Superpowers: Part 3

Though his awe for Mrs. Ruth had swelled, the truth was, both his mom and Mrs. Ruth were still adults. And inevitably, as the two adults began to talk, the radiance and wonder of the moment was, at least temporarily, gone.

"Mrs. Wilde, I made sure to push my other appointments back in order to set aside a good block of time to begin our discussion on…"

Nick's attention waned. It seemed then that the soft, soothing tone of the older rabbit suddenly became a little less gripping, and it was becoming very clear to the sighing and now sagging fox kit that they may end up there forever again like last week.

However, before he could so much as mentally complain at his impending fate, he noticed an ear twitch, and the friendly smile of the rabbit focused on him,

"I imagine, Nicholas, that the TV is still free in the playroom since my next appointment isn't for another 45 minutes. Would you like to watch some cartoons while me and your mother talk for a while?"

At those words, he cocked his ears at the open doorway causing them to flicker. He did indeed hear the faint sounds of the television playing. Mrs. Ruth's suggestion wasn't hurt by the fact that their own TV at their tiny new house hadn't been set up yet, and that the antennas were still missing in the sea of boxes from moving in.

Nick looked at his mom for approval and assurance that it would be okay. At the loving smile and gentle nod of her head, the little fox quietly strode from the office room, carefully but quickly, and with paper artwork and stuffed toy in tow.

In the waiting room, Nick found himself sitting on the carpet in the corner with the small television.

Ironically, despite his initial desire to catch up on the different shows he liked, the little fox wasn't as interested in the box as he thought he would be. He was still too busy gazing at the picture he was holding, completely unable to take his eyes off of the small painted paper in his paws.

He smiled as his finger pads rubbed against the rough texture of the now dried paint.

He had liked making it.

He couldn't explain why, but the picture he created made him feel giddy and bubbly on the inside. He loved the Lunar Wolf, and he increasingly liked the Silver Hare. Seeing them now together and thinking about how happy the hare and the wolf looked riding in the spaceship made him smile almost uncontrollably.

Friends…

He nuzzled against the plushie as he stared at the paper closely. Very gently, in a way that kits sometimes do to stuffed toys, Nick absently nibbled on the edges of the plushies' ears that poked up right under his jaw.

As he quietly chewed on the ears of the plushie, the fox kit giggled at the painting he was looking so intently at. It was not a laughter from anything funny, but simply from how happy seeing Jack Silver and Merrick Barkson together as friends made him.

And as he stared, the little fox thought about all the things that went through his head this morning. He thought about his worries from moving, the fears about his vest, his mom and their walk, how the waiting room wasn't as scary as last week, and how fun painting had been.

However, more than all of that, he thought about long grey ears and,

Superpowers. His lips worded.

Different thoughts about superhearing and mind reading and telepathy and the like ran through his head. Most of the ideas were dismissed, and the rest he only half-thought were possible.

The little fox shrugged slightly at the many unlikely possibilities. He didn't know exactly what her powers were or how her powers worked, but one thing he did understand was how he wasn't feeling that heavy weight on his chest right now, and that was enough to convince him that they might be real. That just maybe, what Mrs. Ruth said was true.

He squeezed Jack a bit tighter in his arms, continuously chewing on the stuffed toy's ears. Time seemed to stand still for the fox, the only indicator of change being the commercials currently playing in the background as the last of the early morning cartoons ended and his favorite show was actually priming to start.

The fox didn't care right at the moment though. Nick was still too lost in his many happy thoughts to even be aware it was turning on. His ears didn't pick up on the programming break announcing that a rerun of the Power Rangers was beginning, nor did his ears register the light footsteps of another mammal entering the room, having come to watch the show.

They didn't even catch the gasp coming from behind him over the ending theme song picking back up before the programming shift.

However, they would hear what came next.

"Stop-it!S-stop-h-hurting-h-him!"

The voice was sharp and high and the words were rushed and jumbled together in desperation. It startled him enough to cause Nick to croak his throat in surprise as he twisted his body around.

Verdant eyes widened in fear and confusion as they locked eyes with the mammal behind him, a pointy canine tooth barely sticking out from over his lip and still gripping the ears of the slightly chewed rabbit toy as they stared at each other.

Before him was a grey bunny, shorter and much smaller than him, and with a large patch of white gauze covering much of her left cheek. However, that couldn't hold his attention long. Not when his eyes had locked with the angry, pained violets that seemed to pierce right through him.

Their gazes mirrored, and despite how pretty the purple eyes of the rabbit were, all Nick could see was the way they looked at him…

Like he was doing something wrong.

Like he needed to leave.

Like he hurt her…

…Like she was going to hurt him.

The little fox couldn't take the intense staring and his gaze flickered up at seeing her ears twitch, before what he realized caused his whole body to flinch altogether.

His brain ran into overdrive at seeing the black tipped appendages.

He remembered them, remembered how they were sticking up and out from the toybox the week prior when he was leaving his appointment.

Slowly, it dawned on him,

It's her.

The small rabbit girl that had been in the waiting room last week.

The bunny that was looking for…

"Give Jack back NOW!"

…For the toy he was holding right now. The toy he was still-

His teeth instantly released the ears of the plushie in realization at what she was upset about.

With shame and embarrassment Nick's face shrunk behind the painted paper sheet in his paws, obscuring the Ranger toy clutched between his forearms and chest, as well as attempting to hide the scarring around his muzzle and neck.

He didn't want her to see either the way he'd accidentally chewed on the Ranger toy or the way he looked.

This unfortunately agitated the little bunny even further.

"L-let him go! You can't hurt him anymore! Let Jack go!"

The bunny's voice grew tight with tears, and yet simultaneously more threatening and scary. Nick tried to think- tried to make his swimming brain work.

For a brief second, his mouth opened to speak, to whisper, to explain, to plead-

I- I-

but it was the same as always.

Same as then, and same as ever since then.

No words would come out, everything he thought died in that painful, choking spot of his throat as his eyes glimpsed the smiling heroes in his painting.

The muzzle was still on.

Please help… He begged to the drawings… and then,

Mrs. Ruth… he begged to the older rabbit that painted it with him. Please…

But there wasn't an answer.

There never was when it counted.

He screwed his eyes shut when his vision began to swim. His legs became spaghetti, and his paws tightened on the painting roughly enough to crinkle the semi-rigid artwork.

It was then that everything- everything- piled onto him. How loud the tv suddenly was, how his pawpads became clammy and cold despite how much the rest of his body was burning up, and how His heart was beating so fast that his chest hurt. His brain had stopped working entirely now, his heart and its shy bravery had evaporated, and that hopeful part of him had withdrawn in fear, leaving only one voice to whisper to him…

You can't do anything. You only make things worse.

And although Nick didn't have the mental space to think about the words, he knew the cynical, angry and frightened voice was right.

He couldn't do anything.

Nothing but blindly and weakly shrink away from the threat with his spaghetti legs. Nothing but subconsciously tighten his grip on the one thing that seemed to comfort him, the small toy being held against the crook of his neck.

He couldn't do anything, but make the situation worse…

Even though he didn't mean for his claws to dig into the cloth of Jack Silver, they still did. Even though he didn't realize he was nervously rubbing those claws against the plush, he still did. Even though he didn't mean to look like he was harming the toy further, it still looked that way. The accidental actions only had one outcome,

"NO, give Jack back! You can't hurt him! You can't hurt him, you bad fox!"

The tackle knocked what little breath out of Nick he still had, causing him to close his paws in on himself to hide and protect his muzzle, paper artwork, Ranger toy and all.

It was then that Nick felt the forceful tug at his paws, the strong grip that pulled the little plush toy away, and the awful tearing sound of collateral damage that accompanied it.

When frightened greens opened, his shaky paws were empty, save for half of the ripped painting he had created that morning.

What happened next he couldn't say.

The whole incident happened so fast, no longer than a minute or two.

He heard running down the hall as he laid on the floor in a ball. He heard yelling, heard his mom, heard that scared voice she makes, but none of it made sense to him then.

Nothing did…

Because-

He transfixed at the ripped picture in his paws. A crumpled half with Jack Silver missing an ear and a paw, half a rocketship and most importantly, his wolf friend.

The fox's paw tightened around the fragment of his work. Reality washed over him again as he thought back to before they had left Zootopia,

Nothing's changed.

Blurry with tears, and with great pain in his spaghetti legs, the little fox crawled a few steps before he found the strength to get up and run for the door.

Nothing is better.

His ears flickered at the opening theme song of the Power Rangers starting up on the tv, and then to the doctor's voice calling to him from behind before his tail slapped the corner of the waiting room as he turned towards the exit.

He closed his eyes again at the older rabbit's call and pressed his feet even harder.

Superpowers aren't real.

AN: This was a tough chapter that caused me much heartache to write. It will get better for Nick.

Sidenote/rant: The FF . net platform has caused me much grief in recent days. This accursed site glitched and wouldn't post my last two chapters properly. It said it posted but every time I looked it showed only to chapter 4. I only recently seemed to fix it, and I'm not sure if it's gonna glitch again. I hope not. If these problems persist, I will abandon this site and exclusively use AO3. I am not there yet, but between these issues and the relentless spammers/scammers PMing me to solicit art commissions (likely AI made), I'm really starting to dislike this site.