PrismRain13: So, I know I haven't updated my stories in awhile...
Cloud: but school's a little more important.
PrismRain13: yeah... Senior year, homework, extra stuff and being a Hufflepuff with a mad crush on a Slytherin takes a lot out of you! *crickets chirping* okay, but still guys I promise I'm not abandoning ANY of my stories, I just need time to figure stuff out. So with the way on with the story!
Chapter 34: Of Thieves And L'cie
As soon as the Coliseum was closed, Hercules led the group of world-travelers, Cloud and the rest of the world's natives back to the lobby's lounging area. They were spread out around the couches, bar and a few were sitting on the floor. In a short amount of time everyone was filled in on Maleficent, the heartless and the organization members returning as somebodies. Meg stepped behind the bar, picked up a tray of drinks and passed them around the group and then sat next to Hercules, wrapping her arm lovingly around his shoulders. Pegasus was contently curled up on a giant pillow, munching on a bowlful of birdseed.
"So, we think Hades might have joined forces with Maleficent again." Riku finished explaining. "They were close allies before and he was one of the few she really trusted."
"I could see him going for this again." Hercules said. "Especially if it was a chance to get rid of me. But we haven't had any problems with the guy since we beat him and threw him in the river of death last year."
"Really?" Sora asked. "Nothing?"
"He's been really quiet." Meg spoke up. "He has the power to get out himself, but what I don't get is why he's been waiting this long."
"He might be waiting for an opening." Suggested Mickey. "From what Donald and Goofy told me, Hades has had a ton of failures in his plans to get rid of you. If he's serious this time he'll do everything in his power to make sure nothing goes wrong."
"So what do we do?" Donald asked.
"We're going to have to wait for Hades to make the first move." Cloud spoke up from his position against the wall. "He likes to play with our minds and ramble about his plans. We won't know anything until he shows himself."
At that moment, the lobby shook violently, followed by the sound of a collapsing pillar.
"Sounds like we won't have to wait long." Lea grumbled, chugging the last of his drink and his chackrams appearing in his hands.
"Heartless in the Coliseum; has to be Hades!" Hercules agreed, standing up and pounding his fists together. The rest of the team raised their weapons and followed Hercules and Sora into the Coliseum's arena. Leaving Meg, Phil and Pegasus inside. Sure enough, it was swarming with heartless. The breeds included Soldiers, Air Soldiers, Trick Ghosts, Hook Bats and Rabid Dogs.
Sora drew his keyblade and jumped fearlessly into battle, slicing through the Soldiers and locking into combat with an Air Soldier using as many magic attacks he could against it. Kairi stayed close, following his lead and fired a blast of light at a Rabid dog that was about to take Sora, reducing it to a freed heart. Hercules was effortlessly smashing his way through the army of heartless coming his way, none of them stood a chance. While Cloud pulled out the Buster Sword and sliced through the Soldiers.
Lea and Max soon found themselves standing back-to-back, surrounded by an army of Trick Ghosts. They both nodded to each other and raised their respective weapons as they both jumped on Max's skateboard. He steared the board around the circle, while Lea pulled up his chackrams and released a beam of fire at the Heartless.
Donald was having a hard time fending off a group of Hook Bats with his magic, which was quickly running low. He knew if he didn't refuel soon, he'd be defenseless. When suddenly, Riku and West jumped in and attacked the Hook Bats with their respective attacks until there were none surrounding them anymore. West quickly pulled out an ether and tossed it to Donald, restoring his magic. The three nodded towards each other before running back into battle.
Goofy threw his sheild at a group of Air Soldiers, knocking them backwards and dealing a great deal of damage. The Heartless flew backwards, allowing Mickey to jump up and finish them off with a clean swipe from his keyblade. By that time, the Colliseum had been cleared of all the Heartless, allowing the group to lower their weapons and breath a sigh of relief.
"Well, well, looks like I'm going to have to step up my game." A familiar voice echoed throughout the Coliseum as everyone brought up their guard again. "You just have to give me a hard time, don't ya?"
"Hades! We know it's you! Come out!" Sora called into the space. A split second later, a puff of black smoke appeared right next to him and from the smoke emerged The Lord of the Dead himself.
"Oh, you're good kid." Smirked Hades, then he noticed Riku and West glaring at him with their weapons in their hands. "So, Riku, I see you and freckles are still together. Didn't get bored of her uselessness yet?"
"I'm not useless!" West exclaimed.
"We're just friends!" Exclaimed Riku at the same time.
"Uh-hunh yeah sure. Whatever you say, lovebirds." Hades waved them off then turned back to Sora, Cloud and Hercules. "So, Cloud I see you've joined the heroes."
"Better than working for you." Scoffed the ex-soldier.
"What do you want, Hades?" Kairi demanded.
"World domination, Hercules dead, a date with Maleficent, but for now I'll settle for another Coliseum match."
"... Okay that's disgusting." Riku quivered.
"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you Hades, but there aren't anymore matches today; we're already closed." Hercules said, crossing his arms.
"Oh, I don't know about that, Jerkules." Smirked Hades. "Have you checked the schedule recently?" With a snap of his fingers, a clipboard appeared in a puff of black smoke as Hades waved it in front of Hercules, Cloud and Sora's faces. "Looks like you, the spiky key-brat and the stiff are up against a mysterious challenger."
"A challenger you hired!" Donald accused in anger.
"Details, details. So, you really wanna ditch this match? Who knows what kind of 'accidents' might happen to the audience and your precious Colliseum."
"What audience?" Lea asked with a raised eyebrow. At that moment, Phil came running into the arena in a panic.
"We got a problem! There's a huge mob outside the Colliseum! They keep going on about some new match!" The satyr explained as everyone's eyes turned to Hades, who was whistling innocently.
"What did you do, Hades?!" Hercules demanded.
"Is it a crime to promote an event?" The Lord Of The Dead asked with a smirk. "Well, I'd love to stay and chat but I've really gotta run. Be sure to give the crowd a good show!" Laughing madly, Hades became engulfed by the black puffs of smoke.
"WAIT!" Donald exclaimed, raising his wand. He rushed towards the retreating form of Hades and jumped towards him. Unfortunately, Hades disappeared a second later, causing Donald to land flat on his stomach on the stone ground of the arena. "I hate it when this happens!" The duck grumbled, pushing himself back to his feet.
"Gawrsh, what do you think we should do, Herc?" Goofy asked. Hercules crossed his arms and sighed in defeat.
"It looks like Hades didn't give us much of a choice. The audiences we get are crazy about the games; the last thing we need is a mob on our hands, people get hurt. At least if we fight whoever Hades sent against us we'll be able to keep everyone safe." Hercules grumbled.
"Then, that's what we'll do!" Sora exclaimed. "With the three of us fighting, we'll take care of whoever Hades hired in no time!"
"Still, if Hades is involved, he probably has something else planned." Cloud pointed out.
"He's right, Herc." Phil stated. "This might be something we might want your tell your dad about."
"Yeah." Hercules mumbled in thought. When suddenly, an idea came to him. He put his fingers up to his mouth and whistled, summoning Pegasus. The flying horse flew right into the arena and landed right beside his master. "Pegasus, I need you to take some of Sora's team up to Olympus to see my father. I know mortals aren't supposed to go, but this is one of those times we'll have to make an exception." Pegasus nodded his head and snorted in understanding.
"I'll go with Kairi and Max." Mickey volunteered. "I've met Zeus before; he'll listen to me."
"Okay... so you met Pocahontas's tree grandma and Hercules's god dad. Remind me again how you know these people, your majesty." Max asked.
"Being king, you get around." Mickey replied. Hercules nodded his approval as Mickey and Max climbed on the winged horse. Kairi paused before rushing towards Sora, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.
"Promise me you'll be careful." She whispered, Sora returned the hug.
"Don't worry; I've been through worse. I'll see you soon." He replied. Kairi smiled, nodded and kissed his cheek before climbing on Pegasus behind Max and Mickey and flying off into the sky.
"Great. So what do we do while you're off fighting in the games and they're off lounging on Olympus?" Lea grumbled.
"Me and Goofy fought in the Colliseum before; we can jump in and help if things get out of hand!" Donald suggested, Goofy nodding in agreement.
"Riku, could you, West and Lea investigate the Underworld while we're fighting? See if Hades left any clues of his plan behind." Sora turned to his friend.
"Sounds like a plan to me." Riku said with a determined look in his eyes, Lea pounded his fists together and West slumped in defeat.
"Come on, really? The Underword creeps me out!" The thief grumbled while Lea ruffled her hair.
"Relax, pigtails. You're with us, remember." The former nobody said. West merely huffed, blowing her bangs out of other face. Hercules nodded and pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it to Riku who caught it. In the light, Sora recognized the golden Olympus Stone.
"The Underworld drains hero's strenth, it'll protect you." The hero explained. Riku nodded and expressed his thanks and darted into the underworld followed by Lea and an unhappy West. "Well Phil, looks like we're ready." Hercules announced. "When's the match?"
"In five minutes."
~*KHIII*~
Not long after leaving the Colliseum, Pegasus landed in front of the giant, golden gates of Mount Olympus. Kairi, Mickey and Max all jumped off Hercules's steed and strode towards the gates.
"So, how does this work? Do we knock? Is there a doorbell?" Max asked. When suddenly, there was a loud explosion and the gates exploded open by a thunderbolt being thrown.
"Or we could just walk in." Stated Kairi, she, Mickey and Max running through the gates. What they saw immediately froze them in place; dusk and dancer nobodies smashing into pillars and attacking glowing individuals with different kinds of weapons and magic who Kairi guessed were the gods.
One god in particular caught their attention; He was muscular, with white hair and beard, blue eyes, orange skin and a purple robe with one left strap with a gold medallion on it
"Zeus!" Mickey called rushing to the god's side, followed by Max and Kairi with their weapons raised. Just after Hercules's father slayed a dusk, he looked up and smiled at the sight of the mouse king.
"Mickey old friend! What brings you here?" He laughed just as the group soon became surrounded again by at least two dozen dancer nobodies.
"Can we explain while we fight?!" Kairi asked, jumping into battle. Max followed behind, jumping on his skateboard and running over the dancers.
"We're here because we think Hades might be in league with Maleficent again; he set your son, Sora and their friend Cloud up against some mystery opponent at the Colliseum!" Mickey quickly explained, firing a light spell at two oncoming nobodies and slicing through three more.
"Thought he'd be up to something as soon as these creatures attacked!" Zeus roared angrily, throwing his thunderbolt at a small clump of nobodies. "Our supply of Olympus stones have been stolen too when we found these creatures attacking us!"
"How many of those things do you have?" Max asked, having heard about the Olympus stone from his father. By that time they had defeated all their opponents and were allowed time to rest.
"One for each god who lives here." Zeus explained. "One stone only had enough power to shield one god from threats of darkness or the Underworld, whereas one can shield up to three mortals. That's why I left one with Hercules, considering Hades has had it in for him ever since he was born."
"Heck yeah he does!" A voice spoke from behind them. They all turned around to find Myde leaned up casually against a pillar with a brown bag swung obverse his shoulder and his hand in his pocket.
"You were with the Organization, weren't you?!" Mickey accused, recognizing him from Jiminy's reports.
"Was; now I'm with Hades and Maleficent. Just thought I'd take another shot at stealing the Olympus stone." Myde pulled the bag off his back and held it in the air to make his point. "I'd say I was pretty successful this time around, right?"
"You better give the Olympus stones back or-" Kairi started.
"Or what?" Myde challenged, reaching into the bag and pulling out one stone and holding it above his head.
"Really? You want to fight us?" Max questioned. "I seem to remember my dad and Donald describing you as a wimp who hates fighting!"
"Hey, have you seen Hades when you tell him you don't wanna fight?! It's scary! That dude has some serious anger issues!" The Olympus stone began to glow gold as the light surrounded Myde. Satisfied, he stashed the stone back in his bag and threw it behind him as his sitar appeared in his hands.
"Think you can take care of him?" Zeus asked. "I need to round up the rest of the gods."
"A wimp like him? No problem!" Max exclaimed, pulling out his scateboard as Kairi and Mickey both raised their keyblades. Zeus nodded his approval before rushing off on the other side of the mountain to get the rest of the gods.
"Dance water dance!" Myde exclaimed strumming chords on his sitar as water clones sprung to life around him. Mickey just barely ducked out of the way of an upcoming attack from one of the clones before attacking two more that we're coming up behind Kairi. The princess raised her keyblade and sent blasts of light magic towards the clones, but as they fell more kept coming. Max used his scateboard to slice right through the clones, using the fallen pillars to his advantage.
Kairi and Mickey ignored the clones, seeing that Max hand it covered and headed straight for Myde. The former nobody stopped strumming for a moment to just barely jump out of the way of an attack from both keyblade masters. Once he was out of range, Myde strummed a chord on his sitar, sending a giant wave of water towards the both of them. Mickey quickly jumped in front and cast a reflect spell around him and Kairi, protecting them from impact.
As soon as they were safe, Mickey released the spell, he and Kairi rushed to attack Myde with heavy strikes and fire and thunder magic. They were soon rejoined by Max, who had finished dealing with the clones. The three team members stood together and glared at Myde, who glared back before rushing back into battle.
~*KHIII*~
Meanwhile, back at the Coliseum, Sora Hercules and Cloud were just about ready to start their match, standing off to the entrance of the arena. Donald and Goofy were sitting in the audience with their weapons in case they needed their help.
"Nervous, Sora?" Hercules asked, placing his hand on his shoulder. Sora smiled up at him.
"Really, Herc? After everything I've done you expect me to be nervous about one match?" Sora said cockily.
"Kid's tough, Herc. He knows what he's doing." Cloud stated, just as the sound of Phil's voice filled the arena.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to our REAL final match of the day! On our side; you know him as our greatest hero and the son of Zeus himself; please welcome HerculePhil the crowd erupted into cheers as Hercules strode into the arena, waving to his fans. "And his partners; we all know he's the silent type and a friend to our hero, let's give it up for Cloud Strife!" More cheers were heard and Cloud stepped out beside Hercules. "And last but not least; it's been a year since we've seen this young waupgrade, upgraded to true hero let's give it up for Sora!"
Sora took in a deep breath before walking out into the sunlight arena, facing the roaring crowd. The young man smiled at the sight of Donald and Goofy, who were both standing, cheering madly and held a "Go Sora!" sign in the air.
"And our challenger, sent to us from The Lord of the dead himself." Phil continued, the crowd bursting into boos. "Let's welcome the lovely miss Lightning Farron!"
"WHAT?!" Cloud exclaimed as soon as he heard the name. Just then, their opponent stepped in front of them. She was a tall woman with slightly spiked pink hair draped over one shoulder, a determined look in her blue eyes. Dressed in a white and brown uniform-like attire with a red cape flowing behind her, brown knee-high boots and a holster strapped behind her holding a menacing-looking weapon.
"Cloud? Cloud Strife?" Lightning asked, reaching into her holster and pulling out a sharp, dangerous-looking gunblade. "Been awhile."
"You know her?" Sora asked, Cloud nodded.
"She lived in Radiant Garden before it fell to darkness, and she was in the soldier program with me and Leon." Cloud quickly explained before turning back to his childhood friend.
Hercules stepped forward. "Look, Lightning. I don't know what kind of deal you made with Hades, but trust me, he's-"
"Stay out of it!" Lightning snapped, raising her gunblade and rushing towards the three heroes, swinging her gunblade at them. Sora just summoned his keyblade, blocking Lightning's weapon and pushing against each other. Hercules ran up behind Lightning with his fists raised, but she pulled away from Sora and fired a blast of thunder magic at him.
Cloud drew his buster sword and swiped at Lightning, who blocked his attack easily. Sora fired blizzard magic at her while she was distracted, knocking her backwards and allowing Cloud to get a decent hit in. Hercules rushed to help his friends and attacking Lightning. But, before Hercules could get another hit in, she back flipped out of the way and growled at her opponents.
"Lightning, give it up!" Cloud told her. "It's you against a soldier, a keyblade master and a hero with the strength of a god, you can't win!"
"I like my chances, Cloud; I'm not the same as I used to be!" Lightning retorted as she placed a hand on her heart as it began to glow pink and a pink crystal rose appeared in front of her. "Odin!" She exclaimed, slicing the crystal in half with her gunblade allowing a giant golden armoured figure holding two sharp curved swords to appear behind her. Cloud gasped in shock, the sight of the crystal and the giant meaning more for him.
"Lightning... How? You're a..."
"L'cie? Yeah I know!" Lightning roared, her and Odin ran back towards their opponents. Sora just barely blocking an attack from Lightning while Hercules and Cloud were left to fight Odin.
"Leave Sora alone!" Donald exclaimed from the stands, firing a blast of blizzard magic at her, knocking her back and giving Sora a chance to catch his breath. Donald and Goofy both ran into the arena and stood beside their friend with their weapons raised.
"Thanks guys." Sora said while Donald and Goofy and they all rushed back into battle. Hope the others are having a better time than we are...
PrismRain13: Congrats to everyone who guessed Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII!
Cloud: read and review.
PrismRain13: You couldn't be a little more enthusiastic?! *Cloud remains silent* okay... Thanks for all the support guys! Next chapter we'll learn why Lightning's working for Hades and find out what Riku's team found in the Underworld!