with a probable concussion, but not seriously injured.
"Fuck that, Hao and his guys may have strong armed me into that, but that car's still mine, and you still owe me a night in bed with you." He groaned as she delivered another swift knee to his groin.
"Mark, you really need to learn a bit more respect for women, and you really need to make sure that we never meet again. If we do, I'm going to kill you. The only reason that I'm not doing it this time is because I really have to see to this poor girl's injuries, and that means that I don't have time to dispose of your corpse." She gave him one last knee to the groin, and released him.
"Now leave!" he limped off as fast as he could, while she turned her attention to the girl on the ground.
She went through the standard battlefield medical examination, first checking for obvious wounds, then for signs of internal bleeding. Finding nothing beyond superficial bruising, she moved on to checking her responsiveness.
"Are you okay?" she spoke loudly, but calmly. Giving the girl's shoulder a gentle shake.
The girl began to stir, her eyes flittered open. She sat up slowly, clutching her head.
"Ugggh, what happened?" She looked at Aliza, big eyes filled with confusion.
"You're alright honey, some jackass tried to beat you up, but I handled it. Are you feeling a lot of pain, does any particular part of your body feel weird at all? Can you tell me your name?" She was almost entirely sure that the girl had a concussion, but she wasn't sure how bad it was.
"Tracey, and yeah, my head hurts, like, a lot. Wait… that jackass…" Tracey tried to stand up, but she couldn't seem to find her balance. She would've landed on her face if Aliza hadn't caught her.
"Tracey, babe, you have a concussion, come on, my name is Aliza, is your car here?" She slipped an arm around her, under Tracey's arms, completely supporting her weight.
"Uh, no, I rode here with my… you beat up my boyfriend, didn't you?" Tracey looked around, most likely searching for her soon-to-be former boyfriend.
"Didn't you!" Tracey tried to yank herself away, but only managed to stumble forward a few steps before Aliza had to stop her from falling again.
"Yes, Tracey, but he was the one beating you." Memory loss, now Aliza was sure that she needed to get this girl to a hospital.
"Nooo! You shouldn't have done that, it was… I mean he… he just made a mistake." Ahh, battered woman's syndrome, far easier to deal with, Aliza thought.
"Honey, a mistake is when he buys you the wrong brand of tampon, it's not giving you a black eye, and knocking you unconscious behind a strip club." Tracey was writhing in her arms, trying to get away.
"It was my fault, I shouldn't have-." Aliza spun her around, getting a firm grip on her, pulling the girl tightly against her frame, and looking Tracey dead in the eyes.
"Tracey, answer me this, did you pull a gun on him?"
"No, of course not!"
"Did you pull a knife or hit him?"
"No" The writhing stopped, and Tracey looked away. Aliza could see her resistance crumbling, one more good push would convince her.
"Did you threaten him in any way, any way at all?"
"No"
"Then it wasn't your fault, he had no excuse at all, you are a beautiful girl who deserves far better than that asshole. Now, let's get you in my car, and to the ER." She let go of Tracey and helped her to into the Osiris.
The ride to the ER was quick and quiet, Tracey didn't say a word, she just kept alternating between staring at Aliza and staring out the window. She pulled to a stop in the ER parking lot and helped Tracey out of the car.
Finally, Tracey spoke as they were walking into the emergency room lobby.
"Why'd you stop to help me?"
Aliza offered her a wry smile, "I don't like bullies, and besides, who says you have to be male to play the white knight?"
She helped sign Tracey in, handed her off to a nurse, and turned to go. Not before Tracey called after her one more time, though.
"Hey Aliza… thanks."
"No problem Trace, feel better." Aliza turned and headed for her Osiris, she'd done her good deed for the night and still had time to stop by a bar to find a girl to spend the night with.
All in all, a pretty good night.
Guys, I'm really sorry about last night, the files were right next to each other and I clicked on the wrong one without looking.
By the way, Have you checked out my DA story yet, haha, joking.
But in all seriousness, I've been so busy with college and work that I'm losing it. Still, dumb shit like this shouldn't happen, especially not twice in the same month, so I'm seriously sorry guys.
On the up side, I've got to say, I like this one a lot better. It felt like it flowed a lot more than the last one.
I'm assuming that everyone knows who Tracey is. I find her to be an incredibly interesting character, now I can hear you all saying WTF. I understand why most people hate her, but when you think about the way she acts, a lot of it makes sense and she probably has a lot of psychological issues that aren't addressed in game. But I won't waste your time with my blathering here.
R&R guys, see you next week.