BLANKED SOUL
Chapter 1: Walking down an aisle but it's filled with acorns
"Find the Dragon Balls! Look out for them all!"
Blank cheerfully sung as he walked along the forest, hopefully, after his meeting with Sonic, he was given directions to head to Knothole.
'Hopefully, I don't get sidetracked like last time,'
He'd been wondering for some hours now, which made him frustrated.
"Gah, this is taking forever!" he exclaimed
A Combot approached the cat silently while aiming a pistol at him.
"Halt in the name of the Robotnik-"
CRASH!
Its head was swiped off its body with the help of Blank's trusty rod.
"Not now, can't you see I'm grieving?!" he yelled in annoyance
A thought suddenly hit him, what was one of Robotnik's machines doing in this area? 'Better not be what I think it is,'
He ran up a tree to examine the area he was in, the results were mainly "Trees, trees, couple of civilians being taken away for roboticization, more trees – wait!" he interrupted himself as he noticed a couple of mobians being rounded up by combots.
"That's tragic," he commented "I'd help them if it were Knot-"
His attention was caught by a sign that said 'WELCOME TO KNOTHOLE VILLAGE'
The cat blinked twice before shaking his head a bit "Could be another village named-"
Another sign behind it but in a smaller font size saying 'ONE OF A KIND VILLAGE LOCATED ON MOBIUS'
"Who knows, there could be a whole other village saying that."
He noticed a smaller sign in color red which said 'DUDE JUST HELP THEM OUT'
"Okay, someone's definitely setting this up and mocking me!" he retorted in comical anger.
After weeks of journeying, he finally arrived at the renowned hidden Knothole Village, formerly one of the only safe houses against the mad scientist's regime, 'Formerly' because the once peaceful town was now under attack by robots.
'So much for being hidden' Blank sneered. He'd never pass up the opportunity to make jest of things even in dire times, something he had picked up when he was young.
A frail squirrel mobian in the crowd suddenly stumbled to the ground which caught his attention. The poor guy was seconds away from being filled up with lead all for the sake of the machine's amusement, meaning he had to act fast.
…
" Get up," the combot pointed a laser gun at a weak looking squirrel on the ground.
She'd been sick for a while now and been trying to get some proper treatment but sadly couldn't since the doctor's attention was more focused on attending to the king and the late princess. Sadly, the robots weren't exactly built to see reason and began charging up their pistols.
The squirrel moved back in fear, unable to accept her impending doom.
"GETSUGA TENSHOU!"
The combot's torso was destroyed in the blink of an eye, and all it took was a simple swing from a wooden rod.
"Never works in real life huh," Blank the cat wore a heavily disappointed look before turning back to the scrap pile he made "'Greatest Robot builder' my ass! No wonder he keeps getting his butt kicked by a hedgehog. Wood level robots," he kept making fun of them, which made him receive a confused stare from the woman he had saved, he was definitely weird, but that wasn't an excuse to be grateful for rescuing her from her fate.
"T-Thank you," she muttered out silently, but still loud enough for Blank to hear.
He offered her a hand back up which she accepted, "Hopefully that's the last one-"
"Freeze!"
Blank heard a couple of gun clicks, he was instantly surrounded by combots. He remained calm after learning that they were few in number, about seven or eight.
'They're not that much huh,' a smirk formed on his face. Truthfully, he was grateful, a much larger crowd would give him trouble, not to mention the civilians in the area he had to protect 'Either Robotnik doesn't really care, or he's planning something,' and he hoped it wasn't option B.
Rumors of robot attacks in Downunda had reached the young cat's ears so he wasn't far off which made him more concerned. 'Maybe I should have gone there instead? No, not the time for regrets', especially when he was still surrounded, his ears twitched as he heard the whirring of the laser guns. Blank instantly kicked up a pebble like a ball and swung his staff like a baseball, sending it flying towards the combots head.
Without time to think, he swung in a 360 degree form, taking out about three more of the machines. Though this action came with a price as he barely dodged the incoming shot from the fifth bot, it grazed him in his left shoulder.
'Tch,' he hissed, things were certainly going to become hard for the cat, especially when he needed both his hands to fight. He dodged the next few shots as he ran to where one of the bots he had destroyed stood, he grabbed a laser gun and immediately fired at a robot before discarding it, guns weren't really his style, plus he couldn't waste time waiting for a reload while the remaining two bots charged towards him.
'This really looks like a scene from Halo,' he thought to himself. Blank could definitely visualize it, a version of himself as master chief firing a few rounds at covenant members surrounding him, he sidestepped a bit and proceeded to melee the aliens.
This was Blank's answer to his laziness and lack of soul, his imagination. From fantasizing about fighting pirates to battling space lizards, his imagination did everything for him. It had helped out tons of times during his life, he felt and enjoyed the thrill each time it happened so he couldn't be more grateful for having this ability.
Soon afterwards, all the remaining robots were defeated. Blank panted for a few seconds and then sat down to take a quick break.
"Whew," he exhaled, cleaning the sweat from his brow "First fight in a while and I'm already exhausted, hehe." He chuckled
The villagers all remained silent, mostly in awe and some in curiosity.
Who was this strange cat that had just saved them?
Blank's usual grin formed on his face once more, the citizens of Knothole didn't know why, but they all felt a sense of assurance that this boy can protect them. The boy in question had other plans
'Maybe I'll take a quick nap here,' he smiled to himself as he laid back, closing his eyelids as he was about to doze off.
The mobians were now in disbelief, was he seriously sleeping during a crisis?
Blank tirelessly shrugged off their comments, 'Stop bothering me, I'm tryna get some shut eye,'
Suddenly a THUD could be heard, it was quiet but slightly loud enough to catch the white cat's attention which made him groan.
'Don't tell me I forgot one?!' he facepalmed, it was probably a bot who had escaped. He could just let this one run away and enjoy his nap, 'If it returns to Robotropolis, it's gonna call for backup.' he thought, meaning that the people would be in even more danger than before.
The only option was to track it down and destroy it before it reaches Robotnik. A groan left Blank's lips again as he stood up and grabbed his staff, pushing his way past the crowd of mobians who were left confused.
"Gotta dip, be right back in a minute," he declared in a calm tone.
He left his comfortable resting spot and went to where the robot was likely heard from, a nearby wall which was broken down. Hopefully, it wouldn't take long to locate the combot due to his excellent perception skills as a cat.
Blank looked round the area for any possible sightings but couldn't see any, 'Could it be I was just hearing things? But it definitely sounded like someone was trying to escape,' this became frustrating for the cat 'My senses are never wrong.'
Still persistent, he kept on looking around, till something caught his attention from the ground.
"Foot tracks?" but they stopped at one point, almost like a large man(mobian)-sized circle which made his suspicions grow even more. He ran his fingers through the circle thoroughly till he felt cracks in the ground.
"A trap door huh?" he commented. It certainly helped explain a lot of things, but not where it led to. 'Time to find out for myself,' he gulped, opening the trap door to reveal a metallic tunnel with a ladder that led downwards, a foul stench reached his nose causing tears to fill his eyes and groan in agony.
'Of course it had to be a sewer!' he flinched in disgust, having good senses all round was a blessing and a curse at the same time. 'But, someone's gotta do it' he regained his composure as he descended down the ladder, closing the entrance in the process.
As he climbed down, Blank began to re-evaluate his life. He envisioned himself walking safely to the village and requesting citizenship which he'd be given without any much stress. Then he'd be given a home that wasn't a muddy cave with a stable job, then he lived happily ever after. 'And here I am, fighting robots and saving people, I'm not a freedom fighter goddammit!'
Going further, he began to hear indistinct chatter at the bottom. The more he went, the clearer the voices became.
"Game over Freedom Fighters, back upstairs and join the losers!" a mature voice ordered
'Freedom fighters?' Blank questioned, 'Okay what's going on down there?' he asked anxiously. No more could he wait for context on whatever was going on, he wanted answers now. Blank freely let go of the ladder and fell towards the sewers.
"Surrender, you are now prisoners of-"
The voice was interrupted as Blank finally landed, but something was wrong.
'Huh, the ground feels squishy, and meaty.' He analyzed 'What kind of shitty architecture is- oh'
It became clear to the cat, his left foot was suddenly on the face of a mobian. Definitely a guy, large in size, white fur like him, and was a wolf. 'He seems somewhat reasonable'
So he asked the wolf with his boot still on his face "Sorry, are you a freedom fighter? 'Cause I got a lot of questions about what the hell is going on here."
The cat paused to take a look around, some combots behind the wolf while at his front were a two tailed fox and a walrus, both with startled looks. He looked back at the wolf and pieced the puzzle together, Wolf – bad guy with combots as backup, Walrus – Freedom fighter, Tails…
"Ah?!" he exclaimed in surprise "Tails?!"
The fox jerked back in shock, while the walrus was just straight up at loss for words. Blank immediately leaped from the wolf's face and landed perfectly before running up to the other two mobians.
"Tails, it's been a while!" he yelled in excitement.
The walrus looked at the fox before pointing back at the cat "You know this guy?"
The blonde fox shyly replied "U-uh, yeah…" he sounded like he wasn't exactly looking forward to seeing the white cheerful cat.
"Why not aren't we buddies?" he asked which made Tails move a bit back "We met a while back when he was on his way back from Downunda, his submarine was busted so I let him stay at my place for a bit."
"Oh really?" The walrus became even more intrigued, he instantly recalled when Tails had left without permit, though he wasn't fully informed on the details.
"Yeah," he nodded before leaning forward "He's really kind he even helped me-"
"SHUT UP!" Tails suddenly shouted to the top of his lungs which made everyone, even the combots, dazed. The cat covered his ears in agony due to having a higher sense of hearing than the rest.
"Gah, wanna blow out my eardrums?!" he yelled out in frustration
"Tails, what's wrong?" the walrus asked
The fox calmed down, "Nothing Rotor, it's-"
"Get down!" Blank yelled at the two all of a sudden before tackling them to the ground, at first they were confused but his actions became clearer to them as an explosion occurred
"You bastard!" the wolf growled, in his hand was a pistol which seemed weak at first but potent when fired.
Blank scratched his head as he let out a groan, "Augh, what'd I even do?"
"You used my face as a landing pad!" the wolf retorted
"Sheesh you remembered that?" Blank smirked
"It was literally few minutes ago!"
"Just let that slide will ya? White fur buddies should stick out for each other" the cat stood up as he dusted his shoulder, he could still feel the pain on his left shoulder meaning he couldn't fight that well, meaning he had to rely on backup from the two freedom fighters "Hey you guys mind lending me a hand here?" 'or an arm in this context'
Both Rotor and Tails exchanged looks at each other before coming to a mutual agreement.
"We surrender,"
Confused, Blank blinked twice
"Eh?"
Annnd done
This chapter was really fun writing, especially Blank's imagination problem and the relationship between him and Tails.
Note, I kind of dislike how dirty Tails was done in the Archie comics character wise so I hope to give him his moments (Tech, development, strength he can actually call his own and not just random power ups)
If you noticed, yes, their first meeting took place after the Tails Adventure mini series.
Anyways QA Time!
Assassin's Creed Master: I can honestly see that, my fault, like I said in the previous chapter I was basically writing on a phone since, like my oc, I'm too tired to do anything, but I'll do my best to improve
Tonyhedehog: So basically *Spoilers*Spoilers*Spoilers* (I love that ship too, but things might turn left, right or both depending on what route I take)
Till then, fav, follow and review
Gear out!
Next Chapter: Can hedgehogs even fly?