Author's note: I've continually spaced mentioning it, but I was at Sega of America's 2014 Sonic Boom convention in New York City last weekend. From my short time spent playing each demo and watching the trailers and the cast's script read-throughs, I'm most excited for the show, but certainly nothing shown off looks "bad" in any measure. Most importantly to me, it's a new canon and universe opening up - surely ripe for interesting fanfics to read - and we haven't gotten one in a while.

After such an uncomfortably long stretch without anything to drink, a nice, light sprinkling of rain was very welcome for the animals. At first, they simply let the drops fall on them and opened their mouths opportunistically upward, but occasionally they would cup their hands together to accumulate a sizable gulp-ful of it.

"Wow," Arrowhead chirped between hand-cup-fuls of clear, 7-pH goodness, "I mean, I do remember hearing that the clouds could have something in store down the road, but this really is nice." Being a toad, he looked quite at home in the rain.

Maxwell did seem a little uncomfortable with the downpour after the initial surprise of it, quickly retracting his wings. Jewel and Arrowhead, however, were more appreciative. Even Star had apparently been constructed in a manner accounting for such variables of precipitation, as it was only enjoying getting clean, the thin and gnarling streaks of caked-on dirt washing off; Paint didn't suppose it had had any sort of bath recently. Enjoying the rain very much herself, she slowly rotated and stretched her arms, legs, torso, and neck to expose as much of her surface area as possible to the water. She then simply lay down stomach-up on the yellowed grass, pleased with the situation and sensation to an extent that bordered on ecstasy.

Something was off, though, and Arrowhead was fit to mention it: "Heyyy... this is some rain. It can't have just gotten like this for us, right?"

"Well," Paint giggled quietly as the sharper blades of her fur mingled fluidly with their soil-bound cousins, "we are pretty important. Our arrival rings in a new era, Arrow, one of noble crusading for a noble cause!"

"Uh, huh, sure," he said. "What I mean is, if this is how the weather gets over here, how do you figure the plant life's so far on the malnourished, beaten-down side?"

"Hmm..." She sat up and puzzled in tandem with him. "That's a good question." The plant life's egregiously poor health did seem to lie at odds with the current weather.

Kapow! Another thunderclap shook them to their bones, and despite having her legs and rear end on the ground, she seemed to jump a foot in the air with it. "Aaaagh! ...Yeah, a good question. Hmmm, I'd like to blame these cascades of electric fury for the general sparseness of vibrant plant life around here, but unfortunately, I don't think most short-stature plants share my... mild disinterest in lightning."

She stood all the way up, stretched once more for good measure, and began to investigate the surrounding ground, puzzled. It couldn't have been that it had all been trampled by something or someone; the grass didn't quite look flattened, and conversely it also wasn't vibrantly growing back against any such compression. The damage appeared longer-lasting, too. Try as she might, though, she could not weasel out a cause.

Of course, she did not always have to be the one to. "Eewww!" Jewel cried from out of sight. "This is just horrible!"

Panicked, she rushed to his side to have a look at what was the matter. Nothing jumped out right away; he was just standing mum before the dried-out creek, which was a bit full of rainwater, and... therein lay the problem.

"This is disgusting," Maxwell spat. "Man, I can't imagine the stupidest, least-evolved plants out there growing in soil that's irrigated by sludge like this." He was spot-on: the advent of rainwater was unearthing a disgusting alternative to real water. It was black, not far from being opaque, and even greasy-looking in texture and consistency.

The resident botany expert nodded his smooth, dripping head and confirmed, "That's gotta be it. I have no idea how often it rains here - although I suspect the rates are similar to what we have back at home; I mean, w-we aren't that far away, augh - but whenever it does, the plant life is reinfected by... by this."

"I feel just horrible," Jewel pouted. "Sure, the water feels nice on us, but if it hadn't happened... th-these plants would have a bit more of a chance for... ah..."

"Not much of one," Arrowhead contested darkly as he gazed without clear focus into the murky, tumultuous sky. "This is a serious, long-lasting issue in the soil here. I can tell. This river is... sick."

Paint came to her senses and into the moment, realizing that she had been sitting down amongst grass blades and miscellaneous weeds that were probably not wise to expose oneself to for too long. Panicking a little, she took rivulets of rainwater in her hands and brushed them across her fur with finger-claws extended, making sure to clean herself as thoroughly as possible. The pouring rain, fortunately, could do a bit of the work, and Arrowhead hopped over to pick a few lingering grass blades and leaves off of her back, scratching a little in the process.

"Whew, thanks!" she exhaled. Satisfied with her cleanliness, she relaxed, and so did he. "H-hey," she asked then, "why'd you stop? That felt good, heheh."

"Ahah, I'm sure... But maybe we should focus on finding somewhere to escape the rain now; I- I think we've been out in this downpour for quite a while, and we have the opposite problem now from before: it shows no signs of quitting anytime soon."

"Good idea. Hrm... how about that?" She pointed out, on the same side of the creek as them, a moderately-angled tree, which, while not in the best of health itself, would give them a bit of welcome shelter if they could squeeze in underneath it. While it hosted few leaves and none in strong, colorful health, the area sheltered by its trunk could be thick enough for a few tween- and teen-aged animal bodies to occupy if they positioned themselves correctly. The old thing was grayed and sad in its old majesty, but it would have to be their benefactor this evening.

"Eh, I'll give it two and a half stars. Charming, but uneffective; would only recommend to thrifty consumers. Needs improvement. Whatever, we'll take it," Maxwell summarized tiredly and plodded over to it, unwilling to bare his wings to the rain for the walk over. The others joined him.

The firefly nestled himself in the craw of the tree, sitting face-up with his tail to the roots. He initially held his backpack across his chest, but when Arrowhead joined him, Maxwell moved the pack out of the way and suggested out loud, "Er, hey, Arrow, there's room right here," patting his chest again. Hearing him, the toad nodded and obediently curled up with his head on Maxwell's torso and his pack out from under the tree as well. After setting hers there, Paint shook the water out from her fur, leaving it frazzled but comfortably dry, and snuggled in against Arrowhead, her left rosy ear to his heartbeat. Cautiously, Jewel took the last successive position, but he noticed that there was a bit more room under the overhanging trunk. He walked out, grabbed everyone's packs along with his own, and placed them in the last remaining uncovered space, then returned to their safe spot, curling up with his head on Paint's stomach. With his head bobbing up and down slowly from her breathing in and out, he looked around and noticed the one remaining issue that had not yet been dealt with.

Star was still waiting patiently outside. There was no more room, nor would the diameter of the trunk have provided the bulky robot complete protection anyway, but Paint still apologized to it. "I'm sorry, Star. If you want, I'll leave if you can find a way to squeeze in! Plants love water, anyway..." It was a little hokey, sure, but she meant it.

The robot politely declined, giggling at the prospect of edging everyone else out to accommodate its giant metal hull. It sat down and looked at its friends patiently once more, as though asking if it was time for bed.

"Well" - she yawned with unexpected force and length - "you can wake me up if you change your mind, then! I'm ready for some shut-eye, if you guys don't mind..."

"Meh, we've got nothing else to do," Maxwell groaned. "Downpours like this are just useless when you expect to get anything done, and I am mighty used-up..."

"I'm fine with that; it's gotten rather late, too," Arrowhead affirmed, and Jewel smiled softly.

"Then that's it," she concluded. "G'night, Star! Enjoy your sweet dreams about, uh, I don't know, erm, shooting ba... er, not shooting bad guys, instead educating them through example on the merits of kindness and acceptance." Star whirred sure and began its power-down cycle.

Paint looked up for a quick second at her nearest companion, nuzzled Arrowhead affectionately with her head, kissed him on the stomach, and quickly drifted off.