Love X Gravity

"And you're sure you want to do this?" Xr. Nullamor asked. "You do know that there's a high risk of Infectant contamination at the moment, right?"

"Y-yeah, but I think it's worth it." Sybil clenched her fists with determination. "The guy I have a crush on has superpowers, so how am I supposed to get his attention without superpowers of my own?"

"That's not really how relationships work, but judging by the quick peek I just took into your head, I'm probably not gonna be able to reason this out with you anytime soon." Nullamor said. "Normally the hybridization procedure costs way more than you could realistically afford, but I'm gonna make an exception for you and say this one's on the house."

"R-really?" Sybil blinked "Why?"

"You ever watch a car crash compilation?" Nullamor tsked.

"I mean... yeah?" Sybil nodded hesitantly.

"Same principle."

"S-see, I have superpowers now!" Sybil proclaimed shakily, doing her best to concentrate on both the rock and the conversation at the same time. "P-pretty cool that we have something in c-common now, right?!"

The only change in Theo's expression was a lightly raised eyebrow.

"Hybridization?"

"Y-yeah!" Sybil nodded.

"Kind of a bad idea, isn't it?" Theo said.

Sybil froze, her abrupt lack of concentration leading to the rock falling as quickly as her expression.

"Wh-what?"

"Pretty much every hybrid I've met lately has turned into a Mutant Rogue at some point." Theo began to elaborate. "This isn't a good time to be messing around with that stuff."

"I-I'm sorry," Sybil turned around to hide that she was tearing up. "I-I just wanted to impress you..."

"Impress me?" Theo's expression changed into one of proper confusion. "Why? We don't really know each other that well."

"*Exactly!*" Sybil abruptly snapped, whirling around to face him with tears in her eyes. "I want to get to know you better, and I want *you* to get to know *me!*."

"I'm not following." Theo's confused look remained unchanged.

"*I have a crush on you, Theo!*" Sybil blurted out. She threw her hands over her mouth as soon as she realized what she had said, but it was too late. It had already been said. Her pupils shrunk in anxiety-induced terror as she waited breathlessly for Theo to respond.

"...Oh."

Oh?

*Oh?*

"Wh-what do you mean, "oh"?" Sybil squeaked.

"I mean I don't really know how to respond to that." Theo said. "I mean, you're... *nice*, and you are fairly attractive, but as I said before, we don't really know each other, so I can't honestly say the feeling is mutual."

"Th-that's alright, I-I mean, that's what dating is for, right?" Sybil smiled nervously. "W-we could go on a c-couple of dates, and then you could-"

"I'm sorry, but I'm not looking to date anyone right now." Theo stated flatly. "I don't really have the time for it."

"B-b-but, y-you have time for Nova!" Sybil protested. "Y-you two a-are like, joined at the hip!"

"That's different." Theo said. "Nova and I practically grew up together. We're partners."

"You're..." All the blood seemed to drain from Sybil's face. "You're... partners?"

"Yeah, we go on missions together, I thought you already knew-" Theo paused as he noticed a black film of nanomachinery start to blanket Sybil's eyes. "...Damn it."

Sybil screamed and fell to her knees clutching at her head as a mass of nanomachines began to bubble up through her skin and consume her. Within seconds, she had been transformed into a jet-black mutated Tristia with sickly-yellow lights dotting its body. The new mutant ignored Theo entirely, using its power over gravity to shoot itself into the air and begin rocketing away in the direction of Nova's house.

"Fantastic." Theo grumbled, taking a moment to adjust his hat before pulling out his phone. "Just what I didn't need today."

"Sybil White?" Nova said. "Yeah, I remember her. Why?"

Theo responded.

"Oh shit, she finally told you?" Nova paused to let Theo talk. "Well yeah I knew, it was pretty dang obvious to pretty much everybody *but* you. I was kinda jealous, actually, she's pretty cute. So what'd you say?"

Pause to listen.

"Yeah, that's fair." Nova sighed. "Did you at least let her down easy?"

Nova's eyes narrowed with concern as Theo responded.

"What do you mean, "you think so"?" Nova questioned. "What *exactly* did you say to her?"

Another pause.

"Well no wonder she turned into a Mutant Rogue, ya dingus, why the hell would you phrase it like that?!" Nova huffed.

"Hey, Theo, she's waking up!"

As Sybil slowly regained consciousness, she found herself being held by Nova.

"Hey there, Sybil." Nova said as she watched her eyes blink open. "You alright?"

Sybil had never really interacted with Nova much, especially not this close-up, and as she blinked awake, she couldn't help but notice a few things that she hadn't paid much attention to before; her mesmerizing emerald-green eyes, her soft, flowing bright magenta hair, her toned, athletic muscles, her strong yet gentle grasp-

Uh-oh.

She abruptly snapped to attention, blushing heavily as she sat up and flew to her feet.

"O-oh, yeah, I-I'm fine, I'm fine, y'know, I'm fine." Sybil chuckled awkwardly during her hastily-spoken response. "Who's Sybil?"

"...Right." Theo raised an eyebrow. "Look, the first thing you should know that DNA Infectant acts kind of like a virus, so now that you've already been infected, you *probably* won't get infected again, but since it mutates every so often, there is a chance you could get reinfected by a future strain. Be careful, okay?"

"I-I, um... o-okay." Sybil stammered out, caught a bit off-guard by Theo abruptly changing the topic. "Th-thanks."

The three of them fell into a tense silence for a few moments.

"...I don't know how to resolve awkward situations, so I'm just gonna go ahead and leave." Theo spoke up. "We can talk later."

With that, Theo walked off, leaving Sybil alone with Nova.

"That's... not exactly how I expected that to play out." Sybil blinked.

"That's Theo for ya." Nova tsked, getting to her feet and stepping up next to Sybil. "Y'wouldn't know it by looking at him, but he wears his heart on his sleeve."

"Y-yeah." Sybil looked away from her with a slight blush.

"Just for the record, he means it when he says he needs to know someone better before he starts dating them." Nova said. "He doesn't really care about stuff like superpowers or appearances, just who you are as a person."

"And all I did tonight was show him I'm a massive fuckup." Sybil buried her face in her hands.

"Hey, we all do stupid things in the name of love." Nova shrugged. "Your stupid thing just so happened to involve alien DNA."

Sybil glanced up at Nova, who was giving her a sympathetic look. Their eyes locked for a moment, and Sybil's heart began to race.

"...Well, as long as I'm being stupid tonight..." Sybil clenched her eyes shut, steeled her nerves, and then looked back into Nova's eyes. "Would *you* want to go on a date sometime?"

Sybil waited with bated breath as Nova stared at her in surprise. After taking a few seconds to process what she had just heard, she suddenly burst out laughing.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know that's a really weird thing to ask right *now* of all times, I just-" Sybil began to stammer out before being interrupted.

"It's fine, Sybil, it's just not at *all* what I was expecting you to say." Nova chuckled out as her laughter died down. "Here, take this."

Nova used Swarm 2 to construct a small card with her phone number on it and handed it to Sybil.

"Hit me up so we can figure out a time." Nova said. "Just keep in mind that I'm on call if the Plumbers suddenly need someone's ass whooped, okay?"

"W-wait, a-are you sure?" Sybil stared down at the card, dumbfounded that Nova was actually willing to give her a shot. "I-I mean, y-you don't really know me that well."

"Look, I'm not as deep as Theo; you're cute and I like you, so you're date material in my book." Nova grinned. "Besides, getting to know each other is what dating is all about, right?"

"R-right!" Sybil looked at her and nodded.