Chapter I: In His Own Image

Was there any warning of their arrival? A sign, a single event that set this chain into motion? Was it a whisper in God's ear?…And if we could mark that single moment in time, that first hint of the prophecy of approaching danger, would we have done anything differently? Could it have been stopped?

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah, I'm looking for Chandra Suresh," Peter held up the library copy of Activating Evolution, "He wrote a book about people with…abilities. I—I think I may be one of them."

The man regarded Peter over his glasses, "Alright. Come in."

Peter stepped into the apartment. The man closed the door, and then walked over to a desk. He began rooting through a drawer.

"Chandra's in L.A.," he said, "He probably won't be back until tomorrow. In the meantime, Mister…"

"Petrelli. Peter Petrelli."

"Brian Davis. I'm one of his research assistants. You'll have to put up with me for the moment." He found a folder and sat at the desk, "Please have a seat."

Peter sat down. Brian steepled his fingers, "So. What do you think you can do?" Brian held the pose as he explained how he both flew and sketched the future.

Brian stared at him for a moment after he finished. He picked up a cup on the desk and took out all of the pencils and pens in it. He slammed it down in front of Peter.

"Imagine this flying."

"What?"

"Trust me on this."

Peter shrugged and stared at the cup. It sat there as if it was mocking him. Just as he was about to give up, the cup lifted off the table—and hit Brian in the nose.

"It's all right!" he said. He took off his glasses and examined them. They were bent at the nose bridge. "I was able to block most of it." He narrowed his eyes and the glasses bent themselves back into the proper angle.

"What just happened?"

"You absorbed my ability Mr. Petrelli." He opened the folder and flipped through some of its pages, "You would appear to have what we call mimicry."

Peter leaned towards the desk and glanced at the folder. It was a number of handwritten notes with the heading "Common Manifestations."

Brian closed the folder, "I don't know why you haven't been able to duplicate abilities outside the presence of them. I know someone who can do that."

"You do?"

Brian shook his head, "It doesn't matter. He's also in L.A."

"So what do I do now?"

Brian stared at him, "Can we go see your brother?"

Peter shook his head, "He's in Vegas."

"Right. And the painter."

Peter hesitated, "Well, I guess, but it's kind of complicated."

"Complicated?"

Peter hesitated again, "I'm sorta dating his ex."

Brian put his head in his hands, "Terrific. I guess it doesn't matter. I tend to work more on the theoretical angle of things. Chandra and Gabe took all the test equipment with them."

"Gabe?"

"Gabe Sylar, he's the guy who's somewhat like you." He began searching through the desk again, "I think we should wait until they get back."

He found a small notepad and a ziplock bag with some small weights in it, "I used these for practice way back. I'd like you to try moving them when you get home. Write down what time you try it and how far they move," Brian looked at a clock on the wall. He grabbed the pencil cup and refulled it. He then noted the time in the notepad before he handed them to Peter.

Brian stood up, "I hope to see you tomorrow, Mr. Petrelli."

They shook hands, "Yeah. Thanks. What you've told me's been really helpful."

After Peter had left, Brian walked over to the map. He crossed his arms.

"Now what the hell was I doing before he came here?"

"I've gone as far down as I can."

Gabriel nodded and took the thermometer from James Walker, "Thirty-three degrees."

"Very, very impressive," Chandra said, "I have the heart monitors ready." He put a hand on James's shoulder, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Doctor, I've done this before." James laid down on his bed, "Let's do this."

Chandra and Gabriel hooked James up to the machinery.

"Current rate is 74 BPM according to the monitor. Gabriel?"

Gabriel put an ear to James's chest, "It matches. You can do your thing."

James nodded and took a deep breath. The ticks on the monitor got slower and slower. After two minutes, he flatlined.

"Gabriel?"

Gabriel put his ear to his chest again, "His heart is definitely beating. I can hear the left ventricle."

Chandra clicked off the monitor, "Can you give me a rough estimate of his heart rate?"

"Um…" Gabriel seemed to focus, "Right now he's at about four beats a minute."

A few minutes passed. Gabriel checked his pulse again, "He's reached about half a beat a minute."

"Breath?"

"One a minute."

They waited about ten minutes before Gabriel concluded that James had reached what Chandra called his "metabolic minimum": a heartbeat every two minutes and a breath every four.

"You can awake now, Mr. Walker," Chandra said, turning towards the heart monitor.

James's heartbeat began rapidly accelerating. Within a few seconds he took a deep breath and sat straight up, "Half-a-beat a minute, huh? Didn't know I could do it that far."

Chandra began to disconnect him from the equipment while Gabriel recorded his observations in a notebook.

"I've studied holy men in India," Chandra said, "They could lower their core temperature fifteen degrees, sit naked in a Himalayan snowstorm. Nothing like you, James. Nothing."

"Good to know." He looked over at Gabriel, "Now are you going to try freezing me or something?"

Gabriel shook his head, "I don't think it's necessary."

"No," Chandra agreed, "Your temperature range alone speaks volumes."

James clapped his hands, "I see. So is this it, then?"

"Well, I would like to ask a few questions about your daughter."

His eyes narrowed, "Such as?"

"I've found that these abilities are often inheritable. It is very likely that your daughter can do something special."

"SOMETHING special? You mean something different than what I can do?"

"Potentially very different," Gabriel said.

James stroked his chin, "I see. Do you have any ideas what?"

"Not without seeing her," Chandra said.

"Or a blood test," Gabriel added, "But that's not very accurate in predicting what ability she may have."

Chandra began disassembling the equipment, "If you don't want us speaking with her I understand."

"I don't know," James said, "I'll have to think about this, explain this to my wife."

"You might want me to stick around," Gabriel said, "Hibernation isn't exactly persuasive."

"Nah, she'd just kill you for freezing her flowers this morning," he laughed, "You couldn't have frozen the sprinkler or something?"

Gabriel laughed softly and glanced out the window. A minivan had just pulled in the driveway.

"It looks like we'll have to stick around," he said.