Actual Summary:

(This is not a Gamer fic)

Madison Clements didn't realise she'd triggered until the bright blue text box appeared in front of her, telling her she was just as terrible a person as she always knew she was, but offering her a single chance of redemption. Madison wasn't sure powers were supposed to work like that, but she'll take the second chance with both hands and hopefully begin to start putting things right.

Or: A story where Madison Clements becomes a Hero, mostly accidentally kidnaps at least three people at various points along the way, gives Armsmaster a headache, Coil a migraine and Taylor Hebert the most confusing morning of her life. The fact that these were all technically the ideas of Madison's power very much does not make things better in Lisa Wilbourne's opinion.

Notes:

Slight AU, namely that the pre-canon Winslow timeline has been slightly adjusted for narrative purposes and Taylor's trigger event would have taken place following mid-winter break (February) instead and the flute incident hadn't taken place yet. Also consequently Madison hadn't ramped up to turbo-bitch yet because this is a redemption story and I don't want to start on 'Impossible' thank you very much.

1.0 - The Worst Day of Your Life

The insults were easy.

"It's not like anyone actually likes her."

"I don't know why she even bothers coming in, just look at her!"

"She might as well be mute, at least then she'd have an excuse for being so pathetic."

Usually Taylor didn't say anything and that just made it easier. Taylor had learnt it wouldn't help, that no one was going to listen to her, that no one would believe her over Sophia the track star, Emma Barnes the socialite and cute and harmless little Madison.

It wasn't as easy to ignore the guilt and the disgust afterwards. After she'd crushed Taylor a little more, after each little bit of vindication as if she was gaining some measure of vengeance at Taylor's existence. As if putting Taylor down again and again made her stand a little bit higher, made her a little bit safer. After the satisfied smiles of Emma, Sophia and the others flitted to her, that she'd done her part, that she'd dug the knife a little deeper and made the pain a little worse to bear.

It wasn't as easy to ignore when everyone else was gone, when there was no Taylor to focus on, no Emma to drive her towards another barb, no Sophia to remind her of her place as part of the pack and how easily she could find herself outside of it.

She wasn't popular then, she wasn't a bully, or any of the other things she'd layered over herself bit by bit to hide what was still underneath. That she was just Madison, exactly the same as Taylor only she'd learnt to hide amongst the predators, the bullies, pretending desperately to be one of them so they wouldn't discover another Taylor in their midst.

"We're just doing a public service, you know, like how you service all those skinheads after school."

When she was with the others it was so easy to believe it, that she was one of them even as she was terrified that any moment they'd realise she wasn't and never had been. That one day Emma would just change her mind, that Sophia would say something and then they'd turn on her just as quickly as the two of them had got the school, the teachers to turn on Taylor.

That one day they'd go too far and they'd do something they couldn't take back, that Taylor would leave, or just stop coming in and they'd realise they had Madison right there to take her place.

"Oh Taylor you know you shouldn't bring your trash with you to school."

"Yeah, we'll just have to get rid of it for you!"

She hadn't known what was going on at first. It was like that sometimes, Emma and Sophia would just decide on something new to do to Taylor and she'd find out after the fact, or worse what her role was supposed to be. At first she'd just gone along with it out of the fear of what would happen if she'd said no. Now she hated that she sometimes looked forward to whatever they had in store, how much she felt she anticipated it because it meant she knew it wasn't going to be her. That Taylor was going to suffer and she wouldn't, that she deserved it instead of her. It used to make her sick when she stopped and realised it, but she'd stopped throwing up weeks ago. She wasn't sure that was better.

Emma had just told her to meet at Taylor's locker after class got out, that she 'couldn't wait to see the look on the stupid bitch's face' and Sophia's own enthusiastic agreement in characteristically far fewer words.

Madison knew something different had happened when she got there. Taylor tried not to react anymore, she just accepted her punishment like she deserved it, like she knew there was nothing she could do and just endured it until it was over. Sometimes she'd skip out the rest of the day, sometimes she'd not come back to school for a day or two, but always returning eventually.

Taylor was crying.

"Please give it back Emma."

Any vindictive pleasure she'd started to feel at whatever the two of them had managed to pull off died as she heard Taylor's voice and Madison felt her stomach drop. All she could hear was the sheer exhausted despair in the words, Taylor knowing she couldn't appeal to Emma's heart since she and Sophia had long since ripped it out, but trying desperately anyway.

Angling around Sophia and Emma with a nauseating mixture of curiosity, dread and the echoes of satisfied glee she saw Taylor's face first.

Stricken.

Betrayed.

Crying.

The same way she'd looked when it had all started, when Madison had just watched and was glad it wasn't her, ignoring the other girl, not getting involved and assuming it would be over soon enough. Hearing through the gossip afterwards that the two of them had used to be friends, wondering to herself what could have happened for Emma to turn on Taylor like that. Watching in the following days as Taylor tried desperately to figure out the same thing and attempted to save a friendship that only she couldn't see had already been killed and buried by Emma and her new best friend.

"Please Emma, it's my mom's flute."

Taylor wasn't even looking at Sophia, not even when it was obvious to anyone that she would have been behind it. Emma was words and cruel pettiness, Sophia was all that and the physical attacks as well. She'd seen the not so subtle shoves she never commented on, watched the other girl trying to trip Taylor in the hallways, stealing things from her bag before Taylor had learnt not to ever leave it unattended.

"You knew my mom, she liked you, whenever we had sleepovers-"

Madison knew that had been the wrong thing for Taylor to say as she saw both Emma and Sophia's expressions harden, from smug mockery to anger and disgust and Emma snapped back before even Sophia could.

"Shut up Taylor! Stop trying to drag me down with your bullshit all the time! If you bring your crap to school it's going to get what it deserves, no one gives a shit if it was your mom's!"

Madison watched Emma's loathing sharpen into something uglier, a grin forming on the other girl's face that always made Madison wonder how she looked when she was doing her part to help.

She had tried not to think about it.

It didn't help.

"I was just going to confiscate it you know? Just teach you a lesson but I guess you're too dumb to even figure that out."

It was when she saw Emma smirk and triumphantly hand the flute over to Sophia that Madison saw the moment Taylor broke. That final certainty that she wouldn't ever be able to appeal to whatever shared past the two of them had, that she wouldn't even be able to steal it back as Sophia shoved it into her bag with all the care of a piece of crumpled homework being thrown in to be forgotten about until the weekend.

Madison was glad no one was looking at her as she saw Taylor crack. As Taylor was forced to watch as Emma and Sophia just gloated at what they'd accomplished, at her powerlessness to do anything about it. Daring her to try, playing it up to the small crowd that had gathered like flies to rotting meat.

And Madison saw herself in Taylor's place.

When she'd taken to school the small glass bird her grandfather had bought for her to show it to her best friend. And then the next day she'd brought it in again, happy and proud to have it and be able to show it off, one of the last things her grandfather had given her in the hospital before he'd passed away. When Emily had cornered her with her friends and taken it off her, empty words promising to be careful even as she asked for it back. Pleading with the other girl to be careful even as her own friends looked away or laughed when Emily laughed down at her. Laughing still when Emily had taken it between both hands and snapped it clean in two.

Madison was glad no one noticed her leave, that they were all so satisfied that they didn't try and pull her in to try anything else for the rest of the day. That all she had to do was agree it was hilarious and Taylor deserved it and that she'd help plan something else, something worse because otherwise it'd be her again.

And she couldn't be that girl again.

Sophia: Totally had it coming, totally pathetic too

Emma: Did you see her face? Thought she'd just die right there lol. Gonna have to think of something special for it, just breaking it's too easy.

Madison: Yeah it's just a stupid flute, bet she cries herself to sleep tonight.

The insults were still easy even if each text made her feel sick and every time she agreed with the others it made her feel disgusted with herself a little more. It wasn't the first time and she knew it wouldn't be the last time either. She even knew she'd get over it, push it back down where she wouldn't feel the guilt, just satisfied she was accepted, that she was better.

She wasn't sure she wanted to get used to it, that she deserved to.

She just wanted it to be over.

Madison was grateful her parents didn't bother her when she got in, she knew she wasn't hiding it well and seeing the concern on her mom's face just made everything even worse. That she was worried about her, what she'd think if she ever found out how low she'd sunk, that she'd become just as bad as Emily and all the others.

She was drained by the time she got into bed, she didn't have the energy to think about writing anything and she couldn't even focus on trying to read. Browsing PHO was easy, but she was too tired, too distracted to do it for long and just hoped when she woke up she wouldn't feel like complete shit. Wondering if she'd be able to convince her mom she was sick again, wondering if her mom would let her.

She was too exhausted to do anything but still found herself too wired to sleep as she laid there, not daring to look at her phone to see how late it really was. Her mind was still going over the day and all the days before that, feeling the minutes stretch into what felt like hours, too tired and scared to check how long it had actually been and dreading that her morning alarm would go off at any moment.

She couldn't hide from her thoughts, couldn't keep her eyes open long enough to stare at the ceiling in the gloom, each dark thought and memory clawing for attention and nothing and no one to distract from each and every one in turn.

She hated herself, hated Taylor for making her feel that way, guilt crashed against the thought and anger followed. Angry that Taylor couldn't just do what she had done, that Taylor had to make her feel like she did every day. Had to remind her of her bullies, had to keep reminding her that just one slip and she'd be in the other girl's place again.

Disgust coloured her thoughts, at her own relief that Taylor suffered instead of her, that Taylor hadn't done something to stop it. She pitied herself, she pitied Taylor more. She watched Taylor's broken mask crack again and again as Emma stole Taylor's mother's flute and saw herself and heard the snap of broken glass as Emma and then Sophia cracked the small glass swan in two. Taylor in her place and she in hers, cradling a broken flute in both hands whilst people, teachers walked by the halls of Winslow without a word.

She remembered her own tears when her grandfather's last present was broken in front of her to the mocking laughter and apathy of her friends. Hated that Taylor didn't cry half as much as she had, as she would have. That Taylor was stronger than her, that she made her feel that way at all. That she wasn't as strong as Taylor was, that she couldn't save Taylor, that she couldn't hurt her more and drown the guilt in anything else and hated herself all the more for it.

Madison didn't know she finally fell asleep, slowly coming to as her alarm bleated, as much grateful as she absolutely wasn't that she had remembered to set the thing at all.

Blearily she blinked opened her eyes to the merciless glow of the morning, one hand coming up rub the sleep and sting of sweat out of them as another tiredly searched about for her phone when she froze. What could have charitably been called her thoughts in that moment stuttering to a stop as she stared dumbly at the large flat blue oblong hovering in the air in front of her face.

"What" she croaked, suddenly a lot more awake as she blinked rapidly and shuffled back, her head bumping against the headboard as she sat up, any thought of sleep or school forgotten as her mind went into overdrive.

Some part of her, the part that latched onto all those little details she liked to incorporate into her fanfictions noted how the relative position of the blue pane-thing didn't actually change as she moved, whilst the rest of her seemed to be stuck between abject curiosity and absolutely freaking out.

Her alarm blared out again and she almost head butted the wall in surprise as she lurched backwards instinctively away from it, having to tear her gaze away from whatever it was as she fumbled to find where her phone had fallen off the bedside table. Part of her desperately scared that when she looked back the impossible amorphous shape would be gone and another part really hoping it would be.

It wasn't.

And it had text.

[Initializing...]

It blinked, the text gone as quickly as she had spotted it, though what replaced it wasn't exactly better.

[Tutorial Quest: Powers and You]

Congratulations, you've had such a terrible day that you now have super human abilities. This is what is known as a trigger event, more commonly referred to as 'the worst day of your life.' However in your case the suffering you experienced was less than that you've inflicted on another.

To dismiss a notification, select [OK] or say 'Ok' or 'Dismiss'. Enter Settings to make changes to interfaces and actions.

[OK]

Her eyes widened the more she read and by the end she was huddled in on herself, eyes darting around the rest of her room in panic. She'd seen Uber and Leet's streams, everyone had and it was exactly the kind of thing they would do. Her anxiety ramped up as the seconds ticked by and she jumped out of her skin with a startled yell when her phone went off again, her back-up alarm blaring and it took everything she had not to throw it at the wall, turning her phone off entirely as she tried to get her breathing back under control.

She froze when she was done, when she realised she'd dropped her guard, her eyes darting to the ceiling, to the corners but there was no golden snitch recording her, there was no sound of panic from outside. Just the soft muffled sounds of her parents getting ready to go to work and the occasional cars passing by outside.

Slowly the tension left her even as she felt like she was going to be jumped at any moment, eyes darting to the door and window as part of her, most of her if she was being honest with herself waited for someone to burst in.

But nothing happened, she heard the shower turn on from down the hall and that last bit of tension left her all at once, slumping back against the headboard as her gaze inevitably drifted back to the elephant in the room that was still just sitting there about a foot in front of her face.

She swallowed nervously, reading it over again not that it helped, she was a parahuman? Her? Was that normal? Like how people normally discovered it? She frowned minutely and felt like she would have remembered literally anyone mentioning their life turning into an Aleph videogame on PHO. Hell Uber and Leet's whole thing was making the world into a videogame and then she apparently had one stuck in her brain? But then some powers were even weirder, like some of the Case Fifty Threes so what even was normal?

She slowly reached out with her hand, watching with bewilderment as it passed through the blue window like it didn't exist. It wasn't entirely opaque she realised, everything behind it just a blue tinted partial blur except for the white text itself. There wasn't any distortion either, even as she waved her hand with a little more confidence up and down through the whole thing.

"Okay, okay, you know all about capes and now you are one." She laughed nervously, definitely not hysterically.

"So my power is..." she read the notification another time, calm enough to actually take in everything beyond 'you have powers' and frowned. "Information boxes that insult me?" she murmured to herself but the blue box didn't change and she wasn't sure if she was grateful for that or not.

"Okay, there's got to be more to it than that." It said 'Tutorial Quest' and it wasn't like she didn't play videogames, even if it wasn't much anymore ever since she'd started Winslow. Maybe she'd get a more useful text box if she dismissed the current one?

"Okay." She tried and nothing happened. 'Great start Madison, really owning your power here' she thought to herself ruefully as the text box continued to do nothing at all.

Well maybe she could... she reached out and pressed the [OK] and jolted a little as the notification just vanished soundlessly, laughing to herself in a nervous thrill.

"So pressing it works but saying it doesn't? Weird." Though it was even weirder after she realised her hand had gone through the [OK] button without anything happening when she'd been waving her hand like an idiot only a few seconds before.

Though before she could focus on that rabbit hole she almost fell off the bed in shock when a sudden knock on her bedroom door rang out.

"Maddie are you up? You weren't looking too well yesterday sweetheart, do you need me to call the school?"

She blinked at the sound her mom's voice, words failing her for a moment and extremely glad the notification window was no longer there.

And then as if to spite her a new notification window immediately appeared.

[Quest: The Truth of the Matter]

Madison Clements is in no fit state to go to school, something she would have perhaps realised sooner had she not been so thoroughly distracted.

Yet time does not stop, the morning continues and for Madison Clements her day stretches out ahead of her and only she can decide just how it will be spent.

[Convince mom that you're unwell]
Rewards: A day off school, immediately unlock Quest: Road to Redemption, ?, ?

[Head to school]
Rewards: Another day in a hell of your own making

[OK]

Her mouth opened and no sound came out as she tried to process, just what.

"Maddie?"

Her eyes snapped from the notification to the door and back, trying to say something though she wasn't sure what. Not that it mattered as whatever words were going to come tumbling out of her mouth trailed off as the contents of notification beyond the rewards (again, just what) registered and she looked down at herself.

Her bed was soaked and it was only then when it was pointed out to her; when she wasn't blinking away sleep, confused or outright panicking that she and her whole family were about to become just another increment in the civilian cape casualty statistics that she realised what state she actually was in. She was covered in sweat, her hair was plastered against her skin and her bed looked like a liquid Case Fifty Three had laid down and melted into the mattress. She realised she was shivering, suddenly feeling the air on her skin, felt herself shaking and she knew, she knew it was probably just all the adrenaline leaving her from just everything, but it didn't stop her eyes from starting to water as she sniffed and hugged the damp duvet against her.

"Maddie I'm coming in okay?"

She wasn't sure how she looked to her mom, sitting there like that, crying into a duvet that looked like someone had spilled a bucket of water down it, but at least she didn't have to worry about convincing her mom that she wasn't well enough to go to school.