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. All original character's are owned by me, unfortunately.
Warning: Character's get hurt. Badly hurt.
Exertion 4.10
Blaze was confused. "Nowhere near that, then? What do you mean by that?" she asked.
Tails blinked, before he looked sullen. "I'm...not a fox. Not really," he murmured. "I'm something else. It's hard to research, and not much is known about them."
"Is it related to those other multi-tailed foxes?" Blaze asked. "I've heard of a few of them on my world, but I've never met any. Until I met you, I thought they were simply myths."
"That's all I've found. Myths, legends...Sonic actually knows more than I do. Most of it goes deep into the occult stuff. Sonic started getting into it after the Starfall Islands. I asked him to look up a few things, and he just kind of connected the dots from there."
"You keep telling me he's into that, but I didn't see anything from before. And last time I was there I definitely didn't."
"He keeps it hidden, really. He's into spirits and ghosts and things like that, loves traveling around and finding new stories. As a joke I got him one of those spirit boards, and ever since then he's claimed my house is haunted!" Tails joked.
"Your house is haunted. By him, I bet," Blaze responded. Tails laughed, throwing his head back.
"There's more truth in that than I care to admit," Tails answered. "One time he was so certain there was a ghost around that he didn't realize Shadow was behind him, using chaos control to warp things around!"
Blaze's attention, primarily on the fish in her hand and the relief in her stomach, started to pay more attention. Chaos control? "Chaos control...warps things around?" she murmured.
"Chaos control does a lot of weird things. It stops time, it warps things around...Shadow can do a lot with it. Sonic used it once to teleport, but ever since then he's refused to try."
"I think I remember hearing about that. That must've been before his awakening as an aerokinetic," Blaze said. It would explain why he hadn't tried to really use his power, if it was tied into something...strange and weird.
"No, he awakened a lot earlier. Before he started on South Island," Tails answered. His gaze became deep and far, as if lost in memories.
"That far back? How old was he?" The age that a kinetic awakened generally also said how powerful they would be. She, in both timelines, awakened early on, and she'd focused primarily on it after that. It was one of the reasons she was as powerful as she was in her pyrokinesis.
"I think six? Or eight. I know the story, but it's his secret to tell," Tails said quietly. "Ask him yourself once we get back. He may feel chatty!" he grinned.
"I think the 'may' in there answers my question," Blaze deadpanned. It was nice to see Tails in high spirits, and she felt the fur slowly dry off because of the heat of the fire. The sun was starting to rise on the east, slowly brightening the sky to a deep orange. It would probably heat up soon, not that Blaze minded. It wouldn't be the desert heat, not right next to the river, and if they needed to cool off a quick dip was all that was needed.
A plan began to emerge in her head. The river was nearly a mile wide, and on the far side was another bank much like the one they were on. Further beyond that though, it was foggy and impossible to see through. She bet that that's where the civilization of this place was, if anywhere. "What are you thinking about?" Tails asked suddenly. "You got that look on your face that you're thinking of something."
She had a look? She'd have to work on that. "How far something moving at near speed of sound level can go without friction."
"Not as far as you think. I'd suspect maybe a few miles or so. You're not thinking of leaping this that way, are you?" Tails asked.
"I was, yes."
"First, don't. I've seen how bad it can get," Tails answered instantly. "Second, see how blue the river is at its middle? It's deep water. Worse come to worse, we can both just run out and then swim the rest of the way."
That...was the simplest solution. "Can you swim a mile in raging water?" she asked.
"No. But we don't need to. I can fly us over to about the halfway mark, and from there we can swim. I'm pretty sure you can swim."
"I can swim just fine. You should remember that from the lake," Blaze said. Her mind cast back to when they were still new to the world, and had run into the leviathan. "This place doesn't have a leviathan?"
"I...did not take that into account," Tails said honestly. "The leviathan back at the lake was about maybe a few hundred feet long, so for all intents and purposes there is no reason this place could not have one."
"It does have sand whales. And did you notice that it had the same general shape as a leviathan?"
"You don't mean that it's the same creature, just different species?"
"I never studied taxonomy," Blaze answered quietly. "But it is possible that they are related. Different species, same genus, maybe? Similar to how most sentient dogs and wolves are both canines, and further along you have foxes."
She was frustrated. Lack of information, and lack of near survival instincts. That was twice she had thought they had a plan only to come up with some reason it may not work. Her ears perked up as she heard a deep rumble behind them. "Tails...?" she whispered.
"I hear it too," Tails whispered back.
"We may not have a few minutes to make a plan."
"I've realized this."
"Jump plan, then? I think that's the only plan I have on short notice," Blaze said. The rumbling got closer and closer, both underground and underneath the river. The fish inside darted around as if trying to get to safety in front of an apex predator.
"No bet on giant monster," Tails joked. He grabbed his bags and tightened them on, and Blaze followed suit a moment later. She would have preferred to have more time to digest the fish, but it was the best she was going to get.
The rumble behind them got louder as the thing started to surface. It went fast and quick, and it took Blaze another moment to identify it. She bolted towards Tails just as the ground to shake harshly. "Tails! Earthquake!" she shouted.
There was a loud roar as the land shifted in its entirety. Massive chunks of earth were sent skyward as the ground collapsed and compressed. The fox took off into the sky, his tails whirling quickly, and Blaze tried to aim for him. It was hard in the amount of shifting the world was going through. One moment she'd see him and the next she'd feel herself falling, rocks and walls all around her. She jumped as high as she could, a staggering nearly forty feet as she tried to go as high as she could.
The ground leapt below them, and Blaze couldn't help but feel that the world itself was trying to kill them at this point. Tails was below her, now, with a chunk of earth threatening to pin him to the ground. "Fly!" she shouted as she fell towards him.
He looked up just in time to see the rocks starting to fall on him. He raced out to one side, and Blaze heard a sickening crack as she landed next to where he should have been. The rocks and dirt continued to shift, and the river, the raging river, was not to be forgotten.
Water ran straight through where they were, and she saw only a small sign of yellow as Tails was washed away moments before the current hit her.
The shifting of the earth and water pummeled her as the current drifted her downriver. "Tails!" she shouted again, surfacing just long enough to get her feet on the ground before it was kicked out from underneath her again, leaving her lungs and mouth full of water.
She called forth her fire, and surrounded herself instantly with boiled water. It burned, but it gave her just enough of a boost to get to the surface, where she took a deep breath. The rumbling had finally stopped, after what seemed like minutes and hours, but was probably closer to only two or three minutes.
Where they had been, the entire coastline had been jumbled and rearranged. The water still carried her further, and she tried to swim out towards the land only for a sharp rock to jut out from the soil and pierce into her arm.
She grit her teeth and tried not to scream or shout. The dirt and rocks underneath her kept moving, kept shifting and making her lose her balance. And she had to find Tails!
All she needed was one good moment of traction, one moment to get some speed. River or not, she'd do her best to find him and get to the other side. The current kept trying to pull her down, and her feet couldn't find anything but smooth and slippery rocks, if there was anything there at all. The water was fast, and the current strong.
She forced herself up and took a deep breath, relaxing into the raging waters as she tried to push herself diagonally towards the water's edge. The earthquake had ceased, at least, but nothing else had.
Finally her feet found purchase, and she turned towards the other side. Her eyes searched for any sign of the yellow fox, and she felt the flames heed her call again as she bolted towards the center.
There was a small rock in the center, just above the water line where it was breaking. It seemed steady, and Blaze aimed for that. Her arm was bleeding profusely, but with a growl that would have haunted any who heard it she cauterized it, gritting her teeth as it burned, the stench of herself burning itself into her nose. "Tails!" she shouted again, her voice hoarse now.
She grew worried the longer she looked at the raging river. She hadn't even made it a hundred feet in, but was nearly a thousand feet downstream. And the longer she couldn't find him, the longer she knew he would go.
She glanced upriver one last time in quick worry. A glint in the sun caught her eye, and she saw him caught between two rocks. There was a small amount of red emanating from it, and she could smell the blood from here. She surged forward, calling forth the flames to make sure she had enough speed. The raging water made it harder, but surprisingly she found it easier barefoot than she had with her shoes. She couldn't jump, but she didn't need to, if she aimed in a near straight line.
She hid right after the rocks as she grasped for his hand. "Tails, Tails!" she shouted as she pulled him up. His head was banged up and red, and one of his tails and legs looked like it was a nasty piece of work. He wouldn't be able to fly for a long time, even when they got to the other side.
She couldn't lay him down on the rocks, not with the river raging as it was. The water turned from a clear to a dirty brown, filled with silt and dirt from the various areas around the river. "Alright, Tails, hold on," she said aloud, despite knowing that he couldn't hear her. She called forth the flames again, surging forward.
Running on water was tiring at the best of times. Doing it while having a passed out and unconscious fox on one's shoulder was nearly impossible. More than once Blaze almost lost her concentration, centered on her arm. She felt the blood of Tails run down her back, soaking into her lavender fur.
She aimed for the rocks, hoping to make it a quick encounter across, only to find it was near impossible. Every time she found a rock in front of her, it was quickly washed away and downriver. And all the while she pounded her feet against the water, trying to get any forward momentum that wasn't fire given.
She was still moving forward though, she knew. She could feel the water moving underneath her, every step pulling her downriver despite her speed. It was only a mile, it should only take a few seconds-
A boulder came undone in front of her, slamming into her at the water's pace. She was blown off to the side, barely keeping hold of Tails' body. Her right arm, now, was practically useless, and she had no doubt the right side of her body was going to be bruised beyond all belief soon.
There was a reason so many of the speedsters liked to keep rings on them. Running into boulders was one of them.
She lost her footing and was dunked into the river, freezing water heading up her head and into her mouth. Tails' body was easier to carry under the water, but not the place she wanted it to be. She forced him up first, not fighting the current as she swam upwards. His head cleared the water, then she did a second later.
The water was raging around, and Blaze simply treaded water for a moment, breathing deep as she analyzed her options. She didn't have many. She had to make it to land at some point, and she had to make it soon. Tails wouldn't have long, but with only one side of her body currently functioning, it was going to be hard.
She thought she might have seen bone, but she ignored the feeling and made a note to not look down. Her legs seemed to work fine, at least. Might have been solely adrenaline, but she could fix that once they were safe.
The water was deep in the middle, and she threw Tails' body over her right side shoulder, ignoring the deep stab of pain as it shot through her. She couldn't touch bottom, and she knew she probably wouldn't for a while.
She called her fire to try to create a small vacuum to pull her forward, and was rewarded as it did, mixed with the water a bit. It was slow going, but it was pulling her forward. She doubted she could keep it up the entire way though, not if she had to keep Tails' body up out of the water.
He wasn't breathing.
"Tails..." she murmured aloud, the last wasteful breath of air she had. Her foot touched a rock, and like always, it slipped out of grasp. It was replaced instantly by another one, also slipping.
A dark shadow was underneath her, and Blaze sighed. Of course this would happen now. The water lifted up, and another leviathan, yellow this time instead of the dark blue of the last one, slowly lifted up out of the river. It was much smaller, maybe only a quarter of the size. Maybe it was a juvenile, Blaze thought. She breathed hard as it lifted her and Tails up out of the water, slowly going up and rising. The thing's scales were slippery, yet provided traction.
She wasted no time putting Tails down and pushing as hard as she could against his diaphragm. "Tails...come on!" she said loudly. The leviathan started to snake its way through the air, moving as though the air was the ground. It had no obvious way of flying, not like the other one did, but yet flying it was. If she could wake Tails up, or at least get him to keep breathing, then maybe she could figure out a way off of this thing!
Water sputtered out of Tails mouth, directly onto Blaze's head. He coughed fitfully, trying to draw in air when he could. "Oh thank Sol..." Blaze murmured as she sat down. She wouldn't have long, but maybe now if he was awake...
The leviathan moved, starting to twist and turn its body almost in an attempt to throw them off. "No, no! Stop moving!" Blaze shouted, a fireball hitting it in the back of its head instantly. Tails was still coughing fitfully, barely able to draw breath. With each cough, water came out, no matter how long he'd spent coughing.
"Take as deep a breath as you can," Blaze warned as she grabbed him. She could still see the blood on his head and legs, and knew it was slowly soaking into her fur. She would probably end this with more of Tails' blood on her fur than her own.
The writhing of the leviathan reached them, and it was everything that Blaze had to hold on and not fall off. Tails was still coughing, but it seemed to be calming down a bit, but at least he was alive and breathing. She'd have to do more to help in a bit, but right now she was focused almost solely on surviving the next minute or two.
The leviathan's head twisted back up, it's brown eyes narrowing as it saw them. It had three whisker like things come from its nose, and all three wrapped around its neck, and Blaze felt more than anything the rush of water that started to appear around it.
"Aquakinetic!" Blaze muttered as she steamed a few lines of water, hoping to keep whatever point she could. The leviathan was still moving towards the east, twisting and writhing around.
"Blaze!" Tails warned as he looked up. Blaze's eyes widened. The water emanating from the three whiskers suddenly went much larger, going from neatly covering the leviathan to a giant deluge that would wash them away instantly. No amount of steam would get rid of it without boiling themselves instantly.
She tried to jump off, energy surging into her legs, but at the last second her foot slipped, and she knew that this was going to hurt. The water crashed over them instantly after, pushing them off and down back into the river.
They had only been thirty feet in the air, but that still gave Blaze enough time to close her eyes and hope that this wouldn't hurt Tails too badly.
She crashed into the water on her back, and she heard more than felt a few pops. Had she broken her back? The water was freezing, and she couldn't feel her feet, but she knew she could at least propel herself upwards. Maybe it hadn't hurt her too bad? Tails was still holding on, and it looked like he was trying to bring them up too.
The water rushed around them as Blaze let it carry her downstream. Tails treaded water next to her under his own power, his head still bleeding. It made his golden yellow fur seem much more orangish, the way it had been before the sun got to it in this world.
The leviathan kept flying and straightened out, going at a much slower pace now and with much less writhing and twisting.
They were on the farther side, now. Barely a few hundred feet to go before they reached the edge, and Blaze felt her body freeze.
It didn't want to respond to her. Her arms refused to move, her legs refused to do more than keep her upright, and she could barely breathe. Her eyes felt tired, and she was so tired...
"You alright, Blaze?" Tails asked after a moment. "That...was a fall."
"No, Miles, I'm not alright," Blaze answered instantly. "I'm never crossing a river like this again. Forget ever swimming in one, after this," she answered. She called the fire forth once more and slowly dragged him and herself towards the water's edge. She was almost out, she could tell. There were only embers left, now.
Her feet hit the rocks on the bottom, a calm river rock instead of the bumpy mottled ones that had been on the other side. As they got closer, the river turned from the raging flood that it had been to a much smoother calm. It was still cold, but Blaze wasn't going to complain.
"You alright?" she asked as they got up to the point they could both stand up. Tails was messed up, she could tell. One of his legs and one of his tails were broken badly, and the cut on his head had only recently stopped bleeding. He seemed okay, but was probably going to be going into shock soon.
"I think I should be asking you that," Tails said as he dragged himself up the river's edge. Using his good leg and good tail, he managed to pull himself up, and a moment later reached down to grab her mangled arms.
"I'm fine," Blaze tried to reassure him. She was fine. She wasn't in pain, although she knew that she would be in a while. Once the cold of the river went away and she got warm, her body would start warning her of the havoc she'd wreaked on it.
"You're not. Come on, let's just...sit here for a moment," Tails said, watching the sun rise on the east. It was only a quarter of the way up. Had all that taken only minutes? It felt like days.
She took a moment to look down, and immediately wished she hadn't. One of her legs was mangled, massive cuts around the muscle. It still seemed to work fine though. She could see the bruises starting to appear through her fur on her right side, and she glanced down at her right arm. If her leg was mangled, her arm was destroyed. Her elbow was bent in ways it should not be, and she was sure she had dislocated it in ways it should not have been.
That wasn't including the cauterization on her other arm, which was probably going to be worse. She looked at it, seeing the scar where the thing had punctured through her. "Like I said, you're not alright," Tails answered.
At least her upper body was alright. "Your head didn't go unscathed either," he interrupted. "You have more than few cuts here, and here..." he pointed out, his un-gloved hand causing tingles as he traced the cuts she had no idea had happened.
"Do we have any bags left?" she asked. Tails gave her a look of incredulity. "Of course we didn't. Just asking."
"I still have the bail-bag. I'm getting one of these for everywhere, this thing's hardy," Tails said, reaching down for it. "And I put a few jars of the gel in here."
"They didn't break?"
"Inside's cushioned, and waterproof. Never quite wanted to take a test this far, but I'm not complaining," Tails said quietly. "I'm tired though..."
"We should try to stay awake long enough to do something about the cuts, at least. How much wrapping you have in there?"
"Not enough," Tails answered simply. He pulled out a jar and opened it, giving it a quick sniff before he pulled it back.
Blaze shook her head as he offered it to her. "Right now, we need you back on your feet faster than me. I'm going to take days or months to come back from this," she said. "Once you recover from your near drowning, you're the only one who can really do anything."
"Says the pyrokinetic."
"To the electrokinetic," Blaze retorted. "You have more power than you think, Tails. It's okay to not know how to use it right away."
Begrudgingly, Tails slowly dabbed the gel, as little as he could get on his hands, over the cuts on his leg and tail. Blaze reached over with her left hand and grabbed a bit, dabbing it on his head where the graze was. It looked worse than it was, but most head wounds do, she knew.
Their ears perked up at the same time as they heard a rustle in the grass behind them. Blaze's instincts shot up, wondering how she was supposed to catch a rabbit, as banged up as she was.
It was another fox. A sapient fox, a vixen, wearing what looked like a tribal uniform. It was a basic green cloth, covering one side of her shoulders and leaving the other bare, similar to a toga. She lifted some kind of crossbow at the both of them, and shouted something.
Blaze blinked. The girl shouted something again, much the same. Had her hearing gone out? No, she could still hear fine, she just couldn't understand...right. Worlds apart, different languages. A part of her knew that language though. It sound familiar, and she reached back into the depths of her mind to find it.
Tails stood stock still. "Tails, translator," Blaze said quietly. He blinked before he fumbled down towards the bail-bag. The girl fired her crossbow bolt, missing both of them and hitting the water thirty feet away. "Patience?" Blaze tried.
She was in no mood for first contact protocols. The Sol Empire had them, but that was also usually when she was fairly healthy and not banged up beyond all belief, and wanted nothing more to go to sleep.
"She's saying 'Surrender, outsiders," Tails said as the girl shouted the same thing. "Really wish I'd thought to put in a way to translate back now..."
Blaze sighed. If it wasn't one thing, it was another. This world was cursed, wasn't it?
—Exertion —
Marine stared at the Jeweled Sceptre, almost thinking she should go and give it a good kick. Everything always worked better when kicked, right? Wasn't that the whole basis behind 'percussive maintenance'? It's how she started her boat, recently. Sure, that was after it had failed to start three times in a row and she grew frustrated that she kind of threw seawater on the thing while bashing it with her foot, but...still. Maintenance!
"I still don't see why we can't just use the thing," she complained. "But no, everyone's just all 'we can't use it Marine, it's too dangerous!'. Ha! As if we'd gotten anywhere if it was too dangerous!"
"I hear voices down here at the scepter!" a guard's voice yelled. Marine rolled her eyes. So what if she wasn't supposed to technically be here? It's not like the scepter was going anywhere. Eggman Nega was gone, vanished without a trace, and she was stuck here, and Blaze was...elsewhere.
Gardon was supposed to be keeping her informed of most things that were going on. Instead she had to hear it from Gordon who then claimed that Gardon did tell her, and she hadn't been paying attention.
Except that was a lie, because she paid a lot of attention to things that were worthy of being paid attention to. And news of Blaze was something very worthy of being paid attention to, and thus she would have paid attention to it!
She hid in a corner, slightly bored, as a few guards came around the corner with flashlights. "I know I heard voices..." one of them said.
"Sure it's not the scepter's ghost?" the other asked. His flashlight was going all over the place, obviously frightened by being in the same room as the holy artifact.
Was it a holy artifact? Marine wasn't sure. It was definitely an artifact, which means it had to be holy, because all artifacts were, right? "Just me there, mates," she said aloud a moment later.
The two guards, both koala's, jumped high in the air. One of them screamed, his scream echoing around the chamber. Marine blinked. "Now whaddya go and do that for? Now you're gonna bring mo' 'ere!"
"I...it's just you, Lady Marine."
"None of that fancy nonsense now, y'hear?" Marine said simply. Since she had been deemed 'Guardian of the Sol Emeralds', the others in the Empire had all referred to her as either "Lady Marine" or "Guardian Marine". She wasn't either of those. She was just Marine!
"With respect ma'am, we need to keep the same level for you as for the king and vizier!" one of the guards said, saluting. Marine rolled her eyes.
"And I just said I don't care for that nonsense. Go away," she said, waving them off with a hand. They seemed to stumble out of the room, as if being there was an affront to their existence.
Once more in silence, Marine sat down in front of the scepter. "I was never good at this kind of thing, Blaze. This was always you. Why can't it be you, now?" she asked.
She let loose a strap from her shoulder, letting the bag of Sol Emeralds tumble out onto the ground. By all rights, she should pick them up. She knew for a fact that these ones were holy artifacts. But something wanted her to just...run. Leave them where they lay. And run. She wasn't the type of person to run, though. She wasn't afraid of danger. She was the type of person to run towards it. But if she was to run away from responsibility, that would be just as bad.
She turned her attention towards the scepter again, letting the emeralds glow against the cold stone ground. "Wish I could use you. Just...to see her. To see them." she said.
She had heard, nearly two weeks ago, that they had received a communication from Blaze...and Tails. Tails, the shy fox whose prowess with mechanics had outshone even her own to a startling degree, was with her.
And then they had managed a message back, but it was so tied up with red tape that Marine hadn't even had the opportunity to say what she wanted. She hadn't even been asked if she wanted to say anything. So instead of a personalized note from her friend, Blaze got a lifeless note from the Empire.
She wondered...could she use the scepter? There was no one here, and she had just chased the guards out. Maybe she could go. It had the ability to alter worlds, and chase through them.
Wasn't that how they got the message to Blaze and Tails to begin with? By sending it through the jeweled scepter's power? Or had there been some other way and she just hadn't been told? Her hand raised, staring at the way the light bent around the scepter. It was heavy, she knew from trying to lift it the first time she'd been down here, but she didn't need to carry it for long.
A bright flash behind her startled her, and she jumped back. The red Sol Emerald, lay out against the floor, was burning seemingly bright with energy. So bright, in fact, that the light had been what had startled her.
"Yah, I know I shouldn't. It's just an idea, solly," Marine repeated. She knew it hadn't been. The jeweled scepter had no power to replace minds, but she knew of other artifacts around the area that did. This was the main treasure vault of the Sol Empire, after all.
Not that many sapients knew that, of course.
She walked down and picked up the bag of Sol Emeralds, seeing only the violet one left, the one that reminded her most of Blaze. It, too, was burning brilliant. "Ey, what's gotten into you lot?" she asked as she picked up the yellow one and immediately had to drop it.
Her hand had started smoking instantly. They weren't just seemingly burning bright, they were literally burning. The yellow one clacked against the floor, and she felt more than saw a bright blue flash as the cyan Sol Emerald shot a beam of energy towards the jeweled scepter.
Marine barely had time to think about it as the other colors joined it in bare moments. The light refracted as it hit the scepter, bouncing around within but not leaving. The scepter started glowing, and rising on its own.
"Ey, something weird 'ere!" she shouted down to the guards. She made to pick up the yellow Sol Emerald again, this time summoning a bit of water to coat her hand. She had barely touched it before it flash boiled the water she'd picked up, and she had to let go of both the emerald and the water, letting it splash onto the stone with a hiss of steam.
That should've protected her hand for at least a half second. It didn't even do that much.
Her bag dropped from her shoulder and opened just a bit, just enough for the violet emerald to peek out, it's own color adding to the cacophony within the scepter.
The guards ran in. "Lady Marine!" one of them called out. The other guard started to run in but was held back by the one who'd shouted.
The scepter rose in the air, and Marine felt electricity run through her body, through her hair and fur, through her soul. Fire followed, then the harsh crunch of earth and the breeze of air, following by the coolness of water.
"I don't know what's goin' on, but I don care! Take me to Blaze!" she shouted towards the scepter. The emeralds glowed brighter, if that was possible, and Marine felt herself falling a moment later. A cacophony of sounds and visions pushed into her mind, things that made no sense and never would, ground that shifted and turned with each step.
She never got her feet back on the ground for longer than second to learn which way was up. And she fell, and she fell.
She landed on her butt on a grassy hill, overlooking the ocean. Seven drops were heard behind her, and she turned to watch as the seven Sol Emeralds followed her, now glowing only slightly. Hesitantly, she grabbed at one, and sighed with relief as it was warm but didn't burn.
She put them all into her bag, and then took a look around. The hill was a grassy knoll, with strange dirt colors, almost checker-boarded. Was that natural? It had to be, if it was repeating almost everywhere.
"So, this be where Blaze is, yea? Then I best go find 'er!" Marine shouted, a large smile on her face. Finally, she could find her friend. Traveling companion. Person who she knew would stop to help out anyone and everyone. Friend. Same thing.
A black hedgehog stood in her way only a short ways away. "I'm looking at the spot. I think I found it," he muttered into a microphone on his ear. He had weird red stripes on his spines, as if he had try to dye himself and messed up. His shoes were...awkward. They had little holes for...something. Marine imagined small little wheels poking out like some roller blades, only a lot more nerdy.
"Who are you?" The hedgehog asked in a louder voice, obviously directed towards her. "And what's in the bag?" he asked.
"Yea? Don't ya know it's impolite ta force a lady ta introduce herself first?" Marine retorted. "I guess wackos are everywhere. Where's Blaze!" she called back.
The black hedgehog blinked. "I hope you're getting this, Rouge," he muttered into the microphone. "Never heard your accent before. I am Shadow. Where are you from?" he asked.
"Name's Marine! You gonna take me ta her or what?" Marine asked. Now that she was actually here, she really wanted to find Blaze. She suddenly had a thought.
If she couldn't find Blaze, had she just stranded herself on some unknown world? That would be just her luck, wouldn't it? Actually, wasn't that in the Guardian's handbook? There was a scenario for that exact thing, wasn't it? If the Sol Emeralds were taken from the Sol Empire, wouldn't they drag the Empire to them?
Aw shit, had she just doomed a world?
Another voice crackled through Shadow's headset, loud enough that Marine could hear it clearly. "Really annoying accent, check. Extremely annoying personality, check. And name's the same. Pretty sure Sonic's met this girl before."
"Oi, you two know Sonic!? How many worlds has he been on!? Wait, Sonic's here!?" Marine said, grinning. Someone she knew, who would help her out easily.
"This is Sonic's natural world. As far as I'm aware," Shadow answered. Marine blinked, before she lost her excitement. She had missed in her world jumping. Admittedly, it was also the first time she'd done it. There had to be something said for world jumping for the first time and nailing the landing. Which...she had not done.
"Can I go see him then? I'm-"
"From the Sol Empire, I know," Shadow said. "And once we clear you of any inter-dimensional residue," he said, walking towards her.
"Oi! I don' have any 'residue'! I know what I'm doing!"
"Which is why you ended up here instead of whatever world Blaze and Tails actually ended up in," Shadow snarked.
"Shut," Marine said, feeling her cheeks blush. That was not the best of retorts, and she was more than aware of it.
Shadow rolled his eyes, and pulled a small watch-like device from a bag hidden under his fur. He waved it around, and a small happy chirp emitted from it, seemingly to the black hedgehog's consternation. The voice on the headset giggled. "Not funny, Rouge."
"On the contrary, Tails did it. We just haven't had inter-dimensional visitors since then," Rouge commented.
"Stupid fox," Shadow muttered. "What's in the bag?" he asked again at normal volume.
"You just don ask a lady what's in 'er bag! How rude can ya be!?" Marine retorted, a grin on her face. Even if this was the wrong world, and she may or may not have screwed up royally, there was nothing saying she couldn't have fun with it.
Shadow sighed. As if to agree with Marine's perspective, she heard Rouge laugh loudly through his headset.
After the crap Tails and Blaze managed to get themselves into, and how hurt they managed to get, I think a happy interlude is effective. And what's happier than Marine annoying Shadow? And with that, I make way for the fifth arc of Blooming Tides; Exception.
If there are any spelling or grammar errors, let me know. The cat decided to help edit, and I wasn't able to hit save fast enough. Why are they so cute, but so hateable at the same time...? Weaponized cuteness.
A bit more headcanon here; Tails is the only two-tailed fox in the Sonic canon, as far as I know. He was based off the kitsune, so I went ahead and make that his actual 'race' so to speak. Their powers don't come up here, but I thought I'd add it in anyways. Updating this a day ahead of time due to inability to update tomorrow as usual. Next week should be updated on normal schedule!
Until Next Time!