AN: Hello all and welcome to my domain, mwah ha ha ha... anywho welcome to chapter five of The Gateway, sorry it took me so long to post, I didn't get any time to work on it over the Easter Break. Anyway, don't forget to review when you're done and thank's for reading.

Yours truly, Strikefence

Chapter 5: Prisoner

Prison Island, Planet Mobius, October 1st, 2012

A orange clothed doctor by the name of Ivo Robotnik sat in his white, boxed in cell with a thick steel door, drawing robot designs like usual. It was all the guards would let him do thanks to his "dangerous" history. Looking over to his hand drawn calender he had on his white writing desk for what felt like the millionth time that day he sighed. One year, seven months, and twenty five days, that's how long he'd been in here. This surprised him truly as he had expected to find a way out by now. Unfortunately escape wasn't possible in here with completely locked down cell in the centre of the largest military prion in the world. It didn't help that a team of eight guards was just outside the cell doors bearing rifles and begging him to twitch.

The overweight scientist looked down at his unusually small but still bigger than most belly in sadness.

"What have I become?" he asked himself in a small voice. "A prisoner of GUN?" his voice was slowly gaining volume. "I am Robotnik, not one of GUN's toys!" By the last word he was screaming. Of course anyone who might have heard him wouldn't have cared, his rants were a usual occurrence.

When the first rant had occurred just over a year before, the prison's warden had been worried, not for the sake of the prisoner but for his own. If GUN command had discovered that their prize prisoner had gone crazy before they managed to have some psychiatrists delve into his mind, they would have gone ecstatic, and at the very least would have given the warden his very own prison cell. Therefore, to save his job, the warden had hired his own shrink to look over the tapes of the fat man's rants. According to the psychiatrist these rants were just Robotnik's way of keeping himself sane. Just happy that his current freedom was safe the warden didn't press the matter further.

Outside his cell Robotnik heard the sounds of several small pops and the same amount of something hitting the ground. Curious, the fat man walked over to the cell door, pressed his ear against it, and strained to hear something more. As he began to do so the door opened, revealing the shape of a burly man wearing brown military fatigues. The name tag on his chest read Officer Reggie Mourain but Robotnik knew better. He knew his robots when he saw them.

The said scientist quickly regained his composure and looked sternly at his creation, "Ah H.A. twenty one, it's about damn time."

The supposed soldier looked down at it's creator with soulless eyes and began to speak, monotone throughout, "Forgive me master but it was just recently I was able to infiltrate the..."

Robotnik interrupted, "Oh shut it, I don't have time for your excuses just tell me how we're getting out of here!"

"Follow me." was all the robot said before it began to walk down the hall.

From his seat inside the Egg Eagle Robotnik watched his handy work with a grin on his face. The prison was in shambles, guards lay dead on the ground, and Robotnik was now in possession of his freedom. All in all, not a bad day.

"Computer." he commanded, "Set course for the Mystic Ruins."

Robotnik's grin grew even wider. His next plan was about to begin.

Angel Island, Planet Mobius, October 1st, 2012

Ferris stood at the steps of the Master Emerald's altar watching the hovercraft descend. After finishing lunch, Knuckles mad made a phone call and subsequently had left the hut for the Master Emerald with Ferris in tow. While walking, Knuckles had explained that the friend he had called was extremely good with mechanics and would hopefully be able to help Ferris replace his R.D. or as Knuckles called it the dohickey.

So now they stood here waiting for the other Mobian's hovercraft to land. The hovercraft had the appearance of a small two seater plane but with a sort of round propulsion unit on each wing. From each propulsion unit Ferris could just barely see the fait ripples where the air was distorted and forced to keep the craft flying. The plane itself was painted a royal blue with a sort of emblem on each side showing two yellow tails with white tips.

As the craft landed and the pilot got out Ferris got his first look at a Mobian other than Knuckles. Any normal person would have crapped their pants. As Ferris found himself staring at the yellow fox Knuckles was walking over to greet him.

As Knuckles approached he greeted his friend. "Hey Tails long time no see."

"Yeah long time." Tails looked over to the human staring at him, "Um, is that the guy you mentioned?"

"Yep."

Tails looked a little awkward, "Is there any reason he's staring at me?"

Knuckles turned his head to see his human acquaintance wide eyed at the appearance of Tails. "Don't worry he's more scared of you than you are of him."

Tails rolled his eyes and muttered, "Maybe, but it's still weird."

The fox walked over to Ferris, "So, your name is?"

Ferris regained his composure and managed to look the fox in the eyes. "Ferris." He paused and looked over the fox again. "So are you also a Mobian?"

"Um, yeah." he spoke slowly, implying he thought the human was an idiot.

Knuckles walked towards the two and stood beside Tails, "You might as well cut him some slack, he did fall from the sky after all."

Tails stared at Knuckles as if he had tumours growing out of his hands, "Wait, what?"

The next half hour was spent with Ferris explaining his current predicament to Tails who listened intently obviously interested. After his explanation Knuckles prodded him into talking about Earth and in return the two Mobians gave him some information about the dimension he was currently in. From what Ferris understood, Mobius society was close if not identical to Earth society. The only real noticeable differences he could find were that here there were two sentient species and that Mobius was more technologically advanced than Earth. The latter was quite evident in the flying vehicle Tails had used.

After their conversation Tails noticed something about Ferris for the first time. Pointing at the human's belt he asked in a careful tone, "So why exactly does a inter-dimensional traveller require a gun?"

Ferris looked down to his holstered gun that he had completely forgot. Looking up to or rather a little less down he gave only a slightly joking response to answer the question. "Better to be safe than sorry I guess."

Tails and Knuckles each gave him a confused look but didn't push the matter further. During the slight break in conversation, Tails, remembering why he had come asked, "So where is this broken return unit?"

Ferris pulled the small white box out of his pocket and handed it to Tails. Holding it close to his face so he could see the broken components inside Tails began to turn over the box as if to see every single detail.

"Yep, it's broken alright."

Rolling his eyes Ferris replied, "Well I know that, but what I need to know is if you have the parts so I can fix it."

Growing somewhat bored of watching the two smart ones stare at a box, Knuckles walked up the Master Emerald Altar and sat down on the top step.

Tails looked up from the box briefly to address Ferris. "Well I don't have the parts here but I would probably have something at my workshop you could use." pausing Tails added, "but I have one other idea."

Ferris intrigued by this had to ask, "And what could that be?"

Still starring at the box the Mobian stated, "We could use the box's basic design to build a whole new gateway."

Ferris was unexpectedly surprised by this idea. He hadn't even thought of that. If successful, building two gateways could possibly create a two way door between dimensions.

"Why not? It's worth a shot."