Chapter 1: Welcome to the Grid

Disclaimer: (I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog)

Sonic and Tails crouched behind a bush outside Eggman's base.

"Alright Tails you know the plan," Sonic said, "I'll be the distraction, you get in there and hack Eggy's computers. Once you know what to destroy, destroy it."

"You can count on me Sonic," Tails said with a serious expression on his face.

Sonic zipped out to the main entrance of the base to draw as much attention as he could. Tails meanwhile sprinted over to a nearby ventilation shaft and crawled in.

Four years had passed since Eggman's last attack. For four years Sonic had Tails, now at the age of nineteen and twelve respectively, had been trying to figure out what the maniacal doctor was up to. Sonic and Tails had even participated in G.U.N. investigations with Shadow to try to figure out what Eggman was up to. Why was he not attacking. What could he possibly be planning that it took him a few years complete. Finally, after four years. They got a lead, G.U.N. soldiers had been disappearing in a region near the outskirts of the Mystic Ruins. Tails flew over the area in the Tornado and managed to spot the base. From there, he and Sonic formed a plan of attack.

Tails crawled through the ventilation shaft and soon came to a ceiling grate just above what appeared to be a control room. No one was inside and that wasn't surprising, Sonic had probably drawn all of the robots and maybe Eggman himself out of the base. This was the perfect opportunity to strike.

Tails dropped down from the ventilation shaft and walked over to the main computer in the room. The computer in question did not have a mouse and as Tails looked closer at it he realized that it only took commands of code. Tails began to type commands of code on it.

"Stop that," a digitalized voice said.

Tails looked around but saw no one.

"Hello," Tails called out.

No one answered.

Tails continued to type commands on the computer until an alarm went off next to the computer. Tails turned it off and began to type faster, desperate to hack into the computer. A few minutes later, the door to the room opened and a armed robot came in. The robot immediately targeted Tails who ducked under the console as a laser bolt shot overhead. Tails pulled a pistol out from his tool belt and crouched. As soon as the robot stopped firing, Tails jumped up, took aim, fired a single shot from his pistol. The shot was well aimed and entered a gap in the robot's armor and hit its circuits, causing the robot to short circuit and explode. Tails ducked as shrapnel shot in every direction, embedding itself in walls and equipment, however the only damage the console suffered was a scratched screen so Tails could still hack it.

Tails got up off the ground and resumed typing into the computer. After several minutes he got into the data. This is what Tails saw.

Plan:

1. Set up virtual network that resembles a recognizable world. It will be called the Grid

2. Establish an algorithm that grants thinking abilities to all programs within.

3. Continue creating programs until a large enough force has been created.

4. Use laser materialization drive to bring army into the real world.

5. Begin invasion of Mobius starting with Station Square.

6. Continue bringing troops into the real world from the Grid to act as reinforcements

7. Continue process until victory is imminent. All captured prisoners will be stored on the Grid.

8. If failure is imminent, release mass virtual drive to pull large cities and military bases into the Grid where they will be deleted.

Tails gawked at what he had just read. Eggman creating a computerized world where he would make an army of programs and then bring them into the real world, that was impossible wasn't it. The kind of technology needed to do that didn't exist yet and probably wouldn't exist for hundreds of years.

Tails began typing again. On the off chance that this was true he had to find out where the computer holding this virtual world was. However Tails was only able to type in a few more pieces of code before a voice spoke.

"You have seen too much," A digitalize voice said.

There was a clicking and whirring sound. Tails spun around just in time to see a shiny metal cylinder descend from the ceiling attached to a guide rail and some cables. Before Tails could get out of the way, the laser fired, hitting Tails with a blue laser. However instead of hurting Tails, the laser turned his body into a mass of pixels. A second beam then shot out of the laser cylinder and began to pull the pixels into the camera lens. Once all of the pixels had been collected the laser returned to its holding cell in the ceiling.

Tails felt as though he was falling down a long tunnel. All around him were long streams of text and 1's and 0's. Soon Tails came out of the tunnel and was able to see a long landscape approaching him. The landscape appeared to be some sort of nighttime city and there was no sun in the sky. Tails tried to spin his tails to slow himself down but no matter how hard he spun his tails they he didn't seem to be slowing down. Tails closed his eyes and braced for the impact. However the impact didn't come and Tails gradually felt himself slowing down despite the fact that he had stopped spinning his tails.

Tails touched down on the ground and opened his eyes. He appeared to be inside an alleyway of some sort of city at night. However the place he was in was unlike Station Square or any city he had been in for that matter. The ground seemed to be made of highly polished glass and the buildings made of a polished dark blue stone.

Tails pulled off a glove and touched the ground with one of his hands. It felt like glass but when Tails stomped on it it didn't break.

"Sonic, come in, over," Tails said into his communicator.

No response.

Tails walked out of the alley way and looked around. The streets were barren except for what appeared to be a few Mobian animaloids like himself walking around. However each animaloid was dressed in what appeared to be a black rubber suit with red markings and each carried a long glowing red pole in their hands and had a strange disc stuck to their back. Seconds after Tails walked out of the alleyway an animaloid wearing a helmet noticed him and spoke.

"This is a restricted area," The animaloid said in a digitalized voice "Identify yourself."

"My name is Tails," Tails said, "I'm friends of Sonic."

"Authorization failed," The helmeted figure said, "All available programs apprehend trespasser."

Before Tails knew it every single animaloid in the street was sprinting at him holding their glowing poles like spears. Tails high tailed it away from the figures and began sprinting down the street to get away from them.

"Trespasser is fleeing," The helmeted figure shouted, "Stunners are authorized."

Large red laser bolts began to zip by Tails. Tails pulled out his pistol and fired at his pursuers, however something odd happened. Each person that got hit by a bullet shattered into a bunch of tiny green glass cubes. Tails continued to fire until he reached an alley way and turned to get away. As he did however, a bolt of red energy hit him, leaving him unable to move.

"Trespasser is stunned," The helmeted figure said, "Apprehend him and take his weapon."

Tails fought with all his might but was still unable to move. Two animaloids walked up to him and grabbed him by his arms a third took the gun from his hands. Tails was then dragged over to the lead figure with the helmet who eyed him carefully.

"He doesn't have a disc," The helmeted figure said, "Call for a transport, we'll send him to control."

Tails waited, carefully observing his captors. He had never seen any of their uniforms on Mobius. That alone meant he must be on some corner of the planet he had never been on before. Minutes passed, soon Tails paralysis began to where off and he started to struggle.

"Don't bother," One of his captors said, and when Tails kept struggling his captor kneed him in the stomach.

Soon Tails was able to hear a rumbling sound and looked up to what appeared to be a flying square archway descending to the ground. Tails was dragged forward as the top part of the arch lowered to the ground. Tails was dragged though a small door where he was set against a wall where holographic restraints pinned him in place. The arch then rose into the air and began to fly towards the center of the city. Tails could hear the mumbling of a nearby cat prisoner who was mumbling "Not the games, Not the games."

"Excuse m-" Tails began but received a mild shock when he spoke.

"Shut up if you want to live," a nearby prisoner whispered. Tails noticed that it was a hedgehog with half its face missing. Where there should have been exposed tissue there were tiny glass cubes.

Tails remained silent as the archway began to descend and once it landed another figure with a visor entered the ship and began scanning the passengers. Muttering either "Games," or "Reformatting," when it scanned a passenger. The figure said games when scanning Tails and the cat to Tails' right and reformatting for the hedgehog with half his face missing.

Tails was yanked out of the restraints and dragged forward and set on a platform. Before Tails descended into darkness however he saw the cat who had been muttering earlier break away from his captors and jump down an open shaft shouting "NOT THE GAMES, ERASE ME, ERASE ME!"

A thud and shattering sound was heard from the open shaft.

Tails descended down the shaft where another group of guards were waiting for him. They both grabbed him by his arms and dragged him over to a jail cell where they threw him inside.

"Wait," Tails shouted as the guards walked away, "Will you at least tell me where I am."

"You must have an error in your code if you don't know where you are," One of the guards snickered, "Your on the Grid."

Tails expression turned to one of horror as he remembered to line of text he had read in Eggman's base.

1. Set up virtual network that resembles a recognizable world. It will be called the Grid

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