Blaze the Hedgehog

Blaze the Hedgehog was an incredibly fast hedgehog that existed 100 years into the future of an alternate timeline created during the events of Snip the Strip. Claiming to be a descendant of the famous Sonic the Hedgehog, he became that world's arrogant hero up until Sonic's sudden return. He is significantly faster than Sonic ever was, rivaling Super Sonic in speed prowess.
== Appearance ==
Initially, Blaze appeared as a red-furred, blue-eyed hedgehog with elongated quills that curved upwards due to his DNA being saturated with microscopic quantities of chaos energy, making him, in effect, a perpetual super transformation. The only clothes he wore were typical white gloves and a pair of blue heat-resistant shoes. These shoes were not to the standards of Sonic's, and while heat-resistant were far from frictionless, leading directly to his "Trailblazer" ability, leaving a fiery wake behind him as the friction caused by his shoes would ignite the ground behind him.
After K2 Lou granted him an escape from inevitable erasure, he arrived in the primary timeline and inadvertently ran through a clothing store as he arrived. This left him donning a black leather jacket/sweatshirt combo, wearing the long hood over his face and hiding his identity. He also found himself replacing his white gloves with black leather fingerless ones, and replacing his shoes as well.
The run between the two dimensions also left its physical marks on him due to the strain of pushing through between spacetime and dimensional rifts outside of a protective vehicle of some kind, alternating the curvature of his quills while the ionizing radiation in the portal immediately branded a few streaks in his fur, bleached gold from exposure to the radiation between realities.
== Personality ==
Initially, Blaze had let his fame go to his head, becoming incredibly narcissistic and was addicted to being the center of everyone's attention. His level of pride was through the roof but the very few claims from the equally sparse number of individuals who disliked him on Desola that this pride led to him making mistakes went unfounded. To most, he was a great hero, and to some, he was almost a god. When Sonic awoke from his Chaos-infused hibernation, Blaze's followers began to follow Sonic instead and Blaze lost it, showing a short temper and, with only minor prodding and suggestion from another individual, quickly evolved violent tendencies, revealing a level of both sociopathy and psychopathy.
Upon failing to beat Sonic and losing his followers however, he fell into a deep, brooding depression, showing a need for social interaction and also strengthening the case for his attention addiction.
Though he should have been erased from ever having existed in the first place, K2 Lou bridged the gap between timelines and he took the opportunity to travel to the remaining and original timeline, as K2 Lou had intended. In this new reality he began to display some sinister tendencies, causing great swathes of damage to environments without a single care, as all that has come to matter to him is his vengeance against his claimed-to-be ancestor, Sonic.
Like Shadow, he has become a loner in this new reality and shuns the assistance of other allies of K2 Lou because he desires to take down Sonic on his own. He is and always has been a brash loudmouth, making dramatic claims and boasts before battle. He does not however make empty threats, and will carry them out to the best of his abilities, even if it means returning later when an opponent least expects it. His arrogance and self righteousness again rivals Shadow's, however while possessing a violent demeanor his is a symptom of incredible rage instead of smugness; he is however extremely stubborn.
Despite all this, nobody seems to know who he is, which irks him to no end. One reason he follows K2 Lou, other than the subconscious influence K2 Lou has on corrupting his brain into madness, is because K2 Lou openly recognizes Blaze. His rage is fueled far more when he becomes teased about Blaze being a "girl's name", leading to his rivalry with Blaze the Cat during the Reunion Event.
== Background History ==
=== Early life ===
Very little is currently known about Blaze's childhood, outside of what he has used as bragging rights amongst his followers.
Blaze claims to be the descendant of the famous Sonic the Hedgehog and Amy Rose, though this appears to be at least somewhat incorrect as Sonic is eventually discovered to have been in stasis ever since the creation of the post-apocalyptic Desola thereby indicating that, while Amy Rose could very well be his ancestor, Sonic could invariably be not. This sudden awakening of the mutated Sonic also collapsed his claim to in fact be a reincarnation of Sonic himself.
Once evidence that Sonic is not his ancestor emerges after K2 Lou brings him into another reality to save him from being erased from existence alongside the other Desolans, he finds himself unsure which hedgehogs in the timeline actually exist in the one his splits off from. He finds himself confused as to whether his paternal ancestor might be Ashura, Manic, Scourge, Shadow, or Silver, and whether his maternal ancestor might be Amy Rose or Sonia (much to his chagrin).
=== An Alternate Timeline ===
When Sonic clashed with Dr. Eggman he succeeded in severely damaging the mad doctor's newest machine scheme—the Chaos Engine. However, the damage led to unexpected results, and the machine malfunctioned and overloaded, cracking time and causing the Chaos Emeralds, Super Emeralds and Master Emerald to all grow outwards in tiny crystalline shards of pure chaos. These immediately engulfed both Sonic and Eggman, whom were in the immediate vicinity and the event caused irreparable harm to the planet's atmosphere, environments and stability, quickly turning it into a post-apocalyptica setting the world over.
With Eggman and Sonic encased in emerald and entering a prolonged hibernation state, the world was left to its own devices, and life struggled to survive. 84 years after the cataclysm, Blaze was born. While his heritage can be debated as there has not been anyone known besides himself to confirm or deny his claims, he eventually began to call himself the descendant of the great Sonic the Hedgehog. Many quickly began to believe him due to his incredible speed prowess, and when a villain had arisen and he began doing battle with it, many even began to worship him as a living god and a great hero, believing him to be the actual reincarnation of Sonic. Blaze fed on this praise, and it changed him, turning him into a self-righteous, arrogant being who thought himself better than others.
However, when Sonic was released from his crystalline moorings, Blaze's world fell apart. He could no longer be considered the reincarnation of Sonic if Sonic were still living, and he began to despise his potential-ancestor with each passing day as he watched his followers worship him less and less, making him more of a simple hero than a living god. When Sonic entered the town of Desola where Blaze resided, his followers reveled over the blue hedgehog's arrival, leading to a last straw in Blaze's mind. Blaze challenged Sonic to a duel—specifically an epic race across the local environment, with the winner being deemed the true hero. Sonic accepted this challenge, and despite them being an almost even match, Sonic won. By the end of the day, Blaze was alone, abandoned entirely by his people.
Initially, Blaze slipped into a deep, brooding depression about the situation—he suddenly wasn't better than everyone, and he didn't really know how to properly deal with the emotions and realizations that stemmed directly from it. This may very well have been the end of his story, were it not for an inkling of a voice growing in the back of his mind...
This voice called itself Deep Mind, and it encouraged Blaze to obtain retribution for how Sonic had treated him, assuring him that the only reason Sonic won was because he had cheated, as his shoes were frictionless as opposed to Blaze's. With aid from Blaze's arrogance and pride, this was a fairly easy task for the Deep Mind, and soon the red-furred hedgehog plotted how he could best get back at the blue blur. It was soon decided that if Sonic was still alive, perhaps the mad doctor that he had fought with was also alive, and he sought to locate and release the menace.
=== A Family Reunion ===
Despite Sonic correcting the timeline and thus erasing it occurrence from existence, K2 Lou could feel Blaze's malice through time, space and dimension. He had a direct hand in stabilizing several rifts across Desola, one of which occurred in the Beach Ruins Zone, where Blaze had been contemplating the end of his reality. Though he had all but given up on his dreams and ideals, seeing the rift open as reality around him ceased to be caused him to instinctually rush through it, only to find himself in another reality.
Crashing into this new dimension in the middle of a clothing store, Blaze found himself inadvertently donning a leather jacket and sweater combo, and burned through a city as well as an old growth forest, irreparably damaging the area in only the few minutes he had been there due in whole to his Trailblazing. He would come to use the jacket to disguise himself, hoping to surprise Sonic once he located him.
Like with Deep Mind before, Blaze would find himself easily swayed by the whispering promises for revenge that he could feel tugging at the back of his mind, goading him forward. He seemed open to the idea of corruption unlike most others goaded on by K2 Lou, and slowly lost what little sanity he had left.
Eventually, he would encounter Sonic the Hedgehog and reveal himself to his supposed father, only to be shocked and greatly hurt that Sonic had no idea who he was—he had not realized that the Sonic of his time was a future version of this Sonic who had more than likely been erased along with all of Desola. After a quick skirmish, Blaze fled the scene, emotionally reeling from the event.
For a time following this encounter, he wandered aimlessly, not only discovering several other hedgehogs but also revealing evidence that he may not be descended from Sonic, after all, which began to make more and more sense to him as he realized that Sonic would have been in stasis during the time that he was born, and that if Amy Rose was not impregnated by Sonic yet, then there was little chance she would have been earlier on, when the original time split that formed Desola would have occurred.
== Powers ==
=== Chaos Control ===
Eventually after meeting Shadow and observing him in battle conditions, Blaze discovers an innate, albeit much weaker, capacity for the utilization of Chaos Control. However, unlike Shadow, Blaze can use the ability even without holding a Chaos Emerald as he has the emeralds infused into his own genetic code. Even so as stated before his powers do not compare to Shadow's mastery over them. Because Blaze is such a negative individual, his state of mind only allows him to make use of the negative energies of the emeralds.
Because Blaze is using the chaos energy instilled in his very body, using Chaos Control puts a physical drain on him, and using it too much in quick enough succession will leave him exhausted and needing a breather, even in the middle of battle. As such, he is learning that he must be especially cautious with its usage, and that he should only call upon it should the need absolutely call for it.
However, should Blaze collect the actual Chaos Emeralds, less drain would take effect on his body and he could likely use his powers to a greater level of mastery.
==== Blink ====
Blink is Blaze's answer to the Chaos Control teleportation. Due to his novice level in usage of the Chaos techniques, Blaze can only teleport a short distance away, "blinking" to a location he can physically see. Due to the draining effects of Chaos Control on his body, he tends to only use this to escape battle he has lost.
==== Chaos Mend ====
Chaos Mend allows Blaze to heal recently sustained injuries. This technique requires quite a bit of focus, and can therefore not effectively be used in battle. He tends to use the technique immediately after escaping a battle, and depending upon the severity of his wounds, its usage can either leave him winded or completely wiped out.
=== Super Transformation ===
Like Sonic, Shadow and Silver, Blaze is capable of using a super transformation to enter a Super State that transforms him into Uncontrolled Blaze. However, unlike these other three he has not shown an ability to transform using the seven regular Chaos Emeralds, and instead his Uncontrolled Blaze form originates from harnessing the power of the seven Super Emeralds instead—this is because, like the Sonic of his own timeline, he naturally possesses the power of the regular Chaos Emeralds already ingrained in his DNA, which no longer existed in that state in Desola. It is possible that, given his arrival in the original timeline, he could harness the seven Chaos Emeralds to manifest a regular Super Form, but this has yet to be seen.
In his Uncontrolled Blaze form, he is bestowed with new abilities including increased speed and heat output, flight potential, virtual invulnerability, as well as a sudden mastery of pyrokinesis, the ability to control fire around him.
== Abilities ==
Being a hedgehog presumably related to Sonic in some way, Blaze has many of his talents, including super speed as well as more technical abilities such as the Spindash. However, he is naturally faster than Sonic is, due to minor chaos radiation and the mutagenic property it served him at an early age. However, unlike Sonic and his frictionless shoes, Blaze's shoes cause ample amounts of friction, leading to an ability of his called Trailblazing — this leaves a streak of flames in his wake. His friction can also cause him to ignite the atmosphere around him, creating a fireball around him that he can use in another ability called the Flaming Dash.
== Skills ==
Blaze is a brash and insanely fast fighter, with his speed greatly surpassing Sonic's and rivaling Super Sonic's—it is believed that if he invested in frictionless shoes or could hover naturally that he would surpass Super Sonic's speed prowess. Were this the case however he would also lose his trademark Trailblazing technique, which is directly caused by the friction his running causes. He is more powerful than a number of opponents, but his true strength is his speed. He has no formal training but honed his skills simply from surviving in the post-apocalyptic Desola wasteland.
=== Fighting Style ===
Though insanely fast, Blaze's melee fighting prowess stems from his arms, and footwork is generally reserved strictly for movement and not for strikes. His speed is virtually unmatched and he can easily dodge attacks that he sees coming, and is able to move behind an opponent and strike, performing what can essentially be called "hit-and-run" attacks. His speed can also be used to dramatically ramp up the damage he can deal, with his heaviest strikes hitting immediately following a sonic boom.
Blaze fights dirty and has zero qualms about finishing an opponent early. His preferred method of execution is immolation, which he tends to do by tightly surrounding his foes with his Trailblazing. All of his techniques are considered brutal and harsh. Generally speaking, he will use his quick but weaker strikes while his opponent is a threat, and once he has incapacitated the target in some manner he can deliver more powerful techniques. He can spin dash, spin attack, and home in on foes but seems to use these techniques less often than his compatriots.
Should the battle not go in his favor, he will use his limited Chaos Control abilities to escape from battle and heal himself before planning another attack when the opportunity shows itself.
== Weaknesses ==
Despite fighting dirty and being beyond willing to execute opponents before a battle has officially come to a close, he outright refuses to kill Sonic early for any reason, instead looking to cause his rival as much pain and suffering before perishing. Unfortunately for him this has left him unable to successfully end the blue hedgehog's life as Sonic has always gained the upper hand or at least managed to escape at some point during a battle.
As there was no significant quantities of pure water in his reality and large bodies of water were all extremely poisonous and corrosive by their very nature, Blaze never learned to swim and will sink like a stone should he encounter it unless under the right conditions. He can move across the surface of water at fast speeds, producing large amounts of steam in the process from the heat he produces. However, should he fall below a minimal speed he will sink. Water also douses his Trailblazing flame. Though he can swallow large air bubbles to prolong his life underwater, his inexperience with doing so means he only receives half the oxygen, partially due to his own silent panicking and wasting air in the process.
== Trivia ==
*Blaze the Hedgehog was created in August of 1995, as part of a fangame called "Sonic the Hedgehog: Snip the Strip". As such he may very well be Somarinoa's oldest personal Sonic-based fan character. Another interesting bit of trivia is that he was created a full decade before another character with the same name was released in canon material.
*The original artwork done for Blaze was during 1999, when Somarinoa was first practicing and learning how to sprite — as such, he was nothing more than a recolored Super Sonic, although the pixels were all placed on their own so he wasn't technically an edited sprite. The image found here has been decidedly made as reference to this origin, and is therefore edited sprites (although this is no longer how Somarinoa chooses to normally operate).
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