Temples, Legions, and Other Fun Things

Cassandra woke up after falling off the couch onto her head. Above the cold tiles of the apartment was a red carpet which thankfully broke her fall. She let out an audible groan as she stared at the white ceiling. She tried getting comfortable on the couch next to Julian, but he was rearranged in such a way that getting into a sleeping position that didn’t require straight up contortion was impossible.

She checked her phone. No weather forcing the grands to move and change the time, so it was still 5AM like she expected.

“Yo, Julian.” She whispered. No response. Sleeping Julian was little more than a handsome brick, same as usual.

She looked for paper, hoping that Dakarai didn’t already replace it with a calculator that leaves notes or some high-tech future crap like that. She found a bunch of paper, both new and balled up, by the wooden table in Dakarai’s dining room. So she left a note and placed it on Julian’s forehead.

‘going out, call me if you need me. Cass.’ With a little heart by the end for a dash of affectionate professionalism.

Cassandra stepped out into the Inariu morning. The housing platform near the top had a pleasant breeze surrounding it, and the sun was rising without a bad cloud in sight. It was going to be a good day. She checked the map looking to see if there was a church nearby, and luckily there was. Nearby the housing levels too. It was apparently an addition to main housing block three. She was on housing block four, so she walked across the small metal tunnel connecting the blocks, and then on the thin metal walkway connecting block 3 and the church.

It was a pretty small church. A stone building that looked like it was built by Gurut handymen a long time ago. Three pillars stood between her and the door, with a triangular yellow roof at the top. The perfect place for a roof.

She walked into the stone temple, where statues of the twelve Olympian gods lay, even if some were in worse condition than others. Aphrodite didn’t even have a head, for a start. And Poseidon was missing an arm. But the others only had a couple of scratches at most. Including Apollo, her favourite of the bunch.

“Apollo.” She whispered. “May your gift of prophecy guide us to a better future in these trying times.”

She also felt like offering a prayer to Artemis, but losing the most important bow in the world might make relations between the two a little iffy. But thinking of weapons, Zeus was there, all thundery. She could pray to him seeing as she had his powerset now.

“Zeus.” She whispered. “May you give us the strength to fight off our enemies.”

Inside herself, she felt relieved. She was a holy warrior of sorts now, so talking it out with some divine individuals made her feel a little better.

But just as she was about to walk out, a robed figure walked into the building. Then another. And more piled in until twelve hooded figures were in the building. And all of them seemed to be staring at her.

“Oh, hey.” Cassandra said calmly, taking a step back. “Have I…interrupted something? Because if so, I can totally just leave.”

She gave an awkward smile as she tried to walk out of the church. But just as she was about to leave, two of the larger members of the group walked in front of the door.

“Hey, mind explaining what I walked in on?” Cassandra asked, watching as the other members of the group surrounded her. One member stood between the two large members.

“State your name!” The one in the middle commanded, in a booming voice.

“It’s…Megan.” Cassandra replied slowly. The people in the circle kept their distance, not doing anything yet. But just letting them know her name seemed like a pretty bad idea.

“Lies!” The hooded figure yelled. “You’re the one working against the Legion!”

“Yeah? Why wouldn’t I?” She asked.

One of the members from behind her reached under her arms and held her. She kicked back, causing the person to let her go. She tried running out, only for one of the large people to punch her in the face, with another man dragging her to the ground.

“Tell me, miss.” The middle man began, removing his hood and revealing a scrawny looking black man underneath. “Why is it that you fight for the current weapon holders?”

“Because the Legion are terrorists!” Cassandra yelled, trying to get out of the man’s weight.

“And what of the Lucians?” He asked. “Are you aware of what they’re hiding?”

“I don’t know anything!” Cassandra screamed, getting out and standing up to meet him. “I just found the axe!”

“Listen, all you have to do is join the Legion. Once initiated, we’ll work to expose the-“

That was as far as he got before Cassandra punched him in the face. He fell to the ground with one punch, wheezing in agony. Another member tried approaching her from behind, but she managed to sidestep them and land a kick to their stomach. Another member revealed a set of claws and dug them into her back. She managed to stay upright, making another bolt towards the door. The larger member once again grabbed her and threw her back into the crowd. But just as she tried getting up again, a clanging noise was heard from behind the man. And then he fell forward.

Cassandra looked forward, and the girl revealed herself. It was the same girl who was in Dakarai’s waiting room.

“Cassandra?” She asked.

“Metal girl?” Cassandra replied.

“What’s going on here?” The girl asked, looking at the people surrounding her. She pressed a button on her arm, and it formed into a blunter form that looked like a baseball bat.

“I have no idea.” Cassandra replied.

“Well, I’ll help you with whatever it is.” She said calmly, swinging her hand into the second large man, knocking him out cold.

The other members seemed to look at each other through their hoods. Three of them tried to lunge towards Cassandra, who leapt out of the way. Cassandra dashed behind one and kicked them in the back, forcing them to the ground. One of the others kicked her as hard as they could in the stomach, forcing her to her knees. The girl ran up to the other two and bashed them in the heads with her bat. The others ran out of the church as soon as possible, with the largest remaining taking their leader with them.

“Gosh…thanks.” Cassandra said in between breaths, desperate to remind her insides how breathing worked.

“No problem.” The girl replied worryingly, looking to the walkway where all of them were running.

“We going after them?”

“They’ll disperse and try to blend into the crowd. I’ll report them later, but we should at least be fine for today.”

“Okay…cool.” Cassandra gasped, standing upright to make one final inhale to fix her lungs. “Thanks…I forgot your name.”

“Chizoba.” She replied.

“Cool. So, what brings you here?”

“Well, I’m just waiting for Dakarai to set up shop, so I decided to swing by here and see what was up.”

“Didn’t take you for the religious type.” Cassandra said.

“I’m not, the place just looked nice. Stonework is kinda rare around these parts, so I just wanted to see what it was.”

“It’s a temple to the Olympian gods. Pretty small and run down, but all the fan favourites are there.”

“Fan favourites?”

“The twelve main ones, anyway. If you got the time, I’ll guide you through them and show you the…”

She was cut off by her phone buzzing in her back pocket. She answered it and heard Ola’s voice on the other end.

“This is Cassandra, right?” She asked quickly.

“Yeah.” Cassandra replied.

“Okay, great.” Ola said just as quick. “If you want to try out one of the guns, come to my place on level one.”

“Yeah, sounds good.” Cassandra nodded as she left the call.

“Who was that?” Chizoba asked.

“Ola. She wants me to come over and test out the guns she’s got.”

“The new weapons the soldiers here have? Mind if I come?”

“You think she’ll let you in?”

“I mean, I feel the need to report what happened to her.”

“Right. I’ll vouch for you anyway, so let’s get going."