Of Keys and Hammers

by zcritic88

In a realm beyond, the Four Chaos has taken notice of a realm tied close to the heart. They squirmed into the darkness and sought to corrupt if to reach a prize beyond the light. Will the Light of Order, be able to repel this ancient evil?

32. The Hex of Heroism

At a bayou near a city, Kairi felt the atmosphere to be buzzing and damp as she asked. "Where... are we?" She looked around to find Namine listening to the croaks and chirps of the swamp. "Hmm... this is where we were suppose to go." The blonde girl turned to her and asked. "Where should we look, the city... or the swamp?"

Kairi sighed and didn't pay heed to the city. "It would be too easy to look in the city, but... where in the swamp is a princess suppose to-" Namine heard something odd in the bayou, the sound of a banjo like instrument. "Shh... this might be our clue." Kairi listened and felt the sound was ahead toward her right. "Or... directions." BZZT! Poke! SLAP!

Kairi swatted a mosquito and jumped across many logs, landing on a patch of land and was given a territorial hiss to her left, she and Namine noticed a black scaled, grey bellied alligator, hissing once more and wanting her to leave. She and Namine heard a faint sound of arguing closer to the right, the blonde girl vanished and advised. "It's more scared of us than we are of it. Just be careful of those that aren't." Kairi agreed and jumped to another patch of land, finding eight green alligators swimming in the dark water, towards her, having dead yellow eyes, green scales and jagged teeth, the girl felt something wasn't right and jumped to a tree to dodge a unified sprint and cling to a branch, the alligators pounced upon each other, fought and rolled against one another, revealing heartless emblems.

Kairi swung near the bestial darkness and unleashed several swings, dispatching two of the gators and enveloping herself with water to quickly wash the gator like heartless away. The banjo music became louder, Kairi followed the sound and found a raft little bigger than her head, two frogs sailed across it, one was doing all the rowing and looked annoyed, the other was playing a makeshift banjo that was made from a twig and spider webs. The rowing frog, looking feminine, turned to the more masculine frog and asked. "How about a little less picking and-" She gasped as she noticed something swimming to the raft, a tiny head with brown scales, showing beady eyes, an alligator that opened its maw and gave off a hiss.

Kairi was ready to fight as the lazier frog noticed the predator coming for them, the two frogs screamed as the hissing became a voice of joy. "I know that tune," He took out a trumpet and looked much more friendly even compared to the wild gator Kairi saw before. "Dippermouth blues!"

The alligator blew his trumpet, Kairi dismissed her keyblade and had her left wrist at her hip, in complete disbelief, the gator played jazz music and she nodded. The male frog was in the beat and approved as he took his banjo. "Play it brother!" The two played together as the feminine frog looked to Kairi enjoying the beat, was half astonished and half annoyed, the girl silently agreed that it was silly to watch and listened to the gator asking the masculine frog as both spun around together to dry land. "Where have you been all my life?"

The masculine frog asked back. "Where did you learn to play like that?" The gator put the frog down to answer. "Well the bayou is the best jazz school in the world." The two females waited and listened as the gator continued. "All the greats play the river boats." The gator dreamed. "Oh Louis give anything to be up there jamming with the big boys."

The masculine frog asked. "Why don't you?" Louis answered with memories of failure. "Oh I tried once." Kairi had the mental image of a big alligator climbing up a large boat and horrifying a crowd of people that didn't want to get eaten and reacting appropriately, Louis finished his memory. "It didn't end well."

Kairi laughed nervously. "I... can see why." The two males were astonished by the human talking to them and not being scared of the fact she could hear them, the feminine frog wanted to pull her partner out of the madness. "Uh huh. It's has been a real pleasure meeting you...uh."

Kairi introduced herself. "Kairi." The feminine frog continued. "Louis and Kairi." She pulled the male frog to the boat in thanks. "And thank you for not trying to kill us, but we best be on our way."

The gator wanted to know as Kairi asked for him. "Where are you going?" The femine frog rowed and answered. "To find somebody to break this spell." The girl quickly realized. "You were... turned into frogs?" She had her right hand under her chin. "That explains why you two talk." She questioned how she was able to hear Louis as the feminine frog gave a half caring glance to the male. "He was the one hexed and I got myself dragged into this when he thought that I would magically solve his problems by kissing him, cause I was dressed up as a princess."

The male frog didn't want to be reminded as Louis realized the frogs were serious. "Say what?!" The male frog answered that gracefully. "I am Naveen, Prince of Maldonia." Naveen introduced the female in a less than flattering tone. "And this is Tiana, the waitress." He whispered to a close Louis. "Do not kiss her." Tiana wasn't taking that, stopped rowing and protested. "Now just a second. This goon got himself turned into a frog, by a voodoo man and now-" Louis dropped his trumpet in fear. "Voodoo?! Like the kind Mama Odie do?" Naveen asked. "Mama... whodie?"

Louis answered. "Mama Odie, she the voodoo queen of the bayou. She got magic and spells, all kind of whodoo." The frogs asked. "Could you take us to her?" Louis gasped to that question. "In the deepest, darkest depths of the bayou? Facing razor sharp bricker bushes and trappers and hunters? With guns?!" He answered with a blunt. "No."

The three were disappointed to that as Naveen asked the two smoothly. "Watch and learn." He went to the alligator playing his trumpet under a tree and disappointedly sighed. "Oh, it is too bad we cannot help you with your dream. If only you were more... smaller, less...toothy." He showed the teeth to prove a point as Kairi realized smooth talking was ensuing. "You could play jazz to adoring crowds, without scaring them." The gator stopped his trumpet play as Naveen pretended to part. "Anyway, enjoy your loneliness my friend. Abenaza!"

Tiana wasn't impressed. "Cute, but its not going to-" Naveen raised a webbed finger and pointed right as Louis had something to say, seemingly like he changed his mind. "Hey guys, I just have me the craziest idea!"

Kairi guessed what it was. "You're going to ask the Voodoo Queen if she can make you human so you can live that dream?" Louis nodded as Naveen had a compliment for both. "Louis, Kairi," He held Tiana's hand and the two hopped on top of the gators head. "You are geniuses."

The gator wrapped the top of his tail over a trumpet and yelled out. "Hallelujah!" He jumped into the water and Kairi had interest. "If a hunter comes along, I'll chase them off." Louis found that even better, took his trumpet and started some jazz as a thank you for the feeling of safety.

By a mansion in the city.

The Replica and Ztardon stepped out of the corridor and hid behind a tree, the Tzaangor shaman had a lesson to give. "We have a... minor inconvenience for us if it is allowed to take power, can you find it?"

The Replica looked upon a gazebo, finding a blonde, energetic city girl in a red dress and red sun hat, having lunch with and flirting with a dark skin, black skin nobleman. He wanted to answer and stopped, realizing this was part of a test, he closed his eyes and sensed a dark aura in the form of the man and more towards a pendent, he opened and saw the man with an enlarged ear not like his other. "...This is an illusion. We need to stop-" Ztardon stopped him. "Yes, it is... but what will happen if we dispel it now?"

The Replica answered that. "We will mess everything up and that's... not our plan." The Tzaangor nodded as the Replica watched the man's illusion slowly wear off, the man tried to hide his true form, looking like a fat and middle aged man, the Replica watched an obvious swindling as the man tried to rush a proposal. "She can't be this-" The woman yelled out in excitement, unaware of the man's attempts to hide his true self. "YEEEEES! Of course I'll marry you, oh there is so much to plan and the guest list, the dress, the music, the flowers, the shoes." She turned to shriek at the hiding man and went to skip back to the manor. "We are going to have ourselves a mauti grand wedding!" The Replica placed the palm of his hand over his face. "She is... so now what are we going to do?"

Ztardon hummed as the Replica watched the cowering man be sneaked upon by a tall, skinny, dark skin man in a purple suit and a black top hat that had a skull and cross bones. Holding upon a talisman the smaller man was wearing, the Replica felt a fading power from the trinket. "That witch doctor is behind it all." He felt like he was listening to whispers more clearly, the cowering man asked. "What do we do now?"

The witch doctor answered and dropped the talisman back on the man. "Because somebody let our froggy prince go Larry, I'm reduced to asking for help from my friends on the Other Side."

The Replica felt a vision coming and closed his eyes, seeing an event that took place in the past, that voodoo man revealing to a charming nobleman and the puny valet the name, Dr Faclier. That voodoo man coning the two into a deal and masks chanting, a menacing mask that resembles a demon with horns opening its maw to reveal the talisman and the voodoo man having the talisman bite into the noble mans finger. Giving off a red glow and causing the man to turn into a frog.

The Replica opened his eyes and felt a faint scent, looking upon the bayou. "The actual prince needs to stay hidden." Ztardon pointed the way in an order, the teenager questioned if the role of who goes and who stays near the city should have been reversed, he shrugged and went to the bayou with a decision. "Should I leave that job to him?" He shook his head ran off, leaving Ztardon to spy upon Facilier. The Tzaangor gave an evil smile and took the form of a raven, it's shadow showing a formless horror.

At a Greek city.

On top of a column, a brown haired woman in a blue toga was forced to climb up by a swarm of six round fiery heartless. "Someone help!" She asked to herself. "Where did all these monsters come from?" She yelled desperately. "Hercules, where are you?"

Sora, Donald, Goofy and Ana entered a garden right at the woman's call, the duck pointed out. "Look!" Sora agreed and yelled out. "Oh no!" The trio charged as Goofy yelled. "Help is on the way!" Ana felt if she attacked the heartless that close, she might cause the column to collapse, she followed in flight as the trio drew out their weapons. Sora let the woman know. "We'll put these hot heads out."

The Stormcast promised the woman as she landed next to her. "Just keep still while they take care of it." She looked to the sky and down to the heartless as the woman asked confused. "Huh? Who are you four? Where is Hercules?"

Donald answered. "Hey, we're heroes too!" Sora rushed to a column and snared three of them in a spin as Goofy bashed the other three into a pile, Sora jumped in between and used water magic to quell the fire and more importantly, get the six heartless wet. "Let them have it!" Donald nodded and raised his staff as Ana raised her keyblade, both to the sky and caused bolts of lightning to strike down upon the heartless, annihilating them in one fell swoop, Ana felt the woman holding onto her and jumped down to let her off, the woman let go and looked rather thankful. "Thank you. You're so brave." She turned to ask Anatesis. "What are you? A...hero sent from the gods?"

The Stormcast nodded. "Aye, but not from Olympus, go find somewhere safe to hide until we quell the danger." The woman's eyes glittered in admiration as Donald felt that was stretching something thin. "I will, what's your names?" The four gave her that name, she felt a ring in all four. "Sora, Donald, Goofy, Ana." She ran towards safety as Donald asked. "Ana, we are not suppose to talk about that."

The Stormcast blinked and asked. "The World Order? If there is another pantheon they know of, it isn't something they won't believe, I just won't talk about the god that sent me." Sora had a text from someone and checked his phone, it was one from Riku. "The towns people are blabbering from close encounters but they seem fine, we're running into hell hounds and heading towards a part of town looking pretty bad, where are you?"

Sora kept a steady pace as Donald and Goofy felt the Stormcast had a point, going further into the garden and watching a fire ball from the sky collapse a building, something leaped on top of another roof, a red, four armed, ape like beast that looked annoyed by something and was on a hunt, it had three tongues and blades wedged onto its back. It gave a yell much like a humans and impatiently leaped to another. Ana gave off a duty bound frown and answered. "That's a slaughterbrute...bound to one of the Varanguard on the loose."

Donald asked. "Bound?" Ana nodded and lead the way towards a downward slope. "It's something a Chaos Champion in power does, it is a ritual that connects the beast to the champion. In the end, the beast fighting like a warrior instead of a monster. Killing the champion doesn't make it much better, freed, it won't tell friend from foe and it will go bonkers. Many good soldiers learn that the hard way." Sora looked ready to take on the nightmares. "Then that means the Varanguard are close by, maybe we can put an end to that and then focus on Hades and Garland."

The group agreed and slide down to a ruined road that had a pit of fire. Goofy and Donald knew they had to get across and let Ana carry them, the Stormcast took flight and let Sora lead the way. "Once we catch up with Riku and Herc, we will be ready." Sora looked upon the walls and ran up with a protective mindset, in preparation for another encounter with the forces of chaos.

At Twilight Town's Bistro.

Ken was astonished and asked Aqua. "A furry blue alien that was a...I think I heard some of the people back home talk about him a couple weeks ago." The woman gasped. "626 is out there?!" Ken nodded and noticed Olette with two boys that seem to be close friends with her. "I think he disappeared after that big heartless attack, since no one seen him at all since."

Olette waved hello and let the two boys now. "And this is the guy I was talking about." A blonde boy in a vest saw one thing catching interested. "Nice arm, you're Ken?" Kendry waved with the cybernetic. "Olette told me about you and Pence. Hayner?" Hayner gave a wide, cocky smile. "The one and only." Pence pretended he didn't over hear the conversation and asked as he notice the striking blue haired woman. "And you're Kairi and Ken's teacher?"

Aqua nodded, smiled and greeted herself. "You three are well informed." She wondered about what the bistro had to offer and nearly drooled. "This is the place I heard about." Olette winked and pointed the way. "The best restaurant in the whole town," Pence realized a small detail. "Hey Aqua, we heard you traveled across strange places before, do you want to share some of the info with us?"

The teacher realized what her instincts were doing and snapped out of it. "Ha! There were two times I had an experience with something culinary. One was an Inn in the Realm of Azyr that friends of mine covered when I was able to... the other-" she didn't looked proud of. "Was when I was in the Realm of Ghur... or beasts. Squigs are incredibly violent, dangerous creatures that won't hesitate to bite you face off, they are also something the moonclan grots raise for food, steeds... or war beasts." Ken cringed and warned the three. "Their cousins, the spider fangs, ride on big spiders... but I heard the moonclan are crazier. Miss, did a squig tried to attack you and you had nothing else to eat?"

The teacher nodded. "I had to improvise with a camp fire of... mushrooms and it might have affected the flavor. But if we ever find a squig, they are a sign to much more trouble because of the grots and because those realms are outside of the world, there is much greater dangers compared to them lurking with in." The teenagers took her word for it, Ken noticed someone sneaking around and excused himself. "I seen one of those dangers, but I heard of another that's pretty awful. Miss, guys, do you mind if I go searching? I'll be back." He drew out his burning keyblade and flicked a burning flame, Aqua approved. "If it is danger, use that trick immediately." Hayner promised the boy. "We know what to order for you, you'll like it."

Ken and Aqua were unaware of what, the boy with the keyblade walked off and followed to an open road and found Xion cheerfully greeting him. "Hello, my brother wanted to know where I got this." She spun to show off her attire, Ken gushed and felt the danger lessening. "It's sudden, but it's like you are a new person. What's up?" Xion nervously asked, her hands behind her hips and her right shoe skid in place. "I... found something you may want to see." She looked upon the burning keyblade, wondering where that came from as she took a deep breath and drew out a keyblade. Ken looked astonished. "No way. Awesome."

He placed his burning keyblade on his main hand and asked. "You wanted to fight to see what you can do?" Xion's nervousness became confidence, she nodded. "Please. I...won't ask again, I know this might look awkward to someone else." Ken didn't mind that. "I talk to mine sometimes." Xion exhaled and looked around to find no one looking. "Alright, here I come."

She rushed after the boy and swung, Ken side stepped and swung back, Xion parried and pushed back with unexpected strength. Push! Ken backed away and Xion closed in with a hyper aggressive manner. Parry! Ken parried and pushed back, he watched Xion back flip and complimented. "Are you sure this isn't your first time?" Xion felt a complete blank and answered. "I... thought it was. Is this all you can do with that?"

Ken didn't wish to go full out in fear of drawing attention, raised his keyblade into the air and felt its flame brighter, he closed in to the girl and readied a jab. Xion readied to parry, the burning blade collided with hers, burst and knocked her off her feet, she was dazed and saw Ken dismiss his keyblade, he lowered himself to help her up. "I don't use that as my main keyblade, its an off hand and I thought to use it because I think my other one might have ended that fight sooner. You're a lot stronger than I thought you were."

Xion blushed and took the cybernetic hand, feeling a firm grip and was helped up. "T...thank you." She cringed at an awkward moment. "But what are you going to tell them?" Ken didn't hesitated. "I met someone that wanted to know how to fight."

He felt rude excluding an invitation as Xion felt it would work. "That's the truest thing I heard." She looked at a bench and asked. "If you are finished, would you... would you." Ken agreed with a blush back. "I like to hang out with you more. Give me half an hour, I got an idea so you won't miss out." Xion looked confused about the suggestion. "Huh?" Ken promised her. "I been hearing a lot of good things with the restaurant. That's the big huh and you want to taste that. After that... there might be someone I can show you to and we can get to talking."

That idea lit the girls day brighter, she felt a rumble and trusted him. "Alright, thank you." The boy nodded and left back to the bistro, finding Aqua curious about a particular mystery. "The... Little Chef keeps himself a mystery?" Hayner nodded and warned her. "If you want to find out, there is a catch." Ken blinked as Pence noticed him and wave. "Hey we ordered something the both of you might like." The boy squinted his eyes to the restaurant. "You guys really are about mysteries."

He whistled and waltz in. "I'm going to check it out while we wait." Aqua cringed and tried to hold herself against warning him, Ken walked into the bistro and found a door to the kitchen closing shut, an ominous warning the boy felt. He looked around and found the people too busy to notice, he sneaked in and found many, many orders and a list of ingredients being prepared, yet no sign of the chef. He entered fully and asked to himself. "What kind of mystery is this?"

Scurry!

Ken quickly felt something crawling on his back, tried to react and felt the presence on his head. Tug! Something tugged on his hair and he felt himself tumbling out of control, he reached to a frying pan and spatula, he looked up to find the puppet master. A grey rodent, Ken felt his brain explode. "That chef is you?! Wait... that's the catch?" The rodent nodded and guided the boy to a variety of seafood and vegetables, Ken felt enough of his mind was blown. "Alright, alright, I get it. This is how you would do your thing." He wanted to laugh as the insanity took hold.

At the burning city near Olympus.

Sora, Donald, Goofy and Ana charged into a crumbling building to find Riku and Moonfang fighting back against a horde of eight viking like heartless with twin axes and eight black, reptilian hounds, protecting a family of three that were cornered, holding a support piece to the building was Hercules, who noticed the arrivals. "Sora!"

The four drew their weapons as Riku appreciated the company, if with some sarcasm. "Finally, hey heroes, help us out." The four approached and felt a rumble in the building, Donald turning around to find debris falling the way they came as Herc voiced the plan. "You guys take those heartless. We need to save these people!" Sora asked the Olympian. "Herc, can you hold the building?" Herc smiled to that and kept holding on. "No problem." Sora yelled out to the group. "Come on, we got to do this quick!"

Sora, Goofy and Ana dived into the viking like heartless as Donald shot icy orbs upon the more aggressive swarm, catching the attention of the hounds and giving Moonfang time to pounce upon them from behind. Riku leaped against the hounds and hacked away as Ana bashed three vikings clean and caused her keyblade to shift into an axe. Cleaving the hounds and giving the group some breathing room to swiftly dispatched the heartless.

The crumbling of the building worsened and the group knew they need to find a route out, Riku saw a crumbling wall to the left and asked Ana. "Could you make a hole out of that?" The Stormcast gasped, saw it and flew to it with her shoulder. CRACK! She forced a wall open, Herc saw the light and silently let the group know he has the building managed, Sora understood and asked the family as Goofy, Donald and Riku were pointing the way. "Are you guys alright? You need to get to safety. Go! Quickly!"

The dracoth made sure the shaking child was up on her feet and had her gaze upon the make shift door, the family took the chance and run to it, the rest of the party escorted around as Sora realized Hercules was still trapped himself, he hesitated, realized there wasn't much he could do and followed out. Toward a grassy road where they felt the rumbling worsen.

CRUMBLE!

The guard blocked the blunt of an impact of dust from the family, they looked on to find the building collapsed with Herc in it. Sora felt his heart racing as he and the group of visitors yelled out "Hercules" baring Moonfang who roared and Anatesis who felt something she shouldn't have, rumble. Rumble!

Sora was the first to notice someone coming out of the ruins; Hercules, who looked to have not even a scratch as he dusted the pebbles off. Sora felt his heart beats slowing down and yelled. "You scared us!" Hercules sighed to that. "It's nothing. That's what these are for." He flexed his muscles as Ana admired the courage. "Even I would think twice before trying to carry all that. Now let's ge-"

She, Sora and Riku sensed something coming from the shadows, something heavy and snarling. Two horsemen riding out of the mist, on what looked to be heavily mutated steeds, to the right was a horsemen in black armor and a helmet that gave Sora, Donald and Goofy a flash back of Kharn. Wielding a rune axe and a mighty shield, the horsemen looked upon the cowering family with contempt as the horsemen to the right; one with a horned head, a similar shield and a small axe with an eye looking upon Hercules and Ana, balked. "Kheroch, is this why the cattle had been avoiding us? These pitiful, meager imbeciles wasting their time?" Kheroch didn't care for that. "Does it matter Istur? Our quarry marched straight to where Srosgros said they would, inspite of what that building should have done."

Sora gritted his teeth at the insignias as Donald and Goofy flexed foolishly, the duck yelled. "Go away!" The shield bearer yelled. "No Varanguard!" The spiky haired boy drew out his keyblade without hesitation. "So it was true, what do you wackos want?"

Istur cruelly laughed at him and had his glare upon Hercules as Kheroch silently watched Anatesis. "Is it not obvious you dip wit? We came to topple this world and all who stand with it." Riku drew his blade in his friends defense. "By trying to kill Herc while he is busy saving peoples lives from this fire and from those like you." Kheroch shrugged. "It is his fault for guarding these weaklings. Would they be able to do the same for him?"

Hercules felt he heard enough. "Is that all that matters to you? Thinking only of yourself?"

Kheroch answered as he had his target in sight. "Is that weakness the only thing that matters to you? Putting others before you?" Istur had his own target in sight and answered. "He has the divine of this world taking patron, nothing more. Our master will see the end to that farce." Herc felt a delicate spot has Sora had enough of the Varanguard. "What do you know? You weren't even there to see the things Herc has done, if you were, you would know he deserved to be called a hero." Istur burst laughing as Kheroch answered. "You wouldn't be saying that when we are finished with him and this..." He snarled to the Stormcast. "Boisterous insect! Would you be able to save them from this!"

The horses charged without warning, Istur jabbed his weapon at Herc as Kheroch swung to Ana's neck. Herc dodged, grabbed the horse by its rear and hurled it to a rocky wall as the family bolted out of danger. Ana flew above and swung at Kheroch's chest with her keyblade, the Varanguard were knocked off their steeds. Donald and Goofy focused on them as Sora and Riku went after the chaos warriors that were getting up. The shields blocked the damage, Istur kicked Sora back and stabbed the ground as Kheroch pushed back against Riku with his shield and tried to rush him into the building. The silver haired teenager flowed to a wall and ran behind Kheroch to do melee as a darkness pool under Istur, letting loose malformed shadow like heartless that had sickle like claws that pounced after Sora on instinct. Sora yelped and hacked after the heartless as Herc tackled Istur and his weapon off the ground. The Varanguard with the demonic weapon caught his footing and pushed back as Sora split his keyblade into two glowing disks, threw them at the shadows to put them out of their misery and flung them after Istur, the Varanguard was struck in the face and waddled back as his partner was bull rushed by Ana. Moonfang blasted the horses with her lightning break and clawed into their throats for a killing blow as Goofy and Donald did what they can to keep them distracted. Kheroch tried to fight back against Ana, cleaved into her armor with his ensorcelled weapon and felt a hammer wedged into his stomach.

He howled and clawed after her desperately as he watched Istur try to parry Herc's punches with his deamon bound weapon, the disks coming back distracted Istur and gave Herc the chance needed to shatter the weapon. Istur felt a dark shroud engulfing him as Kheroch was shot deeper into the blade by dim fire balls, Riku growled to him. "Go back to hell where you belong." Ana felt like her mind was read, flew high into the air and crashed down like a thunderbolt with Kheroch attached to the weapon. BOOM! Istur watched an unsightly mess that was his comrade and the horses falling down in blood, he looked like he snapped into a rage and charged after Herc, the dark shroud became a pool that reached out the warrior of chaos in dark claws. Istur yelled wildly, bit into one of the claws and tore at them, leaving a frightened group to watch as Istur barked to them. "THIS ISN'T OVER! EVEN NOW THE EVERCHOSEN MARCHES UPON-"

A claw wrapped around his mouth as the tendrils dragged him down into the pool bellow, Ana and Riku cringed together as Sora, Donald and Goofy realized what happened. The teenagers looked to each other disturbingly as Ana sighed. "The Varanguard are not like most forces of Chaos, they have done so much evil that they earned the title Slaves to Darkness."

Moonfang nodded as Donald and Goofy snapped the boys out of their dosage of nightmares, Herc knew what Istur was trying to threaten. "This means there is one more that we can't ignore. Sora, Riku, don't let these guys bother you." Sora was looking down at where the Varanguard was as the Olympian continued. "They are trying to get under our skin because they think they can. But well prove them wrong." Ana got on Moonfang and yelled out. "We will show them what we can do as one! Those self serving barbarians won't know what hit them now that there is just two in the city and seven of us."

Sora perked up and agreed. "You're right." Riku smiled with him and followed the dracoth leading the way. "Let's give Srosgros and his pet monster a ticket out of here, then we will check back on Olympus, Hades isn't the only danger here." Goofy hummed. "We are already proof enough that we can do it." Donald agreed and followed the Stormcast through the fog. "We're a team! When we're together, we can do anything." Sora agreed with that. "Yeah."

The unified group made a travel through an alley way that lead to a water way. Moonfang smelled from the right and rushed to a door, Ana readied her hammer and together they bashed a way to the city square, where a gargantuan juggernaut of a heartless with a mighty axe was doing battle against a slaughter brute and a Varanguard with a blind fold and a top knot revealing black hair. In the knights hands was a shield and a wicked spear, the three quickly overwhelmed the heartless and left the knight yelling out. "I DARE YOU TO TAKE ME, FOR I AM YOUR MASTER!"

The horse noticed something and turned, with the rider realizing something was amiss. The rider sensed it and tensed. "How did those two fail?!" He regretted as the slaughter beast laughed at the coming group, leaped above Ana and tried to pounce upon the lesser group, Hercules jumped from beneath the monsters belly and sent it flying with him as the Varanguard charged after Ana. "Die!"

Moonfang blew a mighty breath of lightning as Ana had her hammer ready to duel against, Srosgros, Sora and Riku jumped to the knights left and right, charged after the rider as one and thrust, Srogros dodged Sora and was knocked off his horse by Riku. He landed on his back, grabbed the ground and performed a back flip as his horse was completely annihilated, the slaughterbrute nearly landed on his back and Srogros felt his heart skip a beat. He thought of a plan and beckoned the beast to his side. "Don't think you won by numbers alone." He jumped on the slaughterbrutes head and rode on top of it like it was a steed, the slaugherbrute gave an evil smile and clawed Goofy and Donald away.

Ana jumped onto the brutes back to do battle as Moonfang tackled the brutes belly. The brute tried to pluck the two off as Srogros dodged the swings of the keyblade. Sora thought of a reckless idea and yelled out. "Herc, do you see the swords on its back?" The Olympian landed and saw them. "Yeah? Why is tha-" Ana gasped, turned her head and yelled. "Break it."

Srogros gasped back, the slaughter brute ignored the dracoth on its chest, jumped to a building and hurled a column at the larger group. Moonfang held with her claws as Ana grabbed onto the horns. SWOOSH! CRUMBLE!

The column was sliced in two and Sora landed on the roof as Herc made a mighty leap. Srogros gritted his teeth and felt something appeared behind him, Riku struck him in the back and kept him distracted as the spiky haired boy and the Olympian jumped onto the slaughterbrutes back and pulled the sword. Srogros barked. "You idiots, do you know what you just-"

"HWEEEEEE!" The slaughterbrute yelled like a maniac and flailed its claws all around, knocking Sora and Herc off the building as Ana, Riku and Moonfang jumped off. Scrogros tried to fight back, was grabbed in a claw and flung his spear at the beasts head, sinking it deep as he watched razor sharp teeth chomp down upon his body. Sora caught himself with a flow to a column as Herc landed in a thud, Donald and Goofy came through to watch a knight fighting his way out of the monsters jaws. Srogros looked bloodied and pulled his spear out of the beasts forehead, he stabbed into the beasts throat and hurled it's bleeding carcass to Sora. The boy jumped out of the way and looked at the knight trying to jump to the ground.

KICK!

Srogros was kicked upside the back by white hooves, the Varanguard lost his balance and screamed as he fell from the tall building.

Thud!

The Varanguard landed upon the ground in a mighty thump, tried to get up and was hacking blood from his mouth, left at the mercy of the Stormcast that raised her hammer high and slammed it down upon his skull. Sora and Riku looked away from the brutal finisher as a spark of lightning told the rest. Ana pulled away as Herc looked up to find a Pegasus flying down with Megara and Phil, the woman cringed at the execution as the satyr felt mutual. "She's definitely Norse." The horse landed as Ana looked upon Moonfang and nodded to her, causing the dracoth to disappear in a glow that flowed to her heart, Megara focused on the battered group, primarily to Herc. "Nice job, Wonderboy. We checked the whole area from above, it looks like everyones safe."

Herc appreciated that and more. "That's great. We did what we could. But we got another problem, these guys yelled about an Everchosen that could be going for Olympus." Meg felt like it was another dark lord and sighed. "He's been keeping you heroes busier than bees." Phil agreed and asked. "You think he and Hades are working with each other?"

Anatesis shook her head and let her keyblade fade. "Archaon would snuff that old flame in a heart beat, so no." The Pegasus noticed something odd at a tall mountain in the distance, the woman saw and sighed. "Oh...look. More trouble." The group looked to find the mountain shrouded in a stormy cloud, Herc felt like it was a pile upon pile of ordeals. The party members felt it was mutual as Sora asked. "Herc! Let's go!" The Olympian agreed with that. "Right." The Pegasus took flight to escort Meg and Phil away and left the vast party to travel back to Olympus. They left the city as one and dashed across a road way to the mountain of legends, into the storm of chaos.

At Twilight Town.

Xion looked bored and hungry as she noticed Kendry with a cup bin, the boy smiled smugly and approached, giving it to her and giggled. "That was a mystery I'm glad I solved. Miss is going to have to figure this out by herself. This came free after I... had to pay the toll for the knowledge. Sorry for taking so long."

Xion took the bin and was given a spoon, she opened it to find a bisque with a whole crab claw in the shell, she gasped, took a spoon full and sipped. Hearts fluttered in her eyes as she asked. "What did you have to do?"

Ken swallowed nervously. "Help the Little Chef out, it's how he normally cooks and let's just say he does most of the work anyways. Cooking for a lot of people in a business is a whole level compared to cooking for a few people." The boy took out his burning keyblade and placed it on the ground, causing it to resemble a cozy bonfire. "I had to try what the guys ordered for me and that bisque... well... you know now."

Xion's gaze was upon the fire as she savored the soup. "MMM! Tell him he has another fan." Ken gave Xion an okay sign, she swallowed and asked as she felt something was looking back. "How did you and this keyblade meet?"

The boy gave her a brief summary. "When it's world died. This keyblade holds the heart of that world and a certain someone that is pretty cool. Benedict would have liked to see it now."

Xion felt pity as she scarfed more of the soup. "That's kind of sad." She looked at the boy to ask and found a strange woman forming from blowing ashes, sitting on the ground and tilting her head back and forth in a playful manner, she smiled to Xion and asked. "Odd one, this was not the kind of day thou expected?" Xion shook her head as the bisque was reduced to a few drizzles. "No, it was much more wonderful than I thought it would be." She crack opened the claw and saw white meat to bite off. Gulp. "The sun feels brighter, the fire is warm and the stranger I met has been very nice to me."

Ken smiled to the woman and introduced. "Xion, this is the Firekeeper and she is the heart I talked about that is in the keyblade. She comes when I need guidance." Xion noticed the woman having a blind fold and introduced herself. "I'm Xion, I... need to find out what I'm doing with myself." The Firekeeper asked. "A purpose for thee, most unexpected." She looked at Kendry and asked. "Wielder of the Flame, providing thine Master allows it, is there any place you wish to explore?"

Ken had one in mind. "That world past where the Eldar's ship was. There is a secret there and I want to find it." Xion asked as she wanted to make sure the cup was cleaned. "You're an explorer?" The boy nodded and looked up to the sky. "That's what I want to be, free to see whats out there. Everything that looked new to me is... kind of fun to witness... with some exceptions." Xion looked at the arm and worried. "Wouldn't your teacher get worried if you get lost?" Ken didn't hesitate. "Totally, but I get why." Xion looked upon the clock tower with some ideas and asked Ken. "I think you're teacher might be upset if you are out of sight for this long. Thank you for the food and company." Ken appreciated and as the Firekeeper gave a farewell nod to the girl. "We will meet again."

She disappeared into ashes and the boy pulled out the keyblade. "I heard the town has an ice cream stand as well, I'll see ya later in the afternoon." Xion felt that would be a sweet time and promised him. "I'll be here like before." She giggled as the boy took his leave, she watched the sun and took in a lazy afternoon.

At the base of Mount Olympus.

The six man band of heroes fought through water heartless, flying heartless, sandy heartless and for anyone not Hercules, had to travel through a familiar path they took. Leading to the same part of the mountain where they met Hades and leading more towards a path to a mountain side. Rumble! Rumble! "Rrawr!" "Caw!" "Whurrrr!"

The unusual roars and a rumble was heard above the mountain, Goofy and Donald looked around, the shield bearer had a gut feeling. "Those don't sound like they mix." Sora agreed with that. "That's not a good sign."

Hercules agreed with that and looked up the mountain. "Guys, this is getting worse by the minute." He looked down to his right fist. "I hope I'm wrong, but my family needs me." He turned and gave a sharp whistle, calling the Pegasus from the town, the horse landed and let Herc get on his back. Ana warned him. "Hercules, those Varanguard were pretty tough and if Archaon is up there-" Herc agreed to that. "I know, I'm going to fly ahead. You can catch up, but leave those two to me." Riku asked. "You... said about having a family up there."

Herc was firm on the horses back and answered. "Yeah. Dad's king of the gods." He gave a hiyah and the horse took flight with him, Ana whistled. "I knew there was something big about him. It's no wonder Archaon wants to see this mountain turn to rubble." Sora agreed with that. "But how did Archaon find out Herc is a god?" Riku approached the mountain side and guessed. "Since I doubt Hades would go near someone with that kind of blood lust out of fear for his own hide, Archaon must have found out through another way."

He felt dry in the mouth and remembered the previous encounter with a powerful figure of Chaos. "Herc needs our help, he won't last against Archaon alone." Goofy agreed with that. "Good point. We gotta go!" Donald agreed with that as he and Goofy faced the mountain. "Cause heroes never quit." Sora took a deep breath and felt like there was something he was understand. "We'll fight with all our heart." Those words resonated more true. "C'mon!"

The five journeyed toward the mountain side and felt a mighty rumble, they looked above to find a rock giant near the summit, holding a massive boulder, they shouted loudly. "Titan!" The Rock Titan threw the boulder down, the group barely dodged it and watched parts of it block the way they came, Ana grabbed onto Donald and Goofy as Sora and Riku saw a flat surface of wall to run up to. The Stormcast flew as the boys ran up from ledge to ledge. Dodging the falling rocks as they squinted their eyes to find a hint of something clashing right behind the Titan. The boys were the first to see who was clashing against who, a winged horse and an Olympian with a blade was going up against a massive, flying, three headed, demonic creature and its own rider. A glimmer of light going against an inferno. The Rock Titan's right head looked down at something as the other head was focused on the intruders, the giants feet stomped and caused more boulders to fall upon the group. Sora and Riku jumped on each of the falling boulders and made it to a solid mountain ledge that lead to a passage to their left. The boys ran there as rain poured and thunder boomed, Ana caught up with them with Donald and Goofy in hand.

Riku asked with adrenaline rushing through his veins. "That thing is the one carrying Archaon?" Sora rushed to the mountain path as his answer, they found a small pocket with in the mountain trail. Pew! A swarm of seven armored, flying heartless and five shadows appeared to get in their way. Ana dropped Donald and Goofy, ready to dive into the battle, Sora and Riku looked at each other and spun into the swarm like a yin, yang missile. Letting loose slashes of light and twilight to destroy five of the flying heartless and three of the shadows, leaving two each for Donald, Goofy and Ana to clean out. The boys felt they were in sync and continued their chase, hearing the sound of men charging something and the sound of an annoyed Rock Titan being herded their way. The five caught up together and noticed the clashing in the sky continuing. The winged demon swiped the winged horse back with its two tails and under command, flew behind the Rock Titan, Ana couldn't believe it as the four realized what the demon was trying to do, the Rock Titan tumbled their way and was given a shove. The Stormcast flashed in lightning and rushed to the four, carrying them out of the way as the Titan was thrown upon where they were, his two heads crashed downward and his body flipped, the five felt enough was enough and Ana flew up the wall with all her might.

They reached to the summit and found twelve Varanguard routing for the rider on top of the three headed, winged demon that gave all kinds of freight. On the back of the demon and fighting against an angry Hercules was an menacing, horned man in black armor, that had a shield on his left hand and a glowing red sword in another. The man taunted Hercules out of spite. "And their demise brings about your folly, god." He readied his blade that glowed with a demonic aura. "See how little you and this world mean in the gra-" Sora locked onto the demon and without much thought, shot himself to the torso, shoving it away from Hercules and causing the armored Chaos Lord to miss.

Herc turned around and noticed Ana with Donald, Goofy and Riku, he swiped a sweat and watched Sora back flip away from the demon that tried to swipe at him with its talons. Herc had his horse dive down for a landing as the Varanguard closed in. Anatesis landed fast and dropped off Riku, Donald and Goofy. The party of seven readied against the twelve Varanguard as the demon howled, the man on top ordered them. "Don't waist your breath! I will put an end to these fools myself."

Thud!

The demon landed on its feet as Sora and the group looked up to a helmet that was crowned and adorned with a central gem on its forehead, looking like a third eye. With in the sockets most black was orange glowing eyes, Sora tensed with that feeling of fear. "So you're the one... doing all this, you're Archaon?" The Chaos Lord readied his blade and kept a glare at both Hercules and the Stormcast. "I thought those three would have been capable of slaying you. I have misplaced my judgement. But what does that matter to corpses." He ordered his steed and raised a caged barrier. "Dorghar, devour them!"

The demon let loose three unified roars and charged after the seven, Hercules charged against the demon, Dorghar rolled out of the way and looked at the Stormcast that shot herself against its master. Archaon raised his shield and blocked the bolt of thunder, Ana swung against him and growled like she a personal grudge. Sora, Riku, Donald and Goofy charged after the demon that swung its tail and knocked them all to their backs, Archaon boasted to Ana. "The Knight Hammer Blade of Sigmar, what a ridiculous title."

SWIPE!

Ana felt the burning blade sink into her flesh and flew back to taunt back. "Like I give a Grots fart what you think." She locked onto the Everchosen, spun with her hammer and flung it at him, a key of storm flew against the Everchosen that took the hit, laughed and through a force of dark will, shot the blade back to Ana. Knocking her to the ground, she focused to retrieve the hammer as Dorghar turned to a persistent Hercules and tried to claw after him. Donald tried to shoot a spell at Archaon and yelled. "Thunderaga!"

Puff!

Archaon looked down upon the duck who's spell was unbinded with indifference and ordered the bird like head. "Eat that one!" Dorghar's three heads smiled in sadistic pleasure and the body pounced after him, Goofy shield bashed the three heads and caused it to become distracted, Archaon looked upon the two boys dashing and aimed his hand at them and let loose an arcane bolt to injure the two and repel them away. One of the Varanguard was distracted from cheering for his master and looked up to the sky to find a sight not expected, a four armed demon that looked down upon the forces of chaos with indifference, his four arms glowed black like the void and the demon shouted. "Enough!"

Archaon looked up to the demon and gasped. "You...you're not of-" Woosh! Archaon and Dorghar looked down to find a black rift opening underneath, sucking in the barrier and causing the Varanguard to feel themselves be sucked in. The group of six and the winged horse tried to see what caused that and felt themselves still in time, unaware of what was occurring at that moment as the army was sucked into the void and the Everchosen seeing more of the demon, snarling at him. "Don't think you won, the dark realm will not hold me for long."

The demon didn't care for that and shoo'd him away. "and yet you have more productive things to do." Archaon and his steed felt themselves pulled in from the gravity, falling into the dark rift and vanishing with a combined howl. With them gone, the demon snapped his fingers, disappeared and caused the group to break out of the temporal hold. Wondering what happened and battered, they tried to put it all together, Sora asked. "What... happened? One moment we were fighting Archaon and the next... they are... gone?"

"Ha, ha, ha, ha! They were a hindrance, wasn't there something you came for?" They turned to the left and found a horned knight standing with in the air, holding in his hand a crystal that gleamed with the power of lightning, Hercules felt he had it figured out and asked. "You were working for Hades from the start until you had a change of plans and found someone with a bigger deal? Right Garland?"

The knight gave praise to the insight. "Until a divine force rescued me from the maw of Hell. With the power of the crystals, I will complete the cycle and escape that horrid fate. Ha! Ha! Ha!" They heard a tired laughter, like the knight was nearing a completing task, Riku asked as he sensed an odd resolve. "Were... you the one who saved us right-" Garland tilted his head as a corridor opened. "Of course not, it was by the will of the divine that the madman was delayed from his grander goal. You are best to hurry along and stop Hades from overthrowing Olympus." The knight jumped back, Sora yelled out as he felt confused. "Wait st-" Woosh!

The corridor closed, Ana felt something was off herself. "We will deal with him later, this whole thing is giving all of us a head ache thinking about." Hercules agreed and had Pegasus fly him to the path. "There is something he isn't telling us, come on, we're not that far."

That was assuring, the group felt a heal and marched on forward across the stormy mountain. They reached to a caved in wall that had a spec of golden light on the other side, Sora focused and switched his disk like keyblade back to its regular form as Riku smiled to him. "That was pretty scary, but we managed to protect everyone from that." Sora went for the crack and beat on it, feeling oddly relaxed. "Yeah, we... need to get stronger if we are to beat that guy." Riku joined in on the digging as Anatesis readied her hammer and sighed. "We need a lot more than that if we are to stand a chance." SLAM!

The hammer caused a larger crack that the boys tore through, Goofy and Donald thought about it as Riku thought of an idea. "Once we take care of Hades, we need to let the King and the others know what we are going up against. It took six of us just to beat three of them."

That was the more disturbing thought as Sora readied for a firm strike, crack! Crumble! A cave way opened, the party of five saw a passage of clouds leading to a stairway into a divine golden realm, Ana didn't feel that impressed and kept marching, the four followed up the stairway to a golden gate that opened to a realm of marbled columns and pristine structure much like from the town bellow. Sora was gazing upon the realm in disbelief. "Is this Olympus?" Goofy had his own marvel at a place few mortels ever trended. "Gawrsh, it's amazing." Ana closed her eyes to envisioned the place under a blanket of stars and agreed. "It's not Azyr, but its a a sight to behold."

Stomp! Rumble! Stomp! Riku sensed a dark presence coming as Donald asked. "Is this the fanfare?" The silver haired teenager shook his head and saw a creature of darkness forming, a blue brachiosaurus with a glistening green underbelly that had a heartless emblem, it emitted lightning as Sora guessed. "Nope. This looks like something Garland cooked up." The silver haired teenager agreed to that. "It is, they are always... strange, compared to the others. But I think we can take this thing out easily."

Goofy agreed with that as the heartless roared and shot lightning against the five, Goofy lifted his shield to take the blunt as the four felt themselves shocked silly, Donald used a healing spell as the key bearers charged after the heartless that swung its tail after them.

Leap!

The three jumped across and struck at the heartless, causing it to waddle back and ready one of its claws. SWAT!

Sora was struck and was in a daze as the heartless inhaled and breathed a massive giga volt upon the boy that was goofily swinging in the direction. BZZT! Boom!

He was sent flying as Riku was swatted by a mighty claw and was left just as confused. Donald tapped his foot in annoyance and healed as Goofy understood and went to Sora to give him a light knock from the shield, undoing the daze and leaving the boy to realize the heartless was using the same pattern on Riku. Who was yelling in frustration at how he wasn't attacking anything, Sora rushed to get Riku out of the way and shook him, snapping him out of the haze as Anatesis was taking most of bites and stomps. The silver haired teenager felt his patience at an end, gave a red glow and punched the ground, causing a symbol of an arrow to shine in his vision and for a damp smell to fill the air.

Stomp! Blue spider legs that had green stripes pulled from a twilight glow, pulling up the rest of the body to reveal an Arachnarok that gave a savage shriek and pounced on the heartless, Ana heard and flew out of the way.

CHOMP!

The spider bit into the heartless and caused it to ooze venom from its maw, Donald gasped and thought of something. "Electricity." He focused deep as the boys realized something, Riku asked. "Sora, you think this thing has that electricity in its body?" The spiky haired boy watched the spider claw at the heartless and disappear into twilight, leaving a foe nearing deaths door. "It... might, you're saying we should get him wet?"

Tap!

Sora felt a tap on his shoulder and heard his friend answer. "Exactly, but..." Sora understood, jumped to Donald's side and raised his keyblade, he spun in the air as Donald twisted and turned the water from the fountains, the water flowed to the sky as the heartless inhaled once more. BASH! CLAW!

It felt a hammer smashing its chin and mighty claws sinking into its skin. Ana and Moonfang jumped out of its way and looked to be readying something of their own, the Stormcast spun with her hammer, yelled out and stopped, giving a fierce, fang showing smile and flying back, the Dracoth slapped it in the face with her tail and rushed out. Leaving the heartless to see a massive whirlpool with Sora underneath it. The boy aimed his keyblade at the heartless and caused the twister to disperse into multiple streams of water. Pummeling the heartless and causing it to spark out of control, like its own electrical power was electrocuting it, as the final stream of water knocked the heartless off its feet and caused it to spasm out. Releasing a captive heart and causing the heartless to break apart in darkness.

The group of four smiled upon Donald for the quick thinking, Ana's smile calmed down. "Keep that up and I might think about giving Arreia a list of spells to pass along." Donald was flattered and noticed a small stairway across a hallway, leading up to a corridor. "Hercules must be at the top of this place." Ana felt it made sense. "The highest point in the heavens, where the gods will have an eye on the mortals." Sora and Riku agreed with that thought, the five begun their travel and their ascent into the realm of the gods.

At the bayou during a sunset.

Kairi was nearly drooling and asked Tiana. "You were working towards owning a restaurant and making, what?" The frog knew Kairi was a traveler. "Just some cajun. Jambalaya, gumbo, it's gonna have it all." Louis agreed with that. "Mmm! I always wanted to try red beans and rice, moofa lettuce, poi boys." Kairi noticed a heron like heartless trying to spear at her, took it out with ease and asked. "Poi boys?" Tiana was glad Kairi asked. "Just some fried seafood in between a sandwich, sugar."

Naveen politely insisted as his stomach rumbled. "Oh stop, you three are making me so very hungry." Bzzt! A swarm of mosquitoes fluttered to Kairi once more, the girl swung at them with her keyblade and Naveen was distracted by the insects, flick. He noticed his frog tongue sticking out towards the insects. "Interesting." Kairi misinterpret that and was annoyed by the mosquitoes. "I'm the one one this things can bite, are you going to help?" Naveen nodded and whispered. "Just hold still my dear."

Jump!

Splash!

Tiana wasn't impressed and asked. "What... are you doing?" Naveen signaled that she keeps quiet. "Shh, you are frightening the food." Flick! He shot his tongue out, Kairi watched the tongue miss entirely, Kairi felt more bites and swatted the mosquitoes away, Naveen chuckled to himself. "Ha, ha. This is harder than it looks." He flicked his tongue to a mosquito on a tiny twig missed the mosquito and pulled back a tiny twig by accident, getting a mouth full of wood and causing Tiana to giggle, she noticed a fire fly fluttering to a dandelion. Flick. Tiana felt her tongue flicking, Kairi realized this was a frogs instincts, the polymorphed waitress tried to fight it. "Oh no! No, no, no, no. There is no way, I am kissing a frog and eating a bug on the same day."

Flick!

Her tongue shot out and pushed her towards the fire fly as Naveen got the wet, tasteless wood out of his mouth, noticed the fire fly and quickly adapted to be in better control. He and Tiana shot their tongues at the fire fly, hit the dandelion and caused it to scatter its seeds. The fire fly buzzed away. The tongues were literally tied and pulled the frogs together, Kairi tried not to laugh as Naveen casually with his mouth accidentally contacting Tiana's, muffled. "Hello."

Tiana tried to pull away and argue with Naveen, the words came off impossible to pronounce, Kairi tried to focus away from that as Louis caught up and asked the frogs. "Y'all find anything to eat yet I-" Louis thought exactly what his other companion was thinking. "Oh my." He tried to help undo the tongue tie. "Hang on, ol Louis got ya covered." He only made the tongue tie worse and wrapped the two frogs into a ball, unaware that he was making it worse. "How's that?"

Tiana muffled. "This could be a little better." Louis tried to think of how to undo it and thought. "You know what this needs? A sharp stick! Be right back." He crawled away to look, the frogs bickered and argued as a loud voice yelled out. "Hooo, well look at here."

Kairi noticed a firefly with a hill billies smile flying to the two frogs. "Ho, girl, I guess you and your boyfriend got a little carried away." He flew around and asked. "Am I right? Am I right?" The frogs tried to be vocal about how they were not a couple, the firefly didn't believe that. "Mmmhmm." He fluttered away and offered to assist. "Let me shine a little light on your situation."

He grunted to make his abdomen shine, struggling and with some adjusting, made it shine. He flew past the frogs limbs and landed in between to look for the knot, causing a burst of light in between. Kairi felt an odd chill, looked around and found nothing, she listened to the fire flies singing and looked back to find a tip of a tongue undone and the fire fly singing away as he gave a tug and cause the knotted duo to spin free. They screamed at the unraveled bindings as the fire fly dusted his hands. "It's about time I introduce myself." He did so and drew his name with the light. "My name is Raymond, but-" he flew past the mond part to clear them out. "everybody call me Ray."

Naveen wasn't use to this kind of person and tried to be polite about it. "Pardon me, but your accent... it's funny no?" Ray answered proudly. "Oh, I a cajun bro. Born and bred in the bayou. Ho, you all must be new around here huh?" Tiana's tongue retreated into her mouth as Naveen stood up to agree. "Actually, we are from a place far, far away from this world." Ray didn't buy that. "Go to bed, you all from the stream boy?"

Naveen felt Ray wasn't getting it as Kairi answered. "I'm from an island far away from here." That was one answer given and the prince answered Ray. "I.. huh...no, no, no. Uh, we are people." Tiana explained to Ray what happened. "Prince Charming here, got himself turned into a frog by a voodoo witch doctor."

Naveen shrugged and smiled slyly as Ray asked. "Well, there you go." Tiana pointed to the yonder. "We are on our way to Mama Odie's, we think she maybe-" Ray stopped her. "Woo, woo? Mama Odie?" Tiana hummed yes, the fire fly had bad to give. "Y'all heading the wrong direction. Now kind of jugger head thought ya go this away?"

Rustle!

Louis returned with a stick and yelled. "I found a stick." Kairi and the frogs were not amused, Tiana asked. "Louis, Ray's been saying you been taking us in the wrong direction." Louis dropped the stick nervously and was trying to explain as Ray whispered to the three. "First rule of the bayou, never take directions from a gator." He whistled sharply and caused a swarm of flickering lights to appear, fire flies lighting up the swamp like stars to a sky and make Kairi almost forget about the polymorphed, Ray let the group know he had them covered in directions. "Well me and my relations can show the way." He fluttered to his relatives to lend a hand and the girl was hearing harmonicas and banjos from the insects.

In another part of the swamp.

The Replica took out four sprinting, gator like heartless and noticed a bundled mess of popped balloons, he felt like this was how the prince escaped. "And they popped... so this was the direction he."

Hiss!

He noticed a large alligator hissing at him, he jumped deeper into the swamp to avoid the gator, feeling like there was a trail of times passage to follow. "Yes... he did... and he wasn't alone." He felt weirded out and tried to shake it off. "What ever scam is being pulled... needs to be stopped."

He looked around in the swamp and saw various life forms, crawling near the river, feeding on pieces of dead plant, crayfish. He mentally had the creature listed and tried to continue down the path. "WAAAAAHOOOO!"

He heard a chilling howl not of this world and drew out his weapon, he saw a shadow slip past him and nothing more, followed by shadows of unsightly creatures, some of them accidentally kicked across the Replica's shadow and knocked him over. He knew well that he didn't trip on anything and listened to the yells, an unnatural evil was let loose in the bayou. The Replica got himself up and felt the stink of darkness connecting. "These came from that guys... friends?" He got up and followed, hoping he would discover more about the shadow demons and stop the voodoo from doing the swamp in.

Near a piece of land with in the swamp.

Kairi, the frogs and Louis were guided to what they hoped was the right direction by the swarm of fire flies, giving their goodbyes with Ray. The single fire fly asked his kin an flied with the group. "And don't forget to tell Angella Ray had said bonjours."

Tiana hopped and asked Ray. "That's your girl?" The fire fly buzzed and answered. "Oh, no, no. My girl, oh ho, that's Evangeline." Kairi asked without thinking much in it. "Evangeline? Who is she?" Ray flustered as the group traveled. "She the most prettiest firefly, ever did glow." He squeaked thinking about her. "You know I talk to Evangeline almost every night. She shy, don't say much." He fluttered behind a leaf and gave it a glow like a heart. "And I know in my heart, someday, we going to be together again."

Tiana was charmed by that. "Aw, that's so sweet." Kairi giggled in agreement as Naveen repeated that. "Yes, so sweet. Just... do not settle down so quickly, my friend, there are plenty of fireflies in the swamp." Tiana and Kairi groaned, the feminine frog took out a sharpish rock and hacked at a prickly bush, Kairi joined in the hacking as Naveen watched lazily. Tiana panted as Naveen spoke. "You know waitress, I had finally figured out, what is wrong with you."

Tiana wasn't amused and hacked away. "Have you now?" Naveen answered that. "You, do not know, how to have fun. There, somebody had to say it." Tiana sarcastically thanked him. "Thank you, cause I figured out what you're problem is to." She pushed a twig as Naveen guessed. "I'm too wonderful?"

Fling! Twack!

Naveen was knocked down by the twig as Kairi cringed, awaiting Tiana to deliver what the prince needs to hear. "No; you're a no count, blandering, lazy bum on a log." Naveen stood up, laughed it off and coughed. "H-killjoy." Tiana passive aggressively asked. "What you say?" Naveen denied it as Kairi rolled her eyes, the prince pretended to sneeze. "Ac-stick in the mud."

Tiana went to stand up to him again, poking him in the chest. "Listen here mister. This stick in the mud has had to work two jobs her whole life," She tossed the rock away and continued as she and the prince positioned like frogs. "While you been sucking on a silver spoon, chasing chamber maids around your, ivory tower." Naveen corrected her on one detail. "Actually it's polished marble." Kairi spoke in Tiana's defense. "It doesn't really matter even if the tower was made from sea shells. You're not making it a secret that you never worked a day in your life, sleeping around lazily all day while others do your work." Naveen accepted that without a care. "Mmm, not all day but-" Kairi continued. "Mhm. That doesn't work in the real world." She looked to Tiana and felt there was a point to be made as the chill returned. "Brr. But.. Tiana, if you were able to do this by yourself, you would have and if I'm correct, you have been working hard to own that restauraunt." She confessed. "I might have a friend that has a problem like that."

Tiana hummed. "That friend is slacking somewhere?" Kairi shook her head. "He would sooner go sailing into the unknown than have to worry about his problems, but when it's important... he pushes himself, a lot. That almost got him into trouble with our teacher when he nearly went into the wrong direction of his studies." She recalled more. "And there was another that... was trying to help us and kept staying away from us to do it. Another friend very close to me might need to have some time to himself if work is getting... extreme." Her eyes widened as Naveen asked. "Sounds like they need to have some fun and lighten thei-" Kairi couldn't believe that she was going to agree with the slacking prince, she tensed and felt the chill become worse, something crawled out of the shadows, a gryphon like creature made of shadows and glowing red eyes.

Cawing after the frogs and clenching onto them with its talons, Tiana in its left talon and Naveen in its right. Kairi jumped from tree to tree and nearly took flight after the gryphon, landing on top of the bird that barrel rolled to shake her off. Ray gasped and took flight after the bird. "Oh no you don't!"

He raised his fist and charged to the bird that turned swiftly and caused Kairi to lessen her grip, the fire fly yelled. "A bug got to do what a bug got to doooo!"

The gryphon noticed a flicker of light that flew into its nostrils, causing it to give a radiance of light that caused it to lessen its grip on Naveen, freeing the frog and shaking the girl off in its throes of pain.

SPLASH!

The two landed in the swamp and watched the gryphon become unstable in its feathers, resembling black tendrils, the bird like face twisted and turned to an elephants. It blew its nose and shot Ray out to a stone, Louis worried and swam after the bug as Naveen was unaware and relished his freedom. "Free ha, ha."

He spun his finger to a make shift tune and realized something as he looked up, Tiana was struggling to break free and wasn't able to fight back against the strange monster, Kairi plopped out of the water and watched the frog stick his tongue out at the tip of the nose and was sent flying towards the creature, he landed underneath the trunk and swung to land on the face of the creature.

It's talons shifted onto the claws of a tiger, releasing Tiana from its grip as it tried to swat Naveen off. The waitress climbed from the paw up to the creatures snout as Naveen jumped to avoid, with her reaching the snout, she and Naveen shot a tongue at the creatures red eyes, causing to fly out of control and sent the two falling back into the swamp. Kairi swam to where they were landing and caught them, all be with both landing on her head. The creature lost control of its flight and crash landed into the water. Kairi kicked to dry land, where Louis was performing cpr on Ray, using a hollow twig. The princess readied her weapon, watched the water bubble in darkness and the bubbling ceasing, the shadow disappearing. Tiana yelled out and shook her fist. "Go wiggle somewhere else darling." Naveen gave a faint chuckle as she and Tiana jumped off. "Somewhere else da...I like it, you are secretly funny." Tiana looked like she was having a bit of respect and asked. "Not a stick in the mud?" Naveen tried to get away from saying it. "Well I was going to-" Tiana asked. "Say it." Naveen gave in. "Alright, you're not exactly-" Tiana wanted him to say it louder. "I can't hear you, what?" Naveen went a bit louder and more clear. "A complete stick, deep in mud."

Grumble!

The group were realizing a detail they never got to resolve on their journey and how it was spreading. Kairi asked. "I know we got to get to Odie's as soon as possible, but is there anything we can eat out here?" Louis imagined a few cajun dishes. "Mmm. Crawfish; smothered in remoulade sauce. Bananas foster with just a-" Tiana found a swamp pumpkin, pulling a leaf away and knocking to see how firm it is. "How about some swamp gumbo?" Louis settled for that. "That'll do."

Naveen rested by a tree and had his feet above a wild mushroom. "Sounds delicious." He placed a leaf on his lap. "I'll start with a pre dinner cocktail and something to nibble on while I wait. Thanks." Tiana placed a leaf around her waist like an apron and was going to put him to work. "No, no, no." She approached, gave him a sharp rock and checked the underside of the mushroom to find dark gills and clear stems. "You're royal highness, you're going to mince these mushrooms."

Naveen wasn't comprehending that he was going to work for the food. "Do what?" Tiana ordered clearly and went to a plant filled with green peppers. "Mince, the mushrooms." Rustle, she jumped on. "Hop to it." Naveen pouted like a spoiled prince. "Ridiculous." Tiana asked. "Are you mincing?"

He gave in and obeyed. "Alright... relax." Kairi watched the prince slowly chop and noticed something nibbling on plant matter, it looks like small crustaceans, a crayfish. It noticed her and scurried into the water, Kairi wasn't letting food escape and dived in.

Naveen slowly cut the mushroom and asked like it was the hardest job in his life, Tiana had a ripe pumpkin cut open and cooking over a campfire, she dusted her hands. "Step aside mister." She approached, took the mushroom and asked. "Watch," She took the sharp rock. "And learn." She effortlessly chopped the mushrooms into a powder like state, gave Naveen the make shift knife back and gave him another mushroom identical to what was minced. Guiding him to doing a proper slice as Kairi splashed out with two squirming, snipping crawfish, Tiana was ready to guide Kairi to a work station under a tree as Naveen was making progress. "There ya go."

The prince confessed. "You know, I never done this before." Tiana took the minced mushrooms for the make shift pot and listened. "Really?" The prince low key admitted it was kind of embarrassing. "Oh alight, but when you live in a castle, everything is done for you. All the time; they dress you, they feed, drive you, brush your teeth." Kairi was adjusting her keyblade right above a crawfish's head as Tiana placed the mushrooms and stirred, mockingly saying. "Ah, you poor, poor baby." Naveen sighed. "I admit that it was a charmed life, until the day my parents cut me off and suddenly I realized; I don't know how to do anything."

Kairi and Tiana listened, the girl pressed her blade slightly down and punctured the crawfish's head for a quick kill as the cooking frog went to get the sliced mushroom. "Well hay, you got the makings of a decent mushroom mincer." She playfully flicked a piece of mushroom at him, the prince asked. "Oh, you think so?"

Tiana placed the mushroom slices in. "Keep practicing and I just might hire you." She mixed the ingredients in as Kairi made a quick one on the second crawfish. Naveen asked. "Really?"

Tiana answered. "No." Naveen felt it was bellow the belt as Tiana giggled and instructed Kairi. "Twist the middle tail fin and you're good for a pull." The girl did so and knew what was coming, bracing herself to the world of cooking.

At Mount Olympus.

Sora, Donald, Goofy, Riku and Ana reached a circular structure with a four flock of winged heartless holding archers by their hats and five purple, minotaur like heartless. Goofy, Ana and Sora went for the five minotaurs as Riku jumped at the winged foes, Donald pelted the archers down when he can. Sora caused his blade to glow, he let loose a quick combo on the annoying minotaurs as Ana struck two into oblivion, the boy pulsed with wind and rushed against the three with a sonic blade, quickly taking them down as Riku had three of the winged heartless destroyed and went for the fourth, the archers were quickly taken out as Riku sliced the two heartless away and landed. He noticed a tower with a tornado, a glow of ice and a glow of magma, doing something. "That's it."

The group saw the tower mostly covered in cloud and saw no traditional stairway. Save for rubble that floated in mid air and a ledge to jump on. The boys saw a flash of light and knew it was going to need some air stepping, Ana picked up Donald and Goofy for her flight. "You two can jump, I'll wait on the cloud above." She flew to a cloud high above and left the boys to focus on the pattern of floating rubble that lead to a golden light. WOOSH!

They jumped across a pattern and landed on a ledge far above the ground, they turned around and stood on a platform that gave off the light, watching for a passage towards another, with Ana landing and watching something. The two dashed across the make shift trial to another and felt light headed, the group went to and upper ledge and found at the apex of Olympus was another beacon.

The three rushed the trial together and landed on the apex of the whole mountain, the highest point of the world. They watched a white haired deity with a full beard, trapped in a pillar of rock that was formed by the magma titan shooting lava on the right end and the ice titan shooting ice on the left end. The deity yelled out. "I swear to you, Hades. When I get out of thi-" Hades looked on smugly as Zeus was completely imprisoned. He caused a black throne to form out of smoke and conjured up cocktail. "No, ha! I'm the one giving orders now, bolt boy."

He tried to sip like he won as a masculine voice yelled. "Don't get too comfortable, Hades!" The god of the underworld turned to find Hercules on Pegasus, flying to the apex with a goal to stop him. Hades heard another voice, that of a familiar boy, yelling out. "Were going to stop you!" Hades turned to find the party of five he remember seeing be blown off. The five watched Hercules dive down to a group of chained deities and cut them free, angering Hades even more to where he burst in red. "YAAAARG!" He ordered the titans of ice, magma and air. "Get them!"

The five band realized they were fighting three elemental giants as Hercules yelled out. "Sora, Donald, Goofy, Riku, Ana." Hercules jumped off the Pegasus and landed next to them, making it a band of six. "It's on." The five agreed with a combined yeah as the trio of giants looked down upon them. The wind titan blew upon them and pushed them back to where even Ana had to stay on the ground, they dodged beams of magma and ice, the wind elemental vanished into the background and became a storm that surrounded the area. Giving the three keyblade bearers the time they need to attack the elementals of fire and ice. Ana grabbed Hercules and threw him at the lava titan for an intense beat down to its face, the Stormcast crackled in lightning and shot herself to the lava elemental as Sora and Riku rushed up the pillar and attacked the ice elemental. Both groups let loose a combination of attacks as Donald focused magical energy on Goofy's shield and had his partner direct the forming power to the lava titan. PEW! A beam of ice shot and caused the lava titan to howl in pain, the ice titan noticed, placed his long, gangly right claw on the ground and disrupted the beam with a pillar of ice and used his maw to blow Sora and Riku back to the pillar. The duo bashed their heads on the pillar and knocked the group off entirely, back to the ground. The lava titan flung a barrage of lava balls upon them as Sora focused on it and Riku focused on the ice titan. The spiky haired boy aimed his keyblade and fired a barrage of energy orbs at his target as Riku flipped upside down and fired dim energy orbs on his, the titan duo looked took it to their faces.

The ice titan readied to fire a beam of ice from his maw as Ana and Herc repeated their advance on the same target, the Stormcast formed her keyblade into a glaive and carved a massive chunk on the ice titans face as Sora and Riku rushed up the pillar again and let loose a combination, Sora burst in power. Riku felt a little jealous, focused his own blade and caused it to burst into two smaller blades, one resembling a demonic wing, the other resembling an angel wing. He let loose slices of light and darkness upon the lava titan in a berzerkers frenzy as Sora let loose his own, giving a unified yell and causing the lava titan to tumble backwards. The wind titan returned and formed two windy limbs as Donald and Goofy let loose a fiery shield beam to knock the ice titan down.

The four in battle back flipped to solid ground, Sora, Riku and Ana felt their keyblades reformed, the group of six looked up upon the wind titan stopping his attack and flying higher in the sky. Sora yelled. "Just one titan left."

Donald and Ana let loose a burst of wind and shot the group to the wind titans level, seeing a cloud form underneath them to serve as a platform. The wind titan flipped upside down and shot a barrage of debris, the many dodged out of the way, Hercules grabbed a debris resembling a column and tossed it back at the titan as Sora, Riku, Donald and Ana focused on firing projectiles. Bringing the titan back into the fray and to be exposed to a series of swings from blades, fists and shield, it lowered its wind like body and pushed the many back, enlarged itself and sucked the party in. It shot them high into the sky and split its tail into two, one at the lava titans maw, the other at the ice titans. Donald, Goofy and Hercules focused on free falling to the ground as soon as possible as Sora, Riku and Ana dodged the barrage of ice, lava and ruined buildings that came from the titans windy limbs, deep with in the eye of the storm. The key bearers dived towards the wind titan in a formation of two boys spinning together and a Stormcast becoming like a lightning bolt. They combined a slam at the wind titan and caused it to convulse into a mighty wind and merge its tail into one.

Ana flew freely as Sora and Riku flew at the various debris for a glide towards the wind titans face, hacking away as Ana shot into its forehead. The titan disappeared and reappeared above the lava titan, firing lava balls at the three in an attempt to incinerate them. They felt a sweat and tried to get close, Sora firing an ice ball and Riku disappearing and getting a couple slashes as Ana spun focused a shot lock, spun and hurled her hammer blade at the titans face. The titan sparkled and dissipated, reappearing to the ice titan and making a repeat if with ice. Sora and Riku had better luck flowing from debris to debris to get into the wind titans personal and beat him down, forcing it to retreat to the middle and force the wind to die down, Ana growled and rammed her hammer into the titans face, causing the clouds bellow to fade and for the background to lighten up. The party of six landed, finding the ice and lava titan getting back up and finding their kin just as beaten up, they readied for a second round as rumbling was heard, the rock titan climbed and roared. Surrounding the group of six in a four way. Goofy was worried from the intense brawl. "Uh-oh! Now there's four of them."

Riku chuckled. "So? There is six of us." Hercules had an idea to speak of. "Actually, I think I can make it seven." He jumped to the top of the stone pillar and cracked it open, Hades yelled out against a plan blowing up in his face. The pillar split open to free Zeus, who thanked Hercules and placed his hands on his shoulders like a father would when proud of his son. "Thank you my boy."

Sora, Donald, Goofy and Riku cheered in triumph as Anatesis kept her distance and was trying not to be amused by the antics. Zeus readied two fists worth of lightning bolts and was ready to take on the four titans. "Hah! Now, watch your old man work!" The four titans knew they were done for and tried to make a run for it, the rock titan had his two heads blown off by two thunder bolts, it waddled behind with the ice and magma titan as the wind titan tailed behind. Hades ordered then with his patience thin. "Get your titanic butts in gear a-" Hercules grabbed the wind titan by its tail and swung it towards the fleeing giants, sucking them into the vortex and swinging away. He flung the twisted into the sky and with in the void of space, the five looked on and watched a mighty explosion of a cosmic scale.

Hercules and Zeus high fived each other as Goofy cheered and tried to celebrate with the four. "We did it!" Hades wasn't amused as his blue flame barely kept cool. "I can't believe it! I spent eighteen years into that plan and you blippin' ruined it!" He pointed to the five and confessed his hatred. "I really don't like you."

Sora sighed and taunted. "Just give it up already! You'll never beat Herc, no matter how many times you try." Ana smiled out of spite for her own taunt. "Just go back to the realm of the dead before you make yourself into a laughing stock like a certain bag of bones I know." Goofy had his. "Yeah, stay in underworld where ya belong." Hades was shaking as Donald had his taunt. "Go have the time of your afterlife."

Riku simply made a rude gesture placing his left hand on his right arm and flexing it right in front of him, the god of the underworld yelled. "Enough already! I did not come this far to be ridiculed by Zeusy high and mighty, his little sunspot," he glowed red and burst into flames. "A quartet of clowns and some Norse hammer nut!" He was done with it as the five readied for battle. "You know what? I'll just go ahead and destroy you!" Hercules called out to Hades. "Hades." The underworld deity slowly turned to see Hercules and Zeus gesturing to the gate out, the demi god pointed out. "The exit is that way."

Hades knew he was out numbered and out matched, he cooled down, slouched and tried to walk out, cursing under his breath, Hercules had one more thing to give him. "Hold on, I almost forgot." Hades turned and was punched in the face, falling on the ground as Herc had some payback. "That one was for trying to wreck Thebes."

Hades disappeared in smoke and vowed. "You'll pay for this! I have a very, very long memory." Zeus had a thunder bolt in hand and readied as Hades knew where to taunt Herc. "I can still dunk your little Nut-Meg in a river of de-" Zeus threw the thunder bolt at the smoke, cutting the curse short and kicking him out, the king of the Olympic gods looked upon the trio of Sora, Donald and Goofy, then at Riku and then at Ana. "Now then, what's this I hear about Odin sending a-"

At a pit in the Underworld.

Maleficent cruelly looked upon the Knight of Shrouds burning in green fire as he was ripped from the skull necklace tied in string. Causing it to force itself away and be dragged into a well of souls, Pete nervously looked upon the scene. "Sheesh, he just up and tried to turn coat on Ol Nagash just like that." Maleficent cared not and held onto pendent. "He most certainly is not an adored god." Pete agreed with that. "I thought that dingbat in black was pulling your leg, it almost feels like we're doing a good thing, kicking Nagash out of all this." Maleficent barked to him as she saw smoke and lightning puff. "Be quiet, you imbecile."

PEW! THUD!

Hades crashed to the ground, covered in lightning, laying humiliated and wanting to just give up, he forced himself to get up, his eyes half dropped and he realized his guests actually went to look. "Oh, great. Least you got him to shut up." He went to a secondary plan of his and looked to be aching. "So, here's the deal, I can't have Nagash or his boys coming down here and rob me blind of every soul in the Underworld. This Horned doofus is the only mook of his that is on the loose and this would break this chain I keep hearing about... make him free as a bird and no more Nagash."

Pete laughed to the plan. "With it we can knock out two birds with one skull, which is fine by us." That Maleficent was looking forward to. "Nagash would threaten us all and the Horned King has defied nature itself to muster death itself."

She opened a corridor of darkness for her leave as Hades wanted the two gone. "Ha, least an olive branch dropped somewhere. Just get ol bone bag out of my hair and you can do what you want with his toady." He walked away to a private quarter of his domain, letting Maleficent and Pete go with the key to their prize.

At the gates of Olympus.

The group of Sora, Donald, Goofy, Riku, Ana and Herc left the divine realm, the hero of Olympus looked back as Sora asked. "Are you sure you want to leave all this behind?" Goofy asked. "Isn't Olympus you're home?" Donald added in. "And your family." Hercules felt decided. "I can see my family anytime I want. If I stayed, I'd have to be apart from the person I love most... and that life would have been empty." He looked down the stairs to find Meg with her hand on her hips, looking flustered in the heart, the man finished his answer. "I finally know, where I belong." He rushed to Meg, who was welcoming him with open arms. "Hercules."

The group watched on as Ana looked the most warm, she noticed Sora having his hands in the back of his head, folding his arms like he was coming to terms with something. Herc remembered something and asked. "Sora, I think I know what was bothering you a lot, do you want to talk about?" The boy shook his head. "Mhmm. Not really, I think I figured it out by myself. Why we find the strength to keep going, no matter what. Something to hold onto and fight for... with all our heart." He felt a pain leaving. "I guess... we found the answer for that here."

Riku, Donald and Goofy felt a calm with in their hearts as Ana felt the sparkle from the stars. "It's going to take much, but those like Archaon can be beaten without having to tear the whole realm apart to do it." Sora and Riku gave a fierce smile to the Stormcast as Hercules agreed with her. "You all got the heart to fight back. Just keep at it and you'll be stronger than ever."

Sora flexed jokingly. "Yeah, we might end up stronger than you are one day." Donald and Riku squinted their eyes, the duck sighed. "There he goes again."