I'm Lara Croft?

Some weeks later in Peru, along the Amazon River, within the dense jungle of the Amazon, Lara and Jonah were walking.

"Why don't we use a plane or helicopter or something?" asked Jonah as he pushed aside a branch. He was walking behind Lara, carrying a shotgun—the Croft Decastrike. This weapon was developed by scientists at L.A.R.A. and manufactured by the engineers of the newly created Croft Arsenal, alongside other variants like the Croft DuodecStrike.

Croft Arsenal was established under Croft Holdings four months ago. Leveraging Croft's contacts, Winston's connections, and those that T.O.M.B. secured through Trinity, the company gained significant traction. After the British Armed Forces witnessed their top-level products, close to Stark Industries level, only a bit lower, they decided to partner with Croft Arsenal. Their goal was to have a weapon manufacturer on par with Stark Industries within their own country, rather than relying solely on Stark.

This move slightly hurt Stark Industries, but they didn't care too much. Their primary income did not come from Britain, and Stark did not want to rely only on the weapon business. Even Howard Stark wanted to venture into the energy sector, but old oil tycoons like Roxxon were doing everything possible to block him.

Additionally, Lara posed an unexpected challenge for Howard and Tony. She aimed to dominate the European market not just in technology and weapons, but also in the energy sector in the future with Croft Energy. She was already having scientists work on an arc reactor, occasionally assisted by Alyssa to advance the project. Lara envisioned deploying Croft arc reactors in countries such as France, Germany, England, Italy, Poland, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands and more. While Stark Industries base of operations is in North America, Lara intended for Europe to become Croft Holdings primary base of operations.

Regarding the Decastrike shotgun, it's an improved version of the Benelli M4, which would appear ten years later. It was part of the Strike series and named "Deca" because it is a 10-gauge shotgun.

Returning to Lara and Jonah, who were traversing the Amazonian forest, Lara responded, "I have a feeling that we're gonna get caught in a storm and just crash."

Jonah, who was more alert than Lara, who was carefree, answered, "I also had this feeling. It's good to know it's not just me."

Noticing Jonah's tension, Lara said, "Don't be so tense. Be happy—you might even find a girlfriend out here." She remembered Abigail Ortiz, who became Jonah's wife at the end of the Tomb Raider anime.

Jonah, who was checking for jaguars and other dangerous animals, was about to respond when he didn't see Lara in his line of sight. Hearing noise from the river, he ran, ready to shoot, only to see Lara in a crowd of capybaras playing with them.

"Jonah, come and fluff these things with me!" said Lara as she snuggled a capybara, who, like the rest, were just chill guys being chill.

Jonah, who had gotten close, said, "Don't play with them—you might get a parasite."

Lara replied, "My skin is too hard for some parasites to penetrate, and if one can get in, I can just remove it. I'm not afraid of a little pain."

After Lara finished playing with the capybaras, she and Jonah resumed their journey. Lara remarked, "When we leave, I should get one or two capybaras."

Jonah just sighed.

After some time, they had to go through a cave. As they were walking, Lara's heightened sense of smell detected something strange. 'Is this the smell of a jaguar?' she thought before saying, "Be on alert. I think there is a jaguar. If it's just one, don't shoot it."

Jonah nodded.

As they entered a round section with a natural pillar in the center and tunnels surrounding it, Lara looked around and saw a jaguar running straight toward her. She pointed her hand toward Jonah to stop him from shooting. Just as the jaguar got close and jumped, Lara kicked him in the jaw, sending him back into the air and onto the floor.

As the jaguar tried to get up, Lara pinned him down by the neck and said, "You will be a good kitty, right?"

The jaguar attempted to scratch and bite her, but Lara punched him in the head, repeating, "Good kitty?" The jaguar tried again, only to be hit in the head once more, making him see stars. "Good kitty?" After a few more attempts, Lara asked, "Good kitty?" The jaguar, his brain scrambled from all the hits, only nodded, "Good kitty," said Lara as she got up and petted the jaguar.

Lara said as she left the cave, "Let's go." Jonah nodded before stopping to address the jaguar, saying, "You could have just stopped the first time and not taken all these hits." After that, he followed Lara until they found a Mayan bridge that was operating on a mechanism using the river water.

After examining it for a bit, they figured out how it worked and used a big bucket connected to the mechanism to channel water and lift the bridge.

Traversing the bridge, they entered another cave that housed a statue with a slate. Seeing it, Lara brought down the part that was blocking the gold slate to reveal a mayan recipe for a natural paste for wounds.

Looking at all the gold on the statue, Lara said, "This would look good in my collection," as she noted down the location in her notebook.

Jonah remarked, "So, other than the local wildlife, we also steal local statues?"

Lara simply replied, "I'm British; I can't help it."