2.0 - In Which a Very Confusing Morning is Had by All

She managed to catch the bus.

Barely.

It helped that it was running a few minutes late, though that could have been normal for all she knew. She usually took the number ten and that had her at school in twenty minutes. That bus unfortunately didn't start its route till six so she'd had to grab the number fifty four which just went in one big circle to the bus station downtown and basically doubled her journey time. Being a Hero was hard.

Madison had thought the bus would be emptier than it was, but it seemed there were plenty of people going to work or just somewhere else she couldn't be bothered to guess. Though she quickly found she didn't have the energy to people watch or browse PHO on her phone for more than a few minutes either as her gaze drifted to the scenery beyond the window and she let the journey pass in an empty blur.

Getting off the bus at least helped wake her up as she was buffeted by a cold gust of wind, blanching at the frigid air against her face and regretting the decision not to wear the scarf she got for Christmas.

In the end she'd decided to just throw on something she'd normally wear to school, a bit cutesy and unthreatening if it weren't for the plain grey hoodie she'd quickly dumped over the top of it when she'd remembered people weren't actually supposed to recognise her. It was still dark enough that it wouldn't have been obvious anyway, but it wasn't exactly worth the risk if she ended up getting caught just because someone had recognised her top.

To that end her usual butterfly clips had been banished to her Inventory and she'd also haphazardly thrown in most of a casual outfit as well in a spur of the moment decision before she'd quietly rushed out of the house to catch the bus.

It was a little terrifying how quickly she'd managed to fill her Inventory already when she'd looked afterwards, a little too reminiscent of grabbing everything that wasn't nailed down when she was playing an RPG. But as she walked the rest of way to Winslow she consoled herself that she did have those other locked Inventory tabs, so she shouldn't hopefully be limited to just her current twenty four slots. Hopefully.

She scoffed mentally at the thought when it registered, 'just twenty four slots', as though having any at all wasn't already amazing. No wonder capes got cocky if she was already getting used to the idea of storing things outside of reality, that she could be concerned she didn't have enough space for all her stuff.

In the end she got to the school a little after six, Madison had no idea when the janitors turned up in the morning, but she figured she had at least a bit of time since the school didn't officially open till seven thirty anyway.

Though having arrived she then realised she hadn't quite considered how she was going to get in.

"I feel like the crowbar might be overkill" she murmured to herself as she paused before actually entering the school grounds, slipping her phone out of her pocket so she could at least look like she wasn't loitering incredibly suspiciously.

Not that there were that many people about anyway and anyone who was were keeping to themselves as much as she was. "Power, a little help?"

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[Quest: Breaking and Entering]

Madison Clements has reached Winslow High School and must find a means of entry that will not prematurely reveal her presence to the authorities in order to complete her mission.

Thankfully Madison Clements has overheard many comments in passing and knows just how to access the school with the subtlety and stealth required of her.

[Objective: Follow the waypoint marker to reach the unlocked door]

[OK]

.

"I have?" She exclaimed in bewilderment, catching herself before she was too loud and racking her brains for a moment to make sure she wasn't going crazy.

Whilst she definitely remembered hearing a few things like that, they were mostly about sneaking in after school and she definitely didn't remember the specifics. Was part of her power super memory?

"I dub myself thinker nine" she chirped in amusement and dismissed the quest window, momentarily surprised by the pale blue arrow that replaced it and stretched off out of sight around the wall she was leaning on.

"That's new" she murmured before shrugging away the thought. If she got caught up on every new thing her power did she'd be too busy being constantly surprised to do anything.

The line lead her around the front entrance of the building proper and she tried to look like she was moving with purpose as she walked, even as she couldn't help but crane her neck just slightly to try and see where her power was leading her.

She knew the security at Winslow was crap, the school had given up on any CCTV outside of the offices long before she'd started and the one attempt at introducing metal detectors at the entrance had lasted about two days before the school had removed what was left of them and Madison doubted anything less than an actual murder would change anything. Maybe not even then depending on who got shot.

Feeling a little relieved when she was finally out of sight from the street Madison let her pace slow a little as she looked about slightly. It was weird being at the school when it was so dead and even the couple of times she had had to go in early didn't compare to how eerily quiet and empty it was at six in the morning.

The blue line continued on a little further, hugging close to the wall before rounding another corner and finishing in a pointed arrow at one of the side doors she definitely didn't remember ever using and looked just like any of the other presumably locked doors she'd already passed on the way there. Just why her power had thought it would be an easy way in though was immediately obvious when she had experimentally tried the handle and the door just...opened.

Even if she was on a time limit she couldn't help but pause, bending down to try and peer into the lock before giving up and pulling out her phone to angle the light from the screen against it.

"Ah."

She'd had trouble seeing what was in the lock because it was completely filled with gum. Gross. Madison supposed most people wouldn't have even noticed and she bet that's what the janitors were counting on too. All the labs had locks on the doors anyway so it wasn't like there was anything that valuable someone could get to if they did find it she mused as she stood back up and closed the door gently behind her.

Once she was in it wasn't much of a walk to reach her destination, Winslow was basically just three hallways stacked on top of each other with a few more buildings awkwardly bolted onto the side. She'd hung around the other girls often enough to know everyone's locker by heart and it only took her a moment to orient herself and find the ones she wanted.

'Zero-four-thirty-seven' for Emma and 'zero-four-sixty-five' for Sophia, though she wasn't sure which to start with and whilst she hadn't seen anyone so far, she wasn't so sure her luck would hold the moment she actually started trying to break in to one of them.

The lockers themselves were huge even if she hadn't been one of the shorter girls and looking at them again in the gloom Madison grimaced as she saw all too easily how Sophia had managed to shove someone even as tall as Taylor into one of them.

She shook her head to dispel the thought, that wasn't happening anymore, the fact she was there proved it. She just had to decide which locker probably had the flute and get started.

"Any ideas power?" She whispered, conscious of being too loud even as her ears strained to hear the slightest sound that would indicate anyone else was about.

Her power didn't respond which wasn't ideal and she forced herself to stop, thinking back over things. Her quest was to search both lockers which meant her power didn't know which one it was? She hummed under her breath, she'd only gotten the quest to the unlocked door because she'd apparently already known it was there and didn't remember, so it looked like however her power was doing things it couldn't just magic the answers out of thin air.

She thought back to the previous day, but she'd left pretty much straight after Emma had given the flute to Sophia so that wasn't helpful, though that did remind her... Madison pulled out her phone again, quickly swiping through to the group chat and skimming up through the messages.

Sophia: Obviously, gotta teach her a lesson. Decided what you're gonna do with it yet?

Emma: Was just gonna break it, but seems weak.

Sophia: Yeah you'll think of something better. I'd just throw it in the bay or something. You got an idea Mads?

She grinned, "perfect" she whispered as she stepped over to Emma's locker and retrieved the crowbar from her inventory, feeling it settle into her hand with a weight that was as reassuring as it was slightly terrifying for what it meant she was about to do.

"Go time" she said quietly to herself after a moment, more to psyche herself up than anything. Already feeling her palms getting sweaty beneath her thin gloves as her nerves made themselves known.

With a little more awkwardness than she would have preferred she levered one of the teeth on the heel of the crowbar into the shackle of the small padlock Emma had put on the door, shifting until she felt it catch properly.

Then with a wrench she pushed down with all her weight and stumbled as the shackle snapped off with a metal pop, quickly steadying herself before the crowbar could bang nosily against the door. Though the effort felt like it was all for nothing as the rest of the padlock hit the ground a moment later with what felt like a small gunshot.

"Crap that was loud!" She hissed, staring wildly down both ends of the corridor and really wishing her power came with some sort of invisibility too right then. Nothing happened but she still didn't move, she wasn't sure if she was even breathing before she started to relax slightly when nothing continued to happen, feeling like her heart was about to burst out of her chest from how fast it was hammering. How did anyone become a Villain?! Being a criminal was terrifying!

When she finally had herself back under control and had managed to convince herself the police, Wards and Protectorate weren't about to come charging around the corner and- Oh Scion she just realised she was technically committing a crime with a parahuman ability! She was a Villain!

'Wow, it's weirdly easy to become a Villain.'

She couldn't help but giggle at the random thought as she bent down and grabbed the padlock from the floor and shoved it in her pocket, a bit of the tension leaving her as she realised just how stupid the whole thing was.

"Madison Clements," she whispered to herself and an imaginary audience as the sarcasm dripped off her words with every syllable. "Truly a villainess for the modern era, with her ability to vaguely remember things and break into school lockers." Pausing only to eye her handiwork so far as she unconsciously shifted the crowbar in her grip.

The shackle that was left on the door joined the rest of the padlock in her pocket a moment later and then she was contemplating how to get into the locker itself. She didn't actually know Emma's combination and her power seemed to agree considering it wasn't chiming in with a helpful new quest.

Well she'd come this far.

Wincing at the noise, Madison slowly tried to work the teeth of the flat end of the crowbar into the gap where the door met the outer wall of the locker, quietly cursing under her breath as the locker refused to cooperate and her gloved hands slipped slightly on the crowbar with each of her efforts.

"Just! Get! In there! Dammit!" She muttered, pressing it into the slightly widening gap millimetre by millimetre as the metal squeaked and protested her efforts.

"Come oooon, just a little bit-" There was a loud snap and the muffled echo of one piece of metal hitting another as whatever mechanism was holding the door in place gave all at once. She tumbled back onto the floor with an undignified squeak, looking up just in time to watch as the door swung open to crash loudly against the one next to it.

"Oh crap!" she cursed, scrambling to her feet, eyes darting down the corridor before snapping back to the locker and trying to find- There! Emma hadn't even bothered hiding it properly, it was just sitting at the back of the lower shelf behind her gym bag and Madison wasted no time in snatching it and all but throwing it into the safety of her Inventory as she heard a door open and the sound of footsteps getting closer, barely having the presence of mind to snatch up her crowbar from where she'd dropped it on the floor before bolting back the way she'd come.

"They're this way!"

She chanced a glance backwards but there was no one in sight yet, her own footsteps ringing loudly in her ears as she sprinted down the hallway. 'Oh crap, oh crap, she wasn't going to make it and they'd spot her and they'd know who she was!' Madison pushed herself to go faster, hearing a second set of footsteps join the first, tears threatening to burn at her eyes, wishing she was closer to the end of the hallway where they wouldn't see her and-

-She was at the end of the hallway. Madison blinked, but she was still running, skidding in place to round the corner without crashing into it and saw the door further down the way, salvation. And then she was in front of it! She only had time to let out a startled noise as she all but smashed into the exit at a run, the door flying open to crash loudly against the wall as she burst through and didn't stop running until she was a block away, down an alley and crouched out of sight beside a dumpster. No thoughts left beyond the terror of almost getting caught, the exhilaration of not actually getting caught and that she was going to die if she didn't get her breath back as she gulped in lungfuls of air.

"What. The. Fuck" She panted, hands on her knees, belatedly realising she was still holding her crowbar and groaning to herself as she imagined what she must have looked like before sending it back into her Inventory.

Though just because she'd lost the crowbar didn't mean she wasn't still conspicuous as hell her mind helpfully provided and she awkwardly pulled her hoodie off and banished it to her Inventory. It only took her a moment more to retrieve the coat she'd thrown in on a whim before she'd left the house, shivering all the while in the early morning chill as she hurriedly shrugged it on.

'It'll do' she figured as she looked down at herself, they hadn't seen her and the more trendy light brown winter coat she'd replaced her hoodie with looked different enough no one should put two and two together. Hopefully at least, groaning again a moment later when she realised she could have just swapped her clothes at any point without having to freeze to death whilst she changed.

With a sigh that covered everything she was feeling just then Madison let herself sag against the brickwork at her back, feeling her heart rate steady even as she had one eye and ear on the end of the alleyway just waiting for any sign of pursuit.

"Way too close." She muttered after a moment longer, "Way, way too close." Just wanting to fill the silence with something other than her racing thoughts and shaky breaths. Her mind kept coming back to how close it had been, she was almost caught! Or at least almost seen which for all she knew might have been enough to figure out who she was. Hell she probably would have been if not for whatever the hell had happened!

"Power am I a speedster?" Because she'd never ran that fast in her life and she didn't even know what else to call it when she was just there twice in a row! Not unless she had some kind of teleportation power, but those were even rarer than speedsters and what the hell did teleportation ('or speedsters' her mind traitorously added) have to do with what her power had shown so far?! She was a thinker-shaker combination! ...Probably!

"You know what don't answer" she pre-empted before another notification window could pop up and definitely distract her further. "I am not going to have an existential crisis in some random alleyway."

Before all of...That she'd thought maybe if it went well she'd head home, have a shower and then go to school as though nothing had happened. That was definitely not the plan anymore.

Not that she had much of a plan anymore, well not beyond wanting to stay as far away from Winslow as possible and ideally never come back. But unless she wanted to take the bus straight to the PRT building and sign up to the Wards, a sudden transfer to Arcadia wasn't exactly on the cards.

Her grades had never been that great to begin with, not what she would have needed to get anyone to seriously look at her transfer application at least. There was the transfer lottery and she'd put her name down for it each semester without telling anyone, but since the lottery was mostly just a way to hide the identities of any new Wards when they inevitably transferred to Arcadia from Winslow, Clarendon or wherever, Madison doubted she'd get lucky unless Vista had a slightly taller twin sister no one knew about.

Sure if she did sign up to the Wards she'd have a transfer within the month, but she'd barely had her powers for a day and Madison knew she definitely wasn't in any state to start making giant life changing decisions, well outside of starting her Hero career through villainy apparently.

But plan or no plan she wasn't going to stay in some dark alleyway for the rest of the morning and cautiously made her way back to the end of the alleyway from where she'd entered, stealing cautious looks as if she was going to be able to spot a Protectorate ambush and wasn't just making herself look even more conspicuous if anyone noticed her there.

She could see the amount of people out and about had began to pick up and as much as part of her just wanted to stay hidden she forcibly pushed the impulse down, taking a breath and walking out as if she hadn't been awkwardly standing there for the last several minutes. Nothing happened, not that she was really expecting it to, though when there were no cries of 'there she is!' and there were no Heroes suddenly dropping out of the sky she found herself letting out a small relieved sigh anyway as she let her mind wander to what exactly she was going to do next.

School was a bust, heading back home was risky if her parents caught her coming back in and wandering downtown was just asking to get spotted by her mom. It wasn't like she could go window shopping either when the mall and most of the Boardwalk wouldn't open till nine anyway.

Honestly it was almost tempting to go to school anyway Madison pondered as she walked, not really heading in any particular direction but vaguely aware she was heading towards the next bus stop. As much as she didn't actually want to go to class, she could admit there was a certain morbid curiosity in seeing things play out whilst she was there. Was that what dramas meant when they talked about the bad guys not being able to help themselves from returning to the scene of the crime?! She shook her head hurriedly, nope she was not getting caught like some two-bit Villain because she couldn't lay low for a single day!

Still, she was curious if Emma would text her or just wait till she was back tomorrow before unloading on her about the injustice of the whole thing. Madison shrugged, she'd find out soon enough she supposed, her thoughts shifting back to ruminate on what she was supposed to do with the rest of her day as she rounded the street corner, spotting the bus stop a little further down and a couple of people milling about nearby.

Well she had sort of skipped breakfast.