DESCRIPTION: After the explosion, the earth became a very dark place. A place where people with special abilities would be hunted, imprisoned, killed, or enslaved to the Organization. Burdened down by guilt and hunted as the most dangerous terrorist of all, Peter Petrelli would never be the same again. Don't save the cheerleader, condemn the world. Hiro has one last chance to atone for his mistake…
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I rewrote this first chapter and I hope my exploring of the Five Years Gone bomb future is interesting and somewhat accurate. I really loved that episode (from the first season) and how everyone became such a badass! It'll be fun diving into how they became so hardened and how Hiro and Peter still try to save it :D
And I will translate Hiro in future chapters as he makes America his abode. I just for once wanted to reflect the original Japanese as much as I could while he was still his normal dorky self and not the badass who is considered "a terrorist".
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Episode 0: PROLOUGE-The Explosion
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*HIRO NAKAMURA, SOMEWHERE NEAR KIRBY PLAZA, NYC*
His grip tightened on the katana. His hands were slick with sweat and his heart was beating as noisily as a million horses galloping. This was by far the biggest event in his life. A life that had been spent, when not in an office cubicle at his father's Yamagato Industries, in the world of manga and movies, or as a few buddies had rudely put: as an otaku. He remembered when he used to carry a toy katana with him everywhere he went when he was a child, for fun. But this time, this was not for fun-it was the real deal. He'd be the hero or just another failure. He may have had never killed a man before but he had to now. The fate of the world depended on this moment. This action. This katana.
With determination steeling him to face the villain and make the kill he almost felt like the reincarnated Kensei Takezo-his beloved childhood hero who had single-handedly saved all of Japan. And now it was the humble Nakamura Hiro's turn. By taking the villain and monster Sylar down, he would save New York City from going Hiroshima. He'd sworn on the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, the very thing he was named after, that he'd not let an explosion of that magnitude and great number of people die again, and he intended on keeping his oath. He, by killing Sylar, would stop the explosion from ever happening. It was his sole mission and purpose in life; else why else would he have been granted the powers of teleportation and time manipulation?
The Time Traveler held the ancient samurai katana pointed at Sylar, who only sneered at the action. The villain's hands were aglow, as he no doubt was relishing his new powers that he'd just stolen from Ted. Hiro could feel the heat radiating from those blood-stained hands. If he didn't stop Sylar now, that heat would get hot enough in nuclear power to explode. This was it-now was the time!
"Shini!" Hiro cried as he swung the blade. Sylar, still smiling with that sick grin of his, stopped the blade midair with his mind.
"Nice try, little man," Sylar chuckled. "But you can't do anything to stop me."
Hiro hissed as his blade was held firm by the invisible force, as if it was stuck in a wall of cement. He would have to press through! He couldn't afford to be stopped.
"You may have power," Hiro declared in a thick Japanese accent, "but so do I!"
His brow knotted and the veins in his neck bulged as he squeezed his eyes shut to focus. When the background nighttime noise of the city suddenly became dead silent he opened his eyes to reveal that he had frozen time. Wrenching his katana free from Sylar's telekinetic grip he thought, 'Now, to finish this!'
"Yatta," he called as just as Sylar broke through the frozen time the katana went strait through his chest. The dark-haired villain gasped as he fell back, clutching the katana which's tip was now dripping blood. Hiro watched emotionlessly as Sylar gnashed his teeth together from the pain. Seeing the villain who had killed many, and the sweet innocent Charlie, suffer Hiro could only whisper "It is finished," as he turned to leave.
Sylar let out a loud and crude laugh, which nearly made Hiro jump as it wasn't the sound he expected from a man on Death's Door. Hiro slowly turned around to witness Sylar proceed to pull the katana from his chest, with a malicious glare towards him all the while. Then Sylar's lips curled back into a sardonic smile.
"It's just too bad. You see, I met the nicest girl in Odessa. She granted me a very special gift the night of her Homecoming."
Hiro watched in horror as the hole in Sylar's chest began to close up. The skin reformed completely, making it appear as if he had never been impaled in the first place.
"Nani!?" he cried out. 'He healed himself! He should be dead though!' Hiro's heart, again, raced. He didn't know what to do! He had come expecting to take down this man by that katana! The fact Sylar could regenerate was a terrible variable that Hiro wasn't prepared for.
Sylar stood up, and held out his hand, his fingers pointed toward Hiro as he normally held them when he was about to slice a victim's head open. "You have a unique gift too. It's really wasted on a tiny, pathetic man like you, though. I'll just be taking it."
'No!' Before Hiro could even think of what to do, he did what came natural. He teleported from danger.
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*PETER PETRELLI-KIRBY PLAZA, NYC*
Peter Petrelli squeezed his shaking fists so tight his hands were bleeding. Such monstrous power was radiating from him he lost control of his legs and found the street rising up to greet him. Scorching hot unbearable pain started ripping into him as it threatened to take over. He curled up in pain as he clenched his teeth in attempt to stifle his screams. His body began to glow ten-fold, evidence of the explosion that was about to happen.
"NO!" he screamed. This shouldn't to be happening! Sylar was supposed to be the cause of the explosion-not him! The heat grew more ferocious. Again Peter screamed as he tried to stop the explosion from forming. He could feel blood drip from his nose just from the strain alone of trying to suppress the nuclear power inside him. Why couldn't he stop it!? WHY!?
A few pedestrians seeing him on the street practically writhing rushed towards him.
"Sir! Are all right!?"
"Someone call an ambulance!"
Their voices washed through him but he couldn't make out much else of what they were actually saying under his stress. The only thing he could do was yell, "NO! Get away from me! RUN!"
A few more shouts for them to leave, along with terrorist threats mixed to get it in their thick heads that he was practically a WALKING BOMB and he was finally given his much needed space. They ran away screaming, believing him to be a suicide bomber attacking New York out of maliciousness-far from the truth.
Of course even if they ran from him now they'd still die. Everyone in this part of the city would die. Millions would die. He bit his lip when the power inside him started to emit more heat. His worst nightmare was happening. How many times he'd woken up screaming when dreaming of the explosion going off…How he had tried to fight back by training to control all the different abilities he had received. All the BS he had put up with from the invisible man, Claude, to train which had included being pushed off a tall building which hadn't exactly felt good but it did help him to learn to summon different powers. Even so, it hadn't been good enough. He couldn't take it anymore! It was beyond his control.
All he ever wanted was to be was the hero! He didn't ask to be the murderous villain-how could Angela and Linderman even have planned such a thing!? And worse yet Nathan, his brother, was in on it! "It's only .07% of the world's population," Nathan had said. Why had he become so blind and easy for Linderman and their mother to manipulate?! And why couldn't Peter have reasoned with him! Peter had stayed in NY believing in his brother and believing he could stop Sylar but that had been his biggest mistake of all. It turns out Nathan, like usual, was only using him. It was sick. Peter had never asked to be a part of Linderman's plan! Salty tears came to Peter's eyes. He couldn't stop it!
"Oh God, NO!" With one last scream he felt the radiation inside him exploded and everything went white then faded into a dark black abyss. When he woke, the world would never be the same again.
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*HIRO NAKAMURA-ISAAC'S LOFT, NYC*
When he appeared in Isaac's loft he stared out the broken window confused. He couldn't see anything but dust…What was going on? Coughing in attempt to clear his lungs he stepped back and tried to find Ando. If anyone ever knew anything it was Ando. Ando would know what to do about Sylar healing…or maybe Hiro had just been dreaming or hallucinating-whatever it was Ando would fix it somehow as he always had.
"Ando-kun! Watashi-" he stopped seeing his friend nowhere in the apartment. A feeling of dread began to creep up on Hiro. Still not seeing Ando anywhere the realization that then hit him scared Hiro more then anything on earth could-even more then Sylar. Ando hadn't been with him when he'd teleported! Which meant he was….
He rushed to the window again, ignoring the fiery heat and awful smoke. It couldn't be! The explosion had-No! 'Calm down, calm down. He's safe!'
He ran outside holding a towel to his mouth and tried to find any survivors. This area of New York was bad but it had still made it. It had not been the center-if it had everything would be completely gone. A few people were laid about, some dead, others just hurt but none of them were Ando. After helping a person from of a pile of rubble he circled around again for Ando. But Ando wasn't there.
No no no! He had to go back and save him with his time travel! Suddenly the memory of Charlie came to mind. He'd been unable to save her from her death even when he had went back in time…..A tear slid down his cheek. He couldn't change fate and play God. But…what good was he if he couldn't even save his friend? There had to be a way somehow. There had to!
How could he have failed? Why? He wasn't a hero but the reason that explosion still went off. On that thought he closed his eyes and focused. There still had to be a way…some hope-he just had to find it. He didn't care how many years it took but he WOULD find a way to atone for his failure. And he'd find a way to save the world. No matter what. Or he'd die trying.
Something changed Hiro Nakamura that day. A grim maturity was born. What once was the shy and funny man became the grim and morbid adult. He became ice cold and hard. A person that had been barely unable take another man's life before but would now do so many times over again to protect those who needed him. This wasn't the time for fun anymore. Life was harsh and cruel. It was war.
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*Dr. MOHINDER SURESH & NATHAN PETRELLI.*
Suresh stared up at the TV screen with his eyes stricken in horror, as the images of New York's recent and greatest devastation started showing. The morbid screen revealed how much chaos had broken loose with the fires and rubble. The list of the dead was ridiculously long and would only grow the more bodies they found. Pure hell had been unleashed. Such tragic devastation and above all else: such fear.
"My God," he whispered. He remembered doing the very same thing, watching the news of the tragic attack for September 1st, 2001 but this…. The 9/11 attack was devastating and still remembered to this day-how much more so would this explosion be? The world and its people…they'd never be the same again. He looked to Nathan who watched the screen with a frown on his face.
"People like Sylar need to be stopped for this very reason," the politician mumbled.
Sylar? What did Sylar hope to gain by doing this? Mohinder couldn't but help wonder.
Nathan sighed as he flipped his cell-phone open and speed dialed a number. Whoever he'd called picked up on the first ring. "Find Peter," he ordered severely to the person on the end of the phone. "Bring him here. Now…"
There was a quick pause. Nathan's frown deepened. "I don't care-bring him no matter what-even if he refuses."
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Hopefully this is okay-I'll try writing better next time and make it interesting. Next time:
EPISODE 1-Welcome back Peter and hello Elle.