Claire Bennet
Peter Petrelli's Apartment
It seemed so long ago, that she watched her new found family fly into the air and explode. Claire sighed, taking a seat on the balcony overlooking the city. So much has changed since then; she's barely had time to process it.
It all started with the arrival of her biological father, Nathan Petrelli, flying in out of nowhere and taking Peter. By the time Nathan landed, the media was swarming over the area, looking for a missile silo. What they found was so much more dangerous. Nathan talked his way into being a hero, and accepted the position of the director of a new government agency to deal with these sorts of threats two weeks later. The first thing he did was hire Mohinder Suresh to head the research division and Noah Bennet, her adopted father, to head the special operations.
Within weeks, the Agency had offices around the world, accepting others like them, offering them jobs and comfort. Of the first who came to the Agency was a woman named Arianna Hetford. She had a talent for healing, and took on the two men who were injured at Kirby Plaza. Both of them were now back on their feet, with barely visible scars.
Matt Parkman became the Agency's first agent, tackling the case of Sylar, who went missing. He also adopted Molly Walker, and the two live in Dr. Suresh's old apartment. They've formed an odd family, which is good, considering her family was killed by Sylar and his wife divorced him. Two months after the events at Kirby Plaza, Matt got his first partner, Bartholomew Ridge, a massive British man with enhanced strength.
DL Hawkins started a job as a city fireman, and he and his son, Micah Sanders, live two blocks away. His wife, Nikki Sanders, went missing sometime after he made it to the hospital. Claire often watched Micah, even though he's probably smarter than she.
Nathan put her up in Peter's old place, saying he'd like to see her when she got back. It was the first argument between Nathan and Noah. The two often struggle over to where Claire should be. Her relationship with Noah has become strained since she preferred to stay in New York and wait for Peter to return, and he wanted her to return to Odessa.
Claire's relationship with Nathan has grown little. He kept her updated with the search for Peter, and little else. There seemed to be a great deal of tension when she's with him. She understood. She reminded him of Peter, and despite wanting to get to know Claire, he couldn't help keep distant from someone who kept reminding him of very thing he believed he lost.
Claire sighed again, wishing Peter would just come back. She stood up, listening to the rock music being played loudly by her neighbor. She would say something if the man didn't creep her out. He was covered in tattoos of dragons and smelled of smoke. His hair was the color of his eyes, grey. All in all, he was just creepy, and she was a little scared. So, she blocked it out.
Stepping inside, she heard a new sound, which was that of clicking keys. Micah was here for the night, and was already away on his computer. He sat, staring intently at as his laptop, his face illuminated. "Hey, Claire," he said, distantly.
"Hey, Micah," she said, smiling a little at him. He, too, had gifts. Micah could communicate with technology, and he was great help when something broke around here. "If you would tear yourself away for a minute, I'd like to know what you want to eat tonight."
"Whatever's fine with me," he said, glancing her way. "You should check this site out. I think you'd like it." She sat down behind him, looking at the screen. "It's like MySpace, but for people like us."
Two chat windows were open on his screen, one with messages from a 'Compass' and the other from a 'Viral', and in the background, she could see his profile. He called himself Technon. "Who are you talking to?" She asked, concerned.
He pointed to of the chat boxes, the one from Compass. "This one is Molly Walker. You know her. The other is a guy from Canada who has the same powers as me, only advanced. He says he can build devices for just about anything! He works for Mohinder."
"How do you know he works for Mohinder?"
"He told me to contact him," Micah said, a little exasperated.
Claire's smile grew. "How about pizza?" Micah nodded, once again becoming absorbed his laptop. She picked up the phone and stepped into Peter's room. In a way, the explosion was a good thing. It brought people like her together. Without it, she never would have known Micah or DL, or any of the other people surfacing. Still, she would have to tell DL about this Viral guy. There was just too big of risk that this guy could be a pervert or, worse, like Sylar.
She shuddered a little at the thought of the man who once hunted her and killed a fellow cheerleader because he thought that she was Claire. The same man faced off against everyone at Kirby Plaza. She tried to shrug it away and called the pizza place. She knew she'd be having nightmares again tonight.
Kit Frost
New York City, New York
He stepped into the building as if he knew everything would change after this. He could always tell what would happen, and it worried him greatly. Kit was tall, blonde, relatively good looking, and in great shape. You had to be in his line of work. He walked up to the woman at the counter. Without looking up, she said, "Welcome to the Hart Center. How may I help you?"
"Christopher Frost, here to take the test," he said, hoping she wouldn't ask him to be more specific. Everyone else in his unit took the test and had been cleared. If he didn't he would be ostracized, outcast, and possible kicked out of the armed forces. He prayed he'd be cleared, but he felt otherwise.
She didn't ask him to be more specific, and he wondered if she'd been cleared. She was extremely sexy, and he'd like to ask her out, but again, he knew what would happen if he was seen with one of them. Instead, she asked him to a wait a moment, picked up the phone, and said, "Frost here for the appointment." When she was finished, she hung up and said, "Dr. Crane will be with you in a moment."
He'd barely sat down when he stood again; sure that a moment was really all would take. Sure enough, around the corner walked a tall thin man with graying hair and wire framed glasses. He stuck his hand out. "Dr. Crane, I presume."
The man nodded. "I'd ask how you know, but I think the answer is as plain as the name on my shirt." He gestured towards his name tag. Frost nodded, but he never saw the tag. "If you would, follow me."
Dr. Crane led the man down the hallway to an examination room. Frost sat on the bed and rolled up his sleeve, knowing that they took blood to do the test. Dr. Crane looked a bit surprised that Kit knew what he was going to do, but said nothing. After all, numerous people had taken the test. Surely, he could've gotten this information anywhere. He filled his syringe and excused himself.
Frost sighed, begging with whatever higher power was listening for the test to come back negative. It wasn't that he had anything against those people; it's what his unit thought that mattered. He'd never be given a moments peace, with all the taunts. They wouldn't leave him alone until he quit, and Frost was never a man who quit for any amount of resistance.
There was the nagging feeling in his stomach, though. He just knew that it would come back positive. The same way he'd known about the ambushes that almost took the lives of the men in his unit. He'd saved them that day because of a gut feeling, and his gut was never wrong. Damn gut, he thought to himself. If for one day he could be wrong, he hoped it would be this day.
Nathan Petrelli and Noah Bennet
Kirby Plaza, New York, NY
The office was filled with silence. It hurt a lot for Nathan to walk in here everyday, but it was a great place for the Agency Headquarters. For many with gifts, Kirby Plaza symbolized the place where the time for hiding ended. For Nathan, however, it was when his old life ended. Heidi could only take so much but, God bless her, she was still with him. She still had yet to learn of Claire.
That pissed off Noah, the only one in the Agency with constant contact with him. Noah demanded daily that he spill the beans to Heidi. If she's going to leave you over it, then she'll do it just as quick then as she will now, he'd say. He was right, Nathan admitted to himself and to himself only. He was just waiting for Peter. He and Claire both were, and that was the underlying issue between him and Noah. Noah was ready to accept the fact that Peter most likely died in the explosion, but Claire believed that if she could survive Ted Sprague, then he could survive his own version of the man.
Noah had yet to start on him today, but Nathan knew it was coming. He hadn't missed a day yet, why would he start now. But Noah just nodded to him and left.
Nathan starred at the window at the skyline of New York, thinking about Peter, the same thing he did everyday for four months. Maybe it was time to change his beliefs. It'd been four months and there was no sign of Peter anywhere. Even Molly couldn't find him, and he asked her every week. There was nothing, except for the resources being used to try and find him. Resources better spent elsewhere, fighting the new threats that seem to pop up daily.
Threats like Nikki Sanders, who has been declared a threat due to her split personality more to being a danger to anyone otherwise. There were others like her, some dangerous, some just unstable. All of them proved a viable threat to the safety of people everywhere, and Nathan's just selfishly using resources that could be used to find and end these threats.
He nodded to himself, deciding to end the search for his brother. He pulled his phone out his pocket, went through his saved numbers, and dialed Claire's number. When she answered, Nathan could almost hear Peter laughing in the background, and he smiled and started to cry.
"Claire, we need to talk," he said.
"I'm about to sit down to dinner with Micah," she said, sweetly so as not to offend. "What is it?"
"I wanted to see if you had plans for lunch tomorrow. Maybe we could grab something." Noah would be so proud, reaching out to his daughter.
"Sure,"
"Alright then, I'll be there at about one. We'll decide where we're going when I get there."
"Cool. One, right? See you then!"
Nathan hung up, losing control of the tears now flowing freely. It just hurt too much to let go, and telling Claire would be the final part of giving up. He wondered how Noah would react.
Kit Frost
Hart Center, New York
When the door opened and Dr. Crane entered, Frost's stomach dropped. It was happening. Dr. Crane took a seat in the chair and opened his file. "Christoper Frost, you are evolutionary advanced. Just what talents you have, we don't know. That requires extensive testing. Now, you have several viable options."
Frost hung his head, not listening. Once again, his gut had not failed him. How would he face the guys again, knowing he was special? His career was over.
It wasn't until Dr. Crane tapped his shoulder that Frost listened again. "I know how you must feel, Mr. Frost. I see it quite a bit. You feel like everything has changed for the worse. Well, it has changed, but we can help you through it. Now it says you're a military man. You can either lie about you test results and return, not lie and return, or we can get you transferred to us. We need men of your talents to help catch others like yourself, people who want to take out their problems on the world."
"Wait, I can be transferred to the Agency?" Frost asked, seeing hope for his career after all. Imagine being the guy who takes Sylar down. That would be quite prestigious.
Dr. Crane nodded. "We have a deal with the US military that allows gifted soldiers a chance to escape an environment that doesn't accept them, and put them to use doing similar things for the world."
Frost smiled. "I think I know what I want to do."
"Welcome aboard, Mr. Frost," Dr. Crane said. "Of course, there are a few things we have to do first. There's paperwork to fill out, tests to do, and of course, you have to meet with Mr. Bennet before we can do anything. Consider yourself on hold for the Military, and you can meet him tomorrow at noon."
Frost stood to leave, then listened to his gut and said, "I know what my talent is, Dr. Crane. Precognition. I can always tell where danger is coming from, or what the best course of action is."
"We still need to run tests on you, to determine the extent of you ability, Mr. Frost. The truth is, we know about as much as you do about the extent of your ability. The whole things is very new to us all."
Claire
Peter's Apartment, New York
Micah was fast asleep in the guest bedroom, and Claire was well on her way to going to sleep. She just wanted to make a call to Mohinder first. She stood on the balcony, listening to the ringing on the other side of the line. Next door, the music had ceased.
Mohinder finally answered. "Claire, what is it? I've got a lot more patients to test before the night is over" He sounded cranky, but she knew Mohinder. He was just tired.
"I wanted to ask you about this guy you told Micah to contact online."
"Ah, Viral," he said, calming down a bit. "I happen to know him. He's in the other room, if you'd like to speak to him."
"No, I just wanted to make sure," Claire said. "I'm going to let DL know, though, so you may get a call from him."
"No point. DL was there when I told Micah to get a hold of Viral," Mohinder said. "In fact, I've been meaning to tell you about that website. It's only for registered EA's, so we know it's safe. You should check it out." EA was the acronym for Evolutionary Advanced.
'Alright, thanks, Mohinder. I'll let you get back to work." Claire hung up, a little unsatisfied. Something didn't feel right about anything. She shrugged, passing it off as just a bad feeling.
She locked the balcony door behind her, and went to bed.
Nikki Sanders
Bucharest, Romania
"I told you, I don't know who you're talking about!" she screamed in the face of her attacker.
He was tall, handsome, dressed in a long black coat, with black gloves covering his hands. Behind him, another man stood, shorter, dirty and shy. The second man refused to look Nikki in the eye, and it infuriated Jessica. Inside of Nikki, the second woman screamed for blood.
The first man grinned. "Nikki, we know Robert Bishop has been giving you pills to take off your 'little problem'. We know he is still in contact with you. We know you're in hiding until you can take of your problem. Now, if you just tell us where Bishop is, we'll be on way." He pushed his telekinetic grip on her harder, squeezing the air out of her against the wall. Nikki shook her head. "Fine, have it your way. Wyrm, leave the room,"
The second man grimaced at the sound of his name, and moved slowly, staring just away from Nikki's face. Then, he was gone.
The first man removed the glove from his right hand. "Give us a kiss," he said. He slammed his face into hers, locking their lips together. Nikki felt as if she'd throw up. His right hand slithered up her body to her cheek.
He gasped, breaking away from her. Nikki was gone, leaving only her clothes to fall to the floor, empty. Inside his head, he could hear Nikki and Jessica both, fighting to get out. New power flowed through him. He felt like he could take on the world.
"Wyrm, take us home," he said to the shy man as he peeked in.