Godzilla vs. Sonic

"The museum is a great place to study the structure of so many different creatures. Though I've been drawing all my life, I never really figured out realistic anatomy. As the official mangaka for the third-most prestigious Japanese newspaper, I must be ready for anything."

Yui Ejima wandered through the Fukui Prefectural Kaiju Museum, with a pen and a notepad in hand. Hurriedly built in 1978 due to the unprecedented "Newtrogic Earthquake" forming a small island and bringing a plethora of odd fossils to the surface, this museum was Yui's favorite spot since moving to Fukui. Tokyo may be gone, but she found the delicate pace of each day in Fukui more enjoyable than the constant movement of the now destroyed city. She clicked her pen, and began sketching.

"No, that's not right… uhm… No, the wrist bone's connected to the…?" Yui mumbled, looking at her own hand. Her intense gaze softened, she placed the pen behind her ear. "I still have a lot to learn, huh?"

"On Odo Island, I was taught to be scared of the local kaiju. But… looking up at these fossils of creatures like Gojira, I can't help but see them as peaceful animals. Maybe it's because they're not moving, maybe it's because they've been deceased for a long time. But I don't feel any anger or fear anymore. I even feel a little sad that these animals no longer walk the Earth."

Yui looked up at a towering, stuffed chimpanzee with red marks in its hair. A chilly feeling permeated the air around the exhibit. She turned around with wonder in her eyes, and saw a big dinosaur skeleton. It was standing fully upright. "Big brother! Big brother, look!" Yui called out, her voice echoing loudly through the entire museum. "Big brother, look! Big brother, look! Brother…! Look…!" Yui covered her mouth in surprise. Tsubasa looked to her, only on the other side of the corridor.

"What is it?" Tsubasa asked quietly. He approached the skeleton, and let out a heavy gasp. "Oh my God…"

"... Zilla?" Yui asked with a silly smirk. Tsubasa glared at her with an unamused grunt. "Eheh… really, though. It looks almost just like him… but you told me Sonic cut him into little pieces while I was knocked out." Tsubasa averted his eyes. "Could this be another member of the Gojira species?"

"It's nowhere near as big, and I don't see any spines. The elder once told me about this theory that Gojira evolved rapidly after surviving the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, and that's where he got his powers… but it sounds like science fiction to me," Tsubasa recounted, shoulders on the exhibit's metal railing. "Either way, it could be an ancestor to Gojira." Yui took out her camera and snapped a photo. She crouched down and glued the photo to her notebook along with a few others. Tsubasa saw a photo of a skeleton resembling… Sonic? The arms were thicker than the blue hedgehog's, and there were strange spikes coming out of the hands, but… there were more creatures like him at some point?

Crrk… Tsubasa instantly looked at one of the exhibits, he turned pale. "What is it?" Yui asked, looking up from her notebook and then slowly in the direction Tsubasa was staring. She turned pale. "Big brother, is something the—?" The two wordlessly stared at a large turtle skeleton wobbling its head. When it saw they were staring, it retreated into its shell.

"Let's just… go home," the two mumbled, turning away and walking off.

"A love that should not end, has ceased to be. You're wrong, you're completely wrong, my heart yells to me. I can't continue living by myself… Can I love someone again?!!" Yui sang in the passenger's seat, gazing out at the rocky beach under the moon. Tsubasa kept his eyes on the dark road ahead, tapping his hand on the steering wheel to Kotoba ni Dekinai playing on the radio.

Just to keep himself awake until they got home, he hoarsely sang along to the chorus, the only words he remembered fully. Yui took notice. Initially surprised, she smiled a little bit. She then reached to the other side of the dashboard and turned down the radio all the way. "What was that for?" Tsubasa asked, glancing over for a second. "That was the good part. Besides, it's the driver's decision to turn off the music."

"There's a tunnel up ahead," Yui said. It suddenly clicked for Tsubasa. For all his focus on driving safely, he wasn't paying attention to anything other than the pavement. "Going underground makes the radio sound like it's cutting to a warning system, and I know how shaken up you were after Gojira last attacked..."

"You're right, thank you," Tsubasa muttered, entering the tunnel and rolling up the windows. It was quiet for a moment. Tsubasa remembered the screech of Golden Godzilla. He gripped the steering wheel.

When the two arrived home, Yui went to her desk in the corner of the living room and began to draw. Struggling to even get a single straight line in her exhausted state. Tsubasa snuck outside to the roof, and put a hand on the chimney. It was cold.

"After Sonic disappeared, life became simple. I would do anything to keep it that way if it makes Yui happy, but sometimes…" Tsubasa thought, looking to the road not far below. "... Sometimes, I can't help but want to do more with my life. I know it's selfish, though. Father, if you can hear me, why didn't you come with us to Tokyo? I want to support Yui, but I don't think I'm doing a good job." Tsubasa tried to clench his fists, but couldn't find the energy. "You always told me I could be a pilot for a living. I wanted to see the clouds from above with everyone. Don't you remember?"

And that's when it happened. Tsubasa saw something in the night sky. An island, floating high above the mountains. As soon as it had appeared, another cloud rushed by and obscured the island. Tsubasa's heart raced. Could that have been Heaven? Tsubasa sat down on the roof, and then Yui joined him. Tsubasa got a little choked up, and this time, he couldn't bring himself to hide it. The two kept staring towards the sky until sunrise.

…

Robotnik stared out the window. "Angel's Skull Island, huh? Ever since I was a boy, I thought you were just a myth," he said, hands behind his back. He was no longer in Gunpex HQ. The clouds outside were pushed away by a giant red-armored airship with Robotnik's insignia on it.

THE EGG CARRIER; ARATRUM MODEL

Robotnik's cellphone rang, he accepted the call with a smile. Staring at the floating island as the Egg Carrier Aratrum was about to land. "Hello?"

"Robotnik, where are you?" His lab assistant at Gunpex grumbled. The scraggly old man back in the Hong Kong facility stared out the window at Godzilla's containment chamber, away from all the core Gunpex personnel on the floor. "The liquid in that tank is so red, we don't even know if the big bastard's still in there. Did you go chasing another one of those creatures you're always blabbing on about?"

"Calm yourself, Buyer. I'll be back by the end of the day, something came up…" Robotnik replied. "Something extraordinary."

"The other creature you saw? The little blue one?" The Buyer asked. The Egg Carrier landed, and the doors to the cabin slid open little by little. "We had a deal, doctor."

"Think bigger," Robotnik whispered. The Buyer opened his mouth a little. "Bigger…!" The Buyer tried to speak. Robotnik spoke first. "BIGGER!" The Buyer stopped trying, Robotnik speed-walked down the stairs. He step foot into a rainforest on Angel's Skull Island itself. "Bigger…" Robotnik whispered right into the phone.

The Buyer sniffed the air inside the lab. "You'd better bring it back in one piece, this place already reeks enough since you started regrowing Godzilla."

"Well then. I'm glad it's you who has to be there, and not me," Robotnik chuckled, taking a long breath of the fresh air on Angel's Skull Island.

"--- Reeks like a rotten Eggman," the Buyer growled. "You flaking, bald, son of a—!"

"Sorry, initiating digital detox, touching grass now," Robotnik said into the phone. He ended the call, and grinned. "I'll get back to you in about five minutes." Robotnik smugly pocketed his phone, and looked all around in wonder. He laughed, and threw his fists into the clouds just inches above him.

"This is incredible! A massive island without any irritating or rude people, with a beautiful culture that goes back ages!" Robotnik shouted, walking down a trail and leaving his footprints in the mud. He stomped on a blue caterpillar with giant eyes, splattering it. "It's pretty much everything I expected out of Japan. Hm, how disappointing that vacation was, speeeaking of which…!" Robotnik called in a squad of Badniks to protect him from any potential giant creatures roaming the area. He lead the charge through the island, as his egg-shaped robots scanned the surroundings.

One of the Badniks hovered down to observe an odd pair of footprints that didn't belong to Robotnik, with a rope around them. An invisible rope-wielding threat to the doctor? Or a—-? THWAP! The Badnik was entangled in the rope and flung into the forest. Robotnik heard the Badnik explode in the distance, and turned around for a second. He then shrugged it off.

Robotnik crossed a bridge over a precarious drop into wet stone spikes, and just as he got to the other side, a waterfall blasted the bridge open and took two Badniks down. Robotnik looked over the cliffs, seeing his creations impaled on the spikes below. Their red optical lights blinked out. A pair of large eyes stalked him from the bushes, about to pull a lever installed on a nearby stone. Robotnik slowly turned around, and saw the eyes disappear. He heard fast footsteps scampering into the woods. "Aha! I found you, you… animalistic assassin!" Robotnik gave chase to the unruly beast through the thicker woods, without any of his Badniks to back him up. Something huge watched from the treetops, its facial features obscured by the glare of the sunset.

Robotnik kept running through the deep jungle, wriggling his fingers. He growled and gnashed with a grin. "I'm going to turn you into a wood-barbecued dinner for what you did to my sweet mechanized babies!" The mad doctor realized he wasn't sure where the creature was headed. The footprints in the mud suddenly stopped right in front of him. "What, did it just… hop off the ground and glide the rest of the way?" Robotnik asked in disbelief, looking all over the place. He was lost.

The canopy began to rustle, and a large branch crashed down behind him. Robotnik slowly turned around, a frightened and confused look on his face. A herculean ape landed before him, with a loud CRASH! Robotnik stepped away from the kaiju, the creature known only as…

KONG.

Robotnik instantly ran away, Kong chasing after him on all-fours and closing the gap in mere seconds. The kaiju ape grabbed Robotnik's ankle and held him upside-down in the air, before roaring loudly in the doctor's face. Robotnik covered his ears. Kong stopped roaring, stared into Robotnik's soul, and jutted out its chin. Robotnik took quick, panicked breaths. "I can't believe it…" Robotnik gasped, tripping over his own words. "I've become the first genius in the world to discover a unique missing link between man and beast!" Kong raised an eyebrow. "Of course, it probably fell off the chain for a reason." Kong bared its teeth, starting to shake Robotnik around to soften him up. "I-I-I-I'm going to di-i-i-i-i-e, aren't I—?" Out of nowhere, a red blur swooped through and punched Kong in the face. The ape was knocked to the dirt, and dropped Robotnik. As Robotnik backed up, he saw two cone-shaped holes between Kong's eyes.

The red blur swooped back around, and landed with his fists up. Kong got to his feet, and stared down… KNUCKLES THE ECHIDNA. Robotnik moved behind Knuckles, even though the miniature kaiju couldn't even hide the doctor's sneaky grin. Knuckles' eyes glinted, Kong roared. The two jumped towards each other, and their fists collided. They were both blown back by the force of the impact, both landing on their feet and skating across the mud. Trees toppled and made a perfect circle through which the sun shined down on the once dark forest. Kong shook his hand off, only to fleck blood off of its fingers. Kong looked surprised at the new holes in its knuckles. Knuckles gave a fang-filled grin to the devastated ape.

The two strutted around in a tight circle, not breaking eye contact or deviating from the path for a second. Their dukes were up, their lives were on the table. They stared each other down, waiting for the other to make a move. Kong discreetly closed in ever so slightly with each step. He then opened his arms wide and clapped at Knuckles, who shot his arms out to the side and struggled to keep Kong's giant hands from crushing him. Knuckles grunted, as his comparatively tiny arms began to fold. Kong returned Knuckles' scowling and furious expression with a stone-cold stoic glare. Knuckles began kicking his legs. His shoes blurred together into a swoosh shape, the diverted energy from his biceps to his quadriceps making way for Kong to further crush Knuckles' arms. But Knuckles then worked up the speed to ram Kong through trees and rocks. Kong tried to run backwards to avoid falling, but before he knew it, he was on his back as Knuckles bulldozed him through an entire acre of the forest. Kong's head then smashed into a large rock, and he gave in. The ape groaned, Knuckles stood atop the larger kaiju's chest and popped his own arm back into place. Knuckles smacked his own ribcage with one boxing-gloved hand, getting a dazed Kong to open his eyes. Knuckles then pointed to the left, and Kong looked over to his mountain in the far distance. Kong's eyes widened, and he finally figured out his mistake… This wasn't his domain. It was Knuckles' half of Angel's Skull Island.

Knuckles hopped off of Kong's chest and walked a few feet away. He drew a long vertical line in the dirt with his sharp cone-shaped knuckles. Kong stumbled to his feet, but collapsed backwards onto the large rock. Knuckles extended a hand, and helped Kong balance. The echidna then tilted his head quickly to the left, and Kong nodded. He took off into the forest, swinging from the tree branches. Knuckles sighed in relief. If he was to be true to himself, he wasn't sure how long he could've kept fighting like that.

"That was… incredible! You saved my life!" Robotnik hollered, bounding towards Knuckles. Knuckles frowned at the frail human before him. "Apologies for my earlier outburst, I come in peace! I'm a human researcher from… Canada… I'm here to learn about your island. Please, tell me about your people. Your way of life. How you creatures tick." Knuckles couldn't understand all the words, but he felt he got the gist of it. This man couldn't hurt a fly… even if he really wanted to. Knuckles turned away, and waved for Robotnik to come with him. The two walked into the plains, and Robotnik noticed Knuckles' lower leg was bleeding quite a little. "Hold on, I have just the thing for that." Robotnik pulled his used head bandages out of his duffle bag, and applied them around Knuckles' scrape. Knuckles smiled slightly. Having gained this kaiju's trust so easily, Robotnik tried to hide the wickedness in his grin. Perhaps another one of these powerful creatures under his control could accelerate his plans…