The fight was far from over.

  Wild animals were still causing mayhem all around her. Apparently, she had an army now. Jules was always good with people, and even though she never wanted it, she often took on the role of leader in her social groups. People just seemed to follow her. Well…now…fire creatures followed her.

  Jules scanned the area. To her left, two gray foxes and a bobcat—two animals usually incompatible—were attacking a small group of long-tailed weasels with tails of flame. At her one o’clock, a black bear was circling a badger with two parallel rows of fire on its back. On her left side, five flying aberrations battled another mountain lion. They looked an awful lot like Free-tailed bats, but fire replaced their common huge ears over the eyes, their wings, and their long skin tail. Finally, a walking, living fossil covered in flame was fending off several more coyotes.

  “Did all the animals in the park get a makeover?”

  Finally, she witnessed a large pack of wolves waiting for their chance to get in on the carnage. They were too smart to dive in and risk reducing their numbers.

  “Okay,” she finally said. “You four steamies go help the bats. Mystic, you follow me. We’re going to take out the bear. Keep an eye peeled for those wolves!”

  Like they had been following her orders their whole lives, the four McSteamies floated toward their assigned target. Jules and Mystic floated toward the bear fight. On the way, Mystic released a swarm of fireflies. It looked like someone had struck a smoldering fire with a burning log, spreading embers everywhere. They zoomed toward the bear with hostile intent, like hundreds of military kamikaze drones. The bear never saw what hit him as his fur burst into flame across hundreds of small impacts.

  It roared as its body flinched in reaction to the burns.

  Diverting its focus from the badger, it stared at its new targets, its attackers, Jules and Mystic. It stood to its full height and roared again. Jules had never seen a black bear as big as this one. It was probably twice the size of a normal black bear, standing at 8 or nine feet easily. After asserting its dominance, it dropped back to the ground and charged.

  Jules confidently raised her hand and shouted, “BOIL!”

  Mystic moved out of the way in a swift dodge, then struck at the bear’s back with a fiery punch.

  Despite Jules’s boil attack and the punch, the bear persisted, ignoring the pain and the burns.

  “I don’t want to kill you! Can you just go back to your cave!?”

  She knew the bear didn’t understand her, but she really didn’t want to hurt the dang thing.

  A moment before the bear reached her, she floated 15 feet into the air. From her new vantage point, she felt the need to use a unique ability. Singe? Well, boil worked. She thought.

  “SINGE!” she yelled. “BOIL!”

  As Mystic and the fire badger attacked its flank, all the hair erupted in flame as if someone had poured diesel on the beast and lit the fuel. In less than a minute, the black bear fell, smoke rose from the few remaining tufts of hair, skin sizzled, eyes exploded, its stomach split in a jagged gash, spilling its burnt and boiling contents, while blood oozed from its mouth and ears.

  Apparently, boil cooked from the inside out, while singe worked outside in. Both were brutal means of attack.

  “Oh God. What a horrible way to die! I’m so sorry!” She wanted to break down and cry over the animal she had just euthanized, but there were still wolves and…

  Jules watched the sky zoom over her head as her head fell to the ground and then she passed out.

  The effects of exhaustion taxed Jules. Apparently, using magic and floating around used energy; a lot.

  She opened her eyes and stared at the sky. Mystic floated to stand over her.

  Sitting up, she realized the surrounding grass hadn’t burned or singed.

  Something about intent, maybe?

  She sat up and took in her surroundings.

  All the McSteamies floated near her, awaiting her instruction. The badger moseyed over. Fiery bats landed on the ground next to her. The remaining long-tailed weasel sat nearby licking itself. And the large ancient dinosaur stood watch.

  Her army.

  For now, the area was calm, secure. She felt in her soul that her mission was not yet complete, but she did not know what that mission was or who to ask for guidance.

  Right now, she needed refuge. She needed to confide in a friend. Jason had taken her under his wing as a sort of little sister. She hated to intrude on him and his wife, Karen, but she felt he was the only one she could talk to about this. He was into movies and superheroes. Maybe he would have some clue about what was going on with her and the park.

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  Showing up at his house naked would probably piss his wife off, though. Maybe she could wear a firefighter suit, or she could just wrap aluminum foil around herself. She wished she could just put her uniform back on.

  Her body reacted to her desires, and suddenly, it appeared as if clothing covering her body. Her new uniform fit a little more snugly, but at least she wasn’t technically naked.

  “Okay…I can generate clothes now?”

  She wondered what she would look like in a tight superhero costume, and simply because her mind wanted it, her body generated the appearance of a blue costume with a number four emblazoned on the shoulder.

  “Interesting,” she said to the fire creatures around her. “What do you guys think?”

  They just stared at her.

  “Yeah. It’s a bit much. Okay. Uniform it is.”

  Almost immediately, her clothing transformed back into her uniform. The fire still covered her exposed skin, though.

  “I have to do something about this too,” she said, looking at her arms. She concentrated, thinking of her flames receding. As if they were being absorbed back into her skin, the flames disappeared. She thought about her hair, and instead of waving fire, it turned into what appeared to be normal hair. She played with the hair color just to see if she could, and it worked. Trying red, black, blonde, brown, she finally stuck with her original dark brown, leaving a bit of blonde highlights for fun.

  “Well, this will save me a bunch of money on hair care!” she said to herself and laughed. She knew she had to quit messing around and get help. Someone needed to know what was happening at Valles Caldera.

  “What are we going to do with you guys? I can’t take you with me into town, and I can’t just leave y’all here. What to do? What to do? Stay here for a second.”

  She soared into the air. Strangely, no one was anywhere near their area. There were no more animals or people between her position and the visitor center. She saw Jara Creek and the small lake it fed into.

  Maybe they can hide near the lake? Well, they can’t hide here. Make a decision, Jules.

  She floated down, deciding the lake was the best spot for now.

  “McSteamies, Mystic, and what do we call the rest of you?”

  Banners flickered to life over their heads.

  Jules left her fire army at the small lake and flew quickly to the visitor’s station. She didn’t know what time it was or even what day it was, but she hoped someone would still be there. Several Ranger trucks were in the parking lot, but that didn’t really mean anything. She floated up to the porch, remembered she shouldn’t be floating and let herself drift back to solid ground.

  Walking sucks now, she thought.

  Before she could open the door, Jason burst out screaming, “Jules! It’s you! You’re okay! What happened? Are you hurt?”

  “Slow down, slow down, good buddy,” she said with her palms out toward him, keeping him from running up and picking her up in a literal fiery embrace. She didn’t really know yet if her body temperature was hotter than normal, or if she would accidentally burn something by touching it. Even though she didn't burn the ground earlier, she didn't want to take any chances.

  “I’m fine. Just a little shaken up,” she said. “Can we go inside?”

  Looking a little disappointed she wouldn’t let him hug her, he led her through the door. “Sure, sure. Man! You have no clue how good it is to see you right now! Like for real. We thought something happened to you! I mean with Mi…you know…all that’s happened.”

  He was rambling. Over excited. “I’ll give you the full story. I promise. I need something to drink, and is Cat around?”

  “Oh yeah! You wanna coke or something? Bottle of water? I got you. I can’t beli—”

  “Just water. Thanks, Jason.” She cut him off, giggling. She’d actually never seen the calm man act like this. Few exciting things happened in the valley, but when they did, Jason could usually handle the stress. Today’s events must’ve been Jason’s limit.

  Jason took off to the break room to grab some water, and Jules could hear him yell toward Cat’s office. “Jules is back, boss!” She heard a muffled female voice saying something in reply. Then Jason said, “Yeah, for real. She’s in the foyer.” Another muffled reply, then, “Okay, I’ll tell her. Hey Jules! C’mon back!”