S-HADES-y Issues

Hollow Bastion...

'What a gloomy-looking town, yet the people are quite positive.' Zhanye noted as they arrived for grocery shopping.

'The people of Traverse Town used to live here. They're simply happy to be back home again and living life to their fullest.' said Beiyue. 'Eleven years ago, the Heartless came to be. No one knows why those monsters are born. They appeared out of the blue and threw worlds in chaos. The world that was the first to die, was Hollow Bastion so this world is where Heartless first originated. There's hardly any keyblade users back then and they are a recent existence. It was through countless deaths that Master and King Mickey first learned anything about them...and then I learned the truth from DiZ when I joined the Revive Sora Project.'

'It's a nasty story.' said Riku. 'The gang wasn't too happy when they found out that nasty truth so now they're doing all they can to find a way to reverse everything.'

They went shopping. Gas for the ship's kitchen, and food supplies. All of them can cook...except for Zhanye whose cooking was limited to campfire roasts...which the younger kids, one duck and one dog found outrageous!

That, was out of the question for the gang that on their journey to Olympus, they taught him how to cook.

Granted, it was all seafood at first, and its only Beiyue who knew how to cook meat due to her time with the fairies...and baking cakes and pastries.

Zhanye has never seen wheat used in such a way. Back home, wheat is boiled as porridge for servants to eat. He never dreamed that powdered wheat can be used to make bread, or this...cake thing! However, too much of the stuff can make anyone fat, so BE CAREFUL. The only healthy about grain, is if it's cooked wholegrain, not refined flour. But tricks and cheats CAN be done with magic, as long as you know how the process is done to get the result!

His culinary horizons were broadened, to say the least.

xxx

Meanwhile...

'Father, I'm not seeing brother anywhere.' Yingye frowned during dinner. 'It's been days now.'

'He went to keep an eye on your sister.' said the Emperor. 'Given the shenanigans she gets into while you live a far safer and saner life...' he shook his head.

'What?! But father, it's impossible to travel THERE!' Yingye sputtered out. 'How'd he manage that?! And he didn't take me with him?!' she complained.

'He learned the magic needed and you're not a graduate yet.' Emperor pointed out.

xxx

Olympus...

Underworld Entrance...

'We're off-course.' said Sora. 'Where ARE we?'

'The Underworld.' said Riku. 'Or rather, the entrance to Hades' domain.'

'Underworld?' Zhanye was rather unfamiliar.

'Its where all souls of this world go to be judged.' said Riku. 'If you're a good person, you go to Elysium which is paradise. Bad person, you go to Tartarus, your eternal punishment reflects your sins in life you must pay for. Underworld is just in-between and souls are basically, the equivalent of paperwork in life; pass or fail.'

'Oh...' Zhanye wondered if in his world there's an equivalent...he shuddered. At least he was a good person in life so he'll be OK...

'Well, why we ended up here IS a question so there must be something we gotta do by the entrance.' Beiyue mused when they saw a woman being chased by Heartless. They won't get to her in time, so she speared them from afar while they ran to get her.

'What's a living woman doing down here?' Zhanye asked the lady.

'And what are kids doing down here?' the lady retorted in a rather snarky manner. 'Nevermind...'

'So how's Herc?' Sora asked her.

'Wonderboy? He's duking it out at the Coliseum every day.' said the woman. 'You know, 'a Hero's work is never done' and all that.' she said sarcastically before sighing in exasperation. 'He's ready to drop, but he keeps on fighting. Even Wonderboy has his limits, though. These opponents are bad news...Special Deliveries from Hades himself.'

'HADES?!' Sora, Donald and Goofy squawked.

'I fail to see what he gets out of this.' Beiyue drawled, doing an armfold. 'Hercules is a Demigod Son of his brother Zeus.' Zhanye glanced at his cousin in disbelief. Did he hear her right? Demigod as in half-human half god? Such people actually existed? 'He has everything his father can give him. Exhausted because of his human side yes, but getting him killed, nada. Before that can happen Zeus is gonna rain his thunderbolts down here.'

'And he's still doing it.' the woman deadpanned. 'I came here to ask Hades to give that boy a Breather.' she said wearily, and anxiously. 'If anything happened to that kid...'

'Gawrsh, that sounds like you're more than just friends!' Goofy exclaimed. He was always the blunt one, in a good-natured way. The woman went pink and sputtered out denials.

'Oh, uh, I mean...er...'

That got them all amused.

'We'll go to have a little talk with Hades.' said Sora. 'I'd hate for anything to happen to you on your way to see him. Riku, Beiyue, can you guys escort her out?' he asked his friends. 'And maybe Zhanye gets to meet our Hero!' he said with a cheeky grin. Considering their circumstances, he does NOT want his friends to meet Hades.

They picked up on his consideration.

'Alright, we'll escort her out.' Riku agreed. 'Hercules is pretty interesting.' he said as they left the Underworld.

'...I have no idea the Underworld is easily accessible for the living...don't you usually have to die first?' Zhanye asked him, baffled and incredulous.

'Not for most people.' Riku snorted. 'Its only easily accessible to those he deals with, namely Hercules and this lady. And Beiyue and I were former associates of his.'

'Former?' the woman gulped. That means they made deals with Hades too, she thought.

'Yeah. But its a give-and-take and we do his jobs competently well.' Beiyue grinned. 'That's why he can never trap us down here as he likes. Riku and I are far too tricky. Right~' she grinned at Riku who chuckled.

'Yeah. We're not that easy for that smarmy old man.' Riku scoffed with an eye roll. 'And given circumstances, Beiyue is more powerful than even him.'

xxx

Coliseum...the waiting area...

Hercules sat, waiting for his next opponent, and is looking tired. His breathing was labored and he's heavily sweating.

'That's one tired Hero I'm seeing.' Zhanye commented as they went inside. He can't believe a man with a disproportionate figure existed. HOW hasn't this guy collapsed yet? Oh, right, Demigod, the kids called him. So yeah, he can do it while a typical human would need assisted workout just to support that large torso and walk! Hercules quickly composed himself AND sputtered out denials.

'Who? Me? Oh no, no Hero ever gets tired!' said Hercules, putting up a brave front.

'And who decided that for a Hero?' Beiyue asked him coolly. 'Who told all Heroes to perform until they die? Exhaustion eventually leads to death if you keep overexerting yourself...which is what Hades wants.'

'Come on Wonderboy, play hooky even if just for one day?' the woman tried to persuade Hercules. 'For old times' sake?'

'They came to see me. They came to see a Hero.' Hercules sighed. 'I can't let them down.'

'It seems the day won't end until you fall down dead which is how Hades arranged it.' said Beiyue, shaking her head. 'Exhaustion leads to impaired decision making, loss of concentration and fatigue. I'll help out only this once.' she took out an Elixir bottle. 'Here, a Sports Energy Drink.' she said, giving it to him. 'And once the day ends, really, sign for a day off and go sleep for a whole day or something. A Hero also doesn't make his girlfriend cry.'

'Ehehehe...right...' said Hercules sheepishly and giving the woman an apologetic look before downing the Elixir and he felt better. 'Wow! What a Sports Drink!' he gasped in amazement as he felt instantly better as the Elixir did its job at healing his body and restoring him to full energy. 'Where on earth do you buy this stuff?!'

'Ask your dad.' Beiyue drawled snarkily with an armfold. 'Tell him its your godly son's allowance, why don'tcha?' Hercules did a double-take.

'Ehhhh?!'

The crowd then roared.

'Oh crap, I gotta go!' and Hercules ran out.

'...I hope he really signs up for that day off or I'm gonna be mad.' the woman grumbled before sighing glumly. 'I hope those kids can do it.' she said hopefully.

'Guess we stay here for now.' said Riku. 'We have to keep the lady safe, knowing Hades' tricks.'

'Uhm, what about me?' the woman asked him worriedly.

'We know how Hades thinks.' said Riku. 'If he's trying to make killing Hercules look legal by pushing him on the brink then get defeated in the Coliseum's death matches, the final step will be you.' he said. 'A typical put you in a trap and force him to fight some super-monster that may very well do the job. So we'll stay by your side until this blows over.'

'...'

xxx

The town...

Their group does the covert operations, with them dressing Greek Style too.

'This is a little weird...' said Zhanye awkwardly. He felt he wore a girl's dress! But every man in Olympus wore above-the-knee skirts while the woman, Megara or 'Meg' and Beiyue wore ankle-length dresses.

'Blending in is always important wherever we go, go with the flow.' said Beiyue as they dressed like greeks. 'We can only be 'ourselves' when around people who are aware we're 'foreigners'.'

'Still weird. It'll take time to get used to...'

'Let's have lunch for now.' said Meg. 'And somehow, miraculously get Wonderboy to eat.'

And so, in a restaurant, they mostly ordered their preferences of Souvlaki. Basically, anything goes kebabs and some mushroom soup.

'...what's this purple thing?' Zhanye asked them as Beiyue's touch made their goblets instantly cool.

'It's grape wine, not the rice wine we're used to.' said Beiyue. She then telepathically said, Water filtering doesn't exist here and people here are also painfully-aware how water cannot be drank without risking illness. Water here is kinda unhealthy so it's just for baths and washing. What's safe to drink in this world, is Grape Wine.

Ah...

That, was gross...guess no water and rice wine but hey, cold grape wine isn't so bad...

After a meal and a hefty amount of takeout for Sora's team and Hercules, they further disguised themselves.

However, when they met up with Sora?

'We discovered we needed the Olympus Stone to safely travel in the Underworld.' said Sora. 'Hercules promised to help us borrow it from Olympus, but someone from Organization XIII stole it!'

'Right. We trade jobs for now.' said Zhanye. 'Your group's turn to look after Meg. Beiyue will handle the thief and we're chaperoning. Never let her out of your sight unless its privacy issues.'

'Is Meg in danger?' Hercules asked worriedly.

'From Hades.' said Riku before turning to Donald. 'Donald, you're a magician so you can detect magical attempts.'

'Right!'

xxx

Underworld...

'Wow, dead-themed much?' Zhanye mused as all Heartless down here, were themed after ghosts and the like.

'Its the afterlife for a reason I guess.' Riku shrugged as Beiyue chased and took care of the Heartless as they were back in their true outfits. And the water down here sure doesn't actually FEEL like water. And Zhanye was told NOT to eat or drink anything produced down here or be trapped here forever.

No wonder they stocked up on food and drink.

About half a day later, they came to a large entrance where the man was.

'Hi there~' Beiyue called out as the man stiffened and turned around...and yelped!

'Eeeek! I wasn't paid enough for this!' he was TERRIFIED at the sight of them...or rather, Beiyue who deliberately changed into her 'goddess form' to further terrify the man. 'Nobody said ANYTHING about YOU being here!'

'Hey, meeting me is an occupational hazard~' Beiyue purred with a sinister smile to the whimpering man as she increased her aura to frightening levels. 'I'm honestly appalled your boss doesn't pay Hazard Pay, that's quite unethical from Boss to Employee, wouldn't you agree?' she chuckled darkly as she transformed into something hideously-frightening no words can put it to justice...

'Now, IF you survive ME, how about you charge him Kingdom Hearts' worth of Munny? Of course, no Munny in all the worlds can be enough to come up with the equal worth of all the world's Hearts, you know?~' Beiyue cackled as she terrified the Nobody into fainting, and twitching. 'That was easy.'

'You didn't kill him this time.' Riku mused, intrigued as Beiyue fished out the Olympus Stone, and conjured a Sharpie...and doodled on the man's face. The boys sweatdropped.

'Well, he's exceptional...and amusing...so I'll let him live.' Beiyue snickered as she finished doodling. 'There we go, now he looks more handsome already!' she cackled as the boys sweatdropped even more with comical flyaway hairs before she got rid of him using a Corridor and dumped him in Olympus Town's outskirts. 'Let's go.' she used the Olympus Stone to grant them protection so the Underworld doesn't sap their strength.

They went further ahead, to find...a rock with a Meg statue in it?

Then they realized...Meg was really captured and made into a statue.

'...they got one job.' Zhanye shook his head. How can anyone fail in bodyguarding?!

'Meg probably was manipulated into innocently leaving without the boys suspecting anything.' said Riku. 'Like, the ladies' room or something. I wouldn't put it past him.' he sighed as he freed Meg with a Keyblade Beam. 'But something's way off about this. We're led into doing what Hades wants using Meg...'

Soon, Sora's group barged in.

'Meg never came out of the ladies' room...and when we called out and nobody in, we've been had!'

'We figured as much when we found a stone statue of her in here and Beiyue felt her heart.' said Zhanye. 'And now what? I don't see a door or Meg herself...' he said as there's nothing but a large room and a pillar of light...

'Hummm...' Beiyue stretched out her Black Feelers. 'The light is the entrance! This is so weird!' she then took out the Olympus stone and buffed up the newcomers, before they all jumped into the light...and found themselves in another room...with Meg and Hades!

'Sigh, we knew it and see this coming.' Beiyue deadpanned with an eye roll.

'Hahahaha! Whaddya expect hunny, I don't play fair!' Hades cackled. 'That is one helluva key! Thanks for your help!'

'So this special locked room must be locked by the Gods for a reason and you want it opened.' Riku frowned. 'So what's oh-so-special that even YOU are barred from this part of the Underworld?'

'Nuh-uh-uh-uh! Noooot telling!' Hades tut-tutted with a finger-wag. 'Buh-bye!' and Hades was gone to their annoyance.

'Guys! Behind you!' Meg cried in alarm as behind them, was Pete.

'Gahahahabwahaha! What's wrong? Can't fight in the Underworld?' Pete mocked, flanked by Heartless under his control. 'ATTAAAACK!'

He summoned quite the force, considering there's so many of them here. And with a hostage about, Hercules isn't too happy.

xxx

And back at the Coliseum?

'Oh no...' Hercules was devastated.

He just defeated this monster not long ago! He should have made sure it's really dead! The people!

'This monster must have been revived with magic.' Zhanye noted. 'And it's too huge even for us! Yue, you got a summon right?' he asked as she has a shadow sword.

'We let em' out, a beast for a beast!' the cousins summoned their Spirit Beasts, and at full power and size!

'So that girl from last year was you...you're the one who defeated Bingluan.' Zhanye croaked out as he remembered a bleeding young girl defeat Bingluan. And given what Beiyue is, it got stronger!

'Yeah, I should be a Summoner for stuff like this.' Beiyue grinned, happy that being a Summoner came in handy. 'Time to let our friends have their own exercise!'

'Right! Kirin!'

'Bing!'

'Destroy that thing!' the cousins ordered as the Wuling took action.

'Wow, two against one!' Meg smiled. 'And a lot cuter-looking!'

The spirit beasts duked it out with the Hydra...and it grows heads each time it was killed...until FINALLY, it's dead.

'That was one hell of a battle, we didn't have this much trouble back in our world.' Kirin remarked.

'No kidding, whoever heard of a beast like this?' Bing complained. 'Master, can I eat it?' he asked Beiyue. 'It got me hungry!'

'Knock yourselves out you two, you deserve a big lunch. But let me remove the poison first!' Beiyue grinned as she set to work extracting all the poison in the Hydra from its poison sources, blood, organ and bones, leaving only flesh behind that can be safely eaten. 'There you go!' and the Spirit Beasts went chowing down as Beiyue disposed of the poison in the cosmos near a Black Hole, easily dispersing to the point it cannot affect anything never more.

'...I let you all down...I'm no use.' said Hercules, utterly grief-stricken. While he was gone with the boys, the Hydra came back to life and attacked everyone.

'This is not your fault at all. We know who's truly at fault here, so don't place misplaced blame on yourself.' Zhanye scolded him. 'You did the right thing, down to the very end. The rest is all Hades' fault.' he reassured the older man.

'Zhanye's right Herc, see some sense in this.' said Sora. 'Anyone will save what they hold most precious to them first. Family. Friends. They always come first before all else.'

'Besides, it looks like there won't be any games any time soon.' Goofy pointed out optimistically. Hercules deserved a vacation.

'Don't worry about Wonderboy here...I'll take good care of him.' Meg reassured. 'Kids...thank you so much.' her gratitude was heartfelt, when the Olympus Stone in Beiyue's possession glowed and two keys appeared...

'Oh, boys~' Beiyue called out as she tossed up the Olympus Stone that became enveloped in World Magic.

'On it!' Riku sealed Olympus.

They also got a keychain, Hero's Crest.

xxx

Back in the World that Never Was...

'Man, that was nasty...after scaring the hell out of me, I got dumped outside town and I have a terrible sunburn!' Demyx complained as he got back, nooooot really looking forward to reporting to anyone. But he has to.

At the Throne Room...everyone as one looked at him.

Before two out of five cracked in laughter.

'Dude! What happened to your face?!'

'Huh? What about my face?' Demyx asked, perplexed. 'I'm still as handsome as ever aren't I?' The other two were too busy laughing laughed harder until someone said, 'Somebody doodled on your face.'

'Wait, what?!' Demyx conjured a mirror and saw his face was indeed doodled, but also he has a penis drawn where his nose should be! 'GYAAAA! HOW CAN DARK PRINCESS BE SO CRUEL?!' he howled in comical despair. 'SHE DOODLED ON MY FACE! SHE CLEARLY DID THIIIIIS!'

'Just wash your face you moron.' said the second laughing one. 'It's clear you failed your job and got doodled on for it! Heeheehee!'

'Lemme alone!'

xxx

'I'm sure that guy found my surprise by now.' Beiyue grinned darkly as they were in the ship kitchen, making Zhanye cook. Olympus Pizza SUCKED that she made her own recipe and made Zhanye do it as part of his cooking training. He had to cook the toppings beforehand by sauteing and stir-frying them while everyone else has their jobs. Donald the Soup, Goofy the vegetables, Riku the meat and Sora seafood. Beiyue took on dessert, making strawberry shortcake.

'You're a sadist.' Zhanye shook his head in bemusement, spinning a piece of dough because he was to make pizza.

'What did she do guys?' Sora asked them.

'After scaring the pants out of our thief, she doodled on his face and dumped him out of town.' Riku chuckled.

'Oooooo!'