The Big City
Only twenty minutes had passed before Ned complained again about being in New York City.
"Look, we're close, all right? We've almost got him," Emerson said.
"I just don't see why we had to come all the way to New York City," Ned said.
"We go wherever we need to collect the reward," Emerson answered.
The two then heard garbage cans being knocked around and grunts. Ned and Emerson ran to the source of the noise and saw two men fighting each other.
"That's Millard. There's our guy," Emerson noted.
Suddenly, Millard reached out towards his opponent and shot out a sharp bone-like object from his palm into the other guy's chest, stunning Ned.
Millard ran off as Ned and Emerson approached the body, which quickly shot back to life, scaring Ned.
The man took the weapon out of his chest.
"I didn't touch him!" Ned said. He turned to Emerson. "I didn't touch him. How can he be alive if I didn't touch him?"
"Is that what you do? You touch someone and they return to life?"
Ned glanced at Emerson before looking at the stranger. "Well, yes." Ned suddenly found himself pinned against the wall and about a foot off the ground.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Ned. My name is Ned. That's Emerson. Who are you?"
"Sylar."
Emerson advanced to tackle Sylar but Sylar pinned him against a different wall.
Sylar glared at Ned. "Make this easy for me, how does your power work?"
"Well, I touch someone who's dead, and they come back to life. Then I touch them again, and they're dead again. Forever."
"There's more," Sylar realized.
"If I don't touch that person within a minute, someone else would die in their place."
Sylar considered Ned's response. "Lame power," he finally concluded. He telekinetically flung Ned towards Emerson and both were on the ground.
"What I do isn't lame," Ned countered.
"It is compared to the other guy." Sylar then took off.
Emerson glared. "What the f–"
Ned piped in. "Let's never leave Papen County again."