Sky-High Wishes

Shortly after the destruction of Tokyo…

It felt like the ocean's waves had led Sonic back here. He didn't know how, but Sonic was always able to find his way home. Even without a map, even though the ocean ahead was obscured by fog on this unusually stormy day. But as he drew ever closer to his destination, running along the water's surface, the hedgehog was taken by surprise to see that South Island had seemingly conjoined with another landmass. Taking only one glance at the line where the checkerboarded stone suddenly ended, Sonic veered to the left and kicked up sand underneath his heel on the shores of Odo Island.

Walking into an old World War II hangar, Sonic checked out all the planes. He sometimes spotted big planes in the sky in Japan, but… it felt so different to see one up close. Up until now, Sonic had associated them with distant things like the stars and the moon. He placed his hand on a red, single-seat plane, felt the texture of the worn-out paint. The metal was cold, even through his gloves. Sonic then heard something outside. A sonic boom? 

Running outside, he saw a large shadow blanket the sand and quickly disappear. The sun began shining down on him, the rays coming down like raindrops. Sonic opened his palm to the beams of light. When Sonic looked to the skies for what was casting the apparition, he saw nothing there. Only a long split running down the clouds, stretching towards South Island…

… What kind of plane could have done that??

Sonic gave chase to the arrow in the sky, catching up to it in Green Hill. Rolling up a slope with a sonic boom, the hedgehog rocketed off into the aether... Where he saw something magical. A giant moth, flying high above the landscape at speeds comparable to his own. Sonic flapped his arms like the creature's wings, only to fall into a Drop Dash. Sonic gazed up at the moth kaiju all the way across the wooden bridge. The kaiju dipped and dived around Sonic, chirping and squawking. Drawn to the flames he was kicking up from between the soles of his shoes and the marble ruins. The two raced through the entire island, the moth kaiju paving the way for clear blue skies right in front of Sonic's eyes. Sonic was having the time of his life, nobody could ever keep pace with him before. Speeding up and gradually taking the lead, Sonic then realized what he was heading towards. A cliff! Sonic braked at the very edge of the island, swinging his arms around to keep his balance. He then hopped to a palm tree on solid ground and hugged it tight, as the cliff crumbled. With a strong gust of wind, the moth flew ahead into the sunrise, singing a serene song. Leaving Sonic unable to do anything else but reach out over the edge of South Island in awe.

GODZILLA VS SONIC: BEYOND THE CLOUDS

It didn't take long for Mothra to reach clouds even she couldn't clear. The air became very thick, Mothra couldn't see anything. As she continued on through the storm clouds, she couldn't tell if she was even moving. Had the wind halted Mothra's advance? A visceral memory enveloped Mothra's entire body in response to this unmoving sensation and the cold water vapor in these shrouded skies. Feeling absolutely nothing from her antennae to her wings. For the first time, the creature remembered how her life had begin.

KRA-KOOM! The sensations stopped. The memories ended, as Mothra was pierced in the wing by a bolt of lightning. Shot out of the sky, it took only seconds for Mothra's wing to regenerate. Mothra continued her flight, and closed in on something attacking Westside Island.

A gargantuan beast was conjuring up a storm, standing tall above submerged Roman ruins. The mere flap of the kaiju's horrific wings created hurricanes, and it breathed out thunderclouds. Mothra screeched, warning the destructive creature to end its assault on the island. The creature turned its head all the way around to look at Mothra.

Then another.

And another.

KING GHIDORAH screeched out all three of its mouths, firing lightning out of its wings while turning its body to face the same direction as its heads. Its footsteps destroyed entire regions of Westside Island. Mothra evaded the barrage of lightning, but knew she could not keep this up. Ghidorah's attacks were too fast. Rolling and dodging, Mothra extended its sharp claws before passing by Ghidorah's three necks. Ghidorah appeared confused for a second, before a slight scratch appeared across all of its throats. The beast growled out an earthquake, turning to look at Mothra circling around to attack once more.

Mothra repeatedly scratched Ghidorah from all sides, appearing as blurs of light. On the emerald-green grass below, a lone orange fox cub watched from inside a loop-de-loop rock formation. His fluffy tail tucked fearfully between his little red shoes. "What is that thing?" The fox named Miles Prower asked, scanning Mothra with a gizmo held in his gloved hand. The device beeped, displaying a red error message. "Come on… amplifying the range…!" Miles' shaky hand pressed a button, and a holographic field of blue light shot out towards the giant beasts. Miles knew that on the off-chance this thing was half as powerful as that three-headed dragon, the island was completely doomed. As the light covered Mothra, it screeched. Mothra's giant eyes shut tight. "No, this can't be right. This moth monster isn't anywhere NEAR as powerful as…" Miles only realized his mistake when the blinded Mothra was whacked with one of Ghidorahs' heads. Mothra erupted into agonized, songlike crying. The injured creature flew weakly over to the mountain peaks. Ghidorah turned away from the retreating angel, and faced the source of the light. Miles' entire body froze.

Mothra landed with a loud thud, her body broken by a single swing from Ghidorah. Crawling over to a big insect egg hidden in a cave beneath the hill tops, Mothra's antenna made contact with the orb. Resting there, Mothra's light faded, leaving the world around her in pure darkness.

Suddenly, Mothra's eyes opened. Her entire soul filled with warmth and love, Mothra realized what she had to protect. Emerging from the cave, Mothra beamed through the air, instantly breaking the sound barrier. Rocketing towards Ghidorah's heads, she extended her claws until her legs bled deep blue rivers. Slashing at Ghidorah repeatedly, the weather-manipulating dragon roared in pain. Its necks fell back, one of them barely clinging onto its body by a thin stretch of flesh for but a moment. Miles watched the battle play out, amazed as one of Ghidorah's heads crashed to the ground.

Just when the battle seemed to be over, coming out of the hole where Ghidorah's severed head once was, an energy blast shot Mothra. Mothra, once miles up in the sky, instantly found herself in a crater on the ocean floor. The waves parted, crashing entire miles into the distance. The circle of the ocean with no water must have been visible from space. With a roar, Ghidorah surveyed the land.

It wasn't there. The power source Ghidorah had torn the island apart for didn't even seem to exist. With a furious grunt, Ghidorah shot into the air. To somewhere above the clouds. Miles, unable to process what he had saw, passed out on the ground… as some yellow, veiny radiation crept down the fox's lower back.

…

Waking up with a scream, Miles looked all around. It hadn't been a nightmare… his home really had been reduced to rubble. And the ocean… it was empty. Miles caught his breath, and his eyes landed on Mothra. Completely unmoving in the crater. Miles ran towards Mothra's body, not even realizing his twin tail that was now flowing behind him. The veiny radiation was absorbed beneath his skin.

Miles stepped down into the dried-out part of the Westside Island bay, surrounded by rock spires and coral reefs. "This isn't right. Whatever that dragon was, it could destroy the world in a day. What kind of creature could be so powerful?" Miles arrived at Mothra's side. Even though this beast was the size of a normal moth next to a human compared to Ghidorah, it utterly dwarfed Miles. Just like the almost alien sight of an ocean with no water, all it took was a little perspective for the fox cub to feel completely insignificant. Miles hesitantly placed a hand on Mothra's wing. This creature… had been trying to defend Miles' home, and his interference is what caused it to die.

Miles heard something in the distance. Immense monster waves. What had he been thinking?! Of course the ocean wouldn't stay cleared out forever. Miles scampered up towards the island, it would be safe if he could get to high enough ground. Miles panted, his arms and legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the wet sand. The misplaced waves were almost back where they belonged. He wasn't even close to Emerald Hill.

Face-down on the reefs, Miles' tails twisted together into a knot. As if they had a mind of their own. Miles looked back, and watched as they began to spin. "Huh? An extra tail?! Improbable!" Miles was lifted into the air by his spinning tails, like a living helicopter. The fox cub peeked through his fingers as he levitated high above the shores of Emerald Hill. "Ah!" Miles' arms shook beneath him. Fearing that his newfound flight could stop at any second, he landed on the Hill Top. His tails stopped spinning, and he stood on the edge of a lava pit, jittering and warming up in the heat of the earth's blood. It had been so cold this whole time. Miles took a deep breath.

"I appear to have been subject to a strange mutation. It's probably related to that three-headed dragon," Miles mumbled, holding his tails in front of him with one hand. He looked into his gizmo in his other hand, walking onto a gondola and descending down to a lower altitude. With a slightly embarrassed look on his face, he put his gizmo behind him and scanned his lower half. Looking out into the ruins of his home island, Miles rested his chin on the gondola's railing. The fox never had any friends here for long, but he now had to contend with the new reality that the few people he at least knew were likely killed in the dragon's attack. Why had Miles been spared, of all people? Tears streamed down Miles' face, as the sun set far below the mountain he stood on. Miles remembered the faces of two brown foxes that he had seen just the day before. "I'm so sorry, you didn't deserve this." Miles' gizmo began to beep loudly. A yellow message appeared, written in a language he made entirely on his own. A language shared between just him and his gadgets. "That confirms it…" Miles sighed, defeatedly spinning his tails and frowning. The fading radiation in his second tail matched his record of Ghidorah's energy. Before Miles could even think of what to do next, he heard a crack sound. Like something hatching.

The gondola arriving in the Mystic Cave, Miles came face-to-face with a huge larva of some kind. Miles jumped back, but it didn't attack him. It seemed curious of its surroundings, yet oblivious. "Whoa… is this an offspring of that moth monster? I wonder if it has developed any of its five senses yet…" Miles muttered, reaching his shaking hand out to the infant and touching its forehead. A patch of fuzz began to appear where Miles' hand was, and the larva rubbed its slimy head against Miles' warm glove. "This wonderful creature is maturing rapidly, and seems to already trust me. The world is full of mysteries, I guess..."

GUNPEX CYBERNETICS, HONG KONG

A large limbless creature covered in diseased flesh floated inside a gargantuan tank filled with dark red liquid. Its blind, human-like eyes rolled over to a mustached scientist standing just outside the tank with his hands behind his back, a bandage over his head. "I wonder if any other creatures have this unusual ability…" Miles said, an ocean apart from Doctor Robotnik as the mad scientist snapped his bandages off, revealing a bald and scarred head as he grinned at the sight of the test tube Godzilla.

"... To grow in an instant."