Chapter 4

Now that the (slightly) easy part was done, Tara wanted to do some research. She packed up and headed to the library to look up "incidents" with fires. So, she grabbed the first book she saw which was entitled "Strange Happenings In Oliville: From UFO's to Strange Fires." Seemed legit to her so she looked at the table of contents and turned to the section for strange fires and began reading. "Oliville has seen strange things, but this is the strangest by far." No duh, Tara thought and kept reading. "These strange fires started in 1985 and suddenly stopped on October 19th,1995." She stopped and realized something. Her dad would've been 16 in 1985, and October 19th is her birthday. Did her dad have powers all along? She would just have to test her theory in the forest with her dad.

Tara walked with her dad in the forest with their camping gear. She had told him that she wanted to go camping and "accidentally" left all sources of fire at her house. As she helped him set up camp, she reached into her pocket and said "Oops. Left the matches at the house, and the lighter too." Tara's dad sighed and reached into his pocket and gave her a lighter "Don't lose it, it's lucky." She hit her forehead in shame. So, she "accidentally" dropped the lighter into the ravine near their camp while looking for firewood.

Her dad sighed "You're getting really clumsy lately. Now we can't start a fire." Now Tara was getting sick of waiting, so she was going to talk it out of him.

"Oh come on dad, we're all friends here!" She said. He lifted an eyebrow as she continued "We all know what you did, you are, everything!" She started feeling like a lunatic, but kept going. "You played with fire dad, and not the normal kind." She lit herself on fire and smiled "It's in the family, isn't it?" She went back to normal and grinned "Now you try." Whatever she did must have worked because that's what he did. "No one will know our secret... No one." She said and quickly packed up the stuff to leave the campsite.

As she and her dad were walking home, by the supermarket, a bell went off at the convenience store. She quickly ran into and alley and put the mask on, rose up, and lit her hands on fire as a robber quickly went out the glassy way. She jumped in front of him and yelled "Stop now and return what you've taken!" The robber stopped in awe "Hey, you're that Hot Masquerade gir-" She punched him in the face and knocked him out as the police drove by. The cops got out and smiled "Thanks, I thought we needed a superhero around here." He laughed as the dragged the unconscious man into their car.

"Not very polite." Hot Masquerade murmured and headed back in the alley to change back into Tara.