It turns out they did have full-hand cuffs, to help restrain any criminals who might hurt themselves en route to a cell. Completely encircling the snoozing Conduit's hands, Johnny and Judy placed him in the back of the vehicle and locked it as Nick inspected the Blast Shard again.

"So, why should I keep this away from electricity?" He asked.

"What?" was my intelligent reply, not expecting the question.

"Before laser-hands over there attacked; you said keep it away from electricity. Why?"

"According to a few studies I've heard about, electrically charging a Blast Shard without a Conduit around to absorb the energy will make it go boom." I said with a shrug.

"How big of a 'boom' are we talking here?"

In response, I jerked my thumb towards the big crater in the street.

James Rokit sat up with a groan, raising a hand to rub his pounding head - only to find both his hands encased in metal. He looked around, noting how he was in what looked like a police interrogation room - nothing but a table, a few chairs, and a mirror (which he knew was one-way glass) along one of the walls.

He glanced at the door, remembering what had happened; the police - who he'd thought had been a few thugs dressed up as cops, apparently he was wrong - had been forcing those two Conduits to dig for something in the crater that had given him his Plasma powers. When he'd seen the paper one toss that glowing rock to the fox, he knew he had to get it; whatever they'd been planning couldn't have been good.

The door opened a few seconds later, revealing three figures: the rabbit and the fox from the blast site, and a hulking buffalo he recognized as Chief Bogo. He leaned back in his chair as they all sat down in theirs.

"So..." Bogo began, eyeing him. "...mind telling me why you attacked two of my best officers?"

I watched as they talked from behind the 'mirror', the Conduit - identified by Judy as an 'Iberian Lynx' (as weird as it sounded; why not Siberian?) - simply sat back and gave calm answers to each of their questions, the cops becoming more irritated by the second - apparently he wasn't telling them anything.

Deciding I might as well help out, I turned and walked out the door, heading over to the same entrance the other three had while Johnny stayed behind to watch.

upon seeing me, the Iberian Lynx's eyes narrowed.

"I come in peace, relax." I said, dragging another chair into the room and sitting down, leaning forward and resting my elbows on my knees. "Of course, you didn't seem to be in a peaceful mood when you attacked us a few hours ago."

"I wasn't going to let them keep using Conduits like tools." He grunted.

"Tools?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "What the hell are you talking about? Johnny and I volunteered for this. Well, technically, I volunteered us both to get Johnny out of a prison sentence, but still - he was fine with it."

"So you're a criminal?"

"Me? No. Johnny isn't either, in my eyes - he was starving, he needed something to eat. Store manager surprised him and he panicked. Ended up with a few pieces of glass in his arm, but he's fine."

The Lynx remained silent, still glaring at me. I sighed.

"At least tell us why you tried to steal the Blast Shard?"

"What, the glowing rock?" He asked, his irritation giving way to confusion. "I was just trying to get it away from you guys."

"You nearly fried Nick when he ran off with it." I pointed out.

"Because he was using you to dig for that thing! I wasn't just going to let him run off with it!"

"We were searching for clues to try and figure out who set off the blasts, not to loot the place. What the hell did you think was happening?"

The Lynx's face turned sheepish as he realized how much he'd screwed up.

Sorry for the long wait everyone, but I had a ton of paperwork to do - I recently signed up to be a rec camp councilor in my town, so I didn't have much time.

Now, I know this is mostly shameless filler, but hey - at least we finally found out who the mystery Conduit was! Say hello to ActionTReaction's James Rokit, everyone!

Also, ActionTReaction - was this close to what you had in mind for him, personality-wise?

Anyway, hope you all liked this chapter. More will come soon!