Finally it's here. I don't know why this chapter was so hard to write. *shrug* oh well, but there are some great things to look forward to. Big chapters coming up soon, chapters that I've been waiting to write for a good while now. Bigger scenes, bigger moments and new characters that will definitely surprise our heroes. So, there's something to look forward to. :)

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and all related characters belong to Disney and Square Enix.

Chapter Twenty One

Seifer had been sent flying back and hit the ground hard. He didn't get up. The ref looked at the point score before stepping into the ring. Walking over to Sora he picked up the teen's arm and held it up. "Winner: Sora, by a nose!" The crowd erupted into cheers.

"I won?" Sora asked, surprised. The judge showed him the score card. The last attack knocked five points off Seifer's score, two more than Sora needed to win.

Seifer slowly got up and brushed himself off. "That last attack came out of desperation, and you know it. It wasn't nearly as wimpy as your other moves." Sora shot him a dirty look, until Seifer held up a hand. "Next time, things will be different. And I better not catch you losing to that chump, Hayner."

"Why, can't beat him either?" asked Sora.

"Don't get cocky," Seifer scoffed as he headed off towards Market Street. "Later." Sora watched him go as Hayner and the others approached.

"Man, that was a close match," commented Pence.

"But we knew you would win," added Olette with a smile.

"Heh," Sora scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah, well now you gotta face me and I won't go easy on you just because we're friends," stated Hayner who was already making his way onto the battlefield.

"I hope not! I want a fair fight," added Sora as he followed him.

As the boys took their positions Sora couldn't help but feel excited. Hayner smirked as he braced himself for the starting bell. "Ready for round two?"

In that moment Sora didn't feel like himself. Someone else took the battle stance, ready for another chance to battle his best friend. It was then that Sora realized this feeling. He must have fought Hayner in the last tournament.

"Okay Roxas, let's show him what we can do," Sora thought as the bell dinged.

Hayner wasted no time and charged right at Sora. It would be easy enough to dodge, but instead Sora rushed forward and struck. Struggle bat met struggle bat as the two clashed. Once, twice, thrice, neither one of them backing down. The crowd cheered them on as their scores remained tied. The battle had gone on for a while, yet neither one had landed a hit so far. The crowd was on its feet. The two bats were locked against the other. Hayner suddenly jumped back and came at Sora while the brunette was off balance. This attack earned Hayner a few points, but Sora came back and unleashed a combo strike earning double that.

The time was running out and the battle was heating up. The crowd counted down the final seconds before The two rushed each other and struck. The bell rang and the battle was over. The judge tallied the score and handed the card over to the ref.

"Winner of the finals by four points: Sora!"

The crowd cheered as Hayner lowered his bat. "Aw nuts! I lost!"

Sora just scratched the back of his head with a sheepish grin. He walked over to Hayner and held out his hand. "Hey, you gave me a tough fight."

"Yeah, well you're just lucky I wasn't on top of my game today," he replied while jabbing his fist at Sora, playfully.

After a few minutes the ref came back onto the field. "Sora has won the right to challenge Setzer for the championship title! Contestants, please step onto the field."

"Go get him!" cheered Olette

"You can beat 'im," added Pence while Hayner nodded.

Sora nodded with confidence and made his way to the center of the field where his opponent was already waiting. right away Sora didn't like him. That silver hair, tall demeanor and an attitude that made him believe he was better than anyone else reminded Sora of another silverette.

"What's with that look?" asked Setzer as he offered his hand for a sporting handshake.

Sora realized his fists were clenched as he forced them to relax and returned the jester. "Just a little tense, I guess."

"Don't worry, I'll go easy on you, just let me win and I'll make it worth your while."

That comment struck a nerve and Sora became determined to beat this guy. Like he was going to win that easily? He had another thing coming.

Sora took his position while Setzer did the same on the other side of the field. The ref made sure both combatants were ready before ringing the starting bell.

Both charged at each other. Sora swung his bat and Setzer dodged to the right and countered, but Sora blocked it.

"I see, making it look good? Not a bad idea. Give these people a good show," Setzer called as he charged again. Sora jumped out of the way and struck the purple-caped opponent.

"This isn't what we discussed," he replied as he came at Sora again and again he blocked the attack.

"I'm not throwing the match! I'm in this to win, so you better get used to second place!"

Sora knocked Setzer off balance and was about to unleash a strong combo when a dark shadow had appeared over head. Sora stopped and jumped back just as something big slammed onto the area, shaking the ground from the impact.

When the dust cleared a large heartless with long, red claws and a red flowing mane roared at the crowd. It's large black and blue body only added to the creature's intimidating presence. Everyone began to panic scream as they fled the sandlot.

"A Dark Thorn?! But, what's it doing here?" asked Sora in utter shock. That's when he heard a familiar laugh.

"Oh, what's the matter runt? Can't fight without yer pals?"

Sora glared at the culprit, "Pete!"

Pete cupped his large hands together, "Hey, Thorny! hurry and take the kid's heart so we can go home!"

"What?!" Sora threw his struggle bat to the side as he went to draw Phoenix and jumped clear to avoid the Dark Thorn's attack as it brought one of its claws down.

Pete noticed Sora's new weapon and couldn't understand. Why didn't he use the Keyblade? "Awe, what am I worryin' about? The kid's as good as ours!"

Sora tried to fight off the massive heartless, but it wasn't as easy as last time. He didn't have Goofy, Donald or Beast to back him up, no keyblade and there was no chandelier in sight. To top it all off, Phoenix wasn't that effective against it.

"Agh!" he shouted in pain as the Dark Thorn struck Sora in his side. The force of the blow sending him crashing into the nearest wall. Sora used the wall for support as he struggled to stand up, trying to catch his breath. "All that training, was it all for nothing? Without a Keyblade I'm nothing, but with it, I'm..."

"Finish 'im off!" shouted Pete snapping Sora back into reality.

The Dark Thorn raised its massive claw and struck. Sora braced himself, the last thing he heard was the deafening roar of the giant heartless.

The Dark Thorn fell back from the explosion of heat caused by the spinning weapon that had struck it in its jaw. Sora opened his eyes slowly at first and then snapped them wide open at the sight before him. Axel and Demyx stood between Sora and the heartless, chakram and sitar in hand.

"Guys!" a smile plain on Sora's face. He'd never been so happy to see them.

"Didn't I tell you not to draw attention to yourself?" asked Axel as he caught his second chakram.

"But, I didn't-" Sora began but was cut off by Demyx, "-Yeah, right. We could hear the crowd cheering from the woods, ya big show off"

A loud roar cut off any further arguments as the three turned their attention back to the Dark Thorn which had recovered from Axel's attack.

Pete growled in annoyance at the nobodies meddling. He whistled and summoned more heartless. These were the average soldiers, shadows and rapid thrusters.

Demyx gave Sora a thumbs up, "We can take these guys. Axel, you handle the big one."

"Gee thanks," the red-head replied as he spun his flaming chakrams in his hands.

"Attack!" shouted Pete.

Sora struck down a shadow, relieved that Phoenix had no problem cutting them down. It took care of a soldier as well while Demyx summoned powerful jets of water with his sitar. a heartless came at Demyx from behind, but Sora struck it down before it could strike. The water-wielding nobody returned the favor when a thruster went to strike Sora from above. They were doing alright, but every time the heartless seemed to dwindle in number, Pete summoned more. Sora was doing well, but he was starting to tire.

"Hehe hahaha! Looks like yer runnin' out of steam. Why don't you use yer keyblade?" asked Pete.

Sora glared at him, but didn't answer. Pete chuckled with an evil smirk. "D'aww what's wrong, squirt? Afraid you'll kill another one of yer pals?"

An image of Kairi getting struck by the Keyblade flashed through Sora's mind and he saw red. Demyx turned to see Sora rush past him. Axel dodged another swipe from the Dark Thorn as he heard an angry roar. He thought it had come from the heartless, but as he turned his eyes widened.

That enraged roar came from Sora as he lept at Pete. That was what the villain was waiting for. He stepped to the side as a corridor of darkness opened where he had stood a moment before. At that moment Axel knew what was happening, but he wasn't able to stop it. Sora was about to vanish trough the portal when a blast of water rushed by, taking Sora with it. It splashed by one of the streets leading away from the sandlot. Demyx was standing there with a half-choked Sora, Demyx holding one of the kid's arms over his shoulder to support him.

"Axel, let's get outta here!"

Axel nodded and sent both chakrams into the air. they collided with each other and exploded into a blinding light sending a heat wave over the area. The weaker heartless were no match for the heat, neither was the already weakened Dark Thorn. Pete was forced to cover his face from the attack. When the blast subsided Pete growled to himself. The three were gone.

~*~STL~*~

As Cloud made his way into the town square he was greeted with a strange sight. Heartless were everywhere, but these were different. Instead of the strange jack-in-the-box monsters or the mummies, the place was crawling with Lance Soldiers and Rabid Dogs. They were going after the townspeople. Unsheathing his Fusion Sword, Cloud lept into action.

Lock, Shock and Barrel had thrown the last of their egg bombs and sticky candy at a Lance Soldier. It was covered in sticky gunk and was angry. Lance in hand, it charged at the troublesome trio. They braced themselves for the end, but it never came. The heartless was sliced clean in half before vanishing. The kids looked up and smiled when they saw Cloud standing where the heartless was.

"You saved us!" cried the witch.

"Don't mention it," replied Cloud as he moved on to help the others.

The mayor was surrounded by three Rabid Dogs. They constantly circled around him, making him dizzy. "Now, go on! Shoo! You fiendish canine brutes! Jack! Cloud! Anybody! I can't handle these mutts on my own!"

Angered by the insult, the dogs attacked, but were destroyed before they could get in a hit. The mayor opened one eye before his worried face spun to reveal his more cheerful expression. "Cloud! Oh thank Dracula, you're here!" He happily shouted as he approached the werewolf.

"When that horrible man with the fiery blue hair appeared I was quite shocked."

"Fiery blue hair?" Cloud didn't like the sound of that.

"Why, yes," the Mayor replied, "He appeared in a cloud of smoke and said he'd offer us a deal. Tell us where the soldier was and he'd make all of the heartless go away." The mayor looked around. "I have no idea what he means, we don't have any soldiers here. So, I told him to ask Dr. Finkelstein."

Cloud's eyes darted to the doctor's lab, before starting to make his way across the square.

"Wait!" shouted the mayor. "Where are you going? There's more heartless to fight!"

Cloud ignored him and kept going.

. . .

Inside the mad doctor's lab, Cloud moved carefully and silently. He could hear voices coming from down the hall. He stopped at the door and looked through the opening. Hades was growing impatient. "Look pal, I'm a busy guy. All I want is one answer. Have you seen a chump with spiky hair? Tell me where he is and I'll be outta your hair."

"I don't have any hair!" the mad doctor snapped. "And even if I knew who you were talking about, I don't trust you as far as I could throw you."

Hades tried very hard to keep his flaming hair from turning red. "Fine, then my heartless will just have to turn this place upside-down until they fi-"

Hades stopped in mid-sentence as he felt something sharp pricking his back.

"Looking for me?"

The lord of the underworld failed to hide the smirk that crawled up the side of his face. "So, the chump thinks he can threaten me? You forget who you're dealing with."

Cloud wasn't impressed. Ever since he found out Hades was here he had been trying to figure out why he had been looking for him. Until it occurred to him, it was about their deal. "If you've come about the contract, you blew it when you had your whimpering mutt attack me. I owe you nothing."

Hades vanished in a puff on dark smoke before re-appearing right beside the soldier. "And that's where you're wrong. See, your contract said to kill Hercules, and last I checked, his ticker is still tickin'. So, I still own you."

Cloud glared at the villain. "I don't think so."

Hades gave out a dark chuckle. "I don't need you to think, I need you to fight. And fight you will. In the Underdrome, to the death. In fact, for the rest of eternity!"

Cloud raised his sword to strike, but Hades was one step ahead. He struck the soldier with a blast of fire and smoke which engulfed him. When the smoke vanished, Cloud was gone.

Hades let out a chuckle that was laced with a mixture of pure delight and malice. "That just made my day. Nice doing business with you, Doc. As promised, the bike is yours."

Dr. Finkelstein pounded his small fist against the arm of his chair. "Are you finished? You got what you wanted, now leave. I'm going to be very busy trying to figure this thing out and put it to good use."

Hades rolled his eyes as the mad scientist rolled away. "Yeesh, though crowd." With that he vanished in a cloud of smoke.

Poof?

I also wanted to thank Dinowriter23 for all of their reviews. This chapter probably would have taken a lot longer had it not been for your helpful input. And thank you to everyone who has left a review. ^_^

Edit: I just realized that a little bit of the ending was cut off. So, it's now fixed.