Header: I've been suffering some seriously extreme writers block the past month, trying to force my way past it with this.

Hello all and welcome to Altered Paths, where Queen Administrator pings off of Shadow Stalker and the Undersiders' shards turning Taylor into something….utterly terrifying. I am going to be playing a bit loose with ages and the time line since this is an Alternate Universe so be prepared for a few surprises.

Side note, I couldn't find proper Québécois French translations for Alec Alec'ing so if anyone wants to point out how to make it more authentic please feel free to do so.

"You know I like your sister despite her being an annoying little bitch but really even for me her behavior has gotten beyond ridiculous lately," Lisa stated this as Brian brought the car to a halt in the broken asphalt field that served as the parking lot for Winslow High school, shaking his head he threw the gear shift into park and closed his eyes.

Taking in a deep breath he turned the key and pocketed it while glancing over to his teammate, "I am very aware of that Tails, and I didn't ask you two to come along regardless so really I don't need the commentary at the moment."

Seriously, Aisha would be giving him enough of that in a few minutes so why add to the problem?

"You didn't ask for us to be here but you do need us to help deal with your little sister's latest bout of 'fuck the police' bullshit regardless. Seriously it's her first day back from Christmas break and she's already acting up," Lisa stated with an all knowing smirk.

Brian suppressed a wince as he unbuckled his seat belt while lamenting the fact that his partner in crime was not in actuality wrong; glancing to his side to take in the attractive blonde sporting a now full blown vulpine grin following up that thought did not help him reach his calm in the slightest.

"I hate you, you know that right?"

Alec snorted as he popped his door open and hopped out of the back seat stretching all while making obnoxious clicking noises with his tongue in the process, "Of course she knows it, that's why she's making it worth her while by screwing with you. Think this place has WiFi?"

Brian glared at the dilapidated building before him while shaking his head slowly as he responded to the non sequitur, "Alec the only thing this shit hole has is Nazis, Pan-Asian separatist idiots, strung out junkies infected with name your STD, and a tiny margin of unaffiliated 'leave me the hell alone,' outliers."

Alec's visage shifted from amused to sulking as he took in the punch line to public education resting before him in all its faded and moldering 1980's architectural glory.

"Ah," his tone suddenly sounded deeply betrayed as he muttered, "Well...fuck."

"Welcome to Brockton Bay," Lisa stated with faux cheerfulness, "where dreams come to die."

Alec sighed and shook his head while muttering, "Pour l'amour de ... D'accord. Pouvons-nous simplement continuer?."

Lisa rolled her eyes as she cuffed Alec on the back of the head as she moved to follow Brian, "Arrêter de se plaindre."

Alec ruffled his hair in annoyance as he turned towards Brian, "Dad did you see what mom just did?"

Brian, not missing a beat replied with, "Did she just hit you for being a smart ass?"

"Yes."

"Obviously she hadn't hit you hard enough, Lisa give it your 'A' game next time."

Lisa grinned as she raised her hand, "Avec plaisir."

Alec howled in a mostly false rage as he held his now thoroughly smacked head while stumbling towards the school entrance, "Oh hell that hurts! You fucking bitch, I think you gave me a fucking concussion! This is abuse! I don't have to put up with this! I'm calling OSHA and reporting you!"

Lisa paused a moment and raised a brow while she dryly clarified what she had just heard with, "The Occupational Safety and Health Administration?"

Alec paused, "Err...I guess?"

"First off you are Canadian, second off you are an illegal Canadian which just boggles the mind a bit if one was not familiar with your situation, and third off OSHA is for the work place, not schools."

"What's in place for schools?"

Lisa scoffed as she pushed the doors open, "Learn to Google peasant."

Alec glared at her a few moments before snapping out, "I'm staring at your ass!"

Lisa lightly smacked her skinny jean clad left butt cheek while glancing over her shoulder to wink at Alec, "And I'd be concerned if you weren't."

Alec let out a sigh as he opened his mouth and just as quickly closed it as Brian grabbed his shoulder and pulled him along,

"Don't, seriously, just don't, it isn't worth it."

Sighing yet again Alec shrugged and followed Brian along the filth stained walls of Winslow high school until they came to a stop before a secretary, who pointedly ignored them for several heartbeats as she continued to tap away on her phone seemingly oblivious to the world around her.

Then she just continued to ignore them for a few more moments, still focused on her phone.

Then the silence continued on for a few more tense moments.

Then it dragged along for a few more quite uncomfortable minutes putting all three teenage Capes on a rather unnecessary edge.

Eventually Brian politely coughed and was yet again ignored; Lisa then shifted about while muttering 'excuse me,' and was also ignored in turn.

This behavior was simply impolite, thus Alec turned on his taser and placed the electrically arcing bit of self defense hardware on the desktop while glaring at the secretary doing his best to appear unamused.

The woman's eyes widened noticeably as she stared at the taser, then met Alec's grinning visage.

He then spoke to her in the manner she deserved.

"We talk to principal. We have meeting. We losing patience. You give message. No more waiting. Or we get angry. Go. Now."

She nodded stupidly before turning and running to the door behind her and quickly slammed it shut after entering it in a mad scramble.

Brian and Lisa were quiet for a time before Brian spoke up, "You know, you're a completely unrepentant ass, but really you do get shit done."

Lisa snorted while nodding, "True enough, let's just hope whatever Aisha did hasn't resulted in half the school burning down."

Alec smirked, "What can I say, I'm awesome."

It was then that all three Undersiders felt a sense of vertigo and very nearly fainted as they fell to the ground. The lights fluctuated above them, the air turned tepid stinking of ozone, and none of them knew what to make of the situation.

A few moments later Lisa stumbled to her feet looking about the office in shock while muttering, "Wh...what the...what in the world..."

"I can't believe that little bitch was stupid enough to open her locker! Never mind the smell she should have managed to see what was leaking on the floor and known better. What a fucking retard!"

Emma stated this while Madison did her best to smile and titter like a moron as the redhead Queen Bee of their year group cackled along with her psychotic jock bestie at the continued misfortune of their favorite punching bag, namely one Taylor Hebert.

This situation was nothing new, and despite her shame for participating in the harmless awkward girl's bullying she had long considered being at the devil's side a far better option than being in her path. Madison scowled at that thought, then quickly schooled her features suppressing a sigh while letting out a tittering, "Oh what did the loser do this time?"

Sophia gave her a superior smirk that bordered on a sneer as Emma shot Madison a condescending glare.

What. Complete. Bitches.

"Oh you wouldn't know since we cut all you small fish out of the prank, but me and Emma, we thought of something perfect for putting Hebert in her place."

Madison closed her eyes and took in a deep breath while thinking, 'Emma and I thought of a perfect plan to put Hebert in her place,' you fucking illiterate microcephalic addle-pate…

Regardless, was calling her a 'small fish' meant as an insult? Honestly with these two Madison was more confused than not with all of their weird animal kingdom metaphors.

English you uncouth philistine, do you speak it?

"Oh?" Madison asked with faux enthusiasm, "What did you do to the dork this time?"

Emma broke out laughing then clapped like a mentally deficient seal before drawling out, "Well, we gathered all the bloody tampons from the girls rest rooms and left them in the weaklings' locker before Christmas break."

Madison froze.

Oh.

Oh please even you could not possibly be that sadistic and…shit…oh fuck yes she could be.

Sophia continued on grinning like butter would not melt in her mouth, "We left it all rotting in Hebert's locker over break, then this morning, when she opened it we shoved her into the mess and left the little bitch in there crying for help. Like a terrified little doe! It was amazing!"

Emma and Sophia cackled with glee as their hangers on giggled and tittered nervously, Madison herself was trying her best not to grow queasy at the imagery. That…did they have any idea what they had done? Seriously if anyone actually bothered to pay attention to the details that was just…holy shit this was so screwed up.

While Madison tried to figure out what to do about the rather extreme situation she had been thrust into, Sophia's eyes suddenly rolled into the back of her head and she fell backwards twitching like a tweaker needing their fix right the hell now as she hit the floor with all of the aplomb of a landed trout.

"Huh."

Awkward, yet… fortuitous.

Leaving Emma and her sycophants to their panic Madison rushed towards the cafeteria exit while pulling her phone out of her pocket, dialing 911 she power walked down the hall until the line was picked up.

"911 please state the na-"

This was dragging a line in the sand, there was no going back from this, and…and she just couldn't take being the weakling anymore, Hebert, no, seriously no one deserved this and it was about time that justice was served.

Fuck the consequences.

"Get an ambulance to Winslow High School now! Police too, I mean please send police, they'll just cover all this shit up again if you don't have police here."

There was a pause, then, "Miss if you could-"

She didn't have time for this, "My name is Madison Clements, I just found out Emma Barnes and Sophia Hess locked Taylor Hebert in her locker that they filled with used rotting tampons in an attempt to murder her."

They hadn't said as much but it was implied and, eh, if she was going to go down doing the right thing she was going to take the psychopaths down with her. Not much trumped murder charges after all, so yeah, weee…..

"Miss if you cou-"

Madison snapped out, "Not time for talking! Get an ambulance here and send your people to the third floor…they'll smell the locker. Oh, don't say shit to the principle she'll just cover this up again like she does everything else Hess and Barnes pull."

Hanging up Madison jammed her phone into her pocket nodding to herself as she took in a deep breath and stopped before her destination while slamming her fist into the door before her. There was no immediate response so she slammed her fist against the door again, eventually it creaked open and she viewed the school janitor as he stared down at her in curiosity.

"Yes?" He stated with a raised brow, Madison met his gaze evenly while steeling herself for what was to come.

"There is a girl trapped in her locker swimming in rotting bloody tampons and you are literally the only adult in this freaking school I can hope to trust to help me get her free before the police get here and lock this shit heap up tighter than a dolphin's asshole to cover for the psychos, again."

Truthfully, Madison had no idea how airtight a porpoise's asshole was, but her tone and vocabulary seemed to be enough to get the old man moving. A minute later she was leading the man towards Taylor's locker and they both gagged as they approached the landing, autonomic reflex causing both of them to bend over and dry heave.

Wrapping a sleeve around his face the janitor covered his nose and approached the locker with fetid sludge leaking out of it; stepping past the puddle he jimmied his key into the backside of the combination lock and quickly knocked it off to the floor which was followed with a wet *plop*.

Flicking the locker latch the door swung open and a bloodied, unmoving body fell out of the small enclosure, and Madison had to suppress a scream as it rolled out and hit the floor. Not because of the blood, bile, and rot, no, because of the dozens of cockroaches that swarmed away from the still form after impact, Madison couldn't take it at this point.

She threw up, glanced back towards Taylor as maggots crawled across the comatose girl's eyes, and then proceeded to throw up yet again.

It hit her just then, as she regained control of her faculties and turned back towards the now twitching girl.

This was her fault…

She had been terrified of the bitch duos little fiefdom so she had joined up and hadn't said a word as they tormented this girl, allowed them to coerce her to help with said torture, and now…now she was… she was.

What?

An accessory to attempted murder?

She… she didn't kn-

"AHHHHHHHHHH!"

Taylor began screaming as she tried to scratch her eyes out, destroying her glasses in the process before Madison and the janitor managed to hold her arms down, but that did not stop the girl from madly scrambling about. It was all Madison could manage to do to help hold Taylor still until the paramedics showed up, who upon their arrival quickly sedated the still panicking girl till she passed out, safe for transport to the closest hospital.

Madison gave her statement to first responders, and promised to come to the police station with her parents tomorrow. She soon found herself stumbling forward and followed the paramedics outside, and somehow ended up inside the ambulance transporting Taylor, which was just...

That didn't happen, that was fucking daytime television bullshit…yet here she was… Seriously this city had to have the most inept police force on the Eastern Seaboard...

Ugh, whatever, she wasn't going to dwell on it.

Thus she sat at the back of the ambulance, watching medics scrambling to stabilize Taylor, and then her thoughts came to a grinding halt as she heard one of them yell, "Shit, she's flat lining, paddles, NOW!"

Madison dragged her hands through her hair and stared at the vacant eyed corpse before her and could only mutter out, "N-n-no…"

This was her fault. She could've stopped this sooner. She could've spoken up before. This was her fault...

Something cracked in her mind just then, and Madison only felt-

[DESTINATION]

Wait, what?

[AGREEMENT]

Seriously what in the-

[TRAJECTORY]

"Clear!" The paramedic shouted as she placed a pair of wired paddles on Taylors now bare chest.

[AGREEMENT]

Then Taylor gasped for breath as Madison passed out.

Just to clarify for later chapters, Taylor triggered as a much more terrifying version of Pride from Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood thanks to Shadow Stalker and the Undersiders' pinging off of QA, who is going to be doing its very best to halp things along. Oh, and Madison is going to be her Tinker minder, Gods help the poor girl.

Shenanigans shall ensue.