Sonic/Marvel - Empire: Rising

Uncovered Chaos

Sunlight filtered through bright green palms, bathing the checkerboard ground with its warm embrace. It cradled the small birds, rabbits and pigs as they lay in peaceful slumber. The grass was soft beneath them, and the trees that branched from the plains gave ample shade. All was peaceful, all was perfect. A chicken stretched in the morning sun, ready to do as early birds do, when- WOOSH!!! The chicken was thrown off its feet by a sudden burst of wind. As it shook its head, vision blurred and unsteady, the plucky (or, well, Clucky) little thing thought she saw something. A blue streak racing across the green hills, now fading into the horizon. Just as she was ready to dismiss it, pass it off as sunlight getting in her eyes or something equally explainable, another blue streak passed by. And then another. Then another, and another, and another. The Clucky tilted her head, trying to comprehend the streaks of colour and wind that had just raced past, when she found herself face-to-face with something monstrous. A creature of steel was hovering before her, the sun reflecting violently off its dark blue hide. Its wings were static, made of a strange white energy that crackled yet kept a consistent shape. Flames burst from its back, scorching the ground below and turning the grass grey to support its flight. Most frightening of all was its blood red eye, one steely focused on the Clucky below it.

More and more of these monsters began to circle the Clucky, her cries of despair snapping her friends from their slumber. They were cold and unfeeling, heartlessly swarming the helpless animals, showing no signs of caring that the creatures they were observing were literally shaking with fear. A small squirrel leapt from the tree he was hiding in onto one of the swarm, trying in vain to save his friends. In the end he was thrown to the ground, collapsing in defeat in front of his friends. The swarm grew aggressive now, balls of orange growing around the tips of their stingers. A warning shot fired, decimating the rock that some of the animals were cowering behind. The glow of orange reflected in the animals' tear-filled eyes, surely the last thing that those poor things were going to see. The swarm readied their aim, and in a moment it was all over. A loud crash and rising smoke was all that was left from this fateful encounter. The animals could barely believe their eyes - with a streak of blue and a flash of red, the Swarm had gone from an overwhelming force to a pile of ruin laying on the ground. The Clucky was the first to step forward, pecking at the rubble cautiously. The metal nudged slightly under her small beak, but nothing else moved. The monsters were defeated just as quickly as they had arrived, and the animals that were supposed to be their collateral could once again go about their business, sleeping and eating and doing other content animal things. None of them paid any second thought to the display that happened that morning, nor to the strange scratchings that lined the monsters' backs. After all, it was nonsense to them. What was the phrase "Stark Industries" supposed to mean to animals who didn't even know what an industry was?

Stone flew in each and every direction as powerful blasts from the wasps' stingers seared through the mountainside. Smoke billowed into the air, visible to the Clucky and her friends as they looked on, confused, as the mountains in the far distance were cloaked by an unusual grey. With each shot stone peeled away. The ground cracked, boulders careening down into the beautiful briny blue below. The scarred mountainside eventually gave way, revealing a dark cave which the strange wasps poured inside. The darkness was suddenly cut through like butter by a powerful light, light which shone down from the unfeeling red eyes of the wasps. The light coldly shone down on every corner of the cave, until finally the swarm all circled around something in the centre. It was a gemstone of brilliant green, perfectly cut into the shape of a diamond. One of the wasps, which was not-so-subtly decked out with an additional device, scanned the gemstone. The device, whatever its purpose was, went crazy - if it was scanning for something, the gemstone was clearly giving it off by the motherload. An arm extended out of one of the wasps, reaching for the gemstone, when- BAM! The wasp was shattered on the ground in a cloud of smoke. The blue blur from before was back, having burst in like a gust of wind through an entrance the swarm didn't know about. Before they could even react the blue streak shattered them all, bouncing from wasp to wasp like a destructive blue basketball. Eventually it stopped, and all the wasps lay in pieces over the cave floor. Before the red light completely faded from the last wasp, however, it caught a glimpse of its attacker. Two bright red sneakers belonging to a pair of fuzzy blue legs stood before it, one foot tapping impatiently at sonic speeds before the blur raced off again. With that, the final wasp powered down and the gemstone was gone with the wind.