Echo shrugged and picked up Convert, throwing him over their shoulders. Nathan wondered how long whatever they injected would last. Half an hour, maybe? At least they were invulnerable to electric shocks. Still, inhibitor cuffs existed. Why didn’t he put his cuff on Convert? Oh, right, he’d put his on the girl with rampaging dysphoria. Why didn’t he have two cuffs?

Couronne silently wandered over. “Hey,” Nathan said. “Thanks for coming.” Couronne said nothing. “You two were actually pretty scary. Glad you never tried that with me.”

Thanks, Couronne wrote in the air. We practiced.

“Not sure I want to know why, but I appreciate it.” Nathan coughed. Were his air systems working? He pulled up the systems information. It said they were working perfectly, but he was too hot. He needed fresh air. Except there was a supervillain standing right there, so he couldn’t take off his helmet. Maybe that was another reason he was too hot. He might be able to get some fresh air if he cracked his faceplate open. Nathan reached up and tugged at it, but it wasn’t coming off. He pulled harder. It was breaking, but he wasn’t getting any air. He pulled harder.

The faceplate came free and skidded across the alley. His face was now completely exposed to the air. Nathan took a deep breath, closing his eyes to focus on it. Then he opened them again.

Couronne was staring at him. At his exposed face. Oh, right. There were reasons for not taking off his mask in front of a supervillain. Like exposing loved ones to danger.

“I, uh, don’t suppose you can forget about this?” Nathan asked. His heart pounded.

Couronne was still and silent. Then they shrugged. Hard to forget someone that handsome.

“I’m in a relationship,” Nathan said.

Couronne tilted their head, and then picked up the faceplate and handed it back to Nathan. Don’t worry, they wrote. You’re our best nemesis. I won’t go after you. Who knows who we’d have to deal with next?

“Great. Thanks.” Nathan closed his eyes and took another deep breath. He was just too hot and dizzy to care about anything. After a moment, he felt heat on the side of his face. External heat, like from a fire. He peeked one eye open. Couronne was kneeling in front of him, examining his armor. Nathan glanced down, too. It was his pacemaker tag, etched into his armor above his heart. “Oh. Yeah. I have a pacemaker. Convert broke it. That’s why I’m like this.”

Couronne looked up and then backed away.

“Not contagious,” Nathan said. “I have a slow heart rate. Pacemaker speeds it up. I guess all the adrenaline earlier kept it going at the right speed ‘til I was safe.”

For a given definition of safe, Couronne said, dry as a stack of tinder. Then they rushed forward, flames flaring.

Nathan yelped and tried to scramble back, but he was against a wall. Couronne stopped well before reaching him, the fire around them going back to normal. “What was that?!” he said. Wait, hadn’t he just said that adrenaline was helping? “Oh. Please don’t do that. I know I said it was helping earlier, but… please. No. My heart can’t take it.”

Couronne nodded and backed off. They walked to the middle of the alley and stretched their arm up. A pillar of fire appeared, reaching for the sky. Should make it easier for them to find us, they wrote.

Nathan nodded and rested his head against the wall. From above, Nathan heard a very angry and very familiar voice. “I am trying to find my missing boyfriend! I need you to let me go!” Nathan quickly put his faceplate back on as Echo landed, Scope over their shoulders. They gently set Scope down on the ground. “Thank you, you…” Echo pointed at Nathan. “Oh. I take back everything.” He flipped on his radio. “Found Enmachina. He looks in bad shape, so I’m checking him out.”

“Hey,” Nathan said as Scope knelt over him. “Got zapped.” He glanced over Scope’s shoulder, but both villains were gone, so he took his faceplate back off. “Convert zapped me. My suit wasn’t affected, but anything on my body’s dead. And he stole my boots!”

“Yeah, he left them where you landed. We got them back,” Scope said, running a hand along Nathan’s face. He felt his heart rate speed up to where it was supposed to be. Or, rather, it stopped pounding so hard. “Doesn’t look like there’s been any immediate damage, but I still want you in the hospital immediately.”

“You’re not my doctor,” Nathan grumbled.

Scope laughed. “She’s going to say the same thing.” He leaned in and gave Nathan a brief kiss before he turned on his radio. “Angelica, his pacemaker got fried, but the rest of him looks okay. I’m going to need an ambulance at my location.” He listened for a moment, and then nodded. “They’re on their way here. Shouldn’t be too long.”

“Great,” Nathan said. “So what happened? Is he locked up?”

Scope nodded. “Cuffed and locked up now. Still hasn’t woken up, but when whatever they gave him wears off, he should be fine.” Scope frowned. “Not really sure how they did that.”

“Echo did some sort of chokehold and then injected him with something.”

“Yeah, I got that. We’re running blood tests to see what it was. But drugging people is pretty precise. Too much and they overdose, too little and they don’t get knocked out. Even with medical training, I still couldn’t accurately get them out unless I had access to up to date medical records.” Scope shook his head. “How long did it take him to pass out?”