Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Celia has tasked Hartley with cleaning out the attic. Of course, she’s lounging comfortably on the couch while her granddaughter does all the work.

She rummages through old, dusty boxes. She doesn’t expect to find anything, but something suddenly catches her eye- a box labeled ‘Georgia Stockton, 1999’. Georgia, her mother…. Stockton is her mother’s maiden name.

Her eyes light up. Is this a box of her mom’s stuff from when she was Hartley’s age?

She immediately pulls the box towards her, and swipes off the dust. She anxiously pulls off the lid, and is greeted by rhinestones, chalk hair dye, a jean jacket, some photos of young Georgia with her friends, and some other things. But buried under all of that, is a folded up bunch of clothing…

She pulls them out, and lays them out on the floor. Her eyes widen as she studies them.

A purple mask, a dark purple and black superhero suit, black boots, and dark purple gloves. Emblazed on the chest of the suit is a giant ‘G’, meaning ‘Gemini’. Like… the superhero. How does her mom have Gemini’s super suit? Her mother was an ordinary person. She couldn’t have just randomly acquired the attire of a famous, wind-manipulating superhero.

Hartley stares at the suit for a long moment, before diving back into the box to look for some- any -reason why her mother would own this. Maybe it’s a fake. Perhaps her mom was just a really big fan, or went as her for Halloween one year.

But as she digs through the box, those options start to dim. She finds pictures of her mom with other superheroes from the 90’s and early 2000’s in the box, each dated on the back, listing the names of all the heroes in the photo.

Her hands tremble. She swallows hard, and looks everything over as it’s laid out on the floor.

“No way…”

It wasn’t a dream. It was never a dream.

—-

When Hartley was young, her mom would tell her stories about superheroes. She said Hartley was special. Of course, she thought nothing of this. Until she was 13.

She has a memory of falling off her bike, and scraping her knee. As she stared at the blood, a weird, yellow aura began to glow around her hands, and she instinctively brought them to her cut. The cut slowly healed, as she sat there dazed.

—-

She thought it was a dream. But was it? Could it be that she- of all people -has POWERS? There’s no way. She’s always been an ordinary girl. But with all of these new revelations about her mom, what does that mean for her? Has she just been repressing her… magic… for 3 years? If so, how does she unlock her powers again? Can she ever regain her powers?

She shakes off those thoughts. This is madness! Her mother wasn’t a superhero, she doesn’t have powers, and she just had an active imagination as a kid! This is insane. How can she even be thinking about this?

She sighs through her nose and starts packing up all of the stuff, not noticing how fast her hands are moving. She moves with almost unnatural speed…

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The rest of the day, she can’t get the box out of her head. The possibilities that it shows her- they can’t be ignored. They seem impossible, but the more she thinks about it, the more plausible it seems. Gemini reportedly retired in 2009, which is the year Hartley was born. Georgia did live in Centropolis before moving to Valley View with Hartley’s dad. She always loved rainy days, when the wind was blowing. There’s just so many things about her that now add up.

And now, she might’ve passed that onto Hartley.

Hartley is in the kitchen, cooking to take her mind off the box, and her mom. She’s stirring the pasta, when the tip of her finger hits the edge of the burning hot pot. She jumps back with a yelp, dropping the wooden spoon she was using to stir, and grabbing her finger with her other hand. She makes a series of pained noises, before suddenly-

Her right hand starts to glow yellow. Her left hand, the one with her burnt finger, starts to tingle. Her eyes widen, as the pain and redness on her finger starts to recede and dull.

“Holy, wow…”

She stares at her hand, flexing her fingers as the yellow aura fades. She tilts her head.

“Huh. Well, this is a development.”

Just then, the water starts boiling over. She jumps back into action, turning down the heat and stirring the water. As she stirs the water, the weight of what just happened starts to sink in.

She’s a healer.

She stirs the water faster. Inhumanly fast.

She has powers.

Her hand is a blur as her movements speed up.

And her mom was a superhero.

Water splashes everywhere, but her hand can’t stop moving. It’s a blur of motion. She looks down at it with wide eyes, her shirt sleeve getting soaked with hot water.

Aaaaand… now she has super speed.

She grabs her wrist in an attempt to stop her movements, and manages to slow to a stop. She breathes hard, trying to calm down. She turns off the stove, giving up on making food right now. She sits down at the table and puts her chin on her fists.

So, she has powers. That’s… uhm… interesting. Guess now she has to learn how to use them properly. Her healing power doesn’t seem destructive. I mean, how could it be. But her super-speed could be problematic. God, she wishes her mom was here to help her figure this all out… How can she go about her life now, knowing what she is? A superhuman. How can she ever tell Amy about this? “Hey Amy, how’s it going? Oh, by the way, I have superpowers, and my mom was an infamous superhero that probably tried to KILL your parents. But, anyways, haha, what’s up?”

No! She can’t tell Amy. It’ll just make things weird. This is HER secret.

Chapter Text

That night, Hartley is lying awake in bed. Her legs feel like they’re buzzing. She needs to move. She swings her legs over the edge of the bed, and takes a step. Instantly, her super-speed triggers, and she’s zipping down the hallway towards the backyard. She bursts out of the back doors, and runs laps around the backyard perimeter. She giggles giddily, her hair whipping in the air.

She runs laps for a few minutes, until she stops in the middle of the yard, panting and smiling lopsidedly. She lets out a breathless laugh.

“Is this what Colby feels like?”

She falls backwards onto the grass, putting her hands behind her head and looking up at the stars. What a weird day… It feels so good to use her powers. Like a part of her that she’s been restraining for ages is finally being let out. A missing piece of the puzzle.

She yawns, her lashes fluttering. She should really get back to bed…

She sits up, and gets to her feet. She walks back inside, and up to her room. When she climbs into bed, she finally manages to fall asleep.

—-

The next morning, she silently gets ready for school. She gets dressed in a yellow and black striped sweater, tan cargo pants, a bee jeans chain, and black boots. She walks to the kitchen and makes some toast, before grabbing her keys and going out to her car, in the garage. She drives to school in silence. She walks into school in silence. She goes to homeroom in silence.

It’s not until lunch that she talks.

Amy comes up to her, sitting down across from her and starting to talk.

Amy: “Mr. Monroe is KILLING me today. He gave me another F. Can you believe that?”

Hartley: “Not too shocking, seeing as you didn’t do the homework.”

Amy: “Supervillains don’t need homework.”

Hartley rolls her eyes, letting out a fond scoff. Amy tilts her head, studying her friend.

Amy: “You good, Hart? You seem a little… quiet today.”

Hartley: “Oh… uhm… I’m fine. I just didn’t get much sleep.”

Amy: “I have a monster, if you need some energy.”

Hartley: “No thanks, Ames. I prefer to keep my blood a normal color, and my heart beating at a normal pace.”

Amy: “Monster doesn’t change the color of your blood, dummy.”

Hartley: “Then why does it taste like battery acid?”

Amy: “you’re so dramatic.”

Hartley just scoffs again, and shakes her head. Amy studies her again.

Amy: “you sure you’re okay? You seem really off today.”

Hartley: “I’m fine. I just need some rest. I’ll be better tomorrow.”

But she wasn’t better tomorrow. Or the day after. She wasn’t even better the day after that. Her secret was eating her up inside. And while her powers did get easier to control, the urge to tell Amy was getting harder to resist.