Chapter 1 - Lemonade out of Lemons

Knuckles and Amy were hanging out at my place. We were watching Sonic's band, Sonic Underground, on my satellite TV. It bothered me, so I turned the TV off. "How come he gets his own music show?"

Of coarse, Amy, being her usual self said, "I wish I could be with him in that show. We could sing together and it would be so romantic…" She stared blankly at the wall with a slight smile on her face.

Knuckles said, "Whatever, I mean, don't get me wrong, I respect Sonic, he's my pal. But, 80's hair metal sucks."

I just shrugged and said, "I kinda like it, but still. He's such an attention whore. He has his own shows and interviews and blah, blah, blah."

Knuckles headed for the kitchen wanting to make chilidogs. He called us for some. "Who's up for some chilidogs?" I don't think anyone would pass up an opportunity like that.

I was so hungry from working all day, that I forgot the manners of the table and just started eating as much as I could. The dogs were so good. Knuckles made the best chilidogs. It was actually kind of funny; the way I ate, that is. However, Amy didn't think it was so funny. "Tails," she said, "you look like a pig! Have some manners!" She sounded like she was my mom, or something.

"What are you, my mom?"

"What's your problem? Why can't you eat like a normal fox?"

"Normal? Normal, you say…"

"Amy, why did you have to say that?" Knuckles asked.

This enraged me. How could she say that to me? She knows none of us were normal. But, then again, I might have overreacted. I kind of lost it after she said that.

"How dare you Amy! Why would I wanna be like everyone else? I am an individual! I'm smart as hell and I have two tails so I can fly. Why would I wanna be normal? Besides, this is my workshop. And you know what? I don't have to hear that from you. Get out!"

And so, driving them out of my home, I was, like always, lonely. I immediately started to feel sorry for screaming at them. They knew I liked being different. We all were. That's what made us who we were. But, there was this rage that had built up over all those times I was being picked on, and it just had to come out.

It was 12 am. I sat there and pondered. Better get my mind off of this, I thought. I pulled out my latest project from my draw and started to fix all the bugs that I had to work out. There wasn't much more to be done. Just had to fix a few small programming errors.

It was a rather small iPod-like machine that could teach you things while you sleep. All you had to do was put the on the headphones that were attached and sleep. The tone and frequency would play in your ears through the whole night. Then, when you woke up, the new skill would already be learned.

I leaned back on my chair and looked on my wall. It was filled with pictures of all of us. It was Knuckles, Sonic, Amy, and I. We had so much fun over the years. Then, I noticed the guitar Sonic had given me before he formed Sonic Underground. It was his first guitar. But, I never learned to play it. Never had the time.

Then it hit me. Maybe it's time to test my new invention. Now, not only did a have a reason to test my invention, but, now, all my feelings had a place to go: into a musical instument!

I woke up the next morning overly excited. I was so eager to see if my invention had worked that I skipped my morning routine, and took my guitar off the wall. I sat down and held the guitar. It felt very strange because it felt so familiar. I played a few chords. I was a natural. I had such a talent for this, that I already started think of riffs in my head. Not to boast or anything though. I'm usually modest. But, it just felt so right.

I began to synthesize my first song. The lyrics came out like a steady flow of water in a stream. I wrote line after line, thinking about what happened last night.

How should a young fox like me

Find out what he's meant to be

Made for the books

And now for your ears

As I sing this song

That's filled with tears

There was more to it. This is just an excerpt. After I had finished writing the lyrics, I began to think about the chords and notes. The riff was simple, yet catchy. This is starting to sound good, I thought to myself. I started to sing the lyrics to the chords.

I got to a really deep part of the song. So pain-filled and deep that it hurt to sang. It also felt wrong. I was singing to soft when the feeling was not. I decided I had to scream. I don't like hardcore, so I wanted scream a note rather than just screaming at the top of my lungs.

I inhaled and started to play a song. I sang softly. Then, when I got to the part I screamed as loud as I could. It hurt. Physically and emotionally. I finished the song. It was complete and I was so excited. I had done it. I, Miles Prower, had created a masterpiece.

Just as I was celebrating, I heard footsteps outside my workshop, running towards my house. I knew it wasn't Sonic because he would have passed already. Hmm… Just as I thought about checking the window, Knuckles burst in. I jumped.

Knuckles was panting when he said, "Are you ok, Tails?"

"Yeah, I was just singing my new song."

I guess he didn't realize that I was holding a guitar until I said that because he had a sudden look of surprise on his face.

"I didn't know you played guitar," he said.

"I didn't until last night."

"What? You learned that fast?"

I nodded, "With the help of my new invention. It teaches you skills while you sleep. And then, after about 6 hours sleep, the skill is already learned when the user wakes up."

He was amazed "Wow. That's genius." He thought for a second. "Hey, you know Station Square is having a battle of the bands. You should enter."

"Yeah, well, I kinda need a band for that…" I chuckled.

Just then, Amy walks in. "What's going on here? I heard screaming." He looked at me holding the instrument. "I didn't know you played…"

I nodded. "Yup. I learned it real quick with the help of my inven-"

She cut me off. "I wanna learn! Teach me! Teach me!"

Then, I thought of an idea. "Why don't we be a band?" They looked at me like I had two heads, but I continued. "Yeah, we could enter in the battle of the bands! Sonic is going to enter and we can beat the pants of him and his 'Sonic Underground'. Come on, wadduya say?"

They both looked at each other and said, "We're in."