Sorry for the later update y'all, I literally forgot 😭 But at least this one is super long?

"Is it a beautiful day at Piston Peak Park? Yes, it is! Thanks for coming out, everybody!"

About a hundred horns beeped in a celebratory manner. Holley had joined the modest crowd gathered in the lodge's front square to see the unveiling of a commemorative plaque. Said plaque was under a tarp, right beside Superintendent Spinner, whose (frankly, grating) voice echoed over the area. Celebrities and assorted VIPs occupied the front rows, so Holley took a spot in the back. She had no interest in seeing the plaque— knowing Spinner's type, he probably engraved his own image onto it— but attending the ceremony would make her appear more like a wealthy socialite. That way, she could corner Spinner immediately after the ceremony, under the guise of an impressed investor.

And she was almost certain the concierge was still keeping tabs on her. Perhaps participating in the event would throw off some suspicion.

"I'd like to give a special welcome to the Secretary of the Interior," Spinner continued after the horns faded out, "who is joining us for the unveiling of this commemorative… ahem, plaque."

He kept looking off to the side, as if distracted. Holley's eyes followed his, toward a yellow-and-blue fire engine heatedly discussing something with a couple other staff members. Their conversation was beginning to compete with Spinner's speech, including buzzwords like "safety" and "evacuation."

Spinner chuckled nervously and excused himself. He reversed faster than Holley would have thought he was capable of, squealing toward the fire truck. But just as soon as he left, he came back and yanked the tarp off the plaque.

Behind Holley, someone shrieked. She whirled around, ready to intervene— and momentarily forgetting her wheel, which seemed to weep with the sudden movement. But every eye in the audience was on the shrieker, whose gaze was now fixed on a mountain ridge.

A mountain ridge covered in smoke, advancing toward the lodge.

"Now that's just rude," Spinner huffed, oblivious.

Multiple vehicles cried out at the same time: "FIRE!"

The audience plummeted into a panic. Everyone rushed into the Lodge, leaving behind a speedboat on a cart. The boat screamed, and his tow car returned for him.

Holley let the crowd push her back into the lodge. That was probably the fire those smokejumpers had been so concerned about.

Inside the lodge, the influx of wide-eyed ceremony attendees invited curious looks from other guests. One brave car even asked jokingly, "Where's the fire?"

"On the ridge!" a small plane replied, dead serious. "And we're downwind— it's coming right toward us!"

That's when a melodic beep rang through the loudspeakers. "Attention, park guests. A large fire is active nearby. Please cooperate as the staff assists you with our emergency evacuation protocols. This is not a drill."

For one second, a chill fell over the room. Then everyone who had been lounging in the main hall made a dash for their rooms.

Holley observed as the visitors spiraled. She knew the fire itself wasn't the real threat— it was whoever orchestrated it, and what had gone so wrong on the firefighters' end to let it come within sight of the lodge. It was certainly in the area her scans had noted.

Finn's out there. And Smith. They'll need support now more than ever….

"Miss," a voice said, pulling her from her thoughts. One of the greeters was now beside her. "You should collect your things and leave the park ASAP. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"No, I'm fine," she said, almost automatically. "I'm waiting for a friend to come down with our things… Are evacuations normal at this resort?"

"Not at all, miss. We have small fires throughout the park, but none that come close like this."

"Do you believe it was caused by a campfire?"

He hesitated. "Most of them are. Though we also had an unusually strong lightning storm the night before the gala. Perhaps it's because of that. In any case, we apologize for the inconvenience. Be careful."

"I will." And she drove off— though not toward her room. If anything, the chaos created a great window to gather more information. Horns filled the air, collecting with the exhaust from hundreds of guests. Every guest was looking out for themself, while every staff member was looking out for the guests. Therefore, no one would be manning the staff-only areas, and Spinner's office would likely be unguarded if she went there….

For their part, the staff did well in crowd control, guiding guests in orderly lines to all the exits and off the ramps. Many cars hurried out of the train station, looking distraught. Has the train already filled up?

At the main exit, Spinner attempted to downplay the whole situation. "It's just a small, little fire! If you can all just calm down, you can come back next year? Sure, you can all come back next year! I'll see you right here!"

Holley recognized the opportunity. She veered out of the flow of traffic, pushing the sharp pain in her wheel to the back of her mind. Driving right up to Spinner, she batted her eyes in a way that always seemed to seduce stupid, shallow characters. "I, for one, don't see what all the panic is about. Fires are natural, and we're here for nature, are we not?"

"Exactly!" Spinner scoffed. She switched her microphone on, angling toward him so everything he said would be recorded. "All the guests invested so much into their vacations! The fire's far enough away, so they might as well stay a little longer."

"You don't seem surprised that there's a fire, Mr. Spinner. Were you informed about it?"

"Of course I was! What am I, a Pinto? No, I am not. I know everything going on in the park! However, I did expect the firefighters to be a little more competent than this. If everyone gets scared off by a fire, our revenue will plummet!"

"I've read about an increase in lightning storms this summer. Are evacuations common in these parts?"

Before Spinner could answer, one of his front lights blinked with a small beep. He rolled his eyes as a small antenna rose from his hood. "Hold on a second— Cad, thirty seconds, go… What? How would you know that? Listen, I'm trying to retain customers here… Agh, fine."

"Is there a problem?" Holley asked, putting more innocent concern into her voice than she actually felt.

"I don't think there is," Spinner huffed, his antenna retracting, "but security's about to blow a gasket. I have to go. Feel free to stick around! Tell your friends!"

He sped toward the shops, skidding to a stop in front of a green muscle car. Holley gasped; this car was the security guard who had nearly compromised her and Finn the other night. Sizing him up, she figured she could beat him in a fight, even with her wheel injury— but if a fight could be avoided, that was the better option.

So she turned and headed for the ramps. She couldn't hide in the room forever, but it would give her enough privacy to reconnect with Finn and Smith.

Large plumes of black smoke blotted out the sun, depriving Sid of his one source of comfort. The smell of smoke was stronger now than it had been a few hours ago, too. Oh, and a tree trunk was digging into his good side— that is, the side with the wing still attached. Dozens of bugs were probably crawling over it. He shivered.

A very antsy Mandi had taken to hovering and relaying what she saw to Sid. Normally he would have found it a nuisance— as time wore on, the urge to sleep became harder to fight— but it was a nice distraction.

"There's a herd of Deere to the north," she said, sounding more like a sports announcer than a nature documentarian. "They're stampeding away from the fire. It's getting closer. Oh, wow, it's fast. I've never actually seen one before."

"How far out?" He cringed at his own voice, no more than a croak.

She completed another lap around his crash site. "About five kilometers now. A team of smokejumpers saw you, yes?"

"Yeah, they took Finn and Holley. You don't think they forgot about me, do you?"

"They could be overwhelmed, with the disastrous fire and all. CalFire or someone should have been called in by now—" She broke off into a coughing fit. "Ack, the smoke is getting worse. Also, firefighting teams aren't responsible for recovering aircraft wreckage. They might not even have the assets to disassemble you."

"I know that," Sid groaned, closing his eyes as his headache grew more pronounced. He'd never been disassembled before, and right now his oil pressure couldn't handle the thought. "I just hoped they'd make an exemption. Otherwise we'll have to ride out this fire."

"Well, this isn't a good place to 'ride out' anything. We're surrounded by fuel. I'm going to land, we need to get you loose." Mandi touched down in the ditch he'd made during his crash landing. She came close enough that she no longer needed to talk through the radio. Her eyes narrowed, examining him. "Who dressed your wing stub?"

"Please don't call it that, it… sounds weird." He wondered how exactly they'd put a new wing on him, but then realized she'd asked him a question. His memories immediately following the crash were hazy (and so he probably had a concussion, great just great), but he remembered someone had called Mandi and Smith while someone else had patched him up. "I think Finn put the bandages on. Why?"

"He rushed it. Fluids are seeping through."

Dehydration. That explained his sudden craving for slushies. (Specifically cherry slushies, which was odd because he never liked cherry flavoring.) He leaned to the side, getting the wound off the ground. "Medical kit's somewhere around here."

"I still can't fix it. I don't have anything to unwrap the gauze— I don't even know if I can open the kit."

Shoot, she was right. "Well… I can call Holley back. She's at the lodge, but maybe she could come back and do mission control from here?"

"And how exactly will she get here?"

"She can fly." Though if Mandi couldn't stand the smoke, Holley most likely could not either. But Sid dialed anyway. One ring, two rings… and then an earful of K-pop, which Holley used in place of a voicemail greeting. It was meant to resemble getting put on hold when calling a tech company. He hung up, feeling more miserable than before. "She didn't answer. It went to voicemail."

Mandi clicked her tongue, rolling around his remaining wing. "That's not a good sign for our mission control."

"She wouldn't ignore us unless she was in something more serious. Like you said, maybe they're evacuating, or… or she's interrogating Spinner."

Deep down, he felt there had to be more than that. He could have spent the rest of the day turning over each possible scenario in his mind.

"You're right, she's probably fine," Mandi said. "I mean, she's Holley Shiftwell. Do you still have your other wheels?"

"I do." Upon realizing that he'd have to crash-land in trees, he hadn't deployed his landing gear. The wheel just under his head felt like something was jabbed into it, but it was certainly there. "The front one might be jammed."

"Try anyway." She pushed against the large tree until it rolled off his wing. He couldn't see how it looked, but he could feel more than one dent in it. Mandi, to her credit, tried not to react in utter horror. "Um, yeah, you can't fly on that. The lake isn't far away, if you can move on your own then I can guide you— actually, hold on, I don't want to fly up there. So I guess I can support you on the other side…."

With some more effort (and, on Sid's side, a lot of pain), his wheels were down. Then they shuffled through the ditch he had carved in the earth, presumably toward the lake. Once there, they would have nowhere else to run, but being near water sounded safer than being surrounded by tall, leafy matchsticks.

The staff quickly evacuated most of the rooms. Holley was stopped by more than one maid, but they left after she presented her gaudy room sensor and claimed she had luggage to pick up. Still, she was impressed; for a lodge run by Spinner, they had solid safety protocols.

Only when the door had completely rolled shut did she dare to call Agent Smith for an update. No answer. Then she tried Finn. Still no answer. That wasn't promising. Maybe they were dealing with an emergency, and couldn't talk freely at the time.

As she considered dialing them again, she noticed something odd: her computer only had two bars. That was strange, because it was supposed to be linked to one of C.H.R.O.M.E.'s satellites; if one satellite failed, her device would be rerouted to another. The odds of two or more million-dollar, secret-spy-agency satellites being down at the same time were highly improbable.

So meant the problem was likely on her end. She was either being hacked or jammed.

Bang-bang-bang!

She jumped at the noise. Someone was rapping on her door. A part of her hoped it was Finn and Smith, but her logical side knew that Finn could have opened the door himself. So she stayed quiet. Maybe they would leave—

"Security! Open up!"

Security, meaning they were probably on the orders of the security car that had called Spinner away. He was onto her. She was cornered.

Well, except for the balcony. Classic Finn escape.

On the other side of the door, the loudest voice on the security team, presumably the leader, demanded that they "Get this door open right now! She's possibly armed, certainly dangerous!"

Holley's engine warmed with pride. It felt good to be feared by evildoers.

She deployed her wings just as the door began to roll back. And by the time the security team barged in, she'd already driven off the balcony, gaining altitude.

Grinning from fender to fender, Holley soared past Gasket Geyser— and nearly collided with a B200. "Hey!" the plane cried indignantly.

"Apologies!" she shouted over the roar of her engines.

On the ground, staff members were giving takeoff clearance, with twenty more light aircraft in line. Some of them had eyes on her, a flying car, like she was one of the park's rare fauna.

Oh, dear. The last thing she needed was for curious tourists to take photos of her. So she veered away from the Lodge, heading deeper into the valley.

"Where were those coordinates?" she muttered to herself. On her rearview mirrors, she pulled up the coordinates she had sent Smith. They corresponded with a large bluff facing Piston Peak. Half the bluff was engulfed in flames, though the fire hadn't reached the top yet.

That seemed promising. She steered toward it.

It seemed that the Lemons didn't expect anyone to actually climb the mountain, because Finn encountered no security at all, except for a rope barrier with a "STAFF ONLY" sign. His most formidable opponents were a pack of squirrels; the squirrels escaped with their lives.

That said, he severely underestimated how treacherous the path itself would be. There were times when he had to inch around a sharp curve, just skimming the edge of a cliff. Other areas were so steep, he had to use his grappling hooks.

Now that he thought about it, he could have just used the hooks this whole time. Oh, well.

Near the mountain's summit, a large glass dome sat where a lookout point should have been. He cautiously approached it. Below the dome was a hexagonal room, built into the mountain. Suspended by hydraulic poles, on display right in the center of the room, was a large sphere. From a distance, it looked like a disco ball. He had expected a weather machine to have some kind of satellite dish on top, like in the movies, but surely its appearance masked the devastating technology inside.

The disco ball of doom. He couldn't help but chuckle.

"What's so funny—"

Launching into self-defense, he threw a punch, only for her to redirect it. His tire slammed into the dirt, and Holley quickly backed out of reach. She hadn't even had time to retract her wings. "Sorry! I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snuck up on you, I just— I just got here."

Thank the Manufacturer, it was just her. "Have you heard from Agent Smith lately?"

"No, they jammed my calls from the lodge. The security guard who caught us in Spinner's office— he tried to corner me."

So their tourist-software developer cover was blown beyond repair. That wasn't really important at this stage, since they were so close to completing the mission, but… "Did he see you escape?"

"Yes, so let's get in and get out of here before he can alert anyone else." She approached the dome and peered into it. Her eyes quickly found the orb. "That's our weather machine?"

"It looks like a glitter ball, wouldn't you agree?"

"Har har. How are we getting it?"

"The most direct way possible." No one was inside the room below. So he fired a glass cutter onto the dome. In just a few seconds, an SUV-sized portion of the glass fell away. He smirked at her. "Works like a charm."

Wah! Wah! Wah! Wah!

The glass had shattered on the floor, which was apparently rigged with a pressure-sensitive alarm. This triggered sirens throughout the whole facility.

"You were saying?" Holley said flatly.

Undaunted, Finn grappled through the hole, swinging for the weather machine. With the magnet armor on his tires, he easily swiped the orb. Several Lemons screeched through the doors just in time to see him crawling back outside.

"It's gone!"

"Who took it?!"

"Look! By the roof!"

"DON'T JUST IDLE THERE! GET HIM, IMBECILES!"

That last voice was very satisfying to hear. Thwarting Professor Zundapp's plans never got old. Finn popped his trunk open, tossed the device inside, and dashed toward the mountain path. Holley followed him, flying above the trees.

Meanwhile, Lemons burst out from hidden exits, chasing Finn through the thick of the woods. It wasn't much different from the oil rig, actually— with some oil slicks, he sent a few of the minions off a cliff.

Pop-pop-pop!

Upon hearing gunfire, he decided to get off the ground. Just like he had earlier, he ducked behind a large tree and fired a grappling hook to the top. Then he hid in the leaves, turning on his dark green disguise to blend in.

Branches cracked somewhere to his right. He looked over, in time to see a purple blur hit the ground. Holley at least landed on her tires, but cried out in pain. She skidded into a log, where a dozen Lemons surrounded her. Her electroshock devices flipped out of her front wheels; the Lemons laughed, since half of them had guns trained on her.

"What are you going to do, charge my batteries?" one of the Gremlins taunted. Finn recognized this one as Grem— they really don't have creative names, do they? Grem opened his mouth to say something else, but all he could do was scream as Holley tased him. All the other Lemons simply looked amused.

"Stop idling around," a dull voice said. The henchcars jolted at the sound. Professor Zundapp himself rolled up behind them, looking bored. "Unlike you sorry lot, fires travel faster uphill. It will be here in minutes. Take this agent back to the lab; Finn McMissile will return for her soon enough."

"Why wait?" Finn asked. The Lemons startled, glaring up at him. He pulled the weather machine from his trunk and set it on the branch, directly in front of him, in their line of sight. Then he activated his own machine gun and pressed the muzzle to the machine. "Retreat now, or I'll rain on your parade by destroying your weather machine!"

Since he held their world-shattering, multimillion-dollar invention, he had the upper tire; they couldn't attack him without chancing the machine's destruction. In theory, they could still harm Holley, but they knew what kind of retaliation he was capable of.

The only Lemon that didn't look concerned was the Professor. He scoffed. "Your denseness never fails to amaze me, McMissile. Do whatever you like with it."

Finn blinked. "I have your machine, Professor," he reiterated, in a louder voice.

"And I created it, I can replace it. Much like you can replace… the purple one… if you don't cooperate."

Finn fought the urge to shoot Zundapp through the windshield. Yes, Holley was a replacement partner. Yes, he had gone through several partners and jets. But none of them were people he'd wanted to lose (except that one who sent him seven hundred photos of Taylor Shift. Finn was quite glad he fired that guy).

"Three years," Holley muttered, narrowing her eyes. "Three years in the field, and no one remembers my name."

"And I got out of jail one year ago," Zundapp snapped, "no thanks to you. Anyway, both of you either come with us willingly, or burn to a crisp in the fire. Your choice, I really don't care."

A Trunkov toward the rear of the pack let out a high-pitched scream. "It's here!"

An orange glow crested the hill, so bright at first that Finn thought it was the sun. But then the flames appeared, licking at trees. It moved quickly, with a steady roar and a fresh wave of smoke.

The henchcars shared nervous glances. Holley seized the opportunity to tase a Hugo, but stopped once the rest of them turned their attention back to her.

"McMissile, do make a decision soon," the Professor said dryly.

Death seemed preferable to surrendering to criminals but Finn still looked for another option. He turned the sphere around in his tires. It was highly likely it was remote-controlled, no way there would be an off-switch, or any buttons—

Wait, there was something. A silver knob. He glanced down at the Professor, looking for any hints as to if this was a trap. Zundapp's expression remained the same, except for a slight bulge in his eyes.

Which was enough for Finn. He wrenched the knob, hoping this was a reset control, or that it would trigger some rain.

So of course it exploded.

Some brush fires started near my home as I finished this chapter, so special thanks to all the awesome firefighters this season