Chapter Text
Snow, Madison Clements thought as she watched her driveway through the window, was one of the few things in this city that was still pure.
That was perhaps a rather grim thought for a teenage girl to have, especially on Christmas Eve of all nights. Part of her was eager for morning to come so she could tear into the colorful packages downstairs, few and likely cheap though they might be. Part of her was looking forward to spending time with her family, just... being a person, without worries, for a single day. And for as much as the world had ground her down, she still valued that part of her, even if she would never admit it to anybody.
But another part of her was thinking about her last couple of months at Winslow. About how... banal everything was starting to feel. She wouldn't stop doing what she was doing, she wasn't suicidal, but she was beginning to wonder if her entire life was just going to be... long term social chameleon stuff. Always becoming what the situation needed her to be, instead of being... herself.
Not that Madison had any idea who she was anymore. She'd sacrificed her identity on the altar of popularity for the sake of her own protection. Not the worst crime, but for a teenager, it had a grave cost. She was slipping further into caricature every day, growing more and more just a mean girl lacky and less and less... a person, let alone a person she wanted to be. Sure, she hadn't done anything nearly as cruel as Emma and Sophia, but she had engaged in the more... social aspect of bullying. She wasn't a bad girl, not really, just...
...not a good one.
Madison sighed, looking up at the clouds retreating to give way to the moon and the few stars visible in Brockton Bay's night sky. Somewhere in the city, there were women locked up in rooms to be used. Somewhere, most likely, a racist was casually laughing as he told his friends about his most recent murder. Somewhere, out in the streets, she could just imagine some junkie breathing their last as a dirty needle rolled out of their hands. And all that was the ordinary crime. There were dog fights, hosted by a murderblender. There were protection rackets, enforced by a dragon. There was probably some highly depraved rave going on, where the dirtiest man in the city (in more ways than one) laughed at all the debauchery going on and encouraged it with reckless abandon.
Against all that, how bad was Madison, really? She was just a high school mean girl, and even then she was honestly mostly petty. Not dangerous. Not scary. Really, only doing what she needed to in order to survive. She wasn't a bad girl. And maybe if she kept telling herself that, she'd actually believe it.
The moon loomed over the night sky, an arbiter of wonder and horror alike. Vaguely, Madison remembered when she was five, when she'd seen a shilouette against it on a Christmas Eve much like this, and thought it had to be Santa's sleigh. It had turned out to be a PRT van thrown by... oh, what was the villain's name? Ha. That was how bad things were. Madison could remember the moment her innocence was torn away, but not the name behind it. There were just too many villains to recall such trivial details. At least they'd been arrested... she thought. Or maybe they died in an Endbringer attack...
The thought of those monsters made Madison quickly cross herself. Not that she was catholic, far from it, but it was... a warding gesture. Everyone had one, when it came to those three. Best not to even think of them, lest one attract their attention.
And really, they were only part of the problem. A big part, an overwhelming part, but only part. And the problem... Madison couldn't quite pin it down, not in words. She wasn't that kind of smart. She usually didn't focus on it, but something about the night sky tonight brought it to the forefront of her mind. Tomorrow, she would celebrate a holiday about goodwill to all men, and quietly ignoring the looming existence of a locker at school. And what her friends had arranged for that locker as winter break started. It was just a prank, she told herself, and that thought could get her through the day.
But tonight, of all nights... she wondered if she should do something about it. If she should... maybe... stop it.
Ha. Not like she could. She was Madison Clements. A nobody who happened to luck into a smidgen of social power in a high school of nobodies. Who cared if one girl got hurt? Nobody. So she just... had to make sure she wasn't the girl getting hurt. Yeah, that was all.
Madison Clements, a girl with no great motivation, no real will, looked up into the night sky. And as the clock inched toward midnight, she saw something she wasn't expecting--a streak of light, shooting across the blackness. It wasn't a cape. It wasn't a plane. It was that most ancient of objects; a shooting star.
"I wish..." she murmured, compelled despite herself. "...I just..."
The digital clock on her bedside ticked over unnoticed, two zeroes and two other digits visible on its screen.
"I just wish things could be better, you know? That the world could be better. Somehow."
The streak of light in the sky blinked out.
"...yeah, like that's going to happen," Madison grumbled, turning away from her window and slouching over to her bed. "Why am I even up this late? Ugh." She threw herself down on her mattress, pulled her sheets over herself, and in a few minute's time she was sound asleep.
And as she slept, the girl who had made a wish on a shooting star at midnight on Christmas Eve was judged, harshly but fairly, by a strange force from just around the corner of reality. It considered her past and her future, her nature and her role, her presence and her potential, weighing options with grim and grave contemplation. In the end, it decided, she was not worthy. But then, who on this world was? And if she had a chance to become worthy...
...perhaps.
Just perhaps.
Madison Clements was a less than average girl in many respects, who did not deserve even the challenge she would be granted. But she'd made a wish, and caught the attention of something that could grant it.
And unbenownst to her... her troubles had just begun.