"Ladies and gentlemen, we will be arriving at Los Santos International Airport shortly. Local time is 8:05 PM, and the current temperature is 82 degrees. Please make sure your seatbelts..."

The captain's instructions became but a meaningless drone to a certain young, black-haired woman onboard, whose stupefied stare was directed toward the sight of the illuminated Los Santos skyline. Her uncle had told her that LS was a big place, and she had certainly seen pictures of the cityscape online, but they were more like poor, amateur illustrations compared to these giant artificial mountains, their lighted exteriors turning the otherwise dark and sunless sky above them a bright orange hue.

A friendly tap from the passenger next to her prevented her from being scolded by the notoriously-crabby FLY US attendants patrolling the aisles. She hastily fastened her seat belt and positioned her lap table upright before taking in one last glance of the city, now accompanied by the colorful neon-lit attractions of the world-famous Del Perro Pier.

"This your first time visitin Los Santos?" asked the middle-aged African-American woman in the neighboring seat.

"Y-yeah..." she responded, briefly unsure on how to make small talk with the people of this amazing city. "Well, actually I'm gonna be...living here."

"Really?" replied the woman, somewhat surprised. "What neighborhood?"

"Pillbox Hill. My uncle, he's lived here for a while, and he was nice enough to give me the down payment to a really nice apartment."

"You mean them luxury apartments?!" she responded, obviously astonished.. The younger woman nodded.

"Girl! That must be some uncle! Does he have a-" she stopped when she realized some nearby passengers were staring her. Not wanting to embarrass the girl, she instead bent down and spoke to her in a softer, lower register.

"I, um, actually don't live too far from Pillbox Hill. Not in a...luxury apartment, of course. Maybe we can meet up sometime. I'm Denise," she said, extending her hand and a pink business card.

"Alexia...nice to meet you." She accepted Denise's card and cautiously shook her manicured hand.

Skimming over the hot pink business card, Alexia cocked an eyebrow and looked at Denise questioningly.

"Pelvic exercises?"

"Yes, ma'am. Me and my girlfriends, we practice what's known as new-age feminism, and a strong and healthy pelvic cavity plays a large part of the spiritual empowerment of women," Denise proudly proclaimed. "You should come take a spirit walk with us sometime, I'm sure Magenta would love havin another white girl around."

"Yeah, I...I'll think about it," said Alexia halfheartedly before turning toward the window to realize that the plane had already parked, and passengers were being let out.

Alexia then proceeded to wander around the vast concrete maze of America's busiest airport, searching for one of her uncle's men that had been sent to pick her up.

Alexia's uncle, as Denise had hypothesized, was indeed a rather important fixture in Los Santos. However, contrary to most wealthy men, he was not a very public face (he was much more of a recluse), nor did he gather his large fortune by...entirely legal means. Alexia's uncle was none other than the notorious Remus Knight, the leader of a powerful Los Santos crew called The Black Skulls. Consisting of about 750 of the most bloodthirsty criminals in the state, the crew would make make it a regular hobby to execute large, bloody purges on the Los Santos police, as well as on rival crews. They would often do this with the use of such advanced weaponry as LAPV Insurgents and armored Karin Kurumas, as well as handheld miniguns and heat-seeking rocket launchers. Every member of the crew, to signify their allegiance, was to wear a jet black skull mask and all-black clothing whenever they were to go out on a killing spree, so that the general public and law enforcement officials would be aware of who reigned the streets of Los Santos in blood.

Aside from the high-ranking mass murderers, however, were the lower rank hoods, who were often assigned to minor drug deals and occasionally running errands for Alexia's uncle. One of these 'doots', as they were called, was a rather tall and lanky African-American man, leaning against a dark-blue 2004 Albany Emperor. This particularly-shady figure was, for some reason, carrying a bright red rose in his hand, which he used to signal to the black-haired girl that was quite visibly struggling with her heavy suitcase.

"Ay girl, you need some help with that?" asked the man, looking over the rather-attractive niece of his boss.

Not waiting for a response from Alexia, he immediately proceeded to lift the rolling suitcase unnecessarily high over his head and drop it into the trunk of his car.

"No trouble at all," he boasted, pretending to wipe sweat off of his brow. "How it do, baby? Lamar Davis. You Alexia, right? The big dog's niece?"

Alexia reticently accepted the rose that he persistently held in front of her face.

"Yeah, that's me...is this from my uncle?"

Lamar's face lit up with uncertainty, as if this was not the response that he had expected.

"Uh...no, i-it's... mine. Uh..."

"Oh. Um...well, I don't..." Alexia, not able to find the correct words, instead tossed the rose onto the pavement.

"Yeah, okay. I'm cool with that. That's cool. Like, keepin it, like, bidness only, you know?" he stumbled, his face turning slightly red.

"Yeah, that...that's fine with me."

"A'ight, that's trill baby. Uh...we should prolly jet, the boss gon' like, cut my nuts off or somethin if we late."

Alexia immediately turned and gave him a half-puzzled, half-disgusted look.

"I-I mean, not that he does that or nothin', 'least, I don't think he does..."

Alexia climbed into the front seat of the car. However, as soon as the door was closed, she immediately started to gag and attempted to hold her nose, due to the pungent odor that pervaded the car's atmosphere.

"Damn baby, you a'ight? I mean, this hoopty is a dirty mo'fucker, but I did try an' clean i-."

"That smell, it's...it's horrible!" Alexia cried through her pinched nostrils.

"What are...Ohh..." Lamar proceeded to break into a raucous chuckle as he cranked the engine. "I guess you ain't really accustomed to the smell of kush."

As Lamar accelerated forward, Alexia desperately opened her window and inhaled the heavily-polluted-but-better-smelling Los Santos air.

"Man...man, I'm sorry baby," said Lamar in between chuckles. "Me and my boy Frank, we was cruisin in this hoopty last night, we was rollin like, fitty sticks of that shit, man, and boy that was some dope shit right there. Y'know, I dunno if you will, but if you end up, like, givin it a try or somethin I gon' hook you up man, I got this dealer who can get you, like, 75 on the..."

Again, Alexia managed to tune out the meaningless voices and gape out in wonder at the illumened monoliths in the center of the city. This time, they were much closer, only maybe a few yards away from the freeway that they were traveling on, and only served to make her feel smaller. One of the skyscrapers, she noticed, had obvious signs of construction on its surface, and many Latino workers currently on their dinner break. With her sholder-length black hair sweeping in her face as Lamar floored it down the highway, Alexia struggled to crane her neck upward and witness a helicopter, about just a few feet above the summit of the Maze Bank arena, presumably coming in for a landing.

"Hey baby, you aight?"

For the second time that day, Alexia had been snapped back into reality. She quickly poked her head back in, the smell of marijuana no longer as strong as it was.

"Naw, naw, I'm just sayin, do what you want, man. I-I just thoughtchu was goin all, like, catatonic on me or some shit, like..." he began to break into wheezy laughter. "And you was just, like, lookin up with that...that big grin on yo'face, man. That's hilarious."

Alexia blushed slightly and gave a nervous smile.

"Sorry," she said timidly. "It's just...I'm a country girl, y'know? I lived out in South Yankton most of my life, so I've never really...seen buildings this tall before."

"Yeah, that's cool. I see these everyday, you know? I don't really give em a second glance but, shit, it's kinda nice to see you so interested in somethin I've seen my whole life, it's kinda like...I don't know, a lil kid or somethin...You kinda give off that vibe, girl, it's kinda cool."

At last, the car rolled to a stop at a red light. Lamar looked around suspiciously before turning to Alexia.

"Ay, uh, since we outta...airport jurisdiction," Lamar practically whispered, leaning over to Alexia's side of the car. "I know you ain't really a flowers girl, but...I got somethin else that might be a lil more...useful."

Alexia gently took the small piece of metal from Lamar and studied it in the light of the streetlamp beside them.

"Wow...is this a Taurus PT92 9mm?!" Alexia asked, enthusiastically.

"Uh...yeah," Lamar responded, again receiving an unexpected response from Alexia. He couldn't help but give a short, surprised laugh. "How'd you know?"

"Like I said, I'm from the country. You ask me anything about guns...a-and hunting, I'll probably know it."

"Aight then..." said Lamar, thinking of a ridiculously obscure question involving firearms. "In, uh, most machine guns...what kinda action it got?"

"Open breech. Like, with modern machine guns especially, when you pull the trigger, the breech bolt automatically opens, so you don't have those annoying little cock-offs you get, like, when it's really hot inside the gun and the chamber ignites by itself...right?"

"Hell...I don't know baby," said Lamar, grinning. "I guess so. Normally, I just like to pop shit off an' hope it hit some mo'fucker I'm creepin up on. I dunno all that other shit."

Alexia smiled, her eyes still glued to her new gun.

"But, uh, that knowledge gon' really help you out, homie. Just know that huntin Ballas or...whoever you don't like, it ain't like killin a sasquatch or whatever y'all hunt up in South Yankton. You, uh...got anything against killin dudes?"

"Not really. I'll only do that if I have to," she said stoically as she detached the magazine of her gun. "Besides...there's some bad people in this city, right?"

"Ohh, fo' sho'!" Lamar responded, his certainty and confidence returning to its pre-embarrassment levels.

The rest of the car ride was spent in silence, save for the gangsta rap songs blaring over the radio, as Alexia studied her new weapon. Lamar, rather proud of himself for making her smile, leaned back in his seat and weaved through traffic with one hand on the wheel. At last, the car approached to a small lot in West Vinewood, with a few generic sedans lined up on the far end and 2 or 3 Black Skulls hanging around the entrance.

"Evening, Ms. Knight!" exclaimed one of them. "Welcome to Los Santos!"

Alexia Knight made sure to give a courtesy wave from out of the window.

"So, um..." she began. "Do you know what this...meeting's about?"

"Aw man, you don't know?" he said, abruptly shifting the car into park. "Shit, girl. I thought yo' uncle told you already, but he went ahead an' arranged a little...test. Like, for you."

"A test?" she repeated, with a flummoxed look on her face. "What kind of test?"

"Heh, only the best kinda test, lil boo. Yo' ass...gon' be racin' my ass...right here, an' right now."

She was about to question him further, but at that point, a burly Black Skull courteously opened the door for her.

"Evening, Ms. Knight," said the gang member in a rough baritone voice.

"E-evening," she replied in a high and timid manner.

Alexia graciously took the man's enormous hand and stepped out of the shitty-smelling Emperor, making sure to tuck her new pistol into her back pocket. The ginormous man made sure to close Lamar's car door so that he could freely do donuts in the parking lot.

"You'll be fine, Ms. Knight. Lamar's just a bit foolish," said the burly man, trying to comfort the outwardly-nervous woman.

"Yeah, I-I can see that," she agreed, watching as he climbed up onto the windowsill of his car and steered around the parking lot with his feet.

"Hey, Alexia, you like takin in the sights of Los Santos, right?! Well, you lucky, 'cause you gon' get a great view...of the back of my whip, through this whole race!" Lamar let out a smug laugh and continued burning rubber obnoxiously.