A D Tier's Breaking Point

Chapter 1

Morgan had been gone for too long. They hadn't actually, Alex knew that they were scouting out a new potential heist target which, by rights, had taken them much longer before. But there was only so much breaking news you could watch without it getting repetitive. Most of the usual hero suspects Alex liked to mess with on these kind of days were busy taking down Rex Roofer's latest villainous plot, and he just didn't have the patience to deal with any of the baby heroes today. Which left him in a very dangerous place; he was bored.

He was five seconds away from teleporting Morgan to his side there and then, or at least checking in so he could at least work out where the new heist target was (at least he would be bored with some company then) when the apartment door opened. Alex's head snapped round, only relaxing when he saw a familiar khaki jacket and curly brown hair that made him smile. Morgan looked up and gave their usual half-wave-half-toss-their-keys-onto-the-counter as Alex was already getting up and turning down the volume on the TV.

'Hey there you are! What took you so long?' Alex asked.

'Yeah, sorry,' Morgan laughed, slightly awkward as they shuffled into the room. 'Apparently a car hit a building? Traffic was just stuck for ages.'

Alex frowned slightly, looking at the news again. Nothing about a car crashing into a building had come up yet, and normally traffic jams were the second thing you saw come up after whatever heroic rescue or villainous scheme had just happened.

Before Alex could mull further though Morgan was calling out again, 'Can you come here for a second?'

'Sure, what's up?' Alex stepped closer, looking curious. Until Morgan raised their hand and snapped their fingers.

By rights, having your heart teleported out of your chest should have hurt. Alex is sure it would have hurt most people. There was a flash of a cold tug in his chest, and before he could register why a heart was hovering in the air for a moment, before falling at Morgan's feet. Morgan just...took his heart. A laugh bubbled out of Alex's chest, where they could already feel a new heart growing, and he looked up at Morgan, 'Did you just steal my heart?'

Morgan wasn't smiling, and for the first time since they came back Alex felt a niggle that something was wrong. Their fingers snapped again and all the air left Alex's chest as a pair of lungs materialised before dropping to the floor. He tried to suck in air, but it had nowhere to go except an empty chest cavity and slowly regrowing bronchioles. Another snap and Alex's mind blanked, all thought gone, as a large grey jelly landed at Morgan's feet. By Morgan's seventh snap Alex remembered that it was called a brain.

'Morgan, what are you doing?' he managed to rasp out with lungs still growing and a shredded voice box, but Morgan didn't respond except to snap their fingers again. Alex winced, the first sign of the pain seeping through, as a pile of sinew was added to the quickly growing pile. He was healing, he was definitely healing, but Alex had never had to consider before that his healing might take time. More time than Morgan was allowing. If they didn't stop soon...

'Morgan, please,' Alex winced, looking up at Morgan's blank face as they didn't respond. 'Why are you doing this? What...' he cried out as another organ was ripped out of him and Alex started to stagger from the pain. 'Please, stop. What is this, what did I do?' This had to be an attack, but that made no sense. Why would Morgan attack him? Out of nowhere? Why was Morgan, elaborate planner who messed with the Conundrum Corporation on their days off, trying to rip him apart? Alex was in too much pain to work it out, or to work out how to stop them. Besides, all their efforts were currently on growing a third of their organs. Alex coughed up a mouthful of blood as he staggered, and Morgan smiled. Alex froze, the last of his heat leaving his skin. This smile was cold, triumphant. It didn't belong on Morgan's face.

Another snap of their fingers, and Alex couldn't register what they had taken this time. He crumpled to the floor, blood oozing from holes and missing flesh. He vaguely heard another thud nearby, and then a shuddering gasp.

'Alex?' He looked up at Morgan, who was kneeling on the floor and staring in horror. 'Oh god, oh no oh no,' Morgan started shaking their head and scrambled towards Alex. 'I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm...so so sorry.'

'Morgan...' It was so hard for Alex to speak, but he had to try, because his friend was reaching out to cradle his head with trembling hands as they began to sob.

'There were these heroes, they grabbed me and there was a warehouse and...one of them controlled me or possessed me or something. I couldn't stop her, I couldn't get her out I...I'm sorry I'm so sorry,' Morgan managed to get out and Alex slumped with relief. It wasn't Morgan. Of course it wasn't Morgan. How could Alex ever think that it was?

'It's ok,' Alex murmurs.

Morgan met Alex's eyes and shook their head, 'It's not. Just...heal up alright and then we'll go tear them apart. I know where their base was and I got some of their names...'

Alex tried to shake his head, but their body had finally stopped listening to him, 'Can't. Too...much...' It was all too much, too much pain and too much missing, he couldn't recover in time.

Morgan's face crumpled and the space where Alex's heart should be ached, 'Don't say that, come on. Please.'

'I'll...come back,' Alex whispers. 'Crawl out of hell.'

Alex has never seen his friend so terrified and with the last of his power he reached out for Morgan's mind, trying to console them. I promise I'll be back, okay? I'll heal up in the afterlife and come right back.

'Alex-' Morgan's voice broke and Alex pushed on.

I love you.

The darkness came for Alex before he could hear Morgan's scream. It was probably a good thing, it would have broken his heart all over again.