diff --git a/hecl/driver/CMakeLists.txt b/hecl/driver/CMakeLists.txt
index 4e3f116ef..6451b5f95 100644
--- a/hecl/driver/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/hecl/driver/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ list(APPEND DATA_SPEC_LIBS
      DNAMP3)
 
 target_link_libraries(hecl
+    HECLDatabase
     "-Wl,-whole-archive" ${DATA_SPEC_LIBS} "-Wl,-no-whole-archive"
-    HECL HECLDatabase AthenaCore NOD LogVisor blowfish z lzo2 pthread
+    HECL  AthenaCore NOD LogVisor blowfish z lzo2 pthread
 )
diff --git a/hecl/extern/Athena b/hecl/extern/Athena
index 3ce206268..55adeec69 160000
--- a/hecl/extern/Athena
+++ b/hecl/extern/Athena
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit 3ce20626864d396b45dc6345adbabe7c9873f614
+Subproject commit 55adeec69c97467c010b110d27373e02803f806f
diff --git a/hecl/extern/RetroCommon b/hecl/extern/RetroCommon
index 043af5558..c1f4f31e6 160000
--- a/hecl/extern/RetroCommon
+++ b/hecl/extern/RetroCommon
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit 043af55580d26a8faab8007c73217c26c19c4cf8
+Subproject commit c1f4f31e6ff55889c8e32da17dd2ab500ba503cb
diff --git a/hecl/include/HECL/HECL.hpp b/hecl/include/HECL/HECL.hpp
index 760eec278..e7c3c668b 100644
--- a/hecl/include/HECL/HECL.hpp
+++ b/hecl/include/HECL/HECL.hpp
@@ -220,8 +220,9 @@ class ProjectRootPath;
  * This class also functions as a read/write Athena DNA type,
  * for easy initialization of FourCCs in DNA data records.
  */
-class FourCC final : public Athena::io::DNA<Athena::BigEndian>
+class FourCC
 {
+protected:
     union
     {
         char fcc[4];
@@ -237,12 +238,6 @@ public:
     inline bool operator==(const char* other) const {return num == *(uint32_t*)other;}
     inline bool operator!=(const char* other) const {return num != *(uint32_t*)other;}
     inline std::string toString() const {return std::string(fcc, 4);}
-
-    Delete expl;
-    inline void read(Athena::io::IStreamReader& reader)
-    {reader.readUBytesToBuf(fcc, 4);}
-    inline void write(Athena::io::IStreamWriter& writer) const
-    {writer.writeUBytes((atUint8*)fcc, 4);}
 };
 
 /**
diff --git a/hecl/lib/database/Project.cpp b/hecl/lib/database/Project.cpp
index f78f635e6..c4bfcd0a5 100644
--- a/hecl/lib/database/Project.cpp
+++ b/hecl/lib/database/Project.cpp
@@ -207,19 +207,20 @@ Project::Project(const ProjectRootPath& rootPath)
     FILE* bf = HECL::Fopen((m_rootPath.getAbsolutePath() + _S("/.hecl/beacon")).c_str(), _S("a+b"));
     struct BeaconStruct
     {
-        uint32_t magic;
+        HECL::FourCC magic;
         uint32_t version;
     } beacon;
 #define DATA_VERSION 1
+    static const HECL::FourCC HECLfcc("HECL");
     if (fread(&beacon, 1, sizeof(beacon), bf) != sizeof(beacon))
     {
         fseek(bf, 0, SEEK_SET);
-        beacon.magic = SBig('HECL');
+        beacon.magic = HECLfcc;
         beacon.version = SBig(DATA_VERSION);
         fwrite(&beacon, 1, sizeof(beacon), bf);
     }
     fclose(bf);
-    if (beacon.magic != SBig('HECL') ||
+    if (beacon.magic != HECLfcc ||
         SBig(beacon.version) != DATA_VERSION)
     {
         LogModule.report(LogVisor::FatalError, "incompatible project version");