2039/Gratitous Backup

Gratitous Backup
Date of Scene:	09 June 2020
Location:	Upper State New York
Synopsis:	Lara finds a treasure. Jovian makes a contact. Ebenezer goes to jail.
Cast of Characters:	Jovian Anderson, Lara Croft

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Jovian Anderson has posed:
The Treasure of Lucious Smythe was a local legend. The eccentric radio announcer had left an obscure poem with a million dollars in gold coins and a poem to find it. But no one ever had. For seventy years, people had searched for it high or low, with not a trace. But a recent biography on the entertainer shed all kinds of new clues. But the thing is, the real treasure was the rumored six unique black and white silent films, one of a kind, and worth far more in the modern market. It was culturally priceless.

The publisher of the book hired a law firm to monitor internet traffic when they put out the book, trying to avoid legal liability for injuries and when the PI they hired told them that there was a chance Ms Croft might be finding it and that one of the other hunters might be willing to kill her to stop them from finding it first, a quiet dark net bounty was placed on the would be miscreant. It was all quiet, since a law enforcnement notice would just shut dwon the site and delay the inevitable.

Bolo found himself on the Smythe estate, the sun setting in the east, rich topiary crafting odd and ecclectic shadows against the quite old house. Jovian had a pair of night vision googles and was vaguely trying to figure out the whole treasure hunt angle just to figure out where the target would be, or the targets target. He would rather not react to just explosions.

Lara Croft has posed:
This is not exactly Lara's normal kind of 'treasure hunt' by any means. Her life's focus was generally on the items lost to time, rather than lost by someone who arguably still exists in today's time and era. But this 'job' had come up over the last week as a way to help a friend. Lara's colleague at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC had been obsessed with this little 'adventure' and done the bulk work of the research, but he wasn't sure how to piece it all together and that's where Lara came in. He'd asked for her help, and considering all the amount of things he'd done to help her with her work... she couldn't say no.

Plus, once she started to delve in to his research, she started to have a bit of fun with it. It was a nice change of a pace for her. Plus, with recent SHIELD work gearing up, she'd been involved in a number of firefights, this was a way to surely keep /that/ from happening, right? This was just, casual treasure hunting? If there even could be such a thing.

But all the work she'd done on this project over the past week, both online and in-person, has lead Lara to this location, the Smythe residence. Her black jeep pulls up outside the property line and Lara steps out of it, she takes a second to pull her SHIELD-issued light jacket off, since it's quite hot these days here in the east coast of the US, and she places the jacket inside her Jeep before she shuts the door.

Now in light gray tanktop and cargo pants, Lara's booted feet carry her up to the property. Her eyes are covered by dark sport sunglasses and they're roaming over the landscape, then down to her phone where she has her notes and all info about this stored.

"This is the place..." Lara mutters.

Jovian Anderson has posed:
Jovian slowly uses his power. It still aches a bit to use it even a bit given the overload he took with Taskmaster, but as the sun sets, he takes advantage of the shadows to remain unseen. As he studies the poem, he realizes that he has about as much chance of solving it, even in the slightest, as solving a complex calculus problem. But when Lara drives up and is quite in plain sight, that makes it easy. Where she is, his target will be and he takes out a pair of binos, slowly looking around for any sign of the loon.

The loon in question, one Ebenezer Bacall is in his late sixties. He isn't any sort of physical challenge for either Jovian or Lara, but what he lacks in scruples, a sense of proportion or patience, he more than makes up for with obsessive compulsive prepration, paranoia and an ecclectice series of talents. The buzz in the air sounds like a small swarm of drones, linked together that slowly lifts from on top of the nearby hill and heads straight towards Lara.

A smarter man would let Lara go straight to the treasure and, when he knew where it was, THEN go after her, but Ebenezer isnt that kind of smart. Jovian spots this, also sure that Lara does too but in his case, he takes no chances, not intereted in the treasure at all and immediately goes through the trees towards the top of the hill.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara doesn't have 'danger' in this situation even remotely on her radar. Being that this isn't a SHIELD operation, any feelers on that subject just aren't even out there at all. She didn't expect anything to come from this, helping a friend, but when she's starting to walk up on to the property and she hears the sounds of those high pitched buzzing drone blades her covered eyes look up into the sky to see them. "What the hell..." Lara says softly. Is the obsession for this treasure so severe that there's random drone patrols? Or is it someone who occupies this property?

Either way, Croft starts up a small pathway and is about to raise her phone up to take a snap pic of the drones when she sees someone coming out of the tree line.

She turns her gaze toward them then and calls out. "Are these yours?" Her British voice carries the distance between them

Jovian Anderson has posed:
Jovian's power is a curious thing. The shadows he collects work best when he isnt moving. When he is moving it casts odd and long shadows, particularly against the animal shaped topiary and setting sun it looks downright creepy but he can be seen. He stops, not because he has been seen but because those drones are moving a lot faster than he expects and the idea of letting her find the treasure while he deals with Bacall unmolested are becoming more unrealistic by the second. He chooses his words carefully, "Name's Bolo. Hired to deal with a likely threat to your life. Those drones are probably really bad." He spots the SHIELD jacket finally and considers. When he'd read the public persona he heard "duchess" and "archeologist" and assumed tea and lace doileys. She can probably hold her own in a fight. She can certainly avoid those drones, about 14, all moving in formation and coming closer.

"I spotted the guy controlling them up on top of that hill."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara has a leather harness on around her shoulders too that wraps back around behind her and keeps a nylon gun holster strapped to her chest's side on the right of her body. So she definitely doesn't look simply like a Briton royal with tea cups, not at the moment anyway... there's probably some photos out there online of that version of her though! Right now she's looking to the man named Bolo and having to suddenly believe him for his word? "You're serious?" She asks him, but she knows he is. Her hands go up to her sunglasses and she raises them up to her brownline atop her forehead, revealing her brown eyes. She exhales sharply. "I'm headed for that very same hill." She comments back to Jovian.

"Are they armed?" She asks quickly before the drones make it to their location.

Jovian Anderson has posed:
"I suspect that they are. Ebenezer Bacall is obsessed about this treasure. Your reputation on finding objects told him he was sure that you would find it, and he has until now been the closest to unlocking its location. The purchases he ma-"

The drones are all hived together. They stay in close formation and as long as he keeps it above the trees, they're easy to control. The small turrets bolted to the bottom with remote gamers are each individually controlled (remotely) armed with paint guns.

Harmless right?

Not so much.

The paint guns fire down to the ground with a faintly glowing paint which just glows a ghostly green as Bolo (and presumably Lara) dodge out of the way, but there is a faint chemical odor in that paint that doesnt smell good. Quite noxious.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is listening to the man's words when the drones sweep in and their time of chatting is cut to it's end. She indeed is forced to dodge back and behind what cover she can get to, which drops her down to one knee with her other leg extended out for support. Her right hand dips to her holster to draw her gun, her sunglasses drop to the ground and are pegged by some of the chemically inclined pellets being fired down at them.

Lara's uncovered eyes stare at the sport sunglasses as the goop they were hit with draw her attention. "That... is not good." She calls out to the man who'd just been speaking to her.

When she looks up again she sees one of the drones in the air and raises her handgun up to take two quick shots at it! Her Berretta M9 announces itself with quick blasts as she returns fire at the drone that shot at her!

Jovian Anderson has posed:
The glow remains for about a minute before slowly fading away as if they had never been. The sunglasses themselves aren't harmed except a small bit of plastic on the tips and that smells like its burned by acid. This is the site of the treasure hunt after all, and he cant have it disturbed by bullets. What if it destroyed an important clue?!

Bolo tosses a single bolo up into the air, but the drones are way too high and it moves wide, but the copters are so tightly packed that it still hits another to the side. The gun that Lara shoots, however, quickly goes down, the gamer controlling the gun underneath it shrieking and unleashing all his ammo all at once, while the others have been taking single shots here and there knowing their very finite supply.

"No...no it isn't." The trees dont seem harmed by the paint at least but Bolo moves double time up the hill.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara has to duck back behind the tree as her shots scored a hit o nthe drone, but more acidic paint is splashed down and all around where she's taking cover. She's not entirely able to avoid all the splattering either, some of it sends little droplets up onto her cargo pants which makes her stand up higher with her back against the tree when she takes a splattering to her left forearm, instantly feeling the sizzling burning sensation upon her skin. "Damnit." Lara gasps out.

She takes anotehr quick glance around to look for this Bolo fellow, and sees his back as he's darting for the hill...

Lara moves to pursue him, still not fully sure if she TRUSTS him, but he's got the information on this -- at least some of it. So Croft darts after him, moving under a low hanging branch, she raises up on the other side then turns to fire another shot up at another drone! "We have to stop the controller!" She calls out after shooting, now trying to run to keep up with Bolo.

Jovian Anderson has posed:
Jovian Anderson says, "I swear, if I get through this I'm going full on Batman, jammers and flashbangs and guns. This is crazy town."

They come to a clearing in the trees, but unfortunately their opponent has the high ground. And even higher ground in the scope of the entire cloud of them, with Jovian coming into the cross hairs of four of them that fire two. From the cry of pain it would sure look like he was hit but he has, in fact turned to shadow with the inability to recover from his previous overuse. Its a strained never used muscle that hasnt recovered as the bullets go right through him and he stops running standing still for a moment and then resolidying, collapsing from exhaustian for a moment, palm down on a pool of the acid that burns him. "Damn it all."

He stands again."

Jovian Anderson has posed:
Two more drones go down to her shooting. They are not really very agile and dangerous only due to their numbers and speed.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara only catches part of the Batman commentary, and though she doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about Batman she does have a theory that he might've been a SHIELD Agent-- she's talked about this with others back at the WAND office, it's a whole thing.

With two more of the drones down, Lara gets a bit of free space to catch up with Bolo. "Are you shot?" She asks him then, scanning him over quickly, holding her Beretta in both of her hands with the barrel aimed down. She's breathing a little more heavily now, as she's in great shape but the summer heat and hard terrain is always a good workout for anyone.

"Tell me where you saw him, I'll go end this absurdity." She asks of the strange man who seemingly was trying to help? Or just wanted part of the treasure for himself! Either way, she watches him stand up again and keeps a bit of distance between he and she!

Jovian Anderson has posed:
Jovian Anderson says, "My hand, I can catch my wind soon but they activated my p...I was nearly hit. They missed. Mostly." He gets his bearings, and then flat out points, "about a hundred and twenty yards that way. Clearing at the top of the hill. He has three boxes with him, likely a local wireless network for those...and something else. He's old, late sixties but seemed by himself." The specifics of his observation note someone skilled in observing with a single glance. "Go on. I'll be right behind you.""

Lara Croft has posed:
All of this starts to sink in and Lara just exhales at the man before her. "If we manage to make it through this--" She starts at him. "You're going to have a lot of explaining to do." Whether that happens or not, is anyone's guess -- them making it through this or him bothering to explain any of it.

Either way, Lara looks up and around for more drones, then draws her eyes back on to him. "Try to stay covered. I'll draw their fire. They'll likely chase me, if they see me gaining ground on whomever is behind this." With a nod, Lara parts with Jovian and slips around the trees he was near. She ends up near an old rock and iron fence that she starts to move alongside of, her gun still pointed down at the ground, Lara moves along the fence line, new growth on it from the early summer covering it - and her - quite nicely. She reaches its end and peers around it toward the peak of the hill, scanning for the man in question...

She considers calling out his name... Ebeneezer was it?

Jovian Anderson has posed:
Jovian Anderson nods in reply to her need for an explanation there later. He got paid either way, but didnt mind answering limited questions...as long as it wasnt too much about his power. As it was, he tossed another bolo, this time actually hitting the drone. He tries to draw their fire but Lara is right, they dont REALLY care about Bolo. Lara is their singular target though they fire at Jovian when they see him. Half the drones have run out of ammo but the ones that held their ammunition are better shots so it gets harder to dodge their shots but not impossible.
Ebenezer is frowning as he can tell the two of them are getting closer to the top of the hill. He might retreat but he is NOT letting her get that treasure. He has a backup plan anyway and pats a small box by his side as he tries to move the drones to get a clear shot from the cameras on the monitors. Its dark now and not working well. The glow in the dark paint helps a little but not a lot. He regrets not using night vision.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara regrets not having her full set of gear with her!

She gets ever closer and closer to the apex of the hill, however, having quite a lot of experience of being in woodland regions, the past decade of her life had been spent largely training in wilderness survival, at least fifty percent of her education since age 12 had been that... with her now deceased mentor Conrad Roth.

So she's no stranger to this, and in the past year she's gotten quie a lot of active combat experience to boot.

Ebeneezer will see another of his drones get dropped, a glimpse of Croft in the dark and then the sound of the drone crashing not that far away. Finally, from the shadow sof the tree cover, her voice falls out. "Ebenezer!" Her voice echos out from the shadows. "I'm a SHIELD Agent, and in a very short amount of time I can have at least two Quinjets here filled with special agents that will take you down! This is your chance to call this off and to leave this place!"

She hadn't placed that call yet, but she very easily can.

Jovian Anderson has posed:
Ebeneezer has a very well set up smoke machine and green laser light that from a distance makes him look like a hologram. He slowly begins flicking switches on a third box. Lara has enough experience with advanced tech that she likely isnt fooled by this but there is about 20 yards of no cover between the treeline and him. He picked his spot well and his failsafe is slowly arming. He smiles as she mentioned she is a Shield agent, "Then you can't take the treasure!" This is flawed logic at best, but his mind, we have established is already pretty warped...

Jovian moves up the hill, behind, boloing another drone, with only four left, two of which only have guns shooting at him and her from time to time.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara decides it best that she does call SHIELD. So while he replies her hand reaches into her hip pocket and she draws out her phone again to bring up the Agent app. She raises it up and starts to speak into it. "This is Agent Croft. I'm in upstate New York just past Westchester County. I'm on the hunt for a collection of lost artifacts and it seems that someone has hired a hitman to stop me. I'm close to him, I think I can take him out, but I could use backup ASAP. Lucious Smythe is the name of the land owner. Track my phone." She slips the phone away then before she moves in the shadow of the trees to try to get closer to Ebeneezer.

"I'm not here to take the treasure for myself, Ebeneezer!" Lara calls back. "I'm here on behalf of the Natural History Museum!" She doesn't need 'wealth' and 'fortune' this is all just for a friend!

Jovian Anderson has posed:
"Acknowledged Agent Croft, reinforcements 9-10 minutes out."

Jovian doesnt like the look of that box and tosses a pair of bolos that miss mostly but entangle one hand and it still hurts and bruises his older arm. Ebenezer shrieks and flicks more switches. The guns stop as the guys in the drones remotely shooting realize this is NOT a reality TV show.

"Natural History Museum? Those posers? They're controlled by the mafia! This treasure is mine!"

Jovian keeps moving towards the guy, impressed that she is trying to negotiate with crazy town.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara can see Jovian, but more importantly she can see Ebeneezer. Her phone is put away after she gets a response from SHIELD and she recenters herself with her handgun. A quick exchange of magazines is taken, sliding the old one into her hip pocket and sliding a new one up into the handgun. The Briton steps around the small stone wall she'd followed up to this point of the hill and she dips around one of the trees...

She raises her handgun up and stairs down the night-sights on it it, she lines up a shot and pulls the trigger, Not once, but twice, making sure to send two rounds toward the man preparing a massive acid bomb. She'd warned him, now she had to try to drop him before he did anything MORE stupid than he already had!

Jovian Anderson has posed:
The old man is one switch flip away from paint o geddon but stops. He slumps over unconcious. Jovian takes a picture with his phone and sighs, "I suppose it counts if you take him out?" He chuckles darkly, "I just cant believe he didnt let you find the treasure first."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara approaches within seconds, holstering her gun back onto her side she steps over to Ebeneezer and starts to move him so that he's in a better resting position. "I don't think he fully understood what he was doing here at all." Lara says as she goes to work starting to apply first aid to the man she'd just shot. She takes out a knife and starts to cut off part of the man's shirt sleeve to wrap it around the wound she'd given him to his shoulder with one of her shots. "That treasure... I had no idea that it was being sought after by men like this." She looks up and over to Jovian then from her kneeling position. "Who are you, by the way?" She asks. "You'll forgive me if I'm not in the most pleasant of moods after all of this." She has acid burns on her left arm, and across her clothing.

Jovian Anderson has posed:
Jovian Anderson says, "Oh yeah." He shows her the treasure page filled with fanatical comments. He, for the first time notices er....curves...and acid and....he is glad his eyes are behind a mirrored motorcycle helmet. "Call me Bolo. I'm..." he shrugs, "I am no hero but more than a bounty hunter." He isnt sure what to call himself. "And no I'm in no pleasant mood myself."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara continues to work on the man she'd shot while she listens to the other's explanation. "I see." She tells him, her eyes going up then to look at him as she starts to stand up, having done all she can to stabilize Ebeneezer before the backup arrives. "I'm Lara, Croft. I'm an archaeologist in the employ of SHIELD. Though this... all of this..." Lara says as she glances around their area. "This was for a friend. I'm not here on any official capacity. Or I wasn't, until." She motions to Ebeneezer. "The toy maker and his toys attacked us." She lowers her hand back to her side and stares at Bolo now. "Thank you, for your help. This place is going to be crawling with SHIELD agents in a short amount of time though..." She offers warning of that.

Jovian Anderson has posed:
Jovian Anderson is a former law enforcement agent. Shield guys were a little tech heavy but mostly good guys. But it was a part of his life that was over now. "Yeah, it could get....odd. Not so much anything illegal but the reports...and witness statements..." He whips out a small card. "In case you ever find one of those mole in the department cant trust anyone situations."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara takes a step toward him to reach out and accept the card. Her eyes glance down at it, while her other hand raises up to sweep loose strands of her dark brown hair out of her eyes so she can more easily read it... she's got a sweat worked up now in this heat that is persisting into the late evening even. After a moment though she just nods and looks back up to him.

"I understand." She says to him. She smirks softly then. "I'm about to end this treasure hunt as well. So please do let me know if you wish your name, or any name, to be credited in it's discovery." She's a little cocky on this one, but she's very confident that her research that lead her here will put an end to this hunt... but that'll have to come after the Quinjets arrive and the scene is secured.

Jovian Anderson has posed:
Jovian Anderson is definitely sweating but most of it is under the kevlar suit and bike but his breathing is heavy. The card says "B.O.L.O" and has a number. Very simple." He thinks a moment. This is monumentally stupid for a secret identity but he says,"An anonymous donation in the name of Darla Merns would be...nice if you are giving credits. And do find the treasure." He smiles "Dont let this idiot find it." He salutes and moves to the shadows.

Darla, of course, being a witsec witness killed by a breach of security.

Lara Croft has posed:
The British noble nods her head softly to his request, she even gives him a light nod of understanding and a quick smile. "I can do that." She says then. Within moments though the sound sof the Quinjets become quite present on the horizon, which draws Lara's attention toward them. She turns and raises a hand to hold a flashlight up into the air and signal the jets that are using VTOL now to sweep in over the property...

Within minutes the land is indeed crawling with agents of SHIELD, and Lara thusly has a lot of explaining to do!