Back to Chapter 40

Sonic wasn’t fond of water at the best of times. The odds of him enjoying a waterpark were slim at best. And this particular waterpark was, well, not a waterpark, it was an ancient maze stretching under the surface of South Island. As Sonic slid and tumbled through darkened tunnels, carried along by rushing water, he became aware of the smell. It wasn’t very nice. The water in the Labyrinth Zone had been stale before- and the water directly underneath the Scrap Brain Zone had been disgusting- but this was downright foul.

Sonic dropped into an inner chamber where light burst through cracks in the ceiling. There was absolutely no telling what Zone he was underneath but it was evidently pretty sunny there. Sonic rolled down an incline very much against his desires and discovered the reason for the odour- the water in this part of the Labyrinth Zone was green. Bright green. Generally speaking, there are only a few reasons water would be bright green and none of them are terribly palatable. Sonic continued his slip downhill until he saw one of the Zone’s bear carvings, water spewing from its mouth like a fountain gone mad, barfing green water onto the slope. Sonic had to act fast. Fortunately, that was what he did best.

Sonic reached into his sock and snapped a cord tied around his ankle. His last journey across Mobius had taught him to come prepared wherever possible and he’d asked Porker if he’d be so kind as to refine his rebreather into a more compact form. Sonic popped the device into his mouth and braced himself for impact.

With a hard splash, Sonic hit the water and fell down to the bottom of the murk. The rebreather, mercifully, did its job, allowing Sonic to breathe in clean air reserves through his mouth and exhale through his nose as long as he paid reasonable attention and didn’t try to do the reverse he’d be alright. Naturally, with the more compact size came the fact Porker couldn’t attach a pair of goggles to it to pinch Sonic’s nose, meaning he was going to have to deal with a little irritation of the eyes. The other downside to such a compact device was that the oxygen supply was smaller than the original rebreather. Porker estimated around a thirty minute supply. A shortened air supply coupled with Sonic’s drastically reduced walking speed in water meant he’d have to be as fast as possible in the Labyrinth Zone- and there was a chance he’d be forced to prioritise finding an exit over anything else.

Sonic, clambering the stone steps in front of him, definitely didn’t recognise the chamber he was in, meaning he was unquestionably in a different part of the Labyrinth Zone to his previous visit. Sonic really hoped this would be his last trip to the Zone but he feared it might not be. As long as Doctor Robotnik threatened South Island, Sonic knew the chances of him having to revisit the Labyrinth Zone would always exist.

Still, he thought, at least it’d give the Kintobor Computer chance to map out parts of the maze. Small mercies.

Reaching the top of the steps, Sonic noticed a ledge opposite him- and a now familiar glow shining from within. Sonic also noticed the spikes lining the floor and ceiling of the ledge. Whoever lived in the Labyrinth Zone in times past must have been really sadistic. But this was Sonic’s best hope of finding the next Chaos Emerald.

Sonic pushed himself through the water over to the ledge and clambered up it. Getting through the spikes was not going to be easy.

There was a strange flickering noise to Sonic’s right. He turned to look at it, amazed to find one of Kintobor’s old relay devices. Presumably it had fallen from a Zone up above at some point and been washed through the corridors. The screen displayed an image of three stars. Sonic knew that wasn’t quite right so attempted some percussive maintenance- banging the monitor with his fist. Sonic didn’t expect the monitor to explode quite so spectacularly but he felt amazing afterwards- as stars circled his body.

Sonic had no idea what the stars were but he felt compelled to attempt something. He reached for one of the spikes with his finger and poked it- and felt nothing. No pain, not even any irritation. Gingerly Sonic decided to try standing atop the spikes. Against all laws of common sense and science, he was able to stand upright on the spike. The stars must have been some kind of forcefield.

Sonic felt invincible.

Not knowing how long the forcefield would last, Sonic decided to make a run for it. He never thought he’d see the day he’d be able to run atop sharpened spikes but it had been a strange year.

At the end of the corridor, sat atop a bed of spikes, was the Chaos Emerald. Sonic swiped it and kicked off the wall to turn around and run back. The stars began to flicker and Sonic concluded there was only one possible reason why that might be. As the stars began to fade from view, Sonic dove to safety, landing on the edge of the ledge.

The stars blinked out of existence- and then so, seemingly, did the emerald in the same way the others had.

Sonic was pretty impressed with himself.

Leaping back to the steps he’d scaled, Sonic pressed onward. In short order, he came to what appeared to be a dead-end room. That definitely wasn’t good. Nor was the fact the only exits seemed to be too high up or way down below in the inky blackness of the water- if there were indeed any exits to be found there.

“YOU!” a nasal voice yelled.

Sonic craned his neck to look up. Descending from the darkness was a familiar egg-shaped capsule, attached to an Egg-O-Matic. Snively had repaired his craft and looked pretty furious. The welding job on the capsule was evidently airtight. The vein on Snively’s forehead bulged.

“Well, fancy meeting you here,” Sonic replied, audible through the speaker Porker had installed in the rebreather.

“I nearly got washed out to sea thanks to you!” Snively screeched.

Sonic shrugged, “That’s okay, you look like you could do with a wash,”

Snively let out a sort of gargled utterance of exasperation and activated a button on his console. Immediately, a torpedo dropped from the bottom of the craft and drew level with Sonic.

“See how you like this, hedgehog!” Snively cackled maniacally.

The torpedo locked onto Sonic and propelled itself forward. Sonic crouched low then pushed up with all his might to avoid the torpedo, the missile only narrowly sailing under him before colliding with a wall and exploding with a bang, knocking loose some of the brickwork. The reduced movement speed was doing Sonic no favours whatsoever in the water.

As Sonic landed, he was startled to see Snively in front of him. The crazed scientist pressed another button on his console.

“Try this one on for size, Sonic!” Snively shouted.

Energy projectiles shout out of the top of the capsule and Sonic was forced to duck. There was no telling what would happen if he got hit by one of the projectiles, but Sonic was willing to bet he wouldn’t share a laugh about it at a later date over a cup of tea with Snively.

Sonic hurled himself at the capsule, running out of options. He aimed a precision Spin Attack at the window and the machine rocked.

“Don’t try to smash the window, hedgehog!” Snively warned, “It’s been reinforced- it’d hardly be much use as a submersible vehicle if it couldn’t go underwater!”

Sonic aimed another blow at the Egg-O-Matic, kicking at it. He was connecting with his blows but didn’t seem to be doing real damage. This was the worst possible outcome for Sonic- trapped underwater with no evident way out and a lunatic engineer trying to snuff him out. Snively fired another barrage of the energy weapon and Sonic rolled to cover once more.

“Give it up, hedgehog!” Snively commanded, “You can’t dodge forever! Give in and I might just let you live!”

“As if, baldie!” Sonic retorted.

“Baldie?!” Snively shrieked, “I am not bald!”

“Right, and I’m not watching your Egg-O-Matic explode in flames, but I will be any moment now. Same difference”

Snively snarled and gnashed his teeth. He did so hate being teased about his hair loss, which was strange as he’d never had a full head of hair in his life- you’d think he’d be used to it conceptually.

“Besides,” Sonic continued, “the speed you’re firing those things, I could dodge all day!”

Sonic was hoping Snively wouldn’t cotton on to the fact Sonic’s rebreather meant he didn’t have all day. And, sure enough…

“Then let’s pick up the pace!”

Snively jabbed at a button on his console repeatedly. The Egg-O-Matic launched ten torpedoes at once. Sonic had to time this perfectly. Of course, if he didn’t, it would only hurt him for a fraction of a second.

As the missiles all approached Sonic, he jumped into the air as best he could, gracefully twisted his body in the air and watched as the missiles whizzed by- in two separate directions, but ultimately plowing into a wall at the end of each path.

The combined force of the explosions blasted a pair of huge holes in the wall. Sonic dove for one of them, a chamber full of oxygen, and the flow of water dragged Snively’s Egg-O-Matic- and its pilot- screaming for dear life through the other hole. Sonic had no idea where that one would lead but he had no intention of finding.

Water flowed in behind Sonic as he entered the hole but there were huge chasms down the sides of the platform he stood one, so it mostly splashed away into the darkness below. Sonic stood up and, removing the rebreather, breathed deep.

In front of him was a Prison Egg Capsule.

Sonic opened the device in the usual fashion and a sea of aquatic Mobini hopped free, happily bounding into the waters beneath. This left only one captive- Mach the Rabbit.

“Boy, am I glad to see you,” Mach wiped a nervous sweat from his brow.

“Where is this place?” Sonic quizzed.

“Just another part of the Labyrinth Zone, I guess,” Mach scratched his head, “Robotnik brought me here himself. He was hoping to use me as bait to lure you in here but since you came in through the, uh… back door, that plan won’t work”

“What direction did Robotnik leave through?” Sonic asked.

“Same way as we came in,” Mach pointed at a door ahead of the two of them. Tall and metal, with a control panel in front of it.

“I’m going to assume that’s not part of the original geography of the Labyrinth Zone,” Sonic remarked.

Sonic pushed a button and, sure enough, right in front of them, was a burned orange sky full of smoke fumes- the Scrap Brain Zone.

“Mach, I’m going to give you my watch,” Sonic said, slipping the timepiece off his wrist.

“Thanks, but I didn’t get you anything what with being kidnapped”

“It’s not just a watch, Mach,” Sonic responded, “The Kintobor Computer is in here. Kintobor, can you send our current co-ordinates out on a distress channel? Mach needs to get back home and neither the Labyrinth Zone or the Scrap Brain Zone are going to be the right way out for him”

“Consider it done, Sonic,” Kintobor responded.

“What about you, Sonic?” Mach asked, “Are you really going into that awful place?”

“I have to, buddy. I’ve got to stop Robotnik”

“There’s no telling what he’s got waiting for you in there”

“I know what he’s got waiting for me, Mach. And I have to face him”

Sonic sped off, leaving Mach somewhat confused.

The Scrap Brain Zone awaited. So did Robotnik. And he wasn’t alone.

On to Chapter 42