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{{trope}}
[[File:SuperManPowerDegeneration 6498.jpg|link=All-Star Superman (film)|frame|Humans get tan-lines from overexposure; Kryptonians get [[Volcanic Veins|sun-lines]].]]
Imagine [[The Disease That Shall Not Be Named|cancer]], that slow insidious death that kills you from the inside, but which is also intrinsically ''you;'' it is a body eating itself, and unable to heal. Now imagine that cancer can grow faster whenever you do what you're best at: dancing, painting, coding software, kayaking. This is what happens to characters with '''Power Degeneration'''.
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Faced with all that, is it any wonder some characters choose to use a less than savory alternatives to extend their life? They might [[Touch of Death|steal]] the [[Life Energy]] of others, discover [[You Are Who You Eat]], or transfer their sickness/symptoms onto others.
See also [[Clone Degeneration]], [[Harmful Healing]], and [[Cast
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* This happens to almost every character in ''[[Ayashi no Ceres]]'' whose ten'nyo powers are awakened, aside from the heroine and a few who get killed in other ways before their powers can kill them. It seems like they live longer the stronger their powers are, but actually ''using'' said powers seems to shorten their lifespan considerably.
* As incomplete [[Dhampyr]], the Schiff in ''[[Blood
* Some of the Contractors of ''[[Darker than Black]]'' fall under this. People whose 'Renumeration' is irreversible can only use them a limited number of times. Most notably, this includes the shape-shifter who grows older every time she uses her power, eventually dying from old age because of it, and {{spoiler|Amber, who could reverse or stop time}}, but [[Merlin Sickness|became younger]] every time she used it, eventually [[Ret-Gone|fading from existence altogether]].
** Shion in the second season is typically in a wheelchair due to his remuneration. {{spoiler|He eventually dies from using his power to copy the entire ''planet''.}}
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* Grove in ''[[Vampire Hunter D]]'' is in the latest stages of this.
* In ''[[Death Note]]'' , humans can acquire the ability to see people's names and lifespans [[Deadly Upgrade|at the cost of half their own life.]]
* In ''[[Witchblade (anime)|Witchblade]]'' it is an inevitability that all who are equipped with and use
** If you take it in context of [[Witchblade (Comic Book)|the larger canon]] — that's what happens if Witchblade has only a minute or two to pick the new wielder from those in range: a slightly-above-average human is not up to this, whether physically or mentally.
* ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'' has an interesting variation of this. When Chrono uses his powers, he doesn't suffer any sort of decay -- ''[[Beast and Beauty|Rosette]]'' does, as they're powered by her soul. [[Your Days Are Numbered|In the best circumstances, she's only expected to live until thirty]]. Since Chrono has a [[Bodyguard Crush]] on her, he's not really happy about this.
* In ''[[D.Gray-man|D Gray Man]]'', anyone with a parasite-type Innocence tends to have a much shorter than average life expectancy, even outside of the whole "constantly fighting freaky-ass monsters" issue. Considering that this includes [[Cute Shotaro Boy|the hero]], it's no wonder he's [[The Woobie]].
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* In ''[[Macross Frontier]]'', V-Type microbes allow the infected to {{spoiler|communicate with Vajra}}, but they are also slowly killing the brain of that person. Now there are medicaments which, while not able to heal it, can strongly slow down the process giving the infected more time to live, but {{spoiler|Sheryl refuses to use them as she needs stronger Vajra link for Macross to win...}}
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', {{spoiler|the [[Psycho Serum]] steroids that Hodi Jones and his gang took to power themselves up had the downside of cutting their lifespan down by a large amount. In this case it caused accelerated aging to the point that a short while after their defeat they're seen as ancient and decrepit old fishmen too powerless to do anything.}}
== Comic Books ==
* Chamber, one of the ''Generation X'' mutants had an explosive power that blew off his jaw and upper chest prior to joining the team. Using his power slowly widened the explosive area, he near literally had part of his face and chest "on fire".
* This trope is the entire premise of ''[[Strikeforce: Morituri]]''. Human volunteers went through a dangerous process to earn superpowers so they could combat [[Alien Invaders]]. Catch is, theprocess was guaranteed to kill them sometime within the next year after gaining their powers—in some cases, mere days after.
* In a ''[[Captain America (comics)]]'' storyline [[Discontinuity|we'd otherwise rather forget]], Cap's [[Super Serum]] was actually breaking down and taking his body with it. What might have been an interesting turn of story led directly to both the horrible "Iron Cap" storyline and the [[Face Heel Revolving Door|defection]] of Diamondback (who secretly agreed to go back to work for the bad guys in exchange for Cap's cure).
* Due to the poisonous nature of adamantium, [[Wolverine]]'s skeleton and claws slowly kill him on those occasions when his mutant powers are disabled. And he can't use the claws, either, for obvious blood-loss-from-the-hands reasons.
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* During the Dark Reign period of Marvel comics, [[Ms. Marvel|Carol Danvers]] was having this issue to the point where her energy powers caused her to just explode.
==
* The main character of the ''Mass Effect 2'' fanfic [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5932238/1/Pariah Pariah] suffers from this. {{spoiler|Whenever she uses her biotics it inflames the tissue of her lungs, causing her to cough blood. In the second to last chapter, she performs a last stand and uses her biotics until she's curled up and ''choking on her own necrotic lung tissue.''}} [[Taking You with Me|She killed the bastards though.]]
== Film ==
* ''[[The Golden Voyage of Sinbad]]''. Prince Koura ages considerably (at least a decade) each time he uses his powers of black magic.
* ''[[Star Wars]]'': Excessive use of
** That particular instance was due at least in part to Windu blocking the lightning right next to Sidious' face, reflecting some lighting into his face and damaging it.
** The expanded universe delved deeper into this, revealing that Sidious would transfer his mind into clone bodies to restore his youth, but his dark side powers constantly caused each body to degenerate very quickly.
== Literature ==
* [[David Brin]]'s ''Kil'n People'' revolves around the various effects of "dittoes", golem-like copies of individual humans that only last for 24 hours but can have their memories downloaded into the original. As their time starts to run out their bodies begin turning back into clay. Note that they can be preserved by stuffing them into a fridge. The hero's girlfriend does this with a fresh copy [[Sex Bot|in case he gets lonely]].
* Male channelers (read: magicians) in Robert Jordan's ''[[Wheel of Time]]''. The male half of One Power, ''saidin'', was tainted by the [[Big Bad|Dark One]], so that now all the male channelers unavoidably will go mad. The few that survive the madness and avoid being caught then start [[Body Horror|rotting while alive]]... {{spoiler|That is, until Rand manages to cleanse the ''saidin''.}}
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* In the ''[[Vorkosigan Saga]]'' there's Sgt. Taura, the genetically engineered super-soldier. She has incredible strength and fast reflexes, but was not made to last. She was deliberately engineered to have a short lifespan and die quickly once she started showing serious signs of age. The Fleet doctor has slowed her metabolism and bought her a few more years.
* The dilemma in the book series ''Magic or Madness.'' Either you use your magic and die at a young age (somewhere between your teen years and maybe age 45 at the outside if you're sparing about it, you die when the magic runs out), or you don't use it and go insane.
* A minor superhero in ''Soon I Will Be Invincible'' is mentioned to have undergone this. His powers slowly killed him and drove him insane, driving him to attack his old team-mates, while his previously invisible forcefield
* Andy McGee of [[Stephen King]]'s novel (and later film) ''[[Firestarter]]''. Thanks to mutagenic drugs a government agency dosed him with in the 1960s, he can "push" people to do things he wants them to -- a minor form of [[Mind Control]]. Unfortunately, every time he uses it, it causes minor cerebral hemorrhages in his brain. If he hadn't died of a gunshot at the end of the book, he would no doubt eventually given himself a full-bore stroke using the push.
== Live Action TV ==▼
* Cordelia in ''[[Angel]]'' was being slowly and painfully killed by her prophetic visions. Humans are incapable of hosting the visions for long without dying. For her, the solution was to turn her part demon. The upgrade came with other perks; {{spoiler|being [[Demonically Possessed]] by one of [[Powers That Be|TPTB]] was not one of them.}}
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' has Mohinder's transformation in season 3.
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** In hindsight, the executive's decision shows that [[Straw Man Has a Point]], although for a different reason.
* Happens to a human prize fighter in an episode of ''[[Lost Girl]]''—it's said that the Fae-derived serum that allows him to [[Hulk Out]] will cause his internal organs to explode if he hulks out one more time.
== Tabletop Games ==
* In ''[[Rifts]]'', one character class is "Juicers", which can be described as [[Psycho Serum|somebody on steroids]] [[This Is Your Premise on Drugs|on steroids]]. You wear a drug-injection rig and your lifespan is under a decade.
* The ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' card [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=108827 Unstable Mutation] grants the enchanted creature a significant power spike...that becomes less significant every turn, and after three, it actually starts to get weaker.
* ''[[Warhammer
* A relatively obscure alternate form of spellcasting in ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]] 3.5'' called chaos casting has this as a caveat : instead of using a spell slot system with a limited selection of spells, chaos casting allows the caster to create every spell on the fly and [[Cast From Hit Points|casting deals nonlethal damage that can only be healed by a full night rest to the caster.]] Except every spell requires a Spellcraft check to succeed (difficulty depending on the level of the spell created), and failing has a chance to apply a permanent negative effect to the caster who either [[Sanity Slippage|slowly goes insane]] or [[Body Horror|suffers awful physical transformations]]. Too many failures lead to [[Deader Than Dead|permanent, irreversible death.]]
* ''[[Stars Without Number]]''/''Other Dust'' has "torching" for psychics out of power, but pushing on, or not properly trained. This causes permanent neural damage that doesn't heal normally, and enough of it leads to death or raving insanity. While ''usually'' this doesn't happen due to external influences. Right until it did everywhere at once and usually [[Superpower Meltdown|all the way through]].
== Video Games ==
* Genesis in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]] [[Crisis Core]]'' has a defect in his creation, and slowly gets white hair and has his red jacket go ashy throughout the game. (I'm guessing his jacket is like a mood ring for his health.) As the game goes on Genesis' copies show the same degeneration.
** The same thing also happens to Angeal and his copies, including {{spoiler|Lazard}}.
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* In ''[[Phantom Brave]]'' the power that originally banished [[Big Bad|Sulphur]] called "Burgundy" will kill its user if it's used too often.
* The True Runes of the ''[[Suikoden]]'' series are an unusual case. If they aren't used, the Runes halt the aging of their bearers, rendering them effectively immortal. However, the True Runes are the [[Pieces of God]] in this setting, and are understandably difficult for mere mortals to control. With some of the more volatile True Runes, such as the Rune of Punishment and the Sun Rune, insanity and death are almost inevitable. It doesn't help that the Runes seem to have minds of their own, and seem to somehow manipulate their Bearers into situations where they ''have'' to use the Runes' power.
* It's revealed in ''[[
* Deathwing's skin in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' is split open by his inability to contain his power, which threatens to destroy him entirely. He solves this by riveting plates of the strongest metal he can find directly onto his body to keep it in one piece, and as one might expect, is in constant agony.
* The Grey Wardens of ''[[Dragon Age]]'' are required to drink the poisonous blood of darkspawn during their initiation rite; if they survive, this makes them better able to fight the darkspawn (and able to sense them at a distance). However, some recruits die during the initiation, most recruits suffer from nightmares and increased appetite, and all Grey Wardens have shortened lifespans: "thirty years to live, give or take" from the time of initiation. The Wardens don't tell new recruits about any of this, because [[I Did What I Had to Do|they believe almost nobody would join if they knew, and that their mission of protecting the world from the darkspawn is more important than their lives]].
* In Tira's ending in ''[[Soul Calibur]]'' ''IV'', Nightmare's body can no longer withstand its own power. Tira clings to him, tearfully begging him not to leave her alone. {{spoiler|He doesn't.}}
* In ''[[Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter]]'', Ryu links with the Dragon Odjn. This grants Ryu the power to change into an nigh invincible draconic being but each use of his dragon powers brings Ryu closer to death (represented by the D-Counter). Even worse, the D-Counter still rises throughout the game even if Ryu never uses his powers.
== Web Comics ==
* Ysengrin from ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' suffers from a somewhat logical version of this: He has the power to control wood and spends all his time with his body encased inside man-shaped armour made from animated wood. As a result his natural body has atrophied from disuse, to the degree that he is barely able to move outside the wooden armour. In addition, the [[Power At a Price]] nature of borrowing one of [[The Trickster|Coyote's]] powers means his body shakes uncontrollably at times.
== Western Animation ==
* In one episode of ''[[Jimmy Neutron]]'', the main characters get super powers. However, it would eventually kill them if they overused them. Unfortunately they were using them obtusely, and the [[Teen Genius]] who discovered the sideffects and could reverse it became a [[Hulk]] like figure.
* All the clones in ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' easily dissolve from too much excessive power use. That's because they were [[Replacement Goldfish|stepping stones]] to the Perfect Clone. Danielle, the one before the Perfect Clone gets lucky as Danny eventually stabilizes her.
* ''[[
* In one episode of ''[[Batman Beyond]]'', Bane's supersteroid Venom causes this. A lifetime of Venom use has left Bane a comatose and broken man dependent on Venom and hooked up on life support 24-7. Unfortunately Bane had already gave the Venom formula to his live in nurse who became drug dealer.
* The page picture comes from ''[[All-Star Superman (film)|All Star Superman]].'' After getting a lethal level of solar exposure from flying too close to the sun, Superman gets a massive power up... and will eventually {{spoiler|turn into an [[Energy Being]].}}
* One episode of ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'' had Darkwing gain [[Super Speed]] as a result of being hit with a time-accelerating weapon by Negaduck. When he used his newfound power, he did everything at a faster rate, including aging faster.
== Real Life ==
* Doping: you gets better in sport, break records, win the love of the crowds... and overexert your body while developing drug addiction and shortening your lifespan
** Blood doping, which is the process of removing some of your blood, allowing your body to make more, and then injecting the blood back into your body. Why? Well, more blood means more oxygen is carried from your lungs to your limbs, which lets you push yourself harder. Oh, but it greatly increases your chances of a heart attack or other painfully destructive type of infarction. Have fun and be safe!
* Anabolic steroids.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Power At a Price]]
▲[[Category:Power Degeneration]]
▲[[Category:Power]]
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