Chapter Text
(Third Person POV)
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Today was quite the exciting day, or was exhausting the right word for it? While most days on the island were either relaxing or boring, today had brought some action.
M.Aleficent, the resident bad guy and ruler of the ferals, was after another powerful relic. Something more dangerous and powerfully potent than the titanium biscuit, known as the Paradox Prism.
As Catto had been told previously by Cheese, the Paradox Prism was a gem discovered a millennia ago, rumored to have untold powers that could shift universes. The rock was buried deep underground and heavily protected by layers of hard rock that couldn’t be broken by paw.
The dig site was surrounded by ferals with bombs, guns, and other dangerous weapons. Big Boi, Minori, Violet, Cheese, and Doggo stood on a hill a vast distance away.
“So that’s where it is. I was seriously wondering where on the island it was, never guessed it’d be under a mountain.” Cheese commented.
“Right.. Where’s Catto?” Minori thought out loud.
“I’m not sure, but I’m sure he’ll be here eventually. He specifically asked me to help.. not sure why..”
“Big Boi, you one-hit punch people.”
“..I guess. I guess I also owe him a lot.”
“Do we go in now while we wait?” Violet looked over.
“..we might as well.” Minori sighed, hoisting Doggo onto her back.
Cheese, with a smile, equipped his gun as everyone else drew their claws.
“Let’s go!”
On Minori’s word, the cats ran down the hill and were on the ferals within seconds. With their more advanced skill sets, the five beat them up pretty quickly, barely even breaking a sweat in the process. The four cats regrouped as Doggo dragged a cat by the leg over to Minori with a big, proud smile on his face.
“Ah- Doggo, drop it.”
Shrugging, Doggo dropped the cat and hopped back onto his mom. With everyone back, the five ran down the drilled out path and took the leap into the cave below.
As soon as they landed, a bunch of ferals already had their guns cocked and pointed at them.
“Ah! If it isn’t the heroes!” The prism shone brightly in the dark cave, and just then, M.Aleficent ducked out from under the Prism and approached the group. “You’re just in time to witness my ultimate triumph! Where’s the..”
“Late.” They all responded in unison.
“Hm. Whatever, no matter! He doesn’t need to be here for this..” M.Aleficient turned his head and muttered under his breath, “..it’s not like I need the validation or anything, whatever man..” and then straightened back up.
“None of you pesky cats will be able to stop me now! Not when the Paradox Prism is right within my grasp!” M.Aleficient looked up at the shimmering stone with a greedy smile before running off to get into his mecha-suit that he’d stored in the corner.
Just as he hopped in, a white flash came down from the cave entrance and knocked the ferals over like bowling pins. Catto, quickly getting up from the ground, slashed into a few more before turning to his friends. “You guys okay?”
“Would be better if ya showed up on time.” Minori commented as the whole group ran off to deal with more henchmen.
“Not my fault!” Catto griped while fighting. “I got a bad headache on the way over. I was delayed!”
“Well next time get some more sleep, doofus!” Big Boi threw a biscuit right behind Catto, hitting a feral that was preparing for a sneak attack. “..and drink more water!”
“Haha!.. No guarantees.” Catto did have to admit he wasn’t exactly at the best at taking care of himself.
“Argue like a married couple later!” Violet put a paw on his shoulder and pointed.
M.Aleficent, already in his mech, had one giant metal paw around the prism, attempting to strangle it out of the ground.
“Oh no you don’t!” Catto scowled, leaping up to the mech and banging against the head with his paws.
“Nice try, Catto! But this glass is unbreakable!” Moving one paw to his head, the mech grabbed Catto and flung him off of it, leaving him to splat against the wall.
“Okay then.. doing this the hard way, huh?” Catto, leaping up the cave walls, put himself in a position to be able to slam into the mech’s paws. “I’ll knock that gem right out of your claws! ..and also that shitty eyeliner off your face.”
“Catto! You can’t do that!” Cheese yelled up at him.
“What?! Why not?!”
“If you accidentally hit the prism, there’s no telling what’s gonna happen! We have to be more careful!”
“I’d listen to Cheese if I were you! I don’t want you getting hurt!” Big Boi also looked up at him.
“Yeah, Catto! Find another way!” M.Aleficent chuckled mockingly. “I’m sure both of your big, stupid, slow freaks of friends know exactly what to do!”
“..oh do NOT piss me off right now..!” Catto could feel the fur rising on his back. Despite the warnings, Catto could feel his blood boil as he leapt forward, dashing and aiming right for the metal paw and prism.
“CATTO!” Minori yelled out after him, but it was too late as Catto impacted the prism.
The shatter was loud, and right after it, the crystal unleashed a huge wave of energy that they’d never felt before. It was so powerful, in fact, that as soon as the shockwave had reached each of the cats, they had been knocked back and knocked out cold, including Catto himself. A wave of energy went through his entire body, paralyzing him as he flew backwards.
It seemed like the entire world had shattered along with that shockwave, a bright purple enveloping the land as the ground cracked like the prism.
It was all blurry.
…
And then, it was cold. Not the cold you’d expect in snowy weather, rather the cold you’d expect in a large, empty void that was devoid of sunlight.
Catto felt that cold hit him, yet couldn’t open his eyes. The shock had completely exhausted his body, wooziness affecting every part of him. He didn’t know where he was, nor could he exactly think about it.
All he could think about right now was the last call Minori had yelled to him as he hit the prism. A huge mistake.
…
As soon as he was able to move again, Catto blinked and opened his heavy eyes. His whole body basically resisted waking up, as every part felt extremely heavy and sluggish, but he needed to know where he was and what exactly happened to make him feel so worn out.
Blinking a bit more, Catto lazily pushed himself up up the ground, his vision beginning to come into focus as the dizziness began to dissipate.
“Ugh..” Catto groaned, resisting the urge to lay back down as he sat up. His vision finally focusing, Catto saw that he was down some kind of alleyway, the only light being the yellow, rusty glow of streetlights. The metal walls were lined with torn propaganda, and the concrete below him was dusty.
“What the.. where am I..?” His surroundings woke him up a little bit more as he wondered what this place was. The air was musty and there were robots everywhere that he could look. In the street in front of him? Robots. In the sky? Robots.
“Is this Catto Land..? No. The buildings look way too weird to be Catto Land.” Catto stood up, beginning to walk towards the street. Only then did he notice how red the sky was, and how weirdly quiet it was, save for the whirring of the bots in the skies. Wherever this was, it wasn’t on his island.
Trying to figure out how he’d ever end up somewhere like this, memories of the fight over the prism began floating back to him. The prism, it had something to do with this.
‘Ugh.. I’m trying to think of more, but my mind is pulling blanks.’ Catto rubbed his eyes. ‘Whatever, I need to figure out where I am first before I worry about the details.’ Shaking himself awake, Catto simply started by walking down the street.
The place seemed incredibly dreary, with robots automating most tasks. The streets, which should be filled with people and colorful stores, were instead replaced with dull, gray businesses with tired cats in uniforms. The cats he passed on the streets had their heads down and were completely quiet as they just trudged along.
Thinking he could get some answers, Catto ran up to a cat.
“Hey there! Do you mind telling me where this is?”
The cat looked at him, before turning back around.
“Ah- hey! I know you can hear me!” Catto tried again before turning around to another cat. “Can you tell me where this is? Please?” They just diverted their gaze.
“Damn! Am I the only cat who knows how to speak here?!” Stopping to think, suddenly Catto’s eyes spotted a certain somebody across the street, someone long and particularly bouncy. His eyes immediately lit up as he ran across the street to see them. They’d have to know him, he’s helped them so many times.
“Bouncy! Hey! Over here!” Catto waved as he crossed over. Bouncy blinked and turned to look at him, seemingly dumbfounded.
“Oh, dude, you have no clue how glad I am to see a familiar face! You never told me you moved to a.. city.”
For some reason, Bouncy looked at him like he was a complete stranger, dressed in the same dull uniform. “Uh-uhh..”
“..cmon, do you not remember me or something? It’s kinda rude to forget the cat who's done, well, basically your entire village a favor.” Catto half joked.
Bouncy looked around at the other cats, and then to Catto. He seemed scared more than anything, yet remained completely silent.
All of a sudden, a few flying robots came down and shone spotlights directly onto Catto.
“UNIDENTIFIED CITIZEN, YOU ARE IN VIOLATION OF LAW 1-25C AND LAW 1-34B. STAND DOWN NOW AND COME WITH US.”
“Law? Is one of your laws dressing like a high-school janitor everywhere you go. Yeesh, this place is pretty depressing, Bouncy. I dunno why you’d move here!”
The robots turned to Bouncy. His tail immediately curled close to him. “I-I DON’T KNOW HIM!”
They turned back to Catto.
“What..?”
By then, Bouncy had bounced away.
“STAND DOWN NOW AND COME WITH US.”
“Uhhh.. listen I’d love to, but.. I’ve got a few friends to find so..”
Turning away, Catto started running down the street. “Later!”
Running on all fours, Catto started to look around the place more. The robots whirred after him and started shooting lasers, which barely missed Catto. Before he knew it, the robots started to get further and further away. Despite how fast he was, and how much he ran, he didn’t seem anywhere near tired. Spotting a nearby alleyway, Catto decided to split and run in.. but he couldn’t slow down.
Panicking, he made a sharp turn to the left and ran face first into the wall.
“Ouughhh… ouch.. huh?”
Sitting up and looking down at his paws, Catto only then realized they were radiating with an intense energy that he didn’t know. Whatever it was, it made him fast, and was probably the only reason he was able to escape those robots.
“Okay.. I’m in a strange new place with weird new powers that I have no clue what they do. Awesome. So much for a normal day.” Catto quickly griped before leaning back against something. It wobbled underneath him as he adjusted himself. He didn’t wanna move until his paws stopped radiating whatever mystery power he picked up on the way here.
His wind wandered back to Bouncy. Yelling out that he didn’t know him, what was that about? Sure, Bouncy and Catto weren’t all that close, but did they know each other and they talked a lot whenever Catto passed the wheat village. It was weird, in fact, all the cats acted weird. Nobody talked to him, responded to him, they barely even looked at him.
This place was a mystery, but he had to find a way to get back home, especially after that prism blast. The group couldn’t keep on fighting alone!
Standing up, Catto turned and started to dust himself off before realizing what he was laying on. An old, discarded sign that read..
“Welcome to Grasslands Village!”
Catto was confused for a second. Why would they have a sign like this here? His head lowered in thought before looking up at one of the propaganda posters on the wall. At that moment, realization hit him like a brick.
“..no. No.. that can’t be it, right?” Shaky, Catto found an old rusty staircase that led to the top of the building next to him. He immediately started to climb it, running until he reached the tope. Once he did, he looked out at the mechanical city before him. The Grasslands Village wasn’t much to note, but Catto knew that place like the back of his paw. The street lines, the houses, he knew it all.
And this was it. He was already home.
“This.. it isn’t…”
M.Aleficient did it. He won.
“I have to find someone, anyone I know! This is all so confusing.. they have to tell me what happened!” Turning around and running back down the steps, Catto was about to go back out on the street before he heard the bots that were chasing him earlier. Quickly, he decided that wouldn’t be a good idea before leaping behind the abandoned sign to hide. Down another path, Catto saw a way underground that a few other cats were taking.
‘Must be transportation. Maybe I can find someone there..!’
Waiting a little bit longer, Catto crept out from behind the sign and quietly sprinted over to the stairs and down them as well. He was already an outlaw, so entering the underground terminal with no money wouldn't be the worst crime.
Down here was a lot more crowded than the streets on the surface. Each cat passed by each other with the same dull and tired look on their faces.
Not having the patience to deal with cats who wouldn’t bother talking a t all, he pushed though the crowd and right up to the side of the tracks. Curiously, Catto looked up at the destinations.
‘Grass Sector
Wheat Sector
Old City Sector’
All those names were places he recognized. Did this one city spread across the entire island?
Before he could think any more about it, he heard a few cats yelp and the sound of machines start to roll down the stairs. Those bots were most likely still on the search for him for breaking some kind of law. Very quickly looking around, Catto spotted a space behind the stairs and ran over, bonking his head on the wall before landing behind the stairs.
‘Agh.. I need to find a way to control these powers.’
“ALL CITIZENS, STAND DOWN.”
Worried mumbles echoed through the crowd as the robots proceeded to check each cat to see if they were Catto. He knew that he probably shouldn’t look, but he was too curious not to.
Peeking out from behind the stairs, all the cats were knelt down and the bots were scanning them. Though, one specific cat caught his attention. He was slightly larger than the rest. Looking around to make sure no bot spotted him, he stood up and walked onto one of one of the side platforms in the tunnel. That gray coat and those stripes seemed incredibly familiar to Catto.
‘...is that..?’ A smile immediately crossed his face. He knew where to go, but he needed these bots to move first. It took forever for them to stop searching the cats, but once they did, they quickly left the area so that they could search other parts of the city. The cats seemed a little worried, immediate whispers going around about who they were searching for.
Catto couldn’t care less about what they were talking about, though, as now he’d found one of his closest friends, and he was gonna get to him no matter what. Sprinting out from under the stairs and over to the edge of the tunnel, he skidded to a stop before walking onto the side platform. The platform was empty, it didn’t even have safety railings. The platform looked nearly worthless, save for one metal door on the wall.
Assuming that was where he went, Catto walked over and tried to find a door handle right before realizing the door was password protected.
‘Shit, I gotta guess. Uhh…’ Catto itched his brain, trying to think of what Big Boi would use for a 4 digit password. “..wait!”
With a smile, Catto typed in 0 9 2 0.. and the door opened!
‘Huh! Guess it does pay off to know your friend’s birthdays.’
Catto walked in and looked around. What seemed to be an old storage room had been transformed into a living space. A hammock hung in the corner with various worn pillows and blankets and next to it was a fridge. Various art and graffiti covered the walls with paint cans on the floor. Small tech gizmos laid here and there, and in one corner was a huge workshop. A computer in the corner, a workspace with scraps of metal laying around, tools, tech parts, and much more. A stereo laid on the table, blasting music as a cat in a welding mask welded something together. It seemed like he hadn’t noticed him come in, so Catto slowly approached the table to see what he was working on.
Eventually, the cat stopped welding the metal and lifted the mask, holding his creation up to the light. He had purple glasses, a grey vest, and some kind of equipment on his paws and tail.
“Hmm.. if it’s gonna fit the tech I want in it, it might have to be a little thinner..”
“What’s it gonna be?”
The cat nearly jumped out of his seat, dropping the metal against the table and backing up.
“Whoops! Sorry, guess I should have made more noise when I came in, but it’s so nice to see you, Big Boi!”
His eyes widened, and three metal tails extended from his back as he drew his purple, cybernetic claws. “WHO ARE YOU?!” He hissed out.
“Woah, Big Boi, relax!” Catto shot his paws up in defense. “Sorry if I scared you!”
Before Catto could say anything else, he got hit with a punch to the face that left him tumbling to the ground away from the elevated table.
With ease, the cat pushed himself off the ground with his three extra tails and leapt around the place.
“HOW’D YOU GET IN HERE?! WHO SENT YOU?!”
Catto, recovering, rubbed his face. He knew Big Boi hit hard, but he didn’t know he hit THAT hard.
“Agh! Wait! Big Boi, I’m not here to-!”
The cat launched at him and swiped, barely missing and launching past him. His claws cut clean through the wall he landed against. One swipe from those and he would have been toast.
“The name is CLAWS!” Claws hissed through his teeth and continued swiping at Catto. Not wanting to risk getting sliced, Catto focused on dodging.
“I’m not here to hurt you!”
“Likely story, punk!” Claws launched himself again, hitting Catto head on and launching the both of them out of the shelter and onto a passing train. The wind blew against both of the cats as Claws chased Catto down the train, constantly swiping. While Catto struggled to maintain his balance, Claws kept his easily, thanks to the extra tails. The tunnel grew darker, the only source of light being the small lights on either side of the tunnel.
“Come on, we’re best friends! We have been since we were kittens! You have to know that!” As much as he should be fighting to save his own ass, he really didn’t want to hurt Big Boi.
“I don’t have ANY friends!” Claws scowled and reached for him again.
Eventually, the train stopped at one of the stations.
“Cmon, Big Boi! You have to remember our old village, don’t you? None of this boring, metal, city stuff was here.. don’t you remember all that?”
“Don’t play mind games with me, intruder! I outwit you in every aspect!” They leapt onto another train as it started off again.
Dodging a few more swipes, Catto decided that he’d have to find a way to fight without risking getting ripped apart. Taking one last dodge, Catto aimed for a low blow and rammed his body into Claws’ stomach. Claws flew back and dragged his claws among the roof of the train to slow his fall. Once he could get back up, Claws felt one of his tails slip off of the train, throwing him off balance. Two of his tails clung to the train as he hung off the edge. Clearly panicked, he tried to get back up with his extra tail.
Before he could get back up, a light shone on him as another train began to approach him. He whimpered, knowing exactly what was going to happen.. until something wrapped around him and flung them both back onto the side platform with the metal door. They’d apparently done a full lap and ended up back here.
Getting off of Claws, Catto reached a paw out. “You okay..?
Getting up, Claws looked at him before backing away. “..why would you save me like that?”
“Because we’re FRIENDS! Have you not been listening?!”
“..I don’t have any, meaning you are here for some other reason, so spit it out, intruder!”
“Just.. please. Stop.” Tired, Catto sank against the wall and laid his head back. Seeing that he wasn’t going to do anything, Claws slowly did the same, eyes still fixed on Catto.
“How could you not remember me? Don’t you know how we first met? I remember it clear as day myself…
…I was playing in the orphanage courtyard alone with all the stones I had collected. I dropped them all, and a few other cats came over to me and started bullying me for my lisp and my slippery paw. Suddenly, you came over and scared them off. Later, I saw the same bullies picking on you for being big, so I paid you back in kind…
…and we’ve been best friends ever since!”
Claws looked at him, confused. “That’s not how that happened. I’ve always been alone…
…back when I was a kitten, I grew up lonely. No parents, no friends, I only had myself to rely on. One day, I was jumped by bullies who picked on me for being big. I was weak, scared to fight back. I took many beatings. I was tormented. It came to a peak one day where I was pushed down a hill and slammed into a wall. I broke all of my claws to the point they’d never grow back. It felt like the torture would never end.. until I took my life into my own paws. I got into tech, built myself a fresh pair of claws to defend myself.
…I live for myself and no one else.”
Catto looked at him, dumbfounded as Claws looked away again.
“That just.. it doesn’t make sense. This place is home.. and you’re you but you’re.. also not?” Catto just looked at the far wall, a billion questions painting themselves all over his head.
“So.. um.. what else have we done..?” Claws felt dumb for even asking, looking up at Catto.
The question dragged Catto’s thoughts away from the complicated situation and back to Claws. With a smile, he started thinking back. “Well, you and I live in this village in some beautiful grasslands. You’re a baker.. and gosh, you make the best fish ever.”
“Really?”
“Yeah! We have picnics all the time. Life isn’t all that much, but living in the same place as your best friend is pretty awesome, even if you do drop stuff a lot.” Catto stood up. “Life can be a little dull sometimes, but when we go on adventures, there’s no one I’d rather go with than you!”
“Ah.. are you supposed to be floating like that?”
Catto looked down. He hadn’t even noticed his feet had picked up off the ground. “Of course. Weird powers. I guess that’s one thing I can always rely on.” He sarcastically commented, annoyed.
Claws got to his feet, sighing. “..guess I gotta take care of this now.” Reaching into a pocket, Claws pulled out something that looked like a weapon and pointed it right at Catto.
“AH-! HEY, WAIT! WE JUST HAD A MOMENT!”
“Chill out.” The weapon turned out to be a scanner, and Catto immediately felt really stupid.
Reading up the information that showed up on the small monitor, Claws raised an eyebrow. “Hmm.. strange. There’s energy spikes going throughout your whole body, and they’re very inconsistent.. do you normally have powers?”
“No!” Catto responded, floating upwards like a balloon.
“Then you’re coming with me for a second.” Grabbing his paw, Claws dragged him back into his base. He did accidentally whack Catto’s head against the top of the doorframe, but refused to acknowledge it as he closed the door and walked over to his workspace. Claws began to dig through all of his mechanical accessories, his tails helping him do so.
As soon as he found the accessories he wanted, Claws plugged them into his computer and started to type new code into them before switching and focusing on the real electrical components.
“They’re cool, by the way.” Catto commented, floating pretty close to the ceiling. He got so close he was able to push himself downwards again.
“..huh?” Claws eyes remained on his work.
“The tails and claws? They’re super sick.. a little bit scary, but my point stands!”
“..uh.” He didn’t really know how to respond to being complimented, so instead of answering, he just remained silent. Finally finishing up what he needed to, Claws turned around with a few metal rings around his arm. “Here.”
Pulling Catto back down, he attached two metal rings to his feet (which thankfully pulled him back down), two to his paws, and one around his neck. Each one electrically snapped into space. “The energy you’re giving off is still a mystery, but these should help regulate the energy in your body so you don’t spontaneously combust.”
Right as he finished speaking, a low droning noise started to come from the devices.
“..are you completely sure I’m not going to explode?!”
“..you shouldn’t.”
“Ehh..” Catto nervously looked at the metal on himself.
All of a sudden, the metal readjusted itself and shrunk itself into a more comfortable fit, along with a darker colored metal. A glowing line of blue decorated the rings like a pattern.
Seeing the adjustments, Catto perked up. “Holy shit, man! These are sick as hell!”
“Interesting. Your body seems to be attuning with the energy instead of resisting it.”
“Whatever it is, I feel awesome!” Catto bounced, quickly running up the wall and leaping off of it, rolling on the floor and leaping onto another wall.
“Be careful! There a lot of things you can break in here!” Claws scowled.
Catto skidded to a stop. “Eheh.. sorry. Well now what?”
“What’s happening here is that you most likely come from another world. We need to get you back to that world before those bots come after you again.”
“Oh yeah, I’m technically a fugitive. I forgot about that.”
Claws looked at him with a disappointed look before pulling up a map of the city. “It feels like you appeared from nowhere, so it’s gonna be hard to track your home down without getting access to cameras in Titanium Headquarters.”
“Titanium Headquarters?”
“Yeah, owned by the Titanium Council.”
“..what?”
“Does Doctor Mr. Aleficient ring any bells?”
“Oh, the red guy I beat up every other month? Yeah, I know M. Aleficient. Big pain in the ass. ..when exactly did he become a doctor?”
“..okay then. Well, I can try to hack them from-“
Before he could finish, both of the cats could hear metal clashing against metal as something banged at the door.