A new age of Divinity: Theomachy

Home trouble

Beth was adjusting back to her normal life as it had been a few months, and yet no problems had come to town. Everything had been quiet and everyone seemed to have forgotten about Athena's threat. Most either thought it was a nightmare or just a false memory. The camp was completely fixed and even the mess hall had been put back together, even though Estevan had cheated and got help from his friends without Orpheus noticing. Nate would've told him, but he never asked, and frankly, he could tell the old man didn't care. He was just glad his camp didn't look like a tornado had blown through while an earthquake was happening.
"So, what's the plan today?" Hayden asked Beth as they walked down to the rebuilt mess hall for breakfast, hand in hand.
"As a daughter of the Goddess of Wisdom and War Strategy, I think I should get some practice with ordering an army. So I have talked with the group and we have a training plan for that ready."
"Oh, really? Why wasn't I let in on this?" He asked, a little bit suspicious
Beth sighed and grumbled "And now I have to give Nate my best spear."
"What?"
"We made a bet because you two seem to hate one another and he said that you would get offended. So thanks, now I have to give him a spear that he will probably just end up using to feed Gulltoppr or something."
"He feeds weapons to his animal?"
"No, he uses stick things because Gulltoppr likes to snap his food up in one bite and Nate is not fond of the idea of losing his hand."
"So let me get this straight, you made a bet with the guy who can see the future and you bet a weapon you love? And you made that bet technically against me?"
"Listen, just come, and we will get this set up. Nate said he would pick his team, I already have mine. You are going to be on a team with Mikayla and Marc while Nate has Eden, Kenneth, and... he said Estevan."
"Really?"
"He said all he had to do was say he could beat me or something."
Hayden sighed, "Well I guess I get the guy who almost killed my girlfriend. Just another normal day for us demigods." He kissed Beth and they walked into the mess hall.
"Well, took you dummies long enough," Nate said while eating a double patty cheeseburger "I'm like a Hobbit, this is my third lunch. Anyway, who won the bet?"
"You," Beth sighed.
"Hah! Called it, Ellie!"
"Fuck off. You can get it after the training exercise." Beth rolled her eyes and playfully swung at his head, but as always he ducked out of the way.
"Lemme finish this on the way. I'm gonna assume since I won the bet he's on board with the whole thing."
"Not the part about Estevan, but aside from that, yes," Hayden grumbled "If he hurts her."
"Totally impossible," Nate replied nonchalantly while leading them into the forest while eating his burger "Mikayla's been working on a magic barrier spell. We've got it down to the point where she can hold it up without much strain on her body or mind for about an hour. So here's the plan, I asked Orpheus for some balloons because I don't fucking know how to make those. He seemed confused, but nothing too major. So he got them for me and I filled them up with orange paint for my team because Bifrost, and brown because Beth's Athena's kid and her main animal's a Little Owl. What color are those blasted birds? Oh, that's right. Brown! I'm a fuckin' genius! Anyway, yeah. The teams will be stuck in the barrier and we'll be out here. It's basically gonna be a game of water balloons but the loser has to do the winner's chores for a week."
"Wait, really?"
"No. I already won one bet, I'm not gonna risk my luck."
"Fair enough, but where's the barrier gonna be?"
"Right over here." He brought them over to the group and said "Okay, just so Hayden's aware of the rules, let's go over 'em. Firstly, you get hit in the chest, head, or back? You're out. Anywhere else? You can stay in. There will be a screen for each of us for each of our teammates so there is no way to cheat. Second, no weapons. This is strictly training for Beth, so no hurting each other. That's about it, contestants, take your places." The two teams walked off "Alright, let's do this."
Nate waited until the barriers showed the teams, then sent a Bifrost flare up into the center of the arena. Each team ran through the trees and found packages with balloons. Thankfully, they had been colored the same as the paint inside, so it wasn't hard to tell which was which. Mikayla had a backpack and she had grabbed three or four balloons and was now hiding in the trees. She looked around, waiting for one of the enemies when she saw Hayden. She groaned and jumped down to him and landed right behind him.
"Wha- shit!" He exclaimed as she landed "Don't do that. What were you even doing up there?"
"There's a thing called strategy, idiot," She replied "Here, you're gonna need some if you wanna survive."
"Don't you find this kind of weird, though?" Hayden asked.
"What? That Estevan actually decided to be useful for once?"
"No! Okay, yeah. That is also kinda strange, but I was talking about this whole exercise. Nate said it was a training thing for Beth, but she's not even a part of this."
"Training comes in many different ways. I'm assuming- watch out!" She tackled him out of the way and they looked up to see Estevan tossing another balloon up into the air "Shit, it's this guy." They both got up and threw their balloons at him, but he ducked behind a tree "Ugh! He's faster than he looks."
"He's also clearly smarter than his dad," Hayden explained "Ares would've just taken it."
"Come on, let's get him!"
Beth looked over at Nate and asked "So, how is this training for me?"
"Just watch," He replied cryptically.
As she watched, she thought she began to understand what Nate was getting at. Sure, she would call him an idiot, but she always underestimated just how smart he was, even without his powers. His abilities didn't make him any more intelligent, just gave him insight into what others are thinking and foresight into the future. This was something else, this was him actually using his brain. She saw the kinds of strategies each of her friends... and Estevan, were using and she also saw the way they could be improved. She saw that Eden was using the trees as cover, but she noticed that she wasn't using her shadow as well as she could've been doing. Hayden and Mikayla stayed together and watched each other's back, and yet Beth saw that they were not in a formation where one would be more protected by the other. She looked over at Nate's team and saw that Estevan was simply hiding in the trees ready to strike, and she saw a bunch of problems with this strategy. She looked over at her team and saw Marc... basically pulling what Hayden and Mikayla said Ares would've done. She slammed her palm to her forehead and groaned while watching him.
"Marc?"
"Yeah, he is a moron."
"Mm."
After about forty five minutes, Nate's team finally reigned victorious because of Kenneth's speed making him a virtually unhittable target. They all came out of the barrier once Mikayla lowered it and they talked. This was the first time that anyone could remember Estevan actually having a semi civilized talk with... any of them really. It was unsettling and Nate was the one who didn't trust it in the least. He decided to look into his head to see what his plan was, but he seemed to just be relaxed today. Something was off about the bruiser, but he couldn't tell what it was. They all walked back to the camp together and Nate was still eyeing up Estevan. He didn't trust the calmness of his enemy and definitely didn't assume that he had turned over a new leaf since their last fight. Sure he had won, and sure he had said it was over, but that was because he assumed he had killed her. Then again, he hadn't bothered Beth at all since the big mess hall fight.
'Maybe he has changed,' Beth thought, and Nate sighed hearing this, a bit disappointed.
When they got back to camp, most had classes to go to, so they went and did that. Nate was about to head over to Power Enhancement and Control when he noticed Estevan talking to one of his friends. He sighed and rolled his eyes, figuring he'd have to get Beth out of yet another situation. He walked off and figured that whatever this was, it wasn't going to be resolved with words or anything like that... and that's what gave him an idea. He went over and talked with one of Estevan's friends, Roman, just to get some information. Nate didn't know what Estevan was planning, but he did know where Roman was from. His family was apparently a part of Organizatsiya. He figured that of all of Estevan's companions, Roman would be the best to speak to in a situation like this.
After all the classes had ended, it was the usual slow trickle of everyone going into their own houses. Nate and Roman walked past each other and Nate didn't acknowledge him, but Roman looked at him. He sighed and walked over to Estevan's cabin and walked down into his basement. There, Estevan had a group of four others excluding Roman. There were chains with cuffs on the floor and Roman finally understood what was going to happen that night. Being a son of Forseti, he saw some level of justice in it, but the way Estevan was going about this was all wrong to him.
"Go," Estevan told them "I am going to get her out of my life once and for all tonight. It should have ended last time, but it will this time... one way or another."
They all left the basement and four, including Roman, went to guard a few of her allies' cabins. Roman, by pure coincidence, went to guard Nate's cabin. The son of Heimdallr was still up and reading a book when he noticed Roman outside his house. He was about to go see what was up, but then he remembered who he was friends with. When he remembered, Nate sat up quickly and prepared for a fight... and then he just laid back down. Whatever was going on really wasn't any of his business, so he figured that if anyone needed help, he might go see what was up.