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.

Excess 3.3

Tails left earlier than he probably should have. He'd woken up early, with the moon still shining down from nearly halfway to dawn, and stars illuminating the clearing and pathways easily, and he wasn't able to go back to sleep.

He gave a quick glance to the tent, knowing Blaze was in there and probably curled into a small ball as she was prone to doing. Admittedly, so was he, at least at night. He wished he could do something to help with all of her issues, but he also knew that the best thing to do was to avoid all mentions of them. That included his own issues, as well.

He picked up the bail-bag, loading it with small amounts of berries and some pre-cooked fish. He took the compass too, just in case. Last time he'd tried to read it had spun all over the place, but they were nearly a hundred miles or so away from there. If not more, it was hard to keep track of distance.

The mountain loomed like the Lonely Mountain against the plains, but this one was against the forest. It was easy to spot, and one of the biggest landmarks around, asides from the ruins to the north. Even then, the ruins were only bigger once they reached the clearing; the mountain was much taller than even the tallest of the ruins.

It would take him about a quarter of the day to get there, he estimated. He flew above the trees as quick as he could, only occasionally stopping to jump off the taller tree branches to let his tails rest. He was better than he'd been after he'd managed to hurt himself, but he was still slightly sore, especially after using his tails for a long time.

The forest had a fresh forest-y scent to it, like a cinnamon paired with some coriander and nutmeg. As he got closer, the trees became smaller and smaller, and he was forced to fly longer. He noticed the ground became darker, as if water was taking over some parts of the forest floor.

By the time the horizon was starting to become the dull pink of dawn, he'd reached the clearing where the mountain was. It wasn't a straight sheer cliff, but rather started low and easy and then became more sheer as it went higher.

Tails was trying to look for some caves. Those would be the easiest way to break into a mountain, having the work already done for them by the strength of erosion across millions of years. From there, maybe they could find some stones the kind they needed.

There was a scent of heat and burning rock around him as he flew up. The mountain was big, and he figured he could probably do a good examination of all the sides by the time he should head back to Blaze. He stopped for a moment as his shoes landed on the rocks. Towards the top he saw some snow, near the top. Most caves would probably be below that point, as snowmelt would rush down the mountain.

There was another scent in the air, of stale air. His ears picked up the sound of air currents circulating, the same sound that air made when it hit a cave or building and there was no flow-through. He was close, and it was nearby. Maybe he could come back surprisingly quick.

He gave a quick look back to where the campsite was, hoping to see it from here. He wanted to find the cave in relation to the site, to make it easier to get back to. He whirled his tails and soared up for a minute or two, above to just barely see the campsite from the snow level.

When he landed, his shoes hit hard against the rock, a warm granite color that had veins of quartz running through it. It didn't sound like it should've, a solid thump. Instead, it was an almost hollow sound, as if the cave was right beneath him.

But that was impossible. A cave wouldn't just-

The rocks slid from under him, the small pebbles giving way to larger stones to massive boulders as they slid down the mountain. He whirled his tails and flew up, only to have to go back down to avoid a stone the same size as him as it threatened a painful encounter with his back. The pebbles that had been beneath him slowly slid down, and right where he'd stood was a small hole, barely his size.

He looked down, seeing a swath of trees and forest had been eliminated by the rock slide. It didn't feel like a trap, but this world was proving to be far more dangerous than he liked. That was the closest thing to an actual route marker he'd find. "Find the long stretch of destroyed land by rock slide!" he murmured to himself as he looked closer at the cave entrance.

It was a tiny thing. Blaze or him could fit in it if they curled up, but Tails wasn't sure if he should or not. The ground here was unstable, as the rock slide had proven ever so eloquently, but he doubted there was another entrance somewhere. It could be that the original entrance was overtaken by the rock slide. He curled up and started up a spin dash, small rocks flinging away from him as he shot forward towards the entrance. He fit in easily, even with his two tails, and he was immediately hit with the scent of stale air.

There was another scent to it, a kind of blood-like smell that strongly reminded him of iron. Maybe there was a free iron vein? Tails wasn't sure, and he slowly uncurled.

There was very little light, but there were sounds galore. Small drips came from the ceiling, hanging onto stalactites reaching down towards the floor. There were small pitter-patters of water landing on small pools. The air was warmer than it was outside, yet there was a chill as if the rock was absorbing all of it.

Tails reached down into the bail-bag and grabbed the two electrite crystals, having them flash small bits of lightning at each other. It had the added bonus of lighting up the area a bit. He bit down on the inevitable shudders that made their way up his spine; he was glad that he'd mostly worked out that phobia of his, but sometimes it did come back to bite him...he hoped those times wouldn't be now.

The cave went deep into the mountain. The rocks had a mix of brown and grey, mixed with a few veins of white. The stalactites though were a mix of brown and green, and Tails examined them closely. He had no idea what colors he was looking for, and casually snapped off a few pieces. The brown wiped away in his hand, leaving the rock a dull jade color.

There were no creatures around, and Tails gently and slowly wandered down into the system. He had left the Miles Electric with Blaze, something that he wished he hadn't. The light from the electrite didn't extend too far out, and oftentimes didn't go past where he needed to look.

He stopped abruptly as he felt open air beneath his shoes. He took a step back and peered downwards. A sheer cliff, straight down, and the cave continued on after that. What he would've give for daylight down here. He swirled his tails and jumped over the cliff, making sure that he landed solidly. The caves down here were smooth and solid, all of them carved from one rock as compared to the rocks outside, all of them being small little stones of different varieties.

The other side of the cave was a lot smaller than he thought, and as he turned around a corner spotted the dead end. There were a few other stalactites and stalagmites hanging around reaching for each other, and Tails grabbed a few of those as well. One was a rustic red, unlike the usual brown and grey that he was seeing.

The only other way was down, he thought as he backtracked to it. The opening was more than big enough to fall down accidentally, a near abyss that absorbed all the light he tried to shine down it. He whirled his tails and took a deep breath as he slowly let himself fall down it.

The air was warmer here, which was surprising as generally cold air fell. It smelled stale and putrid, like a mix of sulfur and other gases. There was enough breathable gases that Tails wasn't too worried, but if they continued like this he might be in trouble.

The lightning from the electrite kept flashing, and Tails hoped that nothing was capable of ignition. If so, he was a goner. With this much gas, if any of it was flammable, it had probably had more than long enough to accumulate.

He saw strange shapes in the light, however. Rocks and movement in the corner of his eye. Every time he looked, whatever was there was gone. Was it a trick of the light, or something else? There could be other non-sapients down here; he'd heard of plenty of cave lizards that had evolved to need zero light at all. And the lightning was fairly crackly...

His shoes landed on a smooth piece of rock gracefully. The smell of iron and stone pierced into his nose, and the rocks moving around echoed around him. "Anyone out there?" He offered, holding up the electrite. It flashed in various ways, but none of them showed any sign of life.

He felt something at his ankle, and turned to look. A rock, somehow, had landed next to him. But where had it come from? The rock he'd landed on was as smooth as a river stone, and this rock certainly hadn't been there.

He felt another twitch from his other leg. Another rock, looking similar yet different. He swirled his tails and took to the air, the lightning flashing from the electrite.

The rocks were moving. The rocks were moving, practically on their own. They didn't move with the ease of something being pulled along a magnet, as if attracted to the electrite. They were weaving, in and out of his view.

The rocks were alive.

"Because of course they are," Tails muttered as he tried to fly straight up. There was the sound of rocks crashing above him, and he had to fly out of the way as a boulder as big as he was landed on the smaller stone and floor, right where he'd been standing. It rolled immediately onto the side, and Tails could follow its trail using the light from electrite, as it flowed up the rock walls.

"Seriously!?" Tails yelled as he tried to fly faster. The rocks, an ignoble grey flat coloring, seemingly followed him, rolling their way up the cave in time with his flight. There was a grumble around him, and Tails kicked off the side, watching as a small rock, the size of his hand, landing on the ground and started to roll around.

"I've been chased by plenty of things, but I think living rocks take the cake," Tails muttered as he found the top. The walls themselves were moving now, hundreds of the things rolling around like demonic spiders made of rock and stone. "It's a cross between Pokémon and an arachnophobe's worst nightmare..." he finished, taking only a moment to land and rest his tails before he shot for the entrance.

The entrance was still small, and didn't seem to be moving yet in the way of anything alive near it would be. He spun into a ball and barely took a moment before he went straight through it. Less than a moment later, he heard the various rocks and stones start swallowing the entrance up.

He uncurled and watched as the mountain face remade itself in front of him. Many of the rocks and stones leapt out of a bigger entrance, doing swirls and rolls around. He watched as the bigger ones rolled gently to the smaller ones, acting as ramps or guideposts as the little ones...danced...around them.

"Huh...that's weird," Tails said simply as he watched the living rocks dance and seemingly have fun. They made no sounds, but there were slight grumblings around as the bigger ones shifted. Each stone was a flat grey color, but in the sun Tails could see the hundreds of other shapes of other materials embedded in them.

He looked up at the sky, and after confirming that they didn't exactly see him, he wasn't sure how they would but they didn't seem to have a way to sense him, he went soaring back to camp. This would be a story to tell Blaze for certain.

-Side B-

Blaze woke up with her eyes on the tent's roof, the sun still not having come above the horizon. As much as Tails liked to think he was quiet, she was a cat. Cats woke up, out of general habit, at the slightest provocation.

It had apparently annoyed her parents a lot when she was a kitten, but she doesn't remember any of that. Both sets of parents.

She waited a few minutes as the hovering of his tails went out of hearing range. The mountain was easy to see, a towering monstrosity that rose ominously over the forest, even from where they were.

She propped herself up with one hand and slowly got to stretching, The feeling of the grasses that Tails had chosen to essentially make a bed felt far too tickly on her bare legs. Her tights were essentially mid-thigh now, and even then had some holes around them. Her tunic jacket was enough to cover her down to her waist, but again, it had holes in it too.

A few more dozen holes and it'd be worthless as an article of clothing. Not something she was looking forward to. She rolled her shoulders around and forced herself up steady. Her shoes, too, were starting to wear out. They still had some life left in them, but this would be around the time she'd be going around trying to get another pair custom made.

There were a few dozen logs of various sizes lying around, and Tails had helpfully left his little tablet around, which also contained the blueprints and plans for their...house? Abode? Temporary location of hiding until the Sol Emeralds fulfill their actual duty of pulling the Guardian back from whatever world she managed to fall into?

Either way, she knew enough about the tablet to check the sizes she'd need to make the boards and planks. Once they got the second floor's floor done, they could go and actually have a decent place to stay during the night, instead of a haphazard tent.

She pulled up the first few logs and went to work, slowly burning them and letting the scent of ash and smoke fill the clearing. There was little actual smoke, but that didn't stop her mind from knowing that it was there.

By the time she decided to take a break because the fire in her chest was starting to ember again, the sun was high overhead. She'd made enough boards, she thought, to at least cover a good chunk of the second floor. She could do the rest later.

The wind in the clearing had slowly picked up pace in the interim. Deciding to test the abode while she could, she promptly picked up Tails tablet and brought it with her inside. Despite the openness of the ceiling at the moment, it was immediately noticeable in how the walls withstood the wind.

She sat down against a wall, her tail out to the side. She scrolled down through the tablets many functions, staring at one to see if it enticed her enough. It was fully charged at the moment, and she doubted that Tails could use a full battery in one night. She could play anything she wanted.

It was an odd feeling. Most of the time there was always something for her to do, something that had to be done this very instant. Back on her world she was notorious for going months without a break. Her tutor and assistant, Gardon, kept trying to get her to take breaks or take a vacation at least once. She was only half-sure that the entire reason she was on the Wave to begin with was because Gardon and Marine had decided to conspire to get her to relax.

But what that all meant is that she'd never had the time to develop her own wants. Everything she'd ever done was at the insistence of the Sol Emeralds, or the Palace, or the Empire...she was their princess, after all. And yet, as she scrolled through the tablet, she had more freedom here than she ever had had in her own world.

If she wanted to take off to the ruins, she could. If she wanted to follow Tails, she could. If she wanted to plant vegetables and fruits that she'd never had before because darn it she wanted to try gardening at least once in her life, she could! There was more freedom here than anywhere else, despite the fact this should place should have been more stifling.

There was no technology here, asides from what they made themselves. And Tails was a good craftsman, but even he needed tools and materials. And the recipe, the how-to.

She blinked as she saw an app just called 'glossary'. Curious, she tapped on it, not surprised to see a simple search bar. She typed in just 'chaos', wondering if it was what she thought it was. A list of files on the device popped up with chaos in its name. Exactly what she thought it was; Tails had created a search engine for his own device. What kind of sapient needed that?

As she scrolled through, she rapidly realized why he did. The actual files weren't that long or big, but there were dozens of them. Each of them had links to other apps on the device, most of them in the planning stages, and some were in the "mostly complete" stage that meant Tails was probably manufacturing them back at his lab.

It was a useful tool to have, Blaze thought, in all actuality. She hadn't thought that he had as many files as he did, so it makes sense to have a search through them.

The wind picked up a bit more, creating a small howling through the shelter. It leapt from board to board above her, Blaze only feeling a little bit of it. She could see the trees above them slowly swaying to its tune.

After her little break was done, and the sun was mostly in the afternoon corner of the sky, she went back outside and was hit by how solid the wind hit against her. It was as if it was just waiting for her to leave before it hit her as hard as it could.

It sent her stumbling, but she caught herself before she lost more than a step. The shelter was coming along, and now they definitely had something worth making an actual house. It had protected her from the wind enough that she hadn't realized just how hard it was getting.

The air pressure was fine, despite the wind, so a storm was probably not anytime soon, at least according to the rules that Blaze knew. Based on the storm earlier, most of the rules were the same. How had Tails put it? The physics here were the same as the ones they knew?

She settled down next to the second last of the logs. They had, the first day, moved around ten or fifteen of the already fallen trees to their clearing, and Tails had clawed up the marks that he wanted Blaze to follow.

It was odd, seeing him walk around without his gloves. His hands were surprisingly small, almost dainty in a way. Then again, so were her hands, and she was just as surprised that she hadn't bothered to put her own gloves back on. She was used to always wearing them, but for some reason here, she hadn't felt the need.

The addition of the wind made cutting and burning the log take longer than it should have, because the fire kept catching on the wind and Blaze had to take a bit of time to ensure that whatever spark had managed to flow from her control went back under her control in order to smother it. She'd already stopped maybe three forest fires this way. A windy day was not the best of days to work with fire, it seemed.

She was maybe three quarter of the way through the fallen tree before she decided to take another break. The fire in her chest was beating embers again. Her pyrokinesis was usually easier than this, but then again she didn't usually use such fine control. Would it be the same if she just let it go? Let go and burn it all?

She wanted to. There was a part of her, a pyromaniac side that she knew was there, that wanted to. To cut loose and burn the world to ashes. She wasn't going to, she had more self-control than that, but she had to admit there was a part of her that wanted to.

Her ears perked up as she heard the telltale sign of Tails whirling in. He was still far enough away that she couldn't see him, but knew he was coming. He appeared to be in a hurry, based on his current rate.

Sure enough, a few minutes later the yellow fox boy flew in, sweat glistening off his brow and back. "There's something weird in that mountain!" he called out. Blaze raised an eyebrow as the wind picked up again. His fur was already disheveled, and it gave him a...dare she say, more rugged look. Almost as if he'd just gone traipsing through a cave, imagine that.

"Oh? How so?" she asked. She was leaning back against the house, letting the fire in her chest start back up again. The tree was mostly done, and she should at least be able to finish that one before the end of the daylight hours.

"Rocks that can roll on their own."

"I'm fairly certain that's a style of music," Blaze joked absently. Rocks that can roll on their own? That was his best description? He'd at least have to have had several hours on his way back to come up with something better than that.

"That's rock and roll," he corrected instantly, his tone telling her he was serious. "I mean it, they were able to climb up a sheer cliff by just rolling. Take what Sonic does and apply it to rocks. I got out of there just in time, because they decided to reverse a rockslide!"

"So these rocks, which have no eyes, were able to see you?"

"I don't know how they knew I was there. I suspect tremor sense, honestly. Feeling me through the ground, like what a spider does on its web. Most of them were small, like Sol Emerald or Chaos Emerald sized. The bigger ones though were the boulders and such."

"And they rolled around on their own?"

"They changed direction too. And could roll up walls. That was the part that threw me off the most. At first I just thought they were magnetic, and attracted to the electrite," Tails said. He grabbed a small cup of water and drank it greedily before he sat down next to her. She made a mental note to grab more water next time they had a chance. They had taken it to boiling it whenever they had the opportunity, usually early in the morning.

"Maybe they were golems or earth elementals?" Blaze asked. Tails stared blankly. "Rock monsters, essentially. They're rare on my world, but far from unheard of. Did any of them roll together? Forming a humanoid or sapienoid shape?"

"I don't think so, no. I didn't see any behavior of that type. Oh, but I did find this," Tails said, brightening up as he reached through his bail-bag. He pulled out a solid green stone, nearly the size of his fist and shaped like a horn or antler. "I think it's limestone. I broke it off a stalactite. This is what you needed, right?"

Blaze blinked. "I...think so? I've never made leather before, Tails," she answered. The stone did share the same shade of green as the limestone she'd seen before. But this was almost more brilliantly colored, like it was jade or emerald, only without the shine. "I can try, over the next few days. I don't know how long it will take."

"Knowing our luck, probably a while. The cave was easy to get to, but I think the stones, or golems, or what have you, covered up the entrance again."

Blaze stared up at the sky, and leaned back gently. She really wished the Sol Emeralds would hurry up. If there were golems here, that would be generally a bad sign...but there were also leviathans here too, so maybe this world just killed all the other sapients. Worst case scenario, and one she desperately hoped wasn't true, was that he had encountered a Primordial.

Yes, she wished the Sol Emeralds would hurry up and get her home.

And the mysteries start piling up...shoutout to LancetheFox who reminded me of a fairly key point of Tails' character that I have seemingly forgotten; he was afraid of lightning. So, thank you! I'll do my best to ensure that it gets covered as to why he still has it, if he does, and if not, how he got over it. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Until Next Time!