"They're not in." Nack said.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Blaze asked.
Nack nodded his head. This was the right building, he knew it. He had the address memorised, but today was the first time he'd actually stood in front of it, in part due to the expense of getting to such a remote location. In a sense he'd been lucky that Blaze was carrying so many valuables.
And yet here he was, waiting to meet someone whom not so long ago he had pinned down underneath his gun. Of course, had he succeeded there, he wouldn't have met Blaze, and wouldn't be trying to help her get back.
"So now what?" Nack asked the cat.
"What option is there, but to wait." Blaze said, as she sat on the step outside the building. "I don't like it, but unless you've any other bright ideas, this is all we have."
Nack looked at the building, then at the cat. He had an idea, but knew she wouldn't like it. Nonetheless, it was a workable idea. Nack walked around to the side of the house, and climbed atop some rocks. Carefully, he leaned up against one of the windows.
"What are you… are you trying to break in?"
"Hear me out, okay," the weasel said, ready to defend himself, "maybe there's something in there that will tell us where they are, or even better allow you to contact them."
"But that's breaking in to someone's house."
"You said yourself, they know you. When it's friends, and it's an emergency, it makes sense right?"
Blaze reluctantly accepted Nack's point. She watched as the weasel began to pry open one of the buildings locked windows. The weasel grunted and strained for a few seconds before the window successfully opened allowing for Nack to squeeze himself into the building.
"I'm in," he said quietly, "you coming?"
Blaze looked around. Breaking her way into people's houses was not something she'd done before. Yes, she'd broken into plenty of Eggman Nega's bases, but that was different, the safety of her kingdom was at stake. Then she remembered that her kingdom as still at stake and her conscience lifted, if only slightly, as she made her way into Sonic's house.
It was a mess. In front of them was a battered old sofa, full of holes that Blaze could only imagine Sonic himself had unintentionally created. It was covered in worn blankets, and positioned next to a coffee table that was almost more filth than wood, littered with empty cans of fizzy drinks, bottles, and wrappers to fast food. The smell of old burgers, no, hotdogs, hung in the air. Nearby sat a large pile of videogames, most of them half open, and with the wrong games in the cases.
Blaze's eyes followed around the room. Nearby there was a large TV, dusty, but with a casual effort made to clean the screen, along with more empty bottles of cola and crisp packets. A discarded sock sat on the floor infront of it, and the cat didn't want to imagine where the other sock had ended up.
The pair began to move through the house. The kitchen was no cleaner than the first room, with plenty of washing up sitting in the sink for far too long. Parts of it were green and fuzzy, and Blaze couldn't begin to think of what was once cooked in those dishes.
At the back of the house sat an airplane hangar. To its credit, Blaze thought, the hangar was much better organised than the rest of the house was, save for a pile of advanced looking components and a couple of tools laying scattered on the ground. But organisation wasn't cleanliness, and the smell of engine oil was filling her nose and making her feel terrible.
Blaze kept looking through the house, scattered junk laid everywhere, with awards for heroism and bravery given as equal an importance in terms of care as a two week old pizza box, and numerous objects just lay littered throughout, ranging from pairs of sweatbands and old newspapers, to highly complicated engineering books and piles of fan mail. All in all, the place was a complete tip, surprising Blaze with its squalor thoroughly.
"Nice place," Nack said.
"You really think so?" Blaze said trying to hide her disbelief.
"It's nicer than my place is, that's for sure." Nack replied.
The pair continued looking, scouring the house for any sort of clue as to where Sonic had gone, or any way to reach them. Nack had already found a phone, but amongst all the piles of unsorted junk, there wasn't any sign of an address book, or even a scrap of paper that would allow them to call the hedgehog directly.
Then, while wandering around Tails workshop, Blaze noticed a slightly damp piece of paper. She looked at it closely, making careful efforts to pick it up. Immediately she recognised it, and stared in disbelief. "But, how?" she said aloud.
"What?" Nack said, as he entered into the workshop, forcing down a mouthful of slightly stale pizza as he did, "What is it?"
"This is my handwriting." Blaze said.
"And?"
Blaze looked at her associate. Obviously he didn't quite make the connection. "I'm from another dimension, and have never written anything to anyone in this dimension. How did something I wrote end up here?"
Nack shrugged. "What does it say anyway?"
"It's in code," Blaze replied, "It would take a while to work it out."
"I thought you said you wrote it."
"I said it's my handwriting," the purple cat corrected, "But I've never written anything like this."
Nack stood there blankly, not entirely sure what to make of this. On one hand he was still looking for a phone number, or a phone, or something that would help them, but also he couldn't see what the big deal was. "Maybe it's not you you." He eventually said.
"How do you mean?"
"Well, maybe there's another Blaze, in another dimension, or from the future, or some sort of thing." The weasel said, trying to explain complicated science he only vaguely understood. "Maybe there's another dimension, with another Blaze, and that Blaze has contacted Sonic."
"I suppose," Blaze said, her voice trailing off slightly. Suddenly, in the distance she heard what sounded like an explosion, and in her gut knew she had to see what was going on. Within seconds she'd dashed out the door, leaving Nack wondering what had just happened as he fixed his hat back onto his head.