To say that Gipsy Danger was excited when the Anchorage Shatterdome's doors opened was an understatement.

"Yes! Fight number five! Maybe after this one I'll finally be able to get those new designer boots! And maybe a new tattoo! Maybe then those Mark IVs will finally notice me! Or, even better, Cherno Alpha..."

"Gipsy, your orders are to hold the Miracle Mile off the coast of Anchorage," came the orders from LOCCENT. But that was an issue for her pilots. Gipsy had other concerns.

"I should really get a new coat of paint. But what color should I go for? I remember reading that red was in this year, but blue has always been my color. And I don't want people to think I'm like that hussy Crimson Typhoon. That rumor of her and three other Jaegers...I believe it! She's just slutty enough to do something like that. But I'm not like her at all!"

Her external monologue continued as she walked. Back at LOCCENT, everyone decided (on their own) that now was a great time for a coffee break.

After a fairly long walk, Gipsy realized she had gone too far. But her journey had not been in vain.

"Hey, a perfectly good ship!" she remarked as she picked it up. "Why would someone throw away such a perfectly good decoration? I mean, it's not that pretty now, but I bet with a little polish and some redecorating, it would make a nice gift. I'll just take it with me back to the Shatterd-ah?!"

Before she could finish her sentence, she noticed the massive thing in front of her.

"Oh my God, I've never seen one so big before! I thought it was an urban legend! Ugh, I hope I never have to deal with one like that. I bet it would hurt going in. Why do men care so much about that any-"

And then lightning flashed.

"Oh, it's just a Kaiju. I'm sorry about that. The dark and water made you look like a-"

"Yes, I know. It's quite all right, madam. Happens all the time."

Despite the Kaiju's polite words, Gipsy was suddenly acutely aware of how much bigger he was than her. And how dark it was out here. And how alone she was out here. She unconsciously stiffened. She didn't want to fight this Kaiju here. She wanted to get out of there with the boat.

"Well, I don't want to keep you, Mr..."

"Knifehead. Walter Cunningham Knifehead."

"-Mr Knifehead, so I'll just be heading off n-" she prepared to take a step backward.

"Oh, but you simply can't leave just yet," the Kaiju insisted, taking a step forward. "You still have my boat. Terribly sorry for not mentioning it earlier."

"Your what?" she looked down and realized belatedly that the boat was still in her hand, terrified crew and all.

"Yes, my boat. You see, I have been chasing that boat for quite some time. I planned on cooking it tonight for dinner. If you would just hand it over, I would be happy to have you join-"

No doubt about it. Gipsy dodged the hand that had been coming towards her and came back with a solid right hook.

"Rapist! Rapist!" she screeched as she struck the Kaiju again and again. "Somebody help me! Rapist!"

"No, you stupid girl!" Knifehead insisted as she attacked. "I am happily married and need that boat so I can have a nice dinner with my wi-Wait, where is my boat?"

Gipsy looked down at her hands and belatedly realized she wasn't carrying the boat any more.

"Probably...at the bottom of the ocean by now..."

"Well, then," Knifehead remarked. "I suppose you have robbed me of a meal, then."

And then, he was there. The distance between them had vanished.

"So I shall devour you instead!"

His jaws came right for her face, but she blocked them with her arm.

"See! See?! I knew it! You are trying to rape me!"

One titanic push later, and the Kaiju was away from her. Gipsy Danger's personal space had, for the moment, been restored.

"No, you stupid girl!" Knifehead raged. "Not every Kaiju you meet on a dark and stormy night intends to do such dreadful things to you! I am merely going to eat you in a quite literal sense!"

"Like I would ever listen to a rapist like you!" Gipsy exclaimed in righteous fury. She was a woman, she had power, and she was not going to be a victim.

She brought out her plasma cannon and resisted the urge to shout about charging her laser using the poorest grammar imaginable.

"Stop or I'll shoot!" she warned.

"Your hollow bluff will not stop me," Knifehead remarked as he approached. "We both know it is illegal to discharge heavy artillery in international waters."

That was when she let loose a volley of shots and dropped the Kaiju like last year's fashions.

"Silly Kaiju. Americans don't respect international law. Now, what was I out here to do again?"

As if in answer, the comms link opened and LOCCENT began berating her for going so far out to sea, reminding her that her orders had been to stay at the Miracle Mile.

As her pilots explained the situation, Gipsy looked back at where the Kaiju had fallen. "Oh, right. Well, I did get the Kaiju. And I think I might have even saved the people on that boat. Well, maybe...Possibly...Until they drown, at the very lea-Oh, wait, there it is!"

Indeed, the boat and its passengers were safe and sound. Yes, this had been a very good day for Gipsy. She had killed her fifth Kaiju and saved a boat. Maybe they would let her keep it?

Then, over the comm-links, she faintly heard something about the "Kaiju signature rising", which gave her pause. Gipsy knew that happened to men when they were asleep, but when they were dead?

"Gipsy, that Kaiju is still alive!"

Well, that was different, then. And (if its signature was rising) also quite disturbing. What kind of man became aroused from being repeatedly punched and shot by a plasma cannon?

And then came the blow. Gipsy had done her fair share of slapping over the years, but this was the first time it had ever been done to her.

"You miserable sow!" Knifehead somehow roared politely as his jaws snapped at her. "That was quite painful! I do believe I shall-"

"-Be shot again!" Gipsy finished, brandishing her second plasma cannon.

But before she could fire, disaster struck. Or at least, that's what she decided she was going to call that giant blade on his head from now on as it sank into her arm.

"No," Knifehead denied, as his polite tone made his words all the colder. "I shall penetrate you."

With a flick of the Kaiju's neck, what remained of Gipsy's arm fell away.

"You...said you weren't a rapist..."

It was odd what a woman thought about when she was in shock.

"I am not," the Kaiju deadpanned. "But there is more than one way to penetrate a woman."

Time stood still as the claw came for her eye. Then from that side she could see only black. She felt something tear loose, and from her remaining eye caught a mass of metal being pulled away from her skull. On the end of it was something small and white.

She couldn't make out what it was. But she knew.

Part of her was gone.

What was that word? The one you used to...disagree? Disbelieve? Hate? She didn't even know any more. Her mind was fading, and with it her ability to think clearly.

"...Nn...ooh..."

"Yes," the Kaiju asserted.

Disaster struck again, this time piercing her breast and sending scraps of metal falling to the waters below.

"I do believe the appropriate phrase for this occasion is 'Omnomnom'," Knifehead quipped as his jaws sank into her hull.

All she had was being swallowed up by the ocean. Her arm, her pilot, her life.

She was dying.

But she would not be a victim.

Her remaining plasma cannon flickered to life.

The beast continued to tear off chunks of her hull, but still her cannon charged.

She would not go quietly into the darkness. The monster would pay for what it had done. What little remained of her deep down inside would make sure of that.

She fired.