Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recognized characters or gameplay patterns within this fanfiction. Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails, Eggman, Blaze, and all related characters of such are owned by SEGA. All original character's are owned by me.

Expendable 6.2

Blaze stood by next to Fire as Lightning and Katia got into another argument. Earth and Water stood at their posts, the elders seemingly used to this display of impropriety and disobedience. Katia's voice sounded strange though, slightly wooden, as though she were a puppet with her strings being played with.

It reminded her of the common scenes that she used to play out with her father, back in the Sol Empire. She would rant and rave, and he would refute every point while refusing to actually acknowledge what she was saying or why. Granted, she knew now that it was because he didn't have a reason, he was just trying to get a rise out of her. Lightning on the other hand, seemed to just like pushing Katia down.

The blankets to the meeting hall opened up again as both Spark and Tails entered. He seemed better off than the last time she'd seen him, and Spark was still dragging him along. He was giving her a side eye that Blaze knew meant that he was annoyed with her.

Katia turned and immediately started yelling at Spark. "How dare you! You knew that-" Blaze tuned her out instantly. Spark seemed to take offense and started yelling back, with Lightning cutting in every once in a while. Blaze tuned that out, too.

Tails quickly found his place next to Blaze, with Fire and Water next to them. "Sleep well?" he asked quietly. Fire's ears tuned forward.

"For the most part. How was Spark?" Blaze asked with more than a hint of amusement. He blushed a bit.

"Different. I'm not used to girls...well-"

"Being forward? I think that's just them, honestly," Blaze answered. "Get any other communications?" she asked, switching back to common. Both Fire and Water blinked in surprise, and tried to hurriedly decipher what she had said.

"No, not yet. I have it charging in the sun. I figure that by the time we get back it'll have enough power if I include the Charger," Tails said, also in common. It seemed he got the hint about wanting to maintain secrecy.

"Hey, what did I say about using that strange language! Especially not in front of the elders!" Katia shouted at them both.

Tails said something, a small growl appearing in his throat. What it was, Blaze wasn't sure, but it didn't seem like something she'd heard from him before. "When did you learn other languages?" she asked in surprise. It was a guttural sound, one that almost demanded respect and attention. Had he always known that?

"You aren't the only one that knows other languages. I just...don't like to use it. Knuckles taught me it," Tails explained quietly.

Katia, Lightning, and Spark were all silent. "Huh. And I hear I thought he was weak," Lightning exclaimed in wonder. "Will wonders never cease?" he finished. "You two, back to your charges," he commanded, his voice broaching no argument.

Blaze stood tall as Katia took her place next to her, with widened eyes and a shellshocked look. Spark was staring more at Tails than ever, and Blaze snickered to herself. If only she could go with, that way she could laugh at his expense. Serves him right for all the annoying and embarrassing conversations she had to have with him.

"Katia, you and your Exception will go to the mountains. Bring back the idol from the lost cove. You have three days," Lightning said quietly. Katia took a deep breath of air.

Before Blaze could ask to explain, the elder turned to Spark, "Spark, head to the southern swamp. There have been appearances of a vicious creature. Kill it. You have four days," Lightning said with a tone of finality.

Blaze blinked as Spark did much the same, a frown worming its way onto her face. "Both of you will take the rainbow roads. Usual limits apply. Dismissed," Lightning said, waving his hand away as if trying to clear his nose from a nasty smell. As both Katia and Spark took a breath to argue, he simply glared at them, and they both fell in line, withdrawing into themselves. He stared at Blaze, and she wondered if he was surprised as she stared right back. He didn't scare her, no matter how powerful he was.

She was the Guardian of the Sol Emeralds. That alone granted her great power. But it wasn't the title that did that; it was the hard work she'd put in to master the title that granted her that power.

She'd been through a lot worse than simply being glared at. Lightning seemed to realize that as he took a step back behind the dais. Katia gripped her hand gently. "Come on, we need to go," she whispered. There was a dullness to her eyes, Blaze noticed. It went away as quick as she saw it, and she wasn't sure if it was a trick of the light or something far more significant. Spark was gently pulling Tails away too, trying to maintain her own silence.

As soon as they stepped outside, Blaze murmured over to Tails, "Something strange happened there," she said. "Usually they're outspoken."

"You didn't feel it? He controlled them, somehow. Shut them down before they could start," Tails answered back in similar volume. "I think he was using electrokinesis on them, through their brains!"

"That's...nearly impossible. To have that kind of control..." Blaze started back in the language of the village.

"Lightning is very strong, and has great control over that strength. It is no surprise he is an elder," Katia murmured. She coughed a moment later, a few small drops of blood dripping from her mouth. She wiped off the corners of her mouth and smiled bright. "We should hurry."

Spark also had a coughing fit, but she pushed Tails back before he could see what was wrong. "I'm fine. Katia's right. We should hurry, we don't have much time."

They led them to a small hut on the far side of the village, close to where Flora's hut was. Blaze thought about popping in for a second to try to see if she could get some medicine for Spark and Katia, but she knew they both would have refused, especially in front of the other. The hut only had some stairs and torches at the front, burning bright and tall. The stairs went straight down into the earth, and Blaze had to push back the small amount of panic that threatened to engulf her. Tails too, she wasn't surprised, had to as well.

The stairs went down, and the further they went the colder it got. Small drips and streams poured from the sides as they went further down, and down. They weren't one direction, either. Many times they crossed under where they had gone before, and sometimes went into a spiral. As if many generations had come and gone making these stairs.

Finally they found themselves in a large room, deep, deep underground. It was to the point that Blaze was actually feeling warm from it. It was completely earth, with small pools of water that smelled sickeningly sweet on the sides. There were bricks holding the water in, and large torches in each of the four corners.

"These are the entrances to the rainbow roads," Spark said softly, as if her voice was tantamount to blasphemy here.

"Ours is over here," Katia whispered, just as soft and worshipful. The room broke off into a few smaller rooms, but there were no doors in sight. In each one, Blaze had to stop her sigh. Of course they were using the giant teleportal rings. But these had to be...a bit different. Much like the one they had found in the mountains not too long ago. "It will be strange-" Katia started.

Blaze grabbed her arm and pulled her in. "I've been through the Special Zone. Tails is an expert on them," she said loudly as she felt the ring teleport her and Katia. She kept an eye out for one that seemed out of the ordinary, but they all looked nearly the same. Would one of these take them home?

The same rainbow road that she'd found last time enveloped her this time, and she found herself running easily. It felt like running on air, she noticed, and the scent was that of clean air, with no civilization to taint it. Katia was struggling to keep up as Blaze pulled ahead, eager for the sanctity of the rings.

Sure enough, the rings were right in front of her, and she let out a large sigh as she grabbed a handful. They couldn't be taken out of the Special Zone, she knew, but it would give her a form of comfort. "You can't just take the sacred rings!" Katia said as she hopped from block to block. "They're sacred!"

"They're just rings," Blaze said, fighting off a grin. "They'll come back. For now, it's a comfort. Grab one!" she said, watching as the fox danced above her.

"Comfort!?" she asked, partially yelling. Blaze's eyes went wild as the colors paraded their way around them, the tube they were in gradually getting smaller, and then larger, with more floating blocks than ever. Walls of the rainbow blocks showed up. Katia's eyes went wide, "They've never done that before!" she said.

"Hopefully they won't again!" Blaze said as she slowed down, grabbing Katia's wrist. The wall took up the majority of the tube except for a small portion right at the top.

She called upon the flames in her heart, running up the wall with Katia's arm firmly in her grasp. The fox gasped again, but Blaze wasn't caring. The wall and blocks felt very different underneath her feet; like sand that wasn't hot, yet didn't compress.

She leapt over the wall with an ease that belied how often she'd done it, and with Katia still towing behind her. She felt the rings she'd gathered heat up a bit, before leaving back into the Special Zone. The tube started to glow white, and Katia was still shocked in silence. Blaze narrowed her focus, and felt the sudden acceleration that came from leaving the 'rainbow road'.

She found herself chilled instantly, and her feet cold underneath her. Katia came out next to her, her spear already raised. Blaze made a small fire around them, burning into the snow...it was snow. She looked around, seeing the mountaintop in front of her, with thousands of pounds of snow dropped all around like a white blanket. There weren't any footprints, and Katia slowly put away her spear.

Behind her was a small dais, with the giant teleportal ring slowly closing up. Katia reached down and pressed a small lever up, and the portal ring closed much faster. "That will tell everyone someone is at the mountain passage," she explained.

Blaze nodded, and she kept her eyes peeled. It was cold out, to the point of almost freezing. If she thought it was cold out in the fire district, she had another thing coming now.

Katia didn't seem to be too bothered by it though. "Come on, we only have three days," she said, waving her spear forward as her bare feet crunched into the snow. Blaze followed her, small fires popping up around her. "Are you cold?" Katia asked, a small smirk playing on her face.

"A bit," Blaze admitted, "but I'm not worried. Fire caller, and all that," she said, creating another ball in front of her, warming her torso nicely. She let one sat near the top of the base of her tail, warming her back.

"Speaking of, how did you do that? The rainbow road doesn't let elementalist abilities be used!" Katia asked.

Blaze shrugged. "No idea. I've always been able to. If you need to ask someone, ask Tails once we get back. He knows a lot more about that place than I do," she said.

"How? The rainbow road is rare! It's only with luck and a lot of work we found the portals that we did, let alone how to channel them open!"

"Adventure with Tails enough, and they become common," Blaze answered. Technically the actual answer was 'adventure with Sonic' but she wasn't about to admit that. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"The top of the mountain has a temple, that goes down. And...there's an idol, there, that Ikan'Thoa has been wanting to get for ages."

"And let me guess, it's guarded by hundreds of traps that everyone you've ever sent in goes in and is never seen again because they probably die in there," Blaze deadpanned.

"How did you know!?"

Blaze switched to common, "Ain't the first time I've been through this madness of ancient civilizations and traps," she said. She returned back to the Ikan'Thoan language, "Isn't even the first time this trip."

"What?"

Blaze sighed. "There's some ruins north of the elemental mountain. Tails and I ran through it before we got redirected from a tornado."

"The ruins of Ork'Thro! I thought those were lost. Everyone we sent that way didn't come back, and so we thought the land was destroyed."

"Not destroyed. Just...well, dangerous," Blaze answered. "Comes with the water or electric dragon in the lake nearby there. And the spiders that tried to kill us."

"...You left out a lot of what you told me. How did you handle that?"

"Burned the forest down," Blaze grinned. She turned to the mountaintop, peering over them as if they were ants. "Race to the top?" she asked. Katia took off immediately, her speed showing how comfortable she was running on snow.

Blaze would have preferred her shoes, but within seconds she passed Katia. The fox didn't even look shocked this time, as if she was fully expecting to lose. Blaze shook her head, the mountain enveloping her sight. It was an easy climb, but she knew it would take a while to get to the top.

-Side T-

Tails came out of the Special Zone with a large grin on his face, the Charger still at his hip. Spark came out a moment later, her hands still shaking from the rings that Tails had basically stuffed into them.

"Those...sacred..." she started. She lifted up her crossbow, before Tails had to dodge to the left a moment later. A slime dropped out of the trees above them.

Tails blinked, and took a moment to look around him. He was in a swamp now, much like near where the elemental mountain was, but this was much, much warmer. Vines crawled their way down, and the trees had roots that were long and pushing themselves out of the water. The water itself was full of algae and greenery, and Tails could see out of the corner of his eyes movements of things with in. Things that were not fish.

Spark ducked to the right and fired the bolt into the slime, a large gelatinous mass that had dropped out of the trees above them. It was literally a giant mass of goo, ambling along like a slug or snail. A single bolt didn't do much do it, but it seemed to ease the thing away into the water, where it dissolved.

A few hundred feet away, Tails saw it re-coagulated itself on the shoreline there. It could travel through water, unless it was a different one...no, that one had the bolt in it. Same one. "Danger is everywhere here," Spark said. She turned to a small dais made of stone behind them, carefully turning off the giant teleportal ring. "We shouldn't argue, but you should listen to me."

"The rings are healing rings," Tails shrugged. "I smelled the blood from whatever it is Lightning did to you. Easiest way to heal up."

Spark blinked, before he saw a small current flush through her fur. He saw a small bit of redness appear on her face. "Oh. I...thank you," she whispered.

They were on a small island, surrounded by water. Far off in the distance Tails could see a tall mountain, but not one he recognized. This must be further south. It didn't have any snow on it, he realized, even at the top. There was a wooden boat off to the side, and it was here that Spark calmly wandered in, carefully putting herself in.

Tails got in too, feeling the rough wood on his tails and feet. The island itself was soft and grassy, small knolls of grass growing on the water. "The water here is bad. Do not drink, or fall in," Spark warned.

"I could tell. The..." he hesitated a moment, before he switched to common, "slime," he switched back, "has small things in the water?"

"Slime? Strange word. Did you make that up?" Spark asked as she reached down to grab a wooden oar. She handed one to Tails and kept one for herself. She stuck it into the water on the island side, and pushed themselves off a moment later.

"No, just...I don't know the word for it."

"Rhoans," Spark pronounced easily. "Swamp dwellers. Dangerous at best," she said.

"They can travel through water near instantly," Tails said. Spark turned to him, her head tilted, "It reformed once it hit the water."

"Even more dangerous, then."

"What are we doing out here, then?" Tails asked after a long silence. The canoe was near silent, and Tails helped steer the boat just on where he thought Spark was going to go, or adding to the speed. He wasn't sure. Most of the boats he'd been on had been the ones that he'd made, and he made engines on those!

"Killing something," Spark spoke softly. "I do not know what. There is an outpost out here, and most assignments go there. I'm checking there first," she finished.

"Honestly, I think most things are dangerous around here," Tails said quietly. Spark murmured her own affirmation. He noticed that her eyes never stayed in one place, always checking around every corner and every possibility.

His own senses were acute, he knew, but he was still rather good at ignoring them. For example, the swamp smelled of swamp water and decaying flesh. And a hint of sulfur and magnesium...He shook those thoughts out of his head. He shouldn't be trying to get those rare materials, because he had to do something a bit more important than invent stuff right now.

Mostly survive. And survive with his head intact, based on the glares that he kept getting from Spark every so often.

"You could help more," Spark said quietly. "The boat is hard to steer on my own."

Tails blinked before realizing he hadn't rowed for a bit. "Sorry. Not used to this," he said.

"What, rowing? How did you survive?" Spark asked. "All water - must have rowboats. Else how would they go?"

"I generally used an 'engine'," Tails said, carefully pronouncing the word in common. He was starting to get more used to introducing weird words in common first, and go from there. Did that mean that he was indirectly influencing how this language evolved and changed? And was that a good thing or a bad thing?

"Engine?"

"It's a...tool. It causes...wheels to turn or things to spin," Tails tried to explain. It was hard to, with the words he knew. After all, 'causing explosions that cause other explosions that causes various things to happen based on those explosions' was a rather difficult thing to say.

"Wheels to turn on their own?"

"Exactly!"

"But how does that help us here? Spinning would do nothing," Spark asked. Her red eyes sparkled a bit, almost like a mirror, Tails thought.

"Like...this, I guess," Tails said as his tails whirled a bit. He stood up, causing the boat to rock a bit before he spun his tails some more, their tips just barely hitting the water.

Spark held on immediately as the canoe went much faster. "How...this is incredible! And your 'engine' can do this?" she was smiling wide, exuberant at another thing he could do.

"They can go a lot faster. A lot louder though," Tails said. "Just point us where we need to go," he said, smirking a bit. Sonic would have left him in the dust ages ago. Admittedly, that's because Sonic wouldn't have gotten in the canoe in the first place. Spark nodded, and sat a bit closer to the front. Her fur was dancing in the wind, and she looked almost at peace, now, he thought. She still had her crossbow, and he noticed that she hadn't reloaded it yet. Small sparks emanated from her fur, bouncing into the water.

He wondered then, if she was similar to Blaze in terms of electrokinetic power. Blaze was fire, but he had to admit the amount of power she had was stunning. Sonic's control of air was staggering, but he used it everyday, mostly unconsciously. Blaze's was completely conscious. But even then, especially when asleep, he noticed that there was some fire around.

Especially here, once they had been transported here. Even in their makeshift house they'd built, he'd noticed the small sparks of fire from her fur. Small portions of unconscious power drifting off. Was Spark much the same?

His tails were hitting the water at an increasingly fast pace, and he enjoyed the feel of the wind on his fur as they went. He made sure to keep them relatively high in the air rather than in the water. Considering he saw small streams of slimes reaching for them even as fast as they were going, he felt he was right to be wary.

The swamp was like a maze, and every once in a while Spark would put her oar in, gently navigating the trees and water. "Slow down," she warned. "They're up ahead."

Tails nodded and sat back down completely, letting his tails rest. They didn't need to, but he had a feeling he'd need to do some flying here soon, and would need the energy. The boat slowed down near instantly, but it wasn't enough to throw them off. Spark steered the canoe towards another island, a collection of dirt that rose above the water. This one was a bit bigger than the others he'd seen, but even then he saw the water wrapped around its edges. The trees kept the heat in, the vines dangling and touching the water.

Spark finished off the cruise onto the dirt. "Don't touch the water," she warned again. Tails nodded. He doubted he needed to be warned again, considering he saw little fish in the water. And immediately afterwards saw a large guppy come from nowhere and chow down on them.

As if he needed reminding this world was dangerous.

Spark had managed to get the canoe up far enough on the dirt that it didn't rock too badly when Tails stood up, and she barely watched as he took to the skies for a moment to make the crossing.

The island was a lot larger than most of the other's he'd seen. It was mostly sand and dirt in the lower portions where he was, but then swiftly changed to grass and reeds, large cattails hung over the side. In the middle was a large stone house, with what looked like an open air ceiling. It had a large brown blanket that served as its door.

Spark quietly went to the top of the hill, her eyes darting everywhere. Tails didn't see why; the hill was empty. It smelled like swamp, and sulfur, and...ah. There it was. Decaying corpses.

Wonderful.

He bit back his urge to sneeze as he tried to shake the scent out of his nose. "Never get used to death," Spark whispered as she tore down the blanket used as the door, and Tails realized why she was so wary. The entire back side of the stone had been crushed and destroyed, dozens of blocks thrown much further back.

In the center were three sapients in middling areas of decomposition. It reminded him strongly of the drowned ones - the ones in Station Square that didn't make it out of Perfect Chaos' reign. Only with less water.

"It might be around here still," Spark said, raising her crossbow. Tails noticed that she had loaded it, and was ready to fire at a moments notice.

He doubted it was. One of the sapients had its leg torn off, and the others were bloodied and beaten, small bites taken off of their arms and shoulders. "Meat," Tails murmured.

"What?"

"It's hungry. That's why it attacked. It's going to be coming back later. That's why they're still here."

"Not to send us a warning?"

"No. I doubt it even knows who we are. It smelled meat, and it attacked. Notice this one's leg, and how it's been chewed off?" Tails said, making deeply sure that he breathed through his mouth in the smallest amount possible. He didn't want the stench of rotting meat on his nose.

It was times like this he wished he paid more attention to the crime dramas that Knuckles liked to watch. And Cream, too, whenever she was over and her mom wasn't around.

"So where is it, then?" Spark asked, one hand on her hip and her crossbow pointed down. He noticed the small jolt that went from her hand to her hip fur.

"Out, probably. If it's like most things, it will come back later, once it's hungry enough. Wildcats do things like that," Tails answered.

"You think it is a cat?"

"No. I don't know what it is," Tails admitted as he looked to the teeth marks. There were a few small ones, arranged in a what looked like a snout mark, but the bigger ones...he couldn't tell. He reached down and grabbed a spear that had fallen on the ground, gently prodding one of the bodies to flip it over.

It's back had been torn apart, as if from claws. "Right...well, we know it has teeth and claws now," Tails said.

He was interrupted as Spark pointed upwards, and the telltale sign of her crossbow firing. He looked up into the trees, only to see the black sky of night above.

Except it was the middle of the day.

Ah Expendable. Why must you be so difficult sometimes? Truth be told, it's one of my favorite arcs. However, I realize that with the village bloom, arcs 5, 6, 7, and 8, that I may have severely underestimated the rating. Due to sexual themes and graphic violence, should I up Blooming Tide's rating to M? I feel like I should, if only to be on the safe side. What does everyone else think? Yes? No?

Also, loading this up a day early, as I can't do it tomorrow like normal. Until Next Time!