Broken Heroes
by Starlit Purple

Notes: Trigger warning for needles. It's not majorly graphic at all, but I'd rather be safe than sorry when it comes to possibly triggery things.


Chapter 2

He didn't have to suffer with his thoughts for long. Or maybe it had been long and he hadn't noticed; it was really hard to tell what time of day it was. Or what day it was. Or...anything relative to time, really.

The doors pushed open and four people walked through. One was in a lab coat and wore glasses, red hair pulled back in a pony, the man beside her looked to be an assistant of some kind. The other two were the two armed guards from before, and they stoically reclaimed their places in front of the door.

"Hello, Mr. Tiger," the girl with the glasses called out with a smile. "It's good to see you awake!"

She tugged the stethoscope from around her neck and hooked it in her ears with ease. Then she pulled over a stool and set to listening to his heart and lungs. He studied her as she jotted down her readings. She was young, probably just out of med school, by the looks of her.

She, like the man with her, was likely just another of Maverick's pawns. She didn't deserve to be in this mess.

The girl looked up from her chart. "How're you feeling? Have you had any trouble breathing?"

"No. I feel pretty banged up, but it's no worse than normal." He rotated his shoulder involuntarily and wasn't completely able to hide the wince that came with the motion.

The look that Glasses Girl gave him said it was anything but normal, and she didn't appreciate his levity. "You almost died, Mr. Tiger! Had they not brought you here to me when they did, you would have!"

"I guess I owe you my gratitude, then, Miss…?"

"Autumn-Doctor! Autumn, please," she said, sounding a bit flustered. "And this is my assistant, Mason," she continued, gesturing to the possibly slightly younger man that was setting up a table of supplies he was trying his best to ignore.

"Now Mr. Tiger-"

"Please," he laughed, "Kotetsu's fine."

Dr. Autumn adjusted her glasses and laid him with a serious look. "Mr. Tiger," she began again, "I need to perform some tests."

"Well, you should know I'm no good at tests." He was talking to cover his nerves.

She smiled not unkindly at him. "You don't have to worry then, these aren't ones you have to use your logic on."

"That's a relief," he said. Then, "Hey! You mean to say you think I have no logic?" he asked as she tied a rubber strip tightly around his forearm.

She paused, looking up from his arm long enough to give him the "duh" look. "Everyone's seen you fight on HeroTV, Mr. Tiger. There's a reason Mr. Barnaby is always having to save you."

There. It was small, but it was there. Admiration. She was a fan, a rather big one, if her professionalism was being compromised by it. He decided to play it up. Maybe he could distract them long enough to gather some information and possibly figure something-anything out.

He jumped a bit at the prick in the bend of his elbow; watched the little vial fill up with his blood, and then a second one, before she was finished.

He picked up the strands of conversation while she taped a cotton ball to his arm. "Bunny doesn't always have to save me, by the way. I'm pretty good by myself."

"Mm-hm," she hummed, clearly disbelieving.

"We're a team, we have to work together," he continued.

She ignored him, wheeling away to set the syringe and vials on the little tray table Mason had set up. She grabbed something else, but Kotetsu couldn't tell what it was, then turned to her assistant. There was some silent exchange and then Mason was nodding and moving to the other side of Kotetsu's bed.

Kotetsu eyed them warily.

The doctor rolled back to his side, setting down whatever it was he hadn't caught a good glimpse of beside him. He still couldn't see it. Which was probably the point, but that didn't stop the trepidation he was feeling.

Autumn was looking at him with sympathy in her eyes. "You're probably wondering what it is we're doing. We've been working on a project to help all NEXTs. Enhance their abilities, alter them if they're too out of hand or dangerous to control," she paused, fixing him with a hopeful smile. "As well as helping them to retain their abilities, if and when they start to decline."

Well this wasn't what he'd been expecting. It was, well it'd be great, really great, to have his full Hundred Power back again. Still... The unease in his gut twisted up more.

"So, wait," he started, looking at her carefully. "You're saying you can fix my Hundred Power?"

She smiled and nodded her head toward Barnaby's cell above them. Kotetsu didn't know if they could hear what was going on, but Barnaby was definitely focused on what was happening, a frown creasing his brow.

"It won't be long before you're back up to his level," she continued. "We'll get your five minutes back, Mr. Tiger...maybe even more."

With that, the conversation seemed to be over. Her assistant took his chin and turned his head toward him, stretching it back.

"Hey!"

"Please cooperate, Mr. Tiger." Autumn's voice was very close to his ear. She was doing something to the suppressant collar around his neck. He could hear faint beeping as her fingers tapped at it.

The tapping stopped momentarily, and she must have had another of those silent exchanges with Mason, because he looked away from him, then nodded and put a hand to Kotetsu's forehead, releasing his chin. "I'm ready."

It was the first thing he'd spoken since they'd come in.

There were fingers on his cheek, and he allowed them to turn his head until he was looking at the high ceiling. Mason hadn't moved his hand. His other had moved to his arm, clutching it firmly in his grasp.

He was aware the speed of his breathing was increasing. He wasn't ashamed to admit that he was damn scared at the moment. His imagination was a little too good at times.

"Oh good," he said aloud, "cause I'm not sure I-" The pressure of a finger on his lips halted his words.

"Please calm down, Mr. Tiger. I need you to relax."

He huffed a laugh through her fingertips. "That's easier said than done."

But he tried. Mason's hands were cold on his skin, but they had loosened their grip; Dr Autumn was smoothing his hair back, waiting for him to calm his nerves. He wasn't sure he'd done much in the way of calming down, when she spoke again.

"Alright," she said, and Mason sat up straighter. "I want you to activate your Hundred Power for me."

He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, but allowing him to use his Hundred Power was not very high on the list. Or even on it at all.

"Wait," he frowned. "You're really going to let me use my power? I mean, you know these restraints won't hold me, right?" he said, tugging lightly at the straps on his wrists and ankles. "And, forgive me for saying it, but Mr. Mason here doesn't look like he can-"

The grip on his arm tightened enough that he gasped, the pressure on his forehead now restricting any movement of his head. Or he could be wrong...

"Please, Mr. Tiger, don't make this hard." The look she was levelling him with held no place for argument. It was plain and simple. She was done waiting. All that was left was to cooperate, or be forced to cooperate. He didn't really want to find out just how that would go down-being forced to use his Hundred Power.

He took a deep breath and shut his eyes, letting himself shift into his power. This time it activated. He could feel the power singing in his veins. He opened his eyes, knowing they were glowing, to find the doctor smiling at him.

"Thank you." She turned away for a moment, and he took his chance. He made his move. Or he...tried to...make his move. But he couldn't. He could feel the pull of the bonds as he made to jerk out of them, but his muscles just responded as they normally would. It was like his power was locked up within his head. He could feel his hundred power, but he couldn't seem to access and use it.

It took him all too long to notice that Mason's eyes were glowing, too.

"Mason and I are NEXT," Autumn informed him, turning back toward him with the thing she'd brought over earlier. "He can suppress NEXT abilities without harming the subject."

Kotetsu actually laughed. Of course they were NEXT. He really should have expected that.

There was another prick, this time in his upper arm, and his eyes darted to the left, trying to see what Autumn was doing. She was looking down at a screen attached to whatever was poking into his arm. It didn't seem to be doing anything though.

"So," he tried for conversation to distract himself once more, "what does that thing do?"

He wasn't actually expecting an answer. Why would they tell him what they were going to do? Clearly it was better to let the subject think up all the ways they'd die on their own. He was really good at that part.

She had frowned when he spoke, but finally looked up from her screen. "It's a probe. Basically. I'm gathering data on your abilities." After a moment, she looked back at the screen. "You shouldn't worry so much, this is the easy part."

"Yeah," he said, trying not to squirm around. "That makes it much easier to relax."

He threw a glance at Mason. The hand was still holding him in place, but his grip had loosened up a bit from the death grip he'd had on him before. The muscles in Mason's jaw twitched when their eyes met, and Kotetsu sighed, thoroughly giving into them. He had a feeling they'd be the key to getting any sort of help out of this place. He had to start gaining trust somewhere...

He shifted his gaze to the domed ceiling several floors above and tried to ignore the probe in his arm, and the power and adrenaline pouring through his system that made every bone in his body want to move, and, well, the entire situation really. But he couldn't.

He heaved a long sigh and closed his eyes, deciding to go with outright honesty. "I just want to know what you're doing to me."

His words must have made their mark, because something shifted in the young woman's face, and the hand on his arm actually gave a small (very small, but it was definitely something) comforting squeeze. Autumn's lips twitched and her eyes held something he couldn't decipher within them, but it felt like understanding.

"I'm sorry. I'm not supposed to say anything-"

"Autumn," Mason cut across; a warning.

"We're not even really supposed to talk to any of the subjects. Beyond the things we have to communicate to the patient, anyway." She threw a look at Mason, who was now quietly glaring at her, which she met with one of her own, before she continued, "But I will tell you that this is all that we will be doing today. I just need to get a feel for how long your powers are lasting and use the data I get from this to try to locate the main contributing factors of your degeneration."

Degeneration. That sounded harsh. He didn't say so.

He felt the familiar sag of strength and knew that his Hundred Power reached it's limit.

Autumn was looking back at her screen once more, eyes darting back and forth as she scanned his results. A moment later she pulled the probe from his arm, replacing it with another piece of cotton secured with tape.

Kotetsu smiled as she reached up to mess with his collar once more. Turn it back on, he assumed. Who knew what else the things did. Probably had bombs attached to them, cause, well, why not? Another perfect example of this wonderful game of 'what could make this situation worse than it already is?' that was currently taking up all his brainspace.

Mason's hands were still on him, probably as a precaution, just in case he were to flare his power back up for the last minute or something. Probably. Surely they knew he couldn't use it again for another hour.

Kotetsu turned his head on his own when he realized what Autumn was going for, and Mason had more or less guided him, rather than use force.

"Well Doc'," he said, watching Mason as he heard the same beeping and clicking as before from the device locked around his neck, "how'd I do?"

There was a hesitation in whatever sequence she was putting into his collar, though he had no idea what it was about. Then she was pulling away, Mason's hands finally releasing him.

She picked up the tablet that she'd set aside, glancing at the screen briefly before looking at him once more. "You made it three minutes and twenty-six seconds."

He nodded. That sounded about right, if a bit steeper of a decline than he was expecting. It was barely four minutes before their fight with the H-01 Wild Tiger look alike. It was definitely declining pretty rapidly now, then, though he made sure he didn't show any outward distress. It probably wouldn't work in his favor anyway.

Autumn started packing away her things.

"So now what?" he asked, rolling his head to each side to pop it. It felt good to move again. Even if it had only been a few minutes, it was a stressful few minutes. The resulting pop was absolutely satisfying in ways he couldn't explain. Little things...

The girl tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear as she hefted a shoulder bag up over her head. "Now I review these results and compare them to future data." She paused, smiling almost sadly at him again. "Which means we'll have to do this on a regular basis, so we can track your decline."

"Great!" he said with false enthusiasm. "At least I know what I'll be looking forward to." He met her eyes on the last word, hoping she understood how much he did appreciate her letting him in on some of what was going to be happening to him. Though he knew she still wasn't sharing much, he understood the risk she was taking to tell him even that.

The meaningful look she gave him was all he needed to know that she got it. She turned toward the door, nodding to the guards standing vigil through that whole ordeal. They started forward in unison and she turned back to him.

"I'm sure you're tired of this examination chair. You've been shackled in for nearly a week now."

He tried not to let the shock show in his expression. Had he really been that bad off that it'd taken him a week to recover? He'd thought it had only been a couple days! No wonder everyone was exaggerating the situation. He just thought they'd been over-reacting. But...wait, she said-

"You're releasing me?"

Her smile was stiff now; professional. "These men are going to escort you to your cell." She turned, looking in the direction of the empty cell next to Barnaby's, before turning back to him and levelling him with a stare. "They're highly trained to deal with high level NEXTs-"

"So don't try anything," he finished, glancing at the man currently unshackling his hands. "Got it."

She smiled and stepped out of the way as they finished undoing his restraints. "I'll see you in a few days, Mr. Tiger."

"Right," he replied as the hands on his arms helped hoist him off the bed. "Uh, see ya then, Dr. Autumn." He tilted his head at her assistant. "Mason."


Notes: I didn't intend to wait this long to update, but I've had a lot going on, of late. I'm glad to see some interest in this! Thank you guys so much! I hope you're still enjoying! :)