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AN: In advance, we're going into the events of 'Five Years Gone', so basically assume that anything you don't see, such as Mohinder's talk with 'Nathan' in the White House or Claire's life in this future, take place as they did in canon, although obviously the presence of Kim and her allies will have had some impact on what unfolded post-explosion…
The Not-So-Average Girl
When Ron opened his eyes after experiencing that strange twisting sensation in his gut, the sight of an open-air balcony where they'd just been standing in an enclosed museum area was enough proof for him that Hiro's powers had been restored. For a moment, he grinned in glee at the proof that his friend was once again capable of time travel, but that smile faltered as he took in what was in front of them.
As far as he could tell, they were standing on the roof of a building in New York City, as the skyline evoked memories of what the place had looked like during his recent visit, but it seemed as though there'd been some kind of massive explosion since the last time he'd been there. The roof that he was standing on in particular was filled with all kinds of rubble, as though nobody had even bothered to clean up after whatever explosion had caused this devastation, and the wider city was now 'filled' with devastated buildings. There was sign of reconstruction in a few areas, but it didn't take a genius to see that this whole area had been basically abandoned, leaving nothing more than a massive graveyard that Ron was prepared to bet most people were staying in just because they'd either been extremely well-paid or literally had nowhere else to go.
Glancing over at Hiro and Ando, Ron saw expressions of equal shock on their faces as they took in the sight, which at least affirmed that he wasn't alone but didn't do anything to explain what had happened.
"Wh… what is this?" he asked.
"Future," Hiro said solemnly. "We fail."
It was the simplicity of that statement that really disturbed Ron. After everything Hiro had put himself through on what anyone else would have dismissed as a fool's quest to save the world from something they didn't even understand yet, the idea that he could just think of this as a failure…
"Uh… this is time travel, right?" he suggested tentatively, after Hiro and Ando had exchanged brief words in Japanese that he didn't understand. "I mean, can't we just… go back and give this another go?"
"Not like that," Hiro responded as he looked at his sword with a new intensity. "We fail once; must learn how we fail to undo this."
"OK, that… makes sense," Ron conceded with a tentative nod. "So we… what?"
"Mr Isaac!" Hiro said, mood suddenly shifting from grim to hopeful as he stood back up.
"The painter guy?" Ron asked, even as Ando said something to Hiro in Japanese. Hiro just nodded briefly at Ron as he replied to Ando's question (at least Ron assumed that was what he was doing) before he hurried off towards interior stairs, leaving Ron and Ando to exchange glances and then walk swiftly after Hiro. As they descended through the battered building, Ron followed his new friends in silence, unsure if it would be appropriate to ask any questions when the priority right now was getting to the street safely. Feeling a treble in his pocket, Ron reached down to give Rufus a comforting stroke before he continued down towards the main street.
As they reached the bottom level, Ron wasn't entirely surprised to find that the situation on the ground wasn't much better than what they'd seen up top. The street wasn't so battered that it would be impossible for them to walk along it, but when he compared it to everything he'd seen before Hiro's jump to the future, it was hard for Ron to stop himself feeling like he was suddenly in some kind of zombie movie (the most obvious post-apocalypse movie genre he could think of).
"So… Isaac?" he said at last, once he was sure they were on a fairly stable bit of road. "Why are we going to his place?"
"Mr Isaac dead on first trip I make to future," Hiro explained with a cautious smile. "If he alive now, sign that history can change."
"…Works for me," Ron conceded, falling into silence as he focused on following the other two. He suddenly had this worrying thought about how taking in too many details about this future might make it more 'real' before they could get away from it, but pushed that aside to focus on finding their way through the rubble. The city was pretty much deserted, but occasionally Ron thought he saw other people walking through the streets, although it was hard to tell from this distance if anyone lived here or were basically just squatters…
It was frankly a relief when they reached Isaac's building and headed up to the loft, but that relief was swiftly tempered by the sight of the room on the other side of the door. While there were still a few paintings scattered around the room, it was now dominated by an elaborate string of threads spread out across the ceiling, with photographs and handwritten notes mixed in with newspaper clippings in some kind of elaborate display Ron didn't have a name for. One section of the display included a piece of paper folded up in a style that Ron thought was known as 'origami', a photo of Claire in her cheerleader uniform, and a post-it with 'SAVE THE CHEERLEADER' attached to a photo of a painting showing a man looking at blood on the floor. Another section of the timeline had a cut-out taken from the painting of Peter flying, and there were probably other familiar items here if Ron had the time to look for them.
"Is this… a timeline?" Ron looked uncertainly at the elaborate display around them, as he followed the two older men into the room.
"Maybe…" Hiro nodded uncertainly, sword raised defensively.
"Timeline of what?" Ando asked hesitantly, shooting a glance at Ron that showed he was sticking to English for Ron's benefit. As though in response, Hiro paused in front of a news article with the headline 'NYC DEVASTED', accompanied by what looked like the top few lines of a story. He caught a reference to a mother trying to rescue her son from some kind of cult, but then he saw another article with a photo of Nathan's face, under a headline proclaiming 'Our Strength in Dark Times'.
"Huh," Ron looked thoughtfully at the article, before the sound of something metallic behind him prompted him to freeze. He felt Rufus trembling in his pocket as he stood still, unsure if this was going to be an attack or something else, only to glance up and see Hiro drawing his sword while Ando raised his gun.
"Mr Isaac?" Hiro called out tentatively, stepping towards Ron with the sword pointing at whatever was behind him, only to freeze as though he'd seen something shocking. When Ando lowered the gun he'd been pointing, Ron swallowed and turned around, only to stare in shock at the figure standing behind them.
He wasn't wearing glasses, he had slicked-back hair, and at some point he had adopted a black coat that gave the impression of a robe and put Ron in mind of some kind of ninja or samurai warrior, but this guy was clearly Hiro Nakamura, if Hiro had spent a few years training to be a badass.
Which he obviously did; post-apocalyptic future, anyone?
"You," the older Hiro looked at his younger self.
"Me?" Hiro said as he lowered his sword.
"What are you doing here?" Future Hiro said (Ron would refer to him as such until a better idea occurred) as he walked into the apartment. "You're not supposed to be here… none of this is supposed to be here."
"It was an accident," Hiro explained, as his future self walked over to a desk at the other side of the room. "We time-travelled."
"What happened to the city?" Ando asked, as Future Hiro stopped in front of a table and sheathed his sword.
"The bomb," Future Hiro explained, opening a window to display the ruined city outside. "The bomb still happened. It was all supposed to change."
"…Huh?" Ron looked at the older Hiro in confusion, as the man turned to walk back into the room, staring at the complex string network above him.
"Five years ago," Future Hiro said, pacing around the timeline as though he was talking to himself, "a man named Sylar exploded in the heart of the city, changing the world forever. I thought I had it all figured out… I thought I had it beat."
"…Had what beat?" Ron asked at last, looking over to confirm that Hiro and Ando were talking about something with each other. "I mean… what's with the string web?"
"Ron 'Stoppable' Sinclair…" Future Hiro looked at him with a slight smile. "So young…"
"Ron Stoppable?" Ron repeated, before he smiled slightly as he heard the words out loud. "As in 'Unstoppable', right?"
"Right," Future Hiro nodded, before he adopted a more curious expression. "You… you met me already?"
"…Is this like that bit in the X-Men cartoon where Forge sent Bishop back to stop that plague and then Forge didn't know what he was talking about when he went back?" Ron asked.
"…I believe so," Future Hiro nodded tentatively, a brief smile on his face at the analogy before his expression became grim once again. "I have spent years going over the events leading up to the bomb, trying to determine the exact moment to go back in time to change the future. I believed I had found it…"
As the older Hiro reached out, Ron saw he was looking at a painting of what looked like Future Hiro and Peter on a subway, with a date scrawled beside it; OCT 4th, N.Y. SUBWAY.
"Hold on… I think Peter mentioned this," Ron looked back at Hiro and Ando. "Didn't you say Peter told you guys he met… this you on a subway?"
"Save the cheerleader-" Future Hiro began.
"Save the world!" Hiro grinned. "You visited Peter Petrelli with this message!"
"Yes," Future Hiro smiled. "Did he do it? Did Peter save her?"
"And that's how I got here," Ron grinned. "KP and I were friends with the cheerleader."
"Kim Pierce?" Future Hiro looked at Ron with a slight smile. "Your history went back that far?"
"Wait a- do you know us?" Ron grinned at the older time-traveller. "I mean, do you know future me and future KP?"
"I…" Future Hiro began, before he shook his head. "But if Claire survived and Sylar never took her power… you were able to kill him, right?"
"Me?" Hiro repeated in shock. "Kill Sylar?"
"We haven't even had the chance to fight the guy yet; we were trying to find that sword to give… little you… the power boost!" Ron explained.
"Little Me?" Future Hiro repeated.
"Little?" Hiro yelled indignantly.
"Well, I have to call you something to tell you guys apart; I can't just-!"
"You want Hiro to kill someone?" Ando cut in, looking uncertainly at the future version of his friend.
"Here," Future Hiro said, standing up and indicating a point where a red string, a black string and a blue string connected on his strange timeline, moving past an article proclaiming 'PETRELLI WINS' and pausing before another article announcing 'NYC DEVASTATED'. "This is the moment when Sylar must die. I stabbed him the day after the election, but he regenerated."
"Because he had the cheerleader's power," Ando observed.
"He killed Claire?" Ron asked urgently before he shook his head. "In… your timeline, I mean?"
"Exactly," Future Hiro nodded. "But if Peter saved her, Sylar can now be killed."
"But we can't go back," Hiro said. "I can't control my powers. If I try, Ando, Ron and I could appear anywhere-"
Further explanation was interrupted when the door of the loft suddenly broke open and what seemed like a small army of men in black SWAT armour carrying guns rushed into the room.
"GO! GO!" the apparent leader of the team yelled, weapons indicating all around the room.
"What the-?" Ron yelled, as Future Hiro called something out in Japanese and grabbed for Ando. Ron's eyes widened in apprehension when he saw the dark-skinned power-blocking guy as part of the assault team, but soon focused on something more urgent as he anxiously checked his pocket for Rufus and tried to run away. He noticed the older Hiro hurrying out of another door with Ando, but before he could run for the door himself, he found a gun aimed at his face, prompting him to step back and anxiously raise his hands.
"I surrender!" he yelled, praying that whatever this was about wasn't the kind of black ops group that would kill everyone in the room. When his captor grabbed his arms and turned him around, Ron was briefly relieved to see that Hiro was still with him, but sharply reminded himself that wasn't a good thing even before he realised that the power-negating guy was the one holding him. As the initial calls between the SWAT members began to die down, Ron looked up to see a tall, heavyset man with dark hair walk into the room, wearing no body armour and carrying no weapon but with an air about him that made it clear he was some kind of leader to this group.
"Well, what do you know?" the large man said, looking between the two. "Hiro Nakamura and Ron 'Stoppable' Sinclair."
Ron resisted the urge to grin at the notion that he had a badass nickname in the future; if these guys were law enforcement, his older self (and that was a weird thing to think) probably hadn't gained that kind of name for a good reason.
"Go after his friends," the large man called out to the officers . "The Haitian stays with me; I want to take these ones in personally."
Ando was never quite as 'committed' to the superhero genre as Hiro was, but when he thought about heroes making contact with other heroes to prepare for some kind of team-up fight, meeting in a strip club was definitely not the kind of scenario that immediately came to mind.
Admittedly, the new clothes were more comfortable than the stolen uniform he'd been wearing earlier, and he wasn't going to complain about the chance to see Nikki Saunders dancing like this, but when he and Future Hiro had to spend five hundred dollars just to get some enigmatic comment about Bennet rustling cattle in Texas…
"Sorry about her," another voice said. Looking up, Ando's eyes widened as a beautiful redhead sat down opposite him and the older Hiro, a familiar gleam in her eyes even if he'd only seen the girl briefly a few days ago.
"Kim Pierce?" he asked.
"That's me," the redhead nodded, a wistful smile on her face as she looked at Ando before she turned back to Future Hiro. "I just wanted to apologise about Nikki, but you know how she is, particularly around this time of year."
"I had hoped that if she let you stay-" Future Hiro began.
"That's mainly because I make it easier for Peter to stay under the radar," Kim conceded, as she looked between the two men. "You have to keep in mind, as President Petrelli's brother and the most powerful man on the planet, Peter is not exactly someone who can get involved in everything."
"Godzilla threshold?" Ando asked, recalling a term he'd heard Hiro use in particular.
"Not for the reasons you might think, but pretty much," the redheaded woman nodded at him. "If anyone in the right places knew where he was, he'd attract a lot of attention from the wrong kind of people. It's not that he'd immediately give himself away if I wasn't here, but when I'm near I boost his own abilities enough to make it easier for him to deflect interest."
"Because… your power helps him survive?" Ando asked, recalling what Kim had told them after Peter began his own training.
"Exactly," Future Hiro nodded, looking at Ando with a brief smile Ando wasn't sure how to interpret. "With constant access to Miss Sinclair's power, he can maintain his more… defensive abilities."
"And," Kim gave the two men a cautious smile, "since I'm the only one who can do that for him, I can even talk him into the occasional mission if we're sure it's worth it… is this one?"
"It is."
"How big are we talking?"
"We have to rescue my younger self from the Haitian and Matt Parkman."
"And Ron!" Ando added.
"Ron?" Kim looked sharply at Ando, her expression more intense at this news. "As in Ron Stoppable?"
"…Yes?" Ando said.
"You're not serious?" Kim shifted her gaze to Future Hiro. "Ron's here? Past Ron is stuck in this time?"
"I assumed he was-"
"You know he's needed here!" the young woman glared at Hiro's future self. "I get that you're trying to stop this all happening in the first place, but right now it's all intact and several people owe Ron their lives-"
"Ron saved lives?" Ando looked at Kim in surprise. "How-?"
His eyes widened. "He has ability?"
"Wait a- you're saying the government has captured a version of Ron who doesn't even know he has powers yet?" Kim glared between Ando and Future Hiro in escalating exasperation before she stood up. "OK, that's it; if this doesn't get Peter to step up, I'm coming with you myself."