Alexandria

‘Ugh,’ Saraya thought as she wiped her brow, leveling a glare at the blazing sun overhead in disgust. ‘Great idea Raven. Send me to the hottest place on the planet while you get to go to one of the Mediterranean’s paradises.’ Let it be known that Saraya was no fan of the heat, and the crowded bustle of her unfamiliar surroundings weren’t helping matters any. Saraya and Santana had left the New York Church in the cover of night, taking a non-stop flight to Alexandria via one of the private jets that the Illuminati secretly owned to get a head start on their mission, and it was obvious that the Exemplar had not been prepared for the climate of the North African state. ‘I’m going to burn like a lobster,’ she thought as she stared at her bare arm, which was already showing the telltale signs of sunburn. “Santana?” she asked, looking to the Felis as he guided her though the center of the metropolis. “How do you deal with this heat?”

Santana grinned in amusement at the attitude of the young Exemplar. He knew exactly how she was feeling right now, having had to acclimate himself to the unique climate of Egypt himself when he first was stationed to the Alexandrian church. “I’m used to it,” Santana said before taking a swig of juice from the canteen he had hanging from his belt. “But having a drink at all times helps, as well as the appropriate dress.” Santana deliberately gave Saraya a look over, drawing attention to the black skinny jeans and matching band tee shirt that she had on. “You should really lose the black chica.”

Saraya groaned as she glanced at her surroundings. Alexandria was definitely a city that remembered its ancient roots, being founded in the days of the legendary conqueror Alexander, showing such by its massive size and development. It was a city that had found a way to expand and change with the times whilst still preserving many of its ancient monuments, personified by many of the more modern high rises being placed right next to some of the ancient stone sphinxes still lying around. Alexandria still had several small amphitheaters that the Romans had constructed in pristine condition, turned into tourist attractions and parks, while its largest was still used from time to time for certain festivals and attractions.

Even with a guide like Santana, the sheer size of Alexandria made it a bit difficult to traverse, especially on foot. ‘Santana,’ Saraya called via telepathy, annoyance clear in her tone. ‘If there’s any shortcut you’ve been holding out on, now’s the time to reveal it. I really need to get out of this heat, unless you want to deal with me acting like a b***h in heat.’

Santana stumbled in shock before giving Saraya a unsure look. “You do know how that sounded, right?”

“Right now, I really could care less,” Saraya said, her annoyance with the climate apparent in her voice. “I need to cool off. Where the hell is this church anyway Santana?”

“Not too far from here,” Santana said, taking a look at the more familiar surroundings to orient himself. “Lucky for you, the Alexandrian church is underwater, so you won’t have to worry about this heat much longer.”

‘Underwater?’ Saraya thought, this being the first time she had heard this particular fact about the Alexandrian church. ‘This I gotta see.’ With that, Saraya took off after Santana, who had broken into a jog as he led the way to the Illuminati’s base of operations in the city.

Deep in the bowels of said church, three men dressed in the iconic blue and yellow colors of the Swiss Guard were taking their turns punching on a young blonde woman who was chained to a metal cross in one of the churches many dungeons. She looked like she had gone through her fair share of torture, dressed in nothing more than her underwear, and her body bearing numerous black and blue marks, with various cuts all over her alabaster skin. “Look at the mighty Siobhan Bocharov,” one of the guards said, viciously smacking the Judge Magister across the face with enough force to make the blood that was flowing from her lip fly. “Reduced to a mere punching bag; a prisoner in her own castle.”

“Screw you,” Siobhan spat out, before actually spitting in the man’s face in defiance with a glare that could melt the cold winter snows in her hometown of St. Petersburg. “And your mother.” Despite her current positon, Siobhan was as proud as she was beautiful, and refused to let her enemies see her weakness. This was one of the many qualities that had won her the position of Judge Magister for her Ursa race, as well as total command of the Alexandrian Church regardless of scant 26 years of age. “You think you scum are going to get away with this? The second the other churches find out what is going on here, they will come.” Siobhan cast the three guardsmen a warning glare as she spoke, sending shivers up their spines despite her being bound in chains that were fashioned to suppress ki, rendering an escape useless. “Trust, your Justicar commander will not take those who come by surprise as he did me.”

    A slow, mocking clap was heard as the singular door to the dank cell creaked open, with a rock star looking man emerging through its threshold. This man had medium length, wild looking hair that was brightly multicolored, with shaven points into his beard that helped to compliment his look. Unlike the other guardsmen, this man was dressed in a yellow mesh shirt and khaki pants, with a golden chain necklace around his neck that had a medallion depicting the crest of Ut Puri on its face. “Defiant to the end, aren’t you?” the man asked as he drew closer to Siobhan, cupping the woman’s cheek in his right hand and caressing it like a lover would. “Such a beauty; a worthy new addition to my hall of trophies.”

“Bite me!” Siobhan yelled, swiftly moving her cheek from the Justicar’s touch.

The man chuckled before forcefully grasping her chin to look her in the eyes. “You find my touch unwelcome?”

He was answered by the Judge Magister spitting directly into his face. “I can’t wait to eviscerate you,” she said in a hate filled voice.

Slap!

The powerful blow echoed throughout the dungeon as the man wiped his face off, wearing a look of rage from Siobhan’s rebellious attitude. “And I can’t wait to kill you.”

“Why wait?” Siobhan asked, as a look of focus appeared on her face. She tensed her body as she used nothing more than sheer willpower to bring her ki to bear. “When you chance has come and passed!” With a resounding yell, Siobhan used the force of her ki to send the four men flying into the adjacent walls, smiling upon hearing the sickening thud of the three guardsmen’s heads collide with the stone walls. The Justicar leader had been luckier, being able to grasp the threshold of the doorway to stop his flight. However, Siobhan’s victory was short lived, as she was suddenly shocked by the chains that bound her to the cross. She shook in pain from the bolts of electricity that visibly danced over her form as the Justicar laughed in glee.

“You must have forgotten who I am,” the Justicar said as he walked over to Siobhan with a controlled, purposeful pace. “I am Ut Puri’s engineering mastermind! Did you think I would fashion those chains that bind you without a failsafe?” The man slung his arm around Siobhan’s neck as he traced his finger over the exposed area of her ample chest in a circle. “These chains are the next step in society’s way of detaining their criminals; they not only suppress your ki, but they siphon a set amount from you to power their secondary ability, which I’m sure you had a fun time of experiencing.” He suddenly grasped her hair in a firm grip as he pulled her head to the side. “Your allies will come,” he said in a far more menacing voice than before. “And they will die at my feet. Only after I tire from your lament filled screams as you watch them fall will I still the beating of your filthy Sovrumano heart!” After a final slap, the Justicar turned to leave the room, but not before addressing the recovering guardsmen. “Have you way with this one; that’ll make her good for something.”

As the Justicar left, Siobhan began tugging furiously at the chains, as a primal terror gripped her heart. Just by the glazed looks of lust from the guardsmen, she knew what the Justicar had meant. “Stay away from me!” she yelled, almost begging in her tone. “Don’t come any closer!” As the men dismissed her pleas, all that could be heard from the dungeons of the Alexandrian church was the sound of her pained screaming.

“And here it is,” Santana said as he swept his hand towards a large dock that jutted out into the Mediterranean. “The Alexandrian Church of Illumination!”

“Um,” Saraya said, herself taking a glance at her surroundings with disbelief clear in her gaze. “You sure we’re at the right place?” she asked. Santana had brought them to Alexandria’s port, which was bustling with the activity of many a sailor and merchant, but showed no sign of any Illuminati influence.

“Yeah I’m sure,” Santana said as he took to walking onto the pier that he had motioned to. “Just follow me; you’ll understand shortly.” Santana had to remind himself quite a few times that Saraya was both an Exemplar and had never been to this church, or else he would have exploded from all the times she had been nagging him about the churches’ location. She had hit the nail on her head with her earlier comment; when she was hot, she could indeed be described as a b***h.

The two Illuminati members made their way to a lone white shack at the end of the pier, most likely one of the bases for the port authority of Alexandria. However, instead of knocking and waiting for a response, Santana openly barged into the shack to Saraya’s visible surprise. “Santana?” Saraya asked cautiously.

“Chill out,” Santana said, looking around the small, one room shack with a curious eye. “Something’s not right.” Santana hugged the wall as he made a circle around the room, eyes alight with suspicion once he made it back to Saraya. “Do me a favor, just to make sure of something?”

“What?” Saraya asked, still confused with Santana’s actions.

“You can sense the presence of someone right,” Santana asked. “With your psychic powers and all?”

“Yeah,” Saraya answered. “You know that. All Sovrumano can do that to an extent; Lamia, and I for that matter, just happen to be the best at it.”

Santana rolled his eyes as he sighed, trying to control his temper that had been hanging on by a thread. “Spare me your pride; just do it!”

‘Spoilsport,’ Saraya said before summoning her ki, putting her index and pointer fingers on her temples as she focused on detecting the presence of anyone nearby. After a few seconds, she stopped with a deep breath. “Well,” she said. “As far as I can tell, no one is anywhere near us in a hundred foot radius.” At the sound of a scowl from the Felis, Saraya instantly went into business mode, not needing her powers to tell that something was off. “What’s wrong here Santana?”

Santana let a shaky sigh out of his mouth as he gazed at the sea from the window. “This shack is the entrance to the church that is underneath us. Judge Magister Bocharov mandated that a watch would be posted here at all times, regardless of any situation. We change the watch here, report from here; everything.” Santana suddenly clapped his hands together as his eyes glowed briefly, expelling a near invisible wave of white ki from his body. From that wave of energy, an assortment of high tech equipment that included three different computer screens suddenly appeared before their eyes. “To leave this abandoned for even a second is cause to go before her judgment. No member of this church in their right mind would disobey that order.”

   “It seems Raven was right,” Saraya said as a cross look came to her face. “Something’s going on here, and I want to know what.” She looked around the room, searching for some kind of opening, but after a few seconds, had no choice but to ask for Santana’s aid. “Santana, how do you get to the actual church?”

Before Santana had a chance to answer, a loud creak was heard before a trapdoor in the floor opened up. The two Illuminati members gave each other a look before instantly standing side by side, taking offensive stances as they eyed the opening in the floor, preparing themselves for anyone that might emerge. They were startled, however, as a bloody teen with dark red hair walked out of the door before collapsing. Santana caught the teen before he fell, cradling his head cautiously as he laid him out on the floor. “Eric?” he asked with concern, easily recognizing the person from past working assignments, as well as the teen being one of his closer friends in the Alexandrian church. “What happened to you? What’s going on??

The injured teen moaned as he locked eyes with Santana, instantly recognizing his comrade. “Santana,” he said, breathing a small sigh of relief before suddenly coughing up a glob of blood. “Ut Puri. They have come.”

“Stop,” Saraya said, holding a finger to his mouth as she silenced him. “You’re injured. Let me see what happened through your eyes.”

“Who are you?” Eric asked, not exactly trusting of the unfamiliar woman.

“She’s cool,” Santana said with a nod. “She’s the new Exemplar of the Lamia, Saraya Steckzolfer. She came with me because the Exemplars had a feeling something was going on here.”

“Thank the gods,” Eric said with a sigh of relief before casting his gaze to the beautiful Exemplar. “Look into my mind, and see what they have done to our brothers and sisters.” Saraya nodded wordlessly as she put a finger to his forehead to read his mind. Santana watched as a number of emotions crossed her face, with Saraya’s expression steadily getting darker by the second. After she was done, she stood and took a deep breath before calmly walking to the adjacent wall and punching it with all her might, leaving a fist sized hole in it.

“What did you see?” Santana asked nervously, this being the first time he witnessed such a display of brute strength from the female Exemplar.

Saraya struggled to rein in her emotions from what she had witnessed, but it wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination. All that had played in front of her eyes was the suffering of her sister-like friend in Siobhan and many others, as the agents of Ut Puri found enjoyment in torturing the members within to their hearts’ content. “F**k what I saw,” Saraya said, shocking both teens with her vulgar language. They’re mine; let us see what those pieces of trash can do when they’re on the other end of a surprise attack!” With that, Saraya stormed into the hole, making her way into the Alexandrian Church of Illumination for the first time with murder on her mind.

              No one would get away with what happened to Siobhan, not if she had anything to say about it.