Summary:...or Ryan vs. the World.

Chapter 18

Once upon a time there were five clerks: two in a liquor store, two in gas station convenience stores, and one in a 24/7. All of them had their fair share of tussles. The clerk in the liquor store on San Andreas was sick to death of gangs getting up in his shit. He had been robbed one too many times. It wasn't the best idea, but he had decided to bring his gun to work with him during the night shift. He was fucking sick of criminals and it was time to teach them a fucking thing or two.

The other liquor store clerk went traditional: he had a baseball bat.

The other clerks had all replaced clerks that had been gunned down by gang violence. Word on the street was that the Fake AH Crew, the notably worst gang in the city, had suddenly gone on a spree. No shopkeeper felt safe, especially these three who had been thrown into the line of fire.

Little did these five clerks know, but they were about to have something in common. One evening, just as the sun set of smoggy Los Santos, five men in black wearing motorcycle helmets entered the five stores simultaneously and the five clerks learned the hard way that maybe the Fake AH Crew wasn't all talk anymore.

"Eagles One, Two, Three, Four, and Gavin," Jack asked as he flew over the city. "Are you in position?"

"Ready," Gavin said, slamming the visor down on his helmet and wincing when he smashed his finger in the process.

"Yes," Geoff said, positioning himself outside the door with his gun in hand, ready to charge in.

"Yeah," said Ray, throwing up some jazz hands so he could make a stylish entrance.

"In position," Ryan said, hopping out of his car and sauntering up to the liquor store.

"Ready," Michael added, cocking his heavy pistol.

The sun sank below the skyscrapers of Los Santos as Jack flew. This was it. They could do this. All he had to do was land the jet. They could get past all the betrayal and all the failure and pull together for this heist. They could do this!

"All right," Jack said. "Let's heist!"

As one, the Fake Ah Crew kicked in the doors to their respective targets and ran in guns blazing. There was a cacophony of shouts from the crew ranging from "Gimme the money," to "Biff biff biff!" to someone singing the James Bond theme. Jack circled Power Street, listening hard to make sure none of his crew fell to any alert clerks.

"Heist complete!" Ryan shouted as his clerk passed him the money. The clerk went for some kind of weapon behind the counter but the Mad King never gave him a chance, gunning him down while the customers in the liquor store screamed. Flush with blood and victory, Ryan ran back to his car and gunned the engine, heading for Power Street.

"Leg it!" Gavin yelled, leaving his own store's clerk alive but in the dust as he fled for his car, money safely tucked in his pocket.

"Oh you're dead," Ray said to his victim with a laugh as he murdered the guy and ran with the money.

Michael said nothing, he just ran from the store, killing the clerk and reminding the others to do the same.

"Geoff, what's your progress?" Jack asked as Geoff continued to shout at the liquor store clerk who was taking forever. "The others are on their way."

"I'm trying" Geoff shouted back. "Hurry the fuck up moron!" The clerk gave him a dirty look but did not move faster, in fact he slowly broke open a roll of quarters and dumped it into the bag. "Do you wanna die?" Geoff shouted. "Give me the fucking money, you cocksucker."

"Geoff just kill him and go," Michael yelled. "Come on."

The clerk finally emptied the register and threw the bag at Geoff. "I got it, I—!"

Geoff hear the loud click of a gun before he looked up inti the double barrel of a shotgun.

"You're the one who is gonna die," the clerk snarled.

"Eagle One, come in!" Jack yelled as Geoff suddenly went silent. "Eagle One."

Geoff just stared at the clerk who stared right back. "Drop the money asshole," he said.

Geoff couldn't think. He couldn't move. He could drop the money, true, but then the clerk would shoot, wouldn't he? That and he'd fail the Crew, they needed the money and they needed the victory. Maybe he could shoot the clerk first with the gun dangling limply from his hands. No…no, he'd never get it up in time. (That's what she said.)

"Geoff, are you there?!"

There was only one thing Geoff could do. He couldn't let his Crew down but he would never raise his gun in time. There was one option, one choice and he had to take it.

"GEOFF!"

Geoff turned on his heel and ran. He sprinted down the center aisle, vaulted a display rack, the money held tightly to his chest. He had moved so quickly he had shocked the clerk. He hadn't shot right away. The door was right in front of Geoff, the handle was in his hand, he was pushing it open.

His shoulder exploded in a shower of blood.

"Oh no!" Geoff shouted, but whether it was for himself of for his Crew, he could not say. His knees buckled and he crashed face first into the glass door, shattering it and falling through to the glass littered sidewalk below. Pain was everywhere, it was all he was now. Pain and the steady drip, drip of his own blood on the sidewalk.

"Geoff, no!" Jack shouted. "Aw shit we lost Eagle One!"

"Geoff!" screamed Michael and Gavin at the same time.

"Are you serious?" Ryan yelled, turning the vehicle he was driving to intentionally run over approaching police.

"What happened?" Ray demanded as he floored the gas in his own truck, ignoring the police on his tail.

"Did the clerk pull a gun on him?" Michael asked. "What the fuck happened."

"I don't know, I don't know, I don't know!" Jack shouted, desperately trying to boost the signal in his earpiece to hopefully reach Geoff. Geoff couldn't be dead. He couldn't be! "Geoff!"

Silence.

"GOD DAMN IT!" Jack screamed, slamming both fists so hard on the dash of the jet that the rubberized plastic cracked under his fist. "DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT!"

Below him Ryan, Ray, Michael, and Gavin, we all driving through the streets, police tailing them closely thanks to the slow maneuvering speed of their large vehicles. For a minute no one spoke, they just listened to Jack lose it, feeling a sudden bloom of panic at the loss of their leader.

Finally it was Ray who broke the silence. "Jack you need to get to Power Street."

Jack lifted his head from the plane controls and glared even though Ray couldn't see. "You fuck—!"

"Geoff would want us to complete the heist," Michael said, cutting across Jack.

"Yeah and you would know what he wanted so well," Jack snarled at Michael. "You fucking betrayed him."

"Geoff forgave me because I bought us time with the Syndicate," Michael snapped back. "Don't throw away our shot at doing this. Geoff would fucking kill us all if we failed now."

"He's right," Ryan said. "It's not over. We have to make this work or we're all dead."

"Besides, no one has died yet," Gavin pointed out "Geoff will probably pop up later."

Jack sighed heavily and readjusted his controls. "All right. Fuck. All right everyone, get to Power Street."

The guys all floored it at Jack's command, finally clueing in to the sirens yelling behind them. It was an interesting sight four giant vehicles somehow nimbly avoiding police cars. Jack had flown well away from Power Street, circling over Geoff's target in hopes of seeing the man himself fleeing, but no luck. He changed course while the other drove and haphazardly shot out of the back of the trucks.

"Jack, I am on my way to Power Street!" Gavin announced, tossing a grenade out the window and blowing an approaching cop car to hell.

"I can see you all heading that way," Jack said, eyeing the GPS pings on his readout.

"I am on Power Street," Ryan said, flying onto the highway and immediately sideswiping a minivan out of the way. In his rearview mirror, a large truck came up fast behind him and he almost shot at it until he caught sight of Michael behind the wheel.

"I'm inbound with a lot of Po-Po behind me!" Michael added. "I—SHIT!" He accelerated behind Ryan and deliberately crashed into a cop car without breaking his speed. His truck plowed through unharmed and launched the cop car into the air, where it exploded into tiny, fiery pieces.

"Woah Michael!" Ryan shouted, ducking as a flying steering wheel smashed his passenger side window.

Michael's truck tipped onto the side, but a quick turn saved him from going over. The truck bounced onto the pavement, jostling him but he was able to maintain his course. "I think I picked the right vehicle!" he said, driving down the now relatively clear street.

"Let me know when it's clear!" Jack shouted, just as Gavin pulled onto Power Street, joining the others and slamming into approaching cars to clear the path further.

"I think I took a wrong turn!" Ray swore and yanked the steering wheel left to take out a police car. He leaned forward in his truck staring up at the road above, which happened to be Power Street. Somehow he had turned wrong and ended up below them. "I'm below you! Just land and I'll figure it out."

"Ray, hurry up!" Ryan shouted, He had pulled over and exited his vehicle to better launch his assault on the cops surrounding him.

"Am I good for a landing?" Jack asked as Power Street raced beneath him.

"You're good, you're good!" Michael yelled as he backed up, shoving another car out of the way.

"All right," Jack said, wiping nervous sweat from his brow and taking a deep breath. "I'm coming down!" Jack shoved the controls downward and the plane dropped from the sky.

Michael and Gavin leaned forward across the dashboards of their trucks as the sleek black body of the jet suddenly screamed its way into view, flying so low they were slightly worried about being hit. Out in the street, cops were turning to look in shock as the jet came lower and lower, heading right for them. It was the last thing anyone expected to happen in the middle of Power Street. Ryan gripped his gun and prayed while still keeping an eye on the surprised police and Ray below them saw the jet through one of the gaps overhead, wheels barely a foot above the ground.

Jack could do this. He had to land. Cops were swarming all of them, bullets were flying around them and they weren't getting out of this if he didn't land it.

"I'm coming from the south! I'm coming in!" Jack shouted. He yanked up on the controls at the last second and the squeal of rubber on cement ripped through the air, drowning out every sound. The plane bounced one…twice…three times…and then stuck the landing!

"OH HOLY CRAP!" Michael roared victoriously.

"OH CHRIST ALIVE!" Gavin shouted as Jack sailed down the street.

"OH SHIT!" Ryan yelled as the jet streaked past him, plowing down one or two cops who didn't make it out of the way in time. It was going so fast that the air current it generated nearly sent Ryan flying. That was when they all realized it wasn't stopping. "Jack! Stop, dude!" Ryan shouted.

"Hit the brake, HIT THE BRAKES!" Michael screamed as the jet passed him too, still roaring its way down the street at full speed.

"I'm trying!" Jack said as he fought both the steering and the suddenly locked breaks. "I can't stop!" Jack threw everything he had into the breaks, releasing the steering completely. The wheels smoked as the speed of the plane fought him. Still he started to slow and he finally crested the hill at the end of Power Street, rolling to a stop.

"I'm braked, I'm braked, come on!" Jack shouted. He grabbed the steering controls again and began to turn as the Crew sped toward him in their trucks.

"That was incredible!" Gavin shouted, bouncing in his seat as he drove. The jet ahead of them began to turn slowly and Gavin sped into the intersection where Jack was parked. He hit the brakes hard, sliding across the road to block one end of the intersection and leaped from his truck. Behind him, Michael did the same for the other side, pausing to shoot out of his window at some SWAT men before tumbling out onto the street. Ryan was still charging towards them in his truck and far in the distance they could see Ray trying to catch up. Unfortunately, the police were coming at them from all ends of the street, already bursting past Michael and Gavin's road blocks.

Jack jumped out of the cockpit and kicked the door open as Michael and Gavin sprinted for the jet. "Get in, get in! Hurry up!"

Gavin made it first, stumbling as fast as he could up the stairs. Michael, only a bit behind him, was nearly to the stairs when the first bullet got him in the shoulder. It hit the vest, but it knocked him down from impact. He spun around and raised his gun.

"I'm getting biffed!" Michael shouted as no less than 10-20 cops suddenly aimed at him. "Oh shit," he ducked a hail of gunfire and returned fire as more slugs punched into his vest and a few grazed his arms and legs. "Oh shit, I'm not gonna make it!"

"Get in!" Ryan shouted, plowing his truck through the cops that were shooting Michael. He leaped out again and unloaded into the police. "Michael, get in! Go!" Michael dropped his now empty pistol and fled to the jet. Ryan shot faster and surprisingly more accurately than he had in a long while to cover Michael as he backed slowly toward the jet.

Ryan grit his teeth as Michael, Gavin, Jack, and Ray all screamed at him to get in the jet. Jack and Gavin and Michael also shouted for Ray, who had finally arrived and was sprinting towards them.

"Ray, come on!" Ryan shouted.

"You first asshole!" Ray yelled back.

Ryan couldn't go yet. He had to cover the escape. He had to make sure the jet got away and he had to make sure that Ray made it on board.

Ray growled under his breath and tossed his rifle down, yanking his rocket launcher off of his back. He aimed at the collection of cops and vehicles and pulled the trigger, erasing all of them in a giant fireball. The remaining police had turned their sights on the jet and were aiming for the engines now while Jack did his best to maneuver out of the way. Ryan was closest to the jet and Ray looked back at him, realizing he owed the guy one.

"Just go!" he shouted to Ryan and the others. "Just go!"

"NO!" Ryan roared back.

"Fuck you Ryan, it's my turn!" Ray yelled. "I'll be fine!" As though to illustrate his point, he blew up yet another large group of cops. "GO!"

Ryan went, believing Ray even when his instincts screamed at him. Ryan raced up into the jet, leaving the door hanging open as though Ray might run over at any point.

"Ray, get in!" Michael screamed desperately.

"X-RAY!" Gavin shouted before letting loose with some kind of panicked shriek.

"I'll cover your escape! JUST GO!" Ray shouted back. "Just go!

They couldn't wait. Jack started forward, picking up speed and knocking some police cars out of the way for Ray. He hated to leave the kid, but Ray was right. They needed to go before the cops destroyed the plane. They had already lost Geoff and, if he was honest, were probably about to lose Ray. While Jack would have preferred to lose Michael, he couldn't throw the others under the proverbial bus. Ray made his choice.

Jack zoomed down the road, quickly learning that frantically racing downhill in a plane was much harder than landing one. The plane kept wanting to lift up but they didn't have enough speed yet so the plane was pin-balling crazily down the street, knocking into streetlights and traffic signs and the occasional cop or civilian. Gavin and Michael strapped themselves in, held on, and screamed as the plane tried to bounce them around. Ryan was gripping the door frame, still trying to shoot behind him to cover Ray even as they drove well out of range. They finally picked up speed and Jack tried to lift the plane but it resisted.

"Get off the ground!" he shouted in frustration, as the right wing careened into another streetlight.

"We're gonna lose the wing!" Michael said as sparks flew from the streetlight past his window and paint chipped off the wing.

"You're fine!" Ray shouted, still shooting while looking ahead to make sure they escaped.

"Take off!" Gavin screamed as cops came at them from the front. "Take off!"

"Come on Jack!" Michael shouted.

Jack floored the plane and then pulled hard upward on the controls. The nose lifted a bit and bounced back down. Not good enough. Jack threw everything he had into lifting the plane and thought a prayer to anyone listening (maybe Geoff?) and the nose lifted again…and the body and tail followed. They left the ground. "We're airborne! We're airborne!" he shouted

The entire crew let out and ear splitting cheer, even Ray, and the cops actually all turned to look as the jet roared up into the sky.

Ray took advantage of the distraction to run for an open and idling police car nearby. He managed to get in the car behind the wheel and looked up just as one cop who had not been distracted grinned at him through the window and raised his shotgun. Ray froze. This was it. There was no escaping it.

The last thing he heard before the shotgun exploded in his ears and his body was slammed into the window was Ryan's, Gavin, and Michael shouting his name.

But after a moment, he realized he was still alive. His eyes were squinted shut and aside from a dizzying amount of pain from where his head had cracked the window and his earpiece had shattered, he was ok. He opened his eyes. How had that cop missed?

He hadn't. He wasn't in front of Ray anymore. Instead there was another cop car in front of him with blood splattered on the windshield and bumper. Ray looked around and saw the cop about ten feet to his right, sprawled on the asphalt with his body at a crazy angle, as though his spine had snapped in three places, which it probably had.

Had he been hit by one of his fellow cops?

Ray turned his attention back to the cop car just as the door open and a man in black with a partially shattered motorcycle helmet got out. He limped around to the passenger side of Ray's police car and opened the door before collapsing into the seat. He was holding his left arm gingerly and had a bloody scrap of his jacket pressed against his bleeding shoulder. The man turned and grinned at Ray, revealing a few missing teeth and a blood soaked mustache.

"Can I get a ride?" Geoff asked Ray.

Of course up in the jet, no one knew that Ray and Geoff were actually alive. Instead they were shouting at the silence.

"Ray!" Jack yelled as they all heard the shotgun go off and Ray yelled. "Ray!"

"Did we lose him?" Michael yelled. "Ray!"

"Ray, answer me!" Ryan shouted.

Silence answered them.

"Shit!" Jack yelled, punching the dash again.

"We lost Alpha One and Alpha Ray," Michael said sadly.

"Eagle One and Eagle Three," Jack corrected.

"Um guys," Ryan said, cutting across the panic. "We are still getting shot at." As though to illustrate his point, several bullets pinged around his head, causing him to duck back inside. "Shoot out the back!"

"We can't!" Michael announced. As they rose higher, the suction from the still open door was pulling at all of them, Ryan just barely managing to hold on as he fired out of the back.

"We're heading to Fort Zancudo," Jack announced. "I want those jets!"

"Ryan, close the door!" Gavin exclaimed as he felt his body tugging against the seatbelt he was glad he had put on.

"I gotta get this chopper!" Ryan said, holding the door handle and hanging out of the side. He could feel gravity trying to pull at him, but he ignored it. Ray's sacrifice would not be in vain. He was going to take out the choppers following them, complete this heist and go on a killing spree to end all killing sprees.

"Ryan, get in here!" Michael said. "You'll fall!"

"I'm fine," Ryan replied through gritted teeth. His rifle clicked empty and he threw it out of the plane, hopping to hit the chopper but was unsurprised when it missed. He fumbled quickly in his bag for another weapon. "It's ok. I'll—."

What he would do they didn't find out. As Ryan fumbled for a new gun, his grip slackened. At the same time, Jack lifted the plane sharply and put on a burst of speed to lose the police helicopter. It proved too much for Ryan's hold and he felt his feet leave the floor as he was sucked from the plane.

"OH NO!" He shouted as gravity took hold and yanked him toward earth.

"RYAN!" Michael shouted, diving for the door and forgetting he was strapped in and jerking hard against the seatbelt.

Ryan slung his duffle back around his shoulder as he fell and flipped in mid-air, grateful for the parachute he had thought to put on before the heist began. "I'm ok!" he yelled to the others before pulling the ripcord. The Crew in the plane sighed in relief when they saw the parachute burst open below them.

"We'll meet you there!" Michael said, slumping in relief that Ryan was ok. After his stunt last week, and the supposed deaths of Ray and Geoff, he would feel guilty as hell if he had once again allowed someone to die in front of him. He knew now that he could never face it again.

"Eagle Two, find your way to Fort Zancudo," Jack instructed.

"I'll meet you there," Ryan confirmed.

"And everything was going so amazingly well," Gavin said sadly.

"Ryan went back for Geoff and Ray," Michael joked. "He's gotta get their bodies for their families."

Ryan snorted as he drifted. "Fuck you. I won't be the one to tell Griffon Ramsay we let her husband get killed."

The entire Crew winced at that. Griffon was not someone you messed with. She was going to be pissed if Geoff was really dead and the fact that she was very good with a chainsaw made everyone slightly terrified. Or very terrified.

Gavin changed the subject. "Jack I gotta hand it to you, that landing and takeoff was phenomenal."

"Amazing!" Michael added.

"I can't believe we did that," Ryan added as the ground rushed up below him. He was landing in one of the ritzy neighborhoods high in the hills of Los Santos, on what looked to be a patch of land under development. He braced himself as his feet hit the ground and he tumbled into the dirt with a series of grunts and groans.

"Eagle Two, what's your status?" Gavin said, pronouncing it 'state-us' with his accent.

"I'm on the ground," Ryan said, getting up and disentangling himself from his parachute. There were sirens behind him and as he ran towards the road, cops drove into view, firing in his direction. He supposed they had tracked his parachute from the fleeing jet and come after him. "I'm still being shot at." He ran down the street hoping for a car or anything that could help him get out of here while also pulling out a rocket launcher from the bag he had miraculously held on to in his descent. A spotlight lit him up and he squinted up at the chopper blinding him. "I got a chopper." He raised the rocket launcher and fired, the chopper disintegrating in a haze of fire. "But not anymore." Ryan ran for a police car in front of him, killing the driver and yanking him from the vehicle as he felt a few bullets graze him, and one hit his vest. "Ouch," he muttered, getting behind the steering wheel. He slammed the door closed to give himself a bit more cover and accelerated into the fray, blowing past cops and running down more than a few.

"We're approaching the Fort," Jack said. "We need to get those Lazers."

"We should say right now, which ones we're going for," Gavin suggested. "I'll go for the one in the hangar." They had scoped out the military base more than a few time and had stolen jets semi-frequently so they were very familiar with the layout.

"I'll get the one in the middle." Jack replied, leaving Michael with the one furthest from where they were going to exit the jet. That may or may not have been intentional. Michael wasn't surprised.

Below them, Ryan was jumping sidewalks, grassy medians, cop cars and the occasional tress to flee the onslaught of police. "I can do this," he muttered to himself. "I can survive this!"

Jack flew over the military base and made it almost directly above the airfield, according to his dashboard GPS. It was time to go.

"Alright," Jack said, unbuckling his seat belt and making sure his chute was secure. "We need to jump. Ready?"

"Ready!" Michael and Gavin said, crouching on either side of the still open door and the plane's nose dipped and began to plummet downward.

"Ok, 3…2…1, JUMP!" Jack yelled. Michael and Gavin jumped, Jack right behind them. They were thousands of feet in the air. The jet drifted off, still plummeting and Jack was fairly sure it would crash into the ocean nearby. They on the other hand were streaking downward like bullets, headed right for the military base. It was several minutes before a loud horn like siren started going off below them. They weren't yet close enough to the ground to be able to see men and cars scrambling to get to weapons to take out the intruders, but they easily imagined it.

"Good luck gentleman!" Ryan shouted.

"Jack, I don't know why I am even asking," Gavin asked as they continued to fall, "but if, for whatever reason, I manage to get out of here with a jet, where am I going?"

"Trevor's Air Strip," Jack replied. "Ryan meet us there, if you can." The base was getting closer now and Jack, Michael, and Gavin all released their parachutes.

Down on the ground and in an entirely different part of the city, Ryan's head nearly popped off his shoulders as hit a pursuing cop car full speed and spun crazily into a tree first then a light pole. He managed to get the car back under control. It seemed to him, as SWAT vans started appearing behind and in front of him that every cop in the city was pursuing him while the military was pursuing his fellow Crew members. "Oh man, I am hot with cops," he said aloud. His police car jerked again and a muffled explosion met his ears and one side of the car slumped. He had lost a tire. "Aw, why don't police cars have armored tires?!"

"I'm heading towards the jet," Jack said. He was the closest to the ground and he lifted his legs up just as he sailed over the jet. His feet touched the metal and he stumbled, but stayed on his feet as he landed smoothly on top of the jet. "Nailed it!"

"JACK, DUCK!"

Jack hit the roof as Michael's shoes just missed slamming into his skull. Michael floated downward towards the jet in the distance and landed not so gracefully on his butt. "Sorry!" he called to Jack. "I went for the same one you did."

Ryan's other tire went out in his distraction by Michael's shout. He was still moving, but sparks flew from his tires and he was slowing down a bit. "This is grim," he updated the Crew.

Michael jumped up as a tank and a truck came speeding towards him, bullets kicking up dirt all around him. "Oh no, I'm getting shot again!" he cried, sprinting towards the jet. "Go, go you fucking idiot!" he told himself. Suddenly he stumbled as something tugged on him from behind. He had forgotten to take off his parachute and it was slowing him down. He yanked it off and ran to the jet. Michael ducked as bullets ricocheted off of the armored plane and he just managed to wrench open the top and kick the engines to life. He gunned the engine and wasted no time in lifting off before the tank could shoot him down. Jack's jet was already rising high up in the sky ahead of him. "Gavin?" Michael asked. "Gavin where—?"

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Gavin had been floating toward the hangar quite easily and relatively undetected. He was somewhat behind the others and the soldiers below were more focused on Jack and Michael. The hangar came into view and for a brief and shining moment, he imagined himself drifting casually into the hangar, landing on his jet, and flying safely away.

But then reality slammed into him. Literally.

"Oh no," he muttered. He realized a split second too late that he was coming in too high. The words "Fort Zancudo" were eye level as he drifted straight into the hangar, but the problem was that the words were on top of the hangar door. Gavin tried to tug the handles of his chute to lower himself, but for once his flight path straightened out and the word "Fort" took up his entire line of sight.

He let out his now trademarked squawking yell just before he slammed his head into the door, right between the words Fort and Zancudo. His parachute snagged in the door frame and snapped, dropping him fifty feet to the ground below. His head cracked against the pavement and everything went dark.

"Gavin!" Michael yelled. "GAVIN!"

"Oh shit, we lost him!" Ryan yelled when Michael's shouts went met with weird British slang.

"Michael, stay focused," Jack said as Michael yelled something about going back for his friend. "Get to Trevor's, we'll try to recover him later."

Michael started to argue, but then remembered that his standing with Jack wasn't great and that he'd do well to follow orders. Instead of turning back, he set his course behind jack and flew off toward Trevor's.

Meanwhile, military cars and cops gunned it for the body lying inside the hangar. One cop car in particular broke away from the others and sped well ahead of them, screeching to a stop and blocking the body from view. Two men jumped out and quickly lifted the body into the back seat before jumping back in. They stomped on the gas and the others cops and soldiers finally realized that the cop car in question was not really full of cops. It was too late however as the flashing lights sped around the corner, through the exit, and out of sight.

"You think we should have buckled his seat belt?" Ray asked Geoff as he watched Gavin's limp form bounce and slide around in the back seat.

"Fuck no," Geoff said. "The brain damage will be good for him." He glanced back at Gavin as well. "Plus I am pissed he dropped the bag when he bonked his big nose on the door. We didn't even get the money, just this idiot."

"True," Ray said, speeding off towards Trevor's Air Strip.

Police cars are not meant for rough terrain, Ryan thought as his teeth chattered in his head from the bouncing and jolting of his stolen cop car. He was high in the hills near Mount Chiliad with state trooper now joining the police and SWAT teams in chasing him. He listened as first Jack then Michael made it out of Fort Zancudo and left their police tail far behind. The radio in his crash (into a boulder this time) took it out, buzzed with station orders to pursue a stolen cop car heading towards the mountains. It was official. Every cop in the world was behind him.

Ryan leaned out of the long shattered driver's side window and tossed one of his few remaining grenades behind him, satisfied with his aim as several cars exploded. The driving was rough, but it was equally rough for his pursuers and while they were many, they were not fast. He drove up into the hills, taking paths that nearly toppled his car and did topple some of the others. After the last of his tires gave out, he abandoned his uphill dash and instead free fell down the hill in his rolling police car and back to the road. Yes, his pursuers could catch up but he was less burdened by his missing tires.

Meanwhile, Jack landed smoothly at Trevor's AirField. "I'm on the ground, Eagle Four," he told Michael. "Eagle two, where are you?"

"I've got no tires left," Ryan replied. "I'm on an epic car chase right now with no tires in a police vehicle—uh oh!" Ryan swerved out of the way as a SWAT van attempted to cut him off. He avoided a head-on collision, but crashed his front bumper directly into the SWAT guy hanging out of the open van door. The SWAT man went flying up and over his windshield with a series of loud thumps and a scream.

"I am sorry Mr. SWAT Man," Ryan shouted behind him out of the window as he sped off.

Jack and Michael laughed. Jack saw another jet coming into the airfield and Michael whimpered slightly as he lowered the jet to the ground. He just managed to get the landing gear out when the tires squealed down onto the pavement. He yelped as the nose bounced up once, but he made the landing, hitting the brakes and rolling to a stop by Jack.

"Nice little skip off the ground!" Jack said appreciatively. "Congratulations Eagle Four."

Ryan meanwhile had managed to give some of his cop friends the slip and had taken refuge in a tunnel of the foothills of Mount Chiliad. "I might get out of this," he said as the sound of sirens faded. "I might—."

A cop came running into the tunnel, aiming right for where Ryan was crouched by his car. Ryan ended him and the two that ran in behind him. That's why the sirens had stopped. They had pulled over to chase him on foot.

"Eagle Two, did you get money?" Michael asked, hopping down from his jet and walking over to Jack.

Ryan scowled at Michael, even though he couldn't see him. Of course that prick is focused on money when Geoff, Gavin, and Ray, are probably dead and my ass isn't far behind. "Yes. But I'm currently wanted by a lot of people."

"How many?" Michael asked.

Ryan switched to a rocket launcher as five cops ran in behind him. He let fly and ducked as one cop flew over his head and smashed the back windshield of his getaway car. "All of them. The entire police force of Los Santos"

Jack thought for a moment. He wasn't sure how much he trusted Michael yet, but they had already lost the rest of the Crew. Maybe they survived, maybe they hadn't. Until knowing for sure, it was hard to get worked up about it at this point. There had been too many miraculous survivals. Still, he felt he owed it to Ryan to help him out, even if that forced Jack to rely on the one person he trusted least.

"Hey, Eagle Four," Jack said to Michael. Michael looked at him questioningly. "We've got jets. Let's go help him out."

Ryan froze. Why hadn't he thought of that? Better question, why hadn't those fuckers thought of that twenty minutes ago! "YEAH!" he yelled frustrated. "Yeah, why don't you come fucking help me?"

Michael laughed but nodded to Jack. "Let's do it." Jack grinned and hopped back in his jet. Michael walked around the back of the jet and nearly busted his face as he tripped over an untied shoelace. He swore and bent down to tie it.

In the days to come, Jack could never be sure if what followed was an accident or not.

Jack started the jet's engine, unaware that Michael had stopped to tie his shoe. Michael was startled to hear the whirr of the plane behind him and looked up to see the intake start to glow. "JACK!" he shouted, lurching upright as heat washed over him. "OVERLORD NO!"

Michael felt a huge blast of fire and heat slam into him like a ton of bricks, knocking him to the ground. His head cracked on the pavement as his clothes started to smolder, then to burn.

Jack heard Michael scream and looked back just in time to see him fall. Jack jumped from the jet and ran around to Michael where he seemed to be burning from invisible flames. Jack knew what this was: the flames on Michael were so hot, he couldn't see them. He yanked off his jacket and began beating Michael with it, putting out the fire. Michael lay motionless on the ground, smoking lightly and bleeding from his forehead where it had hit the pavement. The money, which Michael had tucked into his hoodie, was in a smoldering bag lying next to him on the ground and Jack knew it wasn't even worth trying to put it out. It was gone.

"Did we just lose Eagle Four?" Ryan asked into the sudden silence. He immediately winced as a bullet punched into his vest from the still approaching police.

"Uh…" Jack said, looking Michael over. "I don't know what just happened. I just got in the jet and I think he walked into the fire zone of my jet."

"Did you suck him into the intake?" Ryan asked.

"I don't know." Jack frowned and turned away from Michael and went to his jet. Michael was a lost cause at this point, no sense in dragging out the inevitable. Besides, he deserved it after the last job. Jack reached up, preparing to hoist himself up into the jet when he saw Michael out of the corner of his eye. Unwillingly, Jack looked back at the broken and bleeding boy on the concrete. He was probably still alive. If Jack left him here he wouldn't last long. No one would blame Jack though, they had a job to do and Jack wasn't a doctor. Who's to say he wouldn't think Michael was dead?

But then Jack remembered Geoff's speech the night of Michael's betrayal. He remembered Michael trying his hardest this whole heist. He remembered that they needed to work as a team if they were going to get Matt and Burnie to back off. Also Geoff would be pissed at Jack for leaving Michael to die. If he was alive.

Jack couldn't do it. Well actually he could, he could do it without hesitation or guilt. But he wasn't going to. He chose not to.

Jack groaned and returned to Michael, hauling the guy up by his black hoodie and dragging his dead weight to the plane. Grunting and panting—Michael wasn't extremely heavy exactly but unconscious, he was not very maneuverable—he shoved Michael into the co-pilot seat and fixed to oxygen mask to his face, thinking that would help him. He was breathing at least. That done Jack got back in his jet.

While all this was going on, the cops had concentrated their assault on Ryan, pressing hard into the tunnel where he had taken refuge. As he listened to Jack getting Michael settled, he left the tunnel and ran into the foothills so that the cops wouldn't gun him down where he stood. He dodge helicopter spotlights as he ran, bullets grazed him, more than a few striking home in his chest. He stumbled as one cut his leg, missing the bone, but lighting up a line of fire in his leg. He limped on, only his rocket launcher left now as he aimed into the sky to take down helicopters. He had left his other weapons and his take behind in an effort to escape.

"Eagle Two, I'm coming for you," Jack announced, starting his jet without casualties this time.

Blood ran down Ryan's leg and he could hear cop cars rumbling down the mountain towards him. He kept moving, kept plunging downhill even as cops came at him from all sides. "I don't think I'm going to make it Overlord," he said, voicing his fear for his life for the first time in his epic chase.

"I'm coming to save you!" Jack reassured him, suddenly worried for the first time. Ryan wasn't a quitter. He wouldn't admit defeat unless it was inevitable. Jack had to get to him fast.

Ryan shot at a helicopter above him but his shots went wide as his strength failed him. The helicopter and police and SWAT behind him returned fire. He was being overwhelmed.

A sniper rifle changed things.

Ryan heard the sniper rifle go off and felt the shot punch into his back, causing him to cry out. Running downhill as he was, he immediately lost his balance and slammed into the ground. Unable to stop himself, he tumbled and rolled down a hill, banging up his face and his entire body as his head swam. His chest was on fire. He had been hit. This was it. Such an anticlimactic ending. He didn't even get to bring hell down on Los Santos for Ray…

"Don't die!" Jack said into dead silence as Ryan yelped in his ear. There was no answer.

Mostly because at the exact moment Ryan rolled to a stop, he looked weakly up at the sky to see the chopper above him go down in a burst of flame. Confused, he continued to stare while he lay bleeding in the dirt. Then, just to confuse him further, an engine revved next to him and a police car came soaring into view, cresting the hill beside his little road and flying right over him. The police car bounced as it landed and executed a sharp turn, whipping around to park beside him. Ryan turned to look and…was that Ray running towards him with a sniper rifle in hand?

"Sorry I shot you. I had to knock you down to get the police to hold fire," Ray said with a grin.

"What?" Ryan croaked faintly, still trying to quench the storm of pain in his ribs.

Ray frowned. "Oooookay. Guess it hit harder than I planned. "Geoff come help!"

Geoff immediately came into view and together they grabbed Ryan's arms and dragged him into the police car. There were shouted behind them as they hauled him up and into the backseat. Ryan slumped heavily against something soft and alive and saw and unconscious but still alive Gavin beside him. In the front seat, Geoff took the wheel and gunned the engine while Ray provided them covering fire as they raced off into the night.

Ryan sat up, wincing at the pain in his ribs and legs. Still, the sight of what he had previously thought were his very dead fiends was waking him up a bit. "What the fuck guys?"

"Shh!" Ray said, ducking back inside the window. "Here, give me your headset. I'm going to match frequencies on the police radio and we'll see what Jack is doing." Ryan handed over the headset and got a mostly clean piece of bandage in exchange. "Warp that leg too," Ray instructed."

"Hello?" Jacks' voice case over the radio. Gavin groaned beside Ryan and blearily opened his eyes. "Anyone?"

Up in the jet, Jack had endured dead silence for the whole thirty second Ryan's rescue had taken. Now he spoke into the silence, asking if anyone in his crew was left. Someone would answer, surely?

Nothing, this was usually the part where the crew popped up and miraculously survived things. So it was logically time for them to reveal themselves right? Right?

Still nothing.

So that was it then. Just him and a severely injured Michael left. Figures the one guy he wanted dead was the one guy to make it out. Jack growled low under his breath before adopting a very bitter grin. "All right then. I'm gonna get the hell out of here." He turned the controls and launched into a barrel roll. "Overlord wins!" he shouted, but more bitterly than triumphantly.

Sudden raucous laughter met his ears followed by a groan from Michael behind him. Jack straightened the jet and listened hard. "Hello!" he said, recognizing that laugh. It was Geoff! Behind him he could Ray laughing too and Ryan swearing. There was also a faint trace of Gavin squawking. They were alive!

"GOD DAMMIT, JACK!"

Jack jumped. Michael was awake and not happy. Jack immediately realized that he shouldn't have given Michael oxygen. It powered those damn lungs Michael used primarily for yelling.

"I walked behind your jet and you just turned it on!" he shouted. Geoff laughed harder, drowning out Ray, Ryan, and Gavin's chuckles.

"Why did you go there? Why didn't you go towards yours?" Jack shot back. He was dizzy with gratitude as Geoff and the others continued to laugh in his ear but he was more focused on not getting blamed for Michael being an idiot.

"My shoes was untied!" Michael said. "I nearly tripped. I started running and stopped to tie it, I'm right behind your jet and you're like—!" Michael made a sound that sounded half like a jet firing up and half like he was choking on a gallon of his own mucus. "You fucking shredded me!"

"Burned you, you ass," Jack grumbled before turning his attention towards the others. "Geoff what happened?"

"Yeah you never said," Ray added.

"I think I got assassinated by the clerk," Geoff replied. That triggered more laughter, even from Geoff. It was all so crazy that they all had to laugh or descend into rage and they had had quite enough of that lately. "I was going out the door and bang! Right in the shoulder."

"And how did you get out?" Jack asked.

"A cop came over to see if I was dead and I head-butted the shit out of him." Geoff explained. "Then I hauled myself into the police car, stuck some of my jacket on the wound so I wouldn't bleed to death, and then took off after you guys." Geoff grinned. "That landing was awesome by the way, Jack."

"I was parachuting into the military base," Gavin piped up, "and I bashed my head on the top of the hangar and passed out right in front of the jet." Geoff laughed so hard he got dizzy from the lack of oxygen and stopped the car in a shady alley.

"I had such an amazing exit and Jack tried to burn me to death," Michael said, his bitterness at odds with his laughing at Geoff and Gavin's tale.

"Jack tried to burn you to death, Gavin bonked his head, Geoff almost got assassinated, and I sacrificed myself while killing the cops on the ground so you could take off," Ray summarized. "Fuck it, I'll take an honorable death. Especially since I didn't die."

"Now how did you get out of that?" Ryan asked. "We heard you get shot."

"You heard the headset break in a ricochet," Ray replied. "These things are fragile as shit at the worst moments have you noticed?"

"A little coincidental," Gavin agreed.

"Anyway, Geoff came riding to the rescue in his police car and flattened the cop who tried to kill me," Ray finished. "We then followed the swarm of police to the military base and picked up Gavin after he cracked his skull and rode in to Ryan's rescue just in time."

"And shot me," Ryan muttered mutinously.

"It helped," Ray said dismissively. "Ryan, I don't even know what the fuck you were doing the whole time."

Ryan grinned. "I fought ALL the cops."

"God damn, I can't believe that worked." Jack said impressed with his Crew and his plan. "I mean we lost all the money by sheer accident. But the fact that two jets got out of the base, I can't believe that. Good job everybody."

"So what's the next step?" Gavin asked.

Everyone thought for a moment.

"Medical attention?" Ryan suggested as his leg bled through the bandage.

"Oh God yes," Michael groaned.

"Yes please!" Geoff said, holding his shoulder. "Then we can deal with the next phase in our plan."

Jack grinned. The Crew was back. They may have failed to get money, but the plan itself had worked and more importantly, they all felt like a Crew again. Jack didn't even mind that Michael had survived.

…Much.