Tomb Raider - Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel

6 ~ Real-life Superheroes

Nora sat there on the cold concrete floor of the records room holding the file in her lap, internally debating whether or not to open it.

Did she really want to know?

Oh, come on, Eleanora. Just open the damn folder.

Inside there was multiple pages of symbols, intricate, swirling symbols that she had never seen before. What the hell?

Perhaps they were glyphs of some sort, a different alphabet or writing system. But the elegant swirls were unlike anything alphabet or glyphs she had ever come across.

There was no translation, just more pages covered in the same sequence of symbols. There were so many of them, drawn so tightly together it made her dizzy, the same pattern over and over again.

However, although the writing was different, that was unmistakably her mother's handwriting. What does all this mean, Mum?

It had been so long since she'd used 'Mum' and 'Dad', instead referring to them by 'them' or their names.

Removing those pages she found a photograph of a stone with runes carved into it, the runes matching the symbols on the page. They were runes. Still unlike any she had come across.

A charcoal rubbing had been done, most likely of the same rock, but for some reason only half the runes had been drawn, leaving them incomplete.

Again the question resurfaced in her mind: what were you doing?

She took out her phone and began snapping pictures of the pages and photos.

So focused, she jumped and cried out slightly when she heard the doors to the room open, followed by echoing footsteps against the concrete.

Shit. Someone else was in here. She would rather avoid any further interaction.

Jumping up from the floor where she had spread the contents of the file in an arrangement and scooping up the box and its contents, she madly began stuffing it all back, as neatly as her new panicked state allowed, all while the footsteps drew closer.

"Hey!"

She jumped, stumbling and cursing. An agent in a black leather jacket and her hair in a bun stood there, arms crossed.

"Hand over the file," the woman ordered, one hand falling to rest on the handgun at her belt, clearly signalling that Nora shouldn't try anything.  "And hands up. I need you to come with me."

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"Bollocks." Now she sat in someone's office on one of the top floors of the facility, which proved to have a great panoramic view of the city. It felt like she was in school again, dragged to the headmaster's office for something she'd done.

Well that had been a complete failure, and she'd barely gotten any answers on her parents. Just a bunch of random runes that meant nothing.

"So, Agent Amy Locke, huh?"

A man entered the office. He was tall, wearing all black including a long coat and an eye-patch over his left eye. He came and sat down at the desk. "I take it that's not really your name, is it?" He sat down at his desk. "I'll tell you my name: Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Yup, you got yourself in so much trouble they brought you right to the top." He tossed her fake ID badge onto the desk. The agent who'd caught her had made her hand it over right after being caught. "I gotta say, I'm impressed by this. It's pretty authentic looking."

"Thanks, made it myself." She gave a stiff smile.

"Well, you got talent. Miss? Mrs.?"

"Ms.," she corrected. "Ms. Bane."