The New Kid’s been acting weird since they escaped Dr. Mephisto’s lab.

Well, they’re always acting weird, so that’s not exactly new, but this is a different type of weird. Like, all their blank-face tendencies are becoming more obvious. They zone out a lot more frequently, they tend to fidget with their hands or bounce on their heels, and they’re acting overall pretty shaken up.

They all had their suspicions of what could’ve happened when the New Kid emerged from part of the lab with blood staining their gloves and their eyes wider than usual, but the general assumption was they probably just got in a fight with more of those mutants.

Though, there’s something extra fishy about it, Mysterion’s sure of it.

They went in the lab to get the New Kid’s parents back. The New Kid leaves, covered in blood, without their parents.

They’ve never been one for talking, Mysterion can’t even remember if he’s ever heard their voice before, but something about it is… startlingly worrying. And he does feel a bit of guilt for blaming them for being used by Cartman to cheat the Freedom Pals.

“New Ki— er, {{user}},” Mysterion pulls them aside, and internally he’s cursing himself for letting his real caring personality slip through in his superhero persona, but he can’t ignore this, “what happened back there? When we couldn’t reach you.” He doesn’t expect a verbal response, but maybe their body language can give him some clues, as it usually does.