AN: Hello everybody sorry this update took so long, I've been really busy with school and Xbox and basically just being lazy in general. Anyway I hope you enjoy my seventh installment and don't forget to review.

Yours Truly, Strikfence

Chapter 7: Who Put That Ceiling There

Mystic Ruins, Planet Mobius, October 1st 2012

Tails continued to stare at the TV in disbelief. He and his friends had spent years fighting the evil doctor, and when they had finally gotten him arrested he had thought it was all over. He had thought his life could finally be peaceful.

Ferris looked at the television and then at the Mobian watching it. He wasn't quite sure who this Ivo Robotnik guy was but his escape had clearly extremely surprised the fox.

Ferris reached out his hand slightly towards his host, "So who's this Robotnik guy?"

The question seemed to snap Tails out of his daze and he turned to face the questioner, "Robotnik is a criminal genius who is extremely skilled at building robots and other machinery." Tails turned, picked up the TV remote, and muted the program. "A year and a half ago some of my friends and I worked together with GUN to bring him to justice. Thanks to this a seventeen year long battle between Robotnik and the world was ended."

Ferris was dumbfounded, on Earth he had met Geniuses from all over the world and read about even more, he couldn't imagine any of these people purposefully creating a battle with the entire world.

As he often did when he couldn't think of what to say, Ferris gave out a sarcastic, "So this guy wanted to take over the world?"

"That's pretty much the gist of it." Tails looked back towards the silent TV, "With this new, "he paused, trying to think of the right word, "information, I have some phone calls to make. Unfortunately that means I don't quite have time to help you with the gateway, but I do have some tools and stuff downstairs that you could tinker with if you want."

Ferris grinned. Finally something that I might actually be able to make sense of, he thought. "Sure, I guess."

The two tailed fox led Ferris through a hallway to a steel door with a ten digit keypad and a retina scanner.

Ferris looked at the fox, slightly amused, "So your basement is top secret?"

Tails placed his thumb on the scanner as he spoke, "No, not top secret but, there are many people who would love to see some of my inventions before I begin to mass produce them."

"Oh, so you're an inventor."

The door opened and Tails walked in and began to walk down the staircase inside. "Kind of, yes but, I don't usually make things for the marketplace, usually I just make things because I can."

Ferris could relate to the Mobian in this way. When Ferris developed his inventions he didn't do it with sales in mind. Unfortunately it cost money to run a secret lab inside the Rocky Mountains. Then there was also the U.S. government threatening to find and then storm his lab if he didn't continue to help them stay ahead in the technology sector. Ferris knew that even if he had stopped helping them they would never had been able to find his lab, but he did like being able to go out into the city occasionally without asking Solaris hack the U.S. military network every time.

When Ferris reached the bottom of the staircase he gave a good look over the room at the "basement" he was now standing in. In one word it was huge. The huge room gave reminded Ferris of the his high-school gym class from when he was eight.

The room was littered with uncountable mechanical devices, tools, and numerous crumpled cans of the same soft drink Ferris had seen in the garage in what appeared to be no particular order.

Tails decided to break the silence, "Well you can fiddle around down here, I need to go make those calls."

Ferris was about to ask Tails what exactly he should do down here but when he looked beside him to where the yellow fox was a moment before he was gone, already walking up the stairs towards the main floor of the house.

Sighing, Ferris turned towards the huge mess of a room, "And to think, I thought my lab was a mess."

(Chapter Break)

Meanwhile on the first floor, Tails was dialling the number of the blue hedgehog who had left him the message on his answering machine. Finishing dialling, Tails pressed the phone to his ear. It rang, once, twice, as the third ring began the familiar voice of his adopted older answered.

"Hey Tails, I'm assuming you've heard."

Tails looked over to the still muted news program on his TV, "Yeah I turned on the news after I heard your message."

"What do you think?"

"I think that we need to find him before he finds us."

"That's a great idea in theory, but you of all people know that he never hides in the same place more than once, so finding him is going to be hard."

"True. Have you thought about what you're going to do with Amy and the kids?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well I think Robotnik's next move is obvious, chances are he's going to try to hurt you, and the easiest way to do that is through your family."

"You're right," Sonic paused, "Hey Tails I hate to ask you this, but with your big bank account and all, do you think maybe you could put Amy and the kids up in one of your houses for awhile. I would do it myself but the twenty dollars in my wallet doesn't really buy a nice place to stay."

"Sure, I'd be happy to. Although I'm pretty sure any hotel would be willing to put up the Hero Of Mobius' family for free."

"Would they be willing to? Yes. Would I be willing to. No."

"So there's a difference between my charity and the charity of a stranger?"

"Yeah, you would help me whether I was famous or not."

Tails let out a little chuckle, "Fair enough. Hey, while I have you on the phone, do you think you could help me round up the gang? I figure with recent events we need to get everyone together to plan our next move."

"Sure! I'll see if I can't find Rouge and Shadow. Also I think I know where the Chaotix hang out, so I'll talk to them as well."

"Thanks, I'll call Cream, and I already know that Knuckles is coming so I'll call him, tell him what's going on, and figure how long until Angel Island will arrive."

"I'm assuming you want everyone to meet at your place?"

"Correct you are."

(Chapter Break)

Completely oblivious to anything else, Ferris was still busy exploring what was in his opinion the messiest workshop he had ever seen. Every direction he looked he either saw a pile of parts, tools, pop cans, or some combination of the three. Occasionally he did run into an actual invention of some sort he was amazed, Tails' inventions were state of the art and although Ferris was reluctant to admit it in some cases might just meet the quality of his own.

Turning around the corner beside what had a similar appearance to a half finished bi-plane something caught Ferris' eye. Just ahead, sitting on a large wooden table were two mechanical legs. Intrigued, Ferris walked up to it for further examination. The legs were small in comparison to a human but seemed very similar to the size of Tails. Curiosity overtook Ferris and he began to move the legs around on the table. Reaching the "waist" area of the legs Ferris discovered the legs to be hollow as if they were made to have someone wear them as pants. It was with this realization that it hit him. Quickly he grabbed a screwdriver from a pile of tools near the legs and began to unscrew a rough steel plate from the side of the "knee". The now open mechanics confirmed his suspicions, these legs were actually strength enhancers. Unfortunately, upon further examination, it was quite obvious to Ferris that they were disfunctional. The hydraulics didn't work together the way they should due to how small and thin the legs had to be to fit a person of Tails' proportions.

Too small and thin, but what if..., Ferris' actions became faster than most people could comprehend. Searching around the messy room he soon came upon the parts he needed. Bringing them to the table he dumped them beside the legs and got to work doing what he did best, inventing.

Just wait until Tails sees this, was the last non-work related thought before he became completely engrossed in the job at hand.

(Chapter Break)

Several long phone conversations later Tails was on his way downstairs to see what trouble the human in his house could have possibly caused. Once at the bottom of the stairs it didn't take Tails long to find Ferris. Walking to a distance of within a few feet Tails saw what "trouble" the human had gotten into. Ferris was currently in the process of strapping on a pair of what to Tails looked suspiciously like his recent attempt at strength enhancing leggings.

Tails just watched for a moment but eventually couldn't help himself, "What are you doing?"

Ferris gave a little jump and fell right on his bottom. Seeing this Tails burst out into a fit of laughter.

"Hey, It wasn't that funny."

Ferris stood up and Tails managed to contain himself long enough to ask his question again, "What exactly are you doing?"

"Well you see, ummm," Ferris paused, how was he going to explain this? "I sorta found these strength enhancers and, well, I noticed they didn't work, so I figured I'd, umm, make them work."

Tails looked at the metal leggings Ferris was wearing skeptically. "And do they work now?"

Ferris looked down towards the leggings also, "They should but I haven't tested them yet."

"Well then why don't you try them out?"

Without answering Ferris bet down on one knee and began to fiddle with something on the side of his metal covered knee. When he was satisfied with what he was doing he stood up and made a position as if he was about to take off running.

"Here I go."

The teen took three running steps between two piles of machine parts and took off in a mighty leap. Tails watched amazed as Ferris soared over the mechanical mess that was his workshop, and right headfirst into the ceiling.

"Oh shit!" Tails exclaimed as he took off to help the injured genius.