Grand Theft Auto – Berk Edition

Chapter 13 – Bounty hunting

Hiccup stretched and sat up on an unfamiliar couch, sunlight beginning to filter through the large windows of the apartment. As he blinked the sleep from his eyes, a voice from behind him called out,

"Morning. Shower is downstairs. The crew assignments will be out in a few minutes."

Hiccup turned around and looked into the kitchen to find Astrid, already in a white suit, eating breakfast and typing on her phone. Hiccup mumbled in acknowledgment as he slowly moved down the steps to the shower. "And a coffee as well, it would seem." Astrid said with humor in her voice.

One quick, refreshing shower and a cup of coffee later, Hiccup was sitting at the bar in the kitchen as Astrid finished sending the crew assignments.

"Alright," Astrid started. "Today I'm having you hunt down some bounties. Small cash bonus for killing a target. Usually, Lester or I will post the bounties we find and let the crew go for them as they please, very rarely do we make it a full job but this is a slightly different situation." She laid out three photos on the bar countertop, one of a Hispanic man with a tuft of hair on his chin, next a man with long dark dreads, and the last, a girl with a spiky purple Mohawk with tattoos and piercings covering her body. "These three are low ranking members of the Red Death, they wield very little power and aren't much more than two-bit gangsters, but any excuse to hunt down members of the Red Death is a good one right now. Lester can give you approximant locations based off of cell phone use, but how and where you take them out is up to you. You have all day to complete this job, but you may run into others looking to claim the bounties for themselves. The crew won't be taking any cut of the bounties you take, that's how we roll. It's the easiest way to make a quick buck. Any questions?"

Hiccup shook his head, "I don't think so." As he got up from the bar. "But I should grab some form of rifle before I go after one of them. I best get started."

Astrid nodded. "In the meantime, I have a war to plan. Good luck, this is the first step towards finishing the Red Death."

Hiccup nodded as he stood up. "Thanks for letting me crash on your couch. Hopefully these bounties give Snotlout enough time to kick the girl he paid for out."

Astrid snorted, "He may have paid for a full twenty-four hours."

"Oh god, I hope not." Hiccup shuddered as he walked out of Astrid's apartment and into the elevator, pressing the button for the lobby. Wandering around back to his Dominator in the back parking lot, he climbed in and began to look over the files on his targets. As he was reading the first file, a large group of people caught his attention as they walked into the lot and to the back door. They were all in some form of combat armor and carrying assault weapons.

Hiccup grabbed his phone and called up Astrid while closely watching the armed men to make sure they would not spot him. The phone only rung once before Astrid picked up.

"Something not clear?"

Hiccup snorted, "No, just figured you'd want to know about a group of armed men about to break into your building."

"Shit. How many?"

"Nine. You want a hand?"

"Yeah," Astrid paused. "Stay behind them. I'm leaving my apartment and going up. More cover on the roof and I can force a choke point up here. When they start shooting at me, take a few out. No risks though, I can jump of the roof if things get hairy. You, on the other hand, have to get downstairs the old fashioned way and if we don't kill them all that won't be fun."

"Jump off the roof?"

"Stashed a parashoot up here a few months ago. Halfway decent quick escape route."

Hiccup sprinted up the stairwell so he could prop the door on Astrid's floor open before the elevator opened. Reaching the floor, he quickly pulled the door open and propped it open with the corner of the carpet before retreating down two floors when he heard the soft 'ding!' of the elevator. There were a few seconds of quiet before a loud crunch could be heard.

"They just kicked in your door. Are you in position?"

"Yeah" Replied Astrid. "Good on my end. Don't let them see you till I start shooting."

A few more moments passed before their voices could be heard again.

"Check the roof." Came a voice with authority. "You two! Go down to the lobby and make sure no one leaves till we find her!"

Boots sounded on the stairs above Hiccup. He waited for the soft thump of the door hitting the carpet before following the group up as quietly as he could. The sound of a boot against a metal door echoed down the stairwell as the now seven men ran onto the roof. Stopping on the landing just opposite of the roof access door, Hiccup snapped his SMG up and waited for Astrid's gunshots. He didn't wait long, as she open fire with what sounded like an auto-shotgun. Taking his cue, Hiccup fired a sustained burst into the back of the last man to go through the door. As he fell to the ground, Hiccup rolled out of the doorway and put three rounds into the arm of the last man standing, in cover behind an AC unit. He dropped his rifle and grabbed at his belt for the knife strapped there but the butt of Astrid's auto-shotgun slammed into his face, knocking him out and leaving him concussed.

Astrid straightened up and looked around. "I only counted seven."

"Two in the lobby. To catch you sneaking out."

"Ah, then watch the stairs. They probably heard the gunshots."

Hiccup nodded "On it."

Astrid then turned to the man lying on the ground and pulled all the weapons off him, as well as his body armor. She then slapped him hard across the face.

"Ah! What the fuck!"

"Who sent you?"

"No one!" The man yelled. "We're just a small crew trying to make some quick cash!"

Astrid frowned at his words. "Then why attack me? I hardly think that I'm worth this." She said as she gestured to his now dead companions.

The man just pulled out a slip of paper. Astrid's eyes grew wide as she read it.

"I don't know if I should feel insulted that the Red Death is getting other people to kill me or honored that they think I'm worth twenty five million."

Hiccup's head snapped back to Astrid. "Twenty five?!"

"A bounty that size would get anyone's attention." She said, almost to herself. "I guess it's time for me to lie low for a bit."

Hiccup opened his mouth to reply, but a noise from the stairwell caught his attention. Snapping back around, he got off a sloppy burst at the first of the two and hit him, but the guy retreated back down the stairs and out of Hiccup's sight.

"Here," Called Astrid as she tossed a handgrenade from the pile of weapons next to her prisoner. "Use this."

Hiccup pulled the pin out and flicked the explosive below the railing and onto the landing below him. Retreating backwards through the roof door he caught the second man run up the stairs away from the grenade. Hiccup hit him in the head with a quick squeeze of the trigger. There was a loud BOOM and the sound of a body tumbling before the roof became quiet again.

Astrid nodded. "Well that takes care of that." She pulled her .50 caliber pistol out and blew the brains of the captive out. "And that takes care of that. I've got a safehouse outside the city. If I move quickly, I can make it there before anyone else decides they want to kill me. I'll keep you informed on what's going on. Go kill those Red Death bounties. Lester will let you know where to go after that."

Astrid ran back downstairs to her apartment, while Hiccup left for his car. Once inside, he dialed Lester's number. "Hey, I need you to find me someone…"

Hiccup sucked in his breath to steady his aim as the crosshair of his sniper rifle lined up just beneath the purple mohawk. He sat on the roof of the lifeguard watchhouse south of the pier as what appeared to be a drug deal happened below it. Lying prone in the dark of night, no one would notice him until he pulled the trigger. A single gunshot echoed across the beach as the pillar right behind his target splattered with blood. The rest of the gang scattered and ran for cover while Hiccup contemplated on a few more shots before sliding down to the sand and getting back into his car. Satisfying to take out more Red Death? Yes. Worth the extra attention? Probably not. Anyway, that was the last bounty so as soon as Hiccup was sure he had gotten away clean, he pulled out his phone and dialed Lester.

He spoke as soon as he picked up, "I'm assuming you're now three for three?"

"Battin' a thousand. What's next?"

Lester snorted. "Take the Great Ocean Highway east out of LS. Stop for gas at the station that's in between the north and southbound lanes. One of the twins will be waiting for you there. Take care that you aren't followed." And with that he hung up.

Hiccup floored it through the streets, and spent the entire trip watching out his rear view mirror for tails. Even though it was the middle of the night, Los Santos was very much still awake. The GOH, however was less so. When he stopped to get gas, no one followed him up to the rest stop where a familiar Imponte Ruiner sat idling in a parking spot. After filling his tank, Hiccup drove over to Ruffnut's car and rolled his window down.

"Nice of you to show up." She called out her window. "Come on, the crew owns a garage out in Harmony that were meeting in, follow me."

The two sped back onto the highway and pulled off at Sandy Shores to get onto route 58 before driving west to a nondescript garage on the side of the road. Parking with Ruffnut outside, the pair walked into the door on the side and into the somewhat spacious garage with the beaten and dented Dubsta from the last job off in the corner. Sitting in folding chairs around a table was Astrid, Tuffnut, and Fishlegs.

Astrid looked up from her laptop, "Oh, good. You're here. Your cousin is up on the roof keeping an eye out. The good news is that Lester managed to intercept a few emails from higher-ups in the Red Death, and we know who is running the battle against us. The bad news is that the bounty isn't just going to go away, so I can't do anything to help for the time being. The last thing we need is some wannabe bounty hunter starting a firefight on every other block."

Tuffnut slammed his fists together. "So we're taking the fight to them!" He yelled as Ruffnut high-fives him.

"The twins are going to start attacking some of the property the Red Death owns. Fishlegs is going after that weed plant lumber mill on the GOH. Snotlout is keeping an eye on the aria and doing miscellaneous jobs for Trevor while we're out here. Toothless got held up on his job earlier today, and is still making the trip up to Paleto Bay and we're on a tight schedule so you're taking his job. Breaking into this guy's apartment and getting as much as you can from it." She slid a thumb drive across the table to Hiccup. "That will get you into his computer and copy everything on it. According to Lester, his phone just connected to the Vanilla Unicorn's wifi so for the time being, his apartment should be empty. I suggest you get moving. Good luck."

Ruffnut frowned, "Did Lester go looking for his phone or did he just notice it when he was snooping on the strip club security cameras?"

"Do you really want to know?" Replied Tuffnut. "Cause I'm pretty sure I know the answer."

Hiccup closed the garage door behind him as he walked back to his car, already planning how to break into the apartment without being caught

Tonight's gonna be one hell of a trip, that's for sure.

I'm back! Haven't abandon the story! Life sucks, work really sucks, and 6 day work weeks really, really, suck. Doing better though, every cloud or something like that -OMOB