AN: Welcome reader to a Fanfiction wonderland you have never experienced before. Just kidding, this is just a regular episode of The Gateway. Anywho I can't seem to think of anything else to say so enjoy and don't forget to review.

Sincerely, Strikefence

Chapter 6: Hellstorm

Undisclosed Lab in the Rock Mountains, Planet Earth, Canada, January 13th 2013

Days Creator Missing: 174

Solaris poured her consciousness over the data stream from the United Nations General Assembly meeting and began to watch. Currently the representative from The People's Republic Of China was speaking.

"This is a terrible accusation! The great country of China would never openly attack an American ship under any circumstances!"

The United States representative stood up. "Then please explain the irrefutable video evidence that clearly shows the U.S.S. Liberty taking fire from and proceeding to be boarded by Chinese navy personnel."

This comment threw the meeting into chaos with representatives from countries on both sides of the argument standing up and screaming at each other. If Solaris had a body she would have facepalmed, arguments like this were becoming a common in the UN during the recent months, ever since the United States along with several supporting nations had each passed laws raising taxes on goods coming from countries such as China and Taiwan.

Solaris withdrew her main consciousness from the live feed, placing a recording program in her stead so that she could review the footage at a later date. She had been paying close attention to world affairs as of late just as Ferris had before... No. she pushed all thoughts of him out of her metaphorical head. It was all she could do to keep sane.

With her now free consciousness she turned her attention to hacked satellite feed from around the world. This was another way she kept on top of world affairs. By watching over the world from above she could see any war, conflict, or satellite TV show she wanted. Lately she had been increasingly interested in a certain place of construction so she turned her attention there. With her now focused detail she watched over a small three kilometer patch of land on the east coast of China. On this patch of land were missiles. Four non-nuclear trans-continental missiles to be exact. All ready and willing to launch at any given target the Chinese government should so choose.

Looking more carefully the AI noticed something was different about the missiles today. Not the missiles themselves but the area around them. Unlike usual there were no people anywhere near the deadly warheads. This was strange as there were almost always scientists and engineers working around the clock to finish these death dealers for wherever they would be launched.

Quickly however it became quite apparent why the workers were not present, as one of the missiles began to emit a large cloud of white smoke from it's bottom side. As the missile began to take off one of it's companions began to give off smoke also and soon after the last two began to give off smoke in preparation for launch. Soon all the warheads were off each headed towards it's destination. Each headed east.

Using the position of the launch point and the current position Solaris quickly calculated the approximate trajectory and matched them up with the locations of heavily populated cities within three hundred kilometres of North America's west coast. Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Vancouver were the cities that showed up. Solaris knowing there were four projectiles expanded her search and found the fourth target, Honolulu.

If an AI could shudder Solaris would have, the thought of all the people who would die if these projectiles hit was terrifying.

Solaris all of a sudden felt a determination her memory banks had last recorded one-hundred-seventy-four days before. She began to track the the speed of each missile. At the current speeds the first death dealer would hit it's Hawaiian target in approximately two minutes, forty seven seconds. That was more than enough time to do what she did best, hacking.

In exactly one eighth of a millisecond she had accessed the Chinese military network. Knowing full well that she had very little time before some Chinese techie detected her presence she got to work. In a matter of seconds she had found the server controlling the missile's navigation. Taking control she promptly sent it strait into the ocean.

Reveling in her quick moment of triumph Solaris was completely unprepared for the wave of attacks that bombarded her. Pain flared through her programing and she was pushed back out of the navigation control. Knowing she would never be able to stop the incoming hellstorm if she let herself get completely pushed out of the server she fought back, sending a flurry of cyber attacks while blocking the attacks they sent at her. This continued for what felt like ages neither side gaining any ground. Worried about the other targets she briefly she turned her attention to missile tracking and discovered the terrible reality, thirteen seconds until the next missile hit L.A..

Suddenly aware of how imminent the death of so many innocent people, Solaris lost focus and immediately received a quick and violent volley of digital attacks from her enemies. Unable to defend herself in time she immediately felt extreme pain in all parts of her programing. Realizing she would be unable to survive another attack she completely withdrew back to her main server within the Rocky Mountains leaving only a small untraceable connection to a satellite remaining.

Using her satellite connection, Solaris watched as the first missile entered Los Angeles city limits and strike down in the busy city center.

Solaris, unable to take any more shut off her connection to the satellite and retreated to the core of her mainframe. It would be several months until the next time she returned to looking out onto the outside world.

Angel Island, Planet Mobius, October 1st 2012

The remainder of Tails' visit was spent with him and Knuckles recounting all that had happened to each of the over the past few years spent without contact. Of course Tails' story was much more interesting with him being in control of a large company and Knuckles only excitement being the occasional satellite TV show.

Ferris was also fascinated in each of their stories as they helped him to further understand the mechanics of this dimension's population.

Eventually it reached the time where Tails had to head home so the two Mobians along with their human compatriot approached Tail's hovercraft plane. As Tails walked up to get in the pilot's seat he glanced back and saw Ferris standing just behind Knuckles totally oblivious to how he should get in the craft.

Tails gave a mental sigh and tried not to make his annoyance public. "Well aren't you coming?"

Ferris had a classic "oh right" look on his face as he replied with the usual statement that accompanies said look, "Oh right, of course."

Tails was seriously doubting Ferris' claim that he was a genius.

Ferris proceeded to walk up to Tails' hover plane and climb into the passenger seat. After watching him do so, Tails turned to give Knuckles his goodbye.

"You know, you should come down from Angel Island for a visit once and a while. I'm sure even Sonic would enjoy seeing you again, even if it would only be because he'd be able to annoy you again."

Knuckles gave a slight grin, "Actually I was considering doing just that. I'm thinking I might bring angel Island to float above the Mystic Ruins for a while, I'm curious how this gateway thing is going to work out."

Tails looked back at his plane, "Good, then I guess I'll be seeing you."

"Yep, see you later."

Tails walked up to the hover plane where a bored looking Ferris was waiting. "So are we going to get going soon, I'm kinda interested in seeing more of this Mobius?"

The yellow Mobian climbed into the pilot's seat and threw back a pair of blue goggles. "Here, put these on and we'll head out."

Ferris placed the goggles over his eyes, immediately noticed the tightness. They were obviously not made for his size of head. In the front seat Tails pressed a green button on the crafts control board. Immediately a faint hum emitted from the planes engines and it slowly floated off the ground. The craft began to to slowly move forward, picking up speed as it went.

Ferris looked over and gave out a loud "See you later Knuckles" before the craft sped fast enough to fly off into the distance.

Mystic Ruins, Planet Mobius, October 1st 2012

Ferris looked over the edge of the hover plane for what felt like the hundredth time. Each and every time so far all he had seen was ocean, ocean, and more ocean but, this time he saw something different. In the distance the teen could just make out the rough shape of a cliff face.

Ferris had to strain his voice to be heard over the rushing wind, "Is that it?"

Tails turned his head slightly and gave a blunt, "Yep."

That was how it had been the entire flight, Ferris would try to start a conversation and Tails would give a one to two word answer to shut him down. The human was beginning to think that Tails was either an antisocial person or he just flat out didn't like him. Then again the yellow Mobian had seemed pretty chummy with Knuckles maybe he didn't... Ferris pushed the thoughts out of his head. It honestly didn't matter to him whether Tails liked him or not, he needed the fox's help to get home and any hostility he might receive would have to be ignored if he was going to get home any time soon.

As the craft drew closer to it's destination Ferris was able to make out more details of the cliff face. Directly in the path of the craft was a section of the cliff that was higher than the rest. From this elevated section Ferris noticed a long flat cliff shooting out with what appeared to be a paved road splitting the cliff down the middle. At the end of the road was a small, mismatched two story house that Ferris thought looked like it had been built in a day.

Shortly after making his observations Ferris noticed that the plane seemed to be slowly descending towards the cliff-road that he had noticed before. Rather than ask Tails whether the road was actually a runway and in return receive some form of one word answer he figured it was probably safe to stick to his original assumption.

Soon enough the craft set down on the runway and both occupants stepped back on to solid ground. Tails began to walk towards a garage door that faced the runway. Beside the door was a ten-digit key pad, approaching the pad Tails dialled in a code and the garage door opened. Walking closer so he could get a better view, Ferris peered inside the large opening. Inside was a messy workshop with scattered tools, mechanical parts, and numerous crumpled cans of an unidentifiable soft drink.

Feeling a nudge on his side Ferris looked around and immediately jumped. The nudger had been the tip of one of the hover plane's wings which along with the rest of the craft was slowly floating towards the open garage.

Finding the event humorous Tails released a laugh which after a glare from Ferris grew louder and in the human's opinion more obnoxious. Still laughing Tails turned, walked inside the garage, and opened a door leading to the rest of the house. After a motion implying he should follow, Ferris also proceeded into the house.

Walking through the inner garage doorway Ferris emerged into a small living room. Glancing around the room the only noticeable features were a navy blue couch, a small wooden coffee table, and a flat screen TV mounted on the wall.

Seeing Tails standing over something in the corner Ferris became curious and moved over to see what he was doing. As the human got closer he began to hear the familiar sounds of an answering machine. Realizing the fox's messages were none of his business Ferris stopped and began to look around the plain room again although he couldn't help but over-hear the message that was playing.

"Second message." a mechanical female voice sounded. Next a hyper but serious male voice began to speak, "Tails the second you hear this message turn on channel six! Now! He got out!"

The recording cut out with that ominous message still hanging in the air. Ferris turned to look at Tails who now had a sufficiently worried and confused look on his face.

"Is everything alright?" Ferris asked.

Ferris was actually somewhat surprised to hear Tails answer which instead of being one word was instead nothing. Instead Tails walked over to the coffee table, picked up a TV remote, and turned on the television. Immediately the form of a Mobian dog newscaster, dressed in a expensive black suit filled the screen.

"... Reports are still coming in surrounding the recent Prison Island, prison break but, GUN has confirmed one fact, Ivo Robotnik has escaped."