6932/No Vacancy anymore, this is my turf

No Vacancy anymore, this is my turf
Date of Scene:	14 July 2021
Location:	Abandoned Warehouse
Synopsis:	Lara goes to investigate some potential criminal activities and finds nothing wrong, trust Trickshot's word on it!
Cast of Characters:	Barney Barton, Lara Croft

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Barney Barton has posed:
There's nothing special about this abandoned warehouse, why would anyone want to do anything with it. It's dusty, and dirty. Nonetheless, reports are reports, and the latest ones mentioned some nightly activity in there. It could be your local teenagers' gang having fun, or something more serious.

Right now, by night time, anyone entering the warehouse would find it empty, the rusty chains unmoving, everything is quiet. The main door is locked, padlocked, but a rather small passage has been created by removing a few wooden boards. Inside, the only discordant item is a camplight turned on, resting on an empty metal barrel at the center of the floor. The circular light it creates around in a small radius leaves the corners of the room, and the ceiling with its puzzle of beams, in the dark.

Lara Croft has posed:
SHIELD is in a precarious place right now in the world, but Lara is still connected to some elements of it through unique ways. Upon arriving back to NYC last night she met up with some of those connections and they brought her up to speed on things. Now, tonight, Lara was in the general area of this location when the alert hit her phone.

Her black Jeep stops outside and the lights pop off, it takes her a minute or so before she exits the vehicle.. tossing her black leather jacket on over her her light grey tanktop. It's July, but her jacket has 'things' that help with alerts like this. Namely her gun is holstered inside the jacket....

Approaching the warehouse, Lara has her phone out, recording what she's doing for records sake. She'd done things like this before, but she'd been out of the US for a couple months.

"Welcome back to America." Lara mutters under her breath as she approaches the dark building. It only takes her a moment to find an entrance that she quietly pulls the door open to and peers inside...

Barney Barton has posed:
A Jeep, by this time of night, cannot be considered the most discreet way to approach a location where Barney Barton, aka Trickshot, decided to /investigate/. In this case, the investigation's main goal is to find a nice spot for his activities in the vicinity.

Even before the door of the Jeep could be heard, Barney had reached one of the metal beams just under the ceiling, in one very dark corner where the intruder - yes, he already considers them intruders - can be observed as soon as they enter.

If everything goes well - mostly for the intruder - they will look around, and leave. In the other hand, if they insist, Trickshot will have to intervene and make it clear that this is /his/ place now.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara didn't have military experience, or a background in law enforcement like a lot of SHIELD Agents. No her experience was gained through her world exploration and the troubles and tests she faced there-in.

She'd had training over the past year and a half of being an active Agent though, and some field work prepared her for things like this.

She's recording too, her phone in her left hand...

"Right." Lara mutters in her calm British accent. She steps in to the building and takes a few steps, her head turning left and right while she walks toward the light source. "This is Agent Lara Croft with SHIELD." She announces herself, her feminine voice raised to a level that lets it echo off of the walls.

"I'm not here beyond checking in on reports of possible strange activities. If anyone is here, please announce yourself." She adds, while she creeps along toward the light.

Barney Barton has posed:
Alright, this is not exactly what Trickshot was expecting, a SHIELD agent to investigate his new place. And from his vantage point, a nice looking one to boot. While it could be amusing to watch her look around, something's seems to amuse the archer.

Light reflects on the surface of the phone in her hand, which is quickly noticed by the ex-FBI agent. Bloody things, these phones. Aiming at it with the least lethal arrow, the projectile squarrily hits the device, and it flies off Lara's hand.

At the same moment, Trickshot jumps to another beam, always keeping in a dark corner. "Strange activities?" he replies, "We're starting an archery range, is all. Nothing strange in that," he lies.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is taking a tentative step when the phone is shot out of her hand by the arrow. She heard the arrow a second before it hit the phone, as arrows are a sound she's quite familiar with. But it came fast and sharp.

When her phone goes cascading away, Lara reflexively ducks and runs for cover. She slams her back up behind a solid object in the warehouse and puts herself in to the shadows as well now. Her right hand dips in to her jacket and pulls out her gun that she clutches in both hands down in front of her lap as she crouches behind the cover.

She hears the response and looks right, then left, before she answers back. "I'm not here for this." She says to him. "I'm just checking in on reports of criminal activity." She replies, her heart beating faster in her chest now, obviously.

At this point, she's pretty sure those activities are legit and she's just walked right in to it...

Unfortunately for her, SHIELD isn't at full power, so she doesn't have a backup option right now...

Barney Barton has posed:
Well, this game could last a while, and Trickshot has other plans for the night. Wasting time chatting with an operative aren't among them. Grabbing one of the large chains, he quickly descends along it, the movement bringing him within the small halo of light by the camplight.

He's not hiding, why would he? Chances are, this young agent never saw him anyway, and will not recognize him. And even if she did? Then what? He hasn't done anything criminal - yet.

Slinging his bow over his shoulder, Trickshot stands there, hands on his hips, looking in the direction where he saw Lara run for cover. Right, she might find it strange that he's wearing his /action/ gear, full body reinforced spandex attire, quivers on his back and along his thigh.

"Hey, don't get gun crazy now," he says, smirking, and visibly unafraid. "Told ya, ma'am, we're setting up an archery dash circus training gig." A lie, again, but who can tell.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is crouching down on the warehouse floor with her gun held down between her legs and nearly touching the barrel tot he dirty floor between her boots. She looks up to see him appear and declare what he says. He'll hear a click and see her bright LED flashlight come on and up to shine at him.

She stands and holds her gun in her right the light in her left. "Is that so?" She asks in her foreign accented voice. Her eyes dart around the warehouse and then look back at the man in his costume. "It would appear that you have a lot of work cut out for you then, sir." She tells him.

She's nervous, but that phone shot he did has caused it now.

"Do you ahve any identification on you, and are there any others here on the property?" She asks him with the light not exactly in his eyes, but more on his chest and body in general.

Barney Barton has posed:
Even the flashlight beam on him doesn't seem to impress the man. Quite the contrary, as he offers a large smile in return - he's having fun - and slowly turns around, hands held up in the air, offering her a nice view of his muscular body. Facing her again, still with that arrogant smile on his face, he shakes his head.

"Nope, no ID," he says, "Not that I'd show you any. SHIELD aren't cops, last I checked." He pauses, then adds, "I'm scouting for a prospective range. We haven't started yet."

That said, Trick starts in the direction where the phone landed on the dirty floor, probably intent on picking it up - or making sure it's destroyed.

"But there's somethin' to be said about SHIELD," he comments as he walks towards the phone, "They sure know how to recruit fillies. Can you give me the recruiting agent's name?"

Lara Croft has posed:
It is remarkable how many people act like SHIELD are indeed cops if you just treat them like you are a cop. So Lar has found out anyway. But again, SHIELD is in a rough place at the moment, and he might know this and might have more ground to dismiss anything she says at all, but it all comes down to how much in-the-know he is or isn't.

She keeps the light on him, keeps her gun out, but she doesn't aim it at him yet. She watches him walk toward where her phone is on the ground. "Right." She says softly. "I'm afraid recruitment is on hold at the moment. So you're free to focus on your Archery endeavors here." She starts to side step toward the way she'd come in originally as well.

"So you're a one man show, I presume?" She asks then, at least going to ask him for as much information as he'll yield in the time she has here!

Barney Barton has posed:
And she'd be right. Barney Barton still has some /friends/ in the know, in FBI and other places of less pristine reputation. He knows all there is to be known about SHIELD - and maybe more than he should. What he doesn't know is, who's this Lara Croft. He'll fix that.

Finally reaching the corner where the phone landed, Trick picks it up from the floor - quickly glancing at it. Not much info to get out of it without Lara noticing. Hopefully, he has some devices on him, small enough, powerful enough, to collect as much information as the security levels on her device will allow him to download. All in a flash, all without being caught. This will make for pleasant reading later on.

Returning towards Lara, her phone in hand, he nods at her as he hands it to her, "Yup, I'm big enough to take care of myself, don't you think?" he asks in return, not refraining the lascivious look to travel all over her well-proportioned body, "'Tho, I do hire at times. Say, you want a job, an /honest/ job for a change? I could show you some tricks, y'know."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara's eyes are on the man as he picks up her phone and examines it. His device is able to only pick up a surface level of information. It's a SHIELD Agent phone, and it offers Lara's Agent information. Her full name, her date of birth, etc. The most noteworthy element of that is 'Lady' attached to her name. She's Nobility, apparently... which is odd for a SHIELD Agent, or any kind of similar job, isn't it?

Otherwise, the SHIELD-database is locked up tight!

When he approaches and loosk her over, Lara has seen it a million times over at this stage of her young adult life. She puts her gun back in to her jacket and then accepts the phone. "Oh, I'm already well versed with a bow, thank you though." She says to him as she looks the phone over and then regards him again. "You're not what I was expecting here, I'll admit that. I thought there'd be... well, it doesn't matter."

Her eyes look toward the door she left open, and then back to him. She nods at him once, the flashlight in her left hand aimed at the ground between them now. "I'll leave you to... whatever it is you're doing here then, as I was really on here to investigate. Which I believe I've done."

She smirks then.

Barney Barton has posed:
So there won't be a lot to gain from the phone, other than basic information. Oh, but Trick can go a way with basic information.

It's clear to him, that Lara is not totally done with her investigation, she's trying to learn more about him or his activities. He's been there, done that.

Offering the least threatening stance he can - which translates by smiling at her - Barney holds his hands up in mock defence. "And you see," he says, looking around quickly, "There's nothing here. This will make for a short report. Say, the spared time on the report, you could use for a drink? It's on me."

Yeah, he's broke and needs a quick gig soon to fill his wallet, but for some reason, he'd like to share a drink with the young woman. If she delines the invitation, it's all the same to him, he'll work on securing this place. /His/ new place, his turf.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara takes note of the man's casual demeanor now, like he's trying to make sure she knows he's not a threat. She's seen that before too, usually though it's from people who mistook her for someone else and then regretted what they did, or someone who was really trying to hide something.

But, Lara Croft is a young woman who's been through a lot, and her sense of self preservation is foremost on her mind at almost all times, let alone in moments of heightened tension, like this since he shot the phone from her hand moments ago.

His offer earns a grin from the Agent and a slow shake of her head. "Thank you, but, I should likely be on my way." That's not too surprising, right? Hard to pick up a date when you met her in circumstances like this!

Plus, Lara... has never been much for dates or social hookups in-general. she's a bit of a social hermit!

She clicks off her light and slips it back in to the pouch on the belt cinched around her waistline and then nods once to the man. "I'll tell my authorities this place was empty though." She offers a faint smile then and starts to turn to leave, back toward the door she came in through.

Apparently she felt he didn't need to be reported after all!