Chakram

Chapter VII: EXPLOSION

By: Axel

XxX

"Oooh this is going to be fun," Hades said, watching the three nobodies run at Cerberus. He grinned as Cerberus stomped on the ground sending out deadly shockwaves.

"You're one messed up god Hades" Phil snarled. The Lord of the Underworld shot him a glare and he immediately silenced himself.

Cerberus stomped the ground again, knocking the three nobodies down. " What's wrong kid? I though you were supposed to be my champion" Hades taunted Axel, who was crawling back to his feet.

"Yeah, that's verses someone that's not two stories taller than me" Axel muttered, leaping out of the way of another shockwave.

"Axel" Luxord called, standing on the other side of the arena. They had scattered when Cerberus had began stomping around. " I have an idea. Get Demyx."

Axel nodded and took off to fetch Demyx, who was hiding behind some debris. Cerberus smashed its paw down in front of Axel, obstructing his path. Axel decided to change course, sprinting in between Cerberus's legs. The creature looked confused as he ran beneath it. As it tried to shift itself to better see him it began to loose its balance.

Axel noticed the creature struggling to regain its balance. He took this moment to leap up on top of its back. He ran up its back, on top of one of its heads. He slammed his chakram into its hard metal skull, but it did nothing. One of the other heads looked over at him and snarled, snapping at him. It accidentally bit the other head, causing the two start fighting with each other, rather than Axel.

He took that moment to jump off and sprint over to where Demyx was hiding with Vincent's body. " Demyx, Come on, Luxord has a plan." The Nocturne looked up at Axel and nodded, slowly emerging from his hiding place. They both sprinted back across the field, around the preoccupied Cerberus, over to Luxord.

"Demyx, you remember when you fired that first blast of water at Cerberus? It short-circuited. If you could get it to do that again it might stun it long enough that we might could land a few hits on it." The Gambler of Fate gazed at the mechanical monstrosity and said " If that doesn't work… we can hope its batter runs out I guess."

"I ain't waiting around for it's damn battery to run out. I just wanna get out of here," Axel snarled.

Cerberus seemed to have settled its dispute, because all three of its heads were now glaring at the nobodies, growling viciously. 'DIE' it growled, dashing at them, the ground shaking violently.

"Split" Luxord said, and bolted off in one direction, Demyx quick to head the opposite. Axel just stood there, cursing as the creature slammed into him full force. Axel screamed as he fell limply to the ground. He was in major trouble if he got hit like that again. Cerberus backed away and crouched down, ready to charge again. Axel staggered to his feet and watched in horror as the creature came flying at him.

"Stop" he heard Luxord snap. Cerberus stood, frozen in time. Axel breathed a sigh of relief and quickly scurried out of the way. Seconds later Cerberus slammed into the wall, sending pieces of it raining down on the creature. A particularly large piece of debris came down on Cerberus's heads, knocking it down for a moment.

"Thanks" Axel panted as he ran up beside Luxord.

"Don't mention it."

"Besides, you're the only one here with an actual weapon. If you die we all will" Demyx said, holding his sitar carefully.

"Gee thanks, now I know my life is worth as much as my Chakrams" Axel snarled at the sitar player. Then it hit him. Chakrams. Plural. He'd entirely forgotten about The Oathkeeper. Well now would be the perfect time to show it off.

Axel dashed over to the stunned Cerberus, brandishing the Bond of Flame in one hand, his other clenched with anticipation. He saw sparks fizzling out of Cerberus's leg and decided to go for that spot. He unleashed a flurry of blows on the injured leg rearing back for the final blow. He summoned The Oathkeeper in his other hand and smashed it into Cerberus with all his strength. When the chakram connected with the beast there was an explosion of light. It was so powerful it knocked Axel backwards, leaving the chakram lodged in the gears. Axel blinked a few times, feeling energy still sizzling up his arm. That finishing move was amazing. It was an amazing explosion of energy that came from that tiny charm chained to the chakram.

Axel dashed over to Cerberus to recover The Oathkeeper and attempt the move again, but the creature had already regained itself, madder than heck. It screeched at Axel, it's saber fangs inches away from him. Axel leapt back and summoned a fireball in his now unoccupied hand. "Firaga" he cried hurling it into the creature's open mouth. It's metallic jaws slammed shut, then opened again, spewing out a powerful blast of fire. Axel backpedaled away but he was too slow. He threw his arms up in front of him to shield himself from the blast.

When he didn't feel the fire burning him alive he looked up to see an oversized playing card in front of him, deflecting the blast.

"Might not be good weapons, but they make excellent shields" Luxord chuckled.

"Thank Luxord" Axel said, dashing away for the monster. That was twice today Luxord had saved his butt. He glanced behind himself and saw Cerberus lash out at the card, knocking it away with its paw. Then the monster bounded after Axel, opening its metallic maw again. Axel felt heat along his back as he ran as fast as he could. He came to a wall and tried to bolt left. Cerberus's lethal tail crashed down in front of him. He tried to reverse direction, but Cerberus's nasty gnashing jowls were in front of him. It opened its mouth, spark kindling inside, ready to incinerate the pyro. " How ironic" the pyro muttered, glaring straight into the eyes of death.

"Axel" he heard someone cry. His whole thought process was so scrambled by the heat and adrenaline he couldn't tell who it was. He just held up his hand and waved, as if to say good-bye. It must have been the heat, because he could swear he heard music.

"Dance water, dance" Demyx cried. He played a vicious melody on his guitar, summoning a huge blast of water. It slammed into Cerberus like a tidal wave, extinguishing its fire.

By a slight miscalculation, the hydrophobic Axel was also swept up in the blast. Luckily for him it was washed him out of Cerberus's reach. "Help I'm drowning" He screamed, splashing around in the flooded arena.

"Axel, Axel please, stand up" Demyx called. Axel looked down and stood up, realizing it was barely above his ankles. He grinned sheepishly at Demyx and shrugged.

The sudden impact had knocked his other chakram out of his hand, which he was now searching for vigorously. He reached down into the water, finally finding it, and dashed over to the incapacitated Cerberus. As Axel neared it however he felt pain shoot through him. It was a familiar pain though. Electricity.

Sparks were pouring out of Cerberus's side, electrifying the water around it. Axel cursed and leapt away from it, the static sensation dying away. He glared at the sparking cyber mutt, wondering how he could get a hit at it. Finally his eyes came to rest on the tail, the only part not sparking insanely.

He ran up the tail and onto Cerberus's back with little problem. He found the area he'd attacker earlier, the Oathkeeper still lodged in the gears of the mechanical leg. Axel reached in and pulled it out, then unleashed another devastating flurry of combos. This time he's felt energy tingling through the weapon as he brought it down, a precursor to the awesome power built up inside it.

"EXPLOSION" Axel cried, slamming the Oathkeeper down on the weak point. There was a bright explosion of light once more, though this time Axel braced himself and held tight to the chakram.

Cerberus howled and got back to its feet, shaking Axel of like a flea. It howled again and the water in the arena began to drain away. Axel stood by the wall and watched as the massive amount of water all disappeared through a dark portal in the ground. A corridor of darkness.

"Luxord, you see that" Axel called to the gambler who nodded gravely. It could only mean one thing, someone was helping Cerberus. " I'm gonna check it out" Axel called, running for the portal, as he went to jump in it Cerberus caught his eye, chasing after the young sitarist. "damnit Demyx" he cursed and diverted his course. He ran over to where Demyx was engaged with Cerberus, who had him cornered.

"Back, get back you mutt" Demyx said, voice shaking. He swung his sitar, hitting the hound on the nose. It wrinkled up its nose for a moment in surprise, then opened up its jowls to take a bite out of him

Axel hurled a chakram, striking the dog on the side of the head. The chakram bounced off uselessly, but got his attention. Cerberus turned from the sitar player and narrowed its six sanguine eyes on Axel. 'NOW YOU PERISH' Cerberus screamed, lunging full force at Axel.

Axel was stunned for a moment. The creature's ability to speak had shocked him. He saw the monster lunge and felt energy sizzling in his palm. He grinned and threw the Oathkeeper and the ground. Light engulfed the area, giving Axel time to dodge out of the way and causing Cerberus to slam into the wall behind him.

Axel took advantage of the now stunned beast to deliver another flurry of blows. After Axel's desperate assault pieces of Cerberus finally started to come lose. Axel started ripping them out, doing anything he could to dismantle it. Cerberus jerked up and shook Axel off again.

Axel landed on his feet gracefully and looked up at the mechanical mess. The broken leg was sparking furiously; smoke now billowing up from it. He noticed other place of Cerberus were starting to spark and smoke. You take one piece out of a machine and it won't work right, same went for cyber-mutts.

Sparks were rolling out of its mouth, its middle head hung, as if there were something wrong with it. Whatever it was, Axel needed to get in there and make it worse.

Cerberus seemed less aware, staggering around the arena randomly, occasionally stomping the ground or breathing out a fireball. Axel dashed over to the other two nobodies and began to tell them his excellent plan.

XxX

Hades gritted his teeth as he watched his beautiful creation wobbling around like a one-wheeled bicycle. Next to him Phil was cracking up. " Yeah Hades, you did a wonderful job on this one."

"Shut up" Hades fumed. He turned and stormed out the door, into the lobby. "Cheaters always prosper" he said, a wicked grin replacing his snarl of rage. It was time to exact plan D.

XxX

"Alright, you got that? Remember, timing is everything. Anyone messes up and I'm dead," Axel said, crossing his arms.

"It sounds dangerous" Demyx said, frowning slightly.

"It sounds stupid" Luxord said bluntly.

"Oh what are you complaining about? You have the easy part," Axel snapped. Luxord glared at him and crossed his arms. "Ready then? On three. One, two…"

Axel bolted away from where the nobodies were gathered, across the arena towards Cerberus. Cerberus's attention focused on him and it roared, though confusion was evident in its mechanical timbre.

Axel saw the card behind him and grinned. Even though Luxord was reluctant to go along with it he wouldn't put Axel in danger, or at least more danger than he could handle. The knowledge that he could trust the gambler, at least somewhat, was comforting in the heat of battle.

He jumped, landing on the playing card, riding it like a surfboard over air towards the sparking beast. Axel began to panic, as Demyx's timing was a bit off. No more than a second, but still off. That's all it would take for the plan to utterly fail. The tidal wave of water swept in behind him though just as planned, lifting him and his card surfboard up, head level with Cerberus. The beast roared at Axel, sparks flying out of its mouth. Axel launched himself off the card into the monster's mouth and started running. He ran down the creature's throat, hacking away at it with his chakrams. Mechanical parts broke off and cracked, steam and smoke pouring out of them. Axel could hear the crash of water at the tidal wave hit Cerberus, the raging water rushing down its throat to meet him. He picked up the pace, tearing through the beasts insides. Axel made it down into the stomach of the beast and waited. Soon the water came crashing down, filling up the monster. Axel took a deep breath as the water came up over his head. The water filled up all the way to the top of the beast's belly, then Axel thrust a Chakram up, slashing open a hole in its side.

Axel quickly slipped out the whole with a torrent of water. He landed with a hard thunk on his butt. He looked up as the beast staggered back and forth, thunderstorms of sparks spewing out from all over it. Axel's eyes widened with panic as he realized the monster was going to fall on him. He scrambled to his feet, trying to get away when a corridor of darkness opened up beneath Cerberus and it vanished into it, as if it had never been there.

The portal vanished and Axel was left standing there, stupefied.

"Way to go Axel, you did it" Demyx cheered, running over to the pyro.

"Your most idiotic, brainless, foolish, ludicrous, and outright stupid plan actually worked. Congratulations" Luxord said, calmly strolling over, arms crossed.

"Well I'm an outright stupid person so," Axel said sticking his tongue out at him. Luxord sighed and shook his head as Axel and Demyx swapped high fives.

"You're a lot better fighter than you use to be Turk," Vincent said. The nobodies looked over at him as he walked over, a bit soggy but otherwise unharmed.

"You're a lot worse," Axel said in the same tone of voice. Vincent snorted and walked towards him.

"don't be so sure, just cause I got caught off guard. We still have a match to finish" Vincent said, holding up Cerberus, pointing it at Axel.

Axels' jaw dropped. " You've got to be kidding me! I just took down the child of Mecha-Godzilla and the Hound of Hell."

" You have to the count of three" Vincent said, a dark smirk claiming his features. Axel couldn't believe it. He had to be crazy! "One… two… thr-" but before he could finish a corridor of darkness opened up beneath his feet and he disappeared, just as Cerberus had. Axel stared at the place where Vincent had been, once again stupefied. This time though he ran over to the portal and dove in.

"Wait Axel, stop!" the other nobodies called after him, but the corridor shut, leaving them standing their, only able to wonder what had happened to Axel.

XxX

Axel fell out of the portal, quite literally. It had opened up in the ceiling, dumping him out on a cold rock floor. It looked sort of like a cave, but different. He saw little white balls floating around haunting him like souls of the dead. Closer observation revealed they were souls of the dead.

Axel shrieked, backpedaling away from one. "Shut up" Vincent hissed, glaring over at Axel. Axel looked over at the gunslinger, who was looking around nervously. "this place smells like death… be on guard Turk" he muttered.

Axel cast a strange glance over at Vincent and crossed his arms. " Why do you keep calling me Turk?"

"That's what you are, isn't it?"

"No" Axel said distantly. "Never in this lifetime."

Vincent's eyes narrowed, locking onto Axel's and holding him prisoner. " Don't play games with me."

"I'm not. I'm not playing games, and I'm not a Turk. You've go the wrong gu-"

"where did you go" Vincent cut him off. " what happened?"

Axel's eyes narrowed, returning the stiff glare that Vincent gave him. Slowly the corners of his mouth turned up into a sarcastic grin. He began laughing, which infuriated Vincent. " I lost my heart" Axel said, laughing hysterically, clasping a hand over his chest. His laughing abruptly ceased and he looked at Vincent, playful furry shimmering in his eyes. Vincent began to snap a reply when something caught their attention, a shadow fleeing down the side of the cave. Without question Axel dashed after it, Vincent hesitantly following.

He followed the shadow into another area of the cavernous place. It was tall, lanky, with a very familiar black coat on. Axel cocked his head to the side, staring. No, it couldn't be… he was dead…

"Welcome to the underworld Axel" the figure said. Axel's blood ran cold. That voice, no… it couldn't be.

"Ahhh but it can! You see Axel, this is the underworld. It's where dead people go," the figure said, chuckling. " and if I ever want to get out of here I need something from you" he said, looking up. His face was still covered in shadow, but a familiar lock of pink hair fell away from the hood, betraying its owner.

"M-Marluxia…?"

XxX End Chapter VII XxX

Another Chapter satisfyingly complete. Can you say, CLIFFHANGER!?

Well I can, and that's what it is!

I guarantee that NONE of you saw that coming. Not a one.

So what's up with Marluxia then? You'll find out in the next chapter D

Till then, enjoy that image of Axel surfing on a giant playing card, I know I sure did.

-Axel