Authors Note and Disclaimer: This is my first Tomb Raider fic so be nice. I own nothing.
"Hmmm, one more treasure." Lara Croft smiled as she picked up the blue jewel that was resting atop an ancient looking stone. She slipped it smartly into her backpack and let out a deep, triumphant sigh; she had been looking for this particular artefact for some time. This triumph didn't last long, however- Lara's rather acute hearing picked up some noise outside. The Tomb Raider whirled around and peered over to the entrance of the tomb. Flashlights shined onto the wall and shadows appeared, along with the sound of hushed, agitated voices. Lara turned quickly and ran towards the ancient stone that the jewel had rested on, jumped onto it, kicked off hard and sprang towards a ledge. She vaulted up and rolled onto the safety of the ledge, just as three men turned the corner and walked into the tomb. They looked rather large and Lara guessed them to be some kind of military team, judging by their attire; thick jackets that held some kind of logo on the sleeves- like the face of a wolf with two stars on each side. They held utility belts full of weapons, ammo and such. Each held a flashlight and a gun in their hands.
"Hurry up and find the damn thing and lets get out of here" One of the men hissed, as another of them examined the stone rock that the blue gem had rested on. Lara smiled to herself again.
"Competition?" she whispered in amusement.
"Its gone." Said the guy examining the stone, he took off his helmet and ran his hands through his thick blonde hair.
"It should be there and its not." He said frantically and swore loudly.
"What?" Asked the big guy, striding forward and looking at the rock. He looked furious. "Well if its not here then there isn't much we can do. Blow this place up"
The other two men walked towards opposite walls and took out to small, circular looking objects from their belts. They each pressed them onto the wall and pressed a few buttons.
"They're set for three minutes" Blondie said.
Now really, why blow up a perfectly good archaeological site? Lara thought to herself. She stood up on the ledge.
"Hello boys" she called out. The three men whirled around and pointed their guns at her, each firing and each missing. Lara ran forwards and jumped off the ledge. She somersaulted down, drawing her twin pistols from her gun holsters as she did and began firing before she even hit the ground. She hit one of the guys square in the chest and he fell down, dead. Lara stood up, pointed her guns at the walls and blasted the bombs straight off. She replaced her guns and ran forwards. She dived to the floor and rolled forwards, bringing herself back up to her feet, spinning and delivering a kick into the abdomen of the second guy. He bent down, winded. Lara brought her elbow swiftly down to the back of his exposed neck and knocked him unconscious. She ducked abruptly as bullets came shooting her way and dived for the cover of a large pillar. Taking a deep breath and drawing her guns, Lara sprung out from behind the pillar and shot at the man as she moved through the air. She was satisfied to hear a yelp of pain as she landed behind the ruin of a wall. She got up and peered over the wall to see the man nursing his arm. Lara stood, raised one of her guns and shot the man in the head. She shook her head sadly-she hated killing people, but if it was necessary then it had to be done. Tucking her guns away, Lara walked over to the body of the man. She picked up a large gun off his belt and three ammo clips. She may as well leave with a souvenir. Lara took a small camera out of her backpack. She always took a few snapshots from her expeditions, it was always nice to have a few photos of the ancient tombs and temples she visited and it was always handy for her books. She was a successful writer as well as a tomb raider. She'd publish personal journals from her trips, histories of ancient civilisations, books on the geography, artefacts, ancient manuscripts. It always made fascinating reading and she would always get quite a large sum of money for her publications, which she needed to fund her trips. She also took a shot of the logo on the guys jacket, just in case. Lara put the camera back into her backpack and proceeded to walk out of the tomb. On the way out she avoided the standard tricks and traps; spikes in the floor, arrows shooting from the walls and such. She finally hauled herself up into the main chamber and out of the main entrance.
Lara had booked herself into a hotel in one of the more rural areas of south Africa. She had proceeded to Africa in search of a relic that was required to find the latest artefact that she was hunting. The artefact in question, known as The Eye of Ra, was a powerful disk that gave the possessor the power to control fire and to control the power of the sun itself. The disk was incredibly well hidden in ancient times because the Egyptians feared its power so. The jewel that Lara had found would act a map to reveal the location of the Disk. The prospect of finding it would be an amazing archaeological discovery. But as always, she apparently was not the only one who had been after the Disk. Lara drove to the hotel, where she was greeted by the friendly staff. They could not do enough for her, they were very kind and she made a mental note of leaving a large tip for them all. They were very poor. Back in her room, Lara took off her clothes and backpack and had a nice, hot shower. All these ancient tombs, fighting with mysterious guys with guns- all of it takes its toll. Dust and dirt everywhere, aches and pains. The best thing was always a hot shower. She stepped out of the shower, dried off and threw on some clean clothes. She sat on her bed and examined the blue jewel. It wasn't really big, about the size of a golf ball. It was beautiful. Lara opened up a small black box and placed the gem inside, tucking it away in her bags. She would be heading home today. She had research to do. She still needed to locate another artefact, one that would activate the jewel and reveal the location of the Eye. She also needed to find out who the mysterious men at the tomb were. Lara had just finished loading up her jeep with her bags , bid farewell to the hotel staff and began to drive off when she became aware of two black motorcycles following behind her. And surprise-the same wolf-logo was printed on the bikes and on the helmets of the drivers. Lara shook her head.
"This just wont do."
She had to be at the airport in twenty minutes, even though it was her private plane, she didn't like things blown off schedule. She sped up and sure enough, the bikes followed. One of the bikes sped up close to her and rammed into the side.
"Lara, Lara what is going on?" Zip had just come on the line.
"Just some little boys playing with big toys" Lara replied. She turned the jeep toward the motorbike and spun rapidly, hitting the bike with the front of the jeep and sending it crashing to the ground with its rider. The other bike stopped, as though contemplating whether or not to drive straight at Lara. But he didn't get the chance. Lara jumped up, vaulting over the top of the windscreen, drew her guns and fired at the bike, which promptly blew up. She jumped back into the jeep, turned and sped off towards the airport. She boarded the plane and threw her luggage on.
"I trust your trip was satisfactory, Ms. Croft?" Her pilot asked her.
"Absolutely." she smiled. The trip home was quite uneventful. It was obviously a long way from Africa to England, so she fell asleep a little while after take off. Lara was greeted by Zip and Alister as she walked back into Croft Manor.
"You found it then?" Alister asked as Lara walked into the office.
"Oh yes" Lara replied with a small smile.
"What exactly is it that you found?" Zip piped in, looking up from his computer with a small frown of confusion.
"it's a gem. The Disk of Ra is very well hidden and the gem will either act as or reveal a map. I'm not so sure yet. But as history dictates, there are other little cockroaches who want to find it. Did u find out what that logo was?" She asked, turning to Zip.
"Yeah, it's a mercenary group called Delta Wolf. They have quite a reputation." he replied.
"The question is-who hired them?" Alister asked.
"Indeed" Lara said. "Although I imagine that I'll be finding out shortly.
To Be Continued………………………………...
I know this was short but I really wanted to put it up. Please read and review……………