[Nick has no idea what to say to the first bit. He didn't know about the network when whatever happened with Paul happened, he's never met Jack Sears, and the only thing he knows about it is what other people have told him.
But he can hold Kotetsu closer, curling one hand around the back of his friend's neck in an attempt to be at least physically comforting. And then Kotetsu says that, and, well, that he can reply to.]
Hey. [He slides his hand around, making an attempt to tilt Kotetsu's head up so he can meet his eyes.] We're still the good guys, Kotetsu, you're still the good guy. Our jobs, the stuff we do day-to-day, that still matters. You think all the good you do, all the people you help, that's just going to stop because a couple of people at the station are involved in something we didn't expect? No matter how bad that something may be, that doesn't change the good that you still do.
You going to tell all the people you've helped by putting bad guys away that they don't matter anymore, because there's bigger things at stake? Look, the world may need saving on a bigger level than any of us thought, but that doesn't mean it doesn't need saving on a smaller level, too. It doesn't mean you can't be a cop, a good cop, at the same time as you use what you know now to fight against the - the weirder shit.
[...and he'd rambled on a lot more than he'd meant to, but - it's been something he'd been worried about, too, and he hadn't really known what he was going to say before he said it. Except that he believes it, one hundred percent, that Kotetsu could never be the bad guy.]
And you're not alone anymore, man. You don't have to do it alone.
[Which is strange for Nick to even say, much less feel, but since getting a couple of pulses, since Monroe... he's starting to learn what it's like not to be alone.]
action!
But he can hold Kotetsu closer, curling one hand around the back of his friend's neck in an attempt to be at least physically comforting. And then Kotetsu says that, and, well, that he can reply to.]
Hey. [He slides his hand around, making an attempt to tilt Kotetsu's head up so he can meet his eyes.] We're still the good guys, Kotetsu, you're still the good guy. Our jobs, the stuff we do day-to-day, that still matters. You think all the good you do, all the people you help, that's just going to stop because a couple of people at the station are involved in something we didn't expect? No matter how bad that something may be, that doesn't change the good that you still do.
You going to tell all the people you've helped by putting bad guys away that they don't matter anymore, because there's bigger things at stake? Look, the world may need saving on a bigger level than any of us thought, but that doesn't mean it doesn't need saving on a smaller level, too. It doesn't mean you can't be a cop, a good cop, at the same time as you use what you know now to fight against the - the weirder shit.
[...and he'd rambled on a lot more than he'd meant to, but - it's been something he'd been worried about, too, and he hadn't really known what he was going to say before he said it. Except that he believes it, one hundred percent, that Kotetsu could never be the bad guy.]
And you're not alone anymore, man. You don't have to do it alone.
[Which is strange for Nick to even say, much less feel, but since getting a couple of pulses, since Monroe... he's starting to learn what it's like not to be alone.]