Author's note: Since the Archie Comics universe is a no-no as far as fan-fic goes, I have cobbled together information from every other sonic resource available, including Sonic X, the Sonic games, old Sonic TV shows, the UK Sonic the Comic, and my own head. This incarnation of the Sonic universe does not follow any established continuity or canon. I've taken a few liberties with the 40k source material, but have tried to stay as loyal to the original source material as possible, to honor the Glorious Emperor.
"In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war." –Warhammer 40,0000
"WH40kcan make anything Awesome…This is my creed. The Emperor's hand guides all." Charles Behpin
"That's way past cool!" – Sonic the Hedgehog
I. Through the Warp
The skies above Malakh III were the color of raw flesh, vapor trails from jets and rockets stretched across it expanse like veins, and the setting sun was an angry tumor on the horizon that illuminated the carnage on the ground. The air was thick with the copper scent of blood, the rot of corpses and worse things. The servants of Nurgle had been here, and the stench of his children was nauseating.
Sergeant Iruel Dungaan observed the cleansed plains of what had only an hour before been a battlefield. The bodies of his chapter brothers lay beside the wretched heretics, mutants, and daemons of Chaos. Here and there, brothers from other squads roamed the field, the eerie quiet interrupted by the occasional short burst of a bolt pistol and the mewling death rattle of some wretched thing on its way back to its dark masters.
Iruel stood beside the remains of his squad: Brother Zerachiel Uldoc and Brother Dumah Golaan. The other two squad members had died honorably for the Emperor against the forces of Chaos, taking hundreds of heretics screaming to hell with them before they were engulfed in the twisted energies of the Warp. A Space Marine could ask for no better.
Here and there Iruel could still sense twists in the air, odd pulses that showed up for an instant in front of his red bionic eye before vanishing again. There was still some threat present, and he must remain ever vigilant.
As a sergeant of one of many squads in the Iron Hands Fifth Company, Iruel had seen enough hellish surprises and unfortunate brothers succumb to the lull after a battle. He felt himself relax somewhat though as he heard the heavy tromp of mechanical footsteps behind him. The Venerable Dreadnought Toramech stomped his way across the field, crushing bone and flesh and armor beneath his heavy feet.
"They fought well Sergeant," Toramech said in his hollow, echoing voice. The power claw at his left flexed around the air, as if still eager to crush something; the lascannon at his right still hummed with energy.
"They did, and they would have continued to fight well had I not been so weak," Iruel replied. "They are not the first I have lost, and I doubt they shall be the last."
"You cannot blame yourself Sergeant," Zerachiel said, his voice amplified through his helmet. "You completed your objective. The Chaos Lord is dead, and this place will be cleansed."
Iruel grunted and looked away from Zerachiel. He was the newest member of Fifth Company, and only had his left bionic fist so far. At his other side, Dumah remained silent as ever, cradling his heavy flamer and scanning the horizon with both of his bionic eyes.
"A victory for the Emperor is a glad thing Sergeant," Toramech said, swiveling his upper torso to face Iruel. "Your men have done their duty and done it well. They shall not be forgotten. Your time would be better spent preparing for the next battle than berating yourself."
"Of course Toramech. Thank you," Iruel said, then paused to listen to the chatter in his ear.
"This is Captain Zephon," the Captain's voice rumbled into Iruel's ear, entirely mechanical. He had replaced much of his weak flesh ages ago. "Glory to the Emperor for our victory today, In His Name," the Captain said, and there were echoing roars of "For the Emperor!" and "In His Glorious Name!" across the battlefield.
"We achieved much today, but our work is not done. This planet must be free of the taint, and we must be certain before we establish a permanent base here. Remain vigilant. Tactical squads one through three, continue your patrols. Tactical squads four through six, return to forward command. Assault squads…" the Captain continued on. Iruel had his orders, and he did not need to hear the rest.
"Come along then Brothers. We will begin patrol to the south. Toramech, will you be joining us?" Iruel asked the massive lumbering coffin.
"It would be my honor Sergeant," Toramech said and marched a short distance ahead of the other three. Zerachiel kept close behind, clearly in awe of the dreadnought. Iruel suppressed a smile at the newcomer's adoration then stopped. There was another anomaly on his read out. Dumah had stopped as well and both of them looked to their right.
"Hold. Disturbance to the west," Iruel said. "Probably just residual Warp energies. Stay ready."
The three marines and the dreadnought crested the next hill, and found themselves standing at the lip of a large crater. The ground sloped down into a bowl shape, filled with corpses and a shallow pool of blood at the center. Above the crimson pool was a rip in the air. The air shimmered like a heat wave and daemonic energies sparked and crackled in the center of the crater. Beyond the foul energies was an infinite realm of nothing but madness and temptation and gore. Iruel instantly raised his bolt pistol and chainsword at the same instant the others readied their weapons.
"It looks like a Warp gate," Zerachiel said. "But…stable."
"The Warp is anything but stable Brother," Toramech intoned and stepped forward, power claw crackling with energy.
"Nothing's coming out," Zerachiel whispered, as if afraid his voice might summon some new horror.
"Yet," Dumah grunted. When he did speak, it was usually in monosyllables.
"Command, this is Sergeant Iruel Dengaan," Iruel said.
"Report Sergeant," a voice replied on the other end.
"Squad has located what appears to be a small, localized Warp disturbance. Brother Dumah is sending coordinates now."
"Received, purge anything that comes out, continue observation. Out." The voice clicked off with a hiss of static.
"We just…watch it?" Zerachiel asked.
"None of us are Librarians, and are not qualified to deal with this sort of abnormality. It seems small enough. We should be able to handle anything that comes out until command makes a decision. It may well close on its own."
Iruel studied the wavering gash in the air, and seriously doubted it would be as simple as that.
***
The skies above Station Square were a clear, serene blue, with only a few soft puffs of clouds, one of which was idly making its way in front of the bright yellow sun. The people of Station Square busied themselves about their daily lives, content in their safety.
Sally Acorn sat out in one of the many parks of the beautiful city, watching the clouds pass lazily overhead and sighed.
"Sally?" a small childlike voice said beside her. Sally looked over and smiled as she saw Tails, his namesakes swishing back and forth behind him.
"Hey Tails," Sally replied. "Something up?"
"It's about Sonic," the small fox said, wringing his gloved hands. Sally frowned. Eggman had been defeated, again, by Sonic but the blue hedgehog had left after the fat genius, following the trail of one of his apparently limitless eggmobiles over the horizon. Still, the city had been celebrating for the past week, as well as rebuilding.
"I just thought that with Eggman beaten, he would finally stick around more, and things would get better," Tails said.
"Things are better Tails," Sally said. "We've made a lot of progress. The city will be completely repaired before you know it. We'll be okay."
Tails nodded and sighed, his ears drooping a bit. Sally ruffled his hair between his ears and looked down at him. "Where's Amy Rose? She's been a bit upset about Sonic's abrupt departure. I'm sure she'd welcome some company."
"She went off to Emerald Coast to pick some special tropical flowers or something girly like that," Tails said and scowled. Sally laughed. For all of the little fox's bravery, he was still just a child. "I'll go try and cheer her up I guess," Tails added and waved to Sally as he left.
Sally returned the wave and returned her gaze to the blue sky above. "Sonic…" she sighed heavily, and hoped that they were all as well off as she had told Tails.
***
Eggman sat in a large, ovoid-shaped chair on the command deck of one of his smaller egg carriers. He had summoned it from his eggmobile days ago and met it somewhere over the ocean. The command deck was currently being run by a variety of badniks Eggman had designed ages ago. He'd never intended to have to use these inferior models again, but he was in a jam, and any help would do right now.
Eggman scowled as he studied one of the dozens of floating holographic monitors in front of him. His long, bristly mustached quivered in agitation.
"No. 53, what is this?" Eggman demanded from one of the mechanical drones nearby. No. 53 was a clunky, dilapidated looking thing: really just a square box of a torso supported by spindly legs, and has equally spindly arms and a mushroom-like head. The red and yellow paint job had long since faded into something resembling orange and cream, at least, where there was still paint. Its green eyes flickered in recognition and it swiveled around on its waist to face its creator. He had to crane his neck back to look up at the machine, barely coming up past its waist.
"It appears to be an unclassified form of weather anomaly, a few miles away from Station Square, in the Emerald Coast region," No. 53 replied in a dull, echoing tone that spoke of eternal boredom.
"A weather anomaly?"
"Yes, master. The long range sensors are picking up something similar to a small, localized electrical storm, but the amount of energy detected is past what our equipment can register."
"Keep an eye on that. If it's that close to Station Square, I'd bet my goggles it has something to do with that foul hedgehog," Eggman said, and then turned his attention to one of the other monitors.
***
Far removed from the cold steel of Eggman's egg carrier, Amy Rose sat amidst a small cluster of bright orange tropical flowers, picking at each one idly. The ocean wasn't far, and its quiet murmur soothed her. The shade from a surrounding copse of palms kept the worst of the sun's glare from her.
"He loves me, he loves me not…he loves me, he loves me not…Sonic!" the little pink hedgehog exclaimed and stamped her foot, startling a small flock of seagulls into the air. "How dare you run off like that again! When I've been waiting for you for so long…"
Amy flopped back down among the flowers, sending up a scatter of plucked petals around her, the results of her morning's efforts. She was about to resume when something caught her eye. There was a strange light behind some of the palms, aware from the beach. It flickered and pulsed and surged like it was alive. Amy stood, dropping the latest flower to the ground.
Amy wound her way through the trees and stopped in wonder at the curious phenomena she saw in front of her. It was a strange hole in the air, ringed by light and energies of various colors that squirmed like snakes.
"What is it?" Amy whispered as she approached the rip in reality slowly, extending a hand towards it.
***
The tech priest, somebody Iruel had never seen before, approached the Warp gate, the large mechanical, spider-like limbs on his back waving and clanking as if in agitation. His entirely metallic face was expressionless, though Iruel thought his bionic eyes glowed a bit brighter as they observed the abomination in the air.
"Greetingssszzz," the priest said in a voice even more mechanical sounding than Toramech's. His voice box was likely replaced ages ago with a mechanical variation, resulting in the strange clicks and buzzing sounds when he spoke. "An interezzzting aberration we have here sar-sar-sergeant-tuh-tuh-tuh."
"Indeed, priest. While we are glad for your assistance, I thought this might be more appropriate for a Librarian to oversee," Iruel said.
"Indee-dee-eed. However-er-er, the Librarian is currently occupied relaying communica-kay-kay-shunnzzz for the captain. I will be sending command information regarding this…distuurr-bu-bu-bance."
Iruel and the others took a few steps back as the priest moved in on legs that whirred and creaked with ancient machinery. Clearly this priest had been around for sometime. The Iron Hands had a much closer relationship to the Adeptus Mechanicus than any other chapter, and paid them great respect.
"Should we…be doing anything sergeant?" Zerachiel asked. Iruel shook his head.
"No brother. The priest knows what he is about," Iruel said as he watched the priest place several monitoring devices on the ground, withdrawing them from his black, tattered cloak with bionic hands. Some of the fingers split open to reveal dozens of long, insect-like metal appendages that tweaked minute dials and buttons on the devices.
"What might your name be priest?" Iruel asked.
"I am Engin-jin-jin-jin-seer Rolos, sergeant," the tech priest replied. "Though for some time I wasszzz also Rune Priest Rolos." Rolos clanked away as he continued to work, muttering litanies over the tiny machines and blessing them with the machine spirit until he was finished. He had made a sort of circle around the warp gate, , then pulled another device from his cloak, something with a small screen.
"Interesszzzting-ing-ing," Rolos said.
"What?" Dumah asked and raised his heavy flamer at the Warp gate.
"Therrrrre appears to be an energy surge. It isszzz growing," Rolos replied. The many mechanical limbs on his back sprang to attention, like several metal scorpion tails raised to strike. A chain-blade on one of them whirred to life.
"Stand ready brothers!" Iruel said and stepped forward, directly in front of the gate, chainsword snarling for blood.
***
Amy Rose gazed up at the gate, entranced by the kaleidoscope of colors that flashed in front of her. As she came nearer, the gate began to beat, like a heart, faster and faster.
"It's…so pretty," Amy breathed, and touched the edge of the gate. There was a sudden bright flash and Amy screamed, trying to draw her hand back. As she did, she felt it pulled back, as if the light itself held her.
"Help! Somebody!" Amy screamed as loud as she could. "Sooonniiic!"
Her cry was cut short as the force of the gate won out over her own pathetic attempts to free herself, and sent her hurtling into the light and through eternity.
***
"It isszzz spiking," Rolos said, watching the gate as it began to pulse and crackle with its twisted energies.
***
"Master," No. 53 said as it once again turned to face Eggman. "The abnormality has greatly increased its energy signature."
"By how much?" Eggman's replied as he pulled up the monitor again.
"It has shown an increase by over nine thousand percent in the last four point three-five seconds."
"What?! Send one of our observation drones to that sector immediately! No! Send a dozen! I want multiple feeds. Do it now!" Eggman roared into the radio before abruptly clicking off.
"Affirmative."
***
Tails was enjoying the sun and the salty air of the beach when he heard a familiar voice cry out, "Help! Somebody! Sooonniiic!"
"Amy?" Tails gasped and began running forward, twirling his tails up for flight as he did. Several swimsuit-clad beach goers were already turning toward the screams, but many paused to look upwards at the flying fox. "Hang on Amy! I'm coming!" Tails shouted as he took to the air, flying as fast as he could in the direction of his friend's panicked scream.
***
Amy felt like she was being torn to pieces and put back together again. She screamed and couldn't hear herself. She was silent and heard other voices, awful voices whispering to her, tearing at her mind and her soul, mocking her with cruel laughter. There were hungry grunts in the void, eager for her flesh, and other voices that expressed an obsessive longing to taste her spirit, to ravage it as others would ravage her body. They would send her howling and begging for oblivion, to have never existed, and when they had decimated her body to nothing but blood, when her soul was a ragged strip of despair, they would repair her and begin again.
"NO!" Amy screamed, and then it stopped. She felt muddy ground under her hands and knees, could feel hot wind across her skin, and taste the tears dribbling into her mouth. Amy sobbed for a moment, shutting her eyes as she squeezed the soft mud between her fingers. When she opened them, she was staring down into a puddle of red fluid. She realized after a second that it was blood, then stood up and screamed again, staring at her crimson hands.
"What…is it sergeant?" somebody asked from in front of her. Amy cut her screaming short and looked up at 3 towering, armored men, a horrific man covered in metal with robotic legs sprouting from his back, and a large, squat mecha. All of them were armed, and all of them were pointing their weapons at her.
***
Iruel had been ready for any sort of daemonic horror or surge of heretics or Chaos Marines to pour through the gate, but not this. He allowed his finger to leave the activation switch of his chainsword and the ferocious mechanical roaring of the weapon died.
"What…is it sergeant?" Zerachiel asked. Iruel was at a loss. He had seen many spawn of the Eye of Terror, altered by the Warp, but never a creature such as what stood before him now, looking up in obvious terror and confusion. Still, it had come through the Warp gate, and it was not human, and that was enough.
"It is a mutant, and that is all we need to know, brother," Iruel said, and raised one massive boot.
"Wh-where am I? Please! M-my name is Amy Rose and...NO!" The creature said as it saw the sergeant raise his foot with the obvious intent of crushing her like a bug. She turned to run, but the abomination's legs failed her and she went sprawling in the pool of blood beneath the gate. She looked up at Iruel and let out an incoherent sob before his boot silenced her. There was the quick snap of bones and the soft squish of the mutant's cursed flesh mingling with the blood-soaked dirt beneath it.
"For the Emperor," Iruel said, and stamped his foot several more times to make sure. Dumah could see one thin pink arm ending in a white-gloved hand sticking out from the side of the sergeant's boot and found the sight darkly amusing.
"Heh," Dumah said and lowered his flamer.
"I have not seen any creature of Chaos such as that before," Toramech said. "We shall have to deliver whatever remains of it to command so they may study the curious mutant."
"Well whatever it was, it was the most pathetic servant of Chaos I've ever seen," Zerachiel said.
"Do not be so certain, brother. It was likely one of Slaanesh's daemons, made to look innocent and harmless, but likely concealed some unspeakable horror that it would have unleashed had we let it survive. It was an affront to mankind. Do not hesitate to purge its kind on sight," Iruel said.
"Oh of-of course sergeant!"
"What isszz this?" Rolos suddenly asked of nobody in particular. He was staring intently at his monitoring device and then up at the gate. "We must fall back brothers!"
"Wha-?" Iruel started to ask, but was cut off by a sound like thunder as the gate suddenly expanded to dozens of times its original size. Iruel sought for some kind of traction on the muddy ground as he felt the gate begin to pull him in, but the blood-soaked earth provided none.
"Sergeant!" Zerachiel cried as he was taken off-balance and sucked into the gate.
"Zerachiel!" Iruel shouted and desperately tried to grab him. His shift in weight tipped him forward and after Zerachiel, into the Warp. Behind him he glanced and briefly saw Dumah, Toramech, and Rolos all succumbing to the pull of the Warp, and then was enveloped by oblivion.