SLPASH!
The familiar pressure embraced her and the soothing salt clung to her skin, scales, and hair. The coolness filled her nose, down her throat, bushing her inner gills, awakening them from long disuse in a rush that woke her senses before she knew what was going on.
Her body remembered the open sea and pushed itself into the undulating motions towards the depths of safety.
Home.
But not.
Pale aqua eyes took in her dark surroundings even as her mind was firing off multiple signals; swim! Feel! Breathe! Pain! Oxygen! Water! Go up! Swim down! Kick!
She looked up and swatted at the pale blue tendrils around her.
Oh.
That was her hair.
A flash of light temporarily blinded her. She flailed her arms about and bubbles surrounded her.
"Well...it wasn't my fault..."
"Please give her another chance, Madame Galaxia!"
"NO! No! No!"
Blinking furiously, her eyes took in her pale,white, bare arms.
"My bracelets..."
She floated in blue, letting the fragments of memory become whole as the sea life around her resumed their swimming as if a stranger hadn't canon balled herself into their calm waters.
Well, technically she hadn't. It seemed she had been inadvertently sent to another planet. As well traveled as she was, the first order of business was to take in the seascape and find out what kind of planet she landed on.
Kicking her feet-"where are my shoes?"- she swam towards the surface and broke through with a gentle ripple.
Second order of business was to get new shoes. Those had been quality pumps on the last world she had been on. And new clothes. One outfit does not a wardrobe make.
There! In the distance to her right was the unmistakable silhouette of something that didn't stretch out into eternity. She knew better to assume it was land. It could be someone's space-home headquarters like the one she had previously been employed on. It could also be a pile of garbage. Those so called "plastic islands" made her blood boil with indignation. Her teammates quickly ratted her out to the boss lady about "Siren's blowing up islands again!" Those weren't islands. It was floating filth.
In the haze of her thoughts she almost missed the school of fish below her as she swam toward her goal. Diving down for a quick meal—What time was it anyway?-she made quick work of several of the tasty morsels and resumed her path.
+.+.+
"Hey, Dave? Do you see what I'm seeing?" a trim blonde in fashionable "marine" garb and red sunglasses pointed out towards the ocean.
A striking young brunet turned his head away from the stern to where his girlfriend was pointing. It looked like someone swimming, but he couldn't be sure. It was something but it moved in and out of the waves too quickly.
Suddenly the something jumped out of the water and landed elegantly on his yacht. Light blue hair to her ankles quickly began to fluff out as if the water was being leached out of it from an invisible source while her pale skin grew luminous under the setting sun, becoming opaque. Bright aqua eyes took him in—huh, no whites—and a pearly lips formed into a sweet smile as her pale hand tapped on a shell-shaped pendant.
"Hi, I'm Siren! I'm looking for a ride to land. Are you heading that way?"
The young couple nodded mutely as they're wide eyes took in the stranger with her strange, but cute lingerie, stood on deck oblivious to their shock.
"Great! Thank you so much for taking me. I'll just sit here." Siren sat next to the blonde and began chatting animatedly as Dave took the yacht back.
+.+.+
As Siren stepped off the yacht, Bethany pleaded with her again. "Stay with us! We really don't mind."
Dave nodded enthusiastically, "Really!"
"Oh no, that's a faux pas I couldn't commit. You two enjoy your honey moon. And save some for later."
"We could...we could take you wherever you want to go!" Dave offered.
"You wouldn't have to work! Or if you want to—do you sing?" Bethany's eye lit up.
Siren hesitated. "Well, I used to work part time for a record company...but that was under cover...and then Madame-"
"Perfect! You'd be a hit! Bigger than Ariel! Everyone will love you," Dave cried out, moving towards the dock. Fortunately, his shirt got caught on one of the steering spokes.
"I could do that again," Siren mused to herself. She bowed quickly to them. "Thanks again for the ride. You should head back to where you were going."
The couple jumped to do as she said and were soon out of sight.
"Hmm, I should have asked where the nearest restaurant is." Siren shrugged and walked among the yachts when a car door slammed nearby, pulling her attention the the penguin-head men that had exited.
"Oh my."
Sire slunk closer, slipping into the water and under the planks where the half-bird men stood. For all the people she had seen and after all the planets she had visited, she had never seen men like these!
Someone else spoke among them, but she couldn't tell who except for the shoes. Said shoes that belonged to the quacky voice were nice. Patent leather or real, polished to a high shine that was noticeable even in the night. Siren approved.
Suddenly there were sharp thunks followed by large thuds that shook the beams above her as the penguin-headed men fell or ran about above her.
A high pitched beeping was all Siren registered as her body tensed and she went below just as an explosion briefly lit the dark and sent shrapnel into the water around her.
Time for a different vantage point.