Side effects.

I awoke with my head on Paige's lap, with her humming a catchy tune.

I know this one.... Aneka's Japanese Boy?

What's up with her absurd taste in music?

It's cute!

I chuckled, alerting her.

"If you're awake tell me, will you?" She pinched my nose.

"Japanese Boy, huh? What brought that on?" I asked.

"Nothing. Just felt like it." She said, but somehow I didn't believe it.

"That so?" I poked her stomach.

"Well, take a hint then, idiot!" She huffed.

I got off her lap and kissed her forehead.

"Yeah, yeah. I got it. We'll talk about that later. But first, my new powers!" I turned to see the reporters lounging about.

I yawned and stretched, as I glanced at my contacts.

"How long was I out?" I asked Paige.

"About 10 minutes? 15 tops." She replied.

I extended her a hand and stood up shakily, patting her skirt down.

"My legs are numb." She complained.

"Not for long." I grabbed her hand, pushed two strings out of my mesh and planted them in her, sending a shock through her.

She twitched, shivering for a second and suddenly stood up straight and firm.

"What was that?" She asked.

"Just a small shock from my subdermal mesh. Woke up your muscles." I said, walking up to the podium.

"Woke up? I feel like I could run a marathon!" Paige chirped happily, hopping leg to leg by my side.

I shrugged with a soft smile, and adjusted the mic.

"So, let's get back on track and check out my new powers, shall we?"

I reached within me and tugged at the shard, as the power gently unraveled, filling me with a renewed energy.

Inside me I felt a handful of charges, like motes of light, converge into a pool of energy, slowly growing, quenching a thirst I never knew I had.

My skin gleamed as a field of energy bubble beneath the surface and I felt power like I had never felt it before, just wafting off of me in kaleidoscope of colour. My senses expanded as everything around me became clearer and I felt as if I could taste the air, feel the tremors of my breath, waves of air exiting my mouth as I gasped at it's beauty.

Everything seemed to slow down, or maybe it was my perception that had sped up. The reporter from before licking his finger before flipping a page, the crisp sound of the paper crinkling.

A shoe dragging across the ground.

A drop if water splashing against the tiles of the plaza.

And the sensations only grew.

I could feel my nerves, my blood pumping, my heart beating like a drum.

The light breeze running across my hand sent tingles down my arm.

"Jay?" Paige tilted her head in confusion.

I looked at her, as of for the first time. Every strand of fluff on her feathers, the beautiful golden brown of her eyes flecked woth the occasional blue, the fibers of her iris leading down the chasm of her .....

My ears started to ring.

My skin burned.

My breath hitched. The sensations though, continued to increase.

Wha-what's happening?

Is the shard...faulty?

No. That can't be. It is literally perfect.

Liter...ally. Per...fect.

Well fuck!

The shard is not the problem.

I am!

I broke the limiters on the shard to increase it's power and forces it out at full potency.

But the limiters in shards are there for a reason. Sure, they help keeping the test subjects stuck on their planet and mired in mutual violence that perpetrates indefinitely, because no power is usually an instakill.

But they serve another purpose too.

The limiter prevents self harm when using powers.

Someone with superstrength, doesn't accidentally rip their own arms off trying to lift a car.

Someone with laser eyes doesn't go blind.

Because the powers limit their effects to a tolerable level.

But I broke the limiters while on a mega seed juice high, thinking I could handle it.

Clearly, a bright idea from the logical part of me.

Fucking idiot!

The ringing was now becoming unbearable. Deafening.

My vision swam, eyes wandering aimlessly.

A streak of dizzyness hit me, and my head rolled inside.

"Bwehh!" I dry heaved, falling to the floor.

I could hear Paige's frantic cries as she held me, calling out as if from far away.

With shaking hands, I reached into my jacket, weakly grabbing at my flask.

But my coordination was shot to all hell.

Welp. Looks like this is how I die. At least I have Project Phoenix active.

So silver linings, I guess?

.

Paige looked down at the idiot she loved, spasming incoherently on the floor, his eyes faded.

She could see the pain on his face, as she cradled him.

Her cehst tightened at the sight as fear gripped her heart.

"Please don't die. Please don't die!"

She could feel his pulse weaken.

Tears swarmed the edges of her vision as she shook him, slapped him, screamed at him.

But nithing helped as he faded more amd more, the kaleidoscopic glow surrounding him dimming in a foreboding tone.

No. Nonononono.

He can't die like this.

Not on her. She wouldn't allow it.

Not before they talked. Not before the future she envisioned for them.

A family.

Her family.

A deep regret filled her.

Why was she so stupid?

Why couldn't she have said something earlier?

There were so many things she needed to say. To do.

Now she might just lose the one thing that was left in her godforsaken life.

The she saw him move.

He reached for something in his coat, but failed.

Not wasting a single moment she followed his hand and pulled out a flask.

His flask. Mega seed juice he called it.

Was this going to help him?

Paige didn't have time to think. She directly opened the flask and pushed it into his mouth, only for him to gag, choke and spit it out.

He was too far gone to drink.

She looked at the flask for a moment, dumfounded, before a spike of fear burst her bubble when he coughed again.

Urgency flashed across her mind.

A memory came to her.

A memory of her high school CPR class.

Immediately she made a decision.

She chugged down the contents of the flask, holding them in her throat and cupped his face.

Then she kissed him, deep and long, using her powers to force open his throat before shoving the liquid down his throat with her tongue.

His throat would be sore sure. He might even lose his voice. But it was better than losing him altogether.

Besides, he had healing serums for that, not to mention Riley was the world's foremost surgeon.

He would be fine.

It was a cold decision. Colder than her usual persona.

Wow. She wondered.

Was I...always like this?

Paige looked at her hands, at herself

She reached down and poked her thigh, curiously.

And she felt it all. In excruciating detail. Her mind ran a thousand miles a minute.

She knew the angle at which her skirt fluttered.

She knew the volume of the depression her poke made. She could calculate by sound the number of people in the plaza.

238.

"How...?"

Mega seed juice. Her mind supplied as a memory popped up before her eyes, playing like a movie.

"Mega seed juice. Enhances cognition. Grabts temporary superintelligence."

She could hear Jay speak.

'Right. He did tell me that didn't he?'

Is this what he feels like all the time?

Is this what he sees?

What he thinks?

No wonder he chooses pragmatism ten times out of ten.

Paige felt like right now she could happily choose to commit genocide if she felt like it benefitted her.

Cold. Rational. Logical.

Selfish. A voice deep within her added.

That's what she was.

And she did not like the thought.

A shiver ran down her spine as an unpleasant feeling spread through her chest.

No. She did not like this.

If being smart meant ....meant....

What?

'What was I?' Paige wondered.

Suddenly, she felt a touch on her cheeks, and the world zoomed back into her vision as she snapped out of her thoughts.

"Hwaah!" She gasped.

"First time drinking mega seed juice huh? I was sure I had slipped you some earlier. Or maybe I forgot." Jay muttered to himself.

"Either way. Thanks. You, Paige, are a lifesaver." He shot her a finger gun.

"W-w-wha-aut?" Paige could only stutter as her thoughts refused to cohere together.

"Oh yeah. Right. The hangover. You'll find it difficult to think straight for a couple of seconds. Happens. You get used to it after a while but I guess you're new to this.

It'll wear off in a bit. Don't worry. I'm here. You're safe." He said, kissing her forehead.

A warm feeling spread through her chest.

She felt fuzzy.

Happy. Instinctively, she reached out and snuggled into his arms.

She felt his big hands running through her hair, ruffling her feathers.

Ehehehehe.

She giggled.

This was nice.

She wanted to feel like this. Forever.

____________________

MC takes his duds out for a drive and finds out he's gotten more than he bargained for.

Sensory overload from his powers.

I just put that in so I can add in a training epsiode later in the mcu so he has something to do.

After all, with great power comes great inability to control it and MCs power is flooding like a river in monsoon.

And finally, homegirl gets a big oof for what's coming. So a fluffy ending to ease the pain of the coming chapters.

Will she be brutally rejected and left on her homeworld?

Or will she come to an understanding?

Find out next time, maybe?

Thanks for reading!

Extra chapter at 400 powerstones.

Also, if you want to support me, buy me a cup of coffee or read ahead, go to,

www.patr-eon.com/goldenfingers