A/N: Hang on tight, reader! The gods are going all Julius Caesar on this lifeless rock.


Phase 7: Construction

"My brothers, my sisters, my children, it's time to cross the Solar Rubicon." Lord Jupiter raised his ivory scepter for all gods to rise in their chariots. He led the formation alongside his wife, Juno.

The Olympians soared away from Mount Olympus and into space. Their formation held Vulcan in the center, with his brothers and sisters surrounding him. His wife Venus rode in his chariot with him. Neptune and Mars flanked him. Mercury took point of the company, giving them the needed speed. The twins, Apollo and Diana, armed the front half of the circle, with Minerva, Ceres, and Bacchus bringing up the rear.

"Fourth planet from the sun twelve o'clock at thirty-thousand kilometers," Mercury herald.

"Neptune, Mars, get ready to drop," Jupiter ordered. "Vulcan, get ready to deploy."

The first two readied his spear and trident while the latter held up his hammer. The Red Planet drew closer and closer. Jupiter traded his ivory scepter for his Master Bolt. Juno then placed a blessing on the Bolt. The lightning glowed even whiter. His queen moved behind him before he fired it.

The lightning hit harder than anything ever before. The blast burrowing through the crust was a hundred times bigger than the Tsar Bomb. Juno's magic with his did more than destroy the ground. It opened up the primordial's being to its heart. Or at least as far as Jupiter could.

"Mars, Neptune! Go!"

The two named gods stepped off their chariots to dive down to opposite ends of the gorge. Crashing down, the weapons of the planet's namesake and the Earthshaker thrust into the broken ground for the growing crater.

"Vulcan, you're up," the king ordered.

Before the blacksmith of the gods stepped off, he was shocked that Venus had given him a quick kiss, albeit on the cheek.

"Good luck, husband," she said.

The crippled god's hard, ugly face smiled. "Thank you, my Lady," he said chipper, then jumped.

That tiny glowing dot on the little planet grew bigger and bigger. The drill contraction he developed awoke moments before he came into contact with the magma. He was drilling through the mantle instantly. The drill stopped once he was in the outer core, where he brandished his hammer. Vulcan swam through the liquid iron nickel until he found a good spot. Summoning his power of fire, he swung his hammer for a big stream of intense heat to shoot back up to the surface.

On the surface, a long-dormant volcano erupted. More and more mountains—even in flat lands—spewed heat, gas, and lava.

Vulcan shot fire up the volcanic shafts dozens of times. It was a refreshing change to cause an eruption instead of Typhon. He kept the bursts of heat going in a specific direction to keep the rotation. That was the most important part! After enough fire-starting, he pulled a sack out of his tool belt to remove all the unneeded elements.

Looking at the solid inner core, it was starting to move the same way Earth's core was.

Through their extra-dimensional eyes, the gods in the outer atmosphere could see the magnetic field starting to form.

Jupiter's voice hit their ears again. "Now, everyone, go and collect as many rocks as you can and throw them down."

Mars, Minerva, Mercury, Apollo, and Diana flew away across the Solar System to collect asteroids in their chariots.

"These things are heavy," Mars complained while hauling one about the size of the Empire State Building.

"Stop whining and start throwing," Mercury berated, grabbing a giant block of ice.

"Hey," Mars said again. "Isn't there a giant asteroid made of gold—"

"Don't get any ideas," scolded Minerva.

All of their gods in their chariots were hauling massive space rocks to the bleeding red planet to throw them to its surface. The god of war was the first to strike the planet. The impact was close to the one that killed the dinosaurs. Ash, fire, debris, and molten glass shot through the air, sending a humongous cloud of smoke up. The other gods followed the same example by sending their asteroids down. For any debris that flew back up into the stratosphere, they knocked them back down.

Mars dripped a drop of his ichor on one rock before sending it on its way.

Even moving at lightspeed and teleporting, the process was slow. The goal was to bombard it to increase mass and density. So far, the process has been taking longer than expected.

Jupiter glowered at this. "It's not enough," he said. "Mercury!"

"Yes, Lord?" the messenger god appeared.

"Go tell Pluto to raise the Underworld ceiling of this planet," Jupiter ordered.

Mercury saluted. "Yes, my Lord." He vanished. Then he reappeared a few seconds later. "It's all done, Lord Jupiter. Lord Pluto ought to be raising the roof by now."


The ghosts cleared the way for Lord Pluto. Not only had he left his palace, but he was growing in size.

The giant god sighed. "This better be worth a planet of gold and jewels."

He traveled far in the Underworld. Far enough to reach out to other worlds. Never had Pluto need of that. There were so many worlds that there was too much useless space. Those that did have souls coming in were being dealt with by others. But according to his brothers, he has free reign to claim the Martian Hades. Finding the right spot, he crouched under the ceiling of his domain, taking hold of it the way Atlas takes hold of the sky. Although, for this scenario, he used his legs to push it up instead of holding it from where it was.


"It's working, Lord," Mercury said.

He was right. Pluto's contribution was increasing the red planet's density. Its unique reddish complexion was obscured by the gods' actions. Seeing how it looked after what they had done was almost sad. The planet Mars was now scarred with craters. The atmosphere grew thicker with carbon and sulfur dioxide. And the world was bleeding lava. Ironically, the largest volcano, Olympus Mons, was the only mountain not erupting.

Jove found that suspicious. "You did that on purpose, didn't you, Vulcan?"

The god of the forge appeared next to Jupiter. "Yes, Lord Father," he said, wiping the soot from his brow. "We need a mountain to call home, don't we? Or should I say vacation home?"

The king brushed that off.

"Statis report."

Minerva materialized. "The planet's density is eighty-seven percent completion and counting. The gravity is closing in on the target pull. The atmospheric density is slower than expected. It is only a sixth of Earth's density. Not to mention, it is more toxic than before. Not compatible for humans yet."

"It's mostly carbon dioxide, right?" Jupiter asked. "Couldn't plant life breathe that in and turn it into oxygen?"

"There's too much," Minerva reasoned. "Other than the amount of sulfur dioxide from the volcanos, there aren't enough other gases. Too much pure carbon will choke the lifeforms that could breathe that."

Lord Jupiter stroked his black beard, thinking. "I may have an idea."

Juno looked at him. "What do you have in mind, husband?" she asked.

He pulled the reins on their chariot before saying to Minerva, "Keep doing what you're doing. I'm going to solicit some help to get more air."

The goddess of wisdom looked at her siblings. Her uncle Neptune was away taking care of his next assignment. The others grouped up while the planet was settling.

"It's beautiful, ain't it?" Mars said, sounding more like Ares.

Venus timidly stood next to him, trying to see what he was seeing. It was nothing but cratered ground and lava. "I suppose if you look at it in a certain way."

Apollo gave his piece, "It's looking nearly done."

As ever, his twin had something to add to his piece. "It needs oxygen, water, plants, and animals," Diana retorted.

"The ice caps are melting," the sun god argued.

In truth, there were still big white spots on the north and south poles. They were smaller than before, but not enough to fill a sea.

"Perhaps I should move it into the Habitable Zone," Apollo said.

"How do you expect to move this huge thing closer to the sun?" Bacchus asked, cracking a can of Pepsi.

"No, I'm gonna drive the sun chariot closer to the planet. You know how reality and divinity work."

"Everybody!" Venus called urgently, forcing everyone to look at her to see her pointing far into space.

Using their godly vision, they spot her namesake planet. The yellowish planet, dense with toxic gases, had four noticeable vortexes growing. From the mythical point of view, the four corners of the world each had a being standing there. It was the four wind gods, and they were sucking up the planet's atmosphere.

"He can't be serious," said Mars, disbelieving.

Soon after, the wind gods teleported away from Venus and to Mars. From the red world's four corners, they released their immense inhales. The winds they blew were like nothing the Olympians had seen in recent centuries. The wind that came out was not sulfur dioxide, as is common on Venus. The majority was oxygen and carbon dioxide, with nitrogen and argon.

"Their lungs converted the gases," Vulcan said, astonished.

In the windstorms, Jupiter entered with his lightning bolt, blasting everything to bless it. Water was in the atmosphere as well from the melting icecaps. But then, Neptune appeared with copious amounts of water. None of the gods debated where he got that much. The sea god released his load. Heavy rain started to fall to the surface. Oceans started to form. Neptune planted his trident into the bottom when they were deep enough to cause a massive quake.

The continents came into being. Eventually, after the torrents died down, they saw the planet's distinct color fading.

When the two brothers reappeared with their fellow gods, Vulcan asked, "Why did you get all that Venusian air?"

"In the case where we might need to terraform that world," Jupiter said. "We just eliminated a step. Killed two birds with one stone, as it were."

Diana suddenly had an idea, which she voiced, "Should we bring some animals up here?"

"We will talk about that later, daughter," Jove said. "We still need to decorate."