Fifth Avenue - The Replacements
Chapter Seventeen

Thunder boomed throughout the sky as Hartley walked to where they had buried Whisper, tears ran down her face and she leant down placing her hand over the terribly carved name in his gravestone ′Walter Adams (Whisper)’.

“I know you are right” she sniffles “we are all going to go to hell, but I hope that you have gone to a better place” her eyes close and she takes slow breaths “he was doomed from the moment he signed on and you knew it” Hartley says as she feels Doc walk in behind her.

Doc lightly places his hand on Hartley’s shoulder “he knew it too, but we both know he didn’t care”

“Not till the end” she says slightly angered “Why must every time I join Fifth Avenue I have to have somebody die in my arms” Hartley begins to cry and the skies groan as she does, heavy rain pouring down on top of them. Doc awkwardly leans down and pulls Hartley into a hug, patting her back lightly. “He didn’t want to die, he was so scared Doc, he was so scared” they remained in each others arms for five more minutes before Doc pushes her away, looking into her eyes with a smile.

“You know this wasn’t your fault, this one had nothing to do with you” Hartley nods weakly “Whisper did this to himself, he messed with the wrong person and he had to pay for that” Doc uses his thumb to wipe the tears from her face “now come on, we need to get you cleaned up because you are falling behind on your studies and your training” Doc helps her up and together they walk back to the base.

Hartley sat in her room for three hours reading a book Doc had given her so she could better understand the technique of fighting she had decided to learn, while she did this the video which Justin had gotten her played in the background.

“You coming?” Flicker says at her door “Doc says if we do a good 4 hours of training he might take us up to play bowling today!” he squeals like a girl before running back in the direction of the training room.

Hartley laughs and places her book down, following him out.

The training room was already set out and Doc sat to the side to supervise as the partners where no longer even for the entire team to fight. “Okay Trix and Hartley, Flicker and Flutter” he says and both Flicker and Flutter turn to Doc with unimpressed looks.

“Why do we always get paired together?” Flutter whines but Doc doesn’t reply, instead he presses down on his stop watch.

“Hurry up” he orders and everyone gets into their fighting stances. Trix seemed more than eager to begin fighting against Hartley.

Hartley wasn’t even done getting into the starting stance when Trix went in for her first attack, she slammed her elbow down into Hartley’s shoulder making her fall to her knees “What the-” Hartley says as she ducks just below Trix’s leg which flies back in attempt to kick her in the face.

Trix turns and gives Hartley a dirty look before charging like a enraged bull, but once again Hartley dodges her attack, this time countering the dodge with tripping Trix as she ran past making her face plant into the hard, white, marble floor.

When she sits up Hartley can see the red dripping from her face and onto the floor “Ouch” Trix growls before charging, as Hartley dodged her attack Trix brought out her arm and slammed it into her chest, with all of her strength, and a little help from her abilities, making Hartley fly back into the wall and break through the plasterboard.

“Powers then” Hartley groans rubbing her now sore back “Okay then” Hartley’s eyes flicker red and she throws a flame ball towards Trix who barely dodges it, a small shriek in the background told Hartley that she had hit Flicker instead.

“Nice try” Trix chuckles and Hartley glares, the red in her eyes burning stronger, from a distance Doc saw what was happening and realised he would have to stop this as it was no longer, if ever, a playful banter between two co-workers.

Trix looks down to the ground making the tiling beneath Hartley’s feet loose “What is your problem?!” Hartley shouts as she jumps away from the tiles under her and kicks Trix’s stomach “What’d I do to make you hate me so much?” Hartley tries to punch Trix but she ducks and punches Hartley’s stomach “and don’t say you don’t hate me” she continues in a strained tone before knocking Trix off her feet with a gust of wind “Because from the moment I’ve gotten here you have done nothing but make my time here a living hell” Trix lunges at Hartley wrapping her slender hands around her neck “Like you don’t want me to be here” she wheezes and brings up her legs to push Trix back.

“You’re right” she snarls “I don’t want you here, you are nothing but a distraciton to him” Trix moves her hands and causes the roof over Hartley to drop, Hartley falls to the ground trapped underneath the plaster “you are worse than everyone in The Association, you joining th team was nothing but a death merit for everyone here” Trix moves over Hartley and straddles her “He shouldn’t want you, he shouldn’t want to be with you, he should want to be with me!” she screams as she punches Hartley’s face.

Hartley bring her arms up to her face trying to block the punches. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” she shouts, thankfully somebody pulled Trix off of Hartley.

“Let me go!” Trix yells as she struggles against Flutters arms.

Flicker rans to Hartley’s side and lifts the remaining roof from off of her “Are you okay?” he asks and Hartley coughs and grips her aching stomach.

“I’m fine” she says glaring to the still struggling Trix, Doc walks over to Hartley and leans down to help her. He moves her shirt up slightly so see the already bruising stomach.

“You’re not fine” he says roughly before turning to Trix glaring “This is way past what you are supposed to do and you know it” Trix stops struggling against Flutter.

She laughs poisonously “You are seriously taking her side?” she asks with anger laced in her tone “That’s not surprising, I guess she will always be your favourite” Doc stands and walks over to Trix making her look up, she never drops her glare.

“What are you talking about?” he spits.

“Don’t think I haven’t noticed” she says and looks around “and I know you guys have as well, you treat her so much better than anyone else here, like she’s so much better than the rest of us” Trix shoves Flutter back “No matter what I do, you will never except me” she reaches her hand up and touches the burnt side of his face “No matter how much I love you, I know you will never do the same” she says in a hurt tone before turning and walking from the room.

Everyone remained still in shock for around five minutes before Flicker asks a very serious question “So are we still going bowling or what?”