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 6.7

"There's another ledge up there, closer than this one," Blaze pointed out, looking above them. "If this one is anything like the last, this hallway goes to another room that goes up in some way."

"How did the last one go?" Katia asked, her head tilted a bit. She winced lightly, her hand gripping her side. "I wasn't there for that."

"No, you were still sleeping. I wanted to check it out, and I can protect myself better than I can both of us," Blaze explained. Katia stared at her before she sighed and seemingly accepted it. Blaze didn't blame her; she'd basically just told the fox that she couldn't take care of herself. The vixen started walking towards the black hallway, painted orange from the heat, or blue from the cold. It was seemingly a mishmash of both hot and cold at the same time, an elemental impossibility. She was limping a bit, but was stubbornly ignoring it.

Blaze sighed and conjured a small fireball, lighting up the halls. She grabbed Katia's arm gently and wrapped it around her neck on her injured side, holding the vixen up using her shoulder. It slowed the cat down plenty, but Katia seemed rather appreciative of it nonetheless.

The hallway wasn't nearly as long as the ones down below, and Blaze hoped that meant that the designers were running out of ideas. At the end, it opened to a tall room with small bars of ice that were looping around each other, twisting and turning in ways that made Blaze wonder why and how they did that.

"The Thor'koans were known for creating strong elementalist warriors. When Ikan'Thoa came and subsumed them, they gave us a few of their training secrets," Katia explained, "but I've never seen this kind of thing. The amount of manipulation a water courier should use to get by this is-"

Blaze stopped her by raising a quick hand. She put one paw on the ice, sliding it up and down easily. Her shoes would have helped so much more with this, but she knew she could do it, and she had the talent for it.

"What are you doing?" Katia asked.

"I have an idea. Do you trust me?" Blaze asked, smirking to herself. Honestly, the proper answer would have been a rather emphatic 'no!' but she also doubted that Katia would be that blunt.

"No," Katia said instantly. Blaze had to withhold her chuckle. "But for this, I have to."

"Oh good, you're learning," Blaze said as she ducked, grabbing Katia's arms and holding them around her neck. "Hold on tight," she murmured as she started to slide on the ice rails.

She coated her claws and feet in fire, melting just a small amount of the ice as she called forth her other fires, forcing herself forward. Katia held on to her chest tighter as Blaze started to grind on the ice rails. The loops and straightaways made her recall the other times, when she was racing against Sonic for the Sol Emeralds, or when she was helping him to escape from her world the one time he got to hers. She didn't grind all that often, but she was good enough at it, and hadn't let her skill in it diminish over any amount of time.

Up, down, straight and small curve to the left, up and over, Blaze barely listened to the small gasps of air from Katia as she focused on grinding on the rails. She doubted that she was supposed to handle it like this, if anything she was probably supposed to grasp each one and use it to throw herself to the next one.

But this was more fun, in her mind. She knew the end of the line was coming up, and she called forth the flames more as she went the last twenty or so feet, at the end jumping with all of her strength to make the last bit. Ten feet in the air, she looked down for a moment, realizing just how high up in the air they had gone.

The moment was over and they soon crossed back over another ledge, this one nearly fifty or sixty feet above their original ground. "That was incredible!" Katia gushed. "How did you do that!? And without hurting yourself, as a fire caller!?"

"Usually I'd have shoes," Blaze muttered. One of these days she'd have to ask for some. "A small coating of fire will melt the ice, creating a coating of water. Water makes ice slippery. Cold still, though," Blaze said as she coated her feet in the flames again, warming them up.

"Why? Hunters always go bare," Katia asked. "The more scars you show, the more respectability you have as a hunter. That's how you can tell if someone is a hunter or not."

Blaze stared at her. "I'm going to remake my coat at some point," she said in response. "I suppose it's a cultural thing. I still feel uncomfortable just with all this," Blaze said, pointing to the small leather clothes she'd sewn on her own in the desert.

"But you have so many good scars! You must be a hunter of great renown in whatever land you come from," Katia argued.

"Not particularly. I'm a decent fighter, but the Sol Empire has more better ones. The things that make me special are my power and my finesse. And diplomacy, sometimes."

"Sometimes?"

Blaze blushed lightly. "Sometimes diplomacy has to become 'argumentative'. Especially when dealing with pirates. But no, I'm not a 'hunter of great renown'. I'm a peacekeeper, if that."

"A guard? Guards can be hunters."

"I...suppose guard would be the best term. But I guard the entire Empire. Not one or two sections, but all of it. And when I can't do it, I can call upon others to assist."

"If you're not a hunter then, how did you get so many scars?" Katia asked, poking a few in Blaze's side. They were well hidden by her fur, and Blaze wasn't exactly sure how Katia could see and find them so easily, but the vixen could. "And let me guess, the other Exception isn't a hunter either? Because he has scars unlike any that I've seen."

"I think most of Tails' scars are mental, more so than physical. As to how I got mine...more than a few are from this trip. For others, there was that skeleton dinosaur, that water theme park, Sonic-"

"Skeleton dinosaur? That wasn't the first time you've fought skeletons!?"

"What? No. The Sol Empire had a few..." Blaze switched to common, knowing that the cat language she knew had no word for it, "necromancer issues. And general chaos."

"Necromancer?"

"It's...hard to explain. The people that make those skeletons. They aren't animated just by life," Blaze explained.

"Yes they are. The magic of the Thor'koans imbue this place with their unholy powers," Katia explained, going slow as if it was hard for Blaze to understand.

"I don't think that's quite how it works," Blaze said as they reached the main pillar room again. The pillar was knocked around a bit, creating a deep angle from when Blaze had melted a good section of it. It led straight to the last ledge.

Katia grinned as she shot forward, ignoring the pain at her side as she climbed up the remains of the pillar. Blaze watched for a moment, if only to make sure there weren't any skeletal rocs lying around starting to become active. Once she reached the top, in about a minute or three's time, that was when Blaze started her own way up.

The pillar wasn't cold, or warm. It was almost perfectly right in the middle, and was rough enough that she barely had to try to maintain her grip. She was doing much more climbing recently than she had used to do...if she had any downtime, she should probably work on that. The last hallway was in front of them, and the roof was directly above them. There weren't any other ledges, and the sides had been coated with a thick ice. It went deep, creating a darkness that seemed to coat everything around it.

Blaze conjured a small fireball, and the two went in in silence. The hallway was surprisingly short, and with the added light of the fireball they could see more patterned reliefs on the side.

At the end of the hallway was a small pillar, with what looked like a small stone sculpture. It had a brilliant purple stone embedded into it, the color making Blaze recall the colors of the violet Sol Emerald, or the violet Chaos Emerald. "I can get this from here," Katia said, as she stepped forward. Blaze could see the dozens of traps ready to attack the instant the vixen got closer. The cat was about to move forward with her, knowing that she couldn't move as quickly as normal.

"It's you this time. You don't need to worry," a voice said from behind Blaze. She whirled around, small fires coating her hands instantly, before she relaxed her shoulders, but kept her hands aflame. A blue figure, almost translucent, stood there. She couldn't tell the species, but he was slightly smaller than she was.

"Who are you?" Blaze asked instantly, "and what are you?"

"To the point, like always?" the person asked. It was a masculine voice, and it seemed the more it spoke the clearer the image came. A short male cat started to appear before it wavered once more. It held up it's hand as if to cut her off, "No, those are good qualities. I am Malthis. The guardian of this lost temple."

Blaze bowed deeply at him instantly. "None of that now," Malthis said quietly, "but I appreciate the respect, young one. Most of the time those from Ikan'Thoa don't care for the lost legends of time and temple. Your friend is doing quite well. She usually does, I suppose."

Blaze looked at Katia, who was acting as if all of the traps were active. She must've had a look of incredulity on her face, as Malthis explained, "To her, they are real." Katia ducked under something, and spun on her spear to dodge over something that would've taken her out otherwise. "She can see the traps quite well, and is doing well regardless."

"But she's in no danger?"

"No actual danger, yes. The Thor'koans were masters of illusions and impossibilities. It was we who taught the Ikan'thoans how to use the rainbow roads. Or as I believe you call them, the 'Special Zone'."

"That's what Tails calls it. How are you still here?"

"A guardians' job is never done, as you well know, Guardian," Malthis said quietly. Blaze stood up taller a bit more, her eyes narrowed. Malthis continued, "But the Thor'koans were masters of the black magicks. And they assigned me here to watch over their Stone. And this I have done, and will do, for eons past and future."

"And when we take the idol, you'll attack?" Blaze guessed.

Malthis chuckled under his...breath? Did he have to breathe? "No, nothing like that. You've bested the temple and all of my traps better than all before. I trust into your judgment the idol. It is just a piece of rock, after all."

"In much the same way the Sol Emeralds are just 'shiny rocks'?" Blaze asked sarcastically.

"In much the same way," Malthis agreed, as if he knew exactly what she was talking about, "And I have to say, I have never thought of just running through the skeleton gauntlet. Or of grinding the ice rails."

"It takes a strange mind to think of these things."

"Or one desperate enough," Malthis said. He turned to Katia, watching her inch closer to the idol. "It's almost time, it seems. Stay strong, Guardian of Sol. The Bringer of Chaos has many problems, and you are uniquely suited to help bring calamity to this place."

"Bringer of Chaos?" Blaze's eyes narrowed. Malthis laughed loudly as Katia grabbed at the idol, and he disappeared instantly. She blinked and looked around at the now defunct traps.

"Wait, they weren't here? Where are they? Did you see all those traps? I wasn't just imagining it, was I?" Katia asked. She held the idol out to her side, putting it in a small bag that was tied at her waist.

Blaze walked out to the small pillar, checking it. "I'm not sure. I think that there's-" Blaze said as she instantly grabbed onto Katia's arm. Her ears picked up the sound of grinding gears, and the hallway slammed shut as a heavy door came crashing down. The pillar dropped first. "One last trap, it seems."

"Oh come on, we got the idol! That means we were done!" Katia complained as the floor started to open up. Foot by foot it sank into the wall, and Blaze looked down just as the floor she stood on disappeared.

Lava at the very bottom, lying in wait. There was a small sound in the air though, familiar-

"There! A rainbow road!" Katia yelled as she fell towards the lava. She pointed much further down, and just before the lava was the large golden ring. Blaze called upon her fire to surge forward, grabbing onto Katia.

Wind rushed past her head as the lava raised over the golden ring, and her eyes widened as it went back down. It was going up and down like a tide, but in seconds at a time. They'd have to time it right.

Ten seconds up, ten seconds down. Like clockwork, Blaze noted. They would be falling for a long time, and she was almost shaking internally from her fear. But she didn't have a choice. This was something she had to do. Otherwise, she didn't think she could survive in lava.

She called the flames to slow their fall, at least a little bit. Katia reached with her spear and stabbed it into the wall, trying to slow them down a little bit more.

The metal spear melted instantly. "Hold your breath and hope for the best!" Blaze called out as she counted in her head. Three...two...she heard the wind go past her ears. One...

The lava went back down, and the teleportal ring showed itself just as Blaze and Katia slammed into it.

-Side T-

Tails woke up fitfully, the sun's rays right on his eyes. He gave a small stretch, feeling the soft bed under him. Next to him was Spark, with clothes on this time, her soft tail covering him like a small blanket.

They had come in late last night, and had almost immediately crashed. Spark had showed him to her bed, and had told him to sleep there with her tonight. His immediate response had been to tell her no.

She hadn't accepted that answer, and had promptly wrestled him into sleeping in her bed. Sometime throughout the night she had grabbed a new grass knit top, but Tails wasn't complaining. Considering now that he knew why she was so overt about her attraction to him...if anything, that made him more pissed off. But there was really nothing that he could do. Except run away, he guessed. It seemed almost too ingrained into the culture here to change. They'd have to do it step by step or all at once, and both of them would receive push back from the sapients here.

Oh well. He could channel 'what would Sonic do', to help him figure it out. Sonic would probably insult the leadership, hold out on his own path, and let the rest follow if they wanted to. That sounds a lot like what the hedgehog would do.

He forced himself out of the warm bed into the chilly air, stretching out his shoulders as he went. The Miles Electric was still on the table, showing it had fully charged. No new message from anyone yet. He connected his Charger to the device, making sure that power could flow freely in either direction. The Miles Electric would charge it, if given time, but he had other ideas on his mind.

He pressed the button once, feeling the charge flow immediately into the Miles Electric. The battery shot up from a hundred percent to a hundred and twenty. There were multiple batteries within the device, and each could hold their own charge. It's how he managed to send the message the first time.

He pressed the Charger a few more times, leaving only one charge left in it, for use in an emergency. Once the battery drained, he could charge both using the sunny windowsill.

'Tails here. Still with Blaze. Made it to a local village of sapients, called 'Ikan'thoa'. Unfortunately they don't know anything about trans-dimensional travel. The Special Zone leads back to this world entirely, and they call it a 'rainbow road'. We're both okay.' Tails wrote quickly and quietly, his fingers flying over the on-board keyboard. He thought about what all he should mention. Spark? Katia? Lightning, the elders, Plague...their journey from their original home to here? So much he could pack in, so much had happened since that original message...and there was still nothing from his home.

'I'm assuming Sonic and Knuckles are trying to figure out how to send messages back. I have the receiving end constantly on and searching. Just follow the trans-dimensional address back. Blaze suggests otherwise, but the Sol Empire has more experience with these things than we do.'

There. He could express his homesickness without needing to flat out say it, and while getting a good dig at both Sonic and Knuckles too. Perfect.

He looked outside for a moment, seeing the orange far off in the distant dawn. A few sapients seemed up and about, but none that he thought would care about a strange beam of light that shot off out of Spark's hut and was intended to destroy the space-time continuum for the sake of sending messages.

His hand hovered over the 'send' button. He knew his own dimensional address, but there were multiple pieces to it, including that one must also need to know where they're sending it from. And that part was the part he didn't know.

He could do another full broadcast, again. That would definitely get the Sol Empire's attention. And honestly, he halfway thought that Sol had the best changes of getting them out of this alive than he thought Sonic and them did. If only he had finished that inter-dimensional transporter, made for this exact scenario.

Unfortunately, he had the design on the Miles Electric, like he had most other things, but the materials required were rare and hard to find. And there was the energy component. Usually it would have required finding at least two of the seven chaos emeralds to even start the thing, let alone open a portal. That required all seven.

"What are you doing?" Spark asked from her place on the bed. "Come back to bed. It's too early to be doing anything," she motioned, patting the bed next to her. She smirked and started the motion as if to take off her clothes.

"That's not needed," Tails answered instantly. Spark let out a tiny giggle, the first he'd ever heard from the girl. She had...changed, over the course of their time in the swamp. Maybe this was who she actually was, versus the mask she put up in front of everyone else?

"I know. Just wanted to," Spark smiled softly. "But seriously, come back to bed. It's cold and you're warm."

His body didn't want him to argue. His body wanted him to divebomb her and curl up instantly next to her, or do other things that it was currently very interested in. But his mind...his mind had other issues.

He hit 'save draft', hoping that he could send it soon, and sent the extra charges back to the Charger. "What time do we need to see the elders?" he asked as he did what she'd asked.

He curled up next to her in the warm bed, his tails gently covering her...shivering...? She was that cold? She pushed her back into his chest, and although the grass knit clothes itched at his fur, he didn't dare say anything. "Soon," she murmured. "Lightning's going to ask if I mated with you yet."

Tails hugged her tighter in silence. It was breaking one of the biggest laws he could envision that Ikan'thoa would have. Don't lie to the elders. But she was going to. For him.

"Another reason I wanted your scent over me," Spark said calmly. "This way he'll assume. If he asks, I'll lie."

"And you think that you'll get partnered with Blaze for the next one?"

"It's likely. Or someone else will. Depends on whoever doesn't have the elders favor today. Our mission to kill the rosuvel...that was an attempt to kill us."

"I can tell. What was that thing you did back there, that burned out your eyes?"

Spark was silent for a bit, her breathing steady. He'd almost thought she'd fallen asleep again when she spoke. "It...we call it the Tempest. All of the energy contained in a channeler's body released at once. It's a suicide move. The more energy, the bigger the blast."

"I'm not complaining, but why did you survive, then?"

"I did cross, remember? I think...I think you were able to bring me back. With that technology of yours."

"I wasn't using it. Having that much electricity blast through you isn't safe. Your heart was going into arrhythmia," Tails explained. Spark blinked in confusion, twisting around so she could stare at him. "Your heartbeat was irregular. By using all of the electricity in your body, it hadn't shut down yet but was close to it. I wouldn't be surprised if you had a mild seizure, either."

"How do you know any of those words?" Spark asked quietly.

Tails stared. That's what she'd gotten out of all...actually that was a good point. None of that was in common. Even the strange words, like arrhythmia, he had no idea the word for it. He'd never heard it used. How did he know it?

"We should get up soon. Get something to eat, maybe see Thief," Spark murmured. Tails nodded absently. Food sounded good right now, as his mind was busy processing how he knew anything.

He forced himself up, despite his body's obvious protests to letting Spark up without him near her, and went back over to the Miles Electric. "Mind if I send a message?" he asked.

She stared at him, tilting her head. "How? And to who?"

"Friends back home. Using this thing. It's a big light show though. I have to use an overcharge-"

"This is the channeler's district. We're used to light shows," Spark waved off his worry. Tails shrugged and opened the message again, hitting the Charger the same amount of times. The battery symbol shot up to near maximum.

He tried hitting send, and scrolled through the options. He had used text only, because he hadn't wanted to wake up Spark. But the final send option was greyed out, even with a broadcast to all. There wasn't enough power or reception to send it out. He would need to build another tower first. Not surprised, he let the charges flow back into the Charger, and set the Miles Electric to charge back in the sun again. Soon, hopefully, he'd have enough juice to send it. "Not enough yet...it'll have to charge for a while first," Tails said quietly. Spark tilted her head to the other side, before she walked out to the main district. Tails followed a moment later.

Thief wasn't at the meat den this time, leading Spark to have a worried look on her face. They ate in silence, as most of the other channelers seemed to have been spurned by Spark sometime in the past. It was more obvious by the time they got to the meeting hall in the earth district.

All four elders were there again, Lightning looking as if he knew something the others didn't. "And thus an Exception returns," he said, sniffing the air noticeably. "How was his performance, Spark?"

"Admirable. Together, we killed the rosuvel and a crayak," Spark reported in. Fire and Water both stared at them, their eyebrows raised lightly. Were they impressed? Not impressed?

"A rosuvel and a crayak? Impressive work, Spark," Lightning said politely. There was nothing in his tone that was labeled as 'impressive' though. "And I see your secondary mission worked well."

"Yes, elder," Spark muttered under her breath.

"I still think she was too young for that. He's not much older, yes, but we have more use for Spark than that!" Earth said quietly. Both Water and Fire nodded subtly their agreement.

"You've brought that up before. Unfortunately, the other Exception hasn't yet-"

The meeting hall tent opened as Katia walked in, a small limp in her form. In her hand was a small stone idol, a purple gem visible from its place on its back. Tails could feel it's energy from here, emanating from it. It felt like a Chaos Emerald, his mind told him instantly. Blaze was right behind her, seemingly not worse for wear.

"Oh look, the other Exception," Fire grinned. "Looks like we didn't need to tell them they needed to show up at the same time."

Lightning growled. "You gave different days," Spark accused, "you were planning on killing us, weren't you?" she asked.

Tails held onto her shoulder, feeling the small charge she was throwing out of her fur. "Not planning on it, no," he said, a large tooth-filled grin showing his lie for what it was, "But now that you're both here, I suppose it's time for Katia's assessment."

Katia and Blaze stood in front of them. "You alright?" Blaze asked. She stared at Tails, and then stared at Spark. "I thought you had more self control than that," she smirked. Was she...she was!

"Lost idol found. My personal assessment; I'm not going to be able to say this tactfully. She's awesome. She can run down the tube without losing her grip," Katia gushed, before talking more about Blaze's exploits.

"And here I thought you had more self control than that," Tails echoed, grinning himself.

"When one's in trouble, the easiest thing to do is to burn it all down," Blaze responded easily. She switched to common a moment later, "You didn't actually mate with her, did you?"

Tails switched back too. "No. But there's something we need to talk about."

"Good. On our end, too. Ask to see Flora. The witch. Bring Spark," Blaze asked, before she switched back to their language, "What'd you do, shock the forest?"

Tails nudged Spark gently. "Ask to go see the witch. Blaze has something we need to talk about," he murmured. Spark nodded her assent, almost invisible to his eyes.

"Well if both Exceptions are here, then I see no need to not rush through-" Lightning started. Both Katia and Spark spoke up and raised their hands.

"I'd like to go see the witch," the two said in perfect unison. "For my wounds," Katia murmured under her breath.

"For...other reasons," Spark answered quietly.

Lightning narrowed his eyes at them, but they both apparently were submissive enough that he waved his hand. "And as soon as you're done, you are to head back here," he responded firmly. A dismissal, if Tails had ever heard one. The four elders stared at their backs, before Tails heard Water starting to go off on Lightning. Katia was in front, holding her side.

"To the next thing trying to kill us?" he asked Blaze quietly.

"Now you're learning."

-Interlude-

Marine wasn't sure how to look at what was going on. She remembered Eggman Nega, or at least that's what Blaze had called him, but he certainly didn't travel around with an orb robot that insulted him behind vague questions and comments. It was nice to see Sonic again though, even if he was much older than she remembered him being. His quills were longer, and although he still had the same general build his legs seemed a bit longer, as if he'd done some growing in the meantime.

He was still that same happy-go-lucky guy though, tempered somewhat by the passage of time. Although how he managed to get Eggman to help him with this particular project, she had no idea.

She was in Tails' old house, apparently, deep underground in one of the fox's labs. There was an incomplete metal structure with dozens of wires sticking out of it, creating an almost door like apparatus. She didn't understand even a quarter of the science behind it, and she thought she was pretty good at this tech thing!

She gripped the Sol Emeralds tighter against her. There was the red echidna, Knuckles, somewhat close to her. Far too close for her comfort. Although his scowl and his attention seemed focused strictly upon Eggman. A pink hedgehog and Cream stood on the far side of the room, talking under their breath. She wanted to go over there and say 'hi', but she figured she should probably pay attention to the on-goings.

"Idiot fox tried using a software controlled console..." Eggman said under his breath. "That never works. Has he learned nothing?"

"Or he thought he could do it better than you could," Sonic snarked back. "Can you understand it or not?"

"Of course I can understand it, rodent!" Eggman sneered. "Much better than any of you ever could. The capacitors don't have enough power, I'm surprised you could even get it to turn on."

"So we need more power. Like how much more?"

"Foxboy was using one of the Chaos Emeralds. We need at least two, but all seven to make it stable. Sol Emeralds won't help here, we need power, not fire."

"They do more than just burn things, Eggman."

"I'm aware. However foxboy has the sockets made for the Chaos Emeralds, and unless he has a printer somewhere capable of remaking those sockets for the Sol Emeralds, complete with insulation to prevent us from burning to the ground, it's of no use."

"Pretty sure he does. Knuckles?" Sonic asked, turning to the red echidna.

"Yeah, I saw it on the lab above this one. I'll get that started then?"

"Backup plan," Sonic said. "So we need to find at least two chaos emeralds to power it. And all seven to make it stable."

"Best get looking," Eggman answered with a partial growl. It was obvious to Marine that he wasn't going to help them. She wondered what kind of deal he and Sonic struck to prevent him from just running off.

"Right. We have one right now. Shadow, Rouge, you know where others are?" Sonic asked.

The white bat and Shadow were on the far side, opposite of Amy and Cream, watching the show. Marine almost thought that Shadow was thinking about grabbing some popcorn at some point. "I'll get my contacts on it. I know none are in the Special Zone."

"So they're at least in reality. Good," Sonic said. "Right. I'll take Holoska and Spagonia, and Adabat. Shadow, you want to take Apotos and Shamar? Amy, Cream, and Rogue can take Empire City and Station Square."

"I'll take a look around the various island chains. It's possible they went back to West Island or South Island," Knuckles volunteered. Sonic nodded his acceptance.

"And uh...wheredy'a want me mate?" Marine hesitated to speak up. They looked fairly organized already, and she was still a stranger. And yet she couldn't just not do anything. That wasn't in her nature.

"Stay here and watch Eggman. Make sure he doesn't do anything, touch anything, look at anything...pretty much anything. I asked a couple of others to come out and help watch, so you won't be by yourself," Sonic said.

"Who did you get? I thought you said you had no takers on that," Amy asked.

"Jet."

There was a nod of affirmation from the others, although the name was unfamiliar to Marine. Then again, almost everything about this was unfamiliar to Marine. It might've grated on her, years ago, to be left alone like that by herself, but over time she's realized why that was a necessity.

Granted, it still hurt when Blaze did it, and when anyone else did it...that just hurt more. When Sonic did it though, she didn't feel as bad about it as she thought he would. He was obviously motivated to find his friend Tails, so Marine was willing to overlook the almost overprotectiveness that the hedgehog exuded.

The others filed out, probably to go to their assigned places. Amy and Cream were talking with Rouge about who would take which areas. The bat was giggling into her hand at the redness in both Amy and Cream's faces as she told some of the places she would search. Soon enough it was just her and Eggman, and the orb robot, sitting in the trans-dimensional portal room. "So what'd you hafta 'gree to to be here, of all places?" Marine asked.

"Must you use that insufferable accent?" Eggman responded instantly. The orb robot came out of its shell, it's hands holding its head aloft in a bored manner.

"Can't be any worse than Cubot and his accents," the orb stated simply.

"Those were a mistake," Eggman answered. "And what are you still doing here? You heard the hedgehog, don't let me do 'anything'. That includes talking."

Marine conjured up some water and let it drop over Eggman's head, wetting his mustache and letting it droop.

"Ah," he said simply.

"I remember you, from years 'go. You were one of the ones trying to steal the Jeweled Scepter. Why?" Marine asked, her eyes narrowed as she tried to interrogate him.

"Why? Why do I do anything? For the power. And my useless copy decided that it would be better off destroying a world. In what way would destroying the world be ever better than simply taking it over?"

"You say simply, but they seem to have gotten good at stopping you."

"You misunderstand. They know that at the end of the day, I only have to win once. Sonic only stopped me on South Island because I underestimated him then. Since then, I have come closer and closer to taking over. It's only a matter of time, really. But I only have to win once...they have to win always."

"You can afford to keep playing. Tails' disappearance doesn't bother you, does it?"

"Not really, no. It is a mild curiosity. And this gets me into my nemesis' space. The fox would be so much more effective if he cut off Sonic altogether, but I'm not going to tell them that."

"I think you just did, boss," the orb spoke up again. "My recommendation is to stop talking, before you reveal any other information to her."

"It's just Marine," Eggman said, waving his hand in dismissal. And he was talking about her as if she wasn't right in front of him! She conjured another whip of water and dropped it on his head. "Despite her power, she doesn't do anything with it," he went on, ignoring his wet face, and the tanuki.

"What d'ya mean?" Marine asked, narrowing her eyes.

"You're an aquakinetic, much as Blaze is a pyrokinetic. Water beats fire. You are as powerful as she was, and as strong as anyone else that was just here. And yet you waste your time listening to their needs and their prattle. But why? I can't figure it out. You can make the world bend for your knees, and yet you don't?"

"Some of us are just better than that."

"It's scary, I know, to be so powerful. I was, many times. To have the power of the Chaos Emeralds, or the Sol Emeralds, to be able to use and harness that power...you can be so much more, Marine. Think of it. No more pirates, because the sea would obey your ever command. No more drought. No more sickened plants due to lack of water. The deserts would stay deserts, the forests never want."

"I'm not that strong. I never have been," Marine stated quietly. "I...I can't control the tides. The ocean is a force of nature, and it's one that no one can control."

"Now I know you're frightened. But what if I told you there was a way for you to become that strong?" Eggman asked, a wide smile on his face. His goggles were blocking his eyes, but Marine could almost imagine that megalomaniacal look in them.

"I'm not taking advice from you of all people. I'm not tha' stupid!"

Eggman relaxed his posture, sitting down on a small chair. "Very well, I guess. I can't force you to. Power is terrifying, when used the right way. Now while we wait on Jet, help me with this? I need to load up Tails' schematics, and he uses a file type I don't bother with."

Marine looked over at his console, a few squares of unfamiliar words. It was all in common, and individually she knew the words, but put together nothing made any amount of sense.

"He uses a better file type, boss. Compression ratio is nearly thirty seven percent more efficient than what you use."

"Loading times, Orbot."

"Loading takes seventeen percent longer than your file type."

"And you can get a lot done in seventeen percent of loading times," Eggman said. "I need you to activate this thing. Sonic had me locked out of Tails' systems. I don't blame him, of course, but it's a silly thing at this point. If I'm here, I might as well be 'useful'."

Marine touched a few of the squares, feeling silly as she tried to navigate his systems. Eggman was...not what she was expecting. Espousing her power, giving her the opportunity to learn more about her own...Blaze had given her tips, but it was always up to her to try to make the time for it. And Blaze's tips didn't always work out. Maybe Eggman did have a way to make her stronger.

She opened up the file he wanted her to, and was surprised by the design. It wasn't a plane design, or even a design for the trans-dimensional portal, but rather for some other walker. It looked like octopus arms connected to a single point, almost like a backpack.

"Brilliant, foxboy. Truly magnificent..." Eggman said softly as he looked over his shoulder. "If Tails only bothered to actually use his brain, he would be more than welcome to work for me."

"I...I don't see it," Marine said softly. "You sure you should be looking at this thing?"

"If Sonic didn't want us looking at it, he should have put more effort into looking for others or locking the system. Jet? That's our guard? I'm almost insulted. An E-2000 would be better than Jet the Hawk."

Marine looked at the walker design, and slowly she realized what it actually was. It was a design for a backpack that plugged into the arms, wires crafted around the arms and shoulders. "What is this, anyways?" Marine asked. Eggman stared at her, his eyes invisible behind the glare of his goggles.

"That, Marine...is the secret of your power. If you like. You can go back to my base and have it built in only an hour or two. You can equal Blaze, with this. Or even Sonic. All you need is to say the word. You have plenty of time. The Chaos Emeralds usually take them at least two or three days to find. And even then, they have no way of knowing which world-" Eggman said as the console started sputtering green.

"What does that mean? Did we get found out?" Marine asked as she looked towards the door.

"No, no. Knuckles had it set to let us know when it located the world that Tails and Blaze are on," Eggman explained as he looked over the console. "Press this button, here."

Marine did so, and Eggman's mustache visibly drooped. Marine looked at it, seeing a single twenty digit number, with a few periods in the middle. If she had to guess, it looked like it was an IP address of some kind. "I was hoping it wasn't. But lo and behold, it was. The chance of saving Tails and Blaze just got far more unlikely," Eggman said quietly.

"Why? Jus' a buncha numbers to me," Marine said as she stared at the address.

"You're from the Sol Empire, but you don't recognize it? Interesting," Eggman noted quietly. "It's from Kapu. Quite literally, it means 'forbidden'. A forbidden world, for one reason or another. My counterpart, the one you know well, told me of their existence. Powers that do not exist on ours, given form. My counterpart gave me quite the brief on them, full of documents taken from the Sol Empire."

"So what does that mean for them? They can get out, right?"

"That's another nature of a forbidden world. They are almost always one-way," Eggman said succinctly, staring at the screen. He closed his eyes, breathing deep in thought.

"What if I was stronger? Could I help?" Marine asked, her mind racing as she remembered what he'd been talking about earlier. If it was possible, just possible, for her to get stronger, to match Blaze in kinetics, then maybe the impossible was possible!

"It couldn't hurt," Eggman admitted slowly. There was something to his voice that Marine couldn't quite comprehend.

Marine took a moment before she looked back at the weird backpack that Tails had designed. "Then I want to do it."

Eggman grinned.

Eggman be evil. Don't listen to him. And this is the final chapter of Expendable, clocking in at seven chapters. Exasperation, the seventh arc, starts next week. Eight chapters for that one, along with one of the most painful arcs I have ever written. Also, this officially marks the halfway point in the story!

Also, the reason for the Majora's Mask OST notes? The swamp was based off of Woodfall, and Blaze's section? Very heavily taken from Snowhead Temple. It shows.

Until Next Time!