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 4.5
Blaze was tired, more than anything. Running up a mountain, then down the other side, plus adrenaline was already helping her run on fumes. Then the thing in the jungle, with the weird...she wasn't sure what they were called. Tails probably had some name for them already thought up. But she hadn't gotten any sleep last night, and there were no caves on this mountain.
"What do you think those nymphs wanted?" Tails asked after a few minutes. His eyes had bags around them, just as she knew her own did. His fur was scraggly, lancing out every which way instead of the calm coat it usually was.
"Nymphs, Tails?" she asked. Was that his nickname for them? Had to be. Why would he call them nymphs though? She thought the actual name would've been dryads, but then again, dryads were generally considered more cordial than 'kill everything in sight'.
"Nymphs, yeah. They were all girls or women, you didn't notice? The leaves on their bodies didn't leave much to the imagination."
"Not that I suspect you needed much," Blaze said instantly. She thought about it for a moment before she blushed. "Sorry. Tired."
Tails was staring at her gobsmacked, his mouth hanging low. "Uh...yeah. Ouch, though."
"That wasn't an insult," Blaze said quietly. "It's...forget it. I noticed that they were all female, yes. What about it?"
"They attacked me pretty fast, although it could've just been I was lost. It wasn't until you started burning stuff that I found you."
"It took me a while to fend off their attack. They wanted me to join them. Something tells me they meant more than metaphorical."
"You mean that...you would've become one of them?" Tails said, a small blush coming to his face. Blaze rolled her eyes.
"Exactly what I meant. Get your mind out of the gutter," she said. "I haven't seen any caves yet, have you?" she asked, looking around.
The jungle wasn't too far behind them, barely a mile or two by now, and the mountain loomed in front of them. It wasn't the sharp straight cliffs that the other one had, but this one was low at first and rose significantly high out of those small hills. There were no valleys that she could see to pass through, and no rivers either.
There weren't many trees, and most of the bushes were grey and brown, showing a lack of rain. Entire fields of grey, stretching up all the way to the top. It was as if someone had taken a single color, put it on some land, and then stretched it up. "No, but I can go on ahead," Tails said, whirling his tails lightly. He gave a slight wince. Probably from his tails' soreness. Blaze shook her head.
"Probably not a good idea, especially with what happened last night. Stick together? I thought your tails were still sore." she asked. Tails stared at her for a moment before he nodded, landing quietly next to her.
"They were, but I must've flown so much back there they gave up and just accepted the abuse. That does mean it's going to hurt even more once we get a chance to actually rest," Tails explained. He grimaced lightly, "Not looking forward to it, but if it'll keep us alive..."
Blaze nodded. Her question about sticking together was a bit loaded, she realized. Was it so bad to want someone near her, right now though? After she was almost convinced no one wanted her nearby? "So what did they tell you? I assume they tried to force their way in before they attacked," Blaze asked.
"Uh...not a whole lot. I've been under mind control before, so I kind of had a feeling of what it was like. I just shut them out. I think they were telling me that I was lost, better off alone, etc. I told them to kick rocks," Tails grinned.
"You've been under mind control? When?" asked Blaze with wide eyes. She hoped that Sonic or Cream would've said something to her. Cream sometimes kept her up to speed on Sonic and Tails' adventures, but most of the time she was in the dark. Much like they were on hers, for that matter.
"A couple of times it was tried," Tails said, blinking in surprise. "Let's see...Eggman tried it on Planet Wisp, ages ago. He used another energy source for that. There was an attempt in the Lost Hex, or whatever it was those fools were thinking of trying. It didn't do much."
"Lost Hex?"
"Yeah, another concurrent dimension to ours. Rumor was that planes and ships in a certain area would get really lost and never come back. Kind of like the Blacksand area that I was near originally. It was just a portal to the Lost Hex, but unfortunately then only a few sapients ever came back," Tails explained. "I don't think you ever went near the Blacksand area, or the Hex."
"No, I certainly didn't," Blaze said. She thought back to the few times that she had crossed over to their world. She had explored a single continent, and a bit in the ocean. "I think I only did the one continent while I was there. And a bit afterwards."
"Oh yeah, I remember that!" Tails said, snapping his fingers. Blaze gave a look around, hoping to see anything in the sky. Aside from the mountain in front of them, dozens of pebbles lying around. The grasses had stopped less than halfway up the mountainside, replaced by rocks and dirt.
Tails stopped for a moment. "We should eat something before we keep going," he said, pointing to the rising sun. Blaze blinked.
"Why? Still morning. We ate not long ago."
"Because I'm hungry?"
"It can wait another hour or two," Blaze shrugged. Tails glared before he sighed. He knew that she knew that she was right. Food was something they had plenty of, still. It was more remarkable that they hadn't lost anything yet. She felt her eyes close for a second before she forced them open. The heat and the mountain was starting to get to her. It wasn't ridiculously hot, so to speak, but it was warm. And she was...far too warm.
She shrugged off the leftover remains of her jacket, hoisting it over her shoulder. Tails stared for a moment before he averted his eyes. "Blaze...please put that back on."
She stared at him for a moment. "I'm still covered," she said, looking down. The remains of her top was still there, and her shorts were...while looking worse for wear, still maintainable. "Just think of it as more for the bank," she said without thinking.
"Blaze!"
"What?" she laughed quietly, "never heard that one?" She raised one of her hands to her mouth, covering it lightly as she laughed. What kind of a teen was he? And while she definitely thought these things, she'd never given voice to them. She was feeling a bit out of it. Idly she wondered why, but the question left as soon as she'd thought of it.
He was blushing furiously, averting his eyes as if looking at her would have her set him on fire. Admittedly, if almost any other sapient was there making fun of her the way she was mocking him, there was a distinct possibility she would. Did that make her a hypocrite?
Probably. "It's alright. Just hot out here. Once we cross it should be better," Blaze said. Tails sighed, grabbing a bag of water and thirstily drinking it. He only drank about half before he offered the rest to her.
"Thanks," she muttered, pouring the rest down her throat. It was warm, the kind of warm that her senses were screaming in fear of. The kind of warm that things can grow in. The water looked fine though, when she raised it into the light to look at it. The sun didn't seem to want to go into the bag easily. In all honesty they probably shouldn't be drinking it, but bad water was better than none.
The hills kept going, seemingly forever. Her shoes were starting to actually hurt for once, which hadn't happened in years unless she managed to hurt herself. The sun raised itself over the halfway mark when they passed the three quarter mark up the mountain. They had resorted to doing switch backs now, going one way for a while before turning around while keeping going up. The hot sun was beating down on them, and they drank up another of Blaze's water bags.
She was way too warm, she knew. She was sweating far too much, and without any sleep she knew she wasn't thinking the straightest. But she also knew she needed something different, because otherwise she was going to die from heat exhaustion.
"Blaze...?"
"When you get a chance, could you pass me a bit of rope? And what?" Blaze asked.
She looked over at Tails, who was looking straight up. A familiar pattern of black was starting to do their circles and figure eights above them. "Burn or run?" she asked.
"Run," Tails said instantly. "I'll get you the rope once we get down," he finished. He kept his eyes up, and Blaze let loose with a small stream of fire as a blackbird, twice their size, tried to dive down between them.
"Then grab on!" Blaze said, grabbing one of Tails' wrists. She felt the small shock from his surprise, emanating from his fur, before she pulled him along. The rocks were not the best for running, but she was hoping to at least -she had to duck out of the way as another bird landed where she had been not a moment before - get away from the birds without having to turn back around.
She went up on switchback, leaving Tails to not get whiplash by himself as she ran up the next one. She was already fatigued, already hot, and still tired from lack of sleep. The birds came down onto them, to the left and to the right, forcing both of them to dodge as best they could.
One came down right on top of Tails' tail, only to get shocked instantly. Blaze felt his hand light up, but not to the point that it hurt. The bird started smoking instantly, crashed into the ground. A few of the other ones that had missed started to peck at their lost member.
That gave Blaze an idea. An idea that she didn't like, but she had no other options at the moment. She kept going up the mountain, and if she really pushed herself she could make it, but she'd probably crash at the end. "Can you shock another one? I can set it to barbecue afterwards!" she asked.
"Maybe!? I don't know how many charges are left!" Tails answered. There was a hint of panic and frustration in his voice.
"It's fine! Just concentrate on the sense of electricity then, the flow of it outwards," Blaze tried to command. Charges? What was he talking about? Tails kept missing steps, which ended up pulling Blaze back. Another one in front of them, landing on his shoulders and pecking at his head.
Blaze wasn't sure what killed it, whether it was the electricity from Tails or her fireball as she aimed it straight at the birds torso. She certainly felt the heat off of it, and she was certain it baked instantly. Tails' arms were cut severely by its talons at his shoulders, and he immediately gritted his teeth as she pulled on them.
Birds started swarming the barbecued one that had fallen off, its eyes already dark. Blaze breathed hard and focused on her inner inferno, not surprised to see that it was barely an ember right now. She pulled what she could of it out, forcing a pillar of flame right where they were.
They fell a moment later, both of them breathing hard as the pillar of fire ceased. There were no more birds above them, flying their malicious circles, and of the ones on the ground, most of them were burned to a charred crisp. Many of them were still alive, but they flew off heading towards the other mountain.
Blaze took a moment to appreciate the sight of the birds leaving. "How long do you think it'll take for them to come back?" she asked.
"Not long," Tails answered, in exactly the way she didn't want to hear. "But that should give us a few hours..." he murmured. He tried to push himself up, only to flinch as he moved his shoulders. His bags were on the ground, but it didn't look like anything was lost that she could see.
She forced herself up, no matter how tired she was. She grabbed his bags and attached them to her belt, feeling the weight on her back. Doable, but tough. "Come on, let's get to a safe place at least. You've carried me for a lot of this. Now's my turn," Blaze said commandingly.
Tails stared up at her, before he smirked and shook his head. His tails whirled and despite the deep cut on one of them, he was seemingly able to fly without an issue. "Just don't ask me to fly you anywhere for a day or so," he warned.
Blaze rolled her eyes.
—Side T—
Tails tried to keep the pain off his face. His tails were killing him, metaphorically, as the bird that had grabbed him there had gotten more than just a few cuts in. It hadn't broken his tails, fortunately, but it was definitely a deep cut that if he was a normal fox, probably would have. Not to mention the slight burns in his hand from where Blaze had grabbed them. He doubted she was aware of it, but when she was shooting off fireballs her other hand, the one she'd grabbed, was also emitting fire. His hand was going to be sore for a long time from the burns.
The mountain path was fortunately not too much further up before it rounded the corner. The birds were smart enough to stay away from them now, which he was glad for. He hated having to shock the first one, although he knew it was mostly instinct that it had happened to begin with.
Up and up the path went, with more and more of the brownish, brackish plants along the way. There was hardly any green, except the jungle down below. The sun was high in the air, and beating down on them harshly.
The heat never seemed to let up, despite the fact they were going up. Tails kept his eyes open for a cave, or anywhere they could sleep, but it seemed this world wasn't that nice to them. Given what they've been through already, he was already aware of that. After hours of walking up the mountain side, despite the top seemingly so close, Tails thought he finally saw it. "Finally!" he murmured, his body relaxing a bit. The mountain top, or what he assumed was the mountain top.
The mountains kept going higher off to the side, into the clouds. If he looked at it closer, he could see the small signs of snow. "Don't say that yet, not until we're there," Blaze said. Her voice was tired, and Tails knew his was too. She had bags under her eyes, just as he knew he probably did too.
They'd been going for over twenty four hours straight by now. As they crossed the last bit of mountain, a giant section of small rocks that bit into his fur somehow, the view rose over the hill and Tails realized why Blaze had admonished him.
It was the top of the mountain. Finally. However, it then went back down, and into miles and miles of desert. The desert sands seemed to disappear into the horizon, and Tails let out a loud sigh. At least, deserts he could handle. He wondered if Blaze would be able to. She stumbled down a bit as the rocks underneath her shoes slipped, but she caught herself a moment later by jumping to another rock. Tails blinked; that was weird. Normally Blaze would've caught herself ages before then.
Blaze stared at him. "What?" she said accusingly, her eyes narrowed. Small fires erupted around her fingertips, and a bit on her tail as well.
"Just wondering how that happened," Tails said, slipping down the same rock path a bit easier. The rocks weren't able to hold his weight, but he could slip down them just as easy.
"Just tired, that's all," Blaze answered. There was something else to her tone, but Tails couldn't tell what. He was tired too though, he knew. As soon as they got down to the desert, they'd find a place.
"Don't fall though. Hopefully we can find a place down there to sleep," Tails said, pointing downwards towards the desert. It was a golden brown, as if someone had recently baked cookies and decided to take all the tops off of them, using them as the sand instead.
"Where? I don't see a cave. And unless you can tunnel all of a sudden..."
"I should be able to. I've always been good with tunnels and underground."
"I'm calling bull," Blaze said abruptly. "I remember how we dealt with the underground area in the ruins. Or rather how I dealt with it."
"Don't forget who flew you out of there. After I figured out there was a tornado coming!" Tails was heated, and for some reason he was feeling this argument more than he normally would. Why was he antagonizing her?
"Which we wouldn't have been anywhere near if you hadn't run into a leviathan the size of a freaking lake!"
"We wouldn't have run into that lake if someone hadn't hurt herself!" Tails reprimanded.
"I wouldn't have hurt myself if you'd just had more rings on you!"
"Not like I ever predicted landing in an unknown world by Eggman of all people! I'm lucky I was able to grab the one I did!"
Blaze stared, before she sighed. "Sorry, sorry. I was out of line, with all of that," she murmured quietly. His ears still picked it up easy enough.
Tails felt his tails go down low, and his ears do the same. Why was she apologizing? She wasn't the one who started it. Or if she was, he was the one that continued it. "I'm sorry too. I'm just frustrated by the constant cynicism."
"Survival requires it."
"Survival also requires that you be optimistic about other things. If we just hadn't forgotten about winter then we'd still be back at the camp..." Tails said quietly.
"But we did. And so here we are," Blaze said, her arms opening wide. "Did you ever check if you could receive messages? Or if any others were sent?"
"I can, but I haven't," Tails said, pulling out the Miles Electric. He hadn't used it the last couple of days, because the mapping program had been going for a while. Curious, he zoomed out and could see the trail of their map as it had been made.
His eyes zoomed in on a spot not far from where they were. "Huh. Apparently there's a teleportal ring, just formed, not far from here," Tails said, pointing up to the top of the next hill over. If he squinted his eyes, he could see the small flash of gold as it spun in place.
"Hm. Should we go for it, or do you think it's another warp zone?" Blaze asked. "Personally, I think we should skip. We've gone through two, and we've already proven that we can't get back through there that way. If anything, it would only get us lost."
"No, no I agree," Tails said hurriedly. "We don't have a GPS, so we'd have no way of finding our way back here. Some places in the warp zone could probably go across the world, if this place is anything like home."
"Do you miss it?" Blaze asked abruptly, jumping to another large rock. A bunch of small rocks slipped right where she'd been a moment later.
"Do I miss what? Home? Of course I do. Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Cream...even Shadow and Rouge. To a degree," Tails answered honestly. His mind went over all of them as he named them. The blue hedgehog that was his best friend, the red echidna who had helped him so much from so far away...
"Even those two? You are homesick," Blaze teased. She jumped out of the way again, only to stumble as the large rock she tried to get to turned out to be a mass of small ones that disintegrated as soon as she put some weight on it.
Tails pulled her up, glancing down the mountain. It was mostly a long slight hill, as if it was some foothills that had a very small angle. He was trying to find the right word for it. Foothills? It's what it seemed. Like some giants foot had been flattened down. "What about you? You miss home?"
"In ways," Blaze answered immediately. "I miss Marine, and Gardon, of course. I miss the Sol Emeralds, and I still feel their call on me."
"In other ways, though?"
"Not as much as you might think. I'm tired of all the responsibilities, some of the people...it's nice to get a small break every once in a while."
"Not sure I'd call this a small break, though."
"No, not what I'd call it either. If the Sol Emeralds were with me here though, I'd probably be enjoying all this."
"Really? Even now, when we're face to face with a gigantic desert, just got done dealing with a swarm of birds three times larger than us, and just before, dealt with a mind-control jungle?"
Blaze sputtered for a moment. "Okay. Maybe not those times," she corrected. "But other times. Like this. I don't mind this. Even with what we're about to face, the small times are what I like."
"Really? Even though it's with me, and not Marine or Cream?"
"You're not bad to be around, Tails," Blaze answered honestly, after a long moment. "Not sure how you picked up that particular self-esteem issue, living with Sonic as you do."
"That's probably exactly where it came from," Tails said. His mind flash backed to dealing with Sonic's constant ego issues as a kit, and promised himself to never get an ego that big. Instead, he seemed to have gone the other way a bit too far.
"Where ever it came from, it probably should go away. You have nothing to be ashamed of," Blaze said. He noted there was a slight redness to her cheeks. She was probably burning up from the constant sun exposure, he thought.
"No, I just feel weird sometimes. I'm the only one that understands how all of my gadgets work. It's hard to be one of the smarter ones in the room, but not listened to because of it. Or because I'm not a blue hedgehog."
Blaze stared at him thoughtfully. "I've never pegged you as the smartest guy in the room. You are smart, and there's no doubt about that, but you do well keeping it hidden. You're not gabbing about how you know everything about everything."
"You've seen that behavior before?"
"Yes," Blaze answered flatly. "It sucks. Don't do it. Most annoying guy I've ever met, and I'm including Eggman in that."
"That's...impressive, in its failing."
"It is. Worse because he was supposed to try to court me. That was...I believe the term 'barbecued duck' became popular because of that guy."
"You burned him?"
"Just made a show," Blaze answered. She did a small jump to another set of rocks, and Tails tried to mirror her. He slipped on one and slipped for another ten feet before he found his balance again. "So you didn't actually hurt him?" he spoke, as if he just hadn't slipped a few feet.
"No. Gardon agreed with me on that, but Marine didn't. She wanted actual barbecued duck."
"That's...vicious," Tails murmured.
"Hence why I didn't. What about you, any other dark secrets in your head? That sparker thing you have?" Blaze said. Then after a moment she let out a quiet giggle. Tails stared at her. Dark secrets? Him, really? He wondered idly if that was why she was laughing. He let out a dulled chuckle of his own as he watched her slip on some more rocks.
"The sparker? The Charger!" Tails said, reaching out of one of his fur pockets, pulling out a small silver hexagon with a single button. "This thing. It holds electricity. It's how I used to electrify Sonic and Knuckles back when Metal Sonic was going on a rampage," he explained. He waited a few minutes as Blaze just nodded, "I got nothing else," Tails said. "I mean, my name, I guess."
"What, you mean your name isn't Tails the Fox? Considering Sonic and Cream, I figured it was," Blaze said.
"No, no. It's Miles."
"Miles the Fox? Sorry, I think Tails rings a better bell," Blaze said.
"Miles Prower," Tails corrected gently.
Blaze stared at him. She opened her mouth as if to say something, before she closed it again. Finally, after nearly a minute, she started, "Wow. That's either ironic as hell or your parents hated you."
"Probably ironic. Never knew my parents, honestly."
"Really? You don't remember living with them, even when you were little?" Blaze asked, stopping for a moment. Tails looked down and saw why as the foothill became a sheer cliff for a mile or so, before going back to the normal flattened hill that they were used to.
"Nope. Earliest I can recall I woke up on an island called Cocoa Island. I think I was five or six at the time. Maybe four. All I could remember was my name. Then it got attacked, so I didn't have much time to actually look around much."
"I'd expect not. Did you search for them afterwards?" Blaze asked, cautiously looking over the side. Tails saw a small pathway that was slightly flatter than the sheer cliff otherwise, and pointed it out. She nodded and started to grab a few of the brownish plants as she climbed down. Tails followed her, grabbing the same plants she did.
"I did, yeah. A few years ago. Searched every database and hospital...pretty much everywhere. Didn't turn up anything. So on Sonic's recommendation I went back to Cocoa. It didn't look like anything had changed, but some of the people there confirmed that I was at least born on the island. They didn't want to or couldn't tell my parents names though. Still hunting for them, but not as hard as I was. I've gotten this far, and I still have Sonic and Knuckles and all the others too," Tails explained. His hands slipped through one reed before he automatically grabbed another one.
He couldn't have done that just six months ago. His reflexes had gotten better, hadn't they? He looked down at the cliffside and the pathway, and knew that the desert was still in front of them. At least they weren't being attacked this time.
4.5. The middle of this chapter was hard to write, and I think it showed. I was stuck on this chapter for almost a month, but I was finishing up this one when I decided to start posting Blooming Tides. There's a tonal difference, I think, between the first three and a half arcs and the rest of the fic, but I hope it still interests everyone. It's still an adventure fic; that's what I write.
Also, fun fact! When you stay up for a long period of time, you start to act weird! Very similar in fact to being drunk. So I was, when writing this chapter and the next, having a considerable amount of fun writing drunk Tails and drunk Blaze, so I hope that explains their very...out of characterness during this chapter. Until Next Time!