Back to Chapter 56

Sonic landed with a splat of a splash in a pool of water. Fortunately for him, it was deep enough to save him from becoming a blue skid mark, but shallow enough that he was able to get out and to the water’s edge with relative ease. The water was nice and clean too, a beautiful blue. Sonic dragged himself to dry land and shook himself off before taking in his surroundings.

The Aqua Lake Zone was a naturally occurring beauty spot, with clear and clean flowing water. The Zone had been transformed into a national park some time ago and attracted hundreds of visitors every week, visitors who enjoyed the tranquil calm of the Zone and enjoyed themselves by swimming in the clean water and playing under the many fountains constructed throughout.

Sonic was not keen on water. But he was, however, keen on areas of natural beauty. He could tolerate a bit of water if it was in a place as lovely as this.

Sonic pulled the Emerald Radar out of his pocket and pressed the button on its top. As it beeped into life, Sonic thanked his lucky stars Uncle Chuck had thought to make it water proof- and shock proof. His adventures were quickly developing a tendency to see him get hurled about all over the place, the Emerald Radar wouldn’t be fit for purpose if it couldn’t take a little stress.

The screen showed a Chaos Emerald somewhere in Sonic’s vicinity- but, slightly worryingly for Sonic, it also indicated the emerald in question was down below Sonic’s current position. That meant it was almost certainly somewhere in the water.

“Hey! Get out of there!”

Sonic turned to the source of the voice, seeing someone dressed in an official park uniform- evidently a park ranger- shouting into a large water pipe which jutted out of the ground.

“Something wrong, pal?” Sonic trotted over to the ranger.

“Sonic the Hedgehog?!” the ranger was a little starstruck, which amused Sonic though he tried not to let it show too much on his face. The ranger continued “I’ll say there’s a problem! Take a look down there!”

Sonic peered into pipe. Looking back up at him were a pair of mechanical lobsters.

“Badniks?” Sonic asked.

“They’re Zaririn Badniks, apparently. No idea what the name means, I’m sure Robotnik thinks he’s terribly clever. But they’re clogging the filter system. Take a look at the base of that fountain over there”

Sonic followed the ranger’s hand and saw what he meant- green, unfiltered water was leaking from the base of the fountain in question.

“If we don’t do something about this, the whole Zone’s water is going to look like that”

“Which is probably going to cut down on swim time for visitors. No problem, buddy, I’ll sort your Badnik problem. This pipe looks about the right size for me to hop in!”

“Wait a second, you can’t—”

But Sonic already had.

Inside, Sonic was wishing he’d paid heed to the ranger’s words. He rattled around the pipe at superhuman- well, superhedgehog- speed, completely unable to control the direction he was being sent. He also really wished he’d remembered to pack his rebreather.

On the plus side, Sonic was sent whooshing towards the Zaririn Badniks that were clogging the pipes, smashing each of them. While having machine parts inside the filtration system probably didn’t help, at the very least the component parts were smaller and would be able to pass through the system much more easily now the larger whole of the Badniks were dealt with.

Suddenly, with one swift movement, Sonic was jerked around inside the pipe and slammed out through the side of it, coming into a chamber with a roll, where he eventually slammed to a stop, back-first against a wall. Sonic did everything in his power not to exhale, knowing air would be in scarce supply.

As he stood up, Sonic realised there was something else wedged in the side of the pipe. Specifically, a small stone. More specifically than that- a Chaos Emerald.

Dislodging the emerald, Sonic felt reinvigorated. That couldn’t exactly hurt the flow of water. He looked around in the murky water, seeing the water’s surface high up above. He had to stay calm and remember how Joe Sushi and Tux had taught him to find air bubbles underwater to breathe.

There! A bubble rose from a crack in the ground and began to float upwards. Sonic was never terribly fond of swallowing air from a source like this but he realised he had little choice in the matter. He reached out for the bubble with his mouth and—

…found himself trapped inside it.

“Well, this is weird,” Sonic noted. At least he could breathe.

The bubble continued its upward ascent, with Sonic spotting a Crabmeat Badnik on a rocky ledge on the way up. Giving the Badnik a booting for good measure, he was pleased when a Mobini penguin popped out of the casing, freed from its metal prison.

Eventually, the bubble reached the surface, where it popped as Sonic came up by the shores of a tiny island. He could make out the ranger on the opposite shore, calling to him, but he couldn’t hear him. Sonic decided he’d try a new trick to get to the other side. Bringing to mind a skimming rock, he launched a Spin Attack at the water’s surface and, sure enough, his momentum and force carried him to the other side with a series of bounces.

“That was amazing!” the ranger noted.

“Thanks, I do my best,” Sonic shook the water off himself.

“It looks like the water flow level has returned to normal. Thanks, Sonic, hopefully that’s the last of the Badniks in the system”

A new, robotic voice barked out, “But not the last Badnik in your precious park! ORT-ORT-ORT!”

Sonic and the ranger turned to see a new Badnik. Sonic raised his eyebrow, “Master Robot number three, I presume?”

“If you like! ORT-ORT!”

Sonic sighed. He grasped the concept of a seal-shaped Badnik but did Robotnik have to program it to make that noise?

The Master Robot leaned back and a balloon began to inflate from its nose. Taking Sonic by surprise, the seal flung the balloon at Sonic and it exploded on the ground, with Sonic barely dodging in time.

“Hey, buddy, what exactly did you put in that oversized water balloon?!” Sonic demanded.

“Just a concoction of explosive chemicals, ORT-ORT! Now- catch!”

The seal inflated and threw another balloon at Sonic, who had to think fast to push the ranger to safety.

“Stay low, pal,” Sonic advised the ranger, “Can’t risk you getting hurt”

“R-right,” the ranger noted, taking cover.

“Time for another balloon, ORT-ORT-ORT!” the seal barked, firing another projectile at Sonic.

Got to time this right… Sonic thought to himself.

Leaping forwards, Sonic managed to catch the balloon before it hit the floor, saving it from exploding.

“Nice catch- let’s see if you can juggle! ORT-ORT!” The Master Robot began to inflate another balloon full of deadly explosive gases.

“Buddy, juggling isn’t my circus act of choice. I’m always pretty fond of the ball toss game!”

As the next balloon reached dangerous proportions, Sonic hurled the first one back at the Master Robot. The two balloons collided and exploded with titanic force which blew the seal’s head clean off, deactivating it.

“Ah, remembered the timing on the quip this time,” Sonic commended himself. As if on cue, a Robotnik-faced Prison Capsule descended from above. Sonic threw the seal’s head up at the capsule and it opened from the force, freeing all manner of aquatic Mobini and grateful tourists to the Zone.

“You’re incredible, Sonic!” the ranger stepped from cover.

“Well, I mean, since you put it like that, I’m not too bad, am I?” Sonic brushed himself down and checked the Emerald Radar. By now it was getting difficult to tell which of the dots represented the Chaos Emerald Robotnik had, particularly as none of them were currently moving. Sonic simply had to roll the dice and take a guess, “Hey, pal, if this centre point represents where we’re standing, what’s this next nearest blinking dot?”

“Let’s see now,” the ranger prepared to use his expert navigation and map-reading skills, “Ah, that’ll be somewhere in the Green Hills Zone!”

Sonic look at him with some confusion, “Really? Hm. I guess the geography of this place has kind of thrown me off a little. Alrighty, Green Hill Zone, here I come!”

Sonic raced off with a burst of speed.

“Wait, not the Green Hill Zone, the— oh, never mind,” the ranger sighed, “He’ll figure it out for himself”

On to Chapter 58