Chapter Nine

The streets outside of Dr. Suresh's lab were quiet. No one would suspect what was going on inside the building. But there was one person on the street that knew what was going on. Or rather, one animal probably would have been more accurate. A small cat had been listening at Dr. Suresh's window, unnoticed by the other people in the room. She hadn't been able to hear much, but she did catch the words "Kirby Plaza" and "explosion." This made her convinced: something bad was going to happen at Kirby Plaza. Given the tension and urgency in the voices of those who spoke, she would guess it was going to happen soon. The cat walked into a nearby alley and closed it's eyes. Soon enough, the cat began to change shape, growing taller. When the change was complete, a girl stood in the alley where the cat had been. She walked a little further until the end of the alley. The girl was about seventeen, of average height, with dark hair. Her face was nondescript, but there was a look of determination on it. So now I wait, she though to herself, Hurry up, Heidi. We need to know what's going on here. She looked down at her watch, tapping her foot impatiently. After what seemed like several minutes, her waiting paid off. Another girl walked into the alley and came over to her.

"Katie," she said, "What did you learn?"

"Kirby Plaza," she said, "There's going to be an explosion. One of them had a painting of it. Also, I learned that the artist who painted it, Isaac Mendez, has been attacked by Sylar. What about you, Heidi?"

"I managed to sneak in," Heidi said, "I found these." She reached into a pocket and took out some pictures, with names written at the bottom, and handed them over to Katie.

"These pictures," Katie said, looking through them, "We're in here."

"Us and a lot of other people," Heidi said, "Presumably they all have special abilities. I think the Company has been doing surveillance on all of them."

"But why?" Katie said, "What do they want with them?"

"Same thing they want with us," Heidi said, "To destroy us. They're afraid."

Katie continued to look through the pictures. "Hey, wait a minute," she said, "I just saw these four. They were in the lab." She showed four of the pictures to Heidi.

"Erin Estrada, Tom Shale, Jesse Martin, and Chris Ariando," Heidi said,

"Interesting. I wonder what they were doing there."

"If we meet them again, we can be sure and ask," Katie said, "In the meantime, we had better hurry to Kirby Plaza."

"Right," Heidi said, "Come on, let's go." The two of them walked off together, looking for the nearest cab.

(Jesse's POV)

Jesse and Erin hurried towards Kirby Plaza. The explosion was coming soon and they needed to get there quickly. Chris and Tom were with them.

"There's a lot of ground to cover," Erin said, "How do we know where to go?"

"The scene in that picture looked like it was on the rooftop of that building," Chris said, pointing, "You could see that sign in the image."

"Good plan," Jesse said, "We had better hurry up."

The four of them made their way quickly to the building and hurried inside, finding the nearest staircase. Unfortunately, none of them could fly, so they were restricted to ordinary means. When they reached the rooftop, they saw that several people had already arrived. Jesse's eyes immediately landed on one of them.

"Erin," he said, "It's Sylar."

"Hunting for more abilities, no doubt," Erin said, glaring, "Let's take him down." She rushed towards Sylar, but Jesse held her back.

"Be careful," he said, "He's a lot more powerful than we are. Besides, we have other concerns to worry about. Look." Erin looked. Other people were arriving. Two men arrived from the air, followed by an Asian man, who seemingly appeared from nowhere. Sylar took notice of this and turned.

"Well, well," he said, grinning wickedly, "I see everyone got invited to this party." As he had said this, 2 younger girls hurried up the stairs. One of them immediately rushed toward Sylar, aiming a punch at him. Sylar glanced at her casually and she was thrown backward, slamming into a wall. Jesse ran over to her immediately and knelt next to her.

"Are you all right?" he asked her, not worrying about the fact that he had never met this girl.

"Yeah," she said, gasping for breath, "You're Jesse Martin." A statement, not a question.

"You know me?" he asked, "How?"

"Just from your picture," she said, "I took some photos from The Company. Yours was one of them. My name is Heidi."

"Now that the introductions are through," he said, "What are we going to do about this?"

"I don't know," she said, "He's so strong. I can't even get close." She looked back over and her eyes widened, which got Jesse's attention. He followed her eyes and saw what was bothering her. There was a man standing in front of Sylar, starting to glow. The explosion! It was coming!

"Well, well, Peter," Sylar said, "It looks like you're the villain. And me, I'm the hero." Jesse winced. Sylar? A hero? Yeah right? The glowing grew stronger, apparently devoid of Peter's control.

"That's Peter Petrelli," Heidi said, "I saw The Company's file on him. When he's around someone like us, he gains their abilities. It looks like he got this one, but he can't control it."

"We'd better think of a way to stop him then," Jesse said, "But first we have to deal with Sylar." He looked over toward Sylar, but there was nothing he could do. Sylar was approaching them. Just then, Sylar screamed in pain. Jesse looked up. The Asian man was standing over Sylar, holding a sword. He had evidently stabbed Sylar, who collapsed.

"Nice stab," Jesse said, rising to his feet, "I'm Jesse."

"I am Hiro," the Asian man said, smiling, "Pleased to meet you."

Jesse nodded and reached down to help Heidi to her feet. She groaned slightly.

"I'm going to be sore in the morning," she said, "Well, at least it's over."

"I don't think so," Jesse said, "Look." Heidi looked. Peter's glowing was getting stronger.

"Oh no," Heidi said, "It's happening." Peter began to approach them.

"Hiro," Peter said, "Use the sword. Kill me." Hiro nodded, understanding, and began to raise the sword. At that moment, he was thrown backwards. Jesse looked down. Sylar was still breathing and he had thrown Hiro with his power. Hiro squeezed his eyes shut and disappeared just before hitting a sign.

"No!" Peter said, "Damn you Sylar!" Just then, another man walked over and grabbed Peter.

"Nathan," Peter said, "What are you doing?"

"Taking you away from here," he said, "We're going to fly."

"Fly?" Peter said, "I don't understand."

"We have to do this, Peter," Nathan said, "It was destined. You saved the cheerleader, so we could save the world." Peter nodded and Nathan grabbed him. The two of them floated into the air and flew off into the sky. Seconds later, the explosion happened, but nothing was harmed. Erin walked over to them, smiling.

"I guess it really is over now, huh?" she said.

"Just after I finish off this trash," Jesse said, looking down towards Sylar, "Hey, where is he?"

"He must have slipped away while we were worrying about Peter," Erin said, grunting.

"Don't worry, we'll get him next time," Jesse said. Suddenly, he felt a prick in the back of his neck. Within moments, he passed out.

(End of Story)

A/N: I know I kind of left the story hanging by a thread there, but don't worry. It's not over. There will be another story, to pick up where this one left off.