Unnatural Disasters

Requested

Angel was laying on the couch, scrolling through her abundance of emails. She had given her contact information when she gave the statement about the power plant incident, and because of that, she was getting quite a few requests to help people with some of their problems. Some of them were rather boring, but others genuinely caught her eye. She wondered what the rest of them would think. If they even wanted to give this a go again. She was about to shut her laptop when she saw an email from a college. Angel clicked on it curiously. 
"Series of college campus fires.. bla bla bla.. possible serial arsonist." Angel read out loud. "Man what's with me and arsonists.. sounds interesting enough." She saw there was a video attached. The video showed two college boys in their dorm, they were recording the fire. Gas was spilled into the room and one of the boys was quickly engulfed in flames. "That's why you don't record stupid shit.." Angel mumbled under her breath, completely unmoved with what she just witnessed. She emailed it to the other four with the links attached and a quick and simple 'You in?'

Diego and Charles walked into the room, both with concerned looks on their face. Angel looked up and raised an eyebrow. "What?" 
Diego scoffed. "Seriously, you sent us a video of a teenager being set on fire." Charles gestured to Diego, as if to say what he said. Angel shrugged and sat up, setting her laptop on the coffee table. 
"It was part of what the college campus sent me. They asked for assistance. I'm not sure the legality of this exactly but it's happening. I've got a ton of other emails as well, requesting us to come solve mysteries like we're some sort of ghost buster gang." Angel said, somewhat amused. Hajime walked in behind Diego and Charles. 
"Ghost-busters is a shit movie. I said what I said." Hajime weaved in between Charles and Diego to get into the living room. "Tall people, always standing in the way." He grumbled under his breath. "We're going to a college?" He would ask Angel. Angel looked at them and shrugged.
"If you guys want, that was just the one that interested me, there's others." She gestured to her laptop. 
"Hey where's pretty boy? Is he coming back?" Diego piped up. Angel nodded. 
"He hasn't said anything yet but he'll join us." Angel got up and walked to her bookshelf, thumbing through a few books. Charles and Hajime began scrolling through Angel's emails. They spent half an hour talking about the different requests they had got. They stopped when they got a knock on the door. "It's Kyle, someone let him in." Angel yawned and put the book she was looking at back. Diego vaulted over the couch and opened the door for Kyle. Kyle walked in and awkwardly smiled at the four. 
"I got your email." Kyle scratched the back of his neck. Angel nodded. 
"So do you think we should do it?" She'd narrow her eyes at him, ultimately leaving the decision up for Kyle to decide. Kyle nodded and sat down in the arm chair. He crossed his legs.
"So you got a statistic or something on arsonists pretty boy?" Diego raised his eyebrows at Kyle.
"82% are white males between 17 and 27. Female arsonists are far less likely, their motive typically being revenge." Kyle said quickly and Diego rolled his eyes. Of course he did. 
"So I'm betting our guy is a college student?" Diego tapped his pen on the coffee table. 
"Don't be so sure. You rely too much on precedent you never allow for the unexpected." Angel would say while glancing through her shelves again. 
"Okay fortune cookie." Diego rolled his eyes and bounced on the balls of his feet. "So are we going?" 
"Yeah yeah, get ready we could be staying there a couple of days." Angel nodded as they all walked out of her apartment. She should really just have them move in, it'd be a lot easier. 

The group of five met up at the college a couple of hours later. It was early in the day and some college student were out and about. Angel walked up to a lady who had been waiting for them to arrive. 
"I'm the Chief Academic Officer of this campus, Mrs. Barnes, pleasure to meet you all. I heard what you guys did on the news and I hoped you could help us out before we.." She trailed off. 
"Why didn't you alert authority officials outside the campus?" Diego raised his eyebrows. 
"They wanted to keep this on the down low Diego, keep up. Whenever a college has to report to officials their crime rates go up which looks bad on them. Any way they can keep this quieter the better." Angel said disinterestedly. She would turn back to Barnes. "So, do you have a place for us to set up at?" Angel asked. Barnes nodded and led them to a mostly empty office with a few blank bulletin boards and some computers. 
"Anything you need just ask." Barnes said to them. Another professor walked up behind her. "Oh, this is fire inspector Zhang." 
"This morning the chemistry department reported several bottles of highly flammable chemicals missing." He dipped his head. 
"I'll evacuate this campus if needed." Barnes assured them. Charles and Angel shook their head. 
"That brings its own problems. You might evacuate the arsonist as well." Charles stated. 
"Then the case goes unsolved, the campus is reopened but the fires start up again." Angel finished for him. 
Hajime spoke up, "Hey can I have a list of the chemicals that were stolen? I want to work out how they're starting the fires." Zhang nodded at Hajime. 
"Wait, you said the chemicals went missing today?" Diego asked Zhang, he once again nodded. "It says here that one of previous fires was set with diesel fuel that disappeared from the grounds keeping facility." Diego read off one of the information files they had gotten. "And how long after the supplies disappeared was the fire set?" 
"One day." Barnes answered. 
"If he sticks to pattern who's to say the next fire won't be today.." Charles crossed his arms. They all looked at each other. 
"Alright, Hajime come with me to the dorm that was set on fire. The rest of you find out what you can, interview students if you need to." Angel and Hajime walked out the door. 

Hajime stood in the door frame. "The door was locked.." He glanced at Angel, who walked to the center of the room. 
"James Beckens and his roommate watched  as the doorknob turned against the lock." Angel narrowed her eyes. 
"But the arsonist couldn't get in, so he poured the accelerant into the room from the hallway." Hajime finished for her. 
"That means he couldn't see the fire." 
"Why would that matter?" Hajime huffed, confused. 
"Most arsonists are pyromaniacs, and they like to watch. It gives them a sense of power. This guy went from burning buildings to targeting people. It's hard to believe he didn't do it from the power if he went from vandalism to murder." Angel walked back out into the hallway. 
"Well maybe hearing them screaming did it for him?" Hajime shrugged. 
"Yeah maybe, but not for long, he would have to get away in order to not be burned or caught." 

Charles, Diego and Kyle looked at the box that the fire inspector brought them. 
"Whoever did it turned the water off just before the fire. The last three were set with these. Two devices, simultaneous ignition." Zhang would pick one up, it looked sort of like a old cellphone or something. 
"There was no device used on James Beckens." Kyle was fiddling with a rubix cube in his hands while talking.
"Why set the other two fires if James Beckens was the target?" Charles asked. 
"The motives for arson are fairly simple: vandalism, crime concealment, political statement, profit, and revenge." Kyle would solve the rubix cube and set it down on the table next to him. 
"We interviewed James Becken's roomate, he said he was well-liked, no reason for revenge." Zhang stated. 
"What about vandalism?" Barnes asked.
"No, the fires are too sophisticated, and if hes trying to make a political statement, hes not being to clear on it." Diego shrugged.
"So there's an underlying strategy to this. James, the firefighters, injured victims, to this guy they're not people-" 
"They're objects." Angel cut Charles off, walking in the room with Hajime behind her. 
"More like uh.." Charles thought for a moment. 
"Chess pieces." Kyle offered and Charles nodded in agreement. 

Angel walked onto the terrace of the dormitories. She put her hands on the railing. 
"Alright. I want to set a dormitory on fire. Where do I start?" She looked around. She then looked down. "In the basement, the upper levels would be fuel." She huffed and looked up. "So why did I start on the 3rd floor?" She crossed her arms. "It wasn't the building I wanted to set on fire." Hajime walked over to Angel with the device the arsonist used.
"The timer sets the road flare which then lights the chemical mixture inside the canister. Simple." Hajime tossed the device to Angel. Kyle was behind Hajime. 
"Simple, yet sophisticated in its simplicity. I..I mean there's a meticulous construction to it." Kyle rung his hands out while talking. 
"Chemical accelerant could mean chemistry student." Hajime shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets. 
"Could also mean chemistry professor." Kyle scratched his head. 
"Mm. I say student, you need self confidence to lecture in front of a classroom full of 30 college kids. Arsonists are socially incompetent. This guy, he doesn't go on dates, he doesn't go to parties, he doesn't feel comfortable in front of groups." Angel said. Kyle made a concerned look at Angel, those things described himself. 
"And of course he's a total psychopath.." Angel offered a light, awkward laugh. 
"Of course." Kyle crossed his arms. Angel walked away from them. She headed inside the main college building and noticed a girl trying to get water from the water fountain. It wasn't working so she just gave up and walked away. Angel headed for the fountain and pressed on it, no water came from it. She glanced up at the sprinklers on the ceiling and suddenly ran over to the fire alarm, pulling it. "Everybody out! Fire!" She shouted. The students began running out the doors. Angel ran in the opposite direction towards an explosion she heard. She grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran to the fire. A professor's office was currently lit up in flames. She slammed the extinguisher through the glass and started putting out the fire as best she could. She managed to get the flames to die down enough to drag the professor out and put out the flames on his clothing. He was wailing and his skin bubbled a bit. Diego and Charles came running down the hall. "Charles! go get help! He needs medical attention. Diego, the arsonist might be watching, snap pictures." Angel barked orders at them. They were quick to obey. 

About 15 minutes later they all had regrouped in their spare office. They were going through the pictures Diego took. There was dead silence in the room, someone almost died so they were pretty serious. 
"I see fear, a touch of horror, maybe even a little bit of panic, but where's the one dude that's into it?" Diego tossed the photo on the desk, running his hands through his hair in frustration 
"When famous arsonist Peter Dinsdale was asked about his motives he said, I am devoted to fire. Fire is my master." Charles said while sifting through the photos. 
"Okay so who's our guy's master?" Diego leaned against the desk. 
"10,000 students." Angel began, she flicked her lighter. "And one, has a serious fascination with fire." She flicked off her lighter and slid it back into her pocket. "Fire starting is one third of the homicidal triad. An early predictor of adult disassociative criminal behavior. The other two are bed-wetting, and cruelty to animals." She huffed and flopped down into the office chair. 
"So what are we missing?" Diego asked. Barnes walked into the room. 
"I'm evacuating the campus." She said dishearteningly. 
"You could escalate the arsonist to his endgame if you do that." Angel prompted. A student would walk in behind Barnes. 
"I'm Jeremy, part of the chemistry department. We want to help. We know how he's setting the fires." Jeremy said to them. They all looked interested. 
"Alright, c'mon freckles." Angel beckoned Kyle and they followed the chem student. "Kyle, since you're probably closer to them, why don't you do the talking?" Angel would ask him and he swallowed nervously. They walked into the room where 5 other chem students were sitting. 
"Ahem. Hi--Hi, guys. Uh, My name is-uh-  Dr. Kyle Gaelic.. I uh- teach a couple college courses at the uh- well I have a doctorate in literature and engineering but I uh.." Kyle stumbled around for words, stuttering through his sentences. Angel rolled her eyes and stepped in. 
"What he means, is we'd love to know how you can help." Angel patted Kyle on the shoulder. How come he could teach college classes, yet lose all confidence in front of these college students. Jeremy grabbed a light bulb.
"See this?" He gestured to it. Both Angel and Kyle nodded. "Drill a hole in the side, fill it with gasoline, or whatever is good and flammable. Turn the light on, boom." Jeremy shrugged. A girl in the back who kept twisting her ring spoke up. 
"This stuff is all over the net. Joyce Parker by the way." She said quickly before continuing. "Wanna know how to make a Molotov cocktail that sets itself on fire?" She asked. Angel narrowed her eyes at her. "Potassium, sulfur, and normal sugar. Sugar-- sugar which is-" 
"Not exactly plutonium. You could get this stuff anywhere." Jeremy finished. 
"But you don't need to be a chem student to know that." Angel crossed her arms. Kyle looked at her, "You think it's a chem student?" 
"You know what I think?" Jeremy asked. He put the light bulb up to his forehead. "I think it would be a good time to take the semester off." He handed the bulb to Kyle and walked out. Angel walked after Jeremy and joined him in the elevator. "Hold on, need a key to keep moving after 10:00 pm." He fished a key out of his bag and put it in the elevator. 
"So what are you still doing here?" Angel asked him. Jeremy chuckled. 
"I can't leave, we've all got projects. You know how to solve the three-body problem?" He asked her. 
"Computing the mutual gravitational interaction between the earth sun and moon.." Angel said slowly. Jeremy looked mildly surprised. 
"You a chem major?" He asked her. 
"That was one of my major's yes." She answered. Jeremy squinted at her. One of her majors? She got off the elevator and walked back to the spare office. 
"Hey Charles pull up the video of the dormitory fire." Charles turned around offering her a quick welcome back before doing what she asked. Kyle eventually walked into the room too, angry that Angel left him behind. "Zoom in on the door knob." Angel instructed. Charles did so and they watched the video play again. The door knob twisted three times before gasoline spilled under the door. "I know who did this and why. It's a compulsion." Angel looked at their blank faces. She sighed and began to elaborate. 
"It hit me when I was talking to Jeremy in the elevator. He brought up the three-body system. I remembered that the office that was set on fire was officer number three. The first fire was on the third day, of the third week, of the third month. I could link things together by the number three. Three fires, third floor of the dormitory. Room 333. Our arsonist has OCD, a compulsion to set fires when sets of three appear." Angel rambled on quickly. Charles and Diego stood up. 
"Okay so who is it then?" Diego looked at her. 
"Joyce Parker. In the chemistry room she was twisting the ring on her finger at intervals of three. She counted off the ingredients of a light bulb bomb. She repeated sugar three times, its called Palilia, the involuntary repetition of words often associated with OCD." Angel finished explaining. They called Barnes and the Campus police who got an APB out on Joyce. 
"One more thing guys. Joyce Parker is very likely a good person. Someone who never wanted to do any harm. Like any other rational person, but there's nothing rational about obsessive compulsive disorder." Angel looked at them. 
"Research suggests that OCD involves problems in communication between the frontal part of the brain and the orbital cortex. Plus deeper structures such as the Basal Ganglia." Kyle said and nodded along with Angel. 
"You can't reason with her because you can't reason with a physiological problem. She doesn't set these fires because she wants to, she sets them because she has to." Angel nodded to everyone and they went off to go look for Joyce.