Sonic Runaways

Sonic quickly opened his eyes. He felt the soft hug of a pleasant dream unwrap and fade away into his subconscious. The first thing he did was look around at Stardust Speedway. When he first arrived there, it had been a filthy road looping around a commercial hellhole amusement park. But looking at it now, it was a glamorous purple speedway right next to a large beautiful festival by the swamp. It was bright and flashy but not abrasive like it was before.

"Huh, looks like I really made a change here!" Sonic observed his handiwork proudly, with Tails running up to his side to enjoy the view.

"Yes, you have," Amy replied from behind Sonic. Sonic turned around to face her. "You managed to create a future where plants, animals, and technology live in harmony upon Little Planet."

"Robotnik and Iron Queen are still somewhere around here," Sonic replied, annoyed. "But, eh, whatever. It's not my problem. Let's go, Tails, Amy." Tails began to walk off with Sonic.

"Go? Go where?" Amy asked, not moving an inch. "Sonikku… this is where I live."

Sonic turned to her. "Ah, right. Vista has you under some kind of mind control," Sonic replied. Sonic ran over to Amy and picked her up horizontally in his arms.

">.< Sonikku?!" Amy gasped.

"Don't worry, Ames! We're getting you out of here," Sonic promised, as he began to run off. However, before he could, a wall of metal covered in vines broke out from the road in front of him. He stopped instantly. The vines were wriggling, almost squirming. They looked like they were being forced to hold the wall up. Atop the wall, was Vista the Carnation.

"Now then, it won't be that easy," Vista stated warmly. Sonic stepped back. "Thank you, animal. For giving me another chance to feed my plants. They really appreciate it." The vines tried to uncurl, but Vista snapped them all back into place simply by curling her fingers. "Now, close your eyes. This will only hurt a little." She chuckled.

"Hey, don't hurt my Sonikku! (|\_/|)!" Amy cried.

"Who are you to oppose me, prisoner?" Vista asked. "You would do well to know your place."

"She's our friend!" Tails shouted, as he flew up to Vista and punched her across the face, knocking her off her high horse and high ground. "How many people just like her… just like US have you enslaved?"

Vista landed hard on the ground. "I apologize, animal. It would appear I have lost track. But rest assured, there will be much more." Vista began to merge with the ground, eventually sinking into the road like it was quicksand. "Goodbye, my disgusting animalistic sentience. Now, I shall become one with the flowers." She was absorbed into the plant matter within the road.

The ground rumbled, with bits of dust starting to raise from it. Sonic was about to say something, but then the rumbling stopped. Then, the road split apart! Sonic fell right down, crying out in surprise, but Tails caught himself by flying. He dove for Sonic, then caught him and by extension Amy.

"Geez… Sonic, I can carry you no problem, but Amy is pretty heavy," Tails mumbled to himself.

"Hey! >.

"I didn't mean it like…" Tails sighed.

"Unless my Sonikku wants me to be (ovo)," Amy replied. Sonic didn't respond.

"Ew! I mean… whatever floats your boat. There's no time for catching our breath. We need to get to safety, now!" Tails groaned. Carrying the others, he flew away from the ruptured speedway and into Robotnik and Iron Queen's fortress, hoping to find shelter there. The plants that Sonic had saved in the past were forced by Vista's will to pursue.

Tails found a button, and pressed it hastily. The door slammed shut just as an entire bouquet was about to enter after them. It even squashed a few stray flowers. Tails stopped to catch his breath. "Is everyone okay?" Tails asked, struggling to breathe. Sonic set Amy on the ground.

"I'm okay! ^v^!" Amy exclaimed, especially sing-songy.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sonic agreed, looking over to Metal Sonic, who lay on the ground in a charred mess of metal. "Probably shouldn't have destroyed the generators for the one who's under partial mind control by the person who wants to make an army of plants." Sonic glared at Amy disapprovingly. "That was probably a SEVERE lapse in judgement."

"Sowwy… >M<..." Amy whined. "I was just doing my job."

"That's okay, it made for a good jog," Sonic replied.

"Glad you enjoyed running around Little Planet destroying all of the generators keeping everything in check, Sonic. But what's the plan now?" Tails asked. He could hear the plants pounding on the door from outside. "We're trapped in one of Robotnik's fortresses! How in the world are we going to get out of here?!"

Sonic thought on it. "You know, I've always wanted to pilot the Rob-O-Matic," Sonic stated. Tails grinned.

And just like that, they were off. Sonic, Tails and Amy all traversed Robotnik and Iron Queen's fortress, the Metallic Madness (new name, get used to it), in hopes to find the Rob-O-Matic so they could fly away from Little Planet with it. Be it on ground or by high-speed warp tube, the flora of Little Planet was a continuous threat. The plants had managed to extend into Metallic Madness through an underground network. They were just as potentially deadly as the many traps Robotnik had placed there artificially.

Eventually, the three reached a roadblock. There had been quite a bit of flat, straightforward ground. So with everyones' speed, they had managed to get quite a good distance away from the plants. But their seedling stalkers would be there any second. "Shoot! A dead end!" Sonic exclaimed.

"No… something's not right," Tails sighed. He turned to the red wall at the other side of the room. It wasn't made out of metal like the other walls. "Are these… curtains?" Tails stepped forward towards them.

"Ohohohoho!!" Robotnik's laughter echoed through the room. Not over an intercom, but instead from directly behind the curtains. Sonic and Tails braced themselves for battle. The curtains parted, with Tails jumping back away from them. The shadow of a deadly weapon began to be bathed in the light, as well as the figures of two mad technomaniacs in the cockpit. Robotnik's glasses and Iron Queen's shades glimmered through the darkness. "Hello, Sonic. It was truly lovely to meet you again under such… peculiar conditions. But I'm afraid now is about time for us to say our final goodbyes. Thank you for your years of service to the Robotnik Empire. For what it's worth, you were a useful pawn to many of my plans."

"And Tails--- umm, I have nothing to say!" Iron Queen followed up. "I guess… it only seemed appropriate since Ivo was talking about Sonic for me to say something about you! But like, I hardly know you. So… now… behold our ultimate Badmech…!"

"THE FINAL FEVER!" Robotnik and Iron Queen shouted, as the pod came into full view. It had 4 large blocks attached to it, vaguely resembling the petals of a flower. However, just as the device was revealed in full, a sharp vine blasted through its engine, blowing it up from within. Three of the four blocks fell to the ground, while the last one darted towards the wall, breaking it wide open. Sonic and Tails stood there, dumbfounded.

"Oh… was it meant to catch fire?" Amy asked. "I can't tell. Sorry, I don't know much about machines! (V.V)." An explosion sent Robotnik and Iron Queen rocketing out of the Final Fever's pod.

"Grah! What is the meaning of this?" Robotnik grumbled. He turned to Iron Queen. "Regina! Did you activate the self-destruct button?"

"There's a self-destruct button?" Iron Queen asked.

"Uhh… Sonic?" Tails whispered. He pointed to the wall. "What's going on over there?" Sonic looked at the wall, to see that there were dozens, no, hundreds of vines conjoining and morphing into a pattern of some kind. It looked like a writhing, monstrous reflection of Vista's face. This Verdure Vista, if you will, had blackberry thorns for teeth, sunflowers for pupils. It grinned widely, and then shot towards Robotnik and Iron Queen, mouth gaping to the ground as it let out the most nails-on-chalkboard screech Sonic had ever heard.

"Look out!" Robotnik shouted, as he pushed Iron Queen away. He looked to make sure she had gotten out of harm's way, before looking back at Verdure Vista. He screamed as Verdure Vista's face reached him, and in a swift motion, opened its mouth and began to devour him. Gnashing at meat and discarding bones without a thought in its mind. Robotnik was long gone before it had even finished its feast. Verdure Vista then eyed Sonic and Tails hungrily. As it smiled, Sonic could see the flesh and blood of Robotnik fall from its thorn teeth. It then coughed up his cybernetic arm.

He couldn't believe it. Robotnik was dead, gone. It had all happened so fast. That was far from the first and not quite the most gruesome death Sonic had witnessed, but… he was left in shock. So much paralyzing shock at the fact that the man who raised and betrayed and nearly killed him numerous times was all gone. Reduced to food for some collection of plants that didn't even know what it was doing. Sonic hardly even noticed his mouth was completely agape until he grit his teeth. Now was no time to stand around and think aimlessly. He had people to protect.

Sonic grabbed Tails and lowered himself to the floor as Verdure Vista's face stretched out further from the wall. It tried to do to him and his friend what it had just done to Robotnik. But he wouldn't let it. It ignored Amy, thankfully. But Iron Queen was petrified, only able to formulate her fear and millions of racing thoughts with horrified screams. Sonic knew this would come back to bite him in the ass later, but… no person deserved to have what happened to Robotnik happen to them. He would have to save the Iron Queen.

"Tails! Get Amy!" Sonic ordered, so quickly Tails could hardly understand what he was saying.

"Sonic, wait!" Tails cried. Sonic was already on the other side of the room, helping the Iron Queen up as she breathed in and out rapidly, tears falling down her face. Sonic didn't know if it was at the sight alone, or if she really was just that close with Robotnik through the few days they got to actually know each other. She wordlessly took his hand. Because she was at a loss for words.

"Okay, Amy… you're probably not in too much danger, but you're coming with us anyways!" Tails stated. He too was trying to come to grips with what he just saw. He didn't know how Sonic would take it in the long run, but he didn't have time to think of it too much.

"Where are we going? 0_o?" Amy asked.

"You'll see…" Tails replied. He flew Amy by her head, following Sonic and Iron Queen as the two ran out the hole that was created when the block from Final Fever collided with the wall. There was more fortress behind the wall, so now they all had to deal with the death traps of Metallic Madness along with the stray plants, and of course Verdure Vista. The wall of plants extended forward quickly, and the tight confines of Metallic Madness' halls only slowed everyone down. "Sonic, what do we do? I'm not seeing any kind of exit!"

As Sonic thought of a response, the last three words his first caretaker, Longclaw, said to him repeated in his mind. "Never stop running." These words were what he lived by. He had escaped the Robotnik Empire in the first place by running. He survived so many close encounters in battle by running away. If he kept running away, he could make it out of anything.

But then he remembered the whole reason he was here. Wherever he went, there would always be some sort of evil lurking in the darkest of corners. Before, it was totalitarianism. Complete order from crummy tyrants. If he ran away from this, eventually, it wouldn't just be this secluded little planet suffering. If Vista controlled all the plants on Little Planet, and the plants were now restored near the chain holding Little Planet down to Erius, eventually it would spread, and his home planet would become plant-fueled anarchy. Everybody could die. He would be out of places to run away.

So he would run into his problems head-on.

Sonic changed direction and let out a barrage of Homing Attacks into Verdure Vista's eyes, slicing one of them down the center. "Sonic, what are you doing?!" Tails cried. Verdure Vista was beaten back a little. Sonic bounced off just as a blackberry branch shot out from her sliced eye, trying to spike him.

"We need to stop this monster!" Sonic replied. "We can't just run away from it."

"You're crazy! We are leaving!" Tails shouted, as he continued to run. "What chance do we have against THAT?! We barely got away from Robotnik back then by the skin of our teeth!"

"Maybe I am crazy, but I can't stand around and let this freak take what it wants!" Sonic shouted back, crackling with electricity. He Homing Attacked into the botanic beast's other eye, the zap leaving a sizzling roast mark where the eye once was. "Order... anarchy… it's all the same at the end of the day. If we don't do something about both of them, they'll destroy the world! We need to change that!"

Tails coughed as he slapped a flower away from him. No matter how much he tried to fight it, he knew Sonic was right. Even though it seemed like a childish fantasy that things could be any other way than how they already were, Sonic always put complete faith in that fantasy. Tails had a harder time believing it, but wanted it just as much as his best friend did.

"This better work!" Tails shouted. "If it doesn't, I'll never let you hear the end of it wherever we end up!" Tails took out and threw one of his Dummy Ring Bombs at Verdure Vista, which exploded upon contact and left the collection of plants buzzing with electricity. Verdure Vista screamed bloody murder. Iron Queen wiped some tears from her face, and threw her spear into Verdure Vista's agape mouth with a powerful scream of her own. Sonic raised his hands, and controlled the electricity from both weapons in order to focus it further.

Sonic's eyes crystalized, as he grinned devilishly. "Prepare to be uprooted!" Sonic shouted. He moved his hands apart, making a lightshow of electricity that pierced through Verdure Vista's entire mass. Verdure Vista screeched awfully, as the plants making her up began to fry. "Show's over!"

The electricity coursed through the vines in Metallic Madness' walls and ceiling, exploding in balls of lightning all over the fortress. A figure slowly descended from a wound in the fortress, like an angel from the heavens. Sonic squinted, trying to discern the figure from the intense electric light. The light became so bright that Sonic had to close his eyes so he wouldn't go blind. He waited until the electric light faded, and then opened his eyes once more.

There stood Aurora the Guardian, in front of a mess of vines and petals. "Oh my… What a mess!" She sighed. She picked up a limp tulip and turned to Sonic.

"Uhh… sorry! So SO sorry… I wasn't thinking about the flowers!" Sonic sputtered. "I just…"

"Oh, do not worry," Aurora replied, smiling. "I understand. You just wanted to protect yourself and your world. It's okay. Thanks to you, Vista is gone along with these poor misguided souls. Vista can no longer hurt any future flora of Little Planet." Aurora sighed, turning to Amy. "Hello, Amy. It's been so long."

"Aurora?" Amy asked. "I thought you were dead. -.-? The others said you were destroyed, before the bad man took them."

"No, I was not destroyed. I was freed," Aurora replied. "Soon, you will be, too."

"'Freed'..." Amy gasped. "I don't know what that means, but okay! >W

"Before you go… can you do me a favor, Amy?" Aurora asked. "The ecosystem was greatly harmed, and I fear should it not heal now, it never will. Please, plant one last flower. It shall be the starting point of a new age for Little Planet. Where plants, animals, and technology can work together and rebuild towards a good future. Without Vista or Robotnik here to hurt us anymore." Iron Queen sniffled.

"Of course!" Amy sang. A sparkle formed in her hand, and it fell to the ground. It quickly grew into a new flower.

"Thank you," Aurora chuckled. "Now, it is about time you all take your leave. You all have your home planet to go back to. Including you, Amy."

"Aren't you coming with us?" Sonic asked. "You want to go back to Erius, right?"

"No, I must continue to guard the flowers from anyone who may harm them," Aurora answered. "I would love to go back to my old home, but… these flowers need me. I cannot leave them without their guardian."

"Alright," Sonic replied. "Look… I need to get something off my chest. Erius isn't exactly perfect right now. It's been overrun by horrible governments and injustice. We are very much choking on polluted air, we're all kind of suffering. But, by next year when Little Planet comes around again, I promise I'll do something to change that." Sonic began to walk away, but then turned back to Aurora. "So why don't you pay us a visit when that time arrives?" Sonic winked, smiled, and gave her a thumbs-up.

"I might just do that," Aurora sighed happily. "But for now, I must say goodbye. I wish you luck in saving your world as you have saved mine, Sonic." Sonic nodded, before picking Amy up in his arms and speeding away. Tails and Iron Queen followed him, Tails waving goodbye as he flew off.

They found a shuttle at the end of Metallic Madness. Tails activated it, and they all blasted away into the skies of Little Planet aboard the shuttle. "We should be leaving the atmosphere soon," Tails stated, turning to everyone and smiling. Iron Queen was still crying her eyes out.

"Hey, hey, it'll be okay," Sonic told her. She was trying to speak, but couldn't.

"No, it won't!" Iron Queen cried. "How can you say that? This didn't end well for anyone!"

"How's that?" Sonic asked. "You survived, Amy is gonna be free, and Tails and I can go home to Giganima now that we're all cool with each other! Works out for everyone."

"What do you mean? We're not 'cool with each other'!" Iron Queen whined, distraught. "You two are freaking banished from the Iron Dominion for tracking mud on the castle and ruining my plans. I don't want you here anymore." Iron Queen went back to crying.

"Well, Tails, looks like we have to find a new place to live before we start making any real changes around here," Sonic groaned. He then smiled. "Let's find somewhere real good this time!" Sonic turned around, to see the Amy statue replaced with a pink Erian hedgehog. Little bits of stone melted away into fur and skin. Sonic's eyes widened.

She had a big smile on her face and her eyes were full of life and energy. "Wow, now I can finally hug you after all this time, Sonikku!" She exclaimed with her sing-songy electronic voice, jumping forward and wrapping her arms around Sonic. Sonic rolled his eyes, and smiled.

END OF ARC 2. ARC 3: "RESTRAINED", WILL BE COMING UP NEXT.

"To live a life of power, you must have faith that what you believe is right, even if others tell you you're wrong. The first thing you must do to live a life of power is to find courage. You must be ready to reach beyond the boundaries of Time itself. And to do that, all you need is the will to take that first step...." - Sonic CD