Disclaimer: I do not own anything in regards to the Tomb Raider franchise. Alas, this is a pity… this story is for the utter amusement, entertainment, and bewilderment of the fans who appreciate Lara as being one of the best games in the world! I cannot even begin to make sense of what happened the last few months as the summer draws near, and to be honest, I had this chapter done and 13 half done, and forgot that I was doing a fanfic in my free time, of wait…I had no free time, THAT'S what went wrong LOL. Hope you enjoy! The Batman then, and the Batman now.
Author Notes: I like getting into the part of the characters that you do not see. What happens 'in between' Lara's excursions? How does she interact with the people in her life when it is not over her headset? If you haven't figured it out all ready, each title is based on Odin coming to the human realm to make the promised return to his son.
Chapter Twelve: "My hands will drink heavily upon the throat the spews fourth your blood! This world will NOT hide you in her bosom, and you will reap the day that forfeit the life of my son! In favor I will eradicate your entire kind and burn the minds of all who knew you until you exist no more!"
Kyoto, Japan
"How in the hell are we to run into this shit in this day and time? I thought this kind of crap was only in the movies!" Amanda gritted her teeth as she gripped her black soul stone. She managed to throw a quick look to her right where Sonya was standing with a deep red aura starting to glimmer around the trace of both her hands. Amanda knew Sonya was ready at any moment to start using her magic, and far from she was to argue that at this point. Their enemies were of all things three ninjas dressed in the blackest clothes she could ever imagine.
From what Sonya was able to tell, the ninjas consisted of two males and a female kunoichi (female ninja). She glared at the three of them through her sunglasses at their stances. She assessed that they were in position to attack at any moment, and she could not understand right now why they did not already. Ninjas were nothing more than hired assassins, and they usually did not step out from the shadows until they made a kill, so why were they here at the top of all the stairs they ascended in broad daylight waiting for them? Were they the guardians of this secret shrine? It was the next addition to the ninja trio that her face really frowned. "Sano Tanaka?..."
Sano Tanaka, age 33, was a very well known travel agent to the wealthy community around the world. In fact it was he who set her lodgings, and travel up. He has been dealing with her for years and her father before her. Now he stood in front of the three ninja wearing a completely white suit with black cuff links and a pitch black dress shirt, complimented with a white tie. His white leather shoes tapped in place twice as he placed his left hand in his pocket as his right hand took off his sunglasses, and placed then inside his suit pocket before placing the right hand into the other pocket of his right pants leg. Here he sighed and looked over at Sonya, "Konnichiwa Von Croy-san." He gave a slight inclination of his head to the reverence he held for the family name. "Pardon me for this rude approach. I am not in the business of wasting much time with words. You are here for the Oni Stone? Are you not?" he nodded to himself as Amanda's face gave away that he was correct, although Sonya's face remained unchanged "Expected of an honorable Von Croy." He smiled as his shoulders shook a bit in humor of this "You can keep such a still and unreadable visage, although your friend cannot." Looking over at Amanda for only a moment then back to Sonya "It is nothing personal against you, please let me assure you this first." He smiled earnestly but his face became hard and serious afterwards "I am yakuza, and my father was Takamoto, Shogo. The woman you are venturing against…Lara Croft…" his voice tightened "Has made my father lose face many times, and has brought dishonor to our proud clan of Yakuza. My true name is Takamoto, Kaneda, and I am afraid that you cannot have the Oni Stone, for you see, it belongs to Japan, and as you are gaijin (outside, foreigner) you cannot just come into our proud country, and take what treasures you desire from Japan's people. In having many dealings with your father, I know you are ambitious and once you are focused on a goal there is no turning you away. So I have brought my loyal servants to ensure we have a very quick rectification if my wishes are not met exactly."
Sonya, still calm and collected, was putting everything together as he spoke. Her mind raced expertly as her photographic memory recollected everything small detail as they got to Japan. Her mind punctuating on key points as she did so…
~Flashback from Chapter 10~
Amanda was happy to survive the remaining part of the train ride. It was a rather quiet ride back, neither gave the other more than a glance or a nod as they shared looks out the window in awe of the scenery. They checked into their hotel which turned out to be an old style dojo home from the meij era. Amanda was dumbstruck to say the least, this place smelled of the fine wood on the floors, sliding paper screen doors and lovely tatami room where kimonos were lain out for them already which they could wear around their home as they saw fit as a courtesy. After fully exploring the entire place and getting to know the three servants that stayed there which consisted ofthree people, a father, son and daughter. The father introduced himself as simply Jubei, his son was Yoshiro, and his daughter was Kimiko. Jubei had a most interesting scar that went over his left eye and seemingly was sewn closed. Amanda was having fun guessing how it happened, a cooking accident perhaps or he was some kind of secret ninja from the feudal era. This brought her to giggle a little. After they settled in Sonya had suggested they start immediately and go right into what they were there for, the Pendragon Stone. Sonya told Amanda that the shrine was not on a map, because it was a place for those who sought wisdom to go to, and in the ancient feudal era it was place where many came to center themselves before great battles or who sought enlightenment. This place was even known to train priests to exorcise demons.
~End Flashback~
Sonya's eyes flitted back and fourth behind her pitch black sunglasses. "Of course…." She muttered softly, yet matter of factly. "Two males, one female, the old dojo accommodations, Yakuza, and that would explain why the ninja are here now. You have been busy 'Takamoto'" she stressed his true name with obvious distaste "So you had us stay in one of your family homes, left us clothing to wear so your ninja could check our clothes freely behind our backs, your ninjas…Jubei, Yoshiro, and Kimiko I presume? This leads me to realize, the look of the articulate atmosphere, and how that home retains its apparent original state as if it were built only a few years ago. The build and make of the home was from the meji era, which means they" looking at the ninjas again "Are of the Yagyu clan. The father, must be the new clan head, as the son inherits the name of the leader. Yagyu, Jubei…the scar to show your status, sewn shut…as a trademark in your clan, as the first of the clan only had one eye…and of course the three of them eavesdropped on our conversation that night as I told Amanda aloud about which exact shrine we were going to. In conclusion, upon my telling you where I needed to be when I arrived here, you accommodated me by sending me to the closest home you had, and had everything else set up, not knowing what I was looking for, but you knew that my father was deeply involved with Lara Croft and therefore you kept closer ties with me, sent me a few servants to my home in Austria as sign of respect to assist me after he passed away. I allowed more of your ninja into my home to report back to you. I am now realizing you were spying into my home even back then, and you have spied on me since. Waiting for the day to get your revenge on Croft, and coat tailed on my treks to help you get there. Brilliant…" she was infuriated inwardly of course. It was so easy since she was so hell bent on plotting her own plans against Lara. She has been concentrating way too much on her personal goals, Amanda's dream, and Amanda romantically. She cursed herself for being so blind, and getting them both into this position.
Amanda was awestruck at the amount if information that Sonya just laid down, if this Von Croy, her father, was who taught her. Then there was no question as to why Lara has been so fortunate. No…not fortunate…she corrected her thoughts 'well trained' and educated by a formidable master. Amanda had come to realize right then, that it was not she who was Lara's equal or rival, but Sonya. It was always Sonya, Amanda never had the conviction that Lara had, Amanda had limits, and she was not on the same level of obsessive that Lara was. Amanda's obsessive nature was extremely narrow, she only wanted and breathed achieving her dream of Avalon, and focused on no more than that. Now, here was Sonya, next to her. Sonya obviously had such a broad spectrum of ideals and realizations that made Amanda look infantile, and yet she expressed such a deep intelligent side that was not at all apprehensive, but caring, knowing, open minded, and well learned. How wise, powerful, and accurate a woman Sonya was as she stood there, unmoving, unaffected, strong poised and confident. Amanda's heart at that moment thumped hard for several moments as if she received an adrenaline shot directly to it.
Sonya's hands still remained glimmering with the deep crimson aura of Egyptian power. She brought the right hand up and removed her own sunglasses and placed them in the deep of her cleavage. Sonya's crimson eyes, now unhindered, and unashamed of being seen by her advancers.
Takamoto's three ninja gave obvious alarm to seeing this and muttered 'oni' (demon/devil) to one another quickly. Takamoto himself seemed un-phased and expected this with no surprise which confirmed that his associated spies did in fact infiltrate her home. He smiled slightly and cleared his throat as a signal, Yoshiro drew his sword and stood in front of Takamoto and taking stance. Trained in the way of the Yagyu swordsmanship, he stood poised ready to read any movement of their bodies. Takamoto now took his left hand from his pants pocket and waved once. "Thank you for your cooperation Von Croy-san. I am sure you understand. I have also taken the liberty of having our local temple priests leaving spiritual wards around this area. I have provided them things from your home so they could understand the demonic trace within you. It is to make sure of course, that you behave yourself and respect our country, and more importantly me." Reaching into his jacket pocket and taking his sunglasses back out, placing them on slowly as he turned his back to her, and walked into the temple with Jubei and Kimiko right behind him.
Amanda's heart was pounding heavily now, pumping pure hatred through her veins at his disrespect of Sonya, and to take things from her home no less to use against her! Amanda could not believe that Sonya stood there so quietly and just listened! Her blue eyes flashed over at Sonya, and blinked in unexpected surprise to see Sonya's red sockets staring back at her.
"What the Hell are you waiting for?" Sonya said very calmly and collected in French knowing that true Japanese would not care for other cultures but their own out of pride. "They took proper precautions to protect themselves from an Egyptian Demon, but as I recall, what you have is not Egyptian. So please make haste and get your special friend to get rid of these damned wards around me. Your wraith is spiritual in nature, and therefore could sense them out as if they were glowing in the dark, where as I cannot. I will then handle…" her face turning towards Yoshiro who was none too pleased they switched up languages, but knew they were making a plan of attack and started moving his foot deeper into the stone beneath his feet. Sonya cracked her knuckles "teaching a Ninja how to regret birth."
Amanda used her stone instantly and mentally gave it the command to get right to it and destroy the wards that would incapacitate Sonya's powers. The wraith shot from her growling as it lunged for Yoshiro who back flipped out its way throwing six kunai daggers at it, which of course, went right through it. It was then that he realized he was not being attacked but distracted! His eyes went over to where Sonya was and soon saw he was right, she was gone and so was Amanda. His eyes narrowed as he cursed himself and ran to the left where Sonya would have been standing. She was the more dangerous of the two.
Sonya ran and slid down a section of grassy hill on her back rolling into some bushes to get her bearings. There was a well trained ninja hunting her, a tracker, and assassin. "He will be here any minute…." She knew that ninja follow the traces that people emit from their bodies, their ki flow (spirit energy). She stood up and walked out into the open of the grassy area she had slid down into. As she thought, he dropped down from the sky landing near her, and stood slowly. She was indeed correct, he did come after her.
"Shine'!"(die!) he barked and pointed his sword at her and spoke in stressed English through his accent "Yew, wut haff live if yew juso stay still!" he was not at all pleased they disrespected his master by not doing what he told them to. "Yew no run now."
Sonya tilted her head, and then shook it at him slowly. "I wasn't running from you in fear boy." Her thick accent smoothly bringing words out managing to still hide her emotion. "I was buying Amanda time to rid me of your pesky wards."
And at that Sonya and Yoshiro heard Amanda's voice in the distance scream out "I got them Sonya! Where are you?"
Sonya hated Amanda's tact, just like a horror movie, screaming aloud gave your position away to the enemy. She thought to herself 'Stupid Blonde.' Never once taking her eyes off Yoshiro who now realized he made a fatal error in chasing the wrong one. "Sayonara" Sonya's eyes glew more than usual as she muttered something inaudible. Yoshiro stepped forward to lunge his sword into her in attack, and then it happened. His eyes began to bleed rapidly, and his nose and ears bleed as well. Sonya's hands still were glowing and now they matched how deep her eyes were. Veins in his body began to burst, as if his flesh betrayed him, teeth fell from sockets, his jaw loosened itself from the skull and fell away. His hand dropped its sword and took the fingers that were wrapped around it with it to the ground. His arms left him, his knees caved under his weight, and as he took a deep breath due to the searing pain, his rib cage made a sickening pop as his entrails spilt out before him. His useless body fell into his own sinew and guts with a finalized wet thump. Sonya stopped muttering at this point and her hands stopped glowing, her eyes lessening in their deeper glow since she felt a bit more satisfied now that one of the bastards were dead. She walked over and stood over him with unreadable expression once again and said aloud softly. "Not all of us show our emotions on our sleeves, just because I was quiet didn't mean I wasn't seething. You have to hide your emotions better Amanda."
Behind her in utter silence stood Amanda frozen in place at the spectacle she just paid witness to. The wraith floating in mid air motionless awaiting command from its master. Amanda knew Sonya was speaking to her, but could not formulate words properly, or was it she could not muster the will to say them?
The silence made Sonya turn around thinking Amanda was perhaps wounded or being held captive by one of the other two ninjas. "Are you well Amanda?" she asked concern written in her voice and looking over her for signs of stabbing, blood, or any evident harm. "You…ungh!" Sonya winced in pain as Amanda ran into her fast and hard, burying her lips into hers hard enough to hurt Sonya's nose a bit and her breasts at the force that she came against her. Then it was the realization afterwards that Amanda had her arms around her neck embracing her possessively as she was being kissed deeply by the blonde, Sonya felt the warm tongue pry through her own lips, and it was not long before Sonya wrapped her arms around her waist tightly and returned it.
Amanda stopped kissing her and buried her face into her neck wiping her tearing eyes into it "I thought you were hurt…oh God….when you didn't answer me!" she sobbed softly. "I thought…." She stopped speaking and just enjoyed listening to Sonya's breathing for awhile as she gathered herself, breathing was the sign of life, Sonya was fine "These fuckers are going to die…." She muttered deeply under her breath through clenched teeth. Amanda felt Sonya's arms enwrap around her tighter and hush her softly.
"Yes Amanda, they will…." She said just as calm as before, kissing Amanda's left ear softly once. "They have no idea what Hell is yet, but I plan and introducing such a death upon them that it even the Devil would turn his face. Here she let her go and pushed her away softly "We must make haste, come." She nodded as she walked past hurriedly making her way back up the hill towards the steps.
Amanda wiped her eyes hard once nodding back to her as she followed Sonya. Upon getting back to the steps they quickly regained themselves back to the top where they were a moment ago and started in towards the temple. Amanda sent the wraith ahead to sense the life traces of where their new enemies went, and for any other friends they should be ready for.
Sonya walked steady, a mission in each step, almost a march as she entered the temple. To her she could hear the whispers of the ancient Egyptians echoing through her mind when she really starts using her magic, and using it was exactly what she planned to do. When they came to a dead end in a hallway after 20 minutes, she looked at Amanda who was already pointing to a solid wall and signaled to Sonya silently that it was a false one. When Sonya waved her hand, it eroded into tiny granules of sand to reveal the wraith floating there patiently waiting for its master's next order. "Where now?" Sonya whispered to herself, but loud enough for Amanda to overhear. Again, the blonde did not disappoint her, Amanda pointed again down to the left, and they started their decent until they heard the voice of Takamoto get louder and louder. It wasn't until they got right around the corner is when they stopped to overhear him.
"There seems to be another wall here Jubei." Takamoto sighed heavily, his anticipation was building, he was not quite sure of this place, his ninja were his guides to see through any traps or surprises. He was focused on that wall when he noticed that Kimiko had spun around abruptly and threw two kunai daggers down the corridor to the corner where she and Amanda hid. Takamoto turned fully around and smirked "You are persistent Von Croy-san." He gave Jubei a horrid look of disapproval that his son seemingly failed, which the head ninja clenched his jaw in embarrass at this in front of his master. "Looks like Kimiko is on her game today." Takamoto dug into the wound of Jubei's son's failure, and then looked at her "Please, kill them, do not limit anything in regards to your skills. Make it quick, we cannot afford another failure."
Kimiko nodded curtly and stealthy stayed to the walls in shadows as she closed distance to her prey. She could sense where they stood, and how they were poised around that corner. She silently took out two spherical ninja bombs, and gave them a tight squeeze to start the chemical inside them to explode on impact after she'd throw them. Almost there, two feet from the corner, she quickly raised her right hand to throw the bombs to make them bounce off the opposite wall to where they stood. Suddenly though, two black smoking hands came out the wall and wrapped around her small framed body so quickly that she squealed in surprise. Her body was then pulled against that very wall hard, several times until her body made wet crunching sounds. As she was dropped she saw the wraith come out the wall and not even look down at her, but glide over her towards its next mark. Her eyes fading, she thought that she too failed her master, and her hand opened, the two bombs went off with two loud smacking sounds. Kimiko was on her way to Hell.
Jubei spun around and drew his sword after he heard the sickening thuds of his daughter being crushed into a wall. He saw the wraith rampaging down the hall towards them. Takamoto screamed and pushed Jubei ahead commanding him to kill it. Jubei took stance, and swung true his family sword. It went right through the wraith which reached out and ripped both his arms off his body as if he was paper. Jubei screamed loudly echoing through the halls. The scream of a dying man in pain, and the wraith took his clawed right hand, and ripped Jubei's jaw from his skull, and then palmed his skull with the left and turned his head backwards to face his master before the body was tossed with a loud thump against the wall behind Takamoto who had fallen onto his backside wetting himself. "What….what is this?" he screamed with terror true in his voice.
"That is how you kill a ninja Takamoto." Sonya walked up through the blood ridden flooring of the corridor and past the wraith who was now lunging at Takamoto. Sonya smiled when the wraith stopped instantly and knew that Amanda was not going to deny her this savory revenge. Amanda's blue eyes were narrowed behind her piercing the darkness, hatred gleaming out of them that rivaled those of her creature pet. Sonya squatted down and put her hands on both sides on of his skull and stared deep into his eyes, "You will not enjoy this you miserable flesh bag." She held him there true like a vice, her hands emitted the red light that started filtering into his body, through his skin his skeleton glew brightly as he started convulsions and kicked like a dying donkey, she held him true. "You DARE enter MY home!" she hissed and started chanting deeper, unlike the other chant, this one had many other voices echoing behind her own. Sonya gripped his head harder, his screaming intensified. Out of his mouth started a slow pouring of golden scarabs which tore open his ear holes as they exited from there, tiny first, then bigger ones. They started eating him from the inside, devouring him whole, encompassing their feast. She then dug her thumbs into his eyes, and her magic sent a glowing crack up the middle of his skull, where she then tore it open to expose his yet uneaten Brain. The scarabs made for it greedily, and after a moment more, not even his clothes were left where he was once held. They cleaned off even her fingers of his blood. Sonya stood up and sighed VERY slowly and seemingly enjoyed it.
Amanda walked up to Sonya's right side, not as shocked as she was before and looked down to where he used to be. "Damn. They ate him. ALL of him. Are the scarabs going to be okay?" she smirked giving Sonya a quirk or her left brow.
Sonya looked to her left at the blonde on her left and smirked back "Not just him, but every spawn that he made with his seed. His bloodline has suffered for his infraction upon me. Not again will a bastard of his lineage grace my presence again." She stood up and walked off toward the wall where they were focused at before. "Is it through there?" she looked over at Amanda for assurance, and fully turned around to face the blonde while placing her hands on her own hips as she saw what Amanda was doing 'What the Hell?" she muttered.
Amanda was swinging a little string with a glowing orb with what seemed to be a dragon eye in the middle, glowing prism like with various colors. "This? I had him go get this while you were playing with your toy." She smiled ear to ear. "I had the wraith go through that wall and bust it down for me to go in and take the prize. The question is where do we go next? The Pendragon stone belongs to us now." She could not help but giggle as she stretched and yawned. "I want food, HOT food, ramen, stir dry, squid, tea, and a hot bath." She cracked her neck and looked at Sonya "What? Why are you staring at me like that? You are freaking me out!" she folded her arms across her breasts looking away from Sonya
Sonya who abruptly burst into laughter and shook her head afterwards, smiled and shrugged "Yes Amanda. You will have these things. You are a definite gem…" she laughed again and walked by her giggling from time to time on their way back out. What made it better is that Amanda didn't know why, but she was very humored at the thief that Amanda had become, she had to wonder who was truly the Tomb Raider, her or Lara Croft?
Tokyo, Japan
Lara could not believe what Valkyrie just said. What the Hell was she planning? Lara dared not ask from where she laid in her own blood soaked clothing with Odin still above her in the sky. She laid her head back on the flooring, and she felt her own slick blood under her, smelt the metallic scent that only blood could give off. Her head was spinning and she had no idea how much blood she lost. She heard Odin roar, a deafening loud roar, her ears went deaf, she could only imagine that she just went deaf for life. The decibel of the scream was so loud that all sounds were muted. The force alone sent her flying through the air and into the wall near her door within the room of the hotel. She smacked the wall hard, and fell down into the remains of one of her now dead attackers. She saw for a moment Valkyrie fly into a wall near her as well. She was right, the scream was a powerful one. She could not imagine the damage outside. "I'm….not doing well…' she muttered as she lost consciousness.
Valkyrie barely managed to stand up, she saw Lara shaking, she must be entering shock now she pondered, which means she didn't have much time. She walked cautiously back to the balcony, and looked up at the sky. Odin's armor was glowing, and his breathing was heavy, she knelt down onto one knee and lowered her head and hoped that he would not strike her down, a woman wielding the hammer of his son? She heard him grumble with great anger "Ykkar til fagna par argr proel! Vel safna afl! Fram til orrosta!" (Your to be glad there womanish thrall! Readily gather strength! Forward to battle!), and then lifting his mighty javelin into the air he cast a mighty glowing wind unto Valkyrie who felt as if she weighed a ton suddenly. Her veins jumped fast and pumped hard through her body, and then it stopped, and the sky was calm. She looked up and saw him gone, and was relieved that she still had the hammer, belt, and gauntlets. She didn't know what that was all about, but she was alive, and for now that is all that mattered. She stood up and shakily made her way over to Lara who was pale as a sheet, but alive. "Hang on." She spoke softly and then ran over to Lara's bag tearing out the ear piece and hit the call button. After 5 minutes she heard Zip.
"I thought you forgot about us." In a mocking cheery tone he was obviously eating something. "How's Japan Lara?'
'Not Lara, she's down. Send anyone she can trust NOW! She is going into shock and I don't think a hospital is going to work!" Valkyrie spoke quickly with urgency flooding her voice.
"Shit!" he slid his food away and started typing like a madman. "What happened? Fuck it! Tell me later!" he second guessed himself. This was not the time for explanations. Lara's life was in danger. "What the hell? Val!" unaware he called her this in his haste "Tokyo is all over the news, there was some kind of shockwave there. Half the city is in shambles….except for one hotel, and from what I see your signal is coming from, is where you are…at least 60 miles to all sides is destroyed….oh my God….and the nearest hospital has lost power! This is a mess!" his heart was shaking in worry now as he watched the news in Tokyo via his satellite connection as he typed away. What the hell happened over there?
Valkyrie's eyes shot wide open and looked over her shoulder as she held Lara firm in her arms on the floor with her. As far as she could see, there were shambled buildings and torn up streets. When Odin yelled….she thought. This was the result. What the hell was she going to do now about Lara though? Her eyes went down to Lara who's body temperature was dropping and her breathing was lessening. She closed her eyes and thought, what could she do? WHAT?
"Valkyrie!" Zip yelled suddenly into the headset. "The dagger! Use the dagger of xian! The Chinese dagger thing!" he was jumping up and down in his seat, he was told by Lara that the Italian stabbed himself with it and turned into a dragon, but that is all he had to go on right now. He needed time for Lara to save Lara's life, no matter what. "Do it!" he screamed.
Valkyrie's mind was racing, variables, questions, doubts, and sensibility of this. She laid Lara down again and tore open the bags and suit cases until she found it and took it out its holding. "Fine…" she ran back over to Lara and swallowed once and slammed the dagger into her chest.
Instantly, Lara saw light flood her eyes again, all sounds returned, her heart pumped hard. Then she felt a great burning inside, pain, and anguish. She screamed holding her chest and rolled onto her stomach holding her breasts tightly.
Valkyrie's eyes winced at what she was witnessing, and she took Excalibur into her right hand quickly and held steady the hammer in her left, ran and jumped out the window into the open sky. She used her shadow speed to build more speed and landed on a piece of remaining building, landed on another piece nearby, then tucked into a roll on the street and slid to a stop to look up to the room where she left Lara. A loud growl and then whipping and thrashing of a tail and talons tore what remained of the room to pieces. Lara, now a dragon tore into the sky roaring and flew into the smoke of the buildings out of site. Valkyrie was breathing deeply as she stood up, mind reeling on what she just saw. "Zip….what the hell did you just have me do?"
Zip who was watching through Valkyrie's earpiece camera which Valkyrie forgot was a part of the headset. "I saw it all Valkyrie…look, we may have a chance. I panicked, see, Lara told us the story about the Dagger of Xian right? She saw that Italian Marco something, turn into a dragon, but she also used that same dagger to defeat him. Get that Dagger, and we can plan the next move. There has got to be a way to save her, but at the time we had no time to think. It would have taken too long to get a chopper out there. "I am cross referencing things that can help us as well in Japan or nearby countries. Strangely enough, there is a myth in the Japanese systems that I hacked in regards to Dragons, there seems to be an ancient stone called the 'Oni stone' or by the 'Pendragon Stone' that may be able to help us.
"Where is it?" her eyes narrowing as she started using her shadow powers to scale back up the hotel building to go look for the dagger. "I'm getting that stone." She said finalized tone.
Zip didn't respond for a long moment as he gave her time to find the dagger. His fingers flying madly, Winston pacing back and fourth behind him in worry. Zip started hacking all info he could in Japan's databases. Then he came across an e-mail that was sent back and fourth referenced to the Oni Stone. "Who is Sano Tanaka?' he wondered as he already started figuring him to be a museum curator and then as his excellent hacker skills went to work he sat back in his chair abruptly his eyes wide as saucers "Ohhhhhhh shit!" which made Winston jump and run over to read over his shoulder, his own face paling a bit.
Valkyrie just found the bloody dagger and was gathering her and Lara's arsenal into a suitcase with the clothes she could salvage. "Talk to me Zip. What did you find?" she slapped a clip into her pistols and placed her holsters on her legs.
"Not what….but WHO….seems that I found the paydirt. Lara had this old yakuza dude named Shogo Takamoto she fought for years, until she took him down when she was gathering pieces of Excalibur. Well, that guy had a son, and that son has been apparently running in his dad's place trying to rebuild the family name I guess. Their yakuza is low though since Lara put them down and made them lose honor. His son, Kaneda Takamoto…has been working with a Sonya Von Croy as a travel agent. Werner Von Croy was Lara's old teacher, and if this is ANY relation to him, then she is in deep shit. Sonya Von Croy is working with our pal Amanda Evert, and they have been traveling a lot together. This guy Kaneda has a lot of detailed notes of their travel, and I guess its because he was using her to get to Lara some kind of way. They are in Kyoto, Japan right now. My guess is that they have the Pendragon Stone and if I know Amanda, she will use it for that damned Avalon."
Valkyrie stopped and froze in place as Zip unloaded this info into her ear. Her eyes squinted more and more until she took a deep calming breath and tied the last part of the strap on her back to carry Thor's hammer and placed Excalibur back into the guitar case. "Then they are going to find that their planned trip to Avalon is going to be postponed." She jumped out the window and ran off into the now start of a stormy night.
-End Chapter 12.
Next in chapter 13- A show down with Amanda, Sonya, and Valkyrie!
AN: Here are some more small updates:
~Shojo Takamoto was a boss in the Japan level of Tomb Raider Legend upon whom Lara had to take a piece of Excalibur from. Kaneda is a character I made to fit into why he holds a great grudge against Lara. He wants the piece she took from his father and her life for his. His honor and stature depends heavily on him succeeding if he will ever regain face in the yakuza community.
~I will be adding the next chapters through Nov and Dec. I will be at home a majority of December and I will be able to type away and progress this story. Thank you all for following this story! -Batman
(I put the wrong one on the site, this is the one with corrections to all grammar and punctuation. My apologies)
