I woke up to the sound of a chime. Though I still didn't open my eyes. There was a constant beeping coming from somewhere next to me and it was really really annoying. Like an alarm, but that wasn't right, my alarm didn't go beep beep beep beep! There's no way I would ever get up to something so quiet... Fuck, that a heart monitor isn't it? Shit, I'm in a hospital, aren't I? There was another chime, like the one that woke me up. I wonder what that is... I've been in hospitals before and they definitely didn't use such sounds to wake patients up. Finally giving in to the urge, I opened my eyes.

You have slept in a hospital bed! HP and MP fully restored! All ailments have been cured! HP regen increased by 50% for the next twenty four hours!

Was I still dreaming? I tried looking around but stopped once I realised that the... box(?) kept following my line of sight. Reaching my hand out, I swiped at it. The box(?) (still not sure about that) dissappeared. But all it did was allow me to see that there was another box(?) (god this is getting old) box behind it. This one being smaller, than the previous.

By guessing correctly, you've increased your Int by one!

What? No seriously what?! First I'm seeing boxes, now apparently I'm increasing my "Int" whatever the fuck that is. I wonder if I've gone mad. I hear another chime and before I finish that thought, another box(?) (fuck) appears.

Int is your core intelligence or IQ. It also helps determine the amount of MP you have.

INT*50=MP.

Going along with my (probably) mad mind was (definetly) a bad idea, but damned if I care any more. What's MP? Just as I'd expected, there was another chime and another box replaced the one before.

MP is the acronym for Mana Points. It is a quantization of the amount of mana you have. It is determined by your Int.

This actually makes sense... Not the part where I'm apparently seeing boxes(?) with texts in them, but the explanation (kinda) make sense. There was another chime and I wondered if I somehow caused it. Looking back I can say that all the chimes have been caused by some kind of action done by me, whether it's waking up or asking myself(?) questions. This actually makes me wonder if I'm not mad, but a Parahuman instead... and yep, there's the myself out of thought, I looked over at the new boxes(I'm just gonna call them boxes from now on) in front me. If things continue like this, I might be looking at boxes for the rest of my life... Damn no chime.

Quest Alert:

Da Fuck?!

Find out what the hell is happening. Have you gone mad or are you a Parahuman? Or has some other Parahuman somehow mastered you?

Time Limit: None.

Rewards: 200 EXP, Answers to your questions.

Failure: None.

Exp? Like in the video games? Is my life somehow a video game now? Wait... Is that my power? Or has some other Parahuman given this to me? No, that makes no sense, why would they choose me? No, like I said, it makes no sense. So it's obviously more plausible for me to be a Parahuman... And there's the chime, once again confirming my views.

... Wow, I'm a Parahuman, I'm a Cape! I'm a Cape! I'm a Cape!

I all but squeal with joy at that. I've always wanted to be a Cape, since I was a young and impressionable little kid hanging posters of the Triumvirate in my room. Though I've always wanted to be someone like Alexandria, I don't really mind having these... Gamer(?) powers especially if, I could get stronger like in some of the games Greg always like to talk of. There a chime once more and box follows.

Quest Completed!

Da Fuck?!

Find out what the hell is happening. Have you gone mad or are you a Parahuman? Or has some other Parahuman somehow mastered you?

Rewards: 200 EXP!

Quest Alert!

Rules and Regulations

Find out the mechanics of this "game".

Time Limit: None.

Rewards: 200 EXP.

Failure: None

Sighing in content, I swiped the quest box. I'd finished my first quest and received a second. If I wasn't wrong, then the "Exp" would be used for "levelling up" which meant that I would get stronger as I "progress". I might not become as strong as Alexandria, but I'd be dammed if I don't become at least as smart as her! Grinning like a loon, I started swiping the boxes away. There were a few more boxes that explained that my Int had risen up by three which totaled it up to four.

After finally (finally), I finished what I'd set out to do in the start when I'd woken up, that it hit me. It was night time right now, whight meant that nobody had seen me waking up, getting confused, then swiping the air (from their perspective), getting happy, swiping the air (The Swipster swipes again!) and then, finally becoming aware of my surroundings. Huh, it seems that the being that normally watches over me has been replaced with one that actually cares for me... At least I hope so, and as I haven't been shipped off to a mental hospital (yet), I shall choose to belive so (yes I know, very brave of me).

Speaking (thinking) of hospitals, I finally look around and am (no at all) surprised to see that I am, indeed in a hospital. Its a fairly generic room with a heart monitor, a bowl with some fruits in it, a closed window with opened curtains, etc, etc.

The door at the far corner of the room opened, bringing my attention to an old woman and the floating words above her head... What?

Adaline Clara

Lvl: 16

Nurse

Ok, so that's a thing. Noticing me, the woman with an air of grandmother-ness (its a word!), smiled at me. "Oh, you're awake." She walked over to me and I tried my best to smile at her without looking over to the floaty words. It was honestly much easier than I thought (the smiling part, not the looking away from floaty words part). "Now, Ms. Hebert," She started, pausing a little to get my name actually right. "You're at Brockton Bay General Hospital right now." She paused again, though this time to let that sink in and I nodded. "Do you remember how you arrived here?"

Help! Please help me!

Ple-please ... I don't want to die...

Please, Emma, Sophia, somebody, please h-help me...

Slowly I nodded, despite the flashback I was unnaturally calm, I wondered if this was some aspect of my power. A chime was the only warning I had before another box appeared in front of me, and it too every ounce of my power not to react. Though this time, the box was transparent (translucent more like), as if my power understood that it was being annoying. The lack of reaction from Adeline meant that other people could probably not see my... boxes.

...And yep, there was the chime. Another box appeared but it was once again transparent (translucent). Adeline continued as if I hadn't just had a panic attack (you know somethings wrong when you almost get a panic attack from a sound in your head and not from the traumatic experience you suffered) "Its the fifth of January," She looked at her watch. "Three in the Morning, right now." She paused to let that sink in. Honestly, I don't know why but I didn't really care about that any more. I was more interested in knowing if I'd need to sleep just as long if I were to get in a similar situation (I was gonna be a hero after all) or if sleeping in a hospital bed is the only way to come back from life threatening incidents. "You were found in a locker by your school janitor on the third of January at six in the evening. You were then brought into this hospital, to be treated."

Was this lady in the army or something?! Good Lord, I got the most no nonsense nurse in the world to take care of me! Also wow, the trio sure do know how to escalate, going from pushing me in the hallways to literal murder attempt. I honestly would've laughed if it weren't so depressing (it was still very tempting, but I didn't want to disappoint my new army nurse). "Despite how you were found, you weren't in critical condition. Despite that however, you were comatose for about thirty two hours after entering the hospital."

There wasn't much to be said after that. Adeline explained that the police might want to meet with me, in case I wanted to press charges. Apparently my dad had been here with me since yesterday morning, but was asked to leave, after visiting hours concluded (and he did leave, though reluctantly). It made me feel warm and fuzzy that he still cared. I wondered what would've happened if the trio had actually been successful in killing me... Would he have gone into depression like he did when mom died or would he have bounced back up.

... It was hard to tell, especially since our (slowly dissolving) relationship was so damn brittle. So yeah, it definitely felt good that he still cared.

It also drove home the face that the Trio weren't going to get punished. There was no way the school wasn't helping them cover things up, I didn't know why they were doing so, but they were. It was something else that I needed to think about. How much would they escalate? How much more could they escalate? They'd already tried to kill me once. What would they do next? What was worse than murder?!

After a few more minutes of telling me everything that she thought I needed to know, Adeline left, making me promise to call her in case I needed anything. She also asked me if I wanted her to call my dad, but I politely declined knowing that he probably didn't have much sleep the night before, when I hadn't come home. I did ask her to call him in the morning though.

Finally alone, I shifted my focus back onto the various (translucent) boxes in my line of sight. I tried looking at them and wasn't really that surprised when it turned opaque, allowing me to actually read the words on them.

Name: Adeline Clara

Lvl: 16

HP: 110-30 (Old Age)= 80

Occupation: Nurse, PRT Mole.

Bio: Lost her family to villainous capes at the ripe age of 43. Has been collaborating with the PRT ever since to bring them the identities of people she believes to be capes. Whether good or bad. Gets along great with the PRT Director.

Whoa, I have the most awesome power ever! While I was worried that Adeline might out me to the PRT, I didn't think I acted very differently or any such thing. Though even if she did, I didn't really mind that (which was very surprising), as I would be becoming a hero anyway.

This time, instead of swiping, I try to will it out of existence (dramatic? Naaahhhh) and am once again rewarded for my (very) hard work when Adeline's job application (which it basically is), disappears. Whopping in joy I look over at the next box.

New Skill Created!

Observe, Lvl-1: By looking at a person, the Gamer now knows a shortened and very much abridged form of a person's life. You also know the amount of HP they have. Level up more to gain more access.

So many possibilities! This basically confirmed that I could make more skills! Which I could then level up! If Lvl-1 showed this much information about a specific target then how much would Lvl-100 show? Was 100 the level cap? Was there even a level cap? God! So many questions! And I've had my power for less then an hour!

Shaking my head at the sheer possibilities, I willed this one to go away as well, like the last one and moved onto the next box.

New Skill Created!

Speed Reading, Lvl-1: Read, Forrest, READ! You can read at 1000 words per minute

Heh, heh, I have the best power in the whole wide world!

And Scene! Actually thought of continuing but decided that 2k words is probably enough for now. Will be posting the next chapter in a few day, so keep your eyes peeled.

Also, damn that locker flashback felt bad, I don't know if I did it any justice...probably not, sorry bout that. Don't worry though, I'll definitely rewrite this chapter once I undergo a deep traumatic event :)

Come back next week to find out what the hell happens next! Spoilers, it's just a bunch of exposition!

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