1527/Tomb Raider: The Weather Watchers pt 1

Tomb Raider: The Weather Watchers pt 1
Date of Scene:	17 July 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Lara Croft sets out to recover items imperative to Earth's safety from Hydra/Trinity... She meets Doctor Strange along the way.
Cast of Characters:	Lara Croft, Doctor Strange
Tinyplot:	Weather Spheres

---

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara wasn't in Manhattan. She wasn't even in the United States. She was, in fact, in China, a remote Chinese castle on the side of a mountain hidden within a snowy covered valley. And she was being pursued, by armored beasts. Canine monsters in old Chinese armor... each one with blue-fire in their eyes as they hoofed their way after the archaeologist who had a lead on them, but not by much!

Lara, dressed in a dark red heavy coat with a faux-fur collar around her neck, heavy pants that were attached to her climbing boots, ran through the castle, knowing that the metal ghostly beasts were on her heels!

Lara tossed a statue over as she passed it, causing it to slam into the floor between her and the armored hounds, she leapt through an open doorway and then slammed the door shut and put her back to it! A moment later the door was collided with by the armored dogs on the otehr side, nearly shoving Lara over and acquiring access to the safe room... but she shoved back and grunted wildly as she kept the door closed!

"Come on..." Lara huffed, her breath visibly escaping between her lips as she reached into her jacket and pulled out a golden orb that flooded the dark dirty castle room with its gleaming light, bathing her dirt-smudged face with the glowing warmth....

Lara began to speak quietly, ancient tongue, words none had heard in centuries....

And this caused a portal to burst open, right in the heart of Stephen Strange's house, no less!

Doctor Strange has posed:
Sitting in his house (As much as floating three feet off the floor can be considered sitting) Stephen slowly opens a single eye lid as he feels an odd chill grow out of the corner of the room and the papers and tomes surrounding him start to shuffle and rustle.

Looking over at the source of the drastic temperature change, Stephen sighs softly at the young woman. "And today has suddenly gotten... interesting." Stephen notes, his feet untucking beneath him and stretching down to the floor before he looks over and with a motion of his finger, a red cloak flies across the room to rest on his shoulders.

Stepping towards the portal and looking closer at Lara's face before he steps through fully. "What can I help you with?" He asks.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara was slammed into by the door again behind her and it shoved another foot or so, her climbing boots sliding across the stone floor of the castle! She saw Stephen suddenly appear on the other side of the portal, she saw his cloak go around his shoulders and she heard his dry voice speak to her with a casualness unexpected from someone who just saw a portal open up... wherever they were!

Lara pushed back against the door as a armored muzzle shot through the opening and tried to snap its jaws at one of her legs, narrowly missing just as the door was re-slammed shut again.

"You're the sorcerer?!" Lara shouted through the portal then, much more urgency in her voice. "You're the keeper of this?" She held the glowing orb up, it was bout the size of a cantelope, smaller than a volleyball... "Do you recognize it?" She asked him, her voice was much louder in pitch as she'd had one hell of a day so far, her adrenaline was much higher than his was.

The dogs on the other side of the door were howling and clawing at the wooden, starting to shred their way through it!

Doctor Strange has posed:
Stephen steps through the portal and into the chilled castle, his breath suddenly visible in the harsh cold. "I am 'The Sorcerer' but I am not 'That' sorcerer." Stephen says, reaching a hand out for the artifact, seemingly ignoring the dogs behind the door for now as he bends down at the knees to put his grey eyes level with Lara's.

"Come, let me see the orb." He says softly, reaching a calloused and battered hand out to grasp the device should she be so kind as to share the treasure.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara was welcome of any help that this man might provide, given that he wasn't... just going to add to her problems... which he had a look about him that suggested he might, especially since he wasn't terribly concerned with the peril and trouble she was facing on the other side of the door.

Lara needed her hand though and the only way to keep the portal open was to keep the orb IN someone's hand. So she handed it over to him and then spun around to face the door as a hole burst in the center of it and a mighty set of jaws snapped through biting at her! Lara's right hand came up and she put her gun up to the face of the ghostly armored hellhound and just started firing! Loud, continous gunshots, six in total before the dog disappeared back onto the other side of the doorway, not dead, but stunned. There was one more out there though and he was still slamming at the door!

"This orb is meant to be in the hands of the Sorcerer that ruled over this castle. I just saved it from a team of men who were looking to claim it for their own... The family line of this home is gone, this Orb has no owners any more... but it is far too powerful to end up on the black market!" Lara said, shoving back at the door!

Doctor Strange has posed:
Stephen takes the orb, turning it over in his hands, feeling the lines carved into the surface of the thing, and hmming to himself. Suddenly he looks up at the tomb raider as she fires half a dozen rounds into the metal dog that had burst through the door.

"You say a team of men were seaking this artifact?" Stephen asks after his face had recovered from the shock and pain of a weapon discharging so close to his ears. The ringing of his ear drums does make for a rather unpleasant moment as the doctor lifts his free hand to tug at his ear lobe.

"I see why you are concerned." Stephen notes before he extends his hand through the hole in the door, pushing the orb out to be within reach of the protection beasts.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara looked out the crack in the door to see the beast she'd fired at stalking around in a wide half-circle, glaring at the doorway after being shot at like that... and likely manuevering to get another running lunge at the door and the woman on the other side of it.

"Its the Summer Sphere." Lara said then, unsure of whether or not Stephen recognized it. "One for each season... But the Spheres can only survive in a climate opposite of their own. Thats why its here, it was entrusted to the family that lorded over these wintery lands... and more specifically, the sorcerer who lorded over the family."

Lara was reaching for an old wooden table to try to drag it toward the door to help barricade them inside.

"The men woke up these guardians, the sorcerer..." She grunted as she pulled the heavy table over. "The sorcerer conured these, things, to protect it." With a heavy sigh she got the table in front of the door and she turned to look at Stephen.

"These men are Hydra agents... more specifically, members of a sect within Hydra known as 'Trinity'." The young explorer would nod at the Summer Sphere. "They want this, they plan to kill for it." She was winded, she was bruised, she was covered in filth, but she looked at Stephen with a youthful spirit and a hope for his help.

Lara watched him as he walked to the door and reached for the hole. The armored dogs rushed at the orb and lunged for Stephen's hand!

"They'll return it to the burial chamber beneath the castle!" Lara shouted at the sorcerer... and they might take Stephen's hand with it.

Doctor Strange has posed:
There's a plinking sound and Stephen quickly pulls his hand back in from the hole. "That could have been bad." The sorcerer notes as he dusts his hands against themselves and slowly rises back to his feet and opens the door to watch after the dogs.

"Shall we?" He asks, extending a guiding hand to offer Lara out into the hallway to pursue the dogs back to the bottom chamber. "We may as well dissuade any more men from coming to search for the Summer Sphere."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara sighed heavily and with great annoyance at the sight of the Sorcerer dropping the sphere through the door and the sound of the armored mutts tearing-ass down the hallway, likely one of them with it in mouth now.

The portal behind them collapses in on itself and Lara glances back at it, now just seeing the darkness of the old castle bedroom that had been ransacked ages ago and contained next to nothing of value, even the window panes were gone... stolen who knows when.

"I work for SHIELD." Lara told Stephen then. "My name is Lara Croft. I was attempting to recover that item and bring it to a safe place within SHIELD's facilities..." How would she transport a glowing ball of sunlight if it required to be in a wintery location?

Lara went back out into the old castle hallway that was littered with broken wood bits now, the statue she knocked over and flakes of snow blowing in from the open windows down the hallway at the far end.

Doctor Strange has posed:
"The device is exactly where it belongs. You do not move the baby because roaches appeared. You remove the roaches." Stephen says, braking out into a run to follow the dogs, his cloak flapping behind him as he moves around the corner and lifting his hand before him.

"By the Vishanti, show me the path the beasts tread." And his eyes begin to glow the same blue fire that the dogs that chased Lara did.

"Lara, it's nice to meet you, but these artifacts are not unknown to me. There is a reason I have chosen to not aquire them myself."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara rushed after him as he said this, taking a step slower than him so she wasn't being assaulted in the face by the flapping of his cape!

"With all due respect, whoever... you are... It is utterly iresponsible to leave items of this power in abandoned locations such as this!" She shouted after him as they rounded a corner and rushed down the hallway with no windows where all the snowfall was billowing in across them now, the snowdrifts in this hall had the tracks of both Lara and the Armored Dogs through the center of it, but it was still a little less easy to rush through this hall than it was the other.

"These items... belong in a place where they can be safely monitored and protected for generations to come, they belong somewhere where their power won't be exploited by the voracious wonderlust of genocidal madmen, hell bent on exploiting the item, rather than respecting it!"

Lara said all of this while she trudged through the snow inside of the castle's hallway.

The front-facing wall up ahead was completely collapsed and a dangerous amount of sky was exposed, a cliff face that sharply dropped off to the frozen riverbed about half a mile down. Beyond that was the castle staircase, leading downward.

Doctor Strange has posed:
Slowed down by the snow as well, but only for a moment, Stephen starts to float above the snow and moves slowly through the hall, flying. His eyes continue to billow blue fire as he turns his attention towards Lara and squints softly. "I am Doctor, Stephen Strange. Sorcerer Supreme. And I do know a thing or two about mystical artifacts. Do you think it's been here for, as you said, generations, without disturbance by pure happen-chance?"

Stephen turns back to face down the hallway and continue his flight down the hall, each foot step of the mystic beasts marked by a small blue flame where it stood and continuing deeper into the castle.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara just huffed and sighed when she saw the man 'float' above the snow as she just shoved her damn way through until she got to the ledge that she'd leapt across minutes earlier. She watched him just easily glide across it.

"My employer is Nick Fury!" She shouted after him. "He sent me here to retrieve these items, to protect them from Hydra who wishes to obtain them to control the world's weather!" Lara sighed, she wearily darted forward and leapt across the gap in the hallway!

Landing on the other side she stumbled forward onto her hands and knees, but shot right back up and started after Stephen as he went for the stairs.

"Doctor Stephen Strange!" She shouted at him. "You reside in Manhattan, yes? Well so do I!" She said in her thickly accented British English. "This orb opened the portal TO YOU because its seeking your direct protection, not for you to ignore it and leave it here for anyone to claim!"

Doctor Strange has posed:
"I have no place to keep it suitably." Stephen says, he has places yes, but they're much more dangerous than this castle. "I am doing my part in keeping this world safe and finding those who would upset the balance of the world and stopping them. Not upsetting the balance of magic." The doctor says, his tone is calm and having a basic discussion until -

"You don't know me by my face, but you know OF me... What info does Nick have on me?" Stephen's tone practically demands as he turns around and stops mid flight to regard Lara completely now. The orb is safe in his mind, as soon as Hydra is gone he knows it should he safe at least ten more years. It's not an artifact he wants in his house or posession.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara came to a halt at the top of the stairs as he turned around and asked this question of her. "I have no idea." Lara replied to him in a breathy and honest voice, her head even shaking side to side. "I learned of your name through a television program talking about your surgical talents and that you retired after an automobile accident." She stared at his face, watched him closely, letting her words linger for a moment before speaking further.

"Doctor." She said. "Hydra has already found this one... their Trinity soldiers are likely close to finding the others. I may not be able to 'float' or wear a... cape... quite as dashingly as you, but I'm doing -my- part to make sure these items of great power do not fall into the hands of those who'll exploit their power."

Lara sighed then. Her head shaking side to side. "I can't leave this place without the Summer Sphere. Then, I have to go find the other three as well."

A moment later, the thrumming thudding of distant helicopter blades could be heard growing uncomfortably louder. Lara looked toward the darkening sky outside the castle's nearest window. "Trinity soldiers." She said quietly.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara shook her head softly side to side. "It was a... news editorial, I believe, but I am not quite certain, to be honest." She idly said these words before moving on to what was more important. "I prefer to be pro-active in my hunts, rather than re-active. I do not want to be lead to the water well, I want to find it myself."

Lara would move out of the way of the open window as well and she'd stare over at the Sorcerer as he seemed to not react well to the impending arrival of the helicopter. "They want to use this sphere to find the others... The Summer Sphere is the key to the rest." She said to him as if he didn't know any of this already.

The chopper was about five minutes out still, but the weather was foul outside, snow was blowing in the open windows still and the daylight was waning.

"We need to leave now, with the Sphere." She told him, her voice urgent.

Doctor Strange has posed:
She doesn't catch his drift, so he softly rolls his eyes and starts to walk towards the end of the hall. "I am saying we allow them to 'take' the orb." He says with a wink, before continuing, "And follow them to see exactly where they take it." Strange widens his eyes and nods slowly, hoping she'll get what he's saying with the less than subtle nod.

Strange starts to walk down the hallway and follow the fire trail left in his vision by the dogs until they catch up and the beasts are scratching at a door with their 'paws' and trying to get back into the one way room-chamber.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara sighed at the man's behavior and she walked after him, her stride was quick and spry still considering all the crap she'd gone through today on this expedition.

"Describing that tactic as 'reckless' is as akin as refering to a pot of boiling water as 'rather warm'." She said after him, until they rounded the corner of the castle's interior and found the magically constructed armored dogs once more, now barricaded by a door she'd thrown shut earlier. "Figures." Lara mutters, now seeing the beasts summarily blockaded in a way she'd been hoping for when they were chasing her!

Lara looked back at him. "If Trinity acquires the the Sphere, and it leads them straight to the others through the use of its teleportation power... what do we do to catch them? That speed, is a bit faster than I'm personally capable of traveling, you know."

Doctor Strange has posed:
"You're not listening to the words I'm NOT saying." Stephen says with a soft sigh escaping his mouth. "I am suggesting we give them a false orb, and follow them to where they take that one. Presumably a base of operations of theirs or something similar, no?" Stephen says, moving towards the door and puts his palm flat against the floor next to the door and sliding it sideways until his finger tip meets the stone slab.

A few words are whispered beneath his breath before he stands back up, his palm parallel with the floor as he lifts it above his head. The door itself mimics his hand's position in the air, and now able to, the dogs scramble their way back inside and he turns to Lara. "After you dear."

Lara Croft has posed:
These two were getting along so well, it was surely only a matter of time before they were best friends forever. Lara heard his response and she shook her head. "That is not something I have considered trying, as I'm not particular adept at recreating magical glowing orbs." She watched him doing his door manuever and she followed after the armored beasts that were trying to kill her only mere minutes earlier.

"I suppose it could work, in-theory... but Hydra has experienced members, they may be able to see beyond any such trickier." Lara descended the steps in the dark, lifting a yellow-tinted chem light up from her belt and activating it with a twist, bathing the dark stairwell in a warm light.

"If it worked though, it would certainly save on research time..."

Doctor Strange has posed:
"I just stepped from New York to a back water, forgotten caslte in China through a hole without question. Lifted a several ton door for you and you think I couldn't trick the mighty fools of Hydra? Men so bent on obtaining power that they would throw the very seasons off balance just for a chance to wield it."

Strange follows behind Lara now, his eyes reverting back to their normal greys as the fire goes out as they don't need it and the light the Tomb Raider carries is enough for them. "Plus I would prefer for the actual orb to remain in it's original sleeping locale." Strange looks at Lara deeply, "I don't trust SHIELD to keep mystical devices safe also."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara walked down the winding staircase, passing by other floors within the old crumbling estate. "I understand your desire for relics to remain where they are, but there is a severe danger in doing that. It opens the door for black market dealers to use their considerable resources to retrieve items... only for them to never be heard from again... mounted on some wall in some rich Shiekh's trophy room."

Lara glanced back over her shoulder at the older man, he seemed like he was at least fifteen years older than her.

"You do realize that SHIELD has entire warehouses full of artifacts such as these sphere's, right?" She told him then. "They've been hiring people like me to collect them since the formation of the Agency itself." The young British woman huffed gently and kept moving down the stairs, her free hand was trailinjg along the old stone wall.

When they reached the bottom floor, Lara pushed the door open that the Beastly Dogs had passed through already, they were in another hallway now, a long hallway that lead toward double doors at its end and beyond that... was the chamber the Sphere called 'home'.

Doctor Strange has posed:
Stepping on the finally step and landing on the hallway with Lara, Stephen glances back at Lara. "I know SHIELD is doing this. It's not my place to judge, it's only my place to stop other things from showing up and destroying humanity." Stephen says with a soft sigh. "And I prefer no one to disturb these artifacts."

The cloak has stopped billowing being this low in the castle but he follows behind Lara as they approach the chamber and he looks around, staying close to the archeologist and her light source, but examining the room carefully, looking for the orb -- There!

He approaches it and holds his hand out. "Do you have a hat?"

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara heled the chem light up between them as she walked down the dark corridor, old statues lining it on either sides, each one done up like a Chinese God, some holding weapons of obvious design and others doing strange and unusual things... China had a lot of Gods, many of which were quite odd by western standards.

Lara approached Stephen when he located where the beasts had put the Sphere, she looked to the armored hounds and where they'd taken residence once more on their podiums. "Precisely where it was originally, I followed the men out of here when the dogs attacked... I... took care of the men and liberated the sphere from them."

Lara reached into her winter jacket and she pulled out a black wool-knit cap. "I have this." She said, shoving it forward at him with her left hand.

Doctor Strange has posed:
Stephen takes the hat, and balls it up between his fingers with his eyes locked onto the orb in the main statue's hands. "I am keeping this. I will buy you a new one when we return to civilization." Stephen says before looking back at her and asking. "You work for SHIELD, you must have a tracking device on you, correct?" Stephen asks, reaching out with his top hand indicating he wants Lara to give it to him.

Stephen working his spell asks, "What do you suppose would happen if SHIELD posessed all the artifacts this planet carries upon it?

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara huffed again, as close to a laugh as she felt like giving to him as the wool knit hat was turned over. Her head gently shook from right to left. "Its fine. Its... itchy, anyway." She softly said before hearing his request and her hands went down to her jacket's front right pocket and she retrieved her smart phone from within.

Lara lifted the phone up and motioned it over toward Stephen. "If SHIELD acquired all the potentially dangerous artifacts that the planet Earth had to offer?" She repeated his question with some refined elegance to it (her opinion). "Then I'd like to think that the world at-large would be a safer place... and I could sit back in an old comfortable leather chair and perhaps get a few hours of sleep for once." She said to him with a lopsided smirk.

The sounds of machine guns could be heard outside, distant... but present. Lara looked back to the stairwell down the hallway about 50 yards from where they stood. "I think they've found the door guards." Giant, armored monsters that Lara--herself, had had to sneak past to get inside the castle.