When All Q Breaks Loose

Chapter Twenty Two: You Must Be Mistaken

Hiro had two things to be grateful for. One, they hadn't cut his sandwich up into teeny tiny little pieces. And two, even though he knew everything about this situation was wrong, his friends were doing their level best to not treat him like the child he now looked and sounded like. He just hoped other things from that era of his childhood would not come back to bite him. After all, he hadn't been fully potty-trained until he was two-and a half. Of course, there was no real way of knowing just what age he'd gone back to, other than a general idea of his body being about the two-year mark. The month part was up for debate.

Honey Lemon sat across from him in Fred's limo as they headed away from the Manor. Baymax held him in his strong, supporting arms. Since they didn't have a car seat for him yet, this was the next best thing, though he rather loathed the idea of having to sit in a kid's seat again. Unfortunately, that was the nature of the beast. He could barely remember being in a car crash around the same time his parents had died. What he remembered of that wasn't pleasant, nor did he want a repeat.

While the "grownups" talked about what was going on, he was stuck in a car, headed to the store to pick up some essentials. The groups were actually relatively evenly split, all things considered. Wasabi had opted to stay behind with GoGo, Picard, Data, Worf, and Q, to explain to the Doctor what was going on. Meanwhile, Hiro was stuck with Fred, Honey Lemon, Baymax and Troi. He supposed it could have been worse.

What really sucked, however, was that even though he could think like himself, and felt like his intellect was intact, he didn't feel like anything else was. His body was decidedly much smaller and less coordinated. And his emotions seemed more volatile. Not that he'd had any tantrums or anything, but he couldn't help but feel frustrated with his inability to control his body like he'd been able to only that morning. That and he found that with less teeth and a smaller mouth, he couldn't communicate the same way either. That and they were no closer to figuring things out than they had been before he reverted into a toddler.

Running his tongue over his teeth, Hiro discovered he was missing most of his molars and a few other smaller teeth. That wasn't going to be fun, especially if he had to go through teething all over again. He didn't really remember much about that period, except that it was painful.

There was another problem. When he'd run for that alley, back when they'd first found Q, he'd felt something he'd never felt before. It had felt like pain but he knew it wasn't. Maybe it was tied in to his transformation. Maybe it was just his imagination. But, for the briefest of moments, he thought he'd felt himself being split up into several different aspects of himself. It was disconcerting on so many levels. What if it hadn't been just a feeling? What if there was more to it than that?

"The first thing we should probably get is some clothes," Honey Lemon said as she looked towards Hiro. She had the same expression on her face that she'd had back at the showcase that had started it all. It was part pity, part maternal. He could just imagine her wanting to cuddle him up into the smallest bundle possible and not let go. And he definitely did not like that idea.

Well, Hiro supposed, if he was going to be mother-henned, which he rather thought would happen, there was no other among his friends he'd rather have do that. Then the thought of Aunt Cass popped into his head. How on earth were they going to explain this to her without freaking her out? Chances were good, the moment she found out, she'd have him rushed to the hospital for fifty million tests. There was no way he was going to let that happen. He had to find an excuse and fast.

"No teh Aunt Cass," Hiro slurred. This lack of teeth thing was bad business, he decided. That and his vocabulary seemed to have shrunk as well. At least so far as the words he could actually speak. His mental capacity seemed just fine. All the same, it was best to keep things simple. They might not understand him otherwise. Who was he kidding? They were already probably having a hard time understanding him! After all, he could no longer pronounce L's or R's properly.