by Jory Smith
Zeus and Terry exited the cabin; Terry saw another cabin to his right. On his left he saw a pavilion that housed a table and a fountain that had water pouring out. In front of him Nicolai and Amadi stood near a boulder, breathing harder than normal.
“Strength training, huh?” bellowed Zeus from afar. “I would be amazed if any of you could move that boulder. Heracles himself put that boulder there. Did it to piss off Hera, and boy, she was pissed. He put it on her favorite flower.”
As Zeus spoke, Terry could see a pain in his eyes, but it quickly passed away. “Well Tereus, your companions can’t move it. Why don’t you give it a try?”
Terry moved to the boulder and began pushing. The boulder was massive and towered over Terry. At first it wouldn’t budge, but as he started to put more effort into lifting the boulder, his muscles started to work together. A new found energy had awoken in him and gave Terry the added strength he needed.
As he kept trying to lift the boulder, he dug deeper into the earth until his hands dug into the boulder. The boulder suddenly felt as light as a feather and he lifted it over his head with ease. Everyone but Zeus stood there with their mouths hanging open. Zeus stood there with a grin on his face.
“Ha, I knew you could do it,” Zeus patted his back, causing the boulder to almost fall from Terry’s grasp. “Now, let’s see how far you can throw it. Go ahead, give it a toss,”
Terry first looked up, wondering how he was going to throw it. The boulder was light, but just too big and awkward to toss like a baseball. Instead Terry got into position for a shot put throw. He took a couple of steps and tossed it as far as he could. Everyone watched as the boulder disappeared into the sky.
“I would hate to be at the end of that thing,” Nicolai muttered under his breath.
Amadi spoke up and asked, “How could he have such strength and we can’t? What is up with that?”
“That is a good question. Hermes, do you want to take it?” Zeus said, deflecting Amadi’s question.
Hermes stood up from a chair he had conjured and glided over to them. As he was moving he reached down picking up a few blades of grass. “In my hands I have five blades of grass. As you can see, they are all different. One is taller than the other. One is fatter. One is wider, and one has been damaged,” He let the grasses blow from his hand. “Just like the blades of grass, not one of you is the same. You each have your own talents. It is the same with us gods too.”
“We each have the same base powers of extra strength, speed, and other simple powers like that. But as you have noticed, some gods have more strength or speed than others. Other gods can see the future. While some can create lightning bolts out of thin air,” Hermes said motioning to Zeus. “Others can only make a fireball,” Hermes pointed to himself, then pointing to Athena he finished, “although some can’t even do that.”
Hermes flew upward and disappeared for a few minutes before flying back down again. “Some gods can magically appear wherever they want. I can’t do that. That is why I had these sandals made up so I can travel as well as any of the other gods. Since Athena can’t create a fireball, she had her spear, sword and buckler made to do her fighting. For reasons unknown, Zeus has even allowed her to use some of his lightning bolts he creates for her. She is the only one besides Zeus who can handle them. I tried and they nearly burnt my hands off.”
He flew over to Nicolai, studying him up and down. “Then you have some gods who can kill just by the slightest touch. They cause whatever they touch to waste away. Of course, that ability only tends to run in one particular family.”
“Why can’t you just find out what powers we have and then train us to develop those powers?” Nicolai asked. “Aphrodite learned what powers I had and used it when she came for me.”
Zeus walked up in front of the group. “She is the only one who can do that. Let’s just say, Aphrodite has the ability to read anyone and get them to do what she wants, both male and female.”
Zeus lifted his hands up and the ground started to rumble. A building suddenly materialized from the ground. The building went on for miles. On the left of the compound’s entrance benches and a fountain magically appeared. To the right of the compound was a training area that consisted of training dummies, an obstacle course and racks of weapons and armor. The racks held all sorts of weapons. The swords, varied from long to short. From curved swords to ones that were straight. There were swords that were big and ones that were small. There were just as many variations among the axes, hammers, spears and the armor. Zeus turned around and looked at the three humans.
“You will be ready for battle when you can defeat the trials that are held in this building. Today we will start with the basics, and when Aphrodite returns from her mission, we will let her decipher your powers. I have something I’ve got to do now, so Athena and Hermes will train you.”
As soon as Zeus disappeared, Hermes flew in front of them.
“First things first. Let’s see if one of you can do this.” Hermes produced a fireball and tossed it at the building. “Now, if you all will step up to the field, let’s get started.”
Terry, Nicolai and Amadi stepped into the training area and three training dummies formed out of thin air.
“Okay, I want you to think of heat developing in your hand. As the heat is building pressure, I want you to form it into a ball. You can do any shape you want; the form of a ball is easier for beginners,” Hermes stated. Hermes began inspecting the demi-gods. He first went to Terry and looked at his right hand. “Tereus, what are you doing? Nothing is forming.”
“I am doing what you are saying. Nothing is happening,” Terry said stubbornly.
“Do you feel anything forming? Do you feel any heat coming from your hand or any shape forming in your hand?
“No, nothing. What does that mean?”
“Well, that means you don’t have the power to do this. Don’t worry, your strengths lie elsewhere. You can just stand and watch.”
Hermes flew over to Amadi. He saw that Amadi had a full fireball in his hands. The flames wrapped up his arms and the edges had a deep blue color to them. Hermes felt the heat emitting from his fireball.
“How did you do that?” Hermes asked. “You just learned this.”
“It is actually pretty easy. From what I have figured out, I may not be able to do everything you gods can do, but I know how you guys can do it,” Amadi tossed his fireball at his dummy and hit it dead on.
“Ok, now how about you Nicholaus,” Hermes said noticing no fireball. “Same questions that I gave to Tereus, do you feel any heat or any shape forming?
“Well I don’t feel any heat, but I do feel something in my hand.” Nicolai looked like he had something grasped in his hand. “Can’t you see it?” Nicolai answered Hermes.
“No I can’t. Let’s see what it is.” Hermes stepped back and motioned him to throw it.
Nicolai looked at the dummy then performed a throwing motion with his hand. As soon as Nicolai opened his hand a blackball of death was unleashed. As the ball hit the dummy, it began to eat away at it until there was nothing left.
Athena stepped forward, “No more powers. We will now start on developing your natural skills by helping you learn how to control your new strength, speed, and agility, and as well as teach you how to fight,” Athena then waved her hand. Swords, shields, and spears appeared at the men’s feet.
“What do you expect us to do with these?” Terry asked questioningly.
“You will learn how to fight. You will need more than your new found powers to deal with Ares and his legions. So let’s get started.”
Amadi emerged from the cabin’s back room. It had contained some tubs with hot water. He could even feel a healing effect from the waters. He was still sore, but before he was way worse. Amadi couldn’t remember the last time he felt this sore. Even Special Forces’ training wasn’t this bad.
There has to be a better way than this crap, he thought to himself. He looked over to the bed at the end
of the hut and saw Nicolai laying in his bed moaning. He hadn’t even had the strength to change out of his training clothes. Amadi picked up a pillow and threw it at him.
“You need to get up and move. Your muscles will hurt a lot more if you just lie there. Besides the hot baths will do you good.” Amadi looked around the hut. “Where is Terry at?”
Nicolai responded to him in Russian. Amadi thought he understood what he said, but wasn’t sure. “What did you say?”
Nicolai looked up. “I said ‘go and screw yourself.’ Terry hasn’t come back from visiting his davalka.”
“What did you call her?” Terry said as he walked through the door.
“Your woman,” Nicolai said coyly. “Sorry, I am acting like a dick. I am not pleasant to be around when I am not comfortable.” Nicolai slowly pushed himself up. “I am going to see if those baths will help me out. If this pain doesn’t end, Ares can have the world. Nothing is worth this pain.”
Amadi looked at Terry and saw him smiling. “What are you smiling about?”
“Nothing,” Terry said as he changed his clothes. “Just seeing the old men put in their place after they thought they were better because they have special powers. Now they can’t even do some basic training.”
“Well, we all have our strengths,” Amadi replied. “How is your woman doing?”
“She is getting better. She was moving in her sleep. They said she will be safe to wake up tomorrow. I am going to have a lot of explaining to do. How about you? You mentioned something about having men. Weren’t they supposed to be here?”
“No, they are still sailing. Even though they are magic ships, they can’t use the magic without giving away their positions. If he finds out where they are, he will send his sea beast after them.”
“What is that monster? Jessica and I saw it attacking American ships off the coast of Hawaii when the Change happened.”
“I haven’t talked to anyone yet,” said Amadi. “But from what I pieced together it is the beast known as the Kraken. But there things more important than the beast I need to tell you both.”
“I hope it is how you learned to use a fireball so fast,” Terry said. “You shocked both Athena and Hermes with that one. I love putting those smug idiots in their place. I just want to smack them when they look down on us.”
“I know. I had dealt with people like that when I was a general for the Congolese government. That is biggest reason I betrayed them, but it also was what they were doing to the people.”
“That is why I quit the military as well. It was nice, but too many idiots are in charge. I am going outside. Let me know when Nicolai gets out of the tub.”
Amadi watched as Terry left. None of this made sense. Everything the gods have been saying does not add up. Amadi needed more information if he was going to do anything. He knew the end game, but he still didn’t know the cause. Without knowing the cause, he would never be able to manipulate the end to his liking.
Nicolai finally made it to the tubs and started undressing. The bathrooms contained one big bath in the middle of the room. He put a toe into the bath and noticed it was set at a perfect temperature. Before jumping in he noticed his reflection in a mirror. As he studied himself in the mirror, he saw that his body was covered in bruises.
That Athena is one davalka with an attitude I wonder what her problem is. He climbed into the tub and got comfortable. Noticing the pain starting to ease, he thought Amadi was right. These tubs do help with the pain. Nicolai hoped they wouldn’t have too many more days like this. He wanted to do what was needed but he still wanted to live. Nicolai closed his eyes and drifted off.
Nicolai woke up quickly and noticed there was no pain. He looked in the mirror and saw all of his bruises and cuts were gone. Then he noticed that instead of his clothes being next to the bath, a towel and a long piece of fabric was in its place.
He dried himself off and fumbled with the fabric. After a few tries, he somewhat successfully wrapped himself up and walked out, seeing three beautiful women draped in revealing clothing. Two of them were showing Amadi and Terry how to put the fabric on. When the third one saw how he was wearing his, she giggled and came to him.
“What is going on here?” Nicolai asked as the third one stripped him naked and put the fabric on the correct way. The woman looked up at him and then looked at Amadi and Terry.
Terry answered, “They traded our clothes. I guess these kitons are what we’re wearing now. During training we are to wear the typical breast plate and greaves.”
“It is actually called a ‘chiton,’” Amadi said, correcting Terry. “They were the common dress of ancient Greece. You can do two things with it. One is wear it like Terry is with it covering your whole chest or you can wear it like me with one part draped over the shoulder. This style is known as the ‘exomie’.”
“Okay. And who are these lovely creatures? Why don’t they talk?”
“Well Athena said they are nymphs,” Amadi said. “If they were to speak we would end up worthless and enslaved to their wishes. Apparently they are worse than Aphrodite in their entrapments of men.”
The nymphs finished dressing the men and stored the rest of their clothes in dressers. They waved goodbye and rushed off.
Nicolai sat on his bed shaking his head. “So, what do both of you think about this crap? I don’t need the training with these obsolete weapons? Give me a good shotgun, preferably a Winchester 1887, and I will win this war.”
“I would rather have a pistol, a desert eagle,” Amadi piped in. “I never had the need for a shotgun or an assault weapon. I don’t think they would know how to create one. If you haven’t noticed, they are not that advanced in technology. They only advance if their powers lack in abilities.”
“Nicolai is right. We are wasting time by training with these stupid weapons,” Terry said. “Though Amadi is picking up the training faster than both of us,” Terry stood up and motioned to what he was wearing. “They have to be crazy if they think I am going to fight in these dresses. What are we going to do, kill Ares with laughter?”
“What are we going to do? From the reports we received today, our weapons don’t do much damage against the creatures that Ares has fighting for him. If we have to fight other gods, they will be practically useless,” Amadi responded.
“I know that,” Terry said. “But you can leave that to me. I have an idea. I saw a blacksmith’s area and instead of training I am going to fix our problem tomorrow. Anyways, Amadi you said you wanted to talk to both of us when Nicolai got back.”
Nicolai looked at both of them with puzzlement. I hope they do not want to get all close, he thought. I don’t do that. I work alone.
“Yes, it is about our powers. Well, it’s about our powers and their powers. Like I said earlier, I figured out how they do things. We may not be able to do what they do, but if we know how they do it, we can probably stop them from doing it.”
“How do they do it? And how would this help me contain my powers?” Nicolai asked. He was now sitting on the edge of his bed with interest.
“Well, I need to tell you about my history so you understand how I figured it out,” Amadi said. “Before I became a general, a long time ago, I was just a regular soldier. I had decided to go to college to become an officer. I figured the best way to pick up rank was to major in something the government would want to use, so I did a dual major in chemistry and physics. In physics, you learn laws that govern the planet. In chemistry you learn how matter behaves.
“To a small extent, chemists and physicists have learned to manipulate these rules. And they use technology to do it. It’s like that show Star Trek. They have a machine that is supposed to do all of that. I think they called it a ‘replicator.’ I believe that the gods, and us to an extent, can do that without technology. For example, some of us can do this.” At that moment he produced a fireball in his hand and made it disappear.
“Ok, now what about the physics part. How do they control that?” Nicolai asked
.
“That part is easy. They either suspend one of the laws, or they can modify it to help them when they want. Nicolai, throw that pillow at me.”
Nicolai threw the pillow and it landed near Amadi. “See? That pillow kept going until it was stopped by both the floor and gravity. I bet you that the gods could have stopped that pillow from falling and keep it floating in air. That would be them modifying Newton’s first law.”
“I actually saw that happen,” Terry said. “It was when the Change happened. I was charging this god that started to attack me. She stepped out of the way, and tripped me. As I was flying through the air, I was heading towards a building that was on fire. Then I suddenly stopped in midair. It was Jessica that caused that to happen. Apparently she is also a demi-god.”
“So, what does that have to do with my power? They were just as shocked as I was with what I can do,” Nicolai asked sternly.
“I believe you dissolve the elements that make the objects you touch. If you don’t think about doing that, you can stop it from happening.”
“I was never that much into school, but what you say does make sense,” Nicolai said. “It’s getting late. We have an early day tomorrow. I am going to bed,” Nicolai laid down in his bed.
I don’t care how any of this works, he thought. I just need to get control over this power so I can get Celeste back.
Chapter 8
Amadi woke up before the morning sun. Looking around the hut he saw that both the American and the Russian was still asleep. He never could sleep that much. Perhaps it was all the years he was in the military. Or maybe it was his brain. Before the change he could control his thought process, but now his brain wouldn’t shut down. Every piece of information he gathered, his brain processed it and stored it. He even remembered every detail of his life before the Change.
Amadi grabbed his head trying to stop his brain from thinking. He felt like his brain was a beehive and the bees worked nonstop. His brain would not let him sleep. I have to do something about this.