Kingdom Hearts: The World's Reluctant Heroes

by Blackdrag-rose

Nobody: Visiting the Underworld

With Beast and Belle at peace, for the time being, Sora and the others set off in search of another new world, since they had helped the previous one in what seemed to be record time, causing everyone to return to whatever they decided to do when they were traveling between worlds. Sure enough they found that it took him only a day or two to locate the next space gate, though once he found it everyone strapped in before he flew into the bit of magic, allowing them to observe as he entered a new area to fly through and earn some gummi material for the ship. This time around it seemed that they were flying through an eerie green portion of space that had a pirate ship hunting them down from the other side of the passage, so all Sora did was navigate the area as he tore through the enemy vessels that were in the way. Sombra was pleased to see that the pirate ship was definitely a large Heartless, it had a massive symbol on one of it's sails, and observed as Sora tore into it with the Teeny Ships, demonstrating his great skill in managing the Gummi Ship and navigating the space gates.

As they emerged from the space that had been on the other side of the third space gate Sombra smiled as she captured the heart of the Pirate Galleon, absorbing it and adding it's power to her own, though after doing that they glanced at the world that had been unlocked thanks to Sora's actions.

"Looks like we're heading back to the Coliseum." Sora commented, as he recognized the world that was in front of them, it had been one where they tackled all sorts of battles and Cups to grow their power, which they might not need at this point, but since the World had directed them to this world that meant the Organization was likely involved in some manner.

"I wonder if we'll see Cerbi again." Fluttershy said, as she had bonded a little with the three headed dog that was Hades' pet, or maybe a guard dog of some kind, and she wondered if he was going to be happy to see her again, before she noticed that the ship's systems seemed to be pointing them at a deeper location than they were used to, "Wonder why the ship has a new point for us to warp down to?"

"The old one has likely been altered in some manner." Sombra remarked, as the gate they usually stepped through did seem to be linked to another portion of the world in question, so if the warp point had been moved that meant there must have been a change to the gateway, which wasn't horrible all things considered, "Come on, let's get down there and see what sort of chaos is going on this time."

The others nodded as the system was engaged and they were warped down to the new starting point for this world, where Sombra found that they were in a dark realm of sorts that wasn't quite like Halloween Town, but still felt like someplace she would be at home in, with some sort of dark ooze that had to be the replacement for water. In addition to that there were two large gates in the area, with jagged sides to indicate that they were dark, plus there was a third path in the middle that was golden and seemed to be heading up to the coliseum, meaning they were actually pretty close to their destination, or at least it seemed so right now. In addition to that Sombra noticed that Sora and the others had a miasma of some kind wash over them for a few seconds, like this realm was sapping their strength or something, while she, oddly enough, remained untouched by the power of the area they were in. In the following moments they found a lady in a purple dress under attack by a group of Heartless, dog like Heartless that were roughly around Donald's height, though as she fell Sombra and the rest of the group closed in on the Rabid Dogs, taking them out in a couple of seconds.

Sombra made sure to capture those hearts as well, though at the same time she found that despite the curse that was part of this place, weakening the rest of her group, Sora and the others were still just fine as they helped the lady up and made sure she was just fine.

"Thanks, but... I'm fine." the lady replied, though that was when she focused on them for a moment and seemed surprised by the fact that they were standing near her, instead of someone else she was obviously expecting to come to her rescue, causing her to dust herself off before fully turning towards them, "And who are you guys supposed to be?"

"I'm Sora, and these are my friends Sombra, Goofy, Radiant, Fluttershy, Seras, and Donald." Sora replied, where he glanced at the golden path for a few seconds before turning his attention back to the lady, as he wanted to be sure that she was fine before they tracked down the two people that they knew from this world, the good guys anyway, "That's the coliseum, right? If so, we can swing by and see how Hercules is doing."

The lady raised an eyebrow and asked how they knew "Wonderboy", her nickname for Hercules no doubt, where Sombra explained that they had trained with Phil for a time during their last visit and that they were 'junior' heroes, something that caused her to laugh, as if she highly doubted their words and believed them to be liars. She did, however, believe that they knew Hercules and introduced herself as Megara, though her friends referred to her as 'Meg', meaning that she might think of them as friends that she could use to her benefit and Sombra was able to confirm that when she asked for aid. Apparently she was trying to convince Hades to go easy on Hercules, as he was throwing everything at the warrior in question and was tiring him out, endless battles without rest to be exact, but those beings, the Heartless as Sora told her, had stopped her in her tracks. This allowed them to know one important fact, they were in the Underworld, Hades' domain, so he likely knew they were here, though Sora told her that since they could fight the Heartless they could make their way to Hades and see if they could convince him to go easy on Hercules, causing Meg to thank them before returning to the coliseum.

"You know, it sounds like she's in love with Hercules." Goofy remarked, something that caused Sombra, Radiant, Fluttershy, and Seras to nod their heads in agreement, as they were more familiar with such things and understood what he meant, to which they focused on the path that was in front of them, the one Meg had come from.

Such a thing was when they walked through it and found a carved passage leading deeper into the realm, where they found a number of wisps forming all over the chamber, though as they expected there were more Rapid Dogs for them to fight, but they came in small groups of three or four. That meant there was no reason for them to worry, so half of the group focused on the enemies that were in front of them while the other half tracked down the path to move forward, allowing Sombra to observe and snatch the freed hearts that were released along the way. As they moved into the next passage, however, one of the Organization's members rushed by them and headed deeper into the Underworld, where Sombra resisted the urge to chuckle as she realized that it was Demyx, meaning he was likely keeping tabs on them. In addition to that there were a few Shadows that joined the Rapid Dogs in attacking them, not that it mattered since Sora and the others wiped the floor with all of them, making him wonder if the Organization would step up their game at some point.

There was one other type of Heartless that made itself known to them, an armored Heartless that had a thinner body than the Soldiers, though it carried a lance as it's weapon, causing Sombra to address them as 'Lance Soldiers', though it was easy to dodge their attacks and bring them down.

After that they stepped out into another portion of the cave that happened to be where Demyx rushed by them and used a Dark Corridor to leave the area, why Sombra had no idea, especially since she knew his secret, but she didn't say anything on the matter as they found that the area did have something for them, a lexicon that seemed like a portal to an area to fight someone. Sombra realized that it was likely a small remnant of Zexion's power, a final fragment of the Nobody's abilities no doubt, though instead of focusing on that Sora continued down the path that was in front of them and stepped out into an area that had a stone path winding it's way up to an odd stone palace, Hades' domain no doubt. Down below them rested a swirling green vortex of energy, what it did none of them knew and none of them were interested in finding out, causing the group to focus on the winding stone path and engaged the Heartless that were apparently protecting the path that lead to Hades' domain. In addition to the Heartless they had seen so far a number of Dire Plants joined the battle as well, which was just odd considering the nature of this realm, along with red Hook Bats as well, though Sombra was fine with this since it allowed her to capture more hearts and make up for the lack of hearts from Beast's world.

In the palace they found Hades talking with a man who was wearing what Sombra determined was a blood red haori with a blue lining, something she knew based on her studies of the other worlds, and his weapon was a curved greatsword that he rested on his shoulders when it was in use, with his left arm resting lazily out the front of his attire.

"Oh no, not you guys again!" Hades stated, interrupting himself as he noticed that Sora and the others were entering his domain, which was just more bad news for him since he wasn't expecting them to return at such a crucial moment in his plans to finally do away with his greatest obstacle.

"Hello again, Hades. Been a while, hasn't it?" Sombra said, as the last time they had seen each other the god had tried to do away with them by using some of his titans against them in the coliseum, and when that failed he found a way to summon a new warrior to fight her, the One Winged Angel called Sephiroth, "We'd love to stick around and chat, but we're here on business this time: we've come to ask that you give Hercules a break, as in let him rest a little before sending more waves of Heartless at him."

"You have got to be kidding me! Why would I give that loser a break?" Hades asked, something that caused the other warrior to pause for a moment as he realized that Hades wasn't lashing out at Sombra for her statement, like he knew something about the lady that the warrior didn't know.

"He's your great foe, and deep down you want to beat him in a way that satisfies you. Forcing him to fight constantly like this, and then getting him while he's exhausted, will only lead to utter disappointment." Sombra remarked, as she had pieced the god's plan together rather easily, because she had considered something similar in the past, when she was getting ready to fight Celestia and Luna, a plan that had been replaced with their actual battle, one she had been winning until they sealed her away and she activated her curse, "Trust me on this, it is better to find a way to defeat your foe that will satisfy you, instead of doing something that will only make you annoyed with yourself."

"And if I say 'no'?" Hades inquired, though he was sorely tempted to just lash out at the group while they were in front of him and get it over with, since heroes were zeroes in the Underworld, it was one of the rules of his realm, which was when Sora stepped forward and caused him to turn towards the boy.

"Then we'll just take his spot in the coliseum until he's rested and ready to go. Either way, he'll get his rest." Sora replied, as he knew that Phil would be overjoyed to have them back for a time, especially after their last couple of battles, so his words were right, no matter what Hades decided on this matter Hercules would be the winner in the end.

Hades, enraged by the mere idea of them doing anything that would help Hades, summoned the Heartless and attacked the group, where Sora and the others fought all of them off while Sombra surprised the god, as she lashed out at him directly, thus allowing the others, plus the new warrior, to flee from the palace.

"I don't get it, your powers should be far weaker in my realm... heroes are zeroes in the Underworld!" Hades stated, as this was something he wasn't expecting to discover, that Sombra, of all people, seemed to be unaffected by the realm that he ruled over, and it was annoying him more than he was willing to admit.

"Oh, I'm no hero... I'm a villain, Hades, and your realm has no power over me." Sombra replied, as while she was doing good for the World she could tell that even the Underworld still viewed her as a villain, meaning she had the upper hand right now and could likely unleash her full power if she wanted to, but for the time being she jumped towards the opening that was like a window, "See you later!"

Instead of saying anything else she leapt out the opening and warped herself down to the winding path, where the rest of the group, and the warrior named Auron, were fighting their way through the Heartless that were trying to stop them, but as Sombra expected they were tearing through all of them. With that in mind it really took them no time to return to where the tome was located and resumed moving through the cavern, though it was interesting to see that Hades wasn't bothering to chase them, especially in a realm that he had the advantage in. It didn't take them long to discover why the god had stayed behind, as there was a massive lock on the door they had used to enter this portion of the Underworld, not that it stopped Sora and his friends as he fired a beam of light into the lock and undid it in a matter of seconds. Of course that was when they found that there was also a guardian of the lock, who was late to the party since Hades must have sent it out after he placed the lock in it's position, and that guardian happened to be Cerberus.

"Cerbi!" Fluttershy said, where the three headed dog stopped growling at them as they realize who was in front of them, to which the large animal started to act like a normal companion by licking her and letting her rub his belly, though this time around he was more than willing to leave Hades behind and join her fully, appreciating her more than Hades.

"...What just happened?" Auron asked, as he knew that Cerberus was loyal to Hades, everyone knew that, so it was hard for him to understand why the animal would suddenly change his mind all of a sudden and join someone else, based on how he was moving at the moment.

Sombra chuckled and told the warrior that he would get used to this if he fought beside them more in the future, it was just how things went down for them these days, and it made her all the more interested in what else this world might throw at them in the near future.

Comments

[Xalok]

This has turn out to be one bad day for Hades

[Xarmar13]

For a god, Hades seems to be lacking in the foresight department. He didn't foresee that someone might step up to take Herc's place in the colosseum and he certainly didn't consider the possibility that someone wielding a lot of dark power might not be affected by the Underworld's miasma.

[Moonlight_Mist]

11877297
Isn't that just par for the course with Disney's interpretation of Hades? I'm not even talking strictly about what we see the Kingdom Hearts games (as a relevant example, Hades leaving Auron's statue right out in the middle of his chamber and then not suspecting anything when Hercules offers to fight Auron one-on-one so Sora can delay fighting). In the actual movie, Hades didn't understand that he was setting himself up for failure by sending the Cyclopean Titan Arges after Hercules after he'd already all but confirmed for himself that Hercules had become a weakness for Megara in the same way Megara had become a weakness for Hercules, and then later by having Hercules go in after Megara instead of taking Hercules' deal wholesale.