Fifth Avenue
Chapter Seven

Hartley awakens lying on an uncomfortable broken mattress. Her eyes crack open and she sees Doc lying shirtless beside her, slowly she pulls herself up and sees his half-burnt chest, she could see that when he had gotten the burns he had attempted to heal himself but by the amount of damage there as it looked almost impossible.

“Hartley” she hears someone call her name and she looks to the door to see Justin standing there “Are you okay?” he asks moving to the mattress she lay on “I heard a smash and when I walked into the sitting room I saw you lying on the ground muttering something, what happened Hartley?” he asks and Hartley forces herself to smile.

“I guess, well I’m an orphanage girl, the most drama I used to get was a weekly beating from bully, I guess this was a little too exciting for me” she says laughing sadly. Justin helps her sit up and she notices her leg had been stitched up.

Hartley tried to stand but stumbled back onto her bed and grips her head as a wave of nausea overcomes her but it soon goes away “Is he okay?” she asks and Justin glances to Doc.

He gives a curt nod “He’s been through worse, no need to worry” Justin stands and pulls Hartley up with him “come on, Bullet says she wants to meet in the yard” Justin says swinging her arm around his neck before leading her out with him.

Shooter sat on the dead grass and Bullet sat in his lap as they chatted only stopping as Hartley and Justin sat beside Kit. “Hey” Bullet says in a happy tune “Okay, so we need to talk if you don’t mind” Bullet says with a lopsided grin. The rest of the team all smile and nod “Okay well obviously, our base was found, I doubt it was one of your guys fault but as per Doc’s rules I have to make sure it wasn’t you, but I like to have permission before diving into your minds, do I have your permission?” Justin looks to Hartley with a worried face but they both nod slowly. “Okay great!” Bullet closes her eyes and in the way Justin jerked back Hartley knew she in his mind at that moment.

A few minutes later they both open their eyes “Oh boy little brother” she chuckles “the things on your mind, I think we may need to have the talk” she winks and Justin’s cheeks go bright red. “Okay Hartley, are you ready?” she asks and Hartley nods, quickly she tries to push the dream she had earlier back before Hartley jerked back.

She could feel Bullet in her mind, looking around and prying into her recent memories making sure she wasn’t a traitor. What felt like mere seconds later she opened her eyes again. Bullet was giving her a strange look as if knowing she was hiding something before moving onto Kit.

Hartley gulps and looks down but she says nothing “What was that about?” Justin whispers into Hartley’s ear and she just shrugs.

Justin stands and Hartley goes to join him quickly grabbing Justin’s arm as she stumbles dizzily “Woah” he says placing his arm on hers to make sure she is okay “You alright?” he whispers and Hartley nods meekly leaning into his shoulder to keep balance.

“Can we please get out of here” she says weakly “please; I just need some fresh air” Justin looks to Bullet and mouths her if they could leave. She hesitates but looking at the pale tiny figure of Hartley she nods.

“You guys can go out, I just need to check with Kit, how about we meet at the park down the road in an hour?” she asks and Justin nods mouthing ‘thank you’.

With a cold gust of wind Hartley was now in a park, children screaming and running around Hartley and Justin who stood embracing on a picnic table. “Well I’ve had better landings” Justin chuckles as he jumps down and pulls Hartley down along with him.

She squeals a little as he does, “Now my lady we have exactly one hour before everybody else turns up and ruins this moment, what shall we do?” he asks taking her hand like he’s reading from a script to a really bad soap opera.

Hartley looks around the child flooded park before her eyes land on the one thing that the children were avoiding. “That” she says pointing to the rather large and heavy looking tire swing. Justin looks to where she was pointing and instead of frowning he laughs and grabs her hand tighter dragging her to the swing and jumping onto it.

“Push me” he says giving her a childish grin. Hartley grips the dirty ropes with her small hands and uses all her strength to draw it back and push it forward, much to Justin’s surprise he shot forward and had to cling onto one of the ropes to stop him from falling off.

Hartley pushed the swing as hard as she could and Justin counts the swings before he jumps off landing on Hartley with a soft thud. Justin starts laughing as he straddles the blushing Hartley. Her hair turns pink and the wind around them began to grow stronger making both their hairs blow over they’re faces.

You’re embarrassed” Justin cheers happily and Hartley’s eyes go wide.

“N-no I’m not” she stammers, the wind growing stronger. “Can you get off me please?” Hartley asks trying to push him off but he wouldn’t budge “Please” she laughs.

Justin strokes his chin as if thinking before a mischievous grin crept over his handsome face. “I will get off you” Hartley breathes a sigh of relief “If” he counters “You tell me I am the best and coolest person you have ever met” he declares and Hartley’s eyes go wide.

Hartley’s hair now a hot pink and the wind was barely allowing Justin to remain sitting straight. “No way, get off me!” she yells but Justin wiggles around causing more pressure on her chest.

“Hi-Oh my god you guys are such an adorable couple” somebody gushes and both Hartley and Justin look towards the source. She was a breathtakingly beautiful girl who looked not much older than Justin, she had perfect shoulder length blonde hair, blue eyes which looked good enough to swim in and her skin looked like the delicate pale skin of a porcelain doll.

While Justin looked over the stranger Hartley took this opportunity to push Justin off of he and stand up “Oh we’re not-” Hartley says standing up.

“We’re not dating” Justin says nudging Hartley slightly “no matter how much she may beg me” he says jokingly and Hartley looks up to him with wide eyes.

“Nice hair” the other girl says complimenting Hartley, but Hartley could notice that the girls, eyes were fixed on Justin, no that she could blame her, Justin was undoubtedly the most attractive person she had never seen. “My name is Candice by the way” she says reaching her glove covered hand to Hartley which she took gracefully, strangely when the girl went to shake Justin’s hand she used her un-gloved hand.

Justin smiles and happily shakes it, although when he does, he pauses for a second, his face seemed to scrunch up a bit but it returned to normal after a second “Justin, my name is Justin” he says with a dreamy like smile “and this is my friend Hartley” he coughs retreating his hand back to himself.

“Do you mind if I borrow him for a little? He is simply adorable, I mean if you wouldn’t mind of course” she laughs fakely and Hartley all of a sudden really didn’t like this girl.

“Oh, yeah no problem” Hartley says with false happiness, Justin smiles stupidly to her and hi and Candice link arms and walk off to the picnic table which Hartley and Justin had landed on not half an hour ago, Candice looks back to Hartley and gives her a kind of sickly sweet smile.

Hartley’s once pink hair was now a horrid dark green colour and the surrounding grass slowly went brown, a new hair colour and a new ability she would have to add to her notebook, jealousy was not an emotion she found herself being overly fond of.

“Hey Hartley” Bullet spoke as she, Kit and Shooter walked up the small hill to meet her “Where’s my brother?” Bullet asks looking around, she sees Justin and Candice who were having what seemed to be a lovely little chat “Oh sorry” she says with a soft voice.

Shooter drops a heavy bag in front of her “We don’t really need him” he says breaking the awkward silence which had started to take over them, he leans down and opens the black bad and he pull out a fluoro orange ball that looked no bigger than Hartley’s fist. “Let’s play good old hide and throw” Bullet’s face breaks into a smile.

“Girls vs Boys” she says happily “even teams, powers allowed” Shooter’s face drops.

“No way!” he whines before lighting a cigarette “Your powers are unfair, you can always tell where I’m hiding!” Bullet shrugs.

“Hartley needs to practice her power usage honey boo” after a little of grunting and staring at each other, which Hartley assumed may be a mind fight Shooter allowed Bullet to have her way.

Bullet and Hartley hid in the small tunnel, which was way too small for the two women to sit in “How do you play this game?” Hartley asks keeping her voice low. Bullet looks at her and smiles.

“It’s quite simple really” Bullet says as she tries to move herself into a more comfortable position “You see, we have the ball, and Shooter and Kit are it meaning they have to find us, but if we see them before they find us we just have to throw the ball as hard as we can at them and then we win and get to hide again, but if they find us before we find them, then we are it and they get the ball, got it” Hartley nods even though she wasn’t completely certain of the rules which Bullet had just said.

Just as she was going to say something she heard the quiet whispers of Shooter, Bullet puts a finger to her mouth signalling for her to be quiet.

Bullet closes her eyes as Kit looks into the tunnel and looks around, Hartley’s breath hitches and she holds her breath as Shooters face goes nearer to hers.

“Empty!” he says in a loud whisper before turning back to Shooter.

Bullet tosses the ball between her hands and gives Hartley a smile “it’s a mind trick” she says happily “I just blocked his mind from seeing us” Hartley was amazed and quietly moves out of the tunnel with Bullet following closely behind her “Now this is how you throw it” Bullet says throwing the ball as hard as she could at Shooter hitting him square in the back of his head.

“Bullseye!” Bullet shouts as Shooter turns around with a red face, she giggles and blows him a kiss. “We have the ball again!” she cheers doing a victory dance as Hartley grabs the ball from the ground and gives them a small smile.

Both Hartley and Bullet then run off to the other side of the park running past Justin and Candice as they do but they were too busy giggling to notice.

The game continued for another hour the points now standing 3 to 8 the girls winning. “Okay Hartley” whispers Bullet “this is your time to shine are you ready?” she asks throwing Hartley the ball.

The girls go silent as they see both Shooter and Kit passing underneath the tree branch where they sat, Hartley closes her eyes and remembers the swing, being trapped underneath Justin and the roof, Hartley’s hair turns pink, the wind around them picking up and knocking poor little Kit over.

“Good” Bullet cheers happily. Just as Hartley readied herself to throw the ball at Kit she heard the horrible giggle of Candice and she looks up to see her touching Justin’s arm and sitting very close to him, which made her slightly angered.

Thunder began to boom throughout the night sky and instead of throwing the ball straight at Shooter or Kit she threw the ball and used the force of the wind which she controlled with ease, the ball sped towards and with amazing luck, speed and force the ball hit her in the nose and knocked her from the seat she had been sitting on.

Shooter and Kit fall over in laughter and Bullet ends up falling out of there hiding spot and landing on Shooter, but that didn’t stop anyone from laughing. Even Hartley couldn’t help but let out a small laugh but that quickly disappeared when she saw the glare Justin gave her.

“That was priceless” Bullet says clutching her stomach and giving Hartley an thumbs up “You’re going to fit in here perfectly” she calls before starting to laugh again.

After this they decided it was time for them to go back to their newest home, while walking out they all had to stop themselves from laughing as Candice walked passed them leaving. Her nose was crooked and bleeding, this gave Hartley a strange sense of joy knowing that she had most likely broken her nose, but Justin, who followed Candice out, didn’t forget to say some choice words to Hartley and called the rest of the team children and telling them to grow up.

“Well I would say that was a complete success” Shooter cheered before looking to Hartley “and had taught me never to get on your bad side” Hartley smiles and sticks her tongue out at Shooter.

She excuses herself for the bathroom and wanders around the house, her hand feeling the broken walls of the home. “You know that was a real crude move” Justin says and Hartley freezes and turns to face him. His hair was a mess and he had his arms folded across his chest trying to show he was unimpressed.

Hartley rolls her eyes and does to continue down the hall but he grabs her arm stopping her “Listen it was an accident” Hartley says breathing deeply trying to keep her emotions at bay. “Now let go” she says trying but failing at yanking her arm back.

“Listen you hit a poor girl in the nose and broke her freaking nose!” he tells “she doesn’t have special abilities like you and me Hartley, it’s against Doc’s rules to do that!” Hartley snorts in happiness that she did in fact break her nose. “It’s not bloody funny” he growls before throwing her arm back to her “grow up and get a life” with that he storms away leaving Hartley alone in the hallway.

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