Not One Step Back
Summery: It's ten years after the events in New York. The old heroes have moved on, and the world has forgotten all that once was. Now, Sylar's back in town. And he's killing again, in a new, more inhumane way. And the only thing standing in his way is a new set of heroes, each one trying to figure out what the hell is going on with them.
Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to NBC. Everything you don't, most likely, it's the result of my twisted, messed-up mind.
Category: We're looking at action/adventure, angst, humor, romance, and, of course, mystery and supernatural
Brought to you by: Wesker888, your residential write-about-whatever-I-feel-like author.
Rating: T for now, mainly for language and stuff. As the story continues, it'll probably be bumped up to M for intense violence.
Author's Notes: I made a wee bit of an error in regards to Silent Dre's story. His title is actually in German, not Latin. I had forgotten this fact. My apologies, friend.
Also, I am now all caught up in the series, so… I know what's going on. All of it….yeah.
I think that's about it for notes. Enjoy.
Elizabeth Andrews
Jackson, Mississippi
Monday, November 7th, 2017 07:16 A.M.
Liz stared at the glass. And, if it were an animate object with eyes, the glass probably would've stared back at her. Her face was scrunched up, deep in concentration, though for what, no one passing by knew for certain. She closed her eyes, adding to the concentration. Her body began shaking, harder, as she tried harder for the unknown to happen.
Finally, it did.
The glass shook a bit, rattling. Some of the water stored in it poured over the top and spilled onto the counter. Slowly, then, it lifted, like if someone had held it and picked it up themselves. Except, there was no hand. It was just the glass, lifting, ever so slowly, into the air.
All on its own.
Liz cracked open an eye briefly. She saw the glass raising, just a couple of inches off the table, all by itself. Her eyes flew open, and her lips twisted into a gleeful smile. Triumphantly, she raised her fist into the air.
"YES!"
At the sudden motion, the glass fell and shattered on the table. Water spilled on the surface and onto the rugged-floor, staining it. Surprised, she jumped back with another yelp. Not that she had never broken a glass during these "tests". This was just the first one to actually have something in it while she did it.
She had to remember to control that.
"Lizzie? Are you up yet?" Her mother called to her through the door.
"Uh…yeah! I'm coming!" her daughter called back, stuffing the broken pieces into the trash bin. She grabbed her backpack and headed for the door, forgetting about the still-wet stain on her rug. She shrugged. She'd deal with it when she got home.
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Five minutes and fifty-some odd brushes through the hair later, the front door of their house opened, and Elizabeth Andrews ran out of her house and barreled down the sidewalk, with her mother calling after her.
"Don't forget- after school, I need you back here to pick your brother up off the bus!" she shouted.
"OK, Mom!"
Liz waved her mother good-bye and turned back the way she was walking, happily humming to herself.
She was your standard seventeen-going-on-eighteen-year-old girl, living with her mother and little brother in Jackson. Nothing too out of the ordinary- brown hair with some streaks of blonde that her friend had done for her for her birthday that was usually put back in a ponytail. In addition, she had a short but attractive figure, perfect white teeth, and an eager bounce to her step. She was as bubbly as any cheerleader, though she had long since promised never to be, as being a cheerleader, in her opinion, often led to putting a girl into a situation she really shouldn't be in. she was vivacious enough to act on stage, which was what she did- acting suited her far more than cheerleading ever would. And she was determined enough to work for a newspaper; which is why, perhaps, she became a reporter for the school's paper. All in all, she was probably the most normal, most happy teenager-going on-adult you would meet.
That's how most people viewed her, anyway.
Oh course, they didn't know what went on with her behind closed doors.
She hummed to herself. It all began about a month ago, at a party. She and a few friends had gathered together one afternoon, just to hang out. At one point, as she was sitting alone on the porch to just relax, she closed her eyes for a brief moment. Her mind wandered, to what, she couldn't remember, but when she opened her eyes, for a brief moment, she saw her cup above her hand.
Floating above her hand.
Since then, she had been practicing her newfound abilities whenever she was alone. So far, she had managed to raise glasses and small rocks, eventually moving on to lifting her desk chair and lamp after a lot of practice. And that was just the stuff she knew about. God knows there had to be some when she was asleep; whenever she was waking up, something always went thud when she opened her eyes.
She didn't tell anyone about this. Not her mom, not her brother, not her teachers at school. Hell, some of her closest friends in the world had no clue at all that their friend could move objects with her mind.
…Well, save one.
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"Ellie! Wait up!"
Eleanor Gallagher groaned as she heard her best friend calling her from down the street. She waited there until Liz caught up to her.
Before Ellie could greet her, the first words out of her friend's mouth were, "I did it again."
This just brought another groan from Ellie, who pushed past her and continued walking.
"What, you mean you still think you can raise bricks with your mind and chuck them down the street?" she asked sarcastically, not in the mood for "psychic talk" this morning.
"No, I'm serious!" Liz walked alongside her, continuing on anxiously. "Today, I made the glass rise a foot or two above the desk. Completely filled-up."
"Wow. That's great. You picked the glass up two feet. My little Lizzie's growing up."
"No, you moron, with-" she looked around to make sure no one was listening, "with my mind."
Ellie gave her friend "The Look." Liz hated that look; hated it with a fiery passion. It was the look she got when her friend was either annoyed, pissed off, skeptical, or all three. The look that made her feel like a gigantic moron, or said that she was about to be murdered in a most brutal fashion.
"Liz," she said, "I'm not in the mood to hear this today. Chris just dumped me last night."
Liz's eyes went wide, and her mouth dropped.
"What? Why??"
"Oh, you know. The usual bullshit response whenever a guy dumps someone," Ellie replied bitterly. "He felt we should spend a little time apart, that things were changing, I dunno. Point is, it's over."
"God, El, I'm so sorry. I know he meant a lot to you-"
"Whatever," she shrugged.
"It's not whatever, you guys dated for over a year-"
"Whatever, OK? I don't want to talk about it anymore. I don't even know why I brought it up in the first place."
She kept on walking, with her gaze straight ahead. Liz sighed. This was always how it went with her, it seemed.
She had known Ellie practically her whole life, and her whole life, she'd always been just as bubbly as she had been. Lately, though, she had ditched this personality and had taken on a much more darker persona. She wasn't goth; she was just a bit emo. Her clothes were dark and her vibrant red hair often fell down over her eyes. And while Liz stayed in the spotlight, she took a more behind-the-scenes approach, sticking to poetry club and stage crew. She retained some of her original attributes- like her sarcastic sense of humor- but other than that, she was an entirely new person.
"Can we talk about your mind powers after school, please?" said Ellie as she walked the stairs leading into school. "We have a huge test first period, don't forget. And I kind of want to pass it."
"But El," Liz insisted, "this is important! I've taken the first real steps into having real powers. I mean, the other day, my chair floated- floated, El- for a minute, no lie. And think about what else I could've done, without even knowing it! I could, I dunno… screwed around with my mom's windmill, or change the hands of the clocks, or-" She stopped suddenly, as a look of dawning spread across her face. "That would explain my alarm clock the other day."
"It was five minutes off. Nothing to call CNN over."
"My clock is NEVER off, Ellie, and you know that."
"Oh, but it was off because you made it get off 'with your mind'?"
"I'm saying, I don't really know! I do remember that I wanted to sleep a little while longer, and then the next thing I know, my alarm clock screws up on me."
Before Ellie could make a worthy comeback, the bell rang. Students loitering outside began collecting their things and proceeded into the building. Students just arriving parked their cars and hurried out to the door, almost tripping over their feet about two or three times each. Ellie sighed.
"C'mon, I don't wanna be late for this test. We'll talk later," she said, as if the matter was dropped.
Liz watched her leave and followed grudgingly with a sigh. "Later" in her vocabulary usually meant at a time and place where she would have forgotten the earlier conversation had happened. She always pulled that card when she was pissed off or didn't feel like talking about something.
Though she really wished she would.
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Having 1st period Trig, for anyone who's never had it, is probably the worst thing in the world. Except, however, for when you have a grade-altering test in 1st period Trig.
For the girls, this nightmare had just become a reality not ten minutes ago. Both were now taking the test, Ellie was about half-way through it. Hoping to some god in heaven that she could finish this test and get a passing grade.
Her mind drifted to the argument of just a few minutes ago. She sighed. She hated fighting with Liz, she really did. But…God, she was just so impossible to work with. Always so damn chirpy, always giving everyone this bright happy smile, as if life was the best thing to ever happen to her. Especially lately, with all of this talk of being psychic.
Psychic. The very thought of such a thing just made her snort in disbelief. There was no such thing, at least, not in her mind. She always had the belief that, if she couldn't see it for herself, then it just wasn't fathomable. And Liz kept saying she couldn't show her because she "wasn't fully developed yet." Therefore, proving her belief.
However, in the desk next to her, Liz wasn't too concerned anymore with the fight. Her eyes were instead fixated on the tank with their class pet in it. It was a crab; which worked in two senses. A- She wasn't allergic to it, and B- it was light enough to move.
Ellie didn't believe her, huh?
Well, then it was time to get her to.
She concentrated all of her mind energy on the tank, in trying to lift it. She didn't close her eyes this time; she wanted to see if she could do it, eyes open this time. Her body shook a little as she concentrated fully on the large object. In her mind's eye, she could see herself raising the tank, about two feet or so, and then Ellie seeing for herself what she could do. A little more time…
Ellie was about halfway through her test when she heard something clank next to her. She closed her eyes. Whatever Liz was doing, it wasn't worth looking over to see. It just wasn't worth it. Don't look, don't look, don't look…
Another clank. She looked up, just to see if anyone else had noticed the noise. All the other students were engrossed in their tests. Mr. Lawson was fixated on the paperwork in front of him. So, apparently, either the noise was only meant for her ears, or she was the only non-deaf girl in the room.
She sighed. She was so going to regret this later. She turned to tell her friend to knock off whatever she was doing-
Her pencil rolled off the desk and clattered onto the floor. She didn't notice it, however, because she was too busy noticing the large crab-tank that was floating about three feet above where it was supposed to be sitting. Her mouth fell open, her eyes widened, and she all of a sudden had a very large urge to just run out of the classroom and head for home. Because, right then, she felt she was going to pass out on the floor.
She looked at her friend. Liz had not looked back at her yet; she was still staring at the fish tank. It fully dawned on Ellie, then, what was going on. The face that she refused to actually believe, but was shooting her right in the face. The disregard from the supernatural was being challenged by the pure, hard, undisputable fact.
Liz was moving that tank with her mind.
OK, Ellie thought, this is just wrong. She had to make her stop, or she would seriously loose it. She reached out to tap her shoulder, to tell her to stop-
SMASH!
Her hand never even reached her friends' shoulder, because right then, the tank exploded in mid-air, sending shards of glass flying. At this, everyone finally reacted, either shrieking or ducking under their desks to escape the glass. Liz and Ellie, the two closest to the tank, did both of those reactions. Of course, also being closest to it meant getting the blunt of the impact. The glass cut Liz's shoulder and another shard hit Ellie's hand, the latter leaving a pretty deep cut as a result. The rest of the glass landed on them, but left no real injuries other than a few scrapes.
Both girls looked up. The tank was pretty much gone, save for the bottom of it, where the crab was crawling around, no longer restricted to a see-through rectangular box. Ellie was scared out of her wit for what had just happened. Not only was this super power creepy- it was also downright dangerous.
Liz, however, was more puzzled than afraid. That was weird…usually, with the tests, glass objects exploded when they hit the ground. Not when they were three feet in mid-air…
"Ms. Andrews, Ms. Gallagher."
Mr. Lawson was standing over the now destroyed crab tank, holding up the now-free crab in front of them.
"Care to explain?" he asked them.
The two girls exchanged looks. Ellie cocked an eyebrow, waiting for some explanation. Liz shrugged, not having a ready one to give her. At least, not for why the tank exploded the way it did. Her friend sighed and shook her head.
"I see…" The Trig teacher shook his head. "Then I guess I'm just gonna have to see you two after school today. Two o'clock-"
"What?!" exclaimed Ellie. "Mr. Lawson, no! I promised my mom I'd be home right after school; it's my grandfather's birthday-"
"Two o'clock."
His words made it sound so final- detention. He walked over to the sink and placed the crab inside, making sure that the drain was completely blocked. Ellie glared at Liz with an evil stare that made Liz feel two feet tall and shrinking fast. She then crossed her arms and placed them on the desk, then placed her head in them, the test laying forgotten beneath her. Liz sat there for a few moments before remembering that she, too, had promised to get home early, to watch her brother.
Oh, her mom was not going to be happy about this one.
Kind of a lame chapter, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.
Review please!
