Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews guys! It makes me happy when I see them and read what you guys wrote. Special thanks to forevermagik13 for the suggestions. They really help.

But I do want to say sorry for dropping off the face of Earth. I was working on yet another story, and I promised I would do a painting for my cousin for her birthday. I've gotten requests like that several times.

I hope you enjoy this chapter. For those of you who have guessed the reference I made to a certain character, this chapter reveals who it was! Like I said, enjoy!

Chapter Nine: Go for it!

We had officially won the preliminaries, but Cloud wasn't finished. He sent a shockwave and we went flying. Cloud stood there, towering over us.

I looked over at the stands, and saw Phil running towards someone and hitting them, to no effect. It was Hades, and he was smiling.

He's enjoying this? I thought. I stood up, regaining my strength. I'm gonna wipe that grin right off his face!

I ran after him. By the time I actually reached him, he disappeared in a puff of smoke. Phil was in the middle of swinging at him, so I got there in time to catch him, making sure he didn't fall right on his face.

"Thanks," he grunted. I nodded, and we looked back towards the ring. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Hades reappeared next to one of the exits.

Cloud had his sword raised. I got up from the stands and started to run, but stopped when I saw him lower it slowly. He didn't harm Sora, Donald, or Goofy. They were safe.

But he wasn't. The moment he turned around, he was crushed by a three-headed dog.

I gasped. "What is that?"

Phil responded quickly. "Cerberus!"

As Hades left the arena, I heard him say, "Oh, right, there was one rule I forgot: Accidents happen."

When I get my hands on him, I thought. But I wasn't able to finish that thought. I saw Cerberus staring at Sora, Donald, and Goofy, and acting as if it was going to...I couldn't think about what would happen.

"Pyn, we have to do something!" Jiminy said.

I agreed with him without hesitation. I ran towards the others to get them out of the way. I made it in time to help them up.

"Pyn, look out!" Goofy shouted.

I turned around and saw Cerberus bending its three heads down towards us.

Oh no!I thought. I closed my eyes and braced myself for what was coming next.

But nothing happened. I heard someone grunt, and opened my eyes.

Standing before us, holding Cerberus back from attempting to eat us, was a tall, muscular guy with brown-blonde hair wearing a brown uniform with a blue cape. It was Hercules.

"Herc!" Phil yelled.

"Phil," Hercules said. "Get them out of here!"

Phil ran past us, trying to get us to leave. Hercules was still busy with the three headed dog. I was the last one at the door to the Vestibule, but I stopped in my tracks. Everyone else was already in safety.

This isn't right, I thought. I can't leave him in here alone to deal with that thing! I'm not leaving anyone behind!

I turned back towards Hercules, and ran to aid him.

Pushing the dog away, Hercules noticed me coming back.

"What are you doing?" he asked. "You need to go with Phil!"

I shook my head. "No Herc," I said. "I need to help you. We're friends, and friends should always help friends out, right? And it's the thought that counts. I'm not leaving you or Cloud behind."

His eyes widened when he heard me say his name. "How'd you-?" Within a second it dawned on him. "Pyn?"

I smiled, and nodded. "Why don't we take care of Hades' pet?"

Hercules nodded. We turned towards Cerberus, Hercules clenching his fists and I bearing my Keyblade. Hercules noticed the weapon, and I saw his eyes widen again. He recognizes it, I thought.

I ran at the middle head, which was in the process of barking. I jumped on top of it, and started smacking it. It yelped in pain. It shook its heads and stood on its hunches, trying to shake me off. This gave Hercules enough time to grab Cloud and move him somewhere safe. But Cerberus saw what he was doing, and ran after him.

All the while, I was thrown off. I flipped and landed on my feet, right in front of the charging dog. I turned to face him and cast Thunder, hoping that would slow and wear him down. Hercules, leaving Cloud leaning against a wall, ran past me and threw a punch at it. This knocked Cerberus back quite a bit. He then ran towards it and punched it some more. He jumped back to where Cloud and I were. He picked Cloud up, and then turned to me.

"He's worn down some," he said pointing to Cerberus. The dog was still trying to recover from Hercules' last attack.

"Maybe, but I don't think that he'll stay down for long."

"Right, well, I need to get you two out of here," Hercules said, sounding heroic.

But he didn't have time to get us out of here. He turned around and came face to face with Cerberus. We were cornered.

"Uh oh," I said. But we weren't about to give up.

The monster was about to attack when it heard something. It turned around to face where the noise had come from. I peeked behind one of its legs and saw the others.

"Sora, Donald, Goofy!"

Hercules and I ran from behind Cerberus and met up with them.

"Herc, get Cloud out of here!" I told him.

He nodded, and then ran off. He ran past Phil, who stayed behind for a moment.

"Got two words of advice for ya," Phil said. "ATTACK!"

Then he ran off, leaving us to handle the dog. Cerberus growled at us.

Before I could even mention a game plan, the others ran up and began fighting, shooting fireballs and throwing their weapons at it. I ran up to help Donald fight the head to the left. I jumped right over him and attacked the head with a small air combo. I landed right in front of Donald, and turned to him.

"Donald, you and I need to use Thunder," I informed him. "It will slow him down."

"Okay!" he said.

We pointed our weapons to the sky and yelled "Thunder". The spell covered a wide area, in which case Cerberus took up most of it.

This slowed it down. It bent its heads down and the four of us began whacking them, waiting for the dog to give in. But to our disappointment, it lifted its heads, and began spewing darkness from its mouths.

"What the-" Sora said.

We ran away from Cerberus in order to avoid being swallowed by the darkness. A few seconds later, we found out that pools of darkness would appear wherever we were standing, and knock us back a few inches. Sora and I were caught by a few; Donald and Goofy took the most damage.

I threw a few Potions their way, and they downed them quickly. Sora was having a hard time breathing, and covered in a few cuts and bruises, so he downed a Hi-Potion himself.

"I think it's getting worn out," Sora said.

"Ya think so?" Goofy asked.

"Yeah."

"Then Donald and I will slow it down, and then we all come in for the kill," I said.

They nodded, and we carried out our plan. I ran over to Donald to give him the details, and he happily agreed. He had been fighting Cerberus off while we were talking and catching our breath.

We back away from Cerberus, to give us enough room to perform the spell that slows it down.

When we were far enough back, we looked at each other and nodded. "THUNDER!" we cried.

The combined spells covered a wide radius, and did massive damage to Cerberus. We heard it whimper, and we knew that the time was right. Sora, Donald, Goofy, and I readied our weapons, and ran towards it. Sora and I came at it from two different angles while Donald and Goofy came at it dead center. It finally gave in.

We heard clapping behind us, and turned around. Phil had been clapping, and he was jumping for joy as well.

I was smiling. I wonder if they'd be proud of me, I thought.

xxx

"Thus," Phil began. He was reading off a piece of paper. "I do hereby dub thee Junior Heroes, and full rights to participate in the Games. Further-" He never made it any further.

"Hey, what do you mean 'Junior Heroes'?" Donald was furious.

"You rookies still don't know what it takes to be a true hero!" Phil informed us.

"There's your answer Donald," I said.

Donald frowned and folded his arms.

"So, what does it take?" Goofy asked.

"Well," Hercules began. "That's something you're just going to have to find out for yourselves. Just the way that I did."

"Alright," Sora said. "We'll start by proving ourselves in the Games."

Well, I thought. He certainly never gives up.

"There ain't gonna be any Games for a while. Gotta clean the mess up after that last battle first," Phil said. He seemed disappointed.

"Okay," Sora said. "We'll be back."

Oh brother,I thought.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy walked off, and headed towards the exit. I stayed behind.

"So, how are your friends? Haven't heard from them in a while."

I turned to Hercules, and hesitated in my answer. I knew who he was talking about. Here comes that feeling again, I thought. "I...don't know. I haven't seen them in a while myself."

"Oh, well, whenever you do see them, give them my regards!"

I nodded, and waved goodbye to them. I turned and ran out the door.

"Pyn, what took you so long?" Donald asked. The others had been waiting for me.

"Sorry, I was catching up with Herc." We started walking towards the exit when I looked at Sora and said, "You do realize that Herc and I had already worn down Cerberus by the time you guys jumped in, right?"

Sora and Donald stopped where they were. "What?" they said together.

Goofy and I laughed. We got to the exit and noticed someone sitting on the stairs. It was Cloud.

"Hey, are you okay?" Sora asked.

Cloud merely nodded.

"Why'd you go along with him anyway?" I said.

"I'm looking for someone," Cloud said. "Hades promised to help. I tried to exploit the power of darkness, but it backfired." He paused, stood up, and then continued. "I fell into darkness, and couldn't find the light."

"You'll find it," Sora said.

Cloud looked at him. Sora pointed towards me and himself. "We're searching too."

"For your light?"

We nodded. Cloud looked down and then back at us. Then he walked up to Sora and handed him something. I couldn't really see it.

"Don't lose sight of it," he said.

Cloud walked past us. Sora turned around and said, "Hey, how about a rematch sometime? Fair and square, no dark powers involved!"

Cloud glanced back at us. "Think I'll pass."

Sora smiled. We turned around, and headed through the front gates. I turned around to get another look at the Coliseum. I gasped, and then the gates came to a close.

We hopped in the Gummi Ship, and Donald fired it up.

"What was it, Pyn?" Sora asked. He must have seen me stop at the gates.

"Um...nothing," I said.

xxx

When we were still on the ground, and as the gates were closing, I saw the shadow of a man. He was wearing a dark blue uniform, a brown belt, and armored shoulder pads. He had spiky black hair with some of his bangs in his face. He had disappeared just before the gates closed.

xxx

I smiled at the memory of seeing him. As the Gummi Ship flew off, I looked back at the Coliseum, which was getting smaller and smaller as we headed to the next world.

I smiled again. A tear ran down my cheek.

"Zack," I whispered.