Gabriel Grey woke up surrounded by insects. This, of course was nothing new. He had been for over four months now. But this was different. They wanted to show him something. Maybe he would meet their master. He trusted the insects more then he had ever trusted anyone. Except, of course, for his mom. The insects had rescued him when he was too weak to do it himself. They had cared for him. He followed them down Tunnel Five."
From another tunnel the boy watched. The boy waited. He knew that things were going to come to a head again very soon. And so he called on the shadows.
Peter Petrelli was having an even worse time of things then the shadow boy. He was tired, hungry, and covered in sores. Oh yes, and he was dying from suffocation in the Atlantic.
His brother Nathan was slightly better off albeit several thousand miles away. At least he was on land. However, there was no sign of intelligent life, unless you count the lizard that ran by him earlier in the day.
Nathan Petrelli, politician and NY State Senator, was stranded in a desert in Africa.
Now, to his credit, he had miraculously survived for quite a while considering his nonexistent wilderness survival skills.
Even so, he was going crazy from the lack of people to make speeches too. He could see no way out of the mess he was in, and it became even more stressful when he started having hallucinations about the shadows. There happened to be a lot of shadows in the desert, due to the sunlight, but he could have sworn one of them spelled out his name a second ago. "Aw crap" he thought. "This is gonna put a damper on my career as a Congressman."
"Nathan," the shadows said. "You need to fly now. Go back." Nathan was not at all surprised that the shadow knew about his power. It was, after all, an illusion created by his own mind. "If you know you're hallucinating, you're not." said the shadows.
"You can read my thoughts?"
"No. Your shadow told me. Now fly back to New York. They need you there."
"I can't." said Nathan. His brain couldn't even register this. Either he had snapped, or this was another "special" talking to him. "My abilities haven't worked in months"
"Oh, do you need a push? Let me help with that." If Nathan didn't know better, he could swear that the shadow of the nearby cactus had taken on the shape of a hand, risen out of the ground, and flicked him like a booger. Ah well. He'd thank the shadow when he saw it again. But for now... Time to fly again. And get a new suit.