Sonic Runaways

Sonic and Tails slid down a steep depression in the ground, with aquamarine and roots sticking through the temple walls and floor. "Let's not get caught up in any weird prophecies this time, alright?" Sonic groaned, thinking back to the Labyrinth zone back on South Island. "This place is giving me bad vibes, let's get in, get out."

"Agreed," Tails replied, floating down into the broken down temple in the midst of a volcanic cascade. "I know Amy said all this stuff was made from plants, but… I refuse to believe this is naturally formed." Tails passively studied the chiseled stone bricks. They depicted what vaguely looked like flowers, gobbling up some rounded object.

"Don't you know what they can make from plants?" Sonic asked, shuddering from the thought as he skated around a jagged rock on his way down the slide. "Once I ate a chili dog, and didn't even find out it was completely vegan until I had a quarter of it left. It killed my wallet AND my stomach." Sonic replied. "Yet another one of the lies FED to us by the Robotnik Empire."

"Pretty sure that's everywhere, Sonic," Tails replied.

"... Oh."

Sonic began to run as soon as he reached the bottom of the slide. But just as soon as he started, he fell through a hole and plunged right into a deep dark hot spring. Now, there were two things wrong with this. Sonic was afraid of water, and because of this, Sonic couldn't swim.

Sonic frantically paddled his arms and legs in a panicked hope to swim upwards, but nothing came of this. He looked down, and though he couldn't see the bottom of the hot spring, he could see a translucent yellow pipe of some kind. He was instantly sucked into it and blasted through the watery interior.

As Sonic spun through the pipe, he marveled at an alien underwater forest of some kind. How any of it could thrive in that place was a mystery to the still panicked Sonic. The fruits on the titan-sized acacia-like trees glowed like lanterns, lighting up the area. Aside from all the beauty of the forest this revealed, all the colors and sights of otherworldly plants, this also showed something… not beautiful.

There was a blue whale-sized alien creature resembling a sunfish swimming through the greenhouse abyss, making noises like a choir as it passed by the pipe. Even "blue whale-sized" might have been an understatement. The thing was huge. But pursuing the gentle giant was the littlest sunflower attached to an abnormally long vine. Sonic could only watch from a distance as the flower tangled itself all around the panicked sunfish, and then crushed it. The sunflower then turned to Sonic.

The sunflower shot forward to do the same to Sonic, but was blocked by the pipe as it slammed right into the nearly unseeable obstacle with a loud drowned-out THUMP. The sunflower shook its head, and then floated back to the sunfish, swimming like a live eel.

Sonic was so distracted by what he had just seen, that he was startled by the pipe suddenly curving upwards. He was spat out of the pipe, and tumbled onto the puddle-ridden stone floor. Sonic got up, and thought over what he witnessed in that hot spring. Sunflowers aren't supposed to do that. PLANTS are not under any circumstances supposed to do that.

"Sonic! Are you okay?" Tails asked, flying over to Sonic from around the corner on the left. Sonic looked to Tails.

"I think so," Sonic replied. "What about you?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Tails sighed. "C'mon, let's keep following Robotnik and Iron Queen." Tails walked forward, but then, something drilled out from the ground loudly. It looked like the tip of a beanstalk. "Eek!" Tails jumped back, and Sonic stood his ground, ready for whatever might happen next.

The beanstalk began to… unravel. Unwrapping like a bandage from a newly healed wound. This continued until a figure was revealed within the beanstalk. She had dark purple hair, almost black, appearing like a flower of some kind in shape. She almost looked human, like Robotnik or Iron Queen.

"Hello, animals," the purple haired girl mumbled, a kind smile on her face as she opened her eyes and stared at Sonic warmly. Sonic and Tails looked to each other, then back at her uncomfortably. "I am Vista the Carnation. Thank you for coming to my planet."

"Your planet?" Sonic asked. He had no idea carnations could be so… humanoid. "You live here?"

"Why yes, I do," Vista replied, walking closer. Sonic felt dread crawling around in his chest area with every step she took. His mind told him to run, his heart told him to run, yet his legs stood still. "I live here amongst the flowers, the grass, the seeds. I am known to them as the Cultivator. I make them grow, and provide them nourishment."

"So, what gives? Why are you even talking to us?" Tails asked. "We kind of have somewhere to go."

"No you don't," Vista stated soothingly. "You are not to move." Vista held up her hand, and buttercup flowers surrounded Sonic and Tails. The buttercups began to grow towards Sonic and Tails. "Animals are nothing more than food for my plants. I know that your kind also adores pretty flowers. You raise and love them just as I do. So you are powerless to do anything." Sonic glanced at Tails, and then walked over the buttercups. Vista's calm expression fell, and she watched as Sonic stepped through and trampled the flowers without a second thought. She looked disappointed now, but she kept smiling.

"Sonic, are you sure it's safe?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, it's completely fine," Sonic replied. He walked right past Vista, glancing at her weirdly. "You're crazy." Tails flew above the plants, and continued into the temple. Vista watched in shock as they left. The flowers had been trampled, and left hungry. Instantly, Vista summoned a beanstalk, which enveloped her and burrowed underground.

Sonic and Tails were running along the temple, now with a great view of the outside volcanic scenery but also the temple's majestic ancient structures. Suddenly, a beanstalk drilled out from the rock, Tails knocking right into it. Sonic took notice of this, and swerved around to get Tails. He caught Tails just as a particularly sharp vine shot up from the ground. Sonic felt it wrap around his ankle, and throw him overhead in an arch. He felt like he was on a spinning rollercoaster as the scenery was turned upside down and on its side. He was then slammed into the ground, with an impact so hard it must have shaken Little Planet.

"As I said, you are not to move," Vista sighed as she emerged from the beanstalk that Tails slammed into. "If you do not obey, I will force you still. Do I make myself clear?" Her tone didn't fit her words. It was as if she was trying to be comforting judging by the cadence of her voice. But what she was actually saying didn't quite fit the bill.

Sonic cut through the vine with a spin, and shot forward towards Vista. "As if! I'm always moving!" Sonic exclaimed. Vista put her hand on the ground, and terraformed it using the vines already present underneath the rock to push the stone upwards. Sonic wall jumped off of the stone, and swung around a vine meant to pierce him into the newly formed pillar. Backflipping off of it, he kicked Vista in the air, knocking her off the pillar.

Vista slowly got up. "You animals deserve nothing more than to provide food to the flowers. You pretend to care about nature, but your whole existence had been spent moving as far away from it as possible," Vista said as Sonic approached. Sonic began to run circles around her, closing in. She spawned vines in attempts to stab him, but he was too fast. "Your efforts to run away from your origins is bringing doom to plantlife everywhere through pollution and technology. If you would just submit your lives to reviving that which you have killed, all worlds would be better off. Need I explain further?"

Soon, Vista realized she had encased herself in a small cage of vines. She couldn't see anything outside. As she struggled to dismiss the vines, Sonic sliced through them effortlessly from outside and released a Homing Attack into her back.

"No thanks," Sonic said, cracking his knuckles. "I'll never submit!"

Tails quickly realized there were tulips growing up from the ground, tangling themselves around his leg. He quickly spun his tails, using them as a weedwhacker. This killed all of the tulips, and Tails was able to break free of the dead flowers. He flew forward and knocked into Vista in ball form. Sonic then stomped her to the ground diagonally with his Shooting Star Kick.

"What's your deal?" Sonic asked, staring down at the defeated Vista. "Where I come from, 'animals' eat plants. Not the other way around."

"You two are so very far from where you came from," Vista explained, catching both Sonic and Tails' attention. "No animals are safe here, and they never will be..."

"What do you mean?" Tails asked, a creeping feeling in his spine.

"Plants are the dominant species on Little Planet," Vista replied. "You animals have been trying to colonize it for years, to make it safe for your fragile meat bodies. But as long as there are plants to feed, there will be no hope for your kind here." Sonic and Tails' blood ran cold.

"So all those fireflies, pollinating the plants back in Collision Chaos…" Tails gasped, holding his hands to his mouth in horror of what they had done. "There were animals there!"

"Yes, and now they have fulfilled their purpose to the plants. With the plants fully powered by the fireflies, not even that airship can mechanize them now," Vista chuckled happily. Sonic gasped. He had thought there was a kind of newfound silver lining to Robotnik's airship mechanizing the landscape, but not even that would save them. No wonder Robotnik was trying to kill the fireflies. "You will be devoured. Your friend will be devoured. No animal will survive our will to stay alive."

"Tails, we need to find Amy and get out of here," Sonic ordered.

"But what about Vista?" Tails asked. Sonic grabbed him by the hand. "What about our happy ending?"

"None of that matters! We're leaving!" Sonic shouted, as he ran forward. Vista watched as he ran past her, and into the mines.

"Run all you want, animals..." Vista sighed, as the fireflies made their way to her greenhouse in Tidal Tempest. Robotnik's airship far too behind to be a threat to her or the plant empire. "This is our world, and you will be devoured sooner or later."