Chapter Nine: Olympus Coliseum
They were walking around when someone ran behind them, running past them into a corner of the area.
"Huh?" They looked over to see a creature.
"Oy, the kid's relentless!"
"Hey, whatcha doin' there?" Ventus asked, walking up to him with Jasmine somewhat behind him.
He jumped, obviously spooked before he turned to them, glaring. "I told ya, I'm booked solid. N-O spells forget it!" Then he realized that whoever he was trying to avoid wasn't them. "Huh? And who in Halicarnassus are you two? Can't you see I'm busy?"
He has the lower body of a goat with orange fur and brown hooves. His upper body is that of a short man with an enormous gut and some hair on his chest and arms. The top of his head is bald, save for four strands of orange hair, while the back of his hair is about shoulder-length. He has a curly goatee and a five o'clock shadow over most of his lower face. His nose is pink and bulbous and his ears are pointed. He has black eyes and a thin, brown uni-brow. Finally, there are two brown goat horns sprouting out of the top of his head.
"Hey, Phil! I'm all signed up! Phil!"
They looked over to see a young man.
He has rust-colored hair that was shoulder length and sky blue eyes. He was wearing a plain white toga that left most of his legs, his arms, and the right side of his chest exposed and sandals. There was a metal pendant that was engraved with a symbol that was attached to the strap on his left shoulder.
"All right, Herc, I hear ya! Now would ya keep it down already." Phil said in a lower voice.
"Aha!"
"Beautiful… You happy now? You blew my cover!"
They looked over to see another young man.
His gladiator helmet covered some of his face, only revealing black hair and bright blue eyes. He was wearing grey armor with two silver pauldrons, black gloves, a brown guard over his abdomen that is worn over the armor, two belts over the aforementioned guard, and his blue pants and turtleneck. He was also wearing brown knee-high sandals with black socks, small parts of his outfit has swirls on it, and a sword attached to his back.
"Okay, 'fess up. I asked around, and everybody says you're the guy. The trainer of heroes!"
"True heroes!" The other boy added.
"Really? You can teach that?" Ventus asked while Jasmine stayed quiet.
"'Course he can." The raven-haired boy walked over to Phil. "C'mon, Phil, please. I really wanna be a hero."
"Look, we've been through this… I got two words for you—student-teacher ratio!"
That's three words… Jasmine thought before she saw Ventus counting his fingers, making her smile in amusement.
"One, two… Um?"
"I already got my hands full with this one. C'mon, Herc." Phil said as he walked with the boy following behind him.
"I'm low-maintenance, I swear!"
"He really wants to be a hero…" Jasmine whispered to Ventus, making him nod in agreement.
Suddenly, Unversed appeared in front of the two who were about to leave.
"Unversed!" The two didn't hesitate to run over.
"Monsters, huh…" He was right behind them.
The four teenagers got into a fighting stance.
"Hey Phil! Watch this! I'll show ya what I'm made of."
"And I'll help, too!" The orange-haired boy added.
The raven-haired boy, Ventus, and Jasmine had no problems fighting the Unversed while the orange-haired boy had some trouble.
Jasmine stared at the three boys before she looked over at Phil.
He signed with his arms crossed. "Okay… Change of plans. The Games are comin' up. So, I'm gonna watch both of your matches…then I'll decide which of you rookies I wanna train."
"Sweet! Thank you, thank you! I'm gonna go sign up right now." He ran off.
"The Games, huh? Sounds fun!" Ventus started to follow him.
"Sorry kid, Captain Eager there just took the last spot." Phil said to him, making him stop.
Jasmine walked over to her friend before she lightly pats his back.
He gave her a reassuring smile. "I'm fine, Jasmine…"
She just looked at him carefully.
She didn't believe that for a second.
"I don't understand! Phil, I thought you were my trainer!" The other boy argued.
"You wanna be a true hero, Herc? Then you're gonna hafta go out there and show me that everything I've taught you so far is gonna pay off."
"But Phil…"
"Oh…and no more trainin' sessions for a while. Wouldn't be fair if I helped you and not him."
He looked down, obviously disheartened.
"Hey, cheer up!" Ventus walked over to him with Jasmine behind him. "So you gotta fight a couple of matches, no big deal. I'm Ventus."
"And I'm Jasmine." She introduced herself.
"Want us to to help you train?" Ventus asked.
"You'd really do that for me?"
They both nodded. "Sure."
"Thanks, Ventus, Jasmine." He smiles. "I'm Hercules. Herc for short." He holds his hand out to them.
Ventus puts his hand in his. "Just call me Ven. You're gonna do fine."
Jasmine gave him an encouraging smile.
"Thanks. I'm gonna head over to the Coliseum and warm up. Meet me in the vestibule, okay?"
"Okay!"
Training with Hercules was more or less a competition to see who can destroy the most jars.
In some ways…it was different from when how she was trained with the Keyblade.
But it wasn't all that bad.
"Huh?" Ventus stopped along with Jasmine, looking over to see Phil watching them.
He walked away, making the two look over at each other.
As if wondering what that was about…
"You want to become a true hero, huh?" Ventus said to Hercules.
"More than anything. See, my father is Zeus, the king of the gods up on Olympus." He told them.
"Whoa! Herc, you're a god?" Ventus said in shock while Jasmine stayed quiet.
"No, no. I'm mortal. When I was a baby, somebody stole me from my parents, and…figured out how to take away my godhood."
"And this true hero thing?"
He walked over to the wall of the lobby. "It's the only way I can become a god again. If I become a true hero, I can rejoin my father and go back to Olympus."
"Wow…" Ventus was obviously amazed by this information. "I guess you really got your work cut out for you!"
Hercules turned to them. "But what about you two? How come you're here?"
Ventus hesitated at that question. "I'm…" He looked over at Jasmine for a moment.
She only gave him an encouraging smile, imploring him to continue without saying anything.
"…We're just trying to make some friends." Ventus eventually said.
"Well, hey! You've done that already."
"Huh?" Ventus looked up in surprise.
Hercules walked over to them. "C'mon, we're friends, aren't we?"
Jasmine smiled. "He's right, Ventus."
"Yeah!" He grinned at her.
The other boy walked into the room, standing between the two boys.
"All right, you bunch of rookies." Phil came into the room. "It's time we go over the rules of the Games, so listen up. All the matches are divided into two brackets—one for the East and one for the West. The winners from each bracket go head-to-head in the championship match. Now, I signed you two up for the West…'cause they already got a heavy-hittin' contender cleanin' up over there in the East bracket. And if you wanna beat him, you're gonna hafta hustle in there."
The two nodded together.
"Now move those sandals." He said as he headed to the arena, making the two boys follow him.
Ventus crossed his arms. "Heavy-hitting contender? Who could that be?"
Jasmine shook her head. She didn't know.
"Ven! Jasmine!" Hercules yelled their names. "C'mon!"
They looked up at the doorway for a moment. "Okay!"
Both Hercules and the other boy were pretty strong as they seemed to breeze through their matches.
"Guess we made it." Ventus said as they walked to Hercules and Phil.
"Yeah. And ti's all thanks to you two." Hercules smiled at them.
"Good! The other kid'll be happy to hear that." Phil said, making Hercules turn to him pretty quickly.
"No! I need you most of all, Phil! How else am I gonna become a hero?"
"Hmph! 'Bout time ya got it!"
As Phil walked away from them, the other boy ran up to them.
"Whoever wins, no hard feelings." He holds his hands out to Hercules.
He puts his hand in his. "Course not. Holdin' a grudge wouldn't be very heroic."
"Hey, just making sure. You're not a hero yet."
Hercules laughed. "True."
That match begun with Hercules charging at him only for the boy to dodge out of the way before jumping high to hit him from the sky.
Hercules jumped back, dodging him.
"This is really close." Ventus said to Jasmine.
She nodded in agreement.
Jasmine watched the two spar against each other as her mind started to wander off…
Jasmine cried out as she landed backwards on the ground somewhat roughly.
She winced. That hurt…
"That's enough."
All four apprentices looked over at their master.
Eraqus came down the staircases outside the castle. "The rest of you, keep training. Jasmine, follow me."
With those words, he made his way back to the entrance of the castle.
Jasmine looked at the others, somewhat wary.
Terra gave her an encouraging smile. "Don't worry. You're not in trouble. The Master probably just wants to talk to you."
Aqua smiled. "Don't worry, we'll be fine."
Ventus smiled to her as well. "We can train when you get back!"
"…Okay." She slowly followed the Keyblade Master.
She followed him until they stopped in a room that they were usually trained in.
"You're trying too hard." Eraqus told her. "You need to find your own strength, Jasmine." He turned to her. "You don't have Terra's strength nor Aqua's magical powers. Or even Ventus' agility. You need to figure out for yourself what your strengths are. Once you figure that out, you can combat any situation, no matter what the situation is. Do you understand?"
Jasmine stared at him for a moment. "…I…I think so."
Eraqus kindly smiles. "You'll figure it out. If there's one thing I have learned about you, Jasmine…is that you're very observant."
"Hey! We got trouble!" Phil yelled to the two teenagers in the stands. "There's monsters loose in town and if they gate-crash the Games, you can forget about the match."
"Real monsters?" Hercules said.
"We have to stop 'em." The other boy said.
"Leave the monsters to us." Ventus told them with his Keyblade drawn. "This match is too important!"
Jasmine followed after him to the town to see jellyfish-like Unversed.
"You won't get past us!" Ventus yelled as he and Jasmine got in a fighting stance before their eyes widened. "Huh!?"
There were swarms of the Unversed against the two of them.
Suddenly, someone was next to them, making them look over.
"Herc!" Ventus' eyes widened. "What about your match?"
"Forget the match. No way I could let my friends fight alone. 'Cause I'm a hero! I mean, ya know…I'm gonna be one."
Jasmine softly laughed. "Come on, you two. Let's do this together."
The two boys grinned at the brunette girl. "Yeah!"
It didn't take too long for them to defeat all of the Unversed with the three of them working together.
"Sorry that we made you lose that match, Herc." Ventus apologized.
"Aw, come on, you don't have to apologize. It was totally my decision."
Jasmine noticed an Unversed coming up from behind Hercules, making her eyes widened and Ventus gasp only for it to get destroyed my the masked boy.
"What, you didn't save any for me?" He said, obviously displeased.
"Hey, you're here." Hercules said to him, surprised.
He walked over to them. "Hey, I've got my sights on being a hero, too. I just don't run as fast, that's all."
"So you both threw the match?" Ventus asked. "Who won, then?"
"I left first, so it's not me." Hercules said.
"Yeah, but I was only seconds behind you." The other boy added.
"Still."
"Hey! I never said I'd coach the winner." Everyone looked over at Phil, who came over to them. "All I said was I'd see the match, then decide. Look, bein' a hero takes more than just muscle. Ya gotta have heart and care about people. And sure, you both get high marks for that. But this time, only one of you cared fast enough—and that makes all the difference."
"Then that means…" Ventus started to say.
"Oh man, I was this close!" He groaned, slumped down for a moment before he straightened up. "Well, that's life." He turned to Hercules. "I never really introduced myself." He took off his helmet. "The name's Zack. Congratulations, Herc."
His hair was short, thick black spikes with bangs framing his face.
Hercules smiled. "Thanks, Zack."
"Yeah well, we'll see if you're still thankin' him when I'm through with ya." Phil said, ruining the moment. "You got a long road ahead of ya, champ."
"Hey—don't count me out." Zack said. "I've still got plenty of big dreams to go with my lousy luck!"
Jasmine softly laughed.
They went over to Phil.
"Okay, be honest… You weren't really gonna stop training Herc, were you?" Ventus asked in a lower tone.
"Of course not. I know that kid's gonna go the distance. But we was stuck in a rut. He just needed a little incentive." He turned to them. "It's Ventus and Jasmine, right? Well, thanks to you two, Herc here has really shaped up. I owe ya."
Ventus straightened up, putting his hands behind his head in an easy-going manner. "Nah, I'm glad. We made a really good friend." He smiled. "Somebody to share a laugh with. Like Terra and Aqua… We'll patch things up."
Jasmine nodded, giving him a smile.
They turned to leave.
"You're leaving?" Hercules ran to them.
Jasmine nodded. "Yeah. Our journey isn't over yet."
"But you'll both visit, right?" Hercules asked.
"We'll stop by once you're a true hero." Ventus said.
Zack walked over to them. "Stop by once me and him are both heroes!"
"Oh, so you mean never come back?" Ventus teased.
"Hey, watch it!" Zack puts both of his arms around the two, making them laugh as they tried to push him away to no avail.
Hercules laughed along with Phil.
As long as they have friends…Jasmine believed that her and Ventus could make it through any hardship.
She was sure of it.
And it's done. Hope you guys like it!
Disclaimer: I only own Jasmine.