HEROES CONTINUES…

VOLUME 6 – A BRAVE NEW WORLD

PROLOGUE

Hiro Nakamura, Manhattan

ONE YEAR IN THE FUTURE…

'Where did I fail?' Hiro was screaming out loud while he was running around in Manhattan. The ground was trembling under his feet, the windows of various buildings were breaking. Pieces of glass were raining down from the sky. People were panicking, everyone running in all directions, shoving each other in fear of the unexpected. Buildings were collapsing, some were falling down, creating dust and debris everywhere. Hiro stopped for a second in the midst of chaos to look up in the sky. His face froze dead once he had his eyes on the sky. He went pale, fear froze him so much he didn't even think of moving.

'It's starting already…' He mumbled to himself, simply shocked from the view. It was daytime and the sky was ripped in two. In the middle you could see the stars as if it was night, also there were red clouds like some unspeakable cosmic disaster was taking place in the far away space. As Hiro was troubled by the view, he quickly snapped out of it and continued to run across the streets of Manhattan. There were too many people in the open, some were crushed by falling debris from the buildings, others were blown out by explosions coming from the ground. It was hard for Hiro to even look at them, dying like that. He continued running, avoiding falling debris, also maneuvering through the cars left on the streets. As he was running, the ground started to break. Hiro stopped for a brief moment too see what was in store for him next. Suddenly, a massive earthquake happened and the ground started splitting in half toward Hiro. Not knowing what to do next, he quickly teleported on a rooftop, overlooking the city. Everything was horrible. Buildings continued collapsing, the ground continued to break, explosions were happening everywhere. Hiro quickly turned to see the Statue of Liberty and he was deeply disturbed by the view. The whole island was breaking and sinking, while the Statue of Liberty was collapsing.

'New York City. Capital of the Universe. Gone forever' Hiro mumbled to himself. He almost let a tear out, but quickly shook his head and continued to look for Ando. As he started running across the rooftop, the building quickly shook and started falling. Hiro quickly had his eyes set on a neighboring rooftop and before he hit the ground, he teleported in a heartbeat. As he teleported in mid fall, he hit hard on the neighboring rooftop. Hiro shook it off and continued to look for Ando. He teleported onto a couple of rooftops, until he located Ando. As he was getting ready to teleport to him, he threw another look upwards. Now, the sky was no longer a sky. Everything was black and all the stars where viewable. Hiro ignored the sky and teleported to Ando. As Hiro was approaching Ando, he could see what Peter and Ando were up to. Ando, using his supercharge ability, was powering Peter's telekinetic ability, while Peter had his hands opened up and pointed up to the sky, trying to create a force field over the city. Hiro approached both of them and started screaming at them.

'This is never going to work Peter! Please, I can go back! I can fix everything!' Hiro screaming in Peter's face.

'Pariah made himself clear. We risk changing everything we've accomplished to date. You can't be the hero, not this time Hiro!' Peter violently replied back.

'Where is Parkman, Gabriel, Pariah, the others ?' Hiro screamed back at Peter, meanwhile trying to figure out a way to prevent Armageddon.

'Matt and Gabriel are on the other side, doing the same thing we are doing! Pariah and the others…I don't know!' Peter turned away from Hiro, trying to focus on the force field.

'You really think this is going to work? Isn't there another way Peter, we only have a couple of minutes left!' Hiro again started screaming at Peter, hoping to change his mind.

'No! This is the only way. It has to be done like this. This is how it turns out and…' Before Peter could finish the sentence, a bright flash came far away from the sea. Then it suddenly exploded and burst out like a big approaching fire, heading straight for them, incinerating everything in its way. A second before reaching them, Hiro turned away, shut his eyes as hard as he could and then silence found him. As Hiro slowly opened his eyes, a feeling of relief got to him. He had teleported on the Deveaux building, one year back.

'Now, to find the others and warn them of the danger that awaits them.' Hiro mumbled that to himself and turned around. As he was about to teleport, he noticed a bird was in flight above him, but was not moving in the air. He quickly froze and discovered that another time traveler stopped time.

'Now Hiro, I thought we had an agreement!' A slick voice said that loud, with a soft and charming British accent. Hiro quickly turned to the pigeon coops and noticed that someone was hiding behind them.

'If it was an agreement, then why are you here too?' Hiro fired back with a uneasy question. The man behind the pigeon coop exposed himself, a tall figure with a frightening scar on the right side of his face, he had his hair cut not too short nor long, giving the appearance of a soft buzz cut. He was unshaved but had only a small amount of facial hair, his eyes were light brown, innocent looking but also intimidating. He wore a long black coat with a few not too big buttons, wool material. Also wore black jeans and black smart shoes on him. He had a black leather glove on his left hand. He was an intimidating figure, filled with mystery and authority at the same time. He approached Hiro, and eventually both of them were looking dead in each other's eyes.

'Now, I came here to assure that you don't screw up the timeline!' The man fired back as rudely as he could. 'I can see the future, you know?' He chuckled for a moment, and reached for his right coat pocket.

'So, you get to change the timeline and I get to die in the future? Why does everything always has to be about you?' Hiro jealously hissed at the man, readying his Kensei sword. The man pulled out a blue pack of Winston cigarettes and a Zippo lighter. He made the cigarette come out by itself from the pack and position itself on his lips and made the Zippo lighter float in mid air and made it light up his cigarette. Then he made the two floating objects, the pack and lighter, slowly to return to his right coat pocket.

'You don't scare me, Pariah!' Hiro said that, quietly with a doubt in his voice. As the man took a drag for the cigarette, he removed the cigarette from his lips and started holding it in his right hand. He exhaled the smoke in Hiro's face and smiled for a moment.

'Now why would I want to scare you, oh noble Hiro Nakamura?' He started to move away from Hiro, turned himself towards the city, he took in the view and took a short drag from the cigarette again.

'What did I ever do to you to treat me so disrespectfully like this?' He turned towards Hiro again, this time exhaling the smoke through the nose. 'There were times you used to call me Great One, Godsend, The One.' The man, again got into Hiro's face and looked him straight into the eyes.

'Heck, you even actually called me by my last name…God' He took a very long drag from the cigarette, almost finishing it. He then exhaled the smoke in Hiro's face once more. Hiro got disgusted by that and backed away from him a little. The man then made the cigarette float above the palm of his right hand and then he incinerated it to nothing. When he did that, he smiled and approached Hiro.

'I can't have you disturbing the timeline!' He put his hand on Hiro's shoulder. 'I'm sorry my noble friend, but this is the only way.' After he said that, he quickly made Hiro pass out and steading him in his arms.

'Now I'm gonna teleport you to a familiar place. A place you used to keep your childhood hero once.' As he said that, he closed his eyes and he teleported Hiro. He then took a big breath of air, and looked over his shoulder.

'I know you're there Peter! And yes, this is a dream about the future…'