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 6.4

The hallway in front of Blaze was warmer than usual, and she took a moment to look at the walls. Just as before, the orange stone had etchings and carvings in them, mostly of tall...echidnas? She remembered Knuckles, and they weren't entirely close in shape to his. Some other mammal close in height then, with long pointed snouts that strongly reminded her of echidnas, with spears and standing strong and tall.

She also sighed a bit when she realized there was an open hole where their mouth would be. Small letters were carved into the base. "I've never seen this language before...is this one of yours?" Katia asked, pointing down to it. It was a seemingly random bunch of squiggles and circles, which Blaze knew to be a language but not one she knew.

"Never seen it. But if I had to guess, it's probably watch out for the fire," Blaze commented as she took another step and felt the floor move underneath her. She dove down to the floor as the air above her had a small inferno incinerate whatever was there. "Like that," Blaze warned.

Katia blinked. "Right..." she said as she stepped forward cautiously. The pressure plates were already triggered, and Blaze knew they weren't going to be triggered again as long as she stood on top of them. "Wish they'd told me of this," Katia murmured.

"They weren't going to. They're hoping this kills us," Blaze sighed. "I don't think Lightning likes you all that much."

"He doesn't. He probably thinks Spark is too strong, and I'm fire-born. Having me as a channeler in an insult to channelers everywhere. It's one of the reasons they put me in the fire caller district instead," Katia explained. She ducked to the side and crashed to the floor as the air above exploded into flame. The wall shook beneath her.

"Huh...I wonder," Blaze said as she knelt down, knocking on the wall. She could tell that something was different when the tone changed from the solid wall to the wall that could slide away. "Stay down for a moment," Blaze suggested as she felt for a switch. This place was setting off some deep-seated memories, and she was having trouble placing exactly what, but the tropes were there...

"You think a secret panel is here?" Katia asked. When Blaze nodded absently, she stood up for a moment and started to scratch at the carvings on the other side of the wall with her spear. "I hope this doesn't come back to bite us..." she murmured as she stuck it into the hole where the fire came out.

They both heard a small click as the wall slid down, falling into a new place. The new hallway was dark, and it had no natural light to it, unlike the small torches that lit on the side of the original pathways. Blaze let her hand run on one side, hoping for dust or anything. It was as if it had been carved the previous day. She conjured a small fireball for light, and held it out in front of them. "Care to see what lies down the forbidden path?" she asked, smirking.

"I don't think it's actually forbidden," Katia answered as she grabbed her spear and stuck it onto her back. Blaze rolled her eyes. She missed Tails. Tails would have gotten it. The wall stayed down, and the vixen followed Blaze, standing behind a few feet.

The orange stone slowly washed out to a more neutral grey, and Blaze almost thought they'd beaten most of the traps. There was no natural light in here, and the light of the fire shone around the hall in odd patterns, as if water was everywhere around them.

The hall went downhill, and Blaze started to feel ice forming on the floor. "Careful, it's going to be slippery," she announced without looking back. She heard the sound of claws scratching on stone, and she looked back to see Katia flailing comically against the side. Blaze's ears fell gently. What had she gotten into...?

"You could have said something sooner," Katia complained as soon as she regained her footing. "Instead of watching me fall."

"I wasn't watching you fall, I was watching you not fall," Blaze answered, smirking inwardly. She turned sideways to let her feet get better grip on the cold and icy stone, and while more than once she slipped a foot or so, her natural grace made her seem as if everything was planned. At least, that's how she hoped it looked. The hallway went deeper, and Blaze noticed that instead of getting warmer, it was getting colder. Were they heading to a secret exit out of the mountain?

The path twisted and turned, starting to spiral down. There weren't stairs, and Blaze felt the stone get much smoother, almost to the point it had to be on purpose. She took two steps out, and was knocked prone as Katia slipped and fell, tripping her down as well. Now on the ground, Blaze struggled to force herself up as she was sliding on the ramp, heading straight down. The ice kept her moving downwards, a spiral slide that was impossible to get up from.

Katia had frozen up with her legs pointed outwards, running on the sides whenever her momentum pushed her that way. "Come on, Exception! Do it like this!" she yelled. Blaze had to pause for a moment as she realized that Katia was mimicking what she herself had done only a few hours previous.

The sound echoed throughout the chamber, far louder than it was comfortable for Blaze. It was tiring to force to roll around on the icy floor as she kept bumping into the walls, but eventually she managed to follow Katia's stride, her legs and feet against the rolls, looking closer to a demented drifting position. The hallway was still dark, lit only by her fire, and it was only luck and skill she hadn't accidentally let it go out yet.

It felt as if they fell and rolled for hours, although Blaze knew it was probably only minutes since she had regained her footing a bit before the pathway let them get enough grip to be able to stand up. It started to go up, Blaze felt, and although it was still cold she knew now it was the normal cold of being underground, rather than the cold of a snowy mountain.

"How are we going to get back up?" Katia asked hesitantly. "Going down is the easy part, going back up is going to be hard."

"Fire caller," Blaze reminded. "If I get enough of a head start, and we walk slowly and carefully, I can melt the ice as we come to it."

A dark chill washed over Blaze an instant later. It was something she'd felt before, on her world, but she'd forgotten where. A witch, a grave-

Katia's spear rushed through, hitting the rib bone of a skeleton embedded onto the wall. Blaze washed the hallway with fire and light, and she grimaced. The walls were laced with hundreds of skeletons of various sapients, some of them hanging by their hands, and others having small carvings on their thighs and the bigger arm bones.

A skeleton on the far side rattled as the fire passed it. Blaze stopped as she felt that dark chill once more. It was something more sinister, something evil, something else.

The skull turned to look at her. "Right. Necromancer," Blaze said in common. That's what it felt like. Like a necromancer had suddenly made a bunch of skeletons come to life to suffer her eternal torment. The first one to break off the wall got Katia's spear in the spine, and it barely had the time to rattle its bones in their direction before it collapsed.

The second one Blaze punched with fire molded around her hand, and it too, fell onto the ground in pieces. "This is way too easy," Katia noted absently. Both skeletons picked themselves up a moment later, re-configuring themselves from other bones around. More and more of the bones on the wall became alive, and the hallway was barely five feet across.

"That's why it's not. Grab on and hold on," Blaze said, letting Katia smack another of the skeleton's that tried to grab her before she grabbed Blaze's hand. The cat grimaced, knowing that she'd likely dislocate the vixen's shoulder, but...better a shoulder than their lives.

She called upon the fires in her heart, and rushed forward a moment later, letting the fires guide her. The force of the fire and air pushed the skeletons aside, smashing them into the wall as she burst through. She had to ignore the wail of pain from the vixen behind her, who was probably not realizing what her plan was.

She felt a pang in her heart for the loss of Tails. Tails would have understood immediately what she'd intended. Then again, as the sidekick to Sonic, he probably had to. Or he'd do it first. The fires carried her forward, and although the hallways stretched onwards, more and more skeletons hung on the walls, slowly burst into pieces as she smashed through them. For every one or two that got in her way, another three or four came after them.

It was far too soon that the hallway ended in a dead end, an endless orange stone that popped up in front of them. Blaze cut out the flames and tried to stop in time, only to realize that the ground had gotten icy again, and she slid forward keeping her momentum.

Katia seemed to be aware that Blaze had no actual plan at this point, although the cat wasn't sure if she could actually see the oncoming painful death or not. The vixen's spear shot out more than once, keeping the skeletal hands and bodies away from them.

Calculations flooded through Blaze's head. Their current speed would result in injuries, but nothing fatal. Painful, sure, but not fatal. It might knock them out though, and they'd become food for the skeletons, or whatever it was that happened to them. New skeletons? However, there had to be an opening on the other side of the wall. The original secret panel hadn't been thick; only a few inches. If she sped up as was right, they'd break through without any injuries. If she was wrong and she sped up, they'd probably die.

On the other hand, if she didn't speed up, they were probably dead anyways. Despite the sliding, she eased into a calm run, the fires boosting her forward again instantly. Katia gritted her teeth loudly behind her as Blaze pulled on her bad arm.

A skeleton popped out of the wall in front of her, and Blaze gave it no mind as Katia's spear assailed it's skull, driving it to pieces as the metal smashed it against the stone. "Do you know what you're doing!?" Katia yelled. The sound galvanized the skeletons some more, more popping out now.

"Not one bit!" Blaze bit out as she let the fires and air pressure hit the wall before her. To her endless joy and relief, the wall gave way into another room, the one a soft orange and red on the floor and walls. It was rockier, she noticed instantly, and she had only one step to jump across the lava-ridden floor.

The fires didn't carry her any farther, and she soared above the lava with Katia barely holding on as she realized her landing would put her directly in contact with the hot lava far below. She forced herself to not look down as she called the flames to her feet, acting as jets for a moment and softly gliding her way down.

She landed silently on a small stone pathway that crossed the room. On the far side, where they had just come from, the skeletons were chasing them and were falling down to the lava below. Katia let go a second later, her spear sheathed as she held her shoulder in place with one hand. "That was incredibly suicidal! What were you thinking!?" Katia yelled.

"It was either suicide or death by skeleton. Take your pick," Blaze answered. "As it stands, we're back on the normal pathway, I think. Left or right?"

"Right," Katia said instantly. "It moves onwards, unless the path wrapped around at some point," she answered. She unsheathed her spear again, putting the handle in her mouth lengthwise. She gripped her bad shoulder, and with a muffled cry of pain shoved it back into place.

"What are you doing!? And you called me suicidal!" Blaze snarled as she ripped the shoulders off of Katia's dress. The skin was red and swollen, and looked by pure luck that she'd succeeded in what she needed it to do.

"It's not the first time I've had to do that. All hunters get taught how, before we go on our first hunt," Katia said as she removed the spear, small sweat beads on her forehead. "I know what I'm doing."

Blaze stared at her for a moment. Did she even realize how reckless that it had been? Taught or not, that wasn't a safe thing to do, especially when in the middle of a dangerous area. She sighed, her shoulders dropping as she gave it up, and starting walking onto the stone path.

She could only hope that at least Tails had Spark. And hopefully his own journey was going much better than her own, but knowing Lightning and his schemes, they were probably going just as bad, if not worse.

Then again, Blaze realized, what civilization used necromancy for protection? Probably not the nicest team around...it was just her luck that skeletons weren't exactly flammable.

-Side T-

Swamps were never too high on Tails' list of places he wanted to visit. While he wasn't Sonic and aquaphobic, and while some swamps could be really neat and cool, most of them were just barely warm enough to be a swamp. Their trees were the most interesting part.

This one had at least interesting trees and interesting wildlife, and thus far Tails was okay with it. Because while it did have slimes, and rosuvels, it also had brightly colored birds, and a fox that could almost be his long lost sister! Granted, he also knew that was impossible.

He'd noticed the close similarities between him and Spark ages ago, and it was one of many reasons he tried to distance himself from her. Her fur color was close to his, at least now, and she had the larger ears of a fennec, as did he. She was an electrokinetic, as was he. The weirdest part was the shade of her eyes. It was almost exactly opposite of his, a brilliant scarlet instead of his own cerulean blue. There were other differences too, besides just eye color. Their scents were very different, even beyond the male and female thing. Her jaw was shaped different, less prone to smiling and grinning, or at least she never showed it if it was. He had made sure to keep his eyes only on her face, so he wasn't even going to think of the differences on the rest of their bodies.

She also had an iron grip, but that could also be because he was flying the both of them almost twenty or thirty feet above the swamp treeline. The black dot they were chasing that he'd hoped was the rosuvel was moving very slowly in front of them, occasional trees shaking from the way it jumped from tree to tree. He was slowly going down, trying to find a branch that could hold both of them. They were fairly light, but sometimes weight wasn't the only thing around here that would drop them.

He learned from his time in the Lost Jungle, as they called it here. Or the forest of nymphs, or whatever it is those things were supposed to actually be called. He was still going to call them nymphs.

"That one!" Spark pointed out, and Tails gauged it. It was a large tree, and the branch was a bit farther from the rosuvel than he'd like, but the branch seemed sturdy. More than that, it seemed to show signs of the rosuvel on it, but it hadn't cracked and crashed yet. Tails nodded, and slowly went down to it.

Spark landed near silently, her crossbow out as she immediately climbed to the far edge of the branch. Tails landed on the inner part, only slightly less quietly. "How are we supposed to kill this thing?" he asked. It had taken a full blast from Spark and got nothing. He supposed he could fight it old fashioned. He could already feel Sonic's wince as he suggested it in his mind, and hear Shadow's loud smirk as he'd agree with that. Admittedly, Shadow would probably have fun here what with his hover-skates.

"Most rosuvels have weak points in their joints and eyes. Aim for where its legs connect with its torso," Spark suggested. Tails nodded.

It made sense. To have so many joints connect to its spine, assuming it had one, those joints had to be under a large load. Include that with the mouth under its abdomen, and it was closer to an octopus or squid than anything.

A thought came to him. He'd never understood the word for 'joint' or 'torso', before. But now, for some reason, he could understand Spark clearly, as if he was completely fluent. He knew that he wasn't, because most of those words should have gone far over his head.

Spark suddenly knelt down, her tail flicking in the air as she jumped from one branch to another. Without missing a beat, she jumped from that one to another. She paused for a moment. "What are you waiting for, Exception? Come. Prove that you can hunt," Spark said. Tails' eyes narrowed and he gave a tired sigh. The branch was rough on his feet, small sticks sticking out into them, but with using his twin tails, he jumped anyways, landing artfully on the second tree.

Spark nodded her acceptance of his drive as she jumped to another one, ahead of him, only to find Tails next to her a second later. He grinned, and whirled his tails as if to answer how he caught up with her.

She narrowed her eyes and jumped to the next one, which Tails followed a moment later. He let her decide which tree was safe and which one's weren't. There were a few that she was certain of that he wasn't, small and thin branches that still managed to hold them nonetheless.

While racing through the swamp trees, Tails was surprised at how much other life there was. Birds flew through the branches, colors that he'd only seen in the more exotic regions of their world. Fish jumped up, in ways that he'd never seen before such as bouncing off the branches of a tree to get to a fly he didn't see. Insects didn't seem to bother them, instead making sure to give them plenty of room as they went.

He missed a branch, and had to whirl his tails as his thoughts caught up to him. The water below had taken on an unearthly shade of green and blue, and as he pulled back up a large green crocodile-esque thing made itself known.

It was a lot bigger than a normal crocodile or alligator, closer to the type that he, Sonic, and Knuckles had run from back in the Frog Forest. It still had the vague shape though, and Tails wondered if it was as ancient as that one must have been.

Spark stopped and branch and waited for him, her crossbow pointed downwards towards it. "A crayak," she pronounced towards it, "Evil things. They wait until travelers are sleeping before coming onto land, killing and eating the party before weeping fake tears and going back to the swampland."

Yep, definitely a crocodile. "I don't think they're actually crying," Tails said, "If it's anything like the one's similar that I know. It just so happens that it looks like it does. Besides, this one's pretty big but it's far from the biggest that I've seen."

Spark raised an eyebrow, "And how big was that?"

"Bigger than the island we left," Tails explained. Spark's eyes widened and she almost fell from her branch, only for Tails to reach out and grab her before she fell much farther than a foot. "Blaze and I should tell you some of the stories we have. They would...probably give you nightmares."

He had to admit, if he even brought up half the things Sonic had done she'd probably be afraid for his life. If he brought up all of them, she'd be afraid for his life and her own too.

"Stories don't make me afraid, Exception," Spark said as she pulled herself up. She gave him a half-seated glare.

"I'm pretty sure some of mine would. Like the one involving the moon. That'd terrify anyone. Sometimes it still does," Tails murmured quietly. He wasn't lying, either. Sometimes he did still have nightmares of the Eclipse Cannon firing on the earth. Or of Perfect Chaos deciding that it wasn't content to just stick to Station Square. Or the...he had dealt with his side of planetary annihilation plans, hadn't he? Dark Gaia, the Death Egg, the Doomsday...He was there every step of the way.

He wondered why Sonic hadn't tried memorializing some of those adventures. He didn't have to wonder why for Chaos or the ARK, but for some of the others? Most sapients would find them to be pretty decent thrillers.

"The moon? Luna? Luna's just always there. A shaded protector of those who stalk in the night," Spark answered, her head tilting. She jumped from one branch to another, following the invisible trail from the rosuvel, and Tails dutifully followed.

"There was another one, on my world. And it wasn't a moon, either. But someone made it, rather, launching all the supplies from the earth to the sky. In my world are seven great artifacts of power, and someone tried to use this made moon to launch a beam of energy at our actual moon."

Tails was silent, waiting to see if Spark had anything to say, but instead she was focused on where she was jumping to, and her ears were perked, listening carefully. He smiled. "Half of our moon was gone. Even now, it rotates oddly. But we still see the glow sometimes from its core."

"Like right down the center?"

"A little jagged, but yes."

Spark stopped and turned to stare. "And you had to face that? Anything that could do that... by yourself?" she asked, her eyes wide.

"No, not by myself. Never by myself," Tails answered, smiling gently. "But it was just me and my friends. And we came out on top. Barely, but we did."

"You need to learn to tell better stories, Exception," Spark murmured. "You can just recount life experiences, change a few names, add a few lessons, and call it a story. You'd be a good teller, I think."

"Maybe. I think you'd tell it better than I would. If you knew all that I did," Tails answered. He saw her face turn an incredible scarlet for a moment before she shook her head out.

"Come. We still need to hunt," Spark said, forcing herself to look ahead. What had made that reaction, he wondered. Was it something he'd said? He never understood Amy or Cream either, but at least Cream was polite. He'd have to ask Blaze about it later, or maybe Rouge if they ever got back. He thought about the bat for a second. No, not Rouge. Blaze would be nicer about it.

His tails whirled and he kept up with the other hunting fox, jumping from tree to tree like an expert in parkour. For a while they traveled on in silence, and Tails felt rather than see the sun as it started its end descent into the horizon. The air was still warm, and so it was only possible to tell by the lack of light as it hit the trees and swamp. "We should find a place to rest. It's still running," Tails noted absently.

Spark nodded. She pointed off into the distance. "Island over there. We should be safe from the crayak if we put some leaves over us."

Tails looked, and saw the small patch of green that was the tiny island. Barely fifteen feet across, it had a small hill on one corner that Tails identified as probably being the best bet for some shelter. He reached for his bail-bag, only to realize he'd left it behind, including the blanket he usually kept on him. That was a mistake. Next time, he was taking it, even if he only had a few minutes.

He whirled his tails and flew there, beating Spark despite her attempts to ensure that he didn't by going as fast as he could, and his feet squished into the small grassy knoll. It was soft though, and cold. Not as cold as it should be, he knew.

Spark landed a second later, and Tails felt a small jolt go through the island. Had she generated that entire charge just from landing on the trees? She had picked a few leaves along her way, giant ones that had sharp tips that she broke off. "Three or four?" she asked.

"Three. If we need more I can just get some," Tails answered. Spark blinked, as if she'd forgotten he could fly for some reason, before she nodded. She put a few on the ground, making sure that the remaining tips wouldn't poke up.

Tails looked down at the swamp water. "Get a fire started?" he asked as he went down to the waterline. Dozens of fish of various sizes were darting to and from, and Tails saw the small coagulations that were small slimes in the water.

With lightning fast reflexes, he reached in and grabbed one of the fish just as they came out of the water. "These are edible, right?" he asked as he grabbed a few more.

"No one gets sick eating them. Not that I know of," Spark answered as she sent a small jolt into a bundle of sticks, a small ember emanating from where she struck. "Most others eat them raw."

"I like mine warm," Tails said as he stuck one on a stick, exactly as Blaze had shown him how to do ages ago. Spark tilted her head sideways, watching him curiously as he stuck it over the small flame.

He crafted a few of the fishsticks, before he reached for the first one he put on. If he was right, and it certainly smelled decent, it was probably near perfect-

He caught Spark staring at him, her hands empty. "Feel free to take one?" he motioned for her.

"You can cook," Spark muttered. "I was wondering how you lived out in the wilds, Exception. Now I know."

"Cooking isn't rare," Tails said. "It's just another skill that anyone can learn. Don't tell me it's forbidden for most sapients to learn other skills in Ikan'Thoa."

"Not forbidden, just frowned upon," Spark answered as she grabbed one. She lifted it to her nose before she took a bite. "Wow."

It was slightly sweet and tangy, to Tails' senses. A bit off too, as if it was rotting in the water but he knew he had fished it out when it was still alive. The second one was slightly better, but he didn't know why. Maybe it was the individual fish, but knowing this world they probably rotted really quick out of the water. That would be something this world did.

He was starting to sound like Blaze.

He gave a mirthless chuckle as he moved over to the leaves. Spark stood up from the fire, brushing it out easy, leaving them in a simple darkness covered only by the light of the stars and moon. She took a few of the other leaves and covered her spot next to his.

He looked up as he felt a small set of grasses drop on his nose. He knew that smell...he rolled over an instant later, hating his brain, and disliking his companion's tendency on sleeping.

Then he felt her curl up next to him, and knew that this trip was going to be a long one.

Expendable!

I got nothing to say. Life moves on, and life will change. Going through a lot of changes at the moment, but I don't think I'm going to miss any posting days. Also, during the initial writing of this, I was still binging Stone Tower Temple and the rest of the Majora's Mask OST. It...it shows.

Until Next Time!