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

Author's Note: Sadly, this'll probably be the last we'll see of Bryce for a short while... the title was 'Lara Croft' believe it or not *grin*

Chapter Seven: The Last Stand of S.I.M.O.N.
Lara clung to the front of Alex's shirt and tried to speak. "A-Alex....." Suddenly, there was a wild blast from behind them. The dozen or so shadow- figures had stop circling them and were now heading over to Hillary and S.I.M.O.N, the monstrous killing machine which Bryce had created for Lara's training. "God, I hate killing people," Bryce muttered under his breath, as Hillary handed him the remote controls to S.I.M.O.N. Alex looked down at the other tomb raider and put his arms round her waist. "Come on... we'd better get out of here." Bryce stood amidst the fray-to-be and tapped the side of his headset gently. "Bryce to S.I.M.O.N, activate mobile controls." The robot leapt into life, making Squire's dark-clothed grunts and Hillary scatter slightly. "Alarm mode... online," he mumbled regretfully, then dived for cover behind a set of stairs as an onslaught ensued. Every now and then he'd look up, narrowly missing a stray limb coming at his at 50 miles an hour. "What... what the hell? S.I.M.O.N, abort!" Bryce yelled into his headset, but the android would not stop. What would it take to stop it? Ah, one thing, but Lara said not to do anything stupid. But this time she could get killed. He's in hyper attack mode, there's not much that can stop him, definately not Lara, he though, the angry clanking noises advancing as S.I.M.O.N. went into heat-seek. Suddenly, the shadow above him changed shape as he was face-to-face with a mouth of disamon circular saws. Bryce flipped onto his back and tried to crawl away slowly, still clutching the remote controls tightly with one hand. "Sorry, mate," he sighed, and went to press the 'System Complete Shutdown' key, but suddenly, the robot was leapt on by a couple of ten foot tall stone idols. "Ka'uba Amon lur-urzet," Squires chanted like a fat parrot at the steps of the Great Temple. "Bugger," Bryce hissed in panic as the stone warriors tackled his creation to the ground, breaking off limb after limb, making it weak and defenceless. "YOU BA-" Lara and Alex ran out to see what was going on. There was a lot of loud clanking and mechanical squealing and the crunch of metal on stone as S.I.M.O.N. was trying his best to fight back, and failing. Eventually, one of the idols put a marble fist through the head shell of the android, which fizzed and then fell to the ground, and the two idols walked back to their positons outside one of the shrines and turned back to solid, unmoving stone.

"Bryce, don't do anything stupid!" Lara yelled across to her friend, who looked like his dog had just been shot. Amassed in the blood and steaming snow and cracked rubble, the pile of still-buzzing metal was littered around, some parts alight, keys and chips scattered in the sludge of the battle. "You... you..." Bryce fell to his knees, hands resting on the battered head shell. "YOU KILLED MY ROBOT!" he screamed, eyes burning with rage, burning into Squires' skull. "YOU BLOODY IDIOT! YOU KILLED MY BLOODY ROBOT!" Squired went to run away but Alex caught him by the scruff of his podgy neck. Bryce took up one of S.I.M.O.N's broken limbs, a circular saw arm, and advanced to Squires, holding it above his head like an axe. "Bryce!" Lara cried, and Alex let go of Squires and forcefully pulled the arm from Bryce's alarmingly tight grip. "God damnit, you stupid American bugger, let go!" he snapped, trying to take the arm back, but failing as Lara held him back by his shoulders, as he was still intent on destroying the fat man. "Whoa, cool it," Alex commanded, throwing the arm behind him, Bryce's eyes still blazing with fury. "That little... he's going to Hell for that... I'll kill him if it's the last thing I do," he spat, still staring maliciously at Squires. "Hillary... take Bryce back home," Lara insisted coolly, releasing the young man. The butler nodded dutifully and pulled Bryce through the mess that was once his pride and joy. Suddenly, Alex pulled Lara back round gently and pointed to the Great Temple. "We can't do anything about his robot, but we can still save the world or whatever, right?" Lara smiled weakly, and went to walk forwards, but found that there was an object on the floor. "The Tile?" Alex took a proper look at the top of the steps; Squires was waiting for them. "He still can't get in without the Tile. I'm surprised he didn't notice it before." Lara picked up the Tile and walked towards the man attraction, stil holding Alex's hand. "I'll take your silence as a sign of rejection, then," he mused greyly. "No. Alex, I don't know. I'll never be able to know. And I don't want you hanging around waiting for an asnwer when I just can't give you one. When I can say for sure, you'll be first to know. But... I could use your help, just a little bit longer, don't you think?" He stifled a laugh as they reached the foot of the Temple. "You ready for this, Lara?" She smiled slyly. "I was born ready."

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Heehee! It's short, I know... I can't help but stall :P Oh well. Action and PROPER Lara/Alex stuff coming soon, promise!