Author's Note- It has truly been too long since I posted something for Tiger and Bunny…hopefully the wait was worth it.

Disclaimer- Don't own Tiger and Bunny…if I did I wouldn't be posting this lovely little tidbit on Fanfiction . net


Flames


Kotetus had long expected his body to be the thing that wore out first. He had seen it in many of the heroes that came before. The job was particularly hard on women. It wasn't that they were not as strong or had as good of powers as the men, they just had different work. While Tiger, Rock Bison, and Sky High were expected to knock through walls, the women were expected to be beautiful gymnasts. And just like the gymnasts in the Olympics, the network wanted them to start young when they were at the peak of flexibility and then dumped them when their bodies broke down under the strain. For many their later life was plagued with pain and joint replacement surgeries.

Guys tended to have longer careers if they didn't end it prematurely with injury or scandal, but they tended to have shorter life spans. While being NEXT gave a person powers, it didn't change the fact that still human. The energy they channel through those very human bodies slowly broke them down. The doctors had always said that his weakest link would be his heart. They said it had been pushed into hyper drive so many times that there would be a someday in the future where it would decide to give out and drop him like an old race horse.

The problem was Tiger was like so many other heroes. He had spent so much time, so much effort towards his profession; he didn't have anything to fall back on when it ended. He was like an old ragged pro boxer, too used up after his career for anyone to want. That though was painful, but had been far in the distance, now that has changed. Now he had to think about the end, about his abilities going out like a candle, about being normal for the first time in his life. The prospect terrified him. He didn't have a choice about it. Without his powers, how could he ever be a hero?

Which left him last question he had left to ask …Would he go out in a bang or a whimper?

"Hey Tiger, stop daydreaming we've got a photo shoot in 10 minutes."

For now he was going to ignore that question.


End Note- Did you enjoy it? If you did, I would love to hear from you. If you didn't like it, I would love you to tell me how I can make things better. Also if you would be interested in betaing a much longer Tiger and Bunny piece, let me know. There is currently one that is almost at the end of the pipeline.