Yet another battle between Team Sonic and Eggman rages in the jungles of Seaside Island, but is quickly ended when Sonic knocks the head off of the doctor's trusty Obliterator Bot. Eggman, however, insists things aren't finished yet, as he's had phase two of... whatever plan he was putting in action brewing under their noses. He points, telling them to look... but it was just a distraction allowing him to get away in the Eggmobile. He returns to his lair, feeling the crushing weight of defeat upon him once again. Orbot and Cubot ask him how it went (though Cubot basically says he knows Eggman lost again). Eggman says that if the battle had been scored in points, he would have been more fortunate. Orbot says theoretical victories are second-best to real ones, so he suggests Eggman "celebrate" with a cup of tea he places in front of him. Staring into the liquid, Eggman has an epiphany— he knows Sonic is scared of water, so seeing as his plans seem to fail because they're always on land (and Cubot is certain that ain't true), he decides to create a plan that would force the aquaphobe to battle him underwater, allowing for an easy victory. Deciding it's time for a musical montage (but absolutely adamant there be no singing), Eggman gets to work on what seems to be a part of his plan... until it's revealed he was just creating a washing machine to clean his lucky shorts, saying he'll get to work on the plan after the cycle.
At Sonic's Shack, Team Sonic is relaxing after another job well done, with Tails attempting to teach Sticks how to play chess; of course, Sticks'... unique take on the world doesn't make it easy. The serenity is shattered when a loud noise erupts from the ocean, along with tons of sea life that lands on the beach... and one octopus that lands on Tails' head (kid doesn't seem to have a lot of luck with octopi, huh?). Being the heroes they are, they can't just let the sea life die, so they attempt to return as much of it as possible back to the ocean. Afterward, they agree that this is definitely something out of the ordinary, so they take Tails' Plane to the site of the disturbance.
A periscope rises from the water, and a voice the gang knows all too well spews from it. It's Eggman again, and he reveals his latest plan— he's made a wave machine and placed it in the ocean, where it'll erupt again in eight hours, this time spawning a tidal wave that'll wipe out the Unnamed Village should Team Sonic be unable to stop him. Team Sonic's ready to meet his challenge head-on... everyone, that is, except Sonic, who nervously suggests they go to Meh Burger for a meal instead because eight hours leaves them plenty of time. Tails reluctantly decides he's right and pilots his plane back to the island, unintentionally slamming Knuckles, who's been dragged along via parachute, into several rocks on the way. Under the waves, Eggman— piloting a water-tight Eggmobile— is left dumbfounded by Sonic's cowardice being more potent than he'd thought, but opts to wait for Sonic and co. to return, knowing there's no way they'll let the Village get wrecked. Mere seconds later, he wishes he'd brought a Sudoku book to entertain himself.
Team Sonic gets their meal from Meh Burger offscreen and sits at a table just outside Tails' Workshop to enjoy it, with Sonic suggesting more activities... that don't so much as involve the name "Eggman". Amy can tell Sonic's stalling, and eventually, the whole team's knowing stares force him to admit he never learned to swim. Amy tersely chastises him, reminding him that he promised he'd learn, but Sonic explains that he just couldn't take swimming classes because the children they'd inevitably place him with would sense his weakness and mock him. Tails changes the subject, saying that he figured Eggman would try an underwater plan sooner or later and made high-tech wetsuits for the entire team ahead of time for such an occasion. Later, Sonic's dressed in his wetsuit and attempts to take to the waves, but his body just won't let him, even when pushed by Tails, Knuckles, and Sticks. Amy, meanwhile, stays back and watches, convinced Sonic's phobia is more serious than they thought; she concludes they'll need professional help to persuade him that there's nothing to fear.
Later, at Amy's House, they've found that professional help in the form of Soar the Eagle, who attempts to convince Sonic that water is completely harmless by dipping his fingers into a cup of the stuff. But despite his best efforts, he accidentally flings some into an outlet, causing a fire that the team is quickly able to put out. Soar tries again, taking a wetsuit-clad Sonic out to sea in a boat and saying he has a system to help him get over his fear. Step one... is to abruptly push the hedgehog out of the boat and leave him to fend for himself. Smooth. Nothing to worry about, though— Sonic has a flotation device... which he pops involuntarily with one of his quills as he flails about in panic. Seeing no other options, Sonic decides to face his fear and dives under the waves just as his team shows up in Tails' Plane to support him, with Amy and Knuckles joining him in their own wetsuits while Tails and Sticks stay nice and dry in the plane. When contacted by Amy on his Communicator, he admits things aren't as bad as he thought, but really, he's still on edge.
The wait was so long for Eggman, apparently, that he decided he'd rather not suffer through it awake, as he's asleep when the team finally arrives. Amy remedies that with a quick knock on the glass dome surrounding the Eggmobile, telling him that Sonic's conquered his fear and is ready to stop him. Eggman remains unconvinced, however, worrying his arch-nemesis by describing in excruciating detail the many, many gallons of water around him... and also revealing he brought Crab Bots with him. The team, as usual, fights off the bots without a problem— nah, we're kidding. Not this time; the gang is unused to underwater physics and finds themselves unable to so much as make a dent in the army using their usual moves. Realizing their chances are slim, Sonic decides it's better to retreat and swims into some nearby seaweed to lose the Crab Bots. But Eggman's not about to let him escape, so he fires a laser from the Eggmobile at a nearby coral reef, destroying it and burying Sonic up to his neck in rocks. To make matters worse, the immobile hedgehog's air hose is snipped apart by a Crab Bot, and with no oxygen supply, he slowly begins to drown. His desperate gasps for air leave no doubt: Sonic the Hedgehog is in serious danger this time.
Knowing the situation has turned dire, Amy immediately informs Tails of this event, but the child genius says he didn't bring a backup hose, so he quickly improvises by grabbing a hose from his plane's cooling system. With no time to waste, Sticks steps up to deliver it and dives into the ocean. Without a wetsuit. As Amy and Knuckles struggle with the Crab Bots and can do nothing but watch Sonic continue to drown, the badger races against time to reach her teammates and, despite getting her leg briefly caught in some seaweed, manages to hand the replacement hose to Amy and destroy a Crab Bot before swimming for the surface. After a tense few moments, she surfaces, taking in a much-needed gulp of air and knowing her gamble paid off. At last, Amy and Knuckles break free of the Crab Bots, allowing Amy to replace Sonic's air hose; as the two free him from the rubble, he knows he might have been seconds away from a watery grave.
But Eggman won't let Sonic take a breather yet (ha); he proudly introduces his newest mechanical minions, created specifically for underwater combat: Shark Bots. Undeterred, Sonic lures the metallic sharks to him and fashions reins out of the nearby seaweed to control two of them. Tails guides him, saying there's a weakness on the bottom-right of Eggman's wave machine; Sonic steers the Shark Bots into it, while the two unguided Shark Bots slam into the Eggmobile, putting a large crack in its watertight barrier. The wave machine topples, and a happy Tails says it now points away from the Village. Their job done, Team Sonic leaves in Tails' Plane as the machine generates a wave that sends a screaming Eggman crashing onto his island; defeated once again, he looks over to find his lair destroyed by the wave and hopes his flood-insurance policy covers this.
Meanwhile, Team Sonic has returned to Tails' Workshop, where the fox himself asks Sonic if the underwater experience has cured his fear. You'd expect the answer to be "yes", right? Wrong— Sonic's still an aquaphobe; in fact, no doubt because of his near-death experience, he says he's even more scared of water now, and he doesn't even want to see H2O again. Too bad Soar didn't get the memo, because he suddenly returns with step two of his system, which involves splashing the hedgehog with a cup of— you guessed it— water. Dripping wet, Sonic shoots an incredibly annoyed glare at the eagle, who asks if this is a bad time to mention his check.
Tropes
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: When Amy scolds Sonic when he admits he skipped out on swimming lessons, he at first responds indignantly that they had wanted to put him in the beginners' class, implying that he feels that being made to learn alongside little kids was beneath him... and then his tone turns slightly fearful as he explains that five-year-olds "can be so cruel when they sense weakness."
- Beware the Silly Ones: Eggman has one of his best schemes in this episode. Remembering Sonic's fear of water, he creates a scheme underwater which Sonic and friends nearly fail to foil due to psychological warfare and Team Sonic being out of their depth. He even nearly drowns Sonic by having a Crab Bot cut his oxygen supply.
- Big Damn Heroes: The only reason why Sonic doesn't drown is because Sticks delivered a backup tube at the last second.
- Darker and Edgier: Downplayed; the episode still carries the show's humour but the lighthearted tone is mildly dampened as Sonic's fear of water is treated realistically, Eggman's latest scheme is to drown the island with a tidal wave, he revels in taking advantage of Sonic's fear by taunting him, Sonic's oxygen tube is cut by a crab-bot nearly drowning in the process, and by the end of the episode Sonic's fear has gotten worse and is now even more afraid of the water.
- Face Your Fears: Sonic is forced to attempt to overcome his fear of water in order to help his team stop Eggman from destroying the Unnamed Village with a tidal wave. While he ultimately does foil the plot, the experience only leaves him even more afraid of the water.
- Flaw Exploitation: The reason why Eggman was going for this evil scheme to begin with: because Sonic's fear of water would make the scheme easy to pull off, and it could end Sonic's life at the same time.
- Kids Are Cruel: The main reason Sonic never learnt to swim was because kids in the beginners class would make fun of him.
- Near-Villain Victory: Eggman and his robots nearly drown Sonic and had Tails not found the weak point of the wave machine, he would have destroyed the village with a tidal wave.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: One of the rare times this Eggman matches his game counterpart in terms of sadism. His latest evil scheme involves taking advantage of Sonic's fear of water, psychologically torments Sonic when he's underwater, takes advantage of the team's usual on-land combat skills by bringing it to the water, planned on sweeping the Island away with a tidal wave, and Sonic nearly drowns thanks to one of Eggman's crab-bots cutting his oxygen tube!
- Sink or Swim Mentor: Soar the Eagle becomes a literal example when he tries to teach Sonic how to swim by taking the hedgehog out to the middle of the ocean in a rowboat and shoving him into the water. Subverted since Sonic is wearing a scuba suit, goggles, an oxygen tank, and an inner tube shaped like a duck.
- Status Quo Is God: After a dangerous battle with Eggman at the bottom of the ocean in which he almost drowns, Sonic's fear of the water not only isn't cured, it's now even worse.
