Fifth Avenue
Chapter Eighteen

They arrived back to the storage box within hours, Doc had done all that he could without his equipment for Justin, luckily for Hartley her wounds were easily and quickly healed, as soon as they arrived both Doc and Kit disappeared into what Hartley assumed to be the infirmary with Justin.

Bullet led Hartley into her room and they both sat on the bed in silence, Bullet not letting her out of her arms. After a while Hartley broke down and started cry into Bullet’s shoulder, letting out all the pain she has kept inside.

As she did the walls and roof began to leak with water making an aggravating and loud splashing sound on the concrete. Bullet looked up and softly pushed Hartley away “Shhh, hey Hartley stop crying” Bullet said calmly as she noticed her hair colour going a darker shade of blue, “I’m sorry Hartley” she says before slapping Hartley making her stop crying and grip her cheek.

“Bullet what the hell?” she sniffs, her voice shaking.

“I’m sorry Hartley but look around” Hartley looked around the room and noticed the wet streaks down the walls and the puddles on the floors.

“D-did I do that?” she asks, her hair changing from dark blue to grey “I didn’t mean to” she covers her mouth and slams her back against the wall, as she does the wall cracks around her. “What’s happening?” she screams and Bullet gulps backing away from Hartley.

Bullet opens her mouth to say something but Kit comes charging into the room as he hears the commotion “What the-” he stops and stares wide eyed at Hartley before looking to Bullet “She’s been fully unlocked” he says in a whisper “Oh no” with that he goes running from the room calling for Doc.

“What does that mean?” she asks worriedly “What does he mean I’m fully unlocked, Bullet tell me” Bullet looks at Hartley with sympathy but says nothing which annoyed Hartley making her hair begin to turn bright red. “WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!” she yells louder, Bullet jumps back as she sees the fiery red colour flicker across her eyes, and the power behind her voice.

The storage box began to shake and Bullet held onto the wall, Hartley got up and began to walk towards her but Doc pushed between them holding Hartley where she was “Hartley snap out of it” he orders and Hartley looks into his eyes, hers softening, her hair going back to blue.

She drops to the ground and begins to sob “What’s wrong with me?” she asks and Doc sighs.

“Follow me and I’ll explain it to you” he says pulling her up and leading her out of the room. They walked down the hall she had wondered down, they passed the shooting range and reached the dead end where Hartley had fallen asleep.

Doc pushed against the wall and it rumbled before collapsing revealing a metal corridor filled with metal doors, Doc opened the nearest one and Hartley stepped in first. It was a plain room, a small metal bed with a thin mattress, a toilet and a sink located on the opposite side of the room, she would say it reminded her of a prison but she had seen worse.

The thought made Hartley shiver and the sound of metal clinging together made her spin around, Doc had closed the door behind her “What are you doing?” she asks running to the door and trying to open it “This isn’t funny, let me out” she begs pulling at the barred windows on the door “Doc please” she cries but he remains calm looking at her with no emotion, just as when she had just met him.

“I’m sorry Hartley” Bullet’s weak voice whispered from behind him “We promise this is for the best” Hartley screams hitting her hands against the door, the last thing she wanted at that moment was to be back in a cage, locked away.

“Please” she begs falling onto the floor and sobbing, the walls once again began to leak with water and soon Hartley was sitting in a huge puddle “Please don’t do this” she pleads, not noticing that she was now alone. “GET ME OUT PLEASE” her breathing began to become shallow, the feeling of drowning began to take over.

Spots formed in front of her eyes and she lay down on the cold metal floors trying to regain her breath but replaceing herself unable, soon Hartley passed out on the floors, her arms and legs shaking slightly in fear of any pain she may have to endure.

She jumped up at the sound of the door opening; Kit stepped through, the sound of the lock turning behind him crushing any hopes she had of running. “Hey” Kit whispers “I’m here to explain, if you would like that” Hartley says nothing, she pushes herself into the nearest corner and gives a small nod.

Hartley had thought these people were her saviours, but in the end, they just wanted her locked up as well, because she was a freak.

Kit gives her a weak smile and takes a step forward before stopping and dropping a device in the middle of the cell, soon images began to pop up from the top of the device.

“You see Hartley, people like you and me, with powers like ours we only usually get half unlocked meaning our powers are the only thing we can use, one or two abilities and that’s it” he explains “But you, your something that has rarely ever happened before, you’ve been fully unlocked, see at the orphanage when you heard Bullet that was you properly unlocking your abilities but Wisdom, somehow she’s fully unlocked your abilities making you” he sighs “making you unpredictable and dangerous” Hartley gulps “That’s why we had to put you here, but I’m here to help you control your emotions a little better okay” she nods and Kit moves towards her.

Hartley stands up and Kit hands her some clothing, so she could change from the torn ones she was still wearing. Hartley took then and Kit turned away from her as she changed into the baggy sweatpants and tank top.

“Okay now your whole power is around your emotions, so we need to focus on how to control them without being completely emotionless because that’s a one-way road down to a sociopath” he tries to joke but Hartley wasn’t in the joking mood.

He nods “well let’s begin shall we” Kit claps his hands together and presses a button making the thing in the middle of the room light up and soon the room looked as if they were in a forest. “This is somewhere where I replace myself in peace, where do you replace it?” Hartley closed her eyes allowing a small smile to take over her face.

“My roof” she whispers opening her eyes “Whenever I used to feel stressed I would always go up to my roof” Kit nods “Can you bring up the roof from the orphanage, the side that faced the water” she asks and within a few buttons being pressed the picture was up.

Hartley breathed out, the black sky, the perfect moon shining against the pitch-black water, everything was just as she remembered. Hartley reached her hand out and the image flickered making her pull back.

“Yeah, it look’s real, doesn’t it?” he says smiling and Hartley nods, a small frown taking over her face as the image disappears leaving her back in the cell. “Now every time you ever feel over happy, sad, mad, scared or anything like that just imagine this place and you should be fine” he smiles looking to her hair “You look nice with that shade of blue” he compliments and Hartley pulls down a lock of her hair.

Her eyes go wide in astonishment as she looks at the ice blue colour her hair had turned, it looked so, beautiful, Hartley lets out a small laugh and flips her hair to the front of her face laughing even more.

Over the next week, they worked on different ways for Hartley to control her emotions, everything was going nicely. Even Shooter and Bullet would visit between the mysterious missions that Doc kept sending them on.

Bullet walked in a late afternoon as Hartley was on the bed reading, “Hey what do you want to do today?” Bullet asks and Hartley looks up slightly worried.

“I want to see Justin...”