“Down to two, now.” Zola waved bye-bye to the notification of another arch enemy’s departure. The remaining pair continued following her as she approached Fort Zancudo’s main gate. Having purchased a hangar there a while back, she could get onto the base without any trouble.

Whether the same could be said for her pursuers remained to be seen.

She aimed the “camera” backward to take a quick look at what was going on behind her. An Armored Kuruma plowed straight into the gate and stopped cold. The other guy, on a Shotaro this time, rear-ended him at high velocity and catapulted off the bike, shot over his buddy’s car, crashed headfirst into the gate, and died on impact. Somehow, his corpse flipped forward and ended up draped over the top of the gate. Zola belted out another laugh.

“That was awesome!”

She kept an eye on the map as she continued on to her hangar and spotted the Shotaro guy approaching Zancudo from the highway. She grinned, knowing exactly what he was about to do, having done it herself more times than she could count. She then found the guy in the Kuruma moving slowly around the base, trying to find a way in. She shook her head and entered her hangar.

Hmm. Haven’t taken this one for a ride in a while. She entered the B-11 Strikeforce and exited the hangar. Another quick look at the map showed her that the Kuruma was still bumbling around the edge of the base and the other guy was inside, having most likely ramped up the hill outside and jumped the fence.

His death notification appeared above the map and Zola snickered, knowing he’d just been filled with bullets by the base’s personnel. She focused on the other guy as she rose into the air. He’d finally found a way through the outer fence and ended up trapped between it and the inner fence. Zola climbed higher while he continued driving around the base’s edge, then she went into a power dive, lined up a shot near the Kuruma, and fired a short burst from her explosive cannon. It wasn’t a direct hit, so the car survived the barrage, but the splash damage was enough to kill its driver.

She giggled at the mental image of the guy being pulped by multiple concussions, pulled up, and glanced at her chat and stream notifications.

“Ah, thank you for all the donations. Let me know if there’s anything in particular you’d like them to go toward. And sorry for not thanking you sooner. I got all caught up in dealing out the punishment to these idiots.”

“Why are you going after us?” one of her arch enemies whined. “We were only joking around.”

Ah, yes, the usual fallback position when they get called out on their crap.

“Yeah,” the other chimed in, “whatsa matter? You don’t have a sense of humor?”

“My sense of humor is fine. After all, I laugh at things that are funny.”

“Why are you even here? Girls don’t play video games.”

“Obviously we do. The evidence for which has been kicking your ass all over Los Santos.”

“Get out of this lobby! You don’t belong here!”

“I belong wherever I decide to go.”

“You should be playing The Sims or something. This game is for boys.”

“Ugh,” she said under her breath, “shut up.”

“Hey, why you bein’ so hostile, sweetcheeks?”

“You need to ask after all the things you and your friends said to me?” She found him on the map and noticed the motorcycle shape below his gamertag. He’s back on an Oppressor. That could be a problem.

“Sounds to me like you just want attention.”

What?

“Yeah, that’s it, isn’t it, sweetcheeks? You just wanted attention from a bunch of guys.”

“Call me sweetcheeks one more time and …”

“Attention whore!”

Zola narrowed her eyes at the screen and caught sight of a Mark II in the distance. A few seconds passed and she realized it was flying straight toward her. She rolled her eyes.

Not too bright. She ripped him apart with her cannon, circled around to the one on the Shotaro, and dropped a cluster of bombs as she passed over him, no longer caring if she got penalized for destroying their vehicles. All she gave a damn about right now was forcing them to leave out of sheer frustration.

Another glance at the map revealed the other guy’s location and she changed course accordingly. She found him on foot, scurrying past buildings and under awnings as he tried to stay under cover. She angled downward, got him in her sights, and shredded him and every NPC and vehicle around him, then giggled at his latest profane rant.

Back to the map. The guy she’d shot off the Oppressor had yanked an NPC out of his car and sped off, heading out of the city and back to the north. She caught up with him as he reached the windmill turbines of RON Alternates Wind Farm and blew him off the road again. She laughed again at his predictable bellowed cursing and racial slurs, then she found his cohort on the list of players in the lobby and highlighted him as more donations, applause, and cheering came in.

She took a moment to drop some altitude and admire the windmills. There’d never been any where she had grown up and she hadn’t even seen one until her village had finally acquired a TV. She’d always enjoyed the sight and the Wind Farm was one of the environments in GTA that she liked to stop and just ogle. Windmills had always looked sort of alien to her. There was something majestic yet eerie about them that she just loved.

She turned away and headed for the other guy. The map showed his current location was near the hat and mask shop on Vespucci Beach. Once she reached the area, she circled around and approached the storefront straight-on to be sure he could see her coming.

“Oh, god,” he bellowed a few seconds later, ”no!”

Cackling, she opened fire and chewed up the storefront and everything around it. Her arch enemy let out another enraged scream and she laughed even harder.

“How long are you gonna keep this up, you petty bitch?”

Until you stop coming back. Zola rolled her eyes and found him on the map after he respawned. She headed straight for him.

A sudden explosion rocked her plane, followed rapidly by another, and she frowned.

Uh-oh. There was no lock-on beep and it wasn’t an RPG hit. Must be using the Heavy Sniper Mark II with explosive rounds.

Another blast shook the plane and it suddenly became harder to steer. Realizing the explosion had broken off some of its control surfaces, she ejected and plummeted for a few seconds before popping her chute to make herself a harder target. She pulled her phone out and had Lester hide her blip again as two more explosions finally took her B-11 out. She landed on a rooftop as the plane’s wreckage plunged out of the sky onto the beach, sending pedestrians running away screaming.

“Where are you?” he said under his breath. “Come on, where are you?”

You’ll see. Zola brought up her weapons menu again. Hmm. Let’s have a little fun with this. She selected the Up-n-Atomizer and slid off the roof. She found his blip some distance away, crept toward him, and took cover behind a parked truck. He walked into view, sweeping the area with his sniper rifle.

She lined up a shot with the retro-futuristic pistol and fired an energy pulse. It knocked him off his feet and sent him flying off to the left and out of sight. Snickering, Zola ran closer and found him picking himself up near the road. She locked on and fired again, blasting him right into traffic.

An SUV hit him first, bouncing him into the oncoming lane, where a Pißwasser truck slammed into him and finished him off with a hilariously sickening crunch. His lifeless body tumbled along the street and a Sandking ran over it. Ka-thump, ka-thump!

He let out another bellow and something crashed in the background. Zola wondered if he’d thrown his controller across the room.

A notification that he’d left the lobby appeared above her map. She burst into laughter, snorted, and laughed even harder.

“And then there was one.”