Chapter 30

Lord Hephaestus had finally shown himself. Maximus had seen many gods on television and in pictures. He had also met Hermes in person so he wasn't sure what the smith god would look like, but this was definitely not what he had expected. He was big. And by big he meant bigger than Rex and Ajax. He had thick brown hair and a beard that was so overgrown and untidy that you couldn't really tell where the hair ended and the beard began. His eyes were the colour of copper and he had dark circles under his eyes like he hadn't slept for days. Also, one side of his face looked like it had been hit by a truck. He even had a few teeth missing. No wonder I have never seen Hephaestus on television before, Maximus thought. He definitely had a face for the radio. There was even a screw stuck in his beard. Below his neck he had a huge barrel chest with a lot of chest hair protruding out. His hands were so big they could easily have squashed Maximus like a bug. He was wearing nothing but a sleeveless white undershirt, and it was so covered in grease and muck that its original colour was barely visible. He also had a huge hammer in his hand that was bigger than Maximus. He was also wearing a large bronze machine on his back that made it look like he was wearing a backpack. But the real surprise was from his waist down. He had no legs. Instead he came rolling in on tread wheels, the kind he had seen only on tanks. He was connected to these wheels, and other gears and equipment from where his legs should have been. Maximus thought he looked like a Centaur only instead of being half horse he was half tank.

Hephaestus rolled in on his wheels. Maximus remembered Ajax saying that the smith god liked machines more than living things. That was understandable, since he was more than half machine himself. "I've told you a million times not to move around the castle on your wheels boss, it makes the floor dirty and you sometimes end up crushing furniture," Ajax said.

Hephaestus looked down at his feet or wheels in this case, and he said, "Oh I forgot I had them on again. Just a second I'll change now." He closed his eyes and concentrated for a second. Suddenly his wheels began to transform. The wheels and metals around it also began to change place, and within a few seconds instead of wheels, Hephaestus was standing with a big pair of bionic legs made of bronze and metal. Maximus could tell how tall he really was now, and he was nearly ten feet tall. He was even taller than Lord Ares.

"It seems you have made some improvement to your feet old friend," Daedalus said. Hephaestus walked forward to greet Daedalus. He was using his hammer like a cane. "It's so nice to see you active again. Instead of just staring off into space," Hephaestus said.

Daedalus chuckled and said "Yes, it seems one of my own experiments has caused me a hindrance again. And it's definitely not the first time."

"And if I know you it won't be your last," Hephaestus said.

"You're one to talk, if I recall correctly you have had quite a few backfires from your works as well. Remember the whole Iron giant Talos incident?" Hephaestus laughed loudly at this and it made their chairs shake. "Lucky I encrypted a deactivation module in the processors of its foot or I would have never heard the end of it."

"I hope you learned your lesson with artificial intelligence and function encoding with that. At least now you sustain a termination program within all your automatons," Daedalus said. They continued to talk like this for a while using words which Maximus didn't completely understand. He was pretty sure a few of the words weren't even in the same language.

After a while, Daedalus turned to them and said, "It seems I must turn in for the night. I only have one minute left on my clock. And speaking of clocks did you manage to get me a watch, Achilles?"

Achilles nodded and took something out of his pocket. It was one of those old pocket watches complete with a chain and everything. "Here I got you this since I knew you loved collecting old technology," Achilles said. "I also got a wristwatch for myself so that I can keep in check of your timings."

Daedalus took the pocket watch happily. It looked like someone had given him an early birthday present. "You know me too well my friend," Daedalus said, then he turned to Hephaestus and said, "Well, it seems like I must take leave now. But we'll catch up again tomorrow. Please have one of your Automatons escort me back to my room and bring me some dinner there."

Daedalus just had enough time to wish the rest of them a good night before he turned into his mumbling self, and then Hephaestus had one of the butler-bots escort him back to his room.

"Great man Daedalus. One of the greatest minds I have ever met," Hephaestus said. He then turned to the rest of them and said, "Who the heck are you people?" Ajax sighed and said, "I already told you about them. They're the crew that rescued Daedalus from Ares. Plus, you promised to behave better when we had guests."

Hephaestus scratched his beard and he finally found the screw that was stuck in it. He threw it on the ground and one of the butler-bots cleaned it up immediately. "I suppose I did agree to that," Hephaestus grumbled. Then his eyes lit up, and he said, "That means one of you is Achilles."

Achilles stepped up and said, "That would be me sir." Hephaestus sized him up, "So you're the great warrior everyone talks about. Ajax had already told me you weren't really dead, clever move though. By the way your mother was an old friend of mine. In fact, she made me make some armour for you during the Trojan War. Now don't tell me you lost it?"

Maximus knew he was referring to the 'armour of Styx'. He hadn't lost it of course, but he seemed to have left it in his room for dinner, Maximus thought, but he still had his sword though. Just then Achilles put his hand in his T-shirt and took out a chain he was wearing around his neck. In the place of the chain where the locket would have been was a summoning crystal. He tapped it and in a flash of light Achilles was wearing the 'Armour of Styx'. Hephaestus seemed delighted to see his old work.

"Yes, this truly is the greatest armour I have created. I never had such amazing materials to work with, either. I still don't know how your mother managed to get her hands on the black metal from the Styx." He checked to see if the armour had any scratches or nicks on it, and he found nothing. "Well, this really is the invulnerable armour," Hephaestus said, "a pity I ran out of the rare metal to complete the armour, and I see you had to pay dearly for that."

Maximus knew the story. It was a famous one. The invulnerable 'armour of Styx' had covered Achilles from head to toe except at one point, at his heel. It was the only point in his body that was vulnerable, but no one was able to hit him there during the entire war, not even the great Hector. But at the end of the war Hector's Brother Paris made the most amazing shot in history. With a poisonous arrow he managed to hit Achilles right in the heel. The poison had supposedly killed Achilles. But Maximus knew now that this wasn't the case. But this incident had coined the term 'Achilles Heel' and it meant something's 'weak spot.'

"You know I always wondered this. I have met that runt called Paris who supposedly made that amazing shot. He's the champion of Venus now. But he really didn't seem like the type to even lift a bow without shaking with fear, much less shoot with such precision in the heat of battle," Hephaestus said narrowing his eyes, almost certain that something was amiss. Achilles nodded to this and said, "That's because he didn't. The one who actually made that shot was Apollo."

Hephaestus began laughing and shouted "I knew it." But the news caught everyone else by surprise. Even Ajax asked "What? Why didn't you tell me." Achilles just lowered his head and said, "What difference did it make? By the time I woke up again the war was over and we had won. That was what was important." Hedger glided in between everyone and raised his arms, and said "Alright, now wait just a cotton picking minute here. My history may be a little rusty but didn't Emperor Zeus forbid any of the gods from directly entering the war?"

This was true of course, to make sure that the Trojan War did not turn into a world war Emperor Zeus had forbidden any of the gods from directly entering battle. But they were free to support the side they chose in any other form they chose. When no one corrected Hedger, he then asked, "Then why didn't Lord Zeus punish Apollo for what he did?"

"Maybe he just didn't know," Achilles said. "Apollo had made sure that Paris got the credit for killing me in order to mask his involvement in the war. Maybe like everyone else Lord Zeus believed this as well."

This made sense to Maximus, but then Hephaestus said, "You would be surprised what Zeus would let Apollo get away with. After all, he and his sister Artemis have always been Zeus's favourites."

"So wait, how did you survive the poison then?" Rex asked.

"Well after I got shot, a few members of the Omega seven, including Ajax here found me and rushed me to my old master Chiron and Daedalus. The two of them managed to prevent the poison from killing me. But my leg was too damaged by then and they had to amputate it. It was almost a month before I regained consciousness, and by then the world already thought I was dead." Silence followed what Achilles had just said and finally Hephaestus asked, "So was it Daedalus who fitted you with a bionic leg?" and Achilles nodded yes to this. That probably was not the question Maximus would have went with but he wasn't a god so what did he know? "And I also recall a nice shield I had built to go with the armour. You didn't lose it did you?" the god asked.

Achilles showed him his left Gauntlet; it had a blue crystal on it and Maximus realised it was another summoning crystal.

"Excellent," Hephaestus said. Maximus wanted to know more about what happened during the Trojan War, but just then the doors swung open and around five butler-bots came in with trays of food. Their dinner was finally here.