Chapter Text
"My dearest princess…!" The cat goddess whined as she swirled down through the tunnel of astral space.
The little girl was just baking cookies. Out of the oven came burnt cookies with marshmallows and she turned to the beautiful deity that has graced her presence. She bowed and said, "greetings, my beloved. What is the matter? Would you like a cookie?" She gestured to her abomination. "I made them with love!"
"Ooh, love cookies!" The cat beamed and got one. "Anyway, I have a problem…!" She whimpered, biting hard on a burnt cookie.
"What is it?" the girl asked.
"So, problem 1," the cat sighed. "One of my characters are being abused! Problem 2," she took a breath. "They've banned me from the cityyy!"
"Aren't all of your characters abused in one way, shape, or form?" the girl asked, getting a burnt cookie and eating it as well.
The cat laughed. "Yes, but their fates get tampered to be better, but I can't tamper with his to be better because I made the worst mistake of making the two most powerful beings in the city a part of the abuse," the cat sighed.
The girl hummed. How could she help her darling?
Oh! She knows! She got her notebook and opened to a page of characters and their pictures. "I could send some of my characters to fix your problem," she said. "It'll be tricky, but I have faith things will work out."
"Thank you, my princess, my sunshine and moon!" The cat beamed and hugged her happily.
"You're welcome, my beloved universe! My dearest Topaz!" The girl hugged back.
The cat happily watched her lover do the work as she got another burnt cookie. She was starving lol.
X
It was a fine day in Axle City, Universe B14.[code], or universe B14 for short.
Blaze Blithe woke up with a text on his phone. He groaned. He looked at the text and it was from "B". He doesn't remember putting anyone named B in his phone. Probably named for Bitch.
He tapped on it. And immediately, he was sucked into his phone.
He arrived at an empty apartment with only a bed with his wallet and his phone.
What the hell? "Where am I?" he asked to no one in particular. There was a window and he opened it to take a look outside.
It looked like he was in… Axle City.
But… something was off.
He hummed. He transformed into a bird and began to fly and explore. He found the city lacking some buildings in comparison of the city he knew.
He hummed and perched on top of an unfamiliar building.
Nothing here is familiar to him. It was like Axle City, but it wasn't. Where is he?
There was a coo, and other birds began to fly in a certain direction. Blaze tilted his head and with his bird brain, he followed. He was met with different kinds of birds all sitting around this one blue-haired man. He was confused, but hey, look! He's giving out free food! Blaze began to peck.
The man didn't seem to notice him as he fed the birds. It was a slim man, midnight blue hair, dark blue sleeveless shirt with a gray jacket and very short shorts along with sandals. He had a silver choker of some kind around his neck too.
Blaze could tell that he was really attractive. He chirped and went beside him.
He turned to him and patted his head. "Hello," he greeted with a smile.
Blaze chirped and sat on his lap and began eating more bird feed. The man smiled and patted his head with a happy hum, feeding them all again.
A while later, the food ran out.
The man sighed and set Blaze down on the ground. "I gotta go now, bye, birdies," he waved them goodbye before he got up and ran away.
Blaze hummed and transformed into a dog and began running after him from a distance.
Something was drawing him to this man. He doesn't know what.
After a while, however, he lost sight of the man. He transformed into a bird and began to follow with a huff.
Still no sign. It's like he vanished.
He sighed and went to fly off into another park or a building to perch on.
As he flew, a wave of magic flowed through, and he found a familiar stuntman that landed in a bush. He grinned and went to go to the bush. He transformed back and waited for the man to show signs of life.
"Uuuuuuuugh..."
"Hey, Star!" Blaze said happily.
The blue man with cyan eyes looked up with groggy eyes. "Fuck... What the hell did you do now?"
"I didn't do anything!" Blaze pouted.
The man, Darington, huffed. He got up and looked around. "Where are we?"
"No idea. Another version of Axle City, maybe," Blaze shrugged.
"Holy shit, Speedrick was right?"
"Speedrick was right?"
"Yeah, about the multiverse universe thing."
"Oh. I never listen to him."
Daington huffed. He got up and searched his pockets. He found his wallet and his phone. All of his cash is still there. He turned to Blaze and asked, "do you have a place to crash or something?"
Blaze hummed. "I don't know if its actually mine, but I can show you."
Darington nodded. He got on Blaze and Blaze flew them to the apartment he landed in.
"Why do you land in an apartment and I a bush?" Darington huffed, sitting on the bed. He looked around and said, "this place doesn't seem so bad."
"Yeah!" Blaze nodded.
After some time, they started to grow hungry.
Blaze huffed. "Want to go to a restaurant?"
Darington hummed and gave a nod. "Sure."
"Can you pay?"
"Fuck off."
They went outside and began to chat along the way. They arrived at a nice little Italian restaurant and they went in.
It was bustling with people, and they all seem very eager to be there. Mostly guys were there.
They sat down and the menus were at the table already. They looked through and noticed there were no prices. They were confused. But, eh. They looked at it and if things were too expensive, Darington would be the one paying.
They called for the waiter, but there wasn't any. They noticed a small microphone beside the table with an instruction "order here".
Darington sighed. He got up and went to place their orders.
He pressed the button, and there was a voice. "Yes, sir, what is your order?"
"Two plates of special spaghetti with extra meatballs please," Darington replied, nonchalantly.
There was some shuffling on the other end and a small cough before there was a response. "Noted sir. Your order will be there in 5 minutes,"
That's fast. Darington said a small thank you and went back to his seat.
After some time, their order came out from a tube on the ceiling, gently landing on the table. The plates spaghetti and meatballs were still smoking hot and fresh.
"Wow, noice," Blaze said with a grin as he got his fork and began to eat.
Darington poked at the spaghetti before eating the meatball. "Wow, it tastes awesome," he said. It had a jint if nostalgia before he began to eat again.
They soon finished but they didn't know how to pay. There were no bills or anything.
Before they could ask, there was happy roaring from the crowd, and they turned to see a red head in a pony tail with blue eyes and tan skin walk in with a 13 year old child with black skin, dark chocolate brown hair and brown eyes.
Darington raised a brow. Who the hell was that?
"BLAZEEE!!"
The crowd was screaming for joy. The red man laughed and waved at them with a wink. It made the women and some men swoon.
"You?" Darington lightly laughed. He looked him up and down and muttered, "he seems too average."
Blaze gave a chuckle. "Maybe they have different tastes here."
The boy rolled his eyes and parted from the crowd. He stumbled back and fell in front of Blaze and Darington's table.
Blaze helped him up and asked, "you okay, kiddo?"
"Yeah, thanks," the boy sighed and turned. His eyes widened. "Blaze?"
Blaze raised a brow. "Yes?"
The boy pulled away. "You…" he hummed and turned to Darington, and his lips pursed. "Alternate counterparts…? Again…?"
"Again? Wow," Darington chuckled. "Not the first, then. Anyway, yeah. Got a problem with it, kid?"
"Be nice," Blaze said, glaring at Darington.
The boy hummed and shook his head. "No, no problem. Just… again…" he sighed before bowing. "Greetings. The name's AJ,"
"No need to be so formal, kiddo," Blaze said patting his back. "And you probably already know who we are. But anyway. Name's Blaze Blithe."
"Darington Dior," Darington nodded.
"Blithe. Dior. Got it," AJ nodded.
"Hey, bro!"
The boy jumped a bit and sighed as the red head came over.
"Hey, Blaze," AJ smiled. "Look what I found," he pointed to Blithe and Dior.
"Woah…" Blaze's eyes widened. "Alternates…"
Blithe grinned. "Hey."
Darington did not like him instantly. He gave a nod and went to eat his lunch.
Blithe said, "Don't mind him. He's pissy."
Blaze chuckled. "I see," he hummed. "Since your alternates… I'm guessing you guys don't know how payment works for this restaurant?"
Blithe gave a nod. "Yep,"
Blaze smiled. "Well then! Let me pay for you guys! Until you guys figure it out,"
"Is that the only reason we came here?" AJ hissed. "For the payment?"
"Maybe…" Blaze chuckled. "And no, I'm hungry too!"
"Of course you are…" AJ grumbled.
Blaze patted his head. "Why don't you sir here with the counterparts until I get back?" He giggled before walking to the kitchen.
AJ sighed and sat down beside Blithe.
Darington huffed. He got up and said, "well, I'm paying for myself." He went to go see what the hell Blaze was going to do.
Blithe hummed. He turned to AJ and asked, "you don't like me in this other dimension too, huh?"
"Well, I have reasons," AJ shrugged. "Your other self isn't… he's a two-faced kind of person,"
"Oh. Hmm... That's shitty. Why are you still with him, then?" Blaze asked.
"The crowd… it's a bit… bias," AJ sighed. "The longer you stay here, the know you'll find out,"
Meanwhile, Darington couldn't enter the kitchen because it was locked. "One person at a time" it said on the sign. Darington huffed. He stood out and then got out his wallet to try and estimate how much he owns.
After some time, he was about to go in when the door opened, and Blaze came out with two spaghetti and meatballs.
"Oh, hey other Darington," Blaze greeted. He noticed his wallet and laughed. "Don't worry, this place doesn't use money to pay for food," he told him.
"Then what does it use?" Darington asked, suspicious.
Blaze only laughed and patted his head with a hand he shifted from below his arm before walking to the table to give the plate to AJ to eat.
"You and other Darington are all paid!" Blaze told Blithe.
Blithe grinned. "Thanks! But how do you pay, though? So we could pay for ourselves next time," he said.
AJ winced.
Blaze laughed. "Well-"
"We can tell later ." AJ insisted. "I'm really hungry right now…" 'And I don't wanna lose my appetite.'
Blithe was confused but he let it go.
Darington was even more suspicious.
But they couldn't really ask as they were told to leave to make room for more customers.
They went back to the apartment for a rest and then began to look around.
The next day, Darington was walking around the city. He was looking around for the library since he had no idea where the heck it is.
As he walked, he bumped into someone.
"Sorry!"
It was the blue haired man that Blithe saw, not that Darington knew.
"Oh." He got up and reached a hand to the other man. "No worries." He's pretty.
The man got it and bowed. "Thank you. Goodbye," With that, he ran off.
Darington wanted to ask where the library was, but sighed. He began to walk.
He arrived in the library and began to search on dimensional things and how to get home.
It said many things. How the world had become, and how the portals were common things, wielded by a god, goddess or an entity that powerful.
Darington hummed. He began to look for current "powerful" people for hire in the city. There were a few magic users, but none so far that he found were deemed "powerful". Star sighed and went to search for the general "powerful" person in the city.
It took a few days. Even then, it was hard. The most powerful being he found so far was Blaze stopping his villains. Darington groaned.
He was walking home when he saw a familiar tiger walking around, trying to figure out where he was.
"Stripes?"
The hybrid turned to him and beamed. "Darington!"
Yes, it was his Stripes.
The hybrid ran to Darington and then embraced him in his arms. "Darington!"
"How did you get here?" Darington asked.
"Well, uh, someone gave me a document. When I opened it, it led me here," Stripes replied. "What about you?"
"Someone gave me an invitation," Darington replied. "Blaze is here too. Want to go?"
Stripes gave a hum. He held his hand and began to walk towards the apartment.
As they did, they bumped into someone. Not the blue one again, but a green man with curly hair.
"Oof! Sorry!' he giggled. "I'm so clumsy!"
"It's okay," Stripes replied, helping Darington up. "Be careful next time." Just a random stranger.
"I will!" The guy smiled but hummed. "Huh, you two look familiar…" he hummed and stepped back. "Oh! You two look like Darington and Stripes!" He hummed and gasped, eyes physically turning into stars. "Oh my gosh, are you two counterparts?!"
"... We're just passersby," Darington said. He doesn't really like going around and telling everyone that they were counterparts.
Stripes realized that he looked a lot like Pickle.
"No, no! You guys look almost exactly like Darington and Stripes tho!" The guy squealed. "Counterparts!!"
"Pickle, why are you screeching like a banshee again?" A tiger hybrid with purple stripes and orange hair with dark skin came over with a grumble.
Stripes let a small gasp but the grip on Darington's hand told him to keep quiet.
"I told you. We're passersby. Please excuse us," Darington said. He just wanted to go home.
The tiger frowned and stopped them with his stripes. "Hmm…" he narrowed his eyes. "Your auras and magic essence… they're not from here…"
Darington frowned.
Stripes let out a nervous laugh. "Y--Yeah, we aren't. We just moved."
"No. Not from this world," the tiger's eyes glowed violet as an aura of purple glowed around them. "Other worlders…"
"Counterparts!" Pickle beamed. "Man, you guys are a long way from home!"
Stripes sighed, giving up. "Yeah... We are. Sorta..."
Darington glared at him and Stripes looked away to avoid it.
"Knew it," the hybrid's eyes ceased the glow. "You know, you're not from this world, but it's best you say so. Rules don't apply the same way as yours, and if you don't follow them, you get in big trouble,"
"What are the rules?" Stripes asked.
The tiger hummed and grinned. "Oh, now you're interested? After your friend was just oh so rude?" He scoffed and turned away. "I was gonna offer you guys a way back to your world… but eh, change of mind, I guess,"
Pickle rolled his eyes. Show off.
Stripes sighed. "Sorry, he's just like that."
Darington frowned.
"If you have a way to let us go back, we would really appreciate it. And we can repay you in the future too!" Stripes said happily.
"Nah, I'm good," The tiger huffed as his eyes gleamed, and he smiled. "Enjoy your stay~"
He walked away. Pickle rolled his eyes then turned to them with a smile.
"You guys really need to be careful before you make your own mistakes," he told them before walking off.
Stripes sighed.
Darington huffed. "We don't need them." He tugged on his hand and began to leave.
They soon found out what they meant by mistake.
Gangs and street guys started to head to their apartment, and every day, they woke up to the smell of spray paint or egg yolks at their door or window.
"... What the hell did you two do?" Blithe growled.
Stripes whimpered and said, "I--I'm sorry, I just--"
"It wasn't his fault," Darington said, stepping in. "It was mine. I was rude to this person."
Blithe sighed. "Okay... Darington, why don't you stay home for a couple of days? Maybe I'll clear things up or something..." he muttered and went to go look for whoever Darington wronged.
Darington huffed. It wasn't his fault those two seemed like pieces of shit.
He got hit by a shoe just as he thought that.
Darington groaned and he went to take a shower while Stripes began to clean.
Meanwhile, Blithe went around the city to try to "uncurse" them. As he did, he found that blue man again but with the green, curly haired man. He was following him around as the green man chatted and greeted everyone.
Blithe felt another pull and he hummed. He transformed into a bird and began to follow the blue-haired man, along with the other birds. The man smiled as he let the birds follow him. The green man soon turned and hummed.
"Come on, Crusher, enough with the birds," he pulled on him. "You'll be as spaced out as Darington," he shooed most of the birds away.
Blithe huffed but he just followed in a distance, picking up grass to pretend to be a bird. The man, Crusher, sighed as the green one grabbed him and pulled him to an alleyway.
Blight transformed into a rat and followed after him and pretended to scavenge. The green man seemed to have a tight grip as he carried the blue man far into the alley way until it was so dark Blithe couldn't see them.
But rats could hear well. He went in with them. Good thing rats have night vision.
His hearing managed to pick up footsteps, and a zipper opening while his eyes managed to see a pair of pants being pulled down, along with one of them down on the knees.
Blaze retreated.
Was he supposed to see this? He doesn't think so. Also, he has to find the one who cursed his friends and shit.
After a day, he still couldn't find whoever cursed his friends. It was hard.
As he stopped by to rest, a portal opened up above him, and someone big and green landed on him.
He caught him with a bit of effort and he beamed. "Zeg!'
The big man looked up and blinked. "Blaze? Where Zeg?"
"Another universe," Blithe said. He set him down and smiled. "Great to see you, buddy!"
Zeg smiled. "Great to see friend Blaze again too."
"Woah! Another counterpart?"
They turned to see Blaze run over.
Blithe hummed and gave a nod. "Yeah. They seem to keep falling," he chuckled.
Zeg gave a wave to the other Blaze.
Blaze laughed and smiled. "Well, nice to meet you too, and welcome to our world!"
Zeg smiled back. "Thanks. I Zeg," he said.
"Oh! Nice to meet you, other Zeg!" Blaze smiled. He turned to Blithe and tilted his head. "You look tired. You alright?"
Blithe sighed. "Yeah... Just looking for someone who has been bothering me and my friends lately," he replied. "I want it to get resolved. Maybe get a talk with them or something."
"Sure, maybe I can help," Blaze smiled. "What's been going on?"
"Well, gangs have been throwing eggs at our apartment window and have been vandalizing our door. The other tenants are already complaining," Blithe reported.
"I see…" Blaze nodded. "I'll see what I can do!" His watch beeped and he beamed. "Oh! I should be getting home now, and you guys too! It's getting late,"
Blithe gave a nod. "Nice talking to you."
He left with Zeg.
Darington was more than happy to see Zeg and he cling unto him happily.
Stripes became a little bit jealous...
Blaze ordered take-out.
The next day, there was a knock at their door. Blithe went to answer it.
There stood Blaze. "Hey! I found out the problem,"
"Really?" Blithe smiled.
"Yep!" Blaze nodded. "Your Darington upset out Stripes,"
Blithe sighed. "Of course he did... Well... Is there anything I can do to make it up to him?" he asked.
"I don't know, Stripes is really powerful in our world," Blaze shrugged. "And a bit cold when someone upsets him. Call him sensitive, if you will, but he has his reasons,"
Blithe gave a nod. "Maybe I could talk with him?" he asked.
"You can try," Blaze nodded.
"Can I know his address?"
Blaze nodded and got his phone to give the address. As Blaze showed Blithe where Stripes was, a notification popped out of nowhere with the message "Fuck Time" on it.
Blithe grimaced. What the hell is "Fuck Time"? Does this world have the same relationships his world had? Mmm…
Blaze didn't notice the notification and just erased it first before continuing. "You got the address?"
Blithe gave a nod. "Thanks."
Blaze smiled and waved him goodbye.
Later, he went to this world's Stripes's house with Darington. It was in a treehouse at the edge of the city. The place was big, with a slide and an elevator on it.
Blithe hummed and dragged Darington inside the elevator to go up. The elevator played some nice music as it went up and up until it reached the treehouse doors. Blithe went to knock on it.
The tiger hybrid from before opened the door. "Yes?"
Blithe smiled. "Hi. I'm Blaze Blithe. And I would like to apologize for what my friend did."
He got Darington and he sighed. He bowed and said, "sorry for being rude to you."
Damn, why does he have to apologize? Why does this guy have to be so petty?
The tiger blinked before laughing. "Did you really think I'm gonna say 'oh, it's okay' like I'm some easy chump you can say sorry to? Well, if you think I'm so petty for asking for something as simple as an apology, other Darington, then okay. I am petty. At least I'm not a piece of shit." He slammed the door shut on them.
Great job, Darington, it got worse.
Blithe growled and slapped the back of his head. "Seriously, Darington?! Can't you just swallow your pride, just for an hour?!"
Darington growled and began to leave. "Fuck off! I just wanted to live peacefully and go back!"
"Dammit, Dior! Be fucking humble for once!"
They went back, unsuccessful.
Blaze was there, waiting on a text by their door. He glanced up and greeted with a smile.
"Hey, guys, how did it go?"
Blithe groaned. "Darington fucked it up..."
Darington huffed and went inside to go find Stripes or Zeg for comfort.
Blaze sighed. "Well, sorry, did all I…"
Ping!
"Oh!" Blaze glanced at the notification. "I gotta go! Bye!" He dashed off.
Blithe sighed and went to go clean or order.