Olympus Coliseum
First Appearance: KINGDOM HEARTS (2002)
Origin: Hercules (1997)
The Olympus Coliseum is yet another world Sora, Doanld and Goofy have visited in the past. There they met Hercules, a genuine Hero, and his personal trainer, Phil. Together, they thwarted Hades's plans to crush Hercules, and the trio was awarded the not-so-prestigious title of Junior Heroes.
Intent on claiming the proper title, the trio returns to the land of Olympus during their second journey as well, though instead of the Coliseum they land in Hades's Underworld. Soon after arriving the three save a young woman from Heartless. The woman introduces herself as Megara, or Meg, for short, and asks Sora for help. It seems Hades keeps sending waves of Heartless and monsters for Hercules to fight, and even a Hero like Herc has his limits. Meg was hoping to talk to Hades and perhaps get him to go easy on Hercules, and Sora, Donald and Goofy are all too eager to go in her stead as they have a better chance of fighting their way through. Meg agrees to let them go, so long as they keep it a secret from Hercules.
On their way, the trio spots a man wearing Organization XIII's cloak. They give chase, only to have the man run past them in the opposite direction, warning them to run away. He then vanishes, leaving the group confused but with little option but to continue.
In the meanwhile, Hades decides to summon next a warrior already dead. He calls up a man named Auron, yet Auron refuses to heed Hades's commands. Instead, he joins forces with Sora, yet as they are in Hades's world, they can't defeat him, only run away.
As Sora used his Keyblade on their escape, Hades realizes it can open any and all locks. He decides to use Sora to unlock the Underworld's Coliseum which Zeus locked up. For that end, he decides to use Meg as bait.
Once they return to Olympus, he trio asks Hercules for advice. In order to fight Hades, they need a way to retain their strength in the Underworld, and Hercules offers to bring to them a stone from Olympus that the gods themselves use for that very cause. He returns empty handed from the short trip, however, as a man wearing a black coat stole the Olympus stone. To make matters even worse, Hades appears. Not only did he kidnap Meg, but he also brought a bloodthirsty Hydra for Hercules to fight, rendering him unable to go and help her. Sora has no such obligations, however, and he goes along with Pegasus to search through the Underworld.
What they find is the man in the black coat. He is Demyx, Number IX of Organization XIII. He calls Sora "Roxas" repeatedly, but when Sora only shrugs at him, he turns to other means to try and get Sora to respond and attacks the group. He runs away before he can suffer real damage, however, and leaves behind the stolen Olympus stone.
From there, all it takes is for Sora to unlock one magical keyhole and the group finds Meg along with Hades, who surprisingly enough thanks them and offers praise to Sora's Keyblade. He vanishes and leaves the group to deal with some Heartless until Hercules and Pegasus show up. Pegasus takes Meg and flies to safety, while the group along with Hercules makes short work of their enemies.
Hercules being there means that he left the Coliseum, however, along with a Hydra he never finished off. They find the Coliseum in ruins and the Hydra as bloodthirsty as ever. That's the last straw and Hercules breaks down, blaming himself completely for the disaster. Thankfully, the trio manages to defeat the beast, but it does little to lift Hercules's spirits. It is on that sour note that the Olympus stone begins to shine and Sora uses it to open the pathways to the next worlds. The group leaves then, seeing as there's little more they can do for Hercules.
They return in time for the Underdrome's grand opening, and Hades is all too happy to invite them to participate in the tournaments - otherwise he'll make sure they never see Meg again. The trio joins the tournament along with Hercules, and they win their way to the finals despite Hercules's low spirits. Their next opponent is Auron, but Hades is controlling him using a statue shaped like him. As befitting a true Hero, Hercules offers to fight Auron one on one while the group fetches the statue from Hades's chambers and frees Auron.
They succeed and arrive just in time to keep Hercules from losing and free Auron. Displeased, Hades throws Megara into the stream of souls running through the Underworld. Hercules jumps in after her, with no regards to his own safety. Such selfless sacrifices are but one of the makings of a true Hero, and Hercules recovers his faith in himself. Together, they defeat Hades, and return to the Coliseum.
With Hercules back to his old self, it seems things will be just fine from then on out. To top it all, Sora, Donald and Goofy's efforts were acknowledged by even the Gods on Olympus, and the stars were aligned to paint a picture of all three in the night's sky, proof of their becoming true Heroes.
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