“Few minutes at most.”

“Hmm. And you said a chokehold?”

“Yeah. Went down in less than a minute.”

“Background in martial arts and medicine?” Scope mused. “How did they find the time?”

“Guess it narrows down who it could be, then,” Nathan said.

“I’ll have to ask around, see if anyone I know has a black belt.” Scope pressed his hand harder against Nathan’s cheek. “Why’s your faceplate off?”

“Um. I accidentally pulled it off. Too hot.”

“Was it in front of--?” He was cut off by an ambulance siren. “There we go.” He pulled his hand away, leaving cool air against Nathan’s cheek.

Scope helped him stand up since Nathan was pressing his faceplate on and couldn’t see anything. Once he was lying down on the gurney and he heard the doors close, he lifted it again. Angelica was staring down at him.

“Really?” Nathan said. “I’m dying and you want to debrief me?”

“Well, if you die, when else can I do it?” Angelica asked.

Nathan sighed, removed a glove so he could hold Scope’s hand, and set about reporting as best he could.

***

Nathan lay awake in his hospital bed later that evening, Raph asleep in a guest cot and holding his hand. Now that he was on medicine, he was thinking clearly. Why had he been perfectly fine with letting a supervillain see his real face? And he’d admitted to having a pacemaker, too. At the time, he’d felt perfectly safe. Now he just felt furious at himself.

But then, the two of them were really good at respecting the rules. Not attacking a super’s family was one of them. And he hadn’t really done anything to them – they tended to treat their clashes with him as games, and he’d never truly defeated them anyway. Why go after him?

Besides, it was really unlikely that Couronne was anyone he knew. There were millions of people in this city alone. Why would any random supervillain know who he was?

***

Couronne flew off home. As soon as he was inside and completely alone, he shut down his flames and turned himself visible.

“Well, crap,” Eric said.