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 3.4

Tails looked quietly at the broken plane in front of him. Half of its wings had been sheared off, the red paint coming off the fuselage. He could rebuild it, of course. He had the know-how. He had the tools and materials. The only thing was that he didn't like rebuilding something when he already had something better. And the Tornado 2 was nothing if not better.

Glumly he retrieved the pieces that he could and laid them out flat. It had been nearly six weeks since Chaos had invaded Station Square, and Sonic had gone super to defeat it. The cleanup had finished only about a week ago, and the trains had just started running not much later. Meaning that Tails had been able to stare at the broken down plane that were the remains of the Tornado, the original, for far too long.

It had originally been Sonic's plane. Maybe that was reason enough to repair it? Tails doubted his friend could fly the Tornado 2, although he did still have a pilot's license, didn't he? The second and the first had plenty of things in common...he'd have to ask if Sonic could try it out next time he was out this way.

He grabbed the leather seats, screwing up his face as he unfastened the bolts and let the water out of where it had built up. Of course it had had leather seats. Why wouldn't it? Did he still have some leftover material, from the Tornado 2? He might have. He should be able to just replace it, or have some contractor do it. He did know a place that specialized in it, didn't he? He'd visited it for the seats from the Tornado 2. Maybe they had extra material.

His wrench hit a wayward screw, and Tails barely had enough time to think 'Oh no...that's not good,' as the screw came undone with the force of a pressurized hull suddenly able to depressurize itself, and it shot directly at Tail's forehead.

"Ow!" Tails shouted as he woke up, curling up with one hand on his head instinctively. There was a phantom pain there, as if he had really just been hit in the head by a pressurized screw. How screwy was that?

He let out a chuckle in his head. The sun was rising over the horizon, the rays of light poking through the trees in what he honestly thought looked more like a traditional mystery style. Each ray was clearly defined, and it gave the forest a fog-like edge to it. The wind was starting to pick up a bit, and with it came a promised chill.

Blaze must have already left, he realized as soon as he forced himself up and into the wilds around. Their home was coming along now, with only the ceiling of the first floor left before they started on the second and third. Although the third was probably going to be small, and it wouldn't take all that long, Tails thought. It was mostly going to be an area where hopefully he can resonate a crystal fast enough to get some kind of communications running with either Blaze's world or his own.

The lavender cat was nowhere to be seen, which didn't surprise Tails greatly. She'd probably already started running onto the mountain, and she took the bail-bag, he noticed. The only form of actual decent sack that they had. Granted, he'd made it himself, ages ago. The dream came to him unbidden again. He had upholstered the Tornado's seats himself, hadn't he? How had he done the leather? Had he made it? He couldn't quite remember that, so he was fairly certain that he didn't.

He had gone to a leather worker's shop for that, he remembered. He hadn't paid much attention to the scents back then, but for some reason he could recall them clearly now. Bark, lime, soap, softener...metal. Blaze had set a few traps, hadn't she? For other food besides berries and fish? Had she checked any recently? He whirled his tails, heading out into the ancient forest. She'd marked out all the traps that she'd made with a small sigil of a cat head, burned into the bark of some trees.

He looked for the sigil as he ran past, his shoes barely scraping the top of the forest floor. His tails spun fast enough to let him almost hover, and this was when he wasn't trying to go faster. The trees were thick and far apart, and Tails only had to jump to avoid the brambles every so often. The forest around their clearing was much nicer than it was near the ruins.

He found them easily, scratched into the trees instead of being burned in like he'd thought. The first few he saw didn't have anything, but the third was a standard snare trap that looks like it had caught a medium size rabbit. Not nearly as big as the one that they had caught earlier, several weeks ago now, but it was decent size.

It stared at him with scared and hopeless eyes as its legs were stuck together, held by the rope he'd manufactured. It was quiet, and thirsty. It was panicked, and Tails felt a part of his head that knew it was the best time to end its life. How he knew that, he wasn't sure. He'd practiced hunting back on West Island, but even then he never went for anything bigger than some bugs or a moth. Never a squirrel, and definitely not a rabbit.

"Come on little guy," he whispered, holding out his hands. The rabbit let out an awful shriek, the pitch forcing Tails to turn his ears inwards, but he kept moving forward. The rabbit lurched backwards, stuck there. Tails grabbed it after a long moment, feeling its soft fur against his hands. As he held it, he curled it against his chest, and the rabbit seemed to calm down, stopping its painful shrieking. He could feel its heartbeat, beating faster than a hummingbird flapping its wings.

With one hand he clawed off a piece of the rope, keeping the rabbit's hind legs stuck together. He whirled his tails, the rabbit staring out of the hole in his arms as he flew back.

The trip back to the campsite took a lot longer than it felt like it did to get out that far. The rabbit made no attempt to escape, somehow realizing that if it jumped out, the nearly ten or fifteen feet drop would probably hurt itself more, and Tails would just fly down to grab it again.

The clearing was empty, as it was exactly like he'd left. He should start working on the ceiling and floor, but he had an idea first. He tied the rabbit to the tent, trusting in how deep he'd dug the supports, putting it on some grass so it could eat and do its business. It stared at him thanklessly before it started to chew on some grasses and occasionally sticks.

Tails looked at some of the boards that Blaze had cut the other day, and grabbed a few of them. The Miles Electric should probably be used to actually let him design this idea out faster, but a part of his head already knew what to do. He clawed a few pieces, cutting them into multiple. He took them and assembled a decent square shape, and with the remaining leftovers of them made a backing for it.

He wiped the sweat off his brow as he stared up into the sky. It'd been early morning when he'd left, and late morning when he'd come back. It was early evening now, the sun starting to set far off in the distance.

He knew the house was water-tight. Blaze was nothing if not good at what he asked her to do, and her work was near impeccable. He'd essentially made a very small bath, only a few inches high, that could be used for anything they'd need a small amount of water for.

He grinned to himself as he recalled the leatherworker's factory. Such as making simple leather.

By the time he'd gone down to the river and filled up the bath, and made it back, Blaze was at the clearing with her hands full of berries, and the bail-bag full of random stones that Tails was only certain wasn't anything like what they needed. Her hair tie was gone, and her hair was down around her neck. She had a few more fresh holes in her jacket, but seemed in relatively good spirits.

"Tails. What do you have there?" She asked as he walked, carefully, towards her. He'd already spilled a surprisingly amount of water from it, but it was still more than three quarters full. And it held the water near perfectly; exactly as he'd intended it to.

"Leather bath. You see the rabbit that you caught in one of your traps earlier?"

"You mean the one that chewed through parts of the tent and then was able to hop away about another twenty feet before I caught it again? That one?"

Oh.

"Yeah, that's the one," Tails said, his ears drooping silently.

"Tie it to a log next time. Less likely to escape," Blaze advised. "But it was a good idea. I've already done the bad part, it's over there cooking over the fire," Blaze said, pointing to a small stick. The wind shifted, and Tails smelled the heavenly scent of different food roasting. She'd skinned it already, he noticed.

"Skin's over there," she said, pointing to the tent. "I wasn't sure if you had something planned or not," she finished. "Safe to say you did."

"Yeah! I had a dream last night that reminded me of it. Way back ages ago when I had to re-make the Tornado, the first one, I had to get new seats. The old ones were made out of leather, because Sonic. So I had to get new ones made, and I remember the scents from the leather working shop."

Blaze blinked.

"You can remember smells from however long ago that was? Tails, that's...very impressive."

"Fox," Tails offered as explanation. It was the truth, after all. Foxes, especially fennec-red mixes like he was were notorious for their sense of smell, right alongside that, if not stronger than, most dogs. And sapients hadn't lost any of that ability in their bipedalism, most of them though just don't use it. Being in this world had done wonders for Tails' sense of smell. "Anyways, put the hide in here," Tails said, grabbing a few pieces of bark and the shard of limestone he'd grabbed yesterday, and tossing them into the mix. The water immediately turned a putrid brown, but there was a scent there that Tails recognized.

He probably shouldn't have put them in all at once, but he doubted that it would actually hurt it any. "And then we let it soak for a while," he finished. "Then we dry it, and we're good. It's not perfect but it'll do."

Blaze smiled. "And now we wait. Want some berries? Fresh," she offered, holding out a delicate hand, filled to the brim with purple berries. They'd long since figured out it was the immature ones that contained the sugar, but the mature ones were the only ones plant-able.

She'd taken a bit of time a few days ago, Tails knew, to plant several of them in a small garden-esque area. Tails wasn't sure if they'd actually grow, but it was a worthy experiment just the same. "What I want to know though is what you've been up to. Did you go down to the mountain today?" Tails asked.

Blaze looked shifty for a moment, "Yes and no. I did go down there, but that was just to confirm what you saw. I didn't see any golems though, but I did see a few free-rolling rocks. I didn't see an entrance to a cave, but I did smell one. Although the ones I saw were not intelligent or sapient it seemed. It could be a lesser elemental, I suppose."

"Any way to tell?"

"Golems and other creatures like that are frighteningly intelligent. They should be able to speak your language, once they hear more than a few words. Did you not shout at them?"

"No, I mostly just ran away." Not something Tails would have brought up, but considering the world they'd both landed in, Tails wasn't ashamed. Not anymore, they'd had too many close encounters already.

"Fair."

-Side B-

Blaze's day started simply and quietly. Just as Tails had the previous day, she was going to check out that mountain. If there were actual golems here, or earth elementals, then maybe they would know a way out of this world.

Same creatures, two different names. The shorthand version was 'golem', named after creatures that were artificially created in a human religion. The actual term were 'elementals', or beings of a specific type. Probably in this case sedimentary or metamorphic rock, if she remembered her forced geology lessons right. It had been ages since she'd had to think about it, and she hadn't exactly been paying much attention at the time.

A pyrokinetic six year old generally did not have much of an attention span for anything that wasn't on fire. Rocks were not lit on fire, therefore it did not interest said pyrokinetic six year old.

The fact she could even recall the terms spoke miracles to the teacher's ability. And how often she had to recite the darn things. She'd only ever met two other elementals in her life, and one was a water elemental in the shape of a dragon. It did not like her, for obvious reasons.

Actually most elementals didn't like kineticists of the opposite classical elements. Water didn't like fire, earth didn't like electricity...huh. She wondered if that was why the golems didn't like Tails. Then again, it wasn't as if she'd proven that he was an electrokinetic. It was just a hypothesis that she wasn't even sure how to prove, considering that each sapient materialized their abilities differently.

Sonic's aerokinesis, for example, materialized as his 'boost' effect, or to guide himself from one enemy to the other. She'd seen him do that one before, too. Also tornado's, based on what Silver had mentioned to her one time. A headache slightly developed as soon as she thought of the silver hedgehog and that time.

Her own pyrokinesis was much grander, due to how much practice she had at it. Pillars of flame, lances of fire, conjuring fireballs or rows of fire, in all sorts of colors...fire was naturally a spectacle. It could burn slowly and quietly, but it liked to feed. And she understood its need better than she understood her own, at times.

She had forgotten how to test people, though. She herself had never undergone them, as there was no need. Even at first glance, according to her late mother's journal, it was known that she was a pyrokinetic. That was why her name was Blaze, after all.

The trip out to the mountain didn't take long at all. Tails had mentioned it was about a quarter of a day, if he was going slow. Blaze could understand why, as flying through the air as he was wont to do generally was quicker than going by the ground. Mostly because he'd forgotten to mention the swamp. Halfway there Blaze realized that the ground had turned into a soupy mess that threatened to eat up her shoes and legs. Some of the trees had fallen down, giving easy access to walkways, but it still slowed her down. It wasn't entirely liquid like actual swamps though, if anything it was closer to a bog or a giant mud pit. It still looked like the forest floor, and it was difficult to tell where one ended and the other began.

The trees had looked the same too. There were a few different varieties though, including one that looked natural in that type of environment, with thick long roots that spread out everywhere above the ground. Blaze used them as a gauge to when it had started, and when it would end.

She lost a good couple of hours in there, making it to the mountain by midday. The sun was high up, and Blaze's legs and shoes were covered in mud and swamp water. Or bog water. Whatever it actually was.

Tails had said there was an entrance to the cave about halfway up the mountain or so, but there had been a rock slide at first. There was no sign of a rock slide except for some downed trees, which checked out parts of Tails' tale. He had mentioned that the slide had reversed itself. An elemental would have that ability, even a lesser one.

Casually she shot herself up the mountain, taking care to land only on the places that were relatively solid. She was keeping an ear out for any sense of movement underneath her, or any movement in general. The sky was clear of both clouds and birds, and she didn't smell an entrance yet. No scent of stale air, the kind of that Tails had described.

Stopping at around the halfway point, looking up to see the snow-covered hill that was above her, she sat down on a solid rock. Several pebbles were nearby, and she picked one up gently. It didn't feel like an elemental to her, and with a graceful twist of the hand tossed it down the mountain, watching it as it skipped down, occasionally bouncing on another set of rocks.

For hours she searched, and at one point she thought she smelled stale air, but as soon as she got to its origination point there was nothing to be found. So either the golems were playing with her, which was a thing that many of them did, or she had smelled something which didn't exist.

Finally, when the sun was in the middle of its afternoon journey, she quietly gave up. She wasn't going to find it today, and she would have to head back. She didn't want to go back through the bog, and she carefully plotted out her course back. She could grab some berries on her way.

A sharp rumble behind her made her turn, a large boulder similar to the one in the ruins. It was joined on both sides by rocks of various sizes, and they weren't the size she could easily jump over.

Her instincts kicked in and she used a fire boost to get down the mountain. She wasn't watching her footing, and she realized the mistake halfway down as more rocks started to roll around her. Even at her speed they were gaining to her. The largest one was behind her directly, nearly fifty feet wide. How such a boulder waited until now to launch itself, Blaze didn't know, but she considered it the worst of luck.

The rocks in her path moved and wavered, and she understood what Tails had meant when he said the rocks started playing. She jumped as high as she could, using her fire to essentially get a second jump, which if she timed it right...

She turned in midair, a small fire underneath her legs to slow her fall as she matched the angle of the boulder with one foot. As soon as she felt it connect, she surged upwards on it, pushing off as gracefully as she could.

The rocks weren't natural, that's for certain, but she didn't know if it was a collection of golems, just one that was messing with her...or maybe the entire mountain was. Knowing their luck, it was probably the last one. After all, a bear, a leviathan, a giant spider, a tornado...why not add a giant mountain to the mix? That was one thing they hadn't had to go against yet.

"Please stop attacking me!" she tried, using more fire to slow her fall as she headed towards the forest. There was a slight grumble, as the rocks stopped suddenly. She turned, her tail flicking in irritation, as the rocks started rolling again...uphill.

She took a few steps forward, only for them to stop and start rolling towards her. She jumped back, for them to stop and start rolling back. "Great. A non-sapient sentient mountain. Just what the world needed, right?" she muttered, heading off into the forest.

She could still hear the rumbling farther off as the trees did little to deaden the sound. Either the mountain was a giant trap, or -

Blaze jumped to the side just in time as a thick bramble bush, complete with thorns nearly three inches long, swerved at her. She felt a small cut underneath her chest fur, and she let out a low hiss as her jacket got another hole.

The bush waved in the wind, surprisingly fluidlike as the wind moved its branches and leaves. Blaze stared for a moment, before she sighed. "This place is getting to me. Not everything in this world is out to get you, Blaze," she whispered to herself. She gave a quick glance up to see the trees swaying in the wind. It was a cold wind from what she thought was the north. It promised further cold not far in the future.

She let one hand rest on the side of her chest, feeling the small cut bleed into her hand. It was a tiny thing, and if she washed it off right Tails would probably never know. Not since he stopped sniffing her after she had to explain what a period was.

The trees were starting to thicken as Blaze went. She kept a careful lookout on the ground for if it got wet, intent on avoiding the bog or swamp. Considering her past luck with such places, she'd probably -

She ducked as a tree's branches swung in time with the wind, nearly level with her head. It snagged a bit on her hair, and she was dragged a few inches before she could undo the hair tie. "Fine. Fine, this place wins," she muttered, letting her hair down. It covered her neck, making the back of her neck rather itchy. It was why she preferred to keep her hair up.

Within the next hour, occasionally having to dodge the plants that seemed more intent on trying to kill her than ever, she did find a simple berry bush, full of the same berries that they'd had before. She was glad that these ones didn't have thorns, and these ones weren't trying to hurt her in some way.

Sure, the berries didn't have any sugar after they matured but until then they were surprisingly good. She made sure to pick as many of the mature ones as possible for planting later. Her hands blurred into the bail-bag as the mindless task dominated her head with its monotony.

It wasn't a bad monotony though. It was the kind of task that she surprisingly enjoyed. The berries filled up the bag surprisingly full, and she grabbed and munched on a small handful as she headed back towards the camp.

The way back was surprisingly difficult to find, Blaze realized early on. Mostly as she had gone around the bog or swamp, there was no direct straight line back. She was fairly decent with directions, and knew the general way she ought to have gone.

The swamp was practically everywhere around, though. After chasing the edge for a mile or two she accepted that no, she'd have to go through the bog. She hopped over a few of the downed tree logs, floating within the water or mud. There was little birdsong around, but there were other bug and insect sounds. A small crab ducked out of the mud as she waited a bit too long on the edge, and tried to snap at her with its pincers. She kicked it away gently, pushing it back into the mud.

The river was a welcome sound, even as the sun had started to set. She rinsed off her legs and chest, clearing them of the mud that had started to set on her, before she boosted her way across it. She wasn't sure where on the river she was, compared to the house, but she had to be close.

It took another half an hour of searching before she found one of her traps, and from there she knew the way back. The trees grew more familiar as she came closer, and as she crossed into the clearing she was expecting to see Tails working on the floor.

Instead the clearing was empty. "Tails?" she called out gently. There was no response. Should she go looking for him? He was more than capable of taking care of himself, and he was supposed to be back here. Maybe he'd decided to go to the river for something. It would explain his disappearance.

Shrugging, she sat down on the log and told herself she'd wait for a few minutes. Tied to the tent was a large rabbit, not as big as what she'd caught the first time, but big enough. It had already started chewing through the stick, and would break out in a few more minutes.

"I wouldn't do that, little guy," she muttered. The rabbit continued chewing, and with a gleeful hop started to jump away into the wild as soon as it broke free. It didn't get far, as its back feet were tied together, but it tried. Blaze rolled her eyes. Tails could catch something, but he couldn't kill it. Not that she could complain, she didn't like killing either.

She got up slowly and stalked towards it, her claws slowly extending from her fingertips. She calmed herself and knelt down to pet the thing, trying to calm it down. A minute later she was done, hoping that the kill had been painless. It should have been, if she'd done it right. That was the way of carnivores, wasn't it? To hurt others to take care of themselves. But that was also the way of nature as a whole, too.

She started to skin it, trying to peel off its hide without hurting anything as she took other pieces off. Tails was on his way back, she heard the crunching of his shoes against the forest floor. It sounded like he was carrying something, either heavy or something carefully. She'd make sure to have the rabbit ready for him when he got there.

Mostly a fluff chapter. But it sets things up for the rest of the story. Not much to say, really. Until Next Time!