Fifth Avenue

Hartley sat on her bed as she memorised the thin mattress which she had grown up sleeping on and the weak blanket which she used more nights than she could count.

Taking in a deep breath she willed herself to stand, she was about to exit her room when Sister Katie stormed in and grabbed her by the neck throwing her against the decaying wooden wall.

“Ya did it” she accuses angrily “I jost knew it was you” Sister Katie walks back up to Hartley and grabs a piece of her hair lifting her from the ground “Why’d ya do it?” she spits and Hartley looks at her confused as her hands grip around Sister Katie’s hand, trying to relieve the pressure against her skull.

Hartley whines “please, I don’t know what you’re talking about” she pleads but Sister Katie just shoots her another deadly glare.

Throwing Hartley into the wall once more Sister Katie stands over her, her large stomach heaving heavily as she had most likely exceeded her daily exercise limit “Don’t ya play stupid girlie, we all know ya kulled ha” with this Sister Katie reaches back down and grabs another chunk of Hartley’s hair dragging her upstairs to the nun’s floor and throwing her into Sister Juanita’s room.

Holding her now grazed elbow Hartley stands only to see Sister Juanita slumped over her desk, her eyes were wide open staring at her with empty eyes. Her now light grey skin was covered in disturbing black veins.

Hartley let out a horrified squeal and tried to run from the scene but Sister Katie blocked the doorway with her overly large build, her face showing sadness but anger quickly overtook that.

“You ain’t foolin no one girlie” Sister Katie spits stepping closer to Hartley “We all know ya tha one doin’ all tha devils work around ere” Sister Katies hand wraps around Hartley’s neck once again slamming her against the wall but she didn’t release her this time, she held her off of the ground.

Loose nails poked across the whole wall and as Hartley was slammed into the wall around sixteen slammed into her skin piercing through and imbedding themselves within her.

Unknowing to Hartley or Sister Katie as Hartley struggled against Sister Katie’s grasp Hartley’s hair started to turn light grey and the walls surrounding her had begun to crack and crumble.

Hartley started to realise that she had little to no chance of beating Sister Katie, and as she felt the darkness begin to creep in Hartley dug her leg further into a nail in order to gain more momentum before slamming it into Sister Katie’s shin which causes the nun to drop Hartley and step back howling in pain.

Ignoring the pounding pain Hartley felt from the many nail entry points throughout her body she sprinted not even bothering to grab the bag she had previously packed, the ground she ran on began to crack but she seemed to be oblivious.

Hartley slipped on a loose piece of carpet sending her flying onto the hardwood floor, shaking her head clear she painfully pulled herself up and continued running, she neared the front door wide open, Hartley ran as fast as she could, not stopping for anything.

When she made it outside Hartley realised it was now dark, everything outside was silent apart from the loud patter of Hartley’s feet against the wet asphalt.

Hartley had neared the edge of the town before she stopped to catch her breath, as she stopped she heard two loud growls coming from somewhere in the darkness. She looked around and stopped as she saw two pairs of glowing yellow eyes in the not too far distance.

She gasps and jumps behind a wall, she was breathing harsh and loudly, the growls grew closer, she looked to her left to see a large creature skid to a stop and growl, it sticks its nose into the air and sniffs.

A hand wraps around Hartley’s mouth “Please don’t scream” Justin’s voice quickly interjects before she can scream, she gulps and nods “Close your eyes” he tells her and a gust of wind blows past, once it was gone Justin assures Hartley she can open her eyes.

When she does she is surprised not to find herself in the grey concrete room as she had expected, but instead she was in a large green field. Hartley allows herself to drop to the ground and lay in the grass, never had she been to a place so beautiful, it worked much like her roof did, the bad memories slowly faded away.

“Big day” Justin chuckles as he watches her, Hartley stretches out with a strange smile going onto her face, a warm flood of happiness surges throughout her and Justin watched in awe as her hair went from blue to yellow, flowers randomly popping up around her. “Come one” Justin says to Hartley and sighing she gets up taking his hands and closing her eyes tightly.

With another gust of wind, they went from the beautiful field to the dull grey concreted building. Bullet and Shooter came walking out, Bullet giggling for an unknown reason.

“Welcome home kiddo” Shooter says as they walk up to her “I guess it’s time for proper introductions now that your part of the family” he smiles unwrapping his arm from around Bullet which seemed to disappoint her.

Shooter walks up to Hartley “Okay so I know my wife” he says glancing to Hartley “told you about the people who are different” Hartley nods “well I’m Shooter, husband of Bullet, my ability is strength” he smirks “my beautiful wife’s ability is well you should know this one, she can bend and play with your minds as well as communicate through them” he clicks his fingers “Doc has the ability to heal and well Justin can teleport” Shooter turns to Justin “speaking of you, Doc wants a word” Justin turns to the staircase “with her” he sighs and nods ushering Hartley to follow him which she did without argument.

They go up the metal staircase until they reach the top floor, stopping only as they reach a glass walled room which you couldn’t see into as it was covered by plants, probably in order to gain some sort of privacy. With slight hesitation, he knocks on the door “Come in” a voice says and Justin opens the door.

Doc sat on his desk which was flooded with papers which Hartley noticed had begun to scatter across the floor. “You wished to see me Doc?” Justin asks nervously and Doc turns to face him, his shirt sleeves had been rolled to his elbow and seeing the burns which covered his left arm it made Hartley wonder how much of his left side was actually burnt.

“Yes, Justin” he says standing and walking towards him, Doc turns his head and gives a slight nod to show he did notice Hartley standing just behind Justin “Hartley, hello” he greets “Justin, you are completely up to date with your training are you not?” he asks and Justin slowly nods “great, help Hartley reach the same point, she needs to learn to defend herself” Hartley’s mouth opens slightly, so does Justin’s.

“Wait…” he says but Doc raises his hand.

“I will have no arguments, you will train Hartley” he says before walking back to his desk and picking back up his papers “that will be all” he says dismissing them, when they don’t leave he clears his throat and Justin leads Hartley out of the office.

She follows him, keeping her head down, “I’m sorry” she whispers and he turns to her with a small smile.

“Don’t apologise Blue, he’s just testing me that’s all” Justin says and Hartley nods slightly. “Anyway, you look like you could do alright in a fight” he laughs slightly “but not today, you’ve been through enough today, all you need is a warm bath and a big meal” Hartley’s stomach rumbled at the mention of the meal making Justin chuckle.

Justin kept to his word, he leads Hartley to the kitchen and made her all the sandwiches she could eat before he had to leave.

Bullet walked in not long after Justin had left, in her hands she held a bundle of black material “I thought you’d like to change clothes after your bath” she says and Hartley smiles, her and Bullet discuss random topics on the way to the bathroom door. “Okay now you only have about twenty minutes I am sorry to say, but you can utilise this at any time you want, just warn the team because the door doesn’t lock and it’d be awkward to have someone walk in when you’re standing in the nude” she tells Hartley in a humoured voice.

Bullet hands Hartley the bundle of material “Water should be hot by now” she says and Hartley walks into the room, she places the bundle on a chair.

She sighs heavily and quickly strips and steps into the steaming water, an immediate sense of calm flowing through her as she does. She remained in the water for about 15 minutes until she was completely clean before reluctantly getting out and drying off.

Bullet opened the door silently and walked in as Hartley pulled on her shirt; she froze as she saw the dark purple bruises which covered her back and sides. “Ready?” Bullet asks trying to act as if she hadn’t seen the bruises. Hartley jumped startled “Doc is waiting for you in the projection room with everyone” Hartley nods and quietly follows Bullet through the overly long hall, leaving her old clothes beside the bath.

“This place is huge” Hartley says in amazement as she looked up and around the seemingly endless building. Bullet let out a small chuckle before opening a dark blue metal door, allowing Hartley to walk in first.

The room was filled with computers, they lined the long walls and all were turned on with thousands of numbers running over the screen in a blurred green colour. Kit sat on a chair in the centre of the room with his eyes closed; he seemed to have a layer of sweat forming on his forehead and it seemed he was concentrating on whatever he was doing. “What is he-” Bullet cuts off Hartley as she continues to stare at him.

“He’s a technopath” Bullet says, “he can control and understand technology” Hartley looks back to Kit only for him to now be standing in front of her.

“Come on, we’ve been waiting forever” Kit says in a happy voice as he grabs Hartley’s hand and leads them through another door.

Hartley turned to ask Bullet how old Kit was “he’s five” Bullet answers before Hartley could manage to get the question out “Sorry, it’s the mind thing” she says sheepishly “Can’t control it that well”

They entered a room that was almost pitch black apart from a small light emitting from a large screen on the wall. Doc was sat in front of the screen with one leg over the other, Shooter and Justin stood on the other wall near the corner whispering something which was too quiet for Hartley to hear.

“Good you’re here” Doc says and as he stands, the door behind her slams shut leaving the room in basic darkness “I’m going to show and tell you some things and judging by how you react will judge whether you stay or go” he says “take a seat” Hartley looks around to see everyone else sitting down, Bullet sat on Shooters lap, Kit sat where Doc had been sat earlier and Justin was sat beside the chair which Hartley was guessing she was to sit on.

She sat down and neatly placed her hands on her lap as Doc began to talk “Hartley, that is your full name, no middle, no last, am I correct?” Doc asks and Hartley nods in reply.

“Yes, usually the nuns will give you a last name, or your put in there by law meaning your name comes with you, but all the nuns had was the name Hartley on a letter I was found with, they were too lazy and ashamed of me to even bother giving me another name” Hartley squeaks quietly before looking down.

Doc nods in understanding before looking to Kit; a picture shows up on the screen, it was a woman, her hair was cut in a short concave and dyed bright purple, she had brown eyes, she was thin, possibly even thinner than Hartley as her bones looked as if they were going to poke through her skin, although for some reason Hartley could not bring herself to say she was ugly, as the woman had a certain elegance that brought beauty to her rather dull complexion.

“That is Wisdom” Doc says with a dark voice. “She is the leader of The Association” his jaw clenches “We know she can touch and tell the future and past of that object, mind you that ability has its faults, since the future is always changing and the objects lose their use after a while” Doc turns back to the screen “Wisdom has created this team for reasons unknown, although she has not made any moves we have seen that her and her followers have been attacking more and more often of late” the screen changes picture.

This time it was a small boy, he had a light brown hair and a huge smile on his face, Hartley gasps as the boy looked identical to Kit, his rosy cheeks and the curl of his hair the alikeness was unmistakeable. The photo looked like I was only being half shown, Hartley’s curiosity urged her to find out what it was but she held herself at bay. “This is Tech” Kit says speaking up “he has the ability to control technology, he’s a technopath” Kit’s voice sounded sour and broke but his face showed little emotion.

A different photo appears on screen and Kit’s face visibly softens, this one Hartley knew, Reaper. But in this image, he looked different, almost; human. His skin seemed to now have colour in it, his face seemed to sow a smile and his dark black hair was combed neatly, his eyes were a deep blue that seemed like an ocean, a chubby hand of a child was still shown in the photo “This is Reaper, he is the only member of The Association that we know the past of, Reaper was once a normal bank teller with a young daughter, but tragedy struck and he became what you know him by, Reaper” Doc looks at Hartley and the picture changes to how she had seen him “He really hates little girls” Doc says adding in information which Hartley was sure just to frighten her. “His ability is much like the folk tale of the grim reaper, the hand he holds his scythe with is deadly, and one touch from either his hand or his scythe, it will feel as if your insides are being torn out of you, even my abilities are unable to save any who have been touched by him” Doc looks down mournful as if reliving a bad memory before he switches to the next photo.

A girl with bright pink hair who looked no older than Justin appeared on screen, her eyes the same colour as her hair, she wore a mixture of black and pink and her shoes where long heels that seemed to give the short girl some height. Her demeanour was mischievous and a sense of childlike attitude had obviously not left her, but in those eyes Hartley could see pain and suffering, and she could see that this girl was anything but innocent. “Candii” Justin growled and Doc nods.

“Candii, she seemed to appear out of nowhere two years ago” Doc turns to look at the screen “She was first found by the police, she had murdered fifteen sleeping orphans” Hartley froze worriedly, she had remembered hearing about a massacre in the nearby boy’s orphanage “She was sent to prison without a trial and was to be transferred to a state prison, the vehicle that was transferring her has never been found, but sources have told us that she has been seen numerous times prowling the alley-ways with Reaper” Doc walks to the other side of the room and the last picture appears.

It had two; well Hartley wasn’t sure what they were. Looking like creatures, bits and pieces of different animals, and humans which had been stuck together, and not very well at that. One was slightly taller and looked more like road kill than actual living creatures. “These odd-looking guys are Scratch and Claw, which one is which I’m no exactly sure” he says dully “But we know they are fast and dangerous, they aren’t in it for the glory or any type of vendetta, they are only out for blood” Hartley shivers as she looks into the soulless yellow eyes of the two creatures on screen, urging herself to look away she closed her eyes and when they reopened the room was left in complete darkness.

“This is what we are fighting, if you think you can help us defeat them before they defeat us then stay” Doc’s voice darkens “but if you’re just here for a holiday from the orphanage then leave now because there is only one thing I can promise you and that is that any pain you suffered at the orphanage is nothing to the pain that you will suffer by staying here” Hartley gulps and as the lights switch back on Doc stood directly in front of her, his green eyes staring into hers daring her to stay.

The rest of the team remained in their seats looking to the floor and Hartley gulped loudly before mustering the courage to speak “I-” she pauses “I want to stay here, I know it’s going to be hard but I-I think I can do it” Doc huffs and walks out of the room without another word.

“That means you’re in” Shooter says from across the room, Hartley sat in her chair looking straight ahead, not sure whether she should be glad or not.

That night Bullet lead her to an empty room and Hartley lay on the bed unable to sleep, Doc’s words echoing through her mind over and over ‘There is only one this I can promise you and that is that any pain you suffered at the orphanage is nothing to the pain that you will suffer by staying here’ deep down she knew it was true.

Hartley pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind the best she could forcing herself into an uneasy slumber.

Hartley awoke early the next morning and sat in the training room looking out the window watching the sun slowly begin to rise “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Justin says and Hartley jumps turning to face him.

“It is” she agrees before getting up and walking to an empty place in the huge room “I want to learn” she says quietly “I want to train, I want to help and I want to be able to defend myself” Justin smiles and walks over to her.

“Then let’s do it” he holds out his hands, palms facing her, and Hartley hits them lightly “Okay well, that was good for beginners, I guess” Justin walks closer to her “Okay well for starters you have to keep your fist like this” Justin grabs her small hand and balls them into fists making sure to place her thumb on the outside “Now” he moves to the back of her and he grabs her arms using her like a puppet.

“You need to hit like this” he moves her arms in the motion punching without being too rough, she could feel his warm breath fanning her neck and her face grew pink “There you go” Justin smiles before moving back to the front of her and holding his hands like they were before.

“Look, why don’t you think of all the bad things which have happened to you, use that anger and pain towards your hit, that’s what I do” Hartley nods in understanding.

She looks to Justin once more before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes.

‘Why do you have to be so different?’

‘Freak!’

‘Loser’

Words of insult ran throughout Hartley’s mind and her hair began to turn a dark red.

‘Why are you so different to everyone else Hartley, if you were just normal I wouldn’t be forced to punish you’

Her eyes open and glimmer with the colour of embers.

Justin watched amazed as her hair went from blue to red within seconds and as her eyes opened he noticed how the colour changed, even if it was only for a second.

She hits Justin’s hand with so much force a loud crack sound echoes through the room and he flies back gliding against the matt covered concrete floor.

Hartley’s face softens and her hair returns to blue “Oh no” she gasps running over to Justin who held his bulged looking wrist to his chest “I-I’m sorry I didn’t mean to” she looks over him worriedly “I just did what you told me to do” she stutters but he began to laugh and wince simultaneously “Are you okay…?” she gulps “do you have a concussion?” Justin looks at her still oddly humoured by something.

“Why are you apologising?” he wheezes “Blue, that was amazing, like yeah it hurt but Doc can fix this up real quick” he says holding up his wrist.

Shooter and Bullet walk in, bags hanging underneath their eyes telling Hartley they were either not morning people or didn’t get enough sleep.

Shooter yawns “What the heck Justin” he groans “Why are you laughing at 4.30 in the morning?” Justin shakily raises his un-broken arm and points to Hartley, they look at her with tired and confused expressions.

Justin stands “You guys missed it” he pouts “Blue can kick serious butt!” he announced proudly and Hartley looks down embarrassed, her hair turning pink.