http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SuperLoisAndLana.jpg
[[caption-width:237:[[CatFight Chick fight?]] [[FetishFuel That's]] so [[GirlOnGirlIsHot hot]]!]]
-->It's like they had a parrot on the staff during the editorial meetings that just kept pitching "Lois gets super powers! Lois gets super powers!" over and over again...

-->And they kept listening... ''
-->-- '''[[http://www.superdickery.com Super Dickery]]'''

Being a SideKick, LoveInterest, or even just [[InnocentBystander general acquaintance]] to a SuperHero sucks. There's [[IHaveYourWife kidnappings]], [[FriendlyTarget high mortality rates]], [[ShotgunWedding marriage threats]], SuperDickery and the ever present SidekickGlassCeiling to contend with.

If a setting isn't insecure about changing its [[StatusQuoIsGod status quo]], or wants to change the dynamic from solo hero, to duo, or even PowerTrio and [[CastCalculus beyond]], then the supporting cast may catch ContagiousPowers and these side characters will [[SuperEmpowering permanently gain powers]], going up to SuperWeight class.

The opposite of the SidekickGlassCeiling and subversion of NeverBeAHero. When the {{Muggle}} supporting cast of a superpowered hero slowly [[HowToGiveACharacterSuperpowers gain superpowers]] over time. This is typically done when the series gets a little older and writers are tired of one of the characters always playing the DistressedDamsel in HostageForMcGuffin situations. The solution to stale plots like those is to simply give the cast members in question their own fighting powers so as to bring them in line with the rest of the cast, sidestepping questions about how [[WhatMeasureIsANonSuper "mundanes" are useless]].

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!!Examples

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[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* This is explicitly one of the aspects of the {{Shinigami}} in ''{{Bleach}}'', particularly those more powerful ones with high amounts of [[{{Mana}} Spirit Energy]]. Normal humans exposed to the spiritual energy their bodies emit will eventually develop unique spiritual powers of their own.
** Doesn't explain why Ichigo's childhood friend, Tatsuki, doesn't get the same powers that Orihime and Chad did. Then there's his baby sisters, the youngest of which explicitly has little to no sensitivity to ghosts...
** Except its explicitly stated that both Tatsuki and Keigo have developed powers. Both can see shinigami and Hollow when they couldn't before. They've just lacked the catalyst to kick them over from passive to active use of that power. With Yuzu and Karin its more a case of [[HalfHumanHybrids inheritance]] than power contagion.
*** Except that Ichigo ''fought'' around around Chad & Orihime, but not around his siblings or Tatsuki (at least not until much later, so she may appear at a later date).
****One of the earlier chapters mentioned that Chad and Orihime both had latent powers of their own, which Ichigo's presence activated. Still, that doesn't really explain why Tatsuki and Keigo - who can both perceive Hollows and Soul Reapers - haven't acquired any abilities of their own.
*****The most recent filler eps don't count.
***It's simpler, she's a victim of LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters she was simply toss asided like so many others
* MahouSenseiNegima does this a ''[[RunningGag lot]]''; any girl who keeps a close proximity to Negi will inevitably have either some sort of latent power, or gain a powerful artifact through a pactio.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comics ]]

* [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] example: anyone who becomes a GreenLantern, because all that it takes is wearing the ring.
* ''{{Spider-Man}}''. Whoo. At first it's only Peter with superpowers. Then pretty much everyone he knows gets superpowers of their own. It varies as to if those powers turn them into allies or more villains.
** In vanilla Spider-Man, we've got Harry Osborn, Miles Warren, [[strike:and most recently Mary Jane Watson]] who were all introduced as {{Muggles}} but later became superpowered.
** ''Ultimate Spider-Man'' is a bit of a bigger offender. In the beginning, Spidey is the only character in the main cast with superpowers. By the 100s, the Human Torch, Kitty Pryde, and Iceman are all hanging out at his school, Harry Osborne transformed into the Hobgoblin, Mary Jane got experimental goblin powers from an evil Spider-Man clone, and mutantphobic Liz Allen was revealed to be Ultimate Firestar, a mutant superhero CanonImmigrant.
*** It should be noted that [[spoiler: Harry Osborn was killed off, Mary Jane and Gwen Stacy were depowered and Liz Allen was moved to ''Ultimate X-Men''.]]
** The [[SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries '90s cartoon]] introduced almost all superpowered heroes and villains without powers, having them gain them after they had some character development as Muggles. The result being that it made it seem even more like [[DoomMagnet being around Peter Parker for about a week or so]] was enough to make you into a superhero or supervillain.
**''TheSpectacularSpiderMan'' does the same, introducing the pre-Goblin Osborns and pre-Lizard Dr. Connors, making pre-Venom Eddie Brock a ''regular,'' and introducing pre-Sandman and Rhino versions of Marko and O'Hirn (using their original names instead of their current, {{Retcon}}ned names of William Baker and Aleksi Sytsevich) as recurring petty thugs before being supervillain-ized. We also met John Jameson and Mark Allan before they became Colonel Jupiter and Molten Man, respectively. Black Cat appeared in-costume first, though.
* In ''SupremePower'', a mutagen spread by Hyperion's falling spaceship mutated the Amphibian and gave the Blur his powers.
* Superdickery.com makes a running joke/drinking game out of this, telling viewers to "[[DrinkingGame take a shot]]" every time Jimmy Olsen from ''{{Superman}}'' is shown getting some kind of superpower.
** While not quite a direct giving of superpowers, the most ridiculous example of this can be found [[http://superdickery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=29%3Aconfounding-comic-covers-index&id=1222%3Athe-world-of-1000-olsens&Itemid=24 here]]. "All right everyone, get your final affairs in order and take ''one thousand'' shots!"
* For most of the run of comic series ''{{Powers}}'' the two main detectives have both been muggles who investigated crimes associated with {{superhero}}es and {{supervillain}}s. [[spoiler:Although one used to be a superhero until he lost his powers.]] Things get turned around, however, when [[spoiler:a contagious power acts as TheVirus, and one of them gets infected with it. Meanwhile, the ex-superhero is getting a new set of powers as well.]]
* This is what the parents of Tyler Marlocke in ''PS238'' hope will happen by putting their non-superpowered son in an environment absolutely dripping with superpowers. In a subversion, it hasn't worked (yet, at least), though he is learning quite a bit from the city's resident BadassNormal [[CrimefightingWithCash Crimefighter With Cash]], The Revenant.
* Happens a lot to the nearest and dearest of Bruce Banner. Even if one discounts those who gained their powers from the same gamma blast that created the Hulk, there is still Betty Ross - briefly turned into the Harpy, Doc Samson - who uses the Hulk's own gamma energy to gain super strength, his cousin Jennifer Walters - who becomes SheHulk due to a blood transfusion and Rick Jones - who time shared his body with Captain Marvel, was briefly a Hulk himself and is now A-bomb... a blue version of the Abomination... and pending the identities of the Red Hulks - this list may further lengthen.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* In ''Reflex'', the sequel to Steven Gould's ''{{Jumper}}'', [[spoiler:Millie]] gains Davy's teleportation abilities by being teleported by him a large number of times.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* In [[WizardOfOz Tik-Tok of Oz]], Dorothy finds out that Toto can talk, just like all the other animals in Oz.
* The pets of wizards in the ''YoungWizards'' series tend to "become strange", with the most common powers being growing intelligence and the ability to speak. Tom and Carl have a dog with super strength and a macaw that can look into the future, while Kit's dog Ponch develops the ability to ''create new universes''.
** After Kit uses magic to fix a remote control that doesn't work properly with its TV, the TV starts spontaneously developing new features, like receiving alien cable stations and hooking into alien chatrooms.
* In the ''{{Darkover}}'' novels by MarionZimmerBradley, the Ardais family's ''laran''- their hereditary psychic talent- is catalyst telepathy, the ability to awaken ''laran'' in others, often simply by living in close proximity to or interacting with their targets for long periods of time.
* Not ''quite'' a purely accidental example, but: In the WhateleyUniverse, Generator picked up her roommate Tennyo's regeneration power in a mad science-powered attempt to get her seemingly permanent 11-year-old body 'unstuck' by using Tennyo as a template donor. Of course, then there's also the bio-devisor student Jobe Wilkins who, if he put his mind to it, would probably be able to come up with quite a few ways to create ''literally'' contagious superpowers if his lab accident with the 'drow formula' originally meant for a prospective girlfriend is any indication...

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[[folder: Live Action Television ]]

* Oz became a werewolf in ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer.''
** After four seasons of Willow's CharacterDevelopment -- or, more to the point, of her [[TookALevelInBadass badass upgrades]] -- her magic makes her more powerful even than Buffy. In the last TV episode, Buffy and Willow [[spoiler: give hundreds of girls the same powers as Buffy, permanently]] In the Season 8 comics, Buffy is still the main character, not because she's the most powerful, but because she's [[BigGood the leader of the good guys]].
** But poor Xander gets absolutely nothing. Except for that magic army training, but he once said that that [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot had worn off]].
* The beginning of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' had several {{Muggle}} characters. Then they were slowly killed off, PutOnABus, or caught ContagiousPowers of their own. By now the only major cast members without superpowers are Mohinder, Ando, and Noah Bennett's family sans Claire. And really, it's probably only a matter of time for at least one of them as well.
** Some fans speculate that Mohinder's immunity to the Shanti Virus may qualify him for Hero status, though that's iffy considering he's only immune to one strain of the virus. Then again, blood type incompatibilities with his transfusion to Molly, The Haitian, and Nikki haven't come up.
** Apparently, WordOfGod is that Mohinder, Ando, and Bennett will remain non-supers. Bennett at least is already a BadassNormal, so he doesn't really need them to kick ass.
*** WordOfGod was apparently lying, now that Mohinder has gotten Spider-Man's powers. I so wish I was making this up.
**** It didn't even stop there: [[spoiler: now he's turning into a [[TheFly Brundlefly]]...or is is it Mohinderfly?]]
***** He's gotten better.
*** Not to mention that Ando now has the ability to amplify the superpowers of others.
*** Quite a lot of people seem to forget about Danko. [[spoiler: Course, he's dead now...]]
* The first season of the 1990s ''TheTomorrowPeople'' series, Megabyte is the only one of the characters without powers, but then (surprise!) he gets them in the last episode of the first season
* {{Smallville}} Thanks to there dominance in the GreenRocks market, the citizens of Smallville (often kids at Clark's school that he "knew") receive powers quite frequently, and of course Clark's supporting cast gets sucked in eventually.
** Lana gains precognitive visions for one episode. Several seasons later thanks to [[LightningCanDoAnything lightning]] she gets [[PowersAsPrograms Clark's]] [[strike:Flying]] [[{{Flying Brick}} Speeding Brick]] powers. Naturally, she loses them by the end of the episode but then later gets brick superpowers before leaving.
** Chloe was briefly able to make people tell the truth, before the producers decided to give her a set of Healing Powers. Then her already improbable ability to hack anything was upgraded to UBER superpowered proportions... which she left... and the healing power has seemingly been forgotten.
** Lex, it was hinted had an advanced immune system. He also received a set of fancy Kryptonian Powers
** Pete briefly gained Stretch powers for an episode thanks to [[ProductPlacement Stride Gum]]
** Jonathan is also in brief possession of Kryptonian powers for an episode.
** Lionel was bestowed a number of Kryptonian powers as the plot demanded during his time as Jor-El's emissary.
** Oddly enough, Clark, who already had [[{{Flying Brick}} Speeding Brick]] powers and getting new ones each season, was gifted with [[TheDeadZone "Dead Zone" Visions]] for a single episode in the middle of Season 2.
** And of course - Lana, Chloe and Lois ALL get superpowers when they're possessed by witches.


[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* At the start of ''Persona4'', only the protagonist has the power to enter the TV world at will and summon his Persona. Through the course of the game, everyone who joins the investigation team picks up both of these abilities.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* Clarissa spent the first few years of ''PointGuardian'' as a VoiceWithAnInternetConnection and provider of borderline superscience gadgets, mostly for main character Ultra. She recently acquired a copy of Ultra's powerset (prior to the EnergyBeing upgrade he got a few months later).

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* The third season of ''StaticShock'' starts out with Richie getting super-intelligence powers and becoming the technologic superhero Gear. Virgil hypothesizes that Richie was exposed to the trace amounts of the mutagenic gas left on his clothes the night of the Big Bang, hence why Richie's powers took over two years to manifest. This makes it a ''literal'' case of contagious powers.
* ''{{Ben 10}}'': Season 3 Gwen starts training herself in magic, after refusing the call the previous season.
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