Los Santos Underground

[NeverMind]

 

After recruiting a few more members and talking to the people around Los Santos, members of Underground met up at their newly found HQ to finally set up their first night of pay-in racing, collecting money from the buy-ins and the rest going to the winner

 

After the meeting took place and the track was decided, everyone loaded up in their cars and headed up the highway towards the grapeseed track. After a quick introduction, Baxter gathered everyone around and went over some of the rules of the night such as how money was going to be handled and to keep all the races clean, no ramming or off-road shortcuts.

 

 

After a few races, nearby sheriffs started getting wind of the races and sent a helicopter to come check out the area, so we put on one last good show for them before deciding to head out to a new location.

 

Everyone reconvened at the most well-known track in Los Santos: Observatory. They ran quite a few races for both money and pride. While in between races, members of Underground got to interact with a lot more people including some members of a local car group, Burnout Nation, who were there to look at cars and hang out.

At the end of a very successful night, Underground had finally begun collecting money into the crew and got to get its name out about setting up events for everyone to meet up. They gathered names of people who would be interested in doing more paid-in races and headed out, ready to set up the next night of racing.

Edited September 1, 2020 by NeverMind

[Speed Racer]

We put on quite the show for SD!

Edited December 4, 2020 by Speed Racer

[Speed Racer]

It was the eve of Matt and Niki's wedding, and Baxter, being one of Matt's groomsmen, wanted to make it a memorable night for Matt. He had a plan that safely combined a staple of bachelor parties - BOOZE! - with his and Matt's biggest interest - cars. He would get 4 stock Warreners, fit them with roll cages and race seats, and host races in tracks relatively off the beaten path. Low End was frustratingly lacking in Warreners at the time, as were Atomic and Motorsport... Thankfully, Heavyflow had exactly 4 at the time. 

He might have decided to get cute with other upgrades while he was hauling them back and forth from LSC...

With the help of Tommy, Baxter hauled the Warreners out to Garbage and hid them down on the beach for the hour leading up to the get-together.

When it was time, Baxter met up with Matt, blindfolded him, and drove him to Garbage to reveal the surprise. As you'd expect, Matt was extremely skeptical of the idea, thinking it would be lame. But once the booze started flowing, the inhibitions were lowered and the fun was on! The streets were clear, the seatbelts were on, and the green flag waving! The fun was short-lived however, as after a couple laps the cars were in dire need of repair (much as you'd expect...). A mechanic was called, and Niki decided to ride along with the mechanic from LSC. They pulled up in the middle of the filler entertainment that Tommy called in while the cars were being repaired, and well...

(In case the video is removed by youtube for copyright: https://streamable.com/5a5gnc)

So the night ended a little early, but fun was had, Baxter still owns the cars, and with proper planning and advertising they could become quite the attraction for Underground, both internally and externally!

[Speed Racer]

After the bachelor party, Baxter took time to reflect on what exactly he'd put together with these Warreners. It became evident that these cars were more than just a party gag - the way he'd set them up shared extreme likenesses with something he was very familiar with - spec series in motorsports. These series feature identical cars in an effort to be a true competition of driver skill, and the Warreners already resemble the body and performance spec of many entry-level touring car series. He knew he had to start pushing this idea on more people, for this could be the next big step for proper racing in this city.

He was waiting for the right time to host the next Warrener night, and found it on the same day Burnout Nation hosted their races at the import docks. The city had evidently been slow taking down the barriers from the track, and when he went back the next day the track was still intact with barriers. The event brought enough people into town that he had no trouble finding enough of his clubmates to fill out the cars - he also managed to convince his favorite contact in Burnout, Don, to come give them a go.

Baxter ran the group through a few practice laps, learning the track in a new car himself and pointing out the differences between these and the Elegies to the folks doing the same. These cars honestly felt so much nicer to driver around these roads, as they handled bumps far better ((and since they're slower, the desync is waaayyyy more manageable!)). 

The racing was close and a load of fun!

And almost most importantly, this night saw Jason get his first win with the boys! Baxter was embarrassed by his mistake, but happy to congratulate his friend nonetheless.

 

 

[NeverMind]

After hearing about car rally’s happening outside the city, Matt really wanted to put on one in Los Santos with the Underground crew. The lead racers all got together and talked about how it could work out and mapped out the different check point stops.

After the route was mapped out, the LS Underground crew sent out text to everyone they knew with a nice sports car that might enjoy a fun rally drive through the state at a future date and before long, a group of Burnout Nation guys wanted to join in and were welcomed with open arms.

On the day that was decided, everyone gathered around to discuss the logistics of the event, remind everyone that its not a race to the checkpoint, BUT people were free to drive as fast as they wish, and to be respectful of any law enforcement presence they might encounter on the drive.

The rally was open to everyone and they had a great time getting to know other drivers better at each stop, even enjoying sometime with the local SD who saw the large group of vehicles and thought something a little more nefarious was going on….

The rally continued with a large group all throughout the state and was a fun time for all those involved. Different racing ideas were discussed amongst the group and the Underground crew got its name out to people who might be interested in street racing.

[buffn3rd]

Tommy Lezono had started working at LSC due to a recommendation from a good friend, the same person who had done his interview. Tommy spent most of his time working in order to buy his two favorite cars, the Karin Futo and the Annis Elegy retro custom. Tommy's first taste of the car scene in the city was when a customer and old associate of his told him about an ongoing car show in Chumash, so Tommy decided to take one of his cars there and see what it was all about. A short while after the car show, a big majority of the people there went up to the observatory and began racing. After Tommy’s first taste of racing he was hooked.  After some time working at LSC and making new friends, Tommy found someone just as interested in cars as himself. One day Tommy and his good friend Ethan from LSC decided to go out drifting, the two of them had a great time and recorded some amazing footage with their dashcams.

 

 

Later that day Tommy got a call from his friend Jason, who told him that there were a few people hanging around the observatory and racing. Tommy decided to head up there and hang around as well as race with everyone up there, this where Tommy had met with the majority of the people who had founded Los Santos Underground. After racing and hanging around with all of these individuals for quite some time, Tommy got a call from one of the members saying that they were gathering a bunch of people to go race. After hearing this news Tommy reached out to two of his friends Ethan and Scott who both enjoy racing as much as him. So the three of them met up with the members of Los Santos Underground and raced for quite some time throughout the night. Once the sun rose Tommy was pulled off to the side but the one of the leaders of the group and was invited to join Los Santos Underground, Tommy of course accepted the invitation and became a member of the group. After he became a member the leaders began explaining how the group operated, along with a set of rules to abide by when racing and having meetups.

 

 

 

During Tommy’s day job at Los Santos Customs, whenever he sees a car suitable for racing he tries to talk to the owner of the car a little to find out what kind of person they are, if they are a cop, and if they are interested in racing without any of it being too obvious. One night while working Tommy had met a gentleman who was very friendly towards him by the name of Chance. A few days later Chance came back to the shop to have his one car worked on, Tommy decided to talk to Chance again to see what he'd been up to. This is when he mentioned the fact that he was the leader of another racing crew in the city by the name of Midnight Warriors. After hearing this, Tommy had mentioned that he was with a racing group by the name of Los Santos Underground. Tommy then told Chance that the next time we race you and your group should come with us. A few hours later Tommy gave him a call inviting him and his group to come race, Chance was introduced to the members of Underground and they all began racing. After bringing Chance and a few others around the group, Tommy had been given a promotion up to a recruiter for the group. Tommy looks forward to finding other good racers around the city and bringing them into the group, as well as hosting more events with the friends of the members of Los Santos Underground.

 

 

 

[Ranger]

Trying not to be cliché, but great thread, and nothing but great IC interactions with you guys! Keep up the good work guys  

 

(Banger stories by the way tommy and everyone!)

Edited November 3, 2020 by Boonga

[Dalvichan]

 

It had been a long time since anything had piqued Niki Zhou’s interest. After deciding to leave the criminal life earlier in the year, Niki had settled in at LSC among mechanics, as she had in the past. She had a natural predilection with cars, and was always comfortable in the shop and on the ledge. It wasn’t long before she made friends among her colleagues there. Matt and Niki quickly grew close, first bonding through work, then developing a very close friendship. Before long, it was clear that they were inseparable, and one of their favorite things to do together was racing.

Niki started out as one of the worst drivers: flipping cars, spinning out, hitting walls. It was an expensive and dangerous endeavor, costing both numerous repair fees, and quite a few broken bones. With Matt’s help, after months of practicing Niki was not only holding her own, but starting to win races against him, especially on her favorite track: Garbage. They raced constantly, even coming up with new tracks together, Airport being the first.

 

 

It was clear that there was a thirst for racing among the LSC employees. Many joined in their races, and eventually joined their ranks, the first of those being Baxter, who joined them as leadership of the group. As all the members were government employees, a need for discretion was clear. Thus, Matt and Niki came up with the name, Los Santos Underground. As a rule, the group was secretive, only providing details to those they deemed potential prospects, or who raced with them often.

After a time, LSU encountered Chance Yokosuka and his group, the Midnight Warriors. Chance was new to the racing scene, and had a few members that had joined his ranks. After Tommy introduced him to Matt, Niki, and Baxter, they quickly began discussing a potential merger between the groups. As both LSU and Midnight Warriors preferred discretion and refused to engage in illegal activity other than street racing, they were clearly going to be better together.

 

 

So LSU gained new members, and the group continued to flourish. As they reached the point of 10 members, they determined it was time to restructure the group and rankings, and create a process for new prospects. They met at the usual hangout, the mechanic shop they had claimed on the East side of town, North of the import docks to discuss. It was decided they would name the leadership (Matt, Niki, Baxter, and Chance) “The Board,” then under them would be Coordinators and Recruiters, then Veterans, Racers, Rookies, and Prospects. They spoke with the group, reorganized members, and explained responsibilities of these ranks.

Things were looking up for Los Santos Underground as they made plans for events in the near future and continued to bring in new prospects. The Board decided to choose code names, and Niki wasn’t necessarily crazy about the idea, but she went along. Matt became “Ace of Spades”; Baxter was “The Engineer”; Chance chose “The Cowboy”; and Niki settled on “Nǚ Lǎobǎn”, Mandarin for “Mrs. Boss” (hey, she thought it was funny).

 

 

Niki, now married to Matt, contributed her experience in an organization and her connections to the LSU, and continued to help with structure and maintenance of ranks. Her background helped create the backbone structure and would continue to aid the group into the future as more racers joined their ranks.

 

[buffn3rd]

 

The higher ups of the group decided to host a cars and costumes car meetup before the crazy storm that hit Los Santos. The main purpose of the car show was to bring about new people who may be interested in racing and the car scene of the city, and so the group decided to offer a prize to the best costume and car combo. So many others along with Tommy decided to send out a huge wave of texts to their friends and close associates. After organizing a bunch of texts and contacting people to come out to the car show, we had a big turnout despite missing a few of our members from the crew.

 

 

The members of LSU met up at the Playboy mansion to discuss the plans of the event and what they decided to do following the car show. After some time of discussion among the members regarding what tracks would be best to run with the amount of people we had attending. The group decided on two main tracks along with a backup just in case any cops showed up.

 

 

A bit after the meeting guests and friends started rolling into the venue for the car show. As the sun began to set, everyone was either talking about cars and racing or gathered near Baxter’s car dancing to the music. After a long time of shenanigans and fun, Matt and Niki announced it was time to decide the winners of the car and costumes show. There were two categories: One winner for best costume and another for best car and costume combination. There was a long discussion between Matt and Niki as they decided on the winners. They had finally made a decision on the winners, Tommy had won the best costume and car combination with his purple Hellfire and his Joker costume. The winner of best costume was James with his take on a Mad Max costume, there was one mention of a runner up which was Liz and Dray’s couple costume of Morticia Addams and Gomez Addams from the Addams family.   

 

Tommy                                 James                                          Liz and Dray                                   

                                          

 

 

After the winners were decided it was time to get down to business and begin the main event of the evening. Despite having Liz and Dray leave, the group was still super excited to begin racing with the giant crowd we had. The members of LSU began passing out a burner frequency for everyone to use for the races. After announcing the location of the races over radio, everyone began leaving the car show venue to get their favored cars for racing. Tommy had met up with about five others including guests and members at the central parking garage, to get his car and lead them to the spot. While driving over to the meetup spot for the races, Tommy and his convoy of cars were all pulled over by a single officer. Tommy realizing it was a cop he had a run in with in the past, decided to put on an act explaining to him that they were all running late to a Halloween party. After what was a relatively short talk with the officer, the cop decided to just hand them all cheap speeding tickets instead of taking them to Mission Row. A few minutes later after handing the tickets, the convoy headed off to their destination. Once they arrived at the meet up spot and greeted the others, Baxter took the guests and anyone unfamiliar with the track on a ride around it to show them where to turn and so on.

 

 

Once Baxter had finished showing others the track it was time to start the races, due to the huge amount of people taking part in the races everyone had decided to only have 8 cars race at a time to avoid any potential crashes or accidents. The first race around the track went off without any issues at all and was a very competitive race with two cars being neck and neck until the very end. The second race was when the trouble began, halfway through the track a PD cruiser spotted the eight cars running the track at high speeds. The officer turned on his sirens and began to chase them, he was focused on a white elegy that belonged to the newly recruited Chance. Chance decided the best decision was to lead the cops away from the location to avoid them seeing the large crowd of everyone. Thanks to this everyone else had the opportunity to get in their cars and flee the area. After everyone had cleared out a bunch of people began yelling over the radio for Chance to pull over so he wouldn't lose his new job at Los Santos Customs from a felony evading. Some time later after not hearing from Chance, he gave Tommy a call letting him know that he was being arrested.

 

Despite the past run in with the police, the majority of the group had remained intact and set out on their way to the back up track. Way up in the mountains far away from PD the group met up to continue on with racing, once everyone had arrived a new burner frequency was given just in case PD had gotten their hands on the old frequency. The group had continued racing at the new track without any issues until sunrise.  

 

 

 

 

 

[Dashy]

Ahhh! I love this. I look forward to seeing you all around!

[Speed Racer]

 

It had been a while since Baxter had been out racing, having spent the last month pushing hard for a promotion at LSC and breaking the hour record at the shop. Finally having achieved both Manager at LSC and the hour record, he was itching to get away from the shop and back to indulging in his favorite pastime; however, the transition back to living both lives was not an easy one. Racing at the level he was used to took maintenance, constant use of those muscles, and having not used them in over a month he was extremely rusty. Did he do the smart thing and ease himself back into things? We’ll let the videos tell that story…

Partway through his month-long grind at LSC, a new “hire” was brought onboard at the shop. Lucy Donovan was a hit at LSC from the moment she was given a badge - she was always getting up to some funny antics and making her coworkers laugh. Baxter took notice and, despite her not-so-clean legal history, she began growing on him. For reasons he couldn’t explain, the feeling was somehow mutual (in reality, Niki was successfully playing matchmaker for the two of them). They began talking outside of work after the month ended, spending more and more time together. It became obvious to Matt and Niki that something was blossoming there and they couldn’t have been happier for or more supportive of Baxter and Lucy.

Baxter loved having Lucy as his passenger when he was out driving and racing, but he couldn’t help but feel the urge to get her behind the wheel and racing herself. Lucy didn’t exude much confidence in her driving skills, so Baxter took it upon himself to give her racing lessons using his fleet of Warreners. The plan was to get her comfortable with the idea of racing lines first (and proper race etiquette) using the easiest car to drive that he knew of. Once she felt comfortable there, they could change it up for some faster hardware. He couldn’t have been more proud at how quickly she caught on.

After almost a month of working his way back into racing, Baxter was finally starting to feel like himself again...more so, even. With his focus renewed and Lucy by his side (along with her SICK ride she let him use), Baxter felt his form was at an all-time high. 

He was pulling off passes he wouldn’t normally think of and racing harder than he thought he could in this city. A few weeks into this period of newfound confidence and mental health, he got a surprising call from his friend Don asking if he’d come out and show LSU’s airport track to some Burnout Nation folks. He happily agreed and indulged in some friendly competition, inviting Ethan along with him. The racing at the front was quite the scene to witness.

 

While he lost that race, Baxter was having the time of his life in the city. Big things were coming for him, he could feel it.

Edited December 4, 2020 by Speed Racer

[NeverMind]

Matt and Niki have been enjoying the winter weather and started getting the idea for a Christmas/winter themed car show, something the crew had been considering for a long time.

The two of them got together with Baxter and Chance to discuss the finer details of putting together a car show. Niki reached out to their friend Hayley who got them a elegy retro custom to raffle off for cheap and allowed them to use her and Tom's club.

Baxter became the DJ, blaring Christmas tunes that everyone gathered around to dance for, Niki took charge of the raffle and ensuring the crew collected the money, and Matt spent the time mingling with Burnout Nation friends who came to support, along with many of the other racers and drivers from around the city that attended.

 

The eventual winner of the Elegy? Colt Daniels!

The result? An amazing car show that had many people come out, and a cool little profit for the crew at the end.

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by NeverMind

[Dalvichan]

Coming off the high from their successful car meet, Niki, Matt, Tommy, and Will returned to HQ to talk about how much they had made and plans for the future. While they were upstairs discussing, two members of a group of thugs known as Street Fighters came into the garage and started asking why LSU was in their HQ. This came as a shock to them, as LSU had been in this HQ since before Street Fighters was even created, and had been using it for months.

 

Street Fighters had come into Los Santos Customs many times, and the members of LSU were familiar with them and their antics; they were clearly a small-time gang who liked to rely on their guns over their cars. They knew that they had been in conflict with Crimson Syndicate and had previously dropped colors to fight them. LSU knew SF would resort to violence.

 

After a brief discussion about who the HQ belonged to, the members of SF left and called for backup. Niki notified everyone on their freq of what had happened, and called in everyone to the HQ to talk. When SF showed back up with numbers, they pulled in and Fuoco immediately got loud and threatened them, saying they had two options: race to keep it or be removed by force. LSU hadn’t done anything to provoke violence from SF; however, they immediately came out of the gate threatening LSU with guns drawn, clearly showing their lack of honor among racers. LSU knew when they refused to remove their masks that they would hide behind weapons if they needed, especially after Fuoco's comment of "There is no way that we are allowing you guys to stay here." Clearly, there was a threat of them pulling out their guns again at any time if they didn't like the outcome.

 

Niki spoke for LSU at the meeting, and agreed to race for the HQ in a series of best of three. SF chose Observatory, LSU chose Grapeseed, and they diced for the third track (winner would choose). Sean rolled for SF, scoring a 4. Niki rolled for LSU, only rolling a 1. SF chose Vineyard for the last track, which LSU was more than happy with, as it was one of their frequented tracks. They agreed to race an hour after the meeting, starting with Observatory.

 

After SF left HQ, LSU discussed who would race each track. They decided that Matt would race observatory, and Baxter would race Grapeseed (the track he had invented), and they’d decide on Vineyard if it came to that. Matt and Baxter retrieved their cars and headed up to Observatory for practice laps. After a few practice runs both there and at Grapeseed, the group met back at Observatory to talk with SF regarding rules.

Matt, Baxter, and Niki knew from past experience racing with Alex Croft before his SF days that he wasn’t the cleanest of racers. Many racers in the city complained about his over-aggressive racing style and huge ego. They didn’t know much about Sean Liamhorn or his racing style, and were excited to see what the other leader of SF was made of.

During discussions, LSU knew that SF wouldn’t stand up to their quality of racing. LSU pride themselves on being clean racers, never taking dirt short cuts and avoiding hits or rams when possible. SF being under Alex meant they wouldn’t receive the same respect in kind. Fuoco had complained in the garage about LSU not liking taking off-road shortcuts, calling them pathetic for how they race (essentially, with integrity). However, knowing that SF would probably just pull out their guns again and use force, LSU decided not to press this issue and agreed to race on their terms. This would later cost them.

 

Matt lined up in his Paragon to race against SF’s John Crownley in his Elegy. The group had spoken with John before the races and actually really liked the guy. He didn’t seem to fit in with the other thugs in SF. As soon as they were on the line, though, John complained about Matt driving a Paragon against his Elegy. This sparked tension, as they had not agreed to restrict what kind of cars could be used for the races, and Matt had warmed up in his Paragon. Eventually, Matt agreed to drive an Elegy to avoid further argument and start the races.

The two of them took off, John stalling early, and giving Matt a lead; however, Matt spun out near the end of the lap due to the unexpected backspin in the Elegy that he hadn’t warmed up racing in. John won the race after taking a dirt shortcut, beating Matt by mere seconds.

 

The groups shifted to Grapeseed for the second race. Baxter was driving Lucy’s Comet Retro, and Alex hopped in his Paragon. Matt and Niki warned Baxter to expect something underhanded from Alex. Baxter and Lucy were whispering before the race, and he was confident he could dodge whatever tricks Alex threw at him. Little did they know what was to come.

Baxter and Alex took off, speeding down the first straight away on the track. As soon as they hit the first turn, Alex veered off into the dirt, cutting the first corner out and ignoring the hairpin as Baxter rounded the difficult corner. Baxter stayed with him, though, just behind him as they sped through the shops in Grapeseed. Baxter tried to pass him a few times, but Alex continued to cut him off, until eventually Alex spun out on a big turn. Baxter took his opportunity to pass Alex, veering around him and taking the lead.

 

After crossing the highway the second time and coming into the last braking zone of the track, Baxter took a defensive line going into the turn, and Alex plowed into the back of him, intentionally ramming the back of his car and pushing him off the track. This caused Baxter to have to brake to get back onto the track, allowing Alex to pass him and take the lead. Alex finished the race in first after the ram, sealing the fate of the HQ to SF. This wasn’t a shock to anyone, as they expected Alex to show just how disrespectful he was willing to race.

 

LSU were distraught, but they had known from the beginning of this conflict that at any point, SF could (and probably would) just decide to pull out their weapons again and take the HQ by force, even if they won. LSU weren’t willing to risk their lives for an HQ, especially because they knew the cycle of groups like SF, and that they’d be wiped out soon enough anyway. They shook hands with Alex and Sean, wished them luck, and left Grapeseed.

 

Although losing the HQ was frustrating, LSU had been scoping out a new location for some time, and went to look at it after the races were finished. They brought the group to look at the new location, and everyone’s general consensus was that they liked it and were going to be happy there. The group settled into their new HQ, happy with how they had performed and knowing that they’d take honorable racing over dirty tricks any day.

 

[Demonyk]

Was fun RP, thanks for the opportunity.  

[randingo]

had tons of fun doing this with you guys!!! 

[Speed Racer]

Baxter spent a lot of time recuperating mentally from the events with Street Fighters. Not many saw, but he dropped his race suit off at the track he lost the HQ at. After that race, he just wasn’t sure if he’d ever race in the city again - what was the point if the only people that liked to race besides his small family here did so with violence and underhanded tactics? Baxter was too delicate of a soul to really take in what they had gone through and accept the new reality. He spent a few days away from the group and work, processing his thoughts, until Lucy finally dragged him out and made him talk out his feelings.

He felt weak. Too weak for the city almost. He was in a bad state of self-loathing over it; until Lucy helped him realize that that’s what she liked in him. She liked that he was one of the few people in the city who seemed to truly care about others and have a heart. Who would choose words over a gun any day of the week. This conversation along with similar ones he had with Matt and Niki helped bring him out of this slump and back to working order over the course of the week.

The weekend came and Baxter was still enjoying his time with Lucy, was back to loving work at LSC, and, most of all, was having fun again racing with his friends. One evening he opted to hop in the Trainer for a night and enjoy some elegy races with the boys. They had a BLAST!

Most importantly in this period though was the fact that Lucy got her first win against Baxter at Garbage. It had been weeks since Baxter had convinced Lucy to go racing again as she is forever convinced that she’s an awful driver. Somehow he talked her into taking his Issi Sport out to Garbage and giving it another go, and after a couple races, magic happened. 

Through an untimely mistake from Baxter and a consistent drive from Lucy, she pulled off her first race. Convincing her that it actually counted as a win would be another battle though!

Monday rolled around and Jason and Kujo called Baxter over to have what sounded like a serious chat in employee parking at LSC. It was here that they let him know that, over the past weeks, the two of them had been “experimenting” with new recruitment and organization tactics on a side project. His head was spinning through the entire conversation. On one hand, he wanted to be proud of his friends for the success they’d apparently had with this. On the other, he felt hurt and betrayed that they let it grow so large without telling him or the rest of The Board. They cited reasons such as disagreements with the rank structure and feeling like their ideas were being overlooked as motivation for this. In reality, none of this had ever been brought up before, and ideas of theirs couldn't have been overlooked as they weren't at meetings to share thoughts for well over a month before this. They were both active at LSC, so why were they just now bringing this up? They approached Baxter alone about this because they felt he would be the most reasonable of The Board to hear it first.

Baxter left this conversation with a mind clouded by what felt like the entire spectrum of emotions one could simultaneously feel. He was at a complete loss emotionally. After spending that afternoon nearly comatose on his couch trying to compose himself, he found it in himself to share with Niki what he had heard, who then shared with Matt. After an incredibly restless night by himself, Baxter was back to a familiar place he had felt not so long ago - he felt weak, he was self-loathing. He felt his softness was being taken advantage of again, this time by people he considered friends. The way he saw it, Jason and Kujo came to him with this proposal of a merger because they saw him as the one most likely to pitch a case for their promotion - to only see the good in what they’ve done. With nobody around to convince him otherwise, and a prompt decision needing to be made on how to handle this, he decided to try something he’d not tried yet in this city. Come meeting time the next day, he was cold as ice. There was no emotion on his face or in his voice, and his words were in lock-step with Matt and Niki’s - there will be no merger, and Jason and Kujo are out of the group, free to do their own thing.

While there were no calls for hostility with Jason and Kujo’s new group, there was a general understanding that disloyalty would not be tolerated here. After hearing that Tommy and Ethan were both a part of conversations with Jason and Kujo on a surface level, yet decided to take no part in what they were doing, The Board saw rewards were in order. Ethan, after showing weeks of dedication to the group and racing, was promoted to a lower-leadership position of his choice. Tommy was offered a position on The Board for his tireless dedication to communicating events with members and for his constant brainstorming of how to improve the recruitment process.

 

So while Los Santos Underground lost two valued members of the family, they found themselves strong in resolve that the right decision was made and confident for the future as they recruited two fresh rookies, Gio and Quincy.

 

 

Edited December 20, 2020 by Speed Racer
Added the following line to the paragraph under "The Maelstrom": "In reality, none of this had ever been brought up before, and ideas of theirs couldn't have been overlooked as they weren't at meetings to share thoughts for well over a month before this."

[Doan]

Incredibly touching narrative. Really happy to get to know Baxter on an emotional level reading this new post. Keep it up!

[Quincy McTavish]

 

Quincy moved to Los Santos several months ago leaving his previous life behind after the passing of a loved one, which turned his world upside down. He had a hole that couldn’t be filled and needed to find himself somehow. He had a love for motorsports as well as a love and appreciation for vehicles of all shapes and sizes, the more fixing they needed, the more he loved them. Once in Los Santos, Quincy was reluctant to call it his new home, he had a hard time meeting new people and after all he had gone through, something just didn’t feel right to him. He worked hard to start a project car after holding several small jobs throughout the city and can still be seen with his first project car to this day.

 

 

Still, he wanted more - yearned for more - as he searched for anything to take his mind off his previous life and to spark a joy in him. He applied for the Mechanic position at Bayview, managed to get hired, and spent a lot of time as a trainee and a junior mechanic learning more and more about the vehicles he loved so much. He had a passion that could not be denied and there was something about the routine of his new job that helped him more and more every day as did the friendly faces at Bayview which he will tell you are some of his closest friends today. While working at Bayview one day a stranger approached with a charisma that made Quincy laugh and he could relate to, they began to talk and shared some common beliefs about surrounding yourself with the best kind of people and eventually was offered to come hang out. That was Quincy’s first-time meeting Matt Zhou and he never forgot how genuine he was.

 

 

When Quincy went to hang out with Matt one night, Matt took him to meet a few friends to race with which really cleared Quincy’s head for the first time in a long time, this was what was missing and exactly what he needed. Quincy drove up to the group somewhat apprehensive at first to meet new people; however, Matt and another voice made him feel as if he was at home and among friends he just hadn’t seen in a while; this was the first time he met Niki Zhou. The next few weeks they had gotten together a few times to hang out and race, each time, Matt and Niki making Quincy feel as at home and comfortable as he had ever felt since he left his previous home to move to the city. Quincy knew then he would always count them as his close friends.

 

 

The following week Quincy met with Matt, Niki and Giovanni – Quincy’s close friend from Bayview – where they discussed some trials and tribulations that they were going through. At the end of this long discussion Matt and Niki looked at Quincy and Giovanni and asked them to become part of their LS Underground family. Quincy was beaming that they would even consider this as he was just as happy being around good, honest people. They drove down to see the headquarters they are currently residing in where Matt mentioned to come to the group meeting the following day.

 

 

After arriving at the headquarters, the following day, Matt and Niki conducted the meeting and introduced the new rookies to their long-standing members Baxter, Tommy, and Ethan. The more Quincy listened to the three of them the more it solidified in his mind that this was the place he needed to be, the place he wanted to be and the kind of people he needed in his life. Quincy may have just found his new home as a Rookie with maybe the most steadfast and honest people he had ever met.

Edited December 16, 2020 by Quincy McTavish

[Giovanni Rossa]

            When Giovanni first entered the city several months ago, he did not know many people and kept to himself, not knowing who he could trust. He tried various jobs around the city, such as mining and truck driving, but he ended up spending most of his time at the Pier fishing. Although these had memorable moments, he could not help but to feel as if a piece were missing from his life, and he didn’t know what he could look for in order to feel complete.

 

 

Giovanni had always wanted to become a mechanic in the city due to his love and passion for vehicles. Some could say anything with a motor and wheels could get him into trouble. After applying for the mechanic job at Bayview, he was excited to hear back from them. After the interview, he was extremely glad to hear he was now part of the Bayview team. He started to meet great people while proving he can be an asset to the team and achieved the Employee of the Month award.

 

 

While Giovanni worked many hours, he got the pleasure of meeting Matt and Niki! He had instantly noticed they were a joy to be around. He will never forget the point in time they met up to meet some friends, immediately after their first time racing, he knew how much was missing in his life and for once started to feel complete. He did not hesitate before bluntly asking to become part of the family one day.

As the days went by, Giovanni was eager to show his potential. He would meet up and race with his close Bayview friend, Quincy, sharing the tracks they both learned.  A week down the road Giovanni met up with Matt, Niki, and Quincy for a discussion. They explained everything and really broke it down, mentioning the current state of it all. At the end, Giovanni was in shock when asked to join Los Santos Underground! They took a ride down to Headquarters and mentioned to come to a meeting the following day where the rookies were introduced to the solid, long lasting members Baxter, Tommy and Ethan. The more time spent together in the meeting, the more Giovanni realized this is where he wants to be and never felt more welcomed.

Edited December 19, 2020 by Giovanni Rossa

[buffn3rd]

Tommy headed over to the new hangout spot to attend the monthly meeting with the crew in order to bring up some new ideas he had along with trying to help plan out some events and races to do with everyone. After arriving Tommy discovered quite a few people were missing from the crowd, and also saw two new faces. Tommy, somewhat confused, turned off the engine of his Kamacho, jumped out of the driver seat and then hopped in the bed of the truck and sat on the edge. Before Tommy could speak, Matt and Niki began introducing the two newest members of the group Quincy and Giovanni. Tommy was very excited and happy to see two new members and introduced himself, after introductions were finished Niki followed up the good news with some very sad news for some of us. Niki began explaining that two of our members decided to leave the group and do their own thing. 

 

 

Tommy’s head began to spin thinking of who wasn't at the meeting and who could have possibly left the group. While Tommy was still mind blown from the news Niki went on with naming those who left the group, two of Tommy’s close friends, Joe and Jason. After hearing this Tommy was speechless, Jason was Tommy’s closest friend and one of the main reasons Tommy met everyone in the group and later joined the group. The meeting went on discussing some of the planned events, while Tommy just sat there absolutely stunned. Once the meeting was over the members of high command asked Tommy to stay around after the other members left. Niki began questioning Tommy whether he knew anything about why the others have left and if he knew about the new group they were forming. Tommy at first felt a sense of hostility and felt as though he was being interrogated, after answering Niki’s question explaining that he had no knowledge of what they were doing, only that he knew they had been hanging out with another group of individuals. As the questions came, Tommy began to think why he was being singled out and interrogated, but after some thought he realized it was due to his close relationship. Tommy realized that the group was concerned about losing him, as his best friend left to begin something else.

 

  Then came the next heavy hitting question although it was a very easy question for Tommy to answer. Where do you stand with all of this Niki asked, Tommy replied I stand here, I’m here with you guys and I always will be. Tommy went on explaining how to him this group is family, that he loves everyone within the group, and that he will always stand by everyone in it. After Matt, Niki, and Baxter were reassured that Tommy planned on staying around, then offered him a new position within the group, a seat on the high command. Tommy graciously accepted the offer, knowing he can use his new position in the group to expand and help the group prosper. The meeting ended on a somewhat good note with Tommy receiving his new role within the group, following this meeting some the high command members went out racing with those who were already out there while the smaller meeting was going on and some went back to work at LSC. As everyone went on his way Tommy decided he was going to head back home to Liberty City for a few days to clear his head. So Tommy drove over to LSC to drop off his Kamacho then jumped in his Elegy and drove on down to the airport and jumped on a plane back to Liberty City.

 

 

Tommy’s plane had touched down at Los Santos International airport, and he exited the plane and began walking over to the parking garage to meet with his one true love, his Elegy. Tommy  with a clear head got in the driver seat, reclined it, then grabbed the keys from his pocket and put them in the ignition. He started up the car and just sat there, enjoying the sound of his engine once again. After sitting there for a bit, Tommy grabbed his phone and informed everyone he’s back. Tommy drove up to LSC to jump onto duty and get back into the swing of things along with doing what he loves, being around cars. After everyone from the day shift clocked off and left, Tommy was left alone to work the night shift. There was a big period of downtime during his shift due to no customers coming into the shop, and that's when Tommy’s mind started turning while he began to think of new things for the group to do, new events to have, ideas of new race tracks and most importantly the idea of “The Underground”. Along with some new ideas, Tommy thought it was time to get the group back on track in terms of having more events to raise the group's funds. Tommy then decided that tomorrow he would talk to Baxter and pitch his new idea to him. 

 

The following day while Tommy was working, he saw Baxter coming down from the office after finishing up an interview, so Tommy ran over to Baxter and began explaining to him quietly that he had this new big idea. After hearing what Tommy had to say, Baxter clocked off along with Tommy and the two of them headed out to a secret location. Once they had arrived Tommy began explaining his vision of what this place could become and what it could be used for. Tommy and Baxter went back and forth discussing how this was a great idea and how it could benefit the entire group. Tommy then mentioned the nickname he wanted to give to the place “The Underground”, Baxter laughed at first but understood the reasoning of the name and agreed that it's the perfect name. After the two of them finished discussing everything along with talks about the upcoming rally, Baxter got a call from Quincy saying that he wanted to go out racing. Baxter then informed Tommy that Quincy was on the phone and that he wanted to go race a bit, Tommy nodded his head in agreement, seeing this as an opportunity to get back into racing and behind the wheel while also getting the feel for his car back. Tommy was also excited to get to race with Quincy for the first time and get to know him a bit better.

 

 Baxter had decided he wanted to show Tommy a new track, that everyone had been racing a bunch in his absence. Tommy was excited to try out this new track as for quite sometime the group has been racing the same tracks with new ones being thought up here and there, so the addition of a new track was very exciting. Tommy followed Baxter’s instructions and headed out up towards Graves Gun store near Sandy Shores. Once he got there Baxter gave Tommy a quick drive around the track showing him where to turn and so on. After the drive around Tommy and Baxter waited for Quincy to arrive before they started racing, upon Quincy showing up the three of them ran the track a few times with three laps per run. Once everyone finished the last run of the track, they all met up off to the side of the road and that's when Tommy started talking to Baxter about the upcoming rally, asking if we had found another Issi Sport to use. Once Quincy heard this he jumped in mentioning that he also has an Issi Sport we can use for the rally. Tommy then asked the two of them if they wanted to grab their Issi Sport’s and head out to test some off road areas and begin making the stages for the rally. Quincy and Baxter both agreed and replied that this will be a lot of fun along with helping us to get this rally ready to go and all planned out. 

 

 

Tommy, Baxter, and Quincy all went to pick up their offroad cars then met up at LSC before heading out to the location of the first stage of the rally. Once everyone arrived at the Reservoir up on the mountain, Tommy took the lead of the small convoy showing the route he designed around the reservoir that could be used as the first stage of the rally. The group slowly went through the track while Tommy directed everyone through explaining to them where the turns are and bumps are to avoid from anyone flipping the car or crashing. After the first drive through the stage, it was time for everyone to bump things up a notch, everyone decided to run the stage for real full speed. Tommy and Baxter came up with the idea of each person going around six seconds after the person in front of them started the stage to avoid any collisions or accidents. Then Baxter was the first to go followed by everyone else, the group ran the stage twice before Niki jumped on radio asking what we were doing, when Baxter then told her to bring her Kamacho up to the reservoir and that we were testing stages for the upcoming rally. Everyone then drove back around the stage to meet up with Niki at the starting line, however Niki had never been up near the reservoir before so Tommy had to drive his Kamacho around to find her and show her the way to the starting line.

 

Once Tommy and Niki got back to the starting to meet with everyone, they saw them having a big snow ball fight and having fun in the snow. So Tommy and Niki parked their Kamacho’s behind the other cars and joined in the snowball fight. After the long snowball fight and everyone enjoying their time in the snow, it was time to get back to planning out the rally. Everyone huddled around while Tommy was explaining the stage to Niki and discussed other things like waiting for the other people to get so far in the stage before the next person starts and so on. After some time of talking with each other everyone lined their cars back up and got ready to run the stage one more time allowing Niki to drive through and see it. Once everyone finished up their run around the stage we all met up at the ending of it and Tommy asked if everyone thought it was a good stage for the rally. Everyone was in agreement of using it as one of the stages in our upcoming rally. The group then decided on another location to go check out for a possible stage for the rally which was the windmill farm, before heading up there Tommy decided to show Baxter and Quincy a shortcut on the highway back to the start of the reservoir stage. While Tommy began showing them the shortcut on the highway, within seconds of driving Baxter managed to crash his Issi on one of the guard rails. After hearing Quincy call this out on the radio Tommy pulled his e-brake and went back down the highway to find Baxter, once he got there he saw Quincy’s friend helping Baxter out and giving him some ice and a splint for his leg. Tommy walked over to Baxter and asked him if he was okay, after Quincy got off the phone with the medics that were on the way to transport Baxter. 

 

After seeing Baxter was stable, Tommy began making good natured fun of Baxter saying things like how does the best racer crash into a guard rail when there's all this space around. Baxter then claimed that it was because he had damaged the headlights of his car during one of the practice runs around the reservoir which Tommy agreed with as nothing else could possibly make Baxter crash. Everyone waited for quite some time in the cold before the medics arrived, once they got there and loaded Baxter onto the stretcher Tommy asked where they were gonna take to which the medic replied Sandy Medical Center. Tommy jumped in his Kamacho to go pick up Baxter once he was out of surgery. Tommy, Baxter and everyone met up with Niki who was already up on the mountain at the windmill farm, Niki then began running everyone through what she thought would be a good stage for the rally. After that one ride around the windmill farm and seeing Niki’s route there was a lot of talk and debate as other people also had some ideas as well, but everyone had enough of the discussions and offroading for the night so everyone decided to get their normal sports cars to do some normal races on the street.

 

Everyone got their street cars out and met up at what was a new spot for Tommy, called the theater. Once Tommy got there, Baxter began explaining to him that the new track was pretty much the same as Tommy’s favorite and first track he ever raced, Observatory, just with a different starting area and ignoring the worst parts of the observatory track. Tommy was thrilled to get to race a section of his favorite track so he lined up with everyone and began racing.

 

[Doan]

Keep up the great posts, guys!

[NeverMind]

 

Having spent many hours at work, Matt began seeing that many of his co workers also enjoyed fast cars and might want to have a little more fun in their off time. Quickly, Matt began inviting out a lot of them to come hangout with him and anyone else that was in town to hit a couple of tracks.

 

With Quincy always around and down to drive, along with many other members of LSU, Matt slowly started bringing more and more people to the races. The First to come out to the races was Jordan Capone. Matt had known Jordan for awhile and they had him out to a races a couple of times in the past, but after hearing interest from him to join LSU, the Board Members quickly convened and agreed that he needed to be a prospect.

 

 

Aaron Smithy, a newly hired mechanic, had expressed to Matt that he wanted more people to hangout with so was the next person to get a quick invitation out to the races. He did not have his own car, however Matt had his trusty TRAINER elegy ready to be used until he could purchase his own.

 

A couple of days later, Matt saw Johnny Bmore coming into work wearing the same jacket that Matt had seen Kujo wearing recently and decided to ask Johnny about it. After a prolonged conversation about differences between Matt and Kujo, Johnny agreed to come drive around with them for awhile, heading up to Vineyard track. Here, Johnny would throw down his jacket and leave it there, showing Matt that he didn’t wish to be apart of that group any longer. Although this did not guarantee Johnny any spots in LSU, it showed Matt that Johnny must have been interested in what they had to offer.

 

 

A few days later, Stephany Reeder also spoke of interest in hanging out with the group. Matt was weary at first, having heard from Johnny that she was a part of Kujo’s crew, and still feeling the pain from the backstab, however his wife Niki convinced him that she should come out and race. Very quickly she showed she was interested in hanging out with LSU instead and became someone who was always asking when things were going on and when they could go back out on the tracks.

 

Edited January 4, 2021 by NeverMind

[Speed Racer]

For a while now, Baxter hadn't been pleased with the location they'd called home after the SF incident. It was smaller, and still nestled between two nearby PD precincts. He and the group wanted something more discrete and more spacious. A few times, they'd gone to just hang out at old Bayview and parked their cars outside the fences while they climbed over and chilled on top of cargo containers, but it just didn't feel right. It felt too open. One night, Baxter had a thought, and took Niki along with him to explore it. The two of them drove down to old Bayview to inspect the gates that kept the public out.

After realizing that the gate mechanisms at old Bayview were the same as the ones at LSC, just on a different encoded frequency, he hatched a plan. He rushed back to LSC with Niki and hopped on one of the office's computers to make this idea a reality.

Soon enough, old Bayview would be their new home.

[RiZe13X]

Just read over the old posts reminiscing on the past RP events we have had and the amazing quality posts you guys do, can't wait for the next post! 

[Quincy McTavish]

In the time he’s been with LSU, Quincy has learned a lot about handling the cars in his garage in different scenarios and tracks; however, he still practices all of the tracks LSU runs and more at least every second day. As of late, Quincy has hit a sort of plateau and has been making some small mistakes on certain corners as well as having good lap times but not improving at a rate he was happy with. This is where Baxter comes in.

Quincy has always looked up to Baxter as a racer and a close friend, all of the main members have been nothing but Family to Quincy and he is forever grateful for this. Quincy often watched Baxter race and re-ran dash cam footage when he could even get close to Baxter to find better lines and always praised Baxter as fast, but more importantly as a smooth and smart racer, taking quality lines, hitting apex points properly and really assessing a track to get the most out of it. Quincy met with Baxter one afternoon at LSC and Baxter asked Quincy what was on his mind from the riddled text Quincy had sent him. Being slightly embarrassed to ask for the one-on-one help he wanted, Quincy asked Baxter if he could coach him on a few tracks he was running good times, but wasn’t as smooth or quick as Quincy wanted to be. Baxter immediately said, “Are you free now?” So together, they jumped in their go-to cars and headed to Vineyard for the first track Quincy wanted help on being smooth through.

 

Upon getting to Vineyard they ran the track in sections of great detail, Baxter taking the time to break down for Quincy each corner and laying out the lines he takes to keep the track smooth, fast and fun. Baxter had mentioned a few times this night that “sometimes slow is fast,” and after the break down, nothing could have been more clear for Quincy. Take your time, plan your line, straight-line where you can, pick smart apex points and let the track FLOW. If it is fun for a true racer, it is probably fast because fun is smooth.

After they concluded Baxter’s coaching session with Quincy at Vineyard, Baxter immediately mentioned they should go to Grapeseed. This was surprising to Quincy, as he didn’t want to take much of Baxter’s time; however, he was more than grateful, so off they went to Grapeseed.

During this coaching session at Grapeseed, Quincy’s jaw dropped when he realized one of his biggest take away of the evening. A corner that had been costing him time that he wasn’t taking even close to proper. Baxter happily coached Quincy through the line multiple times until Quincy was comfortable with it. Afterwards Quincy ran the track and if it wasn’t for a conveniently placed SD cruiser, he was on track for his fastest lap in an Elegy Retro Custom he had ever run on Grapeseed.

After they stopped and talked about the take away points Quincy took from the coaching up until this point, Baxter said “Lets go to Low-End,” knowing that was a track Quincy needed help with and, again, Quincy was blown away just how involved Baxter was to help coach and guide him, even to the point he began to realize this is something Baxter wanted to do and was, to Quincy’s knowledge, enjoying himself this evening helping a friend push forward and pass his plateau and breaking down these tracks for him.

When Baxter and Quincy got to Low End they immediately started scoping corners. Baxter walked Quincy through each corner on the track enabling him to get a great feel for the proper way the track should be run. They stopped often and re-ran a number of corners as they did on the other tracks and pieced it all together at the end.

Quincy always knew Los Santos Underground was different. Since he first met Matt and Niki to being welcomed by Ethan, Tommy, and Baxter at his first meeting, to being able to help the other members during his time with them. Baxter just added another example to Quincy's ongoing list of how each member of LSU looks out for the other. Baxter took the initiative and freed up his evening just to help out a fellow member progress and that kind of dedication, coaching, and friendship is something that Quincy sees from every contributing member of Los Santos Underground.