Chapter One: Flashing Lights

Central Park, New York City

"My name is Claire Bennet, and this is attempt number... I guess I've kind of lost count."

The pretty blonde stood still. A brief gust of wind blew her long hair and she brushed it out of her face. She used the sleeve of her jacket to wipe dirt from her face as she listened to the roar of questions from the crowd in front of her.

Flashing Lights…

That's all she could see in front of her. The lights from the cameras in front of her were blinding and she felt overwhelmed. She put her arm up in front of her eyes to block the lights. Taking a few steps back she felt so overwhelmed. She opened her mouth to speak.

"Please", she muttered, "give me a little space." Shockingly enough, the crowd seemed to listen to her. They backed up a few inches and she put her arms down. She took a deep breath.

"My name is Claire Bennet and my body can heal itself," she said. She opened her mouth to speak again, but she was grabbed from the back by a firm hand. She turned and saw it was her father.

"Come on Claire," he said. The news crews and reporters watched them, still yelling questions and trying to get their attention.

"Daddy, they have questions. I have to-" she tried, but she felt her father grab her with more force than he had ever used before. If she could feel pain, she'd be hurting right now.

"You've done more than enough for a lifetime Claire," he said. He turned to the cameras and with a booming voice yelled, "NO COMMENT!"

They walked over to a small car where Lauren was already in the front seat with the doors open for them. No sooner had they closed the doors, the car was swamped with reporters all taking pictures.

"I can barely see anything," Lauren said. "All those damn flash bulbs going off."

"Just drive," said Noah. He looked in the mirror and saw Claire staring out the window. "Anywhere."

They closed the door and as they pulled out, Claire rolled down her window. "I'm not the only one!" she yelled loudly.

The car sped away quickly, out of central park and as far away from the carnival as possible. They spotted a couple of News Vans following them but they didn't worry about it. It seemed like hours before anyone said anything, although it was only a few minutes.

"What are you going to do?" asked Lauren quietly. "Claire, what made you do that?"

"I'm tired of living a lie!" she said. She snapped from her daze quickly. "I just want to live a normal life and not have to hide who I am."

"But Claire, you've…exposed yourself to the world," Lauren said.

"Not just yourself Claire!" Noah finally spoke. "Did you even think of anyone else? What about Peter or Hiro or anyone else with Powers? What if they didn't want to be exposed on national television?!"

"I didn't expose anyone daddy," she said. "They know about me and that's it."

"Oh Claire," Noah said and something in his voice broke. "I was trying to protect you from the world! Bad things happen when they find out about you. You've started a modern day witch hunt. You think your life is going to be normal? You think people are going to leave you alone after they find out you can jump from 10 stories and not die? Remember that I didn't choose this life for you Claire." There wasn't anger in his voice. He sounded like a man whose heart had been broken.

Another silence filled the car. "Where are we going?" asked Claire. At that same moment, Noah's phone began to ring.

"Bennet," he answered. Claire couldn't hear the voice on the other end. "Ok. I understand." He hung up the phone. "Lauren, make a left up here. We need to go to the upper East Side."

"Why?"

"Claire's grandmother had a dream," he said.

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Central Park, New York City

"We need to get out of here before they leave," Peter said to Sylar. "Once the attention is off of Claire, they're gonna want to question anyone who was here."

Sylar seemed perplexed by the whole thing, but he agreed. He felt Peter grab his arm. "Where are we going?"

"I know a place," Peter said. He jumped up in the air and never came down. Sylar followed. The two were able to head away quickly into the night sky before anyone else could notice.

Back on the ground, Hiro and Ando stood ready to leave.

"Hiro," Ando said quickly. "We must get out of here, quickly!"

"Yes," said Hiro, gathering himself quickly. "Where to?"

"I don't know," he said. "Anywhere but the park." Hiro grabbed Ando and with no sound, the pair vanished.

The stunned reporters all looked at one another and quickly got back to their reporting.

"Coming to you, live from Central Park. This is Christine Gilbert with Fox 5 News. We have just witnessed…something amazing. A young girl named Claire Bennet just jumped from the roof of a Ferris wheel and not only survived but healed right in front of us. Who is this girl? And are there others like her? Fox 5 and the rest of the world is waiting and watching to find out the rest of the answers."