Grand Theft Auto: To Protect & Serve

Volume I - Chapter One

Camera flashes. Hushed conversations. All eyes staring directly at him… or, more accurately, to the right of him, where his boss stood behind a tall wooden podium, giving a powerful speech that everyone would cheer for but no one would remember or care about 24 hours from then. Travis Cane, a tall man with slicked back brown hair and a beard, leaned over to his partner, Jeremiah Bristol, and whispered, "What the fuck is the crowd cheering for?"

Jeremiah, in response, shushed him, but had a large, douchey grin on his face while he did so. "Couldn't say." he said in a slight southern accent, which sounded horribly misplaced within the materialistic shithole city of Los Santos. "I just woke up." Both men laughed, which caused two other guards, named William Gates and Flint Osborne, to look their way.

"Hey!" whispered William, the head bodyguard of the group, in an aggressive tone. "Shut the fuck up!"

Travis flipped him off behind his back. William and Travis had never really gotten along, and every time they were forced to work together, their relationship slowly descended from a mutual dislike of one another into a very strong hatred. Travis' "hard-but-have-fun-while-doing-it" attitude didn't agree with William's "always-act-like-you-have-a-stick-up-your-ass" attitude.

"Listen to me, Trav-tits…" William started to say, but Travis snorted before he could finish his insult.

"Oh no. I'm gonna lose some fucking sleep over that one." Travis retorted.

"Fuck you." William said rolling his eyes.

"Bite me." Travis said. As he said this, he noticed that the crowd had gone silent, along with their boss, who was staring at them with angry eyes hidden behind a relaxed face. Suddenly, a short man with shoulder length black hair and a suit slightly too big for him appeared on the side of the stage and waved William and Travis over.

"Someone's in trouble." Jeremiah said with the same douchey smile. Travis and William walked to the side of the stage to the man who was visibly seething with rage. The man was Nick Gardner, the Vice President of the Quantum Corporation, the company they were employed by.

"Do you two have any idea what's going on? You are professionals! Act like it! If you are having relationship issues deal with it on your own time. Get the fuck back on stage, do your job, and quit acting like a bunch of jackasses!"

He walked back off stage and behind the scenes as William and Travis stared at each other for a second. They then walked back on stage and back in line with the other bodyguards. Their boss looked from them back to the crowd and smiled.

"Sorry for the minor interruption, everyone. 'The best bodyguards a guy can hire.' apparently don't come with an off button." he joked. The crowd let out small laughs here and there. "Anyway, as I was saying, the Quantum Corporation is and always has been the most reliable when it comes to creating technology to enhance the future, and today's unveiling of the newest creation to come from Quantum is sure to continue this trend."

The man paused, walked over to a small structure covered by a blanket, and cleared his throat. Cameras flashed and a low murmur emerged from the crowd. "I, Daniel Roberts, CEO of Quantum, am proud to introduce…" He grabbed the cloth and ripped it away, revealing two giant, futuristic guns. People gasped and more cameras flashed. "... what I like to call "Quantum Rifle". These are the future of military technology. One shot, uncharged, is capable of destroying a small house, or other fragile targets, such as bunkers or trenches. If you hold down the trigger, however, you can charge your shot. One fully charged shot can obliterate armored enemy vehicles, such as tanks, planes, helicopters, etc… One test managed to destroy an entire lab. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but it really gave us a perspective as to how powerful these weapons can be."

"Holy shit…" Travis whispered to Jeremiah. Jeremiah just nodded in agreement.

"On behalf of Quantum, I would like to supply the United States military with these two models of the weapon. More advanced models will be-"

BLAM! BLAM!

Two gunshots shattered the silence of the presentation, sending people in the crowd and on stage in every direction. Screams filled the air, and a few moments after the chaos erupted, three more gunshots were fired. Travis immediately dived in front of Daniel, along with the other bodyguards. He brought Daniel close to the ground and started to give him orders.

"Sir! We have to get you out of here! Are you hurt?" Travis asked.

"No! Just get me the fuck out of here!" Daniel replied in a panicked tone.

"Alright!" Travis looked up at William, who was scanning the crowd, trying to find the gunman. "Will, do you have eyes on him?!"

"No! There are three civilians down on the ground! Unsure if they're wounded or just protecting themselves!"

"We have to get Daniel out of here! Can you and Flint cover me?!"

"You got it!"

Travis grabbed Daniel by his collar and started walking forward. He held out his gun, aiming it into the crowd in case the gunman tried to fire again. Just when they were about to reach the side of the stage, another gunshot was fired.

"FUCK!" Daniel screamed as he collapsed to the ground. He clawed at his calf, which now had blood pouring from it, which soaked into the suit pants and pooled on the ground around his leg. Travis put Daniel's arm around his neck, forced him to stand up, and practically carried him to the side of the stage. He set his boss down in a chair and ran back towards William and Flint.

"Where the fuck is J?!" asked Flint. Neither William or Travis could answer. Suddenly, just as they thought the coast was clear, another gunshot was sent towards them. It missed, but the wind from the bullet brushed against Travis' hair. He scanned the crowd once more, and this time, he saw the gunman.

"There! In the turquoise jersey!"

The three fired their guns, and watched as the bullets suck into the man's flesh, sending blood squirting out of each impact point and causing him to do a morbid dance as his body convulsed from each shot. He fell onto his back, dead. William, Travis, and Flint all tried to catch their breath.

"He's an Azteca." Flint suddenly deduced out loud. "Jersey is turquoise and he looks Hispanic."

"Doesn't mean he's a fucking Azteca." Travis replied.

"I mean, the jersey has the word ' Azteca' on it." Flint retorted. The three men looked at the man's jersey and, sure enough, the word ' Azteca' in giant white-and now red-letters was sprawled across the front.

"Shit." William cursed. "Shit, shit, shit. This was a gang attack."

"C'mon, we should get Daniel out of here." Travis suggested. The two others nodded and went back to Daniel, who was sweating and clutching his leg in pain. William and Travis both grabbed his arms and put them around their necks before helping him up. He screamed in agony and limped along with William and Travis while Flint watched out for any other possible gunmen.

"Where the fucking fuck is Jeremiah?!" asked Daniel with gritted teeth. When none of the three bodyguards in Daniel's presence could answer, he cursed, multiple times.

"What the FUCK! That spineless fucking coward! Who the fuck does he fucking think he is?! Fuck!"

"Sir, calm down." Travis ordered. He continued along with Daniel, who continued screaming and cursing. He tried to get his boss to shut the fuck up a few more times, but it was no use. He eventually just zoned out, continuing to walk until Daniel was in an ambulance and on his way to a hospital. He took a deep breath and rubbed his head.

"Fuuuuuuck…" he sighed.

"I'll get in with him." Flint said, climbing into the back of the ambulance. Travis just nodded and waved in his general direction. A few moments after the ambulance pulled away, William walked over.

"I'm going to take Nick back. You good here?"

"Yeah." replied Travis. "Trying to wrap my mind around it."

"Yeah, it was fucking crazy." He paused for a moment before saying, "When I see Jeremiah, I'm gonna fucking kick his ass."

"Agreed." Travis said. The more he thought about it, the more pissed off he became. The fact that Jeremiah ditched all of them was infuriating. He put his own life before Daniel's which is the exact opposite of what the main requirement of the job is. He snapped back into reality as William drove away, and Travis screamed, "FUCKING COWARD!"

Author's Note:

Hey everyone! Thank you for reading the first chapter of Grand Theft Auto: To Protect & Serve! I've been wanting to do this for a long time, and now I finally am! My co-author, bleedgreen99 (who you should all check out), and I worked pretty hard on this chapter, but this is nothing compared to what's to come in this story. This simply served as the introduction to our universe, which takes place a few months after the end of GTAV. After Devin Weston's death, a power vacuum was created, allowing companies like the Quantum Corporation to rise into power very quickly. This story is going to follow Travis, the main character, as he works to uncover the deceit and corruption within this power vacuum. Hope you all enjoy. Stay tuned for the next chapter.