Trace had yelled for her to get down, but she hadn't believed him. If he hadn't done what he did, she would be dead. 100% dead.

There was no way to recover from a hole in the head.

Raine scrambled in a blind panic out of the upper level exit from her history class with her ears screaming a high pitched tone. They were going to kill her. They were going to kill her and she only had a little bit of a head start. Her first inclination was to use her power, but she'd been trying to keep that under wraps. If she used it now, they would know for sure she was a mutant. They could probably put it together which mutant, in fact, if they were the same bad people who she and Combatant had visited one night not too long ago.

She burst through the hand bar and metal door, out from the chill of air conditioning and into a beautiful, sunshiny summer day. Shouldn't it be raining? These kinds of horrific life-changing moments couldn't possibly happen in the middle of the day where everyone could see, right!?

The blonde wasn't willing to bet her life on it.

Raine ran down the wheelchair accessibility ramp, vaulted over the guardrail, and dropped down half a flight to the ground floor rather than running around the other accessibility ramp. A guy with an overstuffed backpack and no clue about what was happening jumped back and out of her way. "Sorry!" Raine was pretty used to catching herself from falls considering her powers. She was not used to hearing everything through cottony ears and a constant ring. She wasn't used to looking at her campus for cover from gunfire, either. She was fast, but not outrun a bullet fast.

She took two steps forward, stopped, and turned back toward the nerd. "The History building, this building, it has a basement, right? Where they store the crap they study?"

He scoffed. "It's not crap—"

She heard the door slam open above them and a fresh shot of panic gripped her so she gripped the nerd. "Does the basement link up with anything?"

"Uh. No. It lets out near the parking lot."

Craaaaap!

Shouts from above. They were getting organized. They couldn't see her here, but she needed to not be here.

"What if it's raining? Which way do you go?"

"There's a canopy that goes to the cafeteria..." It would have to do! Raine abandoned the nerd before he was even done talking. The concrete upper above her rumbled with the pounding of running footsteps. The people who wanted her dead were up there. She jogged around the building toward the cafeteria. There was a canopy... of trees. The greenery met above the concrete sidewalk. What was that like as far as cover? There was no time left and she was out of options. Raine ran.

It had been a slow shift. Rianne radioed in to show in service at 0600 had had responded to only a single call when she received a priority one call at NYU. Mutant rampaging inside a class room, the teacher had already been killed. A SWAT team was being mobilized but it would take too long for them to arrive, Rianne could get there and at least contain the situation if not handle it before a SWAT team could arrive.

Even running code, lights and siren on, it took Rianne an eternity of minutes to arrive at NYU. She was required to run code when speeding, she would rather not. People forgot how to drive when a police car came flying up behind them with lights on. It was easier to weave through moving traffic than it was to deal with people trying to figure out how to move out of the way.

A team of officers was stacked up to enter with a couple of SUPER agents. Rianne was still a block away when they made entry. And then radio chatter came on about how the threat was managed. Rianne was about to go on the radio and have them show 10-8 when another voice came on the radio, the one listening on SUPER traffic.

Self-identifying as Delta 5, Rianne recognized it as Trace.

Between the SUPER radio chatter and the NYPD chatter Rianne was getting a general idea of what was going on. A mutant resembling some kind of capra demon had attacked the classroom. Trace had taken the mutant down, and somehow a blonde, white, female approximately 5 foot two in height was involved. She had fled the scene around the time trace went rogue.

Rianne needed to know what was going on. SUPER was after Trace, his description was being filtered down the NYPD through a BOLO. It was her duty to help apprehend him, she was an NYPD officer and now the liaison between NYPD and SUPER. But Trace was her friend, there must be some kind of misunderstanding, he wouldn’t just go rogue. Would he?

Popping a curb, Rianne parked her squad car on the sidewalk and jumped out. She needed to find the blonde girl. She had a rough physical description which included clothing to work with. She just needed to find someone who matched that description, and was likely making their way away from the building.

If the woman was fleeing the scene she would probably want to avoid being seen. Rianne had been to NYU a few times on calls, she remembered there was a closed canopy of trees that went from this building to another. It was worth a shot.

Rianne made her way around the building as a pursuit for Trace was launched. He’d made it clear and was on foot fleeing. He was resourceful. He’d just need to avoid the beat cops who were on scene. Shouldn’t be too hard for a fancy government secret agent man. Her radio was going off constantly, she turned it down. Between its muted voices and the yelling from the other officers in and around the building it was clear they were organizing a search.

Around the building she went until she reached the closed canopy of trees. She kept her eyes moving from person to person as she quickly moved toward the cafeteria. The woman shouldn’t have a large lead on her. If Rianne was quick she should be able to catch up enough to be able to get visual contact.

Raine went from a flat out run to a jog and then down to a brisk walk. As there were more and more students, she began to feel safer. Paranoid, but safer. No one should open fire in a crowded space full of tomorrow's hopes and dreams. Was she using them to keep her safe? Oh, heck yeah. If they wanted to come get her, they could walk in and drag her out. But Raine was playing it cool. They should have no reason to suspect her, right? No costume. No reason to shout she was a mutant.

The blonde swiped her cafeteria card and grabbed a tray, noticing how the staff blanched as they saw her. Did her description get around here already? Did they know someone was after her? Raine scooted fast through the line, not really hungry. She just wanted a possible alibi.

She worked hard to steady her hands and plaster a smile on her face. Why was everyone looking at her like that?

"H-hey, are you in drama club or something?"

"Yeah?"

"Ohh. Are we doing a horror next or something?"

Horror? Raine looked down, forgetting that she'd been a little too close to the wholesale slaughter of people. She gulped. Actually, she hadn't forgotten, she'd been trying real hard to pretend it hadn't happened. She'd wiped herself down, but it had been a quick attempt at normalcy. She'd forgotten that she'd half swam in blood earlier. That didn't just wipe off.

Oh geez. She needed to clean up.

"It's a really freaky one. Yep." She put on her best actor face, sort-of a lame attempt at a cop-face, and she wasn't sure that she'd sold it. At least the kid left her alone. Raine scanned the cafeteria until she saw at someone she was close enough with to beg clothes from. She would have traded, but her clothes were still bleeding. They went into the trash.

For every time her friend asked if she was okay, her natural response was "Fine." There wasn't anything else she could say. Eventually after she'd said enough thanks, they went away.

In the bathroom she sponged herself off with paper towels and dabbed at the cut on her face. Augh. She couldn't exactly hide that easily, but the fresh clothes were a huge improvement even if they were of the workout variety. At least they hadn't yet been used.

After that, Raine went to sit in a cubicle to quietly fall apart. A little silent sobbing and mourning for the people she'd seen die today, the life she might have screwed up for trying to save others, and just how messed up today had been in general. Once she could get her face and emotions back under control, she'd go out for a run and just not stop until she felt she'd lost the trail. At least now it wouldn't look so out of place.

Pursuing someone through a city could be a difficult task. In the woods or some other outdoor and unpopulated area they could be tracked easily by the marks they leave behind. Though New York City that was impossible, the sheer volume of people made it impossible.

Case in point, the traces of blood the woman had left in her wake were blurred and difficult to track after the couple minutes of foot traffic over them. When Rianne arrived at the cafeteria it would be a game of where’s waldo, where waldo was a young blonde girl in a field of young blond girls. She would have to use human intelligence to track the woman.

Rianne wasn’t wearing a normal police uniform. She was wearing a black tactical uniform, complete with a load bearing vest with strike plates and a black cap with her hair pulled through the back in a ponytail. It made her stand out more from a normal police officer or a campus officer. If she would have a had a rifle in hand she would have been what people imagined when they discussed militarization of the police.

There were quite a few looks. It was likely the first time many of these students had seen an ESU officer with their tactical gear on in person.

Immediately Rainne set to work, she approached a table of with students who looked like they had been seated for a while. She provided a rough description of the woman and asked if they had seen her. They latched onto the mention of blood.

“Yeah, we saw her.She went through the line. Don’t know where she went.”

Another student chimed in with, “I heard she was part of the drama club.”

A few more comments, but nothing to work on. She thanked them as she moved on to another group of students. She moved from group to group for a couple minutes before she ran into someone who had seen where the girl went. This girl had been leaving the restroom as the woman went in. Rianne thanked the girl and headed for the bathroom.

As she made her way to the bathroom she listened to the radio. Delta 5 had evaded the SUPER agents and NYPD officers on scene. That meant she had more time to figure out what was going on.

Rianne opened the door to the bathroom and stepped inside.

She should have been running. Instead, Raine had her legs pulled in tight to her chest and she was trying to wave air toward her eyes in an attempt to make the puffiness go down. She knew from experience that her makeup would have been shot if she hadn't already washed it off in the sink, though, without actual makeup remover she probably had a little but of Leave Brittany alone! going on.

Raine'd cried for longer than she meant to, but it still wasn't enough. She had unanswered questions and the more she chased them around in her head, the more anxious she got. She'd seen the mutants they freed that night. They were not in great shape. She did not want to become one of them.

Would she be able to finish her semester this year?
What about her History class?
What about her classmates?
Did she know any of the dead?
Who's had she fallen into?
What would happen if the bad guys got her?
Did they know it was her that was part of the team who broke into that government facility to break mutants out of their internment?
Was that why they'd leveled a gun at the back of her head?
Would she ever be safe or free again?
Did Trace make it out?
What if he got captured?
Should she risk herself to save him or did that defeat the point of her running when he'd told her to?

Raine tugged her hair out of her ponytail and ran her fingers through it to change the part and hopefully cover the stinging cut on the side of her face.

Step 1. She needed to figure out what had become of Trace, if possible.

She'd been trying to ignore the coming and going of people into and out of the bathroom. Or, maybe she'd been mostly trying to focus on herself, her panic, and picking up all the pieces in a way that wouldn't make any noise. Now that she was as ready as she was ever going to be to exit her cubicle, she was paying better attention. Was that... a radio she heard? Raine's heart rate spiked back up as she thought through her actions since coming into the restroom.

She'd swapped out of her old clothes and tossed those directly into the open trash bin. Bloody paper towels on top of that. They would know for sure she'd been in here. They didn't have to know it was her, right?

Raine stood and unlocked her door taking a few squishy steps to the sink in order to wash her hands. She tried to keep her head down which was good as far as maybe not showing her face and bad as far as scoping out who might be in the restroom with her. Of course, looking down, she got to see just how blood soaked her sneakers had gotten...

Rianne looked around the bathroom as she stepped in. Blood on the floor, transfer from shoes. Not a lot, the shoes that brought it had carried the woman a long way since it was picked up. Bloody paper towels in the trash. Using a clean paper towel, Rianne pushed aside the top layer of bloody paper towels and saw clothing.

Smart girl, Rianne thought.

The woman was running scared, but was thinking enough to try and ditch bloody clothes. Maybe she had a change of clothes with her or had a friend she ran into that lent her some? Rianne mentally tossed away the information regarding what the woman was wearing. She would retain it for writing a report later if necessary, but it was no longer needed for in the moment identification.

Rainne’s radio carried on quietly as she stood in the bathroom. The terrible acoustics bouncing the sound around making it louder than it had been out in the cafeteria.

A click came from one of the stalls. Rianne turned her head to it as a blonde stepped out and made her way to the sink. The blonde kept her head down so Rianne couldn’t see her face. Rianne didn’t know what the woman’s face looked like, but she didn’t need to and didn’t need to see this woman’s face to know it was whom she was looking for.

Bloody shoes.

”Miss.” Rianne said, her calm and commanding cop voice at work, ”I am Officer Hunter with NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit. I need to speak with you about the event this morning.”

She spoke and Raine jumped. It was silly. The woman-- no, the officer-- as she identified herself to be-- hadn't said anything scary. It was just that somehow Raine had not been expecting to be spoken to. She was trying very hard not to be spoken to. Could Ms. Officer not take a hint? This was Raine's gamble. She could have stayed in her cubicle and tried to wait the officer out, but she'd been afraid to wait too long, too close to things tied to her life. They knew her. They knew who she was. They knew where to find her... apparently, even in the bathroom.

> "I need to speak with you about the event this morning.”

Raine laughed at herself, so obviously spooked... but then, wouldn't anyone who'd seen that? "I don't really know anything and I sure as heck don't want to talk about it." Raine flipped the handle for cold water toward herself and let it run, "Just glad I got out before it got too bad." A lie, carefully crafted to parade as truth. Fairies, if they were real, would be proud at the line she was walking.

Cool water splashed against her face and over the stinging cut. She'd probably worked up a sweat and now the salt of her effort was making it hurt. Raine tried to keep her cool as she went about her business. If she played it right, Ms. Officer couldn't really do anything, right? Lots of people had been there. Fewer left than went in, but it'd been a big lecture hall.

The murmur of the officer's radio bounced around the tiled room and a thought struck Raine. A wild thought. A dangerous, wild thought.

What if... she took it? They were probably talking about 'the incident' and that meant talking about Trace or maybe even talking about her. She could know if they'd figured out where she was for real! She could figure out where Trace was! She could evade capture and... maybe even help!

If the woman had been talking, Raine had not been listening-- she'd been busy scheming.

She flipped off the water spigot, readied a tether in each hand and shoved Ms Officer. One hand went up, one measure of gravity leashed Ms Officer to the ceiling. Up was now down and she started falling up. Raine crouched to touch the bathroom floor (ew.) so that the officer became stuck halfway between up and down.

The woman had twisted in anticipation of hitting the ceiling-- She was good. Most people just crashed neck-first --but she'd stopped and gotten stuck as she was in midair. It made for an awkward zero gravity suspension, the same trick she'd pulled on the goat-legger earlier today. Raine ducked a flailing arm and grabbed for the radio from the officer's shoulder. She was irritated when it came with a wire and an ear piece and that she had to yank it free, all the while trying not to get grabbed by a less than happy woman who Raine should have been looking up to and emulating.

Instead, she was stealing her stuff.

"Sorry. Thanks."

Gravity would only old the officer up for something like one city block. She could walk and be not at all suspicious for now, but eventually she'd have to run.

Rianne speaking to the woman seemed to spook her. She jumped and then laughed to herself before speaking. She claimed to not known anything and that she had gotten out before it had gotten too bad.

Which if she had escaped the lecture hall before the hunt for Delta 5 began, was likely true. The woman then splashed water in her face. Rianne waited for the girl to wash her face. She did watch her closely, scared people often made poor decisions.

”Look.” Rianne said, softening her voice a little. She needed this woman to be willing to talk to her, now, not later in an interrogation room. ”I need you to…” Rianne trailed off as she listened to her radio. An officer reported a sighting of someone matching Delta 5’s description. Another officer requested confirmation on the address. The first officer gave it then a moment later radioed back he lost contact.

This was provided with a four digit identification for each officer, Trace was referred to as Delta 5, and most everything else was stated by ten-codes with a few words in between.

Rianne needed information, now. She looked back to the woman and said, ”I need to know what happened, there is a manhunt for…” Rianne was cut off by her suddenly falling up. She let out a noise before rolling to meet the floor not head first. Only she didn’t continue to fall, she stopped in the air as if being pulled both up and down.

Then things got irritating.

The woman approached as Rianne swung an arm in to grab her. She ducked it and took her radio. Rianne continued to flail her arms around trying to grab the woman. On her last grab her arm shot out with power assisted speed, but it was too late. She only brushed the woman as she moved out of range.

"Sorry. Thanks."

She had stolen Rianne’s radio (thankfully she hadn't tried to take her gun). And was saying thanks. Rianne was thoroughly less than pleased. ”Hey! Let me down and return the radio before this gets ugly.”

The woman left. Rianne was then alone in the bathroom, floating upside down.

Rianne wasn’t about to stand for this. She flailed around for a few moment before her hand brushed the sink. She grabbed the sink and used it to right herself before grabbing and pulling her herself over to the next. It was weird and somewhat nauseating. Her eyes told her what was right, but nothing felt like down or up. Both up and down felt down to her.

Raine stayed close to the building so that the officer would stay stuck while the X-man fiddled with the radio. She managed to listen in through the earpiece and even turn up the volume without breaking anything.

Unfortunately, the radio turned out to be less than helpful. They were throwing around about as many greek letters and numbers as her calculus class did.

Today was just not gonna be Raine's day. She tucked the radio into her pocket and kept listening as she jogged further and further away from the school. Her phone was still in the History classroom, likely ruined or maybe someone way trying to crack her hecking secure passcode. So where did she go? What place was hidden? Where might Trace go? Sometimes the radio gave addresses. One of the addresses in question, was just the mention of a park.

Logically, Raine knew she should avoid where the police were looking, but there was merit to at least going to a crowded place. Safety in numbers, right? No one would let the G-men kill her without at least loading the video up to ViewTube first. So... at least she might be avenged or something? One thing was for sure. Once she knew she was too far away to keep the officer stuck suspended between the floor and the ceiling, Raine ran.

There was absolutely nothing suspicious about a woman in athletic clothes with an earpiece who was jogging.

The park in question, Madison Square Park, turned out to be way more crowded than Raine expected. Her run slowed to a jog and her jog slowed to a walk because the closer she got, the more people there were. Carts were everywhere, food was everywhere.

"Hey. What's going on here?" She tapped a guy horking down something fried from a stick as he leaned over a garbage bin. Before he finished chewing, he pointed Raine toward a banner.

Lunar Festival in the Park. Cash only.

Aw suck! Raine didn't have a wallet!

Navigating a room while floating was difficult. One mistake and Rianne would be floating in the middle of the room with nothing to work with. When Rianne reached the last of the sinks she had to carefully align herself and kick off the sink to travel to the door. She then had to open the door like it was a trapdoor. Hands on the handle and feet pushing off the wall.

The door opened Rianne floated out into the cafeteria where people stared at her. She reached out and grabbed onto the first person she could reach. ”Blond woman, this tall, athletic wear. Just left that bathroom did you see where she went?”

She got a no and further weird looks.

“I saw her. She went out that door.” Another student supplied as he walked by. Rianne jumped over to that student.

”Take me over to the door.”

That gave the student pause. “Um… What?” He asked before realizing that she was floating and couldn’t just walk there, “Oh. Okay.” He looked at the shield and then at the pistol and walked to the door, the floating Rianne in tow.

At the door she thanked him before suddenly falling to the floor. She landed on all fours, almost busting her face. Whatever the woman had done had clearly ended. Rianne thanked the student before climbing to her feet and dashing out the door.

The woman could have gone anywhere. Rianne looked around trying to see where she had gone. Where had she gone? And why had she taken Rianne’s radio? Was she trying to make sure Rianne couldn’t radio in?

The sidewalks weren’t incredibly busy. Enough that as someone under six-foot tall she could only see so far. It was enough though that Rianne thought she saw the woman running a block and a half away, headed northeast. Rianne couldn’t be sure it was her, but it was the best she had. The only thing she had.

Rianne broke into a run.

People paying attention moved out of her way, you don’t just stand in the way of a police officer running with their gear on. Rianne had to dart around a few people who were to interested in their phones. She didn’t run full tilt and she didn’t yell for people to move. She wanted to get closer to the woman before she tried to divert and hide.

She ran for seventeen blocks. Not too bad, three blocks short of a mile. A few times she caught another glimpse of the woman up ahead of her.

When she reached Madison Square Park she hit a wave of people. The Lunar Festival in the Park was that day. She would need to get some height if she was to find the woman. There were people everywhere and the woman could just hide in plain sight.

Rianne box jumped onto one of those metal things trash cans are set inside of in parks. It gave her vision over the crowd. Blonde hair and athletic clothes. Rianne thought she saw the woman. She jumped down and elbowed her way through the crowd in that direction.

Raine mosied around smelling the smells and trying not to let her stomach convince her to do something foolish just because she didn't have her phone or wallet. Cash only! She snorted, offended that some people just couldn't get with the times.

She found herself making a third pass at the "free samples" of ice cream mochi at the edge of the festival when someone shouted in offense. Always ready to watch some drama, Raine turned and saw Miss Cop.

Miss Cop had her game face on.

Raine ran. Miss Cop had elbowed through people? Well Raine could shimmy, turn, and shake her way through. She was small and had no vest to slow her down. She could only work through the crowd so fast, though. With the way Miss Cop was gaining, it was only a matter of time.

As she ran she grabbed the ear piece out of her ear and the radio out of her pocket. Her legs were jelly. How many times had she thought she'd been running for her life so far today? How much did she have left before she could just quit?

"You can have this!" She turned to fend the officer off with the offering of the radio while trying to pace backwards and out of arm's reach. It was almost like keepaway, but instead of trying to keep the radio away, Raine was only trying to keep herself out of harm's way. "I didn't learn anything! It was all in hieroglyphics anyway and not at all like on tv!"

Her foot caught and Raine had to step back awkwardly to catch herself. It put her in one spot for too long. Her time was up!

Forcing your way through a crowd when chasing someone tended to give away your position. The commotion Rianne caused as she forced her way led to the woman noticing her approach. Forcing your way through a crowd had the advantage of being as fast as you were willing to be mean.

Rianne could see the woman up ahead dancing around people, she was moving quickly, but it meant she had to keep changing direction. Rianne on the other hand traveled the way the crow flies. Straight to the woman, some people moving aside, others being moved.

When Rianne had closed most of the distance the woman decided to taunt her with the radio. She would hold it out, just out of Rianne’s reach. She knew because she actually reached for it. ”Stop now before this gets ugly!” Rianne commanded.

The woman stepped away again, but she must have gotten caught because it was awkward and the moment it took to recover gave Rianne the chance to move in and take hold.

Rianne grabbed the wrist of the woman’s extended arm. Her hand clamping on like a vise. Normally she would have used the chance to take the woman to the ground and then cuff her. This woman had made Rianne float, wanted to get contact before moving forward.

Holding the woman’s wrist with her left hand, Rianne reached with her left and quickly drew out a pair of chain cuffs. She preferred to use her hinge cuffs, but most women and children have wrists too small for them. "Stop resisting."

With her power assisting her, Rianne snapped her arm forward with the cuff. She wanted to cuff that arm, use the wrist to force the woman to spin to present her back so she could then take the other arm and cuff it as well. From there she could haul her off to a squad car before grilling her about Trace.

As Rianne moved the air around them rippled, and then everyone went plaid.

Raine’s foot was being weird. It felt all tingly and she couldn’t seem to pull it out of whatever invisible force had it. Or. Maybe she was pulling it up and it was just going really slowly.

While she was distracted, the lady cop grabbed hold of her wrist, not the radio Raine had been waving in the other woman’s direction. Her white flag of peace had been totally ignored. In fact, the woman squeezed down on Raine’s wrist like a naughty child while she fished around for something from her utility belt.

> "Stop resisting."

”I think I’m stuck actually.” But on what…? She looked down and tried to raise her legs. One went up like normal, one was just… really not getting the message. The pins and needles feeling marched up past Raine’s calf to start poking at her thigh, and her entire back side.

Krkukukr!

Raine’s eyes just about bugged out of her head. Oh man. Oh manohmanohman.

”No really. I don’t think you understand.”

As Ms Cop spun Raine around, Raine brought the radio in close so that she wouldn’t drop it. Her pins and needles swapped from behind her to very much in her face. She saw something move over and past herself, but getting cuffed was a little bit detrimental to her ability to follow the expanding progress of the… bubble?

”Like… like a Trace bubble?” Raine tried to crane her neck all around to see, but other than the world moving in hyperspeed, there didn’t seem to be any Trace Tanner.

”Trace! Help! I’m being repressed!” Raine waved around and nobody answered.

And she did not mean to ignore the nice cop woman who was in the process of arresting her… it was just that there were so many more interesting things happening...

”I think I’m stuck actually.

The woman was being cute. Insisting her resistance was that she was stuck. There was nothing to be stuck on. She Rianne shot her hand forward with the cuff spun so it immediately went on, a swift series of clicks as it ratcheted down. Every day at the academy they had drilled handcuffing, Rianne was efficient.

”No really. I don’t think you understand.”

Rianne reached for the other arm while holding the cuffed arm in her against her abdomen with the wrist of hand holding her cuffs. Or she would have, but in the transition thew woman freed the hand and brought it and the radio it held in close to her body. Rianne did manage to secure the other arm.

”No! You don’t understand.” Rianne shot back. She hadn’t set out to arrest this girl. Instead of just talking she had assaulted an officer, stolen from that officer, and was now resisting. She had picked up criminal party pack.

The woman continued to move around like she was going to give Rianne the felon shuffle. When Rianne reached for the radioed hand again she skipped a beat,

”Like… like a Trace bubble?”

A trace bubble? Rianne went to look around the woman. Everything past the woman was moving in swiftly. Was Trace there?

”Trace! Help! I’m being repressed!”

The woman was now waving around like she was attempting a felon shuffle. Poorly. She did move her arm away for long enough for Rianne to snatch it and drag it back behind the woman where she could grab the free cuff dangling from it and latch it onto the other arm. It may have hurt the woman, but it was necessary to secure the arrest.

”Trace can’t hea-.” Rianne cut off. She had turned her head and saw more people moving swiftly to the side. It was more area than she had seen Trace. She looked to the other side. More people moving swiftly. It wasn’t Trace. It was one of those ripples in time. They were in it, not the other way around.

”This is a time ripple.” Rianne sighed. The cuffing done Rianne withdrew her right hand and held the woman in her left. ”You’re under arrest for assaulting a police officer with a mutant power. I could take you in for that, or you can control yourself and tell me about this morning. You clearly know Trace. He’s in trouble and I need to know what happened so I can help him.”

Oh man. She was really mad. And Raine hadn’t exactly done anything to endear herself to the officer, she could admit that much once she was confronted with the evidence.

”So I’m off the hook if I tell you about this morning?” The words came out like a squeak for the panic that was making her voice high and reedy. Her dad was going to be soooo disappointed. Oh heck. Not just her dad. Impact was going to string her up by her toenails!

”Here. Take the radio.” She waggled it in her hands behind her. Once it was gone, Raine considered that one less transgression the woman could hold against her.

”What do you want to know?” Raine looked over her shoulder at first and when she wasn’t tackled to the ground, continued to turn to actually stop and inspect her dogged puruser. She’d said she was police. Raine couldn’t remember if the guys Trace was with had said who they were.

”I saw my History professor get—” She started to make a motion with her hands, but they were secured. Right. So she’d have to say it. Raine swallowed, genuinely nauseated at the thought that she knew the guy. And now he wasn’t a guy any more. He was so much meat.

”He got cut into pieces. By a guy with those weird furry legs that bend backwards. I don’t really know. It- it was dark.” Had she actually seen that part? That whole thing was a mess in her head now that it was over.