Ch10: Upside Down All Around!
Hang Castle was just as spooky looking in person as it was in the game. The area was filled with creepy pumpkin ghosts, strange doors that only unlocked with a switch, and lots of grind rails that I just flew around. "You really don't like grinding, do you?" Sonic asked me as we made it to the first upside down switch. "I have bad luck with it... no matter how I try, I can't seem to get any luck on those things or with cannons. It's as if they hate me," I frowned.
"I see. I remember that one incident at the Palace, but it happened more than once?" Tails asked. "It happened at the Bullet Station as well... I ended up grinding on one of those white rails and it suddenly made me dip to an angle so steep that I gained speeds of Mach 3!" "Mach 3? That's faster than me!" Sonic exclaimed. It was then that he touched the strange orb and the whole place turned upside down!
I felt the floor give way immediately and I quickly turned myself around so that I was facing towards the floor. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles weren't so lucky as they ended up falling on their faces and stomachs. As for Team Dark, it seemed that they were completely unaffected by the floor change! They were still on the floor above us! "Systems Illogical! Gravity only switches for those in certain distance of strange switch," Omega said for all of us.
"Can you guys use it?" I asked, looking up at them and feeling a bit of vertigo as I did so. "Sorry, Sapphire. It turned off after Sonic touched it," Shadow frowned. "Well crud... you guys try and find a different route I guess... we'll go on from here," Tails said. "Okay... now we gotta be extra careful not to fall off, guys," I warned, looking over the edge and seeing the endless sky underneath. "Yeah, tell me about it!" Sonic exclaimed.
"If we aren't careful, we'll be falling off the Earth entirely!" Knuckles said as we made it to what seemed to be a different door ahead of us. I opened it by hitting a switch and it opened, revealing another switch inside. I knew that this time the level design was different entirely, but I didn't care. We all made sure to stay close to each other as I hit the switch.
As expected, all of us ended up falling back into regular gravity and I noticed that we were currently in front of the door that should've been locked but was now open. "AAAHH! We're turning upside down again!" Tails exclaimed as this happened. I had already landed on the ground feet first either way. "We're back to normal now!" Sonic smiled as he landed feet first as well! Tails and Knuckles ended up falling on their butts, though.
Either way, we continued onward as we destroyed some more robots and used the jump springs to scale the tower and get to the top of the one. "Cool!" Sonic smirked. "Don't get too cocky, hedgehog," I smiled back. "We've still got some place left to explore." "Good point. Let's go on!" Sonic smirked. It was after we used the stationary grind rail that we both noticed something. Another goddamn switch where it wasn't supposed to be!
This time it was at the base of the grind rail we just used! And in front of us? The EGGMAN STATUE! It was as if this entire area was missing integral pieces! "Hmm... maybe because of your being here... it may have messed with the story a bit..." said Chaos in my brain. "Mm..." I groaned to him as Sonic and us all hit the switch and we were sent upside down once again.
After I hit the air switch with my hair (and finding that it could magically extend!), the spin pole rose up and I looked at it with worry. Should I risk it? Or should I just fly around it? "I think you should fly around it..." Chaos said. "You guys go ahead and have fun spinning. I don't want to take the risk this time," I frowned as I began to fly my way past the several poles until I reached the statue's core. Sonic and friends weren't too far behind as they got there seconds after I had landed.
"I don't blame ya on that one, Sapphire," Knuckles frowned as he had landed right on his face. "With all the bad luck you say you have, I don't blame you for not wanting to try those things... besides, I don't think you could handle the constant spinning..." "Well, you're actually right on both fronts, Knuckles," I frowned back. "I would suck at not puking up on that thing cause lord knows that I've had tons of puking memories from amusement park rides growing up." "Either way, we need to break through that wall," Tails smirked. "Leave it to me!" Knuckles smirked. He soon broke the wall above us and we all went through it at the same time.
After going on the grind rail and exiting through the opening, we soon found ourselves running down a very VERY steep decline that was the whole of one of the taller towers. "WHHOOOAAA!" all of us exclaimed as our legs began to burn from the crazy footwork we were doing. When we finally reached the jump ramp and we hit the switch, we soon began to fall down into a gauntlet of pumpkin ghosts! "Hold on guys! This is gonna get crazy!" I exclaimed as I grabbed onto all of them with my hair strands and I focused Chaos's energy once more.
I was surprised to see this one work, but I managed to shoot a large beam of water at the ghosts that made all fo them vanish into thin air! "SWEET!" I exclaimed as I finally landed on the ground, surprised that my ankles didn't shatter from the fall. "Nice job!... Can ya let us down now?" Sonic asked. "Sorry!" I quickly exclaimed as I let them down to the ground easily. "Phew! That was some wild ride!" Tails exclaimed. "I think my heart stopped during that run..." Knuckles huffed.
"We haven't seen anything yet," I frowned as I pointed over to the door that would lead to the Mystic Mansion. "Let's go. I have a feeling that it'll only get creepier as we go on..." And with that thought put in motion, all of us went in and the door closed on us instantly as we ran down the hallway into the depth of the mysterious castle.