HEROES - Volume 6: Brave New World
A/N: trying to get this out before s5/v6 happens or NOT. It's what *I* want to see happen, after discussing it to death on IMDb boards. This chapter is just a reminder of who's who, what's what and whatnot.
Disclaimer: just playing with Tim Kring's toys. I own no recognizable character in the Heroes-verse. this is just a refresher on certain details of the series, so far.
Previously on Heroes:
PETER PETRELLI, an EMT in New York City with the ability of empathic ability mimicry (previously copying abilities by proximity, after briefly losing his power to his father, Peter now requires touching other specials and can only hold ability one at a time). After Peter learned his brother, Nathan, died while stopping Sylar from impersonating the President, their own mother, Angela Petrelli, and Noah Bennet convinced Matt Parkman to reprogram Sylar into thinking he was Nathan for several months before a murder attempt forced Sylar's body to revert to it's original, albeit amnesiac, state. When "Nathan" finally regained control, he sought out Peter for help. They tracked down Matt Parkman after Rene aka the Haitian told Peter where to find Nathan's real body. Afterward, the pair confronted their mother on Thanksgiving as to what was really going on, and Sylar assumed control of his body once more. Peter and Sylar eventually wound up locked in Sylar's head for what they believed to be years, during which time Sylar and Peter came to terms with each other. The two allied to stop Samuel Sullivan's plan of destroying Central Park and exposing "Specials" like themselves as a new wave of terrorism.
During this time, Peter also began seeing Emma Coolidge, a deaf former medical student who dropped out after her nephew Christopher accidentally drowned while she was watching him. She opened up to Peter after he accidentally copied her "enhanced synesthesia" ability when she was almost hit by a bus. She also befriended Hiro Nakamura while he was in her care with a brain tumor. Her mother, Louise, is also a doctor at the same hospital Emma has been working at in the records division. *(A/N: Louise Fletcher's character was never given a formal name, so I gave her her real name. It was either that or Nurse Mildred Ratched! lol! H'wiki also notes the "Chris Coolidge" the Company Founders meet in 1963 in online GNs was her musician brother.)
MATT PARKMAN, second generation telepath and former LAPD and briefly NYPD detective, and son of Company Founder Maury Parkman, tried to leave events of the last few years behind him (including his separation from his wife, and his brief affair with the speedster Daphne Millbrook, before her death and the murder of his father by Arthur Petrelli) and return to his wife, Janice, and young son, Matthew, Jr, but he found out it wasn't so easy when he realized he had absorbed Sylar's psyche, which nearly cost him his family life before sacrificing himself through "suicide by cop" to rid the world of Sylar's influence and keep him from reuniting with his true body, posing as Nathan Petrelli. Noah Bennet later requested his help in tracking a suspect, Samuel Sullivan, only to lose both Sullivan and his quarry. Shortly after, Sylar returned, asking to be rid of his abilities, threatening not only Matt, but Janice's life if he didn't help. Matt trapped him in his own mind just as Peter Petrelli arrived to recruit Sylar's assistance against Sullivan and became trapped in Sylar's mind as well. At the same time, the multiplying man, Eli, invaded Matt's home and nearly crippled him in an effort to delay Peter from rescuing Sylar and together stop his employer, Samuel Sullivan. The trio defeated Eli and his clones, with Matt commanding the original Eli to come clean about Sullivan's intentions to the other Carnival denizens in order to help stop his plan.
Matt's son, Matthew, Jr, previously displayed the ability to affect electronics and turn abilities on and off, depending on the toddler's moods, but has not displayed any obvious uses of these abilities since his father has returned to his life. Whether this ability was brought about by the lack of his father's presence (he identified Matt Sr on a news broadcast, despite never having met him), or some other reason, is unknown at this time. The abilities seem to have returned to a dormant state. It is also unknown if he was able to discern when Sylar controlled Matt Sr, or if Sylar (or Matt) was able to manipulate the child into being unable to access the abilities until he was mature enough to control them.
SYLAR aka GABRIEL GRAY, former watch repairman and second generation serial killer of Specials like himself, had found himself robbed of his identity after killing Nathan Petrelli, he was only able to survive by transferring the darker aspect of his psyche into Matt Parkman's mind as his body was convinced it was the now deceased Senator from New York. When "Nathan" suddenly remembered (due to Sylar's stolen ability of psychometry) he was involved in a tragic accident with an old "runaway" girlfriend, he went to make amends with his late girlfriend's mother, Millie (a friend of Angela's). In revenge, she hired a hit man to dispose of Nathan. Sylar's body revived, thanks to previously copying Claire Bennet's regenerative ability, but was left amnesiac thanks to Matt's tampering. Found by Samuel Sullivan and his traveling carnival after escaping Baltimore police custody, he was welcomed with open arms by the devious ringmaster. However, only Nathan's memories returned due to Parkman's reprogramming, and he soon left to confront his mother about what had happened to him. Tracking down Parkman after the attempted "suicide by cop" to stop Sylar in Midland, TX, Sylar was able to finally regain control of his body over Nathan. Peter tried to convince the remnants of Nathan's memories he could overpower Sylar, but Sylar proved to be master of his own body. However, the influence of being in Parkman's mind and living as Petrelli did have an effect on Sylar. After returning to the Sullivan Brothers Carnival and copying Lydia's empathy, he briefly pursued an understanding with Claire Bennet, only to be rebuffed. He returned to Los Angeles and convinced Matt Parkman to turn his abilities off. After Sylar threatened his family, Matt locked him inside his own mind as punishment. Peter went in after him in an effort to get them to help stop Samuel Sullivan from exposing the Specials and destroying everyone in Central Park in the process. Believing he had been trapped, powerless and alone for years, Sylar came to the realization that playing the villain was no longer what he wanted to do. He helped Peter stop Samuel, rescuing Emma from the puppet master Eric Doyle's control and watched, amused, as their lives changed forever on live television alongside Peter.
MOHINDER SURESH, a geneticist following in his father, Chandra's, footsteps in the search for understanding the genetic quirks that give people amazing abilities. To that end, he experimented on himself, using a crude "Formula" made from the "black poison" tears of Maya Herrerra, eventually resulting in enhanced strength and agility after a brief psychotic phase. He recently uncovered his father's early research at a place called "Coyote Sands" in the early 1960s, which lead to the discovery of a Special born there, Samuel Sullivan. Sullivan turned out to be a geokinetic, able to move earth with his mind, with the added caveat that the more Specials he was around, the more powerful he could become. His abilities were kept in check by his older brother Joseph until Mohinder arrived to investigate the Samuel on his film. Samuel killed Joseph and believed he had killed Mohinder in order to obtain Chandra's filming of his own birth, but was thwarted by Hiro Nakamura, who briefly detained Mohinder in an asylum to account for a period of time he was "missing." After rebuilding a compass device to track large groups of Specials for Noah Bennet, he has decided to leave these discoveries to those who best know how to handle them and returned home to India and his lover, Mira. However, his fate is already entwined with former roommate, Matt Parkman, and their joint guardianship of the young orphan, Molly Walker, who has the ability to find anyone, anywhere.
MOLLY WALKER was the first known survivor of Sylar's original serial murders. She hid in a room under the stairs of her parents' LA home when Sylar killed her parents using a list of Specials he had obtained from Chandra Suresh which included both Molly and her father, James (who had been left frozen solid, mid-bite, and scalped). Matt Parkman was assigned to direct traffic around the house when he first manifested his telepathic ability and heard her cries for help. Despite a house full of cops and FBI agents, Matt was the first one to find the missing, scared girl. Matt was then briefly arrested as "Sylar" by FBI Agent Audrey Hanson, but after Sylar made another attempt at Molly in the LAPD station house, he was cleared and she was put into protective custody. Matt lost track of her until they met again in New York City two months later, where she was being held by the Company, suffering from the same illness Mohinder's sister, Shanti, had died of before his birth, and required an occasional transfusion of his blood to stay healthy. She had kept tabs on Matt with her locating ability had dubbed him her "hero". She later convinced Mohinder to take her and Matt in after he was critically injured at Kirby Plaza fighting Sylar. After a psychic attack by Maury Parkman left her briefly comatose, and yet another home invasion by Sylar, Mohinder sent her to his mother in India for safety. Presumably, she has remained there since with the exception of briefly assisting Micah Sanders' "Rebellion" during Nathan Petrelli's federally backed round-up of Specials.
HIRO NAKAMURA, CEO of Yamagato Industries (in name only, as his sister, Kimiko, actually runs the business), after his father, Kaito's, murder at the hands of the immortal Adam Monroe (a crime investigated by then-NYPD Detective Matt Parkman). After inadvertently causing the release of a secret Special "Formula" that granted abilities (including Ando) and a brief internment by US Federal authorities, Hiro has decided to rethink the "superhero" lifestyle. He set up "Dial-A-Hero" with his friend, Ando Masahashi, to try and do some good in the world when he learned he had an allegedly inoperable brain tumor. His space-time ability (and mental faculties) went temporarily haywire because of this condition, yet he was still sucked into the schemes of Samuel Sullivan; nearly lost the love of his life, Charlie, to the past after convincing a still-neophyte Sylar to cure her fatal blood clot; and still saving Mohinder Suresh from being killed by Sullivan, only to briefly place him in an asylum for "safekeeping" to preserve the space-time continuum. He was finally able to overcome his condition when doctors in New York were able to remove the tumor in time for Hiro to bid his now-elderly love Charlie goodbye and help stop Sullivan's plan of destroying Central Park and exposing Specials to the world.
ANDO MASAHASHI, best friend of Hiro and betrothed to Kimiko Nakamura, stood by his friend's side through the years, including while he dealt with his near-fatal tumor. His life was changed by Hiro when, in order to set things "right", a childhood accident caused by Hiro in their youth that turned Kimiko against his affections, never happened and he is now engaged to be married to the female CEO. Ando later used his Formula-supplied super-charging ability to help Hiro transfer the denizens of the Sullivan Bros. Carnival out of the amplifying sphere of influence Samuel Sullivan was tapping into, thus helping save Central Park and their exposure as Specials, but only briefly.
TRACY STRAUSS, former lobbyist and one identical triplet to the late multiple personality Special Niki (aka Jessica aka Gina) Sanders. She only learned of her past after being confronted as her Las Vegas look-alike's online stripping (of which Ando was a fan) and accidentally freezing the reporter who confronted her in the first manifestation of her ability. She was briefly the lover of Nathan Petrelli before he died (as was Niki), and is now searching for a purpose to her life and the reason she has the ability to freeze things as well as become pure water, herself. She was briefly held prisoner by Nathan's underling Emile Danko (whose underlings she took upon herself to later execute after nearly being killed by them), before being called upon to help free the trapped Noah and Claire Bennet from being buried underground so they could stop Samuel Sullivan, who previously tried to sway her to help others like herself. Whether she has decided to locate her missing triplet, Barbara Zimmerman, remains unknown.
MICAH SANDERS is the son of the late DL Hawkins and Niki Sanders. His innate intelligence with computers soon manifested as technopathy, meaning he could "talk" to almost any kind of machine. Following his father's murder while retrieving one of his wife's wayward multiple personalities (Gina), Niki decided to seek out help for her condition(s) and left him in the care of family in New Orleans, DL's aunt and matriarch Nana Dawson and her grandchildren, Monica and Damon Dawson. (Their mother having apparently died during Hurricane Katrina.) He soon learned Monica had her own ability, photographic reflexes, meaning she could copy whatever normally physical stunt she had seen, from simple tasks to advanced martial arts. This soon found her in trouble, when her brother Damon got mugged and lost Micah's few personal possessions. Micah and a now-powerless Niki tracked her to a house that was set on fire. Niki stopped the arsonist and then sacrificed her own life to allow Monica to escape the conflagration. Micah soon found himself face to face with his mother's sister, when Tracy Strauss came to find Niki, arriving in time for her funeral. He gave her the lead to discover her delivery doctor, Jonas Zimmerman, but it is unknown if Micah knows about the third sister, his aunt Barbara. He later assisted in the escape of several Specials during Nathan Petrelli's government backed round-up, confounding the conspirators, Petrelli and Emile Danko as "Rebel" after his remaining family had been taken captive. His current whereabouts are unknown, but he is believed to be assisting his cousin Monica in her vigilante guise of "St. Joan" in the New Orleans area, possibly still acting as "Rebel."
ERIC DOYLE was the former proprietor of a marionette theatre (since destroyed) who has the power to control others as puppets, himself. He once held an (as yet unexplained) intense infatuation for Claire Bennet's birth mother, Meredith Gordon, and once forced Claire and her mothers, Meredith and Sandra Bennet, to play a game of Russian Roulette after escaping from being held prisoner in Level 5 of the Company. Since then, he has attempted to go straight, assisting Claire in eluding a federal round up of Specials (with an assist from double agent, Rachel Mills) and briefly assuming a new identity before falling under the sway of Samuel Sullivan, who convinced Doyle he no longer had to hide who he was. Doyle caught Claire snooping at the Carnival and was later tasked with making Emma Coolidge use her ability to draw a large crowd to the Carnival's Central Park location via her cello playing. It is unknown if he was aware of Samuel's fatal plans for the crowd, as he was stopped by Sylar before Peter could defeat Sullivan.
NOAH BENNET, a top agent of The Company and adoptive father of Claire Bennet (and Larry-er, Lyle!), and now ex-husband of Sandra Bennet. He has been tasked by Angela Petrelli to rebuild the Company after recent events. After questioning his worth following his recent separation from his wife, he has finally, begrudgingly, acted on his orders. He was also tasked to stage the death of Nathan Petrelli in a small plane crash that Peter insisted on helping with after his brother's murder had been exposed, so that Nathan's ex-wife, Heidi, their sons, Simon and Monty, and Nathan's Senate constituency could have closure as well. Noah has since reunited with a former Company associate, Lauren Gilmore, who he had a brief flirtation with, and who helped him confront Samuel Sullivan before being wounded herself. She called in Tracy Strauss to extricate the trailer buried by Sullivan containing Noah and Claire Bennet so they could stop him from destroying Central Park and exposing Specials to the world at large as terrorists.
ANGELA SHAW PETRELLI, the widow of Arthur Petrelli and mother of Peter and the late Nathan. She has the ability of precognitive dreaming. As a child, she and her family were sent to Coyote Sands, where others with special abilities were secretly sent in hopes of finding a cure. However, despite the best intentions of camp doctors Chandra Suresh and Jonas Zimmerman, the military "security" overreacted when her sister, Alice, became upset and caused a sudden storm while being tested. This lead to both sides opening fire and Mr. Shaw being killed in front of his daughter when he used his "shockblast" ability against their captors. Angela had snuck way from the camp to get outside help with Charles DeVeaux, Daniel Linderman, and Bobby Bishop, sparing their lives. These four formed the foundation of what would become known as PrimaTech, or simply, the Company, and tasked themselves with searching out others like themselves. At one point, there were twelve official Founders, and they fell under the sway of the immortal Adam Monroe for a period, before being forced to act to prevent him from unleashing a fatal virus over the world. In recent years, Angela has become the sole surviving Founder and briefly shuttered The Company. She decided to restart the Company following Nathan's death, allowing Noah Bennet to run operations, while she would only advise him, preferring to retire from an active role so she could keep an eye on her grandchildren, Claire, Simon and Monty, following their father's passing. Whether she knew what Claire was going to do remains her secret.
NATHAN PETRELLI, the late son of Angela and Arthur Petrelli, husband of Heidi, and father of CLAIRE! BENNET (via Meredith Gordon), and Monty & Simon Petrelli. He was working with the NYC District Attorney's office investigating Daniel Linderman, when he was nearly killed in an attempted assassination to silence him. His hidden flying ability kicked in, saving his life, but left his wife Heidi crippled until Linderman healed her on election night. He later interrupted his mother's murder attempt on his father, unknowingly saving his life, but Arthur kept his survival a secret for a time, afterward. Nathan was running for a New York City Congressional seat when his brother, Peter, first believed he had gained "super powers"including flight and precognitive dreaming. Nathan kept denying of this aspect of his family until his long-lost daughter convinced him to act to save Peter from destroying the city, which nearly cost him his life. This event, as well as events surrounding the brief return of his father (and a plot to chemically share abilities with the so-called "Formula") led Nathan to turn over evidence of Specials to the US government, unaware they had been aware of such people for decades. Nathan's subordinate, Emile Danko, soon took control of the project, abducting Specials and killing when he thought necessary. Nathan and Noah Bennet were finally able to wrest control of the project back, but not before Nathan's abilities were exposed. In an attempt to prevent the assassination of the President, a showdown with Sylar proved fatal for Nathan. However, Angela and Noah persuaded Matt Parkman to convince Sylar to assume the guise of Nathan, locking all but a few abilities away in order to perpetuate the ruse. This plan backfired in two ways: Sylar's psychic invasion of Matt's mind, and the remaining abilities inherent in the gestalt "Sathan" personality lead to more questions before he was assassinated in revenge after "remembering" (through a psychometric ability) the accidental death of a long "missing" girlfriend, the daughter of Angela's friend, Millie. The Haitian finally informed Peter (and Sathan) of the whereabouts of the true body of Nathan, revealing Angela's plan and forcing Peter and Noah into faking a plane crash to cover Nathan's death. Peter eventually tried to force Sylar into becoming Nathan for good, but the dominant personality seemingly absorbed the last trace of Nathan, destroying it. Angela continues to watch over his sons, believing one or both to inherit the family's genetic predisposition for abilities.
RENE aka THE HAITIAN is tall, dark, and brooding. He is also extremely loyal to Angela Petrelli for undisclosed reasons. This loyalty extends to Claire Bennet and on occasion, Peter Petrelli. Many believe he is mute, but he only recently revealed he can speak to a select few. Even his longtime partner, Noah Bennet, was unaware of that fact until this point. Rene has the ability to erase memories and suppress the abilities of Specials in close proximity to him (whether these abilities are two different usages of some sort of mental suppression ability is unclear). He has a natural "static" to his mind (according to Matt Parkman) and can focus his ability on one person, as when he participated in the final defeat of Arthur Petrelli, but the strain was immense. His brother, the self-styled "Baron Samedi" was held in the Company's high-level containment facility, Level 5, until he broke out. The invulnerable Samedi was only restrained due to a mysteriously depowering eclipse of the sun and the assistance of Peter and Nathan Petrelli. Rene was then able to erase his brother's mind, leaving him defenseless.
SANDRA and LYLE BENNET - Sandra is the former wife of Noah, and mother to Claire and Larry aka Lyle. (It has been inferred that Lyle was adopted like Claire, but this has not been confirmed.) She worked in an upscale dining establishment when she met Noah, and it has been hinted that there was some (again unconfirmed) outside influence in their pairing. For several years now, she has worked as an award winning show dog trainer and breeder, her current stud is Mr. Muggles, a Pomeranian. She accidentally stumbled upon her husband's work (the Company's "bag and tag" equipment) shortly after Claire's adoption and her memory was forced to be wiped for the first of many times by The Haitian under orders from Noah's then-boss, Eric Thompson, Sr. This constant tampering eventually resulted in some minor brain damage she has apparently recovered from. Her trust in Noah was shattered when they became victims of a mind game played by a shape-shifting Sylar during a federal round-up of Specials and Noah chose his work over his family. She later formed a friendship with Doug Douglas, whose own Pomeranian, Miss Lovegood, is seemingly smitten with uber-stud Mr. Muggles. Claire finally does something useful at Thanksgiving and (s)he passes out after seeing Claire slicing her arm open.
Lyle (mistakenly referred to as "Larry" by Sylar) is Claire's younger brother, possibly also adopted as noted. He played soccer and possibly JV football at Union Wells HS while still in Odessa, TX, and may know Tae Kwon Do. He has chosen to remain with his mother at their home in Costa Verde, CA after his parent's separation. He is apparently not a good student and often appears disoriented and detached to events around him at times. Whether this is a result of memory wiping from the Haitian or some other (puff!) cause (puff!) is unknown at this time (koff!). However, he once helped to protect his home from an intrusion by the haywire electro-kinetic Elle Bishop. He defers traveling to his father's in Arlington for Thanksgiving, claiming he "has school". Whether he really had a school related excuse or just didn't want the hassle of traveling across the country to see his father, who barely acknowledges him, and his prima-donna sister (or just traveling with the rest of Muggles' bichons!) remains to be seen.
MR. MUGGLES - He rules ALL and you **WILL** bow down before his glory! KNEEL BEFORE HIM! Lest he devour you and erase you from ever existing! KNEEL!
...which brings us to: CLAIRE! CLAIRE! BENNET is a typical, whiny, self-centered teenage student, who dropped out of high school, but entered college after getting her GED. CLAIRE! is functionally immortal due to her regenerative ability (so yeah, even there). CLAIRE! is the biological daughter of the late New York Senator, Nathan Petrelli, and his late ex-lover, Meredith Gordon (both killed by Sylar in separate incidents). She was placed in the care of Noah Bennet as a baby by Kaito Nakamura, Hiro's father, in the hopes CLAIRE! would manifest an ability like her parents and grandparents. CLAIRE! recently started attending Arlington University, where her first roommate was killed in a staged suicide by one of Samuel Sullivan's loyal followers who held a personal grudge against CLAIRE!s father, Noah. While at Arlington, CLAIRE! befriended Gretchen Berg, who eventually became something more than just a friend after she learned of CLAIRE!s ability. After both survived another attempt on her life, CLAIRE! briefly fell under the sway of Samuel Sullivan before turning on him. After realizing her grandmother and father had betrayed her by hiding her father Nathan's death, and her own growing feelings for her new roommate, CLAIRE! decided not to hide who she was anymore. In front of a live broadcast news crew, CLAIRE! threw herself off a ferris wheel before rising up, relocating her shoulder while healing, and announcing, "My name is Claire Bennet, and this is attempt number...heh, I guess I've kinda lost count."
This selfish act by CLAIRE! has now exposed the nature of Specials to the world, whether they want it or not.
This is what happens next...