10500/Too many thieves and not enough artifacts.

Too many thieves and not enough artifacts.
Date of Scene:	18 March 2022
Location:	Upstate New York
Synopsis:	Lara and June are after the same thing, but that doesn't mean they are on the same team.
Cast of Characters:	June Connor, Lara Croft

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June Connor has posed:
    It's north of the city, in Harrison. While Gerard Stantich is no super villain, no mastermind, and hardly someone who heroes take note of, he's hardly less criminal. He's a much smarter caliber of criminal. His dealings are low key. He lets other people take the heat for the things he wants, and reaps the rewards. He doesn't get involved when villains fight over a prize, he just selects another.

    He's polite, he's almost regal in his demeanor, though hardly stuffy. His manor is in the countryside, close enough to the city that he can access it when he likes, making it exceedingly expensive a location. It's a large manor, but not so large that it holds such excesses as security guards roaming the halls and the like, only a single one that watches the monitors from a guard shack.

    He loves his artifacts. Some of them are legal, some are not. All of them are of the finest taste, though, which is all he really likes. He isn't in it to take over the world, and he's not here to show off to every single person he meets his vast rare collection. He just truly appreciates the art as far as anyone can tell. The yard is large, mostly converted into an arboreteum of sorts with exotic plants just starting to bloom in the spring air.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara is dressed in something a bit more official than what she wore at the museum. She's got a bow on, and she fires an arrow with a rope attached, despite how poorly physics seems like it would handle such an item. The archaeologist hooks her bow around her body before swinging up onto the zipline-taut rope. Pulling her boots up to hook her heels on it, she begins moving through the darkness toward the mansion.

June Connor has posed:
    June, on the other hand, is dressed...well, she's not dressed, actually. There's more than one way to get into a rich man's house. Quietly, she opens the door to Gerard's bedroom, exiting in black underwear. Outside and inside alike there are plenty of security cameras. The guard, while awake, is only half watching the monitors. The young man has out his laptop, working on his thesis for his post graduate thesis. Gotta pay through school somehow, right?

    June of course isn't aware outside that she is about to have competition. Instead, she looks up at the hallway at the cameras, checking the directions again that they face. There's one she can't avoid, and so she does what anyone who is expected in the house would do. She just walks in plain view of it, making as if she is heading to the bathroom.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara isn't a ninja by trade. SHIELD may have incredible cloaking technology, but Lara just has her wits and some heat-of-the-moment guerilla practice. Thankfully, this is a mansion, and she's had plenty of experience sneaking around one of those growing up. She knows what to look for for the low-profile cameras, and she manages to get into the building via the bathroom's frosted yet unlocked window. The next steps are, admittedly, harder.

June Connor has posed:
    As Lara opens the window, June freezes for a moment. What...is that? She turns back, listening to the opening window and movement in the bathroom. She thought that she and Gerard were the only ones here, and Gerard can still be heard snoring in the other room. Her lip curls in confusion, and she looks back at the camera. She ducks around the corner, putting her back against the wall just around the corner of the hallway, and waits, uncertain who this third occupant might be.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara silently curses herself for making any sound at all, but she's no ninja. Drawing a silenced pistol, the would-be infiltrator cracks the bathroom door and peeks out from the darkness. With a *tak* from her sidearm, a plant below the security camera is littered with broken glass from the lens. She again silently curses all the noise she's making. Still, when things inevitably hit the fan, she could at least hold her own in a fight.

June Connor has posed:
    June hears the silenced pistol, and her eyes go wide. Of all the times to be unprepared. She looks around frantically near her in the room, looking for anything she can use for a weapon nearby. A bookcase offers a few decorative options, one of them a small bronze knife, Egyptian, circa 1400 BC. Worth thousands by itself, it may or may not be a stolen artifact. Right now, June will take it's at least pointed end, though it could hardly be counted as sharp. She readies it in her left hand, and remains quiet.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara moves from the bathroom, unseen by security, not that he was doing much along those lines, anyway. She keeps her pistol lowered, but ready, both hands on it as she moves in the direction of the half-naked sneak-thief. Either she's an assassin sent after the man of the house or they're after the same doodad.

June Connor has posed:
    The assassin is the part that June is most concerned about. She waits, watching until the gun is in sight. As soon as it is, she springs her attack. June bursts forward, throwing her hand straight out at the gun first, her objective to pin it against the opposite wall long enough so that she can throw and elbo at Lara's head with the other elbow. Her first priority is to try to disarm the treasure seeking opponent.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara is caught off guard twice in about a second. She's surprised by the attack, then by the attire of the attacker! She lets go of her weapon with her left hand and grabs at June's hair. In the same movement, she moves to sweep at June's leg, aiming to get the probably-just-frightened woman to the ground without hurting her.

June Connor has posed:
    June keeps hold of the gun when Lara releases it, and then finds her hair pulled. "GRR!" She grunts in objection, finding herself swept to the floor before she can respond, The gun isn't held by the grip, but by its center of mass. Hardly a method to use it to shoot her. Instead she swings it at Lara's forward leg for a shin strike. Not a massively critical blow, but shin strikes smart like the dickens. Hit or miss, she scrambles a roll backward, trying to get a clear distance from Lara.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara maintains some control of the gun via the grip while June holds it, preventing Lara from pointing at her at least. Lara makes intense eye contact with the scantily clad assailant. She lets out a soft, "Shhh," as she pins her down. "I'm not going to hurt you," she says, very quietly, in her thick, mottled Surrey accent. Thankfully, June's bare feet are no match for Lara's SHIELD issued infiltration armor. It wouldn't stop a bullet, but it's more than enough to stub a toe on fruitlessly.

June Connor has posed:
    "Fuckin' right you not," June growls back. This one is a fighter. She lunges her head forward toward Lara to try to head butt her in return for the calming words. "Get the hell off me!" Though she exclaims it, she seems to be keeping her own voice down at the same time, which might be odd if she belongs here.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara uses her grip on June's hair to make that headbutt come up short. Her brow furrows for a moment. She narrows her eyes as she returns intense eye contact with the other woman. Her jaw tightens a bit beneath her mask. "You're making it hard to just walk away and forget I saw you." Lara's got the upper hand, as it were, but she isn't taking much for granted. This woman is stronger than she expected. "First, let go and put your hands out to your sides. Then, you go your way, I go my way, and neither of us saw the other."

June Connor has posed:
    June's teeth are clenched in anger that she is at a clear disadvantage, and in the dark the green eyes shift from one pupil to the other as she studies Lara's eyes. "Yeah so you can just put a bullet in my head?" she asks. "Haven't made it this far by bein' stupid." She doesn't attack again, but her hand on the gun tightens as if to advertize that she's not going to stop contesting the weapon. Of course, made it 'this far' is relative, since she looks quite young, though the several tattoos scattered about her skinny body would indicate probably at least eighteen.

Lara Croft has posed:
    "You're not getting it," Lara says of her firearm, still quiet and calm. "They're going to notice the camera is out soon. You'd make a lousy hostage, and I don't need blood on my hands. I'm in for breaking in entering and theft, not murder. Now, please let go and put your hands to the sides before things get unpleasant."

June Connor has posed:
    An expression comes across June's face. One of uncertainty. She doesn't have an alternative that she thinks works, but she clearly doesn't wnat to comply. "What the fuck are you here for, you go work at museums by day, cat burglar by night?" she asks, tipping her hand that she has been acquainted with Lara previously. She still doesn't change her grip.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara huffs out through her nose, her hot breath wafting over the barely clad woman's skin. "With my connections, I could have you locked up in a deep dark hole until the sun swallows up the Earth with evidence like that." She pulls on June's hair, forcing the other woman's head backward and exposing her neck. "Stop being a stubborn--" Oh, no. Lara, you didn't just use that word! "This is your last warning."

June Connor has posed:
    Some people, they just don't get the picture, and will cut off their nose to spite their face every time. June is one of these. When told that she has her last warning. She turns her head suddenly, teeth clamping down on Lara's arm and she bites hard, trying to force a change as she bucks furiously to try to get out from under the opposing burglar.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara hisses in pain as June manages to bite at her arm through her infiltration clothes. She raises June up and brings force down with her head to smash it against the floor.

June Connor has posed:
    June's teeth slip as her head slams down, starburst hitting her vision from the strike. She's not out, but it makes her lose her grip on the gun from the impact. Her attention is clearly broken by the strike. Her hips buck again, though more weakly, trying to get Lara to clear off her.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara does, standing and checking the halls before moving to plant a boot on June's face. "I will make this simple," she says, still speaking quietly and calmly. "If I see you again, I am going to shoot you. No more talking. I'm on a time limit." Then she's off, moving quickly toward the rich man's den which contains all the relics he's most proud of.

June Connor has posed:
    June grunts as the boot is put on her face. She doesn't fight. As soon as she releases her, though, she staggers up to her hands and knees. "Bitch," she mutters, trying to get back to her feet. Well if she can't have the stuff...

    She leans against the wall for support as she pulls herself up, looking back at Gerard's bedroom.