"Awright, now I just need ya to sign yer name here, and here, not to mention you gotta state here if you got some kind of battle cry– you won't believe how many of these shmucks think they're clever with the battle cry…"
Danny hated paperwork. He hated it immensely. Be it homework or anything else with stacks of paper to work with, Danny despised it with every fiber of his teenage being. Once again, why did heroism have to involve paperwork?
"...'Goin' Ghost'?" The satyr commented as he looked at the battle cry Danny put down. "That's actually the best one you came up with?"
"Hey, it works!" Danny defended it.
"Right, sure it does." Phil waved it off. "Anyhow, that about wraps it up for the paperwork. Now, we'll just get you ready for the games and–"
"Wait one minute!"
Phil and Danny turned to see, much to their surprise, Danny's friends coming back in through the door. Most of them were wearing smiles, Sora most especially. Danny smiled, glad to see them back. Phil on the other hand groaned and slid his palm down his face.
"Hey guys, welcome back." Danny greeted the group. "What got you back so soon?"
"Look, I already told you bums." Phil knew he had to be firm with these boys. "You're not gettin' in the games–"
"I think this might say otherwise." Sora then pushed something into Phil's hands, confusing him.
"Eh? 'Olympus Coliseum Entry Pass'-" Phil read the contents out loud before finally asking, "Hey, how'd you get this?"
"Oh, just as we were walking out, some guy with–" Spongebob was about to explain with the truth. However, Timmy cut him off with a creative lie.
"Some guy who's TOTALLY a legit fan of the games saw us over at the trials and decided to give us a pass since he CLEARLY saw us as more than just our flaws. RIGHT, Spongebob?" the average kid no one understood asked him.
"Uhhhh…" Spongebob wasn't sure about lying about it, especially since he saw Jiminy Cricket was shaking his head at Timmy.
"Can we enter the games now?" Sora asked, getting straight to the point.
Phil looked at the pass again, trying to see if there was any sign of forgery. He couldn't see anything off, so it would have to be a legitimate pass. But who would honestly give a pass to this whole bunch of rookies, he wondered. He looked up at the whole group, with Sora having an incredibly eager smile on his face. Most of the others looked hopeful. The buck-toothed boy just looked smug. Phil practically thought of rejecting them just for that last expression as well. But then again, he wasn't a trainer of heroes for nothing. It was his duty to make sure heroes had what it took to earn the title, and if they somehow were able to get in the games…
Philoctetes sighed at last and told them, "Well… I guess so."
At that, the boys practically cheered and gave each other high-fives, Danny joining in on the fun.
"Alright, looks like you're all goin' in together. We start with the preliminaries!" The trainer of heroes told them. "You sure you're all ready for 'em?"
"Yeah, let's go!" Donald actually sounded eager.
"Good." The satyr then put the pass away and began removing the 'closed sign'. "Now, some real weirdos signed up for the games outside of the usual glory-seekin' bunch we got around in Thebes. Better watch yourselves."
"I'm sure we can deal with it!" Sora waved it off. "Watch us fight, and you'll change your tune."
"Not with that attitude you won't." Phil replied. "But feel free to prove me wrong."
"You might want to ease up on the gloating, Sora." Gadget told him as Phil let them inside. "Nobody likes a braggart. Just try and recall Adonis from earlier."
"Don't worry, Gadget." The keybearer told her. "We got this!"
"If you say so…" the mouse whispered, slightly worried.
"Everyone, just be prepared for anything." Jimmy Neutron advised them. "We might not have dealt with Heartless in this world just yet, but that may soon change."
Without further ado, the group found themselves back in the arena, this time with the audience seats full of Thebes citizens eager for a great show of battle. A bright and sunny day out with clouds wistfully passing by, it was definitely a good day for the games. As they waved to the cheering crowds, our heroes noticed Phil standing over near the way they came in to watch. Then, coming in fast from the sky itself, someone new appeared. A man with light blue skin and glowing a blue aura, wearing a gold helm with white wings over dark blue hair, a pair of round-framed purple shades over his eyes, a light blue toga, blue sandals on his feet with a pair of wings on both heels, and he held a gold caduceus in hand as he flew.
"Hey there, folks, how are you all doing? Great day out, isn't it?" The figure announced as he flew around the arena. "You might know me. Name's Hermes, Messenger of the Gods, here as the announcer ready to provide colorful and lively commentary for this lovely event here in Thebes: the battle games! Starting off with the preliminaries to decide who will get to fight in the tournaments proper, we're going to see who has the means to make it to the ranks of 'hero' and look good in front of a crowd."
Flying over towards the boys, Hermes continued, "So for our first match, we'll be introducing our first team: a pretty mismatched bunch who all have their charm and have come from out of town just to get in on the action. Please welcome… er…" Looking sheepish, he looked over to them and asked, "Yeah, sorry, this is a bit nutty, but what's your team name, babe?"
"Team name?" Goofy blinked.
"Team name?" Donald echoed.
"Team name?" Spongebob was shocked they didn't think of one beforehand. "Oh no! Guys, we better think of something good quick!"
"Yeah," the average kid no one understood agreed, "we can't look good without a great team name! We need something to get the cheers of the whole world the moment it's said!"
Spongebob shivered at the description, "Oh, I just got goosebumps at the idea… it sounds awesome!"
"Not to worry, guys. I already got a good idea." Jimmy stood forward with his idea. "The New N-Men should provide a simple but effective-"
"N-Men?" Danny deadpanned as he cut off the boy genius.
"N, for Neutron." The inventor explained with a look of pride on his face. "It only makes sense since I'm the team leader."
"Since when?" The duck glared.
"Yeah, we're NOT going with N-Men." Timmy rejected the name. "We need something better. Like, how about… the Dimmsdale Winners!"
"No offense, sport, but that's more of a sports team name rather than a team of warriors." Wanda told him while she was in her backpack form. "Besides, we're the only ones actually from Dimmsdale. It makes no sense for everyone else."
"Warriors, huh…?" Sora considered her point. Then he slapped his fist into his hand. "I got it! The Warriors of Light!"
"Oooooh, Warriors of Light…" Spongebob liked that idea. "Sounds all mystical! Proper of the kind of knight devoted to serving a goddess of light with a shiny helmet! The romanticism, the epic tales, it all writes itself!"
"I agree it's not that bad a name." Jiminy Cricket also liked it.
"Nice thinking, Sora!" Gadget praised him.
Jimmy, all the while sighed, saying, "Okay, fine, Warriors of Light it is." Though he muttered under his breath, "The New N-Men was still better though…"
"Alright, give it up for the Warriors of Light!" Hermes announced to the crowd, letting them all cheer for the team and lighten Jimmy's mood in the process. "Just gotta say, love the name. Sure Apollo would too if he was here to watch."
The Messenger God fluttered over to the other side of the arena, and announced, "Now, for their first match in the preliminaries, and honestly kind of a weird setup– I mean, these things definitely aren't normal even by our standards, folks. They're dark, creepy, and as welcoming as all of the Underworld, they are… the Shadow Scouts!"
The group of heroes looked to their opponents, and saw a group of four Soldiers, not to mention three of a new brand of Heartless. They looked just like the Red Nocturnes… except their color was blue. Without even waiting for Hermes to start the match, the Heartless already went on the attack! Dealing with the Soldiers was about the same as ever: dodge their kicks and their lunges before going all out on them. However, these new blue Heartless, of which Jimmy decided to dub 'Blue Rhapsody' due to the naming convention already set before with the Red Nocturne, just bounced around to avoid attacks rather than fly out of the way, making them harder to predict. Not helping matters was the fact that they could swing their hats around to cause damage, such as hitting Spongebob a couple times. Even worse, they could fire streams of blizzard magic at them. The good news there was they could only fire in a straight line and the Blue Rhapsodies were predictably weak to fire magic.
As such, the first match went off without a hitch and all the Heartless were destroyed. To the sound of cheers, the boys all made victory poses.
Sora swung his fist in the air, calling out, "Nothing to it!" as he swung his Keyblade and hung it over his shoulder.
Donald danced on his feet before jumping with a spin and landing with two feathered fists up. Goofy simply jumped in the air several times, cheering about how they won. Spongebob jumped in the air kicking his legs up behind him and holding his hands in the air before laughing and giving the peace sign. Danny had his fists glow with ectoplasmic energy before letting out a shout as his eyes also glowed green with ghost energy and the ground below him also glowed green, then he held up a conjured ecto-beam before crushing it in hand as the glow around it dissipated into wisps. Timmy just took his hat off and turned around, holding it behind him. Jimmy posed to his right with the tip of his cowlick dripping in the wind, his right hand in his right pocket while his left hand was dynamically held out forward.
With that out of the way, they met up with Phil, who told them, "You're no heroes yet, but you ain't doin' bad. Lucky you came to me for coachin'."
"You mean just breaking barrels?" Timmy commented with a raised brow.
"With you rookies?" The satyr rose a brow back, "Always gotta start small."
"But this raises so many questions." The fry cook couldn't help but say. "How did Heartless of all things manage to sign up for the games? Do they qualify as heroes…? Have they got the hearts of heroes inside all along?!"
At the panicked exclamation, Donald squawked angrily, "Can you shut up and let us think?!"
"Sorry, but it is worrisome," Spongebob then pondered. "Maybe they wore disguises to sign up."
"It's more than likely they didn't, Spongebob." Jiminy Cricket figured. "If anything, someone else might have sent them in."
"Gee, I wonder who." Timmy asked sarcastically as he turned to Jimmy.
"Don't consider that yet, Timmy." The citizen of Retroville told him. "Right now, we only just started the preliminaries. As far as we know, it's likely only small groups of Heartless made it in as teams. Whoever sent them in had at least some regard for the rules in mind."
"So we just have to keep fighting through the tournament." Amity Park's ghostly superhero could tell the obvious. "That's easy enough. What else could we possibly have to deal with?"
Almost as if on cue, someone came into the arena and walked past them. They could not help but watch this very out of place man just coming by, staring right back at them. A 22-year old man with spiky blonde hair and blue eyes, clad in a uniform. This uniform comprised indigo pants with a sleeveless shirt and a belt. He also wore brown boots, gauntlets with a pauldron over his left shoulder and some kind of band in his right wrist. It appeared customized to exclude a right shoulder pauldron while his left pauldron remained, albeit with protruding screws and bolts perhaps due to makeshift repairs. He also wore a gear-like armlet on his left forearm. However, he also had a flowing red cape and a metal claw on his left hand. The cape seemed to flow behind his back as he walked into the arena, perhaps going to fight next in the preliminaries.
The entire group was silent as they watched him go ahead, while Phil simply crossed his arms.
"Somethin' tells me he'll be a tough one to beat." He told the group. "Who knows, maybe you'll end up facing him."
"...That's definitely going to be hard to deal with." Spongebob gulped with a sweat. He could tell just from the man's appearance alone that he was a seriously strong person.
"Alright babes, we're just about ready to get into round 2, and it looks like we got a more interesting matchup for the ages!" Hermes announced. "Introducing a mysterious stranger with a scarf about as long as the number of fangirls he clearly has in the crowd right now, give it up for Cloud Strife!"
Following that announcement, along with a bunch of girlish cheers, the man, Cloud, took out a large broadsword and held the hilt in both of his hands. From tip to handle, it had to be approximately five to six feet long, with a single-edged large blade approximately one foot wide. The blade was a lighter color on the bladed edge, while the rest of the blade was dark gray, and the handguard appeared to be bolted or riveted into place. There were two holes near the handguard, the handle a reddish knurled material. This design is used in most spin-off appearances. It also appeared to be wrapped in bandages. The boys actually gave impressed whistles at the mere size and scale of it.
"And his opponents in this second match… uh…" Hermes couldn't help but note the Heartless appearing in the arena. Three more Blue Rhapsodies and ten Shadows, two rows of five standing before each other. "Er, not gonna lie, they aren't exactly the most impressive bunch. But they're the Sinisters! So how about we just watch how quickly this goes, huh?"
Oh boy, how quickly it went. Blatantly obvious as it was that the Heartless were all malice and no coherent thought, it should have been obvious even to them that their fight was a lost cause. The man swung his broadsword and easily cut through the Blue Rhapsodies. The Shadows too fell quicker. Their only time to be safe was when they flattened themselves to the floor's surface. But, instinctual creatures that they were, they were prone to rise back up, only to be cut down. In no time at all, those weak Heartless all fell to the swordsman. He simply closed his eyes and tsked. Unsurprisingly, the crowd just ate it up.
"Wow, even quicker than expected, babe!" Hermes flew over towards Cloud. "Seriously, nice work with the sword, man. Have you got anything to say about that?"
Instead of responding, Cloud just moved on ahead, leaving Hermes hanging.
"Huh… well, alright then. Guess he's the strong, silent type." The flying god wasn't bothered by it. "Well, you saw it here, folks! The second match is over and the third round is bound to begin! Now, everybody give a royal welcome to a pretty surprising competitor to the Coliseum! Please welcome, if you feel like it, King Adonis of Thrace!"
Cheers once more filled the air as Adonis, along with his soldiers, entered the arena next. The man of course grinned at the crowd, his teeth glistening in the light, adding to his handsome image. Most of our heroes, watching this, could only roll their eyes since they had seen firsthand what he was really like. And to add to his kingly image, he held a mighty sword of solid gold in hand. Either way, everyone in the audience was deeply fooled.
"And their challengers… hoo boy, talk about another set of disappointing entries." Hermes tsked as yet more Heartless appeared. This time, a row of five Red Nocturnes and a row of five Blue Rhapsodies. "Yeah, this fight is definitely not going to take long. Hope your expectations are lowered, folks. Begin!"
And of course, the match was one short fight. Of course, it was not as quick a battle as Cloud's utter decimation of his opponents, but even so, the soldiers made quick work of their targets with their spears and shields. As for Adonis himself? Shockingly enough, the man could manage to back up his ego as he easily deflected the fireballs sent at him and even took out a few of the Heartless in but one hit!
"You gotta be kidding me!" Timmy couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Even the jerk jock can actually fight Heartless?"
"Well, this IS ancient Greece." Jimmy said. "Even kings had to know some fighting if they were to be considered worthy of respect. And considering how notable Adonis is in the mythology we know… well, most of us, anyhow."
"Hey!"
"Well whattaya know? The school big-talker got better over the years." Phil couldn't help but sound impressed. "Wish he was here to see this."
"Who?" Sora turned to the satyr at that.
"Hercules." He said, getting the entire group's attention at the mention of that name. "He's a hero if ever there was one. Too bad he's off visitin' his father."
"Wait, Hercules?" The halfa asked. "THE Hercules? Son of Zeus, strongest man in all of Greece, THAT Hercules?"
Phil chuckled with pride, seeing that the ghost boy knew who he was talking about.
"Shouldn't be surprised you heard of him." He stroked his goatee. "That's right. Son of the big man on Olympus himself. Turns out somethin' got Herc stuck down here with the rest of us mortals, so he had to become a true hero in order to see them again."
"Incidentally," Jimmy whispered to the group so Phil didn't hear, "not only was Hercules actually his Roman name, but in the original myth, Heracles had to deal with 12 labors in order to join the gods since Hera, Zeus' wife, basically ripped away his right to be king because he wasn't her son and she cursed him to go mad and brutally murder his family."
The whole group stared at Jimmy with wide eyes after that bit of history.
"That is messed up, Jimmy." Sora told him.
The boy genius shrugged, "Greek mythology often is."
"And surprising nobody, Adonis takes the win!"
The group turned back to see the match had ended, with Adonis having slain the last Red Nocturne, already waving to the crowd and flashing them a grin with his glistening teeth. He appeared to notice the group watching and gave them a smug smirk with the crowd too into their own cheering to notice.
It became a charming smile when Hermes flew over to him and said, "Marvelous work on those things, your highness. Very nice work, you and your soldiers."
"Ah, but they were mere child's play." Adonis replied. "Anybody with the right skills can take these things out."
"So far, I think we can all agree on that." Hermes chuckled while Adonis and his men walked off. "Now, onto Match 4, and the Warriors of Light are back in the arena!"
Hearing their team name called, our heroes began heading into the arena, passing by Adonis and his men. However, as they went by, they heard him whisper, "Color me impressed if you even manage to make it to the top of the preliminaries. Of course, that might be too much for you freaks. Make sure to take my advice before you regret it. Better to leave sooner than get humiliated later."
The boys simply frowned at this and did not choose to dignify his taunt with a retort. Once they were in the arena, they found their opponents to be two Shadows, two Soldiers, three Blue Rhapsodies, and Three Red Nocturnes. Once again, more average Heartless. It raised the question of whether or not many human opponents actually decided to compete in the games rather than watch.
"Huh. Really should figure out who's been letting all these guys in here." Hermes muttered, but then cleared his throat and announced, "And for the Warriors of Lights, they're up against the Shadow Platoon! Can they see about beating the record for the fastest dark creature takedown? Let's see!"
And indeed, the fight was just about as easy as their first match. Taking down the Shadows and the Soldiers were easy for the close-ranged fighters, just as firing spells, stars, and wind gusts took down the witch-hat-clad Heartless supporting them. However, just as they were finished taking them down, a row of nine Blue Rhapsodies appeared in the defeated's place!
"Hey, what's all this?" Hermes was surprised to see this. "Looks like these things are deciding to change it up by appearing before the fight's over! Better stay on your toes, Warriors of Light!"
"He doesn't have to tell us twice!" Donald commented, starting to hit them with fire spells.
Of course, they dealt with the Blue Rhapsodies. However, as they were busy dealing with the ice magic and the spinning hats, they were being watched by those who weren't actually part of the crowd. Behind the metal gate, there was Hades, conversing with the mysterious fighter Cloud. The swordsman just leaned against the wall while the Lord of the Dead was busy talking. And talking for the two of them, practically.
"That little punk with the Keyblade is your next opponent, okay?" Hades told him. "Now, don't blow it. Just take him out. Don't expect it to be simple though. Those guys with him? Clearly they got more skills up their sleeves than their looks actually suggest. Like the kid with the cowlick. Clearly the brains of the entire group. Don't let him stick around too long, or he's bound to come up with something over you."
Cloud looked as though he hardly cared and was more interested in his more introspective matters. In fact…
"The great God of the Underworld is afraid of a bunch of kids?" He snarked. "Sorry, but my contract says—"
"I know! You think I don't know? I wrote the contract!" Hades groaned, not amused by Cloud's indifference. "I know it says you're only required to kill Hercules in this tournament. But you gotta fight those kids to get to him. Come on."
Hades pointed over to the arena, where the heroes were fighting another sudden round of Heartless. A Large Body, four Blue Rhapsodies, and four Red Nocturnes. Once more, mostly Heartless they had already dealt with before. Hades and Cloud could even clearly see the smirks on the boys faces as they practically ran circles around the Large Body.
"Hey, it's like that old goat says: Rule 11: It's all just a game, so let loose and have fun with it!" Hades said. "I mean, a casualty or two along the way is no big deal, right? It's not like you don't know your way around death, after all."
Cloud didn't dignify that with an answer. Basically blowing the Lord of the Underworld off, he simply walked away, getting ready for the next match. As he made his way out, Hades just watched the mercenary and mused to himself.
"Geez." Hades muttered. "Stiffer than the stiffs back home."
Then with a sharp-mawed smirk, he mused as something moved and growled in the darkness, biting and gnashing, "Still, suckers like him are hard to come by…"
With our heroes proper, they finally finished with the gauntlet of Heartless as they all posed in victory once more. This time, however, Sora swung his Keyblade before him twice before turning with a step and holding it over his shoulder again. Donald actually swung his hammer, letting the motion spin him around before jumping and landing on his feet, holding it up high. Goofy actually did a little jig before pointing his left pointer finger forward and swiping it across before putting his left hand above his head, shaped like an 'L'. Spongebob miraculously did a few flips in the air before landing on his feet with a 'hi-yah!' and readying his styrofoam gloves to go on the defensive. Danny just smirked as he held his arm out, letting a green ball of spectral energy float around from his palm to the ground and back. Timmy just held his head and began to laugh almost uncontrollably… before starting to cough and patting his chest to alleviate the sore throat he just gave himself. Jimmy simply shrugged both hands upward and shook his head with a smug smile on his face, perhaps having expected this result and wondering why the Heartless even tried.
As the crowd cheered even louder from their seats, Hermes announced, "Talk about going for the long haul, folks! Despite these new guys trying to cause trouble with sudden ambushes, the Warriors of Light stood their ground and stood on top of the entire game! Congrats to the winners of an extended fourth match!"
"Man, winning feels good!" Sora felt so pumped up. "Bring on the next one! We can go all day!"
However, in the midst of their energy, suddenly Spongebob saw something that made him go sober.
"Uh, Sora?" He tried to get his attention.
"Huh? What's up, Spongebob?" The keybearer looked at his friend. "Can't you just hear everybody cheering for us?"
"Well, yeah, but–"
"Oh man, I just bet the next fight is going to be a cinch! Can't wait to see what our next opponent's going to be!" Sora was too busy in his own boyish dreams to register much.
"He's already here."
"Huh?"
With that, Sora and the rest of the group stopped their moment of triumph and saw their opponent coming into the arena… and they all immediately gulped. There was the mysterious Cloud Strife, already holding his broadsword and looking at them with steel in his eyes.
"Looks like with all those creatures out of the picture, Match 5 will be the big event!" Hermes announced. "The Warriors of Light versus the unknown soldier Cloud Strife! Who will take home the gold and get the golden opportunity to participate in the games to come? Better hold onto your seats, babes, because this! Fight! Is! Ooooooon~!"
"...Oh boy." Spongebob began sweating. "This is going to hurt."
"Relax, Spongebob." Timmy assured him. "This guy can't be that hard–"
"Incoming!" Cosmo's voice alerted his godkid.
Hearing it in the nick of time, the group immediately rolled away as Cloud suddenly charged at them with a quick dash and thrust with his sword. However, they could also feel the wind pushing against them from the sheer force that thrust emitted. Were they to get hit by that, they would have gotten really hurt. But Cloud wasn't done yet. He suddenly jumped high into the air, holding the sword above him with the blade pointed downward. Then, somehow managing to control his falling angle, Cloud came down towards Sora, who had to roll out of the way. Thankfully, he not only avoided the blade, but the resulting geyser of purple energy.
"Guys, his attacks are powered by something beyond his own strength!" Jimmy Neutron could already tell. "He's using the darkness!"
"Well, that's just great!" Donald groaned. "How do we deal with this guy?"
"I-I'll figure something out!" The boy genius told them as they were running about, avoiding Cloud's dashes. "We just need to figure out his weakness! Sora, Donald, if you have some elemental attacks to spare, see which one can– yikes!"
In the midst of his strategizing, Jimmy quickly leapt back as Cloud suddenly dropped down in front of him, pulling his sword from the ground before attempting to slash at him! Fortunately an ecto-blast forced Cloud to hold out his blade defensively, giving Jimmy time to get away. However, the warrior's focus kept on the boy with the cowlick even as he was on the receiving end of Danny's attacks.
"So, does it make you feel good beating up on a kid?" Danny taunted with a frown on his face as he kept firing at Cloud, who deflected the shots with his sword.
Cloud clicked his tongue before changing his focus to Danny, starting to charge at him next. However, the ghost boy smirked and went intangible, which led to the adult's attack missing. That gave the halfa a golden opportunity to punch at the mercenary's face a couple of times before pushing him back with a charged ghost ray. But, as a testament to the man's strength, the attack only managed to push him back about a couple feet.
"What's the matter?" The spectral superhero taunted again with crossed arms, still intangible. "You gonna get gloomier than your name suggests?"
"You talk too much." Cloud replied, holding out his clawed hand.
Just then, he cast a fireball in Danny's direction. And surprisingly, catching the boy off guard, it managed to hit him and sent him flying back into one of the arena's pillars! Sliding down to the arena's floor and turning back to being tangible, the halfa just looked shocked by what had just happened. It took a bit of effort for him to stand up, and when he did, he was already short of breath.
"Ugh… Hah… Hah…" Danny breathed. "What… What kind of fire was that…?"
"You're not the first ghost I dealt with." His opponent answered, ready to go for another attack. "You're no less easier."
However, Cloud then blinked when he felt something hit him in the back. He turned, seeing some smoke coming off of his cape, then looked over to see the one responsible. There was Sora, holding the Lady Luck Keyblade and having fired a fireball at him while his back was turned. Sora seemed a little nervous when he found that the attack didn't work as he had hoped.
"Ok…" Sora blinked, nervously chuckling. "Fire didn't work."
"No, you think?" Danny snarked.
Without a word, Cloud turned and began dashing more to overtake his attacker. But Sora was adept at dodge rolling by now, so he managed to quickly evade the mercenary's attack. Cloud had to narrow his eyes. Hades was correct when he said that these kids were tougher than they looked. Then he felt a slight breeze against his face. Cool. There was Donald, having cast an ice spell.
"No, not Blizzard either!" The duck confirmed, but then got knocked back by Cloud's broadsword! "Wak!"
"Donald!" Goofy called out in concern, watching Donald tumble on the floor before losing consciousness. Glaring at his opponent, the captain of the royal knights told him, "Hey, pick on somebody your own size!"
With that, Goofy charged in with his shield, pushing against Cloud's sword with all of his might. Cloud looked to his feet, slightly being pushed backward from the clumsy dog's strength. He silently admitted he was a bit impressed… but that was as far as he was going to compliment the dog. Then he felt someone trying to hit him from behind, making strange sounds. He saw it was none other than Spongebob, busy hitting away at him with karate chops.
"...It just dawned on me that I'm fighting some real weirdos here." The mercenary couldn't help but think with his eyes closed. "I really have to beat these people to get to Hercules?"
He then proceeded to grab the sea sponge by his head, making him struggle in futility, and then threw him at Goofy, knocking them away. Then he looked down and saw his legs being pelted by stars. That actually made him raise a single brow before looking towards Timmy Turner, the one firing the stars.
"...You know, sometime during this adventure," Timmy said to his godparents, "we really need to get more weapons to work with than this."
"Sorry Timmy, but as we are now, this is the best we can come up with." Wanda told him.
"Man, it would be nice if we could find some Wish Stars around to catch like in your games." Cosmo recalled.
"I'd much rather just wish for what I need directly." The average kid did not recall those times with fondness.
But then Timmy noticed a shadow above his head and saw Cloud was coming for him next! With a shout, Timmy quickly ran out of the way to avoid getting run through from the head down. He of course quickly pelted the man with stars while he was pulling the sword out, but that did nothing but just make his brow twitch.
"Sora, we only have one viable option left at this point!" Gadget, who was holding onto Sora's hair for dear life during the battle, told the one with the Keyblade. "You're going to have to use Thunder on him! It's the only thing we haven't struck him with!"
"So basically hit him with a Thunder spell?" The spiky-haired boy asked for confirmation.
"It's still not confirmed that it's magic!" They heard Jimmy call.
Sora and Gadget had to roll their eyes before the Keyblade master dodged Cloud's attack yet again. The mouse in his hair let out a yelp as she nearly fell off, clutching onto his spiky bangs. Managing to get a good distance away, he got right back up and faced Cloud, getting back into stance. Cloud was in his own stance as well, eyes focused on the keybearer before him. The two slowly circled each other, waiting for the other one to make a single move that would decide their confrontation. It was clear that Jimmy and Timmy weren't going to intervene due to Cloud's more-than-obvious ability to resist their attacks. All hinged on this one last ditch effort.
Then Sora unexpectedly charged towards Cloud! The mercenary, seeing this as his win, went to slash at him… but then Sora held his Keyblade up high.
"Thunder!" Sora called out, and a spark emitted from the key's tip.
And then, from the sky itself, a bolt of lightning struck down upon Cloud, making him flinch and even get his guard thrown off, not helped by the fact he felt the lightning course through his sword and deal more damage to his body. It was also at this moment that Danny managed to catch his breath, and Spongebob, Donald, and Goofy got back up. With the mercenary stunned, their chance for victory had come at last!
"Quickly! Pile everything we got on him, now!" Jimmy told all his allies.
And with that, their usual strategy of ganging up on their opponents put Cloud on the defensive, but the effects of the Thunder spell prevented him from doing so with accuracy. Spongebob and Danny hit him with blow after blow while Timmy and Jimmy pelted him with wind and stars. Goofy took the initiative and gave Cloud an uppercut with his shield, opening him up to be hit by another Thunder from Donald, and finally a jumping Sora hitting him with a three-hit combo with the Keyblade! After that, Cloud was sent to the ground, barely able to keep himself up on one knee. The entire crowd was silent at this.
"I… I don't believe it, folks!" Hermes finally announced his surprise. "For a while there, it appeared the Warriors of Light had met their match, but they managed to turn the tables against Cloud Strife and took the win! Talk about the unexpected, babe!"
And indeed, the crowd cheered once more at this grand spectacle. Even Phil got to cheering, actually proud to see all these rookies manage to make it in spite of the odds looking bad for them. However, the boys knew better by now than to act complacent. Sora took a few steps forward, and sure enough, Cloud barely managed to get back up on his feet!
"No… It's not… over yet…" Cloud breathed as he got up. "Not until… I find him…"
But just then, a scream was heard in the arena! Cloud turned, and immediately he found his body practically being crushed beneath something large! The rest of the crowd joined in the screams as panic filled the entire arena. Even Spongebob and Timmy couldn't help but start screaming as they looked at the source of their terror while Sora, Jimmy, and Danny simply gasped. A massive, three-headed hellhound with black fur and short, cropped ears. The heads were identical to each other, each sporting the same enormous mouths, pink tongues, and long, sharp teeth. All three heads also featured glowing fiery red eyes that slant downwards, imposing as a menace. Its legs were rather short, and each ended in a paw with three razor sharp claws. It also had a thin tail and seemed to be quite muscular. The heads each growled as black smoke escaped from their mouths. The audience was already screaming and running out of the coliseum to escape death.
"Oh, right, there was one other rule I forgot:" Hades mused as he turned around to go into the darkness, "Accidents happen."
Cloud had failed him. The God of the Dead wasn't surprised. Not even the so-called 'first-class Soldier' could possibly deal with people as unpredictable as those kids. But at the very least, he had this as a backup plan. No doubt that those twerps couldn't handle something like that.
"W-W-W-W-What is that thing?!" Spongebob stuttered in fear, his legs shaking wildly as he stared up at the large beast.
"T-That's Cerberus, the three-headed hound of Hades!" Jimmy managed to answer despite his own fears.
"Oh, gee, the guard dog of the clearly evil-looking guy we saw earlier who so conveniently gave us a pass to the games just so we could get to this point," Timmy couldn't help but snark in spite of their situation, "who saw THAT coming?!"
"Not the time, Timmy!" The boy genius retorted.
"Here it comes!" The ghost boy warned them.
Indeed, the giant hellhound, Cerberus, reared his three heads back to lunge at the walking-talking slabs of meat ripe for the eating. Everyone braced themselves… but then they saw Cerberus being pushed back at his chest. Holding the hound of Hades at bay was a man! Extremely muscular, with broad shoulders and a comparatively thin waist, the man was wearing orange-brown armor that ended in a sort of metal skirt. His armor did not extend to his arms, nor to most of his legs. He wore a brown belt around his waist with a gold emblem with the symbol of a thunderbolt from a cloud printed on it. His sandals were knee-high and had cross-shaped straps and were brown, as were two wristbands he also wore. He had a reddish-brown headband tied around his forehead, pushing back his rust-colored hair, save for one bang that fell over it. The only aspects of his appearance not colored in earth tones were his sky blue eyes and short, deep blue cape. He grunted as he used his apparently magnificent strength to keep pushing Cerberus back.
"Herc!" Phil called out in recognition, at the very least glad to see him.
"Phil!" 'Herc' replied to the satyr, "get them out of here! I'll keep Cerberus busy!"
"Gotcha!" The trainer of heroes understood and called out to the boys, "C'mon! Back this way!"
Not needing to be told twice, the entire group followed Phil back into the doorway, rushing as fast as they could. Eventually, they found themselves back in the lobby, practically short on breath. They could hear a bunch of panicked voices outside, no doubt the audience who were more than worried about what was going on. It took them a while to get back their stamina, but the boys managed to stand themselves back up and look back at the entryway to the coliseum.
"Whew, that was close!" Phil was glad they made it, but all the same… "Herc should be able to handle Hades' pet. But then again, maybe not… This doesn't look good."
"So that was Hercules?" Spongebob asked. "The greatest hero around here? By the look of things, he had an easy time keeping that monster off of us. Maybe he's got this?"
"So, who was it that said we should give that Hades guy the benefit of the doubt?" Donald looked towards Jimmy with crossed arms.
"I also said that we just had to listen and hear what he had to say." The boy genius replied to the mallard. "And he wasn't lying when he said deals always had a catch. To be honest, this wasn't unexpected. Surprising, but not unexpected."
"Not unexpected?!" Hearing that only made the court wizard start turning red. "Listen here, you–!"
"I hope Herc's okay…" They heard Phil mutter to himself, basically fretting. "Wish I could go in!"
Danny was silent, looking from the satyr towards the entryway, barely hearing the sound of monstrous growling and gnashing teeth. He noticed Sora looking in that direction as well. The pair looked at each other with determination in their eyes and nodded. They knew full well just what they had to do. Gadget, poking out of Sora's hair, was glad to see the boy wasn't planning on backing down from this. With that, the two looked back towards their friends and cleared their throats, getting their attention.
"Guys," Danny started them off, "we have to get back in there."
"What are you, nuts?!" Donald momentarily forgot his anger towards Jimmy at the ghost boy's words. "Have you seen that thing out there? There's no way we can topple it as we are now."
"You guys remember we fought that Trickmaster before, right? How it powered up?" Sora reminded him. "And remember how we beat the Guard Armor when we first met? We toppled giants before. What's a three-headed dog going to change?"
"He's got a point." Wanda conceded.
"Yeah, we all toppled giants at some point, right?" Cosmo asked.
"Well, I DID deal with giant robots in my experience…" The fry cook conceded.
"For me it was either aliens, robots, dinosaurs, dragons, my evil babysitter, wishes gone wrong…" The buck-toothed boy recalled.
"So what's stopping us right now?" Danny asked. "Right now, as much as Hercules is built up around here, he needs help more than anything else. We gotta get back in there and help him and Cloud."
"That's right!" Jiminy couldn't believe he forgot. "Cloud is still back in there!"
"Hercules probably can't fight Cerberus AND protect Cloud at the same time!" Goofy also realized.
"So what are we waiting for?" Sora about-faced towards the entry and began walking towards it. "Let's go!"
"Kid, you're not entering the arena, are ya?" Phil finally noticed them moving and called over to them. "This ain't just some match. This is for real!"
"I'm not afraid." Sora replied, looking at the trainer of heroes without any fear. "You can decide if we're hero material or not."
Phil looked at Sora, studying his face. Earlier, Phil could tell he thought a lot about himself just because he could swing a weapon around. But now that things got serious, the boy looked like he was actually capable of following up on his words. Looking at his friends, Phil noticed they were the same. Odd as they were, there was no denying that they had courage in spades.
Philoctetes then sighed and decided to put his cards on the table, telling them, "Careful, kids!"
All the while, back in the arena, the seats devoid of people, Hercules had his back against the wall. He held the unconscious Cloud over his shoulder as he had one arm ready to hold the approaching beast off. Maws still emitting black smoke, Cerberus stepped forward, ready to take the Olympian hero down to his domain… but then, their ears all twitched, and Cerberus turned around to see his missed meals from before come running back! The boys readied their weapons as they looked up towards the dog's menacing visage, the hellhound growling back.
"Alright, head on attacks are going to be suicide." Jimmy was already there with a strategy. "If we're to attack its heads, then we need to do it from a distance with ranged fire, from the side, or manage to get up on its back and hit it from behind. Whatever you do, brace yourself. This is FAR from any ordinary hound."
"Uh, duh. It's Cerberus." Danny snarked. "This overgrown pooch keeps watch over THE Underworld? Being ordinary is not his thing."
Hercules took the opportunity to run around them with Cloud and head over to safety through the entryway. Along the way, he passed by Phil, who came out to watch the boys fight.
"Kids, I got two words of advice for you:" Phil called over to them, "Attack!"
"Actually, that's just one word." Cosmo noted.
But either way, Cerberus began stomping towards them and the battle began! The group all scattered to avoid the paws, and then ran around faster when the three-headed hellhound began firing large fireballs at them. The fireballs burst upon impact on the ground, like miniature explosions that sent some of them on their backs if they couldn't avoid them fast enough. Spongebob saw Cerberus' tail and ran towards it, trying to jump and grab it whenever the tail was at a low enough angle. When he managed to grab it, he clung onto it for dear life as it practically was moving hard, nearly flinging him off.
Danny of course flew around, avoiding more fireballs while firing Ghost Rays and Ecto Blasts into Cerberus' three faces. He also figured he'd try intangibility again to maneuver around them better, but just as he was taken by surprise by Cloud's fire, he found his intangible form actually got nicked by one of Cerberus' fangs! He tsked at this before going back to being tangible and just kicking one of the hellhound's chins for good measure. That and it felt rather satisfying.
Cerberus, however, didn't agree. He soon stopped in place before making another roar and started lunging forward with his three necks to bite at his prospective food. Never let it be said that Cerberus was a smart dog, however. This managed to leave himself open to being pelted with stars and wind blasts. Donald fired a Blizzard spell at it since he theorized that Cerberus, being a hellhound, would be weak to ice. However, it seemed to barely do much damage. Then he cast a fire spell, and yet that seemed to knock one of the heads back in pain.
"Wak? Fire gets it? But how does that work? It breathes fire!" Donald didn't get it.
"It's fire." Timmy deadpanned. "It gets everything."
But of course, Cerberus eventually stopped trying to bite and instead just brought his upper body up, practically standing on his hind legs. Spongebob, still clinging to the tail, tried climbing up higher to reach the dog's hindquarters. Cerberus then brought his body back down with a slam, shaking the arena and sending the ground-bound heroes back. At the same time, his tail flung upward, finally sending Spongebob up into the air, screaming. He continued screaming as he fell back down. But fortunately for the yellow sea sponge, he actually managed to land on the beast's back!
"Wow. That was close!" Spongebob said as he got up before nearly losing his balance. Seeing the devil dog was moving, he carefully adjusted himself so he didn't fall off and looked towards the three heads that were again belting out fireballs. "Okay Spongebob, just gotta focus…"
Carefully, Spongebob stepped along towards the hellhound's three necks. At the same time, he found himself wobbling as those heads started rearing back and their maws began emitting black smoke. Black smoke that they then breathed out into the ground! Just then, dark pools formed in the ground before dark shots fired from them, forcing the heroes on the ground to both evade the pools AND the incoming fireballs! Spongebob, seeing this, tried hurrying towards the middle head, climbing up its neck and then making it to the top of its head. And just when Cerberus felt something odd on one of his heads, Spongebob reached both his arms out and grabbed the dog's ears!
"Alright! Gotcha now, you rascal!" Spongebob told the hound. "Bad Cerberus! You sit down right now and– oh woahwoahwoahwoahwoahwoah!"
But the fry cook's attempt to chastise the guardian of the Underworld like a bad pet fell on deaf ears as Cerberus tried shaking Spongebob off of his middle head. It even resorted to running around the arena with the other heads trying to help their middle brother out. With the hellhound distracted, Donald, Danny, Timmy, and Jimmy had an easier time firing at the heads, carefully damaging him. However, even that was clearly not enough to bring down the beast.
"Fellas, I think we're startin' to run out of options here!" Goofy said as he held his shield up, bracing himself against the impact of Cerberus' paws. "Not a lot of what we're doin' looks like it's doin' any good!"
"Considering his job is to keep people from leaving or entering the Underworld in this world, I think you shouldn't be surprised." Jimmy replied. "For this, we'll need to land a bigger blow to him than pelting him at long-range!"
"Way ahead of you!" Danny already had an idea and flew towards Sora. "Hey Sora, hang on!"
"Okay!" Sora heard Danny loud and clear and began running under the ghost boy's flight path.
The halfa grabbed the keybearer by the arms and flew higher with the spiky-haired boy hanging on. They flew over towards the three-headed devil dog, watching as Spongebob was still flailing about while holding onto the middle head's ears. But then the middle head finally just flung Spongebob back into the air, screeching to a halt as he looked upward towards the sea sponge. The fry cook screamed as he saw the middle head open its mouth to swallow him whole as he fell back down… But then, Danny began spinning around fast, building up speed and momentum before throwing Sora towards Cerberus! Once he did that, he flew towards Spongebob and caught him.
"Thanks, Danny!" Spongebob told him with gratitude. "But what about Sora? What's he going to do?"
"So far, what he's best at." Danny replied. "Improv!"
Indeed, Sora, as he was shooting towards Cerberus, flipped himself over and summoned his Lady Luck Keyblade, pointing it towards the hellhound's middle head. The dog, wondering just why his meal wasn't coming down, looked momentarily confused before noticing Sora come towards him! But it was too late for the hellhound to do anything of worth, and the middle head got struck with a vicious blow to the face! This was then followed by the left head getting uppercut by Goofy's Rocket move, and the right head getting struck by Thunder from Donald's staff. With this three-pronged blow, Cerberus couldn't keep himself focused and became disoriented.
Cerberus fell to the ground and tried to keep himself up, but it was all too much. So, the heads too fell to the ground as well. Cerberus was practically out like a light. However, from out of one of his mouths, a band colored red like fire, dropped onto the ground. Spongebob, after being carefully set on the ground, noticed it and picked it up before putting it in his pocket. With that, the battle was officially over. All the boys gave each other congratulatory looks and thumbs up of approval.
"Got any lines besides the obvious play dead joke?" Timmy asked the halfa, who gave a shrug.
"Let's just be glad we didn't become his chew toys," the ghost hero replied.
"Ya know, it's almost kind of cute now that it's sleeping like that…" Spongebob said, petting the hound… and backing up when it twitched. "Agh, then again, I am a snail sponge!"
A few moments later, the entire gang was back in the lobby, standing before Phil and Hercules. Phil stood on the same ionic column from earlier, directly across from that immovable stone block, reading from an official parchment. Indeed, this was an inspirational moment.
"In recognition and respect for thy heroic feats this day, you all have officially graduated from the ranks of heroes-in-training. Thus, I do hereby dub thee junior heroes," Phil read, "and confer upon thee full rights and privileges to participate in the games, alongside granting thee official hero licenses. Further–"
Sadly, two people weren't exactly satisfied just yet.
"Hey! What do you mean "junior heroes"?" Donald asked.
"Yeah, we literally just beat down Cerberus!" Timmy agreed. "That's gotta make us heroes to some people!"
"Fellas, it's rude to interrupt a speech!" Jiminy whispered to them.
Putting the parchment away, Phil answered the pair, "You rookies still don't understand what it takes to be a true hero. Until you learn that, junior heroes is what you're gettin' to be."
"So, what does it take?" Goofy asked, curious to know.
With that, everyone looked towards Hercules, the hero himself. Indeed, with everything all settled, he did give off a truly heroic image. Strong, charming, and no doubt dependable to anyone in need of a savior. No doubt someone like him would have a good answer.
"Well, that's just something you'll have to find out for yourselves." Hercules answered. "Just the way that I did."
"...Okay, that's fair enough." Danny shrugged. Made sense in a way.
"And no problem." Sora felt confident that they would make it. "We'll start by proving ourselves in the games."
"While that sounds like a good idea, Sora, I'm afraid we might not be seeing the games right now." Gadget hated to put a damper on Sora's confidence, but the news had to be said. "Considering that ordeal with Cerberus, the arena will have to be fixed up before then."
"She's right." Philoctetes nodded. "There ain't gonna be any games for a while until then. Not to mention we gotta register competitors all over again. You needn't worry about yourselves, though. After all you did today, the Warriors of Light are expected to partake. So when a tournament pops up, you better make sure you're here. Got it?"
"Crystal clear, sir!" Spongebob nodded. "We'll be back!"
And with that, the group bid their farewells and began heading out of the lobby. Hercules waved them off as well as Phil stroked his goatee. He just watched the group with fascination.
"I still can't believe those squirts actually beat Cerberus." Phil mused.
At that moment, Hercules leaned towards his trainer and whispered, "Just between us, I'd already worn Cerberus down by the time the little guys jumped in."
And just like that, Philoctetes had a knowing smirk on his face, sharing it with Hercules as the group fully left the room.
"My lips are sealed." He chuckled. "By the way, you mind movin' that pedestal over there? I've been meanin' to have that done all day."
Hercules looked towards the stone in question. Putting a hand to his chin, he replied, "Actually, why don't we see if those guys can manage it?"
"Really? Why's that?" The satyr was curious to know.
"I'd like to see if they can figure out what it really takes to move it for themselves." The son of Zeus confirmed with a smile. "Honestly, I have faith that they can do it."
"If you say so, kid. If you say so."
As for our heroes, once they went outside, they were greeted by a large crowd of cheering citizens. They could hear them chanting 'Warriors of Light' as they passed by, and of course they began waving back at them. Although not all of them were really cheering. Far back in the crowd, they could see a frowning Adonis, simply narrowing his eyes at them without saying a single word. They would no doubt face him later in the games, but now was not that time.
As they made their way half through the courtyard, they saw Icarus coming up towards them with a repaired cart and a new stock of wax wings, "Ha ha! I knew you guys could pull off something amazing!" The merchant said as he zipped over and gave them all high-fives. "Look at all of ya, getting into the games on your first day here! And taking down Cerberus! Keep this up, and you're bound to be recognized by the Gods!"
"Hey, thanks Icarus." Sora was glad to hear such praise. "I take it you saw the preliminaries?"
"Did I ever!" The man who flew too close to the sun replied. "I mean, there were you guys going all 'wham! Bam! Smack! Pow!' on those weird monsters, then you guys actually manage to fight back that pretty boy with the overcompensating sword! Everybody loved it! Man, the next tournament is going to be fantastic with you guys there! Rest assured, for Icarus, the Wax-Wing King, is rootin' for ya!" With that, Icarus got back to his cart, saying, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go pay Herc a visit. Haven't gotten the opportunity ever since that whole thing with the big pooch."
"Wait, so Hercules was the guy you were planning to visit?" Spongebob asked.
"That's right! Classmates and buddies since our Prometheus Academy days." The man replied. "Would be nice if my lovely fortune-teller was around too, but one thing at a time, I guess. See you guys in the next tourney!"
With that, Icarus began moving towards the coliseum, letting the group go on their way towards the entrance. Though they didn't find anything that got Sora's Keyblade to react like in Wonderland, at the very least they could say they accomplished something grand. Most of them, anyhow. Donald, basically after going through the adrenaline of everything here, ended up finding this to be a colossal waste of time, which made him grumble as he looked towards the quartet of heroes with them. At this rate, they were bound to throw their mission more off track than it already was.
However, they all came to a stop near the steps towards the coliseum's entrance. There was Cloud, sitting there with his eyes to the ground and his hands on his knees. Honestly, it almost looked like the man was moping. Understandable, seeing as the guy was practically flattened under Cerberus' paw earlier. But even so, he didn't seem to register the group being near him.
"Hey, are you all right?" Sora asked the man.
Looking up, Cloud could only answer simply, "Yeah."
"Back with that fight, you were working for Hades, weren't you?" Danny asked. "Why did you go along with him, anyway?"
Cloud put one hand over the other as he leaned his fast against them, eyes closed.
"I'm looking for someone. Someone… I need to find." He explained. "In my search, I came to this world, and met the God of the Underworld. Hades promised to help if I could defeat Hercules." He then got up, continuing as he looked towards the sky, "I tried to exploit the power of darkness, but it backfired. I fell into darkness, and I couldn't find the light. And at this point… I'm not sure I even can."
"Hey, you'll definitely find it." Timmy told him. "Nothing's gained by just giving up now when you got this far."
"He's right." The keybearer agreed. "And I'm searching, too."
"For your light?" The mercenary asked the boy. Getting a nod from him in turn, Cloud walked up towards Sora and handed him something, telling him, "Don't lose sight of it."
Sora could feel a new power filling his being. Some strong skill that he somehow knew instinctively how to use. He watched as Cloud passed him, walking on towards the coliseum with his cape flowing behind him. So, it turned out that in spite of them having a serious fight before, Cloud Strife was a decent man. A guy the boy could respect.
"How about a rematch sometime?" Sora turned and called after him. "Fair and square, no dark powers involved."
Cloud momentarily paused, considering the idea in his head.
Turning his head and brushing a bang of his hair from his eyes, Cloud replied with a smile, "I think I'll pass."
The Keyblade master smiled as Cloud continued walking along before entering the coliseum proper.
"...So is he passing on the rematch or passing on not using dark powers?" Cosmo asked. "I don't get it."
"Hey guys," Gadget got their attention, "it looks like Cloud left something here."
They looked back to the steps, and there were two chests where Cloud once sat. Both were green with golden embroidery similar to the world around them. Sora, knowing what to do here, opened one of them. A mythril shard to be saved for later. Then he opened the other chest… and was once again pounced upon by three furry little spotted pups.
"Oh hey! That just makes 84 puppies left to go!" Spongebob smiled as he watched Sora laugh as the puppies licked him. "We're making good progress."
"Are we?" Donald rolled his eyes. "I haven't noticed."
Afterward, Jimmy sent the puppies back home with the Spotted Deck, and the group of heroes went through the gates to head on back to the gummi ship, with adventures still yet to come.
Of course, none of them would know of what was transpiring just outside the coliseum late at night.
"He's strong, he's kind. He's always there for you, and he's handsome to boot. He's perfect. Perfect." Hades, watching a lifelike model of Hercules move in the palm of his hand, mused. However, the more he said that, the more his skin began to turn red and his fiery hair burned even brighter and the model turned to blue fire and vanished. "Perfectly infuriating! Honestly, that sunspot drives so crazy I could just EXPLODE!"
And as a matter of fact, his temper flared so much that his shout let out a pillar of fire that reached as high as the starry sky. But just as it happened, Hades was back to being blue and trying to calm himself down.
"Wait a minute. What are you worried about?" He asked himself. "All the pieces are in place. Relax. Here's what you do. Let Hercules train the kids. In the next games, I'll take care of them all. Maybe even try for stronger Heartless. Gotta admit, using small fry for the preliminaries wasn't the best option, but hey, too much darkness means nothing good, so what can you do?"
After that, clutching his fist to emphasize his swearing to take care of his issue, the Lord of the Dead sensed a familiar presence not far behind him. Not one, but two. He didn't need to turn around to know it was the so-called Mistress of All Evil, alongside Professor Calamitous.
"Who invited you to the party?" Hades dismissed them. "Stay out of this. This is my show."
Maleficent didn't have much to say in response. That said, she knew just what to say.
"As you wish." She replied. "Fight to your heart's content."
And with that, she turned about and left, uncaring that Hades actually glared back at her for that remark. That said, Calamitous stuck around, with his own piece to say.
"Hades," he said, "do remember that while your alliance with Maleficent allows you to use the Heartless as you see fit, the alliance with the Syndicate requires that all of us, er, ah… cooperate in order to get anything done and keep our iron fists on our worlds. So please, keep that in mind."
After speaking his piece, Calamitous left as well, disappearing into a green portal. As it vanished, the Lord of the Dead just crossed his arms and groaned. Dealing with other villains could be so tiring, but at the same time the scientist was right. They all benefit from each other, but unlike the Syndicate, the original alliance with Maleficent hasn't gotten them farther into their plots for conquest. Sure, the smarmy vizier deposed his sultan, but the other guys? Not even attempted to take over or anything yet. The Syndicate though? Surprisingly large and got droves of people working under them that fought their enemies before.
And that was when it hit him.
"Hm… maybe the Heartless aren't the angle I should go for in this case…" Hades mused. "Now that I recall, Jerkules did have quite a few enemies back in his school days. Maybe…"
Starting to chuckle, Hades indeed realized that there were other ways, other people who could deal with those boys much more easily…
—-
Riku was finding himself having a very interesting time lately. Ever since meeting that Vlad Masters guy, he got to see yet another new world. Not just any new world, but one beyond even his own universe. Now, here he was, in some advanced facility resembling a shooting range, holding some very high-tech gun, and using it to blast at targets shaped like ghosts. All in all, he was actually enjoying himself a bit.
"Wow, these ecto-guns are actually pretty cool." Riku looked at the gun in his hand. "So much power in such a small weapon… Vlad Masters wasn't kidding he said I had more to learn."
"You do realize that's practically the prototype, right?"
He looked back to the other occupant in the room. Clearly a female figure, but clad in a red skin tight battle suit with black gloves, a black visor, black gloves, boots, and a collar. On her back was a high-tech backpack. She walked over to the stand next to him and held one arm out. From her suit's wrist, a small cannon laser popped out and fired at the targets, obliterating them all in one shot each. Riku couldn't help but stare at this in shock and awe as the girl got the cannon laser to retract back into the suit.
"This is where the real good stuff is at." She said, facing him with her visor. "Don't think I've seen you around here before. Are you one of Vlad's new recruits for hunting ghosts?"
Riku let those words run through his ears. Hunting ghosts? But wasn't Vlad…? He mentally closed off that line of thinking. That wasn't his business to get into.
"Yeah, pretty recently." Riku answered. "Name's Riku. Who are you?"
The girl took off her helmet and then shook her head, letting her hair flow free. Riku was a little surprised to find she at least looked only a year younger than himself. An African-American girl, with long, curly hair and hunter green eyes. She wore an orange headband and golden earrings. Somewhere in the islander's head, a stray thought had remarked that this girl was actually… very pretty.
"Valerie Gray." She introduced herself. "And you don't have a last name?"
"Do I really need one in this case?" He asked back.
"Mm. Fair enough." She shrugged. "Anyway, your stance is off."
"Huh?"
She stepped up to Riku and began adjusting his body, confusing him. He was back to facing the range, holding the ecto-gun in both hands straight in front of himself, with one leg standing before the other.
"If you're going to actually get a good shot without hurting yourself, you gotta have the right stance." She lectured. "It's like holding an actual gun. It works the same way, so you have to hold it the same way."
"Um, thanks, I think?" Riku blinked as she kept him facing the targets.
"Alright, now just keep in this stance." Valerie instructed. "See how you get the targets now."
Riku was not sure where Valerie was going with this, but it was better than arguing about it, he supposed. So, he kept his gaze on the targets, aimed the ecto-gun as best he could and… he began firing shots. One by one, his shots actually managed to hit the target zones. Not quite bullseyes, but definitely an improvement from just random shots at the targets before. Even the girl in the suit whistled, impressed.
"Nice work, kid." She said, "Looks like you have potential as a ghost hunter."
"'Kid'?" Riku echoed. "I'm 15."
"Wait, really? With that boyish face?" She was surprised to hear that.
"My face is boyish?" He was surprised to hear that. "Gee, do me a favor and don't tell that to my friend Sora… I would never hear the last of it."
The two stared at each other in silence. After a second or two, the pair just started chuckling before laughing outright. Even they had to admit, it was actually pretty funny. Their amusement eventually died down and the pair just caught their breath. This was a nice moment.
"Anyway, if you're here to learn the ropes about ghost hunting," Valerie told Riku, "then I get the feeling Mr. Masters wouldn't mind me basically training you in what I know. Just a fair warning in advance, it involves a lot more than the fancy gadgets."
"I think training in general comes with a lot more than just the gadgets." Riku took another look at Valerie's suit. "And you got a lot, I bet."
"Ahem. Eyes up here."
"Huh?" He blinked, confused by that.
"Never mind." Seemed he was a bit innocent there. "Just follow me over to the gym and we can basically get you started properly."
Valerie Gray put her helmet back on and went ahead, Riku following behind her. The silver-haired boy couldn't help but watch this girl. Something about her just caught his eye. Perhaps it was the way she talked to him? The way she knew how to shoot an ecto-gun?
One thing for sure was clear. Riku wouldn't mind knowing more about Valerie Gray.
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Little note. If you guys can catch the references with the victory poses, you guys are definitely awesome.
See you next chapter!