"Donald has a girlfriend. Donald has a girlfriend." Sora was parading around the cockpit of the Gummi Ship while childishly taunting Donald about his aforementioned girlfriend. Goofy had explained to them all how Daisy was waiting, most likely impatiently, back on their world for them, though mostly Donald, to safely return. Like the young boy Sora was, having not yet experienced the extravagant and fast-paced life of dating, he instantly assumed Donald would be embarrassed about such knowledge as being good enough to have a girlfriend.
Unsurprisingly to the rest of the group, Donald was taking the boys tormenting quite well. In fact, the smile on his face appeared to grow larger and larger the longer Sora continued until the duck couldn't help but to burst out laughing. Sora finally realized that his taunting was actually not ridiculing Donald at all, so stopped in place. His grin receded and he let out an embarrassed chuckle. "Uh, what's so funny?"
It took a bit for Donald to compose himself before he could answer. "I don't know what's funnier, that you think you could possibly beat my nephews at taunting me or that you're completely jealous because your crush isn't interested in you."
"Wh-what! I don't have a crush." Sora pathetically attempted to deflect Donald's jab.
"Gwarsh, your face is turning all red, Sora." Goofy chuckled and pointed at the glowing cheeks on Sora's face.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Sora clamped his hands over his cheeks. His white gloves only allowed the pink skin to be even more obviously seen.
Donald and Goofy were busting a gut from laughing so hard. Even Sam couldn't hold in her laughter. "You need to learn how to take what you dish out. The greatest burns are made with a cool head."
Sora lowered his hands back down to his side and looked at Sam in thought. "I know those were all words but I have no idea what that's supposed to mean."
"Oh, I guess they are pretty weird sayings." Sam looked up at the ceiling and put a finger to her chin. "If you want to make fun of someone, make sure you won't get upset if they respond back in kind."
"Ugh, I just wanted to have fun and now I'm being taught a lesson."
Sam rolled her eyes. "Well be happy Dan's asleep. He doesn't understand when it's time to stop poking fun at someone." She looked over at her brother who was strapped into his chair, sound asleep. "It's gotten us into plenty of trouble. This one time, Dan kept picking on this kid cuz he was too young to join in an event. He wasn't expecting the kid to beat him up." She chuckled.
"Really?" Sora summoned the Keyblade into his hand. "I bet it would be a lot of fun to spar with him."
Sam frowned. "Yeah, you two probably would've gotten along great."
"Do you ever think about anything besides fighting?" Donald asked.
"He thinks about his crush, remember?" Goofy's answer seemed good enough to everyone except Sora.
"I thought we were over that!"
Donald got up from his seat and walked over to the entrance of the ship as they all laughed at Sora. "You can try to think of good enough jokes while we look around."
"We're at another world already?" Goofy looked out the window but could only see a thick fog around them. "Gwarsh, you even landed too...I think."
"You can thank Sora for keeping us so entertained!" Donald gleefully declared as the door opened, revealing more fog. A dirt path could be seen faintly below the door.
Everyone was about to leave the ship but then Goofy shouted, "oh wait, what about Dan?" Donald, who had a foot already on the ground outside, grumbled as he stepped back in.
Sam waved the interruption off. "There's no way he's coming with us. He needs all the rest he can get." Dan's still sleeping form looked to be enough proof of that.
"Should one of us stay behind and take care of him?" Sora looked concerned. "Donald, you can heal him if he's still in pain."
"Waak, you also know cure! You stay behind!" Donald was unimpressed with Sora's lack of actual concern. The two of them continued to go back and forth with their bickering, neither wanting to pass on the chance to explore a new world.
"I don't mind staying with Dan," Goofy suggested, having to talk loudly over the others. "I'll give him potions to drink."
The mental image of Goofy hand-feeding her brother potions was not something Sam wanted to have. "Guys, none of us need to stay. Dan's fine here and I've made sure he can't leave. If I was really that concerned, I'd stay." She then muttered under her breath, "though i'm more concerned of leaving you three alone."
"Sounds good to me!" Both Sora and Donald shouted together then ran out, making sure there wasn't a chance for Sam to change her mind.
They all walked packed together through the fog. Ideally, they probably should have thought harder about how difficult it is to travel through an area with fog so thick they could barely make out each other's silhouettes, especially since they had no end goal in mind. For whatever reason though, it felt like the world itself was pulling them in a specific direction. Fairly quickly, the party found themselves in front of a set of large, wooden double doors.
The design of the doors were on the plain side, only indicating any sort of significance by how large they were, easily towering over everyone. Even if the four were to stand on each other, the one on top wouldn't be able to touch the wall hanging over the door.
Even with such a large structure, the doors opened with only a bit of effort from Sora. As the doors opened, the fog lifted from around the entrance, allowing everyone to see the other side. A barren courtyard separated the party from a building with another set of large doors with a pair of lightning bolts emblazoned on the top half of them. On each side of the doors were golden statues of warriors pointing their swords up into the sky in such a way that they crossed each other's paths. With how giant the statues were, the swords were able to reach over the doors.
Sam sighed to herself as she walked in. "This must be a coliseum. Not sure if we're really going to find anyone we know here." She looked at one of the side walls full of windows that showed a clear sky with clouds covering the area below. "Doesn't appear to be much to this world at all."
Sora wasn't deterred by Sam's observation. "That just means it won't take us long to see everything there is to see. Besides, a coliseum sounds awesome!" Sora summoned his Keyblade and took a few practice swings.
"What makes you think this is a coliseum?" Donald questioned Sam.
"Are you kidding me? Look at this place." Sam stretched her hands out and twirled around. "It's practically screaming, 'look at me, I'm Greek, love me!'" Donald folded his arms together and tapped his foot in annoyance. "Come on, they have statues of gladiators taking up the entire entrance." Sam defended herself. "What else could this place be, a clothing store?"
"Gwarsh, it would sure be nice to find some better gear if that's the case." Goofy took out his shield and began to count all of the scratches that had accumulated from their adventuring.
"Wait, your weapons get damaged?" Sora smirked as he pointed his Keyblade skyward. "Man, that sure sounds like a pain to deal with."
Donald swatted at the Keyblade with his rod, causing Sora to lower it and back away. "Says the boy who used scrap wood as a sword before now!"
Sam put a hand to her chin. "Goofy's got a point though. We should probably check our equipment soon to make sure it's good enough for more worlds. Who knows how many we'll end up visiting." The thought of them traveling forever had crossed her mind before, but she continued to push it away.
"Well whatever. If your weapons ever break, I'll just have to take out the Heartless for you!" Sora's cheeky grin was impossible to break as the rest of them gave exasperated or questioning looks. "Let's go find out what this coliseum has to offer already."
'He's going to be the death of me, I just know it," Donald shook his head, but followed Sora with the others toward the doors between the two warrior statues.
Once again, the doors opened with ease, despite their large stature. A short hallway with a high ceiling led them to another smaller pair of green doors. With nothing remarkable about the hallway, the group quickly filed through the green doors into a vestibule. Two golden cauldrons of fire fit into holes on the walls to the left and right of them. A stone pedestal with a chest on top was in front of the left cauldron while a large stone block was in front of the right cauldron. On the other side of the room was a roped-off doorway and a little man with goat legs and horns standing on a platform to clean a large plaque hanging on the wall. With the crazy things they had seen in Wonderland, nobody in the group really batted an eye at the sight of him.
Sora approached the satyr, who continued to wipe away at the plaque in front of him. "Um," Sora wasn't really sure what to say.
The satyr didn't give Sora the chance to talk though. "Good timing. Give me a hand, will ya? Move that pedestal over there for me." He points to the stone block without looking behind him. "I gotta spruce this place up for the games."
Sora glanced at the others, who shrugged at him. With nothing better to do, he walked up to the block and put all of his weight into pushing it to a corner of the room. It did not budge an inch. "It weighs a ton!" Sora collapsed to the ground and Donald snickered at him. "Do you want to try?"
"Oh, uh…" Donald quickly looked away. If he had lips, he would most likely be attempting to whistle.
"Yeah, no, that thing is not going to move any time soon." Sam walked up to the satyr. "Hey, I think you have the wrong guy. There's no way this pip-squeak could move that gigantic thing." Sora shouted a grunt at being called a pip-squeak, but Sam ignored him. "Why is that even there to begin with?"
The satyr froze at all of this but then turned around to finally face them. "Huh, you're right. Wrong guy. "What're you doing here then?" He hopped down to the floor and began to walk toward the pedestal he had asked them to move. "This here's the world-famous Coliseum–heroes only! And I got my hands full preparing for the games. So run along, pip-squeaks." Sora pouted at once again being called so short. The satyr put his hands on his hips. "Look, it's like this. Heroes are coming from all over to fight ferocious monsters right here in the Coliseum." His arms were needed to wave around at the building to emphasize how important it was.
Donald crossed his arms. "You've got heroes standing right in front of you."
Sam wasn't so sure about that, but Goofy placed his hands on Sora's shoulders in agreement. "Yup. He's a real hero chosen by the Keyblade!"
"And we're heroes, too." Donald pointed to himself and tried to pose valiantly.
The satyr looked shocked, though he didn't seem to recognize the importance of the Keyblade. "Hero? That runt?" He loudly laughed at them while slapping his belly.
Sora stepped away from Goofy and raised his fist, finally sick of all the name calling he was receiving. "What's so funny? I've fought a bunch of monsters!" He pounded his chest with his fist in pride.
"Hey, if you can't even move this…" The satyr pushed against the stone block, but it didn't budge. "You can't call yourself…" He turned around and tried to push with his back, but his hooves simply slid across the floor. Sora crossed his arms and looked annoyed. The others held a mixture of confusion and humor on their faces. "...a hero!" The satyr finally collapsed to the floor in exhaustion. "Okay, so it takes more than brawn." He stood back up and dusted himself off. "Well, well, let's see what you can do. This trial is tough. You got what it takes? You ready?"
Sora jumped up in excitement. "I'm ready!"
"Okay, kid. Let's see what you've got." The satyr waved them over to the roped off entrance and removed the rope from one side so they could go in.
"He changed his mind pretty fast, don't ya think?" Goofy pondered the validity of the goat-man's hero training.
"We don't even know his name!" Donald scoffed.
Sam shook her head. "He probably knows what he's talking about. I mean, he appears to own an arena. You probably can't just talk your way into that deal, can you?" Sora had already followed the arena owner out of the room.
"It doesn't take much to fool Sora. I guess that's why the King had us find him, he needs all the protection he can get!" Donald exited the room as well.
Sam looked over at Goofy. "Is that the reason your king had you find him?"
Goofy put a finger to his chin. "Well, I guess he'd still be stuck in Traverse Town without our help." He waved his hand toward the exit. "I think we need him as much as he needs us."
Sam went along with Goofy. "That actually makes a lot of sense."
The back of the building led them all to the actual coliseum. A large dirt field was surrounded by stone bleachers to the left and right and a wall with an iron gate blocking a darkened entrance on the opposite side of where the group came out. The middle of the field contained a platform of nine stone squares with a tall pillar at each of the four corners. The satyr stood in front of the stone platform and waited for the others to join him. "I'll start you off with something easy." With a snap of his fingers, a bright light flashed over the arena. When the light faded away, many more stone platforms of different heights stood in the middle. Several wooden barrels were strewn around all of the platforms. Some were by themselves and others were grouped together. "The rules are simple: Bust all the barrels within the time limit. Ready?" The four braced themselves to start running. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" The goat man waved his arms around. "This ain't a group project! We're testing just the kid here. If you want to test yourselves out you'll have to take turns."
"Reasonable enough," Sam dropped her stance and examined the barrels more. "Make sure you path out a route, Sora. If you run in blind, it will take you way too long to break them all." The Keyblade wielder rolled his eyes and grunted out a meek response. The satyr looked over at Sam and stroked his goatee. Sam felt nervous from his gaze. "Uh, I think he's ready to go," She pointed at Sora.
"Do I know you?" The satyr contemplated. Sam stiffened at hearing that. Donald and Goofy locked eyes with each other then turned toward Sam and the satyr. Donald grumpily had his arms folded and was tapping his webbed foot. Sora looked back at the two of them in confusion; mostly on why he wasn't being allowed to start yet.
"Uh, is that how you flirt with every girl you see?" Sam cocked a smile. "It doesn't seem like that great of a pickup line. Did anyone actually fall for it?" Sora began to snicker as the satyr's face turned red. It wasn't red in embarrassment though. No, this red was one of anger.
"I'll have you know the ladies love me!" The goat man huffed as he turned around and folded his arms. "Besides, you're a little young for my tastes." Sam wanted to be mad at his statement, but decided that being the right age for "his tastes" was probably not the preferred option. He began to stroke his goatee again but then grunted in annoyance and dropped his arms. "Whatever, let's get this show on the road kid." He turned to Sora and pointed a finger at the barrels. "On your mark, get set, go!"
Sora ran up to the first three barrels in front of him, all side-by-side to each other. He was able to hit all of them with a single swing of his Keyblade, and on his third swing, they went flying and smashed into pieces where they landed. The next four barrels were stacked in two columns, but Sora was able to break all of them by going after the bottom barrels. The next set had three stacks and while the Keyblade wielder had no problem with the earlier barrels, he misjudged his swing and only four of the barrels broke. He quickly took care of the remaining two and moved on to the rest.
The goat man stopped a timer and whistled. "Twenty-six seconds, not bad! For a beginner, that is." He quickly added the latter part when he saw how the excitement was going to Sora's head. "Let me prepare a more advanced challenge then." With another snap of his fingers, a flash of light covered the middle of the arena and the existing platforms were replaced with a much more convoluted set of platforms and pillars. Multiple rows of barrels stood on a spiraling staircase of platforms, and there was even a floating platform somehow with a barrel on top of it.
"You're kidding, right?" Sora looked at the floating platform, gauging if he'd even be able to reach it by jumping.
"What, giving up already?" The satyr snorted.
Sora pouted. "You wish!" He readied his Keyblade as he surveyed the platforms one last time. The satyr let him loose and he instantly jumped on to the first step and went after three barrels that were side-by-side. He successfully took them out with three swings then, having realized there were two barrels on the floor to his right, went after them. Sora continued to climb the giant steps and knocked a barrel into four barrels blocking the path up, breaking all of them. Six barrels took him a few more swings of his Keyblade to break than needed, but then all that was left was a single barrel at the top of the climbable platforms, and another barrel on the floating platform he wouldn't be able to reach.
Sora looked at the barrel in front of him and a light bulb turned on over his head, or perhaps a lit candle appeared, given the world they were in. He placed himself so that the barrel was between him and the floating platform, and with three precise hits, sent the barrel flying into the floating one, breaking both of them. Sora looked at everyone on the ground with a giant grin on his face and held the Keyblade over his shoulder. His smile switched to a face of confusion though when he noticed the others' reactions. Donald looked like he was ready to explode in anger as Sam held a hand up to her face, shaking her head in disappointment. Goofy jumped up and down repeatedly with a finger pointed at the base of the platforms. The satyr simply smiled. Sora looked down and gasped as he finally noticed there were barrels all around the border of the platforms. There were seven barrels that he could have missed if he stayed up top too long. By the time he had gone around to them, he was back at the start and panting as he held on to his knees.
The satyr stopped his timer again and tutted, "fifty-nine seconds. Cutting it close there, don't you think?" Sam went to Sora to make sure he was fine, but he waved her off and stood up. "Still though, you passed and that's a great feat!"
Sora gave a chuckle. "Looks like I'm headed for the games." He put his hands behind his head and continued to beam a smile at everyone.
"Afraid not," the satyr folded his arms together.
The Keyblade wielder was not expecting that answer. "Why not?" Donald and Goofy also looked confused as to the answer, but Sam guessed as to what the goat man would say next.
"Two words: You guy's ain't heroes." Goofy began to count with his fingers how many words were said, utterly perplexed by how four apparently means two in this world. Sora protested but the goat man wanted nothing of it. "Wanna become a real hero? Start by mastering this spell."
With that, he handed a package to Sora and then walked away toward the arena. "Is that really it?" Sora complained. "The next naked guy to tell me to break barrels is going to get broken instead."
"That's-uh," Sam took a couple seconds to process what was just said. "Yeah, it is weird how strict these games are. But still, a new spell is always nice." She looked at Donald, who was about to open the box. "What spell is this one?"
Instead of answering, Donald decided to open the box and let large currents of electricity escape out of it and circle around them, zapping around in zigzag patterns. The electric currents crackled around them faster and faster, ending with a large flash with specks of light that slowly fell to the floor before they disappeared. "That," the duck quacked as he raised his rod toward the ceiling, "is thunder!" More of the electrical bolts appeared from above and shocked the ground at several locations around him.
Sam smiled as she felt the jittering of the learned spell in her hands. "Looks like it would be useful against several opponents. I guess it's too bad that we can't test it in those games, huh?" Sora ignored her and continued to pout instead.
"Well it doesn't look like King Mickey or any of your friends are here anyway." Goofy changed the subject. "I bet Dan might be awake, why don't we go check on him." Sora gave a large, childish sigh but then nodded his head.
"Fine, let's go." Sora led the way back out to the courtyard where they had started, with only the question of how they would find their Gummi Ship once they made it back into the fog outside. Well, that was the only question for most of them. Sora, of course, could only think about the satyr's words. If what he had done already didn't make him a hero, then what would?
"Rather a stubborn old goat, wouldn't you say?" Sora had almost run into the shadowy figure while he was lost in his thoughts. The boy looked up, and quite up indeed, at the tall, blue man robed in a dark toga that seemed to disperse a shadowy cloud of mist around his feet. Blue flames rose up around his head to resemble hair.
"Who are you?" Donald took out his rod, ready for a possible fight. Though one shouldn't judge a book by its cover, the others seemed to silently agree that this man was most likely not up to any good.
"Whoa, hold on there, fuzz boy." The man held up a hand right in front of Sora's face, only not initially taken as a threat simply because that was just how short Sora was in comparison to him. "Wait, let me guess. You want to enter the games, right?" He walked over to behind Sora and placed his hand on the boy's shoulder. Sam's stomach churned at seeing the blue, boney fingers easily took up so much space over Sora. Sora opened his mouth to speak, but the man waved his other hand and a golden piece of papyrus appeared in it. "Well, then, hey, get a load of this."
"A pass?" Sora muttered out in surprise. The blue man brought the ticket down to Sora, who took it slowly.
"It's all yours." He walked towards the large entrance doors that led to the misty outside. "Good luck, kid. I'm pulling for you, little shorty."
Sora continued to look down at the golden ticket in his hand, not even noticing as the man disappeared. Donald, Goofy and Sam looked at each other then looked back at the ticket. "Doesn't that seem a bit suspicious?" Sam questioned.
"What?" Sora pocketed the pass. "Maybe it's just another way to enter the games. If the goat guy won't let you in, then there's other people that can vouch for you."
"That sounds made up." Donald grumbled. "Did you see how he looked? He had flames and darkness all around him!"
"We could at least show the goat the pass." Sora suggested. "The worst he can say is that it's fake." He ran back in before the others could say anything else. Thankfully for the Keybearer, the satyr was back in the vestibule, polishing the rules plaque once again. He didn't seem pleased to see Sora back, and was taken further by surprise when Sora took out the golden pass with a giant grin on his face.
"Hey, how'd you get this?" He examined the pass but couldn't find any hints of forgery on it.
"Can we enter the games now?" Sora dodged the question. Donald and Sam grumbled amongst themselves and Goofy stood by quietly.
"Well…I guess so." The satyr scratched his head while giving one more glance at the pass. He then walked toward the entrance to the arena. "We start with the preliminaries! Some real weirdos signed up for the games. Better watch yourself."
Sora, Donald and Goofy readied their weapons. They stood on a raised platform of nine large squares. Four columns at each corner erected an invisible barrier to make sure damage from the fight didn't make its way to the stands. Keeping the entrants from being able to escape could possibly also be a reason for the barrier's existence, though the satyr deigned it not necessary to answer Sam when she brought that up. In front of the trio were four of the soldier Heartless and three Heartless that looked like large, blue bells. The Heartless emblem was on their chests, and between the bodies and what were possibly hats was a darkened area with glowing eyes.
Donald started the battle off with the new thunder spell, which stunned most of the enemies in front of him. Goofy slammed his shield into one of the soldiers while Sora jabbed at one of the blue Heartless with his Keyblade. Unfortunately the heartless leaped backwards, avoiding the attack. It then charged up a blue crystal over its head, which shot straight at Sora, causing him to feel a frozen pain in his chest.
"If it's an enemy that uses ice spells, try casting fire back at it!" Sam shouted from the edge of the arena.
"Coaches ain't supposed to help during the match!" The satyr jumped up and down in anger as Sam covered her mouth with a hand. Sora put aside the thought of needing to figure out what the satyr's name actually is and decided to put Sam's idea into action. He pointed the Keyblade with both hands toward the Heartless and shot a fireball at it. The Heartless decided that jumping backwards was the only way to avoid any kind of attack, but the fireball continued forward and exploded against the blue bell. The Heartless quickly topped over and disintegrated and a small heart floated out of it into the sky.
Sora raised his fist into the air in victory right as a soldier spun itself into him, knocking the boy to the ground. He quickly got up and swung his Keyblade at the Heartless and took it out with a simple set of three strikes. By then Donald and Goofy had finished taking out the rest of the Heartless. The three tried walking off of the arena but the Satyr stopped them. "No, no, you gotta strike a victory pose! Show the crowd your heroics! Even if you aren't actually heroes." He muttered the last part to himself.
"What crowd?" Sam scoffed. "This whole place is empty." She would not have been surprised if a tumbleweed were to appear across the empty bleachers.
"Just wait." The satyr answered. By then Sora, Donald and Goofy had finished conversing with each other on what to do for poses. Donald jumped up, much higher than you would think, though he does actually have wings as a part of his arms, then folded his arms together, weapon still in hand. His bill opened to a big smile to show to the possibly imaginary viewers. Goofy threw his fists up into the air before bringing them back and doing a little jig. He brought one hand with a pointed finger across his view then brought the other hand with his thumb and pointer finger in the shape of an L to his forehead. Sora slashed his Keyblade diagonally in an X formation then turned around to show his back and set the blade over his shoulder.
Cheers erupted from the stands, to the shock yet also bemusement of Sam. The trio gawked at the sudden downpour of admiration they were getting. The satyr smiled as he fondly remembered of other warriors' first wins. "The gods enjoy watching a good show, even if they don't come in person."
"Wait, gods?" Sam switched between looking at the two sets of stands. "Makes me feel really out of place here."
"A good hero-to-be needs a good coach, and I think you have that covered." The satyr looked up to Sam. "Leaves me with less to do at least." He chuckled as he waddled up to the victors of the battle. Sora grinned as he ran off the ring.
"How about that? We beat them pretty easily!" Donald and Goofy also couldn't help but smile as they approached the two.
"You're no heroes yet, but you ain't doing bad. Lucky you have a good coach with you, even if she likes to break the rules."
"I didn't know!" Sam refuted. "I don't remember signing any contract." The others laughed at her expense.
"That's fine." Sora looked away from her. "I don't remember asking for you to be my coach." Sam could tell that he was trying to hold back a snicker. "Maybe you can try coaching your brother instead."
"Why do you think I've been with him this whole time?" Sam retorted, her arms were folded to her chest. "The least I could do is make sure any friends of his are properly trained as well."
Sora turned back around. "Wait, aren't we-"
"Oh, so now you care?" She went on. "Next time try not using my advice before trying to act all cool and independent, huh?"
The boy groaned. "Yeah, yeah, I get it."
A young man with blonde, spiky hair slowly walked by all of them to enter his own match. He wore several belts over a blue pair of pants and shirt. A tattered, red cape was wrapped heavily around his neck before making its way behind him, and a single black, gargoyle-like wing protruded from his left shoulder blade, right under a spiked, metal spaulder. On his back was a giant sword wrapped in bandages. Sora stared at him wordlessly and the man stared back before continuing past them.
"Something tells me he'll be a tough one to beat." The satyr stroked his goatee. "Who knows, maybe you'll end up facing him." He was right to consider the man tough as he easily made his way through the Heartless that were in his match. Sam could understand how Sora ended up in a tournament full of Heartless, but didn't understand how this guy also got in.
Further matches continued to include more of the blue bell Heartless while also adding on red bells that cast fire spells, more of the soldiers and the shadowy Heartless that could submerge themselves into the ground. The trio were able to divide and conquer to make sure that none of them were ganged up on and so emerged victorious each time. Sam cheered for them as they finished another win. "Not much longer until you're done with the whole thing. At this rate, I can't see how you could possibly lose."
The satyr gave a sigh as he clapped at them. "Wish he was here to see this." Sora asked who he was talking about. "Hercules. He's a hero if ever there was one." The satyr looked up toward the sky with a smile. "Too bad he's off visiting his father."
"Is he a hero that you trained?" Goofy asked the goat man. "You must be really proud, huh."
The satyr grunted in response. "Before him, I kept getting failure after failure. Really made me think there was something wrong with me. Hercules was different though. He was able to get through every challenge I threw at him, and it made him better for doing it. You should'a seen the way he took down that minotaur. Well, actually, you shouldn't have. His first fight was a doozy." Sora, Donald, Goofy and Sam chuckled at the thought of a hero's first fight and how it could have gone strangely.
"Oh," Sam noticed the blonde man on the arena stage waiting. "Looks like it's time for the finale." She pushed Sora slightly forward. "Show him what you've got! But be cautious, we don't want this to end up like when you fought Squ-Leon." She corrected herself before finishing Leon's less-preferred name.
"Please don't remind me," Sora gave her an unenthusiastic thumbs up as he walked up to the stage. He, Donald and Goofy prepared their weapons and the man did the same. "It's nice seeing someone besides the Heartless in here, huh?" The man only grunted in response to Sora's question.
A flash of the barriers appearing around them signaled the start of the fight. Instantly the man lunged at Sora with his large broadsword. The boy barely dodged out of the way, not expecting such a tactic, but was hit from behind as the man lunged again. He turned around to do a third attack but Goofy got between them and blocked him with his shield.
"Remember what Sam said about new opponents, Sora: erase until you learn their moves." Goofy nonchalantly said as he backed away from the man and his sword.
"Evade!" Donald corrected the dog. "And who needs to evade when an offense is just as good!" He cast a fire spell towards the man, who easily blocked it by holding up his broadsword in front of his body. The duck looked shocked and began to rub his head. "Oh…"
"Is that all you got?" The man began his sliding attack once more toward Sora. This time Sora rolled to the side and then prepared another roll, doing this four times until the man leaped high into the air then slammed his sword into the ground, causing a shockwave around him. Sora was pushed away by this but was still able to find an opening as the man lifted his sword out of the ground to throw in a few strikes with his Keyblade. Donald cast fire from behind while Goofy swung his shield from the other side of the man. The man didn't take much time to retaliate with a quick set of slashes, going much faster than they thought possible with such a large sword.
Sam stepped forward and opened her mouth, but the satyr cut her off. "They'll be fine. Even if they lose, they'll be patched up and ready to fight another day." She chewed on her thumbnail while nervously watching the fight continue on.
Sora did not take the full swings from the man's sword well. Goofy once again got between the two to give Sora a chance to cast cure on himself. Donald cast thunder on the man who was unable to block such a spell as the electric currents fell down on him. The man decided to switch targets because of that and attacked the duck. He slid forward with his sword to gain distance on Donald and then slid again to strike at him. Donald went down from the man's continual assault.
Goofy charged forward to avenge his friend, but the man leapt into the air and stabbed his blade into the ground near Goofy, pushing him aside. Sora tried to use this chance to attack him again, but the man was quicker in getting his sword out and slashed at both Sora and Goofy, causing them to fall to the ground. Sora attempted to get up but couldn't, and Goofy was out cold.
"Well, they did the best they could." The satyr took out a white handkerchief to signal that Sora had given up. "Huh? Hey!" He noticed the man continued walking up to Sora, sword held up. The satyr rushed to the stage to deactivate the barrier, but the tall, blue man from earlier appeared from the shadows that didn't exist five seconds earlier and blocked the satyr's path.
"Sora!" Sam shouted at the boy, but all he could do was flinch in anticipation of getting hit. The man lowered his sword though, having decided to not finish the job. Sora looked up at him, perplexed, but he didn't get a chance to ask what was going on as an enormous three-headed dog appeared on scene and slammed a foot onto the man, crushing him into the ground. The pitch black dog raised its three heads up into the air and roared as inky mists of black smoke escaped from the mouths. The red eyes and sharp teeth added on to the fact that this dog was not here to save Sora.
The flame-haired man retreated toward a shaded exit on the other side of the arena. "Oh, right, there was one other rule I forgot: Accidents happen." The dog lunged the three heads toward Sora, Donald and Goofy, but a man with wavy red hair wearing what could typically be called a gladiator's outfit ran in front of the dog and, with surprising strength, lifted the front half of the dog so it couldn't attack the others.
"Herc!" The satyr shouted at the gladiator. Hercules looked back at him with a strained look.
"Phil, get them out of here!" Phil and Sam ran up to Donald and Goofy and dragged them out of the arena. With a quick cure spell from Sam, the two were groggily back up. The sight of the dog brought them completely back to their senses.
Sora was able to get himself up, and with a quick muttering of, "so that's his name," ran with the rest back into the vestibule.
The satyr now known as Phil held his chest as he took deep breaths. "Whew, that was close! That was Cerberus, the guardian of the Underworld. Herc should be able to handle him." He then thought about how strained the hero already looked just from holding back Cerberus for them. "But then again, maybe not… This doesn't look good. I hope Herc's okay. Wish I could go in!"
It took no time at all for Sora to begin running toward the arena entrance, but Phil blocked his path. "Kid, you're not entering the arena, are ya? This ain't just some match. This is for real!"
"I'm not afraid." Sora pointed a thumb at his chest. "You can decide if I'm hero material or not."
Phil pondered his choices but couldn't think of how to stop him. "At least drink a potion before heading off to get us all killed." Sam forced a potion bottle into Sora's hand. "We'll meet you out there." She then rushed ahead of the boy, with Donald and Goofy running right behind her.
"Hey!" Sora ran after them while chugging down the potion. Back outside, they found Hercules with the man they fought earlier slung over his shoulder. Herc was holding back the middle head by its teeth. Noticing the four of them, the dog stopped its attack and turned around, allowing Hercules to run for safety.
Phil stepped outside real quick and brought a hand around his mouth. "Kid, I got two words of advice for you: Attack!" He then rushed back in to avoid the battle.
None of them had time to think about how attack was only one word since Cerberus began to slowly walk toward them while shooting big balls of fire out of its mouths. Donald and Sam ran away to avoid the fireballs but Goofy held up his shield and blocked any that went his way. Noticing that, Sora got an idea and swung his Keyblade at a fireball. It redirected and went right into one of the heads, causing burn marks to appear. The dog stopped the barrage of fireballs and lowered its body to be able to snap its mouths at anyone caught too close. This also gave the perfect opportunity for everyone to reach the heads for an attack though. Sam swung her staff at the left head and Goofy slammed his shield into the right. Donald stuck back to cast thunder spells on all three, leaving Sora with the middle head.
He blocked a bite with his Keyblade, which pushed him back a foot, but he jumped up and slammed his blade down hard onto the dog's head. Cerberus once again decided its tactics were not working, so raised its upper body into the air and slammed the front paws into the ground, causing everyone to stumble. The dog raised its heads up and the black smoke from its mouths became thicker and trickled down onto the ground. The heads then pointed at the ground and shot out the black sludge, where it seemed to instantly get soaked into the floor and disappear.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Donald muttered. From beneath Sam, a large, black circle appeared. Before she could think of doing anything, the black sludge spiked out of the ground, launching her partially into the air and doing quite a bit of damage. "Run!" The duck flung his arms around and ran around in random directions trying to avoid any black spots that appeared from below him. Sora rolled around to avoid the spikes of darkness and Goofy threw his shield on the ground and leapt on it to surf his way out of the mess. Sam was given enough time to recover and join the boys in their attempts to avoid Cerberus' attack. While they did get hit a few times, they thankfully were all standing when the dark attacks finally subsided
Cerberus got back down to try biting at the weakened party, but Sora, Donald and Sam cast cure to get them back to a decent status. Cerberus tried attacking Sora with all three of its heads, but Sora swung at them and caused the heads to bounce off of each other like a pinball machine. This kept the heads stunned long enough for the four of them smack, slash and slam their weapons into Cerberus' faces. Finally, the dog backed away in a daze from them before slumping onto its side. The three heads stacked on top of each other. A heavy breathing was the only detection that the dog was still alive.
Once everyone was patched up, Sora, Donald, Goofy and Sam found themselves in front of Hercules and Phil. Phil was standing on top of a pedestal with a piece of papyrus in his hands. Hercules had his arms crossed over his chest and was beaming at the four of them. "Thus, I do hereby dub thee junior heroes, and confer upon thee full rights and privileges to participate in the games. Further-"
"Hey!" Donald interrupted. "What do you mean 'junior heroes'?"
"You rookies still don't understand what it takes to be a true hero." Phil crossed his arms like Herc, though his was in annoyance.
"So, what does it take?" Goofy innocently asked."
"Well," Hercules stepped forward and let his arms down to his sides. "That's just something you'll have to find out for yourselves. Just the way that I did." He smiled once more at them.
Instead of arguing or asking for more information, Sora simply said, "Okay, we'll be back." He waved goodbye to the two and the group left the vestibule to return to the courtyard. Outside by the gates, they found the man with the giant sword sitting on the steps to where they needed to go. Sam looked concerned, but Sora walked right up to him. "Hey, are you all right?"
The man looked up to the boy. His face didn't show any emotion. "Yeah."
Sora wasn't perturbed by the response. "So why did you go along with him, anyway"
The man lowered his head into his hands and thought for a bit. "I'm looking for someone. Hades promised to help. I tried to exploit the power of darkness, but it backfired." The tall, blue man with flames for hair, Hades. The party could understand it being easy to follow along with what he said. The man stood up from the steps and looked up to the sky. "I fell into darkness, and I couldn't find the light."
"You'll find it." Sora seemed to understand this man quite well. "I'm searching, too."
The man looked back at the boy. "For your light?" Sora nodded and the man moved closer to him, putting something into his hand. "Don't lose sight of it." He began to walk away, back toward the coliseum.
Sora nodded and looked at the small sphere in his hand. He then looked back at the man and waved his hand. "How about a rematch sometime? Fair and square, no dark powers involved."
The man paused, then turned his head back and ran a hand through his hair. "I think I'll pass."
Sora smiled, having expected such an answer. "Man, that guy is so cool."
"So cool that you never asked for his name," Sam brought up.
The boy gasped before shouting once again at the man. "Hey, the name's Sora. What's yours?"
Without turning around, they heard him say, "Cloud." Cloud then entered the doors to the vestibule and was gone.
"Cloud?" Sam questioned. "How many weather names are we going to find? What's next, Lightning?"
"Cloud sounds like a nice fella. I wonder if we'll ever see him again." Goofy scratched his head with a finger.
"As long as he doesn't try to kill us next time," Donald humphed.
Back on the Gummi Ship, Daniel was wide awake and very angry that he had been left behind. "Not only did you enter a tournament, but you also almost died and got to meet Cloud?" Dan's voice grew louder as he continued to talk. He wiggled around in his chair but was still strapped in by all the seatbelts. "If this is some kind of punishment for protecting gorillas, then I've learned my lesson. I'll gladly let the Heartless take over next time."
"Knock it off! You needed rest and we gave it to ya." Donald sat down at the pilot seat and prepared the Gummi Ship for takeoff.
"How do you know Cloud?" Sora questioned him.
"How do you not?" Dan scoffed. "He's a huge soldier that has fought off a lot of enemies. Cloud never gives up and always has a positive attitude about things. He's a huge inspiration to me!"
Sora thought about Dan's description but was confused. "That doesn't really sound like the Cloud we met. He was a lot more…closed off. Maybe something happened to him?"
Sam could only shake her head at the conversation. "I've never heard of this guy before. You knew about Leon before we met him, too. Did you see these people in person before, or maybe…read about them?"
"Well yeah, I, uh…" Dan looked down in thought. "I thought I met them before, but…I guess that's stupid. We were just living normal lives before now. What would people like them be doing around me?"
Sam didn't respond, instead putting focus on snapping all of her seat belts on for the trip.
"I bet we'll see him again," Sora said. "And when we do, you can make sure he's the Cloud you're thinking of. I'm still hoping for a rematch. I guess I'm not exactly the hero material I thought I was."
"You'll get there eventually, and I guess I'll just have to tag along to see all the cool people along the way." Dan looked out at all the mist circling around the ship. "Wait, are you guys gonna get me out of this?" He began to struggle against the seat belts wrapped around him again.
"We can't now, it's take off time!" Donald gave off a hearty laugh as he sent the ship off of the world and onto their next destination.