Brothers In Arms

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"Huh." Jason said, looking around at the surrounding forest and scratching his head. "This isn't really what I remember Kansas being like."

Travis looked at him. "And what do you remember it being like?" The son of Hermes said, sitting with his back against a tree to relax from the group's long jog on their way here.

Jason looked around. "...More wheat. There should be lots more wheat."

He was immediately pinched by his girlfriend. "That's because we briefly touched down in one wheat field so that you and Percy could have some macho man contest that I had to stop you guys from!" Piper scolded. "Honestly..."

"Hey!" Jason protested, rubbing his arm. "We were possessed, okay? Not our faults."

Piper folded her arms, looking away. "Don't get possessed then."

Everyone grinned at Jason's expression of hopelessness. Alex turned around, appraising their surroundings like Jason had been. "To be honest, I think this is a pretty good place to build the base. Tyson, Leo, Jake, you guys have been working on plans, right?"

"Yep!" Jake said, spreading a few blueprints out on the ground. "First, we're gonna need a cleared area, about sixty metres by sixty metres."

"On it!" Leo yelled excitedly, wreathing his hands in flames. Only to be stopped by Piper, who pinched him instead.

"Are you an idiot?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. "You'd burn down the entire forest." Leo was about to protest, then realised she was absolutely right.

"Oops?"

"Honestly... I feel like you guys' mom sometimes."

As Piper chastised Leo, Tyson walked around the clearing, engaging in the only slightly safer option of simply punching the trees down. The older daughter of Aphrodite simply shook her head, pinching her nose. Calypso gladly joined her.

--:--

By nightfall, the two sons of Hephaestus and their Cyclops buddy looked at their work proudly. With their expert craftsmanship spells, and aided by a few creation, levitation and sealing spells from Max and Rose, they had built in a day what would be impossible for a building company to do in under a year.

"Wonder what we should call it..." Rose mused.

"It needs a name?" Max asked, confused.

"Of course it does." She replied, looking at her half-brother as if he was a half-wit. He raised his hands in surrender, rolling his eyes.

"Well, we certainly can't call it Rome." Leo said. When they all looked at him, he continued. "Ya know, 'cause Rome wasn't built in a day?" Cue obnoxious grinning and finger guns.

"Oh, yeah. Joke perfectly executed." He said, obviously proud of himself.

"I'll execute you." Jake threatened, and all four of them chased after the grinning boy.

Well, all five of them except Tyson, who looked around in confusion. "Why would friends call it Rome? On wrong side of the world for that..." Shrugging, he began to pack up his tools.

Leo stopped running. "Hey! Let's test the calling system!" He called, and they grudgingly stopped running after him, as all five of them made their way inside the massive base. Going up the stairs until they reached the top floor, Tyson opened the door out onto the roof. For the first time, the sons of Hephaestus saw the thing that Max and Rose had been working on for half of the day, with a little help from Tyson.