The epic fourth act of…

The Pencil Rain

(This is where it starts to get interesting…)

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with SEGA, They Might be Giants or their record company, and anyone else except for my original character, Malachite.

Green Forest/White Jungle/Mystic Ruins (aka lost…)

230 hours

"Where in the world is everybody? Where am I, most importantly?" Sonic wondered as he trudged through what seemed like the longest stretch of forest he'd ever been in. Usually it took him around 5 minutes to find his way out of one of these. He had already been here for quite a while, and meanwhile those pencils were ready to drop at any moment…

He finally found a place of interest, but not in a good way. This was not Angel Island, this was not the house of a certain large purple cat with a pet frog, no, this was sludge. It wouldn't actively suck the unlucky trespasser in, of course, but it wouldn't let you go so easy either. Sonic had had the misfortune of putting his shoe into the mystery mix that appeared too be a tar-like pool that stretched on for what seemed to be a mile. Of course, it was the same color as everything else given the time, so who knows how long it actually was.

Sonic had no luck with his shoe. It seemed as if his right foot was going to be planted there until the pencils fell. The only way he would escape would be to either leave his shoe or dig in the sludge, which could easily backfire. As Sonic contemplated the situation, the existence of a vine became apparent. All he had to do was pull it under the specially engineered and quite expensive shoe and pull his leg out. As Sonic pulled the vine underneath his shoe, he saw a green flicker off in the distance. There was no moon out, so what could be daring to shine in the pitch black night? Sonic realized that this flicker was at a far away point in a possibly lethal sludge pit of unknown depth and length. As his foot was finally set free, he also remembered that a great way to do shortcuts was to walk on top of the dense tree cover. Why hadn't he thought of something like that earlier? He had it now, so it wasn't that important. He climbed the tree the best way he could- with a well-aimed Spin Dash- and checked for a flicker while standing on the top.

The flicker was getting faster and faster, and brighter as well. There was no way that those could be fireflies, especially with the way that they started to synchronize and stay in place. Finally, after about a minute, they stayed on all the way. The entire area was lit up, and it appeared that a marmot was floating in the middle of it. Her eyes were the source of the eerie green light, and the pit surrounding her was actually small. She was gray-furred with a white muzzle, slightly shorter than Sonic, and with white gloves and a dark green dress that fell below her feet. She had hair that ended above her shoulders, and she was floating as if it was natural, in a standing position. After she had floated there a while, she moved slightly in Sonic's direction. Several trees sprang up immediately on the side of the pit across from Sonic, while the tree he stood on shrank into the sludge in a split second. It didn't take long for Sonic to realize his tree was disappearing, but he was already halfway down before he managed to jump to another tree.

"Holy chili dog, I barely got out of that one," Sonic said, still startled by the sudden shrinking of the… tree doesn't start with S? Oh well. "She has to be upset, because her nature powers are showing their bad side right now." The only thing wrong right now was the pencil problem, so that had to be it. Sonic decided to take a risk (he'd taken much worse) and shouted, "Are the pencils bothering you?"

The marmot across the pond responded with a moment's hesitation, and then vines. Dashing out of the way, Sonic barely missed a vine swinging at him at full speed. He was slowed down considerably because of the lack of moonlight and the consideration of a safe landing with every dodge, compounded by the trees shrinking and reappearing with even a slight movement. Vine after vine seemed to slash across the black, even though there was really no place for the upper part of the vine to be connected to, or a plausible way for the vines to travel at such high velocity. Sonic realized that this called for action, but actually putting it into use would prove tricky.

The radius of the danger zone meant that a simple Homing Attack wouldn't reach her. He had sense that the pencils were the only reason for her behavior, so he didn't want to do too much damage. He decided on a quick Spin Dash across to bump into her and possibly jar her senses awake.

"Concentrate…jump…jump from side to side…avoid that big one…wait for it…GO!" Sonic thought as he got into position. A quick rev, and he was sent flying. The blue ball flew in a perfect arc headed for the mystery marmot halfway across. The tree was in position to catch him, and he was about to make contact. As moments passed in that lucky shot, one could almost hear the music playing…right until a vine smacked Sonic on the head, sending the ball of spikes straight into his target and then falling into the sludge.

The impact woke the marmot from her trance, and made her look around to see what damage she could have caused this time. She looked down to see a certain blue hedgehog passed out underneath her. The sludge was beginning to disappear, revealing earth and trees. She descended to pick him up and try to wake him up.

The next thing Sonic felt after being hit on the head with a thick vine was the sort of headache that made it feel like he had been hit on the head with a thick vine. He woke up to see a much kinder marmot than he previously dealt with; the same one, but without the vines. He grumbled, "Ow. It feels a lot like I just jot hit on the head with a thick vine."

"Oh, was I doing that again?" the marmot asked as she gave this hedgehog a yellow bottle. "Have this, it helps."

Sonic had some, and the moment he swallowed, the pain vanished. "Wow, that does help! I feel great!" He immediately hopped up and asked, confused, "Again? Does this happen often? Who are you? And what is that stuff made of?"

"One at a time," the marmot replied. "I'm Malachite. Who are you?"

"I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog."

"I could tell that. The hedgehog part, I mean," Malachite said in response to Sonic's trademark introduction. "I'm familiar with every variety of flora and fauna. That's why I can make things like that. And sadly, yes it has been happening lately. I always respond to events about a week in advance, but I don't know why. Perhaps it's to provide as a general warning sign of things to come. Anyway, I have never responded to anything this strongly. No, actually, come to think of it, I could tell that something was horribly wrong a month or so ago. That was worse."

"That was Perfect Chaos threatening to destroy the world with the power of the Emeralds," Sonic chimed in.

"Yes, I could tell, and I also knew it abruptly stopped. Why was that?"

"I defeated Perfect Chaos."

"Wow, you have to be… I thought that was impossible. We'll talk about it later. As I was saying, these events cause me to turn the immediate area into a horrible mess and make me aggressive."

"That's an understatement."

"I guess you're right. Even though I have nature powers, I can't seem to make out this threat. Nothing of natural origin caused this or is a part of it."

"I know what they are. They are pencils. And they're sharpened."

"What are pencils? I have never been outside the forest."

Sonic felt dumb for having to explain pencils to another clearly intelligent person/marmot, but he gave a good explanation anyway.

"Hmm. That explains the vision of a rain the color of daffodils killing everything underneath."

Sonic clearly thought that peaceful daffodils were a strange thing to use as part of a description of something that could very well do great harm…no, that would be a huge understatement. "So you're saying this couldn't be a freak accident of the skies?"

"No, I am very close to the sky. That is how I fly."

Before Sonic had to listen to more of this mumbo jumbo, he asked, "Is there anything you can do to help me stop the pencils?"

"In addition to plants and animals, I have a connection with the Chaos Emeralds. I could help you find them."

"That'd be great! Any advice?"

"Right now, all I can say is that there is a particularly nasty stretch of forest that way. Once you enter, any way you walk takes you deeper. The only way to exit is to walk backwards. Don't go that way. I suppose you may know someone that could have any?"

"Sure do." And so they walked off, with Malachite acting as a compass.

This is probably my most expansive work to date, and the point where the story really takes off. It only gets better from here, folks. I realize that anyone hoping to get a faithful Sonicky representation of Pencil Rain (the song) will be sorely disappointed. But that would simply be predictable and exceedingly short (the song runs around 2:20.) So please give me writing tips, and be prepared for more action, adventure, and uses of the word pencil in Part 5 of… THE PENCIL RAIN.