Here we are again with the latest chapter. We're still not quite at the end, but we're fast approaching. This was bloody tough to write and I'm not holding out much hope that the next chapter (and possibly the last - I'm not quite sure) will be any easier!

Linzi - I'm really happy that you're enjoying this trilogy, and I'm glad I managed to draw someone else into the Takeshi's Castle madness! LOL I love that show.
Lady Lara Croft - Yeah, things were pretty easy for Lara in the last chapter, weren't they? Doesn't that make you a tad suspicious?! evil laugh
SilverDragon67 - Hang on in there! LOL
Thanks for reviewing, everyone! :-)

Cornering The Enemy

"I believe this is yours," said Lara, and, smiling widely, she tossed the Tip across the room to Kurtis, who caught it, admiring its beauty as he trailed his fingers over its cool edges. He looked up to Lara, catching her gaze, and rewarded her with a genuine smile free of ulterior motives or cocky assurance.

Lara returned it, nodding her head in acceptance of his thanks. "Let's get out of here," she said, and turned to shut the locker to cover up their interference.

The safe door clicked shut, and instantaneously Lara and Kurtis were shook by alarm as a deafening siren sounded, sweeping red lights on the walls awakening to warn all of illegal activity within the room.

"Fuck!" yelled Kurtis, spinning round to stare as he realised what was going on. "The locker must've been armed to trigger the alarms if it's closed without the Tip inside! It must've been weight sensitive or something!"

"It wasn't mentioned – in the security logs! I checked!" Lara was too stunned to even consider escape at that moment.

"Yeah well not everything is on the computers, I think that's pretty obvious by now! Come on, we have to go!"

"But - !" Lara protested, still not fully comprehending what had just happened after she thought she'd planned it so perfectly.

"We have got to go!" Kurtis reiterated, holding out his hand toward Lara to beckon her. "Come on! Forget the lasers, they already know we're here!"

His partner suddenly came back to herself and sprinted across the room, breaking the lasers as she went, each one ineffectually tripping the already active security system as her body interrupted their previously calm flow.

"Come on!" Kurtis repeated, snatching up her hand in his as she approached, and pulling her out of the room behind him.

Bryce, smug smile on his face, sauntered over to the Nintendo boss that had offered him the earlier ultimatum and stopped before him, folding his arms and regarding the executive with a victorious stare. "I believe you owe me a meeting."

Beside him, Akira translated, matching Bryce's self satisfied voice tone for tone.

The executive sighed, defeated, and nodded.

Still hand in hand, Kurtis and Lara dashed down the hallways, Kurtis still leading from his head start. They skidded to a halt as they reached an intersection, slowing enough to make it around the corner, but they barely got their speed back up again before a security team of five appeared in front of them from another bend, forcing them to stop suddenly once again and turn back, sprinting in the opposite direction.

"This way!" Kurtis shouted, pulling sharply on Lara's arm as he tooka turn left and Lara headed right. She stumbled as she reversed direction, but managed to keep her footing, her free arm flailing as she fought to keep her balance.

Yet another team appeared to cut them off, forcing them to lean back and shorten their steps as their momentum carried them forward, eventually leaving them stopped only twelve feet from their pursuers, chasing towards them.

Turning to their sides and looking left and then right at the two teams closing in from either end, they realised they were trapped.

"Duck!" Kurtis yelled, and Lara had barely registered his command before the orange glow of the chirugai swirled centimetres above her head, the sound causing her to gasp at the prospect that she hadn't quite managed to get low enough, but she had, and the blades sailed past her and arced round to cut into the security team from the right, screams and groans from its victims ringing out as, suddenly, Kurtis' hand took hers once again and she was yanked down the same path the chirugai had taken, the weapon clearing their path under its master's command. They ran into the foray, bullets smattering down around them seemingly from all sides, the chirugai effortlessly avoiding its friends as it swept round in intricate arcs to cut its enemies, leaving the way clear for Lara and Kurtis to pass through, sprinting down the corridor as fast as they could, the chirugai now chasing after them at an ever increasing acceleration as, job done, it returned. It passed them and hovered momentarily, waiting, until Kurtis plucked it out of the air as he passed, and he and Lara continued to run, heads down, hands held, eyes almost squeezed shut against the noise and the speed and the bullets.

"Hillary! Hillary!" Bryce almost ran into his victor as he tore towards him, Hillary just managing to take a step back to avoid collision. "Hillary, you star, you!" He was engulfed in a hug and then, Bryce a whirling hurricane of excited energy, pushed away again with alarming force, only to come to a juddering halt as Bryce grabbed his arms to stop him from falling, and shook him to emphasise his point. "I got the meeting! We're going to the Tokyo Games and Technology Show on industry passes! All expenses paid cab trip to the show as soon as we're ready,until midday tomorrowto spend looking at all the stuff that the consumer market won't see for another two years, as much time playing game demos as we want, and then a full hour with Nintendo's head game developer to pitch my idea! You! You!" Another crushing hug. "You darling!!"

They careened around another corner, Lara now leading the way, and continued running. A shot ricocheted off metal, and for a second Kurtis thought that they'd been caught up, but then he noticed Lara's weapon trained on a point ahead of them, her eyes squinting as if having trouble locking onto something, and he realised as the muzzle of her pistol flashed that she was shooting at the buttons of an upcoming elevator, trying to coerce the doors into opening.

He raised his arm to force the doors open with his telekinesis but against the odds one of her bullets hit home and before he could muster the strength the elevator dinged and the doors slid open, just reaching full width as they threw themselves inside, the security team rounding the corner and opening fire as the doors began to slide shut, the two fugitives throwing themselves into opposite corners behind the doors for protection as several bullets entered through the shrinking gap and slammed into the back wall of the carriage.

Down they went, the lift descending rapidly after Lara punched the button for the lowest floor available, but she didn't stop to rest. Jumping up, she hit the escape hatch, sending it crashing open.

"Come on!" she cried, and jumped up, grabbing hold of the sides of the newly opened hole and pulling herself up, Kurtis grabbing her feet and ankles and speeding her climb with a push before clambering up himself. Lara returned the help by pulling him out onto the roof, and they sat there, getting their balance. In the open shaft the lift felt far less smooth, shaking and shuddering, tremors rocking the floor beneath them as they stumbled to their feet. Offering only her actions as explanation, Lara ran to the edge of the lift and leapt into the air, banging painfully against the service ladder against the shaft wall and just managing to grab hold with her hands, her feet missing the rungs and scrabbling desperately in search of footing as the lift fell out from beneath her.

Realising her intentions, Kurtis shoved one hand forcefully through the air with a grunt, directing his minds' energy towards the shaft doors just above and to the right of Lara before, another grunt of exertion escaping him, he followed suit and leapt towards the ladder. The doors above them crashed and caved under the force, buckling inwards creating a jagged gap just enough large to climb through, and Kurtis cried out in alarm as he almost failed to make his grip, falling a short distance before his hand caught onto a rung, stopping his descent with a painful jerk and leaving him hanging for a moment before, panic taking over before thoughts, his other frantic limbs found their holds. Clinging on desperately, scared by the close call, he took a few deep breaths before he looked up to see Lara approximately one floor above him, looking down with concern.

"Are you alright?" she called.

"Yeah," he replied, relief evident in his voice, "I'm fine."

Lara nodded and then began to climb up towards the broken doors, testing her footing on the thin ledge in front of them before reaching out to quickly grab onto their buckled edges and pulling herself across. She fell through the gap, landing ungraciously but safely on the floor, and readied herself to catch Kurtis as he too reached the doors and struggled to make it to the hole.

"Excuse me," the producer said to Hillary, still in Bryce's clutches, "we're ready to film the prize giving."

"Magic!" Bryce said. "Exactly what did he win?"

"One million Yen."

"Which is…?"

"About five thousand Pounds Sterling."

Hillary and Bryce looked to each other, their faces pictures of unexpected joy. "Well – thankyou!" Hillary offered his hand to the producer. "Thankyou very much!"

"Where are they?" Cheney demanded as he marched into Surveillance, the entire office a hive of activity in the wake of Lara and Kurtis' little security breach. Agents darted from one desk to another disseminating information, some sat staring at live feeds of the security cameras and chattering rapidly into mouthpieces, coordinating the security teams chasing through the building in pursuit.

"Er…" said the nearest operative as Cheney stopped behind him, trying to answer his superior but too distracted by the map of the building on the computer screen in front of him to be able to offer a coherent answer. "Er…they're on the third floor, hallway 2. I don't know where they're headed, Sir. I don't think they do either."

"Which team is nearest?"

"Team Delta, headed by Ewing." He anticipated Cheney's intentions and handed him an earpiece. "Channel 2."

Cheney snatched the equipment, tuned to channel 2, and demanded, "Ewing?" as the surveillance agent pointed to the dot on the interactive map that represented Ewing's position.

"Yes Sir!" Ewing's tinny voice answered over the radio.

"Take the next right and then left," Cheney barked. "Cut them off! I want them dead! And make sure the Tip stays in one piece!"

"You've got to admit, man," Bryce gushed as he and Hillary rode the Takeshi's Castle coach back to Tokyo city centre, "me accidentally selling that dagger was a bloody good thing!"

Hillary smiled, laughing to himself and admiring the cheque in his hands. "There are times, Bryce – not many and not often, but there are times – when you actually manage to get something right."

Barrelling down the corridors once more, Lara had no idea where they were going or what they were going to do. There was only thing important right then – escape.

Shouts and footsteps suddenly made themselves heard over their own din, and she was horrified to find once again a security team rounding the corner up ahead, cutting off their path.

With a gasp she realised that they had to turn back – there was one other turn off between them and the team, already opening fire, and it was too close to their opponent's position. They'd be running into fire. She skidded to a halt as Kurtis did the same, obviously having reached the same conclusion, and they sprinted back the way they had come, taking pot shots over their shoulders as Kurtis sent his chirugai whistling into the fire, blindly commanding a path that served only to harass the team as they ducked and leapt out of harm's way of the poorly controlled instrument.

"Can't you do any better?!" Lara cried, desperate to even up their odds.

"Not when I'm running for my life, no!" Kurtis returned, a hint of angry sarcasm tingeing his words.

They had barely rounded another corner when yet more bullets rained down on them from another team, fast approaching from up ahead.

"Fuck!" Kurtis screamed as a bullet grazed his arm, travelling right through and leaving him stinging and bleeding. Lara bravely stood her ground long enough to fire three times before turning and tearing off in the other direction, away from the second team and at right angles to the first.

Now in a long corridor with the previous two teams behind them, their only routes available were one leading off to their right and another further up ahead that led to their left.

"Right!" Kurtis screamed to Lara, slightly ahead of him, as he spotted the dancing shadows on the far wall of a third team approaching from the left path. "Go right!"

Lara did as she was told, and they both dashed around the corner barely disappearing out of the line of fire of the third team before they opened their attack, the bullets slamming into the wall milliseconds after their targets had been there.

"Dead end!" Kurtis yelled, realising that there was only a window ahead of them and no time to try the doors that lined the hall. "We're fucking cornered! This is exactly where they wanted us!"

They clattered to a stop by the window and turned, chests heaving and eyes filled with horror, to meet their fate just as the first of the teams began to round the corner into the hall.

"STOP!" Lara cried, snatching the Periapt Tip out of Kurtis' pocket in a flash of inspiration and holding it high. "Or I'll smash it!"

The teams, suitably taken aback by the threat, slowed and stopped, their weapons lowered even as Kurtis' remained aimed.

Watching all on the cameras from within surveillance, Cheney yanked out his earpiece and threw it onto the desk furiously, realising the same as his teams: it was they who were now cornered.

Lara's eyes strayed over to the window at her side, surreptitiously checking their height. Kurtis realised her intentions and the chirugai slowly, gently, so as not to provoke a reaction, rose up off his belt and flitted over towards the front ranks of the teams, hovering at eye level and swaying back and forth slightly leaving small trails of orange evanescence as it held insurance over the enemy.

"Stay right where you are," Lara ordered, backing the few steps to the window. Leaving Kurtis to cover her, she shielded her face with her arm and hefted her foot into the glass, shattering the pane, the tinkling of broken glass over the soft swish of the chirugai a quiet peaceful sound deceptive against the tense atmosphere of the stand off. The quiet returned and the soft sounds of light traffic from below floated in through the window.

Turning back to keep her eyes on her opponents, she reached behind her and knocked out the final shards from the window frame, clearing the way for their escape.

"Get a team underneath that window!" Cheney snarled, back in surveillance.

"Any minute now, Kurtis," Lara said softly, and, understanding her instruction, he called his chirugai back to him. The sudden speed of the weapon turning back to its owner caused the team members to start and reach for their weapons, but their leader called them down with a word, eyeing Trent warily.

Whistling through the quiet air, riding the slight breeze from the broken window, the chirugai sailed gracefully back to Kurtis, who plucked it out of the air and held it to his side, a quiet threat to unleash it once again should anybody move.

"Back away slowly," Lara ordered in a low voice to Kurtis, and they both did so, stopping when they felt the metal rim of the window frame against their thighs.

Still holding the Tip aloft in threat, Lara spared a glance out of the window and saw their chance approaching quickly.

She acted fast, bringing the Tip into her chest for protection and turning towards Kurtis, taking his arm and pulling sharply to bring him out of the window with her as she yelled, "Now!", and then they fell, tumbling out of the window, twisting in midair from the movement that Lara had forced into them, bullets taking chase as the security team opened fire, and landing heavily on the roof of a goods lorry as it drove past the building. The wind was knocked out of them, they bounced slightly from the impact, and when they opened their eyes again they were speeding down the road away from Cheney, away from Security, and with the Tip safely in their possession.

"Well?!" screamed Cheney, glaring with eyes blazing at the stunned members of Surveillance who were watching the lorry disappear into the distance on the feed from the external CCTV, "Don't just stand there gawping! Track that vehicle and find them!"