ARES:

"Damn it!" I yelled, pounding my fist on the desk frustrated. I crumpled the piece of paper with my disgustingly sloppy handwriting all over it and tossed it into my overflowing garbage can. All the plans I came up with were shit. They would never work. Absolute garbage. I ran my hands down the front of my suit pants and through my hair.

I never really realized how stressful making a plan was. You have to factor in every little thing that could go wrong. You have to know every persons strengths and weaknesses. When you think you've finally got it right, you remember that something else could happen, and you have to start from scratch. It screws with your brain.  How did Athena do it so easily and why had I not paid closer attention?!

I never needed to make a war strategy, or really any strategy at all for that matter because I had Athena. Whenever we were about to go into war she'd just come up with one off the top of her head and make it work somehow. It would literally take her five minutes. I've been sitting here in the same seat doing the same thing for 6 months. God's was Athena just pure brilliant.  I turned on my computers desktop, a picture of her popping up immediately.  Her hair curly, her lips curved into a gorgeous smile, and her gray eyes perked up, actually looking happy.  It had been so long since I'd seen her like that; happy.

There was a bunch of running on the floor above me. Like everyone in the house was stampeding down the corridors all at once. I stood up confused and intrigued, as one of the young servants busted through the door to my office. "Sir," He gasped for air. "You'd better come outside, and hurry." I ran down the halls with the servant trailing behind me.

I pushed through the doors of my house, noticing how dark it was outside when it was early afternoon. The sky held a deep red glow scattered with dark clouds. The people and gods alike stood in the streets, in the sidewalks, on their lawns, or on their porch looking up at the sky with a scared and confused look on their faces. I looked up, searching for a second but finally seeing what everyone was gawking at.

8 silver... flare or firework looking things were up in the sky in the distance. They flew in a V-shape, headed toward Olympus. They had to be at least 100 feet up. The were moving at a far faster speed than anything civilian made could go. As they grew closer, their shape became clearer. They weren't flares.

They were the Romans.

"TAKE COVER!" Someone yelled. The crowd dispersed, quickly. Panicked people fled in all different directions, running into one another and screaming, only the gods held our place. It was through all this chaos that the first one of them landed.

When he hit the ground the impact shook all of Olympus, causing even more terror amongst the crowd. He landed in the streets, on one knee, with his fist on the pavement in front of him. His huge muscular body was dressed in silver armor from head to toe. His head, covered by a silver helmet, was bent downward, so no one knew which god it was exactly.  4 Roman gods and 3 Roman goddesses landed in the same position near his area, but once everyone had landed, they stood up straight for everyone to behold them, and glanced around. The gods wearing the same armor as the first god that landed, and the goddesses wearing a more shaped version of the gods armor, nothing extremely feminine about it.

One goddess in particular wore the beautiful material better than the others somehow. It fit her just right and she stood tall in it. Strength seemed off of her, like she was born to wear battle armor. Her silky, straight long brown hair flowed out of her helmet and cascaded down her back, much like someone else I know. Although they were a threat, I couldn't help but feel curiosity and longing to see who was beneath that helmet. I knew I shouldn't get my hopes up. These were the romans, so there was no way it could be Athena.

The goddess I had been gawking at noticed me starring. A smile crept up on her rosy lips. "Helmets off." The goddess said as a command in that silky smooth voice I loved so much. At her command, the gods and goddesses took off their shimmering helmets.

Jupiter, Zeus's equivalent, was the one that landed first. Diana, Artemis' equivalent, Apollo, Apollo's equivalent, Mercury, Hermes' equivalent, Neptune, Poseidon's equivalent, Minerva, Athena's equivalent (The one I had been starring at), Vesta, the equivalent to the goddess of fire Hestia, and Mars, my equivalent, all stood together in the streets. Only a small amount of people still were outside, but once they saw who the unwanted visitors were they hurried inside. Now, the only ones left in the streets were the Romans and us Olympians. The Olympians all looked at each other for any ideas on what to do.

"Where is Athena?" Mars asked, his voice echoing down the streets, looking around at us and seeking an answer. It was scary how much each one of the Romans looked exactly like us. Looking at mars was like looking in a mirror.

"She's not here." Aphrodite said in a little girls voice. Mars turned to look at her, giving her a look that let her know how dumb she was.

"Obviously." He sneered. "Where is she if she isn't here?" Mars looked at me, giving me a raised eyebrow. "On another little vacation, hm?"

I folded my arms across my chest, trying to looked calm. "She's in the underworld with Hades. She made an oath upon the River of Styx that she'd stay there, so don't try anything." Mars smiled at me, and then laughed with a darkened tone.

He snapped his fingers, and then Mercury flew off so high the clouds covered him. I watched him go, worried for Athena's sake. "I was never one to believe in oaths. As for the rest of you," He yelled so loud that the people could no doubt hear him. "We're taking over. Plain and simple. I won't sugar coat it. You all have two options. Option one, you come willingly and without struggle with us to your sacred temple where we can all sit down and figure out how your going to die or better yet, be enslaved. Or option two, I can have Vesta burn this place to the ground and then we can fight until we anialate you. Your choice."

I got that feeling you get when someones starring at you. The source was Minerva. I looked at her, noticing how she didn't give off a slight glow in the way that Athena did. She looked me directly in the eye. "Choose. Wisely." I heard her voice say in my head. Athena had done the same thing to me once. She had spoken in my head. It must be some power only her and Minerva posses, for I had tried to do it but could not.

Minerva quickly turned her head and walked toward my father and mother. Looking my father in the eyes she coaxed him in a soft tone. "You're not as young as you used to be Zeus. You've grown weaker. I can see it in your thoughts. You do not want to go to war with us, for you know you shall lose. A wise choice. For now, thanks to Hera, we posses a very dangerous weapon. A weapon we can't wait to put to use. I assume you all are familiar with a missile called 'The Olympian'?" The gods all turned to look at Hera, not believing what they heard. But I had known this already.

"Hera..." Artemis started. "How do they have Athena's missle?!  You didn't give it to them... Did you?" Under Artemis' hard gaze, Hera bent her head down in shame. "Oh gods..." Artemis shook her head.

"Of course she did!" Minerva yelled in excitement to everyone with a big smile. "And none of you knew?! Hera, you sneaky goddess. Who would've thought you were the one to watch out for? Who do you all think arranged for Athena to be kidnapped by Hades in the first place? Well, really Hades was supposed to kill her but I see that it didn't work out that way. This goddess right here did all this!" Minerva pointed at Hera, who was now sobbing into her hands. "Athena had to be out of the way when Hera handed the weapon over to us. She would never have agreed. Come now Hera, don't be shy!" Minerva reached out and grabbed Hera's arm, pulling her to a spot where everyone could see her. "Come now! Step up and own up to what you've done. You should be so proud of yourself! Now when Zeus fades out, you'll get exactly what you wanted. The throne."

"Enough!" Zeus boomed, silencing Minerva. Silencing everyone. "What's done is done. Hera shall pay for her crime another time. And she WILL pay." He yelled glaring at Hera. "But for now... Seeing as how we are unequipt. I think we all know the wise option... We choose option-"

"Two." I said, interrupting Zeus, and getting everyone to turn their heads to me. I took a few steps forward, knowing I would have to explain myself, so that everyone could see me. "Look guys, were the Olympians." I said throwing my hands up. "Since when, do we let punks like this push us around? No offense." Minerva shook her head. "This is OUR city! This is OUR home! Our people need us to stand up for them or no one else will. I won't just give it up... Not without a fight. And you shouldn't either.  Athena would never stand down and let these guys take our city if she were here." The Olympians all nodded their heads. Minerva stepped back toward the rest of the romans.

"Is that your choice?" Minerva asked with a grin.

"Yes." I said nodding my head and walking over to my father. I looked around, waiting for everyone else to chirp out their yes', but seeing how hesitant everyone was, I started to panic a bit.

"Yes." Apollo said walking over to where me and my father stood. When he also saw everyone debating it he got frustrated and yelled "Come on guys! Do it for Athena! For Olympus! For our people." Another long few seconds past before Artemis, Poseidon, Demeter, Zeus, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Dionynosis all cast their vote. The only two left were Hera and Aphrodite.

Aphrodite stood under a street lamp, fixing her lipstick in a mirror. "Aphrodite!" Hermes whispered loudly. She turned and looked around for who called her name like a bimbo. "Aphrodite! Come here!" Aphrodite skipped over smiling like an idiot. "Say yes." Hermes instructed.

"Yes!" Aphrodite yelled. She turned back to Hermes. "What did I say yes to?"

"Just be quite." Hermes said burying his face in his hands and shaking his head.

"Well, Hera?" I asked her, giving her a cold stare. "You owe us this much."

Hera nodded, wiping away the tears flowing down her cheeks. "Yes. Option two." She spat at Minerva, who didn't even flinch, and walked over to where all of us huddled together.

Minerva glared at all of us, still smiling. "You chose wrong." She said in my head again.

"We'll see." I said confidently. There were 11 of us, and only 7 of them at the moment. The Olympians around me looked at me confused, wondering who I was talking to. Suddenly, Vesta stepped forward out of the group of romans. Minerva nodded at her, giving her some sort of signal, and then Vesta turned to us, her eyes glowing orange.

"Watch now, Olympians, as your city burns to the ground." She raised her hand up, and as she did, huge flames, stories high encased houses, buildings, stores... everything in sight. We were distracted, in awe of the fire consuming our beloved city.

And then the Romans attacked.

Hey guys! Remember who's who's equivalent, or this will get really confusing!

Jupiter- Zeus

Minerva- Athena

Mars- Ares

Diana- Artemis

Apollo- Apollo of course

Mercury- Hermes

Neptune - Poseidon