To Butterfly: That's possible, though Tyran-X is motivated by revenge rather than money, which makes him less likely to go off freelancing.


Following the trail of smoke, Gouger pulled up in front of Sorbonne University's burning campus center to find Ramus' car already parked beside a trio of Fire Brigade vehicles – two pumpers and an ambulance – under a small line of trees with their leaves just starting to fall off. Next to the ambulance, one paramedic treated a man with burns on his hands while another checked a group of students with ash and soot staining their faces and clothing. A patrol car from the local precinct had arrived already, and the two officers had established a perimeter to hold back the growing number of students and other bystanders who were beginning to crowd together on the far side of the parking lot. While Moreau was not visible, Ramus stood next to the fire engines with to a man whose jacket identified him as the captain, gesturing toward the building. Flames towered out of the campus center, engulfing its entire roof as well as the façade on the front. A small lake had formed in the grass directly in front of the building, appearing several centimeters deep but stopping abruptly a meter away from the building's foundation. As Gouger watched, the firefighters sprayed water over the building's roof, only for it to be repelled as though by a magnet. The water misted away from the building, a rainbow of colors appearing in the drops as they sprinkled over the firefighters as well as the crowd.

"Don't see that every day," Ray observed, pulling on his hat and climbing out of the car, holding up a hand to keep the water out of his eyes.

"No, I sure as hell hope we won't start seeing that on a regular basis," agreed Gouger, joining him. She turned her back on the fire to instead focus her attention on the crowd, scanning the faces carefully. "What's the plan?"

"For the moment, Fire Brigade is stymied by whatever this is," Ramus told them. "The good news is that so far the fire is at least contained to this specific building. But the Fire Captain says at this rate the building is going to be a total loss. And there's nothing they can do until whatever is causing this interference stops – so that's where we come in."

"If there is a connection to the carjacking we were investigating, we have a possible description," Gouger reported into the radio. "The perp we are looking for may be a student: male, average height or a little taller, dark hair, wearing a hooded sweatshirt," she announced.

Over the radio Moreau scoffed. "That's probably at least a third of the student body," he noted. "What's the vehicle?"

"Blue '19 Clio," Ray answered immediately, moving down the line away from Gouger and closer to the main road.

"License plate?" Moreau asked.

While walking along the front of the crowd in the opposite direction as Ray, Gouger consulted her tablet. "87 SRB 23."

Moreau hummed. "I'm standing right next to it. Parking lot on the far side of the campus center."

"Well, that answers that question," Ray observed wryly.

Gouger furrowed her brows in concentration. If she were this criminal, she would want to watch the consequences of her manipulation; that the water kept being redirected would suggest that the person controlling it had to be close by. Looking at the faces in the crowd she quickly eliminated close to a third of the students – the women, those who were markedly shorter. Several of the faces looked worried; she dismissed them for the sake of speed. One young man stood near the front of the crowd, staring at the fire with a look of concentration, strain in the corners of his mouth, and Gouger's eyes were drawn back to him over and over. His hair was largely hidden by a cap, and he wore a T-shirt instead of a sweatshirt, but… Behind her the firefighters sprayed the fire again, and the young man's lips moved slightly. "I think I have something," she stated into her radio, starting to work her way through the crowd in that direction. "At my 10 o'clock. Green shirt and blue hat."

"I see him," Ray told her. She could see him on the far side of the crowd, moving toward her.

"Move in, but don't spook him," Ramus ordered, maintaining his position near the fire trucks.

Gouger was only about five meters from the young man when he seemed to realize that she was there and started slowly backing away from her, elbowing the people behind him out of the way as he did so. "Hey!" she called, her vision narrowing in on the suspect as she picked up her pace. "Paris Police: I have a few questions for you!"

The suspect's eyes widened in fear, and he turned on his heel before bolting away. Gouger let out a curse and broke into a sprint, pushing her way through the front row of the crowd. "Police! Stop!" she bellowed. People parted for her to pass, but the suspect remained a couple steps ahead of her. Suddenly he turned around and flicked his wrist in her direction. A gust of wind picked up around Gouger, stripping the leaves from the trees lining the sidewalk and blowing them into her face. Her hat blew off her head and disappeared. Gouger raised an arm to protect herself, blinking furiously against the wind that threatened to dry her eyes out entirely. She could feel her feet slipping and leaned forward into the wind, dropping to place her hand on the ground in a sprinter's stance for stability.

Shouts came from the crowd around them as bystanders dispersed in all directions to escape the punishing wind. Gouger forced herself to move steadily forward, step by step, using her hands to keep herself grounded and pull herself along through the wind. But as abruptly as the wind had started, it disappeared, and Gouger nearly lost her balance and fell forward, only catching herself with her hands. She put on a burst of speed and came up in a sprint, racing after him. The distance between then narrowed by half.

Before she could reach him, suspect snapped his fingers, and water condensed out of the air in front of Gouger, dropping to the ground in a puddle. As she splashed through, the water sloshing in her shoes, she raised an eyebrow dubiously. How was this supposed to stop her? His eyes widened in fear and, seeing empty space in front of him, the man broke into a dead sprint, his footsteps pounding against the sidewalk as he raced across the campus. Gouger put on a burst of speed, but even still the distance between them began to increase.

"Whatever you did worked," announced Ramus. "The firefighters' water can actually reach the fire now."

"Suspect identified," Gouger reported, panting from the exertion. "In pursuit, heading south from the campus center. He can at a minimum control air, water, fire, probably earth."

"On my way," Moreau responded. Out of the corner of her eye, Gouger could see him racing over from the far side of the quad. "I'll cut around the building up here and try to cut him off."

The suspect disappeared around a residence building's corner just ahead of Gouger. Pushing herself even faster, she followed him around the corner moments later, but the yard on that side of the building was deserted. The suspect was nowhere to be seen. "I lost him," she groaned, slamming her fist into the side of the building and chipping the bricks. Movement near the building's far corner drew her attention and she saw a blue hat fall to the ground. "Stop! Police!" she shouted, sprinting after him as he scrambled out from behind a bench and slipped around the corner. She turned the corner just as the suspect dove into the row of rose bushes planted along the front of the residence building. The roses rustled, and the young man emerged a moment later. "Seriously," Gouger told him, giving him an annoyed look and folding her arms, "just surrender now and answer some questions for me. At this point you're just digging yourself a deeper hole, and I really don't feel like chasing you again."

"Okay…" the young man began, his eyes darting around in all directions.

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

The suspect feinted to the left but broke to the right, trying desperately to escape. Gouger, however, dove after him and caught him around the ankles, slamming him to the ground with a grunt of pain. He planted his feet on the ground and tried to push himself back up to his feet, despite Gouger pinning his legs together. Overbalancing, he spun his arms in a desperate attempt at regaining his balance before falling back down. With a grunt of frustration, he twisted in her grip, squirming against her hold. Desperately he kicked out at her, catching her in the face with one foot.

Gouger, however, merely closed her eyes as his feet connected and opened them again, glaring at him. "Seriously?" she groaned in annoyance. "Just surrender already!"

Moreau ran around the building from the other direction, his sidearm out. "Don't move!" The suspect stilled instantly, staring down the pistol's barrel.

"You're really starting to get on my nerves," Gouger told the suspect, not bothering to hide her irritation.

He clenched his fist and gritted his teeth, and she pushed him down into the ground, rolling him over onto his stomach and placing her knee firmly on his back, pinning his arms as she affixed her handcuffs around his wrists.

"You are under arrest," she told him as she and Moreau pulled him up to his feet. "And now you are coming back to the station to answer some questions."

"I didn't do anything," he insisted, squirming in her grip.

She gave him a deadpan look. "Have you heard of the phrase 'resisting arrest'? Just running away is suspicious enough for us to question you."

"You surprised me," he replied, shrugging. "I didn't know what you were after me for."

"Because an innocent man would run away when a police officer approaches him," Moreau scoffed, rolling his eyes and tightening his grip on the suspect's arm.

"I'm telling you, you've got the wrong guy!" he insisted, squirming against their grip on his upper arms.

Gouger gave him a severe look and guided him through the crowd of whispering bystanders toward the patrol car. "That isn't going to work on me," she informed him. "I saw exactly what you were doing just now, and you were manipulating the elements. Now, how did you do it?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about!"

Putting her hand on the suspect's head, Gouger pushed him down and into the car's backseat. She frowned at Moreau over the car's roof before slamming the car door shut. "Let's see if that's still your story when we get you into the detainment room."