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The Not-So-Average Girl

When the phone rang with Peter's ringtone, Simone didn't even hesitate to answer it.

"Hello?" she said.

"Hey, Simone," Peter said. She appreciated that it made her sound arrogant to herself, but she wasn't sure how to deal with Peter's cooler manner towards her. It wasn't as though he was actually rude to her or anything like that, but when she thought back on his declaration of love after her father died, he was definitely more distant than he had been.

"Do you… have any news?" she asked, deciding to cut to the chase. She might still be shaken from trying to deal with the knowledge of Isaac's death and the apparently imminent destruction of New York, but at least she knew that some people were trying to solve that particular problem.

"That's… it gets complicated," Peter said. "We've found the exploding man, and we're working on keeping him safe so he won't be a threat, but it turns out there's… some people want this explosion to happen."

"What?" Simone repeated in horror. "But who- why would anyone want to blow up the city?"

"It's some whole power grab to give everyone something to be afraid of; I don't get it myself, but the point is that people are willing to let this happen," Peter explained. "The best I can tell you now is that they don't seem to be planning to actually set off a bomb themselves, but if they're going to all this trouble to make sure the explosion goes off, it's not exactly important what they're not doing personally."

"Right…" Simone said, fighting down the urge to panic. The situation might feel like something out of a comic, but at least she knew that good people she trusted were trying to stop whoever was behind this. "So… Nathan can't help you?"

"…No," Peter said, an edge to his voice that Simone had never heard before. "We're meeting a few other people who can hopefully take this guy somewhere safe, but… you might want to see about getting people out of here if we can't stop this."

"I can't evacuate a whole city-!"

"Just save who you can," Peter interrupted. "That might be the best we can do now…"

The idea of Peter preparing for defeat disturbed Simone almost as much as the idea of their situation in the first place. He had never been arrogant, but since he'd started to learn about his powers he'd gained a greater confidence in himself; the notion that he found it this easy to accept that he couldn't do something…

"Kim, Claire and I have a meeting soon, so call Ron if something comes up," Peter said at last. "After that… just do what you can at your end."

"Of course," Simone said, lost for anything better to say in this situation.

As Peter ended the call, Simone wondered at how it had just been a couple of weeks since she believed the biggest problem she had to face was that superhumanly strong thief she'd asked Kim to look into. That might have been a problem, but at least a thief was something she could understand; the idea that Peter and his friends were facing someone who wanted to destroy New York…

The more time Kim spent thinking about the chaos her life had become, the more she wondered if this was what it would have been like for any real-life superheroes if anything in the comics was real or if they were just in a very unconventional situation. They knew that Nathan was working with Linderman with the goal of somehow rigging the election in his favour, but beyond that there was just the vague details of the plan to let New York get blown up by whoever had Ted Sprague's power at the right/wrong time, which was simultaneously a lot of information and practically all useless.

Without knowing what Nathan and Linderman were doing, they had no way of knowing how they could expose that part of the scheme, so it just made sense to focus on keeping Ted away from Sylar and the city. To that end, while Ando and Ron waited for Hiro in the shop, Peter, Kim and Claire had agreed to meet with Claire's father, Doctor Suresh, Officer Parkman and Agent Hanson at a suitable park to discuss their next move. It was felt that it was best the Haitian stay with Ted to make sure he stayed under control until they were sure what they wanted to do next. Ron had given Kim Rufus in case they needed an extra pair of eyes, and he'd expressed an interest in seeing how Rufus coped on his own given what he'd learnt about how his own ability might affect Rufus, but there was also the simple fact that Rufus was getting bored in the shop whereas at least with the others he would be going somewhere new.

When the meeting had been decided, the others had all expressed concerns about Claire attending after what her father had just told her, but Claire had assured them that she could keep it together. As disturbing as it was to know that her adopted father had at least been involved in the death of her biological mother, Claire had decided that it was more important that they focus on the wider situation. Kim and the others had all agreed to help her look into the alleged fire in more detail once Sylar had been dealt with, which at least gave them something to look forward to even if they had more immediate priorities.

Once they reached the park where the meeting was scheduled, the trio spent a few moments exploring their surroundings, keeping the other two in sight even as they checked the park for any sign of something they should be worried about. They were all fairly sure that Sylar wouldn't try anything in daylight, and Claire in particular trusted that her father wouldn't do anything to blatantly attack them, but when Kim's instincts insisted on making sure it didn't hurt to prioritise.

Kim understood that Claire still wasn't comfortable with everything they'd learnt about her father in the last few hours, but at least the other cheerleader agreed that they needed to cover all options when Sylar was still an active threat. Peter was doing his best to practice using the abilities he had copied so far, and he was doing fairly well in alternating from one power to another, but it still seemed as though Kim needed to be there if he was going to use multiple powers simultaneously. Kim had no problem with helping Peter in a crisis, but like Peter had pointed out, one of the last things they wanted was for Sylar to gain access to Kim's ability, so drawing attention to her wouldn't be a good call. Add in that Ted's ability seemed to be particularly destructive, and it was best to be sure they were covering all possible angles to keep Peter in good shape during whatever might be coming up.

Finally, the trio saw Noah Bennett walk into the park, accompanied by an Indian man who matched Peter's description of Doctor Suresh and a short blonde woman who was likely the FBI agent that had been mentioned in their previous call. Kim took a final look around the area to be sure that there was no sign of the Haitian or anyone else that might have been able to help them set a trap, and then walked out towards the new arrivals. Peter and Claire emerged from the surroundings as soon as they saw Kim making her move; considering Kim's natural talents, it was agreed that if she didn't 'sense' anything wrong the others were free to make a move themselves. As the two groups met along the path, they walked along in silence for a short while before they found a suitable park table, sitting around it on either side, lines clearly drawn between the two.

"You're looking well, Mr Petrelli," Agent Hanson broke the silence, nodding briefly at him. "I take it absorbing Ted didn't entirely agree with you?"

"It was… unexpected," Peter decided to concede.

"But he's better," Kim put in firmly.

"Because of… how can you be sure?" Doctor Suresh began, before he looked curiously at the young redhead.

"Because he's practicing with my ability to control the rest of his arsenal."

"You have an ability?" Claire's father looked at Kim with a new level of interest.

"For the record, we worked that out after Sylar's attack, and we'd prefer to make sure he doesn't find out about it," Claire said. "If you think it would suck if Sylar got my power… well, it wouldn't exactly be great if he got Kim's either."

"What can you do?" Agent Hanson looked at Kim.

"The best term is that I'm a natural survivor," Kim explained. "To put it in a practical context, if you put me on the spot in a dangerous situation, I'll be automatically able to think and move quickly enough to survive it, even if it's something like adjust my position while I'm being thrown through the air so that I won't hit something at a fatal angle."

"Fascinating," Doctor Suresh looked at Kim with a thoughtful smile. "So essentially your survival instinct and 'fight or flight' response is upgraded to a level where you always know how to survive when something threatens your life?"

"Pretty much," Kim nodded. "It's not the flashiest ability out there, but it's been enough to get me out of a few tight spots."

"…How screwed up is this mess?" Agent Hanson said with a bitter edge to her voice. "What kind of world is this where I've got a couple of teenagers as any kind of asset against a serial killer?"

"The kind of world where extreme situations call for unconventional measures," Kim replied as she indicated Peter. "Just count yourself lucky we've got the most powerful man on the planet to stop the most deranged superhuman psychopath on said planet."

"I really wish you wouldn't call me that," Peter said, an embarrassed expression on his face. "I'm still working out everything I can do; it's not like I'm an automatic one-man army even with your support…"

"But you're still the best powerhouse we've got on our side," Kim said with a reassuring grin.

"And you've kept us safe so far," Claire added, reaching over to take Peter's hand and give it an affectionate squeeze. "Even if you don't believe in yourself, believe that we believe in you."

Noticing the glare Claire's father was giving Peter, Kim extended her leg just enough to give the side of his own leg a brief kick, followed by a warning glare of her own when he turned to look at her. She wasn't sure what was going on between Peter and Claire, but she knew that they deserved to have the chance to figure it out for themselves rather than worry about a disapproving parent on top of their other problems.

"So," Doctor Suresh said as he turned to look at Peter, "given your own ability… if I might ask, has your brother-?"

"He can fly."

"Fly?" Mohinder repeated in surprise. "I… no offence intended to your brother, but compared to your own potential-"

"Nathan's very… focused on reaching high, but he… it's complicated, but let's just say for now I can see how flying suits him," Peter said, his tone suddenly bitter. For a moment Kim wondered if they should mention Nathan's current plans, but decided it wasn't worth it. They didn't know how Linderman intended to rig the election and they had so many other things going on right now that giving Agent Hanson anything else to worry about wouldn't help any of them. Even if she wanted to expose Linderman, they didn't have any actual evidence of anything he was doing that would hold up in any kind of court that she knew of, so it was best to focus on stopping Sylar and worry about Linderman and Nathan's schemes later.

"Anyway," the agent in question said as she looked between the teenage girls and the older man, "you're sure that Ted's going to be Sylar's next target?"

"We can't say if it's a plan or not, but Sylar's last known victim… well, he could paint the future."

"Isaac Mendez?" Doctor Suresh looked at Peter in shock. "He's dead?"

"Yes," Peter nodded at the doctor. "He was able to leave us a few final sketches with some warning of what's coming up, but… well, all we know for sure now is that I'm going to face Sylar one-on-one soon; either everything else he's painted has happened already or we don't know the significance of what his work's telling us about."

"Not much to go on," Bennett observed.

"We're all still alive and we know what we're trying to stop, so I'd call that a win," Claire countered.

"And like we said, the priority now is to get Ted out of the city so that Sylar can't use his power to cause the explosion."

"I… I'll see what I can do," Agent Hanson nodded after a moment's silent thought. "I can see about getting him moved into witness protection somewhere until we're sure that the danger's passed."

"Risky," Bennett observed. "We'd need to make sure the Haitian stays with him during transit; we have to be sure he doesn't have any kind of… problem before he gets out of the city…"

"Tricky, but not impossible," Agent Hanson nodded, before she looked back to Peter. "Do we have any kind of time frame for the explosion?"

"Everything we've found so far suggests it's going to happen shortly after the upcoming election," Peter replied. "We're doing what we can to prepare at this end, but…"

Peter trailed off, clearly unsure how to finish that explanation, but he didn't need to elaborate. Whatever the opinions and perspectives of everyone at the table, they were all aware of the stakes if they couldn't stop the planned destruction of New York. Kim still wasn't sure about Claire's father's motives for doing this, considering some of the shadier stuff he'd apparently done in the past, but at least for the moment he seemed to be on their side in terms of stopping Sylar.

What happens after this is over… well, that's another matter.