England

 The Croft mansion stood like a stone guardian over the English countryside. A black sedan made its way off the road and up to the main gate. The man inside the car looked uncomfortable as he drove up the path to the main gate. Rolling down the window, the man nervously spoke into the intercom. “This is Mr. Smith, I’m suppose” He was cut off midway by the voice on the other end of the line. “Yes Mr. Smith” the female voice drolly said, “I know exactly why you’re here. Come up to the house, and we’ll get down to business.” The gate then opened.

Parking the car in front of the door, the man exited the vehicle. He spent several seconds straitening his suit before picking up an expensive looking briefcase off of the passenger seat. The large oak door in front of him opened to revel the very person who Mr. Smith had been looking for. “Ms. Croft!” he exclaimed. Behind the door was the world-renowned adventurer herself. “Come in Mr. Smith, and we can get down to business”.

Walking through the halls of the estate, their footsteps echoing off the high ceilings. After what seemed an eternity of walking, they reached the drawing room. Motioning for him to sit down in front of her, Smith told of his reason for coming. “Ms. Croft, the reason my associates have sent me here is that we need someone of your considerable talents for a mission of utmost importance.” Lara looked at the man carefully before answering. “I’ve been told that a lot of men need my ‘considerable talents’, why exactly should I help you or your associates?” Smith picked up his briefcase and opened it. Lara was speechless as she gazed at its contents. “Well Mr. Smith…you certainly know the way to a girl’s heart. Now, what I can I do for you?” Lowering the case, Smith continued. “Well Ms. Croft, there is a small research outpost near the artic circle that we own. Well, to make a long story short, we lost contact with them a week ago, right after they made a starling discovery.” “And what, exactly, was this starling discovery?” Smith looked nervously around the room before answering. “A space ship imbedded in the ice. We sent in some of our own people, but we lost contact with them as well. Now, I know you’ve been in some serious financial trouble since that motion picture you backed bombed, so we were wondering” Lara stood up. “Wondering if I would be interested in finding out what happened in exchange for what’s in that case?” Smith nodded. “Well Mr. Smith, you just hired yourself the Tomb Raider

Two days later.

The plane made a smooth landing on the artic ice. The mission was fairly simple, but Lara still felt uneasy as she began her hike across the tundra. True, she was getting a lot of money for this job. And it’s not like they couldn’t just hire another adventurer. She would rather die than see that bloody American Diggers or Mulatto bitch Pincher beat her to another find. Shaking those thoughts aside, Lara began to think about the mission, and what she would do with all that lovely money.

“Bloody hell its cold!” Moving as quickly as she could, Lara crossed the icy plain, the thoughts of pound notes dancing in her brain. After what seemed a frozen eternity, Lara made it to the compound. The lock mechanism had been ripped out of the door, and Lara noticed several large dents in it, like something had tried to punch its way out. But what ever had done had quit, but not before knocking one of the sliding doors out of the frame.

With a little strength, Lara managed to push the door back enough so that she could slip in. Unhooking her backpack, she gently placed it on the floor and removed two .45 automatics and several extra clips. “Bloody thing would just slow me down. I’ll juts stash it here and come back to it if I need it.” Placing the pack close by the door, Lara turned towards the darkened interior of the place. “Hmm, I might need a bit more than my guns”. Going back to the pack, Lara fished out a flashlight, some flares, and finally a map of the place. “I must be getting rusty, going into a place like this without a map.” Shaking her head, Lara began her descent into the bowels of the compound. “According to the map, there should be a back-up generator at the bottom of the stairs.” Flipping on her light, she was soon making her way down the stairwell. Just as she neared the generator, the lights flared to life, bathing everything in a sickly fluorescent light. Dropping her flashlight, Lara braced herself against the wall and kept her guns at the ready. Agonizing seconds became minutes as she waited for something to happen.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps running up the stairs. Lara backpedaled up the stairs to get a better look at what was coming up. To her surprise, it was a woman dressed in a tattered lab-coat. The woman didn’t look to be much older than her, and judging from the look of pure terror on her face, she was trying to outrace something. The woman plowed into her and she barely stopped to look. “Run!” Not even bothering to look back, the woman took the stairs three at a time. Lara stood there, dumbfounded. The only sounds in the stairwell where the rapidly retreating footsteps of the other woman, the hum of the lights, and the sounds of Lara’s own breathing. Holstering her guns, Lara made her way back upstairs to see about the woman.

 Upstairs

 Lara found the woman huddled in a corner, but the biggest shock was the state of the door. It had looked damaged before, but the door now had been completely crushed, and with all the debris pilled in front of it, it would take a bulldozer to get them out. “What happened?” Lara asked, trying to keep the anxiety out of her voice. The woman just cried, and began to babble. Walking over to her, Lara grabbed her shoulders and shook her roughly. “Look damn it! Pull yourself together!” The woman stopped and looked up. “I’m Lara Croft. I was sent here to find out what happened here. Are you part of the staff?” The woman slowly got up and looked Lara in the eye. “My name is Dr. Aiko Banner. I was part of the research team stationed here, yes.” Lara backed away and noticed her backpack was still where she had placed. Thanking every deity she could name, she began to rummage through the pack as Dr. Banner continued to talk.

 “I don’t think either of us is going to live through this Ms. Croft.” Dr. Banner said as Lara began to pull various items out of her pack. Lara, not even bothering to look back, replied. “Don’t be stupid. If I don’t call in five hours, then your employers will send in a army to get us out.” Dr. Banner laughed harshly. “My dear Ms. Croft, we’ll be blessed if we live another five minutes.” At that statement, Lara stopped and turned around. “Alright, what do you mean by that?” Dr. Banner sighed. “Well, there’s no justice in dying without knowing what killed you, so I suppose it would be fair to tell you.” Taking off her coat and placing on the floor, Dr. Banner made herself comfortable.

“It all started when Dr. Richards found two strange objects buried under the ice. We managed to cut and haul the ice back here for study. The ice was giving off low-level gamma radiation. We didn’t know what was going on and if I knew what was going to happen, I would have left those damn things in the ice.” Dr. Banner stooped talking, as she suddenly gripped her stomach. “What’s wrong?” asked Lara. “I’m ok. It seems that the things in the ice were two aliens, or demons, depending on your personal viewpoints. Well, we left the ice in the cooler freezer for an hour while the reports were being written up. When we got back, the ice had melted! All that was left were two pieces of rock, one gray and one green.” Dr. Banner stooped talking as she suddenly scrunched up on the floor. “What’s wrong?” Lara asked, hesitantly walking over to the fallen doctor.

Suddenly, Dr. Aiko Banner sat up. With a flushed face and sweaty hands, the doctor started to remove her shirt. “Doctor Banner, what are you doing?” Lara asked, slowly moving away from the woman. Dr. Banner, with tears running down her eyes as she tore her bra off, managed to choke out a few words. Lara could have sworn she heard an apology from the doctor before she stood up. Discarding the torn fabric, Dr. Banner looked at Lara directly at Lara. This (coupled with her recent actions) made Lara feel a bit uncomfortable around the woman. Without any explanation, the doctor rushed up close to Lara and roughly grabbed her breasts. “Hey!” shouted Lara, “What the bloody hell do” Lara stooped mid-sentence as she looked down in horror at Dr. Banner’s chest. Two eye and a gapping mouth had opened up of the woman’s right breast. A slightly human sounding voice came out of it. “RUN AWAY!” It screamed.

That was the final straw for Lara. Turning, Lara ran like hell away from whatever Dr. Banner had become. But before she got more than a foot, Lara felt a firm grip on her backside. “Hmm, yes” Lara heard a distorted male voice say. “Much more body than your flat ass, wouldn’t you agree, Doctor?” Lara spun around to see that the voice was coming not from the doctor’s mouth, but a large pulpy mass growing out of her neck. A large slit opened, and the words shocked Lara. “Well, Ms. Croft, most of what the dear doctor said was true. But she did leave out a few things. You see, I was one of the aliens trapped in the ice, and I need a new body to replace my old one. But the researchers here individually didn’t suite my needs, so I had to improvise.” A pair of muscular arms burst out of Dr. Banner’s elbows and punched Lara. The impact sent her flying across the room where she hit the wall and Lara felt her collarbone break. In a flash, Dr. Banner’s form was standing over her. “Well, merging the various parts I needed worked, but I was now thinking of some cosmetic enhancements…” Another pair of arms ripped out Dr. Banner’s right pants leg and tore open Lara’s shirt. Within seconds, the hands gripped Lara’s nipples and Lara screamed as her breasts suddenly disappeared, reappearing on Dr. Banner’s chest. Painfully, Lara picked one of her pistols, but the thing in Banner’s throat saw her movements. “Now, we don’t need that.” Lara almost passed out as the thing grabbed her arm and pulled it out of her socket and stuck it (with pistol still firmly in its hand) directly under Banner’s left arm. Bending down and embracing her, the thing opened Dr. Banner’s mouth and kissed Lara. Lara felt something thick and heavy enter her mouth but before she could react, she felt her tongue being cut off at the base and lifted out of her mouth. Horrified, Lara watched as Dr. Banner lifted her tongue out of her mouth and swallowed it. Dr. Banner’s tongue melted with her own, and became nearly a foot long. “Now” said the growth “That should keep the dear doctor busy for a while. Lara, may I call you Lara? Lara, I think I have all that I need from you. Now, since I don’t need the doctor here whining about the stench, I’m just going to snap your neck, rather than let you bleed to death. Isn’t that nice of me?” While the growth was talking, Lara noticed that Dr. Banner’s new arm (no, HER arm, Lara thought) suddenly jerked upright, with her pistol directly under the growth. “What!” was the only the growth could cry as Lara’s disembodied hand pulled the gun’s trigger. The growth exploded in a shower of foul smelling gore. Dr. Banner’s body regained some of its original portions as the woman slumped to the floor. “Oh god. Please, there’s no time left!” Dr. Banner said somewhat slurred, as her tongue flopped around her face. Gently as she could, she picked up Lara and began to move quickly down the stairwell.

Lara could feel her life slipping away. She heard someone (Dr. Banner?) talking, but she wasn’t sure. She felt like she was being carried and then placed down somewhere warm. Everything around her began to go black and then she felt as if she had been dumped in a tub of ice water. Opening her eyes, Lara saw that, instead of laying down in some Artic station, she was standing in what looked like her old school dorm room. “What the hell”? Lara asked, before putting her hand in her mouth. Her tongue, in fact her whole arm, was there! “Hello” a strange voice said. Looking around, Lara saw that she was alone in the room. “You can’t see me. I really don’t have the time to explain, but I need your help.” Lara sat down on the edge of her old bed. “Ok, I’m not doing anything until you tell me what’s going on!” “Fair enough. I was tracking a felon across the galaxy, when we crash-landed on your world. I am unaware of how long we were buried in the ice until those humans released the two of us. As you are probably aware, your body suffered a great deal of physical trauma, and by now you have already bleed to death. Your brain is still functioning, but I don’t know for how much longer. Now, if you merge with me, I can repair the damage to your body, and you can help me capture a dangerous felon. How does that sound?” “Like a pretty piss poor deal, but since it probably beats being dead, why not?” “Alright then, just turn around, and we can get started.”

Turning around, Lara stared in horror as she saw her own body sprawled out on the floor. A nearby green stone was giving off a strange light that bathed everything in greenish glow. The stone then melted and the ooze that was left slowly rolled over to Lara’s head and disappeared down her left eardrum. “What’s going on?” Lara asked as several large bumps appeared on her chest. “Well, at the moment I’m rearranging your internal organs. Your mind is still working, but it’s like you’re asleep. You do have some internal damage, and I have to fix it. I also have to repair your arm, which should be ready in about, now!”

Lara woke up with a start. Looking down, she saw no injuries on her body. Her breasts were back to normal and her arm felt fine. Running her tongue over her teeth, Lara smiled. “Happy?” asked the same voice from before. Lara stopped smiling and stood up. “Alright, where are you?” she asked. “At the moment, I’m in you. Now, we had best get back upstairs and see about the other human.” Lara started to run up the stairs when she heard an inhuman scream. Taking the stair three at a time, Lara got to the top only to see Dr. Banner face down on the floor. The doctor’s head was laying flat on the cold pavement, but her body was twisting almost a perfect 180 degrees. Before Lara could move, the doctor sat up. Her head was still turned around, but Lara could see two large lumps form in the doctor’s groin. A crackling noise, like someone stepping on walnuts, filled the air. A large pulpy gray mass burst out of the back of the doctor’s skull.

“What do I have to do to get rid of you?” The mass shrieked. The body slowly stood up and awkwardly moved towards Lara. Lara tried to back up, but her feet felt like they had been hot-glued to the floor. “Calm down Ms Croft. I know how to defeat him.” The voice said. Dr. Banner’s body continued to move slowly towards her. Lara hissed under her breath. “Then hurry the bloody hell up and do it!”

Lara felt like she was watching somebody else as her body rushed towards Dr. Banner’s and embraced the scientist. Pain shot through her body as she felt her breasts open like two flowers and latch on the doctors. “What are you doing?” the gray mass screamed in Lara’s face. The doctor’s body was beginning to flow like molasses into Lara’s body. Everything was getting dim and Lara could see a tangles mass of limbs falling away from her.

Lara felt like she was being torn in two. The floor seemed to jump away from her, and the sound of her bones popping filled her ears. A strange kind of heat was building in side her. Under normal circumstances, Lara might have been concerned. But the last hour or so had managed to melt Lara’s ideas on what was normal. There was slight flash of pain around her feet, but it passed as her boots exploded trying to contain her swelling feet. Her pant legs followed suit, and ripped directly up the seams. The zipper quickly followed, and within seconds, she was standing wearing nothing but some thermal wear. Lara noticed that her skin was quickly becoming a dark green. “Well, why not?” Lara thought. Her thermal underwear tried to contain her rapidly swelling ass, but it was a lost cause. The garment stretched too much, and the waistband snapped, causing the now useless thing to float to the ground. Another voice began to speak. “What’s happening?” It was Dr. Banner’s voice! The alien started to talk in a soothing tone. “Well, Aiko, we just absorbed you. That leaves the enemy now with only has a few limbs to control.”

The withering mass on the ground began to scream. “No! It can’t end like this! Not after all this time, I won’t let it!” Lara, or more accurately, Lara/Aiko/Alien, simply walked over to the creature and stepped on the gray mass in the center of the limbs. Some of the arms smacked Lara’s legs, but she didn’t even feel them. Grinding her foot into the mess, Lara heard a few unpronounceable words muttered as the limbs gave one final jerk, and then collapsed into a heap.

Four hours later

Lara looked around the compound. Aiko (she insisted that she be called that) had just woken u. Lara’s body still tingled, but she didn’t mind. The alien (it’s name would be unspeakable to humans, or anything with teeth) had finally explained how to undue the merging. The control crystals were in the lab. While the alien said there were many ways to bring about the transformation again, the crystals were the easiest way to change back. Thankfully, Aiko had remembered where they had placed them prior to the whole mess started. To be truthful, Lara didn’t mind being in her changed state so much. She had power, and as the wrecked lab doors would attest, she could do almost anything. Aiko, on the other hand, was less than pleased. The shock of the week had been to much for her and she had passed out. She could remember where she was, much less what had happened, and Lara didn’t feel like explaining anything. Lara sighed as she heard the sounds of a helicopter off in the distance. The crystals could help her change back and forth with no problem. The alien was still inside her, but she couldn’t but think about the doctor. “Well, I do have a solution, if you want to hear it” the alien spoke up. “Give the doctor one of the crystals. With it, we can merge into one being again” Lara thought it over. Smiling, she slipped one of the crystals into the doctor’s back pocket. Whatever happens now, Lara thought, I know all three of us can handle it.