10736/Elusive as a Trickster goddess

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Elusive as a Trickster goddess
Date of Scene: 11 April 2022
Location: The Amazon Rainforest
Synopsis: Lara fought a demon that isn't a demon and is approached by Pan herself.
Cast of Characters: Sprite, Lara Croft




Sprite has posed:
    Like so many of Lara's adventures, this one has led her all over the place. The reports of an ancient Incan artifact, the Amulet of Ayar Cachi, was rumored to have surfaced, and strange occurrences were reported to have started cropping up around it. When the reports reached SHIELD's ear, it was time to have their retrieval specialist take a look. Not that she likely might not have on her own.

    That took her to Peru. And longer than she would have liked trying to gather clues. The people who originally found it, she located. Most dead from a firefight, some few missing. She tracked the missing ones, till she found one in a little village, trying to bury sheer terror in drink. He talked about some kind of winged demon that had swooped out of the sky, tormented him, and finally flew off towards the Amazon.

    THAT has led her off to the rainforests of Brazil, and time spent questioning the locals. And each time, the clues led her deeper in and further off the beaten path. The winged demon apparently some kind of a protector of an ancient hidden city. She had to leave behind vehicles a while back; the rainforest here is just too thick. The heat is /sweltering/, and the humidity through the roof; she almost feels more like she's swimming than walking. But if her information is right, there's supposed to be a hidden valley not far from here. Where the demon dwells.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara doesn't seem bothered by the heat. She's used to running around and doing hardcore parkour in all kinds of conditions. Pushing through the mugginess, Lara's tank top and shorts are free from sweat, somehow, and Lara doesn't seem at all beset by insects craving her sweet, sweet blood. Jogging through the forest, bow on her back, silenced pistol at her hip, Lara follows the trail. Hidden valley demon had demanded special ammunition. Being in the same organization as Hellboy has meant Lara has been able to use WAND resources to prepare to slay demons specifically using bullets tailor made to their weaknesses. She feels more ready than usual for such encounters.

Sprite has posed:
    As Lara pushes on, making her way through the forest, the trail begins to slope notably downwards. Up ahead...well, "valley" really wasn't the right word. "Chasm" would be a better word. A cracked scar in the earth, probably the result of some long-ago earthquake or cave collapse. It descends into darkness, and the canopy through here is thick enough to make light spotty anyway. This place would probably never be seen from overhead; it would take someone on foot, deep in the jungle, to find it in the first place. The edge of the chasm seems to drop off sharply.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Even for this, Lara is prepared. Using her considerable climbing skill, Lara descends with the darkness. She takes a moment to click on her light as she descends, being ever-wary for danger. Demons were not known for playing fair, after all.

Sprite has posed:
    The light shines into the darkness, illuminating the abyss below. There are buildings down there, their design correct and contemporary for the Incan Empire, though most of them look like they suffered serious damage when they dropped into the earth. Still, a trained eye can probably pick out the important structures, the remnants of the temple likely being where anything important would be. The descent is dangerous, but Lara's skills are more than sufficient to get her down to the bottom.

Lara Croft has posed:
    This isn't the first lost city for Lara. She takes the last 10-20 meters descending by a climbing rope. When her feet are finally on solid ground, she begins poking around. The amazon rainforest is not known for NOT filling in holes with egregious amounts of water, so the fact that an Incan city's buildings remain recognizable without having been flooded many times over proves to her that something is amiss already. Carefully, she moves through the area, finding secrets, sure, but also looking for this demon and more importantly the artifact.

Sprite has posed:
    Lara's investigations can turn up a number of minor, museum-worthy pieces if she chooses to do anything with them. Nothing special; a pot here, an ancient knife there. But the temple seems the place to be. There's a portion of wall near the base where it looks as if the stonework there has been blown out, from the inside. A hole roughly eight feet in diameter. A deep, rumbling growl sounds from somewhere inside.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara hears the growl from the temple and draws her sidearm. She begins to move like a covert operative, rather than as a stealthy archaeologist. She can't see in the dark--maybe that'd be something to ask for the next time she's on the trail of an artifact: Night Vision Goggles--so she has to keep her light on. All that really does is make jump scares likely and make her the thing being ambushed from the darkness. It's like a movie, really.

Sprite has posed:
    The thing is dank inside. It smells of wet, of rotting meat. Her light illuminates swaths of what seems an ancient temple, but the light can only illuminate so much at once. And the thing is supposed to be a flying demon. So it does what flying things do; it ambushes from above. A large form, every bit of nine feet tall. Vaguely spiderlike, though primarily humanoid. And with batlike wings from its back. An ornate golden disk hangs about its neck, tied there by some long leather cord. As it drops down, it swipes out at her with sharp, exoskeletal-tipped fingers.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara dodges the claws, falling to her back and unloading a trio of rounds up into the mass. The claws come within millimeters of her flesh. As aerodynamics and inertia handle getting the monster away again, she rolls to her feet and runs. Lighting a flare, she tosses it away into the center of the large room, readying herself for further attack from above.

Sprite has posed:
    The thing roars as it gets shot, but the rounds just seem to flatten against the exoskeleton, not penetrating and doing actual damage. There's a sibilant hissing from it as Lara tosses out the flare; it doesn't seem to care for the bright light at all. It tries to maneuver to put its back to the flare while still menacing Lara. There's a faint glow from its neck and throat, and then some kind of viscous fluid comes out as it spits it at Lara.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara dodges the projectile vomit, taking brief moments to unload the magazine and check the rounds she had loaded into her sidearm. She slips the rounds back in and takes a bit more careful aim, firing a round into the beast's eyes. She keeps moving, lighting another flare and holding it in her off hand. It makes her future shots less accurate, but this thing was large and slow, and she needed the bright light on herself.

Sprite has posed:
    The stuff spatters on the ground, and starts to lunge at Lara...just in time to catch a bullet to the eye. It roars in pain and fury as the eye splatters with a wet squelch, and stumbles. Its momentum is still bringing it towards her, though it seems off-balance as its bulk approaches her...

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara is not one of those humans who has what one might call 'fear'. Certainly, she knows when to be cautious, but as the demon--or whatever it is--tumbles toward her, she vaults up, kicking off of one of its spindly legs, swinging around to mount it like a horse. Hooking her arms around the insect-like wings, she keeps her hands against her ribs and kicks off, pushing hard against the beast's back, doing her best to ruin its wings before doing a backflip off of it and landing on her feet...because ya girl is a cat: She only doesn't land on her feet when she's dying in a spike pit...not that that's ever happened to her before.

Sprite has posed:
    The wings crack and pop as Lara kicks off from the thing. It was already off-balance; the extra momentum imparted by her kickoff sends it too far, and it falls onto its face, slamming into the stone. It hits hard, and doesn't move.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara readies her weapon, aiming it at the monster. She is ready to dodge-roll to safety, but after seeing it's not moving, she cautiously approaches it. She leads with her flare in front of her, hopefully enticing a retreat reaction before a kill-the-archaeologist reaction. She reaches out with a boot and kicks one of its many legs when she gets near enough.

Sprite has posed:
    The thing is doing the classic horror-monster-I'm-dead-OH-WAIT-NO-I'M-NOT thing. As Lara moves in and kicks at its leg, it lurches up with surprising speed, claws reaching for her neck...

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara's gun discharges another round as she bounces back. The first round is going to hit exoskeleton, because her first priority is to get out of the way. The thing definitely doesn't seem as concerned about the bright light, anymore, so Lara unloads the rest of her clip toward the only part of the beast that seems vulnerable to her anti-demon rounds: Its remaining eye. At least one is certain to hit. At least it can't fly, anymore.

Sprite has posed:
    The first shot bounces off exoskeleton, but then the second...and more than the second...splatter the thing's other eye. As the thing takes multiple rounds to the eye, it drops to the ground, unmoving, falling to the side.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Yeah, Lara's seen that trick, already. She pushes the clip release on her pistol as she tosses the flare onto the beast's body. She reaches with her off hand and draws another clip, loading it and pulling back the slide, pointing the weapon with as much precision as possible at as close as possible to a shot into a potential brain as she can. Yeah, this thing's anatomy is a mess. She takes slow, careful steps, inching toward the creature. Dead? Maybe?

Sprite has posed:
    The shot goes into the thing's head. It doesn't move. It doesn't even twitch. It looks like the flurry of eyeshots may have done for it. The flare scorches the exoskeleton some, and that, too, doesn't provoke any reaction.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara finally makes her way to the dead beast and bends her knees and hips, lowering herself down while not taking the weapon away from the beast even for a second. She reaches out and takes the Incan medallion. It looks to be in fantastic shape, given the probable age of it. Though the pistol's silencer is still touching the pseudo-demon, Lara is now distracted by this artifact. "Fascinating," she says to herself. She does her best to take the medallion off of the critter's ruined head.

Sprite has posed:
    That's when there's the sound of merry laughter from above, off nearer to the entrance, as Lara takes the medallion. "Oh, that was wonderful!" A feminine voice says in English. "You really are as good as they said you were!" Sprite drops the illusion concealing her. The apparently red-haired waifish girl has chosen traditional Incan royal attire for her garb, even if she doesn't look the part.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara, medallion in hand, spins around to face a potential threat, but she doesn't raise her side arm right away. She narrows her gaze and backs away from the woman. She's no Incan deity Lara ever read about. "As good as who says I am?" she asks. Doesn't seem like a fight yet, might as well keep it like that as long as possible.

Sprite has posed:
    "Everyone! You have quite the reputation in the occultish community." After all, the name Croft isn't a new one in that scene. "So I thought I'd see just how good you really were." Sprite drifts lazily downwards, stopping just off the ground, her feet hovering just over it.

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara has befriended actual demons from hell and women with invisible jets. Super-beings are nothing new for her. However, as friendly as the other woman seems to be--well, the girl seems to be--Lara holsters her sidearm. "I'm afraid you have me at a loss, miss--?" she asks, hoping for an introduction without further prompting.

Sprite has posed:
    That gets her eyes to twinkle. "Oh, I have so many. The one you know me best as is probably Pan." The redhaired girl looks over. "You're VERY skilled. I've seen heroes through the ages, and you're up there."

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara isn't exactly hobnobbing with the Olympians, but she's certainly heard of Pan. Wasn't he supposed to be an animalistic gentleman with a permanent huge boner? She guessed this one was different. "A pleasure," Lara simply says. She tucks the strap from the medallion into her belt, looping it around a bit so the disc of the amulet is hanging on her hip. Well, she's not about to wear it without learning about it, and although it's Incan, it's still like nothing she's seen before. "I take it you summoned that creature, then?"

Sprite has posed:
    Sprite waves her hand dramatically, and the creature disappears, leaving no trace behind. "I did. I needed to see how good you were, and well, there's a lack of monsters easily available these days. "So, I've decided to give you a reward, and a request."

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara watches the demon disappear--okay, that makes a lot more sense, now. She checks on the amulet she just affixed to her belt before looking back up at Pan. "I'm in no place not to at least listen," she says. "What is it you want from me?"

Sprite has posed:
    The amulet seems tangible, still. Of course, so did the demon when she was jumping around on it. "I've been out of the world for too long. You're very versed in things mythical and in this modern world too. So, I want you to help get me involved. Introduce me to people. The important ones."

Lara Croft has posed:
    Lara is not exactly diplomatic herself. It's why SHIELD didn't have her in anything public-facing. However, stuck in a gash in the Earth's surface with someone claiming to be a Shakespearian trickster deity didn't give her a lot of options. "Well, if we can get out of this hole," she says, "I'll introduce you to my bosses, and we'll see where we can go from there. I promise you, they know more people than I do."