okay so what if there was a hero who's power was to amplify other people's powers so they often go on missions in a pair BUT they get separated from the other hero they're with for some reason and then get found by a villain who basically kidnaps them in order to make themselves all powerful or something. wat about dat
“Useful little thing, aren’t you?”
Sidekick startled back from the window at the unexpected voice. They located the source easily and glared when they finally recognized the face a dozen feet away. The villain had their eyes focused through a second pane, a look of appraisal fixed upon their face.
“I am not a thing.” Sidekick bristled. “And I am not being used.”
They crossed their arms defensively as the villain turned, cat-like and unnatural, to appraise them instead.
Sidekick had been watching the hero battle through the dusty glass, intent gaze shifting from move after move so they could properly boost the hero whenever they were in need of an upper hand. The inside of the warehouse was large and open, plenty of room for Sidekick to assist from a distance, but they had strict orders to stay outside the building.
It was safer this way, Hero had insisted. The agency’s secret weapon: hidden in the shadows.
Sidekick hadn’t scoffed before, but with eyes following the purposeful gait heading towards them, they certainly would now.
The villain stepped up to them, positioning themselves annoyingly close. Sidekick barely refrained from rolling their eyes.
Villains, always with the theatrics.
The dramatic villain drug their gaze from the sidekick’s head to their toes, causing Sidekick to narrow their eyes further.
“Yes. It is,” they responded firmly. It was almost funny, the intimidation act, and it took a great deal for them to maintain their professionalism.
A quirk of the lip shifted into an uncanny full-blown smile.
“Oh, but I do plan on using you.”
The villain’s eyes flashed in a way that could never be faked.
Suddenly the proximity was something else. Something dangerous.
Sidekick’s eyes went wide and they stumbled a step back.
This was real, very real. Far from the joke they had made it out to be in their head.
Of course as a member of the agency they were trained to fight, but everything inside of them screamed to run—and who were they deny their instincts?
They made a bee-line for the propped open entrance door a dozen feet in the opposite direction. They reached desperate fingers out for the silver handle to widen the gap as their feet skidded on the gravel. They got it pulled just enough to theoretically swing themselves inside, only the metal was ripped from their hand before they could. The door slammed closed with them still decidedly on the other side.
That was fine, they could switch tactics.
Sidekick whipped their head around to face the oncoming threat.
Never in a million years would the hero have let them engage in hand-to-hand combat one-on-one out in the field. Not if they were on this side of the door.
But they weren’t, were they? It was just Villain and Sidekick, a telekinetic and an amplifier—with no power to amplify but the villain’s.
Sidekick had never felt such a childish urge to stick their head under the covers as they did right now.
There was one more option, fitting of the terrified child they felt trapped inside them. Sidekick sucked in a quick breath and opened their mouth wide, just to find that they couldn’t scream, their throat held tight.
The realization hit them with a shiver, bumps rising involuntarily all over their skin. They soon found the rest of their body held similarly, the only movement allowed to them being the rapid rise and fall of their chest, even that restricted by the little air allowed past their vocal folds.
This fight was over before it ever begun.
The muscles of their larynx spasmed as they fought to widen their airway. Sidekick made soft little gasping sounds, a slight wheeze starting up in their chest.
Don’t panic, don’t panic—
“What’s wrong, Sweetheart? Cat got your tongue?”
Sidekick was panicking. They don’t train you for losing your voice, for losing your oxygen. They were a mouse all right, and not one fit for a meal.
And there was nothing they could do about it.
A tear slid down their cheek but they didn’t feel it, only aware of its presence because the villain stepped close and lifted a thumb to wipe it away.
“Don’t worry,” they chided. “Like I said, you’re useful.”
Sidekick’s body ignored all of their increasingly frantic signals to strain away. When their face was cupped in a twisted cradle by two gloved hands, they couldn’t take it anymore and squeezed their eyes shut.
“And I take good care of my tools.”
It was a minor mercy that the villain couldn’t feel how they would have flinched when their head was tilted forward and a chin pressed atop their head. Now only at risk of seeing the ground, Sidekick opened their eyes to cast their gaze longingly to the side at the rusted door frame.
@whumplicity @chaotic-orphan @castell-da-near
