Look, being underestimated really works in Newt's favor. His appearance seemingly comes off as meek, which makes doing certain things easier on Newt's end. Like, you know, stealing creatures from smugglers and traffickers. Making people assume he's weak and unsuspecting. While not as great of a wizard as others, his skills weren't anything to sneeze at.

Also, excuse you. New York wasn't!!! His fault!!! He just happened to be in New York when it happened and got inadvertently involved!! It's different.

Newt is a little surprised to hear that the other had spent most of his time with protective spells. While he wouldn't say his brother is incredibly aggressive, he had always considered the other more of a fighter than himself. Protective spellwork was something he was more akin to pouring his time into instead of offensive spells, since he was never big on fighting.

He doesn't particularly enjoy the idea of the other being bait though. Of course, if there's one trait the two really shared it was stubbornness and he was sure the other had no intention of changing their mind. "Fine, but you best be careful. We only know what they're like based of knowledge. We won't actually know how dangerous they are until we're actually fighting them." As though Theseus needed to be told. "I'm ready when you are."