The epic third episode of…

The Pencil Rain

Somewhere near Tails's workshop

1300 hours

"Eggman! YOU DID THIS!" Sonic yelled as he prepared for Tails to get out his plane for an aerial battle. However, Tails's head was still spinning with trying to find a better alternative to using Chaos Control, getting noticed, and getting unwanted attention from the same Eggman who happened to be floating overhead that moment.

"Hey, well if it isn't Sonic down there," Dr. Eggman said to himself surprisingly without any indication of being diabolic. "These pencils are getting extremely difficult to look around; I can't even look up at the sky to observe the planets. Especially when I want to observe the ARK. I guess I might go down and fight him because it's getting too hard to fly up here." Eggman, sitting in his trademark floating command sphere, pushed the "DESCEND" button. Resuming his normal diabolicalness as he floated downward, he said, "Sonic, if it isn't you. You aren't prepared to fight me now, so I can use this chance to finish you off! And, huh? You have an emerald too? Prepare to fight!" He took this opportunity to reveal missile launchers. It seemed, though, as this was all too predictable. Eggman used machine-related attack, Sonic outran the weapons, Sonic went after sphere, sequence repeated 2 more times, Eggman yelled "Curses!" before speeding away. It had been done too many times, and it could be renewed at a later date. Right now, he wanted to mix it up a bit. "Sonic, have any last words?" Eggman asked tauntingly.

"Your pencil scheme is going to fail, Eggman!" was the all too predictable reply. Sonic didn't expect the rebuttal, though…

"What? I didn't put those pencils there!"

"HUH?" Now Sonic was amazed. He would have guessed that Eggman was bluffing, but he knew from previous adventures that Eggman always told his schemes to him because his nemesis-as-usual always thought his plan would work. "You…didn't put the pencils in the sky?"

"Not at all, Sonic. They've been bugging me as much as you. I want them gone as well. I don't have enough time to get force fields up over my base, so I have no choice but to stop them. If they destroy the planet, we're going like everybody else."

"So… Hey Tails! Eggman here is going to help with the pencils!" Sonic called into the workshop.

"WHAT!" Tails ran out to see Eggman there, with Sonic still holding an emerald without the doctor even attempting to grab it.

"Yes, I'm burying the hatchet," Eggman admitted, almost sighing. "We'll dig it back up later."

"Alright," Tails said knowing that circumstances had just turned weirder than if pencils were flying. Wait, they were… He continued, "If you don't mind I think that even with one emerald we can't do it. Our friends may have some more, and if we build an amplifying machine and do the sky in chunks, we can beat time."

Sonic agreed to find anyone through which an emerald had passed in the week prior to the final battle with Perfect Chaos, while Eggman and Tails worked out a blueprint for a machine. The thing that became known to Sonic soon after he set off was that these were no ordinary No. 2 pencils. They were beginning to have an uncanny influence on certain individuals…

To be continued in the epic fourth act of… THE PENCIL RAIN. Who are these individuals? Why do pencils affect them? And why don't we use No. 1 pencils? Keep reading.