…
Just as she was going to have it easy, they decided to put a hospital on fire. Of course, calling something this dire cliched would be too insensitive, and yet, she couldn’t help but feel like it was in character for them to do that. Putting people, or “maggots” as they would dub them, in danger was more than acceptable. That said, she still had some questions regardless. They were not petty vandals. They were something more. And she was going to find out about what they were doing, because that what she had to do. Because she was a hero.
“There she is!” a teenage shouted, jumping up and down to make sure they noticed. 
The passers-by all halted in the middle of the cold afternoon to watch a figure run through the roofs with a speed a jet fueled marathoner. Her skin shone brightly against blue and white skies, filling the cold day with bright, warm light. They all made sure to wave to her, even those who took videos, regardless if she saw them or not.
And it was no other than Taja, the Golden Girl. Having to become a celebrated hero of Liberty City was no small feat, to be sure. And, of course, this was not at all what the story was about. However, after saving the people multiple times from perilous dangers, one could not feel but claim her as an admirable figure. 
<You are sure that it could only be this?> the real Taja spoke in her head, as she stuck her staff at the edge of the roof, before it shot the other end to latch onto another building. The wire that was part of her staff she used to catwalk like on a makeshift trapeze over the intersection. This gathered even more attention from civilians. 
“Holy crap, did you see her!?” one young lady shouted, unable to handle yourself.
“Who could this extraordinary young girl even be?” an older gentleman asked, as he watched her disappear from sight, kicking the staff’s end to pull itself together and fall right into her hand.
This hero was actually no different than any of the citizens below her. While courageous and fierce, underneath that golden exterior was a normal young woman, who was having a very peaceful day beforehand. However, being a hero means that there were never truly peaceful days. And so, she took up her mantle once again, throwing away her everyday disguise to become the fighter of justice.
And her current objective? The ARKYO Institute.
She arrived quickly and perched on the roof’s parapet, getting a good look from outside the area. People were running away, pushing and pulling at each other to leave premises as quickly as possible. Some were going even on the still busy road, with the cars were swerving and tilting trying not to his anyone. One car in particular had already gotten damaged and flipped over, though considering how it looked, it probably belonged to the faculty. Burning pieces of paper were melting the snow on the ground, one of them having letters writing out “WELC”. 
The only living presence came in form of four figures, one of them terrorizing the other three. Those three happened to be an old man, a deer, with a bushy beard and shielded by a pair of equally old men. One of them looked like he was trying to use the former to shield himself, however. 
The fourth one that terrorised them, was none other than a monster made of flame. A Torque, to be exact. These creatures were originally normal people, but were cursed into becoming monsters. Their usual signifiers tended to be masks they wore, akin to a mannequin with flat faces. This one, for example, had one made of black material, akin to a rock, only for it to split apart into four piece to spew a fiery stream up into the air. The men cowered, pushing themselves up a tree, whose branches caught fire. There was a way to bring them back to normal, so long as she acted quickly. And so, she was ready to start her move.
“Whoah, figured it out already?” a young, cocky voice said.
The speed she drew her staff was faster than it took for the two to exchange looks. She heard him give her a smug chuckle. It was hard to figured out what type of man he was, but his attire fell somewhere in the jungle genre. Whether or not he looked a certain way didn’t matter though to the bigger fact, that this was a general of Lord Vacuo. The man who seeks to destroy their world.
“Well, if I’m honest, you made the conclusion very easy to draw out,” the Gold Girl admitted to her companion. Her tone was far more relaxed compared to how she held the staff, aimed at ready at his throat. “But is it not too irresponsible of you to burn down hospitals, young man?”
“Why should I care, Granny?” he spat at her. He gazed at the chaos happening below, balancing on the same parapet as she was. “Mongrels could die for all we care! We just need one thing.”
“Of course, so using a few as a distraction is wholly appropriate,” she admitted. She didn’t think to look away yet, even though she heard some more cries from below. She fully believed that they would not, in fact, attack their main target here, who happened to be the founder himself. Alexandross Magen, an enigma of a person, who only now decided to show himself up. This old deer had been their target as of late, and something had told her to that perhaps there was a special reason as to why.
“Something tells me,” Clavat posited, “you don’t think I am going to leave him in danger, right?”
She raised one eyebrow, trying to understand the question.
“You don’t know anything. This guy is totally fake!” he exclaimed, before turning his back on her. “They could all die here, for all I care. Waste of time I guess, but eh. What about you, Miss Hero? Are you going to-“
Taja jumped before even letting him finish. Having said that, while her powers allowed her attacks to come out lightning-fast, to this man, they were slower than a feather.
“You know, you can let me,” he said grabbing her leg from below, “finish before attacking!”
He swung her to smack her body on the roof surface. She smacked her staff right across his eyes, making an audible thwack. He wore a grin, not even flinching. In fact, he just stopped his retaliation just to laugh at her. 
“Wow, really?” he asked, hanging her body upside down. Despite the precarious situation, her smile was firmly set on her as well.
“I think I’ve come to understand exactly how you work, Clavat,” she said to him. She swung her staff horizontally, her staff landing a strike on some bricks under his feet. Clavat gave her a look of pity. It promptly morphed into surprise once he began to loose his footing. From there, his grip lightened.
“Until next time,” she told him, and smacked the bricks a second time.
The rocks have turned to sand, making him slip and fall backwards. He was going down on the streets below, and she followed right after him. Springing from his body, she launched herself towards the premise and straight towards the monster. Even if they weren’t hurt yet, she could waste time.
“Nuh-uh!” the general shouted childishly. 
She heard him kick something. He wrapped his hands around her torso before she could peek at him, his grip monstrously strong. She came to be very familiar with it, reminiscing of the car he managed to throw at her a month ago This was one of many particular reasons she came to believe they were not human at all. Thankfully, this monstrous strength came with a suitable weakness. One of which allowed her to keep smiling, despite both of them now plummeting to the earth at high velocity.
“No escape! Ready to get crushed!” yelled Clavat, maniacally grinning at her.
She, quite promptly, angled her rod and reflected some sun into his eyes.
“Sunbeam attack!”
“OW MY EYES!”
That was exactly the type of enemy he was, as it turned out. His grip loosened only a little bit, but it was just enough. Having a small, lithe body, in combination of a resourceful mind, could only give her an advantage over muscle-headed brutes like him. 
“DAMMIT, WHY DO I FALL FOR THAT EVERY TIME!!!” he whined on the way down. He crashed head first, and the end result made a miniature creature in the middle of the road.
“Taja,” after lightly landing nearby, passed by him charging at the monster. His muffled screams were ignored, but were filled with curses to her and her stupid weapon. 
“Now, to deal with you…” the Golder Girl whispered, twirling her staff. Taking down monster was far more complex task than one might think. She herself learned that lesson the three times she had to deal with her first one. 
The first thing she did was throw her staff at it. It bopped lightly against its back, leaving it to terrorise its victims unperturbed. Unhappy with the results, she summoned her rod back to her hands, using the magic that apparently was common for warriors like her. At least, that was what she was told.
<I do not think that worked,> her friend in her head mentioned.
Yeah, I guessed that, she retorted in her mind. After one more glance, she felt confident enough to skip analyzing with the monster and simply get rid of it. She dug her foot into the ground and kicked up a chunk into the air. She batted it like a baseball, aiming right at the back where the heart could be. The clump turned into a golden colored comet, and landed into a gigantic firework of color and debris. As it dissipated, there were still four figures present, the three old men, covering their faces from being blinded, and the monster, still whole and unscathed, carefully picking itself back up.
It slowly turned around to face her. The body it had was barely covered by the flames, which looked more intense out of anger, but below it was just charred-marble mannequin. There were, of course, holes adorning the stomach, from which fiery tongues slithered all over the body. That said, she quickly noticed something sticking out of the Torque’s “mouth”, which she thought looked like a piece of paper. The three old men, seeing the chance, scattered immediately, leaving only her to deal with that thing.
“Do you have any clue who could it be, Taja?” the Golden Girl asked the empty air.
The monster swallowed the rest of the piece of paper, before spewing out some more of the flame. The manner which it did seemed no different than an act of burping, which our Golden Girl found quite appalling.
<I really have no earthly idea!> answered Taja in her head. <But never mind that! That monster, he is responsible for burning that hospital! And as for who he could be, perhaps a patient? A doctor? Mayhap he was there to cure his mania for fires?>
“Taja” shook her head disapprovingly. If it were the case, then the building should have been a psychiatry instead, something that the person in her head found more confusing. The Golden Girl sighed. She gazed at the monster again, and saw it reach for the tree branches and rip several of them. It bit on them as if they were made of chocolates, a melted one that went down easy and one happened to have been on a prolonged fasting. Her eyes went wide as it tried to shove more down its throat. 
Meanwhile, it’s fiery body began to burn brighter after every second. It was then that she noticed how much dimmer it was before. And this gave her an idea.
“I think I figured it out now!” she said, then dashed forward.
She picked up her staff, then swung with full force. One of its ends released itself, turning into a whip which slapped the branches that the monster still held. The Torque dropped its food, and quizzically looked over to her. The second slap came across its face, and this time it drew out a powerful roar from inside. 
“Hey, Torque!” she waved to it. “Just try and catch me!”
She promptly turned around and ran away from it. 
The monster chased after her relentlessly. The fires it emitted burned bright and hot enough that the snow melted into vapors first, and even burned the grass it was on. Regardless, it was moving at comparable speed, and even started spewing fiery streams in her way. She, noticing how far it was reaching her, proceeded to dodge it, running away from the fiery tail coming after her. 
“C’mere, you little…!” Clavat yelled, before finally managing to free his head from earthly clutches. Before he managed to even roar, fire splashed across his face, plus the Golden Girl using his stupefied body to jump high into the air. As the monster burned its master, she flew over it and landed in a completely different spot.  
“Over here!” she waved to it, gathering its attention.
It spewed some more, which she avoided with a bit more ease. The fiery tail had shortened, and she noticed it, proving her theory. She kept on moving, making sure to nudging the monster on attacking some more by occasionally whipping it. It roared at her in frustration, becoming angrier with every lash. This led to more, what else, but spewing flames. Before long, the fire could reach half the distance it originally shot at.
<It is working!> the voice in her mind declared.
Of course it will! All according to-
Pair of monstrous arms wrapped her torso and clamped with the strength of two trucks. From behind her, un-grazed, though slightly charred, was a grin. 
“Think you got me now, huh!?” Clavat declared loudly. 
She tried to pull her lithe body out, but she was fighting against a man capable of crushing rocks one handed. He blasted a hearty laugh at her ear, amused no doubt by her weakness. And then she saw a stream of fire fly her way. She was an easy picking for the monster now. She raised her staff, but then it got slapped away in seconds.
“Not this time! No more tricks from you!” the general declared.
<Not good!> she heard in her head, which she agreed.
The Torque’s fire was ready to reach her. Clavat’s grin was more than self-evident.
“Now get ready to burn to a crisp, golden…huh?” He blinked twice. He looked at his hands, but instead of the famous Golden Girl, saw a statue. A statue resembling her, it should be noted. And soon enough, the fire enraptured both him and the statue between his hands.  “STOP DOING THAT YOU IDIOT!” he exclaimed, using the rocky body double to shield himself. He stomped on the ground once with enough force to make it boom, and the monster toppled backwards.
The general grumbled and looked at the statue in his hands. It looked exactly like her, and even seemed as though it was sculpted based on certain point in time. That time, of course, being him holding her in place.  
“Wait a sec,” he looked closer at her eyes. As one would consider, statue only resemble actions that real people do, including looking somewhere. But upon a closer inspection, that would certainly be proven untrue, usually. So it was quite an unusual sight for him, once he realized that the statue was, in fact, staring back at him. It was then he was reminded of one of her tricks that she rarely does around him, specifically. “You turned yourself into a statue, huh?” 
She moved her pupils from one end to another, making him laugh.
“Thought I couldn’t figure it out?”
“Well,” the statue answered promptly, “you took faster than I anticipated. Then again, I only needed one chance, you know?” The rock skin crumbled revealing her golden sheen, and shining in her hand was her trusty staff. His eyes went wide, but before he could manage to even a peep, she threw her weapon straight down into the ground. “Ready to get grounded, young man?” she said, with a smile.
He looked down and watched as the ground turn moist beneath his feet. It immediately engulfed him, burying him lower and lower, until they were both around waist deep. He tried to wriggle, but despite his efforts, he found himself stuck.
“Was that your plan?” he looked at her confident grimace, “And what are you going to do now!?”
“Asking that after knowing me for so long? Oh right, you don’t like thinking.”
He roared out, “Of course I don’t, you stupid little-“ 
He was in the middle of squeezing her in his hands, only to sink even more to the ground. It had reach to his chest, right before hardening. Annoyed and stuck, he wanted to say something to her, only to find that the golden girl had disappeared. Or, more accurately, had already dove deep into the ground right as he looked away, escaping his crutches easily and moving out towards the monster. 
While the ground has already hardened around the general, she swam in hers like it was water. With some idea about where the Torque was, she took one point and began to head straight towards. Before long, she shot right out of the muddy sphere and right into the air, above the Torque. It moved on all fours, its body’s flames petering out. Its hand reached out to a clump of branches, hunger emanating from itself.
<This is your chance! Do not lose it!>
“Taja” tossed a rock into the air in front of herself. One eye closed, her aim was inside the stomach, where most of the fire was still situated. She swung her staff like a bat, and infusing the rock with magical power, made it plummet straight down to it. The velocity it moved was fast, and the explosion that it ensued, was spectacular. Great shining color, of yellow and red, of fire and rock, blasted all over the place.
As it dissipated, the monster was there no more. In its place, was a middle-aged man, lying on the ground unconscious. He was wearing common clothes, though there were some bandages around his arm, as if he just gave away some blood. The Golden Girl then moved closer to look at him.
“This man, I know him!” the Golden Girl announced. “He had been going to the doctor to check about his diabetes!”
<Huh?> 
“I’ll tell you later. You probably haven’t heard of it. Now, what about our second guest?” 
As she spun around, a debris of rock and dust sprouted out like a geyser near her. She shielded herself, and then looking back, tried to shield the unconscious man. After it all settled, she found to her chagrin a gigantic hole imprinted on the ground.
“I’ll be back, you stupid golden maggot!” she heard yelled from the distance.
She looked up, and lightly sighed. Looks like the answer was not going to be today, she thought.
“Oh well, small victories and whatnot.” She sighed and dusted herself off, before going to look for the founder.
Once she did, she given the most outward show of gratitude by the three men. Thanking her endlessly, she learned that the man who looked like the founder, was in fact a hired stand-in, named Falce. He was supposed to have come over to the institute simply just as a formality, to go to some presentations, talk to some people and then leave. He was being given help by the other two, only for all of them to get attacked in the middle of the day by the monster.
Giving her few more thanks on the road, he offered her a chance to ask for anything, but she declined. She thought that he was likely not in the know, in her mind, and then promptly began to make her own exit out of the area. Sending wished and waving goodbye, she jumped up into the air. 
“Thank you very much, Golden Girl!” the old man said one last time. “If you weren’t here, my life would’ve been over!”
She left as swiftly as she arrived.
…
It took her around ten minutes to get back to her apartment. It was a rental to be exact, on the third floor to the back. She entered through the window, making sure that no one seen her. Closing her curtain shut, she walked into the middle of the room, and then began to glow. As the glow subsided, young lady transformed into a young woman in a hoodie and yoga pants. Specifically, a squirrel woman. She then exhaled all of the air still held in her lungs, before crashing down on her couch, burying her head into the pillow. The spirit appeared next to her, resembling her transformed state, and looked over her happily.
“Well done, Sam!” said the spirit, who was the real Taja. “You had showed them no quarter today! I bet on my left foot, that next time, you shall defeat him again swiftly, and learn all you need about King Magus! Well then, off I go to watch my serials!”
She then ran to her bedroom, right where her computer was. The Golden Girl, now a regular girl, wrapped her hands around the pillow and pulled it closer. Then the phone rang, making her groan. She picked it up, with effort, and after putting on a cheery tone asked,
“Hello, how may I help you?”
“Good evening, Miss Souffle!” said an adult man’s voice. “How are you doing?”
“Can you be normal, Todd?” she grumbled, rubbing her eye. “What do you want?”
“Well, need to look something with you. Come over in ten?”
“Sure thing. Dinner’s on you” she said and hanged up.
She fell down on the again, then stared at the ceiling. The Town of Valiant. It has been a while since she was there. Do the kids still remember her? She was only there for a short time. Though it definitely gave her some lasting memories. Especially that hedgehog kid. What a quaint little town.
“Are you tired?” Taja asked, the spirit suddenly standing over her.
“Very,” Sam said calmly. “What is it, need a password?”
“You will never guess exactly what had happened!” the spirit announced cheerfully. “I have found them! All of them!”
“Who?”
“My comrades!!!” She ran, and as Sam peeked from her couch, stopped right by the window. “Azure! Rose! Featherhead! Zamma! Kage!!! All of them…are here!!!”
…