Chapter 3: Conspiracy
Matt Parkman followed Clay all the way to the other side of town and to the top floor of an old, broken-down apartment similar to the one his father had lived in. Clay stopped at door number 213 and knocked.
"Who is it?" came a woman's voice.
"It's Clay, open up." The door opened slightly, but not enough to see who had done so. After a brief moment, the door opened all the way.
"Who is this?" the woman standing there said. Her hair was mostly black and tied into a ponytail, the end of which was white.
"Matt Parkman," Clay said. "He needs your help. You can check him out if you'd like, but we need to make it fast."
The woman stared Matt down for several minutes, hardly blinking. After about five minutes, she spoke and held out her hand.
"Hello, Matt," she said as the cop shook her hand. "I'm Megan Pravatt, and I'm going to do what I can to find out who shot Nathan, but I need you to come inside."
Matt nodded, then followed Clay into the apartment.
As they entered into the main area, a voice called from a different room, "Who is it?"
"It's just Clay and a cop, Cameron," Megan called back as she sat down on the nearest chair. "This will take a few minutes, but please don't try to read my mind," she said to Matt. "Psychic interference makes the process a lot slower and it gives me a headache." Matt nodded.
"Don't you need to eat something first?" Clay asked her. She shook her head.
"I only need food if I'm trying to dig through people's heads, and if I can locate whoever shot Nathan, those thoughts will be fresh on their mind."
She closed her eyes and laid back as a dark-skinned man who looked like he could have played professional football entered the room.
"She's already gone, isn't she?" the man asked Clay, who nodded. The man looked at Matt. "So you're a cop?"
"Yeah," Matt said. "Well, technically—"
"We don't worry about technicalities. Anthony has been on leave for about seven years now, but he'll get back on the force eventually." He stepped forward, holding out his arm. "Cameron Keffer," he said as Matt took his hand. "Never was sure why Megan chose to keep her last name, but I guess it's not my problem."
It wasn't until then that Matt noticed the ring on Cameron's finger. He looked over at Megan. Same ring.
Matt dismissed his past for the moment. Right now, they needed to find who had shot Nathan.
------
Eric walked behind Sylar as they entered the terminal. Their plane would be taking off in an hour, and that was just fine. Eric had decided to arrive on purpose to brief Sylar about what he was going up against.
Sylar turned around to look at Eric, then spoke for the first time in a few hours. "Exactly why do I want to listen to you again?"
"For a couple reasons," Eric said coolly. "First, I'm better than you." Sylar shot him a look of pure hatred, but he ignored it. "Second, I'm taking you to some of the best powers in the world. You should be grateful; I'm not usually such a cooperative person."
Sylar shook his head. This was ridiculous.
"I'm sorry? Did you say something?" Eric taunted, obviously aware of Sylar's impatience. He smiled, then looked around at all the people walking around the airport. "Do you want to see something cool?" he said.
"Not really," Sylar replied, incredibly annoyed at this point.
"Oh, come on. It's cool, I promise."
"Fine," Sylar snapped. "Just make it fast."
Suddenly, a woman standing about twenty yards behind Eric flew across the room, screaming. She stopped just short of the wall on the opposite side of the room, then fell to the ground. People that had just been watching the sight started screaming and running every which way. Sylar looked around at the state of mass panic that Eric had just created.
"Now, if you look closely," Eric said as though he did this on a daily basis, "you can see who has powers and who doesn't, just by looking into their eyes."
"What's the point of this?"
Eric smiled again. "To see if you can restrain yourself. I doubt you can, and honestly, that's fine with me. But I'll go ahead and pick someone out for you." He turned his head for a moment to look around, then nodded. "Look over there." Sylar complied. "See the little girl, next to the trash can?"
Sylar did in fact see a small child, probably about four or five, clutching a stuffed bear. "Yeah, what about her?"
"She can fly."
Sylar shot Eric an incredulous look, unsure how he could possibly know something like that. Eric caught the glance, but did not respond. He simply looked at the girl.
"How do you know?" Sylar inquired.
"The eyes." Eric turned back to his present company. "You can always tell by the eyes."
------
Peter Petrelli was having a really bad day. Apparently, his future self had come back from the future to try to save the past. It hadn't worked, and now he was stuck in a stranger's body with his own mind. He didn't know if the man had any special powers, but he would have loved to get out of him and back into a state that he knew had the potential to escape.
The man in the next cell had been shooting blue fire at the window looking in on him for hours, and frankly, it was getting annoying. The cell on Peter's other side showed no signs of life whatsoever, and he wasn't sure which side was more distressing.
From somewhere out of sight, the man Peter knew as Noah Bennett appeared accompanied by someone who he did not recognize. The two men spoke for a moment, then the stranger nodded and left Noah there to stand and stare at Peter.
"I'm Peter Petrelli!" Peter started yelling yet again. "I shouldn't be here! You have to let me out!" Noah simply stared, not reactive at all to the sudden outbursts from the man he knew was clearly not Peter Petrelli, but was in fact Jesse Murphy, a man that under no circumstances was to be let out of his cage.
Peter slammed his fists into the glass as Noah walked away.
------
Anthony reappeared several thousand miles away, in an empty terminal at an airport. He looked around for a moment, did not find who he was looking for, and was about to leave when a young girl curled up in a corner caught his eye. He walked over to her. Nothing about the way she was sitting comforted him at all, and he was almost fearful of what he would discover as he reached out his hand to her.
He backed up several paces at what he saw. The girl was dead, clutching a stuffed bear in her rigid arms. Her skull had been sliced open so that the brain was more than visible, and a piece of her brain was missing. Anthony bent over where he stood and threw up. Averting his eyes, he reached out for the girl and teleported her out with him.
As he left, Eric reappeared. He had instructed Sylar where he could meet some very interesting people and allowing him to go about his business. Now all that was left for Eric to do was to catch the next plane to Santa Anna.
