- Chapter 7 -

Aquaphobia

Mobotropolis, Royal Hills Zone

The pieces of scrapped robots and the Egg Walker were being cleaned up as a dark blue hover car rode into Mobotropolis, headed for the castle. It stopped before it, and out stepped Uncle Chuck, who surveyed the carnage with a troubled expression. Sally was the first to notice him.

"Oh, Sir Charles," she greeted, walking over to greet him. "What brings you here?"

"I heard that Julian had attacked and wanted to see if everything was alright," Uncle Chuck explained, looking down. "It is partially my fault that he was corrupted by the ROCC."

"You can't blame yourself for that. From what we've heard, it was a freak accident."

"Doesn't mean I don't feel responsible." Uncle Chuck then gestured to the mess that was scattered around them. "What happened here?"

"You should've seen it," Sally remarked, smiling. "Sonic came here and turned these robots into scrap metal. It was amazing."

Uncle Chuck blinked in surprise. "Sonic did all this?"

"Sure did."

Uncle Chuck smiled at that in pride. "He's a fighter just like his old man. Where is he now?"

"Chasing after Robotnik. Last we checked, they were headed for the Labyrinth Zone."

Uncle Chuck's face dropped at that. "The Labyrinth Zone?" he grimaced, crossing his arms and tapping his chin. "That could be a problem."

"What do you mean?" Sally had noticed how hesitant Sonic was to go to the Labyrinth Zone, but she'd brushed it off. If Uncle Chuck was concerned, then maybe she shouldn't have.

"Sonic is afraid of water." At Sally's surprised look, Uncle Chuck explained further. "It all started when he was six. I took him with me while researching the Lake of Rings in the Great Forest, and he fell in."

"Oh… Well, that explains why he was so nervous when he found out where Robotnik was headed."

"I've done everything I could to try to help him conquer the fear." Chuck sighed, shaking his head. "Even when I took him out for swimming lessons, he just couldn't kick it completely."

"He should be fine, though…" Sally looked at Chuck pleadingly, "...right?"

"He can swim, yes. He's just not crazy about water. It's up to him how he'll handle it."

Labyrinth Zone

Meanwhile, Sonic had arrived at an underground passageway built into South Island's mountain range. He looked down into it cautiously before slowly descending and looking around.

"Well, here I am," he said aloud. "The Labyrinth Zone. Attractions include water... rocks... water... creepy gargoyles… Did I mention water?"

The Labyrinth Zone was an ancient maze-like ruin, one of the many decaying remnants of the Ancients that once ruled Mobius hundreds of years ago. Some time after they had died out, the ruins had ended up flooded and partially submerged. Considering Sonic's aquaphobia, the flooding was not a good thing. As he went along, walking through the paths, Sonic was doing his best to keep his cool.

"I'm totally fine. No prob. Not itching all over or freaking out, not me…" He started unconsciously scratching his chest before he took another step and just barely managed to avoid plunging right into a flooded part of the maze. He gasped, scrambling back in fear before facepalming. "C'mon Sonic, get ahold of yourself! It's just a maze filled with water. Nothing I can't handle. And Uncle Chuck always said that old ruins like these are full of air pockets. I'll be fine."

He looked solemnly over the surface of the water, psyching himself up for a few moments before deciding to just get it over with and dive in. After a moment of fear, he began swimming through the submerged tunnel as fast as his legs could carry him.

"It's not so bad," he kept thinking to himself. "It's not so bad. It's not so bad."

Out of the blue, the current suddenly picked up, pulling him back. Sonic was helpless as he was thrown around by the deluge and flushed back out. He scrambled back to shore, gasping and coughing.

"It's bad!" he screamed. "It's bad!"

He sat there, soaking wet and shaking before punching the wall in frustration.

"Damn it! How am I gonna save everyone from Robotnik when I can't handle a bunch of water?!"

After a moment of thought, Sonic had an idea. He tucked into a ball and revved up before launching into a Spin Dash, taking off with enough momentum to push past the current (1). Eventually, he burst out into an air pocket, taking in oxygen before taking in his surroundings. The chamber he was in was quite impressive, the walls covered with mysterious images and crystal formations supplying enough light for him to make everything out.

"Nice place the Ancients whipped up. If it wasn't for the water, I'd drop by more often."

He looked around for a bit, taking in his surroundings before something suddenly shot out of the wall behind him. Sonic ducked just as an old-fashioned spear sprang out, impaling the wall where his head had been mere seconds before. He looked up at the spear as it retracted into the wall.

"Okay, so this creepy old place is flooded and filled with booby traps. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse." At that moment, the ground began shaking before several iron drills erupted from the ground. Sonic sighed. "I just had to open my mouth."

From the ground exploded three mole-like robots with blue bodies consisting of a round torso and large heads with round black eyes, gray disks for ear pieces and large gray cone-shaped drill bits for noses. On their heads were yellow hard hats. Their chest was gray, their shoulders were yellow and round, and their two arms were gray with three sharp fingers on each hand. As legs, they had tracked wheels on each side, which ran between two wheels.

"Hedgehog, Priority One," they recited.

Sonic backflipped out of the way as they charged, bouncing off one Badnik's head before splitting another's in half with a downward axe kick and Spin Dashing through the third. Within moments, the Badniks were scrap, the Mobini (2) within rapidly dashing away.

"Now that's just sad," Sonic remarked. "The least these bots could do is give me a challenge."

He continued on, and as he came out into a larger chamber, he soon spotted the Egg Mobile ahead.

"Robotnik!"

The doctor perked up at the sound of his voice, slowly turning to face him. "Well well, if it isn't my least favorite rodent. I can't tell if you're very persistent, or just too stupid to quit."

"Try determined. To bring you down, that is."

The two stared silently at one another for a few moments before Robotnik gunned the Egg Mobile's engines and began taking off down the tunnels.

"Hey!" Sonic shouted before giving chase.

Robotnik led Sonic on a high-speed chase through the ruins. Eventually, they came out on another chamber, consisting of a high-up platform over a partially flooded chamber with a circle of eight pillars.

"It's over, Robotnik! Nowhere left for you to run!"

Robotnik just smirked. "Who said anything about running?"

He pulled out a laser gun from the side of the seat, aiming and firing. Sonic dodged the shot with ease.

"Ha! You missed!"

"Maybe I did… or maybe I didn't."

Sonic blinked in confusion before a crumbling sound reached his ears. He looked down to see the floor under his feet cracking and crumbling, originating from the burn mark left by Robotnik's laser.

"Oh, sh-" was all Sonic managed to say before the floor gave out under his feet, and he was sent plunging into the lower chamber, luckily landing on one of the pillars and out of the water. As he got his bearings and stood up, Robotnik floated down in the Egg Mobile.

"I tried to warn you, Sonic. I gave you the opportunity to end this and walk away. But you just had to be a hero."

"Hey, someone had to do it."

"Well, this is where your heroic journey ends. My little pet down here wants to spend some time with you. Quality snack time, that is."

Sonic looked down into the water, seeing a massive white fin cut through the water before a giant red piranha Badnik lunged out with a mighty roar.

"Whoa," Sonic let out. "Someone's been taking his vitamins."

"Joke while you can Sonic, because my Giant Chopper will make sure you don't leave the Labyrinth Zone alive!"

With that, he departed, laughing maniacally.

"So… trapped in an underground tunnel that's flooded with a giant metal piranha," Sonic recapped before doing stretches as the Giant Chopper ominously swam around the pillars, a smirk on his face. "Now we're talkin'."

With that, he leapt off the pillar and spun toward the Chopper, colliding with one of its eyes before rapidly swimming back to the pillar. The Chopper leapt out of the water after him, jaws open and teeth snapping. Everything seemed to go into slow motion as Sonic darted to another pillar just as the piranha's jaws clamped down, taking a good portion of the pillar he was just standing off.

"Talk about an overbite."

The next few moments of the battle had Sonic resorting to hit-and-run tactics, landing blows where he could and dodging the Chopper's lunges. However, the Chopper also blasted through several of the pillars, leaving Sonic with less and less room. As he landed on one of the few remaining pillars, Sonic wracked his brain for ideas before remembering the Chaos Emerald in his pocket.

"Let's see if this'll work twice."

He took the Chaos Emerald out, focusing with all his might as the Chopper was readying for another strike. Soon, his efforts bore fruit, and the Emerald began to glow as Sonic was bathed in its power. He smirked before charging up a Spin Dash as the Chopper lunged at him, mouth wide open.

"I hope you're hungry!" he declared before shooting off right into the Chopper's gaping maw.

Sonic spun around rapidly in the monster's mouth, causing some major damage. Soon, he spun down into its innards, straight through before exploding out of its tail. The gutted Chopper sparked before hoisting the white flag and powering down, sinking into the depths to rust.

"Hope Robotnik kept the receipt."

As he began to paddle away, he caught a glimpse of something gold under the water. His curiosity peaked, Sonic dove down, pushing aside some brickwork before finding another Giant Ring. Knowing what that meant, he entered the ring…

Special Zone

The Omni-Viewer was hovering casually on the same checkerboard planet when a Giant Ring appeared, spitting Sonic out.

"Back so soon?" Omni asked.

"Yep," Sonic confirmed. "Found another Giant Ring. How many of these things are there?"

"Countless, but enough about that. I assume you're here for the next Chaos Emerald challenge?"

Sonic nodded. "What do I gotta do?"

Omni's screen flickered, showing a large course of magma, steel, and cloud, a rickety-looking wooden bridge extending across it. "The Obstacle Course. You must make your way across the bridge, avoiding anything in your way and taking care not to meet a fiery fate. As before, you have sixty seconds to complete the challenge. Should you fail, the Chaos Emerald will be lost to you."

"Is this one of those things where it looks easy but is a lot harder?"

"Yes."

"Oh, good. For a second I thought I was gonna be bored halfway through." Sonic cracked his knuckles before getting into a sprinting position. "Tell me when."

"Just jump into my screen, and you'll be sent there automatically."

Sonic promptly did so, and in a blur of motion, soon found himself on the bridge, right over a boiling lake of lava as several spiked mines float almost lazily back and forth before him. He shrugged. "Well, at least it's not water."

With that, he instantly took off, dodging around the mines every step of the way and going through several loop-de-loops. It was tough slaying, but eventually he managed to get to the end of the course and snag the red Chaos Emerald with mere seconds to spare.

"Too easy!" he boasted. "Piece of cake!"

-X-

He was suddenly transported back to Omni, who grinned at him.

"Two down, five to go. Not bad."

"Sweet!" Sonic cheered. "I'll have them all in no time."

"Let's hope so. Now, for your next destination." The image on his screen changed to that of a snowy mountain in the northern part of South Island.

"So Robotnik's spread as far as the Frozen Zone. Can't say I'm surprised."

"He's causing trouble up there, and it's on the way to his base in the Scrap Brain Zone," Omni informed him.

Sonic sighed. "On my way to the Zone of perpetual winter. Should've brought my thermal underwear."

Nonetheless, he jumped into Omni's screen.

Robotnik's Lab, Scrap Brain Zone

Within his lab, Robotnik was tirelessly at work on his latest invention.

"Knowing my luck, Sonic has most likely taken down the Giant Chopper. He'll be knocking at my door before long, and I don't have any of the Chaos Emeralds." He held up the completed gadget, an emerald-shaped homing beacon. "But with the Chaos Resonator, they'll come to me."

He pressed the button, and the beacon began flashing, turning a dull green as Robotnik smirked. "I've worked too hard and come too far to let some little blue spike ball stop me and my plans. If you want a battle, Sonic... I'm gonna give you a war."

Author's Note:

(1): Taken from the Sonic Colors mechanic that let you jump indefinitely underwater.

(2): The term for non-anthropomorphic animals in the Archie comic.

Before people come after me with torches and pitchforks because Sonic can swim, this is a more pragmatic adaptation of the series, and his aquaphobia is still intact. Besides, he's been shown swimming in non-game media like SatAM, AoSTH, and Archie's Sonic X series, so it works out.

Next chapter, Sonic ascends the glacier of the Frozen Zone to stop Robotnik's operations up there. Will he succeed, or become a snowhog?

Please R&R. Until next time!