To Lyger 0: Not exactly a lesson that the Lynchpin seems likely to learn.
Less than two minutes after receiving the go-ahead, Ramus revved the engine and impelled his car forward, leaping away from the curb to barrel down the street toward the dealer. Racing down the street from the opposite direction came another car. The dealer's bodyguard jumped, turning in either direction and staring at the cars in shock. Baseball cap leaned in through the window of his latest customer, his head disappearing from view for a moment. With a flick, Ramus activated the flashing light on his dashboard, giving the signal for Ray to do the same in the other car. Seeing the lights, the bodyguard turned his head slightly and started to call out something to the dealer. Before he could get the words out, however, Ramus spun his wheel sharply and hit the brake. The unmarked car screeched to a stop sideways, blocking off the street in his direction as Ray's car did the same from the opposite direction. Tires screeched, and the dealer jumped away from his customer's car, spinning to stare at Ramus' car in surprise. Behind him, the bodyguard took a hesitant step back, toward the building.
Almost before his car had stopped moving, Ramus shifted into park and jumped out of his door, the vehicle between himself and the two criminals. Bracing himself against the side of the car, he laid his prosthetic over the roof, taking careful aim at the bodyguard, who let out an irritated groan and stepped away from the wall, moving subtly closer to the dealer. Ray and Roux both bailed out of the other car, weapons already drawn. "Paris Police!" Ramus shouted, eying the bodyguard warily in his peripheral vision while staring intently at the dealer, his eyes shaded by his baseball cap. Baseball cap stood up to his full height and folded his arms, though without making any other movements. Ramus furrowed his brows, his eyes shifting back to the guard, studying the man more closely. He had spent three hours watching them from a distance, but he had never gotten a clear enough view of the man to identify him with the late afternoon shadows obscuring his face. But now that he was closer – only a dozen or so meters away – he could make out more of the man's features. And something about the face seemed familiar.
"What seems to be the problem, Officer?" the dealer called back, his voice outwardly calm. As his bodyguard reached him, the dealer put out a hand, waving him back. The bodyguard's eyes narrowed, shifting furtively back and forth between the two police cars.
Not taking his eyes off of the bodyguard, Ramus slowly edged around the car and began to walk toward the dealer, switching his prosthetic to the taser setting as he did so. The dealer's grin widened.
"What are you doing, boss?" demanded Ray. Ramus' attention was drawn to movement behind the other car as Ray adjusted his position to place himself behind the car's trunk, closer to the bodyguard. Ray placed his pistol on the car's trunk and gave his new hand a twist.
"You've got me covered, right?" Ramus muttered halfway to the dealer, hardly moving his mouth as he spoke.
"Of course." Ray aimed his index and pinky fingers at the bodyguard, bracing against the car.
Ramus nodded slowly. "Something about the other guy looks familiar – the guard."
"Gardur," Wilson interjected from his chosen position at the mouth of the alleyway next to where they had originally parked. "One of Lynchpin's. Super-strength, so don't let him get a hand on you."
"Hopefully it won't come to that," Ramus replied, walking past the customer's car and glancing inside at him as he did so. The customer, a younger man with thinning hair and a long face, a thin scar running down one cheek, looked straight ahead, one of his hands on the steering wheel and the other resting on the parking brake. Ramus furrowed his brows. "Do we have an ID on the buyer?"
"Negative," Élodie responded immediately. "Sorry; the officers from Public Order are pulling over the last customer as we speak. Running plates now."
"It's not pressing," Ramus assured her. The dealer eyed him calmly as he came within five meters of him. Behind him, Gardur shifted nervously. Ramus frowned, eyeing Gardur warily. "Œil de Lynx, you have a bead on Gardur, right?"
"Lethal or non?" asked Wilson.
"Non if possible."
"What seems to be the problem, Officer?" the dealer asked as Ramus reached him. He spread his arms wide, grinning broadly. "As you can see, we're just three friends meeting to shoot the breeze on a summer evening. Surely gossip isn't illegal in Paris?"
Ramus stared at him impassively. "Gossip is not illegal," he agreed. "But whatever that is that you handed to your 'friend' over there probably is."
The dealer's grin widened. "But if you don't know what it is, how can you know it's illegal?"
Frowning, Ramus examined Baseball cap closely, the sheen of sweat on his forehead, the fidgeting in his hands. Though his hat obscured his eyes, it could not hide the tension in his mouth and jaw. Ramus' mouth set in a thin line. "You need a permit to solicit. So, where's your permit?" Gardur stepped forward, cracking his knuckles and glaring at Ramus. Without taking his eyes off of Baseball cap, Ramus raised his prosthetic before Gardur had taken more than a single step, pointing it straight at Gardur's head. Gardur suddenly froze, staring down the barrel. The dealer jumped, his eyes widening. "Last chance," Ramus informed them curtly.
The dealer stood stock still, staring at Ramus with his arms crossed. Something brushed against Ramus' leg, and he had a moment of confusion before the thing constricted around his leg, yanking his feet out from under him. Ramus cried out in surprise as he landed on his back, and he caught a glimpse of movement out of his peripheral vision. Something trailed along the ground and seemed to disappear up the dealer's pant leg.
"What the hell just happened!?" Ramus demanded, glaring at the dealer.
Élodie let out a gasp over the communicator. "Something just happened to the officers trying to arrest the other customer," she reported urgently. "De Gouges and Mansart are en route."
Suddenly, Gardur lunged forward, just as an energy beam shot out from the other direction, hitting him in the back of the shoulder. Gardur turned wildly in that direction, only for a pair of electrical leads to shoot out of Ray's fingertips and poke into his chest. Roux fired a second time, this time missing Gardur's head by centimeters, and Gardur ducked away from the shot, reaching up to pull off the taser leads as he did so. A jolt of electricity trailed down the wires, and Gardur flinched, his hand closing around the leads and pulling them away. He pulled on the wires, which immediately released from Ray's hand.
"You really want to mess with me?" roared Gardur, his eyes flashing with anger as he sprinted toward Roux and Ray, narrowly avoiding a pair of energy blasts as a dart whistled past Ramus' head and tore through Gardur's sleeve.
"Hey!" Ramus shouted, scrambling to his feet with his eyes still fixed on the dealer's legs. He turned in either direction, his aim shifting back and forth between Baseball cap and Gardur. "What was that?"
Baseball cap suddenly smirked, and something brushed against Ramus' leg for the second time. Ramus braced himself, just as the thing squeezed around his leg and tugged. This time, however, Ramus leaned forward, putting all his weight over the leg being pulled. The dealer cocked his head to one side, eyebrows furrowed, tension in his arms and legs. Ramus gritted his teeth, holding himself upright and glaring back at the dealer. Finally, he glanced down to see a long, lithe object, covered in coarse fur, which had wrapped itself tightly around his leg. Following the thing back to its source, it continued up the dealer's leg and ended somewhere inside his pant leg.
"The hell?"
"You like this?" Baseball cap asked, raising an eyebrow as the thing suddenly tugged on Ramus, pulling him off balance. Ramus stumbled, waving his arms wildly. "I would have preferred something a little more exciting than this stupid monkey tail," he mused, "but I can make do with this."
With a yell, Ramus fell backward as the tail pulled on him again. Swinging his arms, he tried to regain his balance, even as one of his feet came up off the ground. Desperately, he twisted around to face the ground, pulling both arms in tight against his body. At a thought, the retractable metal shield formed out of his prosthetic, and he slammed into the ground on top of it with a clang. Quickly he rolled off of the shield and onto his back, rolling forward and trying to regain his footing. The dealer stepped backward, his tail releasing Ramus as he did so and whipping about on the ground between them. In the distance, Ramus could hear the sound of more energy blasts from the direction of Ray and Roux. Gardur let out a growled curse as, out of the corner of his eye, Ramus caught a quick glimpse of Gardur pinning Roux to the ground, with Ray pointing his artificial hand at Gardur's head.
Baseball cap stepped back away from Ramus, dropping down into a defensive pose as he did so.
"Where did it come from?" Ramus demanded, shooting a pair of taser leads at the dealer's chest.
The long tail whipped up and batted the taser wires aside before flicking out at Ramus' chest. "I bet you'd like to know!" the dealer taunted.
Ramus groaned, dodging the tail whip and firing an energy blast of his own at the dealer, who leaned to one side with preternatural agility and narrowly avoided the energy blast. Chips of brick flung off from the apartment building wall behind them. "Surrender!" Ramus ordered. "Come in and answer some questions!"
"I think… not!" The dealer sprang backward away from Ramus, evading another pair of taser wires and landing in a crouch, his long tail writhing on the ground like a serpent.
Ramus grimaced, cycling mentally through his prosthetic's capabilities. Suddenly, he fired at a spot on the ground behind the dealer. Seeing the blast coming, the dealer jumped back away from him… only to land on the oil and slip, falling to land on his back. Quickly, Ramus approached him, stomped one foot on the tail, and aimed his prosthetic into the man's face. "Now stay down." The dealer raised his hands meekly, and Ramus quickly handcuffed his hands together before handcuffing the tail to the other handcuffs. Looking over at the other end of the block, Gardur had likewise been subdued and placed into the back of the police car. Ramus let out a breath, glancing to one side, at the car that still hadn't pulled away from the curb. "Sir…"
Inside the car, the customer suddenly shook violently, convulsing backward and forward before rolling his shoulders back, much farther than they should otherwise have been able to move. The man let out a pained whimper that morphed I the middle into a loud screech, building at the end. Suddenly, one long arm extended out through the still open window, grabbing wildly for Ramus.
"What the hell!?" Ramus' eyes widened in shock, and he dove to one side, firing wildly with his prosthetic. It was still on the oil spray setting, and the tentacle-like arm was suddenly doused in thick, viscous oil. Quickly, Ramus shifted from oil to taser and launched his taser leads at the waving arm.
The man's body slid through the open car window and out, landing on the ground and rising back up into a human shape. Ramus could hear both Ray and Roux sprinting in his direction, shouting in alarm. An energy beam from the direction he had come from slammed into the creature's side, and it deformed slightly around it before regaining its original shape, turning its glare in the direction from which the energy blast had come.
Gritting his teeth, Ramus activated the taser, sending electricity coursing through the creature's body. The creature shrieked as the oil on its arm ignited. Flames spread quickly up its tentacle-like arm, consuming the oil and licking at its shirt. The creature fell to the ground, writhing back and forth to extinguish the flames. A second energy blast slammed into its side, and it collapsed, hardly moving.
Ramus finally looked away from the creature as Ray knelt next to it, slapping handcuffs onto its wrists and placing a collar around its neck. As he did so, the creature's elongated arms shrank to normal size and it returned to a human appearance. Ramus let out a breath, trying to settle his racing heart. "What the hell?" he demanded, shaking his head in disbelief.
Roux paused next to the car, leaned in through the window, and pulled out something lying on the seat. "I think he took this," he called, holding up an empty vial.
