Sonic Aftermath

[From Hidden Palace]

The Hydrocity Zone looked pretty much like it did from the Death Egg days. Massive, ancient stones formed huge corridors, chambers, pools, canals, and aqueducts everywhere, bearing testimony to the long lost echidna civilization that built it. All around, the sound of water filled the air and echoed loudly off the walls. Gurgling, splashing, rushing...if water could make that sound you'd hear it.

However, another sound quickly joined the chorus: loud screams of excitement and joy. High above a big pool was the exit point of a chute, with water spilling out of it to make a big waterfall. Someone's whoopings and hollerings continued to echo out of the tunnel, before he finally came into sight. It was the male thief who'd been in the Hidden Palace before, now plummeting into the pool.

A quick splash silenced his cries. After a few seconds of relative silence, the thief burst out of the water at the edge of the pool, gasping for breath. He shoved the laptop onto the dry stones in front of him first, before jumping out and doing his best to dry off.

As he did so, one would note that he appeared to be dressed similarly to the purple cat he'd been with in the Hidden Palace. Except his clothes all had a green tinge to him, with a green rag mask covering his face. The thief removed the mask for a second to catch a breath. As he did this, an observer would note that he appeared to be some sort of otter. Obviously, that would be why he had no problems jumping into the water chute before while the cat did.

He chuckled as he briefly unzipped the laptop's bag. The waterproofing appeared to have worked perfectly, as the computer was bone dry. The otter continued to laugh as he zipped the bag back up.

"Man...what a rush. You could make a killer water park out of this place. Oh well, time to get moving."

But his ears pricked up as he heard a female's shouts up above. His laughter echoed throughout the chamber again, as he turned his eyes upwards. Looked like his cat companion decided she'd rather be wet than get caught after all. The otter turned upwards and waited to see the show.

Before long, she shot right out of the aqueducts tube, screaming all the way as she splashed into the pool. With surprising speed, the cat reached the surface, thrashing to gain purchase the entire time.

"Help! Help me!"

"Look, just relax, you're fine. It's only water. Come on...I'll help you out."

Still thrashing all over the place unnecessarily, she reached the otter on the edge of the pool, as he yanked her out. The otter continued to laugh it up at how utterly freaked out she was by this entire situation.

"You...are the biggest ####### I have ever met in my life!"

"Thank you."

"Anyway, we gotta go. Sonic and his friends are right behind."

"No surprise there, but the hedgehog hates water. He'll have a tough time keeping up with us here."

"You mean he'll have a tough time keeping up with YOU! What about me?!"

"Look, you can just hang onto me while I swim through the water. It'll be fine."

"You better be right!"

The pair quickly took off, running down a nearby corridor. However, their wet footsteps on the ground could make it easy to track them.

[From Hidden Palace]

The thieves would no doubt hear another set of cries, not of enjoyment but of complete distress. Strangely, while Sonic’s hands and feet were waving in the air, it wasn’t because he was enjoying it. No, much like a cat, he despised and hated it. Granted the rush of speed and twirls and spins were all much like a roller coaster, but the added water made it discomforting. It was a strange mixture of enjoyment and complete dread that only a place like Hydrocity Zone could do for him. Before long, he too came out of the tubes and landed straight into the pool. But unlike the otter or the cat he didn’t come out so quickly…


The feel of rushing water and high speed movement stopped, causing him to feel light headed. Opening his eyes once he found out that his movements had slowed, he was shocked to find himself sinking very slowly to the bottom. His eyes shot even wider than before as they could practically bulge up as he began to panic. A few bubbles escaped from his mouth as he began to quickly claw his hands upward as though he was trying to grab something. Though he seemed to be moving up, it was only by centimeters. He then began trying to do a jumping motion, which he surprisingly found to work. It didn’t take long for him to figure out he was going to seriously have to work to get back to the surface without getting himself drowned. Remembering what he did in the past, he began to spin-jump up, which was getting him up to speed to the edge.

[From Hidden Palace]

"WHOOOOOO!"

Omega flipped around in the tube on his ring, trying his best to keep it steady. Upon reaching the end of the tube, he shot out, straight forward. He steered himself down onto the ledge just past the pool, landing the ring and tipping himself back onto his feet. His clothes were wet, particularly his bottom, which was absolutely soaked. He shook himself off a little, which didn't do much for his clothes.

He looked around for Sonic, and not seeing him, looked to the pool. He saw the disturbances Sonic's jumps were making, then looked straight down and saw the hedgehog himself. He stood at the edge of the pool, and sent the ring down as far as he could to help him, but it was only a total of five feet below the surface.

Up ahead, the two thieves rushed down the corridor as quickly as they could. They figured Sonic would follow them, and once he got back on their trail after the waterslide, it'd be pretty much impossible to outrun him. This would be their only good chance to lose the hedgehog for good.

"How much further is it?" the cat said, panting from the hard running.

"Well...we're gonna have to go on a couple more rides to get there."

"MORE water slides?!"

Despite the hard running, the otter spared a little smile and chuckled.

"You'll probably like this next one. It'll give you a chance to dry off. In fact we're there right now."

The pair stopped in front of an open pit. The cat looked over the edge and peered down the hull, grimacing from the pitch black darkness below.

"You're telling me we're doing a leap of faith into the unknown?" she said, turning around incredulously.

"Ahem..." the otter pointed to a large round button on the ground, before he planted a foot on it and firmly pressed down.

Instantly, several fans sprung out of the walls, blasting the air up the shaft extremely quickly. In fact, the rush of air and the fans appeared so quickly that the cat gasped and whirled around, terrified out of her wits.

"Jeez! Calm down woman!" the otter said, laughing as he walked past her and patted her on the shoulder. "I told you it'd be a great way to dry off. This is a thousand times more powerful than any hairdryer. Now come on!"

Without a second thought, the otter leaped straight into the rushing air and was blown up high into the shaft. Meanwhile, the cat grumbled for a second about constantly getting put up by this otter, before she followed him up too.

Omega started shouting loudly as he was pulled down the hall at Sonic's speed. He had never been exposed to movement like that before, so it was a little bit shocking to him, and luckily Sonic was holding him. Had it been the other way around, he probably would have wound up letting go. As it was, he was pretty relieved when Sonic finally stopped and let go of him. He watched the hedgehog jump down into the tube, and peered over the edge.

"Uh... wow, that's uh... kinda... deep..."

He looked down at his hands, and checked to be sure he still had his rings, which totaled 9 since he didn't have time to pull the tenth from the pool before being dragged off. He took a few steps back from the edge, and then ran forward and jumped into the darkness after Sonic.

[Psst...the fans are blowing everyone UP the tube, not down ]

Higher up above, the cat spied Sonic as a blue dot further down the tube. She shouted to her fellow thief.

"Sonic's caught up with us! We gotta slow him down somehow!"

"I've got just the thing," the otter said, as he pulled some caltrops out of a sack with him.

The jack-like devices sparkled in the light from the sharp points on their edges. Just the thing to slow down someone trying to get somewhere fast. As they reached the top of the tube, he scattered a few around where they'd landed with their points up. If Sonic followed them at his usual pace and didn't slow down to notice the spikes, he'd injure his feet on them and have to slow down.

Meanwhile, the pair of thieves ran further down the corridor and arrived at the next chamber. Another large pool filled most of this large room, but overhead a series of platforms and fans allowed passage without having to get wet.

"Hope you enjoyed the jungle gym at the playground when you were a kid," the otter said, as he leaped to the first platform.

The cat smirked at that remark. Very rapidly, she jumped right after him...and then immediately leaped to the next platform...and the one after that, easily overtaking him.

"Absolutely loved it," she said smugly. Finally they'd run into something where she could show off instead of the otter.

However, the otter took it in stride, humming the song "I Can Do Anything Better Than You" as he scattered some more caltrops on the crossed platforms. The caltrops could be avoided, but Sonic would have to slow down and look for empty spots before each jump.

Having never visited Hydrocity Zone before, Omega was very foreign to the concept and practice of the fan tubes, and as such took a chunk of time to get to the top. When he did manage to reach the platform, he climbed out and managed to flop right onto the caltrops, rolling off of them as quickly as he could. Luckily his clothing kept him from actually being stabbed by them, but the experience was still painful, and left its mark on his clothing.

"OW! Jeez, what the heck was that?" He stood up and glared down at the trap left behind. "Man, that's just harsh..."