The epic first chapter of…

The Pencil Rain

A story involving Sonic and Co. facing a great and very odd threat…

Disclaimer: I am not a part of SEGA or They Might Be Giants, so please don't take legal action.

Outside Station Square

1230 hours

As the sun bore down on the desert where about a hundred troops were doing drills, one particular soldier was having a hard time staying up in the sand. It had been several hours, and he felt like he was going to slip and stumble any second now.

"Uh, uh, AAAH!" he yelled as he fell down. Since there had been very little evidence of anything but sand for a while, the drill sergeant told him to get up.

"Lee! What are you doing in the sand? Get up!"

"Yes, sir! OW!"

"What is it?"

"I think I broke my ankle, sir!"

"OK, let me take a closer look. Yep, it's pretty banged up. Why is there a rock out here in the middle of nowhere?" the drill sergeant said (which, considering the yelling that people of his occupation do, is actually remarkable.) "MEDIC!" A medic was immediately there to take a look while the drill sergeant yelled back at the others that "there is no slacking in the army, get back to it."

A wrap was on the injury in a matter of minutes, but during this span of time the soldier was looking upwards through his binoculars at the sky to get his mind off of the pain. The sun, the blue, the clouds, and- something else yellow, and interesting. He had to tell his officer. Before the others got any farther, he yelled as hard as he could, "SIR!" He could not believe what he saw. It amazed him. It frightened and confused him.

From across the way, he heard "WHAT IS IT?"

"I WOULD LIKE TO CONFIRM THAT I HAVE SEEN PENCILS IN THE SKY! AND THEY'RE SHARPENED!"

Before long he was back, though none too pleased. "You better not be pulling my leg," he grumbled as he looked skyward. "I can't believe it," he said in stunned disbelief. "Those ARE pencils! I'm reporting this." And so the drill sergeant was before long calling up his superior about the pencils.

I swear, these are sharpened pencils, floating up there!"

"Yes, yes, I'll take a look," said his superior, clearly conveying with tone that he thought the man on the other end was a nutcase. After hanging up, he looked out the window and got a telescope. He was stunned, shocked, frightened, and confused, the emotional equivalent of being hit by a car. "Oh my goodness, he was right. I have to call my boss!"

And so it was that the pencil story worked its way to the top of the ranks before dinner. Military intelligence, contacted by General Tibbett, prepared a news report to be released the following day. The damage report that resulted from a conjecture on if the pencils would fall ended with a statement, kept out of the press report, that the pencils had a 40 chance of falling in the next week, and that they had the potential to cause billions of dollars in damage and thousands of deaths.

Presidential Residence

2245 hours

The President was just about to call it a day when there was a call. "Why is General Tibbett calling at this time of day?" the President wondered aloud as he picked up the phone.

"Sir, I have some terrible news to tell you," Tibbett said.

"What?"

"There are pencils in the sky. And they're sharpened. They are currently the world's greatest threat." Tibbett then proceeded to give the full damage report should any pencils fall. The President listened in disbelief. As the general concluded, he said, "The press report is being released tomorrow, but in the meantime, we have no idea what to do to actively combat the pencil threat. We are working on it, though. Goodbye, sir."

The President hung up and thought, "I need the cabinet alerted. I also, well, no, what could he do about it? Maybe his friend can come up with an invention, like he always does. Sonic, we need you right now."

So, yes, I admit it starts off slow and it reads like a prologue, but the action is guaranteed in the second epic chapter of… THE PENCIL RAIN. And now, an explanation. Yes, this is my first fanfic, but I don't believe that is an excuse for sloppiness. This is also my first story. I decided to go with an original concept- take a song and put it into the context of a videogame. I thought "Pencil Rain" by They Might Be Giants would be perfect, because it has a feel of adventure in it, and I thought it would be great to take this concept and place it in the Sonic world, where there is no shortage of great threats. Besides, it sounds funny. Please submit reviews and I'll have something else up some other time. Larry