"Then why isnt he here? he caught me in a prank he NEVER leaves without punishing me. You even agreed id end up killing someone. You were right, I am a monster. I killed lance" her voice firm, unwavering
bonnie looks at rock "I dont think She can be saved.... not without lance being here..... since He was the one she thinks she killed"
Janet shot a firm look over at Bonnie. “ I’m not going to pretend to even like you at all but I advise you to keep your mouth close if you can’t think of any logical reason to speak. This child is going through something and you are doubting we can help her. Besides Bonnie. Bonnie is it? I don’t need you playing Captain obvious.” Janet turned back to face Rock. “ People make mistakes Rock. Rock Lance lost his son just a few months ago. Who isn’t to say he is trying to deal with it? He stills love you just maybe had to go protect you without you knowing. Most of all I never said that Rock in the sense your using it. We are super powered beings. Most of us here can kill each other, that doesn’t make you a monster. Your power doesn’t nor does your personality. Your just lost right now.”
"I believe Bonnie is right, Janet. Lance and Lucian were the only one's who held her together. They kept her in line and she was stable when they were around. She does seem to far gone for anyone to help. Mentally, magically or psychologically.
"We are not equipped to handle a situation like this. Her mental stabilty is virtually non-exsistent. Coupled with that and the fact that her powers responds to her emotions, she is too dangerous to stay at the school. She needs to be sent somewhere that is capable of handling Rock in her current state. Any suggestions?"
He looked at Katt with a pained expression.
~PART 1~
At that moment, the binding spell drained the last of Rock's energy, causing her to fall into a deep sleep. "She will be okay. She is only resting. I will personally investigate this institution to see if it will be able to cater to Rock's personal need. I have to admit, I am not sure what they will be able to do considering that they will not be able to give her the one thing that she so desperately craves."
"I totally agree with you, Ben, but we have to do something," Bonnie said. "She's going to pieces."
"She's already in pieces," Katt quipped.
"Granted, but you know what I mean, Katt."
Katt rolled her eyes in response and Ben cleared his throat. "If we can continue, please? Bonnie, what is the name of the place you have in mind?"
"It's called Middleton Institute. It’s for the mentally unhinged. Their slogan, not mine. They specialize in treating super humans who are seen as dangerous and unstable."
"How do they treat people," Sam asked. Regardless of her distaste for Rock, she didn't like the idea of the teachers just handing her off to some crazy house without the knowledge of what they did to their patients to make them uncrazy.
"They have specialized technology and government trained psychologists and doctors to take care of patients," Bonnie replied.
"But what do they do, exactly," Sam pressed. "You guys can't just send Rock to some place no one knows anything about."
"You're right," Janet agreed. "But what are we supposed to do with her? Let her run around the school so she can try to kill the rest of you? You felt what she just did. She tried to bury us all in the one place that never turned its back on her. She attacked me. I offered her help and she threw it in my face."
"I don't know what you're supposed to do with her, but I don't think it’s smart to send her off to the nut house," Sam retorted.
"Well you were not asked in the first place, girl. You should learn how to stay in a child’s place. You aren't a hero and you're not even on Strike Force."
"But I am," Hitosu proclaimed. "And I think what Sam is trying to say is that before you guys ship Rock off somewhere, you should at least research the place." Sam nodded in agreement.
"That's what we're trying to discuss, kid," remarked Katt. "But you two are jumping to conclusions that no one has made yet."
Ben could tell that this was going to turn into an unnecessary and useless argument. "I think the teachers need to discuss this matter amongst ourselves. And when that is done, we will ask for the input of Strike Force. Rock is still a member and her team should have a say in what happens to her. In the mean time, finals are less than a week away and you two need to study. You should get that done,” Ben said, dismissing the two.
The day was drawing to a close and they all needed to wind down. Getting kidnapped and having to fight their own worst fears had many of them on edge. Having Rock lose herself didn’t make things any easier. As stated, Ben and the rest of the teachers would discuss the matter as a whole and then see how Strike Force felt about it. But Ben would have Bonnie research the school more. Sam and Hitosu were right; Rock couldn’t just be shipped off to some unknown place for an indefinite amount of time. What if Lance and Lucian never came back? That would mean that Rock would never get better and Ben didn’t want her to just rot away in some institute.
After dismissing Janet and Bonnie and teleporting Rock to the med lab with Tech and Blayze, Ben and Katt returned to their room with no intention and motivation to continue what they had started.
~CONCLUSION~
A week later, Rock was gone. At Ben's behest, Bonnie dug up as much info on Middleton Institute as she possibly could. The place was established back in 1968 by a woman named Sahara Middleton. It was a normal hospital, specializing in treating patients suffering from dementia until a man named Joseph Fitzwater checked himself in claiming that he was seeing things that haven't happened yet.
Assuming that he was just a schizophrenic patient, the nurses and doctors gave him medicine that virtually numbed his mind. This continued until he predicted the start of the Korean War. The doctors and nurses didn't know what to make of it. Shortly after the news of Joseph's prediction got out, other super humans started to come to the hospital, asking if the doctors and nurses could help them with their abilities, as well. Not wanting to turn away anyone, the hospital brought in biologists and scientists to see if they could help any of the people.
After various tests, they came up with a power suppressor that slowed down the neural patterns which activated the abilities of super humans. It was widely received by the few super human patients who knew of the institute until signs of mental decomposition were discovered.
Instead of slowing down neural patterns, it slowly made the brain shut down. Most of the super humans began to die. It was kept quiet and the production of the power suppressor was canceled. The hospital returned to its original station as treating simple dementia cases.
More than a decade later, new cases of super human patients and the power suppressor began to surface. It appeared that Middleton Institute had continued to produce new forms of the suppressor and test them on patients wanting to give up their abilities. They became more successful in nullifying powers while keeping the patients alive. There were still a few records of failed attempts but the success far outweighed the failure.
Able to keep its true mission a secret, the institute became known in the superhuman world as the go to place to detain the super powered criminals and mentally unstable. And now it was Rock's new home.
She was in the care of Dr. Halstine Pockerwitz, Ph. D and Dr. Elaine Bjork, MD. Their job was to diagnose and treat Rock for her depression and denial and to try to get her to become more trustworthy and easy to be around. When Janet and Bonnie, along with Vixen and DJ took her to the institute, she was distant and shut off. She didn't say a word and there was a vacant look in her eyes.
He didn't trust the power suppressor, so Ben bound her powers himself. He didn't want Rock to be a danger to her doctors or any other patients and he put a protection spell over, as well, so no other patients could be of harm to her. It went against everything the teachers felt was right to leave her in that place and most of Strike Force didn't want her to go, although they felt that something needed to be done about her.
Graduation was a week later and some of Strike Force was leaving the school. Naomi, Francois, Liam and the other members that were graduating expressed to the teachers that they didn't know what to do out in the real world. The teachers had no idea what was to become of them, either. They never really graduated from the school, themselves, so there was a blank slate that needed to be filled with the official graduates.
Katt said to them, "You guys are the future in this dangerous, threatened and hateful world. I know it sounds cliché but it’s still true. The world only knows so much about super humans and there aren’t really a lot of people out there who risk their lives for the rest of the world. I'm not asking you guys to do that because that would be unfair. But I am saying that you guys would be the best ones for the job. You have the training, the experience, the courage and the smarts.
"But the most important factor that qualifies you for the job is your souls. When you see that woman being attacked, can you ignore it? When that house is burning, will you just stare? Someone walks into the bank that you're in and starts waving a gun. He yells, 'Everyone on the floor!' Do you get down or do you show him that he picked the wrong day to rob a bank?
"You have power. Don't waste it trying to figure out what to do with it. Make a decision and stick to it. There's this saying. I don't know if I'm saying it right, but it goes something like; some people are born into greatness. Some people achieve greatness. But some people have greatness thrust upon them. What are you guys going to do with the greatness you're holding in your hands?"
After that, the school year was over. Some of the graduates kept in contact with the school and the heroes but it was a calm summer. That's when the new people started to show up. New superhuman teens were coming out of the wood works wanting to attend the school. But what made the teachers and heroes reel was when superhuman adults started to request a place in the school.
The heroes didn't know what to do. They didn't believe in turning away anyone that asked for help and genuinely needed it but there just wasn't any room or enough teachers to accommodate everyone. That was when they called in a few favors curtsey of their strained but solid relationship from the government. They requested more schools like theirs be built because there were more super humans than they were able to help. After several extensive give-and-take meetings, it was decided that there would be another school built. But that would have to wait until it could be proven that the school and new students could be protected.
In order for this to be proven, the government put Special Agent Bryce Yarborough in charge of remodeling the school. When it was completed, the school was twice the size it originally was; it had double the classrooms and training centers; three new dorm rooms were built to hold the new students; and a slew of teachers and government trained “coaches” were brought in to relieve the heroes so they could focus more on protecting the school and all of it’s students. After all, there were super humans from all over the world coming to the school. More than one government was involved in the matter. The success of the program depended on how well the heroes could keep everything and everyone safe.
They had every intention to prove themselves worthy of such a task.
THE END