Hydrocity Zone

[Nail Strafer]

The otter looked like a deer in the headlights right now, as he saw Sonic and Knuckles standing side by side. If those caltrops didn't slow them down considerably, they'd be caught in a moment. Sonic saying he was going to give them a head start only added to the urgency.

In any case, he quickly hurried on to join his cat companion. She stood pouting beside another water slide, this one descending into the pool below. They stood on a big pedestal in the middle of the room, with only two ways down: the slide, or going back the way they came and fighting the heroes.

But despite the hopelessness of the latter option, the cat seemed very intent on taking it.

"I'm not going on another water slide!" she declared, her voice echoing loudly through the room.

Putting on a little smirk, the otter rapidly approached her.

"Well, if you really don't want to do it, I know of a secret alternative path down from here." The cat's eyes lit up, escatic at the thought of not getting wet again.

"Really?"

"No, I lied."

While simultaneously saying "no", the otter pushed her backwards onto the slide. One splash later, she was howling and screaming in agony all over again all the way down the chute. He couldn't help himself, and burst out laughing that she fell for the distraction. The laughter continued as he hopped into the slide right after her.

[Sonic]

Sonic blinked widely as he saw Alpha come crashing down onto the trap. He’d figure the guy would have been able to dodge it, but maybe he was figuring too much. After all, it’s not like everyone has dealt with pitfalls, spikes, and other assortment of traps. He closed his eyes as Knuckles landed next to him with no problem, letting of a ‘hmpf’.

“Doesn’t –every- villain?” Sonic replied snarky; as he straightened up his legs and placed his fisted hands on his hips. Cupping his hand over his mouth he shouted out towards the bandits. “O-KAY! HERE I –COME-!”


He grabbed onto Knuckles and Alpha very quickly as he went off again in an amazing burst of speed. But instead of hopping from platform to platform, he simply ignored it. Instead he allowed his speed to carry him over the short distance of water, completely bypassing the trap and getting to the other side quickly. He would once again let the two go, hoping this time that they wouldn’t take so long to follow after him as he jumped straight into the slide after the otter. This time he kept his mouth shut and concentrated on the moment he would see the end. This time, he wasn’t going to let himself almost drown again.

[Alpha Omega]

Omega was a little more adjusted to Sonic's burst of speed this time, and managed to catch his balance soon after being let go. He took only a second to adjust himself before jumping down into the chute and riding the rushing water down after Sonic, prepping another of his rings to carry him to safety at the end.

[Knuckles]

Knuckles followed closely after Sonic, determined to not let the intruders out of his sight again. For now he would keep pace behind Sonic and wait for an opportune moment to capture the odd bunch they were pursuing.

[Dr. Robotnik]

Before long, they reached the pool at the bottom of the room. However, this one ended right at the water, so it would be a very soft splash, not unlike a waterpark's slide. As usual, the cat had thrown a hissy fit all the way down the slide, yelling and screaming about all the water rushing over her. As she hit the water, she thrashed as quickly as she could to the surface, and swam hurriedly for the side of the pool as fast as possible. It wasn't very fast though, and she did a much better job just splashing the water all over the place instead of making actual progress.

Suddenly, a hand reached out and snatched her right back underwater. She tried to scream some more, but since she had gone underwater all that came out was a lot of bubbles. But she stopped when she saw it was the otter pulling her along. In contrast to her, he smoothly went through the water like a fish. While still extremely tense from being in the water, she felt somewhat relaxed with him pulling her along. They seemed to be headed for a tunnel leading to the next room.

Up ahead, large bubbles rose from a crack in the floor. The otter swam right for a particularly large one, and opened his mouth. The bubble popped when the two came in contact. He motioned for her to do the same. Despite feeling rather silly doing this, she agreed. Surprisingly, her lungs filled with air. She had no idea how that was supposed to work. But now that they were full up on air again, he grabbed her wrist and continued tugging them along.

The otter knew that they were getting close to the aqueduct leading to the Launch Base, and it was absolutely crucial they get there without being seen. Going underwater would slow down Sonic. The other two might be able to swim, but once they surfaced elsewhere their group would be split and their speedy leader gone. That would give them time to slip away.

Or they could just get the same idea that the otter had gotten with pulling along those less able to swim.

[Sonic]

When the end was near, Sonic could already see that his luck was out. They must have been in the second half of the place since there weren’t any platforms around. And he could also tell that the two thieves weren’t above on the surface. Taking a large breath of air before plugging, Sonic managed to jump as soon as he got to the end managing to launch himself a fair distance before splashing down into the water below. As he began to sink, he opened his eyes to see the otter and cat below him. He started to make himself sink faster; as he knew the quickest way to go after them was to be on the bottom and acting like he was running. While he may have been on top of them, they could easily get farther head as he was sinking to the bottom.

[Alpha Omega]

Omega shot out of the end of the chute, hitting the water before he could take a breath. He struggled to swim upward, but he was at a disadvantage, the weight of his wet clothes dragging him down. So, he did the next best thing. He looked around, and spotting Sonic, thought it best to follow him. He began struggling and making a little progress approaching him.

[Knuckles]

Knuckles cannon-balled into the pool below and began swimming after the odd group. When he closed in on Sonic, who was sinking to the bottom, he made a gesture with his hands to inquire whether or not he should swim ahead.

[Dr. Robotnik]

The otter continually swam along through the pool. However, his cat friend continued to get anxious about being so far underwater and held rigid to his back. The otter found it rather distracting, since she was clutching him so tight he was having trouble swimming. Grunting, he tried to shake her a bit so that she'd loosen up. But it had the opposite effect. She just held tighter in terror.

The otter thrashed around hard, but then he did it too hard and flung her off his back. Helplessly, the cat swung her arms and legs all around but couldn't do anything except drift in the direction she'd been thrown in. The otter didn't notice it, but she started floating downwards to another giant button on the floor.

As she pressed the button, the two of them would hear a sucking sound from the nearby wall. Looking over, they'd see a section of the wall opening up. Immediately, they'd feel themselves being pulled towards the opening from the current, as the water cascaded into the just recently empty and dry passageway. Of course the cat got sucked in easily, her screams becoming bubbles as she got dragged along. The otter was a considerably stronger swimmer, but even he couldn't resist the current.

All of the water in the pool rapidly drained through the new hole, and even the heroes who'd jumped into the water would be taken along for the ride.

[Sonic]

Sonic looked dumbfounded when he first heard the large sound, looked down towards the cat he was trying to reach. But his Eyes widened considerable as he realized that the cat had just pressed the “Flush” button of the pool. A few bubbles escaped his mouth as he panicky tried to swim back up; but it was about as useless as the cat trying to swim. He was sucked through easily, and popped out; hitting a wall lightly before the current of the drain carried him away. Sonic struggled to get himself above water, as he felt that his breath was short. He could hear a deafening sound as he fought against the current for a chance for air. Eventually, he managed to get his head above and take a large gasp of breath and coughed.

“I HATE THIS ZONE!” Sonic exclaimed in major displeasure. He thought that with his first experience through it and the fact that he’d face more challenges over the years would have somehow made this place easier for him. But he was obviously wrong as he was struggling just as much as when he first ran through.

He managed to barley grasp onto a block that was jutting outward from the wall. The current was still strong and was pulling his body back, his grip slowly beginning to slip. He gritted his teeth as he tried to hand on.