To start this story off, I've got a pretty long author's note:

IMPORTANT: this is a prologue, so it is purely expository and possibly boring. I promise that chapter one will be the beginning of the actual story. If you want to skip to chapter one, I'll include a small summary of the prologue at the beginning.

'Æ' is called an ash. It's pronounced like the 'a' in 'ash'.

The Monum Party and the Æquitatem Party are two fictional political parties that I made up for the Sonic universe because my stories include no political bias! These parties in no way represent any real life parties! Please don't start fictional political debates, thanks!

Disclaimer: I named all businesses, products, and humans. If they happen to be the same name as a real one, that is a coincidence. Also, Sega owns all Sonic characters.

I guess you could call this a prequel to Masterminds… I dunno, I'll tie them together somehow! If this is the first story you've read from me and you like it, I recommend Masterminds for you to read!

One last thing: my first three stories followed some pretty strict grammar and punctuation rules, and I feel like that's limiting their potential. For this one, I'll be straying from these rules a little bit to see how it does; I hope you don't mind.

In honor of August 19th, Tails's birthday (a national holiday, obviously), I present to you a new story! Sit back and enjoy because this is a story for the history books!


Once upon a time, I invented something that people liked. I made a deal with a respected manufacturer and hired a skilled marketing team. The beta version of the ProwCom was a definite improvement from the old flip phone; it grossed over a million in a month! I would like to have said "the end" and be done with the story, but it was not the end. There was something else… Something destructive that had been waiting a long time to be released…

That's a story for another time, though. I was sitting in my office, working on the next update to the ProwCom OS Beta. The first two updates had fixed hundreds of minor-and several major-bugs, but there were always more. I was checking the rather unprofessional website that I set up for bug reports when my desk phone rang. The phone rarely rang; most people preferred to avoid verbal communication when possible. With curiosity, I picked it up.

"Office of Tails Prower: Tails speaking," I formally greeted.

"Tails Prower? I have a… an odd request… I want to join your company." My face fell into a frown. "I'm finishing my Bachelor's degree in computer science, but I can do other things, too! I just… can't figure out how to apply… I've been searching around, and I can't even find the name of the company…"

"Sorry… There is no company." I hated to disappoint, but I hadn't even considered making a business out of the ProwCom.

"No company? Does… that mean no more Prow… devices?"

"There probably will be, but I'm working as an individual with third-party marketing and manufacturing."

"Oh. Okay, then…" I really didn't want to leave him disappointed, so I decided to make a hollow offer.

"Hey, if I do decide to start a business, I'll give you a call." I pulled a pen and paper from my desk. "What's your name and number?"

"Jim Wilkins! Six, two, four, five, five, five, three, eight, eight, three." I copied the information and put the pen back in its place.

"Okay. Don't be anticipating it too much, though."

"Yes, thank you!"

"Alright, goodbye." I hung up and shook my head. I knew nothing about business-I left that to the marketing team. All I knew now to do was design the device and fix bugs. There were also too many cons of owning a business; it was simply too risky. Even if I did learn how to manage a company, I just wouldn't be interested. Even with all the negatives, I decided to look at the positives.

It would be easier to make new products more frequently with an actual business… but that's about all. I'll still be making products, just not as fast.

The lack of positives was decisive. I would not start a business, but continue to make devices. I went back to working on the update.

x

The evening news was rather interesting. According to the reporter, the economic recession was lasting a bit longer than expected; two months, in fact. It was no concern to me, however, because I did not own a business.

x

Every day, I would work and watch the news. Each day the reporter would mention the prolonged recession. After several weeks, something changed. Something went wrong. That evening, a line graph was displayed next to the reporter. The line was at a gentle downwards slope for most of the graph, but dropped off steeply at the end.

"Just weeks ago, this recession was of little concern; simply lasting a bit longer than anticipated. As of yesterday, however, the GDP has dropped fifteen percent… Enough to be considered a depression… This is directly associated with the skyrocketing prices of the country's two largest industries: metals (mostly steel) and petroleum."

My heart dropped.

"Within the last week, the price of steel has doubled. This is, according to the steel industry's top competitors, due to a lack of raw iron from the mines, as is the case in other metal industries. When the major companies of the mining industry were questioned… we were informed that over half of the mines in the country were sabotaged-bombed. Strangely, all of the mines that were sabotaged belonged to the six largest metal companies. This is almost unanimously considered to be an act of Dr. Eggman, so Sonic and friends will be contacted shortly.

"The price of petroleum has nearly tripled. There are conflicting reports on the reason for this, but many Monic Economists blame President Keiver's recent change of trade policy for the lack of oil. According to Jane Magner, a Monic journalist, the Æquitatum Party's trade reform has "clearly allowed our country to export too much petroleum for a sub-marginal cost." Although this claim is still being tested by the UFBI, many Monic-and even some Æquitatic-representatives have voiced their agreement to it."

I turned off the television. Metals… and plastics… I raised my Com and began to dial my manufacturer's number, but my office phone rang. I ran to answer it.

"Office of Tails Prower: Tails speaking. I have some extremely important business to attend to; could I get your number and call you back?" I grabbed a pen.

"Hello, Tails. I'm Grant Holter, a representative of the EWD. I'm calling to inform you of recent Eggman activity, and-"

"Yeah: he's been bombing the mines. I'll look into it in ten minutes, but I have something very important to do."

"You have been summoned to our department at GUN HQ. We request that you arrive as soon as possible. Sonic is already here." I silently groaned.

"Sonic? Can I talk to him?"

"Can… I don't think… Hold a moment, please…" I held a moment. There was an inaudible exchange "Yes, you can…"

I heard the phone being passed from hand to hand. "What's up, Tails?"

I relaxed. "Hey, Sonic. Do you know what we were summoned for? It's nothing different from any other time Eggman's attacked, is it?"

"Well, they seem to care a little more when Eggman hurts their income than when he threatens the people. That's my guess of why we're having a meeting about it."

"Heh… Yeah… I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Alright, see ya here, bud!" The phone was passed again.

"Please hurry… He may… "go for a run…" inside the building again." I snickered.

"I'll hurry," I said before hanging up. I rushed to my garage to start my plane-a small, blue, beautiful biplane. After driving it from the garage and taking to the air, I finished dialing my manufacturer on my Com. After a moment, he answered.

"Indus Manufacturing: Nathan Leboni speaking."

"Hey, Nate. It's Tails." Somehow, I was on a first-name basis with my manufacturer.

"Ah, Tails! I knew you'd call sooner or later. I guess you want to cancel production on ProwComs, huh?"

"Yeah… Just until we get this sorted out…"

"Right… I need identification, though."

"I've got my pilot's license with me. Can I just send a picture?"

"Well… it's supposed to be in person, but I'll accept a picture."

"Cool…" I took my license from its place and snapped a picture of it with my Com. I sent the picture to Nate's number. "I sent it."

"... I got it. I'll cancel it as soon as I can."

"Thanks, Nate."

"No problem." After he hung up, I breathed a sigh of relief. I checked my map… Just a few more minutes to HQ.


I hope this wasn't too boring: prologues are nothing exciting, but it's always good to have some background.

In case you were wondering, a ProwCom is like a flip phone on your wrist with a touch screen and access to the internet. That's about all (before the ProwCom, personal communication technology wasn't any more advanced than flip phones). The reason Tails can handle doing all the updates by himself is because of how simple it is. I guess that's all there is to say…

If you're interested, please do let me know: any and all support/criticism is appreciated!