From The Prettiest Flower

Chapter 11: Twisted and Tangled

     The Warner Brothers starred in disbelief. Their sister floated there, ornately decorated with flowers and vines, uncharacteristically silent.
"Dot. Come on, Dot! Can you hear us?" Wakko called, approaching her.
The princess glanced at him, then straight ahead again, moving ahead slowly.
"Can she hear us?" He said to Yakko, almost frantic.
"I don't-I don't know!" Yakko held onto Wakko's shoulders tightly, just as confused and anxious as he was.
"Wait. I know what you could try." He said, Wakko's eyes widening.
"No. No way, what if she can hear us? With all this-"
"Well Wakko, it would at least mean that she's not completely gone. Now come on!" He said, half encouraging and half desperate.
Wakko took a deep breath and yelled:
"HEY! DOTTIE!!"
They were silent. In a normal instance, Dot would pummel him with her mallet for calling her by her dreaded nickname. But nothing happened. Then the brothers began to panic.
"That didn't work...THAT DIDN'T WORK?!" Yakko yelled, running in front of Dot, who had begun floating towards the door of the garden.
"I get she might still be mad at us, but this is a bit far!" Wakko said, full of concern.

     Yakko threw himself in front of Dot, putting his hands on her shoulders.
"Come on Dot, say something, ANYTHING! Just please speak to us!" He pleaded, trying to break through to the Dot he knew was inside the flower-coated facade.
Dot's eyes narrowed, and with a flick of her wrist, thick vines wrapped around Yakko like an angry fist.
"O-okay, I can see you don't wanna talk, I get it, I get it!!" He sputtered, struggling to breathe.
Dot tilted her head to the side, the vines following her lead and flinging Yakko to the side.
"Yakko!" Wakko ran to Yakko's side, helping him up
"I'm fine, I'm fine." Yakko stood up quickly, out of breath, but okay.
"Come on, we gotta get to the others."

     Pinky and Brain were quickly approaching Warnerstock, the light from the Root Control almost blinding, and a foreboding buzzing sound came from the machine.
"It's like a neon green bee!" Pinky commented, then quickly laughing at his own joke.
"Pinky, please, now is not the time for humor. We are moments away from triumph!" Brain said proudly.
As the two approached the castle, they noticed the royal traveling party standing outside. Brain was still getting used to the layout of the castle, but he was fairly certain that the travelers were standing in front of the royal garden.  They finally reached the garden, the light from the machine catching the attention of the other travelers.
"Ey! Who brought the traffic light!" Slappy snarked, swatting at the machine with her purse.
"Excuse me, but this complex machine is far more respectable than that." Brain stepped forward.
"Hey...you're the Prime Minister!" Minerva noticed, remembering seeing Brain a few days ago at the introduction ceremony.
"What are you doing here?" She asked.
"Personal reasons." Brain nonchalantly replied.
"World domination pla-" Pinky began, but had his mouth quickly shut by Brain.
"Wait, if you're here, who's watching the kingdom?" Pesto commented.
"Rest assured, there is a trustworthy individual supervising the kingdom's business. Now enough with the questions, what we need to know is the location of the Princes and Princess."
The travelers glanced at the door, all sharing a fearful expression.
"They're in there." Said Minerva.
"Hopefully with the flower and sorting all this out."
"Excellent." Brain pushed his way in front of the door, Pinky following and leaving the machine behind. "If you excuse us, we have very important business to atte-NEAHH!"

     Brain was interrupted when the garden doors furiously flung open, sending him flying to the side.
"The princess!"
"Princess Dot?"
"Is that?"
"The flower!"
The travers gasped, parting as Dot floated out of the garden with vines following shyly behind her.
"Naaaaaarf...Is that the princess?" Pinky said, after running to Brain's side to help him up. "She looks beautiful!"
"She's become, fused, bonded possibly, to the source of the roots!" Brain deduced, shakily standing, then running to the machine. He pressed a few buttons on the Root Control 1000, trying to refine its own connection to the roots, and trying to connect to the princess. The machine flashes brighter than ever before, sending thin electric green bolts of energy through the vines, and straight to Dot.
The noise that Dot made after the machine took over couldn't be called natural. She let out this monstrous shriek that was part her own voice, and part something else, full of pain.

     The sound shocked Yakko and Wakko, who bolted out the garden, to see Dot and the vines which were growing out of control. They jumped and weaved their way through the twisted mess and came out facing the rest of the travelers.
"Your highnesses, what's going with the Princess?"
"Did you find the flower?"
"Why aren't the vines gone?"
"The Prime Minister's here and his machine is freakin' me out!" They all asked in a jumble, desperate for answers.
"WE DON'T KNOW!" Yakko yelled, beginning to have a strong distaste for that phrase.
"She touched the flower, and they...connected? She's all, glowey and floaty now! That's all we know!"
Wakko refused to take his eyes off Dot, hoping that somehow he could just will her back to normal with his stare.
"Maybe because of the-wait. The Prime Minister? Machine?"
Yakko slowly turned to Brain, who now started to hide behind his machine and dragging Pinky with him.
"Mr. Minister..."
Yakko approached the machine, eyeing it with growing suspicion.
"What. Is. This?"
"A tracking device."
"Oh, just-just a tracking device. Well, your tracking device is CREATING NEON GREEN LIGHTING, AND GROWING MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF VINES!!"
"NARF! It's supposed to do that!" Pinky said, trying to defend Brain, and the machine.
"It's connected to the plants. Using its energy to determine the source of the vines, and...eliminate it."
"Nice lie, Brain."
"QUIET PINKY!"

     "So, you left the kingdom to track down these vines to destroy them yourselves?" Yakko crossed his arms, still confused and now a little frustrated.
"Yes! Because we're very, very good and loyal subjects!" Pinky smiled.
"Well whatever good intentions you had, it's-AHH!"
Yakko had to duck due to the rapidly growing vines.
"That machine is only making things worse! What did you even DO to her?"
He gestured to Dot, who was still controlling the vines, sparking with the same green lightning from the machine.
"The machine's connected to her. It's gathering data and processing it. It's SCIENCE." Brain said bluntly, starting to become as frustrated as Yakko.
"Wait...you-you mean to tell me you're...no. Is my baby sister just a SCIENCE EXPERIMENT TO YOU?!"
Brain faltered, terrified of admitting the truth. Honestly, he didn't think that things would escalate to this level. He grabbed Pinky by the wrist and retreated behind the machine.
"Brain, do you think we went too far this time?" Pinky squeaked, narrowly missing a vine that flew by.
"Pinky we're so close, just a bit longer and-"
Before Brain could finish, the machine behind them let out a very loud shriek. He looked at the control panel, soon discovering a warning. "Power overload?! No it wasn't supposed to do this!" Now frantic, Brain tried fixing the issue, releasing tension in the machine's inner-workings, letting out steam, but nothing changed the incessant buzzing and loud warning horns.  He didn't want to admit it. He couldn't tell himself that the plan was over. With the machine overloaded there was nothing else he could do, but he refused to believe it was out of his control. That was something Brain hated more than anything.

     "Yakko we can't just let this go on!" Wakko yelled, fighting a vine as he approached him.
"I know it can't! I just don't know how to stop it! We know that Dot's connected to the flower, and now the machine, but what are we supposed to do!"
"Yakko...that's it! Destroy the machine! If it's destroyed, it won't be controlling Dot anymore!" Wakko said, finally connecting the flower covered dots.
"That's...brilliant Wakko! Come on, let's get this over with!"
Yakko drew his sword and was ready to strike the machine.
"Wait!" Brain yelled, stopping Yakko before he could start the destruction.
"I can still work on the machine, everything will be fine!"
"Oh, stop stalling! This is the only way to save Dot and you KNOW IT!"
Yakko shoved the point of the sword at the glass dome, ready to shatter it at any second.
"But according to the data I've collected, destroying the machine could cause a massive explosion, which could kill all of us!"
"You don't know that!" Yakko pleaded, suddenly understanding how Dot felt this whole trip.
"Dot means more to us than you could ever know, and need I remind you, is your superior! Refusing this is like, like... treason! Or, insubordination!"
Brain tried to prepare a rebuttal, but couldn't. Pinky pulled him aside.
"Brain...you know that you've got to do this! Poit! Just admit it, you can't hold on to the machine any longer!"
Pinky shook Brain by the shoulders.
"I can't...you know I-" The ravenous vines cut him off, shooting between Brain and Pinky, with Pinky clinging to the vine and sailing upward.
"BRAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!!" Pinky screamed, dropping from the vine.
"Pinky!"
Brain ran to try and catch him, only for Pinky to land on top of him.
"Oh, Brain! ZORT! You saved me!"
"Don't read too much into it." Brain said, dropping him.
"So, are we going to save my sister, or are we gonna do some more ship-teasing?" Yakko snarked, still holding the sword up and ready. Brain hesitated.
"Fine. Destroy it." He said coldly, stepping away from the Root Control 1000.
Wakko pulled out his mallet, looking back at Dot, then at Yakko.
"You ready?"
Yakko nodded.
They raised their weapons and swung them down as hard as they could...as an angry fistful of vines whisked the machine away.
"WHAT A COP OUT!!" Slappy screamed, throwing her purse down.
"I got real invested in that!!"