21. Chapter 21

There was a distress signal coming from the town that Vexus was thought to probably be located in. It took several minutes for Ms. Wakeman to convince Jenny to go since she was so angry. Exactly why Jenny gave in to her mother's request, at this point, even she wasn't sure.

When she finally arrived at the police station in the town, upon landing, the officers took a few steps away from her when they saw the horribly angry look on her face.

"So then, what exactly happened here?" Jenny asked.

"Oh, right, we heard several huge explosions coming from an area several miles from town. The sounds of the explosions were faint, so we didn't believe it at first. When we got a call from the boys at the watch tower, they said they could see smoke rising into the sky from the woods. And well, the smoke cloud has been getting bigger ever since," a female officer explained.

"Smoke cloud? I don't remember seeing a smoke cloud," Jenny said as she looked in the direction the officers were pointing.

Surprised at what she saw, she said "How did I miss that? I was pointed in that direction when I was flying here. Wait, never mind that. How come you all haven't gone out there yourselves yet?"

"We're still waiting for the fire department to accompany us. The mayor wanted us to go there at the same time. We haven't had to respond to a fire emergency in so long that some of their equipment stopped working from not being used. They have to get spare equipment from the other side of town. We'll be heading to the fire in about ten minutes," another officer explained.

Jenny tried to take flight, but found it really difficult for some reason.

"_It's as if I no longer have the will_," she thought to herself.

"Are you alright? You don't look so good," one officer asked.

"I…don't know," Jenny replied.

Complete silence followed Jenny's reply for a moment before she forced herself to take flight. The officers watched as she disappeared into the background.

"You think it was a good idea to ask for her help? I've never seen her like that before," A male officer said.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," The female officer said.

The view from the sky was surprising. When they said explosions, Jenny assumed that these explosions were caused by gas lines exploding or something similar.

"This definitely looks like Vexus's handy work, but there are no signs of her now. She must've left. All right then, activating GPS. I need to find a nearby lake. This fire will take a lot of time to put out, time that I really don't feel like spending here," she said.

All of a sudden, her sensors detected signs of life inside the barn. She rushed in to find a human, but only found a large beetle in a glass pot.

"What the hell, a beetle? A big beetle. You are a living creature, so I can't just let you burn alive in here," Jenny said as she opened her chest plate and put the beetle inside.

After closing her chest plate, she double checked for signs of life to find nothing. After that, she left the house heading towards a large nearby pond her GPS navigator located. When she arrived, she realized that the amount of water in the pond was not quite enough to put out all of the fire, but it was enough to keep the fire from spreading by setting up a perimeter.

After setting up the perimeter, she landed in a place that wasn't burning and began staring at the inferno.

"This kinda reminds me of that nightmare," she said as she remembered the nuclear blast.

She found it all to be a little strange. Her nightmare was frightening, but seeing similar destruction in real life, at that moment, actually made her feel at peace.

"This out of control blaze, it's so violent, but I feel so calm. I guess I should be worried, but for some reason…I'm not," She said as she started smiling.

To her, the blaze seemed as if it was actually the same fire that was raging inside her, but manifested in physical form. Completely captivated by the hypnotic sea of reds, oranges, and yellows, she completely lost track of time.

When the police and fire department arrived, they began preparing to put out the fire. One of the policemen ran over to Jenny from behind wondering why she was standing there like a statue. When he got within five feet of her, he saw that she wasn't so statue-like after all. Her entire body was trembling.

"Ms. Wakeman, why are you just standing there like that? You know it's dangerous to be this close to the flame, don't you?" the officer yelled.

He didn't receive a response from her at all. He walked around to see her face, and was shocked by what he saw. By this time, she was no longer smiling, she was crying. No tears were coming from her eyes, but he could tell she was definitely crying.

Unsure how to handle this kind of situation, the officer yelled "Hey, I think we have a problem over here."

When two of the other officers arrived, the female officer from earlier asked "What's the problem?"

The male officer pointed at Jenny signaling the female officer to see for herself. When the other two officers walked around to see Jenny's face, they had basically the same reaction as the first officer had.

The female officer asked "Ms. Wakeman, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

She received no response either. It was as if Jenny didn't even know they were standing there. Jenny continued to stare directly into the blaze.

The female officer placed her hands on Jenny's shoulders and shook her lightly saying "Jennifer, please, you need to snap out of it and get away from the flames. I don't know what you see in those flames that's making you so sad, but they'll soon be put out, and you won't have to fear them anymore."

Jenny's eyes focused on the female officer, and then she asked in a trembling voice "If it's something to be afraid of, it has no place in this world…does it?"

After realizing why she asked that question, none of the officers could think of anything to say to her. They remained silent.

Jenny then raised her voice some and asked "I'm right, aren't I?"

"Listen Jenn…" the female officer said.

Jenny cut the officer off by yelling "They fear the fire, so they want it put out. They fear it, so they want it to just…disappear."

Filled with rage and sadness, Jenny removed the officer's hands from her shoulders and took off flying into the air as fast as she could. Not looking back, she quickly disappeared from sight.

"I have a bad feeling about this. I think we should call her mom as soon as possible," The other male officer suggested.

"Yeah, in fact, I'll do that now. As soon as I'm done with the call, I'll help you guys with the fire," The female officer said as she quickly ran to the car.