Mei Lin and Mira: Spy Chasing in the Cosmos

Mei Lin found herself on a beach, with the wind whipping through her hair and the waves crashing into the shore. The sun shined brightly above her, almost too bright to look at directly. She had been away from home for years now, learning to master the martial arts passed down by her family. She had decided that she would return to her home village this day, not knowing what fate held in store for her.

She turned to look at the village in the distance and smiled. Her mother was probably cooking lunch right now, while her father was no doubt sitting by his shop reading or chatting with friends. An image of her younger brother flashed through her mind, followed by one of her best friend from childhood. She remembered how they used to play together all day long, how their laughter used to echo through the forest behind their houses. It seemed like it was so many years ago that she had left. Now she felt like a stranger in a foreign land.

As Mei Lin turned back towards the sea, a distant object caught her eye just beyond the waves. At first she thought it was just a rock or something similar, but as she walked closer towards it, she noticed that it looked more like some sort of metal cylinder. As she bent down to pick up a stone to throw at it, however, she heard a voice behind her shout "Stop!"

Mei Lin whirled around on instinct and saw a man drop down from above just meters away from where she stood looking at him in shock. He wore dark clothing and carried a large gun outstretched towards her direction. Before she could even react he shouted again "Down!", and suddenly two large explosions shook the ground around them as bullets flew past Mei Lin's head and pinged into the sand beside her feet only centimeters from where she stood.

"Who are you?" said Mei Lin between breaths as they stared at each other in shock "Why are you shooting at me? Where did you come from?"

"Shh" said the man quietly as he glanced around "I'll explain later, we have to get out of here right now." His eyes darted back and forth scanning their surroundings as he spoke more urgently "Follow me!"

"But why?" protested Mei Lin impatiently "I don't know who you are or what your doing but I have somewhere I need to be" She pointed back in the direction of her village "I'm not leaving until you tell me what's going on."

The man sighed as he lowered his weapon "Ok fine I'll explain everything but we don't have much time." He turned around and began walking away from Mei Lin in the direction opposite of where she was headed "Now follow me before those guys show up again." Not wanting another bullet shot near her feet Mei Lin hurried after him with questions burning inside of her mind. She began following him along the edge of the beach before turning toward where he had emerged from earlier and noticed an odd looking boat tethered to an even odder looking dock. The boat itself seemed shaped more like some giant fish than any kind of ship Mei Lin had ever seen before but there were also strange mechanical parts visible through its shiny purple exterior which puzzled Mei Lin greatly. The man climbed aboard while still facing away from Mei Lin and gestured for her to do the same before he disappeared below deck. As soon as Mei Lin stepped foot on deck however something seized hold of both of her arms tightly causing her to cry out in pain as pain shot through both arms up into the rest of body into every nerve ending that makes up human skin. Almost immediately after however everything went black as darkness swirled around both eyes until eventually it faded leaving Mei Lin standing once again on solid ground surrounded by smoke smelling faintly sulfuric though for some reason she couldn't smell anything else at all except for something else that was slightly sweet almost like flowers or fruit yet incredibly faint and impossible to place exactly what it smelled like…