"Nico, I know this is crazy but something is messing with our heads right now. Your name isn't Nico Mori, it's Nico Minoru," he said, gently taking her by the shoulders, trying to ignore the sting that came from her scream. "And we're not pilots in some kind of monster fighting program, you're a witch that occasionally accidentally superheroes and I'm a ninja mutant, and -"
He froze in place as the full weight of that hit him.
"I'm a mutant."
Which totally meant he had no chance with her now, of course, but there was far more to it than that. He was a mutant and he'd fought mutants and monsters and aliens and all manner of terrifying things, that all exploded into his head. It was too much to handle. For a little while he'd thought he was some kind of alien-fighting robot mech hero, but this was still something of a softer reality than his own.
Back home, he still fought monsters, and he didn't have a nice, hard robot body between himself and them. He had still lost family, even if it wasn't Leo, and had almost lost Leo, too. Karai had been mutated, the city had been lost, they'd had to risk their necks day in and day out. It all came rushing back, flashing around them like that scary scene in Billy Bonkers and the Candy Factory, mutants incubating in his stomach, and being infected by a parasitic wasp and biting his own brothers after fighting a black-eyed, hissing Leo, and zombie wolf mutants, and horrible alien monsters pretending to be April's mom, and -
Vines. Vines grabbing him in the dark and dragging him off -
Vines that suddenly exploded out of the sewer grate behind him, dragging him through them as they shattered into black glass, as he chased the rabbit even farther down.
He screamed a muffled scream of abject terror through the vines that had clamped over his mouth, was yanked backwards, and then all that was left was a black hole in front of Nico, one that threatened to swallow her up if she followed him.
no subject
He froze in place as the full weight of that hit him.
"I'm a mutant."
Which totally meant he had no chance with her now, of course, but there was far more to it than that. He was a mutant and he'd fought mutants and monsters and aliens and all manner of terrifying things, that all exploded into his head. It was too much to handle. For a little while he'd thought he was some kind of alien-fighting robot mech hero, but this was still something of a softer reality than his own.
Back home, he still fought monsters, and he didn't have a nice, hard robot body between himself and them. He had still lost family, even if it wasn't Leo, and had almost lost Leo, too. Karai had been mutated, the city had been lost, they'd had to risk their necks day in and day out. It all came rushing back, flashing around them like that scary scene in Billy Bonkers and the Candy Factory, mutants incubating in his stomach, and being infected by a parasitic wasp and biting his own brothers after fighting a black-eyed, hissing Leo, and zombie wolf mutants, and horrible alien monsters pretending to be April's mom, and -
Vines. Vines grabbing him in the dark and dragging him off -
Vines that suddenly exploded out of the sewer grate behind him, dragging him through them as they shattered into black glass, as he chased the rabbit even farther down.
He screamed a muffled scream of abject terror through the vines that had clamped over his mouth, was yanked backwards, and then all that was left was a black hole in front of Nico, one that threatened to swallow her up if she followed him.