A/N: What can I say? Things finally start to pick up, and it took me this dang long! I'm very disappointed in myself. *shakes head* Well, enjoy! Oh, and RSE, you're right. Fran's headband IS blue! How did I not notice it before...?

Cloudy Hope

Flint opened his eyes and found Steve looking down at him.

"Hurt?" asked Steve.

"No Steve, I'm fine," said Flint, standing up with a wince. He quickly moved his lab coat aside and peeked under his shirt at the bandages. A thin red line of blood had appeared, but it wasn't much. "Just a little crispy." This was the second time he had electrocuted himself that day. The only reason he survived was because his Spray-On Shoes didn't conduct electricity. Looking up, he saw that the clamps were still in place on the wires. He just hoped no one had seen or heard him, especially the mayor. He was still banned from bringing his inventions into public, after all...

"C'mon Steve, let's get this thing hooked up," said Flint, grabbing the final cords that he would connect to his machine.

Flint hopped over the fence... and face-planted. Okay, so maybe he was still a little frazzled from his second zap of the morning, but the thrill of his new invention was enough to make him stand up. He dashed back to the machine and Steve stood next to him.

"Food synthesis... go," muttered Flint, as he snapped the clamps open and closed, causing them to spark. He held the clamps open and then snapped them onto the machine. It whirred to life and started glowing. The screen showed a cheeseburger again. Flint grabbed the paper plate he had kept in his lab coat and placed it underneath the machine, where the cheeseburger would end up. He then took out the bottle of water he had grabbed earlier and unscrewed it, pouring the whole thing into the machine. It started vibrating and shaking with a new energy, the cheeseburger inside coming to life. Flint smiled, ready for his life-changing invention to produce a burger. But then...

"FLINT LOCKWOOD!" The shout came from behind him. Flint whipped his head around and saw Earl galloping towards him at full speed.

Flint quickly looked back at his machine. It was rattling so violently that he feared it would fall apart. The loading bar was almost full. "Just a minute!" exclaimed Flint. He knew that Earl would try to take his machine away, so he held on tight to both of the cords connecting the machine to the power station. "I'm in the middle of a- AAAAHHHHH!"

The second Earl lunged at Flint, the machine took off like a rocket, dragging Flint in tow. He kept a death grip on the cords, knowing that if he let go, he would probably die. Flint and the machine shot through the air; Flint's screaming turning the heads of everyone in the crowd. The machine rocketed around in circles for a minute before slamming back into the street, ramming into cars and setting off car alarms. The machine then took a crazy turn and shot straight for the sardine factory. It hit the large "F" and knocked it off so that the sign now said "Swallow Alls." It went shooting back towards the crowd, Flint still screaming behind it.

Because he had no means of steering the homicidal machine, he couldn't stop it when it rammed right into a strawberry blonde girl who was talking into a camera. "Sorry!" he yelled over his shoulder, even though she probably couldn't hear him. The machine, now corkscrewing through the air, flew straight at Mayor Shelbourne. Luckily, the mayor was so close to the ground anyways that he barely had to duck. Flint and the machine flew straight over his head... and right into the monstrosity that was unveiled moments ago, called Sardine Land. He flew underneath the large tank that was holding "The World's Largest Sardine," bouncing around the support poles like it was a giant game of pinball. Flint felt his left shin smash against one of the poles, and the pain was almost enough to make him let go of the machine.

The rocket of a machine suddenly shot out from underneath the poles and right back through the crowd. Time seemed to slow down as Flint flew right by his dad! He swore he even made eye contact for a moment before the machine carried Flint down the street. Flint somehow managed to get upright, and he dug his feet into the road, his Spray-On Shoes digging up the pavement. He flew right into a car, shattering the windshield and getting broken glass in his legs.

And then he hit the stop sign. The cables came off and the machine shot straight up into the air, still going.

Flint felt like his face had just exploded after the head-on collision with the stop sign. Ever since breaking his nose in the car accident, any collision made it feel like it had just broken all over again. That wasn't the only thing that hurt. His chest and stomach had collided with the pole holding the sign up. As he fell on his back, he coughed and blood came out of his mouth. He wiped the blood off of his face as he stood up. Quickly taking in the surroundings, he saw that he was right back where he had originally started, and Steve was sitting next to the stop sign.

The machine... Flint looked up and saw the machine's purple contrail shooting up into the clouds. That machine had been his last hope. His last hope to help everybody. But it had just gone wrong and destroyed half the town. Just like all of his other inventions. He slowly reached his hand up into the sky, as if trying to feebly grasp what had been his last lifeline. "No..."

Suddenly, out of nowhere, he was tackled by a furious Officer Earl. Flint cried out in pain as he rolled across the ground, now incredibly sore and bruised up from the rough flight. He was sure he felt blood dripping down his side now. His nose was bleeding too.

Earl lifted Flint up by his lab coat. "You're under arrest, Flint Lockwood!" he shouted, shaking Flint. Flint clutched his chest as the shake sent an icy shot of pain through his bruised and possibly broken ribcage. Earl reached into his pocket at started to pull out a pair of handcuffs. "Thank goodness you only caused minimal damage to Sardine Land!"

However, as he said that, a loud groaning sound filled the air. Everyone's heads turned to look as the giant tank full of water tipped over because of the damage to the supports. It fell on it's side, soaking everyone near it. Then it started to roll. Everyone started to run at this point. Earl dropped Flint and ran to grab his son, who was well away from the danger zone to start with. Flint hurriedly stood, grabbed Steve, and started running.

"I really shouldn't be running with these!" Flint heard Brent exclaim as he ran, holding the giant scissors away from his body. Ignoring him, Flint continued to run as the giant glass ball of death chased him. He heard a crash and saw that it had destroyed what was left of Sardine Land, and it was gaining on him.

"RUN! RUN! RUN! JUMP! RUN! RUN!" shouted Steve, hopping off of Flint's shoulder and running for himself.

Flint couldn't run any longer; the pain was just too much. His legs gave out and he collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath. The giant glass tank rolled right past him, the lip of the glass barely brushing against his hair. Steve came and stood right next to Flint. They both watched as the tank hit something that caught fire and exploded, sending it flying up into the air, where all the water sloshed out of it. It came back down... and landed right on Flint and Steve, trapping them inside.

"Uh oh..." muttered Flint as he shakily stood up. The whole town had surrounded the glass bowl, screaming at Flint. Of course, he couldn't hear them from inside the glass prison, but as he scanned the crowd, his bluish-purple eyes found his father.

Tim wasn't saying anything. He just looked severely disappointed. Flint knew that once he got out of here, he would be in big trouble... if he got out. He would probably be disowned. A second later, Tim turned away and started to walk through the crowd.

"Dad?" whispered Flint, walking up to the glass and pressing his hands and face against it. Tim kept walking away. Now everyone, having said what they needed to say, started to walk away too. Tim was still the furthest away.

"Dad!" exclaimed Flint, even though he knew that Tim couldn't hear him. "Dad, no please don't leave!" It was getting harder to breathe, but not from his asthma or the lack of oxygen. It was from the crushing weight of defeat. After every one of his failures, someone had been there to help him. But now his best friend was in the States and his own father had turned against him. Right at that moment, he missed his mom like never before.

In frustration, Flint banged his fist, bleeding from cable burns, into the glass wall. Suddenly, there was a cracking noise as the whole bowl spider-webbed and shattered, the glass falling in on him and Steve. Luckily, the larger pieces of glass fell around them, and Flint was only covered in small specks of glass, earning only a few cuts on his hands and neck. Steve, who had hidden under Flint's lab coat when the glass shattered, didn't even get hit.

Flint opened his eyes and saw everyone staring at him. Their gazes were filled with seething hate, and Flint especially didn't like the way Daniel was slowly reaching for Brent's scissors. Suddenly, Flint's eyes found his father. Tim was still walking away. He hadn't even stopped when he heard the glass shattering. That was what crushed Flint most of all. He staggered a bit as if he had been physically struck, but then he turned around and sprinted off towards the docks as fast as his broken body would allow, Steve following him.

By the time Flint made it to the end of the docks, tears were already flowing freely from his eyes and he stumbled to a stop, almost falling into the water. Slowly, he climbed down the boat ladder and turned around, sitting on it underneath the dock. He let out a choked sob before wiping his eyes clear.

Steve poked his head down from the dock. "Flint sad?"

"Yeah, a little," Flint choked out. His throat hurt from screaming so much, and the rest of his body hurt from the wild ride. But it was his heart that hurt more than the other injuries.

Steve swung down and sat next to Flint on the ladder. Flint sighed and rested his chin on a rung, looking down at his reflection. He looked even more pathetic than before, with cuts on his face, a bruise on his cheek, bloodshot eyes, and glass in his hair. Steve scooted a little closer and rubbed his head affectionately against Flint's arm. Flint smiled and closed his eyes... but that was when he heard the footsteps. Someone was up on top of the dock, and coming their way.

Flint huddled a bit closer to the ladder, but relaxed a little bit when he saw that it was the strawberry blonde girl that he had knocked over earlier. She looked pretty depressed as she looked at her microphone (confirming Flint's suspicion about her being on television earlier). Suddenly, she drew her arm back and flung the microphone as far as she could. It splashed down in the water about 100 feet away.

Nice throw... thought Flint. He heard the girl sigh and her footsteps move, but he wasn't at all prepared to be kicked in the face. "AAAHHH!" he screeched.

The girl jumped to her feet, finally noticing Flint. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, I'm fine," said Flint, checking to make sure he didn't have a black eye. "It's just pain. I'm used to it."

"Sorry, I'm not myself today," she said, looking kinda nervous. "My whole career was just ruined by some crazy jerk riding a homemade rocket!"

Flint's eyes widened and he quickly looked away, feeling guilt start to smother him again.

"Wait a minute..." said the girl, her eyes narrowing as she looked at Flint. He thought he felt his heart stop for a minute. However, he breathed a sigh of relief (and slight annoyance) when she said: "What is going on with your feet?"

He had hoped she wouldn't notice. "Um... Spray-On Shoes," he said, holding his left foot up a bit for her to get a better look. He just hoped she wouldn't burst into laughter. "They uh... they don't come off."

Flint was thrown for a loop when the girl exclaimed, "Cool!" and proceeded to grab his foot and yank it upwards so she could get a better look at it. This caused Flint to smack his head against one of the rungs of the ladder, and it also sent another burst of pain through his leg. "This could solve the untied shoes epidemic!"

Flint's eyes widened with surprise as the girl got extremely excited, her bright green eyes widening. "What are they made of, some kind of plastic binary adhesive?" she asked.

Flint smiled. "Yeah... that's exactly it..." He never would have thought that by looking at her she would be interested in sciency stuff.

Suddenly, something in the girl's eyes changed. "I mean um... hehe, wow, they're... shiny!" Her face dropped into a frustrated frown. "Uh, I'm Sam. Sam Sparks," she said, releasing Flint's leg.

Because his leg was now free, Flint's entire body whipped around as it fell, and he banged his head again. "Flint Lockwood," he said, rubbing the sore spot on his head.

"STEVE!" exclaimed Steve.

The girl, Sam, gasped and went slightly cross-eyed. "Is that a Monkey Thought Translator?" she exclaimed.

"Steve!" confirmed Steve. Flint smiled at the shocked and excited look on her face.

"Incredible!" exclaimed Sam. "Did you make all of this stuff?" Suddenly, realization dawned on her face and she gasped before narrowing her eyes. "You hit me with a rocket!" she exclaimed, pointing accusingly at Flint.

"You kicked me in the face!" he exclaimed.

"I said I was sorry!" exclaimed Sam. She started to go off on a rant about how Flint had ruined her career as a weather girl, but Flint was distracted as something yellow flew out of the sky and stuck to the side of the ladder. It looked like mustard. Steve swung down a bit and tasted it.

Before Flint even had time to be weirded out, something green flew past his face and landed in the water. As it sunk, he got a good look at it: a sliced pickle.

"What..." breathed Flint. Suddenly, he heard Sam stop her rant at the same time that something hit a metal barrel near the end of the short dock. Flint poked his head up and climbed onto the dock. He slowly walked over to the barrel. What he saw inside shocked him to his very core.

"Cheese?" He slowly reached down into the barrel, but before he could grab it, a Ratbird appeared out of nowhere and hissed at him, grabbing the cheese and flying off. Shocked, Flint stumbled backwards away from the barrel.

"...But that must mean..." Flint stood up and turned around. He gasped, his eyes opening wide and his jaw dropping as he was bathed in orange and purple light.

Down the dock, Sam saw Flint's face and she too turned around, gasping at what she saw. In the town, there wasn't a single person without wide eyes and an open mouth. Even Steve gasped!

Flint slowly walked to the end of the dock and stood next to Sam, his mouth never closing. Excitement was building up inside of him so fast that it was getting hard to breathe, and he found himself almost hyperventilating. Out over the water, bright orange and purple clouds surged towards Swallow Falls. Beams of blue, pink, orange, red, and purple light emanated down from the clouds, which looked like a mass of giant... cheeseburgers...

And then it happened. It started raining. The next thing Flint new, it was raining cheeseburgers all around him. A small clap of thunder rumbled through the sky, and Flint finally managed to close his mouth and take a deep breath.

"Excited!" exclaimed Steve, jumping around. "Excited!"

His smile growing wider by the minute, Flint let out an excited laugh and held his hand up. A cheeseburger fell right into it. He held it in his hands for a minute before taking a bite. He couldn't believe it! It was real!

"My machine works..." he said to himself, swallowing the mouthful of burger. This was the most he had smiled since his mom died. He threw his head back and allowed himself a moment to bask in the glory. I finally did it Mom! I finally made you proud!

"IT REALLY WORKS!"

A/N: And that's all we have time for tonight, ladies and gentlemen. I love love LOVE this part in the movie; it's so... powerful! And the music is amazing! It really gives you that feel of eureka, and it's just awesome! So... hopefully it won't take me that long to get another chapter up! Until then... I have to go eat a steak now. Mmmm, meat...