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.

Exertion 4.2

Blaze woke up with a small stick poking at the back of her legs. She tried to push it away gently, feeling the small fur...her eyes opened instantly. Right. No time to be confused, she thought. She was still in the stump. Tails was next to her, and their supplies were in the corner, squishing them together. She gently nudged Tails awake.

"Huh...what's going on...?" he asked, his eyes blurred together as he attempted to wake up. "I was in the middle of a good dream..."

Blaze had no doubt of that. "I'm going outside for a bit. If you see a large fireball, that's where I am," she said quietly, pulling herself out of the stump. The air was chilled and biting, but had a faint scent of promised warmth that many forests had. She stared out at the plains, seeing the small layer of white frost that had glazed over the fronds and grasses.

The sky was still a deep dark blue, but off in the corner, in the faint edges of the mountains, she could see the dawn starting and the sky turning a brilliant orange, and she sat down for a long moment. The stars twinkled brightly above her.

She knew that this would come up at some point. She couldn't ignore it any more, and she knew that it would become a problem the instant Tails had told her he was fifteen. The moon was starting to wax again, she noticed.

Both of those involved conversations she greatly preferred to not have. The forest around them was dangerous enough on its own, and considering the last forest they went through...well, at least it would most likely be better off than the moles. What did Tails call them? Drillers? She forced herself up as the sun started to rise far off in the distance. Time to face the fox. "Tails, you alright?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Why?" the answer came a moment later. There was a sense of hesitancy towards it, a sense that everything was not as it should. Blaze curled up and slowly pulled herself through to the inside of the stump. She deliberately made sure to breathe through her mouth.

She hadn't realized how much warmer it was in here than it was out there. Tails had his tablet out, its screen radiating a white glow onto his head. He was positioned oddly, the tablet in front of his knees as he squished himself up. There was an odd scent to the air that she smelled even with her mouth, but it was one that Blaze had no desire to try to identify further.

She stared at him a bit as she crossed her legs and sat down. "This...will be an uncomfortable conversation for me," Blaze started quietly. "It goes without saying I don't like talking about this kind of thing, but it's been occurring too frequently for me to not take notice."

"I don't think I'm going to like this conversation."

"Probably not. Or potentially too much. Both are possible, if equally unlikely. I know you're fifteen, and with that age comes...ideas. Especially with a girl that's your only companionship."

"I...can try to control-"

"Not asking you to," Blaze interrupted. "I know that it's not you, or it may be, I don't know. But I do ask that if you feel the urge to..." Blaze sighed as she struggled to put into words what she really didn't want to, "...to please do it far outside my senses range."

Tails was blushing madly, the white fur on his face closer to a Knuckles shade of red than the foxes white. "I...can do that, yeah."

Blaze blinked, and gave a small smirk. "You are the first male to have ever told me flat out that you do. Will wonders ever cease?" she teased. "If you need to go now, I'll gather the stuff and wait outside."

"No, I'm good."

"Good," Blaze finished simply. She grabbed her supplies, and a few more of Tails' bags too, and pushed them gently out of the stump as she pulled herself out.

Tails was right behind her, his earthy scent mixing with that of the stumps. "Do...uh...other guys do that? Often, I mean?"

Blaze stared at him for a moment. "Right, you never got the full talk..." she murmured. "As far as I know, it's common for everyone."

"So you've done it too?" he asked, blushing wildly. Blaze had to cut off the groan that threatened to emanate from her throat.

"That's...rather personal, Tails. And for me to know," she responded. She wasn't going to tell him anything, whether she did or not. "And now let's drop the subject and move on."

"So that's a yes then."

Blaze didn't hold in that groan. "That's an 'I'm not going to tell you.' Now let's try to figure out how to get out of this forest?"

"If it's really not that big of a deal, why are you hiding it?"

"Because just because it's not a big deal doesn't mean it's not personal. Do you tell Sonic or Knuckles, or even...what's his name, the black hedgehog. Shade?"

"Shadow? I'm pretty sure that's a quick way to ensure that I have more problems."

"Precisely. That's also why it's not a comfortable topic."

"Honestly, I don't see why we can't just go straight through," Tails shrugged. Blaze blinked for a moment before her mind caught up. He'd finally dropped the uncomfortable subject. That was worth a celebration, right?

"We could. It might be quicker to go around on the plains side though, depending on if the forest wraps around."

"I don't want to even head towards the driller's lairs again. Not after what they did to the electrite..."

Oh right. He only had one piece now, given that he'd thrown the other away in an attempt to make them survive. Granted, that was probably for the best. They could probably find some more later.

"Into the forest then," Blaze said, motioning towards it. This forest was also much thicker than the last one one was. The last one was much more spread out, with the trees much taller or higher than these ones. These ones were bigger and thicker, but much shorter, and thus their branches were much more likely to poke at their chests and arms.

The forest floor wasn't the simple brown of dead leaves and branches like the other one, but instead a molded grey of dying branches and sticks. Leaves that had long since turned grey instead of the dull drab brown, shrinking into themselves.

Birdsong was around them, the chirp of birds instinctively flaring into Blaze's mind. Her instincts wanted her to catch them, to 'play' with them, but she could shoot it down easily. They were different songs too, different birds flying around. She saw only a few of them; a large red one that looked like a hawk, a few sparrows that had blue feathers instead of their grey or brown ones that she was mostly familiar with.

The colors of the trees were also very different. The last forest were full of evergreens, trees that would only drop their leaves when the leaf was dead. These ones were exploding with reds and greens and even a few blues thrown in. As if someone had made a firework and tossed in every color in the rainbow and set it to blow over the trees here.

Blaze unconsciously moved away from one of the branches, burning it gently as she passed by. It had barely scratched at her stomach, but these branches were so numerous it was impossible to avoid them all.

It would be a fool's errand to run here, she knew. She'd hurt herself worse than she had at the beginning. Even now, just walking, she had to watch her step. Her shoes weren't helping, sinking into the dead leaves that had already fallen, or branches breaking when she stepped on them.

Tails wasn't having nearly as hard of a time as her, she noticed. He'd spin his tails gently, letting him land just long enough to not fall in before he took a step. He was almost walking in midair, if she had to be honest.

They munched on the few berries that they'd found along the way, stopping for barely an hour to strip the plant bare. It wasn't much, but it would be enough to make sure they didn't end their supplies too soon.

The sun sat overhead, slowly making its way across the sky. This forest was also much more open than the last one, and Blaze felt the sun's existence on her head much clearer than she had anywhere except at the ruins and the Mountain.

Tails stopped for a moment, his ears and whiskers going every which way. "Do you hear something?" Blaze asked, stopping as she concentrated on her own senses. Now that she thought about it, there was another thing here, wasn't there? A slight ringing sound, the same sound that she'd heard right before-

Tails shot forward, grabbing her hand and pulling her along. She ran with him, recognizing the sound now. The sound of a giant teleportal ring.

There was a small break in the sticks and leaves that went straight down into the dirt, and Tails slid down without a moment's hesitation. The ringing was louder now, and Blaze followed only a second behind.

The cave was small, barely a few feet in depth. The sides were full of water, and the entrance almost completely covered by the various excretions of the trees above. But in the middle lay the golden ring, spinning ever so slowly. Tails grabbed her hand again, and with barely a look at her to see if she agreed, jumped in to the ring. Blaze followed a moment later, and the ring spun around faster and faster. Their surroundings washed away into a white light, and she felt an uncomfortable acceleration that she knew was the Special Zone.

She found herself in a tube filled to the brim with glowing blocks of different colors. Hundreds of them, shifting from one to the other as she felt herself pushed forward. They still had their bags, she noticed, and she could feel the water slosh around in a few of hers.

Floating blocks appeared, and dozens of rings showed up every which way. "Come on, usually we have to grab the rings!" Tails shouted, grabbing a few of them on top of a platform.

Blaze grabbed a few, feeling the healing energy of the rings go into her. She couldn't keep the rings, according to Tails and her previous experience in the Special Zone, but having them now was certainly a breath of fresh air.

Tails jumped around wildly on the top platform, grabbing as many rings as he could. Blaze followed suit, keeping up with him before the rings and platform disappeared, surrounding them with colored blocks shining bright.

"Alright, that's the first step done! Two more, if anything's similar," Tails shouted, a smirk on his face as he jumped onto the top platform again. Blaze shook her head, but she couldn't stop running. There was a force behind her that kept her going, no matter what happened. She couldn't control her fire, it seemed, no matter how she tried.

Which meant she was left almost entirely with just physically running. She did wish that she'd thought to drop her bags before coming in. Probably was a good thing she hadn't though.

The rings kept coming, and Blaze kept collecting them, until things changed again. The tube twisted and turned, and suddenly she found herself running on the ceiling. The rings weren't rings anymore, but small black blocks with red embedded in them; bombs. Were bombs normal for the Special Zone?

"Avoid the bombs! In case it wasn't, you know, obvious," Tails shouted from beneath her or above her, depending on how she looked at it. He was still...under? Over? On the platform above? He was still on the other side of the block platform, and the sea of bombs slowly disappeared a moment later, followed by the platform.

The tube twisted a second time, and she found herself on the floor with Tails next to her. "Alright! Step two done!" he shouted, as another ring of bright blocks surrounded them.

The world turned white, and Blaze felt herself fall onto...a pile of sticks? She looked around, Tails having fallen at the same time next to her. The Special Zone cleared up, and the forest they were in surrounded them. The cave was no longer nearby, and Blaze took a quick moment to sniff the air.

"Huh...that's never happened before," Tails said quietly. "I don't think that was a normal Special Zone. I think that was a Warp Zone."

"Warp Zones? I thought those transferred from one world to another?" Blaze asked. Actually, now that she thought about it, Warp Zones were supposed to also be ritualistic in nature. Maybe that's how she'd gotten from her world to this one instead of just going to the Special Zone...?

"Maybe. Hyperspace Zones then? Either way, we're not where we entered. It doesn't look like we went too far though, maybe only a few hundred feet. I can see a few of your burn marks over there," Tails said, pointing it out.

Blaze nodded. She, too, now that she was looking, could see the blackened remains of some of the branches she'd cut off in their hurry. Maybe they hadn't lost much time? And the rings they'd gotten in the Special Zone...weren't here. But they did, at least, make her feel better, even if they had done nothing at all.

—Side T—

Tails was more thrown off by the appearance of the Hyperspace Zones than he cared to admit. He was a man of science, of logic. And the Special Zone had none of that. It was, ironically enough, Sonic's preferred vat of wisdom that usually led to breakthroughs in the Special Zone.

Sure, they hadn't gone far, only a few hundred feet, but what's to say that others wouldn't have punted them halfway across the world? Or straight into the arctic areas, if this world had any? It probably did, now that he was thinking on it. Forests, mountains, arctic zones...it was different geographically from his or Blaze's world, but it shared many of the same characteristics. Although this one did seem a tad bit...meaner.

As in, Tails was surprised that Hyperspace Zones didn't punt them out in the middle of the ocean or a blizzard. Or a blizzard in the middle of the ocean.

The forest was thick, and although the forest floor was slippery and rather grimy, not that Tails particularly cared as he flew whenever he needed or wanted to, but it did make navigating it particularly troublesome.

Above them, the mountains soared, like giant statues or skyscrapers pointing and poking at the sky. The tips were covered in clouds, and Tails was fairly certain he could see a few white cones that represented snow. They'd be fine, even if Blaze wasn't a pyrokinetic.

Trees and birds soared above them, and Tails wondered what kind of birds made their being here. Hawks, like what occasionally were found near the Mystic Ruins? Or would it be jays or sparrows, small seed-eating birds that pleasured the world with their songs? Or crows, who annoyed it.

The scent leaped out to Tails first, as he flew over a large collection of leaves that Blaze had almost sunk into. He paused in midair as Blaze burned some of the leaves and darted to a nearby fallen log that was hopefully on solid ground.

It was an odd scent, like oil and...this was going to sound weird, but musk mixed together. A skunk that had gotten fired up and decided to take it out on a nearby tree, something similar to that. A burning feeling that embittered his nose.

Blaze must have smelled it a moment later. "You smell that?" she asked. She looked back to his scrunched nose. "I'll take that as a yes. What do you think it is?" she asked.

There was something different about it, Tails knew. He wondered how to put it into words. Messages, almost. Carefree, healthy, hungry. Close. There was a size difference, too, something much larger than he was. "I don't know, but it's something big," he murmured.

There was a small crash behind them, and Tails felt the growl from nearly twenty feet back. He turned to see a giant fox, orange and white in coloring much like his own, staring and letting out small growls. It was nearly ten times his own size, and towering over many of the trees nearby. Its paws sunk into the leaves, but that didn't seem to bother it any.

"Blaze?" Tails asked, slowly landing on the log.

"Run?" she guessed.

"Run." He admitted. He felt Blaze grab his arm and start her run, darting and bouncing off the trees and logs that dotted the landscape as the giant fox bounded after them a moment later, its large physique crashing into trees and knocking them down.

It wasn't barking, and it was near silent in its approach. If it wasn't for its knocking of the trees, Tails would almost think they were being chased by a ghost. Its paws were silent, and only its breath alerted them to the creature's actual position.

"Can you talk with it!?" Blaze shouted as she focused on avoiding the maze of trees. More than once she had to run sideways on them, bouncing to another fallen log. It would be easy to escape by going straight up, but Tails was more than aware that foxes could jump significantly high. A giant vulpine like this? Probably even higher.

"Can you talk with other cats that you don't know!?" Tails shouted back. He was wracking his brain though, trying to find some way out of this mess that didn't involve Blaze and Tails' stew in its stomach. Blaze shot back a small ball of fire at it, which didn't seem to do much, if anything, to faze it. "Fire won't work directly, maybe set the forest on fire?" he tried to shout out suggestions.

"Last time we did that, a leviathan came. No offense Tails, but I think I prefer a giant fox to a leviathan!" Blaze responded. She grabbed a small tree and used it to suddenly make a ninety degree turn. The path directly ahead was clear, and Blaze accelerated. The fox crashed into the row of trees where they had turned, but was chasing after them a second later.

Tails whirled his namesakes, trying to match Blaze's speed. He'd prefer to be on the ground in control than flying and being dragged on by Blaze.

The forest thinned out a moment later, and Tails had the distinct worry that they were heading back out into the plains with the drillers. This thought was quickly squashed out of his mind as the view came into focus.

It was a continuation of the forest, but with a large break in the middle. A nearly fifty foot wide canyon lay there, cutting into the mountains. A large river snaked its way on the bottom, and even now Tails could hear and see the rapids underneath.

And they were rapidly heading towards the edge. Tails pushed himself harder, his tails whirring loudly as he returned Blaze's grip. "Hold on tight!" he called out.

Blaze tensed, curling up her legs and closing her eyes as soon as Tails jumped, holding her wrist tight. Her hand was gripping his in a way that almost felt like she was cutting off his circulation, but she reached up with her hand. The pressure lightened the instant that Tails grabbed it.

His tails whirled around above him as he tried to make the flight. The crashing sounds of the fox stopped, and Tails took a moment to look backwards. The fox was staring at them, sitting on its haunches, its singular tail whisking this way and that. It's black eyes looked hungry and greedy, and if Tails didn't know better he'd thought that it was thinking of how to swat them out of the air.

Instead the fox stayed there, watching them go with a fixed stare.

The canyon was massive, Tails knew. It had to be nearly two or three hundred feet deep, the sides of it carved up by the river from years past. Blaze was curled up tight underneath him, and all of his focus was on trying to stop the inevitable.

His tails were strong. He knew that. He'd trained with them and for them most of his life. But they were never meant to fly for long periods of time, and although he'd gotten used to landing every so often, here was a scenario where he couldn't land.

He was three quarters of the way through when he felt the first pinprick in his back, the moment when he knew he was starting to slow down. He took a deep breath and looked down.

Sharp rocks littered the bottom, and spurred him onwards to keep going. The pinpricks became slight pains as he pushed himself. Blaze and him weren't heavy, but it was what they were carrying that was. Liquid, no matter the form, was heavy. And they were carrying maybe twenty, thirty, or even forty pounds each. Which meant his tails right now were carrying an additional twice that.

"Tails, pull up!" Blaze shouted. She had kept curled up, but her eyes were open now. Tails looked up to see that they had drifted a bit, much lower than they were only a few seconds ago. And still dropping.

Tails willed his tails to work harder, and they slowly went up again, but those small pains became larger and larger. He could only keep it going for a few more moments, he knew. "Blaze, jump the rest of the way!" he commanded.

"Right!" Blaze shouted as she released her hold on his wrists. They were mostly over the canyon knew, so it would only take a moment or two for Blaze to hit the wall at the current speed. She was shaking something fierce when he dropped her, and she immediately boosted over to the side of the canyon.

She landed gracefully against the soft dirt on the far side, spinning with a small flair. Tails knew his own landing would not be anywhere near that efficient or catlike.

He crashed into the side, his tails far too tired to hold him for even a second longer. His hands felt the surface, and his feet struggled to gain purchase against the rocks. Panic gripped him. He only needed a single thing to grab for just a moment, that was it!

Blaze shot out towards him, pinning his arms to the ground with her own. "You alright?" she asked, gripping his wrists hard. She slowly started to pull him up, one inch at a time.

"No," Tails admitted as he flopped onto the ground. The giant fox continued its stare at them, before turning around suddenly and running back into the forest. "Way too tired," he said.

"I'll say. That was nearly a...what, forty second flight? I thought your limit was only a few seconds."

"Made it better," Tails said. "But...ow. I'm not going to fly tomorrow," he finished. He pushed himself up, his tails unnaturally still as he peered over the edge. The river at the bottom was more white than blue, with dozens of black and grey rocks dotting the sides.

"Probably for the best. Tomorrow's the mountain, I think," Blaze said. She pointed towards it, a small pathway going from the canyon straight there. "I think we can use the trail to get there. Getting late though, we should think about packing it up."

Tails stared up towards the sun. "It's barely early afternoon. We have plenty of time."

"You can't fly right now, and who knows what awaits us?" Blaze asked quietly. "Better if we wait and go slow."

"Sonic would pitch a fit if he heard you say that."

"Sonic would pitch a fit if he heard anyone say that," Blaze repeated. "Doesn't make it less true though."

Tails did a small leap, checking to make sure all of the bags were still there. They were, and with a small glance he took a water bag out. He offered it with a glance once he was done, about half of it.

"We should conserve how much water we use. We don't know when we can next get more fresh."

"Mountain. Snow," Tails said. "Ice isn't as good as fresh water, but fresh snow on the other hand? Sonic taught me a few tricks too, it wasn't just Knuckles."

"And he taught you to eat fresh snow."

"If you have nothing else?" Tails smirked. Blaze rolled her eyes but followed the lead fox. The canyon became their friend as they went, its roaring waters an uncomfortable reminder of what they had both soared over. Tails' namesakes were barely moving now, and every time Tails gave them a twitch a sharp pain echoed and lanced its way up his back.

The mountain was much farther away than they'd thought, and Blaze took more than a few trips into the forest, eager to try to find a place to sleep for the night. While there were plenty of small areas, such as up in the trees or between a grove, there weren't any that were up to Blaze's standards.

By the time of sunset, Tails could feel the hills starting to go up. "Alright Blaze, if you can't find one in this grove, this is it," Tails said, pointing to the last bit of trees on the side. The forest on the other side of the canyon had long since ended.

"Don't need to. I see a cave," Blaze said, pointing up towards the hill. It was small, about as big as the one they'd found the Hyperspace zone in, but it fit well, in Tails' mind.

He barely stepped in and laid his stuff out before he was out like a light.

Another conversation that I had forgotten I'd written. This is far from the worst that it's going to get. Which leads to this; what is everybody's opinion on the level of sexual or uncomfortable conversations? Is this level good, do people want less of them, or at least for it to be brought up less, what's everyone's thoughts? Also, this chapter was edited rather quick. If someone spots an error, please let me know. Until Next Time!