Inspirational Music:

Firebender- Immediate Music
Escape- Craig Armstrong
Two Steps from Hell- He who brings the Night
Birds and Ships- Billy Bragg and Wilco
Left 4 Dead soundtrack- Mike Morasky

The tension in the air was almost tangible as the wind whipped by her face. She felt the sensation of free fall before the crushing force of the impact. Her body jolted upon collision, and she was forced to release the breath she had been saving. Her open wounds stung upon contact with the salty liquid and she tried to scream, but only air bubbles escaped from her mouth.

Water invaded her nostrils, and Kimiko briefly surfaced, coughing heavily, before her body submerged again. She felt the Mantis Flip Coin slip from the battered remains of her pocket and blindly reached for it, unwilling to expose her eyes to the harsh outside conditions. By pure chance, her fingers brushed against its metal surface, and the Japanese girl clung on to it by her fingernails before shifting her hold. The pressure was too much, she could not breathe, she could not think...

She miraculously managed to surface, throwing her hands out and wrapping it around the closest thing that floated nearby- a lifesaver. She threw her head back and gasped. The oxygen burned her throat and lungs every time she inhaled, but she gratefully did it regardless, just thankful for not drowning. After staving off throngs of androids and actually surviving with little to no wounds inflicted upon her being, it would be a most piteous death to have perished simply because she could not swim.

PEW PEW PEW!

Kimiko uttered a frightened cry, recognizing what the sound was. Coughing and spitting out water at the same time, she took another deep breath and ducked into the relative safety of the water. Using the lifesaver to keep her from sinking, Kimiko kept her head under the water in between short surfacing periods, armed with the knowledge that bullets could only penetrate through so much water before their acceleration and velocity were brought to a complete stop. Bullets had torn through the air overhead every time she surfaced in an open area en route to her current position, the makeshift machine guns dangerously precise when aided with laser sights.

The water came at her from every direction, ironically just as lethal as the bullets it had earlier protected her from, threatening to suffocate the young girl within its protective embrace. She thrashed her arms and legs wildly, struggling to keep her head above water while still hiding amongst the floating debris pile that she had found. She hadn't been prepared for the freezing cold of the water, and the fire that raged within her previously had been all but snuffed out. Her breath came out as thin white vapors that trailed from her mouth and nose. She had accidentally inhaled the salty water more than once in the few minutes since she had jumped and was trying to stifle the coughs it induced.

Using the ebbing and flowing of the water to her advantage, she cautiously moved the heap of detritus to the side of the ship, pressing against it as close as she could for fear of detection. Once she heard it hit the side Kimiko took a quick gulp of air 'swam' under it, clinging onto the bottommost layer of wooden debris for support as she heaved herself into the ship's gaping hole. From her new hiding place she observed the Jackbots, as they were called, patrol the area; They would occasionally communicate to an unknown entity with their guttural voices and Kimiko held her breath when one passed dangerously close to her.

Exhaling once the offending robot was at a safe enough distance, she slumped back down. Her adrenaline had started to fade away and she was left as a tired, wet, violently shivering, and huddled mass, wrapping her arms around herself to keep warm. She did not dare try to force her powers to appear for fear of being recognized. She could hear their jetpacks hissing as they scanned the area and the mechanical rhythmic clicks they made as scan after scan was performed.

"Alpha Prime undetected" a partially torn Jackbot communicated to an untouched, more threatening-looking one, presumably its superior. "Subject is unconstrained. Status- may have possibly drowned. Destroy vessel?"

"No, we go." the commanding robot replied simply, signaling the other robots. "Right now."

Jetpacks loudly whined as their power sources attempted to meet the sudden requirements for energy. With a roar, the bots departed in massive droves, leaving the sinking ship to its fate.

Kimiko sighed in relief, waiting until the sounds of the dozens of jet-packs faded before making her next move. Watching the water slowly enter the boat, she cursed her situation before walking deeper into the partially submerged vessel, quickly scouting for supplies. While Kimiko knew that she only had a limited amount of time before the ocean fully claimed the ship, a plan was already forming in her mind.

The breached watercraft was as cold as the merciless ocean. The main cabin lights were out, forcing her to rely on whatever light was allowed in through the windows and portholes for guidance. She waded through the water, stopping only to gain some form of bearings before continuing onward. Metal floor plates creaked loudly as she pressed her weight on them.

She passed several rooms that were either filled with sophisticated equipment or had tarp covering strangely shaped objects- the skeletal remains of a child-sized hand partially stuck out from the protective covering, but the teenager did not notice it. Other rooms, however, were filled with barrels of unearthly liquid that had each had a large, hastily spray-painted nuclear decal. 'DANGER- KEEP AWAY' was scrawled on the door. Kimiko recoiled slightly from the room, uncertain of what the metal barrels contained.

Several boxes stamped with red ink bearing 'Fragile- Handle with Care' in large print blocked most of the hallway. Naturally, Kimiko stepped on them, slightly flinching with guilt as the chorus of breaking glass reached her ears. Although the crew wasn't physically present and it probably was already broken before she had even put a hundredth of her weight onto it, she still felt bad for breaking things that were probably worth several hundred thousand dollars.

However, all was forgotten upon the discovery that the blast site was near the ship's kitchen area. Using worn red tablecloths as a makeshift sack, she hurriedly frisked the kitchen for supply items. A few knives were found in cabinets, accompanied by trivially placed items such as a space blanket and a simple child's toy. Kimiko swore that she heard a child's cry while taking the blanket before opening the lower cabinets, careful not to displace the toy from where it lay in respect to the child that had lived in this watercraft.

A plethora of canned food items greeted her, but most were either delicious food that had expired or tasteless, unappetizing food that was close to expiring.

"Great; it just had to be fish" the dragon of fire grumbled, rolling her eyes in exasperation and reproachfully glaring at a can. "Out of the things that haven't expired yet, it had to be fish."

Still, food was food no matter how unsightly or repugnant it was, and she took it with her even though she despised tuna with all her being.

On her way to the upper levels to retrieve clothing, she noted faded signs with the escape routes to the upper levels mapped out posted near a large set of stairwells alongside posters that indicated where the lifeboats were. Shrugging, Kimiko shouldered her burden and followed the scribbled arrows.

Her glee at her bounty of food was short lived however, as carrying both knives and cans of food up the stairs to the upper decks proved to be a tedious job. Various forms of luggage were haphazardly strewn about the empty halls and rooms and she opened quite a few of them, replacing her ratty clothing with multiple layers of brand new ones before finally making sure that her sole Shen Gong Wu was securely fastened around a wrist. It was obvious that the ship had not been touched for a short amount of time time; a light blanket of dust covered every surface. For whatever reason the ship was abandoned by its crew, they sure had left in a hurry. Various memorabilia lay everywhere. Kimiko had wiped the dust from several of the framed portraits in several cabins, lightly smiling as she saw several bearded men either holding a baby or standing next to their children.

That smile turned into a shriek when icy cold seawater nipped at her bare feet. The icy water was now rising faster, beginning to flood the current floor she was on. Her ratty sneakers were strewn over her shoulder instead of protecting her feet, dripping saltwater onto the threadbare carpeting. Hastily gathering her belongings and tying them to her person, she fled from the oncoming danger.

Yipping as a wave of freezing saltwater lapped at her heels once more, Kimiko ran faster, darting up the stairs and soon exhausting herself. As the thought of using the elevator crossed her mind for the fiftieth time today, she found herself staring into the ocean with the chilled wind toying with her hair once more. She gazed below and found ocean-water covering the lower decks, sloshing around the various cranes strewn on the decking and submerging small objects that were unfortunate to stand in its path. Continuing to scan the deck, she nearly cried with relief when she saw the last of the emergency boats upside down on the deck alongside a more appealing speedboat partially hidden under blue-greyish tarp. The mechanics that normally would have held lifeboats parallel to the research vessel's side were broken, the chords snapped and the pulleys rusted.

"Relation" flashed in gold lettering on the speedboat's side as if it were a prize, spurring the young dragon onward. She descended a tiny set of metal stairs, approached it, and dismissed the plastic covering, briefly inspecting it even though she had little to no experience with the operations of any kind of buoyant vessels. From her cursory check, the mechanical aspects of the boat were mostly working but there was no fuel inside it- perhaps, the reason as to why the owners of this boat abandoned it- but the hull was intact and looked watertight. The radical angle as to which the research vessel was currently at warned the dragon of fire of her predicament.

Kimiko clucked her tongue and rolled her eyes in annoyance, but did not dare groan or voice her complaints for fear of aggravating the situation any further via Murphy's Law.

The next five minutes were spent in frenzied scavenging for gasoline along with bringing the gas-cans back and forth. By the time the teenager finished emptying the sixth can, however, it was almost too late for her to .

Instead, she attempted to push the impaired boat to the heavily listing side, but it was much too heavy for her battered body to handle, let alone for people who weren't hurt at all. She was forced to patiently wait until a copious amount of seawater spilled onto the deck before hopping on with her burden. Bracing herself against the long bench seat, she slid onto the speedboat and hoped it wouldn't kill her.

The port and stern dipped sharply, the bow raising until it was at a forty-five degree angle. The speedboat slid from the watercraft, accelerating with an unpleasant metallic grinding sound until it noisily splashed into the water, bobbing up and down from the force of impact. Gripping onto the small watercraft, Kimiko felt the lurch as it began to slide and the painful crush of the impact when craft hit the water all before the ultimate humiliation of falling painfully on her crotch area as the speedboat righted itself. Despite all of that however, simple fact the ship wasn't leaking made her feel some hope return.

Debris from the ship floated about, having surrounded and slammed into her boat multiple times before she irritably pushed them aside. Thankfully, it wasn't long before she was clear of the densest part of the debris field, making it relatively easy for the rest of her journey. The boat drifted further out into the water at a leisurely pace, a tiny orange speck in the middle of a vast blue-green backdrop as the setting sun shone brightly, sending rays of red, orange, and yellow.

Air bubbles rushed towards the surface as the research vessel behind her submerged, assimilating into the assortment of forgotten relics from the past. Kimiko, however, ignored the mildly amusing spectacle for the most part in favor of learning how to move her newly acquired boat to a safer location using a makeshift oar. The heavy wooden board quickly strained her already tired arms, and the young girl was perfectly content with pushing buttons until something happened.

Twenty button combinations later, and the engine sputtered to life. The young adult shrieked in both unadulterated joy and terror when the speedboat shot through the water, sending icy spray everywhere. She gripped the steering wheel nervously, and the boat rocketed towards the side before a hasty jerk to the right made it careen back on its original route.

Now assured of safety, thoughts plagued her mind, and wearily Kimiko slumped forward and allowed Newton's famous laws of motion to take its course. At first, she wondered how she had even got onto the abandoned ship in the first place or how a bunch of ancient scrolls correctly predicted her location. Then she thought about how she had even obtained her powers in the first place, much less knew how to use them with little difficulty, or why she could not even remember anything before gaining spontaneous awareness on the ship except for her name.

After very nearly ramming into yet another group of jetsam, the watercraft shot towards the white sand shore that lay in the distance. The anxiety built from the attack and near-death faded away, carrying every bit of adrenaline that came with it. The flame within flickered to life, sending warmth and relief throughout her weary body. The sun blazed brightly as it slowly disappeared over the horizon and for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, Kimiko smiled.

Things were going to be better.

"Okay, maybe I had been lying when I promised myself that things were going to get better" Kimiko cursed her luck as she hunched over the controls, shivering as freezing cold drops of rain continually hit her.

Not even a half hour since she set off did a freak storm blow in, whipping wind and icy waves alike into a frenzy. Even with the fire rekindled inside of her, the rain was soaking her clothing and chilling her to the bone.

The speedboat roared as it rode the crest of a wave before slamming onto the turbulent waters below, making the teenager shake up and down violently.

The rain's brutality increased, making visibility near zero conditions. Kimiko squinted, frowning when nothing further than a few meters ahead of her was able to be seen.

A rock suddenly appeared in the midst of the rainstorm right in the speedboat's path, dangerously growing larger as the distance was closed. Kimiko squeaked in terror and jerked the steering wheel to the left; the boat made an unpleasant grinding sound as it made contact with the boulder. She whipped her head around after barely dodging it to take stock of how much of a close call it was, sighing in relief.

The ship ran aground suddenly, sending the poor girl flying before she could understand what had just happened. She tumbled over the protective windshield and onto the beach in a messy heap, coughing and spitting out sand as her vision wildly spun.

Sssssssss...

Something hissed above her, and she heard soft footsteps pad in the sand towards her. Raising her head towards the source of the disturbance, she saw the cloth-bound feet of an assassin, its strangely colored, dual swords pointed at her.

A research ship might be super nuclear, but Kimiko has a relation ship...

That was a joke; ha ha, fat chance.

Okay fine, I have a lame sense of humor with anything that's not funny in a sadistic sort of way. Deal with it.

I found where the 17 year old jar of pasta sauce was in my house, though. I still find it funny that I still can find food items older than I am when sifting through the pile of cra- er, stuff moved during home renovations.

Now... about those 9 year old raisins...