Lara and Alice cracked some glow sticks for light as Harry repaired the hole they'd entered through to make sure they weren't followed. They looked around as Beast Boy shifted into the form of a hound, sniffing the air before letting out a sneeze.
Harry turned to the others once he finished. "Alright, they won't know we came in till the shooting starts, so we should try to stay unnoticed as long as possible." He turned to Lara. "You know more about such places than the rest of us. Lead the way."
Lara nodded and began to slowly make her way down the halls of the ancient temple, one hand holding a glow stick, the other hovering at her side to draw her pistol if necessary.
"I'm surprised that we haven't already run into a Trinity soldier," Alice said quietly.
"They've probably already cleared this area and are focused on however deep into this place they've gotten." Harry responded. "Besides, I doubt they thought somebody would be able to get through the wall without them noticing."
After about ten minutes Beast Boy stopped where he was moving at Lara's side, growling low in his throat. The other three stopped and listened, hearing voices further ahead and around a corner.
"God, this is boring. These artifact hunts are always dull as hell, and we never get an actual item out of it." One voice said.
A second voice scoffed. "Didn't look like nothing when they were dragging Martinez out without his fucking leg. I think this one's legit."
"Still, why did they mobilize so much security out for this? Last time I was part of one of these ops we had about a quarter less people." The first voice asked.
"The higher ups aren't taking any chances anymore after the way that job in Siberia went to hell. Entire op sunk by a single woman. That was straight up bullshit." His friend said.
Harry moved forward and reached into his bag, silently pulling out the silvery material of the Invisibility Cloak and wrapping it around himself, disappearing from the view of the others as he slowly crept down the hall to the chatty guards.
"I still say that can't be true. No way a single woman is good enough to do stop such a large scale op. That's the kind of thing Hollywood execs think sells." The complainer said.
"Yeah, well if we ever meet her, you can ask wh-" The Trinity guard fell silent as he dropped silently to the ground alongside his partner, disembodied hands wrapped in red energy hovering in the middle of the hallway behind them.
Harry quickly removed the Cloak before launching a couple of severing spells at their necks, severing their jugulars, letting them bleed out without ever waking, a small grimace of distaste on his face. He didn't like killing people this way. Doing so in the middle of a fight for your life was better than assassinations on his conscience, but it was dangerous to potentially let them wake up behind them. At least it was painless, he told himself.
The others came around the corner and joined him in continuing, each glancing at the bodies before moving on.
Soon they reached an open area surrounded by large walls, leading into an extension of the temple carved into the cliff, obviously leading to a series of caves, if the amount of people moving in and out of them was any indication.
The group ducked down behind a low wall, gazing carefully over it to study the sight.
Trinity had set up several machines for various purposes they could not surmise just from glancing at them. The setup wasn't as large as the staging area outside the temple, but there were a few crates of supplies scattered around. There were about fifteen guards standing around, with twice that many techs scurrying around and working on laptops.
As they watched a man in a more elaborate outfit walked among them. He was powerfully built, with close cropped brown hair and harsh black eyes. He had a pistol on his hip, along with a machete. He occasionally stopped to give orders to the various techs and soldiers working around him.
"So much for stealth." Beast Boy, who had just shifted to human form, said as he observed with the others. "There's no way we're all getting passed that group without drawing some sort of attention. I could probably do it, maybe Harry, but not you girls."
"Agreed." Lara said. "In that case we should try to take these soldiers down as quickly as possible. And we should start with the leader. If there's one thing Konstantin taught me, it's to get rid of the boss as soon as possible. It'll save you a lot of headaches later." She said, her eyes tracking the large officer.
"Alright then, we should get into a good position while we can." Harry pulled the Cloak back out. "Girls, stay here. BB, turn into something inconspicuous and move over near the caves to keep any Trinity soldiers from running into them for cover." He once again wrapped his form and disappeared from sight except for his head. "I'll move to the other side of the yard to turn this into a killing field for us. Get ready to attack on my signal." He flipped the hood up and disappeared completely.
As Lara murmured the word to bring her assault rifle out of the charm bracelet it had been enchanted on and flipped it to full auto, Beast Boy shifted into a lizard and made his way along the wall to the caves, taking care to not be spotted even though nobody should pay any mind to a lizard in the jungle. Alice once again summoned her parasol, keeping it out of view, planning on covering Lara. Yes, they all had enchanted amulets, but they wouldn't hold up to sustained fire, and they didn't stop all of the kinetic force, as the bruise on her chest proved, so it was best to just not get hit.
Lara and Alice waited tensely for about 5 minutes, both ready to move at a moment's notice. Lara's eyes were darting about as she studied the positions of her enemies, determining who to take out first for as long as the element of surprise held. The soldiers were the obvious first targets. They wouldn't be harming the techs unless given no other choice. Her grip on her rifle tightened in anticipation.
The Trinity agents didn't know what happened at first. One moment the officer in charge of the group was walking around and making sure everything was going well, the next he'd stopped in the middle of the yard only for his head to roll off, his body crumpling to the ground an instant later.
As they all stopped to gape at what had just happened a green hippo fell out of nowhere onto one of the soldiers standing guard by the cave entrance. It then let out a cry and bashed itself against another of the soldiers, launching him against the wall.
As this happened Lara stood up and fired a quick, well aimed burst at the nearest soldier, taking him out before he'd realized there was danger.
The Trinity agents began to panic, especially as more of their number kept dying to something invisible, men falling with lacerations or spikes buried inside their bodies. Within thirty seconds half of the soldiers were down. Some had begun to fire at the targets they could see, but the hippo appeared to be impervious to attacks.
As for Lara, the instant someone fired on her, Alice was there, parasol twirling, deflecting the bullets everywhere, and positioned so that Lara could continue to fire with only some minor adjustments in her stance.
Lara was amazed at how things were going. She remembered having to use her wits and having many close calls against even smaller forces of enemies, but now, with the backup she had, she was mowing through Trinity agents like she was on Easy mode in the video game starring her. The goons were disorganized and caught with their pants down, not having anticipated their intervention and thus not on alert.
She turned as she heard shouting coming from behind them in the temple once the noise of the battle faded. Obviously the gunfire had attracted the attention of the rest of the Trinity group that had been gathered at the entrance. As the last soldier fell, the surviving techs who hadn't fought back cowering under the surprisingly menacing gaze of Beast Boy, Lara turned to where she presumed Harry to be. "Harry, we need to block the temple, or we'll be swarmed beyond what even we can handle."
Harry flipped the hood off of his head five feet from the spot she'd been addressing, a teasing smile on his face. "I think I can handle that. Help BB keep the techs under control while I do that and I'll be right back to secure them."
As Lara moved to keep watch on their prisoners, Harry moved towards the entrances to the temple. There were multiple ones, which had helped the team evade notice, but meant he had more openings he needed to block. He cocked his head, considering how he'd go about it, before motioning with his hand, making a rock wall several feet thick rise from the ground, the obstruction too large to be dealt with by a breaching charge.
He quickly moved to the other openings to do the same. It was when he reached the last that he encountered trouble, almost taking a shotgun blast to the face. He barely managed to move back, keeping most of the force from hitting him, though it clipped his head, making him reel. He stumbled back, but still had the presence of mind to launch a blasting spell at his assailant, knocking him back with an unhealthy looking crater in his chest.
Harry shook his head to clear it as another Trinity soldier came around the corner and aimed his assault rifle at Harry's head, only to be stopped by the Vorpal Blade making its way into his throat, making him drop with a gurgle.
As Alice stepped back, ready for the next opponent to appear, Harry hurriedly summoned the last wall, blocking the way to any further enemies.
"Ugh…" Harry groaned as he focused on using his power to heal the small but irritating amount of damage to his head, needing to be at his best. "Thanks Alice. He amulets might stop bullets, but I've still got to at least listen to Newton, and a bunch of blows to the head will fuck anybody up."
Alice frowned. "Are you alright now?"
"Yeah, fine." He gave his head one last shake before making his way back to the others, Alice trailing behind him. Once he reached them he looked over the huddle of techs that were eyeing them warily. "Any trouble?"
"Nope." Beast Boy said. "One or two looked like they might try something, but they were convinced that wasn't the greatest idea." He turned to look at Harry. "Still, we can't just leave them here unsecured when we head in."
"True. I was thinking about knocking them all unconscious. What do you guys think?" Harry responded.
"A good first step." Lara said. "But we should do something to keep them from causing trouble if they happen to wake up for some reason."
Alice tilted her head. "Perhaps a container? Harry, could you perhaps create a cage to hold them as well?"
Harry nodded. "That's doable. Step back." As the others did so Harry began to walk amongst the group of Trinity techs, sending them into deep unconsciousness with taps to their head despite them cringing away. Then he grabbed a large stone and transfigured it into a cage that he levitated over the group before dropping it and sinking it into the ground, making sure they wouldn't be able to get out. "There. I think that'll do."
"At least till their friends manage to get here." Beast Boy agreed. "So, we should probably start making our way into the cave, right?"
The others nodded and the group began making their way to the entrance of the caves. Cracking more glow sticks the team carefully made their way in, wary in case of any more enemies that hadn't come out during the fight.
As they walked Lara studied the various carvings and other work that had been done, on occasion bringing up a small digital camera she'd thought to bring and taking a picture. "This place is fascinating. I can already see some mythological depictions that would make some noted scholars get into screaming matches." She said softly with a smile.
Alice smiled as well as she looked around curiously. "It's a pity that Trinity were the ones to find it. I imagine it would bring quite a bit of prestige to be the first to document it." She said, making Lara nod in agreement.
"Shh." Harry silenced them as he followed Beast Boy, who was back in dog form and growling softly. The girls immediately went quiet and began stepping more cautiously.
Around a nearby corner were a group of 7 soldiers in a wider section of tunnel. They were all relaxed and talking, one of them smoking a cigarette. Apparently they hadn't realized there'd been a problem outside. The group quickly took advantage of this fact using the same strategy as before, trapping their opponents in a killing field and taking them out before moving on.
They wandered through the extensive caverns for over an hour, occasionally encountering resistance from Trinity agents. Thankfully most of the traps had been disabled or triggered before they arrived by Trinity, as had been shown by the unfortunate who'd lost a leg, but they still had some close calls. At one point it was only Alice's reflexes that kept her from falling in a spike filled pit when the ground gave way below her, the others quickly helping pull her back.
Soon enough, however, they reached the end of the area that Trinity had explored and their pace slowed down considerably as they had to step lightly in case of any further traps and pitfalls. "At least there are no immortal guards here…" Lara murmured to herself as she remembered the Stormguard and the Athanatoi with anything but fondness.
After more close calls than they cared to count the reached a large chamber with a raised dais. Sunlight came in through a large hole in the roof, illuminating the chamber and reflecting off the walls, which glittered with what appeared to be crystals embedded amongst the ivy covering them. Beneath the hole, bathed in sunlight, was a golden lance, the tip seeming to be made up of some smooth, fiery red gemstone that reflected the light everywhere.
"Finally…" Harry said.
Lara frowned and looked around warily. Beast Boy noticed as he turned to her. "What's up, Lara?"
"I'm just expecting the other shoe to drop. There's no way it's this easy. There must be at least a group of specially trained monsters waiting to pounce on us." She said as her eyes darted around.
Alice quirked an eyebrow at her. "I think your previous adventures have skewed your perspective a bit, Lara."
"Knowing our luck, there's got to be something more to this." Harry said, agreeing with Lara as he cautiously moved towards the pedestal holding the lance.
They all tensed once he reached it, and he let out a breath before slowly and carefully lifting it up. They all froze once he'd picked it up completely, expecting some sort of hidden mechanism to unleash something upon them. After almost a minute of nothing happening they all let out a sigh before the others joined Harry on the platform.
"So…" Beast Boy began. "How does it work?"
Harry looked stumped. "I have no clue…" He looked at the lance and studied it. "Any ideas?"
"Maybe you just need to focus on where you want to go?" Alice suggested.
Harry thought for a moment, deciding on where he wanted to go, before focusing. The others stared at him as he narrowed his eyes, practically glaring at the lance in his hands for several minutes.
"…Yeah, I don't think that worked." Beast Boy said after several minutes of silence.
"Perhaps it works like your portals, Harry?" Lara asked. "Try opening a portal using the lance as a focus, see if that works."
"Alright, let's see…" Harry said as he did as suggested. The head of the lance began to glow with a wavering light like a flame before a beam escaped it, hitting the wall and spreading. The light formed a portal much like Harry's, except that instead of inky black it was clear like glass, allowing the other side to be seen.
The main living room of Titans Tower was visible, making Beast Boy grin wide, especially when he saw that it was occupied. "Guys!" He called, making Robin, Cyborg, Starfire and Raven turn to the portal, their eyes going wide.
"BB!?" Cyborg exclaimed in shock.
"Beast Boy!" Starfire cried joyously as she zoomed forward before bouncing off the portal with a small yelp.
Raven moved forward and eyed the portal. "Looks like this is either just a window or a one way portal." Then her lips quirked up into a smile. "Good to see you, Beast Boy. You too, Harry. You had everyone worried."
Harry grinned at seeing his teacher. "It's great to see you too, Raven. We have a lot to te-" He was interrupted by gunfire coming from the opening in the ceiling, making them duck as the Titans looked alarmed.
Lara turned her gaze upwards to see at least ten Trinity soldiers along the opening, firing down at the group. She hissed in pain as the bullets impacted her, knowing that she was going to be covered in bruises, assuming the protections didn't fail entirely and leave her full of holes. She quickly raised her rifle and fired up at the assailants, trying to at the least interrupt their fire.
Beast Boy yelped as he huddled against the wall near the portal Harry was keeping open. "Beast Boy, what's going on!?" Robin asked, his hand pressed against the portal before flinching as a bullet went through and hit the ground beside him, making him and Raven, as the squishier members of the team, take cover.
"Evil global religious group after artifact of power pissed we got here first!" BB explained quickly before turning once again into a lizard and hiding amongst the ivy on the wall.
Alice had her parasol up and was twirling it, mitigating the worst of the barrage aimed at her, though she winced as she felt shots hit her exposed legs. "Harry, we need to move back!" She began to back away towards the entrance tunnel when she saw another group of Trinity block her way, raising their weapons. With barely a thought she turned, parasol vanishing and hobby horse taking its place, which she slammed into the wall, making the tunnel cave in slightly and buying them time. "It won't be this way, though!"
"Get through the portal!" Raven called as she watched the group get attacked, the situation growing worse as the attackers began to fling grenades down at them.
"I second that motion!" Lara said as she began moving toward it.
Harry had kept the portal open without thinking much about it, focused on covering himself in a dome of darkness that protected him from the bullets falling like rain. "Alright, hurry through!"
The team quickly began to run for the portal, abandoning their offensive in favor of booking it to safety. As they approached Beast Boy appeared a few feet from where he'd been and began to haul ass as well. They were almost through when a bullet hit the tip of the lance in Harry's hands, breaking the end of it off. The light escaping it immediately changed to Harry's signature darkness, once again streaked with color, but the team didn't have any better options and rushed through as a series of explosions rang out behind them, bringing the roof down where'd they been. They all felt a sensation of weightlessness…
…before they dropped onto a hard metal floor, the air around them almost freezing, their bodies strangely light.
"Ugh… where the hell are we now…" Harry groaned, before freezing upon looking up to find the barrel of a futuristic looking rifle inches from his eye. He focused beyond them to see who was holding it.
He was a giant of a man, over seven feet tall. He wore advanced looking armor of a dull olive green, a helmet on his head with a golden faceplate obscuring his features. His grip on his weapon tightened as he seemed to stare into Harry's green eyes, everything about him radiating a quiet menace.
"Identify yourself. Who are you, and how did you get on this ship." The man growled.
Harry stared at the man for a few seconds before letting his head drop with a thump. "…Goddammit…"
You know, I'm getting irritated by getting delayed on my posting. I used to be able to crank a twice as long chapter in less time.
This time it was because I had a health scare. Thought I was having a heart attack, but apparently was a panic attack. That slowed things down.
Also, there's the simple fact that the Tomb Raider chapters have been fighting me. Saving Sam and making Lara part of the team was the main focus, other things weren't something I thought of much. It shows in this chapter, where I basically just tried to get it over with. Still, at least now it's done, Lara is a member, and we're at our next universe.
I'm pretty sure most of you will be able to guess what it is. :P
In happier news, we hit 500 reviews! Wooo!
Thanks so much guys, that's amazing. I never thought any of my stories would get that far when I started. Now let's work on getting to 1k!
Alright, I think that's it for now. Next should be the first chapter of my Zelda idea. If any of you are interested in that, give it a look when it goes up. I'll try to have it out by Friday, but if not, definitely next week.
Till next time, please review. Bye!