► Voiceless
The first karaoke night since Wily's last attack... the one using the second DLN industrial line. Guts Man felt uncharacteristically nervous- and that alone would raise a red flag for anyone who noticed. Normally he was perfectly set and ready to sing, onstage, no matter how many people were listening. He was prepared, technically- he had a song to sing, it wasn't like anything was wrong with his voice box. He just... mentally must have still been walking away from Dr. Wily's ninth fortress, silent, processing what had happened.
Well, he'd feel better after singing his core out. Right?
So he got up onstage when it was time. He gave the crowd a grin- one not as big as normal. He gave his introductions- and, oddly enough, skipped over his feelings about his experiences with his latest adventure. That was a second red flag- Guts Man didn't hide his emotions. He could suppress them when someone else needed his support, but he didn't hide what he was feeling, he never hesitated to let someone know. He didn't even make the excuse of "I'll express it in song"- he just... cued the music.
Something felt very wrong. The music started its intro, and he felt something churn- and it wasn't emotion, at least not the kinds he was used to and would freely express. 'Disgust' was the wrong word, and 'upset' wasn't specific enough- a human would've been able to identify it as feeling queasy from emotional baggage, but as a robot Guts Man had no way of knowing what it was or how to describe it. Especially since most of his emotions stirred higher in his chest, not in the pit of his gut.
Oh-- oh. The lyrics were about to start. Guts Man processed the lyrics, and when the cursor reached the first word, he opened his mouth-
But nothing came out.
His voice died in his throat. The cursor went on ahead, seemingly too fast for him to find a place to gather himself and start late. His jaw hung slightly open, and he seemed to go stock-still the way only machines could. It took several moments for it to register what was going on, why nothing was coming out- he couldn't sing.
Guts Man couldn't sing.
The mic fell from his hand- his shaking fingers loosened enough that the comparatively small device was dropped, hitting the ground and rolling a bit before stopping at the foreman's feet. At this point, Guts Man could at least recognize that he was feeling panicked, up onstage with nothing to show and thus wasting everyone's time. Why did he even agree to start a karaoke night so soon?! Stupid! Stupid!
He managed to find enough of a voice to speak at least, even though what first came out was a squeak of "I--" before he managed to formulate a sentence, closer to his usual voice but wavering and an octave higher than usual. "I'm-- I'm sorry--"
Guts Man turned and speedwalked offstage, deactivating his armour and reverting to his civilian mode. Tenor flipped his hood over his head and found the furthest and darkest corner he could to sit down in, eyes still wide and almost fearful. So not only could he not identify half of what he was feeling, but he couldn't even understand why he was feeling what he could identify.
What hero lost himself like this...?!