Sonic Runaways

"Before the Dawn of Space, there was the Twilight of Space. An era of great darkness, where light was scarce and dim. Sight was a rare luxury. To many, it was but a myth passed down from generations long before."

"In the darkest of days, a utopia of unity and acceptance between man, beast and animal formed. The beast was created to devour the man, just as the man was created to devour the animal. It was fate. But fate, too, is part of this equation. Fate… was created to be averted. At least… that's what my master said once. Under the strange circumstances these races found themselves in, where the scale tipped all the way in darkness' direction, the three united after centuries of warfare. The beast now relied on the man for their ability to understand technology and use it to their advantage. The man relied on the animal to power machines through their supernatural powers. The animals were rewarded by the beasts with food in the form of special crops that needed no sunlight to grow. Though the world remained dark, the future seemed bright for this emerging kingdom of complete equality and diversity."

"But one night, seven gemstones, each of unlimited power, came crashing down onto Erius from outer space. Though small, they were strong enough to illuminate the entire universe upon impact with the planet's surface. These gems are known as the Chaos Emeralds. With the great light that came from the seven stones, our dimension was bathed in color. These fleeting seconds are known as the Enlightening. When the afterglow dissipated, it was the Dawn of Space"

"At first, people rejoiced and celebrated as each side of their world, for the first and last time in recorded history, was covered in vivid light. But like most peaceful times on that forsaken planet below the Lost Hex, it didn't last long."

"'Monsters!' Man shouted, as soon as the light grew thin enough for them to see the true form of their age-old companions for the first time. In truth, the beasts were titanic, powerful beings that had been twisted and skewed into horrid demons in the first pieces of human folklore. Their true names were the Zeti. This truth had been lost to time long before that point. But at that moment, the tales all came flooding back to the humans."

"Disgusted and fearful of the Zeti, the humans banished them away to the orbiting planetoid Lost Hex. And there the Zeti remained. Growing and festering in the feeling of betrayal, each tribe of Zeti across all the regions of the Lost Hex fell into sinful actions and ways of life as they evolved into Hexis. The Windi tribe of Windy Hill descended into the sin of lust, obsessed with the humans to the point where they reshaped their very culture around those found on Erius. The Barren tribe of Desert Ruins fell into gluttony, eating and drinking their oases away in hopes of filling the void left in their hearts by the humans. And these are just the Zones you have all made it through thus far."

Sonic felt the tale fade away as Zik stopped speaking. The sound of the fire crackling took center stage. He only then realized how cold the breeze was. "Hmm…" Tails hummed to himself.

"What is it?" Zik asked, beaming. "Do you have a question about my story??? It would be my pleasure to explain!"

"Oh… uh, yeah…" Tails chuckled. "You didn't say which sin this place's tribe fell into."

"... None of them," Zik muttered. The smile on her face was washed away. "Throughout it all, the Tropical Coast's Miaz tribe, which I am the sole survivor of, never acted sinfully. We stayed pure. This is why I'm trying to show these younger Hexis the right path, and take away their sins. I believe the apparition we saw in that tunnel was Zomom's sin of gluttony taking shape as a Zeti."

"Why a Zeti?" Zomom asked.

"The sin is not native to you as an individual," Zik stated. "It is akin to an inherited disease. It was created in your ancestors' hearts, and now resides within yours." She pointed at Zomom. "The sin is the physical form of all your tribe's wrongdoings, and so it initially assumed the form of a Zeti and hasn't evolved since. People change, but their sins do not."

"How do we make sure it doesn't attack again?" Sonic asked.

"That's the thing, young hedgehog," Zik snickered. "We'll make it do exactly that!"

"What?! You can't be serious!" Zomom exclaimed, nearly jumping off her seat.

"Gluttony only took partial form due to what Tails said to you," Zik sighed, crossing her legs and lying down on the driftwood. Cozy. "We can't destroy the sin if it's only an apparition. We may as well be fighting thin air. If we can somehow condition it to split away from Zomom into its own full physical form, we might have a fighting chance." Zik growled something under her breath. Everybody leaned in to listen to her closer. "But it's too risky. Zeti are incredibly powerful, and Gluttony has been brewing within your people for ages now. If it has even half the strength of a Zeti, and all the power of a Sin… taking it on at its full power could be a suicide mission. At that point, we aren't fighting thin air. We're poking a bear with a stick."

"Hmm… well, we were already heading to Lava Mountain to shut down Robotnik's machine, right?" Zomom asked. Everybody was now looking to her. She seemed embarrassed now. "Well… what if we BURN the Sins?"

"Zomom, you're a genius!" Zik replied, jumping out of her relaxed position and standing atop the driftwood. "That's exactly what we need to do. We'll just extract and lure everybody's Sins to Lava Mountain, then we'll toss 'em in the volcano! Easy as pie."

"Then let's get going, already!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Q: What sin am I?" Zoga asked Zik.

"Hmm… It's hard to say. Perhaps greed?" Zik guessed. Zoga opened her mouth, and a DING-DING-DING sound came out.

"Makes sense. I run a game show after all!" Zoga agreed. She clapped loudly as confetti fell all around Zik. Zik looked proud. "But also… uh… Q: Where to now?" Zik pointed at a large snowy wasteland in the distance.

"Frozen Factory Zone. It's where Zeena lives," Zik stated, walking off towards Frozen Factory. "Quickly! We haven't much time until the Dark Battery locks into overdrive!" Everybody took off in Zik's lead.