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 3.5

Tails woke up a week later feeling a slight chill in the air. It wasn't dark out, the sun was starting to rise on the far side of the forest, but there was still a dark chill to it, a biting cold that nipped at his heels. They'd managed to, within the last week, finish the first floor and most of the second. It wasn't his best work, but then again he didn't have the power of manufacturing exact parts right now. If he had, he had no doubt it'd be up to par.

Blaze was on the far side of the house, maybe only fifteen or so feet away, curled up in a blanket made of rabbit hides. Her shoes were kicked off to the side, and the gem on her forehead glowed in the small light of dawn. She was still asleep, her chest rising and falling slowly and rhythmically.

They'd had a good last week. There were surprisingly few issues with their tanner, although it did take longer than Tails thought that it had. The first few tries they ended up making soft and plushy, which Blaze ended up making into small sacks and bags. They had at least five or six of the things by now. Tails had yet to kill anything himself, leaving most of that to the cat in the corner, but he knew that sooner or later he'd have to. He was okay with killing bugs or small reptiles, but anything bigger than a bird that could show its pain? No thanks.

He gave a quiet yawn, and stared out. Their 'garden' was doing surprisingly well. Small shoots of plants were growing, although the chill was starting to turn them yellow. They had probably planted too early, and now the oncoming frost would kill them.

He blinked for a bit as the thought came to him. "Oh shoot, we forgot about the winter..." he murmured. The temperature going down like this was a normal thing in the mornings, but it was also going down throughout the rest of the week too, slowly lower and lower. It was comfortable at the moment, but within a few more weeks it would probably start getting to the point of bundling up.

They had small bags of cooked meat stored in the corner, kept cold by using the river water. Raw meat wouldn't last nearly as long.

His attention turned to Blaze as she let out a low yawn, a small purr emanating from her mouth as she sat up quietly. Her bare hand rubbed her eye, her ears flickering. She still had her jacket and shorts on, so Tails wasn't worried about seeing anything inappropriate, regardless of what his dreams hoped. "What's wrong, Tails?" she asked.

"The winter. We forgot about it."

"We have plenty at the moment," Blaze suggested sleepily. Tails couldn't fault her for that, she'd just woken up whereas he'd had a few minutes to ruminate on it. They had a lot, right now, and they had a lot going for them.

"At the moment, yeah, but then what about after? The berries aren't going to last much longer, and we have to go farther to pick more. Even the rabbits and fish are disappearing, and it's not because we're taking too much."

Blaze's eyes shut for a moment, before they widened back up. "You're not wrong..." she murmured. "Just the other day I had to go to the other side of the Mountain to pick them. We've picked all the others practically clean."

"I had to head to the Ruins yesterday just to find a rabbit, and the river hasn't had fish overflowing like when we got here in days. They've left, Blaze."

"And thus so must we," she murmured. "Alright. We'll spend another few days packing as much as we can. South, I'm guessing?"

Tails stared up at the unfinished communications tower. The Miles Electric was up at the top, charging. It was high enough, and he'd finished enough that it should be able to bounce a signal through. "Yeah, let's go south. Maybe scout around the area and see if we need anything specific?" he asked. "I'll go up and see if I can't use the Miles Electric to send a signal out. It should be charged enough, and we don't need to use it for the next few days. It'll suck we have to leave this place like this, though."

Blaze sighed. "Yes. It was nice while we had it though. I missed not sleeping on the ground," she said. She slipped her bare feet into her socks, and pushed her shoes on a moment later. "Do you think you can push a message through?"

Tails shrugged. "I'm not sure, but there's no sense in not trying now. If I burst it, using the entire battery charge, and boost the signal via the tower, it should be able to spread across the world. Whether it can cross the Special Zone though, I don't know."

"You never did explain how you got it to work."

Tails chuckled. "Pretty simple, but it's complicated too. I used a small section of copper to essentially vibrate its way up when given a charge. At the top, I used the Miles Electric's transmitter to react to the vibrations using its own strength, creating a repeater!"

Blaze blinked. "I understood...almost none of that. And I've been listening to you this entire time."

"Better than it sounded in my head then," Tails grinned. "I'll see if I can't boil it down further. Should we see about using the leftover wood we have to create boxes and such? I think that might be better than just the pure bags."

"Might not be a bad idea. Mark the ones you need me to cut and we'll switch tomorrow," Blaze said, pushing herself up. Her tailcoat jacket had gotten more cuts in the last week, leaving a massive hole where her stomach shone through. Tails tried to avoid holding his gaze there.

"Right. I might join you out there, depending on how long it takes for the message to send," Tails said.

"What were you planning on sending?" Blaze asked. She grabbed another small hide bag, holding it over her shoulder easily. Her shorts were more and more torn as well. Tails knew that he, too, had more cuts and scars underneath his fur, just as much as her clothes did.

"A voice or data message, saying we're okay, and hunting for a way home. Special Zone didn't work on first try. And date stamped."

"You've been keeping track?"

"I know I shouldn't. But basically, a little over a month. Thirty five days, approximately."

"Thirty five days..." Blaze returned. She gave a quick look at her shoes before she darted out through the entrance they'd designated as the 'door'.

It was hard to believe they'd been here that long already. And that could be off, too, because the Miles Electric hadn't had a charge for a day or two. Usually that means the clock is wrong, and then there was the time they were underground and lost track due to sickness...they'd already gone through a lot.

Tails flew up to the second floor, watching Blaze's path as she ran down to the trail. The third floor was nothing more than a floor at this point, with the second floor having three of its four walls. They were much smaller here, only about five feet per room instead of the first floor's ten. It was an odd pyramid shape, their house, but it fit, Tails' thought.

He finished his flight up to the third floor, where the Miles Electric was already in the sun. The battery sign had a plus sign on it, showing that it was overcharging. He'd drain that in seconds flat. He opened up the communications app, letting it pick up the makeshift hardware that he'd come up with. It took a moment or two to calibrate itself with its own transponder at the top, which he'd have to remember to pick up afterwards.

As much effort as it had been to build this place, Tails was almost glad they were leaving it unfinished. Other creatures would probably take it up in the interim, and if they ever came back they could finish it. Tails hoped that they wouldn't, though. Come back, that is. He didn't know how long it would take the Sol Emeralds to charge, but both he and Blaze better be ready the instant they are.

"This is Tails, sending on all frequencies," he started into the communications app, "using extended makeshift hardware. I'm with Blaze the Cat on an unknown world, shoved from the Special Zone. Special Zone will not let us go out on first try, but we'll keep trying. Blaze has plan to let Sol Emeralds charge, allowing her inter-dimensional traversal abilities. This is currently Day 35, according to the Miles Electric. We are alright, if a bit banged up. I repeat, this is Tails, sending on all frequencies. On unknown world with Blaze the Cat."

He took a moment to let the program compile the message. It would send it out as a hardened data packet, specifically to be able to traverse through the Special Zone. Whether it actually would be able to or not...Tails was blind-sending. He had no idea if anyone would hear him, or if anyone was listening. His lab back at the Mystic Ruins should be able to pick it up, but that was entirely dependent on if someone remembered to check.

He hoped Sonic would, but Sonic was not the most knowledgeable when it came to technology. No, that's why he usually had Tails. Amy and Knuckles could decipher a few things, and Knuckles had a flair for mechanics, but actual technology was only Tails' bread and butter.

"This is Tails, sending on all frequencies," he typed down a second later. "With Blaze the Cat on unknown world. Special Zone spat us out here. Will not bring us back. We are alright. Trying to figure out other way home," he typed. Text was simpler to send, and could be hardened the same way as voice, but for some reason, Tails had never quite picked up the flair for text. He usually preferred voice, and so his voice packet was probably smaller and more compact than the text packet.

"Alright, so let's try it," he muttered, pushing a few settings to their maximum. The battery had a symbol next to it saying how much it would drain by, if they needed to watch it. He didn't care at the moment; he set everything he could to maximum. All frequencies, all wavelengths. He didn't care if Eggman picked it up. All he cared about was that someone heard it, and hope that someone was capable of help.

And besides, if they did find Eggman here that meant Eggman had found a way across the dimensional barrier. At which point they steal back that technology and they were home free! Win-win!

Tails giggled at the thought of leaving Eggman stranded in an unknown world. A world like this one...maybe he wouldn't be able to leave? Nah, Eggman was just as smart as Tails was. He'd be able to work out a way to leave with even so much as a toothpick and a wire.

The battery showed that sending the two messages would put the battery down to barely two percent left, just enough to keep it running. It was fully in the sun again, so it would go back up within a week or so at the current rate. It was only because it was overcharged that it would be able to send at all.

His finger hovered over the send button, knowing that this could lead to unintended consequences. But it was a thing that he'd always planned on doing, and with a heavy hand he pushed the button.

The Miles Electric got much hotter as it used every ounce of battery it could, and Tails looked up at the transponder as high above him as he could get, and saw the small white light shoot out. It went out with a small burst two times, each time emitting a small circle of light. The messages were sent, now.

Now all he had to do was wait, and hope that someone was listening.

-Side B-

Blaze's mind raced as she ran through the forest. It was almost second nature now, jumping through the various trees and landing on the logs over the bog to ensure she didn't get stuck. She had a few bags with her, and Tails' original bail-bag. She was hoping to find enough berries or other food to fill them all, but knew that was probably not going to happen. They had more stuff to pack, too, so they'd need more...more and more, that seemed to be the theme, didn't it?

They needed more. And they were running out. Food was getting scarcer, although it was hard to notice with how abundant it was at the beginning. But Tails was right; they'd almost completely forgotten about winter.

She wasn't worried about winters normally. But then again, she also came from a world in which she was a princess and could find a hotel in almost any city. Or from a place that didn't have winter because everything was on fire. Or underneath lava, or potentially both. She felt a headache start to form.

It took a little more than an hour now for her to find her way to the Mountain. She'd gotten fast enough and knowledgeable about the path she'd been able to cut the time from a quarter of a day to barely over an hour. She had marked an exact spot at which the boulders would stop chasing her, almost a line at which they suddenly switched 'off'.

She stopped at the line, a small charred mark on the ground. The rocks weren't moving towards her. "I don't know if you understand me," Blaze started, feeling particularly silly for talking to rocks, "but my friend and I will be leaving soon."

"Leaving mountain?" came a deep bass rumble. She flinched as her sensitive ears were basically assaulted, to say nothing of the effect on her bones or body.

Before her eyes the largest boulder rolled up, and a collection of other rocks started to join in. Hundreds of smaller rocks and stones rolled up over each other, until finally it formed basically a head, with eyes and a mouth, all made out of individual rocks. Hundreds, thousands of them meshed together.

"Yes. Winter will be here soon, and we think there's not enough food for us to live," Blaze murmured. It was an actual golem, an actual earth elemental. Something old as the actual world itself, and here she was, conversing with it. Maybe it wasn't a golem, or an elemental. Was it an actual primordial!?

"Food enough. South head. Hot," the elemental said. It took a moment for Blaze to parse it. It spoke in broken common, difficult to understand at the best of times. Maybe there was another language around that it did understand?

"It's hot to the south, but we have enough food to get there?" She questioned. The boulder stared at her unmoving. "I'm going to say that's a yes, then."

The boulder murmured something that Blaze didn't understand. It was a language, that was for certain, but she didn't know it off the top of her head. It sounded vaguely familiar, but her mind was drawing a blank. "Can you show us?" she asked.

"Cannot. Cannot leave mountain. Mountain is one."

Blaze nodded. She thought she understood. What she was speaking to was an earth elemental...the elemental of the Mountain. Which meant that it was limited in what it could do and how far it could go. That would explain why it kept chasing them, too. It wanted them off of itself, like fleas off a cat.

Note to self, she thought, don't compare yourself to a flea again. Although she had to admit the analogy was apt; compared to the Mountain, they were like fleas or ants. And like most sapients, it wanted the weird bug things off of itself. Maybe that's why there wasn't nearly as much greenery on the Mountain as there could be.

"Do you have any recommendations besides 'south'?" she asked. "Or any places to get food for the trip? We want to be doubly sure we make it."

"South. Hot, sand. Water, cross. Others like you."

Blaze froze. There were others? Could they find them, would they have a way back? She knew the Sol Empire was the greatest at inter-dimensional traveling but that didn't mean much, these others could be just as good as they were. This was an unknown world, an uncharted world. Who knew what possibilities there were? "Others...like me?"

"I know not," the elemental stated. "Berries, across Mountain. Go. I rest." The rocks and stones that made up the head slowly wormed their way down, and the larger boulders separated from each other with belying ease. It took only a minute or so for the elemental to disperse itself across.

"I know not...it was trying to say something else there," Blaze noted absently. She ran across her mark, trying her best to not disturb the elemental further. She'd have to do some real research on them the instant she got back; they were rare, and each of them were as unique as any sapients, but there had to be some research on at least some of them.

She turned to look back at the house, seeing the large burst of light overhead. Tails had finally sent the messages, had he? She hadn't gone all that far, in comparison, so either he'd taken longer than she'd thought he would, or there had been something that had delayed him. Probably trying to charge the tablet up just a little bit further.

He'd explained the proposal to her a few times, and each time she thought she managed to get it, but then he would say just one last thing that threw everything out the window. The gist was simple; using as much battery as it could, it would generate an extremely strong signal. Using their jury-rigged contraption of a tower, they would use that extremely powerful signal to breach across worlds.

It was highly likely, in Blaze's mind, that no one was paying attention that should have been, or the ones that were paying attention were the kind she didn't want to deal with. The Empire had multiple incursions from other worlds throughout its history to hunt for the Sol Emeralds. Blaze herself had dealt with two of such; one was a band of echidnas who had been locked away and were hoping to try to get out, and the other was an insectoid race who were hoping to use them to take over their initial galaxy.

Inter-dimensional travel, Blaze knew, was not a toy. There were dozens of other worlds out there, dozens of places that were all connected through the fabric of Chaos and Sol.

The berries were easy to find, Blaze was relieved to find, and she quickly went to picking through them. The bushes were on the far side of the Mountain, exactly as the elemental had described. How much it was able to hear, Blaze wasn't sure, but she wouldn't be surprised to find out it could be almost anywhere, and only materialize itself in that one spot. She had thought the water elemental she had fought once had done the same, although admittedly she didn't have the patience to question it as such.

She had been much too busy trying to not drown and attempting to burn water without boiling it.

Her nose caught a scent on the air, a sweet scent that reminded her of honey, and with a small blink she went hunting for it. Her stomach rumbled quietly, and she munched on a few berries to quell it.

The bees were the first sign that she found, a small buzzing sound that surrounded her quickly enough. She spotted it easily; a small brown nest hanging into a tree. "This will probably get me hurt..." Blaze muttered as she summoned her fire around her first, burning the bees around her. She aimed a small stream into the nest, waiting for the signs of the first drop. Honey would melt, and it would be only a few minutes before it crystallized.

She held out a bag underneath it, keeping the small stream up. The bees buzzed around her, heading towards her for the hive's protection, but she kept up the small flare of fire. She hadn't realized how much her precise control over fire had improved until now. Before this type of exercise would be difficult at best, and insanely hard at worst. Now, keeping up multiple types of flames were easy, letting her concentrate on letting the honey flow into a sack. She'd strain it out later for the dead bodies of the bees, because there were a lot of them.

The honey at first dripped slow, but Blaze smiled as she watched it speed up, small drops becoming huge piles of it as it melted on the inside. She was cooking it, she knew, but that was the thing about honey; it almost never went bad, was basically pure sugar and energy, had a ton of nutrients, and was basically a survivalist's best friend.

She could thank Gardon for forcing that particular message into her head. Multiple times.

Soon the deluge of honey stopped, and Blaze looked at the sack, already nearing full. She tied it closed using a bit of the rope that Tails had lent her originally to pull her hair up. It'd gotten in the way too much recently, and she'd gotten used to the way it scratched and itched on the back of her neck now, so she just left it down.

"Sorry bees. I think I left the queen and several workers alive in there. Should be enough to keep you going if you start now," Blaze muttered, tying the bag tightly as she ran back to the berries. The honey sloshed around on her waist as it hadn't cooled enough yet to crystallize, and was still warm enough to be an actual liquid.

Hopefully she just hadn't killed a hive of bees. Bees were usually nice, and she remembered Charmy from Tails' world. These bees had been the non-sapient kind, but then again she'd never seen a hive of sapient bees before. Did they hive and make honey, or was that just the non-sapient ones? It was an odd question that she didn't realize she had.

The path back to the camp took a surprisingly long time, mostly because as the sun was setting the insects and other bugs were starting to pop out of their hiding spots, and they'd chosen the bog as the best place to find other things to munch on. Blaze kept trying to speed on through only to run into another small conglomeration of mosquitoes or flies or mosquito-esque annoyances that she flash fried.

It was hard to realize that as similar as things were, they weren't the same. The berries weren't blueberries, they only had some of the same characteristics. The golem wasn't an elemental like it was on her world, and she had no idea if they existed on Tails' world. She'd certainly never met one. She'd have to ask Tails at some point, although his confusion at the discussion last week made her think that they didn't.

She jumped from log to log, occasionally heading towards the upper tips of the trees. She had no intention of going too far up, not with the cargo she had, and it'd be interesting to determine if Tails got anything or figured anything else out in the time she was gone.

By the time she reached the house the sun was almost completely set. Tails had put a small burning stick on the edge of the porch, a sure sign to let her know he was still up and awake, even though it was nearly dark. The stars were out and the moon was waning, almost crescent now.

"Tails?" She asked as she walked in. The kit...fox...was still awake, looking up from his tablet from something. "Any good news?" she asked.

"Not on this front. I've made sure to keep the Miles Electric charging most of the day, so that way if it did need to pick something up it could. I don't think it has though. I hope the message went through, at least. What about you? What'd you find?" he asked, sniffing the air lightly.

Blaze smirked. "More berries, more information, a viable path, and some honey."

"I always did like honey. Wish we had some crackers though!" Tails joked, his eyes bright as he heard how much she'd gotten.

Excess: More than is usual or required. Much like the majority of this arc; an excess of words. Chapter has some important pieces to it, and the only thing I will say is I will refer to the summary. This is a world of madness. One more chapter in Excess, then it's off to the races. Literally, in this case. Until Next Time!