Author's Note: Totally a Nathan-centric story. Pre-Heroes. I own nothing you recognize. And if you happen to be reading 'Hunted in the Public's Eye' Sorry I need to take a break from that '

ENJOY!

-----------------------------------------------------------

After graduating from the academy, each student is required at least two years in service. As much as he would have wanted to avoid that, it was impossible. He'd have to go overseas. Though he was able to bid himself some time with marrying his long-time girlfriend, and going on a honeymoon in the caribbean. At least he'd have some fun memories and suggestive pictures of his young wife while sleeping in those cold hard barracks.

Maybe it would not be as bad as he thought. He was in fact a pilot, how much trouble could he get into flying over the terrain of those hostile third-world countries? Saying good bye was hard. Well... Saying good bye to certain individuals was hard. Heidi, by far was the hardest, seriously they had been married not even a month now, and he was being shipped off half way cross the world for a peace-keeping mission. Peter was the second, trailing not far behind his young wife. He was a senior in high school, and was as much as a rebel against their father as ever. He took it suprisingly well since they had finally cooled it with the fighting and were actually bonding during this time period. His parents were as any parents were, worried, but proud at the same time. His mother worried, His father was proud.

And with that he was off to spend the next year or two in a hostile foreign country. With no connection aside from letters between his loved ones.

-----------------------------------------------------------

8 months later...

He was in a routine by now. Up by five am, tidy up his room, have a meager breakfast, and flying with hopes of returning that night to find letters from either Heidi or Peter. The only two who seemed to want to write to him, his parents were too busybut they wished him well, according to Peter.

He got out of his bunk with a yawn, swinging his feet over the edge of the bed and stretching. While getting dressed and his room cleaned in case of a suprise inspection by his superior, he caught glances at the pinboard on his desk, it was covered in the letters and pictures he had received recently. The most up-to-date on the home news was there, while the elder letters rested securely in the bottom drawer of his desk. Ready at any notice for him to re-read when he felt a little homesick.

After having breakfast he was off to his plane. He had been using the same one for the last four months, and the controls and gadgets were almost apart of himself now. It felt so natural for him to be in that cockpit. He even had two pictures taped into it, one of him and Heidi on their wedding day, and another of him and Peter...also on his wedding day.

"Petrelli!" Nathan stopped and turned around, finding his partner in crime, Alexander Raines. He smirked, The two only had been flying partners for a month now, but it was a great match. The two got along well, and seemed to be able to read each other without verbally expressing them when up in the air.

"Raines!" He called back, waiting for the younger man to catch up. "Ready for the sightseeing today?" Raines asked as he finally looked his arm around Nathans' neck from behind and starting to pull him into motion towards the two planes that they were using today.

"Of course." Nathan said, stealthfully pulling his arm around Alexs' neck, and quickly pulling him into a headlock. His flying partner was not only two years younger, but also an inch or two shorter than Nathan himself. It was easy for him to put Alex into a headlock, when horsing around before they had to take to the skies. Raines struggled, laughing, as Nathan ruffled his short dark brown hair a bit.

"Hey now." Alex cried while laughing. Nathan let go in good humor as they reached the first of the two planes. "Your chariot awaits you." Petrelli smirked, as he watched Alex move towards it. Nathan moved past it and went to his own plane.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary today.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Soaring around in the sky was the ultimate high for Nathan. In the air he had nothing else to think about, only focusing on what he needed to do in the air. The speed of the plane, and the movements were so elegant, the whole pilot gig was such a perfect fit for him.

"Raines, Anything out of the ordinary over there?" He called through the radio that connected the two pilots together from their planes and to the base.

"Nah, Let's go home." Alex returned. They had been roaming around now, making their track flight to spot for anything suspicious, around their designated area. Nathan could agree with Alex's sentiment, wanting to return to the base now. Nothing was going on.

Whistle. Crackle. Crunch.

"What was that?" Nathan asked, a note of worry hidden beneath his bewilderment as he felt his right wing give a little, causing a bit of turbulence. He regained balance of the plane for a second, long enough to peer outside the side window to see a smoking bullet hole in his plane. He eyed up Raines' plane and saw a bullet pierce his left wing.

"We're being shot at!" Raines screeched, trying to obtain control of his plane. The two shots were not solitary though, within seconds they heard more of the unsettling noises. Both planes were being shot at, and actually taking damage.

Nathan went into autopilot, punching and holding down the button that controlled the guns on his plane, firing in the direction he hoped the shots were being fired on. His partner began to do the same.

"We need to get out of here!" Nathan growled through the radio system over to Raines. Both planes beginning to take heavy damage.

As Nathan was about to jetison towards the base, and get there as quickly as he could handle, his engine catch fire, billowing smoke into his line of sight, making it impossible to see, impossible to correct his alinement , anything. He felt the whole metal contraption and himself starting to take a nose dive, one he knew he couldn't correct himself from.

"Shit!" He cried over the the radio, more for himself then anything else as he helplessly tried to fix the problem, but failing uselessly.

"I'm going down!" He growled as the smoke was blinding his vision so any attempt of softening the impact was nearly out of the question. All he could do was prepare himself for it.

-----------------------------------------------------------

He snapped his eyes open in a panic taking in a deep breath. A breath of smoke instead of oxygen. He coughed and glanced around, the cockpit was at least ten times hotter then it had been, at this rate he'd burn alive. In a hasty move he quickly pulled himself from the seatbelts and slammed his hand into the top release button.

He cried in pain as the button was so hot that it left an angry burn in the center of his palm, and it didn't work either. He continued to cough, his eyes watering from the smoke as he basically stood up, thrusting his back into the glass in an attempt to open it.

The glass was intorably hot too, but at least he hit it hard enough with his back to pop it open. He fell out of the cockpit with his dwindling energy, lack of oxygen in his lungs, and the recent burns on his hand and back.

Nathan hit the ground and rolled away from the smoking plane. He gasped for the fresh cold air, taking it in with the idea that it might be taken away from him once again.

Once he regained some sense to look at his plane, the flames had engulped it. His eyes widened in shock, knowing full well it was going to blow soon. He scrambled to turn around and find somewhere to take cover. He sprinted as quickly as he could.

Ka-Boom.

He cried in agony as he was blown face first into the ground. He felt a piece of metal lodge itself deeply into the back of his left thigh. Before he could even process the explosion in his mind, everything went black.