Sesshomaru-Lover93: And so we are a chapter farther than before. I know that with the last two chapters I've had one world per chapter, but I think for some of the worlds that don't hold much meaning I'll skip parts and go straight to the nub of it. Other than that, happy reading
Sora stared at the ceiling of one of the three rooms on the Gummi ship. She was feeling down after the encounter with Riku, because she knew something was up. He'd acted weird that day on the Island, and he was really off in the Third District.
After he disappeared she joined the others in the vacant house and Cid explained the use of the Gummi they found in Deep Jungle. Even though she was absorbed in what everyone was saying, Sora was still rather disheartened by Riku's attitude.
He was up to something, and didn't want her help, which did nothing for her worries. And then there was the matter of Kairi laying heavily on her mind. The last time she saw the girl was in the secret place, and even then she disappeared like Riku.
'I'm so tired; maybe a little nap won't hurt...'
A loud crash resounded in the room, sending Sora flying up from her laying position on the bed. Donald stood at the door with a pot and large spoon, looking annoyed as ever.
"What are you doing?! Yeesh, can I get some sleep around here?"
"I've been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes!"
Sora stood and smoothed down her clothes and slipped on her shoes, giving Donald a questioning glance. "What's going on?"
"Just come outside you slowpoke."
With that said the duck trotted out of the room, barely missing getting hit by a pillow. Sora pulled her loose hair into two pony-tails and made her way to the cockpit, and down the ramp attached. Her eyes widened in amazement when she caught up to the pair.
They all stood outside a large Coliseum made of marble and other large stones. When they entered the large doors it was even more amazing, for everything was large and majestic. There were even two gold statues of soldiers with armor and swords, posed over doors that lead further in.
Sora pushed the next set of doors open, surprised to see what looked like a half man... And half goat... He didn't seem to notice them, so she moved to talk to him.
"Um..."
"Good timing. Give me a hand, will ya? Move that pedestal over there for me. I gotta spruce this place up for the games."
Sora turned to look at the pedestal he was talking about and frowned. Guessing by the size of the thing, the guy knew someone who could move that. Unfortunately for him she was sure that she wasn't that person at all.
She walked over to the thing and began pushing, knowing it wouldn't move but finding it slightly funny anyway. Goofy chuckled and Donald shook his head as if to say 'wow'. After a minute of this she knew it wasn't going anywhere on her time.
'It weighs a ton!'
She walked back over to the guy and folded her arms. "It's way too heavy."
"What? Too heavy? Since when have you been a little-"
He stopped his rant long enough to look in her direction. "-Girl... What're you doing here? This here's the world famous Coliseum-- Heroes only. And I got my hands full preparing for the games. Run along and play with some dolls."
Sora gave him an evil glare, feeling very much insulted. Even as a kid she never played with dolls. She was more of a wooden sword kind of gal.
"Look. Heroes are coming from all over to fight ferocious monsters right here in the Coliseum."
"You got heroes standing right in front of you."
"Yup", Goofy exclaimed while putting his hands on Sora's shoulders. "She's a real hero chosen by the Keyblade."
"And we're heroes too."
The guy's eyebrows nearly shot into his horns, and he pointed at Sora. "Hero? That runt?"
He started laughing, and Sora held back the urge to show him up and close how much of a runt she was. So maybe she wasn't all muscular and beefy... And just a little shorter than average... People like that were weird!
"What's so funny? I've fought a bunch of monsters!"
He kept laughing while she defended herself and cleared his throat after a while. He began pushing the large pedestal too and said, "Hey, if you can't even move this... you can't call yourself... a hero!"
It was quite comical actually watching him attempt to push the thing. His little hooves were scraping away as he kept losing his footing and Sora simply crossed her arms, waiting patiently until he fell heaving. She grinned as he turned to face them again.
"Okay, so maybe it takes more than brawn. Well, well, let's see what you can do."
Phil as she learned, led them outside to another area where there were barrels all over the place. She dreaded the notion of having to destroy them all, but Phil added another twist; Sora was being tested on whether she could destroy them all in time.
It was going to be a long morning...
--
Later they returned to the room with the plaques and Phil motioned her over. "You know, you ain't bad kid.'
Sora grinned cheekily. "Heh, looks like I'm headed for the games."
"Afraid not."
The smile unfortunately was replaced by confusion. "Why not?!"
"Two words: You guys ain't heroes."
'I wonder if it's evil to want to unleash heartless on the guy...'
After a couple more attempts to change his mind, Sora gave up and grumbled on her way out. They were halfway across the open courtyard when a voice halted them in their tracks.
"Rather a stubborn old goat, wouldn't you say?"
Donald put his hands on his sides. "Who are you?"
"Whoa, hold on there fuzz boy. Wait, let me guess. You want t enter the games, right?"
He appeared at Sora's side and grasped one shoulder, and brought his other hand down. "Well, then, hey, get a load of this."
Out of the other hand appeared the license Phil was so adamant about not giving. "A pass?"
"It's all yours. Good lick kid. I'm pulling for you, little shorty."
He walked off and she stared at the pass, her excitement almost too much to bear. She barged into the Lobby once more and showed Phil their Hero License.
"How did you get this?
"Can we enter the games now?"
He thought on it for a moment. "Well... I guess so. We start with the preliminaries!"
Sora quickly destroyed the group of Heartless within a couple minutes, not even breaking out in sweat. By now she pulled her hair into one ponytail that looked almost cheerleader-ish, which was how she was feeling.
Phil was pulling at his beard, and just as he was about to say something a guy walked out from the entrance/exit. He wore slightly baggy dark blue pants with boots and a cape. He didn't seem to have his weapon on him, but he regardless looked scary.
Sora's eyes were glued to him and as he slowly walked by his eyes caught hers and her face suddenly felt warm. His spiky blond hair looked rather soft against the cerulean depths, and until he disappeared from sight did she blink.
'Tall, dark, and smoking hot! I love this place'
--
It was maybe an hour later when they finally had a break. Sora hadn't broken out in sweat because the adrenaline in her system had lasted for the past forty minutes. It was fun to say the least, although she was still kinda hoping not to fight 'dark-but-hot-anyway-guy'.
She took a quick stroll around the entire arena out of boredom, and hunger. She would ask Phil for food but she didn't want to take a chance of him handing out grass. Oh what she wouldn't do for some food like a hamburger or something!
Donald and Goofy called her over, catching the attention of the onlookers from one of the few entrances there. Hades paced around until he felt she moved far enough.
"Now, don't blow it. Just take her out."
The blond glanced at the retreating figure of Sora and then Hades. "The great god of the Underworld is afraid of a kid? Sorry, but my contract says--"
"I know! You think I don't know? I wrote the contract! I know it says you're only required to kill Hercules in this tournament. But you gotta fight that girl to get to him. Come on. Hey it's like that old goat says. Rule 11: It's all just a game, so let loose and have fun with it!"
Hades punched to show his point, and turned to face the mercenary. "I mean, a casualty or two along the way is no big deal, right?"
The blond stood and walked away from the death god, his thoughts obviously somewhere else. Hades watched him walk off, not miffed at all.
"Geez. Stiffer than the stiffs back home. Still, suckers like him are hard to come by."
Sora gave Phil a peace sign before heading back to the main arena. Heartless were released and she began stabbing away, dodge rolling when necessary. They weren't too hard since many of the Heartless were of the spell casting variety with no strength or defense.
The match was quickly over and Sora frowned when she saw Cloud enter the Arena from one of the main gates. Was it too much to ask not to fight him? The guy had a real mean looking sword that she knew could chop up an elephant.
She motioned for goofy and Donald to come closer, until they stood maybe 15 feet away from tall, dark, and deadly. She kept her voice low and whispered, "I think I wanna try this one on my own."
"Are you sure Sora?"
"You idiot, he'd knock you out five seconds flat!"
Sora shushed Donald by giving him her improving death glare and folded her arms. "Promise not to ask to pilot for a week."
"Deal."
Both walked off to the sidelines where Phil was giving a questioning look. Ignoring this Sora strode over a couple feet and drew her Keyblade. "Ready when you are."
He charged at her with a force that if she hadn't flipped out the way, she'd be dealing with a nice gaping hole in her stomach. He charged again, and this time she ducked around his next swing to whack him in the back good. A frontal attack was like Russian roulette but fully loaded.
Cloud caught Sora by surprise by elbowing her in the gut which sent the brunette back a couple feet. Sora coughed lightly and ran back to the blond, catching his sword with the Keyblade. Cloud stared her in the eye and she stared right back, striking out with her foot to catch him in the knee.
He easily grabbed her smaller foot and used this advantage to catch her with a swift swipe on the side. Sora grimaced in pain and shook her foot free from Cloud's grasp. She gave the wound a quick check over and summarized it hurt like hell!
She managed to parry his next attack and unleash a combo before she receded again. He began using the 'quick-charge' technique again, and Sora easily avoided it by rolling out of the way and reversing her swing so it hit Cloud on the dull side.
It went like this for a while, Cloud attacking her and blocking her mostly, and she avoiding some of the nastier attacks and catching him in the middle of a swing. She managed to parry one last attack and caught him in the head, sending the blond down to his knees.
Donald, Goofy, and Phil were all cheering which only made her grin. She slowly walked over to stand a few feet away from Cloud. Just as she reached her hand out a huge paw came out of nowhere and crushed Cloud to the ground with a force she was sure knocked him out.
Her eyes widened and she noticed the guy who gave her the License behind the monstrous three headed dog.
"Oh, right, there was one other rule I forgot: Accidents happen."
The three heads all brought themselves down at once, and when Sora was sure that she was going to be doggie-chow another guy wearing what looked like a dress and cape held the thing at bay.
"Herc!"
"Phil, get them out of here!"
Sora glanced at Cloud once more before running like hell into the Lobby. As of that moment she only wished the guy in the dress good luck, because unless you pulled her with rope she really didn't plan on heading back there unless it got bad.
Phil once again was wheezing as they all tried to catch their breath. "Whew, that was close. That was Cerberus, the guardian of the Underworld. Herc should be able to handle him. Then again, maybe not. This doesn't look good.
'Why must we run into things that have death potential written all over?'
--
It didn't turn out too bad, if them looking ragged and her nearly passing out from the side wound counted for anything. The arena now looked a little worse for wear and there wouldn't be any games for a little while, but at least everyone came out safe.
Cloud was certainly okay after allowed time to wake up. She got away pretty easy with a few scrapes on her legs and forearms, a small bruise near the belly button above the bandaged cut, and a small cut that wouldn't scar on her cheek.
In her opinion it didn't seem like she got away with anything except for managing not to get skewered by Cloud or Cerberus. Donald and goofy went ahead to get the ship running and ready while she used the supplies so she walked alone to the entrance of the Coliseum.
Cloud was waiting on the steps to the entrance and Sora stopped a few inches away. "Hey, are you alright?"
He looked up. "Yeah."
"So why did you go along with him ,anyway?"
"I'm looking for someone. Hades promised to help."
'Lucky person...'
She watched as he stood and his solemn looking eyes gazed down at her. "I tried to exploit the power of darkness, but it backfired. I fell into darkness, and couldn't find the light."
Sora pondered this deeply, because she'd never felt the temptation of Darkness. His eyes looked somber, and she felt a rush of empathy for him. She stuck out her pinky, and Cloud looked at it in question.
"We vow to keep looking for the light on this pinky swear."
Cloud stuck his pinky out and intertwined it with hers. "No blood oath."
"Nah, I've lost enough blood for today."
Sora laughed lightly while Cloud stood in silence, which quickly made anything said not so funny. Clearing her throat she gazed at Cloud once more.
"You'll find it. I'm still searching too."
"For your light?"
She nodded. Cloud unhooked his pinky from Sora's and moved to her injured side. "Don't lose sight of it."
Sora walked back to the ship, happy even though she was going to need a couple of cure spells later to speed up the healing process.
'I've gotta stop having guy-overload...'
DarkYoruichi: I have no idea why but after I wrote the bit about all dark and deadly I burst out laughing. Probably just need to stop writing at night. Oh well, until next time.