To Butterfly: The "new guy" actually isn't new; he's shown up once before, though it's been a while.

To yellow 14: It's not exactly that Ray isn't qualified to drive a semi; it's more like he's inexperienced and hasn't driven this specific one.

Fifteen minutes later, Gouger was sitting on the edge of the loading dock while Ray put the finishing touches on a bandage on her arm. "I keep telling you, I'm fine," she grumbled as Roux and Moreau finished handcuffing the last of the surviving criminals. An ambulance had arrived almost as soon as the site had finally been cleared, but the paramedics had been so busy with the criminals wounded in the firefight outside that they hadn't had any time to look at Gouger's arm.

Ray pulled the ends of the bandage tight. "Yeah, well, it's better to get this taken care of now than to wait and let it get infected," he replied.

She raised an eyebrow. "Not much chance of infection," she noted drily. "It'll heal faster than that."

"Well, look at it this way: now you're not contaminating the crime scene with extra blood!" he pointed out. He shrugged and finished tying the bandage off. "Still, if you don't need it in five minutes, then you don't need it. Until then, it's there."

Gouger scrambled to her feet. "Thanks," she called after her as she made her way into the warehouse, past Wilson, who was photographing and collecting samples from one of the scorch marks in the side of the building. Several of the boxes lining the warehouse walls had been pried open for cataloging, and the drone was hovering above one of them, moving slightly to adjust the angle. As she watched, the drone moved down the line to the next box and repeated the process. Walking in the opposite direction, toward the back of the warehouse, she found Ramus and Vernant in the back office, standing over a computer that had been left behind in Andretti's escape. Vernant typed something in and frowned, humming thoughtfully.

"Can we trace the money with this?" Ramus asked him.

Vernant thought for a moment and shook his head. "It is unlikely from this computer alone," he answered slowly. "Once I break through the encryption, we will know for certain. However, with how careful both Andretti and the Lynchpin have proven to be in the past, I highly doubt that they would have kept a computer on-site which contained incriminating evidence. Not one with enough information to tie the operation back to them."

"What possibilities are there?"

Vernant shrugged. "It could be nothing; it could be everything. Most likely it falls somewhere in between. It is likely that it contains relevant information, or else it would not be here. There may be emails or shipping records to expand our knowledge of Andretti's operation. There may be records of Andretti's distribution network. If there is any financial information, we may be able to cross-reference it with bank records to show how Andretti launders his money. Unfortunately, the encryption is strong: it will take time before we find out what is on it."

Ramus frowned. "He has to assume that we found this computer, and that we are going to access it eventually," he noted, brows furrowed in thought. "By the time we can use any of it, anything time-sensitive will have been changed." He let out a frustrated breath. "Do what you can."

"I will begin running decryption just as soon as I return to the lab," Vernant promised, nodding.

"No luck?" Gouger asked, looking over their shoulders. The screen displayed a scrolling wall of indecipherable characters.

"Not much," Ramus confirmed, his mouth set in a thin line. He eyed her arm. "You good?"

She nodded. "Any idea what he was?"

Ramus frowned. "I couldn't even begin to guess. You'd better report it in."

"To the Prefect?"

Ramus shook his head. "Not to him."

"Ah." Gouger pulled out her phone and hit the button to call a number she had never needed before. As she stepped out of the room for privacy, she felt a hint of trepidation. Even after working for this department since its inception almost six months ago, she hadn't had much interaction with the Heroes of Paris, despite half the department's job ostensibly being to work with the Heroes of Paris. There had been a handful of times when the Heroes had responded to emergencies which the SLD had been attempting to keep contained, and the SLD had investigated the aftermath of battles between the Heroes and superhuman threats. But still. This would be her first time making that call herself.

The phone call connected on the first ring. "Heroes of Paris," a robotic voice responded cheerfully.

She sighed. "Sergeant Madeleine de Gouges, SLD," she answered, following the prescribed procedure.

The call was silent for a moment before the phone beeped and Turing stated, "Voiceprint identified. How can I be of assistant, Sgt. De Gouges?"

"I encountered an… unusual suspect today. Can you help me identify him?"

"Certainly," Turing replied smoothly. "Describe the suspect."

Gouger thought for a moment, mouth twisted around in concentration. The fight had only lasted for a couple of minutes; she had picked up very few details in the moment. Closing her eyes she could picture the man in her mind. "Approximately two meters tall or a little shorter, younger, brown hair, green eyes. Wearing some sort of suit."

"What abilities did he demonstrate during the encounter?"

"Super-strength and agility," she answered promptly. "He jumped down at least ten meters from the ceiling to the floor, and showed no indication of discomfort from the fall. And he was an expert with hand claws," she added, rubbing the bandage on her arm. The injury no longer hurt to the touch, so she untied the bandage one-handed before jamming the cloth into her pocket and pressing her fingers into the flesh around where the hand claw had cut her.

"Describe the suit."

She hummed slowly. "Full-body suit. Brown – brown and dark grey. Appeared to be made of leather. Belt but no tail. Stubby ears on top of the head."

Turing was silent for a moment. "Based on your description, I estimate 67% probability that you are describing the 'Bearator,' an evil miraculous user."

Gouger's phone beeped, and she pulled it away from her face to check. A low-resolution picture of a person in a light brown leather suit, a pair of hand claws in his hands, stared back at her. "That's him."

"We were unaware that Lynchpin had any of his miraculous users working so directly with Andretti," Turing told her. "I will pass the sighting along to Pegasus for follow-up. The Heroes of Paris will be gratified to have more information about one of the stolen miraculous."

"Happy to help." She grimaced. When she joined this unit, she had been told that they wouldn't be expected to fight miraculous users on a regular basis. But she'd also known that the mission could change at any time, given that they were going to be sent after the super-powered criminals who kept coming out of the woodwork. Her free hand drifted down to rub the healed cut on her arm.

"Were any other Lynchpin-ions present?"

"Andretti had the Loader here," she answered. "All three of them escaped together." She sighed "What do we do now?"

"The Heroes of Paris will look further into this suspected connection between the Bearator and Andretti," Turing replied. "Since the Loader was present also, it is possible that Lynchpin now has two of his superhuman criminals now working under Andretti. Contact us if you have any more encounters with miraculous users in the course of your investigation," he instructed. "Other than that, keep doing what you are doing. The Heroes of Paris thank you for your service!"

Gouger nodded as the call disconnected and glanced into the office in surprise on hearing raised voices from within. Ramus and Vernant were in the middle of a heated discussion, still standing over the laptop.

"Andretti was present at a drug distribution warehouse," Ramus argued. "We have the photos to prove it, including photos of him escaping from the warehouse in the presence of two known super-villains!"

"That is true," agreed Vernant, nodding, "but that in itself is not going to be sufficient evidence to convince the special prosecutor. Andretti's attorney will argue that he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time during our raid and that the super-villains were chasing him, not protecting him."

"We have a recording of him acknowledging this shipment as his," Ramus pointed out.

"But he never stated what was in the shipment. He only said 'product,' which his attorney will use to claim that his 'product' was switched out for the drugs – possibly even when we took control of the truck and carried out the delivery." Vernant furrowed his brows, a look of discomfort on his face.

"What about all the drugs in here?" asked Gouger, folding her arms and leaning on the doorjamb. "He was in here with the drugs when we arrived, and he took the vehicle from in here when he fled."

"That may be the case, but we do not have any evidence to demonstrate that he knew the contents of these crates," Vernant replied. "I will scour every surface of the crates for prints, but I am not hopeful. And without that, it is circumstantial at best."

"So you're saying that after all of this, we have nothing?" Gouger demanded, glaring at the other two sullenly.

Ramus let out a heavy breath, fidgeting with the edge of his prosthetic where it met his skin. "It sounds like it," he admitted, sharing a dark look with Vernant.

"We can run our evidence by Prefect Raincomprix," Vernant told them, "but I suspect that his conclusion will be the same." Gouger looked up at the hole in the ceiling above their heads, at the drugs and supplies strewn around the room, and frowned. "I dislike it as much as you do," Vernant continued. "Unfortunately, with as important as this investigation is, I do not think we can risk acting hastily and tipping our hand before we have built an overwhelming case against Andretti."

Gouger sighed. After months of investigation, the breakthrough of Sarah Confiant's information had seemed like their chance to get a step ahead of Andretti, to finally nail him to the wall and force him to flip on Lynchpin. "Well that's crap."

Ramus nodded. "All that work, and no prize."

Vernant cleared his throat. "We may not have enough right now to arrest Andretti, but we may be able to use the evidence collected from this raid to expand our portfolio on Andretti and his operation."

Ramus let out a breath. "Get on that," he told him. "Let us know what you find out."

Vernant took several more photos of the computer and the room before plugging a USB drive into it. A dialogue box popped up, and he confirmed the command. While the computer hard drive was cloned onto the external drive, he checked his tablet and left the room to continue gathering evidence from the main warehouse room. Gouger and Ramus followed him out to find two of their vetted crime scene technicians already at work collecting fingerprints from the equipment along the near wall. Vernant pressed a button on his tablet, and the drone descended to land in front of him.

As they left the warehouse, Ramus surveyed the yard and frowned. The ambulance had already left; the uninjured criminals had all been loaded up and taken down to be booked and transported to La Santé. "Nothing for it but to report in and let them work."

Gouger nodded. "We'll get him next time."