Oregon Mine Madness

Mt. Rainier, four days later

"What is taking so long? Why haven't you found Daphne yet? My wife is getting worried!" Salem shouted

He was in charge of a rescue crew to find his sister-in-law. Because there was so much ice blocking the ice cave entrance, they had to blast their way in with explosives. There was already so much digging that it had already taken the crew all night to dig through the mess. Ramona had joined them in the search.

"Sir, there is so much debris, that it's going to take some time to sift through it all. We don't know if we'll be able to find her," said the Trinity soldier in front of him

"Well keep searching!" ordered Salem

Ramona had been feverishly digging through the debris for the past hour in an effort to find her sister. Trinity Command has not received any report from Daphne and her team in Mt. Rainier on their progress in finding the Fire Bird Feather Key. She was worried something might have happened to her and it has been four days since she last heard from her sister. She removed a large slab of debris and her worst fears culminated into horror upon discovering what was underneath it. Her own sister dead with icicles pierced into her body.

"Salem! I found her!" Ramona cried out on the verge of tears

Her husband rushed to her side, shocked at the discovery. Ramona broke down in his arms as two Trinity medics put Daphne's body in a body bag and took it away. The bodies that were able to be recovered had been covered in bullet wounds. Salem suspected that Croft had something to do with this. A body that had been found with an arrow in it confirmed his suspicions.

"Croft! She'll pay for this, I'll make sure of it," said Salem

"Sir I think she had help, because I found this on one of the bodies." He had a piece of red hair in his fingers. "Last I checked, no one in Daphne's team had red hair."

There was only one person he knew who had red hair other than himself. Could Phoenix have something to do with this? No, that is very unlikely.

"No matter, Croft and her accomplice will pay."

Not only do they need to make Croft pay, they still need to find Phoenix.

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Central Oregon

The next Fire Bird Feather Key that Lara and Phoenix are searching for is located in an abandoned mine in the center of Oregon. They had already searched a few mines already but nothing came up. That is until Lara noticed a Trinity helicopter headed for the direction of a mine they have not touched yet. Lara and Phoenix followed it, with Lara believing that it's where the second Fire Bird Feather Key is located. Now they are hiding in some bushes so the guards don't see them.

"How do you know it's here?" Phoenix whispered

"The helicopter and the four armed men guarding the mine kind of gave it away." Lara whispered

"So what do we do?"

Lara looked around, the trees surrounding the entrance are good enough for her to climb up and strike from above.

"I'll take them out from above, you take them out from the ground." Lara whispered

"Sounds good." Phoenix crept into the bushes to seek out her first target while Lara climbs up a tree nearby.

A man walks next to the bush unaware that his soon to be killer is going to strike. Phoenix jumped at him, covered his mouth with her hand, slashed him in the throat with her knife and stabbed him in the chest to finish him off. In the tree Lara snipes a guard with her bow, the arrow hitting him in the heart. Phoenix throws an empty beer bottle at a stump to draw the remaining two guards out. One went for Phoenix's direction, the other went for Lara's. Lara jumped out of the tree, knife in hand onto the man's back, stabbing him in the chest, ending his life. Phoenix finished off the final man by shooting him in the head with her pistol. They both went inside.

As the two of them navigate the mine they notice that Trinity has been doing some digging recently. They stopped to where two men were loading a minecart with some supplies. Phoenix snuck right behind one of them and used her knife to slit his throat, however the second man spotted Phoenix.

"What the-" Before he could finish his sentence, Lara killed him with her climbing axe.

Lara and Phoenix use the mining cart to get deeper into the mine. Along the way they heard an explosion nearby. Once the cart reached its destination Lara and Phoenix peaked through underneath a cloth which the supplies had been covered with, and discovered what had caused the explosion. A group of nine trinity soldiers were standing in front of a huge hole in the wall which appeared to be blasted open revealing the Fire Bird Feather Key inside. Two of the soldiers notice the cart full of supplies and start walking toward it.

"There's the supplies, but where are Jeff and Russell?" asked one of the men.

Lara and Phoenix sprang up and snapped both of their necks. The rest of the Trinity squad noticed both Lara and Phoenix and drew their weapons.

"There's Ross's runaway bride and it looks like Croft has her after all," said the Trinity commander, a bald man with a brown beard

The squad drew their guns out and Lara and Phoenix did the same.

"Kill Croft, but leave Phoenix alive. Salem, Ross, and Ramona would rather have her in one piece." the commander ordered. A fire fight ensued, one side shot at the other with their guns. Five of the men walked right next to a red barrel with some oil leaking out of it, formed into a puddle. Lara shot the barrel, causing it to explode and light the oil puddle as well as the five men on fire burning them to death. Phoenix looted a lighter from one of the men she shot, picked up a stick of dynamite, lit it and threw it towards the other four.

"Incoming!" the commander shouted as the dynamite came flying towards him and the other three men.

They scrambled to get away from the dynamite, but it was too late and they were killed in the explosion.

Lara took the Fire Bird Feather Key from the hole in the wall. They heard another minecart heading their direction. Said minecart had four Trinity soldiers in it.

"I see them over there!" yelled one of the soldiers.

Lara and Phoenix made a beeline for their minecart with Phoenix connecting a handcar in front of the minecart. She got on the handcar.

"I'll drive you shoot!" Phoenix started pumping the handcar as hard as she could, making the minecart-handcar move forward quickly. The soldiers in the other minecart start shooting at them. Lara shot back at them taking one of them out. A few minutes of shooting back and forth had passed and they were getting close to the entrance. Phoenix couldn't let Trinity follow them or let her father know she was with Lara.

"Lara, there's dynamite in there, we need to finish this now!" Phoenix threw her lighter towards Lara who caught it.

Lara lit a stick of dynamite and threw it at the minecart behind them, blowing it and it's occupants up. They managed to make it to the entrance. They disembarked the minecart-handcar, Phoenix looked at the boxes of dynamite.

"Maybe we can work with this," said Phoenix looking at the dynamite.

"At least promise you won't use those in a place that is more likely to cave in," said Lara

"Can't make any promises, but I'll try." Phoenix replied

"You're unbelievable," Lara chuckled

Phoenix playfully punched her arm in response. They gathered the dynamite and walked back towards civilization.

Author's Note: Sorry for not posting for a bit, I had to go to the hospital for a minor injury. Don't worry I'm fine.