Zero complied with most of what Trace had said with the exception of actually putting on the sweatshirt. It did kind of smell bad and in reflection, it wouldn’t have done much more than she had by taking her hair down and allowing herself to look slightly disheveled. Now came the fun part.

As officers began to pour into the room, Trace held up his ID. It was open, displaying his badge and actual ID. He waited until the officers had come in and, blessedly, the fire alarm cut off. Goatman was having none of this and was thrashing around and yelling all kinds of curses and slights at New York’s finest. Some guys just didn’t know when to quit.

Trace waited, standing between the officers and Zero. If his cards came out right, he’d be able to take credit for all of the heroics and be able to completely gloss over her role in the events that had transpired. Surely, no one was paying close enough attention throughout the entire situation to notice that there were two people fighting against the Goatly Terror hanging suspended in mid-air.

“It’s about time you showed up! Middle brother gruff up there almost took me and this poor girl out for good!” Trace shouted, pointing up at the suspended form of the Goat dude. It was getting harder to come up with these goat insults…

Trace’s heart skipped a beat as the next two figures entered the room. Standard-issue, no government-issue, goons, straight out of Uncle Sam’s barracks. That wasn’t a good sign. Of course, SUPER would have been called, though. A goat man, terrorizing NYU? The second that hit the police radios a squad would have been dispatched. The first agent looked at Trace and then looked at the Goatman.

“Was this your doing?” he asked, looking a bit suspicious. Trace nodded. He’d seen this agent before, but didn’t remember exactly who he was. All of the government types were alike. This one was a vanilla mortal. He probably would believe anything Trace told him if his powers were involved. “Yup. Froze him in time. In that spot.” he said. Confidence was key.

The goat demon was still screaming curses and even trying to bite them when GI-Jim injected him in the neck. Wow that looked like it had to hurt. Trace hoped Zero would catch on and drop the goat at the right time.

GI-Jim looked down at the girl laying in what looked like shock on the floor. “What about this one?” he said, nodding at Zero. Trace shook his head. “Nah, she’s vanilla. Got caught up in the action. I had to pull her out of the fire.” he said, all bravado. He winced a bit inside, hoping she’d realize that he wasn’t lying for his own sake.

Whoah. The goat man was furious. He was flickering in and out of view and flailing violently. It took some doing, but the men in gray suits got something stabbed? or injected into him and the mutant sputtered for a few moments before hanging limply between Raine's pulls.

Raine glanced up at Trace as he handled the G-men. Man to man. Government tool to government tool.

The guys tugged at the mutant and Raine dropped the tethers.

> “What about this one?”

The moment of truth. Raine looked at the man pointing at her and wiped her unmarred cheek, ready to face the music. She needed some antiseptic, bad. She could feel the side of her face and scalp throbbing. Trace made her excuses for her. He even put himself bodily between the bad guys and herself. She didn't even have to lie, or act. The most she had to do was look a little more pathetic than she felt.

It was a legitimately tense situation for a searching second while the men felt each other out. Apparently, Trace checked out.

"Don't let her leak to the press." The grunt grumbled and went to collect the sword from the ground.

Not everyone left the room, but enough of the focus had shifted away from Raine that she felt okay to reach out and grab a loose bit of cloth from Trace's pants.

"Thank you." She mouthed the words with all the earnesty from her heart and got up on shaky legs. She had a backpack somewhere... her phone was also somewhere... for some reason everything was just overwhelmingly difficult. And her vision kept swimming until Raine blinked fresh, hot tears out of her eyes.

She just needed to get everything together and then she could find somewhere else to fall apart.

Trace glanced down as something brushed his leg. It was Zero, trying to get his attention. She mouthed ‘thank you’ and was promptly lead out of the room. He winked at her, hopefully under the notice of the other two SUPER goons that were present.

Unfortunately, Trace had used an awful lot of luck that day. GI-Jim must have noticed the gesture because he began moving almost immediately after it happened. “Wait a second.” the slightly imposing agent said, stepping up behind the captive Zero. The other SUPER agent had ahold of her. GI-Jim pulled out his sidearm and levelled it at the back of Zero’s head.

Unfortunately for him, Trace had started moving as soon as he had.

Trace reached up and grabbed the goon’s gun arm. Since he was behind him, it was a fairly unexpected move. Trace redirected his arm towards SUPER goon 2’s leg just as GI-Jim pulled the trigger. The weapon discharged a round and the second SUPER goon hit the floor. They’d made a major mistake. They’d caught Trace on a bad day.

Trace raised his knee up under GI-Jim’s elbow and the resounding crack and firearm falling to the floor let him know that his aim was true on the strike. He drove his free elbow right into GI-Jim’s face but was intercepted by the agent’s undamaged arm. Trace kicked the fallen firearm out of reach and continued his motion, sweeping the goon’s legs out from behind. “RUN!” he yelled at Zero who he couldn’t actually see. The kid had a good head on her shoulders. She’d be fine. SUPER would be much more interested in him for the time being.

In a flash, GI-Jim was up and on his feet assailing Trace with a hail of blows. Trace blocked those he couldn’t take and took those he couldn’t block, countering wherever he saw an opening. The fight seemed to stretch on for a while. Throughout the entire engagement Trace was realizing that all of the rumors were true. SUPER was not at all what he had thought it was. It was time. He was done.

GI-Jim was wounded and tired, so it didn’t take long for Trace to find the opening that he needed. Trace slammed GI-Jim’s jaw shut with a blow from a fist and he crumpled to the floor, unconscious. SUPER goon 2 was laying on the floor, bleeding and looking like he was about to go into shock. Trace took off the Agent’s tie and bound the wound, hopefully preventing the man from bleeding to death. Trace reached down and grabbed the man’s radio and pushed down the button. “This is Delta 5 calling all units. Two agents are down on the NYU campus. One is bleeding from a gunshot wound to the leg. Send medical. As for the perpetrator, I’m the one you want. Catch me if you can.” That should shift all of the focus off of Zero and onto him.

He reached into his pocket and dropped his cellphone on the ground. He smashed it under his heel and started running.

Some things were worth risking it all.