Hi! Hi! Hi!
Can you write something about side effects of hero power boosters? I think it could be so much fun! (If you want to of course.)
Thank you!
Side Effects
CW: death, physical trauma, hurting a friend, self-handcuffing, chains
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Villain’s head rolled through the dust and came to rest against a shattered wall.
Hero stared at it.
They didn’t mean for this to happen. They just wanted to counter the blast Villain had sent their way. They didn’t expect— they just flicked their finger.
The force that followed was something far more powerful than Villain (or anyone, as matter of fact) could handle.
Hero blinked slowly and looked at the amplifier bolted directly to their wrist bones. Only a small part of the device was visible on their skin, now glowing with an eerie light.
It pulsed.
In sync with their heartbeat, Hero realized.
The rest of the apparatus lay buried beneath their flesh.
The city groaned around them. Broken steel shifted. Fires crackled in distant ruins. Somewhere, far away, people were beginning to cheer. They must have noticed the fight was over—they just didn’t know yet what a horrendous act Hero had committed.
They looked at the severed head once more, blood slowly pooling around it, painting the rubble in red.
Hero’s stomach twisted.
Their hand went to their mouth, slowly. Boots crunched over broken concrete behind them.
“Hero?”
The voice snapped them out of the trance. They turned just as Researcher scrambled down a slope of rubble, her white coat covered in dust and blood.
She wasn’t supposed to be here.
She wasn’t a field worker—she belonged in the lab, buried beneath stacks of research notes and glowing monitors, arguing with heroes for yet another set of their blood samples.
Shame washed over their face.
Hero had distanced themselves from Researcher months ago, after they accused her of not doing enough. After they ran off to a black market and bought the amplifiers.
They didn’t tell her about this little secret. They hadn’t spoken since the argument, and Hero had done everything in their power to keep it that way.
Yet, when they saw Researcher slip on the demolished walls, something inside them broke.
Their face cracked with a quiet sob.
They reached out to her, another sob forcing its way from their throat. “Please,” they choked out. “Get them out of me!”
Researcher crossed the debris of the smashed furniture and slowed, staring at the devices protruding from Hero’s wrists. Her expression tightened.
“You idiot,” she whispered, but there was no anger in her voice. Just worry.
And Hero hated themselves much more because of it.
They felt tears begin to roll down their cheeks. “How bad did I fuck up?”
Researcher didn't answer. She looked over to what was left of Villain, his empty eyes staring back at her, then she turned to Hero.
A pulse tore through them, and the ground shook. Dust lifted in a slow, trembling ring around their boots as the amplifiers stuttered under their skin
Panic seized Hero.
They pressed their arms against their body and took a step back.
“Don’t come closer!” It was too easy to imagine her head snapping clean off her throat.
Researcher ignored them, eyes locked on the unstable gadgets half-awake under their skin, and made her way closer.
Hero could feel the heat rolling off of them in suffocating waves. Their entire body was shaking now.
“I can’t—”
Another pulse.
Hero cried out this time.
They clawed at the metal embedded in their skin, drawing blood, but the mechanical components stayed firmly in place. The amplifiers flared brighter, and a sharp jolt ran up their core.
They doubled over.
A wave exploded from their hands, sanding Researcher flying backwards. She hit the ground hard enough to crack concrete.
She didn’t get up.
Hero stared at her unmoving body being slowly swallowed by dust.
The energy still hissed around their hands, but it felt distant now—like it belonged to someone else. Their mind refused to catch up with what their body had done, looping the moment over and over in jagged fragments.
Then, finally, they came to themselves.
Their gaze snapped down to the pouch still hanging at their belt.
The containment cuffs.
They had brought them for Villain—power-restrictors designed to suppress any ability, to lock it down long enough for rest of the team to disable the enemy. They hadn’t expected to need them for themselves.
Their hands shook as they forced the mechanism open, fastening the restraints tightly around their own wrists.
Instantly, the power inside them dulled.
The exact moment, they broke into a run.
“Researcher!” they cried as they dropped to their knees beside her. They scooped her in their arms, the hand-cuffs getting in their way.
“Hey,” they pleaded. “Can you hear me?”
Her face lolled to a side.
Hero checked for visible bleeding first, hands trembling as they hovered over her body. There were no obvious wounds—no immediate pooling, no fractures jutting through skin. They pressed two fingers to her carotid, leaned closer to listen for breathing.
Hero exhaled in relief.
She was alive, for now. But they dreaded the moment her condition worsened. Their cuffs wouldn’t allow them to perform proper CPR.
They searched her pockets and found her phone, their thumb hovering for a moment before forcing it to move across the cracked screen
This is Hero. I hurt Researcher. Send a team to Stark’s Pavilion. Bring anything needed to incapacitate me.
Then they waited with her still form, their fingers idly threading through her hair as they whispered soft, calming words.
When the team arrived, Hero stepped aside and watched the medics swarm around Researcher. They fitted her with a neck brace, attached a pulse oximeter, and placed an oxygen mask over her face before loading her into the ambulance.
Hero explained to the others what had happened, and then climbed into the armored van.
No one argued, but there was uncertainty in everyone’s eyes. Hero had to prompt the team to restrain them before things got worse. They held out their wrists, steady, and allowed heroes to chain them to their seat. A second set of chains followed, fastening around their ankles and locking tight, until there was no room left for movement.
The door behind them closed, and Hero let out a shaky breath.
They deserved to be treated like the criminal they were.
