3.1

It was another couple of hours before her dad got home and despite knowing exactly what she was in for she still came away teary eyed by the end of it. Her dad might have been the softer of her two parents even if he didn't look the part, but he had a 'disappointed' look down to an art form and she'd felt far smaller than she had with her mom by the time it was over.

The only bright spot that evening had been when over dinner her dad had thought to ask just how she'd gotten into the locker and the looks on their faces when she'd come back downstairs with her dad's crowbar had definitely been worth the subsequent scolding she'd been given for: 'Walking around town with a crowbar all day', which she definitely hadn't factored into her joke even if thankfully her coat was believably big enough to conceal it.

Lessons on why it was best not to gloat unless you'd actually thought things through aside, dinner had been nice even if everyone was off their game slightly. Madison at least felt better that everything was out in the open and that no matter how school went tomorrow or at any point she could talk to her parents if she needed, even about Taylor if it came to it and that was a relief she hadn't realised she'd needed until she had it.

Back in her room later, after she'd thrown together a few things for school the next day, checked to see if any interesting new threads had appeared on PHO in the few hours since she'd last looked and generally just decompressed, she had sat herself down in bed, pillow propped up behind her and just... Waited to see if her power had anything for her.

Nothing happened. Her phone buzzed for attention and after a quick check to make sure it wasn't somehow Taylor trying to contact her she ignored it. "Okay Quest, it'd be super great if you could tell me about that mover power any time now."

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[Quest: Dimensional Shifting and You]

Proving her determination, valor and earnestness, Madison Clements has begun to grow beyond the trappings of her past.

Without knowing of the power within she accepted the responsibility to right a grievous wrong and only in the moment of her need did she call upon the power she knew not.

Now, with her t̳rȗͥe̗ power at her beck and call, she must grow into the abilities which will define her as a Hero.

[Objective: Non-lethally experiment with dimensional shifting]
Rewards: Competence, ?, ?, Unlocks [LOCKED] Quest

[OK]

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"Seriously?" She muttered, only slightly less surprised at her power apparently deciding to sass her. It beat tearing her down emotionally, but it felt like having an older sister and annoying mentor figure rolled into one.

"Wait hold on, what do you mean I had this power all along?!" She realised a moment later, why had she needed to mess around with breaking into the school when she could have just teleported inside?!

"And what do you mean non-lethally!" She hissed at the notification window, that was something she was pretty damn sure hadn't come up before!

Her power helpfully decided to do what it had always done and ignored her, which shouldn't have been as annoying as it was. By that point she really couldn't tell if her power was doing it on purpose or not and it didn't seem like there was any way to find out. Not unless she had the blind luck of running into an unaffiliated super-thinker who wouldn't immediately betray her to the highest bidder.

Madison shook her head, clearing her thoughts as she scowled back at the notification window still floating in front of her. "Right, let's break this down."

The first thing was that apparently her mover power had been there all along, which in hindsight made a sort of sense she supposed, that it would only appear when she desperately needed it since she didn't know it was there in the first place.

There was another glitchy word which wasn't exactly encouraging, but at least it was only one word and she could read it, so she'd take what she could get.

The 'non-lethal' part raised as many questions as it did alarm bells, though the way it was worded implied - To her at least that her power was discouraging her from going out and splattering random criminals rather than herself which was... Something.

With a frown she retrieved her notepads from her Inventory, first writing down the quest in its entirety and making a note about the glitchy word before jotting down her own observations in the other of the two workbooks.

The weirdest thing was, she realised after she'd double checked she'd copied down the quest correctly was that it wasn't a tutorial quest. Her Inventory had had a three part tutorial and she still didn't fully understand it. But this time her power had just told her to 'work it out' and snarkily added her reward to be 'competence' and some inscrutable new quest that was probably going to be the actual tutorial when she did.

What that meant she had absolutely no idea, though she wasn't going to be surprised if history repeated itself and her power only granted her the tutorial quests after she'd figured out the basics on her own. It felt like that kind of person.

She chewed on the end of her pen at the thought. Was it weird that she was anthropomorphizing her power so much? Then she glanced back at the floating notification window and very consciously decided that no, her power, Quest was a snarky smart-ass and everyone else would agree if they saw the kinds of things it said to her on a daily basis.

Her phone buzzed again and she grabbed it without a thought, replying to a couple of texts and letting the duo know she'd be in tomorrow as the question popped up in the group chat. That was a conversation... Confrontation? She wasn't exactly looking forward to, though as she caught sight of the time she felt her frown deepen as she realised that she effectively had the choice between experimenting with her potentially awesome mover power and actually having the energy to avert... Mitigate the inevitable disaster that tomorrow was going to be.

...Maybe just twenty minutes of experimentation?

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It was almost terrifying how easily she picked up her mover power when she was actually trying to use it. She was a teleporter and it was the coolest thing in the universe! She was still grinning giddily as she reappeared again in front of her bed a few minutes later, turning and plopping herself down even as she had the energy to stand for days!

It just clicked, there was walking and then there was her power, to just move and be where she intended. She'd only experimented in her room, but already she'd figured out it wasn't line of sight dependent as she could teleport just in front of the bedroom wall and then teleport back to where she'd just been without looking.

She hadn't figured out if she could change her orientation whilst teleporting, or if it was even something she could do at all. But she was pretty sure she kept her momentum, even if it wasn't the easiest thing to test in her bedroom without tripping over something and smacking her head into a wall if she screwed up.

"So awesome..." She sighed happily, staring across her room, her power seeming to draw her attention to the empty spots of floor ahead of her. She wasn't sure what would happen if, say she teleported into the space her desk chair already occupied, though considering her quest had made a point about keeping things non-lethal she was a little scared to try. Maybe tomorrow. Assuming she survived.

With a much less happy sigh she looked about, spotting her phone on the duvet and quickly checked the time, almost letting out a curse when she saw it was somehow almost midnight which meant she'd been at it for almost an hour, which... Okay maybe she'd gotten a tiny bit carried away, but teleportation! Her! Awesomeness!

Though even if she felt like she had the energy to keep going until morning, which her brain traitorously pointed out was no longer that far away, Madison reluctantly acknowledged she still - As far as she knew at least needed sleep and Thursday night before school probably wasn't the best time to try and figure out if she was also the type of cape who didn't need any, or at least as much sleep. Especially when she'd probably just as easily confuse it with insomnia in her current state.

It wasn't until she was tucked away in bed, lights out and desperately trying to not think about anything so she could finally go to sleep that the question popped into her mind.

'Wait, the quest I got hasn't completed yet right? So how much more about my mover power does Quest expect me to discover?'

Annoyingly it took her far too long to get to sleep after that.

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Madison was extremely grateful her mover power wasn't finicky like she knew some powers could be. When she'd gotten to Winslow that morning part of her had been mildly terrified she'd accidently teleport to homeroom or something equally idiotic that would instantly out her. But by the time homeroom had ended she was feeling reasonably confident she wasn't going to accidentally teleport anywhere she didn't actually intend to go. Whether or not that would still apply if one of the E88 wannabes decided to try hitting on her when Emma inevitably disowned her was something she was trying not to think too hard about.

Fridays at least were pretty good as far as her schedule was concerned, sure Math first thing sucked, but it got it out of the way and then after World Issues she only had to deal with Art and Computer Studies in the afternoon. Way better than Tuesdays when she had World Issues and then Math to end the day with.

Homeroom itself had been pretty quiet, she'd caught up with Julia who had always been more of a polite acquaintance in a friend of a friend sort of way when Emma wasn't there to be the bridge between them. And Madison had been surprised to find the other girl hadn't immediately brought up Emma's locker incident, or at any other point during their on and off conversation throughout homeroom. The topic had been something she'd been silently bracing for the entire time in order to look appropriately aghast, but for some reason it had never come up.

It made her wonder if the school had managed to cover it up before anyone other than Emma herself was aware, but at least it meant she didn't have to put any energy into pretending to be surprised which was a plus in her book.

Math class was slow, Mr Quinlan was a hard-ass and she didn't have even a moment to try and start daydreaming about her powers as her second least favourite teacher had her attempting to do double the work to catch up on what she'd missed the previous days.

And then after what was both far too long and somehow before she knew it the bell rang for the end of the period and she'd still come out of it with a pile of homework besides. Packing away her stuff Madison almost froze when she headed for the door and saw Emma and Sophia loitering there and she immediately wondered if they were waiting for her.

Well partially she supposed, they'd both come from World Issues and Sophia had Math next, but there was no way they weren't going to say hi. For the first time a very different sort of trepidation rose within her, a nervousness mixed with determination. Though even then part of her was trying to point out how silly it was when she was a cape and they weren't, but feelings definitely didn't have to make sense.

"Hey Mads, better then?" Sophia was the first one to greet her as she stepped out, Sophia looking her over as if to check she wasn't about to drop dead and apparently satisfied with what she saw.

"Yeah, thanks" she offered weakly, the accompanying smile just as trying as her gaze slipped to Emma who just looked, frustrated?

"Oh my God Madison, you won't believe what happened yesterday!"

'Ah.' The little voice in her head went, that'd be why.

"I was only off like a day" she joked back, finding it coming a little easier when she hadn't immediately and inexplicably been found out and set upon like a wounded gazelle in a lion enclosure. And the thing was, she was sort of friends with them? She had spent time with both of them, probably the most time out of any of the other girls in her year. They weren't close but they hung out at school, hell they'd made each other laugh at one point or another. It was almost nice to be able to slot back in so easily, even if maybe it would have been easier if she could have just called them monsters and left it at that. But that future hadn't happened yet, so maybe, maybe there was still a chance for them too? Part of her hoped even as she remembered what she'd seen, what they'd done and she wondered again if that moment hadn't already passed a long time ago.

"I know!" Emma exclaimed, "but I came in yesterday and my locker had been busted open! They'd taken all my stuff to the principal's office, but my gym bag was still missing, can you believe it?!"

"Seriously?" She couldn't help but ask, a very weird feeling she couldn't identify settling over her as she listened to Emma unknowingly rant about the whole situation to the one person who was directly responsible for it.

"Right? And I know who did it too-"

"Emma."

Madison turned in surprise to see Sophia giving Emma an annoyed look.

"No Sophia, I know Taylor did it! The only thing missing otherwise was that stupid flute, she's the only one who could have done it! Anyway she's back today, I saw her earlier so I'm finally going to get the teachers to search her locker and her bag too to prove it!"

"For fuck's sake Emma we've been over this," Sophia sighed with a pained expression that told Madison just how many times they'd already had this particular argument. "Hebert doesn't have the balls to break into your locker. Fuck she thought I still had it when she ran home crying to her dad, one of the doped up retards probably saw you put it away and figured they could fence it for another hit."

"No, it has to be Hebert! I bet she was going to try your locker next until she found it too!"

"Back me up here Mads" Sophia all but pleaded, which was a weird thing to see on the other girl's face.

"Um yeah, sorry Emma but I think Sophia's probably right, I mean Taylor didn't even know it was in your locker right?"

"Exactly!"

"She was obviously desperate enough to check!"

Sophia just groaned. "Fuck this, I'm going to class, I'm not gonna stop you siccing the teachers on Hebert, but even that loser wouldn't be dumb enough to bring the flute back to school with her alright?"

Emma just shrugged, seemingly content she had sort of 'won' their argument. Though considering she was definitely going to be late for class having hung around for so long, Madison wasn't sure if it would still be worth it if Mrs Knott gave her detention.

"I've got World Issues so I'm just gonna get going" Madison hedged whilst Sophia disappeared into the classroom and Emma was luxuriating in her victory, which lasted as long as it took for Madison to finish her sentence as Emma's gaze snapped to hers.

"You're with Hebert now aren't you? Can you check her bag for me?"

"What? No!"

"Come on Madison, I know she broke into my locker!"

Okay, now she was going to be late if she didn't figure out how to get out of the conversation next, sometimes she forgot that Sophia was way smarter than she made herself out to be.

"I really don't think she did" Madison stressed. Slowly backing away in the universal manner of someone trying to literally leave a conversation behind.

"Ugh you too? Really Madison? Fine! Just, I don't know fuck with Taylor or something, can't let her have a big head just because she got away with taking my stuff."

'Seriously?!'Madison almost exclaimed as she tried not to let the expression show on her face. Had Emma always been so fixated or had the theft knocked something else lose in the other girl's head Madison wondered as she rapidly tried to think how best to respond.

"Um yeah no, I'm not doing that sort of thing anymore, sorry Emma." Madison outright winced after she realised what she'd said, that she'd apologised for not bullying Taylor anymore and was so, so deeply grateful that Taylor hadn't been around to hear it.

She fled and if Emma had thrown back a reply or a comment she didn't hear it as she jogged down the hallway, both out of the desire to get away from the conversation as much as to not be late for how long Emma had managed to delay her already.

Somehow she made it on time, slipping into the classroom as she quickly caught her breath and was relieved to see she wasn't the last one to arrive. A few heads turned to see who it was and she froze mid-step as she caught Taylor's absent glance, both of them seeming to stop for a moment before Taylor gave her the smallest and briefest of nods and Madison felt herself almost sag in relief as she returned the gesture in kind and hurried to her seat.

World Issues would probably have been her favourite class if it weren't for a few things. The first was Taylor, the fact that she shared a class with the taller girl meant she couldn't ignore her even if she wanted to, not with so many of the other girls in the class. Or at least that had been the case before her about turn. Then there was Mr Gladly himself and where Mr Quinlan was a hard-ass without a sense of humour, Mr Gladly was the opposite and seemed to go out of his way to make their class work a joke.

It was to the surprise of absolutely no one when he had the class split into groups within the first fifteen minutes and the usual cliques formed around several pushed together desks. The assignment was simple enough for anyone who had actually done their homework, since it was little more than making a bullet point presentation about the rise of parahuman Warlords in Africa after the appearance of Scion. Something that was almost word for word the same assignment as the homework they'd been given on Tuesday that Mr Gladly would go round and collect at the end of class.

That unfortunately meant she was usually the one stuck doing all the work in her group since the other three girls; Julia, Daphne and Roz generally didn't bother doing their homework since they knew they could get away with doing it in class instead.

"Seriously you guys?" She couldn't help it, it was just frustrating to see all three of them take out their assignment sheets and only Daphne had even made a start on hers.

Julia just shrugged, "What? Mr G doesn't care."

"Yeah but now I have to do this stupid thing while you're all doing that."

"Yeah but can't you just copy your stuff over?" Roz cut in, making grabby hands for Madison's own homework which she clutched protectively to her chest.

"Hey I'm not doing all this just so you can copy my stuff again."

"Fair," Roz shrugged before grinning back at her. "I'll just wait till you're done with the presentation sheet and copy that instead."

"Ugh," Madison groaned, almost giving in and handing over her homework sheet to at least shut her up. "You're the worst."

"I am the best you mean."

"Did you remember a pen this time?"

There was a pause. "...Oh kind and generous Madison-"

"Just take it!" She cried quietly in defeat, throwing her spare pen to the other girl who took it with a triumphant grin.

It was going to be a long class.