It’s a spirit, it’s got to be a spirit or an elemental… It couldn’t be a golem, because it had been immaterial and a golem couldn’t do that with its heart. A spirit could have been sleeping, but an elemental would have had to have been conjured. There simply wasn’t enough ambient mana for a case of spontaneous generation.

Or at least Dara thought that was the case. Where’s a professor when I need one?

But now it was looking at her.

Me or my magic. It didn’t matter. She couldn’t try to damp her magic, because if it was looking at her via magic, that would leave a blind, rampaging spirit in the street and…

Oh, gods, people are coming out to look at it! Why are they coming out to look at it! It’s nine feet tall and roaring! But there they were, coming out of the little stores and diners, people who looked about Dara’s age or a little older. Students, holding their phones up and talking to each other.”

“…a movie?”

“…Hancock Park?”

“Hey, look, it’s a magical girl!”

That last stopped Dara for a second. A what? Then the creature roared and lunged forward. Dara squeaked and jumped back, barely avoiding being crushed by one great hand. She flung her staff up and called upon her magic, and then around the spirit, you could see the glimmers of power as she tried to bind it in hardened air.

But it moved faster than she expected and before she could finish, it ripped free, the backlash feeling like someone had punched Dara in the stomach.

Then it was running for her, the ground shuddering with each stride.

Around her, the people were finally waking up to the fact that this wasn’t a show for their amusement, and screams were starting to rise in the air, along with the sound of sirens.

Dara snapped the staff down and called the fire. The column of flames that roared out send more people fleeing and were bright enough to cast shadows. They struck the spirit’s body, playing over it, melting plastic, softening metal…

But she wasn’t just contending with the material, she was fighting the spirit’s will and magic, knitting its artificial body together and protecting it from her power. Dara held the fire on it for a few more moments, then dodged to the side as the spirit, now on fire, thundered past her, crashing into the outdoor dining area of a restaurant.

Fortunately, the people there had decided to move instead of trying to get more pictures.

“Dammit, I—“ Dara shrieked as she barely avoided an ornamental planter, the ceramic pot embedding itself in the side of a car.

I am really bad with cars, Dara thought. Maybe that was why they seemed to take such joy in terrifying her on the road?

It didn’t matter. She thrust her staff out again and called on one of the embedded foci and the golden tendril she’d used to pull herself through the air whipped out and wrapped itself around the spirit's arm. Dara yanked it forward, pulling the spirit off balance.

“Go you, and I—gods!” Dara’s words broke off into a shriek. The spirit had blocked its fall with its free arm, and then, before Dara could dismiss the magic, yanked back on its other arm, pulling Dara through the air, before it yanked its arm down, trying to slam her into the ground.

Dara managed to dismiss the magic, so she wasn’t pulled down.

No, she was just flying through the air towards a plate-glass window! Dara’s eyes widened, and she frantically twisted around, and then commanded the air to form a soft cushion, slowing her as she struck the glass, and keeping the glass from spraying out around the crowd that was just standing there like idiots!

But the glass didn’t turn into deadly shards. It somehow fragmented into… little blunt fragments?

Then Dara’s observation was cut short when she slammed into a display full of toilet paper. She fell down onto the floor, buried in a tidal wave of packaging. Then she jumped up, shaking her head as more screams erupted, the people fleeing to the rear of the store as the spirit smashed the remains of the window aside as it advanced on her. Dara backed off and then slammed the staff down on the ground. For a moment nothing happened, then dozens of golden tendrils lashed up from the ground, grabbing the spirit by its head, and pulling it back.

It had been advancing on Dara, and the attack caught it off guard. It toppled to the ground, the remaining glass in the window shattering from the impact. In the parking lot, cars started beeping and honking, their headlights flashing.

That won’t hurt it. Not long, but… Dara dashed past the prone spirit, and ran into the parking lot, which was now empty of people.

Granted, there were still people crowding on the sidewalk, but at least they weren’t right next to her.

And then, several police cars came wailing into the parking lot, men jumping out. Dara ducked down by a car. The last thing she needed was to be shot by mistake.

Or on purpose.

But no, they were shooting at the spirit.

But spirit-animated beings had no vulnerable internal organs, save for the forms a spirit had formed out of living matter. But that meant that the bullets weren’t doing much. Oh, they were knocking off parts and putting small holes in the spirit, but it wasn’t enough to hurt it. Not quickly. Without magic, you needed a way to shatter the spirit’s body, to force it out.

But they were enough to irritate it, and evidently, it could sense where the shots were coming from as it turned on the largest group of police and grabbed a small two-wheeled bike and raised it up over its head before flinging it at them.

The men and women managed to dodge the bike, but their calls became louder, more desperate as another fusillade of shots rang out. Above them, a helicopter hovered, a beam of light illuminating the spirit.

Dara stared at it and then pulled out her focus. I need to take it down, but I can’t just keep beating it like this. Someone is going to get killed. But it’s concentrating on them so…

Without waiting for second thoughts, Dara jumped up and over the car, running for the spirit.

Screams and shouts echoed from the bystanders, people pointing at her.

At least they can’t see who I am. She made certain her mask was tight and then put on a last burst of speed. The spirit had paused, and was starting to turn around, but it was too slow, and Dara slapped the focus on the ground. Then she put every bit of energy she had into it, the sigils on the paper flaring as the paper itself caught fire.

And in response to her command, the earth and stone under the spirit shot up, forming a great hand, gripping the lower part of its body, sparks flying as the stone hand slowly crushed the metal and plastic. The spirit started thrashing, a bellowing cry filling the air. But then Dara jumped up and slammed the tip of her staff into its chest. This has to be where the spirit is. She dodged a flailing hand and then got the staff wedged into a crack and levered it open, revealing the cavity—and within it, the spirit, its form thrashing as it tried to extract itself from the body it had formed.

It may not be able to survive withdrawing… But Dara wasn’t going to give it the chance. She drove her staff into the spirit, energy flaring as the enchanted implement disrupted the delicate structures that allowed the spirit to exist. A few moments later, there was a loud keening sound followed by a sharp cracking sound. With one final flash, the cavity went dark.

It’s gone. Dara shook her head. She…

“Come out, hands up!” Dara looked around. The police were advancing, but she was partially concealed by the remains of the body the spirit had animated, in addition to the rock she’d called. But that wouldn’t last.

Dara reached into her pocket and grabbed a second focus.

Fog. Only unlike the park, this working was prepared, only needing a bit of energy to function. Dara breathed on it, the sigils gleaming, and then released it.

Around her, rising up from the ground and falling from the sky, thick streamers of fog formed, billowing around her, filling the parking lot. Shouts and yells echoed as Dara turned and darted for the outside of the shopping complex. There were people there, held back, taking pictures, now indistinct in the fog. They couldn’t see her. Nobody could see her, hopefully. Nobod—

Dara tripped over a stone and nearly went sprawling, barely able to get back to her feet.

C’mon, c’mon… She touched her bracelet, and shielded by the fog, her uniform flashed off, the clothes swirling around her before the mundane clothes took form. Then Dara stuck her finger to her forehead, banishing the color cantrip, her hair restored to its normal blue color. But there were people in the back, flashlights moving back and forth, and there were people in front of her. She had to get…

Dara hit someone somewhat taller than she was and bounced off of him, landing on the hard ground. She winced, but before she could move, the indistinct figure bent down and thrust out a hand.

“Are you okay?”

“Uh—yes,” Dara said. “I’m sorry. I was running from that thing and wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“I don’t blame you. It looked like someone landed a giant robot in the middle of the shopping plaza.” He looked down at her, close enough so that the diffuse light let Dara see his blond hair, though his face was still shrouded. “I’m Jack. You okay? You landed pretty hard.”

“No, I’m ah, fine,” Dara said. “I just need to get home. With everything that’s going on, I bet my family will be… worried.”

“Right, need me to call a car?”

Dara shook her head. “No, thanks. I can wall home. Oh, I’m Dara!” With that, Dara waved and then turned and walked off, joining the rest of the crowd as the spell holding the fog in place ended, the fog no longer resisting the light California breeze that started pulling eddies of vapor away, revealing the wreckage of the plaza. Police and firefighters were now in the region and a man with a loudspeaker was ordering everyone to leave the area.

“Fine with me,” Dara said, as she joined a group of college students, all of them talking about what they’d seen or uploading videos for the…

Entire world to see. Dara stared at one girl showing the image of Dara fighting the spirit.

“We’ve got a superhero!” she squealed.

“No, we’ve got someone who wants to go viral and blew up a parking lot to do it.”

“Do you think it had anything to do with the Tar Pits?”

Oh, gods… Dara just put her head down and kept walking.

Later, when Dara got back to the house, she walked up to the front door. Which was open.

Dara walked in to hear the TV playing.

“Another terrorist attack in California? Police still have no comment about the strange events that occurred in Fullerton, but we have footage of a disguised woman using what looked like some kind of flamethrower and grappling gun to engage a giant robot.” the news reporter paused as Dara entered the room, looking out at the audience with a flummoxed expression. “As strange as it sounds, multiple videos prove that the large object was moving and fighting. Damages to the plaza will probably exceed five hundred thousand dollars, although there are currently no known injuries due to the attack…”

Millie was on the couch.

“Ah… I…” Dara swallowed. “That didn’t go as I planned it. I didn’t think that something like that might happen. Normally, something like what I did with the staff wouldn’t even be a blip, but I guess with the lack of magical activity…”

Millie didn’t say anything.

“But… I don’t think it was sent after us directly.” Dara said. “It wasn’t fighting like a controlled spirit, I mean, of course, if someone was watching who knew about magic they might realize I was using magic, but—“

Millie just gestured at the TV, this time showing a shot from someone’s cell phone, the jerky image showing Dara rolling across the pavement and unleashing a bolt of fire at the spirit.

“And this is available all over the world.”

“Yep.”

Dara stared at the TV, then walked over to sit down next to Millie. “I screwed up. Didn’t I?”

“Yeah. Big time.”