The scent of sulfur irritated enormous lungs, bringing reptilian eyes to pry open. With a strained groan, the scaled behemoth drew himself up. Flashes of fire danced in the distance, accompanied by swirls of crimson dust that seemed to eerily beckon onward onto. That same dust cascaded off of his thick limbs, giving him an idea of just how long he had been laying on the alien soil. After a momentary, and rare, reflection on the peaceful simplicity of watching the dust rejoin the ground, he realized that there was no shrill voice reminding him of the mission at hand. An irritable expression grew on his reptilian visage as he turned to look for the nagging moth.
"Mothra?" he called out in a commanding tone when she was nowhere to be found. A low growl rumbled in his throat, believing her to have left him behind while to take on the alien forces herself. His tail flexed and swished along the dusty surrounding, only to have more dust stirred beneath as if something beneath the surface was attempting to break free. More and more dust rose up, the ground itself trembling with increasing frequency. Fangs bared as Godzilla turned to face the new danger, even if it would have to be alone. He preferred it as such, not having to worry about something as trivial as friendly fire.
Darkness surrounded her. Unlike her dreams in which she would find herself in peaceful limbo with the nothingness and endless possibility of the universe around her, Mothra found herself unable to do anything. There were neither radiant explosions of stars being and dying, nor molten masses of matter cooling to become new worlds. Is this death? No. She found she was vaguely aware of Godzilla's presence, so close, yet out of reach. So strange that she could see and feel nothing, yet still be aware of him. The startling revelation struck her like lightning, and panic immediately set in. She had been buried alive. Wings strained desperately against the weight of surface upon her as she screeched out to the darkness, helpless.
Godzilla squatted low, bracing his legs and tail against the ground as his dorsal fins glowed ominously. With no way of knowing exactly what kind of alien creature, organic or mechanical was about to burst out, he was going to make sure it would be instantly vaporized. The force of the atomic blast brewing within his lungs grew hotter, causing even his pectoral scales to glow lightly. Then, she called. In an instant, he swallowed the blast, forcing it back down and souring his stomach. Through the pain in his belly, he knelt over the ground and began frantically clawing over the ground to dig out the moth that had somehow been buried beneath. Meter after meter of reddish soil was shoveled out of the way by massive palms, Godzilla digging faster and faster until suddenly the ground exploded outward in a plume of rust colored dust and with it, emerged the other Earth guardian.
Mothra vigorously flapped her wings to free the excess weight off of them, her body tainted as if by a crimson blush of alien dust. Her head jerked side to side to clean her eyes as best as she could, in front of her a still blurred image of Godzilla approaching her. Her eyes flashed lightly in surprise as he did not reprimand her for the unforeseeable incident, instead speaking as gently as he was capable of, which was not much in reality.
"Are you alright?" he gruffly asked, even as he began brush off the new caking of dust on him that occurred from her escape. The two looked to one another for a moment, each one assessing the other for any injuries. Silence grew as even after the observation, they continued to look upon each other. Godzilla would be the one to break the moment. Turning his head around to actually taking in their new surroundings, he took notice of the red sphere over the horizon as well as a smaller, irregularly shaped mass higher in the sky.
"Mars," Mothra chirped quietly, her compound eyes reflecting the nearby planet, though she did knew neither the name of the moon they were on, nor of the other orbiting one. While the surface of Mars looked pristine and still, that of the moon they were on suddenly rumbled. A jet of lava spurt out nearby, searing globules sailing into the primordial clouds before falling back down as steaming chunks of glowing coals. Unlike the Moon, which had been entrenched by the alien army, the Martian moon seemed devoid of alien activity. Instead it appeared to be a planet in its early stages of development, rivers of lava running and carving their way deeper into the surface to gradually create chasms.
The two guardians glanced to one another, warily beginning their way towards the distant metallic spire peaking over the eastern mountain ranges. In a landscape that seemed otherwise devoid of any kind of civilization, the metal construct in the distance seemed almost a beacon to the pair. However, devoid of civilization did not necessarily mean devoid of life. The moon was quite full of life. The ground quaked and cracked around the guardians, puddles of lava oozing out to the surface as strange and fiery creatures began flitting up into the air. Resembling Earthly avians, they flew upward before attempting to dive bomb the kaiju duo.
Godzilla readily swatted at the alien birds, if they could be called that, with his claws. Menacing, but quite fragile, they almost immediately fell apart with but one swipe. Disintegrating into clouds of fiery dust, the remains of the creatures drifted down onto the ground. The danger, however, was not in their individual power, but their collective threat as a swarm. More and more of the alien creatures spewed out of the cracks in the ground until the immediate area was a whirlwind of the fire avians.
Mothra ascended higher, and over the fiery dervish, spreading her wings out fully. With harsh beatings of her wings, the heavy gusts of wind picked up the surface dust to counter the living whirlwind of fire with her dust-laden own. It would allow a few moments of respite, time enough to think. The very moon seemed to spawn the hellish creatures. Just as her plan came to fruition in her mind, a radiant blast of energy pierced through the conflicting whirlwinds to impact against the rust-hued crust of the Martian moon.
Godzilla, through a purposefully measured breath, spewed out his atomic breath along the rocky gash on the surface that the fire birds used to burst out from. The intense heat of his attack worked to cauterize the moon's wound, sealing the opening with molten slag that would not allow more of the creatures to emerge from. Those that had previously escaped, and now without endless reinforcements, became easy prey for Mothra as she vaporized her targets with precise bolts of energy from her compound eyes. Seemingly spot welding every suspicious crack on the surface as the duo progressed, Godzilla was leaving nothing to chance when it seemed the moon itself was raging against them.
With Mothra scouting from above to spot any would-be fissures on the surface, Godzilla followed close behind to seal up the openings. However, it seemed as though the altered moon was aware of their attempts. Further ahead, mounds of red-hot debris swelled upward. The peaks split open, a long and scaly appendage bursting out of each. At the tip of every appendage was a reptilian head, fang filled mouth gaping open to spit out globules of lava at both guardians. Mothra easily evaded the molten volley. Godzilla would not fare so well, his hide peppered with searing stains that oozed along his scales.
Though he would reel back in pain, the surprise attack would not impede him for long. Charging through the pain, Godzilla would swing his thick tail at the base of one mound while blasting away at another with his atomic breath. The resultant tremors from the second mound being destroyed seemingly triggered heated slabs of rock to spike out of the surface in series of natural fiery palisades meant to stop the Godzilla from continuing. As he was struggling with these new obstacles by whatever means were most befitting, atomic fire, Mothra dealt with the remaining fire serpents from a safe distance. Dodging and weaving around the molten blobs being shot out at her, Mothra targeted the base of the appendage with her energy bolts, severing the heads from the glowing mounds of molten soil.
Godzilla appeared far worse for wear than his companion did once the final slab was toppled; charred scales and raw hide riddled his body. As hardy and durable as his thick hide was, prolonged exposure to the extreme heat of the seeping lava and molten rock gradually injured him. Tendrils of smoke wafted from him as glowing coals and rocks rolled off of him. Before Mothra could express concern over his injuries, the skies erupted with a thunderous sound. Immediately above them, as if having seeming materialized instantly was a massive spacecraft. Its construct appeared to be piecemeal and alien in appearance, its hull not remotely uniform in appearance. Looming menacingly overhead, hatches suddenly opened and large canisters began to slowly descend upon the Earth guardians. Far too many to avoid and its deployment area far too large for Godzilla to escape, Mothra would be capable of at least flying out of range if she had left immediately. However, immediate concern for the other had burned up what few precious seconds she had to escape. Mothra could only look on in paralyzing fear at the heavy rain of metal that would soon befall them.