Disclaimer: I really own nothing. What? I'm not lying! WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE? Seriously though, these characters are owned in no way by me. They are property of Teletoon, Disney, Cartoon Network, Square Enix, and the creators of TDI, KH, and FF.

Tyranno's Notes: I would like to thank all of those who read and reviewed my latest chapter. I've been busy with college life so its the biggest contributor to the lack of updates. Don't fret! I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.

This chapter isn't anything special, but it contributes what it can to the story which is what makes it important. I really hope none expects great things from this story because, well, you'll just see what I mean. It's probably the longest chapter so far but not by much.

I would like to apologize for any grammar/spelling mistakes in this chapter. It was a hassle writing it it.

Chapter 7 - The Games

Olympus Coliseum - Lobby

"What?" A shocked Philoctetes exclaimed, "How in Dionysus did you squirts get a hold of one of these?"

"Will you let us in the games now?" Cody begged.

"I guess I have to," the goat replied. "Sheesh, I'm going to look like a fool letting these runts into the games..."

"What was that?" Bridgette glared with her hands on her hips.

"Nothing, now we start with the preliminaries. Think you're up for it?"

"You betcha!"

"Piece of cake!"

"Can I apply my lip gloss first?"

"Because everyone knows that a Hero is nothing without his peach-mango lip gloss," Noah rolled his eyes.

"There will be no time doll face, we gotta get these preliminaries started asap," the old goat replied. "Follow me to the arena so we can get started."

Bridgette and Cody followed behind the satyr, leaving Noah in the lobby with Lindsay.

"Lindsay, hurry up!" Noah grumbled.

The girl was carefully applying the make-up to her lips, "It's not polite to rush a girl while she's applying her make-up, Nathan" the blond scolded, "I have to make sure I look good for the crowd."

"We're going to be late!"

"I'm almost done, I just have to apply a little blush,"

Noah sighed, walked behind Lindsay, and pushed the blonde down the hallway as she applied blush on her face.

Olympus Coliseum - Arena

The stone stands were filled will hundreds of screaming fans, all awaiting to see heroic clashes in the games.

The four heroes stood in the center of the arena. Cody was pumped and anxious to get the games underway, Bridgette was taking deep breaths to calm herself down, Noah simply studied over his spells, while Lindsay blew kisses to the audience.

"This is so exciting," Lindsay exclaimed, hugging her Bo staff.

"Once we get into the finals we'll show that hairy goat we're true heroes!" the keyblade wielder cheered.

"Don't get so cocky, Cody," Bridgette playfully rolled her eyes, "we still have to make it past the preliminaries."

"Judging by the roster, we've got to go through nine rounds of preliminaries to enter the finals," Noah pointed out.

"Nine rounds... that shouldn't be too hard," stated the surfer girl.

"When we win, do you think we'll get trophies, or our pictures taken and posted around the city, or even become celebrities?" Lindsay asked.

Noah rolled his eyes, "Oh, the joys of competing in ancient Greek games, eee!"

"I know right?"

A loud bell was rung, signaling the Games were beginning. Cody, Bridgette, and Noah took their battle stances, while Lindsay flirted with a Greek boy in the audience.

Several Heartless appeared in the middle of the arena. Each one had victory in their eyes, well what looked like eyes.

Cody and Bridgette ran into the group of Red Nocturnes. Cody swung his keyblade, eliminating two of the Heartless. Bridgette jumped into the air, bringing her trident down onto a small group, dispersing them.

A woman in the audience screamed out to the teens, "Give 'em the chair!"

Cody looked around confused, "What chair?"

Noah unleashed a blizzard-spell dispatching two Heartless, when he noticed Lindsay was still waving to the boys in the audience.

"Lindsay, you need to stop flirting and start paying attention," Noah said, using a Thunder-spell. The blonde ignored him, blowing a kiss into the crowd. A boy in the front row caught the kiss and blew one back to her.

Noah rolled his eyes, only to see a fire ball heading toward him. The bookworm ducked just in time, but the attack was now heading for the blonde. "Lindsay! Look out."

Lindsay turned around in time to have the blast of fire hit her in the face. The crowd winced.

Cody ran over to the scorched blonde, "Lindsay, are you alright?"

She was lying on the ground, face and hair covered in soot. "My hair? My hair!" her singed hair fell over her face. "OH MY GOD!" She cried, holding her burned locks.

Lindsay stood to her feet; chest heaving, face snarled holding her staff, "No one, and I mean no one, ruins my hair!"

She went screaming into the swarming group of Heartless, swinging her staff around. One by one, she began to wipe the Heartless out.

Cody, Bridgette, and Noah stood watching, their mouths down to the ground.

"R-remind me n-never to touch her hair," Noah stuttered.

The remaining Nocturnes each launched a fire attack at the blond. With a tight grip on her staff, she held it in front of her. The shield appeared around her, sending the fire balls back at the Heartless, ending the match.

Lindsay was growling as Bridgette, Cody, and Noah came over to her.

"Wow, Lindsay, you were so...savage out there," Cody stated, "what got into you?"

"It's like the 14th rule in the Girls List of Important Rules," she replied, "Never mess with a girl's hair."

"Deeply noted," Cody chuckled.

The crowd was cheering loudly over the victory the four teens had, thanks to Lindsay. The boy in the crowd was holding up a stone tablet that had "I heart Lindsay" engraved on it.

She giggled and blew another kiss to him. Just as he caught it, he lost his balance and fell over.

"Well, I gotta admit it," Phil said as the teens took a small break, "you four runts aren't half bad at this."

"I knew we'd change your mind," Cody stated.

"You've still got a ways journey to go before I change my mind, but I do wish He was here."

"Who's 'he'?" Bridgette queried.

"The one and only, Hercules of course. He's a real hero if ever there was one."

"Hercules? You're joking right?"

"Nope, rectangle-head, he's the greatest hero ever."

"Where is Heracles?" Lindsay asked.

"He's over at Mt. Olympus visiting with his father."

"Wow, this Hercules sounds like some hero," Bridgette replied.

"He is, and don't none of you forget it! Now, it's time for your next match, so be ready."

Just then, a boy came walking by. He had spiky blonde hair and wore a blue sleeveless shirt and blue pants. He had a flowing and tattered red cape and a metal claw on his left hand.

Lindsay was swooning behind Noah while the know-it-all groaned. The boy's piercing blue eyes met Cody's as he walked past the quartet. Cody could feel an immense power coming from him and knew that they would be clashing in the tournament.

The four teens watched the mysterious boy walk off past the arena. Phil had a smirk on his face.

"Something tells me you runts will be up against him in the finals."

The blonde boy was leaned up against a wall, looking out at Cody and his friends. Standing next to him, as none other than, Hades.

"Those scrawny punks are your next opponents, got it?" The god stated. "Just don't blow it and take him out."

"The great god of the Underworld is afraid of some kids? Afraid I can't help you, my contract says -"

"I know, I know!" The god shouted, "You think I don't know? I wrote the contract! I know it only says you're supposed to kill Hercules in the tournament. But you have to fight those runts to get to him."

He turned his head and was silent through the god's banter.

"Hey, it's like that old goat says: Rule 11: It's all just a game, so let loose and have fun with it! I mean a casualty or two along the way is no big deal, right?"

The boy said nothing, leaving the god alone.

"Geez. Stiffer than the stiffs back home." Growls could be heard in the darkness behind the god of the underworld. "Still, suckers like him are hard to come by..."

The next few rounds of the Games went by painfully for the four teenagers. In round three Noah was caught by a Large Body Heartless. The creature grabbed the scrawny boy by his even scrawnier ankles, slung him around and around, and then flung the boy into the stands of people.

In round 5, Lindsay was chased around the arena by monkey-like Heartless. A Bouncywild had placed banana peels all over the stage so whenever a Power Wild would chase the girl, she'd slip and go sliding into the stands.

Round 7 was a big learning experience for the surfer girl. Firstly, Bridgette learned how to summon a geyser of water that would take her into the air and have her crash down on the Heartless. Next, she learned that although she was clumsy on land, she was even worse in the air. Lastly, she learned that when you free fall onto a stone arena, it will hurt.

In round 9, Cody found out what it was like to play volleyball. Except the players were two Large Body's and he was the ball. The two large Heartless had caught the boy and began to hit him back and forth to each other with their massive guts.

Luckily for Cody, this left them wide open. Bridgette and Noah crept up slowly behind the two heartless and dispatched them. What was bad for the key bearer was that he was in mid air when the two were destroyed and he fell to the ground.

Although they were beaten and battered, the four teens made it past each obstacle put in their path, and made it to the final battle.

"I don't know how much more of this I can take," Bridgette groaned, rubbing her bruised arm. "This is twice more brutal than what Chris put us through."

"And to think, I actually want to go back there," Noah panted.

"Oh, quit your complaining guys," Cody, who had a black eye, said. "We've got just one more round to go and we'll be heroes."

The final round was here. The crowd was pouring out cheers as their favorite underdogs entered into the arena.

Girls were screaming Cody's name, causing the boy's face to turn a crimson color. Boys were cheering for Lindsay and Bridgette, while a big group of middle-aged women were shouting Noah's name.

"Why does this feel so...wrong?" Noah cringed, watching as one woman had his named written on her large stomach, blowing kisses to him.

The crowd's cheering increased when the boy from earlier stepped onto the stage. In his right hand was a sword three times the size of Cody's keyblade. White bandages were tied around the long, thick blade.

Cody, Bridgette, Noah, and Lindsay looked down at their weapons, then to their opponent's, then to one another's weapons, then blinked.

"We are so screwed."

The spiky haired blonde took his sword and took his stance, while the teens took theirs. Cody gulped, "Well, here goes nothing."

The boy didn't give them enough time to take a breath. He rushed the teens, swinging his blade at Cody. The brunette rolled out of the way in time.

Noah conjured a bolt of lightning to strike the boy, but he held his sword over his head to block.

He then rushed the egghead, swinging his massive blade at a rapid pace. Noah used a thunder-spell to slow him down long enough for Cody to block his attack. The tiny boy wasn't strong enough to hold back the older boy's might and was knocked into Bridgette.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, landed on my keys, but I'm fine."

"This guy is insane," Bridgette stated, "there is no way we're going to beat him."

"I think you may be right," Cody said as he saw Noah run off screaming.

Lindsay was trying to sneak up behind the blonde haired boy until he turned around and spotted her. She let out a high-pitched shriek and scurried off.

He smirked playfully and glanced over to his remaining opponents. They had collapsed on the ground from the intense fighting they had done previously.

"They're worn out," He said to himself, "I can't kill this kids, it wouldn't be right."

He gripped his sword and began to walk over to the two teens. They sat there, panting as he stopped in front of them. Cody glanced upwards at his face as the boy raised his sword. Bridgette clung to Cody and both closed their eyes.

Phil ran by the stands holding a white piece of cloth, about to call a forfeit when all of a sudden, Hades stepped in his way. "Where do you think you're going, Shorty?"

'H-H-Hades, I should have known this had your bony fingerprints all over it."

Instead of swinging the blade and finishing the two off, he lowered it to his side. Cody and Bridgette opened their eyes to see him standing there staring at them.

The boy smiled briefly before sensing something. He quickly looked behind him to see the foot of a large creature crash down onto him.

The spectators in the stands began to panic and scream. People were pouring out of the stands in a hurry because standing in the middle of the ring was a giant, three-headed black dog snarling and biting. Cody and his Guardian scrambled to their feet.

"Oh yeah," Hades said with a slight laugh, "there is one more rule that I forgot: Accidents happen."

The three-headed dog stared down at the two heroes, hunger in its eyes. Bridgette grabbed a hold of Cody as all three heads lunged at them.

Phil saw the dog's heads raise back and noticed that someone was underneath the beast holding it back. "Herc!" The goat shouted.

"Phil! Get them out of here," the man shouted, holding the dog back.

Bridgette began to run to the lobby while Cody looked at Hercules keep the dog at bay.

"Come on Cody!" Lindsay shouted. Cody didn't hesitate and ran to safety.

Olympus Coliseum - Lobby

"Whew, that was close," Phil sighed in relief, though shaking.

"What was that thing?" Lindsay, who was sitting on the stone pedestal from earlier, cried.

"That was Cerberus," Phil answered.

"Cerberus?" Noah's eyes widened.

"Isn't Cerberus the dog from Greek mythology that's said to guard the entrance to the Underworld?" Bridgette asked.

"I have no idea where you're getting this mythology crud from, but you're right doll, that is the infamous Cerberus."

"But didn't Hercules defeat Cerberus in his quest to become a true Hero?"

"Herc tussled with the demon dog once before and managed to defeat it." Phil replied, "That means Hades must have brought him back."

"But how?" Lindsay squeaked.

"Hades reeks of darkness," Bridgette blanched, "He must have used it to revive him. I knew we shouldn't have trusted him."

"What's this about trustin' Hades?"

"Hera is the one who gave us the entry pass for the games." Lindsay pointed out.

"I knew something was up with that pass."

"But why would Hades give us a pass?" Noah asked. Phil, Bridgette, and Lindsay shrugged.

Cody hadn't taken his eyes off the doorway to the Games arena since they retreated. He knew they would just slow Hercules down, but he couldn't help but feel he should be out there.

A strong feeling in his heart convinced him to do what he knew was right.

"I'm goin' in!" He shouted, summoning his keyblade.

"Kid, you're not serious. That's Cerberus, he's not some of these little ants you've been fighting." Phil pointed out.

"Phil's right," Noah added, "I really don't think we'd stand a chance against that thing."

"But, you guys..."

"I'm with you," Bridgette smiled, summoning her trident.

"You're crazy, Bridgette," Noah shouted, "You two will be killed."

"It's not right for us to just sit here and do nothing," Cody replied, "Besides, we're heroes."

"It's our job to stop the bad guys."

Noah rubbed his temples; he knew they were right, "Fine, I'm in. I think this is suicidal, but I have no other choice."

"Lindsay, are you coming?" Bridgette wondered.

"I think I'll stay back here..."

"You sure? Because I'm pretty sure Cerberus was the one who cut the strand of hair off your head," Cody winked.

Lindsay glanced down to her hair, and then made a serious face, "Doggy is going down!"

Phil watched the four teens leave to go fight a fight they knew was too much for them. "Maybe, they're heroes after all..."

Hercules was backed into a corner; the boy from the arena was draped over his shoulder. Cerberus stood watching; darkness escaping from its mouth as it exhaled.

The creature's ears pricked up and quickly turned around, spotting Cody and his guardians. They took battle stances, awaiting to take the dog down.

Hercules took this diversion to escape to safety with the injured boy. He ran past Phil who gave the kids some encouragement.

"Kids, I got two words for you: Attack!"

"Maybe I should have re-thought this," Cody said nervously.

He, Bridgette and Noah were huddled around Lindsay. The blonde mage was shielding the four teens from the blasts of fire raining down from the sky.

Sometime during their battle, Cerberus began to spit fire blasts from its massive jaws and forced the teens to take cover.

"And to think, we could have been sitting in the lobby sipping' tea and eating croissants, while the REAL hero fought the thirty foot tall beast from Hell." Noah rolled his eyes.

"Oh be quiet, Noah," Bridgette shouted, "It's not like we're in complete danger here, after all, Lindsay's shield is holding up nicely."

"And my dad said spending all my time shopping wouldn't help me in life."

"All we have to do is do this whenever it uses its fire attack," Bridgette smiled.

"It's not like it can spit out darkness and create portals that spring up from the ground." Cody chuckled.

Just then, Cerberus arched its three heads back and spat out a breath of darkness onto the ground. Small round portals appeared all over the ground.

One of the portals appeared underneath the teens. Cody's Guardians glared at him, "Like he actually understood what I said!" Cody replied.

The teens screamed, splitting off in different directions seconds before the attack could hurt them.

"Okay, now I'm pissed." Noah growled, opening his spell book. A fire ball appeared in front of him, "Eat this you oversize Chihuahua!"

The fire ball homed-in on the dog, hitting its middle head. The dog shook the smoke off its face.

Noah didn't give it time to retaliate, and he shot off a barrage of fire blasts at the dog, "Yeah, that's right, not so fun when you're getting shot in the face with fire is it? Yeah, I thought so, puppy doesn't like it, does he?"

Noah flipped the pages of the book, "Well, maybe the puppy would like to cool down." He unleashed a series of ice blasts on the to large canine, "Aww, is dat too cold on the puppy? Does the puppy want Noah to stop? Well tough luck you ugly mutt!"

Cody, Bridgette and Lindsay stood, staring in shock.

"Should we be worried...?"

"I don't...know Bridgette, I don't know," Cody replied.

"I'd hate to see what he'd do to my Chihuahua," Lindsay added.

Bridgette, Cody, and Lindsay watched as Noah continued his assault on the dog until the dog finally collapsed onto the ground, vanquished.

Noah closed his book, panting heavily, "You so needed to be taught obedience."

"Wow, Noah you sure showed that dog who its master was," Cody slapped the bookworm on his back. The scrawny boy let out a puff of air and fell to the ground, dazed and tired.

"Let's get him back to the lobby," Bridgette giggled, helping Cody carry him.

Olympus Coliseum - Lobby

Phil was standing onto of a stone pedestal holding a piece of paper. Hercules was standing next to him, smiling warmly at the four teens standing in front of them.

"For your brave acts in defending the Coliseum from the devastation of Cerberus assault, I do hereby dub the junior heroes, and confer upon the full rights and privileges to participate in the Games. Further-"

"Hey! What do you mean 'junior' heroes?" Cody pouted, "We just took down a thirty foot tall dog from the Underworld, how can we not be 'true' heroes?"

"You rookies still don't understand what it takes to be a true hero," Phil replied.

"So, what does it take?" asked the surfer girl.

Hercules smiled, "That's something you have to learn on your own, just like I did."

"Alright," Cody sighed, "I guess that's fair."

Cody smiled, "Well, you guys, I guess we should be heading out. We'll be seeing you!"

The four teens said farewell as Herc and Phil waved goodbye.

Phil rubbed his beard, "I still can't believe that those runts took down Cerberus."

Hercules chuckled and bent down to the goat's ear, "Between you and me, I had already had Cerberus worn down by the time the little guys jumped in."

Phil laughed, "My lips are sealed."

Outside the coliseum, Cody and his friends spotted the boy from earlier sitting on the steps to the world's entrance.

"Hey, look, it's that guy we fought," Lindsay stated, "Should we go check on..."

"Hey!" Cody shouted over to him. The boy looked up when he said the quartet approach him. "Are you alright?"

Yeah," he calmly replied.

"My name's Cody," the brunette informed.

"I'm Bridgette."

"My name is Lindsay."

"I'm Noah."

"Cloud..." he replied.

"So, Cloud, why did you go along with him?" Bridgette asked.

The blonde replied, "I'm looking for someone. Hades promised to help." He stood to his feet, "I tried to use the power of darkness for my own gain, but it back fired. I fell into it, and couldn't see the light anymore."

"You'll find it," Cody assured him. "I'm searching for someone important to me too."

"Your light?" Cody nodded, "Don't lose sight of it," He placed a key chain in Cody's hand. "The darkness will do everything in its path to shroud the light from your view."

Cloud walked past the teens to the coliseum, "Hey! How about a rematch sometime? Fair and square, without dark powers."

Cloud moved the hair out of his eyes, "I'll pass."

Cody and the others smiled before leaving through the gates.

The green flames of six large torches roared in the hall of a castle. Standing around one of the torches was a teenage girl. Her appearance was concealed by the green flames of the torch.

To her right were three crystal clear pods lined against the wall. Inside the three pods were beautiful girls one with golden blonde hair and a crown upon her head, another blonde wearing a white ball gown, and the final girl had ebony hair and skin white as snow. The girls appeared to be asleep inside the pods. Three more empty pods were lined against the wall on the opposite side.

"At this rate it's going to take years to find them all." She groand, "I'm not going to let what was promised to me be taken away by incompetent fools."

"Patience is a virtue, you know." The voice of a boy hiding in the shadows spoke from behind her.

He was wearing a black shirt that had a green diamond outline on each shoulder. His shorts were also black and wore green and black converse. Around his waist was a belt that held a dagger.

She didn't turn around; she knew who was behind her. She simply snarled her nose and replied,

"Shouldn't you be out looting another world?"

"You know I couldn't stay away from you for too long," he replied. Even though she wasn't facing him, she could feel his smirking expression.

She rolled her eyes, "You're such an ogre, Duncan."

"Whatever you say," He laughed as he stepped out of the shadows, revealing his face.

"What exactly are you doing here?" She hissed as he walked up behind her.

"What? Not happy to see me?" She crossed her arms and glared, "Brrr, did it just get cold in here?" He laughed, pretending to be cold. Her expression didn't change.

Duncan rolled his eyes, "I just popped in to let you know that I've got some news that might interest you. Although, you might not like some of the details."

She rolled her eyes, "Just tell me."

"Fine," He turned around and smirked, "Maleficent has news about the Princesses, and she's selected you to join her Council to deliberate on the subject."

"Maleficent...wants me...to join her?" Duncan nodded. The girl's face crept into a smirk. "Yes!" she cheered.

"Now, now, don't be getting too hasty, there's till one more little detail that I should tell you about."

"Whatever it is, I'm sure it's nothing that important," she replied. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to expose myself to those who understand my desires."

Once the girl exited through the large hall doors, "If you say so," Duncan smirked, looking at the girl asleep in the pod, "Princess."

Seems as though the gang is starting to get the hang of fighting. Especially Lindsay, she's so much fun to write using magic. She even calls the Heartless by the wrong names! And just because she's getting better at her magic, it doesn't mean she's letting Noah off so easy!

Bridgette's also starting to develop some abilities. She's having the least amount of difficulty in performing her water attacks although once the water is gone, she's left out to dry.

Where are Cody and his friends heading next? Will Cody find his 'light'? And just what are Courtney and Duncan doing aligned with Maleficent?

Find out next chapter!

Chapter 8 - Deep Jungle