Back to Chapter 25

At the edge of the Spring Yard Zone, Sonic and his friends came upon an ornate golden-brown stone entrance leading down into a cavern. A nearby sign read “CAUTION – LABYRINTH ZONE OFF LIMITS”

“I guess that’s where we’re headed,” Sonic motioned towards the cavern.

“It says off limits, though,” Johnny responded quizzically.

“Exactly, which makes it a perfect hiding place for a mad scientist, if my comic books have taught me anything”

Sonic and Johnny walked towards the entrance. Sonic turned back and noticed Antoine looked nervous.

“You coming, Ant?” Sonic asked.

Antoine took a deep breath, “Oui”

Sonic shot a glance at Johnny before looking back at Antoine, “Are you scared?”

“N-non,” Antoine stuttered, scared, “…oui”

“It’s okay to be afraid, man. We’re walking into the unknown. But if it’s the only way to save Sally then we have to do it”

Antoine took a second deep breath and then nodded, “Oui. Let us depart”

The trio slowly and carefully entered the cavern, finding stone steps inside leading downward. The steps had taken a beating over the years, now in a less than spectacular shape. Some were broken or uneven, some were cracked and many had weeds growing through whatever gaps could be found in them. As the friends descended further into the darkness below, they noticed the steps were also becoming more damp as they went on, with the ordinarily steady Johnny stumbling a few times.

“I can’t see anything beyond a few inches ahead of me in here,” Johnny noted.

Sonic glanced over his shoulder to see if he could spot any light emanating from where they’d originated but Antoine was right behind him, blocking out any light.

“You doing okay, Ant?” Sonic asked his nervous friend.

Antoine nodded, doing his best to hide how scared he was. Deep inside, Antoine knew he had to push on. It was his duty to protect the princess. If word got back to his father that he’d abandoned his duty, Antoine would never be able to live down the shame. More than that, though, Sally was his friend- and the thought of abandoning a friend to a fiend like Doctor Robotnik was unbearable to Antoine.

Having known Sally since the two of them were children, Antoine had grown deeply attached to her. There were days that Antoine thought he might be romantically attracted to her. Ultimately, he forced himself to bury those feelings. It wouldn’t do for a foot soldier to harbour an attraction to the future queen. Still, as Antoine rose through the ranks, he found himself asking that question, that itch nagging away at the back of his mind- was he in love with Sally? Or was he just inspired by her?

Antoine supposed he’d never known for sure what it was like to be in love. He was still young, there was plenty of time for that yet. He’d probably meet a nice young lady, marry her and raise a family- a boy and a girl, both raised in the same loving way he’d been raised. The boy would grow up to become a soldier too, of course, to continue the family tradition. The girl would—

Antoine’s foot slipped and missed a step.

Falling forward, Antoine collided with Sonic who, in turn, collided with Johnny. The three of them went tumbling down the stairs. Each drop hurt more than the last but, mercifully, there weren’t too many of them. The problem was, the reason the drops downstairs ended was because the three fell into nearby water. Some sort of rudimentary plumbing system, the water was carried down hill along more hand-made stone structures. Rushing far too fast for the boys to fight it, the three of them were hurled deeper into the labyrinth.

Eventually, screaming, the boys came to a split in the waterway. Antoine and Johnny were hurled down the right path. Sonic desperately clawed at nothing in particular, panicking in the water, as he tried to catch up to his friends but he ended up being flung down the left path instead. The water carried Johnny and Antoine out of view and Sonic’s panic grew.

The good news is after a few minutes the waterway came to an end point. The bad news is that end point was suspended forty feet in the air above an enormous, murky green pool of water that didn’t smell especially pleasant. Shot off the end of the waterway, Sonic tumbled downward, arms flapping in all directions before splashing down into the water and sinking like a stone.

Sonic had a brief moment of terror as he became submerged, but he took a second to compose himself. He thought long and hard about Tux’s advice about finding air underwater. Look for cracks- especially in artificial structures like this.

Sonic landed on the bottom of the water, fortunately not too deep but deep enough that he couldn’t simply leap out. He looked around frantically in search of- aha! There! A crack in the floor. Sonic slowly forced himself over towards the crack, finding his legs moved a lot slower when submerged, not having the common courtesy to perambulate at a regular pace as his lungs began to ache.

As if to answer Sonic’s prayers, the blessing of an air bubble began to form from the crack in the ground. Slowly, inexorably, Sonic pushed himself through the weight of the water pressure towards the bubble as it expanded. Just as Sonic made it to the crack, the bubble freed itself and began to float upwards.

Oh no you don’t! Sonic thought to himself before forcing himself with all his might to leap upwards to suck down the air within. Tux had been right- the air wasn’t the freshest Sonic had ever breathed, but right now it tasted as good in his lungs as any he’d ever had.

“Enjoying your last breath, hedgehog?” came a voice from behind Sonic. The young hedgehog turned to see himself facing down a shark-like Badnik with a motorised propeller where its tail would be.

“Oh, great, another one of you metallic creeps,” is what Sonic wanted to say.

What he actually said was, “Bwuaalrrghghll,” before remembering he couldn’t talk underwater and he needed to save his air.

“Congratulations on finding the hedgehog, Jaws,” came another robotic voice. Sonic turned to see a spherical robot with four spiked balls orbiting its body, “Now let’s slaughter him!”

“Stay out of this, Orbinaut- this kill is mine!” the Jaws Badnik snapped at the other, its jaw hinge opening and closing in time with the speech.

“For the glory of Doctor Robotnik, I shall be the one to destroy the hedgehog!” Orbinaut fired back, flinging its four spiked balls towards Sonic.

With Jaws bearing down upon him in one direction and the spiked balls coming from the other, Sonic found he had little choice but to leap directly upwards and try to get out of the way of the spiked balls. Jaws, however, didn’t have Sonic’s knack for upward mobility, reacting too late as the spiked balls collided with it, destroying the Badnik in an explosion.

No prisoner inside that one, Sonic noted as he began to descend in the water. Using every bit of his body weight he could, Sonic moved in the water towards the Orbinaut, curling into a ball and slamming into the now defenceless sphere of the robot, cracking it open and freeing a Mobini seal in the process.

Sonic suddenly found himself clutching at his throat as he realised he was running low on air. Dragging his feet across the floor, Sonic reached the crack and waited for an air bubble.

And waited.

And waited.

Nothing was coming!

Sonic’s heart began to pound in his chest, th-dump, th-dump, faster and faster as he felt the seconds of his life count away until it was more of a THDUMPTHDUMPTHDUMPTHDUMPTHDUMP.

Eventually, mercifully, a bubble emerged from the crack. A large one this time. Sonic sucked down the air within. He couldn’t stay down here any longer. He had to make the climb back up. Sonic remembered every technique Sally had taught him about climbing. Finding footholds and handholds, shifting his body weight, forcing himself upward with his momentum. Just like in his training, Sonic was chasing after Sally, though this time metaphorically. Slowly but surely, Sonic climbed higher until the surface drew closer. With one final thrust, Sonic pulled himself above the surface and flopped onto dry land, gasping for air and spitting out water.

Sonic knew he couldn’t stop for long. He had to keep going, he had to find Robotnik. But he really needed a breather.

Sonic was suddenly aware of a low rumbling nearby.

All of a sudden, a robot burst from the ground in front of Sonic!

“Just when you thought it was safe to get out of the water! Robotnik Pictures presents: Burrobot!” the Badnik declared.

The robot looked somewhat like a mole with a drill for a nosecone and treads instead of feet. It seemed to be wearing a baseball cap, which Sonic assumed was a bit of flavour Robotnik had added for his own amusement. Sonic pushed himself up to his feet but found his legs were still unsteady after his escapades in the water.

“That’s too bad, hedgehog,” the Burrobot sneered, “Looks like you’re too weak to fight!”

Sonic didn’t respond but he knew the robot was right. His head was spinning and he could barely see straight. The sound of the drill got louder and louder as it whirred faster while the Burrobot clanked towards Sonic. As Sonic saw stars, he shook his head quickly to try to throw off the daze but found himself unable. He didn’t want to go down without a fight but he didn’t seem to have much of an option at the moment.

Suddenly, a hatch in the stone work up above opened and Johnny Lightfoot fell down from above, length of pipe still in hand.

“Geronimo!” Johnny ventured as he landed in a heap on the Burrobot. Before the machine could react, Johnny swung the pipe at the Burrobot’s head and popped it open, freeing a captive Mobian inside.

“I’m so sorry, I couldn’t control myself in that thing!” the Mobian started, frantically.

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it,” Sonic dismissed the Mobian’s concerns, doing his hardest not to faint.

“How am I going to get out of here? The Labyrinth Zone runs for miles under the surface!”

Johnny pondered aloud, “We could do with getting word to someone. But how?”

Sonic suddenly had a brilliant idea. He was still wearing the watch Doctor Kintobor gave him underneath his glove! Sonic pressed a button on the and the image of the Kintobor Computer appeared on the screen.

“Sonic, what’s going on?” the computer asked.

“Cool it, Kintobor. I’m alright for now. Can you track our location? We have someone here who needs to get out and even we don’t know where we are”

“One moment… yes, I’ve got you. I don’t suppose your friend has a watch do they? I can beam GPS directions to them if they do, that’ll help them get out”

“Yes, I’ve got a watch,” the Mobian replied, “It’s a digital one, hopefully it’ll work”

“Kintobor?” Sonic asked.

Sonic’s watch beeped, then so did the Mobians, signifying the task had been completed. Kintobor continued, “Follow those directions using the latest known schematic of the charted area of the Zone, you’ll be out in no time”

“Thank you, mister…?” the Mobian addressed Sonic.

“Sonic. I’m Sonic the Hedgehog. And I’ve got a date with the guy who did this to you”

The Mobian ran off towards safety.

Sonic collapsed.

“Sonic, are you alright?!” Johnny dashed to his friend.

“Yeah, just… just give me a minute, okay?”

“Okay…”

“Where’s Antoine? You two were together last time I saw you”

“The waterway split us up again. No clue where he’s gone, it’s a miracle I ended up here in the nick of time”

“I wish I’d thought to give you all Kintobor watches, we’d be able to track him now”

“We have to push on, Sonic. We have to find Robotnik. Antoine is a soldier, he can take care of himself”

“I know. I’m just worried for him, he seemed a little nervous. I think maybe he puts on a brave face for the General but he’s probably scared inside”

Johnny raised an eyebrow and the corner of his mouth, “Not that you’d know anything about that, of course”

“Not a word to anyone, Lightfoot,” Sonic panted as he regained his composure. Forcing himself to his feet once more, this time somewhat more steadily, Sonic addressed the Kintobor Computer again, “Okay, Kintobor. I need you to help point us in the right direction to get through this place”

“I’ve picked up Badnik activity in the Star Light Zone, Sonic,” Kintobor responded, “I’m going to suggest you abandon the search for him here and push on, you could be down there for days otherwise. You need to take the upper path. There should be a wall to climb facing you”

Sonic and Johnny looked ahead. Sure enough, there was a huge tall wall in front of them. Ornate carvings of bears jutted out of the wall.

“Let’s go, Johnny. We’ve got a long climb ahead of us by the looks of things”

The two began their ascent and soon found things weren’t as easy as they’d previously thought. Johnny almost ended up skewered by a spear that jutted from the wall at one point and the bear carvings turned out to be boobytraps as well, spitting fire as the boys passed in front of them.

Kintobor explained, “The ancient civilisations that used to live on Mobius were a little more brutal than you’re used to, Sonic. The Labyrinth Zone was created as a dungeon to hold prisoners while also providing aquatic passages for the amphibious race that dwelled here in times past”

“Hence the traps to deter escape,” Sonic noted, “Hence the Zone being off-limits. Tell you what, Kintobor, if you happen to find the descendants of that race, be sure to pass on my congratulations for the hard work of their great-grandfathers”

“Well, that’s the thing,” Kintobor continued, “The race disappeared from Mobius without a trace. Very strange business, really. There are signs of their influence across the globe and then… nothing. They just vanished. It’s as if one night they just decided to go somewhere else and left the planet”

“Leaving us such lovely places to explore,” Sonic quipped sarcastically.

At that moment, Sonic and Johnny became aware of two noises.

The first noise was the familiar laughter of Doctor Robotnik. He was some distance above them. They’d almost caught up to him!

The second noise was more wet. A sort of “rapidly rising water” kind of noise. That’s exactly what the noise was, in fact, as the boys glanced below and saw the water was rushing up to meet them.

“Sonic, what do we do?!” Johnny asked.

“Move it!!” came the reply.

The two of them forced themselves on, sweating and panting as they climbed, while the water rushed up beneath them. Robotnik’s laughter seemed to grow louder- they were definitely getting near to him. But the water was getting louder too. In no time at all, it was upon them. Johnny yelped as the water caught him by surprise and rose past his feet. Mere moments after that, he was fully submerged. Then, so was Sonic. There was nowhere to stop for air this time. The boys were so close, they had to keep climbing. Sonic, teeth gritted, pulled himself higher and higher, remembering what was at stake. Somehow, Sonic instinctively knew Johnny was forcing himself to continue climbing too.

Eventually, the water stopped rising and, after just a few more feet, Sonic and Johnny pulled themselves out of the water. Walking down an ornately decorated corridor, the two spotted something distinctly out of place: the Egg-O-Matic of Doctor Ivo Robotnik.

“How’s the water, boys?” Robotnik sneered.

“This ends here, Robotnik!” Sonic shouted up at the doctor.

“I think not, Sonic. I’m afraid I have further business in the Star Light Zone before returning back to my laboratory. It’s been quite the productive day for me! Just wait until you see what tomorrow brings! I’ve managed to get my hands on quite the impressive piece of equipment!”

“I don’t care about your equipment! Let my friends go, Robotnik. It’s not too late. Surrender and answer for what you’ve done”

“Oh ho ho, it’s assuredly too late for that, you little pest!” Robotnik laughed, “Besides, I’m having so much fun watching you flounder as I wear you down! Yes, the end is coming, Sonic, but not for me!”

The three were aware of a loud rumbling noise. The sound of more rushing water.

“What have you done this time, Robotnik?” Sonic demanded.

But Robotnik was just as much in the dark, “I don’t—”

As the rumbling grew louder, a hatch in the wall next to Robotnik flung open and sprayed him with water with the force of an exploding fire hydrant- and flung through the water into the cockpit of the Egg-O-Matic was none other than Antoine!

The water passed and the rumbling of its rushing subsided. Robotnik and Antoine seemed none too sure how to respond.

“Ah… ‘allo,”Antoine nervously grinned.

“Antoine, the controls!” Sonic called up.

In a flash, Antoine drew his sabre and stabbed at Robotnik’s control panel. The water that had pooled in the Egg-O-Matic began to spark as it trickled into the cracks. Antoine took this moment to leap to safety by the side of Sonic and Johnny as sparks flew up into Robotnik’s screaming face. As the enraged doctor continue to scream a stream of abuse, the Egg-O-Matic rocketed off out of sight. Sonic and Johnny gave a cheer.

“Nice work, Ant!” Sonic applauded his friend.

“I am glad I could be of servicing! Soneek, I am sorry for ze stumbling in ze cavern before!”

“Are you kidding? If you hadn’t done that, you’d not have been able to save the day like that! Nice work, pal,” Sonic slapped a congratulatory hand across Antoine’s back.

“Sonic, look!” Johnny called. He pointed to a familiar sight- a Prison Egg Capsule.

Sonic rushed towards the machine and leapt onto its top, stamping on the release catch and freeing the prisoners inside, as well as splashing a pool of water they’d been swimming in to the outside. The various aquatic Mobini all hopped away into the waters of the Zone, leaving three prisoners- Joe Sushi, Tux and Rotor Walrus.

“Nice one, guys!” Rotor exclaimed.

“Thanks, Sonic,” Joe nodded.

“A splendid display of heroism,” Tux bowed deeply.

“No sign of Sally?” Sonic asked his friends.

Joe shook his head, “Haven’t seen her. But I reckon Robotnik has her”

“Then we’re going to press on. Guys, I need you to stay here where it’s safe. We’ll come back for you later to help you get free. In the meantime, you need to look after the Mobini and make sure Robotnik doesn’t return for them”

“I’m coming with you,” Rotor announced, “Joe and Tux will be fine here without me and I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve to help you”

“Sounds fine to me, buddy,” Sonic smiled, “Although you aren’t wearing any sleeves”

“Maybe that’ll be my next invention- the sleeve gun”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Sonic rolled his eyes, amused, “Come on, Robotnik said he had business in the Star Light Zone. Kintobor, lead the way”

On to Chapter 27