Penny relaxed on the beach with her friends. Tails was teaching Sticks how to play chess. He picked up a pawn. "Alright. Let's start with the basics. This is a pawn."

"Don't kick yourself," Sticks hissed, snatching the pawn from him. "We're all pawns in the great chessboard of life!"

The ground started rumbling.

"What's happening?!" Penny asked nervously. She let out a startled yelp as an octopus landed on Tails' head. Sticks grinned. "I'm starting to like this game!"

A fish splattered on the ground next to Penny, and the human girl raised her eyes. This was new. She looked up and a whole bunch of fish came raining down on them.

"Holy mackerel. It's raining minnow!" Amy gasped.

"Hallelujah." Tails sighed from inside the octopus.

"Quick, collect as many fish as you can in this bucket!" Penny gasped, filling a bucket of water and handing it to Sonic. Sonic nodded, catching the rest of the falling fish. The two stared in the bucket together, puzzled.

"Well. That was random." That was all Sonic could say.

"I agree. Tails, I think we should check this out." Penny told the fox. "I mean, since when do fish randomly fall from the sky?"

The gang decided to take Tails' plane out to the ocean to investigate the quakes. Knuckles rode on the back, attached to the plane, and was lifted in the air by a parachute. "This must be what birds feel like!" Knuckles grinned. The echidna started flapping his arms. "Look at me! I'm a penguin!"

"That's the opposite of a bird!" Penny yelled to him over the wind.

"Say what? A penguin's not a bird?!" Knuckles gasped.

"We're closing in on the source." Tails said, and he moved his plane down towards the water and set it to autopilot. That sudden jolt caused Knuckles to slam against the plane and smash into a periscope that had just happened to rise out of the water.

Penny and the others let out a yelp as a blaring noise came from the periscope, and they covered their ears.

Eggman's voice soon came afterward. "Uh, test. 1212. Looks like you found me, Sonic, and just as I was about to create a giant wave to flood the entire Village, destroying everything. Guess you'll have to come down here and stop me."

Penny frowned, glancing at Sonic worriedly. Water was Sonic's biggest fear. Just where was Eggman going with this?

"What did he say?" Knuckles called.

"Let's get him!" Amy said, ready to hop off the plane, but Sonic stopped her, stuttering nervously. "Ah-ha. N-Now Amy... W-We don't want to get ahead of ourselves. He might be bluffing."

"Who's making stuff?" Knuckles called again.

Tails' device beeped again, and Tails gasped. "I'm detecting some unusual seismic activity. It'll lead to a devastating tidal wave in less than eight hours."

"A tidal wave?!" Penny whimpered.

"We gotta do something!" Sticks yelped.

"Whoa, whoa! Where's the fire?" Sonic asked in a rush. We got eight hours. Say why don't we hit up Meh Burger for some munchies, huh? Don't want to fight on an empty stomach, am I right?" He chuckled nervously. "Am I right?"

"Okay..." Tails shot Sonic a worried look and flew off. Penny could hear Eggman yelling, "Hey. Where are you goin'? Evil plan over here. Need some thwarting!"

"Outta the way, penguin!" Knuckles yelled to a passing seagull.

...

At Meh Burger...

"So, what do you guys want to do after this? Catch the new Tommy Thunder flick? Play some volleyball. Maybe master every instrument in the orchestra?" Sonic asked in a rush.

"Uh..." Penny began.

"I was thinking we should go stop Eggman." Tails said, helping Penny out.

"Safety first, Tails and Penny," Sonic said. "What is it they say: you can't swim for at least three hours after a meal?"

Amy frowned at Sonic. "Sonic, you're stalling,"

"Stalling?!" Sonic asked as if that was offensive to him. "Not stalling. Why would I stall? I hate stalling. In fact here's a list of the things I like better than stalling: Root beer, coloring books, bean burritos, first day of spring, second day of spring, third day of spring..."

"AHEM!" Penny interrupted him. Sonic glanced at her and noticed that the rest of the gang were staring at him. Sonic sighed. "Fine. I admit it. I still can't swim. I never took those lessons at the community pool."

"Sonic, you promised!" Amy frowned.

"They wanted to put me in the beginner's class with the little kids." Sonic shuddered. "I can't be swimming around with a bunch of five-year-olds. They can be so cruel when they sense weakness."

"That's why on the first day, you have to beat up the biggest one in the yard." Knuckles said with a grin.

"Knuckles, that's prison." Amy frowned at him.

"Only if you let me."

"I suspected Eggman might try something like this one day." Tails said. "And that's why I created these!" He dashed away and came back with wetsuits of the team's colors...brown, light pink, blue, orange, red, and hot pink.

"Good thinking, Tails." Sticks said. "We'll stuff these with leaves, dump them in the ocean and start a new life two towns over."

Tails shook his head. "No, they're high-tech wetsuits for battling Eggman underwater."

"Fine. We'll go with Plan B." Sticks said.

...

At the beach and all suited up to battle Eggman underwater, Sonic took a deep breath. "All right. Here I go!"

The blue hedgehog started to run in, but he paused.

"Maybe you need a little boost." Tails said. He, Penny, and the others walked up to Sonic and started pushing him towards the water, but he didn't even budge, he just kept whimpering, "No no no no!"

Amy shook her head., "This is more serious than we thought. We need to call in a professional."

...

At Amy's...

"So tell me everything, and don't let the fact that I'm an award winning journalist stop you from sharing your innermost secrets and fears." Soar said, smiling at Sonic.

Penny, Knuckles, and Sticks frowned at Soar.

"Award-winning?" Sticks asked.

"Just because they give them to everyone who participates doesn't mean they're not awards." Soar snapped at her. He turned back to Sonic. "Hmm... Now, the thing to remember here is water is not scary." He dipped his finger in the water to show Sonic that it wasn't hurting him. "Just regular harmless H2O."

Soar flicked the water off his finger, and the water landed on a circuit, causing it to catch on fire. Penny let out a startled shriek along with Amy, who screamed, "Argh! Put it out, put it out!"

Sticks, Knuckles, Tails, and Sonic ran to try to stomp the fire out. Amy thought quickly and grabbed the fire extinguisher, which shot out foam at the flames but also ended up on the rest of the gang. They sighed in relief, glaring at Soar.

"Bad example..." Soar muttered.

"You're telling me," Penny grumbled.

...

Sonic soon found himself in a rowboat, sitting down next to Soar and Penny. Soar grinned at Sonic. "If you follow the steps of my patented system, I guarantee you'll be in the water in no time. Step 1..." He pushed Sonic in the water.

"Soar!" Penny snapped, giving the eagle a glare. She dove off the board and swam over to Sonic, who was flailing around in the water. The next thing she knew, Soar was driving away as fast as he could. He did take the time to call back: "You'll probably be fine!"

"Sonic, calm down!" Penny snapped at the blue hedgehog. He whimpered, flailing around in the water. "Guh No! I can't swim! Those five-year-olds were right! Cruel, but right." He let out another wail until he noticed Penny frowning at him, pointing to their floaties that they had on.

"Oh, right." Sonic chuckled nervously. "This thing floats. Alright. I'll just stay here until someone comes to rescue me."

"US." Penny corrected him.

"Y-yes. Us." Sonic repeated, stuttering nervously. "Sorry about that."

Hearing the sound of rushing air, Penny glanced at Sonic to see his floatie was deflating. "Uh... Sonic?"

Sonic sighed. "Or I could face my fears."

Sonic dove into the water. Hearing a plane engine, Penny looked up and shot the gang a thumbs up. Knuckles and Amy joined her in the water, and the three dove in. Amy tapped her communicator. "We're here, Sonic. How are you handling things?"

"This isn't so bad," Sonic answered, swimming in the water near them. "It's actually kind of okay. I totally got this. Huh?" He glanced at a moving fish and let out a girly scream as it touched him on the shoulder. Knuckles and Penny blankly stared at him.

"Just testing the elasticity of the suit." Sonic chuckled nervously.

"Keep swimming north. Eggman's pod should be straight ahead." Tails' voice came from the communicator. A second later, Sticks' voice was heard. "And if you come across any sea people, you don't know me. Capisce?"

"Sea people?" Penny raised her eyebrows.

"Don't ask." Sticks hissed at her.

Sonic swam up to Penny and grabbed her hand, and the four swam over to Eggman, who had apparently been waiting for them in the same position through the entire time. Sonic motioned for Penny to hide, and she swam behind some rocks. Amy swam up and tapped Eggman's tank.

" Look who conquered his fear and is here to thwart your evil plan," Amy said, motioning her hands towards Sonic.

"Good for you. I'm glad you're not the least bit concerned about the millions of tons of water all around you."

Sonic whimpered, glancing around the water.

Eggman snickered. "Yep. No oxygen down here. Not even a bubble. Nothing but water in every direction. Oh, and also Crab Bots."

Eggman's bots waddled up to them, and Amy grinned excitedly. "Time to kick some Crab-butt!" She pulled out her hammer but found it difficult to fight and swim underwater. "Hold on, I'm coming. Just a sec."

She swung her hammer at the bot, but the water made it slow and awkward. Knuckles tried to fight but the punch was too slow, and the robot crawled away. Knuckles grumbled in frustration. "Hey, come back! You're supposed to be crucified! Sonic, a little help here."

"Like a fish out of water," Sonic grinned. He yelped as a crab pinched him. "Ow! Quit it! It pinches."

Thinking quickly, Sonic swam through the weeds and managed to trap the robot. Sonic grinned. "Okay, this isn't so hard,"

Penny watched as Eggman fired his laser and saw the danger he was in. She swam over to Sonic, pushing him away. The laser hit the rocks and fell on top of the human girl, trapping her.

"Penny!" Sonic yelled. He pried her out of the rocks, and just as he was doing so, a robot appeared. Penny tried to wiggle away from a robot, but the bot climbed up to her and cut her air hose. Completely panicked, Sonic yelled to Tails. "Tails, red alert! Penny's hose has been cut!"

"I didn't bring a spare," Tails frowned. He hummed, an idea hitting him. "But... Maybe we can use the hose from the plane's cooling system."

Sticks snatched the pipe from him. "I'll take it to Penny!"

"But you don't have a wetsuit!"

"I don't need a wetsuit!" The badger growled, and she dove into the water. She gasped as she felt her foot get trapped by some seaweed, but she pried herself free.

Sonic held Penny in his arms, his eyes wide as her face turned purple from the lack of air. Sticks swam over to Sonic and Penny, handing Sonic the air hose. He quickly attached it to Penny's air supply and sighed in relief when her face color returned to normal. He turned to Amy and the others with a scowl. "Did they mention how much I hate water?!"

"Aw, are you having a rough time, Sonic? Wanna take a break?" Eggman cooed. "Well, too bad, 'cause here they come. The newest minions on Team Eggman: Shark Bots!"

"S-Sonic..." Penny gasped weakly. Sonic handed her to Knuckles and waved at the shark bots. "Hey, chump bucket! This way!"

Sonic lured two shark bots together and trapped them in seaweed, using them as reigns, and started riding them like horses. "Yeah! Haha! Giddy up! Tails, where am I taking these guys?"

"There's a weak spot at the bottom right-hand side of Eggman's Wave Machine." Tails told him.

Sonic pulled the reins and moved them towards Eggman's pod. He swam over Eggman's pod and the robots smashed against the glass of Eggman's shield, breaking it. Sonic moved the bots over to the weak spot and let go of the reigns. The robots hit the spot, and an explosion soon followed, tipping over Eggman's machine.

"Great hit, Sonic! Now the machine is facing away from our village!" Tails called.

Amy winced. "It's gonna blow. We gotta get out of here!"

Sonic nodded. He grabbed Penny in his arms and swam out with Knuckles and Amy. Eggman gulped nervously. "I have a feeling some bad is going to happen."

Eggman let out a scream as he felt himself being pushed away by the force of the explosion. A few moments later, Eggman found himself flushed ashore in front of his layer, which was destroyed by the flood. Eggman sighed. "Geeze. Hope I remembered to renew my flood insurance policy."

...

At Tail's workshop, Penny walked up to Sonic with a smile. "Well, Sonic, how are you now after you overcame your fears?"

"Overcame?!" Sonic frowned at the human girl. "Are you crazy? You almost drowned! They've all be magnified tenfold. It was the scariest thing I've ever done and experienced. After watching you nearly drown, I never want to see water again."

"Step two!" Soar smirked, popping up next to the two. He splashed a glass of water at Sonic, and Sonic scowled at him. "Is this a bad time to ask for my check?" Soar asked.

"Yes. It is." Penny grumbled, glaring at Soar. "We're kind of having a moment."

"Oh. I guess I'll come later?" Soar asked. Sonic nodded. "You do that."

When Soar walked off, Sonic turned back to her. "I still can't believe you went underwater with me."

"You insisted you couldn't do that alone." Penny pointed out.

Sonic sighed. "You're right."

Penny giggled. "I always am."

The two smiled.

"Hey, since you've recovered, how about we go get some ice cream?" Sonic suggested.

"You're on it!" Penny grinned.

The two walked out together. Penny smiled at her blue hero. Maybe one day, he will overcome his fears for real.

Next Chapter: Anything You Can Do I Can Do Worse-Er