Prologue
Flourish had been on lookout for Rogue Machines when the first few drops had landed on her head. Looking up, she'd expected to see some sort of Sky Beast hovering above her and spraying acid onto her.
All that met her optics was the same sight that always did whenever she looked up. Murky grey clouds that had choked the sky for years, even before she'd been Created, only this time they looked more saturated than usual.
Then it hit her. Both literally and metaphorically.
"Rain!" she yelped, leaping from where she'd been sat on lookout and dashing inside. "Tara! Wake up! It's raining outside!"
Inside, she clambered up onto the desk in the corner of the room and started shouting in Tara's ear. Flourish's ecstatic yells eventually woke her up.
"Flourish, that's not funny," Tara mumbled. "It hasn't rained since-."
"But it is raining!" Flourish pressed. "Come outside and I'll prove it!"
Hardly convinced, but knowing Flourish wouldn't shut up unless she went out, Tara did as she was asked. Outside, she was immediately hit by cold water crashing down from the heavens, extracting a cry of shock from Tara and prompting a 'told you so!' from Flourish.
Tara was at a loss for words. She could hardly remember the last time it had rained, and had given up hope on ever seeing it happen again. Now here it was; pounding wetly on her head and shoulders as if making up for lost time. Laughing gleefully, she spread her arms to the skies to embrace the sorely missed rainwater.
"Told you!" Flourish yelled over the din of the rain.
Tara wasn't listening. She was running through the mud and whooping for joy. Her once dying world was hauling itself back from a grim, grey afterlife.
But why? The question halted Tara in her parade as she began to think hard. What had sparked the Earth back to life?
Excited for what she knew was going to come, Tara grinned.
"Pack your bags, Flourish!" she yelled. "We're going on a road trip!"