No Air
Sonic dove under the water as easily as a fish, coming up to breathe for only a few seconds before going back down again, weaving through the waves of the chlorinated pool water. All around him, children played and adults talked. Public pools were the best place to hang out in the sweltering summer months when even Eggman took the day off.
"Ah," he popped up again for another gulp of fresh, but horribly close, summer air and shook his quills, delighting at how the water slipped off his quills. He kicked his feet back and forth to keep himself afloat, for the water below him was dark and deep. It was roughly ten feet down!
Wiggling his ears, he dove back down, pressing them against his head to be more streamlined. He swam like a frog and then paddled a bit, searching for the green crocodile, Vector, the red echidna Knuckles, and the purple chameleon Espio, who were his playmates today.
The purple chameleon found him under the water and pointed upward with his ungloved hand, suggesting they go up for air. Sonic nodded and swam up towards the surface. As their heads popped up out of the pale blue water sloshing around them, their hearts beating at the speed of sound, Vector came splashing up towards the surface, making a huge wave. Knuckles soon followed after, and everyone laughed.
"Well," Sonic let himself float on his back, still halfway in the water. "What do you wanna do now?"
"Let's play chicken," Vector suggested.
No one seemed to object. Vector guided them all over to the wall. "Sonic, get down under the water so I can get on your shoulders, and Knuckles, you get on Espio's shoulders." Sonic followed Vector's directions and felt the crocodile's legs around his shoulders. Vector was pretty heavy, but Sonic could hold him easily in the water.
However, once the game had begun, no one got pushed over in three seconds, only to come up for air and switch places. This seemed to go on forever. Sonic found himself running out of air. His lungs were beginning to tighten.
A splash above him said to him that Knuckles had finally been pushed off. But, the crocodile didn't get off of Sonic's shoulders. The hedgehog began to panic, quickly finding his air supply running out. He tried to communicate this to Vector, but the gloating older crocodile didn't pay any attention.
At last, with his lungs screaming bloody murder, Sonic pushed the crocodile forcibly off his shoulders and into the water beside him as he pulled himself up to the side of the wet pool, simply breathless from lack of oxygen, and pulled himself awkwardly like a seal out of the cold water, panting like there was no tomorrow.
Knuckles' head popped up out of the water as he watched Sonic shake himself rapidly. "What's wrong, Sonic?"
The blue hedgehog glared breathlessly at Vector, who was already doing something else and totally oblivious to what was going on, and then turned to look at the red echidna.
"Aren't you coming back in the pool, Sonic?" Espio wondered, swimming to the side of the pool and folding his arms on the slippery surface.
Sonic looked fearfully into the depths of the water below and shivered. "No." He hissed firmly, running to put on his socks, sneakers, and gloves. "I'll find some other way to keep cool, thank you."
And so, Sonic shook the last of the water droplets from his fur and took off into the distance. Never again, he vowed, would he go into water for pleasure.