10412/The Huntress Joins the Hunt

The Huntress Joins the Hunt
Date of Scene:	13 December 2019
Location:	Diesel Train, Austria
Synopsis:	Lara Croft, Tomb Raider, joins the race.
Cast of Characters:	Indiana Jones, Lara Croft

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Indiana Jones has posed:
There are many ways to reach out to a certain globetrotting adventuress. In the old days, it would be dead drops, whispered phone calls, maybe even cryptic notes slipped under doors.
But those are relics of the old days. These days, it's a throaway VPN set up through a server in Iceland.

The message comes through from Mr. Lin, a mid-level heavy in the 14K Triad organization. It's been awhile since he's dialed in. Probably due to he demotion last year because of his nose-candy distractions.

<CROFT. IT'S LIN. GOT SOMETHING FOR YOU. WORTH $500 EASY.>

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara had just wrapped up a trip to the Austrian Alps where she helped local law enforcement recover a lost archaeological expedition. Not... all of them had survived, sadly, but they did (she and one other) manage to rescue most of the team.

It had bee terribly strange circumstances that had left many questions to be answered, and though Lara did spend some extra time there to try to answer some of them, it wasn't her dig and it wasn't her place to interfere sonce she ultimately started her return trip home.

She's in the process of that now when the message comes across to her. She's on a train, her carry-on luggage sitting beside her in her seat as the land sweeps past her on the side.

<$500, Lin? Honestly, I'm more pleased just to hear from you finally. What do you have?>

She shoots the response back off to him then looks back out the window to the landscape sweeping past.

Indiana Jones has posed:
There is a pause, before the response comes.
<WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF HSI WANG MU?>

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara's phone is lifted up again and she reads, then starts to tap out a response.

<The giver of eternal bliss, the Queen Mother of the West?> Lara types out.

<I wouldn't say I'm an expert. But I know a fair deal of the basics. Why, what have you come across?>

Indiana Jones has posed:
There is a longer pause. Lara could probably guess Lin was practically vibrating with anticipation before the three-dot symbol showing he was typing appeared.
<THE GREAT LARA CROFT, NOT AN EXPERT OF SOMETHING? ALERT THE MEDIA. THEN YOU ALSO KNOW SHE SUPPOSEDLY TENDS A GARDEN AT THE TOP OF K'UN LUN, ESPECIALLY A PEACH ORCHARD...THE PEACHES BEING ABLE TO GIVE ETERNAL LIFE TO WHOEVER EATS THEM.>

Lara Croft has posed:
The response from him draws a small smile or smirk across Lara's lips as she reads it, and she quickly types back.

<I was being humble. I likely know a lot more than her Wikipedia page does.> She sends first, then starts typing again.

<Such peaches are the perfect snack for an army of warriors constantly being trained. Its sad that it is as lost as the garden of Eden.>

Indiana Jones has posed:
Another long pause. The man must be practically SALIVATING, he...
Three Dots.
<A NEW LEAD HAS COME TO LIGHT. THE OLD MAN WAS FOOLISH ENOUGH TO SEND AN ALLY IN NEW YORK AN OLD TAPESTRY WITHOUT CHECKING THE PROVENANCE. GOT A LOCAL EXPERT (NOT YOU, HAHA) TO CHECK IT OUT...AND HE FOUND SOMETHING. VENMO ME $500 TO KNOW WHAT HE KNOWS.>

Lara Croft has posed:
A portley fellow makes his way down the aisle and he pauses beside Lara's train booth. He smiles at her and nods once to her. "You haven't happened to see a little girl run past here, have you?" He asks.

Lara looks up at him and shakes her head. "I haven't, I'm sorry."

The man sighs. "That little scamp. She was told to stay in her seat."

"I'll keep a look out." Lara says with a light smile and a nod. "I'll make sure to stop her if I see her.

"Thank you, her name is Isobella." The man moves on about his search as Lara looks back down to her phone, smirks and starts to type again.

<If this is isn't something worth it, I'll be very cross with you.> She then goes about to transfer the money to the man. She knows he's generally not the type of person to lead her own, he's been fruitful in his leads before.

The money is sent.

<You should have it.>

Indiana Jones has posed:
A pause. A long one. Then the three dots.

<JINGJIAZHUANG. SHANNXI PROVINCE. THERE'S A BURIAL SITE THERE. SHARE THIS INFO WITH ANYONE ELSE IN THE NEXT 48 HOURS AND I'M A DEAD MAN WALKING. THE ALLY IS NEW YORK IS TOMBSTONE. THE SONS OF THE DRAGON ARE NOW INVOLVED.>
Another pause, then the three dots again.

<THE LOCAL EXPERT HAS BEEN OFF THE GRID FOR THE LAST 12 HOURS, AFTER ESCAPING TOMBSTONE.>
One more pause.

<THE EXPERT IS INDIANA JONES.>

Lara Croft has posed:
About 30 minutes ago, Lara had ordered a coffee on the train's services screen beside her seat. She'd actually forgotten she'd even ordered it. Until a young woman in a white shirt, black tie and black pants arrives to finally deliver it to her. Lara graciously accepts it and then looks back down to the phone.

<I'm on my way back to New York now. I promise you I won't share this information with anyone.> She's not sure who the Sons of the Dragon are, but she could make a few educated guesses.

As for Indiana Jones... well... thats a name that carries a lot of mythos around him.

<I'll try to contact your 'expert', hopefully I can find him.>

<Thank you, Lin. Be safe.>

Indiana Jones has posed:
Another pause. <GOOD LUCK. CONSIDERING HOW HE LEFT TOMBSTONE'S EMPLOY, HE'S PROBABLY IN CHINA ALREADY. TOMBSTONE WAS GOING TO HAVE HIM KILLED, BUT A LOCAL SUPERHERO BARGED IN. THEY CALL HER 'SILK' AROUND HERE.>

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is in no way shape or form well versed in super heroes or their monikers. She has a working relationship with the Avengers, and inadvertantly took a job at Xavier's school without knowing it has a super hero team there too (and she never learned it did). But beyond that, she knows of Superman and Wonder Woman... thats about it.

<Noted. I'll do my best to track all of this down. I promise. If anything comes of it, I might even send you some more, because I'm just that nice.>

Indiana Jones has posed:
<BETTER CALL THE MEDIA BACK. CROFT IS BEING 'NICE.'> The man can be tiresome. <HAVE TO GO. TOMBSTONE IS TRYING TO KEEP CHINA WHITE OUT OF THE LOOP. NO EASY FEAT. THANKS FOR THE MONEY.>

And then the message that Lin had left the chat session. Probably to visit his nose-candy shopkeeper.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara sips her coffee as she leans back into the corner of her train booth. She raises her phone up and erases the conversation with Lin as she has it filed away in her mind now. She swipes her thumb across the screen and goes about starting to track down where this slippery Doctor Jones has gotten himself off to now. She doesn't know him that well, only a little, but she knows enough of his legend to know just how much he's capable of disappearing. He rminds her of her father, in fact, in a lot of ways.

She'll also start to look up information on this Tombstone and the Sons of the Dragon...

Indiana Jones has posed:
The information isn't hard to find.

Tombstone. AKA Lonnie Thompson Lincoln. New York drug lord, nicknamed because of his albinism (rare for an African-American) and, more recently, because of his ruthlessness and the fact that his enemies kept dying around him. Superhuman strength and durability, cunning, and the ability to shrug off gas and gunfire.

SONS OF THE DRAGON. The enforcement arm of the local Triad, and working for Tombstone. Ruled Chinatown through fear, intimidation, and murder. The NYPD gang units have considered them a persistent headache, with connections to China White, the Asian drug lord based in the Far East. China was a criminal mastermind - he body of a goddess, and the morality of Fu Manchu.

Lara Croft has posed:
All of this that she digs up leads Lara to realize that there's quite a lot here that could go horribly wrong if these types of people were able to acquire anything remotely close to these mythical life giving 'peaches' and though she knows its a longshot she has to do what she's paid to do.

Report this to SHIELD. But not yet. She's going to do as Lin asked and not speak of it directly for a few days.

But Indiana Jones' location is necessary for her to continue, so she does set her now nearly empty coffee cup aside and tries to ring an associate at SHIELD's compound in Manhattan, namely her people with WAND. She has to put out some feelers to try to find Doctor Jones, not expecting a 'cell phone number' for Indiana Jones is so easily required, she's not even sure if he uses phones... he's not knwon for being hip and trendy with tech, last she heard anyway.

Indiana Jones has posed:
A phone number is listed. Apparently the man isn't a complete anachronism. However, it is currently turned off. The last ping from the phone's GPS is fairly telling, though - a tower right next to Fort Hamilton Army Base in Brooklyn. A base with a very long airfield for cargo planes.
Planes capable of flying all the way to China. It isn't first class, but deadheading there is something Jones is no stranger to, and it has the benefit of being completely anonymous.

Lara Croft has posed:
With that information gathered, Lara does two things. First, she tried to call the number but when it was clearly turned off she tried to shoot a text to it to tell him to call her back. After that, she places a call to her travel organizer in the twon that this very train is headed too. She tells them to have a car ready for her to take her to the airport. She's going to schedule a trip to that very air base, using her SHIELD identification to get her there, hopefully in time to either meet Doctor Jones... or find out where he was headed.

If she ends up chasing him too much though, she'll have to tap further into her SHIELD resources and schedule a Quinjet and PIlot to taxi her around... something she's not terribly fond of doing, but something many of those pilots are used to with her by now. They've had to take her to, and pick her up, in a number of weird places!