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Once Upon a Time…
Once upon a time…There lived a boy named Gabriel Gray. He was a sweet child, loved overbearingly and expectantly by his mother Virginia, and apathetically by his father Martin. Gabriel was as happy as an intuitive and perceptive child could be in a household fraught with discord. Though, no matter the effort young Gabriel put forth he repeatedly failed to win little more than a raised eyebrow from his father or an encouraging yet condescending "you can do better" from his mother. This instilled in him the sentimental desire to one day find some one that would love him for him, and not what they thought he could be, or because they had to.
One night, sometime after Gabriel had turned 12, Mr. and Mrs. Gray died in a fire that had raged through and consumed the apartment building in which they had lived. Only Gabriel survived the fateful blaze as he had taken to sneaking out at night to his father's workshop close by. There, he would silently work on refining the watch making skills his father had been forbearing enough to teach him. Now, he was left without even the piteous bit of contentment his simple life had given him. And as if the trauma to the young man's heart and mind had not been ample enough, he was soon after told that his uncle Samson Gray was nowhere to be found and so young Gabriel would have to be placed into foster care.
Days went by, turning into weeks, while Gabriel sat unnoticed in his new and unfamiliar bedroom, obsessively building his very own time piece out of spare parts snuck from his father's now abandoned shop. Then one day he received a visitor. A social worker sent to tell him that long ago, when he was just a baby, he had been adopted by the Grays. Though that news seemed to young Gabriel a secret that could not be eclipsed, it was not the real reason for the visit. Upon hearing of the tragedy that had befallen the family, his birth parents wanted nothing more than to give him the home they wished to have given him in the first place.
Gabriel's reaction could only be described as convivial. For so long he dreamt of belonging to a happy family where expressing love and affection came as naturally as smiling and now, he had the chance. He wasted no time in readying himself, gathering books and clothing into a bag, preparing to wait in unbearable anticipation for his new life to begin. His imagination ran wild as he pictured what his real parents would be like, if he had siblings…would he be good enough for them in ways he had not been for Virginia and Martin?
The next day when they arrived to take him home he almost couldn't bring himself to look outside, afraid that it had all been a terribly wonderful dream that would never come true. He knelt on the couch, ducking beneath the window as the car pulled up, but the inextinguishable desire to compare fantasy with reality inched his eyes above the cushions and over the faces of his parents. They were so much more than he had ever imagined. His mother was beautiful and had an air about her that spoke of strength and intelligence behind the kind smile and keen eyes. And his father…he looked stoic and commanding as he shook the hand of Gabriel's meek social worker. Gabriel could feel his heart pounding out of his chest and the near invisible trembling of his hands as the three adults neared the front door and finally entered the house. Gabriel turned at once and cast his eyes down shyly just as they rounded the corner into the living room where he had waited for what may as well have been his entire life.
"Gabriel?" The social worker tried coaxing him with a tender tone but he was a bundle of nerves, and could not find the courage to raise his eyes to the faces of his parents. "He's rather shy." She explained with a terse chuckle.
"Is he? Well, there's nothing wrong with that." A voice more pleasant than the song of a wind chime breezed into his ears with nothing less than a euphoria that widened his eyes and had his heart skipping a beat. It was his mother's voice.
"Shyness is a permissible quality in a child. It shows a capacity for humility and respect." His father spoke with a tenor of confidence and pride, a tone that Martin Gray had never used when speaking of his son.
Gabriel began counting the grains in the wood of the floor beneath his feet when he felt the seat cushions dip on his right and a soft comforting arm drape around his shoulders. Slowly…ever so slowly…Gabriel raised his stare to find his mother sitting next to him, smiling with glistening eyes. He couldn't help but smile back bashfully back as their eyes met for the first time since he had been born.
"There you are." She playfully pinched his chin and placed her hand atop his fists as they sat clenched in his lap. "We've waited a long time to see you again Gabriel." She looked back at her husband who nodded ever so slightly in agreement. "We are your parents' darling. My name is Angela, and that handsome man is your father, Arthur." She spoke softly as the smile now glowed on her face.
Gabriel's glasses inched down his nose, tickling as they went, but he wouldn't have moved either one of his hands from beneath hers for the world. Though his throat was parched and mind raced with a plethora of questions, he managed to find his voice and timidly ask, "What's…what's my last name?"
Angela smiled at him and turned to her husband who stepped forward and answered proudly. "Your name is Petrelli, son. Gabriel Petrelli."
Elle Bishop was a quirky little girl with a disposition all her own. The sun shone with her smile and laughter, and she was adored by her mother and father who lavished attention on, and entertained every whim of their only child. Her father, Bob Bishop, was the head of a very important company and often spent days away from his loving wife and daughter. It was on one of those nights that Bob was tied up by work that a small untended candle turned into a violent fire that reduced the Bishop home to a smoldering scorch mark. Elle's mother fought to the last to save her daughter's life, and succeeded before succumbing to the choking smoke and heat.
Though she was only a small child at the time, Elle was deeply affected by the loss of her mother, as was her father. Bob did not falter in his duties however, either as company head or single parent, and persevered through his own grief to comfort the grief of his child. Though a mother's touch is traditionally the more soothing, Elle was put much at ease by Bob's consoling efforts and the two of them were able to move on in time, always keeping the living memory of their lost loved one in their hearts.
Elle grew into her adventurous audacity, everyday reminding Bob a little more of his wife. He remained in awe of his daughter's vivacious attitude toward life, and her tendency to take things as they came…but sometimes he worried that he was not enough. Not even Bob's constant attempts to fill the void in Elle's upbringing caused her to give pause in her conquest to make the most of every day. If there was one lesson to be gleamed from her mother's death it was to live life, for you never know when it might end…a belief Elle refused to be put away with childish things.
The dissension between the Petrelli and Bishop families had grown deep roots over the years, tracing back to the initial random emergence of what are referred to as anomalistic abilities. Both patriarchs and the remaining matriarch in each family wholeheartedly disagreed on the manner in which these special people should be handled, sparking a devastating and continuous feud between their respective organizations, family members and employees.
The Petrelli family owned and operated an establishment known as Pinehurst. Of course its public façade boasted an array of interests; conducting scientific research and development, donating to a number of charitable causes, and it goes without saying that they held a very persuasive position in government with the eldest son, Nathan Petrelli, holding the office of Senator of New York.
What went on inside the walls ranged from detainment of dangerous individuals awaiting rehabilitation, to volunteer testing of abilities. Pinehurst was a veritable training institute set on educating special people on their own abilities as well as the community to which they would henceforth belong. To put it shortly…The Petrellis were committed to one day integrating the secret of their existence into the lives of every person in the world, and showing benefit of their being. They bided their time however by policing their own kind, but never abandoned hope that a misguided special could be shown a brighter path, and their impressive success rate was just one point of contention between the two families.
Every single member of the Petrellis had at least one ability. Only Nathan with flight and his mother Angela with precognitive dreaming were left out of the multiplicity. Arthur, Peter, and the youngest son Gabriel, had a number of abilities as all three shared a commonality… some form of power absorption. Gabriel was a special case among special cases. His ability, intuitive aptitude, had given way to understanding the emotion associated with the use of another's ability…and once Gabriel understood something there was not a thing to be done to reverse it. Peter, a true empathic mimic, need only be close to some one when their ability triggered to acquire their uniqueness. It was only Arthur who, while he possessed a surplus of tricks, had the distinction of permanently relieving a person of their ability. His talent was the mystery behind Pinehurst's success, for if anyone could not be assuaged of their penchant for chaos, then Arthur would simply alleviate them of their gift. Together the five of them, surrounded by a myriad of gifted personnel, made Pinehurst what it was.
The Bishop family owned and operated an establishment much more clandestine than Pinehurst called simply, The Company. Where Pinehurst operated under it's actual name and out in the open, for the most part, The Company hid behind a front called Primatech Paper. This strange situation of animosity existing between the presidents of a multifarious corporation and a paper company had many citizens scratching their heads as they read the latest feud headline in their morning newspapers. Although the truth of their motivations remained unknown, the rancor between them did not, and more often than desired garnered the sort of attention that both families would rather have avoided.
The Company's philosophy was not one of inclined leniency toward special people who abused their abilities, nor was it a wish of Bob Bishop that the world ever know about people like himself and those he tended to. When some one was caught by The Company, that was where they stayed, especially in cases of powerful and uncooperative specials. Their building was equipped with a rather expansive holding facility, not half of which was filled, but those inhabiting the various levels of containment couldn't tell the difference. Their main goal was to remove any threatening person from general population of the city as well as secretly observe and record those who had nothing more than an interesting ability. It was not unheard of that a harmless special citizen might disappear for a day, returning to their life with no memory of the absence.
Many people worked for The Company, both normal and special, but the bread and butter of Bishop's vision was the way he paired his agents. It was internally known as, "one of us, one of them" and it was what gave him the impressive rate of capture. Pinehurst might be able to rehabilitate them, but nobody knew better how to bag and tag than The Company's number one team…a man named Noah Bennet and Bob Bishop's own daughter, Elle. Bob was a stickler for continuity and loyalty, and it showed in his staff. Noah had a 20 year history with The Company and was not only the second most loyal agent he employed, but was unsurpassed when it came down to living in a admittedly gray area. Though, he did have a personal investment in Bob's desire for secrecy, as his own daughter Claire had an ability known as rapid cellular regeneration, in the proper scientific parlance. He didn't want the world knowing about his daughter any more than Bob wanted the same for Elle.
Bob had watched Elle grow into the confident prevailing woman that stood in front of him every morning smiling sweetly as he handed his dream team an assignment. It was not misleading to say that Bob had hoped his little girl would develop an ability, but having alchemy himself never led to anticipation that she would develop something as notable as electrokinesis. Again, Elle had surpassed her father's expectations, winning from him enough respect and admiration that he lately hinged The Company's entire future success on her competence, so that she might one day take his place. Her strength and levelheadedness made him the proudest father in a 100 mile radius...though Arthur Petrelli might have argued against that point.
