Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - 'The Empire of the Amon'

Author's Note: No more fillage, kids! Time to start the gun-slingin' tight- topped action!
Chapter Five: The Gate of the Sky Gods
"Warrior of Light." He spun back round to face the young woman and the man. "So... the tablet talks about a Warrior of Light a lot... anything else?" Lara leanded over the swivel chair and looked at the character map. "Yes... that one, there-" she pointed to a little symbol in the top left corner. "Okay... redemption..." Bryce scoured the desk for a piece of paper and the click-pen. "Hm... okay... so... we have something about a warrior of light, and redemption... anything else?" Lara nodded. "Those two." Flicking back and forth through windows, the dark haired young man slowly translated the characters. "Souls... redemption of souls... knowledge... and... sky? Sky... gods!" He ran a hand through his hair, the screen occassionally blinking. "Bugger... okay... All souls of pure Amon will be redeemed by our guardian, the warrior of light. Only she the warrior of light can open our gates and free our shackles of darkness. The Gate of the Sky Gods can be unlocked only by the warrior of light... this Gate can be found with our fateful key between the-" His words were fatally silenced by the power cutting off again. "West!" he yelled, hitting the hard drive angrily. "That's the last engine, there's nothing else left, they were all low on gas anyway!" Bryce smashed in the keyboard and sighed hopelessly. "This is so stupid!" he growled, his eyes aching from the dim light. "Well, at least we know a little more. I'm guessing the tablet is some kind of prophecy or legend. But where is this acclaimed Gate? The Key says that it can be found by the Warrior of Light, which is me, I suppose, using the Key. But what use will this thing be?" She picked it up and took it outside, sitting on the step with it on her lap. "We might as well start searching before it gets any darker. Do any of these bikes still work?" She figured they wouldn't, and then she remembered where Bryce left the chrome monstrosity a little further up in the clearing, and so she ran off, carrying the tablet under one arm. "Go after her, then!" Alex blinked a few times stupidly. "Oh, right!"

After about half an hour, it was already getting dark and cold, and the bike was beginning to lag from carrying three fully grown people and a stone slab. "Damnit... come on, come on... just a bit further, don't pack in yet," Bryce prayed as he steered the sluggish snow-bike through the drifts. Alas, the thing eventually gave up and left them stranded in the middle of the Russian wastes. "Looks like we're on foot from here on," Lara commented, with a 'shit happens, get over it' shrug. She held the slab in front of her and walked in front of the two men. "Well... I can see why the Key comes in useful... can't you feel it?" The two men looked utterly lost. "More... tuned in, if you know what I mean. I think we're getting closer." Suddenly, the ground began to shake, scattering snow and ice everywhere. "Get down!" Alex shouted over the clamour. After a few minutes, the shaking stopped, and they opened their eyes, wiping the snow and sludge from their faces. "Blimey." Alex was speechless, but Lara got that glint of adventure in her eyes. A gigantic stone arch stood in front of them. Lara reached out to go through the arch, but was thrown back almost instantly, about ten feet, still clutching the tablet Key. "Ouch... okay, so now I understand why they made the Key," she mumbled, holding her stomach. "Ah, Lady Croft!" Alex winced at the malicious outcry from behind. "Squires." The fat man laughed shrilly as he walked up to the arch. Bryce was secretly hoping he'd walk into it and get blasted back. Hm, well, it puts the term 'getting off your arse' into proportion, he thought to himself. However, he stopped just before. "Place the Key, Lara..." The young woman closed her eyes, took a deep breath and picked up the tablet again. "Lara, what are you doing?" Alex hissed. She looked over her shoulder and stared at him with deep, sad eyes that pierced his very soul. "Lara!" It was too late. She had put the Key in the arch. The Gate was open. On the other side of the archway, massive structures apeared out of nowhere, made of a cold blue stone, and very similar to how historians imagined the Aztec temples to be in their time. Every now and then, there were gigantic stone idols, mostly taking the form of a wolf-like beast. "Hraka-Amon, the temple city," scoffed Squires proudly, and marched through the arch. "Now, to take my prize, the ultimate weapon... omniscient knowledge..."

Lara stared fiercely at the back of Squires' podgy head for a few seconds, and then tore past him so she was in a small courtway. Bryce and Alex looked at each other for a second, and then followed her. Squires walked up to the nearest temple and looked inside for a short moment, before coming back down. "I'll find it. I'll find the power of the Sky Gods, and I'll find it before you," she whispered, scowling. "Ha! And how do you expect to do that, Croft? You know nothing of this city! You don't have a clue about the traps! By God, you can't even read the texts!" Alex's temper was rising. "Take that back, Squires. We're going to kick your ass so bad-" Bryce pulled the blonde back by his arm. "Oi, calm down, mate." He turned to Squires and gave him an icy glare. "Lara may not, but I can. And anyway, these two are professional tomb raiders, I'd like to see you manoeuvre your fat arse through a weight-triggered spike chamber!" he spat, arms folded. Suddenly, one of Squires' bodyguards came up behind Bryce and winded him. Lara winced, gritting her teeth. "For God's sake, Bryce, how many times do I have to tell you?" He smiled painfully as Alex helped him up. Suddenly, Squires and his men ran off into the mazelike temple city. "Alex... come on. We've got to find... whatever we're meant to be finding." The blonde nodded. "Hey, I forgot I had these!" The two tomb raiders looked behind them to see that Bryce was holding three minute head-sets. "Three-way communicator. Bloody brilliant invention!"

"Where do we look first?" Alex stared up at the idol heads looking down over the temples. "Well, from what I researched before I came, the place is like a giant puzzle. Deactivate all the traps in the shrines, and you unlock the main temple." Lara nodded, surveying the area around. "Sounds easy enough... I'll take the left hand side." Alex nodded and ran up to the closest shrine on the right. "Okay... panels... always good," Lara muttered to herself, hands on hips, as she looked at the floor puzzle in front of her. The room was quite long, and there were tiles in rows of four, all with different patterns on them. On the other side of the room, there was a locked grille gate. On the right wall, there appeared to be instructions. Lara stepped on a tile with a snake on it to see what happened, when suddenly, a neat slab of spikes came down on her, barely missing her as she darted back. "Obviously not the right tile." The next tile along had the image of a rabbit, and when Lara stepped on it, nothing happened. On the next row, there was a fox-like creature, some kind of bovine animal, a chicken and a pig. "Ah... I see now." She stepped on the 'fox' tablet, and nothing happened. Eventually, she got to the end, where the tiles appeared to have clouds on them, and they were all the same. She trod on the one in front of her, and the grille gate creaked up. "If it's going to be like this for all of them..." She walked through, and ended up on the other side of the building. She could see Squires and his bodyguards stumbling about in the top left corner of the temple city. "It's going to be a long night..."
Well, it's a start! I'll probably skip most of the mini-templing, as it's really only the main temple that counts for much... most of the action takes place there ;)